Ambient office = 59 nanosieverts per hour

Ambient outside = 100 nanosieverts per hour

Soil exposed to rain water = 100 nanosieverts per hour

Avocado from Central Market = 72 nanosieverts per hour

Tap water = 90 nanosieverts per hour

Filter water = 81 nanosieverts per hour

Part 1 of 2 Parts
     Massive growth is expected in the global demand for electricity. If it materializes it will require an expansion of both generation and the transmission systems, speakers at a side event at the World Energy Congress 2024 agreed. They said that nuclear power will play an important role in ensuring the resilience of the future global electrical system.
     The session was titled Building low-carbon resilient electricity system. It was co-organized by World Nuclear Association, the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) and the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) on the sidelines of the World Energy Congress, held in Rotterdam, The Netherlands, on 22-25 April.
     Sama Bilbao y León is the Director General of the World Nuclear Association. When asked about the biggest challenges to the global electricity system, she said that many developed countries have “very robust and reliable energy systems” that have been built over the years but when adding new generation, especially intermittent renewable generation, “we have forgotten to ensure the resiliency of the system. We are finding ourselves close to breaking point where any most-needed capacity … is really going to require major investment into the grid itself.”

     Neil Wilmshurst is the Senior Vice President of Energy System Resilience and Chief Nuclear Operator at EPRI. He said that in the developed world the challenge is integrating renewables, reliability, and resilience in the context of increasing demand. He mentioned that conservative estimates put future electricity demand at twice or three times the current demand. “If you look at the amount of hydrogen people say could be in demand in the US, it would take the entire current generation capacity of the US to produce it. That is the kind of magnitude of generation we’re talking about. Then you throw on top of that the coming load from data centers.” Electricity demand in developing countries is also rapidly expanding. A major challenge will be simultaneously increasing electricity supply in the developed world while electrifying the developing world.
     Iva Brkic is the Secretary of UNECE’s Sustainable Energy Division. She noted a recent International Energy Agency (IEA) report which estimated that there was a need to add or refurbish a total of more than fifty million miles of grids by 2040, the equivalent of the existing global grid. She said, “We need to double it in the next 14 years to meet our targets. So where are those resources going to come from? Where are the critical raw materials that we need to identify, to secure the supply chains, to really build that infrastructure? Now we add another layer to this – keeping the resiliency but also the reliability of that grid.”
     Brkic said that the effects of climate change are already being experienced around the globe. “How can we ensure that the system that we are now redesigning and building and modernizing can withstand those impacts of climate change – the heatwaves, the droughts. This is something that we need to pay attention to.”
     Brkic continued, “At the UNECE, we like to think also about the aspects of balancing between delivering on energy security, affordability and environmental sustainability. And when we think now about modernising the electricity system, it’s also about balancing those aspects and creating the resiliency while actually cleaning the energy system.”
    Wassim Ballout is an energy analyst at EDF’s Corporate Strategy Division. The electricity generation sector is still one of the highest emitters of CO2. Many countries rely heavily on fossil fuels for electricity production. He said, “One of the biggest challenges will be to satisfy this significant demand growth with decarbonized production. Not only decarbonizing the existing production but also to cope with the significant increase … the challenge would be to invest in all low-cost, low-emission technologies and to have a technological neutral approach and have good incentives to do that.”
Please read Part 2 next

Government awards £196m to support development of advanced nuclear fuels plant businessgreen.com

Preventing nuclear devastation: U.S. must upgrade its missile defense capabilities washingtontimes.com

Russia defends veto of UN resolution to prohibit nukes in outer space, urges vote to ban all weapons apnews.com

Iran and the UN nuclear agency are still discussing how to implement a 2023 deal on inspections yahoo.com

Ambient office = 61 nanosieverts per hour

Ambient outside = 126 nanosieverts per hour

Soil exposed to rain water = 126 nanosieverts per hour

Roma tomato from Central Market = 102 nanosieverts per hour

Tap water = 81 nanosieverts per hour

Filter water = 75 nanosieverts per hour

Dover Sole from Central = 100 nanosieverts per hour

     Energoatom and Holtec just signed an agreement to collaborate on SMR manufacturing facilities.
     The collaboration agreement provides for the creation in Ukraine of manufacturing capabilities for components for small modular reactors (SMRs), plus storage and transportation systems for spent nuclear fuel.  
     The collaboration agreement is intended to speed up the deployment of Holtec’s SMRs in Ukraine “and to support unimpeded reactor operations through a successfully deployed used fuel storage facility”.
     Herman Halushchenko is the Energy Minister of Ukraine. He said, “It is very important that we sign this document at such a turbulent time, demonstrating to the enemy our stability and determination to deepen the Ukrainian-American partnership and develop the future of Ukrainian energy using leading technologies.”
     Petro Kotin is the Acting Chairman for Energoatom. He said, “This agreement is important not only for Energoatom, but also for the entire energy industry of Ukraine and the national economy. The creation of nuclear energy production facilities in the country will contribute not only to the strengthening of the country’s energy security … this Master Agreement will lead to a modern manufacturing and training facility which will spur economic development, create well-paying jobs, and pave the way for Ukraine’s emergence as the regional hub for Holtec’s SMR-300 and used fuel technology.”
     Shawn Anderson is the U.S. Embassy’s Department of Energy Office Director and Energy Attaché for Ukraine. He said, “The signing of the Master Agreement marks a significant milestone as it paves the way for the establishment of a cutting-edge manufacturing facility aimed at localizing the production of equipment for Holtec SMRs, spent nuclear fuel storage and transport systems, and other nuclear energy-related necessities in Ukraine. This collaborative effort between Energoatom and Holtec International is not only a critical step but also an inspiring one that promises to enhance Ukraine’s national and energy security, thus bolstering its economy.”
     Holtec has been working on the development of its SMR line since 2011 and the company has long established links with Ukraine. In April 2023, an agreement between Energoatom and Holtec sought to pave the way for up to twenty of its SMR-160 units to be deployed in the country. Holtec says its SMR has undergone several design evolutions. The most recent change is the incorporation of forced flow capability overlayed on gravity-driven flow in the plant’s primary system for the SMR-300, which is a pressurized water reactor producing around three hundred megawatts of electrical power or one thousand and fifty megawatts of thermal power for process applications, and which Holtec says, remains “walk-away safe”.
     Holtec and Energoatom announced in November that they were planning to construct a plant in Ukraine for the production of containers for radioactive materials. These containers are currently made in the USA for storage of spent nuclear fuel. This followed on from the commissioning in 2022 of the Holtec International-built Centralized Spent Fuel Storage Facility (CSFCS) in the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone, contracts for which were signed for its construction in 2005. The CSFCS is a dry storage site for spent nuclear fuel assemblies.