Atoms for Peace - the world's first commercial use of nuclear powered electricity - Shippingport Atomic Power Station 17-12-57

On October 17th 1956 at 12.16 GMT the Queen pushed a lever, a clock ticked round and Calder Hall - in what the Lord Privy Seal, Rab Butler described as an "epoch making" event, sent the first commercial nuclear powered electricity to the National Grid. It was of course a mere dribble of power that left the plant , most was consumed on site in the rest of the nuclear bomb factory.

All this was of course a giant hoax, a publicity stunt - although the Engineer in recording the event did say ..." The reactor is designed for the production of plutonium as well as the generation of electricity".

It was also a vainglorious attempt to forge ahead of US know how and show that the UK was alone in taming this awesome technology , turning swords into ploughshares and nuclear plants producing the familiar bounties of electricity. The fact that it was a nuclear bomb factory was very carefully concealed from the public.

Windscale , of which Calder Hall was part , was in fact a massive nuclear weapons factory which had been funded secretly after the end of the war as a result of a decision in January 1947 by the Labour Government to to produce materials for nuclear weapons, principally plutonium.

A decision forced on them by the United States ban on the release of atomic technology to other powers as a direct result of the passage by the United States of the Atomic Energy Act 1946 or the McMahon Act (Senator Brien McMahon, Dem. Con. the chair of the United States Senate Special Committee on Atomic Energy - he also established what was to become the Peace Corps) - it was passed 265-79 signed by President Harry Truman on August 1, 1946 and it went into effect on January 1, 1947.

In 1946 work began at the former Royal Ordnance factory at Sellafield to build two reactors, on a site renamed as Windscale, to produce plutonium for the UK weapons program. Pile No. 1 began operating in October 1950, Pile No. 2 started up 8 months later and plutonium for the first British bomb was available in March 1952.

In 1953 the first plans were made for Calder Hall at Risley for a plant with 4 Magnox air cooled reactors )Magnox = Magnesium Alloy used for the finned fuel canisters) and 3 1/2 years later the Queen performed the opening magic - another one opened later at Chapelcross.

Almost exactly a year later Windscale Pile No. 1 caught fire on Thursday 10 October 1957 - many of Lord Patel's generation this led to the disposal down the drains of CUmberland milk - which of course served to spread the nucleotide over an even wider area - even if it did stop children drinking it.

In 1953, US President Eisenhower made alandmark speech about Atoms for Peace speech to the United Nations. Duquesne Light Company near Pittsburgh suggested building a nuclear power plant and these were adiopted by Admiral Rickover - weeks later plans for the Shippingport Atomic Power Station were put into action.

On Labor Day, 1954 President Eisenhower remotely initiated the first scoop of dirt at the ceremony. After 32 months and the cost of US$72.5 Mn. the reactor went critical at 4:30 am and on the 2nd December 1957 and 15 days later on the 17th the first power was generated - by modern standards it was small and generated just 60 MWe.

President Eisenhower opened the Shippingport Atomic Power Station on in May the following year and made a radio address .

Perhaps to aggravate his allies in London he carefully described the plant as :

... the first of the world's large-scale nuclear power stations exclusively devoted to peaceful purposes.

It represents the hope of our people that the power of the atom will be able to open up a vast new world of peaceful development--that atomic power will ease mankind's burdens and provide additional comforts for human living.

The plant was shut down on October 1st 1982 and at a cost of nearly US£100 Mn was dismantled (the 956-ton reactor pressure vessel/neutron shield tank assembly was lifted out of the containment building in one piece) and buried in Washington State.

See Monday, November 05, 2007 How the US came to make and love the Bomb

The Putin Doctrine: Nuclear Threats and Russia's Place in the World - : Part 23

Stratfor published an analysis on January 17th, 2000 -The Putin Doctrine: Nuclear Threats and Russia's Place in the World, which in the light of the Topol firecracker this week is worth re-reading.

No matter how unlikely a Russian first strike is, there is a huge difference between a negligible threat and a non-existent one, particularly at the orders of magnitude involved. During the Cold War, the threat of a Soviet nuclear response was in the back of every policy maker's mind when dealing with issues from Nicaragua to Angola to India. That threat disappeared with Glasnost. Putin intends to resurrect it.

The establishment of a deep militarily backed buffer zone along the Russian / Georgian border can also be seen in a different perspective ..

With some reason, Russians are convinced that outside forces - backed by the United States - are supplying Chechen rebels through neighboring Georgia. The situation in Chechnya reminds many Russian military men of Afghanistan, where a great power created logistical support systems and sanctuaries in a neighboring country, bleeding Moscow's forces. Putin is now reminding the United States that the survival of the Russian Federation - intact - is a fundamental national interest. Therefore, any aid to the Chechens threatens an interest so profound that the use of nuclear weapons might be rational.

Putin was then as now speaking to a domestic audience ...

Putin remembers Afghanistan well. He is not going to be drawn into another Afghanistan, nor is he going to withdraw from Chechnya. In the extreme case, anything is possible. And that is precisely the ambiguous situation Putin wants to create. He wants Russia's antagonists to peer into the abyss and see the worst. He is calculating, quite rightly we think, that this will dramatically increase the caution and respect with which Russia is treated. That will yield an international payoff for Russia - and a massive domestic payoff for Putin.

The moves Putin has made seem to be paying off very well for Putin.

We have a Chancellor of the Exchequer appearing in public to explain like the Treasurer explaining to the Sidesmen that, although the books don't appear to balance, and the Vicar has an excellent record, a little more rattling of the collection plates and a few firm stares might well be in order.

We have the Boy David appearing in Ukraine attempting to appear stern, learned and statesmanlike, but is clearly out of his depth as were the Ukraine's last month in the worst floods for 100 years - floods unreported in the UK and for which we offered zero aid or support .....

Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Saltanov is a famed Chess player ...

Tricastin radioactive fluid leak may be historical ... hiccup could will affect Gordon's grand nuclear build plan - that's show business folks!

A fluid leak was reported at the Tricastin nuclear power plant in SW France , 40 kilometers (25 miles) from Avignon last Tuesday. Whilst cleaning a tank containing a solution with traces of non-enriched uranium, a reservoir designed to collect it overflowed. Some 30,000 liters (7,925 gallons - comparison - a standard road petrol tanker holds 34,000 litres = £40,000) of solution seeped into the ground and two nearby rivers. Despite assurances, local authorities have now banned the use of well water from three nearby towns as well as using water from the contaminated rivers to irrigate crops. Residents have also been banned from swimming, water sports and fishing in the contaminated waters. See post on 14th May Klaus Töpfer ex German Minister of the Environment - "It would be disastrous if we were to consider a future with nuclear energy once again" with map of nuclear accidents in Europe including the then just announced Tricastin event.

France's nuclear safety agency (ASN) claimed that the "risk was slight." On Friday, the Institute for Radioprotection and Nuclear Safety (IRSN) -- which is responsible for safety inspections of France's nuclear facilities -- announced that it had discovered traces of uranium in the water that pre-dated the recent leak.

In October 1998, the French Atomic Energy Commission (CEA) reported that uranium had been secretly stored on the facility grounds since the 1970s in a mound of eatth / dirt six meters (20 foot) high. This (It now appears) contained nuclear waste with uranium from military stockpiles. Years ago there were warnings that rainwater could wash uranium out of the pile and into the ground.

French anti-nuclear umbrella group Sortir du nucleaire, or Abandon Nuclear Power have written to Environment Minister Jean-Louis Borloo demanding a comprehensive examination of France's nuclear industry. Thye make claims that other accidents have been kept secret "so as to not damage the reputation of nuclear energy."

Borloo has deflected criticism and action by electing a special committee to review the accident. Le Parisein reporty that he has asked for groundwater in the areas surrounding all French atomic plants to be tested. Which will byuy him time. he has also deflected the crticis by blaming Areva, the French nuclear contractor (bidding to supply UK plants in Gordon Brown's massive renaissance of the UK industry) that operates the Tricastin facility through its Socatri subsidiary, for its handling of the incident as well as unsatisfactory operational and safety procedures.

".. everything is under control," Borloo told the paper. "I intend to make sure." It is also almost August .... when nothing happens in Paris.

"Maybe it's the beginning of the truth," Sortir du nucleaire spokesperson Stephane Lhomme says optimistically.

Lhomme points out that Borloo's planned testing will only be conducted on groundwater and that possible gas emissions will be ignored.They also want all nuclear plants testing not simply nucklear power plants.

Nuclear watchdog IRSN also has a conflict of interest. "We want an independent group that we can trust doing the checking," Lhomme said. "We don't want the state to be telling everyone: 'Hey, everybody, there's no problem.'"

Instead, Sortir du nucleaire would prefer for the Commission for Independent Research and Information on Radioactivity (CRIIRAD) -- an independent French NGO founded in the wake of the Chernobyl disaster -- to conduct the tests. The group was not large enough to conduct all the tests, and that it should be joined by other international independent organizations.

Transparency Ho.Ho.Ho.

In a company statement, Areva CEO the fragrant and beautiful Anne Lauvergeon announced Wednesday that she would personally visit the Tricastin facility tomorrow and meet with public officials blah, blah

Sortir du nucleaire will not be invited to participate in the examinations or discussions. "If you are not for nuclear power in France," Lhomme laments, "then you are nothing. We are given absolutely no rights to see what's happening inside nuclear plants."

Tricastin is one of 59 nuclear plants in France, which supply nearly 80 % of France's domestic electricity ... and some of the UK's. French President Nicolas Sarkozy is an enthusiast for nuclear energy. His government is cooperating with a number of other nations in building nuclear facilities, and his government decided in May to establish a state agency to export French nuclear technology. France is currently cooperating with Saudi Arabia, India and a number of North African countries to help install nuclear power plants,

Greenpeace's Marillier said: "This accident just shows that what Sarkozy says is wrong and that this will never be a clean-energy industry. Even though France wants to export nuclear power to the world, it isn't even able to keep things clean on its own sites."

Lights go out all over Florida - Turkey Point PWR shut down

Two Florida Power & Light nuclear reactors at its Turkey Point power plant automatically shut down at 1 pm EST today. The plant is 2 miles east of Homestead, Florida, United States, next to Biscayne National Park located about 35 miles (56 kilometers) near the southernmost edge of Miami-Dade County.....

.... On the day the Nuclear Regulatory Commission announce that NRC staff will conduct two public meetings in the vicinity of the Three Mile Island 1 nuclear power plant on Tuesday, March 4, to discuss the agency’s review process for a proposed 20-year extension of the facility’s current 40-year operating license. AmerGen Energy Co., LLC, owns and operates the plant, which is located in Middletown (Dauphin County), Pa.

''We don't know whether the grid disturbance caused the units to shut down or that their shut down caused the grid disturbance,'' said Kenneth Clark, a spokesman at the NRC regional office in Atlanta. He said the two reactors were automatically shut down.

''There are no safety concerns. The reactors shut down as designed,'' Clark told the New York Times.

There were sporadic shutdowns of traffic lights, Miami airport went on to generator backup and slowly full grid connections were restored.

In 2006, FPL informed the NRC that they planned to apply for new units to be built at Turkey Point. FPL filed an initial proposal for increased capacity with the Florida Public Service Commission in October, 2007

No doubt it will be clearer later in the day what happened - the company report on their website (may be difficult to reach ) "The system is being restored in a systematic process to ensure its safe operation at all times. The company does not have a cause for the outage, which is affecting several hundred thousand customers but the system responded as designed to ensure the outage was contained. We ask you to please call us only in an emergency situation so we can keep our lines open for emergency calls". ....Meanwhile the important news today is ...

Miss Lohan as Marilyn in a pastiche of her “The Last Sitting” with Bert Stern.Kennedy moll and family lover she died six weeks later of an overdose (?).

The whole Bert Stern (ish) Oeuvre is here

PS: Curious story about suspected sabotage at Turkey Point April 2006 here with links.