Nuclear whistleblowers are treated badly in the United States. enenews.com

Scientists at the University of Alaska are concerned about radiation leaking from Japan’s damaged Fukushima nuclear plant, and the lack of a monitoring plan. cbc.ca

Would the world blame Israel if Iranian nuclear talks fail? washingtonpost.com

The Mainichi Shimbun report that nearly half of Japanese nuclear power plant equipment exported over the last ten years failed to undergo safety inspections through the national government.  enformable.com

Ambient office = 124 nanosieverts per hour

Ambient outside = 59 nanosieverts per hour

Soil exposed to rain water = 81 nanosieverts per hour

Apple from Top Foods =  131 nanosieverts per hour

Tap water = 82 nanosieverts per hour

Filtered water = 52 nanosieverts per hour

Japanese nuclear expert says that the spent fuel rods in the Fukushima Unit 4 may not be in there original position. enenews.com

TEPCO declares high profits which were made possible by massive taxpayer bailout. zerohedge.com

Nuclear regulators may cite  the Three Mile Point Unit 1 New York nuclear plant for a safety violation over an incident earlier this year in which plant operators lost the ability to cool the water surrounding the reactor core. online.wsj.com

Premier, Inc. introduces radiation safety offerings to better protect patients and healthcare workers. online.wsj.com

Ambient office = 94 nanosieverts per hour

Ambient outside = 104 nanosieverts per hour

Soil exposed to rain water = 121 nanosieverts per hour

Apple from Top Foods =  60 nanosieverts per hour

Tap water = 89 nanosieverts per hour

Filtered water = 84 nanosieverts per hour

 

          My recent posts have been about breeder reactors which generate more fissile material than they consume. There is renewed global interest in breeder reactors for the production of nuclear fuel and the destruction of nuclear waste. Today’s post is about the history and current status of breeder reactors in China.

          The Chinese nuclear program started in the 1950s and they have developed ballistic missiles with nuclear warhead and nuclear submarines with nuclear missiles.  They entered a number of treaties with regard to non-proliferation after they supplied nuclear technology and expertise to Pakistan for their nuclear program. Despite the production of tons of enriched uranium and plutonium, China did not focus on fast breeder reactors in the 1960s like the US, USSR and other nuclear powers.

          In 2000, China began work on the China Experimental Fast Reactor (CEFR). It is located near Beijing at the China Institute of Atomic Energy and was built with Russian technical assistance. It was intended to give China experience in designing, constructing and operating fast breeder reactors.  The CEFR is a pool type molten sodium twenty megawatt fast breeder reactor with an estimated lifespan of thirty years.  

          In 2009, China signed a major agreement with Russia for their assistance in building two eight hundred megawatt fast breeder reactors for power generation.  Plans call for construction of the two fast breeder reactors to begin in 2013 or 2014. The stated purpose of the Chinese fast breeder reactor program is to increase the utilization of China’s uranium resources and to aid in the reduction of nuclear waste.

          The CEFR went critical in July of 2010 and was hooked to the Chinese power grid to generate electricity in July of 2011.  In October of 2011, the Japanese Atomic Energy Agency reported that the CEFR had stopped generating power because of an accident. Japan and South Korea were afraid that a nuclear accident on the coast of China could endanger their citizens. Chinese authorities in Beijing stated that there had been no accident. They said that the CEFR had not been connected to the since July of 2011. Some articles in Chinese journals indicate that the CEFR was connected to the Chinese power grid after July of 2011.

          China has announced plans to begin construction of a one gigawatt fast breeder reactor at Sanming city in 2018. Other plans have been announced for China to begin construction build a six hundred megawatt fast breeder power reactor in 2020.

          Although nuclear energy currently supplies only about two percent of China’s power, the Chinese have a very aggressive program for the construction of new reactors including fast breeder reactors. Considering the problems that other nuclear powers have had in getting fact breeder power reactors to work reliably and safely after fifty years of research, the Chinese may be a bit over optimistic about fast breeder reactors supplying gigawatts of power in China in the coming decades.

China Experimental Fast Reactor:

U.S. Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz said he expects deepening cooperation with Japan over the high-stakes cleaning up and decommissioning of the crippled Fukushima nuclear plant. huffingtonpost.com

Dr. Stephen Hosa says that he believes that humanity is standing on the brink of a possible worldwide nuclear holocaust because of the disaster at Fukushima. independent.com

A truck driver whose semi caught on fire went to heroic lengths last summer to ensure the safety of the uranium hexafluoride he was hauling through Ohio. nuclearstreet.com

NASA announces that coal and gas are far more harmful than nuclear power. yournuclearnews.com

Ambient office = 141 nanosieverts per hour

Ambient outside = 112 nanosieverts per hour

Soil exposed to rain water = 85 nanosieverts per hour

Apple from Top Foods =  155 nanosieverts per hour

Tap water = 101 nanosieverts per hour

Filtered water = 94 nanosieverts per hour

          My recent posts have been about breeder reactors which generate more fissile material than they consume. There is renewed global interest in breeder reactors for the production of nuclear fuel and the destruction of nuclear waste. Today’s post is  second in a series about the history and current status of breeder reactors in Japan.

             The sodium spill and subsequent fire at the Monju reactor in 1995 had a major impact on the Japanese fast breeder reactor program. A special committee was appointed following the accident to review fast breeder plans. The committee was made up of nuclear and non-nuclear experts. It decided that while fast breeder technology should continue to be pursued, it should no longer be considered the ultimate goal of the Japanese nuclear program. They also called for periodical reviews of fast breeder R& D which would consider the practicality of the technology and realistic estimates of the costs of such reactors. It was also suggested that other nuclear alternatives to fast breeder reactors be studied. The JAEC Long Term Plan for the year 2000 took into account these recommendations.

          The Long Term Plan published by JAEC in 2005 was renamed the Framework for Nuclear Energy Policy. It formally announced a target for commercial fast breeder reactors of 2050. The Japanese government agency in charge of energy took the Framework and created the Nuclear Energy Plan which included explicit policy measures which would support the realization of the 2005 Framework. The Plan included a call for the construction of a demonstration fast breeder reactor to be operational by 2025. There was also a section of the Plan that compared different types of reactor designs and fuel cycle technologies. Sodium cooling and what is called “PUREX” or “wet” fuel reprocessing were chosen as the most economical processes. These estimates were not based on engineering cost estimates but rather were targets chosen to come as close as possible to matching the cost of energy produced by light water reactors. To make the Plan more attractive, it was suggested that the government and utilities share the cost of a demonstration fast breeder reactor. The utilities would not be asked to contribute more than the cost of a light water reactor.

         The budget for fast breeder research was increased for the first time in a decade in 2007. The new Global Nuclear Energy Partnership created by the United States contributed to this new support for fast breeder technology in Japan. There are several reasons that Japan has continued to support fast breeder research even though their research programs has not gone smoothly or been very productive. The Japanese government has created a series of institutions devoted to fast breeder technology and it is not always easy to dismantle government agencies. The Japanese government pours money into areas that host nuclear facilities. The extra income becomes very important in the economics of such regions and there would be great public resistance to the closing of such facilities. Finally, it has been difficult for the government to find suitable locations for permanent nuclear waste repositories. Since the spent fuel pools of Japan’s nuclear reactors are being filled to capacity, the ability of fast breeders to burn reprocessed spent nuclear fuel has become more attractive.

          The JAEC has been very supportive of nuclear research and development and fast breeder reactors. Given that it has made fast breeder reactors an import priority in Japanese nuclear development plans, it is improbable that the government will withdraw its support for such projects any time soon.

           On the other hand, Japan currently has a lot of separated plutonium and will have even more due to the new Rokkasho reprocessing plant. There is little reason to build breeder reactors that produce plutonium. There are issues involving the choice of reprocessing technologies that may make breeder reactors less attractive. There are big question about how much breeder reactors will ultimately cost and exactly how the costs will be distributed between government and utilities. And, finally, Japan is working to increase the life span of light water reactors to sixty to eighty years. If this is achieved, the need for fast breeder reactors in 2050 may disappear. The lost of support for the GNEP by President Obama and the U.S. Congress may also diminish Japanese enthusiasm for the pursuit of fast breeder technology.

Monju fast breeder reactor:

 

The Japanese government has designated “Intensive Contamination Areas” near downtown Tokyo from Fukushima disaster. enenews.com

Why is TEPCO speeding up the removal for Fukushima’s Unit 4 spent fuel rods from the damaged pool atop the structure. enenews.com

When the Nuclear Regulatory Commission furloughed most of its staff during the recent government shutdown, many in the nuclear industry understandably asked “why?” nuclearstreet.com

Switzerland’s Mühleberg nuclear power plant will be permanently shut down in 2019 instead of the earlier planned 2022 because of “uncertainty surrounding political and regulatory trends,” operator BKW FMB Energy has announced. world-nuclear-news.org

Ambient office = 141 nanosieverts per hour

Ambient outside = 112 nanosieverts per hour

Soil exposed to rain water = 85 nanosieverts per hour

Apple from Top Foods =  155 nanosieverts per hour

Tap water = 101 nanosieverts per hour

Filtered water = 94 nanosieverts per hour