Subject archives
* ALWRs - Advanced Light Water Reactors
* New N-plants planned, rumored
* Seismic
See more recent nuclear power news
November 2, 2007
Nuclear power - the "virtuous" way to generate electricity
French Minister for Higher Education and Research Valerie Pecresse, terming nuclear energy 'virtuous', told journalists in New Delhi that France was happy to have made the choice to have it as a dominant part of its power sector. Pecresse also noted a need to be very careful on the security of nuclear plants.
[Source: The Hindu (India), "France ready for civil nuclear ties with India", November 2, 2007]
Progress to apply for new n-plants, 1 in NC, 1 in FL
Since buying a Florida electric utility in 2001 and doubling its size, Progress Energy has sold more than $4 billion in assets, including a railway, telecommunications company and natural-gas operations. The company has shed a third of its work force, paring down to 10,600 employees... The company expects to shed its out-of-state subsidiaries by year's end, Chief Financial Officer Peter Scott said Thursday... The sales will complete a major transformation that frees the company to focus on building multibillion-dollar power plants for the first time in 25 years... Early next year, the company plans to submit license applications for new nuclear plants in North Carolina and Florida.
[Source: John Murawski (staff writer, Raleigh N&O), "Progress' aim: Focus on selling electricity", News & Observer (Raleigh NC), November 2, 2007]
Florida Power & Light - plans to increase nuclear capacity will help meet state PSC exhortation to decrease dependency on natural gas, and state governor's goal that 20% of power be from renewable sources
Two weeks ago, Florida Power & Light (FPL) filed with the Florida Public Service Commission to add two units at the Turkey Point complex in southern Miami-Dade. The request is part of FPL's push to increase its reliance on nuclear power. Earlier, the company announced plans to increase capacity of the two existing reactors at Turkey Point by 14 percent and the two on Hutchinson Island in St. Lucie County by 11 percent. Several factors explain the company's decision. FPL generates roughly half of its power using natural gas, which burns cleaner than oil and coal but can rise quickly in price. After allowing FPL's gas-fired plant in western Palm Beach County, the Public Service Commission told FPL to decrease its dependency on gas. Also, Gov. Crist wants utilities in Florida to generate at least 20 percent of their power from renewable sources, and FPL considers nuclear to be a renewable source.
[Source: Palm Beach Post editorial, "Nukes: The issue is waste", Palm Beach Post (FL), November 2, 2007]
* Egypt - President Mubarak announced that several n-plants will be built
November 1, 2007
* Brazil considering 2 new n-plants in NE, followed by 2 in SE
October 30, 2007
EPA urges NRC to broaden scope of n-plant license renewal evaluation, to include terrorism, spent fuel pool leaks
In a letter to NRC issued Oct. 10 and made public Monday, the EPA requested that eight issues, including "an analysis of the impacts of intentional destructive acts (e.g. terrorism)", "be discussed in the environmental impact statement for these [nuclear power plant] license renewals." NRC has turned away prior demands from public and politicians that terrorism be considered, saying that is beyond the scope of relicensing. "The security of the plant needs to be dealt with on an ongoing basis" rather than as part of the relicensing process, NRC spokesman Neil Sheehan said Monday. EPA also requested that license renewal include an evaluation of radioactive leaks from the spent-fuel pools at the plants, which the NRC says is also outside the relicensing parameters.
[Source: The Associated Press, "EPA urges nuclear licensing authority to consider terrorism in decision on NY power plants", International Herald Tribune (France), October 30, 2007]
NuStart to submit COL application today for two AP1000s at TVA Bellefonte site
NuStart Energy, a consortium of nuclear energy companies and vendors, including TVA, will present an application to license two Westinghouse AP1000 next generation nuclear reactors to the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission today. TVA's board of directors has not actually made a decision to build at Bellefonte, but an approved application would surely be a plus in favor of the new nuclear plants if, as TVA fully expects, new baseload capacity is needed in coming years. The NRC expects that its new review process will take approximately three and one-half years to complete, given excellent quality application. Part of the NuStart team's reason for existance is to best ensure that the application is indeed of the excellent quality necessary for NRC to finish review in the projected time period.
TVA estimates that each reactor at Bellefonte would cost $2.5 billion to $3.5 billion and that construction work would take four to five years. Nuclear.com congratulates NuStart and its members for their vision and effort. Other members of the NuStart consortium are: Atlanta-based Southern Co., which owns Alabama Power; Constellation Energy in Baltimore; Duke Energy of Charlotte, N.C.; EDF International North America, the U.S. subsidiary of the large French electric utility; Entergy Nuclear of Jackson, Miss.; Exelon Generation of Philadelphia; Florida Power & Light Co. of Juno Beach, Fla.; Progress Energy in Raleigh, N.C.; and reactor designers Westinghouse and GE Energy.
[Refs: Ken Bonner (The Daily Sentinel), "NuStart, TVA to file Bellefonte application", The Daily Sentinel (Scottsboro, Alabama), October 30, 2007; Brian Lawson (Huntsville Times business writer), "TVA seeks OK on 2 reactors | Officials to apply to build at Bellefonte site", The Huntsville Times, October 30, 2007]
Blue-ribbon panel of US National Research Council urges GNEP be scrapped;
a less aggressive nuclear power research program is recommended
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October 16, 2007
* Florida - FPL files for certificate of need for two new n-plants at Turkey Point
* CO2 cap-and-trade system urged by NRG CEO
Sept 3, 2007
35% of nuclear industry workers eligible for retirement by 2012
A study prepared for a conference last week in Biloxi, Miss., on nuclear work force issues found that more than a third of the nuclear power industry is staffed by baby boomers who are eligible to retire in the next five years. To fill that void and build and operate the power plants now on the drawing board will require thousands of new electricians, pipefitters and engineers in the South. "Currently, the region lacks enough skilled craft workers to build the infrastructure, install equipment, operate the facilities and make repairs," according to a Department of Labor report presented at the labor summit. Carol Berrigan, director of industry infrastructure for the Nuclear Energy Institute, said more than 19,000 nuclear plant workers could retire within five years, and new plants typically will require 1,500 to 2,000 workers each during their construction. An article about the new study in Chatanooga Times/Free Press included sidebar which indicated that 185,000 new construction craft workers will be needed nationwide by 2015 to replace retiring workers and meet increased demands.
[Ref: Dave Flessner, "TVA looking for labor", Chattanooga Times and Free Press, September 3, 2007, p. B2]
August 31, 2007
BLIX - CO2 EFFECTS IN NEXT 50 YEARS ARE MORE WORRISOME THAN A GRAM OF PLUTONIUM LEAKING 10,000 YEARS FROM NOW
Weapons of Mass Destruction Commission chairman Hans Blix has been quizzed on his views during a visit to New Zealand. He points out that conventional power sources create waste such as sulphur and carbon dioxide. Dr Blix is more worried about greenhouse gas effects in the next 50 years than a gram of plutonium leaking in 10,000 years from now.
[Source: NewstalkZB radio (Auckland 89.4), "Former weapons inspector supports nuclear", Sept 1, 2007 0924 am
June 4, 2007
* Wisconsin legislature - nuclear power renaissance battle will kick off in August
May 31, 2007
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Clean, plentiful fuel must for US; Conference presenters drive home need to rid ourselves of foreign oil
Andrew Eder, Knoxville News Sentinel (TN)
News Sentinel business writer reports on standing-room only energy panel at the two-day Tennessee Valley Corridor 2007 National Summit. Tom Kilgore, TVA's president and CEO, touted the federal utility's restoration of the Unit 1 reactor at Browns Ferry. The reactor, which is being tested after first achieving a nuclear chain reaction last week, may begin producing electricity as early as this week, Kilgore said. He cited the low cost of nuclear fuel, along with the reliability and low emissions of nuclear power, as factors in restarting Browns Ferry 1 and potentially adding two or three more reactors to TVA's portfolio. "You can see why nuclear energy is part of our security and part of our economic development," Kilgore told the audience.
The summit also included panel discussions on issues like health care and maintaining the country's technical work force. On the latter subject, George Dials, general manager at the Y-12 National Security Complex, said that more than half of his work force could retire today if they chose. The difficulty of replacing those technicians, Dials said, is "the thing that worries me most about the future."
March 27, 2007
* Palisades sale to Entergy okayed by Michigan PSC
March 26, 2007
Nuclear 'not the solution' for global warming
"[W]e voice serious concern that nuclear energy is being presented as a solution to climate change... [T]he current debate seeks to downplay the environmental, waste, proliferation, nuclear liability and safety issues and seeks to portray nuclear energy as a clean, safe and problem free response to climate change." This is from a joint statement by the environment ministers from Austria, Iceland, Ireland and Norway, following a meeting in Dublin. The "inherent risks" and problems associated with the nuclear energy option remain, they said and it "can not therefore claim to be a clean alternative to fossil fuel use."
[Source: RTE.ie (Ireland), " Nuclear 'not the solution' for global warming", March 26, 2007]
March 23, 2007
* North Anna Early Site Permit - licensing board sets out subjects for evidentiary hearings
March 15, 2007
Amarillo Power will forego Early Site Permit, and submit (in 2008 Q4) a combined construction permit and operating license application for dual-USEPR site
The Texas utility told NRC that more details will be forthcoming next month. USEPR is the US Evolutionary Power Reactor, which is based on the EPR -- European PWR -- design by Areva and Siemens. Constellation partnered with EPR consortium to market the US version, and congratulations are surely in order. Your humble nuclear.com editor had the pleasure to visit with some of the UniStar team at Calvert Cliffs last year, and was a bit skeptical when they predicted that they would be the first to break ground on new build in the USA. I'm not so skeptical anymore.
[Ref: letter from Amarillo Power LLC's Chairman of the Board George R. Chapman, to NRC, dated March 15, 2007 - see pdf here]
March 14, 2007
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TXU to Select Mitsubishi US-APWR for New Nuclear Power Generation
Mitsubishi Heavy Industries press release
US-APWR reactor technology developed by Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Ltd. (MHI) is selected by TXU for its new nuclear-fueled power generation capacity.
TXU plans to file applications for combined construction and operating licenses using US-APWR technology for 2-6 gigawatts at multiple sites including Comanche Peak site which has two units in operation. The filings would facilitate commercial operation of the units starting from 2015 to 2020. Friday, March 9, 2007, TXU formally notified its reactor selection to the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) and launched the preparation of Combined License (COL) application per 10 CFR Part 52.
MHI has developed the US-APWR based on technologies for a 1,538 MW APWR planned for use at the Tsuruga Power Station Units 3 and 4 of the Japan Atomic Power Company. A variety of modifications are added in reflection of the demands of U.S. customers for enhanced performance; improvements include the world's highest level of thermal efficiency (39%), a 20% reduction in plant building volume, 24 months fuel cycle length, and greater economy by increasing the power generation capacity to 1,700 MW class which is the world largest class. MHI is planning to construct the US-APWR in cooperation with a major engineering and construction company, Washington Group International Inc. in U.S. MHI is jointly promoting this US-APWR with Mitsubishi Corporation in U.S. market.
MHI has established MHI Nuclear Energy Systems Inc. (MNES), a wholly owned subsidiary, in Washington, D.C., and has started procedures to submit an application to NRC for Design Certification of the US-APWR. MHI makes good progress on formal application for Design Certification that will be conducted through the end of 2007.
TXU's selection is believed to be based on the US-APWR's excellent economy, proven safety and reliability, and MHI's comprehensive capability to undertake engineering, fabrication, construction, detailed maintenance and supply of high reliability fuel. In Japan, MHI has engaged in the construction of 23 Pressurized Water Reactors and is constructing one nuclear power plant. MHI will pursue further deployment of the US-APWR technology and promote US-APWR to the utilities who are under consideration of their new reactor type.
March 8, 2007
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NRC Votes to Approve Early Site Permit for Clinton Site | Exelon has no plan to build a new nuclear plant at location in near future
Exelon Nuclear press release
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission today voted to approve an Early Site Permit (ESP) for Exelon Generation Company, LLC. The ESP resolves with finality certain environmental, site suitability and emergency planning issues with regard to the possible construction and operation of a new nuclear plant next to the Clinton Power Station in Clinton, Ill. The next step in NRC's permit process is for NRC staff to actually issue the permit, which must occur within 10 days of the commission's vote. Exelon was the first to apply for an ESP, and will be the first company to receive an early site permit under the never before used licensing process. Exelon has not decided to move forward with building a new nuclear plant. "Certain conditions would have to fall into place before Exelon would consider building a plant: a workable solution to the spent fuel disposal problem; community acceptance; the right reactor technology; and the economics must be favorable," said Marilyn Kray, Exelon Nuclear Vice President. The 20-year permit allows Exelon to "bank" a site for a possible power plant; however, it does not authorize construction of a new plant. Should the company decide to build a power plant, it would need to apply for a combined operating license.
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U.S. OKs early site permit for nuclear power plant
Tom Doggett, Reuters
Exelon Corp., which sought the agency's first-ever early site permit in September 2003, would have up to 20 years to seek a license from the NRC to build and operate a reactor at the company's Clinton, Illinois, site, where it already has one nuclear reactor generating electricity. The decision is a step toward the Bush administration's goal to expand nuclear power to meet growing U.S. electricity demand. It would take the NRC about 24 months to review and approve any Exelon request to construct a new reactor at the Clinton location, an agency spokesman said.
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Oyster Creek a danger to county, experts say | Nuclear plant's license should not be renewed for 20 more years
Patricia A. Miller, Brick Township Bulletin (NJ)
Well, the "experts" mentioned in the title appear to be Richard Webster, a staff attorney at the Rutgers Environmental Law Center, Paul Gunter, the director of the Reactor Watchdog Project of the Nuclear Information and Resources Service, and/or Julia L. Huff, the executive director of the Eastern Environmental Law Center. If these kinds of experts were in charge of our energy policy, I suspect we'd soon be freezing in the dark. The best argument is in the story's leading paragraphs -- "Willie deCamp was on his way up Route 9 north from Waretown on Sept. 11, 2001, shortly after two commercial jets slammed into the World Trade Center. As he passed the Oyster Creek Nuclear Generating Station on his left, he saw three police cars parked in front of the plant's entrance. Two police officers stood next to each car, their eyes on the sky. 'Each policeman was armed with a pistol,' said deCamp, who is chairman of Save Barnegat Bay. 'They were standing there just gazing up at the sky and just praying that Osama didn't have Ocean County in mind. The expressions on their faces I can still picture.'"
March 5, 2007
Calvert Cliffs using ISFSI to store old reactor head
The newest NRC inspection report for Calvert Cliffs reports that "The licensee currently stores an old reactor head at the ISFSI facility... The licensee stated that the reactor head would be stored for an unspecified period of time." This sounds like much less costly approach than paying for the head to be buried at whatever radwaste facility that might agree to take it. But is this indefinite storage of contaminated waste a good approach in other ways? Maybe the names of power plants which hold radwaste, rather than ship it, should be changed to reflect their de facto status as radioactive waste dumps. Or maybe big-n-bulky things like old reactor heads can be put to good use as security barriers, protecting the spent fuel casks stored on the ISFSI pads from miscreants. While we're at it, instead of sending all those 55-gal drums and big LSA boxes to burial sites, maybe the security guys could put that stuff to good use stacked around the ISFSI.
[Ref: Robert Prince et al., Inspection at Calvert Cliffs Nuclear Power Plant in Lusby, Maryland, on January 8-12, 2007. NRC Region I Inspection Report 05000317/2007008, February 20, 2007]
March 4, 2007
March 2, 2007
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Nuclear industry sees fertile ground in green Europe
Peter N. Spotts, Christian Science Monitor
... while European energy companies have been actively looking to sell their nuclear power technology to the Asian and American markets, they are finding the door shut to them at home. The European Commission has proposed that by 2020 at least 20 percent of Europe's power should come from renewable energy sources, such as wind towers for electricity and biofuels for transportation. The goal would be to shrink energy consumption, lower carbon dioxide emissions, and reduce Europe's dependence on foreign oil and gas suppliers. The commission steered clear of making any recommendations regarding nuclear power, saying each country would be left to make its own decisions about whether to add, cut, or maintain nuclear reactors. The absence of any recommendations involving nuclear power, which now generates 30 percent of the electricity in the EU as a whole, has pleased longtime opponents. "Of all different energy options, nuclear was the loser," says Mark Johnston, a lobbyist for the international environmental group Greenpeace.
While EU surveys have found some shift in public attitudes toward nuclear power, opinion remains generally negative. A survey of 1,000 people in each of the 27 EU member countries recently found only 37 percent of those interviewed favored nuclear power, while 55 percent said its risks outweighed the advantages. While those questioned were less concerned than in the past about the safety of reactors, but were still worried about what to do with stockpiles of nuclear waste, says Ms. Blohm-Hieber.
In France, for example, 80 percent of electricity is generated by nuclear power. A new-generation nuclear reactor has been approved and is set for construction on the Normandy coast, one of only two new reactors being built in Europe. The state-owned electrical utility, EDF, remains committed to developing new nuclear plants and has been seeking to export its technology to Britain and Asia. And the French nuclear generator manufacturer Areva is aggressively looking for new customers outside France and is in negotiations to sell reactors to China. But the French appear less enamored of nuclear power than their energy industry or government. The EU survey on nuclear power found that 52 percent of people in France believed the risks of nuclear energy outweighed its benefits because of the unresolved issue of how to dispose of nuclear waste. The survey also found that 56 percent of the French believed nuclear power could easily be replaced by renewable energy sources like wind power. Other polls have found that climate change and global warming are major preoccupations for a large majority of people in France.
February 22, 2007
ACRS to discuss safeguards and security strategies for new reactor designs
On March 9, 2007, the Advisory Committee on Reactor Safeguards (ACRS) is scheduled to hear presentations by and hold discussions with representatives of the NRC staff regarding the research on mitigating strategies for new reactor designs. This session will be closed to public, to protect information classified as National Security information as well as safeguards information pursuant to 5 U.S.C. 552b(c)(1) and (3).
[Source: Meeting Notice for Federal Register, 540th Meeting of the Advisory Committee on Reactor Safeguards -- ML070400481]
N-plants - Technology Neutral Licensing Framework
On March 8, 2007, the Advisory Committee on Reactor Safeguards (ACRS) is scheduled to hear presentations by and hold discussions with representatives of the NRC staff regarding the Technology Neutral Licensing Framework, and the Commission request in the November 8, 2006 Staff Requirements Memorandum that the ACRS provide its views to the Commission with respect to the staffÕs work on Technology Neutral Licensing Framework with the focus on ensuring the value of such an approach versus the development of a licensing framework for specific designs. This session is slated for 3:45 pm to 5:15 pm. The meeting is to be held at NRC's Rockville Maryland headquarters -- building TWFN, in conference room T-2B3.
[Source: Meeting Notice for Federal Register, 540th Meeting of the Advisory Committee on Reactor Safeguards -- ML070400481]
December 20, 2006
* Overly conservative NRC regulation: Seismic calculations for piping system design
December 14, 2006
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Officials at Palo Verde changed--Shake-up designed to hike performance
Max Jarman, Arizona Republic
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NRC: Mehta Has No Case At Millstone--Commission won't elaborate on how it reached its decision
Patricia Daddona, New London Day (CT)
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Nuclear plants can generate Florida's future
Mike Thomas, Orlando Sentinel (FL)
The writer is a Sentinel news columnist. He urges Florida to become nuclear-plant friendly and "become that shining, well-lighted beacon on the hill for other states to follow". Electricity demand is projected to rise in Florida, along with population, in coming years. Current regulatory approval process makes natural gas the easiest kind of power plant to build. "What kind of high ground will we have in blocking offshore drilling for natural gas when we are a leading consumer of it?", he asks. He also stresses climate effects of CO2 emissions to support his claim that "There is too much pollution for dilution to continue being a solution." One of the nice things about nuclear, he says, is that it "forces us to confront our waste in a neatly condensed, glowing brick. We can't just shoot it up the chimney and forget about it." So when he saw Progress Energy's announcement that it might build a nuclear power plant out in the hinterlands of Levy County, his reaction was "There should be no 'might' about it. This should be built as quickly as possible, then followed by five more. Gov.-elect Charlie Crist needs to make this a priority. He should set up a nuclear energy division to pinpoint future plant locations and streamline the regulatory process to get them approved. The hurdles to building them should be lowered to the same level as the hurdles that natural gas plants face. Hopefully, this coincides with a national push to come up with a basic, reliable design that can be cloned so each utility isn't reinventing the reactor with each new plant. Then we can throw them up as needed."
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It'll be a long road to a new nuclear plant
St. Petersburg Times (FL)
Progress Energy hopes to submit an application for Levy County nuclear plant to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission in 2008. Helen Spivey, co-chairwoman of the Save the Manatee Club, predicted that Levy residents will be concerned about the potential plant in their back yard. 'Levy County had a fit when they (officials from another utility company) were just trying to put in a little hydro-electric plant, and we haven't heard from those people yet,' Spivey said. Inglis Town Commission member Betty Berger spent 10 years fighting that hydro-electric plant. But she's keeping an open mind about nuclear power. 'It would be good for the tax base and we're a poor county,' she said. Though she's not concerned about radioactivity, Berger said Progress Energy will have to be cautious when dealing with local water sources. She worries that running water from the barge canal to Progress' property could cause saltwater to infiltrate drinking water sources. Joe Adams, business manager of IBEW System Council U-8 in Crystal River, said 'It will be good for Levy County. They'll come to love it.'
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Governors hear talk on nuclear power; Plants don't pollute the air, advocates say, but safety is still in question
Aaron Nathans, News Journal (Wilmington DE)
The National Governors Association held a two-day energy forum in Wilmington Delaware. Policy advisers from about 30 state governors' offices attended, as did federal energy officials and national energy experts. Here's some of the highlights:
* Union of Concerned Scientists clean energy program director Alan Nogee said nuclear power still carries risks related to safety, security, proliferation and waste disposal. There are still questions about whether reactors can be operated without incident, especially after a near-meltdown at an Ohio nuclear plant in 2002. He also noted that the construction of nuclear power plants in the United States has always gone more than 200 percent over budget. He said most of the nuclear plants currently operating were built by Bechtel, the manager of the "Big Dig" highway and tunnel project in Boston, which has also gone far over budget. "Nuclear's strength is that the wastes are very concentrated. But that also creates the risks in managing it", he said.
* African American Environmentalist Association president Norris McDonald said he supports nuclear power because it can replace fuels that pollute the atmosphere. "If you're an environmental group, I don't see how you can meet your numbers without adopting nuclear power. It's emissions-free."
* Exelon Generation vice president for development Marilyn Kray said "We want the nuclear option to be available to decision-makers when it comes time to make new investments in generation." Waste from burning coal and natural gas goes into the atmosphere, but with nuclear waste, "we know exactly where it is... It's a marble-sized piece of waste, compared with trainloads of coal", she said. She also noted that nuclear energy makes up the largest share of electricity that does not emit greenhouse gases.
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Nuclear Power Is Contraindicated as a Solution to Global Warming Because of Nuclear Mutagenesis
Helen Caldicott, MD, Medscape (cookies required)
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Chernobyl voices: Anatoly Rasskazov
BBC News
Mr. Rasskazov was the first to photograph the wreckage - on 26 April 1986, the morning after the disaster.
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NRC cites FirstEnergy for faulty procedure at Beaver Valley plant
John Funk, Cleveland Plain Dealer
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Perry workers shut down reactor as a precaution
Columbus Dispatch
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Reactor shuts down 2nd time at TMI
Patriot-News
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Exelon Pa. Three Mile Island 1 reactor shut
Reuters
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SCE Calif. San Onofre 3 reactor exits outage
Reuters
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Diablo reactor should be up and running again soon
David Sneed and Cynthia Neff, San Luis Obispo Tribune
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NOTICES Environmental statements; availability, etc.: Entergy Nuclear Operations, Inc., 75280Ð75281 [E6Ð21272]
Nuclear Regulatory Commission
October 25, 2006
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Duke: Critics mistaken on nuclear costs
Charlotte Business Journal
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UPDATE:TXU Plans To Build, Operate New Nuclear Generators
Dow Jones/Easy Bourse (Communiqués de presse) (France)
NEW YORK - TXU Corp. (TXU) said Thursday it plans to file applications with the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission to build nuclear plants that will ...
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SA to spend R6bn on nuclear reactor
Business Day (South Africa)
SA has set aside R6bn over three years to fund plans to build an advanced nuclear reactor, the National Treasury said today. 'A ...
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Nuclear industry has good record
Toronto Star ( Canada)
While it might be convenient for Amory Lovins to tar the entire nuclear industry with his comments about Areva's troubled project in Finland and elsewhere, a ...
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Nuclear Power - Saviour or Sinner?
Earthtimes.org
In his speech at the 15th Pacific Basin Nuclear Conference in Sydney, Australia in mid-October, John Ritch, director-general of the World Nuclear Association ...
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THE POSSIBILITY OF A REAL POWER LUNCH
National Center for Policy Analysis (TX)
Expand nuclear power -- nuclear power is efficient and virtually emissions-free; as much as 75 percent of France's electric power is created by nuclear reaction ...
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Nuclear role unclear in state's energy plan
Richard Pearsall, Cherry Hill Courier Post (NJ)
Nuclear power is likely to be on the agenda as the state looks for ideas for an 'energy master plan' at public hearings this week. ...
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Govt might consider nuclear subsidies
Sydney Morning Herald
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WNA News Update
WNA
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CNSC News Update
CNSC
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AEA News Update
UK:AEA
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First reactor of Tianwan NPP in China to reach full capacity in ...
RIA Novosti (Russia)
MOSCOW, October 25 - The first reactor of the Tianwan nuclear power plant in China will reach full capacity in December, the head of Russia's ...
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EU takes step towards Kazakhstan nuclear deal
Kazinform (Kazakhstan)
The EU took a step towards a broad nuclear pact with Kazakhstan, the world's third-biggest producer of uranium, with proposals on Tuesday for joint ...
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Construction works at Cernavoda nuclear units to start in 2007
Portalino (Italy)
Construction works at units 3 and 4 of the Cernavoda nuclear power station in SE Romania will start simultaneously at the beginning of next year with a series ...
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Greenpeace asks Romania not to build nuclear plants
Reuters AlertNet (UK)
BUCHAREST, Oct 25 - Environment group Greenpeace urged Romanian authorities on Wednesday not to build two new nuclear reactors for the Cernavoda ...
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Reactors may face suspension: nat'l assembly
hani.co.kr (South Korea)
Two South Korean nuclear reactors are on the brink of being suspended for 6 months and one year, respectively, after the process to extend their usage period ...
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Bulgaria's Communists Back Nationalist Runner for President
Sofia News Agency (Bulgaria)
... Parvanov, 49, former leader of the ex-Communist Socialists, is also chastised for not holding a referendum on Kozloduy nuclear plant shut-down and destroying ...
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EU Commission investigates financing of Olkiluoto nuclear plant
Helsingin Sanomat (Finland)
The European Commission announced on Tuesday that financial arrangements in the ongoing construction of the third nuclear reactor at Olkiluoto in the west of ...
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Briefing: EU ...
International Herald Tribune (France)
... bank loan to the Finnish power company Teollisuuden Voima that may have helped a French-German supplier win a contract to build Finland's newest nuclear plant. ...
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Nine of Sweden's 10 nuclear reactors back online
Monsters and Critics.com (UK)
Stockholm - Nine of Sweden's 10 nuclear reactors, including four that were taken offline last July over flaws in their backup systems, were Wednesday back ...
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UPDATE 1-Progress shuts SC Robinson 2 reactor
Reuters
... Progress Energy Inc. (PGN.N) shut the 710-megawatt nuclear Unit 2 at the Robinson power station ...
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APS Ariz. Palo Verde 1 reactor back at full power
Reuters
Arizona Public Service's 1,243-megawatt Unit 1 at Arizona Public Service's Palo Verde nuclear power station in Arizona ramped up ...
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Two nuclear reactors are closed
BBC News
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Hutchison: Diversity is the issue
Odessa American (TX)
... independence, Hutchison said. 'Now, we've got some incentive for people to invest in nuclear power,' she said. ...
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British Energy's woes to push up power prices -analysts
Reuters.uk (UK)
LONDON - Problems with British Energy's (BGY.L: Quote, Profile, Research) nuclear power plants will probably push up UK power prices and could, at ...
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UPDATE 1-FPL, Constellation cancel planned merger
Reuters
... parent of Florida Power and Light utility, announced in December 2005 plans to acquire Constellation, a move aimed at creating a top-tier nuclear generator and ...
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FPL Group, Constellation cancel combination
South Florida Business Journal (FL)
... involved in an interstate utility merger - including two state PSCs, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and possibly the Nuclear Regulatory Commission ...
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FPL, Constellation merger called off
UPI
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FirstEnergy Reports Higher Quarterly Earnings
Earthtimes.org
... investigations and oversight, including by the Securities and Exchange Commission, the United States Attorney's Office, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and ...
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Thresher Industries to Acquire Talon Composites
Thresher Industries press release
... s acquisition of Talon will allow it to leverage its manufacturing strength to develop and market Talon's products in the high growth nuclear market and ...
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Company Expands Nuclear Office Facilities in Stoughton ...
The Shaw Group press release
BATON ROUGE, La. -- The Shaw Group Inc. (NYSE: SGR) announced today that it has relocated its nuclear office in Stoughton, Massachusetts to a larger facility to better accommodate the company's ...
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Areva in 5-yr partnership deal with National Grid for 4 bln eur ...
AFX/Forbes (NY)
PARIS - French nuclear energy giant Areva said its Tranmission and Distribution division has signed a five-year preferred partners agreement with ...
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UPDATE: Suez Agrees To Loosen Grip On Belgian Power Market
Easy Bourse (Communiqués de presse) (France)
... The commitment will see Suez making about 30% of its Belgian energy capacity, including part of its nuclear capacity, available to competitors, said a ...
July 11, 2006
* British Energy: Don't count them out of new nuclear build
July 4, 2006
* China - 2 new 1080-MW units approved for Hongyanhe; online by 2011
* China - 600-MW plant planned for Hunan province, the nation's first non-coastal site
* India - Kudankulam plant construction behind schedule; Russian components supply problems cited
* Australia - nuclear inquiry is a Trojan Horse of some sort, perhaps HLW waste import from USA?
Who would invest billions in a facility that could be zeroed-out by accident elsewhere before ever making a cent?
Wall Street currently refuses to invest in the nuclear industry because it views nuclear power as exorbitantly expensive and financially risky. A major accident at a nuclear reactor, one that induces a meltdown, would signal the end of nuclear power -- forever.
[Source: Helen Caldicott (president - Nuclear Policy Research Institute, Washington DC) and Tim Wright (president - Peace Organisation of Australia), "Anti-nuclear warrior warns on PM's nuke strategy", Herald Sun (Australia), July 4, 2006, p. 19]
Nuclear - net energy loss by 2016-2026, due to increased enrichment requirements for poorer quality ores
Unlike solar and wind power, nuclear power is neither clean nor green. Large quantities of fossil fuels are required to mine and enrich uranium to fuel nuclear power reactors, to construct the massive concrete reactor buildings and to transport and store the toxic radioactive waste created by the nuclear process. Fossil fuels emit carbon dioxide, the main "greenhouse gas" responsible for global warming.
Significant quantities of heat-trapping chlorofluorocarbon gases are also emitted during the enrichment of uranium.
Although the production of nuclear electricity currently involves the emission of only one-third the amount of CO2 produced by a similar-sized conventional gas generator, this is a transitory statistic. Over several decades, as the concentration of available uranium ore declines, more fossil fuels will be required to extract the uranium from less concentrated ore veins. Within 10 to 20 years, nuclear reactors will produce no net energy because of the massive amounts of fossil fuel that will be necessary to mine and to enrich the remaining poor grades of uranium. Nuclear power plants will then produce exactly the same quantities of greenhouse gases and air pollution as standard power plants.
[Source: Helen Caldicott (president - Nuclear Policy Research Institute, Washington DC) and Tim Wright (president - Peace Organisation of Australia), "Anti-nuclear warrior warns on PM's nuke strategy", Herald Sun (Australia), July 4, 2006, p. 19]
Uranium supply limits nuclear potential
Unlike the earth's wind and the sun's heat, usable uranium fuel is a finite resource. If all of the world's electricity production were from nuclear energy, this could be sustained for less than nine years.
[Source: Helen Caldicott (president - Nuclear Policy Research Institute, Washington DC) and Tim Wright (president - Peace Organisation of Australia), "Anti-nuclear warrior warns on PM's nuke strategy", Herald Sun (Australia), July 4, 2006, p. 19]
Nuclear power and waste promise epidemics for generations
... the health hazards of nuclear power are alarming even in the absence of any major accident. Radioactive waste, for instance, contains highly toxic elements that invariably pollute the environment and enter human food chains. Populations living near nuclear power plants or radioactive waste facilities will experience epidemics of cancer, leukaemia and genetic disease for generations to come.
They might also bear the brunt of major terrorist attacks. Nuclear power plants invite assault by plane, truck bombs, armed attack or covert intrusion into the reactor's control room. This would result in a meltdown that could induce the slow and painful deaths of hundreds of thousands of people.
[Source: Helen Caldicott (president - Nuclear Policy Research Institute, Washington DC) and Tim Wright (president - Peace Organisation of Australia), "Anti-nuclear warrior warns on PM's nuke strategy", Herald Sun (Australia), July 4, 2006, p. 19]
Nuclear power plants are essentially atomic bomb factories
... our Government should not hide the fact that nuclear power plants are essentially atomic bomb factories. Any non-nuclear weapons country that acquires a nuclear power plant will be capable of building nuclear weapons. For this reason, the risk of nuclear war between Taiwan and China would be high if Taiwan decided to seek independence. And Australia, which has uranium trade deals with both countries, will be partly responsible. Unlike China, Taiwan is not a signatory to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. This means it is free to divert our uranium for use in the production of nuclear weapons. Howard has assured us that Australia will enact rigid "safeguard" treaties to prevent this from happening. But the International Atomic Energy Agency is under-funded and understaffed, and freely admits that its inspections for diversion of nuclear material into weapons leave much to be desired.
[Source: Helen Caldicott (president - Nuclear Policy Research Institute, Washington DC) and Tim Wright (president - Peace Organisation of Australia), "Anti-nuclear warrior warns on PM's nuke strategy", Herald Sun (Australia), July 4, 2006, p. 19]
Antinuclear call for intense activism
The nuclear energy debate is very much a debate about peace and security, and a better world for present and succeeding generations. We must recognise that the responsibility to create a better world rests on the shoulders of every one of us. If we sit back idly and allow the government to support uranium mining and to spend millions of dollars establishing a nuclear enrichment industry, we are complicit. It is time we faced up to our moral responsibility, as we did in the 1970s when we forced France to test its nuclear weapons underground and when a massive grassroots movement arose to prevent the mining and export of uranium. This kind of intense activism is again necessary today.
[Source: Helen Caldicott (president - Nuclear Policy Research Institute, Washington DC) and Tim Wright (president - Peace Organisation of Australia), "Anti-nuclear warrior warns on PM's nuke strategy", Herald Sun (Australia), July 4, 2006, p. 19]
New anti-nuclear book by Helen Caldicott
Helen Caldicott has a new book -- Nuclear Power Is Not the Answer. The Peace Organisation of Australia chose to award Dr. Caldicott their inaugural Australian Peace Prize, because of her "commitment to raising awareness about the medical and environmental hazards of the nuclear age".
[Source: Jane Fraser ("Strewth!" columnist), "Caldicott collects", The Australian, July 4, 2006, p. 11]
July 3, 2006
Mitsubishi Heavy's new US subsidiary seeks NRC design certification for advanced PWR by 2011
MHI Nuclear Energy Systems Inc. just opened an office in Washington. The wholly-owned subsidiary of Mitsubishi Heavy Industries was formed to market a 1700-MW advanced PWR -- the US-APWR, based on the 1,538-megawatt APWR model slated to be installed at two plants of Japan Atomic Power Co. in Tsuruga, Fukui Prefecture. The company hopes to sell one US-APWR a year starting in 2012. The new subsidiary will also be involved in the business of providing large replacement components for existing nuclear power plants. The parent company already has a 40% share of that US market. MHI Nuclear Energy Systems has six Japanese workers and six local staff. Its president is Hiroshi Inoue, an executive officer from the parent company. Richard Meserve, former chairman of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, serves as senior adviser.
[Source: Kyodo News Service, "M'bishi Heavy seeks U.S. gov't approval on new nuclear reactor", Japan Economic Newswire, July 3, 2006 10:52 am GMT]
July 1, 2006
* Russia's plans for new nuclear power plants
* China's response capabilities to nuclear emergency - broad outline adopted for 5-year plan
June 20, 2006
* Multinational Design Approval Program (MDAP)
June 19, 2006
Green groups fission over nuclear power - Sierra Club and Greenpeace remain anti-nuclear, while UCS and NRDC think avoiding CO2 is a big advantage
Though many environmental groups made their names lobbying against nuclear power in the United States, some of the most prominent groups have been unexpectedly quiet on the Congressional debate over approving a pact that allows India to build 28 new nuclear reactors before 2020.
Some suggest that the unexpected stillness of the environmental lobby reflects a growing split among green groups over the role of nuclear power, with some activists - though far from all - now arguing that the downside of nuclear power may be exceeded by the upside, specifically the reduced emissions from fossil fuels that contribute to global warming. Carbon emissions from a nation as populous and rapidly developing as India are considered of special concern on the global climate front.
... The Natural Resources Defense Council "is not actively lobbying on this issue - just a few fact sheets and talks around town critical of the deal," said NRDC senior analyst Christopher Paine. "Most environmental groups are staying out or are against the deal." Paine said his organization's opposition stems from its impact on nuclear proliferation, not from environmental concerns. "Unquestionably, as climate change looms larger, people are looking at every alternative to fossil fuels, and clearly nuclear is one," he said. "There's been a softening of attitudes towards nuclear power."
Stephen Young, a senior analyst for the Union of Concerned Scientists, echoed Paine's sentiments. "If the only concern is global warming, nuclear is one of your options," Young said. "But this is primarily a nonproliferation concern, and [environmental groups] have other, higher priorities." The UCS released a paragraph-long statement and a couple of letters stating opposition to the deal, but otherwise it has been quiet. The statement mentions only nonproliferation and does not address environmental concerns. Wired magazine recently reported that a split has developed within the union over nuclear power, though Young denied the rumor. "We're neither for nor against nuclear power," he said.
At other groups, such as the Sierra Club, there have been few signs of softening. Peter Connolly, a program assistant with the group's global warming and energy program, said despite nuclear power's potential impact in cutting greenhouse gases, he is vehemently opposed to the U.S.-India deal and nuclear power in general. "We're very concerned with the [India] program and do oppose it," Connolly said. "Nuclear power is off the table."
Arguably the most dramatic public manifestation of the apparent divide concerns Greenpeace, which was born when a group of peace activists attempted to sail into a U.S. nuclear-weapons testing zone off the coast of Alaska. Twenty years ago, Patrick Moore, a co-founder of Greenpeace and longtime environmentalist, walked out of the organization in part because he had changed his mind on nuclear power. Now, he is actively backing the India nuclear deal. "I support the proposed deal with India," he said in an e-mail from Australia, where he is promoting new nuclear energy plans. "As an environmentalist who has studied these issues for over 30 years, I strongly support nuclear energy as a way to reduce reliance on fossil fuels. It is rather odd that my former colleagues in Greenpeace say that climate change is the most serious issue and at the same time oppose one of the most obvious solutions to [greenhouse gas] emissions reduction." Greenpeace, however, calls Moore a "sophist." "Nuclear is too expensive to be a solution to anything," said Jim Riccio, a nuclear policy analyst for Greenpeace. "Nuclear power falls off the table for us for cost, safety and security reasons."
But other prominent environmentalists have come out in favor of the deal as well. David Victor, the director of Stanford University's program on energy and sustainable development, recently published an editorial in the International Herald Tribune arguing that nuclear power in India could be "part of an effective strategy to slow global warming." Victor said he has been aware of the increasing division between environmental activists on the issue of nuclear power. "My sense is that the environmental community is divided on the question of nuclear power generally - and that split is getting deeper as more groups embrace zero-carbon technologies such as nuclear," he said in an e-mail. "That is the big split."
Picking up the theme, business lobbyists and the State Department - which both support the deal - are touting the environmental aspects. One State Department official said the department estimates that the India pact could save 300 million tons of carbon dioxide per year - more than half of the amount that the Kyoto Protocol aimed to eliminate. Right now, India's carbon emissions are growing at roughly twice the rate of the U.S. "If India doesn't have nuclear power, they're going to rely on hydrocarbons. They're going to burn coal, and their coal is some of the filthiest coal in the world," said one industry lobbyist. "It's like putting a smokestack to the ozone layer."
But some environmentalists, most of whom are vocal about their dislike of President Bush, are not buying the administration's line. "The Bush administration doesn't care about climate change. It's just a throwaway line," Paine said. "They're doing this deal just because the Pentagon wants to sell weapons. It's pathetic."
[Source: Dan Rasmussen (Roll Call staff), "Warming To Nuclear? Some (but Hardly All) Environmentalists Fear Global Warming More", Roll Call, June 19, 2006]
April 6, 2006
* Uranium sales to proliferators free up other uranium for weapons programs
April 2, 2006
* Germany - industry chief sees need to extend life of existing nuclear plants
* Japan - reprocessing plant is part of energy policy, not quest for weapons
* [2006-03-29] New nuclear reactor plans raise questions
Leonard Anderson, Reuters
* [2006-03-25] Countries Building, Considering Plants
Guardian
* [2006-03-25] Key Events in History of Nuclear Energy
Guardian
March 22, 2006
* Harris - security probe expanded from cheating to retaliation
* [2006-03-22] Kansas to let nuclear plant guards "shoot to kill"
Reuters
* [2006-03-18] Duke Energy Should Be Denied Taxpayer Subsidies to Build New Nuclear Reactors; Better Alternatives Exist
Public Citizen
* [2006-03-17] Duke Power's goal: S.C. nuclear plant
Stan Choe, Charlotte Observer
* [2006-03-17] Nuclear Reactors Found to Be Leaking Radioactive Water
Matthew L. Wald, New York Times
* [2006-03-16] EIA: Nukes Win, Coal Loses in Trading
The Electricity Daily
Nuclear power should prosper in a CO2 cap-and-trade environment, according to a recent analysis by the Energy Information Administration. EIA's reference case sees 6 GW of new nuclear capacity through 2030. But in the trading regimes that it analyzed, nukes add between 25 GW and 123 GW (which would represent more than double the number of nuclear plants in the U.S. today). EIA, at the request of Sen. Ken Salazar (D-Colo.), looked at several trading programs patterned on a 2004 report from the National Commission on Energy Policy, a private, bi-partisan group (1ED, Dec. 13, 2004). EIA did a similar analysis in 2005, using its Annual Energy Outlook 2005 for base-case estimates of energy prices (2ED, April 25, 2005). Salazar requested the new analysis because of the recent major increases in energy prices, reflected in EIA's Annual Energy Outlook 2006. So the statistical arm of the Energy Department ran the analysis against the base higher price scenario.
By the way, although the two most stringent regimes would lead to declines in coal generation below 2004 levels, none of the scenarios that EIA examined will result in lower annual total USA emissions of greenhouse gases than in the 2004 base year. "In all cases except the most stringent one," says EIA, GHG emissions continue to increase over the entire 2004 through 2030 period. In the most stringent case, GHG emissions increase slowly through 2018 and then fall until they are only 0.5 percent above the 2004 emission level in 2030."
* [2006-03-16] German nuke plants excluded from summit
UPI
* [2006-03-16] US hopes for "rebirth" of nuclear power: Bodman
Reuters
* [2006-03-16] Duke Power Selects Cherokee County Site for Nuclear Plant Application
PR Newswire
* [2006-03-16] Duke, Southern to study new South Carolina nuke
Reuters
* [2006-03-16] Duke, Southern plan nuclear plant in S.C.
Paul Nowell, Knoxville News Sentinel
* [2006-03-16] Duke picks Cherokee County for possible nuke plant
Stan Choe, Charlotte Observer
* [2006-03-15] Ex-lab director supports nuke plan
Ian Hoffman, Tri-Valley Herald
* [2006-03-13] Former lab head supports Bush's nuke redesign
The Argus (CA)
LIVERMORE Ñ An influential Pentagon adviser on nuclear weapons threw his support last week behind Bush administration plans to redesign the entire US nuclear ...
* [2006-03-12] Former lab director supports nuke plan
Ian Hoffman, Oakland Tribune
* [2006-03-08] NRC commissioner sees nuke role expanding
Deborah Halber, MIT News
* [2006-03-08] U.S. Nuclear Plant to Shut Down Reactor
Guardian
* [2006-03-06] B&W nuke settlement still on hold
Wynne Everett, Pittsburgh Tribune-Review
* [2006-03-06] New Nukes in Europe
Peter Fairley, MIT Technology Review
* [2006-03-04] US nuclear plant leaks fuel health concerns
Andrew Stern, Reuters
March 3, 2006
Nuclear renaissance? Too early to say, sez S&P
It is "too early to speak about a nuclear renaissance," a recent report on Europe by the rating agency Standard & Poor's concluded. "The market environment is now significantly riskier than it was when the original nuclear plants were built," said Peter Kernan, an analyst at S.& P. who was a co-author of the report. "Operators would need to be convinced there is a sound and robust business case" for building a plant before they start devoting capital to it, Mr. Kernan said. He said there was no evidence yet to suggest that. ... [T]he sale last month of Westinghouse's former nuclear division to Toshiba ... added to the talk of a rebirth of nuclear construction, but analysts say that most of it is still just that -- talk. In the United States, Energy Secretary Samuel W. Bodman recently referred to more than a dozen new reactors on the drawing boards, but not one has yet been ordered, and industry analysts do not expect to see any orders until late 2007, at the earliest... China has announced its intention to quadruple its nuclear output in the next 20 years, but at the same time the country has also stated that it wants to develop its own reactor. Politicians in Italy, Britain and Poland have been examining the merits of new nuclear plants. But to date, the only nuclear plant being built in Europe is a Finnish reactor that was the focus of 12 years of debate before construction began last year.
[Source: Matthew L. Wald and Heather Timmons, "Much Talk of a Nuclear Renaissance, but So Far Little Action", The New York Times, March 3, 2006, p. C3]
US reactor vendors: GE still alive; Westinghouse and CE are now Toshiba assets; B&W now Areva
The core asset in the sale is the former nuclear division of Westinghouse Electric, which had already absorbed Combustion Engineering. So, with Westinghouse, Toshiba gains two of the four companies that built the existing complex of American reactors. A third company, the commercial nuclear division of Babcock & Wilcox, is now in the hands of Areva, a French-German consortium. The fourth company is General Electric, which is trying to sell a newly designed reactor.
[Source: Matthew L. Wald and Heather Timmons, "Much Talk of a Nuclear Renaissance, but So Far Little Action", The New York Times, March 3, 2006, p. C3]
AEP CEO favors more nuclear power (largest electricity supplier in US)
Michael G. Morris, the president and chief executive of American Electric Power, the largest power generator in the United States..., whose company serves five million customers in 11 states, favors more nuclear power.
[Source: Matthew L. Wald and Heather Timmons, "Much Talk of a Nuclear Renaissance, but So Far Little Action", The New York Times, March 3, 2006, p. C3]
* [2006-03-02] Pa. Nuclear Plant Building Evacuated
Guardian
* [2006-03-01] Fly a jet into our N-plant, it WON'T hurt it
Mark Hookham, icNorthWales
February 27, 2006
* China - 2 or 3 new n-plants a year through 2020 needed to meet national goal
February 16, 2006
February 11, 2006
Turkey plans 3 n-plants, with first online by 2015
January 21, 2006
Tomorrow night's TV show 'The West Wing' is a new episode about a nuclear reactor in California which appears to be about to explode. The candidates for President, played by Alan Alda and Jimmy Smits, formulate their own responses as the incumbant, played by Martin Sheen, faces the biggest challenge of his presidency. "Duck and Cover" is the episode title. [NBC, 8 pm ET]
Russia sees sizable export market for nplants
Russia hopes to sell and construct between 40 and 60 nuclear power reactors abroad over the next quarter century, according to the head of Russia's atomic energy agency.
[Source: The Washington Times, "CHECK: International", January 21, 2006]
January 19, 2006
President Bush touts new n-plant build
In a speech this morning, President Bush said "We ought to have more nuclear power in the United States of America. It's clean, it's renewable, it's safer than it ever was in the past." The speech was mainly about encouraging entrepreneurship, but he talked a bit about energy. See the full text here.
January 3, 2006
* Pakistan may buy $7-10 billion worth of Chinese n-plants, adding 3600-4800 MW online by 2025
December 29, 2005
* Motor-operated valve starter failures at Cooper
December 28, 2005
* Ft Calhoun - TSC filtered vent system found rendered ineffective (an access cover had been removed)
December 21, 2005
* Nuclear fuel cycle's CO2 burden 2-6 grams/kWh, compared to 100-360 grams/kWh for gas-oil-coal
November 20, 2005
* Nuclear - big advantage when gas is $5/Mbtu; looks even better as gas price hit $14/Mbtu last month
* New federal N-plant subsidies 'a bold statement' on industry's future, sez sector fund manager
* Entergy's n-plants could soon boost profitability, as below market contracts expire
* So you want to invest in nuclear power renaissance?
November 4, 2005
2% increase in nuclear's global share of electricity by 2050 would require 1000-1500 new n-plants
[A recent Massachusetts Institute of Technology report... showed that to increase nuclear's share of world electricity by just 2 per cent by 2050 would mean an additional 1,000-1,500 new large nuclear plants... [T]his looks impossible...
[Source: Andrew Simms (policy director - New Economics Foundation), "The fallacy that nuclear energy will prove to be our saviour", Financial Times (London, England), November 4, 2005, p. 17]
Uranium resources only good for 85 years or so at present rate of use
The industry has a ... dirty little secret about how little high-grade uranium ore is left to fuel reactors. The International Atomic Energy Agency said last year that "the key question is how long nuclear resources might last" and cited known conventional resources of uranium as enough to last only 85 years for the most common type of reactors at 2002 rates of use and slightly longer for others.
[Source: Andrew Simms (policy director - New Economics Foundation), "The fallacy that nuclear energy will prove to be our saviour", Financial Times (London, England), November 4, 2005, p. 17]
N-plant economics - multiply UK govt estimates by 3 or so
An analysis of figures relied on by the government suggests that they have underestimated the true costs of new nuclear power by nearly threefold. Starting from the British Energy/BNFL estimate of 3p/kWh, the price goes up 1.3p/kWh by using an average, rather than best, cost for new reactors. Using the International Energy Agency's construction estimates pushes the price up by the same again. So-called "first-of-a-kind" costs incurred with new reactor designs add about 0.1p/kWh.
Allowing for delays and cost overruns adds at least a further 1.8p/kWh. Lowering the assumed performance of new stations to what has been achieved adds 0.8p/kWh, taking the total to around 8.3p/kWh. These costs exclude risks and liabilities arising from under-insurance, pollution and terrorism.
...Accidents, too, are expensive. Ukraine's bill more than a decade after the Chernobyl disaster was more than $120bn (Pounds 68bn). Swiss Re, the world's second largest reinsurer, concludes: "One of the most perilous shortcomings in traditional property insurance and reinsurance concerns inadequate nuclear risk exclusions."
...If the government concedes to the nuclear industry's demands to underwrite additional nuclear capacity it will be the biggest scam on the public since Enron discovered creative accounting or Nigeria discovered the internet. But then, there is always a danger that big races get fixed by the organisers.
[Source: Andrew Simms (policy director - New Economics Foundation), "The fallacy that nuclear energy will prove to be our saviour", Financial Times (London, England), November 4, 2005, p. 17]
Climate change - nuclear power isn't the answer
As a response to global warming, [nuclear power] is too slow, too expensive and too limited...
[A] nuclear industry relying on hugely energy-intensive fuel extraction from low-grade ore is far from carbon-free. One of the only full life-cycle analyses of nuclear plants, by retired nuclear physicist and former nuclear advocate Philip Bartlett Smith, concluded that even in the best case nuclear required significant emissions. In the worst case, using low grade ores, it was less climate-friendly than a gas-fired power station...
In terms of the relative costs of reducing carbon emissions to tackle global warming, nuclear power comes at the end of a long list of options including: energy efficiency, combined heat and power, wind power, micro hydro, energy crops and wave power.
... We must also beware the law of unintended consequences. The energy review by the government's performance and innovation unit warned that investment in new nuclear power plants could adversely affect the development of other technologies. Finland, the only developed country with a new nuclear programme, has been criticised by the IEA for underfunding and missing the goals of its renewable energy plan and has seen its emissions rise. Nuclear power, perversely, could hasten global warming.
[Source: Andrew Simms (policy director - New Economics Foundation), "The fallacy that nuclear energy will prove to be our saviour", Financial Times (London, England), November 4, 2005, p. 17]
Nuclear power expansion would add to terrorism and proliferation risks
Nuclear power is promoted as the answer to ... energy insecurity... In an age of terrorist threats, [nuclear power] is more of a security risk than a solution... There are already hundreds of tonnes of high-level radioactive material for which no inventory exists and blueprints for nuclear hardware are increasingly available on the international black market. An expanding sector would make nuclear proliferation - Iran - and terrorism not just more likely but almost inevitable.
[Source: Andrew Simms (policy director - New Economics Foundation), "The fallacy that nuclear energy will prove to be our saviour", Financial Times (London, England), November 4, 2005, p. 17]
November 3, 2005
* Point Beach-2 - shut down for an hour to scrape paint
* Point Beach spent $52-million for head replacements this year
* Simulator vendor GSE anticipates global renaissance in nuclear power
October 26, 2005
September 26, 2005
Unistar Nuclear - Constellation Energy, AREVA Inc., and Bechtel Power Corp.
UniStar Nuclear is a venture intended to serve as "a one-stop shop" to design, build, license and operate a fleet of advanced nuclear powerplants. Constellation Energy's role will be to enter joint ventures to develop plants. Bechtel Power Corp.'s role will be to serve as the projects' engineer and constructor. UniStar will promote AREVA's U.S. Evolutionary Power Reactor, an advanced-design 1,600-MW reactor known as the European Pressurized Reactor in Europe. One such reactor is under construction in Finland and the companies are banking on that experience as they eye domestic locations. Constellation is considering its Calvert Cliffs and Nine Mile Point nuclear power stations as viable sites for possible future development.
[Ref: Engineering News-Record, "Bechtel Joins Teams To Develop Next-Generation Nuclear Plants", September 26, 2005, p. 7]
October 17, 2005
* Slovak - Mochovce 3 and 4 finance commitment in Enel takeover bid
August 23, 2005
* Indian Point - good people have come up with the best possible plan for an evacuation. It won't work
Areva nixes talk about buying Westinghouse
Areva is unlikely to make a bid for Westinghouse, due to US antitrust issues and strategy differences. 'Antitrust rules as well as the incompatibility of a duplicated EPR/AP1000 offer ... are likely to lead to no bid being lodged,' an Areva spokesman told French business daily, La Tribune. Westinghouse recently received US government approval for its AP-1000 nuclear reactor, which Areva believes to be inferior to the similar European pressurized reactor (EPR) it is developing with Siemens AG of Germany. Westinghouse is owned by the UK's British Nuclear Fuels (BNFL). Areva stock rose 2.00 to 379.00 on Paris market after the news broke.
[Source: AFX News Limited, "Paris shares down midday as US futures point down, Total leads market lower", Forbes, August 23, 2005]
Westinghouse suitors may not include Areva
Westinghouse has been put up for sale by parent company British nuclear energy company BNFL. South Korea's Doosan Heavy Industries said on Monday it was considering bidding in a consortium for the company. Other potential bidders include General Electric, Siemens, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, the Carlyle Group and Kohlberg Kravis Roberts. Some analysts expect a lengthy bid process for Westinghouse due to the Washington's unease with foreign buyers of strategic energy-related companies, highlighted by the failed bid by CNOOC Ltd. of China for U.S. oil group Unocal Corp. One company -- Areva, the French state-owned nuclear fuel reprocessing and reactor maker -- is reportedly set to pull out of bidding. La Tribune newspaper on Tuesday quoted Areva as saying that antitrust rules as well as the incompatibility of the two groups' new family of nuclear reactors "should lead to us not responding to the offer". A source familiar with the issue said Areva's dominant position on the U.S. market -- where it generates some 2 billion euros ($2.45 billion) in sales or almost 20 percent of the group's total sales -- posed antitrust hurdles. "It was also considered that Areva's new nuclear reactor is well ahead of that of Westinghouse's model and that Areva is well positioned to pursue on its own its interests in the U.S.," the source said. French government plans to float Areva next year might also have forced the group to reconsider its bid for Westinghouse and its state-owned status might have caused political problems. Reuters reports that Areva declined comment on the issue.
[Source: Reuters, "UPDATE 1-Areva poised to pull out of Westinghouse bid -source", August 23, 2005 4:12 am ET]
GE and Mitsubishi are front-runners for buying Westinghouse, now that Areva is out of the bidding
BNFL has said it has received bids from between 10 to 15 potential buyers and will take around six months to study them. Areva had announced on July 12 it was considering a bid. According to La Tribune, General Electric Co and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, a confirmed bidder, are now the leading candidates to acquire Westinghouse.
[Source: AFX News Limited, "RPT France's Areva says likely to drop for BNFL's Westinghouse", Forbes, August 23, 2005 3:34 am]
Areva considers US antitrust authorities likely to block it from buying Westinghouse
French nuclear giant Areva 'is preparing to drop plans to bid for Westinghouse,' according to French economic daily La Tribune. 'It considers the US anti-trust authorities are likely to block the move.' It gave no source for its report. Areva, the world's largest nuclear engineering group, had said on July 12 it was studying whether to bid.
[Source: AFX News Limited, "France's Areva drops plan to bid for Westinghouse", Forbes, August 23, 2005 12:53 am]
August 10, 2005
* Germany - Sept 2005 election could lead to scrapping of n-plant phaseout deal
August 5, 2005
*
Nuke plant plans aired; State to offer tax breaks if Bellefonte site is chosen
A committee from NuStart executives has been looking at Bellefonte this week and will continue touring the site next week before visiting five others the group is studying. Garry Miller of NuStart said the consortium will select two sites in late September and immediately start the process of applying to the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission for a construction and operating license for them. The target date for getting a license is 2010. One site, he said, will be chosen for a General Electric-designed reactor and the other for one designed by Westinghouse. Jack Bailey, vice president of TVA's nuclear asset recovery division and a member of the NuStart group studying the six sites, said Bellefonte has several advantages, including several structures that could be used at a new plant - cooling towers, office buildings, a water intake line from the Tennessee River and its switchyard and transmission lines. Bailey said the proposal calls for building a plant in four to five years for about $4.5 billion. 2,000 to 3,000 workers would be needed to build the new plant and 800 to 1,000 permanent employees to operate both units.
Alabama officials plan to offer tax breaks as an incentive: "We'll put together an aggressive response", Neal Wade, director of Alabama Development Office, told about 50 local, state and federal officials at Scottsboro High School. State Sen. Lowell Barron, D-Fyffe, said he will do everything he can to lure a NuStart partner to Bellefonte, including getting legislation enacted to provide tax incentives to the utility. Tax incentive packages in Alabama are not authorized for utilities. "We understand about incentives," Barron told NuStart Wednesday. "We've used them to lure Mercedes, Toyota" and other companies. "We'll step up to the plate big time," he said. "I'll personally introduce legislation to make it happen. I can assure you the incentives and the support (are) in place." U.S. Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Mobile, who also attended Wednesday's meeting, said the recently passed federal energy bill will make it easier for utilities to build nuclear plants.
May 26, 2005
*
Can nuclear plant deal with attack?
Indian Point has buoys in the Hudson River marking the perimeter of a 900-foot "seclusion zone". This article describes the reporter's trip, aboard a 36-foot boat operated by Riverkeeper group, to within about 2,000 feet of the plant -- a distance "well within missile range ... of a number of black market weapons systems". Meanwhile, the plant's two patrol boats stayed tied to the plant's bulkhead. "It strikes me that it would be incredibly easy to get around the security forces that are in place," the pilot said as he turned his vessel from the facility. "What they're doing is like a police helicopter flying around the World Trade Center trying to protect them, he said. "It's not going to work." With a rocket propelled grenade, someone would have to be "closer than a few hundred yards" to the plant, says Jim O'Halloran, the London-based editor of Land Based Air Defense. "But if you're talking anti-tank weapons, bunker busters, you can use anything up to about a nautical mile," or about 6,000 feet, he says. "In that case, yes, there are anti-tank weapons that would do the job with penetrating warheads."
May 6, 2005
Today's inspection reports
* Davis-Besse report 50-346-2005-5
* Dresden report 50-237-2005-3
* McGuire report 50-369-2005-2
* Monticello report 50-263-2005-2
* Monticello report 50-263-1994-11
* Palisades report 50-255-2005-4
* Quad-Cities report 50-254-2005-2
* Robinson report 50-261-2005-2
April 25, 2005
* ANO gets permission to operate with some containment isolation valves open
April 22, 2005
April 18, 2005
Pakistan plans more n-power plants
Pakistan has announced plans to triple its nuclear power capacity by 2015 by adding 9000 megawatts of new nuclear capacity. Currrently it has two reactors with a combined capacity of 425MW. By 2030 it expects to add a further 7500MW capacity.
*
Nuclear reactor shut down to investigate problem
Millstone-3 shut itself down after detecting a problem yesterday morning, causing a release of non-radioactive steam into the air, a plant official said. A problem in the steam system was discovered at about 8:30 a.m. Some residents near the plant were concerned and called Millstone because the release of steam is not a usual event at the complex, Dominion Nuclear Connecticut spokesperson Pete Hyde said. Dominion declared an alert, the second lowest of four action levels in Millstone's emergency response plan, at about 8:42 a.m. The alert was canceled at about 7 p.m. There was no release of radioactive material and no one was injured, Hyde said. Millstone officials said Unit 3 would be shut down indefinitely while the problem is found and fixed.
April 16, 2005
*
US panel: Fuel pool attack could trigger zirconium fire
A terrorist attack on the spent fuel pools at some US nuclear plants could trigger a high-temperature zirconium fire that would lead to a significant release of radioactivity, though not on the scale of the 1986 Chernobyl explosion, concluded a blue-ribbon panel of scientists assembled by the National Research Council of the US National Academies. The unclassified academies' report, Safety and Security of Commercial Spent Nuclear Fuel: Public Report, contains all the findings and recommendations of the classified report, but with all national security and safeguards information removed, said Louis Lanzerotti, who chaired the 15-member expert panel pulled together by the academies' Board on Radioactive Waste Management in response to a mandate from congress. The panel spent six months gathering and analyzing data, and meeting with regulators, nuclear industry experts, and independent scientists. Lanzerotti is a geophysics expert consulting for Bell Laboratories and Lucent Technologies and a distinguished professor for solar-terrestrial research at the New Jersey Institute of Technology. Other panel members included a former NRC division director in nuclear materials management, and experts in the behaviour of nuclear materials at high temperatures, penetration mechanics, ballistics and weapons technology, health physics, actinide chemistry, heat transfer, thermal hydraulics, structural engineering and terrorism. The panel unanimously concluded that an attack that caused either partial or complete draining of a plant's spent fuel pool might be capable of starting a high-temperature fuel cladding fire that could lead to the Òrelease of large quantities of radioactive material into the environment.Ó The risk depends on a number of factors, including the type of attack, the design of the fuel pool, and the configuration of the fuel in the pool. The panel recommended two immediate measures that could reduce the potential for fuel cladding fires: (1) The reconfiguration of the position of fuel assemblies in the pools to more evenly distribute decay heat loads; and (2) Making provisions to cool the fuel with water spray systems that could continue to operate even after a pool or the building housing it is damaged. The panel noted that water spray systems might not be needed at plants where the fuel pools are located below ground or otherwise protected. ... Pools are and will continue to be needed at all nuclear plants for the foreseeable future, the panel stressed, noting that fuel newly removed from the reactor needs about five years cooling time in a water pool before it can be loaded into casks. For older fuel, however, dry storage has two advantages. It is a passive system that relies on air circulation for cooling, and it divides the spent fuel inventory into a number of individual, robust containers that contain only a small amount of the total inventory. Different dry cask systems available on the US market differed only slightly in robustness under different terrorist attack scenarios, the panel found.
*
Letters: Going Nuclear
Embracing nuclear power in an attempt to avoid the global-warming implications of reliance on coal is like taking up heroin to avoid an addiction to crack. -- Alice Slater (President, Global Resource Action Center for the Environment) ... if nuclear energy is so great and so cheap, why aren't private entrepreneurs lining up to build nuclear power plants instead of gas-fired power plants? -- Adam Zielinski (Portland, Ore.) ... I, too, am reevaluating my long-held visceral aversion to nuclear fission... [Please] include suggested books, articles, and websites for those of us literate greens who'd like to better educate ourselves on recent work and debate in this area ... -- Howie McCausland (Bristol, Vt.) ... As a former nuclear submarine engineer officer, I am amazed that there are not more environmentally minded people shouting from the mountaintops that we need energy sources clean enough to operate inside sealed containers. ... -- Rod Adams (Editor, Atomic Insights)
*
Spent-fuel storage 'secure'; What is Dominion power doing to protect tons of highly radioactive spent fuel at North Anna nuclear plant? More than 900 tons of highly radioactive spent fuel sits in a swimming-pool-like enclosure and in 22 giant steel casks at North Anna Power Station. Every 18 months, North Anna's two reactors must be shut down and partially refueled. Sixty-four spent fuel assemblies are typically removed from each reactor core. Each reactor has 157 assemblies. The assemblies -- rectangular modules packed with uranium-pellet-filled tubes -- are lifted from the reactor and submerged in what looks like an industrial-size indoor swimming pool. Twenty-seven feet of water, infused with neutron-absorbing boron, protects workers in the room from radiation. The pool sits between North Anna's two reactors. The spent fuel assemblies are submerged, where they will stay for at least five years to cool. After that, they are placed in helium-filled steel casks, which are decontaminated and moved to the storage area outside. Helium is an inert gas that helps transfer heat to the outside of the casks, each of which holds 32 fuel assemblies. The gas is easy to detect if there's a container leak. Twenty-two of the 115-ton storage containers sit on concrete pads in a fenced, secure enclosure at North Anna. By 2010, there could be 36. It has become an issue locally because Dominion power -- owner of the North Anna plant -- has an application to add up to two more reactors wending its way through the regulatory process. More reactors would mean the storage of many more tons of spent fuel. Earlier this month the National Academy of Sciences recommended a plant-by-plant review of the storage pools at nuclear plants, suggesting that they may be vulnerable to terrorist attack. Environmental groups opposing additional reactors at North Anna say the protection of the spent fuel is a legitimate concern and that expansion would present a more tempting target to terrorists. In a public hearing in February in Louisa on environmental aspects of Dominion's early site-permit application, spent fuel was addressed by a number of speakers. One of them was Sue Chase, who lives in Albemarle County, about 50 miles from North Anna. "Who can assure us that a plant won't be bombed, invaded or hit by a plane and that the fuel rods won't be exposed, resulting in a devastating fire? No one." The [NAS] report [released earlier this month] said the spent-fuel pool, and others like it in 31 states, could be compromised by a suicide aircraft or high-explosive attack, exposing the assemblies and unleashing an uncontrollable fire and large amounts of radiation. The NRC has concluded release from such a fire would be "extremely low," but the agency still advised reactor operators to consider reconfiguring the fuel assemblies in the pools. Jerry Rosenthal, president of Concerned Citizens of Louisa and a member of the People's Alliance for Clean Energy, formed to oppose the North Anna expansion, scoffs at the notion [that the spent-fuel storage systems are safe and secure]. "They are protected very well from ground attack, or certain types of attack. Not from above. The pool is covered by a [thin steel] building and the casks are covered by nothing." "We have video of [military] TOW missiles blowing holes in the casks," he said, adding, "Seven attorneys general around the U.S. have recommended putting towers and wire barriers above dry casks and pools for further protection from air attack." "These facilities are very secure," said Richard Zuercher, spokesman for Dominion's nuclear operations. He said the Nuclear Regulatory Commission "already did an assessment of individual [plant] sites and made recommendations for everybody to implement, and we are in full compliance with those orders." Since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, Zuercher said, security has been ramped up, and the chance of a terrorists attacking the fuel pool or the casks is remote. "A lot of money has been spent [on security] by Dominion since 9/11, but we believe the sites were very secure before 9/11." Zuercher says just how and where the security has been beefed up is a secret, for obvious reasons. But he said: "We have increased our security force. We have more officers and we have put more sophisticated surveillance equipment in that allows us to keep watch on all of the property." Zuercher said that prior to 9/11, security was focused on the secure area of the plant containing the reactors, spent-fuel pool and storage casks. "Since then, security has been enhanced to cover the whole [plant] site." Dominion recently received permission from the Louisa County Board of Supervisors to add another cask-storage pad. New casks will be better protected -- encased in reinforced-concrete containers. The board didn't go along with a Planning Commission recommendation that a berm be added to the fenced area around the casks to improve security from a possible shoulder-fired-missile attack. Dominion, however, was asked to study a berm. On Monday, the Government Accountability Office found that some utilities have not kept close enough track of spent fuel. The GAO report questioned oversight by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, and said the materials "could be diverted or stolen and used maliciously." The report was requested last year by Vermont's two senators following news that spent fuel had been reported missing at the Vermont Yankee plant. It was later found in the spent-fuel pool, but not where records said it was supposed to be. Spent fuel also was reported missing from the Millstone nuclear plant in Connecticut in 2000 and from the Humboldt Bay plant in California last year. Dominion power has accounted for all the spent fuel at its North Anna and Surry plants.
April 12, 2005
New nuclear build - cost advantage over coal and gas, according to Duke Power projections
Henry "Brew" Barron (Duke Power's chief nuclear officer) said that given Duke's nuclear experience, expected rises in gas prices, and Duke's overall situation, "our assessment shows nuclear with a clear customer cost advantage over coal and gas, based on current projections."
[Source: E. Michael Blake, "Duke explores 'nuclear option'", Nuclear News, April 2005, p. 11]
February 15, 2005
Framatome ANP - New Plants Deployment team established to market EPR in North America and supprt Gen IV HTGR
The team will be headed by Framatome ANP Senior Vice President Ray Ganthner.
Source: Nuclear News, "A new Areva unit will market the EPR in North America", March 2005, p. 80]
February 7, 2005
High burnup fuel challenges
The photo and links and for a Dec 9, 2004 meeting. The documents were relesed today by NRC.
February 5, 2005
UK's Blair pushes n-power as only hope against CO2-induced sea-level rise
The issue of global warming is really gaining legs because Tony Blair and his advisers are scaring people who live in coastal cities.
At closed sessions at the forum three choices were presented by the experts: London 6m under water by the end of the century if nothing is done; a serious rise in unemployment if the current non-carbon non-nuclear technology is relied upon because they have not been sufficiently developed; or nuclear power.
[Source: Robert Gottliebsen (MATP), "WORLD ECONOMIC FORUM DAVOS 2005: Signposts for change on road to future", The Weekend Australian, February 5, 2005, p. 38]
January 4, 2005
* UK - 1974 - govt covered up nuclear plant weaknesses re security, emegency preparedness
December 27, 2004
It's a measure of how low the industry has sunk that even its leaders hesitate to proclaim a rebirth in spite of government and high-profile environmentalist support
There are hints of a resurgence in respectability for nuclear power -- the most maligned of power sources. Factors driving the renewed interest: high natural-gas prices, energy-security fears, and worries about climate change.
* The bipartisan National Commission on Energy Policy included it in a December proposal to "end the energy stalemate".
* Columbia University's Earth Institute was willing to consider the option in its State of the Planet assessment.
* Environmental sage James Lovelock sparked a debate in England last spring when he published an impassioned defense of nuclear energy--on environmental grounds. "I am a Green," he wrote, "and I entreat my friends in the movement to drop their wrongheaded objection to nuclear energy." His argument: Splitting atoms is the only way to generate huge quantities of electricity without producing the volumes of global-warming gases that plants fired by coal or natural gas emit.
* Richard Smalley, a Nobel Prize-winning chemist at Rice University who has been delving into energy issues, echoes Lovelock: "We ought to, and probably will, start building nuclear power plants again."
* "We're on the edge of a comeback," says Marilyn Kray, president of NuStart Energy, a consortium of nuclear utilities and equipment vendors.
* GE Energy CEO John Rice says "The stars are beginning to align." Under the Bush administration the industry has its best chance in decades. "If something is going to happen, it's going to happen in the next two to three years."
[Source: Nicholas Varchaver, "NUCLEAR SPRING? Even some environmentalists are learning to love America's most reviled source of energy", Fortune, January 10, 2005 (subscription required)]
December 25, 2004
Russia - 1,500-MW will be new standard n-plant size after 2007
Russia will be building only VVER-1,500 units at nuclear power plants after the year 2007, head of the Federal Atomic Energy Agency Alexander Rumyantsev said at a Friday press conference. "Blueprints of such units will be ready by 2007," he said. Construction of units with the capacity of 1,500 megawatt "is more advantageous economically and better than the construction of VVER-1,000 reactors," he said.
[Source: ITAR-TASS, Russia to build only VVER-1,500 reactors after 2007 - Rumyantsev, December 24, 2004 18:30]
* San Onofre chooses Mitsubishi to provide four replacement steam generators
December 24, 2004
* Iran intends to build 6 or 7 more n-plants after Bushehr
* Iran has agreed to return Bushehr fuel to Russia 10 years after delivery
November 6, 2004
Friends of the Earth sez 'We're not opposed to nuclear energy on principle'
Can you call yourself an environmentalist and not be absolutely opposed to nuclear energy? The answer, definitely, is yes - although a few weeks back, Friends of the Earth sent out the opposite message when it told Hugh Montefiore, its long-time supporter, that writing an article in support of nuclear power was incompatible with being a trustee of its charity. Montefiore, the former Anglican Bishop of Birmingham and an active force in the environmental movement for decades, had wanted to write an article for the Catholic magazine The Tablet. After being told it would not be compatible with his position at FoE, he resigned, saying he had no alternative. "The future of the planet is more important than membership of Friends of the Earth," he wrote. But FoE's opposition to nuclear technology is more nuanced than media reports about Montefiore's departure have made out. Roger Higman, the group's environmental limits spokesman, says its opposition is based more on the current practice of nuclear energy than on principle. "It is a position that remains flexible," he says. "We're not opposed to nuclear energy on principle." If anyone is going to base their position on science, it ought to be environmental groups such as FoE. And it looks as if it has done so. In a briefing document it put together to address the issue, they acknowledge that, in general, nuclear power comes out favourably against coal, oil and gas. But, it says, research ("in a UK context") suggests that nuclear power would produce about 50 per cent more global warming emissions than wind power. It also produces waste that remains dangerous for tens of thousands of years, and nuclear facilities are uniquely vulnerable to terrorist attack.
These issues of how we generate the power to fuel modern ways of life are among the most important of our time. They relate to the catastrophic effects of climate change and, economically speaking, they could provide answers for the disaster that looms as traditional fossil fuels run out.
[Source: Stephen Pincock, "Science Matters: The jury is still out on nuclear energy when it comes to the environment, but new studies in China could change all that", Financial Times (London, England), November 6, 2004, p. 13]
* China may soon build 300 gigawatts of n-plant capacity
* Pebble-bed reactor R&D in China, US - towards a cost-competitive, meltdown-proof alternative
November 5, 2004
NuStart and Dominion groups will get DOE help; new n-plant perhaps by 2014?
DOE chose two groups yesterday -- NuStart Energy and the "Dominion project" group -- to enter a "nuclear plant licensing demonstration process." That's the first step in what's estimated will be a six-year process to obtain a licence from the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission. NuStart will evaluate technology designed by Westinghouse and General Electric. Atomic Energy of Canada Ltd. is hoping to build one of its next-generation nuclear plants in Virginia as a member of the Dominion project. The Dominion group includes Bechtel Power Corp. and Hitachi America Inc. "The Dominion project could lead to a licence to build and operate an AECL Advanced Candu Reactor (ACR-700) at the North Anna site in Louise County, Va.," the energy department said. "If a nuclear power plant order results from this work, Dominion potentially could have a new nuclear power plant in operation as early as 2014." AECL has proposed building as many as eight of the new-design plants in Ontario to replace the province's aging nuclear fleet. But no plants have been constructed anywhere yet, and the design is not licensed in either Canada or the U.S. In Ontario, Bruce Power has also been considering the advanced Candu, but prefers a more powerful unit.
[Source: John Spears (Toronto Star business reporter), "AECL gets chance to push U.S. reactor", The Toronto Star, November 5, 2004, p. E4]
* UK shouldn't wait 3-4 years before deciding on new nuclear build, sez SSE CEO
* Russia - rumors prompting iodine run in Saransk are false; Balakovo plant did not have accident
* Russia - two iodine overdoses amongst scared public near Balakovo plant
October 21, 2004
* Oconee - emergency power inoperable for 41 minutes (Keowee Hydro Units)
October 1, 2004
AECL postpones ACR-700 design certification application to NRC, awaiting DOE response to North Anna Combined License Project
By letter dated October 1, 2004, Atomic Energy of Canada Limited (AECL) Technologies, Inc., informed the NRC that the ACR-700 design certification application will be postponed from the current target date of March 2005. The schedule change was attributed to a delay in receipt of the Department of Energy (DOE) response to Dominion EnergyÕs proposal for the North Anna Combined License Project. AECL Technologies explained that once DOEÕs position is known, the ACR-700 project schedule will be reviewed and a new submittal date for the application will be determined. AECL Technologies requested continued NRC engagement in the pre-application process during the proposed transition phase and stated they remain committed to proceeding with the ACR-700 design certification process.
[Source: NRC Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation, "Advanced CANDU Reactor (ACR-700)", in Weekly Information Report, Week Ending October 8, 2004, October 18, 2004 -- ACN ML042940076]
September 11, 2004
* Nuclear power outlook has changed in last two years - new plants possible within the decade
* Nuclear power expansion was not part of White House's pre-conceived energy policy
* Nuclear power benefits in some, but not all, environmental groups, from global warming concern
* Idaho National Laboratory - hopeful home for Gen IV reactor prototype
September 3, 2004
* Palisades will apply for license renewal
* Oyster Creek - reactor power exceeded licensed limit for three days
* Brunswick's EDG model susceptible to catastrophic piston defect
* Grand Gulf - evaluation of effect of degraded pipe supports
* St. Lucie - Hurricane Francis warning triggers e-plan
* Turkey Point - Hurricane Francis warning triggers e-plan
* Duane Arnold - small chlorine spill to Cedar River
* CY - diesel fuel oil spill contained during decommissioning
August 21, 2004
* UK - nuclear industry counting on 2006 boost from failure of wind industry
* Japan - followup on why the Mihama-3 steam pipe wasn't previously inspected
* Ukraine - With Khmelnytskyy-2 and Rivne-4 starting up, 12 of Ukrain's 14 n-units now operational
August 17, 2004
Japan - steam deaths should prompt sober reflection on relative safety of nuclear plants, compared to others
Leading the paper with the headline "4 are killed at nuclear power plant in Japan" (International Herald Tribune, Aug. 10) is a classic case of hype and incitement of public concern in the name of reporting a story.
The prominent display implies that nuclear technology is dangerous. But the accident occurred in a non-nuclear part of the plant from a leakage of high-pressure steam. The same accident could happen in a plant that uses fossil fuel. Would the International Herald Tribune give such prominence to a story about a fatal accident in a coal plant?
Only few readers know that no death has ever occurred from the operation of any of the 52 nuclear reactors that are used to generate electricity in Japan.
If deaths in making energy deserve a headline, the Tribune might consider reporting on the the thousands of coal miners who die each year around the world in explosions, collapses and floods.
In producing 16 percent of the world's electricity, nuclear energy is clean, boasts an unparalleled safety record compared to all other major forms of power generation and is the world's main expandable clean-energy resource.
Misleading "news" about nuclear power exacerbates an already profound irrationality in public discourse and is a serious disservice at a moment when the most crucial global challenge is achieving a transformation to clean energy technology.
[Source: John Ritch (director general, World Nuclear Association), "Nuclear energy in Japan", letter to editor, The International Herald Tribune, August 17, 2004]
August 16, 2004
* Brunswick - one of 36 evacuation sirens inadvertently alarmed for about 48 minutes
* Brunswick - Hurricane Charley warning prompted e-plan Unusual Event
* Columbia - reactor manually scrammed during startup
* Crystal River - Hurricane Charley warning prompted e-plan Unusual Event
* Perry - licensed operator found to be unfit for duty; access terminated
* River Bend - reactor scrammed upon partial loss of offsite power
* Susquehanna-1 - SPDS wasn't working for 11 hours
* Susquehanna-2 - SPDS wasn't working for almost 10 hours
July 5, 2004
* CANDUs - 4 years to build $2-bln plant, yields 25-40 years of cheap electricity
June 18, 2004
* Vermont Yankee down for a week due to switchyard fire
June 17, 2004
June 10, 2004
* Macedonia - nuclear power plant needed, now, says legislator
June 5, 2004
* Nuclear energy will be essential to Ontario economic future
June 3, 2004
* Vermont Yankee - NRC will use new engineering inspection process
* Cook - metal fatigue section of license renewal application - draft RAI teleconference summary
* Catawba MOX fuel use - ASLB invites oral public comment (June 15)
* Browns Ferry 1, 2 & 3 - license renewal meeting (June 11)
* Nine Mile Point 1&2 license renewal meeting (June 16)
* Yankee Rowe License Termination Plan - public meeting (June 24)
* Indian Point - NRC reply to neighboring Villages' safety concerns
June 2, 2004
* Nine Mile Point-2 - Shutdown Cooling isolated due to a pressure spike while warming up the piping
* Cooper - HPCI declared inoperable, although could be manually started
May 24, 2004
* World n-plant reliance expected to double in 35 years, from 7% to 14% of electricity
May 19, 2004
* Vermont Yankee - two of twenty cracks found in steam dryer warranted repair
* Brunswick to get IAEA OSART team inspection in 2005
* Vermont Yankee - NRC will conduct engineering inspection, responsive to state board concerns
Today's inspection reports
The following inspection reports released by NRC today are available here as pdf files:
* Nine Mile Point report 50-220-2004-2
* Ginna report 50-244-2004-301
* Browns Ferry-1 recovery report 50-259-2004-6
*
David Brewer, Huntsville Times (AL)
Greg C. Bruno, Times Herald-Record (Middletown, NY)
The Canberra Times (Australia), p. A6
Associated Press State & Local Wire, 1:33 am ET
Thecla Fabian, Nuclear Engineering
Grist Magazine
Rusty Dennen, Free Lance-Star (Fredericksburg, VA) 
photo of Palo Verde fuel assembly P2L5xx
showing Clad CRUD (Unit 2 Cycle 9)
photo from Palo Verde presentation to NRC. Slides available here -- NRC meeting summary also available