Doubts on safety of Koodankulam nuclear project, and of others too
“there should be a moratorium on all further nuclear activity, and revocation of recent clearances for nuclear projects”, given without regard to India’s ramshackle infrastructure and largely untested emergency procedures…
The issue is far larger than just Koodankulam. There are lingering doubts about the safety measures being reliable, workable and effective….
Discordant voices on safety of nuclear power, THE HINDU, B.S.RAGHAVAN, 22 SEPT 11, Following the agitation, including mass fasting, by the people of Idinthakarai, the village adjacent to the Koodankulam atomic power project, who are in panic over the possibility of the occurrence of a disaster similar to the one at Fukushima and consequent dangers from radiation, there has been a cacophony of voices over the pros and cons of nuclear power. Continue reading
Flaws, construction errors in Iran’s Bushehr nuclear power plant
Insider cites sloppy work at Iranian nuclear plant, SMH, DOUGLAS BIRCH and GARY PEACH, September 23, 2011 A Russian engineer who worked on Iran’s Bushehr nuclear power plant during the final stages of construction says inexperienced workers, poor oversight and layers of bureaucracy contributed to a rash of equipment failures that delayed the reactor’s startup for almost a year. Continue reading
Nuclear radioactive leaks in the UK
Nuclear leaks in the UK
Windscale, Cumbria, 1957: Fire at a military plutonium reactor spread radioactive contamination over large parts of England and Europe
Dounreay, Caithness, 1963-84: Tens of thousands of radioactive particles from old reactors contaminated the shoreline and the seabed
Sellafield, Cumbria, 1983: The government advised people not to swim or use beaches along 10 miles of coastline after a radioactive leak from a reprocessing plant
Chapelcross, Dumfriesshire, 2000-05: 126 radioactive particles from defunct reactors found on the shore of the Solway Firth
Sellafield, Cumbria, 2006-11: 1,233 radioactive particles and pebbles contaminated by historic leaks found and removed from nearby beaches
Dalgety Bay, Fife, 1990-2011: Hundreds of radioactive remnants from the luminous dials of second world war aircraft removed from foreshore
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2011/sep/21/scottish-nuclear-leak-clean-up?newsfeed=true
Nuclear terrorism threat highlighted by 9/11 and Fukushima
The U.S.-Russia Joint Threat Assessment notes that “One important lesson of the Chernobyl and Fukushima accidents is that what can happen as a result of an accident can also happen as a result of a premeditated action.”
They explain that terrorists will be searching for the “weakest link”, observing that “the dramatic developments associated with the Fukushima disaster might awaken terrorist interest in this path to nuclear terrorism.”
The 9/11-3/11 connection, By TILMAN RUFF, 21 Sept 11, Special to The Japan Times MELBOURNE — ”……..Where was the fourth airliner on Sept. 11, 2001, headed? It crashed in a Pennsylvania field as passengers and crew fought the hijackers, but what was its target? The White House or Capitol Hill is generally thought most likely, though some scholars have concluded that when it crashed, flight UA93 was heading for the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant. Continue reading
Nuclear power plant company a victim of cyber attacks
Japanese defence contractor Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, which builds submarines, missiles and nuclear power plants, is the first publicly named victim….
Nuclear plant and missile maker Mitsubishi breached in latest cyber attacks, Security Watchdog, 21 Sept 11, Security experts at Trend Micro have uncovered another large-scale, co-ordinated campaign of targeted attacks, this time focused on compromising data at a series of defence industry companies including Mitsubishi Heavy Industries in Japan. Continue reading
Murder and mayhem aboard nuclear submarine
Able Seaman Ryan Samuel Donovan, 23, pleaded guilty to killing Lieutenant Commander Ian Molyneux, 36, with an assault rifle when the HMS Astute was docked in Southampton on April 8.
Donovan also admitted the attempted murders of Petty Officer Christopher Brown, 36, Chief Petty Officer David McCoy, 37, and Lieutenant Commander Christopher Hodge, 45….
Prosecutor Nigel Lickley told the court Donovan had told a colleague more than a year earlier that he was planning a “massacre” in the submarine’s control room…..
North Anna nuclear plant – a test case for USA nuclear regulators
North Anna, 90 miles southwest of the White House, is emerging as a test case for the nuclear industry as it faces increased scrutiny. A presidential task force recommended stricter quake-readiness standards after a quake and tsunami caused meltdowns at Japan’s Fukushima Dai-ichi plant in March.
It’s also challenging federal regulators as they ponder what to review before they allow the plant to restart. ….
the [earthquake] hazards could be greater than was known when many of the plants were designed.
Weeks after quake, town near nuclear plant remains rattled, By Wendy Koch, USA TODAY, 18 Sept 11, MINERAL, VA. – At the Sweet Delights Bakery, amid the aroma of fresh biscuits, talk turns to an unprecedented U.S. nuclear event that happened near its doorstep.
“You can’t not think about it,” says customer Roger Tignor, about the recent magnitude-5.8 quake that jolted the North Anna Power Station 11 miles away. Continue reading
IAEA nuclear safety plan derailed by nuclear countries
The proposal–which included a one-year deadline for new safety standards and an 18-month window for stress tests on all reactors–had the backing of large nuclear power-generating nations such as Canada, Germany, and Australia, as well as many non-nuclear nations across the globe, but that support and the ongoing disaster in Japan were not enough to overcome sustained, behind-the-scenes efforts to derail this plan. ..
. When the IAEA finally took up a draft resolution on Tuesday, it contained no timelines, deadlines or mandatory inspections.
Though Nuclear Crisis Continues, IAEA Can’t Force Safety Overhaul, Truth Out, 18 September 2011 by: Gregg Levine, On Monday, September 12, an incinerator explosion at a French nuclear waste processing center killed one, injured four, and created just enough nuclear news to edge this week’s other nuclear story right out of the headlines. Continue reading
Government Accountability Office report rejected by USA nuclear agancies
Making nuclear power safe – too hard to be cost effective
I back renewables and efficiency. Making those work at sufficient scale is of course a huge challenge. But making the nuclear industry around the world safe and cost-effective is a greater one.
What price safe and secure nuclear power?, Guardian UK Damian Carrington 16 Sept 11, A sober analysis of what is needed to make the global nuclear power industry safe and secure reveals a mountain to climb
“….an analysis published on Friday which sets out how to make the global nuclear power industry safe is important, not least because it is written by neither industry-linked figures or green campaigners. Continue reading
5,900 pounds of plutonium and highly enriched uranium cannot be tracked
the U.S. can’t track or fully account for 5,900 pounds of “weapons usable” nuclear material that it once shipped overseas.
U.S. Can’t Track Tons of Weapons-Grade Uranium, Plutonium
Wired.com, By Noah Shachtman September 16, 2011, President Obama has repeatedly said his top counterterrorism goal is to prevent terrorists from acquiring the building blocks to make nuclear or “dirty” bombs. Continue reading
India’s nuclear regulators to study France’s nuclear accident
| AERB to study French nuclear accident, Business Standard |
| Sanjay Jog / Mumbai September 15, 2011, 0:22 IST |
| India’s Atomic Energy Regulatory Board (AERB) would conduct a comprehensive study on the accident in a nuclear waste recycling plant in southern France which killed one man and injured four others. |
At the Centre for Treatment and Conditioning of Low-level Radioactive Waste, or Centraco, in Codolet, an oven dedicated to melt low radioactive metallic waste exploded inside the building on Monday. The radioactivity was contained inside the building. AERB would also look anew at safety measures on nuclear waste disposal and treatment facilities at nuclear power plants….http://www.business-standard.com/india/news/aerb-to-study-french-nuclear-accident/449216/
Europe’s old nuclear reactors might have to be shut down
Old nuclear plants may not survive tests: OECD, Fukushima raised concerns about backup power supply, Montreal Gazette, By Karolin Schaps, Reuters September 14, 2011 LONDON – Nuclear reactors older than 40 years may need to shut down following Europe-wide stress tests as additional safety costs will make them too expensive to run, the head of the OECD’s Nuclear Energy Agency told Reuters on Wednesday.
“I think there will be a few reactors where decisions are really challenged. In the end it will be a strictly economic decision,” said Ron Cameron in an interview. Europe’s regulators ordered region-wide stress tests on nuclear plants following Japan’s Fukishima crisis, which include testing the impact of an airline crash, an element that was left out in tests carried out in the U.S.
“It is the addition of the aircraft factor that has made the tests much more challenging.”…..
EDF Energy said it will announce its revised start date this autumn.
Fukushima has also thrown up concerns about backup power supply at power plants, the failure of which was the main reason for the contained reactor meltdown in Japan.Additional costs for ensuring emergency power supply is likely to add five to 10 per cent to the construction bill of new nuclear plants, Cameron said….. http://www.montrealgazette.com/news/nuclear+plants+survive+tests+OECD/5400380/story.html#ixzz1Y5AqN8t4
NRC should suspend all nuclear reactor re-licensing
The NRC is currently involved in licensing activities at 21 existing and new nuclear power plants in 15 states across the country. The petition asks the NRC not only to suspend those activities, but to begin an investigation into what caused the Japanese reactor disaster and the lessons to be learned for U.S. nuclear plants, and to empower an independent commission to review those findings.
NRC rejects petition to suspend nuke plant licensing activities, By Shir Haberman, news@seacoastonline.com September 14, 2011 The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission has rejected a petition signed by 45 nuclear safety and watchdog groups, including the Exeter-based Seacoast Anti-Pollution League, asking the agency to immediately suspend all licensing activities for nuclear power plants until a full analysis of the Japanese nuclear disaster is complete.
The Seabrook Station nuclear power plant is in the process of asking for a 20-year extension of its operating license. Continue reading
France’s need for transparency and nationwide check on nuclear plants
French FM: France to have safety checks on every nuclear power plant nationwide, English.news.cn 2011-09-14 Editor: Mu Xuequan BEIJING, Sept. 13 (Xinhua) –– Alain Juppe, the French Minister of Foreign and European Affairs and State Minister, said on Tuesday in Beijing that France would soon conduct a nationwide examination on each of its nuclear power plants.
The French government will also cooperate with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to raise the maximum security level of its nuclear installations, according to Juppe. The French government had already decided to continue its nuclear programs after the Fukushima nuclear accident in Japan, said Juppe…
Concerning the nuclear accident in the south of France, Juppe said he hadn’t got the latest news of the investIgation, but French authorities would announce the results of investigation with the utmost transparency.
International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) head Yukiya Amano said on Monday that the IAEA had sent a request to French authorities for more information and underlined the need to address nuclear safety.
An explosion hit France’s Marcoule nuclear site on Monday, one person was killed and four injured in the accident. The country’s energy ministry said there was no danger of a radiation leak. ..http://news.xinhuanet.com/english2010/world/2011-09-14
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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