NEI Nuclear Notes

I'm pleased to welcome our friends from Ontario, Bruce Power , to the Blogosphere -- though the status of the blog seems to be unofficial. And congratulations on getting the official OK on refurbishing Bruce A 1&2 on Lake Huron . Technorati tags: Nuclear Energy , Energy , Canada , Ontario , Electricity

With all but one of the United Kingdom's power stations set to close by 2023, and with Prime Minister Tony Blair calling for an "assessment of all options, including civil nuclear power," BBC News has taken up the issue. First, BBC offers its own analysis : Nuclear power looks as if it should be the answer to all our energy conundrums, and perhaps even to climate change. It provides a steady stream of energy, and does not depend on hydrocarbon supplies from unstable regimes. It is the nearest thing we have to a non-polluting energy source, apart from natural renewables. But it still engenders massive distrust, so much that many people say it can never be part of the way to avoid a disastrously warming world. The report goes on to say, "Most of us worry far more about something that we see as very unlikely but grotesquely horrible than we do about what we perceive as far likelier but much more mundane." In other words, "We are understandably terrified of nu...

On Monday evening, HBO aired a documentary on nuclear terrorism entitled, Last Best Chance that starred former Senator Fred Dalton Thompson. In the FAQ for the documentary , you'll find a passage that our readers here at NEI Nuclear Notes would be familiar with: For the last ten years, the U.S. and Russia have been working together to recycle weapons-grade uranium from 10,000 dismantled Russian nuclear warheads into fuel used by American power plants to produce electricity. Today just about half of America's nuclear power is generated by fuel derived from Russian nuclear warheads. The program they're referring to of course is " Megatons to Megawatts ," a subject we've dealt with from time to time here at NEI Nuclear Notes. And I guess you shouldn't be surprised that despite rendering the equivalent of 10,000 nuclear warheads inactive forever, radical environmentalists still hate the program : The American taxpayer has paid billions in secret subsidies ...

Another university has taken issue with the ABC News report that aired last Thursday on Prime Time Live. This time, it's the University of Arizona that's debunking the assertions made by the network and its interns : The ABC report said the nuclear fuel contained in the reactor could be used to make a dirty bomb, which would spread radioactive material across the campus. But UA officials said the TRIGA reactor on campus has been safe since its installation in 1958, and the amount of fuel in the reactor is insufficient for a dirty bomb. There are also secret security measures in place to prevent such intrusions, said UA spokesman Paul Allvin. These secret measures, which Allvin called "invisible" to the community, have been approved by the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission and consistently tested by FBI, Tucson Police Department and State Homeland Security, he said. Allvin refused to elaborate on what safety protocols are in place, citing that the NRC prohibits rele...

If there's one thing I've learned about nuclear technology in the 17 months I've worked at NEI, it's this: Nuclear energy isn't rocket science. Unfortunately, it's harder. Which is why my head spun around so quickly at the conclusions drawn by the ABC News report, " Loose Nukes on Main Street ," and in particular, the story on last Thursday's edition of Primetime Live titled, " Radioactive Roadtrip ". Despite the fact that I've worked here full-time for better than a year, I still have to make sure to doublecheck my facts to get everything right. So when I saw that ABC News and its interns were making some startling conclusions about how easy it would be to steal nuclear materials from one of the research reactors, I knew the report was in trouble from the word go. If you want the truth about nuclear energy, you need to talk to real professionals. Here's an e-mail I received earlier today from John Lyngdal, a retired senior rea...

The October issue of Nuclear Energy Insight is now available online. In it, you'll find an article on the continuing momentum toward the construction of new nuclear power plants in the United States. There also are reports on the response of utilities to Hurricane Katrina and a proposed radiation standard for the Yucca Mountain repository. Other articles discuss a U.N. study on the health effects of Chernobyl, the visit by Tennessee's governor to the Sequoyah nuclear plant, and universities researching new reactor designs.

This comes from a story from Friday's USA Today on the ABC News report on testing and research reactors : Ohio State and Kansas State officials say they give tours because, as educational facilities, it's their job to spread the word about how nuclear energy is being used. Saying the interns were able to get close to the facility is "like coming to my driveway and saying, 'Guess what? I just got into McDonald's!'" said Earle Holland, Ohio State senior director for research communications. Folks, Earle Holland is one of the heroes of this story, in that he won't let ABC News get away with what they've done. News flash: We won't either. Hat tip to the National Review Media Blog for the link. Technorati tags: Nuclear Energy , Energy , Technology , Homeland Security , ABC News