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The News That Matters about the Nuclear Industry Fukushima Chernobyl Mayak Three Mile Island Atomic Testing Radiation Isotope

How green is the UK Government’s nuclear energy strategy?

Small modular reactors have been touted as a solution to reaching net-zero – but how safe are they and will they do the job?

By Lucie Heath, Environment Correspondent, 28 Dec 23,  https://inews.co.uk/news/how-green-is-the-governments-nuclear-energy-strategy-2824596

The Government has pledged to boost the country’s nuclear energy capacity, setting itself a target to power a quarter of the national grid with nuclear energy by 2050.

But i has revealed that the transition to nuclear energy has been beset by delays, prompting former prime pinister Boris Johnson to urge Rishi Sunak to “get on with it”.

Mr Johnson has been a vocal supporter of nuclear energy and has championed the development of new small modular nuclear reactors (SMRs).

SMRs have been touted as a key solution as the world transitions towards a net-zero future, but some have raised questions regarding the green credentials and viability of the technology.

Here i fact-checks the key claims with regards to SMRs.

Nuclear is low carbon

True or False: True

Ed. comment. That’s as long as you don’t count the CO2 emissions from the full nuclear fuel cycle, and the waste disposal methods.

Nuclear power is considered to be a low carbon source of energy. It has a minimal carbon footprint of around 15–50 grams of CO2 per kilowatt hour (gCO2/KWh), compared to an average footprint of around 450 gCO2/KWh for a gas powered generator and 1,050 gCO2/KWh for coal.

According to the International Energy Association (IEA), over the past 50 years the use of nuclear power has reduced CO2 emissions by over 60 gigatonnes – nearly two years’ worth of global energy-related emissions.

While nuclear produces far less CO2 than fossil fuels, environmentalists dispute its green credentials, not least due to the high volume of radioactive waste created as part of the fuel cycle.

SMRs will play a key role in the energy transition

True or False: Jury’s out

Small modular reactors have many potential benefits that overcome some of the hurdles of traditional nuclear reactor sites.

Their smaller size means that can be placed in locations not suited to large power plants and the modular nature of their design means they should be cheaper and quicker to build.

But as of 2023, only Russia and China have successfully built operational SMRs, and neither are in commercial use.

Mr Johnson’s plan to have the UK’s first SMRs contributing to the grid by 2030 looks increasingly unlikely. Rolls-Royce, which was one of the winners of a Government competition to develop them in the UK, recently told MPs its project could be contributing to the grid by 2031-32 at the very earliest.

MPs sitting on the Science, Innovation and Technology Committee recently published a report that described the Government’s nuclear strategy as more of a “wish list” and said ministers need to make it clearer what role SMRs will play in the energy transition.

SMRs are cheaper to build

True or False: Unclear

This section fails to mention the one and only commercial application of small nuclear reactors - the NuScale attempt in the USA, which was a financial fiasco, and had to be cancelled.

One of the largest hurdles to the deployment of nuclear energy are the huge costs of developing new plants. In theory, SMRs should be cheaper to build due to their size and modular nature, allowing for prefabrication.

However, it is not known exactly what the cost will be to the public purse of developing new SMRs in the UK.

The Environmental Audit Committee recently launched an inquiry into the topic, saying it was “currently unclear what financing models will be used to fund SMRs”.

Critics of nuclear argue it would be wiser to spend money on the deployment of renewable energy, which is cheaper to build.

SMRs are safer

True or false: True in theory

Safety has proved to be a massive issue preventing wider uptake of nuclear energy in the past. Incidents such as the 2011 Fukushima nuclear accident have sparked greater fears regarding the vulnerability of plants during a natural disaster, while nuclear stations can also be a risk during times of conflict, such as in Ukraine.

Proponents of SMRs say they are safer than traditional reactors, partly because their smaller core produces less heat, reducing the likelihood of overheating. A number of other innovations exist in their design which in theory should reduce the risk of failure.

While seen as being safer than large plants, SMRs are still associated with many of the same risks as traditional nuclear.

December 30, 2023 Posted by | environment, Small Modular Nuclear Reactors, UK | Leave a comment

Inside the Pentagon’s Painfully Slow Effort to Clean Up Decades of PFAS Contamination

By Hannah Norman and Patricia Kime / Kaiser Health News, December 28, 2023

Oscoda, Michigan, has the distinction as the first community where “forever chemicals” were found seeping from a military installation into the surrounding community. Beginning in 2010, state officials and later residents who lived near the former Wurtsmith Air Force Base were horrified to learn that the chemicals, collectively called PFAS, had leached into their rivers, lakes, and drinking water…………………………………….

PFAS chemicals have been linked to increased cholesterol levels, preeclampsia in pregnant women, decreased birth weights, and decreased immune response to vaccines, as well as certain types of cancer. A federal study of U.S. military personnel published in July was the first to show a direct connection between PFAS and testicular cancer, and the chemicals have been linked to increased risk of kidney cancer…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………. more https://scheerpost.com/2023/12/28/inside-the-pentagons-painfully-slow-effort-to-clean-up-decades-of-pfas-contamination/

December 30, 2023 Posted by | environment, USA | Leave a comment

Fukushima: Japan’s Triple Threat in Spades

BY JOHN LAFORGE, CounterPunch ,15 Dec 23

“………………………… Dumping prompts major seafood import bans

Japan intends to disperse over 1.34 million tons of the contaminated wastewater to the Pacific. The government and international regulators have declared that the pollution will have a “negligible” impact on sea life and human health. Skeptical governments in 15 countries maintain import restrictions on Japanese fish and other seafood. China fully banning imports of fishery products from Japan from Aug. 24 when the wastewater discharge started. According to Food Navigator online, five states with the strictest bans are geographically close to Japan and fiercely oppose the radioactive waste dumping. They are South Korea, Taiwan, China, Hong Kong, and Macau. Ten others — Indonesia, French Polynesia, the U.S., the European Union (27 states), Iceland, Switzerland, Norway, Liechtenstein, Russia, and Singapore — require certification, inspections, etc. before allowing imports.

China’s ban has had a serious impact on Japan’s fishery. According to the BBC, China imported over 100,000 tons of scallops from Japan last year. The South China Morning Post reports that China had been the world’s biggest buyer of Japanese seafood, but now “says its ban is due to food safety fears.”

Another micro dosing of mushrooms

Mushrooms grown in Yamahashi prefecture, 172 miles southwest of Fukushima, were found with high levels of radioactive cesium, Japan’s Ministry of Health reported. The edible mushrooms had 150 becquerel of cesium-per-kilo, but the state allows 100 “Bq/kg”. The United States is more at ease with people eating cesium, and allows 1,200 Bq/kg. The U.S. doesn’t even make an exception for baby food.

Fisheries minister apologizes for stating fact

Information control and media manipulation by Japan’s government was on display in August, after Minister of Fisheries Tetsuro Nomura said publicly that Tepco was dumping “contaminated water” into the Pacific.  Nomura was immediately attacked by editors, industry, and politicians for his “error” in not speaking of “treated water” — the state’s official term of art. In fact, the wastewater is poisoned with radioactive tritium, carbon-14, and (before “treatment”) some 62 radioactive elements picked up through contact with mounds of melted uranium and plutonium reactor fuel. The minister publicly apologized for his “gaffe” after being scolded by the Prime Minister himself, Fumio Kishida.

Third round of wastewater dumping protested

In November, Tepco began its third major discharge. The group Korean Peoples’ Action Against Japan’s Ocean Dumping of Radioactive Wastewater said problems with the process include clogged wastewater filters, and an increase in the concentration of radioactive material in the third discharge compared to the second. Likewise, the Pacific Collective on Nuclear Issues, composed of civil society groups, NGOs, and others in the Pacific region, said in a statement, “If the Japanese government and Tepco believe the radioactive wastewater is safe, they should be prepared to safely dispose of it within terrestrial Japan.”

The Collective also reminded the 52nd meeting of Pacific Island Forum states in Cook Island that the panel of scientific experts commissioned by the Forum found that “data provided so far, to support Japan’s claim that the treated wastewater is safe, is inconsistent, unsound, and therefore far from reliable.” Additionally, the Polynesian bloc attending the Forum (including Niue, Cook Islands, Samoa, American Samoa, French Polynesia, Wallis and Futuna, Tuvalu and Tonga) demanded a pause in Japan’s dumping.

Wastewater accident contaminates five workers

Tepco has reported that five workers accidentally came in contact with radioactive “fluid” while cleaning ocean dumping discharge pipelines. Two of them were contaminated enough to be kept under medical observation, China Daily reported November 6. According to Tepco, a doctor said there was a possibility the two men sustained burns due to radiation exposure. The Daily, which has been highly critical of Japan’s wastewater discharging, demanded to know: “[S]ince four of the five workers ‘were wearing protective gear and full-face masks, which prevented ingestion of the fluid,’ how could the ‘fluid’ splash and burn the ‘lower body and both arms’ of one of them, and why the other worker, whose  ‘entire body was found to be exposed,’ was allowed to do the dangerous work without wearing any protective gear?” The Daily’s editors declared that the “Accident proved Japan’s toxic water plan dubious.”

Editors plaster “safe” over risky discharge

“IAEA confirms safe tritium levels in latest ALPS treated water release at Fukushima,” was the November 7 headline Nuclear Engineering International magazine used in its report on Tepco’s wastewater dumping. However, the article itself had no such confirmation. IAEA experts monitoring the discharge only said that the concentration of radioactive tritium in the waste was “far below Japan’s operational limit.” The word “safe” did not appear in the article or the IAEA report. The article’s text was factually accurate since there is no safe level of radioactive contamination. Like hundreds of others in the sane position, the magazine’s editors put the word “safe” into the IAEA’s mouth and turned the reporter’s story into a lullaby.

Area forests are a re-contamination source

Editors plaster “safe” over risky discharge

“IAEA confirms safe tritium levels in latest ALPS treated water release at Fukushima,” was the November 7 headline Nuclear Engineering International magazine used in its report on Tepco’s wastewater dumping. However, the article itself had no such confirmation. IAEA experts monitoring the discharge only said that the concentration of radioactive tritium in the waste was “far below Japan’s operational limit.” The word “safe” did not appear in the article or the IAEA report. The article’s text was factually accurate since there is no safe level of radioactive contamination. Like hundreds of others in the sane position, the magazine’s editors put the word “safe” into the IAEA’s mouth and turned the reporter’s story into a lullaby.

Area forests are a re-contamination source

Jim Smith, a Professor of Environmental Science at the University of Portsmouth, wrote in The Conversation October 23, that “Radiocaesium [cesium-137], which is the most important long-lived radioactive element emitted by the accident in terms of radiation dose, adheres to soil particles very strongly. Consequently, the decontamination of agricultural land primarily involved removing the top 5cm [about 2 inches] of topsoil. In urban areas, decontamination efforts entailed the removal of soil from sports fields”, school yards and other public areas.

However, as much as 71% of Fukushima Prefecture is covered by forest, and most of it remains contaminated. “Restrictions on the consumption of forest products have lasted for decades following the 1986 Chernobyl incident. And they are expected to persist in many forested areas of Fukushima too,” Prof. Smith wrote. Rainwater runoff from these forests creates routine downstream re-contamination of previously decontaminated areas. Additionally, forest fires can redistribute radioactivity still on trees and the forest floor creating inhalation risks — the same way fire regularly plagues the radioactive exclusion zone around the Chernobyl wreckage in Ukraine. https://www.counterpunch.org/2023/12/15/fukushima-japans-triple-threat-in-spades/

December 19, 2023 Posted by | environment | Leave a comment

Atomic Kittens! Locals invaded by ‘radioactive’ cats after workers at UK’s most hazardous site nicknamed ‘nuclear Narnia’ feed 100 strays…but are they a myth?

  • Protestors claim Europe’s largest nuclear facility is jeopardising safety of locals
  • Sellafield facility chiefs hotly deny that the cats pose any risk to public safety

Protestors have claimed villagers living close to a giant
facility known as the UK’s ‘nuclear Narnia’ have been invaded by swarms of
‘radioactive’ cats. Strays roaming wild across the Sellafield nuclear site
on the Cumbrian coast pose a risk because they are ‘literally pooing
plutonium’, the anti-nuke campaigners say.

The colony of feral cats grew
after they were fed scraps by workers at Sellafield, which is Europe’s
largest nuclear facility, and sheltered under the warmth of giant steam
pipes for decades.

The group, called Radiation Free Lakeland (RAFL), claim
to have consulted experts and found that the cats’ faeces contain
detectable traces of plutonium and caesium. A theory firmly denied by
chiefs at Sellafield, who say the strays – nicknamed ‘atomic kittens’ by
locals – pose no risk to the public. However, MailOnline has seen documents
which prove some of Sellafield’s 11,000 employees have been threatened with
disciplinary action if they feed the cats because it encourages them to
congregate around the offices.

 Daily Mail 9th Dec 2023

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12836429/radioactive-cats-invade-hazardous-site.html

December 11, 2023 Posted by | environment, UK | Leave a comment

The beautiful little UK seaside village torn apart by nuclear power station fight

Fierce battle raging over Sizewell C in Suffolk is in stark
contrast to the tranquil nature of this picturesque historic fishing
village. Despite its relaxing vibes, this tiny historic fishing village is
at the centre of a bitter battle over whether a massive nuclear power
station should be built on its shores.

It is a struggle that could not only
determine Sizewell’s future, but the whole of Britain’s. Were it not
for its existing power station and plans to build an even bigger one next
door, you would never have guessed that this small, remote place would be
at the centre of a struggle of national importance.

 Express 7th Dec 2023

https://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/1842407/sizewell-suffolk-nuclear-power-station-fight

December 11, 2023 Posted by | environment, UK | Leave a comment

Sellafield: ‘bottomless pit of hell, money and despair’ at Europe’s most toxic nuclear site

Described as a nuclear Narnia, the site is a source of economic support for Cumbria – and a longstanding international safety concern.

by Anna Isaac and Alex Lawson, 5 Dec 23  https://www.theguardian.com/business/2023/dec/04/sellafield-money-europe-toxic-nuclear-site-cumbria-safety

Ministers who visit Sellafield for the first time are left with no illusions about the challenge at Europe’s most toxic nuclear site.

One former UK secretary of state described it as a “bottomless pit of hell, money and despair”, which sucked up so much cash that it drowned out many other projects the economy could otherwise benefit from.

For workers, it is a place of fascination and fear.

“Entering Sellafield is like arriving in another world: it’s like nuclear Narnia,” according to one senior employee. “Except you don’t go through a cupboard, you go through checkpoints while police patrol with guns.” Others call it nuclear Disneyland.

Sellafield, a huge nuclear dump on the Cumbrian coast in north-west England, covers more than 6 sq km (2 sq miles). It dates to the cold war arms race, and was the original site for the development of nuclear weapons in the UK in 1947, manufacturing plutonium. It was home to the world’s first full-scale commercial nuclear power station, Calder Hall, which was commissioned in 1956 and ceased generating electricity in 2003.

It has been at the centre of disaster and controversy, including the Windscale fire of 1957. The blaze was considered one of the worst nuclear incidents in Europe at the time, and carried a plume of toxic smoke across to the continent. The milk from cows on 200 sq miles of Cumbrian farmland was condemned as radioactive.

Sellafield began receiving radioactive waste for disposal in 1959, and has since taken thousands of tons of material, from spent fuel rods to scrap metal, which is stored in concrete silos, artificial ponds and sealed buildings. A constant programme of work is required to keep its crumbling buildings safe and create new facilities to contain the toxic waste. The site is expected to be in operation until at least 2130.

The estimated cost of running and cleaning up the site have soared. Sellafield is so expensive to maintain that it is considered a fiscal risk by budgetary officials. The latest estimate for cleaning up the Britain’s nuclear sites is £263bn, of which Sellafield is by far the biggest proportion. However, adjustments to its treatments in accounts can move the dial by more than £100bn, more than the UK’s entire annual deficit. The cost of decommissioning the site is a growing liability that does not count towards the calculation of the UK’s net debt.

Sellafield is owned by the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority, a quango sponsored and funded by the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero that is tasked with cleaning 17 sites across the UK.

The site has a workforce of 11,000, with its own railway, road network, laundry services for normal and potentially radioactive garments, and its own police force with more than 80 dogs. It has almost 1,000 buildings.

Sellafield’s impact on the environment has been a longstanding concern. Local animals, including swallows, have been found to carry radioactive traces from the site with them. Debate rages locally over just how toxic the “atomic kittens” – stray cats that inhabit the site – may be. Sellafield says cats are screened for radioactivity before they are rehomed.

The activities at the site are a matter of significant scrutiny to countries including the US, Norway and Ireland, given that Sellafield hosts the largest store of plutonium in the world and takes waste from countries such as Italy and Sweden.

Excellent table here on original, showing current status of the world’s nuclear reactors

Norwegians have long feared the effects of an accident at the site, with modelling suggesting that prevailing south-westerly winds could carry radioactive particles from a large incident at the site across the North Sea, with potentially devastating consequences for its food production and wildlife.

Norway and Ireland were involved in efforts to halt the release of technetium-99, a radioactive metal, into the sea by Sellafield. In 2003, Norway accused Sellafield of ruining its lobster business.

Jobs at Sellafield are often considered to be a golden ticket, according to sources, as the site offers long-term employment with above-average wages in a region with few big employers.

Sellafield is at the heart of the so-called “nuclear coast” in West Cumbria, sandwiched between the Lake District national park and the Irish Sea. At its southern end, BAE Systems in Barrow-in-Furness builds nuclear submarines. Land neighbouring the site has long been earmarked for a new nuclear power station but plans for Moorside collapsed in 2018 when the Japanese conglomerate Toshiba walked away.

December 6, 2023 Posted by | environment, UK, wastes | Leave a comment

Sellafield has contaminated the Irish Sea with plutonium.

CORE – Cumbrians Opposed to a Radioactive Environment, December 2023

http://corecumbria.co.uk/alternative-tour-of-sellafield/irish-sea/

Sellafield discharges two million gallons of radioactive water into the Irish Sea every day at high tide. This includes a cocktail of over 30 alpha, beta and gamma radionuclides. BNFL admits that radioactive discharges in the 1970’s were 100 times those of today. As a result of these discharges, which include around half a tonne of plutonium, the Irish Sea has become the most radioactively contaminated sea in the world. Caesium-137 and Iodine-129 from Sellafield have spread through the Arctic Ocean into the waters of northern Canada and are having a bigger impact on the Arctic than the Chernobyl accident. Sellafield’s gas discharges of Krypton can be measured in Miami.

The guinea pigs in a ‘deliberate scientific experiment’ to find out levels of contamination in the food chain, were the Cumbrian people and their environment. Claiming then that the radioactive materials discharged from the 2km pipeline would dilute and disperse into the wider oceans, the industry clearly got it wrong, with high levels of radioactive discharge material washed ashore and trapped in the coastal sands and sediments.

A leading government-backed scientist from East Anglia University discovered that plutonium particles, concentrated in waves breaking on the shore, was being blown over West Cumbria, as far as 37 miles inland.This was confirmed by analysis of vacuum cleaner house dust samples taken up and down the coast by a National Radiological Protection Board investigation.

That Sellafield plutonium gets everywhere was shown in post-mortem examinations of former Sellafield workers. Concentrations of hundreds and in one case thousands of times higher than in the general population were found. Cumbrians who never worked at the plant had plutonium levels ranging from 50% to 250% above the average compared to elsewhere in Britain. Atomic Energy Authority scientist, Prof. Nick Priest, studied the teeth of over 3000 young people throughout Britain and Ireland. He found traces of Sellafield plutonium in varying doses, the highest doses being closest to Sellafield.

In November 1983 a team of Greenpeace divers tried to block the Sellafield underwater discharge pipe. When they emerged from the water, their Geiger counters revealed that they were seriously contaminated. It was only when they publicised this fact that BNFL admitted to having problems with their radioactive discharges and that a tankfull of ‘radioactive crud’ had been flushed out to sea. As radioactive flotsam was being washed ashore, posing a danger to health, the Department of the Environment effectively closed the beach and warned the public not to use the fifteen-mile stretch of shoreline north and south of Sellafield. This advice stayed in force for a full six months. In June 1985 BNFL faced a three-day trial, was found guilty and fined £10,000.

BNFL’s own environmental monitoring figures for the first quarter of 1997 revealed alarmingly raised levels of Technetium 99 in seaweed samples from the West Cumbrian coast. A Tc-99 level of 180,000 Bq/Kg in seaweed was sampled from Drigg, just south of the plant. This compared to a level of 71,000 Bq/Kg sampled in the previous quarter and to a level of just 800 Bq/Kg in 1992. Via the food chain Tc-99 is now found in duck eggs, and the use of locally harvested seaweed as a garden fertiliser has led to the discovery of Tc-99 in locally grown spinach. Irish Sea lobster have shown a similar alarming rise from 210 Bq/Kg in 1993 to 52,000 Bq/Kg in 1997 – over 40 times the EU Food Intervention Level set as a safety level for foodstuffs contaminated following a nuclear accident. Raised levels of Tc-99 were subsequently found in Norwegian lobsters.

A wide range of fish, shellfish and molluscs continue to show varying degrees of radioactive contamination from Sellafield’s discharges.

December 5, 2023 Posted by | environment, UK | Leave a comment

Japan’s Fukushima plant completes third water release

Canberra Times By Mari Yamaguchi, November 20 2023 – Australian Associated Press

The release of a third batch of treated radioactive wastewater from Japan’s damaged Fukushima nuclear plant into the Pacific Ocean ended safely as planned, its operator says, as the country’s seafood producers continue to suffer from a Chinese import ban imposed after the discharges began.

Large amounts of radioactive wastewater have accumulated at the nuclear plant since it was damaged by a massive earthquake and tsunami in 2011.

It began discharging treated and diluted wastewater into the ocean on August 24 and finished releasing the third 7800-ton batch on Monday.

The process is expected to take decades.

The discharges have been strongly opposed by fishing groups and neighbouring countries including China, which banned all imports of Japanese seafood, badly hurting Japanese producers and exporters of scallops and other seafood……………………………………………………

Japan’s government has set up a relief fund to help find new markets for Japanese seafood, and the central and local governments have led campaigns to encourage Japanese consumers to eat more fish and support Fukushima seafood producers.

TEPCO is also providing compensation to the fisheries industry for “reputational damage” to its products caused by the wastewater release and said it has mailed application forms to 580 possible compensation seekers…………………………..

TEPCO and the government say the process is safe, but some scientists say the continuing release of water containing radionuclides from damaged reactors is unprecedented and should be monitored closely.

Monday’s completion of the release of the third batch of wastewater brings the total to 23,400 tons.

TEPCO plans a fourth release by the end of March 2024.

That would only empty about 10 of the approximately 1000 storage tanks at the Fukushima plant because of its continued production of wastewater, although officials say the pace of the discharges will pick up later.

Storage tanks for radioactive water are seen at Tokyo Electric Power Co’s (TEPCO) tsunami-crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant in Okuma town, Fukushima prefecture, Japan February 18, 2019. Picture taken February 18, 2019. REUTERS/Issei Kato

The tanks currently hold more than 1.3 million tons of wastewater, most of which needs to be retreated to meet safety standards before release.

TEPCO and the government say discharging the water into the sea is unavoidable because the tanks need to be removed from the grounds of the plant so that it can be decommissioned.  https://www.canberratimes.com.au/story/8430646/japans-fukushima-plant-completes-third-water-release/

November 21, 2023 Posted by | Fukushima continuing, oceans | Leave a comment

Frozen fallout: radioactive dust from accidents and weapons testing accumulates on glaciers.

Physics World, 20 Jun 2023 James Dacey

Glacier surfaces in certain parts of the world contain concerning amounts of toxic radioactive materials, a result of weapons testing and nuclear accidents such as the Chernobyl disaster in 1986. Fallout radionuclides accumulate within cryoconite – a granular sediment found in holes on glacier surfaces – and there is a risk of this material entering local ecosystems as glaciers melt due to climate change. Glaciologists and ecologists say this poses urgent questions. What regions are at highest risk? How diluted is the nuclear material entering proglacial zones? What impact might that have on organisms?…..

more https://physicsworld.com/a/frozen-fallout-radioactive-dust-from-accidents-and-weapons-testing-accumulates-on-glaciers/
—

November 16, 2023 Posted by | climate change, environment, radiation | Leave a comment

Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant starts 3rd round of wastewater release, potentially impacting seafood quality in U.S.

 The Daily Universe, Belle Lewis, November 14, 2023

The Fukushima-Dachii nuclear plant started its third release of nuclear wastewater on Nov. 2 as scientists warn that seafood products from the Pacific Ocean could be contaminated.

Although the International Atomic Energy Agency approved the 30-year water release plan, scientists and civilians in nations bordering the Pacific Ocean have questioned the safety of the plan, especially as it relates to seafood.

In a press release approving of the plan, the IAEA stated, “the discharges of the treated water would have a negligible radiological impact to people and the environment.”

Paul Dorfman, member of the Irish Government Environmental Protection Agency Radiation Protection Advisory Committee and chair of Nuclear Consulting Group, explained that some scientists have questioned IAEA’s approval of the water release.

“I and others are concerned by IAEA’s attitude,” Dorfman said. “Normally even low levels of radioactive pollution will find its way into local seafood, one way or another.”

In 2020, Japan exported 332,926 kilograms of frozen scallops to the U.S. Japan exports many fish products to the U.S.

Samantha Valeriano, a psychology student from Hawaii, said she eats seafood about once a week. She does not often think about where her food comes from but wants to be more cautious following the nuclear water release.

“I think I would be a little more cautious of what I ate, checking labels a little bit more,” Valeriano said. “I would be conscious of what I ate and where it came from.”

As the People’s Republic of China has imposed bans of Japanese fish exports, the U.S. has supported the Japanese market by increasing fish purchases.

In a press release, the United States Embassy and Consulate in Japan explained that military bases in Japan will carry Japanese seafood as a way to buoy up seafood markets and undermine the PRC’s ban.

“United States elected representatives and senior government officials have stood in solidarity with Japan during this baseless ban,” the statement said. “Another step to help provide additional sales to counter the ban was to start selling Japanese seafood at the U.S. military facilities in Japan, both through the commissaries and mess halls.”

According to the statement, government officials like former speaker Kevin McCarthy ate seafood from Japan as a testament to Japan’s safety standards.

However, other U.S. agencies, like the National Association of Marine Laboratories question whether accurate research was conducted by the IAEA and Japanese Government to determine safety of seafood products.

They explain that the lack of data on potential health impacts is a cause for serious concern.

“Many of the radionuclides contained in the accumulated waste cooling water have half-lives ranging from decades to centuries, and their deleterious effects range from DNA damage and cellular stress to elevated cancer risks in people who eat affected marine organisms, such as clams, oysters, crabs, lobster, shrimp and fish,” the statement reads.

Eve Nagareda, medical laboratory science major from Hawaii, shared she wants to avoid seafood from dumping grounds even if levels are considered safe.

“I think I would try to go as far as possible from it,” Nagareda said…………………………………………………………………………..

On Sep. 8, the IAEA conducted seawater sampling off the Japanese Coast. They recorded Tritium levels below the internationally mandated limit of 1,500 bequerels per liter.

Dorfman explained that below-accepted tritium levels does not mean that the ALPS is functioning properly.

“The Japan government and IAEA say that the treatment is sufficient, and levels of radiation, especially tritium, in the water releases are low.” Dorfman said. “However, others note that the treatment process has already failed once before, and may let through a series of radioisotopes, not only tritium.”

A pre-publication scientific paper found that radionucleotides from the Fukushima plant will distribute globally and penetrate into the deep ocean. The highest concentration of these particles would be along the eastern coast of Japan.

This paper contradicts assertions made by the IAEA that once the water is dumped into the Pacific Ocean, the particles will dilute.

Radiation experts often say that “dilution isn’t the solution to pollution,” according to Dorfman.

Why release the water?

After the water is released, the land the tanks occupy will be available for the Japanese government to build facilities to fully decommission the Fukushima-Daiichi Plant.

In the greater scheme of things, it has to be said that the main issue at Fukushima remains the almost impossible task of trying to extract the nearly 880 tonnes of highly radioactive nuclear fuel that have melted in three of the plant’s six reactors,” Dorfman said.

According to Dorfman, decommissioning is far off.

“We are a very very long way away from decommissioning Fukushima,” Dorfman said. “At the moment, there are no feasible plans to do so.”

What is the future of nuclear energy?

As the Fukushima nuclear water release continues its third phase and looks toward its 30-year release plan, scientists like Dorfman consider the overall effectiveness of nuclear power and its potential risks.

“The weight of evidence shows that due to the pace, scale and economics of the renewable evolution, all nuclear can do is make promises it just can’t keep,” Dorfman said.

Dorfman continued to explain how renewable energy will outstrip nuclear soon.

“Nuclear is quite simply just marginal,” Dorfman said. “In terms of cost, time, and do-ability — it’s renewable expansion in all sectors, energy efficiency and management, rapidly advancing storage technologies, grid modernization, interconnection and market innovation from supply to service provision that will power the global net-zero energy transition.”

As Nuclear wastewater disposal continues, organizations like the IAEA and NAML continue to debate the potential health impacts. https://universe.byu.edu/2023/11/14/fukushima-nuclear-power-plant-starts-third-round-of-wastewater-release-potentially-impacting-seafood-quality-in-u-s/

November 16, 2023 Posted by | Fukushima continuing, oceans | Leave a comment

Collective calls on Pacific leaders to oppose Fukushima nuclear wastewater discharge

 https://news.cgtn.com/news/2023-11-12/Pacific-leaders-urged-to-oppose-Fukushima-nuclear-wastewater-discharge-1oG0b179xE4/index.html

The Pacific Collective on Nuclear Issues has denounced once again the dumping of radioactive wastewater from the damaged Fukushima nuclear power plant into the Pacific Ocean, calling on Pacific leaders to suspend Japan’s status as a Pacific Islands Forum (PIF) dialogue partner.

The Collective, composed of civil society groups, non-governmental organizations and movements in the Pacific, issued a statement this week, during which the 52nd Pacific Islands Forum Leaders Meeting was held in the Cook Islands.

The statement condemned the Japanese government and the facility operator, Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO), for insisting on this flawed and dangerous course of action.

“The findings of the independent panel of scientific experts commissioned by the Pacific Islands Forum were unequivocal – the data provided so far, to support Japan’s claim that the treated wastewater is safe, is inconsistent, unsound and therefore far from reliable,” the statement said, adding that “if the Japanese government and TEPCO believe the radioactive wastewater is safe, they should be prepared to safely dispose of it within terrestrial Japan.”

The Collective also declared that such dumping into the Pacific Ocean is a direct violation of human rights.

Aside from being a brazen violation of international law, the Collective said, Japan’s behavior and handling of this matter is an affront to the very sovereignty of Pacific states and unbecoming of a dialogue partner of the PIF.

Founded in 1971, the PIF is the region’s premier political and economic policy organization which comprises 18 members.

The Collective called on the Pacific leaders to reaffirm the long-held position of the Pacific to keep their region nuclear-free and to review diplomatic relations with Japan at the next Pacific Islands Forum Leaders Meeting in 2024.

They also called on the international community not to turn a blind eye to the threat that dumping radioactive wastewater into the Pacific Ocean poses to Pacific peoples, their livelihoods, safety, health and well-being.

Japan conducted the third round of release of nuclear-contaminated wastewater from the crippled Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant into the Pacific Ocean earlier this month, despite numerous and repeated objections by governments and communities, environmental groups, NGOs, and anti-nuclear movements in Japan and the Pacific

November 14, 2023 Posted by | Fukushima continuing, OCEANIA, oceans, politics international, wastes | Leave a comment

Pacific island nations express concern over Fukushima water release

Japan Times, AVARUA, COOK ISLANDS – 11 Nov 23

Leaders of Pacific island nations expressed strong concerns over the release of treated radioactive water from Japan’s wrecked Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant into the Pacific Ocean during a regional summit, according to Cook Islands Prime Minister Mark Brown.

Brown, who currently chairs the Pacific Islands Forum, said Thursday there were “strong concerns” raised by “our forum leaders for the significance of potential threats of contamination to the health and security of the blue Pacific.”

The bloc’s 18 members have expressed differing views on the treated wastewater discharge from the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant, which began in late August, after extensive dialogue between the member states and Japan………………………………………………….

The leaders’ meeting began in the Cook Islands Monday, with the main talks taking place Wednesday and Thursday on Rarotonga, the country’s most populous island, and Aitutaki.

The Pacific Islands Forum comprises Australia, the Cook Islands, Micronesia, Fiji, French Polynesia, Kiribati, the Marshall Islands, Nauru, New Caledonia, New Zealand, Niue, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, the Solomon Islands, Tonga, Tuvalu and Vanuatu.  https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2023/11/11/japan/politics/japan-pacific-island-nations-fukushima-water-release/

November 13, 2023 Posted by | Fukushima continuing, OCEANIA, oceans | Leave a comment

Accident proves Japan’s toxic water plan dubious

By LI YANG 2023-11-06 https://www.chinadaily.com.cn/a/202311/06/WS65483427a31090682a5ec88b.html

Despite the strong opposition at home and abroad, Tokyo Electric Power Company, the owner of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant which was damaged in the 2011 earthquake-generated tsunami, started the third release of the radioactive water from the plant into the sea on Nov 2.

The release will continue until Nov 20, with TEPCO planning to dump about 7,800 tons of the nuclear-contaminated water into the sea this time. The company claims the wastewater to be discharged has limited concentration of radioactive tritium. But the radioactive waste sputtering accident that happened last week raises doubts on the credibility of TEPCO’s claim.

As TEPCO itself said, five workers “accidentally” came in contact with the radioactive “fluid” while cleaning the pipelines used to “detoxify “the nuclear-contaminated water at the Fukushima plant on Oct 25, and two of them, after being “decontaminated” for treatment, will be kept under medical observation.

Although, according to the company, a doctor said the possibility of both men sustaining burns due to radiation exposure was low, the radiation levels in the bodies of the two men did not fall below the standard threshold of 4 becquerels per square centimeter despite the initial treatment at the plant.

The accident exposes the ineffectiveness of the so-called Advanced Liquid Processing System the company uses to treat the radioactive water accumulated at the plant. Also, TEPCO has not explained why and how “the hose used to drain waste liquid containing radioactive substances into a tank became detached” while the workers “were washing (the processing facilities) by pouring nitric acid into the piping”.

The Japanese government claims the ALPS is reliable, and the water obtained after being treated using the ALPS is safe enough to “drink”.So it should explain how only about 100 milliliters of the “fluid” was enough to cause such a serious accident.

It also needs to answer the public’s query that since four of the five workers “were wearing protective gear and full-face masks, which prevented ingestion of the fluid”, how could the “fluid” splash and burn the “lower body and both arms” of one of them, and why the other worker whose “entire body was found to be exposed”, was allowed to do the dangerous work without wearing any protective gear?

The accident shows Japan’s claim of the radioactive water being “safe” to be released into the sea is questionable, and the risks associated with the disposal process of the radioactive water should not be underestimated. #nuclear #antinuclear #nuclearfree #NoNukes

November 8, 2023 Posted by | Japan, oceans | Leave a comment

Dounreay: New two radioactive particles found at Sandside beach

 Two new radioactive particles have been found at Sandside beach near
Dounreay. The discoveries, reported this week, were found on September 27
and October 16, and are categorised as “minor”. The depth of the
earlier find could not be ascertained due to tides, but the more recent
particle was at a depth of 8cm. The total number of finds at Sandside in
2023 now stands at five. Dounreay says that “an important part of the work
to close down Dounreay is to address the legacy of radioactive particles in
the marine environment around the site”.

 John O’Groat Journal 1st Nov 2023

https://www.johnogroat-journal.co.uk/news/dounreay-new-two-radioactive-particles-found-at-sandside-be-331553/ #nuclear #antinuclear #nuclearfree #NoNukes #radiation

November 5, 2023 Posted by | environment, UK | Leave a comment

Taiwan Cabinet officials clarify that nuclear power is not “green”

BY GIORGIO LEALI, OCTOBER 31, 2023  https://en.rti.org.tw/news/view/id/2010213

A Cabinet spokesperson on Wednesday said that nuclear power does not qualify as “green energy”, despite recent comments made by Premier Chen Chien-jen (陳建仁). Cabinet Spokesperson Lin Tze-luen (林子倫) was responding to Chen’s comments in the legislature the previous day. 

During questions from legislators on Tuesday, Chen said that nuclear energy is green energy, but that the issue of nuclear waste disposal must also be taken into account. Lin says that several people including Chen himself and Economic Minister Wang Mei-hua (王美花) have all made clarifying comments. Wang in her comments said that although nuclear power generates very few emissions, that does not necessarily define it as “green”. She says that is why international environmental organizations such as RE100 do not list nuclear energy as green.

Lin says that some media reports did not faithfully report the full context of the premier’s comments, which could be misleading. He adds a nuclear-free Taiwan remains the national consensus and that the government’s position has not changed. He says the government continues to move ahead with its four goals of reducing coal, increasing gas, developing green energy, and denuclearizing. He adds that the government will also continue working toward the goal of net-zero carbon emissions by the year 2050. #nuclear #antinuclear #nuclearfree #NoNukes

November 3, 2023 Posted by | environment, politics, Taiwan | Leave a comment

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