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UK nuclear power plants – safety problems not fixed

Third of U.K. Nuclear-Safety Concerns Unresolved, Regulator Says  http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-10-31/third-of-u-k-nuclear-safety-concerns-unresolved-regulator-says.html

By Roxana Zega – Oct 31, 2012 A third of nuclear-safety concerns in the U.K. remain unresolved after the regulator outlined necessary improvements in the wake of the Fukushima disaster.The nuclear industry, which has until the end of 2014 to meet the demands of the Office of Nuclear Regulation, still has to fix 32 percent of concerns identified during site visits, the ONR said in a report one year after making its recommendations.

The ONR will “if necessary, consider enforcement action to ensure that appropriate measures are implemented,” said Deputy Chief Inspector Andy Hall. Reactors must be better prepared to respond to natural disasters and other emergencies, the ONR said, calling for plant reinforcements, reviews of cooling systems and ventilation routes for combustible gases.

The regulator’s recommendations last year followed the results of so-called stress tests on U.K. reactors after the 2011 earthquake and tsunami in Japan caused a meltdown at Tokyo Electric Power Co.’s Dai-Ichi plant. The crisis triggered similar reviews in other countries and led some, including Germany, to decide to phase out nuclear power altogether.

“Much work is still to be done to implement the lessons from Fukushima,” the ONR report shows. “We expect the licensees to make proposals on how they intend to meet the required safety outcomes, and to justify why their proposal represents the safest reasonably practicable option for improvement.”

November 1, 2012 Posted by | safety, UK | Leave a comment

All USA’s nuclear plants can withstand hurricane and flooding – Nuclear Regulatory Comission

“All plants have flood protection above the predicted storm surge, and key components and systems are housed in watertight buildings capable of withstanding hurricane-force winds and flooding,” the NRC said in a statement earlier today.

Inspectors Dispatched to Nuclear Reactors in Sandy’s Path By Mark Drajem, Kasia Klimasinska and Christine Harvey – Oct 30, 2012 Extra federal inspectors were dispatched to U.S. nuclear-power plants in the path of Hurricane Sandy as operators and officials reassured the public that they are prepared for high winds, power outages and flooding associated with the massive storm.

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission said it sent additional inspectors to 10 sites from Maryland to Connecticut, and issued the employees satellite telephones, as regulators and plant operators grappled with the worst storm to threaten U.S. nuclear facilities since a nuclear disaster in Japan last year. Procedures require the sites to be shut before winds are forecast to exceed hurricane force, the commission said today in a statement.

“Given the breadth and intensity of this historic storm, the NRC is keeping a close watch on all of the nuclear power plants that could be impacted,” NRC Chairman Allison Macfarlane said in a statement. “Our extra inspectors sent to the potentially affected sites will continue, on an around-the-clock basis, to independently verify that the safety of these plants is maintained until the storm has passed and afterwards.” Continue reading →

October 30, 2012 Posted by | safety, USA | Leave a comment

USA: nuclear reactors – assurances of safety precautions

 they are unlikely to be affected by strong winds or unusually high tides.

Hurricane Sandy and N.J. nuclear power plants: Keeping it cool in high
winds http://www.newjerseynewsroom.com/science-updates/nj-nukes-prepare-for-sandy , 28 OCTOBER 2012   BY ROBERT KINKEAD On Sunday, New Jersey’s four nuclear power stations, along with another dozen or so along the Eastern Seaboard,were prepped to deal with Hurricane Sandy as that massive storm crawls up the East Coast toward the Garden State.

Federal regulators require nuclear reactors to be in a safe shutdown condition at least two hours before hurricane force winds strike, according to Alec Marion, VP of nuclear operations at the Nuclear Energy Institute, an energy industry association.

Typically, plant operators begin shutting down reactors about 12 hours before winds exceeding 74 miles per hour arrive. One of the most significant challenges in the shutting down process is keeping the reactor core cool. Continue reading →

October 29, 2012 Posted by | Reference, safety, USA | Leave a comment

AUDIO: Hazards of power loss, in nuclear reactors’ shutdown

Gundersen: 26 nuclear plants in area where Hurricane Sandy likely to hit — If power lost, only plan is to let spent fuel pools heat up… no generators to pump in water (AUDIO)  http://enenews.com/gundersen-26-nuclear-plants-area-hurricane-sandy-hit-power-lost-only-plan-spent-fuel-pools-heat-diesel-generators-pump-water-audio October 28th, 2012

Transcript Summary of an excerpt from the October 28, 2012 podcast by Fairewinds Energy Education:

You’ll hear in the next 2 days, “We’ve safely shutdown the plant”
What Fukushima taught us is that doesn’t stop the decay heat
You need the diesels to keep the reactors cool
26 plants in the East Coast are in the area where Sandy is likely to hit
Fuel pools not cooled by diesels, no one wanted to buy them
If recent refuel, hot fuel will throw off more and more moisture from pool
Reactor buildings not meant to handle the high humidity
Fuel pool liner not really designed to approach boiling water, may unzip if water gets too hot
A lot of problems with allowing fuel pool to over
Need water in around 2 days if hot fuel in pool
The only fall-back if power is lost is to let fuel pools heat up

October 29, 2012 Posted by | Resources -audiovicual, safety | Leave a comment

Swollen river necessitates nuclear plant shutdown, Slovenia

Slovenia shuts nuclear plant after Sava river swells, Yahoo News 29 Oct12, Slovenia preventively shut down production Sunday at its only nuclear power plant after a steep increase in the flow of the Sava river used for cooling the system, the Krsko nuclear plant said in a statement.
The plant’s production was stopped manually due to the “great amount of leaves and other garbage on the Sava river that had decreased the efficiency of the cooling system on the secondary side of the plant,” it said….. http://uk.news.yahoo.com/slovenia-shuts-nuclear-plant-sava-river-swells-181351905.html?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter

October 29, 2012 Posted by | EUROPE, safety | Leave a comment

Nuclear industry prepared for hurricane, is confident of safety

 Nuclear Reactors Await Hurricane Sandy By MATTHEW L. WALD, NYT October 28, 2012, Among the various immobile pieces of infrastructure in the path of the East Coast hurricane are around 20 nuclear reactors, from Calvert Cliffs in southern Maryland to Pilgrim in Plymouth, Mass., and Vermont Yankee, just north of the Massachusetts line in Vernon, Vt.

But the industry and regulatory officials say that this is an anticipated challenge…. The most severe weather to afflict nuclear reactors may have been Hurricane Andrew, in August 1992, which was a Category 5 storm when it hit the Turkey Point reactors 25 miles south of Miami. The plant lost telephone communications with the outside world, and
the access road was blocked by fallen trees, but there was no significant damage to safety systems, the regulatory commission found later …. http://green.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/10/28/nuclear-reactors-await-hurricane-sandy/

October 29, 2012 Posted by | safety, USA | Leave a comment

Harvey Wasserman lists America’s rust bucket nuclear reactors

The Rust-Bucket Reactors Start to Fall       http://www.nukefree.org/editorsblog/rust-bucket-reactors-start-fall  , Harvey Wassermann, 26 Oct 12, The US fleet of 104 deteriorating atomic reactors is starting to fall. The much-hyped “nuclear renaissance” is now definitively headed in reverse.

The announcement that Wisconsin’s Kewaunee will shut next year will be remembered as a critical dam break. Opened in 1974, Kewaunee has fallen victim to low gas prices, declining performance, unsolved technical problems and escalating public resistance.

Many old US reactors are still profitable only because their capital costs were forced down the public throat during deregulation, through other manipulations of the public treasury, and because lax regulation lets them operate cheaply while threatening the public health.

Continue reading →

October 26, 2012 Posted by | safety, USA | 1 Comment

Nuclear power obstacle in Japan: new evacuation plans

under the new radiation forecast, many more local governments will have to compile disaster management plans for areas that could require evacuation.

Radiation forecast creates hurdle in resuming nuclear plant operations UPDATE: Forecast predicts wider evacuations needed if nuclear disaster repeated October 25, 2012 THE ASAHI SHIMBUN Municipalities are demanding a greater say in whether utilities can restart their reactors after the new industry watchdog placed more communities in the danger zone of possible nuclear accidents. Continue reading →

October 26, 2012 Posted by | business and costs, Japan, politics, safety | Leave a comment

A horrible combination – fracking and nuclear reactor

Fracking and nuclear side by side in Pennsylvania: A match made in hell? RT.com 25 October, 2012, Plans are afoot to drill a well that will use fracking technology only a mile from a nuclear power plant in Pennsylvania. The parties involved say they are unconcerned, despite evidence showing fracking increases incidence of earthquake….. http://rt.com/usa/news/fracking-nuclear-earthquake-safety-243/

October 26, 2012 Posted by | safety, USA | Leave a comment

Outside Fukushima’s evacuation zone, but kindergarten still not safe

NHK: Kindergarten outside evacuation zone closed because of Fukushima radiation threat — “No one can deny the reality” (VIDEO) http://enenews.com/nhk-fukushima-kindergarten-evacuation-zone-closed-because-radiation-threat-one-deny-reality-contamination-away-video   October 24th, 2012 at 
Watch the NHK report here  http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=6scs7iE02Vg#t=145s
Source: NHK NewsWatch 9
Published by: Missingsky101
Date Aired: February 2012
Date Published: Oct 23, 2012

[The head of a kindergarten in Minamisoma city, Fukushima Prefecture] decided to close the kindergarten indefinitely […] a history of 60 years […]

[He] says, “No one can deny the reality that the community is exposed to radiation” […]

The director was forthright about lingering concerns of radiation that never went away no matter how hard the school tried to decontaminate the premises […]

October 25, 2012 Posted by | Fukushima 2012, Resources -audiovicual, safety | Leave a comment

Wider evacuation area plans needed, says Japan’s nuclear regulator

the wide area of forecasted contamination means local governments will face a greater burden in compiling effective disaster management plans.

 Shunichi Tanaka, chairman of the Nuclear Regulation Authority, has called such plans a minimum requirement before nuclear plants can be cleared for a restart.
If local governments cannot compile effective disaster management plans, it means the security of local residents is not assured. In such circumstances, not only would it be difficult to resume operations at such plants, but the very existence of those plants could be called into question.

Forecast predicts wider evacuations needed if nuclear disaster repeated Nuclear watchdog may broaden definition of active fault lines October 24, 2012 THE ASAHI SHIMBUN A forecast of the radiation released in another nuclear accident shows that at four plants, a 30-kilometer evacuation zone would be insufficient for public safety, and that more distant residents would need to flee their homes too. Continue reading →

October 25, 2012 Posted by | Japan, politics, safety | Leave a comment

30-km nuke safety zone may not be enough http://www.japantimes.co.jp/text/nn20121024a3.html Kyodo Radiation doses beyond 30 km from four nuclear plants, including those in Niigata and Fukui prefectures, could reach 100 millisieverts in the first seven days amid a severe meltdown crisis like the one that started in March 2011 at the Fukushima No. 1 complex, according to estimates by the Nuclear Regulation Authority.The NRA is crafting new guidelines on nuclear disaster mitigation measures based on the Fukushima disaster and has proposed a radius of 30 km from a nuclear plant as a rough standard for areas where special preparations against fallout exposure should be made.

The latest simulation results, however, could lead local governments to require preparations in areas beyond the 30-km zone.

The four nuclear power stations are Tokyo Electric Power Co.’s Kashiwazaki-Kariwa plant in Niigata Prefecture and Fukushima No. 2 plant in Fukushima Prefecture, Kansai Electric Power Co.’s Oi plant in Fukui Prefecture, and Chubu Electric Power Co.’s Hamaoka plant in Shizuoka Prefecture.

The NRA assumed two scenarios — one in which the amount of radioactive substances released is as high as in the Fukushima disaster and the other in which all reactors at each plant suffer meltdowns — to identify areas in which exposure could reach 100 millisieverts in the first seven days. The simulation did not take into account the geography around the plants.

For Kashiwazaki-Kariwa, areas located within a 40-km radius of the plant would register 100 millisieverts.

October 24, 2012 Posted by | Japan, safety | Leave a comment

Identifying nuclear reactors that are in dangerous locations

In China 19 of the 27 reactors are being built in areas identified as dangerous.

Scientists pinpoint nuclear plants in high-risk zones http://www.powerengineeringint.com/articles/2012/10/scientists-pinpoint-nuclear-plants-in-high-risk-zones.html 19/10/2012 By Diarmaid Williams  Scientists in the Catholic University of Leuven, Belgium have produced a pioneering study, which shows nuclear power plants that are located in zones affected by tsunamis. Continue reading →

October 24, 2012 Posted by | 2 WORLD, safety | Leave a comment

How Many Potential Fukushimas in US?

Nuclear Perceptions Fight Reality OpEd News,   By William Boardman, 22 Oct 12,  FUKUSHIMA FREAKOUT OBSCURES REAL ACCIDENT THAT GOES ON AND ON   “……How Many Potential Fukushimas in US?  After discussing the Fort Calhoun nuclear plant surrounded by flood waters in 2011, with five

full-to-capacity dams upstream, Gunderson commented: “Yet the NRC was basically telling everybody, don’t worry be happy.  You know, the probability of a dam failing is pretty low, but so is the probability of a 60 foot high tsunami hitting Fukushima.  We know that low-probability events happen.  And the NRC and Tokyo Electric both basically don’t want to admit that these events can happen.  And we’ve got 34 different Fukushimas in the United States — one third of the nuclear fleet is in danger of an upstream dam failing.”

Currently four U.S. nuclear power plants have been shut down for extended periods of one to four years, while ratepayers continue to pay the operating costs of plants that aren’t operating.  The two shut down reactors at San Onofre in California are costing ratepayers $50 million a month just to maintain the opportunity to re-start the reactors on short notice.

Worldwide, about 60 of the world’s 434 so-called safe, clean, reliable, inexpensive nuclear power plants are shut down, some forever.

“It just shows that the people we’re counting on to protect us, the regulators and the people that own these power plants, can’t be trusted,” Gunderson concluded.  http://www.opednews.com/articles/Nuclear-Perceptions-Fight-by-William-Boardman-121022-931.html

 

October 23, 2012 Posted by | safety, USA | Leave a comment

Warning to Taiwan on its special danger from nuclear power

Taiwan has one of the highest densities of nuclear power plants in the world

 the population density in northern Taiwan is so high that it would be very difficult to evacuate people if a nuclear accident were to occur at the Fourth Nuclear Power Plant in Gongliao District (貢寮), New Taipei City (新北市).
“The evacuation efficiency in northern Taiwan is virtually zero,”

Scientist warns of dangers of Taiwan nuclear mishap Taipei Times 21 Oct 12, By Lee I-chia  A Japanese nuclear scientist and researcher says that if a nuclear accident occurred at one of northern Taiwan’s nuclear power plants, about 30,000 people would die within a short period of time and up to 7 million people could develop cancer from exposure to the nuclear radiation. Continue reading →

October 22, 2012 Posted by | safety, Taiwan | Leave a comment

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