The Forum on Energy weekly news roundup brings together a mix of global energy stories from around the web. It is published every Thursday morning on Forum on Energy and is available on Twitter via @forumonenergy.

Radiation from Fukushima Will Arrive on the West Coast at Safe Levels
Water from the Fukushima leaks nearing the West Coast of the United States is expected to arrive in early 2014, according to research by senior scientist at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Ken Buesseler. The pending arrival has raised safety concerns, but Nuclear Regulatory Commission Chairman Allison MacFarlane said Thursday that the radiation level in the water will be safe. “The highest amount of radiation that will reach the U.S. is two orders of magnitude—100 times—less than the drinking-water standard,” she said. “So, if you could drink the salt water, which you won’t be able to do, it’s still fairly low.”
Sources: Bloomberg, National Journal

Iran Invites Japanese Investment
Mohammad Nahavandian, Chief of Staff to the President of Iran, offered an invitation for Japanese companies to bring their expertise and services to Iran in a meeting last week with Hiroyuki Ishige, Head of Japan’s Foreign Trade Organization. ”Japanese activists and companies can take part in our country’s markets in energy, mining, transportation, petrochemical and tourism sectors,” Nahavandian said. The invitation represents a shift toward emerging nuclear markets, despite nonproliferation risks. According to the World Nuclear Association, “Despite high-profile and serious disagreements with IAEA over uranium enrichment, the IAEA continues full involvement with Iran on nuclear safety issues, focused on Bushehr. However, Iran is not a party to the IAEA Convention of Nuclear Safety—it is the only country with an operating nuclear reactor that is not a party to it.”
Sources: Voice of Russia, Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan, Japan International Cooperation Agency, World Nuclear Association

METI’s New Draft Energy Plan Includes Nuclear Power
Japan’s Ministry of Energy, Technology and Industry (METI) recently released a draft Energy Plan, which is set to update the 2010 Energy Plan to account for changes since the Great Tohoku earthquake and tsunami. The plan, which includes nuclear policy as part of its energy mix, is the strongest signal yet that Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s government is shifting away from the previous government’s stance to eliminate nuclear power, according to Bloomberg News. The nuclear shutdown has thus far had damaging effects on pollution and on Japan’s economy. The price of replacement fuels has risen dramatically, with the cost of coal up 25 percent from last year. Imports of fossil fuels have nearly doubled the costs to utilities from the three years ago, before the accident, to approximately $74 billion.
Source: Bloomberg

In Japan, NRC Chairman Macfarlane Calls Attention to Outstanding Nuclear Waste Repository Issues
While in Tokyo recently, Allison Macfarlane, Chairman of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, said that all nuclear energy users, including Japan, must examine and implement long-term storage solutions for spent nuclear fuel. Additionally, she urged countries contemplating or embarking on a nuclear energy program to formulate ultimate storage solutions at an early stage. Neither the United States nor Japan have completed final storage options. The United States has designated Yucca Mountain in Nevada as a site for a repository, but progress has been halted due to local opposition. Japan, which has 44 tons of plutonium and more than 14,000 tons of spent fuel and in cooling pools inside of its 50 reactors, has no plans for permanent storage. A dry cask facility has been completed in northern Japan, but Chairman Macfarlane noted the new facility presents a safer option but remains only a temporary measure.
Source: Associated Press

U.S. Receives Final Shipment from Russia Under ‘Megatons to Megawatts Program’
Initiated in 1993 by a U.S.-Russia government-to government agreement, the “Megatons to Megawatts Program” provided for Russian weapons-grade uranium to be extracted from nuclear warheads and transported to the United States to be downblended into low-enriched nuclear fuel to power American nuclear reactors. Since the program came into effect in 1995, more than 14,000 metric tons of low enriched uranium has been downblended from 500 metric tons of weapons-grade uranium extracted from 20,000 Russian nuclear warheads. The final shipment in the program was received at the Port of Baltimore today.
Sources: NPR, Generation Hub

Original Image Credit: Flickr, cliff1066

NEI has recently published a website dedicated to informing Congressional staffers about the latest issues in American nuclear policy. On this website you can find information on the most current, pressing issues on nuclear energy that congress needs to consider. These topics include regulatory concerns; decommissioning plants; and export and trade of nuclear technology. Related links provide basic facts and education related to nuclear energy. These are designed to educate readers with very little experience in the topic. This resource guide is not only useful to Congressional staffers, but also interesting for those trying to get a deeper insight into the direction of U.S. nuclear policy.

Have a look at the website.

The Forum on Energy weekly news roundup brings together a mix of global energy stories from around the web. It is published every Thursday morning on Forum on Energy and is available on Twitter via @forumonenergy.

UK Government Guarantees Hitachi Loan
The UK government announced that it will act as loan guarantor for Hitachi Ltd, which has been chosen to build a multibillion dollar nuclear reactor in Wales. This financial support comes as the country decided to upgrade its ageing nuclear fleet by the middle of the next decade. Hitachi is one of only a few companies willing to accept the upfront costs of building the new nuclear power plant projects.
Source: 4 Traders

ALPS is Up and Running at Fukushima
Toshiba’s ALPS system, a water treatment system that is being used to remove radionuclides from water at the Fukushima nuclear plant, is now operating successfully. The system faced several glitches that have now been addressed. ALPS can process 750 tons of contaminated water per day, and is able to remove all radionuclides except for tritium. Presently there are 400,000 tons of contaminated water stored at the site and an additional 400 metric tons of groundwater is contaminated every day. The next move for METI is to minimize the amount of groundwater that is contaminated. There are several existing proposals, including some submitted by foreign companies. The government is expected to choose a mix of approaches to limit water contamination to very low daily levels.
Source: The Wall Street Journal

Macfarlane Emphasizes Importance of Government-backed Regulators in Seoul
During a visit to South Korea this week, Nuclear Regulatory Commission Chairman Allison Macfarlane praised the relationship between the NRC and the Korean regulator, the Nuclear Safety and Security Commission, and called on all governments to support independent nuclear regulators to ensure safety and security. “Having a regulator that’s independent, well-funded, and backed by the government is essential to ensure efficient oversight over nuclear operators,” Macfarlane said. During Macfarlane’s visit to South Korea, Korea Hydro & Nuclear Power announced they would extend the scheduled maintenance closure of one reactor by two or three weeks to mid-January due to a cracked head. Currently, seven of South Korea’s 23 nuclear reactors are offline, including three shut down since May in the wake of the fake safety certificate scandal.
Sources: Penn Energy, Reuters

The U.S. Grid is Not Ready for Renewables
America’s current energy grid faces increasingly crucial challenges in adapting to the growing demand for renewable energy sources. Renewables add new levels of complexity to designing a modern energy grid because if their unpredictable nature and the dependence on weather. According to Trieu Mai, senior analyst at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, infrastructure is a big problem. “The grid was not built for renewables,” Mai said. A group of scholars at Caltech called making a green energy future work “one of the greatest technological challenges industrialized societies have undertaken.” The role of the grid is to keep the supply of power steady and predictable. Efficiency, however, is another issue. Engineers calculate how much energy is required in the system at any given moment, but a slight overload can crash the system. Many factors — including bad storms, cyber-attacks and human error — could contribute to a major malfunction causing widespread blackouts. States are investing increasing amounts to secure the power grid, while regulators and power company executives have been working to redesign the system. The work involves ideas for mapping and building vast networks of electrical lines; industrial-scale solar- and wind-power plants; and backup natural gas plants that can keep the lights on when shifts in weather cause renewable sources to falter. Planners are struggling to plot where and when to deploy solar panels, wind turbines and hydrogen fuel cells without knowing whether regulators will approve the transmission lines to support them.
Source: The Los Angeles Times

France May Face Shutdown Debate in 2020
France’s nuclear regulatory authority, the Autorite de Surete Nucleaire, has warned of the possible shutdown of more than a dozen aging reactors by the end of the decade due to safety concerns. The warning is the latest by the nuclear authority about Electricite de France SA’s nuclear plants, which provide about 75 percent of the country’s power output, the biggest proportion of any nation. President Francois Hollande has pledged to trim atomic output to half of total power production by about 2025, supplementing with renewable energy supplies. Hollande, who was elected last year, has ordered the permanent halt of two 900-megawatt nuclear units at EDF’s Fessenheim plant in eastern France by the end of 2016 because of concerns the site is earthquake prone. However, Industry Minister Arnaud Montebourg said the French government won’t shut any more of Electricite de France SA’s nuclear reactors after Fessenheim. The decision to keep all remaining reactors open would benefit not only EDF, but also its customers, according to Patrick Hummel, a utilities analyst at UBS in Zurich. “Consumer bills are set to rise substantially in any case, and forced nuclear closures would further accelerate this trend,” said Hummel. “The Germans who have abandoned nuclear are now forced to reopen coal plants,” Montebourg said. “They are now the biggest polluters of Europe.”
Sources: Bloomberg, The Washington Post

As the decommissioning efforts at Fukushima Daiichi continue, focus is starting to shift to Phase 2 of the project, which will include fuel retrieval from the reactor core in 2020.

In advance of this work, the International Research Institute for Nuclear Decommissioning (IRID) has released an RFI to solicit information from industry, academia and government-affiliated agencies on “issues related to designing innovative approaches to fuel debris retrieval, as well as to identifying technologies required to achieve the objectives.”

Read more about the initiative here.

The Forum on Energy weekly news roundup brings together a mix of global energy stories from around the web. It is published every Thursday morning on Forum on Energy and is available on Twitter via @forumonenergy.

Japan to Order 90 More LNG Tankers by 2020
The Maritime Executive reports that Japan’s top shipping companies are placing orders for more LNG tankers in preparation for increased imports of super-chilled LNG from North America. The companies include Mitsui O.S.K. Lines Ltd, Nippon Yusen KK and Kawasaki Kisen Kaisha Ltd. Spokesmen for the companies noted that the order numbers may change depending whether and how many nuclear reactors are restarted in the interim period.
Source: Maritime Executive

Millennium Towers Project Suspended Over Earthquake Concerns
A major construction project in Los Angeles has been halted over concerns that the buildings could straddle an earthquake fault, reports The New York Times. While opponents cite rules that prohibit construction within close proximity to faults, geologists maintain that the current fault maps are out of date. It is hoped that the emotionally charged debate will lead to an informed discussion over the costs versus risks of building in the earthquake-prone region.
Source: The New York Times

Pakistan Builds Major Nuclear Power Complex with Chinese Help
Pakistan broke ground on a $9.59 billion construction nuclear power complex on November 28. The occasion marks the beginning of the largest energy cooperation between China and Pakistan to date. The plants will be built around two ACP-1000 model Chinese reactors that will be fueled by uranium enriched by China. Energy poverty is one of the major domestic policy concerns in Pakistan. Furthermore, the growing China-Pakistan partnership is seen as a useful counterpoint to the U.S.-India partnerships, reports The New York Times.
Source: The New York Times

TEPCO and Mitsubishi Plan Coal-fired Plants in Fukushima
Tokyo Electric Power Co (TEPCO) and three Mitsubishi group firms plan to build new energy-efficient coal-fired power plants in Fukushima. TEPCO will partner with Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Mitsubishi Corp and Mitsubishi Electric to build integrated gasification combined-cycle (IGCC) stations, which discharge less atmospheric pollutants than normal coal-fired plants and may attract government subsidies. The plants are expected to be about 20 percent more efficient than conventional facilities. TEPCO and the Mitsubishi companies are seeking to open the new facilities as early as 2020. The project is aimed at helping TEPCO reduce its reliance on costly natural gas and create jobs in the area. TEPCO has been under pressure to introduce energy-efficient facilities since its nuclear power plants were closed following the Fukushima disaster, with no immediate prospects of restarting any nuclear plants due to public distrust. The two new facilities will be built in the city of Iwaki and the town of Hirono. The firms expect the plants to generate one million kilowatts — the equivalent of one nuclear reactor — as the utility moves to decommission Fukushima Daiichi.
Sources: Reuters, AFP, Japan Times 

The Forum on Energy weekly news roundup brings together a mix of global energy stories from around the web. It is published every Thursday morning on Forum on Energy and is available on Twitter via @forumonenergy.

Fuel Removal Begins at Fukushima Amid Doubts Over TEPCO’s Management Competence
The operation to remove nuclear fuel rods began the morning of November 18, marking the beginning of a decades-long process to decommission the Fukushima Daiichi plant. While removing spent fuel is a routine task at all nuclear facilities, recent safety bungles under TEPCO’s watch have the entire world watching this process with great interest. Risks include fire, should the fuel rods overheat, or explosion, should they collide. World Nuclear News reports on the carefully orchestrated step-by-step removal of the fuel rods, while The Economist describes the tense political circumstances surrounding the otherwise routine procedure.
Sources: The Economist, World Nuclear News

Japan Backs Away from Previous Emissions Commitments
At U.N. climate talks in Warsaw on Friday, Japan announced a decision to target a 3.8 percent greenhouse gas emissions cut by 2020 versus 2005 levels. This cut amounts to a 3 percent rise from the U.N. benchmark year in 1990 and the reversal of the previous target of a 25 percent overall reduction. The new target, however, is based on Japan’s never turning on any of its scores of offline nuclear plants. Japan’s environment minister, Nobuteru Ishihara, said that the new target “does not consider the possible effect of nuclear power plants reducing emissions” and that Japan “would set a more definite target” once it settled on what sources of energy it would use in the future. For many environmentalists, highlighting the increased emissions that would result from staying nuclear-free pinpoints the necessity of restarting Japan’s nuclear reactors. Since the 2011 disaster, Japan’s nuclear power program, which had provided about 30 percent of the country’s electricity, has been put to a stop amid concerns over safety, and the country has had to fill much of the gap with fossil fuel. The current government has been trying to get public consensus before turning some reactors back on, but so far the Nuclear Regulatory Authority’s new, tighter regulations have not convinced many Japanese that nuclear power is safe.
Sources: The Asahi Shimbun, The New York Times

Rosatom Aims to Increase Foreign Orders for 2013
Russian state nuclear enterprise Rosatom reported an increase of almost 31 percent in export orders in 2012. The corporation’s long-term strategy aims to significantly increase foreign orders by 2030. The strategy, approved by its board in late 2011, calls for foreign operations to account for half of its business by 2030. It aims to hold at least one-third of the global enrichment services market by then, as well as 5 percent of the market for pressurized water reactor (PWR) fuel. In its annual report for 2012, Rosatom said that its portfolio of foreign orders was worth a total $66.5 billion, up 30.7 percent from the previous year. It aims to increase these orders to $72 billion in 2013. The corporation said that it is “actively strengthening its position abroad for the construction of nuclear power plants.” Rosatom had a portfolio of export orders for 19 nuclear power reactors in 2012, but aims to have orders for the construction of some 30 power reactors outside of Russia by 2030. Rosatom head Sergei Kiriyenko noted, “The analysis of the global nuclear power industry in 2012 shows that the ‘Fukushima syndrome’ as a whole has been overcome, and most countries will continue to support and expand the use of nuclear power.”
Sources: NEI, World Nuclear News 

Federal Court Orders the U.S. Department of Energy to Stop Collecting Nuclear Waste Fee
A federal appeals court in Washington, D.C. ordered the U.S. Department of Energy to cease collecting the 0.1-cent charge from utilities for each nuclear-generated kilowatt-hour of electricity. The agency has collected the fee since 1983. The Nuclear Waste Fund currently consists of more than $24 billion and generates $750 million from utilities and $1 billion in interest annually. The court ordered the Secretary of Energy to submit a proposal to Congress to change the fee to zero until either the Secretary chooses to implement the Nuclear Waste Policy Act (and advance Yucca Mountain) or Congress enacts an alternative nuclear waste management plan.
Source: Politico

Union of Concerned Scientists says NRC Fails to Apply Earthquake Protection Protocols to Diablo Canyon Nuclear Power Plant
In a recent report, the Union of Concerned Scientists asserted the newly discovered Shoreline Fault near the Diablo Canyon Nuclear Power Plant on the central California coastline exceeds Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) safety standards. The report, “Seismic Shift: Diablo Canyon Literally and Figuratively on Shaky Ground,” claims similar concerns forced nuclear facilities in Pennsylvania, New York and Virginia to shut down until the NRC determined they could meet safety standards. The plant’s owner, Pacific Gas & Electric, responded to the allegations by stating that the facility is continually evaluated to ensure safety and that if the NRC felt for any reason that the plant was unsafe it would stop all operations.
Sources: KCOY, UCSUSA.org

The Forum on Energy weekly news roundup brings together a mix of global energy stories from around the web. It is published every Thursday morning on Forum on Energy and is available on Twitter via @forumonenergy.

TEPCO Set to Begin Process to Decommission Reactor Four at Fukushima
Reactor Four, the only one of the four reactors at Fukushima considered safe for human activity, is set to begin decommissioning in the coming weeks. This will be the most significant test yet for TEPCO in what is expected to be a long and expensive recovery process at the damaged nuclear power plant. Though the work to be completed at Reactor Four is complex and time consuming, Akira Ono, the plant’s chief supervisor, is confident in his team’s ability safely remove the spent fuel from the facility, stating “it’s not the first time for us to do this operation. At any ordinary nuclear power plant, workers remove spent fuel.” TEPCO predicts the decommissioning operations in Reactor Four will be complete by the end of 2014.
Sources: The Washington Post, BBC

Areva Completes Inspection of SUSI Robot
French nuclear company Areva has completed a first-of-its-kind inspection for the lifetime extension of an undisclosed nuclear power reactor’s primary system in the United States. This small, remote-controlled submarine navigates the primary system of a nuclear power plant and is equipped with technology to inspect components through ultrasonic and visual testing. SUSI evaluates the status of the reactor internals, and carries out an inspection that is critical in confirming the safety of these components for the plant’s planned long-term operation. The robot can also be used to remove foreign objects from within the primary system. Designed by Areva Germany, the SUSI robot is already extensively used at European nuclear power plants. The technology has now been adapted to meet the requirements of U.S. plant. SUSI technology is part of Areva’s new service program, known as Forward Alliance, that focuses on providing the most advanced products and solutions for continued operations of the existing nuclear fleet.
Sources: Penn Energy, World Nuclear News, Nuclear Energy Business Review

Toshiba to Purchase NuGeneration
Toshiba plans to buy a controlling interest in British nuclear firm NuGeneration in a bid to rekindle its atomic business, which has not drawn any new orders since the 2011 Fukushima crisis, according to the Nikkei business daily. The Japanese nuclear giant will be made through the U.S. nuclear unit Westinghouse Electric and will include a 50-percent stake in the British company as early as this year in a deal worth about 20 billion yen (US$200 million). NuGeneration is owned by European utilities GDF Suez (GSZ) SA and Iberdrola SA (IBE) and plans to develop a nuclear plant at Moorside in northwest England. Toshiba boosted its interest in Westinghouse earlier this year as it eyes atomic opportunities outside disaster-struck Japan. Rival Hitachi said last year it would buy British power firm Horizon to expand its nuclear business overseas.
Sources: AFP, China Post 

Latest Highlights Improved Working Conditions at Fukushima Plant
In its latest report, TEPCO announced plans to improve worker morale. The improvements range from increases to wages for employees and the premium paid to contractors, to improvements to on-site facilities including break rooms, catering, cell phone communications and transportation. A recent special report by Reuters revealed how mismanagement by subcontractors and fear over working near nuclear radiation has contributed to low morale among TEPCO workers. Also this week, a former TEPCO worker won an award for his manga comic that depicts his experiences working at the Fukushima Daiichi plant.
Sources: World Nuclear News (1,2)

Dr. Jim Seward was one of the many presenters at the Oct. 14 joint meeting of the U.S.-Japan Roundtable and the Forum on Energy’s Editorial Board. Seward is a Clinical Professor of Medicine at the University of California San Francisco and a Clinical Professor of Public Health at the University of California Berkeley. He’s lectured extensively on radiation health issues.

According to Seward, the radiation released at the Fukushima Daiichi site is unlikely to significantly increase the risk of cancer among nuclear workers, children or people who eat fish — provided that Japan continues to maintain and monitor its strict regulations regarding radiation. At issue is a debate over the relationship between exposure and cancer risk. At low levels (defined as below 100 millisieverts, or msv) it is not possible to measure how the dosage increases the risk of cancer. Does risk increase incrementally with low levels of exposure or is 100 msv a threshold, below which the risk remains low? In his presentation, Seward discussed evidence from areas of high natural radiation, as well as observable rates of cancer in Fukushima workers, both of which indicate that the risk of cancer remains low.

View his presentation below:

Fukushima NPP Disaster and Implications for Human Health