Edwin Lyman
@nucsafetyucs.bsky.social
Director of Nuclear Power Safety, Union of Concerned Scientists, Washington, DC.
Here's my new piece on the state of #nuclear reactor security on the 25th anniversary of 9/11. blog.ucs.org/edwin-lyman/...
The NRC is Regulating Nuclear Security like it’s September 10, 2001—And We Should All Be Concerned
On the morning of September 11, 2001, I was preparing to leave my Washington, DC apartment for an appointment when the phone rang. It was just after 9 AM. On the line was my boss at the time, Pau...
blog.ucs.org
Energoatom warns on its Telegram channel that the Russian occupiers of the Zaporizhzhia #nuclear plant are running the emergency diesel generators in non-standard modes during the current extended loss of offsite power, increasing the risk of common-cause equipment failures.
Holtec is boasting about loading fuel into the Palisades #nuclear reactor in #Michigan, yet it just received 2 violations for failing to protect its workers from high airborne radiation levels. And we are supposed to trust them to keep the public safe ... www.nrc.gov/docs/ML2624/...
nrc.gov
At the ACRS X-Energy meeting yesterday, NRC staff said that the Seadrift, #Texas Long Mott construction permit application safety analysis had improperly screened out 47 (!) accident sequences that should have been considered. Your tax dollars paid for this.
Walt Kirchner of ACRS just confronted X-Energy about why the company is keeping the temperature of its TRISO fuel irradiation testing "proprietary" when it is critical for the public to understand the safety of its reactor with its lack of containment. They are hiding something.
Is reality finally catching up with Oklo? www.utilitydive.com/news/pjm-okl...
PJM drops Oklo advanced nuclear project from interconnection study cycle
Oklo asked the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to order the PJM Interconnection to reinstate its 750-MW, mixed-technology project. PJM reportedly told Oklo that it never showed the project could ...
utilitydive.com
Add Sen. Patty Murray (D-WA), Vice Chair of Senate Appropriations, to the list of folks who have been rebuffed by the NRC when requesting an extension to the comment period for its proposal to allow more Americans to get cancer from nuclear facilities. www.nrc.gov/docs/ML2621/...
So let's do the math here for the Army JANUS program. $2.2 billion of our money for 5 microreactors with a total power capacity of 32 MW-electric. That works out to a mere $68,750/kW. That makes the $15,000/kW Vogtle disaster look like pocket change. www.army.mil/article/2948...
Army reaches agreement with private industry for nuclear micro-reactors
WASHINGTON — The Department of the Army is announcing today that the Janus Program has selected five nuclear energy vendors, and five initial locations.
army.mil
OMG!!! Financial support from Oklo, but "editorially independent"? LMAO
Tony Nuspl@tonynuspl.bsky.social · 2w agoThe whole series of articles at Nature magazine is sponsored by a company developing a small modular reactor (SMR)?
Excellent article in @nature.com by Peter Fairley on the challenges to the NRC's status as an independent #nuclear safety regulator: www.nature.com/articles/d41...
Are pro-nuclear politics a threat to public safety?
Oversight agencies suddenly face pressure to rapidly assess a range of relatively untested reactor designs.
nature.com
www.nbcnews.com/world/europe...
Hungary braces for a full shutdown of nuclear plant as the Danube River hits record lows
The Paks nuclear plant, located around 50 miles south of the capital Budapest, could face a shutdown for the first time in its 44 years of service due to a lack of water for cooling.
nbcnews.com
Some smart folks in #Delaware! www.delawarebusinessnow.com/news/technol...
Task force rules out small nuclear power plants as short-term solution
The final report of a task force studying small nuclear plants did not close the door on future use, but concluded that the technology wouldn’t address near-term power shortages.
delawarebusinessnow.com
Bomb-usable uranium mystery solved: Now we know the identity of the irresponsible company seeking an NRC permit to build a highly enriched uranium-fueled reactor: Space Ocean Corporation in Brownsville, #TX. They want to build another KRUSTY. www.nrc.gov/docs/ML2621/...
On July 19 a Troxler moisture density gauge containing 8 millicurie cesium-137 and 40 mCi americium-beryllium sources was stolen from a locked garage in Johnstown, #Ohio by someone in a ski mask using bolt cutters. Sure sounds like the gauge was targeted for theft -- but why?
The NRC has denied requests to extend the 45-day comment period on its dreadful radiation rule by the Health Physics Society (over 2000 members); AFL-CIO (nearly 15 million members); and the state of Connecticut (population 3.7 million). It does not care about the what the public has to say.
Not sure how I missed this, but here is the reason for the comment yesterday by Jennifer Wheeler of TRISO-X about inadequate contractor oversight. The company approved application of defective welds and then failed to inspect them. A rush to failure. www.nrc.gov/docs/ML2615/...
BREAKING NEWS: Michelle Sampson of NRC just said they have heard from a potential advanced reactor applicant who wants to use bomb-usable HIGHLY ENRICHED URANIUM in their design. This is beyond the pale.
Jennifer Wheeler with the TRISO-X #nuclear fuel facility being built in #Tennessee just said at the NRC briefing that the company "underestimated" the level of contractor oversight necessary to ensure requirements were being met. Hmm, wonder what the story is ...
Rita Baranwal of Radiant #Nuclear just said at an NRC Commission briefing that her company plans to deploy its 1-MW, containment-free microreactors "adjacent to urban areas" and wants them to power building HVAC systems. Which city? Crazytown.
I hear that the company has an innovative linear plasma design that should give @helionenergy.bsky.social a run for its money. wedc.org/realta-fusio...
For anyone interested, I posted this paper on arXiv yesterday: arxiv.org/abs/2607.15250
Equivalence of the Compton and Bethe-Feynman Yield Formulas
The Bethe-Feynman formula has proven useful for estimating the explosive yields of simple fission weapons. However, derivations of the Bethe-Feynman formula found in the open literature utilize approx...
arxiv.org
On June 29 the Curium radioisotope facility in #Indiana experienced another contamination event when a technician dropped a vial containing 6.53 curies of lutetium chloride. The count rate on the pants, shoes, and socks of the technician went off the instrument scale.
I just noticed that Plant Vogtle Units 1 and 3 in #Georgia both reduced their power level from full power to 55 percent yesterday. Heat-related, I assume.
To "unleash" #nuclear energy, the Energy Department and the NRC are taking a wrecking ball to nuclear safety, security, and radiation protection standards that were carefully developed over the decades, often in response to painful lessons. So why do nuclear power stocks keep falling?
NEWS FLASH: The NRC has released the prepub versions of two major proposed rules: one on "reforming and modernizing the radiation protection framework" and the other on "modernizing reactor licensing, oversight, and safety practices." www.nrc.gov/docs/ML2618/... www.nrc.gov/docs/ML2617/...
nrc.gov
