You are here

Home

Nuclear Engineering Issues

Primary tabs

Sun, 2011-03-20 10:15 — mdmcdonald
Nuclear Engineering Issues

Working Group email address:  ***@***.***

Add Content to this group

Click to add a new Group Post Simple to this group
Click to add a new Group Post Simple w Images to this group
Click to add a new Group Post to this group
Click to add a new PRIVATE Group Post to this group
Click to add a new TASK to this group

Members

AlMac99 bevcorwin Harry Sauberman Kathy Gilbeaux Maeryn Obley mdmcdonald
Subscribe to group

Email address for group

nuclear-engineering-issues@m.resiliencesystem.org

Tepco Restarts Water Clean-up Operation

Sat, 2011-06-25 00:09 — Kathy Gilbeaux

The Financial Times - By Jonathan Soble in Tokyo - June 23, 2011

Nuclear technicians in Japan have restarted a problem-plagued water purification system at Fukushima Daiichi atomic power station, as they race to prevent radiation-contaminated water from overflowing into the sea.

About 110,000 tonnes of highly contaminated water have accumulated in basements and service tunnels under the plant’s four crippled reactors, a result of three months’ worth of emergency cooling efforts since the March 11 tsunami. The onset of Japan’s early-summer rainy season has made the situation more critical by adding to the build-up.

Tepco Water Treatment Hopes Elude

Sat, 2011-06-25 00:01 — Kathy Gilbeaux

The Japan Times - June 21, 2011

Tokyo Electric Power Co. continued struggling Monday to restart a newly installed water treatment system at its crippled Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant, aiming to resume full operations Tuesday.

The treatment system is designed to remove highly radioactive materials from the massive amounts of water accumulating at the plant, thus its full operation is vital for efforts to contain the three-month-old nuclear crisis, because Tepco hopes to eventually recycle the water to cool the plant's damaged reactors.

But the new system was halted at 12:54 a.m. Saturday, after becoming fully operational at 8 p.m. Friday, because the radiation level of a component to absorb cesium had reached its limit and required replacement much earlier than expected, Tepco officials said.

Tepco has been trying to ascertain why the component didn't work as hoped and is probing ways to solve the problem, company officials said.

Tepco meanwhile said Monday it fully opened the doors of the reactor 2 building to lower the humidity inside so workers can enter the site, and denied this would have a negative impact on the environment.

Video - Inside Fukushima Daiichi

Fri, 2011-06-17 15:09 — Kathy Gilbeaux

The IAEA's Fact-Finding Mission in Japan visited the damaged Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant on 27 May 2011, the final site visit of the team's programme to identify lessons from the Japanese nuclear accident that could help improve global nuclear safety. The team's international experts from 12 nations held discussions with top plant operating officials and toured the six-reactor facility.

http://www.iaea.org/

Government Report Calls for 28 Nuclear Safety Steps

Wed, 2011-06-08 23:13 — Kathy Gilbeaux

The Yomiuri Shimbun - Daily Yomiuri Online - Associated Press - June 9, 2011

In a report submitted to the International Atomic Energy Agency, the government has called for a drastic revision of nuclear reactor design standards, including the development of air-cooling devices and a reconsideration of the location of temporary storage pools for spent nuclear fuel rods.

The report concerning the accident at Tokyo Electric Power Co.'s Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant following the March 11 earthquake and tsunami was submitted to the IAEA on Tuesday.

The report included 28 proposals to strengthen the safety of nuclear plants, drawing on lessons from this year's earthquake-triggered nuclear crisis.

The Economy, Trade and Industry Ministry's Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency (NISA) the same day instructed electrical utility companies that operate nuclear power plants to take emergency measures to prevent hydrogen explosions and secure sufficient equipment to measure radiation levels.

The report may significantly affect the operations of about 50 nuclear reactors in the nation, observers said.

Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan faces Fukushima no-confidence vote

Thu, 2011-06-02 00:13 — AlMac99

If Mr Kan loses the vote of confidence, due shortly in parliament, he would be forced to resign or call an election.

an opinion poll published on Wednesday suggests the public has a dim view of Mr Kan's handling of the Fukushima disaster.

In a survey of 700 adults, 79% rated his management of the crisis as poor, according to the Pew Research Center.

On Wednesday, the UN nuclear energy agency the IAEA said Japan had "underestimated" the risk of a tsunami hitting a nuclear power plant.

(In Al Mac opinion, Japan had "ignored" the risk, by relying on decisions by people who did not understand tsunami science.)

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-pacific-13624199

Japan Nuclear Crisis: IAEA Report Finds Country Underestimated Tsunami Risk For Nuclear Plants

Wed, 2011-06-01 11:49 — Kathy Gilbeaux

In this May 27, 2011 photo released by the International Atomic Energy Agency, or IAEA, members of the IAEA fact-finding team in Japan visit the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant in Okuma, Fukushima prefecture, northern Japan. (AP Photo/IAEA)

Reuters - June 1, 2011

TOKYO, June 1 (Reuters) - Japan underestimated the risk of tsunamis and needs to closely monitor public and workers' health after the crisis at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant, a team of international safety inspectors said in a preliminary review of the world's worst nuclear disaster since Chernobyl.

The report, from an International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) team led by Britain's top nuclear safety official Mike Weightman, highlighted some of the well-documented weaknesses that contributed to the crisis at Fukushima when the plant, 240 km (150 miles) north of Tokyo, was hit by a massive earthquake and then a tsunami in quick succession on March 11.

Those start with a failure to plan for a tsunami that would overrun the 5.7-metre (19 ft) break wall at Fukushima and knock out back-up electric generators to four reactors, despite multiple forecasts from a government agency and operator Tokyo Electric Power Co's own scientists that such a risk was looming.

Chernobyl Study Says Health Risks Linger

Sun, 2011-05-29 00:00 — Kathy Gilbeaux

The New York Times - March 17, 2011

Nearly 25 years after the accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in Ukraine, children and teenagers who drank contaminated milk or ate affected cheese in the days and weeks after the explosion still suffer from an increased risk of thyroid cancer, according to a study released Thursday by the National Cancer Institute.

Health Effects of the Chernobyl Accident: An Overview

Sat, 2011-05-28 23:29 — Kathy Gilbeaux

World Health Organization - Fact sheet N° 303 - April 2006

Background

On 26 April 1986, explosions at reactor number four of the nuclear power plant at Chernobyl in Ukraine, a Republic of the former Soviet Union at that time, led to huge releases of radioactive materials into the atmosphere. These materials were deposited mainly over countries in Europe, but especially over large areas of Belarus, the Russian Federation and Ukraine.

An estimated 350 000 clean-up workers or "liquidators" from the army, power plant staff, local police and fire services were initially involved in containing and cleaning up the radioactive debris during 1986-1987. About 240 000 liquidators received the highest radiation doses while conducting major mitigation activities within the 30 km zone around the reactor. Later, the number of registered liquidators rose to 600 000, although only a small fraction of these were exposed to high levels of radiation.

In the spring and summer of 1986, 116 000 people were evacuated from the area surrounding the Chernobyl reactor to non-contaminated areas. Another 230 000 people were relocated in subsequent years.

AP Exclusive: Fukushima tsunami plan a single page

Fri, 2011-05-27 13:21 — mdmcdonald

 


By YURI KAGEYAMA and JUSTIN PRITCHARD, Associated Press 

TOKYO – Japanese nuclear regulators trusted that the reactors at the Fukushima Dai-ichi complex were safe from the worst waves an earthquake could muster based on a single-page memo from the plant operator nearly a decade ago. In the Dec. 19, 2001, document — one double-sized page obtained by The Associated Press under Japan's public records law — Tokyo Electric Power Co. rules out the possibility of a tsunami large enough to knock the plant offline and gives scant details to justify this conclusion, which proved to be wildly optimistic.

70,000 More Should Evacuate After Fukushima: Watchdog

Tue, 2011-05-24 14:35 — Kathy Gilbeaux

Canada.com - AFP - May 24, 2011

Paris - Seventy thousand people living beyond the 20-kilometre no-go zone around Fukushima should be evacuated because of radioactivity deposited by the crippled nuclear plant, a watchdog said.

Updating its assessment of the March 11 disaster, France's Institute for Radiological Protection and Nuclear Safety (IRSN) highlighted an area northwest of the plant that lies beyond the 20-km (12 mile) zone whose inhabitants have already been evacuated.

Radioactivity levels in this area range from several hundred becquerels per square metre to thousands or even several million bequerels per square metre, the IRSN report, issued late Monday, said.

Around 70,000 people, including 9,500 children aged up to 14, live in the area, "the most contaminated territory outside the evacuation zone," the agency said.

"These are people who are still to be evacuated, in addition to those who were evacuated during the emergency phase in March," Didier Champion, its environmnent director, told AFP.

Staying in this area means the inhabitants would be exposed to radiation of more than 10 millisieverts (mSv)in the year following the disaster, according to the IRSN.

Pages

howdy folks