nuclear-news

Fennovoima filed nuclear application with incorrect nuclear plans

Paper: Fennovoima used old Rosatom plans in nuclear plant application http://yle.fi/uutiset/paper_fennovoima_used_old_rosatom_plans_in_nuclear_plant_application/7495619

The newspaper Keskisuomalainen reported on Saturday that the technical plans filed by the power company Fennovoima as part of its application for a permit to build a new nuclear plant in Finland were actually an old design by Russia’s Rosatom for a plant near St. Petersburg. Keskisuomalainen reported that according to Rusatom Overseas Vice President Jukka Laaksonen, Fennovoima’s order came as a surprise to the Russian company and there was not enough time to create fresh plans for a new nuclear plant. Existing copies of the older plans were filed with the application, even though the type of plant described is not what is envisaged in the Fennovoima project.

According to the paper, Finland’s Radiation and Nuclear Safety Authority STUK was unaware that the documentation that accompanied Fennovoima’s application was based on a different plant project. STUK has criticized Fennovoima’s application for safety deficiencies.

Laaksonen told Keskisuomalainen that Rosatom personnel are currently formulating the new plant project’s actual permit application, which will be filed next June.

September 29, 2014 Posted by Christina Macpherson | general | Leave a comment

New idea for cheap efficient solar energy storage

A Promising Step Toward Round-the-Clock Solar Power, MIT Technology Review  By Kevin Bullis on September 26, 2014 A simple, cheap device turns sunlight into hydrogen fuel. If solar power is to become a primary source of electricity around the world, we’ll need cheap ways to store energy from the sun when it isn’t shining. A paper published in the journal Science this week reports a major step toward such a system. Researchers have developed a device that cheaply and efficiently converts the energy in sunlight into hydrogen, which can be used as a fuel and is easily stored.

Michael Graetzel, who directs the Laboratory of Photonics and Interfaces at the Ecole Polytechnique in Lausanne, Switzerland, along with colleagues in Korea and Singapore, built a device that uses electricity and catalyst materials to make hydrogen and oxygen from water. This new “water splitter,” as such devices are known, is highly efficient, uses cheap and abundant materials, and is easy to make……..http://www.technologyreview.com/news/531141/a-promising-step-toward-round-the-clock-solar-power/

September 29, 2014 Posted by Christina Macpherson | general | Leave a comment

Rosatom nuclear corporation funds study on Fukushima radiation fallout

Russian Scientists Travel to Kuril Islands to Study Effects of Fukushima Meltdown The Moscow Times Sep. 25 2014 Russian scientists will travel Thursday to the Kuril Islands in order to assess the fallout from Japan’s Fukushima disaster, expedition head Yury Lyukanov said, stressing the group would stay out of Japanese waters.

The expedition, which is financed by the state-run nuclear agency Rosatom, will set out from the port of Vladivostok for up to 30 days and will be carried out under the auspices of the Russian Geographic Society, Lyukanov said, the Interfax news agency reported.

Representatives from the Defense Ministry, the Roshydrome weather bureau, the health and safety watchdog Rospotrebnadzor, and students from the state maritime museum will join the expedition, Lyukanov added…….http://www.themoscowtimes.com/news/article/russian-scientists-head-east-to-assess-damage-from-japanese-nuclear-meltdown/507801.html

September 29, 2014 Posted by Christina Macpherson | general | Leave a comment