53rd Carnival of Nuclear Energy Blogs
Cool Hand Nuke welcomes you to the 53rd Carnival of Nuclear Energy Blogs!
The Carnival, per Dan Yurman, is "a weekly round-up of the best blog posts from the leading U.S. nuclear bloggers. If you want to hear the voice of the nuclear renaissance, the Carnival of Nuclear Energy Blogs is where to find it.
Past editions have been hosted at NEI Nuclear Notes, Next Big Future, Atomic Insights, ANS Nuclear Cafe, Canadian Energy Issues, Yes Vermont Yankee, and of course here at Cool Hand Nuke, in addition to several other popular nuclear energy blogs.
If you have a pro-nuclear energy blog, and would like to host an edition of the carnival, please contact Brian Wang at Next Big Future to get on the rotation.
This is a great collaborative effort that deserves your support. Please post a Tweet, a Facebook entry, or a link on your Web site or blog to support the carnival."
Here at Cool Hand Nuke you'll see that, aside from Ger-mania, Fukushima's impact on the global nuclear industry has been minimal at best. The World needs energy, the World Needs Nuclear.
Forbes Clean Beta Advises "Forget Fukushima"
Instead of thinking only about Fukushima, the Forbes Clean Beta blog focused on a recently release Congressional Budget Office study on the cost effectiveness of additional classes of nuclear powered ships for the US Navy. That is not a bad thought, but it should be expanded to include nuclear powered commercial ships as a way to reduce the world's oil consumption, emissions of sulfur dioxide, and as a way to add a new competitive industry to the American economy.
"Will Natural Gas save us?"
This post reviews a recent report by geoscientist David Hughes titled, "Will Natural Gas Fuel America in the 21st Century?" Hughes does not simply offer the worst case scenario. He offers us the best case scenario from the EIA and analyzes it, demonstrating in the process that Natural Gas offers more hype than hope.
"Waste to power: beautiful concept, and demonstrably viable"
"The issue of used nuclear fuel is the most overblown pseudo problem in the history of hyperbole. Used fuel is being recycled in many countries, and should be recycled in North America. If it were, it would produce literally trillions of kilowatt hours of carbon-free electricity. Municipalities are only now recognizing the value of turning municipal waste into energy, and that's a good thing. It is time for national governments to recognize the value of used nuclear fuel, and to trust science and common sense instead of caving in to irrational fear mongering."
Act 160 and Local Liars: A review of the State's Role in the Entergy Lawsuit.
Act 160 is the famous law in Vermont that gives the Vermont legislature power to vote against Vermont Yankee and force the plant to shut down. This act is one of the basis for the Entergy lawsuit against the state of Vermont. In one of her most uncompromising posts, Meredith Angwin reviews what Governor Shumlin says about Entergy and Act 160 Shumlin claims Entergy never opposed Act 160 and is now, surprisingly, suing about something they supported. The facts are that while Act 160 was being considered, Entergy testified against it time and time again.
BRC and NRC Battle! What is Most Needed? Policy vs Know How
What was accomplished at the May 13th Blue Ribbon Commission on Nuclear Waste? I try to explain why so little of the six hour hearing was useful and go with the idea that committees sometimes need qualified people to deal with the issues specially when nuclear energy issues are the topic.
Failure to Launch
The Blue Ribbon Commission opts for conventional wisdom
A federal advisory committee on the future management of spent nuclear fuel has labored long to get it hands wrapped around the issue. This week the Blue Ribbon Commission on America's Nuclear Future (BRC) issued a series of draft recommendations.
While some of them document obvious choices, others indicate a disheartening lack of imagination and vision. In fact, the BRC has taken a sharp turn into the prevailing seas of conventional wisdom. There is no exploration of new lands here.
Some ideas from the BRC for management of spent fuel are obvious, but the BRC’s reluctance to address fuel reprocessing to the agenda seems inexplicable except when seen in the light of a series of influential reports on nuclear energy from MIT.
The BRC has missed a major opportunity to launch a solution with vision, incentives for progress, and a path for global technology leadership. The current recommendations are drafts. Will the BRC be willing to think about vision instead of status quo in its final report?
Advice to the Blue Ribbon Commission
Some of North America’s leading nuclear energy bloggers comment on the solutions for used nuclear fuel recently proposed by the Obama Administration’s Blue Ribbon Commission on America's Energy Future - and they provide some of their own independent recommendations as well.
1) http://nextbigfuture.com/2011/05/status-of-nuclear-reactors-that-should.html
The Indian Prototype Fast Breeder Reactor (PFBR), under construction at Kalpakkam, near Chennai, is “a unique reactor” which does not require water for emergency cooling of its nuclear fuel core in the case of an accident, said Baldev Raj, Director, Indira Gandhi Centre for Atomic Research (IGCAR) at Kalpakkam. The 500 MWe PFBR will be commissioned in 2012. The project is running several months behind a previously scheduled Sept, 2011 start date.
India has 6 more 500 MW breeders queued up after this one and then will shift to 1200 MWe breeders.
Russia
In 2010 AKME-Engineering contracted with Atomenergoproekt to design the pilot SVBR-100 (factory mass produced breeder reactor), with the IPPE. Construction is scheduled to take 42 months, from 2013.
Beloyarsk 4 880 MWe breeder should complete in 2014.
China has bought two of the BN-800 breeders.
China has its own breeder program
China has funded a thorium molten salt reactor program from the China Academy of science. The academy of science has a $3 billion a year budget and growing. The Thorium MSR is one of several projects of the academy
2) http://nextbigfuture.com/2011/04/china-academy-of-science-annual-budget.html
Currently working fast neutron reactors
BN600 working in russia for over 25 years and will keep operating until the BN-800 is done
Monju 280 MW is back again since mid-2010
China has a 20MW fast breeder
India has a small test fast breeder too.
3) http://nextbigfuture.com/2011/05/cost-effectiveness-of-more-nuclear.html
Congressional budget office analyses the cost effectiveness of nuclear powered destroyers, amphibious assault ships and amphibious dock landing ships. Makes the case for 30-60 more nuclear powered ships over the next 4 decades.
4) http://nextbigfuture.com/2011/05/china-will-export-nuclear-reactors-to.html
China will export reactors to Pakistan (already finished one), Malaysia, Singapore, Vietnam and more countries. China is also starting up two uranium mines that will produce about 1000-2000 tons per year.
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