SimplyInfo » Entries tagged with "US"
US Nuclear Plant Cracks Reactor Vessel
[Translate] The Sharon Harris nuclear plant admitted to having a crack in the reactor vessel. The 1/4 crack did not penetrate all the way through the vessel steel. It was not reported how long or deep the crack was. The reactor ultrasound data was collected a year ago but the plant officials are only now going through it. This raises questions about why they were allowed to wait so long and also to restart before the review is conducted. The plant owners said the repair would need to be done with robots on the reactor head section of the reactor vessel due to the high radiation. The crack appeared on a weld for a control rod nozzle on the reactor head. The unit in question is a 3 loop PWR reactor, this … Read entire article »
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83 Year Old Nun Who Broke Into Nuclear Facility Faces 20 Year Sentence
[Translate] The 83 year old nun that broke into Oak Ridge nuclear facility faces a 20 year sentence after being found guilty. If given the full sentence she would essentially serve the rest of her life in prison. The group who snuck into the facility and vandalized a building are waiting for the final sentencing phase of their trial. This article would not be possible without the extensive efforts of the SimplyInfo research team Join the conversation at chat.simplyinfo.org All content is copyright SimplyInfo.org. Content may also be copyright of other specific original authors or creators and was reproduced here with limited permission. While we welcome the sharing of information or promoting our work, please do so with respect to the large amount of effort and time that goes into our research and analysis. … Read entire article »
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Goldfish Found In Reactor Water At Perry Nuclear Plant
[Translate] The NRC is investigating an incident during the recent maintenance outage at the Perry nuclear plant in Ohio. Goldfish were found swimming in a lemonade pitcher filled with reactor water that was left in the steam tunnel. The location is part of the secured portion of the reactor building that houses the steam pipes that run between the reactor and the turbine building. The NRC and plant operators think they will be able to catch the pranksters due to security cameras and limited access into the area. The Perry nuclear plant is already under heightened scrutiny after two workers were involved in a life threatening radiation incident last year. The number of whistleblower complaints from nuclear plant workers and NRC employees has seen an uptick in recent years. An incident at San … Read entire article »
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US Nuclear; Failing Casks, Cracked Concrete And Foot Dragging On Safety
[Translate] 30 of the US’s 100+ nuclear plants have ordered spent fuel pool water level monitoring systems. The issue of this kind of equipment came up again during hurricane Sandy as both members of the public and experts questioned if the nuclear plants impacted by the storm had upgraded spent fuel pool equipment. The new equipment to monitor and provide water to the pool was suggested by the post Fukushima committee that looked at what failed and could fail at US reactors. It is not clear if the remaining units in the US have not ordered such equipment or have already ordered such equipment. The water level monitoring system is only part of the suggested upgrades and comes with a 7 day battery pack. Dry Casks Failing In The US The NRC found multiple … Read entire article »
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EPA Signs Industry Authored Public Radiation Rules
[Translate] The EPA has signed the revised PAG rules that have caused much concern among experts and others in the EPA. These new rules were written by the NCRP, an industry funded group that represents the nuclear power industry’s interests. In an attempt to fight off criticism about the dangerous new standards the EPA tried to claim they are non-binding. Yet we have seen PAG standards being applied to the Fukushima disaster and being used as an excuse in the US to ignore contamination problems in the US. The new standards would take water contamination from 3 picocuries per liter to 81,000 picocuries per liter. The EPA claims since the levels are just for emergencies they are somehow OK. This is just another example of the dysfunction in government where an industry can … Read entire article »
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US Nuclear Waste Plan May Be Illegal
[Translate] The GAO has determined that aspects of the planned nuclear waste disposal program are likely illegal. The GAO says the Dept. of Energy lacks the authority to create new interim storage facilities. Any authority they did have was tied to milestones or timelines not achieved. There is some suspicion the entire idea of interim storage facilities is just a stalling tactic to fend off lawsuits and delay the entire issue in the hopes of better technology being developed. The Forbes article that outlines the problems also mentions the logistics with moving all of the spent fuel twice and that a transportation plan could take a decade to get that alone approved. They also note that much of the cask stored fuel at nuclear plants is currently “too hot” to transport. The GAO review also … Read entire article »
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Omaha Power Company Charges $5000 To Answer Question
[Translate] The Omaha Public Power District is demanding $5000 to answer a question from their customers. OPPD owns and runs the Ft. Calhoun nuclear plant made famous after it sat surrounded by flood waters in the spring of 2011. The plant is still out of operation as a mountain of failures found by the NRC are being worked through. OPPD claims they can repair all of the problem including a structural failure found inside the reactor containment structure. OPPD recently requested a rate increase from consumers to pay for a $143 million dollar contract with Exelon to help them try to fix the plant. A slew of new problems have been found since the last OPPD request for more money including the containment failure. These new costs caused some concerned consumers to ask … Read entire article »
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EPA Employees Balk At Proposed Nuclear Industry Authored Public Safety Guidelines
[Translate] High ranking EPA officials are calling foul on a new set of public safety guidelines that would dictate how the government would respond to a nuclear disaster. What has caused the extreme concern among EPA officials is within the proposed report that was authored by the NCRP. We previously documented that the NCRP is a private company funded by the nuclear industry. These new guidelines would drastically lower the level of public safety and give it a back seat to nuclear industry financial interests to pretend that nothing happened. Paul Kudarauskas, of the EPA Consequence Management Advisory Team when talking about the industry written rules and a potential nuclear disaster in the US said “U.S. residents are used to having “cleanup to perfection,” but will have to abandon their “not in my … Read entire article »
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US Hires Nuclear Industry To Determine Nuclear Disaster Clean Up Policy
[Translate] The US government has paid the NCRP, a private company largely sponsored by the nuclear industry to draw up new nuclear disaster policy for the country. Of course this new policy not only drastically increases what are considered acceptable doses it drastically changes priorities in the event of a nuclear power plant disaster. Most government policies worldwide have put public health first, trying to assure that people are out of harms way or at least limited in exposure. The new NCRP written plan puts business first and reduces the burden on the offending nuclear company who made the mess. “According to the draft report, “one must realize that there are other important factors besides human health that should be considered in the decision-making process.” It says “public financial burdens, restoring key infrastructures, … Read entire article »
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Radiation Contamination In US Food Supply
[Translate] This has been known to those closely following the issue since 2011. It isn’t just about the contamination of domestic foods in the US but the purposely lax US standards that encourage the US food market to be a dumping ground for foods too contaminated to be allowed elsewhere. Cindy Folkers from Beyond Nuclear explains the details of how the US system both ignores and downplays the issue and why everyone in the US should be concerned. Video presentation at the Caldicott Symposium archive. Click on Cindy’s listing in the program to jump to her presentation. A copy of the presentation on Youtube (with some edits by the poster) This article would not be possible without the extensive efforts of the SimplyInfo research team Join the conversation at chat.simplyinfo.org All content is copyright SimplyInfo.org. Content may also … Read entire article »
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Fukushima & World Nuclear News Roundup
[Translate] TEPCO has been working in the torus of unit 1, they have gathered video, readings and sediment samples. Check back here for detailed review and analysis of this work. http://photo.tepco.co.jp/date/2013/201302-j/130222-02j.html TEPCO also inspected inside unit 2′s refueling floor with a gamma camera. More information on this effort should be out soon. http://photo.tepco.co.jp/date/2013/201302-j/130222-01j.html The IAEA is proposing more outside help to deal with the Fukushima disaster. http://english.kyodonews.jp/news/2013/02/210493.html Japan Atomic Power sold part of their uranium stockpile to be able to make upcoming loan payments. http://english.kyodonews.jp/news/2013/02/210260.html Japan’s Power Federation claims if the government rewrites laws to separate transmission of power from production of power to allow more competition their nuclear plants would all go broke. If they could not rely on profits from their other sectors to cover nuclear costs, the power generated alone would not cover the costs … Read entire article »
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Germany’s Energy Win-Win
[Translate] Grist points out in the wake of Fox New’s blunder on German solar what really makes the energy change program work. It isn’t just the move to renewable energy sources. They also bought back the power grid and made it a public asset. Much of the energy generation is owned by regular people. They own the solar panels on their roofs. The public also owns many of the larger renewable energy generation facilities. There is also far less red tape for adding a system and more programs that help people obtain home generation ability. In the US, renewable energy has all been at the whim of Wall Street. “Fox News’ gaffe about sunshine helps others paper over the real tragedy of American energy policy. In a country founded on the concept of self-reliance … Read entire article »
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US MOX Plant Gets 75% Budget Cut
[Translate] In a last minute deal the Department of Energy saved the US MOX program from being totally cut from the budget. The effort by Daniel Poneman left the program with a small budget and no real purpose or use. It would put the roof on the building and the remaining money they intend to spend had no specific purpose tied to it. People may remember Poneman from his nuclear cheerleading tour in Japan last year. This article would not be possible without the extensive efforts of the SimplyInfo research team Join the conversation at chat.simplyinfo.org All content is copyright SimplyInfo.org. Content may also be copyright of other specific original authors or creators and was reproduced here with limited permission. While we welcome the sharing of information or promoting our work, please do so with … Read entire article »
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MidAmerican Energy Still Wants To Build New Nuclear Plants
[Translate] Mid American Energy still is keeping the option open to build new nuclear plants in Iowa. One would be on the Iowa side of the river near Ft. Calhoun nuclear plant. The other on the opposite side of the state along the Mississippi. Warren Buffet’s company Berkshire Hathaway owns Mid American Energy. Buffet has gone on record with his support for nuclear power even though the costs of new builds have skyrocketed and many plants around the US are shutting down due to low energy prices making them unprofitable. Twice in Iowa efforts pushed by MidAmerican to make consumers pre-pay for new nuclear plants were defeated. MidAmerican’s head of both their nuclear division and their renewables division is a career nuclear guy formerly with Nebraska Public Power. It is not clear … Read entire article »
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US Faces Showdown Over Energy
[Translate] After Fukushima more attention was payed to Germany’s energy change efforts. This program long pre-dates Fukushima but announcements that Germany would accelerate the end of their nuclear power program caused international attention on the effort. We have covered much of the misinformation being put out to confuse the public about Germany’s program. Fossil and nuclear companies along with their lobbyists and corporate interest groups have tried to raise doubts about Germany’s energy change. They have falsely claimed that Germany can’t meet emission standards, that they now over rely on coal and that the program is too costly. We have documented how all of those are not true. The cost of renewables has come down. Unsubsidized renewables have come down in price and are now lower than coal or gas in Australia. “The … Read entire article »
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More US Nuclear Plants May Be Shut Down
[Translate] The Crystal River nuclear plant was formally started on the permanent shut down process this week. It may not stop with this plant. UBS has announced other plants they think are at risk. Reuters mentioned an Exelon units that may shut down. Exelon denied this to Reuters but this was previously admitted by the company. One of Constellation Energy’s units may also face shutdown. The plants that may shut down due to economics: Vermont Yankee Fitzpatrick Clinton Ginna The Kewaunee nuclear plant in Wisconsin is also in the process of permanent shut down due to poor profitability. This article would not be possible without the extensive efforts of the SimplyInfo research team Join the conversation at chat.simplyinfo.org All content is copyright SimplyInfo.org. Content may also be copyright of other specific original authors or creators and was reproduced here with … Read entire article »
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Another Bad Week For Nuclear Power
[Translate] There seems to be more and more of these lately. Worldwide it wasn’t a good week for nuclear power. Japan The unit 5 reactor at Hamaoka nuclear plant is too damaged to possibly restart it. This is a newer unit at the plant. In 2011 when the reactor was shut down the condenser that works as a heat exchange device developed large holes and cracks in the pipes inside. Now the operator is admitting there are large cracks in the stainless steel reactor vessel interior. The several millimeter cracks were created by the 400 tons of seawater that leaked into the reactor. The operator has yet to admit the reactor will be scrapped but a restart is highly unlikely. China In China wind energy has surpassed nuclear. This is even more notable since China … Read entire article »
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Asahi Shimbun; US Evacuation Of Yokosuka Naval Base Was Not Voluntary
[Translate] Asahi Shimbun has uncovered more details about the early events of the Fukushima nuclear disaster. What they uncovered fills some of the information gaps about what transpired between the US and Japan during those early days. Before unit 4 exploded, the US was already deeply worried about the spent fuel pool there. A classified diplomatic cable on March 14th urged Japan to use the SDF (Japan’s military) to become involved in the effort to regain control of 4′s spent fuel pool that had a full offload of fuel from the reactor. Also noted in what Asahi Shimbun was able to find was that on March 15th, radiation warning alarms went off at Yokosuka Naval Base 300km from Fukushima Daiichi. All women and children on the base were ordered to evacuate. It was already … Read entire article »
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Atomic Scientists Urge Obama To Discourage Japan On Rokkasho
[Translate] In an open letter to US President Obama the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists urged him to change his support for Japan’s nuclear reprocessing program. Currently the US and the State Department have been pressuring Japan to continue building the reprocessing facility and MOX plant at Rokkasho. The logic had been that the full fuel cycle provided an outlet for spent fuel to be reused but the actual process extracts plutonium into a form that has great proliferation risks. With Japan’s nuclear program in doubt and their MOX and fast breeder programs all but dead the country has no outlet for any reprocessed nuclear material. Read the full letter here. http://thebulletin.org/web-edition/features/open-letter-to-president-obama-the-time-the-doomsday-clock-five-minutes-to-midn The reprocessing plant at Rokkasho is already in testing mode and is already releasing large amounts of radiation into the atmosphere and Pacific … Read entire article »
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Ft. Calhoun Geo-Testing Shows A Dangerous Potential
[Translate] Public records requests by Clean Nebraska were able to obtain portions of the initial geologic testing report for Ft. Calhoun. The report itself was large, what it contained has mostly not been part of the public discussion about Ft. Calhoun from either OPPD or the NRC. The review here is quite long but it has been broken into sections to facilitate reading. The short of this is there are problems or potential problems, some of them with the ability to be major and they reside under the containment, spent fuel pool, auxiliary building and turbine building. Erosion issues Ft. Calhoun was “significantly challenged” by the 2011 record flood according to plant owner OPPD. The post flood reviews initiated by the NRC included a request for geologic testing at the site. OPPD has … Read entire article »
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