On the night of 05 July 2011, the Japanese Prime Minister issued an order to conduct stress tests on all nuclear reactors in Japan.
The tests are based on European Union standards. The Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency says Japan’s reactors are safe, but many Japanese citizens think otherwise. Several prefectural governments are refusing to allow reactors to re-start. The new EU based tests are meant to ease any remaining fears among the people.
For at least the third time Tokyo Electric Power Company had to stop water decontamination at Fukushima Daiichi, this time because pipes were leaking.
You might not think that’s such a big deal, but how does one ton of radioactive water leaking out within two minutes sound? That’s what happened. But to make that worse it didn’t have to happen. Turns out that TEPCo decided to skip what should have been a routine check of pipe fittings before starting the decontamination. According to an NHK report, four kilometers (8 miles) of pipe were loose (that’s how you dump one ton of water in two minutes).
26 June 2011, an accident at the Fort Calhoun nuclear power plant resulting in the expanding Missouri River flooding into the compound. The water hit the nuke plant’s electrical transformers, cutting off power.
Electricity is still needed to keep the spent fuel pools cool. Plant officials say they are now running on back up generators.
Forth Calhoun officials ordered the installation of a water filled artificial levee (berm). The Nuclear Regulatory Commission did not approve the artificial levee. At about 1:25 am, 26 June, workers broke the water filled berm, allowing the Missouri River to flood in.
This natural disaster is the latest bad news for the Fort Calhoun nuke plant. In April plans to refuel its reactors were halted, over concerns of flooding by the Missouri River. Then, on 07 June, a fire broke out in one of the reactor control rooms. An inspection two years ago revealed that plant operators were not properly prepared for a flood.
A year long study of U.S. government documents, by the Associated Press, has revealed that radioactive tritium is leaking into groundwater.
Documents show that at least 48 nuclear plants in the U.S. have, or are, leaking tritium. Tritium is a radioactive form of hydrogen. The report comes from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
At least 37 of those leaks exceeded government safe levels for drinking water.
It’s not just tritium that’s leaking from U.S. nuclear reactors; cesium and strontium are also leaking.
Strontium 90 was found leaking at Indian Point nuke plant north of New york City.
Cesium 137 leaked from Fort Calhoun nuke plant in Nebraska. By the way, that reactor was just shut down because the Missouri River is flooding it.
There’s much more about the leaks from U.S. nuke plants in the AP report. Maybe this explains the increase in cancer rates over the past decades?
Like I said before: Everyone living near nuclear reactors in the United States should make plans to get away.
The Associated Press spent a year going over government documents concerning the safety of U.S. nuke plants; the conclusion is that a disaster of epic proportions is very likely.
The reason is that U.S. officials, like the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, have been relaxing safety standards just so the aging nuclear reactors could be re-licensed. In other words, what the AP found was that if today’s U.S. nuclear reactors were required to meet 1970s safety standards, most would fail. The most common problem at the nuclear plants are leaking valves.
Recently, one Senator from Tennessee, Lamar Alexander, tried to say the U.S. nuclear industry had a record of safe operations. However, the NRC, even with it’s relaxed safety standards, has filed more than 200 safety alerts since 2005. In 2008 the NRC admitted that 70% of potentially dangerous situations resulted from relaxing of standards in order to get the plants re-licensed.
Another surprising find, the Associated Press noted that not a single serious investigation into the safety of nuclear plants has been officially undertaken, not even by the NRC. It appears what government, and the nuke industry corporations have been doing, is trying to find ways to re-license reactors without meeting safety standards!
Here’s the modus operandi of U.S. government, and the corporations running the nuke plants: Old parts fail causing accidents, or jeopardizing re-licensing. Instead of ‘coming up to compliance’, corporations work with government agencies to ‘dumb down’ existing safety regulations.
Another revelation: Most U.S. nuclear plants were supposed to be replaced with brand new plants, once their original 40 year licenses expired. That never happened.
What’s the motivation behind the scandal? Billions and billions of dollars being made by providing almost 20% of the United State’s electricity, using outdated and cheaply maintained nuke plants.
There is so much more in the AP report. Everyone living near nuclear reactors in the United States should make plans to get away.
The Cooper Nuclear Station, in Nebraska, is flooded. The Fort Calhoun nuclear plant, also in Nebraska, has been shut down.
By Sunday, 19 June 2011, several levees failed along the Missouri River, causing nuke plant operators to issue a “Notification of unusual event.” A ‘notification’ is the lowest of four emergency classifications developed by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
Reuters reported that officials will shut down the Cooper nuclear plant if flood levels hit 13.9 meters (45.5 feet). Other reports say the Fort Calhoun plant was shut down. Heavy rain in the Rocky Mountains could keep the Missouri River high until August.
In an obvious sign of government incompetence, parents and teachers decontaminated a local elementary school, on their own.
In Date City, about 80 people worked together to wash down a school contaminated with radiation. The national government said the radiation levels at the school were below the official safe limits, so they felt no reason to do anything.
Parents are concerned because the radiation levels remained constant, and were found in the soil as well as on the buildings. Tired of a government that didn’t want to respond they took matters into their own hands. I wonder how they feel about continuing to pay their taxes?
After many citizens complained of faulty radiation readings by local governments, Japan is now testing for airborne radiation at one meter (3.2 feet) high, and at more than one location per city/town.
What happened was that citizens groups were conducting radiation readings on their own (you see; never trust the government). Their readings were much worse than many official readings by local governments. The citizens were taking readings closer to the ground. In Tokyo, air borne radiation readings were being taken at only one location, on top of a 19 meter (62 feet) tall building. Many cities across Japan varied their testing height from 1.5 meters to as high as 80 meters off the ground.
Today, 15 June 2011, Japan’s science ministry started taking readings at one meter high, in 100 locations across Japan. The results are important: Already they’ve found, in several prefectures, that radiation levels, taken at one meter in height, are twice the levels taken at higher sampling sites.
Citizen groups pointed out that air borne radiation testing should be done at a height where humans activity takes place. Looks like the People are correct.
For the first time, Tokyo Electric Power Company says strontium 90 is contaminating ground water, and the Pacific Ocean.
Water samples that were taken on 16 and 18 May, 2011, are positive for strontium. Sample testing takes three weeks for results.
Three ocean inlets were tested on 16 May. The lowest reading was 53 times safe limits. The highest, 240 times, was taken at reactor 3 inlet.
Ground water samples were taken on 18 May. The highest reading was 6,300 becquerels per liter near reactor 2.
Strontium 90 is created during nuclear fission. It has a half life of 29 years and causes bone cancer.
Two Japanese cities outside the current evacuation zone, now have radiation levels above safe limits.
Date and Minamisoma cities show increasing radiation levels, prompting calls for evacuation by the residents. Government officials say they are working quickly on the possible expansion of the evacuation zone.