Category: Nuclear Power

Fukushima marks five years of pollution

4/3/2016

Mutants are best kept in movies

Five years ago this month a massive earthquake and tsunami hit Japan. It wiped out a town and a nuclear power station. Which of the two disasters will kill the most people is up for debate. The radiation from the wrecked atomic station continues to spill into the atmosphere and ocean, hundreds of thousands of people have lost their homes and livelihoods due to ongoing radioactive contamination and the end of it is not yet in site.

Best estimates for a fully cleaned up site set at date sometime in 2061. Once the site has been fully contained there will still remain the problem of what to do with millions of tonnes of radioactive waste. Currently solid waste – soil, solid garbage, uranium fuel – is stored in plastic bags exposed to the elements. Plastic exposed to the sun’s rays soon loses its integrity. Has a new type suddenly been invented that will last for 50 years in the sun, rain and wind?

Liquid waste continues to pollute the Pacific Ocean. Water is being used five years later to cool the melted reactor cores. It is then a radioactive waste. An estimated 400 metric tonnes per day are being produced. These are stored in tanks that have leaked. Ground water is also mixing with the contaminated water and leaking into the Pacific.

Yet in spite of the disaster shared by all people of the world, Japan is forging ahead re-opening its nuclear power stations. Two reactors have been restarted. Sendai power plant is now generating electricity. It is located within 50 km of an erupting volcano.

Many of Japan’s electrical power plants are located close to the ocean so that there is ample water to cool the reactors. Like Fukushima, they are vulnerable to very large tsunami. Japan must also contend with earthquakes, some of them quite large.

A reactor site run by the Hokuriku Electric Power Co. – Shika – is awaiting the green light to restart. It is sited above three geological fault lines. The safety panel reviewing all power plants has made a preliminary finding that these lines may be active. The company rejects the findings calling them assumptions and adding that their in-house studies show them to be inactive.

The ongoing cleanup efforts of Fukushima have spawned an industry of its own. Each day about 7 000 workers are on the site. There is even a manga artist who depicts the day to day efforts of the workers.

Japan is not alone in claiming that they need nuclear power generation to provide the energy for their population. Nuclear power does not generate carbon waste if we ignore the vast amount generated in the production of cement needed for the projects. But a years long disaster like Fukushima quietly claims many lives.

Some TEPCO executives have been indicted on various charges for their actions or lack of actions regarding this disaster. Whatever may happen to them is cold comfort to those who will have their lives shortened because of them.

More by the same author:
Fukushima sickens US sailors
Japan earthquake as Fukushima leak continues
Fukushima glitzy demo falls flat
Fukushima marks five years of pollution

Sources:
Scientific American
EneNews
Japan Times

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NY aging nuclear station leaks radioactivity

14/2/2016

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An aging nuclear power station in New York State is leaking radioactivity. Currently there is a leak of radioactive “heavy water”. Tritium is leaking into nearby ground water. Health authorities are monitoring nearby wells and have pronounced that the levels of radioactivity are safe and unlikely to be harmful.

The Indian Point facility is located 40 km(25 miles) from New York City. It is an aging plant that is currently operating on special permits as it has passed its “best before” dates. Entergy Corporation which operates the two reactors has called for an extension of twenty years operating time. If granted Indian Point would have a lifetime of 60 years.

Governor Cuomo called for the plant to be shut down. Last year he stated in the NY Times that it was too dangerous to have a nuclear power station so close to densely populated areas. In May 2015 a transformer fire leaked oil into the ground water and into the Hudson River. No reported radioactivity was released at that time.

No source of energy is absolutely safe. Interest in nuclear power is being revived as a way to curb carbon dioxide emissions, yet many of the caveats are still valid. If the power plant is too dangerous to be near the people who use the electricity, then where should it be located? Shouldn’t those who benefit the most accept most of the risk?

There are currently six nuclear power facilities operating in NY State.

Many people lost their faith in the safety of nuclear power in 1979 when a plant in Pennsylvania suffered a partial core meltdown. The Three Mile Island incident was the worst nuclear accident in US history. The cascade of events began with a simple stuck valve and some human errors.

Chernobyl started with human errors.

Fukushima started with damage from earthquake action and was made worse by human errors.

We know that there is no place outside of the environment.

Sources:
New York Times
RT
Indian Point Energy Center
Wikipedia

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Japan reopens second nuclear reactor

19/10/2015

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Is this a good spot for a nuclear reactor?

Years after the massive earthquake and tsunami devastated the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power station, it is still radioactive and dangerous. In spite of the 30 year or more timeline to clean up the mess, Japan has moved ahead to re-start other nuclear reactors.

While the Japanese have a reputation for bravery, the reopening of the Sendai nuclear plant in the shadow of Sakurajima volcano may be considered a touch foolhardy. Sakurajima volcano is that nation’s most active and currently increasing in activity. Local residents were advised in August that they may have to evacuate quickly.

The Sendai One reactor is 50 km from the active volcano and in the vicinity of five caldera, indicating massive eruptions in the past. Japanese authorities have stated that any danger is negligible. To reinforce that confidence, Sendai Two was restarted on October 15.

Other restarts are in the pipeline. Shikoku Electric has their Ikata 3 reactor approved for restart and Kansai Electric’s Takahama 3 and 4 reactors are likely to get the go-ahead to resume power generation early in 2016.

While the ruined Fukushima complex is still festering, the Japanese government has engaged a UK company, Ame Foster Wheeler to conduct a study to help develop a strategy to deal with the massive amount of radioactive waste collected in the efforts to clean up the plant. Some of the radioactive water is being stored in leaky tanks that periodically leak highly radioactive water into the Pacific Ocean. Many tonnes of contaminated soil have simply been black bagged and stacked in open air outside areas.

Japan has tightened safety regulations for restarting their nuclear reactors, but many are on the coastline and vulnerable to tsunamis which is what finished off the Fukushima complex. Japan is also active seismically which means frequent earthquakes and active volcanoes. In addition, the country is often hit with destructive typhoons.

The Fukushima accident and meltdown displaced about 150 000 people and left whole towns empty and unusable.

Sources:
The Guardian
ABC Net News
Nuclear Energy Institute

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Fukushima marks five years of pollution

NY aging nuclear station leaks radioactivity

Japan reopens second nuclear reactor

Barbara McPherson

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