Saturday, June 11, 2011

6/12/2011 JST | 90,000 in shelters; most debris still uncleared 3 months on

Source: Daily Yomiuri Online
Date: June 12, 2011 JST

More than 90,000 people are still living in shelters three months after the Great East Japan Earthquake, and only a fraction of the debris dumped by the ensuing tsunami has been removed, according to official figures.
...
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6/11/2011 | Burglars hit evacuees' homes in Fukushima Pref.

Source: Daily Yomiuri Online
Date: Jun. 11, 2011
by: The Yomiuri Shimbun

Burglars are apparently targeting houses left vacant because they are within 30 kilometers of the crippled Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant.
...
Read full article here

6/7/2011 | Fire at Fort Calhoun Nuclear Power Plant in Nebraska Temporarily Disables Spent Fuel Pool Cooling

Date: Published 6/11/2011
by: Jason Chan


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The Fort Calhoun nuclear power plant, which is near the Missouri river has been shut down since April 9th, for refueling and due to Missouri river flooding concerns.  There has been flooding reported at the Fort Calhoun nuclear power plant parking lots but not within the facility itself.  Quoting the Omaha World Herald:
...
Nuke plant: No floodwater has breached the nuclear power plant at Fort Calhoun, say officials from both the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission and the Omaha Public Power District. NRC spokeswoman Lara Uselding and OPPD spokesman Mike Jones said Thursday that some floodwater is pooling in some of the plant's parking lots, but there had been no confirmed reports of floodwater entering the currently idle plant, they said.
... [1]
At nuclear power plants, spent fuel is often stored on site in large pools of water which have pumps which circulate the water in order to keep the temperature down so that the spent fuel rods do not heat up and catch on fire or melt down. The spent fuel rod pool cooling was temporarily lost resulting from a fire affecting some of the safety systems. On June 7, 2011 9:30 AM a fire alarm sounded and non-essential workers were evacuated. At 9:40 AM an alert was raised with the NRC (Nuclear Regulatory Commission) regarding a fire starting in a room containing electrical equipment. Per the NRC's own Preliminary Notification of Event or Unusual Occurence report PNO-IV-004:
...
DESCRIPTION: At approximately 9:40 a.m., Tuesday, June 7, 2011, the Fort Calhoun Station

(FCS) declared an ALERT due to a fire in an electrical switchgear room. Automatic fire
suppression systems operated as expected. Licensee fire brigade personnel, the Blair Fire
Department, and the Fort Calhoun Fire Department responded to the fire. The fire was
confirmed extinguished at 10:20 a.m. The plant was already in a cold shutdown condition following completion of a planned refueling outage and was maintained safely in cold shutdown. [2]
...
At 1:15 PM the alert was terminated and the evacuated workers returned. [3]  No alerts of this seriousness have been issued by the Fort Calhoun nuclear power plant since 1992 when electrical problems and a faulty valve resulted in 20,000 gallons of reactor coolant being dumped in to the basement of the containment building. [3]

According to Pro Publica the nuclear power plant did have a backup spent fuel pool pump which was not needed in this case:
...
Mike Jones, a spokesman for the plant's owner, the Omaha Public Power District, said Fort Calhoun has a backup pump to provide water to the spent fuel in case the main system is lost. That pump, which runs on a separate power supply from the rest of the plant, was inspected and standing by on Tuesday, but plant operators restored main power to the pool before the emergency pump was needed, he said.
[4]
...

Although the fire was quickly extinguished within an hour of the initial fire alarm, two fire departments were called in which indicates external help was needed to get the fire under control.  Nuclear engineer and industry expert Arnie Gundersen in a recent interview with Robert Knight of the a-Infos Radio Project said that he felt it was fortunate that a full scale disaster was averted, but that this was mostly due to luck rather than good planning.  The situation could have gotten much worse according to Mr. Gundersen, who stated that had all cooling systems failed it would have taken about 80 hours for the water to evaporate and put the spent fuel rods in jeopardy. [5]

Sources:
[1] Omaha World Herald: The latest on flooding
[2] NRC (Nuclear Regulatory Commission) PN (Preliminary Notification)  Report:
PNO-IV-11-004 06/07/2011 Fort Calhoun Station: Fort Calhoun Station Declaration of an ALERT Due to Fire Affecting Plant Safety Systems
[3] Omaha World Herald: Rare alert triggered at nuclear plant
[4] Pro Publica: Electrical Fire Knocks Out Spent Fuel Cooling at Nebraska Nuke Plant
[5] Radio4all.net: NEBRASKA NUKE DISASTER - Flood, Fire and Heat

Note: I am including a link to the NRC Preliminary Notification Reports in the left sidebar which should ideally be scanned on a daily basis considering the flooding going on does place many nuclear power plants in harm's way.

6/10/2011 | Nuclear Ash Cloud Of Radiation Raining On Tokyo From Burning Of Radioactive Fukushima Sewage Sludge

Source: Alexander Higgins Blog
Date: June 10, 2011 at 5:46 pm
by: Alexander Higgins

Independent scientists and local Japanese Government officials reveal that the burning of radioactive sewage sludge is contaminating the city of Tokyo with an ash cloud of nuclear radiation.
...
Read full article here

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Radiation News Archive

Older Radiation News

DateSourceHeadline
4/29/2011Japan TimesTepco, and state, responsible: Kan No player exempt from nuclear crisis redress burden, as government promoted atomic power
4/29/2011Japan TimesTohoku bullet trains fully resume
4/29/201109:15 -0400Zero HedgeTEPCO Releases Video Of Spent Fuel Rod Pool At Reactor 4
4/29/2011 06:59AM JSTJapan TodayMitsubishi Heavy develops forklift with radiation-proof cabin
4/29/2011 06:14AM JSTJapan TodayJapan to launch nuclear accident investigation panel in mid-May: Kan
4/28/2011Truth Frequency NewsUS Government Takes Down HAARP Website to Conceal Evidence of US Weather Modification and Earthquake Inducing Warfare
4/28/2011Russia TodayVIDEO: Fukushima - gross miscarriage of radiation science
4/28/2011EX-SKF Blog#Fukushima I Nuke Plant: A Rare Ground-Level Video Footage
4/28/2011IAEA.orgFukushima Nuclear Accident Update Log
4/28/2011NIKKEI.comJapan Nuclear Operator Postpones Plan To Flood Reactor Vessel
4/28/2011EX-SKF BlogChubu Electric Wants to Restart Hamaoka Nuclear Power Plant in July
4/28/2011Washington's BlogStorms Knock Out 3 Nuclear Reactors in Alabama ... No Leak, But a Reminder of Nuclear Vulnerability
4/28/2011Kyodo NewsFOCUS: Chinese journalists change image of Japan after covering March disaster
4/28/2011 11:33AM EDTReutersJapanese to mark long holiday with volunteer work, not travel
4/28/2011The Japan TimesTepco woman took three times radiation limit
4/28/2011The Japan TimesFukushima city removing schools' topsoil
4/27/2011 03:50 PM JSTJapan TodayBig tank may be put under nuclear plant to store tainted water
4/27/2011Prisonplanet.comEyewitness in Illinois Reports High Radiation Levels on Forsythia Bush
4/26/2011Fairewinds AssociatesVIDEO: Gundersen Postulates Unit 3 Explosion May Have Been Prompt Criticality in Fuel Pool
4/26/2011EX-SKF Blog#Fukushima I Nuke Plant: Contamination Map (Survey Map) by TEPCO
4/26/2011EX-SKF Blog#Fukushima I Nuke Plant: Reactor 4 Spent Fuel Pool May Be Leaking
4/26/2011Washington's BlogIs a Rogue Computer Virus Shutting Down Nuclear Plants Worldwide?
4/25/2011Washington's BlogSomething Odd Is Happening at Reactor Number 4
4/24/2011 03:20 PM JSTJapan TodayVets to enter evacuation zone to deal with abandoned animals
4/24/2011 02:21 PM JSTJapan TodayGov't to launch massive 2-day search for quake bodies
4/24/2011 06:20 AM JSTJapan TodayWorkers locked in battle at nuclear plant; exposure to radiation rising
4/23/2011Japan TodayIs U.S. military relief effort Operation Tomodachi really about friendship?
4/23/2011ReutersChina, S. Korea rebuff Japan on import restrictions after quake
4/23/2011Lewis Whitefield HixsonHi-res photographic proof reactor core exploded at unit 3
4/23/2011Propheticseer.comVIDEO: Radioactive America! What the Mainstream media is NOT TELLING YOU!
4/23/2011EX-SKF Blog#Fukushima I Nuke Plant: "Radiation Contamination Map" of the Plant Exists, But TEPCO Hasn't Released It to Public
4/23/2011EX-SKF Blog#Fukushima I Nuke Plant: Control Over the Independent Press Getting Tighter
4/23/2011EX-SKF Blog#Fukushima I Nuke Plant: Unintended "Water Entombment" of Reactor 1
4/22/2011ReutersJapan earmarks first $50 billion for post-quake rebuild
4/22/2011PressTVJapan's radiation 20,000 times limit
4/22/2011Next Big FutureChina’s nuclear plans could resume by August
4/22/2011 10:06 AM JSTJapan TodayGov't seals off no-go zone around nuclear plant
4/22/2011 07:00 AM JSTJapan TodayAomori business groups ask TEPCO, others to resume building nuclear plants
4/21/2011BloombergTepco to Build Wall for Nuclear Plant After Fukushima Disaster
4/21/2011BloombergTepco Must End ‘Whack-a-Mole,’ Cover Fukushima Reactors as Typhoons Loom
4/21/2011Lucas Whitefield HixsonEPA RADnet Reports Show Plutonium in US since March 18th
4/21/2011The Intel HubDr. Steven Wing And Arnie Gundersen Discuss Global Radiation Exposure and Consequences
4/21/2011Alexander Higgins BlogJapan Nuclear Radiation Detected In Drinking Water In 20 US Cities
4/21/2011Scientific AmericanThe Japan nuclear crisis at Fukushima: A video summary
4/21/2011Wired ScienceOp-Ed: Psychiatric Disorder Could Complicate Japan Quake Recovery
4/21/2011Washington's Blog"The Risk of a Nuclear Catastrophe ... Could Total Trillions of Dollars and Even BANKRUPT A COUNTRY"
4/21/2011The Japan TimesKan to make 20-km no-entry zone binding Holdout households face ouster; some evacuees may get short visits
4/21/2011Japan TodayCo-op sells banned spinach to consumers in eastern Japan
4/21/2011The Japan TimesCarrier returns to Yokosuka as concerns ease
4/21/2011Japan TodayToshiba's U.S. partner withdraws from Texas nuclear power project
4/21/2011The Japan Times21 mini FM stations helping survivors
4/21/2011Washington's BlogIt's Not Just Alternative Energy Versus Fossil Fuels or Nuclear - Energy Has to Become DECENTRALIZED
4/20/2011ZeroHedgeTEPCO Releases First Robot-Captured Video From Inside Reactors 2 And 3
4/20/2011The Japan TimesPneumonia cases rise in Tohoku
4/19/2011 09:46 PMENENEWSJUST IN: Unpublished radiation forecast showed much larger Cesium-137 cloud over North America (VIDEO)
4/20/2011 09:40 AM JSTJapan TodayNuclear plant workers at risk of depression, death from overwork: doctor
4/20/2011 07:15 AM JSTJapan TodayGov't may hike power charges to help cover damages payments
4/20/2011 07:10 AM JSTJapan TodayTsukuba demanded evacuees show radiation certificates
4/20/2011 (Kyodo Time)Japan TimesPowder to remove radiation developed
4/19/2011CRYPTOMEFukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant Photos 10
4/19/2011Washington's BlogFDA Refuses to Test Fish for Radioactivity ... Government Pretends Radioactive Fish Is Safe
4/19/2011NHK World (English)TEPCO to check if plutonium leaked to seabed
4/19/2011BloombergAreva to Deliver Water-Treatment Unit to Tepco's Crippled Fukushima Plant
4/19/2011NHK World (English)Death toll in Japan disaster exceeds 14,000
4/19/2011Japan TodayTEPCO starts moving highly radioactive water to storage facility
4/19/2011ReutersWRAPUP 1-With much at stake, Japan voices confidence in US debt after S&P move
4/19/2011BloombergTepco Robots Find High Radiation Levels in Reactor Buildings
4/18/2011Associated PressRadiation near Japan reactors too high for workers
4/18/2011ReutersJapan "eyes sales tax rise" to pay for post-quake rebuild
4/18/2011The Intel HubUS Nuclear Plant Without Power After Being Hit By Tornado
4/18/2011Washington's BlogNuclear Overseers Are "Fake" Agencies Funded and Controlled by the Nuclear Power Industry
4/16/2011BloombergNoda Says Quake, Tsunami Reconstruction Will Help Japan's Economy Recover
4/16/2011Truth Frequency News(VIDEO) What the Japan Earthquake Sounded Like Under the Water
4/15/2011ReutersCalls grow for Japan PM to quit in wake of quake
4/15/2011Japan TodayTEPCO to pay Y1 mil in provisional damages to 50,000 households
4/15/2011Global Security NewswireJapan Plant Fuel Melted Partway Through Reactors: Report
4/15/2011The Intel HubDr. Mark Sircus: Running For Our Lives
4/15/2011Scientific AmericanDose Detectives: Device Analyzes Radiation Exposure through Teeth and Nails [Slide Show]
4/14/2011Washington's BlogU.S. Providing Inadequate Radiation Readings to the Public
4/14/2011Washington's BlogWhat Foods Are Highest in Antioxidants? Some Inexpensive Foods Are Higher In Antioxidants than the Newest Pricey "Superfoods"
4/14/2011Associated PressJapanese risk radiation to rescue stranded dogs
4/14/2011Truth Frequency News(VIDEO) 400,000 to develop cancer in 200 km radius of Fukushima
4/14/2011Press TVJapan hit by more nuclear crisis
4/14/2011Japan TodayWorkers struggle to remove highly toxic water at nuclear plant
4/14/2011The American DreamMuch Of Northern Japan Uninhabitable Due To Nuclear Radiation?
4/14/2011Sofia News AgencyJapan Mulls to Move Capital over Disaster Worries
4/13/2011Fairewinds AssociatesFukushima Accident Severity Level Raised to '7': Gundersen Discusses Lack of US Radiation Monitoring Data
4/13/2011The Intel HubRecord Levels of Fukushima Japan Nuclear Radiation Detected In Pacific Ocean Will Be Carried Toward US
4/13/2011Zero HedgeTEPCO Confirms Reactor 4 Spent Fuel Pool Is Now An Uncontrolled, Open Air Fission Process
4/13/2011Washington's BlogNo, Japan's Nuclear Reactors Are Not "Stable"
4/12/2011Washington's BlogA U.S. Nuclear Accident Could Be a Lot Worse than Japan
4/12/2011 (4/13/2011 Kyodo)Kyodo NewsWorkers start removing toxic water in level 7-rated nuke crisis
4/12/2011PrisonPlanet.comFukushima Introduces Deadly Strontium Into Environment
4/12/2011Zero HedgeFukushima Vs Chernobyl - Compare And Contrast
4/12/2011 11:16pm EDTReutersTEPCO wary of Fukushima radiation leak exceeding Chernobyl
4/11/2011CRYPTOMEFukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant Photos 6
4/11/2011Russia TodayRadioactive Japanese cars detained in Russia’s Far East
4/11/2011 3:50 PMEnergy NewsJapan raises Fukushima to Level 7, same as Chernobyl
4/11/2011Russia TodayRadiation caught on tape: RT talks to Fukushima zone stalker
4/11/2011The Intel HubJapan Nuclear Radiation In Hawaii Milk At LEAST 600% Above Federal Drinking Water Limits
4/11/2011 10:02AM BSTThe TelegraphJapan earthquake: Fukushima nuclear plant evacuated following aftershock
4/9/2011ForbesRadiation Detected In Drinking Water In 13 More US Cities, Cesium-137 In Vermont Milk
4/9/2011The IndependentJapan to pump radioactive water into sea until Sunday
4/8/2011Washington's BlogJapan's Nuclear Meltdown, the Economic Meltdown, and the Gulf Oil Meltdown All Happened for the SAME REASON
4/8/2011BloombergSony, Nikon Plants Knocked Out by Aftershock, Delaying Recovery
4/8/2011PrisonPlanet.comInside report from Fukushima nuclear reactor evacuation zone
4/8/2011Alexander Higgins BlogJapan Nuclear Radiation Found In Food Being Bought In California Stores
4/7/2011ZeroHedgeWater Leak Found At Onagawa Nuclear Power Plant
4/7/2011Washington's BlogSouth Koreans Wear Masks Out of Fear of Radiation from Japan
4/7/2011PrisonPlanet.comOnagawa Nuclear Plant Loses Power After Earthquake
4/7/2011The Intel Hub“Blinding”Blue Light/ Flash Seen During Earthquake In Japan, Nuclear Plant Loses Power
4/7/2011Natural NewsFukushima dumping of radioactive water into Pacific Ocean violates international law
4/6/2011Alexander Higgins BlogTrue Horrors Of Japan Nuclear Disaster Revealed In Confidential Leaked Government Document
4/6/2011Truth Frequency NewsGreat, now our oceans are sewers…
4/6/2011The Intel HubFukushima Daiichi Radioactive Seawater Model, Spent Fuel Rods DID Explode Into Atmosphere
4/6/2011Japan TodayTEPCO to inject nitrogen into No. 1 reactor to prevent explosion
4/5/2011 14:02Activist PostAmerica and EU Agree: Raise Radiation Levels for Food
4/5/2011 14:02Financial TimesTepco seals leak at nuclear plant
4/5/2011The New York TimesU.S. Sees Array of New Threats at Japan’s Nuclear Plant
4/5/2011The Economic TimesImported food items from Japan banned due to radiation fears
4/5/2011 5:58 AMBusiness InsiderJapan Finds Toxic Fish, As Ocean Radiation Soars To 7.5 Million Times Legal Limit
4/5/2011Kyodo News11,500 TONS of radioctive water dumped in to ocean by TEPCO
4/4/2011Prisonplanet.comUNBELIEVABLE: Fukushima Workers Trying To Plug Radiation Leaks With Bits Of Newspaper, Garbage Bags, Diaper Like Material
4/4/2011IMVAEnd of Week Three
4/3/2011The Intel HubRainwater in California Measured 181 Times The Acceptable Limit For Drinking Water
4/2/2011Washington's BlogUpdate on Japan's Nuclear Crisis
4/2/2011Bearishtrader's Trading BlogValuable Information for Dietary Protection From Radioactivity
3/28/2011Activist PostEPA to Help Mainstream Media Obscure The Truth About Radiation Exposure to Americans
3/17/2011RogueGovernment.comJapanese Nuclear Disaster Being Used To Justify The Elimination Of Nuclear Power To Ensure Supremacy Of Space Based Weapons
3/15/2011UK Mail OnlineAmerica on radiation alert: Japan faces world's worst nuclear accident since Chernobyl as experts warn fallout may reach U.S.
3/14/2011Bearishtrader's Trading BlogJapan Earthquake Causes Fukashima Nuclear Reactor Explosion: Potassium Iodide Recommended by Some
3/11/2011The Intel HubMassive 8.9 Magnitude Earthquake Rocks Japan: Tsunami Warning In 20 Countries
3/11/2011BloombergJapanese Quake Forces Evacuation Near Nuclear Reactor; Oil Refinery Burns