Firefighters grapple with fire within nuclear laboratory compund
Firefighters gain ground at Idaho nuclear lab, By Laura Zuckerman, SALMON, Idaho | Fri Aug 26, 2011 (Reuters) – Normal operations resumed on Friday but with fewer workers at a U.S. Energy Department nuclear lab in Idaho as firefighters gained ground against a brush fire that scorched 36,000 acres within the sprawling compound, officials there said.
The two-day-old blaze at the Idaho National Laboratory, an 890-square-mile complex with three active reactors in the high desert of eastern Idaho, presents “no known radiological hazard to the public at this time,” the lab said in a statement.
As the lightning-sparked fire had grown in size and intensity on Thursday evening, about 90 nonessential personnel were ordered out of a facility used for processing spent nuclear fuel and radioactive wastes.
Workers at another lab installation where spent radioactive fuel rods are cooled in storage ponds were told to take shelter inside due to heavy smoke, a lab official said……
The installation last year grappled with the largest fire in its history, a conflagration that charred 109,000 acres but did not cause major damage.
Fires have charred tens of thousands of acres across Idaho and the Northern Rockies in recent days, including parts of Montana, Yellowstone National Park and northwestern Wyoming…. http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/08/27/us-wildfire-idaho-idUSTRE77P65E20110827
New evidence that Fukushima’s reactors were failing BEFORE the tsunami
The explosive truth behind Fukushima’s meltdown, Japan insists its nuclear crisis was caused by an unforeseeable combination of tsunami and earthquake. But new evidence suggests its reactors were doomed to fail, The Independent, By David McNeill in Tokyo and Jake Adelstein, 17 August 201
It is one of the mysteries of Japan’s ongoing nuclear crisis: How much
damage did the 11 March earthquake inflict on the Fukushima Daiichi
reactors before the tsunami hit?
The stakes are high: if the earthquake structurally compromised the plant
and the safety of its nuclear fuel, then every similar reactor in Japan
may have to be shut down. With almost all of Japan’s 54 reactors either
offline (in the case of 35) or scheduled for shutdown by next April, the
issue of structural safety looms over any discussion about restarting
them. Continue reading
Radioactive Caesium-137 from Fukushima equal to 10 Hiroshimas
Government nuclear experts, however, said the World War II bomb blast and the accidental reactor meltdowns at Fukushima, which has seen ongoing radiation leaks but no deaths so far, were beyond comparison.
The amount of caesium-137 released since the three reactors were crippled by the March 11 quake and tsunami has been estimated at 15,000 tera becquerels, the Tokyo Shimbun reported, quoting a government calculation.
That compares with the 89 tera becquerels released by “Little Boy”, the uranium bomb the United States dropped on the western Japanese city in the final days of World War II, the report said.
The estimate was submitted by Prime Minister Naoto Kan’s cabinet to a lower house committee on promotion of technology and innovation, the daily said…..http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5hDHbdpOQcK44jyC_kypHkOo9UkBA?docId=CNG.d3f786cacc8763f78f6176c908ff1fd2.71
USA declares that Gaddafi’s nuclear materials are secure
U.S.: Gadhafi Chemical, Nuclear Materials Secure, ABC News 25 Aug 11, — American officials said today that Moammar Gadhafi’s stock of chemical and nuclear materials are secure, amid fears they could fall into the wrong hands as the longtime leader’s regime falls.
“Our judgment is that they remain secure,” U.S. State Department spokesperson Victoria Nuland told reporters. “We have no reason to believe that there is anything else of that nature anywhere else.”……
The State Department has already spent $3 million on contracts to help destroy weapons and mines inside parts of Libya that have been taken over by rebel forces. Gadhafi had promised in 2003 to dismantle its nuclear program as part of an agreement that eventually led the U.S. to take Libya off the list of states that sponsor terrorism in 2006.
After the agreement, the U.S. sent millions in aid to the Gadhafi regime “focused on bolstering Libya’s commitments to renouncing weapons of mass destruction,” according to State Department records….http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/us-gadhafi-nuclear-chemical-weapons-secure/story?id=14381560
No end in sight to the cleanup and the costs of Fukushima radiation
“Fukushima is mountainous and such large-scale and highly concentrated contamination has not taken place on earth before in an area like this. How things will go is unpredictable.”
Japan faces costly, unprecedented radiation cleanup, By Yoko Kubota, TOKYO | Thu Aug 25, 2011 (Reuters) – Nearly six months after the world’s worst nuclear crisis in 25 years at the Fukushima nuclear plant, Japan faces the task of cleaning up a sprawling area of radioactivity that could cost tens of billions of dollars, and thousands may not be able to return home for years, if ever. Continue reading
US Nuclear Regulatory Commission resisting new safety standards
It’s been very important to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to allow plants to be relicensed and not to put requirements in or to enforce existing requirements that would shut down nuclear plants for expensive upgrades or repairs.”
NRC resistant to improving nuclear plant safety standards,Press TV, 25 Aug 11, The director of Los Alamos Study Group says getting the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to pass new safety standards is like ‘walking through molasses’. Continue reading
Warning on medical radiation
Joint Commission issues alert on medical radiation, August 25, 2011,by Brendon Nafziger, DOTmed News Associate Editor The Joint Commission issued a sentinel event alert Wednesday on diagnostic radiation in medical imaging, urging doctors to pay greater attention to the long-term hazards of repeated X-ray exposures. Continue reading
Hospital accreditors in USA call for limiting radiation technology
Hospitals urged to reduce radiation exposure, ABC Local August 25, 2011 (WLS) –– In a new alert, an accrediting group is urging hospitals to find new ways to reduce patient’s exposure to repeated radiation doses.
The Joint Commission wants hospitals to pay more attention to risks of long term damage, including cancer, from too many imaging tests that use radiation, such as CT scans.
The commission’s president says diagnostic tests are often necessary but must be used with caution.One of the recommendations is using imaging other than CT scans such as ultrasound or MRIs when possible.–http://abclocal.go.com/wls/story?section=news/health&id=8327042
U.S. Republicans gunning for NRC chief Gregory Jaczko,
Republicans seek new probe of NRC chairman Jaczko, Forbes, By MATTHEW DALY , 08.25.11 WASHINGTON –– Four Republican senators are asking the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s inspector general to investigate the agency’s chairman for what they say is a continued pattern of withholding information from colleagues and acting unilaterally on the commission’s behalf.
Lawmakers from both parties have criticized NRC Chairman Gregory Jaczko, asserting that he has an overly secretive and controlling style. The GOP lawmakers say the latest example stems from Jaczko’s declaration in March that Japan’s nuclear crisis constituted an emergency in the United States.
GOP Sens. James Inhofe of Oklahoma, John Barrasso of Wyoming, Jeff Sessions of Alabama and David Vitter of Louisiana said it is not clear that Jaczko had authority to make such a declaration, which grants him additional powers, since the crisis occurred on foreign soil. ….
An agency spokesman said Thursday that Jaczko acted within his authority, citing congressional testimony by the commission’s top lawyer. Steve Burns, the NRC’s general counsel, told a Senate committee Aug. 2 that Jaczko’s actions “were consistent with the powers that he has under the statute.”
While there was no specific event at a U.S. nuclear plant, the Japanese crisis presented an overall “threat environment” to U.S. sites, Burns told the Senate Environment Committee.
Jaczko, testifying at the same hearing, said he had informally rescinded the order, adding that no formal report was necessary because he had kept commissioners informed of his actions all along…http://www.forbes.com/feeds/ap/2011/08/25/general-us-nuclear-chief-japan_8643195.html
Un Secretary General calls for renewable energy, energy efficiency
U.N. Secretary-General: Renewables Can End Energy Poverty Renewable Energy World, New Hampshire, USA , — United Nation’s Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon made renewable energy and its ability to lift the poorest nations to new levels of prosperity a central theme during his visit to Colorado on Wednesday. By Steve Leone, August 25, 2011
With the Rockies as his backdrop, Ban toured the National Renewable Energy Laborary in Golden, where he inspected the flexible thin-film modules produced by Colorado-based Ascent Solar. The facility, he said, represents innovative approaches that for relatively little cost can connect remote areas to the global network of information and ideas.
If energy is the lifeblood of the world economy, Ban argues that renewable energy represents an infusion of humanity. Continue reading
China stregthening nuclear missiles, in distrust of India
China has strengthened nuclear missiles as deterrent against India: U.S. THE HINDU, NARAYAN LAKSHMAN, 25 AUG 11, China has substituted liquid-fuelled, nuclear-capable missiles with “more advanced and survivable solid-fuelled” rocket systems, and this has been explicitly aimed at “[strengthening] its deterrent posture relative to India,” according to an annual report on the developments within the Chinese military, authored by the United States Pentagon…..
Despite burgeoning defence rapprochement manifested in the Sino-Indian Annual Defence Dialogue established in 2007, India had pulled out of high-level military exchanges following China’s denial of a visa to a senior Indian general in 2010, the Pentagon report said.
Although Premier Wen Jiabao attempted to mend fences during his December 2010 visit to New Delhi “he did not address serious irritants… [and] a high degree of mistrust continues to strain the bilateral relationship,” the report added…..http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/article2397247.ece
U.S. doctors call for stronger safety measures in nuclear reactors
Physicians for Social Responsibility calls for improved safety at nuclear reactor sites. E News, 25 Aug 11The quake was felt from South Carolina to Toronto, with an epicenter in Mineral, Virginia, just a few miles from the North Anna nuclear station. The reactor lost offsite power and had to rely on diesel generators for cooling until late Tuesday night. About a dozen other reactors experienced ‘unusual events’ as a result of the quake.
“This event highlights how absolutely essential backup safety systems are for nuclear reactors. In this instance, only three of the four backup generators functioned as they should. We are lucky,” said Peter D. Wilk, MD executive director of PSR “We call on the NRC to uphold their duties and begin reviewing and implementing the Fukushima Task Force recommendations promptly. Anything less can only be perceived as willful blindness.” Continue reading
USA planning to send radioactive wastes back to uranium selling countries
Official: U.S. in Early Talks About Int’l Nuclear Leasing Arrangements, NYT. By HANNAH NORTHEY, August 23, 2011 Department of Energy officials have spent weeks trying to knock down reports that they have been interested in building a nuclear waste repository in Mongolia.
Now, the Obama administration is going a step further, disclosing that what DOE hopes to do is “lease” uranium from other countries, then return the spent fuel to the originating country.
A senior Obama administration official told Greenwire earlier this month that the government is in preliminary talks with several countries, including Mongolia, Japan and the United Arab Emirates, about setting up commercial nuclear fuel leasing arrangements.
In one example of how a fuel leasing arrangement could work, countries with uranium reserves could mine, enrich and fabricate the material and lease it to reactor companies abroad. Spent nuclear fuel would then be sent back to the originating country, the official said.
Discussions have not touched upon what those countries would do with the waste, the official said, but the United States hopes to prevent proliferation by providing alternatives to domestic enrichment and reprocessing capabilities…..
Legitimate fears about the safety of USA nuclear plants
Why Recent Earthquakes Should Make You Worry About Nuclear Power, By Kirsten Korosec | August 24, 2011, BNet A 5.8 magnitude earthquake — the largest to hit the East Coast in nearly seven decades — caused the shutdown of two nuclear reactors located less than 15 miles from the epicenter of the temblor. The back-up diesel generator system worked as designed (well, except for the one with the coolant leak), and by late Tuesday night operator Dominion Resources had restored offsite power.
Yet instead of putting folks at ease, the incident actually raises legitimate fears about the safety of U.S. nuclear power plants.
Consider, for starters, the fact that the Nuclear Regulatory Commission has taken more than six years to develop new safety standards to address higher-than-expected seismic risks. It turns out that seismic risks to nuclear plants in the eastern United States were greater than the NRC had previously realized, iWatch.org reported.
North Anna, a twin-reactor nuclear facility about 85 miles southwest of Washington, D.C., was one of four plants with a seismic hazard higher than previously thought. (It’s also the plant with the coolant leak that shut down one of its backup diesels.)……http://www.bnet.com/blog/clean-energy/why-recent-earthquakes-should-make-you-worry-about-nuclear-power/6199
Risk of radioactive “dirty bomb” in Libya
Former UN nuclear expert warns of ‘dirty bomb’ Research centre has large quantities of radioisotopes and radioactive waste even after programme was abandoned, Gulf News, Reuters, August 25, 2011,Vienna: A research centre near Tripoli has stocks of nuclear material that could be used to make a “dirty bomb”, a former senior UN inspector said yesterday, warning of possible looting during turmoil in Libya.
Seeking to mend ties with the West, Libya’s Colonel Muammar Gaddafi agreed in 2003 to abandon efforts to acquire nuclear, chemical and biological weapons — a move that brought him in from the cold and helped end decades of Libyan isolation.
A six-month popular insurgency has now forced Gaddafi to abandon his stronghold in the Libyan capital but continued gunfire suggests the resistance fighters have not completely triumphed yet.
Olli Heinonen, head of UN nuclear safeguards inspections worldwide until last year, pointed to substantial looting that took place at Iraq’s Tuwaitha atomic research facility near Baghdad after Saddam Hussain was toppled in 2003.
In Iraq, “most likely due to pure luck, the story did not end in a radiological disaster,” Heinonen said. In Libya, “nuclear security concerns still linger,” the former deputy director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said in an online commentary.http://gulfnews.com/news/region/libya/former-un-nuclear-expert-warns-of-dirty-bomb-1.856887
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