Pakistan’s n-assets may fall into terrorist hands: US report
Pakistan’s n-assets may fall into terrorist hands: US report
Thaindian News By Arun Kumar 28 May 09
Washington, May 28 (IANS) Chronic political instability in Pakistan and the current offensive against the Taliban has raised fears that Islamabad’s strategic nuclear assets could be obtained by terrorists or used by elements in the Pakistani government, US lawmakers have been told.
While US and Pakistani officials have expressed confidence in controls over Pakistan’s nuclear weapons, continued instability in the country could impact these safeguards, according to a new US Congressional Research Report on “Pakistan’s Nuclear Weapons: Proliferation and Security Issues.”
http://www.thaindian.com/newsportal/south-asia/pakistans-n-assets-may-fall-into-terrorist-hands-us-report_100197720.html
‘Major’ problem plagues reactor
‘Major’ problem plagues reactor
Former watchdog warns of looming crisis
Edmonton Sun PETER.ZIMONJIC 27th May 2009, – “…………………..Linda Keen, the former head of Canada’s nuclear watchdog. …..’We are in a situation that’s worse than in December 2007……’………………When she was president of the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission, Keen forced Atomic Energy of Canada Ltd. to extend a shutdown of the reactor at Chalk River until it could meet federal safety standards…………………….At the time, the federal government called an emergency sitting of parliament where all parties voted to unanimously to overrule Keen and restart the reactor regardless of whether AECL, the Crown corporation that owns and operates the reactor, had complied with safety regulations.
Then in January 2008 Keen was fired as president of the CNSC the night before she was to appear before the natural resources committee to give evidence about the crisis. Since then Keen has remained out of the public eye but this latest shutdown has prompted her to speak out.
HEAVY WATER LEAK
The reactor went down again May 14 and AECL said it wouldn’t be back up until mid-June at the earliest. Others have suggested it could take up to eight months to make the repairs if they’re even possible.
AECL is now trying to find and fix a heavy water leak in the reactor.
Keen called it a “major” problem because the container holding the heavy water is the main fail-safe device in case of a meltdown.
http://www.edmontonsun.com/news/canada/2009/05/27/9582931-sun.html
No to progress or peril? Revisiting the case for or against nuclear energy
what’s the case against nuclear power? Business Mirror 25 May 09 “……………………It boils down to two things: safety and economics, according to Prof. Roland Simbulan of the University of the Philippines, National Chairman of the Nuclear-Free Philippines Coalition (NFPC). “The major issue is safety considering that we do not have an effective disaster management culture especially to handle nuclear technology,” Simbulan told the BusinessMirror.
“Even industrialized countries have difficulty confronting this problem.” Simbulan adds that the safety issue concerning storage of nuclear waste will hound the country considering the Philippines is an agricultural country dependent on a fishing industry.
He also argued that the BNPP was constructed under a “conspiracy of corruption” as it is an overpriced, unsafe plant and one that has left the Filipinos with $2.2 billion of debt. Simbulan suggests that the best alternative to nuclear power is safe, clean and less expensive renewable energy such as solar, wind, wave, tidal, geothermal energy, among others.
“We have an eternal abundance of these renewables. Also, energy conservation and efficient technologies that require less energy to generate can be considered such as light bulbs that consume less energy for more light. We also have to simplify lifestyles,” he explained. Simbulan adds that renewables are easier to utiilize compared to nuclear energy. “In the long run, they are cheaper…………………..
……………. “It is a known fact that nuclear power is an expensive technology that is risky to operate and creates deadly radioactive waste. Congress must realize that every Filipino citizen aspires for a safe and secure future. This will not be achieved through nuclear power technology,” said Greenpeace Southeast Asia campaigner Francis de la Cruz.
Greenpeace argued that the history of nuclear power in the world shows us that aside from being costly and risky, it discourages energy efficiency and impedes the development of renewable energy sources that are cleaner, sustainable and safe.
No to progress or peril? Revisiting the case for or against nuclear energy
Extent of tritium leaks still unknown
Extent of tritium leaks still unknown APP.com By Todd B. Bates • ENVIRONMENTAL WRITER • May 17, 2009
A month after radioactive tritium was found in a concrete vault and then ground water at the Oyster Creek nuclear power plant in Lacey, experts still are trying to define the scope of the contamination. Plant owner Exelon Corp. also is still investigating the cause of the contamination and whether there are other leaks, according to plant and federal officials. The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission decided last month that Oyster Creek was “good for 20 years, and it didn’t last three weeks before something failed,” said Richard Webster, legal director at the Eastern Environmental Law Center in Newark………
…………. Five monitoring wells at the plant were contaminated with up to 265 times government limits for tritium in water, according to May 6 data provided by Sheehan. Tritium is a weak isotope of hydrogen that increases the risk of cancer.
Extent of tritium leaks still unknown | APP.com | Asbury Park Press
Constellation reduces Ginna reactor to half power
Constellation reduces Ginna reactor to half power May 18, 2009
NEW YORK, May 18 (Reuters) – Constellation Energy Group Inc (CEG.N) reduced the 498-megawatt Ginna nuclear power station in New York to about half power on Sunday due to irregularities in the circulating water system, a spokesman for the plant said Monday.
He could not say when the unit would return to full power since workers were still looking for the problem.
The circulating water system moves water to the two low pressure turbines.
The Ginna station, which entered service in 1970, is located in Ontario in Wayne County about 20 miles east of Rochester, New York. The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) renewed the plant’s original 40-year operating license in 2004 for another 20 years until 2029.
Seismic activity makes nuclear power unsafe, says geologist
Seismic activity makes nuclear power unsafe, says geologistP ALOMA MIGONE – Herald-Tribune staff 13 May 09 – “……………………
The most recent earthquake occurred near the proposed nuclear plant site in Peace River on Feb. 19 with a magnitude of 3.2.
There was another earthquake recorded near Fort St. John in the ’80s and another near Snipe Lake, which is east of Valleyview, in the ’70s.
“This would be the most foolish place in Alberta to even think of putting a nuclear plant,” he said.
The concern is that over the course of many small earthquakes, a nuclear power plant would suffer “fractures,” weakening the structure and making it unsafe.
‘ADDED DANGER’
“The facilities of the nuclear plant, the concrete, the piping, over time they corrode, they get weaker and this is simply an added danger to the safety of the plant.”
Adele Boucher Rymhs from Citizens Against Nuclear Development said agreeing to a nuclear plan now would pass the problem to residents’ kids and grandchildren.
“Thirty years, 40 years from now, they are the ones who will suffer from problems if they occur.”
Safety threat to planned nuclear power stations
Safety threat to planned nuclear power stations Devastating blow as leaked letter shows regulator could pull plug on proposed UK reactors because of ‘design errors’
THE INDEPENDENT By Geoffrey Lean, 10 May 09
Britain’s plans to build a new generation of nuclear power stations have been thrown into jeopardy by startling official safety fears. The nuclear regulatory body in Finland, where the first of the reactors is being built, has taken the extraordinary step of threatening to halt its construction because it has not been satisfied that key safety systems will work.
STUK, the Finnish government’s Radiation and Nuclear Safety Authority, says that “evident errors” have not been corrected more than a year after it raised its concerns and condemns the “lack of professional knowledge” of people working for the firm responsible for its design and construction.
This is an unexpected, and potentially devastating, blow because one of the main selling points of the new European Pressurised Reactor (EPR) has been that its safety systems will work far better than those in current reactors. It is particularly important that they do because, as The Independent on Sunday reported in February, they will produce many times as much radiation that could be rapidly released in the event of an accident…………………………….
Safety threat to planned nuclear power stations – Green Living, Environment – The Independent
Tracking Central Asia’s Nuclear Traces
Tracking Central Asia’s Nuclear Traces registan Net 10 May 09 “……………………Recently, three Chinese tourists from Xinjiang bought a 600-lb piece of “glittering treasure” at a flea market in Kyrgyzstan. Upon sending a piece of it to a lab at Tsinghua University in Beijing, they discovered it was an enormous hunk of depleted uranium…………..
……………last year a train bound for Iran from Kyrgyzstan was stopped at the border with Uzbekistan when sensors at the border crossing detected high amounts of radiation emanating from an empty car. While the train was isolated and eventually returned to Kyrgyzstan for decontamination, the question remains: how did so much Cesium-137 go undetected in Kyrgyzstan, or through two supposedly secure border checkpoints in Kazakhstan, only being stopped in Uzbekistan? Indeed, Kyrgyzstan seems to be at the center of many nuclear security lapses in the region…
………………Tracking nuclear waste products is just as important as tracking enriched uranium (something the international community still does poorly).
Radiation Authority Sees Serious Safety Problems at Olkiluoto,Nuclear Building Site
Radiation Authority Sees Serious Safety Problems at Nuclear Building Site Uutiset 7 May 09
The Finnish Nuclear and Radiation Safety Authority STUK says that the construction of the commercial nuclear reactor in Olkiluoto, which is to be the world’s largest, has not proceeded according to official requirements.
STUK has demanded that the builder of the installation, the French company Areva, correct faults with the automation that guides the reactor……………….. According to STUK, the design of the automation does not meet the basic principles required for nuclear safety, and on this basis STUK does not see any possibilities to approve the automation for installation at Olkiluoto.
Russia Plans a Deadly Mix of Offshore Oil Drilling and Floating Nuclear Reactors in the Arctic
Russia plans a deadly mix of off-shore drilling and floating nuclear reactors Red,Green and Blue
Published on May 6th, 2009Russia is planning to build floating and submersible nuclear reactors to power oil drilling platforms which it intends to use to extract the untouched oil and gas reverses of the Arctic……………………………..Of possibly greater concern is the radioactive waste dumped at sea. Russian authorities told Dr. Hollister that 11,000 to 17,000 waste containers, holding 61,407 curies of radioactivity, were dumped off Novaya Zemlya from 1964 to 1990. In addition, 165,000 cubic meters of liquid waste were dumped in the Barents Sea west of Novaya Zemlaya from 1961 to 1990. For comparison, the Chernobyl accident released about 86,000,000 curies of radioactivity.Dr. Hollister reckons the amount of nuclear material within some of the Soviet sunken submarines at seven times that in the ill-fated Chernobyl reactor.
The Norwegian environmental group Bellona reported two years ago that some of the nuclear waste dumped in sea is at risk of exploding. The group reported corrosion in the storage tanks which have spent fuel rods inside.
While the Russian point to the benefits of small nuclear plants and fall back on the vast experience of operating nuclear powered ships, there are no guarantees that the nuclear waste generated will not be dumped into the sea,
Safety issues revealed at nuclear facility
Safety issues revealed at nuclear facility
Contractors used substandard materials
The State 3 May 09 By James Rosen WASHINGTON — Contractors at the Savannah River Site — one of the country’s major nuclear-weapons complexes — repeatedly procured dangerous construction materials and components that failed to meet federal safety standards, according to a recently completed internal government probe.
One of the substandard materials revealed at the Savannah River Site on the South Carolina-Georgia border “could have resulted in a spill of up to 15,000 gallons of high-level radioactive waste,” the inspector general of the U.S. Energy Department found.
The five-month investigation also disclosed the purchase of 9,500 tons of substandard reinforcing steel at the SRS site near Aiken……………………. Many employees are engaged in a huge environmental cleanup effort to mediate decades of toxic nuclear waste production……………………. Some environmentalists and other critics cast the NRC as a weak regulator plagued by cozy relationships with the power utilities that own and operate the civilian nuclear reactors it is charged with licensing and overseeing.
Heads of the Energy Department’s Office of Environmental Management, in charge of waste cleanup at SRS and other nuclear complexes, didn’t dispute the inspector general’s findings. http://www.thestate.com/local/story/772791.html
Fears over safety after nuclear waste leaks into Clyde revealed
News Scotsman.com 28 April 2009
By David Maddox
CONCERNS have been raised about safety at Faslane after it was revealed nuclear waste has leaked into the Clyde.
The Scottish Environmental Protection Agency (Sepa) has said that if Faslane was a civilian installation it would consider closing it down.
The worst breaches included leaks of radioactive coolants from nuclear subs in 2004, 2007 and 2008, according to documents acquired under freedom of information requests by Channel 4………. http://news.scotsman.com/scotland/Fears-over-safety-after-nuclear.5210867.jp
Oyster Creek’s safety issues unresolved
Oyster Creek’s safety issues unresolved
APP.com By JANET TAURO • April 24, 2009 Samuel J. Collins, regional director for the federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission, is barring the public from attending an upcoming safety meeting between the owners of the Oyster Creek Nuclear Generating Station and federal regulators. He is doing so even though the safety issues would never have been considered had citizens not identified them and intervened in relicensing proceedings.
By barring public participation, Collins further erodes public trust and disregards congressional demands for government transparency. Though the commission recently relicensed Oyster Creek for another 20 years, it did so with recommendations that NRC staff enhance enforcement of safety commitments made by Exelon to monitor corrosion of the reactor’s drywell shell, the steel containment shielding the public from radiation. The commission recommended that NRC staff increase enforcement because “Exelon’s series of errors . . . directly contradicts Exelon’s ability to meet the commitments.”
If Exelon and NRC staff were confident ongoing corrosion is resolved or that minimum safety standards are assured, they would welcome the public with open arms. Instead, Collins’ refusal to involve citizens exacerbates the perception of industry coziness and disdain for the public……………….
Oyster Creek’s safety issues unresolved | APP.com | Asbury Park Press
Quake prompts group to warn against BNPP operation anew
Earthquake prompts group to warn against BNPP operation anew
Business Mirror by Jonathan Mayuga / Correspondent Wednesday, 22 April 2009 22:20THE earthquake near Iba, Zambales, on Tuesday should serve as a warning to the government about the hazards of operating the Bataan Nuclear Power Plant (BNPP).Frances Quimpo of the Center for Environmental Concerns-Philippines, a co-convenor of the No to BNPP Revival, said the earthquake, which registered 5.3 in the Richter scale, stressed the warnings of scientists that active faults lie within the range of the mothballed nuclear power plant.The earthquake, she said, may cause surface ruptures, which could spell disaster anytime another such earthquake occurs in the area.“Let us recall that the earthquakes in 1990 and 1994 caused substantial damage to structures and properties, as well as people’s lives,” she added.The Network Opposed to Bataan Nuclear Power Plant Revival (NO to BNPP!) commemorated Earth Day through a protest rally in front of the House of Representatives on Wednesday…………………………..revival.
“It will be a huge crime against the Earth and the environment if BNPP starts operating. The legislators should realize the grave consequence of running a defective and dangerous nuclear plant and should not be swayed by the strong influence of its proponents into making a decision of blunder,” said Giovanni Tapang, spokesman for NO to BNPP Revival! and chairman of the scientists’ group Agham.
New revelations about Three Mile Island disaster raise doubts over nuclear plant safety:
New revelations about Three Mile Island disaster raise doubts over nuclear plant safetyThe truth behind the meltdown indyweek.com
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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