NUCLEAIRES !JAPON Fukushima Dai-Ichi (11 mars 2011)
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NUCLEAIRES !|
(www.platts.com) Nuclear News Flashes Thursday, Apr 14, 2011 Accès seulement pour souscripteurs... Sommaire:
** Nuclear safety treaty parties to review Fukushima lessons in 2012 Not enough is known about the accident at Japan's Fukushima I nuclear power plant to draw all the lessons learned and apply them worldwide, delegates to the Convention on Nuclear Safety review meeting in Vienna said in a summary report approved at the close of the 14-day meeting April 14. They agreed to hold a special meeting in August 2012 about the Fukushima I accident. At the meeting, contracting parties will report on and debate measures taken in response to the Fukushima I events and decide whether the convention itself, which will then be 16 years old, needs revision. CNS members include all countries with operating nuclear power plants. Bill Borchardt, executive director for operations of the US NRC and vice chairman of the CNS review meeting, said at the closing press conference that it would take up to 10 years to learn all the lessons from the Japanese accident. CNS parties said in their summary report that "many contracting parties reported difficulties to provide the media and the public with prompt and reliable information" on the accident as it was developing. They said the media's demands for immediate information on the events had "often led to speculative and unbalanced reporting." Borchardt said the Japanese delegation to the CNS had provided all the information available on the accident, but "there is still a great deal to be learned on the details, and it will be quite some time until this information is available." ** Tepco to take measures aimed at ensuring power supply Tokyo Electric Power Co. will relocate standby diesel power generators and a pump control switch panel to higher ground near its Fukushima I nuclear power plant April 15, as "countermeasures" to ensure cooling of units 1, 2 and 3 in case future earthquake-triggered tsunamis interrupt grid-supplied electricity, the utility said April 14. Tepco also said it plans to begin construction of external power lines April 19 to mitigate the potential for a station blackout. Tepco is taking the measures to prevent a recurrence of a total power loss at the plant, such as a 50-minute one April 11 after a magnitude 6.6 earthquake, NHK reported. The earthquake disrupted grid-supplied power and briefly halted the pumping of cooling water to the three units' reactors. Tepco will move the equipment to an area about 30 meters (98.4 feet) above sea level, along with fire trucks and trucks with portable generators, the Japan Atomic Industrial Forum said April 14. Toshiba President Norio Sasaki said April 14 his company has submitted a plan to Tepco at the request of Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Ka for decommissioning damaged Fukushima I units over a 10-year period, NHK reported. It did not say how many units would be affected. The three-phase plan would first require several months of work to stabilize damaged reactors and spent fuel pools, and prevent the further release of radioactive materials into the air and water. Over the next five years or so, special cranes would be erected to remove nuclear fuel rods from the reactors and spent fuel pools, NHK said. Another five years would be required to dismantle the reactors and dispose of the highly radioactive wastes at a still-to-be-determined facility. |
** House bill would impose new restrictions on nuclear trade pacts
Countries seeking civilian nuclear trade agreements with the US would have to forgo uranium enrichment and reprocessing activities and would be required to shield US suppliers of nuclear power reactors from liability in the event of an accident, under a bill approved April 14 by the House Committee on Foreign Affairs. The bill (H.R. 1280) also would require countries seeking such agreements to comply with United Nations Security Council Resolution 1540, which requires controls be established for the export of nuclear materials and annual reports be made to a UN committee monitoring compliance. No date has been set for full House consideration and there is no Senate companion bill. The bill's ban on fuel enrichment and reprocessing, along with nuclear materials export controls, were contained in an agreement the US signed last year with the United Arab Emirates. US President Barack Obama's administration has said it would seek to include these provisions in future civilian nuclear trade agreements. The bill would amend section 123 of the 1954 Atomic Energy Act to include the nonproliferation safeguards that are in the UAE accord. It also would require the president to submit such nuclear trade agreements to the House and Senate, which would have to approve them by a simple majority vote. Current law stipulates that 123 agreements take effect automatically 90 legislative days after the president submits the agreement to Congress, unless it adopts a disapproval resolution. ** International nuclear safety bill approved by committee for House vote The House Committee on Foreign Affairs approved April 14 an international nuclear safety bill for a vote by the full House of Representatives. The Furthering International Nuclear Safety Act of 2011, H.R. 1326, "directs the State Department to use and strengthen existing mechanisms for the international sharing of nuclear safety information and best practices" and to encourage nations to join the 1994 Convention on Nuclear Safety, according to an April 14 statement by the office of Representative Jeff Fortenberry, a Nebraska Republican. Fortenberry introduced the bill March 17. The Senate version of the bill, S. 640, is awaiting action by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. It was introduced last month by Senators Daniel Akaka of Hawaii and Thomas Carper of Delaware, both Democrats. ** Poll finds upturn in Chilean opposition to nuclear power Opposition to nuclear power rose sharply in Chile following the Fukushima I nuclear power plant accident in Japan, according to a new survey. About 84% of Chileans surveyed said they oppose the construction of nuclear power units in their country, according to an Ipsos poll released April 13. In the survey, 12% said they supported nuclear power in Chile, while 4% did not have an opinion or did not answer. Chile does not have any operating nuclear power plants but the government has said it plans to decide in the next several years on whether to embark on a nuclear program. Opposition increased from a similar survey in October 2009, when 55% of respondents opposed nuclear power, with 37% supporting it, according to Ipsos. Chilean public opinion company Ipsos conducted the poll, with results based on a telephone survey of 912 people from March 15-April 3. The margin of error is 3 percentage points, Ipsos said. Chileans ages 18 to 24 were twice as likely as those over 40 to support nuclear energy, the survey said. ** Fukushima I accident 'devastating' to nuclear industry: Worldwatch report The consequences of the ongoing Fukushima I accident "will be devastating" for the international nuclear industry, according to a draft report released April 13 by Worldwatch Institute, a Washington-based environmental research organization. But even before the March 11 accident began, the industry has been unable to stop the "slow decline" of nuclear energy, the report said. "Not enough new units are coming online, and the world's reactor fleet is aging quickly," it said. "Moreover, it is now evident that nuclear power development cannot keep up with the pace of its renewable energy competitors." The Fukushima I accident "is likely to accelerate the decline" of the nuclear industry, it said. The lead author of the report is Mycle Schneider*, a Paris-based consultant who has worked on previous reports over the past few years, including for the Green group of the European Parliament, that also concluded nuclear power was on the decline. The report was released April 13 at an event in Berlin hosted by the Heinrich Boll Foundation, which describes itself as "part of the Green political movement." The report is at www.worldwatch.org/ * Lire "Le nucléaire en France. Au-delà du mythe" (pdf) ** Groups petition NRC to suspend new reactor licensing A coalition of 45 groups and individuals has petitioned the NRC to immediately suspend licensing of new nuclear power reactors and license renewals for operating reactors until the agency conducts a thorough examination of lessons from the ongoing accident at the Fukushima I plant in Japan. Several of the groups are already involved in challenges to licensing of new plants and/or license renewals for operating plants. Groups signing the petition include Beyond Nuclear, Blue Ridge Environmental Defense League, and Nuclear Information and Resource Service. The petitioners said during a press teleconference April 14 that the agency's reviews should be supplemented by an investigation by a presidential commission, similar to the Kemeny Commission, named after its chairman, that investigated the 1979 accident at Three Mile Island-2. Diane Curran, a partner at the Harmon Curran law firm who is the attorney representing the petitioners, said the NRC is legally obligated under the National Environmental Policy Act to complete its review of the Fukushima accident "before it allows another reactor to operate." The petition is at www.nuclearbailout.org NRC announced March 21 it would conduct a 90-day review of lessons learned from the Fukushima accident, followed by a six-month review that would begin when more solid information becomes available. NRC Chairman Gregory Jaczko said last month he expects those reviews will be completed about the same time the first construction permit-operating license application reviews are winding up this summer or fall, but "if information tells us we need to make changes to our licensing process, we will do that." |
