Happy Friday, nuke-watchers. Before we head off into the weekend, here are some other stories that RadWaste Monitor was tracking this week from across the civilian nuclear power space.
Energy secretary Jennifer Granholm was scheduled Oct. 26 to hold a press conference with the head of the United Nations’ nuclear power authority during an international convention in Washington, D.C.
Granholm and Rafael Grossi, director-general of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), plan to hold a joint press conference during IAEA’s International Ministerial Conference on Nuclear Power in the 21st Century, according to a Thursday press release from the U.N. agency.
The annual Ministerial Conference is a three-day event that allows IAEA member states to discuss nuclear power in their countries and plans for the future of nuclear energy. Notable speakers at this year’s event include Nuclear Energy Agency director William Magwood and Bill Gates, founder of advanced nuclear company TerraPower, who will address the conference via video.
Ukraine’s embattled Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant struggled to maintain its connection to external power throughout the week, United Nations observers reported.
The six-reactor power plant, located in Ukraine’s contested eastern reaches, was reconnected to external power as of Wednesday after having its connection severed on two separate occasions in less than a week, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said in a status report published Wednesday.
Shelling from battling Ukrainian and Russian forces damaged a substation on-site, causing the power loss, IAEA said. Although the Zaporizhzhia’s reactors are shut down, the plant still needs external power for reactor cooling and other operations.
Eric Beckjord, a nuclear engineer with experience at the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and the Department of Energy, died Aug. 17 at the age of 93.
Beckjord worked most recently as chairman of the Nuclear Energy Agency in Paris and as executive director of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s (MIT) future nuclear program until 2003, the Washington Post reported. He was also a research director at NRC until his retirement in 1996.
Before joining NRC, Beckjord was deputy director of Argonne National Laboratory from 1980 to 1984. He also worked in DOE as a coordinator of international nuclear study and director of nuclear power development.
