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U.S. nuclear power plants bolster defenses against cyberattacks
The threat to digital systems at the U.S. nuclear power plants is considerable — especially for new nuclear power facilities that would be built in the United States and throughout the world, as control rooms would employ digital systems to operate the plants; these state-of-the-art instruments and systems make them targets for hackers
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Scientists call for a global nuclear power renaissance
Scientists call for a 2-stage campaign to revive nuclear power; the first stage could see countries with existing nuclear infrastructure replacing or extending the life of nuclear power stations, followed by a second phase of global expansion in the industry by the year 2030; the team says their roadmap could fill an energy gap as old nuclear, gas, and coal fired plants around the world are decommissioned, while helping to reduce the planet’s dependency on fossil fuels
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New funding, schedule agreed for nuclear fusion project
The governing council of ITER, Europe’s fusion reactor project, reached the deal on the financing and timetable for the experimental reactor after a two-day meeting in Cadarache; Europe pledged to provide additional financing of a maximum €6.6 billion ($8.5 billion); the total estimated bill for the EU has doubled to €7.2 billion ($9.2 billion), with the overall cost now reckoned to be around €15 billion; the reactor will become operational in November 2019
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EC to decide on how to advance ITER nuclear fusion project
Delays and cost overruns have cast a cloud over a multi-billion-dollar European nuclear fusion project aiming to make the power that fuels the sun a practical energy source on Earth; tomorrow, the EC meets tomorrow to decide on how to proceed with the ITER project, which is now expected to cost around €15 billion and be completed in 2019
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Software to cut millions from nuclear clean-up bill
New software lets planners work out the best way of breaking up and packing contaminated equipment while minimizing workers’ radiation exposure. It also shows in minute detail how radioactive waste can be stored in the smallest possible space, reducing the number of long-term storage containers needed
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China's nuclear reactors to use technology rejected by U.S., U.K. as unsafe
Ten of China’s proposed nuclear power reactors will use Westinghouse’s AP1000 advanced technology; the United States rejected the AP100 design, saying key components of the reactormight not withstand events like earthquakes and tornadoes; the United Kingdom indicated it, too, would reject Westinghouse’s new reactor because it could be vulnerable to terrorist attacks
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Leak at Vermont nuclear plant
Yet more troubles for the already-troubled Vermont Yankee nuclear plant: an 18-inch crack is found a fiberglass cooling tower pipe — the second crack in the same pipe; since the beginning of the year, the plant has experienced several accidents, among them a tritium leak and a leak of Strontium-90 into the neighboring soil and ground water; the leaks were found in an examination which was part of the plant’s request for a 20-year extension of its operating license
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U.K. to build ten new nuclear power plants by 2025
The United Kingdom will build ten new nuclear power plants by 2025; these plants will supply 25 percent of the country’s energy needs; to move the licensing process quickly, the government has promised “faster and fairer planning decisions”
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Italian-Russian reactor could be the first to achieve self-sustaining fusion
As the interest in alternatives to fossil fuels grows, so does the interest in nuclear fusion; a Russian-Italian project will build a self-sustaining fusion reactor based on a design by an MIT scientist; the design employs a doughnut-shaped device which uses powerful magnetic fields to produce fusion by squeezing superheated plasma of hydrogen isotopes
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The day of transportable, refrigerator-size nuclear reactor nears
The need for more energy and the growing interest in energy not based on fossil material have led to a revival of interest in nuclear power; there is a competition afoot among several companies for designing and building — and receiving a operation license for — a refrigerator-size nuclear reactor; the $50 million, 25-megawatt unit is transportable by truck, and would put electricity into 20,000 homes
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Russia, Italy to build new fusion reactor
The reactor, designed by MIT researchers, is based on MIT’s Alcator fusion research program, which has the highest magnetic field and highest plasma pressure of any fusion reactor, and is the largest university-based fusion reactor in the world; the new reactor, called Ignitor, would be about twice the size of Alcator — but much smaller and less expensive than the ITER fusion reactor currently under construction in France
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DOE removes from its Web site a guide on nuclear plant air attacks
Since 2008 the Department of Energy’s Web site offered the public a virtual how-to manual for attacking a nuclear plant with an airplane; The document showed the areas that a plane could hit at a reactor with maximum effect, and it cited buildings or targets that a plane could strike and cause radioactive release; the document has now been removed
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New York denies water permit for Indian Point nuclear plant
The New York Department of Environmental Conservation denied water-quality certification to Indian Point nuclear power plant; the operator requires the certification to extend by twenty years the license to operate the 2,000-megawatt plant
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Japan plans nuclear power expansion
Japan imports 80 percent of its energy; the government has a plan aiming to reduce that figure to just 30 percent by 2030; the key to the plan: building eight new nuclear reactors by 2020 — adding to the country’s 54 operating reactors; Japan is also about to resume operations of the world’s only fast-breeder reactor; the plan faces public opposition, especially in light of Japan’s history of earthquakes
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New research points way to safer nuclear reactors
Self-repairing materials within nuclear reactors may one day become a reality as a result of research by Los Alamos National Laboratory scientists; when designing nuclear reactors or the materials that go into them, one of the key challenges is finding materials that can withstand an outrageously extreme environment; researchers find that nanocrystalline materials may offer an answer
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