So now various countries’ nuclear power industries have a green light to enter into business arrangements with India for civilian nuclear power.
My emotions are mixed on all this, because I don’t see how this won’t benefit their nuclear weapons program.
The last link gets into the opposition of Kumari Mayawati to the measure. She is the defacto national representative of India’s Dalit (untouchable) population, and based on what I’ve read about her indicates that she is a very skilled politician, and so probably she’s setting herself up for a larger role in the next government.
One thing that I am sure of though is that it won’t make it through this session of the US Congress, because the Hyde Act requires that Congress be in session continuously for 30 days before a vote is held, and that will not happen in late July of an election year.
The Communists have said that they will not support the government, because they believe that the deal impinges on Indian sovereignty, and should the vote fail, there would be new elections.
Should be interesting, as it appears to be awfully close.
While it looks like the Indian PM Manmohan Singh may find the votes to approve the deal with the US on civilian nuclear power, it appears that it’s unlikely to make it through Congress this year.
The legislation that enabled the negotiations, the 2006 Hyde act, requires that Congress, “be in 30 days of continuous session to consider it”, and there are only 40 days to the August recess, when we are in election season.
While it is possible that this could be finished in a post election lame duck session, that is unlikely, a lame duck session that long would run into the holiday season, and none of the Democrats are even remotely interested in giving Bush time to try last minute hail Mary legislative initiatives.
In the next session, approval may be even more unlikely. In the US, this process has primarily been about political payback to the US nuclear industry, which has supported Republicans.
Here’s hoping, particularly since it appears that India will continue to build nuclear weapons.
Syria will be allowing the IAEA to inspect the site bombed by the Israelis in late June.
I’m not sure if this means that they think that they can fool the inspectors, if they have decided that coming clean is the best way to cut their losses, or if the site wasn’t a nuclear power plant in the first place.
I await the report from the inspectors.
This fact comes as no surprise to me. I work in nuclear power, on end of life and spent fuel issues, and this is something that costs a lot of money, and is rarely even quoted in the price of a plant.
So, even without considering that US plants inevitable delays and cost overruns (the French have their act together better), nuclear power is not economically viable without massive government subsidies.
This is a nice rundown of the sh^% storm coming down about the importation of nuclear waste from Italy for processing and disposal.
Obviously, it all has to go somewhere, and the proliferation issues involved with it staying somewhere unsafe bear some careful thought.
Beyond that, I have no comment….I am currently working in the biz, though not on this specific project, and it would be inappropriate for me to make any further comment.
Though I am currently working on similar projects, basically end of life stuff in the nuclear fuel process.*
In any case, I’m glad not to be working on a new shelter for the Chernobyl reactor. It’s a no win situation. Even if you get it right, no one will know for years and years while the costs continue to mount.
Truth be told, “Even if you get it right, no one will know for years and years while the costs continue to mount,” is a good metaphor for civilian nuclear power in general.
Price tag $1.4 billion and climbing.
*No specifics. My client company’s business (I’m a contractor) is their business, and it is unethical, as well as unwise, to discuss this in detail.†
†I feel no similar compunction about commenting about how a co-worker resembles Captain Jean Luc Picard. Since this does not, nor could it be construed as sensitive or compromising information.
I got free food, but I still hate meetings with a passion.
Basically, we’ve got a lot of work, and we look to have more coming in.
Most of the discussion was on profits and bonuses, which don’t really involve me, because I am a contractor.
One interesting thing is that our division does a lot of internal work for other divisions, but doesn’t get credited for the profits derived from the plan.
I guess that one of those problems with profit sharing plans is identifying whose profit it is.
Additionally, they went over a controversy over some work involving wfrom Italy being brought here (see here, here, here, here, here, and here), but this part of the discussion was pretty low key, just a quick rundown of the bullet point arguments.
Obviously as per any industry that regulation heavy, there was some discussion of politics and the election, but it was fairly low key, mostly in terms of uncertainty in the market.
Wish that it hadn’t been Domino’s pizza. It’s OK, if you ask for ½ the normal amount of sauce, but the Domino’s owner is still a right wing turd.
The interest in developing a nuclear submarine, is being driven by a desire to prevent US, and in the case of Argentina UK, CV battle groups from being able to deploy forces off the Atlantic coast of Latin America.
The picture below is from France’s DCNS Barracuda Class SSN. I’m not sure how accurate it is, but the lack of forward bow planes, and the nose mounted torpedo tubes are of interest.
In most SSNs, the torpedoes are located amidships, to allow for a larger sonar array in the nose.
France would have no involvement in the reactor design, which would be a Brazil-Argentina joint venture.
I understand that there advantages to Sodium cooled reactors, particularly the fact that, because of the small cross section of the nucleus of Sodium, you can get a much more complete burn with fewer waste products, but that the Sodium-Cooled Fast Reactor Prototype Development, memorandum of understanding (MOU) will lead nowhere.
The U.S Department of Energy (DOE), the French Atomic Energy Commission (CEA) and Japan Atomic Energy Agency (JAEA) have expanded cooperation to coordinate Sodium-Cooled Fast Reactor Prototype development through a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU). The MOU establishes a collaborative framework with the ultimate goal of deploying sodium-cooled fast reactor prototypes. A sodium-cooled fast reactor uses liquid sodium to transfer heat, burning the plutonium and other transuranic elements in the process producing clean, safe nuclear power, less waste and increasing non-proliferation goals.
This makes the Hindenberg look like a cap gun.
Liquid Sodium explodes on contact with air.
Not much of a surprise.
Considering the American record on nuclear power, the terms over budget and behind schedule come to mind, the negotiations between France and India on nuclear power should come as no surprise.
They will get the job done right, and given the direct involvement of the French government, if the contractors screw up, they won’t go running to the government to get their money, as a number of US plants built in India have (IIRC one tied to Enron).
So, Bush’s agreement with India probably won’t generate a whole bunch of business for US companies, and it makes us less safe too…lovely.
According to CNN’s report, she was bombed and shot:
Video of the scene just moments before the explosion showed Bhutto stepping into a heavily-guarded vehicle to leave the rally.
Khan said while it appeared Bhutto was shot, it was unclear if her bullet wounds were caused by a shooting or shrapnel from the bomb.
You don’t get bullet wounds from a bomb.
Shot and bombed, and this is a government teetering on the brink of anarchy with nuclear weapons.
good. A new nuclear warhead is the last thing we need right now.
This program is not about need, but about another attempt of the Bush Admin to encumber his successor with a program and the attendant policies.
We now have reports that India is accelerating production of its nuclear capable 3500 km range Agni-III missile.
Additionally, it’s working on a 6000km range missile, and if it can miniaturize its warheads, it can probably get at least 20% more range.
3500 km puts Beijing firmly in range, so we have the makings of an arms race, and Bush wants to sell them nuclear technology.
Just grand.
The NAS is calling for a move slow approach on the Bush administration’s Global Nuclear Energy Partnership (GNEP) Program, which among other things, calls for civilian nuclear power to move wholesale into a Plutonium economy, with the US reprocessing spent fuel, and reactors to burn the extracted Plutonium.
Their arguments are not about the potential safety and terrorism issues of a Plutonium economy, but rather that this program is insufficiently mature, and that funds should go toward getting new, more conventional, commercial plants online in the US, so they are not anti-nuke by inclination.
To quote the NAS press release, “The research and development component of the U.S. Department of Energy’s Global Nuclear Energy Partnership (GNEP), a program that aims to reprocess spent nuclear fuel which could then be shared with partner countries, should not go forward at its current pace, says a new report from the National Research Council. DOE’s Office of Nuclear Energy, of which GNEP is a part, should instead assign the highest priority to facilitating the startup of new commercial nuclear power plants, a program that is currently falling behind schedule due to funding gaps.”
What is going on here is that be is doing everything in its power to make sure that nuclear power plants are a fact on the ground before they leave office out of ideological fervor, not a realistic assessment of the technology.