Posted by NucNet on 13 January 2014 in NucNet
Nuclear scientists at the Japan Atomic Energy Agency (JAEA) are to create a “mini nuclear reactor meltdown” to try to better understand what causes them, the Japan Atomic Industrial Forum (Jaif) has said. Jaif told NucNet that the team wants to use the controlled meltdown to learn how ...
Posted by NucNet on 10 January 2014 in NucNet
Nuclear power stations in the US operated at “nearly 100 percent” capacity during record cold temperatures experienced in the US this week, the Nuclear Energy Institute (NEI) has said. NEI senior vice-president of communications Scott Peterson said all of the country’s 100 commercially operational nuclear power units were ...
Posted by NucNet on 9 January 2014 in NucNet
Public attitudes towards nuclear power in the UK have not followed a trajectory that could have been expected following the March 2011 accident at Fukushima-Daiichi in Japan, a report says. The report, published by the UK Energy Research Centre, describes the findings of a survey conducted in March ...
Posted by NucNet on 8 January 2014 in NucNet
The University of Leeds in England is to lead a consortium of 10 universities in a national research programme looking at ways of dealing with the country’s nuclear waste. The eight million pound (13 million US dollars, 9.6 million euros) project, funded by the Engineering and Physical Sciences ...
Posted by NucNet on 6 January 2014 in NucNet
The UK’s joint nuclear regulators have announced that they are progressing to the next phase of their assessment of a new nuclear reactor design that could be built at two sites in the UK. The Office for Nuclear Regulation and the Environment Agency said in a statement they ...
An initiative to bring together all the scientific research on exposure to low and very low doses of ionising radiation will improve the global radiological protection system and could have major implications for dealing with the rehabilitation of areas affected by the March 2011 Fukushima-Daiichi nuclear accident, the ...
Posted by NucNet on 2 January 2014 in NucNet
The problems that led to core meltdown and fuel damage at Unit 1 of the Fukushima-Daiichi nuclear plant began as a direct result of the impact of the tsunami and not a loss of coolant from pipe failure caused by the earthquake, a report by plant operator Tokyo ...
Posted by PJ Owen (SONE Webmaster) on 31 January 2013 in Historic
The standardisation of new nuclear units being planned for the US will be the most significant factor in reducing up-front costs for reactors, the Nuclear Energy Institute’s (NEI) president and chief executive officer has said. In an interview with NucNet, Marvin Fertel said he doubted if the US ...
Posted by NucNet on 31 January 2013 in NucNet
Graphene oxide, a two-dimensional material that contains pure carbon, has “a remarkable ability” to quickly remove radioactive material from contaminated water and could be used in cleaning up contaminated sites such as the Fukushima-Daiichi nuclear plant, researchers at Rice University in Texas and Lomonosov Moscow State University have ...
Posted by NucNet on 30 January 2013 in NucNet
The UK government says it will embark on “a renewed drive” to find a community to host a deep geological repository for radioactive waste after a local authority in northwest England voted against hosting the planned facility. Cumbria County Council voted today to withdraw from the process to ...
The final results of a referendum in Bulgaria mean the issue of new nuclear build will now be debated in the country’s parliament. Bulgaria’s Central Electoral Commission (CEC) yesterday confirmed the results of the nationwide referendum on Sunday on the development of nuclear energy through the construction of ...
Posted by NucNet on 22 January 2013 in NucNet
Japan’s nuclear regulator has presented a draft outline of new safety standards for nuclear power plants in the wake of the Fukushima-Daiichi nuclear disaster, including countermeasures against severe accidents and criteria for evacuating areas around nuclear power plants during an emergency. The proposed measures include a requirement to ...
Posted by NucNet on 21 January 2013 in NucNet
The European Commission has called for a ministerial meeting to allow all parties to the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) to reconfirm their political commitment to the project, EU commissioner for energy Günther Oettinger has said. In a speech on 17 January 2013 at the inauguration of ITER’s ...
Posted by NucNet on 18 January 2013 in NucNet
The Swiss Federal Chancellery said yesterday that 107,533 of the 108,227 signatures on a popular initiative submitted by the Green Party for a partial revision of the federal constitution on the phase-out of nuclear energy are valid, meaning the measure will be put to a nationwide vote. The ...
Posted by NucNet on 17 January 2013 in NucNet
Without a sustainable energy mix that includes nuclear energy, Europe’s economy will be less competitive, industry will move abroad and jobs will “inevitably be lost”, Poland’s deputy economy minister and commissioner for nuclear energy has said. In an article written for the policy journal ‘Europe’s World,’ Hanna Trojanowska ...
Posted by NucNet on 15 January 2013 in NucNet
EDF Energy’s 15 nuclear reactor units in the UK produced their highest output for seven years in 2012, enough to power half of the country’s homes, the company has said. According to EDF, the 60 terawatt hours (TWh) of electricity produced by the units, at eight nuclear stations, ...
