NEI Nuclear Notes

This is called overselling your story : Calvert Cliffs Nuclear Facility in Lusby, Maryland recently began a lengthy roof replacement process, due to take over a year. During such renovations, it is common for dust and debris to become a menace, quickly covering all the surfaces in the building below. While such a mess is often a nuisance, in the case of a nuclear facility such as Calvert Cliffs, it can become a serious safety hazard. The tiniest wood splinters, or the smallest nails, could fall into the turbine’s mechanical openings and cause a nuclear accident. For this reason, the services provided by ShieldWorks are absolutely invaluable. Well, no, it could likely not even cause a turbine accident. What’s supposed to happen? – all the nuclear electricity backs up from the broken turbine, overloads the reactors and causes untold grief? It’s like a nuclear Rube Goldberg machine. A bit of a shame, really, because the story about ShieldWorks is pretty interesting. Nuclear fac...

Italy has decided to forestall any decision on proceeding with nuclear energy in the wake of Japan. But they need a plan: Italy currently gets 80 percent of its energy from fossil fuels and the remaining 20 percent from hydroelectric and renewable energy, according to data from power grid operator Terna SpA. Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi’s center-right coalition government had made nuclear energy part of a strategy to cut dependence on fossil fuels to 50 percent, reducing imports from abroad and cutting energy prices in the long term. And that’s something the country really needs to do: Italian companies paid twice as much for power in 2010 as their French counterparts, 40 percent more than the U.K. and 27 percent more than German rivals, according to Eurostat , the region’s official provider of statistics. And all those countries do that with nuclear energy – well, Germany for now, anyway. The Italian government isn’t particularly well known for getting things done...

Here’s the problem : 86 per cent of its energy comes from foreign countries. And here’s a solution: An international study presented Sunday argues strongly for the introduction of nuclear energy in Italy, saying the country can diminish its dependency on foreign nations and cut carbon emissions. Italy closed its nuclear plants in the wake of Chernobyl and now derives about 81 percent of its electricity from gas and oil. As this chart shows, Italy has been displacing oil with natural gas throughout the aughts. It also shows that nuclear energy was not a big contributor even when the plants were open. But the issue here is less what Italy is using currently than that so little of it is domestic, which makes the country vulnerable to price fluctuations that it cannot significantly control through policy. So Italy needs home-grown plants. Why nuclear? By introducing nuclear energy, between 2020, when plants might begin working, and 2030, when they should account fo...

No sooner does Italy drop its ban on new nuclear plant development than someone starts developing them : The Italian energy company Enel has formed a joint venture with France's EdF to develop nuclear energy in Italy, the companies said in a joint statement Monday. The companies billed the move "as the first substantial step" toward establishing nuclear plants in Italy following the approval of an Italian law last month allowing a return to nuclear energy more than two decades after voters shut down the country's reactors. The new venture is called Italy Nuclear Development (Sviluppo Nucleare Italia). You can read Enel’s take on this development here . Interestingly, Enel is not completely new to this: EdF and Enel have been working together since 2007 on the construction of a third-generation reactor in Flamanville in Normandy, in which Enel owns a 12.5 percent stake. By a separate agreement Enel will take an identical-sized stake in the second EPR...

Some updates of stories we've been following here: Italy has found a partner for its nuclear ambitions. The winner: Great Britain. Here's British PM Gordon Brown: "We both agreed that nuclear power can play an important part (in achieving) our shared objectives on climate change and energy security." And his Italian opposite number, Silvio Burlusconi: "We do hope that there is going to be a single nuclear policy for Europe." Us, too. He needs to get on the horn with our German friends. --- An Israeli expert on middle east affairs thinks Iran needs nuclear energy : "Iran's requirement for nuclear energy is justified... It is very important for Iran to find other sources of energy, especially non oil and non gas," Meir Javedanfar told the Christian Science Monitor. Faced with a nationwide power shortage problem, the country has scheduled power outages of up to two hours a day throughout the country. Hmm! We unde...

In a move intended to bring an end to being the world's biggest net importer of electricity, the Italian government today announced that they will begin building nuclear power plants by 2013. The decision is a reversal of a 1987 referendum , banning the use of nuclear power in the country. From The New York Times , “By the end of this legislature we will put down the foundation stone for the construction in our country of a group of new-generation nuclear plants,” said Claudio Scajola , minister of economic development. “An action plan to go back to nuclear power can not be delayed anymore.” The change for Italy is a striking sign of the times, reflecting growing concern in many European countries over the skyrocketing price of oil and energy security, as well as the warming effects of carbon emissions from fossil fuels. All have combined to make this once-scorned form of energy far more palatable. “Italy has had the most dramatic, the most public turnaround, but the sentiments aga...

From Reuters : Simmering debate of a nuclear energy relaunch in Italy, banned 20 years ago in a referendum, got a fresh boost on Wednesday with the news that major utilities were to draft a plan to build nuclear power stations. A newly created think tank Energy Lab, which includes experts from leading Italian utilities A2A A2.MI and Edison, will soon start a feasibility study to build at least three or four nuclear power plants in Italy, a source familiar with the situation said, confirming a report in Il Sole 24 Ore. Great news!