Category: Nuclear Power

Oh Crap

No Comments

In a news conference, the Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary said that they were pulling everyone out of the damaged Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, though it appears that a small number of workers have elected to stay on:

11:13 P.M. |Core Group of Workers Remain at Plant

The Times’s Hiroko Tabuchi reports that a small group of workers remains at the Fukushima Daiichi plant, contrary to what an English translation of the chief cabinet secretary’s remarks had implied.

10:22 P.M. |Chief Cabinet Secretary’s News Conference

Japan’s chief cabinet secretary, Yukio Edano, is holding a news conference that is being broadcast live on Japanese television. Mr. Edano said radiation readings started rising rapidly Wednesday morning outside the front gate of the Fukushima Daiichi plant. “All the workers there have suspended their operations. We have urged them to evacuate, and they have,” he said, according to a translation by NHK television.

This is not good, that if the situation is as reported, those men remaining at the plant have to know that they are at very real risk of death.

We also have a report that a fire has restarted at the power plant, though it is unclear where this fire might be.

If this is the zirconium cladding of the spend fuel rods in the cooling pools, this could get very ugly very quickly.

If interested, you can see satellite and U-2 imagery here.

A Foreseeable Result of Pandering to the US Nuclear Industry

No Comments

Now that the US deal to sell nuclear technology to India is pretty much a done deal, the Chinese are selling nuclear power plants to Pakistan:

China is expected to formally announce the plans to build the 650-megawatt reactors in Punjab province at a meeting in New Zealand of the Nuclear Suppliers Group – the 46 countries that dominate and try to control the world’s atomic trade.

The US has already voiced its disapproval before the meeting, which starts today, and will try to forge a consensus on updating the rules designed to prevent the spread of nuclear weapons.

US officials say that the plan requires special exemption from the NSG, [Nuclear Suppliers Group] which China joined in 2004, as Pakistan has not signed the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and could, therefore, divert some technology to its nuclear weapons program or to another country.

China and Pakistan disagree, pointing out that the US set a precedent by sealing a deal to sell civilian nuclear fuel and technology to India in 2006, even though Delhi had yet to sign the treaty.

That someone would sell nuclear reactors to the Pakistanis in response to the US making a joke of the NNPT was pretty much a done deal, and a predictable consequence of this decision.

I made note of this some time ago, and when my predictions prove true, it implies a level of blatantly obvious that buggers the mind.

The original deal with India was all about Bush and His Evil Minions™ wanting to reward their friends in the US domestic nuclear power industry, US interests be damned, and the consequences are potentially disastrous.

We’ll probably see a few more blips on Isao Hashimoto’s animations.

I Cannot See this Not Ending Up in Submarines

No Comments
Click for full size

Pix from Hyperion Power Generation‘s web site

Hyperion Power Generation is claiming that it can mass produce a 25 megawatt reactor in the volume of a refrigerator, 1.5m in diameter, and 2.5 m high.

As you can see from the picture, this is just the reactor, and the full installation is a lot larger than a refrigerator, but if you are dumping your heat into an infinite 20°C liquid, the ocean, and you eliminate the super-heating setup, since space is at more of a premium than efficiency, and I can see putting in something north of 15MW in a with a 10 foot stretch.

Hyperion is hawking their technology for military applications as well, albeit for remote bases, not warships.

I would note that their design, which uses convection cooling with a lead-bismuth coolant (the heat carrying capacity of the molten metal explains the small size) sound to me like it would be rather quiet too.

By way of comparison, a stretched Kilo would displace about 4,500 tons submerged, as compared to a Seawolf, which displaces around 9,100 tons and has a s power plant that puts out something north of 45MW, and the Kilo’s Wiki page has it exceeding 20 kts with less than 5MW on batteries.

It would probably keep the aircraft carrier battle group a few hundred miles further off a country’s shoreline during a time of heightened tensions.

That is assuming, of course, that their numbers are not too good to be true.

Vermont Senate Rejects License Extension for Nuke Plant

No Comments

Maybe it was the fact that Vermont Yankee has been leaking radioactive tritium into the ground water for some time:

The Vermont Senate blocked efforts by Entergy Corp. to win a 20-year license renewal for its Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant, an action that could encourage opponents of nuclear energy in other states.

The Senate vote, which was 26 to four, marks the first time a license renewal has been thwarted, and it sets the stage for the plant’s closure by 2012, when the license expires.

The vote was striking because the state relies on the plant for a third of its electricity. In the past, license renewals have been routine, allowing energy companies to squeeze more life out of aging plants. To date, the NRC has renewed 59 reactor licenses, and 19 are pending.

The vote, which reflected fears about safety after leaks of radioactive tritium were discovered at the plant last year, is a blow to Entergy, which had planned to spin off six reactors, including Vermont Yankee, into the nation’s first stand-alone nuclear power company, to be called Enexus Energy Corp.

Notwithstanding the ability of the nuclear power industry to lobby for subsidies and tax breaks, the problem is that people who have nuclear power know that the plants never finish on schedule, never finish on budget, and are expensive sources of power even with the subsidies.

This plant is 38 years old, and its cooling tower collapsed in 2004, so maybe this is a good time to shut it down.

Obama to Give Multibillion Dollar Subsidy to Nuke Plants

No Comments

It’s $8 billion in loan guarantees, but if you run the numbers, and assume a 4% interest rate savings as a result of the loan guarantees over a 10 year period, the new reactors are due to come on line in 2017, but they will be late, because they are always late, then you get about a $3.85 billion [(1.0410-1) x $8 billion] subsidy for the Southern Company to build two new reactors at their Vogtle plant.

Actually, the payback time is likely closer to 30 years, which means that the US government is actually paying Southern to build the plant, but depending on how you count it, it’s a f%$# load of money.

Idiot

2 Comments

So, Barack Obama is offering millions billions in subsidies loan guarantees for the nuclear industry as a part of his cap and trade carbon emissions bill:

President Barack Obama is endorsing nuclear energy like never before, trying to win over Republicans and moderate Democrats on climate and energy legislation.

Obama singled out nuclear power in his State of the Union address, and his spending plan for the next budget year is expected to include billions of more dollars in federal guarantees for new nuclear reactors. This emphasis reflects both the political difficulties of passing a climate bill in an election year and a shift from his once cautious embrace of nuclear energy.

He’s now calling for a new generation of nuclear power plants.

I understand how he might have to cut a deal with lawmakers who are bought and paid for by supporters of the nuclear power industry in order to get a global warming emissions bill passed, but you don’t start the negotiations by giving into them.

You make them come to you to get a deal. If you give them everything they need at the start of the process, then they will just knife you later to get more, see Nelson, Ben, and Lieberman, Joe.

Even if you support nuclear power, you keep it in your back pocket until the time is right to get the votes.

At this point in the process, you have the threat of a notice of proposed rulemaking (NPRM) hanging over the heads of coal and oil companies, and you use that to twist arms.

Unbelievably stupid.

Really Bad Idea

No Comments

It seems that the Chinese are looking at using nuclear powered cargo ships to ship cheap crap to the USA.

Bad idea, and a lose, as is obvious from looking at the history of nuclear powered civilian cargo vessels, or just the numbers for the NS Savannah:

However, Savannah’s cargo space was limited to 8,500 tons of freight in 652,000 cubic feet (18,000 m³). Many of her competitors could accommodate several times as much. Her streamlined hull made loading the forward holds laborious, which became a significant disadvantage as ports became more and more automated. Her crew was a third larger than comparable oil-fired ships and received special training after completing all training requirements for conventional maritime licenses. Her operating budget included the maintenance of a separate shore organization for negotiating her port visits and a personalized shipyard facility for completing any needed repairs.

And then there is that whole Somali Pirate thing, which makes the idea of an unarmed civilian ship operating a nuclear reactor on the high seas even less attractive.

I can see al Qaeda salivating over the prospect of seizing a ship like this.

H/t Information Dissemination

Russia Planning Nuclear Rocket

1 Comment
Click for full size

Bimodal Nuclear Thermal Rocket

From the report, we are not talking about Orion, or direct thrust from nuclear heating, but rather some sort of electric propulsion system using electricity from a reactor for a proposed mission to Mars.

Something like ion drive, or plasma drive would likely cut transit time by at least ¾ for a manned trip to Mars, and if a ground base were established, a nuclear power supply would handle the reduced solar energy levels there.

I’d take this with a grain of salt, because the cost quoted for this is a bit over US $¾ billion, which sounds like a quote from Never Land.

Gee, This is Credible

No Comments

The BJP is saying that if the US rescinds a tax break used to outsource workers that they will remove India from the nuclear deal with the US, and buy their civilian reactors from the French.

Note that the tax break subsidizes shipping jobs from America to India, but then again, as the spectacle of appropriations bills and the agriculture bill show, everyone wants their subsidy.

Of course, the French don’t subsidize outsourcing software and support to India, and the number of Francophones is relatively small in India, so the couldn’t move much business there if they tried.

Additionally, the BJP, the Hindu Nationalist (or as I like to call them, Fascist) Party is not the party in power, that’s the Congress Party, though there is a campaign ongoing.

It’s electioneering, and means nothing, though if I were Barack Obama, I would call their bluff.

It would not even effect the nuclear industry for the next few years, as lead times are very long for such projects.*

*Full disclosure, I did work for a brief time in the nuclear industry last year, on plant shutdown and cleanup of waste.

Gas Deal Reported

No Comments

I hope that this one is not a false alarm

Under the reported deal, Ukraine will pay 20 percent less than the European price for this year. This means a substantial increase for Ukraine in the first quarter but the price could fall significantly later in the year as gas prices are expected to drop.

It does seem to be a fair deal to both sides….Which Is why I’m wondering when it will fall apart.

Also, Slovakia has put off restarting is Soviet era nuke plant.

They had declared an emergency because of the gas crisis, and were talking about restarting it.

Lame-duck-inosis

No Comments

I understand that the political appointees in the State Department may wish it otherwise, but the rest of the world understands that Bush and His Evil Minions™ are lame ducks, and they want no part of any of initiatives.

Case in point, the latest IAEA runing on the Syrian nuclear program:

The U.N. atomic agency approved a contested Syrian bid for nuclear aid on Wednesday, overcoming U.S.-led resistance to the project while Damascus is under investigation for covert activity that could lead to atom bombs.

The United States, Canada and Australia mounted last minute objections to a compromise deal on the project but finally joined a consensus in favor since they could not have won if they forced a rare vote by International Atomic Energy Agency governors, diplomats in the closed meeting said.

(emphasis mine)

They matter very little now. On January 20, they do not matter at all.

George W. Bush Gives in to Axis of Evil

No Comments

Or at least the one member of the axis: It appears that the U.S. dropping North Korea from terror list, as it had to promised to do in negotiations, and the DPRK is resuming dismantling its nuclear program.

The Japanese are pissed off about this, what with the whole bizarre, “Kidnapping Japanese citizens,” thing still unresolved, but pretty much everyone else is happy about this development.

It appears that South Korea will be sending a delayed shipment of steel to the DPRK, and we now have reports that the IAEA has had its access restored.

U.S. Senate Votes to Make Nonproliferation a Joke

No Comments

To quote Crooks and Liars on the U.S. Senate voting 86 to 13 to approve the nuclear arms deal with India.

Needless to say, this is one of the few diplomatic accomplishments of this administration, wiping their ass on the non-proliferation regime studiously created over the past 40 years so that US nuclear companies can make a few bucks.

This makes the single most dangerous issue in the world, fully militarized nuclear warheads on delivery systems in Pakistan and India even worse.

I’d say “mission accomplished”, but Condoleeza “The Worst Secretary of State Ever” Rice has managed to screw up even this. She visited India after the Senate’s approval, and could not sign it because of unspecified bureaucratic issues.

I guess someone forgot to pay the service contract on the State Department copying machines.

Another Failure for Bush and His Evil Minions&trade

No Comments

Well, after expending all that time and effort on trying to ram through a US-India nuclear deal, it appears that even with the deal, India will be going with non-US companies for its nuclear needs, they will go to French and Russian companies.

It turns out that the Indian model, of purchasing whole systems from one vendor, does not lend itself to the way that the US nuclear power industry is structured.

So Bush isn’t even making money for GE and Bechtel out of this.

Nuclear Suppliers Group Throws Monkey Wrench into Indo-American Civil Nuke Deal

No Comments

Which I consider to be a good thing.

The idea that somehow the technical know-how that the French and the US nuclear industries are so interested in exporting to India won’t flow to their weapons’ program is naive at best.

Right now, the US is lobbying the 45 nation NSG to grant a waiver to India, even though it will not sign the NNPT.

This approval is necessary for the Indo-US deal to go through, and the NSG is looking at adding conditions to the waiver such as periodic reviews, a more intrusive inspection regime of civilian nuclear power plants, and a cancellation of the waiver in the event of additional Indian weapons testing.

India has said that it would reject any such conditions though, so it’s unclear where things go from here.

Honestly, I see this as phenomenally bad policy being pushed by the US Nuclear power industry, and being supported by Bush and His Evil Minions™ because they are reliable Republican donors.

Nuclear Regulatory Commission Looks at More Public Disclosure

No Comments

Given the record of the NRC toward disclosure, the idea that this is a major break with the past.

Steven Aftergood take on it is that Congress is breathing down their necks because, they were not notified of a major safety event:

According to David Lochbaum, a nuclear safety engineer with the Union of Concerned Scientists, the triggering event in this case was congressional outrage at the NRC’s concealment of a major “nuclear safety event” in 2006 at the Nuclear Fuel Services plant in Erwin, Tennessee.

In that case, approximately 35 liters of highly enriched uranium solution leaked and spilled, creating the possibility of a criticality accident, i.e. an uncontrolled chain reaction. Yet “NRC failed to notify the public or Congress for 13 months regarding this serious incident,” complained Rep. John Dingell in a July 3, 2007 letter (pdf) to NRC Chairman Dale E. Klein.

If I were a member of Congress, that would piss me off.

If I lived near Erwin, Tennessee, I’d consider putting my house up for sale.