Carnival of Nuclear 67

1. ANS Nuclear Cafe by Meredith Angwin – What do Miss Marple, hard-boiled LAPD detective Harry Bosch, and Richard Hannay of The Thirty-Nine Steps have in common? At ANS Nuclear Cafe, Meredith Angwin wrote about their communication lessons for nuclear. Thrillers in the Dog Days, Lessons for Nuclear Communication.

2. Yes Vermont Yankee – Money and the Future of Vermont Yankee: Decommissioning and the Marcellus Shale

In this entry, Meredith Angwin shows that Governor Shumlin’s cheerful views of continued employment during decommissioning are mistaken. Further, with the downrating of Marcellus Shale reserves, the expectation of cheap electricity from the gird for the next twenty years is also probably wrong. In short, shutting down Vermont Yankee in 2012 is a big financial mistake for Vermont.

3. 4 Factor Consulting – Natural Disasters Week

Margaret Harding is taking another week off from her strategic assessment to look at earthquakes and hurricanes. This week reminded me of the Carole King song “I feel the earth move under my feet/ I feel the sky tumblin’ down”. But our nuclear power plants have demonstrated their resilience and safety yet again in the response to the earthquake in Virginia as well as the hurricane that is heading toward my home on the North Carolina coast. Balancing natural phenomena and risk against cost is a fact of life and one we should better understand.

4. Atomic Insights – Nuclear Power after Fukushima: It is, still, the energy of the future

Even after the Fukushima disaster—affecting six 30-to-40-year-old plants that had primitive control systems, inadequate backup-power supplies, and insufficient protection against the potential effects of earthquakes and tsunamis—nuclear energy has compiled a remarkable safety record. It will be an important, reliable, affordable, and clean energy source for the foreseeable future.

5. WORLDbytes – After Fukushima: The Fear Factor

The primary reporter for this embedded video about the media coverage of Fukushima is a young Japanese woman living in the UK. During the video, she engages in an online video conversation with her brother and father who are still living in Japan.. The project investigates why the western media chose to cover the story the way that they did.

On March 12, 2011, less than 24 hours after a massive wave washed over a large, populated area on the northeast coast of Japan, killing more than 16,000 people, injuring more than 5,000, and causing more than 4,000 to have disappeared, the commercial news media completely shifted its attention to focus on one of the three nuclear power stations that had been hit by the wave. The rest of the story was ignored because of the unreasonable fear of radiation that has been embedded into the public’s shared psyche.

6. Atomic Power Review – Will Davis submits a simple, yet effective article of a type employed on APR many times during the heat of the Fukushima accident coverage – designed specifically to destroy anti-nuclear fervor with one post. This one applies to the recent quake and the status of all plants affected. Or not affected.

7. I provide a viewpoint of the Nuclear Engineer and other pronuclear
individuals, again,
like others here, explaining how the trend of stopping or eliminating Nuclear Energy from their future is counterproductive and foolish from both an economical and ecological perspective.

8. Nuke Power Talk – Gail Marcus reflects on the fact that last week brought several all-too-rare pieces of good news on the nuclear front. The good news included the first restart of a nuclear reactor in Japan since the Fukushima accident, the TVA Board’s approval of the completion of Bellefonte, the completion of NRC safety evaluations for Summer 2 and 3, and a poll showing that more people living near Indian Point want it to stay open than to shut down.

9. Nextbigfuture – Uranium production for Kazakhstan and the world for the first half of the year.

Uranium Production volume of the Republic of Kazakhstan for 6 months of 2011 made up 9 148 tU, which is 9% higher in comparison with the same period of the previous year. In accordance with the stated plans, uranium production made by entities of NAC Kazatomprom JSC will reach 10 130 tU in the second half of 2011.

10. Evergreen Nuclear – provides a Primer on How A Pressurized Water Reactor Shuts Down.

There are two types of shutdowns to be considered: (1) one in which an event such as earthquake or loss of offsite power occurs and the unit automatically trips, and (2) one in which station procedures recognizing a deteriorating weather situation (as an example) takes a slower path to shutdown. I will discuss both of these cases.

11. Dan Yurman at Idaho Samizdat – Blue Castle to file Early Site Permit with NRC in 2013.

It’s still a long way from a COL and breaking ground for a 3,000 MW site. In addition to regulatory hurdles, the project faces credibility issues with its CEO, sources of funding, and plans to sell the license to the highest bidder rather than build reactors itself.

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