7/22/2011 Inside the Innards of a Nuclear Reactor: Tiny Robots May Monitor Underground Pipes for Radioactive Leaks

Source: Science Daily
Date: 7/22/2011

A spherical robot equipped with a camera may navigate underground pipes of a nuclear reactor by propelling itself with an internal network of valves and pumps. (Credit: Harry Asada/d'Arbeloff Laboratory)

ScienceDaily (July 22, 2011) — As workers continue to grapple with the damaged Fukushima Daiichi nuclear powerplant in Japan, the crisis has shone a spotlight on nuclear reactors around the world. In June, The Associated Press released results from a yearlong investigation, revealing evidence of "unrelenting wear" in many of the oldest-running facilities in the United States.

That study found that three-quarters of the country's nuclear reactor sites have leaked radioactive tritium from buried piping that transports water to cool reactor vessels, often contaminating groundwater. According to a recent report by the U.S. Government Accountability Office, the industry has limited methods to monitor underground pipes for leaks.

"We have 104 reactors in this country," says Harry Asada, the Ford Professor of Engineering in the Department of Mechanical Engineering and director of MIT's d'Arbeloff Laboratory for Information Systems and Technology. "Fifty-two of them are 30 years or older, and we need immediate solutions to assure the safe operations of these reactors."

Asada says one of the major challenges for safety inspectors is identifying corrosion in a reactor's underground pipes. Currently, plant inspectors use indirect methods to monitor buried piping: generating a voltage gradient to identify areas where pipe coatings may have corroded, and using ultrasonic waves to screen lengths of pipe for cracks. The only direct monitoring requires digging out the pipes and visually inspecting them -- a costly and time-intensive operation.

Now Asada and his colleagues at the d'Arbeloff Laboratory are working on a direct monitoring alternative: small, egg-sized robots designed to dive into nuclear reactors and swim through underground pipes, checking for signs of corrosion. The underwater patrollers, equipped with cameras, are able to withstand a reactor's extreme, radioactive environment, transmitting images in real-time from within.

The group presented details of its latest prototype at the 2011 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation.
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7/21/2011 A pro diver who survived tsunami passes on his lessons

Source: Asahi Shimbun
Date: 7/21/2011
by: By YUMI NAKAYAMA

Jun Abe, a professional diver who survived the March 11 tsunami, discusses his experiences with sketches he drew in Osaki, Miyagi Prefecture. Hanging in the background is a diving suit he donned when he was drifting in the tsunami. (Kenta Sujino)

A professional diver who survived the horrendous tsunami after drifting for 7 kilometers on top of a floorboard from his office along with his wife shared his sketches and his experiences with college students in Tokyo, in what he hopes could save their lives someday.
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A sketch by Jun Abe shows how he tried to drag himself on to the floorboard after being thrown into the water in the March 11 quake and tsunami. Only a floorboard of his office in Higashi-Matsushima in Miyagi Prefecture remained when the drifting structure smashed into a bridge, shearing off the building's roof and walls. His wife, Shimako, was also aboard the board, boosting his spirits. (Sketch provided by Jun Abe)

Jun Abe tries to grab the hand of his wife, Shimako, who was in their house about 30 meters from his office when it, swept by the tsunami, came alongside his office building. (Sketch provided by Jun Abe)

7/23/2011 Contrary to power company figures, cost of nuclear power generation highest: research

Source: The Mainichi Daily News
Date: 7/23/2011

Utility companies across the country continue to tout the low cost of nuclear energy on their websites.

Tohoku Electric Power Co. boasts nuclear power's economic efficiency, while Hokkaido Electric Power Co (HEPCO) the stability of its cost. Each site comes with bar graphs indicating the cost of generating power through various power sources, and the figures are exactly the same regardless of the utility. For every kilowatt-hour of power generated, hydroelectricity is listed as costing 11. 9 yen, petroleum 10.7 yen, liquefied natural gas 6.2 yen, coal 5.7 yen, and nuclear 5.3 yen.

In a section of its website responding to questions sent in by elementary school children, Chubu Electric Power Co. informs us that nuclear power "is the cheapest." The media, including the Mainichi, have often cited the information provided to us by power companies.

However, Kenichi Oshima, a professor of environmental economics and policy at Ritsumeikan University, has done some calculations and has reached a completely difference conclusion. Oshima says that the cost for a kilowatt-hour of electrical power between fiscal 1970 and fiscal 2007 was 10.68 yen for nuclear, 3.98 yen for hydroelectric, and 9.9 yen for thermal generation, with nuclear-generated power coming out as the most expensive. These calculations were even presented at a meeting of the government's Atomic Energy Commission last September. So how does one explain these two different conclusions?
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7/22/2011 Japan nuclear scare triggers run for radiation checks

Source: Reuters
Date: Fri Jul 22, 2011 7:30am EDT
by: Kiyoshi Takenaka

(Reuters) - Japanese private research labs with radiation testing gear have been flooded with orders for checks on food and soil samples after shipments of contaminated beef deepened public anxiety over radiation leaks from the crippled Fukushima nuclear plant.
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7/22/2011 Japan Utilities Push to Extend Life of Nuclear Plants

Source: Reuters via Scientific American
Date: 7/22/2011
by: Kaori Kaneko and Osamu Tsukimori

Two Japanese utilities moved on Friday to extend the life of reactors at a pair of central coastal nuclear plants, fuelling already fierce debate over energy policy in the wake of the Fukushima radiation crisis.
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7/23/2011 Strong earthquake hits Iwate

Source: NHK World
Date: July 23, 2011 13:52 +0900 (JST)


A strong earthquake hit Iwate Prefecture on Saturday afternoon.

The quake had a magnitude of 6.5, with the focus estimated to be in waters off Miyagi Prefecture.

It registered an intensity of 5-plus on the Japanese scale of 0 to 7.

There is no fear of tsunami.

Tokyo Electric Power Company says the quake had no effect on operations of the troubled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant.

Editor's Note: USGS report

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