Earthquake prone Diablo a test case for risky nuclear license extension
Diablo is drawing particular scrutiny because of its location in one of the country’s most seismically active areas and its long, troubled history of trying to deal with the risk of a major quake.
Nuclear Crisis Fuels Duel at Diablo, WSJ.com, 8 April 11, By BEN CASSELMAN In Earthquake-Prone California, License Extension Sought for Reactors Poses Major Test for Nation’s Atomic-Power Industry Japan’s unfolding reactor crisis is fueling a battle over nuclear power across the Pacific, in earthquake-prone California. Continue reading
Radioactive spill after earthquake at Onagawa nuclear plant
The 7.1-magnitude quake that hit offshore late yesterday resulted in water flowing from containers onto the floor in all three reactor buildings at the Onagawa plant,
Japan quake makes radioactive water spill at nuclear plant Herald Sun, : AAP * April 08, 2011 A POWERFUL aftershock in northeast Japan rocked a nuclear plant, causing a small amount of radioactive water to spill, officials say, but the operator says there is no immediate danger. Continue reading
Tighter radiation checks at European ports
European Ports Tighten Radiation Checks as Japan Ships Approach, Bloomberg, By Niklas Magnusson – Apr 8, 2011 European ports including Rotterdam and Antwerp are tightening safety checks as they prepare to unload the first ships from Japan since last month’s earthquake led to radioactive discharges from a damaged nuclear plant.
Rotterdam, Europe’s biggest container port, will screen for radiation while ships are still at sea. Antwerp, the No. 2, will make similar checks aboard vessels for which Japan was one of the last 10 ports of call, with any abnormal readings triggering an inspection by Belgium’s Federal Agency for Nuclear Control……European Ports Tighten Radiation Checks as Japan Ships Approach – Bloomberg
NRC report shows up danger of USA nuclear plants
“When a major earthquake, flood or fire was assumed to knock out all of the power of a nuclear reactor that is the same design as Fukushima and stands less than 40 miles from Baltimore — well within the contamination zone the US called for in Japan — that plant came less than an hour away from partial nuclear meltdown” in the NRC simulation,
US unprepared for Japan-style nuke accident: lawmaker, Google News, (AFP) – 8 April 11, WASHINGTON — A US nuclear reactor near Baltimore would come dangerously close to meltdown within two days of a disaster on the scale of what happened in Japan three weeks ago, a lawmaker said, citing a draft report by the US nuclear watchdog. Continue reading
Dirty bomb or nuclear accident would catch US health system unprepared
U.S. health-care system unprepared for major nuclear emergency, officials say The Washington Post, By Sheri Fink, Thursday, April 7, U.S. officials say the nation’s health system is ill-prepared to cope with a catastrophic release of radiation, despite years of focus on the possibility of a terrorist “dirty bomb” or an improvised nuclear device attack.
A blunt assessment circulating among American officials says, “Current capabilities can only handle a few radiation injuries at any one time.” That assessment, prepared by the Department of Homeland Security in 2010 and stamped “for official use only,’’ says “there is no strategy for notifying the public in real time of recommendations on shelter or evacuation priorities.”
The Homeland Security report, plus several other reports and interviews with almost two dozen experts inside and outside the government, reveal other gaps that might increase the risks posed by a nuclear accident or terrorist attack…..
President Obama’s proposed budget would cut funding for a federal hospital preparedness program by about 10 percent. The release of proposed federal regulations that would require hospitals to meet emergency management standards has been delayed…..U.S. health-care system unprepared for major nuclear emergency, officials say – The Washington Post
Inadequate radiation monitoring in USA
.. elevated levels of iodine-131 in rain “a red flag” for public health and said that he is concerned that the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, which has less stringent radiation exposure guidelines, has superseded the EPA in US response activities……
Adequacy of EPA radiation monitoring system called into question | Michigan Messenger, 6 April 11, Data from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s network of radiation monitors does not reach the public quickly and some monitors are not functional, critics say. Continue reading
concerns about USA nuclear plants safety
UPDATE 3-Democrats probe worst fears for U.S. nuclear power WASHINGTON, April 6 (Reuters) By Roberta Rampton and Ayesha Rascoe– Democratic lawmakers raisedconcerns on Wednesday about whether regulators and the nuclear power industry are doing enough to ensure U.S. reactors can withstand worst-case scenarios in the wake of Japan’s crisis. Continue reading
New damage at Progress Energy’s nuclear plant in Florida
Progress Fla. nuclear restart delayed indefinitely | Reuters, 5 April 11, – New damage discovered last month at Progress Energy Inc’s troubled Crystal River nuclear plant in Florida will keep the unit shut indefinitely, the company told state and federal regulators on Monday……
Indications of a new gap in the containment building wall found in March forced Progress to suspend work to tighten the tendons, one of the the final tasks needed to before testing to end an 18-month outage.
The plant shut in September 2009 and its restart has now been delayed four times.….Progress Fla. nuclear restart delayed indefinitely | Reuters
Investigation of cooling system flaw at Browns Ferry nuclear plant
Nuclear regulators probe fault at Alabama reactor | Reuters Apr 4, 2011 Browns Ferry plant has same design as Japan’s Fukushima* Regulators issue apparent violation order over failure By Matthew BiggATLANTA, Tennessee Valley Authority officials met nuclear regulators on Monday to explain the failure last year of a key valve used to operate a reactor cooling system at a nuclear plant in Alabama.
Word of the malfunction, which occurred last October at the Browns Ferry plant in northern Alabama, comes amid public demand for reassurance over the safety of U.S. nuclear reactors after an earthquake and tsunami last month caused a crisis at Japan’s Fukushima nuclear plant.
Browns Ferry and the crippled Fukushima plant both have Mark 1 boiling water reactors made by General Electric ……Nuclear regulators probe fault at Alabama reactor | Energy & Oil | Reuters
Anxiety growing in China over poor nuclear safety
Chinese environmental campaigners, citizens on microblogs and even the normally pliant state-run media are questioning why China has no obvious emergency preparedness plan, even though many people here live less than a quarter mile from nuclear facilities….people here were already suffering health problems associated with living close to a nuclear facility and that the cancer rate in the area has increased.
China expanding nuclear power but lacks emergency planning The Washington PostBy Keith B. Richburg, April 2, SHANGHAI — The Chinese government repeatedly offers assurances that the nuclear crisis in Japan poses no radiation risk in China. Officials monitor radiation levels in the air over coastal cities daily now. And planes and ships bringing cargo and passengers from Japan are closely scanned.
But the Chinese government has not told citizens living near nuclear facilities what to do in case of a similar disaster here. Continue reading
Nuclear Regulatory Commission relicensed Vermont Yankee nuclear plant, despite safety problems
Safety of Vt. nuclear plant cables questioned, Google News, (AP) – 5 April 11, MONTPELIER, Vt. (AP) — Documents show the Nuclear Regulatory Commission gave the Vermont Yankee nuclear plant a new license last month knowing that electrical cables to key safety systems had been submerged in water for long periods of time.A nuclear watchdog group, the New England Coalition, says the issue has new urgency since the nuclear disaster in Japan was caused by tsunami flooding that knocked cooling systems out of service at the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant.NRC documents show the agency has been concerned about submerged electrical cables at U.S. nuclear plants for years…… The Associated Press: Safety of Vt. nuclear plant cables questioned
India’s coastline at risk from its nuclear power programme
‘N-power plan will turn coastline into disaster zone’ The Times of India, Apr 4, 2011 NEW DELHI: Former Atomic Energy Regulatory Board (AERB) chairman A Gopalakrishnan has raised alarm over the government’s nuclear power programme based on imported reactors, saying it would turn India’s entire coastline into a disaster zone in waiting.
In a statement issued on Sunday, Gopalakrishnan argued that Department of Atomic Energy’s projection of 6,55,000 MW nuclear power generation capacity by 2050 — with additional fast-breeder reactors that would use plutonium from the imported plants — would mean 655 nuclear power reactors each of 1,000 MW capacity.
Gopalakrishnan said, “These would be stringed along a total coastline of about 6,000 km the country has — about 109 six-reactor nuclear parks, spaced along the coast every 55 km apart”.
He said the reactors being imported were new types, which foreigners had no experience of…
‘N-power plan will turn coastline into disaster zone’ – The Times of India
Earthquake danger to Iran’s nuclear plant
Iran is one of the most seismic countries in the word. The Islamic Republic experiences at least one slight earthquake every day and even moderate earthquakes have killed thousands of people in more remote areas. Iran is surrounded by tectonically active zones and has experienced several heavy earthquakes in the recent years striking all sides of the country…..Surprisingly little attention is paid by scholars and the media to how earthquakes could possibly affect Iran’s nuclear facilities.
Earthquakes: Iran not Safe for Nuclear Energy, Global Arab Network |Gerlinde Gerber, 4 April 11, “………As the world anxiously looks to the nuclear reactors in Japan, with a broken down cooling system following an earthquake and tsunami, the dangers and vulnerabilities of nuclear energy production once again come to mind. A country, which is equally prone to earthquakes like Japan, is Iran……. Continue reading
Will the Nuclear Regulatory Commission relicense dangerous Pilgrim Nuclear Plant?
the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) considers the Pilgrim plant the second most dangerous of America’s 104 ancient reactors…..Pilgrim has been cited for violations numerous times by the NRC, but usually just gets a slap on the wrist…….The NRC has relicensed over 50 old nuclear plants, and turned none down. So is Pilgrim’s application just a pro forma exercise
The Plymoushima Nuclear Plant, Cape Cod Today, Richard C. Bartlett, 3 April 11, The Pilgrim Nuclear Generating Station in Plymouth will be up for license renewal next year, 40 years after its 1972 start-up. It’s the same GE Mark I design as two of the Fukushima Dai-ichi nukes we have been reading about for nearly a month. Japan is far more vulnerable to earthquakes than we are, but Chernobyl and Three Mile Island remind us disasters are not dependent on shifting tectonic plates. Continue reading
Swiss nuclear power industry office attacked by letter bomb
Letter bomb at Swissnuclear TODAYonline Apr 01, 2011 OLTEN (Switzerland) – A letter bomb exploded yesterday at an office of the Swiss nuclear power industry in the northern city of Olten, injuring two people, according to the police.
he explosion happened shortly after 8am local time, as staff were opening the morning’s post in the fourth-floor office of Swissnuclear, said police spokeswoman Thalia Schweizer. She added that two female employees were taken to hospital with superficial burns and hearing damage. Police cordoned off the office of Swissnuclear – a lobby representing national power companies Axpo, Alpiq and BKW – and Ms Schweizer said they had forensic specialists on the ground.
Switzerland has five nuclear reactors currently in operation and opponents of nuclear power in the country have become more vocal in recent weeks following Japan’s nuclear crisis……….TODAYonline | World | Letter bomb at Swissnuclear
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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