Byron nuclear power plant loses power and shuts down

Corrected copy Yesterday, the Byron nuclear power station lost power to Unit 2, which had to shut down. During the shutdown, the plant vented steam from the plant secondary side, which MIGHT contain minute quantities of tritium based on the assumption of some leakage be…Continue »

Nuclear focused investment fund proposal

There was a thought provoking letter to the editor on DesMoinesRegister.com titled MidAmerican’s nuclear plant proposal puts risk on consumers that is worth bringing to the attention of nuclear industry decision makers and influencers. The author is a member of th…Continue »

Making art with radioactive materials – In memory of James Acord

An alternative title for this piece might be – Seeing the art that already exists in radioactive materials. Until today, I had never heard of James Acord, a sculptor who devoted more than 20 years of his life to sustained efforts to create art from radioactive mat…Continue »

NRC releases draft of reactor accident consequences study for public comment

Nuclear reactors operating in the United States are safe. They pose no threat to the people who live near them, even in the event of a severe accident.

Though many pro nuclear advocates believe that the above statements are true, we are generally reluctant to use those simple, declarative statements. Instead, we often obscure the truth with eye rolling complexity. We hedge our bets by talking about probabilistic risk models, worst case scenarios, and fault tree logic.

The official publications from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission available up until now contradict the simple statements; studies with “conservative” assumptions, including a rapid release of a large portion of the radioactive material from an operating core, have been published that calculate hundreds to thousand of early deaths. According to those old studies, some fatalities happen quickly and most of the rest are the result of increased cancer risk to a large population of exposed individuals.

In 2007, the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission began a study designed to take advantage of many decades worth of testing, experience, analysis and risk assessment to determine a more realistic prediction of consequences. The study picked two reactors as generally representative of the types of reactors in operation in the United States. Peach Bottom Atomic Power Station in Pennsylvania was the chosen representative for boiling water reactors; Surry Power Station in Virginia was picked to represent pressurized water reactors with large containment buildings.

On February 1, 2012, the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission announced that it had released the State-of-the-Art Reactor Consequence Analysis (SORCA) research study. The complete report can be found by entering ML120250406 in the ADAMS public data base search engine. (After you click on the link, click on the “Content Search” tab to get the search term entry field.)

Byron nuclear power plant loses power and shuts down

Corrected copy Yesterday, the Byron nuclear power station lost power to Unit 2, which had to shut down. During the shutdown, the plant vented steam from the plant secondary side, which MIGHT contain minute quantities of tritium based on the assumption of some leakage between the primary and secondary through steam generator tubes.

Here is a local newscast discussing the incident. The quiz for the day is to see how many specific public relations faux pas you can find in this report of what is apparently an exceedingly minor event at one of Chicago’s most important industrial facilities.

Byron Nuclear Reactor Loses Power, Venting Steam: MyFoxCHICAGO.com

Nuclear focused investment fund proposal

There was a thought provoking letter to the editor on DesMoinesRegister.com titled MidAmerican’s nuclear plant proposal puts risk on consumers that is worth bringing to the attention of nuclear industry decision makers and influencers. The author is a member of the Iowa Public Interest Research Group, a chapter of an organization that has been opposed…

Making art with radioactive materials – In memory of James Acord

An alternative title for this piece might be – Seeing the art that already exists in radioactive materials. Until today, I had never heard of James Acord, a sculptor who devoted more than 20 years of his life to sustained efforts to create art from radioactive materials. The first part of that struggle involved 12…

Using art to communicate about nuclear energy – PopAtomic Ted Talk

Suzy Hobbs Baker is the founder and director of PopAtomic Studios. She is a professional, talented artist and the daughter of a nuclear engineer. She recently gave a TEDx talk titled Art & Nuclear Energy. In the video you will find out more about how Suzy found herself at a key intersection between liberal arts…

ExxonMobil aiming to capture growth in US electricity market

On January 9, 2012, The Nicholas School of the Environment at Duke University held a hydrofracking workshop. The organizers invited a number of speakers from both industry and academia to discuss a contentious, but important energy issue from a variety of perspectives. You can read about the workshop on TheGreenGrok on a post titled Minds…

UK solar subsidies

I just received the below solar PV advertisement in a mass email. I am certainly glad that I am not a UK resident and taxed to support this kind of generous payments – guaranteed to be a drain on the economy for the next 25 years. Can anyone please help me to understand what must…

Real story about nuclear plant liability insurance

At least twice in the past few days, I have been challenged about the value of nuclear energy with something close to the following comment posted on during a recent Google+ discussion about energy choices. A good way to measure the safety of nuclear power in America, using objective criteria, would be to require nuclear…

Is nuclear industry guilty of “Failure to Launch?”

Following the afternoon session of the public meeting about the Lee nuclear power station draft environmental impact statement, I had an interesting conversation with a man from the Physicians for Social Responsibility (PSR). He had spoken during the meeting about the large amount of taxpayer money that had been wasted on building and then not…

Supporters of nuclear energy development face off with antinuclear activists in Gaffney, SC

On January 19, 2012, the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission and the Army Corps of Engineers held a joint public meeting to solicit comments about the draft environmental impact statement for the William States Lee nuclear power station that Duke Energy is proposing to build about 8 miles outside of Gaffney, SC. The meeting included two…

Rod Adams
Pro-nuclear advocate with extensive small nuclear plant operating experience. Former submarine Engineer Officer. Founder, Adams Atomic Engines, Inc. Host and producer, The Atomic Show Podcast.