Wednesday Update

TEPCO Guidelines Outline Compensation for Accident

Industry/Regulatory/Political Issues

• Tokyo Electric Power Co. has set guidelines to pay travel, lodging and other expenses for people displaced after the Fukushima Daiichi accident. The company is offering reimbursement for medical fees for injuries and illnesses caused by the government-ordered evacuation of the area surrounding the facility. TEPCO also will cover lost income—small businesses will be paid for lost business and farmers compensated for lost crops. The company will provide compensation for mental distress caused by the accident on a per-month basis.

• Early-harvest rice from Fukushima Prefecture has cleared radiation testing, and farmers are shipping to market. This variety of rice accounts for only a small portion of the crop; other varieties will be tested later.

Plant Status

• TEPCO has found evidence of five active fault lines near the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear energy facility. The government had ordered nuclear operators to investigate the geologic conditions around their plants following a strong aftershock on April 11 at a fault thought to be inactive. TEPCO is continuing its investigation. The company said possible earthquakes from the faults would be within the design standards of the plant. Two other utilities reported a total of nine possibly active faults near their nuclear facilities.

New Products

• NEI has posted new talking points outlining areas of operations that may result in additional industry assessments and enhancements at U.S. reactors.

Media Highlights

• Only 11 of Japan’s 54 nuclear reactors will be operating in September, 20 percent of the country’s installed base, Platts reports.

• The BBC reports on yesterday’s parliamentary vote electing Yoshihiko Noda as Japan’s next prime minister. Noda wants the country’s shutdown reactors restarted as soon as they pass regulatory inspections and stress tests and has not backed the outgoing prime minister’s call for a nuclear-free Japan.

• The Fukushima accident will make the nuclear energy industry stronger, Paladin Energy, the Australian uranium mining company, said at a conference this week. Reuters reported that Paladin Managing Director and Chief Executive John Borshoff told the conference, “The uranium supply sector and nuclear industry generally is still suffering some bruising effect from this event. Yet while on the surface that appears as a negative, six months later the outlook for uranium production and sales is strong—and will remain so in the future.”

Upcoming Events

• U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission staff holds a public meeting today to hear comments on the recommendations of the agency’s near-term Japan task force. The staff will propose which of the task force recommendations the commission and industry should act on without “unnecessary delay.” An archived video of the meeting will be available on the NRC website.

• A public NRC meeting is scheduled for Sept. 7 to discuss a petition from the Natural Resources Defense Council asking the agency to order licensees to take action on recommendations of the agency’s near-term task force on Fukushima.

• The NRC’s Advisory Committee on Reactor Safeguards will hold a public meeting Sept. 8 to review the agency’s near-term task force report on the events at Fukushima.

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...

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...

How Much Land Does Nuclear, Wind and Solar Really Need?

Not too long ago, we reviewed a report that looked at nuclear energy (and other energy sources) as biodiversity agents. This had to do, in part, with the amount of land a facility needs to function. Nuclear energy and fossil fuel plants use relatively little, wind farms and solar arrays quite a lot of land . Based on an objective and transparent analysis of our sustainable energy choices, we have come to the evidence-based conclusion that nuclear energy is a good option for biodiversity conservation (and society in general) and that other alternatives to fossil fuels should be subjected to the same cost–benefit analyses (in terms of biodiversity and climate outcomes, as well as sociopolitical imperatives) before accepting or dismissing them. Writer Barry Brook, who collected 75 scientists to endorse his paper, is interested in land use as it impacts flora and fauna. Biodiversity concerns do not get as much play as they might – and, when they do, it annoys many when land is withdraw...

NEI Nuclear Notes

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