Fallout from the fire of 1957: radioactive plume led to 200 cancer cases
Fallout from the fire of 1957: radioactive plume led to 200 cancer cases
The Observer, Sunday 19 April 2009 Sellafield is the site of Britain’s worst nuclear accident. A blaze in 1957 in the reactor of Pile 1 released a massive plume of radioactive caesium, iodine and polonium that spread across Britain and northern Europe.
Up to 200 cases of cancer – including thyroid and breast cancer and also leukaemia – may have been triggered by the fire’s emissions, according to estimates which were published by epidemiologists led by Professor Richard Wakeford, of Manchester University, two years ago.
…………………… After the fire the government placed a six-week ban on consumption of milk from cows grazing within 200 miles of Windscale (as Sellafield was then known). However, the weather carried nuclear contamination far beyond that boundary.
The reactor was left in such a dangerous state of intense radioactivity that it has lain undisturbed ever since and is still considered too dangerous to decommission. As a result, Pile 1 is destined to be one of the last sites to be cleaned up during the decommissioning of Sellafield.
……………………… In 1983, British Nuclear Fuels Limited, or BNFL, which was then the operator of the Sellafield plant, was fined £10,000 after radioactive discharges containing ruthenium and rhodium 106 were found to have contaminated a beach near the power station.
The plant – which was originally expected to make profits of around £500m for Sellafield’s operators – is now expected to make losses of up to £1bn and has been earmarked for closure by the year 2010.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/apr/19/sellafield-nuclear-plant-cancer-cases
Yankee nuke extension increases risk
Yankee extension increases risk
Kewaunee nuclear power plant shut down
Kewaunee nuclear power plant shut down
By Rick Romell of the Journal Sentinel
April 20, 2009 The Kewaunee nuclear power plant remains out of operation after being shut down late Thursday night because of an instrumentation problem.
………………….. An event report posted on the site of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission indicates that a problem with calibration procedures was discovered about 6:30 p.m. Thursday. The problem was considered reportable to the NRC under three regulations, including one covering “any event or condition that results in the nuclear plant being in an unanalyzed condition that significantly degrades plant safety.” http://www.jsonline.com/business/43179997.html
Sellafield under fire for ‘catastrophic’ safety error
Sellafield under fire for ‘catastrophic’ safety error North West Evening Mail , 17 April 2009
SELLAFIELD has come under fire from an anti-nuclear group after four highly-radioactive waste stores malfunctioned.
Cooling water was lost when a faulty valve on the waste containers broke down.
The temperature of the waste was allowed to rise for eight hours before Sellafield workers were able to fix the problem……………………….
Details of the malfunction were only released last week.
CORE’s spokesman Martin Forwood said: “The catastrophic result of an extended loss of cooling to these dangerous and increasingly obsolete tanks is well documented and has major implications not only for Cumbria but also for the UK and its European neighbours.
“The incident was dangerously and unacceptably close to resulting in a major off-site release of radioactivity with long-term consequences for human life and the environment”.
North West Evening Mail | News | Sellafield under fire for ‘catastrophic’ safety error
Oyster Creek an accident waiting to happen
Oyster Creek an accident waiting to happen Brick Township Bulletin Sidney J. Goodman 17 April 09 Anuclear plant reactor tries to safely contain more radioactivity than is in the fallout of 1,000 Hiroshima atom bombs.The Oyster Creek spent fuel rod pool contains much more deadly radioactivity. The pool has a flimsy roof that could easily be penetrated to cause a fuming meltdown.Who would have thought that the World Trade Center could be destroyed so easily? As for nuclear power plants, we haven’t seen anything yet.There is an official rule. It says that a mere 10-mile evacuation zone is perfectly adequate. This is idiotic.The poisons from the Chernobyl nuclear power plant accident traveled all around the world. Decades after, only 20 percent of the children born in Belarus are healthy. The poisons from the Three Mile Island Nuclear Generating Station traveled hundreds of miles………………………
There is a federal law called the Price Anderson Act. It limits the liability of a nuclear utility to a microscopic fraction of the damage it can cause.
Oyster Creek is afraid to operate without the protection of this law. If there is no risk, as nuclear promoters always say, there is absolutely no justification for the existence of this law.
This law abolishes your property rights to protect the property rights of nuclear utilities. Their insistence that we need this law proves beyond the shadow of a doubt that big guns in the industry do not believe one word of their assurances about health and safety.
Why should you believe them or their agents?……………………. The Oyster Creek Nuclear Plant must be closed immediately — not in nine years, not in one year, not in one month, but now.
Oyster Creek an accident waiting to happen | bulletin.gmnews.com | Brick Township Bulletin
Several nuclear waste trains in Germany next year?
Several nuclear waste trains in D next year? Indymedia 17 April Diet Simon
Several transports of highly radioactive nuclear waste may roll through Germany next year, nuclear opponents have researched, and another 1,000-1,250 tonnes of depleted uranium are being readied for transportation to Russia in about 25 railcars.The Bürgerinitiative Umweltschutz Lüchow-Dannenberg (BI), which fights waste dumping at the northern village of Gorleben, and other anti-nuclear activists have found out that waste consignments are due next year to all three “interim” dumps at Ahaus (45 linear km northwest of Münster), Lubmin (120 km east of Rostock) and Gorleben (155 km northeast of Hannover).
The BI comments that “thousands are going to take to the streets to oppose this” and says the anti-nuclear movement has had a surge in numbers since last autumn 16,000 delayed another waste load to Gorleben.
“In the autumn we’re doing a tractor run to Berlin to generate pressure to end the crazy plan to make Gorleben the final repository and to get out of nuclear power production.“In 2010 there’ll be a stocktaking across the country, the waste transport continue to be a provocation because they symbolize the disposal dilemma” (of there being no safe storage system anywhere on the globe).
Several hundred nuclear casks with highly radioactive waste, so-called Castor CSDC 28’s, are to be taken from the French plutonium factory at La Hague and a German research facility at Jülich (65 km west of Cologne) to Ahaus. A special high-pressure waste compacting facility has been built in La Hague for the purpose.
The BI notes that this creates a new category of waste which starts medium-active and becomes highly active from heat…………………..Meanwhile activists have observed another large depleted uranium train being assembled in Germany’s only uranium enrichment factory at Gronau, to go to Russia for dumping in the open air…………………..
………..Anti-nuclear activists are planning an inter-regional demonstration in Münster for 25 April. It will be one of three central ones taking place throughout Germany on the 23rd anniversary of the Chernobyl explosion. The other two will be outside nuclear power stations at Krümmel (40 km southeast of Hamburg) and Neckarwestheim (170 km south of Frankfurt) on the 26th.
de.indymedia.org | Several nuclear waste trains in D next year?
Nuke security lacking
Nuke security lacking – The Great Beyond by April 16, 2009 Another day, another security lapse at one of the Department of Energy’s nuclear weapons labs.The Government Accountability Office is reporting yet again that there are security lapses in the complex, this time at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California, near San Francisco.LLNL is one of three DOE national labs that designs, handles and stores nuclear weapons. It also maintains stores of plutonium and enriched uranium.Investigators found 13 specific deficiencies in the security force employed to counteract a terrorist attack……………….
Fire breaks out at Nuclear plant
Fire breaks out at N-plant
NIIGATA–A fire broke out Saturday night at the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear power plant operated by Tokyo Electric Power Co. in Kashiwazaki and Kariwamura, Niigata Prefecture, scorching the motor of an air conditioner. No radiation leaks or injuries were reported.
According to TEPCO, the fire broke out at about 10:25 p.m. at a storage space. Wiring connected to the motor burned out, and its steel cover was scorched.
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Though the machine has been in use since May 1992, its wiring was not periodically inspected.
The nuclear plant was struck by the Niigata Prefecture Chuetsu Offshore Earthquake in July 2007, and all its seven reactors were shut down. Since the earthquake, there have been nine fires at the plant, including the latest one.
………………….Kashiwazaki Mayor Hiroshi Aida on Monday summoned Akio Takahashi, the head of the power plant, to a meeting at which he demanded that the plant come up with preventive measures. Aida told Takahashi that he was concerned about the fact that a fire had broken out at a time when concerned municipalities are considering whether to approve the restart of the No. 7 reactor.
Design Flaws In Nuclear Transport Ships Increase The Risk Of Accidents Claims Report
Design flaws in nuclear transport ships increase the risk of accidents, claims report
Sunday Herald 13 April 09 Consultant says claims of safety ‘lack scientific and technical credibility’By Rob Edwards, Environment Editor
THE GROWING number of nuclear waste shipments being made through the Irish Sea risk accidents that could cause widespread radioactive contamination, according to an expert report out this week.The transport ships have “design flaws” that could make them unsafe while the emergency plans in place for coping with an accident are non- existent or inadequate, the report says.At least 45 movements of nuclear materials have been made north and south through the Irish Sea since 2004.
Cargoes of radioactive waste and fuel are transported from the Sellafield nuclear complex in Cumbria to nuclear plants in Japan, the US and Europe.advertisementThe report was commissioned by a coalition of more than 70 local authorities in the UK and Ireland worried about nuclear power. It was written by the independent marine pollution consultant, Tim Deere-Jones, and is due to be published in a few days.
Dominion’s Conn. power station problem “more than minor”
Richmond Times Despatch March 27, 2009
WATERFORD, Conn. — Federal regulators are calling a piping system problem at Dominion Resources Inc.’s Millstone nuclear power plant a “more than minor” safety violation………………….. NRC officials said some gas became trapped in pipes designed to deliver cooling water to one of two operating reactors at the Millstone plant. Regulators were concerned that the gas could affect the operation of pumps in an emergency
Los Alamos’ security flaws exposed
Los Alamos’ security flaws exposedAn Energy Department investigation into a plutonium mix-up reveals deficiencies that the New Mexico nuclear weapons lab must address, an official says. Los Angeles Times By Ralph VartabedianMarch 26, 2009An Energy Department investigation has alleviated fears that a significant amount of plutonium was missing from a national laboratory, but it has also heightened concerns about flaws in the system for controlling the U.S. stockpile of weapons materials…………………………………..The inventory miscalculation follows more than a decade of security problems at the bomb design center, including several incidents of lost classified information contained on computers, electronic drives and paper.
Radiation emergency at nuclear reactor near Pretoria
Digital Journal By Adriana Stuijt. 17 March 09 A leak of radiation gases occurred at the Pelindaba nuclear reactors near Pretoria at 10am on Monday, the SA Nuclear Energy Corporation (Necsa) said. “Abnormal levels of gamma radiation associated with xenon and krypton gases were detected.”
These high levels of radiation were detected near the building in which radioisotopes are produced for medical applications,” Necsa said, according to their statement on the South African Press Association website.They didn’t say how these xenon and krypton gases could have escaped. However they did decide to declare an on-site emergency, causing the evacuation of the entire nuclear site by staffers until the radiation levels ‘returned to normal’ readings. The residents of the city of Pretoria were not informed about the radiation leaks until this press statement was issued – after the emergency was all over.
Deep concern
This caused deep worry with Mike Kantey, national chairman for The Coalition Against Nuclear Energy in South Africa, who has expressed ‘deep concern” about Monday’s emergency. Pelindaba ‘s security measures have recently also been breached by armed attack gangs.
………………………….. No civil society for independent verification:
He added that iodine was responsible for illnesses that followed the disaster at the Chernobyl nuclear plant in the Ukraine in 1986. Kantey said it was also a matter of concern that the NNR did not have a civil society representative on its board.
“This is an occasion when we need such a person,” he said, adding that the post had been vacant since June 2008. The NNR could not be reached for comment.
New Generation of Nuclear Power Stations ‘risk Terrorist Anarchy’
New Generation of Nuclear Power Stations ‘risk Terrorist Anarchy’
Buzzle.com 17 March 09 The new generation of atomic power stations planned for Britain, China and other parts of the world risks proliferation that could lead to ‘nuclear anarchy’, says a public policy report
The new generation of atomic power stations planned for Britain, China and many other parts of the world risks proliferation that could lead to “nuclear anarchy”, a security expert warned in a report published today.
Governments and multilateral organizations must come up with a strategy to deal the impact of the new nuclear age, which will produce enough plutonium to make 1m nuclear weapons by 2075, argues Frank Barnaby from the Oxford Research Group thinktank in a paper for the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR).
“We are at a crossroads. Unless governments work together to safeguard nuclear energy supplies, the rise in unsecured nuclear technology will put us all in danger. Without this, we are hurtling towards a state of nuclear anarchy where terrorists or rogue states have the ways and means of making nuclear weapons or ‘dirty bombs’, the consequences of which are unimaginable,” says Barnaby.
Any country choosing to operate new-generation nuclear reactors in future would have relatively easy access to plutonium, which is used to make the most efficient atomic weapons, along with the nuclear physicists and engineers to design them. These countries would be latent nuclear-weapon powers “and it is to be expected that some will take the political decision to become actual nuclear weapons powers,” argues Barnaby in his paper submitted to the IPPR’s independent Commission on National Security chaired by former Nato boss, Lord George Robertson.
The issue of nuclear proliferation security has been largely ignored until today as the nuclear power debate has concentrated on the economics, social issues and how to deal with radioactive waste.
…………………… Companies such as E.ON of Germany who want to build new nuclear plants in Britain declined to comment on the issue.
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New Nuclear Reactors Will Produce More Radiation
New Nuclear Reactors Will Produce More Radiation Along With More Electricity
About by Larry West March 9, 2009
A new generation of nuclear reactors designed to generate more electricity more safely than previous technology may actually produce radioactive waste that is more toxic and would be released more quickly in case of a nuclear accident, according to information contained in industry documents and brought to light by Greenpeace.
……………….. Safety features built into EPR reactors would make a nuclear accident less likely than ever before, but one study suggests that an EPR reactor or waste accident could kill nearly twice as many people as an accident at one of the atomic reactors they are designed to replace.
The study, conducted by independent nuclear consultant John Large, compared the consequences of an accident at the new EPR reactor being constructed in Normandy with one at an existing reactor in the same area. Large concluded that, in the worst case, the number of deaths would increase from 16,000 to more than 28,000.
EPR reactors are designed to burn nuclear fuel almost twice as thoroughly as atomic reactors, but that process also increases the toxicity of the nuclear waste EPR reactors produce. Various industry documents show that, compared to atomic reactors, EPR nuclear reactors would produce:
- Four more radioactive bromine, rubidium, iodine and caesium, according to a report by EDF, the French company that is planning to build four EPR reactors in the UK;
- Seven times as much iodine 129, according to Posiva Oy, a nuclear waste company owned by two Finnish companies that build nuclear reactors; and
- Eleven times as much caesium 135 and 137, according to the Swiss National Cooperative for the Disposal of Radioactive Waste.
The most troubling thing about these reports is not the specter of a potentially deadly nuclear accident—despite some problems, the nuclear industry has a remarkably good safety record when it comes to operating reactors—but rather that the nuclear industry failed to put all of its cards on the table while selling EPR technology as a safer alternative to atomic reactors.
Protest passage of nuke waste
Lawyer: Protest passage of nuke waste
MANILA, Philippines — A lawyer has urged President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo to place the Philippines among the countries that are protesting the shipment of radioactive waste, supposedly enough to make 225 nuclear bombs, which is intended for reprocessing in Japan.
Harry Roque of the Center for International Law (CenterLaw) said the shipment of Mixed-Oxide (Mox) fuel has been denied passage by Latin American countries because of the risks it present.
The only remaining route the shipment can take is from France to South Africa, across the Tasman Sea between New Zealand and Australia, and the waters of South Pacific nations, including the Philippines, Roque said.
But the lawyer pointed out that several countries along this route, including Australia, are protesting the shipment.
“It is imperative…that the Philippines, together with other countries where the shipment would pass, should protest this shipment,” Roque said.
During a conference on Maritime Security in France, Roque said a member of the State Council, Edwige Belliard, made it clear that France feels it is under no obligation to clean up in case there anything goes wrong with the Mox shipment.
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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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