NRA calls a halt to TEPCO’s plan to freeze soil at Fukushima plant
February 10, 2016. The nation’s nuclear watchdog has put the kibosh on plans by Tokyo Electric Power Co. to start freezing underground soil at the crippled Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant–a stunningly expensive project intended to solve the crisis of accumulating radioactive groundwater at the site.
http://ajw.asahi.com/article/0311disaster/fukushima/AJ201602100079
Tepco finishes installing Fukushima ice shield equipment
Feb 10, 2016. FUKUSHIMA – Tokyo Electric Power Co. said Tuesday it has finished installing equipment to freeze the ground around four reactors at its Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant, a project that aims to reduce the flow of groundwater into the site. …
The success of the project is not assured. The Nuclear Regulation Authority is monitoring it closely as the shields may lower the level of groundwater around the reactor buildings, potentially triggering a release of contaminated water that is currently sitting in the buildings’ basements.
New nuclear reactors plan abandoned in Alabama
Alabama abandons two planned reactors http://www.beyondnuclear.org/home/2016/2/12/alabama-abandons-two-planned-reactors.html
Southern Alliance for Clean Energy reports that plans to build two new reactors in Alabama, at Bellefonte have been abandoned. The decision to ditch two AP1000 “new” reactors comes as nuclear energy becomes an ever less appealing financial option and as renewable energy soars.
The SACE press release reads:
“Dealing yet another blow to the nuclear power industry, today the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) finally announced they were abandoning plans to build two new Toshiba-Westinghouse AP1000 nuclear reactors at their Bellefonte site in Hollywood, Alabama. The utility will file a motion with the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s (NRC) Atomic Safety and Licensing Board (ASLB) to withdraw their combined operating license application (COL), which they had originally filed in October 2007.”
Perhaps TVA did not fail to notice the ballooning costs at two other reactor construction sites in the South. As the SACE press release pointed out:
“While the costs of solar, wind and energy efficiency have plummeted in recent years, costs for new nuclear reactors have skyrocketed. In the U.S. the four under-construction AP1000 reactors (two at Southern Company’s Plant Vogtle in Georgia and two at SCANA’s V.C. Summer plant in South Carolina) have experienced massive cost overruns and significant construction delays. Both projects are at least 39-months delayed. Recent developments before the Georgia Public Service Commission have led to total estimated project costs increasing from approximately $14 billion in 2009 to nearly $22 billion. Read the full press release.
Fukushima radiation monitored by citizen science
How Citizen Science Changed the Way Fukushima Radiation is Reported, National Geographic by Ari Beser in Fulbright National Geographic Stories on February 13, 2016 Tokyo – “It appears the world-changing event didn’t change anything, and it’s disappointing,”said Pieter Franken, a researcher at Keio University in Japan (Wide Project), the MIT Media Lab (Civic Media Centre), and co-founder of Safecast, a citizen-science network dedicated to the measurement and distribution of accurate levels of radiation around the world, especially in Fukushima. “There was a chance after the disaster for humanity to innovate our thinking about energy, and that doesn’t seem like it’s happened. But what we can change is the way we measure the environment around us.”
Franken and his founding partners found a way to turn their email chain, spurred by the tsunami, into Safecast; an open-source network that allows everyday people to contribute to radiation-monitoring……….
Since their first tour of Koriyama, with the help of a successful Kickstarter campaign, Safecast’s team of volunteers have developed the bGeigie handheld radiation monitor, that anyone can buy on Amazon.com and construct with suggested instructions available online. So far over 350 users have contributed 41 million readings, using around a thousand fixed, mobile, and crowd-sourced devices.
According to Franken, “We’re working with communities to install these sensors in people’s neighborhoods. We’re financed by donations only. We get donations so we put together a plan, volunteers provide space, and Internet access, and agree that the data collected are public.
“What we’ve come to determine in Fukushima is that radiation levels are spotty. They can vary from street corner to street corner. We’ve also been able to determine that the levels over the last five years have reduced, partly because of half life of cesium, and because of environmental factors. We’ve also seen an increase in official government data being released in a similar style to Safecast’s drive-by method versus spot checking.”
According to Franken, “There is no safe dose of radiation as it’s debated by scientists; the higher the level, the higher the risk is that it will trigger a cancer. Though, at low levels the risk is much smaller, it is not zero. ……..
One of the biggest problems in Fukushima is the anxiety and the uncertainty that people are suffering from the incident. I think what were doing is trying to alleviate that by giving them ways to educate themselves about the problem and giving them solutions where they can be empowered to do something about it, as a opposed to just going along with the current of the crisis.” http://voices.nationalgeographic.com/2016/02/13/how-citizen-science-changed-the-way-fukushima-radiation-is-reported/
NRA decided to reduce 70 percent of radiation monitoring posts in Fukushima
THEY REALLY THINK THAT WE’RE STUPID, EVEN IF IT IS AT THE EXPENSE OF THE JAPANESE PEOPLE
On February 10, 2016 The NRA (Nuclear Regulation Authority) declared that from April 2017 it will discontinue 2500 of its 3600 radioactivity monitoring terminals in the Fukushima Prefecture.
The NRA says it’s due to lack of budget and resources.
The 2500 to be removed terminals are located in public institutions including schools.
The NRA states that there has been no significant change in radioactivity recently detected.
While all radioactivity measurements have been increasing in the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear plant, how can someone responsible says that there is no significant change?
On 2/10/2016, NRA (Nuclear Regulation Authority) announced they are going to abandon 2,500 of 3,600 radiation monitoring posts in Fukushima prefecture from April of 2017.
NRA states this is due to the limited resource such as budget and equipment.
2,500 posts to be removed are situated in public facility including schools.
NRA comments no significant change has been detected recently. However, the monitoring posts were also observed to become “under maintenance” occasionally.
Sources
https://www.nsr.go.jp/disclosure/committee/kisei/00000110.html
NRA decided to reduce 70 percent of radiation monitoring posts in Fukushima
Radioactive Groundwater Contamination Found at All US Nuclear Power Stations: Pipe Failures Endanger Nuclear Power Station Cooling Systems-Environment
Corroding, or otherwise damaged, nuclear power station water intake pipes for cooling could cause a major nuclear disaster. Corroded, damaged, radioactive effluent (outtake) pipes pollute groundwater in a slow-moving nuclear-environmental disaster.
US NRC Schematic from the GAO Report
According to the US Government Accountability Office:
“All U.S. nuclear power plant sites have had some groundwater contamination from radioactive leaks, and some of these leaks came from underground piping systems…
GAO recommends that NRC periodically assess the effectiveness of the groundwater initiative and determine whether structural integrity tests should be included in licensee inspection requirements, when they become feasible, based on industry research…. Since 2008, NRC has been collecting data from licensees on groundwater contamination incidents at nuclear power plants that have resulted from unplanned or uncontrolled releases of radioactive material, including leaks from underground piping systems. Based on these data, NRC has concluded that all 65 reactor sites…
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February 14 Energy News
Opinion:
¶ Have we reached the tipping point for investing in renewable energy? • Between 2014 and 2015, New York City’s biggest pension fund lost $135 million on fossil fuel holdings. Fossil fuel investments have cost 15 of Australia’s top funds an estimated $5.6 billion. Profitable sustainability is coming of age. [The Guardian]
Renewable energy is becoming increasingly viable, a trend that could potentially be a game-changer for investors. Photograph: Alamy
World:
¶ The first international agreement to cut commercial airline carbon emissions was signed by 23 countries, including the US. It entails a 4% reduction in the fuel consumption of commercial aircraft by dates depending on type. It aims to reduce emissions by over 650 million tons between 2020 and 2040. [CleanTechnica]
¶ Sri Lanka’s Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe has warned officials of the Ceylon Electricity Board that he will be forced to take measures…
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South Australia Royal Commission nuclear waste import plan – dead in the water already?
Given the wildly optimistic price for waste modelled by the mid-scenario, not to mention the 56,000 tonnes of waste left over with no costed solution, and with all the uncertainties in developing the new technologies required, the simple conclusion is that this plan is simply all risk with no reward.
No-one else will line up to take advantage of this “once in a lifetime opportunity”, because the opportunity does not exist. The plan simply cannot succeed.
The impossible dream Free electricity sounds too good to be true. It is. A plan to produce free electricity for South Australia by embracing nuclear waste sounds like a wonderful idea. But it won’t work. THE AUSTRALIA INSTITUTE Dan Gilchrist February 2016
“……NO GOOD OUTCOME The free energy utopia depends on two new, as yet unproven technologies: PRISM reactors, and cheap borehole disposal. The Edwards plan appears to rely on these technologies not only…
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Risk of Uncontrolled Nuclear Reactions (i.e. Criticality Events) in Water Saturated Deeply Buried Nuclear Waste
In “Conditions for criticality by uranium deposition in water-saturated geological formations“, Xudong Liu; Joonhong Ahn of the Dept of Nuclear Engineering, U. Cal. Berkeley; & Fumio Hirano of Japan Atomic Energy Agency, Geological Isolation Research and Development Directorate, Tokai-mura, (2014), raise the question of risk of a criticality event, an uncontrolled nuclear reaction, in a deep geologic repository for nuclear waste. Despite some seemingly faulty assumptions, which appear to understate risk, they rather bravely, considering their affiliations and funding, conclude that there could be a problem. At the end is the statement: “This study was carried out under a contract with METI (Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry) of Japanese Government in the fiscal year of 2012 as part of its R&D supporting program for developing geological disposal technology.”
Little wonder that Japan was allegedly already trying to get shot of its high level nuclear waste…
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South Africa Civil Society Contests Nuclear Environmental Impact Report; Minister Speaking Against Nuclear Axed
Earthlife Africa Protest outside the Eskom buildings in Johannesburg, SA
Excerpted from Greenpeace and Earthlife Africa’s comments on the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) for the Eskom Nuclear Power Station: “As regards comments in the Economic Impact Assessment on the Russian nuclear accident at Chernobyl and its relevance to the assessment of the safety of nuclear power, the report leaves out a highly relevant piece of information. It states in regard to the case of Chernobyl “given the technological and safety differences between the Soviet and Western (French and US) systems , the likelihood of a Chernobyl – type incident occurring at Nuclear 1 is negligible.” It fails to mention the fact that SA has entered in to a strategic partnership agreement with the Russian Federation for the procurement of a fleet of nuclear reactors, and is therefore very likely to procure nuclear power from Russia.” Read the entire document here:…
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Little progress made in securing land for interim storage facilities for radioactive soil
With thousands of bags of radioactive soil piling up, less than 1 percent of the land needed for interim storage facilities in Fukushima Prefecture has been acquired even a year after the project started.
The mountain of paperwork in finalizing the real estate transactions and insufficient manpower are the main factors behind the slow progress.
That, in turn, could affect plans to have Fukushima residents return to their homes after evacuation orders are lifted.
Because the interim storage facilities have not yet been completed, thousands of bags of contaminated soil are stacked up in the open in parts of Fukushima. Until those bags are moved to the interim storage facilities, local residents may not be willing to return because of the high radiation levels being emitted from the contaminated soil.
The Environment Ministry and local governments in Fukushima Prefecture are continuing with work to remove soil contaminated with radioactive materials. As of the end of September 2015, a total of about 9 million cubic meters of such contaminated waste were being temporarily stored in about 115,000 locations around Fukushima. Government officials estimate that a total of 22 million cubic meters of contaminated soil will eventually be collected.
That soil will all be moved to the interim storage facilities to be constructed in the Fukushima towns of Okuma and Futaba where the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant is located. Total land of about 16 square kilometers will be acquired for the interim storage facilities.
Plans call for leaving the contaminated soil at the interim facilities for a maximum of 30 years before processing it somewhere outside of Fukushima Prefecture.
Land registration records contain the names of 2,365 individuals as owners of the land and buildings where the interim storage facilities will be constructed. However, as of the end of January, Environment Ministry officials have signed contracts with 44 landowners, or just 2 percent of the total. In terms of land, those contracts only covered about 0.15 square kilometer, which does not even total 1 percent of the total land that needs to be acquired.
Environment Ministry officials are trying to push ahead with appraising the land, but they face a mountain of problems as well as other issues unique to the Fukushima situation. In terms of land, about 10 percent is owned by individuals whom ministry officials have been unable to contact.
But in terms of the names on the land records, ministry officials have been unable to contact about 990 individuals, or about 40 percent of the total. Some of the people on the land records may be deceased, meaning that those with inheritance claims could run into the thousands.
Moreover, the lack of land appraisers with background about the Fukushima situation has meant that negotiations often have taken longer than expected. Some landowners also are hesitant about selling off land that has been in the family for generations, even if there are no prospects of returning to the family plot anytime soon because of the high radiation levels in the community.
In March 2015, the Environment Ministry began a trial project by leasing some of the projected land for the interim storage facilities and transporting in contaminated soil. Over 11 months, about 36,000 cubic meters of soil were hauled there, but that only represents about 0.2 percent of the expected total.
Environment Ministry officials are unable to put together a specific plan for full-scale transporting of the contaminated soil to the interim storage facilities because in fiscal 2016 only about 1 percent of the total land needed for the interim storage facilities will likely be acquired.
http://ajw.asahi.com/article/0311disaster/fukushima/AJ201602140022
Radioactive Cs in the estuary sediments near Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant
Cs-137 of estuary sediment impacted by the FDNPP was measured.
Physical and chemical properties were measured also.
Increasing radioactivity was observed from surface to bottom.
90% of the Cs-137 was strongly bound to clay minerals in the estuary sediments.
Cesium-137 is being transported from contaminated paddy fields to the estuary.
The migration and dispersion of radioactive Cs (mainly 134Cs and 137Cs) are of critical concern in the area surrounding the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant (FDNPP). Considerable uncertainty remains in understanding the properties and dynamics of radioactive Cs transport by surface water, particularly during rainfall-induced flood events to the ocean. Physical and chemical properties of unique estuary sediments, collected from the Kuma River, 4.0 km south of the FDNPP, were quantified in this study. These were deposited after storm events and now occur as dried platy sediments on beach sand. The platy sediments exhibit median particle sizes ranging from 28 to 32 μm. There is increasing radioactivity towards the bottom of the layers deposited; approximately 28 and 38 Bq g− 1 in the upper and lower layers, respectively. The difference in the radioactivity is attributed to a larger number of particles associated with radioactive Cs in the lower part of the section, suggesting that radioactive Cs in the suspended soils transported by surface water has decreased over time.
Sequential chemical extractions showed that ~ 90% of 137Cs was strongly bound to the residual fraction in the estuary samples, whereas 60 ~ 80% of 137Cs was bound to clays in the six paddy soils. This high concentration in the residual fraction facilitates ease of transport of clay and silt size particles through the river system. Estuary sediments consist of particles < 100 μm. Radioactive Cs desorption experiments using the estuary samples in artificial seawater revealed that 3.4 ± 0.6% of 137Cs was desorbed within 8 h. More than 96% of 137Cs remained strongly bound to clays. Hence, particle size is a key factor that determines the travel time and distance during the dispersion of 137Cs in the ocean.
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0048969716301541
Arnie Gundersen Speaking Tour in Japan N°1
On The Road Again…Japan Speaking Tour Series No. 1
Fairewinds’ Chief Engineer Arnie Gundersen is hitting the road yet again for his third speaking tour of Japan! It will be five years in March since the triple meltdown at Fukushima Daiichi began and the Japanese public continues to search for the truth about nuclear risk and honest answers to their energy future as they face their current government’s push to restart Japan’s atomic reactors. By invitation from various organizations and public interest groups, Arnie will be presenting to communities throughout Japan including those who live in the shadow of atomic reactors, plutonium reprocessing plants, and proposed atomic waste dumps. Join the Fairewinds Crew as we explore some of the key issues that will be discussed during the tour.
http://www.fairewinds.org/podcast//on-the-road-againjapan-speaking-tour-series-no-1
More than 1,100 water storage tanks at Fukushima plant … and counting
OKUMA, Fukushima Prefecture–From the air, the rows of different colored water storage tanks at the crippled Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant resemble a giant integrated circuit board.
As the fifth anniversary approaches of the earthquake and tsunami disaster that unleashed the nuclear catastrophe, the stricken facility is fast running out of space to position the tanks holding highly contaminated radioactive water.
As of Feb. 12, there were 1,106 massive water tanks on the premises.
Tokyo Electric Power Co., operator of the plant, constructed the tanks to store radiation-contaminated water that has been accumulating at the plant since the disaster unfolded in March 2011.
The utility plans to construct 20 more water storage tanks to accommodate 30,000 tons of water that is expected to be generated in the remaining months of 2016.
As the tanks occupy much of the parking lots, green spaces and vacant areas, TEPCO has no choice but to build new tanks in the narrow alleys between the huge containers.
The accumulation of contaminated water has been a persistent problem at the plant, which is only in the very early stages of decommissioning, a process that will take 30 to 40 years.
http://ajw.asahi.com/article/0311disaster/fukushima/AJ201602130025
Environment minister withdraws radiation remark, apologizes to Fukushima residents
Environment Minister Tamayo Marukawa retracted her remark about the government having “no scientific grounds” for its radiation decontamination target in the Fukushima nuclear disaster, saying she wanted to rebuild trust with local residents.
As the minister in charge of overseeing the decontamination efforts in Fukushima Prefecture, Marukawa, 45, said Feb. 12 she wants to “sincerely apologize to residents in Fukushima.”
During a speech in Matsumoto, Nagano Prefecture, on Feb. 7, she labeled the government’s long-term goal of reducing radiation levels near the crippled Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant to an annual dose of 1 millisievert or less as having “absolutely no scientific grounds.”
A local newspaper, The Shinano Mainichi Shimbun, picked up the story and reported her comments on Feb. 8, which she promptly denied having made.
At Diet sessions on Feb. 9 and 10, Marukawa stated that she had “no recollection of using such wording” in the speech.
Nevertheless, she told the news conference on the evening of Feb. 12 that she had decided of her own volition to “retract the remark in order to maintain a relationship of trust with residents in Fukushima.”
Marukawa went on to say that the government’s decontamination target is “indeed scientific in the sense that it was set as a result of thorough discussions by scientists.”
Her acknowledgment of making the faux pas will likely prompt the opposition camp to go on the offensive during Diet sessions in the coming week. For the time being, at least, Marukawa is standing firm. She said she has no intention of stepping down and wants to continue fulfilling her duties.
The decontamination goal was set by the Democratic Party of Japan-led government of the time on the basis of recommendations by the International Commission on Radiological Protection in the aftermath of the triple meltdown at the Fukushima plant triggered by the 2011 earthquake and tsunami disaster.
After the newspaper covered her remarks, Marukawa told reporters on Feb. 8 that she did not remember using such wording as “scientifically ungrounded.” She repeated the plea at Lower House Budget Committee sessions on Feb. 9 and 10.
During a regular news conference after the Feb. 12 morning Cabinet meeting, the minister finally acknowledged the possibility of making the remark.
She eventually retracted the comment later the day after obtaining a memorandum of her speech and confirming the content with attendants.
http://ajw.asahi.com/article/behind_news/politics/AJ201602130023
Sunset for Nuclear Power? Nuclear Showdown in California
Why the Current Nuclear Showdown in California Should Matter to You, Sunset for Nuclear Power? CounterPunch, by JAMES HEDDLE FEBRUARY 12, 2016
Does the dream of nuclear power still ‘look bright’ as one enthusiastic investment advisor gushed less than a year ago, or is it the “the dream that failed,” as the Economist asserted as far back as March of 2012?
Approaching 5 years this March 11 after the still on-going Fukushima nuclear disaster, the debate goes on, enveloped in a miasma of mis-, dis-, and conflicting information generated by industry ‘merchants of doubt,’ but rarely leavened by rational analysis of What’s Really What.
The World Nuclear Industry Status Report 2015 by Mycle Schneider, Antony Froggatt et al went a long way toward settling the issue with just that – a data-based rational analysis.
Its conclusion: worldwide, despite a few troubled construction starts over budget and behind schedule, “The nuclear industry remains in decline.”
You’d never know it from the pro-nuclear happytalk and proposed subsidy and bailout bills being floated in Congress, but all around the world the global nuclear power industry is fighting for its life.
Nuclear Showdown in California
Nowhere is that battle closer to being decisively lost by the industry than in California, where the Sunshine State’s ‘last nuke standing’ – PG&E’s Diablo Canyon – faces a very uncertain future. A showdown between those who want to shut it down, and those who want to keep it going.
It is a microcosmic drama with all the elements of a movie thriller:
· A corrupt California Public Utilities Commission racked in scandals.
· A compromised Nuclear Regulatory Commission captured by nuclear interests.
· A resurgent peoples’ movement determined to shut Diablo down and responsibly manage the state’s thousands of tons of lethal radioactive waste.
· The growing vision of a nuclear-energy-free West Coast and a solartopian transition.
· A handful of atomic denialists clamoring to ‘save Diablo.’
· All this in the context of deepening climate change and the battle for decentralized, clean, renewable power.A Diablo shutdown in California would be a shot heard in nuclear boardrooms around the world, and would continue this bellwether state’s well-earned reputation as being ‘no country for old nukes.’
A quick look at the history of California’s Nuclear Free Movement tells the tale.
Back last century, then-President Nixon predicted 1000 nuclear reactors in the US by the year 2000.
In the 60’s, PG&E announced plans to build 63 reactors every 25 miles up and down the California coast.
Thanks to informed popular resistance interventions in the courts, in the legislatures, and in the streets, that didn’t happen.
Only 9 of those planned power reactors ever got built: 1 at Humboldt Bay, 1 at Pleasanton, 2 at Rancho Secco, 3 at San Onofre, and 2 at Diablo Canyon.
Today, only 2 are still in operation, those at Diablo Canyon.
From a planned 63 nuclear power plants in the 1960’s, down to 1 in 2015.
Not a bad track record for the effectiveness of informed non-violent, popular resistance…and a demonstration of the non-viability of nuclear energy – vulnerable as it is to public opposition, industry incompetence, natural disasters, terrorist attacks, and what renowned energy expert Amory Lovins long ago called ‘a terminal overdose of market forces.’……… http://www.counterpunch.org/2016/02/12/why-the-current-nuclear-showdown-in-california-should-matter-to-you/
1 This Month
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
of the week–London Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament
Tell the Ukrainian Government to Drop Prosecution of Peace Activist Yurii Sheliazhenko
To see nuclear-related stories in greater depth and intensity – go to https://nuclearinformation.wordpress.com
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