2014 July 07 « nuclear-news

Does Tepco own a radioactive marshland in Oze national park it can not sell?

Op Ed by Arclight2011

Published on 7 July 2014

Posted to nuclear-news.net

At the early stages of the Fukushima nuclear disaster I wondered if the Oze National park had been contaminated from nuclear fallout. Chris busby had tested car air filters from Tokyo and found high levels of radioactive particles and he also tested a filter from an apartment in Tokyo and found high levels of radioactive lead Pb.

oze national park

A view from Gunma Prefecture overlooking a lake in Oze National Park with Fukushima prefecture on the other side

A Japanese scientist was refused to check for radionuclides in the environment and had to leave his university position and then tested for contamination and found high levels of radionuclides in the forest in the mountains.
The map below shows a radionuclide dispertion different from the IAEA/UNSCEAR version in that it shows a wide dispertion that finds its way into the mountains nearly as far as Tokyo.

Image source ; http://backyardworld.wordpress.com/maps/

A recent finding posted by Iori at Fukushima Diary asks why is the level of contamination in Tokyo drinking water as high as Fukushima and even higher than Myiagi prefecture (that is nearer than Tokyo)? A reason might be that the reservoirs that supply Tokyo are contaminated from the higher levels of contaminates washed down from the mountains and or through the rivers from the marshes at Oze National Park, these past 3 years.

If we look at the waters that feed the marshland in Oze National Park that is south of the Fukushima Daichi nuclear site, we might wonder if the waters that feed Oze National Park might also be suffering from contamination.
There are no known studies of this area that have been made public.However an article published in Japan in July 2011 states that in a Spa near to the mountain range that an atmospheric reading showed that the contamination was as much as 50 percent of the contamination found in Fukushima city (0.45 mcSv/h at the spa).
TEPCO own some 70 percent of this unique wildlife area and were asked to sell it to compensate the people of Fukushima but the Yukio Edano, a government minister, was reported to ask TEPCO to not sell it . This is odd as the area had been losing visitors for many years before the disaster and therefore TEPCO were not showing themselves to be good stewarts of the land anyway. In fact, an OECD report from 1999 said that conflicts between the private sector (TEPCO and the Oze Forest Management Co. owned by Tepco and runs 5 lodges in Oze, four of which are in the Special Protection Zone against other park organisers wishes) and the environment agency and conservation NGO`s caused difficulties that would be easier to deal with if the environment agency had overall say in the running of Oze National park.

The fact that TEPCO only provide 200 million Yen a year to the overall 1.4 billion Yen a year running costs (600 million Yen of which comes from the government and 400 Million Yen from NGO`s). A sluice gate that provided water from the park helps to feed the Tone River which is used for irrigation and which dams have been constructed on its headwaters to produce hydroelectricity and to form reservoirs to supply water to the Keihin Industrial Zone. This river meets the pacific just north of Tokyo near the heavily contaminated area of Chiba.

The questions really are “why has TEPCO not sold its shares in the National Park? Is it because the area is contaminated and this might be found out by the new owners? Why is the government saying Tepco should not sell it if the OECD report says that it would be more simple not to have the ownership shared with a private company?

Also the aquifer that feeds the lower marshland is connected to the same aquifer that the nuclear disaster site is situated on. So TEPCO would want control of this large area to cover up any cross contamination from the nuclear site?
The contaminated ground water at Daichi is above another layer of groundwater that is deeper. The water at the lower level was found to have less pressure than the water above that is contaminated. So that means that the lower layer of ground water has been contaminated over the last 3 years and that contaminated water may be making its way slowly towards the Oze national park marshlands that TEPCO owns.
The idea of the ice wall is to possibly lower the pressure of the upper layer under the nuclear reactors and slow down the process. Although it is reported that TEPCO have started the ice wall it seems that this means that they are drilling holes for sensors and the freezing process is not yet begun. I can find no report that the freezing of the water has started. So this means that the heavily contaminated high pressure water is still mixing with the lower pressure deeper layer and likely traveling outwards from there.

A Japanese government report from 1993 shows that this whole area was effected by industry using this ground water to supply its factories and nuclear plants. This caused a vast subsidence all along the coast and on the Fukushima plain.needless to say, TEPCO need to be very careful how they manage these layers of ground water because it covers a vast area. And this was likely the reason for the need for a sluice gate to replace the ground water restrictions brought in after the ground subsidence issues reported above.

Below I leave you with some relevant quotes and links;
Continue reading →

July 7, 2014 Posted by arclight2011part2 | Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Economics, Time, and Terrorism make a thorium nuclear industry unlikely to happen

Writing in Oil Price, Andrew Topf 18 June 2014 discusses the very real impediments to starting a thorium nuclear reactor industry

“One large hole that can be punched in the argument for thorium involves the economics of thorium reactors. Experts say compared to uranium, the thorium fuel cycle is more costly and would require extensive taxpayer subsidies.

Another issue is time. With a viable thorium reactor at least a decade away if not more, the cost of renewable alternatives like solar and wind may come down to a point where thorium reactors won’t be economical. Critics also point out that the nuclear industry has invested too much in uranium reactors – along with government buy-in and a set of regulations around them – to be supplanted by thorium.

As for the “green nuclear” argument, thorium’s detractors say that isn’t necessarily the case. While thorium reactors produce less waste, they also produce other radioactive by-products that will need safe disposal, including U-232, which has a half-life of 160,000 years.

“It will create a whole new volume of radioactive waste from previously radio-inert thorium, on top of the waste from uranium reactors. Looked at in these terms, it’s a way of multiplying the volume of radioactive waste humanity can create several times over,” said Oliver Tickell, author of Kyoto2, speaking to The Guardian.”

July 7, 2014 Posted by Christina Macpherson | 2 WORLD, technology, Uranium | Leave a comment

The enormous and intractable problem of Fukushima’s radioactive soil

Fukushima’s radioactive soil sparks fights, exposes the enormity and hopelessness of clean-up taskStraight, by MARTIN DUNPHY on JUL 4, 2014 “…….Soil would fill how many B.C. Places?In the months after the 2011 earthquake-and-tsunami catastrophe, environment ministry experts estimated that the amount of radioactive topsoil from parts of four surrounding prefectures that would have to be “decontaminated” and stored could be as high as 29 million cubic metres.

That would be about enough dirt to fill the 59,000-capacity B.C. Place Stadium 23 times.

However, Yuichi Moriguchi, a University of Tokyo environmental-engineering professor, pegged the amount at closer to 100 million cubic metres, enough to fill 80 B.C. Places.

Minister Ishihara had told reporters in Tokyo on June 16 that the dragged-out and often acrimonious soil-storage negotiations between Abe’s Liberal Democratic Party–led administration and local and state governments in Fukushima would be solved once the issue of “monetary value” was settled.

Fukushima residents, evacuees, the governor, and the mayors of Futaba and Okuma—the two towns adjacent to Daiichi that have been tentatively earmarked for storage facilities—were outraged by the comment.

They called it insensitive and said it failed to take into account their dislocation, fears, and sense of helplessness. They said it made them seem to be concerned only with compensation.

Minister underestimated reaction

The environment minister quickly backtracked, saying he was misconstrued, but he refused to retract his statement. After opposition pressure, however, he apologized during a June 19 parliamentary session and retracted his remark………

Many of the sites are already at or near capacity.

Costs could be wildly inaccurate

In December 2013, Tokyo announced that it would spend almost $1 billion to store 132,738 tonnes of radioactive soil already removed from near the crippled power plant. No towns came forward to offer to sell the approximately three to five square kilometres of land estimated to be needed to build the supposedly “interim” facility to house the waste, currently stored temporarily in different locations around Japan.

(That plan covers less than 150,000 tons of soil. Greenpeace International has claimed that as of February 2013, more than fourmillion tons of radioactive waste had been produced.)

The $1-billion cost of this plan might be severely underestimated, however. A disposal centre in Rokkasho, Aomori Prefecture, for low-level radioactive waste from the country’s nuclear plants (including metal parts and work clothing) cost $2 billion to build.

And it holds only 200,000 cubic metres of material.

The true cost for the planned “interim” facility could be in the tens of billions of dollars—or much higher.

Waste needs to be stored for 30 years

Prefecture officials and residents expressed skepticism about the unclear future location of “permanent” storage sites, noting that the material would have to be stored away for a minimum of 30 years and voicing fears that their towns would become the preferred perpetual spots…….

There are many areas outside this district that are contaminated as well, to varying degrees, including isolated “hot spots”. Some of these were found in Tokyo, more than 200 kilometres away from Daiichi. On the other hand, that original clean-up area consists of up to 70 percent woodlands, hills, and mountains, much of which (if not most) will probably never be touched by decontamination efforts.

Some areas may be deserted forever

And if more than five centimetres of topsoil needs to be scraped off to remove radioactive cesium, after years of rain and groundwater movement, the volume of material needing to be stored will rise accordingly. Prof. Tomoko M. Nakanishi, from the University of Tokyo’s graduate school of agriculture, conducted soil research in Fukushima post-disaster and had this to say about how readily radioactive cesium was absorbed by the soil: “It was like pollen with superglue.”

Friends of the Earth, an international network of environmental groups, reported in 2012 that a test soil-decontamination program for only three houses in Fukushima generated 35 tons of soil waste.

In the end, it will probably be areas around parks, residences, schools, hospitals, and other public buildings that will see the most attention from decontamination efforts.

Some parts of the surrounding prefectures may never see a return to levels of human activity to compare with pre-Fukushima. And some areas may remain deserted forever.

Oh, yeah, then there’s the ocean

This is without even mentioning the incalculable amount of radioactive groundwater and cooling water that has flowed into the Pacific Ocean nonstop since the first day of the disaster almost three-and-a-half years ago. Woods Hole Oceanographic Society scientists labelled this “the largest accidental release of radiation to the ocean in history”.

According to Greenpeace International, one month after the meltdowns, cesium-137 levels in the sea near Daiichi were 50 million times higher than pre-disaster measurements. (Cesium-137 has a half-life of 30 years; cesium-134’s is a bit more than two years.)

And Asahi—using data provided by Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO), the Daiichi plant operator—says that 462TBq (a terabecquerel equals one trillion Becquerels) of radioactive strontium have been dumped into the Pacific. Strontium is potentially far more dangerous to human life than either cesium-134 or cesium-137.

There have been conflicting reports about the amounts of even deadlier plutonium that might have been released into the soil, air, or water……http://www.straight.com/news/680196/fukushimas-radioactive-soil-sparks-fights-exposes-enormity-and-hopelessness-clean-task

July 7, 2014 Posted by Christina Macpherson | environment, Fukushima 2014, Japan | Leave a comment

Ukraine’s nuclear reactors now a perilous risk, with the threat of civil war

The Chilling Threat Of Nuclear Civil War In Ukraine http://www.marketoracle.co.uk/Article46340.html Jul 07, 2014 By: Andrew_McKillop Playing With Fire The WNA-World Nuclear Association which tirelessly promotes nuclear power presents Ukraine as a poster child of civil nuclear power. It says that after construction of Ukraine’s first-ever civil nuclear power complex – at Chernobyl in 1970 – Ukraine’s present 15 NPPs (nuclear reactors) grouped into 4 major complexes operated by State monopoly NNEGC Energoatom had a combined capacity of about 13 900 MW and were all VVER-type reactors (mostly VVER-320s) of Soviet design. Using 2009 data, they produced about 48% of Ukraine’s total electricity output of 177 billion kWh of which 4 billion kWh was exported.

Nearly all major Ukrainian NPP complexes are in western Ukraine – with the exception of Zaporijia or Zaporhyzhya, located about 125 kms north of Crimea. Flight time from Crimea in a Mikoyan-Gourevitch 29 (Mig-29 or Su-29) carrying up to 5000 kilograms weight of bombs and missiles can be estimated at about 3 minutes and 24 seconds. Russia’s Crimean forces also have the later navalised enhanced Mig-29K codenamed Fulcrum-D by Nato, with a combat radius of about 1800 kilometres.

The net total capacity of the six-reactor Zaporija complex is given by the WNA as the highest in Europe, at 5718 MW, with the Graveslines complex near Dunkerque in France, operated by France’s EDF as second-largest in Europe at 5400 MW. The radiological inventory of either of these complexes is hundreds of times the radiological output of the single Hiroshima atom bomb of 1945.

Apart from Zaporija-6, all other VVER-320 reactors at the complex were built before 1989 with a 30-year design lifetime. Rather than decommissioning these reactors, and as in other European countries, Ukraine has sought to extend their operating lifetimes. As of March 2013, the European Bank for Reconstruction & Development (EBRD) announced a 300 million euro loan for reactor safety upgrading to the end of 2017, matching another 300 million euro loan from Euratom.

In total, EU atomic agencies have provided or intend to provide 1.4 billion euros to extend Ukrainian reactor lifetimes by investing in “up to 87 safety measures addressing design and safety issues”, including national emergency preparedness for NPP accident management.

To be sure, none of this includes deliberate attack by military aircraft on particularly soft NPP targets!

Unsafe (Even In) Peacetime
Soviet design VVERs have a deserved reputation for danger. Accession to the European Union of Bulgaria, Slovakia and Lithuania was delayed solely by the question of shutting down their 8 Soviet-design PWRs (pressurized water reactors).

This was a non-negotiable condition for their entry to the EU.

However and overall in eastern Europe, 11 of the earlier RBMK series of PWRs, and 4 VVER 230s, which preceded the slightly safer 320s still operate. The RBMK series, exactly like early Westinghouse (American) PWRs was directly scaled up from graphite-moderated, water-cooled submarine power reactors. It could be called a “naked reactor” due to its critically low amounts of shielding and cladding. Apart from submarine propulsion, its other main design goal was maximized plutonium production – for bomb material – during operation. Operator safety was a minor concern!

After the Chernobyl accident in April 1986, EU governments were quick to point the finger at RBMK and first-generation VVER 230 reactors in Eastern Europe, mainly to tout the claimed high levels of safety built into Western designs. In the emotive discussions after Chernobyl, Western safety standards were taken as unquestioned yardsticks. The politically-motivated communication on this subject enabled Western governments to avoid shutting down any Western PWRs and no Western construction project was aborted by political decision, due to constant and heavy manipulation of public opinion.

In the run-up to Germany’s reunification, the government in 1989 examined the feasibility of upgrading the six VVER reactors then under construction in East Germany, one of which had just started up. For purely financial reasons the four operating V-230s at Greifswald and an earlier VVER at Rheinsberg were closed in 1990. Although the units under construction could be brought up to Western safety standards, no investor could be found to take on the re-licensing risk. Especially in Germany, the post-Chernobyl reactor safety scare led Siemens to develop the claimed “uber safe PWR’ now called the EPR. Since Siemens complete abandonment of nuclear engineering in 2011, after Fukushima, only France’s Areva continues with this uber-expensive reactor design. Following 9/11, firstly Siemens and then Areva claim that EPRs are able to resist the crash of 1 wide-bodied civil airplane.
No mention is made of potential military attack by fully-armed Mig-29s. Either singly or in groups!

Ukraine’s Nuclear Civil War
Energoatom provides a map of major reactor complexes in Ukraine, mostly located in western Ukraine
http://www.energoatom.kiev.ua/en/map_aes/.

We can note that towns focused for military repression of pro-Russian separatists by the Kiev government – Mariupol, Slovyansk, Luhansk and Donetsk – are like Crimea also about 120 to 150 kilometres from the Zaporija reactor complex. Well before the Flash Mob uprising in Kiev, former Ukrainian minister of Energy and Coal, Eduard Stawicki on January 27 stated that UN IAEA experts were going to arrive in the country with an unscheduled inspection “conditioned with the fact of threats of seizure and blocking Ukrainian thermal, nuclear and hydro power stations. We have permanent inspection regime, but now the situation is very difficult with such tension in the society”.

Since late January there have been several under-reported and nuclear-related actions in Ukraine as tension deepens, such as the brief occupation of the Zaporija complex by 40 Neo-nazi Right Sector actvists from Kiev in May in an action “designed to deter pro-Russian federalists and separatists”. From April 2014, the Kiev government has on several occasions made calls for “Western governments” to provide international monitors and “non-aligned peacekeeping forces” to protect the country’s NPPs, repeatedly stating that major attacks on NPP complexes could release more radiation than Chernobyl and Fukushima combined.

To be sure no action has resulted and all is in place for Ukraine’s civil war to “go nuclear”. The nuclear threat is with no possible doubt yet another reason why Western powers are making sur not to engage Russia in a hot war for the control of Ukraine – but the internal and domestic dynamic of civil war and Kiev’s attempt to suppress pro-Russian activists open the door to a nuclear endgame at any time.

By Andrew McKillop Contact: xtran9@gmail.com

Former chief policy analyst, Division A Policy, DG XVII Energy, European Commission. Andrew McKillop Biographic Highlights

Co-author ‘The Doomsday Machine’, Palgrave Macmillan USA, 2012

July 7, 2014 Posted by Christina Macpherson | safety, Ukraine, weapons and war | Leave a comment

Mystery, danger and continuing radiation release from Waste Isolation Pilot Project (WIPP)

Radiation Releases Continue from Nuclear Waste Isolation Project Something Happened in February, Something is STILL Going On Dissident Voice, by William Boardman / July 6th, 2014

Environmental radiation releases spiked again in mid-June around the surface site of the only U.S. underground nuclear weapons waste storage facility near Carlsbad, New Mexico. The facility, the Waste Isolation Pilot Project (WIPP), has been shut down since February 14, when its isolation technology failed, releasing unsafe levels of Plutonium, Americium, and other radio-nuclides into the environment around the site.

Radiation levels in the underground storage area, 2,150 feet below the surface vary from near-normal to potentially lethal. At the time of the February accident, more than 20 WIPP workers suffered low level radioactive contamination, even though none of them were underground. WIPP assumes, but cannot confirm, that underground conditions have not changed since May 31, when the last entry team went into the mine, as reported by WIPP field manager Jose Franco on June 5:…….

What happened underground remains a mystery and a danger

More than five months after the February accident, officials still have no certain understanding of what went wrong. It is generally thought that one 55 gallon drum of waste (perhaps more than one) overheated and burst, spilling radioactive waste in a part of the storage area known as Panel 7, Room 7. This room, designated a “High Contamination Area,” measures 33 by 80 feet and presently has 24 rows of waste containers. The room holds 258 containers, tightly stacked and packed wall-to-wall, with no aisles to allow easy access. There is some clearance between the top of the stacks and the room’s ceiling.

The high contamination in Room 7 is a threat to human inspectors, limiting inspection of the room to date to mechanical means, primarily cameras on extension arms. As a result of these limitations, WIPP teams have inspected only ten of the 24 rows of waste containers in Room 7. Rows #1-14 have been out of reach of the available equipment.

WIPP has begun building a full scale replica of Room 7 above ground, to provide a realistic staging area in which to test methods of remote observationthat might reach the 14 uninspected rows………http://dissidentvoice.org/2014/07/radiation-releases-continue-from-nuclear-waste-isolation-project

July 7, 2014 Posted by Christina Macpherson | safety, USA | Leave a comment

Unreported very high risk of nuclear drums exploding at New Mexico waste facility

Internal Memo: 10 times more WIPP nuclear drums risk exploding than media reported — Expert: Data shows increasing amount of radioactivity going into environment — Official: Something “caused drum to later catch fire”; Gov’t should investigate if truck fire & electrical surge led to the radiation release http://enenews.com/10-times-as-many-potentially-explosive-nuclear-waste-drums-inside-wipp-dump-than-reported-expert-data-shows-increased-amounts-of-radioactivity-going-into-environment-official-drum-ca

AP, July 4, 2014 (emphasis added): Teams of scientists and engineers are still trying to determine exactly what caused a barrel [at New Mexico’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP)] from Los Alamos to burst […] Despite hundreds of experiments to date, investigators have been unable to create any reaction that would have caused the container to leak like it did […] The accident has […] indefinitely shuttered the mine […] According to the memo obtained by The Associated Press, [Los Alamos National Laboratory’s Principal Associate Lab Director Terry Wallace] told employees at a meeting Monday that the probe is focused on 16 barrels of highly acidic, nitrate-salt-bearing waste, including the drum that leaked at [WIPP]. Ten of the other barrels [11 total, including the one that ruptured] are also underground at the [WIPP] mine[…] Wallace is quoted in the memo as saying that a technical review “identified certain conditions that might potentially cause an exothermic reaction inside a drum. Among them are neutralized liquids, a low pH and the presence of metals.”

According to the AP’s article above, the investigation is now focusing on 11 barrels in the WIPP underground, yet only a few weeks ago the AP reported: “Officials say 6… potentially explosive containers of waste [were shipped] from Los Alamos National Laboratory… [Five] are being stored at a site in West Texas [and] one at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant [believed to be the source of the radiation leak].

Albuquerque Journal interview with Miles Smith, EnergySolutions’ vice president of Southwest operations, July 3, 2014: “We don’t believe the combination we put into the drums, we don’t think it has the ability to start burning on its own. It needs an outside source of ignition […] It doesn’t look like the kitty litter was the cause […] I don’t believe [absorbent materials] caused the explosion or the fire. [One of the two suspect products, an acid neutralizer, is not a problem]. Its safety sheet says it is not incompatible [The other product, a base neutralizer, is incompatible with the nitrates in WIPP waste but this neutralizer wasn’t used in the WIPP-bound barrels.] We think there are other things that caused the drum to later catch fire [there] are a lot of things out there [to investigate, including a truck fire and an electrical surge in the days before the leak.]

Albuquerque Journal, July 3, 2014: Don Hancock of the Southwest Research and Information Center, a WIPP watchdog, said Smith’s comments are consistent with those of state Environment Department […] but noted that no one from [Los Alamos National Lab] has weighed in. “I would say I’ve always been skeptical of the kitty litter issue,” he said. “Anybody with a cat knows that kitty litter itself is not combustible. It’s got to be kitty litter and something else.”

Don Hancock, Southwest Research and Information Center, June 25, 2014: […] the current data show that there are increased amounts of radioactivity going into the environment as contaminated filters are being changed. […] DOE presumes that the ventilation system and the exhaust shaft are too contaminated to use in a re-opened facility. On June 18, the House Appropriations Committee approved $20 million dollars […] as a down payment for new ventilation and a new exhaust shaft. […] it is very difficult or impossible to determine exactly what happened and how much contamination was released.

July 7, 2014 Posted by Christina Macpherson | safety, USA | Leave a comment

Japanese nuclear power plant to restart without a crucial off-site emergency center

Sendai nuclear plant set to restart without off-site emergency center July 07, 2014 THE ASAHI SHIMBUN by Toshio Kawada and Chikako Kawahara. The Sendai nuclear power plant in Kagoshima Prefecture could restart two reactors in autumn without a crucial emergency facility in place to deal with a possible nuclear accident and evacuations of host communities.

The Sendai plant, operated by Kyushu Electric Power Co., is expected to be the first to resume operations among all plants that have applied for safety screenings by the Nuclear Regulation Authority.

The Cabinet Office in September 2012 instructed all prefectures hosting nuclear power plants to ensure that off-site emergency centers be equipped with ventilation and other systems to prevent radiation contamination and be located between 5 and 30 kilometers from the nuclear plant.

It also mandated host prefectures to designate multiple backup facilities in case the functions of the off-site centers are crippled by a disaster, which is what occurred during the Fukushima nuclear disaster that started in March 2011.

The deadline for completion of the emergency off-site centers is September 2015.

Kagoshima prefectural government officials said construction of the off-site emergency center for the Sendai plant has lagged behind schedule due to delays in discussions with the central government…….

the Nuclear Regulation Authority is set to compile a draft of the safety screening results for the Sendai plant in Satsuma-Sendai as early as July 9. If the plant clears the NRA’s safety screening process, its two reactors will be restarted in autumn at the earliest.

Off-site emergency centers are supposed to function as the bases of operations for officials from the central government, local governments and utilities to combat a nuclear crisis and coordinate evacuations of residents…….

The government’s Investigation Committee on the Accident at the Fukushima Nuclear Power Stations has called for the prompt construction of off-site emergency centers.

But renovations and relocations of the emergency facilities are also behind schedule around Japan.

In addition to the Fukushima plant, off-site centers need to be relocated from the 5-km radius of four other nuclear power plants, including Shikoku Electric Power Co.’s Ikata nuclear plant in Ehime Prefecture.

An official of Ehime Prefecture said if an accident at the Ikata plant cripples the existing off-site center before September 2015, the front-line headquarters will be “relocated to a safe location like in the Fukushima crisis” in a stop-gap measure. http://ajw.asahi.com/article/0311disaster/fukushima/AJ201407070029

July 7, 2014 Posted by Christina Macpherson | Japan, safety | Leave a comment

Unanswered questions about OSMRs (Offshore Small Modular Reactors)

Andrew Topf writes in Oil Price 06 July 2014“there are some unanswered questions. One is what would happen to the surrounding marine life should an uncontained nuclear meltdown occur at sea. Who can forget the Google Earth map depicting a yellow-green plume of radiation stretching half-way across the Pacific? While the authenticity of the map was later questioned, scientists have discovered trace amounts of radiation on the North American West Coast, a full three years after the event.

Another is the threat of terrorism. The MIT researchers claim that offshore nukes would be harder to attack, but on the other hand, they would also be tough to defend. Todd Woody, writing for The Atlantic, observed that defending these “nuclear islands” from terrorist assault, by ships and submarines, “would require some James Bond-like machinations,” including early detection systems, barriers to vital access points, and the use of automatic weaponry”

July 7, 2014 Posted by Christina Macpherson | Reference, technology | Leave a comment

UK Religious Society speaks out against Trident Nuclear Missile plan

British Quakers reject report advising UK to retain ‘Cold War relic’ nuclear deterrent, Ecumenical News, Peter Kenny Monday, July 07 2014 Quakers in Britain strongly disagree with the conclusion of a report published July 1 that says the UK should retain its nuclear deterrent.

A group of former ministers, diplomats and generals in the parliamentary-approved Trident Commission say holding on to nuclear weapons could help deter threats to the UK’s security in future…….

“Quakers say that Trident is a relic of the Cold War and that the Trident Commission has failed to consider the legal obligations of the UK under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty to negotiate in good faith for the elimination of nuclear weapons,” said a Quakers’ statement after the report was released July 1.

“Quakers in Britain strongly disagree with the conclusion that Trident is necessary and urge the Commission to rethink its recommendations.”

While welcoming deeper debate around the missile issue, Helen Drewery, general secretary of Quaker Peace & Social Witness said: “The Trident Commission has failed to properly consider alternatives to Trident.

“These are weapons of mass destruction which can never be used and have proved to be a poor deterrent against acts of terror or against recent political events. Trident is a relic of the Cold War.”

The Quakers said they were disappointed the report did not address the legal and moral obligations of the UK under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty to negotiate in good faith for the elimination of nuclear weapons.

A final decision on whether to renew Trident nuclear missile system will be taken in 2016……

Quakers are known formally as the Religious Society of Friends. The group is known for its commitment to equality, justice, peace, simplicity and truth. http://www.ecumenicalnews.com/article/british-quakers-reject-report-advising-uk-to-retain-cold-war-relic-nuclear-deterrent-25462

July 7, 2014 Posted by Christina Macpherson | Religion and ethics, UK | Leave a comment

Spent nuclear fuel crisis at closed Kewaunee nuclear plant

Outcry prompts expedited plan to move fuel at Kewaunee nuclear plant Milwaukee Wisconsin Journal Sentinel by Thomas Content 6 July 14 The Kewaunee nuclear power plant stopped producing electricity more than a year ago, but it left behind highly hazardous waste that has no place to go.

Radioactive rods of used nuclear fuel are cooling in a large storage pool inside the reactor, located east of Green Bay on the shore of Lake Michigan. Plant owner Dominion Resources Inc. wants to speed up plans to empty the pool and put the rods in more secure long-term storage.

Under Dominion’s plan, all of the spent fuel will be moved from the pool by the end of 2016. The rods will be encased in 24 concrete casks, each standing 18 feet tall, that will be moved from the reactor building to a concrete pad outside, said Dominion spokesman Mark Kanz.

Once they’re relocated, it’s unclear how long the radioactive remnants of the nuclear industry will stay in the casks. That’s because the federal government has no long-term plan for disposing of the waste now stored at scores of reactors around the country. According to the Nuclear Energy Institute, Wisconsin has 1,430 tons, or about 2%, of the nation’s spent fuel.

Dominion hired NAC International of Atlanta to build and fill the casks, and move them from the Kewaunee reactor building. Terms of Dominion’s deal with NAC haven’t been disclosed, but the company told federal regulators that it will spend $103 million through 2016 to manage the spent fuel.

The company accelerated plans to remove and encase the spent fuel to address concerns raised by members of the local community, Kanz said.

Last year, residents and officials in the Kewaunee County Town of Carlton criticized Dominion after the company said it would take the full 60 years allowed by the federal government to decommission the power plant.

Taking that long to shutter the plant would cripple efforts to attract economic development to the area, they said………

A nuclear safety watchdog group, the Union of Concerned Scientists, says the risk to the public is decreased when the spent fuel is placed in concrete casks rather than keeping it in spent fuel pools………

The project is being paid for by the customers of three Wisconsin utilities — the former co-owners of the power plant. Those customers paid surcharges over the years into a decommissioning fund.

The value of that fund is less than Dominion says it needs to spend, at $649.3 million at the end of 2013. Dominion says the money is being invested so that it will grow over time and that there should be sufficient money available to pay for the decommissioning.

Dominion has also committed $60 million from its Virginia-based parent company toward the project, in the event funds in the decommissioning fund run short.

Wisconsin’s electric utility customers wouldn’t end up having to pay more, because Dominion bought the plant from Wisconsin utilities and took responsibility for decommissioning at that time.

When Wisconsin regulators approved the sale of the Kewaunee Power Station in 2005, they ordered Dominion to return any unspent decommissioning funds to state ratepayers……

As the stalemate in Washington over waste storage continues, the stockpiles of stored spent nuclear fuel enclosed in concrete casks are multiplying. How long the concrete casks will stay at the Kewaunee, Point Beach and La Crosse reactors in Wisconsin is very much up in the air.

Dominion’s plan calls for concrete casks to start being shipped to the control of the federal government within seven years — but that timeline may be merely wishful thinking, said David Lochbaum of the Union of Concerned Scientists’ nuclear safety project.

“I likely have a better chance of winning the lottery than spent fuel leaving Kewaunee site in 2021 — and I don’t buy lottery tickets,” he said. http://www.jsonline.com/business/outcry-prompts-expedited-plan-to-move-fuel-at-kewaunee-nuclear-plant-b99302369z1-265974071.html

July 7, 2014 Posted by Christina Macpherson | USA, wastes | Leave a comment

Nuclear Nightmares – a book for our times

Nuclear Nightmares: Securing the World Before It’s Too Late Without disarmament our nuclear nightmares may become realities — but there is still time to avoid disaster. Epoch Times, By Noah Habeeb | July 6, 2014 “….Joseph Cirincione, the president of Ploughshares Fund and a member of the State Department’s International Security Advisory Board. His depth of knowledge is showcased in Nuclear Nightmares: Securing the World Before It Is Too Late, a succinct yet comprehensive survey of the dangers of nuclear weapons…..

Catastrophe, however, is not inevitable—in fact there is reason for hope. What makes Nuclear Nightmares significant are Cirincione’s levelheaded suggestions for confining such disasters to the realm of nightmares…….Ending Proliferation

Ultimately, Nuclear Nightmares is far more optimistic than its title would have you believe. Cirincione accomplishes the challenging feat of addressing nearly every nuclear hotspot in no more than 200 pages. His recommendations are compelling, logical, and achievable.

For the United States and Russia he suggests increased transparency, accelerated reductions, and a shift away from heightened alert status. For Pakistan and India he encourages diplomacy, executive hotlines, and greater cooperation through trade.

And the “idiosyncratic regimes” of Iran and North Korea? Cirincione rules out military responses to both North Korea’s fledgling arsenal and Iran’s uranium enrichment program. He does, however, believe that economic sanctions coupled with diplomacy can achieve a nuclear deal in Iran, despite the poor track record sanctions have had……”http://www.theepochtimes.com/n3/790202-nuclear-nightmares-securing-the-world-before-it-is-too-late/

July 7, 2014 Posted by Christina Macpherson | resources - print | Leave a comment

Fukushima has 9 days to prevent ‘unsafe’ overheating

http://rt.com/news/170800-fukushima-water-leak-temperatures/

Fukushima operator TEPCO has been forced to switch off the cooling system at mothballed Reactor Unit 5, after it was discovered that it had been leaking water. In nine days, if the system is not repaired, temperatures will exceed dangerous levels.

Engineers have discovered that 1,300 liters of water leaked from a cooling system intended to stabilize the temperature of the spent fuel at the Reactor Unit 5, which was offline but loaded with fuel rods when the plant was damaged by the earthquake and tsunami in March 2011.

The source of the leak was a 3 mm-diameter hole near a flow valve, a statement published by the Japanese energy giant on Sunday asserts. However it is unclear from company data if the location of the opening has been discovered, or whether it was calculated with flow measurements.

At the time when the cooling system was switched off at around 12pm on Sunday, the temperature in the pool in which the rods are submerged was 23C but started increasing by 0.193 degrees per hour, TEPCO says.

If no new cold water is pumped in at such rate it will reach the dangerous threshold of 65C by the midpoint of the month in roughly 9 days.

Such temperatures, which have not been routinely seen at the plant since the failing of the cooling system in the immediate aftermath, would increase the possibility of dangerous reactions and further radiation leaks in the plant.

TEPCO however says that currently, there have been no abnormal readings anywhere in the plant.

Since TEPCO is using seawater for many of its cooling needs at the power plant, it has previously encountered heightened levels of corrosion, in sensitive equipment. The cooling system at various reactors has also been beset by calamities – from rats short circuiting the control panel and forcing a blackout, to an employee “accidentally” switching it off, though all were resolved before rod pools overheated.

At the same time, TEPCO is struggling to deal with ever-increasing volumes of contaminated water which is being stored in hundreds of tanks at the facility and frequently leaking and contaminating the soil beneath it. And the much publicized plan to stop contaminated water from leaking into the sea by building an ‘ice-wall’ and freezing soil and water around the facility is not working as well as Japanese officials had hoped.

July 7, 2014 Posted by arclight2011part2 | Uncategorized | Leave a comment