Danger to Jaitapur Nuclear Plant In Earthquake Zone
Nothing can be done to prevent earthquakes, considering that the Indian subcontinent is on a moving tectonic plate that is constantly crashing into the Himalayan range and pushing under the Eurasian plate at the rate of 5cm per year. Some areas are thus seriously earthquake-prone owing to aggravated faultlines and fissures in the earth.
Mixing earthquakes and nuclear power plants, therefore, would seem like courting a nightmare, which is what Jaitapur may be facing. This town, located on the unspoilt Ratnagiri coast of Maharashtra, is at the confluence of seismic zones 3 and 4, the latter the penultimate category in the national system for assessing earthquake-sensitive areas and identified as a “High Damage Risk Zone”. It is also the site prospectively for the largest nuclear power complex in the world, expected to pump 9,900 MW of electricity into the national grid………http://www.huffingtonpost.in/bharat-karnad-/post_9370_b_7303336.html
Britain outsources guarding of its nuclear facilities to private company
Command and control contract for Britain’s armed nuclear police outsourced to Capita The Independent 19 May 15 A contract for the command and control centre of Britain’s heavily armed nuclear police is being outsourced to the private company Capita.
The outsourcing giant is to play a technology support role at the command centre of the Civil Nuclear Constabulary, a heavily-armed special police service that protects nuclear power plants, waste dumps, and nuclear material in transit.
The deal will see Capita provide specialist support staff for the command centre’s systems and provide “enhanced support” to firearms commanders.
Most of the CNC’s officers are trained in the use of firearms and its officers are routinely equipped with assault rifles in their regular line of duty.
The force is not involved in Britain’s Trident nuclear weapons system, which comes under the jurisdiction of the armed forces.
Last year it was reported that a Capita-run army recruitment project beset by IT disasters and missed targets had made the firm over £100m of public money in a two-year period……….http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/command-and-control-contract-for-britains-armed-nuclear-police-outsourced-to-capita-10258611.html
UK Navy investigating Trident nuclear submatine whistle-blower William McNeilly
Royal Navy investigates Trident whistle-blower William McNeilly who claims nuclear programme is a ‘disaster waiting to happen’ , The Independent 17 May 15 The Royal Navy is investigating claims by an apparent whistle-blower that there is a “complete lack of concern for security” that makes the Trident nuclear weapons programme vulnerable to terror attack.
The claims were made in an online post by 25-year-old William McNeilly, and included a photograph of his Navy ID card.
McNeilly said he had “sacrificed” his freedom and a well-paid career to make the claims in an 18-page report entitled “The Secret Nuclear Threat”, and that after posting it he had gone on the run.
The Ministry of Defence confirmed that McNeilly was a member of the naval service, and a source said the Navy was “concerned for the whereabouts and wellbeing of AB (able seaman) McNeilly and working closely with civilian police to locate him”.
In his report, McNeilly claimed he had witnessed a host of inadequate systems and checks while training with the Trident programme, from “things like food hygiene” to failed launch tests, flooding on board submarines, fires in the missile compartment and “a complete lack of security”.
“If airport security and nuclear weapon security were both compared to prisons,” McNeilly writes, “the airport would be Alcatraz and base security would be house arrest.”
McNeilly’s report: Key claims
• Missile launch tests failed on three occasions
• Collision with French nuclear sub covered up
• Failures to carry out security checks on bags
• Computer waste representing major fire risk
• Missile safety alarms muted and ignored
• Accidental flooding of torpedo compartment
• Failure to question recording of top-secret info
McNeilly described the state of Trident security as “the biggest threat the UK faces”, and said he was only releasing “selected information” in order to avoid damaging security further.
“I’m releasing this information in this way because it’s the only way I can to be sure it gets out,” he said, adding that he had “raised concerns through the chain of command on multiple occasions” and got nowhere……….http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/royal-navy-investigates-trident-whistleblower-william-mcneilly-who-claims-nuclear-programme-is-a-disaster-waiting-to-happen-10256148.html
Trident nuclear submarines plagued by security lapses: whistleblower claims “high risk”
Trident whistleblower says nuclear subs are insecure, unsafe and ‘a disaster waiting to happen’, Herald Scotland Sunday 17 May 2015 TRIDENT submarines are plagued by serious security lapses, beset by multiple safety blunders and are “a disaster waiting to happen”, according to a nuclear weapons engineer turned whistleblower who is now being hunted by the police. William McNeilly, who says he was on patrol with HMS Victorious from January to April this year, alleges that the Trident missiles it carries are vulnerable to a terrorist attack that “would kill our people and destroy our land”. Infiltrators have “the perfect opportunity to send nuclear warheads crashing down on the UK”, he claims.
He has written a detailed 18-page report called The Nuclear Secrets, which claims to lift the lid on the alarming state of the UK’s ageing and short-staffed nuclear deterrent. He went absent without leave from the Royal Navy last week, is on the run and expects to be arrested. “This is bigger than me, it’s bigger than all of us,” he says. “We are so close to a nuclear disaster it is shocking, and yet everybody is accepting the risk to the public. If we don’t act now lives could be lost for generations.”
The risk was “extremely high”, he told the Sunday Herald. “My information comes from good sources and I have no reason to lie. If change isn’t made, a nuclear catastrophe almost certainly will happen.”
McNeilly’s report alleges 30 safety and security flaws on Trident submarines, based at Faslane on the Clyde. They include failures in testing whether missiles could be safely launched, burning toilet rolls starting a fire in a missile compartment, and security passes and bags going unchecked.
He also reports alarms being muted because they went off so often, missile safety procedures being ignored and top secret information left unguarded.
“It’s just a matter of time before we’re infiltrated by a psychopath or a terrorist,” he says. “There were some people that I served with on that patrol who showed clear psychopathic tendencies.”
The Royal Navy has launched an investigation into McNeilly’s report, and is working with the civilian police to find him. It describes his criticisms as “subjective and unsubstantiated”, stressing that submarines never go to sea unless they are completely safe.
The SNP’s Westminster leader, Angus Robertson MP, is demanding a full explanation and action to rectify all the failings. “These revelations, if true, are extremely concerning. It reads as a nightmare catalogue of serious safety breaches,” he said.
“They add to what appears to be a chaotic, shambolic safety culture on these aged subs. Broken or faulty equipment with no spares leading to slapdash patch-up jobs have no place in the Navy and just shows how utterly stretched it is.”
Robertson added: “Failure to follow standard safety procedures is unacceptable in any workplace but on a Trident submarine on patrol it could result in extreme tragedy, not just for those on board but indeed for the entire planet.”
McNeilly claims that there was a “massive cover-up” of what happened when HMS Vanguard collided with the French nuclear submarine, Le Triomphant, in the Atlantic in February 2009. He quotes a senior officer who was on Vanguard at the time as saying: “We thought, this is it, we’re all going to die.”
The crash dislodged high-pressure air (HPA) bottles, he says. “They had to return to base port slowly, because if one of HPA bottle groups exploded it would have created a chain reaction and sent the submarine plummeting to the bottom.”
McNeilly also outlines a litany of equipment problems, including a seawater leak, a flooded torpedo compartment and defective toilets. A missile compartment was used as an exercise gym, he alleges, and the submarine speaker system was difficult to understand.
He insists that he has been careful about what he has said publicly in order to avoid prejudicing security. He repeatedly raised concerns with his superiors but they were ignored, he says………….
“Most people know the Trident programme is a disaster waiting to happen, but they never tell the public. You’re guaranteed to lose everything, if you talk. Career, money, everything you own, your freedom, contact with family and friends.
I believe it’s in the Prime Minister’s best interest to pardon me. Prosecuting someone for alerting the people and the government to a major threat isn’t a good image for someone who serves the people.
I raised my concerns about the safety and security of the weapon system through the chain of command on multiple occasions. My concern couldn’t have been any clearer. Not once did someone even attempt to make a change.
I strongly believe that the Prime Minister and most people that defended Trident have no idea about how dire the situation is. This is not the time to judge on what they did when they didn’t know. It’s about what they do now that they know”. http://www.heraldscotland.com/news/home-news/trident-whistleblower-says-nuclear-submarimes-are-insecure-unsafe-and-a-disaster-wait.1431860917
More research needed on earthquake risk at nuclear plants- Nuclear Regulatory Commission
Among commercial U.S. nuclear plants, the Diablo Canyon reactors near San Luis Obispo and the Columbia generating station in Richland, Washington, face “the highest … hazard” when potential strong shaking is evaluated against the plants’ designs, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission found…………..
Diablo Canyon, which sits within a web of earthquake faults on the California coast, one 650 yards away from the reactors, has faced questions for decades about its ability to withstand a strong earthquake. Last year, a former chief NRC inspector at the plant urged regulators to shut down the reactors until they can determine whether they can withstand shaking from nearby faults, a recommendation rejected by the NRC.
Last year, two Seattle-based groups, Heart of America Northwest and Washington Physicians for Social Responsibility, called for shutting down the Columbia plant, citing a report by a nuclear power critic on risk posed by a stockpile of spent nuclear fuel and a potential earthquake. Operator Energy Northwest said the report was marred by errors.
Anti-nuclear activists said the NRC directive confirms concerns that Diablo Canyon’s design might not account for the threat of nearby faults discovered after the twin-reactor plant was constructed decades ago.
“The order is yet more evidence that earthquakes surrounding Diablo Canyon are capable of more ground motion than the reactors were built to withstand,” Friends of the Earth said in a statement…………..http://www.sfgate.com/business/energy/article/NRC-orders-more-research-on-earthquake-risk-at-6261739.php
Japan: Expert panel says 3 faults beneath Shika nuclear power plant may be active
Shika N-plant faults not ‘inactive’ / Power firm to challenge findings of NRA expert panel The Yomiuri Shimbun 15 May 15, An expert panel of the Nuclear Regulation Authority said Wednesday three faults running beneath the No. 1 reactor and other facilities of Hokuriku Electric Power Co.’s Shika nuclear power plant in Shika, Ishikawa Prefecture, may be active.
Members of the panel agreed on the view that “the possibility that the faults are active cannot be denied.”
The NRA’s new safety standards prohibit the construction of key nuclear facilities such as reactor buildings over active faults.
The No. 1 reactor may have to be decommissioned if the NRA concludes the faults are active. In addition, it also will become difficult to reactivate the No. 2 reactor.
There are eight faults under the nuclear facility site. Among them, it is said that three faults — one called S-1 running beneath the No. 1 reactor and others called S-2 and S-6 located beneath the plumbing system to deliver cooling seawater, which is a key facility — may be active……..
The panel has concluded so far that the No. 2 reactor at Japan Atomic Power Co.’s Tsuruga nuclear power plant in Fukui Prefecture sits on an active fault, while it has denied possibilities that faults located beneath Kansai Electric Power Co.’s Oi nuclear power plant and Mihama nuclear power plant, both in the same prefecture, are active……..http://the-japan-news.com/news/article/0002149236
Norh East Japan rocked by M6.8 earthquake
Powerful M6.8 quake rocks NE Japan — Strongest to hit nation since 2011 — Official warns of upcoming aftershocks & tsunami, says tectonic plate is subducting in Pacific — CBS: Scientists detect month-long shaking on seafloor that could foreshadow mega quake similar to 3/11 (VIDEO) http://enenews.com/powerful-m68-quake-rocks-ne-japan-strongest-hit-country-2011-cbs-scientists-recorded-shaking-seafloor-could-foreshadow-mega-quake-similar-311-official-warns-upcoming-aftershocks-tsunami-tecton?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+ENENews+%28Energy+News%29
Kyodo News, May 12, 2015 (emphasis added): A magnitude 6.8 earthquake rocked a wide area of Japan centering on the northeast early Wednesday [and] observed in areas ranging from Hokkaido in the north to Gifu Prefecture in central Japan.
UPI, May 12, 2015: According to NHK [it’s] the strongest earthquake to hit Japan since 2011.
NBC News, May 13, 2015: “We consider this morning’s earthquake to be an aftershock” [of the 3/11 quake] said Yohei Hasegawa, an official at the Japanese meteorological agency. The temblor, which struck just after 6 a.m. local time, was sparked by the Pacific tectonic plate “subducting,” or moving under, the main land plate, he added. Hasegawa warned that more tremors may be on the way. “It’s not just limited to this area alone.”
Japan Times, May 13, 2015: Moderate tremors were also felt in Tokyo… [Hasegawa] warned that another strong tremor could strike within a week, adding “if it happens (beneath) the sea, it could trigger a tsunami.”… a 78-year-old woman [said] “It reminded me of the disaster”… Kayoko Tamura [said] “It was the first time I felt such a strong earthquake here.”
NHK transcript, May 12, 2015: Officials… say it was the first strong earthquake to hit the region since July 2011 [and] aftershocks of a similar scale might come in the next week. >> Watch the broadcast here
CBS San Francisco, May 12, 2015 at 2:42pm: Earlier this week, scientists said they’ve recorded low frequency shaking on the ocean floor that may have been foreshadowing a larger earthquake similar towhat was released during the 2011 earthquake.
CBS San Francisco, May 12, 2015 at 12:42pm: Mega Quake Warning In Rumblings Off Japan’s Coast Alarms Scientists… [A] team of researchers says a similar pattern is emerging in a subduction zone where two tectonic plates are engaged… “Monitoring of offshore seismicity off southern Kyushu, Japan, recorded a complete episode of low-frequency tremor, lasting for 1 month”… These quakes moved in waves along the tectonic ridge and stopped abruptly… potentially increasing stress that could be released in a “mega thrust” earthquake.
France’s nuclear safety worries as fires break out close to 3 nuclear power plants
French police investigate fires near three nuclear sites http://uk.reuters.com/article/2015/05/12/uk-france-nuclear-fires-idUKKBN0NX1HD20150512 PARIS French police are investigating fires that caused minor damage near three nuclear installations, state-owned utility EDF (EDF.PA) and atomic research agency CEA said on Tuesday.
Fires broke out on Monday morning at a weather station near EDF’s former Brennilis nuclear power station in Brittany and another near its Belleville nuclear plant on the Loire river, a spokeswoman said.
She said the fire had damaged equipment belonging to the IRSN nuclear research institute used to measure pollution and radioactivity at the weather stations, which are each about 1.5 kilometres away from the nuclear plants. “Police investigations are ongoing,” the EDF spokeswoman said.
Another fire was started on Monday evening at a weather station close to atomic research institute CEA’s Valduc site in Burgundy where nuclear weapons are manufactured and dismantled.
“There was the beginning of a fire, but it was quickly put out and there were no real consequences,” a CEA spokesman said, adding that a complaint had been filed with police.
The simultaneous incidents are reminiscent of drones that flew over French nuclear plants last year which raised safety concerns. [ID:nL5N0SR0DY] (Reporting by Michel Rose; editing by Jason Neely)
Alarm in New York following explosion at Indian Point Power Plant
New York Nuclear Scare After Explosion at Indian Point Power Plant New Yorkers contemplated the pros and cons of nuclear energy again Sunday after an explosion at Indian Point nuclear power plant in Westchester. By: Hana Levi Julian, Jewish Press May 10th, 2015 “….The Indian Point nuclear power plant that provides 25 percent of the electric juice for the Big Apple and Westchester County went into “emergency response” late Saturday afternoon.
Billows of black smoke rose into the sky over the Indian Point nuclear power plant near Buchanan, New York.
A transformer failed, causing an explosion that ripped through the non-nuclear side of the plant.
The blaze was just 200 yards away from the building in which the reactor was located.
Firefighters who rushed to the scene were able to extinguish the flames, Entergy spokesperson Jerry Nappi told CNN, adding that one of the plant’s two reactor units automatically shut down.
No one was injured in the fire and there was “no threat to the public safety at any time. All Indian Point emergency systems worked as designed,” the facility said in a tweet.
But the fire had to be extinguished twice, because the flames re-ignited. Even so, the fire was out within half an hour.
Governor Andrew Cuomo received a briefing on site and told reporters, “These situations we take very seriously. This is a nuclear powered plant; it’s nothing to be trifled with.”http://www.jewishpress.com/news/breaking-news/new-york-nuclear-scare-after-explosion-at-indian-point-power-plant/2015/05/10/
Entergy’s Arkansas nuclear plant requires highest level of inspection oversight from NRC
Nuclear One earns worst rating Entergy’s Russellville plant in line for intense inspections, Arkansas Online, 10 May 15 By David Smith Arkansas Nuclear One has the worst performance rating out of all 100 nuclear power plants in the country, the federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission says.
The power plant is the only one in the country in the “column four” category of the commission’s rating of overall plant performance. The column four designation means the plant gets the highest level of inspection oversight from the commission.
Column one power plants require the fewest inspections. Plants in column five aren’t permitted to operate, the commission said.
It is rare for a plant to be in column four, said Victor Dricks, a spokesman for the commission.
“Sometimes there are one or even two plants in column four,” Dricks said. “It generally takes several years of very concerted effort on the part of a nuclear power plant operator to address issues and then be returned to column one.”
No nuclear plant has ever been placed in column five, Dricks said.
Representatives from the NRC and Entergy Arkansas will discuss the plant’s “significant decline in performance” at a meeting Tuesday in Russellville. The plant’s two nuclear reactors account for about 61 percent of the electricity that Entergy Arkansas generates in a year.
The public meeting at Lakepoint Conference Center, 61 Lake Point Lane near the nuclear plant, begins at 6 p.m.
Arkansas Nuclear One has received two findings of “substantial safety significance” that pushed its performance rating down into column four.
The first was filed in June last year in connection with the March 2013 handling of a 1 million-pound turbine stator, which fell 30 feet while it was being moved by a contractor, killing of one worker and injuring eight others. The accident occurred in a non-nuclear part of the plant.
The second finding, filed in January, is related to the 2013 accident. It involved Entergy’s failure to design, construct and maintain the seals that protect safety-related equipment in the emergency diesel fuel storage building from flooding.
When the stator fell, it damaged a water main, Dricks said. “The fire pump started and discharged thousands of gallons of water into the turbine building,” Dricks said. “There are floor seals that should prevent the water from flowing down into an auxiliary building. But the seals were defective, so water flowed into areas where it shouldn’t have been.”
Commission inspectors later discovered there were more than 100 unsealed conduits that allowed the water into the auxiliary building, Dricks said.
“They also found some degraded hatches,” Dricks said.
The cumulative effect of these two violations moved the plant into column four, the commission said……..http://www.arkansasonline.com/news/2015/may/10/nuclear-one-earns-worst-rating-20150510/?f=business
USA spending $60 Mln on Multilateral Nuclear Environmental Program in Russia (MNEPR)
US to Spend $60 Mln on Russian Nuclear Security Despite Sanctions http://sputniknews.com/us/20150508/1021898724.html The United States Department of Energy might spend over $60 million on nuclear security activities in Russia.
The DOE National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) “has budgeted the funds to be spent this year through an international organization called the Multilateral Nuclear Environmental Program in Russia (MNEPR),” news website read, citing administration sources. NNSA spokesperson Derrick Robinson did not reject this information and said that US-Russian dialogue on nuclear security issues plays a great role in diminishing the level of nuclear terrorism threat.
He added that the United States has worked with Russia for a long time in order to stop the spread of weapons of mass destruction.
The United States and the European Union, as well as some other Western nations, have accused Moscow of escalating the crisis in Ukraine, and imposed economic sanctions on Russia to exert a change in Kremlin policy. Moscow r
Another shutdown at Oyster Creek Nuclear Plant
he NRC ’s performance indicator for unplanned scrams for each 7,000 hours of operation changes from green to white if a nuclear plant has more than three unplanned shutdowns. Oyster Creek crossed the green/white threshold on July 11, 2014, when the plant had a fourth unplanned shutdown, the NRC has said.
Japan’s earthquake risk to nuclear reactors is being ignored, says seismic expert
Japan Earthquake Expert Says Nuclear Watchdog Ignoring Risk, Bloomberg, byYuriy Humber 3 May 15 Japan’s nuclear regulator ignored earthquake risk and its own rules in approving the safety of a nuclear power plant on the western island of Kyushu, said Kobe University professor and seismologist Katsuhiko Ishibashi.
Ishibashi, well-known in Japan for books and papers on earthquake threats that later became reality, said he has filed a formal complaint to the Nuclear Regulation Authority challenging the legality of its decision………
Ishibashi has seen his warnings of earthquake dangers come true in devastating fashion at least twice in a country that accounts for about 10 percent of the world’s quakes.
In a 1994 book “A Seismologist Warns” he said building codes were putting Japan’s cities at risk. The following year, the Kobe earthquakebuckled bridges, highways, and brought down buildings, killing more than 6,000 people.
Then in 1997, he wrote a report in Japan’s Science Journal where he coined the term “nuclear earthquake disaster.” The paper was written about 14 years before the Fukushima catastrophe, yet reads like a post-mortem of what happened: A major quake knocks out external power to the plant’s reactors and unleashes a tsunami that overruns its defenses, leading to loss of cooling and meltdowns.
Nuclear Restarts
Ishibashi says he doesn’t want his forecasts to play out again………Amid pressure from Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s government to process applications for nuclear plant restarts to help the economy, the NRA is under pressure to give utilities a pass, Ishibashi said. That makes the watchdog less rigorous in examining the safety assessments of utilities’ reactors, he said…..
Sendai Case
In the case of the Sendai plant, the NRA has allowed the operating company to ignore the risk of an earthquake in the tectonic slab underneath Kyushu, the seismologist said.
Kyushu Electric has also not factored in the risk from a so-called Nankai trough earthquake, Ishibashi said. A Nankai quake is one that could originate in the seas south of Japan’s main island, an eventuality that’s considered high-risk and constantly monitored by the government.
“Kyushu Electric was allowed to select their own criteria for quakes that could hit the plant and they ignored several as outliers — including a Nankai one,” Ishibashi said. “Taking the Nankai trough earthquake into account is indispensable” in modeling the dangers facing the Sendai plant, he said.
In terms of impact, a Nankai trough quake would cause tremors and ground motion that would last almost ten times as long as Kyushu Electric’s estimates applied for its Sendai plant assessment, Ishibashi said.
The government’s billing of the NRA, formed in the aftermath of the Fukushima disaster, as the world’s most stringent nuclear regulator is simply not true, Ishibashi said. The regulator feels beholden to government policy, which is pro-nuclear and supports restarts, he said.
“The NRA certainly seems to be feeling the pressure from the current administration,” Ishibashi said. http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-04-30/japan-earthquake-expert-says-nuclear-watchdog-ignoring-risk
370 Billion Bq of Plutonium equivalent may have escaped from WIPP
Gov’t: Radioactive release “orders of magnitude” worse than predicted at US nuclear dump — 370 Billion Bq of Plutonium equivalent may have escaped from WIPP drum during “thermal runaway” & multiple fires — For amount to be that high, a “significant number” of breached drums is expected (VIDEO) http://enenews.com/govt-actual-radioactive-release-nuke-dump-orders-magnitude-predicted-370-billion-bq-plutonium-equivalent-escaped-wipp-drum-significant-number-nuclear-waste-containers-expected-be-breached-amount?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+ENENews+%28Energy+News%29
Sante Fe New Mexican, Apr 23, 2015 (emphasis added): The head of a team of federal investigators [said] he’s not certain whether more than one drum of nuclear waste contributed to contamination of [WIPP]… The reaction pushed temperatures inside the container to nearly 1,600 degrees, ripping open the drum and scattering radioactive material thatbreached not only the fortified room that held the waste, but WIPP itself, which was designed to never leak… [Officials] would not rule out minor seepage from other drums.
U.S. DOE Accident Investigation Report Phase 2, Radiological Release at WIPP, Apr 2015:
6.4.1 Analysis Summary
- The radiological release… resulted from an exothermic reaction that led to a thermal runaway in drum 68660 [that] exhibited the following fire behaviors: Expanding flame front of material expelled from drum… Ignition of exposed combustibles… Propagation within the waste array by flame impingement… Melting and burning of exposed plastics.
- The combustibles external to the waste containers were ignited… direct fire effectswere limited to Rows 8 through 18… there were multiple small fires that caused direct flame impingement on several waste packages… the fire… caused the migration of contamination throughout Panel 7 [and] significant fire damage.
- A thermal runaway is characterized as a very rapid temperature rise within the container… [This] ultimately… led to failure of the lid… permitting a rapid release of combustible gases and combustible solids.
7.1 Accident Scenarios and Source Term Evaluation
- Source term at Station A should be 10 to 100 times lower than the source term in Panel 7 Room 7… Station A source term is estimated [at] 0.1 plutonium equivalent curies (PE-Ci).
- DOE-STD-5506-2007… recommends a bounding estimate of 1E^-4 ARF [0.0001 Airborne Release Fraction] for a drum over-pressurization without a fire… This release estimate, when applied to the… drum inventory of 2.84 PE-Ci, results in an initial source term released to the room of 2.8E^-4 PE-Ci [0.000284 PE-Ci]… less than 1 percent of the 0.1 PE-Ci source term at Station A.
- The chemical reaction resulting in over-pressurization of the drum described above is similar to the… evaluation of a drum deflagration from hydrogen buildup from radiolysis which assumes burning of material expelled from the drum and a contained burning of material remaining within the drum… [The modeled] release estimate from a drum deflagration is about 3 percent of the 0.1 PE-Ci source term at Station A… the actual amount of material released as measured at Station A was larger than the amount predicted… by almost two orders of magnitude… For either the drum over-pressurization or drum deflagration scenarios discussed above, a much greater airborne source term is possible if the nitrate salts behaved as a combustible dust ignited in air or if a greater fraction of material were ejected and burned.
- The 0.1 PE-Ci source term at Station A can be divided by the range of 0.01 to 0.05 LPFs [Leakpath Factor] to estimate the range of source terms initially released… This results in a range of 2 to 10 PE-Ci [74 to 370 billion Bq] airborne in the room… [I]nventory in drum 68660 [was] 2.84 PE-Ci.
- If drum 68660 released a source term as modeled… a significant number of waste containers would be expected to be breached to cause the 2 to 10 PE-Ci source term estimate… Based on the above estimates… release fractions and deposition in the underground, indicated the release from drum 68660 alone was much larger than what would be modeled… [T]he source term evaluation, using conventional release modeling assumptions, could not conclusively affirm that container 68660 was the sole contributor to the release.
Wide spread of radiation could result from smoke from fires in Chernobyl exclusion zone
Smoke from Chernobyl fire could spread radiation far and wide – experts Rt.com April 29, 2015 Smoke from burning forests in the 
is capable of spreading contaminants across great distances, even after the fire has been stopped, ecology experts told RT.
The forest fire near the crippled Chernobyl nuclear power plant started on Tuesday and triggered an emergency alert, with police and National Guard mobilized to bring the flames under control……
Although the sarcophagus remains untouched by the fire, decades-old contaminants could still be released and travel far and wide, borne aloft by the smoke, nuclear safety expert John H. Large told RT:
“Brush fires and forest fires were the greatest concern in terms of the means by which you can disperse a secondary radiological impact from the original dissipation that occurred in 1986,” he said. John went to Chernobyl in 2006 to assess the situation there and spoke to dozens of scientists working on containing the contamination.
“In the exclusion zone and further away you have an area that has been abandoned for farming, abandoned for man management,” John says. “That means you’ve got lots of brush and young wood growing out of control, and that means there’s a big fuel load to have a fire.”
He says the high temperatures and volumes of smoke produced in a forest fire can take contaminants hundreds of kilometers away from the exclusion zone: “Radiation really doesn’t respect any international boundaries.”
Forest fires have happened in the area before, but have never been so serious, Timothy Mousseau, biology professor at the University of South Carolina, told RT:
“Previous forest fires had re-released about eight percent of the radiation from the original catastrophe. The fire that we’re seeing today seems to be on a much larger scale, and so we could see a re-dispersion of a very significant component of the original radiation.”
Another problem is that as the trees that have absorbed contaminants burn up and release smoke, this turns radioactive particles into a much more dangerous form than if they simply lie in the ground….http://rt.com/news/254193-chernobyl-fire-radiation-spread/
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Say No to NASA’s Reckless Nuclear Reactor on the Moon
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