Officials from the Department of Energy confirmed that thirteen workers at the Waste Isolation Pilot Project (WIPP) have confirmed positive for radiation exposure after the leak on February 14th from the first deep underground nuclear waste storage site in the United States. The WIPP facility is the only repository in the United States which can […]
After nearly four years of requests from the United States and recent protests from China, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga confirmed on Wednesday that Japan will return its stockpile of highly concentrated plutonium that was purchased during the 1960s and 1970s from the United States and the United Kingdom. Japan has told the United […]
In Japan, how the government defines nuclear power has been an issue of contention since the March 11th nuclear disaster at Fukushima Daiichi. While speaking at a Lower House subcommittee meeting on Wednesday, former Prime Minister Naoto Kan criticized the most recent draft of a general energy plan submitted by current Prime Minister Shinzo […]
All of Japan’s nuclear reactors are offline, but that is not stemming the debate about what to do with the nation’s stockpile of nuclear waste. Nuclear Waste Management Organization (NUMO) is the organization responsible for constructing the disposal facilities for nuclear waste materials. They are working to design, construct, and operate an underground storage facility […]
Last week officials from the Tokyo Electric Power Company announced that extremely radioactive water had leaked from a storage tank at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant. According to the utility over 100 tons of water containing 240,000,000 becquerels per liter of beta-ray emitting substances leaked out of the storage tanks over a period of […]
TEPCO announced that one of two thermometers used to monitor temperatures in the lower part of the Unit 2 reactor vessel has failed. The utility said the problem was caused by workers who accidently short circuited the thermometer by delivering 250 volts of electricity instead of 100 volts of electricity during checks. TEPCO failed to […]
On Wednesday, a licensed employee supervisor failed a for-cause fitness for duty test and confirmed positive for alcohol. The licensee terminated the employee’s access to the nuclear power plant. Fitness for duty tests are administered either randomly, in a lottery-style system where “winners” get to report to the medical office for testing, or for-cause, which […]
The controversy in Japan swirling around the topic of restarting idled nuclear reactors is showing no signs of simmering down; instead uncertainty and frustration appear to be increasing. In July, 2013, the Nuclear Regulation Authority began processing restart applications for ten reactors from eight utilities under tougher post-Fukushima guidelines. At that time the process was […]
On February 14th, a employee supervisor at the Fort Calhoun nuclear power plant in Nebraska tested positive for marijuana during a random fitness for duty test. The licensee terminated the employee’s access to the facility. Source: NRC Event Notifications
Inspectors from Japan’s Nuclear Regulation Authority began in inspection of the seismic faults on Monday morning at the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear power plant which is owned and operated by the Tokyo Electric Power Company. Commissioner Kunihiko Shimazaki and 15 other staff members from the NRA are conducting the investigation. TEPCO has applied for safety screenings at […]
This week TEPCO released new photos which show the progress made removing debris off of the top of the Unit 3 reactor building. These photos show some of the damage to the operating floor of the reactor building including locations where the floors have been damaged and the rebar is exposed. The investigation conducted by […]
For nearly five decades Turkey has been developing plans to establish a nuclear power program, but these plans have yet to come to fruition. There have been multiple factors which have plagued Turkey’s nuclear program from the start including decades of civil unrest, but also because Turkey is one of the most seismically active regions […]
Workers at the Davis-Besse nuclear power plant near Toledo, Ohio have begun a $600 million steam generator replacement project. Steam generator replacement projects are among the most expensive upgrades that a Pressurized Water Reactor receives. The licensee has been planning this upgrade for nearly a decade. Nearly $150 million of the $600 million budget will […]
This week the IAEA released a new report titled Managing Human Performance to Improve Nuclear Facility Operation. The publication shows the need for additional emphasis on the role of human performance in sustaining and improving performance at nuclear facilities. According to the report, some 80% of significant events at nuclear industry facilities can be attributed […]
Around 7:38 AM on Tuesday, operators in the control room of the Cooper nuclear power plant were informed that a contract radiological technician was found deceased on the refueling floor of the reactor building. Once control room operators were notified that employee’s had discovered the worker’s body on the refueling floor, they declared a medical […]
The United States Environmental Protection Agency is soliciting public comments while it updates its Environmental Radiation Protection Standards for Nuclear Power Operations; which was issued before Fukushima Daiichi, Chernobyl, and Three Mile Island, in January of 1977. The standards were the earliest radiation guidelines developed by the EPA. They were issued to regulate radiation releases […]
Danny Roderick, President and CEO of Westinghouse announced that the nuclear firm is backing off of research and development of their Small Modular Reactor design. The Westinghouse design is a scaled down version of the AP1000 reactor, designed to produce 225 MWe, which could power 45,000 residential houses. In December, the firm was passed over […]