Volcanoes a rare risk to nuclear reactors, but consequences would be devastating
Difficulties remain in protecting nuclear plants from volcanic eruptions October 05, 2014 THE ASAHI SHIMBUN by Takeshi Nakashima and Chikako Kawahara The deadly eruption of Mount Ontakesan in central Japan has rekindled concerns about whether Japan’s nuclear power plants, such as the Sendai plant in Kagoshima Prefecture, have adequate safeguards for dealing with such a disaster………
Active volcanoes are located near the Sendai plant, with Mount Sakurajima about 50 kilometers away and Mount Kirishima about 60 km away.
In the past, huge volcanic eruptions have led to the formation of large calderas and pyroclastic flows in the area.
Major eruptions occur in Japan about once every 10,000 years. However, nuclear plants have to implement measures depending on the risk even if the frequency of an event is low.
Nuclear plants are not designed to withstand pyroclastic flows at high temperatures. For that reason, if such flows should reach a facility, the consequences could be disastrous.
Kyushu Electric insists that the possibility of an eruption while the Sendai plant is operating is sufficiently low. The utility also says it would be possible to capture signs of a major eruption and remove nuclear fuel beforehand.
The Nuclear Regulation Authority has supported Kyushu Electric’s position.
The removal of the nuclear fuel from the reactors is expected to take several years.
However, the Mount Ontakesan eruption once again demonstrated the limits to accurately predicting volcanic eruptions.
Concerns about the safety measures at the Sendai plant were raised at a Sept. 30 session of a special committee of the Kagoshima prefectural assembly. Some members raised doubts about whether early signs of an eruption could be detected. Others criticized Kyushu Electric’s position………http://ajw.asahi.com/article/behind_news/social_affairs/AJ201410050034
UK’s Atomic Weapons Establishment found unsafe, by regulator
UK nuclear bomb factories rapped by watchdogs over radioactive waste
Atomic Weapons Establishment issued with non-compliance notice by Environment Agency over handling of hazardous waste Rob Edwards heguardian.com, Thursday 2 October 2014 Britain’s nuclear bomb factories have been reprimanded by two government watchdogs for breaking safety rules on radioactive waste.
AWE, the private consortium that operates Trident nuclear weapons facilities at Aldermaston and Burghfield in Berkshire for the Ministry of Defence, has come under fire from the Environment Agency (EA) and theOffice for Nuclear Regulation (ONR) for failures in managing its hazardous waste.
The EA has issued AWE with a non-compliance notice because key posts meant to ensure the safe handling of wastes have been vacant for months. These include waste officers, radioactive specialists and the head of environment…….
“ONR is continuing to investigate AWE’s failure to meet the requirements of the licence instrument, in accordance with our normal processes,” said an ONR spokesman. “ONR will consider enforcement action in accordance with our enforcement policy when all investigations are completed.”…….
“Since 2010 safety and environmental regulators have increasingly had to take action at the Atomic Weapons Establishment, and it is time to start asking whether AWE are fit to run this complex and hazardous site if they are unable to improve standards.” http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2014/oct/02/uk-nuclear-bomb-factories-rapped-by-watchdogs-over-radioactive-waste
Shambles of Japan’s plans for evacuation after the next nuclear accident
Not nearly enough buses for mass exodus after nuclear accident THE ASAHI SHIMBUN by Masanobu Higashiyama and Hiroki Koike.27 Sept 14 The gargantuan task of moving residents in a nuclear crisis will fall on chartered buses, according to the local governments’ evacuation plans.
The problem is there may not be nearly enough vehicles to move huge numbers of people to safety.
Some prefectures already realize they would be lucky to assemble just half the number of buses for the job.
There is also opposition from bus companies, which say they will not subject their drivers to hazardous radiation risks.
In a 10-kilometer radius of Kyushu Electric Power Co.’s Sendai nuclear power plant in Kagoshima Prefecture, which has passed safety checks for a restart, surveys show that local governments can charter only one-fourth of buses that would be needed to evacuate residents.
Although the prefecture plans to sign an agreement with the prefectural association of bus companies to preferentially charter vehicles, a local bus drivers’ union said it will oppose the plan unless safety measures for drivers are mapped out.
According to evacuation plans submitted by Satsuma-Sendai, the city hosting the nuclear plant, and surrounding municipalities within a 30-km radius of the plant, people who need nursing care and others without family cars will have to evacuate by bus……..
In addition to the lack of buses, the void of safety measures to prevent bus drivers from being exposed to radiation during an evacuation casts a shadow on plans by local governments to use chartered buses.
Central government guidelines stipulate that ordinary people such as bus drivers must not be exposed to more than 1 millisievert of radiation annually in normal situations. However, there are no measures in place to deal with those who are exposed to higher readings.http://ajw.asahi.com/article/0311disaster/fukushima/AJ201409270012
In addition, rules for distributing potassium iodide tablets to protect against thyroid cancer due to radiation have yet to be devised……..
During an Aug. 29 news conference, Niigata Governor Hirohiko Izumida asked if it is realistic for residents to rely on chartered private buses in a case of a nuclear disaster. The prefecture hosts Tokyo Electric Power Co.’s Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear power plant.
“Is it possible to make drivers from private bus companies work in areas that are highly contaminated with radiation?” Izumida asked.
Officials at Fukushima Prefecture’s Nuclear Power Safety Division said they had not confirmed reports that bus companies refused to send vehicles due to concern for drivers’ safety during evacuation procedures for the Fukushima nuclear disaster.
But some trucks transporting relief goods did refuse to enter areas that were highly contaminated with radiation, according to the officials.
“A private company can face legal charges if its employees are exposed to radiation because of work orders,” said an official of Niigata Prefecture. “Even if we sign an agreement with bus companies, it will not ensure the efficacy of such an evacuation plan.”
USA and Russia co-operate in removing Polish high-enriched uranium
US says cooperates with Russia in removing Polish high-enriched uranium, Thomson Reuters Foundation Source: Reuters – By Fredrik Dahl VIENNA, Sept 22 (Reuters) – The United States said on Monday it had worked with Russia to help remove 50 kg of highly-enriched uranium from Poland as part of a global campaign to reduce the use of nuclear fuel that could also serve as material for bombs.
Washington and Moscow continue to cooperate on a case-by-case basis in areas of mutual nuclear security concern despite a current “substantial strain” in their relations, U.S. Secretary of Energy Ernest Moniz said………
The U.S.-based Arms Control Association, a research and advocacy group, last year said that HEU spent fuel from converted research reactors in Poland would be returned to Russia by the end of 2016.
In mid-2013, the United States and Russia used another IAEA meeting in Vienna to announce that they had helped ship out nearly 16 kg of HEU from Vietnam.
There are about 1,440 tonnes of HEU and 500 tonnes of plutonium stockpiled and in nuclear arms globally, the Nuclear Security Governance Experts Group (NSGEG), which lobbies for action to ensure that such material does not fall into the wrong hands, said last year.
Most of these stockpiles are under military guard but some for civilian uses is less stringently secured.
Analysts say that radical groups could theoretically build a crude but deadly nuclear weapon if they had the money, technical knowledge and materials needed but that merely obtaining sufficient material for an attack poses a formidable challenge.
A fairly simple-to-design bomb would require about 50-60 kg of HEU, the NSGEG said. More sophisticated devices would requires less material.
A message from U.S. President Barack Obama read by Moniz to the IAEA meeting in Vienna said the United States continued to work successfully with Russia to implement the new START treaty, “decreasing our deployed strategic warheads to the lowest levels in nearly 60 years”.
The pact that was agreed in 2010 caps deployed strategic nuclear warheads, those meant to travel long including intercontinental distances, in Russia and the United States at 1,550 each by 2018, down from the previous ceiling of 2,200. http://www.trust.org/item/20140922165343-gvnzt
Major impediments to re-opening New Mexico nuclear waste dump
Energy Dept. faces major hurdles to reopen New Mexico nuclear dump LA Times, By RALPH VARTABEDIAN 18 SEPT 14, The Energy Department has identified 7,000 steps needed to reopen its badly damaged nuclear waste dump in New Mexico, but cannot say how long it will take or how much it will cost.
The agency was expected to release a written recovery plan Thursday, but instead provided a few details about the plan, which awaits formal approval by the department.
Outside experts say that the dump will probably not reopen until well after the start of 2016 and that the cost of the accident will approach $1 billion. Although they didn’t talk about the cost, Energy Department officials reiterated at a briefing in Carlsbad, N.M., on Thursday that there was “strong support” in Congress for putting up the unspecified amount of money required to restart the plant. A Senate aide declined a request by the Los Angeles Times earlier this month for details about the cost negotiations……..
Don Hancock, nuclear waste program director at the Southwest Research Institute, a watchdog group, said the system of isolating the waste by spraying water on the salt is unproven.
Hancock said the Energy Department has repeatedly told state regulators that the dump would not reopen before early 2016, but he said that estimate is highly optimistic because so much remains unknown about the recovery.
Even if the dump reopens by then, the two-year shutdown would have consumed two years’ worth of the annual budget for the operation, amounting to about $400 million, and at least another $300 million of additional appropriations that have been discussed for repairs.
But that is unlikely to cover the full cost of the repairs, Hancock said. In addition, tons of waste are backing up across the nation, forcing laboratories and other cleanup sites to store radioactive material longer, at an unspecified cost…..http://www.latimes.com/nation/la-na-nuclear-waste-dump-20140919-story.html
Nuclear regulatory Commission rejects expert advice on California earthquake danger
Regulators reject call for nuke plant shutdown By MICHAEL R. BLOOD, Associated Press September 10, 2014 LOS ANGELES (AP) — The Nuclear Regulatory Commission on Wednesday rejected a senior federal expert’s recommendation to shut down California’s last operating nuclear power plant until the agency can determine whether its twin reactors can withstand powerful shaking from nearby earthquake faults……..
Peck, now a senior reactor instructor for the NRC in Tennessee, argued the NRC is not applying safety rules it set out for the plant’s operation……..The agency’s ruling was issued on the same day that PG&E released hundreds of pages of scientific research that found a fault 650 yards from the reactors, known as the Shoreline, is twice as long as initially believed, making it capable of producing potentially stronger earthquakes, and intersections between some faults in the region could create larger earthquakes than previously considered. PG&E said in a statement that the plant remains seismically safe and able to withstand the largest potential earthquakes in the area.
Former California Sen. Sam Blakeslee, a geophysicist who has previously raised seismic concerns at Diablo, said “it’s premature to declare the plant is safe in light of this new information.”…….http://www.sfgate.com/business/energy/article/Regulators-reject-call-for-nuke-plant-shutdown-5746362.php
Masao Yoshida warned Japan of the dangers of large nuclear plants
Late Fukushima manager flagged ‘density danger’ risks plaguing Japan’s big nuclear plants http://rt.com/news/187128-nuclear-japan-reactors-safety/ September 12, 2014 Recently disclosed documents show the late manager of Japan’s destroyed Fukushima plant warned of safety risks in restarting nuclear power stations in the seismic-prone country, which is considering rebooting full-scale nuclear energy production.
Yoshida specifically cited the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa site in northern Japan, also run by Fukushima operator TEPCO. A seven-reactor facility, he said, was difficult to operate as “chaos” ruled the site after the earthquake. He added that grouping numerous nuclear reactors together made it more difficult to manage.
“I thought it wasn’t very good from a risk-diversification standpoint, but [Tepco] had already built this [Fukushima Daiichi] and Kashiwazaki, so I had to work within that [system],” he said, Reuters reported. The Kashiwazaki-Kariwa Nuclear Power Plant was completely shut down for 21 months following an earthquake in 2007.The transcript released by the government is part of a government investigation into the causes of the Fukushima nuclear disaster. Since the 2011 incident, Japan has shut down all of its nuclear facilities.
But on Wednesday, Japan’s Nuclear Regulation Authority (NRA) approved the restart of two reactors of a nuclear power station at Sedai after the plant met safety requirements needed. It is seen as the first step to reopening an industry of 48 reactors.
Under Japanese safety regulations, reactors after 40 years are to be decommissioned, unless they receive a 20-year extension. Reuters estimates that as many as two-thirds of Japan’s 48 idled nuclear units may never restart again.
Prior to March 2011, Japan generated 30 percent of its electrical power from nuclear reactors.
Dangerous Diablo Nuclear Power Plant must be closed
Shut California’s Fukushima: Diablo Must Go, ECoWatch Harvey Wasserman | September 6, 2014 The catastrophe at Fukushima was not an accident. It’s unfolding again in California.
The next west coast quake could easily shake the two reactors at Diablo Canyon to rubble.
They are riddled with defects, can’t withstand potential seismic shocks from five major nearby fault lines, violate state water quality laws and are vulnerable to tsunamis and fire.
Diablo’s owner, Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E), is in deep legal and financial crisis. The California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) has just proposed that PG&E be fined $1.4 billion for a 2010 gas explosion and fire that killed eight people and obliterated a neighborhood in San Bruno. The federal government has announced 28 indictments, meaning the CPUC fine may just be the tip of a very expensive iceberg for PG&E. The San Bruno disaster was caused by pipeline defects about which PG&E had been warned for years, but failed to correct. The fines cover 3,798 separate violations of laws and regulations, both state and federal. PG&E was previously fined $38 million for a 2008 pipeline explosion in Rancho Cordova.
Similar defects remain uncorrected at Diablo Canyon, whose radioactive cloud could span the continental U.S. in four days. Mass citizen action recently shut two coastal reactors at San Onofre. It must do the same at Diablo before the next quake hits……
Diablo Canyon’s twin reactors sit eight miles west of San Luis Obispo, between Los Angeles and San Francisco, surrounded by earthquake faults.
The Hosgri, three miles offshore, was found as the reactors were being built. Design specifications were never fully altered to account for it. Nor have they been upgraded for the newly-found Los Osos, San Luis Bay and Shoreline faults. The Shoreline lies just 650 yard from Diablo’s cores.
The massive San Andreas fault is just 45 miles away, about half as far as was the March 11, 2011, Richter-9.0 epicenter from Fukushima.
A shock that size from any of the fault lines near Diablo could reduce it to a seething pile of radioactive hell, far deadlier than Fukushima. Prevailing winds could blanket virtually all of North America with its deadly fallout.
The nuclear industry would immediately deny all health impacts. It would blame “unpredictable” God and nature.
But a 42-page report from NRC inspector Dr. Michael Peck says new fault line discoveries challenge Diablo’s “presumption of nuclear safety.”
Buried by the NRC for at least a year, it was released by Friends of the Earth and reported on by the Associated Press and the great enviro-journalist Karl Grossman, as well as by theNuclear Information & Resource Service and Beyond Nuclear.
Peck has a doctorate in nuclear engineering and was Diablo’s chief on-site inspector for five years. He’s now a senior instructor at the NRC’s Technical Training Center in Tennessee. His status as a current NRC employee makes such a critical report highly unusual—and alarming.
Nuclear engineer Arnie Gundersen has warned about sea-level intake pipes like those at Diablo. When the tsunami struck Fukushima, he writes, “The cooling equipment along the shoreline was turned into a scrap yard of twisted metal.”
Then there is fire.
Diablo Canyon, writes David Lochbaum of the Union of Concerned Scientists, “has never, ever complied with fire safety regulations, not even for a second by mistake.”…….http://ecowatch.com/2014/09/06/california-fukushima-diablo-nuclear/2/
Nuclear Regulatory Commission takes another gamble on nuclear wastes
Punting again on nuclear waste http://www.mycentraljersey.com/story/opinion/editorials/2014/09/06/nuclear-waste/15154565/ MyCentralJersey September 6, 2014 Talk about dropping a hot potato in a way that provides absolutely no incentive for anyone to pick it up — ever. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission recently decided that nuclear waste from power plants can be stored above ground in casks indefinitely. The vote to approve it was 4-0.
Given that spent fuel stored at nuclear power plants will remain dangerous to humans for at least 10,000 years and harmful to the environment for 1 million years more, the mere suggestion that the waste will be properly stored, maintained and protected is ludicrous. And the problem, now exacerbated by the NRC finding, is not a distant one.
Jersey Shore residents are living cheek by jowl with more than 750 metric tons of radioactive waste stored in Lacey in the spent fuel rod pool at the Exelon-owned Oyster Creek plant.
The pool sits 70 feet in the air, and is covered by a box-store type metal roof. Used fuel assemblies containing a cocktail of radioactive isotopes are jam-packed into the pool, holding about eight times more than its original design capacity. An NRC report on the Peach Bottom plant in Pennsylvania indicated that even a small nuclear reactor fuel pool fire could leave 9,400 square miles uninhabitable and indefinitely displace 4.1 million people. Just imagine what such a report would reveal about a similar reactor fire at Oyster Creek. And try to imagine thousands of Jersey Shore residents fleeing the area given its limited evacuation routes.
Still, the Oyster Creek plant is not scheduled to close until 2019 and the spent fuel rods will be able to sit there until half-past “Who knows when?”
And then what? A whole lot of nothing, given this NRC finding.
At the very least, the state should insist that work begin on moving the rods into state-of-the-art dry casks — sealed metal cylinders containing the spent fuel enclosed within a metal or concrete outer shell — as soon as Oyster Creek ceases operation. That would be better than the current state of affairs, but real progress is a long way off.
The Energy Department is now saying that a burial site for the nation’s nuclear waste will be established by 2048, but the agency has no plan for finding one.
And we certainly can’t depend on Congress to get the ball rolling. The NRC ruling last week pretty much guarantees that.
Even Allison M. Macfarlane, chairwoman of the NRC, admitted as much: “If you make the assumption that there will be some kind of institution that will exist, like the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, that will assure material stays safe for hundreds or thousands of years, there’s not much impetus for Congress to want to deal with this issue.”
The unanimous vote essentially gave Congress the green light to do what it does best: Ignore the problem and continue to do absolutely nothing to find a solution.
Japan’s Nuclear Regulator stands firm on need to close reactor sited over earthquake fault
Regulatory panel in Japan affirms decision that will force decommissioning of Tsuruga reactor, Enformable, Lucas W Hixson, 5 Sept 14
On Thursday, a panel of experts organized by Japan’s Nuclear Regulation Authority (NRA) determined that it will not change its 2013 judgment that an active geologic fault exists under the Unit 2 reactor at the Tsuruga nuclear power plant.
The determination means that the Japan Atomic Power Company (JAPC), the utility which operates the Tsuruga nuclear power plant, will be forced to decommission one of the two reactors at the nuclear site.
During the meeting, officials from the JAPC attempted to present new data, which they said challenged the decision made by NRA, but many experts at the meeting debated the validity and objective nature of the data and the ability of the new findings to support claims made by the utility.
After hearing the panel’s decision, the vice president of Japan Atomic Power demanded more discussion on the issue, but was rebuffed by NRA Commissioner Kunihiko Shimazaki who stated that “Enough scientific debates have been done.”…….
After NRA experts determined that the D-1 fault zone of pebbles and sediments under the Unit 2 reactor is an active fault in May 2013, the JAPC began actively working to change the regulator’s decision, and the meetings between the two parties have been known to be contentious.
The secretariat of the NRA has told reporters that it plans to file a protest with Japan Atomic Power Company over inappropriate and threatening remarks made by Hiroshima University professor Koji Okumura, who is affiliated with the utility……..
Experts estimate that the costs to decommission a reactor like the Unit 2 reactor at the Tsuruga nuclear site will cost in excess of $650 million.
Fukushima Radiation Continues As Experts Warn Of ‘American Fukushima’
Experts Warn of ‘Inevitable’ Fukushima Disaster in California Nation of Change ANTHONY GUCCIARDI NATURAL SOCIETY / NEWS REPORT Wednesday 3 September 2014 Since the catastrophic meltdown of the Fukushima nuclear power plant in March of 2011 irreparably altered the state of the planet for the known future, the incident has been shrouded in nothing but bureaucratic cover ups and government-backed disinformation. Now, within our own borders, top experts turned whistleblowers are warning of a nuclear nightmare that could surpass Fukushima and Chernobyl alike by leaps and bounds.
Initially listed as a Level 4 incident on the International Nuclear Event Scale, pressure from scientists on an international level ultimately led to Fukushima’s classification as a maximum Level 7 accident within the INES system — with some suggesting an entirely new level was needed to describe the true impact and atrocity of the nuclear meltdown. Now, even after witnessing what happens when a major power plant is placed within the crosshairs of earthquake activity, a ‘new Fukushima’ is sitting off the Central Coast within California’s Diablo Canyon.
And top level nuclear experts, including a senior federal nuclear inspector turned whistleblower, are warning that the California-based plant is a sitting radioactive duck amid the nearby faults that have actually been found to be more dangerous than previously thought. Back in 2008, a new fault known as the Shoreline fault was discovered just offshore from the Diablo Canyon nuclear facility: a discovery that truly changes everything about the ‘safety’ of the California plant.
The whistleblower and former federal inspector of the plant, Michael Peck, has even presented his case highlighting the serious hazards of the plant he used to oversee to the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission in a highly confidential report. National organizations are already calling attention to Peck’s finding and reports, with senior strategist Damon Moglen of Friends of the Earth International stating:
“We agree with him that Diablo Canyon is vulnerable to earthquakes and must be shut down immediately. Rather than the NRC keeping this a secret, there must be a thorough investigation with public hearings to determine whether these reactors can operate safely.”
Yet it appears that the general public is not even being made aware of what’s really going on, let alone the real threat that they face on a national and international level.
As usual, the general public is not being told about ways in which they can prepare themselves for a nuclear meltdown. Instead, government officials were caught back in February stockpiling iodine stores in excess of 14 million doses in a purchase order that came conveniently after reports began surfacing over another possible meltdown at the Fukushima plant. The doses will be enough for many officials and federal employees, however the public will be forced to fend for themselves — and they will not even be told about the necessity of iodine nor how they can better prepare their families for a radioactive scenario.
The reality is that even getting a hold of low quality potassium iodide, which I would not ever personally take over a higher quality form of pure iodine, is becoming difficult as the population becomes aware of Fukushima’s expansive dangers. Many manufacturers are now stockpiling raw iodine and holding on to the element as a form of investment with the knowledge that Fukushima may very well meltdown in the coming months. For this reason, we have had a very hard time securing nascent iodine formulas that many in the field of preparedness have been stockpiling for quite some time.
Fukushima Radiation Continues As Experts Warn Of ‘American Fukushima’
But even outside out Peck’s analysis and years of experience as a nuclear inspector at the federal level, numerous high level scientists and researchers have been speaking out about the continuation of Fukushima’s devastating effects and the need to further stabilize and shutdown nuclear plants along the fault lines throughout the United States — and California is not the only region in question. Even another earthquake affecting Japan could lead to the ‘evacuation of North America’, according to scientists David Suzuki…………….http://www.nationofchange.org/experts-warn-inevitable-fukushima-disaster-california-1409758143
IN UK 2 important nuclear power stations could be out of action for 2014
The ongoing problems at Heysham 1 and Hartlepool reactors, taken offline last month, forced Centrica, a 20% owner of the atomic fleet with EDF, to issue a profit warning………The power outages following the discovery of a fault on a boiler “spine” at Heysham 1 have already led the National Grid to fast-forward an emergency plan to obtain more electricity from other providers to meet a possible shortfall…….http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2014/sep/04/nuclear-power-stations-out-december-edf
Ukraine’s 15 nuclear reactors – a big danger in the conflict
A worrying factor in Ukraine’s chaos: 15 nuclear reactors WP By Rick Noack September 3 As Ukraine looks like a country teetering on the edge of war, there’s an important factor to keep an eye on: The country’s 15 nuclear reactors.
“There haven’t been many conflicts in states with nuclear power facilities in the past, so we’re really entering unknown territory here,” said Jeffrey Mankoff, Deputy Director of the Center for Strategic and International Studies’ Russia and Eurasia Program. NATO has already shown its concern, sending a small team of civilian experts to Ukraine in April to advise the government on the safety of its infrastructure.
There is a historical component to the anxiety: In April 1986, a reactor of the Ukrainian nuclear power plant at Chernobyl exploded, causing the worst nuclear disaster in history, and a high rate of cancer among emergency workers and people living in the affected areas even today. Chernobyl happened in a time of peace: Today, Ukraine’s reactors operate near a war zone.
Closest to the fighting is Zaporizhia Nuclear Power Station, which houses six separate reactors: There are doubts about the safety mechanisms in place in these power plants. German public broadcaster ARD has warned that “a second Chernobyl disaster will be inevitable if the fighting in Ukraine cannot be stopped.” Sergej Boschko, who heads Ukraine’s nuclear regulatory agency,told ARD that “no nuclear power plant is protected against military attacks. They are not made for war, they are made for peace.”
Nuclear material also presents a problem: ARD reports that 100 containers of burned nuclear fuels were found in the open air 120 miles away from the front line. This waste product is radioactive and dangerous if stored incorrectly. Hans-Josef Allelein, the chairman of Germany’s Institute for Reactor Safety and Reactor Technology, said in an interview that these reports would indicate a “real danger” if true. “Such containers could theoretically be used as dirty bombs,” Allelein explained. “In the end, the area around a nuclear power plant needs to be secured with a reliable air-defense system …….http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/worldviews/wp/2014/09/03/a-worrying-factor-in-ukraines-chaos-15-nuclear-reactors/
Why Australia should NOT sell uranium to India
Australian and Indian nuclear trade http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/opinion/29-Aug-2014/australian-and-indian-nuclear-trade Hasan Ehtisham 4 Sept 14 Adding Australian uranium into India’s energy mix would have serious fallouts on prevailing strained relations between India and its nuclear-armed neighbours Australia is expected to sign a civil nuclear agreement with India during the visit of Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott early next month. Negotiations have been concluded to smooth the path for uranium imports from Australia.
The news came out when hundreds of thousands of Indian men and women protested against the expanding nuclear industry. These protests have been a regular feature in Koodankulam (Tamil Nadu), Jaitapur (Maharashtra) and Gorakhpur (Haryana), and at least five activists have lost their lives since 2010 in their struggle against the Indian government’s decision without taking the affected parties on board. Radioactive waste from uranium mining in the country’s east is reportedly affecting adjacent communities. Thousands of Indians suffer from the effects of uranium mining related to poor technical and management practices.
$30 million grant to protect Washington DC from nuclear threats
Washington DC gets $30 million grant to protect against nuclear threats THE BLAZE< Sep. 3, 2014 Pete Kasperowicz The Department of Homeland Security announced that it has awarded Washington DC a $30 million grant to expand its ability to detect and deter nuclear and radiological threats.
The grant, which will be distributed to Washington DC over five years, was made by DHS’s Domestic Nuclear Detection Office, which runs a program called Securing the Cities. That program started in 2006 and provided aide to New York City, and was then expanded to the Los Angeles/Long Beach area………http://www.theblaze.com/blog/2014/09/03/washington-dc-gets-30-million-grant-to-protect-against-nuclear-threats/
1 This Month
19 November – Webinar – The Reality of Reprocessing
Time: 11:00 AM Pacific Time (US & Canada) / 2:00 PM Eastern / 7:00 PM UK / 8:00 PM CET
Register for the Zoom Event Here
Shut down the radiation-damaged Heysham nuclear reactors now
To see nuclear-related stories in greater depth and intensity – go to https://nuclearinformation.wordpress.com
Say No to NASA’s Reckless Nuclear Reactor on the Moon
Say No to NASA’s Reckless Nuclear Reactor on the Moon
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