EFN-USA NEWSLETTER, 2017 ISSUE 3 USOFA

December 31, 2017 – Issue 3

Environmentalists for Nuclear – USA, encourages people around the world to work together for mutual prosperity, happy and healthy living, clean environment and preservation of nature. This is best accomplished with plentiful, reliable energy for generating electricity and for all domestic, commercial, industrial, air, ground transportation, and shipping uses.

Happy New Year, Bonne Anné, 新年快乐, с новым годом, šťastný nový rok, felice anno nuovo, Feliz año nuevo, feliz Ano Novo, Frohes neues Jahr, gelukkig nieuwjaar, godt nytt år, szczęśliwego Nowego Roku, mutlu Yıllar, hyvää uutta vuotta, an Nou Fericit, 明けましておめでとうございます, bon any nou, ευτυχισμένο το νέο έτος, boldog új évet,‫שנה טוב‬, Selamat Tahun Baru, chúc mừng năm mới ‫سنة جديدة سعيدة‬,새해 복 많이 받으세요, , Selamat Tahun Baru, щасливого Нового року, ‫سال نو مبارک‬

Auckland, New Zealand 1

NUCLEAR POWER There is good news from many countries involved in nuclear power. It is clean, safe, reliable, and performs well in extreme weather events and earthquakes. Nuclear is less vulnerable to interruptions in fuel deliveries during conflicts and natural catastrophes.

Some stories from the World Nuclear Association, the International Atomic Energy Agency, World Nuclear News, and the World Energy Counci : Australia: South Australia’s Royal Commission delivered its final report into the country’s potential participation in the nuclear fuel cycle, recommending that the government should support plans to establish a multi-national storage and disposal facility in South Australia.

Canada: The fleet of heavy water nuclear power plants is well run. Advanced nuclear finds a more welcome home in Canada. An early regulatory review may put Terrestrial Energy on track to commission the first fourth-generation reactor in North America.

China: It continues to dominate nuclear new build activity globally adding some 4.6 GWe, and representing about 50% of all new nuclear capacity additions worldwide. The country continues to benefit from series nuclear construction, with all new reactors connected in 2016 built within six years. The strong impetus for developing new nuclear power in China comes from the need to improve urban air quality.

France: The best overall nuclear power program up to now is in France. They plan for smooth transition for multiple generations of nuclear power plants at the same site.

They optimize design, maintenance, operations and staff. They have a working used fuel reprocessing program and storage facilities for ultimate radioactive waste. Recently, they have run into problems of lack of support from the highest levels of government and opposition by anti-nuclear organizations. All of it is unnecessary.

India: Nuclear power built by Russian and domestic industries continues to make progress. If they made some changes in international agreements, they could be the first to benefit from large scale use of thorium fueled nuclear power. If thorium technologies prove to be a commercial success, this could be a significant step toward having a better standard of living for millions of people.

Jordan: The government in Jordan is doing an excellent job developing the infrastructure for a strong nuclear program: building a science and technology university, building a state of the art training and research reactor, planning for commercial nuclear power.

Kazakhstan: Global uranium production increased by 40% between 2004 and 2013, mainly because of increased production by Kazakhstan, the world’s leading producer.

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Russia: The first VVER-1200 at Novovoronezh II, was connected to the grid in August.

The BN-800 sodium-cooled fast reactor at Beloyarsk, Russia, was connected to the grid in December 2015. In February 2016, all power tests were completed and commercial operation began on 31 October 2016. Fast reactors are able to considerably enhance the utilization of nuclear fuel and minimize radioactive waste as part of the closed nuclear fuel cycle. Fast reactors make possible the burning of long-lived radioactive isotopes, with half-lives of thousands or hundreds of thousands years, transforming them into short-lived products. A closed nuclear fuel cycle with fast reactors will make it possible to burn plutonium and some minor actinides in the fuel cycle, as well as allowing for the utilization of natural uranium-238, which is abundant in nature.

South Africa: In order to expand its economy, South Africa needs a lot more electrical energy. This country is home to some of the best nuclear engineers and scientists in the world and to the longest, outstanding program for producing radioisotopes for nuclear medicine and many other nuclear technologies. They deliver these radioisotopes to 50 countries. They are planning to add significant nuclear power in the next 20 years.

South Korea: The domestic and international nuclear business and university education programs in South Korea are the envy of most of the world.

United Arab Emirates: Construction of the first nuclear energy plant in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) is underway at Barakah. The Barakah Nuclear Energy Plant consists of four nuclear power generating units with a combined capacity of approximately 5,600 MW United States: The success stories in the United States are with individual utility companies, university education programs, and early development of advanced nuclear power technologies. The government, Nuclear Regulatory Commission and anti-nuclear organizations have done a lot toward stopping this excellent nuclear power program.

World: The global nuclear fleet continued high levels of performance with an average capacity factor of 80.5% for 2016. The industry has maintained high capacity factors of around 80% for the last 20 years, a substantial increase from around 50% achieved in the 1970s. In recent years, US reactors have regularly achieved an average capacity factor of around 90%.

The goal for the World Nuclear Association Harmony Programme is to have 25% of global electricty supplied by nuclear in 2050, requiring roughly 1000 GWe of new nuclear build by 2050. The size of today’s large, standard nuclear plants ranges from 1 to 1.5 GWe. The WNA Harmony goal means building between 670 and 1,000 standard size nuclear power plants between 2018 and 2050. Some nuclear advocates who have little experience in licensing, design, construction and startup testing suggest that the whole world could be powered by nuclear in less than fifty years. See comments below.

Nuclear power requires stable, well run governments, good higher education in science and engineering, solid industry infrastructure, modern electrical grid, outlook for long term peace. A lot of the world lacks one or more of these requirements.

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North American and European nuclear power design and construction companies are at a low point in abilities to deliver large nuclear power plants on time and on budget.

Few countries have solid plans to replace aging nuclear with the same amount of new nuclear power. Some countries hope for big changes in 10 to 20 years for the future of nuclear power. Hoping for change in the future is not a good way to operate a sound energy program.

Countries with previous excellent nuclear power programs, like Germany and Switzerland, are walking away from nuclear power before their plants reach the end of licensed life. This is due to false public fear encouraged by anti-nuclear groups and the media. These groups don’t exist in Russia and China and those countries are moving ahead with nuclear power.

Given realities in many countries, nuclear power will do well if it can double its capacity by 2050 in countries outside of Russia and China. That will be far less new nuclear power than the optimistic but probably unrealizable goals mentioned above.

Antinuclear power organizations thrive in the west. There may be more people supporting anti-nuclear power organizations in California than there are teachers in well run grade schools. Government agencies and legal systems don’t fight back against antinuclear campaigns by insisting on recognizing the facts in the courts. Whimsical antinuclear campaigns carry the day with some government leaders and the media.

There are several very important problems holding up the nuclear program in the west: -

streamlining the licensing process, using realistic design criteria and guidelines, supporting, instead of hindering, the design and construction industries, having a sound program for used nuclear fuel reprocessing and waste storage.

These problems have been ignored for decades and will be discussed in future issues of this newsletter.

Instead of addressing these big, real problems, some nuclear power organizations and advocates focus on the fact that nuclear power has a small carbon footprint and think that will help sell nuclear. It hasn’t sold nuclear power in any big way and it won’t. Other nuclear advocates acknowledge that carbon dioxide is an essential molecule of life. A little more of it from fossil fuels is not going to cause it to exceed natural levels in Earth’s history or lead to serious, harmful global warming. For a lot of history, atmospheric temperature rise preceded carbon dioxide rise, not the reverse that some government organizations and their scientists claim. Meanwhile the extra CO2 is contributing to some additional greening of the planet. Nuclear advocates who focus on the low CO2 fact from nuclear instead of focusing on solving the serious regulatory and construction problems may end up being technically wrong about man-made global warming and 4

thus have questionable grounds for their advocacy of nuclear. They definitely aren’t working to solve real, major regulatory and construction problems.

China is expanding and streamlining their nuclear design and construction industries.

But they are building mainly for China in the near term.

Russia and South Korea have excellent nuclear power programs, but cannot meet all the needs of the world.

NUCLEAR MEDICINE, NUCLEAR SCIENCE, RADIOISOTOPES, and LOW DOSE RADIATON These fields are where a lot more progress has been made and will be continue to be made in the future. In order to limit the length of the newsletter, these topics will be covered in the first issue in 2018.

See articles on the website: -

Radioisotopes and Nuclear Medicine (83 articles)

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Low Dose Radiation (121 articles)

BOOK REVIEWS Campaigning for Clean Air – Strategies for Pro-Nuclear Advocacy, by Meredith Angwin This book is a must read for anyone engaging with the public on nuclear power issues.

Meredith Angwin is a materials scientist, author, and long-time pro-nuclear advocate.

She was one of the first women to be a project manager at the Electric Power Research Institute.

Topics include: Why Support Nuclear, The Nuclear Community, Nuclear Power for Clean Air, Build Your Team, Before You Go Public, Expert Help, Activism from Your Computer, Letter Writing, Petitions and Perseverence, Social Media, Blogging, Writing for the Web, Email Lists, Raising Money, Speaking in Public, Being in the Audience Order from Amazon.

Bulk orders are also available. Contact Meredith at mjangwin@gmail.com

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We wish everyone a happy and healthy 2018, a Good Day and a Bright Tomorrow.

Please leave comments and tell your friends to subscribe to this newsletter by going to efn-usa.org. There are opportunities to leave comments (contact us) and sign up for the newsletter on almost every page of the website.

You can send an e-mail to the Editor of this newsletter: john.shanahan@efn-usa.org Thanks, John Shanahan President, Environmentalists for Nuclear – USA Denver, Colorado, USA

Prairies, Denver, Rocky Mountains, Colorado, USA (Colorado Life Magazine)

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