Toothless Nuclear Safety Plan adopted by IAEA
151-nation meeting endorses post-Fukushima nuclear safety plan, Washington Post September 22 VIENNA — Members of the 151-nation International Atomic Energy Agency have endorsed a post-Fukushima nuclear safety plan but the IAEA chief says it will only be as good as the will of individual countries to enact it.
“It is time for action,” says IAEA head Yukiya Amano, asking nations for “sustained commitment and full involvement.”
Before Thursday’s endorsement, the plan was approved last week by the agency’s policy making 35-nation board despite gripes by influential member nations that it was too timid.
Drawn up in response to Japan’s March 11 reactor disaster, the plan outlines steps to be taken by states to pinpoint weaknesses and remedy them. But these measures can only be carried out “upon request” of the nation involved.
States are “strongly encouraged to voluntarily” open their nuclear facilities to outside checks of potential weak links. http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/asia-pacific/151-nation-meeting-endorses-post-fukushima-nuclear-safety-plan/2011/09/22/gIQAJJMwnK_story.html
Nigeria’s Atomic Energy Commission’s dream – a nightmare for the country
OIL POLITICS: Nigeria’s Nuclear Nightmare , NEXT, By Nnimmo Bassey, September 22, 2011, The Nigerian government appears to be scheming to get deeper into the nuclear mire at a time when the world is inching, albeit slowly, from dirty and dangerous energy sources. The fact that Nigeria has one of the worst electricity supplies in the world, with only about 40% of the population having access to public power supply does not justify toeing the nuclear path. It calls for investing in safe forms of renewable energy production. It also calls for the wastage in the gas and oil fields. Following the Fukushima incident earlier this year the dangers associated with nuclear power generation have again been brought to the front burners. With heightened concerns about the safety of nuclear power plants, it is shocking to see the Nigerian President pushing Nigeria unto the nuclear path. This may appear like a dream come true for the Nigeria Atomic Energy Commission, but this has all the potential of turning into a nightmare for the country. Continue reading
Russian nuclear submarine collides with fishing boat
Nuclear submarine collides with fishing boat ABC News, 23 Sept 11, A Russian nuclear submarine collided with a fishing boat off the country’s Pacific coast, damaging the outer shell of the naval vessel but causing no radiation leak, Russian news agencies reported overnight. Continue reading
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/
1 This Month
19 November – Webinar – The Reality of Reprocessing
Time: 11:00 AM Pacific Time (US & Canada) / 2:00 PM Eastern / 7:00 PM UK / 8:00 PM CET
Register for the Zoom Event Here
Shut down the radiation-damaged Heysham nuclear reactors now
To see nuclear-related stories in greater depth and intensity – go to https://nuclearinformation.wordpress.com
Say No to NASA’s Reckless Nuclear Reactor on the Moon
Say No to NASA’s Reckless Nuclear Reactor on the Moon
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