Nuclear sector

Atomic Energy of Canada Limited. (1999). Nuclear Sector Focus A Summary of Energy, Electricity, and Nuclear Data. Mississauga, Ont. Author. 

According to the open-source empirical record, there have been clear examples of demand for Russia s NBC weapons knowledge. For example, in the nuclear sector, the agreement that Iran has with Minatom to build the light-water reactor at Bushehr is an example of the demand for Russian nuclear expertise, but not specifically weapons expertise. Given that Iran has vast natural reserves of oil and has attempted to enrich uranium to weapons-useable levels, Bushehr could well be a means for Iran to get plutonium for nuclear weapons. 

Accelerating clean-up programmes means accelerating the development process and transfer of new technology options into the market place. A number of interfaces need improvement (a) SLC to SLC (b) Nuclear research organisations to SLC (c) non-nuclear sector to SLC. 

This literature review draws from a wide variety of U.S. and European information sources. It is intended to provide backgroimd information on the current British nuclear energy sector and the entire U.K. ESI, in order to place it in perspective relative to the U.S. system. This background is usefol to understanding the political and economic driving forces behind recent change, as well as some specific developments, such as subsidies that were introduced to protect the viability of the nuclear sector. 

Actually, nuclear power is a sector of the electricity industry, rather than a self-contained industry. Although they use different technologies, nuclear generating companies produce a product that is essentially indistinguishable from, and interchangeable with, the electricity produced by other companies in the industry. In addition, because nuclear power is typically used to meet base load demand, the nuclear sector of the electricity industry has relatively little effect on market prices of electricity. Nevertheless, for simplicity, throughout this report we refer to the nuclear power industry rather than the nuclear power sector of the electricity industry. 

Innovation options in the nuclear sector include the development of small to medium capacity plants (200-500 megawatts [MW]), evolutionary concepts for the European pressurized water reactor (EPR), Generation IV reactors that reduce waste production, and alternatives to uranium. 

Many of the existing standards that were applicable to the nuclear sector, prior to the emergence of lEC 61508, generally adopted a similar approach to lEC 61508. These existing standards are either from lEC or IAEA. Thus the nuclear sector standard lEC 61513 primarily links these existing standards to lEC 61508. The lEC existing standards are 60880, 60987, 61226, and 60964, and the existing IAEA standards are primarily NS-R-1, 50-SG-Dl, 50-SG-D3, and 50-SG-D8. 

These connections are fed by multiple types of media. With respect to Grand Central, the post-Fukushima environment increased television and radio reporting of subcontracting. Similarly, newspaper articles addressed the issue of workers in the nuclear sector. An examination of these sources therefore serves, on the one hand, to contextualise the film, and on the other to determine how it fits into public debate on the sector. 

These very tight social relationships help the nuclear sector lumpenproletariat to endure the operator s domination. The film represents the relationship between the workers and the organization in a particularly distinctive dialectic one car park is reserved for the aristocrats (employees of the operator) and another is for the galley slaves (the subcontractors). The team leader stipulates the privileges granted to the most important workers lower exposure to radiation, better wages, a coffee machine, free electricity. The camera follows the characters as they leave the plant and head to their cars. The car park for the operator s employees remains off-screen, as if it is a place that is off-limits to subcontractors. 

As one, critics noted the documentary nature of the film. The scenes showing the apprenticeship seem larger than life (Ferenzi, 2103). The narrative places each protagonist and situation in a specific professional context, indicative of current socio-economic reality (De Bruyn, 2013). This almost documentary-like immersion demonstrates to the pubic the reality of workers in the nuclear sector (Bernheim, 2013). 

However, there are other potential representations that do not diminish the dignity of workers in the nuclear sector. In fact, the subcontractors depicted in Grand Central do not seem to be representative of this type of worker. While the film s bias helps to nourish the image of nuclear power in the popular imagination, it does not acknowledge the professionalism of subcontractors. It is clear that there is a part of the labour force in the nuclear sector that leads a precarious existence, and questions can be asked about why operators find it necessary to subcontract 80% of maintenance... 

The presentation of the nuclear sector in Grand Central has attracted the attention of social scientists. The views presented in the film are indicative of current challenges in the public debate. They translate, starting with the description of subcontractors, concerns about working conditions in the sector and the security of French nuclear power plants. It is clearly essential, in the context of the post-Fukushima public debate, to examine the daily lives of subcontractors and once again question the human cost of energy. In this respect, Zlotowski s film contributes to the debate and provides a skilful look at aspects of the sector that are unknown to the general public. 

According to IEC-61513 (2011) there is not an equivalent scheme to the reliability/risk reduction SIL levels proposed in lEC 61508 in common use in the nuclear sector . Consequently, we do not associate a SIL level for the system under study. 

GIF Goal no 7 Have a level of financial risk comparable to other energy projects means minimizing Capital-at-Risk (ie, investment before commercial operation) this rewards smaller units that require less capital. Capital investment costs should be seen in the context of the total social costs (= private -I- external costs ) and the nuclear sector should be compared to renewable and fossil energy sectors. 

As far as terrorism is concerned, the question of cyberterrorism should be raised (eg, an attack causing serious damage to a critical infrastructure). Until now only hackers were involved in cyberterrorism actions targeting industrial systems. In the nuclear sector, the computer worm Stuxnet, discovered in June 2010, was created to attack Iran s nuclear facilities it went via Microsoft Windows and targeted Siemens industrial control systems. The widely suspected probable target was the uranium enrichment infrastmcture in Iran the Iran nuclear program has indeed been damaged. 

Such malicious interference is normally the parallel province of security, and in some sectors, such as the nuclear sector, safety and security are inseparable. However a threat of high-tech sabotage would generally be new, and isolated examples could stimulate multiple "copycat" incidents new views would then have to be taken of the risks in existing systems. 

Other industries, such as nuclear power, for example, have established this kind of data collection, but in general, and as mentioned above, rehabihty data are the weak point of probabihstic calculations. The lEC standards are trying to compensate for this problem by adding deterministic constraints subject to caution (e.g. architectural constraints based on the concept of safe failure fraction , SFF) while the solution lies in the organization of better feedback data collection from users of components. It is illusory to believe that the feedback can be completely replaced by the analysis and constraints applied more or less bhndly. Therefore, we can only encourage other industries to follow the example of the oil and gas or nuclear sector and organize and establish collective databases. 

---