This post represents the latest link in an unbroken chain of more than four years of the weekly summaries of the best of the pro-nuclear blogs.
With the recent updated assessment by the IPCC of the outlook for climate change, the leveraging the nuclear energy to mitigate future growth of CO2 emissions comes even more prominently into the public eye.
Want to know what’s going on? Read all about it here. Previous editions of the Carnival have been posted at the blogs cited below and elsewhere.
See the “Blogs We Read” sidebar at the ANS Nuclear Café for a complete list. It is published by the American Nuclear Society. A great site for the industry perspective is the blog and the dynamic blog roll at NEI Nuclear Notes. It cites new blog posts from around the nation as they are published. For day-to-day breaking news and updates, check out the entries on Twitter list posted on this blog which contains more than 80 pro-nuclear sources.
This Week’s Carnival
Next Big Future – Brian Wang
China approved construction of its first nuclear power project since the Fukushima disaster in Japan almost four years ago brought the program to a standstill.
China’s State Council gave the go-ahead on Feb. 17 to begin building two new reactors at China General Nuclear Power Group’s Hongyanhe plant in the country’s northeast.
Nuclear power is among the clean energies China hopes to rely on in a bid to cap carbon emissions by 2030. Atomic energy now accounts for just 2 percent of the country’s total power generation, according to International Energy Agency reports.
China may soon approve another two nuclear units in Fujian province, and may eventually approve construction of six to eight units within the year, the newspaper said, citing an unidentified official close to the National Development and Reform Commission, China’s economic planner
China is also ramping up to export the Hualong reactor.
Nuke Power Talk – Gail Marcus
Gail Marcus recently returned from a trip to Japan, where she was invited to give a talk to a group of Japanese industry executives. She reports on her presentation in Nuke Power Talk this week in light of current events during the period she was there. One piece of news during her stay was that the Nuclear Regulation Authority is about to undergo a legislatively mandated review that could result in them being moved into the Cabinet Office, a potential move that their international advisory committee is strongly criticizing.
Gail Marcus also continues her monthly series of nuclear milestones in Nuke Power Talk this week. Although February seemed like a slow month for historical milestones in nuclear power development, March looks particularly busy, with 10 milestones spanning a period of over 50 years that she covered in her book, “Nuclear Firsts: Milestones on the Road to Nuclear Power Development,” as well as both the Three Mile Island and Fukushima nuclear power plant accidents.
Atomic Insights – Rod Adams
Agencies should not allow creation of a hostile environment at public meetings
The NRC hosted a public meeting in Brattleboro, VT to discuss Entergy’s Post Shutdown Decommissioning Activities Report (PSDAR). People who are well known as meeting disrupters were allowed to make a mockery of the interaction by shouting down and intimidating those who said things they didn’t want to hear. The NRC moderator enabled that action and even allowed the disrupter to hold the microphone for 15 minutes during a meeting when each speaker was supposed to be limited to 5 minutes.
Allowing bullies to take control of public meetings reduces the ability of other citizens to participate in important informational exchanges and policy decisions.
NeutronBytes – Dan Yurman
NRC must do more to insure civility at its public hearings
- The disruption of a recent NRC hearing in Vermont by clown acts from anti-nuclear activists descended into bullying of speakers including a 60 something grandmother.
- Over at Atomic Insights Rod Adams has the full story including video from the hearing. Also, he publishes his email exchanges with the NRC about the hearing and its disruption by anti-nuclear groups.
- Why hasn’t the NRC taken a more proactive approach to prevent their meetings there from running off of a cliff? Like a measles virus, this kind of anti-social behavior could spread to licensing hearings across the country.
Atomic Power Review – Will Davis
SMART SMR Moves Ahead – in Saudi Arabia and at Home
It has been announced that South Korea and Saudi Arabia have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) which includes the construction of SMART Small Modular Reactor nuclear plants. SMART is an integral-type small reactor, developed in 2012 after 15 years of research. It received the first-ever Standard Design Approval (SDA) from a regulatory body for a 100MWe (330MWth) integral reactor.
Ionizing radiation, light and skin cancer – Robert Hayes
Ionizing radiation is not only what Uranium, Potassium and dental X-ray machines produce, it is also produced in abundance by the sun. Too much is exposure to the sun is not considered healthy, especially for those who sunburn easily.
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