Atomic Show #244 – September 2015 atomic update
For the first time in several months, I gathered a group of nuclear energy experts to chat about recent events and announcements in nuclear energy. Participants in this episode include:
Meredith Angwin who blogs at Yes Vermont Yankee and Northwest Clean Energy
Steve Aplin who blogs at Canadian Energy Issues
Les Corrice who blogs at Hiroshima Syndrome. Les keeps the world up to date on Fukushima cleanup and recovery operations and provides perceptive commentary about the politics of the situation.
Dan Yurman who blogs at Neutron Bytes
We discussed the proceedings of the South Australia Royal Commission on nuclear energy, the emergence of two different groups who are seriously interested in storing US origin used nuclear fuel, the ability of citizens to change laws written by man, the growing realization among many nuclear supporters that the EPR may be a white elephant, the growing interest in Saudi Arabia in smaller reactors, the apparent success of the nuclear construction projects underway in the UAE, the interest at the US DOE and US NRC in advanced non-light water reactor technology developments, petitions at the NRC to move away from regulations based on the “no safe dose” model and a renewed political effort in Kentucky to overcome that state’s virtual nuclear moratorium.
I hope you enjoy the show. We know we had a good time talking with each other and promise to try to do again soon.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:35:24 — 87.5MB)
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“the growing realization among many nuclear supporters that the EPR may be a white elephant”
Your recent Twitter post saying “The EPR is not worth building,” should actually say not worth attempting. I’ll edit this comment when one hits the grid.
You should also let China know. They seem to disagree.
Then again, it’s hard to find anything that isn’t “Made in China” these days. “Not worth attempting,” seems to be the new motto for the West.
Much of the first half of this podcast was on the subject of South Australia. Some of Mr. Heard’s recent work that he would have discussed on The Atomic Show has been posted on his site.
“On that global topic I recently returned from the World Nuclear Association 2015 Symposium in London. While there I delivered an updated version of my presentation “World’s Without Nuclear: A review of the 100 % renewable literature”. I am hopeful that a video of the presentation will be available soon, however there is a detailed write-up of my presentation here.”
http://decarbonisesa.com/2015/09/22/south-australia-with-nuclear-and-worlds-without/
China’s building some of everything it seems. What will be telling is if they build another round of EPR’s. My bet is that they won’t build any EPR’s, may build a few new AP1000’s, and will proceed mostly with their in-house designs as they beef up their supply chain infrastructure for worldwide export. I surmise their adventures in the EPR were really to gain manufacturing and design expertise from AREVA which they have put to use in their own work.