Scientists monitoring the spread of radiation in the ocean from the Fukushima nuclear accident report finding an increased number of sites off the US West Coast showing signs of contamination Continue Reading
Humanity will wait 10 years for a major trial of a different form of nuclear energy regarded as a game changer in the centuries ahead. So far man-made nuclear energy has involved fission, the release of energy with the splitting of atoms of uranium and plutonium. However in southern France, 35 nations including the US, Russia, Korea, Japan, China, European Union countries and India have been collaborating for 30 years to replicate on earth how energy is produced by the sun. The process is called nuclear fusion and it’s one of the most futuristic projects in the world. Instead of using heavy elements such as uranium, nuclear fusion involves taking common isotopes of hydrogen, the lightest element in the chemistry periodic table, and fusing them together. The reaction involves hydrogen isotopes, deuterium and tritium, fusing into heavier helium atoms, releasing enormous amounts of energy in the process. But replicating […]
TOKYO (AP) — The operator of Japan’s fuel reprocessing plant said Monday that it was postponing the plant’s opening to as late as September 2018, citing regulators’ lengthy inspection procedures and time needed for safety upgrades. The Japan Nuclear Fuel Ltd. said it was delaying the targeted completion of the Rokkasho reprocessing plant, which separates plutonium from spent fuel for reuse as fuel, by as much as 2 1/2 years. The delay-plagued plant, initially set for launch in 2000, was most recently set to open in March 2016 following a series of technical problems. JNFL president Kenji Kudo told reporters at the company’s headquarters in Aomori, in northern Japan, that a separate plant to produce plutonium-based fuel had been delayed until sometime during the first half of fiscal 2019. Japan already has about 47 tons of plutonium – 11 tons at home and the rest reprocessed in Britain and […]
For the first time in almost 20 years, federal regulators have given a new nuclear power plant a license to begin generating electricity. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission gave the go-ahead Continue Reading
The New Orleans-based company, which owns utilities in Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas, and sells power on the wholesale market, has been pressured by low U.S. natural-gas prices that have pushed wholesale power prices lower. In its news release Tuesday, Entergy said the exact timing, which depends on several factors, including discussions with regulators, would be decided during the first half of next year. Entergy said current and forecast power prices have fallen about $10 per megawatt hour, representing an annual loss of more than $40 million in revenue for the Pilgrim plant, located in Plymouth, Mass. The plant had been expected to post net operating losses ranging from roughly $10 million to $30 million for this year, next year and 2017—before accounting for additional costs related to the decision to close the plant and any potential write-downs. Once the plant is shut down, Pilgrim will transition to decommissioning. […]
The energy source has been long on promise and short on reality. Now private companies think they can succeed where the government has failed. For more than half a century governments around the world have been trying to solve the challenge of nuclear fusion. In theory it could provide a cheap, clean, and almost boundless source of energy. Consider this: One tablespoon of liquid hydrogen fuel—a mix of deuterium and tritium—would produce the same energy as 28 tons of coal. But smashing two hydrogen atoms together at 100 million degrees centigrade to create a fusion reaction has proved to be a costly and elusive endeavor. The ITER international project in France has been plagued by cost overruns—the original 5-billion-euro project is now budgeted at 13 billion euros (about $15 billion)—and its 23,000-ton Tokamak experimental reactor, three times heavier than the Eiffel Tower, is still many years from completion. In […]
The greatest fusion reactor in our neighborhood sends energy free for the harvesting from about 8 light-minutes away, where it safely burns and flares without any help at all from the small, blue marble that orbits it once a year. But expansion of photovoltaic technologies to capture that solar power has had a hard time competing against the big boys of power: petroleum, coal, and nuclear reactors. It’s no wonder scientists and engineers continue to pursue the dream of harnessing nuclear fusion here on Earth. A “ small, modular, efficient fusion plant ” designed by a team at MIT promises new hope for growth in the fusion industry. Equipment of similar scale and complexity has been constructed in “within about five years” the team notes. By comparison, August 4th marked the fifth anniversary of breaking ground on the world’s biggest nuclear fusion reactor project, the ITER* project. So far, […]
Protesters take part in a rally outside Kyushu Electric Power Co.’s Sendai nuclear power plant in Satsumasendai, Kagoshima prefecture, Japan on Aug. 9, 2015. Source: Jiji Press/AFP/Getty Images Japan is rejoining the group of nations using atomic power as it sweeps aside public opposition and fires up one of the reactors shuttered for safety upgrades after the Fukushima nuclear disaster more than four years ago. Kyushu Electric Power Co. will begin bringing online the No. 1 reactor at its Sendai facility on Aug. 11, start power generation as early as Aug. 14 and return it to normal operations next month, the company said in a statement. Two of its reactors on Japan’s southern island of Kyushu are the first to pass tougher safety checks set by the Nuclear Regulation Authority, the agency created after the Fukushima disaster, and to overcome legal challenges. “The Sendai restart is obviously a very […]
Tokyo Electric Power Co. said it successfully removed the largest piece of debris from the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear-power plant’s Unit 3 reactor, which had fallen inside the spent-fuel pool following the 2011 earthquake and tsunami . According to Tepco, the company used two 600-ton cranes to lift the 20-ton fuel-handling machine , which was sitting on top of more than 500 fuel assemblies. While there were concerns that the procedure might damage the spent-fuel pool’s gates and reduce water levels, which could have heated up the radioactive fuel rods, Tepco said they experienced no trouble during the procedure. The lifting of the fuel-handling machine began at 11:55 a.m. on Sunday and ended at 1:18 p.m. A spokesman said that there was some fog in the area but that it didn’t affect the process. All other procedures at the nuclear power plant were halted while the debris was being removed. […]
Big black plastic bags containing radiated soil, leaves and debris from the decontamination operation are dumped at a seaside, devastated by the March 11, 2011 earthquake and tsunami in Tomioka town, Fukushima prefecture, near Tokyo Electric Power Co’s (TEPCO)… A Japanese citizens’ panel ruled on Friday that three former Tokyo Electric Power executives should be indicted over their handling of the 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster, Kyodo news agency said. Tokyo prosecutors in January rejected the rarely used panel’s judgment that the three should be indicted, citing insufficient evidence. But the 11 unidentified citizens on the panel forced the indictment after a second vote, which holds sway over the prosecutors’ decision. (Reporting by Osamu Tsukimori; Editing by Nick Macfie )
