The F(N)ukushima Thread .... and Related Nooklear Concerns

[newworldafro]

"Cancer Skyrockets With Nuclear Power - Sarah "

 

[Dirty_Jerz]

props for keeping tabs on this breh i stay checkin the updates

 

[newworldafro]

US National Cancer Institute I-131 Thyroid Dose Calculator for Nevada Test Site Fallout | EXSKF

Friday, January 11, 2013


US National Cancer Institute I-131 Thyroid Dose Calculator for Nevada Test Site Fallout




For readers in the US who were born before 1971, there is an online calculator available from the National Cancer Institute to assess your radioactive iodine (I-131) exposure (thyroid dose equivalent) from nuclear tests in Nevada:

I-131 Thyroid Dose/Risk Calculator for Nevada Test Site (NTS) Fallout

You input gender, date of birth (month, year), state, county, and primary type of milk you drank. The number may surprise.

NCI has reports on I-131, here.

State and county level exposures in an interactive map (which wasn't working when I checked), here. The maximum exposure was 16 rad (thyroid dose equivalent), which is 160 milligray which is 160 millisieverts. That is rather high.

I got the links to the site from a tweet by a young nuclear researcher in Japan I follow on Twitter. He said in a later tweet, "It would have been very nice if Fukushima Prefecture's system to estimate the radiation exposure had been available for the residents to run the calculation like this." I can't agree with him more.

Instead in Japan, the National Institute of Radiological Sciences (NIRS), a government agency, built a proprietary system based on the questionnaires from the Fukushima residents (low response rate), and came up with model cases. (For details, see this PDF, in Japanese.) I don't think the residents who submitted the questionnaires have received any individualized estimate, but I could be wrong.

In nuclear testing in Nevada by the US government, soldiers were made to watch without any shielding.

Atomic Bomb Test on human subjects - YouTube

The US Department of Defense has a website to assist ex-soldiers file a claim if they think they were exposed to ionizing radiation.

The recent study "Childhood Thyroid Radioiodine Exposure and Subsequent Infertility in the Intermountain Fallout Cohort" by University of Utah Department of Family and Preventive Medicine considers up to 1,245.5 milligray exposure. (PDF file of the paper is here.)

 

[newworldafro]

Enhanced firepower sought to fend off


Enhanced firepower sought to fend off ‘radiological sabotage’ at nuclear sites

By Ben Goad - 01/09/13 01:10 PM ET

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission is moving forward with plans to outfit security guards protecting spent fuel storage sites at power plants with machine guns and other high-capacity weapons.

A supplemental proposed rule to be published Thursday in the Federal Register amends a 2011 regulation giving personnel at the sites “an expanded arsenal of weapons, including machine guns and semi-automatic, large capacity, assault weapons.”

Private security at the sites are currently armed, but to a lesser degree.

Together, the original proposal and supplement are designed to fend off any attempts at “radiological sabotage” at 65 operating power reactor sites, 53 of which have on-site spent fuel storage areas.








“The proposed action could reduce the risk that public health will be affected by radiological releases because of the increased likelihood of a successful repulsion of an attack,” the agency contends in the proposal.

If adopted, the new regulation would be voluntary, and the nation’s nuclear operators would have the option of applying for the added security.

Assuming all eligible sites took advantage, the total cost of the program would be between $32 million and $41.6 million, with the nuclear industry bearing most of the expense, according to the commission.

The supplemental proposal specifies that spent-fuel storage facilities located at power plants would be eligible to participate. However, the new supplement isn’t likely to add to the number of security personnel who could carry machine guns or the other high capacity guns, NRC spokesman David McIntyre said.

Members of the public and interested parties will have 45 days to comment on the proposal.

 

[Sensitive Blake Griffin]

Anyone seen Cloud Atlas? Part of the story is about big oil making a faulty nuclear plant explode just so the world will want to continue using fossil fuels, not that this is what is happening I just thought it was an interesting thought

 

[newworldafro]

Anyone seen Cloud Atlas? Part of the story is about big oil making a faulty nuclear plant explode just so the world will want to continue using fossil fuels, not that this is what is happening I just thought it was an interesting thought

really....haven't sen that movie yet.......

 

[Sensitive Blake Griffin]

really....haven't sen that movie yet.......

movie was status.

I need to see it again cuz I know I missed A LOT of shyt. Apparently even reading the book is a task in of itself.

 

[newworldafro]

Japan seeks to reverse commitment to phase out nuclear power | Environment | guardian.co.uk

Japan seeks to reverse commitment to phase out nuclear power

The Fukushima Daiich meltdown prompted the previous government to pledge a phaseout of all 50 reactors in Japan

Justin McCurry in Tokyo

guardian.co.uk, Friday 11 January 2013 07.20 EST


Almost two years after the triple meltdown at Fukushima Daiichi power plant sent shockwaves around the world, Japan's government is attempting to resell the nuclear dream to a traumatised public.

Japan appeared to have ended its addiction to nuclear power when the previous centre-left government pledged last year to phase out all of the country's 50 working reactors by 2040.

The announcement marked a dramatic shift from pre-Fukushima plans to increase Japan's dependence on nuclear from 30% to 50% by 2030. For the emboldened anti-nuclear lobby, it heralded the start of an unprecedented shift towards renewable energy.

But the return to office last month of the conservative Liberal Democratic party (LDP) under Shinzo Abe effectively killed off the idea of a non-nuclear Japan. It was no coincidence that within days of the LDP victory, Tepco, the firm that operates Fukushima Daiichi, saw a dramatic rise in its share price – but nowhere near the level it was before the accident.

The new government has announced a review of the nuclear phaseout, adding that reactors would be restarted if they passed safety tests, and it refused to rule out the construction of new ones.

Critics of the phaseout have pointed to the economic and environmental costs of Japan's dependence on expensive oil and gas imports since it took all but two of its nuclear reactors offline in the wake of the Fukushima accident.

Japan's trade minister, Toshimitsu Motegi, warned that the government would not allow its plans to revive the economy to be derailed by a commitment to going non-nuclear. "We need to reconsider the previous administration's policy that aimed to make zero nuclear power possible by the 2030s," he said.

It could take months – perhaps years – before a significant number of reactors are switched back on. And while anti-nuclear candidates performed abysmally in last month's general election, the public remains sceptical about industry promises to mend its ways after decades of collusion with regulators and pro-nuclear politicians.

But those concerns are unlikely to hold much sway with the LDP, which helped develop Japan's "nuclear village" – the web of power utilities, bureaucrats and MPs who peddled the nuclear dream and shunned rigorous regulation.

As Abe said soon after becoming prime minister: "A strong economy is the source of energy for Japan. Without regaining a strong economy, there is no future for Japan." If he gets his way, that future will include a role for nuclear.

Find it interesting that the Japanese have a "conservative Liberal Democratic Party (LDP)" .....anybody want to explain how those terms work in Japan??

Secondly, the jokers in this LDP are citing economic concerns.....as if Fookooshima hasn't already reduced the vitality of an entire region......and very likely more of the country.......

What I'm hearing is that the Japanese cultural tradition that gives precedence to authority is allowing this to happen, but there have been masssive protests the past few months against nooklear power, but somehow the overall population just was on some other shiit to vote these guys in ........... .................

 

[newworldafro]

http://enenews.com/insane-us-importing-food-from-japan-thats-considered-unfit-to-eat-there-video

US importing food from Japan that’s considered unfit to eat there? (VIDEO)

Published: November 16th, 2012 at 2:42 am ET
By ENENews

Kevin Kamps, Beyond Nuclear (former radioactive waste specialist at NIRS): The regulations in the US are worse than the regulations in Japan in terms of radioactive contamination [...]

The difference between Japan and the United States is kind of startling. In Japan, at this point the permissible level of radioactivity in food is 100 becquerels per kilogram [...] In the United States the permissible level is 1,200. So Japan’s limits are 12 times stronger than ours, which means that we could very certainly be importing food from Japan that’s considered unfit to eat there.


[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xkXt93-Qghw"]The Next Fukushima is Ready & Waiting... - YouTube[/ame]

 

[newworldafro]

Analyst: Florida nuclear plant will likely be closed — Gundersen: “The dominoes are starting to fall” (AUDIO)

Analyst: Florida nuclear plant will likely be closed — Gundersen: “The dominoes are starting to fall” (AUDIO)

Title: Repairs at Four Nuclear Reactors Are So Expensive That They Should Not Be Restarted
Source: Fairewinds Energy Education
Date: January 13, 2013

Nuclear Expert Arnie Gundersen, Fairewinds Energy Education: Duke is seriously considering pulling the plug on the [Crystal River nuclear] plant […]

Last week we had a financial analyst at UBS suggest that Vermont Yankee didn’t make economic sense.

This week, we’ve got a financial analyst at another firm called Fitch and he says that the Crystal River plant will likely be closed because Duke can’t make economic sense out of it.

So the dominoes are starting to fall.

We’ve have Kewaunee, which is shutting down in the Midwest because of financial reasons. And now we’ve got UBS analysts and Fitch analysts also claiming it makes no economic sense to keep other nuclear plants running.

 

[Yuzo Lightheart]

sub

 

[newworldafro]

U.S. Launches 35-Year Quest For A New Yucca Mountain - Forbes

1/17/2013 @ 1:00PM |1,404 views
U.S. Launches 35-Year Quest For A New Yucca Mountain


In what critics are calling a stall tactic, the U.S. Department of Energy announced late last week it will search for a new permanent depository for the country’s growing stockpile of spent nuclear fuel, with a target opening date of 2048.

In the meantime, most fuel will likely remain dispersed at reactor sites throughout the country. DOE plans to open “a pilot interim storage facility” by 2021 that can accept used nuclear fuel from shut-down reactor sites, and “a larger interim storage facility” by 2025 that “will reduce expected government liabilities” stemming from the government’s contractual obligations to begin accepting waste from reactor sites in the 1990s

But the government continues to bank on the expectation that the country’s reactor sites will continue to host growing amounts of waste until at least 2050.

A new permanent geologic despository, if all goes smoothly, would open just before that self-imposed deadline.

DOE announced the new strategy in a document it released late Friday, a response to the earlier report of the Blue Ribbon Commission on America’s Nuclear Future. The Administration response is topped with a letter from Energy Secretary Steven Chu reiterating the Obama Administration’s commitment to Nuclear Power:

An unfailing commitment to protect public health and safety, security, and the environment is essential to ensuring that nuclear power remains part of our diversified clean-energy portfolio. As part of that commitment, safe, long-term management and disposal of used nuclear fuel and high‐level radioactive waste must remain a national priority.”

But siting three nuclear waste depositories should prove no easier than siting the one that had been authorized at Yucca Mountain, Nevada in 2002 until the Obama Administration abandoned it in 2011, fulfilling an Obama campaign promise. The new policy calls for a “consent-based approach” to siting the new permanent facility, including legislative and local approval.

The strategy is essentially “a stalling tactic, following their contentious decision (both politically and legally) to cancel the Yucca Mountain project,” according to Steve Skutnik, an Assistant Professor of Nuclear Engineering at the University of Tennessee. “If one is to unilaterally dismantle nearly three decades of standing policy of nuclear waste disposal policy, a little more should be expected in terms of an alternative.”

The new policy also calls for established of a new “management and disposal organization.” An official from the French nuclear handling company AREVA expressed hope in a blog post last week that the new organization would consider recycling spent fuel:

“At AREVA, used nuclear fuel is viewed not as a ‘waste’ to be disposed of, but as a valuable energy resource to power our homes and businesses,” writes Alec Hoppes, AREVA’s Director of Congressional Affairs. ”Recovering this resource provides energy security, economic, and non-proliferation benefits.”

But Skutnik points to a line in the new document that says, “the MDO itself should not be authorized to perform research on, fund or conduct activities to reprocess or recycle used nuclear fuel.”

The U.S. has shunned recycling of nuclear fuel as a terrorism and proliferation risk, a view endorsed by the Union of Concerned Scientists. But the Obama Administration has kept the door open to recycling, suggesting that safer methods than those used in France may emerge from current research.

Recycling remains an option in the new policy, but for spent fuel produced in the future and not for nearly all of the nation’s existing stockpile:

A recently completed technical review by Oak Ridge National Laboratory found that approximately 98 percent of the total current inventory of commercial used nuclear fuel by mass can proceed to permanent disposal without the need to ensure post-closure recovery for reuse based on consideration of the viability of economic recovery of nuclear materials, research and development (R&D) needs, time frames in which recycling might be deployed, the wide diversity of types of used nuclear fuel from past operations, and possible uses to support national security interests. This assessment does not preclude any decision about future fuel cycle options, but does indicate that retrievability it is not necessary for purposes of future reuse.

So top level research and tens of billions of dollars was spent on picking Yucca Mountain in Nevada as most suitable for nook waste permanent disposal............but the officials and citizens in Nevada and Congresspersons weren't having it ....... so apparently they are on a new search to find a place more suitable than Yucca Mountain.........but instead of pausing on building new nook plants....the NRC decides to build two new ones last year for the first time since Three Mile Island incident in 1973, while waste continues to stockpile at the rest of the country's reactors ....... .................

 

[Mowgli]

aren't they just pouring ocean water over the nuclear material to keep it cool?
and the radioactive water is just flowing into the ocean...all day, every day for over a year.

shyt is terrible.

Science is great isnt it. Too bad they're thinkin about a buck before safety.

 

[Mowgli]

US importing food from Japan that’s considered unfit to eat there? (VIDEO)

US importing food from Japan that’s considered unfit to eat there? (VIDEO)

Published: November 16th, 2012 at 2:42 am ET
By ENENews

Kevin Kamps, Beyond Nuclear (former radioactive waste specialist at NIRS): The regulations in the US are worse than the regulations in Japan in terms of radioactive contamination [...]

The difference between Japan and the United States is kind of startling. In Japan, at this point the permissible level of radioactivity in food is 100 becquerels per kilogram [...] In the United States the permissible level is 1,200. So Japan’s limits are 12 times stronger than ours, which means that we could very certainly be importing food from Japan that’s considered unfit to eat there.


The Next Fukushima is Ready & Waiting... - YouTube

Probably feeding it to poor people. Sad. These cacs really dont give a fukk. Lets ban guns though.

 

[newworldafro]

Probably feeding it to poor people. Sad. These cacs really dont give a fukk. Lets ban guns though.

It's a farce of epic proportions...