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

THREE MILE ISLAND - FLOOD BARRIER SEALS COULD NOT BE VERIFIED INSTALLED
On August 10, 2012 during an inspection in the Air Intake Tunnel, six 4-inch conduits that carry cabling from yard vaults through the Air Intake Tunnel (AIT) to the Auxiliary Building (AB) were inspected for flood seals. This was done by opening the conduit seals bottom drain openings to inspect the condition by boroscope. These seal components are just inside the AIT from the electrical vaults. During the inspections no sealant could be readily identified.
[link to www.nucpros.com]
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MILLSTONE - TECHNICAL SPECIFICATION REQUIRED SHUTDOWN DUE TO ULTIMATE HEAT SINK EXCEEDING TEMPERATURE LIMIT
Millstone Unit 2 reported that it is in a technical specification shutdown condition based on the ultimate heat sink average water temperature exceeding a temperature limit of 75 degrees Fahrenheit. The ultimate heat sink is supplied by water from Niantic Bay. At the time of this report, the bay water temperature is slightly below the 75 degree temperature limit but the time average calculation for the ultimate heat sink temperature limit still exceeds 75 degrees.
[link to www.nucpros.com]
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CALVERT CLIFFS - TECHNICAL SPECIFICATION SHUTDOWN DUE TO FULLY INSERTED CONTROL ROD WHILE OPERATING
Calvert Cliff Nuclear Power Plant, Unit 1 Control Element Assembly (CEA) #9 fully inserted (CEA dropped) into the core. Technical Specification 3.1.5, Action B was entered and requires the CEA to be realigned within 2 hours. With this action not met Technical Specification 3.1.5, Action C requires the Unit be placed in Mode 3 within 6 hours. A plant shutdown has been initiated in accordance with this Technical Specification.
[link to www.nucpros.com]
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[Reactor4] Exposure dose to remove the lid of PCV4 was 7.8 timers higher than new fuel from SFP4

Tepco removed the lid of PCV4 on 8/10/2012. It’s supposed to be a part of the entire removal process of spent fuel assemblies in SFP4, but Tepco did not announce more specific reason to remove it.

They are to remove the lid of RPV4 by early October.

The exposure dose of the workers was remarkable. 36 workers were involved and the highest reading of the exposure dose was 0.39 mSv for 15 minutes work. It’s 1.56 mSv/h.

Tepco estimated the exposure dose would be 0.8 mSv/d, which is only 0.03 mSv/h.

The actual exposure dose was 52 times higher than estimated.

by the way, according to Tepco’s announcement, there was no fuel in PCV4 supposedly.
[link to fukushima-diary.com]

Last Edited by CitizenPerth™ on 08/13/2012 05:37 PM

Nothing to see here.. No problem. Look away.


Calvert Cliffs nuke plant shuts down one unit after control rod malfunctions
[link to www.washingtonpost.com]

[snip]

The operators of the Calvert Cliffs nuclear power plant shut down one of the plant’s two nuclear reactors on Sunday after a control rod accidentally dropped entirely into the core where fission occurs, a spokesman for the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission said Monday.

When an unplanned drop occurs, however, the fission process can become imbalanced and “pose challenges” for the plant operator, Sheehan said. Such a malfunction also requires operators to shut the reactor down within six hours, he said.

It was running hot.. so they prolonged it as long as they could before shutting down..?



UPDATE: Dominion Shuts Down Nuclear-Power Unit After Cooling Water Warms
[link to www.nasdaq.com]

[snip]

U.S. officials reported last week that July was the hottest month on record for the contiguous U.S., reaching an average temperature of 77.6 degrees.

Dominion had been aware of warming temperatures in the sound for several days. Hoping to avoid a shut-down, Dominion asked U.S. regulators for permission to average the readings of three temperature gauges, rather than rely on the highest reading of just one gauge to determine whether a shut-down was necessary.

Dominion received approval to do so, but eventually the average readings on all three gauges rose above 75 degrees.

'Severe abnormalities' found in Fukushima butterflies
[link to www.bbc.co.uk]

[snip]

Six months later, they again collected adults from the 10 sites and found that butterflies from the Fukushima area showed a mutation rate more than double that of those found sooner after the accident.

The team concluded that this higher rate of mutation came from eating contaminated food, but also from mutations of the parents' genetic material that was passed on to the next generation, even though these mutations were not evident in the previous generations' adult butterflies.

Russia to send new expedition to study post-Fukushima radiation levels around Sea of Japan
[link to enformable.com]

and so it will bio-accumulate right down the chain to.. you guessed it... us.....

that's the reason we see no real data, bring it on down the track and call it cancer....

More than 1,000 bonitos found dead in Wakayama western Japan
[link to fukushima-diary.com]

Residential district accumulates radiation
[link to fukushima-diary.com]

just spoke with mochizuki.. helping him with auto repeat of data... he's getting 3000+ tweets to and from per day.... crashing his system.. guess we're not the only ones still interested

Last Edited by CitizenPerth™ on 08/13/2012 09:00 PM

Russia to send new expedition to study post-Fukushima radiation levels around Sea of Japan

-- snip --
The Russian scientists will take round the clock measurements of airborne radionuclides, measure gamma radiation levels above the surface, and take samples from various depths of water, which will be tested for Cesium, Strontium, Plutonium, and Tritium.

[link to enformable.com]

Govt. to survey Fukushima disaster zone pet owners
The Japanese government plans to ask evacuees from around the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant to decide whether they will take back pets they were forced to leave behind.

The Environment Ministry picked up about 750 dogs and cats in the no-entry zone and transported them to safety after the disaster. The pets were abandoned when their owners were ordered to evacuate in March last year.

Some animals have since been returned to their owners, but about 300 remain unclaimed. This is because some owners fear their pets may be contaminated with radiation. Others say they cannot afford to keep pets while living in shelters.

Several hundred more dogs and cats are believed to still remain in the no-entry zone.
[link to www3.nhk.or.jp]
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NHK poll: Opinions split on nuclear power
An NHK poll shows that public opinion is mixed when it comes to deciding how much Japan should depend on nuclear power as a source of energy.

NHK conducted the poll over the weekend and received responses from 1,046 people.

The respondents were asked to choose from 3 options the government has presented for the nation's dependence on nuclear energy as of 2030 -- zero percent, around 15 percent, or between 20 and 25 percent.

The results show that 36 percent favor the zero option -- up 2 points from last month, while 39 percent chose the middle option -- a drop of one point. 15 percent of respondents chose the highest option, up 3 points from last month.
[link to www3.nhk.or.jp]
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Water leak found at Fukushima Daiichi plant
Tokyo Electric Power Company has reported a radioactive water leak at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant's Number 4 reactor.

The utility says a worker patrolling on Tuesday morning found water one-centimeter deep across a 350-square-meter room on the first floor of the turbine building.

The water apparently comes from a pipe running along a corridor outside the room. The pipe carries contaminated water from the adjacent Number 3 reactor to a storage facility.

Workers later detected radioactive cesium at about 77,000 becquerels per milliliter in the water. TEPCO says there is no evidence the water has escaped into the environment.

Also on Tuesday morning, TEPCO workers found white smoke rising from a pump in a storeroom. The room houses equipment to filter radioactive substances from water. The workers used an extinguisher to put out the fire. The company is investigating the cause.
[link to www3.nhk.or.jp]
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Duke Says No Decision to Fix or Shut Florida Reactor
Duke Energy Corp. (DUK) hasn’t made a decision yet on whether to repair or retire its Crystal River 3 nuclear reactor, idle for almost three years after cracks were discovered.

The company is completing engineering studies, determining what it can recover from insurance and whether it will be able to renew the license for the plant, Duke Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Jim Rogers told the Florida Public Service Commission at a hearing in Tallahassee today. Rogers said on Aug. 2 that the cost of repairing the plant 80 miles (130 kilometers) north of Tampa, Florida, was “trending up” from a 2011 estimate of $900 million to $1.3 billion.
[link to www.nucpros.com]
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Byron Station, Unit 1 LER: Containment Area Radiation Monitors Inoperable for Longer than Allowed by Technical Specifications Due to Inadequate Procedure Controls
In accordance with Technical Specifications (TS) 3.3.6, DContainment Ventilation Isolation Instrumentation, the setpoints for the containment Area Radiation (AR) monitors 1/2AR011J and 1/2AR012J are required to be set less than or equal to 10 mR!hr above the background radiation level in containment The procedural controls for installing these setpoints for these monitoring channels did not account for the lowering background radiation level that occurs while reactor power is being reduced. Consequentty, during a power reduction, with the setpoint constant and background levels reducing, the TS setpoint limit of being less than or equal to 10 mR/hr above background would be exceeded and would make the channel inoperable.
[link to www.nucpros.com]
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Xcel shuts down 2 Minn. nuclear reactors
[link to minnesota.publicradio.org]

How the decisions are made on extending the life of nuclear reactors
[link to www.wksu.org]

Tritium found in testing at Nine Mile Point Unit 1
[link to www.syracuse.com]

Lessons Not Learned from Fukushima Daiichi
[link to www.fairewinds.com]

Delayed use of seawater to cool the Fukushima Daiichi Unit 2 reactor may have ensured meltdown
[link to enformable.com]

The biological impacts of the Fukushima nuclear accident on the pale grass blue butterfly
[link to www.nature.com]

[snip]

The collapse of the Fukushima Dai-ichi Nuclear Power Plant caused a massive release of radioactive materials to the environment.

We conclude that artificial radionuclides from the Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant caused physiological and genetic damage to this species.

Heat wave shuts down US nuclear reactor
A record heat wave in the United States has led to a reactor shutdown at a nuclear power plant after its cooling water became too warm.

The operator of the Millstone Nuclear Power Station in the state of Connecticut says it shut down one of two reactors on Monday evening.

The utility says the temperature of seawater used to cool the turbine and other equipment rose beyond the safety limit of 23.8 degrees Celsius.

The utility also says a reactor shutdown of this kind is the first since the plant began operating in 1975.
[link to www3.nhk.or.jp]
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Already reported but it's worth a repeat...

Fukushima caused mutant butterflies, say scientists
TOKYO — Genetic mutations have been found in three generations of butterflies from near Japan’s crippled Fukushima nuclear plant, scientists said Tuesday, raising fears radiation could affect other species.

Around 12% of pale grass blue butterflies that were exposed to nuclear fallout as larvae immediately after the tsunami-sparked disaster had abnormalities, including smaller wings and damaged eyes, researchers said.

The insects were bred in a laboratory outside the fallout zone and 18% of their offspring displayed similar problems, said Joji Otaki, associate professor at Ryukyu University in Okinawa.

The figure rose to 34% in the third generation of butterflies, he said, even though one parent from each coupling was from an unaffected population.

The researchers also collected another 240 butterflies in Fukushima in September last year, six months after the disaster. Abnormalities were recorded in 52 percent, which was “a dominantly high ratio”, Otaki told AFP.
[link to www.japantoday.com]
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Industry ministry eyeing budget for research on nuclear waste
The industry ministry is considering including in its budget request for fiscal 2013 funds to carry out research on the disposal of spent nuclear fuel deep underground, sources close to the matter said Tuesday.
[link to english.kyodonews.jp]

Bad idea in a country with so many quakes...
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Doesn't hurt to have different reports. A lot of times the information is enhanced in a later edition..

This is significant as the first scientific report detailing proof of radiation induced mutation as a direct result of the 'Fiasco at Fuku'.

Tapping the ocean for electricity
Japanese firms are seeking new sources of energy in the ocean's currents. Their aim is to develop more stable alternatives to solar and wind power, which are affected by weather.

Major machinery maker IHI Corporation is working with the University of Tokyo and other partners.

They plan to place a propeller 40 meters in diameter under water to convert the energy of the currents into electricity.

The group will start testing the propeller in a large tank next month, aiming for commercial application by 2020.
[link to www3.nhk.or.jp]
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Video shows delay in using seawater to cool meltdown reactor
TOKYO — Tokyo Electric Power Co (TEPCO) hesitated before using corrosive seawater to cool the No. 2 reactor at the stricken Fukushima Daiichi plant because it hoped it could be used again, video released by the company shows, contradicting official findings.

The plant, run by TEPCO, was struck by an earthquake and tsunami on March 11 last year, crippling cooling systems and triggering fuel rod meltdowns and radiation leaks that led to mass evacuations and widespread contamination.

The video, one of dozens of fraught vignettes of officials and plant workers grappling with the nuclear disaster, flies in the face of TEPCO assertions that executives didn’t delay in using seawater.

The grainy video clips, mostly without sound, provide a picture of the chaos that characterized the early phase of the disaster as workers used everything from car batteries to fire hoses to try to bring the reactors under control as radiation levels rose and explosions rocked the site.

“We think using seawater in a hasty way would be wasteful because materials will be corroded,” an unidentified company official at TEPCO headquarters in Tokyo is heard telling then plant manager Masao Yoshida two days after the quake.

“We don’t have the option to use fresh water. That will cause further delays,” Yoshida replies, emphasizing there was no time to find enough fresh water to do the job.
[link to www.japantoday.com]
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Germany arrests 4 for supplying Iran reactor parts
BERLIN — German prosecutors say they have arrested one German man and three German-Iranian dual nationals on suspicion they supplied Iran with parts needed to build a nuclear reactor in violation of the country's trade embargo on such items.
[link to www.nucpros.com]
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