nuclear-news

latest news on the uranium/nuclear industry

More accurate picture of Fukushima radiation with new camera

New Camera Sees Japan’s Radiation Threats Innovation News Daily   30 March 2012  One year after Japan’s nuclear disaster, the invisible threat of radiation still lurks around homes and businesses near the Fukushima Dai-ichi power plant. Now, a new camera based on Japanese space technology has allowed humans to see the radioactive contamination around the nuclear plant’s emergency evacuation zone.

Such camera technology works by detecting radioactive particles that give off gamma rays — the highest-energy form of light in the universe. The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) originally developed the technology for an upcoming X-ray observation satellite, called ASTRO-H, but successfully adapted the camera to spot Earthly radiation threats  such as Cesium 137 and Cesium 134.

The camera’s wide 180-degree vision showed radioactive particles spread across the ground and  on rooftops of the village in the Fukushima Prefecture during a field test Feb. 11. Its results proved more accurate and capable of capturing a broader snapshot of the
radioactive zone than existing cameras…. http://www.space.com/15113-camera-sees-japan-radiation.html

March 31, 2012 Posted by | Japan, Reference, technology | Leave a Comment

Bill Gates’ fantastic new nuclear vaccine- or intractable virus

Nuclear energy like a fantastic vaccine? http://blog.seattlepi.com/energy/2012/03/26/nuclear-energy-like-a-fantastic-vaccine/    seattle pi, 26 Mar 12In the 1950s, “too cheap to meter” was the tag line for then-nascent atomic energy. That promise, which Bill Gates now calls a “fantastic vaccine,” has thus far been more of an intractable virus.

Last week Mr. Gates revived the “nuclear is cheap” message to promote his TerraPower nuke startup venture . He also came off decidedly pessimistic about the world’s prospects for combating climate change.

The nuclear industry has long touted “cheap” alongside “clean”  in its bid against renewable energy to supply electricity to a power-hungry world. It has also argued loudly against subsidies for renewables, and claimed that nuclear is the only way to slow global warming.

Gates has joined that chorus , stating that he’s skeptical that the world can dramatically cut greenhouse-gas emissions in less than 75 years, and suggesting that wind and solar subsidies should be conditional upon commercializing energy storage technologies first.

To make the “cheap and clean” argument, you have to ignore some significant externalities. A big problem with “cheap” nuclear power has been the cost — construction budget overruns , bailouts , storing spent rods , site clean-up , and human lives . The caveat with “clean” (low-carbon) nuclear power is its multigenerational legacy of radioactive waste.

The traveling wave reactor  technology revealed in 2008  as the core of TerraPower’s development is a half-century-old breeder-reactor technology that could run on some of the waste stream from nuclear fuel production. A TWR has been computer-modeled, but never built.

If Gates and his TerraPower  partner Nathan Myhrvold want to change the world with nuclear energy, they need to overcome several major issues, and quickly, before the widely imagined nuclear renaissance completely loses steam:

Developed nations, the ones the world is most comfortable with having radioactive materials, have for the most part stopped building nuclear power plants. Emerging nations, even if they can afford to experiment with this new technology, will need to handle the radioactive fuel and waste, including the eventual decommissioning of plants themselves. Convincing populations of a TWR plant’s safety will be a significant hurdle.

Even before Fukushima, John Rowe, chief executive of nuclear power heavyweight Exelon, said in a Politico interview that “except with massive subsidies, there’s really nothing one can do to make a whole lot of nuclear plants economic right now.” The company bought a major renewable energy firm and started moving into wind power.

March 27, 2012 Posted by | technology, USA | 1 Comment

Alas, ‘fast breeder’ reactors don’t solve the nuclear waste problem

Ultimately, however, the core problem may be that such new reactors don’t eliminate the nuclear waste that has piled up

Can Fast Reactors Speedily Solve Plutonium Problems? The U.K. is grappling with how to get rid of weapons-grade plutonium and may employ a novel reactor design to consume it , Scientific American, By David Biello  | March 21, 2012   The U.K. has nearly 100 metric tons of plutonium—dubbed “the element from hell” by some—that it doesn’t know what to do with.

The island nation does not need the potent powder to construct more nuclear weapons, and spends billions of British pounds to ensure that others don’t steal it for that purpose. The unstable element, which will remain radioactive for millennia, is the residue of ill-fated efforts to recycle used nuclear fuel. Read more »

March 26, 2012 Posted by | - plutonium, reprocessing, UK | Leave a Comment

Appeal of electric car damaged by connection with nuclear power

Is nuclear power damaging electric car image? The Green Car Website, 23 Mar 12, As Japan’s government prepares to restart dozens of nuclear power plants, idled since the Fukushima disaster last year, there is concern that electric cars could become tainted by their association with nuclear generation. Read more »

March 24, 2012 Posted by | business and costs, Japan, technology | Leave a Comment

New computer spy malaware targets U.S. military computers

New malware preys on Iran nuclear weapons tension, msnbc, 13 March 12, Researchers: China-based hackers goal is to corrupt US military computers Chinese cybercriminals have crafted a sophisticated, robust malware attack that exploits growing political tension and fear over Iran’s alleged covert nuclear weapons program to infect PCs.

The goal of the hackers is to corrupt the computers of U.S. military employees, according to researchers from the security firm Bitdefender , who detected the malware.
Calling it “the perfect firebomb,” the China-borne malware embeds itself in an email with an attached Microsoft Word document titled ”Iran’s Oil and Nuclear Situation.doc.” The document, Bitdefender explained, contains an Adobe Shockwave Flash applet that attempts to get the recipients to load a fake YouTube video. While the rigged video (an .mp4 file) loads, the malware exploits an Adobe Flash flaw that sneaks an executable file into the initial Word document.
If it sounds complicated, that’s the point, Bitdefender’s Bogdan Botezatu said. ”The operation is covert: the MP4 file triggering the exploit is streamed from the Web, which means the PC will be exploited by the time an anti-virus would generally scan a file,” he wrote. “Further, the malicious file delivered inside the doc file (us.exe) has multiple
layers of obfuscation to dodge detection.”
Once the malware is implanted on a victim’s computer, it communicates with a command-and-control server in China. Carefully crafted exploits aimed at military targets are nothing new; a November congressional report outlined state-sponsored cybercrime missions   carried out by Chinese and Russian criminals against U.S. government agencies……
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/46722543/ns/technology_and_science-security/#.T2EiZ8WPX_M

March 14, 2012 Posted by | China, Reference, secrets,lies and civil liberties, technology, USA | Leave a Comment

Massive and costly new cover for Chernobyl nuclear wreck

VIDEO included   http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=worlds-largest-movable-structure-seal-chernobyl-reactor   Nuclear Cover Up: World’s Largest Movable Structure to Seal the Wrecked Chernobyl Reactor To safely enclose and robotically dismantle the 25-year-old makeshift confinement sarcophagus at Chernobyl, contractors are now erecting a massive steel structure weighing more than 29,000 metric tons Scientific American, By Charles Q. Choi  | March 17, 2011 CHERNOBYL, Ukraine—Imagine a metal arch taller than the Statue of Liberty. Now picture it sliding a distance of roughly three football fields, making it the largest movable structure ever . Under this steel rainbow engineers are planning to entomb the site of the worst nuclear accident in history, the destroyed reactor at the Chernobyl power plant, using robotic cranes to dismantle the ruins and keep its deadly remains from poisoning the rest of the planet. Read more »

March 12, 2012 Posted by | - Chernobyl, technology | Leave a Comment

Russia to build massive nuclear icebreaker

Russia To Construct Largest Nuclear Icebreaker Ever Built, Ottawa Citizen ,March 3, 2012. Rosatomflot, the state company that operates Russia’s nuclear icebreakers, has outlined its plans to construct the LK60, which is being billed as the largest and most powerful nuclear icebreaker ever built.

The company says the tender for the new icebreaker will be announced in several months, with a contract to be signed in September. Building is scheduled to start by the end of the year (a little optimistic perhaps?) and the ship ready for operations in 2018.

The project is estimated to cost $1.4 billion. Bidding is open to foreign companies as well. An earlier nuclear icebreaker, the Vaygach was built in Finland, with the nuclear systems installed in Russia.

The LK60 has a beam of 34 metres and draft of almost 11 metres. It will be able to cut through the ice to create a pathway for larger tankers. The nuclear reactor will be rated at 60MW…. http://blogs.ottawacitizen.com/2012/03/03/russia-to-construct-largest-nuclear-icebreaker-ever-built/

March 6, 2012 Posted by | Russia, technology | Leave a Comment

Japan banking on non-viable reprocessing, because it has nowhere to put nuclear wastes

the government has delegated the task of dealing with waste to the private sector, so there is no central decision-maker 

“Why does the government stick to the very costly recycle policy? That is because if they give it up, they should explain where a final repository will be located,” 

Beyond Fukushima Japan faces deeper nuclear concerns, Vancouver Sun, By RISA MAEDA, Reuters February 24, 2012 TOKYO“…..A DECENT BURIAL With Japan’s recycling efforts running so far behind the required pace
to deal with the waste problem, Japan needs to find another resting place for its waste, away from nuclear power plants, which are typically located on the coast.

But unlike France and the United States, the world’s biggest atomic power generators, Japan does not have much in the way of geologically stable and empty landscapes in which to bury nuclear waste for centuries. Given its population density is 10 times higher than the United States and almost three times higher than France, Japan faces a “not in my backyard” problem like no other big nuclear-power nation. Read more »

February 25, 2012 Posted by | Japan, reprocessing, wastes | Leave a Comment

Nuclear reprocessing not a viable option for Japan

Fast-breeder said realistic no more, Japan Times, 25 Feb 12,  Kyodo A panel of experts reviewing the nuclear fuel cycle policy in light of the Fukushima crisis has agreed that while a fast-breeder reactor has advantages, from a technology viewpoint it can’t be considered a realistic option for the next 20 to 30 years. The nuclear fuel policy involves reprocessing spent fuel to produce plutonium that can be reused to produce electricity.

The subcommittee of the Japan Atomic Energy Commission said in a draft document summarizing its discussions that two viable options during the next few decades would be to not reprocess spent nuclear fuel, and to recycle plutonium-uranium mixed oxide fuel, or MOX fuel.

The former option is called the “once-through” cycle, in which uranium fuel is used in nuclear reactors just one time and disposed of by burying it in the ground. In the latter option, MOX fuel is manufactured from plutonium recovered from spent nuclear fuel and used
in ordinary reactors. Read more »

February 25, 2012 Posted by | Japan, Reference, reprocessing | Leave a Comment

Japan’s nuclear recycling plant, a probable failure

“an 80 to 90 percent chance of the [nuclear recycling] plant being a failure”

even if Rokkasho gets up and running, two problems remain: it alone cannot recycle enough fuel to stop the waste mounting up, and there is still the issue of burying the vitrified waste permanently in a crowded, quake-prone country.

Beyond Fukushima Japan faces deeper nuclear concerns, Vancouver Sun, By RISA MAEDA, Reuters February 24, 2012 TOKYO – On a hillside in northern Japan, wind turbines slice through the cold air, mocking efforts at a nearby industrial complex to shore up the future of the demoralised nuclear power industry.

The wind-power farm at Rokkasho has sprung up close to Japan’s first nuclear reprocessing plant, a Lego-like complex of windowless buildings and steel towers, which was supposed to have started up 15 years ago but is only now nearing completion.

Dogged by persistent technical problems, it is designed to recycle spent nuclear fuel and partly address a glaring weakness in Japan’s bid to restore confidence in the industry, shredded last year when a quake and tsunami wrecked the Fukushima Daiichi power station to the south, triggering radioactive leaks and mass evacuations.
But the Rokkasho project is too little, too late, according to critics who say Japan is running so short of nuclear-waste storage that the entire industry risks shutdown within the next two decades unless a solution is found.

“You don’t build a house without a toilet,” said Jitsuro Terashima, president of the Japan Research Institute think tank and member of an expert panel advising the national government on energy policy after the Fukushima disaster….
Long-term storage of highly radioactive waste is a problem common to all nuclear-powered nations, including the United States, but experts say Japan’s unstable geology and densely populated terrain mean that its challenges are far bigger. Read more »

February 25, 2012 Posted by | Japan, reprocessing | Leave a Comment

Nuclear bombing: find out how your city would fare – with NUKEMAP

Nukemap: Shall we play a game? cnet, by   February 23, 2012  
Tool shows what would happen if history’s most notorious nuclear weapons were dropped on different cities. It’s scary and sobering–and more than a million people have used it. Want to play god much?

With Nukemap, a new tool that lets anyone test out–on a Google Map–the effects of some of history’s most famous nuclear explosions on cities around the world, you can. Read more »

February 24, 2012 Posted by | Resources -audiovicual, technology, USA | Leave a Comment

A smartphone app to measure ionising radition

DIY Geiger counter smartphone app to measure radiation 23 February 2012 Kat Austen, CultureLab editor In the wake of Japan’s Fukushima disaster, amidst a climate of  general mistrust of government radiation data, a number of crowdsourced initiatives for mapping radiation levels sprang up, such as Japan Geigermap, in which radiation readings from citizens are aggregated and displayed online using a web service called pachube.

But most Geiger counters for personal use cost around $200, prohibiting many from measuring radiation for themselves. That’s where non-profit organisation radiation-watch.org has stepped in.

They have devised a way for people to construct their own smartphone-compatible Geiger counter at home. Pocket Geiger uses 8 photodiodes to detect the radiation, aluminium foil to screen alpha and beta particles, and a plastic “Frisk” sweet box for the housing. The total cost is just $46.

Ishigaki started the project in June last year, and with the help of supporting scientists and a team of hackers he has developed the self-assembly Geiger counter and app to allow anyone to measure radiation levels in their home or neighbourhood and upload them to a central server, where they can be visualised on a map.

The project has now grown to over 10,000 users, but due to privacy issues the maps can only be viewed within the radiation-watch.org community.

Continuing to develop the technology, the team have recently launched the Pokega Type2. The first Geiger counter without an internal battery, the Pokega Type2 uses the same technology as its predecessor, except that it uses the smartphone as a source of power.

Costing just $65, the Pokega Type2 was developed with the help of a variety of external organisations, such as Japan’s High Energy Accelerator Research Organization and the Dutch Metrology Institute. http://www.newscientist.com/blogs/onepercent/2012/02/diy-geiger-counter-smartphone.html

February 24, 2012 Posted by | 2 WORLD, technology | 1 Comment

Top medical isotope can be produced without nuclear reactor

Nuclear medicine has long been touted as a selling point for nuclear power  -  a kin do healthy fig leaf put over a n unhealthy, toxic industry. – Christina Macpherson

Nuclear Reactors Not Needed to Make the Most Common Medical Isotope, Science Now by Robert F. Service on 20 February 2012,  In recent years, hospitals worldwide have been grappling with short supplies of technetium-99 (Tc-99), the most commonly used radioisotope in medical imaging scans. But help may be at hand: A team of Canadian researchers reported today that they’ve made critical progress in developing a stable new supply of the isotope.

Tc-99 is currently produced in nuclear reactors fueled with highly enriched uranium, which has raised concerns that the nuclear fuel could be intercepted by terrorists to make a nuclear weapon. The new setupproduces Tc-99 with a medical cyclotron, thereby eliminating proliferation concerns. But economic and technical considerations may make it more practical for shoring up Tc-99 supplies in Canada than in the United States. Read more »

February 21, 2012 Posted by | Canada, health, technology | 1 Comment

Monumental mess of UK’s monumental nuclear reprocessing project

Sellafield faces nuclear option as overspending threatens plant’s future, The Independent UK, 13 Feb 2010 Britain’s biggest single nuclear project has run into serious trouble, with missed deadlines and cost overruns threatening the future of the nuclear reprocessing operation at Sellafield in Cumbria.

Nuclear authorities have ordered a review of a monumental construction project at Sellafield that is millions of pounds over budget and more than four years late following a series of delays and financial mismanagement. Read more »

February 14, 2012 Posted by | reprocessing, UK | Leave a Comment

Thorium nuclear reactors – not all they’re cracked up to be

What you then get, as well as heat energy, radiation, and fission products from the Plutonium and Uranium, is U232. U232 (and its decay products) emit very hard gamma radiation.

  will anyone really trust the nuclear lobby when it says ‘we have the answer’, as so often before?

Nuclear Problems, Environmental Research Web, 12 Feb 12,”……With uranium fired reactors out of favour after Fukushima, for the longer term, some in the nuclear lobby have been promoting thorium as an allegedly safer fuel- looking at molten flouride salt systems.

The Weinberg Foundation was launched last year to promote the Liquid Flouride Thorium Reactor (LFTR) Read more »

February 14, 2012 Posted by | 2 WORLD, Reference, safety and incidents, technology, Uranium | Leave a Comment

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