Safety and security concerns raised after equipment inspection at research facility just north of Tokyo goes wrong
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Comment by Starr DiGiacomo on March 10, 2018 at 12:33am Comment by Starr DiGiacomo on February 22, 2018 at 2:55am http://www.yakimaherald.com/news/local/radioactive-contamination-fo...
Feb 21, 2018
A small amount of radioactive contamination has been found in the air filters of two vehicles parked at the Plutonium Finishing Plant at the Hanford nuclear reservation, according to a Seattle-based Hanford watchdog group.
Hanford Challenge took five filters from four vehicles in Richland and Pasco that Hanford workers parked at the plant. The cars previously were checked at Hanford and declared clean of contamination, according to Hanford Challenge.
The filters included a mix of cabin and engine filters, with the contamination found in two of the engine filters.
In response, an employee issued a stop-work order Tuesday on the use of government vehicles at the plant until more checks for radioactive contamination could be done. Any worker who believes conditions are unsafe can halt work.
The filters collected off Hanford were sent to Marco Kaltofen, who is president of Boston Chemical Data Corp. and an affiliated research engineer at Worcester Polytechnic Institute’s Nuclear Science and Engineering Program in Massachusetts, for analysis for radioactive contamination.
These vehicles were used by their families to carry groceries and to go to and from work.
They contained americium, a radioactive material associated with the past production of plutonium at Hanford for the nation’s nuclear weapons program, according to the analysis.
Americium also is used in home smoke detectors, with a smoke detector containing up to about about 1 million picocuries of americium, according to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
The amount measured per gram of material tested from worker cars was about 1 picocurie.
However, the americium in smoke detectors is contained in ceramic and foil to prevent it from becoming airborne like the contamination at the Plutonium Finishing Plant, and the Environmental Protection Agency warns against tampering with it.
The bottom line is that Hanford officials should be controlling plutonium and americium, and americium should not be found in worker cars, said Tom Carpenter, Hanford Challenge executive director.
“The owners of these vehicles are devastated and scared about the health of their families,” he said. “These vehicles were used by their families, to carry groceries and to go to and from work.”
Carpenter had expected that no contamination would be found, considering the filters from just four cars were checked. But after finding two of four cars with contamination, Hanford Challenge and Kaltofen are checking filters from more vehicles.
The fact that vehicles were checked and released to these workers, only to find that they were still contaminated, raises disturbing questions about the credibility of Hanford’s program.
After a spread of radioactive contamination was discovered in mid December at the Plutonium Finishing Plant, the Department of Energy said seven cars employees had parked at the plant while they were working had specks of radioactive contamination.
The contamination was on the exterior of the vehicles. Hanford officials say the contamination was removed and workers were free to drive those and other cars home.
“The fact that vehicles were checked and released to these workers, only to find that they were still contaminated, raises disturbing questions about the credibility of Hanford’s program,” Carpenter said.
DOE said in its daily report Tuesday afternoon that filters in some private vehicles had been surveyed for radiation and found no contamination in the filters.
The checks would have been done with hand-held detection instruments that likely would not have found amounts as small as a single picocurie, which could be detected in a laboratory analysis.
Survey equipment and processes are designed to detect contamination at levels well below regulatory and worker-protection requirements, according to DOE.
Neither DOE nor its contractor were given the opportunity to split samples to allow Hanford officials to analyze them, the daily report said.
The Washington State Department of Health received the information from Hanford Challenge and was evaluating the data, said John Martell, manager of the Radioactive Air Emissions Section of the department’s Office of Radiation Protection.
It has been doing its own monitoring for the spread of airborne contamination at Hanford, finding very low levels of contamination that might be linked to demolition of the plant miles away.
There have been no levels of radioactive contamination detected off Hanford by the Department of Health that indicate a risk to public health, according to department officials.
But the Department of Health continues to be concerned, Martell said. It sent a letter to the Department of Energy late in January formally listing its concerns and asking for more information.
Finding some contamination in vehicle air filters is not entirely surprising, given that the Department of Health has found contamination in the air at Hanford where the cars would have driven, Martell said.
Tuesday, Hanford crews were surveying the 44 government vehicles used at the Plutonium Finishing Plant in response to the stop-work order.
Plant workers are using offices and parking lots well away from the plant and are shuttled to the plant in government vehicles, as needed, as part of the response to the radioactive contamination spread.
As of 2 p.m. Tuesday, crews had surveyed inside 23 of the government vehicles, finding no contamination.
The filters of two government and one private vehicle that had the greatest exterior contamination after the December contamination spread was discovered have been checked for contamination, with none found, according to DOE.
After an airborne spread of contamination in July at the Plutonium Finishing Plant, 31 workers tested positive for inhaling or ingesting contamination.
Since mid-December 282 central Hanford workers have requested checks for internal contamination.
With some results still pending, 229 workers have been found to have no contamination. Eight workers have small amounts of contamination, with the highest verified dose of radiation from contamination within their body figured at up to 10 millirem per year over 50 years.
In comparison, the average U.S. resident is exposed to about 300 millirem a year from background and naturally occurring radiation.
Comment by Starr DiGiacomo on February 16, 2018 at 10:27pm https://www.lohud.com/story/news/2018/02/16/indian-point-reactor-au...
One of Indian Point’s two nuclear reactors automatically shut down early Friday when a generator failed, prompting an inquiry by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
This is the second time in four months that Indian Point’s Unit 3 shut down after an issue with a generator on the non-nuclear side of the pressurized water reactor.
A spokesman for Indian Point's owner, Entergy, said no radiation was released during the shutdown. “Engineers are investigating to more fully understand the cause of the shutdown before the unit is returned to service,” spokesman Jerry Nappi said.
SHUTDOWN: Indian Point reactor back up and running after six-day sh...
LEAKS: Nuclear Regulatory Commission says Indian Point must resolve...
WASTE: Nuclear waste stranded at Indian Point
In both shutdowns, a component in the electrical generator system failed.
Indian Point’s second reactor, Unit 2, was functioning at 100 percent of its capacity.
NRC’s resident inspector for Indian Point visited the plant shortly after being notified of the shutdown, NRC spokesman Neil Sheehan said.
“He traveled to the control room, where he observed shutdown activities and independently verified plant safety conditions,” Sheehan said “No immediate safety concerns were identified.”
The NRC will continue monitoring repairs and plans to restart the unit. It took six days to restore power following the November shutdown.
Nappi said officials will try to determine whether there are any common issues between the two shutdowns.
During a test of Indian Point's emergency warning system Wednesday, two of 172 sirens -- one in Putnam County, the other in Rockland County -- failed to sound. Both sirens have since been repaired.
Entergy has plans to shut down Indian Point by 2021.
Comment by Stanislav on November 21, 2017 at 8:49am Russia confirms 'extremely high' readings of radioactive pollution
A map provided by the Institute for Radiological Protection and Nuclear Safety shows the detection of ruthenium-106 in France and Europe. (INRS via AP) Image source: newser.com
20 November, 2017. "Russia's meteorological service confirmed on Monday "extremely high" concentrations of the radioactive isotope ruthenium-106 in parts of the country in late September, following European reports about the contamination this month.
"Probes of radioactive aerosols from monitoring stations Argayash and Novogorny were found to contain radioisotope Ru-106" between September 25 and October 1, the Rosgidromet service said.
The highest concentration was registered at the station in Argayash, a village in the Chelyabinsk region in the southern Urals, which had "extremely high pollution" of Ru-106, exceeding natural background pollution by 986 times, the service said.
It did not point to any specific source of the pollution, but the Argayash station is about 30 kilometres from the Mayak nuclear facility, which in 1957 was the site of one of the worst nuclear disasters in history.
Today Mayak is a reprocessing site for spent nuclear fuel.
On November 9, France's Institute for Radioprotection and Nuclear Safety issued a report saying Ruthenium-106 had been detected in France between September 27 and October 13.
It said that the source of the pollution was probably an accident somewhere between the Volga River and the Ural Mountains, adding that the concentrations measured in Europe were not a danger to public health.
Ruthenium-106 is a product of splitting atoms in a reactor and does not occur naturally.
Russia's nuclear corporation Rosatom said at the time that "radiation around all objects of Russian nuclear infrastructure are within the norm and are at the level of background radiation.""
Russia confirms 'extremely high' readings of radioactive pollution. (n.d.). Retrieved November 21, 2017, from https://phys.org/news/2017-11-russia-extremely-high-radioactive-pol...
Comment by Starr DiGiacomo on November 14, 2017 at 10:38pm http://www.1011now.com/content/news/Unusual-event-declared-at-NPPDs...
AUBURN, Neb. – Nebraska Public Power District is responding to an unusual event at its Cooper Nuclear Station due to a hydrogen leak into a main plant area.
The utility declared a “Notification of Unusual Event” (NOUE) today at 11:18 a.m. due to a hydrogen leak into a main plant area. The leak was discovered by a maintenance crew working on the non-nuclear system, and repairs to fix the leak are in progress.
The plant is stable and continues to operate at this time. There is no threat to the public. NPPD has notified the appropriate local, county, state, and federal agencies.
A NOUE is defined as unusual events, minor in nature, which have occurred or are in progress which indicate a potential degradation in the level of safety at the station. If placed on a scale of 1 to 4, with 1 being the least serious level of an emergency and 4 being the most serious level of an emergency, a NOUE would equal a 1.
Cooper Nuclear Station is located three miles southeast of Brownville near the Missouri River. It is owned and operated by the Nebraska Public Power District, with headquarters in Columbus. More information will be provided as it becomes available.
Comment by Starr DiGiacomo on September 22, 2017 at 4:38am http://progressive.org/dispatches/nuclear-plants-plus-hurricanes-di...
September 21, 2017
St. Lucie Nuclear Power Plant at Port St. Lucie, Florida
Although the mainstream media said next to nothing about it, independent experts have made it clear that Hurricanes Harvey and Irma threatened six U.S. nuclear plants with major destruction, and therefore all of us with apocalyptic disaster. It is a danger that remains for the inevitable hurricanes, earthquakes, tsunamis and other natural disasters yet to come.
During Harvey and Irma, six holdovers from a dying reactor industry—two on the Gulf Coast at South Texas, two at Key Largo and two more north of Miami at Port St. Lucie—were under severe threat of catastrophic failure. All of them rely on off-site power systems that were extremely vulnerable throughout the storms. At St. Lucie Unit One, an NRC official reported a salt buildup on electrical equipment requiring a power downgrade in the midst of the storm.
Loss of backup electricity was at the core of the 2011 catastrophe at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant in Japan when the tsunami there and ensuing flood shorted out critical systems. The reactor cores could not be cooled. Three melted. Their cores have yet to be found. Water pouring over them flooded into the Pacific, carrying away unprecedented quantities of cesium and other radioactive isotopes. In 2015, scientists detected radioactive contamination from Fukushima along the coast near British Columbia and California.
Four of six Fukushima Daichi reactors suffered hydrogen explosions, releasing radioactive fallout far in excess of what came down after Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Extreme danger still surrounds Fukushima’s highly radioactive fuel pools, which are in varied stages of ruin.
“In addition to reactors, which at least are within containment structures, high-level radioactive waste storage pools are not within containment, and are also mega-catastrophes waiting to happen, as in the event of a natural disaster like a hurricane,” says Kevin Kamps of the activist group Beyond Nuclear.
In 1992 Hurricane Andrew paralyzed fire protection systems at Florida’s Turkey Point and so severely damaged a 350-foot-high tower it had to be demolished. The eye of that storm went directly over the reactor, sweeping away support buildings valued at $100 million or more.
There’s no reason to rule out a future storm negating fire protection systems, flinging airborne debris into critical support buildings, killing off-site backup power, and more.
As during Andrew, the owners of the nuclear plants under assault from Harvey and Irma had an interest in dragging their feet on timely shut-downs. Because they are not liable for downwind damage done in a major disaster, the utilities can profit by keeping the reactors operating as long as they can, despite the obvious public danger.
Viable evacuation plans are a legal requirement for continued reactor operation. But such planning has been a major bone of contention, prompting prolonged court battles at Seabrook, New Hampshire, and playing a critical role in the shutdown of the Shoreham reactor on Long Island. After a 1986 earthquake damaged the Perry reactor in Ohio, then-Governor Richard Celeste sued to delay issuance of the plant’s operating license. A state commission later concluded evacuation during a disaster there was not possible. After Andrew, nuclear opponents like Greenpeace questioned the right of the plant to continue operating in light of what could occur during a hurricane.
Throughout the world, some 430 reactors are in various stages of vulnerability to natural disaster, including ninety-nine in the United States. Numerous nuclear plants have already been damaged by earthquakes, storms, tsunamis, and floods. The complete blackout of any serious discussion of what Harvey and Irma threatened to do to these six Texas and Florida reactors is cause for deep concern.
Harvey Wasserman’s California Solartopia show airs at KPFK-FM in Los Angeles; his Green Power & Wellness Show is podcast at prn.fm. He is the author of Solartopia! Our Green-Powered Earth and co-author of Killing Our Own: The Disaster of America’s Experience with Atomic Radiation.
Comment by M. Difato on September 7, 2017 at 3:03pm Exelon Corporation: Nine Mile Point Unit 1 Offline
https://www.twst.com/update/exelon-corporation-nine-mile-point-unit...
OSWEGO, N.Y. - Nine Mile Point Unit 1 automatically shut down at 11:58 a.m. Wednesday when a component failed in the system that regulates water level during normal operation. Operators responded and all safety systems functioned as designed.
Technicians will repair and fully test the system before returning Unit 1 to service. Nine Mile Point Unit 2 remains online. The Unit 1 outage will not impact electrical service to customers..."
Comment by Starr DiGiacomo on June 11, 2017 at 7:28pm https://nsnbc.me/2017/06/11/seventy-new-cracks-discovered-at-belgiu...
Published On: Sun, Jun 11th, 2017
nsnbc : Experts discovered new, additional cracks in reactor 2 at the Tihange nuclear power plant, located near the city of Liege, said Belgian Interior Minister Jan Jambon. The discovery of some 70 new cracks contradicts claims by some experts who said previously discovered cracks had been there since the reactor was built and irrelevant for the reactors operational safety. The reactor’s designed lifespan has been substantially extended despite warnings from experts and protests by neighboring communities in Belgium, the Netherlands and Germany.
Responding to an inquiry from the parliamentary group of Belgium’s Green Party, Interior Minister Jan Jambon admitted that experts discovered 70 more cracks in the pressure vessel of reactor two at the Tihange nuclear power plant (NPP) than during a previous inspection in 2014. However, Jambon claimed that the discovery of these additional cracks had no impact on the operational safety of the reactor at all.
Jambon stated that the additional 70 cracks had been discovered because the ultra-sound probes used to inspect the reactor vesselhad been placed at different locations than during inspections in 2014. Previously discovered cracks were no longer considered as damage or as posing a risk to operational security — The results of the latest inspection, in their entirety, prompted Belgium’s nuclear safety agency to state that it has no reason to oppose the operation of the reactor, said Interior Minister Jambon.
In 2015 Belgium’s Federal Nuclear Agency (FANC) registered a total of 3,149 reports about damages and incidents at reactor 2 at the Tihange NPP. This number had risen by 2.2 percent to 3,219 after the latest inspection, noted the NGO Nucléaire Stop. The NGO as well as experts from neighboring municipalities stress that it is no longer safe to operate the aging reactor.
Neighboring communities in Belgium, Germany and the Netherlands have long criticized the Belgian government for extending the life-span of the reactors at Tihange and Doel beyond their design limits. On June 25 concerned citizens and grassroots movements from Germany will travel to Tihange to create a human-chain around the Tihange NPP. Activists and critics have begun describing the Tihange NPP as “The Mummy”, stressing that a disaster that could force Belgium to build a Chernobyl-style “Sarcophagus” could happen any time. Continues.......
Comment by Starr DiGiacomo on June 11, 2017 at 9:19am http://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/hanford-radiation-alarm-pr...
Originally published June 8, 2017 at 1:43 pm
The order was lifted about four hours later after low levels of radiation were detected at the Hanford Nuclear Reservation, the site of a massive cleanup.
SPOKANE — Radiation warning alarms sounded Thursday at a former plutonium-production plant in Washington state, prompting a take-cover order that sent about 350 workers seeking cover indoors during the demolition of a plant that for decades had helped make nuclear weapons.
The order was lifted about four hours later after low levels of radiation were detected at the Hanford Nuclear Reservation, the site of a massive cleanup.
The Energy Department said no injuries were reported, and workers had applied an adhesive product to the contamination to prevent it from spreading from locations on sidewalks and near a vehicle access gate at the Plutonium Finishing Plant.
Workers were continuing to monitor the air for any further contamination. No other details were provided about the incident.
“Air monitoring alarms during demolition are not unexpected,” the Energy Department said in a news release, noting the alarms are used to ensure demolition of the plant proceeds safely.
The incident followed the collapse last month of a tunnel at the facility that contained nuclear waste, prompting another evacuation. The Energy Department has said no injuries or contamination was reported as a result of the collapse.
The alarm Thursday rang as crews were removing outdoor equipment at the highly contaminated 580-square-mile (1,502 square kilometer) facility near Richland, Washington.
Hanford made about two-thirds of the plutonium for the nation’s nuclear arsenal, and now is engaged in cleaning up the huge volume of resulting radioactive waste at the site established by the Manhattan Project during World War II.
The tunnel collapse occurred on May 9 in a 360-foot long (110-meter) rail tunnel built in 1956 from timber, concrete and steel. Radioactive waste was stored inside, and the entrance was sealed in 1965.
The tunnel contains a mixture of radioactive and chemical waste and irradiated equipment, including eight contaminated rail cars.
The ground above the collapse has been entirely covered by a huge tarp and will be filled with a cement-like grout to prevent future problems.
The cleanup at Hanford is expected to last until 2060 and cost $100 billion more than the $19 billion already spent.
Comment by Starr DiGiacomo on June 11, 2017 at 8:33am https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/jun/08/japan-nuclear-workers...
Safety and security concerns raised after equipment inspection at research facility just north of Tokyo goes wrong
Wednesday 7 June 2017 22.16 EDT Last modified on Thursday 8 June 2017 08.24 EDT
Five workers at a Japanese nuclear facility have been exposed to high levels of radiation after a bag containing plutonium apparently broke during an equipment inspection.
Contamination was found inside the nostrils of three of the five men, a sign they had inhaled radioactive dust, the Japan Atomic Energy Agency (JAEA) said on Wednesday. All five also had radioactive material on their limbs after removing protective gear and taking a shower.
Agency spokesman Masataka Tanimoto said one of the men had high levels of plutonium exposure in his lungs. The worker, in his 50s, had opened the lid of the container when some of the 300g of plutonium and uranium in the broken bag flew out.
The incident occurred on Tuesday at the agency’s Oarai research and development centre, a facility for nuclear fuel study that uses plutonium. It lies in Ibaraki prefecture, just north of Tokyo.
The cause of the accident is under investigation, the state-run agency said. It raised nuclear security concerns as well as questions about whether the workers were adequately protected.
Internal exposure creates the greatest concern because of the risk of cancer. The man’s exposure, 22,000 Becquerels, could mean the effect on his lungs may not be immediately life-threatening but would add up over time, and he would need to be regularly monitored, said Makoto Akashi, a doctor at the National Institute of Radiological Sciences, where the workers are being treated.
Shunichi Tanaka, the chairman of the Nuclear Regulation Authority, blamed work routine complacency as a possible cause. Regulators have started investigating possible violations of safety standards at the facility.
JAEA has a poor safety record at another site – Monju, a plutonium-burning fast breeder reactor that it oversees. There was a major accident there in 1995 and has since hardly operated. The government recently decided to close the facility.
Japan’s possession of large plutonium stockpiles, from the country’s spent-fuel recycling program, has faced international criticism. Critics say Japan should stop extracting plutonium, which could be used to develop nuclear weapons.
To reduce the stockpile, Japan plans to burn plutonium in the form of Mox fuel – a mixture of plutonium and uranium – in conventional reactors. But the restarting of halted nuclear plants has proceeded slowly amid persistent anti-nuclear sentiment since the 2011 Fukushima nuclear reactor meltdown caused by a massive earthquake and tsunami.
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https://nuclear-news.net/2018/03/09/radioactive-leaks-from-bugey-nu...
Radioactive leaks from Bugey nuclear power plant, near Lyon, France
power plant, 35 km from Lyon. Four associations complain and call for the
immediate shutdown of the plant, which combines risks of all kinds.
On December 20, 2017, EDF detected an abnormal concentration of tritium in a
piezometer (tube allowing access to the water table) on the site of the
Bugey nuclear power station. The concentration of this radioactive
substance, which can cause serious damage to the DNA, reached 670
Becquerels per liter.
Larger concentration peaks (up to 1600 Bq / l) were
detected on subsequent days and at other locations on the site. This
presence of tritium in the Rhône water table suggests the release into the
environment of other radioelements and probably chemical elements.
Contaminated water has also certainly reached the Rhône.
http://www.sortirdunucleaire.org/Fuite-radioactive-a-la-centrale-nu...