Nuclear industry expects higher level of safety culture

The head of Korea Hydro and Nuclear Power (KHNP), Jong-shin Kim, has resigned in the wake of a safety-related incident at the Kori nuclear power plant and subsequent concerns over safety culture, the World Nuclear Association reported on April 17.

During a maintenance shutdown a worker who had not been following proper procedure accidentally broke the connection to the grid and caused a 12-minute station black-out at Kori 1. It was a serious lapse

Korea Hydro and Nuclear Power (KHNP), the state-owned utility operates 23 nuclear power reactors. The move by Kim was announced to journalists by the responsible minister, Sukwoo Hong, who added that the resignation is expected to be accepted by President Lee Myung-bak.

Korea’s faith in its highly successful nuclear sector was shaken last month by revelations of a safety-related incident that occurred in February. . The manager of the reactor decided to conceal this, despite a legal obligation to notify the Nuclear Safety and Security Commission (NSSC) of the technical emergency situation.

The circumstances of the incident and its cover-up have been the subject of investigation by the NSSC. The reactor manager was dismissed after admitting his actions.

Kim held the top position at KHNP since 2007, being reappointed in 2010 following recognition of his role in a Korean consortium’s successful bid to export four large reactors to the UAE.

World Association of Nuclear Operators (WANO) plans to send a representative to Korea

 

Why nuclear power is not the dream that failed

On March 10, 2012, The Economist, the British magazine published an article titled ” Nuclear power: the dream that failed”. I responded  in Rediffmail.com by writing an article titled “Why nuclear power is not the dream that failed”.

This article has now been published in the INPO-WANO News & Report dated April 20, 20012.

You can access this article at:

<a href=http://inpowano.blogspot.com/2012/04/why-nuclear-power-is-not-dream-that.html?>Hyperlink Code</a>

Five story building to be put through a series of earthquakes and fires

What happens when you put a fully equipped five-story building, which includes an intensive care unit, a surgery suite, piping and air conditioning, fire barriers and even a working elevator, through series of high-intensity earthquakes?

Further information on the $5 million tests at:

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2012-04/uoc–epf041212.php

Nuclear renaissance may continue

On March 20, 2012, Mr Praful Bidwai wrote an article titled “The end of the nuclear illusion” in The Daily Star. I have responded to this opinion piece. You may access my article titled “Nuclear renaissance may continue” in The Daily Star on April 11, 2012  at:

http://www.thedailystar.net/newDesign/news-details.php?nid=229890

Fukushima accident was avoidable

On March 11, 2011, an earthquake of magnitude 9.0 on the Richter scale, followed by a 15-metre tsunami caused incalculable damage in Japan. The natural disaster killed nearly 20,000 persons and caused an economic loss of nearly US$ 500 billion.

It led to a serious situation at the Fukushima Atomic Power Station (Fukushima Daiichi). The cores of three reactors at the plant largely melted in the first three days. The accident was rated 7, the highest on the International Nuclear Event Scale (INES), due to high radioactive releases in the first few days. Four reactors are written off…….

In a telling report released on March 6 this year, Mr James M Acton and Mr Mark Gibbs of the Carnegie Mellon Endowment for International Peace showed that the accident was preventable.

I wrote a feature article based on this report.It can be accessed at:

http://www.navhindtimes.in/opinion/fukushima-accident-was-avoidable

Tobacco companies beware, reporting requirements on harmful chemical contents in your products

If Sir Richard Doll the eminent epidemiologist were alive, he would have been the happiest man. He was the first scientist to establish a link between cigarette smoking and lung cancer. He coauthored a paper in the British Medical Journal in 1954. An update coauthored by him in 2004 in the same journal  showed that fifty percent of smokers will die of it.

He would have certainly applauded the decision of The US Food and Drug Administration(USFDA) to impose stringent reporting requirements on tobacco manufacturers. Once the rules become effective by the end of the year, they will have to report the concentrations of the Harmful and Potentially Harmful Constituents (HPHCs) in their products.

Scientific studies show that there are 7,000 chemicals in tobacco and tobacco smoke.US FDA has identified 93 of them as HPHCs. FDA demands reporting of 20 out of the 93 to begin with.

Details of  US FDA decision may be accessed at:

http://www.fda.gov/ForConsumers/ConsumerUpdates/ucm297878.htm?source=govdelivery and other notices

Let us hope that the restrictions put small companies out of business and the bigger ones to make the product so expensive that smokers will be encouraged to kick habit!

Anti nuclear activists are lying or are ignorant

With malice towards none, and knowledge for all!

Those keen to sift facts from fiction may read the following note:

There is widespread wrong information about the status of nuclear power in USA after 1979, the year in which the accident occurred at the Three Mile Island nuclear power station.

Many anti nuclear activists state that since 1977, USA has not built any new nuclear power plant. There is a little confusion here. It is true that USA has not issued any new licence to construct a nuclear power plant. Government approved  up-rating the power of existing reactors by 6000MW from 1977 to 2011. From 2011 to 2015, 3211 MWe will be added.

Electric companies connected 50 out of the 104 currently operating nuclear power plants in USA to the grid after 1979, the year in which the Three Mile Island accident occurred. Nineteen of them after 1986, the year in which the Chernobyl accident occurred. Fifty three out of the 59 French reactors came on line after 1979.

The net capacity factor  of a power plant is the ratio of the actual output of a power plant over a period of time and its potential output if it had operated at full  capacity the entire time.

The capacity factor of nuclear power reactors in USA averaged about 57 % in 1980. It increased gradually. From 2004 till 2010 (the latest data)it averaged over 90%. Twenty two US nuclear power reactors out of the 104 exceeded  a capacity factor of 100%. In 2010 the capacity factors of other modes of power generation in % were: Biomass 85.5;.Geothermal 71.6;Coal (Steam turbine) 65.4;Gas(Combined cycle) 45.8;Hydro 29.4; Wind 29.1;Solar 17.7;Gas (Steam turbine) 12.9; oil (steam turbine) 8.9

Anti-nuclear critics claim that Russia stopped constructing nuclear power after 1986, the year in which the accident occurred at the Chernobyl nuclear power station.

What is the factual position?

 Russian power utilities started commercial operation of eight nuclear power reactors after 1986 . One of them in May 1986 a month after the Chernobyl accident. The last one of 950 Mgawatt became critical on November 11, 2011 and is operating at 50% power as one December 13, 2011.

Russia currently has an installed nuclear power capacity of 24,164 MWe from 33 reactors. It has started construction and  planned and proposed to erect 53 nuclear power reactors with a total capacity of over 50,000 MWe

China operates 15 reactors with a total capacity of 11,881 MWe starting from 1994. Nuclear power reactors under construction and  planned number 77 with a total capacity of 85,750MW.

Additional reactors are planned, including some of the world’s most advanced, to give a five- or six-fold increase in nuclear capacity to at least 60 GWe by 2020, then 200 GWe by 2030, and 400 GWe by 2050. 

Until March 2011, Germany generated 25% of its electricity from nuclear energy using 17 reactors.In 1998, Germany decided to phase out nuclear power; in 2009 Government cancelled this policy but shut down eight reactors post Fukushima even before the factual position about the accident was known.

 French and Czechs are happy going to their banks. To compensate for the power generated by the seven reactors, Germany imports power from France and Czech Republic. France’s share of export to Germany increased by 50% in the first half of the year; Czech’s share went up by a whopping 673%(The Sydney Herald, November 26, 2011)

According to the paper, at peak times, up to four nuclear power stations in France and the Czech Republic are running just to cater to the demands of Germany