もんじゅ、１週間でトラブル４件　火災や人為ミス via 中日新聞

Posted on 2016/09/18 by yukimiyamotodepaul

日本原子力研究開発機構は１６日、「もんじゅ」で１０日と１３日に設備の操作を誤る人為的なミスがあったと発表した。発表済みの火災やミスを含め、６日からの１週間で４件のトラブルが相次いだ。

機構によると、１０日に機構とメーカーの職員計５人がナトリウムを冷やす設備の点検中、別系統で動いている設備の弁を誤って開閉。１１日にナトリウムの流 量が増えていることに気づき、ミスが分かった。１３日には、メーカーの職員２人がナトリウム漏れ検出器の点検中、検出器につながる別系統の機器の電源を 誤ってオフにした。すぐに電源を入れ直して復旧。環境への影響はなかったとしている。

もんじゅでは、６日に環境管理棟でごみ箱などが焼ける火災が発生。１０日には職員がナトリウム漏れ検出器に信号を送るケーブルを誤って抜いたために、ランプが誤表示するミスが起きた。児玉敏雄理事長が１２日、防火と人為ミスの徹底的な撲滅を指示していた。

続きはもんじゅ、１週間でトラブル４件　火災や人為ミス 

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Radioactive leak, other Savannah River Site concerns cited by report via The Aiken Standard

Posted on 2016/09/17 by

By thomas Gardiner

In a report dated Aug. 12, the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board listed a number of issues at the Savannah River Site, including both major management and operations contract companies (Savannah River Nuclear Solutions and Savannah River Remediation).

The report noted concerns at both H Canyon and K Area, two primary activity areas for SRNS missions on site.

H Canyon is the nation’s only chemical separations facility for nuclear material; and K Area, sometimes referred to as the Fort Knox of nuclear material, is the storage area for plutonium, including approximately 7 metric tons that are subject to a non-proliferation and plutonium disposition agreement with Russia.

H Canyon recently completed a new receiving bay, called the truck well, to accept the controversial liquid radioactive waste from Chalk River in Ontario, Canada.

In the past few months, the H Canyon crew began cold operations to test the facility in preparation for its readiness assessment, which would be a needed green light to begin the shipments, known as target residue material, from Canada.
The target residue material has been the subject of public symposium and a lawsuit has been launched against the DOE in recent weeks. The lawsuit, filed by Beyond Nuclear and a coalition of environmental and nuclear watchdog groups, opposes the shipments.

The liquid waste is planned for shipment by truck via overland highways. Proposed routes include major river crossings like the Peace Bridge over the Niagara River from Canada into Buffalo.

The lawsuit said a spill into those waters could gravely endanger millions of people.

Savannah River Nuclear Solutions said it could not answer questions about the truck well or the target residue material because of the ongoing litigation.

According to the report, while attempting to open a model cask, the crane stopped functioning properly. Subsequent reports dated Aug. 19 and 26, however, report the crane had a loose wire and has since been repaired.

According to those DNFSB reports, cold operations have resumed.

In K Area, an issue with sealing gaskets was found in criticality control overpacks.
[…]
SRR manages 43 active liquid waste tanks containing about 36 million gallons of the highly radioactive material.

As part of the processing operations, SRR uses evaporators to separate radioactive material from water to make the material easier to control.

According to the report, “Radiation measurements show significant source term in the 3H Evaporator cone. SRR is preparing to remove the lagging and insulation from the cone to help pinpoint the leak site.”

According to previous reports in the Aiken Standard, SRR officials said any leaks in the tanks were contained by the secondary containment systems or that liquid in the tanks had been removed to get the liquid level in the tank below the level of the leak.

It is unclear at this time what safety hazards this leak may pose to the environment or the workers on site.

Attempts to reach an SRR or DOE representative for comment were unsuccessful.

Read more.

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UT Student Spent Summer Conducting Tests at Nuclear Sites in Pacific via Tennessee Today

Posted on 2016/09/17 by

[…]
Stratz was the lone student taking part in the recent radiation survey of former United States atomic and thermonuclear test sites in the islands on a team led by Terry Hamilton, scientific director of the Marshall Islands Program at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory.

“When you’ve studied something extensively in the classroom, to be able to see these sites, to be able to conduct tests firsthand in locations that are truly part of world history, is amazing,” said Stratz, who is also a Department of Homeland Security nuclear forensics graduate fellow at the UT Radiochemistry Center of Excellence.
[…]
The team studied soil, water, plant, and animal conditions at Rongelap Atoll while Stratz was there, while other studies took place at Enewetok and Bikini, site of the largest explosion the United States has ever unleashed.

That March 1, 1954, test, code named Castle Bravo, saw a fifteen-megaton explosion, roughly a thousand times as powerful as either atomic bomb dropped in World War II.

In fact, the explosion was about three times as powerful as expected, and it accidentally destroyed or rendered useless the devices and instruments put in place on Bikini Atoll.Without data from those instruments, studies like the one Stratz participated in are important.

“We worked from dawn to dusk collecting coconuts, digging up soil, testing groundwater, crabs, fruit, things like that,” said Stratz. “We did some throw-net fishing and did some open-sea dives to gather lobsters and clams as well.”

Stratz said that the clams, in particular, played an important role due to the way they filter food from the water and their propensity to accumulate plutonium.

Despite the residual effects that can be seen in nature, Stratz said that the team was not required to wear monitoring devices due to their limited exposure and that the bigger threat seemed to be in the sea itself.
[…]

Read more.

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Anti-nuclear weapons protestors lay on road to block convoy via The Telegraph

Posted on 2016/09/17 by yukimiyamotodepaul

Two individuals lay on a road in Stirling on September 15, to block the progress of a convoy of supposed nuclear weapons.

The two protestors, Brian Quail and Alasdair Ibbotson – members of the Stirling University Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND) – were waiting for the convoy to approach the roundabout, when they ran onto the road and halted the trucks.

Ibbotson was dragged to the roundabout by police while Quail lay under a truck.

Read more at Anti-nuclear weapons protestors lay on road to block convoy

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原発ごみの地層処分説明、市民から疑問も　原環機構がセミナー via 京都新聞

Posted on 2016/09/17 by yukimiyamotodepaul

原子力発電のごみ「高レベル放射性廃棄物」を地下３００メートル以下に埋設処分する「地層処分」についてのセミナーが１７日、大津市におの浜１丁目 のピアザ淡海で開かれた。処分場の場所は未定だが、必要性や埋設方法などについて専門家や機構職員が説明したほか、小グループに分かれ市民らの個別の質問 に応じた。

地層処分の事業主体となる原子力発電環境整備機構（ＮＵＭＯ）の主催。高レベル放射性廃棄物はすでに大量に生じており、処分場 は不可欠となっている。同機構は、まず処分場の必要性を国民に認識してもらうため、各地でシンポジウムなどを開催しており、今回のセミナーもその一環。

セミナーでは、地下３００メートル以下では地下水の流れが極めて遅く、金属も腐食しにくいなど、同機構が埋設に適していると考えていることを説明した。一 方、火山や活断層の近くを避け、輸送の安全性確保のため沿岸から約２０キロ以内などといった適性度の高い「科学的有望地」を示す地図を年内には公表予定で あることを紹介。受け入れ候補地として自治体が名乗りを挙げたとしても、地域の合意なしでは事業を進めないことも訴えた。

続きは原発ごみの地層処分説明、市民から疑問も　原環機構がセミナー

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“国民負担”8兆円超を検討　原発の廃炉・賠償で via テレビ朝日

Posted on 2016/09/16 by

政府は、原発の廃炉費用などのために新たに8兆円余りという莫大（ばくだい）な費用を利用者に負担させる形で調整に入ったことが分かりました。そのうち、福島第一原発の廃炉に4兆円、賠償に3兆円。また、今後、原発の廃炉費用が足りなくなるとして1.3兆円を充てるとしています。

　東京電力は、事故を起こした責任から福島第一原発事故の廃炉にリストラなど自力で2兆円を手配してきましたが、費用がかさんで国への救済を求めていました。ANNが入手した内部資料によりますと、新たな国民負担は8.3兆円と計算し、福島第一原発の廃炉や賠償に加えて原発全般の廃炉の費用としています。電線の使用料金に上乗せする形で、すべての利用者から徴収し、標準家庭では毎月60円から180円の値上げが想定されています。さらに、法改正を行うことで、今後、さらに費用が足りなくなれば上乗せができる仕組みにします
[…]

もっと読む。

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Hitachi Keeps Faith in U.K. Nuclear Plan as Green Costs Drop via Bloomberg

Posted on 2016/09/16 by

Hitachi Ltd.’s U.K. nuclear unit is sticking with its “aggressive” plan to build at least four reactors in the U.K. even as wind, solar and battery technology costs keep falling.
Renewable energy still needs to be complemented by round-the-clock output of nuclear power for periods when the wind stops blowing and during the night, Duncan Hawthorne, chief executive officer of Horizon Nuclear Power Ltd. said in an interview in London. New nuclear plants too can be built faster because designs have been simplified, resulting in “more competitive” electricity over time, he said.
“I refer to nuclear as being the elephant,” said Hawthorne, who joined the Gloucester, England-based company in May and worked previously at Canada’s Bruce Power LP. “We are capable of being there all the time. We’re steady but we can’t maneuver very much.”
[…]
The U.K. government has guaranteed EDF a rate of 92.50 pounds ($122) a megawatt-hour for Hinkley’s electricity for as long as 35 years. That’s more than double current market prices and also about 80 percent higher than Vattenfall AB’s winning tender this week to build two offshore wind farms in the Danish North Sea.

[…]

Read more.

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Thousands work daily at Japan nuclear plant selling no power via Chicago Tribune

Posted on 2016/09/16 by yukimiyamotodepaul

More than 6,000 workers cycle through the world’s biggest nuclear plant every day to operate and maintain a facility that hasn’t sold a kilowatt of electricity in more than four years.

The buzz at Tokyo Electric Power Co. Holdings Inc.’s Kashiwazaki-Kariwa plant plays out daily across Japan, where utilities employ thousands of workers and spend billions of dollars awaiting the green light to restart commercial operations. With only three of the country’s 42 operable reactors running, they’re betting a national government committed to nuclear power will win over local officials and a wary public who don’t believe enough has been done to guarantee safety since the worst meltdown since Chernobyl.

[…]

About three-fourths of the Tepco employees and contract workers at the plant are from the prefecture housing the facility, making it one of the area’s biggest economic drivers.

The reactor is an economic windfall for the region, employing thousands of local workers and supporting restaurants, shops and even taxi companies, according to Kariwa village official Masayoshi Oota. “If the reactor were to disappear, then so would the economic benefit,” he said.

Japan’s nuclear energy industry employs more than 80,000 engineers, construction workers and operators, according to a report published by the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry last year.

To boost confidence in its facility’s safety, Tokyo-based Tepco has spent 470 billion yen on flood barriers, a 15-meter seawall and a reservoir the size of 30 Olympic-sized swimming pools to supply water in the event a reactor pump fails.

Kansai Electric Power Co. may spend 1.26 trillion yen on construction costs related to nuclear safety measures, while Chubu Electric Power Co. is estimated to spend 640 billion yen, according to a Sept. 14 report by Mitsubishi UFJ Morgan Stanley Securities Co.

Read more at Thousands work daily at Japan nuclear plant selling no power

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New report details scope of LANL cleanup: 20 years, $4B via Santa Fe/New Mexican

Posted on 2016/09/16 by yukimiyamotodepaul

A new draft report detailing the federal government’s plans to clean up decades-old hazardous waste from nuclear weapons production during the World War II-era Manhattan Project and the Cold War says Los Alamos National Laboratory and neighboring areas won’t be free from the legacy waste for more than 20 years, and the project’s costs could reach nearly $4 billion.

The August report by the lab’s Environmental Management Office, released publicly this week, provides the clearest picture the public has seen of the scope of work left to rid the lab and surrounding canyons of radioactive waste and environmental contamination. It lists 955 sites that could contain contamination and says 5,000 cubic meters of legacy waste remain at the lab — half the total that workers began cleaning up 25 years ago.

[…]

The lab is currently excavating plutonium-laced soil from canyons near Los Alamos. The dirt is being bagged, tested and transported to Utah for storage, The Associated Press reported earlier this week. At the beginning of the month, the lab requested a round of 45 demolition projects by the year’s end, including buildings and smaller structures.

But the process of removing thousands of barrels of radioactive waste from the lab’s Area G to a permanent storage at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant near Carlsbad will likely not be complete for another 20 years and will cost more than $740 million, according to the report. The document notes that more investigation, testing and emergency preparedness training must be finished before the waste removal can begin again.

The report says delays in cleaning up Area G are largely due to new discoveries of contamination, two major forest fires in Los Alamos, insufficient funding and the 2014 shutdown of WIPP, the nation’s only underground nuclear waste storage site, following a radiation leak caused by a barrel of transuranic waste from the lab that burst in an underground cell.

The document also outlines how the lab will address a 65-acre site within Area G that contains underground waste pits and a vapor plume of volatile organic compounds, a project that isn’t expected to be finished until 2040. But language in the report suggests the possibility that officials could decide, instead, to bury the waste on site, a concern some critics had raised when the cleanup order was approved.

[…]

As the lab works to clean up old waste over the next few decades, it also will be producing new plutonium pits — the grapefruit-size fission triggers inside nuclear bombs that are a key part of the government’s plan to modernize the nation’s nuclear weapons stockpile. Lab Director Charles McMillan has said the program to restart pit production, which will generate new nuclear waste, is 95 percent complete.

This leaves unanswered questions about where that waste will go and how much it will add to the contamination at Los Alamos.

Read more at New report details scope of LANL cleanup: 20 years, $4B 

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中間貯蔵　双葉は郡山地区に整備　受け入れ・分別施設と土壌貯蔵施設 via 福島民報

Posted on 2016/09/16 by yukimiyamotodepaul

東京電力福島第一原発事故の除染廃棄物を保管する中間貯蔵施設整備を巡り、環境省は１０月にも双葉町の郡山地区で受け入れ・分別施設と土壌貯蔵施設の工事 を始める。地権者と契約がまとまった約７ヘクタールのうち約２ヘクタールに受け入れ・分別施設、約５ヘクタールに土壌貯蔵施設を建設する。施設の具体的な 場所が示されたのは建設予定地の大熊、双葉両町で初めて。１５日、いわき市で開かれた双葉町議会全員協議会で環境省が説明した。

各施設の建設場所は【地図】の通り。受け入れ・分別施設は郡山字根田に整備する。除染廃棄物を運び込み、廃棄物が入っていた袋を破いて土壌と草木などを分別する。土壌貯蔵施設は郡山字本風呂などに建設する。遮水工事など飛散や流出対策を講じ、除染土壌を保管する。

環境省は測量やボーリング調査を実施した結果を基に詳細設計を行い、放射線量低減措置や家屋の解体工事などを進めた上で着工する。

平成２９年１月以降に除染土壌や小石、砂利など約９万トンを受け入れ・分別施設に運び込み、試験的に分別を始める。分別後は町内に一時仮置きし、２９年秋をめどに土壌貯蔵施設に運ぶ計画だ。同施設には約６万立方メートルを貯蔵できる。

（略）

■契約済み予定地は７・３％
環境省福島環境再生事務所によると、大熊、双葉両町にまたがる中間貯蔵施設の建設予定地約１６００ヘクタールのう ち、民有地は約１２７０ヘクタール。このうち、８月末までに地権者との契約を終えたのは１１６ヘクタールで全体面積の７・３％にとどまる。土地売買や地上 権設定で国と合意した地権者は２３６０人のうち、３００人で１２・７％となっている。

全文と【地図】は中間貯蔵　双葉は郡山地区に整備　受け入れ・分別施設と土壌貯蔵施設 

Posted in *日本語 | Tagged , , , , , | Comments Off on 中間貯蔵　双葉は郡山地区に整備　受け入れ・分別施設と土壌貯蔵施設 via 福島民報