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

Good luck... only approved questions will be answered/discussed... what a joke... lol...

NRC expanding social outreach efforts with new live chat next week

In 2009, President Obama issued a memorandum to executive agencies which outlined guidance for the use of social media to increase outreach efforts.  In January 2011, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission launched its first official blog.  Over the course of the last few years, the NRC has been working to expand their social media impact.

This week the agency announced that they will be working to expand its social media outreach by launching a new live chat discussion platform on April 30th, which is geared to increase the NRC’s presence on the internet.  The chat is similar to the existing NRC blog, but will feature moderated discussion with NRC experts responding to approved questions.  Questions can be submitted early by sending them to [email protected]. Please put CHAT in the subject line.
[link to enformable.com]
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Here we go again...

Supervisor at Limerick nuclear power plant confirmed positive for alcohol

An employee supervisor at the Limerick nuclear power plant in Pennsylvania confirmed positive for alcohol during a random fitness-for-duty test.  The employee’s access to the site has been restricted.
[link to enformable.com]
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Seems as though these reports have been coming a lot, lately.
So we have a bunch of drunks at the NPPs.

That's just peachy.

They don't want to be subjected to any uncomfortableness..
This industry should be completely transparent, with consideration to security in tech details.
Approved questions is censorship and very close to manipulation.

I don't approve.

They need to man up.

Chernobyl... 27 years ago today...

[link to en.wikipedia.org]

[link to www.world-nuclear.org]

[link to www.dailymail.co.uk]
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Making Fukushima the most under rated on going crisis in the world....

Yeah. No kidding..


FBI: Details remain scant on weekend shooting at Watts Bar nuclear power plant
[link to www.knoxnews.com]

[link to www.bbc.co.uk]


25 April 2013 Last updated at 19:20 ET Share this pageFacebookTwitterEmailPrint
HMS Torbay nuclear submarine evacuated
A nuclear submarine in Devonport dockyard had to be evacuated after a fire broke out while maintenance work was being carried out.

About 55 people had to leave when the fire broke out as welding was being done on the outside of the Trafalgar class submarine, said the Royal Navy.

The "small fire" among protective blankets was put out within five minutes by a fire crew, it said.

The Royal Navy said no-one was injured and an investigation would take place.

It added the submarine had not been damaged.

Early warning system
A Royal Navy spokesman said: "Before the fire service arrived, the fire was put out by a member of the Royal Navy crew in response to an alert by the duty watch.

"In accordance with normal procedure, the submarine was evacuated of crew and contractor workers, numbering about 55.

"They later returned to the submarine after the fire service gave the all-clear having checked the area for further risk of fire.

"The early warning system on board and on-going training of the crew and contractors restricted the fire to a very small event."

He also said the investigation will aim to "learn lessons" to avoid similar incidents.



Meh...

Our collective human consciousness is downright insulting.....

NRC reveals corrosion, cracking in components of spent fuel storage casks
[link to www.theenergydaily.com]

Japan court rejects demand to evacuate Fukushima children
[link to ajw.asahi.com]

[snip]

The unusual lawsuit was filed on behalf of the children by their parents and anti-nuclear activists in June 2011. The Sendai High Court handed down its ruling on April 24.

The case had drawn international attention because it touched the uncertainties about the effects of continuous low-dose radiation on health, especially that of children, who are far more vulnerable than adults.

The lawsuit argued the city of Koriyama had legal responsibility to evacuate children at elementary schools and junior-high schools, which are part of compulsory education under Japanese law.

The court acknowledged radiation in the city exceeded levels deemed safe prior to the disaster. But it said the government shoulders no responsibility for evacuating the schools as demanded--in effect, telling people to leave on their own if they were worried.

podcast_april_24_2013.mp3
[link to www.fairewinds.org]
The US and Japan are trying to raise acceptable radiation exposure limits. "If you can't decrease the water level, you elevate the bridge," says pediatrician and author Dr. Helen Caldicott. On today's podcast, Arnie and Helen discuss the associated health risks of various types of radioactive releases, how regulators and the nuclear industry are downplaying those releases, and the current state of the Fukushima clean up. "The recovery of the site will go nowhere as long as Tokyo Electric is in charge," says Arnie.


“Gross containment failure” of Fukushima reactors — Now we are seeing plutonium far from plant
[link to enenews.com]

[snip]

Now we are seeing heavy isotopes like plutonium out at 20 to 30 kilometers […]

All these are signs of gross containment failure.

LMAO!!!!! I'M Famous!!!!

FB now has my chronology site listed under a spam warning!....

must be doing something right!

South Australia about to open a new Uranium mine....

More lies about Hormesis and radiation being 'good for you'

[link to nuclear-news.net]

Chernobyl marks 27 years since nuclear accident

A memorial ceremony has been held in Ukraine to mark the 27th anniversary of the world's worst nuclear plant accident at Chernobyl.

On April 26th, 1986, an explosion occurred at the plant's No.4 reactor under experimental operation. Ukraine was part of the now-defunct Soviet Union at the time.

The accident released a massive amount of radioactive materials. About 30 plant workers and firefighters died after suffering acute radiation exposure.

The United Nations estimates that about 6,000 children near the plant have developed thyroid cancer.

In the town of Slavutich, people mourned the victims by leaving candles and flowers at a monument on Friday morning. Slavutich is 50 kilometers from the Chernobyl plant and many of the maintenance workers live in the town.

They prayed that the accident will never be repeated.

The damaged reactor was covered with a protective structure made of concrete and metal right after the disaster.

But the so-called stone coffin has deteriorated. The Ukrainian government is building a new shelter with a budget of more than one billion dollars that includes financial support from Japan, the United States and Europe.
[link to www3.nhk.or.jp]
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China, France to boost nuclear power cooperation

Chinese President Xi Jinping and French President Francois Hollande have agreed to bolster bilateral cooperation in nuclear power.

The 2 leaders met in Beijing on Thursday.

They agreed that their nations will boost cooperation in such fields as joint research on nuclear reactors and nuclear fuel. They also concurred that French nuclear energy firm Areva will help China technically to build a plant to reprocess spent nuclear fuel.
[link to www3.nhk.or.jp]
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Court rejects demand to evacuate children from city in Fukushima

TOKYO — A court has rejected a demand that a city affected by the fallout of the country’s 2011 nuclear disaster evacuate its children.

The unusual lawsuit was filed on behalf of the children by their parents and anti-nuclear activists in June 2011. The Sendai High Court handed down its ruling Thursday.

The case had drawn international attention because it touched the uncertainties about the effects of continuous low-dose radiation on health, especially that of children, who are far more vulnerable than adults.
[link to www.japantoday.com]
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Gov't requests TEPCO chairman Shimokobe to stay in post

The government has asked Tokyo Electric Power Co. Chairman Kazuhiko Shimokobe to remain in the post beyond the end of his planned term in June to restructure the utility that has been effectively put under state control, industry minister Toshimitsu Motegi said Friday.

The 65-year-old lawyer assumed the chairmanship in June last year and has been working together with President Naomi Hirose to overcome the financial plight the company is facing after the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant disaster in 2011.
[link to english.kyodonews.jp]
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Steps to halt increase of radioactive water at Fukushima plant studied

A government-appointed panel of experts on Friday started studying ways to prevent more radioactive water from accumulating at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, including a plan to embed walls around the damaged reactor buildings to stop groundwater from entering.

About 400 tons of groundwater seep into the plant every day, flowing into the lengthy and complicated water circulation loop that keeps the plant's damaged reactors cool. In the process, the groundwater becomes contaminated.
[link to english.kyodonews.jp]
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HMS Torbay nuclear submarine evacuated

A nuclear submarine in Devonport dockyard had to be evacuated after a fire broke out while maintenance work was being carried out.

About 55 people had to leave when the fire broke out as welding was being done on the outside of the Trafalgar class submarine, said the Royal Navy.

The "small fire" among protective blankets was put out within five minutes by a fire crew, it said.

The Royal Navy said no-one was injured and an investigation would take place.
[link to www.bbc.co.uk]
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U.S. Senators Seek Comments on Plan to Store Nuclear Waste

In a bid to restart discussion of what to do with the nation's nuclear waste, four U.S. senators today unveiled a draft plan to create a federal agency that would oversee short- and long-term storage of the highly radioactive materials produced primarily by commercial power reactors. The effort follows the Obama administration's decision to abandon a planned centralized waste repository under Yucca Mountain, Nevada, which led to recommendations from a blue ribbon panel assembled by the White House on what to do next.

"Our country can't wait any longer to find a long-term solution for disposing of nuclear waste," said Senator Ron Wyden (D-OR), the chair of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, in a statement. "I'm hopeful the feedback we receive will help us finish the job and allow us to move forward with legislation that puts the U.S. back on the path to safely managing and permanently disposing of the most radioactive wastes."
[link to news.sciencemag.org]
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Images of Dounreay reactor's inside - the first in 50 years

The first footage in 50 years has been taken of what lies inside the UK's first fast breeder nuclear reactor.

Digital cameras were inserted into the reactor housed within Dounreay's dome.

The cameras, designed and manufactured in nearby Wick, recorded images of the internal structures and the breeder fuel matrix.

Dounreay in Caithness was the centre of the UK fast breeder reactor research programme from 1954 until 1994. The site is now being demolished.
[link to www.bbc.co.uk]
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Utility picks new design for proposed North Anna reactor

RICHMOND -- Dominion Virginia Power plans to switch the type of nuclear reactor it would use in its proposed North Anna 3 power plant.
But the Richmond-based utility emphasized that it has not made a decision to build the third reactor at North Anna.

The new-design General Electric-Hitachi reactor would be more economical to buy and simpler — and thus safer — to operate over the unit’s planned 60-year life than existing and competing technologies, the company said.
The company told the Nuclear Regulatory Commission on Thursday that the General Electric Hitachi Economic Simplified Boiling-Water reactor would be “the best solution to the company’s need for future baseload generation” of electricity.
[link to www.dailyprogress.com]
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The whole place is leaking...

Radiation detected from wells at Fukushima Daiichi

The operator of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant says it has newly discovered small amounts of radioactive substances from more than half of the wells set up around underground storage pools.

Tokyo Electric Power Company says radiation was detected on Friday in water from 13 of the 22 wells around 3 storage pools that recently leaked. The wells are located 10 to 20 meters from the pools.

The water contained up to 0.048 becquerels of radioactive substances per cubic centimeter.
[link to www3.nhk.or.jp]
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Slideshow: Fukushima Plant Passed Ultimate Test
[link to www.designnews.com]

[snip]

”In this case, the public got hardly any dose at all,” James F. Stubbins, a professor of nuclear, plasma, and radiological engineering at the University of Illinois, told Design News. “And the workers’ doses were low, too.”



from comments..



In the article "Panic Over Fukushima" by Dr. Muller, as is the case in most articles arguing for the limited harm of radioactivity in Fukushima, he is only accounting for external exposure to gamma radiation based on looking at only one radioactive isotope. In Fukushima we also must account for internal exposure which is being ignored; especially the alpha and beta emitters which are very hard to measure internally. It is in the food, water, meat, milk, fish, rice and air. Cesium 137 is a potassium analogue and goes into muscle while Strontium 90 is a calcium analogue going into bone. It readily concentrates in the food chain. There are many other radionuclides as well that are not featured in these discussions. With Fukushima, we see a huge number of radionuclides and their isotopes as well as many variants due to chemical reactions in the reactors and within nature itself. To compare all of this internal exposure to levels of external exposure in Denver is like comparing apples, to say a Chevrolet or an alder tree. There is no fair comparison. Just a rough and convenient estimate that is good for pro-nuclear opinions.

What to do with Radioactive Waste
[link to www.enn.com]

[snip]

The time frame in question when dealing with radioactive waste ranges from 10,000 to 1,000,000 years, according to studies based on the effect of estimated radiation doses.

"Despite their good intentions, the senators ignored the fact that we have a problem right now with how nuclear plant owners store this highly radioactive waste," said Dave Lochbaum, the director of the Nuclear Safety Project at the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS). "Even under the rosiest scenario, it will take years to site and build an interim storage facility. That means large quantities of nuclear waste will remain at nuclear plants for a long, long time—and three quarters of it is currently crammed in cooling pools rather than stored in dry casks, which are safer."

What’s so bad about the cooling pools? They lack diverse emergency cooling and water makeup systems and most are not protected by robust containment structures. They also rely on electricity, and are thus vulnerable to events leading to power loss, such as flooding and seismic activity, or to terrorist strikes that cause a loss of water from the pool. Loss of cooling could result in fuel damage and a potentially massive radiological release. Such a scenario was a main concern with the nuclear disaster in Fukushima, Japan, in 2011 where the cooling systems for the facility’s pools failed due to lack of power.

The high density of radioactive fuel in the pools is also a concern. More spent fuel in pools increases the heat load and reduces the response time necessary to address problems. Storing less radioactive material in the pools would mean a smaller radiological release in the event of an accident.

Losses from Chernobyl Disaster to Approximate USD 180 Billion in 2015 - Ukrainian President

In order to minimize the economic losses from the disaster which may reach USD 180 billion in 2015, it is important to come up with a comprehensive development program for the regions affected by the Chernobyl Nuclear Power plant explosion in 1986. Such statement was made by the President of Ukraine Viktor Yanukovych during his visit to the plant in Chernobyl on the 27th anniversary of the nuclear disaster. Construction of a new safe confinement is one of the core aspects of converting the zone into an ecologically safe area, reiterated President Yanukovych.

About 2,700 people are still employed at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power plant, despite the fact that the last reactor has been shut down in 2000. The parliament of Ukraine has adopted a program of plant decommissioning which includes four stages: extracting the nuclear fuel (2010-2013), conservation of the reactor systems (2013-2022), decreasing radioactivity of the systems (2022-2045), and dismantling them (2045-2065).
[link to www.nuclearpowerdaily.com]
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Florida Senate Clamps Down On Nuclear Cost Recovery Law

TALLAHASSEE, Fla., April 26, 2013 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The Florida Senate today passed a bill that attempts, for the first time, to address the anti-consumer "early cost recovery" law passed in 2006 that allows the state's big power companies to shift all the financial risk of building new nuclear reactors to its customers. Senate bill 1472 adds procedural steps that require power companies seeking cost recovery from customers to show before the Florida Public Service Commission that the plants are feasible and that projected costs are reasonable. It also disallows a rate of return to power company shareholders on cost recovery if the company abandons a reactor project. The Florida House of Representatives is expected to vote on a similar bill next week.
[link to www.nuclearpowerdaily.com]
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