Soviet Announces Nuclear Accident at Electric Plant

Comment: History seems to repeat it, praying not when it comes to nuclear power!

Power Reactor Damaged
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Mishap Acknowledged After Rising Radioactivity Levels Spread to Scandinavia
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By Serge Schmemann
Special to The New York Times

Moscow, April 28 -- The Soviet Union announced today that there had been an accident at a nuclear power plant in the Ukraine and that ''aid is being given to those affected.''

The severity of the accident, which spread discernable radioactive material over Scandinavia, was not immediately clear. But the terse statement, distributed by the Tass press agency and read on the evening television news, suggested a major accident.

The phrasing also suggested that the problem had not been brought under full control at the nuclear plant, which the Soviet announcement identified as the Chernobyl station. It is situated at the new town of Pripyat, near Chernobyl and 60 miles north of Kiev.

Heightened Radioactivity Levels

The announcement, the first official disclosure of a nuclear accident ever by the Soviet Union, came hours after Sweden, Finland and Denmark reported abnormally high radioactivity levels in their skies. The readings initially led those countries to think radioactive material had been leaking from one of their own reactors.

The Soviet announcement, made on behalf of the Council of Ministers, after Sweden had demanded information, said in its entirety:

''An accident has occurred at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant as one of the reactors was damaged. Measures are being taken to eliminate the consequences of the accident. Aid is being given to those affected. A Government commission has been set up.''

Concern Is Reinforced

The mention of a commission of inquiry reinforced indications that the accident was a serious one. [United States experts said the accident probably posed no danger outside the Soviet Union. But in the absence of detailed information, they said it would be difficult to determine the gravity, and they said environmental damage might conceivably be disastrous. Page A10. [The Chernobyl plant, with four 1,000-megawatt reactors in operation, is one of the largest and oldest of the 15 or so Soviet civilian nuclear stations. Nuclear power has been a matter of high priority in the Soviet Union, and capacity has been going into service as fast as reactors can be built. Page A10.] Pripyat, where the Chernobyl plant is situated, is a settlement of 25,000 to 30,000 people that was built in the 1970's along with the station. It is home to construction workers, service personnel and their families.

A British reporter returning from Kiev reported seeing no activity in the Ukrainian capital that would suggest any alarm. No other information was immediately available from the area.

But reports from across Scandinavia, areas more than 800 miles to the north, spoke of increases in radioactivity over the last 24 hours.

Scandinavian authorities said the radioactivity levels did not pose any danger, and it appeared that only tiny amounts of radioactive material had drifted over Scandinavia. All of it was believed to be in the form of two relatively innocuous gases, xenon and krypton. Scandinavian officials said the evidence pointed to an accident in the Ukraine.

In Sweden, an official at the Institute for Protection Against Radiation said gamma radiation levels were 30 to 40 percent higher than normal. He said that the levels had been abnormally high for 24 hours and that the release seemed to be continuing.

In Finland, officials were reported to have said readings in the central and northern areas showed levels six times higher than normal. The Norwegian radio quoted pollution control officials as having said that radioactivity in the Oslo area was 50 percent higher.

Since morning, Swedish officials had focused on the Soviet Union as the probable source of the radioactive material, but Swedish Embassy officials here said the Soviet authorities had denied knowledge of any problem until the Government announcement was read on television at 9 P.M.
The first alarm was raised in Sweden when workers arriving at the Forsmark nuclear power station, 60 miles north of Stockholm, set off warnings during a routine radioactivity check. The plant was evacuated, Swedish officials said. When other nuclear power plants reported similar happenings, the authorities turned their attention to the Soviet Union, from which the winds were coming.

A Swedish diplomat here said he had telephoned three Soviet Government agencies - the State Committee for Utilization of Atomic Energy, the Ministry of Electric Power and the three-year-old State Committee for Safety in the Atomic Power Industry -asking them to explain the high readings over Scandinavia. All said they had no explanation, the diplomat said.

Before the Soviet acknowledgment, the Swedish Minister of Energy, Birgitta Dahl, said that whoever was responsible for the spread of radioactive material was not observing international agreements requiring warnings and exchanges of information about accidents.

Tass, the Soviet Government press agency, said the Chernobyl accident was the first ever in a Soviet nuclear power plant.

It was the first ever acknowledged by the Russians, but Western experts have reported at least two previous mishaps. In 1957, a nuclear waste dump believed related to weapons production was reported to have resulted in a chemical reaction in the Kasli areas of the Urals, causing damage to the environment and possibly fatalities. In 1974, a steam line exploded in the Shevchenko nuclear breeder plant in Kazakhstan, but no radioactive material is believed to have been released in that accident.

Soviet authorities, in giving the development of nuclear electricity generation a high priority, have said that nuclear power is safe. In the absence of citizens' opposition to nuclear power, there has been virtually no questioning of the program.

The terse Soviet announcement of the Chernobyl accident was followed by a Tass dispatch noting that there had been many mishaps in the United States, ranging from Three Mile Island outside Harrisburg, Pa., to the Ginna plant near Rochester. Tass said an American antinuclear group registered 2,300 accidents, breakdowns and other faults in 1979.

The practice of focusing on disasters elsewhere when one occurs in the Soviet Union is so common that after watching a report on Soviet television about a catastrophe abroad, Russians often call Western friends to find out whether something has happened in the Soviet Union.

Construction of the Chernobyl plant began in the early 1970's and the first reactor was commissioned in 1977. Work has been lagging behind plans. In April 1983, the Ukrainian Central Committee chastised the Chernobyl plant, along with the Rovno nuclear power station at Kuznetsovsk, for ''inferior quality of construction and installation work and low operating levels.''

---- U.S. Offers to Help AGANA, Guam, Tuesday, April 29 -Donald T. Regan, the White House chief of staff, said today that the United States was willing to provide medical and scientific assistance to the Soviet Union in connection with the nuclear accident but so far there had been no such request.

http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/0426.html

Tritium vented from Illinois power plant

Published: Aug. 4, 2009 at 11:45 AM

Small quantities of the low-level radioactive isotope tritium were vented into the air in Illinois last week, electric utility officials say.

A spokesman for Exelon said the incident at the Braidwood Generating Station in Braceville, Ill., came as part of the "normal" procedures used to re-start the plant after a power outage, The Chicago Sun-Times News Group reported Tuesday.

"We are still looking into the cause of the outage," Exelon spokesman Paul Dempsey told the news agency, adding that such releases of radioactive steam are allowed under Braidwood's operating license from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

Neighbors told the news agency they heard a sound resembling the take-off of a jet airplane for about an hour emanating from the plant.

"We appreciate the patience of our neighbors during the initial outage in which plant noises may have been loud and startling," added Bryan Hanson, Braidwood's vice president. "It is also important people realize that this kind of steam venting is part of the plant design and poses no environmental health or safety issues to workers or to the public."

http://www.upi.com/Top_News/2009/08/04/Tritium-vented-from-Illinois-power-plant/UPI-41351249400715/

Nuclear Power in France: setting the record straight

La Hague reprocessing plant

Comment: Attention the state of Virginia, we do not want France's nuke power in our state! France does not care whom they nuke and will sell their nuke stuff to anybody! No to Nukes and No to France!

Nuclear Power in France: setting the record straight

A COSTLY MISTAKE

► The state-owned French nuclear industry has cost taxpayers billions, including huge export losses, construction and shutdown costs.

►The breeder reactor – on which the French nuclear hopes were based – was an expensive gamble. The Superphe nix breeder averaged a 7% capacity factor over its 14 years of operation.

FRENCH PUBLIC OPPOSITION

►60,000 people rallied in five cities in March 2007 in opposition to a proposed new EuropeanPressurized Reactor (EPR) in Northern France.

►Annual polls show at least 60% of French citizens would like to see nuclear power phased out and a shift made to renewable energy.

► In 2007, 50,000 French citizens signed a petition demanding a referendum on radioactive waste dumping in their communities.

FRENCH CORPORATIONS IN THE U.S.

► Two majority French-government-owned corporations – Areva and Électricité de France – would reap huge U.S. taxpayer funds if nuclear power is expanded in the U.S.

► Areva would be the beneficiary of U.S. tax dollars should a proposed uranium enrichment facility – owned by Areva – go forward in Idaho.

► EDF, a partner with Constellation, is applying to build EPR reactors in Maryland and in upstate New York. At least five additional EPRs are also under consideration in the U.S.

AREVA IN NIGER

► In Niger – as in many countries – uranium mining has disproportionately affected indigenous peoples who have seen none of the economic benefits but have suffered from health and environmental impacts. Proposed new mines across northern Niger have sparked opposition from tribespeople who have been arbitrarily arrested, tortured and executed without trial.

► Areva has mined uranium for 40 years in Niger, West Africa, creating radioactively-contaminated air, soil and water. Discarded radioactive metals from the mining operation are sold in public marketplaces.

► Areva has signed a deal for a huge new uranium mine in Niger that, if opened, would be the second largest in the world. Uranium mining threatens to deplete the Sahara Desert area water supply.

INTRODUCTION

France gets nearly 80% of its electricity from its 58 nuclear reactors. However, its heavy reliance on nuclear power creates safety and environmental risks, including an unresolved radioactive waste problem.

REPROCESSING

► France reprocesses its own, and some foreign, irradiated reactor fuel. That is, the
fuel is cut up and soaked in acid to extract plutonium and fissile uranium. This results in massive releases of radioactive gases, solids, and liquids into the environment.

► One hundred million gallons of radioactively contaminated liquids are discharged annually into the English Channel from the La Hague reprocessing center. Dumping these same wastes into the sea in containers would violate the 1970 London Dumping Convention.

► The claim that France “recycles” its irradiated nuclear fuel is a major exaggeration. Only about 1% of the reprocessed fuel is used as reactor fuel while 99% remains as radioactive waste.

► A plane crashing on a La Hague irradiated fuel storage pond could release radioactivity more than six times the equivalent released at Chernobyl.

► Radioactive discharges from La Hague have contaminated area beaches and waters as far as the Arctic and beyond. These discharges likely caused the elevated rates of leukemia near La Hague found by two independent medical studies.

► La Hague routinely releases radioactive gases including concentrations of krypton-85 found at levels 90,000 times higher than in nature.

►Aerial discharges of carbon-14, considered to be one of the most damaging radioactive isotopes to human health, have also been detected in the La Hague area. Radioactive carbon dioxide — the leading climate change culprit, is also released.

RADIOACTIVE WASTE PROBLEMS

► France has no high-level radioactive waste repository and faces public opposition to the only one it is exploring, at Bure.

► Reprocessing has created large quantities of solid waste contaminated with plutonium that will need to be isolated permanently.

► Much of the waste remaining in France from the reprocessing of foreign fuel has never been returned to the country of origin, rendering France a de facto international dump site.

► The so-called low- and intermediate-level radioactive waste dump sites that do exist –including in the important Champagne region – are leaking radioactivity into the groundwater.

► Radioactive tailings from the 210 abandoned uranium mines in France have been used in public areas, including school playgrounds and public parking lots.

PLUTONIUM PRODUCTION

► After plutonium and uranium are extracted during reprocessing, they can be combined into mixed-oxide (MOX) fuel. This is used in fewer than 20 MOX reactors which generate less than 10% of French nuclear electricity.

► MOX reactors, like all reactors, also generate plutonium. There is no significant net reduction of plutonium from using MOX fuel.

► Dangerous plutonium oxide powder is transported regularly from La Hague to the
MOX fuel fabrication plants in Belgium and Southern France.

NUCLEAR WEAPONS LINK

►The 80-plus metric tons of plutonium stockpiled at La Hague in hundreds of vulnerable containers are enough to make at least 10,000 bombs.

►France has exported civilian nuclear technology and training to, or assisted in the nuclear programs of, Pakistan, Israel, India and South Africa, all of which developed nuclear weapons.

►France exported nuclear technology to Iran, now the subject of international controversy about whether Iran is also developing nuclear weapons.

► France has sent shipments of plutonium fuel overseas, risking hijacking, accident or diversion.

► France delivered and helped build Iraq’s Osirak reactor that was subsequently bombed by Israel in 1981.

►French president, Nicolas Sarkozy, has toured the globe promoting nuclear power as a “bridge to the Islamic world.” France is marketing nuclear technology to much of the Middle East and North Africa.

FLAWED REACTOR TECHNOLOGY

►The French European Pressurized Reactors (EPR) under construction in France and Finland have encountered serious technical flaws including substandard parts.By July 2009, the Finnish reactor was already at least three years behind schedule and 60% over budget.

► The summer of 2008 saw a cascade of nuclear accidents in France. Drinking and bathing in the water was banned after radioactive spills at the Tricastin nuclear complex contaminated rivers.

http://www.beyondnuclear.org/storage/France_pamphlet_July09.pdf

NUCLEAR INCIDENTS

Comment: No to Nuke Power!

Monday, April 13, 2009

NUCLEAR INCIDENTS - a (partial) timeline

This is a partial list of international nuclear incidents and accidents.
See also: Nuclear Weapons Accidents - www.NuclearFiles.org

20 Mishaps That Might Have Started Accidental Nuclear WarLet the Facts Speak - An Indictment of the Nuclear Industry (pdf).

14 April 09, Japan - N-plant pipe data falsified

Hitachi Ltd. and Hitachi-GE Nuclear Energy Ltd. announced Monday that they had found falsified data in the inspection records of components they manufactured for use in nuclear power plants.

Fire breaks out at N-plant
NIIGATA - A fire broke out Saturday night at the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear power plant operated by Tokyo Electric Power Co. in Kashiwazaki and Kariwamura, Niigata Prefecture, scorching the motor of an air conditioner. No radiation leaks or injuries were reported. - The Daily Yomiuri Online

7 April 09, Brits' nuclear sub accident surfaces

A BRITISH nuclear-powered submarine with 130 crew crashed into Australia's continental shelf off the coast of Perth in a potentially deadly accident that was covered up at the time.

The incident caused a 5200-tonne Royal Navy attack submarine, HMS Trenchant, armed with cruise missiles, to become "grounded" off Rottnest Island in July 1997, according to information just released in the British parliament.

The accident was one of 13 collisions involving Royal Navy nuclear-powered submarines since 1988 and was released last week by Armed Forces Minister Bob Ainsworth.

- The Australian

6 April 09, Indonesia goes cold on nuclear power

INDONESIAN President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono yesterday backed away from a plan to build a nuclear reactor in one of the world's most seismically active countries.

Dr Yudhoyono said Indonesia would develop existing energy sources and explore renewable alternatives before pursuing the nuclear option.

- The Age

16 Feb 09, mid-Atlantic - French and British Nuclear Subs Collide

Submarines collide in Atlantic Ocean
Both were carrying nuclear weapons
the submarines did not damage their nuclear parts in the crash
A senior Navy source said: “The potential consequences are unthinkable. It’s very unlikely there would have been a nuclear explosion. “But a radioactive leak was a possibility. Worse, we could have lost the crew and warheads. That would have been a national disaster.” - The Sun

12 November 08, UK - Lost nuke 'left in Greenland'
THE US abandoned a nuclear weapon under the ice in northern Greenland in 1968, it has been claimed.

Using testimony of those involved and declassified documents obtained under the US Freedom of Information Act, the BBC yesterday reported that despite a desperate search of the crash site near a US military base at Thule, the weapon was never found. - The Age

31 Oct 08, UK - Nuclear missile site fire undetected
A FIRE at a US nuclear missile launch site burned itself out and was undetected for five days, US military sources say. – news.com.au

11 Oct 08, UK - Britain's nuclear weapons factory 'nearly overwhelmed' by flood
Alarm systems at Britain's nuclear weapons factory were put out of action for 10 days by last summer's floods, leaving tens of thousands of people without warning in the event of anuclear accident. More: The Telegraph.

24 Sep 08, Sydney - WATER SEEPING AT LUCAS HEIGHTS NUCLEAR REACTOR
CHRONIC water seepage at Australia's only nuclear reactor has sparked plans to build a plant to treat the water in a sign the problem might never be fixed. More here.

9 Sep 08, France - Incident at nuclear plant

A SECURITY incident has occurred at a French nuclear site already under scrutiny because of a series of safety scares over the summer, France's ASN nuclear safety authority said overnight.

ASN said two fuel units became snagged in a reactor at Tricastin in southern France overnight when site workers were attempting to remove them during maintenance work. More: here.

25 August 08, Spain - Nuclear Plant Closed After Fire

A NUCLEAR power station shut down after an electrical generator fire today, safety officials said, the latest incident at a station that has already been
hit with record fines for its safety record.

The incident came just weeks after the government vowed to take action
against another nuclear station over a radioactive leak last year. More: here.

21 July 08, France - New uranium Leak at Areva Nuclear Plant

French nuclear firm Areva has found a uranium leak at a factory in southeastern France, but there is no danger to the environment, the French Nuclear Safety Authority (ASN) said on Friday.

The news came a day after the government ordered safety tests at all the country's 19nuclear power plants following another leak at an Areva facility earlier this month.

However, Energy and Environment Minister Jean-Louis Borloo moved to reassure the public over the latest incident. 'We mustn't over-exaggerate,' he told reporters, saying there were 115 such 'little anomalies' in France's nuclear industry each year. - Planet Ark.

10 July 08, France- Nuclear leak Pollutes Water and Closes Nuclear Plant

A nuclear power plant in a tourist region of southern France has been closed after a uranium leak polluted the local water supply. French nuclear company Areva said on Tuesday 30 cubic metres of liquid containing uranium was accidentally poured on the ground and into a river at the Tricastin nuclear site.
Waste containing unenriched uranium leaked into two rivers at the Tricastin plant at Bollene, 40km (25 miles) from the popular tourist city of Avignon; people in nearby towns have been warned not to drink any water or eat fish from the rivers since Monday's leak. - BBC, Guardian and Planet Ark.

27 June 08, UK - British Warheads Could Accidentally Explode

The British Ministry of Defense (MoD) has warned in a declassified manual that some British warheads could set off a popcorn-like chain reaction.On Thursday, the New Scientist repeated the findings of the MoD that had been declassified in a manual one month ago: A design flaw in some British warheads could set off a chain explosion, 'like popcorn,' if dropped. The 'popcorn effect' is when one weapon explodes causing another to explode and so on.

A typical Trident missile contains three to six warheads and submarines can carry up to 24 missiles.

Although the MoD admits that 'popcorning' is only theoretically possible, it predicts that the worst case scenario could kill people a kilometer away. - Duncan Gardham, 'Nuclear Missiles Could Blow Up 'Like Popcorn',' Daily Telegraph, reported in The Sunflower, Issue 132.

19 June 08, USA - US 'loses nuclear missile parts'

THE US military has lost more than one thousand 'sensitive' nuclear missile parts, officials close to the Pentagon say. A recent investigation condemning the US military's accidental shipment of nuclear cones to Taiwan also found that the US Air Force doesn't know what happened to many other nuclear parts, The Financial Times reported. - Herald Sun

16 June 08, Japan - Small radioactive water leak within TEPCO nuclear plant
Water containing a small amount of radiation leaked within a Tokyo Electric Power Co nuclear power facility located in northern Japan, where a strong earthquake hit on Saturday, company officials said. - Planet Ark

5 June 08, Slovenia - Leak Shuts Down Nuclear Plant, EU Alerted

Slovenia today began shuttting down its only nuclear power plant in Krsko following a leak in the cooling system.In Brussels, the European Commission issued an EU-wide radiation alert following the incident in the central European state that currently holds the European Union's rotating presidency. - Herald Sun

5 June 08, USA - Cyber Incident Blamed for Nuclear Power Plant Shutdown
A nuclear power plant in Georgia was recently forced into an emergency shutdown for 48 hours after a software update was installed on a single computer.

The incident occurred on March 7 at Unit 2 of the Hatch nuclear power plant near Baxley, Georgia. The trouble started after an engineer fromSouthern Company, which manages the technology operations for the plant, installed a software update on a computer operating on the plant's business network. More: The Washington Post

May 08, USA - Simulated Attack Reveals Security Flaws at Livermore Lab

A recent mock terrorist infiltration conducted at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL), located near San Francisco, showed that fissile material necessary for building nuclear weapons was not hard to obtain.

In Building 332, the faux-invaders found access to approximately 2,000 pounds of weapons-grade uranium and deadly plutonium, a surplus bountiful enough to build at least 300 nuclear weapons.

While the security failures exposed at Livermore seem unacceptable to most, many experts believe that many more exist, and remain undiscovered due to inherent flaws in the 'force-on-force' simulated attacks. The mock intrusions generally occur at night or on weekends when the lab's employees are safe at home and not susceptible to hostage-taking, and when the defenders are given advance notice of the attack.

The exercises also do not assess the lab's capability of withstanding an attack from a rogue aircraft passing along one of the flight paths to or from one of the nearby airports. - Nuclear Age Peace Foundation.

23 May, 08 - Alice Springs Uranium Explorers to admit to leak at Canadian Operation
A company applying for a uranium exploration licence near Alice Springs has admitted it may have leaked uranium into one of North America's largest lakes.

Cameco is the world's largest uranium producer and along with Paladin Energy is applying to explore the Angela and Pamela deposit 25 kilometres south of Alice Springs.

The company has told Canadian nuclear regulators their plant at Port Hope may have leaked uranium, arsenic and fluorides into Lake Ontario.

The plant has been closed since last year to clean up contaminated soil deposits, but the company says trace elements of uranium could have flowed into the lake.

Their application to explore near Alice Springs now lies with mines minister Chris Natt. More: ABC News

26 March, 08 - US sent Taiwan nuclear missile components by mistake.

The United States mistakenly sent Taiwan four fuses used to trigger nuclear warheads on ballistic missiles in late 2006 and only discovered the error lastweek, the Pentagon said Tuesday.Nose cone assemblies containing the fuses were recovered Monday from Taiwan where they had been held in storage after being shipped there as helicopterbatteries, senior Pentagon officials said. More.

25 Jan, 08 Japan - video of the Monju reactor leak of 1995.

Following an announcement this week that the infamous Japanese Monju fast-breeder nuclear reactor would be reopened, activists in Japan have leaked suppressed video footage of the disaster that led to its closure in 1995.
The infamous sodium spill, an accident that long ago earned itself a place in the history of nuclear power in Japan, has returned one more time to haunt government and industry officials with images they had hoped they would never see again. More.

10 Dec, 07 Germany - Child Cancer Risk Higher Near Nuclear Plants - Study

28 Nov, 07 USA - The nation's three nuclear weapons laboratories have had almost 60 serious accidents or near misses in the past seven years, according to a report released Wednesday by the Government Accountability Office. More: CNN

3 Nov, 07 USA - New Tracker Shows United States Nuclear Reactors, Safety Records.
A new web-based tool unveiled by the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) can provide you with possibly more information than you'll be comfortable knowing about.

3 Nov, 07 - USA - Pipe Bomb found at nuclear plant

Authorities say a nuclear power plant in Arizona has been locked down after security guards discovered a pipe bomb in a contract worker's truck.
Plant operator Arizona Public Service called the discovery an 'unusual event' and sealed off the site, with no traffic entering or leaving the grounds.

A bomb squad from the Maricopa County Sheriff's Department declared the pipe bomb a 'credible explosive device.' More: ABC News

31 Oct 07, Radiation leak at Russian nuke plant

YEKATERINBURG, Russia: Safety breaches have caused a radiation leak at a major nuclear reprocessing plant in the Ural mountains, Russia.

The Mayak plant, dubbed 'Russia's ticking time bomb' by environmentalists, suffered a series of accidents in 1949, 1957 and 1967 but these were hushed up by Soviet governments. Nuclear weapons and nuclear waste are reprocessed at the highly secretive plant, about 2000km east of Moscow. Foreigners are not usually allowed access because of its sensitive work with nuclear weapons. More: The Australian

29 Oct 07, USA - Security upgrades at several nuclear sites are laging, auditors find. More than a year after Congress told the Energy Department to harden the nation's nuclear bomb factories and laboratories against terrorist raids, at least 5 of the 11 sites are certain to miss their deadlines, some by many years. More: The New York Times

5 Sep 07, Nuclear bombs mistakenly flown over US. A B-52 bomber was mistakenly armed with six nuclear warheads and flown for more than three hours across several states last week, prompting an Air Force investigation and the firing of one commander, Pentagon officials said Wednesday. More: Forbes/Associated Press

1 Sep 07, UK's nuclear accidents blamed on poor safety.
TWO of the UK's most serious nuclear weapons accidents in the 1980s were caused by continual lapses in safety procedures, according to newly declassified government reports released to New Scientist under freedom of information laws. What is more, the accidents were of greater seriousness than previously admitted by the Ministry of Defence (MoD). More: New Scientist Tech

31 Aug 07, USA - A one-two punch to Vermont's lone reactor

Two mishaps within 10 days at the Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant including collapse of a cooling tower and faullty valve.
In its formal report on the incident, the federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission said a third glitch cropped up during Thursday's shutdown: An automatic system designed to control pressure levels in the reactor failed to kick in as the plant shut down, forcing control room operators to do the work.
The NRC said this happened 'for some unknown reason,' and that Vermont Yankee 'is investigating the event.' More: Forbes/Associated Press

31 Aug 07, TOKYO - Japan halts nuclear research units on safety concerns. Japan has halted work at three nuclear research units run by its Atomic Energy Agency due to concerns over the handling of fuel material and other problems, Kyodo news agency said on Friday. The Science and Technology Ministry suspended activities at the units in Tokaimura, Ibaraki prefecture, after the agency reported 46 problems including procedural flaws, Kyodo said. - www.enn.com

20 August 07, Tenn. USA - Nuclear fuel problems kept secret

A three-year veil of secrecy in the name of national security was used to keep the public in the dark about the handling of highly enriched uranium at a nuclear fuel processing plant - including a leak that could have caused a deadly, uncontrolled nuclear reaction.The leak turned out to be one of nine violations or test failures since 2005 at privately owned Nuclear Fuel Services Inc., a longtime supplier of fuel to the U.S. Navy's nuclear fleet. More: The Guardian

3 Aug 07, Nuclear safety reports called into question - Gaps in global database blamed on regulators. A scare in BulgariaTo inform the public about nuclear-plant mishaps, a United Nations agency in 1989 helped create a Richter-like scale rating them from zero to seven. Chernobyl was pegged as a seven. Three Mile Island rated five. How many mishaps have occurred over the years - and is the rate getting better or worse? It's hard to know. That's because every day, the U.N.'s International Atomic Energy Agency deletes from its web site any rated incident that's more than six months old. The Agency says it doesn't want to penalize more-forthcoming countries by making it look like they have poor safety records. More: NuclearNo.com

28 July 07, Australia - New reactor closed down
Australia's new $400 million Lucas Heights nuclear research reactor, opened by the Prime Minister, John Howard, three months ago, has been shut down after three uranium fuel plates came loose.

It is expected to be out of operation for eight weeks while the problem is fixed, the chief executive of the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation, Dr Ian Smith, said yesterday.

Dubbed OPAL, the reactor is powered by 16 fuel assemblies, each containing 21 uranium plates about eight centimetres square.
In three assemblies one plate had become dislodged and risen 'a few centimetres' , a Lucas Heights spokeswoman, Sharon Kelly, said.
'It was only noticed when we did a routine shutdown to do a fuel change,' she said, adding that the reactor had been working normally.
'It is possibly a manufacturing problem. We have to find out why they got loose.'
Although there was no danger, the nuclear safety authority had been informed, she said.
Engineers will use the unplanned shutdown to study another fault, a minor water leak, noticed in February.
Ms Kelly said no radioactivity had escaped as a result of either problem. - Richard Macey

27 July 07, Australia - Defence warned on waste

The Australian Defence Department has been forced to 'significantly improve' its regulations and handling of radioactive material after a high-level inquiry into contamination at a Brisbane barracks.

Australia's nuclear watchdog told the review 'that Defence's management of its regulatory requirements' needed significant improvement.
Defence Minister Brendan Nelson ordered the review after revelations in The Australian in April of the tritium contamination and a botched 'clean-up' during which contractors used Chux Super Wipes to wipe down radioactive surfaces and left them in a tea room to dry.

The Australian also revealed that the British high commission and a British optics firm, which repaired the army compass and gunsights containing the tritium fluid as a light source, complained about tritium levels. - The Australian

27 July 07, Australia - Sydney's reactor to be shut down to fix 'faults'

The new OPAL research reactor at Sydney's Lucas Heights nuclear plant is to be shut down for eight weeks because of technical faults, officials say. Chief executive of the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation (ANSTO) Ian Smith, said the supply of nuclear medicines would not be affected by the temporary shutdown as arrangements were in place to import these products [as could be done all along, as with routine shut downs].- AAP [The reactor complex also sits on two known fault lines]

24 July 07, Japan - Fire at nuclear plant

A small fire broke out today at a partly constructed nuclear power station in northern Japan, the third blaze at the plant this month. It comes a week after an earthquake caused a radioactive spillage at another atomic plant. The operator, Hokkaido Electric Power (Hepco), said there was no danger of a radiation leak and there were no injuries during the incident at the Tomari plant. - The Guardian

23 July 07, Japan - Nuclear plants ill-equipped for fires

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