Reactor design puts safety into question
Reactor design puts safety of nuclear plants into question Globe and Mai Jun. 29, 2009 Feature speeds up rate of atomic reactions in event of a coolant leak; regulators say they misjudged size of the problem
Martin Mittelstaedt
If reactors are not shut down quickly, their ability to keep radioactivity from escaping would be put to the test, according to an internal commission document.
The document says Canada’s seven nuclear stations, which all use Candu technology, have a feature known as “positive reactivity feedback,” in which their atomic chain reactions automatically speed up if the water pumped into the reactors to cool them leaks, one of the worst accidents possible at a nuclear station. If reactors aren’t immediately shut down during this type of incident, positive reactivity leads to a quick snowballing in the pace of nuclear reactions, which in turn could cause potentially damaging overheating.
The fear is that with a large loss of coolant, such overheating could put the nuclear facilities’ containment features – the concrete domes and other protective mechanisms around reactors that are the last-ditch defences to stop the spread of radioactivity into the environment – to a dangerous test.
Reactor design puts safety into question – The Globe and Mail
Fears for safety as nuclear watchdog hires staff from firms pitching to build reactors
Fears for safety as nuclear watchdog hires staff from firms pitching to build reactors The Guardian Tim Webb 26 June 2009
The Nuclear Installations Inspec
torate is recruiting more than a dozen project managers to speed up its review of new reactor designs – even though they work for the companies hoping to build them.
The Guardian has learnt that the government has approached companies including the US groups Bechtel and CH2M Hill, as well as the UK’s Amec, to fill the senior posts. The companies involved are eager to secure lucrative contracts to help build the UK’s first new reactors for decades.
Government and industry sources admitted the secondments posed potential conflict of interest problems.
It is also understood that the inspectorate has recruited technical staff from Areva,…………………………There are concerns that the potential conflicts of interest could compromise the safety of the new nuclear reactors if the companies helping the inspectorate have a vested interest in approving their design.
Asse nuclear dump contains explosives
Asse nuclear dump contains explosives The Local 26 Jun 09 CETOnline: The controversial salt-mine nuclear waste storage facility in Asse, Lower Saxony is not only crumbling but also contains unknown amounts of explosive, it has emerged………………………………The DDP report said an explosives storage chamber still containing a variety of dynamite-related substances, can be found near the area where the radioactive waste is being kept.
Files from the Research Centre for the Environment and Health (GSF), which used to run the storage facility, show that over the last few years a bog of radioactive salt water has built up by the entrance to the explosive chamber.
Workers continue bid for nuclear test compensation
Workers continue bid for nuclear test compensation Radio New Zealand News 7 June 2009French Polynesians who have had their claims for compensation for the effects of nuclear testing rejected say they will not give up their bid for redress.France carried many nuclear tests in French Polynesia from 1960 until 1996, and its government has said it will compensate the victims.Campaigner John Doom says eight people who took their cases for compensation to French Polynesia’s industrial relations tribunal have been unsuccessful.He says the three surviving workers have leukaemia, and they and five widows will consult with lawyers over how to continue.Aid group Christian World Service has been campaigning for the former workers and says it is extremely disappointed by the decision but will continue its efforts.
GODZILLA II
GODZILLA II San Francisco Chronicle by Peter Coyote 28 June 09 “………………………………….it is not the production of electricity from nuclear plants which is so carbon intensive, but the building of them. The concrete alone, one of the most carbon-producing products on earth, the heating of water, the heavy equipment……………
……………..the coal and oil industries are buying into power companies. They want to own it all. They know that regulatory difficulties and expense and public fears will do plenty to slow down the nuclear build-up, leaving them plenty of time to sell their product………….
………..Atomic reactors are horrendously expensive. On a level playing field they, cannot possibly compete with even renewables. If they were so safe, why can they not get private liability insurance? The Price-Anderson Act turned their insurance over to the Federal Government (the tax-payer) and limits the sizes of claims that homeowners and citizens can receive. They cannot raise, private funding for new construction or, after a half-century, have they come one iota closer to a solution for their high-level waste problems. No one has figured out how to protect them from terrorist attacks, and in every staged mock raid, the “terrorists” have overwhelmed the nuclear power plant security……………………………..the health impacts of atomic reactors. They emit not only x-rays and gamma rays, but also particulate emissions involving alpha and beta particles. Why is it that after 50 years there is still no systematic monitoring regimen for actually tracking the human beings that live in areas downwind from atomic reactors. San Francisco’s own Dr. John Gofman, the first chief health researcher for the Atomic Energy Commission, concluded in the late 1960s that “normal” emissions from nuclear plants would kill thousands of Americans yearly, with no catastrophe required. “
The high price of nuclear fuel
The high price of nuclear fuel: Censorbugbear 25 June 2009 story sourced from World Nuclear News, Itar-Tass news agency, LARRI Namibian miners inhale alpha radiation:During a May 2009 visit to the Netherlands, Mrs Hilma Shindondola-Mote, director of the Namibian research institute LArrI, warned that many uranium workers in Namibia ‘ fear for their health and lifestyle due to the environmental impact of uranium mining while concessions for mine companies continue to be granted by the government.”
She presented the institute’s findings in its latest report: ‘Uranium mining in Namibia – the mystery behind low-level radiation’, with research conducted among fifty workers of Namibia’s largest uranium mine: Rössing Uranium (Rio Tinto Group). *
“Mine workers and others in the surrounding communities inhale dust and radon gas. The radon gas exposes the body to alpha radiation, which is destructive. Exposure to radiation is most often associated with cancer, but it can also have other harmful effects. Low level radiation can contribute to birth defects, high infant mortality and chronic lung, eye, skin and reproductive illnesses.”
They are only informed about health problems after leaving their jobs…Uranium mine workers are not aware of the true nature of their health status: “During the time we conducted the study, employees claimed that Rössing does not explain what health problems can arise from exposure to uranium”. Also, workers of the company raised concern that although they are tested annually, the results are never revealed until such a time when they leave the company. *
“The workers feel that there is a conspiracy between the doctors and Rössing. They are only informed about health problems like cancer after leaving their jobs. The doctors tell them that the deterioration in their health is because of their genes, family history or lifestyle.”
Censorbugbear reports…: Russia gets fuel deals with Nigeria,Egypt,Namibia
Olkiluoto in Finland
EPR’s problems run in the nuclear family
Greenpeace 27 June 09 “…………………………….Areva’s supposedly state-of-the-art, third-generation European Pressurized Reactor.
To recap, currently just two EPRs are being built in the world right now – one at Olkiluoto in Finland and one in Flamanville in France. Both have been beset by long-running construction problems, schedule and cost overruns, and all-round hilarious ineptitude and controversy.
The predecessor of the EPR, its parent if you like, was the Framatome N4 of which France has four. The N4 had problems of its own which sound all too familiar………………..
Design-related problems? Delays in commissioning? Cracked welding? N4 and EPR could be identical twin brothers, not father and son. Has nothing been learned? Nothing at all? We’ve heard this story before. Areva are remaking their own disaster movie.
NUCLEAR LEGACY
NUCLEAR LEGACY Soviet nuclear tests still haunt Kazakhs canada.com By Maria Golovnina, ReutersJune 25, 2009 “…………………………
Moscow tested about 500 bombs here between 1949 and 1989, exposing 1.5 million people like Abishev to extreme levels of radiation and contaminating an area roughly the size of Germany.
The Soviet Union conducted its last test here in 1989 and the facility was officially closed in 1991 as the Soviet collapse brought the global nuclear arms race to an end.
Twenty years on, the Semipalatinsk test range is silent, a steppe wind blowing gently through the abandoned site dotted by ruined concrete buildings and giant hunks of rusty metal.
But hundreds of thousands of residents, subjected to the equivalent of 20,000 Hiroshima bombs during 40 years of Russian experiments, are still sickened by the legacy of their past.
The incidence of cancer, mental illness and fertility problems in this region is among the highest in Kazakhstan, a vast Central Asian nation west of China, and infant mortality is five times higher than in other regions………………………………scientists say more needs to be done to study the effect of 40 years of tests on the people. It is an issue still little understood by science, and researchers say mutations are already being passed down from parents to their children.
“The biggest issue is not so much those who experienced the explosions directly but the impact on their children and grandchildren,” said Mikhail Panin, an environmental scientist who is researching the matter in the Semipalatinsk area.
Destroying Indigenous Populations
Destroying Indigenous Populations Atlantic free Press Dahr Jamail Wednesday, 24 June 2009 “……………………….. Most of the Sioux’s land has been taken, and what remains has been laid waste by radioactive pollution.
“Nothing grows in these areas – nothing can grow. They are too radioactive,” White Face said.
Although the Black Hills and adjoining areas are sacred to the indigenous peoples and nations of the region, their attempts at reclamation are not based on religious claims but on the provisions of the Constitution. The occupation of indigenous land by the US government is in direct violation of its own law, according to White Face…………………………………The Ogala Sioux are engaged in ongoing legal battles with the pro-uranium state of South Dakota. They are aware of the unequal nature of their battle, but they cannot afford to give up. White Face explains how “… Our last court case was lost before learning that the judge was a former lawyer for one of the mining companies. Also, the governor’s sister and brother-in-law work for mining companies [Powertech] and a professor, hired by the Forest Service to test water run-off for contamination, is on contract with a company that works for the mining company. When I found out the judge was a lawyer for the mining company I knew we would lose, but we went ahead with the case for the publicity, because we have to keep waking people up.”
Other tribes, such as the Navajo and Hopi in New Mexico, have been exposed to radioactive material as well. Furthermore, the July 16, 1979, spill of 100 million gallons of radioactive water containing uranium tailings from a tailing pond into the north arm of the Rio Puerco, near the small town of Church Rock, New Mexico, also affected indigenous peoples in Arizona.
Destroying Indigenous Populations – Progressive Politics and Opinion Opinion
Still no closure for Fiji nuclear test victims
Still no closure for Fiji nuclear test victims ABD Radio Australia
Fijian servicemen and their families who were affected by British nuclear tests in the fifties and sixties have been fighting for compensation from the British Government, and court ruling on Friday seems to have still brought no conclusion. Two hundred and eighty nine Fijian servicemen – along with Australian and New Zealanders – took part in the program on Christmas island. The majority of Fijians have since died after years of sickness – many of their children and grandchildren also suffer a variety of illnesses. …………..Presenter: Geraldine Coutts
Speaker: Neil Sampson from the British legal firm Rosenblatt
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Russia eyes nuclear power deals in Egypt, Nigeria
Russia eyes nuclear power deals in Egypt, Nigeria
By Oleg ShchedrovABUJA, June 24 (Reuters) – Russia wants to help develop nuclear power plants in Egypt and Nigeria and take part in uranium exploration there, the head of Russia’s nuclear energy agency Rosatom said on Wednesday.Sergei Kiriyenko, in Nigeria with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev as part of a four-day Africa trip, said Egypt planned two to four reactors at its first nuclear power station…………………….
Australia’s WorleyParsons last week signed a nuclear power pact consultancy contract with Egypt worth around $160 million.Russia is also expected to sign a nuclear energy pact with Nigeria during the Abuja stage of the Africa trip, Nigerian and Russian officials have said.
Cheerleaders’ for nuclear energy ignore facts
‘Cheerleaders’ for nuclear energy ignore facts
STAR-TRIBUNE Karen B. Maute
June 24, 2009The Virginia Uranium Inc. oligarchy continues to ignore and minimize the negative impacts of uranium mining and milling.
Equally disturbing is this industry’s ongoing attempts to erode our civil rights and the legislators who are allowing this travesty.
Virginia Uranium has engaged a host of self-serving experts and VUI family members to write letters of support on their behalf.
Their letters speak, in generalities, of nuclear power and avoid mention of the negative impacts of uranium mining and milling on a community, region and state.
The Nuclear Energy Institute has joined the metastasizing Virginia Uranium Inc. supporters.
NEI project manager Suzanne Phelps weighs in with more of the same……………..She neglects to mention the radioactive/hazardous wastes that are generated and stored for thousands of years as a result of mining, milling and nuclear power generation.
She also omits information regarding the cost of building a reactor and the tax dollars that subsidize, monitor and clean up after the industry.
We do not appreciate cheerleaders for nuclear energy. We crave factual information regarding mining and milling of uranium.
National Poll: Americans Split on Safety of Nuclear Energy
— Most Support EPA Designation of Carbon Dioxide as Public Health Threat
— Majorities See Danger in Nuclear Waste
— Wind Energy Perceived as Safest
— One-Third See More Nuclear Weapons as Plants Increase
FAIRFIELD, Conn., June 24 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ — A new national poll of 800 residents by the Sacred Heart University Polling Institute found a nearly even split between those suggesting nuclear energy was very or somewhat safe (46.1%) and those who said somewhat dangerous or very dangerous (44.7%).
“Americans are split about whether nuclear power is safe or not, and many people have specific security concerns about nuclear power. The two dangers that concern a majority of Americans are the problems with radioactive waste storage, a top criticism of nuclear power, and possible plant meltdowns,” says Dr. Josh Klein, assistant professor in the Department of Criminal Justice at Sacred Heart University.
A majority of Americans (58.4%), however, indicated that nuclear energy’s radioactive waste is a danger that humans will face for thousands of years to come.
Over one-third of respondents, 36.8%, expect the number of nuclear weapons to increase worldwide as a result of building more nuclear power plants.
Poll respondents did consider other energy sources as significantly more safe than nuclear energy. A large majority, 94.6%, saw wind energy as very or somewhat safe. This was followed by river and tidal energy (80.0%), geothermal energy (68.5%), fossil fuels such as coal, oil and natural gas (56.1%), and biofuels (55.6%).
http://sev.prnewswire.com/oil-energy/20090624/DC3751424062009-1.html
INDIA: Opposition to ‘Nuclearism’ Builds Up
By Ranjit Devraj
NEW DELHI, Jun 24 (IPS) – As India follows up on the historic civilian nuclear agreement it signed last year with the United States by drawing up hard commercial deals, opposition to ‘nuclearism’ is building up among activist groups.
The ‘India-U.S. Economic Relations: The Next Decade’ report released this week by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) says that the nuclear deal marks the beginning of a new era……………………… “India intends to import 24 reactors in the next 11-15 years, and could create as many as 20,000 new jobs directly and indirectly in the U.S. from nuclear trade,” the CII report says.
But although it was the U.S. that pushed India’s case past the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) and the International Atomic Energy Commission (IAEC), other countries – notably France and Russia – are eager players in India’s expanding nuclear commerce………………………………….. Anti-nuclear activists believe that India – following the completion of the Indo-US deal – is on the threshold of a new era of ‘nuclearisation’ which will have far-reaching effects on the way the country is run.
“With the India-U.S. nuclear deal, and the deals with Russia and France and likely private participation in nuclear energy generation, the situation is going to get out of hand in our country,” says S.P. Udayakumar, convenor of the newly launched National Alliance of Anti-nuclear Movements (NAAM).
NAAM, launched at a three-day convention held in Kanyakumari in southern Tamil Nadu, during the first week of June, plans to mobilise ordinary Indians against the ‘nuclearisation’ of the country and protect people against nuclear threats and destruction of the environment from nuclear waste and radiation.
NAAM warns Indian citizens that they are up against a “combination of profiteering companies, secretive state apparatuses and a repressive nuclear department which will be ruthless.”
“This nexus of capitalism, statism and nuclearism does not augur well for the country. These forces are gaining an upper hand in our national polity which will sound the death knell for the country’s democracy, openness, and prospects for sustainable development,” Udayakumar told IPS.
Swiss order more evidence destroyed in nuke probe
The Gaea News 25 June 09 GENEVA — The Swiss government on Wednesday ordered the quick destruction of about 100 pages of evidence linked to an investigation of three Swiss engineers suspected of smuggling nuclear weapons technology.
The Cabinet said the documents were “the most explosive” material in a file of more than 1,000 pages related to the case against the Tinner family, which is suspected of links to the nuclear smuggling network of Abdul Qadeer Khan — the creator of Pakistan’s atomic bomb.
The documents are copies of files destroyed in 2007 under a previous order that led to protests from lawmakers and legal experts, who said the government undermined the prosecution in the smuggling case. The copies were found in prosecutors’ archives last December. http://blog.taragana.com/n/swiss-government-orders-more-evidence-destroyed-in-nuclear-smuggling-probe-90994/
1 This Month
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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