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

Hosono to meet Fukui governor over Ohi plant
The government of Japan will send the nuclear crisis minister to Fukui Prefecture to explain that it will take stronger safety measures for the restart of a nuclear power plant.

Nuclear Crisis Minister Goshi Hosono on Monday will meet Fukui Governor Issei Nishikawa.

At issue is whether operation of the Number 3 and 4 reactors of the Ohi plant should be resumed.
[link to www3.nhk.or.jp]
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Gov't panel asked utilities to justify omitting of safety steps
The government's nuclear safety panel on Monday admitted that its working group instructed power utilities in 1992 to "write a composition" on why they need not take measures to deal with a long period of complete loss of power at any nuclear power plant.

A text written by Tokyo Electric Power Co. was included in the report compiled by the working group of the Nuclear Safety Commission, and Japan ended up without measures to counter the loss of key functions to cool nuclear reactors.
[link to english.kyodonews.jp]
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IAEA to hold talks with Iran on Fri.
The head of the UN's nuclear watchdog says the agency will resume talks with Iran this week and hopes to start an investigation of the nation's suspected nuclear weapons development.

International Atomic Energy Agency chief Yukiya Amano delivered the opening speech at the agency's board meeting in Vienna on Monday.

He said the talks between the agency and Iran will resume on June 8th in Vienna.
[link to www3.nhk.or.jp]
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Fukui Gov. seeks Noda's explanation on Oi reactors' restart
Fukui Gov. Issei Nishikawa on Monday requested Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda directly explain the need to restart idled reactors at the Oi nuclear plant in the prefecture.

"It will lead to creating a sense of security among the public if the premier directly declares to citizens that the reactivation (of the reactors) is necessary," Nishikawa said in a meeting with nuclear disaster minister Goshi Hosono, who visited the prefecture to win local consent for the reactors' restart.
[link to english.kyodonews.jp]
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Leading geologist warns of volcano
[link to www.taipeitimes.com]

[snip]

APOCALYPSE MAYBE:A former government scientist has called on the Atomic Energy Council to evaluate the potential impact of volcanos on nuclear plants

40 year utility industry veteran calls for California to embrace nuclear-free future
[link to enformable.com]

[snip]

“San Onofre and Diablo Canyon [California’s other active nuclear plant] are both disasters waiting to happen: aging, unreliable reactors sitting near earthquake fault zones on the fragile Pacific Coast, with millions or hundreds of thousands of Californians living nearby,” Freeman writes, “Anyone who says last year’s catastrophe at Fukushima was an aberration is literally whistling past the graveyard. The risks are real, and it’s time to get rid of these time bombs before they go off.”

U.S. Nuclear Agency Needs Independent Probe, Markey Says
[link to www.bloomberg.com]

[snip]

Markey said NRC employees wrote him to say the agency failed to take appropriate steps to deal with safety issues at the Fort Calhoun plant operated by Omaha Public Power District, and DTE Energy Co. (DTE)’s Fermi station on the shores of Lake Erie in southeast Michigan. Employees also told Markey that the NRC Office of Inspector General has ignored safety issues, he said.

“Every individual who contacted my office expressed concerns that they did not trust the NRC IG to resolve their concerns,” Markey said today in a letter to NRC Chairman Gregory Jaczko. “Suggestions were made that the commission engage a firm such as Conger and Elsea or other organization to conduct an independent investigation.”

A few tens of tones sardines washed up on fishing port in Chiba
[link to fukushima-diary.com]

Yamashita admits he exaggerated the safety of under 100mSv/y
[link to fukushima-diary.com]

Deformed fish is served at Sushi bar
[link to fukushima-diary.com]

Japan's nuclear agency caved to utilities
Officials at Japan's Nuclear Safety Commission say they have found evidence that the agency bowed to pressure from energy companies when it drafted nuclear safety measures more than 20 years ago.

The nuclear watchdog set up a task force in 1991 to study the effects of long-term power loss on nuclear plants.

The Commission says archive documents show that it held closed-door meetings with utilities. The energy officials argued that there was little risk of a power loss. They opposed any concrete rules on how to deal with such an event.

The documents show that the Commission decided not to add power-loss measures to its guidelines. They also reveal that the task force based its report on a draft prepared by the utilities.
[link to www3.nhk.or.jp]
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The same geniuses who defeated the safety factor of having multiple separate high voltage sources for redundancy by running them all to one tower at the plant.. which was knocked down by the tsunami.

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and backup power in a basement lower than the waterline.....

NRC looking to validate a lucrative deal for licensees with operating extensions
[link to enformable.com]

[snip]

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission will be holding a meeting this week to consider having nuclear power plants run 80 years—although they were never seen as running for more than 40 years because of radioactivity embrittling metal parts and otherwise causing safety problems.

“The idea of keeping these reactors going for 80 years is crazy!” declares Robert Alvarez, senior scholar at the Institute for Policy Studies and former senior policy advisor at the U.S, Department of Energy and a U.S. Senate senior investigator. He is also an author of the book Killing Our Own: The Disaster of America’s Experience with Atomic Radiation. “To double the design life of these plants—which operate under high-pressure, high heat conditions and are subject to radiation fatigue—is an example of out-of-control hubris, of believing your own lies.”

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Nuclear Shutdown Means Japan Must Abandon Carbon Emission Targets
[link to oilprice.com]

Fukui governor asks why Oi reactors should be restarted
[link to www.japantimes.co.jp]

POGO Tells Hill Staffers to Think Outside the MOX
[link to pogoblog.typepad.com]

[snip]

The DOE justifies the MOX facility as a way to turn weapons-grade plutonium into mixed oxide fuel, a fuel used for nuclear power plants. However, the DOE has had a difficult time finding customers for the MOX fuel among nuclear reactor operators, which has gradually made the project more expensive and less justifiable over the past eight years.

As Stockton said to a room of congressional staff, “There are alternatives for getting rid of our excess plutonium without MOX,” and “unlike the MOX program, nonproliferation programs like converting highly enriched uranium into low-enriched uranium will reduce security risks, cut government spending, create jobs, and can raise $23 billion in revenue for the Treasury.” Low-enriched uranium can be used for light water reactors, which are a type of thermal reactor.

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Burnt motor of coolant system for reactor4
[link to fukushima-diary.com]

Gas covered reactor 4 on 6/4/2012
[link to fukushima-diary.com]

Coolant system stopped at reactor 4 again, back-up turned on
[link to fukushima-diary.com]

4,800 Bq/Kg of Iodine 131 [Link] was measured from fly incineration ash of Ariake waste incineration plant.
[link to fukushima-diary.com]

Watchdog let utilities justify omitting nuclear plant power supply safety steps
[link to www.japantimes.co.jp]

[snip]

A newly revealed document shows the Nuclear Safety Commission backed a claim by utilities in a 1992 report that no safety measures were needed to deal with a long-term complete power loss at nuclear plants, illustrating they minimized risk assessments together.

Tepco responded that "sufficient safety will be secured" as long as nuclear plants are controlled properly, touching on the reliability of emergency power sources at that time.

The commission adopted Tepco's claim in its guideline and no safety measures for a long power outage were included.
Haruki Madarame, who chaired the commission, apologized over the issue, saying it was inappropriate to have power companies play a part in creating the original guideline draft.

rad network map shows values 50-60 on jetstream boundary now snaking across USA, I check the rad map several times a day, (sometimes it is completely unavailable), but these numbers are the highest across the map in some time (not just individual background level varying) leading me to think there is more radiation up there now then there has been for awhile, keep an eye on it and take due health precautions.

TEPCO to deny inadequate response in final Fukushima nuclear crisis report
[link to mainichi.jp]

[snip]

In its interim report released in December, the government's investigative panel pointed out that TEPCO workers responding to the accident failed to notice that the emergency cooling system in the No. 1 reactor was not functioning as a result of its valve closing following the complete loss of external power sources. The report attributes the failure to the workers' lack of knowledge and proficiency.

Moreover, the interim report criticized workers for manually shutting down the high-pressure coolant injector in the No. 3 reactor that was powered by a battery. "Even though a substitute water injection method was unavailable, they manually stopped the high-pressure injector because they under-estimated the risk of the battery running out of power," and became unable to reduce the pressure inside the reactor, which temporarily prevented water injection into the reactor.

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Turkey aims to build 23 nuclear power units by 2023
[link to news.xinhuanet.com]

South Africa advances ambitious nuclear station plan
[link to news.xinhuanet.com]

BREAKING NEWS: FUKUSHIMA: Formation of a Bacterium Type which Absorbs the Radioactive Substance
They found plutonium and strontium in every sample
[link to www.globalresearch.ca]

[snip]

I send you additional informations about the black substance we talked about yesterday.

There are a bacterium type which likes to absorb the radioactive substance in exuberance everywhere on the paved surfaces in the residential area and at residential houses and they drifts on the side walks, on parkings and on the road.

Cesium for example is highly radioactive and yesterday i saw the result of analysis of Japan Chemical Analysis Center which contain fluid, they found plutonium and strontium in every samples.

Radiation and Mercury in Fish: Should Americans be Concerned?
[link to www.onegreenplanet.org]

[snip]

Seven months after the accident, Japan’s Fisheries Agency reported broad-spread radioactive contamination (up to 100 percent) in fish caught both in Japanese coastal waters and hundreds of miles away.

According to James Waczewski of Florida State University, author of Legal, Political, and Scientific Response to Ocean Dumping, the United States has dumped an estimated 112,000 containers of long-lived radioactive nuclear waste into the Pacific and Atlantic oceans at 30 different sites. A U.S. Senate ruling has since imposed a moratorium on this practice, but nuclear power plants continue to discharge radioactive waste-water into the world’s oceans daily.

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Reconstruction Toll: 438 workers killed or injured
[link to japandailypress.com]

TEPCO defends its handling of nuclear accident
Tokyo Electric Power Company is defending the way it handled the nuclear accident last year, countering criticism by a government panel.

The operator of the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant is due to release its final report on its in-house investigation into the accident by the end of this month. The utility has been hearing from its workers since last June.

Hydrogen explosions occurred at 3 reactor buildings after the March 11th quake and tsunami knocked out almost all of the plant's power sources.

The government panel pointed out in its interim report late last year that, due to a lack of knowledge and poor skills, workers at the No.1 reactor did not know the valves of an emergency cooling system was closed and the system wasn't functioning.
[link to www3.nhk.or.jp]
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DPJ project team advises Noda be cautious about restarting reactors
A Democratic Party of Japan project team addressing the Fukushima nuclear crisis submitted a written request on Tuesday to Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda, urging caution toward restarting the idled reactors at the Oi nuclear power plant in Fukui Prefecture.

"Most people in Japan agree that possible power shortages this summer should be overcome by saving on electricity and mutual supply among utilities," the team said in the request to the premier, signed by 117 ruling party lawmakers, or around one-third of the DPJ parliamentarians.
[link to english.kyodonews.jp]
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Panel projects reliance on nuclear power in 2020 at 0-26%
An advisory panel to the industry minister projected Tuesday that Japan's reliance on nuclear power in proportion to all electricity generated in the country in 2020 would be between zero and 26 percent, panel members said.

Provisional calculations based on the reliance projections show that the change in Japan's carbon dioxide emissions resulting from energy use would be in a range from a 5 percent increase to a 7 percent reduction from the level in 1990.
[link to english.kyodonews.jp]
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Thanks for the heads up.

~
wb

"Oz has to go nuclear, says Adelaide U scientist
Stop worrying, learn to love nuclear power"
Prominent University of Adelaide climate scientist Professor Barry Brook says it’s inevitable that Australia will embrace nuclear energy in the battle against greenhouse gas emissions.

The director of climate science at the university believes that by the end of the century, Australia will need at least 100 gigawatts of electricity coming from nuclear to replace coal, oil and gas sources.

Professor Brook says that given the inevitability of nuclear energy in this country, the current pro-versus-anti nuclear debate needs instead to focus on what kind of nuclear reactor will best serve our needs. His suggestion is that we should be considering IFR – integral fast reactor – technology.
[link to www.theregister.co.uk]
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House preparing to slap Obama administration on Yucca Mountain
[link to thehill.com]

[snip]

The House is expected to approve an amendment as early as Tuesday aimed at forcing the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) to complete its review of the Department of Energy's application for a permit to use Yucca Mountain as a nuclear waste storage site. The amendment will be approved with the support of both parties, going against the Obama administration's desire to close the site.