All of Tennessee Valley Authority.s nuclear power plants have notices of safety violations
All of TVA’s nuclear power plants operating under notices of safety violations http://enformable.com/2013/06/all-of-tvas-nuclear-power-plants-operating-under-notices-of-safety-violations/ Lucas W Hixson The Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) is a federally owned corporation in the United States, which is already facing the threat of being sold as it carries some $25 billion in debt -just under the $30 million debt limit set by Congress, is facing increased oversight after having been found to having improperly assessed safety violations at two nuclear power plants. TVA owns and operates the Browns Ferry, Sequoyah, and Watts Barr nuclear power plants, all of which are operating under notices of safety violations. In 2011, the Browns Ferry nuclear power plant was issued a red finding due to the failure of a safety valve and TVA’s failure to recognize the problem.
This week, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission put the Sequoyah nuclear power plant and Watts Bar nuclear power plant on increased oversight after determining that TVA violated nuclear safety standards in how the utility analyzed and prepared its flood assessment risk at the two nuclear power plants, both of which are located on the Tennessee River.
In late April of this year, the NRC staff held a conference with TVA officials to discuss the risk significance of the issues with the flood protection area. After reviewing information presented by TVA and previous NRC inspections, the NRC staff concluded that the licensee had not met safety standards in multiple areas at both nuclear power plants. The NRC concluded that TVA did not adequately establish flooding protection for scenarios involving the failure of upstream dams and also had not taken necessary measures to prevent water from flooding the intake pumping station. Additionally, TVA was cited for an additional violation for not promptly notifying the NRC after discovering that the potential failure of upstream dams could result in an unanalyzed condition affecting plant safety.
In response to the violations, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission also increased its oversight at the nuclear power plants, an expense that TVA will have to pay for, putting all three nuclear facilities operated by TVA under increased oversight due to safety violations. The NRC did not choose to impose further civil penalties and fines on TVA beyond the expense of the additional inspections and oversight.
Nuclear Regulatory Commission orders upgrades for 31 nuclear reactors
Upgraded vent systems ordered for 31 nuclear reactors, including two at Peach Bottom Nuclear Regulatory Commission says move is a safety measure By Jamie Smith Hopkins, The Baltimore Sun, June 6, 2013 The Nuclear Regulatory Commission said Thursday that it has ordered a venting upgrade for nearly a third of the reactors in the country, including ones at the Peach Bottom Atomic Power Station just north of Harford County.
Peach Bottom, in Delta, Pa., has two of the 31 reactors that must now have venting systems that can better handle accidents. The commission’s order is part of its review effort following the 2011 nuclear meltdown in Fukushima, Japan, after an earthquake and tsunami.
Scott Burnell, a spokesman for the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, said officials want venting systems in place that can operate “under a wider set of conditions and keep doing the job they’re designed for” — releasing pressure and hydrogen so containment buildings can hold on to radioactive material….. http://www.baltimoresun.com/business/bs-bz-nuclear-reactor-safety-20130606,0,3084896.story#ixzz2VZ6s598g
EPA Dramatically Weakens Radiation Protection
Fukushima Radiation Risk Media Deception, Lynda Lovon 3 June 13 ………“The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is publishing in the Federal Register today controversial new Protective Action Guides (PAGs) for responding to radioactive releases. EPA says it solicits public comment but is nonetheless making the PAGs immediately effective.
Iran’s Bushehr nuclear plant has long cracks: its safety is in doubt
Iran’s only working nuclear reactor damaged by earthquakes, diplomats say Fox news, June 04, 201 Associated Press Several countries monitoring Iran’s nuclear program have picked up information that the country’s only power-producing nuclear reactor was damaged by one or more of several recent earthquakes, with long cracks appearing in at least one section of the structure, two diplomats said Tuesday.
Iran is under U.N. sanctions for refusing to stop nuclear programs that could be used to make weapons, even as it insists it has no such plans.
Its Bushehr nuclear plant is not considered a proliferation threat. But some nations are concerned about how safe it is. Iran has refused to join an international nuclear safety convention and persistent technical problems have shut the plant for lengthy periods since it started up in September 2011 after years of construction delays.
Reports of the International Atomic Energy Agency in February and May said the agency had been informed by the Iranians that the facility was shut down, without specifying why.
Kuwait and other Arab countries are only a few hundred miles away from Iran’s Bushehr reactor, which is on the Persian Gulf coast, and are particularly worried about the safety of the Russian-built reactor. Saudi Arabia mentioned Bushehr as a safety concern on Tuesday at a session of the Vienna-based IAEA’s 35-nation board.
But Iran insists the plant is technically sound and built to withstand all but the largest earthquakes unscathed. Officials in Tehran reassured the international community after the quakes struck in April and early May that the facility was undamaged.
The diplomats referred to recent restricted information gathered from the site in questioning that assertion. They told The Associated Press that one concrete section of the structure developed cracks several meters long as a result of the quakes on April 9 and April 16.
Both diplomats are from member countries of the Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency, which monitors Iran’s nuclear program. They demanded anonymity because they are not allowed to divulge confidential information.
One of the two said that the cracks seen were not in the vicinity of the reactor core, which contains highly radioactive fuel. But he said that the information available was limited to one section of the reactor, meaning damage elsewhere could not be ruled out.
He declined to go into details, saying that could jeopardize the sources…….
Iran is the only country operating a nuclear power plant that has not signed on to the 75-nation nuclear safety convention, which was created after the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear disaster.
Uranium is France’s major strategic economic interest in the Sahel,
How long before the bombings hit Paris?
Niger’s Uranium Facilities Under Assault Oil Price, By John Daly, 03 June 2013 One of the scariest scenarios for Western intelligence analysts is the possible nexus between terrorism and nuclear materials Recent events in Africa have heightened these scenarios. Continue reading
USA’s Dept of Energy’s plans for allowing recycling of radioactive metals
Nuclear site scrap metal could be headed to recyclers June 2, 2013 By Len Boselovic / Pittsburgh Post-Gazette A U.S. Department of Energy proposal to recycle scrap metal from its nuclear facilities has set off the radiation detectors of environmental groups, some in the metals industry and one member of Congress.
But the industry group representing metals recyclers says current safeguards will prevent any radioactive scrap from getting into jewelry, knives and forks and other common goods consumers use every day.
The DOE’s draft proposal, issued in December, comes 13 years after then Energy Secretary Bill Richardson suspended shipments of metal scrap from the agency’s sites because of public safety concerns.
“This involves risk. Radiation causes cancer,” said Daniel Hirsch, president of the Committee to Bridge the Gap. “The U.S. population should not be used as a disposal facility.”
Mr. Hirsch — whose nonprofit examines nuclear safety, waste disposal and related issues — said rescinding the scrap recycling moratorium that has been in place since 2000 demonstrates the Energy Department’s “callous disregard for the public.”……
Despite radiation detectors at scrap yards and metals plants, there have been cases of radioactive metals making it into mills as well as onto store shelves.
Last year, Bed, Bath and Beyond pulled metal tissue boxes out of about 200 stores after it was discovered that the household items emitted low levels of radiation…….http://www.post-gazette.com/stories/business/news/nuclear-site-scrap-metal-could-be-headed-to-recyclers-690043/#ixzz2VBlSDy22
Desperate radioactive water problem at Fukushima – attempt to freeze surrounding soil
Soil around Fukushima to be frozen to stop groundwater leaking in http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-05-31/operator-ordered-to-freeze-soil-around-crippled-nuclear-plant/4724554 By North Asia correspondent Mark Willacy, The Japanese government has ordered the operator of the Fukushima nuclear plant to freeze the soil around its crippled reactor buildings to stop groundwater seeping in and becoming contaminated.
Every day another 400 tonnes of groundwater forces its way into the plant, becomes contaminated with radioactivity and needs to be stored onsite. Plant operator Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) already has a quarter of a million tonnes of radioactive water stored in tanks at Fukushima. (below Fukushinma Daichi reactor No 6)
Fearing the nuclear plant is running out of space to store contaminated water, the Japanese government has ordered TEPCO to take the drastic step. The government hopes these frozen walls of soil will stop huge amounts of groundwater leaking into the buildings and it wants the system to be in place within two years.
According to a report compiled by a government panel on Thursday, there are no previous examples of using walls created from frozen soil to isolate groundwater being used for longer than a few years.
This means the project at the Fukushima plant poses “an unprecedented challenge in the world”.
Landfill on fire a threat to nearby nuclear waste
“The bottom line is it’s very serious,” “What’s happening up here is not something that has ever been encountered before. They’ve had landfill fires and nuclear waste, but never in such close proximity.
Smoldering Landfill Could Threaten Nuclear Waste, abc News, By JIM SALTER Associated Press BRIDGETON, Mo. May 29, 2013 Dawn Chapman can put up with the noxious smell caused by smoldering trash in a landfill near her suburban St. Louis home. But if the burning creeps close to buried nuclear waste, she’s ready to get out.
It’s a problem that worries many people in this densely populated area near Lambert Airport, where the trash burns just 1,200 feet from another landfill that holds radioactive waste dating back to the Manhattan Project, which created the first atomic bomb in the 1940s. Continue reading
Serious safety concerns about Pickering, Canada’s oldest nuclear reactor
The lack of comparable plants means safety and accident statistics for the industry are based on much newer plants. As a result, he said, it’s questionable whether they should be used to predict events at Pickering.
Gunderson also said that Pickering’s vacuum building, which is designed to suck in radioactive steam and air in case of an accident, can handle only one reactor failure. Pickering has six operating reactors.
Aging Pickering nuclear plant seeks five more years, The Star, Canada’s oldest nuclear power plant is seeking to renew its operating license for five years. Critics say it should be closed By: John Spears Business reporter, May 29 2013 Ontario Power Generation is confident it can safely operate its 40-year-old Pickering nuclear generating station 18 per cent longer than originally planned, OPG officials told Canada’s nuclear regulator Wednesday.
But members of the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission still peppered emergency planners with questions about what happens if a nuclear accident does occur at the station, located in Canada’s largest urban area.
Pickering’s operating license expires June 30, and original plans called for it to be wound down in the next few years. Continue reading
South Korea Shuts 2 Reactors Over Faked Certificates http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/29/world/asia/south-korea-turns-off-nuclear-reactors.html?_r=0 By CHOE SANG-HUN May 28, 2013 SEOUL, South Korea — South Korea said on Tuesday that it was turning off two nuclear power reactors and delaying the scheduled start of operations at another two after its inspectors discovered that the reactors used components whose safety certificates had been fabricated.
South Korea’s nuclear power industry has been plagued by a series of forced shutdowns, corruption scandals and mechanical failures in recent years, undermining public confidence in atomic energy even as the country’s dependence on it for electricity is expected to grow. Continue reading
Russia’s unsafe new nuclear reactors, the Baltic NPP and others
GAZETA.RU: Nuclear failure Gazeta.ru, May 24, 2013 “……..In fact, Kaliningrad Region’s neighbor Lithuania has been vigorously protesting the construction, voicing not just political complaints but also concerns regarding the future station’s safety. For instance, the Lithuanian government has charged that the VVER-1200 reactors that Rosatom planned to build at the site have never been subjected to safety tests in accordance with the criteria adopted in the European Union. And safety concerns are far from frivolous or irrelevant here. Let’s take a moment to look at the technology improvements that we are told have been implemented in the design.
The VVER-1200 reactor, on which the project of the Baltic NPP was based, includes a novelty called a “core catcher.” This contraption is meant to mitigate the consequences of an accident that evolves according to a Chernobyl or Fukushima scenario – namely, leads to a core meltdown. For one thing, the very presence of a core catcher would imply that such an accident is possible in principle. For another, all a core catcher can do is simply “catch” the highly radioactive mass of a molten reactor core as it burns through the bottom of the reactor vessel. What it cannot do is help contain the accompanying massive release of radioactivity of the kind that poisoned the environment far and wide during the catastrophe at Chernobyl. So what would be the meaning of this expensive new enhancement? Put a tick next to a budget item called “That new fancy gizmo we have – our reactors are the best!”?
It would be funny if it weren’t so sad: VVER-1200s are being built at the second Leningrad nuclear station, near St. Petersburg, and at the new Novovoronezh site, in Central European Russia, and are being planned for a number of other sites across the country – not to mention the export reactor projects in Belarus, Vietnam, Turkey, and other foreign states.
There are other problems with the Baltic NPP. Its price tag was estimated at around EUR 6 billion, and that’s not counting the very costly transmission networks that the plant would badly need. The very electricity export idea was not duly thought through: Kaliningrad Region lacks the modern and reliable transmission and distribution networks that would be required to carry the station’s electricity to consumers either inside the region or abroad. New power lines could – according to a 2009 estimate by the Russian electricity generation and foreign and domestic power trading company Inter RAO – set Rosatom back by an additional nearly EUR 3 billion, driving the station’s cost up by another 50 percent………http://anti-atom.ru/en/node/5185
Strict safety measures would mean Japan’s nukes are uneconomic
Is it safe? Ruling party pushes nuclear village agenda BY JEFF KINGSTON JAPAN TIMES, 26 May 13, “………the NRA has signaled its intention to not approve restarting a reactor at the Tsuruga plant in Fukui, and there are several other candidates for closure; Tepco’s Kashiwazaki plant with six reactors is sited near an active fault line as proven in the 2007 earthquake there, but the utility’s business plan depends on restarting this facility. There are some tough calls ahead.
There has also been no conclusion declared as to whether or not seismic damage compromised cooling-system pipes at the Fukushima plant in the interval before the tsunami hit. This is an important issue because if the earthquake caused the meltdowns, all Japan’s reactors would require extensive safety upgrades that would further undermine their financial viability. In any event, The Economist magazine has concluded that nuclear power is simply not economically feasible.
The NRA is set to adopt stricter safety regulations in July, but the key will be the implementation and monitoring of compliance. Problematically, there are only nine inspectors overseeing the 3,000 workers engaged in decontamination and decommissioning efforts at Fukushima, a bungled operation that has been left to the discretion of Tepco.
The utility decided against bringing in outside experts and failed to anticipate the problem of what to do with massive volumes of radioactive waste water that are accumulating at the plant. The improvised responses have proved inadequate, while the touted “solution” involves dumping the toxic water into the ocean. The Tokyo-based New York Times reporter Martin Fackler concludes that Tepco is “lurching from one problem to the next without a coherent strategy … a cautionary tale about the continued dangers of leaving decisions about nuclear safety to industry insiders” (NYT 4/29/2013).
Despite this and other red flags on nuclear safety, the political pressures on the NRA to resume business as usual are intensifying……. .http://www.japantimes.co.jp/opinion/2013/05/26/commentary/is-it-safe-ruling-party-pushes-nuclear-village-agenda/#.UaPpE9JwpLs
Niger uranium mine struck by suicide bombers
Suicide bombers strike African uranium mine http://www.miningaustralia.com.au/news/suicide-bombers-strike-african-uranium-mine 24 May, 2013 Alex Heber Suicide bombers have killed at least 20 people in a French-run uranium mine in northern Niger.
About 50 people were injured at the mine when a suicide bomber drove into the front of the plant and blew up his vehicle, ABC reports.
The mine, located in the remote town of Arlit, has also reported key infrastructure has been badly damaged.
Islamist militants MUJWA are claiming responsibility for the attack.
The group which is also known as Movement for Unity and Jihad in West Africa is an offshoot of terrorist group Al Qaeda. MUJWA says the attack was at act of revenge for Niger’s involvement in the French-led intervention in Mali.
Niger’s president, Mahamadou Issoufou, has also confirmed French Special Forces have now moved in to protect the plant.
If you don’t test for alpha and beta radiation, does that prove they are not there?
DNR Won’t Test For Most Radiation at Bridgeton Landfill http://stlouis.cbslocal.com/2013/05/23/dnr-wont-test-for-most-radiation-at-bridgeton-landfill/ May 23, 2013 BRIDGETON, MO (KMOX) – A court-approved plan to dig up parts of a burning Bridgeton landfill and cap it with plastic continues Thursday.
Bridgeton resident and mother of three young children Dawn Chapman says the Missouri Department of Natural Resources told her by telephone no testing is being done for “alpha and beta radiation,” despite the fire’s proximity to buried nuclear waste.
“I don’t want my children exposed to any of this radiation,” she said. “You know, you can say it may or may not be above the ground but the point is it’s not supposed to be there. Children are not supposed to be inhaling radiation coming out of the landfill fire.”
State officials confirm to KMOX they are only testing for “gamma” radiation, not alpha and beta. The reason given is that alpha and beta monitoring requires different equipment and lab work which lasts weeks.
Radiation incident at Japanese Atomic Energy Lab
Radiation leak reported day after incident at Ibaraki laboratory, Global Post, 24 May 13Radioactive substances were released into the atmosphere Thursday outside the controlled area at one of the Japan Atomic Energy Agency’s nuclear physics laboratories in Ibaraki Prefecture, the Nuclear Regulation Authority’s secretariat said early Saturday morning.
Fifty-five researchers and others who were engaged in experiments and other work at the laboratory may have been exposed to radiation as a result of inhaling the substances, but none were taken to hospital, the government body said. Four have so far undergone checkups and the highest radiation dose detected was 1.7 millisievert.
No impact from the radiation is expected beyond the premises of the accelerator laboratory in Tokaimura….. http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/kyodo-news-international/130524/radiation-leak-reported-day-after-incident-at-ibaraki-
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