Putin ally could launch nuclear strikes on THREE countries including EU nation in new plot express.co.uk

Final permits in place for Phoenix ISL field test world-nuclear-news.org

New Liberal leader questions small nuclear reactors cbc.com

NTS’s Nuclear Center of Excellence Is Awarded ICAP IEEE Certification businesswire.com

Ambient office = 94 nanosieverts per hour

Ambient outside = 96 nanosieverts per hour

Soil exposed to rain water = 97 nanosieverts per hour

English cucumber from Central Market = 108 nanosieverts per hour

Tap water = 97 nanosieverts per hour

Filter water = 81 nanosieverts per hour

Part 1 of 2 Parts
      Many analysts believe that nuclear energy is at an inflection point. Historically, early enthusiasm about its potential was undercut by a series of devastating and dangerous accidents. These three nuclear disasters took place at Three Mile Island in Pennsylvania in 1979; Chornobyl in Ukraine in 1986; and Fukushima Daiichi in Japan in 2011.
     Currently, because of new technology and the increasing urgent need to combat climate change, nuclear energy is getting a second chance to become a prominent part of the global energy grid. The reason for this is because nuclear energy production does not create any of the dangerous greenhouse gas emissions that cause climate change during normal operation. However, construction, fuel mining, refining and transportation do emit greenhouse gases.
     In a panel discussion at the United Nations last Tuesday, a collection of nuclear energy leaders from around the world met to discuss the scope of that renaissance and why it is so critical that the global nuclear industry work together to ensure excellent safety measures be adopted worldwide.
     A great concern contra to the enthusiasm is the certainty that a nuclear accident anywhere has the potential to upset the most major momentum has had in decades.
     Jennifer M. Granholm said that nuclear energy makes up twenty percent of the U.S.’ baseload power and fifty percent of its low carbon emissions power. She said, “And that’s just from the fleet that we have today without the other additions that we are hoping to see.”
     Future nuclear reactors and plants will almost certainly employ different technology from the current standard. This is because both U.S. and private companies are funding research into more efficient reactors that are cheaper to build and generate less waste. With regard for small modular reactors (SMR), this has been recently challenged by a new report that suggests that SMRs will generate at least three times the waste of a conventional nuclear power reactor. Granholm mentioned the advanced nuclear reactor that TerraPower is installing in a former coal town in Wyoming.
     Demand for advanced nuclear reactors will be worth about one trillion dollars globally according to an estimate from the Department of Ecology (DoE). That estimate includes the jobs needed to build those reactors and all the associated supply chains that will need to ramp up to support the industry according to Granholm. She added that the “Bottom line is spreading advanced nuclear energy is a priority for us. Of course, these technologies all have to begin and end with nuclear safety and security.”
     Rafael Grossi is the director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). He said that this major change in sentiment surrounding nuclear energy has happened quite quickly. He went on to say that until a few years ago, nuclear power representatives would not be welcome at the annual Conference of the Parties (COP) where global leaders had opportunity to discuss climate change. “The IAEA has moved quite fast from almost an intruder into a very welcomed participant in this dialogue where nuclear has a place,” according to Grossi.
     The next COP conference will be held in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, in November, followed by one at Dubai Expo City in the United Arab Emirates. The IAEA is planning on being included in both of these conferences. Grossi said, “The mere fact that we are talking at COPs with nuclear in Egypt, and in the Gulf, in and by itself is telling you a lot of what is happening and how we are changing and the possibilities that we have and that could have been almost unforeseeable just a few years ago.”
     If nuclear power is to be included in these conferences and climate change conversation, supporters stress that the entire international community has to work together to adhere to strict safety and nonproliferation standards.
Please read Part 2

Kazakhstan Mulls Building Second Nuclear Power Plant caspiannews.com

Construction begins of fourth Turkish reactor world-nuclear-news.org

Savannah River Site receives third shipment of Japanese nuclear fuel postandcourier.com

India sets out climate commitments, ponders SMRs world-nuclear-news.org

 

 

 

Part 2 of 2 Parts (Please read Part 1 first)
     Grossi said that the IAEA needs to go to Zaporizhzhia just like it did to Chernobyl to ascertain the facts about what is actually happening there. They will need to carry out inspections and repairs and “to prevent a nuclear accident from happening.” The head of the IAEA said that his team needs protection to get to the plant and this will require the cooperation of Russia and Ukraine.
      Each side wants this international mission to go to different sites. This is understandable in the light of territorial integrity and political considerations. However, there is something more urgent in the call to get the IAEA team Zaporizhzhia. Grossi said, “The IAEA, by its presence, will be a deterrent to any act of violence against this nuclear power plant. So I’m pleading as an international civil servant, as the head of an international organization, I’m pleading to both sides to let this mission proceed.”
     Grossi was in New York to deliver a keynote speech at the Monday opening of the high-level meeting to review the landmark fifty-year-old Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty aimed at preventing the spread of nuclear weapons and eventually achieving a world free of nuclear weapons. During the interview, Grossi also spoke about efforts to revive the 2015 nuclear deal between Iran and major power that the Trump administration which was abandoned in 2018. The Biden administration has been working to renew that deal.
     Grossi commented that there is “an ongoing effort to try to go for yet another meeting or round to explore possibilities to come to an agreement.” Such a meeting could happen soon, according to Grossi.
     Anthony Blinken is the U.S. Secretary of State. He told the NPT review conference last Monday that Iran has either been unwilling or unable to agree to a deal to return to the 2015 agreement that was aimed at reining its nuclear program. Grossi said “there are important differences among the negotiating parties” and important verification issues related to past activities that Iran must address. He added that securing such a deal is not impossible but it is very complex.
      If the Iranian nuclear agreement known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) is not extended, Grossi said that some IAEA inspections in Iran will continue. However, the JCPOA provided for additional transparency and inspection “which I deem as extremely important, very necessary, because of the breadth and depth of the nuclear program in Iran,” he said. Grossi emphasized that cooperating with the IAEA, answering its questions, allowing its inspectors to go wherever they need to be, is absolutely critical for Iran to build trust and confidence. “Promises and good words will not do.”
     On another issue, Grossi mentioned that last September’s deal in which the United States and Britain will provide Australia with nuclear reactors to power its submarines must include an agreement with the IAEA to ensure that the amount of nuclear material in the vessel when it leaves port is there when it returns. He said that Australia has not yet decided what type of vessel it will be getting so while that have been preparatory conversations, substantiative talks cannot begin.
      Gross said that because military vessels are being discussed, “there are lots of confidential and protection of information measures that need to be embedded into any such agreement, so it’s very complex technologically.”

Ambient office = 70 nanosieverts per hour

Ambient outside = 105 nanosieverts per hour

Soil exposed to rain water = 105 nanosieverts per hour

Carrot from Central Market = 92 nanosieverts per hour

Tap water = 92 nanosieverts per hour

Filter water = 82 nanosieverts per hour

Israel’s Prime Minister makes rare allusion to country’s nuclear weapons arsenal cnn.com

Historic Nuclear Regulatory Commission 103(g) finding marks a critical step leading up to Vogtle Unit 3 fuel load prnewswire.com

Turkey seeks to resolve Akkuyu constructors dispute world-nuclear-news.org

Westinghouse to decommission US prototype reactor world-nuclear-news.org

Ambient office = 81 nanosieverts per hour

Ambient outside = 105 nanosieverts per hour

Soil exposed to rain water = 108 nanosieverts per hour

Blueberry from Central Market = 100 nanosieverts per hour

Tap water = 102 nanosieverts per hour

Filter water = 85 nanosieverts per hour

Page 1 of 2 Pages
     Years ago, I wrote a post about forty reasons not to support nuclear fission power generation. I had a whole section on questions of security. In that section I mentioned the problem of nuclear reactors in a war zone. At the time, it was theoretical, but the Russian invasion of Ukraine have made such issues practical questions.
      Rafael Grossi is the director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency. He recently said in an interview that the situation is getting worse every day at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in the southeastern city of Enerhodar. Russian troops seized the plant in early March, just weeks after they invaded Ukraine on February 24th.  He added that “Every principle of nuclear safety has been violated at the plant. What is at stake is extremely serious and extremely grave and dangerous.” Grossi mentioned many violations of the plant’s safety and went on to say that it is “in a place where active war is ongoing,” near territory controlled by Russia.
     The physical integrity of the plant has not been respected, Grossi said, pointing out that it had been hit with artillery at the beginning of the war when it was seized. Continuing information from Ukraine and Russia accuse each other of deliberate attacks on Zaporizhzhia.
     There is “a paradoxical situation” in which the power plant is under the control of the Russians, but the Ukrainian staff continues to operate the plant. This leads to inevitable moments of friction and allege violence. While the IAEA has some contacts with the staff at the plant, they are “faulty” and “patchy,” according to Grossi.
     Grossi mentioned that the supply chain of equipment and spare parts have been interrupted, “so we are not sure the plant is getting all it needs.” The IAEA also needs to perform very important inspections to be certain that nuclear materials are properly safeguarded. He said that “there is a lot of nuclear material there to be inspected.”
      Grossi said, “When you put this together, you have a catalog of things that should never be happening in any nuclear facility. And this is why I have been insisting from day one that we have to be able to go there to perform this safety and security evaluation, to do the repairs and to assist as we already did in Chernobyl.”
     The Russian capture of Zaporizhzhia renewed fears that the largest of Ukraine’s fifteen commercial nuclear reactors could be damaged. This would set off another emergency similar to the 1986 Chernobyl accident. This is considered to be the world’s worst nuclear disaster. Chernobyl is located about sixty-five miles north of Kyiv, the Ukraine capitol city.
     Russian forces occupied the heavily contaminated site soon after the February 24th invasion but turned control back over to the Ukraine at the end of March. Grossi personally visited Chernobyl on April 27th and tweeted that the level of safety was “like a red light blinking.” However, last Tuesday, he said that the IAEA set up an
assistance mission at Chernobyl at the that time “that has been very, very successful so far.”
Please read Part 2 next

Israel’s Prime Minister makes rare allusion to country’s nuclear weapons arsenal cnn.com

Historic Nuclear Regulatory Commission 103(g) finding marks a critical step leading up to Vogtle Unit 3 fuel load prnewswire.com

Turkey seeks to resolve Akkuyu constructors dispute world-nuclear-news.org

Westinghouse to decommission US prototype reactor world-nuclear-news.org