Watchdog files appeal over planned nuclear storage complex via KOB4

Posted on 2020/06/16 by yukimiyamotodepaul

CARLSBAD, N.M. (AP) — A proposed multibillion-dollar complex in southern New Mexico that would store spent nuclear fuel from commercial power plants around the U.S. is facing another legal challenge as opponents have filed an appeal in federal court.

They are taking aim at the federal government’s decision earlier this year to dismiss numerous contentions that watchdogs had raised about the project.

Beyond Nuclear’s appeal, filed in early June, reiterated concerns that the facility planned by Holtec International would end up becoming a permanent dumping ground for spent nuclear fuel since there’s no deep geological repository available to hold the waste permanently, the Carlsbad Current-Argus reported.

[…]

New Jersey-based Holtec is seeking a 40-year license to build what it has described as a state-of-the-art complex near Carlsbad. The first phase calls for storing up to 8,680 metric tons of uranium, which would be packed into 500 canisters. Future expansion could make room for as many as 10,000 canisters of spent fuel.

Holtec has said the U.S. currently has more than 80,000 metric tons of used nuclear fuel in storage at dozens of sites around the country and the inventory is growing at a rate of about 2,000 metric tons a year.

[…]

The NRC reasoned in its April decision dismissing the contentions that Holtec expects the operators of the nuclear plants where the waste is generated to take title to it, unless the Energy Department is allowed to through a change in law enacted by Congress.

The NRC also argued that merely issuing a license to Holtec would not violate federal law ahead the potential transfer of ownership of the waste.

[…]

Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham and other elected officials in New Mexico have concerns about the project, pointing to the lack of a permanent plan by the federal government for dealing with the waste. The governor and others also have questions about whether the facility would compromise oil and gas development in the Permian Basin.

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「虫のいい話」「パフォーマンス」関電提訴決定に原発立地の福井・高浜町は… via 産経ニュース

Posted on 2020/06/16 by yukimiyamotodepaul

（抜粋）

問題を調べた第三者委員会の報告書では、同町元助役、森山栄治氏（故人）が役員らに多額の金品を渡し、関電から森山氏が関係する企業に不適切な工事発注があったとされる。

自営業の男性（７３）は「関電も森山氏を利用していた部分がある。森山氏や前の社長らに責任を押し付けるのは、虫のいい話だ。今の経営陣も責任の自覚を」と注文を付けた。

旅館経営者の７０代男性は「世間体のためのパフォーマンスではないか」と冷ややか。「旧経営陣が賠償金を支払えば、会社に責任がないと納得するものではない」と突き放した。

全文は「虫のいい話」「パフォーマンス」関電提訴決定に原発立地の福井・高浜町は…

関連記事：関電、再稼働へ過去の清算急ぐ　根強い原発不信 via Jiji .com

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Why a decision on a second US plutonium-pit-production factory should be delayed via Bulletin of Atomic Scientists

Posted on 2020/06/15 by nfield

By Frank von Hippel, June 12, 2020

The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), the organization within the Energy Department that is responsible for producing and maintaining US nuclear warheads, is moving forward with a plan to build a plutonium-pit-production factory at DOE’s Savannah River Site in South Carolina. “Pits” are the form of the plutonium in the fission trigger “primaries” of US two-stage nuclear warheads.

The primary motivation for this move is lack of confidence in the pit-production capacity at Los Alamos National Laboratory, which has been responsible for preserving US pit production expertise since production at the Rocky Flats Plant outside of Denver shut down at the end of the Cold War. There are also political motivations, including filling the jobs gap at the Savannah River Site resulting from the collapse of NNSA’s effort to build a Mixed-oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility there to process some of its excess Cold War plutonium pits into power reactor fuel.

NNSA’s rush forward may result in a debacle on top of a debacle. If the experts at Los Alamos can’t manage pit production there, why does NNSA think that they can design and train the staff to operate a pit-production facility at the Savannah River Site?

Also, the United States need for pits is unclear at the moment. In 2007, the pits produced at Rocky Flats—now 30 to 40 years old—were pronounced to be good for at least a century and, in 2012, the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory upped the durability estimate to 150 years. NNSA did not support the necessary research to solidify this conclusion, however—an oversight that it now promises to remedy.

The NNSA also claims that it needs to produce new pits for two types of safer primaries for two new nuclear warheads, but there seem to be enough already-existing pits for one of the warheads, and the design for the second has not yet been decided.

Thus, there are multiple arguments for delaying a decision on the proposed second pit-production facility for a decade or so. By then, Los Alamos should have mastered the production of pits, the longevity of the legacy pits will be better established, and the need for pits not available in the legacy stockpile should be clarified.

[…]

The purpose of insensitive high explosive is not to reduce the probability of an accidental nuclear explosion. Other elements of the safety design are supposed to do that, and, to date, no warhead accident has resulted in a nuclear yield.

The benefit from the use of insensitive high explosive would be to reduce the number of accidents in which the chemical explosive around a pit is detonated and plutonium is dispersed. There were many such accidents involving aircraft-carried warheads prior to the decision not to fly nuclear-armed aircraft in peacetime. The most famous was the collision of a nuclear-armed B-52 strategic bomber with its refueling tanker over Spain in 1966, which resulted in a large area of plutonium contamination on the ground, requiring 1,600 US military personnel to be deployed for up to 12 weeks, working with minimal protection, gathering contaminated dirt and crops into barrels for shipment back to the US for burial on the Savannah River Site. The Navy has had no such accidents with its SLBM warheads, however, and believes that reducing the risk significantly would require redesigning its Trident missile as well as their warheads. It therefore has in the past not been willing to invest in adapting new insensitive high explosive warheads to its missiles, a process that would include flight tests.

[…]

We can wait for another decade before we decide on whether the United States requires two pit production facilities. Indeed, we can wait for another decade before we decide on whether we need any new pits at all.

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New Film Explores U.S. Suppression of Key Footage from Hiroshima & Nagasaki via the Asia-Pacific Journal Japan Focus

Posted on 2020/06/14 by nfield

Greg Mitchell

Elite Japanese and American film teams shot the most important and disturbing film, including rare color images, in the aftermath of the atomic bombings. Then it was buried by U.S. authorities for decades as the nuclear arms race raged.

[…]

But one day in June 1982, I took notice when the Japan Society in New York announced it would screen the first movie drawing on footage shot in vivid color in Hiroshima and Nagasaki by an elite American military team, then suppressed for decades by the U.S. government. One of the U.S. Army officers who was part of that team would discuss the film and its suppression for the first time. I was a member of the Japan Society–they had even arranged my recent interview with film director Akira Kurosawa–and always loved a good “cover-up.” So I attended the event a few days later.

The film, produced in Japan, was called Prophecy. Someone connected with it introduced former Army lieutenant Herbert Sussan, who went on to a long career as a producer/director in the emerging television industry. He described being recruited near the end of 1945 from the Army’s famous wartime film studio in Hollywood (where he had met Ronald Reagan, among others) to join a major U.S. Strategic Bombing Survey project to shoot the first and only color footage documenting the destruction of Japanese cities from the air during the war. It seemed to offer a free, triumphant, trip for the young man until the crew arrived by train at their first stop: Nagasaki. He would be haunted by what he saw there, and then in Hiroshima, for the rest of his life.

[…]

When he returned to New York after filming in numerous other bomb-ravaged Japanese cities, Sussan was determined to show the world what he had experienced, hoping that this might halt the building of new and bigger weapons and prevent a dangerous nuclear arms race with the Russians.

Instead, he found that all of the footage had been classified top secret and buried by the U.S. military. Some of it would eventually be used in training films, but none of it was shown to the public. The color images were just too revealing not only of unfathomable destruction of buildings, but above all the long-lasting damage to human bodies.

Seized at the same time by the U.S. and hidden for the next quarter of a century was all of the searing black and white footage shot earlier by the leading Japanese newsreel company, Nippon Eiga Sha. 

Sussan tried for twenty years to find and make use of his footage–Americans still had not been exposed to color images of any kind from Hiroshima and Nagasaki–but he got nowhere, even after personally approaching everyone from famed newsman Edward R. Murrow to former President Harry S. Truman. 

[…]

Finally, he would, almost by accident, play a central role in the footage becoming known to the world. Around 1979 he attended an exhibit of photos from the atomic cities at the United Nations near his apartment. To his dismay, he spotted several color enlargements of frames from the footage his team had shot in 1946.. He said to a Japanese man, Iwakura Tsotumu, who had helped arrange the exhibit, something to the effect, “I shot the footage this photo is taken from.”

Imagine Iwakura’s surprise. Iwakura did some digging at the National Archives in Washington and discovered that the color footage had been declassified, very quietly, a few years earlier. If no one knew about this, it was just the same as still being classified.

Iwakura went back to Japan and launched what became known as the “10 Feet Movement,” a grassroots project that encouraged people (including school kids) to raise and contribute funds to buy back copies of all of the color footage in increments of ten feet. When they reached their goal in 1980, he made the footage available to Japanese filmmakers, who soon completed two documentaries, with more in the works.

The creators of the film that I saw, Prophecy, directed by Hani Susumi, were able to track down some of the survivors shown in the 1946 footage and then contrast the badly-scarred images of them in 1946 with images from interviews with them from the early 1980s. Soon Americans started making use of the color footage–although only in brief passages–in their own films.

[…]

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Radioactive cloud over Europe had civilian background via EurekAlert!

Posted on 2020/06/14 by nfield

NEWS RELEASE 12-JUN-2020

UNIVERSITY OF MÜNSTER

A mysterious cloud containing radioactive ruthenium-106, which moved across Europe in autumn 2017, is still bothering Europe’s radiation protection entities. Although the activity concentrations were innocuous, they reached up to 100 times the levels of what had been detected over Europe in the aftermath of the Fukushima accident. Since no government has assumed responsibility so far, a military background could not be ruled out.

Researchers at the Leibniz University Hannover and the University of Münster (both Germany) now found out that the cloud did not originate from military sources – but rather from civilian nuclear activities. Hence, the release of ruthenium from a reprocessing plant for nuclear fuels is the most conclusive scenario for explaining the incident in autumn 2017. The study has been published in the journal Nature Communications.

[…]

The ruthenium isotopic ratios found in the filter are consistent with the signature of a civilian source, in particular the signature of spent nuclear fuel from a nuclear power plant. A military background (such as the production of weapons-grade plutonium) can be ruled out.

Furthermore, high-precision measurements enabled the researchers to draw further conclusions. “The isotope signature discovered in the air filter exhibits no similarities with nuclear fuels of conventional Western pressurised or boiling water reactors. Instead, it is consistent with the isotope signature of a specific type of Russian pressurised water reactors – the VVER series. Worldwide, approximately 20 reactors of this type of VVER are currently operational”, specifies Professor Georg Steinhauser from Leibniz University Hannover.

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「除染なき避難解除」〜朝日新聞報道をめぐり火花　via Our Planet-TV

Posted on 2020/06/12 by nfield

福島県の帰還困難区域をめぐり、政府が「未除染」のまま避難指示解除する方針で調整しているとの新聞報道を受け、国会議員らでつくる「原発ゼロの会」世話人会は１１日、担当する内閣府原子力被災者生活支援チームの担当者らから聞き取りを行った。

支援チームの細井友裕洋参事官補佐は、報道を否定する一方、地元の意向を踏まえて、「どのような避難指示解除の仕組みが適切か、検討を行っていく」と回答。従来の枠組みとは異なる「未除染」での避難指示解除も、選択肢の一つであることを示唆した。

「除染なし」での「避難指示解除」否定せず
朝日新聞は６月３日、「福島原発の避難指示、未除染でも解除へ　国の責務に例外除染なし」との独自記事をスクープ。避難指示区域について、「経済産業、環境、復興の3省庁は、除染抜きでも解除できるようにすることで一致。」「最終調整に入った。」と報じた。

また、「近く原子力規制委員会に未除染で解除した場合の安全性について諮」り、その結果を受けて、「今夏にも原子力災害対策本部（本部長・安倍晋三首相）を開いて従来の解除要件を見直す方向で調整している。」と詳報した。

この報道に関して、「原発ゼロの会」準備会の阿部知子議員が事実関係を質したところ、細井参事官補佐は、「報道により、ご不安を与えていることに恐縮に思っている」と釈明。「除染なき避難解除」と「居住断念が条件」で、政府が最終調整している事実はないと否定した。

しかし、飯館村や与党からの要望を受け、帰還困難区域の避難指示解除に向けて、具体的な検討をしている事実は認め、「地元自治体の強い意向がある場合には、住民の安全の確保を前提としつつ、どのような避難指示解除の仕組みが適切か、検討を行っている」ところと述べ、必ずしも現在の制度にこだわらず対応するとの考えを示した。

きっかけは「飯舘村の要望書」と「与党申し入れ」
「特定復興再生拠点」区域外をめぐっては昨年１２月、政府は「復興・創生期間」後における東日本大震災からの復興の基本方針」を閣議決定し、「地域の実情や土地活用の動向、地方公共団体の要望」を前提に、避難指示の解除に向けた検討を進めていた。

こうした中、具体的な要望を出してきたのが飯舘村だった。今年２月２６日に政府に要望書を提出。帰還困難区域の長泥地区に「復興公園」を整備し、住民が自由に訪れることができるよう避難指示を解除してほしいと求めた。また、与党も「地元自治体の強い意向」がある場合には、「現在の制度や枠組みにとらわれず」「避難指示解除を可能とする仕組みを構築する」よう要求していた。

これらを受け、「どのような避難指示解除の仕組みが適切か、検討を行っているところだが、あくまでも可能性を探っているものだと強調した。

飯舘村の要望と自民党の申し入れ文書

この説明に対し、柿沢未途議員は厳しく反論。政府与党の政策決定のあり方を考えれば、新聞報道の通りに進むということしか考えられない。何が違うのかと指摘。また阿部議員も、既存の法律を飛び越えて、原子力災害対策本部だけで決めることは、法治国家としてありえないと迫った。

来年通常国会で法改正の可能性 帰還困難区域は、2012年に避難区域の再編を行った際、年間５０ミリシーベルトを超えるような高い線量が計測された地域で、民主党政権時代は避難指示を解除する予定はなかった。しかし、安倍政権になってから方針を転換。政府の原子力災害対策本部が2016年８月31日、「帰還困難区域の取扱いに関する考え方」を取りまとめ、安倍首相は帰還困難区域の復興に向け、法改正や制度変更を急ぐよう指示した。

２０１6年８月３１日に取りまとめられた「帰還困難区域の取扱いに関する考え方（案） 」 https://www.kantei.go.jp/jp/singi/genshiryoku/dai42/siryou1.pdf

そして翌２０１７年６月、福島復興再生特措法を改正。帰還困難区域の一部「特定復興再生拠点区域」が除染対象となり、2022年から2023年にかけて、避難指示が解除することとなった。

担当者らは、制度の見直しには法改正が必要との考えを示していることから、今回も、この時と同様に、原子力規制委員会が安全性にお墨付きを与えた上で、原子力災害本部で「帰還困難区域」の避難指示解除に向けた方針が示され、早ければ来年の通常国会で、福島復興再生特措法や放射性物質汚染対処特措法といった関連法を改正する可能性もある。福島原発事故から10年目の節目に、「避難指示解除」の３要件が見直される可能性も否めない。

全文と動画

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Pandemic forces Fukushima’s Hope Tourism program to go digital　via Japan Times

Posted on 2020/06/12 by nfield

FUKUSHIMA MINPO

As with many tourism programs worldwide, COVID-19 is impeding the Hope Tourism project that covers areas affected by the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake and the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant meltdowns.

Those involved with the project worry about a missed opportunity to raise awareness of the lessons learned and information about reconstruction efforts, especially since the 10th anniversary of the disasters is next year. New ways to carry out tours, such as organizing livestreams, are being discussed.

Leaders of the project believe it is their duty to preserve the memory of the disasters.

“The best way to get people to understand how the area was affected is for them to go there and experience it for themselves,” said Takaaki Kanno, 50, deputy secretary-general of Machizukuri Namie. The organization arranges Hope Tourism tours in the town of Namie, one of the disaster-affected areas in Fukushima Prefecture.

The association provides guidance and tours in disaster-stricken areas to groups of children and university students. However, since February, these tours have been canceled one after another, and the association halted them entirely from March to late May.

The association launched tours in 2018 and guides about 100 to 140 groups a year. It provides a place for dialogue with the townspeople and guides visitors through a local elementary school that was severely damaged by the tsunami triggered by the earthquake and where many abandoned houses are being demolished following the evacuation of residents after the disaster.

Kanno, who is from the nearby town of Kawamata and used to run a cram school in Tokyo, returned to his hometown following the disasters and helped out reconstruction efforts. He became a town employee in November 2012.

But he later discovered that after the tsunami and the nuclear accident, Kawamata’s population had decreased and many of the returning residents were elderly.

“It was like a microcosm of Japan’s future problems,” he said.

Looking to the internet to share information about reconstruction efforts is catching on throughout the prefecture amid the pandemic. That’s the mission of Norio Kimura, 54, who evacuated from the town of Okuma to Iwaki in Fukushima Prefecture due to the nuclear disaster. For instance, he transformed a tour planned on May 6 into a Zoom conference.

Kimura livestreamed from the place where his house used to be located in the coastal area of Okuma and talked about the situation at the time of the earthquake and tsunami. About 60 people from both inside and outside the prefecture participated.

“I could feel the spectators’ presence. It motivates me to continue carrying out those missions for all the people who cannot come here,” Kimura said.

This year, the Fukushima University International Exchange Center postponed a short-term study program that invites overseas students to disaster areas. Instead, the students posted photos of the prefecture on social media to share the area’s current status and show off their reconstruction efforts.

William McMichael, deputy director of the exchange center, said that canceling the program was regrettable, but that he will do everything possible to support the region after the pandemic subsides.

Hope Tourism “has great significance for the reconstruction of the disaster-hit areas,” said Toshiya Hashimoto, a tourism professor at Rikkyo University and an expert in disaster prevention education. He has conducted field studies throughout Fukushima Prefecture, including cases in which unsubstantiated rumors hampered reconstruction efforts.

[…]

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原発事故はなぜ起きたか？「危機の時代」に科学と政治ができること 細野豪志×田中俊一【前編】via 日刊ゲンダイ

Posted on 2020/06/12 by yukimiyamotodepaul

「3.11」そして福島第一原発事故から9年の月日が流れた。
原発を推進してきた立場の科学者として事故直後に「陳謝」を表明、福島の除染に率先して取り組み、翌2012年には原子力規制委員会初代委員長（〜2017年）となった田中俊一氏。現在、福島県飯館村に住みながらボランティアで「復興アドバイザー」を務める田中氏を、2011年当時、菅直人内閣で原発事故担当の総理補佐官を務め、事故の最前線で対応に当たった衆議院議員の細野豪志氏が訪ねた。

あのとき、日本人は何を間違えたのか。今なお福島に置かれている除染廃棄物を、この先どうするのか。新型コロナウイルスという新たな国難が襲ういま、原発事故の過去と現在を考える特別対談。（構成・林智裕、ライター）
欠けていた「科学的判断」

細野　田中先生はご出身が福島で、いまも飯館村に住んで福島の実態を見ておられます。
先生のことが初めて印象に残ったのは、3.11の後の3月31日に専門家の皆さんを率いて提案された際に、冒頭で明確に謝罪を書いていたんですよね。原子力の専門家の中で、当時あれだけ率直に謝罪をした方はいなかった。どういうお気持ちだったんですか。

田中　これだけの事故を起こしてしまったことについて、それなりの責任、国民に対する謝罪の気持ちを持つのはごく当たり前のことですし、他にも思っていた関係者はかなりおられたと思います。

（略）

東京電力の傲慢さ
細野　当時、私が田中先生に原子力規制委員長をお願いしようと考えた一つの理由は、1999年のJCO臨界事故に関わっておられたことでした。JCOの事故と福島第一原発事故を比較して、気になることはありませんか。

田中　JCOは原子力業界の中では非常にマイナーな存在でした。一方、東電は日本の原子力を代表する存在です。しかしだからこそ、JCO事故の反省を踏まえていれば、福島の事故は起こさないで済んだような気もします。

JCOの事故でも、東京電力は事故対応に力を尽くしたとは思いますが、しかし本当の意味での反省はなかった。あれは原子力業界の端っこで起こった事故だとか、事故を起こしたのは当事者であるJCOに知識がなかったからだとか、そういうふうに言ってきたところがある。

（略）

田中　当時感じたのは、東電の中枢でそういう知恵のある人を集めて現場に送り込もうとか、いろいろな立場の人と一緒になって立ち向かおうという姿勢が、東電本社には全くなかったですよね。

当時の武藤栄副社長が、菅直人総理と一緒に現場へヘリコプターで行って東京へ帰ってきましたが、あれが私はいまだに信じられないんですよね。「私は残りますが、総理は帰ってください」と言うのが普通ですよ。本社とのつなぎ役をやるとか、吉田（昌郎）所長のサポート役に回るとか……しかし、彼の性格なのか東電の社風なのか、どうもそういうところがあります。

JCO（事故）のとき、原研（原子力開発研究所）で私は東海研究所の副所長だったので、とにかく研究所のできそうな職員をみんな集めて、原研つまり自分たちの事故ではないんだけど、とにかく止めないと、と思って対応しました。そのうち、いろんな人が真夜中でも、ボランティアみたいに来てくれるようになった。やっぱり、そういう覚悟を持ってやらなきゃいけません。

（略）

田中　福島の汚染がかなりひどいようだということで、とにかく状況を見に行こうと思って、飯舘村に4月の下旬に来たんです。それで、やはり生活空間を中心に除染が必要だと感じて、やり始めたんですね。

（略）

田中　伊達ですね。飯舘村は4月11日に計画的避難区域になって、村長の判断で全村避難になりました。しかし6月の初めまで、少しですが住民が残っていたんですよ。

細野　その前に、私は飯舘村の菅野典雄村長に全村避難をお願いしていたんですよね。我々は「一刻も早く避難した方がいい」という考え方だったんだけど、菅野村長は非常に見識をお持ちで、「避難する時もちゃんと説得をして順番にやらないと、もう戻って来られない」と。戻ってくる時のことを考えてお話をしていたのが、非常に印象的でしたね。

そうした避難の議論をしている時に、もう先生は除染をやられていたんですね。

田中　実際には、その議論をやっていた時はまだ、除染まではできていなかったと思います。ただ、あの当時は福島県立医科大学の山下俊一先生が「100ミリシーベルト以下の被曝では、健康上の問題は起きません」という話をしていて。

山下先生がそう言ったこともあって、帰るときのことを考えて、村から出ていってもいつでも来られるような距離にみんなで避難しようと菅野村長はお考えになったようです。

（略）

ただ一方で、除染の基準をどうするかという議論になって、持ち上がってきたのが、ICRPや国内の管理基準になっている、「追加的な放射線量1ミリシーベルト」という数値でした。

私もそのころには、1ミリシーベルトが例えば健康とか、住めるか住めないかという基準とはおよそかけ離れたものだとわかっていたんです。しかし、これまでの基準として1ミリシーベルトで管理することが決まっている以上、全く無視するわけにもいかない。そして福島県側としては、除染の目標は1ミリにしてくれ、という非常に大きな要望もあった。

それで、悩んだ末に「長い時間をかけて最終的に1ミリを目指しましょう」という基準を設けることになった。ただ、繰り返しになりますが、健康基準や居住可能の基準とは全く違いますよ、と強調したけれど、残念ながらなかなかそうは受け止められなかった。

（略）

田中　福島県には2000万袋（2000万立方メートル）くらいの除染土壌があって、飯舘村にはその10%があるんです。

細野　10％もあるんですか。

田中　当初は250万袋くらい、可燃物を除いても200万袋ぐらいありました。避難解除になっても、除染土壌は田畑の真ん中にずっと置かれているわけです。これを全て大熊町や双葉町の中間貯蔵施設に運び、その後30年以内に県外にまた持ち出します、ということになっているんです（※注：除染廃棄物は双葉郡大熊町と双葉町内に造られた施設で中間貯蔵された後、30年以内に福島県外に運び出して最終処分する予定）。

（略）

細野　除染の基準は、本来1kgあたり8000ベクレルですよね。

田中　そうですが、なんとなく5000ベクレルが基準になっているんです。なので、それ以下のものはできるだけ再利用につなげたい。そうすると、中間貯蔵施設で処分しなければならない土壌は半分弱ぐらいには抑えられるでしょう。

全文は原発事故はなぜ起きたか？「危機の時代」に科学と政治ができること 細野豪志×田中俊一【前編】

事故から9年「福島への無関心」「原発への無反省」がもたらす危機　　細野豪志×田中俊一【後編】

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Huge dust cloud released at UK nuclear power site after tower ‘collapses’　via the Mirror

Posted on 2020/06/12 by nfield

[…]

Shocking pictures show a huge dust cloud which was released after a silo at Hinkley Point C nuclear plant appeared to collapse this morning.

The 35-metre tower, weighing around 5,000 tonnes, suffered “structural damage” at around 7.30am, when onlookers claimed to have heard what sounded like an explosion.

The plant – which is still under construction and is set to be completed in 2025 – is based near Bridgwater in Somerset.

Witnesses reported hearing a loud bang at around 7.30am, but energy supplier EDF has denied that a blast occurred, Somerset Live reports.

In a statement the company said no one had been hurt.

[…]

The silo, which contains ground granulated blast furnace slag, is described as “important” and plays a “pivotal” role in the station’s construction by reusing the material within its concrete.

Last year the Mirror reported that the Treasury had struck a deal with EDF that means the UK will pay £92.50 per megawatt-hour, roughly twice the current market rate.

The price is indexed to inflation, meaning the final number could be much greater.

EDF wants to build another station at Sizewell in Suffolk. It is understood that the company is confident it could bring construction cost down from Hinkley Point’s £20bn to about £16bn.

The plant was given government approval in 2016, and is estimated to have cost around £20 billion to build.

Hinkley Point C has been described as “the first in a new generation of nuclear power stations in the UK” and is due to be complete in 2025.

Construction has continued through the coronavirus pandemic, although workers have voiced concerns about social distancing measures.

Read more.

NFLA seek answers in silo structural incident at Hinkley Point C

The Nuclear Free Local Authorities (NFLA) has sought answers from the Office for Nuclear Regulation (ONR) after what appears to be quite a significant incident on the Hinkley Point site yesterday.

An investigation has been launched by the ONR and EDF Energy after a silo tower at the Hinkley Point C development sustained “structural damage” and released a large dust cloud around 7.30am on June 10th.  

The silo tower is a 35-metre high structure that weighs around 5,000 tonnes. It is based at the concrete batching plant of the nuclear power station development. According to Somerset Live, the silo, which contains ground granulated blast furnace slag, is described as “important” by EDF Energy and plays a “pivotal role” in the station’s construction by reusing the material within its concrete.

Photos on media outlets show a section of the silo has collapsed inwards. EDF is investigating what may have caused the damage. EDF have confirmed no workers were injured in the incident and the emergency services were not required to attend the incident. (1)

NFLA, the NGO representatives to the Chief Nuclear Regulator’s Independent Safety Panel and a number of other groups, including the Nuclear Consulting Group, have asked the following questions of the ONR:
• Is the incident being deemed as a nuclear safety incident?
• Given that the storage silo contained ‘ground granulated blast furnace slag’, it is likely to include concentrations of dioxins. We would like to know what materials exactly were in the silo, and what the potential health impact may be.
• Did the storage silo contain waste including Naturally Occurring Radioactive Materials (NORM)?
• Did the storage silo include mud containing alpha radiation emitting plutonium particles?

The ONR have responded that it was not a nuclear safety incident, which has led to three follow-up questions:
• Were there any potential nuclear safety consequences from the accident?  In other words, if things had played out in a different way, could there have been a nuclear risk (e.g. from debris damaging a nuclear facility).  Could you advise on this please?
• How did ONR establish that there were “no nuclear safety consequences” from the silo collapse?
• Did ONR send any inspector to the site, or did it rely on assurances from EDF?

The organisations are waiting for responses on these matters and have asked for a swift response to their queries. Whilst it is clear EDF are suggesting this is a low risk incident, the pictures of the storage silo and the spreading of a dust cloud likely to have spread over the site and further afield may well have health consequences for workers and the wider public. NFLA hopes answers to these questions are provided forthwith.

NFLA remains concerned that the Hinkley Point C development has had extensive construction activity during the lockdown created by the Covid-19 pandemic, which has closed down much of the wider economy. It has always seemed an anomaly that construction sites were given exemption from the lockdown, and certainly there remains concern over how safe social distancing can be effectively undertaken over such a large and complicated site.

NFLA notes that the construction sector has a higher rate of coronavirus deaths than most other sectors, according to figures from the Office of National Statistics show.

Low-skilled construction workers had a death rate of 25.9 deaths per 100,000 males, making it one of the most affected professions in the country. (2) NFLA argues this statistic showed the importance of curtailing such work during a pandemic for the safety of its workforce. It remains disappointed that EDF Energy continued this work during such a profound public health emergency, and that the ONR, the local authority and the emergency services, and above all the UK Government, permitted it to take place.

NFLA Steering Committee Chair, Councillor David Blackburn added:
“This looks to NFLA like quite a serious incident on the Hinkley Point C site. A storage silo has been clearly damaged and some of that material has been released in a dust cloud over the site and potentially further afield. NFLA wants to know what material has been released and the health consequences from the dust cloud, and above all why the silo structure has collapsed. Of course, if such construction work on site had been halted as part of the lockdown from the Covid-19 outbreak then this accident may not have happened. Construction workers and the wider public have been potentially put at risk by allowing the reactor work to keep going during this public health emergency. NFLA hopes the queries made of the nuclear regulator are responded to as quickly as possible and that we fully understand what happened yesterday.”

Ends – for more information please contact Sean Morris, NFLA Secretary, on 00 44 (0)161 234 3244.

Notes for Editors:
(1) Somerset Live, 10th June https://www.somersetlive.co.uk/news/somerset-news/hinkley-point-c-dust-cloud-4210733?_ga=2.119323983.751970057.1591874421-814010539.1583757382#source=push
(2) Building.co.uk, 11th May https://www.building.co.uk/news/male-construction-workers-among-hardest-hit-from-covid-deaths-ons-says/5105936.article

Original text here.

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Radioactive facts in Gaziemir and authoritarian negligence via Yeşil Gazete

Posted on 2020/06/10 by nfield

Gaziemir, one of the 30 districts of Izmir, was recognized as “Chernobyl of Izmir” due to the nuclear waste that remained in the soil for decades. The nuclear waste was detected in the grounds of The Aslan Avci Lead Factory in 2011, soon after the factory moved away to an other district of Izmir and the company was sentenced to pay the highest environmental penalty of 5.7 million Turkish Liras for its polluting the environment. Being at a distance of 75-100 meters from two primary schools with over 1000 students attending each, it is located in the middle of the town.

Despite the fact that authorities were informed by press releases of environmental organizations such as Aegean Environment Platform(EGECEP) and Anti-Nuclear Platform Izmir (NKP Izmir), negligence remains with the radioactive waste in the soil. As a result of being affected negatively the civil society claimed lawsuits in 2014 for the sake of public health and psychology but the problem remains unsolved as civil society excluded from the legal process. According to the statement by experts, the amount of the waste were known as 100 thousand tones; but today new facts are emerging regarding the amount being twice or triple more.

[…]

‘A smell of a mixture of hydrochloric acid and bleach’

After introducing some cases chronologically, this article will try to provide an understanding of how the residents who have been left to live with radioactivity within toxic waste in the neighbourhood and how they are affected in their daily lives. Especially at the time of the Covid-19 threat when it is “normal” to be closed in interior spaces, imagine you had to avoid even opening a window due to the existing smell of a mixture of hydrochloric acid and bleach. Gaziemir residents have been living in such conditions that a pregnant woman is afraid for her baby’s future and her voice trembles. Another woman in the neighbourhood who moved to Gaziemir after her marriage tells how they have been suffering from the smell for 17 years so that she never allows her children to play in front of the apartment building. The smoke rising after the rain and the red dust brought by the wind too means we need to worry, while reminding the nuclear waste.

On the other hand, these externalities also make negative impact on health…. While some residents suffer from asthma diseases in the neighbourhood, there is also a risk that the nuclear-contaminated wastes which was buried in the soil are flammable through chemical reaction. It was February 2019 when the firefighters said “This is a bomb ready to explode!,” when fire started in the factory grounds.

Not 100 thousand but even 250-300 thousand tons of radioactive slag!

Despite of the fact that the public health has been ignored for 13 years and no precautions have been taken, the scale of the problem is likely even bigger than what the public knows. According to the statement of a witness who had worked at the factory, nuclear waste was brought into operation at the end of 2006 and processed. Meanwhile, the recycling of scrap nuclear fuel rods caused radioactive contamination of scraps that were recycled consecutively, due to the usage of same furnaces in the subsequent processes. Earlier waste was contaminated as well, since nuclear waste was burried in the ground on top of others. As a matter of fact, according to the witness’ court statement, some waste was sent to the disposal facility of the municipal waste management company IZAYDAS, but were rejected due to the radioactivity detected.

[…]

Read more.

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