Happy Friday, nuke-watchers. Before we head off for the weekend, here are some other stories RadWaste Monitor was tracking across the civilian nuclear power space this week.
Situation at Ukraine nuke plants ‘challenging,’ but no rad threats to public yet, IAEA says
Although the Russian invasion of Ukraine poses some danger to the country’s nuclear power infrastructure, fighting has yet to result in a major radiological release, the U.N.’s nuclear energy agency said this week.
“Despite the unprecedented circumstances, all nuclear facilities … continued operation since the beginning of the conflict,” the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said in a report published Thursday. “The radiation levels have remained within normal range and no radioactive releases have occurred that may impact the staff at the plants, the public or the environment.”
IAEA delivered its report after the agency’s director-general Rafael Mariano Grossi traveled to Ukraine this week to meet with state officials and inspect the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant.
In the two months since Russian forces invaded Ukraine, several of the country’s nuclear facilities have come under threat. Moscow Feb. 24 seized Chernobyl, and captured March 3 the country’s six-reactor Zaporizhzhia plant. Russian forces have since evacuated the Chernobyl plant amid reports that some soldiers were exposed to radiation.
Although fighting at those sites didn’t result in a radiation leak, operators are still grappling with other setbacks, IAEA reported. “The work associated with the management of spent fuel and radioactive waste at the Chornobyl NPP site and the exclusion zone were halted owing to the conflict,” the agency said. “Efforts are needed to restore safe and secure management of nuclear facilities at the Chornobyl NPP site and to better characterize the current radiological situation within the exclusion zone.”
At Zaporizhzhia, the situation is “challenging,” IAEA said, particularly because Russian forces still occupy the plant while operational management falls to its Ukrainian staff. That will soon become “unsustainable,” the agency said, and Grossi has proposed to visit Zaporizhzhia in the near future.
Purdue University, Duke Energy to collab on advanced nuclear power
Indiana’s Purdue University announced this week that it’s partnering with Duke Energy to explore whether an advanced nuclear reactor can power its campus, according to a joint press release.
Engineers from Purdue and Duke Energy will hold meetings and release a series of joint studies “in the coming weeks” assessing the feasibility of using a small modular reactor (SMR) to power the university’s West Lafayette, Ind., campus, the Wednesday press release said.
That’s “a move that may be unprecedented for a college campus and a potential fit for Purdue’s energy needs,” the release said. “Home to one of the nation’s top nuclear engineering programs and a national leader in energy innovation that is scalable and sustainable, Purdue and its experts are uniquely qualified to evaluate this “giant leap” toward a carbon-free energy future.”
Purdue is currently powered by its own steam generation facility, the Wade Utility Plant. Duke Energy earlier this month also began operating a thermal energy plant at the university.
RWM Movie Night: Three Mile Island meltdown series coming to Netflix
In a move already attracting the attention of pro-nuclear advocates, streaming service Netflix is set next month to release a documentary series on the meltdown at Three Mile Island Nuclear Generating Station.
Meltdown: Three Mile Island, streaming May 4, promises to feature “insiders” who “recount the events, controversies and lingering effects” of Three Mile Island Unit 3’s 1979 partial meltdown. Anyone interested can watch the trailer on Netflix’s site, which appears to suggest a cover-up surrounding the severity of the accident.
Although the series’ release is still about a week away, some proponents of nuclear power are looking to set the record straight on Three Mile Island. Madison Czerwinski, founder of pro-nuclear group Green Nuclear Deal, published an infographic Tuesday aiming to provide all of the facts about the meltdown.
“Communication around this show will be extremely important,” Czerwinski said in a Tweet Tuesday. “Nuclear comms have been famously bad: slow, confused, and defensive. This appears to the public as dishonesty, evasion, and dirtiness.”
In one week, Netflix will release “Meltdown: Three Mile Island”, a four-part documentary about the accident.
I’ve created an issue brief anyone can use, print, share, etc: https://t.co/zZpLjGkcKg
Communication around the show will be extremely important 🧵 pic.twitter.com/kns5UrXmtv
— Madi Hilly (@MadiHilly) April 26, 2022
The 1979 partial meltdown at Three Mile Island, located near Harrisburg, Pa., occurred after a reactor coolant valve improperly shut, allowing the core to heat up and melt the plant’s fuel rods. The resulting radiological release was one of the worst in U.S. history, alongside the Church Rock uranium mine disaster that same year.
