tagged w/ nuclear disaster
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More bad news coming from the crippled Fukushima nuclear plant in Japan. While speaking to Swiss lawmakers last month - Japan's former ambassador to Switzerland, Mitsuhei Murata, warned that if the building housing reactor four at the plant were to collapse - as many officials fear might happen - then it would lead to a global catastrophe like the world has never seen before. As Reader Supported News reports - a former official with the U.S. Department of Energy commented on the consequences of a building collapse around reactor four saying, "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." And if that fire were to consume the thousands of other radioactive spent fuel rods at the Fukushima plant - then the radiological event could be 85-times greater than the Chernobyl disaster. So just how dangerous is the situation still at the Fukushima plant - and what are the consequences for the United States? Kevin Kamps is back - he is the Nuclear Waste Watchdog at Beyond Nuclear.More bad news coming from the crippled Fukushima nuclear plant in Japan. While... more
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Kevin Kamps, Beyond Nuclear joins Thom Hartmann. In a little over a week - we'll hit the one-year anniversary of the earthquake and tsunami that triggered a nuclear crisis at Fukushima in Japan. And this week - we're learning that that nuclear crisis is even worse than was originally thought. On Wednesday - Japanese Scientists announced that twice as much radioactive cesium than estimated blew out of the plant after the earthquake and tsunami. That's about 40,000 trillion bequerels. And it took just 18 days for those radioactive particles to encircle the planet - turning up in places as far away as Vermont. French scientists are now calling on Japan to remain vigilant in its inspections of fruit, milk, and game to prevent further radiation contamination.
These new numbers come on the heels of a Greenpeace report on the Fukushima disaster - in which the organization places the blame for the crisis - NOT on the natural disaster - but instead on the Japanese Government. The report accuses the Japanese government of ignoring the risks posed to Fukushima before the earthquake and "cutting corners to protect profits over people." It goes on to argues that nuclear energy is "inherently unsafe" and governments are too quick to approve nuclear power plants, while at the same time unable to the consequences of nuclear disasters. That includes the United States. Currently - there are 23 General Electric Mark 1 reactors in operation around the United States. The Mark 1 is the same reactor design used at Fukushima. And just last month - the Nuclear Regulatory Commission issued a warning to 96 nuclear reactors around the nation that sit on fault lines - urging operators to perform new stress tests to see if the reactor can hold up to earthquake. So what should we make of all this?Kevin Kamps, Beyond Nuclear joins Thom Hartmann. In a little over a week - we'll... 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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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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February 27, 2012
Japan Weighed Evacuating Tokyo... more
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Uploaded by ichicax4 on Feb 14, 2012
This situation is far beyond anyones control at this point. All we can control, is how we react. The time for some type of emtombment has long passed, as the fuel is now estimated to be 30-40 feet below the plant from researchers at Kyoto University. Everything TEPCO has tried to do to decrease the temp in reactor 2 in the past few days, including injecting boron to stop fission and dumping tons of water on the reactors is having no effect. Recent news coming out of the Fukushima plant and surrounding areas such as Xe detection and cesium levels, indicate the situation may be deteriorating quickly. Be prepared for possible out-of-control fission and subsequent large release of high radiation which will be carried directly from Japan to the west coast of the US and Canada.
Will put all the links associated with this in the comments
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Remember for some videos you may have to close out the current box to leave the video.Uploaded by ichicax4 on Feb 14, 2012
This situation is far beyond anyones control... more
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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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Report: Japan, utility at fault for response to nuclear disaster
December 26, 2011 | 11:33 pm
Report: Japan, utility at fault for response to nuclear disaster
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REPORTING FROM SEOUL -- Japan’s response to the crisis at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant was flawed by poor communication and delays in releasing data on dangerous radiation leaks at the facility, which was struck by an earthquake-triggered tsunami on March 11, a government-appointed investigative panel has found.
The report attaches blame to both Japan’s central government as well as the utility that operates the plant -- the Tokyo Electric Power Co. -- depicting a scene of harried officials incapable of making decisions to stem radiation leaks as the situation at the coastal plant worsened in the days and weeks following the disaster.
The 507-page interim report, the product of interviews with hundreds of utility workers and government officials, said poor planning also worsened the disaster response, noting that authorities had grossly underestimated tsunami risks that followed the 9.0-magnitude earthquake.
The 40-foot-high tsunami that struck the plant was twice as tall as the highest wave predicted by officials. The erroneous assumption that the plant’s cooling system continued to function after the tsunami struck worsened the disaster, the report claimed.
The report, whose final version is due to be completed next year, also found that plant workers had no clear instructions on how to respond to such a disaster, causing miscommunications, especially when the disaster destroyed backup generators. Ultimately, the series of failures led to the worst nuclear catastrophe since Chernobyl.
Workers failed to immediately seek alternative sources of water to cool the overheating reactors because they assumed the system was working, even though numerous warning signs told them otherwise.
"This accident has taught us an important lesson on how we must be ready for a disaster," concluded the panel, headed by University of Tokyo professor emeritus Yotaro Hatamura.
The government also received its share of criticism after dangerous radioactivity leaked into the atmosphere, causing the evacuation of 80,000 nearby residents, most of whom have still not returned to their homes.
Fearing a national panic, Tokyo government ministries failed to relay critical information to the public, instead using language that attempted to lessen the severity of the evolving crisis, which included meltdowns at three of the plant’s reactors.
Following the March 11 earthquake and tsunami, then-Prime Minister Naoto Kan and his advisors had stationed themselves on the fifth floor of the prime minister's office, where they made key decisions in consultation with top ministers and Tepco officials. But the officials did not share information with other crucial ministries or even with the crisis-management headquarters set up in the basement of the office several floors below, the report said.
The panel also faulted government officials for delaying warnings on the spread of radiation in the region around the plant, unnecessarily exposing communities to exposure when they could have been immediately evacuated.
The panel recommended that the government and the utilities that run nuclear plants employ experts knowledgeable in assessing tsunami risks.
"The nuclear disaster is far from over," the report concluded.
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Photo: The Unit 4 reactor building of the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power station as seen November 12.
Credit: David Guttenfelder / AP Photo
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Report: Japan, utility at fault for response to nuclear... more
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The amount and intensity of the radioactive fallout from this particular nuclear disaster will assuredly kill hundreds of millions of people worldwide over time. Japan itself is, of course, the epicenter of this radioactive contamination that has spread out from these reactors.
http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=25327The amount and intensity of the radioactive fallout from this particular nuclear... more
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Reporters touring the Japanese nuclear facility damaged by a March earthquake and tsunami see the damage and the extensive work performed over the past eight months.
Entering the disaster center was a time-consuming process because of the radioactivity precautions. In the first room, we took off the booties. The room is lined with pink plastic sheets. In the next room, teams of workers cut off our protective suits with scissors, removed our gloves and our masks.Reporters touring the Japanese nuclear facility damaged by a March earthquake and... 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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Kuniko Tanioko: Japan must tell world how it dealt with the nuclear runoff into the ocean
Daphne Wysham is a Fellow at the Institute for Policy Studies and founder and host of Earthbeat, now airing on 61 public radio stations in the US and Canada.
Kuniko Tanioka is a Japanese politician of the Democratic Party of Japan, a member of the House of Councillors in the Diet (national legislature). A native of Osaka Prefecture, she graduated from the University of Toronto in Ontario, Canada and received a Ph.D in design. She was elected to the House of Councillors for the first time in 2007.Kuniko Tanioko: Japan must tell world how it dealt with the nuclear runoff into the... more
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Rolling Stone...
America’s Nuclear Nightmare
The U.S. has 31 reactors just like Japan’s — but regulators are ignoring the risks and boosting industry profits
The Davis-Besse nuclear generating station in Ohio, where a football-size hole overlooked by NRC inspectors nearly caused a catastrophe in 2002
Entergy Nuclear via the NRC
By Jeff Goodell
April 27, 2011 9:00 AM ET
Five days after a massive earthquake and tsunami struck Japan, triggering the worst nuclear disaster since Chernobyl, America's leading nuclear regulator came before Congress bearing good news: Don't worry, it can't happen here. In the aftermath of the Japanese catastrophe, officials in Germany moved swiftly to shut down old plants for inspection, and China put licensing of new plants on hold. But Gregory Jaczko, the chairman of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, reassured lawmakers that nothing at the Fukushima Daiichi reactors warranted any immediate changes at U.S. nuclear plants. Indeed, 10 days after the earthquake in Japan, the NRC extended the license of the 40-year-old Vermont Yankee nuclear reactor — a virtual twin of Fukushima — for another two decades. The license renewal was granted even though the reactor's cooling tower had literally fallen down, and the plant had repeatedly leaked radioactive fluid.
Perhaps Jaczko was simply trying to prevent a full-scale panic about the dangers of U.S. nuclear plants. After all, there are now 104 reactors scattered across the country, generating 20 percent of America's power. All of them were designed in the 1960s and '70s, and are nearing the end of their planned life expectancy. But there was one problem with Jaczko's testimony, according to Dave Lochbaum, a senior adviser at the Union of Concerned Scientists: Key elements of what the NRC chief told Congress were "a baldfaced lie."
Lochbaum, a nuclear engineer, says that Jaczko knows full well that what the NRC calls "defense in depth" at U.S. reactors has been seriously compromised over the years. In some places, highly radioactive spent fuel is stockpiled in what amounts to swimming pools located beside reactors. In other places, changes in the cooling systems at reactors have made them more vulnerable to a core meltdown if something goes wrong. A few weeks before Fukushima, Lochbaum authored a widely circulated report that underscored the NRC's haphazard performance, describing 14 serious "near-miss" events at nuclear plants last year alone. At the Indian Point reactor just north of New York City, federal inspectors discovered a water-containment system that had been leaking for 16 years.
As head of the NRC, Jaczko is the top cop on the nuclear beat, the guy charged with keeping the nation's fleet of aging nukes running safely. A balding, 40-year-old Democrat with big ears and the air of a brilliant high school physics teacher, Jaczko oversees a 4,000-person agency with a budget of $1 billion. But the NRC has long served as little more than a lap dog to the nuclear industry, unwilling to crack down on unsafe reactors. "The agency is a wholly owned subsidiary of the nuclear power industry," says Victor Gilinsky, who served on the commission during the Three Mile Island meltdown in 1979. Even President Obama denounced the NRC during the 2008 campaign, calling it a "moribund agency that needs to be revamped and has become captive of the industries that it regulates."
In the years ahead, nuclear experts warn, the consequences of the agency's inaction could be dire. "The NRC has consistently put industry profits above public safety," says Arnie Gundersen, a former nuclear executive turned whistle-blower. "Consequently, we have a dozen Fukushimas waiting to happen in America."Rolling Stone...
America’s Nuclear Nightmare
The U.S. has 31 reactors... more
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CNN...
Chernobyl's 25-year shadow
By Matthew Chance, CNN
April 21, 2011 11:23 a.m. EDT
Pripyat, Ukraine (CNN) -- There's an eerie stillness about the desolate buildings and empty streets of Pripyat.
From the main square, overgrown with brambles and wild grass, the town looks like an ancient ruin lost in a jungle.
Buildings, windows smashed, stand like monolithic giants peering down. On one, an unlit neon sign saying "restaurant" clings onto a rooftop. From another, a hammer and sickle looms over the scene below.
I can't think of a single place I've visited that feels so utterly abandoned and lost.
The order to evacuate Pripyat came too late. It had been 36 hours since an explosion in Reactor 4 at Chernobyl, on April 26, 1986, had spewed its radioactive debris over the town.
Fearing panic, the then Soviet authorities, under Mikhail Gorbachev, ordered Pripyat's citizens to continue life as normal.
So, as the world's worst nuclear accident wreaked havoc, searing with radiation all in its path, children in this town went to school and sat through lessons. Couples got married.
When the evacuation did get under way, once the scale of disaster could no longer be denied, residents were told they would be back in a few days. They took nothing with them -- just documents, some money and some food for the bus ride.
Even inside the Soviet Union, the disgraceful way the situation was handled by the authorities was severely criticized.
On several occasions since, Gorbachev -- remembered for his perestroika and glasnost reforms -- said he believed Chernobyl was equally responsible for bringing about the collapse of the Soviet Union.
Even 25 years on, the problem of Chernobyl has far from gone away. There is considerable debate over how many people died, and how many are still dying, as a result of the calamity.
The International Atomic Energy Agency and the World Health Organization say 28 emergency workers died of radiation sickness in the immediate aftermath of the disaster. About 20 more who received high doses of radiation died of various causes in the following years, and as many as 4,000 cancer deaths are expected as a result of the disaster, according to those U.N. agencies.
The Chernobyl Union of Ukraine, which supports survivors of the disaster, says 140,000 people who took part in the cleanup have died in the past quarter-century. But it is not clear how many of those fell victim to radiation.
Meanwhile, researchers say that in addition to spikes in certain types of cancers, there is evidence of severe anxiety among survivors. Ukraine's government says an area larger than Switzerland was affected, and a 30-km (19-mile) radius around the plant remains all but uninhabited.
And the impact is unlikely to diminish anytime soon. Nuclear disasters like Chernobyl and Fukushima don't run on a human timeline.
Limited numbers of tourists are allowed into the accident zone for brief visits, despite radiation being well above normal, but scientists say generations may pass before it is entirely safe for people to return.
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Click on link above to view more photosCNN...
Chernobyl's 25-year shadow
By Matthew Chance, CNN
April 21, 2011... more
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It was the world's worst nuclear disaster, but 25 years on, the battle to contain it continues. Building a new sarcophagus over the Chernobyl site is the most pressing issue, as a meeting of donor countries is held in Ukraine.It was the world's worst nuclear disaster, but 25 years on, the battle to contain... more
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PART ONE...
The New York Times
Photo: India's Konkan coastline, near the site of a proposed nuclear power plant, has been hit by earthquakes in recent years
April 13, 2011
Resistance to Jaitapur Nuclear Plant Grows in India
By VIKAS BAJAJ
MADBAN, India — When a farmer named Praveen Gawankar and two neighbors began a protest four years ago against a proposed nuclear power plant here in this coastal town, they were against it mainly for not-in-my-backyard reasons.
They stood to lose mango orchards, cashew trees and rice fields, as the government forcibly acquired 2,300 acres to build six nuclear reactors — the biggest nuclear power plant ever proposed anywhere.
But now, as a nuclear disaster unfolds in distant Japan, the lonely group of farmers has seen support for their protest swell to include a growing number of Indian scientists, academics and former government officials. “We are getting ready for bigger protests,” Mr. Gawanker said.
While the government vows to push ahead — citing India’s energy needs — Indian newspapers recently reported that the environment minister wrote Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to question the wisdom of large nuclear installations. And a group of 50 Indian scientists, academics and activists has called for a moratorium on new projects. “The Japanese nuclear crisis is a wake-up call for India,” they wrote in an open letter.
Opponents note that the area was hit by 95 earthquakes from 1985 to 2005, although Indian officials counter that most were minor and that the plant’s location on a high cliff would offer protection against tsunamis.
The heated debate shows how the politics of nuclear energy may be changing, not only in the United States and Europe but in developing countries whose economies desperately need cheap power to continue growing rapidly.
For Indian officials intent on promoting nuclear energy, the partial meltdowns and radiation leaks at the Fukushima Daiichi power plant in Japan could not have come at a worse time. Currently, India gets about 3 percent of its electricity from the 20 relatively small nuclear reactors in the country. But it is building five new reactors and has proposed 39 more, including the ones here in Madban, to help meet the voracious energy needs of India’s fast-growing economy.
Only China, the other emerging-economy giant with a ravenous energy appetite, is planning a more rapid expansion of nuclear power. Beijing has indicated that it, too, plans to proceed cautiously with its nuclear rollout.
CONTINUED...PART ONE...
The New York Times
Photo: India's Konkan coastline, near the... more
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Japanese residents who fled the vicinity of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant are being rejected by shelters and evacuation centers for fear they may be radioactive and contaminate others. These displaced people had to leave their homes, their farms, their animals, because of the nuclear crisis at the Fukushima Daiichi plant number 1 now will require an official certificate proving they are not contaminated in order to have shelters accept them, as they are expected to accommodate all the homeless.
Each building which houses homeless is equipped with radiation detection equipment at its entrance and serve as a checkpoint for people entering the shelters. Japanese experts have stated that Fukushima evacuees are not a threat to others. Kosuke Yamagishi of the medical department of the prefecture of Fukushima stated that ordinary people from the area are not dangerous unless they are employees of the Daiichi plant. He added that people were fearful, and that this fear was leading to discrimination against Fukushima residentsJapanese residents who fled the vicinity of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant are... more
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As I make my way to my family from Philly to Chicago...
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Atarashii in Japanese means "new." After the events of March 11, 2001 everything changed. 9.0 earthquake, 30 meter high tsunami, and the Dai-ichi nuclear disaster. My pregnant wife and two young son were in Yanagawa-machi in Fukushima-ken when the quake hit. Our town is 70 km from Dai-ichi. I was in more than 7000 miles away in Baltimore where I teach film at a university. These episodes are my journey getting to them a week after the quake and making sure they were safe. Our lives have changed and thus, "Atarashii Normal."Atarashii in Japanese means "new." After the events of March 11, 2001... more
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The nuclear crisis is worsening every day in Japan -- last-ditch attempts to cool the reactors are proving fruitless, and the world is watching with dread. No matter what happens next, nuclear power will have its brand tainted something awful -- which in turn will have serious impacts on nations' plans for meeting future energy demand.
:http://www.treehugger.com/files/2011/03/political-fallout-japan-nuclear-disaster.phpThe nuclear crisis is worsening every day in Japan -- last-ditch attempts to cool the... more
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suzane
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TOKYO (Reuters) – Japanese military helicopters and fire trucks poured water on an overheating nuclear facility on Thursday and the plant operator said electricity to part of the crippled complex could be restored in a desperate bid to avert catastrophe.
Washington and other foreign capitals expressed growing alarm about radiation leaking from the earthquake-shattered plant, 240 km (150 miles) north of Tokyo. The United States said it was sending aircraft to help Americans leave Japan.
"The situation continues to be very serious," International Atomic Energy Agency chief Yukiya Amano told reporters at Vienna airport as he left with a group of nuclear experts for Japan.
Workers were trying to connect a 1-km (0.6-mile) long power cable from the main grid to restart water pumps to cool reactor No. 2, which does not house spent fuel rods considered the biggest risk of spewing radioactivity into the atmosphere.
One official from the plant operator told a late night briefing the cable could be connected within hours. Other officials said it was unclear if water pumps at reactor No. 2, which sustained less damage from a series of explosions, would work.
U.S. officials took pains not to criticize Japan's government, but Washington's actions indicated a divide with its close ally about the perilousness of the world's worst nuclear accident since the Chernobyl disaster in 1986.
The top U.S. nuclear regulator said the cooling pool for spent fuel rods at reactor No.4 may have run dry and another was leaking.
Gregory Jaczko, head of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, told a congressional hearing that radiation levels around the cooling pool were extremely high, posing deadly risks for workers still toiling in the wreckage of the power plant.TOKYO (Reuters) – Japanese military helicopters and fire trucks poured water on... more
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"As the Gulf of Mexico oil spill shows little sign of abating, TIME takes a look back at history's greatest environmental tragedies."
Read more: http://www.time.com/time/specials/packages/completelist/0,29569,1986457,00.html#ixzz0mtg5rJpT
1.Chernobyl
2.Bhopal
3.Kuwaiti Oil Fires
4.Love Canal
5.The Exxon Valdez
6.Tokaimura Nuclear Plant
7.The Aral Sea
8.Seveso Dioxin Cloud
9.Minamata Disease
10.Three Mile Island
We are killing our mother Earth and our children. Greed, greed and greed, the only evil behind all of this.
Could we have prevented these catastrophes?
How would the world look like now if we had focused on eco-friendly alternative energies?
Join the Organic Movement:
http://current.com/groups/organicgreen/"As the Gulf of Mexico oil spill shows little sign of abating, TIME takes a look... more
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