東京電力福島第１原発の廃炉作業が妥当かを検証していた国際原子力機関（ＩＡＥＡ）は２３日、日本政府と東電への１７の助言を盛り込んだ報告書を経済産業省に提出した。政府が６月に公表する廃炉完了の前倒しを盛り込む新たな工程表に反映される。
（略）
報告書に盛り込まれた助言は、▽廃炉計画を進める準備として地域社会や環境への影響の説明が必要▽トラブルに備えるため仮設設備を恒久設備に変更する▽増え続ける放射性物質を含む汚染水の包括的な管理計画の策定−−など
全文は ＩＡＥＡ:日本政府と東電へ１７の助言 報告書提出
Posted in *日本語.
Tagged with IAEA, エネルギー政策, 東京電力, 経済産業省.
By yukimiyamotodepaul
– 2013/05/23
小出裕章さん（京都大学原子炉実験所）語録
原発事故は、収束にほど遠い
米国で起きたスリーマイル島事故では、炉心の半分が溶け、圧力容器の底に溜まった燃料を取り出すまでに11年もかかりました。福島第一原発の溶けた燃料は、圧力容器も溶かし、格納容器にまで落下したとみられています。
そうなると燃料の回収作業は絶対できません。東電も政府も、どうしていいか？実はわからないのです。
（略）
放射能汚染と向き合うしかない
チェルノブイリ事故の基準を適用すれば、強制的に避難させられている地域が琵琶湖の２倍になります。ここでは農業もできません。
ところが、緊急時避難準備区域、放射線管理区域にしないといけないところで、農業が続けられています。農産物は放射能に汚染されていますが、農業者が、そこに踏みとどまり、被曝してでも農業を維持するなら、消費者は彼らを支えないといけません。
東電が買い取るということになっても、その作物は捨てられます。誇りをもって農業をやっている農家は、捨てるものを作るでしょうか。第１次産業を守っていくためには、消費者が受け入れるしかないのです。
誰だって放射能は食べたくありません。でも、安全な食べ物は日本にはもうないという認識が必要です。私たちは、否応なく、汚染された食べ物に向き合うしかないのです。
全文は溶け落ちた燃料の回収は絶対できない
Posted in *日本語.
Tagged with 健康, 公正・共生, 小出裕章, 東日本大震災・福島原発, 被ばく.
By yukimiyamotodepaul
– 2013/05/23
While a deal between the government and EDF over a pricing structure for nuclear-generated power remains elusive, the minister in charge has today reaffirmed his commitment to a major nuclear construction programme.
French company EDF is all ready to start construction at Hinkley Point C in Somerset but has been unable to agree a crucial ‘contract for difference’ with the government. Without this, EDF does not know if its business case stands up and so everything has been put on hold and staff have been laid off.
However, Michael Fallon, the minister responsible for both energy and construction, has said that the government remains “firmly committed to ensuring that new nuclear goes ahead in this country”.
And if a deal cannot be done with the French, then there is always the Japanese.
Mr Fallon is meeting today with executives from Hitachi and Horizon, who are planning to invest £20bn in new nuclear plants at Wylfa in Anglesey and Oldbury in Gloucestershire. Hitachi stepped in last year to rescue the Horizon nuclear project after German firms RWE and E.ON backed out in the wake of the Fukushima disaster in Japan.
Hitachi plans to build two or three reactors at each site with the first station in Wylfa coming online in the first half of the 2020s. Some 6,000 jobs are expected to be created during construction.
Continue reading at [UK] Government reaffirms nuclear commitment
Posted in *English.
Tagged with EDF, energy policy, France, Hitachi, UK.
By yukimiyamotodepaul
– 2013/05/23
[...]
Construction jobs are already plentiful in the area due to rebuilding of tsunami ravaged towns and cities. Other public works spending planned by the government, under the “Abenomics” stimulus programs of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, is likely to make well-paying construction jobs more abundant. And less risky, better paid decontamination projects in the region irradiated by the Fukushima meltdown are another draw.
Some Fukushima veterans are quitting as their cumulative radiation exposure approaches levels risky to health, said two long-time Fukushima nuclear workers who spoke to The Associated Press. They requested anonymity because their speaking to the media is a breach of their employers’ policy and they say being publicly identified will get them fired.
TEPCO spokesman Ryo Shimizu denied any shortage of workers, and said the decommissioning is progressing fine.
“We have been able to acquire workers, and there is no shortage. We plan to add workers as needed,” he said.
The discrepancy may stem from the system of contracting prevalent in Japan’s nuclear industry. Plant operators farm out the running of their facilities to contractors, who in turn find the workers, and also rely on lower-level contractors to do some of their work, resulting in as many as five layers of contractors. Utilities such as TEPCO know the final headcount – 3,000 people now at Fukushima Dai-ichi – but not the difficulties in meeting it.
Read more at Stricken Japan nuke plant struggles to keep staff
Posted in *English.
Tagged with Abenomics, health, Radiation exposure, Safety, TEPCO.
By yukimiyamotodepaul
– 2013/05/23
Disaster is about to strike in western Kentucky, a full-blown nuclear catastrophe involving hundreds of tons of enriched uranium tainted with plutonium, technetium, arsenic, beryllium and a toxic chemical brew. But this nuke calamity will be no fluke. It’s been foreseen, planned, even programmed, the result of an atomic extortion game played out between the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) and the most failed American experiment in privatization, the company that has run the Paducah plant into the poisoned ground, USEC Inc.
As now scheduled, main power to the gargantuan gaseous diffusion uranium plant at Paducah, Kentucky, will be cut at midnight on May 31, just nine days from now—cut because USEC has terminated its power contract with TVA as of that time [“USEC Ceases Buying Power,” Paducah Sun, April 19, page 1] and because DOE can’t pick up the bill.
DOE is five months away from the start of 2014 spending authority, needed to fund clean power-down at Paducah. Meanwhile, USEC’s total market capitalization has declined to about $45 million, not enough to meet minimum listing requirements for the New York Stock Exchange, pay off the company’s staggering debts or retain its operating licenses under financial capacity requirements of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
The Paducah plant cannot legally stay open, and it can’t safely be shut down—a lovely metaphor for the end of the Atomic Age and a perfect nightmare for the people of Kentucky.
[...]
The gaseous diffusion plant at Oak Ridge, TN, was powered-down dirty in 1985, in a safer situation because the Oak Ridge plant did not have near the level of transuranic contaminants found at Paducah. The Oak Ridge catastrophe left a poisonous site that still awaits cleanup a quarter-century later, and an echo chamber of political promises that such a stupid move would never be made again. But that was before the privatization of USEC.
Could a dirty power-down at Paducah—where recycled and reprocessed uranium contaminated with plutonium and other transuranic elements was added in massive quantities—result in “slow-cooker” critical mass formations inside the process equipment?
No one really knows.
Read more at Countdown to Nuclear Ruin at Paducah
Posted in *English.
Tagged with energy policy, health, Kentucky, nuclear waste, Oak Ridge, Paducah, Radiation exposure, Safety.
By yukimiyamotodepaul
– 2013/05/23
AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — A Republican lawmaker resurrected a radioactive waste bill on Tuesday that once signed into law would allow a West Texas storage site to accept more hazardous materials from out of state.
The measure allows the Waste Control Specialists’ nuclear waste facility to import materials with greater radioactivity from other states. The proposed law also encourages Texas companies to export lower-level waste. Originally, the facility was only intended to accept materials from Texas and Vermont, but lawmakers have expanded what materials it can accept.
Waste Control Specialists says it needs the changes to make the site profitable. The company’s owner, Harold Simmons, is one of the state’s largest political donors to Republican politicians.
Read more: http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/texas/article/Lawmaker-resurrects-radioactive-waste-bill-4536220.php#ixzz2U4sM2Sw0
Read more.
Posted in *English.
Tagged with Harold Simmons, nuclear waste, Republicans, Texas, Waste Control Specialists.
By norma field
– 2013/05/22
東京電力福島第１原発事故後、県内の浄水場に放射性セシウムを含む汚泥がたまり続けている問題で、３月末時点の保管量が計約５万６千トンに上ることが19 日、新潟日報社のまとめで分かった。うち県を除く市と水道企業団の保管分が計約３万９千トンと、１年間で約３倍に急増した。県は東電に汚泥引き取りを要請 しているが交渉は進まず、対応に苦慮した市の中には県外での処理に踏み切るケースも出ている。
（略）
大半は、国が埋め立て処分を認めているセシウム濃度１キログラム当たり８千ベクレル以下の汚泥だ。しかし、泉田裕彦知事が１００～８千ベクレルの 汚泥の処分にも慎重で、東電に引き取りを求めていることなどから、各市などは保管を続けている。県によると、「東電からは『話は聞きました』以上の返答は ない」（放射能対策課）という状況だ。
特に信濃川、阿賀野川両方から取水する新潟市では保管量が２万トンに達し、保管場所の不足が懸念されるなど深刻な状況。信濃川では１００ベクレル超の汚泥の発生は大幅に減ったが、福島県から流れる阿賀野川では今も濃度が１００ベクレル以下になることがほとんどない。
１００ベクレル以下の汚泥については１月から、糸魚川市のセメント会社が新潟、長岡両市から引き取って再利用している。だが再利用量は限られるため、新潟市では保管量の増加傾向が当面続くとみられる。
全文は保管のセシウム汚泥 1年で3倍に
Posted in *日本語.
Tagged with エネルギー政策, セシウム汚泥, 健康, 労働における公正・平等, 東日本大震災・福島原発, 被ばく.
By yukimiyamotodepaul
– 2013/05/22
重水素と三重水素（トリチウム）を使用し、莫大な熱エネルギーを発生させる「核融合発電」。原子力発電よりも安全かつ安価に大量の電力を供給できると言われているが、岐阜県土岐市の核融合科学研究所で予定されている重水素実験に、地元住民からは反対の声が上がっている。
外部の有識者の間でも、核融合発電の安全性に対する意見は分かれている。反対派の京都大学原子炉実験所の小出裕章助教は、次のような点を危惧しているという。
「重水素実験によって核融合科学研究所から放出されるトリチウムは微量。生物的な毒性も低い。とはいえ、環境に出たトリチウムは水状態になって捕捉できないし、何より人体への侵入を防げないのが怖い」
トリチウムとは放射性物質のひとつで、既存の原発でも排気塔から排出されている。外部に排出されるのは極めて微量のため、安全性には問題ないと核融合科学研究所は説明しているが……。
「計算では原発１基分（１００万ｋＷ）の核融合発電に必要なトリチウムは年間１３３ｋｇ。これは４８０京ベクレルに相当し（重水素実験で発生する量 の１億倍）、この１０００分の１が環境に放出されても天然トリチウムの年間生成量とほぼ等しい。（周辺住民への影響は無視できないし、）これが２基、３基 と増えたらどうなるかを、もっと考えてほしい」（小出助教）
続きは核融合発電の安全性は識者の間でも意見が割れている
関連記事：
Posted in *日本語.
Tagged with エネルギー政策, トリチウム, 健康, 公正・共生, 核融合発電.
By yukimiyamotodepaul
– 2013/05/22
A German law has recently come into effect ordering the cleanup of 126,000 barrels of radioactive waste at the Asse nuclear dump site. But it seems the process could take a lot longer than locals initially hoped for.
[...]
Wiegel, the wife of a farmer, says she doesn’t have any concerns about drinking the water here.
“Obviously you can’t worry about it all the time,” she says. “Most people living here tend to push it out of their minds, to be honest.”
Wiegel is not just a resident here, she’s also a member of the citizen group ‘aufpASSEn’ – meaning ‘watch out’ in German – which helps raise awareness about issues from the Asse nuclear waste site.
[...]
The Asse site used to be one Germany’s most productive salt mines until it was closed down in 1964. Shortly thereafter it was bought by the German government and used as a storage site for the country’s low to medium-level radioactive waste for more than a decade. The barrels, most of which came directly as nuclear waste from power plants, were stored in empty chambers already dug out by the salt miners.
[...]
But, while there is no nuclear waste now being brought in, there are still thousands of drums down in the salt chambers. Emrich says the condition of many of the barrels is unknown and that’s why exploratory drilling is now taking place. In the 50 years since they were dropped in, many barrels are believed to have rusted and may be leaking.
And, he says that the mine itself is also unstable. Water has been seeping into the mine from groundwater runoff for years. That’s why new, more stable, access shafts are now being designed for the planned waste removal.
The barrels of low to medium radioactive waste were stored in Asse between 1967 and 1978
“Since 1988 water has been coming into the mine,” Emrich explains. “People have realized that this site isn’t safe. After all, if more and more water comes in, there is always the chance that the mine floods completely.”
The fear is that, through the pressure created by a flooded mine, nuclear waste could be pushed back up to the surface, contaminating local water supplies.
[...]
However, once the waste removal work begins, one big question remains: where will the radioactive material be stored once it’s brought up? Locals are worried that authorities will decide on an aboveground storage facility, right next to the mine site.
Read more.
Posted in *English.
Tagged with Asse, cleanup, Germany, nuclear waste, salt mine.
By norma field
– 2013/05/21
More than two years into the triple-meltdown crisis at the Fukushima No. 1 power plant, workers continue to wage a desperate battle to keep the stricken reactors cool while trying to contain the 400 tons of radioactive water produced by the process each day.
[...]
As of May 7, Tepco had routed 290,000 tons of radioactive water into some 940 huge tanks at the complex, but 94,500 tons remain inside the basement floors of the reactor buildings and other facilities.
Tepco must perpetually pour water over the melted cores of reactors 1, 2, and 3 via makeshift systems to prevent the fuel from melting and burning again.
But the cores’ containment vessels were damaged by the meltdowns, allowing the highly radioactive coolant water to leak and flow into the basements. The dangerous radiation levels have prevented workers from getting close enough to fully assess the damage, let alone start the decommissioning process.
Compounding the problem is some 400 tons of groundwater that is also entering the basements of the tsunami- and explosion-damaged buildings, mixing with the leaking coolant water.
Tepco has been operating a water-recycling system to drain the basements that is supposed to extract cesium before recirculating the water back to the reactors. But the added inflow of the groundwater is exacerbating the threat.
In response, all Tepco has been able to do is build more storage tanks.
[...]
Tepco is proposing some of the water be dumped into the sea after processing it to remove most, but not all, radioactive isotopes. Local fishermen strongly oppose the plan as it will taint the image of their produce.
Previous discharges into the Pacific have effectively contaminated the sea. Failure to store it means it will probably flood the whole compound and end up in the ocean anyway.
Neither Tepco nor government experts have come up with any other viable solutions.
Read more.
Posted in *English.
Tagged with ground water, leaks, TEPCO, water-recycling system.
By norma field
– 2013/05/21
Discussion / 最新の議論