President Donald Trump has said he wants the United States to expand its nuclear arsenal, in his first comments on the issue since taking office. bbc.com

China on Friday dismissed renewed pressure from U.S. President Donald Trump over its role in North Korea, saying the crux of the matter was a dispute between Washington and Pyongyang. reuters.com

Commercial operation dates for Vogtle units 3 and 4 have been put back to December 2019 and September 2020 respectively, Southern Company said on 22 February. These dates are six and three months later than previously expected. world-nuclear-news.org

A leaking radioactive waste storage tank on the Hanford Nuclear Reservation has had its contents pumped out. q13fox.com

        Accidents at nuclear power plants can release massive amounts of radioactive materials that are unimpeded by national borders as they spread with the wind. This means that nations have a responsibility that extends beyond their borders to neighboring nations to manage nuclear power plants responsibly. When a nuclear power plant might break down and pose a threat to other nations, those other nations have a right to exert pressure to have that power plant shut down. There is a debate over just such a possibility raging in eastern Europe right now with respect to a power plant that is still under construction.

       Construction of a Russian nuclear reactor in the nation of Belarus is currently underway. The construction site is at Astravets which is a hundred miles from the Belarus capital of Minsk but only twenty miles from the Lithuanian capital of Vilnius. The new reactor will be operated by a joint venture between Russia and Belarus.

       Lithuanian critics of the new power reactor say that Russia is intent on increasing its influence in the European Union energy market for political reasons and statements from Russian media support that claim. Russia has been guilty of threatening to cut off fuel supplies to European nations during political disputes in the past.

       The critics have also expressed concern that Belarus is being irresponsible and failing to use proper procedures in the construction of the reactor. There have been six serious accidents during the construction of the reactor and Belarus authorities only admitted that these accidents occurred after the accidents were reported in the independent media. A huge reactor pressure vessel was dropped six feet but the Russian construction company claimed that there was no sign of damage to the vessel. Two people also died in other accidents.

       When the Chernobyl nuclear accident occurred in nearby Ukraine in April of 1986, twenty percent of Belarus was eventually contaminated with radioactive fallout from the accident. The people in the area were not warned about the accident for several days while they continued their regular routines and experienced more radiation exposure than was necessary. People in this part of eastern Europe are understandably worried about nuclear reactors, especially when there are so many unreported accidents in their construction. If there was a problem at the new Belarus reactor, would the people of Lithuania be told immediately or would the authorities try to hide it?

       Lithuanian authorities claim that the Belarus authorities were not concerned about existing pollution which was quite high near the reactor site on the Lithuanian side of the border. Had this pollution been taken into account, the site would have been less acceptable and may have been rejected by the Belarusian planners. The Lithuanians requested the creation of an independent construction commission with representatives from both Belarus and Lithuania but Belarus rejected the suggestion.

      The Espoo Convention which Belarus signed requires that countries supply neighboring countries with trans-boundary environmental impact statements for major projects translated into neighbor’s language. Belarus sent Lithuania an EIS which was translated with Google translation software into Lithuanian. It was incomprehensible.

Rolandas Kačinskas, Political Director of the Lithuanian Ministry of Foreign Affairs said, “What we want is for [Belarus] to stop the construction of the reactor,” said Kačinskas. “It’s not that we are against nuclear power, we are against the irresponsible use of it. At the least we want more access and more accountability. We want assurances that if there are problems we will be the first to know. Our position is clear: Since Belarus has not fulfilled major international commitments – has not accomplished IAEA’s Site and External Events Design Review Service (SEED); has not undertaken comprehensive risk and safety assessment tests; has not established an international commission of experts for an in-depth analysis of Astravets case; and therefore it poses extreme safety threat for the whole region and the European Union – Lithuania demands that Belarus suspends the construction works at the Astravets site.”

Astravets reactor construction site:

     The World Association of Nuclear Operators (WANO) has submitted a report on its first ever cross-centre review, which took place at the Rovno nuclear power plant in Ukraine. Gaetan Le Corvec, head of operations at WANO’s Paris Centre, said the review had revealed “no critical shortcomings” at the plant. world-nuclear-news.org

The French Nuclear Society (SFEN) says the country needs to maintain its nuclear power generation capacity to raise the share of electricity from renewable sources without increasing the cost of electricity production. In a white paper it suggests ways in which this can be achieved. world-nuclear-news.org

China plans to beef up its nuclear power sector in 2017, kicking off construction of eight reactors this year with installed capacity totaling 9.9 gigawatts, the National Energy Administration said. chinapost.com

The prolonged closure of a major French atomic reactor after an explosion this month probably costs EDF at least £1m a day, according to experts. theguardian.com

       I have mentioned the threat of terrorists smuggling small nuclear bombs into the United States in previous posts. As a matter of fact, my 2012 novel, Rare Earths, featured just such activity as part of the plot. A decade ago, a software company that I worked for bid on a project to improve inspection and tracking of containers coming into U.S. ports. At that time, only about three percent of containers were closely inspected for possible radioactive materials. Today, the situation has improved but there is still a great deal of concern.

      In 1996, David Kay of the International Atomic Energy Agency talked about the smuggling of nuclear devices on PBS’s Frontline. “I’ve often said, my preferred method for delivering a nuclear device is, I would hide it in a bale of marijuana, contract it out to the drug lords and move it,” Kay said. “Marijuana is a good shielder actually for radiation. The drug lords have a superb record for delivery. They’re not Fed Ex, but they’re awfully close to it. And contract it out and get it across the border.”

       In 2001, Jack Ruina from MIT wrote about such smuggling in the Washington Post. “A potential adversary does not have to rely on ballistic missiles to deliver a warhead. A small nation could easily resort to using planes, ships, cruise missiles or, as has been facetiously suggested, to hiding a warhead in a bale of marijuana, the shipment of which defies most detection.”

        In 2007, Representative Brad Sherman (D-Calif.) addressed nuclear smuggling on the floor of the House of Representatives with respect to implementing recommendations from the 9/11 commission. “The most important issue facing the United States, and certainly the most important part of this bill, deals with preventing a nuclear attack on American cities.  Since a nuclear bomb is about the size of a person, it could be smuggled into the United States inside a bale of marijuana.” He repeated these ideas in 2008, 2009, 2010, 2015 and 2017.

       In a Congressional hearing in 2014, the director of George Washington University’s Homeland Security Policy Institute, Frank Ciluffo, said, “If you want to smuggle in a tactical nuclear weapon, just wrap it in a bale of marijuana. Because we’re not doing all that well in terms of some of our drug enforcement.”

      And, finally, just this week, Representative Trent Franks (R-Ariz.) said “I can suggest to you that there are national security implications here for a porous border. We sometimes used to make the point that if someone wanted to smuggle in a dangerous weapon — even a nuclear weapon — into America, how would they do it? And the suggestion was made, ‘Well, we’ll simply hide it in a bale of marijuana.’ ”

      While previous statements about smuggling a nuclear device in a bale of marijuana resulted in little response from the media and the public, Frank’s comment received ridicule in the form of tweets from citizens. Of the many ways that a nuclear device could be smuggled into the U.S., it is interesting that the marijuana reference keeps popping up. I think that it is a matter of a natural tendency to combine “bad things” to make a greater impact for a public statement. Linking nuclear weapons, terrorism, drugs, and smuggling things across U.S. borders really ramps up the paranoia even if that particular scenario is actually not very probable.

A Coast Guard Cutter Edisto crewmember offloads a bale of marijuana in San Diego, Oct. 18, 2010. U.S. Coast Guard photo by PA2 Jetta H. Disco:

 

 

 

France’s Areva and China National Nuclear Corporation (CNNC) have signed a framework agreement for industrial and commercial cooperation in the nuclear fuel cycle. world-nuclear-news.org

The two EPR units under construction at the Taishan nuclear power plant in China’s Guangdong province will not enter commercial operation until the second half of 2017 and the first half of 2018, respectively. This is some six months later than originally scheduled. world-nuclear-news.org

Lack of leadership is frustrating Nigeria’s 2000 target of generating 1,000 megawatts of electricity from a nuclear plant by 2017, experts say. scidev.net

China has fined a manufacturer of components used in nuclear power plants for safety breaches at two facilities, the environment ministry said. uk.reuters.com

 

       In early January, minute amounts of radioactive iodine-131 were detected in the atmosphere over the Svanhovd, Norway air monitoring station very close to the border with the Russian Kola peninsula. The next observation was at Rovaniemi in Finnish Lapland. Since then, I-131 has been detected by air quality monitoring stations above other countries in Europe including Finland, Poland, Czechia (Czech Republic), Germany, France and Spain.

       The concentration of I-131 that has been detected is very small and currently not a threat to human health. The detection of the I-131 was not reported until February by the French Institute for Radiological Protection and Nuclear Safety, with European news outlets saying that since the levels detected were so low, they did not believe that the findings were “newsworthy.”

        Finland’s Radiation and Nuclear Safety Authority (STUK) decided to follow the French example and posted a press release about the increased levels of radioactivity. “At Svanhovd, measurements in the period January 9-16 show levels of 0,5 micro Becquerel per cubic meter air (µBq/m3). In France, where authorities decided to publish the information, measured radioactivity was much lower, from 0,1 to 0,31 µBq/m3. Levels measured in Finland were also lower than in northern Norway with 0,27 µBq/m3 measured in Rovaniemi and 0,3 µBq/m3 in Kotka.”

       The half-life of I-131 is only eight days which means that in order to be detected, the I-131 must have been created very recently. With the changing wind patterns caused by recent rough weather over Europe, it has been difficult to pin down where the I-131 came from. The Norwegian Radiation Protection Authority said that the I-131 was most likely released somewhere over eastern Europe. The U.S. has flown WC-135 nuclear explosion ‘sniffer’ aircraft over Europe in an attempt to identify the source of the I-131 but has been unsuccessful.

       I-131 is regularly found following the test of nuclear bombs. Since the first detection of the I-131 was in northern Norway close to Russia, there is speculation that the Russians have been secretly testing nuclear weapons. They are in the process of upgrading their nuclear arsenal and I-131 is released when uranium bombs are detonated. However, the lack of other isotopes that are created in nuclear detonations makes such a source unlikely. This lack of other radioactive isotopes also makes it improbable that the I-131 was released from a nuclear power plant.

        Because the I-131 was found alone, that would mean that it would have to have to been recently generated and purified. Pure I-131 is used in medical procedures. There are theories that a pharmaceutical firm has suffered some sort of accidental release and has not reported it.

        In 2011, there was an incident where I-131 was reported over several European countries for a few weeks. Authorities were also unable to identify the source for that I-131until last week when a report was issued that identified the source of the I-131 as faulty filters at the Institute of Isotopes Ltd in Budapest, Hungary, a facility which manufactures radioactive isotopes for medical use.

 Graphic from French Institute for Radiological Protection and Nuclear Safety:

A restructuring of Paladin Energy’s balance sheet, announced in January, will position the Australia-based uranium company to increase production rather than service its debt in response to a ‘normalising‘ uranium market, its CEO said yesterday. world-nuclear-news.org

Foratom has welcomed the European Parliament’s approval of European Commission proposals to reform the bloc’s Emissions Trading System (ETS). The European nuclear trade body added, however, the carbon price needs to increase  significantly in order to boost investment in low-carbon energy sources. world-nuclear-news.org

Uranium mining faces an uncertain future due to price fluctuations with questions all the more pertinent given the current price of uranium is near a 13-year low, says the so-called Red Book, a widely respected report published by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development’s Nuclear Energy Agency in conjunction with the International Atomic Energy Agency. nuclearstreet.com

French nuclear power operator Electricity de France (EDF) said it would keep Unit 1 at the Flamanville nuclear plant off line until the end of March due to the damage caused by the explosion and fire that disrupted service on Feb. 9. nuclearstreet.com