Friday Update

From NEI’s Safety First web site:

Industry Proposes Integrated Approach on Post-Fukushima Activities

December 2, 2011

Industry/Regulatory/Political

• The industry on Dec. 1 urged the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission staff to consider an integrated and flexible approach toward meeting the NRC’s Fukushima task force recommendations, arguing that this approach would result in faster, more efficient implementation of the most safety-significant recommendations. The industry advocated enhancing the post-9/11 concept of using portable equipment to address loss of all AC power and loss of ultimate heat sink from a variety of natural phenomena. This enhanced mitigation action—called a “diverse and flexible mitigation capability”—could be supplemented by regional response centers that could provide additional hardware and equipment to further extend coping capability should there be a longer-term loss of power or cooling capability.
• Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO) today released its interim report on the March 11 accident at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear energy facility, based on data and interviews with more than 250 workers since June. The report describes how a larger-than-expected tsunami knocked out all safety systems and led to fuel damage and the release of radiation.

New Products

• A new employee profile on NEI’s Safety First website features Marty Wright, radiation protection senior engineer at the Diablo Canyon nuclear energy facility in California. Wright explains his daily duties, his work with state and federal agencies on monitoring, and initial monitoring results after the Fukushima accident.

Media Highlights

• The Wall Street Journal reports that TEPCO’s latest analysis confirms the March 11 tsunami triggered the accident at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear energy facility and that the plant met all earthquake safety standards. However, TEPCO acknowledged that many questions remain unanswered because continuing high radiation levels inside the facility, limiting extended access needed to complete a full assessment of the damage.

Google and Amazon–And Nuclear Power?

Does America Online still exist? Why, yes it does, though it seems to have changed its business model considerably – it isn’t supporting the CD-manufacturing industry all by itself anymore, for one thing. It also has an energy site, at which we learn:

The headlines should come somewhere between December and March 2012 when the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, if all goes as expected, will okay building up to four new nuclear reactors.
The licenses for two Westinghouse AP1000 reactors at Southern Co.'s Plant Vogtle in Georgia, followed quickly by two more at SCANA's Summer station in South Carolina, will be the first granted since the 1970s.

The story following is notably positive.

One plus for new nuclear is new jobs. Both the Vogtle and Summer sites will employ thousands of construction workers, as well as hundreds of operational personnel when the units start up 2016-19. Fertel said that, while the largest reactor components have to be forged overseas since no facilities exist in the US, most of the multi-billion dollar projects are sourced here.

And stays fairly positive even with a peek in from the Union of Concerned Scientists. Worth a read.
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While Vogtle and Summer will be the first new reactors in awhile, they won’t be the first new nuclear generation in North America:

Ontario nuclear power company Bruce Power said it had loaded the final uranium fuel bundle into the 750-megawatt Unit 1 at the Bruce A nuclear power plant in Ontario.

And this is the plan:

Bruce said in a release it expects to attach 750-MW Unit 2 to the Ontario power grid early in the first quarter of 2012 and start commercial operation later in the first quarter.

Bruce expects to connect Unit 1 to the grid in the second quarter of 2012 and go commercial during the third quarter.

You just knew a Canadian nuclear facility would be called Bruce. I wonder if there’s another one called Kevin. In any event, Bruce 3 and 4 have already been operating while 1 and 2 were shuttered in the mid 90s when it was decided not to upgrade them. Decision reversed, apparently.

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Too much good news:

Fukushima fallout: Renaissance in nuclear power generation now a long way off.

That’s the title of a story at the Financial Times. Surprisingly, the story is not as gloomy as that title and has to admit:

The two responses [Germany and Lithuania] are proof that while atomic power has experienced a serious setback in the wake of Fukushima, it remains a chosen source of energy for many countries.

So – can we have our renaissance back?

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Goofy:

Like the various nation-states of the world, Google vs. Amazon are also approaching their own nuclear war: both technology titans will have such growing energy demands that they will have to consider nuclear energy. And so, the key to understanding the growth opportunity of these companies is to assess their ability to use nuclear energy, and to use nuclear energy to build an infrastructure for an exponential improvement in data transmission across the Internet.

Leaving aside the awkward nuclear war metaphor, this article at Seeking Alpha seems rather peculiarly premised. Writer Simit Patel doesn’t stop there, either:

On the uranium side of things, I would love to see Google and Amazon support the growth of US-based uranium producers leveraging ISR [in-situ recovery] technology -- particularly Uranium Energy Corporation, a favorite of mine in the market.

I just have no idea.

The Bruce facility on Lake Heron.

NEOs Close Approach to Bring Green Fireballs 2DEC2011

NEOs Close Approach to Bring Green Fireballs 2DEC2011
NEOs (Near-Earth Objects) (2000 YA),(2003 XV),(2011 WU74),(2011 WV74) will be making close approaches in December 2011.  Increased Meteor/Fireball activity is projected just prior (2-3 days), on, or just after their passing. If you have a chance to get out in the early early morning you just might see one of these wonders!  Have your cameras

North Carolina, South Carolina Bright Green Fireball 2DEC2011

North Carolina, South Carolina Bright Green Fireball ~6:05 am EST 2DEC2011
Meteor / Fireball Sighting Reports NOV2011-DEC2011
http://thelatestworldwidemeteorreports.blogspot.com/

Form Format:
DATE of Event? DATE/MONTH/YEAR (example 11NOV2011) Observer NAME LOCATION (where seen; city/town) TIME 24hr clock/ please include YOUR Time Zone Duration (sec) Start / Stop location in sky -- Direction of

The Latest Worldwide Meteor/Meteorite News 2DEC2011

Unidentified fireball crosses sky over Beijing
People's Daily OnlineAccording to the astronomy expert, the object may be a fireball meteor. One amateur astronomer who witnessed the fireball in Tianjin said that the huge flying object appeared at about a quarter past 5 pm. in the northeastern region. ...


吉林降落罕见陨石雨吉林降落罕见陨石雨. shìjiànjìngguò: 1976 nián 3 yuè 8 rì， jí lín dì qū jiàng luò liǎo yī cì

On The Containment Vessel Damage at Fukushima Daiichi Unit 1

Early on Wednesday morning, the Dow Jones News Wire first reportedthe following from Japan, before the rest of the mainstream media got holdof the story today:

The melted nuclear fuel within the No. 1 unit at the FukushimaDaiichi power plant was of such intensity that it eroded through 2 meters ofthe 2.6 meter (8.5 feet) concrete base, plant operator Tokyo Electric Power Co.said in a report issued on Wednesday. 

Yesterday here at the office, we huddled with a representative ofTEPCO to get a better understanding of the report, and share some additionalfacts that puts this information into the proper context. What's been reported isa very conservative mathematical analysis that has yet to be physicallyconfirmed. In other words, this is a worst case scenario. And as we've seen inour industry, even in the worst case scenario, there is still a verysignificant safety margin.

A quick read ofthe article could give one the impression that the melted core was a littlemore than half a meter -- about 2 feet -- from reaching the externalenvironment. I think it’s important to note that according to the TEPCO analysisonly .7 meters (a little more than two feet) of concrete was actually eroded.  In addition, as we've written before, plantshave multiple redundant safety systems in place to protect the public, andthat's exactly the case with Fukushima Daiichi Unit 1.

In addition to the2.6 meters (about 8.5 feet) of steel reinforced concrete inside the containmentvessel, underneath the steel shell of the containment vessel lies another 7.6meters (about 25 feet) of basemat reinforced concrete and steel. Altogether,that means there was 10.2 meters (about 33.5 feet) of reinforced concrete andsteel standing between the reactor core and the outside of the plant before theaccident.

Even if 2 meters (about6.5 feet) of that structure has been eroded, another 8.2 meters (almost 27feet) of reinforced steel and concrete lies between the melted fuel and the externalenvironment.

It’s also important to note that according to tests of air samplesfrom inside containment, it appears that the process of erosion – called coriuminteraction – has essentially ceased and no further damage is occurring at thistime. If that process is still continuing, it is doing so at such a slow ratethat TEPCO has more than enough time to develop a mitigation strategy.

The Latest Worldwide Meteor/Meteorite News 1DEC2011

Flight Over Meteor Crater, Arizona, USA 24NOV2011- video

Posted on YouTube by eonbio さんが 2011/11/30 37 views
Flying from Winslow Az to Meteor Crater in a 1991 Bonanza 36TC.