Greater and faster amounts of radiation leaking from Fukushima nuclear plant
TV: Fukushima plant is hemorrhaging radioactivity — “Scariest part of all is they don’t know where it’s coming from” — The big mystery is why contamination is coming out now in such a hurry http://enenews.com/tv-fukushima-plant-is-hemorrhaging-radioactivity-scariest-part-of-all-is-they-dont-know-where-its-coming-from-big-mystery-is-why-its-getting-out-now-in-such-a-hur
Title: Radioactive Fish, Pacific Ocean, Fukushima Leaking MORE Radiation update 7/11/13
Source: RT
Date: July 12, 2013
h/t MsMilkytheclown1
Radioactive Fish, Pacific Ocean, Fukushima Leaking MORE Radiation
Kevin Kamps, Radioactive Waste Watchdog at Beyond Nuclear: Well, the best I can come up with for what’s happening in recent days and weeks at Fukushima Daiichi is hemorrhaging of radioactivity.
And the scariest part of all is that they don’t know where it’s coming from.
But ultimately it’s coming from 3 melted down atomic reactor cores and severely damaged, if not entirely destroyed, radiological containment structures. That’s where it’s ultimately coming from.
But why it’s getting out now in such a hurry all of a sudden is the big mystery.
The $trillion danger of San Onofre’s 1,400 tons of radioactive trash
A Spent Fuel Accident at San Onofre Nuclear Waste Dump Could Cost a Trillion Dollars Intro by Paul de Burgh-Day for Salem-News.com
Article by Ace Hoffman of Carlsbad puts a straight face on a severe potential problem that could bankrupt California.
– A HELL OF A WAY TO BOIL WATER! – So said Albert Einstein.
Somebody back then should have listened to him and acted accordingly…
Instead, with nuclear power stations around planet earth, humanity faces a massive and utterly intractable disaster – to which there is currently no answer.
It is a while since I posted from Ace Hoffman.
He has been part of a ‘victory’ which has lead to his local San Onofre (CA) being permanently closed. Which of course is a good thing.
BUT it still leaves unresolved a gigantic problem – a ticking time-bomb.
The powerful nuclear industry has a vast problem to deal with – with little inclination to do so. As we are seeing, just with the out of control Fukushima situation – more dangerous than ever – with no remedies in sight – see
A spent fuel accident at San Onofre Nuclear Waste Dump could cost a trillion dollars. Deal with it. Ace Hoffman July 13th, 2013 Some people would be happy to leave San Onofre’s 1,400 tons of accumulated radioactive spent fuel, from nearly half a century of leaky, unreliable, expensive and disquieting operation, right where it is.
On an earthquake fault line, in a tsunami inundation zone, amongst 8.7 million of the most beautiful, industrious, peaceful and creative people in the world — from all over the world — who live within a 50 mile radius of the waste, and tens of millions more who live just slightly beyond that artificial marker.
The highly radioactive used reactor cores will be stored locally in relatively flimsy (for their purpose) containers called dry casks. These casks — about 40 are on site now, the oldest about 10 years old, with 100 or more yet to come to empty the spent fuel pools of fuel — cannot resist significant forces of any sort (manmade, natural, you-name-it). Continue reading
US Dept of Energy warns on climate change damaging nuclear and coal plants
Warming already taking toll on U.S. energy sector — DOE Hannah Northey, E&E reporter Greenwire: July 11, 2013 Rising temperatures, decreasing water availability, more severe storms and rising seas stemming from climate change are already affecting every part of the country’s energy sector, and those threats will only grow more severe in years to come, the Energy Department said today.
DOE in a new report outlines the effects a warming world with more chaotic and damaging storms, wildfires and other natural disasters is having on oil and gas exploration, power plants, and an aging electric grid.
The outlook isn’t pretty.
The agency pointed to the unprecedented shutdown of a nuclear reactor because of rising seawater temperatures on the Connecticut coast last year, as well as the request by power plants to dump hotter-than-permitted water into nearby lakes and streams.
In another case, high temperatures and high demand last year caused a transformer and power line to trip in Arizona, triggering a cascading blackout that tripped the San Onofre nuclear plant offline, leaving millions of people without power.
Wildfires are threatening large swaths of the electric grid, and waning water resources are calling into question just how much hydropower the United States can generate.
What the report also makes clear is that storms like Superstorm Sandy are only a taste of things to come……..
Coming years could bring more damage, DOE said, noting that last year was the warmest year since record keeping began in 1895 for the contiguous United States, and the hottest month for the nation was July 2012. Those higher temperature have ushered in heat waves, a longer wildfire season, decreased sea ice in the Alaskan Arctic sea and a longer growing season, DOE said.
In many cases, historic drought conditions are combining with high temperatures to parch power plants throughout the country that need water to cool reactors, generate steam or produce hydroelectricity.
Higher temperatures are also putting pressure on the system in the form of demand as an increasing number of air conditioners pull power from the grid, causing even more devastating consequences during rolling blackouts and brownouts.
The report calls for a host of new, innovative methods to protect the grid, power plants, and oil and gas producers from the effects of climate change but doesn’t make specific recommendations or provide cost estimates…..http://www.eenews.net/stories/1059984249
Nuclear weapons insanity: America’s AIR-2 Genie rocket
it was basically a suicide device.
The craziest part about this? In the only live test during Operation Plumbob, the US Air Force put five guys directly under the blast to prove how “safe” it was to use over populated areas. P
And the US government made 3,000 Genies.
The Five Most Insane Nuclear Delivery Systems Jaolpnik MICHAEL BALLABAN, 14 July 13
“…….Earlier this week we looked at the giantSoviet nuclear gun. That thing is definitely batty, what with its giant cannon at one end and what was essentially a tank at the other end turning it into a self-propelled howitzer. The Americans had a crazy nuke gun, too, and for awhile it looked like maybe we’d just stand and shoot atomic cannons at each other.
The thing is though, with both of those artillery pieces the actual physics package was intended to reach at least 15 miles away before the thing actually exploded. And even then, that was waytoo close.
What would happen, then, if you wanted it to explode even closer?
The AIR-2 Genie was a doomsday rocket of absolute desperation.
genie_missile_test
With the Cold War in its deepest freeze but without the benefit of long-range ICBMs, American military planners thought the only way New York, Los Angeles, or Chicago would be bombed would be in massive waves of Soviet bombers. Unfortunately, if 100 of them come at you at once, you may not shoot them all down. And really, only one getting through your defenses is necessary for absolute devastation.
In 1958, when the AIR-2 was introduced, the problem was compounded by the fact that missile guidance systems still weren’t quite up to snuff. Directly hitting all of the bombers coming at you was going to be a near-impossible task. The solution was to launch one, single, solitary missile. That missile, completely unguided, with a nuclear bomb on board, would cause a big enough explosion to hopefully wipe out all the attackers. With a big enough boom, you wouldn’t need a guidance system.
Oh, and the range was only six miles. In case you’re forgetting, most nukes make a bigger boom than that, so it was basically a suicide device.
The craziest part about this? In the only live test during Operation Plumbob, the US Air Force put five guys directly under the blast to prove how “safe” it was to use over populated areas. P
And the US government made 3,000 Genies…….. http://jalopnik.com/the-five-most-insane-nuclear-delivery-systems-768180979
People power winning against the nuclear industry – even in China!
China Protest Forcing Nuclear Retreat Shows People Power By Bloomberg News – Jul 14, 2013 Protests in a southern Chinese city last week that forced local authorities to abandon plans for a uranium-processing facility highlight the growing willingness of ordinary people to challenge the state on environmental issues.
The proposed Longwan Industrial Park project won’t be approved “in order to fully respect the opinion of the masses,” the government of Heshan, Guangdong province, said in a statement on its website on July 13. A “social-stability risk assessment” of the proposal that was released for public awareness generated “much opposition,” it said.
Heshan is the latest local authority to back down in the face of pressure from a public increasingly empowered by its ability to sway officials who fear social unrest. Governments in cities across the country have canceled or delayed plans for industrial projects over the past year after confrontations with residents concerned about safety and pollution.
“Chinese civil society is getting stronger,” said Willy Wo-Lap Lam, an adjunct professor of history at the Chinese Universityof Hong Kong. “People now realize if their numbers are big enough, if they are united and stand their ground, the government will back down,” he said.
Opposition to the uranium facility underscores growing concern among China’s expanding middle class that industrial plants damage the environment and people’s health. Pollution has replaced land grabs as the primary cause of social unrest with many of the protests erupting in more prosperous coastal cities such as Shanghai and Ningbo where residents have deployed smartphones and used social media to organize their campaigns…….
“In future, especially in coastal developed regions, these kinds of public demonstrations may be the norm as we’ve seen in the West, where such projects face growing ‘not in my backyard’ sort of opposition,” said Ma. “In the future, large projects in China will need a longer and longer time to get approved like they do in the West.” http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-07-14/china-protest-forcing-nuclear-retreat-shows-people-power.html
Gloomy state of the nuclear industry – worst year ever
2012 Was the Worst Year Ever for Nuclear Energy the Motley Fool By Tyler Crowe, July 14, 2013 There are lots of nuclear energy companies that would like to leave 2012 behind. Of all the major energy sources, it was the only one that saw a global decline in total consumption. The decline in the United States was largely attributed to cheap natural gas, as it captured a much larger chunk of market share, while alternative energy options became more attractive. To compound the problem, the Fukushima Daiichi meltdown made several countries abroad rethink nuclear use. In Japan, 89% of all nuclear power was shut down as a result of the disaster.
So the question remains, where does nuclear go from here? The increasing attractiveness of solar and wind is going to make it harder and harder to justify using nuclear as a base-load power source, because the economics of doing so is not as attractive as that for natural gas or even coal…..
America must wake up to its growing nightmare of radioactive trash
If America chooses not to wake up to this reality, sooner or later it will cost us dearly: A spent fuel accident at San Onofre Nuclear Waste Dump could cost a trillion dollars. The spent fuel will need to be guarded for hundreds of millennia, but right now it is MOST important that it be guarded properly.
Shutting down ALL the reactors now, and properly securing ALL the waste immediately, is the only logical thing to do
A spent fuel accident at San Onofre Nuclear Waste Dump could cost a trillion dollars. Deal with it. Salem News Ace Hoffman July 13th, 2013 ”……..For all intents and purposes Fukushima was a spent fuel accident. While it’s true that the reactors tripped after the earthquake and had only been shut off for a short while when the tsunami struck, it’s also true that even if the reactors had been off for years, the same basic sequence of events could have happened if water wasn’t circulated properly around the used fuel assemblies.
Spent fuel is incredibly deadly stuff, but in fact, Fukushima was not a “worst case scenario” by any means. An even larger catastrophe is still possible at Fukushima because of the fuel that’s still there in the spent fuel pools and dry casks, and because the melted blobs of “corium” (uranium and plutonium) can theoretically go critical again. Massive explosions of the corium blobs are also possible without a new criticality event, when/if they reach the local water table. And more than two years after the meltdowns, nobody knows precisely where the corium blobs are.
There are 23 reactors similar to Fukushima’s operating in America, and all other types of reactors have other dangers which make them just as capable of catastrophic accidents as those were, but in different ways. There are no “safe” reactors, and there is no safe way to store or transport the fuel. Continue reading
Cesium 137 leaking from Swiss nuclear plant, into lake
‘Radioactivity found in Swiss lake’ near nuclear plant : http://www.foxnews.com/world/2013/07/14/radioactivity-found-in-swiss-lake-near-nuclear-plant/#ixzz2Z9ZJtrGX July 14, 2013GENEVA (AFP) – Scientists have discovered a radioactive substance in sediment under a Swiss lake used for drinking water and situated near a nuclear plant, the Le Matin Dimanche weekly reported Sunday.
While scientists cited in the report stressed there was no danger to human health, the discovery raises concerns about safety practices and a lack of transparency at the Muehleberg nuclear plant in northwestern Switzerland.
The plant is believed to have caused a spike in cesium 137 found in the sediment of Lake Biel and dating back to 2000 through the discharge of contaminated waste water into the Aar river that feeds into the lake, about 20 kilometres (12 miles) downstream, the weekly reported.
Geologists from Geneva University happened upon the spike while working on an unrelated research project in 2010, and chemists in the northern canton of Basel recently verified the findings, it said.
The Muehleberg plant is permitted to discharge water with very low levels of radioactivity subject to strict controls several times a year, according to Le Matin Dimanche.
Politicians and environmentalists however expressed outrage Sunday that the plant and nuclear inspectors had provided no information about the higher levels of cesium 137 released more than a decade ago into a lake that provides 68 percent of the drinking water to the nearby town of Biel.
“No one ever told me that there were abnormally high concentrations in the lake,” Hans Stoekli, who served as Biel mayor from 1990 to 2010, told the paper, insisting that in light of the use of the lake for drinking water “the plant should have alerted us even in the case of minimal risk.”
Environmental group Greenpeace voiced dismay at the news, urging the public prosecutor in the canton of Bern, where Biel and the Muehleberg plant are located, to investigate.
The group, which has long called for the plant’s closure, also questioned in a statement how the Swiss Federal Nuclear Safety Inspectorate could have either missed the higher radioactive levels or decided not to inform decision makers or the public about them.
The Muehleberg plant, which came online in 1972, is 17 kilometres (11 miles) west of the Swiss capital Bern.
In the wake of the 2011 Fukushima disaster in Japan, the Swiss parliament approved a phase-out for the country’s five atomic power plants by 2034.
Nuclear waste casks filling up one aweek, and rate is increasing
it is crazy to keep making this radioactive trash
New dry casks are popping up around the country at the rate of about one a week these days. As spent fuel pools fill up, that rate will increase to a steady-state (for 100 reactors) of about 4 to 6 dry casks per week around the nation.
Each one, if its contents get out, could wipe out a small state
A spent fuel accident at San Onofre Nuclear Waste Dump could cost a trillion dollars. Deal with it. Salem News Ace Hoffman July 13th, 2013 “……..Nevertheless, some people, even some among those who helped shut down San Onofre because of the danger, now refuse to talk about moving the waste, primarily for one of two reasons:
First, they are concerned about transportation accidents — a reasonable fear. But consider this: Transport risks last for only a few days each trip, and there are a finite number of trips, because, thankfully, the reactors at San Onofre are permanently closed. So that’s a relatively limited risk. On the other hand, leaving the waste to sit dangerously in an earthquake/tsunami/growing population zone is a danger that lasts for decades or centuries, and possibly forever.
The other reason some people oppose transporting the waste away from San Onofre is that there’s nowhere to put it. Continue reading
Taiwan nuclear reactor shut down by typhoon
Typhoon Soulik causes nuclear reactor shutdown By John Liu, The China Post July 15, 2013, TAIPEI, Taiwan — Typhoon Soulik’s strong winds caused one of the reactors at Taiwan’s First Nuclear Power Plant to automatically shut down as part of precautionary measures twice on Saturday. At 2:50 a.m. on July 13, strong winds knocked out systems designed to reduce the likelihood of direct lighting strikes on the facility at the plant’s number two reactor unit, resulting in an automatic shutdown. While repairs were carried out on the system, the reading for the number of neutrons became exceedingly high, once again leading to an emergency shutdown as part of protection measures.
Taiwan Power Co. (台電) nuclear energy spokesman Tsai Fu-feng (蔡豐富) said both shutdowns are part of protection measures and “there are no safety concerns.” Tsai said however that there is room for improvement in the handling of the power plant………
The typhoon also led to a significant amount of detritus blocking the water inlet. The company will not only need to acquire approval from the AEC but also fix the blockage before the power plant resumes normal function……
The AEC said similar incidents have happened at the country’s nuclear power plants, and is still waiting on Taipower’s report for a detailed explanation of the cause and description of the accompanying procedures for handling the accident……http://www.chinapost.com.tw/taiwan/national/national-news/2013/07/15/383773/Typhoon-Soulik.htm
Insane nuclear weapons: nuclear torpedo, and nuking the moon!
Project A119, conceived before the Apollo landings, was ostensibly created for “science.” There’s no real science purpose to nuking the moon, though, so it’s kind of obvious what it was really about. Also, they intended to blow up the nuke on the Moon’s horizon, for maximum visibility from Earth.
For science.
The Five Most Insane Nuclear Delivery Systems Jaolpnik MICHAEL BALLABAN, 14 July 13 “……The Nuclear Torpedo Quick! Doomsday is upon us! The only way to save our cities is to get rid of all the enemy subs! Both the East and the West made nuclear torpedoes that survived in service into at least the 1970s. That’s not such a bad idea if you really want to sink something, but nukes aren’t something you just want to be using all willy-nilly. As torpedoes had the nasty habit of sometimes escaping from their tubes, this necessitated a two-step process for their use.
The Nuclear Torpedo Declassified U.S. Nuclear Test Film #46
First, the torpedo would be fired, and then a second button would be pushed to detonate it. This meant you would need a wire to connect the original sub and the newly-fired torpedo.
Nothing wrong with that, right? Just get a really long wire. And then you realize how a “really long wire” is still too short for you to get away.
The American Mark 45 torpedo had a really long wire, but even at its longest it was only eight miles in length. Even if you sunk somebody, with an 11 kiloton warhead on board, you were bound to go down to the bottom with them. http://jalopnik.com/the-five-most-insane-nuclear-delivery-systems-768180979
Project A119 Continue reading
San Onofre nuclear plant – doomed by its new steam generators
How San Onofre’s new steam generators sealed nuclear plant’s fate San Onofre’s replacement generators were supposed to extend the nuclear plant’s life and save money. The opposite ensued. LA Times, By Abby Sewell and Ken Bensinger July 13, 2013,
In March 2004, an attorney for Southern California Edisonsat before state utility regulators to propose what seemed like a great deal.
The San Onofre nuclear plant was approaching the end of its life span. But Edison wanted to invest $680 million in new steam generators, attorney Carol Schmid-Frazee told a judge presiding over a hearing at the California Public Utilities Commission’s San Francisco headquarters. The new equipment, she said, would give the 2,200-megawatt plant a new lease on life, providing cheap, reliable energy in Southern California for decades to come while also saving ratepayers nearly $2 billion.
Edison’s lawyer also issued an ominous warning: If regulators did not approve the upgrade, the plant would close, provoking “very serious problems with the California electric grid.”
The commission was persuaded, and Edison began remaking San Onofre.
But less than a year after the new steam generators came online, a tube in one of them sprang a radioactive leak, setting off a chain of events that ultimately led Edison to close the plant permanently…… http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-07-14-san-onofre-tic-toc-20130714,0,5736015.story
Peaceful anti nuclear protestors arrested in Kansas City
Two dozen arrested in nuclear-plant protest KSHB.com 14 July 13 KANSAS CITY, Mo. – Two dozen people were arrested Saturday morning for trespassing at the entrance to the National Nuclear Security Administration’s new south Kansas City complex in a peaceful protest against the nuclear weapons that will soon be built there.
Scheduled for completion sometime next year, the plant at 150 Hwy and Botts Road will replace the current nuclear-bomb-parts plant at the Bannister Federal Complex at Bannister and Holmes, now operated by Honeywell Federal Manufacturing and Technologies. …The protestors were organized by the local chapter of PeaceWorks to coincide with Nuclear Abolition Week, July 6-13…. http://www.kshb.com/dpp/news/local_news/nearly-two-dozen-arrested-in-nuclear-plant-protest#ixzz2Z9cKfsUh
The Maldives: imperative that it moves to renewable energy
Maldives and its renewable energy sector The Frontier Post, Muhammad Omar Iftikhar, 14 July 13 The island of the Maldives is facing an energy crisis, which if left unimpeded, can jeopardize the proper functioning of the island. Although the island has enough resources to generate alternate energy, there seems to be lack of private sector funding, a dearth of international investment, and the Maldivian government’s inefficiency to promote the sector, which is only serving to accentuate the energy crisis.
The Maldives is focusing on generating renewable energy and becoming less dependent on fossil fuel and carbon fuel because of the Maldivian government’s plan to become a carbon neutral country by 2020. If the country realizes its carbon neutral dream, then it will become the second South Asian country after Bhutan to imply carbon free strategies. Bhutan is on the verge of becoming an organic country by banning the use of pesticides and herbicides and relying on its animals and farm waste for fertilizers. With the same thought in mind to use natural resources, the Maldives is moving forward with a single-minded approach to become a carbon free country. ……
In order to develop its renewable energy sector, the Maldives is searching for international investment and it has received a positive response from the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank as both financial institutions have assured to provide the Maldives with the needed monetary assistance. They have already funded the $138 million renewable energy project in the Maldives, which began in October 2012. According to the plan, the project will produce nearly 26MW of energy and will benefit fifty islands. How successful will this project be is yet to be seen. …..http://www.thefrontierpost.com/article/26861/
Crazy military nuclear plans – the chicken nuke, the backpack nuke
The Five Most Insane Nuclear Delivery Systems Jaolpnik MICHAEL BALLABAN, 14 July 13 “……The Chicken Nuke When Cold War planners were planning out the seemingly inevitable Hot War, they had dreams dancing in their heads of massive waves of Russian soldiers and tanks sweeping across Germany. The British, being plucky, were confident they would lose.
The Royal Armament Research and Development Establishment developed a nuclear land mine that could be detonated either by wire or by an eight-day timer that would completely obliterate the advancing enemy columns. Not such a bad idea if you’re a fan of indiscriminate wastelands.
The only problem was that land mines tend to be buried in the ground, where it can get cold. Cold temperatures would freeze the electronics in the nuke mines, preventing them from doing their intended deadly deed. Clearly, a solution was needed to heat those bad boys up.
Blankets? No, too safe. One of those gel packs you put in your mittens when you ski? How pedestrian. No, this was 1954, and everything needed to go whoosh and phflew, so something high-tech was needed. Oh yes, that’s right.
Chickens.
The idea was to seal the chickens inside the nuclear casing as the Western armies retreated from the German plain. With a supply of food and water inside, the chickens would last for roughly a week, and their body heat would be enough to make sure everything went kaboom as normal.P
Once again, chickens.
Somehow the British actually ordered ten of these things in 1957, but supposedly none were made before the project was cancelled a year later, Let’s just hope there are no chickens buried under Germany.
The Backpack Nuke
Local news likes to whip everyone into a tizzy with tales of terrorists and backpack nukes, but the reason we know it’s a real possibility is because backpack nukes are a real thing. And we would know, because we made them.
The H-912 container for the Mark 54 Special Atomic Demolition Munition (SADM) could be feasibly carried on your back, although it does look a bit bulky. The idea would be for two guys (Navy SEALs or otherwise) to parachute into Soviet territory, set it, and forget it. The second guy would be there essentially just to back the first guy up, though in a pinch it looks like it could be used on a one-man mission.
Though it doesn’t look that big, it could actually destroy the equivalent of a few city blocks.
How fast can you run?… http://jalopnik.com/the-five-most-insane-nuclear-delivery-systems-768180979
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