NRC likely to extend licence for Westinghouse nuclear fuel factory, despite its history of spills and leaks
 Nuclear safety regulators take heat for downplaying threat from atomic fuel plant, The State BY SAMMY FRETWELL, 17 Nov 19, Federal nuclear safety regulators drew criticism Thursday night for concluding that an aging atomic fuel plant could operate another 40 years without having much impact on the environment of eastern Richland County.The 50-year-old Westinghouse nuclear fuel factory, located between Interstate 77 and Congaree National Park, has had a recent history of missteps, including spills and leaks that have focused attention on the facility and it’s safety culture.
But as its troubles have surfaced, the company has sought federal permission for a new operating permit. A recent Nuclear Regulatory Commission report said the facility will continue to have leaks if its permit is renewed, yet those problems won’t have much affect on the surrounding landscape. The study said the plant was safe enough to operate if it receives a new 40 year license because pollution will be monitored and cleaned up before it leaves the property. Those speaking at a public hearing Thursday — mostly environmentalists — said they can’t understand why the NRC thinks a plant with a multitude of problems will operate safely for the next four decades. They called on the agency to conduct a more detailed study known as an environmental impact statement. If the NRC does approve a new license, it should be for less than 40 years, those speaking at the meeting said. “There have been releases to the environment, there are ongoing impacts to the environment and there are likely to be future impacts to the environment,’’ Congaree Riverkeeper Bill Stangler said, adding that the NRC has plenty of time to study the matter because the current license doesn’t expire until 2027…… The NRC’s environmental assessment, which was the subject of the meeting, will help the agency decide whether to issue the 40-year license so the plant can continue operating. A twin report that focuses on safety inside the plant is still under way. It also will be considered by the NRC in making a licensing decision, likely in April. ….. Despite its’ economic impact on the Columbia area, Westinghouse has failed to prevent extensive groundwater contamination since opening 50 years ago. Toxins such as nitrate, uranium and Technetium 99 have fouled groundwater, some of which is moving toward the Congaree River…… not everyone was satisfied that the NRC has done its job or comfortable with the agency’s assurances. Tom Clements, a nuclear safety watchdog from Columbia, said the NRC didn’t study the Westinghouse plant thoroughly enough to justify a new license. The agency’s environmental assessment left out key information and downplayed the threat of expected spills and leaks in the future, he said. One issue is the source of Technetium 99, a radioactive pollutant discovered in groundwater, he said. The NRC doesn’t have a clear picture of where the nuclear material is coming from. Clements said Westinghouse should have to operate for one year without major incidents before a license should be granted. The license should be for 10 years, instead of 40, if it needs approval, he said. The Westinghouse plant has had groundwater contamination dating to the 1980s, and through the years, the plant has been cited by the NRC over nuclear safety mistakes. But issues since 2016 have refocused attention on the facility, which is nestled in a wooded, rural area along the Congaree River of eastern Richland County. https://www.thestate.com/news/local/environment/article237369084.html |
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Bulgaria nuclear reactor capacity reduced over generator malfunction
Bulgaria nuclear reactor capacity reduced over generator malfunction, SOFIA (Reuters) 18 Nov 19– Bulgarian nuclear power plant Kozloduy said on Saturday that its 1,000 MW Unit 5 was running at half capacity after one of its main circulation pumps shut down, activating the safety system.
New type of uranium nuclear fuel has safety risks
 Nuclear fuel alternatives after Fukushima have challenges ahead, https://www.manchester.ac.uk/discover/news/nuclear-fuel-alternatives-after-fukushima-have-challenges-ahead/ 15 Nov 19,
Research at The University of Manchester suggests that the preferred candidate fuel to replace uranium oxide in nuclear reactors may need further development before use. Dr Robert Harrison led the research, published in the journal Corrosion Science, with colleagues from the University and the Dalton Nuclear Institute. “Since the 2011 Fukushima accident,” explains Dr Harrison, “there has been an international effort to develop accident tolerant fuels (ATFs), which are uranium-based fuel materials that could better withstand the accident scenario than the current fuel assemblies.” One of these ATFs is a uranium silicon compound, U3Si2. This material conducts heat much better than the traditional uranium oxide fuels, allowing the reactor core to be operated at lower temperatures. In an emergency situation, this buys more time for engineers to bring the reactor under control. However, there are many unknowns about how U3Si2 will behave in the reactor core. “One of these unknowns,” says Dr Harrison, “is how it will behave when exposed to high temperature steam or air, as may happen during manufacturing or a severe accident during reactor operation.” To investigate just how accident tolerant ATFs are, Dr Harrison and his colleagues investigated how Ce3Si2 – a non-radioactive material analogous to U3Si2 – behaved under exposure to high-temperature air. Using advanced electron microscopy techniques, available at The University of Manchester Electron Microscopy Centre (EMC), the researchers were able to study the reaction products after Ce3Si2 was exposed to air at temperatures of up to 750oC. They discovered the material was prone to forming nanometre sized grains of silicon and silicon oxide, as well as cerium oxide. These nano-grains may allow for enhanced corrosion of the fuel material or the escape of radioactive gasses formed during reactor activity. This is because the formation of nano-grains creates more grain boundary areas – interfaces between grains, which provide pathways for corrosive substances or fission gases to migrate along. “Similarly,” adds Dr Harrison, “it would also allow for hazardous gaseous fission products produced during the splitting of uranium (such as xenon gas that would normally be trapped within the material) to diffuse out along these grain boundaries and be released, which would be potentially harmful to the environment.” While Dr Harrison stops short of saying that these ATFs are more unsafe under accident conditions than the current fuels they are looking to replace, he would argue they are currently not any better, and “aren’t as tolerant to accident conditions as once hoped”. Dr Harrison concludes “However, with the new insight developed in this work it will be possible to develop and engineer ATF candidates to better withstand these accident conditions, perhaps by adding other elements, such as aluminium, or manufacturing composite materials to give higher protection of the fuel material”. The full title of the paper is “Atomistic Level Study of Ce3Si2 Oxidation as an Accident Tolerant Nuclear Fuel Surrogate”, and the DOI is 10.1016/j.corsci.2019.108332
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Nuclear tomb: The Runit Dome is chipping and cracking
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Radioactive ‘Tomb’ in Pacific Filled With Nuclear Waste Is Starting to Crack, Science Alert ARIA BENDIX, BUSINESS INSIDER, 12 NOV 2019
In the Marshall Islands, locals have a nickname for the Runit Dome nuclear-waste site: They call it ‘The Tomb’. The sealed pit contains more than 3.1 million cubic feet (87,800 cubic meters) of radioactive waste, which workers buried there as part of efforts to clean hazardous debris left behind after the US military detonated nuclear bombs on the land. From 1977 to 1980, around 4,000 US servicemen were tasked with cleaning up the former nuclear testing site of Enewetak Atoll. They scooped up the contaminated soil, along with other radioactive waste materials such as military equipment, concrete, and scrap metal. It all went into the Runit Dome, which the servicemen then covered with concrete. In total, the crater holds enough radioactive waste to fill 35 Olympic-sized swimming pools. Most of that is irradiated soil carrying plutonium, an isotope that can cause lung cancer if inhaled. But as seas have gotten higher in the area – the water has risen about 7 millimetres per year since 1993 – water has begun to seep into the soil beneath the dome. Unlike the sealed dome on top, the bottom of the pit was never lined with concrete. So now, rising tides threaten to submerge the tomb – or crack it open. The Runit Dome is chipping and crackingPrior to the nuclear tests in the 1940s and 1950s, residents of Enewetak Atoll were exiled from their homes and relocated to nearby islands. Today, only three of the atoll’s 40 islands have been dubbed safe for human habitation. They are currently home to around 650 residents. The island that hosts Runit Dome remains unoccupied. In 2013, the US Department of Energy reported that radioactive materials could be leaking from the dome into the marine environment, but said such an occurrence would “not necessarily lead to any significant change in the radiation dose delivered to the local resident population.” But sea levels around the Marshall Islands are rising. By 2030, they could be between 1.2 and 6.3 inches (3 cm to 16 cm) higher than they are now, resulting in more storm surges and coastal flooding. By 2100, the dome could be submerged in water. Locals fear that mounting damage to the structure could present a new set of health risks. The dome recently began to crack and chip, increasing the odds that strong waves could force the structure open. A disaster like that would send even more radioactive waste into the nearby ocean or lagoon, which could even force locals to leave the island once again. “If it does [crack] open, most of the people here will be no more,” Christina Aningi, a teacher on Enewetak Atoll, told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. “This is like a graveyard for us, waiting for it to happen.”…….https://www.sciencealert.com/a-tomb-in-the-marshall-islands-contains-a-huge-amount-of-radioactive-waste |
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France extends nuclear reactors outage after earthquake
France extends nuclear reactors outage after earthquake, France 24 13 Nov 19, French utility EDF on Tuesday extended outages at three nuclear reactors at its Cruas plant until Nov. 15 following a 5.1 magnitude earthquake in southeast France that forced it to temporarily suspend electricity generation at the site.A sensor at the plant was activated during the earthquake in the region on Monday, requiring the state-controlled utility to carry out further checks for potential damage.
A spokesman for EDF said the outage extension would allow enough time for thorough visual and advanced checks across the plant, including in the nuclear buildings to ascertain that the units could function properly when they restarted.
France’s ASN nuclear safety agency on Monday said it was monitoring the situation and would decide when the reactors could restart.
The outage at the three reactors reduced French power generation by 2,700 megawatts (MW)……https://www.france24.com/en/20191112-france-extends-nuclear-reactors-outage-after-earthquake
Leak shuts down V.C. Summer nuclear plant
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Leak shuts down V.C. Summer nuclear plant, The State , BY SAMMY FRETWELL, NOVEMBER 09, 2019 Dominion Energy has shut down the V.C. Summer nuclear reactor in Fairfield County after the utility found a “small leak’’ in the atomic power plant’s coolant system, a spokeswoman said Saturday afternoon.
Leaking material has not escaped into the environment, the company said. Dominion didn’t have to shut down the reactor, but it chose to do so while it addresses the leak, spokeswoman Rhonda O’Banion said in an email. O’Banion said there is no danger to the public. The utility said plant operators had been monitoring a small leak for several weeks, before finally deciding to shutter the plant so the leak could be fixed. The company declined to say how long the power plant might be shut down, noting that when the unit will “return to service is market sensitive information.’’……https://www.thestate.com/news/local/environment/article237204218.html |
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Decommissioning Fukushima nuclear station – cost-cutting culture is causing mistakes
Nuclear regulator says cost-cutting culture creating mistakes, delays at Fukushima plant, https://mainichi.jp/english/articles/20191107/p2a/00m/0na/025000c
November 8, 2019 (Mainichi Japan) TOKYO –– Decommissioning efforts following the disaster at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station have been hit by delays and a series of mistakes contravening safety rules relating to the operation of nuclear facilities.
In response to the issues, the Nuclear Regulation Authority (NRA) is carrying out a survey into whether operator Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO) has sufficient staffing numbers working on the project, and is seeking to have TEPCO’s board improve its preparations.
According to the secretariat of the NRA, this summer there were errors in the wiring of electrical cables to the No. 5 and 6 reactors, which caused problems when smoke started to emerge from equipment attached to the reactors.
Furthermore, drinking facilities are being continually installed in controlled zones with high levels of radioactivity where they are forbidden from being built, and it has emerged that workers have drunk water from those areas. In October, the NRA identified both incidents as contravening safety regulations.
Elsewhere, the continuation of work to remove spent nuclear fuel from storage pools at the No. 3 reactor has been delayed. NRA Chairman Toyoshi Fuketa said, “It appears the absolute number of such workers (who manage the work at the power station) is insufficient. If small mistakes continue, it creates the danger of leading to big mistakes.”
Ryusuke Kobayashi, head of the Fukushima Daiichi NRA Regional Office, attended a regular meeting of the NRA on Nov. 6. Regarding the situation at the power station, he said, “There’s a strong focus on cost-cutting at the site. It has an atmosphere which makes it difficult to speak out and say there are too few people working there.” At a press conference after the meeting, chairman Fuketa stressed that it was essential for more staff to be secured.
In response to the NRA, a representative at TEPCO said, “It’s believed an easing of vigilance at the site has been one reason (for the mistakes). The number of human errors has stayed at between 100 and 200 each year for the last five years. We want to proceed with a plan to resolve this considering the specific characteristics of the working environment at the site.”
(Japanese original by Yuka Saito and Suzuko Araki, Science & Environment News Department)
Cybersecurity concerns complicate nuclear digital upgrades
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As Dominion, others target 80-year nuclear plants, cybersecurity concerns complicate digital upgrades, Utility Dive , By Matthew Bandyk, Nov. 4, 2019,
At a lab on the campus of Purdue University, researchers are testing something that has never been done before in the U.S. energy industry, but has potentially huge implications for the future of nuclear power. They are attempting to demonstrate how to operate a nuclear reactor with all-digital, network-connected instruments and controls, while, at the same time, mitigating the cybersecurity risk of someone hacking into those digital systems.
Earlier this year, federal regulators granted Purdue University Reactor Number One, a research reactor that has been running since 1962, a license to go entirely digital, eschewing the analog wires and tubes that were state-of-the-art at the start of the atomic age and continue to dominate many of the nuclear power reactor fleet’s most important safety systems. While U.S. nuclear plants have been incorporating digital technology over time, many important systems designed to prevent the release of dangerous radiation are still typically analog. For cybersecurity reasons, the digital controls that do exist have to be “air gapped,” meaning they are physically isolated from outside networks. At Purdue, researchers are using the safety of the laboratory to take the exact opposite approach. The digital controls will have wireless connections that the researchers assume can be hacked so they can test how a digital control room can maintain the safety of the reactor even in the face of a cyber threat. “Can we detect that there was an intrusion and how does that affect the rest of the facility?” Clive Townsend, the reactor’s supervisor, explained to Utility Dive.
Extending nuclear livesThis research comes at a time when the U.S. nuclear industry is seeking to go further than they have before with digitization. The reactor fleet is getting old and, for the most part, not being replaced by new reactors. If nuclear power is going to continue generating anywhere near the more than half of U.S. CO2 emissions-free electricity that it provides now, extending the life of existing nuclear plants is necessary. As a result, the nuclear industry has been stressing the advantages of digital systems for life extension, including the ability to more easily replace digital equipment as it ages compared to analog equipment that may be decades-old and no longer available.
“It is urgent that we get on with this,” Doug True, the chief nuclear officer for the industry trade association the Nuclear Energy Institute (NEI), said at a May briefing on digital instrumentation and control before the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC). “We have plants that are aging, we have plants that are making decisions about moving into subsequent license renewal where digital controls are important.” “By narrowing [the cybersecurity guidance for nuclear plants], you are assuming you know exactly what the adversary is going to do, and that’s a mistake.” Edwin Lyman, Acting Director of the Nuclear Safety Project, The Union of Concerned Scientists: – Last week the NRC approved a key milestone for Florida Power & Light’s application to renew its license for the Turkey Point nuclear plant for another 20 years, potentially allowing Turkey Point to be operate for a total of 80 years, something no U.S. nuclear plant has achieved.
One of the plants right behind Turkey Point in the application process for an 80-year license is Dominion Energy’s Surry Power Station in Virginia, where two reactors started operating in 1972 and 1973, respectively, and without license extensions, will have to retire by 2032 and 2033. “We are evaluating converting several analog systems to digital” at Surry, Dominion spokesman Kenneth Holt told Utility Dive. Those systems include the annunciators — the panels in the control room full of indicators that light up with warning signs about the reactor status — and the equipment that shows the position of control rods within the reactor core.
It is difficult to find replacement parts” for many of the analog systems, Holt said. In some cases, “the manufacturer went out of business 20 years ago.” Cyber challengesStrict rules on cybersecurity, however, pose a challenge to the goal of introducing more digital equipment into a plant. Any digital device or piece of software that the NRC has determined is connected to the systems meant to prevent radiological sabotage undergoes rigorous and continual scanning, updates and other actions to ensure it has not been and cannot be compromised by cybersecurity threats. In addition, any plant employee who has access to this equipment must undergo regular background checks, tests for reliability and trustworthiness and psychological assessments.
There has been some disagreement between the industry and regulators as to which digital equipment should be subjected to the highest level of scrutiny. The NRC’s broad application of its cybersecurity rules has “resulted in reactor licensees having to implement cyber security controls on hundreds to thousands of digital assets, most of which have no direct relationship to radiological sabotage,” like digital indicators on non-safety-related equipment, fax machines, hand-held calibration devices, radios, pagers and calculators NEI wrote in its petition. The group is asking the NRC to narrow its application to only those digital assets that, if compromised in a cyber attack, “would be inimical to the health and safety of the public.”
That change would lead to a “substantial reduction in burden” for plant operators’ use of digital equipment, while “maintaining adequate protection against cyber attacks,” the petition said. But NEI filed that petition in June 2014, kicking off an NRC review that is still ongoing. As reactors continue to age, the NRC is conducting cybersecurity inspections of the country’s nuclear plants. Those inspections will likely be likely wrapped up by the fourth quarter of 2020, according to a recent NRC update.
The NRC’s caution about changing the cybersecurity rules is appropriate, according to Edwin Lyman, the acting director of the Nuclear Safety Project at the Union of Concerned Scientists. In an interview, Lyman said the unpredictability of cybersecurity threats means that regulators should keep the guidance for what equipment is subject to the strongest cybersecurity protections as broad as possible. “By narrowing [the guidance], you are assuming you know exactly what the adversary is going to do, and that’s a mistake,” Lyman said. A piece of equipment that may not initially appear to be directly related to radiological sabotage could become critical if a cyber attack is combined with a physical attack, according to Lyman. For example, a hack of digital communications devices used by plant security could not lead to a radiological accident by itself, but if the devices were hacked while a physical attack threatened the reactor core, security’s ability to respond and prevent the attack could be compromised. …. despite the benefits, some plant operators have found these types of digital upgrades to be difficult to justify due to the upfront cost and the time and effort spent going through the regulatory process to get NRC approval for the changes. ……. NEI officials point out, however, that the test reactor is a tiny fraction of the size of an operating power reactor, so the results of its work with all-digital systems may not always apply to the industry at large. ……. https://www.utilitydive.com/news/as-nuclear-plants-look-to-digitize-controls-and-enhance-performance-cyber/566478/ |
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Senator Elizabeth Warren questions Holtec Exemption from Emergency Planning Requirements at the Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station
 Senator Warren Statement on Holtec Exemption from Emergency Planning Requirements at the Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station, https://www.warren.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/senator-warren-statement-on-holtec-exemption-from-emergency-planning-requirements-at-the-pilgrim-nuclear-power-station 4 Nov 19, Boston, MA – United States Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) released the following statement today following news federal regulators at the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) plan to exempt Holtec International from emergency planning regulations as the firm works to decommission the Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station:
“I’m disappointed to learn Holtec will be exempt from important emergency preparation and planning safeguards as it decommissions the Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station,” said Senator Warren. “The Southeastern Massachusetts community has rightly continued to raise important questions about the plant’s decommissioning and they deserve answers, not more strong-arming.”
In October 2018, Senator Warren raised concerns about safety and lack of public input during Pilgrim’s shutdown last year and raised similar concerns regarding communications with local residents in her statement. In August 2019, she called for community concerns to be addressed before Pilgrim was allowed to change hands from Entergy Nuclear Operations, Inc. to Holtec.
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U.S. Nuclear Plants Vulnerable to Terrorist Drones – NRC says “not our problem”
 NRC Decision Leaves U.S. Nuclear Plants Vulnerable to Terrorist Drones, https://www.ucsusa.org/about/news/nrc-decision-leaves-nuclear-plants-vulnerable-terrorist-drones
WASHINGTON (November 4, 2019)—After a two-year review, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) has declined to require owners of U.S. nuclear power reactors and some nuclear material processing plants to defend against unmanned aerial vehicles, commonly known as drones. As a result, commercial nuclear facilities will remain unprepared to cope with the additional capabilities that these rapidly evolving technologies could provide to terrorist groups seeking to sabotage nuclear reactors or steal weapon materials, according to the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS). The decision was disclosed in an unclassified summary document posted on the NRC’s public document server on October 30.“The NRC’s irresponsible decision ignores the wide spectrum of threats that drones pose to nuclear facilities and is out of step with policies adopted by the Department of Energy and other government agencies,” said physicist Edwin Lyman, acting director of the UCS Nuclear Safety Project. “Congress should demand that the NRC require nuclear facility owners to update their security plans to protect against these emerging threats.”
The NRC requires nuclear power reactor owners to protect their facilities against attacks by terrorists assumed to have a defined set of capabilities known as the “design basis threat.” After the September 11, 2001, attacks on the World Trade Center in New York and the Pentagon outside of Washington, D.C., the NRC considered but ultimately rejected requiring nuclear plants to defend against attacks by jets or other types of aircraft.
The NRC argued that protecting nuclear facilities from aircraft is the responsibility of the Transportation Security Administration and other federal agencies. Rapid advancements in drone technology since then, however, have introduced new ways in which terrorists could use readily available aerial systems to defeat nuclear plant security measures that are designed only to defend against ground-based assaults and vehicles. Drones have been misused to spy on the U.S.-Mexican border, smuggle contraband into prisons, and—most recently—to attack oil processing facilities in Saudi Arabia. Drones are difficult to detect and defeat without specialized equipment.
According to an April 2019 report by the Department of Energy (DOE) inspector general, “the increasing availability and improved capabilities of small [drones] enhances the potential for use in illicit operations, including surveillance, disruption, and weaponization.” The report recommended that the DOE “use the appropriate process to update security controls based on the most recent information available concerning [drone] capabilities.” In response, the agency is revising its design basis threat policy, but the details of its revision—like the original design basis threat policy—are classified. By contrast, the NRC’s own threat assessment resulted a recommendation of no action.
The NRC summary claims that drones would not be able to exploit security vulnerabilities at nuclear reactors or other facilities or provide any surveillance capabilities beyond what potential adversaries are already assumed to have. It is true that small payload drones would not likely to be able to cause major damage by themselves to safety structures and equipment. But there are many ways in which drones could assist ground-based attackers, including delivering more weapons, explosives and other equipment to a nuclear facility’s protected areas than an attacking force could carry. Drones also could create disturbances to confuse plant security forces and disrupt their response, as well as provide real-time aerial surveillance as an attack progresses. “Many companies are developing technologies to protect critical infrastructure from drone attacks through early detection, tracking, and jamming,” said Lyman. “If the NRC were to add drones to the design basis threat, nuclear plant owners would likely to have to purchase such systems. Laws would also have to be changed to allow private facilities to disrupt hostile drone flights. But plant owners are loath to spend more on safety and security at a time when many of their facilities are struggling to compete with cheap natural gas, wind and solar. “The NRC seems more interested in keeping the cost of nuclear plant security low than protecting Americans from terrorist sabotage that could cause a reactor meltdown,” he added. “The agency needs to remember that it works for the public, not the industry it regulates.” |
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Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station to Shrink Emergency Planning Zone
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FEMA and some states dispute the Nuclear Regulatory Commission staff’s premise that “all hazards planning” would be enough to address a nuclear accident. Planning experts recommend the planning zone remain in place. Government Technology Emergency Managdement,
BY CHRISTINE LEGERE, CAPE COD TIMES, HYANNIS, MASS. / NOVEMBER 5, 2019
(TNS) — Despite opposition from the region’s legislators and even the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission has voted to allow the owners of Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station to shrink the plant’s emergency planning zone from the current 10-mile radius down to its own property line. Pilgrim’s reactor ceased operation May 31. The NRC will allow elimination of the zone, which encompasses sections of Plymouth, Kingston, Carver, Marshfield and Duxbury, come April. And with that elimination will come the loss of about $2 million in annual funding for those towns, to be put toward safety training, staffing, equipment and expenses. “The exemption saves Holtec money at the cost of public safety,” Mary Lampert, president of Pilgrim Watch, said. “NRC rationalizes its decision to grant the exemption on a false assumption. They incorrectly claim that the risk of a rapidly occurring offsite radiological release is significantly lower at a nuclear power reactor that has permanently ceased operations and removed fuel from the reactor vessel. Wrong. There is far more radiation in the spent fuel pool than in the reactorcore when Pilgrim is operating.”……. A single NRC member voted against the exemption, citing a number of issues of concern, including increased possibility of an earthquake in the region. The earthquake risks at the Pilgrim site are greater than previously understood, Commissioner Jeff Baran wrote in a statement explaining his vote. In May 2014, as part of the post-Fukushima seismic hazard reevaluation, the NRC published updated ground motion response spectra for Pilgrim, Baran said. “The results revealed the potential for an earthquake at Pilgrim significantly stronger than the safe shutdown earthquake the plant was designed to handle,” Baran wrote. “In fact, the gap between the previously understood seismic risk and the updated seismic risk was larger at Pilgrim than at any other nuclear power plant in the country.” Baran said the Federal Emergency Management Agency, along with several states including Massachusetts, have disputed the NRC staff’s premise that so-called “all hazards planning” would be sufficient to address a spent nuclear fuel accident. “FEMA notes that it is ‘unrealistic’ to ‘scale up non-existent plans’ and that the resulting ‘lack of necessary equipment and shortage of trained emergency personnel could have unfortunate consequences,'” Baran wrote, citing an August letter to the NRC from Michael Casey, director of FEMA’s technical hazards division. …… , emergency planning experts have recommended the planning zone remain in place until all spent fuel on a reactor site is stored in dry casks. About 3,000 radioactive spent fuel rods remain in a massive pool at Pilgrim. U.S. Sen. Edward Markey, D-Mass, blasted the NRC’s decision to exempt Pilgrim from emergency planning requirements……… To date, every nuclear plant in the U.S. that has decommissioned has requested an exemption from the emergency planning requirements, and in every instance the NRC has granted it…….. https://www.govtech.com/em/disaster/-Pilgrim-Nuclear-Power-Station-to-shrink-emergency-planning-zone.html |
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Australia’s bushfire risks – threat to planned 1700 km transport of nuclear wastes
“The Fire Brigade Union contradicted this view stating that everything burns under the right conditions and that an accident, particularly with a fuel tanker, could generate enough heat to burn concrete and steel containers and vaporise the waste. This would transform the waste into a form in which it presents the greatest risk to human health.
“Concrete burns, it spalls, it expands and it explodes. That is what happens to it if it is subject to fire for long enough. You can put it in concrete and you can have steel mesh holding the whole thing together, but when you apply heat, the granules grow and things start spalling, just throwing out bits of itself everywhere until, in the end, that concrete or the integrity of the structure that encases it is broken.
Britain’s Dungeness nuclear reactors -extended outages, since corrosion found in pipes
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Reuters 31st Oct 2019, EDF’s EDF Energy has extended outages at its Dungeness B21 and B22 nuclear reactors in Britain to around the end of January, its website shows. Dungeness B-21 reactor went offline in September 2018 and was scheduled to come back online in November. That outage has now been extended to January 2020.
Dungeness B-22 reactor went offline in August 2018 and was scheduled to come back in December. That has been extended to January 31. EDF Energy is carrying out inspection and repair of steam line pipes which carry steam from the boilers to the turbine. Corrosion was
identified during previous inspections. |
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Beware of secrecy over Russian Nuclear explosion, and of American nuclear dangers
Nuclear Shutdown News chronicles the decline and fall of the nuclear power industry and highlights the efforts of those working to create a nuclear free world.
Last Summer’s “Mysterious” Nuclear Explosion
As this year winds down a nuclear weapons explosion last summer still begs for our attention.
What does this incident, half way around the world in another country, have to do with the nuclear power plants in this country?
Let’s remember though, the “Atoms For Peace” program wherein the federal government encouraged (and heavily subsidized) the development of civilian nuclear reactors to produce electricity. The idea was to try to overshadow the images of the nuclear holocaust in Hiroshima and Nagasaki caused by the US.
So it is far from ironic that the nuclear explosion in question occurred on August 8, the 74th anniversary of Nagasaki’s immolation.
Novaga Gazeta also reported that an anonymous hospital worker said that “traces of Cesium 137 (which remains dangerously radioactive for 300 years) were detected in the emergency room area an hour after the patients were brought in.” Doctors and nurses had only face masks for protection, and nothing but soap solutions to decontaminate the ER.
The nearby city of Serevdinsk’s 183,000 residents were initially told to evacuate because of the radiation released by the explosion, but then the evac order was abruptly canceled. Instead they were told to stay inside and close their windows.
Authorities later claimed the disaster wasn’t as bad as the 1986 nuclear disaster in the Ukraine at Chernobyl in 1986, then ruled by the USSR.
More Fallout
Later in August it emerged that there may have been two nuclear explosions, and that actually seven people had died in the blasts.
The debacle supposedly happened while testing a new type of long range Russian nuclear powered cruise missile. Or, as unnamed US intelligence sources claimed, as reported by CNBC on August 28, it may have occurred while trying to recover one such missile from the bottom of the White Sea.
Post Script Many people are not aware that US nuclear power reactors regularly release radiation into our air and water in order to operate. You may have heard about this at the Three Mile Island plant in 1979 in Pennsylvania (whose remaining reactor just shut down) or the Millstone nuke in my home state of Connecticut.
Although this happens all the time at the nation’s 90-some nuclear plants, the public is usually not informed of these potentially carcinogenic releases. As with nuclear weapons operations, US nuclear power doings are largely carried on in secret.
After all, we wouldn’t want the enemy to find out, would we? Except, all too often, the”enemy” is us!
Sources: Fox News, foxnews.com; Moscow Times, moscowtimes.com; CNBC, cbnbc.com; Nuvaya Gazeta, nugayagazeta.ru.
U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission approves Westinghouse atomic fuel factory despite its leaks and spills
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Leak-plagued nuclear plant gets blessing of federal safety regulators, despite concerns, The State, BY SAMMY FRETWELL, OCTOBER 31, 2019 Despite a five-decade history of leaks and spills at the Westinghouse atomic fuel factory near Columbia, the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission is downplaying the possibility of major environmental damage at the site over the next 40 years.
But in releasing a study of the plant’s impact on the environment, the federal oversight agency drew withering criticism for not considering how past operating practices might foreshadow future factory operations. “The past predicts the future,’’ said Virginia Sanders, an eastern Richland County resident who works with the national Sierra Club. “How could you expect all of a sudden for Westinghouse to start improving their safety standards when over the years, time after time, they have had accidents at the plant?’’ The NRC’s environmental assessment is significant because it will help the agency decide whether to issue a 40-year license so the plant can continue operating. Federal regulators say the plant will have some impact on the environment, but they don’t think the damage will be substantial because many of Westinghouse’s past problems are being addressed. The report said the NRC determined that “there could be noticeable impacts to the soil, surface water and groundwater; however, the impacts will be adequately monitored and mitigated. Therefore, the NRC’s evaluation preliminarily concludes that continued operations for an additional 40 years would not have a significant impact on the environment.’’ Located on Bluff Road between Columbia and Congaree National Park, the Westinghouse fuel factory began to take a toll on the environment not long after opening in 1969, records show. Impacts to the environment date to the early 1970s, when ammonia and fluoride spilled, federal records show. The factory also is blamed for a fish kill in 1980 and for allowing toxic nitrates to seep into groundwater in the 1980s. Problems have continued in recent years, with the discovery since 2016 of radioactive leaks and the buildup of nuclear materials at the fuel factory. In the latter case, the buildup could have caused a burst of radiation near workers. Sanders and Tom Clements, a nuclear safety watchdog from Columbia, said the NRC’s assessment is hard for the agency to justify. “There were already environmental impacts and there will be in the future,’’ Clements said. “They should have not made the determination the license should be extended 40 years because the documentation doesn’t support that.’’ …… Among the leaks examined in the 2019 report was a uranium spill through a hole in the floor of the plant in the summer of 2018, as well as the discovery that leaks had also occurred in 2008 and 2011 but had not been reported by Westinghouse to the NRC. The reporting wasn’t required, but federal officials said Westinghouse should have flagged the problems to the agency. ……. https://www.thestate.com/news/local/environment/article236794528.html |
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