Bloomberg, Jan. 20, 2014: Highly radioactive water was detected inside the No. 3 reactor building at the Fukushima Dai-Ichi nuclear plant, Tepco said in yesterday’s statement. […] The latest leak threatens to undermine efforts by the company to distance itself from the March 2011 disaster […] Beta radiation levels of 24 million becquerels per liter were detected in the water from the first floor of the reactor building, the company said. The utility in December detected beta radiation levels of 57 million becquerels per liter in water beneath the same unit, [a Tepco spokesman] said. […] Ending radioactive water leaks along with groundwater and ocean contamination at the Fukushima plant may take more than five years, according to a report released by a government advisory body in December.
Asahi Shimbun,, Jan. 20, 2014: Radiation levels indicate the leak discovered within the stricken Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant involves water used to cool melted nuclear fuel, [TEPCO] said Jan. 19. “The leaked water is highly likely to have come from the water that was already used to cool fuel rods, and not from leaked rainwater or cooling water (on its way to the reactor),” a TEPCO official said. […] The water sample contained 2.4 million becquerels per liter of radioactive cesium, while the reading for substances emitting beta rays, including strontium, reached 24 million becquerels per liter. […]
NHK,, Jan. 19, 2014: [TEPCO] says water leaking in the number 3 reactor building is most likely to have come from the containment vessel […] temperature is approximately 20 degrees Celsius [like] the water at the bottom of the reactor. TEPCO officials suspect the water for cooling melted fuel in the containment vessel is leaking for some unknown reason. They say they will continue their investigation to understand the condition of the melted fuel, as well as that of the containment vessel in their effort to find out how and where the water is leaking. Watch NHK’s broadcast here
The amount of atmospheric cesium being transported across the ocean via winds remains the unknown yet potentially greater factor. It partially explains the drastic difference in projections, as there are no monitoring stations for airborne radiation in the Pacific and no reliable methods of predicting the scale of its effects. Further, it has only recently been publicly admitted that 300-400 tons of contaminated water have been pouring into the Pacific per day since the meltdown began in March 2011.
International marine science organization releases report on radiation in Pacific OceanThomas Henry Natural News January 20, 2014 If you’ve heard about Fukushima radiation spreading to the Pacific Coast of North America but were “corrected” by sources both official and expert that this was based more on rumor than reality, then consider the information presented at the October 2013 North Pacific Marine Science Organization (PICES) annual meeting.
Researchers from Fisheries and Oceans Canada confirmed that the radioactive plume from Fukushima is indeed reaching the shores of Canada and the United States – and was detected at least six months ago – carried both in the ocean surface water and the atmosphere on similar but slightly different courses.
In a presentation titled “Communicating the forecasts, uncertainty and consequences of ecosystem change,” (read here: http://www.pices.int) the Canadian researchers gave evidence that the bulk of radioactivity from Fukushima is shifting almost entirely from the western portion of the North Pacific (Japan) to the eastern portion (North America) over the course of the next five years. As of 2012, it had already reached the central region of the Pacific Ocean, and a previously unpublished map shows that, as of 2013, it had reached the shores of Alaska and British Columbia, with the most intense area of the plume yet to arrive. Continue reading →
Nuclear Engineer: It’s a little alerting to see this many articles downplaying Fukushima health effects — You have to think, why is this happening? — Are they going to walk away from reactors and say sorry, there’s nothing we can do? (VIDEO)Chris Harris, former licensed Senior Reactor Operator and engineer, Jan. 16, 2014 (at 21:30 in):
This is not the first time I’ve seen an article lately about downplaying the health effects that we’re seeing due to any kind of elevated radiation that is coming from Fukushima, or from other sources that I’m not aware of. The whole problem is — it’s not that this [by itself] is a problem — the problem is, I’m seeing more and more of these kind of articles coming out […]
I think there’s misleading on both sides. It’s a little alerting when you start seeing many articles coming out downplaying the health effects. You have to kind of think, ‘Why is this happening?’ I’m wondering, is it because someone is going to start saying that there’s really nothing that they can do?
Maybe Tepco is saying that, especially since Tepco last week decided to change the name of their company and start going into the buying and selling of electrical generation. […] Remember, a long time ago I said I wouldn’t be surprised if Tepco got up and walked away from the mess saying, ‘Sorry guys, there’s nothing we can do, see you later.’
The “climate emissions” spin of nuclear power has been thoroughly discredited, as has the ongoing myth that wind and solar cannot generate stable, industrial base-load volumes of electricity. These technologies have matured, also generating many times the possible number of jobs compared with nuclear, while utilising our existing skill sets – something nuclear cannot do.
Radiation issue ignored in nuclear spin January 20 2014 The nuclear spin must be exposed. Muna Lakhani Earthlife Africa Cape Town Member of The South African United National Anti-nuclear Mobilisation Initiativehttp://www.iol.co.za/business/opinion/letters/radiation-issue-ignored-in-nuclear-spin-1.1633529#.Ut7pT9LTnMw It is a source of endless fascination, and not without a chuckle, reading the pontificating of people without any topical “technical” qualifications (other than that of spin doctor), who claim to understand the motivation of those who choose to fight plans for the massive nuclear expansion in our country. (With reference to “Might Russia still get the nuclear power station deal?” by Keith Bryer in Business Report, January 12
The critical issue of radiation is roundly ignored by the correspondent – the single most problematic part of the nuclear chain, for which no viable solution has been found after about 70 years.
Even a cursory glance at figures of radiation released from Fukushima gives the lie to the bald statement that Chernobyl was “the worst accident by far” – not only are the figures already far higher than Chernobyl, the potential release could go as high as 50 times that of Chernobyl (for the latest figures see tekknorg.wordpress.com/2014/01/11/ tepco-cooked-core-of-reactor-2-core-and-then-blew-it-out/) Continue reading →
………..on what grounds does John assert that the Asia Pacific is a major growth area in nuclear power?
Before Fukushima, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand and Singapore were all toying with the idea of building reactors. In the region at present, only Vietnam is. Further north, plans for the rapid expansion of nuclear reactor construction in China, Taiwan and South Korea have been slowed or delayed indefinitely as citizens increasingly express their opposition to all aspects of nuclear technology. In Japan itself, opposition to restarting any of the nation’s more than fifty idle reactors has been steadily growing since Fukushima. Two former prime ministers – Hosokawa and Koizumi – have added their support to this opposition, which may well prevent the Abe Government in forthcoming elections from re-starting any reactors in the immediate future. In such a negative climate, it is not particularly accurate to suggest that the region is a ‘nuclear growth area’.
Third, why does John focus on Iran as the world’s main catalyst of nuclear proliferation? Yes, Iran’s nuclear program began with a certain degree of secrecy, but that was under the Shah with American backing. (Incidentally, every country with a nuclear program began its development in secrecy). Since 1979, the Islamic revolutionaries have simply carried on with and amplified the Shah’s projects, including enrichment.
Nor, as John asserts, is Iran’s enrichment program in violation of Iran’s commitments under the NPT. The country has a perfect right to develop all aspects of peaceful nuclear technology. Indeed, other signatories have an obligation to help it. By asserting, as John does, that no country has a legitimate reason to proceed with a wholly national program in proliferation-sensitive areas, simply reinforces the double standard of the NPT. It is analogous to Washington’s ‘permission’ to allow Japan to proceed with both an enrichment and a re-processing industry whilst prohibiting the Republic of Korea from doing the same. It is the same double standard that applies to nuclear disarmament, where the nuclear ‘haves’ are obliged to dismantle their nuclear weapons in exchange for nuclear ‘have-nots’ promising neither to acquire nor build their own. The nuclear ‘haves’ have patently failed to disarm.
I accidentally happened upon this photo while researching some things about the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear disaster and I freaked out! How did this worker get so close to this mass of melted nuclear fuel in the basement of Chernobyl without receiving several lethal doses of radiation?
Approaching it would mean certain death. The individual shown in the below image is either completely insane or outright suicidal.
I am quite certain that this worker, as well as the person who took the photograph, are now both deceased. Probably from either cancer or acute radiation sickness.
Russian state nuclear power corporation Rosatom is willing to use Belarusian companies that have gained good reputations in the construction of the first nuclear power plant in Belarus for projects in third countries, Rosatom Chairman Sergei Kirienko said in a meeting with Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko on Monday.
During the meeting Lukashenko proposed that Rosatom use Belarusian companies to build nuclear power plants in third countries.
“I am counting on this that we learn something here [in the construction of the first Belarusian nuclear power plant] and can build at other sites with you,” the Belarusian president said. “If we learn to build nuclear power plants, we are willing to use your technology and move with you where you are building throughout the world,” he added.
Lukashenko asked Kirienko if Russia would invite Belarusian companies to other sites.
“That is so. We, honestly, also looked at the [joint] experience with a view to the future,” Kirienko said. “And we really are willing to use the most qualified organizations that have proved themselves in the building of the first Belarusian nuclear power plant,” he said.
He added that this would include building plants in third countries as well as Russia.
“We already have 22 blocks contracted out throughout the world in our portfolio currently,” he said.
A deal was recently signed with Hungary and tenders were won for construction of reactors in Finland and Jordan. “
On January 18, 2014 activists from a Puget Sound-based nuclear abolition group engaged in a nonviolent direct action at the US Navy’s West Coast nuclear submarine and nuclear weapons base.
Members of Ground Zero Center for Nonviolent Action held a peaceful vigil and nonviolent direct action at the main gate to Naval Base Kitsap-Bangor in Silverdale, Washington. They protested the U.S. government’s continued deployment of the Trident nuclear weapons system, and increasing military presence in Asia due to its Asia-Pacific Pivot. Its continued reliance on nuclear weapons as an instrument of foreign policy by force projection is in contravention of both U.S. and international laws.
The Trident submarine base at Bangor, just 20 miles from Seattle, contains the largest concentration of operational nuclear weapons in the US arsenal. Each of the 8 Trident submarines at Bangor carries up to 24 Trident II (D-5) missiles, each capable of being armed with as many as 8 independently targetable thermonuclear warheads. Each nuclear warhead has an explosive force of between 100 and 475 kilotons (up to 30 times the force of the Hiroshima bomb). 60 percent of the Trident fleet is based at Bangor, with 40 percent at King’s Bay, Georgia.
On Saturday afternoon the group maintained a peaceful vigil on the roadside outside the base entrance. Honoring Martin Luther King Jr’s strong stand against war and nuclear weapons, participants held a large banner with a quote from Dr. King: “When scientific power outruns spiritual power, we end up with guided missiles and misguided men.”
Two participants entered the roadway, symbolically closing the base, and were removed by Washington State Patrol officers. Cited for traffic violations – “Pedestrian on Roadway Illegally” – were Gilberto Perez, Bainbridge Island, WA and Michael Siptroth, Belfair, WA. Perez, a Buddhist monk who has visited Jeju Island in South Korea, held a banner (in Korean) calling for “No Naval Base on Jeju.”
Another participant, Tom Krebsbach, Brier, WA walked onto the base in an attempt to deliver a message, in the form of a poem, to the base commander. Naval security authorities arrested Krebsbach, and took him to a base facility for processing. He was released a short while later, after having been cited for Trespassing (18 USC 1382).
The 22-year old political prisoner, journalist of Bobrujskij Courier Yauhen Vaskovich is sent to the solitary cell, a fine for bad behavior in prison, almost every month. By now, he has spent 247 days in solitary confinement, report human rights defenders, which means nearly ten months out of less than three years of imprisonment.
Last time Yauhen was placed in the isolator before the New Year, on December 27, for ten days.
Such regime of serving the sentence (he is allowed only one food parcel up to two kilos a year) made impact on the physical state: being 186 cm tall, he weighs only 65 kilos.
His mother says he does not complain in letters; she supposes it is not allowed to write things like that. The lawyer meets him regularly. After January 20 the mother is going to pay a visit to his son, which is allowed only once a year.
Meanwhile, Yauhen’s colleagues from the Belarusian Christian Democracy are worried by the situation and alarm human rights defenders and international organizations to protest against the tortures of the prisoner.
We remind that Yauhen Vaskovich, and his friends Artsiom Prakapenka and Pavel Syramolatau, were sentenced to 7 years in prison for attacking the KGB building in Babruysk (on the night of October 17, 2010). They were found guilty of hooliganism and causing costly damage to property (the damage to the outer façade was estimated at 253 000 Br, which was in 2010 about 85$). Now Yauhen Vaskovich is in Mahilou prison No4. Pavel Syramalotau pleaded for pardon and was released in September 2012. Yauhen Vaskovich and Artsiom Prakapenka are refusing to appeal for pardon.
The prominent Belarusian human rights activist has been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize for the third time.
Polish MPs, members of the ruling Civic Platform and the opposition Law and Justice party, collect signatures to submit his nomination.
“Like the Polish Solidarity movement represented by Lech Walesa received the Nobel Prize, Belarusian human rights activists represented by Bialiatski should be given the Nobel Peace Prize,” he says.
As many as 160 Polish MPs signed for Bialiatski’s nomination, Nasha Niva newspaper reports referring to Gazeta Wyborcza.
Bialiatski has been remaining a nominee for the last few years in prison.
Bialiatski used his bank accounts to help victims of repressions of the Lukashenka regime. Activists from Viasna human rights centre offered aid to all wrongfully convicted people regardless of their political views.
The Belarusian authorities received details of Bialiatski’s bank accounts from the judicial bodies of Lithuania and Poland. He was imprisoned on accusations of tax frauds.
Loren Thompson, head of the Lexington Institute, a defense-oriented public policy advocacy group, said he thinks part of the problem may be the “diminished status” of the nuclear mission in the post-Cold War era.
“Although missile forces remain crucial to deterring nuclear attack, they are no longer seen as a prestigious assignment in the Air Force,” he said. He noted that in 2008, then-Defense Secretary Robert Gates expressed worry about stewardship of the mission.
“This suggests these latest problems are part of a broader pattern,”
Air Force says latest missteps don’t equate to failure; others cite worrying pattern
WASHINGTON — At what point do breakdowns in discipline put the country’s nuclear security in jeopardy?
And when does a string of embarrassing episodes in arguably the military’s most sensitive mission become a pattern of failure?
Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel is now concerned “there could be something larger afoot here,” according to his chief spokesman, and “wants this taken very, very seriously.”
The disclosures of disturbing behavior by nuclear missile officers are mounting and now include alleged drug use and exam cheating. Yet Air Force leaders insist the trouble is episodic, correctible and not cause for public worry.
The military has a well-established set of inspections and other means of ensuring the safety of its nuclear weapons. But as in any human endeavor, military or civilian, the key to success is the people, not the hardware.
Until recently, Hagel had said little in public about the setbacks and missteps in the nuclear missile force reported by The Associated Press beginning last May.
Last week, Hagel made the first visit to a nuclear missile launch control center by a Pentagon chief since 1982. He praised the force’s professionalism, even though minutes before, officials had informed him that a few missile launch officers at another base were suspected of illegal drug use.
Air Force Secretary Deborah Lee James, just four weeks into her tenure as the service’s top civilian official, told reporters Wednesday that the Air Force’s chief investigative arm is investigating 11 officers at six bases who are suspected of illegal drug possession.
She said that probe led to a separate investigation of dozens of nuclear missile launch officers for cheating on routine tests of their knowledge of the tightly controlled procedures required to launch missiles under their control.
At least 34 launch officers, all at Malmstrom Air Force Base, Mont., have had their security clearances suspended and are not allowed to perform launch duties pending the outcome of the investigation.
They stand accused of cheating, or tolerating cheating by others, on a routine test of their knowledge of how to execute “emergency war orders.” Those are the highly classified procedures the officers would use, upon orders from the president, to launch their nuclear-tipped missiles.
The alleged cheaters are said to have transmitted test answers by text message to colleagues. That is a violation not only of their own personal integrity but also of security classification rules.
“We note all the technologies being considered have pros and cons and that no “perfect” solution exists. It may be that a multi-track approach offers best value for money.”
[…]
“The Nuclear Decommissioning Authority’s advice on plutonium management and on the potential options for its implementation are essential to the overall delivery of a final solution for plutonium disposition,” she said. “As we noted in our 2011 consultation response, there will be many steps to go through before we reach the point of taking a final decision on the technology for plutonium disposition. This will include a competitive tendering and procurement process to help secure best value to the taxpayer.
GE Hitachi Nuclear Energy PRISM technology back in the running as a means of generating energy from UK plutonium stockpile
By James Murray
21 Jan 2014
The UK’s ambitious plans for a new generation of nuclear reactors that could be fuelled using the country’s stockpile of waste radioactive material took an important step forward yesterday, as the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA) announced that it had identified three “credible” approaches for reusing separated plutonium.
The NDA last year undertook a review of the government’s “preferred option” of reusing plutonium as MOX fuel, and also looked at the credibility of alternative proposals put forward by GE-Hitachi and Candu.
The agency yesterday published a position paper on its review, indicating that a possible a U-turn could be on the cards as each of the three proposals represents a “credible reuse option” for the UK’s plutonium stockpile.
“This work has resulted in NDA concluding that reuse remains the preferred option and, based on the information provided and against our definitions, there are three credible reuse options: – reuse as MOX in light water reactors, reuse in CANDU EC6 reactors and reuse in PRISM fast reactors,” the NDA stated. “We note all the technologies being considered have pros and cons and that no “perfect” solution exists. It may be that a multi-track approach offers best value for money.”
Involved in the USS Ronald Reagan’s rescue efforts following the 2011 Fukushima nuclear plant meltdown, Steve Simmons began experiencing devastating symptoms several months after returning home.
“You’re starting to run fevers, your lymph nodes start swelling, you’re having night sweats, you’re getting spastic and you’re losing sensation in your legs, and you can’t feel your legs when you’re getting 2nd degree burns on them, and how do you explain those things?” Simmons told WUSA 9 News
A lot of articles online have linked the Fukushima spills to events such as starfish die-offs near California. What is your response to them?
There’s been a lot of undue alarm. In some terms it’s like shouting fire in a crowded theatre. It should be stopped. It’s not accurate. Radioactivity can cause harm and genetic damage, but not at the levels we’re expecting. A lot of those reports of effects on the US west coast were even before this radioactivity showed up. How does that work? It hasn’t even shown up on our coast.
I certainly wouldn’t change my behaviour, stop swimming in the Pacific or stop eating seafood.
[…]
The estimate was that someone who eats five times the amount of fish that an average American does, and eat only contaminated tuna for a year, would end up with a dose that would cause an extra two cancers in ten million people. The risk was not zero, but it was very small
Scientist launches crowd-funded survey of US west coast but says health concerns are overblown.
Ken Buesseler on a boat off the Fukushima Daiichi plant, after the 2011 tsunami caused meltdowns at three of its reactors.
Ken Buesseler was one of the first scientists to analyse the sea water off the coast of Fukushima, Japan, after the nuclear meltdowns that followed a devastating tsunami there in March 2011.
This week, the marine chemist, based at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in Massachusetts, launched How Radioactive Is Our Ocean?, a crowd-funding website that urges people to support the collection and analysis of seawater samples along the west coast of the United States.
Although larger, wind-blown debris from the Japanese tsunami began to be spotted on North American shores shortly after the disaster, and migratory fish such as bluefin tuna have already shown up off California carrying radioactive isotopes from the spill, oceanic currents move much slower. The Fukushima spill therefore is unlikely to have anything to do with reports such as the mysterious die-off of sea stars in California. Now, however, contaminated sea water is finally due to arrive on the eastern side of the Pacific, and so it is time to start keeping watch.
How did you end up working on Fukushima fallout? Isn’t Woods Hole about as far as it’s possible to get from Japan?
I did my PhD looking at fallout from the 1960s nuclear-weapons testing. 1986 was the year I defended [my thesis], which of course was the year of the Chernobyl disaster. So I started out looking at artificial radionuclides in the ocean.
When Fukushima happened, the first things we saw were some of the numbers from the Tokyo Electric Power Company [which ran the reactors at the plant], and they had measured levels of the caesium isotopes 137 and 134 on scales of tens of millions of becquerels per cubic metre. The number pre-disaster was one or two of those units. We thought this was unprecedented for the ocean and we really need to find out how that’s being dispersed.
In terms of total release of radioactive materials — as opposed to local concentrations — how do the Fukushima leaks compare to those from previous radioactive releases, such as from weapons testing in the 1960s?
The total global fallout number for caesium from the 1960s tests was around 950 petabecquerels (a unit of quantity, rather than concentration). Chernobyl was around 100. Fukushima? We’re still debating that number. Fifteen to 30 is a rough estimate.
How concerned should people in the US be about this radioactive contamination reaching their seas?
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