87th Carnival of Nuclear Energy Bloggers

If you want to hear the voice of the nuclear renaissance, the Carnival of Nuclear Energy Blogs is where to find it.

Past editions have been hosted at Next Big Future. Yes Vermont Yankee,  Atomic Power Review, ANS Nuclear Cafe, Idaho Samizdat, NEI Nuclear Notes, and CoolHandNuke, as well as several other popular nuclear energy blogs.

The publication of the Carnival each week is part of a commitment by the leading pro-nuclear bloggers in North America that we will speak with a collective voice on the issue of the value of nuclear energy. While we each have our own point of view, we agree that the promise of peaceful uses of the atom remains viable in our own time and for the future.

If you have a pro-nuclear energy blog, and would like to host an edition of the carnival, please contact Brian Wang at Next Big Future to get on the rotation.

This is a great collaborative effort that deserves your support. Please post a Tweet, a Facebook entry, or a link on your Web site or blog to support the carnival.

This week's carnival

Cool Hand Nuke

Areva inks $500 million nuclear fuel deal with Xcel for Monticello - French state-owned nuclear giant Areva signed an integrated fuel and services contract with Xcel Energy to supply the utility's Monticello nuclear generating plant in Minnesota. The contact is worth approximately $500 million for a ten year period of performance.

The deal, which starts in 2015, will cover six re-fuelings of the reactor. Products and services include uranium, conversion, enrichment, fuel design, and fabrication as well as related engineering services. It is the first integrated contract of its type in the U.S. in several decades.

ANS Nuclear Cafe

At the ANS Nuclear Cafe, Suzy Hobbs Baker writes about the new social media phenomenon Pinterest.com, and explores how to better connect and communicate with women about energy issues.

NEI Nuclear Notes

NEI Nuclear Notes has two posts ~ Early in the week, Mark Flanagan, NEI and many others criticized the Department of Interior's decision to ban uranium mining next to the Grand Canyon. The Interior's own environmental impact statements explain that uranium mining is done safely and sustainably and that the Grand Canyon won't be harmed.

The other post to mention is from Victoria Barq detailing the nuclear industry's new FLEX strategy to increase safety based on the lessons learned from Fukushima. The industry presented its strategy to the NRC in a public meeting on Friday. From Victoria:

The FLEX concept is based on how the industry responded to the events of 9/11, in which additional security precautions-such as portable generators, water pumps, hoses and batteries-were put in place to mitigate against "beyond design-basis events," or unlikely events that are considered outside the scope of what a plant should be designed or regulated to withstand.

Idaho Samizdat

New reactor deals for the new year - Dan Yurman writes that Jordan short lists three firms and selects six potential sites for a $5 billion project

Government energy officials completed a site selection study.  The JAEC, which had already selected two sites at Mafraq, 60 km east of Amman, and Aqaba, Red Sea port city, said the criteria for the first two and the other four are safety, seismic stability, and access to cooling water.

Next Big Future - Brian Wang

Toshiba has a device for removing 97% of radioactive material from soil and water at 1.7 tons of soil per day. The rate of treatment will be increased by 100 times to the range of 100-200 tons of soil per day

A team of LLNL researchers has developed the first plastic material capable of efficiently distinguishing neutrons from gamma rays, something not thought possible.  The new technology could assist in detecting nuclear substances such as plutonium and uranium that might be used in improvised nuclear devices by terrorists and could help in detecting neutrons in major scientific projects.

China cleared to buy world's fourth largest uranium deposit which is in Namibia. Liu Tienan, head of NEA, said that China would approve nuclear safety regulations more quickly and speed up revisions of its medium- and long-term plans for nuclear power development.

Yes Vermont Yankee

Meredith Angwin writes ~ The Sixth Lawsuit About Vermont Yankee: Suing For the Cost of Replacement Power - Meredith Angwin follows her "five lawsuits" post with another about the newest lawsuit. Vermont distribution utilities are suing Vermont Yankee for the cost of their replacement power.

VY cut its power output to repair a cooling tower, and the utilities had to buy more expensive power during the repairs.  The utility contracts did NOT require VY to pay replacement power costs. However, in Vermont, mere facts never stand in the way of a lawsuit.

Atomic Insights

Rod Adams writes that David Owen's book, "The Conundrum" comes to the conclusion that there is no way for people to sustain a high energy consumption life-style. He ignores the incredible store of energy inside of uranium and thorium.

Nuke Power Talk

Gail Marcus writes that we have long known about the radioactivity of emissions from coal-fired plants.  Now, Gail Marcus comments on radioactive emissions from yet another fossil fuel.  Among the other problems identified with the process of "fracking" to extract natural gas, they have now been identified with increased releases of radioactive emissions.

# # #