TVA to shutter coal plants, turn to nuclear

TVA directors approved plans here Friday to move ahead with reviving work on its unfinished Bellefonte Nuclear Plant in Alabama, and replacing coal fired plants in the process. During Friday’s public hearing, anti-nuclear activists blasted TVA for putting $248 million in next year’s budget to move ahead with reviving the Bellefonte Nuclear Plant in Hollywood, Ala., where construction was halted in 1988. Chattanooga Times Free Press.

Fallout from Russia's fires: the ashes of Chernobyl?

A deputy for the regional parliament in Bryansk, Lyudmila Komogortseva, found that radiation levels in the burning forests were six to 12 times higher than they were before the fires began. But just as Moscow kept many of Chernobyl's victims in the dark for days about the dangers they faced — volunteer cleanup crews worked in the wreckage with their bare hands, unaware that they were being exposed to lethal doses of radiation — Russia's leaders again tried to pretend nothing was wrong. Time.

Seabrook reactor goes for license renewal 20 years in advance

Owners of the Seabrook nuclear power plant in New Hampshire have announced plans to request an operating license renewal 20 years before the expiration of the current license. At a press conference today, a newly-formed coalition of local, regional and national groups filed a formal petition to the NRC to change its rule to require that the license extension process begin no more than 10 years before the expiration date. The petition further calls on NRC to suspend its current review of Seabrook owners, NextEra’s (aka Florida Power & Light) license extension application for the historically controversial Seabrook nuclear power station. Seabrook was the site of huge protests and sit-ins in the mid-1970s during construction. The second planned reactor was dismantled and four companies went bankrupt before the current Seabrook reactor became operational. (Photo Eric A. Roth, May 1977 courtesy of Harold Marcuse Web site). 

Russian wild fires could spread radioactive dust from Chernobyl

The Russian Emergencies Minister is warning of possible radiation risks, as wildfires approach closer to the area affected by the Chernobyl nuclear disaster, according to Russia Today. The main fear is that the fires, which are moving further south of Moscow toward the Bryansk region, could disturb and spread the contamination buried in the ground after the Chernobyl nuclear accident. Contaminated soil could be lofted into the air and carried in the wind contaminating more areas. Multiple crews have been dispatched to try to prevent the fires spreading there.

Update on August 11, 2010 by admin

Officials from Russia’s federal forest protection service confirmed that fires were burning at contaminated sites on Tuesday, and expressed fears that lax oversight as a result of recent changes in the forestry service could increase the chances that radioactive smoke would waft into populated areas. The New York Times.

“This is not a repeat of Chernobyl," Vladimir Chuprov, head of the energy program at Greenpeace Russia,i is quoted to say, adding the Russian authorities in the Bryansk region had cordoned off the contaminated forests. Greenpeace Russia however added that government authorities are downplaying the threat rather than admit the real risks from wildfires resuspending and spreading the radioactive contamination.

Meanwhile, the Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) had no comment on health concerns from radioactive smoke.

Safety fears about French Areva EPR raised in Europe and U.S.

The New York Times has reported allegations of safety significant design flaws with nuclear fuel rod cladding, as well as the danger of control rod ejection accidents, at the French Areva "European Pressurized Reactor" targeted at Flammanville on the Normandy Coast. Meanwhile, the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission has continued to question the safety of interconnections between safety and non-safety "Instrumentation and Control" systems at the Areva "Evolutionary Power Reactor" targeted to be built at Calvert Cliffs nuclear power plant in Maryland, Nine Mile Point on the Lake Ontario shoreline in New York State, and elsewhere. See the NRC press release here.