I have blogged before about the involvement of nuclear technology and fuel in international affairs. Major nuclear nations like France, Japan, China and Russia are dedicating resources to make the export of nuclear technology and fuel a major part of their future trade programs. The BRICS nations, (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) are banking on nuclear reactors for as major sources of domestic energy. They are planning and constructing reactors and sharing some nuclear technology.

        Japan suffered the Fukushima nuclear disaster in March of 2011 and turned off all of their nuclear reactors. In spite of widespread public rejection of nuclear power, the Abe government is determined to restart the Japanese reactors and to export nuclear technology and fuel to boost their economy.

         India has major problems with energy generation. Brownouts and blackouts are common and projected to get even worse. India is hoping that nuclear reactors will help solve the problem. They are working on conventional reactors as well as working on creating reactors that could burn thorium as a fuel. India has vast reserves of thorium.

        India did not sign any of the international nuclear non-proliferation treaties because they consider nuclear weapons a necessary deterrent to Pakistani nuclear weapons. The U.S. and India worked out an arrangement in 2008 to put safe guards in place to insure that any nuclear technology that the U.S. shares with India will not be diverted to nuclear weapons programs.

        Now India and Japan are discussing a working relationship to cooperate in the development of peaceful nuclear power for India. India recently elected a new government headed by Prime Minister Modi who is known as a strong conservative. India is seeking investments from Japan and working to calm Japanese fears of nuclear proliferation. Japan wants detailed written guarantee from India to limit nuclear weapon tests and they also want close inspections of India’s nuclear facilities.

       Indian Prime Minister Modi is traveling to Japan to meet directly with Japanese Prime Minister Abe to discuss nuclear cooperation next week during a five day visit. This is the first visit of Modi to Japan since he was elected. The press has announced that no new agreement will be signed during the visit. One of the main topics that will be discussed at the meeting is the belligerent rise of Chinese militarism in South East Asia. India is interested in a new amphibious aircraft built by Japan. Japan’s Abe is seeking to expand its network of security partnerships to counter China.

       Japanese nuclear technology companies are eager to gain access to the Indian nuclear power market. Their industry has suffered since Fukushima shut down the domestic Japanese reactors. India’s twenty nuclear power reactors now supply about two percent of India’s electricity. The government hopes to build almost thirty new reactors that would allow nuclear power to make up almost thirty two percent of India’s power needs.

       I find this movement of major nuclear exporters to focus on less developed and third world countries for their future nuclear technology market disturbing. There will be problems with nuclear proliferation, corruption, lax regulation and more big accidents that will turn the world against nuclear power.

Physicists say Fukushima reactors pose eternal threat to humanity.  en.ria.ru

Friends of the Earth, an opponent of nuclear power that fought for the permanent closure of San Onofre last year, has set its sights on California’s other nuclear plant following the release of a dissenting opinion by a former resident inspector. nuclearstreet.com

A problem on the non-nuclear side of the plant caused Browns Ferry’s unit 1 reactor to shut down automatically Tuesday. nuclearstreet.com

The third stage of the generic design assessment (GDA) for the Advanced Boiling Water Reactor (ABWR) is to begin in September after regulators completed their initial high-level assessment of the Hitachi-GE Nuclear Energy reactor design without identifying any fundamental issues to prevent it from being built in the UK. world-nuclear-news.org

My Geiger counter is in the shop for maintenance.

         The recent major quake that shook California has increased concern over the ability of the last nuclear power reactor in California to withstand strong earthquakes. The Diablo Canyon Power Plant in San Luis Obispo County has been criticized before on the grounds that it is not safe to operate because of its proximity to geological faults.

         When construction began in the 1960s, there were two known faults in the area. A year after construction began, another big fault called the Hosgri Fault was discovered offshore near the site of plant. The Hosgri Fault had caused a 7.5 quake in the past. Critics demanded that the plant be built to be able to withstand another 7.5 quake. After a heater public debate, the plant was rebuilt to be able to withstand another 6.5 quake. The plant was constructed with that possibility in mind.

        In January of 2009, a new fault that was named the Shoreline Fault was discovered offshore from the Diablo plant seven miles closer than the Hosgri Fault. This fault is not thought to be as serious a threat to the plant because it is estimated that it could only generate a 6.5 quake, one tenth as powerful as the Hosgri could generate. On the other hand, research is still going on with respect to exactly where the new fault extends and one expert raised the possibility that it could run under the plant although this has been denied by the plant operators. If the fault does run under the reactor, it is possible that a major quake could crack the ground open and shatter the Diablo nuclear reactors along with the spent nuclear fuel pools. This would be a horrendous disaster.

         A 2013 Nuclear Regulatory Commission report on the Diablo Canyon plant concluded that ” the nearby Hosgri, Shoreline, Los Osos, and San Luis Bay fault systems are capable of producing ground motions that exceed the plant’s safe shutdown precautions.” The report questions whether the plant’s critical equipment is capable of withstanding the shaking that these faults could cause. The conclusion of the report was that the reactors at Diablo Canyon should be shut down until tests could be conducted that would should that the plant was able to withstand possible quakes from the fault systems in the area.

        What actually destroyed the nuclear plant at Fukushima was the tsunami that followed the offshore earthquake in the area. Although the Diablo plant is eighty five feet above sea level, there is still concern that a tsunami caused by one of the offshore faults could endanger the plant. While the Diablo plant does supply about seven percent of the electricity in California, the repercussions of a nuclear disaster at Diablo Canyon would cost much, much more than the loss of the electricity now being generated by the plant.

Diablo Canyon Nuclear Plant:

Nuclear explosion in Fukushima Unit 3 reactor can’t be ruled out due to plutonium in MOX fuel. enenews.com

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission will end a moratorium on power reactor licensing decisions after meeting the requirements of a 2012 appeals court ruling regarding the storage of spent fuel at decommissioned nuclear plants. nuclearstreet.com

Iran says that it tested new nuclear enrichment machine, may irk West reuters.com

The Guardian brings word that video game developer Henry Smith nearly found himself in hot water after his letting agency (a form of real estate agency in the UK) informed police of his plans for Global Thermonuclear War, which took the form of diagrams on white boards in his home. kotaku.com

My Geiger counter is in the shop for maintenance.

         I have often blogged about the problems at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant near Carlsbad, New Mexico because it is the only functioning permanent geological repository for nuclear waste operating in the United States. It is primarily intended to accept transuranic wastes from U.S. nuclear weapons laboratories and production facilities. It does not accept spent nuclear fuel.

        An accidental release of radioactive particles of plutonium and americium occured last February because one of the storage drums in the salt mine repository burst open. Some sort of chemical reaction raised the temperature of the contents of a drum and ruptured it, ejecting radioactive white foam. The mass of foam went into the ventilation system. Twenty one workers were exposed to radioactive contamination as a result. The ventilation safety system was not up to standards and the response to the emergency was not fast enough. This allowed release of the radioactive isotopes into the outside environment. The drum that burst was one of a batch shipped from the Los Alamos National Laboratory. It is now six month later and it is still unclear exactly what caused the drum to burst.

       Although the handling process for nuclear waste at the WIPP is supposed to include thorough documentation and prior approval of every substance put into one of the waste drums, this did not happen in the case of the ruptured drum. Without knowing exactly what was in the drum, the Energy Department has been trying to duplicate the exothermal reaction in the lab with a variety of materials that might have been in the drum. So far, the attempt to reproduce the reaction has failed.

      A preliminary report from the Energy Department’s investigation found that the WIPP “does not have an effective nuclear safety program.” The investigators found over thirty safety violations. The report said that “degradation of key safety management programs and safety culture resulted in the release of radioactive material from the underground to the environment.”

       The laboratories that are currently holding nuclear waste slated for delivery to the WIPP were under orders to clear out all their nuclear waste in the near future. Now that the WIPP is closed, this waste is piling up at the facilities or being sent to temporary storage. Without knowing exactly what caused one drum from LANL to burst, it is possible that other such drums at LANL, the WIPP or temporary storage in Texas may burst as well.  The closing of the WIPP is impacting activities at labs and facilities. The Idaho National Laboratory is considering building a warehouse for temporary storage of their waste. The cleanup of the Hanford Nuclear Reservation in Washington State will be slowed down because they are unable to ship out almost nine thousand drums of waste to the WIPP.

       Future plans for the WIPP repository include the delivery of more highly radioactive waste from laboratories and production facilities. This accident will close WIPP for at least eighteen months and may close it permanently. The cost of the accident is estimated at over a billion dollars.

      The U.S. does not have a permanent geological repository for spent nuclear fuel which is piling up at nuclear power reactors around the country. The situation at the WIPP raised concerns about the Energy Department’s ability to construct and safely operate such a facility in the future.

Japanese court rules against nuclear operator TEPCO in suicide suit connected to Fukushima nuclear disaster. uk.reuters.com

TEPCO had problems with getting desperately needed equipment to the Fukushima plant during the meltdowns. fukuleaks.org

China National Nuclear Corporation has signed a cooperation agreement with hydroelectric company China Three Gorges Corporation. world-nuclear-news.org

Federal regulators have granted permission for reactors at the Peach Bottom nuclear plant in Pennsylvania to each generate an additional 140 megawatts of electricity. nuclearstreet.com

         What to do with nuclear waste is one of the big open questions with respect to nuclear power and nuclear weapons production. The United States spent over a decade preparing for a geological repository at Yucca Mountain in Nevada before the project was cancelled in 2009. Now the best estimate for a permanent nuclear waste repository is 2050. The repository was primarily intended for spent nuclear fuel which is quickly filling up all available temporary storage at nuclear reactor sites. There is a geological repository for nuclear waste generated by nuclear weapons production call the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant near Carlsbad, New Mexico. It had operated for fifteen years before an unexpected release of particles of plutonium and americium closed the repository. It may never reopen.

         Texas legalized private nuclear waste dumps in 2003. The only existing such dump in Texas is the Waste Control Specialist’s Facility (WCSF) low level nuclear waste dump in Andrews County. The dump can accept just about any type of nuclear waste. All radionuclides are welcome at the dump including plutonium which has a half life of hundreds of thousands of years. All components of nuclear reactors such as containment vessels, piping, sludge, and other residues can be stored there with the exception of spent nuclear fuel rods. One location was licensed to accept up to two million three hundred thousand cubic feet of waste. (11 on photo below) Another location was licensed to accept twenty six million cubic feet of radioactive waste from federal facilities. (10 on photo below) A third location has been designated for up to thirty thousand cubic feet of “by-product” waste which includes uranium mine tailings and yellow cake as well as equipment. (9 on photo below) The WCSF also has licenses that would permit it to process and store transuranic waste.

        The Lone Star Sierra Club has been attempting to appealed to the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) but been denied the right to a hearing to appeal these licenses on the grounds of public health threat. The TCEQ has been very friendly to industry and hostile to environmental groups. It is usually staffed by polluting industry alumni appointed by the governor. Texas is one of the most polluted states in the U.S. with some of the most lax regulation.

           When the WIPP was closed, drums of waste from Los Alamos National Laboratory were shipped there for temporary storage. It turns out that some of these drums may be generating enough heat to explode because mistakes were made with absorbent additives at the laboratory. These drums are not stored in a facility that can monitor for anomalous heat production or confine explosions.

           Now the TEQC has decided that it will allow the WCSF in Andrews County to accept depleted uranium from federal energy facilities. They are raising the allow amount from two million three hundred thousand cubic feet to nine million cubic feet. Environmentalists are complaining about this expansion of waste capacity. Depleted uranium waste can become more radioactive over time and poses a long term threat to public health. There are concerns about the local geology and underground water sources near the waste dump. Critics say that the amounts and types of waste being accepted at the site keep growing. No public comments were allowed when the TEQC voted to raise the storage limit.

         There have been many explosions, fires and releases of toxic materials in Texas due to the industry friendly lax or non-existent regulation of industry. One day, release of hazardous radioactive materials may be added to the environmental devastation of Texas.

Waste Control Specialist’s Facility: