Showing posts with label United States. Show all posts

Monday, November 21, 2011

Updates from the American Nuclear Society 11/21

Young nuclear professionals visit Capitol Hill

By pbowersox on Nov 21, 2011 01:00 am

One of the most exciting and important events at the American Nuclear Society’s Winter Meeting in Washington, DC, this year was the ”Capitol Hill Day” visit held on November 4. This event allowed society members the opportunity to go to Capitol Hill to meet with congress persons … Continue reading →
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Wednesday, February 2, 2011

China Initiates Thorium MSR Project.

Kirk Sorensen, China Initiates Thorium MSR Project.
http://energyfromthorium.com/2011/01/30/china-initiates-tmsr/
In this post, Kirk covers Chinese reports on their decision to institute thorium breeding Molten Salt Reactor development.

Monday, January 17, 2011

OCI, Arab Contractors In JV To Bid On Egypt's First Nuclear Power Plant

Construction services contractor Orascom Construction Industries, or OCI, Group (ORSD.L: News ) Monday reported forming a joint venture with Arab Contractors with the intention of bidding on Egypt's first nuclear power plant. The companies are also attempting to rope in nuclear technology providers into the bidding consortium. Egypt plans turning to nuclear power to meet rising electricity demands. The proposed plant will be set up in Al Dabaa, and bidding is expected to happen in February. Both OCI and Arab Contractors have a significant presence in Egypt, but with other nuclear projects expected in the region, the companies look to expanding their "geographical footprint".

Friday, January 14, 2011

KEPCO eying stakes in uranium enrichment firms -sources

State-run utility Korea Electric Power is looking to invest in uranium-enrichment operations and natural gas reserves outside of South Korea as a way to ensure raw materials for nuclear plants, a source at the company said. "We have discussed internally that acquiring stakes in overseas uranium-enrichment facilities and securing fuel will help us win overseas power plant bids," the source said. A 1991 agreement bars South Korea from owning a uranium-enrichment facility

Wednesday, January 12, 2011

Russia: Nuclear Deal Takes Effect

By ANDREW E. KRAMER

An agreement between Russia and the United States to cooperate more closely on civilian nuclear power took effect Tuesday and was hailed by both sides as a sign that a recent thaw in relations was bearing fruit. The deal, called the 123 Agreement, is intended to ease cross-border investment in nuclear power by resolving issues like liability for accidents.

N. Korea could soon pose threat to US: Gates

http://www.spacewar.com/reports/N_Korea_could_soon_pose_threat_to_US_Gates_999.html Beijing (AFP) Jan 11, 2011 US Defense Secretary Robert Gates warned Tuesday that North Korea could have long-range ballistic missiles within five years that would pose a direct threat to the United States, reflecting growing concerns over Pyongyang's arsenal. His comments represented a shift in the US view of North Korea's military power, describing the hardline regime in Pyongyang as making headway in its efforts to develop missiles that could potentially carry nuclear warheads.
"I think North Korea will have developed an intercontinental ballistic missile within that timeframe (five years)," Gates told reporters during a visit to Beijing, where he discussed tensions on the Korean peninsula.
Gates, who met Chinese President Hu Jintao on Tuesday, said he had conveyed to the Communist leaders in Beijing that their allies in Pyongyang would soon present a danger to the United States.
"With the North Koreans' continued development of nuclear weapons and their development of intercontinental ballistic missiles, North Korea is becoming a direct threat to the United States and we have to take that into account," he said.
North Korea has test-fired three ICBMs, most recently in April 2009 when one flew over Japan and landed in the Pacific.
Gates said the North could have a "limited" number of such missiles in five years, placing the US Pacific coast under potential threat.
The Pentagon chief said the United States appreciated the "helpful role" played by Beijing in recent months in containing the Korean crisis, after Pyongyang shelled a South Korean island in November, killing four people.
But he also said there had been a "sea change" in attitudes in South Korea, with the country's population outraged over Pyongyang's recent "provocations."
"Their tolerance for not responding has changed," he said.
Apart from the November 23 attack on Yeonpyeong island, the North stands accused by the South of torpedoing a warship last March with the loss of 46 lives. Pyongyang denies the charge.
The angry public reaction in South Korea had changed the "status quo" and it was vital that North Korea took actions to resolve the crisis, he said.
"Rhetoric is not enough at this point. There need to be some concrete actions by the North to demonstrate that they're truly serious about negotiation and engagement," he said.
Positive steps might include the North implementing a freeze on further missile or nuclear tests, he said.
US officials have sometimes expressed impatience with China's approach to North Korea, but Gates made a point of praising Beijing's diplomatic efforts during his visit.
However, his grave assessment of the situation on the divided peninsula and the North's weapons projects amount to renewed US pressure on China to rein in Pyongyang's leadership.
Gates said he expected the issue to come up in meetings later this week in Tokyo and Seoul, and when Hu visits Washington next week.
Pyongyang has expressed conditional willingness to return to six-nation nuclear disarmament talks that it abandoned in April 2009, a month before staging its second nuclear test.
But it fuelled regional fears in November by disclosing a uranium enrichment plant which could potentially give it a second route to a bomb.
The communist state this week officially proposed "unconditional" dialogue with Seoul, less than two months after the shelling assault.
The South rejected the offer, saying it was willing to hold government-level talks but only if the North admits responsibility for a series of provocations and confirms a commitment to scrapping its nuclear programme.
North Korea on Tuesday criticised South Korea's response, insisting it was sincere in trying to mend relations after months of tensions.

Tuesday, January 11, 2011

Building cement 'prison' for old radioactive waste

January 11, 2011 By Sandra Chung Building cement ‘prison' for old radioactive waste

Enlarge

Bacteria and hard water can give heavy metals a hard time. Scientists coax underground microbes to turn calcium-rich water and urea into a stony underground trap for contaminants.

The Cold War ended long ago, but its radioactive legacy still lingers in the water and soil of the western United States. Between 1950 and 1990, nuclear weapons materials production and processing at several federal facilities generated billions of gallons of water contaminated with radioactive byproducts.

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Maintain nuclear perspective, China told

China should 'keep a clear head' on nuclear power, concentrate more on Generation-III reactors and keep its new build ambitions for 2020 to around 100 GWe, said a state body yesterday.

The advice came from the State Council Research Office (SCRO), which makes independent policy recommendations to the State Council on strategic matters. It appeared officially in Xinhua's weekly Outlook publication.

Editorial: Trust wastes away in radioactive dump decision

Panel overlooked Texans' welfare in nuclear-waste ruling
The Texas Low-Level Radioactive Waste Disposal Compact Commission put the interests of Waste Control Specialists ahead of residents' welfare when it approved rules that would allow 36 states to send their hazardous waste to a Texas disposal facility, writes the editorial board of the Dallas Morning News. Decisions regarding the proper disposal of nuclear waste should "include a transparent process" in which profit-making is not the motivating factor, the board adds. The Dallas Morning News

US tried to protect 3 in CIA nuclear spy effort: book

http://www.spacewar.com/reports/US_tried_to_protect_3_in_CIA_nuclear_spy_effort_book_999.html Washington (AFP) Jan 10, 2011 The United States pressured Swiss authorities not to prosecute three people suspected of weapons trafficking who had been helping a CIA spy effort, according to a book released this month. In the book "Fallout: The True Story of the CIA's Secret War on Nuclear Trafficking," authors Catherine Collins and Douglas Frantz argue that pressure helped avoid prosecution of Friedrich, Urs and Marco Tinner, a father and two sons suspected of helping Abdul Qadeer Khan, considered the father of Pakistan's atomic bomb.
"Senior members of the George W. Bush administration and US intelligence officials intervened at the highest level of the Swiss government to pressure it to destroy evidence in a criminal investigation of nuclear trafficking," the authors said.
"The Americans also used their influence to persuade the Swiss to abandon plans to prosecute six CIA agents for espionage."
According to the book, CIA agents in 2003 copied the contents of a computer of Marco Tinner, where they found plans for a Chinese atomic weapon from the 1960s and documents from the Pakistani nuclear program.
The CIA was trying to scope out the Khan network, which is believed to have sold nuclear weapons technology to Libya, Iran and North Korea, according to the book.
The authors said the CIA in 1999 recruited as an informant Urs Tinner, who had been directing construction of a uranium enrichment plant for Libya. The father and brother were recruited later.
The three Tinners were arrested in 2004 by Swiss authorities who seized computers with much of this information.
But after repeated pressure from Washington, which did not want to compromise the spy effort, Switzerland destroyed the documents in 2008. The pressure came from the highest levels in Washington, including then secretary of state Condoleezza Rice.
"The conversation was conducted in the polite language of international diplomacy, but the meaning was clear: if the Swiss didn't dispose of the cases against the Tinners and the CIA, the United States would portray them as a hindrance to worldwide counterproliferation efforts and roll out the years of warnings that went unheeded by Swiss officials," the book said.

Monday, January 10, 2011

Russia keen to partner India in tapping thorium cycle

Russia offers to develop fast-neutron reactor with India
Russia and India are in talks to collaborate on a "new generation" fast-neutron reactor in a deal that would tap India's thorium fuel cycle, the Indian Department of Atomic Energy announced. If the agreement pushes through, thorium and uranium-233 would power electricity output from the reactors under India's three-stage nuclear energy program. The Hindu Business Line (India)

Graham, DeMint: Recycle nation’s nuke waste in SC

Graham, DeMint push for reprocessing at Savannah River Site
The Blue Ribbon Panel on America's Nuclear Future should consider utilizing the Savannah River Site in South Carolina to reprocess used nuclear fuel, according to the state's Republican senators, Lindsey Graham and Jim DeMint. "I'm very willing for the Savannah River Site to be the research and the development facility for the nation to make that idea a reality," said Graham. "The goal of reprocessing and recycling is to reduce your storage footprint, right?"
Read more: http://www.thestate.com/2011/01/08/1636053/graham-demint-recycle-nations.html#ixzz1Ag8zVwpZ

Friday, January 7, 2011

US Nuclear energy generation for 2010 will be close to best years in 2007 and 2008

For the first 11 months of 2010, nuclear generation is 0.9% higher than the same period in 2009. For 2010, nuclear generation was 732.9 billion kilowatt-hours compared to 726.3 bkWh for the same period in 2009 and 734.5 bkWh in 2007 (the record year for nuclear generation). In 2007, nuclear power generated 806.5 billion kilowatt-hours (KWh) in the U.S.

NEI is reporting that 2007 was the peak for US nuclear generation but the World Nuclear Association information is that the peak was 2008 with 809 billion kWh.

For November 2010, nuclear generation was 62.3 billion kilowatt-hours compared to 59.1 billion kWh in November 2009. The average capacity factor for November 2010 was 85.9% compared to 81.4% in November 2009.

December capacity factors have been in the mid to high 90% range

2007 finished in December with 72 billion kWh for near 100% capacity. 2010 will probably have 69-72.5 billion kWh for about 801.8 to 805 billion kWh. This will be up from 799 billion kWh in 2009.

Redefining Denuclearization in Korea - Bulletin of Atomic Scientists

Article Highlights

The extent and sophistication of North Korea's centrifuge program demonstrates how poorly export controls limit a determined proliferator. Its current cooperation with the likes of Iran and Burma raise the specter of Pyongyang operating an A.Q. Khan-style import-export proliferation network.
Pyongyang would greatly increase the current nuclear threat if it expands HEU production at undisclosed sites, increases the size of its nuclear arsenal substantially, or conducts more tests to enhance its sophistication.
Not only must the international community work to limit Pyongyang's nuclear buildup, but the United States must conduct a thorough review of its policies on Northeast Asia security.

Thursday, January 6, 2011

Potential Job Boom in Nuclear Energy as Industry is poised for Enormous Growth

One sure thing for future employment is in nuclear. Now with three decades past the partial meltdown of a reactor at Three Mile Island and further expansion of nuclear power at a standstill, years of stagnant hiring comes to, as the American Physical Society, an independent group of physicists put it, “a greatly reduced interest among undergraduates in nuclear science and engineering programs. This quote is from a recent report by the Society finding that the number of college nuclear engineering programs has dropped from 66 in the early 1980s to 30 in 2008. (page 4 of the pdf file)
http://oilprice.com/Alternative-Energy/Nuclear-Power/Potential-Job-Boom-in-Nuclear-Energy-as-Industry-is-poised-for-Enormous-Growth.html

Challenges of Digital Control Rooms for nuclear power plants

The editorial team at the American Nuclear Society blog would like to publish an article on the challenges of digital control rooms for nuclear power plants. This can be on conversion of an existing plant or building a new one. The blog is located at: http://ansnuclearcafe.wordpress.com

In addition to writing for the blog, ANS also invites experts to propose articles for ANS News. If you are interested, please contact Laura Scheele, Rick Michal, or myself. I will be available to help an author craft an article suitable for the blog format. Rick will provide editorial guidance for ANS news.

Please share this invitation with colleagues. Thanks.

Saturday, January 1, 2011

US helps Ukraine get rid of enriched uranium

Washington (AFP) Dec 31, 2010 The United States has helped Ukraine remove 50 kilos (111 pounds) of highly enriched uranium from three Ukrainian sites to be disposed of in Russia, US officials announced Friday. The move was made as part of a pledge by Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych at a nuclear security summit in Washington in April to remove all his country's highly enriched uranium -- which can be used to make atomic weapons -- by 2012.
"This action brings us all one step closer to securing all vulnerable nuclear materials," President Barack Obama said in a statement.
"These actions represent continued Ukrainian leadership in making sure that nuclear weapons never fall into the hands of a terrorist, and working toward a world without nuclear weapons."
In April 2009, Obama promised in a landmark speech in Prague to work towards a world without nuclear weapons. But he has admitted he does not expect to see that goal reached in his lifetime.
"The removal of this highly enriched uranium from Ukraine is a major milestone that brings us one step closer to US President Obama's goal of securing all nuclear material around the world within four years," said Thomas D'Agostino, director of the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA).
Five flights in the last half of December were made to remove the highly enriched uranium, fly it to Russia in specially designed caskets, and replace it with low enriched uranium for Ukraine, the NNSA said in its statement.
"NNSA worked closely with Ukrainian authorities, the International Atomic Energy Agency, the Russian Federation, and the United Kingdom to complete this very complicated operation," it added.
As part of the deal, NNSA flew two air shipments of low enriched uranium -- which cannot be used to make a bomb -- to replace the highly enriched uranium located at the Kiev Institute for Nuclear Research and the Kharkiv Institute for Physics and Technology.
"The remaining three flights removed fresh HEU from the facilities in Kiev and Kharkiv as well as the Sevastopol National University of Nuclear Industry and Energy," the NNSA statement added.
The United States also provided Ukraine with new safety equipment and agreed to work with Kiev and Moscow to build a state-of-the-art neutron source facility at the Kharkiv Institute, it added.
"The low enriched uranium and nuclear safety equipment provided to Ukraine in connection with this shipment will support Ukraine's development of safe and secure nuclear energy," Obama added in his statement.
In May, the NNSA working with Ukrainian authorities also successfully removed 56 kilograms (123 pounds) of Russian-origin highly-enriched uranium spent fuel which was taken to Russia by train for storage and disposal.
The US nuclear administration said it had now removed or helped to dispose of 3,085 kilograms (6,700 pounds) of highly enriched uranium and plutonium, adding that represented "enough material to make more than 120 nuclear weapons."

Thursday, December 30, 2010

N.Korea can build a nuclear bomb a year: ex US defence chief

Report: N.Korea increases flight drills despite fuel pinchSeoul (AFP) Dec 29, 2010 - A North Korean jet has crashed as the country intensified air force exercises following its attack last month on a South Korean frontline island which sent tensions soaring, a newspaper said Wednesday. A MiG fighter disappeared off radar screens last week as the impoverished communist state held unusually extensive winter flight drills, the Korea JoongAng Daily said, quoting a military source. North Korea usually keeps flight drills to a minimum because of severe fuel shortages. The paper said there had been a 150 percent increase in the number of military drills involving all three services compared to December 2009. "It shows that the North Korean military has been very tense after the attack on Yeonpyeong Island," it quoted the source as saying. A defence ministry spokesman declined to comment on military intelligence matters.

The North also carried out a corps-scale live-fire drill in response to a joint live-fire exercise by South Korea's army and air force last Thursday, Yonhap news agency said earlier this week. The news agency said the North has test-fired artillery and multiple-rocket launchers five times this month alone. The Korea JoongAng Daily said there have been frequent sightings of North Korean submarines near the disputed Yellow Sea border and artillery was moved nearer to the coast. The South has staged a series of military exercises, including one with the United States, since the North shelled the island near the Yellow Sea border on November 23 and killed four people, including two civilians.

http://www.spacedaily.com/reports/NKorea_can_build_a_nuclear_bomb_a_year_ex_US_defence_chief_999.html Tokyo (AFP) Dec 29, 2010 Former US defence chief William Perry said North Korea was capable of producing one nuclear bomb a year and that Washington should consider high-level talks to defuse tension, in an interview published Wednesday. Perry, who served as defence secretary under president Bill Clinton, told the Nikkei daily that the US government should review its policies towards North Korea and impose economic sanctions to reiterate its stance against Pyongyang's nuclear programmes.
Then, Washington should coordinate policies with Seoul and Tokyo before eventually sending a special envoy for direct talks with Pyongyang, Perry told the Nikkei.
Perry suggested former secretary of state Madeleine Albright and former US senator Sam Nunn, an expert on nuclear arms reduction, as possible candidates for such talks, the Nikkei said.
The interview was released in Japanese, with no original English text immediately available.
If North Korea dedicated all of its recently unveiled uranium enrichment facility to making weapons-grade fuel, it could build one nuclear bomb a year, Perry told the paper.
Perry said he had been briefed by American scientist Siegfried Hecker, who recently toured a new uranium enrichment plant with 2,000 uranium-enriching centrifuges at North Korea's Yongbyon nuclear complex.
The facility is likely designed for making fuel for a civilian reactor and not bombs, but there is no way to confirm whether North Korea has another facility to build nuclear weapons, Perry said.
The former defence chief said he still believed in diplomatic solutions to the North Korean crisis.

Fueling America’s nuclear renaissance by reprocessing nuclear fuel By Dr. Bernard L. Weinstein

Fueling America’s nuclear renaissance by reprocessing nuclear fuel

By Dr. Bernard L. Weinstein - 12/21/10 11:43 AM ET

Earlier this year, President Barack Obama did an about-face and started voicing support for a revival of America’s nuclear power industry. To that end, he proposed a sizeable increase in federal loan guarantees to stimulate the construction of new commercial reactors. Then a few weeks ago, Department of Energy (DOE) Secretary Steven Chu stated that Congress should include nuclear power as part of any renewable energy mandates.

But at the same time, the president continues to insist that Yucca Mountain in Nevada — the intended repository for spent nuclear fuel — be abandoned as a disposal site even before it opens. Should this happen, some 60,000 metric tons of spent fuel will remain in temporary on-site storage at 65 plants, and the power industry’s interest in building new nuclear plants could quickly evaporate.

Since 1982, utilities have paid almost $17 billion into the Nuclear Waste Fund, an account administered by the DOE that continues to grow by $800 million annually, to cover the costs of permanent disposal. Even after spending $10 billion at Yucca Mountain, with accumulated interest the fund balance is currently around $20 billion. Not surprisingly, 16 utilities, along with the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners, have sued the DOE to halt further collection of fees, arguing that the country no longer has a disposal plan after ruling out Yucca Mountain.

The Obama administration now says it supports the temporary storage of spent fuel at power plants while technology paves the way for an alternative solution. In fact, that technology already exists — nuclear fuel reprocessing. Given the uncertainty over the future of Yucca Mountain, and the potential explosion of litigation that will only increase taxpayer exposure, why not rethink the decades-old ban on this technology? The ban was first imposed by President Jimmy Carter in the mid-1970s on the grounds it could lead to the proliferation of nuclear weapons. But that hasn’t stopped France, Britain, Russia, China and South Korea from pursuing fuel reprocessing; and no plutonium has ever been diverted from recycling facilities for weapons production in these countries.

With reprocessing, a technology that was developed in the United States, valuable plutonium and uranium in spent fuel are removed and then chemically processed into a mixed-oxide fuel that can be used again in a reactor to generate additional electricity. Up to 95 percent of the spent fuel volume can be reprocessed, leaving only about 5 percent to decay in a few centuries. Importantly, reducing the volume of spent fuel through reprocessing would simplify the challenge of storage and disposal. What’s more, squeezing more energy out of spent fuel would be beneficial both to the nation’s economy and the environment. By using reprocessed fuel, we generate more electricity for American homes and businesses while at the same time reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

One reprocessing facility is already being constructed in South Carolina to recycle surplus plutonium from nuclear weapons into a mixed-oxide fuel for use in nuclear power plants. Some of the funds that have accumulated in the Nuclear Waste Fund could be used to build a similar plant for recycling used fuel from commercial nuclear facilities.

About a year ago the DOE appointed a blue ribbon commission to evaluate policy options for a safe, long-term solution to nuclear waste disposal. The 15-member Commission on America’s Nuclear Future, co-chaired by former Congressman Lee Hamilton of Indiana and former National Security Advisor Brent Scowcroft, and including scientists, industry representatives, and heads of environmental research organizations, will issue its final report by January 2012.

Recycling of spent nuclear fuel should be at the top of the Commission’s agenda. Reprocessing, along with centralized interim storage, makes a lot more sense than banking used fuel at nuclear plants indefinitely. At the same time, we should be doing everything we reasonably can to advance America’s nuclear renaissance, a task made more difficult by the ongoing uncertainty regarding the final disposition of spent fuel.

Dr. Weinstein is associate director of the Maguire Energy Institute in the Cox School of Business at Southern Methodist University in Dallas. Between 1985 and 1995, he was with the speakers’ bureau of the Nuclear Energy Institute. His email address is bweinstein@smu.edu

Restart for nuclear plants

New approaches needed to support new nuclear projects
The drive for new nuclear plants can be maximized if the financial and regulatory risks are minimized, writes L. Preston Bryant Jr., a former secretary of natural resources in Virginia. Lawmakers need to reshape the terms of loan guarantees to shield companies from economic uncertainties, he argues. State and federal regulators should also curtail their processes to lessen the upfront funding necessary for building, he adds. The News & Observer (Raleigh, N.C.)

Michele Kearney's Nuclear Wire

Monday, November 21, 2011

Young nuclear professionals visit Capitol Hill

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Wednesday, February 2, 2011

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Monday, January 17, 2011

OCI, Arab Contractors In JV To Bid On Egypt's First Nuclear Power Plant

Friday, January 14, 2011

KEPCO eying stakes in uranium enrichment firms -sources

Wednesday, January 12, 2011

Russia: Nuclear Deal Takes Effect

By ANDREW E. KRAMER

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Tuesday, January 11, 2011

Building cement 'prison' for old radioactive waste

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Friday, January 7, 2011

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