Nuclear reactor fears after huge earthquake strikes Japan. enenews.com

A memorandum of cooperation in the field of nuclear energy for peaceful purposes has been signed by Russian state nuclear corporation Rosatom and the ministry of energy and mines of Laos. world-nuclear-news.org

The Pilgrim nuclear power plant will be refueled for the final time in 2017 and will cease operations on 31 May 2019, Entergy announced yesterday. world-nuclear-news.org

United Kingdom Capable Of Manufacturing Westinghouse Small Modular Reactors. nuclearstreet.com

 

 

        The easiest and most efficient mode of operation for nuclear power plants is called “baseload.” This means that the plant is set up to operate at one hundred percent power generating capacity. Coal power plants are also best operated in baseload mode. Gas power plants and hydro power plants can be adjusted relatively easily with respect to power output to meet current demand and this is called “load-following”. A mixture of both load modes works best. The baseload provides the minimum power requirements of the grid and the load-following adjusts to momentary demands above the minimum. Alternative sustainable energy sources such as solar and wind are often criticized because they cannot provide baseload power. There is intense work being done in battery technology to allow excess power generation from alternative sources to be captured for use when the source is not generating to sustain baseload power.

        Although nuclear power plants are not the best source of load-following power generation, the dependency of countries such as France on nuclear power have required the development of load-following capability in nuclear power plants. In France, less absorptive control rods have been used for the past twenty five years to allow modulation of the power output of the reactors for load-following.

        Ukraine has 16 reactors in four nuclear power plants that provide about half the electricity consumed in the country. Ukraine has been studying load-following for the past ten years because it is interested in adapting its fleet of VVER reactors from baseload to load-following to provide more flexibility in power generation. Ukraine targeted this year for Ukraine’s reactors to be load-following. The Ukraine nuclear company Energoatom has stated that it needs additional time and additional funding in order to make all of Ukraine’s reactors capable of load-following.

         Unit Two at the Khmelnitsky nuclear power plant has been used for researching load-following. The reactor has been reduced from one hundred percent to seventy five percent power generation and then returned to one hundred percent twenty one times. During these tests, Energoatom identified which items of equipment would need to be modified and upgraded in order to allow the reactor to easily and safely operate in the load-following mode. Regulations state that in order for a reactor to be certified for operation in load-following mode, the reactor has to have the output reduced and restored at least two hundred times.

       In order to make the Ukraine reactor fleet load-following, additional funding will be necessary to upgrade the equipment at each plant. In addition, each plant will have to be put through the required two hundred load change cycles to insure proper operation. Energoatom says that if the necessary funding is made available, it will take two years to upgrade and test all of Ukraine’s power reactors.

        Some critics of the plan to adapt Ukraine’s reactor fleet to load-following complain that Energoatom is moving too quickly on the planning for the changes and more time is needed to insure a safe transition. The Chairman of the Ukrainian Energy Assembly has responded that research into load-following has been going on in Ukraine for ten years and that the transition project is based on solid research and engineering and is sufficient to accomplish the load-following project properly.

Location of Ukraine nuclear power plants:

Over 60 million Japanese have been irradiated by Fukushima nuclear disaster. enenews.com

Health researchers are turning a blind eye to casualties caused by the Fukushima nuclear disaster. counterpunch.org

The US Nuclear Innovation Alliance (NIA) has issued a series of recommendations for updating the regulatory process to address an “urgent” need for an advanced reactor licensing process. world-nuclear-news.org

Finnish utility Teollisuuden Voima Oyj (TVO) has today submitted its operating licence application for unit 3 of the Olkiluoto nuclear power plant. The first-of-a-kind EPR plant is scheduled to start up in late 2018. world-nuclear-news.org

 

 

 

        I have been blogging on international nuclear security issues lately. Yesterday, I wrote about the 2016 Nuclear Security Summit, a meeting of nations concerned with nuclear security and terrorist threats. Much progress has been made in making nuclear materials more secure around the globe but much remains to be done. Unfortunately, the U.S. and Russia have experienced a decline in their relationship and Russia did not attend the Summit.

         Both the U.S. and Russia have around five thousand nuclear warheads that they can deliver with the triad of bombers, missiles and submarines. Of these, each has about fifteen hundred that are currently deployed and ready for launch. Since it is estimated that the detonation of as few as a hundred nuclear warheads could bring on a civilization-ending nuclear winter, calling this overkill is a serious understatement.  Despite a claimed commitment to nuclear disarmament and multiple treaties to accomplish it, both countries are currently working on increasing their nuclear arsenals.

         Pentagon officials have recently reported that Russia is doubling the number of its strategic nuclear warheads. They are deploying multiple reentry vehicles which are independently targetable and referred to as MIRVs on their mobile SS-27 missiles as well as submarine-launched SS-N-32 missiles. This deployment put Moscow well above the limits set for warheads under the 2010 New START arms treaty which calls for Russia and the U.S. to reduce their deployable warheads to one thousand five hundred and fifty by February of 2018. The U.S. is currently below the limit at one thousand five hundred and thirty eight while Russia has exceeded the limit by ninety eight warheads for a total of one thousand six hundred and forty eight. The Pentagon also said that the Russians were trying to prevent weapons inspectors from checking Russian warheads.

        Russia has been working on a major nuclear forces expansion lately. They are building road-mobile, rail-mobile and silo-based intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) as well as modernizing the missiles in their nuclear submarines. They are also building a new long-range bomber. Although the Russians have been involved in a series of disarmament treaties and have converted a lot of plutonium from Cold War era Soviet nuclear weapons to nuclear reactor fuel, they have also been working on the build-up of their nuclear forces for more than fifteen years.

         This expansion of Russian nuclear forces is a grave concern for U.S. military planners. The Russian government under Vladimir Putin has become increasingly belligerent in the past few years. Russia has been invading other countries airspaces with nuclear bombers and other nations territorial waters with nuclear submarines. He has been talking casually about using tactical nuclear weapons in Eastern Europe in a conventional war with NATO forces. In response, the Pentagon is seeking more funds for modernizing the aging U.S. nuclear forces after seven years of cuts in the U.S. defense budget. Current and former U.S. officials say that Russia is the greatest threat to the security of the U.S. in the world, especially in light of their recent behavior and statements.

Russian SS-27 mobile missile:

Source: http://vitalykuzmin.net/?q=node/446

Japan Prepares for Release of Tritium From Fukushima Plant. nytimes.com

The U.S. federal government is moving to impose new cybersecurity requirements on nuclear facilities. thehill.com

Luxembourg offers France money to close nuclear plant. en.rfi.fr

Moscow rejects Pyongyang’s claim to the status of a nuclear power possessing atomic weapons and means of their delivery. sputniknews.com
 

        The debate over the international Iranian nuclear deal did not end when the papers were signed. The debate has continued over whether or not Iran is abiding by the terms of the agreement. Critics of the deal which was signed in July of last year claim that the Iranians have repeatedly demanded concessions which the Obama administration has often yielded to in order to keep the arrangement alive. They say that the Obama administration is rewriting the general consensus among parties to the deal in the U.S., Europe and the Middle East.

        One of the big bones of contention is the Iranian ballistic missile system. As the nuclear accord was being crafted, some parties demanded that the cancellation of the Iranian research and development of ballistic missiles should be part of the deal. They were afraid that Iran would create increasingly powerful and sophisticated missiles with greater and greater ranges that could carry nuclear warheads and threaten nations beyond Iranian enemies in the Middle East.

         When Iran tested fired a missile in March of this year, at first the U.S. officials reported the test to the U.N. Security Council as a violation of the accord. Then Russia stepped in and claimed that while the accord called for Iran not to test missiles, the accord did not actually prohibit such tests. The U.S. representatives accepted the Russian interpretation and withdrew their complaint.

         Over the objection of critics, the U.S. Secretary of State increased the separation of the nuclear deal from the Iranian missile program last week and said that there should be new negotiations with Iran to resolve concerns. The Iranians say that their missile program is simply “non-negotiable.” Apparently, the U.S. has no leverage given the accepted interpretation of the accord to exert pressure on the Iranians.

         Another contentious issue is that of Iranian access to the U.S. financial system. The Obama administration is moving toward easing restrictions on Iran’s access to the dollar. Despite official lifting of Iranian sanctions, big Western banks are still not excited about doing business with Iran. By allowing Iran to conduct business in dollars, the administration is letting banks know that they no longer have to worry about being fined for doing business with Iran.

         Critics say that some of the financial restrictions against Iran have nothing to do with the Iranian nuclear program. Instead, they are aimed at accusations that Iran is funding terrorism, laundering money and carrying out other prohibited financial activities. By lifting the financial sanctions as part of the nuclear deal, the U.S. is basically surrendering its ability to inhibit these other unwanted Iranian behaviors.

         These moves on the part of the Obama administration have raised bipartisan objections. Congressional members of both parties are criticizing the administration for reneging on promises made to gain Congressional approval for the nuclear accord. Critics of Iran point to Iran’s support of the Assad government of Syria and the Houthi rebels in Yemen as proof that Iran does not deserve the accommodations recently granted by the administration. 

 

GOP presidential front-runner Donald Trump has raised the possibility that Japan arm itself with nuclear weapons to deter a threat from North Korea which sent chills down the spines of many who experienced the devastation of a nuclear bomb first-hand. cnn.com

North Korea’s ICBM engine test last week showed that the communist nation could make its road-mobile long-range missiles deliver nuclear warheads as far as the U.S. east coast, including Washington and New York, a U.S. expert warned Monday. koreatimes.co.kr

In addition to nuclear weapons, North Korea has other WMD to threaten South Korea and its allies. nknews.org

It is good China and US are cooperating over nuclear security. scmp.com