柏崎刈羽原発で蓄電池から希硫酸が噴出 via TBS News

Posted on 2016/04/21 by yukimiyamotodepaul

　新潟県の柏崎刈羽原発で２１日午後、電気設備の蓄電池から希硫酸が吹き出し、消防隊が出動する騒ぎとなりました。放射性物質の漏えいはないということです。

トラブルがあったのは、６号機、７号機の脇にある廃棄物処理建屋の地下１階で、２１日午後１時５０分ごろ、電気設備から煙が出ているとの通報があり、所員が消火活動にあたりました。

東京電力によりますと、実際には煙ではなく、蓄電池の中に含まれる希硫酸が霧状に噴出したということです。このトラブルで、所員６人がのどに違和感を訴えましたが、業務に復帰したということです。また、放射性物質の漏えいはないということです。

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Massive nuclear plant plan near Everglades delayed by court via Florida Politics

Posted on 2016/04/21 by yukimiyamotodepaul

A massive nuclear plant expansion proposed by Florida’s largest electric utility must be redone to meet environmental and other concerns near Everglades National Park, a state appeals court ruled Wednesday.

The 3rd District Court of Appeal in Miami reversed a 2014 decision by Gov. Rick Scott and the Cabinet to approve construction of two nuclear reactors by Florida Power & Light at its Turkey Point plant near Homestead. The project, costing up to $18 billion, would add about 2,200 megawatts of electric power or enough to supply 750,000 homes.

A three-judge panel ruled the governor and Cabinet failed to account for environmental regulations meant to protect the Everglades and endangered birds that make their home in the wetlands. Part of the plan includes erecting about 90 miles of transmission lines that would skirt the eastern edge of Everglades National Park and slice through several cities.

The court found that Florida Power & Light should be required to bury the power lines at the utility’s expense; that a proposal to fill in about 137 acres of right-of-way would affect critical water flow; and that proposed access roads would have to be elevated at some points.

[…]

One of the major failings of the 2014 decision, the judges found, was that it did not apply local development regulations and considered the proposal more of a zoning matter than an environmental one.

“The east Everglades is a unique section of land with a biologically diverse ecosystem,” the order says. “The ultimate purpose of the (county Everglades ordinance) is to protect the environment of the Everglades.”

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission is holding public comment meetings on the reactor plan later this week, one in Homestead and one at Florida International University. Opposition has focused on such concerns as how the reactors would handle rising sea levels, if evacuation plans are adequate and whether the reactors might threaten waterways and drinking supplies.

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「九州連鎖地震」川内原発・伊方原発に危険ないのか？直下に震源に続く活断層帯 via J-Cast News

Posted on 2016/04/21 by yukimiyamotodepaul

   熊本地震のすぐ隣の鹿児島県には九州電力の川内原発(薩摩川内市)、震源となっている活断層の延長上には四国電力・伊方原発(愛媛・西宇和 郡)がある。川内原発は通常運転を続けているが、直下で地震が発生しても事故の危険はないのか。「そもそも総研｣コーナーで玉川徹(テレビ朝日ディレク ター)が現地に出かけて解説した。

熊本地震震源の日奈久断層帯の延長上

川内原発を見下ろす高台で火山地震に詳しい鹿児島大学の井村隆介准教授がこう話す。｢中部九州にはもともと個々の断層帯以外に、別府島原地溝 という九州を南北に裂いている構造がることが分かっています。いま、その中でも地震が起こってしまっています。一つひとつの断層帯でなく、九州全体で大き な地殻変動が実際に進行していると考えた方がいいと思います。

川内原発は九州の地溝からは少し離れていますが、いま動いている日奈久断層帯の南西側の延長が海に入って川内原発の沖合まで来ており、繋がりもあります。そう考えると、移動しながら起きている地震が原発に近い所で起こる可能性は否定できません｣

400年前、活断層が密集している中央構造線に沿って大地震が起きたことが歴史に残されているという。1596年9月1日に愛媛でマグニ チュード7の慶長伊予地震、続いて9月4日に大分でM7の慶長豊後地震、翌5日には中央構造線の延長にある京都・伏見でM7・5の慶長伏見地震が続けて起 きているのだ。

(略）

中央構造線の真上！7月再稼働予定の伊方原発

となると、中央構造線のほぼ真上にあり、7月（2016年）にも再稼働が予定されている伊方原発が心配になる。京都大学防災研究所地震予知セ ンターの橋本学教授は、日本列島の地殻変動をGPS調査し、いま一番懸念されるのはエネルギーが蓄積されたこの四国北部という。

佐藤暁元・GE原子力コンサルタントは｢稼働している原発と、稼動していない原発では、地震が起きたときの被害が出た場合はケタ違いです｣と 次のように話す。｢運転中の原発は止まった瞬間から、福島と同じように崩壊解熱がどんどん出てきます。放射能レベルも非常に高い。間違いなく福島のような 事故に至るリスクがあります。停止していればリスクは低いです｣

全文は「九州連鎖地震」川内原発・伊方原発に危険ないのか？直下に震源に続く活断層帯

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Overseas visitors to Hiroshima atomic bomb museum hit record high in fiscal 2015 via The Japan Times

Posted on 2016/04/21 by yukimiyamotodepaul

HIROSHIMA – The number of foreign visitors to the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum marking the 1945 U.S. atomic bombing of the city increased some 104,500 from a year earlier to a record 338,891 in fiscal 2015, the museum said Wednesday.

A museum official attributed the rise in visitors in the fiscal year that ended in March to the World Scout Jamboree held in neighboring Yamaguchi Prefecture last summer that brought about 4,500 students per day to the museum as well as continued positive reviews on some U.S. travel websites.

The total number of Japanese and foreign visitors to the museum stood at 1,495,065, up around 180,000 from the previous year, the fifth-highest annual total since its opening.

The museum, which documents the aftermath of the atomic bombing, opened 10 years after the city of Hiroshima was devastated by the attack, which killed an estimated 140,000 people.

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Liberal Biases, Too, May Block Progress on Climate Change via The New York Times

Posted on 2016/04/20 by

By Eduardo Porter

Are liberals impairing our ability to combat climate change?

That may sound like a strange question, particularly to readers of The New York Times. Today conservatives are the ones decidedly blocking any effort by the United States to curb its emissions of greenhouse gases.

And yet even as progressive environmentalists wring their hands at the G.O.P.’s climate change denial, there are biases on the left that stray just as far from the scientific consensus.

“The left is turning anti-science,” Marc Andreessen, the creator of Netscape who as a venture capitalist has become one of the most prominent thinkers of Silicon Valley, told me not long ago.
[…]
Ted Cruz’s argument that climate change is a hoax to justify a government takeover of the world is absurd. But Bernie Sanders’s argument that “toxic waste byproducts of nuclear plants are not worth the risks of the technology’s benefit” might also be damaging.

[…]
He was reflecting broadly about science and technology. His concerns ranged from liberals’ fear of genetically modified organisms to their mistrust of technology’s displacement of workers in some industries. “San Francisco is an interesting case,” he noted. “The left has become reactionary.”

Still, liberal biases may be most dangerous in the context of climate change, the most significant scientific and technological challenge of our time. For starters, they stand against the only technology with an established track record of generating electricity at scale while emitting virtually no greenhouse gases: nuclear power.

[…]
“When science is aligned with big corporations the left immediately, intuitively perceives the technology as not benefiting the greater good but only benefiting the corporation,” said Matthew Nisbet, an expert on the communication of science at Northeastern University.

So when assessing the risks of different technological options, the left finds the risk of nuclear energy looming the highest, regardless of contrary evidence.
[…]

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地震と減災　原発はなぜ止まらない via 東京新聞

Posted on 2016/04/20 by yukimiyamotodepaul

　過去にないような地震が起きた。ところが過去の想定に従って、九州電力川内原発は動き続けている。被災者の不安をよそに、責任の所在もあいまいなまま、３・１１などなかったかのように。

　原子力規制委員会の田中俊一委員長は川内原発に「安全上の問題が起きるわけではない」と言う。

　政府もこれを受け「運転を停止する理由はない」と断じている。

　規制委は、川内原発の再稼働を認めた審査の中で、今回の地震を起こした布田川・日奈久断層帯による地震の規模はマグニチュード８・１に及ぶと想定したが、原発までの距離が約九十キロと遠いため、影響は限定的だと判断した。

　熊本地震は、その規模も発生のメカニズムも、過去に類例のない、極めて特異な地震である。

　複数の活断層が関係し、断層帯を離れた地域にも、地震が飛び火しているという。

　通説とは異なり、布田川断層帯は、巨大噴火の痕跡である阿蘇のカルデラ内まで延びていた。海底に潜む未知の活断層の影響なども指摘され、広域にわたる全体像の再検討が、必要とされている。正体不明なのである。

　未知の大地震が起きたということは、原発再稼働の前提も崩されたということだ。

（略）

　川内原発は、１、２号機とも運転開始から三十年以上たっており、老朽化も進んでいる。小刻みに続く余震で、複雑な機器がどのようなダメージを受けているのか、いないのか。

　交通網が断ち切られ、食料の輸送さえ滞る中、十分な避難計画もできていない。

　その上、九電は、重大事故時の指令所になる免震施設の建設を拒んでいる。

　原発ゼロでも市民の暮らしに支障がないのは、実証済みだ。

　それなのに、なぜ原発を止められないの？　国民の多くが抱く素朴な疑問である。

全文は地震と減災　原発はなぜ止まらない

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Make Love Not Bombs via Knoxville Mercury

Posted on 2016/04/20 by yukimiyamotodepaul

About a dozen peace seekers carried homemade signs and even broke out an acoustic guitar in front of the John J. Duncan Federal Building in downtown Knoxville today to protest the federal funding of a uranium processing plant being built in Oak Ridge.

The picketers, members of the Oak Ridge Environmental Peace Alliance, handed out fliers and carried signs that read “NO $$ for BOMBS” and “UPF ALEXANDER’S FOLLY,” referring to United States Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Chattanooga), who chairs a subcommittee charged with vetting federal energy and water appropriations.

Protesters say they want to know what $575 million earmarked in next year’s budget fo

[…]

Construction of the UPF has been contracted to a subsidiary of the San Francisco-based Bechtel Corporation, the largest construction and engineering company in the country. According to its website, construction of the UPF in total is expected to cost $6.5 billion, one of the largest investments the Department of Energy has made in Tennessee since the Manhattan Project.r the construction of the Uranium Processing Facility (UPF) in Oak Ridge is being used for. Environmental Peace Alliance coordinator Ralph Hutchinson says the budget item would bring the project cost so far to $3 billion, nearly half the projected total for construction, and design plans for the plant have yet to be finalized.

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Germany asks Belgium to take two nuclear reactors offline via Reuters

Posted on 2016/04/20 by yukimiyamotodepaul

Germany has asked Belgium to take two nuclear reactors temporarily offline while questions about their safety are cleared up, an unusual diplomatic move that underscores German concerns about the plants.

Environment Minister Barbara Hendricks said on Wednesday that she asked Belgium this week to shut down its Tihange 2 and Doel 3 reactors, after Germany’s Reactor Safety Commission advised that it could not confirm the reactors would be safe in the event of a hazardous incident.

The core tanks at the 33-year-old Doel 3 and Tihange 2 reactors were built by Dutch company Rotterdamsche Droogdok Maatschappij, which has also built reactors in other countries.

The two reactors, both with about a gigawatt of capacity, were closed in 2012 and again in 2014 after a brief restart, after inspections unveiled tiny cracks in their core tanks.

But the Belgian regulator authorised a restart in November 2015 after finding that the cracks were hydrogen flakes trapped in the walls of the reactor tank and had no unacceptable impact on the safety.

[…]

Last week, the state of North Rhine-Westphalia said it would join a lawsuit brought by the Aachen city region against the Tihange 2 reactor, which is roughly 65 kilometres (about 40 miles) away from the west German city.

Deputy Environment Minister Jochen Flasbarth told reporters the decision to make the request had not been taken lightly and that they would give the Belgian government time to respond.

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Kharkiv to remember Chernobyl and Fukushima via The Kharkiv Times

Posted on 2016/04/19 by

From April 19 to May 8, Kharkiv will host a series of poster exhibitions devoted to accidents at nuclear power plants of Chernobyl and Fukushima, civilforum informs (RU).

The project “Life after Chernobyl and Fukushima” created by graphic designers of “4th Block” and “ErmilovCenter” in the scope of the European Week of Memory. The event also includes workshops, reviews and lectures of famous designers.

“We realized that the anniversary can not be left without attention, and conceived the action “Chernobyl 30, Fukushima 5″. It consists of 35 posters by designers from around the world,” said Ilya Pavlov, curator of the “4th Block
[…]
“The issue of ecology, definitely, is very important. Unfortunately, only once a year we’re able to talk about it. The exhibition is an occasion once again to remind this fact,” commented Anastasia Leonova, director of the gallery Come In.

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The feds won’t pay these ill nuclear pioneers from the space race via McClatchy News

Posted on 2016/04/19 by

WASHINGTON
Lorraine Kurowski never knew many details about her husband Dan’s job at a secretive, sprawling facility on a hilltop far north of Los Angeles. “We need the money and we’ll have a good retirement,” she remembers him saying, “but when I die, turn the lights off and watch me glow.”

That line – “watch me glow” – became a running joke about his job, but today Lorraine wishes she had taken it as a warning.

Dan, known by his coworkers as “Big Dan,” worked from 1964 until 1997 as a radioactive waste packer at the Santa Susana Field Laboratory, a sprawling facility where some of the nation’s top scientists contracted by NASA and the Atomic Energy Commission once worked together to advance the fields of space exploration, weaponry and nuclear power at the height of the cold war.

And when he found himself dying years later of pancreatic cancer, Dan sought compensation from a government program meant to help former workers who had been exposed to radiation and toxic substances at nuclear technology sites.

Dan Kurowski was denied, becoming one of hundreds of Santa Susana workers refused compensation for a variety of illnesses potentially associated with radiation and toxic chemical exposure. That’s because those workers – many of them NASA contractors – were unable to prove that they were ever in the small sliver of the site known as Area IV.

The Department of Energy, the Department of Labor and the Boeing company – the site’s current corporate owner – all say Area IV is the only portion of the site where the Department of Energy operated.
[…]
Members of the Santa Susana workforce were among those in a McClatchy report in December who tracked how the federal government has treated its nuclear workers. More than 107,000 nuclear workers nationally have applied for benefits through a Department of Labor compensation program since 2001. The payments go to workers, or their surviving family members, who might have been exposed to radiation or other toxic hazards from their jobs at Department of Energy nuclear facilities.

Nationwide, almost half of claimants who apply to the program receive benefits. At Santa Susana, less than a third of the over 1,400 claims filed have resulted in compensation, according to data reviewed by McClatchy.

Yet for all its denied claims, Santa Susana is one of the reasons the compensation program for former nuclear workers exists in the first place. In 1999, an independent study of illnesses in the communities surrounding the site were one of several presented to the White House and Congress as evidence of the need for a compensation program.
[…]

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