NEI Nuclear Notes

Ted Jones The following is a guest post by Ted Jones, Director of International Supplier Relations for NEI. This week, the U.S. Congress received for review a renewal agreement for nuclear energy cooperation with Norway. When the pact comes into force, it will restore nuclear cooperation that lapsed when the original agreement expired in July 2014. Commonly known as a Section 123 agreement after the part of the Atomic Energy Act that governs international nuclear energy cooperation, a bilateral nuclear cooperation agreement secures nonproliferation guarantees and provides a framework for nuclear energy commerce. Given that Norway has no plans to operate a commercial nuclear power plant, some may ask, “What is the importance of Norway to the U.S. nuclear industry?” The answer lies 75 miles southeast of Oslo in the town of Halden, where the United States helped to build a 20 megawatt test reactor in 1958. Now supported by 19 member countries and partly financed by the OEC...

AREVA has been notably good with their outreach ads. Here's an animated piece extolling the virtues of nuclear energy through the medium of two yakky fuel pellets. Perhaps a little static in the manner of much Flash animation, but a very nicely produced piece that hits its points without fuss. AREVA is a member of NEI, so this post could easily be construed as a bit of logrolling, but good is good.

Of course, the increased interest in nuclear energy excites attention in parts of the United States where mining represents a substantial share of the local economy. An editorial in The Mountain Mail ("The Voice of Salida and the Upper Arkansas Valley" - Salida is in southern Colorado) supports nuclear energy from exactly this viewpoint: In southern Utah, uranium mining firms are quietly pursuing mining claims on federal lands. Just west of Marshall Pass in Saguache County, a Seattle company took control of mineral rights near the former Pitch uranium mine, which operated in the early 1980s but closed shortly thereafter. The stone of the nuclear renaissance produces interesting ripples. On a different note, the editorial notes that the Democratic presidential candidates (and Nader, of course) have downplayed nuclear energy and comes close to taunting them for it. The candidates would rather promise increased ethanol production as a means of reducing reliance on foreign oil. ...

Nuclear disarmament took a big step forward on Monday, when the U.S. and Russia announced a new agreement on disposition of surplus plutonium. Each country had previously agreed to dispose of 34 metric tons of surplus weapons-grade plutonium by using it in mixed-oxide (plutonium-uranium) fuel, also known as MOX, but there were disagreements on how to do it. Monday's agreement notes that the U.S. will use the plutonium in light-water reactors, whereas Russia will use it in fast-spectrum reactors. The distinction may seem slight, but it had been a significant point of contention. The agreement clears the way for removing a significant amount of weapons-grade material. You might think that such news would meet with hearty and uniform approbation, but it did not, particularly at the Union of Concerned Scientists . This time, their "concern" is about the BN-600 and BN-800 reactors that the Russians plan to use. As reported by Newsday , Ed Lyman, nuclear weapons expert ...

June 15, 2007 was a big day at the National Enrichment Facility in New Mexico. From a special edition of a newsletter we received here at NEI: This was not your normal, ordinary Friday. Today was special. A major construction milestone was reached at 11:15 a.m. with the first concrete placement for the National Enrichment Facility. A small crowd gathered around the central utilities building (CUB) vault to watch the event. The CUB will be the heart of the plant. Power, from the electrical sub station, will enter the CUB vault (or cable spreading room) and be distributed throughout the plant. It took ten concrete trucks (or approximately 100 cubic yards of concrete) for the outside wall footer of the CUB vault. A third party testing agency performed various tests for every 50 cubic yards of concrete to ensure the quality level was met or exceeded. Congrats to everyone at NEF for reaching an important milestone.

From NRC : The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has issued a license to USEC Inc. to construct and operate a gas centrifuge uranium enrichment plant at the Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant reservation near Piketon, Ohio. The facility, to be known as the American Centrifuge Plant, will use a design based on gas centrifuge technology developed by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) to enrich uranium for use in fuel for commercial nuclear power reactors. The license authorizes USEC to enrich uranium up to 10 percent of the fissile isotope uranium-235. USEC submitted its application for the license Aug. 23, 2004. The NRC staff published an environmental impact statement (NUREG-1834) on the facility in April 2006, finding that there would be no significant adverse environmental impacts that would preclude granting a license. The staff’s safety evaluation report (NUREG-1851), published last September, documents the staff’s review of the application.

Just off the wire from STP : Completing a second consecutive breaker-to-breaker run, the South Texas Project nuclear power plant successfully took its Unit 2 reactor offline on Sunday for a scheduled refueling and maintenance outage. “We are pleased with the reliable and successful performance of our reactors. STP’s consecutive breaker-to-breaker runs could not have been accomplished without the continued commitment and skill of our entire team," said Ed Halpin, STP's site vice president. A breaker-to-breaker run refers to the time between refueling outages when a nuclear plant safely produces electricity. An outage begins with the opening of an electrical breaker to discontinue power to the grid so that maintenance can be performed and refueling can occur. The outage ends when the breaker is closed and electricity can again be produced. Refueling outages occur every 18 months. Congrats to the team at STP for a job well done. Bravo Zulu!