Despite Prime Minister Abe, nuclear power IS an issue in Tokyo election
To say that nuclear power should not be an issue in the Tokyo gubernatorial election is ludicrous as the question of what to do about nuclear power affects everyone in this small, quake-prone country — including the tens of millions of people living and working in the nation’s capital.
Can’t bury the nuclear issue, Japan Times Editorial, 23 Jan 14 Campaigning kicked off on Thursday for the Feb. 9 Tokyo gubernatorial election, which will not only decide the leader of the nation’s capital but also influence the debate on whether Japan should continue to rely on nuclear power — a major issue that will help determine the shape of Japan’s future.
The nuclear issue has assumed great importance because former Prime Minister Morihiro Hosokawa has entered the race with the backing of former Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi and is running on a “zero nuclear” platform — a stance shared by Koizumi. Both Hosokawa and fellow candidate Kenji Utsunomiya, a former head of the Japan Federation of Bar Associations, are calling for the immediate halt of nuclear power generation. They oppose the Abe administration’s plan to restart idled nuclear power plants if their safety is confirmed by the Nuclear Regulation Authority.
Some people, in particular Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, oppose the idea of treating nuclear power as a major issue in the Tokyo gubernatorial election. In an apparent effort to prevent the nuclear power issue from rousing wide interest among Tokyo voters, Abe said energy policy is an issue not just for Tokyoites but for all Japanese, adding that various issues that the Tokyo governor must deal with should be discussed in a balanced manner.
Yet Tokyo, which consumes about 10 percent of Japan’s total electricity, is the biggest power user among Japan’s 47 prefectures. Continue reading
GE Hitachi fined for concealing flaws in nuclear reactor design
U.S. fines GE Hitachi nuclear unit over flawed reactor design http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/01/23/usa-nuclear-ge-idUSL2N0KX2H820140123 WASHINGTON Thu Jan 23, 2014 (Reuters) – The U.S. Justice Department on Thursday said that General Electric Hitachi Nuclear Energy Americas LLC has agreed to pay $2.7 million to resolve allegations that it made false claims to U.S. regulators about a nuclear reactor component.
GE Hitachi, headquartered in Wilmington, North Carolina, is a subsidiary of the conglomerate General Electric Co and partially owned by Japan’s Hitachi Ltd.
The company allegedly made false statements to the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission and the Department of Energy between 2007 and 2012 about the advanced nuclear Economic Simplified Boiling-Water Reactor (ESBWR), known as the steam dryer.
The settlement made no determination of liability on the company’s behalf. The NRC requires that applicants for nuclear reactor design certification show that vibrations caused by the steam dryer will not result in damage to a nuclear plant.
The government alleged that GE Hitachi concealed known flaws in its analysis of the steam dryer, falsely represented that it had properly analyzed the dryer, and had verified the accuracy of its modeling using reliable data.
“Transparency and honesty are absolutely critical when dealing with issues relating to the design of a nuclear reactor,” said Stuart Delery, assistant attorney General for the Justice Department’s Civil Division.
The lawsuit is captioned United States ex rel. Dandy v. General Electric Hitachi Nuclear Energy Americas LLC, General Electric Company, 7:12-cv-009 (E.D.N.C.)
Authorities carefully do not record the harm that uranium mining does to communities
There are few studies to verify the impacts of radiation poisoning on communities because no one with power will fund them, and those impacted are unable to fight corrupt politicians and corporations on their own because they’re poor, isolated, sick, or dead. It apparently doesn’t matter anyway because our County Commissioners and other uranium advocates disregard facts and personal experience as “anecdotal evidence.”
Uranium mining decimates economies and communities Post Independent Citizen Telegram, Robyn Parker, 23 Jan 14 On Jan. 14, Mesa County Commissioners unanimously voted to permit a uranium mine near Gateway Canyons Resort and John Brown Road, a popular public lands access route. They argued that uranium mining will create a new tourism and recreation industry. Commissioner Justman explained how New Yorkers will appreciate an opportunity to brag to their friends about seeing a real uranium mine.
“How cool would that be?” he asked.
As a person who grew up in a community so contaminated by the uranium industry that the area was declared a Superfund site shortly before I graduated from high school, I can’t help but disagree with Mr. Justman and say it wouldn’t be cool at all. Virtually every point made at the permit hearing last week in favor of a new Mesa County uranium mine should have been used as argument to deny the permit, yet Commissioners perceived those weaknesses as assets. Continue reading
Offshore solar power plant: Japan leads the way
Is Japan’s Offshore Solar PowerPlant the Future of Renewable Energy?s found a new way to harness the power of harness the power the sun
By Vicky Gan SMITHSONIAN MAGAZINE
FEBRUARY 2014 cross Japan, 50 nuclear power plants sit idle, shut down in the aftermath of the 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster. Nobody is certain when government inspectors will certify that the plants are safe enough to be brought back online. Anti-nuclear activists point to this energy crisis as evidence that Japan needs to rely more on renewables. One think tank has calculated that a national solar power initiative could generate electricity equivalent to ten nuclear plants. But skeptics have asked where, in their crowded mountainous country, they could construct all those solar panels
One solution was unveiled this past November, when Japan flipped the switch on its largest solar power plant to date, built offshore on reclaimed land jutting into the cerulean waters of Kagoshima Bay. The Kyocera Corporation’s Kagoshima Nanatsujima Mega Solar Power Plant is as potent as it is picturesque, generating enough electricity to power roughly 22,000 homes.
Other densely populated countries, notably in Asia, are also beginning to look seaward.
In Singapore, the Norwegian energy consultancy firm DNV recently debuted a solar island concept called SUNdy, which links 4,200 solar panels into a stadium-size hexagonal array that floats on the ocean’s surface.
Nuclear collusion by corporations, governments, and media
Is Nuclear Experimentation Fascism? “…….Censorship and Suppression of Opposition Further fascism is evident through nuclear experimentation in the sense that it is a militaristic invention, put to use by engineering corporations that are linked with government entities, which also own news and information corporations. The GE/NBC corporation is the starkest, but not the only, example of this in the U.S.A. Being both the subject and reporter of news on the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster, the GE/NBC corporation has placed itself in a clear conflict of interest. As the subsidiary of the failed nuclear reactor’s parent company, can you trust NBC News not to “spin’ glossy tales or omit details relating to the situation at Fukushima? Particularly details that might implicate GE in the chain of failings that caused the meltdown?
But news corporations are not the only parties able to censor or suppress information; government institutions have also closed ranks following the Fukushima disaster. As a prime example, the United States EPA (the supposed Environmental Protection Agency) went as far as disabling public access to radiation monitors in the wake of the Fukushima meltdown. Do they really believe what we can’t see won’t hurt us? Or is the EPA, as part of the US government, trying to avoid adverse political fallout?http://www.opednews.com/articles/Is-Nuclear-Experimentation-by-Ethan-Indigo-Smith-Fukushima_Nuclear-Cover-up_Nuclear-Meltdown_Nuclear-Waste-140122-627.html
Furthermore, the Fukushima disaster has led to a practical elimination of free speech and free reporting of information from within Japan. Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s Designated Secrets Bill was arguably written for and because of the Fukushima disaster after authorities failed to manage the radioactive leaks and news spread around the globe. Since it could not contain the nuclear contamination, the Japanese government instead decided to contain information about it, creating laws that enable punishment of individuals for leaking or reporting information about their disastrous failure. Despite drawing criticism and protest at home and around the world, the Japanese parliament has since passed the law under which people convicted of leaking classified information will face 5 to 10 years in prison. http://www.opednews.com/articles/Is-Nuclear-Experimentation-by-Ethan-Indigo-Smith-Fukushima_Nuclear-Cover-up_Nuclear-Meltdown_Nuclear-Waste-140122-627.html
Tokyo governor election – a referendum on nuclear energy?
Former Japanese Premier Challenges Abe’s Nuclear Policy Tokyo Governor Race Threatens to Become Referendum on Atomic Energy, WSJ, By ALEXANDER MARTIN And TOKO SEKIGUCHI Jan. 22, 2014 TOKYO—Former Prime Minister Morihiro Hosokawa pledged on Wednesday to work toward keeping Japan’s nuclear reactors offline in his campaign platform for the coming Tokyo gubernatorial race, threatening to make the local election a referendum on Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s pro-nuclear energy policies.
“Restarting nuclear reactors while we still have no place to dispose nuclear waste is a criminal act toward future generations,” Mr. Hosokawa said during a news conference where he laid out his campaign promises for the Feb. 9 election……..
Mr. Hosokawa’s candidacy poses a headache for Mr. Abe’s administration, which has been preparing to reactivate the nation’s 50 commercial reactors once they are deemed to comply with new safety standards introduced after the March 2011 Fukushima crisis.
The Tokyo Metropolitan Government is the fourth-largest shareholder of Fukushima Daiichi plant operator Tokyo Electric Power 9501.TO +1.02% Company (TEPCO) with a 1.2% stake, giving it the right to make proposals at the general shareholders’ meetings. Using this leverage, Mr. Hosokawa said he would pressure TEPCO not to restart any reactors………Mr. Hosokawa, 76, opposes any restarts and calls for pulling the plug on nuclear power entirely. And he aims to tap the antinuclear electorate with the support of fellow former Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi. A political mentor to Mr. Abe who in recent months has become an avid antinuclear campaigner, Mr. Koizumi remains one of the nation’s most popular politicians after stepping down in 2006……
rival candidate Yoichi Masuzoe……supports a phasing out of nuclear power……..http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702303448204579335982659523094?mg=reno64-wsj&url=http%3A%2F%2Fo
Private company making a bonanza from nuclear waste storage
Radioactive Gold Rush: Nuclear Waste Storage Is A Booming Business http://www.gizmodo.com.au/2014/01/radioactive-gold-rush-nuclear-waste-storage-is-a-booming-business/ KELSEY CAMPBELL-DOLLAGHAN First, dig a hole. Then, reinforce it with clay, concrete, steel, and plastic. Fill it with nuclear waste and cover it in 12 more metres of concrete. Then profit. That’s how one company in Texas has struck radioactive gold, charging companies $US10,000 per cubic foot to store nuclear refuse.
Safely burying “low-level” nuclear material is now a $US30 billion industry in the U.S., driven in part by an increase in old, contaminated parts removed from the country’s rapidly ageing nuclear power plants and radiation-related medical waste. The New York Times‘ Matthew Wald calls one storage pit “America’s most valuable hole in the ground,” describing the process of digging, protecting, and filling This booming business is dominated by a single, two-year-old company in Texas —Waste Control Specialists — who even charge extra depending on radioactivity levels. Think of it as surge pricing for nuclear waste.
Here’s how WCS describes its facility in Andrews County, Texas, on its website:
Located within a 1,200-ft. thick nearly impermeable red-bed clay formation, the Waste Control Specialists (WCS) site ensures safe and permanent disposal of radioactive waste by combining this unique natural barrier with a custom designed and engineered, 7-ft. thick, steel-reinforced concrete liner system… Offering the most robust facilities of their kind in the world, WCS is a long-term solution for the nation’s commercial and public radioactive waste generators.
Is it really safe for nuclear waste disposal to be controlled by private industry? Critics are divided. Some claim that these companies are using techniques lightyears beyond the government’s dated waste storage sites. Others argue that letting private interests dictate the location and security of potentially deadly materials is incredibly troubling. Right now, it’s the best option we have. [The New York Times]
New low cost battery promises to provide solar energy storage
Startup Thinks Its Battery Will Solve Renewable Energy’s Big Flaw, Technology Review, By Kevin Bullis on January 23, 2014 Aquion has started production of a low-cost sodium-ion battery aimed at making renewable energy viable. A former Sony TV factory near Pittsburgh is coming to life again after lying idle for four years. Whirring robotic arms have started to assemble a new kind of battery that could make the grid more efficient and let villages run on solar power around the clock.
Aquion, the startup that developed the battery, has finished installing its first commercial-scale production line at the factory, and is sending out batteries for customers to evaluate. It recently raised $55 million of venture capital funding from investors including Bill Gates. The money will help it ramp up to full-speed production by this spring…….
Most importantly, by providing an affordable way to store solar power for use at night or during cloudy weather, the technology could allow isolated populations to get electricity from renewable energy, rather than from polluting diesel generators. Combining solar power and inexpensive batteries would also be cheaper than running diesel generators in places where delivering fuel is expensive (see “How Solar-Based Microgrids Could Bring Power to Millions”).
The batteries could allow the grid to accommodate greater amounts of intermittent renewable energy. As Aquion scales up production and brings down costs, the batteries could also be used instead of a type of natural gas power plant—called a peaker plant—often used to balance supply and demand on the grid. When recharged using renewables, the batteries don’t need fuel, so they’re cleaner than the natural gas power plants…….
The battery is made of inexpensive materials including manganese oxide and water. In concept, it operates much like a lithium-ion battery, in which lithium ions shuttle between electrodes to create electrical current. But the new battery uses sodium ions instead of lithium ones, which makes it possible to use a salt water electrolyte instead of the more expensive—and flammable—electrolytes used in lithium-ion batteries.http://www.technologyreview.com/news/523391/startup-thinks-its-battery-will-solve-renewable-energys-big-flaw/
Russia aims to monopolise Europe’s nuclear industry?
Russia muscles into European nuclear industry, Global Post 23 Jan 14 A new deal with Hungary is set to boost Moscow’s influence as its grip on oil and gas wanes.BERLIN, Germany — A leading Hungarian official has said an agreement last week to give Russia a foothold in his country’s nuclear future is Budapest’s best deal in 40 years.
Hungary granted Russia’s state energy company Rosatom a $14-billion contractto double the capacity of the country’s sole nuclear power plant, a 2000-megawatt reactor in the Danube River city of Paks.
The funds would be offered as a 30-year loan package to be extended at below-market rates.
“These new reactors will surely enhance Hungary’s energy independence and security,” Russian President VladimirPutin told reporters.
But one person’s bargain is another’s Faustian deal — in this case at least. Critics say the sweetheart deal may as well have been written by Mephistopheles, the demon of German folklore.
They say the project was never tendered for competitive bids despite an earlier expression of interest from the French energy company Areva. Skeptics worry it represents an effort by Putin to add nuclear energy to the oil and gas monopoly he’s used so effectively to cement Russia’s influence in Central and Eastern Europe.
“What are Hungarians to make of the fact that Prime Minister Viktor Orban has committed them to invest [billions] building two new nuclear reactors without consulting his own cabinet let alone parliament, industry experts, or the Hungarian people?” asked a pointed editorial in the English-language Budapest Beacon…..
The European Commission’s decision about the agreement’s compliance could have far-reaching implications.
In 2012, allegations of corruption surrounded the Russian bid to expand the Czech Republic’s Temelin nuclear reactor due to the involvement of a Czech firm under investigation for insider trading and breach of trust in connection with previous deals. Now it looks doubtful that project will go forward at all, according to Czech media.
Similarly, a Russian project to build a 2000-MW nuclear plant in Belene, Bulgaria, was excoriated as “a corrupt and completely illegitimate business project, aimed at producing abundant and expensive electricity in a country with excess capacity in a region of declining electricity demand,” in the words of Ognyan Minchev, a research fellow with the German Marshall Fund of the United States’ Balkan Trust for Democracy. The Bulgarian parliament voted to scrap plans for the reactor in February last year following a protracted debate over its environmental impact and a new investigation into the projected costs……http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/regions/europe/140123/russia-nuclear-deal-hungary-power-influence
The harsh facts on U.S.S. Reagan’s sailors affected by Fukushima radiation
Is Nuclear Experimentation Fascism? OpEdNews 1/22/2014 By Ethan Indigo Smith (about the author) “…the crew of the U.S.S. Reagan. The U.S.S. Reagan was exposed to radiation after being redirected towards Japan to provide support immediately after the massive Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami off the coast of Japan.
According to an article in the New York Post, Senior Chief Michael Sebourn, a radiation-decontamination officer who tested the aircraft carrier for radiation found that “levels were incredibly dangerous and at one point, the radiation in the air measured 300 times higher than what was considered safe.” The article continues: “The former personal trainer has suffered a series of ailments, starting with severe nosebleeds and headaches and continuing with debilitating weakness” has lost 60 percent of the power in the right side of his body and his limbs have visibly shrunk.” As Senior Chief Michael Sebourn stated, “I’ve had four MRIs, and I’ve been to 20 doctors” No one can figure out what is wrong.” He has since retired from the Navy after 17 years of service.
And he is not alone. According to The Post, “crew members on the aircraft carrier and a half-dozen other support ships are battling cancers, thyroid disease, uterine bleeding and other ailments.” Of the 5,000 sailors on board, at least 70 have contracted some form of radiation sickness, and of those, “at least half” are suffering from some form of cancer,” said lawyer, Paul Garner, who is representing the sailors in a lawsuit against the operators of the Fukushima Daiichi energy plant. “We’re seeing leukemia, testicular cancer and unremitting gynecological bleeding requiring transfusions and other intervention,” said Garner.
In a Voice of Russia report, Mr. Garner elaborated: “it seems that there’s too many people at the same place at the same time without any family background or any reason to believe that they had these issues to now show up with these significant cancers and beyond. So we feel that time will tell in many instances”. especially, because they all had physicals and were all in top health.”
Navy sailor Lindsay Cooper, who was also present on the U.S.S. Reagan, stated that crew members suffered from excruciating diarrhea at the time. “People were s-“-tting themselves in the hallways,” Cooper recalled. “Two weeks after that, my lymph nodes in my neck were swollen. By July, my thyroid shut down.”
When asked about the U.S.S. Reagan’s ability to detect radiation early, sailor Cooper stated “we have a multimillion-dollar radiation-detection system, but” it takes time to be set up and activated”. She went on to describe that after being exposed, “we couldn’t go anywhere. Japan didn’t want us in port, Korea didn’t want us, Guam turned us away. We floated in the water for two and a half months” until Thailand took the stricken sailors in……..http://www.opednews.com/articles/Is-Nuclear-Experimentation-by-Ethan-Indigo-Smith-Fukushima_Nuclear-Cover-up_Nuclear-Meltdown_Nuclear-Waste-140122-627.html
uranium exploration companies’ bleak outlook, with low uranium prices
Low uranium prices take toll on African exploration, Ft.com Jan 21, 2014 Low uranium prices, especially in the post-Fukushima era, are taking a toll on African exploration.
Between 2005 and 2007, the uranium price increased steeply from $20 per pound ($44 per kg) to almost $140 per pound ($311 per kg) during what came to be described as a ‘nuclear renaissance’……
But the spot price decreased after 2007. By late 2013 it had dropped to $35 per pound ($78 per kg), a challenge for an industry characterised by long timelines and heavy investments. Countries keen on building new nuclear capacity seemed to stall, including the US and the UK. Then came the Fukushima crisis, which “raised questions in the public mind about the feasibility and desirability of nuclear. It came on top of already negative market developments,” according to Ian Anthony, a nuclear expert at the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute. Finally, the shale boom brought gas into the spotlight, and nuclear lost a little of its shine.
Low price trends also caused a delay to a feasibility study of Zambia’s Chirundu mine, and Areva was forced to postpone work on its Bakouma project in the Central African Republic for the same reason. The country’s serious conflict since has undermined the investment case further.
This has left companies in the lurch. In June 2013, Paladin boss John Borshoff warned that a minimum $70 per pound price level was necessary to justify investment and give risk reward to shareholders, adding that such a price appeared to be “a long way away”.
Big players are struggling too, with the likes of Areva left holding significant extraction investments which turned out to be commercial white elephants when there was no short term demand. Similar challenges have faced BHP Billiton and Canada’s Cameco in other regions…..http://blogs.ft.com/beyond-brics/2014/01/21/low-uranium-prices-take-toll-on-african-exploration/#axzz2rFiM1T6k
Decline in uranium market hits URENCO
Urenco hit by slowdown in uranium enrichment market By Sylvia Pfeifer Ft.com 22 Jan 14 Urenco, the uranium enrichment company being privatised by its government and utility owners, expects revenues for the past 12 months to be down “around 5 per cent” on record levels of €1.6bn in 2012.
It blamed a continued slowdown of the enrichment market but stressed that despite the expected drop for the year to end December 2013, there had been “a substantial rebalancing of revenue” in the second half of the year.
Pittsylvania residents not happy with uranium advertising
Residents Raise Questions About Legality Of Uranium Mining Billboard abc 13 Virginia: Jan 22, 2014 By Whitney Delbridge Pittsylvania Co., VA – A sign declaring Pittsylvania County “the future home of theworld’s safest uranium mine” has stood on Route 29 for months now, but local anti-uranium groups want to see it come down.
“Acceptable nuclear risk”- Is there such a thing?
Whatever we decide, the outcome may not be as relatively benign next time
What is ‘acceptable risk’ when planning a nuclear power plant, The Conversation, Peter Bernard Ladkin Professor of Computer Networks and Distributed Systems at University of Bielefeld 23 Jan 14, Modern safety engineering follows the aphorism, “there is no such thing as zero risk, only acceptable risk”. However, calculating chances and risk is a finicky process, especially when played out against factors of cost, time and complexity. Major accidents such as at Fukushima Dai-ichi – still unfolding as it approaches its third anniversary – demonstrate how essential it is to correctly assess risks and safeguards.
Risk is expectation of loss, and is dependent on the chance of a loss-event occurring combined with its magnitude. The chance can be tiny, but the loss huge, and the risk therefore considerable. Analyses of the possibility that the universe would collapse when operating the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) were undertaken, despite the infinitesimal chance.
Calculating risk is now de rigeur in big engineering projects, but it wasn’t always so. Built in the late 1940s, the Windscale piles, Britain’s first two nuclear reactors, used air blown over the core and up a chimney as their cooling. Exhaust filters were added to the chimneys only as an afterthought, insisted on by designer Sir John Cockcroft at some expense – the so called “Cockcroft’s Follies”. Continue reading
Seven nuclear disasters. Who’s next?
Is Nuclear Experimentation Fascism? OpEdNews Op Eds 1/22/2014By Ethan Indigo Smith (about the author) opednews.com
“……..HANFORD, USA, 1943 — 1987
As an early “flagship’ nuclear experiment, many of the safety procedures and waste disposal practices employed at the Hanford site were completely inadequate. Although most of the reactors were shut down between 1964 and 1971, government documents have since confirmed that operations at the Hanford site released significant amounts of radioactive materials into the air and the Columbia River, which still threatens the health of residents and ecosystems today. Hanford is currently the most contaminated nuclear site in the United States, representing two-thirds of the nation’s high-level radioactive waste by volume. .
BIKINI ATOLL, NORTHERN PACIFIC OCEAN, 1946
The United States military undertook nuclear weapons tests at Bikini Atoll in mid-1946. At the request of the US military, Bikini’s 146 native residents agreed to temporarily evacuate the island so the United States government could begin testing atomic bombs for “the good of mankind and to end all world wars.” After “confused and sorrowful deliberation”, the Bikinians agreed to the relocation request, announcing “we will go believing that everything is in the hands of God.”
Most residents were moved by the military to Rongerik Atoll, 125 miles away. Only one-sixth the size of Bikini Atoll, no one lived on Rongerik because it had an inadequate water and food supply, however the United States Navy left the natives there with only a few weeks of food and water. Predictably, this soon proved to be insufficient and the Bikinians were left starving on Rongerik. (Read more: http://www.bikiniatoll.com/history.html)
As a series of large thermonuclear tests continued at Bikini Atoll into the 1950″s, the island was eventually rendered unfit for subsistence farming and fishing, and because of radioactive contamination still remains uninhabitable today. So much for the “temporary” evacuation of the Bikinians from their native island to help the United States “end all world wars.”
WINDSCALE FIRE, UK, 1957
The worst nuclear accident in Great Britain’s history, the core of the nuclear reactor at Windscale, Cumberland (now Sellafield, Cumbria) caught fire, releasing substantial amounts of radioactive contamination into the surrounding area. Caused by operators pushing the first-generation design of the Windscale facility beyond its intended limits, the fire burned for three days releasing radioactive material into the atmosphere that spread across the UK and Europe.
SANTA SUSANA, USA, 1959
A reactor at the Atomics International field laboratory in the Santa Susana Mountains, California, experienced a power surge and subsequently spewed radioactive gases into the atmosphere. According to a 2009 report from the Los Angeles Times, residents blame the facility for their health issues and say the site remains contaminated.
THREE MILE ISLAND, USA, 1979
The worst accident in U.S. commercial history, the Three Mile Island Unit 2 (TMI-2) reactor near Middletown (PA) partially melted down on March 28, 1979. A combination of equipment malfunctions, design-related problems and worker errors led to TMI-2″s partial meltdown and off-site releases of radioactivity. 14 years later, the clean up effort officially ended in December
CHERNOBYL, UKRAINE, 1986
Widely considered to have been the worst nuclear power plant accident in history, Chernobyl’s reactor four suffered a catastrophic power increase leading to explosions in its core. The explosion and resulting fire released large quantities of radioactive particles into the atmosphere, which spread over much of the western USSR (the then-Soviet Republic) and Europe.
ROCKY FLATS PLANT, USA 1987
Following insider reports of unsafe conditions, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) found numerous violations of federal anti-pollution laws, including the contamination of water and soil. A grand jury report released following this incident criticized the Department of Energy and Rocky Flats contractors for “engaging in a continuing campaign of distraction, deception and dishonesty”, and noted that Rocky Flats had discharged pollutants, hazardous materials and radioactive matter into nearby creeks and water supplies for many years. But even the DOE itself acknowledged that Rocky Flats’ ground water was (at the time) the single greatest environmental hazard at any of its nuclear facilities.
The contamination levels at Rocky Flats itself, as measured by the United States government remain sealed records and have not been reported to the public. Clean-up was not declared complete until October 13, 2005 — 18 years later.
FUKUSHIMA DAIICHI, JAPAN 2011
The troubled Fukishima Daiichi nuclear plant in Japan has experienced a number of “incidents’ since its construction in 1971, culminating in total reactor failure when the plant was hit by a tsunami triggered by the Tōhoku earthquake. At the time of the disaster, the plant began releasing substantial amounts of radioactive materials making it the largest nuclear incident since the 1986 Chernobyl disaster and the second in history (with Chernobyl) to measure at Level 7 on the International Nuclear Event Scale. More than two years after the incident it was revealed that the plant is still leaking radioactive water into the Pacific Ocean, and despite the technical assistance of GE (the corporation that designed the failing reactor) the situation appears to keep deteriorating as time goes on.
WHO IS NEXT?
1 This Month
26 April – Chernobyl: Inside the Meltdown airs on National Geographic on Sunday 26th April from 4pm
4 May -West Suburban Peace Coalition to discuss Iran war at May Educational Forum
Monday, May 4, 7:00 – 8:00 PM Central Standard Time
Title: : How Trump’s Narrative Tries to Shape the Reality of the War on Iran.
Contact Walt Zlotow, zlotow@hotmail.com 630 442 3045 for further information
14 May – online event From Bombs to Data Centres: the Face of Nuclear Colonialism
Pine Ridge Uranium is the real threat, not Tehran- Tell Burgum: Stop the Extraction.
Chernobyl: The Lost Tapes – A good documentary on Chernobyl on SBS available On Demand for the next 3 weeks– https://www.sbs.com.au/ondemand/tv-program/chernobyl-the-lost-tapes/2352741955560
To see nuclear-related stories in greater depth and intensity – go to https://nuclearinformation.wordpress.com
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