“Nuclear gypsies” risk their lives to clean up Fukushima. ecowatch.com

The contract to construct Egypt’s first nuclear power plant is expected to be signed by Russia and Egypt in the first quarter of 2016, according to a source from Russian nuclear agency Atomstroyexport. rt.com

French nuclear power group AREVA said Monday that its board of directors had reviewed bids for the sale of nuclear instrumentation business Canberra and selected the offer from Mirion-Charterhouse. nuclearstreet.com

The Wisconsin Legislature is moving toward eliminating restrictions on nuclear power that were enacted after the 1979 meltdown at the Three Mile Island plant in Pennsylvania focused public attention on the potentially dire consequences of accidental releases of radioactive material. host. madison.com

Japan’s latest obstacles to getting its nuclear power industry back on track will have a knock-on effect on its energy imports in the coming year. thenatioinal.ae

Congress braces for round two of Iran fight. thehill.com

The mystery surrounding the recently published South African government Gazette on nuclear energy, which contains a 2013 stamp signed by former Energy minister Ben Martins, has been solved. timeslive.co.za

With allegations of leaky nuclear reactors and poor security leveled against India’s nuclear program, Atomic Energy Commission chief Sekhar Basu has brushed aside these charges saying this is a well-designed agenda to stall or delay the country’s development. business-standard.com

 

          I recently posted an two part article listing fifteen reasons that nuclear power was not a good source of low carbon power generation to help with climate change mitigation. Some of these reasons are global and some have to do with the situation in the U.S. Some of the reasons have to do with construction of new reactors and some apply to existing reactors. Some of these reasons have been demonstrated and some are hypothetical. Here are another seven reasons the nuclear power generation should be stopped.

1) Uncertainty in the nuclear industry and aging of the nuclear workforce may signal a shortage of trained technicians to operating nuclear power plants in the not too distant future. Many of the current technicians are reaching retirement age and not enough new students are entering universities to study nuclear technology to fill the retiring generation.

2) The temperature of bodies of water that are used for cooling nuclear power reactors are rising due to climate change. Recently several nuclear power plants have already had to be shut down temporarily because the bodies of water that they drew cooling water from became too warm for cooling purposes. This trend will increase and may render some sources of cooling water permanently useless. This would require that those nuclear reactors be shut down and decommissioned.

3) The level of water in many lakes, rivers and reservoirs is dropping because of droughts. Long term droughts may cause permanently low levels of water. Cooling nuclear reactors requires huge amounts of water. Reactors that draw their water from lakes, rivers and reservoirs with falling water levels may find that there will not be sufficient water to cool the reactors and they will have to be shut down and decommissioned.

4) The manufacture of precision components for nuclear power plants requires a robust and successful global manufacturing infrastructure. The design of nuclear reactors has changed over the decades of nuclear power. It is already difficult and, sometimes impossible, to find replacement for worn components in old reactors. If key companies get out of the business, it will become harder and harder to find the parts necessary to keep power reactors functioning. This will raise the cost and make these reactors less competitive in the energy market.

5) The oceans are losing the oxygen that is necessary to sustain many forms of aquatic life. One form that does not require as much oxygen is jellyfish. The population of jellyfish is expanding rapidly.. Jellyfish can clog cooling water intakes and shut down nuclear power plants. This has already happened several times. More reactors will have to be shut down because of cooling water intake ports clogged by jellyfish.

6) In the U.S., the NRC requires that nuclear power plant operators must show that they are making a profit on a nuclear power plant or they lose their license and the plant has to be shut down. The cost of renewable alternative energy is dropping and nuclear power is becoming less and less competitive in the power marketplace. Without subsidies and tax breaks, more and more plants will have their licenses revoked.

        Those who would promote nuclear power for climate change mitigation have not done their homework or are deliberately ignoring many reasons why this is a bad idea.

Jellyfish:

Bangladesh’s state-run Atomic Energy Commission signed a deal with Russia on Friday to set up two nuclear power plants, each with 1,200 megawatt capacity, an investment totaling $12.65 billion, a government official said. businessinsider.com

A nuclear reactor in Belgium has been taken offline less than a week after starting up again. A water leak on a generator outside of the plant’s nuclear area forced the shutdown. dw.com

 Oswego County leaders short-sighted in backing nuclear energy.  syracuse.com

South African opposition parties have expressed concern at government’s decision to go ahead with the nuclear build program. enca.com

        India has serious problems with supplying sufficient power to the national grid. Prime Minister Modi is dedicated to the construction of more nuclear power reactors to increase available power for civilian and industrial uses. Russia has agreed to assist India in the construction of twelve nuclear power plants. Westinghouse is currently negotiating to build six power reactors in India. India has recently signed nuclear trade agreements with Canada, Australia and Japan. While the central government may be sold on nuclear power, there are critics of India’s safety record with existing nuclear power reactors.

         Last year the Auditor-General of India found that sixty percent of regulatory inspections for operating nuclear power plants in India were up to one hundred and fifty three days late or did not happen at all.                                 

        The bipartisan Indian Public Accountability Committee has just issued a “scathing” report to India’s Parliament that was very critical of the fact that decades have passed during which India was supposed to create an independent nuclear regulatory agency. The report pointed out that India’s Atomic Energy Regulatory Board is “not an independent statutory body but rather a subordinate agency of the government.”

         The report said that “The failure to have an autonomous and independent regulator is clearly fraught with grave risks, as brought out poignantly in the report of the Fukushima Nuclear Accident Independent Investigation Commission.” “Although AERB maintains liaison with international nuclear organisations, it has been slow in adopting international benchmarks and good practices in the areas of nuclear and radiation operation. ” The AERB “cannot set or enforce rules for radiation and nuclear safety in India.” In some areas of concern, there are no existing rules. Some smaller facilities that deal with radioactive materials have no licences or regulatory oversight at all. The maximum fine that can be imposed on nuclear operators by the AERB is equivalent to nine U.S. dollars.

         The AERB was charged with creating a comprehensive nuclear and radiation policy for India in 1983 but it has not yet issued such a policy. The report stated that “The absence of such a policy at macro level can hamper micro-level planning of radiation safety in the country.” The report concluded that India was not ready to cope with a major nuclear emergency.
“Off-site emergency exercises carried out highlighted inadequate emergency preparedness even for situations where the radiological effects of an emergency origination from nuclear power plants are likely to extend beyond the site and affect the people around.”

         These problems in India are a perfect illustration of the concern that I have with the current push to sell nuclear power reactors to developing countries. With lax regulation and widespread corruption, future major nuclear accidents are almost guaranteed. And, as the report pointed out for India, these countries are less prepared to cope with nuclear accidents than major industrial nations which have serious difficulties of their own in dealing with nuclear disasters. The promotion of nuclear power reactors to countries ill prepared to deal with the complexity of managing nuclear power generation is a threat to the whole world. 

Major Japanese newspaper reports that there are mutations in nearly every fir tree near Fukushima plant. enenews.com

Radioactive waste from the Sellafield nuclear plant in Cumbria is contaminating shellfish hundreds of kilometers away on the west coast of Scotland, according to a new scientific study. nuclearnews.net

The U.S. Department of Energy is formally launching its initiative aimed at establishing a disposal site for spent nuclear fuel. thehill.com

South Africa approved a plan for the country to procure as much as 9,600 megawatts of nuclear-generated power. bloomberg.com