Georgia Power says its Vogtle nuclear power plant two-unit expansion project's in-service dates have been pushed back by close to a year and its 45% portion of the total capital costs could increase by $460 million to $9.2 billion. Georgia Power says the project is 93% complete.
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission says the Ohio Bureau of Radiation Protection has reported that Ohio-based Prime NDT Services lost track of a shipment of radioactive iridium-192 that was sent on July 12 to an unspecified facility in Michigan. "As of July 21, the source has not been delivered," OBRP's report noted.
The origins of the Energy Department's Office of Nuclear Energy 2018 article, "7 Things The Simpsons Got Wrong About Nuclear", which targeted the animated series' depiction of nuclear power, apparently went through a number of drafts. Documents obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request about the article's origins and editorial process, though, were heavily redacted.
President Joe Biden has signed a national security memorandum calling on critical infrastructure sectors like electric utilities to meet voluntary "performance goals" to be issued in September for protecting industrial control systems against cyberattacks. The final sector-specific cybersecurity goals are to be set within a year by the Department of Homeland Security's Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency and the Commerce Department's National Institute of Standards and Technology.
In the aftermath of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster of 1986, sunflowers were cultivated near the abandoned power plant because they absorb certain radioactive isotopes. The phytoremediation strategy was a success at Chernobyl, but a similar effort at the site of the Fukushima Daiichi disaster was seen as a failure and discontinued.
Cameco President and CEO Tim Gitzel says demand has increased for uranium, in part because financial funds and junior uranium companies have purchased "approximately 16 million pounds of uranium with more expected." Uranium mines around the world have closed in recent years due to low prices, and Gitzel says the supply "is becoming less certain".
The UK government has published a call for evidence from industry and the public as it explores using high temperature gas reactor technology for its first advanced small modular reactor demonstration project, which is planned for the early 2030s. The UK picked HTGR technology because its high temperature output could be used to produce low-carbon hydrogen and supply heat for districtwide networks.
The major trade unions of Belgium, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Finland, France, Hungary, Romania, Sweden, Slovakia and Slovenia have renewed their call for the European Commission to include nuclear power in the EU's sustainable finance taxonomy. In a second letter to commission President Ursula Von der Leyen, the unions called for "fair treatment" of the nuclear power sector, noting it should be part of the finance taxonomy "on the basis of neutral technology and science-based evidence."
"Three Mile Island and Beyond" is a new memoir by Harold Denton, who was the NRC's public face during the 1979 Three Mile Island accident. The book interweaves Denton's retelling of the accident with chapters conveying his career-long message of safety being the paramount factor in the use of nuclear technology. Purchase your copy today at the ANS Store. Members save 10%. Save now.
