International Nuclear Watch & Discussion

Amber G. · Post by **Amber G.** » 31 May 2012 12:20

PratikDas · Post by **PratikDas** » 31 May 2012 12:21

Amber G, thanks for your efforts in keeping us informed. I appreciate the diversity in sources of information you bring to this thread.

Amber G. · Post by **Amber G.** » 31 May 2012 16:59

PratikDas, thank you.

Amber G. · Post by **Amber G.** » 01 Jun 2012 21:27

For Amit et al
From NY Times (similar stories in other major sources)
German Plan to Abandon Its Nuclear Energy Lags

BERLIN — More than a year after pledging to drop nuclear power, Chancellor Angela Merkel has acknowledged that her ambition for a Germany that runs on renewable energy is falling behind schedule and faces a range of obstacles, not least the revamping of the energy grid at a cost of billions of euros.

In recent weeks, Ms. Merkel has redoubled her efforts to push Germany’s troubled energy transformation, replacing her environment minister and declaring that she would make a new priority of the project, which foresees replacing nuclear power with renewable energy sources within a decade.

Since passing the legislation last year, in the aftermath of the tsunami and nuclear meltdown in Japan, Ms. Merkel’s own energies have been absorbed by the euro crisis and a series of regional elections. Last weekend she conceded that “we are behind on several projects.”
<snip>

Amber G. · Post by **Amber G.** » 02 Jun 2012 04:19

China cabinet approves nuclear safety plan

China has approved a nuclear safety plan and says its nuclear power plants meet the latest international safety standards, though some plants need to improve their ability to cope with flooding and earthquakes, state media said on Thursday.
<snip>

Amber G. · Post by **Amber G.** » 02 Jun 2012 04:25

While some NPA say ...

"It's crazy," said Princeton University professor Frank von Hippel, a leading authority on nonproliferation issues

Interesting news item:
Japan to make more plutonium despite big stockpile

Last year's tsunami disaster in Japan clouded the nation's nuclear future, idled its reactors and rendered its huge stockpile of plutonium useless for now. So, the industry's plan to produce even more has raised a red flag.
Nuclear industry officials say they hope to start producing a half-ton of plutonium within months, in addition to the more than 35 tons Japan already has stored around the world. That's even though all the reactors that might use it are either inoperable or offline while the country rethinks its nuclear policy after the tsunami-generated Fukushima crisis.
<snip>

Amber G. · Post by **Amber G.** » 02 Jun 2012 07:56

Amber G. wrote:Fairly prominent news in US - From WPost:
Nuclear Regulatory Commission chief Jaczko resigns

As the story points out, he was considered abusive, and somewhat bully and often ignored scientific reasoning ... backing up PMANE tyoe folks/groups . In many votes he was the sole negative vote citing pseudo scientific data.
<snip>,

I did have a very negative impression about Jaczko's record. Some said that he was abusive, bully. (some said he was particular nasty to women )..

The new selection, Allison Macfarlane (MIT PhD), in my view is a very good choice... Her record looks really nice, and she is a good choice by Obama.
Similar views are echoed in this article..

Obama Moves Quickly To Heal NRC

The Obama Administration moved quickly today to replace the controversial head of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Chairman Jaczko, by nominating Dr. Allison Macfarlane to lead that agency. Macfarlane, who received her PhD in geology from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1992, is currently a professor of Environmental Science and Policy at George Mason University in Fairfax, VA. She has long been affiliated with programs such as the Program in Science, Technology and Society at MIT and the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs at Harvard University. The immediate uproar in the nuclear community to her not being a nuclear engineer or physicist was expected. Instead, her specialties include nuclear nonproliferation and other policy issues, but in this new position it will be her experience with nuclear waste and the back-end of the nuclear fuel cycle involving deep geologic disposal of high level waste and interim storage of spent fuel, that will be her biggest contribution to the group, and is particularly timely with the focus on spent fuel in the wake of Fukushima.
.....

In that vein, Macfarlane was a member of the President’s Blue Ribbon Commission on America’s Nuclear Future (http://www.brc.gov)
The rapidity of the nomination took everyone by surprise as Jaczko was more than willing to stay on for a year while his replacement was found. But Jaczko had really embarrassed Obama with his behavior with NRC staff and this nomination addresses that problem directly and quickly...

<snip>.

Amber G. · Post by **Amber G.** » 03 Jun 2012 05:55

Obama Order Sped Up Wave of Cyberattacks Against Iran

From his first months in office, President Obama secretly ordered increasingly sophisticated attacks on the computer systems that run Iran’s main nuclear enrichment facilities, significantly expanding America’s first sustained use of cyberweapons, according to participants in the program.
<snip>

Amber G. · Post by **Amber G.** » 03 Jun 2012 21:25

Amber G. wrote:xpost Very Important paper Environment Health Publication - Study by MIT
says that they found undetected DNA damage even when radiation was much higher..This study may surprise most of people here.
Integrated Molecular Analysis Indicates Undetectable DNA Damage in Mice after Continuous Irradiation at ~400-fold Natural Background Radiation

(I have some thoughts on this... will post later in physics dhaga...)

Another very prestigious (Lawrence Berkeley National Lab) article about low level radiation.,,. For physicists and Medical professionals worth reading.

Berkeley Lab Researchers Find Evidence Suggesting Risk May Not Be Proportional to Dose at Low Dose Levels

New Take on Impacts of Low Dose Radiation

Researchers with the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE)’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab), through a combination of time-lapse live imaging and mathematical modeling of a special line of human breast cells, have found evidence to suggest that for low dose levels of ionizing radiation, cancer risks may not be directly proportional to dose. This contradicts the standard model for predicting biological damage from ionizing radiation – the linear-no-threshold hypothesis or LNT – which holds that risk is directly proportional to dose at all levels of irradiation.

“Our data show that at lower doses of ionizing radiation, DNA repair mechanisms work much better than at higher doses,” says Mina Bissell, a world-renowned breast cancer researcher with Berkeley Lab’s Life Sciences Division. “This non-linear DNA damage response casts doubt on the general assumption that any amount of ionizing radiation is harmful and additive.”

Gerard · Post by **Gerard** » 06 Jun 2012 00:50

Israel's Deployment of Nuclear Missiles on Subs from Germany

Many have wondered for years about the exact capabilities of the submarines Germany exports to Israel. Now, experts in Germany and Israel have confirmed that nuclear-tipped missiles have been deployed on the vessels. And the German government has long known about it. By SPIEGEL

Gerard · Post by **Gerard** » 08 Jun 2012 17:19

Japan PM Noda says two nuclear reactors 'must restart'

Japan must restart two nuclear reactors to protect the country's economy and livelihoods, Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda has said in a televised broadcast.

"Cheap and stable electricity is vital. If all the reactors that previously provided 30% of Japan's electricity supply are halted, or kept idle, Japanese society cannot survive," Mr Noda said.

Gerard · Post by **Gerard** » 09 Jun 2012 22:13

North Korea: No plan for nuclear test 'at present'

Theo_Fidel · Post by **Theo_Fidel** » 11 Jun 2012 08:52

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/ezr ... _blog.html

How hard is it to dismantle 150 nuclear reactors? Europe’s about to find out.

Gerard · Post by **Gerard** » 16 Jun 2012 21:02

Japan PM Noda orders nuclear reactors back online

Amber G. · Post by **Amber G.** » 17 Jun 2012 20:25

^^^ For many interesting aspect is that mayor of Ohi, who became a force and became (inter)nationally known figure against the restart has announced his approval of the restart of Ohi 3 and 4, citing that he is satisfied with safety assessments carried out on behalf of Fukui Prefecture ...

Meanwhile without making much news in most of the newspapers ... (less than PMANE)

Latest Chinese nuclear power reactor (Yangjiang 3) is getting an emplacement of its containment dome. We are likely to see China bring online approx 27 new reactors by the end of 2015 - in addition to the 15 units currently in operation...

A review of nuclear security across EU has identified an extensive set of good practices and has urged member states to continue their efforts and cooperate both within the EU and further afield.,,( Ad-Hoc Group on Nuclear Security (AHGNS) report has now been published)

NuStart says it work is finished on a high note .. after it has achieved its twin objectives ... a) obtaining a construction and operating licence for a new reactor in the USA and b) completing the design for Westinghouse AP1000 reactor technology..

And Wall Street Daily has this article..
Now’s the Time to Get in on Nuclear Power

A lot of investors fled from nuclear power in the wake of the Fukushima disaster – but the smart ones stayed put.
And if you didn’t, now is the time to get back in.
Why? Because uranium has the best outlook of any energy source out there right now.
There was a lot of panic in the wake of the Fukushima meltdown, so you may be surprised to learn that the number of planned nuclear plants actually rose in the past year from 156 to 163.
In fact, globally, the number of nuclear reactors is still on track to swell from 434 today to 820 by 2030. And 96 reactors are set to come on-line by 2021.

Amber G. · Post by **Amber G.** » 18 Jun 2012 23:37

Meanwhile a article in a prestigious US magazine about Nuclear Energy in US...

Nuclear Energy Won't Die

Some thought that nuclear energy may get buried after the Japanese Fukushima deluge. But the rumblings in this country are suggesting that it won’t die.

Several issues are creeping back into the American consciousness at once: The revival of Yucca Mountain, the safety measures enacted and the possibilities of surviving a nuclear accident here and finally, the licensing of two new nuclear sites after 33 years. The message that is radiating from those seemingly disparate events is that the nuclear resurgence is gathering more steam.

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) granted two separate licenses to build nuclear reactors this year: ....<snip>
But according to Fertel, the nuclear revolution — to this point — has been a quiet one: U.S. electricity demand has risen more than 80 percent since the NRC last approved a construction permit in 1979. Unbeknownst to most people is that at least half of that demand has been met by nuclear facilities that have increased their rate of production by 40 percent during much of that time...

Still, several lingering questions remain.....
<snip>

Amber G. · Post by **Amber G.** » 20 Jun 2012 23:24

Hitachi to double nuclear-plant business by '21

chaanakya · Post by **chaanakya** » 27 Jun 2012 19:15

On other Note
Nuclear redress will never approximate losses

By CHICO HARLAN
The Washington Post

It was 15 months ago that the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant suffered three meltdowns and contaminated a broad circle of countryside and left hundreds of thousands of people without homes, jobs or both.

News photo
Scratching the surface: Workers in protective suits collect contaminated soil in Kawamata, Fukushima Prefecture, on Monday, nearly 15 months after the start of the nuclear crisis. THE WASHINGTON POST

But for all the damage and despair it wrought, the disaster so far has unfolded without one conventional element: a widespread and contentious legal fight by those who say they should be compensated for their losses.

Victims of the worst nuclear crisis in a quarter-century have filed roughly 20 lawsuits against Tokyo Electric Power Co., according to the utility. That compares with the several hundred suits filed against BP within weeks of the 2010 Gulf oil spill, including the near-finalized settlement of a class-action suit that will pay 120,000 plaintiffs upward of $7.8 billion. BP also paid out some $6.2 billion to victims via a neutral claims settlement process, administered by a lawyer appointed by the Obama administration.

Victims and lawyers in Japan say the dearth of nuclear-related suits reflects both a national mindset — a distaste for confrontation — and a stunted judicial system that doesn't allow for class-action cases or punitive damages. Japanese speak of the court system as more likely to deliver frustration than vengeance, and jobless evacuees who urgently need money have little appetite for long trials with uncertain outcomes.

Instead, the vast majority of victims of the Fukushima crisis turn to one of two other options, one led by Tepco, the other by the central government — the two institutions most often blamed for the disaster.

More than nine of 10 evacuees who say the disaster harmed them have taken their claims directly to Tepco. Those who don't want to deal with Tepco or who reject the company's compensation offer can head to a government-created mediation center, which was established by law in the aftermath of the nuclear accident.

Neither route, legal experts say, offers victims much leverage. Typical of a country that sees itself as uniformly middle-class, payouts are adequate but rarely ample. Tepco's average payout so far to individuals is about ¥1.92 million ($24,000), according to company data. That figure, though, is certain to grow as claimants come back a second and even third time with further evidence of damage, including property losses.

Without the threat of legal action, said Hiroyuki Kawai, a Tokyo-based lawyer handling one of the few lawsuits filed against Tepco, "the state and companies can take advantage of victims." Tepco spokesman Hiroki Kawamata said that is not the case.

For victims who do want to file lawsuits, options are limited. That's because of a special nuclear accident law, drafted 51 years ago, that limits liability to the atomic plant operator, preventing claimants from targeting, say, reactor manufacturers, including Toshiba or General Electric. The law also prevents individuals from being held liable, effectively blocking suits in this case against executives or workers at Tepco.

The law, experts say, is designed to "maintain order" during mass-scale nuclear disasters. But it also reinforces a feeling of nationwide blamelessness, a notion echoed by Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda in March, when he said no individuals should beheld liable for the crisis.

"I believe everyone has to share the pain of responsibility," Noda said.

Because most nuclear victims head first to Tepco, the utility has dominated the redress process.

Tepco has agreed to give anyone who at the time of the accident was living within 20 km of the plant — the forced-evacuation zone — monthly payments of between ¥100,000 to ¥120,000 ($1,250 and $1,500) as compensation for "noneconomic damage," or mental anguish. No end date has been set for the payments, a company spokesman said.

Evacuees may also be reimbursed for hotel stays in the aftermath of the crisis — but only up to ¥7,900 ($100) per night (the company hasn't specified a limit on the number of nights). One evacuee said he applied for reimbursement for three Geiger counters he purchased, receipts attached; Tepco reimbursed him for one.

"What a joke," said Toshihiko Nakano, 54, a self-employed electrician who applied for some ¥8.64 million ($108,000) in business damages and was instead offered less than ¥160,000 ($2,000). Nakano said he's considering going either to the mediation center or to court.

So far, almost 120,000 individuals have applied directly to Tepco for the initial round of compensation, filling out a claims form that was originally 60 pages long. The company has reached settlement agreements in 102,000 of those cases and has since sent out the second and third batches as well, covering additional damages. Tepco estimates it will be responsible, in the end, for at least ¥2.56 trillion ($32 billion) in compensation.

Lawyers who run the Dispute Reconciliation Committee, the government center that mediates between victims and Tepco, say they are counting on the company to satisfy most of the claimants, if only because the center could be "paralyzed" if too many come to it for help.

Already, about 500 victims a month come to the center, which has offices in Tokyo and Fukushima and settles between 30 and 70 cases a month. Officials expect it will take three to five years for most claims to be resolved.

The center — set up in September, around the time Tepco began sending out compensation forms — has tried to speed up the process by allowing its 200 mediators to handle cases by themselves, rather than with the three-member panels it originally used. But the average case takes five months, and officials fear that time frame will increase as the backlog grows. Only about 25 percent of victims who come to the center are represented by a lawyer.

"We are receiving so many pleadings from victims," said Hiroshi Noyama, head of the center's mediation office. "Of course the ideal situation is that Tepco pays enough compensation directly and solves the problem. But the reality is, numerous victims are dissatisfied with Tepco's handling. And the situation is very troubling."

Some antinuclear activists and lawyers say the government — which last month gave Tepco a ¥1 trillion ($12.6 billion) bailout, putting it under state control — has an incentive to collude with the utility to keep payments low. But so far, the mediation center's recommended settlements — the payouts are still provided by Tepco — have been more generous than those recommended directly by the utility, according to officials at the center.

In only a few instances has a victim grown angry enough to launch a lawsuit.

In April, Tepco received a letter from a lawyer in Fukushima Prefecture. The letter, addressed to (then) Tepco President Toshio Nishizawa, described the evacuation of a chicken-farm worker from the mountain town of Yamakiya, about 40 km from the plant.

Mikio Watanabe lived there in a two-story house with Hamako, his wife of 39 years, who had grown up across the street. They had a greenhouse in the back and a karaoke machine in the living room.

Yamakiya was outside the government's original evacuation zone, but more than a month into the crisis, that changed; the town had become a radioactive hot spot, and people had to leave. The Watanabes moved into an apartment in a city farther from the plant. The conditions were rough — they hated the tiny quarters and thin walls — and Hamako cried a lot, according to court documents and Watanabe's own account. Hamako started taking sleeping pills. The chicken farm closed, and both lost their jobs. They still owed ¥11.2 million ($140,000) on the house.

On June 30, 2011, the couple went back to their old house for a day. They spent the night.

The next morning, Hamako went outside, poured gasoline on herself and lighted a match.

Mikio found her body.

The letter blamed Hamako's suicide on the nuclear disaster. It blamed the disaster on Tepco. And it asked for about ¥58.4 million ($730,000) in compensation.

A Tepco lawyer, Masaki Iwabuchi, replied two weeks later.

"Regarding whether we are indebted to pay compensation," the letter said, "we must first consider detailed health conditions that led to (Hamako's) suicide. At this point we cannot give you an answer" on compensation. "If you can provide detailed documents, we will sincerely consider the case."

Watanabe's lawyer, Tsuguo Hirota, said recently that the response felt dismissive, particularly by the standards of a language in which little is said explicitly. Hirota advised Watanabe to try a rare tactic: They should go to court, he said, and make Tepco feel sorry. Watanabe agreed. "I can't hold back my anger," he said.

So on May 18, Watanabe filed a lawsuit at the Fukushima District Court blaming Tepco for his wife's death and seeking ¥90.4 million ($1.13 million), including compensation for Hamako's lost future earnings. The case, Hirota said, will take at least two years.

"As for our chances," Hirota said, "that depends on how you define victory. One side of this lawsuit is, we know others in society are suffering. We want to appeal to society at large and show them people can speak up."

Amber G. · Post by **Amber G.** » 28 Jun 2012 02:46

On this date, first nuclear (commercial) power plant opened (Jun 27th 1954) 58 years ago..

(The world’s first nuclear power plant becomes operational in Obninsk, outside of Moscow.)

Amber G. · Post by **Amber G.** » 28 Jun 2012 02:49

Japan utility shareholders vote to keep nuclear power

Sanku · Post by **Sanku** » 28 Jun 2012 19:09

Amber G. wrote:Japan utility shareholders vote to keep nuclear power

Thanks very interesting struggle going on in Japan

Kansai executives sat stony faced on a podium while shareholders, including the mayor of Osaka, urged them to ditch nuclear power.

CONTENTIOUS VOTES

Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda on June 16 approved the restarts of two reactors at Kansai Electric's Ohi plant to avoid power shortages that he said would damage the world's third-biggest economy. Protests outside his official residence have grown bigger by the week.

"No matter how safe it may be, it is wrong to restart the reactors when there is no plan on the final disposal of spent fuel," said Akira Kimura, 70, one of the 3,842 shareholders of Kansai Electric who attended the meeting. "I cannot trust the national government and the utilities."

The mayors of nearby Kyoto and Kobe, which are also shareholders of Kansai Electric, spoke at the meeting calling on management to withdraw from nuclear power and streamline operations, a call echoed in Tokyo by the city's vice governor at Tepco's meeting.

"What is needed from now is an awareness on the part of Tepco that it must completely reform itself through transparency," Tokyo Vice Governor Naoki Inose told the meeting, reflecting public anger over plans by the company to raise electricity prices to help pay for the disaster.

Tokyo's city government holds a 2.7 percent stake in Tepco.

"They must end the use of nuclear power and stop telling us lies," said a woman in her 50s who declined to give her name before entering the meeting.

Very much Corporate interests vs public interest type of battle lines are drawn up. Money on one side, public good on other.

Amber G. · Post by **Amber G.** » 29 Jun 2012 07:40

Money on one side, public good on other.

Some will say it is ignorance on one side and common sense on other...

Sanku · Post by **Sanku** » 29 Jun 2012 11:18

Amber G. wrote:
Money on one side, public good on other.
Some will say it is ignorance on one side and common sense on other...

No I dont think that Nuclear industry is ignorant. Granted they do not fully understand the long term implications of operating NPPs in Japanese environment and attendant risks, but calling them ignorant would be a little harsh. They are only looking after their own interests, like most are.

OTOH I fully agree that the sense of common people can be called common sense.

Am glad to see the appreciation of Japanese people from you btw -- very creditable.

Amber G. · Post by **Amber G.** » 29 Jun 2012 20:39

Agree that Nuclear industry (or any other industry for that matter) in general and scientists in general are not ignorant.

Ignorant are those who who start believing in Busby type idiocy that 1 mSV radiation will kill evrery one ...... LWR are cause of Fukushima .. ... transition from 400 to 800 (TWh) is decline .. Whether it is 1,400,000 deaths or .zero deaths .. both are equally terrible because "spray and pray" did not work ... ityadi ..

Ignorant are those who do not know the difference between Energy and Power, or between Coulomb and Joule .. yet keep producing silly "calculations".to show where Bhaba and Chu made mistakes..

Ignorant are those who think Cs from Fukushima is making fish in Indian Ocean sick and so NPP in India should be shut down..

Theo_Fidel · Post by **Theo_Fidel** » 29 Jun 2012 21:06

Japans tough choices in replacing Nuclear.

http://www.nature.com/news/japan-consid ... re-1.10783

The scenarios come from a 25-person advisory committee to the industry ministry. The committee has been meeting since last October to discuss revisions to the 2010 Basic Energy Plan, which had proposed that nuclear energy would generate 45% of the country’s electricity by 2030. The sharp reductions in that proportion mean that Japan will struggle to reach the 31% reduction in carbon dioxide emissions that it had planned by 2030; three of the new scenarios post more modest targets of 16%, 20% or 23% (see ‘Energy seesaw’). A fifth plan included a heavier dependence on nuclear power (35%), enabling greenhouse-gas reductions of 28%, but committee head Akio Mimura, president of Nippon Steel based in Tokyo, said that he had made the “heartbreaking” decision to discard that option because of popular opposition to nuclear energy.

Before Fukushima, Japan’s energy plans depended on an ambitious expansion of its nuclear capacity, which accounted for 26% of the country’s electricity in 2010. That plan faced opposition before the disaster (see Nature 464, 661; 2010) and is now all but dead, with local governments blocking efforts to restart existing plants. Some prefectures, including Fukushima, hope to use renewable energy sources to become self-sufficient without reliance on nuclear energy. Toru Hashimoto, mayor of Osaka, has used his opposition to restarting the reactors to become, according to polls, the country’s most popular politician. Some tip him to be the next prime minister.

Sanku · Post by **Sanku** » 29 Jun 2012 21:35

Amber G. wrote:Agree that Nuclear industry (or any other industry for that matter) in general and scientists in general are not ignorant.

Ignorant are those who who start believing in Busby type idiocy that 1 mSV radiation will kill evrery one ...... LWR are cause of Fukushima .. ... transition from 400 to 800 (TWh) is decline .. Whether it is 1,400,000 deaths or .zero deaths .. both are equally terrible because "spray and pray" did not work ... ityadi ..

Ignorant are those who do not know the difference between Energy and Power, or between Coulomb and Joule .. yet keep producing silly "calculations".to show where Bhaba and Chu made mistakes..

Ignorant are those who think Cs from Fukushima is making fish in Indian Ocean sick and so NPP in India should be shut down..

Hmm considering that this was a discussion about TEPCO and people of Japan, and neither seem to fit the bill in above. I fail to see the relevance of the post, are you talking about your own views? In that case kindly do be clear, because it not clear at all what or who are you attributing to those statements too (also provide some back up so that we can see the views in original)

Amber G. · Post by **Amber G.** » 29 Jun 2012 22:50

Amber G. wrote:Japan utility shareholders vote to keep nuclear power

FYI, Also reported here..
Utilities reject calls to abandon nuclear

29 June 2012
Japan's nine nuclear power utilities have rejected calls from some of their shareholders to reduce or even eliminate the use of nuclear energy. Tokyo Electric Power Co's (Tepco's) shareholders approved a ¥1 trillion ($12.5 billion) injection of state funds which effectively nationalizes the company.
The nine utilities each held general shareholders' meetings on 27 June in the respective regions. They all faced numerous questions from their shareholders about their position on phasing out the use of nuclear power plants as well as concerns about the resumption of operations of their reactors. Some shareholders also called for plans for new reactors to be dropped. However, all shareholder proposals were voted down at each of the meetings, the Asahi Shimbun.
Some 4500 shareholders attended Tepco's meeting in a gymnasium in Tokyo, which lasted about five-and-a-half hours. During the meeting, shareholders voted against a proposal for the company to permanently shut down its seven-unit Kashiwazaki Kariwa plant in Niigata prefecture, replacing them with advanced gas-turbine generators. ...
<snip>

Theo_Fidel · Post by **Theo_Fidel** » 30 Jun 2012 00:59

Meanwhile the Japanese get to the crux of the problem. In any democratic vote Nuclear power would lose hands down so the technique is to avoid democratic opinion. Only technocrat opinion allowed.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/30/world ... plant.html

On Friday, many of the protesters complained that Mr. Noda was trying to take Japan back to its political business-as-usual of powerful bureaucrats and industry executives making decisions behind closed doors. Some described their outrage over the restart decision as a moment of political awakening, saying they were taking to the streets for the first time.

“Japanese have not spoken out against the national government,” said Yoko Kajiyama, a 29-year-old homemaker who carried her 1-year-old son. “Now, we have to speak out, or the government will endanger us all.”

“To restart the nuclear plant without ensuring its safety is crazy,” said Naomi Yamazaki, 37, another homemaker and first-time demonstrator. “I know we need these plants for power and jobs, but I don’t trust the authorities now to protect us.”

Organizers said a such mistrust has led to a quick growth in the size of the protests, which have been held every week since late March. The protests began with a few hundred participants, but rose into the thousands after Mr. Noda’s restart decision, said one organizer, Misao Redwolf, a illustrator based here in Tokyo.

Tetsunari Iida, director of the Institute for Sustainable Energy Policies, an energy policy group based in Tokyo, said the protests reflected wider discontent toward the government, which many say failed to protect public health after the accident, and then rushed to get the country’s reactors back online.

“There is anger and a loss of confidence in the government,” Mr. Iida said. “This is an irreversible change, and I expect this type of movement to continue.”

Theo_Fidel · Post by **Theo_Fidel** » 05 Jul 2012 22:01

http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/07/ ... K420120705

"We have proved that it cannot be said that there would have been no crisis without the tsunami," Katsuhiko Ishibashi, a seismologist and panel member, said in the report.

Experts have said that an active fault may lie under Kansai Electric Power Co's Ohi plant in western Japan, whose No. 3 unit began supplying electricity to the grid early on Thursday. Ohi's No. 4 unit will come on line later this month after the government approved the restarts to avoid a power shortage.
"This means that all of Japan's reactors are vulnerable and require retro-fitting, calling into question the hasty decision of the (Prime Minister Yoshihiko) Noda cabinet to restart reactors before getting the lessons of Fukushima," said Jeffrey Kingston, Asia studies director at Temple University in Tokyo.

The report by the experts - one of three panels looking into the Fukushima disaster - follows a six-month investigation involving more than 900 hours of hearings and interviews with more than 1,100 people, the first such inquiry of its kind.

The report pointed to numerous missed opportunities to take steps to prevent the disaster, citing lobbying by the nuclear power companies as well as a "safety myth" mindset that permeated the industry and the regulatory regime as among the reasons for the failure to be prepared.

chaanakya · Post by **chaanakya** » 06 Jul 2012 19:12

Nuclear crisis man-made: Diet panel
Regulatory system corrupt; safety steps were rejected

By KAZUAKI NAGATA
Staff writer

The crisis at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant was man-made and not a natural disaster, fundamentally the result of a long-corrupt regulatory system that allowed Tokyo Electric Power Co. to put off critical safety measures, an independent Diet commission investigating the catastrophe concluded Thursday.

"What must be admitted — very painfully — is that this was a disaster 'Made in Japan,' " says an accompanying statement by the panel chairman, Kiyoshi Kurokawa, a professor emeritus at the University of Tokyo. "Its fundamental causes are to be found in the ingrained conventions of Japanese culture: our reflexive obedience; our reluctance to question authority; our devotion to 'sticking with the program'; our groupism; and our insularity."

The report says the Fukushima disaster "was the result of collusion between the government, the regulators and Tepco, and the lack of governance by said parties . . . we conclude that the accident was clearly 'man-made.' "

"We believe that the root causes were the organizational and regulatory systems that supported faulty rationales for decisions and actions, rather than issues relating to the competency of any specific individual," the report said.

According to the panel, which submitted the report to the Diet after about six months of investigations that included questioning 1,176 people for a total of more than 900 hours, the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency and Tepco were aware of the need to improve safety at Fukushima No. 1 before the March 11, 2011, earthquake and tsunami, but Tepco was reluctant to do so and NISA didn't press for the necessary improvements.

For instance, the government in 2006 revised the standards for earthquake resistance and requested that utilities evaluate their plants. Although it was found that Tepco needed to implement antiseismic reinforcement measures to meet the new standards, the utility kept putting it off and NISA let it slide, the report says.

"From Tepco's perspective, new regulations would have interfered with plant operations and weakened their stance in potential lawsuits. That was enough motivation for Tepco to aggressively oppose new safety regulations," it says.

NISA failed to go after Tepco about undertaking the necessary reinforcement because it lacked nuclear power expertise compared with the utility, in addition to the fact that NISA is part of the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry, which promotes the use of nuclear power, it says.

Turning to the government, the panel said its crisis management system was ineffective and failed to stop the crisis from escalating, as its responsibilities and those of Tepco were vague.

As a result, top officials, including then Prime Minister Naoto Kan, became excessively involved during the early stages of the accident and increased the confusion at the plant, the report says.

On the much-disputed question of whether the utility wanted to pull all of its workers out of the crippled plant, the panel said it could not find evidence Tepco executives had this in mind.

Many of the key politicians stationed at the prime minister's office said they thought Tepco was requesting a full pullout, while Tepco has been saying it was planning only a partial evacuation and intended to keep a necessary number of workers at the site.

The panel also said it could not rule out that the Great East Japan Earthquake damaged critical reactor components, including cooling systems.

Tepco has maintained that the temblor did not cause such damage, as far as the utility has been able to ascertain. But the panel noted that the meltdowns and high radiation levels have prevented an up-close assessment of possible quake damage.

The commission is among several efforts to investigate the causes of the accident. A panel independently launched by experts from the private sector released its final report in February. Tepco's in-house investigation panel disclosed its report last month.

The private-sector panel could not question Tepco executives as the utility refused to cooperate, and many analysts have said Tepco's report is biased because the utility can hardly investigate itself in an objective manner. Its report said the size of the earthquake and tsunami was beyond all expectations and could not reasonably have been foreseen.

The Diet's panel, headed by Kurokawa, a former president of the Science Council of Japan and comprising other experts from the private sector, was given a strong mandate, and it questioned key figures in both Tepco and the government, including Kan and then Tepco President Masataka Shimizu.

In its report, the panel also makes several proposals to improve nuclear safety based on the lessons from the Fukushima crisis, such as revising nuclear power-related laws to stress public health and safety as the first priority and creating a commission in the Diet to monitor whether government regulators are doing an adequate job

>>Well some of us argued that it was a black swan type event and that this was not anticipated. In fact evidence exists that such a contingency was indeed foreseen. TEPCO not only failed to implement adequate measures but also one can not conclusively say that this predictable quake did not damage the reactor . That too even after mpre than one year of the event, radiation level is so high that no one can assess it properly.

chaanakya · Post by **chaanakya** » 06 Jul 2012 19:14

Meanwhile

Japan regains nuclear power as first reactor resumes operations

REUTERS

2012/07/06

Japan ended two months without nuclear power on July 5 when the No. 3 unit at Kansai Electric Power Co.'s Oi plant became the first reactor to resume supplying electricity to the grid since a nationwide safety shutdown after the Fukushima disaster.

chaanakya · Post by **chaanakya** » 07 Jul 2012 14:40

Reactor 1 quake-damaged? Diet panel hits Tepco assumption that only tsunami killed power

By KAZUAKI NAGATA
Staff writer

The 9.0-magnitude quake that rocked the Fukushima No. 1 plant in March 2011 may have knocked out one of the emergency generators at reactor 1 before the site was engulfed by tsunami, according to a Diet panel's final report on the nuclear crisis.

The independent panel's findings, released Thursday, challenge Tokyo Electric Power Co.'s assertion that the tsunami single-handedly disabled all the plant's emergency power generators and that the massive temblor wasn't directly responsible.

If the diesel generator at the No. 1 reactor was crippled by the megaquake, this would seriously undermine Tepco's claims that the Fukushima No. 1 complex survived its initial impact and also question the quake-resistance of many other old reactors nationwide.

The government and Tepco should not assume that a "total power loss would have been averted if not for the tsunami," the panel stated in the report.

The power outage halted the critical cooling function in reactor cores, which led to three of the plant's units suffering meltdowns and emitting massive quantities of radioactive materials into the environment.

The panel suggested that some of the emergency generators at reactors 2 and 3 also might have been knocked out by the quake.

Tepco has consistently claimed that the initial tsunami that smashed into the power station at 3:35 p.m. on March 11 knocked out all the emergency generators, resulting in a total power outage.

But the panel pointed out that a wave gauge set up about 1.5 km off Fukushima's coast recorded the first tsunami sweeping by at exactly 3:35 p.m., and estimated that it would have taken at least two more minutes for it to reach the No. 1 plant.

This would mean that the power generators were knocked out sometime after 3:37 p.m.

But it is believed the power generator in question was disabled between 3:35 p.m. and 3:36 p.m., implying the quake rather than the waves was responsible, according to the report.

Reactor 1 had two emergency diesel generators in the basement of its turbine building. Given the massive flooding caused by the tsunami, the generator would still have ceased working eventually, even if it had survived the quake's impact.

But if the panel's findings are correct, tsunami safety measures alone might not have been enough to prevent the loss of emergency power, and therefore the meltdown at reactor 1.

On Thursday, Tepco spokesman Junichi Matsumoto reiterated the utility's view that all the generators at the plant were disabled by the first tsunami that washed ashore, citing the results of worker interviews.

"We did not hear that the diesel generator had stopped before the tsunami," Matsumoto told a new conference Thursday evening.

Unfortunately, it still remains impossible to verify which account is correct.

Sky-high radiation levels inside the plant's wrecked reactors, including the No. 1 unit, have prevented Tepco and the government from sending any workers inside the turbine buildings to visually inspect the damage and determine what actually caused the generators to stop functioning.

The report also pointed out that as Tepco, the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency and another independent panel created by the government to probe the nuclear disaster have all assumed the emergency power loss was caused by tsunami, no efforts have been made to further examine the matter.

"(That is) very regrettable, and (the investigators' findings) are insincere," the panel stated in the report.

chaanakya · Post by **chaanakya** » 07 Jul 2012 14:46

Fukushima Pref. asks TEPCO for 6.3 bil. yen

FUKUSHIMA (Jiji Press)--The Fukushima prefectural government demanded about 6.3 billion yen from Tokyo Electric Power Co. on Friday for damages related to the crisis at Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant that began in March 2011.

For a period between March 11, 2011, and March 31 this year, the prefecture estimates it faced crisis-related costs of about 5.7 billion yen, including purchases of beef cattle from farms near the stricken nuclear plant following the discovery of above-limit radioactive cesium in Fukushima beef.

In the same period, falls in revenues from six prefectural taxes, due partly to companies leaving the prefecture, are estimated to total about 600 million yen.

The prefecture plans to ask the utility for any further accident-related costs it faces going forward.
(Jul. 7, 2012)

Theo_Fidel · Post by **Theo_Fidel** » 09 Jul 2012 23:26

Another layer of security gets added. I hope all the reactors world wide add this, including the ones under construction and designed. Filters were what saved Windscale from turning into Chernobyl. As usual industry does not want to do it.

http://green.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/07/ ... /?src=recg

The idea behind venting a nuclear plant is that if a reactor overheats, chemical reactions will produce steam and gases that could overpressurize the containment building. The containment is a major line of defense against the release of radioactive materials, and rather than let it burst like an overfilled balloon, the idea goes, it would be more sensible to let the reactor dump a little bit of slightly radioactive gas into the environment.

This has raised another question: should the vents be filtered? American plants that currently have vents do not have filters. The thinking is that the initial puff of gas does not contain much radioactive material in the first place.

PratikDas · Post by **PratikDas** » 10 Jul 2012 03:04

Nothing has been added yet. Please read the article.

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s staff is supposed to produce a paper on the subject this month. This will be an early matter of business for the commission’s new chairman, Allison Macfarlane, whose appointment was confirmed by the Senate last week but who has not yet been sworn in.

Vayutuvan · Post by **Vayutuvan** » 18 Jul 2012 07:23

posting without comment to a link of a Stanford Computer simulation study. Hope I am not stepping into a minefield.

Computer Model Predicts Fewer than 200 Deaths from Fukushima Radiation:Radiation exposure from the Fukushima meltdowns is unlikely to result in many fatal cancer cases

Prem · Post by **Prem** » 25 Jul 2012 10:48

South Korea wins landmark Gulf nuclear power deal

- A South Korean group won a landmark deal to build and operate four nuclear reactors for the United Arab Emirates, beating more favored U.S. and French rivals to one of the Middle East's biggest ever energy contracts.Under the $40 billion deal announced on Sunday, which Seoul said it hoped would kick-start an export drive for its nuclear technology, the first nuclear plant in the Gulf Arab region is scheduled to start supplying power to the UAE grid in 2017.In stark contrast to the development program launched by northern Gulf neighbor Iran, the UAE's nuclear ambitions carry the blessing of its ally the United States.A consortium led by state-owned utility Korea Electric Power Corp (KEPCO) aims to complete the UAE's four 1,400 megawatt reactors by 2020.The South Korean president's office described the deal as "the largest mega-project in Korean history," while KEPCO said it was also it was in talks with Turkey to export two nuclear power reactors to Black Sea areas.
It also includes Hyundai Engineering and Construction, Samsung C&T Corp and Doosan Heavy Industries. The UAE has pledged to import the fuel it needs for reactors -- rather than attempting to enrich uranium, the fuel for nuclear power plants -- to allay fears about enrichment facilities being used to make weapons-grade material.South Korea hopes to use nascent nuclear programs in the Middle East, which include developments in Saudi Arabia and Egypt, as a springboard for expanding its nuclear industry, though the projects have fueled concerns within the international community over a regional arms race."We are now expecting much bigger opportunities in entering overseas markets as winning the UAE nuclear deal will play a role of convincing those countries in the Middle East and other regions which are thinking of importing nuclear power reactors," KEPCO said in a statement.
South Korea said it also hopes to build more plants in the UAE beyond 2020 to meet future demand."The South Korean group beat a French consortium and another group led by U.S. giant General Electric. The $20 billion Korean bid was $16 billion lower than the French group's bid, an industry source said.In addition to the deal to design and build the plants, the Korean consortium expects to earn another $20 billion by jointly operating the reactors for 60 years.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2009/12/ ... 5O20091227

gunjur · Post by **gunjur** » 15 Sep 2012 18:29

Apologies if already posted.
Don't Fear a Nuclear Arms Race in the Middle East

The one on virtually everyone's list for possible nuclear proliferation in response to Iran is Turkey. But the Turkish Republic is already under a nuclear umbrella(NATO). But even if the Turks wanted their own bomb, they have almost no capacity to develop nuclear weapons technology. Indeed, Turkey does not even possess the capability to deliver the 40 B61 bombs at Incirlik that are allocated to Turkish forces in the event of an attack.
Ankara would literally be starting from scratch: Turkey has no fissile material, cannot mine or enrich uranium, and does not possess the technology to reprocess spent fuel, all of which are required for nuclear weapons development.

The Egyptians are way ahead of the Turks in developing nuclear infrastructure, but don't expect to see the rise of a nuclear power on the Nile anytime soon.The Egyptian Atomic Energy Commission, which nasser established in 1955.
Sadat signed the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty in 1980, and Mubarak negotiated with the west for reactors and funding for Egypt's nuclear program. Nothing, however, ever came of these discussions because of the 1986 Chernobyl disaster.
Mubarak spent $160 million on consultants to tell him where to build 10 planned nuclear power plants, and selected a location along the Mediterranean for the first one. But each of the power plants comes with a price tag of $1.5 billion -- and this is a country that in the last 15 months has spent approximately $26 billion of its $36 billion foreign currency reserves just to stay afloat.

Saudi Arabia has the cash to make large-scale investments in nuclear technology. While Riyadh can outfit itself with nuclear facilities with ease, it does not have the capacity to manage them.
In fact, the country has no nuclear facilities and no scientific infrastructure to support them. It's possible that Saudi Arabia could import Pakistanis to do the work for them. But while Saudis feel comfortable with Pakistanis piloting some of their warplanes and joining their ground forces, setting up a nuclear program subcontracted with Pakistani know-how -- or even acquiring a nuclear device directly from Islamabad -- poses a range of political risks for the House of Saud. Certainly Washington, which implicitly extends its nuclear umbrella to Saudi Arabia, would have a jaundiced view of a nuclear deal between Riyadh and Islamabad. Saudi rhetoric is little more than posturing designed to force the U.S. hand on Iran. Unlike similar warnings by Israel, which has the capacity to follow through on its threat to attack Iran's nuclear sites, Riyadh's rhetoric about acquiring nuclear weapons is empty. What is amazing is how many people take the Saudis seriously. Now would seem like a good time for the Riyadh to give Tehran a look at what the royal family has been hiding in the palace basement all these years.

Despite its flimsiness, it is hard to ignore the utility of the Middle East's nuclear dominoes theory. For those who advocate a preventive military strike on Iran, it provides a sweeping geopolitical rationale for a dangerous operation. If Washington decides it has no other option than an attack, it should do so because Iran is a threat in its own right, and not because it belives it will thwart inevitable proliferation in places like Turkey, Egypt, and Saudi Arabia.

chaanakya · Post by **chaanakya** » 15 Sep 2012 20:36

Govt adopts strategy of zero N-energy reliance

Jiji Press

The government on Friday adopted an energy and environmental strategy aimed at lowering the nation's reliance on nuclear energy to zero in the 2030s.

In the medium- to long-term strategy, the government said it will employ all policy resources so that the country can realize a society in which no nuclear reactors are operating in the 2030s.

The strategy was adopted at a meeting of the Energy and Environment Council, chaired by Motohisa Furukawa, state minister for national policy. Other participants included Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda.

The rule of not allowing nuclear reactors to operate for more than 40 years will be strictly applied, the strategy said, adding that the nation will not build any new reactors or expand any existing ones.

Nuclear reactors will be maintained only if their safety is guaranteed by an envisioned regulatory commission; they will be viewed as important sources of power for the time being, the strategy said.

The strategy also called for continuing a project to reprocess spent nuclear fuel, and some research at the Japan Atomic Energy Agency's Monju prototype fast-breeder reactor in Fukui Prefecture.

In July last year, the government decided to reduce the nation's dependence on nuclear energy in response to the nuclear crisis at Tokyo Electric Power Co.'s Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant, where an unprecedented triple meltdown occurred.

In June this year, the government presented three options--lowering the percentage of electricity generated at nuclear plants in the nation's total power output to zero in 2030, reducing it to 15 percent, or aiming for a level of 20 percent to 25 percent.

To gauge public opinion on the options, the government carried out open hearings and solicited public comments.

From the results, the government concluded that a majority of people want a society that has no dependency on nuclear power, although opinions are divided on how fast such a goal should be achieved.

Meanwhile Policy is quick to draw flakes from many and concern from Western allies of Japan.

No-nuke plan official, quick to draw flak

The Democratic Party of Japan-led government is advocating the zero-nuclear policy only because it is desperate to curry favor with voters ahead of the next Lower House election, in which the party is expected to suffer a crushing defeat, they said.
The paper does not explain how any reactor restart would be consistent with the eventual goal of ending all reliance on nuclear power.

The new energy goals don't touch on crucial details in abolishing nuclear power, including likely electricity rate hikes following the total halt of reactors, how to increase renewable energy and how to win the consent of local governments that host nuclear facilities.

chaanakya · Post by **chaanakya** » 15 Sep 2012 21:02

Main points of Japan's post-Fukushima energy plan

National Sep. 15, 2012 - 06:00AM JST ( 2 )

TOKYO —

Japan’s government said on Friday it aims to stop using nuclear power by the 2030s, marking a major shift from policy goals set before last year’s Fukushima disaster.