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Fukushima high school students launch nuclear study group -THE ASAHI SHIMBUN

November 09, 2012

By AYAKO NAKADA/ Staff Writer

THE ASAHI SHIMBUN

Two high school girls from Fukushima Prefecture are to launch a peace discussion forum, inspired by the success of a similar long-running nuclear study group run by students elsewhere in Japan.

Later this month, Sayako Ogata and Saki Nezu, both second-year high school students, plan to invite fellow students to a screening of “Hoshasen o Abita X-nen-go” (X years after radiation exposure), a documentary about fishermen exposed to radiation from a U.S. hydrogen bomb test at Bikini Atoll in 1954.

Fukushima high school students Sayako Ogata, left, and Saki Nezu relate their experiences of the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant disaster and its aftermath at a movie screening in Tokyo on Oct. 7. (Ayako Nakada)

Ogata and Nezu saw the movie themselves on Oct. 7, when they accepted an invitation to a screening and discussion afterward with the film’s director, 52-year-old Hideaki Ito, and 83-year-old Akira Hayasaka, a writer.

Ogata said she felt a personal connection to the movie’s subject. “I am worried that I might get sick in the future,” she said.

In the aftermath of the disaster at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant, her house was among buildings that were decontaminated.

Nezu evacuated temporarily to Aizu-Wakamatsu, a city in the same prefecture where her father was on a job posting away from his family.

“My parents’ and grandparents’ generations may be to blame for allowing the nuclear power plants, but both adults and children are responsible for thinking together about the problem,” Nezu said.

Ogata and Nezu have been friends since childhood. Even though they now attend different high schools, they belong to the same poetry-reading group.

Inspiration for the study group came from a team of high school students in Kochi Prefecture that calls itself the Hata High School Students Seminar.

The girls met the group last November and spoke of their experiences, on a visit arranged in part by the poetry group’s president.

The Kochi group has been in existence for about 30 years. It has been involved in studying the crew of the fishing boats from Kochi Prefecture, which were exposed to radiation from the hydrogen bomb test.

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November 8, 2012 Posted by | Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Nuclear liability rules make Canada firm wary on New India deal

“Indian nuclear liability rules oblige firms rather than the Indian state to pay for the damage from an industrial accident, making some companies question whether it is worth it.”

Reuters/Bangalore

Thursday8/11/2012November, 2012, 10:46 PM Doha Time

Despite the high-profile nuclear agreement this week between Canada and India, Canadian engineering firm SNC Lavalin Group will not be rushing to build reactors in India until its concerns over liability are addressed. 
SNC Lavalin International President Ronald Denom said yesterday his company would proceed cautiously in light of Indian liability rules, which have so far sidelined US companies such as General Electric Co.
“SNC Lavalin takes a very conservative approach to such issues and will proceed with caution until such time that we are satisfied that the matter has been clarified and our concerns have been addressed,” Denom said.

Indian nuclear liability rules oblige firms rather than the Indian state to pay for the damage from an industrial accident, making some companies question whether it is worth it.
The issue involves legalese but could be critical to India’s ambitious plans to expand vastly its nuclear energy production to fuel a fast-growing economy and expanding middle class.

India aims to lift its nuclear capacity to 63,000 megawatts in the next 20 years by adding nearly 30 reactors. The country currently operates 20 mostly small reactors at six sites with a capacity of 4,780MW, or 2% of its total power capacity, according to the Nuclear Power Corporation of India Limited.
India had been isolated for years over its atomic programme following nuclear weapons tests in 1974 and 1998. A landmark nuclear energy deal signed in 2008 between Washington and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s government set the pace for Canada and others.

Canada reached a nuclear co-operation deal in 2010, and this week Singh and Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper announced the conclusion of negotiations on rules that should soon enable the supply to India of uranium and reactors.

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November 8, 2012 Posted by | Uncategorized | Leave a comment

UK -Nuclear test veteran who flew through a mushroom cloud

By Keith Moore

BBC History

[…]

As soon as the doors on RAF flight navigator Joe Pasquini’s plane opened on 28 April 1958 he got out and ran away from the aircraft as quickly as he could.

Canberra B6 flying past the mushroom cloud of a Grapple nuclear test

It was the first time he had ever had to do so. But then, it hadn’t exactly been a typical flight.

That morning he and his crew had watched Britain’s biggest nuclear bomb explosion. They had then deliberately flown their plane through the radioactive mushroom cloud it created.

Their job was to measure how successful the explosion had been.

When they got back, they were taken to a decontamination area, where they stripped off, handed in their radioactivity recording equipment and scrubbed themselves in the shower for half an hour.

[…]

The hydrogen bomb that Pasquini and his crew saw that day was Grapple Y which – at three megatons – is still the most powerful nuclear bomb ever tested by the British.

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November 8, 2012 Posted by | Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Near disaster aboard Norwegian oil rig as anchor swings loose, puncturing ballast tanks

More disturbing still, reported Teknisk Ukeblad, was that the Norwegian Maritime Authority revealed that 19 serious deficiencies aboard the Floatel Superior platform were allowed to slide when the platform was approved for drilling Norway’s continental shelf.  

Bellona President Frederic Hauge called this a “disturbing revelation.”

“Bellona now believes that it is time for investigators to investigate,” said Hauge. “The Petroleum Authority is simply not functioning well enough.”

The Norwegian operated Floatel Superior housing oil platform was damaged in the early hours of Wednesday morning in a storm during which a loose anchor punched holes in the platform’s ballast tank, causing it to list.

Charles Digges, Magnus Borgen, 

08/11-2012

Statoil, the platform’s operator, evacuated 336 people by helicopter from the platform in the Norwegian Sea in rough weather with gale force winds, snow and 10-meter waves, the second time since September that offshore oil workers in Norway faced serious safety problems.

The Norwegian newspaper Teknisk Ukeblad reported that the rig was further known to be defective by the Norwegian Petroleum Safety Authority, but was allowed to operate on the Norwegian shelf anyway.

The Floatel Superior housing platform tilted up to four degrees during the night after the ballast tank was punctured by the anchor. There was no danger of oil or gas leaks due to the incident at the Njord A field, and the floating hotel was stabilized, but Statoil decided to evacuate a significant number of people.

Bellona President Frederic Hauge said the incident was attributable to a culture of neglect and offering exceptions to rigs within the inspection system of the PSA.

Housing platforms, or so-called “floatels”, offer temporary accommodationto offshore workers involved in significant upgrade work and are sailed out to where they are needed on floating legs. Oil and gas production rigs, by contrast, have sufficient beds only for those tasked with operating them on a daily basis.

Second stability incident in a year

The incident aboard Floatel Superior highlighted the dangers of offshore oil and gas operations in rough conditions. The PSA said in a statement it would now investigate the “serious stability incident.” It is already investigating a September incident when a drilling rig operated by Saipem SpA tilted sharply in the Barents Sea after a ballast tank was filled unintentionally.

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November 8, 2012 Posted by | Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Enenews -Gov’t: UK nuclear facility is ‘intolerable risk’ — Radioactive waste poses significant risks to people and environment

http://enenews.com/govt-british-nuclear-facility-is-intolerable-risk-radioactive-waste-poses-significant-risks-to-people-and-environment

Published: November 7th, 2012 at 1:41 pm ET 
By 

Title:Sellafield nuclear waste storage is ‘intolerable risk’
Source:  BBC News
Date: 7 November 2012
h/t Anonymous tip

An “intolerable risk” is being posed by hazardous waste stored in run-down buildings at Sellafield nuclear plant, a watchdog has found.

The National Audit Office (NAO) […] concluded that over the five decades it was open, operators failed to plan how to dispose of the radioactive waste and some of the older facilities have “deteriorated so much that their contents pose significant risks to people and the environment”. […]

Margaret Hodge, who chairs the public accounts committee, said: […] “Hazardous radioactive waste is housed in buildings which pose ‘intolerable risks to people and the environment’. […]

Dr Ruth Balogh, of West Cumbria and North Lakes Friends of the Earth [said] “We shouldn’t build any new nuclear reactors if we can’t deal with the radioactive mess that’s already been created.”

The comments on this article are interesting..

November 8, 2012 Posted by | Uncategorized | Leave a comment