Michele Kearney's Nuclear Wire

Major Energy and Environmental News and Commentary affecting the Nuclear Industry.

Thursday, February 23, 2012

Lessons Learned From Japan Tsunami & Meltdown at Fukushima: Rethink Nuclear Power

Lessons Learned From Japan Tsunami & Meltdown at Fukushima: Rethink Nuclear Power
LEMMER, The Netherlands, February 22, 2012/PRNewswire/ --

Governments all over the globe using nuclear power should rethink their choices after the meltdown at Fukushima in Japan last year. According to professor Shunji Murai a government has to choose between economic development and health of local people in an area where a nuclear power plant is built. Murai writes this in a new and remarkable book Higher Ground: Learning from the East Japan Tsunami and Meltdown at Fukushima NPS.

In the case of Fukushima, Murai argues that neither the government nor the people would have allowed a nuclear power station to be built in the vicinity of Tokyo, this simply because everybody know that nuclear technology is not safe.

Visit http://www.gim-international.com/higherground.php to download the preface and table of content.

Making Solar Power Competitive with Coal


Making Solar Power Competitive with Coal
by Kevin Bullis
A study identifies early-stage technologies that could be combined to cut the cost of solar panels in half.
Read More »

The Way Is Shut

The Way Is Shut
CounterCurrents.org
I am tentatively excited about the vast energy represented by uranium in the oceans and by thorium using functional molten salt reactors.

Advocates Push for Change from Uranium to Thorium - Nuclear ...


Advocates Push for Change from Uranium to Thorium - Nuclear ...
In post-Fukashima America, a group of nuclear entrepeneurs, scientists and advocates believe it's the perfect time for the U.S. to consider pursuing thorium as a ...
nuclearstreet.com/.../advocates-push-for-change-from-uraniu...

Thorium Faces the Hurdles on the Course

Thorium Faces the Hurdles on the Course
By Mark Flanagan
Baroness-Bryony-Worthington The Indians are looking to build a nuclear reactor based on thorium rather than uranium, offering the first chance in some years to see if the thorium fuel cycle is scalable enough to establish it as a viable element ...
NEI Nuclear Notes

India will start 300-MW thorium-based Advanced Heavy Water Reactor project in ...


India will start 300-MW thorium-based Advanced Heavy Water Reactor project in ...
Next Big Future
“Under the third stage of nuclear programme based on thorium utilisation, a reactor of 300 MW will be constructed in a year and a half from now..,” Kalpakkam-based Indira Gandhi Centre for Atomic Research Director, Mr SC Chetal, told reporters here.

Wednesday, February 22, 2012

Fresh scandal embroils US climate science debate

Fresh scandal embroils US climate science debate
A fresh scandal over climate change has erupted in the United States after leaked documents appeared to show a right-wing funded campaign to influence how climate science is taught in schools.

New study confirms low levels of fallout from Fukushima

New study confirms low levels of fallout from Fukushima
Fallout from the 2011 Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power facility in Japan was measured in minimal amounts in precipitation in the United States in about 20 percent of 167 sites sampled in a nationwide study released today. The U.S. Geological Survey led the study as part of the National Atmospheric Deposition Program (NADP). Levels measured were similar to measurements made by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in the days and weeks immediately following the March 2011 incidents, which were determined to be well below any level of public health concern.

Lessons Learned From Japan Tsunami & Meltdown at Fukushima: Rethink Nuclear Power


Lessons Learned From Japan Tsunami & Meltdown at Fukushima: Rethink Nuclear Power
PR Newswire UK (press release)
Governments all over the globe using nuclear power should rethink their choices after the meltdown at Fukushima in Japan last year. According to professor Shunji Murai a government has to choose between economic development and health of local people ...

NRC releases inside look at U.S. response to Japan nuclear disaster

NRC releases inside look at U.S. response to Japan nuclear disaster
http://www.cnn.com/2012/02/21/us/nrc-fukushima/



The transcripts are posted at:
http://pbadupws.nrc.gov/docs/ML1205/ML120520264.html

CNN: State of Vermont vs. Entergy on Vermont Yankee

CNN: State of Vermont vs. Entergy on Vermont Yankeehttp://fairewinds.com/content/cnn-state-vermont-vs-entergy-vermont-yankee

Arnie Gundersen at the Japan National Press Club - Video

VIDEO  UPDATE: February 22nd, 2012
ARNIE GUNDERSEN AT THE JAPAN NATIONAL PRESS CLUB  The Japan National Press Club hosts Arnie Gundersen. Over 80 journalists were present where questions were asked regarding the nuclear disaster at Fukushima Daiichi and the ongoing risks associated with the GE Mark 1 BWR nuclear reactors.
Watch Video Now

Canadian towns show interest in radioactive-waste storage

Canadian towns show interest in radioactive-waste storage
Several municipalities in Ontario are showing interest in hosting a facility for Canada's used nuclear fuel stockpile, observers say. The Nuclear Waste Management Organization has crafted multistep procedures for the selection of a site, and no decision has been made. The Toronto Star

World ignored real disaster in Japan

World ignored the real disaster in Japan
The world placed too much emphasis on the Fukushima Daiichi incident in Japan and forgot about the 20,000 Japanese people who died when the earthquake and tsunami struck last year, writes Michael Hanlon. Switzerland and Italy reviewed their nuclear energy programs just weeks after the incident, and Germany even canceled its own program. "Sometimes the media gets it wrong and we all have to hold our hands up here. Twenty thousand-plus people perished in a real disaster, people about whom we in the West have heard very little," Hanlon writes. The Telegraph (London)

Transcripts reveal confusion led to 50-mile evacuation call during incident

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  • Transcripts reveal confusion led to 50-mile evacuation call during incident: Nuclear Regulatory Commission Chairman Gregory Jaczko's proposal in 2011 to evacuate Americans from a 50-mile area around the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant, detailed in transcripts released by the agency, was based in part on faulty information in the early hours of the crisis. Jaczko and other NRC staffers incorrectly believed that there was no water left in the No. 4 reactor, leading to the call for a 50-mile zone. "If this happened in the U.S., we would go out to 50 miles," Bill Borchardt, the agency's executive director for operations, said in discussions with Jaczko on March 16. Bloomberg (2/21), The Wall Street Journal (2/22)

Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station: Too little, too late?


PILGRIM NUCLEAR POWER STATION: Too little, too late?
Wicked Local
As the Nuclear Regulatory Commission dismisses the remaining legal obstacles to granting a license renewal to the Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station – obstacles that now mainly consist of legal contentions raised by longtime Pilgrim critic Pilgrim Watch ...

Air Force Eyes Nuclear Reactors, Beamed Power for Spacecraft


Air Force Eyes Nuclear Reactors, Beamed Power for Spacecraft
Space.com
[Top 10 Alternative Energy Technologies] Technicians work on nuclear generator attached to Transit 4A. In terms of nuclear power in space, several satellite systems have been energized by Radioisotope Thermoelectric Generators (RTG).

"Disposal Subcommittee Report to the Full Commission, Updated Report, Blue Ribbon Commission on America’s Nuclear Future,"

"Disposal Subcommittee Report to the Full Commission, Updated Report, Blue Ribbon Commission on America’s Nuclear Future," is available at,

http://brc.gov/sites/default/files/documents/disposal_report_updated_final.pdf

FRONTLINE INSIDE JAPAN’S NUCLEAR MELTDOWN

I hope you will share the following information with your colleagues, public information officers, and members.  Please join producer Dan Edge during the broadcast on Twitter at #frontline and  expect forthcoming information about a LiveChat the following day.

Many thanks for your time.

Diane Hebert-Farrell
FRONTLINE Promotion

FRONTLINE
INSIDE JAPAN’S NUCLEAR MELTDOWN                                                 
Tuesday, February 28, 2012, at 10 p.m. On PBS (check local listings)

FRONTLINE continues its investigation of nuclear safety with an unprecedented account of the crisis inside the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear complex after a devastating earthquake and tsunami struck Japan on March 11, 2011. With exclusive eye-witness testimony from key figures in the drama, including the Japanese Prime Minister and senior executives at the power company Tepco, FRONTLINE tells the story of the workers struggling frantically to reconnect power inside the plant’s pitch-dark and highly radioactive reactor buildings; the nuclear experts and officials in the Prime Minister’s office fighting to get information as the crisis spiraled out of control; and the plant manager who disobeyed his executives’ orders when he thought it would save the lives of his workers.  The story profiles the Japanese soldiers and firefighters drafted to cool the reactors, who were wounded when the reactor housings exploded; and the families living near the nuclear plant, who unknowingly fled in the same direction as the radioactive plume, exposing themselves to dangerously high radiation levels.

NRC officials doubted US claim on Japan crisis


NRC officials doubted US claim on Japan crisis
CBS News
(AP) WASHINGTON — Top Nuclear Regulatory Commission officials debated the accuracy of public statements made by the agency's chairman about a pool holding spent fuel rods at a crippled Japan nuclear plant, newly released transcripts show.