Bharat Rakshak

Municipalities in Fukushima Prefecture affected by the nuclear accident in March are stepping up efforts to decontaminate public buildings and restore key infrastructures.

The move comes after the Japanese government lifted an evacuation advisory on Friday for 5 municipalities located between 20 and 30 kilometers from the troubled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant.

After the March 11th disaster, residents in these municipalities were advised to prepare to evacuate in case of an emergency at the nuclear plant.

The city of Minamisoma has placed priority on removing radioactive substances from public facilities such as parks, schools and roads.

Contractors are replacing surface soil with uncontaminated soil. But they say it's becoming difficult to procure the necessary amount of soil due to increasing demand.

TOKYO (Kyodo) -- Tokyo Electric Power Co. has released an estimate that says if water injection at its stricken Fukushima No. 1 Nuclear Power Plant stops, its fuel rods could start melting in 38 hours, causing radioactive substances to spew out.

The utility said, however, it can resume watering at the Nos. 1 to 3 reactors in three hours at the most in case the plant is hit by another earthquake and tsunami matching the scale of the March 11 disaster that caused their core meltdowns.

The estimate said the temperature of the fuel, now believed to have solidified at the bottom of the reactors' pressure vessels, would rise about 50 C each hour and reach its melting point of 2,200 C in about 38 hours.

The reactors would then start emitting massive amounts of radioactive substances, raising the radiation level around the plant's premises above 10 millisieverts, the benchmark for prompting an order to evacuate.

In the estimate, TEPCO did not assess the likelihood of any melted fuel dropping through the pressure vessels into the containment vessels shrouding each reactor.

.... 62 percent of respondents said they favor the use of nuclear energy as one of the ways to provide electricity in the United States, with 35 percent opposed. Those strongly favoring nuclear energy outnumber those strongly opposed by a two-to-one ratio, 28 percent vs. 13 percent, according to the survey conducted Sept. 22-24 by Bisconti Research Inc. with GfK Roper.

Gerard wrote:A new way to detect secret nuclear tests: GPS

Fukushima nuclear plant worker dies

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[death] had nothing to do with exposure to radiation in the plant. It also said the death didn't result from overwork.

Tanaji wrote:Ban all scotch whiskies...!!! They are radioactive!!

Amber G. wrote:

Fukushima nuclear plant worker dies

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Of course, small detail, not mentioned above but is in the story itself (even more details at
link) you see:

[death] had nothing to do with exposure to radiation in the plant. It also said the death didn't result from overwork.

( For those who are interested: Story (see link above) also gives details that total exposure to this particular worker (doses are closely monitored for all workers) was, in all of the 46 days he spent on the plant, was 2mSV. (for perspective AVERAGE background radiation is about 3mSV/year)

But, for some, why let facts, come in the way of narrative. /sigh/

Wrt to the map, nice map, but as our shastras say, key point will be:
यस्य नास्ति स्वयं प्रज्ञा, शास्त्रं तस्य करोति किम?

Doubts have been raised about the benefits of the EPR reactor, of which India plans to buy six.
.......

LONDON—The U.K.'s chief nuclear inspector said Tuesday he saw no reason to curtail operations at existing nuclear power plants or change siting strategies for new reactors following the Fukushima disaster, effectively giving the green light for investments in new nuclear reactors.

The widely expected conclusions of Mike Weightman's final report on the lessons to be learned from the crisis at Japan's Fukushima atomic complex come as Germany and Italy have rejected nuclear power and countries across Europe conduct stress tests at all such facilities under a European Union agreement.

"I remain confident that our U.K. nuclear facilities have no fundamental safety weaknesses. The Office for Nuclear Regulation already requires protection of nuclear sites against the worst-case scenarios that are predictable for the U.K. But we are not complacent," Mr. Weightman said.

The U.K. has one of the most advanced programs in Europe to build a fleet of new nuclear power plants as part of efforts to shore up energy supplies as old plants close, while also meeting climate-change targets. Major European utilities are planning billions of pounds investment to build in total 16 gigawatts of new nuclear capacity by 2025.

But although the report is good news for utilities planning to build new nuclear power plants, it has already delayed some elements of their plans.

In July, Électricité de France SA, which operates eight of the U.K.'s existing nuclear power stations, said it will be giving a revised timetable for its new nuclear program in the U.K. after the report is published.

....<snip>

The U.K.'s joint nuclear regulators have also delayed giving interim approval for two reactor designs being assessed for operation in the U.K. to the end of the year so as to take Mr. Weightman's final report into account.

....<snip>
Reports on progress in those areas are due by June 2012 for a report next year on progress implementing the areas under review.

European nuclear stress tests have been conducted in parallel to this process and there are overlaps between the initial findings and the recommendations in Mr. Weightman's report, Mr. Huhne said. Stress tests will continue into next year, he said.

PRESS RELEASE: 11/079
11 OCTOBER 2011

Energy Secretary Chris Huhne today presented to Parliament the final report by the Chief Nuclear Inspector, Dr Mike Weightman, into events at the Fukushima power station in March this year. This follows an interim report, published in May.

Additional information received since the interim report (including Dr Weightman’s visit to Fukushima) has reinforced and further validated the findings of the interim report. Dr Weightman’s final report found that:

>>> there is no reason to curtail the operation of UK operating sites, although operators should continue to follow the founding principle of continuous improvement
>>>there are no fundamental weaknesses in the UK nuclear licensing regime or the safety assessment principles that underpin it, and intention to create the Office for >>>Nuclear Regulation (ONR) in statute will further enhance confidence in the UK’s regulatory regime

the final report also confirms Dr Weightman's advice at the time of the interim report that he saw no reason to revise the strategic advice given by the regulators on which the Nuclear National Policy Statement was based, or any need to change present siting strategies for new nuclear power stations in the UK
the UK practice of periodic safety reviews of licensed sites provides a robust means of ensuring continuous improvement in line with advances in technology and standards
the events at Fukushima reinforce the need to continue to pursue decommissioning of former nuclear sites with utmost vigour and determination
the regulator is satisfied with the responses and plans initiated by the Government and nuclear industry in response to the interim report
In response, Chris Huhne said:
“I would like to give my utmost thanks to Dr Weightman for a thorough, detailed and authoritative report.
“The report makes clear that the UK has one of the best nuclear safety regimes in the world and that nuclear power can go on powering homes and businesses across the UK, as well as supporting jobs.
“We must, however, continue to improve where we can, not just with operating power stations and new sites but by dealing with our nuclear legacy in a robust and effective manner too."

The National Nuclear Security Administration on Friday announced that Y-12 National Security Complex has completed the dismantlement of all components associated with the W70 nuclear weapons system, thus eliminating these materials from the U.S. nuclear stockpile.

The W70 was a tactical nuclear weapons system deployed on the Lance missile as a mobile artillery tactical missile system, according to an NNSA news release. This weapon was retired in the early 1990s as the last nuclear missile deployed by the U.S. Army.

The last of the nation's most powerful nuclear bombs has been taken apart in Texas.

Technicians at the Pantex Plant near Amarillo removed the uranium Tuesday from the last of the nation's largest nuclear bombs, a Cold War relic known as the B53.
...
The nation's largest nuclear bomb now is the 1.2-megaton B83. The B53 was 9 megatons.

The study also suggests that, contrary to government claims, pools used to store spent nuclear fuel played a significant part in the release of the long-lived environmental contaminant caesium-137, which could have been prevented by prompt action. The analysis has been posted online for open peer review by the journal Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics.

Newly disclosed manuals for workers at Tokyo Electric Power Co.'s Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant highlight the utility's lack of preparedness for an emergency, a major factor leading to the meltdowns after the March 11 quake-tsunami, a review by The Japan Times showed Tuesday.

Japan's Atomic Energy Commission says it may cost twice as much to recycle nuclear fuel for power generation as it would to discard the spent fuel as waste.

At a meeting on Tuesday, the commission calculated the cost of recycling spent nuclear fuel and extracting plutonium. The cost was estimated at 1.98 to 2.14 yen per kilowatt-hour of electricity generated.

The cost of discarding the spent fuel as waste was about 1 to 1.35 yen per kilowatt-hour.

Traces of radioactive cesium have been discovered in schoolchildren in Fukushima Prefecture, according to the Minami-Soma municipal general hospital.

As the quake-stricken Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant was spewing radiation, the Nuclear Safety Commission of Japan urged the central government to issue iodine tablets to residents in affected areas. But Tokyo apparently ignored the advice.

WASHINGTON, Sept. 11 — After days of silence from the Israeli government, American officials confirmed Tuesday that Israeli warplanes launched airstrikes inside Syria last week, the first such attack since 2003.

A Defense Department official said Israeli jets had struck at least one target in northeastern Syria last Thursday, but the official said it was still unclear exactly what the jets hit and the extent of the bombing damage.

Syria has lodged a protest at the United Nations in response to the airstrike, accusing Israel of “flagrant violation” of its airspace. But Israel’s government has repeatedly declined to comment on the matter.

Officials in Washington said that the most likely targets of the raid were weapons caches that Israel’s government believes Iran has been sending the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah through Syria. Iran and Syria are Hezbollah’s primary benefactors, and American intelligence officials say a steady flow of munitions from Iran runs through Syria and into Lebanon.