THE BIG PICTURE: Abandoned Nuclear
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Tag: Nuclear
Exercise Proves Hacking a Threat to Nuclear Power Plants
Cybersecurity is a topic covered frequently in the pages of POWER magazine, and one that all power plants need to take seriously. A recent simulation proved that the consequences of a hack can be grave.
The drill took place in Sweden, but could have been conducted anywhere in the world. The attack used plant control systems against themselves to flood a cooling system, showing that hacking of computer systems can lead to physical plant damage.
Some experts, including Robert M. Lee, founder of cybersecurity firm Dragos, believe cyber incidents go underreported in the nuclear sector. The reason is that the Nuclear Regulatory Commission only requires the reporting of incidents that affect the safety, security functions, or emergency preparedness of the plant.
Although air-gapping systems, that is, keeping them disconnected from the internet, offers some protection, it is not the complete answer. Viruses, such as Stuxnet, have proven that systems can be infiltrated using USB drives, contractor laptops, or through a host of other seemingly innocuous methods.…
CPUC Backs PG&E Plan to Retire Diablo Canyon Nuclear Plant
California regulators have approved Pacific Gas & Electric’s (PG&E’s) application to retire the Diablo Canyon nuclear plant by year-end 2025, ending a protracted battle over the generating station that pitted local economic interests against environmentalists and other opponents of nuclear power.
The state Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) on January 11 voted unanimously to accept PG&E’s request to decommission the two reactors at the plant near Avila Beach when operating licenses for the units expire in November 2024 and August 2025, respectively. The 2,256-MW plant is the lone remaining operating nuclear facility in California.
The CPUC also authorized PG&E to recover from ratepayers $ 241.2 million in costs associated with the retirement: $ 211.3 million to keep employees until the plant in closed; $ 11.3 million to retrain displaced workers; and $ 18.6 million for operating license renewal costs.
CPUC President Michael Picker, the commissioner assigned to today’s proceeding, said “Diablo Canyon has been a source of reliable and clean electricity, and employment, in San Luis Obispo [County] for many years now.…
Commentary: Pressing Forward With Vogtle, a Nuclear MVP
Georgia wasn’t looking for an award or recognition when we set out to build new nuclear reactors in our state. Yet we now find ourselves as the last team on the field as our commissioners unanimously voted to move forward with a new cost and schedule for the Plant Vogtle new nuclear units—keeping the project alive just months after South Carolina walked off the field. This “experiment” here in Georgia is all that is left of the nuclear renaissance bludgeoned by cheap natural gas prices and a Japanese tsunami. Here is why I wanted to move forward.
Plant Vogtle is one of two Georgia nuclear sites. The plant’s existing two units came online in 1987 and 1989 amid cost overruns and controversy and now serve the state’s energy consumers as the crown jewel of our generation fleet. Disappointingly, Units 3 and 4 are running behind schedule and set to cost substantially more than we anticipated—almost double. The success of the first two units clearly played a role in us moving forward, with the hindsight that the addition of two more units most likely will work out.…
Bangladesh Turns to Nuclear Power
We were standing in Volgodonsk, Russia, on a bridge that connected the third and fourth units of the Rostov Nuclear Power Plant (NPP). The fourth unit was under construction, and the deputy chief engineer of the Rostov NPP, Alexander Belyaev, told us that we were about to witness something unique.
It was December 1, 2015, and winter was officially starting in Russia. Walking into the massive fourth unit as a member of a group of journalists from Bangladesh touring the site, I quickly realized part of the construction had not yet been completed—the heating. Amid freezing cold weather, we were directed into an elevator that took us to the top floor of Unit 4.
“Now we are going to enter into the reactor room where the nuclear pressure vessel has just been installed,” said Belyaev. “It is one of those rare occasions where you can see the inside of a reactor vessel, because when the uranium fuel will be loaded then it will be confined and you will not be able to see inside.”…
Two More Japan Nuclear Units Will be Decommissioned
Kansai Electric Power Co. (KEPCO) announced it will permanently close two older nuclear reactors in Japan, rather than invest nearly 100 billion yen ($ 900 million) to bring the units up to the country’s new safety regulations. Japan’s Nuclear Regulation Authority (NRA) created new standards for the country’s nuclear plants after the meltdown at the Fukushima Daiichi plant in March 2011.
KEPCO on December 22 said it will decommission reactors No. 1 and No. 2 at the Oi facility in central Japan over the next year. Each unit has a generation capacity of 1,175 MW. The reactors, which came online in March 1979 and December 1979 respectively, will be the largest decommissioned in the country since the Fukushima disaster, which occurred when a 9.0-magnitude earthquake caused a massive tsunami that flooded the Fukushima plant in the northeastern part of the country. The resulting release of radiation was the largest since the Chernobyl meltdown in Russia in 1986.
Japan idled all 50 of its remaining nuclear units after the Fukushima incident.…