Michele Kearney's Nuclear Wire

Wednesday, November 17, 2010

Nuclear Industry Workforce Education Revitalizes Skilled Labor and Manufacturing Careers

In 1950 manufacturing accounted for more than 30 percent of all U.S. employment. These skilled labor careers provided an unprecedented standard of living for more than two decades following the end of World War II, allowing millions of Americans to purchase homes and autos and pay for their children to go to college.
By 2006, manufacturing employment shrunk to a mere 10 percent of U.S. employment and with it the bulk of America’s well-paying skilled labor careers. Prognosticators predicted manufacturing’s ultimate demise as a significant driver of the American economy. But a look at the U.S. nuclear industry tells a different story: a narrative where job growth in the skilled trades is on an upward trend and the industry can serve as a role model for the revitalization of the U.S. manufacturing sector through the creation of new careers and economic expansion. In fact, it already has.
At this point 13 license applications for up to 22 new reactors have been filed with the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), and the industry expects four-to-eight new plants to be operating by the end of the decade. Construction activities already have begun at plant sites in Georgia and South Carolina. As a consequence, over the past three years more than 15,000 careers, not just jobs, have been created as the nuclear industry has invested over $4 billion in new nuclear plant development. Plans call for the investment of another $8 billion to be in position to supply the materials needed to begin large-scale construction in 2011-2012. Many of these careers don’t require a college degree, but have earnings potential that equals, and even exceeds, that of college graduates. Teachers can play an instrumental part in creating awareness among their students of these careers.
K-12 educators should incorporate what we call “Energy Literacy” into their teaching plans and thus can play a significant role in encouraging their students to consider the career possibilities as electrical and mechanical technicians, radiation monitors, health physicists and engineers of all kinds. The nuclear industry has resources to help educators explain to students what career opportunities are available in nuclear power. For example, FREE curriculum and lesson plans are available from groups such as the National Education Foundation and The Ford Foundation on all sectors of energy production including nuclear power. The industry offers expert speakers from diverse nuclear-oriented groups including Women in Nuclear, the North American Young Generation in Nuclear and the American Nuclear Society, and there is a successful nuclear energy mentoring program known as Power Set that could be replicated around the country.
But is there proof of a revival in the American nuclear industry that warrants teachers’ interest? You bet there is. More at:

http://www.cleanenergyinsight.org/energy-insights/nuclear-industry-workforce-education-revitalizes-skilled-labor-and-manufacturing-careers/

A US-South Korea Nuclear Pact from AsiaSentinel

A stronger, more modern South Korea needs to modify its reprocessing spent fuel pact

A stronger, more modern South Korea needs to modify its reprocessing spent fuel pact

It appears, in the wake of US President Barack Obama's visit to South Korea last week that the US still has reservations about allowing Seoul to reprocess spent plutonium for industrial uses, partly because of Japan's concerns, having been the only country that has had a bomb dropped on it, and because of the dilemma of the outlaw nuclear program in North Korea.

The decades-old atomic agreement between South Korea and the US – signed when South Korea's economy was about the size of North Korea's today – is to expire in March 2014. Under the terms of the agreement, Seoul is barred from reprocessing used plutonium or enriching uranium – two processes that in addition to creating nuclear fuel can be used to produce fissile material for a weapon.

There is a basic perception in Seoul that the ROK-US nuclear energy agreement, outdated as it is, must be revised to embrace industrial demands of nuclear energy as well as an enhanced role for South Korea in the world. The pact was initially signed in 1972 and revised in 1974 in the height of the cold war.

But beyond the idea of increased demands for nuclear power, any consensus is unlikely to be made because of a sharp difference of perspectives over whether it's appropriate to allow Seoul to reprocess and enrich spent fuel which could make the development of nuclear weapons possible, if not impossible in theory. More at:

http://www.asiasentinel.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=2826&Itemid=182

America's Asian Nuclear Challenge Historical advantage may not be enough to ensure success in Asia's electrification race.

Asia's ongoing infrastructure boom has induced a frenzy of activity on the part of many Western executives keen to get a piece of the action—especially in the power-generation sector. Despite over 120 years of project development experience, Western firms' success in Asia's electrification race is far from assured. The challenges facing Western companies competing to build nuclear plants offer a telling case study. More at:
http://www.linkedin.com/share?viewLink=&sid=s173633304&url=http%3A%2F%2Flnkd.in%2FUFWPRz&urlhash=5uW2&pk=network_update_snippet&poster=79579150&uid=5410703569995173888&trk=NUS_UNIU_SHARE-title

NATO, Nuclear Security and the Terrorist Threat by Sam Nunn

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/17/opinion/17iht-ednunn.html?_r=1

Over the past two decades, no geopolitical space has undergone as dramatic a transformation as that between the Atlantic and the Urals. During the Cold War, a devastating conventional and nuclear war on the European continent was a very real possibility; today, no state faces this type of deliberate existential threat.

Republican Go-to Guy on Nukes Keeps Obama Administration Twisting in the Wind on New START

http://www.fpif.org/blog/republican_go-to_...t=Google+Reader

Tuesday, November 16, 2010

Al Qaeda's Nuclear Ambitions

Ayman al-Zawahiri promises to make his next smoking gun a mushroom cloud.

http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2010/11/16/al_qaedas_nuclear_ambitions

Energy Tells Tale of Fading West, Booming East by Llewellyn King

Energy Tells Tale of Fading West, Booming East

The patient is the United States and the diagnosis is "Asia shock."

It is a psychological disease with physical symptoms and no known cure. However there are therapies, therapies of trade, diplomacy and fiscal restraint at home.

As President Barack Obama jetted around Asia, he may have pondered not so much the economic power that waits East of Suez, but why it took so long to emerge. And why the patient is in denial.

In the 18th and 19th centuries, Asia was for the taking by the European colonialists; and take they did.

Foremost was Britain with India, Ceylon, Burma, Malaya and coastal enclaves in China. France lumped together the countries of Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos as Indochina. Holland, of shrinking consequence in Europe, dominated Indonesia. Portugal had its toehold in Goa and Macao. Spain dallied in the Philippines till booted out by the emerging power of the time, the United States.

Only Japan was sufficiently organized to be a local maker of mischief in Korea and China.

Anyone looking at brawling, muscular, talented Asia today has to wonder why the giants slept for so long, and how the colonial masters were so ignorant of the abilities of their subservient people.

Blame Britain.

During the 15th century, the Age of Discovery, exploration was driven by a lust for wealth in the form of spices, gold and silver. Once the Industrial Revolution got under way in late 18th-century Britain, the lust was for those things plus raw materials to feed the factories. The newly wealthy in London and the south, with their lavish country homes, wanted tea and coffee, herbs and spices, tropical goodies and strange flavors from the East.

The colonial compact, more implied than written, was simple: They--the Asians--grow and harvest; the West manufactured.

Britain, followed by its rivals, set the policy, and in so doing kept the Industrial Revolution at home; it was not for export.

While the British like to export their values, their justice systems and, in a tepid way, Anglicism (Catholic countries were more aggressive in the export of religion), they kept their industrial revolution at home, and all of the secondary industry it spawned. It was a black day in London when it was learned that industrial espionage had allowed spinning technology to escape to America.

To this day, the remnants of the system which ruled that "value-added will take place in Britain" can be seen in British specialty products. The great tea-packing houses are still in Britain and Ireland, and some cottons are still woven in Britain.

No factories sprang up in the Asian empires of the European colonists. No technology transfer was encouraged, and the enormous latent talent of Asia went unrecognized.
Japan, without colonial influence, industrialized in the first part of the 20th century, but mostly to mechanize its military.

It was not until after World War II that Asia stirred and threw off the European constraints. Ironically, along with Japan, the British colonies of Hong Kong and Singapore showed the way.

If China was slow to industrialize, it has charged ahead, changing the balance in the world and embracing the central truth of the Industrial Revolution: You need energy to make and move goods.

China has signed up developing countries' oil and gas suppliers at a dizzying rate. In contrast, the United States looks at energy--the indispensable element in industrial output--through a post-industrial, environmental lens.

According to the World Nuclear Association, China has 39 nuclear reactors planned or on order and 23 under construction. There are 120 on its wish list. The United States has nine on its wish list and is building two.

The United States can no longer forge the large components for nuclear reactors. This can be done only in Japan; but China and South Korea are building new facilities to do the work.
The U.S. dominates the world in two disparate arenas: defense technology and entertainment. In nearly all else, it is slipping.

It will be a shocking day for Americans when people from another country walk on the moon, where astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin trod in 1969. But it will happen.

Llewellyn King is executive producer and host of "White House Chronicle" on PBS. His e-mail is lking@kingpublishing.com.

Iran Holds ‘Biggest’ Air Defense Drill Yet Over Nuke Sites from Danger Room by Adam Rawnsley

http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2010/11/iran-holds-biggest-air-defense-drill-yet-over-nuke-sites/
All this week, Iran’s military will be strutting, flexing its muscles and showing its tail-feathers around its nuclear sites. Begun, this “Guardians of the Islamic Skies” air defense drill has.
Today, Iran kicked off one of its periodic air defense exercise, dubbed “the biggest” yet by Tehran’s state-run media. The drills, packaged with bravado about Iran’s air defense capabilities and focused on the protection of its nuclear infrastructure, are part of the Mullahs’ periodic saber-rattling against rumors of attacks by the United States and Israel.
This exercise will last five days and feature Iran’s elite Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) and its paramilitary Basij forces joining in. Already this week, Iran has tested its radar and air defense missile systems against Iranian planes playing enemy forces, according to the wargames spokesman Brigadier General Hamid Arjangi. Its radar systems, Arjangi says, have already identified 194 previously unknown flying routes outside the country’s airspace and four within it.
Iran has a history of dubious weapons claims. So take with about a ton of salt any bragging from the Islamic Republic about its cool new military toys. In the past, Iran has tried to spin a SCUD as a “space missile,” oversold the capabilities of its homebrew drone, announced a “new” anti-aircraft artillery that wasn’t quite so new and photoshopped a purported Shahab-3 missile launch to make it look more fearsome.

With that in mind, keep your eyes out for any hint of a substitute for the S-300 anti-aircraft missiles it thought Russia was going to deliver. The S-300 missiles would have upgraded the range of Iran’s air defense systems to 200km – a boost from the 10km range provided by the TOR M-1 air defense missiles – and put a severe crimp in any U.S. or Israeli plans to bomb the country’s nuclear facilities. But the Russians recently nixed the long-promised system as a result of pressure from and improved ties with the United States. Iran may try to pretend that it’s already get a better missile system in its back pocket.
With some smack-talking and legal threats against Russia thrown in for good measure, Iran has made contradictory claims about its plans for an S-300 substitute. In August when the missiles’ sale was looking particularly imperiled, Iran’s semi-official Fars News Agency floated a story, disputed by western intelligence services, that the country had received four S-300 systems from Belarus. That same month, Iran’s defense minister announced the country would build its own damn S-300. And wouldn’t you know it, last week Iran said the homemade S-300 it had waited years for the Russians to deliver was already undergoing field modification and ready for testing just three months later.
Iran has made similarly bold claims about a new advanced and indigenously-built air defense radar. It announced this week that it was building an upgraded air defense radar system with a 3,000km range, an apparent improvement over its older 400km range systems. So far, the country has been unable to build a comprehensive, overlapping and interconnected radar network and has thus opted for a point defense, focused on protecting specific strategic facilities. In 2009, Iran restructured its military and created a distinct air defense command, split off from its air forces and placed under Brigadier General Ahmad Miqani, in order to increase the maneuverability and coherence of its air defenses.
Photo: Mehr
See Also:

SPX to Demonstrate Long-Term Commitment to China Market With Announcement of New $40 Million Manufacturing Campus to be Constructed Near Shanghai

SHANGHAI, Nov. 16, 2010 /PRNewswire/ -- SPX Corporation today reiterated its long-term commitment to China and the Asia-Pacific region with an official ground-breaking ceremony marking the start of construction of its new 53-acre China manufacturing campus, which is being built in the FOHO Economic Development Zone.
The planned campus represents a $40 million investment by SPX over the next three years to support the company's business expansion in China and facilitate product localization efforts serving both China and global markets. The campus is intended to provide integrated services for all aspects of SPX business activities in key growth areas: global infrastructure, process equipment and diagnostic tools. In addition to manufacturing, the planned campus will house facilities dedicated to research and development, logistics and customer service functions.
"SPX continues to see significant demand for its products and services in China and the Asia-Pacific region," said SPX Asia-Pacific President Bob Foreman during a ground-breaking ceremony at the site. "This new state-of-the-art manufacturing campus underscores our long-term commitment to growing SPX's presence in China and the broader region. It will strengthen the support we provide to our customers in China, foster greater collaboration across all of our businesses, enhance our products and services and further develop the skills of our nearly 3,000 employees in China.
"More importantly, we believe our increased emphasis on product localization and business consolidation will enable us to further elevate the quality of our services through closer collaboration with our Chinese customers," Foreman added.
Completion of the first phase of the facility is anticipated by the end of 2011. About 1,000 SPX employees are expected to work at the new campus. The planned campus will include facilities to provide employee training and development opportunities, and serve as an incubator of future leaders in the region. These facilities are also planned to accommodate the education needs of customers and suppliers.
SPX has been in China since 1994 and provides products and services to support China's growing energy infrastructure and is involved in many highly complex engineering solutions in China. SPX has been awarded more than 55 dry cooling projects in China since 2002, representing more than 40 GW of power generation capacity. The company has also contracted with Westinghouse Electric Co. to provide highly specialized squib valves to four AP 1000 nuclear plants being built in Sanmen and Haiyang. Two of the new plants are being constructed by Sanmen Nuclear Power Company Ltd. and the other two by Shandong Nuclear Power Company Ltd.
SPX also offers food and beverage systems to meet the increasing demand for high quality processing solutions for China's rapidly expanding food industry. And the company has taken strategic steps to enhance its portfolio of highly-engineered diagnostic tools and custom services for China's growing automotive industry.More at:
http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/spx-to-demonstrate-long-term-commitment-to-china-market-with-announcement-of-new-40-million-manufacturing-campus-to-be-constructed-near-shanghai-108399029.html

Uranium Demand Rising as China `Piles Up' Contracts, Paladin Energy Says

Paladin Energy Ltd., the Australian mining company producing uranium in Africa, expects prices to keep rising as China drives demand for nuclear fuel.
China has “piled up” contracts to import uranium, Paladin Chief Executive Officer John Borshoff told analysts on a call today. “Although they have sucked a chunk out of new production, they are nowhere near their target of acquiring in the vicinity of 45 to 50 million pounds per annum by 2020.”
Paladin, which operates the Langer Heinrich mine in Namibia and the Kayelekera project in Malawi, forecasts increasing uranium demand as countries such as China expand the use of nuclear power to curb emissions from burning coal. The Perth- based company aims to double uranium oxide output to almost 14 million pounds by 2016 from a projected 7 million pounds in the year ending June 30, 2011.More at:

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-11-16/paladin-energy-chief-executive-borshoff-says-demand-for-uranium-escalating.html

Venezuela in Talks With China on Power Projects After Shortages

Nov. 16 (Bloomberg) -- Venezuela is in talks with China for 3,000 megawatts of new electricity projects as it seeks to boost production capacity following a crisis earlier this year that forced power rationing to avoid a collapse of the national grid.

Chinese companies may work on at least five projects to build hydroelectric reservoirs and thermoelectric plants in Venezuela as the nation seeks to boost capacity by 18,700 megawatts, Electricity Minister Ali Rodriguez said yesterday in an interview in Caracas, without naming the companies involved.

Venezuela is strengthening ties with China and tapping Russia for help to build its first nuclear plant to diversify power sources. The El Nino weather phenomenon caused drought earlier this year, cutting water levels at the hydro dams that provide 73 percent of the country’s power. The dry period led to Venezuela’s worst power crisis in six years, prompting cuts to production lines at state-run aluminum and steel companies.

“A crisis like the one we had this year will not be repeated,” Rodriguez said. “All of these investments will allow us to respond to any new problem El Nino might throw up.”

Venezuela is in talks with China on reservoirs that could generate 1,000 megawatts on the Cuchiveros River in the south and the second stage of the development of the Uribante Caparo reservoir that would produce 500 megawatts, Rodriguez said.

http://www.businessweek.com/news/2010-11-16/venezuela-in-talks-with-china-on-power-projects-after-shortages.html

Alleged North Korean Reactor Flouts U.N., South Says

If North Korea is indeed constructing a light-water nuclear reactor, it would be in contravention to U.N. Security Council resolutions prohibiting the aspiring nuclear power from any nuclear work, South Korea's top diplomat said yesterday (see GSN, Nov. 15).
South Korean Foreign Minister Kim Sung-hwan said to journalists,"that would be running counter to U.N. resolutions and it is obvious that it wouldn't be conducive to the current situation," the Yonhap News Agency reported.
Siegfried Hecker, a former head of the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico, this week said the North was building the experimental reactor at its Yongbyon nuclear complex. Hecker was returning from a trip to the isolated state when he made the remarks.
Kim said additional time is required to probe Hecker's report as the Stalinist state has no background in constructing light-water reactors.
He also disputed Pyongyang's repeated assertion that it has the right to develop civilian atomic power, saying the North gave up that right when it withdrew from the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty in 2003 (Yonhap News Agency I, Nov. 15).
Responding to the light-water reactor report, the U.S. State Department yesterday again called on Pyongyang to demonstrate its commitment to denuclearization, Yonhap reported.
"We expect North Korea to live up to its international obligations," State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley said. "As it does, we are prepared to have conversations with North Korea about its long-term requirements. But first and foremost, North Korea has to live up to its stated commitment" (Hwang Doo-hyong, Yonhap News Agency II, Nov. 15).
The Obama administration has refused calls to return to the stalled six-nation talks -- which also involve China, Japan, the two Koreas, and Russia -- until Pyongyang shows it is sincere about nuclear disarmament. Washington fears a repeat performance from the North whereby Pyongyang takes some limited steps toward denuclearization only to reverse course once it has extracted some international concessions.
North Korea pulled out of nuclear negotiations in April 2009 and one month later detonated its second nuclear test device. That action earned it heightened U.N. Security Council sanctions that are thought to have left the already impoverished nation badly weakened.
Meanwhile, North Korea's state-controlled media yesterday announced former U.S. State Department official Morton Abramowitz had traveled to Pyongyang with a retinue of U.S. experts on North Korea. No further information was provided, Yonhap reported (Yonhap News Agency III, Nov. 15).
http://www.globalsecuritynewswire.org/gsn/nw_20101116_4622.php

Vt. town starts to plan future after nuke plant

VERNON, Vt. (AP) — The town of Vernon is beginning to think about its future if the Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant shuts down when its current license expires in 2012.http://www.necn.com/11/16/10/Vt-town-starts-to-plan-future-after-nuke/landing_newengland.html?&blockID=3&apID=d0eb0b09ba884c87b099ce544e47c24d

Daily: nuclear power plant to be built by Koreans?

Lithuania government is believed to have shortlisted two bidders to build the Lithuanian Nuclear Power Plant. Lithuanian business daily Verslo Zinios wrote this week that it had received unconfirmed reports that the one of the bidding consortia is led by Korea Electric Power Corp and the other by Electricite de France (EDF), according to The Lithuania Tribune.http://balticbusinessnews.com/article/2010/11/16/Daily_nuclear_power_plant_to_be_built_by_Koreans

FACTBOX-China's nuclear power plants and plans Reuters Africa The following lists China's nuclear power plants already operating, under construction, approved by the government or planned.

BEIJING, Nov 16 (Reuters) - China National Nuclear Corp
(CNNC) started commercial operation of a 650-MW nuclear
generating unit in Qinshan in coastal Zhejiang province last
month, in line with earlier Reuters report. [ID:nBJK000071]

China now has 13 working reactors with 10.8 gigawatts
of total generating capacity.

China's official nuclear capacity target for 2020 remains 40
GW, less than 5 percent of its current total installed capacity,
or enough to power Spain. However, officials said China is
considering raising the goal to 80 GW or more for 2020.

The following lists China's nuclear power plants already
operating, under construction, approved by the government or
planned. More at:

http://af.reuters.com/article/energyOilNews/idAFTOE68F07920101116

SENATE REPORT ON THE NEW START TREATY

SENATE REPORT ON THE NEW START TREATY

The rationale for the New START Treaty between the United States and Russia on reductions in nuclear weapons was addressed at length in an October 1 report from the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. On September 16, the Committee recommended ratification of the Treaty, which awaits consideration by the full Senate.

The 141-page Committee report (large pdf) explained the terms of the Treaty, its verification, its implications for missile defense and prompt global strike, and related subjects of concern or controversy, with dissenting views from opponents. See "Treaty with Russia on Measures for Further Reduction and Limitation of Strategic Offensive Arms (The New START Treaty)," Senate Foreign Relations Committee (SFRC) executive report 111-6, October 1.

The Senate Committee action was welcomed by many Russian officials as a harbinger of possible Treaty ratification by the end of this year. But other senior Russian officials criticized the Committee's handling of the Treaty, as noted in a recently updated report (pdf) from the Congressional Research Service:

"On November 3, 2010,... State Duma International Affairs Committee Chairman Kosachev stated that his committee would reopen hearings to discuss the ramifications of the action by the SFRC. He alleged that many of the conditions, understandings, and declarations in the resolution of advice and consent to ratification proposed by the SFRC are 'deeply worrisome' to many Russian Duma members, and stated that not only the synchronization of the ratification was necessary, but also the formulation of Russian statements to address those raised by the SFRC. He also raised concerns that a shift in party control in the U.S. Congress could delay or derail U.S. Congressional action on the treaty."

See "Russian Political, Economic, and Security Issues and U.S. Interests," Congressional Research Service, November 4, 2010.

EDF Puts U.S. Expansion on Hold, Raises French Output

Nov. 15 (Bloomberg) -- Electricite de France SA, the biggest operator of nuclear reactors, put on hold a plan to develop atomic plants in the U.S. while domestic plant availability improved at the lower-end of a targeted pace.

EDF is reviewing its business in the U.S. and supply contracts for developing a reactor, Thomas Piquemal, chief financial officer, said today on a conference call. “When we have a better visibility on the regulatory environment and price evolution, we will be in a better position to see whether we go ahead with U.S. projects.”

Groups oppose US loan guarantees to French nuclear companies Washington (Platts)

http://www.platts.com/RSSFeedDetailedNews/RSSFeed/Nuclear/3113621

GE Expects India Sales to Grow 30% Annually

NEW DELHI—General Electric Co. expects to grow its business in India by 30% annually over the next several years as Asia's third-largest economy offers huge opportunities in transportation, nuclear reactors and many other sectors, the chief executive of its local unit said Monday.
"We are huge optimists on India overall," John L. Flannery told The Wall Street Journal in an interview. "The country has incredible depth and breadth and momentum behind it...The government has done a great job in developing markets, while private companies here are phenomenal." More at:http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704584504575615963770507630.html?mod=dist_smartbrief

United States Interested In Participation Of American Companies In Construction Of New NPP In Armenia

YEREVAN, November 15. /ARKA/. The United States is interested in participation of American companies in construction of a new unit of Armenian Nuclear Power Plant, Daniel Rosenblum, Coordinator of U.S. Assistance to Europe and Eurasia, said Monday at a news conference in Yerevan.

Armenia plans to build a new one-gigawatt unit for the nuclear power plant.

The project is estimated to cost $5 billion.