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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8/8/2011 Japan Rice Futures Surge 40%, Trigger Circuit Breaker On Concerns Fukushima Radiation Will Destroy Crops

Source: ZeroHedge
Date: 08/08/2011 00:22 -0400

70 years after rice futures trading was halted on the Tokyo Grain Exchange, it was finally reopened today... only to be halted immediately. The reason: concerns that Fukushima radiation would destroy rice crops and collapse supply sent the contract price soaring from the reference price of Y13,500 to a ridiculous Y18,500 at which point it was halted. Note the tick chart below which puts any of our own stupid vacuum tube-induced HFT algos to outright shame. That said, the move should not come as a surprise at least to our readers after we predicted the day Fukushima blew up (and even before) that very soon rice prices would surge to record highs. Little by little, that realization is dawning on everyone.

More from Bloomberg:

The exchange listed rice contracts today for the first time since the start of World War II to boost flagging volumes and profit. The resumption comes as fallout from the Fukushima Dai- Ichi power plant may spread after it was found cattle had been fed cesium-tainted rice straw.

“People are very concerned that rice supplies may be smaller on fear of radiation contamination,” Nobuyuki Chino, chairman of the exchange’s rice futures trading committee, told reporters in Tokyo. “This was reflected in the prices,” said Chino, who is also president of Tokyo-based grain company Continental Rice Corp.

Commercial stockpiles of rice, a Japanese staple, may drop to the lowest level in four years in 2012, after the March earthquake and nuclear disaster curbed production, possibly spurring the government to release its reserves, according to the agriculture ministry.

Faced with criticism from consumer groups and opposition party politicians that lax government control has endangered food safety, the ministry has tightened rice screening before the harvest begins in eastern Japan.

The government ordered Fukushima and 13 nearby prefectures to test rice samples before the harvest. Authorities will ban shipments from areas where they find grains containing cesium exceeding 500 becquerels a kilogram. Rice production in Fukushima and neighboring Ibaraki, Miyagi and Iwate prefectures amounted to 1.56 million metric tons last year, out of the country’s total of 8.5 million tons.

Sadly, this development means that Thailand and Vietnam, and the rast of the major rice exporters, are suddenly going to find they have quite a bit in marginal pricing power for this core Japanese staple. It also means that food riots may be imminent if indeed, as futures indicate, the price of rice is about to jump by 40%.

8/5/2011 TEPCO may use 'shower spray' on troubled reactor

Source: The Asahi Shimbun
Date: August 05, 2011
by: TAKASHI SUGIMOTO

The Asahi Shimbun

Tokyo Electric Power Co. is considering changing the method of injecting water into the No. 3 reactor at its hobbled Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant as the current system isn't cutting it.
...
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8/6/2011 High radiation detect in Oklahoma City rainwater (1.62 μSv/hr)

Source: FireByNight YouTube Channel
Date: 8/6/2011


The peak reading as shown in the video is 1.62 μSv/hr when measuring the rain water soaked cardboard. This is a dangerous level which is many times the background level.

8/5/2011 City resorts to secret dumping to deal with piles of radioactive dirt

Source: Asahi Shimbun
Date: August 05, 2011

Dump trucks unload bags containing radioactive dirt at a temporary disposal site in Fukushima Prefecture on July 28. (Satoru Murata)

FUKUSHIMA--Deep in the mountains, a 4-ton dump truck unloads burlap bags that land with a thud in a hole shaped like a swimming pool 25 meters long and more than 2 meters deep.
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8/5/2011 Smart Meter Slavery

Source: MORPHcity
Date: August 5, 2011
by: Cassandra Anderson


Smart meters are radio frequency microwave meters that communicate with the Smart Grid. The Smart Grid is a transmission system that delivers electricity to from power plants to distribution substations and then from the substations it is delivered to homes and businesses.

The federal Department of Energy (DOE) stated purpose of the Smart Grid is to reduce carbon emissions. Note to DOE: man-made global warming is a lie- go ask NASA, CERN and 30,000 independent scientists.
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8/5/2011 Sakurajima Volcano Erupts

Source: dutchsinse YouTube channel
Date: 8/5/2011


Map showing Sakurajima volcano relative to nuclear power plants in Japan:

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8/5/2011 S&P cuts US Treasury bond rating

Source: NHK World
Date: Saturday, August 06, 2011 12:02 +0900 (JST)


US credit rating agency Standard & Poor's says it has lowered its long-term credit rating on US government bonds by one notch to AA-plus from its highest AAA level.

The agency said on Friday it lowered the rating because the deficit reduction plan agreed by the government and Congress is not sufficient.

This is the first downgrade of US government bonds by a major credit rating agency.

The enactment of legislation to raise the government debt ceiling kept the US from falling into the worst-case scenario of a default. But the legislation does not include plans for large-scale spending cuts.

Some investors say the downgrade by S&P could become a factor in destabilizing financial markets, reducing the credibility of the dollar as a key currency and fueling the yen's rise.

Several analysts are predicting an impact on financial markets on Monday.

US bonds' loss of the top-notch rating could also have effects on financial markets because China, Japan, and other national governments and financial institutions hold a large amount of US Treasuries.

Other major credit rating agencies -- Moody's Investors Service and Fitch Ratings -- say they will keep their US Treasury ratings unchanged at the safest levels.

Editor's Note:  Read further on this topic here.