My Geiger counter is in the shop for maintenance.

         I have blogged before about the new generation of small modular reactors (SMRs) that are being developed. The argument for these reactors is that they can be made in a factory and shipped to the location where they will be used. One problem with that is the fact that a design flaw that is not caught in the design phase will be replicated many times. In any case, these new reactors will have to satisfy licensing requirements that will take years. Now there is a discussion about the possibility of getting the nuclear licensing agencies of the United States and the United Kingdom to work together to expedite the licensing of small modular reactors.

         Representatives of three companies working on SMRs made a joint presentation to the UK parliamentary Energy and Climate Change Committee in the U.K. a week ago. mPower was represented by CEO Bill Fox, NuScale Power was represented by Vice President Thomas Mundy and GE-Hitachi Nuclear Energy (GEH) was represented by Chief Consulting Engineer Eric Loewen.

         Mundy told the committee that the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) and the U.K. Office of Nuclear Regulation (ONR) could collaborate on supporting research and development of SMRs as well as cooperating on licensing and export issues. However, Mundy pointed out that the two agencies differed in their approach to licensing and regulation. He said that the NRC is very prescriptive while the ONR is more performance based. In the end, the goal of the two agencies was the same: to insure that safety got the highest priority. The NRC has not yet licensed a SMR design but Mundy claimed that their SMR was based on fifty year old technology.

        Fox pointed that his company, mPower, had already spent five hundred million dollars on design, testing and licensing although they had not yet submitted a design to the NRC. He said that the U.S. and the U.K. governments should help fund the detailed engineering design work that was necessary to satisfy the licensing process. MPower is expecting to invest about fifteen million dollars a year in their scalable, modular, advanced light water reactor system. Fox claimed that there may be quite a few safety case analyses that while appropriate for a big reactor, might not be necessary for a SMR. The NRC has made changes to the requirements that must be met by SMRs. He suggested that the ONR in the U.K. should consider similar changes to licensing requirements for SMRs.

       Loewen said that the ONR had about three hundred and fifty safety analysis principles and that GEH PRISM reactor designs satisfy those principles. He did not envision any major problems in getting licenses in the U.K. for the PRISM design. The U.S. Department of Energy has signed an agreement for exploring the development of a PRISM reactor at the South Carolina Savannah River site. GEH PRISM reactors are also being considered  for the U.K. Sellafield nuclear site.

     The NRC is trying to streamline the approval process for SMRs. They hope to be able to review a license application within thirty nine months. While shortening the time it takes to license an SMR in the U.S. or the U.K would definitely benefit the manufacturer, it would be detrimental to the public if any corners were cut in considerations of safety of design. SMRs are being touted as a solution to the world’s energy needs that would be superior to just building more massive nuclear reactors for power generation. In reality, the industry seems to be asking for help in funding their research and development as well as special consideration when it comes to licensing.

 

Japanese monkeys’ abnormal blood has been linked to Fukushima disaster. theguardian.com

Japanese expert calls for immediate health exams outside Fukushima. enenews.com

South Africa expects planned new nuclear plants, needed to address power constraints, to become operational after 2020. moneyweb.co.za

Slovenské Elektráne’s management and staff are “engaged in providing their full support” to police in an investigation into the privatization of the Slovak utility world-nuclear-news.com

My Geiger counter is in the shop for maintenance.

         I have often talked about nuclear winter following a nuclear war. In general, nuclear winter refers to so much dust and smoke being injected into the atmosphere that crops fail and billions of people die of starvation. It would mean the end of human civilization. Today I am going to report on a computer model that attempts to add detail to the idea of nuclear winter. Four research scientists conducted a study about what could happen as a result of a limited nuclear exchange such as a nuclear war between India and Pakistan. They both have about a hundred nuclear warheads. The study envisions a hundred nuclear warheads exploding over India and Pakistan.

        Following a nuclear exchange between India and Pakistan, they estimate that five megatons of black carbon from fires is immediately thrown into the atmosphere. The carbon absorbs some of the radiation from the sun resulting in a drop in surface temperature and crop failures. Some of the carbon is washed out of the atmosphere by rain.

       During the year after the nuclear exchange, the average surface temperature of the Earth drops by two degrees Fahrenheit. Within three years, the temperature has dropped another degree. After twenty years, the temperature will rise again but the surface of the Earth will still be one degree cooler than it was before the nuclear war.

       As the temperature drops, the amount of rainfall decreases because cooler air holds less moisture. By the fifth year after the nuclear exchange, there will be nine percent less rainfall which will also impact crops. Even after twenty six years, the Earth will be getting four and a half percent less rain.

      Between the second and the sixth year after the nuclear exchange, the frost free growing season will be shortened between ten days and forty days depending on the specific region.

      There will be chemical reactions in the atmosphere because of the dust and soot thrown up by the war. One result of these chemical reactions will be the depletion of the ozone layer which shields people from the harmful ultraviolet radiation from the sun. Five years after the nuclear exchange, the ozone layer will be reduced by one fourth. Five years later, the ozone layer will still be eight percent less than it was before the war. As the ultraviolet radiation increases , there will be more sun burns and skin cancers. The radiation will also damage the DNA of plants and educe crop yields.

       A separate study has estimated that up to two billion people could starve following an exchange of one hundred warheads resulting in crop failures caused by the dust and soot in the atmosphere.

       It is obvious that the exchange of as few as a hundred warheads would result in the end of human civilization as we know it. The U.S. and Russia each have about four thousand warheads on missiles that target the other country and are ready to launch in minutes. There have already been mistakes that have almost resulted in the launch of these missiles. If one hundred warheads could end human civilization, then four thousand warheads would probably kill most of the human race and a great deal of plants and animals on Earth. This being true, the idea that the country being attacked would gain anything at all by launching a retaliatory nuclear strike is just absurd. The world must find a way to full nuclear disarmament before we destroy ourselves on purpose or by accident. 

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has told business leaders in southwestern Japan that his government will see to it that a nuclear plant in the region is restarted “by some means or other,” sources familiar with the matter said Saturday. english.kyodonews.jp

South Africa has confirmed its commitment to nuclear power, allocating $81 million – over 10% of its energy ministry’s budget – to research and development. world-nuclear-news.org

As it deliberates permits for water use from the Hudson River, the state of New York is considering mandatory outages at Indian Point to improve the health of fish populations. nuclearstreet.com

The Tennessee Valley Authority is wrapping up construction of a hardened building for safety equipment at its Watts Bar nuclear plant. nuclearstreet.com

My Geiger counter is in the ship for maintenance.

         I have posted before about the trend among nuclear nations such as Russia, Japan, China, France and the United States to make export of nuclear technology and nuclear fuel a major part of their international trade in the near future. Recently there was a major announcement by Vladimir Putin at a BRICS summit meeting of a Russian plan to create an energy association that will include a fuel reserve bank and an energy policy institute. This new set of institutions will include the so-called BRICS states, Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa. The BRICS states are pushing ahead aggressively with the construction of new nuclear reactors. Fifty five of the sixty six nuclear reactors under construction are in the BRICS states.

         Russia has just signed a number of nuclear power cooperation agreements with other nations that coincided with a visit by the Russian President to South America. Russia signed one such agreement with Argentina which is building its first reactor. Russia hopes to put forward a successful bid to work on the third stage of the new reactor construction.

         A Rusatom representative has just signed a memorandum of understanding with the president of Camargo Correa. The agreement includes construction of a spent fuel storage facility and a nuclear power reactor in Brazil. The document also supports the expansion of bilateral cooperation on the development of nuclear power in Brazil. One specific project in the agreement will be the expansion of technical and engineering facilities at the Brazilian Angra nuclear power plant and the construction of more new reactors in Brazil.

       Putin has also held meeting with the new Indian Prime Minister, Narenda Modi to discuss expanding cooperation on energy and defense. Putin has been invited to visit the Kudankulam Unit 2 reactor construction site. Last December, the two countries signed an agreement to with respect to the construction of Kudankulam Unit 3 and Unit 4 reactors.

       One of the most important parts of the new Russian plan is the launch of the New Development Bank and a Currency Reserve Pool for the BRIC nations. These two institutions together will have two hundred billion dollars in resources. The New Development Bank (NDB) with one hundred billion dollars is being seen as a BRICS alternative to the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund. The NDB will be headquartered in Shanghai, China. The top positions in the organization will be shared by Indian, Brazilian and Russian representatives. Putin said that the Currency Reserve Pool (CRP) with one hundred billion dollars is being created to “protect our countries from financial market crises.”

       Forty percent of the world’s population resides in the BRICS countries which share twenty one percent of the world’s GDP between them. In the past ten years, the BRICS states have seen their collective GDP grow by four hundred percent.

Officials in U.S. report “very rare mutations” in Pacific sea life.  enenews.com

Study says that multiple surges of radioactive substances have been detected far from Fukushima Daiichi. enenews.com

Russia plans to start construction of three BN-1200 sodium-cooled fast neutron reactors before 2030, the director general of Rosenergoatom, Evgeny Romanov, said on 21 July. world-nuclear-news.org

While the EPA considers changes to the way it regulates radiation at nuclear power facilities, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission has also announced a review of rules surrounding radioactive material for medical use. nuclearstreet.com

My Geiger counter is in the shop for maintenance.