Open Intelligence / Energy

Severe restrictions in mining of coal has led the world’s largest coal supplier, state-run Coal India Limited to rework its coal extraction targets from 460 million tonnes per annum to 452 million tonnes. Rajghat and Dadri, thermal power stations that supply power to India’s Capital are among the 27 plants with critical coal stock. There are 101 such power plants in the country has. ‘Critical’ is a stage where a coal based thermal power plant is left with barely seven days of coal stocks to fire its electricity producing turbines. The standard coal stock for any power plants ranges from 21 to 30 days.

“We have had similar situations in the past but this time around it is particularly grim as CIL has scaled down its coal production targets (to 452 million tons from 460 million tons which is seven per cent less than the original target) due to reasons varying from environmental clearances to the continuing debate over new mining areas to availability of railway wagons to transport coal,” a senior official in the ministry of power told TEHELKA.

Of the 27 power stations, all of which fall in the category of ‘major’ power plants two are in the Northern region, eight each in the western and southern region and nine plants are in the southern region of the country. All these power plants generate about 500 MWs of electricity per day.

TEPCO denies new leak at Fukushima plant, Asahi, July 1, 2011:

Radioactive tellurium-129m was detected for the first time in seawater near the water intake of the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant’s No. 1 reactor, Tokyo Electric Power Co., the plant operator, said June 29. Seven hundred and twenty becquerels of the substance was detected per liter of water collected on June 4. [...] Tellurium-129m has a short half-life of about 34 days. Its detection near the intake indicates the possibility of a new leak of radioactive water into the sea. [...]

The nuclear disaster in Japan caused Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu to declare last week that Israel will not build nuclear power plants.“I don’t think we are going to pursue civil nuclear energy in coming years,” said Netanyahu, asked by Piers Morgan on CNN whether the situation in Japan will affect plans to construct nuclear plants.

Also, there was the recent discovery of natural gas in the Mediterranean, he noted. “I think we’ll go for the gas and skip the nuclear.

It’s wonderful that Netanyahu is saying no to nuclear power. However, Israel could yet become “a light unto the nations” by implementing never-ending, carbon-free and completely safe energy: solar and wind energy – the vision of David Ben-Gurion. Israel is already at the cutting edge of solar energy.

The Australian Government is committed to strengthening occupational health and safety requirements for individuals working at uranium mining and milling sites. The Australian Government is committed to strengthening occupational health and safety requirements for individuals working at uranium mining and milling sites.

The Australian National Radiation Dose Register (ANRDR) was established in 2010 to collect, store, manage and disseminate records of radiation doses received by workers in the course of their employment in a centralised database. The ANRDR has been open to receive dose records from operators since 1 July 2010. The ANRDR was officially launched in June 2011 following full development of the Register, including a system for workers to be able to request their individual dose history record.

The ANRDR is maintained and managed by the Australian Radiation Protection and Nuclear Safety Agency (ARPANSA).

Ziggy Switkowski, former chair of ANSTO (Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation) and a proponent of nuclear power for Australia, claimed "the best place to be whenever there's an earthquake is at the perimeter of a nuclear plant because they are designed so well", and then quickly added: "On the other hand, you know, if the engineers do lose control of the core, then the answer becomes different."

Strident nuclear advocate Professor Barry Brook gave assurances in his running commentary that seemed ironically prescient of what was about to happen, stating ''I don't see the ramifications of this as damaging at all to nuclear power's prospects'' and that ''it will provide a great conversation starter for talking intelligently to people about nuclear safety''.

Other arguments trotted out by pro-nuclearists about how safe nuclear power is demonstrated their chutzpah more than their good judgment. My favourite: the justification for nuclear power is that it kills fewer people than the coal industry. Ignoring the false choice this proposition entails, what does it say about the safety culture of the nuclear industry when one of its selling points is that it kills fewer people than the competition?

A leading biophysicist has cast a critical light on the government’s reassurances that Americans were never at risk from Fukushima fallout, saying “we really don’t know for sure.”

When radioactive fallout from Japan’s nuclear disaster began appearing in the United States this spring, the Obama Administration’s open-data policy obligated the government to inform the public, in some detail, what was landing here.

Covering the story, I watched the government pursue what appeared to be two strategies to minimize public alarm:

Japanese Nuclear Emergency Director: You Have No Right To A Radiation-Free Life, Gizmodo by Andrew Tarantola, July 26, 2011:

This footage, from a recent meeting of indignant Japanese citizens and feckless Japanese government types should be a little shocking. Sadly, it’s just more of the same – ineptitude and inaction. By denying the right to avoiding radiation? OK, shocking. [...] One Fukushima resident asks, “As other people do, people in Fukushima have the right to avoid the radiation exposure and live a healthy life, too. Don’t you think so?” A Nuclear Safety Commission Of Japan rep, when pushed to go beyond his canned non-answer, deadpans “I don’t know if they have that right.” The crowd reacts as you would expect when told they nuclear-threatened welfare isn’t a concern. [...]

Startling Revelations about Three Mile Island Disaster Raise Doubts Over Nuke Safety, Institute for Southern Studies by Sue Sturgis, April 3, 2009:

Event Notification Report for July 25, 2011, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission Operations Center:

Event Number: 47088Facility: FORT CALHOUNEvent Date: 07/22/2011Event Time: 08:30 [CDT]Emergency Class: NON EMERGENCY10 CFR Section: 50.72(b)(3)(ii)(B) – UNANALYZED CONDITION Event Text FIRE SUPRESSION PUMPS INOPERABLE “Both Fire Suppression Pumps are not operable because the required monthly surveillance tests will not be completed for June and July. The surveillance tests will be completed when flood waters recede to below 1004 feet MSL. The current river level is 1006.3 feet. Both fire pumps, FP-1A and FP-1B, are available and lined up for use. Other options are also available to provide a means of backup fire water supply that include: - Water Plant Pumps DW-8A and DW-8B aligned to the Fire Protection (FP) system.- Temporary connection to the fire protection water distribution system by the Fort Calhoun Fire Truck that is staged on site or any other fire pumper truck via fire hydrant FP-3G.- Admin Building/Training Center fire hydrant via fire hoses or water truck. This supply is from Blair water system and FP storage tank west of Highway 75.- Drafting from the Missouri River via temporary pumps.” The licensee notified the NRC Resident Inspector.

Representatives of member states of the Arab Atomic Energy Agency (AAEA) placed emphasis, on Sunday, on the need to attach utmost importance to the issue of safety of nuclear power stations, particularly following the disaster of Fukushima, Japan, this year.

Minister of Higher Education and Scientific Research Refaat Chaabouni told TAP news agency that the creation of a nuclear station to produce power in Tunisia is a political decision that Tunisia can take in light of results of a study conducted by the Tunisian Electricity and Gas Company (STEG) on the economic and technical viability of the said station by 2018.

He added that the disaster of Fukushima does not mean abandoning the use of nuclear energy for power production and its peaceful uses in Arab countries but should rather encourage countries to better control the “safety” aspect and strengthen human resources specialised in this area. Director General of the Arab Atomic Energy Agency Abdelmajid Mahjoub said the accident of Fukushima requires more work to control nuclear energy, preserve the environment and protect people, in collaboration with the International Atomic Energy Agency.

the nuclear program became the main subject of the first European tourney of Foreign Minister Ali Akber Salehi.

As part of the tourney, Salehi visited the capital of Slovenia Ljubljana and also Vienna, where he talked to his Austrian counterpart Michael Spindelegger and general director of the International Atomic Energy Agency Yukiya Amano. At the press conference in Ljubljana and Vienna, the head of the Iranian delegation made it clear that Iran is committed to the Nuclear Weapon Nonproliferation Treaty but will never yield its legal rights for implementation of the peaceful nuclear program

It is not a secret that most economic problems and deprivations of the population of the country are caused by sanctions against our state over the development of nuclear industry. The paradox is that we have already got used to the sanctions, which had been place against us for already 21 years.

Plant Status After a 6.2 magnitude earthquake struck offshore from Fukushima in the early hours of July 25, Tokyo Electric Power Co. reported there were no problems with any of the systems used to stabilize the reactors at Fukushima Daiichi and no injuries. TEPCO checked the systems for water and nitrogen injection into reactors 1, 2 and 3, the water treatment facility, and the used fuel pool cooling systems for reactors 2 and 3. The Japan Atomic Industry Forum said temperatures at the bottom of Fukushima Daiichi reactor 1 have remained below 100 degrees Celsius (212 Fahrenheit) for six consecutive days through July 24. TEPCO says it achieved the lowered temperature by raising the amount of water injected into the reactor. The company has begun implementing step 2 of its recovery plan for the reactors, which includes maintaining temperatures at the bottom of reactors 1, 2 and 3 below 100 degrees Celsius. The stable operation of the circulatory water injection system is crucial to achieving that goal. TEPCO said a faulty circuit breaker was the cause of a five-hour loss of electrical power to reactors 3 and 4 July 22. Power for contaminated water treatment and for the reactors’ used fuel pool cooling was eventually restored via an alternate source. TEPCO says there was no major increase in the temperature of the pools

The company is working to improve switching systems among external power supplies. Industry/Regulatory/Political Issues A July 28 public Nuclear Regulatory Commission meeting will focus on the agency’s near-term task force recommendations for safety enhancements at U.S. nuclear energy facilities after the Fukushima accident. International Atomic Energy Agency Director General Yukiya Amano today toured the Fukushima Daiichi site, where he met with TEPCO personnel and gave an interview on location describing his visit. Amano is to meet Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan and government ministers to discuss the outcomes of the June IAEA ministerial conference on nuclear safety. The Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency said it will take months to complete the first of two-stage “stress tests” it has ordered all Japanese nuclear power reactor operators to conduct before shutdown reactors can restart. NISA said it does not anticipate any of the 22 reactors that were halted for regular safety checks to resume operations this summer. The tests involve computer simulations of the reactors’ responses to emergencies such as earthquakes, tsunamis and loss of off-site power.

As TEPCO moves into the second stage of its recovery plan at Fukushima, the joint office it operates with the Japanese government to conduct and review its activities will be restructured. A new radiation and health management team will be established, and two other teams will be incorporated into a “medium-to-long term countermeasures” team. Media Highlights The New York Times editorialized on July 24 on the U.S. response to the Fukushima Daiichi accident. The opinion piece discussed steps taken by the nuclear energy industry and recommendations made by the NRC’s Fukushima-focused task force. Upcoming Events NEI will brief financial analysts in New [...] ...read more

The private notes of the head of a U.S. cultural center in Hiroshima revealed that Washington targeted the city's residents with pro-nuclear propaganda in the mid-1950s after deciding a swing in their opinions was vital to promoting the use of civil nuclear power in Japan and across the world. The organizers of a U.S.-backed exhibition that toured 11 major Japanese cities from November 1955 to September 1957 initially considered opening the first exhibition in Hiroshima.

According to the private papers of Abol Fazl Fotouhi, former president of the American Cultural Center in Hiroshima, the idea of choosing the city was proposed at a meeting of officials of the U.S. Information Service in December 1954.

The proposal was dropped because officials were worried that it would link nuclear energy too closely with nuclear bombs. Tokyo was chosen to open the tour and three other cities were visited before the exhibition opened at the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum, which commemorates the 1945 bombing, on May 27, 1956.

The conference is the 3rd Annual Nuclear Construction Summit and has already generated masses of interest from major utilities and key organisations in the USA and globally. The meeting comes at a truly critical time for the nuclear renaissance in North America.

Dave Frantz will join key representatives from the NRC, Duke, Dominion, Progress Energy, SCANA, OPG, Bruce Power, USEC, Areva NP, Westinghouse and many other key organisations in the nuclear industry. This year’s conference will discuss how companies can develop a strong nuclear strategy based on experience from key construction projects that mitigates risk and reduces project costs. The meeting promises to be the key construction meeting for the industry in 2011 with 300+ senior level executives involved in nuclear construction expected across the 3 days. Event organiser Nuclear Energy Insider stated “This conference has come at a hugely important time for the nuclear industry in North America. With knowledge-sharing from all of the key construction projects across the region, the meeting will be an essential platform to discuss best practice and ensure that the industry approaches future challenges head-on.”

For more information on the 3rd Annual Nuclear Construction Summit which is taking place in Charlotte, North Carolina on October 25-27 visit http://www.nuclearenergyinsider.com/nuclear-construction-summit

The Civil Liability for Nuclear Damage Bill now goes before the upper house, where it is expected to pass without a problem. Some private firms, especially in the US, have been reluctant to set up nuclear power plants in India without a law that would limit their liability. Parliamentarians agreed to set the compensation cap in the event of a nuclear accident at $320m. The BBC's Mark Dummet in Delhi says the bill has been criticised by left-wing parties who complained that companies should pay much more in compensation

They also said that foreign firms should not be involved in such an important industry.

South Korea's ambitions to enter the Indian energy market have received a big boost as the two countries signed a civil nuclear deal. The agreement will allow South Korea to export its nuclear energy technology to India. The deal comes at a time when India has been struggling to keep up its energy supply to meet the increased demand in wake of its rapid expansion. South Korea is the ninth country to sign a nuclear deal with India.

On July 25, Entergy announced that it is ordering fuel for the Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant and will conduct the refueling in October. The state of Vermont has passed laws that supposedly give it the right to refuse to let Vermont Yankee operate past March 2012. Entergy’s decision to buy $60-million worth of fuel to be loaded in October was, therefore, no slam-dunk decision.

This saga has a long history. Entergy has sued Vermont, and part of its lawsuit was a request for an injunction against the state being allowed to shut down the plant while the suit was ongoing. The story then got complicated. Judge J. Garvan Murtha of the federal court in Brattleboro, Vt., denied the injunction. In his ruling, Murtha said that “Entergy has failed to show that any irreparable harm it may incur between now and a decision on the merits would be, or is likely to be, ameliorated by a preliminary injunction in the short time before this court decides Entergy’s claims.” He also moved up the date of the full hearing to September 12.

Murtha said many things that sounded like he had acknowledged Entergy’s having a good case. On the other hand, he also turned down the injunction. This gave commentators lots of room to comment! (There’s never a “slow news day” around this trial.) I commented and some professors at Vermont Law School commented.

Scientists have been producing nuclear fusion reactions from muon catalysed fusion for decades – just not consistently, or in sufficient volumes for it to be considered a viable energy source – until now. Star Scientific Limited is perfecting a world-first technique to economically produce pions, and hence muon catalysed fusion, in a CONTROLLED and SUSTAINED way. They are developing a method to efficiently and consistently produce pions (which immediately decay to become muons) in their hundreds and thousands, meaning the loss of some muons is of no consequence.

(H/T Talk Polywell) Energy input versus output is an issue with plasma fusion, not muon catalysed fusion. Plasma fusion consumes 18 times more energy than it produces. The Star Scientific system requires very little energy to run, which means 99% of the energy liberated by the fusion reaction is available for use.

They are claiming that they have a low energy input pion factory. If 100 times more heat is produced than the energy input, then the heat can be converted to electricity that is 30 times more than the input energy. Muon catalyzed fusion at wikipedia Stephen Horvath has been working on Muon catalyzed fusion for decades.

In Japan, Premier Kan’s call is already facing opposition from pro-nuclear energy companies and LDP Opposition politicians. With PM Kan’s low poll ratings, some suggest neither he nor the policy will last. Beyond the shadow of Fukushima, others across Asia must take into account a wider energy challenge. In the global financial crisis, worldwide energy consumption paused. But Asia continues to grow, despite the dour economic outlook in the US and Europe, and so does its energy needs. Some talk of a power shift to Asia, but what is most certain is that Asians need more power.

Yet supply has been hit by uncertainties in the Middle East

Asia is not well positioned in this. The regional economies need but mostly are not self-sufficient in energy. China and India have few domestic energy sources, other than to use pollutive and carbon-heavy coal. Imports from the Middle East remain critical but look to be increasingly risky and expensive.

Take NASA scientist James Hansen, who wrote (pdf) a public letter in June suggesting that the fate of the planet rests with the 1,700-mile Keystone XL project.

The climatologist said the proposal is a steppingstone to exploiting the entire oil sands region in Canada, where a vast amount of carbon dioxide sits underground in sand formations. Hansen asserted that its extraction would mean "game over" for the Earth when combined with emissions from coal. Canada holds the second-largest oil reserves in the world after Saudi Arabia.

, proponents of Keystone XL say that oil production in the Canadian region will continue no matter what, and that developers will find a way to transport the oil overseas if the United States declines to approve the pipeline.