Michele Kearney's Nuclear Wire: Nuclear Renaissance

Showing posts with label Nuclear Renaissance. Show all posts

Monday, December 6, 2010

Observations on U.S. nuclear export control policies By Andrew C. Kadak, Ph.D

Having recently attended a Pillsbury and Nuclear Energy Institute seminar on “Export Controls for the Nuclear Renaissance,” it became clear to me why the United States is losing its leadership position in nuclear energy: The bureaucracy is winning the war over effectiveness of policy and nonproliferation.

"While the goals of nonproliferation policy are laudable and needed, the bureaucracy established to implement these laws is not. We are at a point where U.S. participation in the world nuclear expansion is diminished, allowing other nations to be faster in granting approvals to work with other nations by implementing equally effective nonproliferation policies.
What is missing is common sense. What is needed is a rewrite of legislation to eliminate centers of delay to allow the United States to compete and affect nuclear expansion on a world scale. The limitations imposed on training and information exchange are at best archaic and totally contrary to expanding our influence to the development of safe nuclear energy for peaceful purposes." More at:http://ansnuclearcafe.wordpress.com/2010/12/06/observations-on-u-s-export-control-policies/

Tuesday, November 9, 2010

Division remains on storing nuclear waste But experts at competing meetings agree that a site is still needed

While the state Commission on Nuclear Projects huddled at the Clark County Government Center to continue its opposition of the Yucca Mountain Project, a few miles away on the Strip more than 2,000 nuclear industry leaders, scientists and researchers converged for a conference titled "Nuclear Progress!"
Despite their differences, both sides acknowledge that the nation's high-level radioactive waste eventually will need a permanent disposal site.

Where that place is, when it will be ready and in what form the waste will be are some of the questions that remain a couple months after Congress zeroed out funding for the project and President Barack Obama's Blue Ribbon Commission for America's Nuclear Future began charting a new path forward.
"My opinion as a nuclear engineer is that the findings of that commission will not be much different than previous commissions. We know what the options are," said Mary Lou Dunzik-Gougar, incoming chairwoman of the American Nuclear Society's Fuel Cycle and Waste Management Division.
The best option, whether or not it is Yucca Mountain, 100 miles northwest of Las Vegas, or some other site in some other state, is deep, geologic disposal, she said.

http://www.lvrj.com/news/division-remains-on-storing-nation-s-high-level-nuclear-waste-106944248.html

Tuesday, November 2, 2010

Spectator: Nuclear Renaissance Blossoms - Without the USA by William Tucker

This summer China surpassed the United States as the world's largest producer of energy. What was noteworthy, however, is not what China has accomplished over the past 10 years -- doubling its energy capacity -- but what it is planning for its future.
Under construction now in China are 23 nuclear reactors, many originally of American design. The Chinese are building four Westinghouse AP1000s -- a model our Nuclear Regulatory Commission has not even approved yet. On the drawing boards are at least 30 more projects. By 2020, China's nuclear complex will be more than half the size of the U.S.'s aging fleet of 104.
But that's just the beginning. In July the Chinese announced plans for a 50-square-mile "Nuclear City" in Haiyan, 70 miles south of Shanghai. The city, which now houses much of China's nuclear industry, will now add an educational center for training nuclear engineers and scientists, a center for the study of radiation safety, a research lab for radiation-based industry and agriculture, a manufacturing center for nuclear parts, and a marketing center to sell nuclear power to the rest of the world.
At this point, the world probably doesn't need much persuading. Outside America's borders, the long-awaited Nuclear Renaissance is now fully under way. There are currently 60 reactors under construction around the globe, with countries as diverse as Vietnam, Brazil, Turkey, and Jordan planning nuclear programs.
What is America's role in this? Not much, except perhaps for running after everyone shouting, "Hey, wait a minute, we invented this technology." On the basis of outdated treaties and outmoded concerns about nuclear proliferation, we are currently: a) telling South Korea it cannot reprocess its own spent fuel rods, and b) telling Jordan it cannot process its own uranium. Both countries are furious at America's buttinski ways and are politely telling us to get lost. After all, both countries have many other options to which to turn.
You can read more here: http://spectator.org/archives/2010/10/31/nuclear-renaissance-blossomswi
http://nuclearstreet.com/nuclear_power_industry_news/b/nuclear_power_news/archive/2010/11/01/nuclear-renaissance-blossoms-without-the-usa-110104.aspx