8/9/2011 Fairewinds Report for Southern Alliance for Clean Energy on TVA Bellefonte Plant

Source: Fairewinds Associates
Date: 8/9/2011
by: Arnie Gundersen

Today the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy and Fairewinds Associates issued a report to the Board of Directors of the Tennessee Valley Authority regarding numerous concerns with the Bellefonte Unit 1 nuclear project. First designed with slide rules back in 1968, Bellefonte Unit 1 is America's oldest nuclear power plant that has yet to generate any electricity. TVA began construction in 1974, mothballed the plant in 1988, and cannibalized the plant for scrap metal between 2006 and 2008. Alarmingly, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission recently allowed construction of Bellefonte Unit 1 by TVA to start again with its 1968 design and its 40-year old weakened foundation and containment. In the video and in its report, Fairewinds identifies seven areas of substantial risk for TVA if it continues to construct this aged facility.

Reports mentioned by Arnie Gundersen regarding Bellefonte Nuclear Generating Station are archived at Southern Alliance for Clean Energy:
1. 08/09/2011 - SACE Bellefonte Gundersen Rpt
2. 08/09/2011 - Bellefonte Rpt Attachments
Map:

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8/9/2011 Redlands, CA 240 CPM Radioactive Manure!

Redlands, California

One of the members of my Glowing Conversations radiation group posted the results of some manure he bought from the hardware store for a home garden. Luckily he measured the manure first with his Geiger counter. Normally, this meter is only 25 CPM or so when measuring background radiation.  As you can see from the video, the 10 minute average is 240 CPM or 247.5 CPM or about 10x an assumed background level of 25 CPM.

Live Ustream meter: http://www.ustream.tv/channel/geiger-counter-redlands-ca. This Geiger counter is also accessible from the USA link in the navigation bar at the top. 

8/8/2011 Unit 3 MOX likely melted through

Source: The Japan Times
Date: 8/9/2011 JST

Kyodo

MOX fuel that was believed to have been kept cool at the bottom of one of the reactors at the crippled Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant after its core melted is believed to have breached the vessel after melting again, a study said Monday.

The study by Fumiya Tanabe, an expert in nuclear safety, said most of reactor 3's mixed uranium-plutonium oxide fuel may have dribbled into the containment vessel underneath, and if so, the current method being used to cool the reactor will have to be rethought. This could force Tokyo Electric Power Co. to revise its schedule for containing the five-month-old disaster.

Tepco earlier said that the cores of reactors 1 to 3 are assumed to have suffered meltdowns, although the melted fuel was believed to have been kept at cool enough to solidify at the bottom of each pressure vessel after water was injected.

After analyzing data made public by Tepco, Tanabe argues it became difficult to inject coolant water into the pressure vessel after the pressure rose early March 21. He says the fuel at the bottom overheated and melted again over a four-day period.

8/9/2011 TEPCO reports Y571.8 bil loss

Source: Japan Today
Date: Aug. 09, 2011 - 05:15PM JST

TOKYO — The operator of Japan’s crippled Fukushima nuclear plant, Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO), Tuesday reported a first-quarter loss of 571.8 billion yen over the radiation disaster.
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8/8/2011 Japan Witheld Nuclear Meltdown Simulation Showing 18,000 Deaths And 55 Mile Dead Zone

Source: Alexander Higgins Blog
Date: August 8, 2011 at 12:46 pm

Japan Withheld A Nuclear Meltdown Simulation Showing 18,000 Deaths From Acute Radiation Poisoning And 55 Mile Uninhabitable Radius Due To Fears It Would Damage The Nuclear Industry.
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