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

9 industry bodies seek restart of nuclear reactors

Nine industry bodies including the Japan Iron and Steel Federation and the Japan Mining Industry Association called on the government Thursday for the swift restart of nuclear power reactors and steps to alleviate the negative impact of higher electricity charges on their businesses.

The nine jointly submitted a petition to the Economy, Trade and Industry Ministry, warning against a hollowing out of the Japanese economy as a result of hikes in electricity bills.
[link to english.kyodonews.jp]
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i posted it for you.. stop being lazy-son

yup................ sad shit........... more people need to know what they are up to.......... sharing

sewden.. [email protected].... gimmie a call

TEPCO plans to dump water stored at Fukushima Daiichi into Pacific

TEPCO has announced that it plans to dump contaminated water into the Pacific Ocean after processing it to reduce radioactive materials to legally permissible levels.  By “processing”, TEPCO means once-high radioactive content has been reduced considerably, but not completely.

The plant has already released enormous amounts of highly contaminated water directly into the ocean from a plethora of leaks from the reactor buildings.  Outside experts are seriously concerned about the contaminated water that is released, and have warned there may well be lasting impact on the environment.
[link to enformable.com]
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Will France Give Up Its Role as a Nuclear Powerhouse?

The country, which gets most of its electricity from nuclear power, is debating whether to wean itself from that dependency.

A council appointed by French President François Hollande is kicking off a government-sponsored nationwide debate that could shift France’s energy system from nuclear to renewable energy. It is a dramatic development in light of France’s outsized investment in nuclear energy: the country produces more nuclear energy than any country other than the United States, and it relies on reactors for more than three-quarters of its power generation, a higher rate than any other country.
[link to www.technologyreview.com]
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Fort Calhoun Nuclear Plant – A 2013 Update

As we turn the page on a new year, the NRC is watching closely as the operators of the Fort Calhoun nuclear plant, located in Omaha, Neb., are working around the clock in hopes of returning the plant to service. It remains to be seen if the NRC is convinced the efforts of the Omaha Public Power District’s (OPPD) are sufficient.

The plant has been powered down since April 9, 2011, for a refueling outage. The outage was extended due to historic flooding along the Missouri River followed by an electrical fire that led to an “Alert” declaration and further restart complications.
[link to public-blog.nrc-gateway.gov]
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How was it,
they can remove 99% of the Caesium
but not the Strontium 90?

yes sad indeed..... said words to that effect to the wife when it hit the msm yesterday.....

they can't... it is all smoke and mirrors.. they have reached the half life of caesium.... the strontium is a half life of 30 years..... sad news indeed... not at all unlikely as they have nothing else they can do with it... but grave news for the future of our children....

Last Edited by CitizenPerth™ on 01/24/2013 10:34 PM

<snip>

Secret UK uranium components plant closed over safety fears

Exclusive: regulators report steel corrosion at Aldermaston plant, which makes enriched uranium components for nuclear warheads
Share514



Rob Edwards

The Guardian, Thursday 24 January 2013 16.43 GMT

A top-secret plant at Aldermaston that makes enriched uranium components for Britain's nuclear warheads and fuel for the Royal Navy's submarines has been shut down because corrosion has been discovered in its "structural steelwork", the Guardian can reveal.

The closure has been endorsed by safety regulators who feared the building did not conform to the appropriate standards. The nuclear safety watchdog demands that such critical buildings are capable of withstanding "extreme weather and seismic events", and the plant at Aldermaston failed this test.

It has set a deadline of the end of the year for the problems to be fixed.

Although the closed plant has not been officially named for national security reasons, the Guardian understands it is known as A45. It makes enriched uranium components for Trident nuclear warheads and has recently been helping to make the uranium fuel for the Astute generation of nuclear-powered submarines.

The Ministry of Defence insisted it had contingency plans to cover the loss of the plant, but prolonged closure could force the government to buy materials from the US to ensure there is no disruption to Britain's nuclear weapons programme.


<end snip>


please feel free to find another source for this link as the page is banned here on forum :)

shared [link to fukushimaemergencywhatcanwedo.blogspot.com.au]

Former TEPCO chief questioned on suspicion of negligence

TOKYO — Japanese prosecutors have questioned the former head of the operator of the Fukushima nuclear power plant on suspicion of negligence over the nuclear crisis, local media reported Thursday.

Tsunehisa Katsumata, who was Tokyo Electric Power Co (TEPCO) chairman when the plant was crippled by the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami, was questioned on a “voluntary basis,” news agencies, dailies and TV networks said.

Investigators in Fukushima and Tokyo were acting on a criminal complaint filed last year by a group of citizens against about 40 people including Katsumata and former TEPCO President Masataka Shimizu, the reports said.
[link to www.japantoday.com]
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One of heaviest reactor parts moved to Plant Vogtle site

One of the largest and heaviest reactor components for Plant Vogtle’s nuclear power expansion has arrived at the Burke County site, unloaded and stored, according to Georgia Power Co. officials.

The reactor vessel head, weighing 160 tons, serves as the “lid” of the Unit 3 reactor and will be bolted to the even-larger reactor vessel body – a 300-ton component that remains in Savannah, Ga., awaiting shipment to the site aboard a specially built rail car.
Both components are made from steel and were built in South Korea and shipped to the Port of Savannah.
[link to chronicle.augusta.com]
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Number of foreign visitors to Japan hits 2nd highest level in 2012

The estimated number of foreign visitors to Japan in 2012 rose 34.6 percent from the previous year to 8,368,000, reaching the second-highest level since comparable data began to be compiled in 1964, the Japan National Tourism Organization said Friday.

The figure, following the record of 8,611,000 in 2010, shows Japanese tourism has almost recovered from the impact of the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami. Lower airfares due to the market entry of budget airlines also contributed to the rise in foreign visitors, the organization said.
[link to english.kyodonews.jp]
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Radioactive cesium in calves found higher than mothers after Fukushima Daiichi disaster

After the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster released enormous amounts of radiation into the environment, scientists and researchers in Japan began monitoring the concentration of Cesium-134 and Cesium-137 in the organs of 79 abandoned cattle within a 20 kilometer radius of the nuclear power plant.

Over 3,000 cows, 30,000 pigs, and 625,000 chickens were left behind in the 20 kilometer area after the disaster.  On May 12th, 2011, the Japanese government ordered Fukushima Prefecture to euthanize the cattle in the evacuation zone, but this was not strictly followed.

All of the samples tested were positive for Cs-134 and Cs-137.
[link to enformable.com]
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World's biggest nuclear plant may shut: report

The largest nuclear power plant in the world may be forced to shut down under tightened rules proposed by Japan's new nuclear watchdog aimed at safeguarding against earthquakes, a report said Friday.

Fukushima operator Tokyo Electric Power's vast Kashiwazaki-Kariwa plant in central Japan could be on the chopping block if the Nuclear Regulation Authority expands the definition of an active fault.

The movement of a fault - a crack in the earth's crust - can generate massive earthquakes like the one that sparked a tsunami that slammed into the Fukushima Daiichi plant in March 2011, setting off the worst atomic crisis in a generation.
[link to www.timeslive.co.za]
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i know :(

Reassessing the health effects of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear accident
There are a number of factors that have to be considered when assessing the health effects of radiation exposure: for example land decontamination efforts, size of evacuation area, shielding by buildings and terrain and consumption of contaminated food.

Jan Beyea, from the US expert consulting service Consulting in the Public Interest, together with fellow colleagues has been analysing previous calculations of the subsequent nuclear accident in Japan, and believes that the number of predicted future mortalities from cancer is higher than originally predicted. ‘Health consequences predicted for the Fukushima Daiichi accident are dominated by "groundshine" gamma radiation from the decay over several decades of dispersed radioactive caesium. Although an individual's risk is small, the mid-range, predicted number of future mortalities from cancer is closer to 1000 than the 125 figure calculated without considering long-term groundshine [gamma radiation emitted from radioactive materials deposited on the ground].’
[link to www.rsc.org]

Stay on the nonnuclear path
In addition, if nuclear power plants resume operation, storage facilities for spent nuclear fuel will soon be full, and there is no technology that can guarantee the long-term safe storage of highly radioactive nuclear waste.

Deep underground disposal of such waste poses serious environmental and ethical problems for future generations. Nobody can know the durability — in 100, 1,000 or 10,000 years — of the materials used to encase high-level radioactive waste stored in geological layers.

It is unrealistic to go back to the situation that prevailed before the Fukushima disaster. Given the prevalence of earthquakes, the government should end its traditional policy of establishing large-scale power plants, nuclear or nonnuclear, in depopulated areas, and instead promote a policy of establishing many small-scale power plants utilizing green energy sources across the nation in combination with smart grids, so that electricity will be transmitted in a stable and efficient manner.
[link to www.japantimes.co.jp]

No Longer a Rational Option
Californians have long anticipated and prepared for “the big one,” a mega-thrust earthquake that could strike the west coast at any time. Because our lovely coastline is located within the Pacific “ring of fire” earthquake zone, we live with the possibility that a major earth-shaking event could disrupt our lives at any time. We also remain exposed to a greater disaster than nature is likely to provide. What would happen if “the big one’ caused the release of large amounts of radioactive materials from PG&E’s Diablo Canyon nuclear power plant?

To the east of Diablo Canyon, in the direction of the prevailing wind, lies the San Joaquin Valley, California’s breadbasket. Over 25% of the food that passes across America’s dinner tables comes from the central, growing valley. If, somehow, whether caused by nature or accident, Diablo Canyon were to lose containment, we would be rendered helpless as large radioactive clouds rose into the sky. Sea-breezes would carry these toxic plumes eastward into the Valley. No one is going to want to buy produce that’s been contaminated with radioactive cesium, strontium, and iodine. With drought and heat waves destroying much of America’s 2012 corn crop, can we afford to lose California’s agricultural jewel to a nuclear accident?

Additionally, the drinking water for millions of men, women, and children flows from the Sierra Mountains through the Central Valley and into cities that stretch from the Bay Area to Southern California. Nobody is going to knowingly drink water that’s been laced with radioactive isotopes.
[link to www.independent.com]

whilst all of your recent threads are plauasble, you fail to speak of the 24/7/365 releases from the fukshima disaster, that is still not under control, nor the fact that the iodine has reached half life, and it ok'd to leach choriumand highly radioctive water into the ocean... as the iodine has reached, again its half life.. how is that globally responsible?.. i have already argued you against a wall with the melt through.. indeed.. the ground water is now septic.... what is being done there?.. and what excuse rather than the fact that it is occuring anyway?.. out of excuses.. you put 0% radioactivewater into the oceans.. they are not tepcos..........

Last Edited by CitizenPerth™ on 01/25/2013 01:01 PM

@Cploerb,
you still don't realize the Situation in F'Shima,
this People need to react and cant focus
on Mind- and Thought Games!

The ongoing Release sounds huge but it
is only a very small fraction of the already
released Radiation, all we can do is to
wait and may pray that no other big Quake
happen!

The Situation in Daiichi is more or less under
Control, they can in- and decrease the Heat,
the Pressure and the Waterflow, this are the
Vital Functions of a Nuclear Plant!

The Water is nearly free of nuclear
Materials, according to the Files they can
remove more than 99% of the Radioactive
Stuff and the rest is not that dangerous,
it is not welcomed by me but ...............!

I am very happy that many Scenarios didn't
happened, so many Fraggles here talked so
much about a Hydro-Caesium Explosion,
a China Syndrome or a falling Pool,
all this was and is not happening (at the moment)
and i celebrate this!

Let us hope that the next Accident will be
not much more bad!

Fukushima Accident 2011
In unit 1 most of the core - as corium comprised of melted fuel and control rods - was assumed to be in the bottom of the RPV, but later it appeared that it had mostly gone through the bottom of the RPV and eroded about 65 cm into the drywell concrete below (which is 2.6 m thick). This reduced the intensity of the heat and enabled the mass to solidify.

Much of the fuel in units 2 & 3 also apparently melted to some degree, but to a lesser extent than in unit 1, and a day or two later. In mid May the unit 1 core would still be producing 1.8 MW of heat, and units 2 & 3 would be producing about 3.0 MW each.

In unit 2, water injection using the steam-driven back-up water injection system failed on Monday 14th, and it was about six hours before a fire pump started injecting seawater into the RPV. Before the fire pump could be used RPV pressure had to be relieved via the wetwell, which required power and nitrogen, hence the delay. Meanwhile the reactor water level dropped rapidly after back-up cooling was lost, so that core damage started about 8 pm, and it is now provisionally understood that much of the fuel then melted and probably fell into the water at the bottom of the RPV about 100 hours after the scram. Pressure was vented on 13th and again on 15th, and meanwhile the blowout panel near the top of the building was opened to avoid a repetition of unit 1 hydrogen explosion. Early on Tuesday 15th, the pressure suppression chamber under the actual reactor seemed to rupture, possibly due to a hydrogen explosion there, and the drywell containment pressure inside dropped. However, subsequent inspection of the suppression chamber did not support the rupture interpretation. Later analysis suggested that a leak of the PCV developed on Tuesday 15th.

In Unit 3, the main back-up water injection system failed at 11 am on Saturday 12th and early on Sunday 13th, water injection using the high pressure system failed also and water levels dropped dramatically. RPV pressure was reduced by venting steam into the wetwell, allowing injection of seawater using a fire pump from just before noon. Early on Sunday venting the suppression chamber and containment was successfully undertaken. It is now understood that core damage started about 9 am and much or all of the fuel melted on the morning of Sunday 13th and possibly fell into the water at the bottom of the RPV, or was retained on the core support plate within the shroud.
[link to www.world-nuclear.org]
(updated 10 January 2013)

I see there was discussion again on needing verification of melt through. I found this to be a nice summary.

Last Edited by Southern OR on 01/25/2013 09:00 PM

@ Southern OR,
i used exactly the same Article but Cploerb
do not believe it but he failed to show us
any proof instead he repeaded Gossip!

Photos indicate imminent N.Korea nuclear test

US researchers say new satellite imagery indicates North Korea appears to be at a continued state of readiness for a nuclear test.

The North has indicated that it is set to carry out its third nuclear test.

A research group at Johns Hopkins University posted online a satellite photo and its analysis on Friday of the Poongkye-ri nuclear test site. The image was taken on Wednesday.
[link to www3.nhk.or.jp]
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Japanese firms enter wind power business in Europe

Japanese companies are working with European firms in a series of offshore wind-power generation projects in Europe.

Mitsubishi Corporation recently reached agreement with Holland's Eneco to acquire 50 percent of the rights to build and operate a wind farm off the Dutch coast.

The companies intend to install more than 40 turbines by August, 2015 that will be able to generate up to 130,000 kilowatts of electricity.

Mitsubishi is planning to take part in projects in other European countries as well.
[link to www3.nhk.or.jp]
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Nuclear Regulatory Commission delays decision on San Onofre restart

According to an updated timeline posted on the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s website, a decision to restart the San Onofre Unit 2 reactor has been delayed until the end of May.

According to Victor Dricks, a NRC spokesperson, the NRC needs additional time to conduct more on-site inspections at the plant.

Both Unit 2 and Unit 3 have been offline since January 2012, and it seems unlikely that Unit 3 will ever return to service.
[link to enformable.com]
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