Climate change will kill nuclear power – theme for August 18
This month the world is experiencing unprecedented heatwaves right across Northern Hemisphere countries. And this pattern is predicted to be repeated in future years. It’s already having a detrimental effect on the nuclear power industry. France’s nuclear reactors are cutting back production, with cooling water restrictions due to raised river temperatures. Finland’s reactors have had to cut back, due to sea water being too warm for cooling reactors, and might need to be shut down.
That’s just one aspect of the the way in which climate change is going to kill nuclear power.
Nuclear power stations must have lots of cool water. They are a liability in times of drought, and of high temperatures. Indeed, the whole industry is, with uranium mining requiring much water, too.
Wildfires pose a particular threat to all nuclear facilities.
Most nuclear reactors are located on the coast, or near rivers, where they can be vulnerable to flooding – and this danger increases as climate change brings sea level rise, and storm surges..
Apart from the increasing costs of nuclear construction, maintenance, and final dismantling, clean-up and waste disposal, the nuclear industry is facing more costs in increasingly desperate efforts to ward off the damage that climate change will do to it.
Japan’s 2020 Olympic Games a public relations cover-up of the Fukushima fiasco, for the nuclear industry
Pay no attention to that radiological disaster behind the curtains https://globalhibakusha.com/page-2/?permalink=hiding-fukushima-behind-the-curtains-in-official-japan by Bo,
The government of Japan is clearly intending that the 2020 Olympics will function as a public relations win in which the image of Japan, and especially of Northern Japan and Fukushima are cleansed of images of radiological contamination. Even as the Fukushima Daiichi site itself, and the traces where the plumes of its explosions deposited fallout throughout the area remain un-remediated, the public perceptions will be remediated. This is typical of the behavior of governments in the developed world that suffer radiological disasters. The disasters themselves are so difficult to clean up, and take decades to even begin the clean up, that money is allocated for extensive public relations efforts. These become tasks that CAN be completed and CAN be considered successful. They function both to advance the public image agenda of the governments, and also deliver a sense of agency when the overall tone of nuclear disaster remediation is one of lacking effective agency.
Towards that end, the Japanese government is planning to integrate Fukushima sites and perceptions into the upcoming Olympics media fest. The journey of the Olympic torch through every prefecture of Japan will begin in Fukushima, a symbolic rebirth intended to facilitate the repopulating of the local communities that were evacuated, many of which have had few returnees since the government has declared them “safe” and cut public funds to those forcibly evacuated.
The government is also planning to hold multiple Olympic events in Fukushima prefecture including baseball and softball events. “Tokyo 2020 is a showcase for the recovery and reconstruction of Japan from the disaster of March 2011, so in many ways we would like to give encouragement to the people, especially in the affected area,”said Tokyo 2020 president Yoshiro Mori last March.
This active rebranding of Fukushima as safe involves removing physical reminders of ongoing risk. The central government has recently announced that it will be removing 80% of public radiation monitors from the region. An argument can be made that the presence of these monitors is theatrical in that they only measure external gamma radiation levels, which are not the primary risk to residents (this comes from internalizing radioactive particles that blanketed the region in the fallout of the plumes of the explosions of March 2011), and that positioning these gamma detectors in midair produces low readings since the particles are primarily on the ground. However, they are a tangible, embodied reminder that risk remains.
While there is a clearly an active campaign to rehabilitate the image of the region leading up to the 2020 Olympics, an effort that will no doubt intensify as the event draws near, there is also pushback and resistance in the local and national communities. A recent sculpture unveiled at the JR train station in prefectural capital Fukushima City (about 80km from the Daiichi nuclear site) has been stirring up controversy. A Guardian article explained:
“The statue, by Kenji Yanobe, depicts a child dressed in a yellow Hazmat-style suit, with a helmet in one hand and an artistic 
representation of the sun in the other.
Yanobe said his Sun Child, which was installed by the municipal government after appearing at art exhibitions in Japan and overseas, was intended to express his desire for a nuclear-free world.
The artist said he did not mean to give the impression that local children needed to protect themselves from radiation more than seven years after the Fukushima Daiichi plant became the scene of the world’s worst nuclear disaster since Chernobyl.
He pointed out that the child was not wearing the helmet and that a monitor on its chest showed radiation levels at ‘000’.”
While some, including the mayor of Fukushima City, have praised the statue for emphasizing a hopeful future for local children, others have criticized the statue for suggesting that there is any danger to local children.
Regardless of how one interprets the sculpture, it does confront people with the fact that things are far from normal in the region. This, in spite of the central government’s strong efforts to implore people not to pay any attention to what is happening behind the curtains it has been raising.
The heat stroke threat affecting Fukushima nuclear clean-up workers
Leaving no stone unturned in heatstroke battle at nuclear plant http://www.asahi.com/ajw/articles/AJ201808180033.htmlBy 
HIROSHI ISHIZUKA/ Staff Writer , 18 Aug 18 OKUMA, Fukushima Prefecture–How to avert a heatstroke is more pressing than usual in Japan this summer as the archipelago bakes in a record heat wave.
It’s not just sun-worshipers, children, the elderly and the infirm who should worry.
Spare a thought for the 5,000 or so workers who toil at the crippled Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant to get it ready for decommissioning.
They have to work outside in protective gear, with limited access to water and other resources.
At 5 a.m. on Aug. 6, a manager reminded a 20-strong group from IHI Plant Construction Co., which was contracted by Tokyo Electric Power Co., of the importance of adhering strictly to work rules.
“Please limit your efforts to shifts of less than 90 minutes,” the manager told the assembled workers in a lounge at the plant as he checked the complexion of each individual to gauge their health condition.
The workers are installing storage tanks for radioactive water that is accumulating at the plant.
They are not permitted to take food and beverages with them because of the risk of internal radiation exposure if the perishables are contaminated while they are working.
Water stations have been set up, but workers generally don’t bother to quench their thirst as it means they have to change out of their work gear to reach the sites.
During the morning meeting, the manager also checked each worker’s alcohol level and made sure that everybody had water from oral rehydration solution. After that, workers put a cold insulator in their vests and headed to the work site.
The Fukushima plant complex has about 900 tanks set up. IHI Plant Construction installed about 20 percent of them.
The workers’ primary responsibility in recent weeks is to inspect the condition of covers put in place to stop rainwater from accumulating around the tanks.
The workers are spared from the scorching sun as they work under cover, but coping with 90 to 95 percent humidity is a formidable challenge.
Junichi Ono, the head of the IHI Plant Construction’s task force assigned to the plant, said his company has tried to take every precaution against heatstroke.
“We need to pay attention because we work in a humid environment,” he said. “If a worker falls sick, we will lose valuable time taking that person to the doctor.”
According to TEPCO, 23 workers suffered heatstroke in the summer of 2011, shortly after the nuclear crisis unfolded at the plant.
Learning a lesson from that, workers were later instructed to start their tasks early in the morning and not work outdoors in principle between 2 p.m. and 5 p.m. in July and August, the hottest part of the day.
The “summer time” schedule appears to be paying off.
In fiscal 2014, the number of workers afflicted with heatstroke at the plant stood at 15.
It dropped to four in fiscal 2016, but went back up to six in fiscal 2017 despite it being a relatively cool summer that year.
Although this year’s heat wave is unprecedented, only four workers have suffered heatstroke at the plant this summer.
The Japan Meteorological Agency forecast blistering summer heat in the coming week after a respite this weekend.
Crippled Fukushima nuclear power station to get increased protection against tsunamis
Fukushima tsunami plans to be expedited at stricken N-plant http://the-japan-news.com/news/article/0004670847 August 19, 2018
The Yomiuri Shimbun Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings Inc. will strengthen its protections against tsunami at its Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant to prevent water contaminated with high levels of radiation from spilling outside the plant, The Yomiuri Shimbun has learned.
During the decommissioning work, contaminated water has accumulated in the basements of the buildings that house the nuclear reactors. If a tsunami were to hit, this water could flow into the sea.
To prevent water from entering the basements, TEPCO will move up the schedule for work to block openings on the surface and the buildings’ ground floors, as well as add more spots to be blocked.
Mega-quake seen as ‘imminent’
The decision to step up tsunami protections was made after the government’s Headquarters for Earthquake Research Promotion released a long-term assessment in December on the possibility of a gigantic earthquake along the Chishima Trench on the Pacific Ocean side of Hokkaido.
The assessment warned that a huge earthquake of magnitude 8.8 or greater was “imminent.”
TEPCO calculated that a tsunami striking the Fukushima plant could be as high as 10.3 meters — which is 1.8 meters higher than the elevation of the site where the reactor buildings and other facilities are located — possibly flooding the site.
About 50,000 tons of water contaminated with high concentrations of radioactive substances have accumulated in the basements of the reactor buildings, turbine buildings and other facilities of reactors Nos. 1-4.
Reactors Nos. 1-3 experienced meltdowns after the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake. Reactor No. 4 is adjacent to reactor No. 3.
Water could enter the basements of these buildings through stairways, air vents, perforated pipes and other openings. This would cause the level of contaminated water to rise, which could be taken out to sea by a tsunami’s backwash or other means.
To prepare for another tsunami, TEPCO has already closed several openings by blocking them, welding them shut and other measures. In addition, it has built temporary seawalls, moved emergency power sources to higher ground and taken other actions.
However, it has prioritized preparatory works to begin removing nuclear fuel debris — a mixture of melted fuel and parts of the reactors — and measures to deal with the ever-increasing amount of contaminated water and other issues. Of the 122 openings to reactors Nos. 1-4, only 60 have been blocked.
TEPCO is currently working on blocking seven openings. In response to the headquarters’ assessment, it plans to move up work on 11 openings by about six months and add an extra nine openings to be blocked.
“We decided to speed up our measures based on the assessment that a gigantic earthquake is imminent,” said a TEPCO employee in charge of the matter.Speech
Mega earthquake likely to strike Fukushima area within next few decades
What Is the Probability of a Mega-quake Striking Japan in the Future?, NHK News, 2 July 18, “…….. A government panel has released its latest earthquake probability map, which indicates the likelihood of each area being hit in the coming 3 decades by tremors of 6-minus or above on the Japanese intensity scale of zero to 7 — about the same level as the one that hit Osaka. A member of the panel says an earthquake of 6-minus could strike anywhere in Japan, and urges people to be prepared.
High probability in the Kanto region and along the Pacific coast………. In the Kanto region, the probability of a major quake is highest in Chiba City, at 85 percent. The figure is 82 percent for Yokohama and 81 percent for Mito. Tokyo’s Shinjuku Ward is located in an area with 48 percent probability.
In the Tokai region, the probability for Shizuoka is 70 percent and Nagoya is 46 percent.
Beware of massive earthquakes that occur in ocean trenches The panel explains that these areas have high probabilities because massive earthquakes centering in the Chishima Trench, Japan Trench and the Nankai Trough have been occurring at intervals of a few decades to a century.
These earthquakes occur around ocean trenches where the oceanic plate is forced underneath the continental plate.
Huge earthquakes have been occurring especially around the Nankai Trough roughly every 100 years. As the last one took place more than 70 years ago, there is a growing probability the next one will happen soon around the Pacific coast of western Japan……….https://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/nhknewsline/backstories/megaquakestriking/
Climate change nearing the end-game – unprecedented action is needed
Take unprecedented action or bear the consequences, says eminent scientist and advisor, REneweconomy, “Climate change is now reaching the end-game, where very soon humanity must choose between taking unprecedented action, or accepting that it has been left too late and bear the consequences.”Those are the challenging words from Prof. Hans Joachim Schellnhuber, for twenty years the head of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, and a senior advisor to Pope Francis, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and the European Union.
In the foreword to a new report, Schellnhuber says the issue now “is the very survival of our civilisation, where conventional means of analysis may become useless”.
The report, What Lies Beneath: The understatement of existential climate risk, is released today by the Breakthrough National Centre for Climate Restoration.
Schellnhuber describes climate warming as an “existential risk”, and says the report highlights crucial insights which may lurk at the fringes of conventional policy analysis but which have a new resonance in today’s circumstances, “a unique situation with no precise historic analogue” in which “the level of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere is now greater, and the Earth warmer, than human beings have ever experienced”.
He says it is hardly surprising that a trend towards “erring on the side of least drama” and an understatement of risks has emerged in the work of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) after delivering their five Assessment Reports over the last three decades.
This he attributes, in part, to the statistical “probability obsession” of orthodox science, where repeating the same experiment on an object many, many times can identify the likelihood of various outcomes.
He says that if this were applied literally to climate warming:
Strictly speaking, we would have to redo the Industrial Revolution and the greenhouse-gas emissions it triggered a thousand times or so, always starting with the Earth system in its 1750 pre-industrial state. Then calculate the averaged observed outcome of that planetary experiment in terms of mean surface-temperature rise, global biological productivity, total number of climate refugees, and many other variables. This is a nonsensical notion.
Schellnhuber argues that calculating probabilities makes little sense in the most critical instances, such as the methane-release dynamics in thawing permafrost areas or the potential failing of entire states in the climate crisis. ……..
What Lies Beneath analyses why:
- Human-induced climate change is an existential risk to human civilisation: an adverse outcome that will either annihilate intelligent life or permanently and drastically curtail its potential, unless dramatic action is taken.
- The bulk of climate research has tended to underplay these risks, and exhibited a preference for conservative projections and scholarly reticence.
- IPCC reports tend toward reticence and caution, erring on the side of “least drama”, and downplaying the more extreme and more damaging outcomes, and are now becoming dangerously misleading with the acceleration of climate impacts globally.
- Why this is a particular concern with potential climatic “tipping points”, the passing of critical thresholds which result in step changes in the climate system. Under-reporting on these issues is contributing to the “failure of imagination” in our understanding of, and response to, climate change. https://reneweconomy.com.au/take-unprecedented-action-or-bear-the-consequences-says-eminent-scientist-and-advisor-45081/
Radioactive tritium in Fukushima nuclear plant water, despite water treatment
Water at Fukushima nuclear plant still radioactive even after treatment, Government wants to dump the contaminated water into the sea, but locals and fishermen oppose the idea https://www.scmp.com/news/asia/east-asia/article/2160382/water-fukushima-nuclear-plant-still-radioactive-even-after 19 August, 2018
Radioactive substances have not been removed from treated but still tritium-containing water at the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant. The government and Tokyo Electric Power Company have faced the pressing need to dispose of such treated water now kept in tanks. One option is to dump it into the sea, as tritium is said to pose little risk to human health.
If the plan goes ahead, tritium-tainted water from the nuclear plant is expected to be diluted so it is likely to lower the levels of other radioactive materials as well before being discharged.
But locals and fishermen are worried about the water discharge and a government panel debating how to deal with it has mainly focused on tritium, not other radioactive substances.
According to Tepco, a maximum 62.2 becquerels per litre of lodine 129, far higher than the 9 becquerel legal limit, was found in the water filtered by the Advanced Liquid Processing System used to remove various types of radioactive materials
Iodine 129 has a half-life of 15.7 million years.
Tepco, which gathered data in fiscal 2017 through March, also detected a maximum 92.5 becquerels of Ruthenium 106 – more than the 100 becquerel legal limit – and 59 becquerels of technetium 99 against the limit of 1,000 becquerels.
The Fukushima Daiichi nuclear complex was damaged by the 2011 earthquake and tsunami. Reactors 1 and 3 suffered fuel meltdowns as their cooling systems were crippled.
Water was injected to keep the fuel cold but it is extremely toxic. The water is filtered but it is hard for tritium to be separated.
In August, there were around 920,000 tonnes of tritium-containing water stored in some 680 tanks at the plant. But Tepco said it has not checked the concentration of radioactive materials in each tank.
The government has examined several ways to dispose of tritium-containing water, including the release of it into the sea or atmosphere.
Toyoshi Fuketa, who heads the Nuclear Regulation Authority, said pumping the water into the sea is the only solution.
Nuclear has left its run too late
Nuclear has left its run too late: a response to Ian Hore-Lacy, ETHOS, 14 August 2018 | Robert Farago “………… Nuclear as the solution? There are a number of unresolved problems around nuclear power and questions of whether nuclear energy can grow quickly enough to solve our climate change problem. I will just list some of these problems with a sentence each:
- Weapons proliferation – enriching Uranium for civilian nuclear energy programs can lead to fuel being diverted and further enriched for nuclear weapons programs.
- Safety – although less deaths have been recorded from nuclear power than from coal mining, nuclear accidents such as Three Mile Island, Chernobyl and Fukushima have shaken the confidence of citizens to have nuclear reactors near their homes and food sources.
- Waste – although we have generated nuclear waste for 70+ years we still don’t have a solution. Nuclear waste needs to be stored safely for hundreds of thousands of years, longer than settled agricultural society has existed.
- Decommissioning – cost estimates vary wildly and it’s particularly technically challenging and expensive after nuclear accidents.
- Water use – like thermal coal generators, nuclear needs large quantities of water for cooling, making droughts and heatwaves a problem.
- Capacity – if we moved to a large portion of our global electricity generation to nuclear power, will there be enough Uranium to fuel them?
- Timeliness – can we move quickly enough to a majority nuclear electricity future and meet our global emission reductions?
Assuming the above problems can be quickly resolved, despite decades of not resolving them, and we can somehow scale nuclear by an order of magnitude from today, will it be cheap enough?
When I was a child in primary school (in the late 1970s), I read that in the future nuclear energy had the potential to generate electricity that would be ‘too cheap to meter’. That future never came and sadly never will.
Overseas examples are not encouraging. Recent nuclear reactor constructions in Finland, USA and UK are taking much longer than expected, costing much more than expected and in some cases being abandoned.
Australian governments have on several occasions investigated the feasibility of nuclear energy being adopted in this country. Two recent reports were the Switkowski Report in 2006 and the South Australian Nuclear Fuel Cycle Royal Commission’s Report in 2016.
The Switkowski Report had the cost of nuclear higher than new coal at the time. The more recent South Australian (SA) Royal Commission report looked at Uranium mining, nuclear fuel enrichment, electricity generation as well as nuclear waste disposal opportunities for SA. The SA government’s response to the royal commission concluded:
The government considers that nuclear power in the short to medium term is not a cost-effective source of low-carbon electricity for South Australia.
Even Ziggy Switkowski, a nuclear physicist and strong nuclear proponent, has recently said that ‘the window for GW scale nuclear has closed’ and:
With requirements for baseload capacity reducing, adding nuclear capacity one gigawatt at a time is hard to justify, especially as costs are now very high (in the range of $5 billion to $10 billion), development timelines are 15+ years, and solar with battery storage are winning the race.
Meanwhile many GW of wind farms, solar farms (a 35GW pipeline) and rooftop solar continue to be planned and built. Battery storage and pumped hydro projects to help balance the system are also being planned before our old coal power stations reach their end of life. Electricity prices are also stabilising and coming down slightly at the retail level, and more dramatically at the wholesale level, according the ASX electricity futures market.
Nuclear energy in Australia may have had a role to play if we had adopted the technology in the 1970s, when other countries were rapidly adopting the technology, and renewables like solar cost 100 times as much as today. While cheaper, safer and better nuclear designs have been proposed and been under development for some time overseas, their promise has not yet been proven. Nuclear energy also takes a very long time to adopt in countries like Australia that don’t have the required nuclear engineering and regulatory expertise, i.e. at least 15 years to build the first power station. Nuclear has simply left its run too late in Australia. The economics of renewable energy, being cheaper than all other forms of generation in Australia in 2018, has been the final straw in halting the possibility of nuclear energy being adopted here before it has even begun, except for that one fusion reactor in the sky, 150 million km away.
Robert Farago is an Engineer with 30 years’ experience. He has worked on writing software, building the internet and installing renewable energy, sometimes simultaneously.
http://www.ethos.org.au/online-resources/Engage-Mail/nuclear-too-late-a-response-to-ian-hore-lacy
Fukushima evacuees’ friend arrested, jailed at Hiroshima memorial
The Nuclear Resister, August 13, 2018 UPDATE: August 17 – the jailed activist was released from custody today.Electrical utility JEA orders co-owner to abandon “economically obsolete” Plant Vogtle nuclear power project
JEA issues ultimatum to Plant Vogtle co-owner: Walk away from nuclear project, The Florida Times Union, Jacksonville.com, Aug 17, 2018
NO, Virginia – Fukushima is NOT OK
The Nuclear Resister, August 13, 2018 Text of the flyer distributed at the Go West Come West memorial for nuclear victims in Hiroshima, August 6, 2018.
Tokyo as well as Fukushima Is NOT Radiologically Safe. The Government of Japan Is Making Tokyo Olympics “Radiating Fields” of Athletes and Visitors .
We are “Go West Come West,” an organization of evacuees from the Fukushima nuclear disaster and their supporters. On the 73rd anniversary of the United States atomic bombing, we would like to send greetings of solidarity to all visitors to Hiroshima:
Hiroshima is NOT a story of the past
Even the Japanese government’s underestimated data shows that the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant disaster released 168 times the cesium 137 discharged by the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima, which entailed about 168 times the fallout at Hiroshima. Prime-minister Shinzo Abe declared that “with regard to health-related problems (of the Fukushima accident), I (Abe) will state in the most emphatic and unequivocal terms that there have been no problems until now, nor are there any at present, nor will there be in the future.” This claim is tantamount to saying that Hiroshima atomic bombing caused no human health problems. It is totally groundless and false!
Fukushima nuclear disaster is NOT over
The disaster is still unfolding. High doses of radioactive materials are still leaking from the tops and the bottoms of the reactor buildings every moment of every day. Air, water, soil, ocean and food, all essentials for human life, are still severely contaminated by radiation due to this disaster. It is not only Fukushima that is contaminated but also the eastern part of Japan as a whole, including Tokyo.Recently four key figures among the authorities in charge of Fukushima’s reconstruction died relatively young: a former Reconstruction minister, a former Reconstruction Vice-Minister and a former Environment Parliamentary Secretary, and the incumbent Mayor of Namie, Fukushima prefecture. Now it is time that we faced the truth.
What is the Japanese government doing – Cover-up.
The Japanese government, the plant operator (TEPCO) and the mainstream mass-media are using all their power to cover up the true picture of the disaster. They do not want to take any responsibility for it, or to pay any compensation regarding the huge health damage that has been done to the residents.
Gov. returning evacuees to areas with four times the contamination level of the ‘radiological control area’
Any area in nuclear facilities or hospitals etc.where radiation levels can exceed 1.3 milli-sieverts(mSv) in 3 month period (5.2 mSv/year) or 40,000bq/m2 is designated as a ‘radiological control area.’ Access to those areas is strictly controlled. Children are banned from entering and eating or drinking there are prohibited. But the Japanese government is now spurring people to return and live in areas with levels as high as 20mSv/y!
Gov. denying any real health damage induced by the Fukushima disaster
According to the Fukushima Prefectural government, 209 children have been diagnosed with child thyroid cancer.Normally, without irradiation, the incidence is about one in a million per year.But the Japanese government has denied the relationship with irradiation. Radiological exposure, especially internal irradiation, can cause not only cancer or leukemia but also many forms of cell deaths or cell damage in important human organs including blood vessels, heart muscles and brain nerve cells. A sharp increase in cardiac infarctions, heart failures, sudden deaths, strokes, and Alzheimer diseases have been reported since the Fukushima nuclear disaster. Many evacuees have seen some of their family members, friends, relatives, acquaintances falling victim to these catastrophic failures and the number of reported cases is still increasing.
Gov. showcasing Tokyo Olympics 2020 to build up a safe image of Fukushima
The Japanese government is trying to cover up by using the “Olympics”.Tokyo is spending a large amount of money to propagate a new “radiation-safety” myth both domestically and internationally in order to make people believe that Fukushima is now totally safe.
Gov. planning to make athletes and visitors eat Fukushima produce
The government is also setting up the Olympics catering program based on the wide use of Fukushima produce for both athletes and visitors from abroad (Yomiuri Shimbun, July 24.2018).Some games are planned to be held at grounds or facilities located in highly contaminated areas of Fukushima and other prefectures (especially baseball and softball).This will also pose a severe risk to athletes and spectators through inhaling insoluble radioactive particles floating in the air.
Gov. reusing decontamination waste in public works all over Japan
The government’s decontamination efforts have accumulated 22 million tons of heavily radio-contaminated ‘decontamination waste’ in mountains of flexible container bags. The government is now trying to reuse this contaminated soil in public works and spread the radio-contamination all over the country.
Gov. planning to dump tritium-contaminated water to the ocean
TEPCO is about to release more than one million tons of the radioactive-tritium-contaminated water stored in the tanks on the premises of the defunct plant into the ocean. Tritium, radioisotope of hydrogen, is very hazardous to human health because it behaves as hydrogen and can invades any part of the body, affecting DNAs, genomes, proteins, enzymes, fat, and brain tissues. The amount of tritium to be disposed is estimated to be about 1～3 peta becquerels (1015Bq), almost 3～8 times what all the Japanese nuclear power plants released every year before the Fukushima disaster (0.38PBq).If this plan is implemented, serious radioactive contamination of the Pacific Ocean, fish and marine ecosystems, eventually air and rain, is inevitable.
We must stand up against these dangerous Japanese government policies. Let’s fight back together!
Contact us: Website: https://www.gowest-comewest.net
E-mail: gowest.comewest@gmail.com http://www.nukeresister.org/2018/08/13/fukushima-evacuee-arrested-jailed-at-hiroshima-memorial/
Migrant Workers, Asylum Seekers, Homeless Used To Cleanup At Fukushima Nuclear Disaster Site; UN Experts Raise The Alarm — Mining Awareness +
“Workers hired to decontaminate Fukushima reportedly include migrant workers, asylum seekers and people who are homeless,”… Tens of thousands of workers have been recruited over the past seven years under the decontamination programme. Japan’s Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare indicates on its website that 46,386 workers were employed in 2016; and the Radiation Worker […]
August 19 Energy News — geoharvey
Opinion: ¶ “It’s the end of the Earth as we know it. Read all about it!” • It is hard to get ordinary people engaged, so hats off to the crack team of Earth scientists, led by climate change professor Will Steffen, whose peer-reviewed report on how emissions are driving the Earth into an irreversible […]
Secret Lake District Waters: “Safeguarding National Security” —
Calder Abbey and the river Calder just one mile before it enters the Sellafield site Secret Lake District Waters: “Safeguarding National Security” “Sellafield has first and last dibs on our precious fresh water” According to the former National Rivers Authority, now the Environment Agency, Sellafield used 97 MILLION litres of fresh water […]
via Secret Lake District Waters: “Safeguarding National Security” —
Call to UN Human Rights Council to promote protection for workers from exposure to toxic substances,
In September, one of the UN experts, Baskut Tuncak, will present a report to the UN Human Rights Council, calling on States and employers to strengthen protection for workers from exposure to toxic substances, and proposing principles in that regard. The UN experts: Mr. Baskut Tuncak, Special Rapporteur on the implications for human rights of the environmentally sound management and disposal of hazardous substances and wastes, Ms. Urmila Bhoola, Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery, including its causes and consequences,and Mr. Dainius Puras, Special Rapporteur on the right of everyone to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health …
Special Procedures experts work on a voluntary basis; they are not UN staff and do not receive a salary for their work. They are independent from any government or organization and serve in their individual capacity…” https://www.ohchr.org/en/NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.aspx?NewsID=23458&LangID=Ehttps://nuclear-news.net/2018/08/17/japan-fukushima-clean-up-workers-including-homeless-at-grave-ris… […]
Westinghouse: no clean-up of nuclear pollution at leaking reactor near Columbia – for 40 years!
Westinghouse won’t clean up pollution for 40 years at nuclear plant near Columbiahttps://www.thestate.com/news/local/article216789385.html, BY SAMMY FRETWELL sfretwell@thestate.com, August 16, 2018 07:34 PM
Seven years before a uranium leak was discovered at a Westinghouse nuclear fuel factory this summer, the toxic radioactive material trickled out of a pipe buried below the plant on Bluff Road.
That 2011 leak, unknown to many Lower Richland residents, sent uranium levels soaring to amounts not typically found in the area’s soggy soil, in one spot exceeding safe drinking-water standards.
But Westinghouse hasn’t cleaned up the polluted site — and it doesn’t plan to for at least 40 years — despite evidence the contamination will spread into creeks, ponds and groundwater, according to a June report by the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
If Westinghouse obtains a new 40-year operating license this year from the NRC, the cleanup would occur no sooner than 2058, when its Bluff Road plant would be shut down, federal records show. The NRC’s June environmental assessment says the contaminated soil is below a uranium recovery and recycling building on the Westinghouse site.
But Westinghouse hasn’t cleaned up the polluted site — and it doesn’t plan to for at least 40 years — despite evidence the contamination will spread into creeks, ponds and groundwater, according to a June report by the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
If Westinghouse obtains a new 40-year operating license this year from the NRC, the cleanup would occur no sooner than 2058, when its Bluff Road plant would be shut down, federal records show. The NRC’s June environmental assessment says the contaminated soil is below a uranium recovery and recycling building on the Westinghouse site.
Westinghouse does not know how long the uranium leak — discovered in 2011 — occurred or how much pollution escaped into the ground, the NRC report said.
The report is a concern to some Lower Richland residents, already upset about this summer’s leak of uranium through a three-inch crack in the nuclear fuel-rod plant’s floor. In that leak, discovered in June and reported to the public in late July, contamination levels more than 1,000 times above normal soil levels were discovered.
Uranium is a radioactive material that can cause kidney damage in people exposed to elevated levels.
Many people in the Bluff Road area drink from wells and worry about water pollution stemming from Westinghouse. Contamination also is a concern at Congaree National Park, just six miles from the fuel factory.
During a tense community meeting Monday, plant neighbors blasted Westinghouse over pollution at the site, safety lapses and what they said is the company’s reluctance to talk with residents who live near the fuel factory. The site has an extensive history of groundwater pollution.
Company executive Mike Annacone apologized to the overflow crowd, saying he was sorry the leak occurred and Westinghouse had failed to stay in touch with the community.
Now, some Westinghouse critics are upset about the 2011 leak.
They say it is hard to believe the NRC would allow pollution to remain in place for 40 years if the contamination threatens groundwater.
“You can’t tell me that is the only solution,’’ said Virginia Sanders, a Lower Richland resident and organizer with the national Sierra Club conservation group. “There has to be some way of cleaning up that plume, so that it is not just sitting there.’’
Sanders and Tom Clements, a local representative of Friends of the Earth, said the NRC should deny the proposed 40-year operating license for Westinghouse and consider issuing a shorter new license. Both also questioned why Westinghouse is seeking a 40-year operating license when its current license doesn’t expire until 2027.
“I don’t think the license should even be issued at this point,’’Sanders said. “There was no community involvement. What impact is this having on the community and the people around the plant?’’
Clements wrote the Nuclear Regulatory Commission on Tuesday, asking the federal agency to delay any licensing decision. His letter asked the agency to hold a community meeting in Richland County, adding that circumstances had changed since Westinghouse applied for the license.
Westinghouse did not respond to questions from The State about the 2011 leak. But the company has begun monitoring the area affected by the leak and testing the soil, said Tom Vukovinsky, a senior fuel facility inspector with the NRC in Atlanta.
Westinghouse says cleanup could be expensive because the 2011 pollution is under a major building at the fuel-rod plant, Vukovinsky said.
A cleanup would involve excavating 10 feet of soil below the building, or about 82,000 square feet, according to the NRC report.
Arjun Makhijani, a nuclear engineer who heads the Institute for Energy and Environmental Research, said state and federal regulators have questions to answer about what appears to be lax oversight of the plant. Despite concerns about groundwater contamination, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s June study said a new license for the plant will “not significantly affect the quality of the human environment.’’
Makhijani, who has read the NRC report, said one pocket of water near the 2011 leak had more than 1,000 times the level of uranium that is safe for drinking water. Uranium levels in the soil also were more than twice as high as naturally occurring, according to the report.
“Investigating this further is warranted,’’ Makhijani said.
Vukovinsky and Roger Hannah, a spokesman for the NRC, said pollution leaks primarily are the responsibility of the S.C. Department of Health and Environmental Control. The NRC focuses on nuclear safety in the plant, they said.
DHEC, which ran Monday’s community meeting, has said it doesn’t know of any pollution that has trickled off the Westinghouse site and into the surrounding community. The agency said the June leak of uranium, if it gets into the groundwater, would flow away from most homes toward the Congaree River.
Efforts to get comment from DHEC on Thursday about the 2011 leak were unsuccessful.
The Westinghouse plant, first licensed by the NRC in 1969, lies in a rural, forested area with a smattering of homes and businesses nearby. Plant neighbors include longtime African-American residents and wealthy landowners who operate exclusive hunt clubs.
The Westinghouse plant employs about 1,000 workers, who are involved in various aspects of making nuclear fuel for the nation’s atomic power plants. The Richland County facility is one of only three fuel factories of its kind in the country.
Westinghouse is the same company whose bankruptcy helped derail the V.C. Summer nuclear expansion project in Fairfield County last summer.
1.This Month
of the week
Global Network Against Weapons and Nuclear Power in Space. http://space4peace.org/
Paul Beckwith, Climate System Scientist
October 6 – 13 – INTERNATIONAL WEEK OF PROTEST TO STOP THE MILITARIZATION OF SPACE.”
Earth Climate System: Tipping Points to Hothouse?
Hothouse Earth: Has climate change reached the tipping point? | DW English
The climate change threat to nuclear power
By “…………The final problem is droughts, which climate models predict will become longer and larger. Legal battles have already been fought in the US over scarce water resources in regions with nuclear power plants, including the Catawba river basin in the Carolinas and the Apalachicola/Chattahoochee/Flint river basin in Georgia, Florida and Alabama. These battles show us that adapting our systems – including nuclear power – to a reduced supply of water will not be easy.
The International Atomic Energy Agency advises the nuclear industry to build power plants to last for 100 years. Given that climate models don’t agree on what to expect within this time period, it is not at all clear how this can be achieved.
New reactors could use dry or hybrid systems with lower water requirements, but the costs of running these systems are likely to be prohibitive. Considering nuclear power plants already have problems with construction cost overruns, any additional costs are likely to meet resistance.
What is to be done? Most forms of energy generation are vulnerable in some way to the effects of climate change, and the fact that nuclear power is among them is yet another argument against a wholesale shift towards this source of energy.
The bottom line is that if nuclear power is to be used to mitigate the effects of climate change, it must also be capable of adapting to them. There are serious doubts that it can. more https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg21028138-200-the-climate-change-threat-to-nuclear-power/
PETITIONS
Tell Congress: Stop Trump from ordering a nuclear first strike without a Congressional declaration of war.
PREVENT UNNECESSARY RADIOACTIVE RISKS ACROSS THE USA NATION
Protect Idaho’s water. Stop nuclear waste.
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