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Authorities hunting for a nuclear gauge lost in West Virginia!

Posted by Xeno on May 15, 2013

http://xenophilius.wordpress.com/2013/05/15/authorities-hunting-for-nuclear-gauge-lost-in-west-virginia/

….That Troxler 3440 seems like a pretty amazing device. From what I can gather, the nuclear materials send out Gamma rays which are sent into the soil, and then the the bounce back is sensed. I think. It sounds sort of like a Gamma-ray based radar or sonar system…..

……These things are commonly used by construction crews and surveyors, and I’m pretty sure that if you hold it up to your genitals for long enough, it’ll turn you into the Hulk…..

Image source and caption ; http://jalopnik.com/nuclear-device-lost-somewhere-between-pennsylvania-and-505920425

 

The truck was transporting the device for the Pennsylvania firm Valley Quarries Inc. – a company licensed to possess and use the gauge. The company had been using the instrument in West Virginia at the time it was lost, and is desperately seeking to find it

A protester carrying her cat on her shoulder takes part in an anti-nuclear power plant demonstration in Tokyo. Anti-nuke protests in Tokyo

Image source ; www.hindustantimes.com

Department of Environmental Protection officials said Tuesday that after one of its employees was taking a reading with the job, he placed the gauge in his pickup truck to drive to another site.

 

“Once he arrived, the gauge user realized the truck’s rear gate had opened and the device was missing,”DEP spokeswoman Lisa Kasianowitz told The Times Online. “Further, the gauge was not in its shipping container. The gauge user and a coworker promptly drove back along the route just traveled but were unable to find the device.”

Officials are now warning people to be on the lookout for a device that could pose dangerous health and contamination risks to the public.

“It is critical for anyone who has information about the lost nuclear gauge to contact

the Pennsylvania DEP, Nuclear Regulatory Commission or a local law enforcement agency immediately.

 

As long as the device is not tampered with or damaged, it presents no hazard to public safety,”

egg splat crack smash broken

 

the DEP Bureau of Radiation Protect David Allard said in a press release.

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May 15, 2013 Posted by | Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Fukushima: Are they all mad? A conversation with Jacques Attali

…The next G8 summit in London in June should decide that Fukushima is not a Japanese problem, but a global problem…..

 

… The consequences would be immense, for the entire Japan, and beyond. This should include removing the 30 million people in the Tokyo area….

5 May 2013 12:51 | by

Jacques Attali
Since the terrible accident on March 11, 2011, (an earthquake of magnitude 9 and tsunami with a height of 15 meters), the central devastated Fukushima has, apparently, caused any health problems out Japan. In Japan, for cons, it was found in food products, cesium levels above the permitted standard. .

In addition, according to some Japanese data, some of which are not yet reflected the situation at Fukushima is not under control.

First, 400 tons of water every day will come, sent by the operator TEPCO to cool the nuclear reactions that are continuing, are contaminated, and in addition to 280,000 tons of contaminated water are already there. In addition, there is the central hundreds of tons of highly contaminated materials. According to reports, (obtained from workers on site, it should be confirmed or, hopefully, reverse), the level of radioactivity in the first three reactors (whose hearts are entered into merger) would 800 millisieverts (unit assessment of the impact of radiation on humans) in the reactor 1, 880 millisieverts in reactor 2, 1510 millisieverts in reactor 3. But a man dies quickly when exposed to a level of 1,000 millisieverts. And reactor 4, empty the tsunami, contained 1,131 spent fuel assemblies, or 14,225 bars in the pool extremely weakened by the tsunami, and probably by a hydrogen explosion, poorly explained.

While Chernobyl, a protective dome was built in seven months, mobilizing 300,000 people, including 30,000 soldiers, in Fukushima, the radiation level is such that even a suicide bomber could operate there for more than a few seconds , and can not use robots anywhere , because the plant is too damaged.

Within a radius of 15 kilometers, the cities are empty, a little later, there was a significant increase in leukaemia and breast cancer, at sea, in front of the station, 1 km from the coast, were found in fish more than 2000 Bq / kg (ie, the number of radioactive disintegrations per second in a kilogram of matter) 4 times the maximum tolerated, even with other fish, rare standard, up to 7400 times cesium the maximum tolerated limit. And as the contamination spreads by plankton and small fish that eat sludge containing radioactive substances, we find 120 km from Fukushima, fish with 380 Bq / kg and it is spreading to the Bay of Tokyo. At the current rate, according to the IAEA, decontamination would take at least four decades.

And during that time, many things can happen, especially one begins to fear that the plant breaks before decontamination is complete.

On the one hand, the containment structures are being broken on the other hand, according to several experts, the signs are multiplying a future earthquake offshore, off-Osaka or Nagoya in the Fukushima area , greater than magnitude 6, which can cause under certain conditions a tsunami more than 10 meters high. Very recently (on 13 and 21 April), several earthquakes of such magnitude, or more aftershocks have occurred in the region of Fukushima, on land or at sea

In this case, the cooling system would break down, the walls would break containment, the 280,000 tons of contaminated water déverseraient in the ground and in the sea; unit 4 would be destroyed and irradiated rods are no longer protected. The consequences would be immense, for the entire Japan, and beyond. This should include removing the 30 million people in the Tokyo area.

Last problem at sea, there are waste tsunami equivalent volume, said, “two Mount Fuji.” And as the Japanese have technology to retrieve the debris only within 30 meters of depth, only the coastal area has been cleared, leaving the majority of debris floating at sea

As the Japanese seem to minimize these problems, which are not within the reach of Japanese technology, a general mobilization of the world is necessary, if you do not want to have terrifying consequences for humanity. The next G8 summit in London in June to decide that Fukushima is not a Japanese problem, but a global problem.

j@attali.com

http://translate.googleusercontent.com/translate_c?depth=1&hl=en&prev=/search%3Fq%3Dun%2Bfukushima%26start%3D40%26client%3Dubuntu%26hs%3DtNn%26sa%3DN%26channel%3Dfs%26gl%3Duk%26biw%3D799%26bih%3D565%26tbs%3Dqdr:h&rurl=translate.google.co.uk&sl=fr&u=http://blogs.lexpress.fr/attali/2013/05/05/fukushima-sont-ils-tous-fous/&usg=ALkJrhgriZYhWdtZ6HWkLA6ewdypua20bA

May 15, 2013 Posted by | Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Downturn in prospects for nuclear power is shocking the industry

nukes-sad-CNBC: Nuclear power has taken a beating — Engulfed by ‘cauldron of events’ — Staggering change from just a few years ago — Not many had forecast it would “all go wrong at once” http://enenews.com/cnbc-nuclear-power-beating-engulfed-cauldron-events-staggering-change-years-many-forecast-all-wrong
Title: Nuclear Power Falters, Engulfed by ‘Cauldron’ of Bad Luck
Source: CNBC
Author: Javier E. David
Date: May 13, 2013

Nuclear Power Falters, Engulfed by ‘Cauldron’ of Bad Luck

Flag-USAOnce touted as a successor, or at least a competitor, to carbon-based power, the nuclear sector has taken a beating as the momentum behind new projects stalls and enthusiasm for domestic fossil fuel production grows.

Across the country, plans to build nuclear plants have hit roadblocks recently—a sharp turn for a sector that just a few years ago was looking forward to a renaissance. […]

The change in nuclear’s fortunes is staggering, given that the U.S. is the world’s largest producer of nuclear power […]

Peter Bradford, a law professor and a former member of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission

“Starting about four years ago, the industry felt it was in the middle of a renaissance”
“They’ve gone from that high-water mark to a point at which … we’re actually seeing the closing of a few operating plants, which was unthinkable even a few years ago”
[He] cited a “cauldron of events” for bringing the nuclear push to a standstill
“I don’t think there were many of us that forecast they would all go wrong at once”
“We don’t fight world hunger with caviar, and we’re not going to fight climate change with outlandishly expensive energy sources”

See also: “Inevitable nuclear power exit” in U.S.? Bulletin of Atomic Scientists exposes “dismal” and “extremely unattractive” situation

May 15, 2013 Posted by | business and costs, USA | Leave a comment

Bellona under attack with a plea to the Norwegian Government for support

 

putin

“…Russian President Vladimir Putin reportedly killed a grizzly bear using only his hands today while trying to save a group of babies and pregnant women from attack….”

Image source and caption ; http://dailycurrant.com/2013/02/08/vladimir-putin-kills-bear-attacking-baby/

Again turning away ERC Bellona executive director, prosecutors demand chairman Nikitin

“….At the beginning of this month, the government began targeting ecological groups with these notices of violation and by last count, according to Greenpeace, 30 plus environmental organizations are being harassed into registering as foreign agents under the new law. Neither Greenpeace nor Bellona have yet been targeted by such a notice yet…..”

http://www.bellona.org/articles/articles_2013/prosecutors_demand_nikitin

Charles Digges, 13/05-2013

Prosecutors in St. Petersburg again refused to provide the Environmental Rights Center (ERC) Bellona’s executive director, Nikolai Rybakov, with any information concerning the disposition of a number of so-called administrative violations levied against the organization in connection with Russia’s ongoing nit-picking of NGOs under an onerous new law. 

Rybakov has been summoned to the prosecutor’s office in St. Petersburg more than a half dozen times since an unannounced raid on ERC Bellona’s office on March 21 by prosecutors, which allegedly revealed code violations that could amont to $20,000 in fines.

 

Last Monday, the prosecutor’s finally released their complete list of accusations against the organization in written form and gave it to ERC Bellona’s lawyer, Artyom Alexeyev.

 

The six-page long letter of dense legalese, detailing supposed fire and health code violations, stipulated that ERC Bellona had 30 days beginning with the receipt of the letter to address these violations.

 

The letter was also accompanied by an order that Rybakov appear at the prosecutors office today, Monday May 13. Rybakov, upon receiving the letter, sent 76 pages of documents back to prosecutors that refuted every accusation they made in their dispatch. This 76 pages is an addition to the 15 tomes of documents already turned over to prosecutors following the late March raid.

 

Despite the invitation, Rybakov was again turned away by prosecutors with no information but the instruction that ERC Bellona Chairman Alexander Nikitin appear at their offices to discuss the administrative charges detailed in their accusations.

 

bodytextimage
ERC Chairman Alexander Nikitin
 

 

Rybakov confirmed that Nikitin had been asked to attend Monday’s meeting, but was unable to do so because he was in international transit back to Oslo.

 

Rybakov also said that ERC Bellona’s charter stipulates that Nikitin is the responsible party for dealing with issues such as administrative fines, which raises questions, about why prosecutors have been continually summoning Rybakov, only to turn him away.

 

Bellona’s general manager Nils Bøhmer and Russia Group leader Vladislav Nikiforov on Monday and held meetings at the office of Norway’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, in an effort to attract government attention to the ongoing plight of ERC Bellona.

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May 15, 2013 Posted by | Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Japan’s Nuclear Regulation Authority wants Monju reprocessing plant to stay shut

NRA wants Monju to remain shut downhttp://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2013/05/14/national/nra-wants-monju-to-remain-shut-down/#.UZQmBqJwpLt Lapses seen in JAEA checks of key reactor components KYODO, STAFF REPORT MAY 14, 2013 The Japan Atomic Energy Agency committed grave safety errors in managing the troubled Monju prototype fast-breeder reactor in Fukui Prefecture, and top officials at the Nuclear Regulation Authority said Monday they plan to make sure it stays closed.

The closure order to the government-linked JAEA will effectively dash any hope of trying to restart the reactor by year’s end, dealing another setback to Japan’s long-stalled plan to set up a nuclear fuel recycling system.

fast-breeder-Monju

In September, the now-defunct Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency carried out surprise inspections and determined that JAEA failed to regularly check key components of the experimental 280,000-kw reactor, as required by internal rules. Continue reading →

May 15, 2013 Posted by | Japan, reprocessing, safety | Leave a comment