6/22/2011 | Update on Fort Calhoun and Cooper nuclear power plants from an NRC perspective

Source: NRC (Nuclear Regulatory Commission)
Date: 6/22/2011

This is the official NRC (Nuclear Regulatory Commission) news release as of today:
NRC TRACKING FLOODING AT TWO NEBRASKA NUCLEAR POWER PLANTS_11-030.iv
Download document from NRC site
Check left side bar for locations of the NRC Preliminary Event Notifications and actual Event Notification reports.

6/21/2011 | Fukushima Nuclear Plant Remains 'Ticking Time Bomb' After Japan Disaster: Michio Kaku, Theoretical Physicist

Source: CNN (video), comments are by me
Date: 6/21/2011 video date

Theoretical physicist Dr. Michio Kaku makes a return appearance on CNN.
Dr. Kaku makes many important statements about the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear accident:

1. The Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant still remains in danger, especially since the estimated (more than) 110 tons of radioactive water on site only has perhaps a week's worth of storage capacity before it is forced to be released (to the sea).
2. The radiation released by Fukushima Daiichi is as much as Chernobyl (many would argue more).
3. This is the worst industrial accident in all history and will take 50-100 years to clean up.
4. 16 miles is not enough of an evacuation area, as radiation hot spots have been found much further out.
5. 34,000 kindergarten students have been given radiation badges (personal dosimeters) to wear to school.
6. TEPCO lied to cover up the severity of the accident and withheld information.
7. Miniscule amounts of radioactive iodine are showing up in milk in New York.

6/20/2011 | Fukushima Crisis Gives GE, BYD Edge in Energy-Efficient Devices

Source: Bloomberg
Date: Jun 20, 2011 8:18 PM CT
by: Mariko Yasu and Maki Shirak

The video screen at the Marunouchi subway entrance in Tokyo Station asks passing commuters to “Please Help Us Save Energy,” a plea repeated throughout Japan in television advertisements warning of summer power shortages.
...
Read full article here

6/20/2011 | Only a few more days of storage capacity left at Fukushima Daiichi for radioactive water

Date: 6/20/2011
by: Jason Chan

TEPCO is still struggling against time to get their on-site Frankenstein-like radioactive water treatment system up and running. According to NHK World, there are only "a few days" of radioactive water storage capacity left (the NHK article is dated Tuesday, June 21, 2011 05:11 +0900 JST).  It is estimated that more than 100,000 tons of radioactive water is currently pooled at the Fukushima Daiichi complex.  If the radioactive water is not able to be decontaminated at a rate at least equal to the amount of radioactive water produced each day (500 tons/day per JAIF), the overflow would go to the sea.

The ad hoc TEPCO water treatment system has been cobbled together from other systems made by French, American and Japanese companies. Per blogger EX-SKF:

...
To review the whole [radioactive water treatment] process, the water first goes to Toshiba's oil separation system. Then it goes to [America's] Kurion's system for oil/technetium removal, then cesium removal, then iodine removal. Then it goes to [France's] Areva's system for further decontamination, and finally arrives at Hitachi's desalination system. [1]

...

The TEPCO radioactive water treatment system was successfully started on Friday, June 17, 2011 at 8 PM EST and then stopped on Saturday, June 18, 2011 at 12:54 AM EST.  It took only 5 hours before a component in Kurion, Inc.'s (the U.S. company) system, which uses zeolite to filter out radioactive cesium, reached it's radiation saturation limit.  Under normal circumstances, replacements to this component do not need to be made for about 30 days.

According to EX-SKF TEPCO is addressing the issue by re-organizing the filtration process across all of the various components as well as restricting the flow rate of radioactive water coming in to the system to reduce the radiation exposure to the Kurion system component(s). [1]

References:
[1] Contaminated Water Processing at #Fukushima: TEPCO Says Water Is "Hot", But The System Can Handle It, EX-SKF blog

6/19/2011 | Fukushima workers speak out

Source: Al Jazeera
Date: 6/19/2011 upload date
by: Marga Ortigas reports

The nuclear plant at Japan's Fukushima may be leaking radiation, but people are still going there daily to look for employment where about 2,200 of the 2,500 working there are subcontractors.

In the last three months, at least eight workers have been exposed to high levels of radiation and removed from duty but this has not deterred others.

It's a vocation with little job security, few benefits and no insurance for injuries or radiation poisoning but many are still lining up.

6/19/2011 | Pursuing nuclear power in UAE despite Fukushima tragedy

Source: Al Arabiya
Date: Sunday, 19 June 2011
by: MARY E. STONAKER

The UAE is an oil rich country but its oil is not enough to meet the country’s expected energy demand in coming decades. (File photo)

Disaster at Fukushima failed to spook Emiratis in search for cleaner, more sustainable energy sources in the form of nuclear reactors, amongst others.

A recent poll by Emirates Nuclear Energy Corporation (ENEC) was reported to show 85 percent of UAE residents in favor of a peaceful nuclear program. Safety concerns were also polled and the majority of respondents cited location as a decisive consideration in the future of Emirati nuclear power generation.
...
Read full article here

6/19/2011 | Crisis brewing as Japan's tea farmers face radiation ban

Source: CNN International
Date: June 19, 2011 2:39 a.m. EDT
by: Kyung Lah

(CNN) -- Japan's green tea fields sway in the early summer winds, the picture of bucolic beauty. But beneath these peaceful rows of young green buds, ready for the second harvest of the year, a national crisis is brewing.
...
Read full article and view video here

1979? | Atomic Meltdown U.S.A.

Source: "Unit 4" via YouTube
Date: 1979?

Here is a nostalgic Sunday Cinema feature, courtesy of Ray from Glowing Conversations. This news report from "Unit 4" news documents the Sodium Reactor Experiment (S.R.E.) meltdown at the Santa Susanna Field Laboratory (S.S.F.L) in 1959 that was kept secret for 20 years.

Part 1


Part 2

Theoretical physicist Michio Kaku makes a surprise guest appearance 3 minutes 50 seconds in to this segment, as he discusses the dangerous consequences had an uncontrolled reaction continued at the SSFL (Santa Susanna Field Laboratory) SRE (Sodium Reactor Experiment).

Part 3


It appears that the Japanese are trying to restart a contemporary sodium cooled reactor: the Monju fast-breeder reactor in Tsuruga, Japan. This reactor has been out of commission due to heavy equipment falling in to the reactor core, which happened before the Japan earthquake. There have been other safety problems prior to this including a 1995 fire caused by leaked sodium coolant, which was deemed one of Japan's worst nuclear accidents.  Protesters have resisted the Monju project since the 1970's.  Fast-breeder reactors have the advantage of greater efficiency in utilizing a higher percentage of nuclear fuel. However, since this particular reactor uses liquid sodium for cooling there is the danger that the sodium can ignite or explode if it happens to accidentally leak out in to open air (as in 1995) or contacts water.

6/19/2011 | New report shows early chaos at Japan nuke plant

Source: AP
Date: 6/19/2011
by: MARI YAMAGUCHI

TOKYO (AP) — A new report says Japan's tsunami-ravaged nuclear plant was so unprepared for the disaster that workers had to bring protective gear and an emergency manual from distant buildings and borrow equipment from a contractor.
...
Read full article here

6/19/2011 | * IMPORTANT * Cooper Nuclear Station triggers Notification of Unusual Event due to Missouri river water levels rising above 42.5 feet

Date: 6/19/2011 12:13 PM CST
by: Jason Chan

Missouri river water levels have risen to a point (at present 43.7 feet as of 12:14 P.M. CST) which according to the NPPD (Nebraska Public Power District) flood emergency preparedness plan should have caused them to issue a NOUE (Notification of Unusual Event) for Cooper Nuclear Station.  The NOUE is the lowest of four emergency classes used within the United States.  Here is the graphic snapshot from the NPPD site which shows their flooding action plan and what water levels will trigger what event notifications to the NRC (Nuclear Regulatory Commission):

Cooper's Emergency Preparedness Plan (Flooding) View water levels at Brownville

Disclaimer: Cooper Nuclear Station measures the Missouri River's water elevation at the mean sea level. Conversions to depth of river in feet are placed in parentheses behind these levels. It is also important to note that changing river conditions, mountain snowmelt, and precipitation, all play a role in the fluctuating river levels. Procedure-required steps are noted with an asterisk.
Station management continuously tracks the river's level and anticipates precautionary measures for protecting plant equipment from flooding conditions.

If this action plan is being followed to the letter Cooper Nuclear Station should still be operational.

According to Omaha, Nebraska NBC Affiliate WOWT (Channel 6) the NOUE (Notification of Unusual Event) was indeed issued at 4:02 AM Sunday June 19, 2011:

...
As the Missouri River rises, the Nebraska Public Power District has declared a “Notification of Unusual Event” for the Cooper Nuclear Station. The notification was made at 4:02am Sunday. It is part of the safety and emergency preparedness plan that the station follows when certain flooding conditions are present.
...[1]

The AP also has an article going in to further detail:

...
Mark Becker, a spokesman for the Columbus-based utility, said the "notification of unusual event" sent to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission was expected as the river swells above record levels. The declaration is the least serious of four emergency notifications established by the federal commission.
"We knew the river was going to rise for some time," Becker said. "It was just a matter of when."
The plant was operating Sunday at full capacity, and there was no threat to plant employees or to the public, he said.
...[2]

Cooper Nuclear Station is three miles southeast of Brownville, Nebraska along the Missouri River.

Here is a description of the four emergency classifications the United States uses, starting from the least severe to the most severe taken from the NRC's (Nuclear Regulatory Commission) Backgrounder on Emergency Preparedness at Nuclear Power Plants:

...

Emergency Classification

Emergency Classification is a set of plant conditions which indicate a level of risk to the public. Nuclear power plants use the four emergency classifications listed below in order of increasing severity.

Notification of Unusual Event - Under this category, events are in process or have occurred which indicate potential degradation in the level of safety of the plant. No release of radioactive material requiring offsite response or monitoring is expected unless further degradation occurs.

Alert - If an alert is declared, events are in process or have occurred that involve an actual or potential substantial degradation in the level of safety of the plant. Any releases of radioactive material from the plant are expected to be limited to a small fraction of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) protective action guides (PAGs). Additional information regarding PAGs can be found on the EPA Web site at: http://www.epa.gov/radiation/rert/pags.html .  

Site Area Emergency - A site area emergency involves events in process or which have occurred that result in actual or likely major failures of plant functions needed for protection of the public. Any releases of radioactive material are not expected to exceed the EPA PAGs except near the site boundary.

General Emergency - A general emergency involves actual or imminent substantial core damage or melting of reactor fuel with the potential for loss of containment integrity. Radioactive releases during a general emergency can reasonably be expected to exceed the EPA PAGs for more than the immediate site area.
...

Note that there is also a 7 level international nuclear event scale, which is described in the following Wikipedia entry: International Nuclear Event Scale.  The reports sited are not based on the international scale.

Sources:
[1] Declaration at Cooper Nuclear Station, NBC WOWT (Channel 6) News
[2] Neb. nuke plant notifies feds of Missouri flooding, AP via ctpost.com

6/17/2011 | Elevated radiation levels widespread in eastern Japan

Source: smartplanet
Date: 6/17/2011
by: David Worthington

Unsafe levels of radioactive contamination have been reported from multiple sources throughout vast areas of eastern Japan in locations far away from the Fukushima nuclear power plant.
...
Read full article here

Note: I have added the Japanese blogger maintained radiation map in the article (http://www.nnistar.com/gmap/fukushima.html) to the collection at the Japan Radiation Map page as "NNI".

6/18/2011 JST | Fukushima prepares extensive study of radiation health effects on residents

Source: asahi.com
Date: 6/18/2011 JST
by: Yuri Oiwa, Yasufumi Kado and Yoshinori Hayashi

Residents have their radiation exposure checked in Tamura,  Fukushima Prefecture, on May 22 after temporarily returning to their homes. (The Asahi Shimbun)

FUKUSHIMA--The Fukushima prefectural government plans to monitor health effects from radiation leaking from the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant in a program that could follow some residents for up to 30 years. The study will be an unprecedented one in terms of length and number of people covered. But because it will be impossible to conduct thorough health checks on all 2 million residents of Fukushima, a two-step plan is being considered. A preliminary study will begin in early July on a small sample of residents from areas that have had high radiation levels in the air. ... Read full article here