New Nukes
The coalition government is opening a legal loophole that could allow taxpayer-funded guarantees to nuclear power stations, while publicly insisting that the industry will stand on its own. An obscure clause in the forthcoming energy bill, seen by the Guardian, means that nuclear power companies could in future be eligible for bailouts, despite ministers’ repeated denials that no public subsidies would be made available. The move also threatens to open cracks in the coalition over nuclear energy, with Liberal Democrat members and grassroots opposed to the technology.
Guardian 4th April 2011 more >>
Support for nuclear power in Britain fell by 12 per cent in the wake of the problems at the Fukushima plant in Japan where the crisis is ongoing and will be for years to come. Only around a third of Britons now support the building of new nuclear stations, a figure which might have dropped even further following the news that traces (however minute) of radioactive iodine borne by the wind from Japan have turned up in this country.
Express & Star 4th April 2011 more >>
Radhealth
George Monbiot: Over the last fortnight I’ve made a deeply troubling discovery. The anti-nuclear movement to which I once belonged has misled the world about the impacts of radiation on human health. The claims we have made are ungrounded in science, unsupportable when challenged, and wildly wrong. We have done other people, and ourselves, a terrible disservice.
Guardian 5th April 2011 more >>
Letter: Elizabeth Marshall (Letters, 4 April) assures us that “nuclear health specialists anticipate many thousands of deaths” from the Japanese reactors. This would be in line with the million cancers anticipated by similar self-styled “experts” from Chernobyl, none of which has in fact happened. The fact is that the scare stories about miniscule levels of radiation are simply that – scare stories with no scientific foundation whatsoever.
Scotsman 5th April 2011 more >>
Dr Richard Wakeford: John Vidal questions whether official estimates of the risk of radiation exposure are accurate, and points to health effects around Chernobyl as a clear indication that they are not. There is no doubt that the high level of exposure of infants to radioactive iodine in heavily contaminated areas of the former USSR has led to more than 6,000 cases of thyroid cancer; but the evidence for health effects attributable to Chernobyl exposure beyond these thyroid cancers is much less clear. This is largely because the radiation doses received by other tissues (and by thyroid glands outside these areas) were so much lower. The United Nations Scientific Committee on the Effects of Atomic Radiation has recently reviewed the available data and reiterated this conclusion. It needs to be recognised that socioeconomic conditions in the countries of the former USSR during the 90s led to widespread health effects, which can be seen in, for example, the far east of Russia that was hardly affected by Chernobyl contamination. Radiological protection professionals come under pressure not only from that wing of opinion suggesting that radiation risks have been greatly underestimated, but also from those on the opposite wing who suggest that there is no risk from low doses of radiation, or even that such doses are beneficial – an example of these views can be found in an article by Wade Allison on the BBC News website. Those responsible for radiological protection have to walk a difficult fine line between these frequently vociferous camps.
Guardian 5th April 2011 more >>
Dr Melanie Windridge: Pollution from coal-fired power plants is responsible for more than 100,000 deaths per year, whereas the crisis at the Fukushima nuclear plant is unlikely to kill a single person.
Guardian 4th April 2011 more >>
AIR monitoring systems at the Atomic Weapons Establishment in Aldermaston have detected radioactive fall-out from the Japanese Fukushima nuclear power plant.
This is Hampshire 4th April 2011 more >>
Japan
Japan’s nuclear crisis is likely to lead to one of the country’s largest and most complex ever set of claims for civil damages, handing a huge bill to the fiscally strained government and debt-laden plant operator, Tokyo Electric Power Co .
Reuters 4th April 2011 more >>
The operator of Japan’s Fukushima nuclear plant has started breaking its own regulations by discharging 11,500 tonnes of contaminated water into the Pacific to make space for more highly radioactive liquid. The release of water that is 100 times the legal limit is an unprecedented breach of operating standards, but it is considered necessary so workers can concentrate on containing more severe leaks. The government justified the action as the lesser of two evils. Recent samples of contaminated seawater from the leak show radiation levels at 4,000 times the legal standard. “We didn’t have any other alternatives,” the chief cabinet secretary, Yukio Edano, told reporters. “This is a measure we had to take to secure safety.”
Guardian 5th April 2011 more >>
Times 5th April 2011 more >>
Japanese engineers were forced to release radioactive water into the sea yesterday while resorting to desperate measures such as using coloured bath salts to try to find the source of leaks at a crippled nuclear power complex hit by a tsunami on 11 March.
Scotsman 5th April 2011 more >>
There is currently great amount of radioactive waste water in the turbine buildings of the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station and especially the turbine building of Unit 2 has extremely high level radioactive waste water. We think it is necessary to transfer the radioactive waste water to the Central Radioactive Waste Disposal Facility in order to store it in a stable condition. However, ten thousand of low level radioactive waste water has been already stored and we have to discharge the existing low level radioactive waste water to receive new liquids.
Tepco Press Release 4th April 2011 more >>
The total amount of water to be released will be 11,500 tons and the concentration of contaminants in the waste water is estimated at about 100 times the legal limit, which is deemed as a relatively low level, it said.
Kyodo News 4th April 2011 more >>
A second attempt to stop radioactive water leaking into the Pacific ocean at the Fukushima nuclear plant by using paper and sawdust plant failed today. Workers had tried to use a chemical compound mixed with newspaper and sawdust to fill a 20-centimetre crack in a concrete shaft in reactor building number two. But they were today resorting to a third plan, building mounds of silt around the reactor to stop radioactive particles in the leaking water reaching the sea.
Daily Mail 4th April 2011 more >>
Japan has asked nuclear superpower Russia to send a special radiation treatment ship used to decommission nuclear submarines as it fights to contain the world’s worst atomic crisis since Chernobyl, Japanese media said late on Monday. Japanese engineers at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant have been forced to release radioactive waste water into the sea. At the same time they are resorting to desperate measures to contain the damage, such as using bath salts to try to locate the source of leaks at the crippled complex 240 km (150 miles) north of Tokyo.
Reuters 5th April 2011 more >>
The government has ordered the Japan Meteorological Agency to promptly disclose its data on the projected spread of radioactive materials from the troubled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power station, the government’s top spokesman said Monday. Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano said in a news conference that he had told the agency that it ‘‘should have made the data public’’ along with an adequate explanation. According to Edano, the agency did not disclose the information because it was part of reference materials compiled in response to a request from the International Atomic Energy Agency, and it feared that releasing the data could cause misunderstanding about the spread of radiation.
Kyodo News 4th April 2011 more >>
Japan is not planning to expand an evacuation zone around a stricken nuclear reactor right now but this decision is not set in stone, a senior Japanese nuclear official said in Vienna on Monday.
Reuters 4th April 2011 more >>
Implications
The crisis unfolding at the stricken Fukushima Dai-Ichi plant north of Tokyo is likely to hurt the nuclear power industry’s credibility more than the Chernobyl disaster in 1986, UBS AG said. The accident in the former Soviet Union 25 years ago “affected one reactor in a totalitarian state with no safety culture,” UBS analysts including Per Lekander and Stephen Oldfield wrote in a report today. “At Fukushima, four reactors have been out of control for weeks — casting doubt on whether even an advanced economy can master nuclear safety.”
Bloomberg 4th April 2011 more >>
FT 4th April 2011 more >>
Letter from John Urquhart to Radio 4 Today Programme: For the past seventeen days, we have had to put up with a series of pro-nuclear apologists trotted out by the BBC to play down the effects of the Fukushima nuclear disaster. The interview with Professor David King on the Today programme Radio 4 on March 29th takes the biscuit. He stated, and I quote: “The potential for exposing yourself to radiation if you take an air-flight between London and New York is many many times greater [sic] than the potential to suffer from radiation – drinking tap water in Tokyo, or in fact walking around Fukushima.”
Radiation Free Lakeland 30th March 2011 more >>
Anthony Froggatt: The Fukushima accident has highlighted one of the most important issues concerning nuclear power – that of safety and risk.
BBC 4th April 2011 more >>
On 12 March 2011, the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, Chris Huhne, requested me to produce a report on the implications for the UK nuclear industry of the events at the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power station in Japan and to identify lessons. As requested by the SoS, I will provide an interim report by mid-May 2011 and a final report in September. The Secretary of State made clear that I have full independence to determine the scope of my report. On 29 March I issued a statement on the broad scope of the report. However I recognise that the intended scope may need to be refined as further information becomes available. I am therefore inviting a broad range of stakeholders to submit any evidence which they consider may help inform and support the development of my report.
Office for Nuclear Regulation 4th April 2011 more >>
From a global perspective it seems most probable that the impact of Fukushima will be similar to that of Chernobyl: hardly any new nuclear power stations being approved for the next 20 years. About 6% of the world’s primary energy comes from nuclear. That was never going to increase by more than a few percentage points; now it will most probably fall.
Belfast Telegraph 5th April 2011 more >>
Kelly Rigg: The biggest risk right now is that governments will look to high carbon energy sources such as coal, shale, or tar sands to warm their cold nuclear feet. But the urgency of climate change suggests this is no time to jump out of the frying pan and into the fire. As governments grapple with the implications of Fukushima, we have a window of opportunity to fill the nuclear vacuum with safe, reliable renewable sources of energy. Japan is already thinking along these lines.
Huffington Post 4th April 2011 more >>
The head of the U.N. nuclear agency called on Monday for international action to prevent a repetition of Japan’s nuclear disaster, saying the operator of the crippled plant failed to take sufficient safety measures.
Reuters 4th April 2011 more >>
Germany
Germany’s nuclear policy U-turn leaves it little choice other than to rely more heavily on coal power, and that could boost its annual carbon emissions by as much as 10 percent.
Reuters 4th April 2011 more >>
A German deputy environment minister said the government would phase out all nuclear power in the country before 2020, taking a hard line stance that may not be reflective of the center-right coalition.
Yahoo 4th April 2011 more >>
France
The question of spent fuel pools in French reactors has not been studied enough, including in Areva’s next-generation EPR reactor, France’s Ecology Minister said on public radio on Monday.
Yahoo 4th April 2011 more >>
Europe
Energy Commissioner G nther Oettinger used to be a firm supporter of nuclear energy. But now he’s not so sure. SPIEGEL spoke with Oettinger about Chancellor Angela Merkel’s about-face on nuclear energy, what it means for the European energy supply and whether other EU countries will follow suit.
Der Spiegel 4th April 2011 more >>
US
US anti-nuclear groups Monday condemned a project to build a plant where plutonium from weapons would be reprocessed into fuel for nuclear power plants, saying the plan was costly, dangerous and would benefit mainly the French group, Areva. A mixed-oxide, or MOX, plutonium reprocessing plant that is being built in South Carolina has become “an expensive effort that enriches contractors, led by the French government-owned company Areva,” Tom Clements of Friends of the Earth said at the launch of a report by an anti-nuclear alliance.
AFP 5th April 2011 more >>
Sweden
Sweden took a step to tackle an issue that has long troubled the worlds atomic power industry. After three decades of planning, a formal application was submitted to build a permanent repository for high-level nuclear waste. If approved, the plan would make Sweden the first country to start burying highly toxic, spent nuclear fuel until it no longer poses a threat to life a process that can take at least 100,000 years. Yet, while Sweden forges ahead, the Japanese disaster has exposed just how far most of the world is from finding a permanent solution for the tens of thousands of tonnes of high-level radioactive waste being stored in temporary facilities. Some of the gravest dangers at Fukushima involve decades-worth of spent fuel rods crammed into cooling tanks at the tsunami-stricken site, each packed with lethal levels of radioactive isotopes, including several types of plutonium. Anti-nuclear activists accuse governments of turning a blind eye to the waste build-up while going ahead with plans to expand atomic power.
FT 5th April 2011 more >>
