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France’s nuclear company EDF must meet deadline and spend $12 billion on safety measures

EDF Gets Six Years to Carry Out $12 Billion Safety Measures, Bloomberg News By Tara Patel on June 28, 2012   Electricite de France SA, operator of the country’s 58 nuclear reactors, has six years to complete about 10 billion euros ($12 billion) of measures to boost safety after Japan’s Fukushima disaster, the regulator said.

Autorite de Surete Nucleaire today published deadlines for employing equipment such as diesel generators, bunkered control rooms, and guards against flooding.

An estimate by state-owned EDF that the measures will cost about 10 billion euros “is not improbable,” Andre-Claude Lacoste, head of the watchdog, told reporters today.,,,, EDF was told today to install “core” safety equipment and procedures at every plant to cope with extreme situations. Emergency diesel generators for backup power have to be deployed between 2016 and the end of 2018 and rapid response teams with specialized equipment by the end of 2014. EDF also has to have bunker-like control rooms….. http://www.businessweek.com/news/2012-06-28/edf-gets-six-years-to-carry-out-12-billion-of-safety-measures

June 29, 2012 Posted by | France, safety | Leave a comment

France’s 3 nuclear agencies must present safety plans by June 30

French Nuclear Safety Body Imposes Security Works On Industry Fox News By Hugo Passarello June 28, 2012 Nuclear energy industry players in France will have to carry out “considerable” work to strengthen security at nuclear facilities, including sizeable investments in human resources and technical skills, said a report by France’s independent nuclearsafety regulator Thursday.
In a statement, the Autorite de Surete Nucleaire, or ASN, announced 32 decisions, including measures relating to Electricite de France’s SA (EDF.FR) nuclear power stations, French nuclear engineering company Areva’s SA (AREVA.FR) installations, and reactors of the French atomic agency, known as the CEA.
As part of the measures, all nuclear sites will have to have “hard-core” compounds which provide robust premises to be used in event of an serious incident.
The three nuclear players are required to present on June 30 the details of materials needed and deadlines for the compounds, said the ASN.
http://www.foxbusiness.com/news/2012/06/28/french-nuclear-safety-body-imposes-security-works-on-industry/#ixzz1zDlPR48Q

June 29, 2012 Posted by | France, safety | Leave a comment

NRC keeping mum about their investigations into Palisades nuclear power plant

Nuclear cops snoop around Palisades, NRC team began investigation this week, Wood 8 TV , 28 Jun 2012, By Henry Erb GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (WOOD) – When something goes wrong at the Palisades nuclear facility, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission does a technical review. Now, a team of nuclear cops is investigating the nuke plant in Covert Township.

Many of the people in the NRCs Office of Investigations are former agents of the FBI, Secret Service, Drug Enforcement Agency or have backgrounds with other law enforcement agencies. They’re not looking for things that have just gone wrong.
Their job is to look for deliberate wrongdoing, things that could result in criminal prosecution.

In the 2011 annual report from the NRC, the agents investigated 227 cases and turned 77 over to the Justice Department. It’s unclear how many actually ended up in prosecution. ….. This week, the nuclear cops began looking into the year-long leak from an emergency water tank that shut down Palisades on June 12. NRC inspectors at the plant knew about the slow leak since May 2011, and their spokesman said it wasn’t them who turned the case over for special investigation.

The Office of Investigations began the probe on its own this week, but a spokesman at their Chicago office said the agents are not saying why. http://www.woodtv.com/dpp/news/local/sw_mich/Nuclear-cops-snoop-around-Palisades

June 29, 2012 Posted by | safety, secrets,lies and civil liberties, USA | Leave a comment

Dangerous to restart Japan’s nuclear reactors, warn seismologists

Seismic modelling by Japan’s nuclear regulator did not properly take into account active fault lines near the Ohi plant, Katsuhiko Ishibashi, a seismologist at Kobe University, told reporters.

“Instead of making standards more strict, they both represent a severe setback in safety standards.”

Seismologists warn Japan against nuclear restart http://af.reuters.com/article/energyOilNews/idAFL3E8HQ43L20120626  TOKYO, June 26 (Reuters) – Two prominent seismologists said on Tuesday that Japan is ignoring the safety lessons of last year’s Fukushima crisis and warned against restarting two reactors next month. Continue reading →

June 27, 2012 Posted by | Japan, safety | Leave a comment

Conflicting reports about French nationals held by rebels in Central African Republic

Bakouma lawmaker Alima Diarra said the rebels seized five French nationals and two locals. But there are conflicting reports over whether the seven were hostages……French authorities are talking with local authorities and Areva about what to do next.

Foreigners not held in Central African Republic, The Telegraph June 26, 2012  By HIPPOLYTE MARBOUA — Associated Press BANGUI, CENTRAL AFRICAN REPUBLIC — Authorities in the Central African Republic said that rebels had released the foreigners they were holding after attacking a French uranium exploration site, even though officials with the company in France denied that the expatriates had ever been kidnapped.

A military official in Bakouma, where the site is, said that a plane was sent to pick up five French nationals and two locals to take them to the capital, Bangui. Rebels on Sunday attacked the exploration site in Bakouma, operated by French company Areva. Continue reading →

June 27, 2012 Posted by | AFRICA, incidents | Leave a comment

AREVA uranium site in Central Africa attacked by gunmen

Gunmen attack French uranium plant, Times Live, Sapa-AFP | 25 June, 2012 Gunmen have attacked a uranium plant operated by French nuclear power giant Areva at Bakouma in the southeast of the Central African Republic, army and French diplomatic sources said yesterday.

“A violent clash on Sunday afternoon pitted” Central African troops against “an unidentified group of armed men attempting to launch an assault on the site of mining company Areva,” a military statementsaid…. http://www.timeslive.co.za/thetimes/2012/06/25/gunmen-attack-french-uranium-plant

June 27, 2012 Posted by | AFRICA, incidents | Leave a comment

Typhoons, tornadoes, threaten crippled Fukushima nuclear plant

Fukushima plant faces typhoon summer with added tornado threat, Fuel Fix June 22, 2012 Tokyo Electric Power Co. (9501)’s crippled Fukushima nuclear plant faces its second typhoon season since the March 11 disaster last year, raising the risk of further radiation leaks if storms thrash exposed pools of uranium fuel rods or tanks holding contaminated water. Continue reading →

June 25, 2012 Posted by | Japan, safety | Leave a comment

Friends of the Earth might expose San Onofre nuclear plant’s secrets and flawed designs

If it is approved as an official intervener, Friends of the Earth would have the right to examine plant records, present and cross-examine expert witnesses, and fully participate in a public, trial-like hearing on the steam generator issues.

The dispute is already having an effect beyond the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station (SONGS).

Anti-Nuclear Group Seeks to Expose San Onofre Design Flaws Inside Climate News, 22 June 12 Friends of the Earth demands intervener status to expose safety problems at the idled California nuclear facility to long-avoided public scrutiny. SAN JUAN CAPISTRANO, Calif.—A watchdog group intent on permanently shuttering the troubled San Onofre nuclear power station in Southern California has seized on the plant’s current crisis to expose the facility’s operations to the kind of public scrutiny it has avoided for decades.

San Onofre, a twin-reactor site along the coast between Los Angeles and San Diego, was forced offline Jan. 31 by a small radiation leak from a tube in one of the plant’s recently installed steam generators. Experts then found unusual tube deterioration in the plant’s other steam generators, a problem that’s so tough to solve safely that both reactors will remain idle at least through August. Continue reading →

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

USA: Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s “Waste Confidence Rule” – a matter of faith, not science

the NRC is now contending that the spent fuel can be stored safely “until a depository was needed” or “realized.”

the June 8 Appeals Court decision  said that “the commission’s evaluation of the risks of spent nuclear fuel is deficient in two ways:

First, in concluding that permanent storage will be available when necessary, the commission did not calculate the environmental effects of failing to secure permanent storage — a possibility that cannot be ignored.

Second, in determining that spent fuel can safely be stored on site for 60 years after the expiration of a plant’s license, the commission failed to properly examine future dangers and key consequences.”

Nuclear plant relicensing opponents challenge NRC, SeaCoastonline By Shir Haberman, June 21, 2012 SEABROOK — For the second time in two months nuclear safety groups have filed a federal action against the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission for allegedly failing to appropriately fulfill its role as the protector of public health and safety. Continue reading →

June 22, 2012 Posted by | safety, USA | Leave a comment

Possible sabotage, police investigate explosives at Swedish nuclear power plant

Explosives found at nuclear plant, Herald Sun,  AP June 22, 2012 SWEDEN’S nuclear power plants were on alert after a truck with explosives was discovered at one plant. Sweden raised the security alert for the country’s three nuclear power plants after explosives were found on a truck at the southwestern Ringhals atomic power station. Police said they were investigating possible sabotage. Continue reading →

June 22, 2012 Posted by | incidents, Sweden | Leave a comment

Despite previous radioactive spills, Point Lepreau nuclear reactor will not be fully monitored

Point Lepreau has been out of service since March 2008 for a major refurbishment designed to extend the life of the reactor by 25 years. It is scheduled to reopen this fall, three years behind schedule.

Nuclear watchdog unable to closely monitor Point Lepreau Limited resources prevent full oversight, says senior staffer CBC News Jun 21, 2012  Senior staff at the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission say the regulatory body is unable to monitor the refurbishment and pending restart of New Brunswick’s Point Lepreau nuclear generating station as closely as it would like. He was answering questions about a recent heavy water spill at Lepreau, which is located in west Saint John. Continue reading →

June 22, 2012 Posted by | Canada, safety | Leave a comment

Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s blind faith that nuclear waste is safe

The NRC held that waste storage was safe for at least 60 years after a plant shuts down; they then proposed a rule to allow spent fuel storage at reactor sites for 200-300 years.

Wake Up and Smell the Radioactive Waste, OpEd News, 20 June 12, By Abby Luby Given that 2,000 tons of spent nuclear fuel is produced every year at nuclear reactors in the United States, and over 75,000 metric tons of nuclear waste is being temporarily stored in 39 states, it is surprising that the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) has emphatically said this amount of waste is safe. What’s even more surprising is that no one has disputed them. Until now.

Last week, in what New York State calls a landmark victory, a U.S. Appeals Court ruled that the NRC violated a federal act by neglecting to run in-depth studies on how storing radioactive waste at nuclear power plants impacts health and the environment. The lawsuit was spearheaded and won by New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman, who was joined by state attorneys general from Connecticut, Vermont and New Jersey, and the Prairie Island Indian Community.

Schneiderman and his boss, Governor Andrew Cuomo, in their aggressive pursuit to shutter the aging Indian Point Nuclear Power plant in Westchester, have chased after many pro-nuclear policies that seem to drive the NRC. In 2007, Entergy, Indian Point’s owner, applied to re-license the plant’s twin reactors to run for 20 more years.
Three years later, the NRC amended their “Waste Confidence Decision,” allowing plants to store more waste on-site without site-specific environmental or safety reviews. Continue reading →

June 21, 2012 Posted by | politics, safety, USA | Leave a comment

Indian Point nuclear plant has three times the radioactivity of Fukushima’s spent fuel pools.

Wake Up and Smell the Radioactive Waste, OpEd News, 20 June 12, By Abby Luby“……Currently at Indian Point, 1,500 tons of high-level irradiated waste is stored in heavy steel and concrete casks on a tarmac a few hundred feet from the Hudson River. The Westchester-based plant produces about 30 tons of radioactive waste every 18 months, which is then crammed into two overcrowded, 40-foot deep spent fuel pools. Each pool holds about 1,000 tons of radioactive waste and has been leaking into the ground and river for years. However, the NRC has maintained that whatever leaches into the river is negligible, reiterating their catch phrase: “Dilution is the solution to pollution.”….

In a study by the Institute for Policy Studies, “Spent Nuclear Fuel Pools in the U.S.: Reducing the Deadly Risks of Storage,” Robert Alvarez, author and senior scholar for nuclear policy, said that Indian Point has three times the radioactivity of Fukushima’s spent fuel pools.

Indian Point is about 30 miles from Manhattan. A 1997 analysis, the Brookhaven National Laboratory [ http://pbadupws.nrc.gov/docs/ML0230/ML023040470.pdf – page 4] estimated a severe fire in a spent-fuel pool would release enough radioactive material to cause as many as 28,000 cancer deaths in a densely populated area and render 188 square miles uninhabitable.

In light of the Fukushima disaster and the potential for future leakage and catastrophic fires, the court ruled that the NRC’s analysis of the impacts of spent fuel storage was insufficient and is now requiring the agency to reassess the environmental impacts of the waste storage. Now it’s up to the NRC to heed the court and truly “protect the health and safety of the public.”   http://www.opednews.com/articles/Wake-Up–Smell-the-Radioa-by-Abby-Luby-120614-180.html

June 21, 2012 Posted by | Reference, safety, USA | Leave a comment

No relicensing of nuclear reactors until a permanent waste solution is found

Anti-nuclear activist Ben Davis Jr. is also pushing to get a proposition placed on the statewide ballot that would force both California facilities to go offline and remain shuttered until such time as a feasible plan for nuclear waste storage was actually developed.

Nuclear Waste Must be Considered in Plant Relicensing, San Diego Reader, Dave Rice, June 19, 2012 A June 8 decision  from the U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington, D.C. could impact the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s decision on re-licensing California’s two nuclear plants, as well as dozens of others across the nation.

In a 2010 Waste Confidence Decision, the Commission ruled that permanent storage for highly radioactive spent fuel used in the reactors would be available “when necessary,” and said that it would be safe to store the spent fuel on the site of various power plants until a long-term repository became available…. Continue reading →

June 20, 2012 Posted by | safety, USA | Leave a comment

Design flaws cause safety problems in San Onofre nuclear reactors

An environmental group, Friends of the Earth, has claimed Edison misled the NRC about the changes that it has identified as the likely culprit in excessive tube wear. The federal agency previously disputed that charge, but Collins said that’s under review as part of the
investigation. The group on Monday filed a petition asking the NRC to keep the plant offline until the company amends its license to reflect the design changes……
The NRC has said there is no timetable to restart the reactors.

Feds: Design led to nuke plant woes, Fuel Fix June 18, 2012  by Associated Press  CAPISTRANO BEACH, Calif. — After months of investigation, federal regulators have determined that design flaws appear to be the cause of excessive wear in tubing that carries radioactive water through California’s troubled San Onofre nuclear power plant, a top federal regulator said. Continue reading →

June 20, 2012 Posted by | safety, USA | Leave a comment

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