12/17/2012 More Lessons From the Fukushima Daiichi Accident

Source: Fairewinds Energy Education
Date: 12/17/2012
by: Arnie Gundersen

Description
In this Monday's video, Fairewinds investigates a recently released report from Tokyo Electric. Arnie Gundersen discusses TEPCO's latest analysis that, almost two years after the accident, fully substantiates Fairewinds long held position that the explosion at Fukushima Daiichi Unit 3 was the result of a detonation shock wave. Arnie also discusses troubling reports that the Nuclear Regulatory Commission has been avoiding the analysis of damage to many nuclear plants' emergency cooling systems (Ultimate Heat Sink) from storm surges, tsunamis or dam failures. The ramifications of both of these issues on old designs and also the AP1000 are also analyzed in depth.

8/17/2012 Radiation Danger Covered Up Ever Since Nuclear Weapons Invented

Source: Washington's Blog
Date: 8/17/2012

Government Has Been Covering up Radiation Danger for 67 Years

The U.S. and other governments have been covering up nuclear meltdowns for fifty years to protect the nuclear power industry.
It turns out that the U.S. tried to cover up the destructive nature of radiation produced by nuclear weapons 67 years ago. As Democracy Now reports:

The army was well aware in 1943 of the enormous potential for radiation dangers to civilians and military personnel as a result of the use of radioactive weapons ….
[The New York Times] was essentially putting out the official government narrative [regarding the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki], which is that atomic radiation is not harmful, is not a major byproduct of the nuclear weapons program. You know, it’s only the blast that has essentially a very short impact. The reason that this has importance is that for really a half century, this narrative became the government’s response to all protests against nuclear power, the nuclear weapons programs of the 1950s and 1960s and the Cold War. So, [The New York Times] essentially set the table that the government was to occupy for the next half century as they disputed any attempt to rein in, you know, the rapid acceleration of nuclear weapons and power programs.

Nothing has changed. Governments worldwide continue to this day to cover up the amount – and health effects – of radiation released by military and energy facilities.
And the same considerations which drove the cover up in 1945 are still driving it. The archaic uranium reactor designs developed more than 40 years ago are good for making bombs.

9/27/2011 Southern Gambles on First U.S. Nuclear Reactors in 30 Years

Source: Bloomberg Businessweek
Date: September 27, 2011, 7:23 PM EDT
by: Julie Johnsson

(Updates with comment from NRC’s Hatchett in sixth paragraph.)

Sept. 27 (Bloomberg) -- Southern Co. is poised to end a three-decade freeze on nuclear development as the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission considers granting it the first license to build new reactors since the Three Mile Island accident.

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Editor's Note: Vogtle Electric Generating Plant where the two new reactors will be added by Southern Companies is shown in the map below.
 

View Live Ustream Radiation Detectors in a larger map

6/30/2011 Revealed: British government's plan to play down Fukushima

Source: UK Guardian
Date: Thursday 30 June 2011 21.36 BST
by: Rob Edwards

Government officials launched a PR campaign to ensure the accident at the Fukushima 

nuclear facility in Japan did not derail plans for new nuclear power stations in the UK. 

Photograph: AP

 

British government officials approached nuclear companies to draw up a co-ordinated public relations strategy to play down the Fukushima nuclear accident just two days after the earthquake and tsunami in Japan and before the extent of the radiation leak was known.
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5/23/2011 | New Reactor Design Faces Further Scrutiny in U.S.

Source: Scientific American
Date: May 23, 2011
by: Peter Behr and ClimateWire

The AP1000, which is leading the charge for any nuclear renaissance in the U.S., has made some mistakes in its application for certification 

The Toshiba-Westinghouse AP1000 reactor remains a symbol of the U.S. nuclear future to supporters and opponents alike.
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5/23/2011 | Another nail in the coffin for the "nuclear renaissance"

Source: Greenpeace
Date: May 23, 2011 at 14:30
by: Jarred Cobb


The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) released a statement on Friday about the new Westinghouse AP1000 nuclear reactor. In the grand tradition of breaking bad news on a Friday, the NRC was trying to bury a significant blow to the so-called "nuclear renaissance." After a review of the Toshiba-designed reactor, the NRC found: "more problems regarding the AP1000's shield building, as well as the peak accident pressures expected within containment."
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5/21/2011 | Toshiba Design Questions May Slow U.S. Regulator’s Nuclear Plant Approval

Source: Bloomberg
Date: 5/21/2011
by: Simon Lomax

U.S. nuclear regulators are demanding more information about Toshiba Corp. (6502)’s new reactor design, potentially delaying its approval for use by power companies such as Southern Co. (SO) and Scana Corp. (SCG)
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