March, 2011

At a press conference Wednesday, Tokyo Electric Power Co. Chairman Tsunehisa Katsumata acknowledged that four reactors at the company’s severely damaged Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant will be decommissioned. According to news reports, he even broached the idea of permanently entombing them in concrete. Workers are already trying to restore areas of the plant to dose levels that would...

As part of a legal settlement, the Environmental Protection Agency has proposed a rule change that could force many nuclear plants to modify their cooling systems in an effort to protect fish. The proposed rule affects a broad swath of nuclear plants and other industrial facilities that rely on water bodies for cooling. Per a release Monday from the EPA: “Existing facilities that...

The United States nuclear power industry came under further scrutiny this week as Rep. Edward Markey, D-Mass., proposed a temporary moratorium on reactor construction, and the chair of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission addressed another nuclear safety hearing before Congress. In a Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Energy and Water hearing called by Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif, NRC Chairman...

At the request of Tokyo Electric Power Co., five additional experts from Areva will help engineers in Japan manage the crisis at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant. The Areva personnel, who will join a number of Areva staff dispatched to Japan earlier, are experts in radioactive effluent treatment and spent-fuel storage, according to a company release. An Areva spokeswoman told Reuters that...

Fresh water is now circulating through all three reactors that were operating at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant when a tsunami caused a station blackout two weeks ago. Japan’s Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency reported Tuesday that water injection at unit 3 had switched from a fire truck to a motor-driven pump Monday, and that the reactor was being cooled by fresh water the following...

The Tennessee Valley Authority made the case Friday that safety systems at its seven reactors could withstand a string of natural disasters and plant emergencies like those encountered by Japan’s severely damaged Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant. In a rare plant tour, reporters from several media outlets spent three hours Friday at Browns Ferry, a three-reactor plant first licensed ...

Chinese state media reported Tuesday that the country, currently undergoing a massive push to generate more electricity from nuclear technology, will scale back its ambitions. People’s Daily quoted a China Electricity Council official as saying the country should reduce its plans for 90 gigawatts of nuclear generation by 2020 by at least 10 gigawatts, adding it also would likely not achieve...

After being granted a license to ship decommissioned steam generators to a Swedish company for recycling, Canada’s Bruce Power said Tuesday that it will postpone the shipment to address the concerns of native groups and others opposed to it. “While recycling this material is the right thing to do, and our regulator has given us a license to proceed, we recognize there is a level...

The focus of emergency managers at Japan’s tsunami-damaged Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant in last two days has been split between the plant’s cooling systems and highly contaminated water found outside two of the reactors. On Monday, Tokyo Electric Power Co. and Japanese regulators reported highly radioactive water had been found in tunnels outside the buildings of units 1 and...

Among the help the U.S. government has provided Japan following the March 11 earthquake and nuclear emergency, the Department of Energy continues to monitor radiation around the site of the damaged Fukushima Daiichi power plant. Three days after the earthquake, the agency, in tandem with the National Nuclear Security Administration, sent 33 people with 8.6 tons of equipment to Japan. Consequence...

Smoke reported in an elevator at the Seabrook nuclear power plant was quickly handled by a fire crew Monday. A plant spokesman told the Associated Press that someone noticed spoke coming from a nearby transformer just before noon. No one was in the elevator, and firefighters disconnected the power to resolve the issue. Plant operation and safety were not compromised.

During a briefing on Japan’s reactor crisis Monday, International Atomic Energy Agency Director General Yukiya Amano called for a high-level conference on nuclear safety. Before summer, Amano said, international leaders should meet to assess the accidents at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant, launch a process to improve safety and find ways to strengthen the response to nuclear emergencies...

This weekend brought more reports of high radiation levels inside the Japan’s tsunami-shaken Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant, where recent efforts include the first circulation of fresh water in one of its reactors in more than two weeks. According to Japan’s Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency, crews began injecting fresh water into unit 2 on Saturday, and plant owner Tokyo Electric...

In conference calls, interviews and other public statements, CEOs from some of the largest U.S. utilities said last week that the effects of the nuclear crisis in Japan on the broader nuclear industry were unknown, but that nuclear power should remain a part of the country’s long-term energy plans. On Wednesday, Public Service Energy Group (PSEG) CEO William Lewis said nuclear power would...

On Friday, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission announced it has found the construction of two new Westinghouse AP 1000 reactors at Georgia’s Vogtle nuclear power plant will have no environmental impacts that preclude the project from going forward. The agency’s issuance of a final EIS is a crucial step in Southern Nuclear Operating Company’s license applications for the reactors...

A shipment of mixed-oxide fuel from France bound for Japan has been put off by two Japanese power companies following that country’s earthquake and the subsequent crisis at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant. Kansai Electric Power Co. and Chubu Electric Power Co. told a French broadcaster that they planed to postpone a freighter shipment of MOX that had been scheduled for the first week...

Two weeks after a tsunami from Japan’s biggest earthquake in 140 years wiped out backup generators at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant, efforts to restore power to reactors are progressing while radiation from them continues to raise alarm. ( View the full post to see video of the Fukushima Daiichi plant soon after it was hit by a 40-foot tsunami wave. ) The plant’s common spent...

In line with a recent request from the president, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission on Wednesday voted to create a task force that will conduct short-term and long-term assessments of safety at U.S. nuclear plants. “Examining all the available information from Japan is essential to understanding the event’s implications for the United States. We will perform a systematic and methodical...

Uranium enrichment firm USEC announced Wednesday it has entered a 10-year contract to purchase low-enriched uranium from Russian firm Techsnabexport (TENEX). The firms also plan to study the feasibility of building a new uranium enrichment plant in the U.S. using Russian technology. Through the Megatons to Megawatts program that downblends material from retired Russian nuclear warheads, TENEX...

Asked at a press conference Thursday whether China was concerned about plans to export dated reactor technology to Pakistan following the multiple-reactor crisis in Japan, a foreign ministry spokeswoman dismissed the issue as unrelated. China has long been an essential partner in Pakistan’s burgeoning nuclear power industry, and their latest joint project involves the construction of...

With power lines now extended to all six reactors, work to restore core cooling and other electrical systems at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant continued Wednesday, interrupted for a time by black smoke coming from unit 3. Workers evacuated at 4:20 p.m. Japan time when smoke similar to that seen from unit 3 on Monday was spotted. It thinned out after an hour, Kyodo News quoted plant owner...

As its prepares for additional inspections at U.S. reactors following accidents at Japan’s Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission will put its first priority on the Indian Point power plant following a visit to the agency’s headquarters by members of New York Governor Andrew Cuomo’s administration. Cuomo, who’s long called for the plant’s...

In a CBS News Poll released Tuesday, more than two thirds of Americans surveyed considered U.S. nuclear plants to be “generally safe,” but support for new reactors fell to its lowest level in ten years. During the telephone survey of 1,022 adults nationwide conducted between March 19 and Monday, 43 percent of respondents indicated they supported building more nuclear plants. That...

Nuclear energy faced further scrutiny in Europe as Italy’s cabinet approved a moratorium on new reactors Wednesday, and European Union leaders are calling for further inspections at European plants following the earthquake-triggered nuclear crisis in Japan . In Rome the Italian Cabinet approved a one-year moratorium on new reactors, and a referendum on plant construction has been scheduled...

For the first time in more than a week, outside power illuminated the control room Tuesday at unit 3 of Japan’s Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant, where operators have struggled with overheating in reactors and spent fuel pools since an earthquake hit the country March 11. (View the full post to watch video of a concrete truck pouring water into unit 4’s spent-fuel tank.) Plant Owner...