In Cumbria 9th March 2018, Nuclear Decommissioning Authority funds have helped two UK businesses
develop a small drone to measure radiation levels in the damaged reactor
building of the Fukushima nuclear power plant in Japan. The lightweight
drone uses lasers to self-navigate deep inside hazardous facilities where
GPS signals cannot reach, and has already been used successfully at
Sellafield.
The drone, called Remote Intelligence Survey Equipment for
Radiation or Riser, carries a sophisticated radiation detection and mapping
system which has been collecting vital information about conditions in the
remaining Windscale Pile chimney. More than 60 years after the 1957 fire,
the chimney remains highly contaminated.
http://www.in-cumbria.com/news/Cumbrian-technology-used-at-Japans-Fukushima-nuclear-power-plant-c5720302-2ca4-4270-854d-99e934c64148-ds
March 9, 2018
Posted by Christina Macpherson |
radiation, UK |
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Bird at left normal, at right – Chernobyl bird with facial cancer
Beyond Nuclear International 4th March 2018, It started with wolves. The packs around the Chernobyl nuclear plant, which exploded on April 26, 1986, were thriving, said reports. Benefitting from the absence of human predators, and seemingly unaffected by the high radiation levels that still persist in the area, the wolves, they claimed, were doing better than ever.
Appearances, however, can be deceptive. Abundant does not necessarily mean healthy. And that is exactly what
evolutionary biologist, Dr. Timothy Mousseau and his team began to find out as, over the years, they traveled to and researched in and around the Chernobyl disaster site in the Ukraine.
Then, when a similar nuclear disaster hit in Japan — with the triple explosions and meltdowns at
Fukushima Daiichi on March 11, 2011 — Mousseau’s team added that region to its research itinerary.
Mousseau has now spent more than 17 years looking at the effects on wildlife and the ecosystem of the 1986 Chernobyl
nuclear disaster. He and his colleagues have also spent the last half dozen years studying how non-human biota is faring in the wake of Fukushima. Ninety articles later, they are able to conclude definitively that animals and plants around Chernobyl and Fukushima are very far indeed from flourishing.
https://beyondnuclearinternational.org/2018/03/04/not-thriving-but-failing/
March 9, 2018
Posted by Christina Macpherson |
environment, Ukraine |
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Energy Voice 8th March 2018, A leading independent nuclear expert has called for increased monitoring of
a Caithness beach after an “alarming” radioactive fragment was found.
Dr John Large, who oversaw the salvage of Russian nuclear sub Kursk in 2000
and advises governments around the world, said the situation was
“serious” and could threaten local communities.
The tiny particle of reprocessed fuel from Dounreay was discovered to contain radioactive
americium. Dr Large said the first recorded presence of the so-called
“daughter of plutonium” in nuclear waste washed up on Sandside beach,
near Reay, was probably discharged into the sea decades ago.
He added: “The trouble is that 20 or 30 or so years later it has turned up on a
beach. If it reaches the surface – which is quite possible given natural
disturbance by the tide etc – and gets dried out it can become airborne,
thus threatening local communities. It is alarming. “Of course it is
serious.
There’s not a lot you can do either – because finding these
particles is a random process, you cannot predict where they are.
“Monitoring needs to be stepped up because there is a real risk these
particles could end up in areas of population.”
A spokeswoman for Dounreay said: ”Addressing the legacy of radioactive particles in the
marine environment around Dounreay is an important part of the site’s
decommissioning programme. The particle monitoring regime for external
beaches has been carried out for many years and is reported on our
website.”
The particle was the 275th to be unearthed on the beach since
the discovery of the first in 1984. Found 18 centimetres under the surface
during a routine sweep on January 11, it has a caesium 137 count of 110,000
bequerels of radioactivity.
If ingested, americium-241 can work its way
into the bones, liver and, in males, the testicles, and remain in the body
for some time. Sand-sized fragments of irradiated nuclear fuel were flushed
into the sea from Dounreay in the 1960s and 1970s. Particles of irradiated
nuclear fuel were first detected on the Dounreay site coastal strip in 1983
and on the beach at Sandside in 1984. Work to recover particles from the
seabed was done between the 1990s and 2012.
https://www.energyvoice.com/other-news/165626/beach-needs-nuclear-monitoring/
March 9, 2018
Posted by Christina Macpherson |
environment, UK |
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Sortir du Nucleaire 7th March 2018, In December 2017, a radioactive leak was detected at the Bugey nuclear
power plant, 35 km from Lyon. Four associations complain and call for the
immediate shutdown of the plant, which combines risks of all kinds.
On December 20, 2017, EDF detected an abnormal concentration of tritium in a
piezometer (tube allowing access to the water table) on the site of the
Bugey nuclear power station. The concentration of this radioactive
substance, which can cause serious damage to the DNA, reached 670
Becquerels per liter.
Larger concentration peaks (up to 1600 Bq / l) were
detected on subsequent days and at other locations on the site. This
presence of tritium in the Rhône water table suggests the release into the
environment of other radioelements and probably chemical elements.
Contaminated water has also certainly reached the Rhône.
http://www.sortirdunucleaire.org/Fuite-radioactive-a-la-centrale-nucleaire-du
March 9, 2018
Posted by Christina Macpherson |
France, incidents |
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https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2018/03/france-police-battle-protesters-nuclear-waste-storage-plans-180304113529227.html
Police used tear gas during clashes with anti-nuclear protesters at a waste site in northeastern France on Saturday. by David Chater 4 Mar 18 Police in France have used tear gas on environmentalists protesting against plans to store nuclear waste near a town in the northeast.
The two groups clashed in a field near the proposed site.
Protesters are upset by plans to place nuclear waste 500 metres below the ground.
Al Jazeera’s David Chater reports from Lorraine.
March 5, 2018
Posted by Christina Macpherson |
France, opposition to nuclear |
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Azer News, 5 Mar 18 On the day of the 26th anniversary of Kazakhstan’s accession to the United Nations, an official ceremony was held at the UN Headquarters for signing the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons by the Republic of Kazakhstan, Kazinform to the Foreign Office’s press service reports.
The agreement was signed by the Permanent Representative of Kazakhstan to the United Nations, Ambassador Kairat Umarov, in accordance with the authority granted to him by Decree, No617 of 9 January 2018, of the President of Kazakhstan Nursultan Nazarbayev.
Kazakhstan had participated actively in the elaboration and adoption of the Treaty, which became the first legally binding document in the history of nuclear disarmament. Its main provisions are in line with the principled position of Kazakhstan, which has taken an ambitious path of becoming a leader in nuclear disarmament and non-proliferation after being a one-time holder of the world’s fourth nuclear arsenal. This was inspired by the historical decisions of President Nursultan Nazarbayev, in particular, on the closure of the second largest nuclear test site and renunciation of the nuclear legacy of the Cold War. Our country’s denuclearization was not an accidental decision, but a well-considered and thoughtful act by a responsible state that had learned the horrors of nuclear tests which have resulted in the suffering with worst possible consequences, subsequently even in the third generation.
Despite the unwillingness of some states, including the leading ones, to pursue disarmament, President of Kazakhstan continues to tirelessly urge the international community to achieve a world free of nuclear weapons……..
As is known, among the three types of WMDs – nuclear, chemical and biological – nuclear weapons are the only ones not prohibited by law. In this regard, the core of the Treaty is Article 1 “Prohibitions”, which contains provisions on the comprehensive ban of nuclear weapons. The Treaty is designed to remove this glaring gap in existing international legal instruments and is the first step towards eliminating nuclear weapons.
The Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons was adopted on 7 July 2017 with the support of 122 UN Member States. It was the outcome of two sessions of a UN Conference to negotiate a legally binding instrument to prohibit nuclear weapons, leading towards their total elimination. The conference took place on March and June-July 2017 in New York. It was open to the participation of all UN member states. However, nine de facto and de jure nuclear weapons possessing states, and their allies boycotted these talks.
To date, the Treaty has been signed by 56 states, five of which have ratified it. Kazakhstan has become the 57th signatory state. The Treaty shall enter into force 90 days after the fiftieth instrument of ratification has been deposited. https://www.azernews.az/region/128206.html
March 5, 2018
Posted by Christina Macpherson |
Kazakhstan, weapons and war |
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Nucnet 1st March 2018, The Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA) completely failed in both the procurement and management of a contract to clean up the UK’s Magnox
nuclear reactor and research sites, a report by the Public Accounts
Committee says.
The report, released on 28 February 2018, says this
disrupted an important component of vital nuclear decommissioning work and
cost the taxpayer upwards of £122m (€137m, $167m). The £6.2bn contract
— one of the largest awarded by the UK government — was to dismantle 12
first-generation Magnox nuclear sites.
It was awarded to Cavendish Fluor Partnership, a joint venture between UK-based Babcock International and
Fluor of the US. The committee, which oversees government expenditure,
said: “The NDA ran an overly complex procurement process, resulting in it
awarding the contract to the wrong bidder, and subsequently settling legal
claims from a losing consortium to the tune of nearly £100m.”
The committee also said the NDA, a public body established in 2004 to oversee
the clean-up of the UK’s nuclear legacy, “drastically
under-estimated” the scale of the work needed to decommission the sites
at the time it let the contract – a failure which ultimately led to the
termination of the Magnox contract nine years early.
The NDA did not have sufficient capability to manage the procurement or the complex process of
resolving differences between what the contractor was told to expect on the
sites and what it actually found, the committee concluded.
The NDA will now have to spend even more effort and money to find a suitable way of managing
these sites after the contract comes to an official end in September 2019,
the committee said. The NDA may have further wasted taxpayers’ money by
paying its previous contractor for work that was not done. The NDA cannot
fully account for £500m of the £2.2bn increase in the cost of the
contract between September 2014 and March 2017. In particular, it does not
know whether the £500m cost increase was due to its incorrect assumptions
about the state of the sites when it let the contract or underperformance
by the previous contractor.
https://www.nucnet.org/all-the-news/2018/03/01/accounts-committee-says-nda-completely-failed-with-6-2-billion-uk-magnox-contract
March 3, 2018
Posted by Christina Macpherson |
business and costs, decommission reactor, politics, UK |
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Guardian 2nd March 2018, The richest households should pay £410 a year more towards supporting
energy subsidies for wind farms, solar rooftops and home insulation
schemes, government-funded researchers have urged.
The UK Energy Research Centre (Ukerc) said that shifting environmental and social levies off
electricity bills and instead loading them on to general taxation would
reduce the cost of energy for more than two thirds of households. The
researchers argued the current approach to funding low-carbon power and
energy efficiency was regressive.
The poorest households spend 10% of their income on heating and keeping the lights on, compared to 3% for the
richest.
The report by Ukerc found that shifting the costs to taxation
would save the poorest 10% of households £102 a year, “a significant
difference for them”. Meanwhile the 10% of the country with the highest
income would pay an extra £410 a year, “a relatively small difference”
for such earners.
The two high income brackets below the richest group
would see rises of between £26 and £102 a year, while the remaining 70%
would see no change or a decrease.
John Barrett, professor of energy and climate policy, who worked on the analysis, said the status quo was hurting
the switch to greener energy. Subsidies for low-carbon power cost
billpayers £5.2bn in 2016-17 but are projected by the Treasury to rise to
£8.6bn in 2024-25 as new wind farms and other projects come online.
Campaigners have said for years that funding green energy subsidies through
energy bills is regressive because the poor are disproportionately
affected, but there has been little political appetite for a change.
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/mar/02/richest-uk-households-should-pay-more-to-fund-clean-energy
March 3, 2018
Posted by Christina Macpherson |
renewable, UK |
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Greenpeace protesters jailed for fireworks stunt at French nuclear plant, The Local Fr.28 Feb 18A French court on Tuesday sentenced two Greenpeace activists to a minimum of two months in jail for breaking into a nuclear power plant and setting off fireworks last year.
Six other protesters were handed five-month suspended sentences for the
October stunt at the plant in Cattenom, near the border with Luxembourg, which was intended to show the facility’s vulnerability to attack……..
Greenpeace said the fireworks were set off at the foot of a spent fuel pool — where nuclear plants store highly radioactive fuel rods that are removed from reactors after their use.
March 3, 2018
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France, opposition to nuclear |
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Japan’s Mitsubishi acquires 5% stake in French nuclear power firm Orano for $306m, Deal Street Asia, Mars Woo February 28, 2018 Tokyo-headquartered Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (MHI) has completed its acquisition of a 5 per cent interest in Orano, a French multinational group specialising in nuclear power and renewable energy, for €250 million ($306 million).
In a statement on Wednesday, MHI said the completion of the investment, which was agreed upon in March 2017, would enhance technological and business cooperation between the two companies and strengthen global value chain for nuclear energy…….
Orano primarily focuses on the fuel cycle business, including uranium mining, enrichment, and conversion and processing of spent fuel. MHI had in 1991, partnered with Areva, now an Orano subsidiary, to form a joint venture in the fuel cycle business for the manufacture and sale of a full range of reprocessing equipment. The company said it aims to play an important role in forging stronger links between the Japanese and French nuclear energy industries, as confirmed by the two countries’ governments in October 2015.
The company said it aims to play an important role in forging stronger links between the Japanese and French nuclear energy industries, as confirmed by the two countries’ governments in October 2015. “By strengthening the relationship between manufacturers in Japan and France, every effort will be made to expand and improve structurally as a comprehensive manufacturer capable of supporting the global nuclear power generation business in all aspects; from production of nuclear fuel to plant design, construction and maintenance, and reprocessing of spent fuel,” MHI said in a statement.
https://www.dealstreetasia.com/stories/japans-mitsubishi-acquires-5-stake-french-nuclear-power-firm-orano-306m-93291/
March 3, 2018
Posted by Christina Macpherson |
business and costs, France, Japan, politics international |
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Putin unveils ‘invincible’ nuclear weapons to counter West , SMH, By Andrew Osborn, 2 March 18 Moscow: President Vladimir Putin unveiled an array of new nuclear weapons on Thursday, in one of his most bellicose speeches in years, saying they could hit almost any point in the world and evade a US-built missile shield.
Putin was speaking ahead of an election on March 18 that polls indicate he should win easily. He said a nuclear attack on any of Moscow’s allies would be regarded as an attack on Russia itself and draw an immediate response.
It was unclear if he had a particular Russian ally, such as Syria, in mind, but his comments looked like a warning to Washington not to use tactical battlefield nuclear weapons.
His remarks were greeted with scepticism in Washington, where officials cast doubt on whether Russia has added any new capabilities to its nuclear arsenal beyond those already known to the US military and intelligence agencies.
……. On Thursday, he sought to back his rhetoric with video clips of what he said were some of the new missiles. The images were projected onto a giant screen behind him at a conference hall in central Moscow where he was addressing Russia’s political elite.
Among weapons that Putin said were either in development or ready was a new intercontinental ballistic missile “with a practically unlimited range” able to attack via the North and South Poles and bypass any missile defence systems.
Putin also spoke of a small nuclear-powered engine that could be fitted to what he said were low-flying, highly manoeuvrable cruise missiles, giving them a practically unlimited range.
The new engine meant Russia was able to make a new type of weapon – nuclear missiles powered by nuclear rather than conventional fuel.
…….. Other new super weapons he listed included underwater nuclear drones, a supersonic weapon and a laser weapon.
…..Putin also voiced concerns about a new US nuclear doctrine, saying Russia’s own doctrine was defensive and only envisaged the use of nuclear weapons in response to an attack.Russia has repeatedly said it is keen to hold talks with the United States about the balance of strategic nuclear power and Putin put Washington and other nuclear powers on notice.
“We will view any use of nuclear weapons against Russia or its allies, be it of small, medium or any force, as a nuclear attack on our country,” he said. https://www.smh.com.au/world/europe/putin-unveils-invincible-nuclear-weapons-to-counter-west-20180302-p4z2fa.html
March 2, 2018
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Russia, weapons and war |
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As Nuclear Giant AREVA Reforms, Framatome Is Resurrected http://www.powermag.com/as-nuclear-giant-areva-reforms-framatome-is-resurrected/03/01/2018 | Sonal Patel a POWER associate editor.
Reforging its core business to return to competitiveness after record losses of €4.83 billion in 2014, French nuclear firm AREVA has split its five operational business units and rebranded them—again. All its assets related to the design and manufacture of nuclear reactors and equipment, fuel design and supply, and services to existing reactors now fall under Framatome, which until January 4 was known as New NP. Operations related to the nuclear fuel cycle will be undertaken by Orano, which until January 23 was known as NewCo.
Creation of the AREVA group itself was an overhaul effort. The company was formed in 2001 with the merger of Framatome, Cogema, a nuclear business of German giant Siemens, and French propulsion and research reactor arm Technicatome. Framatome—short for Franco-Américaine de Constructions Atomiques—was created in 1958 by Schneider, Merlin Gerin, and Westinghouse Electric to exploit the emerging pressurized water reactor (PWR) market.
. By 1975, the company had become the sole manufacturer of nuclear power plants in France, equipping French state-owned utility EDF with 58 PWRs, and gradually taking on more projects overseas, building reactors like South Africa’s Koeberg, South Korea’s Ulchin, and China’s Daya Bay and Ling-Ao. In 1989, Framatome and Siemens created a joint company called Nuclear Power International to develop the EPR, a third-generation reactor that complied with both French and German nuclear regulations. The companies eventually merged in 2001, retiring the Framatome name and giving birth to AREVA.
One of the company’s most prominent contract wins came in 2003 from Finnish utility Teollisuuden Voima Oy (TVO) for construction of the world’s first EPR, Olkiluoto 3, in southern Finland. In 2007, AREVA also signed a contract with EDF for an EPR in Flamanville, France, and separately with Taishan Nuclear Power Co., a joint venture 70% held by China Guangdong Nuclear Power Holding Corp. and 30% by EDF. Two years later, Siemens withdrew its capital in Areva NP—AREVA’s specialized nuclear steam supply system arm—citing a “lack of exercising entrepreneurial influence within the joint venture” as the reason behind the move, and transferred its 34% stake to the AREVA group.
But plagued by delays and cost overruns at Olkiluoto 3 (Figure 3) and Flamanville 3, as well as at a research reactor construction project, and financially hemorrhaging from renewable energy contracts, AREVA’s finances began to fall into disarray, reaching record losses in 2014. In 2015, EDF moved to snap up between 51% and 75% of the troubled nuclear giant’s reactor business, encouraged by the French government’s attempts to address a rivalry between the two majority state-owned companies.
In November 2016, AREVA and EDF signed a contract conferring to EDF exclusive control of a new entity—New NP—that oversaw AREVA’s reactor design and equipment manufacturing, fuel design and assemblies manufacturing, and reactor services. Closure of the sale was completed in December 2017, and EDF became the majority owner (holding 75.5% of shares) of New NP, while Mitsubishi Heavy Industries took on 19.5%, and Paris-based international engineering firm Assystem held 5%.
Then in January 2018, the companies rebranded New NP, reviving the Framatome name in a move to harken to its celebrated legacy. Staffed by 14,000 employees worldwide, Framatome today has an “existing global fleet of some 440 reactors representing output of around 390 GWe in 31 countries, and with new nuclear capacity on its way, the nuclear market presents opportunities in the areas of components, fuel, retrofits and services,” the company noted in January.
The name’s luster has this year already been burnished by two significant developments for the company. On January 25, the French Nuclear Safety Authority (Autorité de Sûreté Nucléaire [ASN]) gave Framatome and EDF the green light to resume manufacture of forgings for the French nuclear fleet at its 2006-purchased Le Creusot site (Figure 4), which was taken offline following the French regulator’s 2015 discovery of an anomaly in the composition in certain zones of the Flamanville EPR pressure vessel head and bottom head. In 2016, a quality audit identified “irregularities” in paperwork on nearly 400 plant components produced at the forge since 1965. Preventative measures ordered by ASN stemming from that debacle in December 2016 shut down more than half of France’s reactor fleet, sending contract prices across Europe soaring.
Also, on January 25, Framatome finalized and launched Enfission, a 50-50 joint venture with Lightbridge Corp., to commercialize the U.S. fuel technology developer’s metallic fuel. Lightbridge says that the “seed-and-blanket” design can safely operate at increased power density compared to standard uranium oxide fuel. For Framatome, which provides next-generation fuel assembly designs to more than 100 of about 260 light water reactors around the world, the partnership will strengthen its position in the global fuel market.
As part of restructuring efforts in June 2016, meanwhile, AREVA also created a separate company focused on the nuclear cycle, which it called, simply, “New Company” (NewCo). On January 23, that company was renamed “Orano.” The name is derived from Ouranos, a Greek god who personifies the heavens and was father of the Titans, and who in Roman mythology became “Uranus.” In 1789, German chemist and mineralogist Martin Heinrich Klaproth named his newly discovered rare metallic element “uranium” for the planet Uranus, which had also been recently found.
For Orano, the name is important because it “symbolizes a new start,” said CEO Philippe Knoche in January. “We have big ambitions for Orano, namely for it to become the leader in the production and recycling of nuclear materials, waste management, and dismantling within the next ten years.” Knoche also said, however, that the company’s name is written in lower case because the prospect of rebuilding a profitable operation will be done “with humility.” For now, the company’s operations will bank on reprocessing and nuclear growth in Asia rather than investing in new mines, owing to low prices of uranium, which have slipped 80% over the last decade as the nuclear sector sees a general slowdown.
March 2, 2018
Posted by Christina Macpherson |
business and costs, France, marketing of nuclear, politics, technology |
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Telegraph 28th Feb 2018, The Government must share the blame for the bungling of a multi-billion
pound nuclear clean-up contract after failing to protect taxpayers from
spiraling costs, MPs have said.
In a damning report the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) accused the Government of being “culpable” in the
collapse of a contract to clean up Britain’s redundant fleet of Magnox
nuclear reactors. The Nuclear Decommissioning Authority’s £6.1bn deal was
aborted almost a year ago after it bungled how the 14 year contract was
awarded to the Cavendish Fluor Partnership (CFP) formed by Babcock and
Fluor.
The botched award led to a two year High Court legal battle which
effectively put taxpayers on the hook to pay £122m in compensation to
companies who bid for the Magnox work but failed to get it. The
committee’s report blamed the NDA for running “an overly complex
procurement process” which ultimately ended nine years early.
The NDA also drastically under-estimated the scale of the work needed to
decommission the sites at the time it awarded the contract, the report
said. The PAC said the debacle had caused “untold reputational damage” to
the NDA, but it added that the Government must share the blame for
approving the authority’s approach. Geoffrey Clifton-Brown, the
committee’s deputy chair, branded the contract “an appalling piece of
mismanagement and financial waste” which had cost the taxpayer over
£122m. The committee has asked the NDA to update MPs within three months
on its investigation into whether it overpaid its previous contractor and,
if so, how it planned to recover money.
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2018/02/28/government-culpable-nuclear-clean-bungle/
March 2, 2018
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politics, secrets,lies and civil liberties, UK |
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Morning Star 28th Feb 2018, CATALOGUE of “appalling” mismanagement costing hundreds of millions of
pounds in taxpayers’ cash has been revealed by an investigation into the
government’s Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA). The NDA handed out
contracts to private firms for the decommissioning of 11 ageing Magnox
nuclear reactors in British power stations, including Sellafield in Cumbria
and Hinkley A in Somerset.
https://www.morningstaronline.co.uk/article/ndas-failings-costing-taxpayers-millions
March 2, 2018
Posted by Christina Macpherson |
secrets,lies and civil liberties, UK |
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Bellona 27th Feb 2018, A Russian official has admitted there were missiles aboard the
Yekaterinburg nuclear submarine when it was ravaged by fire during repair
work at a shipyard near Murmansk in late 2011, reviving a six year old
mystery about what specific dangers faced the Russian public when the
accident occurred.
And while many Russian media rushed to report the
official’s remarks as conclusive proof that the submarine was armed with
nuclear missiles when it was swept by the blaze, it remains unclear whether
they, in fact, had been topped with their warheads at the time the fire
swept through the sub, injuring 19.
http://bellona.org/news/nuclear-issues/2018-02-russian-officials-offhand-remark-about-nuclear-submarine-fire-ignites-fresh-speculation-and-new-denials
March 2, 2018
Posted by Christina Macpherson |
incidents, Russia |
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