‘Keep pro nuclear signs’ as reminder of Fukushima nuclear catastrophe
Creator slams removal of pro-nuclear signs from Fukushima ghost town, Japan Times, 3 Mar 16 BY MIYA TANAKA KYODO KOGA, IBARAKI PREF. – A few months before the fifth anniversary of the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear crisis, a town near the plant began removing two signs that unintentionally became ironic reminders of how Japan once blindly worshipped atomic power.
A slogan above a street in Futaba town center since 1988 read “Nuclear power: the energy for a bright future.” The town is now radioactive and empty, with all of its residents evacuated.
The signs are historic, but the municipality does not like them. It called them “decrepit” and decided to dismantle them because parts might fall.
Evacuee and father-of-two Yuji Onuma regrets this. He wrote one of the slogans: It was a school homework task, and his entry won a competition. He warns the move could be perceived as an attempt to “cover up” a shameful past.
“The signs should have been kept at the original places to continue reminding people, especially the younger generation, about what the town has gone through. . . . If things are removed just because it does not suit reality, we could repeat the same mistakes,” said the 39-year-old Onuma. He was speaking in Koga, Ibaraki Prefecture, where he has lived since May 2014……..
Onuma said even as a child he was aware of the risks of nuclear accidents. The 1986 Chernobyl catastrophe was still a fresh memory and that European ordeal fueled fears of radiation in Japan.
But at the same time he had relatives working at the Fukushima No. 1 complex and knew that local inns and shopping areas were flourishing as clients such as staffers of plant operator Tokyo Electric Power Co. came and went. “There was an atmosphere of not speaking critically of nuclear power when someone next to you could be in a related job. It was a small town, with a population of about 8,000,” Onuma said…….
…his life plan was ruined by one of the world’s worst nuclear crises, triggered by the huge earthquake and tsunami on March 11, 2011. He and his wife, who was seven months pregnant at the time, fled their home. It was about 4 km from the complex…….
He felt embarrassed: “The accident changed my way of thinking completely,” Onuma said, adding he thought that, in the end, nuclear power had brought a “doomed” future rather than a “bright” one.
Regretting his earlier support for atomic power and in a gesture toward pulling the plug on it, Onuma began using solar power at his home in Ibaraki. He even turned it into a business by purchasing cheap land and installing over 1,000 solar panels with the help of a loan.
Onuma has also taken on the de facto role of guardian of Futaba’s nuclear promotion signs……..http://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2016/03/03/national/fukushima-ghost-towns-removal-pro-nuclear-signs-irks-designer/#.VtjpwH197Gh
High costs and construction delays cast gloom over nuclear industry
Building projects’ high costs and construction delays raise questions about the industry’s sustainability. US News, By Jasper Scherer March 3, 2016 “……..Underway since getting NRC approval in 2012, the Vogtle plant project is three years behind schedule and billions of dollars over budget. The project was initially expected to cost $14 billion but could reach upward of $21 billion, Georgia Public Service Commission filings indicate.
in 2016, the industry faces stiffer competition from alternative energy sources. In 1977, for instance, solar panels cost $76.67 per watt, according to a Bloomberg New Energy Finance report. That figure had decreased to 73 cents by 2012 – less than 1 percent of the original per-watt cost. And aside from Three Mile Island, the 1986 Chernobyl disaster in Ukraine and the tsunami-induced accident at Japan’s Fukushima Daiichi plant in 2011 have damaged the industry’s image…….
Though the U.S. now operates 99 reactors, more than any other country by a wide margin (France is second with 58), it once had as many as 112. The number of operational reactors in the country has either declined or remained constant in every year since 1993, data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration show.
Dave Lochbaum, director of the Union of Concerned Scientists’ Nuclear Safety Project, points to an underlying challenge for power companies beyond the initial cost of building a nuclear plant: attempted repairs that fail and cost billions to fix. When workers inadvertently cracked the wall of the Crystal River nuclear plant in Florida in 2009 while trying to replace the plant’s steam generators, the plant shut down because it would have cost upward of $1 billion to repair the damages……..
Power companies hoping to upgrade their plants instead of building new ones face financial challenges. For instance, a four-month project at the Monticello Nuclear Plant in Minnesota to upgrade capacity and replace old equipment cost nearly twice its initial estimate. The upgrades cost a fraction of the price of building a new plant, but still blew past initial cost calculations……..
The NRC, which approves the design of reactors before granting them licenses to operate, is expected to receive applications for “design certifications” for small reactors during the next several years, according to the Nuclear Energy Institute. But Small Modular Reactors may not operate in the U.S. until 2025, the Department of Energy says. And they are not guaranteed to work.
“The biggest hurdle that SMRs face is that the reactors that are being built today in the United States – the five reactors that are in various stages of construction – are basically the next evolutionary step to the reactors we’re already operating,” Lochbaum says. “And the SMRs are pretty much different from that. They’re more revolutionary in their design, and that’s going to cause a problem for plant owners. It’s difficult to invest a lot of money in a technology that may have some unforeseen problems.”
The nuclear industry’s clock continues to tick because plants have finite lifespans. Reactors are typically designed to last around 40 years. Simple math illustrates a sobering reality for power companies: We will need to see a slew of costly reactor upgrades for the country’s aging plants to remain operable. http://www.usnews.com/news/special-reports/the-manhattan-project/articles/2016-03-03/another-chance-for-nuclear-power
Nuclear reactor outage caused by bird droppings
Bird poop apparently caused New York nuclear reactor outage http://www.cbsnews.com/news/bird-poop-apparently-caused-new-york-nuclear-reactor-outage/ALBANY, N.Y. — Bird poop was the likely cause of a December shutdown at a nuclear power plant outside New York City, according to the operator.
An Indian Point reactor safely shut down for three days starting Dec. 14 following an electrical disturbance on outdoor high voltage transmission lines, Entergy Corp. said. An outside expert is analyzing whether what’s technically called bird “streaming” was the culprit.
In a report to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission last month, the New Orleans-based company said the automatic reactor shutdown was apparently from bird excrement that caused an electric arc between wires on a feeder line at a transmission tower.
“If it has nowhere to send its electricity, the generator senses that and automatically shuts down,” Entergy spokesman Jerry Nappi said.
Plant managers told the NRC they were revising preventive maintenance for additional inspection and cleaning and installing bird guards on transmission towers.
Nappi said he couldn’t recall a similar incident in the past several years from birds at Indian Point, which is located along the Hudson River north of New York City. He didn’t immediately know what type of bird was suspected. No carcass was found, he said.
Nuclear Regulatory Commission spokesman Eliot Brenner said it’s not uncommon for wildlife to trigger electrical outages on transmission lines regardless of the generation source of the electricity. “Squirrels are the biggest offenders,” he said.
He didn’t know if the NRC was specifically tracking animal-related reactor outages. “They’re kind of few and far between, but certainly not unheard of,” he said.
A recent radioactive leak at the plant had prompted renewed calls for the site to be shut down, amid growing concerns about the potential damage a nuclear accident could cause in one of the most densely populated parts of the country. In the past year alone there have been a number of mishaps at Indian Point, including a power failure in the reactor core, a transformer fire, an alarm failure, and the escape of radiated water into groundwater. The plant sits about 25 miles north of New York City.
Neil Sheehan, a representative for the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, told CBS News last month that the NRC is continuing to review the recent tritium leakage at Indian Point.
“We recently sent a radiation protection specialist to the plant to assess the situation and learn more about what happened. He was assisted by our three Resident Inspectors assigned to the plant on a full-time basis,” he said in an email.
NRC is also currently reviewing Indian Point’s renewal license, which would authorize it to continue operating for another 20 years. But environmental groups say the region needs to utilize other options to meet its energy needs.
US-German Exptal Nuclear Reactor Waste Blew Up in Nevada-Germany Trying to Send More Nuclear Waste to USA – Comment to Oppose by 11 March 2016, 1159 pm ET
Oppose America becoming Germany’s Nuclear Waste dump here: http://www.regulations.gov/#!documentDetail;D=DOE_FRDOC_0001-3020 It can be very short and anonymous.
What blew up at the Beatty Nuclear waste site last October? Apparently it included metallic sodium coolant from an old MOX (plutonium) fueled US, German, GE, Euroatom experimental nuclear reactor (SEFOR), located in northwestern Arkansas. Meanwhile, following Germany’s request, the US may import high level nuclear waste from Germany’s failed Pebble Bed nuclear reactors. This isn’t the first radioactive waste that they have burned or dumped in America, either. The Italian mafia dumped German nuclear sludge in Italy, as well. The SEFOR drums at Beatty were 92 oil drums with sodium coolant, which may, or may not, have had contaminants, such as plutonium and americium, which are still radioactive.
SEFOR rusting away in Northwest Arkasas, USA
3 pounds of sodium metal plus water, public domain via Wikimedia
Sodium “May ignite spontaneously in air…
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Japan Diary 2016, Fukushima+5 Part 3. People are Sick Now
Fukushima Units 3 (right) and 4 (left), April 2011
Friends, I am sorry, but I am not sharing any faces or names. I want to protect these women. Nonetheless I can tell you they are more beautiful than any temple…
Radioactivity and the radiation it produces is invisible. I am here in Japan, and after leaving Fukushima Prefecture have begun our speaking tour. Steve Leeper has called on his networks via YMCA and consumer coops to host events, and his ally, Mori-Jushoku has reached out to his Buddhist communities. We have a brisk schedule with one to three events a day spanning five Prefectures. Arnie Gundersen (www.fairewinds.org) is also touring. Some legs we are together, others we diverge.
People who have fled Fukushima turn up at our events…and side-gatherings are organized for me to meet with mothers and grandmothers who have moved out of contaminated areas. These meetings…
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March 3 Energy News
World:
¶ The six-turbine Coonooer Bridge wind farm in the Australian state of Victoria has become the first operational wind farm from the Australian Capital Territory’s wind auction process. The 20-MW wind farm is expected to become fully operational this month. [SeeNews Renewables]
Wind farm in Australia. Author: Steven Caddy. License: Creative Commons, Attribution 2.0 Generic
¶ According to a study led by the University of Leeds, about 80,000 air quality-related deaths are prevented each year as a direct result of the introduction of European Union policies and new technologies. They led to a 35% reduction in fine particles in the atmosphere since 1970. [CleanTechnica]
¶ In Scotland, 70% of those polled want to see more renewable energy such as wind, solar, wave and tidal, and two-thirds agreed that the next government should “continue to take forward policies that tackle greenhouse gas emissions and climate change.”…
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Japan Diary 2016, Fukushima+5 Part 2. Hope and False Hope: Atomic Fallout Changes our Environment and Always Results in Injustice
Fukushima, April 2011
Some who read yesterday’s post from Temporary Housing near Koriyama, Fukushima Prefecture are probably still unhappy with me! The idea that small reductions in radiation exposure are any kind of “solution” flies in the face of what we know: there is no safe dose of radiation. We say: “No cure, only prevention!”
The women that I met on my first day here have no choice. Elders (60+), many have moved 4 or 5 times since they were forced to leave their homes in March 2011; some report when they reached the first Evacuation Center that their contamination levels were so high they pegged the monitors. Now most of their husbands are gone, their children have jobs in the big cities now, they are alone. For one reason or another, they need the support they get by staying where they are. Where they live now is unrestricted but…
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Lockheed Martin False Payment Claims-Failure to ID and Report Haz Waste at Nuclear Enrichment Site (Paducah, Kentucky); $5 Million Civil Suit Settlement Means Remain “Allegations”, But Criminal Suits; Personal Injury; Property Damage Suits, Etc., May Still Be Brought
The US government’s lawsuit alleged that Lockheed Martin failed to identify and report hazardous waste produced and stored at the facility, and failed to properly handle and dispose of the waste. The US “government further alleged that this conduct resulted in false claims for payment under Lockheed Martin’s contracts with the Department of Energy…“ (USDOJ, Feb. 29, 2016 – See entire Press Release at Bottom of this Blog Post.)
This is a Civil Suit settlement and excludes criminal and other charges:
“Notwithstanding Paragraphs 5 and 6 above, or any other term of this Agreement, the following claims of the United States are specifically reserved and are not released:
a. Any liability arising under Title 26, U.S. Code (Internal Revenue Code);
9 b. Any criminal liability;
c. Except as explicitly stated in this Agreement, any administrative liability, including the suspension and debarment rights
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The Price of Nuclear Weapons and Nuclear Power: The Case of Paducah, Kentucky
From DemocracyNow.org:
“The Price of Nuclear Weapons: The Case of Paducah, Kentucky
SEPTEMBER 01, 1999
As the US Congress prepares for a battle over nuclear testing, in Paducah, Kentucky, workers at a uranium plant are battling its former operators after they recently discovered radioactive black ooze seeping from the ground close to the plant.
The Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant, operated for years by the nuclear weapons manufacturing companies Martin-Marietta and Lockheed Martin, produced enriched uranium for nuclear weapons, Navy submarines and commercial power plants for 47 years. The plant is owned by the Department of Energy, which subcontracted it to Martin Marietta in 1984, and then to Lockheed-Martin in 1995 when Martin-Marietta and Lockheed merged.
The chance discovery of the ooze by plant workers in July led to the uncovering of a burial ground for radioactive debris just north of the plant. The waste was barely hidden…
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Central US: Arkansas Nuclear One Receiving Highest Level of NRC Scrutiny for Operating Reactors-Depth and Breadth of Problems to be Assessed; Report in Spring 2016
Centralized location makes these old nuclear reactors, from the 1970s, a major hazard for much of North America, as is known from Chernobyl. The official outer – food growing exclusion – zone of 50 miles reaches to the edge of the wealthy Little Rock suburb of Maumelle – per capita and per household one of the wealthiest in America, and includes the suburb of Conway, as well as WinRock farms, and Hot Springs Village. See: http://www.psr.org/resources/evacuation-zone-nuclear-reactors.html
If Entergy’s Arkansas Nuclear One is under high level scrutiny by the nuclear lackey US NRC, vassal to the nuclear industry, then it must be in terrible shape indeed! It is very old. Unfortunately, Arkansas Nuclear One has two nuclear reactors.
http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/doc-collections/news/2016/16-001.iv.pdf A MAN WAS KILLED DURING THE “HEAVY EQUIPMENT HANDLING INCIDENT”.
http://www.nrc.gov/NRR/OVERSIGHT/ASSESS/ANO1/ano1_chart.html
This nuclear reactor is probably what killed Win Rockefeller, though it cannot be “proved”. He died of Myeloproliferative neoplasm. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Winthrop_Paul_Rockefeller Unlike…
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March 2 Energy News
Science and Technology:
¶ After seven months, Solar Impulse 2 has returned to the sky as it prepares to resume its record-setting round-the-world flight. The huge, sun-powered plane, which smashed the longest solo record last summer from Japan to Hawaii, flew a 90-minute maintenance and equipment-checking flight. [ABC 57 News]
After seven months, Solar Impulse 2 has returned to the sky as it prepares to resume its record-setting round-the-world flight.
Opinion:
¶ “Base load” power: a myth used to defend the fossil fuel
industry • At a conference in Houston, leaders of the global fossil power industry were shocked to hear the chairman of the biggest network owner in China dismiss the importance of coal, oil, and “base load” power. [RenewEconomy]
World:
¶ The Government of Western Australia will commit $300,000 to investigate building a micro-grid powered by renewables for the coastal town of Kalbarri. The…
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Japan Diary 2016: Fukushima Daiichi+5
Fukushima today, with hundreds of tanks holding radioactive water. Asahi Shimbun file photo.
As the fifth anniversary of the onset of the continuing Fukushima nuclear disaster approaches, Mary Olson, director of NIRS Southeast office in Asheville, NC and Arnie Gundersen of Fairewinds Associates are on a five-week speaking/listening tour of Japan. We will be posting Olson’s “tour diary” beginning today and continuing with new posts through March 11, the day the disaster began.
I have been to speak at the global Humanitarian Impacts of Nuclear Weapons in Vienna (December 2014) and the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty Review at the United Nations in 2015. Now, finally I am here in Japan for a five-week speaking tour during February and March 2016. Arnie Gundersen of Fairewinds Associates is here too.
In 2011, in the week that this nuclear disaster began, I became consumed by a question that women (3 or 4 of them…
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Another Nukiller CONsultation: WALES
Radiation Free Lakeland have just sent off this ‘submission’ (how we hate that word) to the Welsh Affairs Committee.
We urge others to write opposing plans for new nuclear in Wales (or anywhere!). The “high burn” waste from new build would be many times hotter than from existing nuclear plants.
Please feel free to use any of the ideas in the letter below. The deadline is 6pm Friday March 4th. No need to cover all the “Terms of Reference” the main thing is to object to the whole shebang and you can do that here: http://www.parliament.uk/business/committees/committees-a-z/commons-select/welsh-affairs-committee/inquiries/parliament-2015/nuclear-power-15-16/
RADIATION FREE LAKELAND 27th February 2016
To the Welsh Affairs Committee: “Inquiry into the future of nuclear power in Wales. The inquiry will examine the decommissioning of nuclear plants at Wylfa and Trawsfynydd, and the development of a new plant, Wylfa Newydd”.
Radiation Free Lakeland does not recognize the terms of this inquiry…
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1 This Month
23 April – WEBINAR – Why new nuclear reactors are the wrong tools for decarbonization Thursday, April 23 • 1 AM – 2 AM AEST
World Nuclear Power. Reactors 1951-2026, 75 Years of Nuclear Power.
Interactive Map– https://dv.worldnuclearreport.org/
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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