After years of negotiation, Iran finally signed a deal with members of the U.N. Security Council to halt any activity that could lead to the creation of nuclear weapons. Sanctions are being lifted and Iran is rejoining the world marketplace. One new business arrangement involves the U.S. purchasing heavy water from Iran. The U.S. does not produce heavy water and has to buy heavy water from foreign suppliers such as Canada and now Iran. The U.S. buys and imports about seventy five tons of heavy water each year.

        Most of the hydrogen in ordinary water consists of the isotope with a single proton in the nucleus of the atom. The isotope of hydrogen with a proton and a neutron in the nucleus is referred to as deuterium. Deuterium atoms comprise about .015% of the hydrogen in ordinary water. Water which contains a higher than normal percentage of deuterium is called “heavy water.” Heavy water used in nuclear reactors may contain over 99% deuterium atoms. Heavy water was first produced in 1932 a few months after the discovery of deuterium. Heavy water reactors such as the CANDU reactors can burn natural uranium because of the neutron moderating capability of heavy water. Heavy water was extensively used in the early days of research on nuclear reactors. It is currently used in plutonium production, nuclear research and some industrial applications.

       Iran built a heavy water reactor at Arak in the early years of the 21^st century which was a major concern for those fearing that Iran was working on a nuclear weapons program. Such reactors are useful for producing plutonium that can be used to make nuclear warheads. They have limited utility for other purposes. Iran also constructed a heavy water production plant in Arak to supply heavy water to the Arak reactor.  Under the Iran nuclear deal, Iran was forced to modify the Arak reactor to make it much less suitable for the production of plutonium. The heavy water plant is still operating.

       Under the Iran nuclear deal, for the near future, Iran has to keep its stockpile of heavy water under one hundred and thirty tons. Later, the stockpile level must be below ninety tons. The U.S. and Iran have been working on finding buyers for Iranian heavy water but have been unsuccessful. Iran’s stockpile of heavy water is rising and, unless it is reduced, it will exceed the maximum level established in the deal.

     In order to help Iran meet its obligations, the U.S. has just agreed to purchase thirty two tons of heavy water from Iran for eight million six hundred thousand dollars. The U.S. is hoping that its purchase of heavy water will signal to the world that Iran’s heavy water is of high quality and that purchasing it is legitimate. U.S. officials have said that they are just helping Iran get started in developing an international customer base that will be necessary if Iran intends to keep producing heavy water.

       The heavy water being purchased will be shipped from the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran to the U.S. Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) in Tennessee in the next few weeks. It will be utilized by the ORNL to conduct experiments involve in the use of neutron to explore the nature of some materials. Some of the heavy water may be sold to other organizations for use in the production of semiconductors and fiber optic equipment.

       Critics of the purchase in Congress have asked the Obama administration exactly how they were going to pay for the heavy water. Currently Iran is not allowed to enter the U.S. financial system or conduct business in dollars. The Obama administration is working on how and when to let Iran into the U.S. financial system. The critics also wanted assurances that Iran would not use the money from the purchase to fund weapons related nuclear research or terrorist activities. 

Aerial photography of Arak heavy water plant:

Fukushima Japan, previously destroyed by an earthquake and Tsunami, has been hit with a Magnitude 5.6 earthquake at 8:19 AM eastern US time, just moments ago. superstation95.com

The Japanese industry ministry concluded that releasing diluted radioactive tritium into the sea is the most feasible option in dealing with contaminated water accumulating at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant. asahi.com

Cameco is suspending production at the Rabbit Lake uranium mine in northern Saskatchewan, curtailing production at its US uranium operations, and reducing production at McArthur River/Key Lake in response to market conditions, the company announced yesterday. world-nuclear-news.org

North Korea preparations for 5th nuclear test complete, military says. upi.com

 

 

 

 

One of the main selling points in the push to expand nuclear power is the claim that it is “low-carbon” and well suited to fight climate change caused by carbon dioxide emissions coming from fossil fuel power plants and fossil fuel engines. Many state and national  governments are currently adopting quotas for low-carbon energy sources and nuclear power proponents are pushing for nuclear power to be classified as low-carbon along with such sources as hydro, solar, wind and biogas. While it definitely emits less carbon dioxide than a coal or natural gas power plant, a nuclear power reactor is not quite as low-carbon as many think.

       The Committee on Climate Change of the government of the United Kingdom has called for less than fifty grams of carbon dioxide (CO₂₎ to be emitted in the generation of each kilowatt hour of electricity by the year 2030. It has been suggested that any new nuclear power plants that are constructed in the U.K. starting now should have to follow the fifty gram CO₂ limit.Due to the long lead time required for the licensing and construction of a nuclear power plant, it is quite possible that even power plants that are under construction or just starting construction may not be generating power for the grid before 2030.

       When considering the entire life cycle of a power source, there are five main areas to analyze. Construction, operation, fuel production, dismantling and waste disposal.        Although many analyses of carbon generation by nuclear power plants have been carried out, there is no universally accepted scientifically agreement on how much CO₂ is emitted by a nuclear power plant in its lifetime.

       Starting in chronological order, construction of a nuclear power plant consumes an enormous amount of  concrete which generate CO₂ as it cures.

       Next, the production of uranium fuel also generates CO₂ as fossil fuels are consumed in digging, milling and transportation. As the high grade deposits of uranium are exhausted, the use of fossil fuels and the generation of CO₂ will increase because of the greater energy cost of fuel production for deposits with lower percentages of recoverable uranium.

       Operations of a nuclear power plant produce little CO₂.

       Since the problem of nuclear waste disposal has not be solved as yet, it is hard to estimate CO₂ emissions associated with waste disposal. Underground repositories will have to dug which will consume fossil fuels. And waste will have to be transported to the repositories which will also consume fossil fuels.

       Finally, the costs that will be associated with the decommissioning of nuclear power plants is not well defined so estimates of CO₂  generation are difficult but there will be fossil fuels needed for the equipment that dismantles retired nuclear power plants and fossil fuels consumed in the transportation of the debris from the dismantling. This will generate CO₂.

       A recent meta-study of the most thorough analyses of CO₂ emission of nuclear power plants found that over half of the studies said that nuclear power plants generated more than the fifty grams of CO₂ limit called for by the CCC. Some studies claimed that CO₂ generation of nuclear power plants during their life cycles were under fifty grams but close analysis of those studies showed that they failed to adequately consider the possible contribution of decommissioning and/or waste disposal to the total CO₂ emitted.

       With respect to renewable power sources, a recent study found that a life cycle analysis of hydropower, biogas, wind and solar all fell under the fifty grams limit for CO₂ generation. The cost and efficiency of some renewable energy sources such as photovoltaic solar are rapidly evolving and their CO₂ emission should fall even further.

       Whatever positive arguments can be made for the construction of nuclear power plants, it appears that lowering CO₂ emissions to help mitigate climate change is not one of them.

 

NATO and EU security chiefs say Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL) wants to use chemical or nuclear weapons to attack Britain. rt.com

Power minister Piyush Goyal has said India is not in a “tearing hurry” on the issue of nuclear energy since there are continuing questions about pricing, safety and liabilities sought by foreign companies. hindustantimes.com

Hundreds of Santa Susana Field Laboratory workers fell ill and died of similar illnesses attributable to their exposure to radioactive substances. All of these individuals were denied compensation by the U.S. federal government. sputniknews.com

The Korea Atomic Industrial Forum (KAIF) has signed a memorandum of understanding to cooperate with Rosatom subsidiary Rosatom International Network. The agreement aims to enhance communications between the Russian and Korean nuclear power industries.  world-nuclear-news.org

        There is a lot of concern being expressed these days about the possibility that ISIS might be interested in committing nuclear terrorism. There have been indications in the past several years that ISIS is trying to acquire nuclear materials which could be used to construct a dirty bomb.

        Moldavia is a nexus for smuggling nuclear materials from Russia and other former members states of the Soviet Union. In a sting conducted several years ago, one of the men apprehended said that members of ISIS were in Moldavia trying to buy nuclear materials for a dirty bomb.

       Some of the people involved in the Paris terrorist attack last November were making video surveillance tapes of a Belgian nuclear worker in Brussels. A couple of Belgians who worked on at a nuclear power plant traveled to Syria to join ISIS. One of them subsequently returned to Belgium. It is possible that ISIS was working on a plan to either steal nuclear materials for a dirty bomb or was planning to attack and sabotage a Belgian nuclear power plant and only changed their plans at the last minute because some of their people had been captured.

       Pakistan is a nuclear power. It is estimated that they have at least a hundred and twenty nuclear warheads and the means to deliver them. The hostilities between Pakistan and India have led to war several times since the two countries were created in 1949. India also has nuclear weapons and it is feared that nuclear war could break out between Pakistan and India. Recently, Pakistan announced that they were going to create and distribute small tactical nuclear weapons to area along the Pakistan-India border.

       Earlier this year, the director of Pakistan’s intelligence agency said that hundreds of Pakistanis were going to Syria to join ISIS. He expressed concern about what these men might do if they returned to Pakistan. A terrorist network in Pakistan has recently been eradicated. It is possible that ISIS may try to obtain nuclear materials from Pakistan to use in the construction of dirty bombs. They might also just kidnap nuclear scientists from Pakistan and force them to help make dirty bombs with uranium from Syria and Iraq.

        There is also a growing fear that militants sympathetic to ISIS might be able to steal Pakistani nuclear weapons. In recent years, militants have attacked supposedly secure military facilities in Pakistan. This suggests that they might be able to enter secured nuclear facilities where weapons are stored. On the other hand, Pakistani military officers with experience in nuclear weapons security claim that militants would not be able obtain nuclear weapons, safety mechanisms and trigger code words which are kept in separate locations. A former member of the Pakistani army has pointed out that Pakistan has never had any nuclear materials or nuclear weapons stolen.

       Although there are over sixty military groups in northwest Pakistan, the number that are sympathetic to ISIS is relatively small. The estimated number of actual ISIS members is small. The Pakistani army has over seven hundred thousand men. Pakistani officials are confident that their nuclear arsenal is safe from ISIS.

Pakistani Army Emblem:

Buchanan, New York is a town in the United States where tens of thousands of people have been diagnosed with Thyroid Cancer, and it sits just 35 miles from New York City. Also nearby is the Indian Point Nuclear Power Plant, which is situated on the Hudson River and serves the electricity needs of approximately 2 million people, with two working reactors which have operated since the mid 1970s. wakingtimes.com

Belgium on Wednesday rejected a request by neighboring Germany to shutter two ageing nuclear plants near their shared border, arguing the facilities met with the strictest safety standards. theguardian.com

A fifth North Korean nuclear test could trigger new sanctions including an effort to choke off hard currency earnings by its workers abroad, the top U.S. diplomat for the Asia-Pacific region has said. reuters.com

An appeals court has ruled that a massive nuclear plant expansion proposed by Florida’s largest utility must be redone to meet environmental and other concerns. abcnews.go.com

 

 

       Many of the operating nuclear power reactors in the world were built in the 1970s. In the U.S., the original licensing period for power reactors was forty years. This means that starting around 2010, a lot of power reactors licenses began running out. Owners of many of the reactors with expiring licenses have applied for a twenty year extension and received it. The steel used in the construction of reactors and containment vessels becomes brittle and weaker over time from neutron bombardment so licenses cannot be extended indefinitely. And, with cheap fossil fuels and alternative sustainable energy sources declining in cost, some nuclear power reactors are not able to compete in the energy marketplace. If the owner of a power reactor cannot operate the reactor at a profit, they lose their license. These and other factors make it a certainty that many nuclear power reactors in the U.S. and abroad will have to be permanently shut down in the near future.

       When a nuclear power plant is closed, a process called decommissioning has to be carried out. The reactor and associated equipment must be dismantled and disposed of. All fuel must be removed from the reactor and the spent fuel pool and disposed of. Decommissioning is a lengthy and complex process that required expertise, time and a lot of money. If the money is not available for decommissioning, then a reactor may just be shut down and the site boarded up and fenced in for decades. This raises concerns about security and safety as deterioration of the shuttered facility may lead to radioactive materials leaking into the environment.

       Economic projects suggest that the global market for decommissioning services and nuclear waste disposal will be huge in the coming decades. It may take as much as a hundred years to decommission all the existing nuclear power plants in Europe. Early estimates state that sixteen European nations will have to spend at least two hundred and eighty eight million dollars on disposal of nuclear wastes. A major problem for the decommissioning industry is the lack of skilled qualified workers to carry out the necessary tasks.

       The U.K. has a dozen sites where the reactors have already been shut down and eight hundred and sixty three million dollars a year for the next ten years will be spend cleaning up the sites. The U.K. is hosting the Nuclear Decommissioning Conference for Europe starting on May 31st of this year. Major nuclear companies from Europe and other parts of the world will be participating in hopes of getting a piece of the huge amount of money that will have to be spent on decommissioning.

       There are two hundred nuclear power reactors in the world that will need to be shut down by 2025. The biggest unanswered question with respect to decommissioning is what to do with all the nuclear waste from nuclear weapons production and civilian nuclear power reactors. Nuclear nations have tried to site and construct practical deep geological repositories for the permanent disposal of nuclear waste but all attempts so far have failed. Given this uncertainty, it is not really known how much the permanent disposal of nuclear waste will cost.

       Decommissioning of nuclear power plants and disposal of nuclear waste will be a growth industry for many decades to come.