USA’s new nuclear regulations will take years to be developed
Analysis: After Fukushima, glacial change seen for U.S. nuclear, (Reuters) 11 July 11, – The U.S. nuclear industry this week gets its first peek at a roadmap for new regulations that ultimately could cost it billions in the wake of Japan’s Fukushima Daiichi disaster.
But the bottom-line impact of Fukushima on the U.S. fleet of 104 reactors could take most of the next decade to calculate.
Most expect Tuesday’s report from a task force of senior staff members at the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to be just the first step in years of deliberations and rule-makings…….
The last time the NRC did this kind of regulatory soul-search — after the September 11, 2001, attacks — it took a decade to get the entire plan in place. Continue reading
Fukushima cows ate irradiated straw
High radiation found in straw given to cows whose meat was contaminated, Mainichi Daily News, 11 July 11, FUKUSHIMA –– High levels of radioactive cesium have been detected in rice straw used as feed for cows from a Fukushima Prefecture city whose meat contained excessive levels of cesium.
The meat of 11 head of Japanese black cattle that were raised and shipped from a farm in the city of Minamisoma had 1,530 to 3,200 becquerels of radioactive cesium per kilogram, while the maximum amount permitted is 500 becquerels per kilogram.
According to Fukushima prefectural officials, the farm operator fed the cattle rice straw that had been harvested last autumn and left outside. Officials believe it is highly likely that the rice straw eaten by the cows contaminated their meat, and are considering tightening rules on feed management…..http://mdn.mainichi.jp/mdnnews/news/20110711p2a00m0na017000c.html
David Wagner reports on the nuclear crisis in Japan
Report From Tokyo: My Final Report, Huffington Post, David Wagner, 11 July 11, “……….I have a list of my own remaining concerns I share here along with my take on how things may play out:
1) Food Chain: I have talked about this issue numerous times and just the past week further evidence of radiation’s spread in to the food chain was confirmed. This will grow in magnitude as time goes on, leading to pressure to establish an effective food monitoring system. Currently, less than 1 percent of all food in Japan is tested for radiation.
2) Child Safety: As I have written in the past, it is the children of Japan that are in harm’s way near the plant. Faced with the dilemma of staying (mortgage, job, family) or leaving (safety, peace of mind), I suspect more and more families will leave affected regions.
3) Hot Spots: The explosions in two nuclear reactors in March created many “hot spots” where radiation gathered and remains. Mapping these, determining who has had exposure to them, and cleaning them up will be a top priority. Recent reports confirm that the clean up process from the mess in Fukushima will take decades. That sounds about right.
4) Brain Drain: Rising numbers of non-Japanese and Japanese alike will leave Japan. The result will be a notable loss in human talent and creativity, both of which Japan needs to remain competitive. Not a good sign for the future for a country I love.
5) Responsibility: A well-known book by Karel Van Wolferen, written in 1989, highlighted the lack of responsibility taken in decision-making in Japan. Nothing has changed since then. I would not count on much movement in this area. If anything, count on more manipulation of public opinion…….http://www.huffingtonpost.com/david-wagner/japan-radiation-_b_893955.html.
Disgrace for Kyushu Electric, as deceitful nuclear power promotion exposed
part of the e-mail instruction read: “Send opinions and questions …which could win sympathy from the prefecture residents.” It also said, “Use personal computers from home.”…
Kyushu Electric president to resign over pro-nuke e-mails, Asahi.com 8 July 11, Toshio Manabe, president of Kyushu Electric Power Co., said July 7 that he intends to resign after the utility was found to have instructed employees to manipulate public opinion on nuclear power.
Manabe said he will take responsibility for instructing employees to send “pro-nuclear power” e-mails to organizers of a public hearing broadcast on television in late June. Continue reading
UK govt twists and turns, as it pretends not to subsidise nuclear power
Government and the nuclear industry have been in each others pockets ever since, as shown by the shocking collusion to downplay the Fukushima disaster, just hours after it happened….
the “no subsidy” claim is ludicrous in principle, given that taxpayers plays the same role for the nuclear industry as they did for the banks: they bail them out when things go wrong, an implicit subsidy…. burying the subsidies in an attempt to hide political embarrassment hinders proper debate.
Powering the UK: why the new electricity plan is all about nuclear, The Guardian, Damian Carrington, 11 July 11, The UK government has wanted new nuclear reactors for years, but a political contortion means explicit support is impossible. Result: a bewildering maze of measures Continue reading
Japanese Nobel laureates call for an end to nuclear power
Four months after the outbreak of the nuclear crisis, the committee said at the Foreign Correspondents’ Club of Japan (FCCJ), “The nuclear fuel continues to be over-heated and cannot be controlled and stabilized” and “the highly polluted water used as coolant is still unmanageable.”
‘World Peace 7’ calls for nuclear-free Japan, Mainichi Daily News, (By Shiro Yoneyama, Staff Writer), 11 July 11, Members of the “Committee of Seven for World Peace Appeal” issued fresh calls for an end to nuclear power plants in Japan and abroad on July 11, the four-month anniversary of the Great East Japan Earthquake and tsunami and subsequent crisis at the Fukushima No. 1 Nuclear Power Plant. Continue reading
Warmer seas bring jellyfish invasion to four nuclear reactors
PHOTOS, http://www.ibtimes.com/articles/177280/20110710/jellyfish-invade-four-nuclear-reactors-japan-israel-scotland-2011-power-plant-shut-down-unusual-grow.htm Jellyfish Invade Four Nuclear Reactors in Japan, Israel, Scotland, By International Business Times, Times Staff Reporter | Jul 10, 2011
Four nuclear reactors in Japan, Israel and Scotland were forced to shutdown due to infiltration of enormous swarms of jellyfish, which clogged the plant’s cooling system.
Earlier this week, the Orot Rabin nuclear power plant in Hadera, Israel was forced to shutdown when a swarm of jellyfish blocked the plant’s water supply which is used as a coolant.
The string of jellyfish surges began a week before with a reactor in Shimane, Japan. And in a week’s time two reactors at Torness power station, operated by EDF, in Scotland had to be shutdown as the seawater used as coolant was inundated with jellyfish.
The reactors were closed as precautionary measure due to “high volumes of jellyfish fouling the cooling water screens”, an EDF spokesman said.
Earthquake, not tsunami, caused first Fukushima nuclear reactor meltdown?
Japan Nuclear Disaster Update 30: It was, is, and will be worse than you thought, Greg Laden’s Blog July 9, 2011, by Analiese Miller and Greg Laden Perhaps the most interesting single thing on the table in today’s update is the revelation that at least one of Fukushima’s reactors suffered sufficient damage from the earthquake that hit the region … prior to the tsunami … to have likely gone out of control or melted down. Continue reading
France moving towards renewable energy, despite AREVA and other nuclear lobbies
Critics have accused France’s nuclear lobby – made up of the industry’s powerful unions and its state-controlled companies EDF and Areva – of impeding renewable investment.
France aims to rebalance its energy mix, FT.com By Peggy Hollinger, 10 July 11, France will on Monday begin a big push on renewable energy that could signal a weakening in the traditional hold of nuclear power over a country that has long led the field in atomic energy.
“Our objective is to rebalance the energy mix in favour of renewables,” said Nathalie Kosciusko-Morizet, ecology minister, in an interview with the Financial Times as she prepared to launch a €10bn ($14.2bn) tender for five new offshore windpower farms. Continue reading
Fukushima workers evacuated as new earthquake strikes NE Japan
7.0 aftershock hits off Japan coast; no damage reported, Washington Post, By Chico Harlan, July 10. TOKYO — Northeastern Japan was jolted Sunday morning by a 7.0 magnitude aftershock, the largest to hit here in more than three months, triggering a tsunami warning for coastal areas trying to recover from the March 11 mega-disaster.
Initial reports indicated no damage as a result of this tremor, but residents — including workers at the stricken Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant — were urged to evacuate. Tsunami waves between 10 and 20 centimeters high were reported in Miyagi and Iwate Prefecture……
Radioactive caesium in beef from Fukushima prefecture
High levels of caesium found in Fukushima beef, ABC News, Jul 9, 2011. More than six times the legal limit of radioactive caesium has been found in beef from Fukushima prefecture, home to Japan’s crippled nuclear plant, an official statement said on Saturday.
The meat was taken from one of 11 cows shipped to Tokyo from a farmer in Minamisoma city, according to the statement by the Tokyo metropolitan government.
The 11 cows all showed high levels of radioactive caesium, ranging from 1,530 to 3,200 becquerels per kilogram, compared with the legal limit of 500 becquerels, the Tokyo statement said.
It was the first time excessive levels of radioactive caesium have been found in meat, according to a Tokyo official……http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2011/07/09/3265533.htm?section=justin
Nuclear Regulatory Commission keeps the public in the dark about radioactive leaks
NRC, nuke industry criticized for skirting public . The Sacramento Bee, 10 July 11, MONTPELIER, Vt. — When a nuclear watchdog group asked the Nuclear Regulatory Commission for a study on leaks of radioactive water at the Vermont Yankee plant, it was told the NRC had seen the report but had never officially taken custody of it – so it wasn’t public. By DAVE GRAM, Associated Press
Critics say it’s a style of communication between regulator and regulated that cuts out the public and even state regulators – trying to track leaks of tritium, a radioactive form of water linked with cancer when ingested in high amounts.
An NRC spokeswoman confirmed the agency routinely sees industry reports that it does not share on its public web site. Raymond Shadis of the New England Coalition said the result is an agency making regulatory decisions based on information the public doesn’t get to see…..
http://www.sacbee.com/2011/07/10/3759812/nrc-nuke-industry-criticized-for.html
Long Branch Center refutes any need for USA nuclear reprocessing
Local environmental group submits comment on nuclear-fuel reprocessing facilities, Mountain Xpress, by Margaret Williams 10 July 11Secretary
U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission
Washington, DC 20555-0001
Attn: Rulemakings and Adjudications Staff
fax 301-415-1101
Rulemaking.Comments@nrc.gov
Re: Comment on Docket ID NRC–2010–0267, NRC “Draft Regulatory Basis for a Potential Rulemaking on Spent Nuclear Fuel Reprocessing Facilities” Continue reading
France rejects compensatioin for its Pacific atomic test victims
France says no to Pacific compensation, VIDEO from Australia Network News, Nuclear veterans disappointed, Radio Australia News, Geraldine Coutts, 06 Jul 2011
French Polynesia’s nuclear test veterans say they are shocked and disappointed at France’s decision to reject their compensation claims.The rejection comes two years after Paris formally acknowledged that nuclear weapon tests in French Polynesia were not clean and there was an obligation to pay compensation.
There was legislation passed to allow for compensation, but now France has rejected seven out of eight compensation claims filed by veterans. In the 30 years to 1996, France carried out almost 200 nuclear tests in French Polynesia, including 42 atmospheric tests held despite opposition from residents.
President of French Polynesia’s nuclear test veterans organisation, Roland Oldham, has told Pacific Beat the rejections show France is not committed to compensating the veterans.
“As far as we’re concerned, it is clear that the French government does not [plan] to take any responsibility in compensation,” he said.
“[It] is only some sort of masquerade to make the world believe that France is making a big speech, that France is paying compensation for the victims.
“But the matter of fact is France is not really going to pay compensation – that’s a feeling we have from this result.”
Mr Oldham said the French Government was triying to “delay as much as we can to discourage first the victims, and secondly, to hope that in five or 10 years time there will be no former workers alive and it will be even harder for the family to get the paper together.”
“That’s what they’re trying to do.” http://www.radioaustralianews.net.au/story.htm?id=41838
Japan to announce new “stress tests” for its idled nuclear reactors
Japan to detail nuclear plant “stress tests” Monday-minister, TOKYO, July 10, 2011 , (Reuters) – Japan will unveil on Monday details of “stress tests” idled nuclear power plants must undergo before they can be restarted, a senior official said on Sunday, as the government seeks to reassure the public over safety after the Fukushima disaster.
Gohsi Hosono, the minister appointed to oversee Japan’s response to the crisis at the Fukushima nuclear power plant, told Fuji TV in an interview the government would also announce on Monday a plan for electricity supply over the next “one or two years” to allay businesses’ fears over power shortages. “The results of the new stress tests and the decision on restarts cannot be treated separately,” Hosono said.
He said the tests, intended to assess whether Japan’s nuclear plants could withstand the kind of massive earthquake and tsunami that pushed Fukushima into crisis, would have different standards to those proposed by the European Union, adding: “This will be a Japanese-style test.”
In a sudden shift in policy, Prime Minister Naoto Kan said last week that Japan would administer stress tests for nuclear plants similar to those conducted by the European Union after the meltdowns at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant…..http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/07/10/idUSL3E7IA03G20110710
1 This Month
of the week – Shut Down Drone Warfare!
Tell the Ukrainian Government to Drop Prosecution of Peace Activist Yurii Sheliazhenko
Petition to revoke the licensing of the Near Surface Nuclear Disposal Facility (NSDF) at Chalk River. https://www.ourcommons.ca/petitions/en/Petition/Details?Petition=e-7247
To see nuclear-related stories in greater depth and intensity – go to https://nuclearinformation.wordpress.com
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