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

Reactor Shut Down for Inspection at Calvert Cliffs
Constellation Energy Nuclear Group said it has shut down one of two reactors at its Calvert Cliffs plant in southern Maryland after a malfunction caused a drop in power generation.

A spokesman said Monday that a control rod unexpectedly dropped into the reactor core. Control rods are used to regulate the pace of the nuclear reaction.
[link to www.nbcwashington.com]
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POINT BEACH: UNIT 1 MANUALLY TRIPPED IN ANTICIPATION OF AN AUTOMATIC TURBINE TRIP
Unit 1 Manual Reactor Trip was initiated in anticipation of an auto turbine trip due to operators noticing the turbine governor valves closing in response to an Electro-Hydraulic Control System signal. All Control Rods are fully inserted. The RCS is being cooled by forced flow (reactor coolant pumps).
[link to www.nucpros.com]
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PRAIRIE ISLAND: TECHNICAL SPECIFICATION REQUIRED SHUTDOWN BASED ON BOTH EMERGENCY DIESELS BEING DECLARED INOPERABLE

Prairie Island Unit 1 is currently being shutdown per Tech Spec 3.8.1.F due to both Diesel Generators inoperable for Unit 1.
[link to www.nucpros.com]
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Environmental disaster on Louisiana bayou highlights radioactive hazards of oil and gas drilling
[link to www.southernstudies.org]

Generator failures at nuclear power plant ‘very troubling’
[link to www.examiner.com]

TEPCO workers in Fukushima distressed by abuse after nuclear disaster

Hundreds of Tokyo Electric Power Co. employees at the Fukushima No. 1 and No. 2 nuclear power plants suffered psychological distress two to three months after the nuclear disaster last year.

A recent study found that more than 40 percent of the workers were affected, mainly as a result of personal attacks from people who considered them responsible for causing the crisis at the No. 1 plant, according to researchers led by Jun Shigemura, a psychiatrist at the National Defense Medical College, and Takeshi Tanigawa, a professor of public health at Ehime University.

“Discrimination still exists,” Shigemura said. “Unjust and excessive personal attacks against individual nuclear plant workers could even hinder (the plant’s) recovery.”

The team carried out a survey of all 1,760 TEPCO employees working at the Fukushima No. 1 and No. 2 plants in May and June of 2011. Of those, 1,495, or 85 percent, responded.
[link to ajw.asahi.com]

Ohi No.4 reactor begins commercial operation
Another reactor at the Ohi nuclear power plant in central Japan has returned to full commercial operation.

The reactor had been in test-run mode since operator Kansai Electric Power Company began to generate power at full capacity on July 25th.

Japan's Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency told the utility on Thursday that the No.4 reactor is operating safely after completing a final 2-day check on the facility.

Last month, the plant's No.3 and No.4 reactors became the nation's first to resume operation since the Fukushima accident. The reactors had been shut down for routine inspection.
[link to www3.nhk.or.jp]
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Toshiba eyes nuclear power alliance
TOKYO — Toshiba plans to sell some of its controlling stake in nuclear-power unit Westinghouse Electric as it looks to form an alliance to tap demand in emerging markets, reports said on Tuesday.

The Japanese engineering giant, which holds about 67% of Westinghouse, said it would sell as much as 16% of the U.S. firm to buyers with a foothold in nations eager to build nuclear plants, after demand in post-Fukushima Japan fell away.

“While keeping our stake at more than 50%, we are considering selling the rest to a potential partner,” Toshiba spokesman Atsushi Ido told Dow Jones Newswires.
[link to www.japantoday.com]
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More regarding SOR's post above...

Fukushima workers develop more mental problems due to discrimination
Tokyo Electric Power Co. employees at the crisis-hit Fukushima Daiichi plant and nearby Fukushima Daini complex developed depression and other mental illnesses two times more due to discriminatory treatment accorded to them, research showed Wednesday.

The Ehime University-National Defense Medical College survey between May and June last year found that 191 employees, or 12.8 percent, of the 1,495 polled received discriminatory treatment, such as being unable to rent apartments or being denied medical service, because they had engaged in reconstruction work at the two plants in the wake of the nuclear crisis sparked by the March 11, 2011, earthquake-tsunami disaster.

Those who received ill treatment, also including verbal abuse at evacuation centers, contracted mental problems at a rate two times higher than those who did not, according to the finding.
[link to english.kyodonews.jp]
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I'm starting to like her..


Nuclear Regulator Ticks Off Her Wish List
[link to green.blogs.nytimes.com]

[snip]

If Nuclear Regulatory Commission documents are going to continue to be so full of hard-to-understand acronyms, they should begin with an L.O.A. (That’s “List of Acronyms,” she explained dryly. Nobody at the agency with whom she has spoken understood that acronym about acronyms, Dr. Macfarlane said.)

10% of aphid in Fukushima are deformed “Normally it’s less than 1%.”
[link to fukushima-diary.com]

'Traces of uranium found in underground water in Punjab'
[link to www.hindustantimes.com]

Council 'risking a riot' over Romney Marsh nuclear dump secrecy
[link to www.thisiskent.co.uk]

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Swedish, Finnish Reactors Operating at 61% Today
[link to www.bloomberg.com]

Tel Aviv readies underground parking lots as bomb shelters
[link to news.xinhuanet.com]

Paladin signs long-term uranium supply deal
[link to www.neimagazine.com]

[snip]

The prepayment of $200 million is to be paid in tranches and completed by 31 January 2013, according to Paladin. The unnamed utility will hold security over 60.1% of Paladin’s Michelin project in Canada, Paladin said.

Sellafield fire safety risk
[link to www.whitehavennews.co.uk]

Summertime... maintenance and repairs... always done during summertime in the Nordic countries, we need the full capacity during the winter...
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Got'cha. Gets a little chilly..

MONTICELLO - SAFETY SYSTEM OVERPRESSURE PROTECTION FAILURE DUE TO CLOSED VALVES

At 2045 [CDT] on 8/14/12, MNGP [Monticello Nuclear Generating Plant] Operations determined that valves RHR-82 and RHR-84 had been inappropriately closed as part of an isolation clearance order for work on shutdown cooling suction piping. These valves are required to be open to provide overpressure protection for RHR piping passing through primary containment penetration X-12.
[link to www.nucpros.com]
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Nuclear engineers picket Ontario reactors
Striking nuclear engineers from SNC-Lavalin Group Inc's Candu Energy subsidiary escalated their dispute with the company on Wednesday, setting up picket lines at Ontario reactors for the first time and delaying shift changes at the plants.

The reactors' operators, Bruce Power and Ontario Power Generation, both said the pickets do not threaten safe operations at their facilities.
[link to www.nucpros.com]
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Dispute advances over $950M in cost overruns at Plant Vogtle
Georgia Power says a dispute over who must pay for more than $950 million in cost overruns at the site of Plant Vogtle’s new reactors has advanced to formal dispute resolution and could affect the project’s completion schedule, reports The Augusta Chronicle.

Southern Co. (NYSE: SO) – whose subsidiary Georgia Power owns 45.7 percent of the nuclear project near Augusta– said in a quarterly financial report filed last week with the Securities and Exchange Commission, it has not agreed to adjustments proposed by the contractor consortium that includes Westinghouse and Stone & Webster Inc., the newspaper reports.
[link to www.nucpros.com]

In the end it will be the taxpayers that will have to pay...
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It boggles my mind how cruel people can be to each other.

They have a history of this. Did the same with the A-bomb survivors.

Origin of toxic ‘green salt’ in Kentucky DOE building a mystery

[link to www.washingtontimes.com]

Nuclear Workers Advocacy Asks DOL, DOE, NIOSH to Investigate Radiation at former Huntington Plant
[link to www.huntingtonnews.net]

Shippingport nuclear plant had two heat incidents in July
[link to www.timesonline.com]

Federal regulators order Entergy to fix fire prevention systems at Indian Point
[link to www.lohud.com]

Warm Water, Repairs, and a “Dropped” Control Rod Separately Prompt Reactor Shutdowns
[link to www.powermag.com]

Report: Implementing Federal Dry Storage Program by 2020 Is Nation’s Best Waste Storage Option
[link to www.powermag.com]