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Getting rid of Fukushima’s nuclear reactors a tortuous and dangerous task

Tepco also needs to find ways to prevent any new nuclear reaction, which could happen if the fuel is not adequately cooled during the entire process…

Japan Atomic Energy Body Sees Technical Hurdles Ahead, WSJ, By MITSURU OBE, 14 Sept 11, TOKYO—Japan’s efforts to safely dismantle the stricken Fukushima Daiichi nuclear complex is expected to be fraught with technical challenges and take more than a decade to complete, the government’s Atomic Energy Commission said Wednesday.

Removing the fuel from the spent-fuel pools and the reactors is vital to ensuring there will be no radiation leakage from the quake-ravaged facility. Experts fear that their structures might have been weakened by the heat and radiation from the damaged fuel and the large amount of seawater that was poured into them as an emergency measure to cool down the fuel. Continue reading →

September 15, 2011 Posted by | decommission reactor, Japan | Leave a comment

The expensive 30 year process of decommissioning Fukushima’s nuclear plant

Experts split on how to decommission Fukushima nuclear plant, Mainichi Daily News,  Japan) August 28, 2011 What is actually going to take place at the Fukushima No. 1 Nuclear Power Plant, where word is that the four reactors that were crippled in the Great East Japan Earthquake and tsunami will eventually be decommissioned?…

 Around the world, only around 15 nuclear reactors have thus far been dismantled. Continue reading →

August 30, 2011 Posted by | decommission reactor, Japan | Leave a comment

15 years later -work still continuing on getting rid of nuclear reactor

Visitors allowed into the decontamination workshop at Lubmin must wear radioactivity detectors and change into special protective clothing.

Working from inside containers, equipped with portholes, employees use high-pressure water, abrasive dust jets and acid baths to decontaminate the rooms one at a time.

“Don’t think radioactivity just disappears. It stays there as ground dust which has to be disposed of,” says Uwe Kopp, in charge of one of the workshops…..

Contaminated material from the plant is held in dozen of containers and barrels, awaiting a final government decision on a site for long-term storage.

Getting rid of a German nuclear plant, one rivet at a time, Google News By Aurelia End (AFP) –8 Aug 11,  LUBMIN, Germany — In Germany, where all nuclear power reactors are to close by 2022, clean-up work at one such plant still continues after 15 years, a sign of how long a real end to the atomic age here will take. Continue reading →

August 9, 2011 Posted by | decommission reactor, Germany | Leave a comment

Mismanagement in nuclear decommissioning industry

IG reports question management of contractors at nuclear sites, I Watch News, By Corbin Hiar, 21 July 11, The Center for Public Integrity   Serious contractor-related problems at facilities that handle nuclear material have been disclosed by two new audits.

The most serious issues were raised in a report by the Department of Energy’s inspector general on the decontamination and decommissioning of K-25 , a massive World War II-era nuclear enrichment facility that is a part of the East Tennessee Technical Park (ETTP) in Oak Ridge, Tenn. Continue reading →

July 21, 2011 Posted by | decommission reactor, USA | Leave a comment

Nuclear reactor shut down takes 10 years, and wastes remain

Ill. congressmen worried over nuclear waste, ABC 7 News, Michelle Gallardo April23, 2011 (ZION, Ill.) (WLS) — U.S. Sen. Mark Kirk and some Republican congressmen toured the Zion nuclear power plant Saturday — it is shut down and slowly being dismantled. The big concern there revolves around what’s being done with more than 1,000 tons of radioactive waste.

It will take 10 years before the now-shuttered Zion nuclear power plant is completely decommissioned. By the time all is said and done, all that will remain of the 38-year-old plant is a 10-acre lot where the reactor’s spent fuel rods will be stored…..http://abclocal.go.com/wls/story?section=news/local&id=8090578

April 24, 2011 Posted by | decommission reactor, USA | Leave a comment

Huge and unprecedented problems in Fukushima nuclear cleanup

The scale and complexity of the challenge is unprecedented. No nuclear reactor has ever been fully decommissioned in Japan, let alone the four certain to be dismantled at Fukushima

Nuclear Cleanup Plans Hinge on Unknowns, NYTimes.com, By HIROKO TABUCHI  April 14, 2011 “…..he widely divergent outlooks underscore the basic uncertainties clouding any forecast for Fukushima: when cooling stems will be restored and radiation emission halted; how soon workers can access some parts of the plant; and how bad the damage to the reactors, their fuel, and nearby stored fuel turns out to be. Continue reading →

April 15, 2011 Posted by | - Fukushima 2011, decommission reactor, Japan | Leave a comment

The taxpayers’ bill for nuclear wastes continues to rise

Regional plants have a bleak history of underestimating plant decommissioning costs by hundreds of millions, sometimes loading those unanticipated costs onto taxpayers and ratepayers far into the future……

“If a nuclear renaissance were to take place — if it were not just a figment or wishful thinking — we would need another Yucca Mountain every few years,”….”Independent analysis suggests that new nuclear power is more expensive than nearly every other energy source, including solar, wind, biomass and geothermal energy,” …… “Given that reality, I cannot understand why we would continue to pour massive taxpayer subsidies into nuclear power.”.

Taxpayers, utility ratepayers face mounting nuclear bills, Maggie Mulvihill, Shay Totten and Matt Porter, New England Center for Investigative Reporting,   April 2, 2011Over three decades, New England’s electricity consumers and nuclear plant owners have poured close to $1 billion into a federal nuclear-waste storage fund, holding up their end of a 1982 deal with the federal government to finance the permanent storage of thousands of tons of spent fuel from the region’s reactors. Continue reading →

April 4, 2011 Posted by | decommission reactor, USA | Leave a comment

Even an undamaged nuclear reactor takes decades to decommission

Experts: Scrapping Fukushima plant could take decades, asahi.com（朝日新聞社）2 April 11, “…..Even an undamaged nuclear reactor takes decades to decommission. After the fuel rods are removed, all of the pipes to the core have to be sealed. The inactive reactor then has to be kept airtight for five to 10 years, allowing radiation levels within the core to fall. The core is then dismantled and removed. Finally, the building that houses the core is taken down. In order to stop radiation from leaking into the atmosphere, more contaminated parts of the building have to be removed before parts with low levels of radiation….”asahi.com（朝日新聞社）：Experts: Scrapping Fukushima plant could take decades – English

April 2, 2011 Posted by | 2 WORLD, decommission reactor | Leave a comment

How to deal with dead nuclear reactors?


“The need for national and international mechanisms for early planning, adequate funding and long-term strategies applies not only to decommissioning, but also to radioactive waste management and spent fuel management.”

Closing old atom plants poses safety challenge: IAEA By Fredrik DahlMar 24, 2011  VIENNA (Reuters) – The closing of aging nuclear reactors is expected to peak in 2020-30, posing a major challenge in terms of safety and the environment, a draft U.N. atomic agency report says. Continue reading →

March 26, 2011 Posted by | 2 WORLD, decommission reactor | Leave a comment

Don’t let Entergy off the hook on nuclear waste cleanup

SAFSTOR “would let Entergy off the hook” for cleanup and waste disposal for years or even decades, wrote the delegation.

“While Entergy may prefer leaving the plant to sit like an abandoned factory because it has not saved the necessary funds to fully decommission the plant, this is not the safest option for Vermonters,” Leahy, Sanders and Welch wrote..

Leahy, Sanders, Welch say no to SAFSTOR, Brattleboro Reformer By BOB AUDETTE / Reformer Staff March 2, 2011 BRATTLEBORO — Vermont’s congressional delegation is urging the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to ensure it will force Entergy to clean up the site of Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant as soon as it closes down. Continue reading →

March 3, 2011 Posted by | decommission reactor, USA, wastes | Leave a comment

UK’s plan for new nuclear plants add to danger of Sellafield radioactive waste problem

Experts in the field say the ongoing problems at Sellafield are worrying, especially in light of the possibility of waste that will be created from new-build nuclear…The consultation process on how to deal with nuclear waste and new nuclear plants across the country has been clearly lacking,

Sellafield is where we house the toxic legacy of our failed nuclear industry’ Industry experts say the government must deal with legacy waste before committing to new nuclear in the UK Nidhi Prakash,   27 January 2011,   guardian.co.uk There are many uncertainties about the renaissance of nuclear power in the UK, particularly surrounding the level of public subsidy, but one thing remains constant: the industry’s waste problem hasn’t gone away. Continue reading →

January 28, 2011 Posted by | decommission reactor, UK, wastes | Leave a comment

Costly new attempt to make Chernobyl nuclear reactor safer

New shelter over Chernobyl nuclear reactor to be built in 2015, ITAR-TASS,  KIEV, December 13 — A new shelter over the fourth power unit of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant will be commissioned in 2015, Ukrainian Minister of Emergency Situations Viktor Baloga said during a visit to the Chernobyl nuclear power plant with Administrator of the U.N. Development Programme Helen Clark on Sunday……Under the project a new arch-shaped shelter 108 meters high and 150 meters long will be built over the current sarcophagus. The facility will be equipped with modern radiation security control systems. The new Chernobyl shelter will have 100 years of service life… ITAR-TASS

December 14, 2010 Posted by | decommission reactor, Ukraine | Leave a comment

Cleanup of nuclear plant will be delayed, and full cost unknown

according to its decommissioning plan, the company said it would wait as many as 60 years to dismantle the plant ……Exelon has collected more than $651 million to pay for the cleanup of radioactive material. This does not include the cost to dismantle the plant’s hulking superstructure surrounding the reactor…….

Oyster Creek nuclear cleanup plan could take 60 years – pressofAtlanticCity.com, By MICHAEL MILLER, 9 Dec 10, LACEY TOWNSHIP – The Oyster Creek nuclear plant will be around long after it closes in 2019, judging by papers its owner filed with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Continue reading →

December 10, 2010 Posted by | decommission reactor, USA | Leave a comment

Possibly, a partial solution to unsolved problem of dead nuclear reactors

EnergySolutions cannot dispose of all the waste. Clive is licensed only for the least contaminated material. And the spent nuclear fuel is in the same situation as used reactor fuel all over the country: the Energy Department is under contract to take it, but has no place to dispose of it. Until a permanent repository is built at the proposed Yucca Mountain facility in Nevada or another location, the waste will stay at the Zion site in steel and concrete casks designed to last for decades.

Nuclear Plant Finds Novel Way to Decommission, NYTimes.com, By MATTHEW L. WALD: November 22, 2010 ZION, Ill. — Twelve years ago, Commonwealth Edison found itself in a bind. The Zion Station, its twin-unit nuclear reactor here, was no longer profitable. But the company could not afford to tear it down: the cost of dismantling the vast steel and concrete building, with multiple areas of radioactive contamination, would exceed $1 billion, double what it had cost to build the reactors in the 1970s. Nor could Commonwealth Edison walk away from the plant, because of the contamination. Continue reading →

November 23, 2010 Posted by | decommission reactor, USA | , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Vermont nuclear reactor ready to be dead and buried

“Vermonters no longer trust that Vermont Yankee can operate safely, without accident or radioactive releases to the groundwater,” ……“Entergy needs to stop putting their profits ahead of the safety of New Englanders, and shut down Vermont Yankee as scheduled.”

Nuclear Reactor in Vermont Needs to be Shut Down, Greenpeace on the Case – Planetsave.com 16 Nov 10, An old nuclear reactor in Vermont, the Vermont Yankee Nuclear Power Station, has had a number of problems lately and Greenpeace has taken notice. “ The 38-year-old reactor has a history of contamination issues, including a recent leak of radioactive water,” Becky Striepe of our sister site Ecoscraps writes. Continue reading →

November 17, 2010 Posted by | decommission reactor, USA | , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

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