Saturday, April 23, 2011

Anothr retrospectiv link dump

Japan Radiation map
created by us dept of energy:
http://energy.gov/news/documents/042111__AMS_Data_April_21__v1.pptx
at
http://blog.energy.gov/content/situation-japan/


List of the Mark 1 BWR reactors (cost-saving early 1970s design used in Fukushima) licensed to operate in AL, NC, MN, NY, IA, IL, GA, MI, NJ, some until 2038 (but these licenses are regularly re-re-extended).

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=439x724479
In the US there are 23 reactors using the MK I containment system that are still operating:
Plant Name     STATE OL Issued OL Renewed OL Expires
Browns Ferry Nuclear Plant, Unit 1 AL 12/20/1973 5/4/2006 12/20/2033
Browns Ferry Nuclear Plant, Unit 2 AL 8/2/1974 5/4/2006 6/28/2034
Browns Ferry Nuclear Plant, Unit 3 AL 8/18/1976 5/4/2006 7/2/2036
Brunswick Steam Electric Plant, Unit 1 NC 9/8/1976 6/26/2006 9/8/2036
Brunswick Steam Electric Plant, Unit 2 NC 12/27/1974 6/26/2006 12/27/2034
Cooper Nuclear Station NE 1/18/1974 1/18/2014
Dresden Nuclear Power Station, Unit 2 IL 2/20/1991 10/28/2004 12/22/2029
Dresden Nuclear Power Station, Unit 3 IL 1/12/1971 10/28/2004 1/12/2031
Duane Arnold Energy Center IA 2/22/1974 2/21/2014
Edwin I. Hatch Nuclear Plant, Unit 1 GA 10/13/1974 1/15/2002 8/6/2034
Edwin I. Hatch Nuclear Plant, Unit 2 GA 6/13/1978 1/15/2002 6/13/2038
Fermi, Unit 2 MI 7/15/1985 3/20/2025
Hope Creek Generating Station, Unit 1 NJ 7/25/1986 4/11/2026
James A. FitzPatrick Nuclear Power Plant NY 10/17/1974 9/8/2008 10/17/2034
Monticello Nuclear Generating Plant, Unit 1 MN 1/9/1981 11/8/2006 9/8/2030
Nine Mile Point Nuclear Station, Unit 1 MI 12/26/1974 10/31/2006 8/22/2029
Oyster Creek Nuclear Generating Station, Unit 1 NJ 7/2/1991 4/8/2009 4/9/2029
Peach Bottom Atomic Power Station, Unit 2 MI 10/25/1973 5/7/2003 8/8/2033
Peach Bottom Atomic Power Station, Unit 3 MI 7/2/1974 5/7/2003 7/2/2034
Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station MI 6/8/1972 6/8/2012
Quad Cities Nuclear Power Station, Unit 1 IL 12/14/1972 10/28/2004 12/14/2032
Quad Cities Nuclear Power Station, Unit 2 IL 12/14/1972 10/28/2004 12/14/2032
Vermont Yankee Nuclear Power Plant, Unit 1 VT 3/21/1973 3/21/2012
http://www.nirs.org/factsheets/bwrfact.htm
23 of these BWRs use a smaller GE Mark I pressure suppression containment conceived as a cost-saving alternative to the larger reinforced concrete containments marketed by competitors.
A large inverted light-bulb-shaped steel structure called "the drywell" is constructed of a steel liner and a concrete drywell shield wall enclosing the reactor vessel--this is considered the "primary" containment.. The atmosphere of the drywell is connected through large diameter pipes to a large hollow doughnut-shaped pressure suppression pool called "the torus", or wetwell, which is half-filled with water. In the event of a loss-of-coolant-accident (LOCA), steam would be released into the drywell and directed underwater in the torus where it is supposed to condense, thus suppressing a pressure buildup in the containment.


The outer concrete building is the "secondary" containment and is smaller and less robust (and thus cheaper to build) than the containment buildings used at most reactors.


As early as 1972, Dr. Stephen Hanauer, an Atomic Energy Commission safety official, recommended that the pressure suppression system be discontinued and any further designs not be accepted for construction permits. Hanauer's boss, Joseph Hendrie (later an NRC Commissioner) essentially agreed with Hanauer, but denied the recommendation on the grounds that it could end the nuclear power industry in the U.S.


...the three original AEC memos, including Hendrie's:


November 11, 1971: outlines problems with the design and pressure suppression system containment.

September 20, 1972: memo from Steven Hanauer recommends that U.S. stop licensing reactors using pressure suppression system

September 25, 1972: memo from Joseph Hendrie (top safety official at AEC) agrees with recommendation but rejects it saying it "could well mean the end of nuclear power..."


In 1976, three General Electric nuclear engineers publicly resigned their prestigious positions citing dangerous shortcomings in the GE design.


An NRC analysis of the potential failure of the Mark I under accident conditions concluded in a 1985 report that Mark I failure within the first few hours following core melt would appear rather likely."


In 1986, Harold Denton, then the NRC's top safety official, told an industry trade group that the "Mark I containment, especially being smaller with lower design pressure, in spite of the suppression pool, if you look at the WASH 1400 safety study, you'll find something like a 90% probability of that containment failing."


...electricity is merely a fleeting by-product of nuclear power plants. The real legacy -- the lasting product of nuclear power plants -- is nuclear waste, which will be a hazard to future generations who will not get one watt of electricity, but will get this toxic legacy for millions of years.
PressTV - 'N-waste to haunt US for generations'
www.presstv.ir
Interview with Paul Gunter, president of Beyond Nuclear in the US.
If they cannot be bothered to find a permanent storage for their waste or even transfer if to dry cask storage now, when they are generating electricity and profits from it every day, what are the chances of that happening in the future when the plant is closed, the people who profited from it long dead or moved away, the area too radioactive to work in? Instead of pushing nukes by subsidizing insurance for tens of billions of dollars, Obama should push them to maximize the dry cask storage as Germany has done.


Some steps by the FDA to protect the food supply
www.fda.gov
FAQs related to Radiation Safety
http://www.fda.gov/NewsEvents/PublicHealthFocus/ucm247403.htm


Hamaoka Nuclear Power Plant must be shut down - The Mainichi Daily News
34.625,138.143
an even worse location
http://mdn.mainichi.jp/perspectives/news/20110418p2a00m0na007000c.html


Radiation around TEPCO
http://www.tepco.co.jp/en/nu/fukushima-np/f1/index-e.html
These are monitoring posts around the perimeter of the facility.
Only "South Of Main Building" is near reactor 1.


mdn.mainichi.jp
Kan first visited the Tamura city gymnasium where residents, mainly of Okuma, have been taking shelter. When he was about to leave the evacuation center after spending about 10 minutes there, some evacuees angrily shouted out, "Leaving already?" One evacuee told the prime minister, "You should try living here." "If you're going to visit evacuation centers, you should talk to everyone there," said another.

The only news is that they've set a date. This was formerly "within a month or so". Slowly slowly.
search.japantimes.co.jp
Prime Minister Naoto Kan's government on Friday instructed parts of Fukushima Prefecture outside the 20-km no-go zone around the crippled No. 1 nuclear plant to evacuate by the end of May, saying that cumulative radiation levels may pose a health risk to residents.

www.telegraph.co.uk
The breast milk of four Japanese mothers has been found to contain small quantities of radioactive iodine.
http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nn20110422b1.html
A case in Kashiwa, Chiba was the worst!


http://allthingsnuclear.org/post/4814761753/susquehanna-spent-fuel-pool-concerns-and-how-i-ended
allthingsnuclear.org
Susquehanna Spent Fuel Pool Concerns, and How I Ended Up at UCS
In November 1992, Don Prevatte and I submitted a report to the NRC regarding our concerns with spent fuel pools...


Cheating the workers:
Meanwhile, the radiation exposure registration center at the
Radiation Effects Association, which keeps track of workers' radiation
exposure, says, "If we apply the general rules to those workers who are
exposed to radiation of 250 millisieverts, we will have to strip them of
chances to work for a considerable number of years. We will treat them
completely separately.
http://mdn.mainichi.jp/mdnnews/news/20110421p2a00m0na009000c.html
A 30-year-old worker with a subcontractor engaged in restoration work at the nuclear power plant said he had been told by an official of a primary contractor that "the radiation you are exposed to this time will not be shown on your radiati...on exposure record book." He said he had also been told: "Even if you are exposed to 250 millisieverts, if you are to work at the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa Nuclear Power Plant, the 250 millisieverts will be exempted."
=Don't worry about it buddy, nobody's counting! You can still work even if you hit the max!


March 24.
The radiation dose received by one-year-old infants outside of a 30-kilometer radius of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant since Saturday's explosion at the plant may have exceeded 100 millisieverts, a computer simulation conducted by the government showed Wednesday.
Haruki Madarame, chairman of the Nuclear Safety Commission of Japan, told reporters, ''The figure represents the level that one-year-old infants would have received and accumulated in their thyroids by
midnight Wednesday since the explosion.''
Madarame said the radiation dose accumulated by adults outside the 30-km zone in their thyroids would be lower.

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