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China and UK to work together on promoting the nuclear industry to universities etc

Energy Live News 29th June 2018 , China’s largest nuclear power producer has signed a Memorandum of
Understanding (MOU) with the UK Nuclear Advanced Manufacturing Research
Centre (Nuclear AMRC) to help deepen its links with Britain’s supply
chain.

CGN, the developer of the Bradwell B project, hopes to develop its
expertise and knowledge, as well as improve commercial and academic
connections. The wide-ranging deal includes working out how UK businesses
and universities can prepare themselves to participate in the project and
how these organisations can add value to CGN’s nuclear operations in
China and elsewhere.
https://www.energylivenews.com/2018/06/29/cgn-signs-mou-to-deepen-links-with-uks-nuclear-supply-chain/

July 2, 2018 Posted by | China, Education, UK | Leave a comment

Plan to save nuclear reservoir at Winfirth from “collapse”

Dorset Echo, Richard Percival, 1 July 18 

A NEW scheme has been launched to prevent a concrete reservoir at a nuclear site with the capacity to hold a million gallons of water from collapse.

Blacknoll Hill underground reservoir is set to be decommissioned under new proposals which have been submitted to Purbeck District Council by Magnox.

The project is one of the biggest steps as part of the ongoing decommissioning of the former Winfrith nuclear power station by Magnox Ltd, who currently manages the western half of the former power station site on behalf of the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority

The Blacknoll reservoir consists of a 126ft by 96ft reinforced concrete tank sunk approximately 17ft below the surface near to the top of Blacknoll Hill with the roof of the reservoir being supported by 28 steel reinforced columns and an internal wall running along its length.

Its purpose when it was built in 1960 was as a source of softened water supply for site operations and as a source of water in the event emergency cooling was required at one of the reactor plants throughout Winfrith operations.

In a planning document by Hayrock on behalf of Magnox, said: “Structurally, the reservoir is in good condition; however, deterioration could lead to the eventual collapse of the structure if it was abandoned.”

The decommissioning will consist of a number of steps with each completed before the next step commences………http://www.dorsetecho.co.uk/news/16323812.plan-save-nuclear-reservoir-at-winfirth-from-collapse/

July 2, 2018 Posted by | UK, wastes | Leave a comment

  AQ Khan: Nuclear hero to Pakistan, villain to West.

 THE EXPRESS TRIBUNEBy AFP, June 30, 2018 ISLAMABAD: 
Pakistani atomic scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan is hailed as a national hero for transforming his country into the world’s first Islamic nuclear power but regarded by the West as a dangerous renegade responsible for smuggling technology to rogue states.

Revered as the father of Pakistan’s nuclear bomb, Khan was lauded for bringing the nation up to par with arch-rival India in the atomic field and making its defences “impregnable”.

But he found himself in the crosshairs of controversy when he was accused of illegally proliferating nuclear technology to Iran, Libya and North Korea.

Khan was placed under effective house arrest in the capital Islamabad in 2004 after he admitted running a proliferation network to the three countries. ……. A court ended his house arrest in February 2009, but Khan has to inform authorities of his movements in advance, even within Islamabad, with security accompanying him on his every step. …. https://tribune.com.pk/story/1746448/3-q-khan-nuclear-hero-pakistan-villain-west/

July 2, 2018 Posted by | Pakistan, safety | Leave a comment

Germany’s biggest utility E.ON to merge with its biggest competitor RWE

Energy Post 26th June 2018 , It came as a great surprise to me some weeks back that Germany’s biggest
utility E.ON reached an “agreement in principle” with its biggest
competitor RWE to acquire its grid and retail business Innogy via a
wide-ranging “exchange of assets,” including RWE taking over the
renewables and other power generation businesses of E.ON.

The result, if the various competition authorities and regulators allow the deal to take
place, will be the biggest European grid company and energy retailer in the
form of E.ON, with RWE becoming the second biggest power generator in
Europe and third biggest owner of renewable assets. In addition, as part of
the deal, RWE will keep a minority stake in E.ON which ties the companies
together.
http://energypost.eu/trying-to-make-sense-of-the-rwe-eon-utility-deal/

July 2, 2018 Posted by | business and costs, ENERGY, Germany | Leave a comment

Costs of UK’s Nuclear Decommissioning Authority: call for submissions by July 10

Public Accounts Committee 29th June 2018 , A new report by the National Audit Office into the NDA found that work at
Sellafield accounted for 61% of the NDA’s total £3.3 billion expenditure
in 2017–18. 8 of NDA’s 10 most hazardous sites are at Sellafield,
whilst NAO expected current major projects at Sellafield will cost £6
billion total.

The NAO found that the NDA had made significant progress in
reducing delays and meeting significant milestones, but expects major NDA
projects to cost more than originally estimated in 2015.

Evaluating performance at Sellafield remained difficult due to the complexity and
scale of the site, but more could be done to explain progress, and to
provide assurance of major projects. The Committee will take evidence from
the Department of Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, the Nuclear
Decommissioning Authority, and Sellafield to explore NDA and Sellafield’s
progress and performance. If you wish to submit written evidence to this
inquiry, the deadline to do so is midday on Tuesday 10 July.
https://www.parliament.uk/business/committees/committees-a-z/commons-select/public-accounts-committee/inquiries/parliament-2017/nuclear-decommissioning-authority-17-19/

July 2, 2018 Posted by | UK, wastes | Leave a comment

Questions on whether Saudi Arabia plans for nuclear weapons

Analysis: Israeli regime backs Saudi nuclear ambitions: Tactic or Strategy?, July 1, 2018 – (AhlulBayt News Agency) – On Tuesday, the Israeli Energy Minister Yuval Steinitz said that Tel Aviv will support Saudi Arabia’s entry to the club of nuclear states if Riyadh signs the treaty preventing nuclear weapons proliferation, NPT.

Steinitz, addressing World Gas Conference in Washington, said that the Israeli regime supports the development of nuclear power in the Arab kingdom if it includes the gold standard protections and if the kingdom purchases uranium from the US.

The remarks on the Saudi nuclear ambitions on the one hand signal the sensitivity and significance of a nuclear Saudi Arabia in the Israeli security strategy and on the other hand carry hallmarks of an eased tone of Tel Aviv on Riyadh’s nuclear ambitions after the Arab monarchy showed a will to support Arab-Israeli diplomatic normalization efforts. Saudis are winning the Israeli positive stance as they are deeply engaged in an endeavor to pave the way for the “deal of the century” on al-Quds (Jerusalem) through putting strains on the Palestinians to bow.

The oil-rich Arab monarchy has designed ambitious plans to develop the nuclear energy as part of a futuristic roadmap. A royal decree issued in 2010 by then-King Abdullah led to setting up a nuclear power and renewable energies research center, dubbed (KA-Care), in the capital Riyadh. The facility was meant to suggest solutions to address energy and water needs of the country in the future. A year later, the center announced the kingdom aims to build 16 nuclear reactors to produce about 20 percent of its electricity by 2032.

The nuclear roadmap resulted in nuclear cooperation agreements with a series of nuclear technology holders, including France, Argentina, South Korea, and Kazakhstan. According to the deals, Saudi Arabia will see its nuclear industry fully operational and production-ready by 2040. In June 2017, Prince Mohammed bin Salman replaced Prince Mohammad bin Nayef as crown prince. The young crown prince very soon started his motion to get the US green light and technology allowing the Saudis to enrich the uranium on their soil. Media reports suggested that nuclear cycle acquisition was a top case in the prince’s negotiations with the American officials during his March visit to the US.

Despite the Saudi show of desire to become a nuclear state, some factors affect the nuclear technology acquisition possibility: The argument on the type of nuclear power use, Tel Aviv’s role-playing in this course, and the Israeli insistence on keeping its military superiority in the region through nuclear weapons monopoly.

Now a question presents itself: Is the Israeli compromise to the Saudi nuclear ambitions a fruit of Prince Mohammed-led pro-normalization policy, concession to the Israelis, and turning a blind eye to US embassy relocation to al-Quds at the price of the Palestinian cause?

…….. Another reason for Saudi Arabia to move towards developing nuclear arms is its military weakness and vulnerability caused by its geopolitical position. With its 2.15 million square kilometers of area size, Saudi Arabia is a big country. The capital is in the center, but the income sources and facilities, like oil facilities, are located on the Persian Gulf and the Red Sea coasts, hence being an easy target for military action from air and sea. The failure to win a war waged against Yemen in 2015 after three years has exhibited the Saudi military weakness.

But Saudi nuclear ambitions are unlikely to materialize despite Riyadh’s compliance with the Western and Israeli interests in the Palestinian dispute. An unclear Saudi future caused by the fragility of the Al Saud family rule prevents a US go-ahead to nuclear technology acquisition.http://en.abna24.com/news/comment/analysis-israeli-regime-backs-saudi-nuclear-ambitions-tactic-or-strategy_899893.html

July 2, 2018 Posted by | Saudi Arabia, weapons and war | Leave a comment

In France a captured Islamic State jihadist talks of a terrorist plot to attack a nuclear power plant.

Breitbart 30th June 2018 ,Captured Islamic State jihadist Jonathan Geffroy has made even more
startling revelations, claiming terrorists buried multiple Kalashnikov
rifles around the city of Toulouse, France and plotted to attack a nuclear
power plant.
https://www.breitbart.com/london/2018/06/30/captured-french-islamic-state-fighter-reveals-buried-kalashnikovs-plot-to-attack-nuclear-power-plant/

July 2, 2018 Posted by | France, safety | Leave a comment

Vermont Yankee nuclear power station water cost: $6M and counting

Vermont Yankee water cost: $6M and counting, VT Digger, By Mike FaherJul 1 2018,  

More than half of that amount – about $3.5 million – has gone to a disposal company that’s hauling the tainted water out of state. The total also includes nearly $2 million that Entergy has invested to slow the rate of groundwater leaching into the Vernon nuclear plant’s turbine building.……https://vtdigger.org/2018/07/01/vermont-yankee-water-cost-6m-counting/

July 2, 2018 Posted by | business and costs, USA | Leave a comment

Nuclear energy on the decline, especially in developed countries

Modern Diplomacy 29th June 2018 ,For more than 40 years, nuclear energy has been an important contributor in
several countries to energy security and a key source of zero-emissions
generation.

But the future of nuclear energy is facing growing challenges,
increased competition with renewables and gas and, in some cases, public
opposition. With the aim of identifying the key issues and exploring the
future of nuclear power, the International Energy Agency (IEA) held a
high-level meeting in Paris yesterday titled “Nuclear Energy: Today and
Tomorrow.”

The sessions highlighted how, under current policy frameworks,
and with limited investment in new plants, the contribution of nuclear to
the power mix in mature markets is set to decline significantly. Most new
construction is in Asia, with China and India accounting for over half of
the new reactors under construction. In IEA’s World Energy Outlook New
Policies Scenario, nuclear power production grows with two countries, China
and India, responsible for over 90 percent of net growth to 2040.

By contrast, outside of Japan, nuclear power generation in developed economies
is set to decline 20 percent by 2040. The meeting also heard about new
initiatives to advance innovative nuclear power technologies, including
those that can address better the need for greater power systems
flexibility, spurred by the rise of generation from variable renewables.
https://moderndiplomacy.eu/2018/06/29/iea-holds-high-level-meeting-on-the-future-of-nuclear-power/

July 2, 2018 Posted by | 2 WORLD, business and costs | Leave a comment

James Hansen – a prophet on climate change, but a crank on nuclear power

James Hansen and the whale, a tragi-comedy in four chapters, The Reality Based Community,  By James Wimberley

“………..[James Hansen]  he said :      
Nuclear, especially next-generation nuclear, has tremendous potential to be part of the solution to climate change. The dangers of fossil fuels are staring us in the face. So for us to say we won’t use all the tools [such as nuclear energy] to solve the problem is crazy.

At this stage, the position is harmless crankiness. Nuclear reactors, with their negative learning curve, regular delays, uncertainty, and long-tail risks drove off almost all private investors decades ago. There is no good reason to think new nuclear is essential or even useful to the energy transition. “Next-generation nuclear” doesn’t exist. The economics of the nuclear reactors that can be built, poor as they are, depend on use as “baseload”, a concept that cheap but variable wind and solar as primary generators have rendered obsolete. What these need is flexible despatchable backup, which can be supplied far more cheaply by storage, gas turbines, more trade (eg with Quebec or Norway), or paid-for demand response. On energy blogs like MIT Technology Review or GTM you can find a vociferous band of loyal pro-nuclear commentators, but they do not represent anybody with power or money. …..
Another group of prophets deserves to be honoured. ……… I cited earlier the fall in the cost of renewables as one key element in making possible the Paris Agreement and the energy transition it requires. This did not happen by accident or the magic of the free market. The slope of the learning curves of technologies like wind and solar power and batteries may be exogenous. But it’s a relationship between cost and volume, and depends on growth in volume and an appropriate level of R&D. Until wind and solar broke through cost parity with coal, oil and gas a few years ago, progress down the leaning curve depended on subsidised deployment and research. Car batteries are not quite there yet.

These crucial policy and technical developments were the fruit of a fairly small number of enterprising, determined and lucky individuals. They included:

  • Researchers on solar: Becquerel, Willoughby Smith, Fritts, Einstein, Czochralski, the Bell Labs team of Chapin, Fuller, and Pearson. On wind: Poul La Cour and Johannes Juul in Denmark. On batteries: John Goodenough, who coming up to his 96th birthday still unprized in Stockholm, has just announced a research breakthrough on a high-density solid-state lithium battery.
  • Politicians and bureaucrats: NASA in the 1960s, MITI in the 1970s; Hans-Josef Fell and Hermann Scheer, leaders of the Energiewende in Germany and instigators of the 2000 Renewable Energy Act (EEG); Jerry Brown of California; Barack Obama (through targeted ARRA funding and the bilateral deal with China that made Paris possible).
  • Businessmen: Tokuji Hayakawa of Sharp in Japan; Elon Musk of Tesla; Wang Chuanfu of BYD.

This is an incomplete list, and no doubt unfair from my lack of knowledge. But it is near-certain that without these 18, and the then leaders of MITI and NASA, renewable energy and electric transport would not be where they are today.

The challenge also induced a lot of effort on enhanced geothermal, wave energy, OTEC, power kites, fuel cell cars, and other ideas that have not so far panned out. Nobody knows in advance which ideas will work out, and the failures also deserve their share of praise….. http://www.samefacts.com/2018/07/everything-else/james-hansen-and-the-whale-a-tragi-comedy-in-four-chapters/

July 2, 2018 Posted by | spinbuster, USA | Leave a comment

TEPCO aims to build more Fukushima-type nuclear reactors, vows to ‘excel in safety’ this time

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Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant
1 Jul, 2018
TEPCO is conducting an independent geological survey to confirm the absence of active faults in Aomori Prefecture, where it wants to resume the construction of a Fukushima-type nuclear plant, frozen following the 2011 disaster.
“It’s necessary to form a consortium for building a nuclear plant that is excellent in safety, technology and economy,” TEPCO President Tomoaki Kobayakawa said in Tokyo, announcing the decision to conduct a survey of the Aomori Prefecture nuclear site.
The Higashidori Nuclear Power Plant hosts two adjoining sites administered by Tohoku Electric Power Company and Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO). While Tohoku Unit 1 began commercial operations in December 2005, TEPCO never got a chance to finish their unit, the construction of which began only in January 2011. All activity at the site has ceased since the March 2011 Fukushima nuclear meltdown.
TEPCO’s survey, scheduled for completion by 2020, will check the fault structure under the site using a two-kilometer-long tunnel, Kobayakawa said on Friday. Previous studies of terrain beneath the area by the Nuclear Regulation Authority (NRA) found the likely presence of multiple active, seismogenic faults. However, both TEPCO and the Tohoku Electric Power Company decided to conduct further ‘independent’ investigations to review the validity of the NRA findings.
The energy company wants to build two reactors at the site and is exploring ways to meet the stricter government regulations introduced following the Fukushima disaster. Higashidori units, however, would still use the same type of boiling-water, light-water reactors that suffered meltdown at the Fukushima plant, Japan Times noted.
“As we restart the (Higashidori) project, I want to make sure that a new plant would excel in safety,” Kobayakawa told a press conference. “The geological survey is a very significant step to move forward on the joint development of Higashidori,” he noted, adding that TEPCO has asked major utility companies in the country to contribute to the construction and operation of the Higashidori plant.
Three of the Fukushima plant’s six reactors were hit by meltdowns in 2011, after a 9.0-magnitude earthquake and subsequent tsunami struck the facility, resulting in the world’s worst nuclear disaster since Chernobyl in 1986.
https://www.rt.com/news/431385-tepco-higashidori-nuclear-plant/

July 1, 2018 Posted by | Japan | , , | Leave a comment

Fuel removal from Fukushima reactor may be delayed

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June 29, 2018
The operator of the damaged Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant says work to remove spent nuclear fuel from a cooling pool at one of its reactors may be delayed.
 
A total of 566 fuel units remain in the cooling pool at the No.3 reactor, which suffered a meltdown in 2011. Tokyo Electric Power Company, or TEPCO, planned to start removing the fuel as early as this autumn, as part of the decommissioning of the nuclear complex.
 
But on Thursday, TEPCO revealed the control board of a crane used in the removal malfunctioned during a test run last month. It blamed a voltage error and said the board will be replaced.
 
The company said the test run may be delayed by one or 2 months, pushing back the start date for fuel removal.
 
TEPCO’s chief decommissioning officer, Akira Ono, says he takes the glitch seriously as it shows key equipment was not handled properly.
 
He says that although safety must come first, his team still aims to stick to the original timetable and start the removal of nuclear fuel by around the middle of the current fiscal year, which ends in March next year.
 

July 1, 2018 Posted by | Fukushima 2018 | , , | Leave a comment

Mayor of Namie, near shuttered Fukushima nuclear plant, dies at 69

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Jun 27, 2018
FUKUSHIMA – Tamotsu Baba, mayor of Namie in Fukushima Prefecture, died at hospital in the city of Fukushima on Wednesday. He was 69.
First elected mayor of Namie in 2007, Baba was in his third term. He submitted his resignation earlier this month due to illness and was set to leave office on Saturday.
Baba spearheaded the town’s efforts to cope with the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami, which badly affected the Tohoku region, and the subsequent nuclear accident at Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings Inc.’s Fukushima No. 1 plant.
Namie is located next to the towns of Okuma and Futaba, home to the disaster-crippled nuclear plant.
At the end of March last year, Baba decided on lifting evacuation advisories for Namie residents, except for areas that were recognized as heavily contaminated.

July 1, 2018 Posted by | Fukushima 2018 | , , | Leave a comment

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