Bellona publishes new report on Ukraine’s besieged Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant
It’s something the world nuclear energy community never thought it would see — and thus never prepared for.
June 1, 2023 by Charles Digges https://bellona.org/news/nuclear-issues/2023-06-zaporizhzhia-nuclear-report
For a year and a half, the world has bourn witness to an unprecedented spectacle: the military occupation of a civilian atomic energy station.
The March 2022 seizure by Russian troops of the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant in Southeastern Ukraine has forced six nuclear reactors and pools of spent nuclear fuel onto the front lines of the biggest land war in Europe since World War II.
It’s something the world nuclear energy community never thought it would see — and thus never prepared for. As a result, the world has watched helplessly as heavy ordinance strikes nail-bitingly close to the plant on a regular basis, repeatedly severing outside power to the facility’s cooling and safety systems.
According to Rafael Grossi, who heads the UN’s atomic energy agency —and who has repeatedly beseeched Moscow and Kyiv to create a non-military safe zone around the plant — the situation is a gamble with radioactive stakes.
“We are rolling a dice and if this continues then one day our luck will run out,” he has said more than once.
Unfortunately, the time has come to ponder just what it would look like were that to happen.
This is the subject of a new Bellona report entitled “The Radiation Risks of Seizing the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant.”
In it, we analyze a variety of war-time scenarios that could befall the plant and what the consequences of those might be.
What would happen if any of the plant’s six Soviet-built VVER-1000 nuclear reactors were struck by artillery? Or a missile? What about the spent nuclear fuel storage pools? What if those were struck? Where would the radioactive fallout from any of these events go?
And perhaps, in light of recent events, the most salient danger — what would happen if the plant was unable to maintain outside power to run reactor cooling systems? Would that amount to Fukushima redux?
We also present a number of recommendations that should be followed in order to keep the plant safe while it continues to be hostage to the aggression.
Among them, we urge the Russian and Ukrainians struggling for control of the plant to keep the reactors in shut-down mode, which would greatly reduce the severity of a radiological accident. We also recommend that no nuclear fuel be unloaded, packed for storage or transported. These are complex technical tasks that cannot be undertaken by a hostage workforce while a war rages on around them.
Above all, we urge a Russian withdrawal from the plant and Ukraine as a whole, for it is not until then that anything like safe operation of Europe’s largest nuclear power plant can be restored.
France, Germany Dispute Over Nuclear Energy Leaves EU Deadlocked on Renewables
- Paris wants to win greater role for nuclear in energy revamp
- Disputed law on clean energy is key element of EU Green Deal
Bloomberg ,By Ewa Krukowska, Ania Nussbaum and, Petra Sorge, 3 June 2023
France is seeking to reopen negotiations over a key Green Deal law in an effort to ensure a greater role for nuclear in Europe’s energy transition, a move fiercely opposed by Germany, leaving the talks in deadlock.
The government in Paris has informed Sweden, which holds the EU’s rotating presidency, that it’s seeking changes to an agreement already brokered with other EU entities, according to officials with knowledge of the matter. Such a step would require revisiting talks with the bloc’s parliament and the European Commission ………………………….. (Subscribers only) https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-06-02/eu-in-deadlock-over-renewables-as-france-and-germany-lock-horns#xj4y7vzkg
Warren Report Reveals Vast Pentagon-to-Defense Contractor Lobbying Pipeline
In 2021, there were at least 672 former government officials working for top defense contractors like Lockheed Martin. By Sharon Zhang , TRUTHOUT April 27, 2023 https://truthout.org/articles/warren-report-reveals-vast-pentagon-to-defense-contractor-lobbying-pipeline/?utm_campaign=Truthout+Share+Buttons
Hundreds of former government officials, including former Pentagon officials, have been funneled through the infamous public-to-private revolving door to take their insider government knowledge to lobby for top defense contractors, a new report from the office of Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Massachusetts) reveals.
According to the report released Wednesday, as of 2021, there were at least 672 former officials who were working for the top 20 defense contractors, with the vast majority — 91 percent — in positions lobbying the very government they formerly worked for. Officials who weren’t lobbyists were in top positions as board members or senior executives. The officials include former members of Congress, senior staffers and military officers.
Perhaps not coincidentally, the companies that employed the most former government officials are also the companies who receive the most from the government in contracts. In 2021 and 2022, Lockheed Martin, Boeing, Raytheon, General Dynamics and Pfizer were the top 5 federal defense contractors in the U.S. — and in 2021 also employed among the highest numbers of “revolving door hires” out of the top 20 contractors, the report found, each with dozens of former government employees.
Hiring former government employees is extremely lucrative for the private sector. This is especially true for lobbying firms, who can benefit greatly from the knowledge and connections brought by former government employees, but is also true for many industries; for instance, there is a well-established revolving door between jobs at the Treasury Department and other tax-related agencies and top accounting firms, an issue Warren has previously raised.
Defense contractors are especially able to take advantage of such lobbying, as Congress and the president regularly approve huge sums of money for defense each year —– more than half of that money typically goes straight to contractors, amounting to hundreds of billions of dollars a year. Over the years, this leads to trillions of dollars in profits for defense contractors.
Warren highlighted the dangers of the revolving door in a hearing in the Senate Armed Services Subcommittee on Wednesday.
“Why is it they want to hire former Pentagon employees to work for them as lobbyists?” Warren asked Lawrence B. Wilkerson, chief of staff to George W. Bush’s Secretary of State, Colin Powell. “Why is it better to have someone who, for instance, they could hire people whose profession is lobbying, someone who’s lobbied in another field, say for the last 10 years. But they don’t want that — they’ll take somebody who’s never lobbied before, but who’s been employed at the Pentagon. Why is that?”
Wilkerson responded that the former Pentagon official “knows how to work those contacts” within the government and knows what “lies” to tell to sell the company’s services.
“If it’s specific program like the F-35, for example, which I’m somewhat familiar, then you get people who are very familiar with that on the inside, know all about the lies that you’ve been telling the federal government with regard to the program, and will come out and reinforce those lies, deceit, if you will, from their position with your business,” Wilkerson said. “It’s a very insidious, pernicious thing.”
These issues are compounded by the fact that defense spending is rife with fraud and abuse, as those who support reducing the Pentagon budget point out. Despite receiving the vast majority of federal discretionary spending year over year, the Pentagon is the only federal agency to never have passed an audit.
Scientists heat nuclear reactor heated to 100 MILLION degree Celsius – hotter than the SUN (what could possibly go wrong?)
- British company achieved the milestone using a ‘spherical tokamak’ called ST40
- Nuclear fusion reactors copy the energy-producing process of stars like our sun
By JONATHAN CHADWICK FOR MAILONLINE , 2 June 2023
Described as the ‘holy grail’, the milestone was achieved using the ST40 ‘spherical tokamak’ – a ‘cored-apple’ shaped nuclear device in Oxfordshire – and the team is now working on a fusion reactor that can connect to the national grid in the 2030s.
The milestone is short of the record set by Chinese scientists in 2021, who ran their reactor at 120 million degrees Celsius. ……………………………………………………………………………….
Funded by the UK government, STEP will be located at the existing West Burton power station in Nottinghamshire, it was announced last October……………………………………………………………………………………………………… https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-12147389/Nuclear-fusion-breakthrough-Holy-grail-power-production-closer-reality.html
Andrew Little tells nuclear powers New Zealand’s stance isn’t just ‘wishful thinking’
Thomas Manch in Singapore , 3 June 23 https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/132221789/andrew-little-tells-nuclear-powers-new-zealands-stance-isnt-just-wishful-thinking
Defence Minister Andrew Little has told the nuclear powers that New Zealand’s nuclear-free stance is not “wishful thinking”, and the country will gear up to defend “our free and democratic way of life”.
Little gave a speech on nuclear threats at the Shangri-La Dialogue, a summit held in Singapore, on Friday evening. He told an audience that New Zealand had “clear eyes” about challenges to security and was increasing its military spending.
“Do not confuse my country’s moral clarity with wishful thinking,” he said.
“New Zealanders must be prepared to equip ourselves … to protect our own national security. And we are
“We will stand prepared, and will maintain the military capability necessary to contribute to the rules- based international order and protection of our free and democratic way of life now and in the future.”
Little was part of a panel discussion on nuclear issues that included General Sahir Shamshad Mirza of Pakistan, a nuclear state; Kim Gunn, a South Korean special representative; and Angus Lapsley, assistant secretary general of the nuclear deterrent alliance Nato.
On the sidelines of the summit on Friday, he also met Chinese Defence Minister Li Shangfu, Ukraine’s defence minister Oleksiy Reznikov, Singapore Defence Minister Ng Eng Hen and the East Timor Defence Minister Filomeno da Paixão de Jesus.
Speaking at the panel discussion, Little said a range of regional issues, including “destabilising” actions in the South and East China Seas and “Pacific Rim state” Russia invading of Ukraine, had heightened tensions – and increased nuclear threats.
He said there had been a “false” categorisation of “so-called tactical or battlefield nuclear weapons”. Reuters reported last week that Russia was progressing plans to station such weapons in neighbouring Belarus.
“There are no circumstances in which their use could be morally justified,” he said.
”It is not possible to confine all of the effects of the use of nuclear weapons to a period of kinetic engagement or a zone of conflict.”
Little said there was “no ambiguity” in New Zealand’s position on nuclear weapons, and its nuclear ban would remain, including for nuclear-powered vessels. New Zealand’s only formal defence ally, Australia, is planning to obtain nuclear-powered submarines in the coming decades.
“For small, liberal democracies like New Zealand, we do not get to avoid the real-life effects of geostrategic competition,” Little said.
“Our way of life, including the freedoms we cherish … can never be fully safeguarded from the effects of nuclear conflict in a world that tolerates nuclear weapons.”
The Shangri-La Dialogue is the Asia region’s premier defence summit, attended by defence minister and military leaders from 40 countries. It is hosted by London-based think-tank International Institute for Strategic Studies.
Security and access to the event is tight. Singapore has closed the airspace within 1 kilometre of the Shangri-La hotel, and its special police force of Gurkhas from Nepal are guarding the event. There is no space afforded for media in the rooms where delegates are speaking, except for limited photo and video opportunities.
The headline speakers at the event will be Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, giving the keynote speech late on Friday evening, United States defence secretary Lloyd Austin and China’s defence minister Li, speaking on Saturday and Sunday respectively.
Finland’s newest nuclear plant is warming the sea, harming wildlife
yle 1 June 23
The Olkiluoto 3 reactor became fully operational in April after a decade-long delay.
“……… climate groups have pointed to a number of adverse effects the largest reactor in the Nordic region will have on its surrounding environment, including the warming of the seawater used to cool the plant and its effects on marine life.
Olkiluoto 3 is by far the largest of the three reactors located at Eurajoki and its operations will almost double the amount of water required to cool the plants.
In total, the three reactors need around 120-130 cubic metres of cooling water per second. This is more than half the average flow of the nearby Kokemäenjoki river, and Olkiluoto 3 accounts for about 57 cubic metres of this volume.
Court orders investigation
The seawater used to cool the nuclear power plant will also inevitably contain fish and other marine organisms.
Finland’s Administrative Court ordered an investigation to be carried out into the effects of Olkiluoto 3 on the local marine life when regular electricity production began in April………………………………………………………………………………………… https://yle.fi/a/74-20034904
NATO official calls for transparency over nuclear weapons
By Greg Torode https://www.reuters.com/world/nato-official-calls-transparency-over-nuclear-weapons-2023-06-02/
Singapore, June 2 (Reuters) – A senior NATO official on Friday urged Beijing to be more open about its accelerating nuclear weapons build-up, saying that as a global power, China had a responsibility to improve transparency.
Angus Lapsley, the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation’s (NATO) Assistant Secretary General for Defence Policy and Planning, told the Shangri-La regional security conference in Singapore that NATO was willing to talk to China on the issue.
“As a global power it has a global responsibility to be more transparent,” Lapsley said, adding that the scale and pace of the Chinese build-up was “really striking”.
Lapsley said that NATO, with nuclear-armed members the United States, France and Britain, did not want to interfere in the region but wanted to engage, noting that China had a right to modernise and expand its arsenals.
“NATO is open to dialogue, but it can’t substitute dialogue between the U.S. and China,” he said.
Lapsley noted Pentagon reports that China’s arsenal is growing in size and sophistication, and U.S. officials have called for greater dialogue with China.
The Pentagon’s annual China report, released in November 2022, noted that Beijing’s nuclear programme had gathered pace and now has more than 400 operational nuclear warheads – a figure still far below U.S. and Russian stockpiles.
By 2035 – when China is aiming for its military to be fully modernised – China will likely possess a 1,500 nuclear warhead stockpile and an advanced array of missiles, the Pentagon says.
Although China was not represented on the panel, officers from the People’s Liberation Army in the audience questioned recent moves by the U.S. and its allies to provide nuclear-powered submarines to Australia and enhance South Korea’s protection.
One said estimates of its longer-term build-up were “imagination”.
A nuclear power since the early 1960s, China for decades maintained a small number of nuclear warheads and missiles as a deterrent under a “no first use” pledge that remains its official policy despite Beijing’s broader military modernisation under President Xi Jinping.
In a keynote speech of the three-day forum’s opening night, Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said the ultimate goal of nuclear disarmament remained an important cause.
“The citizens of this region have shown an unflinching commitment to preventing the spread of these destructive, inhumane and indiscriminate weapons,” he said.
Tritium found beyond safe limits in treated Fukushima wastewater
A type of radioactive isotope in the over 1.3 million tons of wastewater
being collected at the destroyed Fukushima nuclear power plant and planned
for discharge by as early as this summer has been found at levels beyond
those earlier suggested to be safe by the Japanese government, a wastewater
safety review report by the International Atomic Energy Agency showed
Thursday.
According to the report, which corroborated analyses of the treated wastewater by six laboratories including the Korea Institute of Nuclear Safety, the activity concentrations of tritium in the treated water were estimated to be at least 148,900 becquerels per liter.
The wastewater filtered through Japan’s Advanced Liquid Processing System at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station contained more tritium than what was stipulated in Japan’s national regulatory standards for discharge, 60,000 becquerels per liter……………………………………………
Korea Herald 1st June 2023
http://www.koreaherald.com/view.php?mp=1&np=1&ud=20230601000750
US cuts data sharing with Russia under New START nuclear deal
US says withholding information is retaliatory measure for Moscow’s suspension of New START (Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty).
The United States will stop providing Russia with some notifications required under the New START nuclear arms control treaty, including updates on missile and launcher locations, in what Washington describes as a retaliatory “countermeasure” due to Moscow’s “violations” of the accord.
The US state department said on Thursday that it had ceased providing the status and locations of its nuclear missiles and launchers but would continue to provide notification of the launch of intercontinental ballistic missiles and submarine-launched ballistic missiles.
Russian inspection activities on US territory have ceased and visas issued and pending for Russian New START (Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty) inspectors and their aircrews – as well as diplomatic clearance for Russian inspection aircraft – have been revoked, according to a state department fact sheet released on Thursday.
The US will also not provide telemetric information to Russia on the launch of US intercontinental and submarine-launched ballistic missiles. Such data involves information that originates during a missile’s test flights and under the treaty, both Moscow and Washington were to exchange such information annually…………………………..
Russian President Vladimir Putin has not formally withdrawn from the New START treaty, but he announced in February that Moscow would suspend its participation in what is a key pillar of US-Russian nuclear arms control.
Putin said Moscow could not accept US inspections of its nuclear sites under the agreement when Washington and its NATO allies had openly declared Moscow’s defeat in Ukraine as a primary goal.
In March, Moscow emphasised that it had not withdrawn from the START pact altogether and would continue to respect the caps on nuclear weapons the treaty sets. Russia’s foreign ministry had also said that Moscow would continue to notify the US of planned test launches of its ballistic missiles – a key element of the agreement.
Notices on ballistic launches are an essential element of nuclear strategic stability for decades, allowing Russia and the US to correctly interpret each other’s moves and make sure neither country mistakes a test launch for a preemptive nuclear missile attack.
Moscow and Washington collectively control nearly 90 percent of the world’s nuclear warheads – enough to destroy the planet several times over.
The New START limits the number of strategic nuclear warheads countries deploy. Signed in 2010 and due to expire in 2026, the New START treaty caps the number of strategic nuclear warheads that the US and Russia can deploy to no more than 1,550 strategic nuclear warheads and 700 land- and submarine-based missiles and bombers to deliver them……………………………………………………. https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/6/2/us-to-withhold-some-data-from-russia-under-new-start-nuclear-deal—
Iran increasing enriched uranium stocks, holding 23 times the limit, says nuclear watchdog
ABC News 1 June 23
Iran has significantly increased its stockpile of enriched uranium in recent months, continuing its nuclear escalation, a confidential report by the UN nuclear watchdog said.
Key points:
- Iran has enough uranium enriched to up to 60 per cent for two bombs
- The IAEA estimates Iran’s stockpile is now 23 times the 202.8-kg limit imposed by the 2015 deal
- The reports said Iran had given a satisfactory answer explaining the presence of uranium particles at one site
The agency, however, noted progress in its cooperation with Iran in a separate report saying it has decided to close the file on nuclear material at an undeclared site, an issue which has long exacerbated relations between the two parties.
The two confidential reports come days before the board of governors of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) is due to meet to review progress in addressing the watchdog’s remaining concerns…………………………………………………………….. more https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-06-01/iran-nuclear-monitoring-equipment-iaea/102418980
Biden wants to engage Russia on nuclear arms control
By Jonathan Landay and Arshad Mohammed, Canberra Times, June 2 2023
The United States will offer to abide by the nuclear weapons limits set in the New START treaty until its 2026 expiration to bolster global security if Russia does the same, two senior administration officials say.
US national security advisor Jake Sullivan will make the offer in a speech to the Arms Control Association, the oldest US arms control advocacy group, the officials said on Thursday on condition of anonymity.
Sullivan will say President Joe Biden’s administration is open to resuming unconditional talks with Moscow on managing nuclear dangers, including replacing New START with a new pact, the sources said…………………………………
Signed in 2010 and due to expire in February 2026, New START capped the number of strategic nuclear warheads the sides can deploy at 1550.
It also limits the number of land and submarine-based missiles and bombers that can deliver the warheads to 700.
Sullivan, the officials said, will offer US adherence to those limits through the treaty’s expiration if Russia does as well………… https://www.canberratimes.com.au/story/8220319/biden-wants-to-engage-russia-on-nuclear-arms-control/
Panellists discuss nuclear documentary ‘Atomic Bamboozle’ and warn against return of nuclear power .
Activists show, discuss nuclear documentary ‘Atomic Bamboozle’ at Kiggins in Vancouver, Film, panelists warn against return of nuclear power,
By Scott Hewitt, Columbian staff writer, June 2, 2023, https://www.columbian.com/news/2023/jun/02/activists-show-discuss-nuclear-documentary-atomic-bamboozle-at-kiggins-in-vancouver/
Get used to the phrase “small modular nuclear reactor” and its abbreviation, SMR. A global debate about this old-made-new energy idea is already heating up, with big implications for the people and environs of the Pacific Northwest.
SMRs are either the cleaner, safer, cheaper future of nuclear power or the return of the same old bundle of hazards, dressed up in newly attractive camouflage.
“They’re going to make nuclear energy cool again,” said former Trump administration energy secretary Rick Perry (consistently mispronouncing the word “nuclear”) in a news clip featured in the new documentary film “Atomic Bamboozle.”
“Atomic Bamboozle” is the latest in a series of timely, social-issue documentaries directed by Jan Haaken, a retired Portland State University psychology professor. Last year, Haaken produced a film about the courtroom victories of local oil-train protesters called “Necessity: Climate Justice and the Thin Green Line,” which screened, along with a panel discussion, at Vancouver’s Kiggins Theatre.
The same will happen at a Wednesday screening of “Atomic Bamboozle” at Kiggins. Environmental activists featured in the film will discuss the potential resurgence of nuclear power in the Pacific Northwest through supposedly safe, small, factory-built nuclear plants.
Panelists are Cathryn Chudy and Lloyd Marbet of the Oregon Conservancy Foundation; Desiree Hellegers, English professor and director of the Collective for Social and Environmental Justice at Washington State University Vancouver; public interest attorney Dan Meek; Dr. Patricia Kullberg, former medical director of the Multnomah County Health Department; “Atomic Days” author Joshua Frank; and film director Haaken.
(Frank’s book about the decommissioned Hanford nuclear site in Eastern Washington, “Atomic Days: The Most Toxic Place in America,” is the Fort Vancouver Regional Library system’s “Revolutionary Reads” book for this year. Free copies of the book are available to all at library branches.)
Climate wedge
Although small modular nuclear reactors are still more blueprint than reality, they’ve become a wedge issue among some environmentalists who are desperate to beat climate change, said Chudy, who lives in Vancouver.
“SMRs sound pretty cool but there are very big problems that they don’t want to talk about,” Chudy said during a phone interview with The Columbian.
“Atomic Bamboozle” reviews the troubled history of Oregon’s only commercial nuclear power plant, Trojan, which operated from 1976 through 1992 near Rainier, just across the Columbia River from Kalama. Trojan’s cooling tower dominated the skyline until it was demolished in 2006, but problems plagued the plant throughout its short life, including construction flaws, unexpected cracks, steam leaks and discovery of previously unknown earthquake fault lines nearby.
“We had assurances the plant was safe. The public relations around Trojan were amazing,” said Chudy, a pediatric mental health therapist at Legacy Emanuel Medical Center in Portland.
Chudy said today’s youth are struggling as never before with existential worry about a world that grown-ups have failed to steward. Proposed SMRs represent an opportunity to choose wisely and safely now rather than punting complicated problems into an unknown future, she said.
“Kids don’t trust adults to make good decisions,” Chudy said. “We are all putting our lives in the hands of people we elect … but I don’t think we can rely on them to steer the ship in the right direction without all of us being involved.”
Unsolved problems
Both Oregon and Washington have adopted clean energy policies for the future, Chudy said, but both include a loophole for nuclear power because nuclear plants do not emit carbon pollution.
She argues that nuclear power is actually a big cause of carbon pollution and a driver of global warming from many sources other than operating the plants themselves, including uranium mining as well as construction, decommissioning and materials transportation.
Necessary economies of scale are another serious question about nuclear power, Chudy added.
SMR boosters like them because they’re small. But what they contain is standard, old-school nuclear technology that’s simply operating on a tiny scale, M.V. Ramana, professor of physics, public policy and global affairs at the University of British Columbia, said in the film.
Early experiments with nuclear power started small too, Ramana said, but grew huge in pursuit of financial efficiency. Nothing has changed about that, he argues in the film, and new forecasts show the productions costs of nuclear power climbing.
“All nuclear reactors used to be small. The only way the nuclear industry could figure out to reduce cost was to go to larger reactors,” Ramana said. “There’s no way small modular reactors are going to be economically competitive.”
Soaring projected costs have led some members to drop out of a consortium of Western cities now pursuing an SMR on the Snake River in Idaho, according to Reuters.
The risk of nuclear accidents always remains, Ramana said in the movie. But siting decisions are made by politicians and investors in state and national capitals, far removed from the action.
Dismay in the region over Japan’s plan for nuclear waste water
Nuclear Waste in Pacific Ocean: Japan’s Plan Triggers Controversy
Japan plans to discharge millions of metric tonnes of nuclear wastewater into the Pacific Ocean. This wastewater has been accumulating since disaster struck the Fukushima nuclear power plant in 2011. Japan is running out of storage space for this wastewater, which is why it is desperately trying to dump the waste in the ocean. But Tokyo’s plan is marred with controversy, with physical protests being arranged against it as well. Watch this Vantage report to know more.
US announces $46 million in funds to eight nuclear fusion companies
By Timothy Gardner, WASHINGTON, May 31 (Reuters) – Eight U.S. companies developing nuclear fusion energy will receive $46 million in taxpayer funding to pursue pilot plants attempting to generate power from the process that fuels the sun and stars, the Department of Energy said on Wednesday.
Generating more energy from a fusion reaction than goes into the fusion plant to heat fuel to temperatures of more than 100 million Celsius has eluded scientists for decades.
…………..”The Biden-Harris Administration is committed to partnering with innovative researchers and companies across the country to take fusion energy past the lab and toward the grid,” Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm said in a release.
The awardees are:
-Commonwealth Fusion Systems (CFS)
-Focused Energy Inc
-Princeton Stellarators Inc
-Realta Fusion Inc
-Tokamak Energy Inc
-Type One Energy Group
-Xcimer Energy Inc
-Zap Energy Inc
The funding, which comes from the Energy Act of 2020, is for the first 18 months. Projects may last up to five years, with future funding totaling $415 million contingent on congressional approval and engineering and scientific milestones.
“Participating companies only get paid if they deliver results and the public program verifies the science is sound,” said Bob Mumgaard, the CEO and founder of CFS.
Looking to develop fusion plants that use lasers or magnets, private companies and government labs spent $500 million on their supply chains last year, according to a Fusion Industry Association (FIA) survey.
They plan to spend about $7 billion by the time their first plants come online, and potentially trillions of dollars mainly on high-grade steel, concrete and superconducting wire in a mature industry, estimated to be sometime between 2035 and 2050.
Reporting by Timothy Gardner in Washington Editing by Matthew Lewis and Diane Craft https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/us-announces-46-million-funds-eight-nuclear-fusion-companies-2023-05-31/
France’s triple dependence on nuclear fuel .
the main argument of this policy is “national energy independence”, moreover making a misleading shortcut from energy to electricity and from it nuclear power, an imaginary symbol of supposed independence.
Tuesday, May 30, 2023, by Bernard Laponche , Jean-Claude Zerbib, m https://www.global-chance.org/IMG/pdf/gc_la_triple_de_pendance_mai_2023_v2.pdf
Introduction
With 56 reactors spread over 18 EDF nuclear power plants, approximately 70% of electricity production in France is ensured by the use of nuclear energy, thanks to the production of heat by the combination of fission and chain reaction in reactors.
This situation makes France the most “nuclearized” country in the world in proportion to its population and the third in level of production after the United States and China, which are much more populous.
The program of reactors currently in operation (including the two Fessenheim reactors being dismantled) was launched in the early 1970s and reinforced by the “Messmer Program” of 1974, on the occasion of the first “oil shock”, inaugurating the “all-electric-all-nuclear” policy which continued until the construction of the Flamanville EPR in 2007, which has still not started.
The current government places itself in this line by advocating the extension of the duration of operation of the current reactors and the construction of a certain number of reactors of the EPR2 sector, heir to the EPR.
As at the time, and although times have changed, the main argument of this policy is “national energy independence”, moreover making a misleading shortcut from energy to electricity and from it nuclear power, an imaginary symbol of supposed independence. Let us admit, however, that the design and construction of the reactors are “national”, although much equipment is imported, the fact remains that the design is essentially that of the enriched uranium and pressurized water reactors of Westinghouse origin, and that the “francization” carried out at the beginning of the 1980s now raises a lot of questions, in particular with the discovery of cracks caused by corrosion under stress or thermal fatigue, which plague a certain number of reactors, including the most recent ones.
On the other hand, independence is far from being acquired on the side of the “nuclear fuel” which “boils the pot”. Indeed, natural uranium, the raw material for fission, has been completely imported for several decades. The suppliers are numerous but, among the main ones, Kazakhstan, Niger, Uzbekistan, Australia, Canada, three present geopolitical risks. But, we are told, since France has an enrichment plant, a reprocessing plant and fuel fabrication plants, we could rest easy.
The reality is much more complex.
On the other hand, independence is far from being acquired on the side of the “nuclear fuel” which “boils the pot”. Indeed, natural uranium, the raw material for fission, has been completely imported for several decades. The suppliers are numerous but, among the main ones, Kazakhstan, Niger, Uzbekistan, Australia, Canada, three present geopolitical risks. But, we are told, since France has an enrichment plant, a reprocessing plant and fuel fabrication plants, we could rest easy.
The reality is much more complex.
The purpose of this article is to assess:
- The tonnages of uranium which are delivered directly to France by the producing country, in the form of yellow cake and then undergo all the transformations, up to being put into the form of assemblies;
- The tonnages of natural uranium transiting through a third country, to arrive in France in the form of enriched uranium, gaseous or solid, or even fuel assemblies produced abroad;
- EDF’s depleted uranium enrichment operations in Russia;
- EDF and Orano’s reprocessing uranium enrichment operations in Russia.
- Manufacture of fuel assemblies, partly carried out abroad.
Thus will be established the triple dependence, total or partial, in the supply of natural uranium, in the enrichment of natural uranium, depleted uranium and reprocessed uranium and, in the manufacture of fuel assemblies.
This article is dedicated to the memory of André Guillemette, member of Global Chance and ACRO, expert in issues related to the reprocessing of irradiated fuels and the plutonium industry, author of several articles on these subjects, in particular in collaboration with Jean-Claude Zerbib, published on the Global Chance website ( www.global-chance.org ).
To read the full text https://www.global-chance.org/IMG/pdf/gc_la_triple_de_pendance_mai_2023_v2.pdf—
1 This Month
Read the Public Inquiry Report, the Commissioners’ report, Surrendering Australia: The AUKUS Deception is available to download for free at aukuspublicinquiry.com. Or just watch the replay of the National Press Club Luncheon.
19 November – Webinar – The Reality of Reprocessing
Time: 11:00 AM Pacific Time (US & Canada) / 2:00 PM Eastern / 7:00 PM UK / 8:00 PM CET
Register for the Zoom Event Here
Shut down the radiation-damaged Heysham nuclear reactors now
To see nuclear-related stories in greater depth and intensity – go to https://nuclearinformation.wordpress.com
Say No to NASA’s Reckless Nuclear Reactor on the Moon
Say No to NASA’s Reckless Nuclear Reactor on the Moon
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