9/17/2012 Kucinich to lead 1000s anti-nuclear, pro-renewable energy Occupiers

Source: Examiner
Date: 9/17/2012
By: Deborah Dupre

Peace, human rights defender Congressman Dennis Kucinich to lead 1000s anti-nuclear, pro-renewable energy Occupiers in DC this weekend

Credits: Dennis Kucinich

Note: The original article attributed the statement "The briefing will give legislators information that they need about the ongoing situation in Japan and the problems with the continued use of nuclear power in the U.S. Radiation is a deadly legacy, and nuclear power is dirty, dangerous and expensive - and unnecessary when we can turn to clean, safe, cheap solar and wind power" to Mr. Kucinich, as had been understood. That statement, however, was not made by Mr. Kucinich, but instead by Wired For Change. The author extends sincere apology for this error.

Congressman Dennis Kucinich is hosting a Congressional briefing, Thursday, September 20, 2012, on medical effects of radiation exposure, and health threats presented by United States nuclear power plants, nuclear fleet, and the on-going tragedy in Fukushima, Japan. The briefing is part of a series of anti-nuclear events including an Occupy the Nuclear Regulatory Commission demonstration and Fukushima evacuees' presentations.
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4/29/2012 Why is safety a divisive issue for Nuclear Regulatory Commission?

Source: Los Angeles Times
Date: April 29, 2012
by: Michael Hiltzik

 

NRC Chairman Greg Jaczko has found himself on the losing side of 4-1 votes that usually end up favoring less stringent regulations for the industry. He's also been the target of a congressman's attacks.

Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Vista), left, Nuclear Regulatory Commission Chairman Gregory Jaczko and NRC senior resident inspector Greg Warnock listen to a safety briefing this month before entering the containment area of one of the reactors at the San Onofre nuclear plant. (Lynn Sakamoto, Associated Press / April 6, 2012)

Reading between the lines, it's probably fair to say that Greg Jaczko may not be someone you'd want to work for.

As chairman of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, he's been accused of yelling at people, browbeating subordinates and picking fights with his fellow NRC commissioners when he doesn't get his way. That's pretty much the totality of the bill of particulars Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Vista) put out in December in support of a concerted, albeit unsuccessful, campaign to drive Jaczko from his job.
(Jaczko has acknowledged that there are strong disagreements within the agency, but vehemently denies being especially tough on women, another charge made by Issa.)

What the report on Jaczko issued by Issa's committee on oversight and government reform didn't delve into too deeply, however, were the policy issues underlying the personal friction. That's too bad, because the disagreements concerned Jaczko's efforts to tighten safety and security regulations for the nation's 104 nuclear power reactors, in the face of the other commissioners' efforts to slow him down.
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Editor's Note: Map of San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station

View Live Ustream Radiation Detectors in a larger map

3/15/2012 Key nuclear plant safety order likely to be delayed, NRC tells Senate

Source: The Washington Post
Date: 3/15/2012 02:31 PM ET
by: Timothy R. Smith

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission will likely fall behind schedule in issuing a key safety measure designed for U.S. power plants in the wake of Japan’s nuclear reactor meltdown last year, the agency’s chairman told a Senate committee Thursday.
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2/2/2012 Shining the Light on the Triple Meltdown at Fukushima Daiichi

Source: Fairewinds Associates
Date: 2/5/2012
by: Arnie Gundersen


CCTV host Margaret Harrington interviews Maggie and Arnie Gundersen of Fairewinds Energy Education Corp regarding the triple meltdown in March 2011 at Japan's Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant. There were ample warnings that both TEPCO and Japan's regulators ignored steps that would have prevented this tragedy. Throughout the world, nuclear oversight has been compromised by the revolving door and cozy relationship between the nuclear industry and the so-called nuclear regulators who promote nuclear power rather than regulate.

1/17/2012 (Video) Frontline: Nuclear Aftershock

Source: PBS Frontline
Date: 1/17/2012

FRONTLINE travels to three continents to explore the debate about nuclear power: Is it safe? What are the alternatives? And could a Fukushima-style disaster happen in the U.S.?

Watch Nuclear Aftershocks on PBS. See more from FRONTLINE.

Further reading from PBS Frontline:

1. January 17, 2012, 11:37 pm Map: U.S. Nuclear Power Plants
2. January 17, 2012, 9:29 pm Did Fukushima Quash the Global “Nuclear Renaissance”?
3. January 17, 2012, 11:56 am How Much Electricity Does My State Generate From Nuclear?

12/23/2011 “Nuclear Can Be Safe Or It Can Be Cheap … But It Can’t Be Both”

Source: Washington's Blog
Date: 12/23/2011

Nuclear Power Is Unsafe Because the Operators are Pinching Pennies and Cutting Corners

Nuclear engineer Arnie Gundersen was said in a recent interview that nuclear power can be made safe, but not at a competitive price:

[Interviewer] With air transport, it’s incredibly safe. Could nuclear power ever reach that level of safety?
[Gundersen] I have a friend who says that nuclear can be safe or it can be cheap, but it can’t be both.
***
It boils down to money. If you want to make nuclear safe, it gets to the point where it’s so costly you don’t want to build the power plant anyway … especially now with plummeting renewable costs.
So can you make a nuclear reactor safe? Yes. Can it also at the same time compete with renewables, which are, of course, higher [priced] than natural gas? And the answer is no.
Wall Street is demanding federal loan guarantees for this and of course we already subsidized Price-Anderson insurance. So Wall Street won’t spend the money to build it, and won’t insure it.

10/6/2011 Gov't panel mulls interim goals on radiation dose

Source: NHK World 
Date: Thursday, October 06, 2011 15:39 +0900 (JST)
by: Yuko Fukushima


A government panel is calling for Japan's one-millisievert annual radiation limit to be eased for the interim, saying it will be difficult to restrict exposure in some areas near the troubled Fukushima nuclear plant.

The environment is contaminated by radioactive substances in areas hit by fallout from the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, causing concern that residents may be exposed to radiation for long periods.

The panel on radiation believes it will be difficult to keep their dose below the one-millisievert limit set by the government for normal times and proposed on Thursday to set an interim exposure target.

It says the target should be set between one and 20 millisieverts in line with recommendations by the International Commission for Radiological Protection.

The panel says the target should be lowered in steps as decontamination progresses.

It adds that targets could differ by region and that residents should have a voice in setting the targets.

The panel will wrap up its proposal at its next meeting, but its plan to ease the radiation exposure limit is expected to arouse controversy.

Editor's Note: Although it is true that the ICRP (International Commission for Radiological Protection) does give discretion for setting the maximum yearly safe limit, it seems like common sense that instead of arbitrarily raising the safe dosage to match current conditions, it would be better to move people further away from hot spots so that they can meet the lowest yearly radiation dose limit possible. 

What they are actually doing is sending people back in to previously evacuated areas, rather than expanding the exclusion zone and evacuating more people from known hotspot areas. Excerpts from ICRP Publication 103 concerning the guidelines for yearly radiation exposure thresholds can be found here. Page 165 and 166 of the Full text PDF file which contains the excerpted pages from Publication 103 is where the 1 millisieverts/year and 20 millisieverts/year thresholds appear. Another useful reference is ICRP Publication 111 which gives guidelines for protection of people living in long-term contaminated areas. From skimming through this document 1 millisievert/year is a key exposure level. If I understand correctly, if you are getting over 1 millisievert/year you are under normal circumstances considered to be working in a "planned exposure" situation (e.g. you work with radiological materials in healthcare or as a nuclear plant worker etc.). 

Note that 20 millisieverts per year is the maximum allowable dosage for nuclear workers worldwide in most places (averaged over 5 years) as per World Nuclear Association. So basically what the Japanese government is proposing is to potentially up the maximum allowable dosage for an average Japanese citizen to the same level as for nuclear workers!

7/26/2011 SPECIAL REPORT-Fukushima long ranked Japan's most hazardous nuclear plant

Source: Reuters
Date: Tue Jul 26, 2011 5:28pm EDT
Japan Nuclear Radiation

7/15/2011 New U.S. Regulations Proposed in Response to Fukushima

Source: MIT Technology Review
Date: 7/15/2011
by: Kevin Bullis

A task force calls for safety upgrades, but the nuclear industry worries about their cost.
Shortly after the nuclear disaster at power plants in Fukushima, Japan, the head of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission said that U.S. reactors are safe. Now a Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) task force created in response to the disaster is recommending extensive safety upgrades to deal with problems like the ones seen in Japan, although it also said that nuclear plants pose "no imminent risk."

One of the biggest problems at Fukushima was extended loss of power at the plant that shut down cooling systems, requiring plant operators to take extreme measures such as pumping seawater directly into the reactor, which in turn resulted in the release of radioactive seawater into the environment.
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6/2/2011 | A blog about all things green, from conservation to Capitol Hill Ecocentric Feed Daily E-mail Updates « Previous As Europe Reels From E. Coli, Problems with Food Safety in the U.S. Lessons from Fukushima

Source: Time (Ecocentric Blog)
Date: Thursday, June 2, 2011 at 1:06 pm
by:  Eben Harrell

Former IAEA deputy director Olli Heinonen

In the wake of Fukushima, there have been widespread calls for the safety of nuclear power plants to be enhanced. But how precisely? And, more specifically, what role can the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) play in improving nuclear safety and security? Olli Heinonen was until last August the Deputy Director-General for Safeguards at the IAEA. He's now a Senior Fellow at Harvard University's Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs.

On May 26, Heinonen co-authored an Op-Ed on the Harvard website with Matthew Bunn, an Associate Professor of Public Policy and one of the main investigators at the Belfer Center's Managing the Atom project. The duo laid out some specific steps that they believe the IAEA should adopt at the Vienna-based agency's ministerial meeting in late June. The full text of the document can be found here, but here's a precis.
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