Babcock & Wilcox shuffles businesses

Babcock & Wilcox has clearly divided its nuclear business into two operating entities as of today; one concerned with conventional nuclear plants, and the other concerned with the new SMR (Small Modular Reactor) business that it is developing under the Generation mPower name.

Babcock & Wilcox official release on business realignment

4:38 PM Eastern Wednesday January 11, 2012
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Nuclear Lunch, Fukushima, and other issues.

Yesterday marked the third Ohio meeting of Nuclear Bloggers, an event that saw the full two hours we'd set aside totally filled with a regular future meeting schedule planned. The participants were Dan Yurman, who writes not only the blog "Idaho Samizdat" but who also writes for ANS Nuclear Cafe and for Fuel Cycle Weekly; Leslie Corrice, whose site "The Hiroshima Syndrome" includes a well done Fukushima update section; and myself.

We believe that only here in Northern Ohio is it possible to assemble three pro-nuclear bloggers in one spot. Are there other places this is possible? Or, can we make it four or more people here? Let me know through the comments if either is possible.

We carried on a number of widely disparate discussions - and of course touched on Fukushima Daiichi. I mentioned the abrupt cutoff of the wide range of press relations material TEPCO had been releasing around three to four weeks ago; Leslie had noted the same thing. Dan mentions that with TEPCO about to be nationalized in all probability, there might be a cutoff of what could be perceived as needless communication to the press. Further, I might add today, with the declaration of "Cold Shutdown" by the owner-operator, the regulatory body, and the government, there may be a perceived lower need for constant communication.

Speaking of Fukushima Daiichi news... here are two news items from today.

-TEPCO has begun to reduce the nitrogen injection rate at No. 2 plant in order to lower the containment pressure (injection rate lowered but gas handling discharge or suction rate maintained the same) as a preparatory step to drilling the containment for insertion of a camera probe as detailed here a short while back.

-There is exactly one news headline at the moment stating that the Japanese government has instructed TEPCO to prepare details on what would be needed to repair the Fukushima Daini nuclear station. This is curious considering the Fukushima Prefecture governor's statement that he will not allow further nuclear plant operation in is prefecture. One might imagine TEPCO would like to obtain revenue from operating these plants, and one might imagine the Japanese government would like to get manufacturing infrastructure up again (as well as electric power in the prefecture for recovery) which both run counter to that governor's wishes. We will have to see if the report spreads outside pay-walls and is actually true.

One of our discussion topics yesterday was the fact that the Japanese cannot survive forever without nuclear energy. Their manufacturing base requires a great deal of electric power; further, the nation cannot operate as a fuel importer. Nuclear energy has been one of the cornerstones of Japan's economic structure for decades and the loss of it now (if plants are kept idle by legislative action, not by safety related regulatory action) could lead to the collapse of Japan's economy. Of course, there are some who feel that the Japanese government also cannot assume the debts of TEPCO should it be nationalized -- making it all the more essential that TEPCO's remaining intact plants be restarted (once quake and tsunami proofed, that is) so that some revenue can begin to come in and add black ink to the books even if it does not erase the red. It does seem to this writer that the Japanese who are now intolerably anti-nuclear cannot see the bigger picture, at least for the short to medium term.

10:30 AM Eastern Wednesday January 11, 2011
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Carnival No. 86 is now up!

NEI Nuclear Notes is hosting this week's Carnival of Nuclear Bloggers. This rotating feature contains posts from the best pro-nuclear bloggers and is always a great way to find out what is on their minds and what is happening in the nuclear industry (and in the regulatory bodies) that matters.

Carnival 86 at NEI Nuclear Notes

6:20 PM Eastern Monday January 9, 2012
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British nuclear stress tests: Results are in

According to this report, the Office for Nuclear Regulation (the British nuclear regulatory body) has indicated a satisfactory result for the stress testing of the nuclear plants in that country.

The full report can be found here:

Office for Nuclear Regulation - Stress Test National Final Report Dec 2011

5:45 PM Eastern Wednesday January 4, 2012
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AAAS Symposium on Nuclear Reporting

Thanks to Nicole Stricker, PhD, who is the Science Press Officer at the Idaho National Laboratory, I've been made aware of a very interesting symposium which is to be presented by the AAAS (American Association for the Advancement of Science) this February. This event is titled "Misreporting Fukushima: A Failure of Science Journalism with Global Repercussions?" Here is a link:

Misreporting Fukushima - Symposium by AAAS in Vancouver, Feb. 20

There is absolutely no doubt in this writer's mind that the vast majority of what was reported in the mainstream press in the months immediately following the Fukushima Daiichi accident was not only incorrect, but seriously flawed. Consultation of both anti-nuclear speakers such as Arnie Gunderson, and people with no nuclear knowledge whatsoever, like Michio Kaku, was regular and normal in those days. The Union of Concerned Scientists, which actually is an organization with agendas (such as being anti-nuclear) and not some oversight panel, was also consulted and quoted.

I think we all see how their predictions worked out. No contamination in the US; no deaths in the US; no radioactive fallout blanketing the Pacific islands; no massive hydrovolcanic explosion due to 'China syndrome' melt-through; no evacuation of Tokyo. No spent fuel pool fires, or prompt criticality in a spent fuel pool (this last being a wonderful Gunderson gaffe) or recriticality of damaged reactors. None of it. So far, none of the pre-apocalyptic horsefeathers these people and organizations spread around have come true.

The major problem of course is that anyone listened to them. The wide distribution of such clearly anti-nuclear (and thus strongly biased) trash as "news" bothered many in positions to know better - but the actual occurrence of the accident itself seemed to be enough to give them a brief season of credibility. We, on the pro-nuclear side, were saddled with sentiments on the order of "well you said this could never happen and now it has so why listen to you?"

None of us said that this could never happen. That's a straw man put out by people who just have absolutely no clue WHAT we've said because, for thirty or more years, they haven't listened.

So now we find ourselves in a world where several nations have decided to dump nuclear energy in a knee jerk reaction to something that happened all the way around the world and doesn't affect them one iota (Germany, and others.) Fukushima Prefecture in Japan is probably permanently non-nuclear now (its governor, as reported here at APR has indicated he will not allow any further nuclear plant operation) but the rest of Japan is up in the air. The tendency of plants shut down for inspection or maintenance not to restart (except for one plant) is bothersome as well.

Luckily there are places where need for reliable energy is high enough and desire for moral high ground (or self-immolation) low enough that nuclear is quite in the cards. This includes the United States, where the Westinghouse AP1000 has just been approved by the NRC. There are further promising signs elsewhere...

South Korea has over 17000 Mw of nuclear plant capacity on line.

'Fuel poverty' in England can only be alleviated by nuclear and they know it.

Slovakia: 50% of electric capacity is nuclear, and it's passed stress tests.

I could go on and on with links to show places where nuclear energy is moving forward, but suffice it to say that the entire world is NOT anti-nuclear. Recent polls in the United States still show a positive for nuclear energy in acceptance.

Even with the horrible mainstream reporting on nuclear energy and the Fukushima accident, and the rampant celebrity anti-nuclearism as well.

It is in the context I've outlined above that I await the results of this symposium. I've been assured by Dr. Stricker that we'll have as much information from the event as possible. I should also note that each of the speakers has a paper linked right at the AAAS page; these provide great information on the topic. It is about time that the press came to terms with its poor job in reporting technical issues; perhaps this AAAS symposium will wake some of the people in the mainstream media up.

5:10 PM Eastern Wednesday January 4, 2012
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An update on the Russian submarine fire.

There are new photos and reports out which indicate that the fire which recently occurred while a Russian Delta IV class SSBN was drydocked was actually inside the submarine... at least, inside the superstructure or outer hull.

The fire appears to have taken place inside the outer hull, but outside the pressure hull. The following site has some interesting photos but it should be made clear that what we appear to be seeing here is an outer hull cut allowing access to the forward main ballast tanks and NOT to the submarine's torpedo room.

January 3 update on BARENTS OBSERVER

The actual job that was being performed is not clear, although use of wooden scaffolding is clear. There may have been welding work in the ballast tank to add or remove solid (lead or other material) ballast to correct ship trim, or there may have been welding work to replace piping or ballast tank valves, or there may have been other work underway of another nature.

It's even more clear now that the power plant (two reactors) was at no risk due to this fire.

11:10 AM Eastern Tuesday January 3, 2012
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Carnival No. 85

Meredith Angwin at "Yes Vermont Yankee," one of my favorite blogs, put up what is to be the last Carnival of Nuclear Bloggers of 2011 over the holiday weekend.

85th Carnival at Yes Vermont Yankee

Meredith also points out at the very bottom of the post that January 1 marks the birthday of Yes Vermont Yankee, and on this January 1 her blog is two years old. Congratulations, Meredith! We're all the better for it.

8:45 AM Eastern Tuesday January 3, 2012
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