The 175th Carnival of Nuclear Energy has been posted at Deregulate the Atom.  You can click here to access the latest edition of a long-running tradition among pro-nuclear bloggers and authors.

The 174th Carnival of Nuclear Energy has been posted at Next Big Future.  You can click here to access this latest version of a long running tradition among the top pro-nuclear bloggers and authors.

The 173rd Carnival of Nuclear Bloggers is up right now in the Fukushima Commentary section of Leslie Corrice's site "The Hiroshima Syndrome."  You can click here to access this latest edition.

The 172nd Carnival of Nuclear Energy has been posted at Yes Vermont Yankee.  You can click here to access this latest edition of a long-running tradition among pro-nuclear bloggers.

The 171st Carnival of Nuclear Energy is up right now at Atomic Power Review.  You can click here to access this latest edition of a long running tradition among pro-nuclear bloggers.

Developments this week at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear station have been relatively few-but they've made headlines.

ANS Nuclear Cafe is proud to host the 170th edition of the Carnival of Nuclear Energy - a rotating feature that showcases the best pro-nuclear blogs and authors each week in a single, easy to access compilation.  Contributions are volunteered by the authors, with the exception of "Captain's Choice" picks that the Carnival host makes from time to time.  With that, let's get to this week's posts!

This week, the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear station's long history was further appended by the approval of decommissioning plans for the site by Japan's nuclear regulator, the Nuclear Regulation Authority (NRA). This approval both clearly sets guidelines for safety at the site, and puts the government stamp of approval on Tokyo Electric Power Company's highly complicated timeline for the complete decommissioning and removal of Units 1 through 4 at the site.  This announcement follows closely the order by Prime Minister Abe to increase government oversight of cleanup efforts on site. What remains to be seen is whether or not the Japanese public has any more faith in their government regarding decommissioning of the site than it has with TEPCO, which by all accounts in the Japanese press is no longer considered trustworthy.

The 169th Carnival of Nuclear Energy posted over the weekend at Next Big Future.  Click here to see the latest edition of this time-honored tradition among the best pro-nuclear English-language bloggers.

The 168th Carnival of Nuclear Energy has been posted at The Hiroshima Syndrome.  You can click here to see this latest edition of a long-running tradition.

The 167th Carnival of Nuclear Energy has been posted today at Yes Vermont Yankee.  You can click here to see this latest edition.

Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) has found itself thrust into the spotlight again over the last two weeks as a series of events at and around the damaged Fukushima Daiichi nuclear station have triggered a large volume of negative press, government commentary, and regulatory backlash. The embattled utility clearly has its hands full on more than one front.

The 166th edition of the Carnival of Nuclear Energy Bloggers is up right now at The Hiroshima Syndrome.  Click here to access this latest multi-faceted edition.

The 165th Carnival of Nuclear Energy Bloggers is up at Rick Maltese's blog "Deregulate the Atom."  Click here to see this latest edition.

NuScale SMR on trailer; courtesy NuScale Power

In the wake of the Department of Energy's first funding award to Generation mPower for construction of small modular reactor (SMR) plants at the Clinch River Site earlier this year, other groups have begun to form to bolster the position of other SMR technologies-namely, the Westinghouse SMR, the Holtec SMR-160, and the NuScale Power SMR.

The 164th Carnival of Nuclear Energy is up right now at Next Big Future.  Click here to see this latest assemblage of pro-nuclear reporting and analysis.

The 163rd Carnival of Nuclear Bloggers has been posted at "The Hiroshima Syndrome."  Click here to read this latest edition of a long-running standard.

The 162nd edition of the Carnival of Nuclear Bloggers is up at Atomic Power Review.  You can click here to access this latest event.

Coolant pump, primary loop, Clinch River Breeder Reactor project, 1981

Today's session entitled "Supply Chain and Procurement Issues" was another great feature of the American Nuclear Society's 2013 Annual Meeting. The panel was sponsored by the ANS Operations and Power Division, and featured five speakers describing their views of the most pressing issues in the area of parts procurement for existing and new build nuclear plants to an engaged and very interested audience.

by Will Davis