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The News That Matters about the Nuclear Industry Fukushima Chernobyl Mayak Three Mile Island Atomic Testing Radiation Isotope

“Waste Confidence Rule” allows nuclear waste keep growing, with no solution!

the NRC also stated that it ‘retains confidence that spent fuel can be safely stored with no significant environmental impact until a repository can reasonably be expected to be available and that the Commission has a target date for the availability of the repository in that circumstance’” 

As a result of its confidence in the safety of spent fuel storage, NRC rules note that “no discussion of any environmental impact of spent fuel storage in reactor facility storage pools or independent spent fuel storage installations for the period following the term of the reactor operating license . . . is required in any environmental report, environmental impact statement, environmental assessment or other analysis prepared in connection with the issuance or amendment of an operating license for a nuclear reactor,” 

Group seeks to have spent fuel a factor in re-licensing Limerick plant The Mercury By Evan Brandt  07/17/12  LIMERICK “…….Spent fuel rods are what remains after the uranium pellets inside the fuel rods in a reactor no longer generate enough heat to create the steam that turns the turbines and generates electricity at a nuclear power plant.

Although cooler, this spent fuel remains radioactive to some extent for hundreds of years. For years, spent fuel was kept in concrete “spent fuel pools” located inside a nuclear plant and filled with water to keep it from overheating.

According to the NRDC filing, in 2008 NRC proposed “‘remov(ing) its expectation that a repository (for spent fuel) will be available by 2025’ and acknowledged that its previous finding that sufficient disposal capacity would be available within 30 years after any
reactor’s licensed life ‘is not supportable.’”  Continue reading →

July 19, 2012 Posted by | decommission reactor, Reference, USA, wastes | Leave a comment

“Uprating” – a cheap way to increase power from nuclear reactors, but is it safe?

nuclear watchdogs have warned that these bigger uprates also carry bigger risks.

“This trend is, in principle, detrimental to the stability characteristics of the reactor, inasmuch as it increases the probability of instability events and increases the severity of such events, if they were to occur,” the Advisory Committee on Reactor Safeguards, which is mandated by Congress to advise the NRC, has warned 

How to expand nuclear power without attracting (too much) attention
Washington Times,  by Brad Plumer   July 18, 2012 Since the 1970s, construction on new nuclear reactors in the United States has largely ground to a halt, thanks to public protests, regulatory obstacles and tight financing. Yet over that same period, U.S. utilities have managed to increase the amount of electricity they get from nuclear power. By quite a lot, in fact.
How is that possible? Through a process known as “uprating.” According to a new analysis by the U.S. Energy Information Administration, the operators of 98 of the country’s 104 commercial nuclear reactors have asked regulators for permission to boost capacity from their existing plants. All in all, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission has approved more than 6,500 megawatts worth of uprates since 1977. That’s the equivalent of building six entirely new nuclear reactors—and during a period when fresh plants were impossible to build.

There are several ways to boost the capacity of a nuclear power plant. Continue reading →

July 19, 2012 Posted by | Reference, safety, USA | Leave a comment

Burying dead nuclear reactors – expensive, but lucrative for some!

consultancy Arthur D. Little has put the total costs at no less than €18 billion…..

Dismantling a nuclear plant until it has completely vanished can take several decades, depending on which technique is used.

the process of fully decommissioning a plant can take more than 40 years,

Germany’s pricey nuclear burial, Climate Spectator , 18 Jul 2012, Christoph Steitz and Tom Käckenhoff  “…..by 2014, almost nothing will be left of what once was Germany’s first commercial boiling water reactor. Germany’s decision to shut down all nuclear plants by 2022,
sparked by last year’s Fukushima nuclear disaster in Japan, is a done deal……

… a giant hole in the ground where the reactor vessel used to be. Work to decommission plants mainly includes removing and disposing of contaminated material as well as decommissioning the plants themselves while making sure that no radiation spreads.

Spent fuel from reactors needs to be encased and then transported to safe fuel dumps while cooling towers, often regarded a blight on landscapes, then need demolishing…..

Today, the four operators of nuclear plants in Germany – E.ON, RWE, EnBW and Vattenfall – have made a total of more than €30 billion ($36.7 billion) in provisions for the dismantling of the plants and the disposal of nuclear waste. Continue reading →

July 18, 2012 Posted by | decommission reactor, Germany, Reference | Leave a comment

France used soldiers as guinea pigs for radiation effects

An excerpt published in the newspaper refers to the “Gerboise verte”, code name for the test firings of April 25, 1961. It states that the experiment “should allow for a study of the physiological and psychological effects of atomic weaponry on humans, with the goal obtaining the necessary elements to prepare physically and morally for modern combat.”

Soldiers deliberately exposed to nuclear tests, says report According to the Tuesday edition of the French daily Parisian, a confidential military report proves that soldiers were deliberately exposed to nuclear tests that France conducted in Algeria in the 1960s. By FRANCE 24 17 July 12 Continue reading →

July 18, 2012 Posted by | civil liberties, France, history, Reference | Leave a comment

Nuclear industry in an economic no man’s land

COLUMN-Finnish delay fresh warning against nuclear: Wynn By  Gerard Wynn 17 July 12, (Reuters) – The lesson from the latest delay to Finland’s planned new nuclear reactor, announced on Monday, is either build lots of them or don’t build any at all.

It is a general economic principle that costs per plant decline the bigger a programme. Historical data support that for nuclear, where it may apply more acutely given its highly specialised and often unique supply chain and engineering skills.

It makes no sense to take a suck-and-see approach, building incrementally in a modular fashion, especially for new technologies such as Finland’s advanced pressurised water reactor. Continue reading →

July 18, 2012 Posted by | 2 WORLD, business and costs, Reference | Leave a comment

Alarming report on the unsafe state of San Onofre nuclear power plant

Made in Japan? Fukushima Crisis Is Nuclear, Not Cultural TruthOut, 14 July 2012  By Gregg Levine, Capitoilette | News Analysis “……..Back at San Onofre, US regulators disclosed Thursday that the damage to the metal tubes that circulate radioactive water between the reactor and the steam turbines (in other words, part of the system that takes heat away from the core) was far more extensive than had previously been disclosed by plant operators:

[Each of San Onofre’s steam generators has] 9,727 U-shaped tubes inside, each three-quarters of an inch in diameter.

The alloy tubes represent a critical safety barrier — if one breaks, there is the potential that radioactivity could escape into the atmosphere. Also, serious leaks can drain protective cooling water from a reactor.

Gradual wear is common in such tubing, but the rate of erosion at San Onofre startled officials since the equipment is relatively new. The generators were replaced in a $670 million overhaul and began operating in April 2010 in Unit 2 and February 2011 in Unit 3.

Tubes have to be taken out of service if 35 percent — roughly a third — of the wall wears away, and each of the four generators at the plant is designed to operate with a maximum of 778 retired tubes.

In one troubled generator in Unit 3, 420 tubes have been retired. The records show another 197 tubes in that generator have between 20 percent and 34 percent wear, meaning they are close to reaching the point when they would be at risk of breaking.

More than 500 others in that generator have between 10 percent and 19 percent wear in the tube wall.

“The new data reveal that there are thousands of damaged tubes in both Units 2 and 3, raising serious questions whether either unit should ever be restarted,” said Daniel Hirsch, a lecturer on nuclear policy at the University of California, Santa Cruz, who is a critic of the industry. “The problem is vastly larger than has been disclosed to date.”

And if anything, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission is underplaying the problem. A report from Fairewinds Associates, also released this week, unfavorably compared San Onofre’s situation with similar problems at other facilities:

[SONGS] has plugged 3.7 times as many steam generator tubes than the combined total of the entire number of plugged replacement steam generator tubes at all the other nuclear power plants in the US.

The report also explains that eight of the tubes failed a “pressure test” at San Onofre, while the same test at other facilities had never triggered any more than one tube breach. Fairewinds goes on to note that both units at San Onofre are equally precarious, and that neither can be restarted with any real promise of safe operation….. http://truth-out.org/news/item/10333-made-in-japan-fukushima-crisis-is-nuclear-not-cultural

July 16, 2012 Posted by | Reference, safety, USA | Leave a comment

Japan moving towards renewable energy

the Japanese Wind Power Association has put the longer-term wind potential at over 200 GW, on and offshore, even taking account of locational constraints. That is similar to Japans total present energy generating capacity.

the aim would be to create a 50 trillion yen ($628 billion) green energy market by 2020 through deregulation and subsidies to promote development of renewable energy and low-emission cars.

Greening Japan’s energy  http://environmentalresearchweb.org/blog/2012/07/greening-japans-energy.html  15 July 12 As part of its policy of moving away from nuclear power, the Japanese government is pushing ahead with renewables and improved energy efficiency. Given the urgent need to cut energy demand, following the shut down of all its nuclear plants in May, it encouraged voluntary energy saving initiatives, with some success. Continue reading →

July 16, 2012 Posted by | Japan, Reference, renewable | 1 Comment

Japanese medical authorities quiet about high thyroid nodules in Fukushima’s children

the rate of thyroid nodules in children 5 to 10 years after the Chernobyl accident was 1.74%.  The results in Fukushima are merely one year after the accident.  This is a much faster progression

Just 0.8% of children in 2001 Japanese control group had thyroid cysts or nodules — 36% in Fukushima study

Fukushima Children’s Thyroid Examination: How Shunichi Yamashita would like doctors to deal with the results. Introduction  Fukushima Voice May 2012,

This is a letter sent from Shunichi Yamashita, M.D., from Fukushima Medical University to the members of Japan Thyroid Association, of which he is the president.  The letter “asks” or rather “instructs” the members, who are likely to be the thyroid specialists, on how to
deal with the thyroid ultrasound results of Fukushima children.  Continue reading →

July 16, 2012 Posted by | Fukushima 2012, health, Japan, Reference | Leave a comment

Cancer and birth deformities toll, due to uranium radiation in Punjab groundwater

The effect of all this can be seen in the growing number of patients in the Malwa belt with cancer and other diseases and children being born with abnormalities. In fact, a train that connects Bathinda with Bikaner in neighbouring Rajasthan is known as the ‘Cancer Express’ as it ferries a large number of cancer patients from Punjab to Bikaner for treatment at a cancer hospital.

Groundwater contaminated, Punjab battles uranium curse Times of IndiaI  Jul 13, 2012,   CHANDIGARH, The high incidence of cancer and other diseases in Punjab’s Malwa belt has been highlighted over the last decade. Now, union Rural Development Minister Jairam Ramesh  has confirmed the presence of uranium and other heavy metals in groundwater in the state, particularly the Malwa region, and serious efforts are afoot to control the damage. Continue reading →

July 16, 2012 Posted by | health, India, Reference, water | Leave a comment

Fatal flaws inherent in nuclear power generation

Made in Japan? Fukushima Crisis Is Nuclear, Not Cultural TruthOut, 14 July 2012  By Gregg Levine, Capitoilette | News Analysis “……..As the Diet’s report makes abundantly clear–far more clear than any talk about Japanese culture–the multiple failures at and around Fukushima Daiichi were directly related to the design of the reactors and to fatal flaws inherent in nuclear power generation.

Return for a moment to something discussed here last summer, The Light Water Paradox: “In order to safely generate a steady stream of electricity, a light water reactor needs a steady stream of electricity.” As previously noted, this is not some perpetual motion riddle–all but one of Japan’s commercial nuclear reactors and every operating reactor in the United States is of a design that requires water to be actively pumped though the reactor containment in order to keep the radioactive fuel cool enough to prevent a string of catastrophes, from hydrogen explosions and cladding fires, to core meltdowns and melt-throughs.

Most of the multiple calamities to befall Fukushima Daiichi have their roots in the paradox. As many have observed and the latest Japanese report reiterates, the Tohoku earthquake caused breaches in reactor containment and cooling structures, and damaged all of Fukushima’s electrical systems, save the diesel backup generators, which were in turn taken out by the tsunami that followed the quake. Meeting the demands of the paradox–circulating coolant in a contained system–was severely compromised after the quake, and was rendered completely impossible after the tsunami. Given Japan’s seismic history, and the need of any light water reactor for massive amounts of water, Fukushima wouldn’t really have been a surprise even if scientists hadn’t been telling plant operators and Japanese regulators about these very problems for the last two decades…..

And while the rapid degeneration of the tubing might be peculiar to San Onofre, the dangers inherent in a system that requires constant power for constant cooling–lest a long list of possible problems triggers a toxic crisis–are evident across the entire US nuclear fleet. Cracked containment buildings, coolant leaks, transformer fires, power outages, and a vast catalogue of human errors fill the NRC’s event reports practically every month of every year for the past 40 years. To put it simply, with nuclear power, too much can go wrong when everything has to go right.

And this is to say nothing of the dangers that come with nuclear waste storage. Like with the reactors, the spent fuel pools that dot the grounds of almost every nuclear plant in America and Japan require a consistent and constantly circulating water supply to keep them from overheating (which would result in many of the same disastrous outcomes seen with damaged reactors). At Fukushima, one of the spent fuel pools is, at any given point, as much of a concern as the severely damaged reactor cores.   http://truth-out.org/news/item/10333-made-in-japan-fukushima-crisis-is-nuclear-not-cultural

July 16, 2012 Posted by | Reference, safety | Leave a comment

After one MOX nuclear reprocessing disaster, Britain plans another one!

Pete Wilkinson, an independent environmental consultant, said it “beggared belief” that ministers were going down this path after losing an estimated £600m from operating an original MOX plant.

“It would be interesting to see the commercial arrangements which justify turning Britain into a nuclear waste dump for plutonium that no-one else wants.”

UK nuclear authority takes ownership of German plutonium UK risks becoming a ‘nuclear laundry’ looking after unwanted waste from other countries, warns industry expert Terry Macalister guardian.co.uk, 13 July 2012  Britain risks being turned into a “nuclear laundry” by taking ownership of German plutonium in return for cash, the government was warned on Friday.

The move came along with confirmation that ministers were moving towards a controversial decision to build a new mixed oxide fuel (MOX) plant despite having just agreed to close an existing one which lost millions of pounds.

Britain has the largest stockpile of plutonium in the world but has taken permanent control of a further 4 tonnes under a deal with German nuclear power companies.. Continue reading →

July 14, 2012 Posted by | Reference, reprocessing, UK | Leave a comment

France’s huge and growing nuclear waste problem

Nuclear waste in France set to double http://www.upi.com/Science News/2012/07/13/Nuclear-waste-in-France-set-to-double/UPI 21671342208921/#ixzz20dUEDe8D  PARIS, July 13 (UPI) –– France’s nuclear waste agency says the amount of such waste in the country will double by 2030, and some of it will remain radioactive for 2 million years.

The current 45 million cubic feet of nuclear waste in France is likely to reach 95 million cubic feet in the next 18 years, a report by Andra, the agency charged with stocking and disposing of nuclear waste, said.

The current amount of waste represents 4 pounds for every person in the country.

With nuclear power the principle source of electricity in France, the Andra report warns of major problems stockpiling waste, Radio France Internationale reported. While only 0.2 percent of current stocks are highly radioactive, some of the material, such as neptunium 237, can remain active for more than 2 million years.

The socialist government of Francois Hollande has resisted pressure from its coalition partners to drastically reduce the nuclear power industry, responsible for 59 percent of all the nuclear waste generated in the country, RFI reported.

July 14, 2012 Posted by | France, Reference, wastes | Leave a comment

A litany of ongoing, and rising, costs for San Onofre nuclear power plant

The Sustainability Alliance of Southern California last night hosted a discussiont: “Nuclear Power in Southern California – Can We Afford It? San Diego Reader, 13 July 12,  “…  Featured speakers were Alliance for Nuclear Responsibility executive director Rochelle Becker and counsel for the Alliance/former executive director and commissioner of the California Energy Commission John Geesman.

A recurring theme of the talk was the cost of nuclear power, touted as a cheap alternative to gas-fired power plants or other means of power.

“For San Onofre, [the original cost estimate] was under $180 million dollars. But it was $4.7 billion dollars when finished,” Becker said. She also pointed out that the cost of new seismic studies needed due to the discovery of earthquake faults near the plant has risen from an original estimated cost of $21 million to a new request by plant operator Southern California Edison to bill its customers as well as those of San Diego Gas & Electric up to $64 million for the studies. Continue reading →

July 14, 2012 Posted by | business and costs, Reference, USA | Leave a comment

Dangerous experimental process to remove fuel rods from Fukushima’s No.4 nuclear reactor

Fuel rods to be removed from No. 4 fuel pool   Ene News — Concerns about sea water damage — Special container so fuel doesn’t going critical — Test date not revealed ‘for security reasons’ July 13th, 2012  the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant will soon start test runs for removing fuel rods from a storage pool of the No. 4 reactor.

Removal Procedure A crane will be used to pull each of the 2 rods out of the pool, and then place them in a special container on the 5th floor of the reactor building.

The container will prevent the fuel from going critical.

Another crane will lower the container to the ground, where a truck will take it to a facility called a “common pool.”
Four cables will be used to prevent the container from falling.

Damage to Metal Container?   TEPCO will also check if there’s any damage to the metal container used to store the fuel rods. This is a concern because seawater was used to cool the reactor after last year’s accident.

Security Reasons TEPCO says it cannot reveal the date of the test for security reasons.
http://enenews.com/fuel-rods-to-be-removed-from-no-4-fuel-pool-concerns-about-sea-water-damage-special-container-so-fuel-doesnt-going-critical-date-not-revealed-for-security-reasons

July 13, 2012 Posted by | Fukushima 2012, Reference, safety | Leave a comment

3,400 damaged steam generator tubes in San Onofre nuclear power plant!

US nuclear plant problem worse than thought: report Google News 13 July 12 LOS ANGELES — US nuclear regulators published an update on California’s troubled San Onofre power plant Thursday, sparking an expert warning that the problem is more serious than first thought.

A reactor at the nuclear power plant near San Diego was shut down in January after a radiation leak, although the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) said there was no danger to the public.
Investigations found unexpected erosion on tubes that carry radioactive water, and the entire plant was shut down, forcing Californian authorities to fire up alternative power generation
facilities.
On Thursday, an update on the tube erosion, posted on an obscure part of the NRC’s website, showed the situation had worsened. “This reveals a far greater problem than has been previously disclosed, and raises serious questions about whether it is safe to restart either unit,” said Daniel Hirsch, a nuclear expert at the University of California, Santa Cruz.

The new data shows that more than 3,400 steam generator tubes in the new steam generators at San Onofre have been found to be damaged — about 1,800 in Unit 3 and 1,600 in Unit 2 — he said……. http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5hn3SqZ5jtiFKISpfeEx8GsQRTzfA?docId=CNG.f9be015e81629b87f9e150d82ec26f2f.761

July 13, 2012 Posted by | Reference, safety, USA | Leave a comment

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