nuclear-news

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

Chinese physcst points out the danger of inland nuclear power plants

CPPCC eyes inland nuke power  By Cao Siqi Source:Global Times 2015-3-11 :”………..He Zuoxiu, a theoretical physicist with the Chinese Academy of Sciences, argued against the proposal.

He Zuoxiu told the Global Times that an inland nuclear power plant may raise bigger safety concerns, as accidents could occur closer to populous areas.

Compared with coastal plants, inland nuclear plants have more complicated requirements where location and geological conditions are concerned, and authorities must take population growth into careful account, as well as emergency evacuation and radioactive exhaust emissions, said the physicist.

He Zuoxiu added that such projects would carry with them tremendous potential danger, which in turn necessitates thorough consideration prior to any construction.

March 11, 2015 Posted by | China, safety | Leave a comment

Increasing number of nuclear safety incidents at Britain’s top secret Trident nuclear submarine base,

safety-symbol-Smflag-UKMore than 450 nuclear safety incidents reported at Britain’s Royal Navy submarine base  Mirror,  2 March 2015 By  The incidents took place between 2008/09 and 2013/14 at Her Majesty’s Naval Base Clyde, where the country’s nuclear armed Trident subs are housed

More than 450 “shocking” nuclear safety incidents have been reported at Britain’s top secret Trident nuclear submarine base, new figures show.

Up to 451 safety incidents happened between 2008/ 9 and 2013/14, which involved at least 71 fires and major equipment failures at the Faslane base.

In the last year alone the number of accidents has almost doubled from 68 in 2012/13 to 107 in the following year 2013/14.

The incidents happened at Her Majesty’s Naval Base Clyde, where Britain’s shadowy nuclear armed Trident submarines are based……. http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/more-450-nuclear-safety-incidents-5261415

March 7, 2015 Posted by | incidents, UK | Leave a comment

Every country’s nuclear weapons facilities are vulnerable to insider terrorism

safety-symbol1Break-In at Y-12 How a handful of pacifists and nuns exposed the vulnerability of America’s nuclear-weapons sites .New Yorker, BY ERIC SCHLOSSER , 9 March 15 “…….The United States is far more open about its nuclear-weapons programs than any other nation. But that openness, and the many security problems it has revealed, should not imply that the greatest threat of nuclear terrorism comes from sites in the United States. On the contrary, America may have the best nuclear-security systems in the world. The management challenges that the United States has faced are now being encountered by every other country that possesses nuclear weapons.

Pakistan tops the list of nations that cause terrorism experts the greatest concern. It has the world’s fastest-growing nuclear arsenal. It has dispersed nuclear weapons to multiple locations, making them less vulnerable to attack by a foreign nation but more vulnerable to theft by terrorists. It has extremist groups seeking to infiltrate the military. And few people outside Pakistan know how its nuclear enterprise is really being run. One of the top-secret documents obtained by Edward Snowden in 2013 says that American intelligence agencies have little “knowledge of the security of Pakistan’s nuclear weapons and associated material.” The question deeply concerns Russia as well. A classified State Department document released by WikiLeaks describes a meeting between Russian and American diplomats in Washington. “Islamists are not only seeking power in Pakistan but are also trying to get their hands on nuclear materials,” an official at Russia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said. Perhaps a hundred and twenty-five thousand people were directly involved in Pakistan’s nuclear-weapons and missile programs. The Russian official warned that “regardless of the clearance process for these people, there is no way to guarantee that all are 100% loyal.”

Remarkably little is known about the security arrangements at India’s nuclear facilities. Its weapons aren’t as widely dispersed as Pakistan’s. But in both countries terrorists and extremists are more likely to seek plutonium and weapons-grade uranium. Fissile materials are easier to steal than nuclear weapons and much lighter to carry. An improvised explosive device can be made with just a hundred and twenty pounds of uranium or twenty pounds of plutonium. And those amounts don’t have to be stolen all at once.

An insider at a nuclear facility might secretly remove a few ounces of fissile material every so often and accumulate a significant amount of it over time. That happened at a nuclear laboratory south of Moscow in 1992……
Russia has the most nuclear weapons and the largest amount of fissile material in the world. For more than twenty years after the end of the Cold War, the United States and Russia worked closely together to improve nuclear security and reduce the danger of nuclear terrorism. Thousands of nuclear weapons were safely transported from former Soviet republics and dismantled. New storage facilities were built in Russia; modern security systems were introduced; fissile materials were removed from unguarded sites and locked away. But in December, 2014, Congress voted against additional funding for the nuclear-threat-reduction program. And Russia announced that it would end most of its coöperative work with the United States, despite the need to upgrade security at more than two hundred buildings. Sam Nunn, the former U.S. senator who helped to create the program, has often called the effort to prevent nuclear terrorism “a race between coöperation and catastrophe.” The Russian decision, Nunn thinks, just made the latter more likely. Russia still has about two hundred and fifty thousand pounds of plutonium and about 1.4 million pounds of weapons-grade uranium……..http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2015/03/09/break-in-at-y-12?mbid=social_twitter

 

March 7, 2015 Posted by | 2 WORLD, safety | Leave a comment

The nuclear terror motivations of extremists of Salafi jihadists and of White Supremacists

elephant-terror-in-roomBreak-In at Y-12 How a handful of pacifists and nuns exposed the vulnerability of America’s nuclear-weapons sites .New Yorker, BY ERIC SCHLOSSER , 9 March 15 “…….After considering the threat of nuclear terrorism for many years, William C. Potter, the director of the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies, and Gary Ackerman, the director of the Unconventional Weapons and Technology Division, at the University of Maryland, outlined some of the motives that could drive a terrorist group to obtain a nuclear weapon. The group might hope to create mass anxiety or mass casualties. It might want to deter attacks by a state with nuclear weapons. It might want to destroy a large area belonging to an adversary. It might want the prestige that nuclear weapons seem to confer, the status of being a world power. And it might seek to fulfill a religious goal. Groups that have an apocalyptic outlook—that believe “an irremediably corrupt world must be purged to make way for a utopian future,” that celebrate violence as a means of achieving those aims—could be especially drawn to nuclear weapons, Potter and Ackerman found. Today, the number of those groups seems to be multiplying.

“The ruling to kill the Americans and their allies—civilians and military—is an individual duty for every Muslim who can do it in any country in which it is possible to do it,” Osama bin Laden declared in 1998. Al Qaeda’s current leader, Ayman al-Zawahiri, has said that his mood won’t improve until America vanishes. And he quoted, with approval, a radical imam’s view that using a nuclear weapon against the United States would be sanctified by God: “If a bomb were dropped on them, destroying ten million of them and burning as much of their land as they have burned of Muslim land, that would be permissible without any need to mention any other proof.”

The Salafi jihadist world view promoted by Al Qaeda stresses the religious duty to purify corrupt states through violence, drive out infidels, and create a new caliphate—a perfect state in which religious and political leadership will be merged. Seth G. Jones, the director of the International Security and Defense Policy Center at the RAND Corporation, estimates that there are about fifty Salafi jihadist groups worldwide. They focus primarily on local struggles, battling the “near enemy,” not the “far enemy”: the United States. The groups most likely to commit terrorist acts on American soil are Al Qaeda, its offshoot Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, and the Islamic State in Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS). None have thus far engaged in nuclear terrorism, preferring more conventional and reliable forms of violence.

Salafi jihadists aren’t the only millenarian group that might be drawn to nuclear weapons. During the early nineties, the Japanese cult Aum Shinrikyo (Supreme Truth) attempted to buy nuclear weapons in Russia, purchased land in Australia to mine for uranium, and sought technical assistance from scientists at Moscow’s leading institute for nuclear research…….
White supremacists in the United States have also fantasized about using nuclear weapons to purify society. Before Timothy McVeigh destroyed Oklahoma City’s federal building with a truck bomb, in 1995, he travelled the country selling copies of “The Turner Diaries,” a 1978 novel long considered the bible of the white-power movement. It features a protagonist who flies a plane carrying a nuclear weapon into the Pentagon, committing suicide in order to destroy Washington, D.C. In the book’s “happy” ending, white patriots use nuclear weapons stolen from Vandenberg Air Force Base, in California, to annihilate inferior races throughout the world. Although the threat of Islamic terrorism has received a great deal of media attention, since 9/11 more people have been killed in the United States by American extremists than by foreign jihadists……….http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2015/03/09/break-in-at-y-12?mbid=social_twitter

 

March 7, 2015 Posted by | psychology - mental health, safety, social effects | Leave a comment

Nuclear power nightmare unfolding in Karachi?

exclamation-Smflag-pakistanOutcry and fear as Pakistan builds new nuclear reactors in dangerous Karachi WP, By Tim Craig March 5 KARACHI, Pakistan — World leaders have fretted for years that terrorists may try to steal one of Pakistan’s nuclear bombs and detonate it in a foreign country. But some Karachi residents say the real nuclear nightmare is unfolding here in Pakistan’s largest and most volatile city. Continue reading →

March 6, 2015 Posted by | Pakistan, safety | Leave a comment

European Union’s post-Fukushima Nuclear Safety Framework

safety-symbol-Smflag-EUThe Nuclear Safety Framework in the European Union after Fukushima, EU Bulletin 
Written by European Values | Friday, February 27th, 2015 Franklin Dehousse and Didier Verhoeven (EGMONT – The Royal Institute for International Relations) “…….Even though the nuclear energy has already been in decline in many EU countries before 2011, it was the Fukushima accident that substantially contributed to Germany’s and Belgium’s decisions to abandon nuclear energy entirely, Italy’s decision to cancel the restart of its own nuclear energy program, and France’s decision to gradually decrease the share of nuclear energy in its overall electricity production. The trend to reduce the nuclear plants’ share of electricity supply will probably continue within the Union in the following years. This will happen not only because of the very fact that most of the nuclear reactors are 20 years and older and with only four new ones currently being built, but also because of the boom of renewable sources and the EU’s effort to reduce its energy dependency on Russia…..

The Fukushima accident has…. raised doubts about the hitherto widely recognized assumption that the states’ efforts to ensure their own nuclear security are stronger than any form of international control.

Nevertheless, the EU directive of 2009, which enforced important restrictions, caused wide resentment and thus was replaced by a new directive in 2014, which dropped some of the substantial restrictions. The initial directive introduced common security standards and provided a legal framework for the foundation of a common security body which would associate inspectors with the right to control the implementation of these standards. The new directive, on the other hand, strengthens the security principles without implementing common standards, while seeking to ensure the increasing independence of national regulators and improve the control mechanisms.

(The study can be downloaded here) http://eubulletin.com/4144-the-nuclear-safety-framework-in-the-european-union-after-fukushima.html

March 1, 2015 Posted by | EUROPE, safety | Leave a comment

Jellyfish and algae becoming a bigger hazard for nuclear reactors

Spineless attacks on nuclear power plants could increase, Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists Natalie Kopytko  19 Feb 15 Nuclear power plants increasingly face a new enemy: the humble jellyfish.

These aquatic animals—and algae and other plants—get caught in and block the cooling water intake pipes of nuclear power plants, preventing nuclear reactors from getting the huge amount of water they need every day to cool their reactor cores and associated equipment. Continue reading →

February 28, 2015 Posted by | 2 WORLD, safety | Leave a comment

Warning to France on drones- an easy way to destabilise nuclear reactors

drone-1Most French Nuclear Plants ‘Should Be Shut Down’ Over Drone Threat,NewsWeek BY  AND  / FEBRUARY 24, 2015 “You don’t need massive amounts of force to allow a nuclear plant to go into instability. The plant has enough energy to destroy itself. Drones can be used to tickle the plant into instability.”

With devastating simplicity, John Large explains how drones could be used to coordinate a terror attack on a nuclear power station. First, one drone hits the distribution grid serving the plant, depriving the facility of off-site power, making it dependent on its diesel generators to cool the reactor, which generates up to 1,000 megawatts of power – enough to light up half of Paris. Then the generators are easily taken out by an unmanned drone with a relatively small payload. Without power to cool the radioactive fuel, Large estimates it would take approximately 30 seconds before the fuel begins to melt, leading to potential leakages of nuclear waste.

It’s the same cause behind the meltdown at the Fukushima nuclear plant in Japan after it was hit by a tsunami in March 2011. But potential terrorists wouldn’t need to trigger an earthquake, just be able to accurately pilot a pair of readily-available commercial drones carrying small payloads of explosive. Last year, unmanned drones were spotted flying over at least 13 nuclear power stations in France. The last widely-reported sighting was on 3 January, when two aircraft were seen flying over a nuclear facility in Nogent-sur-Seine, in northern-central France.

Activists maintain that a government blackout has blocked information on any further sightings. Curiously, no pictures of drone sightings near power stations have surfaced, a fact that causes concern amongst experts.

“There’s not one single picture. That’s very troubling,” says Jean-Luc Fornier, whose company designs and operates drones for use in the media industry. “If we had some pictures, we could decide on who may be operating the machines.” Fornier suggests that the flyovers that have been noted have three possible explanations: innocent pranksters, anti-nuclear protestors, or trial runs by terrorists. French National Research Agency said the General Secretary for Defence is “providing €1m of funding for research projects into the detection, identification and neutralisation of small aerial drones”.

According to Large, of consulting engineers Large & Associates, based in London, who was commissioned by Greenpeace France to evaluate and report on the spate of flyovers, the “unacceptable” risk posed by a terrorist drone attack means that many of Europe’s nuclear power stations – including the majority of those in France – should be shut down……..

Rousselet says the government is downplaying the threat. He says Greenpeace became aware of a further flyover sighting on 28 January before a government blackout blocked further reports. For Large, the threat remains: “The problem is that these nuclear plants are very attractive targets as the public’s perception of all things nuclear is a fate worse than death. There’s a psychological attraction for these plants as targets as they can cause mass concern among the public.” http://www.newsweek.com/2015/03/06/most-french-nuclear-plants-should-be-shut-down-over-drone-threat-309019.html

February 25, 2015 Posted by | France, safety | Leave a comment

Britain’s nuclear facilities are vulnerable to terrorist attacks via drone aircraft

UK nuclear sites warned over drone terror attack,  By CAROLINE WHEELER Sunday Express 22 Feb 15

BRITAIN’S nuclear plants are at risk from a terrorist strike by unmanned drone aircraft, writes Caroline Wheeler.Such an attack could kill tens of thousands of people, a Government adviser has warned. But authorities are “burying their heads in the sand,” according to John Large.

drone-1

His call for an urgent security overhaul comes as fi gures showed nuclear power plants suffered 37 security breaches last year – the highest numberalso been breached a dozen times since 2011, including by at least one drone.

Islamic State terrorists have already recruited chemical weapons specialists and counterterrorism experts say they are intent on building a “dirty bomb”.

Last night Mr Large, a nuclear engineer who has carried out work for Britain’s Atomic Energy Authority, demanded a major exercise to test the resilience of the nation’s power stations against acts of terrorism.

Mr Large, who has advised the French government after a growing number of mysterious unmanned flights over that country’s nuclear plants, said drones also pose a risk to the UK’s 16 operational reactors.“On application to UK nuclear power plants, I believe that much the same security and vulnerability issues apply,” he told the Sunday Express.

“The accessibility of the UK plants to small UAV’s [unmanned airborne vehicles] is relatively unimpeded.”

Asked whether a security review was needed in the wake of the terrorist attacks in Denmark and France, Mr Large said: “Absolutely yes.” Too much focus is placed on the risk assessment surrounding accidents at nuclear power stations, rather than terrorist threats, Mr Large said.

The consequences of the attack scenarios he examined would range from one casualty to tens of thousands of deaths, he added.

The last nuclear power plant built in the UK was completed in the 1990s but the Government is planning a new generation of reactors, starting with Hinkley Point C in Somerset.  Last night Tory MP Mark Pritchard, a member of the Joint Committee on the National Security Strategy, said Mr Large’s recommendations would be taken “very seriously”…….http://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/559718/Nclear-plants-are-at-risk-from-a-terrorist-strike-by-unmanned-drones

February 23, 2015 Posted by | safety, UK | Leave a comment

FANC update on Belgium nuclear reactor cracks

Doel 3/Tihange 2: new update After a large number of flaw indications was discovered in the walls of the reactor pressure vessels (RPVs) of Doel 3 and Tihange 2 during a scheduled maintenance in the summer of 2012, the Belgian nuclear safety authorities (FANC and Bel V) decided that Electrabel had to submit a Safety Case to justify the restart of both reactors. Electrabel had to demonstrate specifically and convincingly in its Safety Case that the flaw indications in the walls of the RPVs do not compromise its structural integrity….

In carrying out tests related to theme 2 during the spring of 2014, a fracture toughness test revealed unexpected results, which suggested that the mechanical properties of the material were more strongly influenced by radiation than experts had expected. As a precaution both reactors were immediately shut down again. Electrabel launched a test campaign to find an explanation for the unexpected test results. …

Electrabel provides the FANC and Bel V with results of ongoing tests and analyses on a regular basis. The Belgian security authorities need time to look into this new information and will continue their analysis during the first months of 2015. …

In April 2015, the FANC will organize a new meeting of the international panel of experts to obtain their advice on the results of the new material tests and on the new data provided by Electrabel.

http://www.fanc.be/nl/news/doel-3/tihange-2-new-update/745.aspx  (Update published 13/2/15)

February 23, 2015 Posted by | EUROPE, safety | Leave a comment

Time for global inspection of nuclear reactors – urged by Belgian nuclear regulator

Belgian nuclear regulator urges global inspection of reactors http://www.power-technology.com/news/newsbelgian-nuclear-regulator-urges-global-inspection-reactors-
pressure-vessel-cracks4514865   18 February 2015 The Belgian Federal Agency for Nuclear Control has called for thorough inspections of nuclear plants worldwide following detection of multiple cracks in critical components of two reactors in Belgium.

Belgian Federal Agency for Nuclear Control director-general Jans Bens has urged for careful inspection of all the 430 nuclear facilities globally.

Steel nuclear reactor pressure vessels in Doel 3 and Tihange 2 plants were found to be affected in 2012, which had been dismissed as manufacturing defects by the operator of the reactors, Electrabel.

Further tests in 2014 at the facilities indicated advanced embrittlement of the sample steel vessels.

Operations at both the facilities stopped in March 2014.

Unexpected cracking in the vessels can be caused due to corrosion from normal operation.

The presence of highly radioactive nuclear fuel cores in the vessels raises the risk of accidents during malfunction, and it is assumed that this could be an issue with all nuclear power generation facilities worldwide.

Greenpeace Belgium energy campaigner Eloi Glorieux said: “What we are seeing in Belgium is potentially devastating for nuclear reactors globally due to the increased risk of a catastrophic failure.

“Nuclear regulators worldwide must require reactor inspections as soon as possible, and no later than the next scheduled maintenance shutdown. If damage is discovered, the reactors must remain shut down until and unless safety and pressure vessel integrity can be guaranteed. The nuclear industry, already in crisis, is faced with an ageing nuclear reactor fleet at increasing risk of severe disaster.”

The 435 commercial nuclear reactors operational across the world had an average age of around 29 years old.

Out of the operational nuclear reactors, nearly 170 reactors have been functioning for 30 years or more, and 39 reactors are aged above 40 years.

February 20, 2015 Posted by | 2 WORLD, safety | Leave a comment

Japan highway to open near Fukushima, with no exits allowed

Highway to Open Near Fukushima Nuclear Plant; No Exits Allowed  http://blogs.wsj.com/japanrealtime/2015/02/19/highway-to-open-near-fukushima-nuclear-plant-no-exits-allowed/East Nippon Expressway Co. said it will open the complete Joban Expressway on March 1. The highway, most sections of which were already in operation, runs northeast from Saitama prefecture north of Tokyo through the Tohoku region in northern Japan. The final portion to be finished will pass through the towns of Okuma and Futaba in Fukushima prefecture where the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant is located.

Here are five numbers to know about the Joban Expressway.

14.3 Kilometers

Completion of the expressway was substantially delayed by the nuclear accident triggered by the earthquake and tsunami in March 2011. The final section is located between the Joban Tomioka interchange and Namie interchange, and is 14.3 kilometers (about nine miles)long. The entire Joban Expressway is approximately 300 kilometers.

Six Kilometers

The closest the expressway gets to the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant is approximately six kilometers. While drivers can ride on the expressway without any special permit, they are not allowed to make detours or get off the road.

Six Radiation Counters

According to a spokesman at East Nippon Expressway Co., there are six radiation counters set up outdoors alongside the road in the 14.3 kilometer section. On Tuesday, the counters showed 5.5 microsieverts per hour. Radiation exposure during a commercial flight between Frankfurt and Singapore is 39 microsieverts, according to the Australian nuclear safety agency.

0.2 Microsieverts

According to a test conducted by the government, a driver inside a car traveling at 70 kilometers per hour would be exposed to 0.2 microsieverts of radiation during a one-way trip on the 14.3 kilometer section. That’s about 1/300 of the radiation exposure during a chest X-ray, the government said.

15 Centimeters

Special measures were taken to decrease the level of radiation in the 14.3 kilometer section. For example, slopes around the expressway and the shoulder of the road have been paved with additional thickness to about 15 centimeters to prevent any seeping of contaminated soil or water from the ground.

February 20, 2015 Posted by | Japan, safety | Leave a comment

Thousands more cracks found Belgian nuclear reactors

pressure-vessel-cracksMore cracks found in Belgian nuclear reactors, 18 February 2015,Greenpeace International Brussels, 17 February 2015 – Following the discovery of thousands of additional cracks in critical components of two Belgian nuclear reactors, Greenpeace today called for immediate checks of nuclear power plants worldwide.Thousands more cracks found in Belgian nuclear reactors, Belgian regulatory head warns of global implications

The cracks were found in the steel nuclear reactor pressure vessels in nuclear reactors Doel 3 and Tihange 2 in Belgium. The vessels contain highly radioactive nuclear fuel cores. The failure of these components can cause catastrophic nuclear accidents. On February 13th, two leading material scientists announced that the pervasive and unexpected cracking could be related to corrosion from normal operation, with potential implications for reactors worldwide.

Greenpeace Belgium energy campaigner, Eloi Glorieux, said:

“What we are seeing in Belgium is potentially devastating for nuclear reactors globally due to the increased risk of a catastrophic failure. Nuclear regulators worldwide must require reactor inspections as soon as possible, and no later than the next scheduled maintenance shutdown. If damage is discovered, the reactors must remain shut down until and unless safety and pressure vessel integrity can be guaranteed. The nuclear industry, already in crisis, is faced with an ageing nuclear reactor fleet at increasing risk of severe disaster.”

In reaction to the findings, the Director-General of the Belgian nuclear regulator of the Federal Agency for Nuclear Control (FANC), Jan Bens, has said that this could be a problem for the entire nuclear industry globally. He added that the solution is to begin the careful inspection of 430 nuclear power plants worldwide [1]……

The recent announcements of the materials scientists, whose concerns were echoed by Director-General Bens, indicate that this problem could be far beyond manufacturing. If confirmed, it means that the safety of every nuclear reactor on the planet could be significantly compromised.

There are 435 commercial nuclear reactors worldwide, with an average age of 28.5 years in mid 2014. Of these, 170 reactors (44 percent of the total) have been operating for 30 years or more and 39 reactors have operated for over 40 years.

As of 2015, Doel 3 has been operating for 33 years; Tihange 2 for 32 years.

“As we approach the fourth anniversary of the Fukushima-daiichi nuclear disaster, evidence has emerged that demands immediate action to prevent another catastrophe. Thousands of previously unknown cracks in critical components of two reactors point to a potentially endemic and significant safety problem for reactors globally. Continuing to operate any reactor with such cracking would be an absolutely unacceptable risk to public safety. Greenpeace demands detailed inspections of all nuclear reactors worldwide, as conducted in Belgium, and the public release and scrutiny of the results. Any reactor with such cracking must be kept offline, until and unless the cracking is understood and safety is guaranteed. Anything less would be insane given the risk of a severe nuclear accident,” continued

February 18, 2015 Posted by | EUROPE, safety | Leave a comment

A global nuclear industry problem as tests show 1000s of cracks in Belgian nuclear reactor

pressure-vessel-cracksTests revealed a stunning 13 047 cracks in Doel 3; and 3 149 cracks in Tihange 2

the Director General of the Belgian nuclear regulator, The Federal Agency for Nuclear Control (FANC), admitted that, “This may be a global problem for the entire nuclear industry.

Thousands of cracks in Belgian reactors, potentially a global nuclear problem http://www.greenpeace.org/international/en/news/Blogs/nuclear-reaction/cracks-in-belgian-nuclear-reactors/blog/52139/  by Kendra Ulrich and Eloi Glorieux – 17 February, 2015 

Picture a 33 year-old asphalt road: weathered with time, bearing the cracks and crags of decades of harmless-seeming water trickling into its crevices, freezing, expanding, breaking up the road from within.

Most people wouldn’t want to trust their car to the safety of a road like this.

And it certainly isn’t the image anyone wants to invoke when talking about critical equipment in nuclear reactors.

Yet, on Friday the 13th, two leading materials scientists announced that the Belgian reactors, Doel 3 and Tihange 2, may be experiencing the nuclear equivalent in their reactor pressure vessels; essentially the piece of equipment that contains the highly radioactive nuclear fuel core being comparable to an old, busted up road.

Thousands of cracks have been discovered in the pressure vessels of both reactors. This component is required to be integrally sound, with no risk of failure, due to the potentially catastrophic nuclear disaster resulting from the failure of a pressure vessel. Continue reading →

February 18, 2015 Posted by | EUROPE, safety | Leave a comment

Northeast Japan coast hit with magnitude 6.9 earthquake

Quake near Magnitude 7 hits off northeast Japan — Country’s strongest since 2013 — Felt along entire Pacific coastline, distance of over 1,000 kilometers — Followed by multiple aftershocks, one centered at Japan Trench — Official: Event related to massive 3/11 quake (VIDEO) http://enenews.com/quake-magnitude-7-hits-northeast-japan-strongest-hit-country-2013-felt-along-entire-pacific-coastline-1000-km-followed-multiple-aftershocks-one-centered-japan-trench-official-event-related?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+ENENews+%28Energy+News%29

The Guardian, Feb 16, 2015: Japanese coastal towns evacuated as earthquake hits Pacific… Evacuations were ordered for towns closest to the coast in Iwate prefecture in Japan early on Tuesday morning after a strong earthquake with a preliminary magnitude of 6.9 was recorded… The Japan Meteorological Agency issued a tsunami warning and Japanese broadcaster NHK warned residents a one metre-high wave was expected to hit the coast of Iwate. The quake was measured at a depth of about six miles and shook much of north-east Japan even being felt in Tokyo, 430 miles away.

NBC News, Feb 16, 2015: Japan’s Meteorological Agency cast the quake as an aftershock of the 9.0 temblor that rocked Japan on March 11, 2011… “Because the 3/11 earthquake had such a strong impact, and because it’s an area where it was affected by the 3/11 Earthquake, we are describing this as an ‘aftershock,’” said agency seismologist, Yasuhiro Yoshida… USGS wasn’t characterizing Tuesday’s quake as an aftershock, considering it a separate event.

USGS quake list:

  • M6.7 — 02-16 23:06:27 UTC
  • M4.7 — 02-17 00:50:02 UTC
  • M4.6 — 02-17 01:15:02 UTC
  • M4.9 — 02-17 02:29:51 UTC
  • M4.3 — 02-17 02:45:12 UTC (Japan Trench)

The quake was felt from Chiba to Hokkaido, a distance of over 1,000 kilometers.

This is the most powerful earthquake to hit Japan since a M7.1 on Oct. 25, 2013.

Watch NHK’s report here

February 18, 2015 Posted by | Japan, safety | Leave a comment

« Previous Entries     Next Entries »