東電に6540万円の賠償命令、国への請求は棄却　福島原発避難者訴訟、さいたま地裁判決　via 東京新聞

Posted on 2022/04/21 by nfield

東京電力福島第一原発事故で福島県から埼玉県などに避難した住民ら95人が、国と東電に計約11億円の損害賠償を求めた訴訟の判決で、さいたま地裁は20日、東電に計約6540万円の支払いを命じた。国への請求は「規制権限を行使しても事故を回避できたとはいえない」として棄却した。原告側は控訴する方針。　

国と東電の双方に賠償を求めた訴訟の地裁判決は18件目。国の責任は地裁、高裁で判断が分かれ、最高裁が近く統一判断を示す見通し。東電の責任はいずれも認められている。

岡部純子裁判長は判決理由で、国は2002年に公表した地震予測の「長期評価」を基に、福島第一原発の主要建屋の敷地高を超える津波の到来を予見できたのに、規制権限を行使しなかったと指摘。「重大な責務を果たしたとはいえない」とした。

　一方、予測された津波と実際の津波は違いが大きく、「長期評価にしたがって規制権限を行使しても、事故を回避できたことが認められない」として国への訴えを退けた。原告の一部は東電による賠償も認められなかった。

原告は原発事故の避難指示区域に住んでいた人や自主避難者ら。[…]

さいたま市内で会見した原告側は「大事故を起こしておいて、規制してもしなくても同じで責任がないというのは、到底信じられない判断だ」と批判。原子力規制委員会は「新規制基準への適合性審査を厳格に進め、適切に規制したい」、東電は「判決内容を精査し、対応を検討する」とコメントした。（杉原雄介）

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切れかけの汚染配管をワイヤロープで固定　地震で切れ落ちて垂れ下がる恐れ　東電福島第一原発via 東京新聞

Posted on 2022/04/21 by nfield

　東京電力は20日、福島第一原発（福島県大熊町、双葉町）の1、2号機間にある高濃度の放射性物質で汚染された配管が、切断中の複数回のトラブルでもろくなっているため、ワイヤロープで近くの別の配管に固定すると発表した。汚染配管は一部が切れかけの状態で、地震などで切れ落ち、折れて垂れ下がる恐れがある。

切断を試みている配管は直径約30センチ。3月27日に遠隔操作の装置で、初回に撤去する約11メートル（重さ約1トン）の両端の片側9割を切った後、切断器具が配管に食い込んで動かなくなり、作業を中止した。3月1、2日に失敗した際の切れ目も近くに集中し、配管の強度が下がっている。　今月19日の調査で、切れかけの配管のゆがみが大きくなっていることが判明。20日にクレーンによる遠隔操作でワイヤロープを配管に巻き付ける作業を始めた。（注：東電広報担当者は21日に「配管へのロープ巻き付けは、作業員が現場に入って実施した」と説明を訂正しました）

[…]

　配管は2011年3月の事故直後、原子炉格納容器の破裂を防ぐために炉内の汚染蒸気を放出する排気（ベント）で使われた。11年が過ぎても、人が近づけない。（小野沢健太）

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採取されると不都合なのか。福一原発処理水を1km先の海に放出する謎 via MAG2NEWS

Posted on 2022/04/20 by nfield

国民の充分な理解が得られたとは言い難い中、2023年春の開始に向け着々と準備が進む福島第一原発の処理水海洋放出。そもそもこの処理水自体、「安全」と言い切れるものなのでしょうか。今回の『きっこのメルマガ』では人気ブロガーのきっこさんが、東電と政府が処理水の安全性に関してつき続けている「二重の大嘘」をリーク。さらにわざわざ海底トンネルを建設してまで1キロ先の沖合に処理水を放出する理由を訝るとともに、当時の首相として「自分が責任者となり汚染水問題を解決する」と宣言するも、ただの一度も対策会議を開かなかった安倍晋三氏を強く批判しています。

[…]

しかし、これほど「反対」の声が高まっているのに、このまま計画通りに進むのでしょうか？海洋放出の決定から1年となった4月13日、福島民報社は福島県内59市町村長を対象に「海洋放出について、この1年で政府との合意形成が進んだか？」というアンケート調査を実施しました。その結果「かなり進んだ」はゼロ、「少しは進んだ」が5人（8％）で、83％に当たる49人の首長が「あまり進んでいない」と回答したのです。

「地元自治体の了解」が海洋放出の条件ですから、政府にとって、これは大きなハードルでしょう。また、4月5日には、全漁連（全国漁業協同組合連合会）の岸宏会長が岸田文雄首相と面会して「いささかも反対の立場に変わりはない」と全国の漁業関係者の声を伝えています。地元の漁業関係者も風評被害を懸念して海洋放出に反対していますが、昨年も福島沖で試験操業されたクロソイから基準値の5倍の100グラム当たり500ベクレルの放射性セシウムが検出されたのですから、すでに風評被害ではなく実害が出ているのです。

そもそも、この「風評被害」という表現は、海洋放出する自称「処理水」が、東電や政府が言うように、本当に環境へ何の影響も及ぼさない安全な水だった場合の表現です。実際には何の影響も出ていないのに、悪い噂が広まって福島の魚が売れなくなる、これが風評被害です。しかし実際は、海洋放出する前から福島沖で獲れた魚から基準値を超える放射性セシウムが検出されているのです。その上、900兆ベクレルという天文学的なトリチウムが残留した自称「処理水」を130万トン以上も海洋放出すれば、風評被害ではなく実害が出ることは自明の理でしょう。

東電は「安全なレベルまで海水で希釈してから海洋放出するので問題ない」などと説明していますが、これは完全にペテンです。どれほど海水で希釈しようとも、900兆ベクレルというトリチウムの総量は変わりません。たとえば、人間が1グラム摂取すると死んでしまう毒薬があったとします。これを水で薄めて飲めば、死ななくなると思いますか？100倍に薄めようとも、1,000倍に薄めようとも、薄めた水をすべて飲めば、その人は死んでしまうのです。

しかも、これは「トリチウムしか残留していない処理水である」という東電と政府の大嘘を鵜呑みにした場合の話です。これは、2021年4月14日に配信した第114号の「海洋放出という破綻したシナリオ」にも詳しく書きましたが、2018年8月、メディアのスクープによって、信じられない事実が発覚したのです。当時、約89万トンまで溜まっていた自称「処理水」のうち、84％に当たる約75万トンが安全基準を満たしていなかったことが発覚したのです。それも、基準値を大幅に超えたストロンチウム90、ヨウ素129、ルテニウム106、テクネチウム99などの放射性核種が次々と検出されたのです。

最も危険なストロンチウム90は、含有量の高い貯水タンクのものは1リットル当たり約60万ベクレル、なんと基準値の約2万倍でした。他の放射性核種も、基準値の数十倍から数百倍のものが数多く検出されました。これのどこが「処理水」なのでしょうか？だからあたしは、自称「処理水」と呼んでいるのです。つまりは、当時の安倍晋三首相が「汚染水処理の切り札」として鳴り物入り導入した多核種除去装置「ALPS（アルプス）」に、期待したほどの除去能力がなかったということなのです。

現在、130万トン以上ある自称「処理水」の約70％は基準値を超えており、基準値の100倍を超えるものも10万トン以上も存在します。「ALPS」の処理能力は1日500トン、3基あるので1日1,500トンですが、100万トン以上の処理水を再処理するためには、毎日増加し続ける新たな汚染水の処理と並行して行なった場合、3基をフル稼働しても3年以上は掛かってしまいます。

その上、一度の処理で基準値の2万倍も残留している猛毒のストロンチウム90が、もう一度処理しただけで基準値以下になるとは、とうてい思えません。他の放射性核種が残留している自称「処理水」も、その残留率が基準値を大幅に超えているタンクのものは、二度や三度の再処理では、基準値以下にはできないでしょう。

結局、東電と政府は、この事実にフタをして、あくまでも「トリチウムしか残留していない処理水である」「そのトリチウムも安全なレベルまで海水で希釈してから海洋放出するので問題ない」という二重の大嘘で押し切るつもりなのです。そして、いつものようにパブリックコメントの結果を無視し、いつものように地元の漁業関係者や首長の頬を札束で叩き、海洋放出を強行するつもりなのです。

東電も政府も、この自称「処理水」を「安全だ」と言い張り続けていますし、麻生太郎副総理などは「飲んでも問題ない」とまで公言しました。それなら、目の前の港湾へ放出すれば良いじゃないですか。どうして、莫大な予算をかけて沖合1キロまで海底トンネルを建設するのでしょうか？もしかすると、海洋放出している自称「処理水」を誰かに採取され、分析されると困るのでしょうか？

[…]

こうした状況を受け、安倍首相は「汚染水問題は、今後は東電に丸投げせず、この私が責任者となり、政府が前面に立ち、完全に解決すると国民の皆さまにお約束いたします」と宣言しました。しかし、それ以降、安倍首相は6年後に政権を丸投げして辞任するまで、一度たりとも汚染水問題の対策会議をひらきませんでした。

ようするに、毎度おなじみの「無責任に言い散らかしただけ」だったのです。そして、その結果が、この「嘘に嘘を塗り重ねた海洋放出」なのです。ただでさえ、新型コロナによる収入減とウクライナ問題による物価高騰で多くの国民が疲弊しているのに、その上「アベ政治の負の遺産」まで背負わされるなんて、冗談じゃありません。

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核のごみ、町を静かに分断　北海道・寿都　最終処分地巡りあつれき via 河北新報

Posted on 2022/04/18 by nfield

　原発から出る高レベル放射性廃棄物（核のごみ）の最終処分地選定を巡り、原子力発電環境整備機構（ＮＵＭＯ）が北海道寿都（すっつ）町などで進めてきた全国初の文献調査が大詰めを迎えている。２０２０年１１月の調査開始以降、町内は推進派と反対派に二分され、周辺町村ともあつれきが生じている。日本で原発が動き始めてから半世紀。核のごみ問題に一石を投じた小さな町の現在地を報告する。（東京支社・桐生薫子）

表立って語られず

　新千歳空港から西へ１８０キロ進むと、弓なりに続く美しい海岸線が現れる。かつてニシン漁で栄えた寿都町は、寂れた漁師の家々と１１基の風車群が同居する。

　「自然豊かな町で分断が起きている」。そう嘆くのは、元町議越前谷（えちぜんや）由樹さん（７０）。昨年１０月の町長選に文献調査の撤回を掲げて出馬し、調査推進派の片岡春雄町長（７３）に破れた。

　人口２８００の町で票差はわずか２３５。民意は真っ二つに割れながら、町内には調査への賛否を表す看板やのぼり旗は見当たらない。越前谷さんは「誰も表立って核ごみの話を口にしたがらない」と明かす。

　度々開かれるＮＵＭＯや町主催の説明会にも足を運ぶ町民は少ないという。

　ペンション経営槌谷（つちや）和幸さん（７３）は「参加しただけで『あの人は推進派』と疑われる。調査を容認する店主がいる店は避け、わざわざ町外に買い物に行く人もいる。目に見えない『心の分断』だ」とうつむく。

　町の将来を左右する課題でありながら論争に至らない原因は、調査受け入れに当たっての意思決定プロセスにある、と越前谷さんは指摘する。

　町が調査への応募検討を表明したのは２０年８月。賛否を問う町議会全員協議会は非公開で行われ、最終的に片岡町長が「肌感覚では賛成が多い」と応募に踏み切った。町民が直接請求した住民投票条例案は議会の反対多数で否決された。

　前のめりな姿勢は人口減に伴う財源縮小への危機感からだ。今後５年間で２億円前後の経常利益を生む町営風力発電事業は、その後に固定価格買い取り制度（ＦＩＴ）が期限を迎え、売電価格の大幅な下落が見込まれる。最終処分地の調査で得られる電源立地地域対策交付金は魅力的だ。

　片岡町長は「概要調査まで進めば計９０億円が入る。交付金を活用して新たな産業を創出したい」と語る。

[…]

　－道は００年に核抜き条例を制定し、「道内に核のごみは受け入れ難い」とのメッセージを発した。

　「あくまで『宣言』条例だ。鈴木直道知事が条例を根拠に突っ走るなら、全国にいい恥さらしになる。道は北海道電力泊原発の交付金を受け取っている。全部国に返還する根性があるなら、私は何も言わない」

　－寿都、神恵内に続く候補地が出てこない。

　「全国の適否を地図上に色分けした『科学的特性マップ』をなぜ作ったのか。国はどこが最も可能性があるのか知っているはずだ。頭を下げて調査をお願いすればいい。手上げ方式でリーダーに責任をかぶせるやり方は見直すべきだ」

　－国は原子力政策を先送りする傾向がある。

　「東京電力福島第１原発にたまる処理水の海洋放出や、青森県六ケ所村の核燃料サイクル事業も同じだ。国は結論を分かっている。必要なことは言うべきだ。日本人は少し優しくなり過ぎたのではないか」

[…]

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Nuclear weapons monitors demand environmental review of new bomb production plans via Beyond Nuclear International

Posted on 2022/04/18 by nfield

By Marilyn Bechtel

Four public interest groups monitoring the nation’s nuclear weapons development sites are demanding the Department of Energy and the National Nuclear Security Agency conduct a thorough environmental review of their plans to produce large quantities of a new type of nuclear bomb core, or plutonium pit, at sites in New Mexico and South Carolina.

The organizations, Tri-Valley Communities Against a Radioactive Environment, Savannah River Site Watch, Nuclear Watch New Mexico, and Gullah/Geechee Sea Island Coalition, filed suit in late June 2021 to compel the agencies to conduct the review as required under the National Environmental Policy Act. They are now fighting an effort by DOE and NNSA to dismiss the suit over the plaintiffs’ alleged lack of standing. The groups are represented by the nonprofit South Carolina Environmental Law Project.

In 2018, during the Trump administration, the federal government called for producing at least 80 of the newly designed pits per year by 2030.

[…]

The plutonium pits, built with completely new components, are first intended for the W87-1, a controversial new nuclear warhead being developed at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in Livermore, Calif., to go on the new Ground Based Strategic Deterrent missile which is intended to replace current ground-based ICBM missiles.

In responding to the attempt to dismiss their suit, the four organizations emphasized that DOE’s and NNSA’s pit production plan would involve extensive processing, handling, and transportation of extremely hazardous and radioactive materials, and presents a real and imminent harm to the plaintiffs and to the frontline communities around the production sites.

Queen Quet, founder of the Gullah/Geechee Sea Island Coalition, pointed out that environmental pollution at the Savannah River Site would make its way into the watershed that travels to the Atlantic coast, which environmentalists are already trying to save through resiliency planning. “So,” she said, “it is antithetical to that effort and counterproductive to seek to restore and protect one area of South Carolina while allowing an environmentally harmful project such as this to go forth in another area.”

Tom Clements, director of SRS Watch, in Columbia, S.C., said the four groups “are fighting a central and erroneous claim … that we are challenging a congressional mandate concerning the number of pits to be produced. It almost appears that Department of Justice lawyers lacked sound arguments to challenge our lawsuit and simply made up the assertion that we were challenging the number of pits to be produced, which is obviously not the case.”

Jay Coghlan, director of Nuclear Watch New Mexico, said the government needs to explain to taxpayers why it wants to spend over $50 billion on new plutonium pits when there are already thousands of existing pits with a proven shelf life of 100 years or more. The plan has “everything to do with building up a new nuclear arms race that will threaten the entire world,” he said, adding that unanalyzed impacts of pit production and associated waste disposal would also involve many other sites across the country.

[…]

In a telephone interview with People’s World, Kelley emphasized that the National Environmental Policy Act, or NEPA, signed into law in 1970, is the country’s most fundamental environmental law. Under NEPA, federal agencies must assess the environmental effects of their proposed actions before they make decisions, and agencies must provide opportunities for public review and comment on their evaluations.

Because there’s been no analysis of what’s involved with plutonium being shipped from Los Alamos Lab in New Mexico to Livermore Lab, in the San Francisco Bay Area, Kelley said, “We don’t know how much plutonium, we don’t know how often it would come or for sure how it would come, and what they’d be doing with it at Livermore Lab.” She said a hint about what would happen at the lab came when she saw in the 2022 fiscal year budget request, an item for Livermore Lab to buy new plutonium glove boxes.

[…]

Since LLNL was founded in 1952, its surroundings have changed dramatically. Once a very rural area, the region is now part of the metropolitan San Francisco Bay Area. Over 7 million people live within a 50-mile radius and about 100,000 live immediately adjacent to the lab.

[…]

Kelley says past experiences may hint at what the consequences of the new plans could be:

  • Both LLNL’s main site and its high explosives testing range at Site 300, near the city of Tracy, are federal Superfund clean-up sites.
  • Livermore’s main aquifer has been contaminated by the lab, which is still trying to clean up an offsite contaminant plume, a body of groundwater affected by pollutants in the soil or the aquifer. Onsite, there are spikes of radioactive tritium “and a whole smorgasbord of other contaminants.”
  • That “smorgasbord” is also present at Site 300, with perchlorate, uranium, and very high levels of radioactive hydrogen, or tritium.

For many years, she said, bomb blasts with radioactive materials were conducted in the open air at Site 300, to test new designs. While blasts with radiation are now conducted inside a contained facility, toxic bomb blasts are still done in the open air.

The government estimates that the cleanup will take until about 2060, Kelley said. “And at Site 300, some contamination will remain there in perpetuity—parts of Site 300 are essentially a sacrifice.” Such contamination is present at all U.S. nuclear weapons sites, “and at some of the big production sites, the contamination is even worse.”

Tri-Valley CAREs has reviewed government documents showing that over the years, Livermore Lab has released over one million curies of radiation into the atmosphere—more than the radiation estimated to have fallen on the residents of Hiroshima on Aug. 6, 1945, when the U.S. dropped the first atomic bomb on the city.

[…]

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100 people with rare cancers who attended same NJ high school demand answers via Fox News

Posted on 2022/04/17 by yukimiyamotodepaul

By April 11, Al Lupiano had heard from more than 100 former Colonia High School attendees who had been diagnosed with rare cancers

By Audrey Conklin

A single New Jersey man has uncovered a medical mystery apparently linking 100 people diagnosed with rare cancers to a Woodbridge high school.

In 1999, when he was just 27, Al Lupiano was diagnosed with a “very rare” and abnormally large brain tumor for someone his age called Acoustic Neuroma (AN). Last summer, Lupiano’s wife and now-deceased sister were diagnosed with rare forms of brain cancer on the same day. His wife was similarly diagnosed with an abnormally large AN tumor, and his sister was diagnosed with Glioblastoma Multiforme (GBM), which has an incident rate of 30 out of every 1 million people, Lupiano explained in a Facebook post that he has been updating since March 7.

[…]

Lupiano eventually arrived at a single linking factor between himself, his wife and his sister: they each attended Colonia High School in Woodbridge in the 1990s. But Lupiano was not initially sure that the high school was a link to the similar yet rare brain cancer cases until he made a request on Facebook for others who attended Colonia to reach out to him personally.

[…]

By April 11, he had heard from more than 100 former Colonia High School attendees who had been diagnosed with rare cancers.

“[A]s of midnight Sunday 4/10, I recorded the 100th case of someone having a primary brain tumor,” Luapiano said in an update on his Faceboook post. “I never in my worst nightmare envisioned ever hitting this milestone. That’s 100 people with their life forever changed. 100 families having to be told the terrible news. 100 stories of shock and disbelief with the diagnosis. I pray we find answers…(as of 18:00 4/11, the list stands at 102 individuals).”

[…]

The Middlesex Sampling Plant, which has since closed, is located on 9.6 acres, about a 30-minute driving from Colonia.

It “was an entry point for African uranium ores known as pitchblende” that were “imported for use in the nation’s early atomic energy program, were assayed at the Middlesex Sampling Plant and then shipped to other sites for processing,” according to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) New York Division.

The plant received uranium, thorium and beryllium ores between the 1940s and 1967, which is the same year Colonia High School was built.

[…]

“Also, records later revealed that in 1948, some radioactively contaminated materials had been trucked from the plant to the Middlesex Municipal Landfill (MML), one-half mile away. In the 1980’s, the contaminated residential properties were cleaned up, and the excavated soil was stored at the site in a specially constructed pile, known as the Vicinity Properties (VP) pile,” the USACE New York Division’s website states.

It is possible that soil from the plant had been trucked to Colonia High School during its construction in 1967, NJ Spotlight reported.

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A jilted Diablo Canyon contractor accuses PG&E of ‘reprehensible act.’ Is it sour grapes? via The Tribune

Posted on 2022/04/16 by nfield

Holtec International, the company that has been providing Diablo Canyon with dry casks for storing spent radioactive fuel, is lashing out after it lost a contract to provide additional canisters for PG&E’s nuclear power plant in Avila Beach.

“Bluntly stated, PG&E’s decision reveals a blatant disregard for the interests and welfare of the host community of the San Luis Obispo area,” a Holtec executive wrote in a letter to PG&E.

He goes on to threaten to “employ all appropriate avenues available to us to reverse your ill-conceived decision and protect the well-being of the people of California and PG&E.”

PG&E announced this month that it had chosen Bethesda-based Orano USA to handle the storage of the final loads of spent fuel from Diablo Canyon, which is due close in 2025.

In addition to manufacturing its horizontal, above-ground storage modules for PG&E, Orano will be in charge of transferring spent fuel out of the storage pools at Diablo and into dry casks.

[…]

“PG&E’s technically knowledgeable personnel appear to have been sidelined or muzzled and the body of PG&E’s literature on evaluation of the available technologies summarily buried. Plainly stated, the decision to award the dry storage contract to Orano whose freestanding modules are apt to slide and fall in the Pacific Ocean under California Coastal Commission’s postulated earthquake is a preposterous and reprehensible act.”

The letter was signed by Pierre P. Oneid, Holtec’s senior vice president and chief nuclear officer.

[…]

“Sandia’s 2012 study, “Seismic Considerations for Spent Nuclear Fuel Storage in Dry Casks,” investigated the seismic response of typical vertical and horizontal spent fuel cask systems under a total of 1,165 evaluations… Sandia concluded that horizontal systems … will not tip over during severe seismic events or walk more than a few centimeters on the pad.” Roberts added that Orano’s system — the NUHOMS, or Nuclear Horizontal Modular System — is fully licensed by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. (Holtec claimed it was not licensed by the NRC and “never tested.”)

[…]

When asked to comment, the Alliance for Nuclear Responsibility (A4NR) raised no concerns with PG&E’s decision to go with Orano.

The organization “has confidence in the integrity of the vendor procurement process put in place, including review of any protests filed by unsuccessful bidders,” spokesman David Weisman said.

That’s encouraging, since A4NR has been among the most vigilant watchdogs of decommissioning — a critical role, because few of us have the wherewithal to judge whether one dry cask system or another is best for storing the radioactive fuel generated at a nuclear power plant in our own backyard.

[…]

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Worker Lockout Is New Worry at Nuclear Plant via The Provincetown Independent

Posted on 2022/04/15 by nfield

NRC says radioactive releases from Pilgrim have always been at safe levels

BY CHRISTINE LEGERE MAR 30, 2022

PLYMOUTH — There is more to worry about than the possible discharge of a million gallons of radioactive water from the Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station into Cape Cod Bay. That was the message at Monday’s meeting here of the Nuclear Decommissioning Citizens Advisory Panel (NDCAP).

The panel of citizens, local officials, and representatives from a handful of state agencies was told by officials of Laborers’ Union Local 721 that 60 skilled workers have been “locked out” by plant owner Holtec International.

The union workers, the officials said, have been involved in Pilgrim’s maintenance for several decades and more recently in the decommissioning of the plant. “We built that plant; we maintained that plant; we took pride in going in there,” said Scott Gustafson, the union’s regional organizer and a Plymouth resident.

The lockout is related to some remarks made by a national union member to a top Holtec official, Gustafson said.

Holtec is reportedly now replacing the unionized laborers with untrained workers who don’t know the jobs or the related safety standards, according to Andrew Marshall, the union’s business manager. “These people are inexperienced,” said Marshall. “This isn’t about unions. This is about safety for the public and the people working there.”

Marshall said the lockout isn’t about money. He said replacement workers were being paid 25 cents per hour more than the union’s workers make. He added that Holtec was having difficulty finding replacements who could successfully pass the required tests.

The news of the lockout left the advisory panel and members of the public dismayed. “From what these guys are saying,” said Plymouth resident Joanne Corrigan, “they’ve got Homer Simpson running the plant.”

David Noyes, Holtec’s senior compliance manager at Pilgrim, assured the panel there was no cause for alarm. “People on this committee can sleep at night,” he said.

Noyes blamed the lockout on the laborers’ union, saying its members had refused to sign a contract.

But Marshall said the laborers did sign a contract in 2019 and that it doesn’t expire until September 2022.

The trouble is, responded Noyes, the union’s contract is with a company called Comprehensive Decommissioning International (CDI) and Holtec is no longer using that company as its decommissioning contractor.

Following Monday’s meeting, Mary Lampert, an NDCAP member and longtime Pilgrim watchdog, said she saw the lockout as a safety concern. She said she worried about the loss of trained workers and that other employees might hesitate to disclose problems at the plant for fear of being locked out.

NRC Says Nothing to Fear

At the same March 28 meeting where the union workers lockout was discussed, a top regional official of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission delivered his own message: the public has nothing to fear from the release of one million gallons of radioactive water from the closed Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station into Cape Cod Bay.

Plenty of people attending the meeting vehemently disagreed, asking the NRC if it had considered how the currents would cause the irradiated water to stall in Cape Cod Bay and whether the agency looked at potential economic effects on regional industries like shellfishing and tourism, in addition to adverse health effects.

The radioactive water comes from the plant’s spent fuel pool, reactor cavity, and other systems. It would be released in small batches into the bay.

Holtec has two other options for getting rid of the contaminated water. Evaporation, the company has said, would require a considerable amount of heat and possibly the use of diesel generators. Trucking the waste offsite is a second alternative. But releasing the water into the bay appears to be the company’s favored strategy.

Anthony Dimitriadis, the NRC’s branch chief for the region, offered a slide presentation during Monday’s meeting to show how radioactive releases, which were ongoing while the plant operated, were always well below the allowed annual limits for the exposure to the human body. One hundred millirems is the limit set by his organization, while 25 millirems is the limit set by the Environmental Protection Agency.

The branch chief discussed monitoring and noted that sampling of sediment, shellfish, and finfish at the end of the plant’s discharge canal had not shown evidence of contamination. Testing does not appear to have taken place along the shoreline of Cape Cod Bay, however, where an expert from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution has said currents would carry the radioactive water from Pilgrim.

NDCAP member Mary Lampert cited several laws that protect the bay as an ocean sanctuary. “They would not be allowed to dump if the state enforces the laws on the books,” she said. She added that the Supreme Court had said the state would have authority to prohibit the dumping if it were determined to have an economic impact. Fishing and shellfishing are major industries in the region.

[…]

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素手で放射性物質　ロシア兵、チェルノブイリで相当量の被ばくかvia 毎日新聞

Posted on 2022/04/13 by nfield

[…]

「危険だからやめるように言ったが、無視された」。米紙ニューヨーク・タイムズ（NYT）は8日に掲載したチェルノブイリ原発の現地ルポで、安全管理担当者の話を伝えた。同紙によれば、ロシア軍は1986年に起きた原発事故で汚染された地域で、身の安全への注意を払わず、ブルドーザーなどを使ってざんごうを掘り、敷地内を移動した。露軍にはNBC（核・生物・化学）戦に対応した部隊の人員が含まれ、ロシアの原子力企業ロスアトムの専門家も敷地を訪れた。しかし、あるロシア兵は廃棄物貯蔵施設で放射性物質を素手で拾い、数秒でガイガーカウンター（放射線測定器）の測定値の上限を超えたという。

[…]

　露軍はウクライナ侵攻初日の2月24日にチェルノブイリ原発を掌握した。ウクライナ側の発表によると、3月9日からほぼ3日にわたって外部からの電力供給が途絶え、プールで冷却されている使用済み核燃料への影響が懸念された。原発で人質となった技術者などの職員は交代なしで安全管理の作業を継続した。対応に当たった職員の男性は、英BBC放送に「人類にとって悲劇となるのが怖かった」と語った。この男性は、非常用の発電機を動かすためにロシア軍から燃料を盗んで対処したという。

[…]

　国際原子力機関（IAEA）によると、チェルノブイリ原発の管理は3月31日にウクライナ側に引き渡された。4月10日には、3週間ぶりに職員の交代が実現したとウクライナ当局から報告を受けた。一方、原発の近くを流れる川に架かる橋が破壊され、施設へ向かう職員は船で移動する必要があるなど、「正常とはほど遠い状態」（グロッシ事務局長）だとしている。機器や通信回線の一部が破壊され、放射線監視データの自動送信ができない状況が続いているという。

　原発周辺を訪れたウクライナのハルシチェンコ・エネルギー相は8日、フェイスブックで「ロシア兵の無知は甚だしい」と述べ、露軍の兵士たちが相当量の被ばくをしたと示唆した。IAEAは「独立した放射線評価にはIAEAの専門家による調査が必要だ」と指摘しており、ウクライナ側と協議して近く現地調査をする意向を示している。【八田浩輔】

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When speaking for peace will get you jailed via Beyond Nuclear International

Posted on 2022/04/13 by nfield

A Russian and a Ukrainian activist describe the challenges ahead in ending Europe’s most dangerous war

An interview with Russian physicist and anti-nuclear activist, Oleg Bodrov, and Ukrainian peace researcher and activist, Yurii Sheliazhenko, conducted online by Reiner Braun, International Peace Bureau.

Oleg Bodrov: I am Oleg Bodrov, physicist, ecologist and Chairman of the Public Council of the Southern Shore of the Gulf of Finland, St. Petersburg. Environmental protection, nuclear safety and the promotion of peace have been the main directions of my work for the last 40 years. Today, I feel like a part of Ukraine: my wife is half Ukrainian; her father is from Mariupol. My friends and colleagues are ecologists from Kiev, Kharkiv, Dnipro, Konotop, Lviv. I am a climber, on the ascents I was connected by a safety rope with Anna P. from Kharkov. My father, a participant in the Second World War, was wounded in January 1945 and was treated in a hospital in Dnepropetrovsk.

Yurii Sheliazhenko: My name is Yurii Sheliazhenko, I am a peace researcher, educator and activist from Ukraine. My fields of expertise are conflict management, legal and political theory and history. Furthermore, I am executive secretary of the Ukrainian Pacifist Movement and member of the Board of the European Bureau for Conscientious Objection (EBCO) as well as World BEYOND War (WBW).

Can you please describe how you see the actual situation?

O.B.: The decision on the military operation against Ukraine was made by the President of Russia. At the same time, Russian citizens, judging by independent media reports, believed that war with Ukraine was impossible in principle!

Why did this happen? For the past eight years, anti-Ukrainian propaganda has been broadcast daily on all state channels of Russian television. They talked about the weakness and unpopularity of the presidents of Ukraine, the nationalists blocking rapprochement with Russia, Ukraine’s desire to join the EU and NATO. Ukraine is considered by the President of Russia as a territory historically part of the Russian Empire. The invasion of Ukraine, in addition to the death of thousands of people, has increased global negative risks. Military operations are conducted on the territory with nuclear power plants. The accidental hit of shells into nuclear power plants is more dangerous than the use of atomic weapons.

Y.S.: Illegal invasion of Russia to Ukraine is part of a long history of relations and hostilities between both nations, and also it is part of longstanding global conflict between the West and East. To understand it fully, we should remember colonialism, imperialism, cold war, “neoliberal” hegemony and the rise of wannabe illiberal hegemons.

Talking about Russia versus Ukraine, the crucial thing to understand about this obscene fight between archaic imperialist power and archaic nationalist regime is the outdated character of both political and militarist cultures: both have conscription and a system of military patriotic upbringing instead of civic education. That’s why war mongers on both sides call each other Nazis. Mentally, they still live in the world of USSR’s “Great Patriotic War” or “Ukrainian liberation movement” and believe that people should unite around their supreme commander to crush their existential enemy, these Hitler-ites or no-better Stalinists, in role of which they surprisingly see a neighbour people.

Are there any particularities in this dispute about which the Western public is not or not very well informed?

Y.S.: Yes, certainly. Ukrainian diaspora in America increased significantly after two world wars. U.S. and other Western intelligences during the cold war recruited agents in this diaspora to use nationalist sentiments for inciting separatism in USSR, and some ethnic Ukrainians became rich or made careers in U.S. and Canadian politics and army, in that way powerful Ukrainian lobby emerged with ties to Ukraine and interventionist ambitions. When the USSR fell and Ukraine gained independence, the Western diaspora actively participated in nation-building.

Are there activities against the war in Russia and if so, what do they look like?

O.B.: Anti-war actions were held in St. Petersburg, Moscow, and dozens of major Russian cities. Many thousands of people simply took to the streets to express their disagreement. The most popular category of participants is young people. More than 7,500 students, staff and graduates of Russia’s oldest Lomonosov Moscow University have signed a petition against the war. Students want to see themselves as part of a free democratic world, which they may be deprived of because of the isolationist policies of the president. The authorities claim that Russia has the resources necessary for life and atomic weapons that will protect them, even in conditions of separation, from the rest of the world. More than 1 million 220 thousand Russians signed the petition “NO TO WAR”. Single pickets “AGAINST NUCLEAR WEAPONS” and “AGAINST BLOODY WAR” are held daily in St. Petersburg and other Russian cities. At the same time, employees of the Institute of Atomic Energy named after Kurchatov in Moscow “fully supported the decision of the President of the Russian Federation to conduct a special military operation” on the territory of Ukraine. And this is not the only example of support for aggression. I and my colleagues in the environmental and peace movement are convinced that our future has been broken in Russia and Ukraine.

[…]

What do you expect from the peace movements in the world and all peace loving people?

O.B.: It is necessary for the participants of the “Movement for Peace” to unite with environmentalists, human rights activists, anti-war, anti-nuclear and other peace-loving organizations. Conflicts should be resolved through negotiations, not war. PEACE is good for all of us!

What can a pacifist do for peace when his country is attacked?

Y.S.: Well, first of all a pacifist should remain a pacifist, continue to respond to violence with nonviolent thinking and actions. You should use all efforts to seek and support peaceful solutions, resist escalation, taking care about the safety of others and yourself. Dear friends, thank you for caring about the situation in Ukraine. Let’s build together a better world without armies and borders for the common peace and happiness of humankind.

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