Offline nuclear reactors still dangerous, need constant cooling
News Navigator: What danger is still posed by offline nuclear reactors? Answers by Taku Nishikawa, Science & Environment News Department The Mainichi, 8 May 12, As of May 5, all nuclear reactors in Japan were offline. The Mainichi answers common questions readers may have about the safety and dangers of offline nuclear plants.
Question: With the reactors offline, has the danger of nuclear accidents disappeared?
Answer: The danger is likely less than while the reactors are running, but it still exists. Nuclear plants make power by turning turbines with the heat from the chained fission of Uranium-235 in nuclear fuel.
This chained fission is stopped in an offline reactor, but fuel rods continue to release “decay heat” as various unstable nuclei created during the reactors’ operation until now naturally break down. This decay heat has to continually be removed.
Q: What will happen if it is not removed? Continue reading
Damaged South Korean nuclear reactor to shut down for 2 years
Uljin Nuclear Reactor Faces 2-Year Shutdown The Chosunilbo, 10 May 12, Additional faults have been detected in the No. 4 reactor at the Uljin Nuclear Power Plant, which has been undergoing repairs, and a complete shutdown now seems inevitable……..
Korea Hydro and Nuclear Power Corporation has found that damage in the No. 4 reactor, where operations were halted due to defects in the machine that condensates steam from the turbine, is more serious than expected and tentatively decided to replace the steam generator.
Replacing it will take one or two years, so the reactor will not operate until at least next summer. It generates 1 million kW, or the capacity of two thermal power stations. …
http://english.chosun.com/site/data/html_dir/2012/05/10/2012051001397.html
Edison company backs off about re-opening San Onofre nuclear plant
VIDEO http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2012/05/san-onofre-nuclear-plant-backs-away-from-reopening-date.html. San Onofre nuclear plant backs away from reopening date L.A. Times, May 9, 2012 Southern California Edison backed off from comments made last week by one of its executives, who said the company hopes to have the San Onofre nuclear plant — shuttered due to equipment issues — back online and operating at a reduced capacity in
June….
NRC Chairman Gregory Jaczko released a statement Monday, saying the agency has yet to receive a written statement from Edison to say the required steps have been taken to investigate and make a plan to fix the issues at the plant and “any discussion of a date for
the restart of Unit 2 or Unit 3 is clearly premature.”
The plant has been shuttered for more than three months because of problems with excessive wear in steam generator tubes. On Tuesday, Edison reported it has taken about 1,300 tubes out of service because of wear — 510 in Unit 2 and 807 in Unit 3 — representing a little more than 3% of the total number of tubes in the plant, and a higher number than the company had previously reported…….
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2012/05/san-onofre-nuclear-plant-backs-away-from-reopening-date.html.
The risk of weakening safety standards at USA nuclear weapons facilities
Don’t let foxes guard our nuclear henhouse THE HILL, By Katherine M. Fuchs, program director, Alliance for Nuclear Accountability – 05/09/12 Today the House Armed Services Committee will debate the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), possibly overturning 25 years of safety standards at our nation’s weapons facilities. During this debate members of this committee will have a choice – they can protect communities around nuclear sites and the employees who work there or they can go on record as turning their back on those safety standards.
There are several sections of the NDAA that relate directly to nuclear safety and pose a threat to security. Perhaps the most troubling aspect of this bill is the fact that it would overturn the “adequate protection standard” that has guided nuclear safety oversight for over two decades. Continue reading
Japan’s idle nuclear reactors still need huge electricity to keep them safe
The end of nuclear, CLIMATE SPECTATOR, Matthew Wright , 8 May 2012 “………When they get too old to operate safely or get shut early due to disaster they still need to be propped up on life support, to manage the site cleanup, to manage their waste and to cool that waste.
In fact right now, Japan’s 54 idled reactors are using the electricity equivalent to the output of three entire reactors, just to provide cooling and other critical services. These will need to go on being delivered to the sites for years even if the reactors are to be completely decommissioned.
That means that nuclear reactors are competing with hospitals, schools and factories for scarce electricity supplies. Due to inherent safety risks, the reactors get power ahead of everyone else in the country. It doesn’t matter if you’re in an emergency ward needing urgent medical attention to save your life, the reactors’ safety comes first……
http://www.businessspectator.com.au/bs.nsf/Article/nuclear-power-and-Japan-end-of-nuclear-Fukushima-d-pd20120508-U3UUW?opendocument&src=rss
New Vogtle nuclear reactor – delays and unexpected costs
Utility: Building schedule slips on Ga. nuke plant The Telegraph, Middle Georgia, By RAY HENRY — Associated Press May 9, 2012 The timeline for building a first-of-its-kind nuclear plant in Georgia has slipped seven months, while the Southern Co. faces a dispute over who should pay for $400 million in unanticipated costs, utility executives said Wednesday. Continue reading
Japan is no further on in getting new nuclear regulator
it would lead to problems in the future if the government rushes to restart Japan’s nuclear reactors without changing the current framework, in which the nuclear regulator is under the auspices of its promoter, the industry ministry.
New nuclear regulatory agency still up in air, Mainichi, 7 May 12 TOKYO (Kyodo) — Japan entered a rare period on Sunday of having no nuclear power supply following last year’s
Fukushima No. 1 Nuclear Power Plant disaster, without seeing much progress on shaping a new nuclear regulatory agency that could play a key role in addressing public concerns over the safety of atomic power.
The government plans to establish a new agency under the Environment Ministry amid criticism that the existing Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency lacks teeth because it is under the umbrella of the Economy, Trade and Industry Ministry, a promoter of nuclear power.
But parliamentary deliberations on a bill submitted by the government to launch the new agency on April 1 have not yet started and the main opposition Liberal Democratic Party has complained that the organization’s independence would not be sufficiently secure under the government plan. Continue reading
Nuclear physicist plotted terrorist attack
Nuclear researcher sentenced in France for plotting attack (Reuters) 4 May 12, – A Paris court sentenced a Franco-Algerian nuclear physicist to five years in prison on Friday on charges of helping to plot an attack in France in 2009 with an al Qaeda militant in Algeria.
Adlene Hicheur, 35, a former researcher at the prestigious CERN physics lab in Geneva, was found guilty of providing logistical advice to Mustapha Debchi, a militant for al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), using encrypted messages sent via the Internet.
Hicheur said he had been charged over his opinions rather than his acts, but prosecutors called him a “technical attack adviser” and said he had provided Debchi with a terrorist manual….. http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/05/04/us-france-crime-idUSBRE8431CK20120504
Apprehension in Kansas about radioactive waste shipments
Kansas regulates radioactive-waste shipments far more loosely than nearby Missouri, Iowa and other Midwestern states through which such waste travels
No one who ships nuclear waste through Kansas is required to tell state authorities of their plans
More nuclear waste headed to Kansas, By Gene Meyer | Kansas Reporter, 4 May 12, FAIRWAY — Missouri lawmakers may relax their state’s monitoring of radioactive-waste haulers, a move that worries some Kansans. Continue reading
Savannah River Nuclear Site – inadequate radiation protection
NRC: SRS Saltstone facility’s radiation exposure may exceed limit in 10K years Aiken Standard 5/4/2012 By ANNA DOLIANITIS – Staff writer – email:adolianitis@aikenstandard.com A recent report released by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission expressed concern that the Saltstone Disposal Facility at the Savannah River Site may not meet the standards to prevent radiation exposure to the Site’s surrounding population in the long term….. Continue reading
At critical time, San Diego radiation monitor was not working
San Diego Radiation Monitor Not Working During Fukushima Crisis, Audit Reveals San Diego Reader, Matt Potter, May 3, 2012 An April 19 audit by the Inspector General of the United States Environmental Protection Agency has revealed that major components of the government’s radiation monitoring and reporting system, including an air sampling device in San Diego, were not functioning during last year’s Fukushima nuclear plant meltdown in Japan.
“On March 11, 2011, at the time of the Japan nuclear incident, 25 of the 124 installed RadNet monitors, or 20 percent, were out of service for an average of 130 days,” auditors said.
San Diego’s monitoring device was one of 11 said to be out of service for more than 140 days, according to the findings….. http://www.sandiegoreader.com/weblogs/news-ticker/2012/may/03/san-diego-radiation-monitor-not-working-during-fuk/
Paragliding into a French nuclear power plant!
http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/05/02/france-nuclear-greenpeace-idUSL5E8G2F0C20120502
* Greenpeace enters nuclear site, drops smoke flare
* Intrusion just days before presidential runoff
* France’s high use of nuclear is issue in campaign
* Man entered Civaux plant’s security zone (Adds separate intrusion, details)
PARIS, May 2 (Reuters) – A Greenpeace activist dropped a smoke flare as he flew over a French nuclear reactor on a paraglider on Wednesday, seeking to draw attention to what green activists call gaps in nuclear security four days before a presidential election runoff. The plant’s owner, EDF, confirmed an engine-powered paraglider had landed within its Bugey nuclear site in southeastern France. [ note – there’s a brief video of this flight at: http://usnews.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/05/02/11504375-greenpeace-bombs-french-nuclear-reactor-could-it-happen-in-us?lite ]
The pilot flew over the plant and threw a red-smoke flare on the roof of a building before landing, television images showed. Continue reading
Costs and safety problems in Japan’s older nuclear reactors
Six reactors in Japan, including Tsuruga’s unit No. 1, have the same design as those that failed at Fukushima—a General Electric Co. model called Mark I originally designed based on tests from the late 1950s and early 1960s.
In 2009, Chubu Electric Power Co. based in central Japan, decommissioned the No. 1 and 2 reactors at its Hamaoka nuclear-power plant because they were too expensive to keep up to safety standards.
Japan Assesses Older Nuclear Plants WSJ, By MARI IWATA and ELEANOR WARNOCK, May 2, 2012, TOKYO—Japan is grappling with the question of whether older nuclear reactors are more prone to spinning out of control when a disaster hits, as the nation pushes to restart units for the first time since last year’s accident in Fukushima. Continue reading
Indonesia – earthquake zone – not good for nuclear reactors
Indonesia should consider the fact that it is located on the “Pacific Ring of Fire”, making it prone to disaster.
Indonesians ‘should think twice’ before going nuclear http://www thejakartapost.com/news/2012/05/03/indonesians-should-think-twice-going-nuclear.html The Jakarta Post, Jakarta, 05/03/2012 Japanese experts have warned the Indonesian government to be very careful when deciding whether to generate power from nuclear energy, arguing that the archipelago is prone to natural disasters. Continue reading
USA’s Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s pro nuclear enthusiasts, in turmoil
The NRC review, published last July, made about a dozen safety recommendations.
But the nuclear regulators chose not to enforce those same safeguards before granting a licence to two new reactors at an existing plant in Georgia.
Jaczko – the sole commissioner to object to the licence – argued the new project should have been built to the higher standard.
Republicans in Congress have been gunning for Jaczko since then.
The infighting that threatens to undermine US nuclear safety The Nuclear Regulatory Commission became more powerful post-Fukushima, but it has been beset by division and dissent, Guardian UK, 30 April 12,, Suzanne Goldenberg, US environment correspondent “……….the real drama, going largely unseen amid the infighting at the regulator, is over the future of America’s nuclear industry after the Fukushima disaster in Japan last year, nuclear experts say.1 This Month
of the week– Nuclear Reactor Information Task Force
14 May – online event From Bombs to Data Centres: the Face of Nuclear Colonialism
To see nuclear-related stories in greater depth and intensity – go to https://nuclearinformation.wordpress.com
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