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China’s nuclear plants face safety challenges (Is near enough good enough?)

flag-ChinaChina’s nuclear power plants “generally safe”: watchdog
Xinhua)    20:34, June 04, 2014 BEIJING, June 4

China’s operating nuclear power units enjoy a relatively good safety record, and the quality of the units under construction has been well controlled, said the head of China’s nuclear watchdog on Wednesday…

.. However, Li said maintaining safety in this area is a challenging task,
as it concerns state security. He admitted that loopholes and problems, both in supervision and the whole nuclear industry, still exist.

The vice minister vowed to strengthen supervision with a well-established institution, a perfected legal system, as well as more capable personnel.
 http://english.peopledaily.com.cn/n/2014/0604/c90882-8736930.html

June 6, 2014 Posted by | China, safety | Leave a comment

Fukushima: High radioactivity stops workers from fixing dangerous structure

exclamation-flag-japanJapanese Journalist: Workers “very worried” about deformed 400 ft. structure falling on Fukushima reactor buildings and causing another crisis — Immediate repairs needed yet “can’t do anything” due to extreme radiation levels — Staff told to “constantly watch it” — One of site’s most dangerous places http://enenews.com/japan-journalist-workers-very-worried-about-deformed-400-ft-structure-falling-on-fukushima-reactor-buildings-needs-immediate-repair-yet-they-cant-do-anything-about-it-due-to-extr?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+ENENews+%28Energy+News%29 3 May 14

Fukushima VoiceMay 28, 2014: Mako Oshidori in Düsseldorf “The Hidden Truth about Fukushima” […] The lecture, given in Japanese [on March 8, 2014] and translated into English.

Moderator: My name is Mariko. Welcome to a lecture by Mako Oshidori. […] A huge earthquake, followed by tsunami and the nuclear accident, has become an unprecedented disaster for the Japanese as well as the rest of the world. Moreover, this accident is not only out of control but continues to be in critical state. […]
Mako Oshidori: I am actually a journalist with the highest attendance rate at the TEPCO press conference. […] in 2013 when the Japanese central government decided to begin to restart nuclear power plants, the government placed a watch on me […] a piece of paper was distributed with a list of names […] such as the former prime minister Naoto Kan […] A researcher who was given the list and told not to approach anybody on it was friendly with me and told me the list included my name. Soon after that a mysterious man began to follow me. […]

Fukushima-deformed--structu

Deformed ‘Stack’ Near Units 1 & 2

  • Oshidori: I would like to talk about the current status of Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant. This is a chimney called a “stack” […] one of the places that I consider the most dangerous. It is 120 m tall. In December 2013, it was discovered the highest radiation level, 25 Sv/h, at the bottom of the stack. […] humans cannot go near it. The problem gets worse. TEPCO discovered deformities on 4 sides at 60 of the 120 meter height […] Some are totally severed. Ordinarily, this should be immediately repaired, but the bottom of the stack is 25 Sv/h […] they can’t do anything about it. What TEPCO is doing about this is they have appointed workers to constantly watch it. […] Workers on site are very worried about whether it would fall onto the reactor buildings. If it ever fell on Unit 1 or 2, all the workers would have to evacuate […] and it could lead to a severe accident necessitating evacuation […]

See also: Japanese Journalist: Fukushima workers die suddenly but it’s not reported, says nurse at plant — Gov’t agents following me for surveillance (VIDEO)

June 5, 2014 Posted by | Fukushima 2014 | Leave a comment

Two Pakistani Nuclear military offices murdered

murder-12 Linked to Pakistan nuclear program killed in attack  Fox News June 04, 2014 A suicide attacker killed two military officers linked to Pakistan’s nuclear program, along with three civilians, near the Kamra air base, not far from this capital, police told Efe.

The incident occurred in the Fateh Jang area about 10 a.m. when a vehicle belonging to the Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission was boarded by the suicide bomber, who was on foot, after which he detonated the explosives attached to his body…….http://latino.foxnews.com/latino/news/2014/06/04/2-linked-to-pakistan-nuclear-program-killed-in-attack/

June 5, 2014 Posted by | incidents, Pakistan | Leave a comment

Another nuclear hazard in Japan – 110 active volcanoes

safety-symbol-Smflag-japan‘Ring of Fire’ volcano risk the last obstacle for Japan nuclear plants BY MARI SAITO AND KENTARO HAMADA TOKYO Tue Jun 3, 2014 (Reuters) – In the three years since the Fukushima disaster, Japan’s utilities have pledged $15 billion to harden their nuclear plants against earthquakes, tsunamis, tornadoes and terrorist attacks.

But as Japan’s nuclear safety regulator prepares to rule on whether the first of the country’s 48 idled reactors is ready to be come back online, the post-Fukushima debate about how safe is safe enough has turned to a final risk: volcanoes.

The Nuclear Regulation Authority (NRA) has already said the chance of volcanic activity during the lifespan of Kyushu Electric Power’s nuclear plant at Sendai was negligible, suggesting it will give it the green light. The plant, some 1,000 km (600 miles) south of Tokyo, lies in a region of active volcanic sites.

Critics, including some scientists who were consulted by the NRA, say that shows regulators are turning a blind eye to the kind of unlikely but potentially devastating chain of events that pushed the Fukushima Daiichi plant into a triple meltdown in 2011 when a tsunami crashed into the facility.

The debate has played out in several months of public hearings in Tokyo by the NRA and could weigh on the last hurdle for restarting nuclear plants – the opinion of local residents – at a time when the costs of keeping reactors shut are mounting……..

Critics say the NRA safety review overestimates the power of science to predict future volcanic eruptions.

Japan lies on the “Ring of Fire”, a horseshoe-shaped band of fault lines and volcanoes circling the edges of the Pacific Ocean. Japan itself is home to 110 active volcanoes.

Sendai, at the southern end of the island of Kyushu, is 50 km (31 miles) from Sakurajima, an active volcano. Five giant calderas, crater-like depressions formed by past eruptions, are also in the region, the closest one just 40 km (25 miles) from the Sendai plant.

“No-one believes that volcanic risks have been adequately discussed,” said Setsuya Nakada, a professor of volcanology at the University of Tokyo, who advised officials when they were forming regulatory guidelines for monitoring volcanoes……..

As soon as the NRA clears the Sendai nuclear plant for restart, local townships closest to the facility will hold public hearings. The government has said it will defer to the prefecture and the host city to make the final decision. http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/06/04/us-japan-nuclear-volcano-idUSKBN0EE2BF20140604

June 5, 2014 Posted by | Japan, safety | Leave a comment

India on the road to a renewable energy revolution?

India’s energy future: Australian coal or renewable revolution? The Conversation,  Craig Froome Global Change Institute – Clean Energy Program Manager at University of Queensland “…….…Renewable revolution?

India’s renewable energy ambitions are driven both by the need to reduce carbon emissions and by falling renewableenergy prices (relative to increasing coal prices).

Currently India has four renewable energy schemes. They are:

  • Renewable Mix Target (Electricity)
  • Renewable Capacity Target
  • Renewable Portfolio Standard (PAT Scheme)
  • Jawaharlal Nehru National Solar Mission

The Renewable Mix Target sets a target of 15% of India’s total electricity generation by 2020. This target ignores large-scale hydroelectricity, but with renewable energy generation currently at 12% India is in a good starting position.

The Renewable Capacity Target is a target for installed capacity. Set in 2012, it aims for 41.3 gigawatts of installed renewable capacity by 2017, increasing to 72.4 gigawatts by 2022. As of March 31 India has 29.5 gigawatts installed capacity. The capacity target also sets ambitions for individual technologies 4 to 20 gigawatts of solar capacity, and 20.2 gigawatts to 27.3 gigawatts of wind energy by 2017 and 2022. Solar and wind currently stand at 2.2 and 20.2 gigawatts respectively.

The portfolio standard is a cap-and-trade scheme, due to end in 2015. Current estimates suggest the scheme has had the desired effect, and rules for continuing the scheme are being considered.

Finally, the solar mission is a solar-specific program to increase grid-based generation to 20 gigawatts by 2020, funded by a national feed-in tariff. More than 80 solar manufacturers are now establishing in India in anticipation for the roll out……..http://theconversation.com/indias-energy-future-australian-coal-or-renewable-revolution-26569

June 5, 2014 Posted by | India, renewable | Leave a comment

Record levels of strontium on basements of Fukushima nuclear reactors

Strontium reaches 500 Billion Bq/m³ in basements at Fukushima — Record levels reported at 5 locations near ocean — U.S. Senior Scientist: “We see strontium becoming more of concern… food chain will have to be studied more carefully” http://enenews.com/strontium-reaches-500-billion-bqm3-in-basements-at-fukushima-record-levels-reported-at-5-locations-near-ocean-u-s-expert-we-see-strontium-becoming-more-of-concern-food-chain-will-have-to?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+ENENews+%28Energy+News%29

diagram-Strontium-90

JIJI PRESS,May 29, 2014: [TEPCO] said Thursday that it plans to improve a cesium adsorption system […] to enable it to remove strontium. The move is aimed at reducing risks when radioactive water leaks from storage tanks […] TEPCO plans to begin test operation of the improved SARRY system at the end of August. Highly radioactive water [is] accumulating in the basements of the No.1 to No. 4 reactor buildings [with] strontium levels standing at 40 million to 500 million becquerels per liter [500 billion becquerels per metric ton (Bq/m³)].

Tepco, Detailed Analysis Results in the Port of Fukushima Daiichi NPS, around Discharge Channel and Bank Protection — Underground Water Obtained at Bank Protection (pdf):

Results Published May 28, 2014 (Bq/liter):KUSPMay 30, 2014: [Ken Buesseler, Senior scientists at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution] doesn’t worry about cesium-containing fish swimming across the ocean and appearing in other fisheries. The situation is different for strontium-90 […] Strontium behaves like calcium, and it can replace calcium in your bones. “Instead of [cesium’s] 50 days, think of more like 500 days, a couple of years, before it would be released back through natural processes,” he says. […] In the ocean near the power plant, levels of strontium-90 have grown since the accident. But Buesseler says he hasn’t seen alarming numbers for strontium in fish yet. “Down the road, as we see strontium becoming more of concern, that isotope in the food chain will have to be studied more carefully,” he says. Buesseler hopes to monitor strontium levels in the ocean and seafloor near Japan in the future. Should that strontium move across the Pacific Ocean, it will take three years for it to reach the West Coast of the United States.

Full KUSP broadcast here

June 4, 2014 Posted by | Fukushima 2014 | Leave a comment

At Fukushima nuclear emergency, safety inspectors were the first to flee

Fukushima-aerial-viewNuclear safety inspectors first to flee stricken Fukushima plant June 03, 2014 Asahi Shimbun, By SHINICHI SEKINE/ Staff Writer Safety inspectors with the government’s nuclear watchdog body were the first to flee when disaster struck the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant in March 2011.

The exodus of Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency (NISA) officials compromised communications between the government and plant operator Tokyo Electric Power Co. at a critical juncture.

This unexpected turn of events shows that the government itself was not sure what role it should play in the nuclear crisis.

The plant manager, Masao Yoshida, who died last year of esophageal cancer, was questioned by the government’s Investigation Committee on the Accident at the Fukushima Nuclear Power Stations several months after the accident. The Asahi Shimbun obtained a copy of his testimony.

According to his testimony, on March 15, 2011, four days after the Fukushima plant was hit by the magnitude-9.0 Great East Japan Earthquake and tsunami, 90 percent of the workers in the plant withdrew to the Fukushima No. 2 nuclear power plant some 10 kilometers away, ignoring Yoshida’s order to remain in and around the compound of the No. 1 facility.

Before that, however, NISA inspectors fled the site immediately after the accident even though they should have stayed to assess what steps were needed to deal with the accident. They went to makeshift government headquarters set up about five kilometers from the No. 1 plant.

On March 15, the makeshift facility was transferred to Fukushima city, some 50 kilometers away. With all government safety inspectors absent from the No. 1 nuclear power plant, the government had no direct means to grasp what was happening there. As a result, it was forced to depend entirely on TEPCO for information.

But channels of communication between the government and TEPCO did not go smoothly. This chaotic situation prompted the prime minister, Naoto Kan, to go to TEPCO’s head office in Tokyo. That was the catalyst for the government and TEPCO to jointly set up headquarters in Tokyo, 230 kilometers away, to deal with the nuclear accident.

The government’s investigation committee’s reports based on Yoshida’s recall of the events highlight the withdrawal of the No. 1 plant’s workers to the No. 2 plant even though the government’s safety inspectors were the first to flee……..http://ajw.asahi.com/article/0311disaster/fukushima/AJ201406030026

June 4, 2014 Posted by | - Fukushima 2011, Fukushima continuing | 1 Comment

Amid serious doubts, the Fukushima ice wall construction starts

ice-wall-FukushimaJapan builds underground ice wall at Fukushima nuclear plant http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-06-02/japan-builds-fukushima-underground-ice-wall/5495358  Japan has started work on an underground ice wall at the crippled Fukushima nuclear plant, freezing the soil under broken reactors to slow the build-up of radioactive water. The wall is intended to block groundwater from nearby hillsides that has been flowing under the plant and mixing with polluted water already there.

The Nuclear Regulation Authority, the national watchdog, last week authorised construction of the ice wall at Fukushima Daiichi, owned and operated by Tokyo Electric Power (TEPCO).

“We started construction of the frozen earth wall this afternoon,” a TEPCO official told a news conference in Tokyo on Monday.

The government-funded scheme will see 1,550 pipes laid deep in the soil through which refrigerant will be piped to create the 1.5-kilometre frozen wall that will stem the inflow of groundwater.

“We plan to end all the construction work in March 2015 before starting trial operations,” the company official said, adding that the ice wall could be fully operational several months after construction was completed.

The ice wall is the latest in a series of clean-up operations being carried out after the worst nuclear disaster in a generation, in which three reactors went into meltdown.

The idea of freezing a section of soil, which was proposed for Fukushima last year, has previously been used to build tunnels near watercourses.

However, scientists point out that it has not been done on this scale before nor for the proposed length of time.

Coping with the huge – and growing – amount of water at the tsunami-damaged plant is proving to be one of the biggest challenges for TEPCO.

As well as all the water used to keep broken reactors cool, the utility must also deal with water that makes its way along subterranean watercourses from mountainsides to the sea. Last month TEPCO began a bypass system that diverts groundwater into the sea to try to reduce the volume of contaminated water.

Full decommissioning of the plant at Fukushima is expected to take several decades.

An area around the site remains out of bounds, and experts warn that some settlements may have to be abandoned because of high levels of radiation following the March 2011 accident.

June 3, 2014 Posted by | Fukushima 2014 | Leave a comment

A cry for help on behalf of Fukushima’s children subjected to radiation

Official in Fukushima: “Please Please HELP US!” — Hot particles of melted fuel are inhaled by children everyday — We are forced to have it in our bodies — “Please let all people in the world know the life we are living” http://enenews.com/official-in-fukushima-please-please-help-us-hot-particles-of-melted-fuel-are-inhaled-by-children-everyday-we-are-forced-to-have-it-in-our-bodies-please-let-all-people-in-the-world-kno?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+ENENews+%28Energy+News%29

Excerpts from Oyama Koichi of the Minamisoma City Council, May 13, 2014 — Translation byDissensus Japan, May 25, 2014:

  • I want to shout for all the people in this world: “Please Please HELP US!”
  • The cause substance have been found. This is an aggregate of radionuclides which starts with Uranium [in] a nuclear reactor at more than 5000°C.
  • This mixed metal contains four different substances, α・β・γ and also have the possibility to radiate neutron ray.
  • No creature on earth never knew this substance.
  • We are forced to have those strong substances inside our body without knowing where it exactly stays.
  • To say that “Cesium has got the same system as potassium and it will be discharged from the body” is just a lie! […]
  • We are all manipulated by the words “radiation” and “radiation doze” without knowing the real identity of radiation source. We are not told the real facts of being irradiated […]
  • They only compare radiation doze and natural potassium contained in bananas and manipulated people as if it was a scientific study. I really want the scholars patronized by the government to be punished by the rancorous of all children on this earth. […]
  • The informations say that hot particles were diffused and flied in all directions in Japan. The particles from hell is flying in the air and people don’t protect themselves anymore three years after the nuclear accident and children are aspirating those horrible particles everyday!!!
  • PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE HELP US!  Please let all people in the world to know the life we are living since the accident, everyday and today.

June 2, 2014 Posted by | Fukushima 2014 | Leave a comment

Fukushima radiation has caused genetic deformities in generations of butterflies

Japan Scientist: We gave butterflies food from Fukushima… then, they died; Deformities get worse with each generation — TV: “Truly horrifying… it doesn’t really even look like a butterfly anymore” (PHOTOS & VIDEO) http://enenews.com/japan-scientist-butterflies-fed-leaves-fukushima-died-deformities-worse-generation-tv-doesnt-look-like-butterfly-anymore-especially-scary-photos-video?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+ENENews+%28Energy+News%29

Vice on HBO, Season 2 Episode 10, May 24, 2014 (at 5:30 in):

  • Dr. Joji Otaki, lead researcher, University of Ryukyus: We collected houseplant leaves from Fukushima, and those leaves are given to [butterfly] larvae collected from Okinawa… Those larvae aresupposed to be healthy. But they ate contaminated food from Fukushima. Then we see what happens.
  • Vikram Ghandi, Vice: What happened?
  • Otaki: They died.
  • Ghandi: Dr. Otaki’s experiments have shown the truly horrifying effects contaminated food can have on living organisms.
  • Otaki: You can see wrinkled wings.
  • Ghandi: It doesn’t really even look like a butterfly anymore.
  • Otaki: We found that mortality rate and abnormality rate of the 2nd generation is much higher — even worse in the 3rd generation.
  • Ghandi: The evidence contaminated food has increasingly worse effects over the course of generations is especially scary since one of Fukushima’s primary industries is agriculture.
  • Kazuya Tarukawa, farmer in Sukagawa 50 miles from Fukushima Daiichi: We had been growing produce that measured 3,000 [Bq/kg] without even knowing it. Selling such produce to the markets made me feel severely guilty.
  • Ghandi: His father was consumed with guilt.
  • Tarukawa: He hung himself from the tree.

May 31, 2014 Posted by | environment, Fukushima 2014, Japan | Leave a comment

Every day over 75 tons of highly radioactive liquid leaking at Fukushima

Official: Breach at Fukushima reactor blamed on saltwater corrosion — Over 75 tons of highly radioactive liquid flowing out everyday (PHOTOS & VIDEO) http://enenews.com/official-breach-at-fukushima-reactor-blamed-on-saltwater-corrosion-over-75-tons-of-highly-radioactive-liquid-flowing-out-everyday-photos-video?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+ENENews+%28Energy+News%29

Kyodo News
, May 28, 2014: [Tepco] has identified the location of a leak at the bottom of the container in the No. 1 reactor […] water was leaking from a joint in a pipe […] The metal bellow joint is likely to have been corroded [“destruction of materials from chemical reaction“] by seawater [the Tepco official said.] The official denied the possibility that the leakage was caused because the earthquake damaged equipment. He said the company will continue to investigate if there are other areas of leakage nearby.

Jiji Press, May 28, 2014: Tepco said it had confirmed water was leaking from a pipe in the reactor containment vessel inside the plant’s No. 1 reactor building. The utility used a camera-mounted remote-controlled robot […] water was leaking from the vessel’s bottom near the pipe, at a rate of up to 3.2 tons per hour [76.8 tons/day]. In the No. 1 to No. 3 reactor buildings, highly contaminated water leaking from the vessels has amassed, preventing work to remove nuclear fuel.

NHK,May 27, 2014: The water is leaking from a point on a pipe leading to the containment vessel. An image taken by a robot probe shows a black area on the brown pipe. The leak point is above a donut-shaped unit called a suppression chamber where a robotic investigation detected flows of contaminated water last November. The chamber is in the lower part of the containment vessel. […] A contaminated water leak has also been found in the containment vessel of the Number 3 reactor. Officials say they will now investigate the suppression chamber and other parts of the Number 2 reactor.

Watch footage of the Unit 1 suppression chamber survey published on May 28 here

May 31, 2014 Posted by | Fukushima 2014 | Leave a comment

Japan about to extract the teeth from its Nuclear safety Watchdog?

flag-japanThe government should not be allowed to make the nuclear watchdog toothless by nominating experts who are convenient to it and the industry.

EDITORIAL: Nuclear watchdog must not be made toothless The Asahi Shimbun, May 29 Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has a habit of trying to promote policy changes through political appointments. His administration seems to have employed this political ploy to achieve its goals in the area of nuclear safety inspections.

Abe NUCLEAR FASCISM

This is the only possible way to put proposed replacements for two outgoing commissioners of the Nuclear Regulation Authority (NRA) into perspective. Continue reading

May 30, 2014 Posted by | Japan, politics, safety | Leave a comment

Japan’s Abe govt determined to bring back nuclear, but the impediments are strong

Abe,-Shinzo-nukeAbe and Kepco Push Nuclear Restart The government and nuclear companies maneuver to restart Japan’s reactors, as nearby cities dig in. The Diplomat, By Clint Richards May 29, 2014 As The Diplomat noted last week, Japan’s nuclear energy providers are struggling to remain profitable with all the country’s nuclear reactors currently offline. The government is highly aware of its struggling nuclear power sector, and the threat of another summer where Japan’s energy grid is stretched to the limit, and energy imports soar. With both of these problems in mind, three news items highlight the direction both the government and nuclear companies may take to avoid another summer energy crunch.

 To begin, consider the problem nuclear energy providers are facing. The Kansai Electric Power Co. (Kepco) last week lost a Fukui District Court ruling to restart two reactors at its Oi Nuclear Power Plant in Fukui Prefecture, a ruling that Kepco is currently appealing. On Tuesday, Kepco President Makoto Yagi said, “We’ve appealed the verdict, which means the ruling is not yet confirmed. Our thinking hasn’t changed about restarting the reactors as soon as their safety has been confirmed,” according to the Japan Times.
Yagi gave three conditions upon which the reactors would be restarted. First, the power plant must receive a positive safety inspection from the Nuclear Regulation Authority (NRA). Yagi said permission to restart would also need to be granted by both local and central authorities. Receiving permission from Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s government should be a minor hurdle. However, winning the support of nearby communities will be much more difficult. The mayor of Maizuru, Ryozo Tatami, whose city is within 30 km of the Oi power plant, said, “We need a safety check involving experts selected by Maizuru and Kyoto Prefecture.”

The Fukui District Court ruling would allow people living within 250 km of the plant the right to sue to have the plant closed. According to a separate Japan Times article, “The entire Kansai region, most of Chubu, including Nagoya, much of Chugoku, including Hiroshima, and roughly a third of Shikoku lies within 250 km of the Oi plant.”

Despite strong local opposition, Abe’s government is determined to bring back online as many nuclear reactors as logistically possible. On Wednesday, an NRA official told AFP that Abe’s government wants to replace two of five commissioners serving on the NRA when their terms expire. One of the commissioners Abe reportedly most wants to replace is Kunihiko Shimizu, who has been criticized for saying that at least two reactors sit on active fault lines………

Local governments and their constituencies are determined to keep the tragedy of Fukushima as far from their own doorstep as possible. The inability of Tepco to adequately address the continued problems at the Daiichi power plant only further reinforces the fear of people who live near existing reactors. Despite Abe’s insistence, local populations are likely to keep the number of reactors that come back online much lower than the government wants, at least in the near future, as long as the central government and energy providers give them veto power. http://thediplomat.com/2014/05/abe-and-kepco-push-nuclear-restart/

May 30, 2014 Posted by | Japan, politics | Leave a comment

With new Indian government a slowdown in nuclear power expansion looks likely

flag-indiaNarendra Modi government may go slow on nuclear energy expansion: PwC, The Economic Times,  May 27, 2014, MUMBAI: The new government may put on the back-burner a plan to install 20 gigawatts of nuclear power capacity in the country by 2020 and instead focus on wind and solar to achieve energy security, says PwC……….

Rather than nuclear, the Modi government may focus on increasing wind and solar power capacity, especially when these models worked successfully in Gujarat, Mohapatra said.

The power, coal, and new and renewable energy portfolios in the Modi Cabinet are held by Piyush Goyal, who is from Maharashtra, where BJP ally Shiv Sena was opposing the 9,900 MW Jaitapur nuclear project……..An industry expert from KPMG, who did not want to be identified, said that before the new government takes any decision on nuclear power, it will first have to tackle issues of supply chain, safety and acceptance from locals. http://articles.economictimes.indiatimes.com/2014-05-27/news/50122504_1_energy-security-power-capacity-nuclear-power

May 30, 2014 Posted by | India, politics | Leave a comment

Pro nuclear expert replaces safety conscious seismic expert on Japan’s Nuclear Safety Agency

Abe,-Shinzo-nukePro-nuclear expert replacing NRA commissioner who raised flag on quake risk THE ASAHI SHIMBUN 29 May 14,  http://ajw.asahi.com/article/behind_news/politics/AJ201405280023 Replacements for two outgoing commissioners of the Nuclear Regulation Authority suggest the Abe administration will find it easier to gain approval for restarts of the nation’s nuclear reactors.Few people in government circles and the nuclear industry will be sorry to see Kunihiko Shimazaki go. His successor is expected to more quickly give the green light to reactivate nuclear power plants.

 

Shimazaki, who is 68 and a professor of seismology, proved to be a thorn in the side of electric power companies with his calls for a reassessment of the force with which seismic waves and tsunami could pummel nuclear plants being considered for restarts. Kenzo Oshima, 71, a former undersecretary-general at the United Nations, is also stepping down. Both men are leaving because their terms expire in September.

 

The two newly named NRA commissioners are Satoru Tanaka, 64, a professor of nuclear engineering at the University of Tokyo, and Akira Ishiwatari, 61, a professor of geology at Tohoku University. Their terms are for five years. With Shimazaki out of the picture, the NRA will have to get by without a seismology expert to offer advice.
Tanaka once served as president of the Atomic Energy Society of Japan, and clearly is a proponent of nuclear energy. He has been a professor since 1994 at the University of Tokyo, a respected base of nuclear engineering research in Japan. He has also served on committees related to nuclear energy set up by the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry, a staunch backer of the nuclear industry.
The business sector, notably electric power companies, griped that Shimazaki was hindering efforts to resume operations at nuclear plants idled since the 2011 nuclear disaster in Fukushima Prefecture. An executive with Kyushu Electric Power Co. summed up those sentiments by saying, “Shimazaki made us suffer.” Kyushu Electric had applied for a speedy inspection of its relatively problem-free Sendai nuclear plant in Kagoshima Prefecture in its request to bring the facility back online. Shimazaki was in no mood to acquiesce without making Kyushu Electric put in some hard work. He told the utility to reconsider the maximum force of a quake that could strike the plant. It meant the utility had to take additional safety steps, effectively thwarting the company’s hopes of resuming operations in time for this summer when electricity demand peaks.
With memories of the triple meltdown at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant still fresh, Shimazaki lashed out at electric power companies over their failure to take adequate measures to deal with towering tsunami that could devastate the coast of the Tohoku region. It is feared that in his remaining months as commissioner, Shimazaki will continue calling for higher estimates of expected quakes–which would delay NRA approval of reactor restarts.
On May 14, executives of the Kansai Economic Federation and Kyushu Economic Federation met with Katsuhiko Ikeda, the NRA secretary-general, to request that approval be given to resumed operations at nuclear plants as soon as possible. In government circles, officials had clearly grown weary of the way Shimazaki conducts business. “While tougher inspection standards were called for, Shimazaki kept raising the hurdle for inspections and he never reached a conclusion,” said one high-ranking administration official. At a May 9 meeting of a policy committee within the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, Yasuhisa Shiozaki, the deputy policy chief, openly criticized Shimazaki when he said, “While it is acceptable to have seismologists on the NRA, the same cannot be said for someone who knows absolutely nothing about nuclear energy.”
With Tanaka as a commissioner, expectations are high that NRA approval of reactor restarts will become a formality. As a member of an advisory panel on energy policy when the Democratic Party of Japan held power, Tanaka came out in favor of maintaining the ratio of electricity generated through nuclear energy at about 20 percent. It was also recently learned that three years ago, Tanaka received about 1.6 million yen ($16,000) in research funds and remuneration from a nuclear plant manufacturer and a foundation linked to Tokyo Electric Power Co., operator of the stricken Fukushima plant. Tanaka told The Asahi Shimbun in a 2012 interview that no amount of self-reflection over the Fukushima nuclear accident would be adequate considering the scale of the disaster. At the same time, he said, “Nuclear energy is still a technology that is needed in terms of energy security as well as for its contributions to the industrial sector.”
Hideyuki Ban, a co-director of the anti-nuclear Citizens’ Nuclear Information Center, said, “I have doubts about whether someone who has long been a proponent of nuclear energy can become thoroughly involved in regulation.” He said Tanaka’s appointment could damage trust in the NRA. The other new commissioner, Ishiwatari, has only tepid links to the nuclear industry. Those who have worked with him in the NRA describe him as an able coordinator with a keen sense of the task in hand. Applications have been filed with the NRA to reactivate 18 reactors at 11 nuclear power plants.

May 29, 2014 Posted by | Japan, politics, safety | Leave a comment