Showing posts with label NRC. Show all posts
Showing posts with label NRC. Show all posts

Saturday, April 19, 2014

Nuclear Event - State of Illinois, [Dresden Nuclear Power Plant]

Earth Watch Report  -  Nuclear Event

Dresden Generating Station
Exelon Corporation  :  Dresden Generating Plant
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Nuclear EventUSAState of Illinois, [Dresden Nuclear Power Plant]Damage levelDetails

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RSOE EDIS

Nuclear Event in USA on Monday, 14 April, 2014 at 04:45 (04:45 AM) UTC.
Description
Damage to an electrical transformer caused one reactor to shut down automatically at a northern Illinois nuclear power plant over the weekend. Unit 2 at the Dresden Nuclear Station shut down Saturday morning, and it remained offline on Sunday as crews worked to fix the damage. Dresden spokesman Robert Osgood says the problem is on the non-nuclear side of the plant. He says the plant responded as expected, and there was no safety threat. He says a second reactor is operating normally, and electrical customers will not be affected. The plant is in Morris, about 60 miles southwest of Chicago,

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 NuclearPowerDanger

 Dresden 25 Mile Radius Fallout Map

Radiation Plume RatingThe center of this Toxic Plume is located approximately 60 miles southwest of Chicago, Illinois. This plume is produced by 2 reactors located at the Dresden Nuclear Power Plant site. The reactors that produce this plume have 1,734 Mega Watts of radiation generating power. There is a total of 1,050 tons of Highly Toxic Radioactive spent fuel stored at this Nuclear Power Plant. The Dresden Nuclear 1 reactor has been forced into permanent shut down, leaving the plant in a virtually unattended state. During one winter, this unit experienced containment flooding to the service water system, due to freeze damage. It was determined that a similar threat to Spent Fuel Pool integrity. Tritium leaks at the other units in this plant are treated with the same lack of concern that Nuclear Power corporations give all leaking radiation.
Dresden 25 Mile Radius Fallout Plume Map


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Tuesday, April 1, 2014

Fukushima News 3/28/14:Tepco Worker Dies In Accident;Thyroid Problems In Fukushima






Published on Mar 28, 2014
Nuclear plant worker dies in accident
A construction worker at the damaged Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant has died following the collapse of a concrete foundation of a warehouse.
The plant's operator, Tokyo Electric Power Company, says the man in his 50s was buried by concrete and soil in the accident on Friday afternoon.
The man was among workers reinforcing the warehouse. He was in a 2-meter-deep hole in the ground at the time of the collapse.
He was pulled out of debris and taken to a hospital, but later died.
The warehouse, about 400 meters north of the plant's No. 1 reactor building, is used to store equipment.
The firm says the fatality is the first to occur due to an accident during work at the plant since the 2011 nuclear disaster, and that it is examining safety management at the site.

New Treatment May Prevent Deadly Radiation Sickness
http://www.livescience.com/13376-ucle...

CLT-008: Fighting Acute Radiation Syndrome
http://www.cellerant.com/tech_clt008_...

Govt. designates preparation zones for megaquakes
The Japanese government has designated areas that need to bolster their preparations for anticipated massive earthquakes and tsunami.
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe announced the designations on Friday, based on advice from the government council on disaster preparedness.
The latest step is in line with 2 pieces of legislation that came into force last year---one for a powerful temblor hitting right underneath Tokyo and the other for a megaquake along the Nankai Trough in waters south of Japan.
A total of 310 municipalities in Tokyo and 9 neighboring prefectures were designated as areas that need to take urgent steps to prepare for a possible Tokyo quake.
707 municipalities spanning 29 prefectures were named as areas that should step up preparation for a Nankai Trough quake. These areas are projected to be hit by tremors with an intensity of 6-minus or more on the Japanese scale of zero to 7 and tsunami with a minimum height of 3 meters.
It is estimated that 139 municipalities in 14 prefectures would be inundated with water within 30 minutes after a Nankai quake. These communities have been given a special status that makes them eligible for greater state support to prepare for possible tsunami.
Basic government plans to mitigate damage from the 2 anticipated megaquakes were also endorsed.
Local governments are expected to use these plans to strengthen their disaster preparedness in the new fiscal year that starts in April.
Disaster Management Minister Keiji Furuya said on Friday that local governments, residents and the private sector must cooperate to fully prepare for disasters.
He urged local authorities in the designated areas to take thorough measures.

The Big Picture RT
3 Mile Island...35 years later - When will we ever learn?
Kevin Kamps, Beyond Nuclear, joins Thom Hartmann. This Friday marks the 35th anniversary of the Three Mile Island nuclear disaster. More than three decades later - how safe are our nuclear power plants and how much closer are we to a nuclear-free world?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AhA0I...

Hanford safety 'stand down' after workers sick from vapors
The KING 5 Investigators have found that another Hanford worker was sickened by exposure to unknown vapors on Thursday afternoon in the area of the Hanford Site where underground nuclear storage tanks are housed. This brings to 18 the total number of employees who have needed medical care since last Wednesday due to the inhalation of toxic vapors.
http://www.king5.com/news/investigato...

Japan's Answer to Fukushima: Coal Power
Many Nuclear Plants Are Too Expensive to Retrofit to Meet Tightened Safety Standards
http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/S...

More Confirmed Cases of Fukushima Thyroid Cancer In Children
http://www.wakingtimes.com/2014/03/27...

Concerns Over Measurement of Fukushima Fallout
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/17/wor...

School Science Project Reveals High Levels Of Fukushima Nuclear Radiation in Grocery Store Seafood
It is inexcusable that the Canadian government is not testing this seafood. It isn't as if they don't know that it is radioactive. Back in 2012, the Vancouver Sun reported that cesium-137 was being found in a very high percentage of the fish that Japan was selling to Canada...
• 73 percent of the mackerel
• 91 percent of the halibut
• 92 percent of the sardines
• 93 percent of the tuna and eel
• 94 percent of the cod and anchovies
• 100 percent of the carp, seaweed, shark and monkfish
So why was radiation testing for seafood shut down in Canada in 2012?
Read more at http://investmentwatchblog.com/school...




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Tuesday, February 4, 2014

Nuclear Event - Maryland : Reactors at nuclear power plant in southern Maryland shut down last week after an electrical malfunction

Nuclear regulators send inspectors to Calvert Cliffs

Reactors at nuclear power plant in southern Maryland shut down last week after an electrical malfunction

  • Control rod problem shuts down Calvert Cliffs reactor
By Jamie Smith Hopkins, The Baltimore Sun

7:50 p.m. EST, January 27, 2014
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission announced Monday that it is conducting a special inspection at the Calvert Cliffs nuclear power plant in Southern Maryland after an electrical malfunction caused the two reactors there to shut down.
The plant, which restarted both reactors over the weekend, suffered the shutdown after snow and ice during a storm Jan. 21 apparently affected a ventilation louver filter and caused a short circuit. After the electrical supply system shut down, so did several plant systems and components that rely on electricity, the nuclear regulatory agency said Monday.
Those components included motors for moving control rods and water circulating pumps for the Unit 2 reactor, the agency said. The main turbine control circuit for the Unit 1 reactor also malfunctioned after the electricity loss.

Both units shut down as a result, with "no impacts on public health and safety," the agency said.
The three-person inspection team began working at the plant Monday, the commission said.
"We want to gain a better understanding of the chain of events that caused both of the reactors to simultaneously shut down and equipment anomalies subsequent to the plant trips," said Bill Dean, the commission's administrator for the region that includes Maryland, in a statement. "This inspection is designed to shed additional light on not only why the outages happened but how the plant operators handled them."
A Constellation Energy Nuclear Group spokesman said in an email that federal reviews after shutdowns are common, adding that the company welcomed the inspection at its plant.
"Operators followed their training and performed well during the shutdowns," said Kory Raftery, the spokesman. "The site's multiple safety systems responded as designed."
But Neil Sheehan, a Nuclear Regulatory Commission spokesman, said such inspections are not common.
Read More Here
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Holland Sentinel

    • Inspections find flaws in nuclear plant mechanism during scheduled outage

  • “NRC inspectors have been reviewing the plant’s inspections and assessments and are reviewing the licensee’s replacement and repair plans, which will be completed prior to plant startup,” said Viktoria Mitlyng, senior public affairs officer for the NRC in this region. “The NRC will continue to evaluate and validate the licensee’s response to the issue to ensure plant safety.”
    The plant shut down Jan. 19 to replace 64 fuel assemblies and conduct maintenance, tests and inspections on equipment including the reactor vessel and its two low-pressure turbines.
    The facility remains offline.
    The control rod drive mechanism housings are part of the reactor coolant system boundary designed to prevent reactor coolant from leaking, Mitlyng said. There was no evidence of leakage.
    Read More Here
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Nuclear Event - Covert, Michigan : During Palisades refueling shutdown, flaws discovered in control rod drive housings

During Palisades refueling shutdown, flaws discovered in control rod drive housings

Palisades nuclear power plant in Covert, Michigan. Operated by Entergy Corp., the plant has be downgraded by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission in the past year because of problems related to the safety culture and workers following proper proceeders.
Mark Bugnaski | MLive.com / Kalamazoo Gazette

By Yvonne Zipp | yzipp@mlive.com
on January 30, 2014 at 5:20 PM, updated January 30, 2014 at 6:54 PM

Palisades Nuclear Plant
COVERT TOWNSHIP, MI – During Palisades Nuclear Power Plant's shutdown for refueling and maintenance, flaws were found in more than a dozen of the control rod drive mechanism housings, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission reported Jan. 30.
The Covert Township nuclear power plant was removed from service Jan. 19. The inspections took place over the past several days and Entergy Corp., which owns Palisades, reported the flaws to the NRC Jan. 29.
Flaws were found in 17 of the 45 CRDM housings, the NRC said. However, there is no evidence that a leak occurred before the Jan. 19 shutdown, spokeswomen for both the NRC and Entergy Corp. said. The NRC said that the issue had no adverse affect on the public's safety or of the power plant's employees.
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Tuesday, January 28, 2014

Nuclear energy is not an alternative to energies that increase global warming, because nuclear increases global warming. When high-grade uranium runs out, nuclear will be worse for CO2 emissions than burning fossil fuels.

ENS

Nuclear power plants world-wide, in operation, as of 18 January 2013

Number of reactors in operation, worldwide

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WashingtonsBlog

Former NRC Commissioner: Trying To Solve Global Warming By Building Nuclear Power Plants Is Like Trying To Solve Global Hunger By Serving Everyone Caviar

Posted on January 22, 2014 by WashingtonsBlog

And Nuclear Pumps Out a Lot of Carbon Dioxide

It is well-documented that nuclear energy is very expensive and bad for the environment.
Former U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commissioner Peter Bradford notes:
If asked whether we should increase our reliance on caviar to fight world hunger, most people would laugh. Relying on an overly expensive commodity to perform an essential task spends too much money for too little benefit, while foreclosing more-promising approaches.
That is nuclear power’s fundamental flaw in the search for plentiful energy without climate repercussions, though reactors are also more dangerous than caviar unless you’re a sturgeon.
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Nuclear power is so much more expensive than alternative ways of providing energy that the world can only increase its nuclear reliance through massive government subsidy—like the $8 billion loan guarantee offered by the federal government to a two-reactor project in Georgia approved by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission earlier this year.
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Many more such direct government subsidies will be needed to scale up nuclear power to any great extent.
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John Rowe, former chief executive of Exelon Corp., an energy company that relies heavily on nuclear power, recently said, “At today’s [natural] gas prices, a new nuclear power plant is out of the money by a factor of two.” He added, “It’s not something where you can go sharpen the pencil and play. It’s economically wrong.” His successor, Christopher Crane, recently said gas prices would have to increase roughly fivefold for nuclear to be competitive in the U.S.
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Countries that choose power supplies through democratic, transparent and market-based methods aren’t building new reactors.
Indeed, nuclear is not only crazily expensive, but it also pumps out a huge amount of carbon dioxide during construction, and crowds out development of clean energy.
Nuclear may also provide a lower return on energy invested than renewable forms of alternative energy. In other words, it might take more energy to create nuclear energy than other forms of power … which is worse for the environment.

Read More Here

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ENS

Nuclear Power Plants July 2012

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ENS

Number of reactors under construction
Number of reactors under construction, 2013-01-18 (IAEA 2013, modified)

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ENS


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WashingtonsBlog

Nuclear Power Is Expensive and Bad for the Environment … It’s Being Pushed Because It Is Good For Making Bombs

Posted on April 11, 2012 by WashingtonsBlog

Since the 1980s, the U.S. Has Secretly Helped Japan Build Up Its Nuclear Weapons Program … Pretending It Was “Nuclear Energy” and “Space Exploration” …

As demonstrated below, nuclear energy is expensive and bad for the environment.
The real reason it is being pushed is because it is good for helping countries like Japan and the U.S. build nuclear weapons.

Nuclear Energy Is Expensive

Forbes points out:
Nuclear power is no longer an economically viable source of new energy in the United States, the freshly-retired CEO of Exelon, America’s largest producer of nuclear power [who also served on the president’s Blue Ribbon Commission on America’s Nuclear Future], said in Chicago Thursday.
And it won’t become economically viable, he said, for the forseeable future.
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“I’m the nuclear guy,” Rowe said. “And you won’t get better results with nuclear. It just isn’t economic, and it’s not economic within a foreseeable time frame.”
U.S. News and World Report notes:
After the Fukushima power plant disaster in Japan last year, the rising costs of nuclear energy could deliver a knockout punch to its future use in the United States, according to a researcher at the Vermont Law School Institute for Energy and the Environment.
“From my point of view, the fundamental nature of [nuclear] technology suggests that the future will be as clouded as the past,” says Mark Cooper, the author of the report. New safety regulations enacted or being considered by the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission would push the cost of nuclear energy too high to be economically competitive.
The disaster insurance for nuclear power plants in the United States is currently underwritten by the federal government, Cooper says. Without that safeguard, “nuclear power is neither affordable nor worth the risk. If the owners and operators of nuclear reactors had to face the full liability of a Fukushima-style nuclear accident or go head-to-head with alternatives in a truly competitive marketplace, unfettered by subsidies, no one would have built a nuclear reactor in the past, no one would build one today, and anyone who owns a reactor would exit the nuclear business as quickly as possible.”
Alternet reports:
An authoritative study by the investment bank Lazard Ltd. found that wind beat nuclear and that nuclear essentially tied with solar. But wind and solar, being simple and safe, are coming on line faster. Another advantage wind and solar have is that capacity can be added bit by bit; a wind farm can have more or less turbines without scuttling the whole project. As economies of scale are created within the alternative energy supply chains and the construction process becomes more efficient, prices continue to drop. Meanwhile, the cost of stalled nukes moves upward.
AP noted last year:
Nuclear power is a viable source for cheap energy only if it goes uninsured.
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Governments that use nuclear energy are torn between the benefit of low-cost electricity and the risk of a nuclear catastrophe, which could total trillions of dollars and even bankrupt a country.
The bottom line is that it’s a gamble: Governments are hoping to dodge a one-off disaster while they accumulate small gains over the long-term.
The cost of a worst-case nuclear accident at a plant in Germany, for example, has been estimated to total as much as €7.6 trillion ($11 trillion), while the mandatory reactor insurance is only €2.5 billion.
“The €2.5 billion will be just enough to buy the stamps for the letters of condolence,” said Olav Hohmeyer, an economist at the University of Flensburg who is also a member of the German government’s environmental advisory body.
The situation in the U.S., Japan, China, France and other countries is similar.
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“Around the globe, nuclear risks — be it damages to power plants or the liability risks resulting from radiation accidents — are covered by the state. The private insurance industry is barely liable,” said Torsten Jeworrek, a board member at Munich Re, one of the world’s biggest reinsurance companies.
***
In financial terms, nuclear incidents can be so devastating that the cost of full insurance would be so high as to make nuclear energy more expensive than fossil fuels.
***
Ultimately, the decision to keep insurance on nuclear plants to a minimum is a way of supporting the industry.
“Capping the insurance was a clear decision to provide a non-negligible subsidy to the technology,” Klaus Toepfer, a former German environment minister and longtime head of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), said.
See this and this.
This is an ongoing battle, not ancient history. As Harvey Wasserman reports:
The only two US reactor projects now technically under construction are on the brink of death for financial reasons.
If they go under, there will almost certainly be no new reactors built here.
***
Georgia’s double-reactor Vogtle project has been sold on the basis of federal loan guarantees. Last year President Obama promised the Southern Company, parent to Georgia Power, $8.33 billion in financing from an $18.5 billion fund that had been established at the Department of Energy by George W. Bush. Until last week most industry observers had assumed the guarantees were a done deal. But the Nuclear Energy Institute, an industry trade group, has publicly complained that the Office of Management and Budget may be requiring terms that are unacceptable to the builders.
***
The climate for loan guarantees has changed since this one was promised. The $535 million collapse of Solyndra prompted a rash of angry Congressional hearings and cast a long shadow over the whole range of loan guarantees for energy projects. Though the Vogtle deal comes from a separate fund, skepticism over stalled negotiations is rising.
So is resistance among Georgia ratepayers. To fund the new Vogtle reactors, Southern is forcing “construction work in progress” rate hikes that require consumers to pay for the new nukes as they’re being built. Southern is free of liability, even if the reactors are not completed. Thus it behooves the company to build them essentially forever, collecting payment whether they open or not.
All that would collapse should the loan guarantee package fail.

Bad for the Environment

Alternet points out:
Mark Cooper, senior fellow for economic analysis at the Vermont Law School … found that the states that invested heavily in nuclear power had worse track records on efficiency and developing renewables than those that did not have large nuclear programs. In other words, investing in nuclear technology crowded out developing clean energy.
Many experts also say that the “energy return on investment” from nuclear power is lower than many other forms of energy. In other words, non-nuclear energy sources produce more energy for a given input.
And decentralizing energy production and storage is the real solution for the environment … not building more centralized nuclear plants.

Read More Here

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