nuclear-news

Michigan not immune from nuclear danger

Reminders of the Risks of Nuclear Power Come From Past/Present, Near/Far, HUFFINGTON POST, Patrick Geans- 03/ 1/2012 As we come up on the one-year anniversary of the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear disaster in Japan, reports are still emerging about the way the Japanese government kept critical information from their own public in the wake of one of the worst nuclear catastrophe’s the world has ever seen.

Likewise with three nuclear sites in the state of Michigan, we should also keep in mind other reminders about the potentially grave risks inherent to nuclear facilities closer to home….. Continue reading →

March 2, 2012 Posted by Christina Macpherson | safety, USA | Leave a comment

Scientists detail 15 ‘near misses’ at USA nuclear power plants

Fifteen ‘Near-Misses’ at U.S. Nuclear Plants in 2011 Environmental News Service WASHINGTON, DC, February 28, 2012 (ENS) – The Union of Concerned Scientists has documented 15 “near-misses” at 13 U.S. nuclear plants during 2011 and evaluates the response of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to each event in a report released today.

The second in an annual series of reports, “The NRC and Nuclear Power Plant Safety 2011 Report: Living on Borrowed Time” details 15 special inspections launched by the federal agency in response to problems with safety equipment, security shortcomings, and other troubling events at nuclear power plants.

The overview is provided by David Lochbaum, the director of UCS’s Nuclear Safety Project. He worked at U.S. nuclear plants for 17 years and was a boiling water reactor technology instructor for the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

“While none of the safety problems in 2011 caused harm to plant employees or the public, their frequency – more than one per month – is high for a mature industry,” Lochbaum writes.

In the 40 years that the Union of Concerned Scientists has evaluated safety at U.S. nuclear power plants, “We have repeatedly found that NRC enforcement of safety regulations is not timely, consistent or effective,” the report states.

The UCS says its findings match those of the agency’s internal assessments, as well as of independent agents such as the NRC’s Office of Inspector General and the federal Government Accountability Office, which is the investigative arm of Congress.

Many of these 15 “near misses” occurred because reactor owners either tolerated known safety problems or took inadequate measures to correct them, Lochbaum finds…..

Article goes on to detail each of these.… http://www.ens-newswire.com/ens/feb2012/2012-02-28-02.html

February 29, 2012 Posted by Christina Macpherson | safety, USA | Leave a comment

A change, but not enough, in the NRC’s pro nuclear culture

Nuclear Regulatory Commission sea change? Chairman Jaczko wants red tape removed for Fukushima contentions By Frank Mand Wicked Local  Feb 27, 2012 PLYMOUTH — While the Nuclear Regulatory Commission seems to be moving quickly now, dispensing with the objections and legal contentions standing in the way of relicensing the Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station, as those impediments are brushed aside something quite remarkable may be taking place.
Almost hidden in several recent decisions by the NRC – decisions which went against critics of relicensing – is the core of a sea change, a belief on the part of certain key individuals in this government bureaucracy that, at least in the case of recent concerns about the relevance of the Fukushima disaster to Pilgrim and other American nuclear power plants, business as usual is no longer acceptable…. Continue reading →

February 28, 2012 Posted by Christina Macpherson | safety, USA | Leave a comment

Problems of Fort Calhoun nuclear power plant

But much of that only came to light when the plant actually came under threat of the Missouri waters. The plant has been offline since then – for just about a year now – and in that time the problems have only deepened. …..  Since that time though, in that interim, in June of 2011, there was a fire at Fort Calhoun, which didn’t get a lot of attention at the time. But several months later, the NRC realized the gravity of what took place at that fire, and it’s still not, I don’t think, completely clear to the public how significant that fire was because the plant was already shut down……  what we know now is that the plant suffered certain damage from the flood. Most recently, the NRC said its biggest concern is they’ve checked out the plant, and I think they’ve gone through what they can see above ground. Their biggest concern right now is below the ground, and how much damage was done underneath the earth where the Fort Calhoun plant sits on. And according to the NRC, they haven’t determined that yet, that’s still open for questions. There was a public hearing in Omaha in January. And some members of the public actually raised that issue, before I think we heard it from anybody else. Some people in the general public were wondering is the ground underneath Fort Calhoun secure? And now NRC is making it very clear they don’t know the answer to that yet, and they’re still trying to figure it out.  …. http://www.kvnonews.com/2012/02/oppds-nuclear-problems-how-far-will-they-go/

February 28, 2012 Posted by Christina Macpherson | safety, USA | Leave a comment

Expand public’s right to question nuclear safety, says Nuclear Regulatory Commission chief

Nuclear Regulatory Commission chief sides with Pilgrim watchdog group, By Christopher Burrell, Enterprise News.com, The Patriot Ledger  Feb 23, 2012 In a surprising move to side with critics of the Pilgrim nuclear power plant, the chairman of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission is arguing to expand, not limit, the public’s chance to ask plant-safety questions in light of last year’s Fukushima Dai-ichi disaster in Japan.

The Fukushima nuclear plant has a similar reactor to the one at Pilgrim, which has been trying for six years to win approval from the NRC for a 20-year extension of its operating license. “Given the significance of that accident (at Fukushima) and the potential implications for the safety of our nuclear reactors, we should allow members of the public to obtain hearings on new contentions on emerging information,” NRC Chairman Gregory Jaczko
wrote in a dissenting opinion released Wednesday. Jaczko was the sole dissenter on the five-member commission, which is appointed by the president. Continue reading →

February 24, 2012 Posted by Christina Macpherson | safety, USA | Leave a comment

San Clemente residents want independent radiation monitoring of San Onofre nuclear plant

February 23, 2012 Posted by Christina Macpherson | safety, USA | Leave a comment

USA’s worries about its nuclear reactors similar to Fukushima’s

U.S. nuclear plants similar to Fukushima spark concerns By Matt Smith, CNN
February 17, 2012   — As the United States prepares to build its first new nuclear power reactors in three decades, concerns about an early generation of plants have resurfaced since last year’s disaster in Japan.
The Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant — the subject of a battle between state authorities and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission over its continued operation — uses one of 23 U.S. reactors built with a General Electric-designed containment housing known as the Mark I.
It’s the same design that was used at Japan’s Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, where three reactors melted down after the station was struck by the tsunami that followed Japan’s historic earthquake in March 2011. The disaster resulted in the widespread release of radioactive contamination that forced more than 100,000 people from their homes…..
Arnie Gundersen, a former nuclear engineer and a leading critic of the Vermont Yankee plant, says the Japanese accident shows the Mark I containment system can’t prevent a release of radioactivity in a meltdown.

Watch an excerpt from this weekend’s CNN Special Investigations Unit report on Vermont Yankee
In an October hearing before the NRC’s Petition Review Board, he said the vents were a “Band-Aid fix” for the design that failed “not once, not twice, but three times” at Fukushima Daiichi.
“True wisdom means knowing when to modify something and knowing when to stop,” said Gundersen, who leads a state commission set up to monitor the Vermont Yankee plant.
Half of U.S. reactors are more than 30 years old…..    http://edition.cnn.com/2012/02/17/us/us-nuclear-reactor-concerns/?hpt=us_c1

February 18, 2012 Posted by Christina Macpherson | safety, USA | Leave a comment

Call for wider evacuation zones around USA nuclear plants

“Pretending that radiation from an accident at Oyster Creek would not go beyond the 10-mile evacuation zone is a fantasy placing millions of people at risk,”

Nuclear Plant Watchdogs Call for Expansion of Evacuation Zone Around Oyster Creek, Berkely Patch, 16 Feb 12, NRC spokesman says current 10-mile evacuation zone is sufficient for public safety and health By Elaine Piniat Jersey Shore advocates and 37 clean energy groups have petitioned the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to expand emergency evacuation zones and improve emergency response planning around U.S. nuclear reactors, including the Oyster Creek Generating Station. Continue reading →

February 17, 2012 Posted by Christina Macpherson | safety, USA | Leave a comment