nuclear-news

Renewables are not only the environmental answer to climate change, they are the economic answer too.

This is a short piece about a much longer piece that you will want to take a bit of time to read.

Actually, it is unfair to describe it as a “piece.” It’s a study, by Mark Cooper, who for years has been writing extensively about the transition to a clean energy future from an economist’s perspective.

Cooper examines three recent studies taking different approaches to achieving deep decarbonization of our electrical system, two that reject nuclear power as part of the means of attaining massive carbon reductions and one that accepts nuclear power and fossil fuels with carbon capture and storage (CCS) as pieces of the approach. He then lays over that two recent studies of the economics of electricity generation, along with the political structure for attaining carbon reductions established by the…

The electrical grid, sheep at Hunterston B – about 30 miles, 50 km, from Glasgow, Scotland.

Dependence upon external sources of power is one of the most bizarre aspects of nuclear power stations. In the event of electrical grid failures, nuclear cooling systems can be powered with backup generators, which sometimes fail to start up. They also require diesel fuel to run. This is a major achilles heel of nuclear power.

As explained by the US NRC: “The reactor’s core contains fuel assemblies that are cooled by water circulated using electrically powered pumps. These pumps and other operating systems in the plant receive their power from the electrical grid. If offsite power is lost, emergency cooling water is supplied by other pumps, which can be powered by onsite diesel generators. Other safety systems, such as the containment cooling system, also need electric power.” http://www.nrc.gov/reactors/bwrs.html Hunterston B is CO2…

Opinion:

¶ Why Colorado Requested A Pause On The Clean Power Plan, But Isn’t Taking It • Colorado regulators say they will press forward on President Barack Obama’s plan to curtail emissions from coal-fired power plants, despite a temporary pause issued by the U.S. Supreme Court for the Clean Power Plan this week. [Colorado Public Radio]

A coal train enters the Craig Station power plant near Craig, Colo. on Tuesday, June 16, 2015.

Science and Technology:

¶ The Brattle Group study says that the America’s 50 million residential electric water heaters can address bigger challenges such as storing energy from wind farms and solar arrays. The study examined smart technologies focused on water heaters, which use 9% of US household electricity. [Minneapolis Star Tribune]

World:

¶ Solar power project developers in India are expanding the rent-a-roof concept for developing solar systems to sell electricity to large-scale…

The Three Mile Island Nuclear Disaster bears similarity to nuclear “events” which continue to be frequently reported by the US NRC. Thus, it must unfortunately remain “news”.

Why is page 32 black? Will this blacked out page of the US President’s Three Mile Island Report be declassified? Or has it been declassified elsewhere? What is hidden?

Note that one curie is 37 billion Becquerels. One Becquerel is one radioactive disintegration per second, that is 60 per minute. These are effectively random shots to your cells. Improperly repaired damage may lead to cancer or other genetic mutations, some of which may be transmitted to future generations. They keep discovering that ionizing radiation is worse than often admitted. For those who missed it: https://miningawareness.wordpress.com/2015/12/19/another-look-at-the-recent-low-dose-radiation-exposure-study-inworks/ This recent government funded study suggests that risk is around 15 times worse than BEIR VII (2007) thought, and maybe higher.

Nonetheless, already in 1950, William Russell of…

By Roger Witherspoon

          For the past decade, Entergy and supporters have proclaimed that its twin Indian Point reactors are all that keeps the trains running, the street lights on and school buildings operating throughout New York City and neighboring Westchester County.

Entergy, which actually provides about 5 percent of the electricity used in the area, can get away with its misleading advertising for only one more year.  The New York Power Authority, which provides all of the 1,900 megawatts of  electricity used to run the subways, power the street lights, schools, municipal buildings, public housing, LaGuardia and Westchester County airports, is ending its relationship with Indian Point and will get its electricity elsewhere.

After Sept 28, 2013, “we will not be extending the Entergy Contract,” said Paul DiMichelle, NYPA spokesman. “If the contract expired tomorrow we would walk away and purchase the power elsewhere because there is an…

Sellafield Nuclear Facility, in the UK, has its own gas-fired power station! While this appears mostly for “reprocessing” as well as the cooling of “spent” nuclear fuel (i.e. nuclear waste), operating nuclear reactors are also dependent upon outside sources of power. Thus, the need of nuclear power stations to be connected to the electrical grid.

This dependence upon other sources of power is one of the most bizarre aspects of nuclear power. In the event of electrical grid failures, nuclear cooling systems can be powered with backup generators, which sometimes fail to start up and require diesel fuel to run. This is a major achilles heel of nuclear power.

As explained by the US NRC: “The reactor’s core contains fuel assemblies that are cooled by water circulated using electrically powered pumps. These pumps and other operating systems in the plant receive their power from the electrical grid. If offsite…

NREL Press Release:
“Renewable Fuels from Algae Boosted by NREL Refinery Process
February 9, 2016

A new biorefinery process developed by scientists at the Energy Department’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) has proven to be significantly more effective at producing ethanol from algae than previous research.

The process, dubbed Combined Algal Processing (CAP), is detailed in a new paper by NREL’s Tao Dong, Eric Knoshaug, Ryan Davis, Lieve Laurens, Stefanie Van Wychen, Philip Pienkos, and Nick Nagle. The paper, “Combined algal processing: A novel integrated biorefinery process to product algal biofuels and bioproducts,”appears in the journal Algal Research.”

http://ac.els-cdn.com/S2211926415301351/1-s2.0-S2211926415301351-main.pdf?_tid=132e6666-d003-11e5-8071-00000aacb360&acdnat=1455114913_6faf0e371b629a94e9dfadd6c0a7cd47

“The research follows work previously done at NREL and published in 2014 in The Royal Society of Chemistry’s journal Green Chemistry. In that work, scientists examined two promising algal strains, Chlorella and Scenedesmus, to determine their applicability as biofuel and bioproduct producers. They concluded Scenedesmus performed better in this…

Opinion:

¶ SCOTUS Clean Power Decision NOT Just “A Blow To Obama” • The headline on the Los Angeles Times reads “Supreme Court deals blow to Obama by putting his climate change rules on hold.” This is not “Obama’s plan.” It has been drawn up and legalized for the entire country. It is OUR plan. [CleanTechnica]

Coal Fired Power Plant at Sunset

¶ Obama’s clean power plan may be on hold, Coal’s fate is not • The US Supreme Court may have put President Barack Obama’s most aggressive plan to curb power-plant emissions on hold, but that’s not going to save coal from a shrinking market, or stop some states and utilities from moving on their own. [Energy Voice]

Science and Technology:

¶ A new study suggests we don’t actually need to store power from the wind and sun. Because the wind is always blowing somewhere…

In 2012 there was a “Discovery of problems with planned pipework routes during installation of the new nitrogen system tie-ins to the Reactor 3 pressure vessel” at French State owned (EDF) Hunterston B Nuclear Power Station in Scotland. Was this problem ever rectified? All that could be found is the following statement: “the proposed pipe work layout created operational difficulties and EDF NGL decided to complete the connection to the existing system and the tie-ins were duly installed, but postpone full installation pending a new layout design following a return to service.” (UK Office for Nuclear Regulation – see more below). Also, could it be rectified without total reconstruction of this old nuclear power station?

On 3 December 1977 The Times reported that seawater had entered the reactor through a modification of the secondary cooling system. Was the bypass ever repaired? (See more below.)

These photos…