According to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, more than a third of the wall had been worn away in two tubes at Unit 2, which will require them to be plugged and taken out of service. At least 20 percent of the tube wall was worn away in 69 other tubes, and in more than 800,

Inspectors find ‘unusual’ wear on new tubes carrying radioactive water at Calif. nuclear plant  Washington Post, By Associated Press, : February 2 LOS ANGELES — Unusual wear has been found on hundreds of tubes that carry radioactive water at Southern California’s San Onofre Unit 2 nuclear plant, raising questions about the integrity of equipment the company installed in a multimillion-dollar makeover in 2009.

The disclosure came two days after a tube leak at the plant’s other unit prompted operators to shut down the reactor as a precaution. The problems at Unit 2 were discovered during inspections of a steam generator, after the plant 45 miles north of San Diego was taken off-line for maintenance and refueling. The two huge steam generators at Unit 2, each containing 9,700 tubes, were replaced in fall 2009, and a year later in its twin plant, Unit 3, as part of a $670 million overhaul.
According to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, more than a third of the wall had been worn away in two tubes at Unit 2, which will require them to be plugged and taken out of service. At least 20 percent of the tube wall was worn away in 69 other tubes, and in more than 800,
the thinning was at least 10 percent.

“The amount of wear that we are seeing on these tubes is unusual for a
new steam generator,” NRC spokesman Victor Dricks said. “If you have
that kind of thinning anywhere along the length of the tube, you have
a problem because it degrades the integrity of the tube, which can
contribute to leaks.”…
According to company officials, the new steam generators were
manufactured by Japan-based Mitsubishi Heavy Industries. The company
did not respond to an email sent Wednesday. Alexander said Mitsubishi
officials are assisting with the tube analysis at the plant.

Retired NRC engineer and researcher Joram Hopenfeld said the company
will have to determine why the tubing is degrading so quickly “before
they do anything else.”

“I’ve never heard of anything like that over so short a period of
time,” Hopenfeld said.

“The safety implications could be very, very severe,” Hopenfeld added.
“Usually the concern is in older steam generators, when they have
cracks all over the place.”

According to the regulatory commission, the tubes have an important
safety role because they represent one of the primary barriers with
the radioactive side of the plant. If a tube breaks, there is the
potential that radioactivity from the system that pumps water through
the reactor could escape into the atmosphere…..
Radioactive gas that leaked from that tube was vented into a building
that contains auxiliary equipment, according to the NRC. The radiation
was detected by monitors in that building, which is separate from the
sealed structure that houses the reactor.

Because the auxiliary building is not sealed — people come and go
through doors — it’s possible radiation escaped into the
atmosphere…..
http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/inspectors-find-heavy-wear-on-new-tubes-carrying-radioactive-water-at-san-onofre-nuclear-plant/2012/02/02/gIQAir4ykQ_story.html

But the good news for Areva is the tax paid contract is still bringing in the big bucks with no end in sight.

 the waste from these processes all add to the huge amount of waste already stored in leaking tanks at SRS.

Abraham, like so many others in Washington, sells his influence…. And Abraham does not sell influence only in the United States. He sells himself to the entire world.

When is enough, enough? How much money do former government officials have to make before they go home and give back to their communities rather than take money to influence their friends in Washington? 

Spencer Abraham Cashes In, DC Bureau,  By Joseph Trento,  February 2nd, 2012   In  January 30 was former U.S. Secretary of Energy Spencer Abraham’s last day as the non-executive chairman of Areva Enterprises Inc, the French atomic power firm’s American operation. This marked the end of a very lucrative arrangement for both Abraham and the French government own nuclear company – mostly at U.S. taxpayers’ expense.

It all began in the 1990s when the United States’ response to disposing of 34 metric tons of plutonium from shuttered nuclear weapons programs was a proposed mixed oxide (MOX) fuel fabrication facility at the Savannah River Site (SRS) near Aiken, South Carolina. When Abraham became Energy Secretary in 2001, Areva was a key contractor for the MOX plant. According to his DOE calendars, among his first trips were to France to visit their nuclear officials and operations. Abraham maintained a close relationship with the then head of Areva, Anne Lauvergeon. In turn, not long after he left the Energy Department, Abraham cashed in and went to work for Areva and “Atomic Annie,” as she was known. In 2007, DOE broke ground on the MOX plant.
Today, the DOE’s MOX fuel plant is still under construction. It has cost billions of dollars, is over budget and behind schedule. But Spencer Abraham will never be held responsible for the cost overruns and delays. In fact, he has been handsomely rewarded.

Despite spending billions of dollars on the MOX plant, DOE has yet to line up a single customer even with massive government subsidies being offered to buy the fuel. No utility will touch it. DOE’s National Nuclear Security Administration has been playing hardball trying to get the Tennessee Valley Authority to use the fuel.

With the MOX plant, Abraham set in motion a program that will create even more high level nuclear waste at SRS with no facility or ability to dispose of it. The need for related facilities that have yet to be built or approved will add hundreds of millions of dollars to the cost. The plant is supposed to produce the MOX fuel from old nuclear bomb pits. This fuel will be more potent than the MOX made from spent fuel from civilian reactors in France. The support facilities to chemically separate plutonium from other warhead elements will cost hundreds of millions of dollars more. While separation and waste facilities await approval and construction, decrepit, giant, crumbling canyons are kept going to support plutonium disposition at enormous annual costs. To make matters worse, the waste from these processes all add to the huge amount of waste already stored in leaking tanks at SRS.

DOE’s MOX plant is the first of its kind with no indication that it will work. Even if it does work and a customer is found, the spent nuclear fuel rods will be more difficult and expensive to store safely.

But the good news for Areva is the tax paid contract is still bringing in the big bucks with no end in sight.
According to the website of The Abraham Group, Abraham started with Areva in 2006. He says he resigned “due to other roles and commitments I have undertaken …I have enjoyed my association with the company and have the highest regard for the management and team at Areva.”
Last year DCBureau published a series of articles about the French-government-owned company and their operations in the United States. At the time, the United States was in the midst of a “nuclear renaissance” and Areva was one of the main beneficiaries. In March, a tsunami swept across the coast of Japan and set in motion a series of events that made the world pause. Three reactors at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant exploded.

We reported that Areva had fueled the number three reactor with MOX fuel made in France. The hydrogen explosions spewed plutonium over northern Japan.  Plutonium, a byproduct of uranium fission, is also an ingredient in MOX fuel.  If inhaled, plutonium can cause cancer. It lingers in the environment for thousands of years. It will take generations to address the damage.

Enthusiasm for the nuclear renaissance in the United States and other countries waned after Fukushima, and Areva’s profits collapsed. Atomic Annie was shown the door by the French government and, as she took her leave, the handwriting was on the wall for her American colleague.

For more than 10 years both Abraham and Lauvergeon dined on their governments’ energy dime.
Abraham, like so many others in Washington, sells his influence. His website says:

“During his four years as Secretary of Energy, Secretary Abraham developed a close working relationship with the corporate leadership of energy companies as well as many energy-intensive companies. He launched several important energy studies involving CEOs and other top private sector leaders on many energy issues including nuclear, oil and natural gas, coal, and hydrogen.”

Vogtle Loan Guarantee Update: Nuclear Power Secrecy Continues Clean Energy Footprints,  February 2nd, 2012 Sara Barczak ›After nearly two years of stonewalling by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy (SACE) continues to press ahead with our Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) litigation so that U.S. taxpayers can learn the full extent of the risks to which they are exposed in the massive commitment of $8.33 billion in conditional federal loan guarantees to Southern Company and their utility partners for two proposed new nuclear reactors at Plant Vogtle in Georgia.

Of particular concern: the amount of taxpayer-backed obligations for the proposed Vogtle reactors is more than a dozen times greater than the failed Solyndra loan guarantee, which has received extensive Congressional scrutiny including an audit report of the troubled Department of Energy loan guarantee program that was recently delivered to the Obama Administration. Given the higher price tag and troubled history of nuclear reactor construction, the Vogtle project poses a much greater risk to taxpayers if default occurs. Find our February press release here.

In Malaysia, the government has quietly put a proposal to build two 1,000 MW nuclear power plants “on the back burner,” said a senior government source.

Analysis: Southeast Asia goes slow on nuclear, Reuters,  By John Ruwitch HANOI  Feb 2, 2012  ”…..Vietnam, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Thailand and Singapore are among some 35 countries considering going down the nuclear path, likely doubling the number of operational reactors in the next few decades, according to Lloyds Register.

But even the most ambitious plans will run up against barriers and constraints. In most Southeast Asian countries where there is interest in nuclear power, politics are holding it back. Indonesia’s National Atomic Energy Agency has been researching reactors for more than four decades and preparing the human resources, but the political will is lacking.

“Everything is ready here, except for a political decision,” said
Ferhat Aziz, a spokesman for the agency. “Too many people think it is
too dangerous and too expensive so the key challenge is in people’s
minds.”

The story is similar in Thailand where, like Indonesia, energy demand
outstrips supply. The Thai Energy Ministry is drafting a plan that
could see a nuclear facility go into operation in 2026.

“The nuclear power plant project is still in the country’s power
development plan, but whether it will come into shape depends on the
acceptance of the public,” said Mongkol Sakulkao, deputy head of
policy and planning at state-run Electricity Generating Authority of
Thailand.

“If it is delayed further, they’ll come up with plans to find
alternative fuels to replace nuclear.”

BACK BURNER

In Malaysia, the government has quietly put a proposal to build two 1,000 MW nuclear power plants “on the back burner,” said a senior government source.
The decision came after environmentalists targeted a plan by Australian rare earths miner Lynas Corp to commission a processing plant in central Malaysia that would have to dispose of radioactive waste….
It may be revisited some time down the line,” said the government
source who declined to be identified because of the sensitivity of the
issue.

Singapore is in the earliest stages of considering how nuclear power
might fit into its power mix, but seems unlikely to build a plant on
its own territory.

And in the Philippines, Fukushima gave pause to efforts to revive the
country’s white elephant, the Bataan Nuclear Power Plant, which was
built in the early 1980s but never went into operation because it sits
on a tectonic fault and volcano.

Malaysian group to file suit to challenge approval for Aussie rare earth plant  Washington Post, : February 2 

Key victory, but battle is not over yet BY: ROWAN CALLICK,  : The Australian February03, 2012  ”….Environmental concerns have been driving greater political involvement in Malaysia as the population becomes better educated.

Growing ecological awareness has provided a common cause for middle-class activists of the three races — Malays, Chinese and Indians — who have tended otherwise to be divided by the country’s political parties…. The plant approval intensifies the need for Lynas to operate it impeccably and to build its community relations, because an election is almost certain to be called in Malaysia later this year.    Opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim has already warned that his three-party coalition would scrap the plant if it wins the election.

Fuziah says Lynas plant will scare off other investors, The Malaysian Insider, By Shannon Teoh January 31, 2012 KUALA LUMPUR,  — Kuantan MP Fuziah Salleh has hit back at Lynas Corp, insisting that the presence of the Australian miner’s RM2.5 billion rare earth plant would deter investors from Pahang.

At this time, radioactive nuclear wastes are usually put inside concrete structures and buried under the ground because concrete and earth are found to be efficient at containing radioactivity. However, these dump sites must be looked after for thousands of years to make sure that the toxic wastes are not set free accidentally as that could contaminate the entire planet. This in fact, would be an unending process unless we are able to find better ways to get rid of the waste because by the time the radioactivity from today’s nuclear wastes comes down; there would be new radioactive waste to dump from tomorrow’s nuclear plants. Eventually, it is very much possible that the reactors may run out of uninhabited places to dispose their waste products.

While the toxic nuclear waste mainly refers to the used up reactor rods and nuclear fuel residues, even the purifying resins, various tools, clothes, towels and other similar objects that become contaminated with radiation after coming in contact with it at the nuclear plants can also be dangerous. Although they are nowhere near as dangerous as the main waste products, even these less radioactive objects can cause health hazards. The danger lies in the fact that these regular objects may get out by mistake because it is impossible to detect the radioactivity on these day to day items without a Geiger counter……

 Effects of Radioactivity Even Under Normal Conditions Unfortunately, even when a nuclear plant is built well and is ‘safe’ as per the safety guidelines, it is not totally safe. What this means is that though it might be possible to avert disasters through the practice of the safety measures, the workers at a nuclear plant are exposed to small levels of radiation every day, in spite of their special suits. While it may not matter much in the short term, it might be the cause behind cancers if one is exposed to even such small amounts of radiation over a long period of time. ….

Possibility of Accidents with Catastrophic Effects Previously, it was believed that the safety measures are good enough to avoid accidents, but after consecutive incidents at the Three Mile Island in 1979, at Chernobyl in 1986 and finally at the Fukushima Dai-ichi in 2011; that belief is proven to be a myth only. The Chernobyl Disaster is by far the most devastating and dangerous accident that has happened yet and it has not only affected thousands of people with cancers and other deformities that are results of the radioactivity which was released into the environment from the accident, but it has also rendered portions of places like Belarus, Prypiat, Ukraine and Russia uninhabitable for thousands of years to come. The possibility of a nuclear reactor accident is therefore the most fearsome disadvantage of nuclear energy and both theory and history clearly shows us that such accidents can happen. As no nuclear plant can be made in a way so that it is safe from everything, the risk of accidents will increase with each new nuclear reactor.  http://www.biofuelswatch.com/disadvantages-of-nuclear-energy/

Bird life badly hit by nuclear fallout in Japan The Irish Times –  February 3, 2012, DAVID McNEILL in Tokyo RESEARCHERS WORKING in the irradiated zone around the disabled Fukushima nuclear plant say bird populations there have begun to dwindle, in what may be a chilling harbinger of the impact of radioactive fallout on local life.

In the first major study on the impact of the world’s worst nuclear
crisis in 25 years, the researchers from Japan, the US and Denmark say
that analysis of 14 species of birds common to Fukushima and Chernobyl
shows the effect on numbers is worse in the Japanese disaster zone.

Published next week in the journal Environmental Pollution, the paper
says its findings demonstrate “an immediate negative consequence of
radiation for birds during the main breeding season March-July”.

Two of the study’s authors have spent years working in the irradiated
2,850sq m zone around the Chernobyl plant, which exploded in 1986. A
quarter of a century later, the zone is almost devoid of people.

Timothy Mousseau and Anders Pape Moller say their research there
uncovered major negative effects among the local bird population,
including reductions in longevity, male fertility and birds with
smaller brains.

Many species show “dramatically” elevated DNA mutation rates,
developmental abnormalities and extinctions, they add, while insect
life has been significantly reduced.

Some scientists have challenged the findings, arguing that animal and
insect species have thrived around Chernobyl’s almost uninhabited
shadow.

Prof Mousseau, a biological scientist, at the University of South
Carolina in the US, says however that there is “no data to support
that thesis”.

Prof Mousseau says the fresh findings are of “profound” interest
because Fukushima presents the first opportunity to monitor the impact
of a large-scale nuclear disaster “from day one”.

In a 2003 judgment
by a Danish academic body, Prof Pape Moller was found to have been
guilty of “a falsification of the scientific message”.
http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/world/2012/0203/1224311175735.html

U.S. Department of Energy won’t help Georgia monitor radiation near Savannah River Nuclear Site The Augusta Chronicle By Rob Pavey Feb. 2, 2012

The intent of the monitoring, which includes analysis of water, soil, vegetation and air, is to determine off-site effects from SRS – and to provide independent data to compare with
extensive sampling already conducted by DOE on both sides of the Savannah River.

Anti-nuclear activists who lobbied for the restoration of the Georgia program said the Department of Energy’s about-face is disturbing. “The DOE’s obstruction to environmental monitoring in Georgia is a gross example of environmental injustice,” said Bobbie Paul, the
director of Georgia Women’s Action for New Directions. “Radiation does
not acknowledge state boundaries.” In 2010, then DOE Assistant Secretary Ines Triay pledged that monitoring would be restored to Georgia with a five-year contract independent of any restrictions from SRS.
“The money was never sent and in July 2011, DOE reported they would only fund $300,000 annually, less than half of what the program received annually when the its funding was cut in 2003,” Paul said. “Now, the offer is off the table.”
Giusti said SRS has a half century of experience at monitoring programs, which will remain intact to protect health and the environment. http://chronicle.augusta.com/news/government/2012-02-02/us-department-energy-wont-help-monitor-georgia-radiation-near-savannah?v=1328205850

NRC won’t grant exemptions to nuclear plant, 

Schneiderman filed a petition in March over what he says is Indian Point’s continual failure to comply with federal regulations for fire safety that were established to keep nuclear plants safe in an emergency.

He filed the petition with the NRC in an effort to urge the commission
to take action against Indian Point, stating that the plant was in
violation of established federal regulations for fire safety.

“Today, in a major victory for the safety of millions of New Yorkers,
the Nuclear Regulatory Commission agreed with our office and denied
the great majority of Indian Point’s requests for more than 100
exemptions from critical safety requirements designed to ensure a safe
shutdown of the reactors in the event of a fire,” Schneiderman said.

“Indian Point’s attempt to weaken safety precautions at the facility
was wrong-headed and dangerous, and it is high time that this nuclear
facility complied with long-standing federal fire safety regulations.
The NRC should be commended for its action on this matter.

“However, many basic questions still remain regarding the safety of
Indian Point, and the security of the 17 million people who live and
work in close proximity to the nuclear plant. We will continue to use
the full force of this office to push the NRC to fully evaluate — and
ensure -Indian Point’s safety.”

At the time of the petition, Indian Point sought approval from the NRC
for more than 100 exemptions from the regulations. The NRC accepted
Schneiderman’s March petition in July for fire safety enforcement
action at Indian Point. The action taken on Wednesday was separate
from Schneiderman’s petition, though it sides with his office on most
of the exemptions that were contested in the petition, he says.

In addition, the NRC’s action supports Schneiderman’s petition
requesting that the commission take action to enforce compliance at
Indian Point with respect to long-standing fire safety regulations.
The decision came one day after a new government report revealed
significantly higher earthquake risks in the eastern and central
United States. The NRC, the federal Department of Energy and the
Electric Power Research Institute released the 1,300 page report on
Tuesday.

In light of the report, Schneiderman renewed his call to the NRC to
require that a transparent and full assessment of earthquake hazards
at Indian Point be completed before relicensing.

“As the NRC contemplates whether to grant Indian Point a 20-year
extension of their operating licenses, the commission needs to do more
than simply acknowledge its poor understanding of earthquake hazards,”
Schneiderman said.

“Whether it’s fire safety or seismic activity, millions of New Yorkers
deserve a full, transparent evaluation of these risks — and it must
be performed before the decision is made on whether to relicense the
plant.” http://www.legalnewsline.com/news/235106-nrc-wont-grant-exemptions-to-nuclear-plant

During the two-year program, the utility will connect with commercial and industrial customers to temporarily reduce the need for electricity – which the companies say is critical to maintaining gridreliability as Hawaii reduces its dependence on fossil fuels….
http://nawindpower.com/e107_plugins/content/content.php?content.9328