The election of a governor who favors shutting down the Sendai nuclear power plant in southwestern Japan raises uncertainty for the nation’s only running reactors. asia.nikkei.com

Japan is offering experts and technology to the United Arab Emirates to increase its nuclear energy cooperation with the country and share lessons learnt from the Fukushima disaster. thenational.ae

The bid to establish a nuclear waste storage facility in South Australia has suffered a further setback, after an independent “citizens’ jury” raised concerns about the economic viability of the project. theraustralian.com.au

The Santee Cooper Board of Directors has authorized the utility to proceed with securing an option that fixes the costs to complete two new units at V.C. Summer Nuclear Station located in Jenkinsville, northwest of Columbia. berkeleyind.com

 

Iran is hoping to join an international project in southern France that hopes to build the first machine to generate significant amounts of energy using nuclear fusion, which is considered a clean, safe and virtually limitless form of nuclear power. abcnews.go.com

After receiving a tip from an employee at the Palisades Nuclear Generating Station, the I-Team is now confirming several security officers at the plant have been placed on paid administrative leave. wwmt.com

After meeting with the Malmstrom Air Force Base commander Tuesday, Montana Sen. Jon Tester said he is satisfied the security of nuclear missile fields isn’t being compromised by the fleet of aging UH-1N helicopters airmen use to protect the base. airforcetimes.com

According to Bloomberg Intelligence analysts, Pacific Gas and Electric’s plan to shutter California’s last nuclear plant by 2025 would cost $15 billion if all of its output is replaced with solar produced electricity at current prices. centredaily.com

 

       Yesterday, I blogged about an old nuclear power reactor in Armenia that should be shut down permanently as soon as possible. I mentioned in passing that a lot of fissionable materials are being smuggled through Armenia and its neighbor, Georgia. I have already blogged about smuggling of nuclear materials in Moldova. Today, I am going to focus on smuggling in Georgia.

       In the past six months, there have been attempts to smuggle uranium-238, uranium-235 and cesium 137 through Georgia into Turkey. All of these fissionable materials could be used to make a dirty bomb that would wreck havoc if detonated in a city. Georgia was a very corrupt member of the Soviet Union before it collapsed in 1991. Following the disintegration of the S.U., Georgia became a popular route for smuggling radioactive materials out of former members of the S.U. Georgia is holding two dozen individuals in its prisons for being involved in nuclear smuggling. Most are Georgians with a few Armenians and a single Russia.

       Last January, three Georgians were arrested in Tbilisi, the Georgian capital, for trying to sell a hundred thousand dollars worth of Cs-137 to undercover agents. On April 17th, three Georgians and three Armenians were arrested in Tbilisi for trying to sell U-238 for two hundred million dollars. On April 28th, five Georgian men were arrested in Kobuleti near the Turkish border with one and a half grams of U-238 and a half gram of U-235 for trying to sell the materials to undercover agents for three million dollars. The containers for the U-238 and the Cs-137 had markings in the Russian language but Georgian officials would not answer questions about the probable origin of the smuggled materials. While Russia insists that it has excellent security for all of its nuclear materials, a recent report by nuclear analysts says that Russia is the worst country for nuclear security out of twenty four countries that have nuclear materials.

       A few years ago, the Georgian provinces of Abkhazia and South Ossetia declared independence from Georgia with the support of Russia. Now, Georgian officials claim that these two breakaway provinces are prime smuggling routes into Georgia. This may be true or it may be Georgia trying to blame Abkhazia and South Ossetia for activities that are taking place elsewhere in Georgia.

       In response to international criticism, the head of the Georgian agency charged with nuclear and radiation safety says that Georgia has adequate security for nuclear materials. He said that every Georgia border crossing has technology that will identify cars that have been driven through radioactive areas. He admitted that some recent smuggling attempts have passed successfully into Georgia because the police at the border crossings had turned off their radiation detection equipment as part of a sting operation. He admitted that the radiation detection equipment used at the borders could be defeated if the radioactive materials were shielded in lead containers. He failed to address the recent arrests for nuclear smuggling in Georgia.

       Turkish officials dismissed concerns about nuclear materials being smuggled in from Georgia. They say that Turkey and Georgia have a good cooperative framework in place to deal with such smuggling. Of one hundred and fifty non-nuclear countries, Turkey is rated as being number thirty five with respect to smuggling risk and Georgia is rated as number twenty seven.

Map of Georgia:

Bulgaria has signed a €72 million ($80 million) agreement with a consortium to build a radioactive waste repository for its Kozloduy nuclear power plant that is expected start operations in 2021, the country’s energy ministry said yesterday. The consortium consists of German Nukem Technologies, which is owned by Russia’s AtomStroyExport, and four Bulgarian companies. world-nuclear-news.org

The total lifetime cost of the planned Hinkley Point C nuclear power plant could be as high as £37bn, according to an assessment published by the UK government. theguardian.com

Germany’s domestic intelligence agency said in its annual report Thursday that Iran continues to seek illicit missile technology, which Western governments have long feared can be used for the delivery of nuclear weapons. jpost.com

The contractor that operates radioactive waste storage tanks on the Hanford Nuclear Reservation has proposed that employees who move tank farm waste perform their shifts on nights and weekends to reduce exposure to chemical vapors, after dozens of employees said they were sickened from vapors associated with the tanks. bellinghamherald.com

 

 

 

 

       I have blogged in the past that one of the big dangers with nuclear power is the fact nuclear power plants are prime targets for terrorism and warfare. After the recent Paris attack, there was evidence that some of the same terrorists might have been working on an attack on a nuclear facility in Brussels, Belgium. Terrorists could take over a nuclear plant and try to cause a meltdown. They could try detonating explosives to drain the spent fuel cooling pool which would lead to explosive release of radioactive materials when the exposed fuel rods spontaneously caught fire. The danger during warfare would be that an attacker could deliberately bombard a nuclear power plant or that the plant could be accidentally damaged. Of course nuclear plants vary in their vulnerability and the probability that they might be involved in a conflict.

       The Metsamor nuclear power plant in Armenia was built by the Soviet Union in 1976. It is similar in design to the Chernobyl nuclear power plant which was the site of a terrible accident in 1986. The Metsamor plant has no emergency cooling system.

        Metsamor was closed after an earthquake in 1988. It was restarted during the Nagorno-Karabakh war which ended in 1994. Metsamor reached the end of its design life time in 2010. Armenia was planning to decommission the plant in 2010 but it continues to operate and Armenia now says that it use to plant to generate electricity until 2026. It generates about forty percent of the electricity for Armenia.

        A lot nuclear materials is being smuggled through Armenia and Georgia. Recently, smuggler were arrested while trying to smuggle hundreds of millions of dollars worth of U-238. The great fear is that terrorists will purchase nuclear materials on the Armenian black market to build dirty bombs.

        The Nagorno-Karabakh region was occupied by Armenia during the war and is poorly monitored. It is estimated that there are at least thirty different locations in N-K where spent nuclear fuel removed from Metsamor is being buried with little concern for safety. This is a great threat to the environment in that area. In addition, terrorists could dig up the buried waste for use in dirty bombs.

       The European Union is very concerned about the continued operation of this old nuclear power plant and the disposal of its spent fuel. E.U. analysts say that it would be impossible for Armenia to upgrade Metsamor to meet current international standards for nuclear power reactor safety. The E.U.  has repeatedly called for the closure of the plant and even went so far as to offer Armenia over two hundred million dollars to help with the closure of Metsamor but Armenia turned them down.

       Armenia is close to the Middle East, the site of many recent conflicts and much terrorist activity. This proximity increases the chances that Middle Eastern terrorists may gain access to the materials they need for dirty bombs. It is to the interest of the whole world for a solution to be found for Armenian power needs that does not include the continued operation of the Metsamor nuclear power plant.

Metsamor nuclear power plant:

Toro Energy has signed a mining agreement with the Wiluna People, the traditional owners of land including uranium deposits the company proposes to mine as part of the Wiluna project in Western Australia. world-nuclear-news.org

Horizon Nuclear Power, the Japan Atomic Power Company (JAPC) and Hitachi have signed a technical services contract for the proposed Wylfa Newydd nuclear power plant in North Wales. JAPC is to support Horizon in areas including construction costing, licensing, and planning for commissioning. world-nuclear-news.org

Watts Bar Unit 2, the country’s newest nuclear reactor, which reached first criticality on May 23, reached 42 percent of full power on Thursday, the highest level to date, as testing continues on power generation and active physics of the new plant. nuclearstreet.com

A steam line rupture in the turbine building at D.C. Cook Nuclear Plant Wednesday morning damaged a wall in the plant’s Unit 2 turbine building, but has had no effect on the nuclear reactor or public safety, authorities said. mlive.com