SimplyInfo » Entries tagged with "US"
US Nuclear Plagued With New Problems
(this article now available in Polish via http://www.marmas.nazwa.pl/wordpress/?p=549 we thank them for their translation efforts) The much touted SMR nuclear reactor program that has been claimed to be the next generation of nuclear plants is in trouble before it has even really started. Babcock & Wilcox, long time nuclear company located in Tennessee has scaled back their SMR reactor development. They are unable to find investors or customers for the concept reactor. The US Department of Energy has given $226 million to help B&W fund the project. The company booked a loss last year and said they would drastically cut how much money they put into the project this year. Entergy executives have been selling off large amounts of their personal company stock. There have already been hints that the company’s nuclear fleet is … Read entire article »
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US Nuclear Regulator Refuses To Fix Evacuation Zone Flaws
While Japan is implementing larger evacuation zones and comprehensive evacuation zone plans after the Fukushima disaster, the US has decided to change nothing. A petition asking them to review the 10 mile evacuation zone plan by the US NRC was rejected. Japan is working on detailed evacuation plans including local evacuation drills where locals participate. The US scales back their protective actions. Read more here: http://www.capecodonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20140410/NEWS/404100337 This article would not be possible without the extensive efforts of the SimplyInfo … Read entire article »
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US Coalition Call In To Congress Day, Demand Fukushima Food Testing
A coalition of groups and the Fukushima Fallout Awareness Network are asking people to call, write or email Congress today to demand effective and transparent testing of the food supply for radiation contamination. More information about the national call in day today (April 10, 2014) can be found here at https://www.facebook.com/RADSrBAD2EAT Congressional contacts can be found here: http://www.usa.gov/Contact/Elected.shtml FFAN has been pushing for the FDA to use a more scientifically sound “intervention level” for radioactive contamination in the US food … Read entire article »
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US MOX Fuel Plant May Finally Be Terminated
Fitnews is reporting that the US MOX plant in South Carolina may finally be ending. The project has never had any customers lined up while the building costs have increased almost 10 fold. According to the report the US Department of Energy has sent a “shutdown specialist” consultant to the facility to look at options for terminating the project. image credit | http://www.isaiahhankel.com/ This article would not be possible without the extensive efforts of the SimplyInfo research team Join … Read entire article »
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Fukushima Brings New Awareness Of Contaminated Food Worldwide
The concerns about food contamination from Fukushima has also increased awareness of the lingering problems of world wide food contamination from various sources. Fukushima was not the first major radiation release to the environment. Atomic testing in the Pacific contributed to considerable amounts of radioactive contamination of the sea that can still be found in sea life today. Chernobyl contaminated a wide swath of Europe and Russia, this contamination is still routinely found in foods … Read entire article »
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48th Anniversary Of Palomares Nuclear Disaster
Friday was the 48th anniversary of the Palomares nuclear disaster. A US B52 collided with a refueling plane over southern Spain causing both planes to fall from the sky. The B52 had four hydrogen bombs on board. Three fell on the town of Palomares, one out to sea. Two of the nuclear bombs had the non nuclear explosive detonate on impact, sending plutonium showering over the town like dirty bombs. Much of the deadly plutonium was … Read entire article »
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Democracy Now! In Japan This Week, Covers Fukushima
Alternative news television Democracy Now! Is broadcasting from Japan this week. Anchor Amy Goodman is covering a variety of topics this week including Fukushima. See recordings of their broadcasts on their website here. http://www.democracynow.org/ This article would not be possible without the extensive efforts of the SimplyInfo research team Join the conversation at chat.simplyinfo.org All content is copyright SimplyInfo.org. Content cited, quoted etc. from other sources is under the respective rights of that content owner. If you are viewing … Read entire article »
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NRA Japan Saves The US West Coast And The Rest Of The World
NRA demanded that TEPCO drop test waste canisters to be used to hold highly radioactive sludge from the ALPS processing system. They also stopped TEPCO from operating ALPS months ago and demanded they test the system first. The systems are all still in various phases of testing due to a string of failures. Had NRA not stepped in TEPCO would have had ALPS in an attempt at full operation with now known flaws and have … Read entire article »
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What Power Companies Do When Nuclear Is No Longer An Easy Option
MidAmerican Energy in the US tried for years to force Iowa residents to pre-pay for a nuclear power plant. Those efforts failed twice, causing the company to stop trying to pass the new law. As of February 2013 MidAmerican Energy owner Warren Buffett continued to express his interest in building two nuclear power plants in Iowa. Without public funding for nuclear and a public that has been strongly against any new nuclear plants in Iowa, … Read entire article »
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Japan State Secrets Bill Would Jail Journalists, Hide Fukushima Information
This bill is a major issue in Japan for good reason, yet this issue gets little press in the west. The current LDP government proposed a new state secrets law that would make anything at any agency a “state secret” if the agency or prime minister decided it should be. This system has no oversight or checks and balances to prevent abuse or to protect the public’s right to know. “Yutaka Saito, a member of the … Read entire article »
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US Group Calls For Radiation Monitoring Of Food Supply
A US grassroots group is urging the public to support a set of efforts to improve food monitoring in the US against radioactive contamination. The fallout from Fukushima that fell on the US and that which has been crossing the Pacific has been an area of concern with residents of the US and Canada. Government agencies have declared the issue to be a “non-issue” and either have opted to do no testing or rely on premature … Read entire article »
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Radiation Monitoring For US/Canada Food Added
We have added a page to our site that compiles results of independent food testing for the US and Canada. There has been no centralized testing in the US or Canada since the Fukushima nuclear disaster. While what has been found so far is fairly low compared to what is being found in some parts of Japan, additional more widespread testing is needed to fully understand the situation. See the results here. http://www.fukuleaks.org/web/?page_id=11724 If you know of independent … Read entire article »
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US Puts Major Strings On Offer To Help With Fukushima Disaster
US Energy Secretary Moniz offered “international help” with the Fukushima disaster but it comes with some big strings attached. Ex-SKF discovered that the US is holding help hostage by demanding Japan sign a nuclear liability treaty in trade for assistance. The treaty appears to allow US companies to not be held liable if their technology or work fails. If the treaty is retroactive on liability waivers or financial aid to victims is not completely clear. Japan … Read entire article »
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US Pacific Coast Seaweed Shows With Fukushima Cesium Contamination
New testing done by Worcester Polytechnic Institute, Dept. of Civil and Environmental Engineering found Fukushima cesium in US Pacific sea weed. The samples were standardized against a known amount of cesium 137 and cobalt 60. The finding of cesium 134 would indicate this is at least partially from the Fukushima nuclear disaster. “Washington State Pacific coast eel weed sample contained 0.22 pCi/g of Cs134 and 0.24 pCi/g of Cs137. It also contained 0.1 pCi/g of Co60” These values converted to … Read entire article »
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US Nuclear Regulator Shuts Doors Today Due To Govt. Shutdown
The US NRC has sent home 90% of their staff. Only resident inspectors and a handful of core staff remain. All licensing and safety reviews are on hold. The NRC insists they can call back critical staff if there is an accident or disaster. Those people are currently sitting home unpaid. This article would not be possible without the extensive efforts of the SimplyInfo research team Join the conversation at chat.simplyinfo.org All content is copyright SimplyInfo.org. Content cited, quoted etc. from other sources is under the respective rights of that content owner. If you are viewing this page on any website other than www.simplyinfo.org (or www.fukuleaks.org) it may be plagiarized, please let us know. If you wish to reproduce any of our content in full or in more than a phrase or quote, … Read entire article »
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Reality Of Pacific Contamination From Fukushima Hits US
The French nuclear agency has called Fukushima “the largest single nuclear contamination of the ocean in history.“ This includes the years of Pacific atomic bomb testing by the US and other countries. Those historic events created contamination in Pacific seafood far from where the bombs were detonated that required the destruction of tons of landed seafood. TEPCO of course insisted the contamination from Fukushima would “disperse”. The Independent has TEPCO’s PR program all figured out. … Read entire article »
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Irony; US Nuclear Bomb Plant To Be Wind Powered
The US Pantex nuclear bomb plant will be running on wind power soon. It was announced this week that the plant will be installing wind turbines to supply electricity to the plant. At more than 65% of their electricity will come from the wind turbines being installed on site. The turbines are expected to save $50 million dollars over 18 years. This article would not be possible without the extensive efforts of the SimplyInfo research team Join the conversation at chat.simplyinfo.org All content is copyright SimplyInfo.org. Content cited, quoted etc. from other sources is under the respective rights of that content owner. If you are viewing this page on any website other than www.simplyinfo.org (or www.fukuleaks.org) it may be plagiarized, please let us know. If you wish to reproduce any of our content … Read entire article »
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US Spent Nuclear Fuel’s Epic Problem
The NY Times published an article today discussing the considerable problems with spent nuclear fuel in the US. They looked at the problems facing the NRC and Dept. of Energy and the lack of a final site for permanent storage of spent nuclear fuel. The US has no central permanent storage facility, Yucca Mountain was scrapped by the Obama administration due to resistance to the plan from Nevada. The current hope by the two agencies tasked with handling the growing problem is to create some sort of smaller facilities around the US but they would need to gain local approval. What is even more disturbing is the rather obvious problem pointed out by the NY Times. Many old reactor sites around the US have torn down the reactors taking the spent fuel … Read entire article »
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Japan Receives MOX Shipment As US Ends Their MOX Program
The Takahama nuclear plant received a shipment of MOX fuel yesterday. The power company has hinted they intend to use the shipment originally produced before the March 2011 nuclear disaster. Green Action Japan points out a number of ways using this fuel is in violation of existing statutes in Japan and that the new regulator has not established standards for MOX use. While the power companies in Japan are pushing for restarts and continuation of the MOX program, the US is poised to end their MOX program. The US has dabbled with MOX fuel over the decades. In the 1970′s under an agreement with a private company the US began building a reprocessing facility at Barnwell SC to make MOX from used reactor fuel. The project was ended after government accountability … Read entire article »
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US Pressured Japan In Secret To Continue MOX Program
The Mainichi has uncovered secret government documents that prove the US and deputy DOE secretary Danial Poneman put intense pressure on Japan to continue the plutonium fuel MOX program in Japan. The documents clearly show the US is pressuring Japan to continue with the MOX fuel cycle program, something the US has failed to do themselves. The US has claimed the concern to be that the plutonium would be diverted to military use. Japan has a massive amount of spent nuclear fuel, more than they could ever realistically use through reprocessing into MOX. The US stance also ignores the prospect of vitrification, a technology that encases the material in a glass substance rendering it unusable for weapons. The US is still struggling to create an operating vitrification plant at the Hanford … Read entire article »
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US Nuclear Plant Cracks Reactor Vessel
The Sharon Harris nuclear plant admitted to having a crack in the reactor vessel. The 1/4 crack did not penetrate all the way through the vessel steel. It was not reported how long or deep the crack was. The reactor ultrasound data was collected a year ago but the plant officials are only now going through it. This raises questions about why they were allowed to wait so long and also to restart before the review is conducted. The plant owners said the repair would need to be done with robots on the reactor head section of the reactor vessel due to the high radiation. The crack appeared on a weld for a control rod nozzle on the reactor head. The unit in question is a 3 loop PWR reactor, this … Read entire article »
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83 Year Old Nun Who Broke Into Nuclear Facility Faces 20 Year Sentence
The 83 year old nun that broke into Oak Ridge nuclear facility faces a 20 year sentence after being found guilty. If given the full sentence she would essentially serve the rest of her life in prison. The group who snuck into the facility and vandalized a building are waiting for the final sentencing phase of their trial. This article would not be possible without the extensive efforts of the SimplyInfo research team Join the conversation at chat.simplyinfo.org All content is copyright SimplyInfo.org. Content cited, quoted etc. from other sources is under the respective rights of that content owner. If you are viewing this page on any website other than www.simplyinfo.org (or www.fukuleaks.org) it may be plagiarized, please let us know. If you wish to reproduce any of our content in full or … Read entire article »
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Goldfish Found In Reactor Water At Perry Nuclear Plant
The NRC is investigating an incident during the recent maintenance outage at the Perry nuclear plant in Ohio. Goldfish were found swimming in a lemonade pitcher filled with reactor water that was left in the steam tunnel. The location is part of the secured portion of the reactor building that houses the steam pipes that run between the reactor and the turbine building. The NRC and plant operators think they will be able to catch the pranksters due to security cameras and limited access into the area. The Perry nuclear plant is already under heightened scrutiny after two workers were involved in a life threatening radiation incident last year. The number of whistleblower complaints from nuclear plant workers and NRC employees has seen an uptick in recent years. An incident at San … Read entire article »
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US Nuclear; Failing Casks, Cracked Concrete And Foot Dragging On Safety
30 of the US’s 100+ nuclear plants have ordered spent fuel pool water level monitoring systems. The issue of this kind of equipment came up again during hurricane Sandy as both members of the public and experts questioned if the nuclear plants impacted by the storm had upgraded spent fuel pool equipment. The new equipment to monitor and provide water to the pool was suggested by the post Fukushima committee that looked at what failed and could fail at US reactors. It is not clear if the remaining units in the US have not ordered such equipment or have already ordered such equipment. The water level monitoring system is only part of the suggested upgrades and comes with a 7 day battery pack. Dry Casks Failing In The US The NRC found multiple … Read entire article »
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EPA Signs Industry Authored Public Radiation Rules
The EPA has signed the revised PAG rules that have caused much concern among experts and others in the EPA. These new rules were written by the NCRP, an industry funded group that represents the nuclear power industry’s interests. In an attempt to fight off criticism about the dangerous new standards the EPA tried to claim they are non-binding. Yet we have seen PAG standards being applied to the Fukushima disaster and being used as an excuse in the US to ignore contamination problems in the US. The new standards would take water contamination from 3 picocuries per liter to 81,000 picocuries per liter. The EPA claims since the levels are just for emergencies they are somehow OK. This is just another example of the dysfunction in government where an industry can … Read entire article »
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US Nuclear Waste Plan May Be Illegal
The GAO has determined that aspects of the planned nuclear waste disposal program are likely illegal. The GAO says the Dept. of Energy lacks the authority to create new interim storage facilities. Any authority they did have was tied to milestones or timelines not achieved. There is some suspicion the entire idea of interim storage facilities is just a stalling tactic to fend off lawsuits and delay the entire issue in the hopes of better technology being developed. The Forbes article that outlines the problems also mentions the logistics with moving all of the spent fuel twice and that a transportation plan could take a decade to get that alone approved. They also note that much of the cask stored fuel at nuclear plants is currently “too hot” to transport. The GAO review also … Read entire article »
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Omaha Power Company Charges $5000 To Answer Question
The Omaha Public Power District is demanding $5000 to answer a question from their customers. OPPD owns and runs the Ft. Calhoun nuclear plant made famous after it sat surrounded by flood waters in the spring of 2011. The plant is still out of operation as a mountain of failures found by the NRC are being worked through. OPPD claims they can repair all of the problem including a structural failure found inside the reactor containment structure. OPPD recently requested a rate increase from consumers to pay for a $143 million dollar contract with Exelon to help them try to fix the plant. A slew of new problems have been found since the last OPPD request for more money including the containment failure. These new costs caused some concerned consumers to ask … Read entire article »
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EPA Employees Balk At Proposed Nuclear Industry Authored Public Safety Guidelines
High ranking EPA officials are calling foul on a new set of public safety guidelines that would dictate how the government would respond to a nuclear disaster. What has caused the extreme concern among EPA officials is within the proposed report that was authored by the NCRP. We previously documented that the NCRP is a private company funded by the nuclear industry. These new guidelines would drastically lower the level of public safety and give it a back seat to nuclear industry financial interests to pretend that nothing happened. Paul Kudarauskas, of the EPA Consequence Management Advisory Team when talking about the industry written rules and a potential nuclear disaster in the US said “U.S. residents are used to having “cleanup to perfection,” but will have to abandon their “not in my … Read entire article »
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US Hires Nuclear Industry To Determine Nuclear Disaster Clean Up Policy
The US government has paid the NCRP, a private company largely sponsored by the nuclear industry to draw up new nuclear disaster policy for the country. Of course this new policy not only drastically increases what are considered acceptable doses it drastically changes priorities in the event of a nuclear power plant disaster. Most government policies worldwide have put public health first, trying to assure that people are out of harms way or at least limited in exposure. The new NCRP written plan puts business first and reduces the burden on the offending nuclear company who made the mess. “According to the draft report, “one must realize that there are other important factors besides human health that should be considered in the decision-making process.” It says “public financial burdens, restoring key infrastructures, … Read entire article »
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Radiation Contamination In US Food Supply
This has been known to those closely following the issue since 2011. It isn’t just about the contamination of domestic foods in the US but the purposely lax US standards that encourage the US food market to be a dumping ground for foods too contaminated to be allowed elsewhere. Cindy Folkers from Beyond Nuclear explains the details of how the US system both ignores and downplays the issue and why everyone in the US should be concerned. Video presentation at the Caldicott Symposium archive. Click on Cindy’s listing in the program to jump to her presentation. A copy of the presentation on Youtube (with some edits by the poster) This article would not be possible without the extensive efforts of the SimplyInfo research team Join the conversation at chat.simplyinfo.org All content is copyright SimplyInfo.org. Content cited, quoted … Read entire article »
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Fukushima & World Nuclear News Roundup
TEPCO has been working in the torus of unit 1, they have gathered video, readings and sediment samples. Check back here for detailed review and analysis of this work. http://photo.tepco.co.jp/date/2013/201302-j/130222-02j.html TEPCO also inspected inside unit 2′s refueling floor with a gamma camera. More information on this effort should be out soon. http://photo.tepco.co.jp/date/2013/201302-j/130222-01j.html The IAEA is proposing more outside help to deal with the Fukushima disaster. http://english.kyodonews.jp/news/2013/02/210493.html Japan Atomic Power sold part of their uranium stockpile to be able to make upcoming loan payments. http://english.kyodonews.jp/news/2013/02/210260.html Japan’s Power Federation claims if the government rewrites laws to separate transmission of power from production of power to allow more competition their nuclear plants would all go broke. If they could not rely on profits from their other sectors to cover nuclear costs, the power generated alone would not cover the costs … Read entire article »
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Germany’s Energy Win-Win
Grist points out in the wake of Fox New’s blunder on German solar what really makes the energy change program work. It isn’t just the move to renewable energy sources. They also bought back the power grid and made it a public asset. Much of the energy generation is owned by regular people. They own the solar panels on their roofs. The public also owns many of the larger renewable energy generation facilities. There is also far less red tape for adding a system and more programs that help people obtain home generation ability. In the US, renewable energy has all been at the whim of Wall Street. “Fox News’ gaffe about sunshine helps others paper over the real tragedy of American energy policy. In a country founded on the concept of self-reliance … Read entire article »
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US MOX Plant Gets 75% Budget Cut
In a last minute deal the Department of Energy saved the US MOX program from being totally cut from the budget. The effort by Daniel Poneman left the program with a small budget and no real purpose or use. It would put the roof on the building and the remaining money they intend to spend had no specific purpose tied to it. People may remember Poneman from his nuclear cheerleading tour in Japan last year. This article would not be possible without the extensive efforts of the SimplyInfo research team Join the conversation at chat.simplyinfo.org All content is copyright SimplyInfo.org. Content cited, quoted etc. from other sources is under the respective rights of that content owner. If you are viewing this page on any website other than www.simplyinfo.org (or www.fukuleaks.org) it may be plagiarized, … Read entire article »
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MidAmerican Energy Still Wants To Build New Nuclear Plants
Mid American Energy still is keeping the option open to build new nuclear plants in Iowa. One would be on the Iowa side of the river near Ft. Calhoun nuclear plant. The other on the opposite side of the state along the Mississippi. Warren Buffet’s company Berkshire Hathaway owns Mid American Energy. Buffet has gone on record with his support for nuclear power even though the costs of new builds have skyrocketed and many plants around the US are shutting down due to low energy prices making them unprofitable. Twice in Iowa efforts pushed by MidAmerican to make consumers pre-pay for new nuclear plants were defeated. MidAmerican’s head of both their nuclear division and their renewables division is a career nuclear guy formerly with Nebraska Public Power. It is not clear … Read entire article »
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US Faces Showdown Over Energy
After Fukushima more attention was payed to Germany’s energy change efforts. This program long pre-dates Fukushima but announcements that Germany would accelerate the end of their nuclear power program caused international attention on the effort. We have covered much of the misinformation being put out to confuse the public about Germany’s program. Fossil and nuclear companies along with their lobbyists and corporate interest groups have tried to raise doubts about Germany’s energy change. They have falsely claimed that Germany can’t meet emission standards, that they now over rely on coal and that the program is too costly. We have documented how all of those are not true. The cost of renewables has come down. Unsubsidized renewables have come down in price and are now lower than coal or gas in Australia. “The … Read entire article »
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More US Nuclear Plants May Be Shut Down
The Crystal River nuclear plant was formally started on the permanent shut down process this week. It may not stop with this plant. UBS has announced other plants they think are at risk. Reuters mentioned an Exelon units that may shut down. Exelon denied this to Reuters but this was previously admitted by the company. One of Constellation Energy’s units may also face shutdown. The plants that may shut down due to economics: Vermont Yankee Fitzpatrick Clinton Ginna The Kewaunee nuclear plant in Wisconsin is also in the process of permanent shut down due to poor profitability. This article would not be possible without the extensive efforts of the SimplyInfo research team Join the conversation at chat.simplyinfo.org All content is copyright SimplyInfo.org. Content cited, quoted etc. from other sources is under the respective rights of that content owner. If … Read entire article »
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Another Bad Week For Nuclear Power
There seems to be more and more of these lately. Worldwide it wasn’t a good week for nuclear power. Japan The unit 5 reactor at Hamaoka nuclear plant is too damaged to possibly restart it. This is a newer unit at the plant. In 2011 when the reactor was shut down the condenser that works as a heat exchange device developed large holes and cracks in the pipes inside. Now the operator is admitting there are large cracks in the stainless steel reactor vessel interior. The several millimeter cracks were created by the 400 tons of seawater that leaked into the reactor. The operator has yet to admit the reactor will be scrapped but a restart is highly unlikely. China In China wind energy has surpassed nuclear. This is even more notable since China … Read entire article »
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Asahi Shimbun; US Evacuation Of Yokosuka Naval Base Was Not Voluntary
Asahi Shimbun has uncovered more details about the early events of the Fukushima nuclear disaster. What they uncovered fills some of the information gaps about what transpired between the US and Japan during those early days. Before unit 4 exploded, the US was already deeply worried about the spent fuel pool there. A classified diplomatic cable on March 14th urged Japan to use the SDF (Japan’s military) to become involved in the effort to regain control of 4′s spent fuel pool that had a full offload of fuel from the reactor. Also noted in what Asahi Shimbun was able to find was that on March 15th, radiation warning alarms went off at Yokosuka Naval Base 300km from Fukushima Daiichi. All women and children on the base were ordered to evacuate. It was already … Read entire article »
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Atomic Scientists Urge Obama To Discourage Japan On Rokkasho
In an open letter to US President Obama the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists urged him to change his support for Japan’s nuclear reprocessing program. Currently the US and the State Department have been pressuring Japan to continue building the reprocessing facility and MOX plant at Rokkasho. The logic had been that the full fuel cycle provided an outlet for spent fuel to be reused but the actual process extracts plutonium into a form that has great proliferation risks. With Japan’s nuclear program in doubt and their MOX and fast breeder programs all but dead the country has no outlet for any reprocessed nuclear material. Read the full letter here. http://thebulletin.org/web-edition/features/open-letter-to-president-obama-the-time-the-doomsday-clock-five-minutes-to-midn The reprocessing plant at Rokkasho is already in testing mode and is already releasing large amounts of radiation into the atmosphere and Pacific … Read entire article »
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