No nuclear "renaissance;" just resuscitation

The US Energy Information Administration's Annual Energy Outlook, 2013 takes a look at the future of nuclear energy in the US, with graphs showing that a continued role in the US electricity market is dependent on extending current 40-year operation licenses out to 60 years. The practice of propping up old reactors well into their geriatric years - where safety becomes ever more compromised - has been routinely adopted by the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission. But new construction, even if projects at Vogtle,  Summer and Watts Bar reach completion, will make only a small contribution, just 5.5 GW of new capacity. Renewable energy is expected to add 104 GW of new capacity by 2040.

The report also notes that "Key drivers include changes in the price of natural gas as well as the possible future operation of existing nuclear power plants beyond the 60-year period for which most units are currently licensed." With nuclear construction costs high and natural gas prices low, new nuclear construction is unattractive. More.

Japan should pull the plug on reprocessing: editorial

Now that the Nuclear Regulation Authority (NRA) - Japan's equivalent to the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission - has put a hold on starting up the Rokkasho reprocessing plant (pictured), the Asahi Shimbun, a leading Japan daily newspaper, has called in an editorial for a cancellation of the project. The NRA will not allow pre-operational tests at the plant until new safety standards are in place. The Asahi Shimbun wisely opines: "We need to face the fact that the government’s program to establish a nuclear fuel recycling system is as good as dead. If the plant starts operating, the plutonium it churns out will pile up with no definite plan to use it. The situation could spark concerns within the international community that Japan’s nuclear power generation might contribute to nuclear proliferation."

An additional reason to abandon the reprocessing plan is that "the project to develop fast breeder reactors, which are supposed to play a central role in the recycling system, has been stalled for years due to a series of problems at the Monju fast breeder prototype reactor in Tsuruga, Fukui Prefecture. There is little prospect for commercialization of the technology."

Groups like Green Action have been fighting for years to prevent the start-up of Rokkasho. Victory now looks a step closer.

Ex-NRC Chair calls for phase out of aging US reactor fleet; suggests new “more distributed” mini-nuke replacements

Gregory Jaczko, a former chairman of the United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission, recently grabbed news headlines when he called for the “phase out” of all 103 reactors with operating licenses in the United States. His candid remarks came prior and during a session on the Fukushima nuclear catastrophe at the April 8-9, 2013 Carnegie International Nuclear Policy Conference in Washington, DC.  When asked why he had not considered such action while Commission Chairman, Jaczko offered “I didn’t come to it until recently.” He realized that all of the nuclear power plants in the US have a “fundamental design problem” even when the reactor cores are shut down a tremendous amount of residual heat must be cooled to prevent them from melting down and releasing catastrophic amounts of radioactivity.  Jaczko cited a short list of nuclear accidents including Three Mile Island, Chernobyl and Fukushima where industry and regulators are “always chasing the previous problem” and an approach of “Band-Aid on Band-Aid” cannot eliminate this “fundamental design challenge.” Jaczko had earlier told one news source, “  The next accident is going to be something no one predicted.”

However, Jaczko says that perhaps “the solution” would be to design and build a replacement fleet of “more distributed” smaller modular reactors with “low energy density.” Such designs might be safer he argues if that residual heat generated following the shut down the nuclear reaction could not push the reactor core temperature to the melting point and an uncontrolled nuclear accident. 

Typically, as here, “solutions” are offered piecemeal without addressing the myriad of other routine and unresolved hazards that would still be emanating from your local mini-nuclear waste factory. 

More broadly and still unaddressed is the overarching issue of the industry’s “Nuclear Regulatory Capture" of the agency. All things considered, the nuclear industry forced Chairman Jaczko’s resignation in May 2012 for not sufficiently facilitating their financial and expansion agenda. To Jaczko’s credit, a number of his pursuits, decisions and actions as Chair were decidedly in the interest of the public health and safety at industry expense and image. His executive decision to advise the US State Department on the immediate evacuation of all US nationals in Japan within 50 miles of the Fukushima accident became an industry tipping point and fueled a witch hunt for his ouster.

You can support Mr. Jazcko's call to start closing dangerous nukes by signing the Beyond Nuclear petition to revoke the NRC operating licenses for Fukushima-style reactors here in the United States.

NEWS: On Fukushima Day, another door slams on U.S nuclear expansion

NEWS FROM BEYOND NUCLEAR  

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:  Monday, March 11, 2013

CONTACT: Paul Gunter, Beyond Nuclear, 301-523-0201 (mobile); 301.270.2209 (o)

On Fukushima Day, another door slams shut on US nuclear expansion plans

Beyond Nuclear lauds decision not to green light third Maryland reactor

Takoma Park, MD — On a day when thousands around the world are protesting nuclear power to mark two years since the deadly Fukushima nuclear accident began in Japan, another door has slammed shut on nuclear expansion plans in the US.

Beyond Nuclear hailed Monday’s decision by the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) to deny an appeal by UniStar, wholly owned by French utility, Électricité de France (EdF), for a third reactor at the Calvert Cliffs nuclear power plant site on the Chesapeake Bay in Maryland.

“Électricité de France sank into the financial quicksand that is new reactor construction,”  said Paul Gunter, Director of the Reactor Oversight Project at Beyond Nuclear, an environmental advocacy group based in Takoma Park, MD. “US nuclear corporations are clearly unwilling to join EdF in nuclear energy’s economic quagmire, a pattern that has been only too evident at EdF’s other reactor projects in Europe.”

EdF had hoped to build an Evolutionary Power Reactor (EPR), a French Areva design originally targeted for six US nuclear sites. But the EPR, a new, untested design, already has a lamentable history in Europe. 

The EPR reactors under construction in Flamanville, France and Olkiluoto, Finland, are years behind schedule and enormously over-budget and the design has been challenged by safety authorities in France, Finland and Britain. Olkiluoto may now not be operational until 2016 — four years later than the original target date — and its price has more than doubled, soaring to $10 billion. Flamanville’s original budget has tripled. EdF’s UK reactor plans have been marked by the departure of a series of business partners.

“This decision could not be more timely, coming on the second anniversary of the Fukushima nuclear accident and on the heels of the recent decision of the Maryland State Legislature to adopt and invest in the development of offshore wind energy,” Gunter added. 

The NRC Order denied the EdF appeal on two grounds: on the agency’s policy  regarding foreign ownership, which is based on longstanding language in the Atomic Energy Act (AEA), which prohibits foreign ownership and control of US nuclear reactors; and that the applicants “continue to look for a U.S. partner, and have not amended their application.”

The applicant for a third Calvert Cliffs reactor was in trouble as soon as EdF’s US partner, Constellation Energy, withdrew. On August 30 2012, the NRC had given UniStar 60 more days to comply with the Atomic Energy Act (AEA) in order to be granted a license for a third reactor at Calvert Cliffs. 

After the 60 days expired, the NRC put the application on indefinite review. But when no US company stepped up to partner with EdF on the project, the NRC opted on Monday to deny the appeal. EdF could continue to search for a US partner but would need to start a new application for the Calvert Cliffs site.

“The nuclear retreat continues unabated,” Gunter pointed out. “Everywhere you look, new nuclear projects are either being canceled, or are encountering cost over-runs, and aging reactors are failing and permanently closing.” Gunter noted Duke Energy’s permanent closure of Florida’s Crystal River nuclear station and the Dominion Energy announcement of the permanent closure of Wisconsin’s Kewaunee nuclear station later this year.

In November 2008, three national safe energy groups — Beyond Nuclear, Nuclear Information & Resource Service, and Public Citizen — and the local citizens group Southern Maryland Citizen Alliance for Renewable Energy Solutions — formally petitioned the NRC licensing board for a hearing opposing the Calvert Cliffs 3 application. The joint petition included the contention that EdF, as the dominant owner of the third proposed reactor, was in violation of the Atomic Energy Act of 1954 as amended and NRC licensing regulations, which prohibit controlling foreign ownership of a US nuclear plant. 

To read the full NRC Order, see: http://www.beyondnuclear.org/storage/calvert-cliffs-cola/cc3_order_03112013_denying_petition-for-review.pdf

To view a compilation of the Nuclear Retreat, see: http://www.beyondnuclear.org/the-nuclear-retreat/

Update on March 14, 2013 by admin

Washington Post, March 11, 2013, “In U.S., nuclear energy loses momentum amid economic head winds, safety issues”

EDF's UK plans teetering on brink of collapse

EDF, the French nuclear utility hoping to build two new reactors at Hinkley Point in Somerset, UK, may pull out of the project if it can't get the sweetheart deal it wants from the British government. Despite its pro-nulcear stance, the British government has not agreed to reverse its policy against public subsidies for new nuclear plants. However, it has been in negotiation with EDF to work out an agreement that is in effect a thinly-veiled subsidy for EDF. The agreement would give investors a long-term guaranteed price for the electricity the EDF reactors would generate. When the market price for power is lower, the generators will receive a top-up subsidy, paid for through hikes on consumer bills. EDF is asking for a close to 100 pounds sterling (about $155) per megawatt hour.