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The News That Matters about the Nuclear Industry Fukushima Chernobyl Mayak Three Mile Island Atomic Testing Radiation Isotope

For relicensing nuclear plants, Nuclear Regulatory Commission does not consider costs of spent fuel disposal

Paradoxically, while the NRC allows potential earnings from a re-licensed plant to be considered as a way to cover the costs of plant shut-down, it does not consider the potential for those added years of operation to generate additional spent fuel when calculating the cost of shutting the plant down.

Group seeks to have spent fuel a factor in re-licensing Limerick plant The Mercury By Evan Brandt  07/17/12  LIMERICK — Despite a recent federal court ruling invalidating a rule that would allow storage of radioactive spent nuclear fuel rods at nuclear power plants for 60 years after they’ve closed, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission has no plans to consider the issue when deciding on whether to re-license Exelon Nuclear’s Limerick Generating Station    for an additional 20 years.

The   National Resources Defense Council    disagrees with that position and filed papers July 9 seeking to amend   its challenge to Exelon’s re-licensing  application Continue reading →

July 19, 2012 Posted by | decommission reactor, USA | Leave a comment

Burying dead nuclear reactors – expensive, but lucrative for some!

consultancy Arthur D. Little has put the total costs at no less than €18 billion…..

Dismantling a nuclear plant until it has completely vanished can take several decades, depending on which technique is used.

the process of fully decommissioning a plant can take more than 40 years,

Germany’s pricey nuclear burial, Climate Spectator , 18 Jul 2012, Christoph Steitz and Tom Käckenhoff  “…..by 2014, almost nothing will be left of what once was Germany’s first commercial boiling water reactor. Germany’s decision to shut down all nuclear plants by 2022,
sparked by last year’s Fukushima nuclear disaster in Japan, is a done deal……

… a giant hole in the ground where the reactor vessel used to be. Work to decommission plants mainly includes removing and disposing of contaminated material as well as decommissioning the plants themselves while making sure that no radiation spreads.

Spent fuel from reactors needs to be encased and then transported to safe fuel dumps while cooling towers, often regarded a blight on landscapes, then need demolishing…..

Today, the four operators of nuclear plants in Germany – E.ON, RWE, EnBW and Vattenfall – have made a total of more than €30 billion ($36.7 billion) in provisions for the dismantling of the plants and the disposal of nuclear waste. Continue reading →

July 18, 2012 Posted by | decommission reactor, Germany, Reference | Leave a comment

Expensive and difficult – the nuclear waste storage and security problem

meanwhile the company was paying workers to monitor the fuel and keep the plant safe……
Removal of the fuel is a crucial step in dismantling the plant, a project that could take another seven years.

A nuclear option: After 25 years, Genoa reactor’s waste gets new home There are 333 fuel assemblies  each a 6-by-6 inch bundle of 100 eight-foot metal rods filled with uranium dioxide pellets roughly the size of a pencil eraser  sitting in a storage tank under about 15 feet of water on the top level of the reactor containment building in Genoa. The fuel contains elements including plutonium, cesium and strontium that are radioactive byproducts of nuclear reactions. Though no longer fissile enough to power a plant, they will continue to emit harmful radiation  and some heat  for thousands of years. La Crosse tribune •  By Chris Hubbuch 15 July 12

MUNICIPAL IMPACT Dairyland Power is moving 333 spent nuclear fuel assemblies only 0.4
miles to the south, but the move could have major ramifications for the village of Genoa.

Under Wisconsin law, counties and municipalities hosting nuclear fuel receive $50,000 a year from money set aside by utilities to offset additional costs.

Because Dairyland sits just on the border of the village of Genoa and the town of Genoa, the village gets $40,000 and the town $10,000.

But the dry storage site is fully in the town, which means moving the fuel would cost the village $40,000 — about 30 percent of its annual operating budget. Continue reading →

July 16, 2012 Posted by | USA, wastes | Leave a comment

France’s huge and growing nuclear waste problem

Nuclear waste in France set to double http://www.upi.com/Science News/2012/07/13/Nuclear-waste-in-France-set-to-double/UPI 21671342208921/#ixzz20dUEDe8D  PARIS, July 13 (UPI) –– France’s nuclear waste agency says the amount of such waste in the country will double by 2030, and some of it will remain radioactive for 2 million years.

The current 45 million cubic feet of nuclear waste in France is likely to reach 95 million cubic feet in the next 18 years, a report by Andra, the agency charged with stocking and disposing of nuclear waste, said.

The current amount of waste represents 4 pounds for every person in the country.

With nuclear power the principle source of electricity in France, the Andra report warns of major problems stockpiling waste, Radio France Internationale reported. While only 0.2 percent of current stocks are highly radioactive, some of the material, such as neptunium 237, can remain active for more than 2 million years.

The socialist government of Francois Hollande has resisted pressure from its coalition partners to drastically reduce the nuclear power industry, responsible for 59 percent of all the nuclear waste generated in the country, RFI reported.

July 14, 2012 Posted by | France, Reference, wastes | Leave a comment

A brief history of USA’s nuclear waste (mis)management

In 2010, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission issued a “waste confidence decision” that asserted that used fuel rods could be stored at the power plants for 60 years after they close down.  NRC also asserted that a permanent repository would be ready to handle such wastes “when necessary.”

NUCLEAR WASTE Manila Bulletin By ATTY. ROMEO V. PEFIANCO July 11, 2012,  “…Storing used fuel rods from nuclear power reactors is one problem that remains unsolved by the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission.  Nuclear waste in the US comes from: 1) nuclear weapons production facilities, 2) nuclear power plants, 3) medical equipment previously used in radiation treatments, 4) industrial sources of radioactivity used as a more powerful alternative to X-rays, and 5) residues from uranium mining. Continue reading →

July 12, 2012 Posted by | history, Reference, USA, wastes | Leave a comment

Britain looks at dubious technical “fixes” for its radioactive pile at Sellafield

It is the task of the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA) to clean all this up. The plans are to pay the French company Areva, who have proved their technology works, to build a new mixed oxide fuel (MOX) plant.
The other option is to let the US-Japanese GE-Hitachi build a new fast PRISM reactor on the site to burn the plutonium and produce electricity. This is a more elegant engineering option but the reactor is totally unproven and is decades away from completion.

Sellafield: The dangers of Britain’s nuclear dustbin RT, 10 July, 2012“…….Cold war legacy   Behind the razor wire, security guards and public relations campaigns,
Sellafield is home to some of the most radioactive buildings in Europe.
The UK has the largest stockpile of Plutonium anywhere in the world and it’s all stored at Sellafield. Plutonium is used for the manufacture of nuclear weapons and is extremely radioactive with a half-life of 25,000 years. Continue reading →

July 11, 2012 Posted by | - plutonium, Reference, technology, UK, wastes | Leave a comment

Btitain’s dilemma of its massive stockpile of plutonium at Sellafield

Sellafield is where all storage of radioactive materials and nuclear reprocessing in the UK takes place. It was once at the heart of plutonium manufacturing for the British atomic weapons program. Despite the controversy that surrounds the plant, there are plans to build new reactors at Sellafield. The government has approved initial plans to build a fast PRISM reactor on the site. Most locals are against it. They want the UK government to commission a safety study into Sellafield’s effects on the health of the local population.

A study in the 1980’s found that over ten times the national average of childhood Leukaemia’s occurred near Sellafield. Thirty families tried to take the company who then ran the site to court and lost. “There has never been a proper investigation into the environmental impact of the plant and there should be.”

Sellafield: The dangers of Britain’s nuclear dustbin RT, 10 July, 2012 Britain’s nuclear industry is again the center of controversy. The UK has the biggest stockpile of Plutonium in the world, but there are no definite plans for how to get rid of it – and the delays are costing the UK taxpayer billions.
A record number of radioactive particles have been found on beaches near the Sellafield nuclear plant, in North West England. The authorities who run it admit it’s the most radioactive place in Western Europe but insist it’s safe. Continue reading →

July 11, 2012 Posted by | - plutonium, UK | Leave a comment

Tri-Valley Care fights the good fight to save Livermore valley from plutonium wastes

Tri-Valley CAREs has had many successes throughout the years…. the first group in the western US to receive an EPA grant to monitor the Superfund cleanup at Lawrence Livermore National Lab and the first community-based group in the country to win a recognition award from EPA for its effectiveness

For decades, a toxic groundwater plume has flowed westward from Lawrence Livermore National Lab in the Livermore community aquifer towards Dublin. 


Living with the Legacy of the Nuclear Stockpile Next Door in Livermore, CA http://www.arounddublinblog.com/2012/07/livermore-ca-nuclear-stockpile-next-door/ by Around Dublin Team Tri-Valley CAREs  was founded in 1983 in Livermore, CA by concerned neighbors living around Lawrence Livermore National Lab , one of two locations where all US nuclear weapons are designed. This grassroots organization works to strengthen global security by stopping the development of new nuclear weapons in the US and by promoting the elimination of nuclear weapons globally.

It monitors nuclear weapons and environmental clean-up activities throughout the US nuclear
weapons complex, with a special focus on Lawrence Livermore National Lab and the surrounding Tri-Valley communities. Continue reading →

July 7, 2012 Posted by | - plutonium, opposition to nuclear, Reference, USA | 1 Comment

Nuclear company finds it unaffordable to decommission reactor

Company dismantling Zion nuclear plant under financial stress
http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2012-07-01/business/chi-company-dismantling-zion-nuclear-plant-under-financial-stress-20120630_1_nuclear-plant-nuclear-fuel-chief-financial-officer July 01, 2012|By Julie Wernau |EnergySolutions, the company dismantling Exelon’s Zion nuclear plant, is struggling financially just as it nears the riskiest phase of the project — moving the nuclear fuel into storage casks.

Last month, the company suddenly replaced its chief executive and chief financial officer for the second time in two years, causing its stock to plunge 55 percent and its credit ratings to fall two notches amid a weak earnings forecast. In March, EnergySolutions revealed that
it underestimated by about $100 million the cost to dismantle Zion piece by piece, and ship the material to Utah for disposal The financial problems call the future of the company and the project into question. Though David Lockwood, the new president and chief executive of EnergySolutions said the company intentionally underbid the work to gain publicity that would help it snag similar work around the world.

“We undertook Zion for strategic, not financial reasons,” Lockwood said.

July 2, 2012 Posted by | decommission reactor, Reference, USA | Leave a comment

Malaysian govt insists that Lynas might have to take its radioactive wastes back to Australia

The  Temporary Operating License  will only be issued after Lynas  fulfils two new conditions imposed 

AELB: Lynas committed to returning radioactive waste to AustraliaThe Malaysian Insider By Lisa J. Ariffin June 28, DENGKIL, June 28 — Lynas is committed to return all potentially harmful waste from its rare earths plant here to Australia despite its government’s firm refusal to take it in, Malaysia’s radiation regulator said today.

The Atomic Energy Licensing Board (AELB)  told reporters today the Australian miner would have to send home all residue that could not be turned into commercial products or if a location for a permanent disposal facility (PDF) here could not be determined or approved.

“Lynas will have 10 months to come up with a permanent disposal facility plan for its radioactive residue upon receiving its temporary operating license (TOL),”  said Dr Noor Hasnah Mohamed Khairullah who is special adviser to the AELB director-general.

“If they fail to find a location for the PDF, or if the plan is not approved, then Lynas has to return the residues back to Australia.  Continue reading →

June 29, 2012 Posted by | AUSTRALIA, Malaysia, politics international, Uranium, wastes | Leave a comment

More costs, more delays for cleanup of USA’s most radioactive nuclear waste site

Today, it is the nation’s most contaminated nuclear site, with cleanup expected to last decades.

In March, the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board ruled that the agency lacks necessary information to resolve some problems and establish a complete safety plan.

Hanford waste plant sees new costs, delays USA Today, By Shannon Dininny, 26 June 12, KENNEWICK, Wash. (AP) — A new cost estimate and construction schedule for a massive waste plant being built at the nation’s most contaminated nuclear site will be delayed at least a year as workers try to resolve serious technical problems raised by whistleblowers about design and safety, the U.S. Department of Energy said Tuesday.

The $12.3 billion plant at south-central Washington’s Hanford nuclear reservation is being built to convert highly radioactive waste into a stable glass form for permanent disposal underground.
The plant is currently scheduled to begin operating in 2019, but several workers have raised concerns about safety, particularly about erosion and corrosion in tanks and piping inside the plant.
The issues are significant because the problem areas are inside so-called black cells, which will be closed off and inaccessible due to high radioactivity after the plant begins operating. Continue reading →

June 27, 2012 Posted by | Reference, USA, wastes | Leave a comment

Liu Li-erh calls for a nuclear free Taiwan

we have about 8,000 spent fuel rods stored in the cooling pool at the Guosheng Nuclear Power Plant [in Wanli District (萬里), New Taipei City] and a total of about 16,000 throughout the country

in February France’s Le Monde newspaper warned about the risk from poor management of spent fuel rods at the Guosheng plant.

Many Japanese companies and government offices have saved up to 50 percent on their electricity consumption since the disaster, “so Taiwan can surely do the same to end our reliance on nuclear power

Now is time to go nuclear-free: author, Taipei Times By Lee I-chia  24 June 12, Tokyo-based Taiwanese writer Liu Li-erh (劉黎兒) yesterday in Taipei shared her latest fact-finding from Japan to say that now is the best time to put a halt to nuclear power in Taiwan… Continue reading →

June 25, 2012 Posted by | Taiwan, wastes | Leave a comment

Nuclear reprocessing is not the answer to Japan’s mounting radioactive wastes

The amount of spent fuel stored at power stations has continued to surge, standing at around 14,200 tons across 17 facilities as of last September, including the wrecked Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant.

Japan Nuclear Fuel Ltd.’s storage facilities are already almost full and contained a total of 2,800 tons as of February, while several power stations are expected to reach maximum capacity over the next three years if their currently idled reactors are restarted, industry
sources said.

Policy of recycling all spent nuclear fuel may be axed, Japan Times, 22 June 12,  Kyodo, Jiji The Japan Atomic Energy Commission has proposed both reprocessing and directly disposing of spent nuclear fuel if Japan’s atomic energy reliance is cut to 15 percent, a departure from the current policy of total reprocessing…

.. The changed tack comes as massive amounts of spent fuel are accumulating at nuclear plants nationwide and as decades-long efforts to activate reprocessing facilities remain mired
in technical difficulties, sources said. Continue reading →

June 23, 2012 Posted by | Japan, Reference, reprocessing, wastes | Leave a comment

Concern about “complex” nuclear waste at a former western Pennsylvania nuclear waste dump

Security upped at former Pa. nuclear waste dump, TimesOnline,  Jun 17, 2012. Guards from the federal Department of Homeland Security are patrolling a former western Pennsylvania nuclear waste dump as officials rethink their cleanup plans after finding what they called more “complex” nuclear material than expected.
The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review ( http://bit.ly/LwlpaH) says neither the Army Corps of Engineers, which is managing the cleanup, nor the Nuclear Regulatory Commission would say exactly what material was found at the Armstrong County site….

The dump along Route 66 was used to store nuclear and chemical waste from the former Nuclear Materials and Equipment Corp. in Apollo and Parks townships from about
1960 to the early 1970s. http://www.timesonline.com/news/state/security-upped-at-former-pa-nuclear-waste-dump/article_1e038332-6fd1-5569-aad2-2c9f4d5d1e8e.html

June 18, 2012 Posted by | safety, USA, wastes | Leave a comment

Old Hanford nuclear reactor closed – no plan for permanent disposal

Hanford workers mothball 6th nuclear reactor, Workers at south-central Washington’s Hanford nuclear reservation have finished the process of closing and “cocooning” the longest-running of nine nuclear reactors built there for the U.S. atomic weapons program. Seattle News, By SHANNON DININNY Associated Press YAKIMA, Wash. 14 June 12,  —
Workers at south-central Washington’s Hanford nuclear reservation have finished the process of closing and “cocooning” the longest-running of nine nuclear reactors built there for the U.S. atomic weapons program. Continue reading →

June 15, 2012 Posted by | decommission reactor, USA | Leave a comment

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