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U.S. Nuclear Regulators Weaken Safety Rules, Fail To Enforce Them: AP Investigation
LACEY TOWNSHIP, N.J. -- Federal regulators have been working closely with the nuclear power industry to keep the nation's aging reactors operating within safety standards by repeatedly weakening those standards, or simply failing to enforce them, an investigation by The Associated Press has found.
Time after time, officials at the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission have decided that original regulations were too strict, arguing that safety margins could be eased without peril, according to records and interviews.
The result? Rising fears that these accommodations by the NRC are significantly undermining safety – and inching the reactors closer to an accident that could harm the public and jeopardize the future of nuclear power in the United States.
Examples abound. When valves leaked, more leakage was allowed – up to 20 times the original limit. When rampant cracking caused radioactive leaks from steam generator tubing, an easier test of the tubes was devised, so plants could meet standards.
Failed cables. Busted seals. Broken nozzles, clogged screens, cracked concrete, dented containers, corroded metals and rusty underground pipes – all of these and thousands of other problems linked to aging were uncovered in the AP's yearlong investigation. And all of them could escalate dangers in the event of an accident.
Yet despite the many problems linked to aging, not a single official body in government or industry has studied the overall frequency and potential impact on safety of such breakdowns in recent years, even as the NRC has extended the licenses of dozens of reactors.
Industry and government officials defend their actions, and insist that no chances are being taken. But the AP investigation found that with billions of dollars and 19 percent of America's electricity supply at stake, a cozy relationship prevails between the industry and its regulator, the NRC.
Records show a recurring pattern: Reactor parts or systems fall out of compliance with the rules. Studies are conducted by the industry and government, and all agree that existing standards are "unnecessarily conservative."
Regulations are loosened, and the reactors are back in compliance.
read more... userfiles/file/AP Investigation of NRC weakening rules.pdf
Virginia lawmakers flying to France as part of lobbying push for uranium mining
By Anita Kumar, Published: June 16
Pueblo County Commission rejects land proposal for nuclear power plant
RICHMOND — More than a dozen Virginia legislators are flying to France this month on all-expenses paid trips as part of an aggressive lobbying effort by a company pushing lawmakers to lift a ban on uranium mining in the state.
Virginia Uranium invited nearly all 140 state lawmakers to France as it looks to mine what is thought to be the largest deposit of uranium in the United States, in south central Virginia, despite concerns about unearthed radioactive material that could contaminate the area’s land, air and drinking water...
read more...
userfiles/file/Virginia lawmakers flying to France as part of lobbying push for uranium mining.pdf
By Mark Jaffe
The Denver Post
Posted: 04/25/2011 06:18:54 PM MDT
Updated: 04/25/2011 09:59:36 PM MDT
PUEBLO — The plan to build a nuclear power plant on the outskirts of this industrial city was rejected by the Pueblo County Commission due to "a significant lack of material information."
The proposal by prominent, local attorney Don Banner would have taken 24,000 acres and turned it into a planned unit development area for energy development.
The 3-0 vote brought cheers and applause from the audience of about 100 people.
"This decision should send a message to nuclear everywhere," said Ross Vincent, chairman of the Sierra Club Sangre de Cristo Group.
read more... userfiles/file/Pueblo County Commission rejects land proposal for nuclear power plant.pdf
Japan mulls a stricter evacuation zone near plant
By MARI YAMAGUCHI and ELAINE KURTENBACH, Associated Press Mari Yamaguchi And Elaine Kurtenbach, Associated Press – Wed Apr 20, 6:57 am ET
TOKYO – Japanese authorities may for the first time strictly enforce their evacuation zone around a crippled nuclear plant, citing concerns Wednesday over radiation risks for residents returning to check on their homes.
About 70,000-80,000 people were living in the 10 towns and villages within 12 miles (20 kilometers) of the Fukushima Dai-ichi plant before the March 11 earthquake and tsunami wrecked its power and cooling systems, setting off the worst nuclear power crisis since the 1986 catastrophe at Chernobyl.
Virtually all of the residents left when the government ordered the area evacuated on March 12, but some occasionally have returned and police cannot legally block them. There currently is no penalty for violating the zone.
read more... userfiles/file/Japan mulls a stricter evacuation zone near plant.pdf
Japan Elevates Nuclear Crisis to Level of Chernobyl
Apr 12, 2011 – 8:44 AM
Ryan Nakashima and Yuri Kageyama
AP
TOKYO -- Japan raised the crisis level at its crippled nuclear plant Tuesday to a severity on par with the 1986 Chernobyl disaster, citing high overall radiation leaks that have contaminated the air, tap water, vegetables and seawater.
Japanese nuclear regulators said they raised the rating from 5 to 7 - the highest level on an international scale of nuclear accidents overseen by the International Atomic Energy Agency - after new assessments of radiation leaks from the Fukushima Dai-ichi plant since it was disabled by the March 11 tsunami.
The new ranking signifies a "major accident" that includes widespread effects on the environment and health, according to the Vienna-based IAEA. But Japanese officials played down any health effects and stressed that the harm caused by Chernobyl still far outweighs that caused by the Fukushima plant.
The revision came a day after the government added five communities to a list of places people should leave to avoid long-term radiation exposure. A 12-mile (20-kilometer) radius already had been cleared around the plant.
The news was received with chagrin by residents in Iitate, one of the five communities, where high levels of radiation have been detected in the soil. The village of 6,200 people is about 40 kilometers from the Fukushima plant.
"It's very shocking to me," said Miyuki Ichisawa, 52, who runs a coffee shop in Iitate. "Now the government is officially telling us this accident is at the same level of Chernobyl."
Iitate's town government decided Tuesday to ban planting of all farm products, including rice and vegetables, said local official Shinichi Momma. The national government earlier banned rice growing there but not necessarily vegetables.
Japanese officials said the leaks from the Fukushima plant so far amount to a tenth of the radiation emitted in the Chernobyl disaster, but said they eventually could exceed Chernobyl's emissions if the crisis continues.
"This reconfirms that this is an extremely major disaster. We are very sorry to the public, people living near the nuclear complex and the international community for causing such a serious accident," said Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano.
userfiles/file/Japan%20Elevates%20Nuclear%20Crisis%20to%20Level%20of%20Chernobyl.pdf
Japan to evacuate more towns around crippled nuclear plant
By Matt Smith, CNN
April 11, 2011 11:00 a.m. EDT
Tokyo (CNN) -- Japan's government called for evacuations Monday from several towns beyond the danger zone already declared around the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, warning that residents could receive high doses of radiation over the coming months.
Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano said the municipalities are likely to see long-term radiation levels that exceed international safety standards, and he warned that the month-old crisis at Fukushima Daiichi is not yet over.
"Things are relatively more stable, and things are stabilizing," he said. "However, we need to be ready for the possibility that things may turn for the worse."
And about an hour after he spoke, a fresh earthquake rattled the country, forcing workers to evacuate the plant and knocking out power to the three damaged reactors for about 40 minutes, the plant's owner, the Tokyo Electric Power Company, reported. The magnitude 6.6 tremor came a month to the day after the magnitude 9 quake and tsunami that knocked out the plant's cooling systems, and followed a magnitude 7.1 aftershock Thursday night.
read more... userfiles/file/Japan to evacuate more towns around crippled nuclear plant.pdf
NRC's Pro-Nuke Spin on Evacuation Zones
Among the many obvious lessons of the ongoing nuclear power disaster at the Fukushima nuclear complex in Japan is that the 10-mile evacuation zone the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission has insisted upon for nuclear plants here is a product of the pro-nuclear NRC’s wishful thinking.
The U.S. government has been directing Americans within 50 miles of the Fukushima reactors to evacuate. That’s a somewhat more realistic distance than a 10-mile evacuation zone. This acknowledgement, long in coming, has special meaning to a third of the U.S. population -- some 108 million Americans who live within 50 miles of nuclear power plants. The largest concentration is the 20 million people who live within 50 miles from the Indian Point two-nuclear plant complex in Buchanan, New York just 28 miles north of the New York City line. A 50-mile evacuation zone for Indian Point would cover all of Manhattan and much of the rest of New York City and Long Island, as well as large portions of Connecticut and New Jersey.
The two Indian Point plants have long been troubled, having undergone numerous minor accidents. Moreover, they sit at the intersection of two earthquake faults.
read more... userfiles/file/NRC pro-nuke spin.pdf
Japan Nuke Plant Operator to Dump Radioactive Water Into Ocean
In this Saturday, April 2, 2011 photo released by Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO) via Kyodo News, leaking radioactive contaminated water drain through crack of a maintenance pit, right, into the sea, near the Unit 2 reactor of Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant.
TOKYO – The operator of Japan's stricken Fukushima nuclear plant said Monday it planned to dump thousands of tons of radioactive water into the Pacific, as the government was accused of covering up the extent of radiation levels.
"We have no choice but to release water tainted with radioactive materials into the ocean as a safety measure," Yukio Edano, the government’s chief spokesman told a new conference.
The Jiji press agency reported that a TEPCO spokesman said the 11,500 tons of water were only weakly radioactive and that the release would take place "as soon as necessary preparations are made."
The broadcaster NHK reported Monday that the Japanese government withheld the release of data showing that radiation exceeded safe levels more than 18 miles from the plant, beyond the 12-mile evacuation zone.
read more... userfiles/file/Japan Nuke Plant Operator to Dump Radioactive Water Into Ocean.pdf
Nuclear's green cheerleaders forget Chernobyl at our peril
Pundits who downplay the risks of radiation are ignoring the casualities of the past. Fukushima's meltdown may be worse
Every day there are more setbacks to solving the Japanese nuclear crisis and it's pretty clear that the industry and governments are telling us little; have no idea how long it will take to control; or what the real risk of cumulative contamination may be. The authorities reassure us by saying there is no immediate danger and a few absolutist environmentalists obsessed with nuclear power because of the urgency to limit emissions repeat the industry mantra that only a few people died at Chernobyl – the worst nuclear accident in history. Those who disagree are smeared and put in the same camp as climate change deniers. I prefer the words of Alexey Yablokov, member of the Russian academy of sciences, and adviser to President Gorbachev at the time of Chernobyl: "When you hear 'no immediate danger' [from nuclear radiation] then you should run away as far and as fast as you can." read more... userfiles/file/GuardianUKForgetChernobylatPeril4-1-11.pdf
By Kiyoshi Takenaka and Chisa Fujioka Kiyoshi Takenaka And Chisa Fujioka – Sat Apr 2, 12:40 pm ET
TOKYO (Reuters) – Japanese officials grappling on Sunday to end the world's worst nuclear crisis since Chernobyl were focusing on a crack in a concrete pit that was leaking radiation into the ocean from a crippled reactor.
Tokyo Electric Power Co (TEPCO) said it had found a crack in the pit at its No.2 reactor in Fukushima, generating readings 1,000 millisieverts of radiation per hour in the air inside the pit.
read more... userfiles/file/Japan%20nuclear%20struggle%20focuses%20on%20cracked%20reactor%20pit.pdf
Status report: Reactor-by-reactor at the Fukushima Daiichi plant
By the CNN Wire Staff
April 3, 2011 6:51 a.m. EDT
(CNN) -- Since March 11, the six reactors at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant have been in various states of disrepair after a 9.0-magnitude earthquake and subsequent tsunami struck the area.
Here is the latest on each reactor and efforts to prevent further releases of radioactive material.
read more... userfiles/file/Status report.pdf
Radiation in Seawater May Be Spreading in Japan
Mar 28, 2011 – 6:10 AM, Shino Yuasa, AP
TOKYO -- Workers at Japan's damaged nuclear plant raced to pump out contaminated water suspected of sending radioactivity levels soaring as officials warned Monday that radiation seeping from the complex was spreading to seawater and soil.
Mounting obstacles, missteps and confusion at the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear complex have stymied emergency workers struggling to cool down the overheating plant and avert a disaster with global implications. read more... userfiles/file/Radiation%20in%20Seawater%20May%20Be%20Spreading%20in%20Japan.pdf
C-Span press conference, Friday, March 25, 2011:
Opening statement by Cindy Folkers of Beyond Nuclear (www.beyondnuclear.org)
The book discussed, translated into English, published by top scientists in Russia on the effects on health from Chernobyl: "Chernobyl: Consequences of the Catastrophe for People and the Environment," by Alexey V. Yablokov, Vassily B. Nesterenko, Alexey V. Nesterenko, Ed. Janette D. Sherman-Nevinger. Published in the Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, Volume 1181: http://www.c-spanvideo.org/program/Chernob
Dangerous Breach Suspected at Japan Nuclear Plant
AP: Jay Alabaster and Shino Yuasa
TOKYO -- A suspected breach in the core of a reactor at the stricken Fukushima nuclear plant could mean more serious radioactive contamination, Japanese officials revealed Friday, as the prime minister called the country's ongoing fight to stabalize the plant "very grave and serious."
A somber Prime Minister Naoto Kan sounded a pessimistic note at a briefing hours after nuclear safety officials announced what could be a major setback in the urgent mission to stop the plant from leaking radiation, two weeks after a devastating earthquake and tsunami disabled it.
read more... userfiles/file/Dangerous%20Breach%20Suspected%20at%20Japan%20Nuclear%20Plant.pdf
FDA Halts Imports Of Dairy And Produce From
Area Of Japan Affected By Nuclear Radiation
WASHINGTON -- The Food and Drug Administration said Tuesday it will halt imports of dairy products and produce from the area of Japan where a nuclear reactor is leaking radiation.
The FDA said those foods will be detained at entry and will not be sold to the public. The agency previously said it would just step up screening of those foods.
Other foods imported from Japan, including seafood, still will be sold to the public but screened first for radiation.
Japan's Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear complex has been leaking radiation after it was damaged in a devastating earthquake and tsunami earlier this month. The sea near the nuclear plant has also shown elevated levels of radioactive iodine and cesium, prompting the government to test seafood.
The report says the problems occurred at the plants because plant managers "tolerated safety problems."
Texas nuclear plant expansion in doubt
NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- Utility company NRG has put the brakes on a plan to build two new nuclear reactors at its South Texas plant, CEO David Crane said Wednesday.
High levels of uncertainty in the aftermath of Japan's nuclear disasters have led the company to limit work on the project to the licensing and securing of federal loan guarantees, Crane said.
No new nuclear plant has won final approval in the United States since the Three Mile Island accident in 1979, although site work is being done at a couple of locations around the country. Nuclear Crisis in Japan
UPDATE, Noon, Wednesday, March 23, 2011. The Austrian Central Institute for Meteorology and Geodynamics (ZAMG), which is advising the International Atomic Energy Agency, reports that releases of radioactive Cesium (hazardous life: 300-600 years) from Fukushima now are 20-60% those of Chernobyl; releases of Iodine-131 are at 20% Chernobyl releases.
UPDATE, 11:00 am, Wednesday, March 23, 2011. We have received no recent updates on the condition of the reactors and fuel pools at Fukushima Daiichi. In this case, hopefully no news is good news. Radioactive Iodine-131 has been found in Tokyo’s water supply at twice the allowable level for infants. The government is telling people not to let infants drink tap water or use it in formula. Since Tokyo is some 150 miles away, it is likely elevated levels of radiation are also being found in other cities’ water, although this has not been confirmed. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has banned import of milk and vegetables from Japan to the United States.
UPDATE, 10:30 am, Saturday, March 19, 2011. Officials believe they are having some success using a variety of methods to cool the damaged reactors at the Fukushima site, including fire trucks and a remotely-operated system that can spray water for seven hours at a time. A power cable has apparently finally been placed at the site (after several incorrect reports that this already had happened), and may be hooked up later on Saturday. If successful, this would provide power to the site. However, the condition of the safety systems inside the reactors is unknown, so it is also unknown whether offsite power will prove to be the savior it would have been a week ago.
The condition of the fuel pools, especially at Units 3 and 4, appears to remain more serious.
TEPCO has cut holes in the roofs of the Units 5 and 6 containment buildings in an effort to remove building pressure and prevent explosions such as those that severely damaged Units 1, 3 and 4. This means some radiation is certainly being released through these holes.
Contaminated milk and spinach has been found; the spinach was growing 60 miles from the site. More food contamination can be expected in the coming days and weeks.
Union of Concerned Scientists criticizes U.S. nuke plant safety
March 17, 2011|By Allan Chernoff, CNN
(CNN) -- The Union of Concerned Scientists said Thursday that U.S. nuclear plant owners have failed to address known safety problems that have led to serious issues at certain plants, posing potential dangers to the public.
The organization's report, focusing on 14 incidents at U.S. nuclear facilities last year, concludes the Nuclear Regulatory Commission has a mixed record of responding to safety issues, sometimes catching deficiencies, other times overlooking or dismissing operational problems.
"That plant owners could have avoided nearly all 14 near-misses in 2010 had they corrected known deficiencies in a timely manner suggests that our luck at nuclear roulette may someday run out," the report concludes.
The Union of Concerned Scientists describes itself as "the leading U.S. science-based nonprofit organization working for a healthy environment and a safer world." It has been criticized by right-leaning groups as having a liberal orientation.
The report's chief author is David Lochbaum, a nuclear engineer and director of organization's Nuclear Safety Project.
Among the lapses cited in the report is a case in which critical safety components were disabled at the Calvert Cliffs nuclear power plant in Maryland because of the failure of an electrical device that had been in use beyond its service lifetime.
The report says this was the result of the reactor owners ending a program to routinely replace safety components. Only later, it says, did the plant initiate a new system for monitoring degradation of safety parts.
In another case, workers at the Brunswick nuclear plant in North Carolina didn't know how to activate the system summoning emergency workers to the site, the report says. As a result, when an emergency was declared, the response team was not properly staffed within the required amount of time.
None of the safety problems cited in the report caused harm to plant employees or the public.
The report applauds several cases in which Nuclear Regulatory Commission inspectors "made outstanding catches of safety problems."
For example, commission inspectors refused to accept the decision of supervisors at South Carolina's Oconee plant not to inspect safety systems on the facility's Units 2 and 3 after failure of the safety system on Oconee's Unit 1. Nuclear Regulatory Commission pressure led to further safety checks at Oconee, and those checks revealed system failures that the commission ensured were addressed and properly resolved.
Germany shuts seven nuclear plants
Brussels to apply stress tests to reactors in European Union
LONDON (MarketWatch) — German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Tuesday said the nation’s seven oldest nuclear power plants will be shut down at least temporarily, as worries over Japan’s deepening nuclear crisis continued to prompt moves by governments and regulators around the world.
In Brussels, European energy ministers agreed in an emergency meeting to conduct stress tests on 143 nuclear plants across the European Union, the Associated Press reported.Merkel’s decision came a day after the chancellor unexpectedly announced that a plan to extend the life spans of the nation’s 17 nuclear plants for an average of 12 years would be put on hold.
Governments around the world are reacting to a deepening nuclear crisis in Japan following last week’s earthquake and tsunami.France, which produces most of its electricity from nuclear power, ordered safety inspections of the nation’s 58 plants, but said it would be “absurd” to say Japan’s problems would condemn nuclear energy, AP reported. Read "Nuclear renaissance in peril after Japan quake."Japanese stocks plunged on Tuesday after dangerous levels of radiation leaked from a damaged nuclear plant. There were signs later Tuesday that Japanese authorities were making progress in their effort to regain control of damaged plants.
Shares of German nuclear-plant operators saw a second consecutive day of heavy losses, with E.ON AG /quotes/comstock/11e!feoan (DE:EOAN 20.67, -0.04, -0.19%) declining 2.8% and RWE AG /quotes/comstock/11e!frwe (DE:RWE 42.50, -0.70, -1.62%) losing 3.6% in Frankfurt.
How vulnerable are U.S. nuclear plants?
By Frances Beinecke, Special to CNN
March 16, 2011 11:23 a.m. EDT
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
- Frances Beinecke: Japan is facing worst nuclear crisis since Chernobyl
- She says the lessons of the nuclear emergency will be crucial for U.S. industry
- Nuclear plants need substantial electrical backup, she says
- Storage of spent fuel rods on site is a major safety concern, Beinecke says
(CNN) -- Our thoughts and prayers go out to the people of Japan as they cope with the fallout of a catastrophic earthquake, a horrific tsunami and the worst nuclear crisis since Chernobyl.
The nuclear situation is complicated, the risks are grave and growing and events are moving too quickly for final judgments or conclusions.
Five days into this crisis, though, several things are clear.
First, nuclear technology carries with it catastrophic risks. Guarding against these risks is expensive, but imperative. We need to do a better job. The tragedy unfolding at the Daiichi nuclear power plant in Fukushima is demonstrating why.
Elevated levels of radioactivity have been released already from Daiichi, which has had explosions at three reactors and a fire at a fourth. As of this writing, 750 workers have been evacuated from the plant, leaving an emergency staff of 50 that is constrained because radiation levels are so high.
The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Frances Beinecke.
Crowd protests nuclear power plan
 They came to stop it Wednesday night — at least 500 people filling the Sangre de Cristo Arts and Conference Center ballroom to protest local attorney Don Banner's plan to zone 24,000 acres in Pueblo County for a nuclear power plant.
So many came, in fact, that the Pueblo County commissioners listened to more than four hours of testimony before recessing the public hearing until tonight, when the final speakers will get their turn. Banner will also be given time to offer rebuttal of the criticism. The meeting is scheduled to begin at 5 p.m.
Wednesday's hearing was the second night of the public hearing on Banner's proposal and it was the opponents' turn. Speaker after speaker gave the commissioners sharp-edged testimony on why the county should reject the plan, claiming nuclear power plants are unsafe and expensive and would brand the county as a "utility closet." They pointed to the continuing news story in Japan where several reactors are failing.
And they focused hard on why the county was allowing Banner to try to rezone land through a planned-unit development process to give it faster consideration. Several speakers quoted a letter from Banner to county officials urging the county to "bend the rules" if necessary to give the zoning request fast consideration.
"When you bend the rules, somebody gets rich and they leave the waste behind," charged Suzanne Morgan, one of the speakers who argued that taxpayers end up paying to decommission nuclear power plants.
During a break, Banner said he used the phrase "bend the rules" in his letter that asked the county not to add more conditions to his rezoning request.
The commissioners have indicated they will not make an immediate decision, but will take time to consider all the information provided by both supporters and critics.
Joseph Leniham, a local attorney, offered them one easy out, saying Congress is considering hearings and a possible two-year moratorium on nuclear plants pending an investigation of the failure at the Fukushima Dai-ichi plant in Japan.
"I suggest you punt for two years," he advised the commissioners.
Banner gave an 80-minute presentation Tuesday night insisting that nuclear power was safe and would be an economic boon to the county. His supporters endorsed that during the four-hour public hearing.
Wednesday brought the backlash with opponents filling the large ballroom and several dozen speaking.
Ross Vincent, of the Sangre de Cristo Chapter of the Sierra Club, said Banner's application — to rezone land in hopes of attracting a future nuclear power developer — was too empty to justify the serious decision the commissioners were facing.
"The concerns about the health and environmental impacts of this project are real," Vincent said. "This is just an application, not a plan, being backed by a dubious sales pitch."
Larry Howe-Kerr, former Pueblo West Metropolitan District manager, spoke for the Better Pueblo group. He said the unanswered questions in Banner's request made it a "blank check" for an unknown future utility if the commissioners approve it.
"These vested rights (you're granting) will dog us for years," he said.
Water for the proposed nuclear plant also came under scrutiny. Banner had said in earlier presentations that one source of water would be the Welton Ditch, but Larry Trujillo, former state lawmaker, told the commissioners that Banner's project has no claim on the Welton Ditch.
Banner's plan has attracted the interest of environmental groups along the Front Range and they came armed
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