tagged w/ Nuclear Power
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"From many accounts the inevitable is happening. The nuclear radiation from the crippled Japanese, Fukushima power plant in the Northern Hemisphere has breached the equatorial belt and seeped into the Southern Hemisphere and now this contamination is gradually raining down on us from within the upper atmosphere.""From many accounts the inevitable is happening. The nuclear radiation from the... more
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Climate Progress | April 27, 2012
Recently, the editorial board of the Washington Post asked if the world can fight global warming without nuclear power, looking to Germany and Japan for the answer.
Both countries are known for a nuclear shutdown path. In Japan, only one of the 54 nuclear reactors currently remains in operation. Germany has closed eights reactors following the nuclear catastrophe of Fukushima in March 2011 and the remaining nine are scheduled to be closed by 2022.
That obviously must lead to rising emissions, the Post claims. Germany’s “electricity sector emits more carbon than it must after eight reactors shut down last year.”
If you look at the most recent emissions data, however, the opposite is happening. Germany reduced its carbon emissions in 2011 by 2.1 percent despite the nuclear phase out. How can that be?
The cut in greenhouse gases was mainly reached due to an accelerated transition to renewable energies and a warm winter. In addition, the EU emissions trading system capped all emissions from the power sector. While eight nuclear power plants were shut down, solar power output increased by 60 percent. In 2011 alone, 7.5 gigawatts of solar were installed. By the end of last year, renewable energies provided more than 20 percent of overall electricity.
The Washington Post refers to critics of this transition who “reasonably predict that the country will instead rely on electricity imports from neighbors running old, reliable coal, gas and, yes, nuclear plants for years to come.”
So this means Germany would import electricity from neighboring countries, such as France, Poland, and the Czech Republic? It’s true, depending on time of day and year, that Germany imports electricity. However, even after shutting its eight oldest nuclear power plants, Germany is still a net exporter of electricity.
In 2011, Germany exported 6 TWh more than it imported, according to the industry federation German Association of Energy and Water Industries BDEW. Countries like Poland and the Czech Republic are not as concerned about providing electricity to Germany. On the contrary, they are mainly concerned about wind and solar power surges from Germany offsetting their own production of fossil and nuclear power. Additionally, German electricity exports to Europe’s nuclear power house France actually increased in 2011.
What does this tell us? The nuclear phase-out does not conflict with efforts to fight climate change. You can reduce emissions while shutting down nuclear power. And you can still supply industry and consumers with enough power.
By the end of 2011, Germany had reduced its CO2 emissions by more than 23 percent compared to 1990 levels, overshooting its Kyoto target. In addition, the country has build up a competitive renewable energy industry providing thousands of new jobs, even as competitors like China enter the game and catch up fast. In Germany, fighting climate change and phasing out nuclear power are two sides of the same coin.
Instead of repeating myths about Germany’s nuclear phase-out, the editorial board of the Washington Post would do better by looking at the facts. It would also help to expand the article’s narrow focus to include a question about whether nuclear is even the most cost-effective or safe option to fight climate change. It is not, says even the Economist.
A vast majority of Germans have made up their minds on the need to phase out nuclear. And what happens in Germany will be a major indicator for other countries. As Paul Hockenos, an American living in Berlin, concludes in the European Energy Review: “Whatever the case, Germans aren’t the only ones waiting for a more pro-active policy. The world is watching Germany’s Energiewende.”
Let’s see where the Germans can go with their energy transition.
– Arne Jungjohann is Program Director Environment for the Heinrich-Boell Foundation.
http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2012/04/27/472713/germany-fighting-climate-change-and-phasing-out-nuclear-power-are-two-sides-of-the-same-coin/Climate Progress | April 27, 2012
Recently, the editorial board of the Washington... more
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Nuclear power: the energy crisis has even die-hard environmentalists reconsidering it. In this first-ever TED debate, Stewart Brand and Mark Z. Jacobson square off over the pros and cons. A discussion that'll make you think -- and might even change your mind.
Since the counterculture Sixties, Stewart Brand has been a critical thinker and innovator who helped lay the foundations of our internetworked world.
At Stanford, Mark Z. Jacobson uses numerical models to study the effects of energy systems and vehicles on climate and air pollution, and to analyze renewable energy resources.Nuclear power: the energy crisis has even die-hard environmentalists reconsidering it.... more
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Nuclear power will not go away, but its role may never be more than marginal, says Oliver Morton.
THE LIGHTS ARE not going off all over Japan, but the nuclear power plants are. Of the 54 reactors in those plants, with a combined capacity of 47.5 gigawatts (GW, a thousand megawatts), only two are operating today. A good dozen are unlikely ever to reopen: six at Fukushima Dai-ichi, which suffered a calamitous triple meltdown after an earthquake and tsunami on March 11th 2011 (pictured above), and others either too close to those reactors or now considered to be at risk of similar disaster. The rest, bar two, have shut down for maintenance or “stress tests” since the Fukushima accident and not yet been cleared to start up again. It is quite possible that none of them will get that permission before the two still running shut for scheduled maintenance by the end of April.Nuclear power will not go away, but its role may never be more than marginal, says... more
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The New York Times...
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February 29, 2012
North Koreans Agree to Freeze Nuclear Work; U.S. to Give Aid
By STEVEN LEE MYERS and CHOE SANG-HUN
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PHOTO:
Korean Central News Agency, via Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
Kim Jong-un met with soldiers from the Korean People’s Army in southwestern North Korea in February.
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WASHINGTON — North Korea announced on Wednesday that it would suspend its nuclear weapons tests and uranium enrichment and allow international inspectors to monitor activities at its main nuclear complex. The surprise announcement raised the possibility of ending a diplomatic impasse that has allowed the country’s nuclear program to continue for years without international oversight.
The Obama administration called the steps “important, if limited.” But the announcement seemed to signal that North Korea’s new leader, Kim Jong-un, is at least willing to consider a return to negotiations and to engage with the United States, which pledged in exchange to ship tons of food aid to the isolated, impoverished nation.
A freeze on nuclear activity, if it holds, could significantly ease anxieties over North Korea’s behavior at a time when the Obama administration, in an election year, is focused on halting Iran’s nuclear program and reducing the possibility that Israel could attack Iran. The last significant effort to negotiate a dismantling of North Korea’s nuclear weapons collapsed in the waning weeks of George W. Bush’s presidency more than three years ago.
The United States and other nations have been watching closely to see whether Mr. Kim’s rise to power late last year after the death of his father, Kim Jong-il, would result in a change in North Korean behavior. The signals have been mixed. Only days ago, Mr. Kim delivered a bellicose speech suggesting that he could resort to military actions against South Korea as he consolidated his power.
North Korea also agreed to a moratorium on test launchings of long-range missiles, which have in the past inflamed tensions in the region. But joint statements by the State Department and North Korea’s official news agency gave no indication of when substantive negotiations over the country’s nuclear program — involving the United States and North Korea, along with Russia, China, Japan and South Korea — might begin again.
North Korea must first arrange with the International Atomic Energy Agency to send its nuclear inspectors, a process that officials said could raise new obstacles and take some time. And senior administration officials cautioned that North Korea still had to show its sincerity before broader discussions could resume. “We’ve made clear that we’re not interested in talks just for the sake and the form of talks,” a State Department official said.
North Korea has agreed in the past to halt its nuclear efforts, only to back out and then return to the table before breaking off talks once more with a flurry of accusations against the United States. The North Korean statement appeared to leave wiggle room for doing so again, saying the country would carry out the agreement only “as long as talks proceed fruitfully.”
“The United States, I will be quick to add, still has profound concerns,” Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said when she announced the agreement at a House Appropriations Committee hearing on Wednesday. “But on the occasion of Kim Jong-il’s death, I said that it is our hope that the new leadership will choose to guide their nation onto the path of peace by living up to its obligations. Today’s announcement represents a modest first step in the right direction.”
Officials and analysts offered different theories about why Mr. Kim’s government’s would agree now to allow inspectors to return, but most said it could prove to be a significant concession. After years of negotiations, North Korea expelled inspectors and went on to test nuclear devices in 2006 and 2009. American intelligence officials believe that the country has enough fuel for six to eight weapons, but the progress of its newly disclosed uranium-enrichment program at the Yongbyon nuclear complex, conducted without international scrutiny, remains unclear.
Victor Cha, a senior analyst with the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, said that the agreement announced Wednesday differed little from previous ones that had failed to produce breakthroughs, but that it was nonetheless significant because the return of inspectors could shed light on the country’s nuclear progress.
“We haven’t had any eyes on this program for over five years now,” Mr. Cha said in a telephone interview from South Korea’s capital, Seoul. Some analysts and officials said the agreement might signal that the young and inexperienced Mr. Kim had consolidated power and had the backing of his country’s military.
Although administration officials said it was too soon to draw conclusions about Mr. Kim’s intentions, they said there was no doubt that he had directly authorized his negotiators to reach the deal, which the United States first offered in talks last July. An agreement appeared close during a second round of talks, but then the elder Mr. Kim died.
Two days of talks in Beijing last week between American and North Korean negotiators, as well as the Chinese, initially appeared to have produced few concrete results. But after the North Koreans returned home, the country’s leaders unexpectedly and rapidly responded. “This was very much in motion before the leadership transition,” said Daryl G. Kimball, executive director of the Arms Control Association in Washington, who called the agreement a welcome step.
Other analysts said the agreement allowed Mr. Kim to demonstrate his command and to use his early months in power to improve people’s lives after years of food shortages and a devastating famine. “It helps him show to his people that he is a leader who can deal with the Americans and bring back some practical benefits, namely the food aid,” said Kim Yong-hyun, an analyst at Dongguk University in Seoul.
As part of the agreement, the United States said it would send 240,000 metric tons (about 265,000 tons) of food, though it limited the aid to nutritional supplements, rather than the rice and grains that, as two administration officials said, has in previous instances been diverted by the government or the military, or even sold abroad.
The aid is expected to be delivered in monthly shipments of 20,000 metric tons over the next year. The United States also insisted on rigorous monitoring to ensure that the aid would be provided to the neediest, especially women and children, many of whom show the stunting effects of chronic malnutrition. In its statement, the State Department said that in exchange, the United States was “prepared to take steps to improve our bilateral relationship in the spirit of mutual respect for sovereignty and equality” and to allow cultural, educational and sports exchanges with North Korea.
The State Department official cautioned that the agreements “merely unlock the door” to a resumption of negotiations over North Korea’s nuclear program. “We can’t allow the same patterns of the past to repeat themselves,” the official added. “We can’t allow wasting arguments on topics that are irrelevant to the main challenges we face. And that’s simply going to take a long time to work out.”
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Steven Lee Myers reported from Washington, and Choe Sang-Hun from Seoul, South Korea. Mark Landler contributed reporting from Washington.
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February 29, 2012
North Koreans Agree to Freeze... more
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The New York Times...
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February 27, 2012
Japan Weighed Evacuating Tokyo in Nuclear Crisis
By MARTIN FACKLER
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TOKYO — In the darkest moments of last year’s nuclear accident, Japanese leaders did not know the actual extent of damage at the plant and secretly considered the possibility of evacuating Tokyo, even as they tried to play down the risks in public, an independent investigation into the accident disclosed on Monday.
The investigation by the Rebuild Japan Initiative Foundation, a new private policy organization, offers one of the most vivid accounts yet of how Japan teetered on the edge of an even larger nuclear crisis than the one that engulfed the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant. A team of 30 university professors, lawyers and journalists spent more than six months on the inquiry into Japan’s response to the triple meltdown at the plant, which followed a powerful earthquake and tsunami on March 11 that shut down the plant’s cooling systems.
The team interviewed more than 300 people, including top nuclear regulators and government officials, as well as the prime minister during the crisis, Naoto Kan. They were granted extraordinary access, in part because of a strong public demand for greater accountability and because the organization’s founder, Yoichi Funabashi, a former editor in chief of the daily newspaper Asahi Shimbun, is one of Japan’s most respected public intellectuals.
An advance copy of the report describes how Japan’s response was hindered at times by a debilitating breakdown in trust between the major actors: Mr. Kan; the Tokyo headquarters of the plant’s operator, Tokyo Electric Power, known as Tepco; and the manager at the stricken plant. The conflicts produced confused flows of sometimes contradictory information in the early days of the crisis, the report said.
It describes frantic phone calls by the manager, Masao Yoshida, to top officials in the Kan government arguing that he could get the plant under control if he could keep his staff in place, while at the same time ignoring orders from Tepco’s headquarters not to use sea water to cool the overheating reactors. By contrast, Mr. Funabashi said in an interview, Tepco’s president, Masataka Shimizu, was making competing calls to the prime minister’s office saying that the company should evacuate all of its staff, a step that could have been catastrophic.
The 400-page report, due to be released later this week, also describes a darkening mood at the prime minister’s residence as a series of hydrogen explosions rocked the plant on March 14 and 15. It says Mr. Kan and other officials began discussing a worst-case outcome if workers at the Fukushima Daiichi plant were evacuated. This would have allowed the plant to spiral out of control, releasing even larger amounts of radioactive material into the atmosphere that would in turn force the evacuation of other nearby nuclear plants, causing further meltdowns.
The report quotes the chief cabinet secretary at the time, Yukio Edano, as having warned that such a “demonic chain reaction” of plant meltdowns could result in the evacuation of Tokyo, 150 miles to the south.
“We would lose Fukushima Daini, then we would lose Tokai,” Mr. Edano is quoted as saying, naming two other nuclear plants. “If that happened, it was only logical to conclude that we would also lose Tokyo itself.”
The report also describes the panic within the Kan administration at the prospect of large radiation releases from the more than 10,000 spent fuel rods that were stored in relatively unprotected pools near the damaged reactors. The report says it was not until five days after the earthquake that a Japanese military helicopter was finally able to confirm that the pool deemed at highest risk, near the No. 4 reactor, was still safely filled with water.
“We barely avoided the worst-case scenario, though the public didn’t know it at the time,” Mr. Funabashi, the foundation founder, said.
Mr. Funabashi blamed the Kan administration’s fear of setting off a panic for its decision to understate the true dangers of the accident. He said the Japanese government hid its most alarming assessments not just from its own public but also from allies like the United States. Mr. Funabashi said the investigation revealed “how precarious the U.S.-Japan relationship was” in the early days of the crisis, until the two nations began daily informational meetings at the prime minister’s residence on March 22.
The report seems to confirm the suspicions of nuclear experts in the United States — inside and outside the government — that the Japanese government was not being forthcoming about the full dangers posed by the stricken Fukushima plant. But it also shows that the United States government occasionally overreacted and inflated the risks, such as when American officials mistakenly warned that the spent fuel rods in the pool near unit No. 4 were exposed to the air and vulnerable to melting down and releasing huge amounts of radiation.
Still, Mr. Funabashi said, it was the Japanese government’s failure to warn its people of the dangers and the widespread distrust it bred in the government that spurred him to undertake an independent investigation. Such outside investigations have been rare in Japan, where the public has tended to accept official versions of events.
He said his group’s findings conflicted with those of the government’s own investigation into the accident, which were released in an interim report in December. A big difference involved one of the most crucial moments of the nuclear crisis, when the prime minister, Mr. Kan, marched into Tepco’s headquarters early on the morning of March 15 upon hearing that the company wanted to withdraw its employees from the wrecked nuclear plant.
The government’s investigation sided with Tepco by saying that Mr. Kan, a former social activist who often clashed with Japan’s establishment, had simply misunderstood the company, which wanted to withdraw only a portion of its staff. Mr. Funabashi said his foundation’s investigators had interviewed most of the people involved — except executives at Tepco, which refused to cooperate — and found that the company had in fact said it wanted a total pullout.
He credited Mr. Kan with making the right decision in forcing Tepco not to abandon the plant.
“Prime Minister Kan had his minuses and he had his lapses,” Mr. Funabashi said, “but his decision to storm into Tepco and demand that it not give up saved Japan.”
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PHOTO:
Issei Kato/Reuters, via Bloomberg
Journalists, in protective gear, were taken on a tour last week of Tokyo Electric Power Co.’s Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant, at the center of the crisis last yea
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.The New York Times...
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February 27, 2012
Japan Weighed Evacuating Tokyo... more
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January 17, 2012
FRONTLINE travels to three continents to explore the debate about nuclear power: Is it safe? What are the alternatives? And could a Fukushima-style disaster happen in the U.S.?January 17, 2012
FRONTLINE travels to three continents to explore the debate about... more
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Japan says it will soon require atomic reactors to be shut down after 40 years of use to improve safety following the nuclear crisis set off by last year’s tsunami.
Concern about aging reactors has been growing because the three units at the Fukushima Daiichi plant in northeastern Japan that went into meltdown following the tsunami in March were built starting in 1967. Among other reactors at least 40 years old are those at the Tsuruga and Mihama plants in central Japan, which were built starting in 1970.
Many more of the 54 reactors in Japan will reach the 40-year mark in the near future, though some were built only a few years ago.
The government said Friday that it plans to introduce legislation in the coming months to require reactors to stop running after 40 years. Japanese media reported that the law may include loopholes to allow some old nuclear reactors to keep running if their safety is confirmed with tests.
The proposal could be similar to the law in the U.S., which grants 40-year licenses and allows for 20-year extensions. Such renewals have been granted to 66 of 104 U.S. nuclear reactors. That process has been so routine that many in the industry are already planning for additional license extensions that could push the plants to operate for 80 years or even 100....
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http://www.redicecreations.com/article.php?id=18134Japan says it will soon require atomic reactors to be shut down after 40 years of use... more
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Dagum
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ENE News...
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Published: December 27th, 2011 at 03:46 AM EDT | Email Article Email Article
By Enenews Admin
Physician: “When it comes to Fukushima, we are all downwinders”
Nuclear waste stockpile – Ottawa Citizen
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Dale Dewar, Ottawa Executive Director, Physicians for Global Survival (Canada)
[...] My physics professor in 1962 was skeptical about the environmental cost of nuclear power. He could not have been the only person to raise a voice of caution so I’m sure that, beneath the superficial history of nuclear power, there is a story of deals, deception, and press releases.
While we students thought that the professor was a bit of a fuddyduddy, time has proven him correct. The actual cost of nuclear power is beyond our wildest dreams. [...]
Given that birds and insects affected by Chernobyl are showing chromosomal abnormalities, there is no reason to suspect that humans cannot expect the same over generations.
When it comes to Fukushima, we are all downwinders.
.ENE News...
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Published: December 27th, 2011 at 03:46 AM EDT | Email Article... more
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Los Angeles Times...
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NRC approves new nuclear reactor design
Associated Press
December 22, 2011, 10:11 a.m.
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WASHINGTON — Federal regulators have approved a nuclear reactor designed by Westinghouse Electric Co. that could power the first nuclear plants built from scratch in this country in more than three decades.
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission unanimously approved the AP1000 reactor on Thursday. The certification, effective immediately, will be valid for 15 years.
NRC Chairman Gregory Jaczko said the newly approved design would ensure safety through simplified, passive security functions and other features. He said plants using the design could withstand damage from an airplane crash without significant release of radioactive materials — an issue that gained attention after the 2001 terrorist attacks.
Approval of the design is a major step forward for utility companies in Georgia, Florida and the Carolinas that have billions of dollars riding on plans to build AP1000 reactors in the Southeast. Without NRC approval, the utilities could not have gotten a license to build their plants.
Federal officials approved an earlier version of the AP1000 reactor in 2006, but it was never built in the United States. Four AP1000 reactors are now under construction in China.
Aris Candris, Westinghouse president and CEO, said the road to receiving design certification of the AP1000 "has been long and sometimes arduous."
The NRC vote brings the U.S "one step closer to constructing AP1000 units and putting thousands to work to ultimately provide future generations with safe, clean and reliable electricity," he said.
Utilities in Georgia and South Carolina have been waiting for the design certification so they can move ahead with applications to build two reactors in each state.
Atlanta-based Southern Co. applied to build the first two AP1000 reactors at Plant Vogtle near Augusta, Ga. The $14 billion effort is the pilot project for the new reactor and a major test of whether the industry can build nuclear plants without the endemic delays and cost overruns that plagued earlier rounds of building years ago. President Barack Obama's administration has offered the project $8 billion in federal loan guarantees as part of its pledge to expand nuclear power.
Close on its heels is SCANA Corp., which is also seeking permission to build two reactors at an existing plant in Jenkinsville, S.C.
Other applications that use the AP1000 design include two plants in Florida, one and South Carolina and another in North Carolina. Each application is for two reactors.
Even with the design certification, it remains unclear when the Vogtle reactors will receive final approval — a major concern for Southern Co. since any delays could increase the cost of the project.
The biggest difference between the AP1000 and existing reactors is its safety systems, including a massive water tank on top of its cylindrical concrete-and-steel shielding building. In case of an accident, water would flow down and cool the steel container that holds critical parts of the reactor — including its hot, radioactive nuclear fuel.
An NRC taskforce examining the nuclear crisis in Japan said licensing for the AP1000 should go forward because it would be better equipped to deal with a prolonged loss of power — the problem that doomed the Fukushima Dai-ichi plant.
Marilyn Kray, president of NuStart Energy Development, a nuclear industry consortium that has worked to demonstrate the design's effectiveness, said she was pleased to see the design move forward.
"The AP1000 is the reactor design that will set the foundation for the next generation of nuclear plants in the U.S.," Kray said.
A nuclear watchdog group called the vote disappointing, saying the NRC should have done a new analysis in the wake of the Japan crisis, which occurred after a March 11 tsunami sent three reactors at the Fukushima Dai-ichi plant into meltdowns in the worst nuclear crisis since Chernobyl in 1986.
A new study could have helped identify and correct any vulnerabilities based on lessons learned from Fukushima, said Edwin Lyman, a senior scientist at the Union of Concerned Scientists.
"It would be more efficient and cost-effective to address problems that could be corrected at the design stage now, before any new plants are constructed," Lyman said.
After plants are built, any new safety requirements would have to be addressed through costly retrofits and other actions, Lyman said, adding that he was "far from convinced" that the AP1000's passive safety features would be effective in coping with severe accidents.
Under existing rules, a reactor design that commissioners have voted to approve must be published in the Federal Register for 30 days before it is legally effective. Southern Co. officials asked the NRC to make the design effective immediately after the vote, a request that was granted. Publication in the Federal Register is expected by Jan. 5.
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NRC approves new nuclear reactor design... more
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By HIROKO TABUCHI and MARTIN FACKLER
Published: December 4, 2011
TOKYO — At least 45 tons of highly radioactive water have leaked from a purification facility at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power station, and some of it may have reached the Pacific Ocean, the plant’s operator said Sunday.
Nearly nine months after Fukushima Daiichi was ravaged by an earthquake and tsunami, the plant continues to pose a major environmental threat. Before the latest leak, the Fukushima accident had been responsible for the largest single release of radioactivity into the ocean, threatening wildlife and fisheries in the region, experts have said.
The new radioactive water leak called into question the progress that the plant’s operator, Tokyo Electric Power Company, appeared to have made in bringing its reactors under control. The company, known as Tepco, has said that it hopes to bring the plant to a stable state known as a cold shutdown by the end of the year.
The trouble on Sunday came in two stages, a Tepco statement said. In the morning, utility workers found that radioactive water was pooling in a catchment next to a purification device; the system was switched off, and the leak appeared to stop. But the company said it later discovered that leaked water was escaping, possibly through cracks in the catchment’s concrete wall, and was reaching an external gutter.
In all, as much as 220 tons of water may now have leaked from the facility, according to a report in the newspaper Asahi Shimbun that cited Tepco officials.
The company said that the water had about one million times as much radioactive strontium as the maximum safe level set by the government, but appeared to have already been cleaned of radioactive cesium before leaking out. Both elements are readily absorbed by living tissue and can greatly increase the risk of developing cancer.
Tepco said a check on Saturday had found no sign of the leak, suggesting that it began Saturday night or early Sunday morning. The company said it was exploring ways to stop any more water from escaping.
Since the disaster in March, workers have been struggling to cool the stricken plant’s reactors by flooding them with water, which is contaminated with radioactivity in the process and becomes a problem of its own.
Tepco installed a new circulatory cooling system in September with filters that decontaminate and recycle the cooling water. But the company acknowledges that some water has already leaked into the ocean, and thousands of tons of water remain in the flooded basements of the plant’s reactor buildings.
The Institute for Radiological Protection and Nuclear Safety in France estimates that between March and mid-July, the amount of radioactive cesium 137 that had leaked into the Pacific from the Fukushima Daiichi plant amounted to 27.1 petabecquerels, the greatest amount known to have been released from a single episode. (A becquerel is a frequently used measure of radiation, and a petabecquerel is a million billion becquerels.)
http://www.thehindu.com/multimedia/dynamic/00856/JAPAN_INSIDE_FUKUSH_856341f.jpgBy HIROKO TABUCHI and MARTIN FACKLER
Published: December 4, 2011
TOKYO — At... more
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TOKYO — In a direct act of rebellion against Tokyo Electric Power Company, which owns the crippled Fukushima nuclear plant, the local government in Tokyo is moving swiftly to build a huge natural gas facility that would generate as much electricity as a nuclear reactor.
The plant would ensure a stable supply of electricity for the capital in the aftermath of the nuclear meltdowns in March at the Fukushima Daiichi plant. But more important, the city government says, it could spur desperately needed change in Japan. By weakening Tokyo Electric, or Tepco, reformers hope to finally break the linchpin of the collusion between business and government that once drove Japan’s rapid postwar rise, but that now keeps it mired in stagnation.
“Now’s our chance,” said Naoki Inose, Tokyo’s vice governor, invoking an ancient proverb about attacking a wild dog only after it has fallen into a river: “On March 11, Tepco became the dog that fell into the river. Only then can you fight against such a formidable foe.”
So formidable a foe, in fact, that just eight months after Japanese leaders vowed the nuclear disaster — like the end of World War II — would lead to a kind of rebirth, the chances for fundamental change are rapidly slipping away.
Already, the reformers have lost a crucial ally: Naoto Kan, who as prime minister had called for an end to nuclear power and major changes to the power industry. He was eased out of office with the help of Japan’s most powerful corporate lobby, a faithful Tepco supporter that, like many members of Japan’s establishment, has benefited from the company’s largess.
And Mr. Kan’s successor, Yoshihiko Noda, whose party came to power promising to build a new Japan, instead joined the old guard to rally around nuclear power, and Tepco.
It is difficult to overstate the influence of Tepco, which rivals the American defense industry in its domestic reach.
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
And the rest of the world holds it's breath.
http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2011/11/18/world/jp-tepco/jp-tepco-popup.jpgTOKYO — In a direct act of rebellion against Tokyo Electric Power Company, which... more
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http://newmoderate.files.wordpress.com/2011/03/mt-fuji-in-red.jpg
KOFU, Yamanashi Pref. — Among the 47 prefectures, the March disasters and ensuing nuclear crisis have apparently hit foreign tourism hardest in Yamanashi Prefecture, which traditionally attracts hundreds of thousands of visitors to Mount Fuji on its southern border.
Tourism officials, who have touted Mount Fuji as the symbol of Japan, believe foreign guests stayed away because of the accident at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant, even though the country's highest peak is around 300 km away and hardly anyone in Japan believes the accident had a serious impact on Yamanashi Prefecture.
Seen from abroad, the nuclear disaster appeared to affect a much larger area than it really did, the officials said.
"It's impossible to do business with foreigners unless it is perceived to be a safe area. I really wish the government would soon issue a safety declaration."
??????????????????????????
Japan, welcome to your new nuclear future, remodeled Chernobyl style!
It's going to take more than a governmental safety declaration to convince tourists to return to Japan. How about actually making it safe, wouldn't that be just a little more important?
Hey we could always look at the glass as half full and say that a 91% drop in tourism actually means that 9% of the tourists bravely decided to return.
Nuclear power: unsafe, unnecessary and unwanted.
Oh yeah AND bad for tourism.http://newmoderate.files.wordpress.com/2011/03/mt-fuji-in-red.jpg
KOFU, Yamanashi... more
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At a dinner in Washington celebrating his mother's birthday on March 26, Nuclear Regulatory Commission Chairman Gregory Jaczko received an urgent phone call: The nuclear crisis besetting Japan required him to be at Dulles International Airport in two hours to fly across the Pacific Ocean.
Jaczko proceeded to work for more than 24 hours on little sleep with NRC teams helping stabilize the post-tsunami nuclear emergency at the Fukushima plant. Then he flew 14 hours back to Washington in time for a March 30 congressional hearing.
"It's been a challenging year, for sure, and we've had a lot of issues," he says. "But I'm tremendously proud and impressed with the way the agency has responded. You always have plans for work over the next year, but what happened in Japan caused us to reevaluate and reorganize and retrench, so some things we wanted to do won't get done. The most important thing is that our safety focus on our existing plants, our materials licensees and our field cycle facilities continues at a tremendously high level."
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* NRC again tops list of best places to work in government 09/01/10
* NRC weighs sanctions against VA in prostate cancer treatment errors 11/19/09
Despite Jaczko's priority of keeping NRC "a strong, credible regulator on nuclear safety," 2011 has been a year of scathing criticism. Some Republicans in Congress -- and even some NRC officials -- questioned his objectivity in implementing the Obama administration's 2009 decision to cancel long-in-the-works plans to store nuclear waste inside Yucca Mountain in Nevada.
Media investigations and a Brookings Institution study charged that NRC is in "regulatory capture," a situation in which a regulatory agency becomes dominated by the industry it is charged with overseeing, and weak on enforcement. And NRC's inspector general in June reported that some managers are offended by Jaczko's temper outbursts.
"I'm a very passionate person, and I believe strongly in what I do," Jaczko says. "Everyone has their own style and personality, but anyone who knows will say I care deeply about what I do."
The issues around Yucca Mountain "have been challenging and contentious for the country for a long time," he says. "What I continue to be proud of is having an agency where people with strong views can go to Congress and express those views. It's a hallmark of our agency. Those are the people I want at this agency. That's how we do the right thing." Passions can be equally strong among employees performing reviews of applications for nuclear licenses. "Nuclear safety is not an easy issue, and regulation requires that kind of open exchange of ideas," he says.
Some see political bias in NRC's decision to end its evaluation of future prospects for the canceled Yucca project because the site is in the home state of Jaczko's former boss, Senate Democratic Majority Leader Harry Reid. Jaczko counters that the agency's focus is safety, not politics. He says NRC doesn't make the decision to build (or not build) a facility.
"The Energy DeÂpartÂment no longer has a budget or program for Yucca Mountain so I don't think it would be a prudent use of taxpayer dollars for us to be working on a technical review for an application for a program that doesn't exist," he says.
Recent reports of low morale at NRC -- which has three times been named the best agency to work for by the Partnership for Public Service -- don't faze Jaczko. "As I walk through the halls and talk to people, most tell me they love working here," he says. "Those with issues tell me about them so we can make it an even better place. The NRC continues to perform at an incredibly high level, and that's a function of the fact that they come to work knowing the mission."
And the charge that America's chief nuclear regulator is in the pocket of the energy industry? "I come to work every day with 4,000 people dedicated to public health and safety," Jaczko says. "There will always be some people who think we do too much and others who think we do not do enough. It's the nature of being a regulator."At a dinner in Washington celebrating his mother's birthday on March 26, Nuclear... more
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An anti-nuc demonstration was held in Tokyo,from Meiji koen.
50,000 people were assumed to attend but at least 60,000 people are in the demonstration for now.
From an unconfirmed report,over 100,000 people are in the demonstration at this moment.
This time,a lot of lawyers attended at the demonstration,also, they have learnt to take videos of police,so police could not touch the demonstration.
Demonstration was on the live stream at 6 different locations.
Even major media,such as Kyodo and Tokyo shimbum reported the demonstration.
The feature of this demonstration is the variety of the attendance.
From young family with babies and old people attended at the demonstration.
A 94 years old man attended with a wheel chair.
Reports from the scene:
sayakaiurani SAYAKA
94歳のおじいさんが車椅子でデモ参加。『私はあの時、怖くて、言えなかった。非国民にされてしまうと怯えた。だから多くの日本人が死んでしまった。この国はまた形を変えて、戦争を始めている。決して原発という名の兵器を可動させてはならない。あの時の悔しさを今ここで！』と訴えてます。
“During WWW2,I was scared of the government like all the other people.We didn’t want to look like renegades against the nation,so a lot of Japanese went to the battle field and died.Now alternative war has started.Nuc is the weapon.We must never start it again.
During the WWW2,I deeply regretted.I don’t want to repeat that again,that’s why I’m here.”
Mr.S (Our temporary reporter)
“My own estimate was somewhere between 50,000 and 100,000. The police tried to delay the marchers so long that they would just go home. Hours standing in the hot sun trying to start the march. Some people did give up but most did not. And this time, the big difference from 11 June was that nearly all the ordinary people out in Aoyama, Omotesando and Shibuya were supporting the marchers. Waving and smiling and chanting in support. The next one we need 500,000.
Well, the police used their normal tactics: delay and disburse, and make the marchers march in a tiny lane on the left-hand side. They made us wait in the park between one and four hours. When we fianlly got onto the road, there were private cars dirving up and down taking up three out of four lanes on the back streets (not main roads) around Jingu Gaien. So it took us about two and a half hours to get to Aoyama Dori. And we were probably in the first third of marchers, so some people waited much longer. Anyway, there were tens of thousands of ordinary families and young and old people. People from all over Japan came for this rally. People sick of all the lies and criminal acts by the nucleocracy that owns and runs Japan. The media pretends it’s all over but more people are realizing the hell has only just begun. Very few non-marchers in the city for shopping or whatever were giving us strange looks. Nearly everyone smiled and waved their support. The organisers can be proud, and the participants. This is just the beginning.”(added 7:10 9/20/2011)An anti-nuc demonstration was held in Tokyo,from Meiji koen.
50,000 people were... more
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German industrial and engineering conglomerate Siemens is to withdraw entirely from the nuclear industry.
The move is a response to the Fukushima nuclear disaster in Japan in March, chief executive Peter Loescher said.
He told Spiegel magazine it was the firm's answer to "the clear positioning of German society and politics for a pullout from nuclear energy".
"The chapter for us is closed," he said, announcing that the firm will no longer build nuclear power stations.
Mr Loescher also gave his backing to the German government's planned switch to renewable energy sources, calling it a "project of the century" and claiming Berlin's target of reaching 35% renewable energy by 2020 was achievable.
The German chancellor, Angela Merkel, announced at the end of May that all of the country's 17 nuclear reactors would be shut down by 2022.
Prior to the Fukushima disaster, nuclear power accounted for 23% of electricity production in Germany.
The decision marked a complete U-turn by the chancellor, who only in September 2010 had announced that the life of existing nuclear plants would be extended by an average of 12 years.German industrial and engineering conglomerate Siemens is to withdraw entirely from... more
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Wetdog
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8 months ago
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The 'apocalyptic' media frenzy post Fukushima which displaced the real disaster story and horrific loss of life wrought by the earthquake & tsunami, sickened Japanese born Mari Shibata. Along with WORLDbytes volunteers she investigates the fear factor. Why did a nuclear incident affecting only a small area fuel global meltdown stories? In an interview with the Director of the Science Media Centre we learn of news values shaped by a concern to terrify people, journalists removed from stories for being too measured and scientists accused of lying. Granted unique access to Oldbury, the oldest nuclear power station in the world we learn how seriously safety is taken and due to fears of terrorism post 9/11 its tragic shut down to visitors. Through talking to relatives in Japan we learn of the progress being made to clear up the real mess made by a natural disaster, a story neglected by the Western media.The 'apocalyptic' media frenzy post Fukushima which displaced the real... more
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CNN...
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Agency approves construction of nuclear plant in Alabama
By Tricia Escobedo, CNN
August 19, 2011 6:07 p.m. EDT
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(CNN) -- The Tennessee Valley Authority has approved construction on a nuclear plant in northeastern Alabama -- the first U.S. agency to do so since the Japan nuclear disaster this year.
The TVA board of directors -- which approved the $4.9 billion project Thursday night -- said the Bellefonte project could create 2,800 construction jobs in north Alabama as well as 650 permanent jobs once the plant is complete.
It estimates the plant will be online in 2020 and will provide enough megawatts to power about 750,000 homes in the region.
The TVA still needs approval from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission before it can start construction at Bellefonte, a commission spokesman said.
"TVA still has work to prove they're in a position to start construction," commission spokesman Scott Burnell said. "But TVA's decision yesterday marks their formal re-entry into the process of completing the plant and bringing it online."
It could take months before the agency grants a full construction permit to the TVA.
The triple meltdown at Japan's Fukushima Daiichi power plant after the March 11 earthquake and tsunami was the worst nuclear accident in a quarter-century. It displaced more than 100,000 nearby residents, and engineers are still working to restore normal cooling in the three reactors that melted down.
The NRC has made "recommendations" for nuclear plant operators in light of Fukushima, but it has not yet made any "new or enhanced requirements," Burnell said.
Nevertheless, TVA said it is taking into account the "lessons learned" from the Japan nuclear disaster.
"As we build Bellefonte we will integrate safety modifications from the extensive review of the lessons learned from the Fukushima nuclear plants in Japan," Tom Kilgore, TVA president and CEO, said in a statement.
Construction on the Bellefonte nuclear site began more than 37 years ago, and the facility is already 55 percent complete. It's near Scottsboro, Alabama, about 40 miles east of Huntsville.
Construction at Bellefonte was halted in 1988 because, according to the TVA, there wasn't a need for the increase in power at the time.
"Now because demand continues to grow, they (the TVA board members) are looking at other options and Bellefonte is one of them," TVA spokeswoman Barbara Martocci said.
CNN affiliate WAAY-TV in Huntsville reports that local business owners are excited that the new nuclear plant could help boost their sales.
"Well, I hope it will increase it about 25 percent," restaurant owner Miles Smith told WAAY. "That will be a big, big impact; it really will."
The project also has its opponents. The Southern Alliance for Clean Energy warns that not only is there "compromised radiation containment in the unfinished reactor" at Bellefonte, but it would be a "financial gamble" to get any of the Bellefonte reactors back online.
"The Southern Alliance for Clean Energy has serious concerns about TVA's push to complete the mothballed, abandoned Bellefonte reactors," Steven Smith, the group's executive director, said in a statement.
The NRC said the TVA has a lot of work to do before it can start new construction at Bellefonte.
"TVA is still in the information-gathering and information-providing phase prior to the NRC granting full authorization to grant construction," Burnell said.
The TVA board also approved a 2 percent rate increase starting on October 1 to pay for "nuclear safety modifications as a result of Fukushima" as well as cybersecurity measures and clean-air initiatives, it said.
The nearly 9 million customers indirectly serviced by the TVA will pay an average of $1.60 more a month on each 1,000 kilowatt-hour bill, the TVA said.
The price hike will not directly fund the Bellefonte project, according to Martocci.
She said the board is looking at paying for the project through "alternative financing" as well as borrowing through bonds.
"We'll look at that, and certainly anything we do comes from the revenue we get from the sale of electricity. We don't get any money from the federal government," Martocci said. "What we're trying to do is reduce the cost to our consumer as much as possible."
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Agency approves construction of nuclear plant in Alabama
By Tricia... more
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Uploaded by MsMilkytheclown on Aug 12, 2011
Dial "M" for Meltdown - by Brian Rich
http://fairewinds.com/content/dial-m-meltdown-brian-ric...
Long time Fairewinds.com viewer and filmmaker Brian Rich has created a moving and high energy chronology of nuclear power and its impact upon the world.
Our website has transitioned in a manner Arnie and I never imagined when I started setting it up several years ago. We have received incredible public acknowledgement and support since we first began putting up videos about Fukushima, nuclear power, and answering questions sent to us by viewers. Thanks to all of our viewers for their emails, questions, data, and report information. We also could not do any of our work without the ongoing professional dialogue with scientists around the world. As time progresses, I will be using this column to feature frequently asked questions and some of the material that I receive daily from the 250 emails we receive and from the professional dialogue we have throughout the world. Together, we all can fill the void the main stream media and various world governments have left.
In that vein, I want to share this high energy video created by the young and dynamic filmmaker Brian Rich, a long-time viewer of our site. Please watch it and share it with your friends. I think you will be as moved as I was.
Only two days after publication, Brian's video has already been viewed more than 5,000 times around the world! You may also see footage you have never seen, and certainly this mini-film puts images in context in a manner that has never been done before.
The people of Japan need our attention and support. My friends in Japan are asking for this opportunity. To this end Fairewinds Energy Education Corp will continue our analytical analysis, outreach, and my commentary.
Category:
Nonprofits & Activism
Tags:
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westinghouse
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power plant
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tokyo electric power company
japan
ukrane
mark 1 boiling reactor
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liquidators
"And the final Darwin award goes To???"Uploaded by MsMilkytheclown on Aug 12, 2011
Dial "M" for Meltdown - by... more
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KB723
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10 months ago
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