ANS Nuclear Cafe

By Jim Conca

I work with people in the nuclear energy industry. My goal is to ensure that everyone I work with ends up being a better member of the industry. Smarter about how things need to be done, or why things should be done. BUT, there's much more to nuclear technology and today, I got a reminder.

The 261st edition of the Nuclear Energy Blog Carnival has posted at Atomic Power Review.

Editor's note: Josep is a 17-year-old high school student in Spain. He is a nuclear energy enthusiast keenly interested in promoting both nuclear energy and renewables in his home country and abroad, for the betterment of man's energy future.

Opinion piece for ANS Nuclear Cafe by Will Davis

by Sophie Prevot

ANS Nuclear Cafe is proud to host the 259th Nuclear Energy Blogger Carnival.  This rotating feature travels around the various pro-nuclear, English-language blogs every week and showcases the top blog posts of those blogs, as submitted by the blog authors or administrators.  Let's get to it!

Yesterday, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission announced that its commissioners had approved the award of a Construction and Operating License (COL) for DTE Energy's prospective Fermi Unit 3, to be built on the site of the existing Fermi-2 near Detroit, Mich. The COL will also notably be the first for the GE Hitachi ESBWR, or "Economic Simplified Boiling Water Reactor," a Gen-III+ nuclear plant with passive safety.

Chai Jing's documentary Under the Dome has been viewed by hundreds of millions of people worldwide, raising global awareness of China's air pollution crisis. Beyond merely stirring up controversy-China has taken steps to censor the film online-Under the Dome is an entry point to a larger discussion regarding China's adoption of "clean" energy, namely its rapid expansion of nuclear power.

Editor's Note: Evan Twarog is a new nuclear enthusiast writer from New Hampshire. We welcome his first article on the ANS Nuclear Cafe.

As I've discussed in many previous ANS Nuclear Cafe posts (see: How Can Nuclear Construction Costs be Reduced & Cost/Benefit Analyses of Nuclear Requirements), my belief is that the primary reasons for the lack of nuclear power's growth/success are the extremely burdensome requirements and regulations. They are vastly more strict than those applied to competing sources, in terms of dollars spent per life saved, or amount of environmental impact avoided. For various (non-scientific) reasons, nuclear is held to standards that are orders of magnitude higher than those applied to competing sources.

Last week, it was revealed publicly that a Draft Resource Plan being floated by the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) includes the presumption that the long-unfinished Bellefonte nuclear plant near Scottsboro, Alabama, will not be completed. TVA's nuclear energy history will span 50 years this June, and there are developments in the works with Bellefonte and one other TVA plant to be mentioned later. All are now expected to shake out this year, and may preface the final volume of that long up-and-down history.

Tugs prepare to start the former nuclear barge Sturgis on the final voyage this morning, April 16, 2015. Photo courtesy NS SAVANNAH ASSOCIATION, INC.

Tugs prepare to start the former nuclear barge Sturgis on the final voyage this morning, April 16, 2015. Photo courtesy NS SAVANNAH ASSOCIATION, INC.

This morning at twenty minutes after nine, the historic nuclear barge Sturgis began what will surely be the final voyage in its life. Shut down since 1976 and unneeded, the barge is being towed to Texas where it will ultimately be completely dismantled and scrapped.

by Will Davis

Callaway Energy Center - one of the completed, historic SNUPPS nuclear plants. Photo courtesy AMEREN Missouri.

by Will Davis

Editor's Note: Josep Rey Cases is a new nuclear enthusiast writer from Spain. This is his first article on the ANS Nuclear Cafe. 

Editor's Note: The Department of Energy's Richard S. Goorevich answered questions posed by American Nuclear Society members to clarify details regarding the 10 CFR 810 rule: Assistance to Foreign Atomic Energy Activities, which goes into effect March 25, 2015. 

Tihange Nuclear Plant, Belgium. Courtesy Electrabel.

The years-long saga surrounding the reactor pressure vessels at the Doel-3 nuclear power plant and Tihange-2 NPP in Belgium has taken another turn, pushing these units back into the broader news cycle and renewing calls from some (uninformed) quarters for further worldwide action and/or permanent shutdowns.