2015 May 12 « nuclear-news

Transport of Radioactive Materials by Fires in Chernobyl Contaminated Areas

Smoltering Peat Fire by Greenpeace Russia
Peat Fire in the Bryansk Region: News – May 4, 2015
Greenpeace staff again found dozens of areas, including in the area of Chernobyl [fallout] trace. None of the regional authorities knew about them.
http://www.greenpeace.org/russia/ru/news/2015/04-5-bryansk/

[Note: A GBq is one billion becquerels (i.e. radioactive emissions per second; a kilogram (kg) is 2.2 pounds; 6 million hectares is 60,000 square kilometers; 23,166 square miles; 14.8 million acres.]

Below is the Abstract of an article about fires-fire prevention in the areas most severely contaminated by Chernobyl: 6 million hectares (14.8 million acres). The UK, Norway, Sweden and Finland were also highly contaminated from Chernobyl and remain so (1,000 plus Bq/kg of Cs in Reindeer and sheep). Most of Europe was very contaminated in a splotchy way and remains so (sometimes more than the 600 Bq/kg allowed in German Wild Boar). It was largely the luck of…

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May 12, 2015 Posted by Christina Macpherson | Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Redacted DOE report gives details on MOX boondoogle

GreenWorld

The Savannah River Site, with the unfinished MOX facility in the right foreground. In the background is Georgia’s Vogtle nuclear complex, where two reactors are operating and two new reactors are under construction. With the likely demise of the MOX project, their power won’t be needed at SRS. Photo by High Flyer, special to SRS Watch.

For decades, some in the U.S. government backed by a few in the nuclear industry and perhaps more in what I call the “nuclear priesthood”–those who have conducted their careers in the shadows of the nuclear industry and in academic settings where they can promote all things nuclear–have espoused the idea of reprocessing used fuel rods (also known as high-level radioactive waste) and creating MOX (plutonium-based) fuel for use in commercial nuclear reactors.

It’s always been a stupid idea environmentally–reprocessing is perhaps the dirtiest of all nuclear industry processes–and an even stupider idea economically…

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May 12, 2015 Posted by Christina Macpherson | Uncategorized | Leave a comment

May 12 Energy News

geoharvey

Science and Technology:

¶ A race is on to harness the tides and waves for electrical power, with more than 100 different devices being tested by companies hoping to make a commercial breakthrough. The UK, Ireland, France, Spain, Portugal, Denmark, the Netherlands and Norway, are all developing technologies to harvest the tide. [eco-business.com]

A tidal power plant being developed in Swansea Bay, south Wales in the UK. Image: Tidal Lagoon Swansea

World:

¶ Scotland renewables are important , but more are coming. By the middle of 2014, they were already greater than nuclear, the country’s second resource. Capacity was 7,112 MW by the end of the 3rd quarter. Wind alone has 8,161 MW of capacity in various stages of construction and another 3,765 MW in planning. [CleanTechnica]

¶ Nigeria’s first ever wind project, the 10-MW Katsina windfarm, is a couple of fractions of work from being…

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May 12, 2015 Posted by Christina Macpherson | Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Wildlife Species Decline at Braidwood Nuclear Power Station, Comment by 12 May 11.59 ET

Mining Awareness +

Generic Environmental Impact Statement for Braidwood Nuclear Power Station – Comment by 12 May 11.59 pm Eastern Time.
“Exelon Generation Company, LLC; Braidwood Station, Units 1 and 2; Draft Supplemental Generic Environmental Impact Statement” We encourage you to comment something on this and all dockets. One or two sentences is fine. It can be anonymous. Consider it your right to vote: http://www.regulations.gov/#!docketDetail;D=NRC-2013-0169
Comment: http://www.regulations.gov/#!documentDetail;D=NRC-2013-0169-0014
Draft Report for comment: http://www.regulations.gov/contentStreamer?documentId=NRC-2013-0169-0015&disposition=attachment&contentType=pdf

Chickadee deformed beak USGS
This chickadee is not from Braidwood. However, this Environmental Impact Statement does not examine the health of wildlife, nor the amounts of radionuclides in their tissues, but only species diversity, and sometimes abundance. In some instances there has been no followup since the Braidwood Nuclear Power Station opened. Braidwood is an old coal mining area. So, it wasn’t pristine wilderness before the reactor. Even so, the numbers and diversity of wildlife have tended to decline…

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May 12, 2015 Posted by Christina Macpherson | Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Fukushima No. 1 workers exposed to high radiation surged 1.5-fold in 2014

The number of workers exposed to high radiation at the crippled Fukushima No. 1 power plant in fiscal 2014 has grown 1.5-fold from the year before, data from Tokyo Electric said Saturday.
A total of 992 workers, mostly those employed by subcontractors, saw their doses top 20 millisieverts in the year ended in March. The previous year, the number of workers with such high exposure levels stood at 660, according to the data.
Since the five-year radiation limit for Fukushima No. 1 workers is 100 millisieverts per person, many could be barred from working at the plant.
The yearly limit for decontamination workers stands at 50 millisieverts, according to the Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry.
Of those who topped the 20-millisievert level in 2014, only 11 are from Tepco, with 981 from subcontractors. The highest doses logged were 29.5 millisieverts among Tepco’s staff and 39.85 millisieverts among the subcontractors.
The data also showed that 20,695 plant workers were exposed in fiscal 2014, with doses averaging 4.99 millisieverts. That’s higher than the 14,746 exposed in the previous year, but lower in terms of dosage, which averaged 5.25 millisieverts in 2013.
The jump in exposures was partly attributable to an overall increase in workers at the plant since the previous year.
A public relations official at Tokyo Electric Power Co., which runs the meltdown-hit plant, said the amount of decontamination and debris-removal work in high-radiation zones there is also rising.

Source
http://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2015/05/10/national/fukushima-1-workers-high-radiation-doses-1-5-fold/#.VU-3iJPwmic

May 12, 2015 Posted by dunrenard | Japan | Fukushima Daiichi | 2 Comments

US follows Hong-Kong and Taiwan to restrict food imports from Japan over radionuclide contamination concern

US restricts food import from Japan over radionuclide contamination concern
The United States has recently tightened restriction of food import from Japan. According to Import Alert 99-33 issued by US FDA, a list of Japanese food will be banned unless they pass physical examination, which includes milk, butter, milk-based infant formula, and other milk products; vegetables and vegetable products; rice and whole grain; fish; meat and poultry; venus clam; sea urchin; yuzu fruit; Kiwi fruit. FAD indicates that revision to this import alert is due to radionuclide contamination.
FDA says it will continue consultation with Japanese government to ensure products from the affected prefectures do not pose a health risk to US consumers. FDA will continue monitoring the public health risks due to radionuclide contamination, and when appropriate will remove the Import Alert and resume routine coverage of entries.
http://en.people.cn/n/2015/0509/c98649-8889831.html

My comments

What is interesting, and what should be also interesting to the American people is that it is China which publishes this article about the US import Alert 99-33 issued by US FDA last April 2015 whereas up to now I have not seen it published/posted by any US media nor website.

What is also interesting, is it took the Japanese contaminated food repeatedly found in Taiwan and Hong-Kong in last March and April , and well published in the chinese media and websites, for finally the US FDA to wake up after 4 years of lethargy to take some action.

If things are getting too hot with exports from Tohoku and Kanto contaminated regions to the US, Japan will change the origin adress of their products as being from Kansai, Chubu, Chugoku, Shikoku and Kyushu regions…With adequate paperwork, good credible certificates of origin, it will not pass under contamination control, and business will continue as usual.

Or they will mix a highly contaminated product from one area with a lesser contaminated product from another area, so as to lower the contamination level to become acceptable to the level of acceptable threshold of the US, as they are already doing inside Japan with rice.

Regarding imports the US FDA mostly relies on the certificates of origin, not questioning the veracity of the data provided on those certificates, and very seldom monitor the contamination level of all incoming food stocks, only once in a blue moon at random.

May 12, 2015 Posted by dunrenard | USA | Fukushima Radiation | 5 Comments