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UK judge rules in favour of nuclear waste dump, rejects local opposition

Kings Cliffe campaigners lose nuclear waste legal battle, The Peterborough Evening Telegraph., By Ken McErlain  3 November 2011  A decision to dump low-level nuclear waste by a village near Peterborough was upheld today

 More than 50 people from Kings Cliffe travelled to the High Court in London hoping to overturn a Government decision to allow Augean to dump radioactive waste at its East Northants Resource Management Facility, in Stamford Road, King’s Cliffe.

But Deputy Judge Stewart QC upheld the decision to allow Augean to use half of the site for dumping waste up until August 2013. The judge also refused to give the campaigners permission to appeal.

Villagers had voiced fears about the environmental impact of the decision and were concerned that Augean would look to expand the site’s operation for hazardous and nuclear wastes until 2026 by using the other half of the site. Campaigners against the plans, who raised £30,000 to mount the legal challenge, said they are now considering their next move.

Campaigner Clare Langan, who travelled to London for the hearing, said: “We were very upset and disappointed to hear the verdict.“We will be meeting with our barristers in the coming weeks to see what options are available to us.”… http://www.peterboroughtoday.co.uk/news/et-business/business-news/kings_cliffe_campaigners_lose_nuclear_waste_legal_battle_1_3212591

November 4, 2011 Posted by | Legal, UK, wastes | Leave a comment

UK Ministry of Defence doesn’t know what to do with outdated nuclear test site

Nuclear reactor test site may close, Google News, (UKPA) –3 Nov 11 A nuclear submarine reactor test site could be decommissioned after 2015, the Ministry of Defence has said. The Vulcan Naval Reactor Test Establishment (NRTE) site at Dounreay, in Caithness, has historically been used for the development of new reactor core designs.

However, the MoD said confidence in the technology and computational modelling meant “prototyping activities” were no longer needed. It is now considering what will become of the site after the current series of reactor core prototype tests are completed in 2015. Possibilities include decommissioning it or putting it into “care and maintenance”.

In a statement, the MoD said: “Options for the future of the site are currently being assessed; these range from placing the prototype facilities into care and maintenance while retaining the site’s strategic capabilities, to decommissioning the site and returning it to Nuclear Decommissioning Authority ownership…. http://www.google.com/hostednews/ukpress/article/ALeqM5gIZLQQYe2lNLK4dKWPBN-LFRWCVQ?docId=N0428681320269334933A

November 3, 2011 Posted by | decommission reactor, UK | Leave a comment

Not In My Backyard! – nuclear waste disposal problem in Japan

Nuclear Cleanup Faces ‘NIMBY’ Challenge, WSJ By Yumiko Ono, 31 Oct 11, In handling the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear crisis, Japan has gotten help from American scientists and imported American robots. Now comes a popular American phrase: NIMBY….Japan is trying to get around the NIMBY problem by planning to move the contaminated waste from one place to another. The government has asked each municipality to store its own contaminated waste for now until it comes up with an “interim” storage facility. In the meantime, it will debate the more sensitive issue of where to store the waste permanently. Continue reading →

November 1, 2011 Posted by | Japan, wastes | Leave a comment

Endless radioactive cleanup problems – Chernobyl, Hanford, Fukushima

In Chernobyl, 25 years after the nuclear accident, radiation is still detected in the surrounding forests, experts say. The U.S. government has spent more than $34 billion over two decades at a nuclear-cleanup site in Hanford, Wash., a 586-square-mile site contaminated over four decades. 
[in Japan]  the government expanded the cleanup area to a zone with exposure of one millisievert or more—an estimated 4,500 square miles of land……
Radiation Cleanup Confounds Japan, WSJ, By YUMIKO ONO, 1 Nov 11, KORIYAMA,Japan—Nearly eight months after the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear accident scattered radioactive material over surrounding communities, Japan still is struggling to figure out how to clean up the mess, exacerbating fears about health risks and fanning mistrust of the government.

Government guidelines provide scant detail about the $14-billion-plus effort. A new cleanup law doesn’t take effect until January. Cities across Fukushima prefecture are scraping contaminated topsoil off school grounds and parks, but Tokyo hasn’t yet decided where to store the tainted material. Frustrated residents of some towns have planted sunflowers in a fruitless effort to suck radioactive cesium out of the farmland. Continue reading →

November 1, 2011 Posted by | Japan, wastes | 1 Comment

Taiwan presidential candidate promises a nuclear free Taiwan

The DPP presidential candidate, who is on a two-day campaign trip to Hualien and Taitung, also reiterated her initiative to achieve a “nuclear-free homeland” by 2025.

Tsai apologizes for nuclear waste woes, Taipei Times By Chris Wang  /  Staff Reporter, in TAITUNG COUNTY 1 Nov 11 LOCAL SOLUTION:If elected, Tsai pledged to improve infrastructure on Orchid Island and let residents reach their own consensus on how to handle the waste there

Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Chairperson Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday apologized to residents of Orchid Island (蘭嶼) over the government’s “outrageous” decision in 1982 to store nuclear waste on the island, Continue reading →

November 1, 2011 Posted by | politics, Taiwan, wastes | Leave a comment

New nuclear weapons complex makes a mockery of USA’s nuclear disarmament posture

 “The warhead cores of these “plants,”   would be “the successors to the bombs used on Nagasaki. They’d each have a yield that’s 50 times greater than the bomb used there in World War II.”
A Giant New Plutonium Complex at Los Alamos HUFFINGTON POST< Mary-Charlotte Domandi,  10/31/ or, “How to spend $6 billion, create 600 jobs, and prop up the most unproductive sector of the military industrial complex for another generation.”

Despite President Obama’s campaign rhetoric of a world without nuclear weapons, despite the recent catastrophe at Japan’s Fukushima complex, and despite the new START nuclear arms control treaty between the U.S. and Russia last February, it seems the desire among our leaders for nuclear power and nuclear weaponry remains as strong today as it was at the height of the Cold War. What’s just as disturbing, though, is the disregard our government shows for any input from its citizenry — pro or con. Continue reading →

November 1, 2011 Posted by | - plutonium, Reference, USA, weapons and war | 1 Comment

The danger of dismantling nuclear submarines in a city

It is the magnitude of the consequences of a nuclear accident that make it unacceptable to locate such a facility in the middle of a city of 250,000 people….

 Devonport is not immune from accidents. There have been nine radioactive leaks since 1997.   The impact of a significant accident in the dockyard would be devastating. It would not remain confined behind its walls but would affect a much wider area.

Should N-subs be dismantled in city? Plymouth Herald, October 28, 2011 ONE of the most controversial proposals to affect Plymouth in generations is set to be thrust firmly into the public domain from today.

The Ministry of Defence has today begun a 16-week consultation exercise exploring the options for dismantling decommissioned nuclear-powered submarines. The consultation aims to find a permanent home for The Submarine Dismantling Project (SDP) – either in Plymouth, or Scotland. Continue reading →

October 29, 2011 Posted by | decommission reactor, safety, UK, weapons and war | Leave a comment

Dealing with wrecked Fukushima nuclear reactors will take decades

Three decades needed to make Fukushima safe, ABC News, By North Asia correspondent, October 28, 2011  30 years to decommission: Inside the Fukushima nuclear plant A draft report by Japan’s nuclear agency says it will take more than 30 years to decommission the shattered Fukushima nuclear plant.

Authorities hope to have the stricken reactors in a state of cold shutdown by the end of the year. The draft report from the cabinet’s nuclear agency estimates that reactors number one through to four at the Fukushima plant will not be fully decommissioned until 2042.

As well as achieving cold shutdown of the reactors, each reactor building has to be decontaminated, and then fuel from the spent fuel pools has to be collected.

The final stage involves collecting nuclear fuel from inside the four reactors. Reactors one, two and three all suffered meltdowns after a tsunami slammed into the plant in March… http://www.abc.net.au/news/2011-10-28/fukushima-nuclear-decommission/3605094/?site=melbourne

October 28, 2011 Posted by | decommission reactor, Japan | Leave a comment

USA’s MOX plutonium nuclear fuel plant a costly, dangerous, flop

“The government would be crazy to consider building another MOX plant. MOX cannot be recycled.”….
No scientist in the United States is studying how to safely store MOX fuel.

The Bomb Plant: A MOX White Elephant?, DC Bureau By , on October 20th, 2011  The National Nuclear Security Administration may have a $10 billion taxpayer-financed white elephant on its hands based on Britain’s experience with a similar plant that has been shuttered after a decade of failed operations. Continue reading →

October 23, 2011 Posted by | - plutonium, Reference, reprocessing | 2 Comments

International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) worried about Japan’s radioactive cleanup problems

the report noted that a lack of available disposal sites for radioactive waste will “unduly limit and hamper successful remediation activities, thus potentially jeopardizing public health and safety.”

Nuclear Agency Urges Japan to Fix Cleanup Plan, WSJ , 15 Oct 11, By MITSURU OBE,  TOKYO—The International Atomic Energy Agency, in a report released Friday, urged Japan to take a more focused and realistic approach to dealing with radioactive contamination in areas around the stricken Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant in northeastern Japan, amid signs the Japanese government is becoming overwhelmed by public demands for decontamination. Continue reading →

October 15, 2011 Posted by | Japan, wastes | Leave a comment

UK Royal Society calls for a plan for long term disposal of nuclear wastes

Group wants long-term nuclear plans, Belfast Telegraph 13 Oct 11, The Government must establish long-term plans for a new generation of nuclear power plants so future generations are not left dealing with its legacy, experts have urged. Continue reading →

October 13, 2011 Posted by | UK, wastes | Leave a comment

DOE can’t manage cold war’s nuclear wastes (let alone today’s)

“Many of the excess facilities awaiting deactivation and decommissioning are one-of-a-kind or unique to the DOE, with unprecedented scope and complexity,” said the authors. “In many cases, the necessary technologies are not yet developed or, if developed, they require significant re-engineering to fit DOE needs.”

Cold War’s nuclear wastes pose challenges to science, engineering, society Eureka Alert 13 Oct 11 Seven papers published in the current issue of Technology and Innovation, Proceedings of the National Academy of Inventors ™ report on efforts by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) to ensure continued safe and secure storage and disposition of 50 years worth of spent nuclear fuel, surplus nuclear materials, and high-level wastes at DOE facilities. Continue reading →

October 13, 2011 Posted by | USA, wastes | Leave a comment

Row in Finland over insufficient storage space for nuclear wastes

Dispute over disposal of nuclear waste brewing between power companies,

 Pyhäjoki waste would not all fit in Olkiluoto, HELSINGIN SANOMAT, 7 Oct 11,  Disagreement over the final storage of nuclear waste flared up soon after the power company Fennovoima announced on Wednesday that it had decided to build a new nuclear facility in Pyhäjoki on Finland’s west coast. Continue reading →

October 8, 2011 Posted by | Finland, wastes | Leave a comment

Ukraine’s new nuclear waste storage facility

Ukraine begins construction of new nuclear waste storage, Google News, 6 Oct 11 KIEV — Ukraine launched construction of a new facility Wednesday to stockpile industrial nuclear waste in the contaminated zone around its Chernobyl plant, site of the worst nuclear accident of the last 25 years. Continue reading →

October 6, 2011 Posted by | Ukraine, wastes | Leave a comment

Where to put 23 Tokyo Domes-full of radioactive waste? wonders Japan

Radioactive soil can fill 23 Tokyo Domes, Five prefectures’ nuclear burden a hot potato no one wants to catch, Japan Times By SETSUKO KAMIYA 29 Sept 11 Radioactive soil and vegetation that must be removed in Fukushima and four adjacent prefectures could reach up to 28.79 million cu. meters, equal to filling the Tokyo Dome 23 times, according to a recent Environment Ministry estimate.

But finding a disposal or temporary storage site will be a tall order. The estimate covers soil and dead leaves mainly from areas with radiation levels of more than 5 millisieverts per year in the prefectures of Fukushima, Miyagi, Yamagata, Tochigi and Ibaraki, whose data were used to mete out the rough figures.

In Fukushima, home of the nuclear plant leaking all the radiation, about 17.5 percent of the prefecture is contaminated to that level. The estimate was submitted Tuesday to a 12-member expert panel working out decontamination plans. The panel assumed that 5 cm of topsoil should be removed from contaminated areas, including pinpoint decontamination efforts in certain locations with radiation of 1 to 5 millisieverts per year.

The government is hammering out details on plans to remove and store the soil and leaves. But finding a location to temporarily store such a huge amount of radioactive materials will be an extremely sensitive and politically difficult task for the central government.

Breaking down the total, contaminated soil from residential areas was estimated at 1.02 million cu. meters, farm land at 17.43 million cu. meters and forests at 8.76 million cu. meters, the Environment Ministry said.

A single facility capable of housing the entire 28.79 million cu. meters of soil would have to be 1 sq. km in area and 30 meters deep. But if the central government decides on multiple facilities, negotiations would have to be completed with numerous local governments. The location for a temporary facility is still undecided, but the government is reportedly considering Fukushima Prefecture….. http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nn20110929a3.html

October 4, 2011 Posted by | Japan, wastes | Leave a comment

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