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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トリチウム放出に反対決議via TUFchanel

Posted on 2020/06/10 by nfield

三春議会汚染水意見書_20200608_0001

全文はこちら。

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原発直下の断層審査　議論停滞なら「不許可も」　規制委員長 via 日本経済新聞

Posted on 2020/06/10 by yukimiyamotodepaul

原子力規制委員会の更田豊志委員長は10日、原子力発電所直下の活断層の存在が焦点となっている安全審査について「議論が停滞して前へ進まないのに、リソースを投入するのは無責任だ」と述べ、「不許可」の判断もありうると示唆した。日本原子力発電が敦賀原発2号機（福井県）の審査資料を無断で書き換えた問題で、報道陣からの質問に対して答えた。

規制委は日本原電に対し、信頼できる資料が出るまで審査を進めない方針を示している。更田委員長は「納得できる立証ができているのか見ている」と指摘した。

今の規制基準では、原子炉など重要施設の直下に活断層がある原発は運転できない。規制委が設けた有識者調査団は2015年に原電の敦賀2号機、16年に北陸電力の志賀1号機（石川県志賀町）の直下に活断層があるとの評価書をまとめた。

両社は「活断層ではない」として地質データなどの証拠を集めているが、規制委を納得させられず審査が長引いている。

続きは原発直下の断層審査　議論停滞なら「不許可も」　規制委員長

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To Show Fukushima Crops are Safe, an Agency Made a Book Out of Rice Paper Grown There via Adweek

Posted on 2020/06/10 by yukimiyamotodepaul

By Sara Spary

Serviceplan created the project for a company whose sensors have shown the safety of decontaminated fields

[…]

Nine years later, scientists in the region are fighting to show that crops from decontaminated land are safe to eat. Agency Serviceplan in Germany has even created a book made from rice straw paper from crops grown in the region in order to help show people that products grown on decontaminated land are safe.

To make the beautifully crafted book, rice straw was harvested, dried, cleaned, cut and crafted into paper. It was sent to selected key science, agriculture and food production decision-makers, with aims to change opinions about the region.

The book presents data that the agency said shows the crops as safe and features images of people from the region in a bid to humanize their situation and bring the scientific data to life in an easily digestible way.

[…]

However, the book’s creators said consumers and buyers continue to shun the produce and they’re concerned about contamination.

“The researchers identified the problem that no one really understands the depth of the data and the effectiveness of their work,” said Alexander Schill, global CCO of Serviceplan. “We turned this abstract data into something that’s visually appealing but also easy to understand.”

Read more at To Show Fukushima Crops are Safe, an Agency Made a Book Out of Rice Paper Grown There

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福島の国際教育研究拠点　研究者ら600人規模に via 日本経済新聞

Posted on 2020/06/10 by yukimiyamotodepaul

福島県沿岸部の浜通り地方に国が設置する国際教育研究拠点のあり方を

（略）

国に報告した。東京電力福島第1原子力発電所事故からの復興や廃炉に資する研究を軸に、研究者や大学院生らの人員を600人規模と想定。原発事故で避難指示が出た地域への立地を基本とすべきだと指摘した。

浜通りで新産業創出を目指す「イノベーション・コースト構想」で、同拠点は全体を取りまとめる司令塔の役割が期待される。国は2020年中に立地場所を含めた計画をまとめる方針で、23年春に一部開所、24年度に本格開所を目指す。

全文は福島の国際教育研究拠点　研究者ら600人規模に

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New nuclear power plant planned for Suffolk coast would be devastating for wildlife via Beyond Nuclear International

Posted on 2020/06/09 by nfield

EDF wants to plow ahead (literally) with its #SizewellC nuclear reactor plan on the Suffolk, UK coast (to be built on the beach virtually at sea level during a time of erosion and climate crisis), which would tear up and permanently destroy precious wildlife habitat. Please help our friends in Suffolk stop it. Go here for more information and to find out how you can help stop it. And see our article about this: https://bit.ly/3cm09ab and handbook on Nuclear Power and Harm to Animals, Wild and Domestic: https://bit.ly/3dmPGfT) EDF Energy plans to build a massive new nuclear power station, Sizewell C, which will devastate the local wildlife and their rare habitats.

Updated – Wednesday, May 27, 2020

As posted at the State of Nevada Agency for Nuclear Projects’ “What’s News” website page.

Watch video and read more.

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原発週報 ６月１～７日　全ベータ最高値更新 via 毎日新聞

Posted on 2020/06/09 by yukimiyamotodepaul

(抜粋）

＜１日＞東電は、第１原発護岸の地下水観測井戸の一つで、５月２７日に採取した水からトリチウムが１リットル当たり１万２０００ベクレル検出され、過去最高値を更新したと発表した。これまでの最高値は今年３月２０日の４４００ベクレル。

＜２日＞東電は、全ベータの過去最高値の更新が続いている第１原発護岸の観測井戸で、１日に採取した水から１リットル当たり２万６０００ベクレルが検出され、過去最高値が更新されたと発表した。

全文は原発週報 ６月１～７日　全ベータ最高値更新

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Fracture: surviving disaster, from Hiroshima to Fukushima via The Irish Times

Posted on 2020/06/09 by yukimiyamotodepaul

Review: a portrait of a survivor through the eyes of past lovers

Mia Levitin

In Andrés Neuman’s latest novel, we meet Yoshie Watanabe, a retired electronics executive, in a Tokyo subway station one afternoon when he feels a vibration, then a tremor, before “the floor cease [s] to be a floor”. What he’s experiencing is the magnitude 9 earthquake that triggered the 2011 tsunami – the costliest natural disaster in history – and the meltdown of nuclear reactors in the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant.

Continue reading at Fracture: surviving disaster, from Hiroshima to Fukushima (subscription required)

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Assaulted by massacres, smallpox, uranium mining, and pipelines Native Tribes are standing up for their rights on Covid-19 protection via Beyond Nuclear International

Posted on 2020/06/08 by nfield

By Linda Pentz Gunter

Native Americans have largely been left out of the conversation about Covid-19 even though they have some of the highest infection rates in the country. They’ve been here before; with massacres, smallpox, pipelines, and the ravages of uranium mining whose radioactive releases compromise immune systems.

“We have an 80% unemployment rate,” said Milo Yellow Hair, who lives on the Pine Ridge reservation in South Dakota, one of nine which make up the Lakota Nation.

I made him repeat it. That was eight zero. Not one eight. Eighty. In America. Today.

[…]

Gradually that has begun to change as a handful of reporters and broadcasters — mainly from overseas-based media outlets — are covering the Native American story. One such investigation revealed that coronavirus infection rates were so high on the Navajo Nation, even as early as mid-April, that it could have been ranked third in the country for confirmed cases per 100,000 population.

In response, the Navajo Nation has set up a relief fund to cope with the impact of the pandemic and address immediate medical and community needs.

A Guardian story also revealed how Native American Covid-19 cases were being buried under the label of “other” in official counts, while African Americans and Latinx received their own categories.  This effectively under-counted the population, or failed to count them at all as an identifiable group, limiting an appropriate response and access to resources.

But when media attention turned to South Dakota, it focused on a familiar trope: The uppity Indian. As members of the Cheyenne River Sioux and the Oglala Sioux each attempted to enforce Covid-19 health check points at their reservation boundaries, they were met with ultimata challenging their right to protect their own people. It was just another standoff with Indians. 

As Yellow Hair put it, Indian activism is seen as a threat; an attempt to exercise rightful sovereignty; not knowing your place.

Trying to keep them in that place of submission is the South Dakota governor, Republican Kristi Noem, who has threatened to go to court to force the Sioux to drop their coronavirus checkpoints.

On May 20, Governor Noem announced that she had “directed South Dakota Attorney General Jason Ravnsborg to collect evidence about the tribes’ ‘unlawful checkpoints’ and turned that evidence over to the U.S. Department of Justice,” according to the Argus Leader. Noem also appealed directly to the Trump White House for help in stopping the checkpoints.

Unsurprisingly, Noem is also a staunch supporter of the Dakota Access Pipeline, scene of a months-long standoff at Standing Rock, including through bitter winter conditions, as Indigenous peoples and supporters from across the country and the world endeavored to block the pipeline plan. The encampments at Standing Rock were met with armed soldiers, police in riot gear, and the use of water cannons in freezing weather.  The pipeline began operating in May 2017.

Yellow Hair recalled the menacing response of a previous South Dakota governor, Bill Janklow, when he was still the state Attorney General, saying of American Indian Movement leader, Dennis Banks, “The way to deal with Dennis Banks is with a bullet between the eyes.”

No bullets have been fired, yet, but, as Yellow Hair points out, Governor Noem appears not to know that the state of South Dakota rejected Public Law 280, which would have allowed South Dakota criminal jurisdiction over Indian reservations. Public Law 280, which handed federal jurisdiction over to states, did not, when enacted, include tribal consent.

With Public Law 280 unadopted by South Dakota, the Lakota Nation leadership views itself as acting fully within its sovereign rights in establishing, and enforcing, border checkpoints. And essential.

Cheyenne River Sioux chairman, Harold Frazier, issued a statement to Governor Noem on May 8 in which he stated; “We will not apologize for being an island of safety in a sea of uncertainty and death.”

[…]

Yellow Hair and other Native American leaders, recognize that their communities embody almost every vulnerability factor listed by medical authorities identifying those sectors of society likely to be most susceptible to — and least able to survive — Covid-19. 

But unlike other sensitive populations, the one big overlooked factor for Native Americans may well be those decades of exposure to the toxins released by uranium mining. 

These, of course, include uranium itself, and its decay products, all of which have known negative health impacts, ranging from leukemia, kidney disease and lung cancer to low birth weights. These latter can lead, later in life, to higher rates of diabetes, heart disease, high blood pressure and obesity. 

All of which afflict Native Americans at disproportionately high rates compared to other sectors of society. Immunodeficiency in particular, a significant outcome of these exposures, may well have contributed to the rapid rise of Covid-19 infections in the Navajo Nation.

But without a hint of shame, as the Phoenix New Times reported, “At the end of March, two uranium companies penned a letter to President Donald Trump asking for a $150 million bailout, citing the economic impacts of COVID-19. One of them was Energy Fuels Resources, which hopes to open a uranium mine south of the Grand Canyon and whose exploratory operations already have led to it trucking radioactive water across the Navajo Nation.”

Uranium mining, and the forcible imposition of pipelines, are manifestations of the historic and ongoing disregard for Native American rights, sovereignty and dignity. Riding roughshod over Native Americans, physically and legislatively, exemplifies what Yellow Hair describes as a “painful relationship from the past until now.” Native Americans are, on the one hand, treated as subhuman, but at the same time there is this sense of White entitlement, “that they can exploit our resources,” he said.

And disregard their safety and well-being. During a recent incident at a health checkpoint, a non-Native truck driver demanded he be allowed through because, as he reportedly yelled, “I’m an American!”

[…]

Read more.

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