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Iran nuclear deal praised by Israel’s former military chief

flag-Israelflag-IranFormer Israeli military chief praises Iran nuclear deal WASHINGTON (JTA) , 27 Sept 15 – Israel’s most recent military chief of staff called the Iran nuclear deal an “achievement.”

“I do agree a better deal could have been reached,” one that more extensively restricted uranium enrichment, Benny Gantz said Friday of the sanctions relief for nuclear restrictions deal reached in July between Iran and six major powers.

“But I see the half-full part of the glass,” he said. “I see the achievement of keeping the Iranians, 10-15 years into the future, postponing their having a nuclear capability at the right price.”……..Gantz is the latest – and perhaps most significant – retired Israeli security official who has suggested the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has overstated the dangers of the deal…..

The ex-chief of staff hinted that relations with the United States, frazzled this year by open hostility between the Obama and Netanyahu administrations, needed repair. The U.S. commitment to maintaining Israeli’s qualitative military edge in the region is “unheard of, it needs to be appreciated.”… . http://www.jta.org/2015/09/27/news-opinion/united-states/former-israeli-military-chief-praises-iran-nuclear-dea

September 28, 2015 Posted by | Israel, politics international | Leave a comment

UK Labour avoids nuclear arms debate

Corbyn strikes moderate stance as Labour avoids nuclear arms debate, Reuters, 27 Sept 15 BRIGHTON, ENGLAND | BY KYLIE MACLELLA “…….In a move that will spare Labour a potentially divisive debate, delegates voted not to include Trident on the list of topics for discussion at the party conference in the southern English city of Brighton.

“Is it so disastrous that politics has two opinions?” Corbyn asked his interviewer when probed on the difference of opinion within the party over Trident…..”http://uk.reuters.com/article/2015/09/27/uk-britain-politics-corbyn-idUKKCN0RR0HG20150927

September 28, 2015 Posted by | general | Leave a comment

Radium isotopes in coal ash – from its thorium and uranium content

Radioactive Contaminants Found in Coal Ash https://nicholas.duke.edu/news/radioactive-contaminants-found-coal-ash, September 2, 2015
  • Avner Vengosh
  • Heileen Hsu-Kim
  • Nancy Lauer DURHAM, N.C. — A new Duke University-led study has revealed the presence of radioactive contaminants in coal ash from all three major U.S. coal-producing basins.The study found that levels of radioactivity in the ash were up to five times higher than in normal soil, and up to 10 times higher than in the parent coal itself because of the way combustion concentrates radioactivity.

    The finding raises concerns about the environmental and human health risks posed by coal ash, which is currently text thoriumunregulated and is stored in coal-fired power plants’ holding ponds and landfills nationwide.

    “Until now, metals and contaminants such as selenium and arsenic have been the major known contaminants of concern in coal ash,” said Avner Vengosh, professor of geochemistry and water quality at Duke’s Nicholas School of the Environment. “This study raises the possibility we should also be looking for radioactive elements, such as radium isotopes and lead-210, and including them in our monitoring efforts.”

  • Radium isotopes and lead-210 occur naturally in coal as chemical by-products of its uranium and thorium content. Continue reading

September 28, 2015 Posted by | environment, radiation, Reference, thorium | Leave a comment

The nuclear dream is looking pretty tarnished

nuclear-dreamThe 20 Percenters: Nuclear Energy Faces Reality – and Its Likely Decline, US News  Once the promise of clean, near limitless energy, nuclear is now in its waning years. By  Sept. 28, 2015 LOS ALAMOS, N.M. – On construction sites in Georgia, South Carolina and Tennessee, workers are building what may become the final five major nuclear power plants built in the United States.

Nuclear energy, once a symbol of American ingenuity, the fulfillment of the futuristic promise of near-limitless electricity and near-zero emissions, may soon face an economic meltdown.

Cheap natural gas, together with plummeting prices for wind and solar, has upended the energy sector – not only making nuclear plants’ huge upfront costs, endless regulatory approvals and yearslong construction especially prohibitive, but undercutting the very idea of a centralized power system. Industry and regulators, meanwhile, still have not devised a long-term solution for dispensing of nuclear waste. And despite the best marketing efforts by industry, ever-present safety concerns have little abated since the most recent nuclear incident: the meltdown at Fukushima Daiichi in Japan following a tsunami in 2011.

“The nuclear dream looks pretty tarnished these days: that you would have an inexpensive, reliable and manageable source of energy,” says James Doyle, a former political scientist at Los Alamos National Laboratory. “What has been shown repeatedly over the decades is that it’s not inexpensive and the question of how to handle nuclear waste has remained problematic, and it appears it will remain so for decades to come.”……

construction drive in China and elsewhere may ultimately represent the last hurrah of the nuclear construction industry – especially once utility-scale energy storage systems, widely seen as the linchpin for making solar and wind viable over the long term, become more efficient and economical and as global warming continues to worsen…..

September 28, 2015 Posted by | general | Leave a comment

Can Nuclear Power Be Used for Peaceful Purposes?

peaceful-nukeCancer, Coverups and Contamination: The Real Cost of Nuclear Energ27th September 2015Andreas Toupadakis Ph.D Contributing Writer for Wake Up World

“……Recently, the advocates of nuclear energy have been presenting to the people a deceiving choice between nuclear power and global warming. It is basically a form of extortion by the nuclear establishment towards the people and it is in its highest form, especially in the United States today. The alternatives of solar power, wind power, geo-thermal power and conservation are just a few of the safe, non-polluting answers to our energy problem but they are methodologically ignored or undermined. Their development and finally their application will simply not contribute profits to the nuclear empire and those who control it.

Countries like the US and other economically strong countries do not need nuclear energy, like some people advocate. Forward thinking nations such as Denmark are already generating 140% of their electricity needs from wind power alone. So why is the US government still advocating for nuclear energy?

While the nuclear power plant is producing nuclear energy, it is also producing new nuclear waste materials which can be used after some work to manufacture nuclear weapons. In other words, when nuclear reactors produce electricity, they also produce plutonium at the same time, which can be used to make nuclear bombs. That is very important for people to realize. In the United States, the Department of Energy finances and manages the nuclear weapons programs. In reality the Department of Energy is basically the Department of Weapons. The nuclear weapons programs need nuclear materials to make the bombs. Who provides them? The Department of Energy does. The building of nuclear power plants in the U.S. began in 1943 to produce atomic bombs — it was not until 1957 that plants began to produce electricity, providing a continuous supply of plutonium to the nuclear weapons programs.

With the end of the Cold War in the early 1990s, official production of nuclear materials solely for weapons use ceased in the United States, however US government policy and funding decisions since that time have actively encouraged the development of greater nuclear energy capacity which, of course, produces more plutonium waste for nuclear weapons development.

In the U.S. today, 70 years since the US atomic bombing of Japan, nuclear weapons development is still on the rise. Currently President Barack Obama is planning to invest a further trillion dollars of U.S. taxpayers’ money into the military industry to develop and build more nuclear weaponry, despite the fact that the U.S. is already the most heavily armed nuclear nation in the world.

If someone looks honestly at all of the facts, it is obvious that nuclear power fuels the nuclear bomb, which in turn fuels world domination. It is the weapon of the strong to subdue the weak. The citizens of every country need to closely examine the information that the advocates of the nuclear power are providing to them. They only care for material progress, therefore they close their ears and eyes to anything that has to do with public health. They misinform and disinform the people. The examples are numerous……http://wakeup-world.com/2015/09/27/cancer-coverups-and-contamination-the-real-cost-of-nuclear-energy/

September 28, 2015 Posted by | Reference, USA, weapons and war | Leave a comment

Should Entergy’s profitability be our primary concern? Or might it be our grandchildren’s health?

questionCape Codders care not for Pilgrim’s profitability http://www.capecodtimes.com/article/20150927/OPINION/150929636  Paul Rifkin Sep. 27, 2015   Your paper covers the issue of the Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station in Plymouth several times a week. The same names keep appearing in your stories.

Spokesmen for Entergy, the owner of the Pilgrim facility, such as Lauren Burm, speak of the cost of making improvements to the plant exceeding the value of the plant. David Noyes, Pilgrim’s director of regulatory and performance improvement, says that Entergy “will work out the business models in terms of profitability.”
Value, profitability … is that what Cape Cod residents should be concerned about?

If there is an accident at Pilgrim, radioactive poison blowing in our direction … the bridges close … we are trapped … .
Should Entergy’s profitability be our primary concern? Or might it be our grandchildren’s health, our glorious loss of living on Cape Cod in perpetuity? As frequently quoted activist Diane Turco suggests, “Public safety should have no price tag.”
Turco’s voice is the voice of reason and sanity here. Let’s shutter Pilgrim before the sirens of toxicity sound and we come to realize that Turco was right. She and other anti-Pilgrim activists speak for us. Pay attention to that voice of sanity and reason. The possible consequences of honoring Entergy’s bottom line might be catastrophic.

September 28, 2015 Posted by | general | Leave a comment

Can Nuclear Plants Actually Operate Safely?

Cancer, Coverups and Contamination: The Real Cost of Nuclear Energ27th September 2015

Andreas Toupadakis Ph.D Contributing Writer for Wake Up World

“…..If we assume that more nuclear power plants are constructed around the world, can anyone guarantee that the nuclear accidents will disappear? No, that is impossible. Not only will the risks not disappear, but logic dictates they will also increase if there are more plants in operation, as will the volume of unmanageable radioactive waste. And let us not forget the unpredictability of earthquakes. Nuclear accidents will always happen just like any other accidents do, which may affect both power plants and waste storage facitilities.

Reliance on nuclear energy not only results in building new nuclear power plants but also relicensing existing ones. The peril of tragic accidents within the industry will inevitably be higher, especially while maintaining plants that are decades old — as we have already witnessed with the ongoing disaster at Fukushima, as well as the overheated reactor at Miami’s Turkey Point facility in 2014. Other nuclear power plant disasters include:

  • 1952 Chalk River, near Ottawa, Canada: a partial meltdown of the reactor’s uranium fuel core resulted after the accidental removal of four control rods.
  • 1957 Windscale Pile No. 1, north of Liverpool, England: fire in a graphite-cooled reactor spewed radiation over the countryside, contaminating a 200-sq-mile area.
  • 1957 South Ural Mountains, Soviet Union: an explosion of radioactive wastes at a Soviet nuclear weapons factory 12 miles from the city of Kyshtym forced the evacuation of over 10,000 people from a contaminated area.
  • 1959, Santa Susana, USA: 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.
  • 1976, near Greifswald, East Germany: the radioactive core of a reactor in the Lubmin nuclear power plant nearly narrowly avoided meltdown following the failure of safety systems during a fire.
  • 1979, Three-Mile Island, near Harrisburg, Pennsylvania: Following a combination of equipment malfunctions, design-related problems and worker error, one of two reactors lost its coolant which caused overheating and partial meltdown of its uranium core, releasing radioactive water and gases.
  • 1986, Chernobyl, near Kiev, Ukraine: an explosion and fire in the graphite core of one of four reactors released radioactive material that spread over parts of the Soviet Union, Europe and Scandinavia.
  • 1987, Rocky Flats Plant, near Denver, Colorado, USA: Following insider reports of unsafe conditions, investigation found numerous violations of federal anti-pollution laws, including discharging of pollutants, hazardous materials and radioactive matter into nearby creeks and water supplies. A subsequent grand jury report criticized the Department of Energy and Rocky Flats contractors for “engaging in a continuing campaign of distraction, deception and dishonesty”.
  • 1999, Tokaimura, Japan: An uncontrolled chain reaction in a uranium-processing nuclear fuel plant spewed high levels of radioactive gas into the air, exposing 69 people, killing one worker, and seriously injuring two others.
  • 2011, Fukushima Prefecture, Japan: 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 following an earthquake. At the time of the disaster, the plant began releasing substantial amounts of radioactive materials and, more than four years after the incident, the plant is still leaking radioactive water into the Pacific Ocean.

The extent of this recent disaster at Fukushima should not be taken lightly. The water leaking from the ailing plant contains plutonium 239 and its release into the world’s ocean system has global repercussions. Explains chemist John A. Jaksich for DecodedScience.com:

“Certain isotopes of radioactive plutonium are known as some of the deadliest poisons on the face of the Earth. A mere microgram (a speck of darkness on a pinhead) of Plutonium-239, if inhaled, can cause death, and if ingested… can be harmful, causing leukemia and other bone cancers.

“In the days following the 2011 earthquake and nuclear plant explosions, seawater meant to cool the nuclear power plants instead carried radioactive elements back to the Pacific ocean. Radioactive Plutonium was one of the elements streamed back to sea.”

As history has shown us, assurances on safety from nuclear operators and regulators are nothing but preposterous. That is something that the public understands — because it is common sense. No matter how much uncaring, financially invested scientists will try to convince the public of the safety of the nuclear industry, the public does not have a salary from working on nuclear business and so, unlike those working on behalf of the industry, can maintain integrity and common sense……….….http://wakeup-world.com/2015/09/27/cancer-coverups-and-contamination-the-real-cost-of-nuclear-energ

September 28, 2015 Posted by | 2 WORLD, incidents, Reference | Leave a comment

South Africa’s Treasury exposed on nuclear financing – annual report

Annual report exposes Treasury on nuclear says DA, Times Live, Fin24 | 27 September, 2015 A National Treasury official received training in nuclear finance, sponsored by South Korea, at an estimated cost of R500 000 in the 2014/15 financial year. This information listed among others in the National Treasury’s 2014/15 annual report contradicts claims by Finance Minister Nhlanhla Nene and Energy Minister Tina Joemat-Pettersson that the Treasury had only recently been invited into the decision-making process on the financing of the nuclear build programme, the DA said on Sunday.

South Africa has signed five international nuclear agreements with Russia (which is seen as the preferred bidder), France, China, South Korea and the US as it moves ahead with the procurement for its nuclear energy programme. A decision is due in March 2016.

The DA said in a statement the annual report shows that the National Treasury had clearly done more work on the feasibility, financing and assessment of alternative energy options, including nuclear energy, than the minister has been prepared to disclose; and much of the work was completed before the end of the 2014/15 financial year.

The DA said the 2014/15 annual report shows the Treasury:

• conducted and completed extensive work on nuclear energy during the 2014/15 financial year;

• some of the work was included in the decision-making process and submitted to the Department of Energy during the 2014/15 financial year; and

• an official, or officials, from the National Treasury, received training, at an estimated cost of R500 000, in nuclear finance, which was sponsored by South Korea.

“We cannot sit back and allow the nuclear build programme to go ahead in secret given the massive financial implications for South Africa,” the DA said……..

According to annual report, the Treasury’s National Capital Projects Unit, also completed “several in-depth studies on short and long-term energy generation options for South Africa”.

The DA said on Sunday although there is no explicit mention of nuclear energy, the National Capital Projects Unit’s in-depth studies “almost certainly include nuclear energy as a possible energy generation option for South Africa”.

It said Joemat-Pettersson “is walking a political tightrope because the National Treasury has more than likely raised serious questions about the feasibility of the nuclear build programme”.

The DA said it will request the chairperson of the Standing Committee on Finance, Yunus Carrim, to schedule a briefing by the National Treasury on the work conducted and completed on the nuclear build programme by the National Treasury; and the economic and financial implications of the proposed nuclear build programme for South Africa. http://www.timeslive.co.za/politics/2015/09/27/Annual-report-exposes-Treasury-on-nuclear-says-DA

September 28, 2015 Posted by | general | Leave a comment

Even nuclear supporters say that the UK govt should kill the Hinkley C Project

Even Nuclear Supporters Think Hinkley C Needs To Be Canceled, Clean Technica September 27th, 2015 by  

Even many of the supporters of nuclear energy in the “environmentalist” camp — such as George Monbiot, Mark Lynas, and Chris Goodall — are now advocating for the cancellation of the Hinkley C project in the UK, as evidenced by an article recently published by the three mentioned above.

When even supporters of the broader cause begin to question a specific project, it’s probably worth taking note. Is the Hinkley C project really such a boondoggle that even support from otherwise erstwhile supporters is nearing its end?

In the recent article from the above authors, the argument is made that the project possesses “all the distinguishing features of a white elephant: (it’s) overpriced, overcomplicated and overdue” — and also that the most recent delay should be used to sound the death knell for the project.

The exact words used in the article are pretty blunt: “The government should kill the project.”

The authors’ article in the Guardian provides more:……….http://cleantechnica.com/2015/09/27/even-nuclear-supporters-think-hinkley-c-needs-canceled/

September 28, 2015 Posted by | general | Leave a comment

The health toll of ionising radiation at all stages of the nuclear fuel chain

Cancer, Coverups and Contamination: The Real Cost of Nuclear Energ27th September 2015

Andreas Toupadakis Ph.D Contributing Writer for Wake Up World   “……Uranium mining has also cost many lives and great suffering, not just on the workers but on all the communities around these mines. These problems, and the lack of a solution or accountability from the nuclear industry, is described in detail in the ECRR report:

“In response to a challenge to the ethical foundation of civilian nuclear power and the cancers caused by licensed emissions, nuclear industry apologists have offered comparisons between the number of miners killed as part of the lifecycle of energy production in coal-fired power stations with the number of citizens killed by cancers consequent on nuclear releases. However, this is an ethically flawed position. The miners are well informed about the risky nature of their employment and accept it in return for direct pecuniary gain. Their situation is not the same as that of the adult or child who breathes in radioactive particles released from Sellafield without knowing they are in the air, or without benefiting directly from their production. Such people are in effect bystanders and thus have a morally distinct status from those who are engaged in producing the pollutants…

“If the nuclear industry and the military are to continue within a sound ethical framework serious questions need to be addressed and those who will suffer its health consequences need to be informed and consulted to a far greater extent than they ever have been… while children will inevitably die from leukemia as a result of radioactive discharges, causality will be denied and… [their numbers deemed] not worthy of consideration. The moral bankruptcy of such a justification is intuitively apparent…

“The Committee concludes that releases of radioactivity without consent can not be justified ethically since [even] the smallest dose has a finite, if small, probability of fatal harm.”

And how about many other locations, beside power plants, where radiation pollution exists? How about the hundreds of thousands of people that have died and suffered from the whole nuclear cycle? How about future generations who will similarly suffer from long-term contamination?

Nuclear power plants are just one point of the nuclear waste cycle. To this day, the disposal and storage of high-level nuclear waste remains a major unresolved issue. Now 15 years later, only 70 years into a million-year long waste cycle, we are no closer to solving the problem of mounting nuclear waste generated by these continuing programs. The populations in regions where radioactive waste is stored, such as Savannah River and Yucca Mountain (at which millions of gallons of high-level nuclear waste is stored in 49 leaking tanks), are equally as susceptible to disease as those communities near active power plants.

Furthermore, in 2000, the National Academy of Sciences released a report commissioned by the Department of Energy that states that most of the sites where the US federal government built nuclear bombs will never be cleaned up enough to allow public access to the land. The report also noted that the plan for guarding sites that are permanently contaminated is inadequate:

“Nearly 150 sites around the country are contaminated, a nagging reminder of the nuclear arms race. DOE has concluded that even after planned remediation activities are completed — or found to be infeasible — at these so-called “legacy” waste sites, 109 of them will never be clean enough for unrestricted use… [These sites] are located in 27 states, Puerto Rico, and territorial islands in the Pacific…

“There is no convincing evidence that institutional controls — such as surveillance of radioactive and other hazardous wastes left at sites, security fences, and deeds restricting land use — will prove reliable over the long run…

“Because the long-term behavior of contaminants in the environment is unpredictable and physical barriers may break down at some point, the committee urged DOE to develop its stewardship plans under the assumption that contaminant isolation eventually will fail… Today’s scientific knowledge and institutional capabilities do not provide much confidence that containment of sites with residual risks will function as expected indefinitely.”

And how about the places where nuclear material is processed into forms of nuclear fuel? From “nuclear rocks” into nuclear fuel, thousands of people die in agonizing death, families are destroyed, deformed children are born, and many others are born dead. These are very well established facts around the world, in every place that nuclear material is present in one form or another. In fact a 2003 review by the ECRR, headed by an adviser to the British Government, examined research results and concluded that that pollution from nuclear energy and weapons programs will account for as many as 65 million deaths, also asserting that previously accepted figures massively underestimated the nuclear industry’s impact on human life……….http://wakeup-world.com/2015/09/27/cancer-coverups-and-contamination-the-real-cost-of-nuclear-energy/

September 28, 2015 Posted by | general | Leave a comment

Radiation & science denial- theme for October 2015

Denial of the health effects of ionising radiation is the latest and the most sinister, of the lies against science. That lie is now being used as part of the campaign to get nuclear recognised at the UN December Paris Climate Conference as a “clean” technology – worthy of tax-payer funded incentives. 

Denial of science is not new – goes back to Flat Earth and beyond.  It does have to do with complex psychological issues. These include resentment and jealousy of the respected position of scientists, fear of change, and a kind of helplessness in the face of challenging circumstances.

There are other motivations – such as the desire to be famous and important –  as being someone “brave enough to oppose the mainstream”

Then there’s the “libertarian idea” – so strongly believed by Rupert Murdoch, that government must not interfere with personal freedom. This idea would include – the freedom to promote smoking to young people, to get a job as an asbestos miner, to refuse to vaccinate children against fatal diseases, to accept that low level irradiation of one’s children is OK.

But none of these motivations would get “air play”, would prevail,  if it were not for the Money Motive –  the good old “What’s In It For Whom?”        That’s the impetus behind public relations people, “consultants” , journalists, commentators, TV producers, film-makers etc who are paid by think tanks that are fronts for polluting  industries, and for corporate giants like the Koch brothers.  And  – don’t let’s forget,  – the scientists and science media who are paid by governments that are trapped  – financially beholden to polluting corporations, and to the military industrial complex

science-denial

September 28, 2015 Posted by | Christina's themes | Leave a comment

Energoatom Lawsuit Against Ukrainian Activists is the Latest Attempt to Stifle Public Debate Over Ageing Nuclear Reactors; Transboundary Impacts

miningawareness's avatarMining Awareness +

Rebecca Barray (CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)
From Bankwatch.org:
Energoatom lawsuit against Ukrainian activists is the latest attempt to stifle public debate over an ageing nuclear energy fleet

August 28, 2015

A Kiev court held yesterday the first hearing in a case brought by Energoatom, Ukraine’s state-owned nuclear power plants operator, against the National Ecological Centre of Ukraine (NECU), a civil society group, member of the CEE Bankwatch Network.

Energoatom accuses the activists of supposedly spreading false information on those of Ukraine’s nuclear reactors operating beyond their design lifetime.

Energoatom refers to NECU’s press release from May 15, 2015, which reported that unit 2 in the South Ukraine nuclear power plant is not in compliance with the requirements to safely operate in electricity production mode. The group also warned in that press release, that decisions taken by Ukrainian authorities regarding nuclear units’ operation beyond their design lifetime lack crucial substantiation. In its lawsuit, Energoatom asked the…

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September 27, 2015 Posted by | Uncategorized | Leave a comment

September 26 Energy News

geoharvey's avatargeoharvey

World:

¶ The Welsh government has agreed additional funding of £938,000 to three community-led and locally supported onshore wind projects in south Wales. Carmarthenshire Energy Limited, a small Welsh-based community developer, will receive a loan of £785,000 and a £25,000 grant towards the building of a 500-kW turbine. [reNews]

Wear Point wind farm in Wales (Infinergy) Wear Point wind farm in Wales (Infinergy)

¶ Based on estimates of the amounts of excess pollutants released by the 11 million cars VW admitted to fitting with cheating software, Kevin Drum has come up with a rough estimate of a death toll. Worldwide, it may be that 3,700 people died because VW cheated. This is a problem professions will doubtless take up. [CleanTechnica]

¶ The presidents of the US and China have made a bargain. China will implement a national cap-and-trade program, requiring Chinese electric companies, iron and steel plants, and other manufacturers to trade emissions…

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September 27, 2015 Posted by | Uncategorized | Leave a comment

The Nuclear Darwinism is a 2nd Evolution and the new fascism

September 27, 2015 Posted by | Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Up to 100% of No. 2 reactor fuel may have melted

First it was cold shutdown, then it became meltdown, what if most of it had been expelled in the skies, and if so how long it will take for them to finally admit it to the world…

A group of researchers says it is highly likely that 70 to 100 percent of fuel has melted at one of the damaged reactors at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant.

The group includes researchers from Nagoya University. It has been probing the plant’s No. 2 reactor since April of last year, using a device that uses elementary particles called muons to see into its interior.

The researchers say the results of their study show few signs of nuclear fuel at the reactor core, in contrast to the No. 5 reactor where fuel was clearly visible at its core.

This led them to believe that 70 to 100 percent of fuel at the reactor has likely melted.

The researchers say further analyses are needed to determine whether molten fuel penetrated the reactor and fell down.

The No.2 reactor is said to have released large amounts of radioactive substances following the March 2011 accident.

Tokyo Electric Power Company, the plant’s operator, has estimated that part of nuclear fuel at the reactor remains at its core.

The locations of nuclear fuel will have a significant impact on the process to remove it from the damaged reactors, the most difficult step of the decommissioning work.

The Japanese government and TEPCO plan to scan the No. 2 reactor once again using a different device.

They are also preparing to use robots around the reactor.

The group will announce the results of its study at a meeting of the Physical Society of Japan in Osaka on Saturday.

Source : NHK

http://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/english/news/nuclear.html

September 26, 2015 Posted by | Japan | , | Leave a comment