2016 July 17 « nuclear-news

5.0-magnitude quake hits eastern Japan; Tokyo checks nuclear power station

An earthquake with a magnitude of 5.0 struck eastern Japan on Sunday(Jul 17)

TOKYO: An earthquake with a magnitude of 5.0 struck eastern Japan on Sunday(Jul 17), Japan’s Meteorological Agency and the US Geological Survey (USGS) said, rattling buildings in Tokyo.

The USGS put the epicentre of the quake 44km northwest of Tokyo at a depth of about 44km. There were no were immediate reports of damage.

Broadcaster NHK reported that the Tokai No. 2 nuclear power station, which has been shut since 2011, was checked for damage after the quake but none was found.

http://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/asiapacific/tokyo-halts-nuclear-power/2963558.html

July 17 Enegy News

geoharvey

World:

¶ In 2011, South Korea’s Gapa Island was selected for an energy self-sufficiency trial project. A total of 14.3 billion won ($12.49 million) was invested in the project. Two 250-kW wind turbines were installed, along with 174 kW of solar panels, and storage. The project saves a lot of money, but there is need for more storage. [The Hankyoreh]

Wind turbines on Gapa Island.

¶ Japanese utility TEPCO, whose nuclear plant in Fukushima suffered a meltdown after the 2011 earthquake and tsunami, has proposed the installation of a 1-MW power plant using a solar-diesel mix in Virac, the capital of the Philippine province of Catanduanes. Funding is sourced through a grant-in-aid program. [Catanduanes Tribune]

¶ By 2050, China hopes to lead efforts to build a $50 trillion global wind and solar power grid that would completely change how the world is powered. China hopes to…

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July 17, 2016 Posted by Christina MacPherson | Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Deceiving a jury about nuclear radiation – Greg Ward, Chad Jacobi, Nigel McBride, Jason Kuchel, Michael Penniment

Nuclear Australia

Bananas, brazil nuts and some other foods contain radioactive potassium-40 — but in extremely low doses. Potassium-40 in bananas has a specific activity of 71 ten millionths of a curie per gram. Compare that to the 88 curies per gram for Cesium-137. This is like comparing a stick of dynamite to an atomic bomb. Our bodies manage the ingested Potassium 40, so that after eating bananas, the excess is quickly excreted and the body’s Potassium-40 level remains unchanged.

The radioactive isotopes that come from nuclear fission (such as strontium -90, cesium -137 and iodine 131) were unknown in nature before atomic fission: our bodies are not adapted to them. And as well as being far more radioactive that Potassium -40, they can accumulate in the body.

I had hoped for something sensible to come out of these Citizens’ Juries. That doesn’t look like happening if the juries continue to be fed this kind of nonsense.

Chocolates, bananas, ionising radiation…

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July 17, 2016 Posted by Christina MacPherson | Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Old Underground Oil Tank Leaking Under Fermi Nuclear Reactor Switchyard

Mining Awareness +

Shouldn’t they have looked before they built this? Does it date from the earlier Fermi reactor?

Location exported from: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enrico_Fermi_Nuclear_Generating_Station
“Power Reactor
Event Number: 52085
Facility: FERMI
Region: 3 State: MI
Unit: [2] [ ] [ ]
RX Type: [2] GE-4
NRC Notified By: BRETT JEBBIA
HQ OPS Officer: DONG HWA PARK
Notification Date: 07/14/2016
Notification Time: 13:01 [ET]
Event Date: 07/14/2016
Event Time: 09:15 [EDT]
Last Update Date: 07/14/2016
Emergency Class: NON EMERGENCY
10 CFR Section:
50.72(b)(2)(xi) – OFFSITE NOTIFICATION
Person (Organization):
MICHAEL KUNOWSKI (R3DO)

OFFSITE NOTIFICATION OF GOVERNMENT AGENCIES OF AN OIL SPILL TO THE ENVIRONMENT

“At 0915 EDT on July 14, 2016, Fermi 2 Environmental Engineering determined that a notification to the State of Michigan Department of Licensing and Regulatory Affairs, Bureau of Fire Services, Storage Tank Division is required regarding discovery of a leaking underground fuel oil storage tank. The underground fuel oil storage tank was unearthed while…

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July 17, 2016 Posted by Christina MacPherson | Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Fukushima System Failure Case Study ( NASA )

Mining Awareness +

“the NAIIC concluded that “the disaster was man-made and the result of collusion between government, the regulators and TEPCO, and a lack of governance by said parties,” citing that the organizational and regulatory systems supported faulty rationales for decisions and actions. Regulators served TEPCO’s business interests through tailored regulation and weak enforcement.“(NASA)

NASA Failure Studies [Comments added in brackets]:
“October 2015 Volume 8 Issue 7

PROXIMATE CAUSE

• Loss of electricity and backup power left the Fukushima complex crippled and unable to adequately cool the reactors

UNDERLYING ISSUES

• Disregard of Regulations

• Poor Safety History

• Lack of Response to Natural Disaster Concerns

AFTERMATH

• Recommendation pertaining to the creation of a permanent committee to deal with issues regarding nuclear power in order to supervise regulators and provide security to the public.

The Great Wave of Reform The Prophetic Fallacy of the Fukushima Daiichi Meltdown

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July 17, 2016 Posted by Christina MacPherson | Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Some restricted zones to be lifted near Fukushima nuclear plant

Soft propaganda from the Asahi Shimbun, supporting the Government lifting of the evacuation order in some of the restricted zones, encouraging people to return into the evacuated zones.

Saying “In some of the areas, however, radioactive contaminants have been washed away by rain or blown away by wind. Radiation from those substances has also dissipated naturally.”

Conveniently omitting to mention, that in many decontaminated places, radiation soon returns to pre-decontamination level, thanks to the accumulated radionuclides of the mountain forests (80% of Fukushima prefecture) always ruisseling down with the rain or carried everywhere by the wind, not mentioning also that something in Fukushima Daiichi still fissioning, releasing radionuclides loaded gassings into the environment.

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A gate is set up on a national road in Okuma, Fukushima Prefecture, restricting entrance to “difficult-to-return zones.” Permits from the central government are required to enter the areas.

For the first time since the 2011 nuclear disaster in Fukushima Prefecture, the government will lift the designation of some “difficult-to-return zones” around the crippled nuclear plant.

The rescinding is expected to be done gradually from around 2021. By that time, the government plans to undertake intensive decontamination work in central districts of municipalities, where residents will likely return, and districts along main roads.

The “difficult-to-return zones,” which cover a total of 337 square kilometers, are areas where the radiation level exceeded 50 millisieverts per year after the accident at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant. Those areas are off-limits, in principle.

In some of the areas, however, radioactive contaminants have been washed away by rain or blown away by wind. Radiation from those substances has also dissipated naturally.

In front of the Environmental Radioactivity Monitoring Center of Fukushima in the central district of Okuma town, the radiation level is now about 9 millisieverts per year, about one-fifth the level of five years ago.

According to the policies of the government and the ruling parties, if radiation levels are reduced to 20 millisieverts or lower in some areas due to decontamination work, people are allowed to live there.

Of the areas, those where residents or workers for decommissioning of crippled nuclear reactors are expected to live will be subject to intensive decontamination work along with areas on both sides of main roads.

The government and the ruling parties will discuss the lifting of “difficult-to-return zones” with seven municipalities, including Okuma, and will make the official decision in August.

However, even if the designation is lifted, it is uncertain if residents will return to their homes.

According to the annual survey conducted by the Reconstruction Agency on evacuees, only about 10 percent of households evacuating from four municipalities around the nuclear plant are hoping to return home.

Before the nuclear crisis occurred, about 24,000 people of 9,000 households were living in areas that are currently designated as “difficult-to-return zones.”

http://www.asahi.com/ajw/articles/AJ201607170022.html

July 17, 2016 Posted by dunrenard | Fukushima 2016 | Contamination, Evacuation Order Lifted, Fukushima continuing, radioactive | Leave a comment

Japan Reverts to Fascism

Tsunami in Japanese politics.

This week, Japan’s Liberal Democratic Party and its coalition partners won a two-thirds majority in the legislature’s upper house, to go along with their two-thirds majority in the lower house. A two-thirds majority is required in each house to begin the process of amending Japan’s constitution. And amending the constitution is one of the central planks in the LDP’s platform.

The constitution was imposed on Japan by the United States after the Second World War; it has never been amended. Why should it be amended now? As Bloomberg reports, the LDP has pointed out that “several of the current constitutional provisions are based on the Western European theory of natural human rights; such provisions therefore [need] to be changed.”

What has the LDP got against the “Western European theory of natural human rights”? you might ask. Well, dozens of LDP legislators and ministers — including Japan’s prime minister, Shinzo Abe — are members of a radical nationalist organization called Nippon Kaigi, which believes (according to one of its members, Hakubun Shimomura, who until recently was Japan’s education minister) that Japan should abandon a “masochistic view of history” wherein it accepts that it committed crimes during the Second World War.

In fact, in Nippon Kaigi’s view, Japan was the wronged party in the war.

According to the Congressional Research Service, Nippon Kaigi believes that “Japan should be applauded for liberating much of East Asia” during WW2, that the “Tokyo War Crimes tribunals were illegitimate,” and that the rape of Nanking was either “exaggerated or fabricated.” It denies the forced prostitution of Chinese and Korean “comfort women” by the Imperial Japanese Army, believes Japan should have an army again — something outlawed by Japan’s current constitution — and believes that it should return to worshipping the emperor.

When, in the wake of Nazi-level war crimes, the U.S. forced Japan to become a liberal democracy, it also forced Japan’s emperor to issue the following statement denying his divinity: “The ties between us and our people have always stood upon mutual trust and affection. They do not depend upon legend and myths. They are not predicated on the false conception that the Emperor is divine, and that the Japanese people are superior to other races and fated to rule the world.”

And members of Nippon Kaigi are still mad.

In 2013, at a Nippon Kaigi party celebrating Shinzo Abe’s new appointments to his cabinet — 15 of whose 18 members were Nippon Kaigi-niks — the old imperial “Rising Sun” flag was flown, pledges to “break away from the postwar regime” were made, and the (very short and controversial) imperial national anthem was sung. The lyrics are addressed to the emperor:

“May your reign Continue for a thousand, eight thousand generations, Until the pebbles grow into boulders Lush with moss.”

The LDP’s draft for an amended constitution would eliminate the prohibition on imbuing religious organizations with “political authority,” clearing the way for the return of state Shintoism and emperor worship.

The draft would also repeal the provision that the “Japanese people forever renounce war as a sovereign right of the nation and the threat or use of force as a means of settling international disputes,” along with the provision that “land, sea, and air forces, as well as other war potential, will never be maintained.” (Not that Japan has, hitherto, been too strict about this particular rule: According to the Credit Suisse Military Strength Index, Japan currently has the fourth-strongest military in the world, behind only the U.S., Russia, and China.)

The new constitution also repeals the right to free speech, adding a clause stating that the government can restrict speech and expression that it sees as “interfering [with] public interest and public order.”

(In fact, Japan’s current government has been working on the free-speech problem for a few years now: According to the Japan Times, in 2014, the internal affairs and communications minister warned that broadcasters could be shut down if they aired programming that the government deemed was “politically biased.” The director of Japan’s public broadcasting corporation — a friend of Prime Minister Abe — has said publicly that it was his policy that the NHK (Japan’s BBC) “should not deviate from the government’s position in its reporting.”

In just the last five years, Japan’s press freedom — as ranked by Reporters without Borders — has fallen from 11th globally to 72nd.

The new draft constitution adds a warning that “the people must be conscious of the fact that there are responsibilities and obligations in compensation for freedom and rights.” These “obligations” include the mandate to “uphold the [new] constitution” and “respect the national anthem” quoted above. Also that “the people must comply with the public interest and public order,” and “the people must obey commands from the state” in times of “emergency.”

But not everyone is bound by these obligations: The Emperor is exempt from the requirement to uphold the constitution. Likewise, the Emperor is required, under the new constitution, to seek “advice” from the cabinet — but not, as he is currently required, to seek “advice and approval.”

If the new constitution is approved by two-thirds of each house of the Japanese legislature, its adoption will be voted on in a national referendum requiring a simple majority. Who can say if 51 percent of Japanese voters would vote against their own civil rights? On the one hand, it seems absurd; on the other, they did give the LDP’s coalition a two-thirds majority in both legislative chambers.

Five years ago, President Obama called for a foreign-policy “pivot to Asia.” With China seizing and militarizing the South China Sea, and North Korea testing delivery systems for its new nuclear weapons, it would probably be a good idea — “pivot to Asia”–wise — not to stand idly by while our most important Asian ally, and the second-richest democracy in the world, reverts to fascism.

http://www.nationalreview.com/article/437950/japans-new-fascism

July 17, 2016 Posted by dunrenard | Japan | Fascism, Freedom of Expression, Freedom of Press, Government, Revisionism | 1 Comment

State minister rules out sarcophagus option

Japan’s state minister for industry has ruled out the option of sealing off disabled reactors at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant with a Chernobyl-style sarcophagus.

Yosuke Takagi met Fukushima Governor Masao Uchibori in Tokyo on Friday.

Uchibori said he was shocked to hear the word “sarcophagus” and called the option unacceptable.

Two days earlier, a government body charged with decommissioning the plant operated by Tokyo Electric Power Company mentioned the sarcophagus method for the first time.

The body said it remained committed to removing fuel debris from the reactors that suffered meltdowns in the March 2011 accident. But it presented a technical report that left room for entombing the reactors in a massive metal and concrete structure.

Responding to Uchibori, Takagi said the government has no intention of using such an option, and that completing the decommissioning process is the top priority.

Takagi said the government’s policy is to stand by the people of Fukushima, and that his ministry has told the decommissioning body to rewrite its technical report.

http://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/en/news/20160715_27/

July 17, 2016 Posted by dunrenard | Fukushima 2016 | Fukushima Daiichi, METI, Ruled Out, Sarcophagus | Leave a comment

Radioactive Forest

July 9, 2016

The Fukushima nuclear accident in 2011 turned the surrounding towns into a desolate land, making the area into a “radioactive forest”. Without human presence, the land is roamed by wildlife like civets, macaques and wild boars. A project is underway to study the deserted areas by attaching a camera to wild boars to record the conditions of the former farmlands. 5 years after the disaster, we take a close look at how radiation has affected the wildlife, and what it entails for us humans.

July 17, 2016 Posted by dunrenard | Fukushima 2016 | Contaminated Forests, Contamination, Fukushima continuing, Wildlife | Leave a comment

Preventing Recriticality in Fuel Debris at Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station

This video released on July 16, 2016 by Tepco intends to explain the conditions of the fuel retained in the reactors of Units 1-3 at Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station, and TEPCO’s measures to prevent recriticality- return to a point at which a nuclear reaction becomes self-sustaining- in the fuel debris there.

July 17, 2016 Posted by dunrenard | Fukushima 2016 | Fuel Debris, Fukushima Daiichi, Recriticality, Tepco | Leave a comment

Kagoshima’s new governor vows to halt Sendai nuclear plant for safety checks

KAGOSHIMA – Incoming Kagoshima Gov. Satoshi Mitazono says he plans to ask Kyushu Electric Power Co. to suspend operation of the Sendai nuclear power plant for safety checks.

In an interview on Wednesday, Mitazono said he will make the request to the utility at a yet to be decided date to examine the effects of powerful earthquakes that hit nearby Kumamoto and Oita prefectures in April.

The former TV commentator was elected Sunday as governor of the only prefecture in Japan with an operating nuclear power plant.

During campaigning, Mitazono pledged to halt its operation.

“I will require Kyushu Electric to temporarily suspend the operation” for a survey of nearby faults and a review of evacuation plans to ensure safety, he said.

“There are many citizens in this prefecture concerned about the nuclear power plant operating after the quakes in Kumamoto,” he said.

Prefectural governors are not authorized to stop the operation of a nuclear reactor, but utilities require local consent to restart them.

Backed by an anti-nuclear camp, Mitazono defeated incumbent Yuichiro Ito, who allowed two reactors at the Sendai complex to be reactivated last year.

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2016/07/14/national/kagoshimas-new-governor-wants-sendai-nuke-plant-halted-faults-evacuation-routes-checked/#.V4he2LgrLIU

July 17, 2016 Posted by dunrenard | Japan | Halt Pledge, Kagoshima Governor, Sendai NPP | Leave a comment

Iodine jelly to be handed out to infants living within 30 km of nuclear plants

As a reminder:

A fallout, is the residual radioactive material propelled into the upper atmosphere following a nuclear reaction conducted in an unshielded facility, so called because it “falls out” of the sky after the explosion and the shock wave have passed. It commonly refers to the radioactive dust which can also originate from a damaged nuclear plant. Fallout may take the form of black rain (rain darkened by particulates).

This radioactive dust, consisting of material either directly vaporized by a nuclear blast or charged by exposure, is a highly dangerous kind of radioactive contamination.

Some radiation taints large amounts of land and drinking water causing formal mutations throughout animal and human life.

Iodine tablets only protect the thyroid gland from the Iodine 131, it does not protect anyone from the other occuring fallout radionuclides: ⁹¹Sr, ⁹²Sr, ⁹⁵Zr, ⁹⁹Mo, ¹⁰⁶Ru, ¹³¹Sb, ³²Te, ¹³⁴Te, ¹³⁷Cs, ¹⁴⁰Ba, ¹⁴¹La, ¹⁴⁴C etc. Iodine 131 has also a very short half-life, 8 days, meaning a full life of 80 to 140 days, whereas most of the other fallout radionuclides have a much longer life span. By example Cesium 134 has a half life of 2 years, a full life of 20 to 30 years, Strontium 90 a half life of 28,8 years, a full life of 288 to 432 years, Cesium 137 a half life of 30 years, a full life of 300 to 450 years.

Another thing, even if the population with the Fukushima catastrophe was only evacuated within a 30km radius, the Fukushima March plume has spread heavily within a 90km radius and less heavily up to a 250km radius.

Iodine jelly to be handed out to infants living within 30 km of nuclear plants

The Cabinet Office said it will soon start distributing iodine jelly to infants living within 30 km of nuclear power plants in a bid to protect their thyroids from possible radiation exposure in the event of a nuclear disaster.

According to the office, about 110,000 infants qualify for the iodine jellies.

There are 21 prefectures where the 30-km radius applies. In addition, infants living within three other prefectures — Kanagawa, Osaka and Okayama — which have nuclear fuel processing facilities are also part of the initiative.

Some local governments have been distributing iodine tablets to all residents for over three years, including in a tablet form for infants that would have to be crushed and mixed with syrup in the event of an accident. But to date this had not been in an iodine jelly form.

The local governments will receive about 300,000 packages, starting as early as this fall, which have a shelf life of three years, the Cabinet Office said.

There are two types of iodine jelly: one for babies under 1 month old and another for those over 1 month and up to 3 years.

Taking the jelly or tablets is supposed to stop the thyroid glands from absorbing iodine contained in radiation in the event of a nuclear disaster, as iodine tends to accumulate in the thyroid.

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2016/07/14/national/iodine-jelly-works-infants-living-within-30-km-japans-nuclear-plants/#.V4g-Ed_TvEJ.facebook

July 17, 2016 Posted by dunrenard | Japan | Iodine Tablets, Iodine-131, Radiation Protection, Radionuclides | Leave a comment