Nuclear News: Gravelines - Nuclear plant shut in fuel incident
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Today's big stories from the nuclear industry:
The Connexion: Gravelines - Nuclear plant shut in fuel incident
’THE nuclear power plant at Gravelines - between Dunkirk and Calais - was evacuated after a "significant" incident at the weekend. While there was no radioactive leak to the outside air, staff were cleared from the site and the reactor shut until the incident was under control. Plant operators were clearing out spent nuclear fuel rods from the No1 reactor overnight on Saturday-Sunday when one became jammed on a support frame. The Nuclear Safety Authority (ASN) classed the incident as level 1 on its 0-7 scale of danger and plant bosses said there was "no risk" to the environment from the incident. However, there have been five level 1 incidents at Gravelines over the past three years and an incident of similar severity happened in July 2008 at the EDF nuclear power station at Tricastin in the Drôme.’
Times of India: Jihadis thrice attacked Pakistan nuclear sites
’WASHINGTON: Pakistan's nuclear facilities have already been attacked at least thrice by its home-grown extremists and terrorists in little reported incidents over the last two years, even as the world remains divided over the safety and security of the nuclear weapons in the troubled country, according to western analysts. The incidents, tracked by Shaun Gregory, a professor at Bradford University in UK, include an attack on the nuclear missile storage facility at Sargodha on November 1, 2007, an attack on Pakistan's nuclear airbase at Kamra by a suicide bomber on December 10, 2007, and perhaps most significantly the August 20, 2008 attack when Pakistani Taliban suicide bombers blew up several entry points to one of the armament complexes at the Wah cantonment, considered one of Pakistan's main nuclear weapons assembly.’
Miami Herald: Florida Cabinet OK's first new nuclear plant in 33 years
’TALLAHASSEE -- The Florida Cabinet on Tuesday approved Progress Energy's controversial proposal to build a nuclear plant in Levy County, the first such plant approved in Florida in 33 years. The vote by Gov. Charlie Crist, Attorney General Bill McCollum and Chief Financial Officer Alex Sink comes as Progress seeks to raise its base rates by 30 percent to pay for the nuclear plant, which would not be up and running until at least 2018. But critics, several of whom showed up at the Capitol to protest the vote and complain about ``corporate greed,'' question the safety of the plant and its impact on wetlandssurrounding the 5,000-acre site north of the town of Inglis. "I'm concerned about the time it is going to take to build this plant. I am concerned about the danger and about the legacy we are leaving to our children,'' said state Rep. Michelle Rehwinkle-Vasilinda. ``We are leaving a legacy of waste. It is not truly clean. There is waste, and it has to be permanently disposed. We have not figured out how to do that, and I am concerned.''
’RICHLAND, Wash. - Washington state and federal officials announced a court-enforceable schedule Tuesday for cleaning up the nation's most contaminated nuclear site, ending more than two years of negotiations that followed dozens of missed deadlines. Southeast Washington's sprawling Hanford nuclear reservation, created as part of the top-secret Manhattan Project to build the atomic bomb during World War II, has been a focus of extensive cleanup efforts for two decades. In that time, the pact that governs cleanup has been changed more than 400 times. Washington state sued the Energy Department last November over missed cleanup deadlines, though the two sides settled part of the lawsuit in February. The agreement will be available for public comment Sept. 24 through Nov. 9. The parties also still must consult with area American Indian tribes, including the Yakama Nation. Russell Jim, an environmental restoration expert who has advocated Hanford cleanup for the tribe since 1977, said tribal leaders still must evaluate the agreement before passing judgment. But he called the legally binding consent decree "historic."’
The Australian: Quake shuts nuclear plants
’A STRONG earthquake off Japan's central Honshu coast, in the middle of the world's most seismically dangerous geology, injured more than 60 people and shut down reactors at the Hamaoka nuclear power plant yesterday. At a preliminary magnitude of 6.4 on the US Geological Survey's moment magnitude scale (replacing the older Richter), yesterday's quake was the second in 36 hours to rock the Tokai region and Tokyo to the northeast. Centred just 30km southwest of Shizuoka City, in Suruga Bay, and 175km southwest of central Tokyo, it was another forewarning of the Tokai region "great" earthquake for which Japan has been preparing more than 30 years. The two reactors in operation at Hamaoka nuclear power plant shut down automatically, as they are designed to do, and Chubu Electric Power Co said no damage had been sustained or radiation leaked. Although the Hamaoka complex has been hardened against high-magnitude quakes since it was discovered to bestride an active fault, its critics say the plant's location could make the next Tokai great quake uniquely dangerous.’
Reuters: Q+A-Myanmar and N.Korea nuclear ties: smoke or fire?
’SINGAPORE, Aug 11 (Reuters) - Speculation that North Korea has been helping military-ruled Myanmar build nuclear facilities near its capital has been growing recently, with U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton voicing those concerns last month. But are the reports -- including one mainly based on interviews with Mynamar defectors -- more smoke than fire?Several security analysts do not believe the site shown in satellite photos circulating on some security analysts blogs is a likely site for Myanmar's nuclear arsenal facilities. Sean O'Connor said on his blog www.armscontrolwonk.com that it was too far from sources of water needed to cool the reactor and was more likely to be a support base for any such facility.’
The International News: A Q Khan - Kahuta - a history
’"Tremendous pressure was brought on Pakistan; our economic aid was cut off by the USA and an embargo was put on even such small things as rubber O-rings and magnets. We faced these problems with boldness and increased our efforts to finish the job as soon as possible. "Once it was known that we were working on the enrichment technology, the Western press mounted a most vicious and unfounded propaganda against our programme. A case was initiated against me in Holland for writing two letters from Pakistan to two of my former colleagues. The letters were said to be an attempt to obtain information which the Public Prosecutor interpreted as being classified. I was prosecuted without my knowledge and in my absence. The information I had asked for was ordinary technical information available in published literature for many decades. I submitted certificates from six world-renowned professors from Holland, Belgium, England and Germany stating that the information requested by me was public knowledge and was not classified. I filed an appeal against this unjust case and the High Court of Amsterdam quashed the verdict of the lower court. On 16th June, 1985, the Dutch government finally dropped all charges.’
Tehran Times: Launch of Bushehr nuclear plant is AEOI's top priority
’TEHRAN - Launching the Bushehr nuclear power plant is the main priority of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI), Ali-Akbar Salehi, new director of the AEOI, said on Tuesday. The AEOI is seeking to make the plant operational in the safest and securest way, Salehi told the ISNA news agency during a visit to the Bushehr nuclear plant site. A test run of the nuclear power plant began on February 25. The test involves dummy rods that imitate the enriched uranium needed to run the plant. He expressed hope that the Russian contractor will launch the plant according to the scheduled plan. Also, the managers of the Iranian Atomic Energy Production and Development Corporation as well as AtomStoryExport Company briefed Salehi on all activities done and the remaining work left to make the plant operational.’
Registan: A bit on KazAtomProm
’KazAtomProm's ex-head, jailed for several months now, is in dire need of medical care, according to his wife, who spoke to journalists after visiting her husband. There is, of course, more to this than meets the eye. Kazakhstan is the wealthiest country in former Soviet Central Asia, its economy buoyed by vast oil and gas reserves and uranium resources. The country is expected to become the world's largest uranium producer this year or next. This is from Peter Leonard and the AP, in connection with the story last week on KazAtomProm's jailed ex-head. Mukhtar Dzhakishev is the highest-profile businessman to be arrested in a recent crackdown on executives that has alarmed foreign investors in uranium-rich Kazakhstan, Central Asia's largest economy. He was jailed in May, just days after being fired as head of state-controlled Kazatomprom, and was charged with signing over more than half of the former Soviet republic's uranium holdings into his own name. Mr. Dzhakishev is in the care of the KNB, the Kazakh brother of Uzbekistan's SNB, and similarly a direct descendent of the KGB. They insist that the jailed businessman is healthy and checked daily, and (from the Washington Post): "He himself has not said that (he is in poor health)," a KNB spokesman said.’
