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Fukushima plant “is a waste generation facility… with no off switch

AUDIO Nuclear Engineer: Fukushima plant “is a waste generation facility… with no off switch”  http://enenews.com/nuclear-engineer-fukushima-daiichi-waste-generation-facility-switch-audio  October 5th, 2012    Interview with Nuclear Engineer Chris Harris

Nutrimedical Report
Oct 4, 2012

Chris Harris, former licensed Senior Reactor Operator and engineer: This is a waste generation facility, along with a nuclear power plant, with no off switch.

October 5, 2012 Posted by | Resources -audiovicual | Leave a comment

Regulators warn of flood risk at SC nuclear plant http://www.sacbee.com/2012/10/05/4884081/regulators-warn-of-flood-risk.html#storylink=cpy The Associated Press, Oct. 5, 2012  CHARLOTTE, N.C. –– Federal regulators say the danger of flooding at Duke Energy’s Oconee Nuclear Station in South Carolina  is higher than previously thought.

The Charlotte Observer  reported (http://bit.ly/UlTVhk) the Nuclear
Regulatory Commission  has notified the Charlotte-based utility about
the risks.

The report says estimates of flooding have increased substantially if
the 385-foot high Jocassee Dam failed upstream from the three reactors
near Seneca, S.C.

The report warns such flooding could leave the station blacked out.
The NRC removed large parts of the report from the public version in
order to protect infrastructure that could become a security target.

Duke says Oconee is safe and the utility has taken steps to reduce flood risks.

The NRC began a formal study of the safety implications of dam failure
on nuclear plants in March.

October 5, 2012 Posted by | safety, USA | Leave a comment

The Real US Motivation For Japan To Keep Nuclear Power

“At a meeting with the DPJ’s policy chief Tuesday, Poneman said that if Japan takes such steps it might have unexpected effects on the United States and other concerned parties, Maehara said”

 

“The new policy allows Japan to continue its fuel recycling program, despite the nuclear phase-out. The contradiction prompted U.S. Deputy Secretary of Energy Daniel Poneman to raise concerns about Japan’s ability to reduce plutonium stockpiles,”

 

The US has also sent a former NRC official to assist TEPCO in their effort to rehabilitate their image in order to restart some of their nuclear reactors.

October 4th, 2012

Last week the odd political dance between the US and Japan ended with Japan backing off of their plan to phase out nuclear power. The US claimed heavily that is was over proliferation issues but mentioned as an aside it would hurt the US nuclear energy sector. This seemed quite odd, why the US would be so worried about Japan’s civilian nuclear power program. The proliferation excuse was very flawed and made no sense.

Ending nuclear power generation would stop the fuel cycle in Japan meaning no new plutonium would be created. This then would only leave the issue of what to do with all the spent fuel and plutonium already created in Japan. A wide array of options exist to deal with the proliferation issue yet the US pretended to be oblivious to the multiple ways to solve this problem declaring the only solution would be for Japan to instead keep making even more spent fuel….

So why does the US really need Japan to not phase out nuclear power?

There are three companies capable of currently building nuclear reactors in the US.
Areva/EDF from France, they have the EPR reactor. Two are attempting to be built currently. One in France and the other in Finland. Both are massively over budget and have had a long history of technical failures in the building process. Currently there are no plans to build an EPR in the US.

Continue reading →

October 5, 2012 Posted by | Uncategorized | 1 Comment

Contamination, Including Human Exposure – Fukushima

Fukushima  Nuclear Crisis Update for October 2nd to October 4th, 2012 Greenpeace International,  by Christine McCann – October 5, 2012 “…Contamination, Including Human Exposure The JAEC has begun monitoring radiation levels in restricted zones of Fukushima Prefecture via unmanned helicopters. The project, which was requested by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science, and Technology (MEXT), marks the first time that radiation has been measured from the air in the no-go zone. The agency will compile a report by the end of the month, including radiation maps of hotspots. Meanwhile, another research team is studying radiation levels in forests and rivers there, in order to determine their effect on human habitats and the ocean. The research will continue for the next 20 years. (Source: NHK)

Researchers from the Nippon Veterinary and Life Science University (NVLU) have begun to study the effects of radiation on Japanese macaques, noting that the similarities between primates and humans may help them determine how radiation could eventually affect people. Shin-ichi Hayama, one of the scientists working on the project, said, “This presents an opportunity to study the impact of low-dose radiation on primates, which are so close to humans, over a more than 20-year period. That could help forecast the impact on humans, as well.”http://www.greenpeace.org/international/en/news/Blogs/nuclear-reaction/fukushima-nuclear-crisis-update-for-october-2/blog/42456/

October 5, 2012 Posted by | environment, Japan | Leave a comment

Costly radiation remediation at Port Hope

Port Hope radiation: $464,615 spent to remediate $130,000 house thestar.com  October 05, 2012 PORT HOPE, ONT.—It started in the attic. Wally Davis wanted to build a room in the attic of his house. Since he lives in Port Hope, he couldn’t just go ahead and do it. He went to the Low Level Radioactive Waste Management Office, a federal agency, requested the file on his property and asked them to test for remnants of historic radioactive waste.

“There was contamination in the roof, on the floors, in the walls . . . everywhere in the house,” said Davis, 75, a retired Ontario Hydro employee.

In July 2011, Davis and his wife, Carole, were relocated to neighbouring Cobourg as agency staff started remediation work. The couple returned to their two-bedroom, 1,000-square-foot home this July and discovered that except for the outer walls, it had been essentially rebuilt.

“They did a superb job,” Davis said.

They did indeed. The waste management office spent $464,615 to clean up the house Davis bought a decade ago for $125,000 — or $130,000, he can’t remember.

“We didn’t have a clue how much they spent,” said Davis when the Star told him that almost a half-million dollars had been used to remediate his home.

“They didn’t tell us,” he said. “That is a lot of money.”The Davis home on Bruton St., in a leafy old part of town, is about two kilometres from the waterfront. It has a red-brick façade, an attached garage and a large front and back yard. There’s a shed in the back and a Canadian flag fluttering on a tall post.

Port Hope, the picture-pretty lakeside town about 110 kilometres east of Toronto, will soon see the biggest cleanup of historic radioactive waste in Canadian history. Fifty years of radium and uranium refining at the Cameco refinery, formerly Crown corporation Eldorado Nuclear Ltd., has left contamination spread around the town…. http://www.thestar.com/news/gta/article/1267186–port-hope-radiation-464-615-spent-to-remediate-130-000-house

October 5, 2012 Posted by | Canada, environment, Uranium | Leave a comment

Radiation tablets for Delaware residents near nuclear plant

Delaware residents near nuclear plants urged to take tablets http://www.newsworks.org/index.php/local/item/45173 October 5, 2012 By Nichelle Polston n the next few days, residents who live within a ten mile radius of the Salem/Hope Creek Nuclear Generating Stations will have access to some pills that are usually given out during a radiation emergency.
The Delaware Emergency Management Agency and Delaware Division of
Public Health will distribute potassium iodide also known as KI
tablets.  The pills are believed to help protect the thyroid gland
from ingested or inhaled radioactive iodine possibly released in a
radiation emergency. Officials say the medicine does not protect
against external radiation.  If you take a look at Delaware’s
emergency plans developed for use in a nuclear incident, you’ll notice
KI tablets are listed as one of the precautions residents should take
along with evacuation.
Delaware received the tablets due to its participation in a program
led by the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission. The pills are only
being distributed in the event of an emergency related to radiation.
If that happens, emergency officials will inform residents in those
areas through messages on Emergency Action System radio stations. When
the emergency messages are aired they will include instructions on how
residents should react, directions to evacuation routes, emergency
reception centers, and also when to take the KI tablets.
In the meantime, the pills will be distributed next week on October
11th at the Townsend Fire Station.  They’re also available to
residents who live outside the 10 mile radius area and those who
currently want to get rid of their expired KI tablets.  Delaware
Emergency Management Agency Radiological Emergency Planning section
can be reached for more information about the tablets at 302-659-3362.

October 5, 2012 Posted by | health, USA | Leave a comment

Evacuation and Repopulation – Fukushima

Fukushima  Nuclear Crisis Update for October 2nd to October 4th, 2012 Greenpeace International,  by Christine McCann – October 5, 2012 “…Evacuation and Repopulation In spite of efforts by the central government to lift evacuation orders and begin repopulating some areas of Fukushima Prefecture located between 20 and 30 km from the site of the Fukushima nuclear disaster, a new survey conducted by the Asahi Shimbun shows that only 11% of those who evacuated the prefecture have returned.  Approximately 58,000 people lived there before the crisis erupted, and 48% evacuated in the months following the nuclear meltdowns. The area includes Minami-Soma, Tamura, Kawauchi, Nahara, and Hirono… http://www.greenpeace.org/international/en/news/Blogs/nuclear-reaction/fukushima-nuclear-crisis-update-for-october-2/blog/42456/

October 5, 2012 Posted by | Fukushima 2012 | Leave a comment

Nuclear-capable Prithvi II ballistic missile test-fired http://articles.economictimes.indiatimes.com/2012-10-04/news/34260438_1_sleek-missile-strike-range-ballistic-missile  Oct 4, 2012,   BALASORE (Odisha): Sharpening its missile prowess, India today successfully test-fired its nuclear- capable Prithvi-II ballistic missile  with a strike range of 350 km from a test range near here as part of a user trial by the army.

“The surface-to-surface missile was flight tested at around 0907 hrs from a mobile launcher from Integrated Test Range’s launch complex-3 at Chandipur,” defence sources said.

October 5, 2012 Posted by | India, weapons and war | Leave a comment

Idaho National Laboratory, Fined After Radiation Exposures USA

Reuters  |  Posted: 10/04/2012

 

In the violation notice issued on Thursday, federal regulators found Battelle failed to perform real-time air monitoring in November 2011 “to detect and provide early warning to individuals of events that could lead to substantial unplanned exposures to airborne radioactivity.”

SALMON, Idaho (Reuters) – The U.S. Department of Energy fined a nuclear research lab in Idaho more than $400,000 on Thursday for multiple safety violations stemming from two mishaps last year that caused workers to be contaminated with radiation.

“DOE considers these events to be of high safety significance,” …

[…]

He was referring to two incidents in 2011 that exposed employees to radiation at the nation’s leading nuclear research and development center, which is operated by contractor Battelle Energy Alliance.

The lab was fined for failure to prevent contamination of a worker’s hand in August 2011. In November 2011, 16 workers were also exposed to low-level plutonium radiation while preparing fuel plates for shipping …..

[…]
……. including two who inhaled radioactive particles, ….

Continue reading →

October 5, 2012 Posted by | Uncategorized | Leave a comment

The nuclear week that was

Christina Macpherson’s websites & blogs

Europe; a leaked draft report from European Commission reveals that all of Europe’s 143 nuclear reactors have safety problems.

UK in somewhat of  a mess in its new nuclear power project. AREVA, China Guangdong Nuclear Power Group, and  China National Nuclear Power Corporation have all pulled out of the project, and  Iberdrola, the Spanish group is rumoured to be about to pull out.  It’s all supposed to be “private enterprise” but clearly needs buckets of Government money to have any hope of ever getting going.

India leaving its democratic principles behind, as it labels anti-nuclear activists as psychiatric cases, and as police terrorise those participating in the anti nuclear movement at Kudankulam. Serious criminal charges have been slapped against more than 150,000 villagers protesting against the Kudankulam nuclear power plant.

France now developing plans for its phaseout of nuclear power.

Japan. the Fukushima cleanup facing very difficult challenges – it requires new technologies that have not yet even been invented. Tokyo continues to get radioactive fallout – measuring more than the level in Fukushima.

USA: the current election campaigning does mention the word “nuclear” – but only in reference to who’s going to be toughest on Iran. Nary a word about USA’s massive nuclear waste crisis.

October 5, 2012 Posted by | Christina's notes | Leave a comment

Death of democracy in India: anti nuclear heroes – “Enemies of the State”

A non-governmental fact finding team that visited area found that police personnel had seriously injured many protestors, inflicted physical and verbal sexual abuse on several women, and at least two children had been stripped and tortured

 serious criminal charges have been slapped against more than 150,000, mostly unnamed villagers…. at least 10,000 people are charged with sedition and waging war against the state..

India Clamps Down on Villagers’ Anti-Nuclear Protests, Earth Island Journal, BY NITYANANDJAYARAMAN – OCTOBER 4, 2012 In their eagerness to power the country’s growing economy, ndian authorities are treating opponents of nuclear energy as enemies of the state
If the chief minister of Tamil Nadu has her way, democracy would be dispensed with in the southern Indian state. On two separate occasions this year, chief minister J. Jayalalithaa let loose battalions of armed police on thousands of fisherfolk and farmers to crush their months-long non-violent protest against the unfinished nuclear power plants in Koodankulam and Idinthakrai, two coastal villages in the state.
In March, when she sent out security personnel to quell the protests, police squads blocked roads leading to villages and stopped essential supplies like milk and drinking water from reaching the area. (Read our earlier report on the conflict here.) Continue reading →

October 5, 2012 Posted by | civil liberties, India | 2 Comments

Unmissable Youtube: Nuclear whistleblower Ann Harris

Nuclear Whistleblower: I was asked to leave my church — It’s been a living hell (VIDEO) http://enenews.com/nuclear-whistleblower-i-was-asked-to-leave-my-church-its-been-a-living-hell-video    October 3rd, 2012  
  Interview with Ann Harris
Uploaded by: laborvideo
Upload Date: Sep 13, 2011

Interviewer: What happens is workers who do speak out go through hell, they’re attacked…

Ann Harris, former Watts Bar nuclear plant employee: : A Living Hell. I was asked to leave my church.

Interviewer: …What?

Harris: I was asked to leave my church because people that worked at TVA [Tennessee Valley Authority] — just being seen talking to me… could cost people their jobs. That’s the kind of harassment that you can expect.

 NUKES, TVA, Health & Safety, The NRC & the Nuclear Industry With Ann Harris-Part2 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=47PeWCIdyX4The Truth About The Nuclear Power Industry With Nuclear Whistleblower Ann Harris “I won’t let them give me that nuke speak crap” Part 2

Nuclear plant whistleblower and health and safety advocate Ann Harris
from Tennessee and the TVA talks about the nuclear power industry, public health issues as well as the connection to the nuclear weapons industry.
She warns that major environmental accidents in the US at these plants is only a matter of time. The interview took place on 7/92011.
Part 1 is at
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=77vkuPtqN4A
More information at
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2011/07/19/earlyshow/main20080633.shtml?tag=re…
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2011/07/20/earlyshow/main20080965.shtml?tag=co…
http://www.bernabeipllc.com/pdfs/Tennessean_June_30_08.pdf
Production of Labor Video Project www.laborvideo.org laborvideo.blip.tv

October 5, 2012 Posted by | Resources -audiovicual | Leave a comment

Serious safety issues at Kudankulam nuclear plant – Supreme Court hears

Kudankulam Nuclear Power Plant suffers from ‘serious issues’: Anti-nuclear activists tell Supreme Court
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/politics/nation/kudankulam-nuclear-power-plant-suffers-from-serious-issues-anti-nuclear-activists-tell-supreme-court/articleshow/16670289.cms  4 OCT, 2012  NEW DELHI: Kudankulam nuclear power plant suffers from lack of safety measures and is plagued by several other “serious issues” and must not be commissioned till they are resolved, anti-nuclear activists told the Supreme Court today.

Appearing before a bench of justices K S Radhakrishanan and Deepak Misra, they submitted that the safety measures recommended by Atomic Energy Regulation Board (AERB) have not been put in place and government agencies have not determined till date the site for storing spent nuclear fuel.

“It is clear that KKNPP suffers from several serious issues that need to be resolved before the plant can be commissioned. Lakhs of people living in vicinity of the plant are bound to be apprehensive in such a situation.

“Instead of dealing with these issues and addressing the concerns in a meaningful way, the government has launched a wave of repression and has slapped 8000 sedition cases against peaceful protesters,” said advocate Prashant Bhushan, appearing for the petitioners. He said the government has not complied with the statutory guidelines framed by the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) regarding nuclear safety and pleaded with the apex court to restrain the Centre
from commissioning the plant. The bench, however, refused to pass any order and asked the petitioners to implead NDMA.

The petitioners’ counsel also questioned the Centre’s decision of exempting Russian reactor manufacturer firm from liability in case of accident due to defect in the reactor.

October 5, 2012 Posted by | India, Legal | Leave a comment

France planning the move away from nuclear power

French Nuclear Reliance to Drop Without Reactor Halts, EDF Says Bloomberg, By Tara Patel – Oct 4, 2012  Forecasts for rising power use will curb Electricite de France’s ability to satisfy domestic demand even without the closure of more nuclear reactors, Chief Executive Officer Henri Proglio said. That would see the country’s reliance on nuclear power dropping to 50 percent of power production by about 2025 from more than 75 percent now, he said.

That would meet President Francois Hollande’s campaign pledge to reduce France’s dependence on nuclear generation. Progio’s comments come ahead of a national debate on energy which the government has said will lay the groundwork for legislation that could determine EDF’s spending plans on its reactors for decades. Continue reading →

October 5, 2012 Posted by | France, politics | Leave a comment

Youtube: Meeting with NRC’s Chairman Allison M. Macfarlane

Nuclear Safety Hearing – Pt. 4 – Fukushima Update   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5yAaDbyBgzQ&feature=player_detailpage#t=119s Oct 1, 2012 by  California Democratic Senator Boxer is chair of the U.S. Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works.

On Sept. 12, 2012, she chaired a meeting of her Committee with newly-appointed Chairman Allison M. Macfarlane and the full roster of Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) members. The topic: ‘NRC’s Implementation and Recommendations for Enhancing Nuclear Reactor Safety in the 21st Century.’

This is the final excerpt focusing on Waste Confidence and Consolidation questions.

For viewing efficiency, we have segmented the public video record of the meeting into topic areas and posted them so you can zero in on the issues that interest you.

October 5, 2012 Posted by | Resources -audiovicual | Leave a comment

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