Happy Friday, nuke-watchers. Here are some other stories that RadWaste Monitor was tracking this week.
‘No release of radioactive material’ following Russian shelling at Ukraine nuke plant, IAEA says
A battle Friday morning between Russian and Ukrainian forces at one of Europe’s largest nuclear power plants does not seem to have threatened any of the site’s reactors, the United Nations’ nuclear energy panel said.
Although fighting at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in eastern Ukraine resulted in a fire at a training building nearby a reactor building, “the nuclear power plant continue[s] to be operated by its regular staff and there [has] been no release of radioactive material,” the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said in a statement Friday. Safety systems for the plant’s six reactors were still online and there had been no release of radioactive material, IAEA said.
The plant operator informed the agency that the situation on the ground “remains very challenging,” and that it would be difficult to access parts of Zaporizhzhia to assess the safety situation, the statement said.
As of Friday, Russian forces had captured the plant.
Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm called on Moscow in a Friday Tweet to “allow the Ukrainian operators to continue to operate safely,” including allowing staff shift changes at both Zaporizhzhia and at the Chernobyl nuclear plant, which Russian forces seized last week. Granholm said Thursday that she had spoken with her counterpart in Kyiv and called the Russian bombardment of the plants “reckless.” The Department of Energy activated its nuclear incident response team to monitor the situation alongside the Department of Defense and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, she said.
U.S.-based nuclear professional organization the American Nuclear Society condemned the fighting in a statement Thursday evening. “Both Russia and Ukraine should understand the importance of ensuring the safety of nuclear power plants and their staff,” the statement said.
Zaporizhzhia, located northwest of Mariupol along the Dnieper River, is also home to around 3,000 spent fuel rods kept in onsite dry storage. The plant’s six reactors were brought online between 1985 and 1995.
Interim storage opponent Cuellar headed to primary run-off in TX House race
Rep. Henry Cuellar’s (D-Texas) path to reelection in Texas’s 28th congressional district became rockier this week, as he headed into a run-off primary election with a progressive Democratic challenger.
In the Lone Star State’s Tuesday primary election, Cuellar only managed to earn around 48% of the vote, below the state’s threshold to claim the nomination. Attorney Jessica Cisneros (D) netted around 47%, setting her up for a head-to-head runoff with the incumbent Cuellar on May 24.
Cuellar, who has represented the 28th district since 2005, has previously thrown in against a proposed interim storage facility for spent nuclear fuel in Texas. The congressman during a July House Appropriations Committee budget markup offered and subsequently withdrew an amendment aimed at preventing the Nuclear Regulatory Commission from “unilaterally” approving Interim Storage Partners’ (ISP) proposed site in Andrews, Texas — the agency licensed the project in September.
Cuellar told RadWaste Monitor at the time that he believed the ISP site and a similar site in New Mexico proposed by Holtec International violates federal law.
