Idaho Samizdat: Nuke Notes

A crowd sourced response published at ANS Nuclear Cafe corrects serious misinformation about spent fuel at Fukushima Fukushima Tag Cloud Led by Will Davis at Atomic Power Review , a group of nuclear bloggers and analysts has crafted response to information posted by Robert Alvarez about spent fuel at Fukushima and the structural integrity of reactor #4. It has been analyzed and ...read more

The White House finds itself in the role of supporting a Republican for reappointment to the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission The pretzel politics of life in Washington took on new twists this month. The White House nominated sitting NRC Commissioner Kristine Svinicki for another term over the objections of Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) Svinicki occupies a “republican” seat at the NRC ...read more

The Carnival is up at Atomic Power Review . Futuristic view of Digital Instrumentation Image Source: Forbidden Planet 1956 The Carnival is the collective voice of blogs with legendary names which emerge each week to tell the story of nuclear energy. If you want to hear the voice of the nuclear renaissance, the Carnival of Nuclear Energy Blogs is where to find it. Past ...read more

A former scientist at Sandia National Lab is trying to bring the technology to market Temperature / Pressure ranges for supercritical CO2 Image: S. Wright Carbon Dioxide is good for a lot of things like adding fizz to your soft drinking in its gaseous form and keeping food cold in its solid form as “dry ice.” What many people do not know is that the gas is also useful ...read more

The project will come in three years late and $2.5 billion over budget This is my updated coverage from Fuel Cycle Week V11:N471 May 3, 2012, published by International Nuclear Associates, Washington, DC Once upon a time an ailing king abandoned one of his castles. He said it was too expensive to keep up more than one court. Besides, the peasants weren’t bringing in the sheaves, which ...read more

The country's nuclear utilities aren't selling off their uranium This is my updated coverage from Fuel Cycle Week V11:N471 May 3, 2012, published by International Nuclear Associates, Washington, DC Tim Gitzel, Cameco CEO In the midst of reporting excellent financial results for 1Q2012 during a May 1 conference call for financial analysts Cameco CEO Tim Gitzel said he ...read more

Southern California Edison says no plan submitted to NRC yet If you've been following the saga of the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station ( SONGS ), you know that last week Ron Litzinger , President of Southern California Edison ( NYSE:EIX ), which owns and operates the twin 1100 MW nuclear reactors, told California's electricity grid operator it may have Unit 2 back online by ...read more

The Carnival is up at Yes Vermont Yankee . The Carnival is the collective voice of blogs with legendary names which emerge each week to tell the story of nuclear energy. If you want to hear the voice of the nuclear renaissance, the Carnival of Nuclear Energy Blogs is where to find it. Past editions have been hosted at Yes Vermont Yankee, Atomic Power Review, ANS Nuclear Cafe, Idaho Samizdat, NEI Nuclear ...read more

Two reactor designs are in the running – again Anyone who follows the perilous path the future of nuclear energy has taken in Canada’s Ontario province knows that plans to build new nuclear reactors can be announced and shelved on the whims of whatever political party is in office. Never mind that it takes a decade from start to finish to plan, design, license, and build a nuclear reactor. ...read more

Rep. Dana Rohrbacher (R-Calif) wiped out in his remarks about the future of nuclear energy in his home state Rep. Dana Rohrbacher (R-Calif) is an avid surfer The perils of an incomplete technical briefing for an elected official were starkly apparent this week in California where a Los Angeles Congressman mixed up passive safety in GEN III+ LWRs with can't fail the fuel properties ...read more

Utility cites lower than expected customer demand, economic down turn, uncertainty over potential carbon regulation, and low natural gas prices A segment of this blog post appeared in the News Briefs section of Fuel Cycle Week , V11:N471, 05/03/12 published by International Nuclear Associates, Washington, DC. Progress Energy ( NYSE:PGN ) has pushed back the completion dates for ...read more

Getting the NRC license is just the first step Last December, Southern Nuclear had plenty to celebrate on New Year’s Eve. The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission had just approved the safety certification for the Westinghouse AP1000 reactor, setting the stage for a decision on February 9, 2012, to issue licenses to build and operate two of them. As Southern began mobilizing the full scope of its construction ...read more

China and Russia seek opportunities after German utilities withdraw from the market China's State Nuclear Power Corp ., a government owned enterprise, is in talks to fund the Horizon nuclear power project originally organized by German utilities RWE and EON. The Chinese firm is said to be in talks with Toshiba, which owns Westinghouse, to come up with $10 billion for the first two ...read more

AEHI, a penny stock firm, pursues development of a nuclear reactor in rural Idaho Sustained attention by the U.S. Securities & Exchange Commission isn't the best advertisement to attract investors to buy a firm's stock. Neither are multiple lawsuits by angry investors and land owners who want to stop a firm's project which is to build a nuclear reactor in rural Payette County ...read more

B&W wants to build an SMR at Clinch River This is an updated report based on my coverage published in Fuel Cycle Week April 19, 2012, V11:N469, by International Nuclear Associates, Washington, DC Note to readers On Thursday, April 26 the TVA board will meet ( agenda ) to review a report from the utility’s senior management on the new cost and schedule baseline for completion of Watts Bar 2. In ...read more

Chief Nuclear Officer says plant will reopen Southern California Edison (SCE) has completed tube inspections on the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station (SONGS) Unit 2. The plant staff is developing a plan to bring both reactors back online. SCE informed the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) late last week that it has completed additional inspections of the 19,454 tubes. It has identified ...read more

The 101st Carnival of Nuclear Energy Bloggers is up at ANS Nuclear Cafe Fermi concept drawing Image: Will Davis, Atomic Power Review The Carnival of Nuclear Energy Bloggers enters its second century this week. If you missed it, the 100th Carnival was published last week at Atomic Power Review which is maintained by Will Davis. It includes messages of congratulations from the American ...read more

When a politician gets in trouble in Washington, it is almost always about one of two things - money or women The classic instances of a politician getting in trouble in Washington usually include being found out to have spent time, like overnight or longer, with someone who was not their spouse. Examples include President Clinton and Monica Lewinsky, Senator Gary Hart and Donna Rice ...read more

Westinghouse gets support from Missouri for 225 MW reactor The race to win $452 million in cost shared funding from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) for licensing and technical support to bring a small modular reactor (SMR) to market by 2022 got a new entry April 19. Westinghouse has partnered with Ameren to submit a proposal based on the reactor vendor’s design of a 225 MW SMR . The proposal won ...read more

Sen. Harry Reid (D-Nev.) goes full throttle with opposition to reappointment of NRC Commissioner Kristine Svinicki The way to derail policy in Washington is to pull the spikes holding the rails to the ties A famous axiom of life inside the Washington, DC, beltway is that "no good deed goes unpunished." It means that while some people, acting on motivations related to the ...read more

Energy Fuels acquires Denison's White Mesa uranium mill in Utah On April 16 Energy Fuels ( TSE:EFR ) and Denison Mines Corp ( TSE:DM L) announced a letter agreement that would have Energy Fuels acquire all of Denison Mines assets in the U.S. including the White Mesa uranium mill in Utah. The significance of this merger is that Energy Fuels has been struggling to raise funds, and ...read more

Once again it is time to spit on your hands, rub them together, and raise the black flag of contention to respond to deliberate attempts at creating fear, uncertainty, and doubt Critics of nuclear energy can and do raise useful issues that need attention. The lessons learned for the global industry coming out of Fukushima include the importance of having a strong, independent regulatory ...read more

Fence sitting is a practical strategy while you count your chickens if conditions aren't right to make up your mind Counting fence sitting chickens In the world of regulated utilities, the issue of what constitutes a "prudent investor" has long been a concern of rate commissions. These appointed bodies evaluate everything from equipment purchases and maintenance to how ...read more

Commitments kept across time and space result in recognition of a growing number of voices The 100th Carnival of Nuclear Energy Bloggers is up at Atomic Power Review This is a remarkable achievement based on the voluntary collaboration of the pro-nuclear bloggers of North America. Also, it is the occasion of the launch of the Nuclear Literacy Project . Two industry leaders wrote ...read more

The desire is for independence and to innovate with great results Conceptual drawing of a molten salt reactor (Image: Idaho National Lab) Two recent nuclear energy start-ups have the potential to create new business opportunities with unconventional reactor technologies. Two of them are pursuing new designs using molten salts as compared to the conventional light water design. ...read more