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An Urgent Request on UN Intervention to Stabilize the Fukushima Unit 4 Spent Nuclear Fuel
May 1, 2012
May 1, 2012
Recently, former diplomats and experts both in Japan and abroad stressed the extremely risky condition of the Fukushima Daiichi Unit 4 spent nuclear fuel pool and this is being widely reported by world media. Robert Alvarez, Senior Scholar at the Institute for Policy Studies (IPS), who is one of the best-known experts on spent nuclear fuel, stated that in Unit 4 there is spent nuclear fuel which contains Cesium-137 (Cs-137) that is equivalent to 10 times the amount that was released at the time of the Chernobyl nuclear accident. Thus, if an earthquake or other event were to cause this pool to drain, this could result in a catastrophic radiological fire involving nearly 10 times the amount of Cs-137 released by the Chernobyl accident.
Nearly all of the 10,893 spent fuel assemblies at the Fukushima Daiichi plant sit in pools vulnerable to future earthquakes, with roughly 85 times more long-lived radioactivity than released at Chernobyl.
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Radioactive: Revelations on nuclear plants sound a warning
April 27, 2012
Like a dark family secret long suspected but never confirmed, the shock of discovery is all the more lurid for coming into the light years later. So it is with the news of radioactive material released into the air -- at levels higher than any seen in the nation -- at closed nuclear fuels plants in Armstrong County.
April 27, 2012
Like a dark family secret long suspected but never confirmed, the shock of discovery is all the more lurid for coming into the light years later. So it is with the news of radioactive material released into the air -
Incredulity feeds the first reaction: Surely this could not have happened. But apparently it did, according to good authority.
That would be Joseph P. Ring, a Harvard University radiation safety officer who teaches at Harvard and the University of Massachusetts. He wrote a 37-page report that was filed Tuesday as part of federal lawsuits brought against plant operators Babcock & Wilcox Co. and Atlantic Richfield Co. by about 90 cancer victims.
The plants operated in Apollo and Parks Township from 1958 through 1984. Mr. Ring found "numerous large-scale releases of ionizing radiation into the neighboring environment" during the operating lives of the plants. The emissions added up to "the largest quantity ... of any nuclear facility in the United States."
April 10, 2012
Radioactive particles released in the nuclear reactor meltdown in Fukushima, Japan, following the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami were detected in giant kelp along the California coast, according to a recently published study.
Radioactive iodine was found in samples collected from beds of kelp in locations along the coast from Laguna Beach to as far north as Santa Cruz about a month after the explosion, according to the study by two marine biologists at Cal State Long Beach.
The levels, while most likely not harmful to humans, were significantly higher than measurements prior to the explosion and comparable to those found in British Columbia, Canada, and northern Washington state following the Chernobyl disaster in 1986, according to the study published in March in the journal Environmental Science & Technology.
April 2, 2012
Radioactive material from the Fukushima nuclear disaster has been found in tiny sea creatures and ocean water some 186 miles (300 kilometers) off the coast of Japan, revealing the extent of the release and the direction pollutants might take in a future environmental disaster.
In some places, the researchers from Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) discovered cesium radiation hundreds to thousands of times higher than would be expected naturally, with ocean eddies and larger currents both guiding the " radioactive debris " and concentrating it.
With these results, detailed Monday in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the team estimates it will take at least a year or two for the radioactive material released at Fukushima to get across the Pacific Ocean. And that information is useful when looking at all the other pollutants and debris released as a result of the tsunami that destroyed towns up and down the eastern coast of Japan.
Uranium Mines Dot Navajo Land, Neglected and Still Perilous
March 31, 2012
CAMERON, Ariz. — In the summer of 2010, a Navajo cattle rancher named Larry Gordy stumbled upon an abandoned uranium mine in the middle of his grazing land and figured he had better call in the feds. Engineers from the Environmental Protection Agency arrived a few months later, Geiger counters in hand, and found radioactivity levels that buried the needles on their equipment.
March 31, 2012
CAMERON, Ariz. — In the summer of 2010, a Navajo cattle rancher named Larry Gordy stumbled upon an abandoned uranium mine in the middle of his grazing land and figured he had better call in the feds. Engineers from the Environmental Protection Agency arrived a few months later, Geiger counters in hand, and found radioactivity levels that buried the needles on their equipment.
The abandoned mine here, about 60 miles east of the Grand Canyon, joins the list of hundreds of such sites identified across the 27,000 square miles of Navajo territory in Arizona, Utah and New Mexico that are the legacy of shoddy mining practices and federal neglect. From the 1940s through the 1980s, the mines supplied critical materials to the nation’s nuclear weapons program.
For years, unsuspecting Navajos inhaled radioactive dust and drank contaminated well water. Many of them became sick with cancer and other diseases.
The radioactivity at the former mine is said to measure one million counts per minute, translating to a human dose that scientists say can lead directly to malignant tumors and other serious health damage, according to Lee Greer, a biologist at La Sierra University in Riverside, Calif. Two days of exposure at the Cameron site would expose a person to more external radiation than the Nuclear Regulatory Commission considers safe for an entire year.
Tokyo Soil – Blanketed With Fukushima Radiation – Would Be Considered “Radioactive Waste” In the United States
March 25, 2012
We noted in August that some parts of Tokyo have more radiation than existed in the Chernobyl Exclusion Zones. And see this and this.
March 25, 2012
We noted in August that some parts of Tokyo have more radiation than existed in the Chernobyl Exclusion Zones. And see this and this.
There are indications that radiation levels are increasing in Tokyo.
Nuclear engineer Arnie Gundersen took 5 random soil samples in Tokyo recently, and found that all 5 were so radioactive that they would be considered radioactive waste in the United States, which would have to be specially disposed of at a facility in Texas.
Nuclear Risks at Bed, Bath & Beyond Show Dangers of Scrap
March 20, 2012
Going shopping? Don’t forget your wallet and credit card. Or Geiger counter.
March 20, 2012
Going shopping? Don’t forget your wallet and credit card. Or Geiger counter.
The discovery of radioactive tissue boxes at Bed, Bath & Beyond Inc. stores in January raised alarms among nuclear security officials and company executives over the growing global threat of contaminated scrap metal.
While the U.S. home-furnishing retailer recalled the boutique boxes from 200 stores nationwide without any reports of injury, the incident highlighted one of the topics drawing world leaders to a nuclear security meeting in Seoul on March 26-27. The bi-annual summit, convened by President Barack Obama for the first time in 2010, seeks to stem the flow of atomic material that has been lost, stolen or discarded as trash.
As U.S. and European leaders tackle the proliferation of weapons-grade uranium or plutonium in countries like Iran and North Korea, industries are confronting the impact of loose nuclear material in an international scrap-metal market worth at least $140 billion, according to the Brussels-based Bureau of International Recycling. Radioactive items used to power medical, military and industrial hardware are melted down and used in goods, driving up company costs as they withdraw tainted products and threatening the public’s health.
Fukushima Farmers Face Decades of Tainted Crops as Fears Linger
March 18 (Bloomberg)
Residents of Minamisoma, in Japan's Fukushima prefecture, talk about their lives one year after a record earthquake and ensuing tsunami caused nuclear meltdowns at the nearby Dai-Ichi nuclear power plant. In September last year, restrictions on some areas near the crippled power station were lifted, but the fear of radiation exposure has made thousands flee their homes, leaving families living beyond the 20-kilometer (12.6-mile) exclusion zone around the plant divided. Bloomberg’s Scilla Alecci reports. (Source: Bloomberg)
March 18 (Bloomberg)
Residents of Minamisoma, in Japan's Fukushima prefecture, talk about their lives one year after a record earthquake and ensuing tsunami caused nuclear meltdowns at the nearby Dai-
March 9 (Bloomberg) -- On March 11, Japan will pause to remember the 15,854 confirmed dead and the 3,272 still missing after a magnitude-9 earthquake and ensuing tsunami hit the northern part of the country a year ago. For a day, the country will be united in grief. That unity, however, belies the conflicts hampering the region as local and central governments fight over budgets, and health fears divide families. Bloomberg’s Stuart Biggs reports. (With reporting by Kanoko Matsuyama. Source: Bloomberg)
Inadequate testing by the government of rice, milk and fish from the region has prompted consumers to leave them on supermarket shelves and instead select produce from other regions or from overseas. Checks conducted nationwide so far are only 1 percent of what Belarus checked in the past year, a quarter century after the Chernobyl disaster, according to Nobutaka Ishida, a researcher at Norinchukin Research Institute.
As Japan tries to cleanup radiation contamination, some question whether it's possible (Audio at link)
March 12, 2012
In Japan, there's a massive effort under way to figure out how to clean up the contamination from the radiation release at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant. Some wonder if it can even be done.
March 12, 2012
In Japan, there's a massive effort under way to figure out how to clean up the contamination from the radiation release at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant. Some wonder if it can even be done.
It‘s the moment when the alarms on the Geiger counters all start going off at once that it sinks in.
The bus is going inside the 12 mile ring around the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant that just about everyone has been evacuated from. Up the coast, the earthquake and tsunami of March 11, 2011 destroyed entire towns and left mountains of wreckage. But here, in the fallout zone of the tsunami-caused triple nuclear meltdown, the devastation is invisible.
Outside the windows of our bus, we pass abandoned fields and towns that used to be crowded with people but are now empty except for left-behind animals. Inside, the passengers are completely covered in Tyvek suits, nothing exposed.
Nuclear Fallout
March 10, 2012
March 10, 2012
I GREW up in Arvada, Colo., in the shadow of a nuclear bomb factory, so I read the just-released report on the Fukushima meltdown in Japan with special interest. Coinciding with the first anniversary of the Fukushima Daiichi disaster, the 400-page report details the extensive misinformation supplied to the public by the Tokyo Electric Power Company (Tepco) in collusion with Japanese officials.
The Japanese government’s failure to warn citizens about radioactive danger put the entire city of Tokyo at health risk — and the rest of us as well. The report, which was written by an independent investigative panel established by the Rebuild Japan Initiative Foundation (published March 1 in the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists), bluntly states that the much vaunted “absolute safety” of nuclear power is no more than a “twisted myth.”
The threat from nuclear power plants is twofold: grand scale catastrophe and continuing health problems connected with radioactive contamination in our air, water, soil and food supply — both short-term, high-level contamination and the long-term, low-level kind.
Records Show Japan Gov't Knew Meltdown Risk Early
March 9, 2012
March 9, 2012
Just four hours after the tsunami swept into the Fukushima nuclear power plant, Japan's leaders knew the reactors could melt but kept their knowledge secret for months, showed reconstructed documents released Friday, almost a year after the disaster.
At one point, then-Prime Minister Naoto Kan even feared the crisis could turn worse than Chernobyl.
The minutes of the government's crisis management meetings from March 11 — the day the earthquake and tsunami struck — until late December were not recorded and had to be reconstructed retroactively.
The documents illustrate the confusion, lack of information, delayed response and miscommunication among government, affected towns and plant officials, as some ministers expressed sense that nobody was in charge when the plant conditions quickly deteriorated.
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U.K. worried about dirty bombs
March 8, 2012
U.K. deputy prime minister Nick Clegg warned that materials to make a dirty bomb are readily available – so much so, that police forces cannot hope to contain such a threat; “That is a stateless threat, impossible for any national police force, no matter how advanced, to contain,” he said.
March 8, 2012
U.K. deputy prime minister Nick Clegg warned that materials to make a dirty bomb are readily available – so much so, that police forces cannot hope to contain such a threat; “That is a stateless threat, impossible for any national police force, no matter how advanced, to contain,” he said.
U.K. deputy prime minister, in a speech at The Hague yesterday, said materials to make a dirty bomb are readily available – so much so, that police forces cannot hope to contain such a threat.
A dirty bomb threat may well have been unimaginable a generation ago, he said, but no country can now afford to ignore the risk.
Better policies needed to reduce radiation exposure in nuclear accidents
March 8, 2012
A new study says that offsite policies and plans should be put in place to reduce the exposure of the public to radiation in the event of a nuclear power plant accident
March 8, 2012
A new study says that offsite policies and plans should be put in place to reduce the exposure of the public to radiation in the event of a nuclear power plant accident
In a report released yesterday, researchers at the Center for Biosecurity of UPMC assess offsite policies and plans that can be put in place to reduce the exposure of the public to radiation in the event of a nuclear power plant accident.
Even amidst the devastation following the earthquake and tsunami in Japan last year that killed more than 20,000 people, it was the accident at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant that led the country’s Prime Minister, Naoto Kan, to fear for “the very existence of the Japanese nation.”
It’s what an insurance company might call “a write-off” – a place that seems beyond salvation, and certainly too expensive to fix. I’d never thought of land that way. You smash up a car, and then it’s compacted into a square and maybe even recycled. Finito. But land?
Last year, Japan’s disaster at the Fukushima nuclear power plant contaminated the land around it so badly that the area was effectively a write-off. It’s been excised from terra cognita, uninhabitable, unwanted. Today the radiation-infected area is known by a name Ray Bradbury would like: “the exclusion zone.”
With radiation detectors clipped to our white hazmat suits, we drove into this decimated pocket of our planet.
Before we could get inside, a policeman stopped our car. There are checkpoints all around the exclusion zone, which extends in a twelve-mile radius around the crippled Fukushima nuclear power plant.
Health uncertainties torment Japanese in nuke zone
March 7, 2012
March 7, 2012
FUKUSHIMA, Japan (AP) — Yoshiko Ota keeps her windows shut. She never hangs her laundry outdoors. Fearful of birth defects, she warns her daughters: Never have children.
This is life with radiation, nearly one year after a tsunami-hit nuclear power plant began spewing it into Ota's neighborhood, 40 miles (60 kilometers) away. She's so worried that she has broken out in hives.
"The government spokesman keeps saying there are no IMMEDIATE health effects," the 48-year-old nursery school worker says. "He's not talking about 10 years or 20 years later. He must think the people of Fukushima are fools.
"It's not really OK to live here," she says. "But we live here."
New report paints dire picture of Japanese Fukushima response
February 29, 2012
A new report reveals that last year’s nuclear crisis at Japan’s Fukushima Daiichi atomic energy plant was dangerously close to spiraling out of control as senior officials bickered internally, lacked critical information on the extent of the damage, and covertly considered the possibility of evacuating Tokyo.
February 29, 2012
A new report reveals that last year’s nuclear crisis at Japan’s Fukushima Daiichi atomic energy plant was dangerously close to spiraling out of control as senior officials bickered internally, lacked critical information on the extent of the damage, and covertly considered the possibility of evacuating Tokyo.
The New York Times, which obtained an advance copy of the study, reports that according to the investigation, senior government officials, the manager of Fukushima nuclear plant, and Tokyo Electric Power (Tepco), the plant’s operator, had crippling communication breakdowns and did not trust each other.
This internal bickering impeded response efforts and at times resulted in the release of contradictory information.
“We barely avoided the worst-case scenario, though the public didn’t know it at the time,” Funabashi said in an interview with the Times.
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FUKUSHIMA DAIICHI, Japan — Every two minutes on the bus ride through the ghost towns surrounding Japan's Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant, a company guide in a white protective suit holds up a display showing the radiation level. And it is rising.
Passing through the disaster exclusion zone visitors catch sight of houses that look like they could be anywhere in Japan, except for the odd sign that there is no-one to look after them; that no-one has lived here for nearly a year.
Occasionally an animal appears in a garden, left to fend for itself by owners who fled when the plant's nuclear reactors began spewing their poison last March.
Still the radiation level is rising.
SALT LAKE CITY -- Radioactive contamination from the Fukushima power plant disaster has been detected as far as almost 400 miles off Japan in the Pacific Ocean, with water showing readings of up to 1,000 times more than prior levels, scientists reported Tuesday.
But those results for the substance cesium-137 are far below the levels that are generally considered harmful, either to marine animals or people who eat seafood, said Ken Buesseler of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution.
He spoke Tuesday in Salt Lake City at the annual Ocean Sciences Meeting, attended by more than 4,000 researchers this week.
Federal Judge Strips Vermont of Power to Terminate Nuke
February 12, 2012
Entergy Nuclear of Louisiana, which operates the Vermont Yankee (VY) nuclear reactor in Vernon Vermont has launched an attack on the state of Vermont with the help of the federal courts.
February 12, 2012
Entergy Nuclear of Louisiana, which operates the Vermont Yankee (VY) nuclear reactor in Vernon Vermont has launched an attack on the state of Vermont with the help of the federal courts.
Vermont state law gives the state the power to decide whether to allow further operation of the reactor past March 21, 2012 (the expiration date for VY). When Entergy bought VY, they agreed to this law and swore that they would not try to abrogate it. This was an outright lie on Entergy's part, and they sued the state as soon as it was decided that further operation of this crumbling, leaking and led-by-liars reactor would NOT be in the interests of the state and they were not given permission to continue operation past March 21.
Temperature at Fukushima no. 2 Reactor Rises to 80 Degrees Celsius
February 12, 2012
Tokyo Electric Power Company says the reading of one of the thermometers in the number 2 reactor at its Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant surpassed 80 degrees Celsius shortly after 2 PM on Sunday.
February 12, 2012
Tokyo Electric Power Company says the reading of one of the thermometers in the number 2 reactor at its Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant surpassed 80 degrees Celsius shortly after 2 PM on Sunday.
TEPCO plans to further investigate the cause, as the thermometer may be malfunctioning.
The reading of one of the thermometers at the bottom of the reactor began rising in late January.
It fell temporarily after more water was injected into the reactor, but started to rise again on Saturday.
Temperature Soars Mysteriously Inside Fukushima Nuclear Reactor
February 6, 2012
February 6, 2012
TOKYO - The temperature of a reactor at Japan's stricken Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant has soared and remained mysteriously high Monday, despite more water being pumped through it.
The facility's No.2 reactor had reached 164 degrees Fahrenheit (73.3 degrees Celsius) by Monday morning, after sitting at 113 degrees Fahrenheit (45 degrees Celsius) on Jan. 27, broadcaster NHK reported.
Plan developed to clean up highly radioactive Hanford spill
February 6, 2012
February 6, 2012
Hanford officials have settled on a plan to clean up what may be the most highly radioactive spill at the nuclear reservation.
It depends on calling back into service the 47-year-old, oversized hot cell where the spill occurred to protect workers from the radioactive cesium and strontium that leaked through the hot cell to the soil below.
Radioactivity in the contaminated soil, which is about 1,000 feet from the Columbia River, has been measured at 8,900 rad per hour. Direct exposure for a few minutes would be fatal, according to Washington Closure.
Washington Closure Hanford has issued a notice telling companies that it plans to request bids in April for a major project that will call for an intensive design effort. While many of Washington Closure's bid awards go to small companies, this bid request will have no restrictions as the Hanford contractor looks for a company with the experience to handle a complex assignment.
Japan's Nuclear Exclusion Zone Shows Few Signs of Life
February 6, 2012
What's most striking about Japan's nuclear exclusion zone, is what you don't see. There are no people, few cars, no sign of life, aside from the occasional livestock wandering empty roads.
February 6, 2012
What's most striking about Japan's nuclear exclusion zone, is what you don't see. There are no people, few cars, no sign of life, aside from the occasional livestock wandering empty roads.
Areas once home to 80,000 people are now ghost towns, frozen in time. Homes ravaged from the powerful earthquake that shook this region nearly a year ago, remain virtually untouched. Collapsed roofs still block narrow streets. Cracked roads, make for a bumpy ride.
In seaside communities, large fishing boats line the side of the road, next to piles of debris. Abandoned cars, dot otherwise empty fields. It's a scene reminiscent of tsunami-battered prefectures Miyagi and Iwate, last March – except those communities have cleaned up a significant amount of the debris since, in preparation for rebuilding efforts.
We had been trying to get our cameras inside here for months, eager to document the fallout from the world's worst nuclear disaster since Chernobyl, 11 months on.
Officials Investigating Illinois Reactor Shutdown
January 31, 2012
CHICAGO (AP) — Officials are investigating the events surrounding a power failure at a nuclear reactor in northern Illinois, where steam was vented to reduce pressure after it shut down.
January 31, 2012
CHICAGO (AP) — Officials are investigating the events surrounding a power failure at a nuclear reactor in northern Illinois, where steam was vented to reduce pressure after it shut down.
After the shut down Monday morning at Exelon Nuclear's Byron Generating Station, operators began releasing steam to cool the reactor from the part of the plant where turbines are producing electricity, not from within the nuclear reactor itself, officials said. The steam contains low levels of tritium, a radioactive form of hydrogen, but federal and plant officials insisted the levels were safe for workers and the public.
Diesel generators were supplying the reactor with electricity, though it hasn't been generating power during the investigation into what happened. One question is why smoke was seen from an onsite station transformer, though no evidence of a fire was found when the plant's fire brigade responded, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission spokeswoman Viktoria Mitlyng said.
Exelon Nuclear officials believe a failed piece of equipment at a switchyard at the plant about 95 miles northwest of Chicago caused the shutdown, but they were still investigating an exact cause. The switchyard is similar to a large substation that delivers power to the plant from the electrical grid and from the plant to the electrical grid.
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Japan Cabinet OKs Bill to Cap Nuke Reactor Life
January 31, 2012
Japan's Cabinet approved bills Tuesday aimed at bolstering nuclear safety regulations following last year's Fukushima disaster, including one that would put a 40-year cap on the operational life of nuclear reactors.
January 31, 2012
Japan's Cabinet approved bills Tuesday aimed at bolstering nuclear safety regulations following last year's Fukushima disaster, including one that would put a 40-
The approval came as a team of International Atomic Energy Agency experts generally endorsed "stress test" results at two idled reactors at a plant in western Japan, bolstering the Tokyo government's efforts to restart the facility, though the IAEA team said some safety measures there needed clarification.
Japan currently has no legal limit on the operational lifespan of its 54 reactors, many of which will reach the 40-year mark in coming years. One of three reactors at the tsunami-hit Fukushima Dai-ichi plant has been operating for 41 years.
The legislation, which still needs parliamentary approval to take effect, does allow for an extension of up to 20 years in some cases — an exception that critics have blasted as a loophole. Officials have said extensions will be rare and require strict safety standards.
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Illinois first responder receive wearable radiation detectors
Janaury 27, 2012
First responder across Illinois will soon be outfitted with portable personal radiation detectors.
Janaury 27, 2012
First responder across Illinois will soon be outfitted with portable personal radiation detectors.
Working in conjunction with Illinois Law Enforcement Alarm System (ILEAS), the Illinois Emergency Management Agency Nuclear Safety Division, and Argonne National Laboratory, the Illinois Terrorism Task Forced (ITTF) has developedradiation detectors that are about the size of a cell phone.
So far 6,200 of the detectors have been purchased for police and fire departments across the state, but following the devastating earthquake and tsunami in Japan, 2,000 portable detectors were sent to assist first responders there.
One of the primary goals of the program is to assist officers in preventing terrorists or malicious actors from stealing radioactive materials or deploying a dirty bomb. By carrying the devices at all times, law enforcement officials are now able to more easily discover dangerous fissile materials as the detectors can not only detect radiation but pinpoint its source.
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TEPCO to shut down another reactor, to leave only 1 in service
January 26, 2012
NIIGATA (Kyodo) -- The No. 5 reactor at the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear plant in Niigata Prefecture will be suspended for scheduled checkups in the early hours of Wednesday, leaving only one out of a total of 17 reactors run by Tokyo Electric Power Co. in service, the utility said.
January 26, 2012
NIIGATA (Kyodo) -
All 17 reactors will go offline by the end of March with the No. 6 reactor at the plant to be shut down by then for checkups, the utility known as TEPCO said.
Among Japan's 54 commercial reactors, only three reactors, except those of TEPCO, are currently in operation -- the No. 3 reactor at the Tomari plant in Hokkaido, the No. 3 reactor at the Takahama plant in Fukui Prefecture, and the No. 2 reactor at the Shimane plant in Shimane Prefecture.
The No. 5 reactor in Niigata will undergo checkups for at least five months, while it remains unclear when stress tests, a prerequisite for restarting the reactor, will be conducted, TEPCO said.
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Fallout from Fukushima No. 1 on rise
Wednesday, January 25, 2012
The amount of radioactive materials released from the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant has risen this month compared with December, Tepco said.
Wednesday, January 25, 2012
The amount of radioactive materials released from the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant has risen this month compared with December, Tepco said.
The amount so far has come to 70 million becquerels per hour, compared with 60 million becquerels in December, Tokyo Electric Power Co. said Monday, adding that the increase is attributable to the displacement of radioactive materials that had settled on facilities and equipment as a result of work conducted near reactors 2 and 3.
Tepco has recently probed the inside of the container vessel for the No. 2 reactor with an industrial endoscope and conducted scrap work around reactor 3.
While the amount of radioactive materials released from reactor 1 decreased to one-fifth the level in December, the amount of materials from the other two each increased by 10 million becquerels per hour, Tepco said.
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Japan task force kept no records of nuclear crisis response
TOKYO | Tue Jan 24, 2012 1:20am EST
TOKYO | Tue Jan 24, 2012 1:20am EST
(Reuters) - Japan's energy minister admitted on Tuesday that no records were kept of top level discussions in the critical early days on how to respond to the world's worst nuclear disaster in 25 years.
The admission, and apology, by Trade Minister Yukio Edano comes in the face of widespread debate over the government's response to the Fukushima nuclear crisis triggered by a massive earthquake and tsunami last March.
"It is inconceivable that there were no records kept. It may have been difficult to keep official logs during the extreme confusion after the crisis, but they could have taken simple memos," said Kenji Sumita, an emeritus professor at Osaka University who specializes in nuclear engineering.
"Perhaps there were some goings on that the participants did not feel comfortable being made public," he said.
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Nuclear plants pose risks to drinking water for Illinois
January 24, 2012
CHICAGO — The drinking water for 652,000 people in Illinois could be at risk of radioactive contamination from a leak or accident at a local nuclear power plant, says a new study released Jan. 24 by the Illinois Public Interest Research Group Education Fund (Illinois PIRG).
January 24, 2012
CHICAGO — The drinking water for 652,000 people in Illinois could be at risk of radioactive contamination from a leak or accident at a local nuclear power plant, says a new study released Jan. 24 by the Illinois Public Interest Research Group Education Fund (Illinois PIRG).
Brian Imus, Illinois PIRG state director, explained: “The danger of nuclear power is too close to home. Nuclear power plants in Illinois pose a risk to drinking water for more than 600,000 Illinoisans. An accident like the one in Fukushima, Japan, or a leak could spew cancer-causing radioactive waste into our drinking water.”
The nuclear meltdown in Fukushima, Japan, last year drew a spotlight on the many risks associated with nuclear power. After the disaster, airborne radiation left areas around the plant uninhabitable, and even contaminated drinking water sources near Tokyo, 130 miles from the plant.
According to the new report, “Too Close to Home: Nuclear Power and the Threat to Drinking Water,” the drinking water for 652,00 people in Illinois is within 50 miles of an active nuclear power plant — the distance the Nuclear Regulatory Commission uses to measure risk to food and water supplies.
Dec. 21 (Bloomberg) -- Tokyo Electric Power Co. plans to decommission the damaged reactors at the wrecked Fukushima nuclear plant in 30 to 40 years, the Japanese government said, outlining a “roadmap” for dismantling the station.
The company known as Tepco will start removing the spent fuel rods at Fukushima Dai-Ichi within two years, according to the schedule released today in Tokyo. Engineers will attempt to start removing melted fuel from one of the reactors within a decade, the government said.
Impact seen as roughly comparable to radiation-related deaths after Chernobyl; infants are hardest hit, with continuing research showing even higher possible death count.
An estimated 14,000 excess deaths in the United States are linked to the radioactive fallout from the disaster at the Fukushima nuclear reactors in Japan, according to a major new article in the December 2011 edition of the International Journal of Health Services. This is the first peer-reviewed study published in a medical journal documenting the health hazards of Fukushima.
Authors Joseph Mangano and Janette Sherman note that their estimate of 14,000 excess U.S. deaths in the 14 weeks after the Fukushima meltdowns is comparable to the 16,500 excess deaths in the 17 weeks after the Chernobyl meltdown in 1986. The rise in reported deaths after Fukushima was largest among U.S. infants under age one. The 2010-2011 increase for infant deaths in the spring was 1.8 percent, compared to a decrease of 8.37 percent in the preceding 14 weeks.
Japan May Declare Control of Reactors, Over Serious Doubts
TOKYO — Nine months after the devastating earthquake and tsunami knocked out cooling systems at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant, causing a meltdown at three units, the Tokyo government is expected to declare soon that it has finally regained control of the plant’s overheating reactors.
TOKYO — Nine months after the devastating earthquake and tsunami knocked out cooling systems at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant, causing a meltdown at three units, the Tokyo government is expected to declare soon that it has finally regained control of the plant’s overheating reactors.
But even before it has been made, the announcement is facing serious doubts from experts.
On Friday, a disaster-response task force headed by Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda will vote on whether to announce that the plant’s three damaged reactors have been put into the equivalent of a “cold shutdown,” a technical term normally used to describe intact reactors with fuel cores that are in a safe and stable condition. Experts say that if it does announce a shutdown, as many expect, it will simply reflect the government’s effort to fulfill a pledge to restore the plant’s cooling system by year’s end and, according to some experts, not the true situation.
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Wild monkeys fitted with collars containing detectors and GPS transmitters will help researchers at Fukushima University measure radiation in the forests surrounding a nuclear power plant crippled last March by a powerful earthquake and tsunami.
The monkeys will wear the collars for a month and they will be remotely detached, says a team of scientists led by Professor Takayuki Takahashi.
"We decided to use monkeys for this project because the territory they cover is very well known to us," Professor Takahashi told the Telegraph of London. "It's the first time such an experiment has been carried out with monkeys."
TOKYO—Hundreds of Fukushima residents were exposed to radiation well above the level permitted for the general public following the March 11 nuclear disaster, according to an official survey released Tuesday, confirming the accident's broad impact on local communities.
But the survey of 1,589 residents—measuring radiation exposure to the skin—from three towns near the disaster-hit Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant showed no residents were exposed to radiation above levels set for forced evacuation. Some of the residents of the towns were evacuated soon after the accident but others weren't told to do so until late April, a delay that was criticized at the time as a relatively slow reaction by the government, putting residents at risk of high exposure.
The survey by the Fukushima prefecture local government looked at the cumulative external radiation exposure of residents of Namie, Iitate and part of Kawamata towns in the four months after the accident. The towns aren't the closest to the troubled plant; those towns were evacuated soon after the accident and weren't included in the survey.
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Japan Fukushima Reactor: Eight Months After Nuclear Disaster, Plant Remains In Shambles
OKUMA, Japan -- Two reactor buildings once painted in a cheery sky blue loom over the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant. Their roofs are blasted away, their crumbled concrete walls reduced to steel frames.
OKUMA, Japan -
In their shadow, plumbers, electricians and truck drivers, sometimes numbering in the thousands, go dutifully about their work, all clad from head to toe in white hazmat suits. Their job – cleaning up the worst nuclear disaster since Chernobyl – will take decades to complete.
Reporters, also in radiation suits, visited the ravaged facility Saturday for the first time since Japan's worst tsunami in centuries swamped the plant March 11, causing reactor explosions and meltdowns and turning hundreds of square miles (kilometers) of countryside into a no man's land.
Eight months later, the plant remains a shambles. Mangled trucks, flipped over by the power of the wave, still clutter its access roads. Rubble remains strewn where it fell. Pools of water cover parts of the once immaculate campus.
VIENNA (AP) — Very low levels of radiation, which are higher than normal but don't seem to pose a health hazard, are being registered in the Czech Republic and elsewhere in Europe, the International Atomic Energy Agency said Friday.
The agency said the cause was not known but was not the result of Japan's Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster, which spread radiation across the globe in March.
The "very low levels of iodine-131 have been measured in the atmosphere," the agency said in a statement. It said such radioisotope will lose much of its radiation in about eight days.
However, an official familiar with the matter, who asked for anonymity because he was not authorized to comment, said the release appeared to be continuing.
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Tokyo - Hundreds of Japanese women have been converging on the Japanese capital demanding better relief for some 30,000 children exposed to nuclear radiation by the Fukushima meltdown.
"Official recovery policy focuses on decontamination rather than protecting the health of those most vulnerable - children and pregnant women," activist Aileen Mioko Smith told IPS.
"Our meetings with officials to force faster evacuation programmes for high-risk groups are only met with promises to clear radioactive waste. This is totally irresponsible," said Smith, who leads the non-government organisation (NGO) Green Action Japan.
Smith criticised the government and the Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO), operator of the crippled Fukushima nuclear plant, for focusing energies on defusing public tension by promising to reduce exposure in affected areas to below one millisieverts (a measure of radiation) per year.
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Tokyo Electric Power Co. detected signs of nuclear fission at its crippled Fukushima atomic power plant, raising the risk of increased radiation emissions. No increase in radiation was found at the site and the situation is under control, officials said.
The company, known as Tepco, began spraying boric acid on the No. 2 reactor at 2:48 a.m. Japan time to prevent accidental chain reactions. Tepco said it may have found xenon, which is associated with nuclear fission, while examining gases taken from the reactor, according to an e-mailed statement today.
“Given the signs, it’s certain that fission is occurring,” Junichi Matsumoto, a general manager at Tepco who regularly talks to the media, told reporters in Tokyo today. There’s been no large-scale or sustained criticality and no increase in radiation, he said.
Fission taking place in the reactor can lead to increases in radiation emissions and raises concerns about further leaks after another radioactive hot spot was discovered in Tokyo on Oct. 29. It’s possible there are similar reactions occurring in the No. 1 and No. 3 reactors, the other cores damaged at the station, Matsumoto said.
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New report: Fukushima released twice as much radiation as government estimated
The Washington Post October 27, 2011
NEW YORK — The Fukushima nuclear disaster released twice as much of a radioactive substance into the atmosphere as Japanese authorities estimated, reaching 40 percent of the total from Chernobyl, a preliminary report says.
The Washington Post October 27, 2011
NEW YORK — The Fukushima nuclear disaster released twice as much of a radioactive substance into the atmosphere as Japanese authorities estimated, reaching 40 percent of the total from Chernobyl, a preliminary report says.
The estimate of much higher levels of radioactive cesium-137 comes from a worldwide network of sensors. Study author Andreas Stohl of the Norwegian Institute for Air Research says the Japanese government estimate came only from data in Japan, and that would have missed emissions blown out to sea.
The study did not consider health implications of the radiation. Cesium-137 is dangerous because it can last for decades in the environment, releasing cancer-causing radiation.
The long-term effects of the nuclear accident are unclear because of the difficulty of measuring radiation amounts people received.
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Citizens’ Testing Finds 20 Hot Spots Around Tokyo
October 14, 2011
October 14, 2011
TOKYO — Takeo Hayashida signed on with a citizens’ group to test for radiation near his son’s baseball field in Tokyo after government officials told him they had no plans to check for fallout from the devastated Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant. Like Japan’s central government, local officials said there was nothing to fear in the capital, 160 miles from the disaster zone.
Then came the test result: the level of radioactive cesium in a patch of dirt just yards from where his 11-year-old son, Koshiro, played baseball was equal to those in some contaminated areas around Chernobyl.
The patch of ground was one of more than 20 spots in and around the nation’s capital that the citizens’ group, and the respected nuclear research center they worked with, found were contaminated with potentially harmful levels of radioactive cesium.
It has been clear since the early days of the nuclear accident, the world’s second worst after Chernobyl, that that the vagaries of wind and rain had scattered worrisome amounts of radioactive materials in unexpected patterns far outside the evacuation zone 12 miles around the stricken plant. But reports that substantial amounts of cesium had accumulated as far away as Tokyo have raised new concerns about how far the contamination had spread, possibly settling in areas where the government has not even considered looking.
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In Japan, a Long-Term Study on Radiation Leaks’ Effects
October 10, 2011
TOKYO — In an effort to track the long-term health effects of the nuclear disaster at Fukushima, Japan has begun a survey of local children for thyroid abnormalities, a problem associated with exposure to radiation.
October 10, 2011
TOKYO — In an effort to track the long-
The study comes in response to concerns over the health consequences of the serious radiation leaks caused by multiple meltdowns at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station in March. Japanese officials hope to study about 360,000 children who were under 18 at the time of the accident and track their health through their lifetimes, according to Fukushima Prefecture officials.
Children and pregnant women are particularly sensitive to radioactive iodine, which can harm the thyroid, studies after the Chernobyl nuclear disaster in 1986 have shown. According to research presented at a 2006 global conference, at least 4,000 cases of thyroid cancer among children have been linked to Chernobyl’s fallout.
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Strontium-90 Discovered in Yokohama City, 245 kilometers from Fukushima I Nuke Plant
October 9, 2011
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October 9, 2011
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As far as the Ministry of Education is concerned, the southern most detection of strontium-90 was in Shirakawa City, 79 kilometers from the plant. The Ministry doesn't have a plan to test for strontium or plutonium outside the 80 kilometer radius.
On September 30, a government radiation expert appeared on NHK News to tell the viewers that strontium had not flown to the Tokyo Metropolitan area, and the only radionuclides people had to worry about were cesium-134 and cesium-137. In the video clip, the expert looks nervous, so does the male NHK announcer trying to wrap up his remarks.
September 30 was the day when the Ministry of Education and Science released the map of plutonium and strontium in the 80-kilometer radius from the plant. It was also the day when the Japanese government abolished the "evacuation-ready zone" in the area between 20 and 30 kilometers from the plant.
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This could have been homecoming week in this pretty seaside town. Seven months after most residents fled as explosions rocked the nearby Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant, the Japanese government has declared it safe to return to Hirono.
But a week after the country’s Nuclear Disaster Minister lifted the government’s evacuation recommendation for Hirono and three other towns, no one has returned. The only people in Hirono are the same hard-core few who ignored the evacuation advisory all along, plus the teams of rescue workers who use the town as a base while they race to and from the battle to repair the four damaged reactors to the north.
For the rest of the town’s pre-disaster population of 5,500 – including the outspoken mayor – an assurance from Tokyo is nowhere near enough to persuade them to return. Most prefer to remain, for now, in cramped temporary accommodations further from Fukushima Daiichi.
“I don’t plan to come back, ever,” said a middle-aged woman who briefly visited Hirono this week to retrieve belongings from the two-storey home that she and her family fled on March 12, the day after the tsunami that set in motion the worst nuclear disaster since Chernobyl. She paused to take in her abandoned home’s view of the ocean and its now-unkempt garden. “I’ll never feel safe here. I’ll never feel secure.”
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Nuclear energy after Fukushima
October 6, 2011
The environmental disaster at Japan’s Fukushima nuclear power plant this spring is creating a new global divide over the safety of nuclear energy. Sharply differing responses to Fukushima from the world’s wealthiest and poorest nations will bring diminished safety for all.
October 6, 2011
The environmental disaster at Japan’s Fukushima nuclear power plant this spring is creating a new global divide over the safety of nuclear energy. Sharply differing responses to Fukushima from the world’s wealthiest and poorest nations will bring diminished safety for all.
Countries that should be best equipped to deal with nuclear mishaps are turning away from atomic energy after the meltdown of three reactors in northern Japan on March 11. Europeans, most notably in Germany, and Americans are abandoning or delaying plans to replace or upgrade their electricity-producing nuclear plants — and extending the operational life of existing, less-safe reactors well beyond their original 40-year licensing period.
But developing countries with little nuclear experience and spotty industrial safety records are moving ahead with ambitious plans to expand generating capacity. China and India — after pausing briefly to review safety arrangements — are adding about 80 new reactors over the next two decades. (The United States has 104 of the 436 reactors worldwide.)
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Japan Discovers Plutonium Far From Crippled Reactor
October 2, 2011 Wall Street Journal
TOKYO—Trace amounts of plutonium were found as far as 28 miles from the damaged Fukushima Daiichi nuclear-power plant, the first time that the dangerous element released from the accident was found outside of the immediate area of the plant.
October 2, 2011 Wall Street Journal
TOKYO—Trace amounts of plutonium were found as far as 28 miles from the damaged Fukushima Daiichi nuclear-
The science ministry report issued Friday comes just as the government lifted one of its evacuation advisories, underscoring the difficulty of restoring normalcy and assuring the safety of residents around the crippled plant.
The government also reported a rare detection of strontium, another highly dangerous element, far from the crippled reactor, in one spot as far away as 50 miles. Most of the radioactive material discovered to date in the communities surrounding Fukushima Daiichi has been cesium or iodine.
<snip>
While neither plutonium nor strontium emit powerful gamma rays like cesium and iodine, both deposit in the body—strontium in the bones, plutonium in the bones and lungs—and can cause cancer of leukemia once inhaled or ingested.
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Fukushima Desolation Worst Since Nagasaki
September 27, 2011 Bloomberg News
Beyond the police roadblocks that mark the no-go zone around Japan’s wrecked Fukushima nuclear plant, six-foot tall weeds invade rice paddies and vines gone wild strangle road signs along empty streets.
September 27, 2011 Bloomberg News
Beyond the police roadblocks that mark the no-
<snip>
“Older folks want to return, but the young worry about radiation,” said Harada, whose family ran the farm for 40 years. “I want to farm, but will we be able to sell anything?”
What’s emerging in Japan six months since the nuclear meltdown at the Tokyo Electric Power Co. plant is a radioactive zone bigger than that left by the 1945 atomic bombings at Hiroshima and Nagasaki. While nature reclaims the 20 kilometer (12 mile) no-go zone, Fukushima’s $3.2 billion-a-year farm industry is being devastated and tourists that hiked the prefecture’s mountains and surfed off its beaches have all but vanished.
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On March 13 of this year, 17 year old Yuuko Sato and 13 year old Mina Sato left the only home they'd ever known on an organic farm in Fukushima prefecture. They now live more than two hours by train to the north, in Yamagata. Their mother, Sachiko, explained the move via translator as fulfilling "the minimum duty of a parent" to protect her children. The danger they fled: radiation from the meltdown of three nearby nuclear reactors on March 11.
But not every child escaped. Some 300,000 children remain in radioactive zones in Fukushima, according to Sachiko Sato. She and her children were in New York City to protest a United Nations event on the safety of nuclear power. Some Fukushima children—and their parents—were actually evacuated from towns with relatively low radiation levels to places with higher levels. That error was due to incomplete information on radiation hotspots from all levels of Japanese government in the wake of the meltdowns at Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant.
Sachiko Sato says "the scenery in Fukushima is as beautiful as last year but all over us is radiation." She adds, "can you understand the pain of farmers who have to abandon the land they have cared for?"
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FUKUSHIMA, Japan — Ko Saito is in his final year of high school in Fukushima and sees a bleak future for his native province.
“I am very scared of the radiation,” the 18-year-old said while waiting with friends near the city’s train station. They discussed whether to stay or leave a region devastated by the meltdown of a nuclear power plant that was crippled by a killer tsunami six months ago.
“I want to be tested [for radiation levels] to know more about my true physical condition, but they are not doing that yet,” he said. “I want to go to Sendai, because I fear radiation levels in Fukushima are higher than they are saying.”
Mr. Saito reflects the fears of teenagers throughout Fukushima. They want to know more about the real risks of radiation in their home province and don’t always believe official statements about the situation at the reactors.
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Japan is ordering more tests on rice growing near a crippled nuclear plant after finding elevated levels of radiation, government officials said Saturday.
A sample of unharvested rice contained 500 becquerels of cesium per kilogram, they said.
Radioactive cesium was spewed from the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant after it was damaged by a massive earthquake and tsunami on March 11.
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Dominion Power North Anna nuclear power plant in Virginia still down
September 20, 2011
NEW YORK, Sept 20 (Reuters) - Virginia-based energy company Dominion (D.N) said on Tuesday it expects the 903-megawatt Unit 1 at the North Anna nuclear power plant in Virginia to be ready to restart by the end of this month.
September 20, 2011
NEW YORK, Sept 20 (Reuters) -
"We must satisfy ourselves first that the unit is safe and ready to restart, and must also demonstrate the same to
the (U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission), which must concur before we can place the unit on line," Dominion spokesman Richard Zuercher said.
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the (U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission), which must concur before we can place the unit on line," Dominion spokesman Richard Zuercher said.
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Siemens announces the abandonment of the nuclear business
September 18, 2011
The President of the German Siemens, Peter Löscher, Technology Consortium has announced in a statement carried Sunday by the weekly Der Spiegel the total abandonment of the nuclear business by his group.
September 18, 2011
The President of the German Siemens, Peter Löscher, Technology Consortium has announced in a statement carried Sunday by the weekly Der Spiegel the total abandonment of the nuclear business by his group.
“This chapter is closed to us,” says Löscher, whose company has been involved for decades in the construction of power stations and nuclear installations around the world.
The decision, says the head of Siemens, is “the answer” your company “to the clear positioning of the society and politics in Germany for the abandonment of nuclear energy” after the catastrophe of Fukushima, in Japan.
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Berlin — Some 80 members of the Bavarian State Opera have refused to join its tour of Japan next Friday because of radiation concerns posed by the crippled Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant, sources close to the Munich-based opera company said Saturday.
The 400-member group, one of the world's most prestigious opera companies, will replace the nonparticipating members with auxiliary members and other artists.
Those who refuse to travel to Japan will be taking nonpaid holidays during the tour period, they said.
The company, known in Germany as the Bayerische Staatsoper, will airlift drinking water from Germany to Japan, while radiation experts in Germany will accompany it on the Japanese tour to gauge radiation levels in the members' meals, they said.
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6 months into Japan's cleanup, radiation a major worry
By Craig Dale, special to CBC News Sept. 12, 2011
TOKYO – The scars of Japan’s March 11 disaster are both glaringly evident and deceptively hidden.
By Craig Dale, special to CBC News Sept. 12, 2011
TOKYO – The scars of Japan’s March 11 disaster are both glaringly evident and deceptively hidden.
Six months after a tsunami turned Japan’s northeast into a tangled mess of metal, concrete, wood and dirt, legions of workers have made steady progress hauling away a good portion of the more than 20 million tonnes of debris covering ravaged coastal areas. The Environment Ministry says it expects to have it all removed by next March, and completely disposed of by 2014.
But a weightless byproduct of this country’s March 11 disaster is expected to linger for much longer.
The Japanese learned a lot about the risks posed by radiation after the United States dropped atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945. Now, once again, they are facing this invisible killer. This time, the mistake is of their own making. 'I think Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO), as well as the Japanese government, made many mistakes.' —Shoji Sawada, theoretical particle physicist
"I’m afraid," says Shoji Sawada, a theoretical particle physicist who is opposed to the use of nuclear energy.
Sawada has been carefully monitoring the fallout from the accident at the Fukushima Daiichi power plant. “I think many people were exposed to radiation. I am afraid [they] will experience delayed effects, such as cancer and leukemia.”
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International Atomic Energy Agency Adopts Post-Fukushima Safety Plan
September 13, 2011
VIENNA -- A 35-nation meeting of the U.N. nuclear agency on Tuesday adopted a post-Fukushima nuclear safety plan – despite gripes by influential member nations that it to too timid for making compliance voluntary.
September 13, 2011
VIENNA -
Germany and several other EU states – as well as Canada, Australia, Singapore and New Zealand – are unhappy with the plan because it does not obligate countries to allow outside monitoring of their civilian nuclear programs and gives the International Atomic Energy Agency no enforcement powers on safety.
Board member nations adopted the document by consensus, but not before Canada aired grievances shared by other critics in an unusually blunt statement.
"The draft Action Plan before Governors today will be seen as a timid response by the Agency," said Canada's statement to the closed meeting.
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Explosion kills at least one at a nuclear plant in southern France
September 12, 2011 By Rene Lynch Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
September 12, 2011 By Rene Lynch Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
At least one person was killed and four injured when a furnace exploded Monday at the Marcoule nuclear waste treatment site in southern France. Authorites say there was no radioactive leakage to the outside.
<snip>
France is considered to be the world's most nuclear-dependent country, even though the controversial energy source has its critics there. The country is in the process of reviewing its facilities as a safety precaution in the wake of the Fukushima nuclear disaster in Japan earlier this year.
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This is the second explosion at a French nuclear power plant in less than three months:
French nuclear power plant explosion heightens safety fears
Published 05 July 2011 - Updated 06 July 2011
Published 05 July 2011 -
An explosion sparked a fire at a French nuclear power station on Saturday (2 July), just two days after the authorities found 32 safety concerns at the plant.
The blaze at the Tricastin plant in Drôme in the Rhône valley sent a thick cloud of black smoke into the sky. A mistral wind sent it south over a nearby motorway on one of the busiest travel days of the year as the French left for their summer holidays.
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Japan Misstated Radiation
By MITSURU OBE September 9, 2011
TOKYO—The Japanese government initially underestimated radiation releases from the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant, in part because of untimely rain, and so exposed people unnecessarily, a report released this week by a government research institute says.
By MITSURU OBE September 9, 2011
TOKYO—The Japanese government initially underestimated radiation releases from the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant, in part because of untimely rain, and so exposed people unnecessarily, a report released this week by a government research institute says.
Adding to earlier evidence of initial government missteps, the report by the Japan Atomic Energy Agency says an unlucky combination of heavy rains and shifting winds meant that much of the airborne radioactive debris washed down over a broad area around the crippled plant. Before the changing weather, the radiation had been expected to drift over the Pacific Ocean, which would have posed less of a risk to public health, at least in the short term.
"Local residents would have stayed indoors and avoided radiation if they had been told about the dangers of the rainfall," said Tetsuo Sawada, assistant professor of reactor engineering at the Tokyo Institute of Technology.
The Japanese government's initial evacuation zone—after the March 11 earthquake and tsunami knocked out the plant's cooling systems and caused core meltdowns—was within 20 kilometers (about 12 miles) of the stricken plant. But as the study highlights, radiation spread far beyond the 20-kilometer radius, with rainstorms contributing to the ground contamination.
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Japan minister slammed for gaffe over nuke crisis: “A Town of Death”
By MARI YAMAGUCHI, Associated Press – September 9, 2011
By MARI YAMAGUCHI, Associated Press – September 9, 2011
TOKYO (AP) — Japan's new trade minister apologized Friday for calling the now-desolate area around the tsunami-hit nuclear power plant "a town of death," a remark seen as insensitive to residents who had to evacuate because of radiation leaks.
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His comment came as he described his visit a day earlier to inspect damage and cheer workers at the Fukushima Dai-ichi plant.
"Sorry to say, there was not a single soul in areas around the plant," Hachiro told reporters. "Literally it was like a town of death."
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Virginia quake shook US nuclear power plant twice as hard as design allowed
By Roberta Rampton Thu Sep 8, 2011 10:35pm GMT
By Roberta Rampton Thu Sep 8, 2011 10:35pm GMT
ROCKVILLE, Md., Sept 8 (Reuters) - Last month's record earthquake in the eastern United States may have shaken a Virginia nuclear plant twice as hard as it was designed to withstand, a spokesman for the U.S. nuclear safety regulator said on Thursday.
But Dominion Resources told the Nuclear Regulatory Commission that the ground under the plant exceeded its "design basis" only by about 10 to 20 percent, and it plans to prove in the next month that its reactors are safe to restart.
The discrepancy is one of many items the NRC and company must deal with, in the first instance in which an operating U.S. nuclear power plant has experienced a quake beyond its design parameters.
The NRC must sign off on Dominion's restart plans for the North Anna plant, about 12 miles from the quake's epicenter -- and determine how it will make that decision.
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Earthquakes, Hurricanes Highlight Serious Nuclear Regulation Flaws
September 4, 2011
On Friday, August 26, as Hurricane Irene began its slow journey up the US central Atlantic coast, power companies operating 20 nuclear rectors in nine states made plans to deal with the storm and its potential aftermath.
September 4, 2011
On Friday, August 26, as Hurricane Irene began its slow journey up the US central Atlantic coast, power companies operating 20 nuclear rectors in nine states made plans to deal with the storm and its potential aftermath.
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The reason some plants chose to reduce output or go offline was because, if an accident caused or required the plant to scram–that is, quickly and completely shut down–the stress on the reactor increases the chance of a future safety breach. As Bob Alvarez, of the Institute for Policy Studies, explains:
“Keep in mind that when these large reactors scram, it’s like a jumbo jet making a quick forced landing. The sudden insertion of control rods creates unexpected stress on the reactor. This is why when a reactor is normally shut-down for refueling, it is done gradually. If a reactor experiences several scrams during a year, this should raise a red nuclear safety flag.
While working in DOE, I was involved in energy emergency planning, and electricity blackouts, NRC staff were definitely concerned about the safety of increased scrams caused by forced power outages.”
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Earthquake risk to nuclear reactors greater than thought
AP, September 2, 2011
WASHINGTON (AP) — The risk that an earthquake would cause a severe accident at a U.S. nuclear plant is greater than previously thought, 24 times as high in one case, according to an AP analysis of preliminary government data. The nation’s nuclear regulator believes a quarter of America’s reactors may need modifications to make them safer.
AP, September 2, 2011
WASHINGTON (AP) — The risk that an earthquake would cause a severe accident at a U.S. nuclear plant is greater than previously thought, 24 times as high in one case, according to an AP analysis of preliminary government data. The nation’s nuclear regulator believes a quarter of America’s reactors may need modifications to make them safer.
The threat came into sharp focus last week, when shaking from the largest earthquake to hit Virginia in 117 years appeared to exceed what the North Anna nuclear power plant northwest of Richmond was built to sustain.
The two North Anna reactors are among 27 in the eastern and central U.S. that a preliminary Nuclear Regulatory Commission review has said may need upgrades. That’s because those plants are more likely to get hit with an earthquake larger than the one their design was based on. Just how many nuclear power plants are more vulnerable won’t be determined until all operators recalculate their own seismic risk based on new assessments by geologists, something the agency plans to request later this year. The NRC on Thursday issued a draft of that request for public comment.
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French map of cesium-137 deposition from Fukushima shows the US more contaminated than Western Japan
September 1, 2011
France's CEREA has the simulation map of ground deposition of cesium-137 from the Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant accident on its "Fukushima" page. It not only shows Japan but also the entire northern Pacific Rim, from Russian Siberia to Alaska to the West Coast of the US to the entire US.
September 1, 2011
France's CEREA has the simulation map of ground deposition of cesium-
According to the map, the US, particularly the West Coast and particularly California, may be more contaminated with radioactive cesium than the western half of Japan or Hokkaido. It looks more contaminated than South Korea or China. Canada doesn't look too well either, particularly along the border with US on the western half.
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Report: 76 trillion becquerels of Plutonium-239 released from Fukushima — 23,000 times higher than previously announced
August 29, 2011
The Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency (NISA)’s daily press conference is ongoing (August 29). The NISA spokesman Moriyama mentions neptunium-239′s conversion ratio to plutonium-239 as 1 to 1.
According to the June 6 estimate by the NISA [see chart below] [...] Neptunium-239: 7.6×10^13 [...]
August 29, 2011
The Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency (NISA)’s daily press conference is ongoing (August 29). The NISA spokesman Moriyama mentions neptunium-
According to the June 6 estimate by the NISA [see chart below] [...] Neptunium-
At a ratio of 1:1, Plutonium-239 releases are also 7.6 x 10^13, or 76 tera(trillion)becquerels.
23,000 higher than previous government estimate...
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Fukushima exceeds Chernobyl in radiation level
September 1, 2011
BEIJING, Sept. 1 (Xinhuanet) --A map drawn up by the Japanese Government shows, that soil at 34 spots in six Prefecture municipalities around the Fukushima power plant, are contaminated with radioactive cesium. These levels are higher than the Chernobyl disaster standard used for forcible evacuations.
September 1, 2011
BEIJING, Sept. 1 (Xinhuanet) -
A soil contamination map released by Japan's Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology Ministry, shows six municipalities have more than 1.48 million becquerels of cesium 137, per square meter. Most highly contaminated spots are mainly 40 kilometers northeast of the nuclear plant.
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Japan Finds Radiation Spread Over a Wide Area
August 31, 2011
TOKYO—The first comprehensive soil survey from areas around the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant showed extensive ground contamination and another report warned of the continued threat to Japan's food chain, underscoring the major challenges the country still faces in its radioactive cleanup efforts.
August 31, 2011
TOKYO—The first comprehensive soil survey from areas around the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant showed extensive ground contamination and another report warned of the continued threat to Japan's food chain, underscoring the major challenges the country still faces in its radioactive cleanup efforts.
Separately, the operator of the plant, Tokyo Electric Power Co, said Tuesday that a worker involved with the cleanup died of acute leukemia, though officials said medical tests concluded the death was unlikely related to his work at the plant.
Nearly six months after the accident, the education ministry released Tuesday the first comprehensive survey of soil contamination within a 62-mile radius, showing that more than 30 locations spread over a wide area have been contaminated with long-lasting radioactive cesium.
Government officials said the report did not materially alter their prior understanding of the spread and extent of contamination, previously estimated through aerial surveys and above-ground radiation monitoring. They said that the highest-contaminated communities had already been evacuated, and the new data did not justify any change in the evacuation policy.
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When an earthquake launched a tsunami that devastated a Japanese nuclear complex in March, U.S. regulators quickly reassured the public that American reactors were built to withstand the expected severity of earthquakes in their areas.
Privately, though, internal emails from March show staffers at the federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission fretted about the public attention on the potential earthquake vulnerability of some U.S. plants. Since 2005, the agency had been working on a study of seismic hazards that is far from complete but showed good reason to worry about two dozen reactors. Although the West gets the most earthquakes, the biggest new concern is plants in areas of the Midwest and East that have been hit by powerful quakes in the distant past and could be slammed again.
"I think this highlights our need to get a handle on external events' hazards," wrote one staffer in an email obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request. Another staffer noted that the long-running seismic study showed rising earthquake risks in the eastern U.S. He added: "Isn't there a prediction that…the West Coast is likely to get hit with some huge earthquake in the next 30 years or so? Yet we re-license their plants."
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Two New Jersey Reactors Shut Down Due to Hurricane Irene Aftermath
August 31, 2011
LOWER ALLOWAYS CREEK, N.J. -- Two of the three nuclear reactors in a southern New Jersey county have powered partway down because debris from Hurricane Irene is blocking cooling water intakes.
August 31, 2011
LOWER ALLOWAYS CREEK, N.J. -
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Nuclear plant worker dies of acute leukemia
August 30, 2011
August 30, 2011
TOKYO (Kyodo) -- A worker in his 40s who had been engaged in recovery work at the crisis-hit Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant has died of acute leukemia, plant operator Tokyo Electric Power Co. said Tuesday.
Tokyo Electric said the worker's death is not linked with his work at the plant, citing results of medical examination by doctors.
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Virginia Nuclear Plant Shut Down by Quake
August 23, 2011 CNN Wire Staff
Tuesday's Virginia earthquake triggered the shutdown of a nearby nuclear power plant and alerts at nine others across the East Coast, U.S. authorities reported.
August 23, 2011 CNN Wire Staff
Tuesday's Virginia earthquake triggered the shutdown of a nearby nuclear power plant and alerts at nine others across the East Coast, U.S. authorities reported.
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Japanese officials have admitted for the first time that certain radiation-stricken areas around the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant may remain uninhabitable for decades. Japanese media this week reported that embattled Prime Minister Naoto Kan is to visit affected areas within days to tell residents and local officials that it will remain too dangerous to return to parts of Fukushima Prefecture in the foreseeable future.
Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano said, "We cannot deny the possibility that there will be some areas where it will be hard for residents to return to their homes over a long period of time."
The dangers of radiation exposure in certain areas are expected to remain unacceptably high well after the plant finally undergoes a cold shutdown in the coming months. A final decision on which areas are to be declared off-limits will be made following detailed radiation monitoring and the creation of a comprehensive decontamination plan. Japanese officials have so far declined to specifically name any areas likely to be affected.
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Magnitude 5.8 Quake in Mineral, Virgina shuts down North Anna Nuclear Power Plant
Nine others closed for observation
By the CNN Wire Staff August 23, 2011 4:41 p.m. EDT
Nine others closed for observation
By the CNN Wire Staff August 23, 2011 4:41 p.m. EDT
Tuesday's Virginia earthquake triggered the shutdown of a nearby nuclear power plant and alerts at nine others across the East Coast, U.S. authorities reported.
Dominion Virginia Power said both reactors at its North Anna plant, less than 20 miles from the epicenter of the magnitude-5.9 quake, shut down after the first tremors. Amanda Reidelbach, an emergency management spokeswoman for Louisa County, said the plant venting steam, but there was no release of radioactive material.
David Heacock, the utility's chief nuclear officer, said the plant was operating on emergency power and the units were safely deactivated.
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Thyroid Radiation Exposure Found in Children Near Tepco Plant
By Chisaki Watanabe - Aug 19, 2011 5:49 AM ET
By Chisaki Watanabe -
Medical tests on children living in three towns near the crippled Fukushima Dai-Ichi nuclear plant found 45 percent of those surveyed suffered low-level thyroid radiation exposure, Japan’s government said in a statement.
While the statement didn’t comment on the source of the contamination, the announcement follows reports of radioactive material found in food after radiation leaks from the meltdown of three reactors at the Tokyo Electric Power Co. plant.
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Some areas near Japan’s crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant could be uninhabitable for many years, due to remaining high levels of radioactive contamination, the Japanese government has warned.
The admission that work to stabilise the plant and decontaminate surrounding areas will not be sufficient to make local communities safe to live in, will come as a blow to residents who have been expecting to return to their communities as early as next year.
Some 90,000 residents living within a 20km radius of the plant, which is owned by Tokyo Electric Power, were evacuated after the accident following the March 11 earthquake and tsunami disaster.
“There are areas near the nuclear power plant where the level of radiation is very high and it cannot be denied that there may be areas where it will be difficult for the residents to return for a long time,” said Yukio Edano, the government’s chief spokesman. He added that this may be the case even if measures, such as decontamination, are taken.
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Fukushima radiation alarms doctors
Japanese doctors warn of public health problems caused by Fukushima radiation.
By Dahr Jamail August 18, 2011
Japanese doctors warn of public health problems caused by Fukushima radiation.
By Dahr Jamail August 18, 2011
Scientists and doctors are calling for a new national policy in Japan that mandates the testing of food, soil, water, and the air for radioactivity still being emitted from Fukushima's heavily damaged Daiichi nuclear power plant.
"How much radioactive materials have been released from the plant?" asked Dr Tatsuhiko Kodama, a professor at the Research Centre for Advanced Science and Technology and Director of the University of Tokyo's Radioisotope Centre, in a July 27 speech to the Committee of Health, Labour and Welfare at Japan's House of Representatives.
<snip>
Doctors in Japan are already treating patients suffering health effects they attribute to radiation from the ongoing nuclear disaster.
"We have begun to see increased nosebleeds, stubborn cases of diarrhoea, and flu-like symptoms in children," (Emphasis added) Dr Yuko Yanagisawa, a physician at Funabashi Futawa Hospital in Chiba Prefecture, told Al Jazeera.
She attributes the symptoms to radiation exposure, and added: "We are encountering new situations we cannot explain with the body of knowledge we have relied upon up until now."
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MINAMI-SOMA, Japan (AP) — It is a daunting task. Contamination from the world's worst nuclear disaster since Chernobyl has spread far and wide, across fields and farms, rivers and forests. Tens of thousands of residents have been forced to flee their homes.
But, shovelful by shovelful, one half-empty city on the edge of the evacuation zone is fighting to bring its future back.
Feeling forgotten and left largely to fend for themselves by the central government, officials in Minami-Soma, about 12 miles (20 kilometers) away from the tsunami-crippled Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear facility, have designated August as "Decontamination Month" in a campaign to woo spooked residents home.
"We decided that we could not sit by and wait until Tokyo figured out what to do," said town official Yoshiaki Yokota. "It's an enormous task, but we have to start somewhere."
Before the disaster, nearly 70,000 people lived in Minami-Soma. But, nearly six months later and despite relatively low radiation readings in most parts of town, more than 30,000 have left, nearly one-third of them from areas outside the official evacuation zone.
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Japan risks another crisis over decontamination
Aug 13th 2011 | TOKYO | from The Economist print edition
Aug 13th 2011 | TOKYO | from The Economist print edition
SINCE April, Kiki Tanaka and hundreds of other ordinary citizens have been uploading radiation measurements to Safecast.org, a non-profit group. On a fine summer day she drives to Nihonmatsu, 56km (35 miles) from the ruined nuclear plant at Fukushima, and notes her Geiger counter ticking higher: another step in the DIY defence against radioactivity.
This grass-roots monitoring reflects a loss of trust in the authorities. Until June the government in Tokyo took radiation measurements at just one site, as if that were enough to survey the city’s 2,200 square kilometres and 13m people. In fact levels are known to vary widely within even small areas, depending on weather patterns and building materials.
Safecast’s 20 fixed sensors and 15 mobile units, which identify “hot spots” by going from schoolyard to sandpit, seek to fill a gap in the official information. With half a million data points so far, they have tended to corroborate the government’s work, but have also revealed some places where radiation was worse than expected. “It was not until local people raised their voices that the municipal governments took it seriously,” explains Ryugo Hayano, a nuclear physicist at the University of Tokyo.
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US Envoy: Tokyo Didn't Take Charge Post-Disaster
By Mari Yamaguchi, Associated Press Manufacturing.Net - August 18, 2011
By Mari Yamaguchi, Associated Press Manufacturing.Net -
TOKYO (AP) -- Early in the Fukushima nuclear crisis, U.S. officials felt that nobody in Japan's government was taking charge, and Washington considered evacuating American troops in a worst-case scenario, a retired U.S. envoy said Thursday.
When the March 11 earthquake and tsunami set off the crisis by crippling the Fukushima Dai-ichi plant and sending it toward meltdown, Prime Minister Naoto Kan's administration initially acted as if it was the plantoperator's problem, not the government's, former diplomat Kevin Maher said.
<snip>
Japan initially was not forthcoming with details of the crisis, while independent U.S. information indicated at least two of the plant's six reactor cores were melting down, he said.
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Radiation-Tainted Food in Japan Escalates
By Naoko Fujimura and Chris Cooper, Bloomberg August 14, 2011
By Naoko Fujimura and Chris Cooper, Bloomberg August 14, 2011
Mushrooms joined the threats to Japan's food chain from radiation spewed by Tokyo Electric Power Co.'s Fukushima Dai-Ichi nuclear plant, as the country expands efforts to limit the effects of the disaster. Japan is under pressure to enhance food inspections as it has no centralized system for detecting radiation contamination. About two - thirds of Japan’s prefectures now plan to check rice crops, the Mainichi newspaper said today, citing a survey. Half of Japan's rice is grown within range of emissions from the crippled nuclear plant, and farmers are awaiting the results of tests before harvesting begins this month.
"By strengthening inspection on rice, we want to make sure only safe produce are in the market," Agriculture Minister Michihiko Kano said at a press conference on Aug. 12.
Nameko mushrooms grown in the open air in Soma, a city about 40 kilometers (25 miles) north of the plant damaged in the March 11 earthquake and tsunami, were found to contain nine times the legal limit of cesium, the local government said Aug. 12. Japan's farm ministry asked growers in Fukushima prefecture to refrain from harvesting mushrooms off raw wood left outside, public broadcaster NHK said yesterday.
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There are battles being fought on two fronts in the five months since a massive earthquake and tsunami damaged the Daiichi nuclear power plant in Fukushima, Japan.
On one front, there is the fight to repair the plant, operated by the Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) and to contain the extent of contamination caused by the damage. On the other is the public’s fight to extract information from the Japanese government, TEPCO and nuclear experts worldwide.
The latter battle has yielded serious official humiliation, resulting high-profile resignations, scandals, and promises of reform in Japan’s energy industry whereas the latter has so far resulted in a storm of anger and mistrust.
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The aftermath of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear crisis has been marked by an outcry in Japan over radiation leaks, contaminated food and a government unable to put the public's fears to rest.
Perhaps the most worrying aspect of the meltdown that resulted from March's earthquake–triggered disaster, activists and citizens have said, is the uncertainty that has ensued.
In the months since the catastrophe, the Japanese government, its nuclear watchdogs and Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO), have provided differing, confusing, and at times contradictory, information on critical health issues.
Fed up with indefinite data, a group of 50 volunteers decided to take matters, and Geiger counters, into their own hands.
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Japan Held Nuclear Data, Leaving Evacuees in Peril
By Norimitsu Onishi and Martin Fackler August 8, 2011
By Norimitsu Onishi and Martin Fackler August 8, 2011
FUKUSHIMA, Japan — The day after a giant tsunami set off the continuing disaster at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant, thousands of residents at the nearby town of Namie gathered to evacuate.
Given no guidance from Tokyo, town officials led the residents north, believing that winter winds would be blowing south and carrying away any radioactive emissions. For three nights, while hydrogen explosions at four of the reactors spewed radiation into the air, they stayed in a district called Tsushima where the children played outside and some parents used water from a mountain stream to prepare rice.
,<snip>
“From the 12th to the 15th we were in a location with one of the highest levels of radiation,” said Tamotsu Baba, the mayor of Namie, which is about five miles from the nuclear plant. He and thousands from Namie now live in temporary housing in another town, Nihonmatsu. “We are extremely worried about internal exposure to radiation.”
The withholding of information, he said, was akin to “murder.” (Emphasis added)
In interviews and public statements, some current and former government officials have admitted that Japanese authorities engaged in a pattern of withholding damaging information and denying facts of the nuclear disaster — in order, some of them said, to limit the size of costly and disruptive evacuations in land-scarce Japan and to avoid public questioning of the politically powerful nuclear industry. As the nuclear plant continues to release radiation, some of which has slipped into the nation’s food supply, public anger is growing at what many here see as an official campaign to play down the scope of the accident and the potential health risks. (Emphasis added)
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MINAMISOMA, Japan—Within days of the disaster at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant, Japanese food inspectors were spot-checking meat from the region's slaughtered cattle for radioactive contamination. Officials later fanned out to farms near the crippled plant to pass Geiger counters over the animals to determine whether they were safe to sell.
Cattle farmers in Fukushima Prefecture say the Japanese government isn't giving them the information they need to protect their livestock from radiation contamination. WSJ's Juro Osawa reports.
"We urge consumers to continue shopping as usual and retailers to do their business as usual," Agriculture Minister Michihiko Kano reassured the nation on March 31, more than two weeks after explosions at the plant first spewed radiation into the air.
<snip>
A Wall Street Journal examination shows serious flaws in Japan's approach to safeguarding food in the event of a nuclear accident. Four months after the disaster, the government still is struggling to contain the contamination and to come up with an effective system for policing its food supply. Some foods, such as juices and honey, hit store shelves without any government screening. Many other foods are spot tested, but only minimally.
Radioactive contamination is an elusive threat, invisible and difficult to measure. At high levels, it is unquestionably hazardous to health, sometimes even deadly. But lower-level contamination spread far from the stricken plant, and now Japanese officials are scrambling to figure out how dangerous it is and what they should do to protect the public. Low levels do damage over the long term, and scientists say it is difficult to pinpoint the precise level at which such contamination becomes unacceptably risky. (Emphasis added)
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The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, a federal agency that focuses on the condition of the oceans and atmosphere, said that a severe solar storm could cause global chaos, debilitating satellite communications and taking down the most important global power grids.
The NOAA predicted four extreme solar emissions which could threaten the planet this decade. Similarly, NASA warned that a peak in the sun's magnetic energy cycle and the number of sun spots or flares around 2013 could enable extremely high radiation levels.
This type of storm could also induce geomagnetic currents that could debilitate transformers on the power grid. Electric power would be out for years or even decades.
Nuclear plants would also be negatively affected as supplying power systems with enough fuel despite main power grids being offline for years would be a grave problem. Furthermore, spent fuel rods losing connection to the power grid could cause pools to boil over, fueling fires and releasing deadly radiation. (Emphasis added)
A report by the Oak Ridge National Laboratory said that over the standard 40-year license term of nuclear power plants, solar flare activity enables a 33 percent chance of long-term power loss, a risk that significantly outweighs that of major earthquakes and tsunamis.
Fukushima Clouds Hiroshima Anniversary
By Suvendrini Kakuchi
By Suvendrini Kakuchi
TOKYO, Aug 4, 2011 (IPS) - Matashichi Oishi, 78, a radiation victim from Bikini Atoll, the site of a U.S. hydrogen bomb test in 1954, will make his annual lone visit this week to commemorate the Aug. 6 anniversary of the nuclear bombing of Hiroshima 66 years ago.
This year, says the former sailor, battling lung cancer from exposure to high levels of radiation at Bikini Atoll, his message at Hiroshima will go beyond a routine call to end nuclear weapons.
"Against the backdrop of the disastrous Fukushima nuclear plant accident, I will speak of the absolute need for Japan to not only work to ban nuclear weapons but also to completely eradicate dependence on nuclear energy," he told IPS.
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This year, says the former sailor, battling lung cancer from exposure to high levels of radiation at Bikini Atoll, his message at Hiroshima will go beyond a routine call to end nuclear weapons.
"Against the backdrop of the disastrous Fukushima nuclear plant accident, I will speak of the absolute need for Japan to not only work to ban nuclear weapons but also to completely eradicate dependence on nuclear energy," he told IPS.
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Tepco Reports Second Deadly Radiation Reading at Fukushima Plant
By Tsuyoshi Inajima - Aug 2, 2011 6:31 AM ET
A handout photograph shows a worker taking radiation readings on the bottom of the ventilation stack at Tokyo Electric Power Co.'s (Tepco) Fukushima Dai-Ichi nuclear power station in Fukushima, Japan. Tepco said yesterday it recorded radiation of 10 sieverts per hour, the maximum reading on the Geiger counter used and the highest since the plant was hit by an earthquake and tsunami on March 11.
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By Tsuyoshi Inajima -
A handout photograph shows a worker taking radiation readings on the bottom of the ventilation stack at Tokyo Electric Power Co.'s (Tepco) Fukushima Dai-
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Record levels of radiation have been recorded at the damaged Fukushima Dai-ichi reactor months after the nuclear accident resulting from the earthquake and tsunami in March.
TEPCO reported that Geiger counters registered their highest possible reading at the site yesterday.
TEPCO reported that Geiger counters registered their highest possible reading at the site yesterday.
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Japanese Find Radioactivity on Their Own
By KEN BELSON Published: July 31, 2011
Local officials kept telling her that their remote village was safe, even though it was less than 20 miles from the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant. But her daughter remained dubious, especially since no one from the government had taken radiation readings near their home.
So starting in April, Mrs. Okoshi began using her dosimeter to check nearby forest roads and rice paddies. What she found was startling. Near one sewage ditch, the meter beeped wildly, and the screen read 67 microsieverts per hour, a potentially harmful level. Mrs. Okoshi and a cousin who lives nearby worked up the courage to confront elected officials, who did not respond, confirming their worry that the government was not doing its job.
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By KEN BELSON Published: July 31, 2011
Local officials kept telling her that their remote village was safe, even though it was less than 20 miles from the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant. But her daughter remained dubious, especially since no one from the government had taken radiation readings near their home.
So starting in April, Mrs. Okoshi began using her dosimeter to check nearby forest roads and rice paddies. What she found was startling. Near one sewage ditch, the meter beeped wildly, and the screen read 67 microsieverts per hour, a potentially harmful level. Mrs. Okoshi and a cousin who lives nearby worked up the courage to confront elected officials, who did not respond, confirming their worry that the government was not doing its job.
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Nuclear Waste Piles Up As Repository Plan Falters
By Craig Miller – July 28, 2011
Diablo Canyon nuclear power plant on California's central coast has more than 1,300 tons of nuclear waste sitting on its back porch, waiting for pickup. The problem is, there's no one to pick it up.
The 103 other reactors in the country are in the same bind — it has now been more than 50 years since the first nuclear plant was switched on in the United States, and the federal government still hasn't found a permanent home for the nation's nuclear waste.
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By Craig Miller – July 28, 2011
Diablo Canyon nuclear power plant on California's central coast has more than 1,300 tons of nuclear waste sitting on its back porch, waiting for pickup. The problem is, there's no one to pick it up.
The 103 other reactors in the country are in the same bind — it has now been more than 50 years since the first nuclear plant was switched on in the United States, and the federal government still hasn't found a permanent home for the nation's nuclear waste.
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LACEY TOWNSHIP, N.J. -- Federal regulators have been working closely with the nuclear power industry to keep the nation's aging reactors operating within safety standards by repeatedly weakening those standards, or simply failing to enforce them, an investigation by The Associated Press has found.
Time after time, officials at the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission have decided that original regulations were too strict, arguing that safety margins could be eased without peril, according to records and interviews.
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Probe of radiation finds risks at Ohio nuke plant
By MEGHAN BARR, Associated Press – Jul 8, 2011
By MEGHAN BARR, Associated Press – Jul 8, 2011
CLEVELAND (AP) — Federal authorities say nuclear plant workers in Ohio had to avoid tripping on cables and a hole in the floor when they were forced to flee during a botched removal of a radiation monitor.
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission says in a report released Thursday that inspectors found several safety violations at the Perry Nuclear Power plant during an investigation of the April 22 incident, when radiation levels rose while the plant was shutting down to refuel.
Information from: The Plain Dealer, http://www.cleveland.com
RALEIGH -- North Carolina State University says a small leak in its nuclear research reactor is not a public health threat.
The reactor is housed in the Burlington Nuclear Engineering Laboratory. The building is located at 2500 Katharine Stinson Drive.
N.C. State physicist Gerry Wicks said Thursday the reactor is leaking about 10 gallons of water per hour. Facilities are only required to report leaks in excess of 350 gallons an hour.
NC State said the leak was suspected on Friday and confirmed on Saturday. It said the public was not informed sooner because of the low level of danger. The amount of radioactivity was compared to what someone might receive getting an x-ray.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Traces of caesium-134 and 137 isotopes found in urine tests on 10 children in city near stricken nuclear power plant
Trace amounts of radioactive substances have been found in urine samples taken from children from Fukushima city, raising concerns that residents have been exposed internally to radiation from the stricken nuclear power plant 37 miles (60km) away.
Tests were conducted in May on 10 children, aged between 6 and 16, by a Japanese civic group and Acro, a French body that measures radioactivity. All 10 tested positive for tiny amounts of caesium-134 and caesium-137.
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Nebraska nuclear plant officials reject comparisons to Fukushima
By Brian Todd, CNN June 28, 2011 7:04 p.m. EDT
By Brian Todd, CNN June 28, 2011 7:04 p.m. EDT
Fort Calhoun, Nebraska (CNN) -- Tim Nellenbach is on a mission as he shows a small group of journalists around his workplace. The manager of the Fort Calhoun Nuclear Power Plant and his colleagues are bent on dispelling rumors about the condition of their facility: rumors about a meltdown, about a loss of power. The rumors are patently false, they say, and it's frustrating to have to deal with them while also battling a genuine crisis.
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AP IMPACT: Tritium leaks found at many nuke sites
By JEFF DONN, AP National Writer Tue Jun 21, 2011 2:38 pm ET
By JEFF DONN, AP National Writer Tue Jun 21, 2011 2:38 pm ET
BRACEVILLE, Ill. – Radioactive tritium has leaked from three-quarters of U.S. commercial nuclear power sites, often into groundwater from corroded, buried piping, an Associated Press investigation shows.
The number and severity of the leaks has been escalating, even as federal regulators extend the licenses of more and more reactors across the nation.
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Hawaii Monitoring Stations Detect Spike in Fukushima Radiation
June 13, 2011 By Tim Flanegin
June 13, 2011 By Tim Flanegin
Kauai radiation counts, June 10, 2011
Early Friday morning (June 10, 2011), at about 3:00 A.M. local time, one of our new Monitoring Stations in Hawaii broadcast a Radiation Alert over the network, reaching a sustained level of over 100 CPM (Counts per Minute) for a period of about 15 minutes, peaking as high as 141 CPM at one point. The readings then subsided to normal background levels of about 37 CPM for that station, but within less than 2 hours, trended quickly up again to over 100 CPM for another 5 minutes or so. The graph at right depicts this activity.
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300 Miles Southwest of Fukushima, Japan Strains to Fix a Reactor Damaged Before Quake
Hiroko Tabuchi June 17, 2011
Hiroko Tabuchi June 17, 2011
TSURUGA, Japan — Three hundred miles southwest of Fukushima, at a nuclear reactor perched on the slopes of this rustic peninsula, engineers are engaged in another precarious struggle.
The Monju prototype fast-breeder reactor — a long-troubled national project — has been in a precarious state of shutdown since a 3.3-ton device crashed into the reactor’s inner vessel, cutting off access to the plutonium and uranium fuel rods at its core.
Engineers have tried repeatedly since the accident last August to recover the device, which appears to have gotten stuck. They will make another attempt as early as next week.
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