Skip to main content

Monday Update

By

From NEI’s Japan micro-site:

Japan’s 2012 GDP Could Drop 5.6% If Reactors Remain Shut

Plant Status

• Tokyo Electric Power Co. reports that the water decontamination system recycling accumulated water to cool the Fukushima Daiichi reactors stopped working Sunday after several pumps failed. TEPCO is working to reduce the volume of contaminated water in the basements of the reactor and turbine buildings, but the decontamination system continues to perform below capacity. The company is pumping the water into temporary storage tanks and has begun testing a system to reduce its volume by evaporation. TEPCO says about 21,000 tons of untreated water remains at the plant.

Industry/Regulatory/Political Issues

• A short-term energy outlook report released by Japan’s Institute of Energy Economics estimates that if the country’s nuclear plants do not begin to restart this fall after shutting down for periodic inspections, there will be a 7.8 percent shortage in the primary energy supply by next summer and a 5.6 percent, $98 billion drop in gross domestic product. Presently only 15 of Japan’s 54 reactors are generating electricity, all of which could be shut down for inspection by next summer.

• Japan’s Ministry for National Policy has begun deliberations to consider Prime Minister Naoto Kan’s call to gradually reduce the country’s “dependence on nuclear power.” The Ministry’s Energy and Environment Council said it will “thoroughly examine” Japan’s energy policy and will promote a national debate on the “best mix” of energy sources. Meanwhile, the cabinet confirmed that Japan should continue to export nuclear power technology and to engage in nuclear technology cooperation with other countries.

• The Japanese government has issued guidelines on compensating people affected by the Fukushima accident. The rules cover evacuees and businesses, including cattle farmers, green tea producers, travel agents and merchandise exporters. The Japanese parliament last week passed a bill providing government support for TEPCO to pay compensation claims.

New Products

• A new issue brief on emergency preparedness can be found on NEI’s safety first website.

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