Fukushima radiation leaks an international crisis
The water flowing through the site is also undermining the remnant structures at Fukushima, including the one supporting the fuel pool at Unit Four.
The immediate bottom line is that those fuel rods must somehow come safely out of the Unit Four fuel pool as soon as possible.
Spent fuel must somehow be kept under water. It’s clad in zirconium alloy which will spontaneously ignite when exposed to air.
Each uncovered rod emits enough radiation to kill someone standing nearby in a matter of minutes. A conflagration could force all personnel to flee the site and render electronic machinery unworkable.
Fukushima Radiation Leaks Totally Out of Control – Threatening Human Survival http://www.marketoracle.co.uk/Article42434.html Harvey Wasserman writes: We are now within two months of what may be humankind’s most dangerous moment since the Cuban Missile Crisis. 25 Sept 13
There is no excuse for not acting. All the resources our species can muster must be focussed on the fuel pool at Fukushima Unit 4. Fukushima’s owner, Tokyo Electric (Tepco), says that within as few as 60 days it may begin trying to remove more than 1300 spent fuel rods from a badly damaged pool perched 100 feet in the air. The pool rests on a badly damaged building that is tilting, sinking and could easily come down in the next earthquake, if not on its own.
Some 400 tons of fuel in that pool could spew out more than 15,000 times as much radiation as was released at Hiroshima.
The one thing certain about this crisis is that Tepco does not have the scientific, engineering or financial resources to handle it. Nor does the Japanese government. The situation demands a coordinated worldwide effort of the best scientists and engineers our species can muster.
Why is this so serious? Continue reading
Treating 56 million gallons of radioactive trash the fist step to clean up Hanford
At the height of World War II, the federal government created Hanford to build the atomic bomb. Today, it is the nation’s most contaminated nuclear site, with cleanup expected to last decades. The effort — at a price tag of about $2 billion annually — has cost taxpayers $40 billion to date and is estimated to cost $115 billion more.
The most challenging task so far has been the removal of highly radioactive waste from the 177 aging, underground tanks and construction of a plant to treat that waste
Phased start to Hanford nuclear cleanup recommended http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2013/09/24/doe-government-hanford-radioactive-waste-phased-start/2866155/AP September 24, 2013
Dep’t. of Energy urges starting to treat plant’s 56M gallons of waste as soon as possible. KENNEWICK, Wash. (AP) — The federal government is recommending a phased start to treatment of radioactive waste now held in underground tanks at the Hanford Nuclear Reservation in Washington state.
The Department of Energy, in a report released Tuesday, proposes starting to treat some of Hanford’s 56 million gallons of waste for disposal as soon as possible, while work continues to resolve technical issues at the vitrification plant’s Pretreatment and High Level Waste Facilities, the Tri-City Herald reported.
Treatment would include sending some low activity radioactive waste directly to the plant’s Low Activity Waste Facility to be prepared for disposal. That would require bypassing the Pretreatment Facility, which originally was planned to separate all the tank waste into low activity and high level waste streams for separate treatment. Continue reading
Kazakhstan’s idea to grow food on plutonium contaminated land
“Opening the land for grazing and other land use will be an unforgiveable mistake,” said Leonid Rikhvanov, a professor at Russia’s Tomsk Polytechnic University, in a 2010 interview with the Telegraph. “If the plutonium gets into the biological chain it could cause a cytogenetic catastrophe that will backfire on the health of our children and grandchildren.” Many people living near Semipalatinsk feel similarly
But in this poisoned place, on a small patch of land near a few downtrodden trailers, there’s an unexpected hint of vitality: bright yellow sunflowers, clustered together near rows of corn, and a barn full of plump sheep. Here, scientists from Kazakhstan’s Institute of Radiation Safety and Ecology, a governmental organization that studies the medical and biological interaction between radioactivity and the environment, have developed an experimental farm. Their goal is to measure the transference of radioactivity from contaminated soil into edible crops, and from those crops into the meat, milk, and eggs of the animals that eat them. Continue reading
Japanese government considers taking over the Fukushima radiation cleanup
J
apan LDP Plan Would Put Government in Control of Fukushima Cleanup, WSJ, Proposal Would Reduce Tepco’s Financial Burden By MARI IWATA, 20 Sept 13 TOKYO—Japan’s ruling Liberal Democratic Party is considering a plan that would give the government sole responsibility for containing and cleaning up contamination from the stricken Fukushima Daiichi nuclear-power plant, allowing its operator, Tokyo Electric Power Co., 9501.TO -2.28% to focus its dwindling resources more efficiently on decommissioning the facility……..
The government had already effectively nationalized Tepco by buying a majority of its shares, but the stock still trades on the Tokyo Stock Exchange, and Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s administration is eager to see the cash-strapped company return to financial health, a significant challenge, given lost revenue from the idling of all of the company’s nuclear reactors, as well as the costs of the cleanup and purchasing of more liquefied natural gas than before the accident to fuel thermal-power plants to make up for lost nuclear generation.
Tepco has posted two straight years of large net losses since the accident. It swung to a profit in the April-June quarter, solely on the back of a large government subsidy to help it pay compensation to Fukushima victims but it carries Y800 billion ($8.14 billion) in debt that should be refinanced this fall. On top of that, Tepco estimates it must borrow an additional Y300 billion by the end of December if it wants to stay afloat, a spokesman said……..
Tepco President Naomi Hirose said Thursday that the company would prepare Y1 trillion ($10 billion) to decommission the entire plant in addition to Y960 billion it had reserved for the work by the end of June. This doesn’t include costs associated with handling contaminated water at the site. There hasn’t been any estimate on the total cost of decommissioning the stricken plant…….Japan’s Nuclear Regulation Authority Chairman Shunichi Tanaka has urged the government and Tepco to intensify the decommissioning effort, saying “the deadliest risk is another huge natural disaster,” which would “destroy all these makeshift tanks and water processing systems, releasing all the radioactive materials there into the environment.” http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887324492604579086742989825408.htm
Saugeen Ojibway Nations (SON) community won’t agree to Ontario nuclear waste dump in any hurry
Securing approval for nuclear waste site won’t be ‘quick or easy process’: First Nations “If things go south in a hurry, where do our people go? We do not have the luxury of picking up and leaving.” The Star, By: John Spears Business reporter, on Mon Sep 16 2013 KINCARDINE—First Nations communities near Ontario Power Generation’s proposed nuclear waste disposal facility won’t be rushed into supporting the project, a federal hearing has been told. Continue reading
UK government by-passing County Councils on nuclear waste dump decisions
County councils sidelined from nuclear waste dump site decisions http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2013/sep/12/county-councils-nuclear-waste-dump-sites Energy department policy makes district councils lead authority on locating waste dumps, which Cumbria county council says abandons big society Terry Macalister theguardian.com, Friday 13 September 2013 The government has been accused of “astonishingly undemocratic” behaviour after it moved to cut out county councils from deciding the site of a national nuclear waste dump.
The stinging criticism came from the leaders of Cumbria county council, who have been sidelined months after scuppering ministers’ plans by voting against a £12bn high-level waste repository near the Sellafield nuclear complex. Continue reading
Public meeting about decommissioning process for san Onofre Nuclear Power PLant
NRC sets first public meeting on decommissioning San Onofre nuclear plant http://www.scpr.org/news/2013/09/12/39216/nrc-sets-san-onofre-nuclear-plant-meeting-in-carls/
Ed Joyce | September 12th, 2013 The Nuclear Regulatory Commission announced Thursday it will hold a public meeting September 26 in Carlsbad to talk about the decommissioning process for the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station in northern San Diego County.
It will be the agency’s first public meeting on closing the plant operated by Southern California Edison.
The meeting is scheduled for 6 p.m. at the Omni LaCosta Hotel, 2100 Costa del Mar Road. Doors will open at 5 p.m. to accommodate security screening.
An NRC press release says technical staff will give a presentation describing the process and regulations covering the decommissioning with a Q&A session to follow.
“We think this meeting is very important for the community,” said Gene Stone with San Clemente-based Residents Organized for a Safe Environment. It’s one of several groups in Orange and San Diego counties that pushed for the plant’s closure.
Stone says a coalition of environmental groups “will create a committee focusing on safety of nuclear waste storage, the timeliness of the process and the costs associated with decommissioning.”
The nuclear plant, which is located on the coast near the border of San Diego and Orange counties, has been shut down since January 2012 after radioactive steam escaped from damaged tubes inside one of the reactors. In June of this year, Southern California Edison announced it would seek the permanent closure of the plant.
Edison International Chairman Ted Craver told reporters in June that closing the plant would take decades and result in spent nuclear fuel being stored “for a very long time” at the plant.
According to Craver, the company has a $2.7 billion decommissioning fund that can be used to close San Onofre. But the money to make up for the loss of the San Onofre plant will come from ratepayers, insurance claims, shareholders and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, which made the equipment that led to the problems at San Onofre.
The California Public Utilities Commission has set an October 1 hearing to determine just how much ratepayers will pay.
Earlier this month, Southern California Edison opened the San Onofre Digital Document Library. The utility said the library provides the public with documents related to the design of the steam generators that were cited as a reason for the plant’s problems.
Along with Edison, San Diego Gas & Electric owns 20 percent of the plant and the City of Riverside owns nearly 2 percent.
The plant is located about two miles south of San Clemente.
Plymouth residents suspicious of Entergy’s nuclear waste plan
Many experts believe that storing spent fuel assemblies in dry casks is safer long-term than continuing to store them in Pilgrim’s over-crowded spent fuel pool. However, it is important to note that Entergy plans to keep the spent fuel pool full until Pilgrim stops operating, and to move the minimum number of spent fuel assemblies into dry casks.
“We, in fact, support dry cask storage,” said one of the petitioners. “We just want to make sure Entergy is doing it as safely as possible, and not at our expense. Long after Entergy is gone Plymouth will be stuck with a toxic nuclear waste dump.”
OF NUCLEAR INTEREST: Radioactive waste storage facility being built in Plymouth http://www.wickedlocal.com/wareham/topstories/x1655334658/OF-NUCLEAR-INTEREST-Radioactive-waste-storage-facility-being-built-in-Plymouth?zc_p=1 By Sara Altherr Wicked Local Plymouth
Sep 11, 2013 Last year, without fanfare, Louisiana-based Entergy Corporation started work on a nuclear waste storage facility, using “dry casks” to store radioactive spent nuclear fuel at Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station (PNPS). Various estimates put the cost of the facility between $165 million and $400 million. In Pilgrim’s reactor, nuclear fuel assemblies heat water to make steam that turns turbines to create electricity. Pilgrim’s reactor holds 580 fuel assemblies. After a few years, the fuel is “spent,” and needs to be replaced. However, the spent fuel is highly radioactive and will remain dangerous for thousands of years. Continue reading
Transferring spent nuclear fuel rods to dry casks does not increase worker danger
Radiation from Accelerating the Transfer of Spent Fuel from Pools to Casks, Union of Concerned Scientists David Wright, co-director and senior scientist September 11, 2013
To see this, consider the results of an August 2012 study by the Energy Power Research Institute (EPRI), “Impacts Associated with Transfer of Spent Nuclear Fuel from Spent Fuel Storage Pools to Dry Storage after Five Years of Cooling, Revision 1,” which estimates the increase in radiation dose to workers loading fuel into casks in scenarios of accelerated transfers.
The EPRI Study……. http://allthingsnuclear.org/radiation-from-accelerating-the-transfer-of-spent-fuel-from-pools-to-casks/
Nevada board extends contract for Yucca Mountain nuclear waste dump license
Yucca Mountain nuclear waste license renewed Carson City, NV (KTNV) — The fight over Yucca Mountain rages on. A Nevada board has extended a contract with a Washington, D.C. law firm to continue the proposed nuclear waste dump just 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas.
$5 million has been approved to continue the contract; money they said will go quickly when it runs out.
Officials said the federal government only has $11 million left in its nuclear waste licensing account A Nevada board has extended a contract with a Washington, D.C. law firm to continue the proposed nuclear waste dump just 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas.
$5 million has been approved to continue the contract; money they said will go quickly when it runs out.
Officials said the federal government only has $11 million left in its nuclear waste licensing account.So far, the Department of Energy has already spent $670 million on licensing.
US Congress to hear about NRC’s plans for radioactive trash
the only sane thing is to stop making the stuff!
Energy Week Ahead: NRC’s Chief to Testify on Nuclear-Waste Plans Bloomberg, By Brian Wingfield – Sep 8, 2013 Congress returns from a five-week recess to take up several perennial issues: turmoil in the Middle East, rising government debt and where to dump more than 65,000 tons of waste from the nation’s nuclear power plants.
U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission Chairman Allison Macfarlane and Peter Lyons, the Energy Department’s assistant secretary for nuclear energy, testify tomorrow at a House Energy and Commerce subcommittee hearing on the waste issue.
While U.S. lawmakers were away from Washington, a federal appeals court on Aug. 13 ruled the NRC is “flouting the law” by not completing its safety review for a dump at Nevada’s Yucca Mountain. The agency, which stopped work after President Barack Obama’s administration killed funding for Yucca in 2010, is reviewing options on the matter through Sept. 30.
Now lawmakers just have to agree on a place to dispose of the spent-fuel rods, a debate that has been underway since at least President Ronald Reagan’s first term, when he signed a law to set up a permanent repository. For now, the material is stored at about 75 operating and closed nuclear plants……. The nation’s backlog of commercial nuclear waste is rising so high, even Yucca Mountain won’t be able to hold it all, a independent commission established by Obama reported last year. …..http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-09-09/energy-week-ahead-nrc-s-chief-to-testify-on-nuclear-waste-plans.html
Nuclear Regulatory Commission trying to instill confidence in its Waste Confidence Rule
NRC ‘Waste Confidence’ meetings to focus on spent nuclear fuel Augusta Chronicle By Rob PaveyStaff Writer Monday, Sept. 9, 2013 Federal regulators will hold a series of meetings this fall to discuss the fate of spent nuclear fuel that could be left behind after commercial power reactors are shut down and closed.
The 12 meetings, held by Nuclear Regulatory Commission, are part of the process of devising a “waste confidence rule” to assess the environmental impact of continued storage until the material can be sent to an underground repository. The closest meeting to Augusta will be held Nov. 4 in Charlotte, N.C., at the Hilton Charlotte University Place, 8629 J.M. Keynes Drive. An open house begins at 6 p.m., and the formal meeting will be held from 7 to 10 p.m.
Disposal of spent nuclear fuel that continues to accumulate at the nation’s 104 operating commercial reactors has been a perennial dilemma and a source of national debate…… The issue of long-term storage and disposal of spent fuel is an important issue nationwide, and especially in Georgia and South Carolina, said Tom Clements, Southeastern nuclear campaign coordinator for Friends of the Earth.
The solution favored by Friends of the Earth includes removing spent fuel from storage pools, and storing it on-site in protected casks, until a geologic repository can be completed.
Under the Blue Ribbon Commission’s proposals, such a repository must be sited through a “consent-based” process that requires support and coordination from state and local officials who are willing to host such a project. The issue of long-term storage and disposal of spent fuel is an important issue nationwide, and especially in Georgia and South Carolina, said Tom Clements, Southeastern nuclear campaign coordinator for Friends of the Earth.
UK nuclear decommissioning executives rorted the system
Nuclear plant bosses forced to pay back inappropriate expense claims including a £714 taxi bill for a CAT, Mail Online 9 Sept 13
- Executives at Nuclear Management Partners consortium widely criticised
- They were brought in to help decommission part of the Sellafield plant
- Claims also included trip to US Masters and £719 on good from Amazon
- One boss demanded £714 cab fare for themselves ‘and the cat’
- Audit of claims from 2008 to 2012 leads to thousands being handed back Taxpayer-paid executives running the Sellafield nuclear power plant billed £714 to chauffeur-drive a cat, expense claims revealed today.
- Bosses at consortium Nuclear Management Partners (NMP) also used the perk to pay for flights to the US Masters golf tournament and Amazon purchases submitted without receipts.NMP were brought in to decommission a nuclear plant at Sellafield in Cumbria, but senior staff have now been forced to hand back thousands of pounds after an audit of their claims between 2008 and 2012.
- From more than 606 expense documents it emerged £236,781 of claims were requested without a proper description, £30,557 worth were purely for personal expenditure and £42,711 should not have been claimed at all.
Jamie Reed, Labour MP for Copeland in Cumbria, which contains Sellafield told City AM: ‘A workforce that is being asked to accept many changes – including pay restraint – will have many questions.
‘Taxis for cats and flights to the US Masters simply beggars belief.’ Continue reading
Build ’em up, pull ’em down – always money for the nuclear industry
Nuclear Trashmen Gain From Record U.S. Reactor Shutdowns Bloomberg By Brian Wingfield – Sep 4, 2013 More than 50 years into the age of nuclear energy, one of the biggest growth opportunities may be junking old reactors. Entergy Corp. (ETR) said Aug. 27 it will close its 41-year-old Vermont Yankee nuclear plant in 2014, making the reactor the fifth unit in the U.S. marked for decommissioning within the past 12 months, a record annual total. Companies that specialize in razing nuclear plants and hauling away radioactive waste are poised to benefit.
Disposal work is “where companies are going to make their fortune,” Margaret Harding, an independent nuclear-industry consultant based in Wilmington, North Carolina, said in an phone interview. Contractors that are usually involved in building reactors, including Bechtel Group Inc. and URS Corp. (URS), “are going to be looking very hard at the decommissioning side of it.”
With Dominion Resources Inc. (D), Duke Energy Corp. (DUK)and Edison International (EIX) shuttering reactors this year — and Exelon Corp. (EXC) planning to close its Oyster Creek plant in 2019 — the U.S. nuclear fleet of 104 units is shrinking, even as Southern Co. (SO) and Scana Corp. (SCG) build two units each. The reasons vary: Edison and Duke are permanently removing damaged plants from service. Entergy and Dominion are retiring the units because of factors including a glut of natural gas, a competing fuel……….
The length of time to decommission a reactor creates uncertainty surrounding plant oversight, according to Shaun Burnie, an independent nuclear consultant who previously led environmental group Friends of the Earth’s campaign to close Edison’s San Onofre plant in California.
“Is Entergy going to be around in 50 years time? In 10 years time?” he said in a phone interview.
Ralph Andersen, senior director of radiation safety and environmental protection for the Nuclear Energy Institute, said the industry is entering a new era for the companies that handle reactor decommissioning.
“It really does open the door to the marketplace rethinking ways to handle decommissioning,” he said………. http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-09-04/nuclear-trashmen-gain-from-record-u-s-reactor-shutdowns.html
The tricky but lucrative business of shutting down dead nuclear raectors
Nuclear Trashmen Gain From Record U.S. Reactor Shutdowns Bloomberg By Brian Wingfield – Sep 4, 2013 1:”……..Tricky Business The physical work involved in tearing down a nuclear plant takes about 10 years, according to John Hickman, a project manager in the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s decommissioning branch. The agency gives reactor owners 60 years to complete decommissioning, which it defines as permanently removing a plant from service and reducing radioactivity enough for the property to be used for another purpose.
The NRC is now overseeing 14 commercial reactors that are in some phase of decommissioning, excluding those marked for closure in the last year. The first plant to deliver commercial power in the U.S. was a General Electric Co (GE).-designed unit near Fremont, California, which began service in 1957, according to the agency. It was also the first unit to be decommissioned, in 1963.
Razing a plant is tricky business. Radiation can seep into the concrete, pipes and metal of plant structures, and workers need to be able to break down the units without exposing themselves, or the public, to contamination. Plants often sit idle for decades before being torn down in order to let radioactive material decay. Continue reading
1 This Month
23 April – WEBINAR – Why new nuclear reactors are the wrong tools for decarbonization Thursday, April 23 • 1 AM – 2 AM AEST
World Nuclear Power. Reactors 1951-2026, 75 Years of Nuclear Power.
Interactive Map– https://dv.worldnuclearreport.org/
Chernobyl: The Lost Tapes – A good documentary on Chernobyl on SBS available On Demand for the next 3 weeks– https://www.sbs.com.au/ondemand/tv-program/chernobyl-the-lost-tapes/2352741955560
of the week–London Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament
Tell the Ukrainian Government to Drop Prosecution of Peace Activist Yurii Sheliazhenko
To see nuclear-related stories in greater depth and intensity – go to https://nuclearinformation.wordpress.com
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