Rosatom is to receive state funding of $1.78 million for its voluntary contribution to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and RUB109.5 million ($1.86 million) for nuclear industry infrastructure development in third countries. The government published the funding plan, part of the 2017-2019 Development of the Nuclear Power Industry state program, on 3 February. world-nuclear-news.org

German power company EnBW has received approval from the Baden-Württemberg ministry of environment to decommission and dismantle unit 1 of the Neckarwestheim nuclear power plant. The company expects dismantling work to begin next month and to be completed within 10-15 years. world-nuclear-news.org

If you worry that President Trump’s temperament and character are inappropriate for the commander of the U.S. nuclear forces, you may be tempted to place your hope in Defense Secretary James Mattis. In fact, allaying those concerns seems to be one reason Trump selected Mattis. Calm, thoughtful, and practical, Mattis brings everything to the table that Trump seems to have abandoned. huffingtonpost.com

A proposal to ship highly radioactive nuclear waste through Niagara has been given approval from a U.S. judge. niagrathisweek.com

 

A new pan-European nuclear group is being discussed after the UK’s decision to pull out of the European Atomic Energy Community (Euratom) plunged the Brussels-linked group into disarray. telegraph.co.uk

China looks to be ready to resume building new inland nuclear power plants, five years after a ban on such projects was implemented following the Fukushima accident in Japan. sixthtone.com

A federal judge’s decision Thursday may clear the way for shipments of liquid nuclear waste between Ontario, Canada, and a nuclear processing facility in South Carolina, raising concerns by some environmentalists that trucks carrying the waste will pass through the city of Asheville, N.C. citizen-times.com

The U.S.S. Enterprise played a major role in the Cuban missile crisis, the Vietnam War, and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. timesofindia.com

 

 

New kinds of safer, simpler nuclear reactors are having a hard time becoming a reality—at least in certain countries. technologyreview.com

The US National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) is unable to quantify the results of $1 billion spent on projects to prevent nuclear proliferation during a four-year period ending in 2015, the General Accountability Office (GAO) said in an audit report on Friday. sputniknews.com

Radiation levels inside a damaged reactor at Japan’s Fukushima nuclear plant have hit a record high, and are the worst since the plant suffered a triple meltdown nearly six years ago. The latest readings now pose a serious challenge as officials prepare to dismantle the stricken facility. gizmodo.com

New research has shown that the benchmark used by the Office for Nuclear Regulation for judging how much should be spent on nuclear safety has no basis in evidence and places insufficient value on human life. The review suggests it may need to be ten times higher – between £16 million and £22 million per life saved. physorg.com

 

 

 

 

 

 

       The U.K. currently has fifteen operating nuclear power reactors supplying about twenty percent of their electricity. Half of these plants will be permanently shut down and decommissioned by 2025 because they will have reached the end of their licensed lifespan. The U.K. will also be closing coal-fired power plants to reduce carbon emissions. New nuclear power plants are planned for Hinkley Point, Wylffa, Sizewell, Bradwell and Oldbury. The U.K. has plans to have sixteen gigawatts of new generating capacity online by 2030. If these planned nuclear power plants are not online and operating by 2030, there could be a serious shortfall in the electricity supply in the U.K.

       I have devoted a lot of blog posts to the Hinkley Point C project in the U.K. There have been numerous problems with the project including financing, technology, political issues, etc. After long delays to deal with these problems, contracts have finally been signed and the project is moving forward. The two reactors for Hinkley Point C are a new design. Another reactor of the new European Pressurized Reactor design is being built in France and it is behind schedule. This may be an indication of trouble ahead for the Hinkley Point C project.

        Toshiba, a Japanese company which builds nuclear power reactors, has been involved in the NuGen consortium in the U.K. to build a nuclear power reactor in Moorside. Toshiba is in serious financial difficulty and is taking a multibillion-dollar write-down on their nuclear division. There are reports that Toshiba is considering selling its nuclear subsidiary and getting out of the nuclear business altogether. Engie, a French company, is another member of the NuGen consortium and there are reports that they have wanted to get out of the Moorside project for a long time. With two members of the consortium pulling out, the loss of funding for the project may result in its cancellation.

      Toshiba and Engie have been looking for other investors to take over supplying funds and nuclear expertise for the Moorside project. Kepco, the South Korean nuclear power company, is a possible replacement for Toshiba and Engie. There have been calls for the U.K. government to work on getting Kepco into the Moorside project.

       There have also been calls for the U.K. government to directly fund the Moorside project. In the past, such direct involvement in energy projects has been rejected, partly because of rules that the European Union has about such state financing. With the U.K. getting ready to leave the E.U., E.U. rules will no longer bind the U.K. and they will be free to invest government money if they choose.

       The trade unions in the U.K. are also concerned about the nuclear power construction program. In addition to the jobs that will be created for the construction of the planned reactors, there is also the concern that if the nuclear projects fail, the U.K. may be left without sufficient electricity to allow industries to continue to operate at full capacity.

      It might be advisable for the U.K. to seriously consider moving from reliance on nuclear power to other low-carbon sources such as wind and solar. Their nuclear plans do not seem to be going well.

The UK government has outlined its position regarding the European Atomic Energy Community (Euratom) in the white paper on Brexit it published yesterday. In the UK, a white paper is a report giving information or proposals on an issue. world-nuclear-news.org

France’s Areva has reached agreements with both Japan Nuclear Fuel Limited (JNFL) and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (MHI) on the main terms of their respective acquisition of 5% stakes in its nuclear fuel cycle activities. The operations are being split from Areva’s reactor business into a new entity, referred to as ‘NewCo’. world-nuclear-news.org

U.S. President Donald Trump’s defense secretary warned North Korea on Friday of an “effective and overwhelming” response if it chose to use nuclear weapons, as he reassured South Korea of steadfast U.S. support. reuters.com

Russian President Vladimir Putin said Thursday in Budapest that Russia was now willing to finance “100 percent” of the Paks II nuclear power plant expansion project in Hungary. nuclearstreet.com

 

 

 

       I have often mentioned in blog posts that nuclear power has serious international political issues. Major countries with nuclear industries such as the U.S., Russia, China, Japan and South Korea are trying to sell nuclear power reactors to other nations. These are such huge projects that they inevitably become involved with the political and economic relationships between the seller and the buyer. The amounts of money involved are in the billions of dollars and are often financed by special loan arrangements of the selling nation. In some cases, the seller offers to build, fuel and operate the new power reactor for the buyer. This would leave the buyer at the mercy of the seller if the seller decided to stop fueling and operating the reactor because of a political or economic dispute.

      Russia is currently negotiating to sell two nuclear power reactors to Hungary for about thirteen billion dollars. Rosatom, the Russian-owned nuclear reactor company, would build and operate the reactors at the Paks nuclear power plant on a fifty year contract. For the first decade, Rosatom would be the exclusive supplier of fuel for the Hungarian reactors. Russian banks would supply loans for up to eighty percent of the cost of the project.

       The Hungarian government wants to invest in the project. Because Hungary is a member of the European Union and Russia is not, the deal has to be approved by the European Commission which is reviewing the project. The issue before the Commission is whether or not to allow the Hungarian state to provide financial assistance for the purchase. The Commission is expect to approve the deal soon.

      The European Union has been trying to reduce its reliance Moscow for energy. Russia has threatened to shutoff flows of oil and gas to EU member nations in the past during political disputes. Russia recently annexed the Crimea from Ukraine and is currently involved in military conflict in eastern Ukraine. Critics of the Hungarian deal point out that it would not be wise to allow EU nations to become dependent on Russian nuclear power reactors given the past and present behavior of Russia.

       Ian Armstrong, a senior analyst at the news and analysis firm Global Risk Insights has said that “In instances where Moscow provides significant financial assistance as part of the deal, like in Hungary, [the deals] also serve as a direct purchasing of influence and political favors from EU member states.”

Petr Topychkanov, a fellow in the Carnegie Moscow Center’s nonproliferation program, said that Paks II is a “ticket to the European nuclear market. Success there will help Rosatom to overcome the anti-nuclear lobby in Europe, and to have an upper hand over nuclear competitors in this region.”

      Czechoslovakia is also considering the purchase of a nuclear power reactor from Rosatom. They are seeking European Commission approval to skip the usual bidding process for their purchase. Unlike Hungary,  Czechoslovakia is not interested in a loan from Russian banks and believes that it can get better interest rates for the project elsewhere. Nonetheless, purchase of Russian nuclear technology will still be another way for Russia to consolidate its hold over the nuclear power reactor market in Eastern Europe.

       Rosatom began its current aggressive expansion into the nuclear power reactor market with the appointment of a new CEO in 2005. Rosatom claims that it has over a hundred billion dollars in contracts to supply reactors, fuel and services to forty nine countries in the next ten years. Nuclear industry analysts have questioned these numbers and say that some of the contracts are really just preliminary agreements to explore the possible purchase of Rosatom nuclear power systems.