The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NCR) 2011-2012 Information Digest provides a summary of information about the NRC and the industry it regulates. It describes the agency's regulatory responsibilities and licensing activities and also provides general information on nuclear-related topics.

Britain was the first country to exploit atomic energy on a large scale, and at its peak in the mid-1960s, it had generated more electricity from nuclear power than the rest of the world combined. The civil atomic energy programme grew out of the military programme which produced plutonium for atomic weapons. In 1956, Calder Hall power station was opened by the Queen. The very next year, one of the early Windscale reactors caught fire and the world's first major nuclear accident occurred. The civil programme ran into further difficulty in the mid-1960s and as a consequence of procrastination in the decision-making process, the programme lost momentum and effectively died. No nuclear power stations have been built since Sizewell B in the late 1980s. This book presents a study of Government papers that have recently become available in the public domain. For the first time in history, the research reactor programme is presented in detail, along with a study of the decision-making by the Government, the Atomic Energy Authority (AEA), and the Central Electricity Board (CEGB).This book is aimed at both specialists in nuclear power and the interested public as a technical history on the development and ultimate failure of the British atomic energy programme.

This report describes eight events that NRC identified as AOs during Fiscal Year (FY) 2010. One event involved radiation exposure to an embryo/fetus. The other seven events occurred at NRC-licensed or regulated medical institutions and are medical events as defined in Title 10, Pt 35, of the Code of Federal Regulations (10 CFR Part 35).

This safety evaluation report (SER) documents the technical review of U.S. Advanced Boiling Water Reactor (ABWR) Aircraft Impact Assessment (AIA) application by the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) staff.

This second volume identifies and evaluates Cold War residual consequences, especially those related to nuclear weapons and their evolution. It provides a knowledgeable assessment of current risks and future potential of peaceful nuclear technology and inherited nuclear weapons. In this revised edition, a comparative assessment has been included of the nuclear accidents at Fukushima (Japan), Chernobyl, and Three Mile Island reactors. The respective roles of the three volumes in "Nuclear Insights" Volume 1 is a insider history of nuclear weapons development during the Cold War, and Volume 3 is a technically informed perspective about nuclear reductions and arms control. Thus, Volume 2 reports on and examines current nuclear technology, peaceful applications, and proliferation risks. All three volumes are unique, having originated with a written collaboration by four nuclear scientists and engineers, from both sides of the Cold War Iron Curtain, all of whom had hands-on experience with nuclear weapons and nuclear reactors.

Since 1975, a short course entitled "System Safety and Reliability Analysis" has been presented to over 200 NRC personnel and contractors. The course has been taught jointly by David F. Haasl, Institute of System Sciences, Professor Norman H. Roberts, University of Washington, and 'members of the Probabilistic Analysis Staff, NRC, as part of a risk assessment training program sponsored by the Probabilistic Analysis Staff. This handbook has been developed not only to serve as text for the System Safety and Reliability Course, but also to make available to others a set of otherwise undocumented material on fault tree construction and evaluation. The publication of this handbook is in accordance with the recommendations of the Risk Assessment Review Group Report (NUREG/CR-0400) in which it was stated that the fault/event tree methodology both can and should be used more widely by the NRC. It is hoped that this document will help to codify and systematize the fault tree approach to systems analysis.

Recent events have renewed long-standing congressional interest in safe management of spent nuclear fuel (SNF) and other high level nuclear waste. These issues have been examined and debated for decades, sometimes renewed by world events like the 9/11 terrorist attacks. The incident at the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear reactor complex in Japan, combined with the termination of the Yucca Mountain geologic repository project, have contributed to the increased interest. This book focuses on the current situation with spent nuclear fuel storage in the United States. It addresses the SNF storage situation, primarily at current and former reactor facilities and former reactor sites for the potentially foreseeable future. Although no nation has yet established a permanent disposal repository for SNF and other forms of high-level radioactive waste, there is broad consensus that a geological repository is the preferred method for these wastes.

The news out of Abu Dhabi on Dec. 27, 2009 was the direct motivation to write this book. South Korean consortium has just won the largest single nuclear power plant construction project in recent years to deliver four state-of-the-art Generation III pressurized water reactors to the United Arab Emirates. This book will bring to life the agonizing process of pursuing peaceful nuclear energy in South Korea during the last half-century for the "Atoms for Peace" dream from a poor developing country. Particular focus is placed on the localization process of nuclear power technology since 1980 from an insider's view. This case study on the Korean nuclear power technology could shed some light for other nations as they enter the brave new world of nuclear renaissance. Once on the Silk Road countries like China, India, UAE and Turkey show the most active nuclear power programs together with Japan and Korea today. After all, history repeats itself as new technologies transfer through the Nuclear Silk Road, crossing civilizations.

At present, different concentrating solar thermal technologies (CST) have reached varying degrees of commercial availability. This emerging nature of CST means that there are market and technical impediments to accelerating its acceptance, including cost competitiveness, an understanding of technology capability and limitations, intermittency, and benefits of electricity storage. Many developed and some developing countries are currently working to address these barriers in order to scale up CST-based power generation. Given the considerable growth of CST development in several World Bank Group partner countries, there is a need to assess the recent experience of developed countries in designing and implementing regulatory frameworks and draw lesson that could facilitate the deployment of CST technologies in developing countries. Merely replicating developed countries' schemes in the context of a developing country may not generate the desired outcomes. Against this background, this report (a) analyzes and draws lessons from the efforts of some developed countries and adapts them to the characteristics of developing economies; (b) assesses the cost reduction potential and economic and financial affordability of various CST technologies in emerging markets; (c) evaluates the potential for cost reduction and associated economic benefits derived from local manufacturing; and (d) suggests ways to tailor bidding models and practices, bid selection criteria, and structures for power purchase agreements (PPAs) for CST projects in developing market conditions.|Security sector reform (SSR) is widely recognized as key to conflict prevention, peace-building, sustainable development, and democratization. SSR has gained most practical relevance in the context of post-conflict reconstruction of so-called ""failed states'"" and states emerging from violent internal or inter-state conflict. As this volume shows, almost all states need to reform their security sectors to a greater or lesser extent, according to the specific security, political and socio-economic contexts, as well as in response to the new security challenges resulting from globalization and post-9/11 developments. Alan Bryden is a researcher at the Geneva Centre for the Democratic Control of Armed Forces. Heiner Hnggi is assistant director of the Geneva Centre for the Democratic Control of Armed Forces.

The earthquake and subsequent tsunami that devastated Japan's Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power station and the earthquake that forced the North Anna, VA, nuclear power plant's temporary shutdown have focused attention on the seismic criteria applied to siting and designing commercial nuclear power plants. Some Members of Congress have questioned whether U.S nuclear plants are more vulnerable to seismic threats than previously assessed, particularly given the Nuclear Regulatory Commission's (NRC's) ongoing reassessment of seismic risks at certain plant sites. The design and operation of commercial nuclear power plants operating in the United States vary considerably because most were custom-designed and custom-built. Boiling water reactors (BWRs) directly generate steam inside the reactor vessel. Pressurized water reactors (PWRs) use heat exchangers to convert the heat generated by the reactor core into steam outside of the reactor vessel. U.S. utilities currently operate 104 nuclear power reactors at 65 sites in 31 states; 69 are PWR designs and the 35 are BWR designs. One of the most severe operating conditions a reactor may face is a loss of coolant accident (LOCA), which can lead to a reactor core meltdown. The emergency core cooling system (ECCS) provides core cooling to minimize fuel damage by injecting large amounts of cool water containing boron (borated water slows the fission process) into the reactor coolant system following a pipe rupture or other water loss. The ECCS must be sized to provide adequate makeup water to compensate for a break of the largest diameter pipe in the primary system (i.e., the socalled "double-ended guillotine break" (DEGB)). The NRC considers the DEGB to be an extremely unlikely event; however, even unlikely events can occur, as the magnitude 9.0 earthquake and resulting tsunami that struck Fukushima Daiichi proves. U.S. nuclear power plants designed in the 1960s and 1970s used a deterministic statistical approach to addressing the risk of damage from shaking caused by a large earthquake (termed Deterministic Seismic Hazard Analysis, or DSHA). Since then, engineers have adopted a more comprehensive approach to design known as Probabilistic Seismic Hazard Analysis (PSHA). PSHA estimates the likelihood that various levels of ground motion will be exceeded at a given location in a given future time period. New nuclear plant designs will apply PSHA. In 2008, the U.S Geological Survey (USGS) updated the National Seismic Hazard Maps (NSHM) that were last revised in 2002. USGS notes that the 2008 hazard maps differ significantly from the 2002 maps in many parts of the United States, and generally show 10%-15% reductions in spectral and peak ground acceleration across much of the Central and Eastern United States (CEUS), and about 10% reductions for spectral and peak horizontal ground acceleration in the Western United States (WUS). Spectral acceleration refers to ground motion over a range, or spectra, of frequencies. Seismic hazards are greatest in the WUS, particularly in California, Oregon, and Washington, as well as Alaska and Hawaii. In 2010, the NRC examined the implications of the updated NSHM for nuclear power plants operating in the CEUS, and concluded that NSHM data suggest that the probability for earthquake ground motions may be above the seismic design basis for some nuclear plants in the CEUS. In late March 2011, NRC announced that it had identified 27 nuclear reactors operating in the CEUS that would receive priority earthquake safety reviews.

This book describes how the effects of nature's own nuclear reactors have shaped the Earth, the Solar System, the Universe, and the history of life as we know it. It focuses on observed effects that are poorly explained by our standard theories, identifies certain errors in those theories, and shows how these effects are caused by natural nuclear fission reactors. The theory of Plate Tectonics is wrong, and it is shown that expansion of the Earth causes continental drift. A physically reasonable mechanism is proposed for expansion and observational data are presented to show that this occurs. Evolution is explained as punctuated equilibrium, with mutations caused by abrupt surges of radiation, and related life forms that have been interpreted as seperate species are actually the result of radiation injury. This view is particularly effective as applied to humans. The ability of the dinosaurs to live so large is explained by use of Earth Expansion and a more massive atmosphere to provide buoyancy and effective transpiration of oxygen. These effects also explain how pterodactyls and ancient birds could fly. Expansion induced by impacts at the end of the Cretaceous caused the atmosphere to thin and the dinosaurs collapsed. Analysis of geological and biological data supports this. The astronomical distance scale is shown to be wrong, based on the misconception that trigonometric parallax is an absolute measurement. It isn't, and the method is led astray by the overwhelming number of asteroidal fragments masquerading as stars. The measurements of an expanding Universe are shown to be in error, and an expanding Universe is not needed by an alternative interpretation of Einstein's equations. This interpretation is based on the equal creation of matter and antimatter, which is known to occur. Spiral galaxies are not vast Island Universes of stars as we have thought, but are shown to be the strewn fields of debris from the nuclear fission detonation of distant planets.The Universe is not made up of 96% Dark Matter and Dark Energy, but is instead very ordinary. Abundant evidence and references provide support for all these interpretations. This book opens new opportunities for research by correcting several fundamental errors in our concepts of the Earth, Life, and the Universe.

It is an undisputed reality that the energy production and, particularly, the production of electricity and their sustained growth, constitute indispensable elements for the economic and social progress of any country. Without any doubt, energy constitute the motive force of the civilisation and it determines, in a high degree, the level of economic and social development of a country. To ensure an adequate economic and social growth of a country, there is a need to use all available types of energy sources for electricity production, including nuclear energy. This book discusses the role of nuclear power in the world electricity generation.

In this book, the authors gather topical research in the study of nuclear materials. Topics discussed include experimental studies in nuclear fuel alloys for research reactors; the removal of arsenic from ground and surface waters using lanthanides; microstructural characterisation of zirconium based alloys and current trends in the mathematical modelling and simulation of fission product transport from fuel to primary coolant of PWRs.

Takashi Hirose wrote this book in a heat of passion mixed with terrible sadness in the weeks following the Fukushima nuclear disaster. But he is far from a newcomer to this field; he has been writing books and articles warning of the terrible dangers of nuclear power since the early 1980s. In this book, which was a best seller in Japan, he not only describes the comic-if-not-so-tragic series of fumbling errors that lead to the meltdown at Fukushima, but also makes clear the absurdity of putting nuclear power plants anywhere on the earthquake and volcano prone Japanese archipelago - and by extension, anywhere in the world. This is the first translation into English of any book by this authoritative critic of nuclear power.

This document is a supplemental safety evaluation report (SSER) for the license renewal application for Indian Point Nuclear Generating Unit Nos. 2 and 3 (IP2 and IP3) as filed by Entergy Nuclear Operations, Inc.

To achieve energy security and greenhouse gas (GHG) emission reduction objectives, the United States must develop clean, affordable, domestic energy sources as quickly as possible. Nuclear power will continue to be a key component of a portfolio of technologies that meets our energy goals. This book provides a roadmap for the Department of Energy's (DOE's) Office of Nuclear Energy (NE) research, development and demonstration activities that will ensure nuclear energy remains a viable energy option for the United States.

This report provides technical details applicable to access control methods and technologies commonly used to protect facilities licensed by the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission. It contains information on the application, use, function, installation, maintenance, and testing parameters for access control and search equipment and the implementation of protective measures that support access control. This information is intended to assist licensees in designing, installing, employing, and maintaining access control systems at their facilities.

While it does not forego the seriousness associated with the topic, this book provides for an easy read that informs the reader of a variety of issues associated with the subject. Divided into short chapters, aspects such as technology, resource availability, economics, geopolitics and policies associated with nuclear power are dealt with in detail, but in a way that emphasizes readability. Contentious areas such as safety, waste management and the latest trends associated with them are laid bare for the reader. The book also dwells in depth on the shrill and seldom above-board debate on nuclear power and renewables. This is an invaluable companion for all those looking to understand the nature of the nuclear industry in the new millennium and the implications of international treaties such as the Indo-US nuclear deal.

For operating in severe environments, long life and reliability, radioisotope power systems have proven to be the most successful of all space power sources. Two Voyager missions launched in 1977 to study Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, and their satellites, rings and magnetic fields and continuing to the heliosphere region are still functioning over thirty years later. Radioisotope power systems have been used on the Moon, exploring the planets, and exiting our solar system. There success is a tribute to the outstanding engineering, quality control and attention to details that went into the design and production of radioisotope power generation units. Space nuclear radioisotope systems take the form of using the thermal energy from the decay of radioisotopes and converting this energy to electric power. Reliability and safety are of prime importance. Mission success depends on the ability of being able to safely launch the systems and on having sufficient electrical power over the life of the mission. Graceful power degradation over the life of a mission is acceptable as long as it is within predictable limits. Electrical power conversion systems with inherent redundancy, such as thermoelectric conversion systems, have been favored to date. Also, radioactive decay heat has been used to maintain temperatures in spacecraft at acceptable conditions for other components. This book describes how radioisotope systems work, the requirements and safety design considerations, the various systems that have been developed, and their operational history.

This supplemental environmental impact statement (SEIS) documents the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) staff's analysis and conclusions regarding the environmental impacts of constructing and operating two new nuclear units (Units 3 and 4) at the Vogtle Electric Generating Plant (VEGP) site near Waynesboro, Georgia, and the mitigation measures available for reducing or avoiding adverse environmental impacts.

This report provides information about designing, installing, testing, maintaining, and monitoring intrusion detection systems (IDSs) and subsystems used for the protection of facilities licensed by the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC).

A electric glow discharge is a type of plasma formed by passing a current at 100 V to several kV through a gas at low pressure, usually argon or another noble gas. It is found in products such as fluorescent lights and plasma-screen televisions, and is used in plasma physics and analytical chemistry. A tokamak is a machine producing a toroidal magnetic field for confining a plasma which is characterised by azimuthal (rotational) symmetry and the use of a plasma-borne electric current to generate the helical component of the magnetic field necessary for stable equilibrium. It is one of several types of magnetic confinement devices, and is one of the most-researched candidates for producing controlled thermonuclear fusion power. This book discusses and presents current data on both glow discharges and tokamaks.

This short history of nuclear regulation provides a brief over-view of the most significant events in the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission's past. Space limitations prevent discussion of all the important occurrences, and even the subjects that are included cannot be covered in full detail. The first chapter of this account is taken from George T. Mazuzan and J. Samuel Walker, Controlling the Atom: The Beginnings of Nuclear Regulation, 1946-1962 (University of California Press, Berkeley, CA, 1984). The second chapter is largely based on J. Samuel Walker, Containing the Atom: Nuclear Regulation in a Changing Environment, 1963-1971 (University of California Press, Berkeley, CA, 1992). The third chapter is adopted in significant part from J. Samuel Walker, Three Mile Island: A Nuclear Crisis in Historical Perspective (University of California Press, Berkeley, CA, 2004). The findings and conclusions on events that occurred after 1979 should be regarded as preliminary and tentative; they are not based on extensive research in primary sources.