​3 Ukrainian Nuclear Plants Cut From Grid After Fresh Russian Strikes ndtv.com

Russia-Ukraine War: 3 Ukrainian Nuclear Plants Cut From Grid After Fresh Russian Strikes ndtv.com

Japan and Poland to begin work on high-temperature reactor design world-nuclear-news.org

IAEA’s Grossi holds ‘candid’ talks with Rosatom over Zaporizhzhia world-nuclear-news.org

Ambient office = 74 nanosieverts per hour

Ambient outside = 82 nanosieverts per hour

Soil exposed to rain water = 79 nanosieverts per hour

English cucumber from Central Market = 100 nanosieverts per hour

Tap water = 79 nanosieverts per hour

Filter water = 63 nanosieverts per hour

Part 2 of 2 Parts (Please read Part 1 first)
          This may have been a one-off problem, but it could also have affected all the thermal shield components with Barabaschi saying that they had to assume that it was a wider problem. He explained that “The risk is too high and the consequences of a leaking thermal shield panel during operation are too dire.” He went on to say that it would be to hard to fix the issue on the assembled modules of the pit so “we have to lift out the installed module and disassemble it in order to proceed with the repairs. We are exploring different possibilities, from on-site repair to re-manufacturing in an outside facility, possibly with different pipe attachment options.
     According to ITER, the problem found with the vacuum vessel sector was that when the component’s four individual segments were welded together the “deviations from nominal dimensions were more substantial than the specified limit in different locations on the component’s outer shell. “These dimensional non-conformities modified the geometry of the field joints where the sectors are to be welded together, thus compromising the access and operation of the bespoke automated welding tools.”
      There had been plans to fix the issue in the assembly pit. However, Barabaschi said that “the thermal shield issue has now changed the perspective … as we need to disassemble the module to fix the thermal shield piping, the question of whether or not to repair the vacuum vessel sector in the pit becomes irrelevant. We have no other solution but to remove it”.
     Repair strategies are being refined at the moment with assessments of the impact on timings and cost being drawn up. The vacuum vessel assembly has been placed on hold. ITER said in July of this year that it was already planning to revised its schedules. Most recently, the schedule for first plasma in 2025 and the start of deuterium-tritium operation in 2035. That revision to timings was partly blamed on the impact of the COVID-10 pandemic. Bernard Bigot was the longtime director of the ITER project. He died in May of this year. The revision was said not likely to be agreed until April of 2023. This was decided in order to allow time for the new director general to be appointed and decide on the timetable revision.
     The ITER council features representatives from the countries involved in the ITER project. The council met in a hybrid format on the 16th and 17th of November of this year. They also urged that “the ITER Organization and Domestic Agencies to work together to ensure an appropriate project-wide quality culture to prevent any recurrence of such issues”. ITER said that the council members also reaffirmed their strong belief in the value of the ITER mission. They resolved to work together to find timely solutions to facilitate ITER’s success.
     The ITER project has had many financial, administrative and hardware problems since its beginning. With some companies working on fusion research saying that they expect to demonstrate working reactor prototypes by 2030, it may turn out that ITER operation in 2035 will be too little too late.

Gas, CO2 price surge makes nuclear attractive, says PGE CEO reuters.com

Feasibility study agreed for new nuclear in Kyrgyz Republic world-nuclear-news.org

Threat of Possible Nuclear Accident at Zaporizhzhia Sends Tensions Rising usnews.com

Iran planning massive expansion of uranium capacity theguardian.com

 

 

 

 

Ambient office = 105 nanosieverts per hour

Ambient outside = 97 nanosieverts per hour

Soil exposed to rain water = 100 nanosieverts per hour

Blueberry from Central Market = 2 nanosieverts per hour

Tap water = 108 nanosieverts per hour

Filter water = 93 nanosieverts per hour

Part 1 of 2 Parts
     The International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) project has announced that defects have been found in the thermal shields and vacuum vessel sectors. The project administrators have warned that the consequences on schedule and cost “will not be insignificant”.
     Pietro Barabaschi is the director General of ITER. He said, “If there is one good thing about this situation, it is that it is happening at a moment we can fix it. The know-how we are acquiring in dealing with ITER’s first-of-a-kind components will serve others when they launch their own fusion ventures. It is in ITER’s nature and mission, as a unique and ambitious research infrastructure, to go through a whole range of challenges and setbacks during construction. And it is therefore our task and duty to promptly inform the engaged scientific community so that they will take precautions when dealing with the same type of assemblies.”
     ITER is a major international project to build a huge experimental tokamak fusion reactor in Cadarache, France. It is designed to prove the feasibility of fusion as a large-scale and carbon-free source of energy. The goal of ITER is to operate at five hundred megawatts continuously for at least four hundred seconds with fifty megawatts of plasma heating power input. An additional three hundred megawatts of electricity input may be required. No electricity will be generated at ITER.
     Thirty-five nations are collaborating to construct ITER.  The European Union (EU) is contributing almost half of the cost of its construction. The other six members (China, India, Japan, South Korea, Russia and the USA) are contributing equally to the rest. Construction started in 2010 and the original 2018 first plasma target date was pushed back to 2025 by the ITER council in 2016.
     The vacuum vessel thermal shields are about three quarters of an inch thick. They contribute to insulating the superconducting magnet system operating at four degrees Kelvin or minus four hundred and fifty two degrees Fahrenheit. ITER said that in November of last year, helium tests detected a leak on an element of the vacuum vessel thermal shields that were delivered in 2020. The cause of the leak was found to be stress caused by the bending and welding of the cooling fluid pipes to the thermal shield panels “compounded by a slow chemical reaction due to the presence of chlorine residues in some small areas near the pipe welds. This had caused stress corrosion cracking and over time, cracks up to seven hundredths of an inch deep had developed in the pipes.” A total of about fourteen miles of piping are welded to the surface of the thermal shield panels. Investigative techniques including high-resolution CT scanning, scanning electron microscope, energy-dispersive X-ray spectrometer, and metallographic observation revealed cracks in the thermal shield cooling pipes.
     There have been serious problems with substandard welds at nuclear reactors in France. Many welds had to be redone. Apparently ITER has inherited the lack of quality controls for welds that has plagued other nuclear projects in welds. Many nations have contributed components to the ITER project, but they are dependent on French welders to do a professional job in welding those components together.
Please read Part 2 next

Iran says counting on EU to break nuclear talks deadlock France24.com

TVEL to supply Egypt research reactor fuel components world-nuclear-news.org

Rolls-Royce calls for formal funding talks over small nuclear plants ft.com

If Russia uses nuclear weapons in Ukraine, an aggressive response by us and allies gets bipartisan support, a survey shows news.northeastern.edu

Ambient office = 126 nanosieverts per hour

Ambient outside = 114 nanosieverts per hour

Soil exposed to rain water = 116 nanosieverts per hour

Avocado from Central Market = 129 nanosieverts per hour

Tap water = 102 nanosieverts per hour

Filter water = 94 nanosieverts per hour

Labs in Asia Adopt Nuclear Techniques to Enhance Food Safety and International Trade iaea.org

Japan cannot accept North Korea becoming a nuclear state arabnews.com

Long-shot bid to reopen Palisades nuclear plant is over after feds deny funding grbj.com

Green groups say nuclear energy ‘risky, harmful’ to Philippines gmanetwork.com

 

Ambient office = 135 nanosieverts per hour

Ambient outside = 118 nanosieverts per hour

Soil exposed to rain water = 116 nanosieverts per hour

Asparagus from Central Market = 100 nanosieverts per hour

Tap water = 83 nanosieverts per hour

Filter water = 70 nanosieverts per hour