Since many folks who sincerely try to guess my "What is this?" feature pictures are pretty busy right now, I'm going to go easy on you all this week. This illustration should be guessed by more than a few. So... "What is this?"
The answer to this question follows the 110th Carnival - which begins now!
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Dan Yurman - Idaho Samizdat
An IPO for China’s nuclear energy triple play
The Chinese government reinvigorated its civilian nuclear energy program last week with three major actions.
First, it announced the release of a long awaited safety plan that will result in the lifting of a moratorium on new nuclear reactor projects.
Second, it announced approval of an IPO by China National Nuclear Power (CNNP), the country’s largest reactor developer, to raise the equivalent of US $27.3 billion.
Third, the central government announced a list of seven strategic industry initiatives to counter a sharp down turn in economic growth. One of them is building new nuclear power plants.
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Gail Marcus - Nuke Power Talk
Russia Joins NEA
At Nuke Power Talk, Gail Marcus discusses Russia's accession to the OECD Nuclear Energy Agency. This is the culmination of a process that began several years ago when she was at the Agency and is an important step in assuring that the NEA's initiatives maintain a global perspective.
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Meredith Angwin - Yes Vermont Yankee
Superfuel - a Book I Wanted to Love
Meredith Angwin reviews the book "Superfuel" at Yes Vermont Yankee. Superfuel, by Richard Martin, describes the history and promise of the liquid thorium reactor (LFTR). Angwin likes the LFTR and has even given a poster session on it. However, Superfuel is a difficult book to praise because of scientific errors and overly strong attacks on the the people ("nuclearati") who operated the current fleet of reactors.
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Brian Wang - Next Big Future
Ukraine, India, UK about to invest
The Ukraine, India and the UK are on the verge of new nuclear energy investments.Ukraine could invest up to $25 billion by 2030 in the construction of new nuclear power facilities. India and France are close to signing a deal regarding to establishing India's largest Nuclear Power plant that will generate 9,900 Mega Watt (MW) of electricity. The prospect of new nuclear power stations being built in the UK for the first time in 20 years has moved a significant step forward after EDF Energy awarded a £2bn contract to build a plant at Hinkley Point in Somerset. Rolls-Royce confirmed it had won a Ministry of Defence contract worth more than £1bn (US$1.56 billion) to make reactor cores for Britain's nuclear submarine fleet.
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Rod Adams - Atomic Insights
There are three Superfuels - uranium, thorium and plutonium
Though I have only made it through the introduction and part of the first chapter, I can tell that Superfuel will be providing fodder for several posts in the coming days. I can already tell that my effort is going to be focused at refocusing various factions within the fission family to look outward rather than to squabble internally. Though Martin has published a book that purportedly is pronuclear, I believe it is actually a well conceived effort to encourage fratricide that will support the hydrocarbon establishment.
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NEI Nuclear Notes has several submissions this week.
The Price Point in Japan
NEI's Mark Flanagan takes a look at Japan's decision to restart the reactors at Ohi.
The U.S. Energy Department Should Consider Washington State for Small Reactors, Lawmakers Say
NEI Victoria Barq looks at how states across the nation want to compete for federal dollars for SMR development.
Also, two further;
Local, State and International Leaders Turn Their Attention to New Reactors, Both Big and Small
Germany and the Cost of Moving Fast
NEI's Mark Flanagan checks in on Germany's nuclear phase-out, and finds it isn't going well.
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"Cool Hand Nuke" makes an appearance in the Carnival this week with a post by Dan Yurman!
Governors vie for DOE SMR Funds.
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ANS Nuclear Cafe
“The NRC chair and Yucca Mountain”
Jim Hopf at the ANS Nuclear Cafe examines the political dimensions of
the nominations of Allison Macfarlane & Kristine Svinicki to the US
Nuclear Regulatory Commission, and the possible ramifications of several
recent US court decisions (and the Macfarlane nomination) on US policy
regarding nuclear waste, spent nuclear fuel, and the Yucca Mountain site.
“Smoke but no fire in nuclear news from India”
Between now and 2022, India plans to build 39 new nuclear power
reactors for a total of 45 Gwe. Dan Yurman at the ANS Nuclear Cafe
reports on the latest developments in India’s nuclear market and what
they might mean - or not -- for US and other interested firms.
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Following is a late entry made from the site of the 2012 ANS Annual Meeting...
Charles Barton - Nuclear Green
Uri Gat and the Ultimately Safe Reactor
A number of years ago, Uri Gat. an ORNL researcher, wrote a paper which argued that design features of the Molten Salt reactor made it the ultimately safe reactor. I reproduce and discuss Gat/s paper in Nuclear Green, in a post titled, Uri Gat, and the Ultimately Safe Reactor.
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That does it for this week's Carnival submissions. Since I'm going to have to get busy packing my suitcases for Chicago, I'll be very brief about the answer to the "What is this?" photo.
That illustration is a preliminary artists' conception of the layout of the Shippingport Atomic Power Station. Of course, the finished plant was not laid out this way and looked quite different - but the concept of the underground siting of the primary plant components was retained. This illustration is from the Westinghouse brochure titled "They Harnessed the Atom," published by Westinghouse Electric Corporation's Information Services Department in September, 1954 - which is very shortly after the project was launched. Of course, the project wasn't entirely new; the Shippingport plant was a development of the cancelled Navy CVR plant. What was new was the approach to containment, with reactor, steam generators and pressurizer (and a good deal of other equipment) contained below grade.
Next time I post on APR it will be from Chicago!
9:20 PM Eastern 6/22/2012
ATOMIC POWER REVIEW
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