Explosion at oldest French nuclear plant http://www.beyondnuclear.org/france-whats-new/2012/9/11/explosion-at-oldest-french-nuclear-plant.html The oldest operating French nuclear power plant, at Fessenheim near the German border, suffered a chemical explosion on September 5 that sent 8 workers to the hospital, two of them with steam burns.
This was just the latest set-back for the French nuclear sector which is struggling to maintain a presence overseas but saw its Evolutionary Power Reactor (EPR) all but canceled at the Calvert Cliffs, MD site on August 30. Fessenheim sits on the banks of a river and on an active fault line and has been the object of consistent and large opposition
to its continued operation . At first alarm, it was believed a fire had broken out as 50 firefighters were dispatched to the site, operated by EDF. Later, it was described as a
chemical explosion that released “non-radioactive” steam.
The newly-elected French president, François Hollande, said he would shut the Fessenheim plant during his five-year term which most observers believe means at the end of it, in 2017. Furthermore, his energy minister, Dauphine Batho, has been quoted recently describing nuclear energy as “necessary” and the “energy of the future” causing a flurry
of critical and often derisory articles and commentaries in the French media.
Suicide bombers aimed for Pakistan nuclear plant
Three would-be nuclear power plant assaulters killed in Bhakkar blast: Police http://tribune.com.pk/story/432428/3-killed-as-explosives-go-off-in-bhakkar-house/ By Owais Jafri September 6, 2012 PUNJAB: Police recovered bodies of three suicide bombers from a building near the border of Bhakkar district about 30km away from a nuclear plant in Garot, Khushab district on Thursday. The men, DPO Saifullah Khan Khattak said were terrorists and were planning to attack the nuclear plant.
The bodies were recovered from a devastated building next to a mosque in the village 46 D/B of Ali Khel area near the Bhakkar border. The area is deserted and the mosque and the building served as temporary residence for travellers.
Police officials estimated that the terrorists may have had more companions who had left the area before the police arrived as footprints of more than 12 people along with tracks of heavy vehicles could be seen at the site of the incident.
Police had arrived at the spot almost 11 hours after there were reports of a blast and had initially denied the reports. They had blamed the media for propagating terror in the area, but later confirmed the blast.
According to details, the terrorists were killed when three suicide jackets, each carrying 0.5 kg of explosives, went off as they were planning to leave their temporary residence.
Police have identified two of the terrorists as Mawia Tariq and Omar Irfan, both belonging to Mandi Bahauddin, and have shifted the bodies to DHQ Bhakkar for post mortem.
Investigations are under way to trace the companions of the terrorists and security has been tightened at all entrances of Bhakkar and Khoshab.
Earlier, intelligence reports had suggested that the Taliban were planning an assault on the nuclear power plant in Khushab, following which security around the plant had been beefed up.
French losing faith in nuclear industry following latest incident
confidence is taking a further hit because on 5 September Electricite de France, denied reports of a fire at the Fessenheim nuclear power plant (NPP) in eastern France
Not quite what France’s BFM television reported,…that local authorities said the incident was “the beginning of a fire.”
the “incident” at Fessenheim NPP in fact raises troubling issues about aging French NPPs.
French Nuclear “Incident” Raises Concerns By John Daly | Wed, 05 September 2012 In the 1960s, as the U.S. “Atoms for Peace” program got into full swing, promoting civilian nuclear electricity propagation, no European country bought into the concept more deeply than France.
Seduced by the concept of electricity “too cheap to measure,” France began developing a massive nuclear energy program with minimal public debate after the first oil crisis in 1974 and continued to support nuclear power even after the 1986 Soviet Chernobyl disaster.
The March 2011 debacle at Japan’s Fukushima Daiichi nuclear complex heightened the French public’s concerns, but France abandoning nuclear power is an order of magnitude more difficult than neighbouring Germany. Continue reading
Incident at France’s old Fessenheim nuclear power plant
Accident at France’s oldest nuclear plant. THE AUSTRALIAN, AFP ,September 06, 2012 A STEAM leak due to an accidental chemical reaction at France’s oldest nuclear plant led to two people being slightly burnt and renewed calls to reduce the country’s heavy reliance on atomic energy.
The accident occurred at the Fessenheim nuclear power plant in northeastern France within 1.5km of the border with Germany and about 40km from Switzerland.
“It was not a fire,” the local prefecture said, adding that oxygenated steam had escaped after hydrogen peroxide reacted with water in a reservoir.
About 50 firefighters were deployed, an official from the service said……
France is the world’s most nuclear-dependent country, operates 58 reactors and has been a leading international proponent of atomic energy.
But in a deal with the Greens before this year’s parliamentary and presidential elections, President Francois Hollande’s Socialist party promised to reduce reliance on nuclear energy from more than 75 percent to 50 per cent by shutting 24 reactors by 2025.
France’s reliance on nuclear power has been increasingly called into question since the Fukushima disaster in Japan, which prompted Germany to announce plans to shut all of its reactors by the end of 2022…..
France’s ecology ministry said there was no safety threat. Ecology Minister Delphine Batho termed it a “workplace accident” and promised that “a complete report on this incident will be made public.”
On stream since 1977, Fessenheim has two water reactors. It is built along a huge canal and draws water for cooling from the Rhine river.
Due to its location, it is considered vulnerable to seismic activity and flooding and is provisionally scheduled to close in 2017.
After the scare, former Green presidential candidate Noel Mamere said: “This incident proves that we must close Fessenheim as soon as possible,” adding that it would be better to spend “billions of euros” on developing renewable energy. http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/world/accident-at-frances-oldest-nuclear-plant/story-e6frg6so-1226466141232
Drop in water levels in Fukushima reactors coolant injections
Tepco: “Unknown whether the flow will recover” — No conclusive evidence of why reactors had sudden drop in water injections August 31st, 2012 By ENENews Follow-up to: Trouble injecting water into Fukushima Reactors 1-3 — Flow falls despite increasing coolant level — Tepco unable to identify cause, thinks pipes are clogged
August 31, 2012 report by Kyodo News translated by EXSKF:
After the amount of water being injected into Reactors 1, 2, and 3′s Reactor Pressure Vessels at Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant had temporarily dropped below the level specified in the safety regulations, TEPCO announced on August 31 that the company flushed the pipes […] TEPCO will wait and see if the amount of water injected into the RPVs recovers before deciding whether the second flushing is necessary.
[…]
According to TEPCO’s Junichi Matsumoto, “There is no conclusive evidence to narrow down the possible causes, and it is unknown whether the flow will recover.”
Hanford nuclear waste tank – a new radioactive leak?
Big, radioactive lump in Hanford nuclear-waste tank: Is it leaking? Seattle Times, 21 Aug 12, A discovery at the Hanford nuclear reservation throws into question the integrity of the double-walled steel tanks where radioactive waste is being temporarily stored. Continue reading
USA lucky it was a nun, not a terrorist, breaking into nuke site
“We were lucky in that regard that it was the nun and her cohorts, rather than a serious terrorist outfit,”
Intrusion embarrasses ‘Fort Knox of uranium’, Google News, By ERIK SCHELZIG, Associated Press – 19 Aug OAK RIDGE, Tenn. (AP) — Officials like to refer to the Y-12 National Security Complex as the Fort Knox for highly enriched uranium, which is why an unprecedented incursion by an 82-year-old nun and two fellow protesters has critics mocking the notion that the weapons plant is secure…..
Y-12 makes uranium parts for every warhead in the U.S. nuclear arsenal, dismantles old weapons and is the nation’s primary storehouse for bomb-grade uranium…. Continue reading
For the third time this month, Calvert Cliffs nuclear reactor shut down
Calvert Cliffs nuclear reactor shut down, Control rod malfunction reduces power By Timothy B. Wheeler, The Baltimore Sun, August 13, 2012 Operators of the Calvert Cliffs nuclear power plant in Southern Maryland have shut down one of the two reactors there because a control rod unexpectedly dropped into the reactor core, causing a reduction in power generation, a plant spokesman said Monday.
The incident happened Sunday afternoon, prompting the plant’s staff to shut the reactor down to find and fix the cause of the malfunction, according to Kory Raftery, spokesman for Constellation Energy Nuclear Group. Control rods are used in a reactor to limit the fission taking place among the reactor’s enriched-uranium fuel rods.
An unplanned insertion of a control rod into a reactor core can “create an imbalance in the fissioning and pose challenges for reactor operators,” according to Neil Sheehan, a spokesman for the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. He described it as an infrequent occurrence
among U.S. nuclear plants…… It’s the third unplanned shutdown of Unit 1 in the past month; the reactor was taken out of service twice in July to fix a pair of leaks, ..
http://www.baltimoresun.com/features/green/blog/bs-gr-calvert-nuclear-shutdown-20120813,0,4708290.story
Potentially very dangerous radiation situation at Louisiana sinkhole
Sinkhole: H-Bomb explosion equivalent in Bayou Corne possible Examiner.com
BAYOU CORNE SINKHOLE DISASTER AUGUST 12, 2012 BY: DEBORAH DUPRE Louisiana State of Emergency: Oil and gas sinkhole disaster area risks and rights violations escalating
A possible breach of a butane-filled well 1500 feet from Bayou Corne’s sinkhole, the size of three football fields, is so “very serious,” it has Assumption Parish sheriff and local residents ordered to evacuate worried about a catastrophic explosion, one according to scientists in an Examinerinvestigation, would be in the range of one and a half B83 thermonuclear (hydrogen) bombs, the most powerful United States weapons in active service.
“The disaster is made all the more worrisome because the hole is believed to be close to a well containing 1.5 million barrels of liquid butane, a highly volatile liquid that turns into a highly flammable vapor upon release,” CNNreported Friday about the declared State of Emergency…….
Since Saturday, disaster workers are required to wear respirators, although the public within the disaster area is not.
Government cover up continues angering residents and elected leaders“You can give us a straight answer because that’s all we want,” a woman said at the community meeting Tuesday. “We want to know when we can come home and be safe. Because you all go home after a days work. You’re safe, but we’re not,” she said, expressing sentiments of other locals with whom Dupré has spoken….. http://www.examiner.com/article/sinkhole-h-bomb-explosion-equivalent-bayou-corne-possible?CID=examiner_alerts_article
Palisades nuclear power plant shut down due to another leak
New water leak forces Palisades nuclear power plant to shut down again Michigan Radio 12 Aug 12 By LINDSEY SMITH The leak is somewhere in the containment building, the circular shaped one on the left. That’s where the nuclear reactor is housed. The Palisades Nuclear Power Plant near South Haven is shut down again. This is the second time this summer Entergy Corporation has had to shut down the plant for repairs. Continue reading
Radiation exposure to over 40 Indian nuclear power plant workers
The first accident occurred on June 23 when 38 people were exposed during maintenance work on a coolant channel at the Rajasthan Atomic Power Station in Rawatbhata, senior plant manager Vinod Kumar told AFP.
Two of them received radiation doses equivalent to the annual permissible limit, he said, but all those involved have returned to work.
In a second incident last Thursday, another four maintenance workers at the plant were exposed to tritium radiation while they were repairing a faulty seal on a pipe.
India is on a nuclear power drive, with a host of plants based on Russian, Japanese, American and French technology under consideration or construction. … environmental watchdogs have expressed concerns about safety in India, where small-scale industrial accidents due to negligence or poor maintenance are commonplace and regulatory bodies are often under-staffed and under-funded…..
In May 2011, four labourers were exposed to low levels of radiation at the Kakrapur Atomic Power Station in eastern Gujarat state.
In November 2009, workers at a nuclear plant in southern Karnataka state fell ill after radioactive water contaminated their drinking water. … http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/politics/nation/40-india-nuclear-plant-workers-contaminated-firm/articleshow/15119386.cms
A worker set fire to a nuclear submarine
A Guy Started A Fire On A Nuclear Submarine To Leave Work Early http://www.gizmodo.com.au/2012/07/a-guy-started-a-fire-on-a-nuclear-submarine-to-leave-work-early/ CASEY CHAN 23 July 12, Here’s a friendly reminder for everyone who wants to leave work early: don’t ever set fire to your workplace. Especially if you work on a million nuclear submarine. Continue reading
4 exposed to radiation at Rajasthan n-plant Express news service : Jaipur, Jul 24 2012 In the second such incident in a month, four workers at Rawatbhata Atomic Power Station in Rajasthan were exposed to harmful doses of leaked tritium radiationon July 19. Two persons were exposed to similar radiation on June 29.http://www.indianexpress.com/news/4-exposed-to-radiation-at-rajasthan-nplant/978569/
Stolen vehicle contained radioactive material
Nuclear material on stolen ute TVNZ July 21, 2012 Police fear radioactive material could be released from a nuclear density metre on a utility stolen in Christchurch. Continue reading
Amid USA heatwave, loss of power to cooling equipment brings shutdown to Pennsylvania nuclear reactor
Exelon shuts Pa. Limerick 1 nuclear power reactor, Reuters Jul 19, 2012 By Scott DiSavino July 18 – Exelon Corp shut down the 1,130-megawatt (MW) Unit 1 at the Limerick nuclear power plant in Pennsylvania early Wednesday following an electrical disturbance on the non-nuclear side of the plant, the company said in a release.
The outage came at a bad time for the power grid: Homes and businesses in the U.S. Mid-Atlantic are cranking up their air conditioners amid a brutal heat wave blanketing the region.
The electrical disturbance caused a loss of power to generator cooling equipment, the company said. The unit will remain offline until repairs, inspections and testing are
completed, it said…. http://in.reuters.com/article/2012/07/18/utilities-operations-exelon-limerick-idINL2E8II8A620120718
1 This Month
6 June – WEBINAR- Get Inspired by Protests Against Military Bases!
10 June – Assessing Canada’s Investments in Small Modular Nuclear Reactors – https://zoom.us/meeting/register/IiqHA5feRhaEBycOLNTJlA#/registration
Cuba Is Not a Failed State – It Is a Besieged State
PETITION: “Global Appeal to Endorse Palestinian Right of Return of Refugees”
of the week– Nuclear Reactor Information Task Force
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