Ukraine will cover the collapsed roof of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant with special resin to prevent the spread of radioactive dust. nzweek.com

Drugs from Amgen Inc, Teva Pharmaceutical Industries and Sanofi that boost white blood cells are being evaluated by U.S. regulators as treatments for radiation exposure caused by a nuclear attack or accident.  huffingtonpost.com

Greater Chattanooga area nuclear plants rank high for complaints to NRC. timesfreepress.com

Operators of the Palisades Nuclear Power Plant in southwestern Michigan removed it from service Sunday morning because of a water leak from a tank, which last year caused seepage into the control room. hollandsentinel.com

Geiger Counter Readings in Seattle, WA on May 05, 2013

Ambient office = .063 microsieverts per hour

Ambient outside = .096 microsieverts per hour

Soil exposed to rain water = .083 microsieverts per hour

Carrot from Costco = .077 microsieverts per hour

Tap water = .096 microsieverts per hour

Filtered water = .087 microsieverts per hour

TEPCO’s newly built emergency tank at Fukushima would be filled with contaminated water within only 10 days. fukushima-diary.com

TEPCO is building new water tanks at Fukushima  in a convenient way, not the best way. fukushima-diary.com

Extremely radioactive rubble found on top of Fukushima Reactor Unit 3. enenews.com

Japan and the United Arab Emirates are set to sign a nuclear agreement on Thursday as Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who is visiting the country, pushes his bid to sell Japanese nuclear technology overseas. globalpost.com

Geiger Counter Readings in Seattle, WA on May 04, 2013

Ambient office = .088 microsieverts per hour

Ambient outside = .076 microsieverts per hour

Soil exposed to rain water = .108 microsieverts per hour

Hass Avacado from Costco = .151 microsieverts per hour

Tap water = .072 microsieverts per hour

Filtered water = .050 microsieverts per hour

              Nuclear power has been touted by its promoters as an answer to concerns about increasing levels of carbon dioxide in our atmosphere and the threat of global warming. It is offered as an interim solution to lower carbon emissions from power plants while alternative energy sources are developed. The reality of carbon emissions from different power sources is very complex.

              The first question about carbon emissions is what amount of carbon dioxide is emitted during the construction of the actual facility where the power will be generated and the manufacture of the components of the power generation system. The creation of concrete structures generates huge amounts of carbon dioxide. From this perspective, nuclear power plant cooling towers and containment buildings as well as hydropower dams emit the most carbon dioxide. Nuclear and fossil fuel power plants require a lot of structural steel which also emits carbon dioxide during manufacture. Solar power plants require some structural steel and also require special materials to generate power from sunlight. Their mining, refining and manufacturing process does emit some carbon dioxide. Wind farms require steel for the towers and blades but that is their only serious emitter.

          The next thing to consider is the fuel cycle from mining or drilling through use to disposal of any waste generated. Mining for uranium, drilling for oil, fracking for natural gas and blow up mountains for coal all generate carbon dioxide, not to mention being highly toxic in other ways. The burning of fossil fuels in power plants generates huge amounts of carbon dioxide. Natural gas is better than oil and coal but still puts out a lot of carbon dioxide. The need to entomb nuclear waste in concrete and steel for temporary storage for at least the next thirty years will generate substantial carbon dioxide. Hydro, wind and solar power systems do not require any fuel so do not generate any carbon dioxide from a fuel cycle.

          Some estimates of carbon dioxide per unit of energy generated for nuclear power and fossil fuel power plants do not include all of these sources of carbon dioxide.  A recent study from a Ceedata Consultancy in the Netherlands found that when all aspects of the whole life cycle of a nuclear power plant are considered, they generate from ninety to one hundred and forty grams of carbon dioxide per kilowatt hour of electricity. For comparison, gas fired power plants which are the least emitting of the fossil fuel sources still generate around three hundred and thirty grams of carbon dioxide per kilowatt hour of electricity. This is over twice as much carbon dioxide as the worst nuclear plants so it does appear that nuclear power is definitely greener than fossil fuel power. However, wind, hydro and solar power generate from ten to forty grams of carbon dioxide per kilowatt hour of electricity. So the best nuclear power record is twice as bad as the worst sustainable alternate energy sources per kilowatt hour. All other considerations aside, nuclear power is not the answer to reducing carbon dioxide emission.

A pair of radioactive goldfish have been found swimming in a lemonade pitcher in the bowels of the Perry nuclear power plant. cleveland.com

A nuclear reactor at the United Kingdom Heysham One nuclear power station has been shut down after smoke was seen coming from the plant in Lancashire.  enenews.com

Duke Energy has suspended plans to construct two new reactors at its existing Shearon Harris plant in North Carolina due to slower growth in electricity demand than previously expected. world-nuclear-news.org

Japan’s National Police Agency has launched radiation-proof vehicles at its headquarters in Tokyo and the nuke accident-hit Fukushima prefecture to better prepare for nuclear-related trouble. rttnews.com

Geiger Counter Readings in Seattle, WA on May 03, 2013

Ambient office = .092 microsieverts per hour

Ambient outside = .091 microsieverts per hour

Soil exposed to rain water = .101 microsieverts per hour

Dried almonds from Costco = .120 microsieverts per hour

Tap water = .102 microsieverts per hour

Filtered water = .093 microsieverts per hour

              I have talked about temporary storage of spent fuel rods in dry casks of steel and concrete in previous posts. It is estimated that all the spent fuel pools at all the U.S. reactors will be full in five years unless another storage/disposal method is found. The U.S. DOE now says that it will take at least thirty years to site and build a permanent geological repository for spent fuel. So it is obvious that dry casks are going to be very important for the nuclear industry in the short term.

              The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission licensed the first dry cask storage facility in the United States in 1986 at the Surry Nuclear Power Plant in Virginia. During the 1990s, the NRC had to deal with numerous problems in dry cask construction including defective welds that caused cracks. In some of the casks, helium had leaked out of the fuel rods and into the outer shell of the cask. This increased temperatures and speeded up corrosion in the casks. In 2008, the NRC issued new guidelines that required spent fuel rods to be stored in a spent fuel pool to cool off for at least five years before being placed in dry casks.

              Although the nuclear industry has doubled the potency of fuel rods since 1970, the design of dry casks has not kept pace with the increasing potency.  There have been warnings about the increasing radioactivity of what are referred to as high-burn up fuel rods for years. Recently, Argonne National Laboratory has been pointing out that they have research that indicates that the new fuel rods may become brittle over time while they are stored in the casks. Since the casks are intended to be a temporary storage option until a permanent geological repository can be built, the rods would have to be removed from the casks at some future time for transportation. If the rods are brittle, they might disintegrate when removed from the casks increasing the risk of radioactive material entering the environment.

             .  Spurred by concern that no one knows exactly what is happening inside the dry casks that currently exist, the Department of Energy and the nuclear industry’s Energy Power Research Institute are launching a new project to deal with this problem. The project will develop new lids with built in instrumentation for new dry casks. Sixteen million dollars and four years have been allocated for the project. The new lids will take samples of gas for analysis and will monitor temperatures in the casks as well as other conditions. The new lid systems will have to be able to withstand high temperatures and high levels of radiation, have some way of removing energy from the casks, operate on battery power for over ten years and transmit information wireless to outside receivers. It is hoped that there will be a prototype of a new cask with the advanced lid available for tests by 2017.

             Since the soonest that we will have permanent storage in the U.S. is thirty years out, it is very important that the spent fuel rods and the dry casks that they are stored in maintain their structural integrity for decades. It may be a little late but the new lid project is a welcome change.

It as been reported that engineers at Japan’s fast breeder reactor plant Monju made a mistake during testing of the plant’s emergency power generator, which subsequently resulted in the release of black smoke and the ringing of the plant’s fire alarm. en.rocketnews24.com

EDF Energy’s 1,630-megawatt Hinkley Point C nuclear reactor in the United Kingdom was initially expected to commence electricity production in 2018, but regulatory delays following Japan’s Fukushima accident have put back the start-up until 2020. uk.reuters.com

Canada’s Cameco expects the restart of Japanese reactors and the signing of long-term supply contracts to kick-start the stagnant uranium market.  world-nuclear-news.org

The staff of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission has determined that foreign ownership could keep Nuclear Innovation North America from pursuing a license for new reactors at the South Texas Project. nuclearstreet.com

Geiger Counter Readings in Seattle, WA on May 02, 2013

Ambient office = .064 microsieverts per hour

Ambient outside = .093 microsieverts per hour

Soil exposed to rain water = .077 microsieverts per hour

Red onion from local grocery store = .124 microsieverts per hour

Tap water = .087 microsieverts per hour

Filtered water = .077 microsieverts per hour