Legitimate fears about the safety of USA nuclear plants
Why Recent Earthquakes Should Make You Worry About Nuclear Power, By Kirsten Korosec | August 24, 2011, BNet A 5.8 magnitude earthquake — the largest to hit the East Coast in nearly seven decades — caused the shutdown of two nuclear reactors located less than 15 miles from the epicenter of the temblor. The back-up diesel generator system worked as designed (well, except for the one with the coolant leak), and by late Tuesday night operator Dominion Resources had restored offsite power.
Yet instead of putting folks at ease, the incident actually raises legitimate fears about the safety of U.S. nuclear power plants.
Consider, for starters, the fact that the Nuclear Regulatory Commission has taken more than six years to develop new safety standards to address higher-than-expected seismic risks. It turns out that seismic risks to nuclear plants in the eastern United States were greater than the NRC had previously realized, iWatch.org reported.
North Anna, a twin-reactor nuclear facility about 85 miles southwest of Washington, D.C., was one of four plants with a seismic hazard higher than previously thought. (It’s also the plant with the coolant leak that shut down one of its backup diesels.)……http://www.bnet.com/blog/clean-energy/why-recent-earthquakes-should-make-you-worry-about-nuclear-power/6199
Risk of radioactive “dirty bomb” in Libya
Former UN nuclear expert warns of ‘dirty bomb’ Research centre has large quantities of radioisotopes and radioactive waste even after programme was abandoned, Gulf News, Reuters, August 25, 2011,Vienna: A research centre near Tripoli has stocks of nuclear material that could be used to make a “dirty bomb”, a former senior UN inspector said yesterday, warning of possible looting during turmoil in Libya.
Seeking to mend ties with the West, Libya’s Colonel Muammar Gaddafi agreed in 2003 to abandon efforts to acquire nuclear, chemical and biological weapons — a move that brought him in from the cold and helped end decades of Libyan isolation.
A six-month popular insurgency has now forced Gaddafi to abandon his stronghold in the Libyan capital but continued gunfire suggests the resistance fighters have not completely triumphed yet.
Olli Heinonen, head of UN nuclear safeguards inspections worldwide until last year, pointed to substantial looting that took place at Iraq’s Tuwaitha atomic research facility near Baghdad after Saddam Hussain was toppled in 2003.
In Iraq, “most likely due to pure luck, the story did not end in a radiological disaster,” Heinonen said. In Libya, “nuclear security concerns still linger,” the former deputy director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said in an online commentary.http://gulfnews.com/news/region/libya/former-un-nuclear-expert-warns-of-dirty-bomb-1.856887
Safety concerns over USA nuclear reactors, after earthquake
Tuesday’s quake, which was felt along the East Coast as far north as Canada, was the region’s largest since a 5.9 quake hit New York State in 1944…..
Quake raises safety concerns as nuclear plant shut, By Eileen O’Grady and Joshua Schneyer, HOUSTON/NEW YORK Aug 23, 2011 (Reuters) – The largest earthquake to hit the East Coast of the United States in 67 years raised concerns on Tuesday about the safety of the country’s nuclear power plants. Continue reading
Risk of earthquakes to USA’s East coast nuclear plants
Nuclear quake risk on East Coast: 1 plant down, 12 shook, Deborah Dupre, Human Rights Examiner, August 24, 2011
Nuclear energy plants keep Americans at risk: ‘Redesigning from Scratch’ needed As a big blue Freedom Bus rolls through cities proving nuclear energy, like other non-renewable sources, is inhumane, twelve U.S. nuclear plants were shaken, eight declared “unusual events,” and two extra risky reactors shut down during Tuesday’s east coast intense quake after which it was reported that the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) previously “meant to identify” earthquake risks at North Anna nuclear energy plant near Tuesday’s epicenter, as various parts, systems, and hose stations at that facility “are not seismically designed.”
Continue reading on Examiner.com Nuclear quake risk on East Coast: 1 plant down, 12 shook – National Human Rights | Examiner.com http://www.examiner.com/human-rights-in-national/nuclear-quake-risk-on-east-coast-1-plant-still-down-12-shook?CID=examiner_alerts_article#ixzz1W5QTDFzu
Doubts about the safety of India’s nuclear energy programme
How safe is India’s nuclear energy programme?A. Gopalakrishnan in his recent article said, “DAE management classified the audit reports as ‘top secret’ and shelved them. No action was taken on the committee’s findings. LiveMint.com,23 Aug 11,”M. P. Ram Mohan Continue reading
Belarus freezes plan to give upits enriched uranium
Belarus hangs on to enriched uranium cache, Detroit Free Press |Aug 20, 2011, Belarus has frozen a plan aimed at getting the country to give up its Soviet-era stockpile of highly enriched uranium with U.S. assistance in response to new U.S. sanctions, the government said Friday.
The U.S. conducted a longtime effort to secure nuclear materials in former Soviet nations to prevent them from falling into the wrong hands.
The U.S. and the European Union introduced sanctions against President Alexander Lukashenko’s government for its crackdown on a political opposition group…… Belarus hangs on to enriched uranium cache | Detroit Free Press | freep.com
Silex laser uranium enrichment opening opportunities for nuclear terrorism
Dr. Slakey of the American Physical Society noted that the State Department a dozen years ago warned that the success of Silex could “renew interest” in laser enrichment for good or ill — to light cities or destroy them.
Laser Advances in Nuclear Fuel Stir Terror Fear, NYT, By WILLIAM J. BROAD,August 20, 2011 Twenty miles southwest of Sydney, in a wooded region, Horst Struve and Michael Goldsworthy kept tinkering with the idea at a government institute. Finally, around 1994, the two men judged that they had a major advance.
The inventors called their idea Silex, for separation of isotopes by laser excitation. “Our approach is completely different,” Dr. Goldsworthy, a physicist, told a Parliamentary hearing… Continue reading
Brown’s Ferry Nuclear Plant’s safety violations confirmed
NRC confirms earlier harsh safety finding for Browns Ferry Unit 1, August 17, 2011, By Brian Lawson, The Huntsville Times HUNTSVILLE, Alabama — Federal nuclear power regulators said in a letter released today they have confirmed their original finding that a malfunctioning valve at TVA’s Browns Ferry nuclear plant Unit 1 represented a significant safety violation.
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission, which in June rejected the Tennessee Valley Authority’s appeal of the finding, said it enlisted a group of NRC staff members who were not involved in the original assessment to review the findings.
The staff also found that the “red” finding, the NRC’s harshest grade was justified. Such a finding requires repair of the problem and will lead to more inspections at Browns Ferry….. http://blog.al.com/breaking/2011/08/nrc_confirms_earlier_harsh_saf.html
IAEA wants to strengthen current weak international nuclear safety rules
Currently there are no mandatory, international nuclear safety regulations, only IAEA recommendations which national regulators are in charge of enforcing. The U.N. agency conducts review missions, but only at a member state’s invitation
U.N. atom body wants wider nuclear safety checks, Reuters, By Fredrik Dahl,Aug 15, 2011
* Fukushima disaster prompted global nuclear rethink
* IAEA seeks strengthened action to prevent any repeat
* Proposes expansion of international safety checks Continue reading
Serious safet problems in Hanford nuclear waste cleanup plans
The Hanford project is the most important environmental cleanup program in the nation. It seeks to prevent 56 million gallons of radioactive sludge in underground tanks, some of which are leaking, from contaminating the nearby Columbia River.
Safety doubts raised at U.S. nuclear waste cleanup project, Engineers and scientists say equipment being installed by Bechtel Corp. at the Hanford site in Washington state poses risks, but the Energy Department is letting work continue. By Ralph Vartabedian, Los Angeles Times, August 14, 2011 The Energy Department has asserted that Bechtel Corp. underplayed safety risks from equipment it is installing at the nation’s largest nuclear waste cleanup project, according to government records. Continue reading
Palo Verde Nuclear Plant – emergency plans found wanting
planning only for a 10-mile evacuation zone around reactors is inadequate because it doesn’t take into consideration the possibility of having to evacuate a larger area and the consequences of civil disorder that might ensue from gridlocked roads in the scramble to flee…… emergency plans wrongly assume that a severe problem at a nuclear facility would not be accompanied by other emergencies.
Palo Verde nuclear response a worry, Palo Verde’s plans for evacuations debated, by Ryan Randazzo – Aug. 14, 2011, The Arizona Republic, People living within 10 miles of the Palo Verde Nuclear Generating Station west of Phoenix are well-aware they are in the evacuation zone of Arizona’s only nuclear power plant.
Those 11,545 residents get an annual calendar from the plant’s owners with instructions on what to do in the remote event of a disaster….. Continue reading
Secrecy in the the nuclear priesthood of military, industry and academia
David Biello, the energy and climate editor at Scientific American Online, describes the nuclear industry is a
relatively small, exclusive club.
“The interplay between academia and also the military and industry is very tight……with this exclusivity comes a culture of secrecy – “a nuclear priesthood,” said Biello, which makes it very difficult to parse out a straightforward answer in the very technical and highly politicised field. ….
Nuclear safety: A dangerous veil of secrecy, Aljazeera, Dorothy Parvaz 11 Aug 2011 “…..Kathleen Sullivan, an anti-nuclear specialist and disarmament education consultant with the United Nations Office of Disarmament Affairs, said it’s not surprising that research critical of the nuclear energy and weapons isn’t coming out of universities and departments that participate in nuclear research and development.
“It (the influence) of the nuclear lobby could vary from institution to institution,” said Sullivan. “If you look at the history of nuclear weapons manufacturing in the United States, you can see that a lot of research was influenced perverted, construed in a certain direction.” Continue reading
Sounding the alarm on China’s plans for nuclear technology
Chinese decision-makers should avoid being overly confident about untried safety technologies. No matter how sound newer-generation nuclear technologies appear, such technologies may never have been sufficiently tested in any part of the world. All newer-generation nuclear technologies still impose significant risks in terms of design experience, construction safety and operational reliability
A warning for China’s nuclear sector, China dialogue, Kevin Jianjun Tu, August 10, 2011 “………The deadly Wenzhou [train] crash highlights the dangers of mega-infrastructure projects moving too far, too fast. Chinese decision-makers should take note, argues Kevin Jianjun Tu…..
Fukushima sounded warning bells with the Chinese government and gave policymakers another chance to reconsider plans for 2020. At a March 16 meeting chaired by premier Wen Jiabao, the State Council decided to call a temporary halt to approval of new nuclear-power plants pending new safety rules, and to adjust mid- and long-term nuclear power plans. This indicated a more cautious national strategy for nuclear power development.
Unfortunately, due to a lack of effective checks and balances on nuclear interest groups, there are signs that the great nuclear leap forward is reemerging. Continue reading
Third finding of radiation in shipment to Egypt, from Japan
Egypt authorities find another case of radiation in Japanese shipment, Almasyry Alyoum, 9 Aug 11, — Egypt’s General Authority for Export and Import Control recently discovered radioactive cargo in two containers shipped from Japan to Ain Sokhna port, the Red Sea Ports Authority said.
This is the third radioactive shipment Egypt has discovered over the past month.
The radioactive material was found aboard ships carrying electric and mechanical instruments. A letter from Egypt’s atomic energy authorities confirmed the cargo had above-regulation radiation levels….http://www.almasryalyoum.com/en/node/485146
Nuclear Regulatory Commission more interested in its processes than in public safety
“the current commission’s preoccupation with process at the expense of nuclear safety policy.”
U.S. nuclear regulator tied up by process: chairman– By Roberta Rampton, WASHINGTON Aug 10, 2011 (Reuters) – The chairman of the U.S. nuclear regulator said his own commission is hamstrung by an inefficient, “flawed voting system” which distracts from its job of ensuring safety at the country’s power plants. Continue reading
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
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