Wednesday Update

From NEI’s Japan micro-site:

World Nuclear Operators Approve Post-Fukushima Actions

October 26, 2011

Industry/Regulatory/Political Issues

The general assembly of the World Association of Nuclear Operators approved a set of wide-ranging commitments to nuclear safety at the organization’s first major meeting after the accident at Fukushima Daiichi. About 600 attended the Oct. 23-25 meeting in Shenzhen, China. Operators of nuclear energy facilities from around the world unanimously pledged support for recommendations developed by the WANO Post-Fukushima Commission. Conference delegates voted to
- expand the scope of WANO activities
- develop a worldwide integrated event response strategy
- improve the organization’s credibility, including strengthening its peer review process
- improve WANO’s visibility
- improve the quality of all WANO products and services.

Yukiya Amano, the executive director of the International Atomic Energy Agency, gave the keynote speech at the WANO meeting in China. "Nuclear safety remains the responsibility of individual countries, but the IAEA will play the leading role in shaping a safer nuclear future throughout the world,” Amano said. “It is important for all of us—governments, nuclear regulators, plant operators and the IAEA—to maintain our sense of urgency even after the crisis at Fukushima Daiichi has faded from the international headlines."

Japan’s government has empaneled a group of experts to summarize lessons learned from the accident at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear energy facility. In its first meeting, the panel emphasized that nuclear power plants in the country should have multiple power sources. A disruption of electric power needed to operate reactor cooling systems led to the March 11 accident. The panel plans to finish its work by March 2012.

Media Highlights

U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission Chairman Gregory Jaczko offered “a qualified defense of Japan’s longer-term evacuation policy” at a Washington, D.C., forum this week and indicated that some of the people evacuated from areas near the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear energy facility may never be able to return to their homes, the Wall Street Journal’s Japan Real Time blog reports.

Upcoming Events

The Senate Environment and Public Works Committee and its Subcommittee on Clean Air and Nuclear Safety will hold the second joint hearing on the NRC’s near-term post-Fukushima task force recommendations Nov. 3. All five NRC commissioners will be invited to testify. The first hearing was held Aug. 2.

Comments

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

Search This Blog