A Thought, Security, Bad Logos?

Where non-proliferation and nuclear energy meet, from China’s Xinhua news service:

Nuclear energy is one of the most important energies for humans in the future. The world community can safely control the "double-edged sword" and contribute to the world's enduring peace and common prosperity as long as countries work closely based on the principles of protecting mankind's common interests and mutual benefits.

Doesn’t get much simpler than that.

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After President Obama’s Nuclear Security Summit, NEI hosted a companion meeting with global leaders from the nuclear industry to take the first steps in an action plan that industry will develop with government.

[nEI President and CEO Marvin] Fertel emphasized that the industry would work with governments to ensure security of nuclear materials.

“This meeting is part of an ongoing engagement by U.S. industry—with our colleagues from around the world—to provide input to government policy, share lessons learned in this area, and ensure that we continue to operate our commercial facilities in a manner that prioritizes nuclear safety and security above all other matters,” he said.

Much more here, with some video of the press conference following the conference.

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We were amused by the New York Post column by Michael Goodwin that notes the similarity between the Nuclear Security Summit’s logo and the crescent symbol of Islam.

No, I am not suggesting President Obama is a secret Muslim. But I am certain the crescent-like design of the logo is not a coincidence, especially at an event where Iran's nuclear ambition and al Qaeda's search for a bomb are prime topics.

Well, the only way to be certain about something is to know it is the truth, and Goodwin doesn’t, so that’s hooey. (And the rest of the article is just as illuminating.) But in investigating further we made our own startling discovery.

Here’s the Nuclear Summit logo (with the President is Chinese President Hu Jintao):

and here’s the NEI logo:

NEI’s is pretty crescent-like, and that ball coming at you, does it suggest something sinister? It’s possible that both logos, in their different ways, represent an electron speeding around a nucleus – that might be logical given the subject matter and all – but how can we know that? In the absence of common sense, shouldn’t we always jump to the conclusion that most supports our prejudices?

Activists' Claims Distort Facts about Advanced Reactor Design

Below is from our rapid response team . Yesterday, regional anti-nuclear organizations asked federal nuclear energy regulators to launch an investigation into what it claims are “newly identified flaws” in Westinghouse’s advanced reactor design, the AP1000. During a teleconference releasing a report on the subject, participants urged the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to suspend license reviews of proposed AP1000 reactors. In its news release, even the groups making these allegations provide conflicting information on its findings. In one instance, the groups cite “dozens of corrosion holes” at reactor vessels and in another says that eight holes have been documented. In all cases, there is another containment mechanism that would provide a barrier to radiation release. Below, we examine why these claims are unwarranted and why the AP1000 design certification process should continue as designated by the NRC. Myth: In the AP1000 reactor design, the gap between the shield bu...

How many nuclear plants does it take to meet the world's energy needs?

Several weeks ago Joshua Pearce at Clarion University in Pennsylvania released a study titled “ Thermodynamic limitations to nuclear energy deployment as a greenhouse gas mitigation technology .” In the study he stated... nuclear energy production would have to increase by 10.5% per year from 2010 to 2050 to both replace fossil-fuel-energy use and meet the future energy demands. This line, of course, made the headlines and has been picked up by several outlets and blogs . When looking into his calculations for this statement, he made one assumption error that overstated the above sentence by nearly a factor of three. Page 121, Section 4.1 of the study states: Richard Smalley pointed out that in 2004, the global economy consumed the equivalent of 220 million barrels of oil per day, which converted into electricity terms is the equivalent of 14.5 TeraWatts (TW), or 14,500,000 MegaWatts (MW) (2005). … With a nuclear plant having about 1000 MW (1 GW) of capacity, we would need 14,500...

What Happens During a Refueling Outage?

You may have noticed over the past few weeks that a number of nuclear plants are shut down for refueling outages or are resuming operations after just returning from one. This type of routine outage usually occurs in the spring or fall when electricity demand is low so that nuclear reactors can replace about one-third of the spent fuel rods with new fuel and conduct other routine maintenance and repairs at the plant. To get a better sense of how refueling works at a nuclear energy facility, I spoke with Marcus Nichol, NEI’s senior project manager for used fuel storage and transportation, and asked him to explain the basics. Why does a nuclear plant need to replace one-third of its fuel? Nichol: The main purpose of a refueling outage is to replace older fuel that is depleted—meaning it can no longer efficiently produce energy from nuclear fission reactions—with new fuel. This “used fuel” has typically been used in the reactor for four-and-a-half to six years before it is pe...

NEI Nuclear Notes

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