Areva has completed the clean-up and dismantling of facilities at the former mixed-oxide fuel fabrication plant at Cadarache, in southern France. The company described the project as “one of the largest dismantling projects in the world”. world-nuclear-news.org

Global Nuclear Fuel-Japan’s (GNF-J’s) fuel fabrication plant in Yokosuka in Kanagawa Prefecture meets new regulatory standards, the country’s nuclear regulator has concluded. It becomes the first fuel cycle facility to be confirmed to meet the revised safety standards, introduced in December 2013. world-nuclear-news.org

Pakistan today said the global nuclear watchdog IAEA has approved its application of safeguards for two under construction nuclear plant units being set up in Karachi with China’s assistance.  economictimes.com

In a public statement, the regional office of Yabloko warns against the loading of nuclear fuel into the two reactors while the experimental floating installation is located in downtown St. Petersburg. thebarentsobserver.com

       I have often blogged about problems with disposing of nuclear waste in the United States. I have also occasionally blogged about problems that other countries have with nuclear waste. The only other country that has problems similar to the U.S. is Russia. Russia has thirty-five nuclear power reactors currently operating and is constructing a dozen more. In addition to disposing of spent nuclear fuel, Russia was also the site of major manufacturing of nuclear weapons during the Cold War and it has a great deal of nuclear pollution left over from that work. Russia does not have the technology to reprocess or recycle significant amounts of nuclear waste.

      Novaya Zemlya is a group of islands in the Arctic Ocean between the Barents Sea and the Kara Sea in Northern Russia. The U.S.S.R. tested nuclear bombs on the islands between 1955 and 1990. During its use as a nuclear test site, there were two hundred and twenty-four detonations. Novaya Zemlya was used as a site to bury some liquid and solid radioactive wastes until 1992 and the islands are already contaminated from the fallout of all the bombs tested there so burying more waste would not threaten the environment.

        Now an official with the Russia Arctic nature reserve has renewed suggestions that the islands be used for the storage of nuclear waste. Novaya Zemlya could be a place where large amounts of waste could be stored while Russia develops the technology needed to reprocess or recycle. Using Novaya Zemlya for nuclear waste storage has been suggested in the past but the cost and difficulty of transporting all that waste to Novaya Zemlya were considered prohibitive.

        Last year, the regional government for Novaya Zemlya approved a plan to start digging a new repository on the islands for low and intermediate level nuclear waste but concerns about global warming are raising questions about the wisdom of such a project. Novaya Zemlya is covered in permafrost which was supposed to trap radioactive materials but now winter temperatures are rising above freezing which threatens to melt the permafrost. 

       Rosatom, the big Russian-owned nuclear company, is now looking at some other possible sites for storage of nuclear waste. One possible choice is Sosnovy Bor, which is the site of the Leningrad Nuclear Power Plant and is located near St. Petersburg. The soil conditions are good for such a repository and there is ample need but there is also a well organized anti-nuclear movement which is opposing both the construction of a new Leningrad Nuclear Power Plant as well as any plans for storing nuclear waste there.

       Another possible new site for Russian nuclear waste is the Murmansk region. The Kola Nuclear Power Plant and Atomflot, the port for Russian nuclear icebreakers, are located in Murmansk. Murmansk appears to be the first choice for Rosatom but there is local opposition. Critics of the plan say that Murmansk does not really need a local repository for nuclear waste. There is less organized resistance to nuclear projects in Murmansk than Sosnovy Bor, but the geology is not as good for digging a repository. The ground is mostly rock and any digging would have to include extensive blasting.

       Although the need for a new repository for nuclear waste is great, there are enough problems with the three sites that are being considered that it may take years to actually begin construction of a repository.

The seventh Nuclear Power Asia conference being held in Kuala Lumpur on Tuesday and Wednesday is bringing together the leaders of the Asian nuclear-power industry. nationamultimedia.com

The United Kingdom Civil Nuclear Constabulary declined to answer an FOI request asking for details of fearsome mutant beasts ‘such as Godzilla’. mirror.co.uk

Federal regulators will inspect Cooper nuclear power plant in Nebraska next week to determine why a key heat-removal system and its backup were both offline at the same time last month. journalstar.com

Public Service Enterprise Group is continuing to make the case that it needs help to keep its fleet of nuclear power plants afloat, this time to a roomful of energy analysts. Chief executive Ralph Izzo said yesterday that if the plants are not economically feasible to operate, the company will not continue to keep the units in service, a prospect that could occur within three years. Nuclear provides nearly half the electricity used by customers in New Jersey. nj.com

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

       I have blogged recently about Chinese nuclear weapons and Chinese nuclear policy. One problem that China does not have to deal with is the threat of a Taiwanese nuclear bomb but that was not always true.

       Following the successful Chinese Communist Revolution which ended in 1949, the losing side fled to the island of Taiwan and declared themselves to be the “real” Chinese government. Since that time, the Communist Chinese on the mainland and the Chinese on the island of Taiwan have been hostile to each other with occasional confrontations between them The U.S. recognized the Taiwan government as the legitimate government of China and provided military support against mainland Chinese aggression in the decades after World War II. The Peoples’ Republic of China on the mainland basically forced the rest of the world through diplomatic means to recognize them as the nation of China.

        When China tested its first nuclear bomb in 1964, Taiwan felt pressured to respond. Taiwan feared Chinese nuclear weapons and began development of nuclear weapons a few years after the first Chinese bomb test. There were occasional skirmishes between the air forces of both nations and, with a Chinese nuclear bomb, an escalation of all-out war between China and Taiwan would result in the devastation of Taiwan. Fearing a loss of U.S. protection, Taiwan realized that if it had nuclear weapons, China would be much less inclined to invade them.

        Taiwan began developing its own nuclear weapons officially in 1967 using nuclear research as a cover. They bought a big heavy water nuclear reactor from Canada in 1969. The U.S. was concerned about a Taiwanese bomb and tried to prevent plutonium production by demanding that any Taiwanese reactor abide by the rules set by the International Atomic Energy Agency guidelines to prevent plutonium production.

        The Taiwanese reactor began operating in 1973 with technical assistance from United States, Germany, France, Norway, and Israel. The U.S. supplied the heavy water for the reactor and South Africa supplied the uranium. Taiwan began work on generating sufficient plutonium for their weapons program in spite of promises made to abide by the IAEA rules.

        In 1975, the U.S. CIA announced that the Taiwanese were indeed working on nuclear weapons and that they would be able to build their first nuclear bomb by 1980. In 1976, the IAEA inspected the Taiwanese nuclear facilities and discovered evidence that Taiwanese did have a nuclear weapons program. The U.S. immediately lodged a protest and Taiwan promised to refrain from any work on reprocessing waste from the reactor to extract plutonium. Over the next few years, the U.S. detected weapons related activity on multiple occasions and lodged new protests that ultimately forced Taiwan to stop its nuclear weapons work.

        The U.S. formally recognized the Peoples Republic of China as the only legitimate government of the Chinese people in 1979. However, the U.S. has continued to be a friend to Taiwan and to counter-balance Chinese military threats against Taiwan since then.

        After abiding by their promises with respect to nuclear weapons development, the Taiwanese began working on nuclear weapons again in the mid-1980s. A high-level Taiwanese defector came to the U.S. in December of 1987 with documented proof of the Taiwanese nuclear weapons program. The U.S. confronted the Taiwanese government and Taiwan finally gave up its nuclear weapons program in 1988. Analysts estimated that Taiwan could have constructed their first nuclear bomb within one or two years. Since that time, the U.S. has protected Taiwan against nuclear attack with the promise to retaliated against any attacker with its own nuclear weapons.

        Taiwan was acting in what it believed to be its self-interest in developing a nuclear program to counter the nuclear weapons program of China. However, any nuclear exchange between Taiwan and China would have resulted in the complete obliteration of Taiwan. It the end, the current arrangement is far better than Taiwan having its own nuclear weapons.

 

 

For years, many Westchester County residents and elected officials clamored for the Indian Point nuclear power plant to be shut down, citing what they said was the untenable risk it posed in an area as populated as greater New York City. nytimes.com

Czech Prime Minister Bohuslav Sobotka says the country could start building a new nuclear reactor as soon as 2025. elp.com

Last Thursday, U.S. Senator John Barrasso (R-WY), chairman of the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works (EPW), joined with Sens. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), Jim Inhofe (R-OK), Cory Booker (D-NJ), Mike Crapo (R-ID), Deb Fischer (R-NE), Shelley Moore Capito (R-WV), and Joe Manchin (D-WV) in introducing S. 512, the Nuclear Energy Innovation and Modernization Act (NEIMA). wyomingbusinessreport.com

Subcritical nuclear tests remain useful for maintaining the U.S. nuclear weapons stockpile in the absence of nuclear explosive testing, the JASON defense advisory panel affirmed in a letter report last year. But “a gap exists in the current US capability to carry out and diagnose such experiments,” the panel said. fas.org

 

 

 

Hungary can start construction of new nuclear power units at Paks next year as planned, following European Commission approval of commitments it has made to limit distortions of competition. The Commission said today it had concluded that Hungary’s financial support for the Paks II project involves state aid, but it could approve this support under EU state aid rules on the basis of these commitments. world-nuclear-news.org

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission said Friday that the transfer of the operating license for the James A. FitzPatrick Nuclear Power Plant in upstate New York had been approved. As of March 31, the plant’s license will be transferred from Entergy Nuclear Operations to Exelon Generation Company. nuclearstreet.com

Iran successfully test-fired a sophisticated Russian-made air defense system, the official IRNA news agency reported on Saturday. haaretz.com