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69 safety incidents and “near misses” on UK nuclear submarines

submarine,-nuclear-underwatReactor incidents on new nuclear subs double in one year, Herald Scotland, 21 Feb 16   The Royal Navy’s new nuclear-powered submarines have been plagued by 69 safety incidents and “near misses” over the last four years.

The Astute class of submarines based at Faslane on the Clyde has seen reported reactor incidents at sea or on shore almost double from 12 in 2014 to 21 in 2015. Though the MoD insists that the incidents are all minor, critics warn that they undermine the boats’ reliability and safety………

According to the independent nuclear engineer John Large, the submarines were suffering serious problems. “This continuing experience of the Astute class reactor problems not only imperils the boats when at sea but is likely to result in cutbacks to the number of patrols, voyage durations and the extent of roaming of the high seas,” he said.

John Ainslie, coordinator of the Scottish Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, pointed out that Astute submarines had been involved in a series of mishaps, including running aground on the Isle of Skye. “It is only a matter of time before one of these incidents results in a serious nuclear accident,” he said……..http://www.heraldscotland.com/news/14291467.Reactor_incidents_on_new_nuclear_subs_double_in_one_year/

February 22, 2016 Posted by | incidents, UK | Leave a comment

Stolen Radioactive Material: What Is Iridium-192?

 Live Science, by Tia Ghose, Senior Writer   |   February 18, 2016 Some security experts are worried that a cache of radioactive material reportedly stolen from an oil field in Iraq could be used by organizations such as the Islamic State group to produce a dirty bomb.

A laptop-size case with about 0.35 ounces (10 grams) of the material, called iridium-192, allegedly went missing from an oil field storage facility in Basra that is run by the American company Weatherford,Reuters reported. Both the company and the Iraqi government declined to confirm the report.

“We are afraid the radioactive element will fall into the hands of Daesh,” a senior security official with the Iraqi government, told Reuters, using an Arabic acronym for the Islamic State group, also called ISIS. “They could simply attach it to explosives to make a dirty bomb.” [Doomsday: 9 Real Ways Earth Could End]……..http://www.livescience.com/53773-what-is-radioactive-iridium-192.html

February 22, 2016 Posted by | incidents, Iraq | Leave a comment

Belgian terror suspect had video of high ranking nuclear official

safety-symbol-SmBelgium Finds Video of Nuclear Official at Home of Terrorism Suspect, NYT By MILAN SCHREUER and ALISSA J. RUBINFEB. 18, 2016 PARIS — A suspect linked to the Nov. 13 Paris attackers was found with surveillance footage of a high-ranking Belgian nuclear official, the Belgian authorities acknowledged on Thursday, raising fears that the Islamic State is trying to obtain radioactive material for a terrorist attack.

The existence of the footage, which the police in Belgium seized on Nov. 30, was confirmed by Thierry Werts, a spokesman for Belgium’s federal prosecutor, after being reported in the Belgian daily newspaper La Dernière Heure.

The news set off an immediate uproar among Belgian lawmakers, who charged that they and the country had been misled about the extent of the potential threats to the country’s nuclear facilities, as well as about the ambitions of the terrorist network linked to the Islamic State that used Belgium to plot the Paris attacks, which killed 130 people.

The International Atomic Energy Agency also confirmed on Thursday a report by Reuters that radioactive material had gone missing since November in Iraq, where the Islamic State controls broad areas of territory, adding to fears that the group may be able to acquire material for an attack with newly disconcerting dimensions.

The Belgian news media, citing sources close to the investigation, said that the surveillance footage had been retrieved from the home of Mohamed Bakkali, who was arrested after the attacks and is in detention on charges of terrorist activity and murder.

Belgian officials have asserted privately that Mr. Bakkali may have been involved in planning several attacks, not only those in Paris. There are currently eight people in detention in Belgium and charged with involvement in the November attacks.

The purpose of the footage retrieved by the Belgian police was not clear. But experts and officials speculated that it could have been part of a plot to abduct the nuclear official, who was not identified but had access to secure areas of a nuclear research facility in Mol, and force him to turn over radioactive material, possibly for use in a dirty bomb.

Sébastien Berg, a spokesman for Belgium’s Federal Agency for Nuclear Control, confirmed that the agency had been informed right away of the existence of the footage and said that employees had been told to increase their vigilance on the work floor. But he acknowledged that no additional guards had been hired or other measures taken to secure the perimeters of Belgium’s nuclear sites.

“We took increased security measures at all four Belgian nuclear sites, based on the general raised security alert in the country and on concrete indications that showed that the terrorists involved in the Paris attacks had the intention to do something involving one of our four nuclear sites,” Mr. Berg said.

Those sites include two power plants and a private company that produces medical isotopes, in addition to the facility in Mol, where scientists conduct research and experiments on radioactive waste to try to find safer ways to store it and reduce damage to the environment, Mr. Berg said.

One experiment being carried out involves the stocking of nuclear waste in bunkers dozens of meters underground, he said, adding that the facility had large stocks of nuclear waste on hand.

Members of Belgium’s Parliament expressed outrage in a regular session Thursday, saying that the interior minister, Jan Jambon, had told them in January that there was no specific threat to nuclear facilities……..

Extremist organizations have long expressed interest in obtaining radioactive material, and there is a market for stolen nuclear waste. News reports in October documented at least four attempts by Russian gangs to sell radioactive material in Moldova, which were thwarted by local officials in concert with the United States’ Federal Bureau of Investigation.

The International Atomic Energy Agency identified the material missing in Iraq as iridium-192, a highly radioactive isotope that is sometimes sought for use in dirty bombs.

Mr. Berg said that, if acquired, the material at the site in Mol could also be used to make a dirty bomb, which would spread radioactive material over the whole impact zone……. http://www.nytimes.com/2016/02/19/world/europe/belgium-nuclear-official-video-paris-attacks.html?_r=0

February 19, 2016 Posted by | EUROPE, incidents | Leave a comment

Paris terrorist attackers had planned to target Belgian nuclear reactors

cyber-attackJihadists who carried out Paris terror attacks had planned to target Belgian nuclear plants, investigators reveal, Daily Mail, 19 Feb 16 

  • Paris terrorist ‘spied on’ Belgian nuclear official using a video camera
  • Target was a director of Belgium’s nuclear research and development
  • It is believed the group were planing attacks on Belgian nuclear plants
  • The attacks in Paris on November 13 left 130 dead and 352 injured
  • For the latest on the Paris attackers visit www.dailymail.co.uk/ParisAttacks

By SARA MALM FOR MAILONLINE and AFP REPORTER

The Paris terrorist attackers had also planned attacks on Belgian nuclear plants, local media reports.

Belgian investigators have found hours of video footage of a senior Belgian nuclear official filmed at the person’s home in the Flanders region.

It is believed that the group that carried out the horrific Paris attacks on November 13 last year, killing 130 and injuring 352, had spied on the person as part of research for an attack.

The ten-hour long video footage obtained by Belgian officials showed the front door of the home of a director of Belgium’s nuclear research and development programme.

The footage was discovered ‘as part of seizures made following the Paris attacks,’ the prosecutor added, refusing to divulge the individual’s identity ‘for obvious security reasons’. ………http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3452454/Jihadists-carried-Paris-terror-attacks-planned-target-Belgian-nuclear-plants-investigators-reveal.html

February 19, 2016 Posted by | EUROPE, safety | Leave a comment

St Louis underground fire moves closer to radioactive trash dump

landfill West Lake St LouisUnderground Fire in Mo. Nears Nuclear Waste Dump, Discovery News,  FEB 18, 2016 BY PATRICK J. KIGER  IN THE ST. LOUIS AREA, A SLOW-BURNING UNDERGROUND FIRE IS CLOSE TO A VAST STORE OF NUCLEAR WASTE BURIED IN A FEDERAL SUPERFUND SITE.

The fire reportedly has been smoldering beneath a nearby landfill since at least 2010. The Washington Post reports that residents are afraid of what may happen if the fire — which is by some accounts as little as 1,500 feet away –reaches the West Lake Landfill in Bridgeton, Mo., a Superfund site filled with decades-old waste from the federal government’s nuclear weapons program. Angry locals also think the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, which manages the site, hasn’t done enough to stop the fire.

In December, the EPA announced that it would install a physical barrier in an effort to isolate the nuclear waste. The agency also said that it would put cooling loops and other engineering controls to prevent environmental impacts if the “subsurface smoldering event,” as it’s called, were to reach the waste. An EPA administrator told the Post that the barrier would take a year to build.

But residents aren’t comforted by that timetable, and think the government, despite years of warning, has done too little to stave off a possible environmental disaster. A 2014 St. Louis County Emergency Operations Plan, obtained by a local TV station, reveals that local officials feared a “catastrophic event” with “a potential for radioactive fallout to be released in the smoke plume and spread throughout the region.”……

About 8.700 tons of nuclear waste, mixed with 39,000 tons of contaminated soil was moved to the Superfund site from another dump between July and October 1973, according to a U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission report. It was covered by a three-foot-deep layer of uncontaminated soil.

EPA may be running out of time to fix the problem. In early February, the U.S. Senate passed a bill introduced by Sens. Claire McCaskill, (D-Mo.), and Roy Blunt (R-Mo.), that would take control over the building remediation measures away from EPA and give it to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. The House hasn’t yet taken action on the legislation.

But Congress may bear some responsibility for the agency’s slowness. According to a 2015 Government Accountability Office report , legislators cut EPA’s funding for cleanup of Superfund sites by nearly half since the late 1990s. http://news.discovery.com/earth/underground-fire-in-mo-nears-nuclear-waste-dump-160218.htm

February 19, 2016 Posted by | safety, USA, wastes | Leave a comment

Defective pressure vessel could seal the tomb of the EPR nuclear reactor

pressure vessel olkiluotoFrench Nuclear Safety Authority has discovered a serious fault in the construction of the pressure vessel http://www.bridgwatermercury.co.uk/news/14275656.LETTER__the_French_Nuclear_Safety_Authority_have_discovered_a_serious_fault_in_the_construction_of_the_pressure_vessel/  Allan Jeffery, Bridgwater 14 Feb 16   Before Hinkley C can be built, the EPR reactor of the same design being built at Flamanville in France must be completed and be established generating before 2020, or else the UK government’s guarantees and financial agreements fall apart.

So it is not surprising that EDF tried to go unnoticed as it drove a convoy carrying the steel lid and pressure vessel from Chalon, where it was produced across France to Flamanville, though this was documented and publicised by Greenpeace last week.

 These two parts, the pressure vessel and lid, could signal the final death tomb of the dream French EPR nuclear reactor, because they do not meet the high quality safety standards required for nuclear technology.

In April the French Nuclear Safety Authority, (the ASN) discovered a very serious default in the composition of the steel used in the pressure vessel. Tests showed excessive presence of carbon, which makes the steel more brittle and subject to breakage. The pressure vessel contains the huge amounts of atomic fission energy in the core.

EDF was quick to minimise the problem and promised other tests. If EDF was serious with the safety measures the company should await the validation of the ASN of the test results that might be released in late 2016 or early 2017.

As Yannick Rousselet from Greenpeace France quoted, “Once again, EDF is turning a blind eye to all the issues, continuing as though no one else would notice and going forward anyway until there is no turning back.”

The nuclear industry is desperate and that new failure in safety could have serious consequences, not only in France, but also in China (Taishan) and England at Hinkley Point, which are among the other vessels produced with the same steel.

If the tests confirm the safety problem, EDF would have to replace the whole vessel, and have to break open and remove the first pressure vessel at Flamanville, adding huge costs and further delays, which would bring the final blow to the industrial jewel already dying.

This defective lid could seal the tomb of the EPR reactor!

 

February 15, 2016 Posted by | France, safety, UK | Leave a comment

Radioactive packages lost or stolen in Canada

safety-symbol-Smflag-canadaNuclear and Radioactive Packages Keep Going Missing in Canada, VICE News By Justin Ling
February 13, 2016 If you’ve ever lost your wallet or car keys, you’ve got something in common with the people who run Canada’s nuclear facilities, who keep misplacing nuclear and radiological material.

Last year alone, 14 radioactive packages were lost or stolen, according to the annual report from the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission (CNSC), and less than half were later recovered. That’s on top of the dozen of other nuclear packages from recent years that have yet to be found.

The report doesn’t detail the circumstances of the losses or thefts, except to say that they were either “sealed sources” — a secure container carrying nuclear or radioactive material — or “radioactive devices.”

The lapses, at a time when security services pledge neurotic devotion to tracking and recovering dangerous goods that could reach the black market, are thanks in part to a handful of private companies that are mishandling radioactive material. n the nuclear watchdog’s 2014/2015 annual report, it identified 27 companies that were mislabeling or mishandling nuclear material, or which had inadequate security protections.

In some cases, CNSC lightly rapped the knuckles of companies, including a New Brunswick brewery which, according to the government body, had “several non-compliances related to safety requirements for nuclear gauges.”

Pump House Brewery, at the time, told CBC News that the problem amounted to some missed paperwork.

In other cases, the problems were more serious and resulted in fines…….https://news.vice.com/article/nuclear-and-radioactive-packages-keep-going-missing-in-canada

February 13, 2016 Posted by | Canada, incidents | Leave a comment

Russia’s aging nuclear reactors, and the Kola station shutdown

Kola nuclear plant shutdown blamed on deteriorated cable, ending silence on the malfunction, Bellona,  February 11, 2016 by , The cause of a surprise reactor shutdown at Russia’s Kola Nuclear Power Plant’s No 4 reactor on Tuesday was finally explained by the station’s press service as “deterioration of the insulation of a power cable in the course of conducting scheduled tests on an auxiliary systems’ pump.

The initial emergency shutdown of the reactor on Tuesday morning at about 9:37 am Moscow time was originally reported without an explanation – something nuclear experts on Russia said is exceedingly rare, and cause for concern.

The reactor’s age and clearances to run above nominal generating capacity near the city of Murmansk added to worries during the day-long silence on why the No 4 unit had been pulled from the grid……..

To what extent the burnt-out cable represents any threats to safety, however, will only be clear after an investigation by a committee to be appointed by Rostekhnadzor, Russia’s Federal Service for Environmental, Technological and Nuclear Oversight.

According to Andrei Ozharovsky, a Moscow-based nuclear adviser with Bellona, such investigations can be protracted for months, and their results aren’t generally made public.

Worries arose about the sudden, and initially unexplained shutdown because of two aspects in the reactor’s operational history.

First, the reactor, which is a VVER- 440 unit, is running on a 25-year engineering lifespan extension, meaning it will not be taken out of service until 2039, when it’s 60 years old….

Second, the reactor since 2012 has been a part of an experiment to run at various intervals at 107 percent its nominal production capacity. The reactor had also been run at expanded capacities in 1986 and 1987 under Soviet rule, but the Chernobyl disaster of 1986 mothballed that for almost a decade and a half.

Alexander Nikitin, chairman of the Environmental Rights Center Bellona said on Thursday by email that, “it’s not important here how long the reactor has worked or will work – what’s important is that they allowed [such extensions] to begin with.”

As to the experiments in boosting No 4’s power output, Nikitin said, “Difficulties can arise when a reactor is operated at any power, even at the minimum controllable level – but the official decision to stretch the power output and all other corresponding parameters to above normal, of course, adds to risks.”……

The Kola Nuclear Plant’s No 3 reactor in 2011 received 25-year operational extension, pushing its closure back to 2036.

The plant is likewise expecting to get the nod to run the No 3 reactor at boosted power outputs of 104 to 107 percent.

The boosted power regimens are not specific to Russia’s Kola nuclear station. Another six of Russia’s 31 reactors are operating above nominal capacity.

All four of the Balakovo nuclear stations periodically operate at 104 percent, and one of the reactors at the Rostov nuclear plant has clearance to run at 107 percent. http://bellona.org/news/nuclear-issues/2016-02-kola-nuclear-plant-shutdown-blamed-on-deteriorated-cable-ending-silence-on-the-malfunction

February 13, 2016 Posted by | Russia, safety | Leave a comment

Fire/Explosion Reported at North Carolina Nuclear Plant

Officials: safety-symbol-SmFlag-USA— Emergency Alert Declared — Fire/Explosion occurred after “unexpected power decrease” in reactor — “Emergency response facilities staffed” — “Abnormal event with potential to impact plant equipment or public health and safety” (VIDEO) http://enenews.com/officials-emergency-alert-declared-nuclear-plant-fireexplosion-reported-after-unexpected-power-decrease-reactor-emergency-response-facilities-staffed-abnormal-event-potential-impact-public-he?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+ENENews+%28Energy+News%29

U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Feb 8, 2016 (emphasis added): Facility: BRUNSWICK [Nuclear Plant in N.C.]… Emergency Class: ALERT… EMERGENCY DECLARED… RPS [Reactor Protection System] ACTUATION – CRITICAL… MANUAL SCRAM AND ALERT DECLARATION DUE TO ELECTRICAL FAULT RESULTING IN FIRE/EXPLOSION… Unit 1 declared an Alert… due to an explosion/fire in the Balance of Plant 4 kV switchgear bus area.Prior to the Alert declaration, the operators initiated a manual SCRAM due to an unexpected power decrease from 88% to 40%. The licensee has visually verified that there isno ongoing fire and is investigating the initial cause of the event… [T]he licensee reported the following… “a manual reactor scram was initiated due to loss of both recirculation system variable speed drives as a result of an electrical fault. At this time, a Startup Auxiliary Transformer (SAT) experienced a lockout fault; interrupting offsite power to emergency buses 1 and 2. Emergency Diesel Generators (EDGs) 1, 2, 3, and 4 automatically started”… The licensee has notified… DHS, FEMA, USDA, HHS, DOE, DHS NICC, EPA… FDA… and Nuclear SSA…

WWAY, Feb 7, 2016: Electrical damage sets off alert at Brunswick Nuclear Plant… An Alert is the second in increasing significance of four nuclear emergency classifications.

WECT, Feb 8, 2016: [Unit 1] remains in shutdown mode, while officials work through “detailed process/procedures to fully understand this event and make the needed repairs”… An alert… is used when abnormal events have the potential to impact plant equipment or public health and safety… No estimated timeline has been given for getting Unit 1 back into service.

North Carolina Department of Public Safety, Feb 7, 2016: Duke Energy notified the emergency management agencies… of damaged electrical equipment at the Brunswick Nuclear Plant…

Duke Energy, Feb 7, 2016: Alert declared and exited at Brunswick… federal, state and local officials were notified, and Brunswick plant emergency response facilities were staffed…

Watch WWAY’s broadcast here

February 12, 2016 Posted by | incidents | Leave a comment

At Pilgrim nuclear power plant, security officer skipped more than 200 fire watches

safety-symbol-SmNRC: Nuclear plant employee skipped assigned fire watches http://www.bostonherald.com/news/local_coverage/2016/02/nrc_nuclear_plant_employee_skipped_assigned_fire_watches Associated Press Thursday, February 11, 2016 PLYMOUTH, Mass. — The owner of the Pilgrim nuclear power plant in Plymouth faces possible punishment from federal regulators because a former security officer admitted to skipping his hourly fire watches then falsifying records to make it appear as if they been completed.

In a letter to Entergy, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission said its investigators found the security officer skipped more than 200 fire watches from 2012 to 2014.

An NRC spokesman tells the Cape Cod Times (http://bit.ly/1KHRoIV ) that Entergy could be assessed a civil fine of up to $140,000 per day per violation, but at this point a civil penalty will likely not be assessed.

Entergy says its own investigation reached a similar conclusion. The employee was fired. Entergy is still considering how it will respond.

Pilgrim has been scheduled to close by 2019.

February 12, 2016 Posted by | incidents, USA | Leave a comment

Armed transport ships spotted in Panama Canal, headed for secret mission to later transport plutonium

ship radiationUK-Flagged Ships Set to Transport Plutonium from Japan to US Located in Panama Canal  http://www.srswatch.org/uploads/2/7/5/8/27584045/srsw_news_on_plutonim_ships_in_canal_feb_6_2016.pdf Ships on Secret Mission to Carry 331 Kilograms of Plutonium to US DOE’s Savannah River Site in South Carolina as Part of Nuclear Security Summit Preparation; Plutonium to be Stranded at SRS 

Two armed transport vessels on a secret mission to retrieve weapons-grade plutonium in Japan and transport it to the U.S. Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site (SRS) in South Carolina have been located in the Panama Canal. The spotting of the ships confirms their route to Japan and that their mission is plutonium transport, according to the public interest group Savannah River Site Watch, whose personnel have tracked such ships for more than 20 years.
The specialized nuclear transport ships are slated to carry 331 kilograms of plutonium to the U.S. as part of alleged nuclear non-proliferation efforts in connection to the upcoming Nuclear Security Summit. The ships had vanished from the public eye on their departure on January 19 from the United Kingdom.
The Pacific Egret and Pacific Heron, based in Barrow-in Furness, UK and operated by the private company Pacific Nuclear Transport Limited (PNTL), entered the canal on the afternoon of February 5 and exited into the Pacific Ocean after a 9-hour transit. Webcams operated by the Panama Canal were cut off as the ships approached the canal entrance, an ineffectual and ridiculous effort to hide their passage from the public and that did nothing to enhance the security of the empty ships.
As 236 kilograms of the plutonium originated in the UK, the US has failed to present any justification for its transport to South Carolina, where DOE is struggling to find a “disposition” path for 13 metric tons of plutonium already at SRS. 93 kilograms are of US-origin and 2 kilograms originated in France. The materials were sent as far back as the 1960s to Japan for testing of “fast” nuclear reactors. At the Nuclear Security Summit in March 2014, the US and Japan pledged to remove plutonium and highly enriched uranium from the facility where the material is stored at the Tokai nuclear site.
“We strongly object to foreign-origin plutonium coming into South Carolina when DOE’s program to manage surplus weapons plutonium is in shambles,” said Tom Clements, director of Savannah River Site Watch (SRS Watch). “As DOE’s plutonium fuel (MOX) project has totally failed, it’s time for DOE to live up to its commitment to remove plutonium from South Carolina and not bring in more with no viable disposition path out of the state.”
After an intense 5-day ship-spotting effort led by Cumbrians Opposed to a Radioactive Environment (CORE), based near the UK’s Sellafield nuclear site, and joined by SRS Watch, the ships were detected upon entering the crowded waters on the approach to the Atlantic side of the Panama Canal. The navigation beacons (Automated Information System – AIS), which had been turned off before the ships departed the UK, were turned on as the vessel neared the entrance of the canal. Both public interest organizations had predicted on the ships’ departure that they were bound for Japan and would travel via the Panama Canal.
The empty vessel are expected to arrive in Japan in about 25 days to pick up the plutonium now stored at the Fast Critical Assembly (FCA) at Tokai. In an environmental document prepared by DOE and released on December 28, 2015, up to 900 kilograms of plutonium in a number of countries is slated to be taken to the Savannah River Site for storage and unknown disposition, an issue which is causing growing concern in South Carolina.
At the Nuclear Security Summit in March 2014, the US and Japan pledged to remove plutonium and highly enriched uranium from the Fast Critical Assembly. The upcoming shipment will not be concluded before the summit in Washington, DC on March 31-April 1.
While some will celebrate this removal of the plutonium from Japan, it will do nothing to address the fact that Japan now has a plutonium stockpile of about 10.5 metric tons, according to SRS Watch. “While officials may declare the plutonium removal a non-proliferation success at the upcoming Nuclear Security Summit, the fact remains that Japan’s plutonium stockpile and efforts to increase that stockpile through operation of a new reprocessing plant pose far greater proliferation risks,” said Clements. “To focus on the real risks of weapon-usable plutonium in Japan, the summit must issue a demand that Japan halt its program to reprocess spent fuel and cease accumulation of more plutonium.”
On the 55-day return voyage to the naval port in Charleston, South Carolina, DOE has said that the ships carrying their plutonium cargo would not utilize the Panama Canal given the security risks associated when passing near land.
To document the passage of the ships through the Panama Canal, numerous screen shots and screen photos were made of a site that tracks vessels – www.marientraffic.com. Many of those images are posted at the bottom of the photo section on the SRS Watch website.

February 10, 2016 Posted by | - plutonium, Japan, safety, secrets,lies and civil liberties, USA | Leave a comment

A catelogue of safety failures revealed in mock nuclear accident tests

safety-symbol1flag-UKTop secret mock nuclear accidents reveal catalogue of failures, The Ferret, Rob Edwards on February 9, 2016 Top secret mock nuclear accidents testing the responses of the military and emergency services have revealed numerous mistakes that would have led to “avoidable deaths”, according to official assessments.

The Ministry of Defence (MoD) was so concerned about the problems that it carried out “an overarching, fundamental review” of arrangements for handling serious nuclear weapons incidents behind closed doors last year.

Assessments of emergency exercises by the MoD’s internal watchdog, theDefence Nuclear Safety Regulator (DNSR), expose a string of mishaps including life-threatening delays, equipment shortages, coordination failures and communication breakdowns. One report criticises officials for “substantially understating” the scale of the dangers facing the public in a staged briefing for the media.

The MoD took more than two years to agree to hand over reports on three nuclear bomb exercises in 2011 and 2012, despite freedom of information lawrequiring documents to be released within 20 working days. The reports, redacted by the MoD to keep details confidential, are being published today by The Ferret, in tandem with The Guardian (see below).

Two of the exercises imagined aircraft carrying nuclear weapons ingredients crashing and spreading plutonium and other radioactive contamination up to five kilometres away. They were both codenamed Astral Bend, one taking place at the Caerwent military base in south Wales on 24 February 2011, the other at Heyford Park in Oxfordshire on 27 March 2012.

At the 2011 exercise there was a major mix-up over how to deal with contaminated casualties. The fire service was criticised by DNSR for refusing to allow ambulance teams to take away seriously injured people until they had been decontaminated.

“The interpretation of the absolute necessity to decontaminate every casualty or person from within the determined “hot zone” did, and would in the event of such an incident, lead to avoidable deaths,” concluded the DNSR report………

DNSR pointed out that exercises had shown the need for “an overarching, fundamental review” of emergency response arrangements. This review was carried out in 2015, according to the MoD, but it has not been published.

The independent nuclear consultant,John Large, argued that if there were an accident close to an urban area the emergency response “would be totally inadequate  to protect many hundreds if not thousands of members of public.”……….

Anti-nuclear groups claimed that the exercise assessments exposed “major weaknesses” in the MoD plans for responding to nuclear accidents. “The MoD’s rickety old nuclear safety arrangements are not up to the job of keeping the public, emergency responders, or MoD personnel safe,” said Peter Burt from the Nuclear Information Network.

He added: “While ministers are racing ahead to replace the Trident nuclear weapons system, work on improving nuclear emergency plans seems to be a much lower priority and is proceeding at a much more sedate place.”

An earlier Astral Bend exercise on 12 May 2010 envisaged a US plane carrying nuclear weapons crashing and spreading radioactive contamination. Official assessments released in 2011 concluded that the MoD specialist response team “struggled to manage”…….

John Ainslie from the Scottish Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament suggested that a nuclear weapons accident was “inherently very dangerous” and the emergency response was likely to be inadequate. He said: “If there is a real incident then we can expect there to be fatal delays in treating casualties and misleading information provided to the public,” he said.

The reports released by the Ministry of Defence……..   Photos thanks to Nukewatch.   https://theferret.scot/nuclear-bomb-accidents-could-cause-avoidable-deaths-say-mod-reports/

February 10, 2016 Posted by | safety, UK | Leave a comment

The UK ghost ships with the deadly nuclear cargo

ship radiationGuarded from terrorists by Royal Navy sub and 50 commandos…the UK ghost ships with enough nuclear fuel for 80 missiles, Daily Mail, 

  • Pacific Heron and Pacific Egret ships will sail to Japan for plutonium
  • Precious 331kg load could make an incredible 80 nuclear warheads
  • Vessels are accompanied by military ships and armed with cannons

By MARK NICOL DEFENCE CORRESPONDENT FOR THE MAIL ON SUNDAY 7 February 2016

Two top secret British ‘ghost ships’ carrying enough plutonium for a huge nuclear arsenal wend their way through the world’s oceans –guarded against terrorists by 50 commandos.

It may sound like a tantalising target for a villain in a James Bond film, but what is potentially the most dangerous secret mission in history is deadly reality.

Two vast container ships – the Pacific Heron and the Pacific Egret – left Barrow-in-Furness, Cumbria, last month on the first leg of their incredible journey.

Their mission is to sail to Japan to collect 331kg of plutonium – enough to make 80 nuclear warheads – which was leased by the UK to a Japanese research facility.

The ships are almost certainly shadowed by a Royal Navy submarine and surface vessels and are heavily armed with 20mm cannon.

They are sailing across the Atlantic before passing through the Panama Canal and into the Pacific on their way to Japan.

Their ultimate destination is a US nuclear storage facility in South Carolina, and the return journey to the American eastern seaboard from East Asia would normally again be made via the Panama Canal.

But this would leave the vessels vulnerable to attack – and their terrifying radioactive cargo could in theory devastate much of Central America.

So instead, they are likely to take the long and dangerous journey around the storm-lashed Cape Horn at the tip of South America, one of the most hazardous shipping routes in the world.

The Heron and the Egret, which each weigh about 6,700 tons when fully loaded, belong to the UK’s Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA). It is expected that each ship will be guarded by as many as 25 commandos.

Nuclear expert John Large told The Mail on Sunday last night: ‘The cargo is invaluable and part of a secret trade in fissile materials between the likes of the UK and US. The biggest risk is a fire or an external missile strike.

‘This is bomb-grade nuclear material and a terror group or rogue state would want to intercept it.’…..http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3435476/Guarded-terrorists-Royal-Navy-sub-50-commandos-UK-ghost-ships-nuclear-fuel-80-missiles.html

February 8, 2016 Posted by | safety, UK, wastes | 2 Comments

Volcano erupts rather close to Sendai nuclear station

Sakurajima Volcano erupts violently just a few miles away from nuclear power plant [good video and pictures] MIRROR UK, 5 FEB 2016 BY ELAINE LINES 

Fountains of lava spewed out of the mountain but there were no reports of any immediate damage. A Japanese volcano about 30 miles from a nuclear plant violently erupted last week, shooting ash nearly 2 km into the night sky.

Fountains of lava spewed from the Sakurajima mountain, but there were no immediate report of damage and operations at the power station were not affected.

Following what they termed an “explosive eruption,” Japan’s Meteorological Agency raised the warning level on the peak to grade three, meaning people should not approach the mountain.

  • Kazuhiro Ishihara, a professor at Kyoto University, told NHK national television: “It appears that stones have been thrown about 2 km from the crater, but this area is quite far from any communities.”

    Television footage showed red streams of lava bursting from the side of the volcano, but Ishihara said he thought the impact of the eruption would not be that serious…….

  • Japan lies on the “Ring of Fire” – a seismically active horseshoe-shaped band of fault lines and volcanoes around the edges of the Pacific Ocean – and has more than 100 active volcanoes. http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/world-news/sakurajima-volcano-erupts-violently-just-7315024

February 8, 2016 Posted by | Japan, safety | Leave a comment

Kyushu Electric Power Co. scraps plan for emergency facility at Sendai nuclear station

safety-symbol1flag-japan Scrapped emergency plan puts Kyushu Electric’s safety commitment in doubt, Asahi Shimbun, February 01, 2016 Kyushu Electric Power Co. and the Nuclear Regulation Authority are at odds over the utility’s decision to scrap its plan to build an emergency facility at its Sendai nuclear power plant in Kagoshima Prefecture.

In December, Kyushu Electric requested the NRA’s permission to withdraw the plan, which the company had announced before two reactors at the nuclear plant were restarted in August and October 2015. The nuclear safety watchdog has called on the company to review its request.

This “important base-isolated building” is supposed to serve as a key disaster response center if a serious accident occurs at the nuclear plant. Why is the company trying to withdraw the plan to build such a facility after the two reactors resumed operations?

It is hardly surprising that local citizen groups have criticized the move as a breach of the legal principle of fairness and equality.

Kyushu Electric is causing itself to lose the trust of the public. The NRA’s response to the utility’s decision is reasonable.

The company’s Sendai nuclear plant was the first to meet the NRA’s stricter safety regulations drawn up after the Fukushima nuclear disaster in 2011. Consequently, the plant has been operating since August last year.

During the nuclear crisis at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant, a seismically isolated building proved capable of serving as an on-site response center and played an important role in the aftermath of the accident.

Unlike ordinary earthquake-resistant buildings, which are designed to withstand violent shaking, base-isolated buildings are designed to reduce their movements during earthquakes.

When it applied for the NRA’s safety screening to restart the Sendai reactors, Kyushu Electric said it would construct by the end of March this year a three-story base-isolated building housing an emergency response center with a floor space of about 620 square meters.

The company said it would use an alternative emergency response center about a quarter in size for the purpose until the planned facility was built.

The utility, however, decided to change the plan, saying the alternative center, completed in September 2013, meets the requirements under the new safety standards.

Instead of constructing a new base-isolated building, the company plans to continue using the alternative facility and build a new support center……

But the company has not said when the support center will be built. The NRA has pointed out that Kyushu Electric Power has also not explained its claim that the support center will improve safety.

Indeed, the new safety standards do not require the emergency response center to be housed in a base-isolated building…….

Kyushu Electric has also said it has made no decision on whether it will build a base-isolated building to house an emergency response center in its Genkai nuclear power plant in Saga Prefecture.

How the company’s changed plan will pan out will have significant effects on the safety inspections of other nuclear plants as well as utilities’ efforts for greater safety…..http://ajw.asahi.com/article/views/editorial/AJ201602010032

February 3, 2016 Posted by | Japan, safety | Leave a comment

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