Ambient office = 100 nanosieverts per hour

Ambient outside = 165 nanosieverts per hour

Soil exposed to rain water = 165 nanosieverts per hour

Tomato from Central Market = 66 nanosieverts per hour

Tap water = 91 nanosieverts per hour

Filter water = 77 nanosieverts per hour

     Many proponents of nuclear power insist that it should be included in low-carbon energy programs to help fight climate change. Opponents of nuclear power say that nuclear power should not be included in low-carbon energy program.
     The U.K. Green Financing Framework explains how the U.K government plans to finance spending through the issuance of green gilts and the retail Green Savings Bonds. It says that these programs will be crucial in mitigating climate change and dealing with other environmental challenges. The Framework was produced and published yesterday by the Treasury. It lays out the basis for identification, selection, verification and reporting of the green projects that are eligible for such financing.
     Under the section on ‘exclusions’, the document says, “Recognizing that many sustainable investors have exclusionary criteria in place around nuclear energy, the UK government will not finance any nuclear energy-related expenditures under the Framework. The UK government, however, recognizes that reaching net zero emissions will require all energy to be delivered to consumers in zero-carbon forms and be derived from low-carbon sources. Nuclear power is, and will continue to be, a key part of the UK’s low-carbon energy mix alongside solar and wind generation and carbon capture and storage. All these technologies are important in tackling climate change and diversifying the UK’s supply, contributing to the UK’s energy security and sustainable growth.”
     The Framework aligns with the 2021 International Capital Market Association Green Bond Principles. This is being done “To enable investors to follow the progress and positive impact delivered.” The U.K. is also in the process of creating its own “green taxonomy”.
     At the same time, a group of five E.U. Members, led by Germany, have written to the European Commission asking for nuclear power to continue to be excluded from the E.U. Taxonomy on Sustainable Finance. Their letter follows the assessment of the Joint Research Center (JRC). The mission of the JRC is to support E.U. policies with independent evidence throughout the whole policy cycle to the effect that nuclear power causes no more harm to human health or the environment than any other power-producing technology considered to be sustainable.
      The letter was signed by the environmental or energy ministers of Austria, Denmark, Germany, Luxembourg and Spain. It points to the ‘shortcomings’ in the JRC report which was published in April. The ministers who signed the report said that the JCR’s conclusion was “a misconception” and was based on “two grave methodological shortcomings.” The JRC “neglects to address the residual nuclear risk, assessing only the normal operation of nuclear power plants” and “disregards the life-cycle approach”. They also wrote that, “We recognize the sovereign right of Member States to decide for or against nuclear power as part of their national energy systems. However, we are concerned that including nuclear power in the Taxonomy would permanently damage its integrity, credibility and therefore its usefulness.”
      The two expert groups charged b the European Commission with the review of the JRC report on the sustainability of nuclear energy published their assessments today. The Article 31 group largely agrees with the conclusions of the JRC report while the Scientific Committee on Health, Environmental and Emerging Risks recognizes its own lack of the required expertise to carry out this assessment but does mention some concerns about the conclusion of the JRC report.

Ambient office = 112 nanosieverts per hour

Ambient outside = 100 nanosieverts per hour

Soil exposed to rain water = 96 nanosieverts per hour

English cucumber from Central Market = 99 nanosieverts per hour

Tap water = 76 nanosieverts per hour

Filter water = 67 nanosieverts per hour

     An eighty-five megawatt Abbot cogeneration plant is located at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC). They are planning on using an Ultra Safe Nuclear Corp. (USNC) Micro Modular Reactor (MMR) Energy System to partly re-power the Abbot plant. On June 28th, the UIUC sent a letter of intent to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission stating that they were going to build a “research and test reactor facility,” at the site of its 1941-built Abbott campus power plant that will integrate an MMR.
      Submission of the letter of intent marks the first format step in the pursuit of a construction permit. They ultimately intend to obtain an operating license. The university said that they had spent two years “engaging with the university and surrounding community; local, state, and federal governments; and potential industry partners.”
     This development also marks the first entry into the U.S. licensing arena for the USNC which is based in Seattle. The USNC is also proceeding with projects in Canada. Several other non-light water reactor designers are already interacting with the NRC.
      Last May, the USNC entered into a formal licensing review for a 5-MWe (15-MWth) MMR with the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission. This action was part of a proposed project headed up by Global First Power to construct and operate a full-scale MMR reactor at the Chalk River Laboratories in Ontario.
      Francesco Venneri is the USNC’s CEO. He said, “innovation in research and education combined with the opportunity of commercial-level implementation on a scale that is ideal to our microreactor product. We expect the licensing process to be exceptionally comprehensive and open to public review and comment, exactly as it should be.”  
     The USNC offered the MMR as a component in an energy system that integrates one of several standardized micro-high-temperature gas-cooled reactors (HTGRS) that it claims can produce between ten and one hundred megawatts of power or process heat with a storage unit. A standard MMR utilizes USNC’s tristructural-isotropic (FCM) fuel. This new fuel was developed in collaboration with Idaho National Laboratory and Oak Ridge National Laboratory). The MMRs generate between fifteen and thirty megawatts at a temperature of about twelve hundred degrees Fahrenheit. The heat storage component of the system is a molten salt energy storage unit. It “decouples the nuclear system from the power conversion system, greatly simplifying operations and allowing flexible use of the energy generated.”
     The USNC will collaborate with the university’s Grainger College of Engineering (and its Department of Nuclear, Plasma, and Radiological Engineering) to deploy the new reactor system. The university said that if the project is successful it will provide “zero-carbon demonstration of district heat and power to campus buildings as part of its green campus initiative. The project team aims to demonstrate how microreactor systems integrate with existing fossil fuel infrastructure to accelerate the decarbonization of existing power-generation facilities.”
     The Abbot plant currently provides almost half of UIUC’s power as well as all of its heat via two gas turbines, tow heat recovery steam generator and three steam turbine generators. The plant was sited near a major railroad line to permit quick delivery of coal to feed its original three coal-fired boilers. After many additions and alterations, Abbott is now able to use natural gas, coal, and fuel oil for a maximum steam production of around eight hundred thousand pounds per year.
     The project will also serve as a valuable workforce training tool for “a new generation of nuclear scientists, engineers, and operators. A diverse set of opportunities for research will span the MMR energy system’s instrumentation and control, multi-physics validation, reactor prototype testing, micro-grid operations, cybersecurity, hydrogen production for transportation and energy storage, and other energy-intensive, high-value products.”
     Rizwan Uddin is the Department Head of Nuclear, Plasma, and Radiological Engineering at UIUC. He said, “Next-generation energy research facilities are critical to training the emerging clean-energy focused workforce.”

Ambient office = 96 nanosieverts per hour

Ambient outside = 115 nanosieverts per hour

Soil exposed to rain water = 116 nanosieverts per hour

Blueberry from Central Market = 95 nanosieverts per hour

Tap water = 80 nanosieverts per hour

Filter water = 67 nanosieverts per hour

Ambient office = 88 nanosieverts per hour

Ambient outside = 113 nanosieverts per hour

Soil exposed to rain water = 114 nanosieverts per hour

Jalapeno pepper from Central Market = 106 nanosieverts per hour

Tap water = 86 nanosieverts per hour

Filter water = 74 nanosieverts per hour