スウェーデン新政権、原発を将来的に全廃の方針 via Yomiuri Online

Posted on 2014/10/02 by yukimiyamotodepaul

　【ロンドン＝佐藤昌宏】９月のスウェーデン議会（一院制）選挙で勝利した中道左派３党連合の社会民主労働党などは１日、３党が原子力発電所を将来的に全廃することで合意したと発表した。

　社会民主労働党の党首で、次期首相に就任する見通しのステファン・ローベン氏は同日、公共ラジオで、「『原発は廃止すべし』が新政権の最初の一歩となる。まずは（廃止に向けた）分析を開始する」と語った。

(略）

　スウェーデンは、１９８０年の国民投票で２０１０年までの原発全廃賛成が多数を占めたことを受け、一度は全廃の方針を決めた。だが、地球温暖化に対処するために方針を見直し、１０年には、既存の原発施設への原子炉の新規建設を認める法律が成立していた。

全文はスウェーデン新政権、原発を将来的に全廃の方針

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UK nuclear bomb factories rapped by watchdogs over radioactive waste via The Guardian

Posted on 2014/10/02 by yukimiyamotodepaul

Atomic Weapons Establishment issued with non-compliance notice by Environment Agency over handling of hazardous waste

Britain’s nuclear bomb factories have been reprimanded by two government watchdogs for breaking safety rules on radioactive waste.

AWE, the private consortium that operates Trident nuclear weapons facilities at Aldermaston and Burghfield in Berkshire for the Ministry of Defence, has come under fire from the Environment Agency (EA) and the Office for Nuclear Regulation (ONR) for failures in managing its hazardous waste.

The EA has issued AWE with a non-compliance notice because key posts meant to ensure the safe handling of wastes have been vacant for months. These include waste officers, radioactive specialists and the head of environment.

AWE blamed security requirements – which can include the vetting of prospective employees – for delays in filling the vacancies. According to the EA, AWE has breached conditions imposed in 2012 to ensure that enough skilled staff were employed to look after radioactive waste safely.

[…]

Anti-nuclear campaigners, however, accused AWE of only taking action when regulators forced them to. “Like all private companies undertaking government work, AWE is more interested in pursuing profitable activities than doing work which costs money,” said Pete Wilkinson, director of Nuclear Information Service.

“Since 2010 safety and environmental regulators have increasingly had to take action at the Atomic Weapons Establishment, and it is time to start asking whether AWE are fit to run this complex and hazardous site if they are unable to improve standards.”

Read more at UK nuclear bomb factories rapped by watchdogs over radioactive waste

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「原発、脆弱性明らか」　ゴア元米副大統領が京都で講演 via 京都新聞

Posted on 2014/10/01 by kojimaaiko

ノーベル平和賞受賞者のアル・ゴア元米副大統領が２９日、京都市中京区のホテルで地球環境の保全をテーマに講演した。化石燃料への依存が異常気象を招いているとして再生可能エネルギーへの移行を訴え、原発の問題点にも言及した。

稲盛財団が設立３０周年を記念して主催。市民ら約１１００人が参加した。

ゴアさんは「気候の危機は人類が直面する最も深刻な課題だ」と指摘した。２０世紀以降の石油や石炭の利用拡大が地球温暖化を招き、近年になって日本や世界各地で豪雨や干ばつなどの異常気象が頻発しているとデータを交えて示した。

[…]

会場からの「原発をどう考えるか」との質問に、ゴアさんは「原子力はコストが高く、競争力のある電力ではなくなった。福島第１原発事故で脆弱（ぜいじゃく）性も明らかになった。個人として発言すれば、できる限り再生可能エネルギーに向かうべきだと思う」と答えた。

全文は　「原発、脆弱性明らか」　ゴア元米副大統領が京都で講演

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Nuclear waste dump may reopen in 2016, two years after accidents via Los Angeles Times

Posted on 2014/10/01 by yukimiyamotodepaul

The Energy Department says it hopes to resume operations at its shuttered nuclear waste dump in New Mexico by early 2016, roughly two years after two serious accidents released radioactive materials and soot throughout the 2,150-foot-deep repository.

The cost of accidents will approach $1 billion, based on estimates that are contained in the agency’s 32-page plan, released Tuesday.

Repairs to damaged equipment and the establishment of new procedures will cost about $242 million, the agency said. Restoring full operations will cost an additional $309 million. Those expenses are mostly in addition to the roughly $400 million the agency will spend on personnel and other operations as part of its regular budget, even though the dump, known as the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant, or WIPP, is not operating.

The report suggested that even when the plant reopens, it will not be operating at full scale for some time. Because of the closure, waste shipments have built up at nuclear weapons facilities and cleanup sites across the nation, and the cost of that is difficult to estimate.

WIPP is the nation’s only dump for waste from the nuclear weapons program. When open, it receives thousands of shipments each year of low- to medium-level radioactive materials laced with plutonium and other artificial elements. It had operated successfully for 15 years until the accidents.

[…]

The report also lays out some of the serious risks that the Energy Department faces in trying to restart operations, citing 11 risks and assumptions. They include the assumption that the ceiling will not cave in after many months of deferred maintenance. The risks include that the electrical system is more badly damaged than realized, that the damaged ventilation system cannot provide adequate air for repair crews and that a vertical ventilation shaft to the surface can operate without decontamination.

Another key risk cited in the report is that scientists will be unable to figure out what caused the drum to burst. So far, they have been unable to replicate the chemical reactions that caused the eruption in the drum, which was packaged at the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico.

Read more at Nuclear waste dump may reopen in 2016, two years after accidents

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Nuclear Power Costs Billions More Than Promised via Epoch Times

Posted on 2014/10/01 by yukimiyamotodepaul

Since the mid-1990s nuclear power has been staging a comeback. The Fukushima reactor disaster in 2011 may have given a moment of pause, but today 14 countries are building new reactors.

The United States generates most of the world’s nuclear energy, over 30 percent, but there has been little interest in building new reactors here since the 1980s. Following a 30-year hiatus, new U.S. plants are now under construction. Six are expected to come on line by 2020.

This renewed interest in nuclear power is fueled by energy policies sensitive to a changing climate. Nuclear power—generated from splitting a uranium 235 nucleus—leaves a light carbon footprint compared to the dirty business of burning fossil fuels. This feature has encouraged construction of many new plants worldwide, 27 in China alone.

But despite nuclear’s green reputation experts say it’s a bad deal.

It requires a comparatively tiny amount of uranium to generate electricity, so most of the cost consumers pay for nuclear power comes from building the reactor. But the construction of new facilities often proves much more expensive than promised.

New reports find that at least three quarters of all nuclear reactor projects worldwide are officially delayed. According to Mycle Schneider, International consultant on nuclear policy, and lead author of the World Nuclear Industry Status Report (WNISR) 2014, construction delays can run projects billions over budget.

In a conference call on Sept. 19, Schneider pointed reporters to the European pressurized water reactors under construction in Finland and France. These projects are now estimated at $11 billion each, totaling about $7 billion over budget and over four times as much as the original estimates 10 years ago.

[…]

According to Peter Bradford—adjunct professor on Nuclear Power and public policy at Vermont Law School, former member of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission and former chair of the New York and Maine state utility regulatory commissions—time and budgetary discrepancies have always plagued the nuclear industry.

“This is an industry with a history of a terribly optimistic vender forecast,” he said. […]

Consumers Shoulder the Risks

According to Schneider, commercial banks no longer back reactor project financing, because it’s too risky. It is for this reason that the Asian Development Bank has never financed a nuclear facility.

“Without upfront customer financing no one in the U.S. will build a new reactor,” he said.

In South Carolina and Georgia where new reactor construction is underway, the legislature arranged for electricity customers to be charged for the facilities before they even come into service. Bradford said that while such laws do produce lower final reactor costs, they shift the risk of a reactor project cancellation to consumers, who, unlike investors, don’t charge for bearing those risks.

Read more at Nuclear Power Costs Billions More Than Promised

 

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原発優先　縮む再生エネ　電力会社、買い取り中断次々 via 東京新聞

Posted on 2014/10/01 by yukimiyamotodepaul

太陽光を中心とする再生可能エネルギーの新規受け入れを中断する動きが拡大し、太陽光発電を予定していた事業 者などからは怒りと戸惑いの声が上がっている。北海道、東北、東京、関西、四国、九州の電力六社に続き、沖縄電力も三十日、八月八日から新たな受け入れを 中断していたことを明らかにした。国は原発再稼働を急ぐ一方で、再生エネの受け入れ態勢を整えないまま事業者の発電計画について買い取りを認定。制度設計 の甘さが浮き彫りになった形だ。　（吉田通夫）

　太陽光発電を計画する東京都内の事業者は「国は、電力会社の受け入れ態勢が整っていないまま次々と事業計画を認定していたので不安は感じていた。国の政策は無責任だ」と憤る。「電力会社も状況を説明せず急に中断するのはおかしい」と語った。

　太陽光発電装置を販売しているサニックス（福岡市）は、九州電力が中断を発表した二十五日に対応を公表。「九州電管内で太陽光発電設備の施工がで きなくなり、影響は避けられない」としたうえで九州以外への人員配転や採用計画の見直しなどのリストラ策に着手することを明らかにした。

　再生エネの買い取り価格は四月から下がることが決まっており、北海道、東北、四国、九州、沖縄の五電力によると、直前の三月に、太陽光を中心に駆 け込みの申し込みが急増した。全量を買い取った場合、「管内の電力需要を上回る時間帯や季節が生じる可能性があり、大規模な停電を起こす恐れがある」とい う。このため、今後の対応方針が決まるまで「数カ月間」は受け入れ可否の回答を保留することにした。

（略）

＜再生可能エネルギーの固定価格買い取り制度＞　太陽光、風力、中小規模の水力、地熱、バイオマスの５種類の発電を、国が決めた価格で買い取る制度。

　民主党政権時の２０１２年７月に導入され、国の第三者委員会が発電事業者の採算をとれる価格を設定し、電力会社に買い取りを義務付けることで事業者の参入を促してきた。買い取り費用は「賦課金」として電気料金に上乗せされ、家庭や企業などの電力利用者が負担する。

全文は原発優先　縮む再生エネ　電力会社、買い取り中断次々

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安倍政権がもくろむ原発救済案 via dot.

Posted on 2014/10/01 by yukimiyamotodepaul

電力需給のピークを超えた9月に入り、電力業界に“異変”が起きた。関西電力の美浜原発1、2号機や九州電力の玄海原発1号機などで廃炉が検討されていると報じられたのだ。

これらはいずれも築40年前後の老朽原発。原子力資料情報室の伴英幸氏がこう解説する。

「福島第一原発の事故を受けた制度改正で原発の運転期間は原則40年とされ、それを超えて運転する場合は追加の安全対策に巨額の投資が必要となった。古い世代の原発は発電容量も小さく、コスト的にも元がとれないので廃炉にせざるを得なかったのでしょう」

これまで原発輸出や再稼働に前のめりだった安倍政権下では珍しい動きだ。

ところがその裏では、政府による“原発救済計画”が、着々と進行しつつあった。

その舞台は今後の原子力政策を検討する経済産業省の原子力小委員会だ。

(略）

「電力市場を完全に自由化します。2020年、東京でオリンピック選手たちが競い合う頃には、日本の電力市場は、発送電を分離し、発電、小売りとも完全に競争的な市場になっています」

今年1月、ダボス会議でこう高らかに宣言した安倍首相。6月には電力小売りの全面自由化を柱とする改正電気事業法を国会で成立させた。16年には、家庭向け電力の自由化が予定されており、消費者は電力会社を自由に選べるようになる。

18年以降には料金規制が撤廃され、これまで総括原価方式で決められてきた電力価格が、ライバル企業との価格競争にさらされるようになるのだ。

原発のコスト計算に詳しい立命館大学の大島堅一教授がこう解説する。

「電力会社はこれまで総括原価方式によって、原発の新規建設や廃炉などにかかる巨額のコストを電力料金に上乗せして消費者に請求してきた。ところが電力自由化後は、価格競争が生じ、電気料金にコストを上乗せできなくなる可能性があるのです」

廃炉の費用は、1基あたり数百億円とも、1千億円を超えるとも言われる。また、廃炉の際には発電設備や核燃料の資産価値が一度に失われて大きな損失が生じ、経営に大きなダメージとなる。

全文は安倍政権がもくろむ原発救済案

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Radioactive spikes from nuclear plants – a likely cause of childhood leukemia via Ecologist

Posted on 2014/09/30 by yukimiyamotodepaul

When nuclear reactors are refueled, a 12-hour spike in radioactive emissions exposes local people to levels of radioactivity up to 500 times greater than during normal operation, writes Ian Fairlie. The spikes may explain infant leukemia increases near nuclear plants – but operators provide no warnings and take no measures to reduce exposures.

On 23rd August, The Ecologist published very clear evidence of increased cancers among children living near nuclear power stations around the world, including the UK.

The story sparked much interest on social media sites, and perhaps more importantly, the article’s scientific basis (published in the academic peer-reviewed scientific journal the Journal of Environmental Radioactivity) was downloaded over 500 times by scientists.

Given this level of interest and the fact that the UK government is still pressing ahead with its bizarre plans for more nuclear stations, we return to this matter – and examine in more detail an important aspect which has hitherto received little attention: massive spikes in radioactive emissions from nuclear reactors.

Refueling releases a huge radioactive emissions plume

Operating nuclear power plants (NPPs) contain large volumes of radioactive gases at high pressures and temperatures. When their reactors are depressurised and opened to refuel every 12-18 months, these gases escape creating a spiked emission and a large radioactive plume downwind of the station lasting for 12 hours or so.

In 2011, the UK National Dose Assessment Working Group published guidance on ‘Short Term Releases to the Atmosphere‘. This stated that “…doses from the assessment of a single realistic short-term release are a factor of about 20 greater than doses from the continuous release assessment.”

An older German study (Hinrichsen, 2001) indicated that these doses could be 100 times greater. (Hinrichsen K (2001) Critical appraisal of the meteorological basis used in General Administrative Regulations (re dispersion coefficients for airborne releases of NPPs) See Annex D page 9: Radiation Biological Opinion (in German).

A dramatic increase in individual doses

Some scientists think that the time pattern is unimportant and only the population dose is relevant, but this turns out not to be the case. The reason is partly related to the duration of the release, as short releases produce very narrow plumes (plume widths vary non-linearly as a fractional power of the duration).

The result is that individual doses increase dramatically per Bq emitted. Another reason is that spikes result in high concentrations of organically bound tritium and carbon-14 in environmental materials and humans which have longer retentions and thus higher doses.

The precise amount will depend on many factors, including source term, proximity to the reactor, wind speed, wind direction, and the diets and habits of local people.

[…]

‘Especially at risk are unborn children’

IPPNW Germany warned of the probable health impacts of such large emission spikes. Dr Reinhold Thiel, a member of the German IPPNW Board said:

“Especially at risk are unborn children. When reactors are open and releasing gases, pregnant women can incorporate much higher concentrations of radionuclides than at other times, mainly via respiration. Radioactive isotopes inhaled by the mother can reach the unborn child via blood with the result that the embryo/ fetus is contaminated by radioactive isotopes.

“This contamination could affect blood-forming cells in the bone marrow resulting later in leukemia. This provides a plausible explanation for the findings of the KiKK study published in 2008 that under-fives living near NPPs are considerably more at risk of cancer, particularly leukemia, than children living further away.”

In the light of the German data, it is recommended half-hourly emissions data from all UK reactors should be disclosed and that the issue of childhood cancer increases near NPPs be re-examined by the Government.

Nuclear operators should inform local people when they intend to open up their reactors, and they should only do so at night-time (when most people are indoors) and when the winds are blowing out to sea.

Read more at Radioactive spikes from nuclear plants – a likely cause of childhood leukemia

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Rolls-Royce fined £200,000 after exposing workers to radiation at Derby site via Derby Telegraph

Posted on 2014/09/30 by yukimiyamotodepaul

Rolls-Royce has been fined £200,000 and ordered to pay £176,500 after breaching safety regulations that led to employees being exposed to radiation.

The company’s Marine Power Operations business, in Sinfin Lane, faced seven charges in the case, which was brought by the Health and Safety Executive and the Environment Agency.

Leicester Crown Court heard that significant failings led to a radioactive source being lost for approximately five hours at the Sinfin Lane site on 3 March 2011.

The charges centred on the management of risk of exposure of employees to ionising radiation from radioactive sources used in industrial radiography.

[…]

Speaking after the hearing, David Orr, HSE’s specialist inspector of radiation, said:

“Industrial radiography carries a greater risk of radiation exposure compared to other industrial uses of radioactive sources by nature of the very high activity sources used. HSE expects companies carrying out such work to have robust safety systems and procedures in place to protect employees during normal work and following a radiation accident such as the detachment of the radioactive source.

“Gamma radiation emitted by this type of radioactive source is harmful to human health. Rolls-Royce is fully aware of the danger it poses and has a clear duty to protect staff from harm. However the company failed its duty of care on this occasion, losing control of the source without realising it.

“There was no effective surveillance of it for five hours and the exposure of workers to radiation, including some who were not involved in the industrial radiography work, was considerably in excess of the annual permitted dose.”

Read more at Rolls-Royce fined £200,000 after exposing workers to radiation at Derby site

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原発なしでも安定供給＝電力９社の今冬見通し via The Wall Street Journal

Posted on 2014/09/30 by yukimiyamotodepaul

東京電力や関西電力など、沖縄を除く電力９社が、今冬は原発の再稼働なしでも、電力の安定供給 に最低限必要な余力を確保する見通しであることが３０日、明らかになった。北海道電力については、発電所事故などで突発的な電力不足に陥る懸念があるた め、政府は節電目標設定の検討を進める。 　経済産業省は１０月１日に電力需給検証小委員会を開き、冬の節電対策の議論を始める。九州電力の川内原発（鹿児島県）は今冬にも再稼働する可能性があるが、小委員会は全原発停止を前提に電力各社の需給見通しを検証。

続きは 原発なしでも安定供給＝電力９社の今冬見通し

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