Skip to main content

Friday Update

By

From NEI’s Japan Micro-site:

TEPCO Expects To Meet First Recovery Deadline

July 15, 2011

Plant Status

• Tokyo Electric Power Co. expects to meet its self-imposed July 19 deadline to stabilize reactor cooling and mitigate radiation at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear energy facility. That work includes injecting inert nitrogen gas into the reactor 3 containment vessel, which started today. The nitrogen is intended to help prevent a potential explosion of built-up hydrogen. TEPCO has been injecting nitrogen into reactors 1 and 2 since April 7 and June 28 respectively. The next major milestone in the plan for Fukushima recovery includes cold shutdowns for reactors 1-3, which are expected to take place in the next three to six months.

• TEPCO continues to have difficulties with water decontamination equipment at the Fukushima Daiichi site. The system that is used to decontaminate and recycle cooling water is performing 20 percent below its target level. Toshiba this week unveiled a new decontamination system that can supplement the one already in use. It is expected to be in place by early August.

Industry/Regulatory/Political Issues

• The Japan Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency has told TEPCO to improve its control of worker exposure to radiation at Fukushima Daiichi. The agency also asked TEPCO to increase the number of safety managers for contract workers. There are about 3,000 people at the site working to recover from the accident.

• Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan said Japan should gradually reduce its use of nuclear energy until it is no longer used at all. The government plans to review Japan’s energy policy, which now calls for building more reactors.

Media Highlights

• Tony Pietrangelo, NEI’s senior vice president and chief nuclear officer, participated in a teleconference for the media following the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s release of its post-Fukushima task force report. Several outlets included his comments in their coverage, including The Wall Street Journal, the Los Angeles Times, CNN, the Christian Science Monitor, and Platts. Pietrangelo also appeared in an interview on Reuters television, and NEI issued a statement on the report.

New Products

• A graphic on NEI’s post-Fukushima website, “Commitment to Continuous Learning, Safety,” which outlines significant actions the industry has taken to ensure that American nuclear energy facilities are operating safely and securely.

• A backgrounder on how the U.S. nuclear industry is learning lessons from Fukushima and enhancing safety at nuclear facilities.

Upcoming Events

• The Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s NRC’s near-term post-Fukushima task force will brief the commissioners on its report at a public meeting July 19. NRC Chairman Gregory Jaczko will speak on lessons from Fukushima at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C., on July 18. A public NRC meeting to discuss the report is scheduled for July 28.

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Fluor Invests in NuScale

By
You know, it’s kind of sad that no one is willing to invest in nuclear energy anymore. Wait, what? NuScale Power celebrated the news of its company-saving $30 million investment from Fluor Corp. Thursday morning with a press conference in Washington, D.C. Fluor is a design, engineering and construction company involved with some 20 plants in the 70s and 80s, but it has not held interest in a nuclear energy company until now. Fluor, which has deep roots in the nuclear industry, is betting big on small-scale nuclear energy with its NuScale investment. "It's become a serious contender in the last decade or so," John Hopkins, [Fluor’s group president in charge of new ventures], said. And that brings us to NuScale, which had run into some dark days – maybe not as dark as, say, Solyndra, but dire enough : Earlier this year, the Securities Exchange Commission filed an action against NuScale's lead investor, The Michael Kenwood Group. The firm "misap
1 comment
Read more

An Ohio School Board Is Working to Save Nuclear Plants

By
Ohio faces a decision soon about its two nuclear reactors, Davis-Besse and Perry, and on Wednesday, neighbors of one of those plants issued a cry for help. The reactors’ problem is that the price of electricity they sell on the high-voltage grid is depressed, mostly because of a surplus of natural gas. And the reactors do not get any revenue for the other benefits they provide. Some of those benefits are regional – emissions-free electricity, reliability with months of fuel on-site, and diversity in case of problems or price spikes with gas or coal, state and federal payroll taxes, and national economic stimulus as the plants buy fuel, supplies and services. Some of the benefits are highly localized, including employment and property taxes. One locality is already feeling the pinch: Oak Harbor on Lake Erie, home to Davis-Besse. The town has a middle school in a building that is 106 years old, and an elementary school from the 1950s, and on May 2 was scheduled to have a referendu
Post a Comment
Read more

Wednesday Update

By
From NEI’s Japan micro-site: NRC, Industry Concur on Many Post-Fukushima Actions Industry/Regulatory/Political Issues • There is a “great deal of alignment” between the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission and the industry on initial steps to take at America’s nuclear energy facilities in response to the nuclear accident in Japan, Charles Pardee, the chief operating officer of Exelon Generation Co., said at an agency briefing today. The briefing gave stakeholders an opportunity to discuss staff recommendations for near-term actions the agency may take at U.S. facilities. PowerPoint slides from the meeting are on the NRC website. • The International Atomic Energy Agency board has approved a plan that calls for inspectors to evaluate reactor safety at nuclear energy facilities every three years. Governments may opt out of having their country’s facilities inspected. Also approved were plans to maintain a rapid response team of experts ready to assist facility operators recoverin
Post a Comment
Read more