Gingerbread Nuke

A colleague passed along this photo of the "Pfefferkuchen Nuclear Plant" on display in one of the NRC offices. A new small modular reactor design perhaps?

Happy Hanukkah, merry Christmas and a happy 2015!

Nuclear Power in the Old Dominion

I'm headed back to the US for home leave soon and will spend some time visiting family in Virginia, so i thought a post on Virginia's plants would be appropriate. Virginia Electric Power Company licensed plants at two sites, Surry on the south bank of the James River near Norfolk and North Anna on man-made Lake Anna in Louisa County between Washington and Richmond.

The two Surry units were the first to operate, going on-line in 1972 and 1973. the plant is not far from the oldest brick dwelling, Bacon's Castle, a rare Jacobean style house dating from 1665 and named for Nathaniel Bacon, who led "Bacon's Rebellion" in 1676 and had captured this house and fortified it.

The North Anna site was originally anticipated to include four operating reactors, but only two of the originally planned facilities were completed. Unit 1 began operation in June 1978 and Unit 2 in December 1980. Unit 2's operational date was in part affected by the moratorium on licensing after the 1979 Three Mile Island accident.

My first visit to a nuclear power plant was to North Anna Unit 1 in 1978. In August 2011 one of the largest earthquakes on the East Coast occurred with its epicenter near the plant. The plant shut down safely and did not sustain significant damage, though the earthquake exceeded in some respects the original design basis for the plant.

The VEPCO plants are now operated by Dominion Power which also operates the Millstone plants  in Connecticut and until recently the Kewaunee Plant in Wisconsin. Dominion planned to construct a new reactor on the North Anna site and submitted an application in 2007 for a combined license (COL). After changing the possible design option for the new reactor, Dominion indicated in 2013 that it would revert to its original choice of the ESBWR and would submit necessary additional documentation in 2015.

Three Mile Island - 35 years later

At the time of the accident I had been at the NRC not quite 7 months. This was certainly the "significant emotional event" in the history of nuclear energy in the US and also had an impact internationally on nuclear safety.

Although the NRC was barely 4 years old at the time of the accident, some called for the abolition of the agency in favor of an agency run by a single administrator.  President Carter stuck with the Commission form of governance, but issued a Reorganization Plan in 1980 that enhanced the power of the Chairman in NRC's emergency response functions.  Improvement in emergency preparedness and response was one of the lessons learned from the TMI accident. Here's an information brochure issued by Pennsylvania after the accident:

Three Mile Island Unit 1 continues to operate today.

But I doubt we will see this wag's prediction come true for Unit 2!

Atomic laughs

Long before the Simpsons we can find examples of nuclear humor. I've found a number of old postcards that have radioactive stuff at the center of the humor.  The first card is from a set Tout au radium (Everything radium) by an early 20th century illustrator Ph. Norwins. The card shows an exchange between a young man and the father of the object of his affection. The father says that the suitor, penniless as he is, has some nerve asking for the hand of his daughter. The young man agrees that he's penniless but notes he has 10 grams of radium. Dad has a change of heart in the face of such "wealth" and welcomes the young man into his arms.


The card dates from a time when radium seemed to be a miracle substance - but before an understanding of the dangers of excessive radiation exposure. Radium seemed to be a miracle substance, useful for heating homes and useful in any number of radium consumer products from the 19th and early 20th century that would be unthinkable today.

Our second card shows a lady apparently getting her hair done - or at least getting an atomic wave! I hope the Eiffel Tower (seen through the open window) survives the shock waves!

                                 Your faithful blogger,

 

Mr. Burns

Greenpeace at Oskarshamn

A number of Greenpeace activists scaled the fence at the Oskarshamn Nuclear Power Plant in Sweden last week.  The entry was related to a protest against the age of the reactors, the first of which began operation in 1972.

Three of Sweden's ten operating nuclear reactors are at the Oskarshamn site. The others are at the Ringhals and Forsmark sites.

The Father of the Indian Nuclear Program

I am off to India Sunday to attend a wedding in Calcutta, my second trip in the past few months, the first being in November to lecture at a nuclear law course at National Law University, Delhi. In anticipation of the trip, I thought appropriate this first day cover from 1966 honoring Homi Bhabha, the nuclear physicist who is considered the "father" of the Indian nuclear program. The stamp was issued in April 1966, only a few months after his death in January in an airplane crash into Mount Blanc.

Bhabha founded some key Indian institutions, including the Atomic Energy Establishment Trombay, now named after him as the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre. He was the first chair of the Indian Atomic Energy Commission and represented India at the IAEA. Bhabha is credited with developing India's approach to nuclear energy -- civilian and military -- including the emphasis on the thorium fuel cycle given India's rich thorium reserves.

Happy New Year - Atoms for Peace

Happy New Year! I've been away from the blog for a couple months, but hope to post more in 2014. Let's start off with this image from the IAEA's official holiday card.