Nuclear Reactors

UNITED NATIONS -- A former Saudi diplomat seeking political asylum in the United States asserts that Saudi Arabia tried to buy nuclear research reactors from China and from a U.S. company in 1989 as part of a secret effort to acquire nuclear weapons.In an interview Friday, Mohammed A. Khilewi, formerly the second-ranking official at the Saudi Mission to the United Nations, produced some letters to support his allegations.One letter, dated Jan. 10, 1989, appeared to be from the China Nuclear Energy Industry Corp.

If you compare a map of this country's fracking sites with one of U.S. nuclear power plants, you will see that on both maps the area from the Great Lakes to the East Coast is the area of greatest concentration for both, and they overlap. If you then search "fracking and earthquakes" you'll see huge amounts of evidence relating the two. In the area affected by Tuesday's earthquake there are around 40 nuclear reactors, (25 of which are 30 years old or older). What's been happening over the past few years is that as nonrenewable natural gas supplies dwindle, fracking efforts have become more extreme: drilling is deeper, more fluid volume is forced in, more toxins are used.

VIENNA, Austria -- The United States and its allies are developing a strategy for closing the Chernobyl nuclear reactors permanently and helping to make Russian-designed nuclear reactors safer, officials at the International Atomic Energy Agency here say.The centerpiece is a package of Western aid that is expected to be approved, at least in part, after the meeting of the Group of Seven industrial nations in Naples, Italy, this week. The money would enable Ukraine to close all four reactors at the Chernobyl site and complete construction of up to five new, safer nuclear power plants.

A reactor at the Calvert Cliffs nuclear plant remained shut down this morning as officials assess the damage caused when a piece of debris tossed by heavy winds damaged a transformer. A spokesman said as of 8 a.m. this morning that “Unit 1 is safely off-line.” A second reactor was working fine at 100 percent power, said Mark Sullivan, the spokesman for the Constellation Energy Nuclear Group. “All employees are safe,” he added. Sullivan said Saturday night that officials believe the damage was caused by a large piece of aluminum that was torn loose from a building.

VIENNA, Austria -- Russian nuclear officials have told watchdog group of Western experts that Russia's notorious graphite-core nuclear reactors -- the kind that blew up at Chernobyl in 1986 -- will operate indefinitely. If the West wants to make them safer, it can help pay for improvements, but the reactors will not be shut down.Officially, the United States has opposed the reactors' continued operation and has sought to discourage or bar financing of measures that would prolong the reactors' lives.

Constellation Energy Group said yesterday that it is teaming with Electricite de France SA, the world's largest operator of nuclear power plants, to develop and invest in a fleet of new nuclear reactors that if licensed would be among the first new ones in the U.S. in a generation. The stated-controlled French company will invest $625 million in a joint venture with Constellation called UniStar Nuclear Energy LLC. UniStar plans to license and build reactors based on a French design being adapted for the United States.

For a decade, Dorthe Matowitz worked as a piping inspector at nuclear power plants, but tired of all the travel and switched occupations three years ago. She is now in demand by a revitalized nuclear power industry scrambling for skilled help. "They've called to tell me that many of their inspectors are nearing retirement or are still trainees," she said. "Good inspectors are needed because business is booming." Baltimore's Constellation Energy Group is among those leading the industry's revival with plans to build the nation's first new nuclear reactor adjacent to its existing Calvert Cliffs plant.

Every form of energy is conditionally unsafe in one way or another. Fossil fuels -- oil, natural gas, coal -- threaten the environment and even in the short term can cause catastrophic fires and explosions. Electricity, managed incorrectly, is lethal. Hydroelectric dams can burst. Even the wind can blow too hard and the sun can burn human skin or sere the earth.What about nuclear energy? Obviously, the lesson of Chernobyl is still with us and a cause of suffering for thousands of irradiated human beings.

Ever wonder why sailing ships no longer ply the oceans with goods and passengers? It's a question wind energy advocates might ask themselves. They ignore the fact that the wind doesn't blow consistently and that its intermittent nature makes wind an undependable source of power and restricts wind generators from consistently reaching their potential. The relative effectiveness of a generation facility to produce electricity is called its capacity factor (CF). It is the ratio of what a generating plant produces compared to what it could produce at full capacity.

WASHINGTON -- Electric utility companies are underestimating the costs of closing and dismantling nuclear power plants, which could present taxpayers with another multibillion-dollar headache in years to come, the consumer group Public Citizen said yesterday.The group, founded by Ralph Nader, said a yearlong study of the electric industry showed that utilities expect to spend almost $26 billion on closing, cleaning up and dismantling all of the nation's 124 nuclear reactors -- a process called "decommissioning" -- as the reactors reach the end of their operational capability over the next 10 to 40 years.

A federal environmental review has found no reason not to permit construction of a third Calvert Cliffs nuclear power reactor in southern Maryland, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission announced Friday. The final environmental impact statement by the NRC and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Baltimore District recommends issuance of a construction and operating permit to Unistar to build a 1,500 megawatt pressurized water reactor near Lusby in Calvert County. Other regulatory hurdles remain.

Federal officials said Friday that UniStar Nuclear Energy is not eligible to build a third reactor at Calvert Cliffs because it is not a U.S.-owned company, but also said they would continue to process its application. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission said in a letter that although a review of the application for the $9.6 billion reactor in Southern Maryland will still take place, a license would not be issued until the ownership requirements were met. Federal law prohibits complete ownership or control of a U.S. nuclear plant by a foreign entity.

Ever wonder why sailing ships no longer ply the oceans with goods and passengers? It's a question wind energy advocates might ask themselves. They ignore the fact that the wind doesn't blow consistently and that its intermittent nature makes wind an undependable source of power and restricts wind generators from consistently reaching their potential. The relative effectiveness of a generation facility to produce electricity is called its capacity factor (CF). It is the ratio of what a generating plant produces compared to what it could produce at full capacity.

The news that EDF Group still wants to pursue building a new reactor after Constellation Energy pulled out of their partnership is unwelcome news for taxpayers. Just days after Constellation canceled the project because they couldn't stomach the financial risk, EDF continues to seek to shift this risk onto U.S. taxpayers, even though better energy solutions abound. Now is the time for Maryland's leaders to launch a renewed push for a smarter and cleaner energy future. Constellation walked away from its plans to build a new reactor at Calvert Cliffs because it was unwilling to shoulder the huge financial risk involved in building an expensive new reactor.

One reactor at Calvert Cliffs nuclear power plant in southern Maryland has resumed operations after electrical problems stemming from a leaky roof caused an unexpected shutdown on Feb. 18, a spokesman said Monday. The Lusby plant's second reactor remains out of service for refueling, said David Fitz, a spokesman for Constellation Energy Nuclear Group, a subsidiary of Constellation Energy Group. Inspectors from the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission went to Calvert Cliffs last week to investigate the cause of the shutdown.

Constellation Energy Group's proposed joint nuclear venture cleared a big regulatory hurdle Friday, getting the green light from the federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission. The NRC's approval of Constellation's $4.5 billion deal to sell half its nuclear power business to French utility Electricite de France leaves only one more test that the companies had not expected to face: a review by Maryland regulators. Last week, the Public Service Commission extended hearings on the transaction because of wrangling over the agreement's final terms.

TOKYO -- North Korea said today that it had reached an agreement in principle with the United States on implementation of October's Geneva accord aimed at halting North Korea's suspected nuclear weapons development program.The leader of the U.S. negotiating team, however, said that an agreement had not yet been reached but that significant progress had been made in the negotiations taking place in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, over the provision of light-water nuclear reactors to North Korea."It is fair to say that we made some progress yesterday on resolving some of the key issues," Thomas C. Hubbard, a deputy assistant secretary of state, said in a telephone interview from Malaysia.

WASHINGTON -- Blurring the line between the atom's peaceful and military functions, the Energy Department embraced yesterday a plan to convert weapons-grade plutonium into fuel for civilian nuclear reactors.Energy Secretary Hazel R. O'Leary outlined the controversial multibillion-dollar plan as the best way for addressing a nuclear dilemma 50 years in the making -- how to dispose of plutonium, the lethal building block of modern nuclear weapons that is in surplus as stockpiles decline.Under the plan, which was endorsed by President Clinton, more than 50 tons of surplus plutonium stored in six sites around the nation would be consolidated at three federal facilities: along the Savannah River in South Carolina, in Oak Ridge, Tenn.

After a long week of grueling testimony on Constellation Energy Group's proposed nuclear joint venture with a French partner, the regulatory review will continue into next week, a hurdle that both companies had not expected when they signed the deal last year. The state Public Service Commission heard from more than 10 witnesses in late-night sessions on whether the $4.5 billion sale of nearly half of Constellation's nuclear power business to Electricite de France would hurt Constellation's regulated utility, Baltimore Gas and Electric Co., and its customers.

Nearly a year ago, Constellation Energy Group was fighting for its very existence as a credit crisis during the financial sector meltdown pushed the company to the verge of bankruptcy. On Monday, the Baltimore company faced a different fight: trying to convince Maryland energy regulators that a proposed $4.5 billion deal to sell half of its nuclear power business to a French utility is in the public's best interest. "We hope the commission will see the tremendous benefits, both short- and long-term, that will flow to the state of Maryland as a result of the joint venture," Constellation spokesman Rob Gould said.