8/20/2012 Public grills NRC officials on Davis-Besse FirstEnergy, commission blame Blizard of '78 for plant's problems

Source: toledoBlade.com
Date: 8/20/2012
by: ROBERTA REDFERN

From left, Barry Allen, Ken Byrd, and Jon Hook of FirstEnergy speak during a meeting Thursday night. The meeting included representatives of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and First Energy who discussed root cause for the shield building cracking at Davis-Besse and plans to fix the situation.

 OAK HARBOR, Ohio — Calling FirstEnergy Nuclear Operating Corp.'s Blizzard of '78 explanation for cracks in the concrete Shield Building at Davis-Besse nuclear power plant a "snow job," plant critics challenged federal regulators' acceptance of that finding and asked about the risk of future weather-related damage during a three-hour hearing Thursday night."I remember plenty of other times when we had lots of rain followed by falling temperatures. How could soaking followed by freezing only cause damage once in 40 years?" Joe Demare of Bowling Green asked during a question session after an hour-long Nuclear Regulatory Commission presentation explaining how they came to their conclusion.
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Read full article here

Editor's Note: Map of Davis-Besse Nuclear Power Station below.

View Live Ustream Radiation Detectors in a larger map

5/30/2012 Charlie the tuna glows in the dark?

Source: RT: The Big Picture
Date: 5/30/2012 upload date
by: Thom Hartmann and Kevin Kamps

Video Description
Kevin Kamps, Beyond Nuclear joins Thom Hartmann. Now on to a story that - tragically - just won't go away: The Fukushima Nuclear crisis. Radioactive fish are now swimming in U.S. waters. Scientists have - for the first time - discovered Bluefin tuna that were contaminated by the Fukushima nuclear crisis in Japan last year - swimming off the coast of California. Radioactive cesium ten times above the normal level was found in the fish - though health officials say the levels are too low to be considered a health threat. Then again - no amount of radiation is good for you. Meanwhile - back at the crippled nuclear plant - a bulge was detected in the walls of reactor four - increasing fears that the structure holding tens of thousands of highly radioactive spent fuel rods is not sound. Should the reactor four building give way - it could trigger a nuclear disaster even worse than Chernobyl.

3/30/2012 (Video) Fukushima...radiation so high - even robots not safe

Source: RT: The Big Picture
Date: 3/30/2012 upload date
by: Thom Hartmann


Description
Kevin Kamps, Beyond Nuclear joins Thom Hartmann. More than a year into the nuclear crisis at Fukushima - radiation levels have now reached their highest point yet. What does all this mean - and what should nuclear supporters in America be taking away from the continuing crisis?

3/2/2012 (Video) Did we almost lose Tokyo?

Source: The Big Picture
Date: 3/2/2012
by: Thom Hartmann

Description

Kevin Kamps, Beyond Nuclear joins Thom Hartmann. In a little over a week - we'll hit the one-year anniversary of the earthquake and tsunami that triggered a nuclear crisis at Fukushima in Japan. And this week - we're learning that that nuclear crisis is even worse than was originally thought. On Wednesday - Japanese Scientists announced that twice as much radioactive cesium than estimated blew out of the plant after the earthquake and tsunami. That's about 40,000 trillion bequerels. And it took just 18 days for those radioactive particles to encircle the planet - turning up in places as far away as Vermont. French scientists are now calling on Japan to remain vigilant in its inspections of fruit, milk, and game to prevent further radiation contamination.

These new numbers come on the heels of a Greenpeace report on the Fukushima disaster - in which the organization places the blame for the crisis - NOT on the natural disaster - but instead on the Japanese Government. The report accuses the Japanese government of ignoring the risks posed to Fukushima before the earthquake and "cutting corners to protect profits over people." It goes on to argues that nuclear energy is "inherently unsafe" and governments are too quick to approve nuclear power plants, while at the same time unable to the consequences of nuclear disasters. That includes the United States. Currently - there are 23 General Electric Mark 1 reactors in operation around the United States. The Mark 1 is the same reactor design used at Fukushima. And just last month - the Nuclear Regulatory Commission issued a warning to 96 nuclear reactors around the nation that sit on fault lines - urging operators to perform new stress tests to see if the reactor can hold up to earthquake. So what should we make of all this?

9/20/2011 (Video) Hartmann: A Fukushima survivor reveals all

Source: RT News: The Big Picture
Date: 9/20/2011 Upload Date
by: Thom Hartman


Aileen Mioko SMITH, Kaori Izumi & Kevin Kamps from Beyond Nuclear join Thom Hartmann. We here at the Big Picture and on my radio show have been doing our best to keep you updated on the latest developments coming out of Japan - as that nation tries to deal with one of the worst nuclear catastrophes in the history of the world. To help us do that - tonight - I'm joined by a few special guests in the studio who've flown here all the way from Japan to share their story - and to warn the world about the dangers of nuclear power. Later this week - they will travel to the United Nations where they will call on the UN to recognize human rights violations against children caused by the Fukushima crisis - and ask the UN to stop its global promotion of nuclear energy.

8/3/2011 Thom Hartmann: Fukushima...what you haven't been hearing and why

Source: RT News
Date: 8/3/2011
by: Thom Hartman


Nearly five months after the earthquake and tsunami - Japan's Fukushima nuclear plant is still spewing radiation. Yesterday - Tokyo Electric Power Company said it detected the highest radiation levels to date at the crippled nuclear facility - recording ten thousand milliSieverts an hour - the maximum level the devices can even measure. The measures were taken just outside ventilation stacks in reactors one and two - reactors we saw explode in the weeks after the quake and tsunami. So what's going on here? Could the nuclear crisis in Japan ACTUALLY be worsening after 5 months? Here to shed some light on this issue is Kevin Kamps - Nuclear Waste Watchdog at Beyond Nuclear.

(Video) Monju fast-breeder reactor at Tsuruga, Japan

Date: 6/22/2011, 6/23/2011 upload dates

6/22/2011 RT: The Big Picture

Thom Hartman's article corresponding to this video reads:

...
Kevin Kamps, Nuclear Waste Watchdog at Beyond Nuclear joins Thom Hartmann. If Japan didn't have its hands full with one melted down nuclear plant at Fukushima - it certainly does now with another nuclear power plant on the verge of melting down. About 300 miles southwest of Fukushima sits the Monju nuclear reactor - a prototype fast-breeder reactor filled to the brim with plutonium - the deadliest element on the face of the planet. And last year - a 3 ton device of some sort fell into the Monju reactor blocking access to the nuclear fuel rods in the reactor core - and despite several attempts - has yet to be recovered. Another attempt will be made next week to clear the 3 ton object from the reactor - but critics caution that the procedure is extremely dangerous and could trigger an explosion in the nuclear fuel rods. One ominous sign of just how dangerous the situation is - a top manager at the plant just recently committed suicide. Think of the damaged Monju plant as a nuclear bomb just waiting to go off that could take out the city of Kyoto which is just 60 miles from the plant - and has a population of 1.5 million people. And Japan's largest city Tokyo is downwind from the crippled Monju plant. So what does this all mean? And what's the latest with the two nuclear plants that are in danger right here in the United States - in Nebraska?[1]
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Since the Thom Hartman interview with Kevin Kamps, the 3.3 ton device they mention was successfully extracted per NHK World in an 8 hour procedure, without incident.
6/23/2011 NHK World


Although it is a relief to hear that no accidents happened as feared with the heavy machinery extraction process, now the Monju reactor can be re-started after a 14 year idle period. Per The Japan Times:

...
The agency hopes to resume test runs of the reactor at 40 percent of its output capacity by the end of March, aiming for full operation by the end of March 2014.[2]
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The original premise behind the operation of the (some would argue extremely dangerous) reactor is recycling nuclear fuel. The drawback is that Monju is cooled with liquid sodium, which back in 1995 caused a serious nuclear accident (fire) with this particular reactor when the sodium leaked out in to open air.

Sources:
[1] Thom Hartmann: Second Japan Nuke... More Dangerous Than Fukushima?, truth-out.org
[2] Monju reactor unclogged for restart, The Japan Times