Fourteen safety-related events at nuclear power plants required "follow-up inspections" from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, the NRC reported in 2010. These "near-miss" events "raised the risk of damage to the reactor core – and thus to the safety of workers and the public," concluded a new report, "The NRC and Nuclear Power Plant Safety in 2010,"
THE REPORT WAS A BIT LATE COMING OUT, BUT WHO'S COUNTING?
BELOW YOU WILL FIND SOME OF THE SAD FACTS THAT CAME OUT OF THAT "REPORT", BUT YOU'LL HAVE TO DEPEND ON THE MEDIA TO TELL THE REST OF THE STORY, AND, YES, THE ARTICLES ARE, FOR THE MOST PART, FROM MAINSTREAM MEDIA AND THE FEDS THEMSELVES...
SHEEPLE, REJOICE!
FIRST, A LITTLE BACKGROUND INFORMATION:
Of the 100 reactors now operating in the U.S., ground was broken on all of them in 1977 or earlier.
There has been no ground-breaking on new nuclear plants in the United
States since 1974. Up until 2013, there had also been no ground-breaking
on new nuclear reactors at existing power plants since 1977. Then in
2012, the NRC approved construction of four new reactors at existing
nuclear plants. Construction of the Virgil C. Summer Nuclear Generating Station Units 2 and 3 began on March 9, 2013. A few days later, on March 12, construction began on the Vogtle Electric Generating Plant Units 3 and 4. In addition, TVA's new reactor at the Watts Bar Nuclear Generating Station is at an advanced stage, after construction was resumed after being halted in 1988
In 2013, four aging reactors were permanently closed before their licenses expired.
PLEASE BE AWARE THAT SEVERAL TERMS ARE USED TO REFER TO RADIATION LEVELS AND DOSES, BOTH HERE AND ABROAD, BUT ONE THING IS CERTAIN...
CALL IT A RAD OR A SIEVERT, JUST ONE SIEVERT WILL CAUSE ILLNESS, AND 8 SIEVERTS WILL CAUSE DEATH, NO "CURE", NO MATTER WHAT...
REPORTED IN DECEMBER, 2013, BY TEPCO ITSELF AND OTHERS:
"The reading of 25 sieverts per hour was taken on steel piping near an exhaust...
Tokyo Electric Power Co. said Dec. 6 it detected the highest
estimated radiation level for an outdoor location at the crippled
Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant.
The reading of 25 sieverts per hour was taken on steel piping
near an exhaust stack for the No. 1 and No. 2 reactors, TEPCO said.
The utility earlier said high radiation levels of at least 10 sieverts per hour were found on the piping.
TEPCO measured airborne radiation at eight locations around
the piping to calculate surface radiation on two spots with particularly
high readings, and found about 25 sieverts per hour and about 15
sieverts per hour, the company said.
25 SIEVERTS...NOT 8, 25.
IN A TEPCO HANDOUT FROM JUNE, 2012, TEPCO ADMITTED THAT OVER A MILLION SIEVERTS PER HOUR HAD BEEN DETECTED IN WATER IN WHAT THEY CALL THE "TORUS ROOM", OVER A MILLION SIEVERTS PER HOUR, A YEAR AFTER THE ACCIDENT.
THEY ALSO CLAIMED THE METER FAILED...UNTIL IT WAS BROUGHT BACK UP...THEN IT APPEARED TO BE WORKING...
IN ACTUALITY, THE METER JUST TOPPED-OUT, COULDN'T RECORD ANY HIGHER, WASN'T DESIGNED TO, AND NOTHING WE HAVE TO DATE IS DESIGNED TO DEAL WITH THE INCREDIBLE RADIATION DOSES PUMPING OUT OF FUKUSHIMA.
THOSE LEVELS DEFY MEASUREMENT.
[UPDATE:TODAY, February 25, 2014
WHILE TEPCO MADE THE CALL ON THE TOXICITY OF THEIR RADIATION LEVELS, TODAY, THE WALL STREET JOURNAL SEEMED INTENT ON QUELLING ANY "NASTY RUMORS" AND PAVED THE WAY FOR AN "OUT" ON JUST HOW DEADLY THIS IS..AS USUAL, THE FEW "FACTS" WERE REITERATED, BUT THEN WSJ BEGAN THE DAMAGE CONTROL...WHICH I CALL LIES, BUT THAT'S JUST MY OPINION...AND OTHERS HOLD THE SAME OPINION.
{...} Japan’s nuclear regulator flagged in
an email alert at the alarming time of 2:10 Wednesday morning,
announced a level of 2,200 millisieverts per hour of radiation had been measured near a tank on the compound that stores contaminated water.
If 1,800 mSv/h — logged a few days earlier at a different spot near
the same tank — was high enough to kill a person in four hours,
as operator Tokyo Electric Power Co.
confirmed at the time – then we’re looking at a truly deadly situation
at the site of the world’s worst nuclear accident since Chernobyl, as
many in the blogosphere have said.
BTW, THAT LINK TO THE "BLOGOSPHERE, THE AUTHOR OF THAT INFO IS A RESPECTED EXPERT ON THE HEALTH EFFECTS OF RADIATION, BUT WSJ MUST NOT HAVE AS MUCH RESPECT FOR HIM AS OTHERS DO.]
NOW FOR AMERICA'S NUCLEAR MESS
ACCIDENTS IN JUST THE PAST WEEK
Feb 21, 2014.
JUST A FLEETING "NUCLEAR EVENT" IN NEW MEXICO
NO NEED TO PANIC
FROM REUTERS:
Trace amounts of
man-made radioactive elements such as plutonium were found at an air-monitoring site half a mile from the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant
The plant, located in southeastern New Mexico near Carlsbad, is a repository for so-called transuranic waste shipped from other federal nuclear laboratories and weapons sites. The waste includes discarded machinery, clothing and other materials contaminated with plutonium or other radioisotopes heavier than uranium.
Airborne radioisotopes can be harmful if inhaled or swallowed.
[NO, NOT "CAN BE"...THEY ARE HARMFUL, PERIOD, DEFINITELY HARMFUL]
Franco said indications suggest a drum
or drums containing radioactive waste may have breached for
reasons that are not yet known.
The facility in the Chihuahuan Desert normally receives up to 6,000 cubic meters of radioactive waste a year and employs more than 800 government workers and contractors.
It was unclear on Thursday whether waste intended for the repository would be shipped elsewhere and when the plant would resume operations.
[WHEN WILL THEY GET DOWN THERE AND WHERE WILL THE WASTE GO IF NOT TO CARLSBAD?]
02/20/2014
CARLSBAD >> The radiation detected this week near the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant likely originated from a container that stored transuranic waste underground.
WIPP is the nation's only disposal facility for transuranic waste, often referred to as "TRU" waste, which is radioactive material generated from the nation's nuclear weapons program. The site, located 26 miles southeast of Carlsbad, started accepting shipments from nuclear facilities around the nation in 1999. The waste is buried 2,150 feet below ground, beneath the salt beds of the Permian Basin.
Joe Franco, manager of the DOE Carlsbad Field Office, said an underground air monitor detected high levels of alpha and beta radiation activity consistent the waste buried at WIPP.
"There's plutonium and americium in our environment
from prior detonations of nuclear weapons and from some satellites that have fallen out of orbit and lost their payload, so there's naturally occurring americium and plutonium in the environment
that falls out and lands in the soil," Hardy said.
[NO, IT IS NOT "NATURALLY OCCURRING"...IT IS MAN MADE BECAUSE WE DECIDED TO SCREW AROUND WITH NUKES. THE GUY HIMSELF STATED THIS IS FROM MAN-MADE SOURCES]
"Anybody who has lived in Carlsbad knows that 20 mph wind is a breeze," he said. "Over the 15 years of monitoring the data that CMERC has accumulated prior to this event, we have found plutonium in our air samples on four separate occasions. We went back and studied the meteorological data from those weeks and years and there were very high winds (ranging) from 50 to 70 mph."
[SO, WHEN THE WIND BLOWS EVERY DAY, THEN WHAT? ALL IS WELL?
DOES ANYONE IN THE NRC HAVE A HOME NEAR THAT, OR NEAR ANY BIG REACTOR?]
Jim Winchester, communications director for the New Mexico Environment Department, said the DOE notified the state of New Mexico about radiation outside the facility on Wednesday afternoon via a teleconference,
only slightly before the Current-Argus broke the news to the public.
"I have questions as to why it took a couple of days to verify a radiological event had occurred outside of the underground," Flynn said. "I expect that information will be shared with the state in real time, and I will demand that the federal officials share information with the public in real time."
[DAMAGE CONTROL, PREPARING THE EXCUSES?]
AND ANOTHER NUCLEAR UH-OH IN SOUTH FLORIDA, ALSO FROM THIS MONTH...
AGAIN, NO NEED TO WORRY ABOUT IT, GO BACK TO THE SUNDAY GAME.
February 22, 2014
FROM TAMPA BAY TIMES
Yet another Florida nuclear plant may be in trouble.
"Magnitude of what’s going on at St. Lucie is off the charts”; 100 times worse than average.
More than 3,700 tubes (
OF ABOUT 9000 TOTAL) that help cool a nuclear reactor at Florida Power & Light's St. Lucie facility exhibit wear. Most other similar plants have between zero and a few hundred.
Worst case: A tube bursts and spews radioactive fluid. That's what happened at the San Onofre plant in California two years ago. The plant shut down forever because it would have cost too much to fix.
WEAR IN 3,700 TUBES?
Critics say that's like pressing hard on the accelerator, even when you know the car has worn brakes.
"The damn thing is grinding down," said Daniel Hirsch, a University of California at Santa Cruz nuclear policy lecturer. "They must be terrified internally. They've got steam generators that are now just falling apart."
FPL, the state's largest electric utility, brought the St. Lucie 2 plant online in 1983, about 50 miles north of West Palm Beach.
[THAT WAS 31 YEARS AGO.]
San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station (SONGS) IN CALIFORNIA WAS THE SAME AGE WITH THE SAME AMOUNT OF FAULTY TUBES...IT SHUT DOWN IN 2012, BUT EXPERTS AGREE IT SHOULD HAVE BEEN SHUT DOWN SOONER AND AN INVESTIGATION IS STILL ONGOING.
On Jan. 31, 2012, a "high radiation alarm'' went off at the San Onofre 3 plant south of Los Angeles.
San Onofre 3 had received two
BRAND NEW steam generators
less than a year earlier. After the leak, inspectors found 1,806 tubes worn in 10,284 places. They also found an unusually high number of worn tubes at the nearby San Onofre 2 plant.
The burst tube had rubbed against another tube, which may explain why it wore out so fast. But, as at St. Lucie, much of the wear to the tubes appeared at the antivibration bars.
Plant owner Southern California Edison concluded that a design change in the Mitsubishi-made steam generators contributed to the wear.
They lacked what are called stay cylinders. The space taken up by stay cylinders was replaced with more tubes, which helped increase the plant's power.
St. Lucie 2's new steam generators also lack a stay cylinder, though they were made by AREVA, a French company.
In its analysis of what happened at San Onofre, the company called St. Lucie "the next closest plant with a high number of wear indications."
"Although a different (steam generator) design, the (antivibration bars) serve the same design function," Edison wrote in its April 2, 2012, analysis. "So St. Lucie was used to determine similarities and potential actions."
THE
SONGS FACILITY IS "OFFICIALLY" CLOSED BUT DECOMMISSIONING, JUST LIKE IN JAPAN, WILL TAKE "SEVERAL YEARS" THE PLANT OFFICIALS SAY, NOT GIVING EXACT TIME...MEANWHILE...WHAT?
THE LAST NUKE PLANT ON THE CALIFORNIA COAST IS
DIABLO CANYON.
IT BEARS STRIKING SIMILARITIES TO FUKUSHIMA...BUILT RIGHT OVER ONE MAJOR FAULT LINE AND LYING CLOSE TO A SECOND FAULT , IT, TOO, IS RIGHT ON THE PACIFIC, AND RETURNS COOLING WATER TO THE PACIFIC INSTEAD OF RECIRCULATING IT.
THERE HAVE BEEN MANY PROTESTS THERE SINCE BEFORE IT WAS PLACED IN ITS PRECARIOUS POSITION.
S. David Freeman, a former general manager of the Sacramento Municipal Utility District for four years and well-known anti-nuclear activist, in an article in the Sacramento Bee, June 22, 2012, criticized the continued operation of Diablo Canyon, calling nuclear power the "most expensive and dangerous source of energy on Earth".
According to Freeman, Diablo Canyon and San Onofre are both "disasters waiting to happen: aging, unreliable reactors sitting near earthquake fault zones on the fragile Pacific Coast, with millions or hundreds of thousands of Californians living nearby"
[Note: It appears that inspections and their results have been questionable at Diablo for MANY years.
Maybe if they didn't warn nuke facilities that inspectors were coming...?]
ODD THING ABOUT THESE NUCLEAR ACCIDENTS, SOME ARE NOT REPORTED FOR YEARS...
The Rocky Flats Plant, a former U.S. nuclear weapons production facility located about 15 miles northwest of Denver, caused radioactive (primarily plutonium, americium, and uranium) contamination within and outside its boundaries.
The contamination primarily resulted from two major plutonium fires in 1957 and 1969 (plutonium is pyrophoric and shavings can spontaneously combust) and from wind-blown plutonium that leaked from barrels of radioactive waste.
The contamination of the Denver area by plutonium from the fires and other sources was not publicly reported until the 1970s. According to a 1972 study coauthored by Edward Martell, "In the more densely populated areas of Denver, the Pu contamination level in surface soils is several times fallout", and the plutonium contamination "just east of the Rocky Flats plant ranges up to hundreds of times that from nuclear tests.
Denver's automotive beltway does not include a component in the northwest sector, partly due to
concerns over unremediated plutonium contamination.
The U.S. Government's efforts to make the area surrounding the former plant into the Rocky Flats National Wildlife Refuge have been controversial due to the contamination, much of which is underground and not remediated.
BUT (HERE COMES THE DAMAGE CONTROL) ...According to the USFWS, "the refuge has remained closed to the public due to a lack of appropriations for refuge management operations"
GUESS THEY CAN'T PAY ANYONE ENOUGH TO GO OUT THERE AND BE CONTINUALLY EXPOSED TO THAT STUFF, RIGHT?
FIVE nuclear power plants had emergency shutdowns in 2011:
Calvert Cliffs - Lusby, MD (due to hurricane)
North Anna - Louisa, VA (due to earthquake)
Ft Calhoun - Ft Calhoun, NE (due to flooding)
Browns Ferry - Athens, AL (due to tornado)
Surry - Surry, VA (due to tornado)
I HOPE YOU WILL LOOK CLOSELY AT THE MAP OFFERED ON THAT WEBSITE, JUST
CLICK HERE.
There are two types of reactors operating in the United States: Boiling Water Reactors (BWRs) and Pressurized Water Reactors (PWRs). Some experts judge that the design and structure of BWRs do not protect against the release of radiation during a severe accident as effectively as PWRs.
The four reactors involved in the Fukushima nuclear crisis were BWRs.
Reactors were designed to operate for A MAXIMUM OF 40 YEARS, yet the regulatory body that oversees nuclear safety in the United States, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, has re-licensed some nuclear power plants to operate for 60 years, well beyond their originally engineered design lifetime.
About one third of reactors in the US are boiling water reactors, the same technology which was involved in the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster
in Japan. There are also eight nuclear power plants located along the
seismically active West coast. Twelve of the American reactors that are
of the same vintage as the Fukushima Daiichi plant are in seismically
active areas.
Earthquake risk is often measured by "Peak Ground Acceleration", or
PGA, and the following nuclear power plants have a two percent or
greater chance of having PGA over 0.15g in the next 50 years:
Diablo
Canyon, Calif.; San Onofre, Calif.; Sequoyah, Tenn.; H.B. Robinson, SC.;
Watts Bar, Tenn.; Virgil C. Summer, SC.; Vogtle, GA.; Indian Point,
NY.; Oconee, SC.; and Seabrook, NH.
The NRC has approved many utility operators to increase the operating power of their nuclear reactors, including for Fukushima-type reactors, and in some cases multiple times and to significantly higher power levels. These so-called "power uprates" push reactors beyond what they were originally engineered to do, and could increase the radiation hazard if a nuclear accident occurred.
If a person received one rad of radiation from a nuclear accident, it would increase one's chance of getting cancer by 1 in 1,000 (averaged over all ages and both sexes).
With 6 million Americans living within 10 miles of a U.S. nuclear power plant – the evacuation zone defined by the federal government – and more than 120 million Americans living within 50 miles of a U.S. nuclear power plant – the distance the U.S. government told Americans to evacuate from the area around the Fukushima plant – we cannot afford to stand by and hope the worst won't happen here, especially with extreme weather intensifying around the globe.
ARIZONA HAS A NUKE PLANT (PALO VERDE) NEAR A VOLCANIC FIELD...HOW MANY OF YOU KNEW THAT?
August 8, 2013 |
Arizona Geological Survey
The Arizona Geological Survey has a new publication on the geochronology of the Sentinel-Arlington volcanic field of western Maricopa County.
“This review is intended to provide basic information regarding geologically recent volcanic activity near the Palo Verde Nuclear Generating Station, and is intended to contribute to a re-evaluation of geologic hazards in the general area.” Quoted from AZGS.
This review is intended to provide basic information regarding geologically recent volcanic activity near the Palo Verde Nuclear Generating Station, and is intended to contribute to a re-evaluation of geologic hazards in the general area.
EVEN FORMER HIGH-RANKING NRC EMPLOYEES KNOW WE'RE PAST DUE FOR OUR OWN FUKUSHIMA...
Gregory Jaczko, who was chairman of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission at the time of the Fukushima Daiichi accident, has argued that more Fukushima-type accidents are inevitable if the world continues to rely on the current types of nuclear fission reactors, and he believes that society will not accept nuclear power on that condition. "For nuclear power plants to be considered safe, they should not produce accidents like this," he said. "By 'should not' I don’t mean that they have a low probability, but simply that they should not be able to produce accidents like this [at all]. That is what the public has said quite clearly. That is what we need as a new safety standard for nuclear power going forward."
THE CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR DID AN ARTICLE ON OUR AGING NUKE PLANTS
THEY REPORTED ON JUST ONE YEAR'S "MAIN EVENTS"...14 OF THEM, 2009-2010, AND STARTED WITH THE DIABLO FACILITY MENTIONED ABOVE... THEN MOVED ON TO THE TOP 5 OF THE 14 REPORTED "ACCIDENTS".
March 18, 2011
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission failed to resolve known safety problems, leading to 14 'near-misses' in US nuclear power plants in 2009 and 2010, according to a new report from a nuclear watchdog group.
Nuclear plants in the United States last year experienced at least 14 "near misses,"
serious failures in which safety was jeopardized, at least in part, due to lapses in oversight and enforcement by US nuclear safety regulators, says a new report.
Ironically, the most significant near-miss occurred on the 31st anniversary of the Three Mile Island accident – March 28, 2010 – at
the HB Robinson nuclear plant in South Carolina. A high-voltage power cable at the plant failed and started a fire, shutting the plant down and causing an alert – the third-most serious emergency classification. Equipment failures and a remarkable number of operator errors transformed "a relatively routine event into a very serious near-miss," the report said.
Other examples include
the Calvert Cliffs nuclear plant in Maryland, which on Feb. 18 automatically shut down when rainwater leaked in through holes in the roof and dripped onto electrical equipment. Workers had noticed a number of leaks across many months before this event, but plant managers had put off repairs. "After all, the roof only leaked when it rained," the report said.
Similarly, at
the Braidwood nuclear plant in Illinois on Aug. 16, both reactors shut down, the report said. First, an electrical problem caused an automatic shut-down in one reactor. Then, a poorly designed safety system dumped water onto the floor of the turbine building – which then rained down to lower floors, shorting out other electrical equipment and causing the other reactor to automatically shut down. "Previous events had also dumped lots of water onto the floor," Dr. Lochbaum noted, but "management did not fix the design glitch. They only sent workers out to mop up the puddles."
"There is simply no excuse for the fact that the company and the NRC had not detected and corrected at least some of these problems before this event," the study said. None of the 14 near-misses would have happened had earlier warning flags been heeded instead of being ignored or discounted – suggesting a wider problem, the report says.
"Our findings match those of the agency’s internal assessments, as well as of independent agents such as the NRC’s Office of the Inspector General, and the federal Government Accountability Office," the UCS report concludes. "These evaluators consistently find that NRC enforcement of existing regulations is inadequate."
Study after study shows "the NRC has the regulations it needs but fails to enforce them."
#2~
Wolf Creek, Kansas – Emergency system leaks
Seven hours after the Aug. 19, 2009 automatic shutdown of the Wolf Creek nuclear plant, due to an electric problem related to a lightning strike, an NRC inspector found water leaking from the system that cools the emergency diesel generators and virtually all other emergency equipment.
An internal study in 2007 had forecast such leakage, showing that a vital cooling system was prone to rust damage that would result in leaks. Management did nothing, the UCS report says. In 2008, the same piping developed the leaks, just as predicted. Management only patched the leaks, doing little about the rusting causing the problem. In 2009, the piping developed more leaks. This time, workers failed to notice the water puddling on the floor until an NRC inspector found it 7 hours later.
While the event occurred in 2009, the NRC report DID NOT APPEAR UNTIL 2010.
NO NEED TO PANIC THE POPULACE, NOTHING WRONG HERE, RIGHT?
We do have a right to know if we are being exposed to radioactivity and how much don't we?
I WONDER..HAVE ANY OF THE BOYS AT THE NRC CONSIDERED THAT GETTING PEOPLE TO SAFETY WHEN POSSIBLE IS NOT IN THE SAME CLASS AS "CAUSING PANIC"?
DOES THE NRC THINK SO LITTLE OF AMERICAN INTESTINAL FORTITUDE AND HOW WE REACT TO CRISIS?
OBVIOUSLY SO...
#3~
Brunswick, North Carolina – Delayed reactor time
At the Brunswick nuclear plant, Halon gas – a fire suppression agent – was mistakenly discharged into the basement of the building housing the emergency diesel generator, on June 6, 2010. The release of the toxic gas into a vital area prompted control room operators to declare an alert – the third-most-serious emergency classification.
Workers did not know how to notify emergency responders, the NRC team discovered, so it took 2-1/2 hours to fully staff and activate onsite emergency response facilities – twice as long as specified in the plant’s emergency response procedures.
YOU READ IT CORRECTLY, THE WORKERS DID NOT KNOW HOW TO NOTIFY EMERGENCY RESPONDERS...BUT DON'T PANIC...OH, AND THAT MEANS THOSE OF YOU NEAR THAT PLANT WOULD NEVER HAVE KNOWN, NO MATTER WHAT...MUSTN'T PANIC THE PEOPLE...
BAD FOR BUSINESS...
BAD FOR FUNDING AND JUST BAD BUSINESS...
#4~
Fort Calhoun Nuclear Plant, Nebraska – Failure of emergency equipment
On Feb. 17, 2010, the NRC sent a team to the nuclear plant after the turbine-driven auxiliary feedwater (AFW) pump automatically shut down shortly after operators started the pump during a monthly test.
The AFW system is an emergency system that remains in standby mode during normal plant operation. However, although the AFW system plays a vital role in an accident, the NRC investigators found that the pump had failed numerous times over many years. The owner had never found the cause of the problem, and therefore had never taken steps to prevent it.
The NRC identified four violations of its safety regulations.
AND IT'S STILL PUMPING...WHY BOTHER DOING ANYTHING ABOUT IT?
KA-CHING, KA-CHING...TIME IS MONEY.
#5~
Surry Nuclear Plant, Virginia – Failure to recognize a problem
Degraded electrical equipment caught fire in the control room of Unit 1, about 90 minutes after an electrical short led to an inadvertent shutdown of the reactor, on June 8, 2010.
Six months earlier, a fire had broken out in the Unit 2 control room – because of similarly degraded electrical components.
After putting out the Unit 2 fire in November 2009, workers had asked technicians to investigate, but the company closed the report without any investigation or evaluation.
After the second fire, workers tested electrical components in both control rooms and found many were degraded, including some that produced visible sparks during testing.
Because the company had taken no action to protect Unit 1 from the problem they had been warned of in Unit 2, NRC's investigation team sanctioned the company.
SO, LOOKING AT THE 14, AND THE CHOSEN 5, DOES IT APPEAR THAT OUR NUCLEAR POWER PLANTS ARE NOT LIVING UP TO THEIR 40-YEARS LIFE EXPECTANCY?
DOES IT SEEM THAT PARTS ARE WEARING OUT MUCH FASTER THAN WAS SUPPOSED COULD HAPPEN?
DOES IT LOOK LIKE MUCH OF ANYBODY "IN CHARGE" ACTUALLY GIVES A DAMN?
WELL, THEY SURE DON'T GIVE A DAMN IN JAPAN...BACK TO FUKUSHIMA THIS WEEKEND...
Feb. 20, 2014:
Record-high tainted water leak at Fukushima plant ...AGAIN...FOREVER...
the highest level of radioactive substances detected so far in the series of tank leaks at the site.
The utility estimates that about 100 tons of water had flowed outside the barrier. But they say the water should not have flowed into the ocean because there are no spillways near the tank that lead to the sea.
Utility officials attribute the leak to a fault in one of the valves in the pipes that transfer water from a decontamination system to storage tanks.
Officials say they are continuing their investigation, while working to recover the leaked water and the surrounding soil now contaminated by the water.
NO THEY ARE NOT RECOVERING THE WATER, NOR THE MELTED FUEL, NOR ANYTHING, BUT ONLY ADDING TO THE MESS EVERY NEW DAY!
AT THIS POINT, THEY KNOW IT'S USELESS TO TRY THE SAME THINGS THEY'VE BEEN TRYING, WHICH IS DAMNED LITTLE!
KYODO NEWS ALSO REPORTED THIS ON FEB. 20:
More than nine hours before the leak was recognized, an alarm indicating a rise in the tank’s water surface level was issued. But workers thought the device was out of order and also could not find leaks when they patrolled the area.
THE TEPCO TEAM JUST KEEPS SCREWING UP, BUT ARE ALLOWED TO CONTINUE TO DO SO.
WHAT SORT OF MIND CAN ACCEPT THAT AS OKAY?
WHY DON'T THEY RUN THEM ALL OFF FROM THAT PLACE?
THE WORSE NEWS WAS REPORTED BY THE ASSOCIATED PRESS:
Feb. 20, 2014: [Tepco] said the leak involved partially treated water from early in the disaster at the plant,
meaning it was more toxic than previous leaks.
AND, SURPRISE, SURPRISE FOR ALL OF YOU WHO LOOK DOWN ON "ALTERNATIVE NEWS SITES",
AL JAZEERA REPORTED EXACTLY WHAT A.P. DID, BUT A BIT BETTER WITH AUDIO...
About 100 tonnes of highly radioactive water has leaked from a tank at Japan's Fukushima nuclear plant.
An official for the Tokyo Electrical Company said the radioactive water overflowed after a valve was left open by mistake and sent too much contaminated water into a separate holding area
JUST ANOTHER MISTAKE...WHAT'S UP NEXT?
THEY "MISTAKENLY" SAW THE LEGS OFF ALL THE HOLDING TANKS?
ENGLAND'S "THE GUARDIAN" , Mar 18, 2011
Nuclear power plant accidents: listed and ranked since 1952.
AT THE TIME THAT WENT TO PRESS, THE NRC RANKED FUKUSHIMA A MERE 5, ON A SCALE OF 1 TO 7, WELL BELOW CHERNOBYL, AND AT THE SAME LEVEL AS THREE-MILE ISLAND...
IMAGINE THAT!
THOSE GUYS AT NRC, WHAT JOKERS...SURELY THEY MISJUDGED...WELL, WE NOW KNOW HOW MUCH THEY MISJUDGED, BUT WITH NO THANKS TO THEIR "REPORTS"...WE HAD TO HEAR IT FROM THE JAPANESE PEOPLE SUFFERING THROUGH THAT THING...AND THE FEW MONITORING THINGS HERE IN THE USA.
WELL, FOR ANY SHEEPLE WHO MAY BE ERRANTLY READING HERE, ALL IS WELL, GO BACK TO GRAZING.
FOR TOO MANY OF THE REST OF YOU...WHAT WILL IT TAKE BEFORE YOU SET UP A HOWL TO YOUR ELECTED LIARS ABOUT ALL THIS?
AN AMERICAN FUKUSHIMA?
JUST WAIT A FEW DAYS WEEKS MAYBE MONTHS...
WELL, THERE HAVE ONLY BEEN A "FEW" BIG ACCIDENTS, RIGHT?
AND DO YOU KNOW HOW THEY WERE ASSESSED ?
BY "PROPERTY DAMAGE"...PROPERTY, NOT LIVES, NOT CASES OF CANCER, NOT BIRTH DEFECTS, NOT HARM TO THE ENVIRONMENT, BUT BY PROPERTY DAMAGE!
Nuclear power plant accidents in the U.S. with more than US$140 million in property damage
| Description |
| March 28, 1979 |
Three Mile Island |
Londonderry Township, Pennsylvania |
Loss of coolant and partial core meltdown, see Three Mile Island accident and Three Mile Island accident health effects |
US$2,400 |
| March 9, 1985 |
Browns Ferry |
Athens, Alabama |
Instrumentation systems malfunction during startup, which led to suspension of operations at all three Units |
US$1,830 |
| April 11, 1986 |
Pilgrim |
Plymouth, Massachusetts |
Recurring equipment problems force emergency shutdown of Boston Edison’s plant |
US$1,001 |
| March 31, 1987 |
Peach Bottom |
Delta, Pennsylvania |
Units 2 and 3 shutdown due to cooling malfunctions and unexplained equipment problems |
US$400 |
| December 19, 1987 |
Nine Mile Point |
Scriba, New York |
Malfunctions force Niagara Mohawk Power Corporation to shut down Unit 1 |
US$150 |
| February 20, 1996 |
Millstone |
Waterford, Connecticut |
Leaking valve forces shutdown of Units 1 and 2, multiple equipment failures found |
US$254 |
| September 2, 1996 |
Crystal River |
Crystal River, Florida |
Balance-of-plant equipment malfunction forces shutdown and extensive repairs |
US$384 |
| February 1, 2010 |
Vermont Yankee |
Vernon, Vermont |
Deteriorating underground pipes leak radioactive tritium into groundwater supplies |
US$700 |
NUCLEAR ENERGY ISN'T WORTH IT...OR IT ISN'T WORTH IT TO ME.
The map below shows radiation levels currently in japan. This map appeared FIRST in Science Magazine.
“Radiation limits begin to be exceeded at just above 0.1 microsieverts/ hour in the blue zones. Red is about fifty times the civilian radiation limit at 5.0 microsieverts/hour. Because children are much more sensitive than adults, these results are a great concern for parents of young children in potentially affected areas.”
<<The fundamental question is whether the vast array of industrial
goods and components “Made in Japan” — including hi tech components,
machinery, electronics, motor vehicles, etc — and exported Worldwide are
contaminated? Were this to be the case, the entire East and Southeast
Asian industrial base –which depends heavily on Japanese components and
industrial technology– would be affected. The potential impacts on
international trade would be farreaching. In this regard, in January,
Russian officials confiscated irradiated Japanese automobiles and
autoparts in the port of Vladivostok for sale in the Russian Federation.
Needless to say, incidents of this nature in a global competitive
environment, could lead to the demise of the Japanese automobile
industry which is already in crisis.
While most of the automotive industry is in central Japan, Nissan’s
engine factory in Iwaki city is 42 km from the Fukushima Daiichi plant.
Is the Nissan work force affected? Is the engine plant contaminated? The
plant is within about 10 to 20 km of the government’s “evacuation zone”
from which some 200,000 people were evacuated>>
WE NEED TO KNOW HOW CLOSE AMERICA IS TO BECOMING THE NEXT FUKUSHIMA.
WE NEED BETTER INSPECTIONS, SURPRISE INSPECTIONS, BETTER REGULATIONS STRICTER ENFORCEMENT, INDEPENDENT, IN-DEPTH STUDIES NOT INFLUENCED BY BIG MONEY AND BIG INDUSTRY, ESPECIALLY NOT THE NUCLEAR INDUSTRY.
WE CAN MAKE CHANGES BEFORE IT'S TOO LATE...OR NOT...
WE CAN LEARN...OR WE CAN PERISH.
