Detailed offshore ground investigation works are under way to gain a better understanding of the geological conditions offshore from the site of the proposed Wylfa Newydd nuclear power plant on the Isle of Anglesey, UK. Construction of the plant – featuring two Advanced Boiling Water Reactors – is expected to begin around 2019. world-nuclear-news.org

Andrea Leadsom, minister of state at the UK’s Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC), has reiterated the important role of nuclear power in the country’s current and future electricity mix. In a speech at the Utility Week Energy Summit about the Future of Energy in the UK yesterday, Leadsom said “energy security is non-negotiable, and is our top priority”. world-nuclear-news.org

Dominion Virginia Power has signed a contract with AREVA TN for provision of 75 NUHOMS EOS dry shielded canisters designed to store used nuclear fuel at two of the company’s operating facilities though 2038. nuclearstreet.com

Iran upped the ante recently to pressure the Obama administration to release money to the terrorist regime, proving once again Iran believes it has the upper hand against the White House. Its trump card seems to be the threat of restarting its nuclear weapons program if it doesn’t get the financial resources and support for its economy it desires. washingtontimes.com

 

         For decades, there has been an unstable balance between various nuclear arsenals of countries that are hostile to each other. During the Cold War, the U.S. and the Soviet Union kept careful track of nuclear weapons possessed by the other and raced each other to keep up with perceived changes in threats. There have been a number of international nuclear weapons reduction treaties aimed at stopping this race to have nuclear superiority.

        One big issue was the problem of anti-missile systems. If your enemy saw you building a system that could stop their missiles, then they might be afraid that you intended to attack them when your anti-missile system was completed. Recently, China declared that the anti-missile system that the U.S. is installing in South Korea could upset the nuclear deterrent balance in the South China Sea. Russia in threatening to put intermediate range nuclear missiles in Kalingrad in Eastern Europe to counter balance the anti-missile system that the U.S. is installing in Romania. Russia is developing what are called hypersonic reentry vehicles for nuclear warheads specifically to defeat anti-missile defense systems.

       The U.S. is worried about Russian work on robot submersible drones that could carry nuclear warheads up to the coast of the continental U.S. with little possibility of interception. The Russians are worried about the new nuclear bomb being developed by the U.S. as a tactical nuclear weapon. The new bomb is steerable and highly accurate which increases in the possibility of use.

        Nuclear missile-carrying submarines are an important delivery system for nuclear warheads. They are difficult to track at sea. If a country is attacked and their land based missile launch facilities and nuclear bombers are destroyed, their enemy has to take into account that the nuclear submarines of the country that was attacked could still destroy the attacking country. Back in the Ford administration, Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld claimed, without any proof, that the Soviet Union had developed a new type of submarine that was impossible to detect.

         Now new systems are being developed to detect and track nuclear missile-carrying submarines. With the successful development and deployment of such systems, once again, the deterrent balance in going to be challenged. A new report by the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists offers a look at some of these new submarine tracking technologies.

         A program called the Distributed Agile Submarine Hunting program would scatted deep ocean sonar nodes over large areas of the ocean floor. The nodes would be able to monitor a broad field of view above to detect and track submarines. It seems to me that this type of system would be very expensive and complex. In addition, there would be ways to destroy these nodes or, at the very least, confuse them with noise to the point where they would be useless. The country that deployed them would know something had gone wrong but would not know exactly what.

       Another new system is called the Submarine Hold at RisK or SHARK. These would be unmanned undersea remote controlled drones that, once a submarine had been detected by a system like the nodes mentioned above, would be able to “silently” approach and shadow it. The problem with this system is that a lot of these SHARKS would have to be spread over the areas where the nodes had been planted which would be very expensive. In addition, the new submarine detection systems would make it difficult, if not impossible, to hide the stalking drone from the submarine that was being followed.

       If major nuclear power such as the U.S., China and Russia can keep up with each other in the development of these new submarine tracking systems, perhaps the balance of deterrence can be preserved. On the other hand, if one country gets too far ahead of the others, then the nuclear planners for the countries that have been left behind might decide that the best policy would be to deliver a massive nuclear first strike against the country that is in the lead. Strategic military planners might want to think twice before ramping up yet another arms race that could destabilize the nuclear deterrent balance.

SHARK drone submarine hunter:

Following more than two years of work, a commission looking into the storage of Germany’s high-level radioactive waste has today submitted its final report to the country’s government. The report provides a recommended method for the disposal of the waste in a geologic repository. world-nuclear-news.org

The conclusion of a consultation with EDF’s Central Works Council yesterday has cleared the way for a final investment decision (FID) to be made on the Hinkley Point C project. In addition, the French state-owned company said the UK referendum vote to leave the European Union is no barrier to the new nuclear power plant project, which is based in Somerset, England.  world-nuclear-news.org

One year later, the nuclear deal between Iran and the major powers is working. It has substantially restricted Iran’s ability to produce fissile material, the key ingredient for a nuclear bomb, and in that way has made the world safer. nytimes.com

The construction of a spent nuclear fuel storage facility in Ukraine poses “significant safety risks for the whole of Europe” because of numerous rule and standards violations, Ukrainian environmentalists warn. rt.com

       As I have said in past blogs, Russia is dedicated to making the export of nuclear technology a major part of their trade with other nations. They also provide nuclear fuel to other countries. The Khlopin Institute of Russia has been working for several years on a new fuel recycling model for Tenex, a Russian export company. The fuel is called REMIX which stands for “Regenerated Mixture.”

       REMIX fuel is produced from recycled uranium and plutonium from reprocessed fuel. About twenty percent of the mixture is made up of low-enriched uranium with up to seventeen percent U235. This results in a fuel that is about one percent Pu-239 and four percent U-235. REMIX can fuel a nuclear power reactor for about four years. At the end of the four years, the fuel would contain about two percent Pu-239 and one percent U-235. The spent fuel is allowed to cool and then low-enriched uranium is added and the mixture is reprocessed. The fission products and the minor actinides wastes are separated out and vitrified for storage until a geological repository is available for permanent disposal.

       One load of REMIX fuel can be reprocessed up to five times. So, a nuclear power reactor could rotate three loads of REMIX fuel to operate for a full reactor lifetime of sixty years. REMIX fuel requires about twenty percent less natural uranium than what is referred to as an open fuel cycle where the fuel is used only once. On the other hand, because of more complex fuel reprocessing and mixing, it can cost up to thirty percent more.

         One of the reasons for the development of the REMIX fuel fabrication system was concern over supplies of uranium ore. As it becomes more expensive to mine and refine uranium from ores that are less concentrated, the REMIX fuel may become cheaper fuel that is used only once. It is also expected that REMIX will produce less waste and reduce disposal costs over the open fuel cycle.
REMIX fabrication does not lead to the accumulation of reprocessed uranium and it does not allow for the separation of plutonium which is considered a risk for nuclear weapons proliferation.

       Russian fuel suppliers are developing a fuel leasing program for the REMIX fuel. The idea would be to have the supplier retain the ownership of the REMIX fuel. The fuel would be supplied to the power reactors and at the end of the four year burn cycle, the spent fuel would be returned to the Russian supplier for reprocessing. The reprocessed  fuel would then be sent back to the customer to be burned again in their reactor.

       Russia has just begun field trials of REMIX fuel in their Balakovo Nuclear Power Plant. The fuel will remain in a reactor at Balokovo for at least three years. The fuel and the reactor will be monitored carefully for the entire time. At the end of the three years, the fuel assemblies will be removed from the reactor and delivered to a special laboratory for examination.

Khlopin Institute logo:

Uranium mining in Australia is polluting the Antarctic, about 6,000 nautical miles away. phys.org

After a long controversy with the White House administration over Jordan’s nuclear program, the Hashemite Kingdom seems eager to change the course of these discussions and reach a deal on nuclear cooperation with the US. jpost.com

Poland is “taking all the necessary measures” to ensure its nuclear power program meets the highest standards of safety and security and best international practice, Józef Sobolewski, director of the nuclear energy department of the country’s Ministry of Energy, has said. Sobolewski’s comments followed the conclusion of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) that Poland has implemented all the recommendations and suggestions of a 2013 Integrated Nuclear Infrastructure Review (INIR) mission. world-nuclear-news.org

A regional court in Hanover has ruled against a claim for damages by German utility Eon. It sued the government over its abrupt decision to phase out nuclear energy and to shut down two of Eon’s old power plants. dw.com

 

 

 

 

India’s first insurance policy covering public liability to an atomic power plant operator has been issued to Nuclear Power Corporation of India Ltd (NPCIL) but the reinstatement of insurance value post a claim will be decided later, industry officials said. hindustantimes.com

The state of Illinois accounts for just 4% of the country’s population but 12% of its nuclear power generation. Eleven nuclear reactors generated 48% of the state’s electricity, created thousands of jobs, and provided hundreds of millions of dollars in tax revenue in 2015. So, naturally, the state decided it would be a good idea to let Exelon close its nuclear power plants at Quad Cities and Clinton in the coming years. fool.com

At the recent visit of India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi to the US in May 2016, the closer relationship between the US and India was clear. A logical step forward was further seen when US President Obama stated his approval for India to join the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG). While this would be a great move for overall worldwide security and nuclear non-proliferation, there is a danger of greater tensions between India and Pakistan. globalriskinsights.com

The election pledges issued by the top political parties show they are divided and uninformed about how fast Japan should reduce its dependence on atomic power and what its energy goals for 2030 should be. japantimes.co.jp