[ RadSafe ] [Nuclear News] NRC says new nuclear plants should be plane-proof
Sandy Perle
sandyfl at cox.net
Wed Apr 25 10:40:12 CDT 2007
Index:
NRC says new nuclear plants should be plane-proof
China plans to patent its own nuclear power plants
World: Nuclear Industry Seeks To Escape Chornobyl's Shadow
Yushchenko: region around Chernobyl nuclear plant must be put to use
NJ State's largest utility shuts down nuclear plant
Rann 'hypocritical' over nuclear power
Scientist questions nuclear future
Virginia Power seeks federal OK for two new generating units
Japan, U.S. ink pact on nuclear power reactors
Scotland: NO TO NUCLEAR - ELECTION 2007
Swiss Nuclear plants safe but waste management not
Czech CEZ-owned nuclear plant Temelin to produce 12.5 TWh
--------------------------------------------------------
NRC says new nuclear plants should be plane-proof
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. nuclear reactor builders will likely have
to weigh the potential for a commercial aircraft strike when they
design new plants, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission said on Tuesday.
The NRC's proposed rules are meant to protect new reactors against a
deliberate hit by a jet like those that rammed into the World Trade
Center and Pentagon on September 11, 2001, the commission said.
"This is the most recent step in a broad, proactive effort to improve
the security of reactors initiated by the NRC after September 11,"
NRC Chairman Dale Klein said. "We need more technical analysis to
understand how to address this.
The proposal would apply to companies that want to build new reactors
whose designs have not received NRC certification, a spokesman for
the NRC said. It will not apply to the nation's existing 104 civilian
nuclear power plants, which already have adequate protection, he
said.
The proposal will be made public later this year and could take
effect next year, he said.
The proposal is less stringent than one backed by NRC Commissioner
Gregory Jaczko, which would have required new nuclear plants to be
built to withstand a large commercial aircraft impact.
U.S. utilities have not ordered new nuclear plants in about 25 years
due to cost and safety concerns, but the NRC could weigh upward of 20
new applications for the first wave of new U.S. nuclear plants in
coming months.
The NRC said it already requires the owners of nuclear reactors to
take steps to minimize damage from large fires and explosions from
any type of attack.
However, companies that ask the NRC to new approve reactor designs
would have to "assess how the design, to the extent practicable, can
have greater built-in protections to avoid or mitigate the effects of
a large commercial aircraft impact."
"This proposal gives us the chance to assess and make practicable
changes to new reactor designs early in the design process," Klein
said.
The rules would apply to reactor design proposals submitted by
General Electric Co., French-based Areva, and Japanese-based
Mitsubishi Heavy Industries the spokesman said.
And even though the rules would not explicitly apply to four new
reactor designs already certified by the NRC, it would be "in the
interest of both the designers and their clients to adopt these
changes at the design stage," Klein said.
The rules would likely require designers to weigh how an aircraft
strike would impact the plant operator's ability to keep the reactor
core cool enough to avoid a meltdown, and to keep radioactive gases
from escaping into the atmosphere, the NRC said.
The Nuclear Energy Institute, which lobbies for U.S. nuclear
operators, said the proposal is appropriate, because plant designers
already weigh cataclysmic events like hurricanes and earthquakes.
-------------------
China plans to patent its own nuclear power plants
(Xinhua) China is planning to develop its own patented technology for
third generation nuclear power generating plants which could be
available before the end of the next decade, said an official with
the country's atomic energy authority Wednesday.
Zhang Fubao, vice director of the Systems Engineering Bureau under
the State Atomic Energy Authority, said Chinese experts will study
current third-generation nuclear power technology, and develop its
own reactor by 2017.
"Even by that time, we may still need international cooperation,"
said Zhang.
The so-called "third-generation" technology is expected to be safer
and more economical than existing technology and will be used in new
nuclear power plants now being built in China.
The Chinese government wants to raise the proportion of nuclear power
in the country's total electric power output from the current 1.9
percent to four percent by 2020. This would require the construction
of new power plants with capacity of a total of 30 million kilowatts
in 15 years.
Under a framework agreement with US-based Westinghouse signed in
December, 2006, China will acquire advance nuclear power technology
in exchange for purchasing four nuclear reactors from the
Westinghouse.
The deal allows for technology transfers including equipment design
nuclear facilities and technical support. The first of the four
reactors is expected to begin generating power by 2013, said Zhang.
----------------
World: Nuclear Industry Seeks To Escape Chornobyl's Shadow
April 25, 2007 (RFE/RL) -- The explosion and fire at the Chornobyl
nuclear plant in Ukraine happened in the early hours of April 26,
1986, and the world would never be quite the same again.
At first, the Soviet authorities said nothing, and the first clear
indication that something was wrong came when monitoring devices in
Sweden began registering alarming increases in background radiation.
Deep unease quickly spread across Western Europe as people realized a
huge cloud of radioactivity was drifting toward them.
Extent Of Disaster Slowly Revealed
In the Soviet Union and in Soviet-dominated Eastern Europe, people
had still not been told of the danger.
Finally, on April 28, Soviet television carried a short announcement
that gave no indication of the magnitude of the disaster: "There has
been an accident at the Chornobyl nuclear power station. One of the
atomic reactors has been damaged. Measures are being taken to
eliminate the consequences of the accident. Assistance is being given
to the injured and a government commission has been set up."
That simple message did not convey the drama going on at Chornobyl.
U.S. satellite images showed that a reactor block at the nuclear
power plant was blown apart and burned out.
Teams of men were fighting to stabilize the site, with each extra
minute of exposure to the intense radiation sealing also their own
fate.
It was not until two weeks later that Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev
recognized the unprecedented scale of the accident. In a speech on
May 14, he expressed sympathy for the victims.
"All of you know that we have been struck by a misfortune recently --
the accident at the Chornobyl nuclear power plant," Gorbachev said.
"It has painfully affected the Soviet people and troubled the
international community. We have, for the first time, confronted in
reality the dreadful force of nuclear energy that got out of
control."
Nuclear Energy Now Green?
The accident plunged the civil nuclear power industry around the
world into crisis, as the public turned away from the possibility of
more such environmental disasters. And so the matter might have
rested, but for a new perceived danger: global warming, thought to be
caused mainly by fossil-fuel use.
The nuclear industry has begun the fight back. Ian Hoare-Lacy, a
spokesman for an industry group, the World Nuclear Association, says
that nuclear power makes sense.
"It's hard to see how we're going to grapple with lowering carbon
emissions without [nuclear energy] worldwide; nuclear energy is the
main technology ready to be deployed on a much wider scale for
generating electricity without carbon emissions," Hoare-Lacy says.
He notes there are 440 reactors now online in the world, with some 30
new plants under construction. And if nuclear energy is going to
contribute meaningfully to carbon-emission reductions, then there
could in future be a fourfold increase in this number of reactors.
Modern reactor design, he says, removes the possibility of another
catastrophe like Chornobyl.
...Or Still Environmental Threat?
Environmental activists disagree, and continue to regard nuclear
power as fatally flawed.
"Nuclear power could be part of the solution to global warming, but
it produces toxic waste that stays dangerously radioactive for tens
of thousands of years, it's intimately associated with nuclear
weapons, and can be very expensive; as a result we believe there are
better solutions than nuclear power to the problem of global
warming," says Roger Higman of the Friends of the Earth organization.
Higman lists all the alternatives, from solar and wind power to tidal
power, to efficiency improvements and electricity-saving programs.
However, many people are not convinced these "green" alternatives
would be sufficient to power the heavily industrialized world.
He also points to the issue of nuclear weapons proliferation -- a
potential problem when it comes to nuclear power.
"The technologies that are used -- enrichment technologies,
reprocessing technologies -- can all be used to make materials for
bombs, so there is an intense suspicion of countries like Iran, North
Korea, when they develop their nuclear-power programs," Higman says.
"That's a big impediment to fighting global warming, because we have
to be confident that any solution we use, we are happy for other
countries, other parts of the world to use also, because global
warming is an international problem," he adds.
Meanwhile, Chornobyl's seething mass of radioactive debris waits. The
concrete sarcophagus built around the ruins of the shattered reactor
in the months following the fire is rotting, weakened by intense
radioactivity.
A U.S.-European consortium is building a new billion-dollar
containment building, which should be ready by next year. But that
won't be the end of the Chornobyl story by a long way.
---------------------
Yushchenko: region around Chernobyl nuclear plant must be put to use
On eve of the 21st anniversary of the World´s most nightmarish ever
nuclear accident, Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko said that
uninhabited and contaminated region around the shuttered Chernobyl
nuclear power plant would be put to use again.
The April 26, 1986, explosion and fire at Chernobyl's Reactor No. 4
sent a radioactive cloud across Europe, contaminating large areas of
land and prompting the Soviet government to permanently evacuate more
than 300,000 people. A 30-kilometer (18 miles) zone around the plant
remains closed to the public.
"I am convinced that the Chernobyl zone is coming alive ... and step
by step, we will begin to develop the possibilities of this
territory," Yushchenko said during a lecture at a school outside
Kiev.
Projects being considered include a nature preserve that would take
advantage of a wildlife resurgence in the area, which is largely
bereft of humans, and using the area to produce bio-fuels, Yushchenko
said. He also said he would like to see an international science
center opened at the site to study the lingering effects of the 1986
accident.
"This land must be revitalized," Yushchenko said during the lecture,
which was broadcast live on Ukrainian television. "We should look at
it as having prospects, not with the feeling that this is a territory
of Ukraine that has been erased from the map and which we must
forget."
A project to build a new shelter to cover Reactor No. 4 will begin
"in several months," Yushchenko said. Work on the US$1.1 billion
(EUR885 million) internationally funded project has been delayed
repeatedly, though the hastily built current shelter of concrete and
steel is crumbling and dotted with holes.
Thirty-one people died within the first two months of the Chernobyl
disaster from illnesses caused by radioactivity. There is debate over
the longer-term toll. The U.N. health agency has estimated that about
9,300 people will die from cancers caused by Chernobyl's radiation.
Some groups, such as Greenpeace, insist the toll could be 10 times
higher.
---------------
NJ State's largest utility shuts down nuclear plant
BLOOMBERG NEWS SERVICE Apr 25 - Newark-based Public Service
Enterprise Group Inc., owner of New Jersey's largest utility, shut
down its Salem 1 nuclear reactor Tuesday night after screens on its
water intake system became clogged with marsh grass.
"With the nor'easter we had last week, tides and water levels are
extremely high,'' Chic Cannon, spokesman for Public Service, said in
a telephone interview today. Screens that prevent grass and other
detritus from entering the plant's cooling water system from the
Delaware River became clogged with grasses and forced the shutdown,
he said.
It is "historically the highest detritus or grassing levels we've had
since the plants have been installed,'' said Cannon. He declined to
speculate on when the reactor would return to service.
The 1,159-megawatt unit is one of two reactors located in Hancocks
Bridge, N.J., about 25 miles southeast of Wilmington, Del. Salem 2
was listed at full power by the commission in this morning's report.
The two units combined provide enough power for about 1.8 million
average U.S. homes, according to Energy Department data.
------------------
Rann 'hypocritical' over nuclear power
The South Australia Opposition has accused Premier Mike Rann of
having double standards on nuclear power.
Mr Rann has written to Labor Party delegates ahead of this weekend's
ALP national conference calling for the 'no new mines' policy to be
abandoned.
Mr Rann uses the environmental benefits of nuclear power as part of
his argument for more uranium mining.
Opposition Leader Martin Hamilton-Smith says Mr Rann is hypocritical.
"We share the climate, we share the atmosphere, if it's good for the
climate to build nuclear power stations in China then why has he
rammed the shutters down on an informed debate here in Australia?" he
said.
"It's hypocrisy. It smacks of double standards."
--------------
Scientist questions nuclear future
Uranium has been a hot topic of late, but one environmental engineer
believes nuclear energy does not have a justifiable place in
Australia's future.
Labor will be discussing whether to abandon its long held ban on new
uranium mines this weekend at the ALP's national conference, while
Prime Minister John Howard has made it clear he believes nuclear
power is part of the solution to Australia's future energy needs.
But Monash University's Dr Gavin Mudd, an environmental engineer who
specialises in the mining sector, believes nuclear energy, which
currently supplies around 17 per cent of the world's energy needs,
will not have a significantly bigger role in the future.
"I think there's alternatives such as renewable technologies, there's
solar thermal, there's biomass, there's now photovoltaics, there's
wind," he said.
"There's a whole range of technologies combined with energy
efficiency which can supply peak demands and which can meet our
energy needs."
Industry Minister Ian Macfarlane said last year that almost 30 new
nuclear power reactors are being constructed in 11 countries
including China, India, Russia and Finland, and the recently released
Ziggy Switkowski report had a full page on plans for new reactors in
Asia.
But Dr Mudd says the reactors being built now are replacing those
that are closing down.
"Over the same time frame, a lot of reactors are going to be
decommissioned in the West. There were six reactors in the West that
were decommissioned on December 31, including four in the UK," he
said.
"I think ultimately, they're not building new reactors in the West,
they're building reactors in sort of centrally-planned economies, and
the one new reactor that they've ordered in the West over the last
several years in Finland is significantly behind budget and also
behind time."
"I think there's real issues there that over the same time frame of
which they're supposedly going to expand nuclear power, a lot of the
existing ageing reactors will also be decommissioned."
Dr Mudd says the 57 per cent rise in uranium prices is puzzling.
"I don't think anyone I've seen has a good answer for why the uranium
price has hit the sort of magnitude that it has," he said.
"A lot of mining industry analysts are also asking about this bubble
at the moment, about what is causing this price. I don't think anyone
ever predicted the price would go this high."
-------------------
Virginia Power seeks federal OK for two new generating units at its
North Anna site
LOUISA -- A federal licensing board began hearing testimony yesterday
on a proposed site permit for two new nuclear units at Dominion
Virginia Power's North Anna Power Station.
Dominion Virginia Power officials and members of the Nuclear
Regulatory Commission staff packed the meeting room at the Louisa
County Government Center for the hearing's start.
The NRC's Atomic Safety and Licensing Board expects to finish this
week but could move the hearing to NRC headquarters in Rockville,
Md., on Tuesday, should more time be needed.
Dominion Virginia Power has asked federal officials to approve a site
for two new generating units at North Anna. An NRC site permit, which
covers safety, environmental and emergency-preparedness issues, would
be good for up to 20 years.
The utility expects to receive the site permit by year's end. The
NRC's staff supports Dominion Virginia Power's proposal and has
already issued a permit in draft form.
Dominion Virginia Power wants to build one large reactor or up to
eight smaller reactors to power each generating unit, said Alex
Karlin, chairman of NRC's Atomic Safety and Licensing Board. Nuclear
reactors boil water, creating steam, which turns generators to create
electricity.
A single large reactor is most likely for a third unit at North Anna,
said Gene Grecheck, a vice president with the utility.
However, should a fourth unit be built at some future point, that
unit might utilize several smaller, lower-power reactors, if the
technology has improved sufficiently by then, Grecheck said.
The licensing board, which operates independently, will decide
whether to award the permit. The board's decision, however, may be
appealed to the NRC and afterward to the federal courts.
The board is hearing only from sworn Dominion Virginia Power and NRC-
staff witnesses. The board heard from the public Feb. 8 at a Louisa
school.
Karlin, the board's chairman, said this week's hearing transcripts
should be available on the NRC's Web site at www.nrc.gov within two
weeks after the hearing's conclusion.
Begun in September 2003, the quest for a permit has not been cheap.
Dominion Virginia Power lawyer David Lewis said the utility has spent
100,000 man-hours on preparing the permit application and on follow-
up activities such as explaining the application to the public.
The utility will eventually spend $20 million for the permit, Lewis
said. The U.S. Department of Energy's Nuclear Power 2010 grant
program is picking up half the cost.
After public-interest groups raised concerns in 2004 about the
discharge of heated water into Lake Anna, Dominion Virginia Power
changed its original plan for a proposed third unit's cooling system.
Changing the design delayed the application by a year, and building
the new design will cost the utility an additional $200 million,
Lewis said.
Once the permit is approved, Grecheck said, Dominion Virginia Power
will seek a combined construction and operating license for a third
unit at North Anna. After that permit is approved, around 2010, the
utility would make a decision whether to build a third unit, he said.
The 1,575 million watts of electricity produced by a third unit would
be sold to consumers in Virginia, where no primary generating units
have been built since the mid-1990s. Dominion Virginia Power is the
state's largest utility, serving 80 percent of the state's
population.
------------------
Japan, U.S. ink pact on nuclear power reactors
(Kyodo News) Apr 25 - Japan and the United States said Tuesday they
have adopted a plan to advance coordination on nuclear energy policy,
including the extension of governmental assistance for building the
first new atomic power plants in the U.S. in 30 years.
Under the Japanese-U.S. Joint Nuclear Energy Action Plan, the two
nations will conduct joint studies in six areas, including fast-
reactor technology, fuel-cycle technology and waste management. They
agreed to hold the first meeting of working groups for each area by
the end of June, a Japanese official said.
In an effort to prevent proliferation, the action plan requires the
two nations to consult on whether to extend assistance, such as
infrastructure construction and training, to third countries.
The comprehensive cooperation pact is the first on nuclear power that
Washington has ever signed with another country, the Japanese
official said.
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and President George W. Bush are expected
to adopt the action plan when they meet Friday in the U.S.
-----------------
Scotland: NO TO NUCLEAR - ELECTION 2007
Fewer than one in four Scots support building new nuclear power
stations in Scotland, according to a poll for Greenpeace.
----------------
Swiss Nuclear plants safe but waste management not
(NZZ On-Line) Apr 25 - The country's nuclear power plants have never
been safer, according to the Swiss Federal Nuclear Safety
Inspectorate : but there is cause for concern.
The inspectorate said no serious incidents were recorded in any of
the five power plants during 2006, but its expert panel says that
areas including waste management leave something to be desired.
Professor Walter Wildi, president of the Swiss Federal Nuclear Safety
Commission, which advises the inspectorate, told swissinfo that 2006
was a "good year as far as radiation doses, production and failures
or rather no failures" were concerned.
However, waste management was less impressive.
"The main division for nuclear safety has published a new regulation
on nuclear waste treatment and we found several points such as the
lack of limits on the content of organic matter in this waste. This
cannot be accepted," he said.
The presence of such matter could have safety implications for
long:term disposal solutions of waste produced by the plants.
The core of the problem, in the Commission's view, was that "we think
the inspectorate's waste division did not regulate on this point due
to the influence of the owners and the waste producers."
This was, Wildi said, something that the public should be concerned
about.
"We have to be very strict about this. It cannot be accepted that the
inspectors take orders from the nuclear power plant owners and waste
producers," he stressed.
As to how the situation could be remedied, Wildi said that a staffing
shortage within the inspectorate had to be addressed.
"The waste division has perhaps five or six persons, which is very
few when you compare it with Germany or France. This team is just too
small. The inspectorate would most probably need an external review
system that has real influence on it," he added.
Latest figures
In its annual report published on Friday, the safety inspectorate
said that for the most part all was well on the nuclear scene.
"The inspectorate found that nuclear safety ? in terms of the design
and operation of facilities in all Swiss nuclear power plants ? was
good throughout the year under review and facilities complied with
their operating licences," it said.
Nine so:called incidents in power plants were registered but none
posed a safety risk. All were classified as Level 0 on the
International Nuclear Event Scale or "no safety significance".
"They had minimal impact on nuclear safety," the inspectorate said.
It added that some problems occurred during the transport of some
radioactive materials in 2006 but that the Swiss authorities were not
at fault.
These included four "classified incidents".
"All... were the result of a lack of care on the part of the
consignor abroad," the report said.
The release of radioactive materials in the environment through
wastewater and exhaust air from power plants was found to be minimal.
"The analyses showed that the maximum dose, including for individuals
living in the immediate vicinity of a plant was less than one per
cent of the annual exposure to natural radiation," the report
revealed.
------------------
Czech CEZ-owned nuclear plant Temelin to produce 12.5 TWh of
electricity in 2007 - Manager
PRAGUE. APRIL 24. INTERFAX CENTRAL EUROPE - Czech nuclear power
plant Temelin plans to produce 12.5 TWh of electricity in 2007,
like last year, but wants to increase annual production to 15 TWh
in the medium term, Jiri Borovec, production director at state-
controlled power utility CEZ - Temelin's owner - said Tuesday. This
year's planned production figure is due to an additional planned
maintenance shutdown of Temelin's first unit in March, Borovec
told reporters. He added that the gap between current production
and the 15-TWh target costs CEZ hundreds of millions of crowns a
year. The Temelin nuclear plant has two blocks with installed
capacity of 1,000 MW each. In 2003 Temelin generated 12.11 TWh of
power, which rose to 12.69 TWh in 2004 before falling to
10.98 TWh in 2005 and approximately 12 TWh in 2006.
Sandy Perle
Senior Vice President, Technical Operations
Global Dosimetry Solutions, Inc.
2652 McGaw Avenue
Irvine, CA 92614
Tel: (949) 296-2306 / (888) 437-1714 Extension 2306
Fax:(949) 296-1144
E-Mail: sperle at dosimetry.com
E-Mail: sandyfl at cox.net
Global Dosimetry Website: http://www.dosimetry.com/
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