Watchdog group has concerns over nuclear micro-reactor plans
Monday, June 26th 2023, By Nestor Licanto, https://www.kuam.com/story/49121972/watchdog-group-has-concerns-over-nuclear-microreactor-plans
U.S. defense department proposal to use a nuclear micro-reactor as a power backup for the planned missile defense system on Guam is now being considered by Congress.
But a local watchdog group is sounding the alarm over the danger of the largely untested technology.
Leland Bettis of the local think tank and research group, pacific center for island security has been tracking the missile defense system plans for Guam and the potential for a nuclear micro-reactor.
“That’s not been disclosed by the MDA yet but we’ve sorta been tracking this. I think what really drew our attention was over the weekend the Senate Armed Services Committee’s executive summary, their NDAA language includes this piece which asks for a briefing for the Senate about the possibility of placing microreactors in Guam. 109
Bettis acknowledges that nuclear power has proven to be safe, and can provide huge cost savings even for private commercial use. [??]
But he believes a red line is crossed if they become targets in a combat situation.
“Just imagine if these reactors are a principal source of power for some of the measures, and counter-measures that the military is operating they’re certainly gonna be a target,” Bettis said. “That means that the environmental impact is not just about how does the nuclear reactor perform in producing power but how might a micro nuclear reactor perform if it’s targeted and hit.”
An article last year in the “Military Times” mentions Guam as a potential site for the mobile nuclear equipment.
It describes a 40-ton reactor that can fit into three to four 20-foot containers and can provide up to 5 megawatts of power.
The army has been considering the use of mobile nuclear power for years in a program called project pele, ironically named after the Hawaiian goddess of fire and volcanoes.
The benefits as a power source in remote, austere locations is clear, but there are drawbacks in battle situations.
If however that reactor is struck during conflict all the troops that are around that will be affected. So I think the concerns that they had about the use of these particular power devices for military people is magnified ten-fold when you think about the possibility that these might be placed in proximity to a civilian community.
And the military has confirmed that the planned 360-degree missile defense system could have as many as twenty different sites scatttered across the island.
Bettis says we need to know now more than ever, what’s going into each of these sites.
The people that I’ve talked to talk about a micro nuclear reactor and say if it hits you need a set-aside that’s at least a mile. That’s gonna be a very different sort of thing then if you had command and control module in your neighborhood, so I think as a community we need better transparency about what is being planned at all these locations.
IAEA Director General Grossi discusses nuclear safety with Russia’s Director of Rosatom, at Zaporizhzhia, in new consultations
MOSCOW, June 23 https://english.news.cn/20230624/19c5c0119ce24b04a7ab10e6a08f9a0b/c.html — General Director of Russia’s Rosatom State Corporation Alexey Likhachev discussed the current nuclear safety situation around the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant (ZNPP) with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Director-General Rafael Grossi in Russia’s Kaliningrad on Friday.
During the discussion, both delegations addressed issues raised by Grossi at the UN Security Council briefing on May 30, in which the official discussed the security situation at the nuclear facility, Rosatom said in a statement.
Likhachev emphasized that the Russian side “expects the IAEA Secretariat to take specific steps to prevent strikes by the Ukrainian armed forces both on the ZNPP and on the adjacent territory,” it added.
He informed Grossi about the specific measures currently being taken by the Russian side to ensure the nuclear facility’s safe operation, particularly its water supply “after the Kakhovka hydroelectric power plant dam was destroyed by the Ukrainian armed forces,” Rosatom said.
Both sides further discussed the outcomes of Grossi’s visit to the plant on June 15. During his visit, Grossi was able to personally verify whether the plant could continue operating safely, and confirm among other things that the water supply in the cooling pond was sufficient for the safe operation of the facility
Russia asks IAEA to ensure Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant security
Reuters, June 23, 2023 https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/russia-asks-iaea-ensure-zaporizhzhia-nuclear-plant-security-2023-06-23/
June 23 (Reuters) – Russia urged the International Atomic Energy Agency on Friday to ensure Ukraine does not shell the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, saying it was otherwise operating safely.
Alexei Likhachev, chief executive of the Russian state nuclear energy firm Rosatom, made the comments at a meeting with IAEA chief Rafael Grossi in the Russian city of Kaliningrad, Rosatom said in a statement, after Grossi visited the plant last week.
“We expect concrete steps from the IAEA aimed at preventing strikes by the Armed Forces of Ukraine, both on the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant and on adjacent territory and critical infrastructure facilities,” Rosatom quoted its chief as saying in a statement.
The IAEA said this week that the power plant was “grappling with … water-related challenges” after the destruction of the Kakhovka dam emptied the vast reservoir on whose southern bank the plant sits.
It also said the military situation in the area had become increasingly tense as Kyiv began a counteroffensive against the Russian forces that have seized control of swathes of eastern and southern Ukraine.
Moscow and Kyiv have regularly accused each other of shelling Europe’s largest nuclear power station, with its six offline reactors. International efforts to establish a demilitarised zone around it have so far failed.
Ukraine this week accused Russia of planning a “terrorist” attack at the plant involving the release of radiation, while Moscow on Friday detained five people who it said were planning to smuggle radioactive caesium-137 at the request of a Ukrainian buyer in order to stage a nuclear incident.
Reporting by Reuters; Editing by Kevin Liffey
Building nuclear plant would increase costs in the need for guards, police and rescue workers
If a nuclear power plant is to be constructed in Estonia, this would lead to an increased need for rescue workers and police officers, according to an analysis by the Ministry of the Interior on nuclear security and emergency preparedness. This is in addition to the specialists, who would be required to ensure all the necessary procedures are in place to safeguard against any potential risks involved.
Earlier this year, a sub-group on nuclear security and emergency preparedness was established under the Ministry of the Interior. The sub-group’s aim is to prepare an analysis and provide an expert assessment of the situation related nuclear security and emergency preparedness for the final Estonian national nuclear energy report.
Estonian Minister of the Interior Lauri Läänemets (SDE) said, that by the end of the year, the report would make it clear what the cost of a nuclear power plant would be for the country.
“In light of this expert assessment, it has to be said that, given the situation with the state budget, finding the money to build a nuclear power plant seems questionable, to say the least,” said Läänemets.
According to Läänemets, the one-off investment needed to build a nuclear power plant would be just shy of €100 million, with millions of additional euros needed each year to cover maintenance costs.
The minister noted, that unless Estonia’s population protection plans are developed, building a nuclear power plant will not be possible.
The issue of human resources would also become increasingly important. “We need experts and nuclear scientists. We need more police officers and Internal Security Service (Kaitsepolitsei) officers. We need to upgrade the rescue teams, and we need to be able to offer them salaries to match. Building a nuclear power station means hiring more staff within the Ministry of the Interior. A lot of money will also be needed when it comes to internal security,” Läänemets said.
Viola Murd, secretary general for rescue and crisis at the Ministry of the Interior, said that Estonia currently does have an emergency plan in case an accident involving nuclear power plant occurs in a neighboring country.
Murd explained, that the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has regulated practically everything in advance. Therefore, it would be up to Estonia to abide by these rules and regulations. “As far as security risk management and accident prevention are concerned, the Ministry of the Interior’s would not be able to cope with the tasks foreseen today. Above all, these concern human resources and competences, which the agency cannot provide us with. We would need to create them ourselves and that takes time,” Murd said.
“The construction of a nuclear power plant will require the development of top specialists and experts but also staff throughout the program more broadly. This would include the need to ensure security by conducting background checks, the number of which will increase significantly as the program progresses,” added Murd.
There will also be a need to establish an independent national body with the power to assess license applications and make decisions on safety and security issues.
Ministry of the Interior advisor Aigo Allmäe said, that when it comes to security, Estonia’s main responsibility is to protect nuclear material from theft and sabotage. “We have to provide physical protection and control over the material. Physical protection means surveillance and control. The security of personnel also has to be guaranteed,” Allmäe said.
Allmäe stressed, that there are a number of safety aspects that must be considered when designing and constructing a nuclear power plant in order to minimize any potential risk of an accident taking place.
—
“Radioactive” is compelling viewing
New film spotlights women’s experiences with the Three Mile Island nuclear accident
By Karl Grossman
Radioactive: The Women of Three Mile Island is the title of a newly-released documentary feature film directed, written and produced by award-winning filmmaker Heidi Hutner, a professor of environmental humanities at Stony Brook University, a “flagship” school of the State University of New York.
With greatly compelling facts and interviews, she and her also highly talented production team have put together a masterpiece of a documentary film.
It connects the proverbial dots of the 1979 Three Mile Island nuclear plant disaster—doing so brilliantly.
The documentary has already received many film awards and has had a screening in recent months in New York City—winning the “Audience Award for Best Documentary” at the Dances With Films Festival—and Harrisburg, Pennsylvania; Sarasota, Florida; Dubuque, Iowa; Long Island, New York; First Frame International Film Festival in New York City; the Environmental Film Festival in Washington D.C., and is soon the featured film at Kat Kramer’s #SHEROESForChange Film Festival in Los Angeles and the Cinequest Film Festival in San Jose, California, as well as the Uranium Film Festival in Rio de Janeiro in Brazil. And there will be tours across the U.S.
Resident after resident of the area around Three Mile Island is interviewed and tells of widespread cancer that has ensued in the years that have followed the accident—a cancer rate far beyond what would be normal. Accounts shared in the documentary are heartbreaking.
A whistleblower who had worked at the nuclear plant tells Hutner of the deliberate and comprehensive attempt by General Public Utilities, which owned TMI, to cover up the gravity of the accident and its radioactive releases, especially of cancer-causing Iodine-131 and Xenon 133.
An attorney, Lynne Bernabei, involved in litigation in the wake of the accident, says the Three Mile Island “cover-up was one of the biggest cover-ups in history.” Meanwhile, the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission which is “supposed to protect the public” has then and since been just “interested in is promoting the [nuclear] industry. This is corrupt,” says attorney Joanne Doroshow, now a professor at New York Law School and director of the Center for Justice & Democracy. Many examples of this are presented.
The documentary’s focus on women includes women being far more at risk to the effects of radioactivity than men. Mary Olson, a biologist, founder, and director of the Gender & Radiation Impact Project, says in the film that those setting radiation standards in the U.S. from the onset of nuclear technology in 1942, based impacts on a “25 to 30 years-old” male “defined as Caucasian.” She said, “It has come to be known as the ‘Reference Man.” However, Olson cites research findings that “radiation is 10 times more harmful to young females” and “50 percent more harmful to a “comparable female” than it is to “Reference Man” who is “more resistant” to radioactivity than a woman.
There’s the scientist Dr. Aaron Datesman, who is now pursuing a major chromosomal study regarding the impact of the disaster on the health of people in the area and how people have been harmed despite the denials of the nuclear industry. This study is based on his recent ground-breaking work, “Radiological Shot Noise,” in Nature.
And more and more…………………………………………………………………………. more https://beyondnuclearinternational.org/2023/06/18/radioactive-is-compelling-viewing/—
Safety issues for 9 French nuclear reactors make their lifetime extension doubtful
Up to nine French nuclear reactors (9 GW) may not be suitable for lifetime
extensions beyond their 50-year operating stint due to safety issues, said
the country’s ASN nuclear regulator.
The safety body – which would make a
final decision by late 2026 on plans by operator EDF to extend the lives of
as many if the country’s 56 reactors to 60 years or more – was particularly
concerned about certain pipe bends in the primary circuit of five reactors,
it added in a report late on Wednesday.
The reactors were Blayais 3,
Dampierre 4, St Laurent 2, Tricastin 4 (around 900 MW each), and Paluel 2
(1.3 GW). Meanwhile, in southeastern France, the 3.7 GW Cruas nuclear plant
could also be shut down if a fault line was discovered where the unit was
sited, said the ASN. Investigations were underway following an earthquake
that occurred 15km away in November 2019.
Montel News 15th June 2023
https://www.montelnews.com/news/1505270/9-french-reactors-may-not-be-suitable-for-extensions–asn
U.N. nuclear chief visits Ukraine nuke plant after dam explosion, to “help prevent a nuclear accident”
BY PAMELA FALK, JUNE 16, 2023 CBS NEWS
United Nations — The head of the United Nations’ nuclear watchdog agency made his third trip to Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant, Europe’s largest atomic power station, this week in a bid to “prevent a nuclear accident.” Ukraine accused Russia of blowing up the Kakhovka Dam, which Russian forces had occupied for months, a week and a half ago, threatening the vital cooling water supply to the sprawling nuclear plant………………
International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi completed his latest visit to Zaporizhzhia Thursday and was expected to issue a full report on the safety of the facility in the coming days.
“We believe that we have gathered a good amount of information for an assessment of the situation and we will continue permanently monitoring the situation there in order to help prevent a nuclear accident,” Grossi said in one of several videos he posted from the plant.
Russia’s TASS news agency said Grossi was shown fragments of Ukrainian shells allegedly found on the grounds of the plant. Ukraine and Russia have accused each other of endangering the plant with artillery fire for months.
Grossi’s long-standing appeal to the 15-nation U.N. Security Council to establish a safety zone around the nuclear plant has gone unheeded, and he said this week that he did not expect Moscow and Kyiv to sign a document on the site’s security. ……..
He recently presented a new plan of “five principles” to beef up the IAEA presence at the Russian-occupied facility, and a new team of international inspectors was rotated into the mission during his visit this week.
“My visit to Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant is the first after I established the IAEA 5 principles for protecting the plant and avoiding a nuclear accident, which reinforce the essential role of the IAEA Support and Assistance Mission at Zaporizhzhia,” Grossi said.
He said the situation around the plant was “serious” but being “stabilized” after the blast at the dam. ………… https://www.cbsnews.com/news/ukraine-zaporizhzhia-nuclear-power-plant-grossi-iaea-visit-after-kakhovka-dam-explosion/
U.S. Congress caves in to nuclear industry pressure for the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to dumb down standards, and shift fees to tax-payers.
“they want the NRC to dumb down its own standards and just rubber-stamp anything that they put before the agency, no matter how flimsy.”
The industry has long argued that NRC fees are an impediment to innovation……the 2023 Appropriations Act…. allows the NRC to shift certain fees from the applicant to the taxpayer.
US Nuclear Push Brings Regulatory Growing Pains, Energy Intelligence Group ,Jun 16, 2023, Jessica Sondgeroth,
Congressional pressure on the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) has intensified in recent years, with pro-nuclear lawmakers pressuring the independent government regulator to further reduce regulatory review times, update its regulatory philosophy and minimize fees for developers of next-generation reactor vendors and small modular reactors (SMRs). Lawmakers have already passed new laws to this effect, and proposed legislation would increase the agency’s role in nuclear technology exports. All the while, the NRC is struggling to hire new staff with morale low and older staff members retiring.
“We have seen major shifts in NRC’s workload, budget, staff size, hiring, and overall outlook for the future,” Jeff Baran, NRC’s longest-serving commissioner said last month at his third renomination hearing on Capitol Hill. When Baran was first appointed to the NRC’s five-member board in 2014, “there was little talk of new construction beyond Vogtle. There was some interest in small modular reactors, but almost no real discussion of advanced, non-light-water reactors. Today, we are in a very different situation.”
Indeed, Congress is pushing the NRC to lean away from its traditional, more deterministic regulatory model and shift toward an increasingly risk-informed approach to rulemaking that supports applications for advanced reactors, SMRs and new fuel designs. Meanwhile, a suite of new reactor designs are in early pre-application talks with the agency. And thanks to new policies supporting nuclear in the energy transition, owners of existing reactors are incentivized to extend operating lives from 60 to 80 years rather than retire. All of this means that the NRC’s “overall workload is increasing,” Baran said.
But so too is the pressure on the agency to further minimize the regulatory burden on new reactor vendors and developers, and not all of these changes are being welcomed. “I think it is outrageous that the nuclear industry continues to scapegoat the NRC for its own failures and incompetence,” Union of Concerned Scientists Director of Nuclear Power Safety Ed Lyman told Energy Intelligence. “Instead of improving its applications and doing the hard and time-consuming work to provide sufficient technical justification for the safety of experimental, paper reactor designs, they want the NRC to dumb down its own standards and just rubber-stamp anything that they put before the agency, no matter how flimsy.”
Below are only some of the challenges the agency now faces:
- Advanced Reactor Rulemaking The NRC is in the middle of developing a two-part regulatory framework for advanced reactor designs…………. Advanced reactor and SMR vendors are pushing for more flexibility in the rules, citing advancements in computational modeling, but that is still a challenge given the lack of operational data and staff. ……….
- Review Times
- There are now new generic review milestones in place as mandated by the 2019 Nuclear Energy Innovation and Modernization Act. The NRC has shortened review schedules from approximately five years for conventional LWR designs to 30-42 months, depending on the application and design. With pre-application engagement, those timeframes can be shortened even further…………………………….But the industry is pushing for more. Nuclear Energy Institute Senior Policy Director John Kotek told Energy Intelligence last month that another way to trim regulatory reviews is through less rigorous environmental reviews and fewer hearings.
- Fees The industry has long argued that NRC fees are an impediment to innovation. Congress has already alleviated some of this burden on new reactor applicants with $5 million from the 2023 Appropriations Act for the Advanced Nuclear Energy Cost-Share Grant Program. ………….. This allows the NRC to, on a case-by-case basis, shift certain fees from the applicant to the taxpayer………………………………..
- Staffing
- The agency’s 9.6% attrition rate “is well above the average for federal agencies,” with one-third of the NRC’s workforce eligible for retirement,……………………………….
All of this means that the regulator remains under constant pressure to further streamline and minimize review times and limit environmental and safety reviews. Such pressure will only increase with the proposed Advance Act, introduced by a bipartisan group of senators. The bill cleared the Senate Environment & Public Works Committee in a May 31 business meeting by a vote of 16-3, but must still be passed by both the full Senate and the House of Representatives before becoming law. https://www.energyintel.com/00000188-c325-d38d-a58b-df3509750000
UN nuclear chief Rafael Grossi continues to have a bet each way on nuclear power “safety”
UN nuclear chief says situation at Zaporizhzhia plant is ‘serious’ but it can operate safely for ‘some time’
Guardian, 16 June 23
Rafael Grossi visited the Russian-controlled plant amid concerns for water levels in cooling pools after dam breach
The head of the UN atomic energy agency has said the situation at the Russian-controlled Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant in Ukraine is “serious” and that ensuring water for cooling was a priority of his visit, adding that the station could operate safely for “some time”.
Rafael Grossi, of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), was inspecting the state of Europe’s largest nuclear plant following last week’s breach in the Kakhovka dam downstream on the Dnipro River. He said IAEA inspectors would remain at the site.
“What is essential for the safety of this plant is that the water that you see behind me stays at that level,” Grossi said in two tweets issued from near the station, including next to a pond that supplies water for cooling.
With the water that is here the plant can be kept safe for some time. The plant is going to be working to replenish the water so that safety functions can continue normally.”
Grossi said the visit, his third to the plant in southern Ukraine since Russian forces occupied it in the first days of their February 2022 invasion, had gathered “a good amount of information for an assessment”.
Russia and Ukraine have repeatedly accused each other of shelling near the plant, endangering its safe operation. The station’s six reactors are now in shutdown……………
Grossi was earlier quoted by Russian news agencies as saying the situation at the site was “serious”.
“On the one hand, we can see that the situation is serious, the consequences [of the dam’s destruction] are there, and they are real,” he said.
“At the same time, there are measures that are being taken to stabilise the situation.”
Grossi’s trip was delayed by a day for security reasons amid heavy fighting……………………… https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/jun/16/un-nuclear-chief-says-situation-at-zaporizhzhia-plant-is-serious-but-it-can-operate-safely-for-some-time
Cyberattack Hits US National Lab, Nuclear Waste Site
A contractor at a US national lab and a radioactive waste storage site
managed by the Department of Energy were among the victims of wide-ranging
cyberattack that saw several federal agencies hacked, according to a person
familiar with the matter.
A department spokesperson confirmed Thursday that
records from two of the agency’s “entities were compromised,” though
further details on the extent of the breach couldn’t immediately be
determined. Multiple US agencies were compromised by a hacking campaign in
which attackers exploited flaws in a popular software tool to gather
information from a range of victims.
Bloomberg 15th June 2023
Lawmakers propose shoring up nuclear cyber standards ahead of National Defense Authorization Act markup
NextGov, By Edward Graham, JUNE 16, 2023
The bipartisan proposal, which could be added to the FY2024 defense policy bill, would establish a federal working group to help address gaps in the cyber practices securing the nation’s nuclear weapons stockpile.
A bipartisan trio of lawmakers on the House Armed Services Committee unveiled a measure on Thursday that would address security risks to the nation’s nuclear weapons systems by creating a federal working group to help mitigate previously identified cybersecurity gaps.
The proposal — from Reps. Salud Carbajal, D-Calif., Don Bacon, R-Neb. and Mike Gallagher, R-Wis. — would establish a Cybersecurity, Risk Inventory, Assessment and Mitigation Working Group within the Department of Defense that is tasked with creating “a comprehensive strategy for inventorying the range of National Nuclear Security Administration systems that are potentially at risk in the operational technology and nuclear weapons information technology environments, assessing the systems at risk and implementing risk mitigation actions.”
The lawmakers are looking to include the measure in the 2024 National Defense Authorization Act. The committee’s markup of the must-pass defense policy bill is taking place June 21.
A September 2022 report issued by the Government Accountability Office found that the National Nuclear Security Administration — the federal agency tasked with safeguarding the nation’s nuclear weapons stockpile — failed to fully implement “foundational cybersecurity risk practices” across its systems, including in its “operational technology and nuclear weapons IT environments.”………………………….. https://www.nextgov.com/cybersecurity/2023/06/lawmakers-propose-shoring-nuclear-cyber-standards-ahead-ndaa-markup/387632/—
UN: Ukraine Nuclear Power Plant, Europe’s Largest, Faces ‘Dangerous Situation’
VOA News, KYIV, UKRAINE — 15 June 23
The largest nuclear power plant in Europe faces “a relatively dangerous situation” after a dam burst in Ukraine and as Ukraine’s military launches a counteroffensive to retake ground occupied by Russia, the head of the United Nations nuclear watchdog said Tuesday.
Rafael Mariano Grossi, the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), spoke to journalists in Kyiv just before leaving on a trip to the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant. The plant has been in the crossfire repeatedly since Russia launched its war on Ukraine in February 2022 and seized the facility shortly after………………………………………….
Most reactors in ‘cold shutdown’
Ukraine recently said it hoped to put the last functioning reactor into a cold shutdown. That’s a process in which all control rods are inserted into the reactor core to stop the nuclear fission reaction and generation of heat and pressure. Already, five of the plant’s six reactors are in a cold shutdown.
When asked about Ukraine’s plans, Grossi noted that Russia controlled the plant and that it represented “yet again, another unwanted situation deriving from this anomalous situation.” Ukrainian workers still run the plant, though under an armed Russian military presence. The IAEA has a team at the plant, and Grossi said its members would be swapped out during his trip.
Asked about the Ukrainian counteroffensive, Grossi said he was “very concerned” about the plant potentially getting caught again in open warfare.
“There is active combat. So we are worrying that there could be, I mean, obviously mathematically, the possibilities of a hit,” he said.
Grossi stressed the IAEA hadn’t yet “seen any heavy military equipment” from the Russians at the plant when asked about Ukrainian fears the plant could be wired with explosives………….. https://www.voanews.com/a/un-ukraine-nuclear-power-plant-europe-s-largest-faces-dangerous-situation-/7136326.html
French nuclear watchdog specifies questions for EDF reactor life extensions
June 15, 2023, https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/french-nuclear-watchdog-specifies-questions-edf-reactor-life-extensions-2023-06-14/
PARIS, June 14 (Reuters) – French nuclear operator EDF (EDF.PA) will have to assess several technical challenges during the review period for a lifespan extension to 60 years for its nuclear fleet, watchdog ASN said in a press release on Wednesday.
ASN is asking the French power giant to address the mechanical resistance of certain portions of the main pipes of the primary circuit for several reactors and analyze feedback from an earthquake around the Cruas plant in 2019.
Other factors, such as the expected effects of climate change and the operation of facilities for the different stages of the fuel lifecycle, will also need to be addressed, the press release said.
EDF said the group was currently looking into the questions raised by the watchdog and was confident in its ability to meet the safety conditions necessary for the continued operation of all its reactors past 50 years.
Particular attention is being paid to the four Cruas reactors near a geological fault, and the conclusion may lead to a specific approach for the extension of these reactors, the group said.
The piping components ASN are concerned with are difficult to adjust or fix, as they connect the primary circuit to the reactor vessel, exposing workers to high doses of radiation.
EDF said it was working on automating a mechanical process in case an intervention is needed.
Reporting by Forrest Crellin and Benjamin Mallet; Editing by Mark Porter and Mark Potter
UN concerned by ‘discrepancy’ in Ukraine nuclear plant water levels after dam collapse
. IAEA head Rafael Grossi, who will visit Zaporizhzhia
nuclear plant, says there is a difference of about 2 metres from the
reservoir that cools the plant.
Guardian 12th June 2023
Last reactor at Ukraine’s biggest nuclear power plant shut down for safety
The last operating reactor at Europe’s largest nuclear power plant has
been put into a “cold shutdown” as a safety precaution amid
catastrophic flooding from the collapse of a nearby dam, Ukraine’s
nuclear energy agency said Friday.
NBC 10th June 2023
Metro 10th June 2023
Irish Examiner 10th June 2023
1 This Month
22 June – Virtual Event –Climate Change: New Data, New Debate
Monday, June 22, 2026 2:30 p.m. – 3:15 p.m. CT
YouTube. Register here
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25 June- THE PUKE ON NUKES
Thursday, June 25, 2026
7pm Central Time (8pm ET, 6pm MT, 5pm PT) UTC – 5
From NRC & DOE Deregulation to Techno-Fascist Billionaires Going Nuclear, Plus a Few Songs from Atomic Cabaret REGISTER
26 June – Radiation Trainwreck at the NRC / Join the Protect Better Campaign – https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/4ZlZ5_qLSHGiLSCg8FF6Bg#/registration
Cuba Is Not a Failed State – It Is a Besieged State
PETITION: “Global Appeal to Endorse Palestinian Right of Return of Refugees”
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