France was the fourth country to join the so-called “Nuclear Club,” and at the height of the Cold War maintained its own nuclear triad of land-based missiles, nuclear-armed bombers and ballistic missile submarines. Today, France’s sea-based nuclear deterrent is the home of most of its nuclear arsenal, with four nuclear-powered ballistic missile submarines, of French design and construction, providing constant assurance against surprise nuclear attack. Nationalinterest.org

 Local nonprofit C-10’s right to intervene in a hearing on concrete degradation at the Seabrook nuclear power plant has been upheld by the presidentially appointed panel that oversees the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Newburyportnews.com

Due to their high cost relative to other generating options, no new nuclear power units will be built in the US, an Exelon official said Thursday. Platts.com

Trump’s Syria threats are exactly why North Korea wants nuclear weapons. Cnn.com

 

 

 

 

 

Addressing shareholders at the company’s annual general meeting in Darwin yesterday, Peter Mansell said that, with a third of the world’s total undeveloped uranium reserves, the potential to expand Australian uranium mining was real. World-nuclear-news.org

The French utility announced on 10 April that the first quality deviation in the welding of the main secondary system was detected on 21 March during the initial comprehensive inspection. This inspection includes an examination of the welds in the primary and secondary systems – mainly using ultrasound and radiography – and allows an initial reference state of the plant to be established before it begins operating.

British Minister Stuart Andrew, a Conservative Party politician from Wales, is visiting a potential Small Modular Reactor development site in Trawsfynydd this week to voice support for the next generation of nuclear power, which is envisioned as including small, factory-built reactors. Nuclearstreet.com

The Air Force and industry have begun early prototyping and design work on the emerging Long Range Stand Off weapon nuclear-armed cruise missile, set to enter into a new phase of construction by 2022, service officials said. Nationalinterest.org

 

 

 

 

Gunter, who leads the reactor oversite project at the anti-nuclear group Beyond Nuclear, pressed nuclear regulators on Tuesday to “autopsy” the Oyster Creek Generating Station in Lacey after it shuts down later this year. App.com

Spent nuclear fuel waste from the Open-Pool Australian Lightwater (OPAL) reactor will be taken to a French facility, then return Down Under for storage. Abc.net.au

The 90th Missile Wing will open an investigation into an apparent electrical fire Tuesday afternoon that caused the evacuation of a nuclear missile-alert facility in western Nebraska and sent two Air Force missile launch officers to the hospital for treatment of smoke inhalation. Omaha.com

The nation’s biggest producer of electricity, the Palo Verde Nuclear Generating Station, could be forced to close in the next decade if voters approve a renewable-energy ballot measure, the plant’s owners said. Azcentral.com

 

 

 

 

 

       There are many sites around the world contaminated by radioactive materials. Some sites such as the Hanford Nuclear Reservation in Washington State were dedicated to nuclear weapons production and little regard was given to safely disposing of radioactive materials. Some sites such as the Nevada Test Site were used to test nuclear weapons before a treaty banned above ground and atmospheric tests. Some sites such as Fukushima were contaminated by accidents at nuclear power plants. There are millions of tons of soil around the world contaminated by radioactive materials that can threaten the environment and public health.

       Last November, Japan’s Fukushima Prefecture and France’s Alternative Energies and Atomic Energy Commission (CEA) carried out a successful test of a new process for decontaminating radioactive soil.

       The French Demeterres project was launched in 2013 for the purpose of developing bio- and eco-technology that could decontaminated soil and effluents for post-nuclear accident remediation. Twenty-three million dollars was allocated for the five-year project involving CEA, Orano, Veolia, the Institute for Radiological Protection and Nuclear Safety (IRSN), the National Institute for Agricultural Research (INRA), and the French Agricultural Research Centre for International Development (CIRAD).

       One of the physiochemical processes that was developed by the Demeterres project utilizes particulate floatation foams. Soil contaminated with cesium is mixed with water to create a suspension. This mixture is injected into the middle of a floatation column. Air is pumped into the bottom of the floatation column to create bubbles. The contaminated soil particles adhere to the surface of the bubbles of air which rise to the surface of the column. Uncontaminated soil particles sink to the bottom of the column. The first test of the system took place in 2016 when uncontaminated soil was run through the column to gather data on the process.

       After the March 2011 nuclear disaster at Fukushima, about twenty-nine million cubic yards of soil were removed. They wanted evacuees to be able to move back into their homes as quickly as possible. The contaminated soil was placed in huge storage bags and stored at several dedicated sites. The Japanese government is looking for the best way to reduce or remove the radioactivity in the soil.

        In April of 2017, Japan’s Ministry of the Environment put out a call for demonstrations of decontamination techniques. The froth floatation process was one of ten techniques that were selected for demonstration out of a total of nineteen submissions.

        The froth floatation process was tested on about six hundred pounds of contaminated soil at Okuma in Fukushima Prefecture between November 13 and November 17 of 2017. The radioactivity of the soil samples was cut to between one third and one half of the original contamination level. As a result of the tests, pretreatment of soil through drying, crumbling, pre-sifting and/or dispersion in water were suggested to improve the process.

       A spokesperson for CEA said, “If the technology presented is selected by the Japanese authorities, the next stage will be to develop the process on a larger scale so that it can be used in the Japanese municipalities that house storage centers.”

 

An influential Japanese energy panel on Tuesday left the door open to building nuclear plants to help meet long-term emissions targets, urging rapid technology improvements to allow industry to develop safer and more economic reactors. Reuters.com

EDF Energy has warned that a flagship nuclear power station it is building in France could run further behind schedule and over budget, after it detected faults at the €10.5bn ( £9.2bn) plant. Theguardian.com

China has begun loading fuel at its first European Pressurised Reactor (EPR) unit in the southeastern province of Guangdong, developer China General Nuclear Power (CGN) said, a sign that the long-delayed project could finally be close to completion. Uk.reuters.com

 The Trump administration is on the verge of signing a nuclear agreement with Saudi Arabia that is reportedly “flexible” on Saudi acquisition of centrifuge technology to enrich uranium—the technology that can provide material for nuclear weapons and that was the central concern in regard to Iran’s nuclear program.  Thebulletin.org

 

 

 

 

 

        There is an eight hundred and ninety square mile Federal site in the desert in southeastern Idaho which includes that Idaho National Laboratory, the nation’s leading federal nuclear research lab. The site is located about fifty miles west of the city of Idaho Falls. It has been used by the U.S. government for storage and disposal of nuclear waste from nuclear weapons development and research since the 1950s. There have been a series of court battles between the State of Idaho and the Federal government over the cleanup of the site. Idaho officials were fearful that Idaho was becoming a national nuclear waste dump.

       The Radioactive Waste Management complex occupies seventy-seven acres of the remote desert site. It includes an administration area, the Subsurface Disposal Area and the Transuranic Storage Area. Fluor Idaho is a contractor for the DoE who is employing more than seven hundred people to clean up the site

       The Subsurface Disposal Area occupies ninety-seven acres of the site. It has been used for disposing of low-level hazardous and transuranic waste which includes such items as work clothing, rags, machine parts and tools that have been contaminated by uranium, plutonium, americium and other radioactive elements. Most of the transuranic waste in the Subsurface Disposal Area was generated during nuclear weapons production at the Rocky Flats Plant near Denver, Colorado.

       The Transuranic Storage Area occupies about fifty-six acres. Containers of transuranic waste sit on asphalt pads and are covered by an earth berm. Workers are retrieving eighty-five thousand cubic yards of waste that is being prepared for shipment to the U.S. geological repository at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant near Carlsbad, New Mexico.

       Yesterday, Federal officials activated an Emergency Operations center. Crews were sent to investigate an incident that was reported at the site. The U.S. Department of Energy announced that it is gathering information about the incident.

       A fifty-five gallon barrel of radioactive sludge cracked open at the complex. A fire alarm was triggered which resulted in the arrival of three Idaho National Laboratory firefighters who extinguished the smoldering barrel and removed it from proximity to a dozen other barrels nearby.       The current theory of what caused the barrel to rupture is that the waste in the barrel heated it and ignited particles of uranium.

        Emergency workers detected a small amount of radioactivity on the skins of the firefighters after they dealt with the ruptured barrel. The firefighters were taken to a medical facility and the radioactive material on their skin was washed off. Fortunately, they did not inhale any radioactive material because they were protected by their suits. No radioactive material was detected outside the building. The officials said that there was no danger to the public.

        Federal officials said that this was the first case of a barrel rupturing but there might be more. Bad record keeping at the complex means that they are not sure exactly what is in the barrels of fluids and solvents left over from nuclear weapons production.

      The DoE said that it was their standard practice to activate the Emergency Operations Center to coordinate incident responders when there is a report of an incident. State, county and tribal officials were notified of the incident by the DoE.