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Many years before massive nuclear power station could be built at Bradwell, UK

Maldon Standard 23rd May 2018 , THE site of the new nuclear power station at Bradwell is staggering in
size. Measuring the length of six football pitches, it sits on land near to
the existing station, now being decommissioned. The Standard was given
exclusive access to see how work was progressing at Bradwell B. EDF Energy
and the China General Nuclear Power Group have been carrying out early site
investigations into the site since December. Since then, the company has
been drilling and digging sampling holes and testing the soil. While work
is underway, the project is still very much in the beginning stage. Once
all groundwork is complete proposals for what the new power station could
look like will be drawn up. Then, a huge public consultation will be held,
alongside a generic design assessment, environmental assessment, and
nuclear site licence being sought. In short, we are many years away from
any station being built.
http://www.maldonandburnhamstandard.co.uk/news/16242529.Digging_deep__A_look_into_the_site_for_a_new_nuclear_power_station_in_Bradwell/

May 25, 2018 Posted by | politics, UK | Leave a comment

Tough talk from Trump alienated North Korea

Pessimism mounts ahead of historic Trump-Kim nuclear summit, Analysis by Stephen Collinson, CNN

May 23, 2018  Washington (CNN)President Donald Trump’s spur-of-the-moment decision to agree to a face-to-face meeting with North Korea leader Kim Jong Un represented an unprecedented opportunity, but also a huge risk, most recently highlighted by a case of cold feet on both sides.

Anticipation about the June 12 meeting in Singapore is turning to pessimism, as the complexity of the initiative, the stark divides between Washington and Pyongyang, and inconsistencies in the White House’s approach to the meeting all become clear.
First, the Kim government threatened to pull out, blaming the “repugnance” of national security adviser John Bolton and his nuclear disarmament schemes.
Now Trump has switched from dreaming of Nobel prizes to warning that there is a “very substantial chance” that the meeting will not happen next month.
Trump is also speculating that China’s President Xi Jinping, who he called a “world class poker player” on Tuesday, may be behind Kim’s new hard line.
The atmosphere has soured from the euphoric optimism with which Trump welcomed home three US prisoners from North Korea two weeks ago to doubt and uncertainty.
There seems a good chance that the challenge coins minted by the White House Communications Agency to commemorate the summit may get left on the shelf.
…….Tough talk from Trump and other members of the administration on what will happen to Kim if he doesn’t toe the US line may also risk alienating the North Koreans.
“This will only end like the Libyan model ended if Kim Jong Un doesn’t make a deal,” Vice President Mike Pence told Fox News on Monday.
Michael Green, who served as the top White House East Asia hand in the George W. Bush administration, said such rhetoric could play poorly in Pyongyang.
“The rhetoric matters, and we know the North Koreans are very sensitive and very insecure about any narrative about assassination,” Green told CNN’s Brian Todd……https://edition.cnn.com/2018/05/23/politics/donald-trump-north-korea-summit-stakes/index.html

May 25, 2018 Posted by | general | Leave a comment

Huge corporate subsidy to be given by New Jersey Governor to nuclear industry

New Jersey Governor Plans to Sign Nuclear Bailout Bill, Bloomberg, By Elise Young and Brian Eckhouse

  • Bill seen costing customers more than $300 million a year
  •  
    Exelon, Public Service Enterprise Group own reactors in state

  • New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy plans to sign a bill requiring utility customers to spend more than $300 million a year to rescue struggling nuclear power plants run by Exelon Corp. and Public Service Enterprise Group Inc., according to a person familiar with the matter.

    The legislation, approved in April by the state’s Democratic legislature, aims to keep the state’s three nuclear plants operating, after owners warned the facilities were no longer economic amid lower power prices.

    Murphy, a Democrat who was sworn-in in January, has not said publicly if he supports the measure, which some environmentalists oppose. A schedule released by his office Tuesday said he planned to sign “energy bills” at 11 a.m. Wednesday.

    …….. Exelon and PSEG didn’t immediately comment. A spokesman for the Electric Power Supply Association, which represents independent power producers and has opposed subsidies for coal and nuclear plants, called the move “disconcerting.”“If news reports are true that Governor Murphy will sign the nuclear bailout legislation without seeking amendments, it is a sad day for New Jersey consumers and the future of competition in the state,” John Shelk, president of the Washington-based association, said in an email.

  • ……. The Sierra Club is one of several environmental groups that have criticized the plan, calling it the “biggest corporate subsidy in state history.”https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-05-22/new-jersey-governor-is-said-to-plan-to-sign-nuclear-bailout-bill

May 25, 2018 Posted by | politics, USA | Leave a comment

Nuclear industry’s big gamble on going small – but it mightn’t work!

Small Nuclear Passes a Milestone – But Does it Have a Future?
U.S. regulators for the first time have approved a design for a ‘small modular reactor,’ but it remains to be seen whether going small can save nuclear power.  S. News, By Alan Neuhauser, Staff Writer May 22, 2018  “… the nuclear power industry is betting its future on going small.

Even as cheap natural gas and falling prices for solar, wind and battery storage have all but killed the prospects for expensive new nuclear power projects in much of the developed world – and especially the U.S. – a handful of companies is plunging ahead in an effort to design a small modular reactor promised to offer flexible, carbon-free electricity at a competitive price.

Earlier this month, NuScale Power, based in Oregon, passed a significant milestone, earning Phase 1 approval from U.S. regulators for the design of its nearly $3 billion small modular reactor – an early but crucial step in the development of small nuclear technology.

…….. An operational small modular reactor, however, remains a decade or longer away from becoming concrete-and-steel reality. And in that time, the question remains whether the market for costly new nuclear plants – already a challenge, and all but dead in the U.S. – will become even more challenging in the intervening years as renewable and battery prices continue to fall and U.S. gas production booms.

One major consulting firm, which declined to comment on the record, stated bluntly, “There are doubts in terms of the economic viability of these projects.”

Some environmental groups have also shared that assessment: “Unless a number of optimistic assumptions are realized, SMRs are not likely to be a viable solution to the economic and safety problems faced by nuclear power,” the Union of Concerned Scientists, which is generally skeptical of nuclear power, wrote in 2013.

……. NuScale Chief Commercial Officer Tom Mundy has predicted that the first small modular reactors would cost about $100 per MW-hour and drop to about $90 or lower – roughly the same cost that the U.S. Energy Information Administration has estimated for large-scale advanced nuclear projects, including tax credits. Renewables such as new solar or onshore wind, by contrast, cost about $47 and $37, respectively, while advanced natural gas plants cost about $48……..  some organizations remain skeptical of nuclear’s role in addressing climate change, arguing that the technology – even for small modular reactors – remains too vulnerable to accident or deliberate attack and that solar or wind plus battery storage offer a safer option.

The Union of Concerned Scientists, for example, allows that while smaller reactors are less dangerous than larger ones, such a view can be “misleading, because small reactors generate less power than large ones, and therefore more of them are required to meet the same energy needs. Multiple SMRs may actually present a higher risk than a single large reactor, especially if plant owners try to cut costs by reducing support staff or safety equipment per reactor.” ……https://www.usnews.com/news/national-news/articles/2018-05-22/small-nuclear-passes-a-milestone-but-does-it-have-a-future

May 25, 2018 Posted by | 2 WORLD, Small Modular Nuclear Reactors | Leave a comment

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