NRC schedules to meet over an incident at NFS

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has scheduled a public meeting in Erwin on Tuesday to discuss the results of a review of an October incident at Nuclear Fuel Services Inc. The meeting has now been moved to Unicoi High School because of the expected crowd and is scheduled at 6 p.m.

Nitrogen compound gas fumes were released within the plant Oct. 13 as a result of a chemical reaction during the dissolution of scrap material. There have been no reports of injuries.

In January, NFS agreed to suspend operation of all process lines at the facility. According to The Greeneville Sun, regulators said the plant also agreed to re-evaluate safety.

NFS processes nuclear fuel for the country’s nuclear-powered submarines and aircraft carriers. It also converts government stockpiles of highly enriched uranium into material suitable for further processing into commercial nuclear reactor fuel.

Source: The Associated Press

Bulgarian nuke plans pushes foward as Russia steps in to fund the project

Russia agreed Friday to put up to euro1.9 billion ($2.6 billion) for the construction of a stalled nuclear plant project in Bulgaria until a strategic investor is chosen and held out the possibility of taking a stake in the project.

Sergei Kiriyenko, CEO of the Russian state nuclear corporation Rosatom, said after talks with Bulgarian officials that Russia would lend up to euro400 million ($540 million) this year and a further euro1.5 billion ($2.06 billion) in 2011 to keep the 2,000-megawatt project at Belene going.

“Freezing it now will be expensive as most of the equipment has already been produced and a lot has been invested to build the foundation of the plant,” Kiriyenko told reporters. He added that Russia can if necessary take a stake.

“Part of the money will be invested on a temporary basis and the future investor will pay them back. The other part we are ready to invest in a stake, the volume of which is up to the Bulgarian government to decide,” Kiriyenko said.

Construction of Bulgaria’s second nuclear power plant, with two 1,000 MW Russian-made reactors, has been frozen for lack of funding.

Last year, Germany’s RWE AG, selected as a strategic partner in a 49-51 joint venture with the National Electric Company to build and operate the facility, withdrew from the project.

Bulgaria already operates a 2000-megawatt nuclear power plant in Kozlodui.

Source: The Associated Press

Vermont Senate votes against plant licence extension

The Vermont Senate has voted against the extension of the operating licence of the US state’s only nuclear power plant – Entergy’s Vermont Yankee plant – for a further 20 years beyond 2012.

Vermont Yankee – heading for 2012 shut down? (Image: NRC)

The Vermont Yankee plant, comprising a single 600 MWe boiling water reactor (BWR), began operating in November 1972. Its operating licence is due to expire on 21 March 2012, but in January 2006 Entergy submitted an application to the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) to extend the licence by 20 years to March 2032. The application is currently being reviewed by the applicable regulatory agencies.

Safety-related issues at nuclear power plants are normally handled by the NRC, but the state of Vermont negotiated a role for itself in 2006 as a condition for allowing Entergy to store used fuel in dry casks on-site at Vermont Yankee after the plant’s used fuel storage pool filled up. Vermont is the only US state with a law giving its legislature a say over a nuclear power plant’s relicensing.

The Vermont Senate voted by four in favour and 26 against the extended operation of the Vermont Yankee plant, which supplies around one-third of the state’s electricity. Their reasons for voting against renewing the plant’s operating licence included safety concerns, as well as worries that electricity prices in the state could be higher and more volatile if Entergy continues operating the reactor.

However, the vote may not be final. Vermont lawmakers could vote on the issue again in 2011 – after the November elections – and reverse the decision. Entergy could also seek to override the decision.

In a statement, Entergy said: “The effort to win a 20-year renewal of Vermont Yankee’s operating licence is far from over. We remain determined to prove our case to the legislature, state officials and the Vermont public.”

Entergy plans to spin-off six nuclear power reactors, including Vermont Yankee, into the USA’s first stand-alone nuclear power company, to be called Enexus Energy Corp.

Tritium leak

The discovery last month of increased levels of tritium, a radioactive isotope of hydrogen, in test wells at the Vermont Yankee site has fuelled opposition to the plant. The safety concerns have been coupled with accusations that Entergy misled state officials on the existence of underground piping potentially causing the leak.

Entergy has told the Vermont Attorney General that an internal investigation found its employees did not intentionally mislead state officials, but statements of workers “led to misunderstanding and, taken out of that context, the responses were incomplete and misleading.” The company added that it has placed five senior employees on administrative leave and reprimanded six other managers, including Michael Colomb, the vice president of the Vermont Yankee site.

Colomb said in a statement, “While there was no intentional wrongdoing, it is not consistent with our expectations at Vermont Yankee or in the nuclear industry, nor is it consistent with our values at Entergy.”

The NRC has said that it will issue a demand for information (DFI) to Entergy to determine what, if any, regulatory actions are necessary regarding the Vermont Yankee plant. NRC chairman Gregory Jaczko said, “Senior [NRC] personnel will soon arrive at Vermont Yankee to verify assertions and information that Entergy has provided regarding its recent licensing activities.”

Source: World Nuclear News

AECL restructuring update

The control room at the Atomic Energy Canada Limited nuclear facility at Chalk River, Ont. The aging facility has been shut down for repairs since May and is not scheduled to start again until late April 2010.(Chris Wattie/Reuters)

Canada’s federal natural resources minister says plans to restructure Atomic Energy of Canada Ltd. are well underway, but he declined to say when a decision might be made on the sale of its reactor division.

The federal government invited companies in December to signal their interest in whether or not they would consider buying into AECL’s Candu reactor division.

The government said the decision to open the reactor business up to investors was an attempt to strengthen its global reach and reduce the financial risks for taxpayers.

Speaking in Ottawa at the opening of the Canadian Nuclear Association’s annual meeting, Christian Paradis said there was pressure to move quickly, and he promised to provide the Crown corporation with a clear plan.

Paradis said the signal he is getting from stakeholders is that “we have to make some certainty for the taxpayers … [and] for the industry as well.”

AECL chief executive Hugh MacDiarmid was scheduled to speak at the nuclear conference Thursday morning.

Scientists and engineers at AECL have urged the government to exercise caution when privatizing parts of the Crown corporation, with Society of Professional Engineers and Associates urging at least some government control.

The move to encourage private investment has drawn the ire of opposition parties, who worry the government is prepared to hold a fire sale of AECL’s assets while its value is low.

The other issue plaguing AECL is the shutdown of the aging reactor at Chalk River, Ont., which produced one third of the world’s medical isotopes until it was shut down last May after it was found to be leaking radioactive water.

AECL has said the repairs won’t be completed until the end of April.

Source: CBC News

Chalk River reactor restart may be delayed

Atomic Energy of Canada Ltd. warned Wednesday that the shutdown of its nuclear reactor in Chalk River, Ont., may have to be extended to complete repairs that began in December.

The National Research Universal reactor, which went into service in 1957, is the world’s oldest working nuclear reactor. The medical isotopes it produces help 20 million people each year in 80 countries around the world.

Nuclear medicine specialists in Canada and the United States have been scrambling to find alternative sources of isotopes since AECL shut the reactor on May 14, after a leak of radioactive water was detected.

In the summer, AECL said the reactor would be off-line until last fall. It then pushed the startup date back to the first quarter of this year.

Most recently, it had been hopeful of starting up the reactor sometime in April.

On Wednesday, the Crown corporation issued a statement saying the reactor’s “earliest return to service is the end of April. Technical challenges with the repair sequence . . . continue to pose risk of schedule slippage.”

The repair process began on Dec. 12 at the Chalk River Laboratories, 180 kilometres northwest of Ottawa.

AECL said 43 per cent of the repair activities and associated post-repair examinations have been completed.

But the repair team has run into some challenging technical and engineering problems.

Source: Canwest News Services

NRC investigates Calvert Cliffs’ unscheduled shutdown

Federal inspectors are at Calvert Cliffs nuclear power plant this week to investigate an unexpected shutdown of both reactors last week, which a plant spokesman said apparently was triggered by melting snow leaking through the plant’s roof.

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission sent a five-member “special inspection team” Monday to the 1,750-megawatt plant near Lusby in Calvert County, which is owned by Constellation Energy. It’s expected to remain there all week, NRC spokeswoman Diane Screnci said.

“There was never any danger,” the NRC spokeswoman said, “but we want a better understanding of why it happened and what steps they’re taking to prevent a recurrence.”

Both of the plant’s nuclear reactors shut down automatically Thursday morning as a result of electrical malfunctions, evidently triggered by “a small roof leak” of melting snow, according to David Fitz, spokesman for Constellation Energy Nuclear Group, a subsidiary of the Baltimore-based power company.

Snow melt “trickled down onto an electrical breaker,” Fitz said, which caused an “electrical fault” and loss of power to one reactor. The electrical problem on one reactor caused the other to shut down.

Their reactor coolant pumps were activated, but there was a loss of power to safety systems, according to an NRC news release. Diesel generators kept at the ready to provide backup power did start up, but one generator supplying power to Unit 2 shut down. Workers were able to tie in another power source and return power to the unit and its safety equipment, the NRC said.

Both reactors remain shut down this week, though the plant spokesman said Unit 1 was scheduled to be taken off line for refueling about now anyway. Workers are fixing the roof leak and repairing the damaged breaker relay, he said, but will also use the down time to perform other maintenance on Unit 2 before it is restarted. He declined to predict when either reactor would begin generating power again.

“We will make sure everything is electrically right before we bring everything back up,” he said.

Source: The Baltimore Sun

Reality check for Obama’s nuclear plans as Vermont plant faces shutdown

Vermont would be the first state to close a nuclear reactor after 38-year-old Yankee’s history of leaking cancer-causing tritium

The Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant on the Connecticut river, Vermont. Photograph: Michael Springer/Getty Images

Barack Obama’s new dream of a nuclear renaissance faces a major reality check tomorrow when the state of Vermont is expected to shut down an ageing nuclear reactor with a history of leaks.

It would be the first time a state has moved to shut down such a reactor, and follows Obama’s announcement last week of $8.3bn (£5.4bn) in loan guarantees for the construction of two new reactors in Georgia. White House officials said the money would help spur a burst of new construction – the first since the Three Mile Island meltdown.

The Vermont Yankee, one of America’s oldest reactors, has had several leaks of radioactive tritium dating back to 2005, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission said yesterday.

The state senate is set to deny a request to extend its 40-year life span by an additional 20 years condemning the plant to close in 2012, said Peter Shumlin, the highest ranking member of the Vermont senate.

“It is not in Vermont’s best interest to run this plant beyond its scheduled closing date in 2012. It is falling apart,” said Shumlin. The 30-member senate, which is controlled by Democrats, is due to vote tomorrow morning.

The battle over the so-called Vermont Yankee reactor has attracted an increasingly national audience amid growing disaffection among liberals and environmentalists with Obama’s support for the nuclear industry.

Shumlin and other opponents of the plant argue that America has yet to plan for the safe retirement of its existing 104 reactors, which are beginning to approach the end of their original life spans. Some 27 of those reactors have had leaks of tritium, according to the nuclear regulatory commission.

“The debate here isn’t whether or not we build new nuclear power plants. The question for America is how can we be so irresponsible and so negligent in expecting our old tired plants to run past their scheduled closing dates,” Shumlin said.

The 38-year-old Vermont Yankee plant, which is owned by the New Orleans based Entergy Corp, is among the first of that older generation of reactors, and over the last few years has sustained a series of accidents and leaks.

A cooling tower collapsed in 2007 and again in 2008. In 2009, the plant had three separate leaks of radioactive tritium, which has been linked to cancer. An investigation later established that the plant’s owners had lied about the extent of contamination to the local water supply, claiming the facility did not have underground pipes that could carry tritium when it did.

In a statement to the Associated Press, the company said it was committed to safe operations. “Our focus has always been safely, securely and reliably operating our power plants. We take any concerns about the safe operation of our facilities very seriously and therefore finding the source of tritium in Vermont and correcting it is a top priority for our company,” Entergy spokesman Mike Burns said in an email.

Arnie Gundersen, a former industry engineer turned nuclear watchdog, said such leaks were indicators that the Vermont Yankee was nearing the end of its life span. “It seems like the plants that came on line before the Three Mile Island accident in the 1970s are predominantly the ones that are spring the leaks,” he said. “In the case of the Vermont Yankee the problems of an ageing reactor were compounded by the pressures of trying to generate a 20% increase in power. Nobody else has ever tried for a power increase of 20%.”

Vermont has a reputation for environmental awareness – and for independence. The state has sent a socialist to the US Senate. However, the plant is a major source of employment, with jobs for about 600.

But recent revelations about the leaks have consolidated public opinion in the state against the reactor. Last week, two conservation groups called for a criminal investigation into nuclear plant officials for misleading state officials when they testified under oath that the plant did not have the kind of underground pipes that carry tritium.

On Sunday, the Burlington Free Press, the largest paper in the state, said it was time for the plant to go.

“Events such as a radioactive leak unresolved more than six weeks after it was first revealed to the public and misinformation provided by Entergy officials under oath raise serious questions about whether Vermont Yankee serves Vermont’s long-term interests,” the editorial said.

Elsewhere, activists are hoping that the showdown over the Vermont Yankee will help mobilise protests against other reactors when their licences come up for review. Unlike in Vermont, however, most states require only that the federal government’s nuclear regulatory commission sign off on extending the life of reactors.

But James Moore of the Vermont Public Interest Research Group said he detected signs of a backlash against both the ageing reactors and Obama’s plans for the birth of a third generation of nuclear plants. “A lot of folks on the left and right are waking up to the reality that it is a bad idea to give hard earned tax dollars to a new generation of reactors when we can’t manage the old reactors,” he said.

Source: Guardian.co.uk

Monju reactor gearing up for a restart after long shut down

The Monju prototype fast reactor (FBR) in Japan has completed a government-mandated procedure to ensure the reactor is safe to restart following a sodium coolant leak which forced it out of action almost 15 years ago. It could restart as early as next month.

Monju (Image: JAEA)

The final requirement in the procedure was cleared with a decision by the Cabinet Office’s Nuclear Safety Commission (NSC) to support the evaluation by the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry’s (METI’s) Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency (NISA) that Monju is safe to resume operation.

METI told the NSC on 15 February that it had determined that the Monju FBR was ready for safe operation. NSC announced on 22 February that it had now completed its assessment of METI’s evaluation and found it to be “reasonable.”

Japan Atomic Energy Agency (JAEA), which operates Monju, will now seek permission from the Fukui prefectural government and the municipal government of Tsuruga to restart the reactor. JAEA said that it hopes to restart the unit by the end of March. The FBR will operate on a trial basis for the first three years after it resumes operation.

However, according to the Daily Yomiuri newspaper, Monju’s restart could be delayed as “NISA and other related entities are still in the midst of procedures to confirm Monju’s earthquake resistance, which is one of the conditions imposed by local governments.”

The prototype fast reactor, which would produce more nuclear fuel than it consumes, is a key part of Japan’s national energy strategy and politicians have urged its speedy return. Nuclear reactors already provide 30% of Japanese electricity, and this is expected to grow beyond 40% into the middle of the century when fast reactors like Monju should be ready for widespread deployment. Mitsubishi Heavy Industries has been tasked with developing suitable designs, while Japan as a nation is cooperating in efforts like the Generation IV International Forum.

Monju started up in April 1994 and was meant to generate 280 MWe, but a leak of its liquid sodium coolant during performance tests put it out of action from December 1995.

Only Russia currently has fast reactors that provide power to the grid, the 560 MWe Beloyarsk 3 and a 12 MWe unit at Dimitrovgrad. Other nations that have used the design experimentally in the past include France, Germany, Kazakhstan, the UK and the USA. A further Beloyarsk fast reactor is under construction at the moment and should produce 880 MWe from 2014, while there are plans for a 1200 MWe unit to start at Beloyarsk in the 2020s.

Tsuruga 1 seeks life extension

Meanwhile, local governments have approved Japan Atomic Power Co’s (Japco’s) plan to continue operating Unit 1 of its Tsuruga nuclear power plant until March 2016, the Japan Times reported. “I have no hesitation in extending its operations if the reactor is safe,” said Kazuharu Kawase, mayor of Tsuruga.

Tsuruga 1 (Image: Japco)

The 341 MWE boiling water reactor (BWR), which began operating in March 1970, is Japan’s oldest commercial nuclear power reactor.

Should the Fukui prefectural government also approve the plan, Tsuruga 1 would be the country’s first power reactor to operate beyond 40 years. Eight other Japanese reactors will reach the 40-year milestone by 2015.

Japco announced a year ago that it planned to postpone the shutdown of Tsuruga 1 beyond the originally scheduled 2010 due to delays in the construction of two new units at the site. At the end of 2006, Japco announced that construction of the Tsuruga 3 and 4 reactors had been delayed by two years due a revision in construction regulations following the government’s new earthquake resistance guidelines. Construction of the two 1538 MWe advanced pressurized water reactors (APWRs) will now begin in October 2010, with commercial operation of unit 3 set to start in March 2016 and unit 4 in March 2017.

Source: World Nuclear News

Nuke power remains an option: DOE

Nuclear power generating plants remain a long-term option in solving the country’s energy supply problem, Energy Secretary Angelo Reyes yesterday said.

“The nuclear option for power generation should always be considered. A lot of countries in the region and all over the world are using nuclear energy. France is dependent to an extent of 80 percent. It is exporting the nuclear option,” he said.

“We should maintain a healthy open mind toward nuclear power,” he added.

Reyes said nuclear power is a cheap source of electricity. Taiwan, Korea, Japan are using it, and there is no reason why the Philippine should shun it.

National Power Corp. (Napocor) president Froilan Tampinco earlier said a feasibility study conducted by the Korean Electric Power Corp. has estimated that around $1 billion is needed to rehabilitate the mothballed Bataan nuclear power plant.

Tampinco said Napocor is likely to come up with an assessment of the proposed rehabilitation in March.

Source: Malaya Business Insight

Nuclear workers could wait 4 months to get radiation test results

It could take more than four months for nearly 200 workers to learn whether they were overexposed to a dangerous form of radioactivity at the Bruce nuclear power station late last year.

The Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission learned early last month that a routine survey on Nov. 26 had picked up an unusual level of “alpha” particles in the air in Unit 1 at the Bruce A station on the shore of Lake Huron.

Another survey two days later caught another uptick in alpha particles, which have been linked to cancer if inhaled, ingested or absorbed through cuts in the skin.

Operating company Bruce Power has identified 195 workers who are at risk of having received dangerous doses of alpha contamination while refurbishing a reactor, down from an earlier estimate of 217 workers. Their urine will be tested for the particles.

Chalk River Laboratories, run by Atomic Energy of Canada Ltd., is the only laboratory in Canada capable of doing the necessary tests, and it can only handle about 10 to 15 samples a week.

The analysis is also time-consuming. It takes about four weeks to deliver the result to the worker. So far, Bruce Power has received only 14 results from the initial 19 workers whom officials thought were at the highest risk. It will likely take another 18 weeks before all of the affected workers receive their results.

Bruce Power says the first set of results shows no one received a dose higher than the regulatory limit. It has installed scanners to monitor alpha contamination on individual workers and is now testing specifically for alpha particles.

Source: The Star

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