Village invited to test cheap, clean nuclear power

["Sandy Perle" <sandyfl@EARTHLINK.NET>]

Index:



Village invited to test cheap, clean nuclear power

U.S. seeks license to ship plutonium to France

=====================================



Village invited to test cheap, clean nuclear power



Anchorage Daily News (Oct 21)  A Japanese corporation wants to thrust 

the Interior community of Galena into international limelight by 

donating a new, unconventional electricity-generating plant that 

would light and heat the Yukon River village pollution-free for 30 

years.  



There's a catch, of course. It's a nuclear reactor.



Not a huge, Three Mile Island-type power plant but a new generation 

of small nuclear reactor about the size of a big spruce tree. 

Designers say the technology is safe, simple and cheap enough to 

replace diesel-fired generators as the primary energy source for 

villages across rural Alaska.



Such a plant would also have enough excess power to create hydrogen 

gas, proponents say. They envision Galena as a demonstration center 

for the highly vaunted hydrogen economy, in which cars and trucks 

could run on the clean-burning gas.



Department of Energy officials say the new technology is promising 

but enormous hurdles remain. A reactor of this type and size has 

never been built anywhere in the world, much less tested and licensed 

for use in the United States. The cost of building a prototype that 

meets stringent U.S. safety standards could kill it, said a nuclear 

engineer at the Energy Department's Lawrence Livermore National 

Laboratory in California.



Public skepticism is another potential barrier. The proposed plant 

would be the first commercial use of nuclear power in Alaska, but 

fears about potential accidents and about disposal of nuclear waste 

have chilled the industry in the Lower 48. No new commercial plants 

have been licensed since the late 1980s.



Supporters, including U.S. Sen. Ted Stevens, acknowledge it will be 

difficult to persuade Alaskans to embrace nuclear power in Galena or 

elsewhere. But even environmental groups say the incentive to replace 

expensive diesel fuel as the source of electricity in rural Alaska is 

reason to continue investigating the small reactor technology.



"The word 'nuclear' makes me nervous," said Randy Virgin of the 

Alaska Center for the Environment. "But we've long seen the problems 

with diesel, and I'm pretty excited about the prospect of a clean 

source of energy," he said. "It sounds very promising, but I'd 

approach it with extreme skepticism."



The Galena design is part of a new generation of small nuclear 

reactors that can be built in a factory and transported by barge, 

truck or helicopter. A federal study, funded at Stevens' request and 

published in May 2001, found they are inherently safe and easy to 

operate, resistant to sabotage or theft, cost effective and 

transportable.



Toshiba Corp., the Japanese electronics giant, calls its reactor the 

4S system: super-safe, small and simple. 



Washington, D.C., attorney Doug Rosinski, who represents Toshiba, 

calls the reactor a "nuclear battery," although it has nothing in 

common with the typical AA cell. The power comes from a core of non-

weapons-grade uranium about 30 inches in diameter and 6 feet tall. It 

would put out a steady stream of 932-degree heat for three decades 

but can be removed and replaced like a flashlight battery when the 

power is depleted, he said.



The reactor core would be constructed and sealed at a factory, then 

shipped to the site. There it is connected with the other, nonnuclear 

parts of the power plant to form a steel tube about 70 feet long with 

the nuclear core welded into the bottom like the eraser in a pencil, 

Rosinski said. The assembly is then lowered into a concrete housing 

buried in the ground, making it as immune to attack or theft as a 

missile in its silo.



The reactor has almost no moving parts and doesn't need an operator. 

The nuclear reaction is controlled by a reflector that slowly slides 

over the uranium core and keeps the nuclear fission "critical." If 

the reflector stops moving, the reactor loses power. If the shield 

moves too fast, the core "burns" more quickly, yielding the same 

amount of power but reducing the reactor's life, Rosinski said.



Because of its design and small size, the Toshiba reactor can't 

overheat or melt down, he said, unlike what happened in the 1986 

accident at Chernobyl that killed 30 people and spewed radiation 

across northern Europe.



The nuclear reaction heats liquid sodium in the upper portion of the 

reactor assembly. It circulates by convection, eliminating pumps and 

valves that need maintenance and can cause problems, Rosinski said. 

The liquid is contained in a separate chamber so it isn't 

radioactive. Because the reactor assembly is enclosed in a thick 

steel tube, it will withstand earthquakes and floods, Rosinski said.



"What comes out (of the ground) are two pipes with steam that power a 

turbine," he said. "You wouldn't even know it's there," except for 

the steam generator building above it.



The Toshiba design looks safe on paper, according to Hermann Grunder, 

director of Argonne National Laboratory in Chicago, a federal 

research facility that has investigated the new generation of 

reactors. Liquid sodium eliminates corrosion, which is a primary 

cause of nuclear power plant accidents, Grunder wrote to the Daily 

News in an e-mail. 



"The probability of radioactive material leakage for this system 

would be extremely low," he wrote.



Toshiba's design is based largely on existing reactor technology and 

appears technically feasible, Grunder wrote. "The main roadblock, if 

any, would be the cost."



Rosinski agreed. The biggest hurdle is winning approval by the U.S. 

Nuclear Regulatory Commission, he said, which will require Toshiba to 

finish its design, then build a prototype. He estimated the work 

would cost $600 million or more and take six to eight years. The 

Galena plant could be online by 2010, he said. Once the first one is 

complete, Toshiba believes it can build additional plants for about 

$20 million each, he said.



Galena was selected as the demonstration site largely for economic 

reasons, Rosinski said. Toshiba hopes to market its reactors where 

electricity is expensive and power lines don't exist, he said, such 

as rural Alaska. Gasoline in Galena costs $3.35 a gallon, and diesel-

generated electricity is roughly twice as expensive as in Anchorage, 

even with the state power cost equalization subsidy. 



Galena was also selected because of its environmental attitude, 

Rosinski said. The community has a history of environmental 

awareness, ranging from a plastic bag ban to water quality protection 

on the Yukon River. With the Toshiba reactor in place, the village 

could eliminate the hazards of transporting, storing and burning the 

nearly 700,000 gallons of diesel it uses annually to generate 

electricity.



But another reason for selecting a small Alaska village is political, 

Rosinski said. Toshiba will need financial aid from the U.S. and 

Japanese governments to develop the 4S technology.



"We know we can build 100 of them, but the one-time costs to meet all 

the licensing is beyond any one company or country," he said.



In addition, the federal Energy Department has focused past research 

almost entirely on large-scale nuclear power. 



"We have to make the policy arguments to get our piece of the 

funding" for small-reactor study, Rosinski said. "That's where the 

strength of the Alaska delegation is important."



Stevens said recently he was glad to hear Toshiba's proposal but 

figured the Nuclear Regulatory Commission will determine whether it's 

technically feasible for rural Alaska. But even federal licensing may 

not be enough for Galena to go nuclear, he said. 



"The real problem ... is public acceptance," Stevens said.



He noted that the Air Force had to remove 10 small generators powered 

by a radioactive source in the northeastern Interior in 2001 after 

the nearest villagers learned about the material and complained.



Between local concerns and opposition from environmental groups, "I 

don't know what we're supposed to do" to replace diesel fuel in rural 

Alaska, Stevens said, "unless we get the possibility to deploy small-

scale nuclear reactors."



Nuclear watchdog and environmental groups said they know little about 

Toshiba's small reactor. But while several said the technology sounds 

promising, they note that the nuclear power industry has a history of 

making bold claims it couldn't back up.



"Back in the 1950s, they said (nuclear power) would be too cheap to 

meter," said Norm Buske, director of the Seattle-based organization 

The RadioActive Campaign. Toshiba's claim that its reactor will run 

trouble-free for 30 years sounds good, he said, but projections for 

unproven technology are just guesses.



"And what if something goes wrong?" Buske asked. Nuclear power plants 

don't usually have small accidents. "If it goes bad, it tends to go 

really, really bad," he said. "One hopes nothing will go wrong, but 

one wants to ... make sure it's all insured."



Galena is an open-minded village and would love to shake its diesel 

habit, but it will need convincing before it embraces nuclear power, 

said Peter Captain Sr., chief of Louden Tribal Council.



"Like anything new, it's going to have to be studied pretty closely 

before we agree to bring it in," Captain said. "We're not going let 

them bring it in and suffer the consequences afterward."



Though Toshiba says it will engineer the reactor to withstand 

earthquakes, forest fires and floods, Captain is reserving judgment. 



"Sure they say it's impossible to spill (radioactive material) for it 

to get out. But nothing in this world is impossible," he said.



On the other hand, the technology holds promise, he said. 



"If it works and it works to perfection, great; it might be a 

starting point for lowering the high cost of living all over the 

place," Captain said.



Galena is moving carefully, city manager Marvin Yoder said. The town 

had started a long-range look at alternatives to diesel when the 

Toshiba proposal hit town. 



"This opened our eyes to brand-new possibility," he said, all of 

which will be investigated. 



If nuclear power doesn't seem right for the village, Galena won't 

balk at turning down a $20 million gift, he said. But if residents 

like the idea and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission gives its 

blessing, the Yukon River village won't hesitate to go nuclear, Yoder 

said. 



"Somebody has to test that first one," he said.

---------------------



U.S. seeks license to ship plutonium to France



Oct 10 (CNN) The U.S. government has asked the Nuclear Regulatory 

Commission for an export license to ship 300 pounds of weapons-grade 

plutonium to France for processing into reactor fuel, prompting 

criticism from nuclear nonproliferation groups.



The plutonium shipments are part of a long-range plan to dispose of 

34 tons of excess plutonium in the government's nuclear weapons 

program by turning it into a mixed oxide fuel for use in commercial 

U.S. reactors.



The plan calls for building a plant in South Carolina to process the 

plutonium. In the meantime, the 300 pounds of plutonium powder -- 

enough, critics say, for 50 or more nuclear weapons -- must be 

shipped to France for processing so it can be used in a commercial 

reactor test run in 2005, officials said.



The Energy Department, in its request to the NRC for an export 

license, said the plutonium will be shipped across the country from 

the Los Alamos weapons laboratory in New Mexico to a Navy base at 

Charleston, South Carolina, and by a special armed and escorted ship 

to France.



The shipments are to occur sometime next year.



Energy Department spokesman Joe Davis rejected suggestions by critics 

of the program that the shipments pose a terrorist risk. "We will 

have safe and secure transport for any plutonium that we ship," Davis 

said. "Charleston and federal DOE officials are capable of making 

sure the shipments arrive safe and secure."



Davis said the department is committed to the plutonium disposition 

program, which is being conducted in conjunction with a similar 

effort in Russia. He said the reactor test runs, expected to begin in 

2005, are an essential part of the program.



But some nonproliferation groups have long opposed using converted 

plutonium in commercial power reactors, maintaining that it erases 

the separation of military and commercial nuclear programs and adds 

to the chance that some plutonium might be diverted improperly.



The shipments to Europe of some 300 pounds of plutonium in powder 

form as planned by the Energy Department "presents an unacceptable 

proliferation and safety risk and should be canceled," said Tom 

Clements, a nuclear materials expert working for Greenpeace 

International.



While the department has openly discussed its plans to convert excess 

weapons-grade plutonium to so-called MOX fuel and burn it in 

commercial power reactors, the request for an export license was not 

publicized.



The application was placed quietly on the NRC's Web site this week 

and first disclosed Thursday by Greenpeace, the environmental 

advocacy group that has strongly protested nuclear waste reprocessing 

in Europe and opposes the U.S. government's plutonium disposal 

program.



The United States is sending "a message ... that commerce in weapons 

plutonium is acceptable," said Clements.



Under a U.S. agreement with Russia, both countries planned to dispose 

of 34 tons of excess weapons-grade plutonium by turning it into MOX 

fuel. Several utilities in the United States have agreed to use the 

converted fuel, which once processed is no longer usable for weapons, 

in commercial reactors.



Duke Energy plans the first reactor test runs using MOX fuel 

assemblies at its Catawba reactor south of Charlotte, North Carolina, 

over a period of three years, beginning in 2005.



The fuel used for those tests is coming from the Los Alamos National 

Laboratory in New Mexico. It will be shipped across country to the 

Charleston Naval Weapons Station and then by ship to the port at 

Cherbourg, France. From there the plutonium will be taken to the 

Cadarache processing facility in southern France to be processed into 

MOX fuel assemblies and then returned to the United States, according 

to the Energy Department license applications.



------------------------------------

Sandy Perle

Vice President, Technical Operations

Global Dosimetry Solutions, Inc.

3300 Hyland Avenue

Costa Mesa, CA 92626



Tel:(714) 545-0100 / (800) 548-5100  Extension 2306

Fax:(714) 668-3149



E-Mail: sperle@globaldosimetry.com

E-Mail: sandyfl@earthlink.net



Personal Website: http://sandy-travels.com/

Global Dosimetry Website: http://www.dosimetry.com/



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