The U.S. nuclear weapons program is handled by the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) at the U.S. Department of Energy (DoE). The NNSA is responsible for the design and production of nuclear weapons for the U.S. nuclear arsenal. The Pentagon could be considered as the ultimate “customer” for the NNSA’s nuclear product. Secretary of Energy, Rick Perry is responsible for the oversight of a large group of national laboratories that are in charge of research and development for nuclear weapons and nuclear power plants.

      The President of the U.S. is pushing for a massive update program for the U.S. nuclear arsenal. In order to accomplish this, the NNSA at the DoE and the Pentagon must work closely together. Unfortunately, according to a report just published by the DoE, there are five major areas of concern they have with the U.S. nuclear weapons program.

       The number one area of concern consists of the fact that there is a total lack of “lack of sustained national leadership focus and priority.” The number two concern is the “blurred accountability” between the DoE and NNSA over the mission of the nuclear program. The number three concern is the “lack of proven management practices, including a dysfunctional relationship between line managers and mission-support staffs.” The number four concern is “dysfunctional relationships” between the government and its management and site operators. And, finally, the number five concern is “Insufficient collaboration between DOE/NNSA and Department of Defense weapons customers, resulting in misunderstanding, distrust, and frustration.”

       Perry is scheduled to testify this coming Wednesday before the House Appropriations Committee about the fiscal 2019 DoE budget. He will be faced with intense questioning about the U.S. nuclear program and specifically whether he is aware of the report on the five big concerns with the program. The nuclear weapons portion of the proposed DoE budget consumes about half of the 2019 DoE budget.

       The new report is the second in a series of reports generated over the past four years aimed at fixing what is considered by many to be a broken and dysfunction nuclear weapons program. The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine (NASEM) began its review of the nuclear weapons program inn 2014 when it first mentioned the five big concerns. Now the (NASEM) is tasked with the problem of dealing with the five concerns.

       The U.S. just published its Nuclear Posture Review (NPR). This is a once every eight years review of the U.S. policy with respect to the development and use of nuclear weapons. Because the NPR discusses strategic issues, the authors of the new DoE report believe that this is the right time to deal with their concerns because they find that many of the problems that they are focused on are caused by what they consider to be “lack of strategic thought.”

       The study says, “With the release of the 2018 Nuclear Posture Review and the appointment of a new NNSA administrator, NNSA is faced with an excellent opportunity — and challenge — to move from a tactical to a strategic approach for executing the critical mission of the enterprise. The emphasis in both cases must be on creating a strategic vision that is clearly connected to mission. This is not a call to develop new processes and reports per se, which should follow only once clear and well-rationalized direction has been set.” 

 

One of Europe’s longest-running and most bitter corporate disputes looked to have come to an end as Areva and Siemens settled over a Finnish nuclear power plant that is more than a decade late.  Ft.com

SCANA Corp. knew its contractors were mismanaging millions of dollars in construction material soon after work at South Carolina’s V.C. Summer Nuclear Station began in 2013, and the large Cayce company was unable to stop the waste before the $9 billion project was abandoned last year.  Postandcourier.com

Russia has today connected unit 1 of the Leningrad Phase II nuclear power plant to the grid and it has started producing its first power, state nuclear corporation Rosatom has announced. The VVER 1200 reactor was brought to the minimum controllable power level on 6 February. World-nuclear-news.org

An Industrial Way Forward Agreement signed on 10 March by the CEOs of EDF and Nuclear Power Corporation of India Ltd (NPCIL) sets out the industrial framework and planned timetable for the implementation of six EPR reactors at Jaitapur, as well as the roles and responsibilities of the partners. World-nuclear-news.org

 

 

 

 

       Most of the articles about nuclear power in this blog focus on the technology of nuclear fission reactors. In these reactors, radioactive isotopes of heavy elements such as uranium and plutonium breakdown and generate heat which is captured to generate electricity. There is a great deal of radioactivity involved including the creation of radioactive waste that is still not being dealt with effectively after sixty years of nuclear power use in the U.S.

       I have occasionally blogged about nuclear fusion as a source of power. In nuclear fusion, very light elements such as hydrogen and helium are fused into heavier elements, releasing a great deal of energy in the process. There is very little radioactivity involved in most of the designs and little or no waste is generated.

       There are multiple approaches to generating nuclear fusion and a great deal of research has been conducted over the past sixty years, but no one has yet created a fusion reactor that can generate more energy that has to be put into the reactor.

        There are at least half a dozen companies in the U.S. with more in other countries that are racing to be the first to produce a commercial fusion reactor. Estimates currently run to ten or more years to produce a working prototype.

       The Michigan Institute of Technology (MIT) is a highly respected technical research institution. They are also working on developing a commercial fusion reactor. MIT is collaborating with Commonwealth Fusion Systems (CFS) a new private company that was created to commercialize the new technology. The Italian energy company ENI is investing fifty million dollars in the project. Thirty million of the investment is for R&D at MIT over the next three years.

       MIT is working on one of the common approaches to nuclear fusion that involved the creation of a “bottle” of power magnetic fields that traps and crushes a plasma of light element particles together with enough pressure and temperature to trigger a nuclear fusion reaction.

      The current work is referred to as SPARC. MIT is working on the creation of new superconducting magnets that will be able to create magnetic fields that are four times stronger that any previous technology. The new superconducting magnets will be incorporated into a fusion reactor that will operate in pulses of about ten seconds. The first MIT reactor should working on a fusion reactor that will produce one hundred megawatts of heat. The current design will not convert the heat into electricity but, if it works as designed, it should be able to produce twice the power that has to been injected to trigger the fusion reaction.

       MIT and CFS are creating a first version fusion reactor and they hope to be able to have a prototype of a commercial reactor in ten years. The plan is to have a commercial reactor available for the energy market within fifteen years.

       The President of MIT said, “This is an important historical moment: Advances in superconducting magnets have put fusion energy potentially within reach, offering the prospect of a safe, carbon-free energy future. As humanity confronts the rising risks of climate disruption, I am thrilled that MIT is joining with industrial allies, both longstanding and new, to run full-speed toward this transformative vision for our shared future on Earth.”

        The CEO of CFS said, “The aspiration is to have a working power plant in time to combat climate change. We think we have the science, speed and scale to put carbon-free fusion power on the grid in 15 years.”

       Although all previous fusion research projects have failed to produce more energy than they consume, MIT has a solid reputation for technical excellence and innovation as well as decades of experience with fusion research. If anyone can finally deliver commercial fusion power, MIT is an excellent candidate.

 

SCANA and Santee Cooper agreed in 2008 to move forward with construction on two new nuclear reactors without a final design, with an estimated price tag of more than $10 billion, which would eventually nearly double. Aikenstandard.com

A new report says mistakes and mismanagement are to blame for the exposure of workers to radioactive particles at the Hanford Nuclear Reservation in Washington state. Abcnews.go.com

The US Senate has passed a bill that could accelerate the development of advanced nuclear reactors, providing a boost to technologies that promise to make nuclear power cheaper, safer, and easier to build. Technologyreview.com

Fukushima nuclear disaster: did the evacuation raise the death toll? Ft.com

 

 

 

Lawmakers are reportedly not going to fund Yucca Mountain development this year, despite a $120 million request from President Trump who has indicated he wants to revive development. That will maintain the status quo for dealing with spent fuel, a process which involves companies suing the federal government to recover their costs. Utilitydive.com

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has begun a technical review of a license for an interim storage site for nuclear waste in New Mexico. It’s a hopeful sign for those fighting to find an alternative to burying spent nuclear fuel 100 feet from the beach at San Onofre. Kpbs.com

A number of recent letters have shown support for nuclear energy, including one from Nick Armstrong (March 6th) who supplied useful information on global clean energy options and costs. The future of nuclear energy as it applies to Ireland is quite different, however. This difference will probably be to our advantage, as imminent developments in small nuclear reactor design have the potential to change the minds of many in Ireland who oppose nuclear almost on instinct. Irishtimes.com

As America enters into its most public debate about nuclear weapons and missile defense in decades, the chairman of the House Armed Services Committee is warning that Russia will likely try to influence the debate about the Pentagon’s modernization plans — potentially including attempts to co-opt the nonproliferation community. Defensenews.com

 

 

 

California is on the cusp of environmental progress. Or is it? That’s the question that at least one candidate for the state’s governorship is asking, pointing out that a key difference exist between one calling themselves an “environmentalist” and one referring to themselves as a “climate hawk.” Forbes.com

An Australian Farming Town Divided: Do We Want a Nuclear Site that Brings Jobs? Nytimes.com

The Tri-City Herald reports the Columbia Generating Station failed to be removed from the 2018 list of plants requiring increased oversight by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission as the federal agency completed its annual assessment. Usnews.com

Iran intends to again accuse the United States of violating the landmark 2015 nuclear accord between Tehran and world powers at next week’s meeting on the agreement in Vienna, a senior Iranian diplomat said Wednesday . English.kyodonews.net