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Fukishima Dai-ichi status updates on Thursday 17th “It is not going to be another Tjernobyl”

March 17, 2011

2000 CET: From the IAEA – Engineers plan to reconnect power to unit 2 once the spraying of water on the unit 3 reactor building is completed, the statement says. “The spraying of water on the unit 3 reactor building was temporarily stopped at 1109 GMT (2009 local time) on 17 March. The IAEA continues to liaise with the Japanese authorities and is monitoring the situation as it evolves”

1900 CET: The installation of the new high voltage power line to the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant and the restarting of the cooling systems seems now to be the critical and perhaps decisive step. Hopefully this can be done on Friday.

A Russian nuclear expert has said Japan should concentrate its efforts on restoring power to the Fukushima nuclear plant – rather than trying to cool its reactors by dropping water from helicopters. “One can only put out forest fires like this, by pouring water from helicopters. It is not clear where this water is falling,” Gennady Pshakin from the Institute of Physics and Power Engineering in the city of Obninsk told Reuters. “They need to start circulation pumps, at least one, maybe not at a full capacity, but I am not sure they have enough power. Diesel generators and mobile power stations which they sent there do not have enough capacity.” He added that it was not going to become another Chernobyl, saying that it was a “totally different situation”.

1700 CET: About 300 tons of water has been sprayed so far by helicopter and fire trucks. It is now 1 am Friday in Japan and there is little fresh news. But this is a case of “no news is good news”. There are no reports of any increased radiation levels but this kind of “stability” can be deceptive.  Helicopter water drops are planned again for Friday. The power line to restore high voltage power is still being installed and is taking longer than expected but is still expected to be ready on Friday. The cooling systems still have to be repaired before they can be restarted.

So far in terms of death and destruction the Fukushima nuclear plant is a pinprick compared to what has happened further north. But the spectre of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in Japan and of Tjernobyl elsewhere is probably what leads to the imbalance in the coverage. But unfortunately it is probably diverting some attention and resources from those in need.

1400 CET: At least 20 of the workers risking their lives at the Fukusima Dai-ich nuclear plant are suuffering from exposure to radiation.

Water shot out from the military trucks seem to have reached their target judging from the steam that was generated which in turn means that some cooling must have occurred. Apparently the military trucks are more effective than the fire trucks since the water cannons can be operated from within the safety of the cab. The effect on radiation levels is small so far.

They are hoping to connect the plant to external power during Thursday.

1240 CET: Breaking – Radiation levels have shot up after the shooting of water from water cannon. This may mean that the water is reaching its target and is evaporating on contact with the overheated spent fuel.

TEPCO Press conference.  Tepco spokesmen mainly repeat questions but provide no answers. One said that they had existing procedures in the Crisis Management Plan and they followed all procedures.  The spokesman only gave me the impression that since this accident is not in the book they had no idea what to do. Hardly any new information. No idea how much water the helicopters dropped. No information on the progress of the new power line. No information about the use of water cannon for cooling. A generally inept performance by TEPCO.

Some history from Reuters about TEPCO:

Five TEPCO executives resigned in 2002 over suspected falsification of nuclear plant safety records and five reactors were forced to stop operations.

In 2006, the government ordered TEPCO to check past data after it reported finding falsification of coolant water temperatures at its Fukushima Daiichi plant in 1985 and 1988, and that the tweaked data was used in mandatory inspections at the plant, which were completed in October 2005.

1200 CET: First attempt with the police riot truck water cannon was broken off due to high radiation levels. Another attempt is being made to shoot cooling water into the spent fuel ponds starting about 30 minutes ago.

The risk for a blackout in Tokyo seems to have been averted as the the evening load period comes to an end.

1000 CET: So far Tokyo has averted a blackout situation – but demand came close to the limit.

Radiation readings on this Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT) site.

The Defence Minister said that he “expected” the cooling water actions to “be successful”.  The water cannon fire trucks are all from the Tokyo police or from the SDF. This sounds as if the cooling efforts have now been taken away from TEPCO and handed over to the military. TEPCO seems to be continuing with efforts to restore power to the plant with a new power line.

0900 CET: No further word about the fire trucks and the water cannon. 11 more fire trucks are on their way.

An unprecedented massive blackout could take place in Tokyo on Thursday evening. Trains have been asked to reduce services and the authorities are asking for all to avoid using power if possible.

0800 CET: US unmanned aircraft from Guam have taken pictures over the plant which have been supplied to Japan. None of the evacuees from the area have needed decontamination says Fukushima prefecture.

TV pictures of the helicopter operation show much of the water spray missing the target buildings.

Kyodo News reports Japanese Government irritation with US statements:

Gregory Jaczko, chairman of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, told a congressional hearing, ”There is no water in the spent fuel pool and we believe that radiation levels are extremely high, which could possibly impact the ability to take corrective measures.”

But a Ground Self-Defense Force chopper, which doused the overheating spent nuclear fuel pool with water Thursday morning at the No. 3 reactor, found that water is left in the pond at the No. 4 unit, according to the plant operator Tokyo Electric Power Co.

0700 CET: SDF helicopters have made 4 sorties for dumping water on reactor #3. There is still some water left in the reactor #4 spent fuel pool. Helicopters had lead plates installed for protection during the operations today. Radiation decreased only very slightly as a result and no further helicopter sorties are planned today. The riot police water cannons are expected to be used shortly. Each truck carries only 4 tons of water which is discharged in just one minute. This will require many refillings of the trucks and will take time. Spent fuel pools at reactors #3 and 4 are the priority. For reactors #5 and 6 temperatures are increasing but slowly and boiling will not occur for a few days yet.

The new power transmission line is still being installed. Progress is hindered by having to limit the time workers can spend within the plant. To reactivate the plant’s cooling systems will need the repair of some of the pumps.

0000 CET (midnight): A new power line is being laid to the Fukushima Daiichi plant to help restore the reactor cooling systems: Tokyo Electric Power Company (Tepco) spokesman Naoki Tsunoda has said it is almost complete, and that engineers plan to test it “as soon as possible”, according to the Associated Press. Reviving the electric-powered pumps might allow the engineers to finaly cool the overheated reactors and spent fuel storage ponds.

The IAEA has released information about the temperature of the water in the spent fuel storage pools inside reactors 4, 5 and 6 at Fukushima Daiichi. Spent fuel that has been removed from a nuclear reactor generates intense heat and the water is usually kept below 25C. The IAEA says that the temperature of the pool at reactor 4 was 84C on Tuesday morning. On Wednesday morning, it was 62.7C at reactor 5 and 60C at reactor 6. Current reports say the pools at both reactors 3 and 4 are boiling. Reactor 4’s pool may even be dry.

Kyodo News says that Tokyo police plan to use a water cannon truck to attempt to cool a spent fuel rod pool Thursday in a bid to contain the disaster at the troubled Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power station in Japan.

The government earlier studied a plan to deploy Ground Self-Defense Force choppers to spray water over the spent fuel pools, but the Defense Ministry said Wednesday afternoon it had given up on the idea due to the high radiation level.

The U.S. military, meanwhile, will operate a Global Hawk unmanned high-altitude reconnaissance aircraft, possibly on Thursday, to take images of the inside of the building that houses the No. 4 reactor, according to Japanese government sources.

Status by Kyodo News:

Among the six reactors at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant operated by Tokyo Electric Power Co., part of the No. 2 reactor’s containment vessel, key to enclosing harmful radioactive substances, suffered damage in the pressure-suppression chamber connected to the vessel following Tuesday’s apparent hydrogen explosion.

An estimated 70 percent of the nuclear fuel rods have been damaged at the plant’s No. 1 reactor and 33 percent at the No. 2 reactor, Tokyo Electric said Wednesday.

The cores of the No. 1, No. 2 and No. 3 reactors are believed to have partially melted with their cooling functions lost in the wake of Friday’s magnitude 9.0 earthquake and tsunami.

The government’s Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency said Wednesday that the water level had dropped in the No. 5 reactor, which was not in service when the killer quake jolted northeastern Japan, posing the risk of overheating. The agency said it will closely monitor data on the reactor to prevent the problems that occurred at other reactors.


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TEPCO delayed using sea water for cooling until instructed to

March 16, 2011

1700 CET: The water cannon fire truck has arrived on site but using the scatter-gun approach of helicopter sprays and fire engines at a precision nuclear plant smacks of desperate measures. They are in the same class as praying for rain.

I hope I am wrong but it seems like the main strategy being applied by TEPCO is now one of “hoping for the best”.

A commentator on NHK World has said that TEPCO did not take the initiative to use sea-water cooling at Fukushima because of the damage it could do to any future plant operation and only did so when instructed to by the Ministry and the Government.

TEPCO (Tokyo Electric Power Company) is the owner and operator of the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant. None of the reactors where sea water has been used for cooling are likely to ever operate again.

The commentator criticised TEPCO’s crisis management and said that TEPCO should have reacted faster. NHK World also reported that the radioactive plume of steam coming from reactor no. 3 on Wednesday morning was first noticed by a NHK helicopter team from 30 km away  and long before there was any news from TEPCO. When first contacted the TEPCO spokesman did not know what it was and whether it was smoke from a fire or a steam leak.

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Sarkozy is using the Sendai quake and Fukushima troubles to play politics

March 16, 2011

Sometimes Sarkozy’s opportunism for gaining economic advantage is almost as vulgar as bunga bunga Berlusconi’s sex parties. But it is also – I think – a very clever move. Sarkozy is attempting to take a pre-emptive lead by being in the forefront of denigrating the Japanese nuclear program so that he can – by contrast – promote French nuclear technology and the French  nuclear plant manufacturer Areva and thus preserve the French dependence on nuclear power.

I predict his line will be that the Japanese nuclear plants were old fashioned and that French nuclear technology is different and inherently safe. He will walk the fine line between supporting “the Japanese people in their hour of need” while criticising TEPCO, its handling of the Fukushima problems and the outdated technology (the 6 reactors at Fukushima Dai-ichi were built starting in 1963 and came into operation between 1970 and 1979).

From the BBC:

No other country relies as heavily as France on nuclear power. It relies on nuclear power for 75% of it domestic supplies. It has 19 plants and 58 reactors. France is also at the forefront of nuclear technology, and President Sarkozy knows the debate over nuclear energy following events in Japan will affect the fortunes of the giant nucelar group Areva.

Like other countries, France is to check its nuclear reactors following the problems in Japan. But President Nicolas Sarkozy’s faith in the country’s nuclear programme seems unshaken. “France has made the choice of nuclear energy, which is an essential element of its energy independence and the fight against greenhouse gases,” he told his cabinet today. “This choice has been unseparable from an unfaltering undertaking to ensure a very high level of safety at our nuclear installations. I remain today convinced of the pertinence of these choices.”

French President Nicolas Sarkozy says he will call a special G20 meeting to discuss the energy sector in light of events in Japan. France currently holds the G20 presidency. France has also called a meeting of G7 finance ministers to respond to the crisis in Japan, Reuters reports. Finance Minister Christine Lagarde says the meeting will look at “how we can take part in their debt issues and how we can react on a financial level”.

From Paris, the BBC’s Christian Fraser says that France’s decision to offer it Tokyo-based citizens the chance to leave is partially motivated by domestic political problems. “Obviously it is a precaution and they might be accused of scaremongering but their new Foreign Minister Alain Juppe has been keen to get on the front foot, to show that they are in charge of the situation,” he said.

Related:  Does France have special information about Fukushima?

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Fukushima Dai-ichi situation worsening and TEPCO is unsure how to proceed

March 16, 2011

1100 CET: The SDF helicopter cooling attempt was aborted for high radiation levels above the plent. New cooling attempts will use a water cannon on a fire truck borrowed from the US military.

From Paris, the BBC’s Christian Fraser says that France’s decision to offer its Tokyo-based citizens the chance to leave is partially motivated by domestic political problems.

0830 CET: Japanese TV reports that an SDF helicopter has taken off to spray water onto the plant. Helicopter spraying will be difficult to direct accurately and was thought to be a “last resort”. This suggests that other options are not feasible.

It is snowing in Fukushima.

0730 CET: Some workers have returned as radiation levels have fallen at the Fukushima Dai-ichi plant. While the Nikkei has risen some 6%, TEPCO shares have tanked. They were untraded but were bid down by the daily limit and are down 24.7%.

The operation could take on a military footing and responsibility could shift from TEPCO to the military. The Japanese Defence Minister has just said that if cooling efforts fail, the SDF would move in and SDF helicopters would spray water onto the plant.

TEPCO press releases are worthless and give virtually no information and the main source of public information is by the Chief Cabinet Secretary’s Edano’s press conferences. He himself is  impressive and generates some trust but it means that all information is being “politically” vetted so as not to be too alarmist. But just the filtering of information itself leads to assumptions (which may or may not be justified) that the actual information is worse than is being released. TEPCO’s communications and press conferences are not impressive.

Status at 0600 CET 16th March:

Work at the reactors may have stopped because radiation levels were too high. Radiation is fluctuating and has reached high levels at times. Levels were being reported in milli Sieverts(mS) rather than micro Sieverts (μS). For short periods levels upto 11 mS (11,000 μS). The normal working limit of 100 mS was raised 3 days ago to 250 mS and levels have been higher in parts of the plant.

The Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant is being continuously subjected to new problems. All problems are unprecedented in the wake of the quake and the tsunami but TEPCO’s ability to cope is now raising cause for concern. Personnel from Toshiba, the manufacturer of the plant, have been called in by TEPCO. The initial plant design was to withstand earthquakes of magnitude 8.2 and it has been through a magnitude 9.0 quake some 15 times stronger than the design value. But the height of the tsunami wave was something not designed for. TEPCO spokesmen are getting testy when questioned and this is also an indication that they are frustrated and confused.

I have revised my view that TEPCO was in control of the situation. TEPCO seems to be unsure how to proceed.

Reactor #3 containment vessel is damaged and emitting steam (smoke?) and radiation. TEPCO does not know what it is. Workers near the central control room were evacuated temporarily(?). Workers are evacuated at levels higher than 259 Milli Sieverts.

Reactor #4 spent fuel pool is getting dangerous again. Pictures of the fire on 15th here were shown by TEPCO. It seems as if radiation levels here are also too high for workers to approach and attempt cooling. Winds and/or radiation levels are preventing the use of helicopters to dump water onto the reactor#4 spent fuel pool through a hole in the building roof. No other way to get cooling started seems to have been found.

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Reactor #4 at Fukushima Dai-ichi still unstable and could become critical.

March 15, 2011

While the situation at reactors # 1,  and 3 is stable with cooling by sea-water ongoing, the situation of the spent fuel pool at reactor no. 4 is still very serious and radiation leakage is still continuing. Reactor no. 2  suppression vessel is damaged and cooling is ongoing but the situation was not yet considered stable. Radiation levels are too high for technicians to get close to the reactor #4 pool to inject sea-water. The pool temperature was at 84°C and double the normal temperature of about 40 °C. The 20km zone evacuation around the plant was completed on Tuesday afternoon.

The option of trying to drop water by helicopter through a hole in the roof has been discarded since the pool is offset from the hole.

The use of specialised fire trucks with equipment which would allow water to be injected into the pool is being considered.

Getting fresh cooling water into the pool is now becoming very urgent and unless this is achieved the situation could become critical. As the temperature increases hydrogen could be produced and another hydrogen fire with an associated release of radiation becomes more probable.

Reuters reports that “Two workers are missing after Tuesday’s explosion at one of the reactors at a crippled Japanese nuclear plant, the country’s nuclear safety agency said.

The agency did not identify the missing workers, but said they were in the turbine area of the No.4 reactor at the Fukushima nuclear plant, which was damaged by last Friday’s earthquake and tsunami”.

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Former head of Chinese Nuclear corporation sentenced to life for corruption

November 19, 2010

Kang Rixin: photo china-defense-mashup.com

In August 2009 China National Nuclear Corporation’s head Kang Rixin (born 1953), was suspended and put under investigation for misusing $260 million that was earmarked for the construction of three nuclear plants and allegedly used for playing the stock market sustaining heavy losses. Kang Rixin was also accused of accepting bribes of several million dollars of corrupt payments from Areva, a leading French nuclear engineering company.

Sun Qin was appointed President to replace the suspended Kang Rixin.

Today Xinhua reports

that a Chinese court sentenced Kang Rixin, a former head of Chinese nuclear giant China National Nuclear Corporation (CNNC), to life imprisonment Friday for corruption and accepting almost one million U.S. dollars in bribes. Kang, CNNC’s former general manager, was also deprived of his political rights for life and had his personal assets confiscated, a statement from the Beijing No.1 intermediary court said.

Kang, 57, was convicted of having abused his power to enable others to profit. He accepted bribes totaling 6.6 million yuan (970,000 U.S. dollars) between 2004 and 2009. The sentence was lighter because Kang cooperated with investigators and returned all his ill-gotten gains.

Kang became a member of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee in October 2007. He was stripped of his post in and membership of the CPC for “serious violations of the law and discipline breaches” in December 2009.

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Nuclear renaissance: Vietnam gets nuclear reactors from Russia and Japan, Japan gets access to rare earths

November 1, 2010

Now Vietnam is going nuclear with its first 2 plants coming from Russia and the next 2 from Japan. Unexploited rare earth deposits in Vietnam are receiving a great deal of attention from countries hit by the Chinese monopoly on rare earth supplies.

Chosun Ilbo reports

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and his Vietnamese counterpart Nguyen Minh Triet have called for increased trade and investment between their two countries. The two leaders met Sunday in Hanoi to seal a nuclear plant construction agreement and other bilateral deals. Under the $5 billion agreement, Russia will build Vietnam’s first nuclear power plant. Construction is expected to start in 2014.

Asahi Shimbun reports on a deal where Japan  gets access to the rare earth resources in Vietnam in exchange for two 1000 MW nuclear reactors worth 14.4 billion $ to the Japanese nuclear construction industry.

The nuclear reactor construction agreement, worth an estimated 1 trillion yen ($14.4 billion), gives the green light for Japanese companies to build nuclear facilities in an emerging nation’s fledgling nuclear industry for the first time.

The two reactors will be built in the southeastern province of Ninh Thuan and are scheduled to start operations in 2021. They will have a combined output of 2 gigawatts. Vietnam plans to build 14 nuclear reactors by 2030. Construction deals for four reactors in Ninh Thuan province have so far been agreed upon, including the two to be awarded to Japan. Russia won the rights to build two reactors in December last year.

Japan, which has been trying to use infrastructure exports as a springboard for its flagging economy, began bidding for the nuclear reactor project earlier this year. In August, a delegation of Japanese business leaders led by Japan’s industry minister visited Vietnam to lobby officials. They offered financial assistance and training for Vietnamese people.

Visiting Prime Minister Naoto Kan and Vietnamese Premier Nguyen Tan Dung also agreed on joint development of deposits in Vietnam of rare earth elements, part of a Japanese drive to reduce its reliance on China for supplies of the vital raw materials, which have been obstructed following a diplomatic dispute with Beijing.

A joint team of Japanese and Vietnamese businesses is currently applying for rare earth mining rights. The Japan Oil, Gas and Metals National Corp. discovered rare earth veins in the northern Lai Chau province about 10 years ago. Toyota Tsusho Corp., Sojitz Corp., and an arm of a Vietnamese public corporation have been preparing plans for joint development.

The underground reserves are believed to be capable of yielding 3,000 tons of rare earths a year, about 10 percent of Japan’s current annual requirement.

The Japanese government has offered to provide expertise and training in surveying, excavation, and processing the rare earth metals to Vietnam. Japan is also likely to dip into official development assistance to help the country build infrastructure such as roads and water supply near the mines. In a separate project, Sumitomo Corp. is looking into mining rare earths in Yen Bai province in the north of Vietnam.

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Nuclear Renaissance continues: Germany extends life of nuclear reactors

October 30, 2010

Der Spiegel:

Opponents of nuclear power suffered a setback in Berlin on Thursday as the federal parliament approved legislation that would effectively repeal Germany’s planned withdrawal from atomic power. Now nuclear plants can stay open an average of 12 years longer than originally planned.

Environment Minister Norbert Röttgen, a member of Merkel’s CDU, countered  criticism by saying: “You are at a dead loss when it comes to energy policy.” He said the Greens, SPD and far-left Left Party were scaremongering and merely seeking to gain votes. “They are placing their party interests before the interests of the country,” he said. Röttgen also stated that his government’s energy plan — which foresees 80 percent of all electricity coming from clean energy sources by 2050 — was the most ambitious renewable energy program in the world.

The Green Party, in particular, sought in vain on Thursday to prevent the vote at the last minute.

Jörg van Essen, a senior party official with the FDP, angered many with his statement that, “it has never done any parliament in history good when a party appeared appeared wearing the same uniform,” a statement he made while staring at the Greens. Members of the party were angered by the statement, which they considered to be a comparison to the uniformed Nazi members of parliament during the Weimar Republic era.

Meanwhile, members of the government accused the Greens of disobeying parliament. “The Greens need to know one thing: The greater the racket they cause, the more damage they do to themselves in terms of how seriously they are taken outside,” said Peter Altmaier, a senior member of the CDU.

The quiet renaissance is continuing in other parts of Europe as well. The Financial Times points out that:

In Italy, which decommissioned its four power stations after the country voted for a moratorium following the 1986 Chernobyl disaster, the government is considering new nuclear power stations. Sweden has embarked on a similar path, voting earlier this summer to overturn a 30-year-old ban on new reactors. Neighbouring Finland has announced plans to build two reactors in addition to one already under construction. In the UK, the coalition government, is also backing new plants.

Several east European countries, many of which are dependent on gas imports from Russia, are also proposing new reactors.

“Globally, there is a nuclear revival,” says Colette Lewiner, head of the Energy and Utilities division at Capgemini, “but it is much bigger and sustained in Asian countries, in particular in China, which has proposals to put eight to nine reactors into operation a year.”

For Europe’s cash-strapped governments, hit by the credit crunch, extending the life of an existing reactor is much cheaper than building a new one. In France, for example, recent estimates suggested it would cost about €500m ($697m) to extend the life of a 1,000MW reactor for 20 years. This compares with a cost of about €3bn for the same capacity from a new one that would have a lifespan of about 60 years, says Ms Lewiner.

On the fuel supply side as well companies are developing strategies and positioning themselves to take advantage of the renaissance. From London South East comes the news that:

Severstal, the largest steelmaker in Russia, has made a bid approach for its first uranium asset in Spain, seeking to diversify its mining business and benefit from an expected rise in European demand for nuclear power.

Severstal has approached Berkeley Resources Ltd about a possible takeover of the uranium exploration company worth about A$304 million ($294.9 million), sending Berkeley shares sharply higher in London.  Severstal is considering a cash bid for Berkeley, also listed in Sydney, at A$2.00 (122 pence) per share, Berkeley said in a statement on Friday.

The big due diligence question will concern the start-up of a uranium concentrate line that is part of the Salamanca project, Renaissance Capital analyst Boris Krasnojenov said. The line operated for 16 years before closing in 2000 due to low uranium prices. ‘Some people believe that nuclear generation is the future for Europe because regulation measures linked to coal generation emissions will increase,’ Krasnojenov said.


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The quiet nuclear renaissance is already under way

October 10, 2010

 

The map shows the commercial nuclear power pla...

Commercial and planned nuclear plants around the world: Wikipedia

 

In spite of political posturing of many kinds,  nuclear power capacity worldwide is steadily increasing  with 58 reactors under construction in 15 countries. Most reactors on order or planned are in Asia, though there are plans for new units in 65 countries. In many countries which already have nuclear plants in operation significant capacity addition is being created by plant upgrading.

Quietly, the nuclear renaissance is already under way and the lead is in Asia.

The 2nd International Conference on Asian Nuclear Prospects 2010 (ANUP 2010) gets under way tomorrow at Mahabalipuram near Chennai, India.

Speaking on the occasion, chairman, Indian Atomic Energy Commission, and secretary department of atomic energy Srikumar Banerjee said that the major issue facing the sector was waste management.  R.K. Sinha, vice president, Indian Nuclear Society and director, Bhabha Atomic Research Centre, said around six new countries are interested to have atomic power plant and many of them will have one by 2030.

Of the 58 nuclear reactors currently under construction world-wide, 35 are in Asia (23 in China, 6 in Korea, 4 in India and 2 in Japan).

The Deputy Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Y.A. Sokolov said that current nuclear expansion remains centred in Asia. Of the twelve constructions started in 2009, ten were in Asia.

In addition to the new plants under construction, numerous power reactors in USA, Belgium, Sweden and Germany, for example, have had their generating capacity increased. In Switzerland, the capacity of its five reactors has been increased by 12.3%. In the USA, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission has approved 126 uprates totalling some 5600 MWe since 1977, a few of them “extended uprates” of up to 20%. Spain has had a program to add 810 MWe (11%) to its nuclear capacity through upgrading its nine reactors by up to 13%.  Some 519 MWe of the increase is already in place.  For instance, the Almarez nuclear plant is being boosted by more than 5% at a cost of US$ 50 million. Finland boosted the capacity of the original Olkiluoto plant by 29% to 1700 MWe. This plant started with two 660 MWe Swedish BWRs commissioned in 1978 and 1980. It is now licensed to operate to 2018. The Loviisa plant, with two VVER-440 (PWR) reactors, has been uprated by 90 MWe (10%). Sweden is uprating Forsmark plant by 13% (410 MWe) over 2008-10 at a cost of EUR 225 million, and Oskarshamn-3 by 21% to 1450 MWe at a cost of EUR 180 million.

Commissioner William C. Ostendorff, United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission gave the Keynote Address at  the Emerging Issues Policy Forum, Powering the Future 2010 Conference on 4th October in Florida. During his speech he said:

Despite the global financial crisis over the last two years, there still appears to be great interest in nuclear power worldwide. In September, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) released its annual nuclear power projections. In these projections, the IAEA estimates that up to 10.4% of global electricity will come from nuclear reactors by the year 2030. This estimate is higher than last year’s estimate, which was up to 9% from nuclear power by 2030. The IAEA also made projections out to the year 2050, which estimated a maximum share of 11.9% from nuclear reactors.

Since the 2008 timeframe, the number of countries interested in the introduction of nuclear power has risen from 43 to about 65. Most of these countries are in Asia and Africa. At the same time, the number of countries planning to phase out their reactors has dropped. For example, you may have read that the German government decided last month to extend the life spans of its nuclear plants while alternative energy sources are developed.

I want to touch on one more subject before I close. I believe that it is important for the public to have trust and confidence in a strong regulator. A recent report from the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) Nuclear Energy Agency (NEA) compared nuclear accident risks with those from other energy sources. What caught my attention was the impressive safety record of the nuclear industry compared to other energy sectors.

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