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NUCLEAR POWER

NUCLEAR POWER. GOING NOWHERE. STARTUP OF INDUSTRY US ATOMIC ENERGY COMMISSION. Development of nuclear weapons Peaceful uses Uranium enrichment for nuclear fuels Material accountability Regulatory oversight Health physics and radiation protection Waste disposal. NIXON’S BREAKDOWN.

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NUCLEAR POWER

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  1. NUCLEAR POWER GOING NOWHERE

  2. STARTUP OF INDUSTRYUS ATOMIC ENERGY COMMISSION • Development of nuclear weapons • Peaceful uses • Uranium enrichment for nuclear fuels • Material accountability • Regulatory oversight • Health physics and radiation protection • Waste disposal

  3. NIXON’S BREAKDOWN • US Department of Energy (Everything federal government owns: nuclear weapons facilities, military propulsion, nuclear material, waste management, uranium enrichment) • US Nuclear Regulatory Commission (Private operators, power plants, research facilities, fuel manufacturers, low level rad-waste dumps, uranium mines, hospitals) • International Atomic Energy Agency (Material accountability, international transportation of nuclear materials, nuclear safety)

  4. US NRC LICENSING PROCESS • Code of Federal Regulations • Preliminary Safety Analysis Report • Environmental Impact Statement • Final Safety Analysis Report • Risk Assessment (Maximum Hypothetical Accident) • Interveners • Licensing of operators (equipment, reactor, control room, senior reactor, shift supervisor) • Price Anderson Act, private insurance pools

  5. UTILITY PLANNING • Secure financing and prove financial capability • Select NSSS vendor, architect engineer & constructor • Select site • Submit license application to NRC (PSAR, EIS) • Start and complete construction • Conduct preoperational startup testing (hot functionals) • Fuel loading permit (FSAR approval) • Initial criticality testing • Achieve 100% power

  6. NUCLEAR STEAM SUPPLY SYSTEM VENDORS (NSSS) • Allis Challmers, BWR (La Crosse) • Westinghouse Electric, PWR • General Electric, BWR • Babcock and Wilcox, PWR • Combustion Engineering, PWR • General Atomic, GCR (Fort St. Vrain) • Floating Nuclear Power Plants (Westinghouse NSSS) • CANDU Reactors (Heavy Water) • Fast breeder reactors (Clinch River Project) • Pebble bed reactors (Germany, South Africa) • Russian graphite reactors (Chernobyl)

  7. HOW TO KILL A DOMESTIC INDUSTRY(THE MAIN PLAYERS--WHOSE FAULT WAS IT?) • NSSS vendors • Nuclear utilities • Federal government • Interveners • Politicians • President Carter • INPO, the only positive step

  8. NSSS MISTAKES • From 500MW to 1200MW • Larger plants used unique equipment, one of a kind • Lack of technical standardization • Lack of licensing standardization • Too much engineering involvement in too many design changes • Light involvement in plant operating issues and management programs

  9. UTILITY MISTAKES • Too rapid an expansion of nuclear generating capacity • Too big a jump for the super nukes (over 1,000 MW) • Buying variety instead of standardization • Quagmire in licensing, operator training, spare parts • Big jump in labor needs • Endless intervener hearings and law suits • Endless design changes to meet new requirements • High costs, bad press, nuclear accidents, cost over-runs • Enough-was-enough

  10. FEDERAL GOVERNMENT • Pushed for its needs, not for logic • DOE, FERC: no interest in better plant designs • NRC: no interest in standardization • Policy and politics impacted licensing • No application of technology to resolve nuclear waste • Quality Assurance/Quality Control: Mountains of paper • No thought for future needs: A totally domestic technology and industry was killed forever

  11. INTEVENERS • Kill anything spelled NUCLEAR • No assessment of relative risks, no solutions, no betterment • No realistic assessment of nuclear power risks • State utility boards became the number one anti-nuclear entities (California no-nuke, green electricity) • Laws to prohibit utility “advertisements” about nuclear generation

  12. INSTITUTE OF NUCLEAR POWER OPERATIONS • Post TMI industry self-regulation • Developed Operating Experience Review Program • Developed performance criteria & performance objectives for plant management systems • Conducts tiger team inspections/evaluations (topical experts, findings, corrective actions, implementation, follow-up)

  13. OTHER ENTITIES AFFECTING NUCLEAR INDUSTRY REGULATORY OVERSIGHT • ANS, ASME, IEEE, ISA: only technical standards that made sense • Insurance pools (ANI, Price Anderson Act) • State government regulatory agencies • OSHA • FEMA • EPA

  14. CARTER: THE “NUCULAR” PRESIDENT • The first president to claim he knew something about nuclear engineering and the first to visit a nuclear plant during a nuclear accident. What is the obvious question? • Carter’s decree on stopping transfer and transportation of nuclear material for nuclear proliferation: an illogical nuclear bottleneck • The utility law suit on spent fuel transfers and reprocessing

  15. ATLANTA JOURNAL-CONSTITUTION:Discord delays bill on energy policy(Sunday, October 26, 2003) • No lawmakers ware allowed to the meetings unless they were Republicans • Standoff on who is going to pocket $250 million subsidies for ethanol • Disagreement over oil refiners immunity for product liability over the additive carcinogen MTBE • Extend energy efficiency loopholes, fail to ensure development of fuel cell vehicles • House insistence on attaching amendments of the clean air act to the energy bill

  16. POLITICIANS AND THE FEAR OF TRUTH • Has anyone seen or heard the word “nuclear” anywhere around the energy bill? • Nuclear technology could have been and can be, the cheapest, safest and environmentally friendliest way to produce electricity • Since TMI, I have not heard a politician saying this truth publicly • Most of the world is not waiting for us

  17. WHAT SHOULD BE DONE? • Consolidate NSSS vendors into one and accept a standard, passively safe design, of lower power, to be built with on-the-shelf equipment • Initiate long range development and testing of direct cycle gas cooled reactors • Enact federal laws inhibiting high population concentrations close to industrial facilities with high risks • Streamline the licensing process and make the government meet its obligations on nuclear waste and all other issues • Give utilities back their power lines and do away with all the fly-by-night electricity retail distributors

  18. WHAT SHOULD BE DONE FOR THIRD WORLD COUNTRIES? • Help them build and operate standard nuclear power plants (cut down on global air pollution, minimize reliance on energy producers) • Contractually agree that the handling, transportation, storage, reactor refueling and usage of all nuclear fuel and waste material shall be done only by an entity licensed by the United Nations and under the watchful eye of the IAEA. • Make friends with them, not enemies

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