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Margaret Harding I work with people in the nuclear energy industry. My goal is to ensure everyone I work with ends up being a better member of the industry. Smarter about how things need to be done, or why things should be done. BUT, there’s much more to nuclear technology and today, I got a reminder. Go … Read more Scare Crow? Nope, this Girl has a Brain
Two weeks ago (Aug. 18), the WSJ published a Saturday essay from Dr. Richard Muller titled “The Panic Over Fukushima”. I submitted a letter to the editor. Sadly, the WSJ decided not to publish it. However, I wanted to share it with my readers. I might add that anti-nuclear people hate his essay, and a … Read more Letter to the Editor of the Wall Street Journal
Yes, this is another post related to things I learned at the ANS-UWC. I don’t usually dwell so long on one conference, but there was so much interesting information that I wanted to pass along. Dr. Corradini and the ANS’ CNST Dr. Michael Corradini, president of ANS spoke about a new project ANS has undertaken … Read more American Nuclear Society’s CNST
Last week, I summarized Tom Kilgore, CEO of TVA’s speech at the opening plenary. Today, I want to write about a couple of the sessions I attended. The first, title “Current State of the Industry,” was right after the opening plenary with Bill Borchardt, Executive Director of Operations for the NRC, and Alex Marion, Vice … Read more Report from ANS Utility Working Conference – Part 2
I spent Sunday night through Wednesday noon at the 2012 American Nuclear Society Utility Working Conference. That’s a mouthful, so most people refer to it as the ANS-UWC. Marginally better to say, but a lot easier to type. The conference them this year was “Nuclear! Still the one! The right business, The right results, The … Read more Report from ANS Utility Working Conference
My blog last week got some interesting reactions regarding the larger picture of regulatory issues. I chose to look at quality as it is an area where significant changes in the broader context of quality control have occurred since those regulations were written and an update is overdue. This is also completely within the control … Read more NRC and Regulatory Capture
I’ve spent most of my career working with Nuclear Regulation. One of the most complex series of regulations you can imagine. The U.S. Internal Revenue Service probably sent people over to help the AEC/NRC develop these regulations. They cover a wide variety of issues all under the name of safety and security. One of the … Read more Nuclear Quality Regulations – Time for a new look?
I wrote about this pool a year ago when TEPCO (Nuclear Power and The Witch Hunt) made video footage available that showed that this pool was undamaged, and had the fuel within it was also intact, contrary to some rather inflammatory statements from former NRC Chair Jaczko. In the past week, TEPCO has begun unloading … Read more Spent Fuel Pool #4 – TEPCO’s moving fuel!
Last week I discussed why the Russians might be asking the NRC for a Design Certification of the VVER. I concluded it had little to do with the supposed “gold standard” of certification the NRC provides. In reality the Russians need any independent certification to participate in the international market with smaller countries that lack … Read more Russian Gold!
No, this is not a post about the upcoming Olympic Games, although we will talk about some of the countries playing in those games. This is a different set of games and one that affects the nuclear industry playing fields. The recent announcement of Rosatom’s intent to seek Design Certification for the VVER in the … Read more Russian Gold? or U.S. Gold Standard