*** Fukushima *** and other nuclear-----updates and links

The Washington State Department of Health Office of Radiation Protection is overseeing the project, which is funded by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.


[link to www.doh.wa.gov]

Some of the data may be withheld for national security purposes.

- hmmmm.

Last Edited by Waterbug on 07/11/2011 10:42 AM

Scientists find first superbug strain of gonorrhea

Scientists have found a "superbug" strain of gonorrhea in Japan that is resistant to all recommended antibiotics and say it could transform a once easily treatable infection into a global public health threat.

The new strain of the sexually transmitted disease -- called H041 -- cannot be killed by any currently recommended treatments for gonorrhea, leaving doctors with no other option than to try medicines so far untested against the disease.

In a telephone interview Unemo, who will present details of the finding at a conference of the International Society for Sexually Transmitted Disease Research (ISSTDR) in Quebec, Canada on Monday, said the fact that the strain had been found first in Japan also followed an alarming pattern.

"Japan has historically been the place for the first emergence and subsequent global spread of different types of resistance in gonorrhea," he said.

The World Health Organization estimates there are at least 340 million new cases of curable sexually transmitted infections -- including syphilis, gonorrhea, chlamydia and trichomoniasis -- every year among people aged 15 to 49.

[link to www.fox13now.com]

- oh great!

TEPCO Failed To Properly Train Control Room Staff

Unlike their American counterparts, not all control room operators in Japan have access to plant specific training simulators. Instead, according to a report by NPR, they use “generic” simulators that are similar to, but not identical to their plant. This difference may have contributed to the difficulties operators had at Fukushima Dai-ichi when responding to complex events that followed the catastrophic earthquake and tsunami on March 11, 2011.

[link to theenergycollective.com]

Radiation found in hay for cattle near Japan nuke plant

Authorities in north-eastern Japan on Monday detected high levels of radioactive caesium in hay fed to cattle at a farm near the earthquake-damaged Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station.

The government of Fukushima prefecture found an average of 75,000 becquerels of radioactive caesium per kilogramme, about 56 times the official limit, in the hay.

The plant, located 250 kilometres north-east of Tokyo, has leaked radioactive substances into the environment ever since it was crippled by the March 11 earthquake and tsunami.

In mid-March, the central government told farmers in areas around the plant not to give livestock feed that had been stored outside. But the farm did not follow the instructions, officials said.

[link to www.monstersandcritics.com]

U.S. to pay $100mn in nuclear fuel storage settlement
Minneapolis
Jul 11, 2011

The U.S. government will pay Northern States Power Co., a unit of Xcel Energy (NYSE: XEL), $100 million to settle a lawsuit over nuclear spent fuel storage costs.

[link to www.cospp.com]

US Nuclear reactor shut down due to leak

A nuclear research reactor at North Carolina State University (NCSU) in Raleigh, NC, was recently shut down after it was discovered that the plant has been leaking about ten gallons of nuclear cooling water per hour for at least the past week.


Officials from the university, however, claim that the leak, which stems from the 15,000 gallons of water used to cool the superheated uranium reactor core, poses "no public health threat." Naturalnews.com

[link to www.presstv.com]

- of course not. Never admit anything unless forced to do so.

Probe Finds Risks at Ohio Nuclear Plant

Nuclear plant workers in Ohio violated several safety regulations and had to avoid a 6-foot-deep hole in the floor when increased radiation levels forced them to flee their work area in April, federal regulatory officials said in a preliminary report.

Four workers at the Perry Nuclear Power plant on the shores of Lake Erie were exposed to higher radiation levels than normal on April 22 while they were attempting to remove a monitor that measures nuclear reactions. Plant officials failed to appropriately evaluate the radiological hazards associated with the removal process, which is a violation of regulations, the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission said in an inspection report released Thursday.

[link to www.chem.info]

- it never ends.

The land of Oz

The wizard of Oz

Zardoz

Rupert Murdoch from Oz

Yes, it's stupid: I know.

American Robots in Japan Highlight Nuclear Safety Myth

an’s nuclear power authority didn’t have any emergency robots ready to assist with damage and control. Why were they caught unprepared?
... The ‘safety myth’: From the NY Times: “It’s a fact that there was an unreasonable overconfidence in the technology of Japan’s nuclear power generation.”
... The seniority system: Both iRobot and QinetiQ, companies that volunteered equipment to Tepco, found that senior Tepco employees were chosen to be trained to operate the robots yet they were less suited to the task than the 20-year olds who had gamer experience.

[link to www.therobotreport.com]

[link to fairewinds.com]


- Latest. Not great news...

Free association... the mind works in mysterious ways.

Nuclear Energy Institute Report on Japan's Nuclear Reactors, July 11, 2011
[link to www.enewspf.com]

TEPCO suspended operation of its water decontamination system for 12 hours Sunday to repair a leak in the system. The continued operation of the system is crucial to establish a circulatory cooling system for the reactors and to decontaminate and reduce the water accumulating in the reactor building basements. TEPCO has set a July 17 deadline to establish stable cooling for the reactors. As of July 10, the system has treated more than 18,000 metric tons of contaminated water.

TEPCO is preparing to restart the fuel pool circulating system for reactor 4after checking that a kink in the reactor heat removal system piping will not block the flow of water. The system is expected to be in service by the end of July.


A long-term roadmap drafted by Japan’s Nuclear Safety Commission and TEPCO calls for the removal of melted fuel from the reactors to begin in 2021, provided the technology required for the task has been developed

- and if it hasn't?

Last Edited by Waterbug on 07/12/2011 09:38 AM

Fateful Move Exposed Japan Plant
Tokyo Electric Lowered Elevation of Land Before Building Nuclear Facility, Weakening Tsunami Defense.

In 1967, Tepco chopped 25 meters off the 35-meter natural seawall where the reactors were to be located, according to documents filed at the time with Japanese authorities. That little-noticed action was taken to make it easier to ferry equipment to the site and pump seawater to the reactors. It was also seen as an efficient way to build the complex atop the solid base of bedrock needed to better protect the plant from earthquakes.

But the razing of the cliff also placed the reactors five meters below the level of 14- to 15-meter tsunami hitting the plant March 11, triggering a major nuclear disaster resulting in the meltdown of three reactor cores.

A former senior Tepco executive involved in the decision-making says there were two main reasons for removing the cliff. First, a lower escarpment made it easier to deliver heavy equipment used in the plant, such as the reactor vessels, turbines and diesel generators, all of which were transported to the site by sea. Second, the design of the plant required seawater to keep the reactor cool, which was facilitated by a shorter distance to the ocean.

[link to online.wsj.com]

senior staff are more likely to be part of a cover up(various reasoning's why) whereas 20 year olds will talk to their friends at least(haven't been conditioned enough yet to the point of obedience/fear(etc) totally, imo)

i wonder whose heads they will pin this on, and then try and get the public to move on.

I think that once deaths from accumulated radiation start making headlines is when Japanese and regional politics will explode, imo.

High levels of radiation detected in Northwest rainwater

A Seattle nuclear watchdog group is accusing the federal government of failing to keep the public informed of radiation from the Fukushima nuclear disaster.

"The level that was detected on March 24 was 41 times the drinking water standard," said Gerry Pollet from Heart of America Northwest. He reviewed Iodine 131 numbers released by the Environmental Protection Agency last spring.

"Our government said no health levels, no health levels were exceeded.When in fact the rain water in the Northwest is reaching levels 130 times the drinking water standards," said Pollet.
Elevated rain water samples were collected in Portland, Olympia and Boise -- which had the highest.

[link to www.king5.com]

Japan's citizen scientists map radiation, DIY-style


Safecast took its first reading on April 16. Today, it has about 50 regular volunteers who collect data from their homes or while driving, build devices or assist in other ways.
Those using vehicles equipped with Geiger counters cover an area that Franken estimates to be about 620 miles long by 185 miles wide.
To date, they’ve collected 251,000 data points from their drives and fixed reporting stations, and have received about 60,000 more from other sources, including people with their own Geiger counters.

Safecast publishes the data on its website and publishes it to a number of other places so the information can be used by the greatest number of people, Bonner said.
[link to worldblog.msnbc.msn.com]

They thought they were doing the right thing by removing the topsoil to bedrock...and it made it easier to build the plant. Placing blame is not going to be easy as a lot of the decision-makers have since died.

NRC probing radioactive leak at SC nuke plant
[link to www.charlotteobserver.com]


- and another leak.

Do you ever wonder how many and for how long this has been going on? I never really paid attention to anything other than Hanford before Fukushima came along. I also watched the Umatilla dump site for old munitions and such. Mustard gas from World War 2 still packs a punch all these years later. Makes me wonder what they have been getting away with for all these years.

On July 9 in Japan, the news broke that the meat from a meat cow from Minami Soma City was found with radioactive cesium of 2300 becquerels/kg, almost 5 times the provisional safety limit (500 becquerels/kilogram).

The councilman's post on July 9:

All Fukushima-grown beef that was served in school lunches in Yokohama City was contaminated. The contamination that was checked at the time of shipment from Fukushima Prefecture was only the surface radiation of a live cow, and there was no information as to the contamination after the cow was processed into meat. School children have already ingested this meat.

There was a leak from some school nutritionists of this fact. But the city, the city's Board of Education and the school principals "lied" by saying "food items for school lunches are safe, because they are sold in the market." As the result, elementary school children in Yokohama City have been internally irradiated.

Finally on July 11, Yokohama City decided to stop using beef in school lunches.

Caveat? They will stop for the month of July, and they will use pork instead, as if pork is safe. The last lunch will be on July 15, then it's summer break.

The city's Labor Union (which includes city workers who prepare school lunches) has issued a statement protesting ... (don't hold your breath) ... the city's decision to stop using beef, as it "will spread the baseless rumor".

One or two detractors on the councilman's board who have been the apologists for the government seem to have disappeared after the news of 78,000 becquerels/kilogram cesium in the hay fed to the cows.

Can't link , ex dash sf blog spot

Yes, pigs are immune to radiation

Nuke panel downplayed power loss risk

Government-commissioned experts noted in the early 1990s the possibility of fatal damage to nuclear power plants resulting from loss of all alternating-current sources for long periods, as in the case of the Fukushima No. 1 plant, but played down the risk in view of Japan's advanced technology.

[link to search.japantimes.co.jp]

U.S. experts are calling for stepped-up safety measures at nuclear power plants.

[link to kdrv.com]

Rep. Ed Markey (D-Mass.), a nuclear safety watchdog on Capitol Hill, commended the NRC task force on its recommendations. "Because the task force has found that U.S. nuclear reactors are not sufficiently prepared to respond to catastrophic events or even simple power outages like the one that triggered the Fukushima meltdowns, America's nuclear fleet remains vulnerable to a similar disaster," he said in a statement Tuesday evening.

Markey also reiterated his call for the NRC to implement the new recommendations before issuing licensing new reactor designs or the relicensing of older plants despite the assurances made by the regulator that neither were a threat.



Read more: [link to www.politico.com]

Japan's 'Nuclear Gypsies': The Latest Addition to the Fukushima Crew

Reporting from the Fukushima prefecture in Japan, The Guardian's Justin McCurry describes the lives of nuclear gypsies as dangerous and exhausting, but lucrative. One worker mentioned, a former truck driver named Ariyoshi Rune, reports earning about $150 a day, hardly a fortune but roughly double the average minimum wage in Japan. The living conditions around the Fukushima-Daiichi plants sound like they've stabilized considerably since the earthquake but the nuclear gypsies worry locals. "The presence of so many contractors, and the sheer number of men, has led to fears that not all are observing health and safety regulations," McCurry Reports. "One restaurateur complained of workers returning in the evenings still wearing their uniforms, even down to the boots they wear inside the plant's grounds."

[link to www.theatlanticwire.com]

- sounds like Tepco, as usual.

Areva opponent criticizes NRC


The executive director of the Snake River Alliance sharply criticized the federal agency in charge of regulating nuclear power Wednesday, calling into question its staff's thoroughness and allegiance.

While the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission generally has done a good job listening to public comment relating to the plant, Woodruff said agency staff has failed to adequately take public concerns into account in processing Areva's application for a license to build the plant.

""The Nuclear Regulatory Commission works for the industry. Its existence depends on the industry, and so it serves the industry's interest, not the public's interest,"" she said.
Commission representatives declined to comment.

[link to www.utilityproducts.com]

- yep.

Deaf Fish? An Ocean Acidification Update


The cynical out there might suggest that a few deaf clownfish may not be the worst tradeoff for cheap energy, nor something demanding immediate attention.

But another change thanks to more acid in the ocean—a boom in jellyfish populations around the globe—should be more alarming. The rapid growth of jellyfish herds, which thrive in warmer waters, is being attributed to a combination of warming sea temperatures and ocean acidification, both driven by climate change.

As well as making summer beach-going tricky when masses of jellyfish wash up on shores from the Mediterranean to Florida, the jellyfish have also caused the recent shutdowns of three nuclear power plants, in Israel, Scotland, and Japan. The plants suck water out of the ocean for cooling, and though fitted with filtration devices, the "jellies" are overwhelming the systems, causing the plants to shutdown. Desalination plants around the world are suffering similarly.

[link to www.takepart.com]

The meat of cows recently found tainted with radioactive cesium exceeding the provisional legal limit is now known to have been marketed in Tokyo and at least 11 other prefectures, with Akita, Chiba and Hyogo prefectures newly added to the list, according to the Tokyo metropolitan government and other authorities.

Read more: [link to www.ottawacitizen.com]

How safe is U.S. nuclear power?


But the greater concern should be with the bloated NRC, because they are not adequately monitoring the safety concerns. The commission, like a lot of other government agencies over the last 40 years, has been growing exponentially – even though the nuclear power industry itself hasn’t been growing since the Three-Mile Island incident in 1979.

That was the wrong thing to happen, because now we have all of these aging nuclear power plants, and 75 percent of them are leaking tritium into the groundwater. We’ve also lost the continuity of how to upgrade the older plants. We don’t have an industry that knows how to upgrade what’s been aging for the last 40 years. The plants were only built with a lifespan of 40 years, so now what? The NRC has been turning a blind eye to the red lights that have been flashing – they’re kicking the can down the road or lowering the standards that have been around for 40 years. They’ve been relicensing these aging nuclear power plants. There’s been no independent watchdog or auditing for what’s been going on. They’ve lost the managerial oversight that they should be exercising.
[link to www.illinoistimes.com]