John Furnessjfurness@nuclearenergyinsider.comvia marketing.fc-bi.com
4:44 PM (25 minutes ago)
to me
Hi Michele
Thank you for downloading the Nuclear Energy Insider article “Nuclear Obsolescence: Solving the Challenge through Collaboration” You can access it here
This exclusive article has been produced in conjunction with the Nuclear Operations and Maintenance Efficiency Summit USA (16-17th Nov, Charlotte NC)
The
Summit provides a unique forum for senior level nuclear professionals
to combat the most pressing operational and maintenance issues
preventing the efficient and safe running of North American NPPs. With
two days packed full of learning, professional development and
networking opportunities with the likes of Exelon, First Energy and Xcel
Energy, it must not be missed!
Just some of the top speakers this year include:
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This dome in the Pacific houses tons of radioactive waste – and it's leaking
The Runit Dome in the Marshall Islands is a hulking legacy of years
of US nuclear testing. Now locals and scientists are warning that rising
sea levels caused by climate change could cause 111,000 cubic yards of
debris to spill into the ocean
The Fukushima accident emphasised the urgent need for the nuclear
industry to address the events and natural hazards that are possible,
but seem very unlikely. Above, a member of the May 2011 IAEA
fact-finding mission visiting the seawater intake area of the Fukushima
Daini Nuclear Power Plant to assess tsunami damage. (Photo: G.
Webb/IAEA)
“There’s this continuum with regard to safety improvement,” said Ken Ellis, CEO of the World Association of Nuclear Operators (WANO)
and Chair of the International Conference on Operational Safety, held
at IAEA headquarters in Vienna last week. Nuclear safety is a work in
progress and not a status that is reached once and forever. “And the
nuclear industry has learned that the best way to improve safety is to
assist each other in that endeavour, share operating experience, share
good practices, and create a learning industry.”
This Conference, which ran from 23 to 26 June, was held to share
information and discuss the progress made in nuclear industry safety
since the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant accident four years ago.
Over 200 nuclear professionals from 42 countries and seven
international organisations attended the event. Participants included
licensees, government officials, and representatives from nuclear
utilities, regulatory bodies, the nuclear industry and academia, as well
as senior policymakers.
Between us we already have the skills, the tools and the abilities to
make operational safety a reality everywhere, every day.
Denis Flory, IAEA Deputy Director General and Head of the Department
of Nuclear Safety and Security, said, “This gathering of leadership,
oversight and support in the nuclear power field sends a very strong
message that, collectively, we recognise the importance of operational
safety in these post-Fukushima Daiichi accident times.” Unexpected (but Possible) Hazards
Addressing the implications of the 2011 Fukushima accident, Ellis
said it has taught the nuclear industry that there is a need to address
the events and natural hazards that seem highly unlikely, but which are
within the realm of possibility.
“So yes, the industry has made further improvements in safety. For
the past four years all of the plants in the world have made changes
ensuring that they are now protected against these very unlikely natural
hazards. They have been building new infrastructure, putting in extra
defences, and making our responses to significant events more robust.”
Flory added that nuclear operators and regulators should be more open
to requesting and accepting advice from external parties in the
international community as they deliberate and prepare for unlikely
hazards. Sharing and Peer Reviews Key to Safety
Operational safety improves through the efforts and initiative of the
nuclear industry as well as with support from international
organisations like the IAEA and WANO. The IAEA creates
internationally-recognised consensus-based safety standards, and
provides Member States with expert advice, guidance and peer review
services, upon request. WANO, with 438 operational nuclear power plants
under its umbrella, also provides peer reviews to its members.
Flory noted that cooperation as well as peer reviews are key to the
safe operation of nuclear facilities. “In peer reviews you have people
who are working on the same sort of facilities, coming from the same
sort of regulators, and who bring their experience, who share their
experience. During these exercises you always notice good practices. And
these good practices, with time, become the norm.
“This is what we mean when we talk about continuous improvement.” Conference Conclusions
Findings, lessons learned and conclusions reached during this conference focused on these major items:
The essential need for self-assessments, peer reviews and
regulatory inspections to address lessons learned since the Fukushima
accident and strengthen operational safety;
Improvements to external peer review coordination and the further
promulgation of good international guidance among Member States;
Many severe management and emergency response improvements have been
made, however, further human and organizational improvements on all
fronts are still needed when confronted with severe conditions;
Sharing operational experience needs to be further encouraged,
facilitated and integrated to continuously improve operational safety;
No organization works in isolation: the safety culture of the
operator is influenced by the safety culture of the regulator and vice
versa. Everything the regulator says or does not say has an effect on
the operator. The national institutions and other cultural factors
affect the regulatory framework. Corporate leadership is integral to
achieving and improving safety culture, the challenge here is that
regulators are not always allowed to conduct oversight at the corporate
management level.
The issues, challenges and safety impacts of ageing management and long-term operation of power reactors.
These conclusions and recommendations will inform and guide the IAEA’s future work on nuclear safety.
“If there is one key message that we can perhaps all take away from
this conference it is this: as nations, organisations and individuals we
may all be independent, but at the same time we are all interdependent,
and between us we already have the skills, the tools and the abilities
to make operational safety a reality everywhere, every day,” said
Flory. Broadening knowledge on operational safety
The next international conference
on safety is planned for February 2016 and will focus on the human and
organizational aspects of nuclear safety, as well as explore 30 years of
safety culture.
While the energy history of the United States is one of significant
change, three fossil fuel sources—petroleum, natural gas, and coal—have
made up at least 80% of total U.S. energy consumption for more than 100
years. Recent increases in the domestic production of petroleum liquids
and natural gas prompted shifts between the uses of fossil fuels (largely from coal-fired to natural gas-fired power generation), but the predominance of these three energy sources is likely to continue into the future.
For the first several decades of American history, families used wood
(a renewable energy source) as a primary source of energy. Coal became
dominant in the late 19th century before being overtaken by petroleum
products in the middle of the 20th century, a time when natural gas
usage also rose quickly.
Since the mid-20th century, use of coal increased again (mainly as a
primary energy source for electric power generation), and a new form of
energy—nuclear electric power—emerged. After a pause in the 1970s, the
use of petroleum and natural gas resumed growth. Petroleum consumption
decreased in recent years, but natural gas has continued to provide a
greater share of U.S. energy consumption. In the late 1980s, renewable
energy consumption (other than wood and hydroelectric) began to appear,
increasing significantly in the mid-2000s. In 2014, the renewable share
of energy consumption in the United States was the highest
(nearly 10%) since the 1930s, when wood represented a larger share of
consumption. Renewable energy is a small but growing piece of the U.S.
energy mix. The greatest growth in renewables today is in solar and wind
power, which along with geothermal and biomass, are included in other
renewables.
This week’s presentation features one of the biggest stars in the world
of nuclear energy today: Plant Vogtle’s expansion project. You’ll see
the progress on site first hand, as always Continue Reading → Read in browser »
Oklahoma attorney general challenges EPA's clean-air plan
A plan by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to reduce
emissions from coal-fired power plants would threaten the reliability
and affordability of electricity and cause substantial economic injury
to the state, Attorney General Scott Pruitt claims in a federal lawsuit
filed Wednesday. Read More Share:
Coal plant operator says Colstrip remains profitable for now
The formation of a new company to run Montana's largest power
plant has raised questions among analysts and plant detractors about how
long it can keep going, as pollution control costs rise and coal's
share of the electricity market crumbles. Read More Share:
Hydropower's Untapped Potential
At first glance, the potential for hydropower in the U.S. seems
limited. Of the country's 84,000 dams, only a small fraction produce
hydropower, and the country seems to have an appetite for tearing down
dams, not building new ones. Read More Share:
Top 5 U.S. Coal Plant Heat Rates
Peabody Energy recently ranked the top 5 cleanest burning
coal-fired power plants in the U.S. under three categories: SO2
emissions, NOx emissions and best heat rate. Read More Share:
By Keith Garner, James Rusk | Sheppard Mullin Richter & Hampton LLP, Thursday, July 2, 2015 4:00 PM
On
June 29, 2015, the Environmental Protection Agency (“EPA”) and U.S.
Army Corps of Engineers (“Corps”) published a final rule defining
“waters of the United States.”
I am sorry to have to write to you with extremely sad news. Professor
Mujid Kazimi suffered a heart attack while traveling in China two days
ago and has passed away. He was visiting Harbin Engineering University
at the time, as a member of an international advisory committee.
Almost all of you knew Mujid and will know what a tremendous loss this
is. As President Reif noted in his letter informing the MIT community of
the news this morning, “since joining our faculty 39 years ago,
[Professor Kazimi] has been a wonderful presence on campus, a thoughtful
teacher, dedicated mentor, and brilliant engineer who devoted his life
to making nuclear power safer and more economic for societies around the
world.”
While the international community knew Mujid as one of the world’s great
nuclear engineers, in NSE we also knew him as a wonderful human being.
Wise, kind, tough when he needed to be, but always gracious and
respectful toward his students and his colleagues — he was a good man,
and a true gentleman. His dedication and loyalty to his students, and to
the Department, were inspirational. This is a huge and painful loss for
our department, for MIT, and for the field of nuclear energy. But in
NSE we are also grateful for the privilege of having known and worked
with Mujid. I have no doubt that our colleagues in Mechanical
Engineering, where he was also a faculty member, feel similarly.
To contemplate Mujid’s accomplishments, you can read the obituary here.
We will let you know as soon as information about the memorial
arrangements becomes available. In the meantime, for anyone who may want
to write to Mujid’s wife Nazik, her home address is 16 Manemet Road,
Newton MA 02459. Or, if you prefer, please feel free to write to me and I
will forward your message to her.
This is a very difficult time. Mujid is irreplaceable, and the void he
leaves will not be filled. But, as you would expect — and as Mujid
himself would certainly have done in his quietly effective way — the
faculty, staff and students in the Department are rallying around.
Although this is a devastating blow, we will recover. And if you want to
understand why we will recover, a big part of the answer is the myriad
of actions to strengthen the fabric of the Department that Mujid himself
engineered over nearly 40 years of dedicated service on our faculty.
That, and his remarkable network of talented and successful alums, and,
of course, his wonderful family, are his lasting legacies. And so, as we
mourn Mujid, we should also celebrate his life, and the fact that we
had the honor of being part of it.
New Nuclear Battery May Be Available For Consumer Products
New
Nuclear Battery May Be Available For Consumer Products - See more at:
http://nucleotidings.com/article/new-nuclear-battery-may-be-available-consumer-products#sthash.vjsRH3oQ.dpuf
Nuclear
Reactors 265 - The First Russian Floating Nuclear Power Plant Is
Overbudget and Behind Schedule - See more at:
http://nucleotidings.com/article/nuclear-reactors-265-first-russian-floating-nuclear-power-plant-overbudget-and-behind#sthash.0hkAwZIn.dpuf
Nuclear Reactors 265 - The First Russian Floating Nuclear Power Plant Is Overbudget and Behind Schedule
The
United States Supreme Court held that the Environmental Protection
Agency improperly refused to consider costs when determining whether it
was “appropriate and necessary” to regulate mercury emissions from power
plants under the Clean Air Act.read more
Nuclear Policy Issues in the 2013 Edition of The Science of Military Strategy: Part 2 on PLA Second Artillery Force (PLASAF) Strategy and Capabilities
By Michael S. Chase
As highlighted in Beijing’s May
2015 defense white paper, China is modernizing its strategic missile
force as part of its focus on strengthening the PLA’s preparation for “winning informationized local wars, highlighting maritime military struggle and maritime PMS [preparation for military struggle]” (State Council Information Office,
May 2015). Indeed, the People’s
Liberation Army Second Artillery Force (PLASAF) has emerged as a
centerpiece of Chinese military modernization along with the growth of
its nuclear and conventional missile capabilities.
