nuclear-news

The News That Matters about the Nuclear Industry Fukushima Chernobyl Mayak Three Mile Island Atomic Testing Radiation Isotope

Highlights of the past week in nuclear news

Christina Macpherson’s websites & blogs

Fukushima dominates the nuclear news. Record radiation levels in fish off the Fukushima coast. Fukushima nuclear plant still releasing radiation. Growing dissatisfaction of many Japanese as their government fails to really take action to close down the nuclear industry, and elections approach. Decontamination efforts meet intractable problems, for example, in Japan’s irradiated forest areas. Media and government silence on children’s thyroid abnormalities, and on birth statistics.

USA. As in UK, the nuclear lobby is pitching the dangerous MOX nuclear reprocessing as the solution to nuclear waste.  The San Onofre nuclear plant is likely to remain closed permanently. In Louisiana, a  sinkhole, now 400 feet wide and over 400 feet deep in spots, risks explosion and possible release of radiation. Many USA nuclear reactors are the same type and age as Belgium’s – which are now estimated to have probably thousands of cracks UK government revealed as having colluded with big nuclear companies to downplay and obscure the seriousness of the Fukushima nuclear disaster.

India.  Nuclear company NTPC and Nuclear Power Corporation of India have announced the halting of India’s nuclear power project.  Meanwhile  the work of The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI), a global NGO, is bringing decentralised solar electricity to millions of villagers in rural India

Australia.  BHP is scrapping its big dream for the world’s biggest uranium mine, and biggest man-made hole, at Olympic Dam in South Australia. Despite Australia’s pro nuclear politicians, uranium mining remains a very minor, and failing, export industry. Australia despite its small population, leads the world in home installation of solar photovoltaic energy.

The Australian government is letting Julian Assange down badly, while he gets the support of the “Latin” nations of South America, and a strong freedom of speech movement in UK.  Assange’s case may now go to  the International Court of Justice. In Melbourne, shock jock radio gives Assange’s mother a Nazi taunt.

August 23, 2012 Posted by | Christina's notes | Leave a comment

Fish found to have record radiation levels, near coast of Fukushima

Record radiation found in fish off Japan http://www.news.com.au/breaking-news/world/record-radiation-found-in-fish-off-japan/story-e6frfkui-1226456080459#ixzz24P8h1Smb August 22, 2012 RECORD levels of radioactive caesium were detected in fish caught within 20 kilometres of Japan’s damaged Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station.
The operator Tokyo Electric Power Co said it had found 25,800 becquerels per kilogram of radioactive caesium in greenling, 258 times higher than the government safety standard.

Fishing in waters off the plant has been voluntarily restricted since
the nuclear disaster at the plant, which went into meltdown after the
March 2011 earthquake and tsunami.

Less than a month after the start of the disaster, Tokyo Electric
dumped more than 11,000 tonnes of wastewater containing radioactive
substances into the Pacific.

The previous record of radioactive contamination in fish was 18,700
becquerels per kilogram detected in cherry salmon caught in March,
according to the Fisheries Agency.Wakao Hanaoka, a Greenpeace Japan
official, said the government now needs to carry out a full
investigation of radioactive contamination in a wide range of sea
areas off Fukushima, which has not been done yet.
The organisation’s surveys show higher levels of radioactive
contamination were found in fish and seaweed sampled in areas further
from the Fukushima plant.
Factors that affect the spread of contamination include ocean currents
and seabed configuration, Hanaoka added.

August 23, 2012 Posted by | Japan, oceans | Leave a comment

India’s nuclear power projects grinding to a halt

NTPC puts nuclear power projects on hold, Hindu Business Line, RAHULWADKEMUMBAI,Mumbai,  AUG. 22: NTPC has put its plans to set up nuclear power projects, jointly with Nuclear Power Corporation of India, on the backburner. The company has also begun to relocate employees assigned for the projects due to uncertainty in the nuclear power arena.

Nuclear Power Corporation of India (NPCIL) is facing severe delays in setting up plants and NTPC is actually considering exiting the joint venture, said a senior NTPC official, requesting anonymity due to the sensitive nature of the issue.

Another NTPC official, who also did not wish to be named, said around 40 engineers from NPCIL’s Mumbai office, who were being trained to build nuclear plants, have been pulled out and relocated to NTPC’s other thermal power plants. In all, 74 engineers were stationed across the country.

The official said the rest would be withdrawn in phases. Engineers, who were relocated out of Mumbai, were being trained in plant designing, while those stationed at other plant sites were involved in the commissioning of the under-construction plants. Nuclear projects country-wide have been facing massive opposition. While considerations revolve around the safety of the people living near the plant, NPCIL has also been facing a delay in acquisition of land, all of which have
adversely impacted the project.

In the last two years, the engineers had voiced their concerns about their career and lack of professional growth in the joint venture with the senior-most personnel of NTPC. Prolonged disruption of work at the Kudankulam nuclear plant in Tamil Nadu, following protests from anti-nuclear campaigners, had also affected the morale of the engineers. Taking all these factors into consideration they are being withdrawn, the official added….. http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/companies/article3808172.ece?homepage=true&ref=wl_home

August 23, 2012 Posted by | business and costs, India, politics | Leave a comment

Decentralised solar energy for a billion Indian villagers

Solar energy offers a ray of hope http://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/Visakhapatnam/article3806664.ece RAVI P BENJAMIN TERI is engaged in setting up solar charging stations in rural and Agency areas

With a view to easing the power situation, The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI), a global NGO, is engaged in setting up Solar Charging Stations in the rural and Agency areas in collaboration with the Union Ministry of New and Renewable Energy.

As part of the MNRE mandate to popularise the tapping of solar power, TERI has been introducing solar appliances, including home lighting systems, individual lanterns, and task lights, etc, in the villages which are experiencing long hours of power-cut. TERI State coordinator V. Murthy told The Hindu that nearly 100 SCSs were being set up in rural areas in the State. Solar lights and other appliances were being supplied to every home so that villages can overcome total darkness at the time of power interruption.

The objective of SCSs is mainly to recharge batteries which can be used for four to six hours every day. TERI is engaged in supply of solar lights as well as in opening charging stations manned by a single person. The stations can charge up to 50 lights at a time. Every village will have a local entrepreneur who will supply and maintain the solar lamps.

Every nine villages will have a technical resource person who will ensure smooth functioning of the SCSs. As many as 11 stations are operating in the district and 46 more are in the process of being set up. Thirty stations are operating in Srikakulam district, four in East Godavari district, and 40 are being established. Nine stations are running in Guntur, 12 in Karimnagar, and two in Adilabad. The local people in every village take care of the entrepreneur’s salary by paying for battery recharge.

Also, the nine villages contribute Rs.300 each to take care of the technician’s salary. Local NGOs engaged in Maa Thota and coffee plantations are working with TERI. TERI, Nabard, Vikasa, Kovel Foundation, and a host of NGOs are engaged
in the solar mission of lighting a billion lives.

August 23, 2012 Posted by | decentralised, India | Leave a comment

BHP ditches its monster uranium mine plan

At its peak, the mine was expected to consume more electricity than the city of Adelaide, and 100 Olympic swimming pools worth of fresh water every day.

Olympic Dam was too expensive. 

South Australia will be fine. Mining accounts for a relatively small share of South Australia’s overall economy, and only 1 per cent of its employment.

the carbon emissions from Olympic Dam would have dwarfed all the gains in emissions reductions that South Australia has made in renewable energy in recent years

The Olympic Dam Delay Has A Silver Lining New Matilda, By Ben Eltham 23 Aug 12,  Why did BHP Billiton halt the Olympic Dam mine? The project was just too expensive. The decision is good news for the South Australian environment, writes Ben Eltham

Picture a hole in the ground four kilometres long and one kilometre deep. Picture a manmade mountain of dirt next to it nearly as high — a mountain of dirt dug from the ground and heaped next to that hole, a new landmark on the South Australian horizon.

Picture a mega-project so large and so thirsty that it would have required a new baseload electricity generator to meet its power needs, and a new desalination plant hundreds of kilometres away on the coast to make the water it required.

Picture a mine so vast, it would have increased the world supply of Uranium by a third.

This was the vast edifice that was to be Olympic Dam — when finished, the largest mine in the world.  Continue reading →

August 23, 2012 Posted by | AUSTRALIA, business and costs | Leave a comment

Opposition to USA plan to commercialise plutonium wastes at Savannah

The preferred plan under consideration calls for the shipment of 7.1 metric tons of so-called pits — or cores — of an undisclosed number of nuclear warheads now stored at the Pantex plant in West Texas to Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico and the Savannah River Site for disarmament and processing into fuel for commercial nuclear reactors.

Anti-nuclear activists question plan for shipping plutonium from warheads to New Mexico  By Associated Press, August 22 LOS ALAMOS, N.M. — Nuclear watchdogs are fighting a proposal to ship tons of plutonium to New Mexico, including the cores of nuclear warheads that would be dismantled at an aging and structurally questionable lab atop an earthquake fault zone.

Opponents voiced their opposition at a series of public hearings that opened this week on the best way to dispose of the radioactive material as the federal government works to reduce the nation’s nuclear arsenal.
The Department of Energy is studying alternatives for disposing of plutonium in light of federal budget cuts that have derailed plans for new multi-billion-dollar facilities at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina. Continue reading →

August 23, 2012 Posted by | - plutonium, reprocessing, USA | Leave a comment

Unsatisfactory meeting of anti nuclear activists with Japan’s PM

Fukushima Watch: Anti-Nuclear Activists Unimpressed by Meeting With PM, August 22, 2012,   http://blogs.wsj.com/japanrealtime/2012/08/22/fukushima-watch-anti-nuclear-activists-unimpressed-by-meeting-with-prime-minister/  By Eleanor Warnock

After almost five months of protesting outside Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda’s official residence in downtown Tokyo, anti-nuclear activists finally got inside for an audience with Mr. Noda himself Wednesday.  But following the 30-minute meeting, the activists were
unimpressed. Continue reading →

August 23, 2012 Posted by | general | Leave a comment

Rocketing costs of upgrading B61 bomb

Cost of Nuclear Bomb Upgrade Doubles to $8 Billion,http://blogs.ottawacitizen.com/2012/08/22/cost-of-nuclear-bomb-upgrade-doubles-to-8-billion/ Ottawa Citizen, August 22, 2012 One of the oldest nuclear weapons in the U.S. arsenal is the B-61 gravity bomb. It was first designed in the 1960s to be dropped over a target by airplane. The U.S. government is in the process of getting ready to do a life extension (ie. upgrade) on the bomb.

The upgrade was estimated in 2010 to cost $2 billion. That has now doubled to $8 billion. But there is also an independent Pentagon cost estimate noting the program will come in at $10 billion. The number of bombs to be upgraded is classified.

Here is the Washington Post’s view on this project:
“Who will be deterred by the refurbished B-61? Is the symbolism of deploying the nuclear gravity bomb in Europe worth the billions of dollars? Does it make sense to embark on a $10 billion program to refurbish a weapon that could be put on the table in negotiations with Russia a few years from now? In an age of scarce resources, such questions can’t be slighted. “

August 23, 2012 Posted by | USA, weapons and war | Leave a comment

Overuse of medical radiation lifts cancer rates

Medical Radiation Soars, With Risks Often Overlooked NYT, By JANE E. BRODY AUGUST 20, 2012, Radiation, like alcohol, is a double-edged sword. It has indisputable medical advantages: Radiation can reveal hidden problems, from broken bones and lung lesions to heart defects and tumors. And it can be used to treat and sometimes cure certain cancers.

But it also has a potentially serious medical downside: the ability to damage DNA and, 10 to 20 years later, to cause cancer. CT scans alone, which deliver 100 to 500 times the radiation associated with an ordinary X-ray and now provide three-fourths of Americans’ radiation exposure, are believed to account for 1.5 percent of all cancers that occur in the United States. Continue reading →

August 23, 2012 Posted by | health, Reference, USA | Leave a comment

Problem of doctors referring patients to radiation clinics that they own

Doctors Who ‘Self-Refer’ to Radiation Clinics Add to Patients’ Burden: Study
In Texas, prostate cancer patients had to travel longer distances to use physician-affiliated center   Aug. 21 (HealthDay News) — The practice of referring a cancer patient to a radiation clinic with links to the referring doctor can be difficult for patients, a new study finds.

The study focused on urologists in Texas. It found that the practice caused some men with prostate cancer to travel more than three times farther to receive the treatment they needed.
The researchers said the findings call into question this practice, known as physician self-referral, and highlight concerns about the increase in urology-owned radiation oncology practices.
“Travel time to cancer care centers is crucial, especially for older men with advanced disease, because external radiation therapy often requires daily treatment for six to eight weeks,” Dr. Colleen Lawton, president-elect of the American Society for Radiation Oncology, said in a   news release from the organization. …..

The study is published in the Sept. 1 issue of the International Journal of Radiation Oncology, Biology, Physics.

More information The U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services has more about physician self-referral. http://www.ivillage.com/doctors-who-self-refer-radiation-clinics-add-patients-burden-study/4-a-482061#ixzz24P9awDtk

August 23, 2012 Posted by | health, USA | Leave a comment

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to visit Iran

UN chief to visit Iran in defiance of US, Israel China Daily,  2012-08-23
* Ban to attend non-aligned summit in Iran – UN
* U.S., Israel had urged Ban to boycott Tehran summit
* UN chief to raise concerns about Iran nuclear work, Syria
* Ban hopes to meet with Iran’s supreme leader, president Continue reading →

August 23, 2012 Posted by | Iran, politics international | Leave a comment

Zero nuclear energy the favoured choice for Japanese

Japan Citizens Favor Zero Nuclear In Debate Over Energy Options Bloomberg, By Tsuyoshi Inajima and Yuji Okada – Aug 21, 2012  Japan ’s public wants the government to phase out nuclear power according to the results of town hall-like forums to give the public a say in the debate on the nation’s energy supply post-Fukushima.

The forums brought together 286 citizens for two days in early August in Tokyo from thousands surveyed by phone. They were broken into smaller groups to discuss and vote on three energy supply options the government proposed: Zero nuclear, 15 percent nuclear, and 20 percent to 25 percent nuclear.

A total 47 percent opted for zero nuclear, 16 percent favored the nuclear ratio at 15 percent, while 13 percent endorsed 20-25 percent, according to a report by Yasunori Sone , a professor of political science at Keio University  and the head of the group that organized the survey for the government. The remainder chose more than one option, said Sone’s report.

The poll results “indicate Japanese citizens are prepared for a policy shift to green energy from nuclear power and consequent lifestyle changes and cost burdens,” according to the report….. http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-08-22/japan-finds-47-of-citizens-support-zero-nuclear-power-option.html

August 23, 2012 Posted by | Japan, politics | Leave a comment

Areas of naturally high radiation have also higher cancer rates

2004 Study: Two of Brazil’s High Background Radiation Areas Have Higher Cancer Mortality Via : http://ex-skf.blogspot.com.au/2012/04/2004-study-two-of-brazils-high.html quote:  APRIL 14, 2012

I have been told numerous times that “People in naturally high background radiation areas in the world suffer no ill effect from the high radiation.” I just stumbled upon one study in 2004 on such areas in Brazil.

Conclusion of this particular study: Cancer mortality in “Poços de Caldas, and Guarapari is higher than would be expected for their respective reference population”, whereas “cancer mortality for the Araxá population is lower than would be expected”.

International Congress Series
Volume 1276, Pages 3-468 (February 2005)
Link http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/05315131/1276

High Levels of Natural Radiation and Radon Areas: Radiation Dose and Health Effects, Proceedings of the 6th International Conference on High Levels of Natural Radiation and Radon Areas, Osaka, Japan
6–10 September 2004… http://nuclearhistory.wordpress.com/2012/08/23/2004-study-two-of-brazils-high-background-radiation-areas-have-higher-cancer-mortality/

August 23, 2012 Posted by | Brazil, health | Leave a comment

Sources of plutonium found around Fukushima

 Gundersen: I think plutonium being reported around Fukushima is raw, unoxidized pieces of nuclear rods that were blown out from Unit 3′s spent fuel pool  August 22nd, 2012 Regarding the recent test results that detected plutonium at 10 locations in Fukushima, Fairewinds’ Arnie Gundersen writes to ENENews:

Pu came from the damaged fuel rods, obviously. The question is whether it was the damaged rods inside U1/2/3 reactors or whether it was the U3 spent fuel pool. Given U1/2/3 had a containment around the cores (even if damaged), this data leads me to continue to believe that the U3 SFP detonation is the most likely location for the release.

When asked if the plutonium could have been transported by smoke from the burning fuel rods inside the reactors, Gundersen replies:

Burning is oxidation, so U or Pu combines with oxygen to create U oxide… just like Carbon combines with oxygen to make CO2…. small micron size particles….. I think the Pu at Fuku is raw, unoxidized, blown out, not burned

August 23, 2012 Posted by | environment, Japan, Reference | Leave a comment

3 Fukushima towns selected for 12 storage sites of radioactive debris, for now!

http://www.japantoday.com/category/national/view/3-fukushima-towns-selected-for-12-interim-storage-sites-of-radioactive-debris?utm_campaign=jt_newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_source=jt_newsletter_2012-08-20_PM

NATIONAL AUG. 20, 2012

“…FUKUSHIMA —

The government on Sunday announced that it has chosen three towns in Fukushima Prefecture as potential locations for long-term storage of radioactive debris and topsoil resulting from decontamination activities in the area around the stricken Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant.

Environment minister Goshi Hosono, who is also the minister in charge of the nuclear crisis, said 12 sites will be built in Futaba (two), Okuma (nine) and Naraha (one), Fuji TV reported. Speaking at a meeting of municipal officials, Hosono said the government plans to conduct geological surveys to establish the suitability of the 12 sites for the storage of radioactive materials.

Hosono told a news conference after the meeting that the government plans to ask for further cooperation from other towns and villages in the future, Fuji reported….”

August 23, 2012 Posted by | Uncategorized | Leave a comment

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