Wednesday Update

From NEI’s Japan Earthquake launch page:

New Filters Remove Radiation from Seawater

Updated as of 3 p.m. EDT, Wednesday, June 15

Plant Status

Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO) has begun full operation of seawater filtering systems near the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear energy facility. Installed near the water intakes of reactors 2 and 3, the filters absorb radioactive cesium then return the water to the ocean. Tests indicate the system reduces cesium levels by 20 percent to 30 percent. TEPCO is seeking ways to increase the filtering capability.
Japan's health ministry has ordered TEPCO to release from duty 23 workers who had been exposed internally to more than 10 rem (100 millisieverts) of radiation early in the accident. The ministry took the precaution because the employees' continued work at the facility could result in exposure beyond the temporary 25 rem (250 mSv) limit. The limit was raised in March from 10 rem (100 mSv) to the emergency level of 25 rem. TEPCO said earlier that two workers were exposed to more than 60 rem (600 mSv) and announced on Monday that six more were believed to have been exposed to up to 50 rem (500 mSv). TEPCO is screening 3,700 workers for exposure.
TEPCO has completed tests on a U.S.-made system that will be used to absorb radioactive cesium from water that has accumulated in various locations at the Fukushima Daiichi site and has also begun tests of a French-manufactured water-treatment device. The company plans to begin full operation of the systems by Friday. More than 105,000 tons of radioactive water has accumulated at the facility. The U.S.-based water treatment system is from Kurion Inc. and the French system is from AREVA.
Inspection of farmland in the no-entry zone around Fukushima Daiichi will begin next month. Rice planting has been suspended within an 18.5-mile radius of the plant and no agricultural products are being shipped from within the no-entry zone. Government officials will study soil in the area in response to concerns from residents who have inquired about the status of their farmland.
TEPCO plans to install rooftop vents for the seven reactor buildings at the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear energy facility in north central Japan. The vents are designed to prevent hydrogen from building up during an emergency. Hydrogen build-up caused explosions at the Fukushima Daiichi facility in March.

Industry/Regulatory/Political Issues

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission conducted a briefing today on the progress of the short-term task force reviewing NRC processes and regulations following the events in Japan. Slides prepared for the briefing said that capabilities already in place for dealing with potential large fires and explosions could be useful for other events, such as station blackout conditions. The near-term task force will recommend actions and propose topics for longer-term review at a July 19 commission meeting.
The Senate Environment and Public Works Committee will hold an oversight hearing June 16 on preliminary results of the NRC's safety review at America's nuclear energy facilities. Witnesses include all five NRC commissioners.

Media Highlights

Doug Walters, NEI's vice president of regulatory affairs, participated in an extensive interview this week with Voice of America's "Voice of Russia," which focused on U.S. nuclear plant safety in light of the events at Fukushima Daiichi. Walters analyzed the accident in Japan and provided a status update on the ability of U.S. nuclear plants to cope with a similar situation.

Upcoming Events

International Atomic Energy Agency ministerial conference on nuclear safety, June 20-24, Vienna, Austria.
Japan-American Society, "The Future of Nuclear Energy Around the World," June 23, Washington, D.C.

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...

How many nuclear plants does it take to meet the world's energy needs?

Several weeks ago Joshua Pearce at Clarion University in Pennsylvania released a study titled “ Thermodynamic limitations to nuclear energy deployment as a greenhouse gas mitigation technology .” In the study he stated... nuclear energy production would have to increase by 10.5% per year from 2010 to 2050 to both replace fossil-fuel-energy use and meet the future energy demands. This line, of course, made the headlines and has been picked up by several outlets and blogs . When looking into his calculations for this statement, he made one assumption error that overstated the above sentence by nearly a factor of three. Page 121, Section 4.1 of the study states: Richard Smalley pointed out that in 2004, the global economy consumed the equivalent of 220 million barrels of oil per day, which converted into electricity terms is the equivalent of 14.5 TeraWatts (TW), or 14,500,000 MegaWatts (MW) (2005). … With a nuclear plant having about 1000 MW (1 GW) of capacity, we would need 14,500...

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...

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