National Nuclear Security Administration leader Jill Hruby, recently visited a Westinghouse nuclear power plant in Västerås, Sweden.
Hruby met with Patrick Fragman, president and chief executive officer of Westinghouse Electric Company, to tour Westinghouse’s Västerås fuel fabrication facility, which both produces energy and serves as a new source of nuclear fuel for legacy Soviet reactors in Ukraine and elsewhere in the world.
Westinghouse employs more than 1,000 people in Sweden and supplies nuclear fuel to more than 30 reactors in Europe. Its largest customers are France and Ukraine. The annual production of nuclear fuel at Västerås contributes to a reduced carbon dioxide load in Europe by approximately 200 million tons – as much carbon dioxide as the whole of Sweden emits over four years, according to an NNSA statement. Westinghouse is currently the only non-Russian supplier of fuel for Russian-designed VVER-440 and VVER-1000 reactors.
Australia will need thousands of specialized workers and trained engineers to pull off the ambitious plan to build its own nuclear-powered submarines under the AUKUS deal with the U.S. and U.K., according to a new study from the University of New South Wales.
Edward Obbard, who heads the nuclear engineering program at UNSW Sydney and has analyzed the potential numbers of specially trained workers who will be required to build, operate and maintain the new fleet of subs. That includes more than 200 subject matter experts to make top-level decisions when Australia begins building its own SSN-AUKUS subs in the 2040s. That could be a heavy lift for a country that banned nuclear power in 1998, Obbard contends.
Australia also will need up to 5,000 skilled workers trained to work around the nuclear reactors that will power the submarines, Obbard says. This workforce is predominantly tradespeople and skilled professionals, such as fitters, machinists, and welders, who will need to have some awareness of the issues related to nuclear power in order to safely carry out their tasks.
To the chagrin of hopeful residents of Amarillo, Texas, suburb Borger, a Taco Villa franchise is not expected to open any time soon, local media reported recently.
A sign claiming an outpost of the taco chain was “coming soon” to the area surrounding of the National Nuclear Security Administration’s Pantex Plant appears to have been erected either in error or jest, according to ABC 7 News. A sign which read “Taco Villa Coming Soon” was briefly seen in a vacant lot on Wilson Street, just east of the Pantex Federal Credit Union.
The City of Borger posted a photo of it on Facebook. “Sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but we have seen no actual plans come through the City, for Taco Villa (broken heart emoji),” said the City of Borger.
