Skip to main content

Friday Update

By

From NEI’s Japan micro-site:

NRC Commissioners Deny Groups’ Petition to Suspend New Reactor Licensing

Industry/Regulatory/Political Issues

• Commissioners at the Nuclear Regulatory Commission today denied a request by several groups to suspend licensing and standardized design certification decisions pending completion of the NRC Fukushima Task Force evaluation of the implications of the Fukushima accident. The commissioners also denied a petition to suspend hearings and opportunities for public comment on reactor or used fuel pool issues identified for investigation by the task force. The commissioners granted the groups’ request for a safety analysis of regulatory implications of the events in Japan, incorporating stakeholder input into the process.

• New Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda visited the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear energy facility on Thursday. He expressed gratitude to workers who are stabilizing the facility, according to a BBC report. Noda credited workers with reducing the levels of radiation in waste water inside the plant by a factor of 10 million since the accident. In talks later that day with the governor of Fukushima Prefecture, Noda pledged funding for decontaminating areas with high radiation.

Plant Status

• Japanese researchers have revised estimates of the radioactivity in seawater near Japan as a result of the accident, adding releases that initially were airborne but have since been deposited in the sea. The resulting number, 15,000 terabecquerels (405,000 curies), is three times TEPCO’s earlier estimate, which included only releases directly to water. The new estimates do not reflect any change in the total amount of radiation believed to have been released as a result of the accident. Throughout the event, the Japanese government has conducted ongoing monitoring of the ocean water and seafood near Fukushima Daiichi. When government action limits were exceeded in April, the government restricted fishing along the coast near Fukushima Daiichi, placing a specific restriction on the consumption of one type of fish (sand lance) that was found to have radiation levels in excess of the government action limit. Although levels of radioactivity in ocean water and fish are currently not detectable, the restrictions remain in place.

Upcoming Events

• The Nippon Foundation will hold an international symposium on radiation and health risks Sept. 11-12, 2011, at Fukushima Medical University. Participants will include radiation experts from 14 nations, the World Health Organization and the International Atomic Energy Agency. The symposium will get under way at 9 a.m. Tokyo time on Sept. 11 and will be broadcast via Ustream.

• The NRC commissioners will be briefed on short-term actions recommended in its Japan task force report in a Sept. 14 public meeting. The meeting will be webcast.

• The NRC commissioners will be briefed on prioritization of recommendations from its Japan task force in an Oct. 11 public meeting. The briefing will be webcast.

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

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

Nuclear Utility Moves Up in Credit Ratings, Bank is "Comfortable with Nuclear Strategy"

By
Some positive signs that nuclear utilities can continue to receive positive ratings even while they finance new nuclear plants for the first time in decades: Wells Fargo upgrades SCANA to Outperform from Market Perform Wells analyst says, "YTD, SCG shares have underperformed the Regulated Electrics (total return +2% vs. +9%). Shares trade at 11.3X our 10E EPS, a modest discount to the peer group median of 11.8X. We view the valuation as attractive given a comparatively constructive regulatory environment and potential for above-average long-term EPS growth prospects ... Comfortable with Nuclear Strategy. SCG plans to participate in the development of two regulated nuclear units at a cost of $6.3B, raising legitimate concerns regarding financing and construction. We have carefully considered the risks and are comfortable with SCG’s strategy based on a highly constructive political & regulatory environment, manageable financing needs stretched out over 10 years, strong partners...
Post a Comment
Read more