Japan
Crucial efforts to tame Japan’s crippled nuclear plant were delayed by concerns over damaging valuable power assets and by initial passivity on the part of the government, people familiar with the situation said, offering new insight into the management of the crisis.
Wall Street Journal 19th March 2011 more >>
Radiation in milk and spinach has been found to exceed safe levels near the stricken Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant. Japan’s Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano said checks of milk in the Fukushima area, and of spinach grown in neighbouring Ibaraki, surpassed limits set by the government. It was the first official report of food being contaminated by radiation since the March 11 earthquake and tsunami triggered a nuclear crisis.
Telegraph 19th March 2011 more >>
Abnormal levels of radioactivity have been detected in milk and spinach taken from farms near the stricken Japanese nuclear plant in Fukushima, in the first report of food contamination from the accident. The tainted milk was found 20 miles (30 kilometers) from the plant while the spinach came from a neighbouring prefecture, government spokesman Yukio Edano said earlier today. While the radiation levels exceeded the limits allowed by the government, Mr Edano said that the products pose no immediate health risk and that further monitoring was being conducted on other foods. If tests show further contamination, Mr Edano said food shipments would be halted from the area. The spinach radiation level is about one-fifth of one CT scan, he said.
Times 19th March 2011 more >>
French nuclear agency warns of significant long term contamination, as workers race to cover overheating nuclear fuel with water before the wind shifts. Our fears of the radioactive releases being very significant have been supported by the French radiation safety agency’s (IRSN) recent statements. They estimate that the radioactive releases so far are around a tenth of what was released at Chernobyl. Per unit of radioactivity, the releases from Fukushima are capable of causing more contamination, due to their much large share of long lived radionuclides, such as Cesium-137, which has a half-life of about 30 years.
Greenpeace International 19th March 2011 more >>
Emergency workers racing to cool dangerously overheated nuclear fuel are scrambling to connect Japan’s crippled reactors to a new power line, as a safety official suggested faulty planning at the complex helped trigger the crisis. Back-up power systems at the Fukushima Dai-ichi plant had been improperly protected, said Hidehiko Nishiyama of Japan’s Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency, leaving them vulnerable to the tsunami that savaged the north-eastern coast on March 11 and sparked the nuclear emergency. The failure of Fukushima’s back-up power systems, which were supposed to keep cooling systems going in the aftermath of the massive 9.0-magnitude earthquake, let uranium fuel overheat and were a “main cause” of the crisis, Mr Nishiyama said.
Daily Post 19th March 2011 more >>
Emergency workers appear to have prevented the radiological crisis from spinning further out of control, even as the country’s nuclear watchdog on Friday said its impact on the surrounding area was looking more severe. At the most critically damaged reactor, No 3, military and civilian firefighters were taking turns spraying water into the reactor building in an effort to refill its overheated spent-fuel tank
FT 19th March 2011 more >>
Emergency workers racing to cool dangerously overheated nuclear fuel are scrambling to connect Japan’s crippled reactors to a new power line, as a safety official suggested faulty planning at the complex helped trigger the crisis. Back-up power systems at the Fukushima Dai-ichi plant had been improperly protected, said Hidehiko Nishiyama of Japan’s Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency, leaving them vulnerable to the tsunami that savaged the north-eastern coast on March 11 and sparked the nuclear emergency.
Express 19th March 2011 more >>
Summary of conditions at Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, as described by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). Coolant within Unit 3 is covering about half of the fuel rods in the reactor, leading to fuel damage. Japanese officials expressed concerns that the reactor’s containment may not be fully intact. Efforts to pump seawater into the reactor core are continuing. Of additional concern at Unit 3 is the condition of the spent fuel pool in the building. Unit 4: Authorities remain concerned about the condition of the spent fuel pool.
IB Times 19th March 2011 more >>
Exhausted engineers are attempting to restore power to Japan’s crippled nuclear plant as they continue efforts to prevent the spread of deadly radiation.
Sky News 19th March 2011 more >>
As authorities in Japan try to work out the best way to tackle the nuclear emergency, Sky News invited British nuclear experts to analyse the crisis. Nuclear engineer Tony Roulstone and industry expert Matt Tuck discussed how the problems at Fukushima 1 plant have been handled so far – and suggest how they would attempt to solve it.
Four of the facility’s six reactor units have had fires, explosions or partial meltdowns in the week since the country was hit by a massive earthquake and tsunami.
Bee 107FM 19th March 2011 more >>
Sky News 19th March 2011 more >>
Engineers rolling out an emergency power cable have reached Japan’s Fukushima nuclear plant and are preparing to try and restart water pumps to cool overheated fuel rods that are threatening to melt down. There are hopes the external power cable can be attached on Saturday or Sunday, the plant operator has said. Further cabling is being added inside the complex before an attempt to restart water pumps. Engineers had managed to restart a diesel pump that they were using to cool reactor 5, authorities said.
Guardian 19th March 2011 more >>
BBC 19th March 2011 more >>
The Japanese authorities have finally admitted that leaks at their wrecked nuclear reactors could cost lives. The country’s Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency yesterday said the disaster was a level five, which means an event causing “several radiation deaths” under the UN International Atomic Energy Agency classifications.The head of the IAEA warned yesterday that Japan’s battle to regain control of the failing Fukushima power plant was a race against time that required the world’s help.
Scotsman 19th March 2011 more >>
Express 19th March 2011 more >>
Engineers are now considering a “Chernobyl solution” involving encasing the damaged reactors at the plant in concrete, leaving the radioactive rods permanently entombed on the site.
Telegraph 19th March 2011 more >>
Japan last night appeared to be considering a Chernobyl solution to end its nuclear crisis as emergency crews, technicians and a growing army of international experts struggled to bring Fukushimas reactors and spent fuel rods under control. But while the Tokyo Electric Power Company said that the option was not an impossibility it also said the priority remained to cool the reactors. Even as seawater was hosed through blast holes in the reactor walls, engineers admitted that burying the Fukushima complex in concrete and sand remained an absolute last resort.
Times 19th March 2011 more >>
1006: Another earthquake has hit Japan, Reuters flashes – Tokyo buildings shook
0907: Despite encouraging reports about progressing reconnecting power to cooling systems at the Fukushima plant, the BBC’s Tim Willcox cautions that they are still nowhere near the process of restarting the pumps as it is unclear whether – given quake and tsunami damage – they even still work. Even if they do initially work, they could quickly short out.
BBC 19th March 2011 more >>
Implications
The head of the firm which runs Lancashire’s power station has warned against the nuclear crisis in Japan should not halt plans to build a new generation of reactors. Vincent de Rivaz, chief executive of EDF Energy which owns the site at Heysham, near Morecambe, said that the government had to “hold its nerve” and not stop progress on plans for a new reactor on the Lancashire coast, which would create 3,000 new jobs.
Lancashire Evening Post 19th March 2011 more >>
Hawaii insists it is open for business, rejecting worries about harmful nuclear radiation reaching the tourist-friendly US island state from earthquake-hit Japan. The popular getaway has seen some Japanese tourists cancel trips in the wake of last week’s massive earthquake and tsunami 4,000 miles (6,400 km) across the Pacific, which damaged a nuclear power plant, releasing harmful radiation. But officials voice confidence that there will not be mass cancellations, especially from the US mainland, which provides 73 percent of visitors.
Independent 19th March 2011 more >>
Nuclear power is also, if you’re lucky enough to see it close up (as I have been) extraordinarily beautiful. The engineering and the science are as lovely and elegant as a Mozart symphony. More than that, mixed-oxide (MOX) reactors, for example — like Fukushima Daiichi 3 — burn weapons-grade plutonium. And so they do something of spine-tingling moral elegance: they beat swords into ploughshares. But the nuclear industry never says that. The nuclear industry never says anything. That’s partly because of political sensitivity, partly because of public ignorance and suspicion (and how could the public be otherwise, in the face of such obfuscation?), and partly because when they do make mistakes, the cost, even in money, is astronomical.
Independent 19th March 2011 more >>
Letter: The last Labour administration had been looking at further nuclear power sites in Britain; perhaps their leader in Scotland, Iain Gray, who is the MSP for the Torness area, might like to update Labour’s position on nuclear power in Scotland in light of the systems failures in Japan.
Scotsman 19th March 2011 more >>
Where are the world’s reactors? Interactive Map.
New Scientist 18th March 2011 more >>
The truth is that nuclear generation is one of the safest and most tightly regulated forms of power generation. Aside from the Chernobyl explosion, there have been no proven deaths from radiation at a commercial nuclear power station. Other forms of energy generation have exacted a much higher human toll. For instance, the failure of the Banqiao dam in China in 1975 killed about 26,000 in the immediate inundation. Yet no one would use that as an argument against hydro-electric power. Next generation nuclear reactors will reduce risks further, not least by making more remote the possibility of the sort of reactor cooling crisis that has struck Fukushima. However, nuclear power regulation must be reviewed in the wake of Fukushima. The International Atomic Energy Agencys safety guidelines should be made compulsory. Issues to be covered include earthquake and tsunami risks; whether it is wise to have so many reactors on the same site; and whether spent fuel rods should be stored at remote locations. But the idea that nuclear power can be abandoned is fanciful. It accounts for roughly 13 per cent of global electricity generation. This slice of capacity cannot easily be replaced. Its cessation would require us to tear up our decarbonisation goals. Whether we like it or not, nuclear will be with us for many years to come.
FT 19th March 2011 more >>
Geoffrey Lean: It is too early to work out what precisely has caused the apparent partial meltdowns in Japan, writes Geoffrey Lean. Thirty-nine years ago, one of the most senior nuclear safety officials in the United States penned a stark memorandum to colleagues. It warned that a key bulwark against a catastrophic accident in the kind of reactors now in meltdown at Fukushima was so flawed it should be banned.
This extraordinary exchange is only one of a series of warnings over recent decades about the safety of the General Electric “Mark I” Boiling Water Reactors, which comprise five of the six installed at the stricken complex in Japan and all those so far hit by the world’s first multi-reactor nuclear disaster. New reactors have been designed to be much safer, with the European Pressurised Reactor (EPR) planned to be built here over the next few years especially so. But official documents show that the EPR will produce several times more of the radioactive iodine and caes ium that would be rapidly released in an accident than do present-day reactors. The trouble is that human beings have a way of overriding safety systems.
Telegraph 19th March 2011 more >>
Oldbury
Oldbury power plant say Thursday’s steam release caused by electrical fault in non-nuclear area. Nuclear Plant generators at Oldbury deny there have been problems at one of the site’s nuclear reactors. Residents reported a loud noise and a huge plume of steam coming above the site Thursday. But operators Magnox say an electrical problem meant they had to release steam from one of their NON-nuclear reactors – and the plant is running as normal today.
Jack FM 18th March 2011 more >>
Mini debate Reg Illingworth with Dr Phil Spray who runs the existing site for Magnox about the incident yesterday when a reactor closed down due to an error. Starts 1.38.04
BBC Radio Bristol 18th March 2011 more >>
Concerns about new nuclear at Hinkley & Oldbury, and Fukushima. What happens if there is a terrorist attack.
BCFM 18th March 2011 more >>
Sizewell
The policy of storing spent fuel in ponds at the Sizewell nuclear power station in Suffolk, as at the damaged plant in Japan, has been criticised by Liberal Democrat councillors.
Haverhill UK 18th March 2011 more >>
Bradwell
A GREEN campaigner is calling for residents in Tendring to oppose moves to build a new nuclear power station at Bradwell following the Japanese tsunami disaster. Chris Southall, from Clacton, claims storm surges and rising sea levels could lead to floods on the Essex coast similar to those which have led to Japan’s current N-plant nightmare. He says Clacton residents would be in the danger zone if there was an accident at a new power station at Bradwell.
Clacton Gazette 18th March 2011 more >>
Europe
Stress tests on nuclear reactors, Europe ‘s future energy mix and the lessons to be learnt from the ongoing nuclear accidents in were the hot issues at Tuesday’s and Wednesday’s special appearances by EU Commissioner G nther Oettinger before Parliament’s Energy and Environment Committees.
Wired Gov 18th March 2011 more >>
Three Mile Island
Three decades after an accident led to the release of small amounts of radiation, many residents living near the Three Mile Island nuclear facility in Pennsylvania barely give it a moment’s thought.
Reuters 18th March 2011 more >>
US
The earthquake, tsunami and resultant nuclear crisis in Japan have sparked debate around the seismic safety and proposed relicensing of two nuclear power plants in California: the Diablo Canyon plant on the central coast and the San Onofre plant in between Los Angeles and San Diego. Both generate about 14 per cent of the states electricity. In the decades since the plants were built, seismologists have identified new faultlines near or underneath the plants. And that has prompted questions about how secure the facilities and storage tanks would be in the event of an earthquake.
FT 19th March 2011 more >>
India
Indias plans for a huge expansion of its nuclear power industry have been strongly criticised by the industrys former regulator, as public anxiety over the programme rises in the wake of the nuclear crisis in Japan. A. Gopalakrishnan, a former chairman of Indias Atomic Energy Regulatory Board, accused the administration of Manmohan Singh, the prime minister, of recklessly rushing to embrace untried foreign nuclear technology, even as it faced deficiencies in its own supervisory capacity and skills base.
FT 19th March 2011 more >>
