Nuclear Fusion Breakthrough Confirmed: California Team Achieved Ignition newsweek.com

Lt. Gov. Jon Husted says he advocated for nuclear plants, communicated with policymakers during HB6 discussions cleveland.com

FBI were looking for ‘classified nuclear documents’ during search of Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home, report says independent.com

Terrestrial Energy to work with Alberta on SMR commercialization world-nuclear-news.org

 

 

 

 

 

Ambient office = 90 nanosieverts per hour

Ambient outside = 96 nanosieverts per hour

Soil exposed to rain water = 97 nanosieverts per hour

Watermelon from Central Market = 59 nanosieverts per hour

Tap water = 97 nanosieverts per hour

Filter water = 79 nanosieverts per hour

Archbishop Wester apologizes for harms caused by nuclear weapons industry catholicnews.com

Stop the MAD-ness of nuclear war ctmirror.org

Pressure vessel installed at second Zhangzhou unit world-nuclear-news.

Investigation blames human error for nuclear plant siren apnews.com

Ambient office = 149 nanosieverts per hour

Ambient outside = 93 nanosieverts per hour

Soil exposed to rain water = 93 nanosieverts per hour

Tomato from Central Market = 119 nanosieverts per hour

Tap water = 101 nanosieverts per hour

Filter water = 82 nanosieverts per hour

Bolton calls Iran assassination plot an ‘act of war,’ foxnews.com

UKAEA appoints consortium to help deliver STEP world-nuclear-news.org

Chinese molten-salt reactor cleared for start up world-nuclear-news.org

EDF sues French government over electricity sales world-nuclear-news.org

 

 

Ambient office = 115 nanosieverts per hour

Ambient outside = 97 nanosieverts per hour

Soil exposed to rain water = 96 nanosieverts per hour

Red onion from Central Market = 93 nanosieverts per hour

Tap water = 91 nanosieverts per hour

Filter water = 76 nanosieverts per hour

Dover Sole from Central = 107 nanosieverts per hour

      Last week, I posted about a dispute over a contract award for operation of the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP). Now a second company has disputed the award of the three-billion-dollar contract to Bechtel subsidiary Tularosa Basin Range Services. Westinghouse subsidiary Carlsbad Operations Alliance filled a protest with the Government Accounting Office (GOA) on August 1st. The GAO has until November 9th to issue a ruling before work on the new contract can proceed. In the meantime, the current WIPP operator, Nuclear Waste Partnership, will continue to manage WIPP.
     The WIPP was put into operation in 1999 to permanently dispose of transuranic radioactive materials and waste in an old salt mine two thousand feet below the surface near Carlsbad, New Mexico. The winning contractor will be charged with overseeing transportation of waste to the WIPP from Department of Energy sites around the U.S. The contactor must also provide constant maintenance of the WIPP and execute capital projects such as a continuing rebuild of the WIPP’s ventilation system expected to be completed in 2026 at a cost of almost five hundred million dollars.
    The capital project is called the Safety Significant Confinement Ventilation System (SSCVS). It is meant to increase the airflow that was restricted in the salt mine because of an accidental radiological release in 2014. This release was caused by a mispackaged drum of waste from the Los Alamos National Laboratory which is under the oversight of Los Alamos National Security of which Becthel was a partial owner. Los Alamos National Security was the primary contractor at the lab until 2018 when it was denied an extension due to the WIPP accident in 2014. The local community surrounding the WIPP hopes that the contract process will produce a company that focuses on safety.
        John Heaton is the co-chair of the Carlsbad Mayor’s Nuclear Task Force. He said, “Number one, we want a company that is competent at the site. A company that values safety and respects the workers and the projects that are going on.” He went on to say that he did not expect significant job losses among the WIPP workers. However, there could be turnover at the top executive level. He added “They’ll bring in some executives that have presumably been well-vetted by the DOE. 99.9 percent of employees will stay the same. It will just be a new leadership group. We hope they continue to serve the country, bring safety to the facility and continue to provide good jobs to our community.”
     In a press release announcing the initial award to Tularosa Basin Range Services, Bechtel touted its “44 years of experience managing DOE sites in New Mexico, Washington, Idaho, Nevada, Texas, Kentucky, Tennessee and South Carolina.”
     Dena Volovar is the Bechtel National executive vice president. “The mission to safely dispose of defense-related nuclear waste is vitally important for protecting people and the planet. We’re honored to be entrusted with this mission and look forward to joining the WIPP team and the Carlsbad community.”
     The WIPP has suffered a number of problems and accidents over the years. Hopefully a change of contractors can improve its safety record.

 

Ambient office = 91 nanosieverts per hour

Ambient outside = 107 nanosieverts per hour

Soil exposed to rain water = 110 nanosieverts per hour

Heirloom tomato from Central Market = 100 nanosieverts per hour

Tap water = 98 nanosieverts per hour

Filter water = 83 nanosieverts per hour

Part 2 of 2 Parts (Please read Part 1 first)
      Hamad Al Kaabi is the United Arab Emirates’ (UAE) representative to the IAEA. Last Tuesday, he said, “Nobody’s buying a car today if it gets into an accident every day. So safety and security … is the foundation for successful deployment of nuclear energy. The issue is how nuclear industry works and is perceived globally, any accident anywhere is an accident everywhere.”
     The UAE has three nuclear reactors in operation and a fourth reactor in the final stages of construction and commissioning according to Al Kaabi. However, building nuclear plants takes time and the process in the UAE started about thirteen years ago.
     Vietnam has been considering the use of nuclear power for decades. According to the World Nuclear Association which is an international trade group. The country announced a plan to build a nuclear power plant back in 2006. However, those plans were placed on hold in 2016. This was partly due to the expense that would be incurred. Then, last March, Vietnam published an official draft energy proposal that includes small modular reactors (SMR).
     Ha Kim Ngoc is deputy foreign minister for Vietnam. The U.S. and the IAEA have both helped guide Vietnam in its efforts to include nuclear energy in its national energy portfolio. Ngoc said that SMRs are an appealing option for the relatively small country.
     South Africa currently has two operating nuclear reactors according to the World Nuclear Association (WNA). Other African countries are also interested in employing nuclear energy. Collins Juma is the CEO of Kenya’s Nuclear Power and Energy Agency. He said, “Most of the countries where I come from in Africa have very small grids,” Advanced nuclear reactor designs, especially small modular reactors, are intriguing, but Juma did suggest that paying for such reactors might be hard. He added that “I’m not sure about the cost, but we shall be discussing that in other forums.”
     As Africa works to decarbonize, nuclear energy is a critical baseload corollary to wind, solar, geothermal and wave power on the continent. However, bringing nuclear energy to Africa will require independent and strong regulation to convince people that it is really safe. Juma said, “Nuclear is a very emotive topic. Everyone is an ‘expert’ and thinks they know it is dangerous. We have to be very careful when we are developing a nuclear power plan. And the public, especially the public, have to have confidence” that the nuclear energy plant is safe. Juma said that he was asking for guidance from leading nuclear powers and private organizations. He added, “When you copy, you only copy from the best, you don’t copy from the worst.”
     Grossi at the U.N. said that for countries who are interested in building commercial nuclear power reactors, the IAEA has written a guidebook with the title Milestones in the Development of a National Infrastructure for Nuclear Power.” He said that that was a good place to start for countries considering nuclear power. He added, “The moment is serious, and we know it is red alert for Planet Earth. We have been saying this, but nuclear is not for a few, nuclear can be for the many.”