ベルギーの原発が、技術トラブルで運転を停止 via Iran Japanese Radio

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ベルギーのテレビ局RTBFによりますと、ベルギー東部のティアンジュ原子力発電所の1号機が18日金曜、運転を停止したということです。
この原発を管理するエレクトラベル社は19日土曜、「18日の夜11時30分、ティアンジュ原発で技術トラブルが発生した」と表明しました。
同社のスポークスマンは、「この原発のネットワーク外の圧力ポンプが不具合を起こし、これに関する調査が開始されている」と語りました。
ティアンジュ原発1号機は先週月曜、技術トラブルによる運転停止の後、数ヶ月ぶりに運転を再開していました。
この原発の責任者は、問題の技術トラブルにより周囲の環境への影響はないと主張しています。
ベルギーでは、現在ある数多くの原発の老朽化による問題が生じています。

全文はベルギーの原発が、技術トラブルで運転を停止

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Expert touts renewable energy via Taipei Times

‘HUMANITY AT CROSSROADS’:Hans Schellnhuber said Germany is an example for Taiwan of how to transition from coal and nuclear power to renewable energy sources

To combat global warming and greenhouse gas emissions, developing renewable energy is the only way to reduce the exploitation of fossil fuel and phase out nuclear energy, visiting Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research director Hans Schellnhuber said that.

Schellnhuber, a joint recipient of the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize along with former US vice president Al Gore, made the remarks in two speeches in Taipei, on Thursday and yesterday.

During a symposium titled “Humanity at the Crossroads” in Taipei on Thursday, Schellnhuber said: “The debate of whether global warming is manmade is over. The question is what we do about it.”

[…]

Schellnhuber added that although Germany’s carbon emissions rose when the nation started to decommission its nuclear power plants, the emissions later decreased when a renewable energy power grid was developed, and now the county’s power industry has a 50 percent oversupply.

That nuclear energy could guarantee the energy security is a misconception, and all we need is time to transition from nuclear and coal-fired energy to renewable energy, he said. Meanwhile, the Executive Yuan put forward an intended nationally determined contribution (INDC) on Thursday, specifying that Taiwan would reduce its greenhouse gas emissions by 50 percent by 2030.

Environmental Protection Administration (EPA) Minister Wei Kuo-yen (魏國彥) said the INDC was based on the scenario that three of the nation’s active nuclear plants would be decommissioned and the now-mothballed nuclear power plant be activated.

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Nuclear power kills! The real reason the NRC cancelled its nuclear site cancer study via Ecologist

The US’s Nuclear Regulatory Commission just cancelled its study into cancer near nuclear plants citing the ‘excessive cost’ of $8 million, writes Chris Busby. Of course that’s rubbish – similar studies in the UK have been carried out for as little as £600 per site, and in any case $8 million is small change for the NRC. The real reason is to suppress the unavoidable conclusion: nuclear power kills.

After spending some $1.5 million and more than five years on developing strategies to answer the question of increases of cancer near nuclear facilities, the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) last week reported that they would not continue with the process. They would knock it on the head [1].

This poisoned chalice has been passed between the US National Academy of Sciences (NAS) and the NRC since 2009 when public and political pressure was brought to bear on the USNRC to update a 1990 study of the issue, a study which was widely seen by the public to be a whitewash.

The NCR quickly passed the unwelcome task up to the NAS. It requested that the NAS provide an assessment of cancer risks in populations living ‘near’ the NRC-licenced nuclear facilities that utilize and process Uranium. This included 104 operating nuclear reactors in 31 States and 13 fuel cycle facilities in operation in 10 States.

[…]

If you don’t like the truth … suppress it

The committee sat for three years thinking about this during which time more and more evidence emerged that if it actually carried out the pilot study, it would find something bad. It had to escape. It did. It cancelled it. The reason given was that it would cost $8 million just to do the pilot study of cancer near the seven sites NAS had selected in its 600 page Phase 1 report. [2]

So despite the truly enormous amount of information that has emerged about the adverse health effects of releases of radioactivity since 1990, no official investigation will be carried out. The nuclear industry is now in a corner.

[…]

On the NAS website the members of the Nuclear and Radiation Studies Board NRSB are listed. Normally there is linked a biography page. When you look for the NRSB biography page you get Missing Content: bios page is not available for board: nrsb [13]

Here is why. There is one epidemiologist Martha Linet, but she is a member of the International Commission on Radiological Protection (ICRP) Epidemiology committee and also the NCRP full committee. Seven board members are mathematical statisticians and physicists, two are waste management engineers, there is a woman professor of cancer care, and two mineralogists.

Four work directly for the nuclear industry. One of the mathematical physicists is Fred Mettler Jr, also on the ICRP and the International Atomic Energy Agency IAEA. He also makes a living as an expert witness in radiation cases as I know having been up against him in New Orleans. No conflict of interest there then.

The only good guy on this committee is David Brenner of Columbia, an Englishman from Liverpool, but again a physicist and radiobiologist.

The plain fact is that this is an issue in epidemiology. The committee should have comprised medical and environmental epidemiologists. What possible need is there for mathematical physicists and engineers?

Read more at Nuclear power kills! The real reason the NRC cancelled its nuclear site cancer study

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福島原発事故「4年半」の現実(下)「除染ゴールド・ラッシュ」の果てに via Huffington Post

(抜粋)

未来を語る場面がない舞台

当たり前だが、除染作業は放射能に汚染された地域で行われる。危険が伴い、人がいやがる仕事だ。自治体や地場の建設業者が行っているような普通の作業員募集では人手は集まらない。

従っ て、労務者を集める手法と経験に実績のある大手ゼネコンに頼らざるをえない。大手企業が作業地域を区分けして事業を請け負い、東電に代わって国が復興予算 から費用を企業に立て替え払いする。カネに糸目をつけないとはいえ、人のいやがる仕事だから、どうしても荒っぽい人集めになる。「個々の作業員の身元確認 などはとてもやっていられない」とゼネコンの現地事務所は打ち明ける。

賃金はその時々の労務者市場の相場で決められ、今だと一説には表向きの一般公共事業の2倍、4万円の日当が支払われているという。このうち1万円は「危険手当」だ。この異常な賃金水準が全国から「限界労働力」を原発事故の現場に吸い寄せる。

いわば福島版「ゴールド・ラッシュ」が繰り広げられているのである。

(略)

今も残る無残な姿

福島の「ゴールド・ラッシュ」には、それなりの事情がある。

もともと福島は他の被災2県に比べて、通常の復興で大きく遅れをとっていた。原因はもちろん原発事故である。

震 災直後、被災地ではまず「仮復旧」と称した応急工事が行われた。陥没した道路を埋めて通れるようにしたり,壊れた堤防に土嚢を積んだりするなど、日常生活 をとりあえず回復して本格復興に備えた。「仮復旧」工事の多くは地元建設業者が行政との随意契約を結び急場をまかなった。だが、本格復興工事となると、一 般競争入札を通じて技術や資金力のある大手ゼネコンと契約しなければならない。公共工事を日常の姿に戻すことが必要になるのだ。

宮城、岩手 の両県は既に2年ほど前から、そうやって大規模工事に取りかかり、町の高台移転や堤防の本格建設などを始めた。ところが、福島ではいつまでたっても本格的 な復旧工事は始まらなかった。国が指定した避難指示区域に立ち入れずに工事どころではないところが多く、立ち入りができる場所でも企業や作業員が被ばくを 嫌って作業をいやがったからだ。

他県に2年遅れて福島でも避難指示が解除された場所などで本格復旧工事を始めようとしたころには、人件費も資材も高騰していた。入札不調が続出し、福島の平均落札率は8割を切る事態となった。

(略)

最初から念頭にない「本気の復興」

このままでは福島経済は立ち枯れとなる。そこで生命維持装置として福島に与えられたの が除染事業だったのである。建前は一応「復興」に向かってふるさとを取り戻すため、あるいはこの先、本当に安心して住めるようにするため、などと説明され たが、その言葉通り本当に町や村を元の姿に戻して、安心して住めるようにするつもりは国には端からなかった。そういう本格除染には、田や畑の土を取り替 え、森林を伐採し、住宅の屋根にしみこんだ汚染物質を取り除いて家屋を建て直す作業が必要だ(南相馬市の顧問を務める児玉龍彦東大教授)。それには気が遠 くなるような作業量と天文学的な費用がかかる。

真面目に住民を帰還させようと考えるなら、それを覚悟で取り組まなければならなかった。それこそが、歴史に残る原発事故を起こした東電と国が支払わねばならない代償というものだ。

(略)

崩壊した福島の自治

地元企業や住民よりも、大手ゼネコンにとってその恩恵は大きかった。完全な除染後に行われる競争入札 を通じた本格復興事業などよりも、リスクはなく手っ取り早く日銭が入るからだ。面倒くさい手続きはいらないし、公共事業と違って代金は請求すれば2カ月後 にはおりる。作業員の斡旋手数料も入る。地元社会にも、「韓国パブ」は別として、旅館、仕出し弁当屋、ガソリンスタンドなど、多少のカネは落ちた。

しかし、しょせんはその程度のことである。

「こんなことをやっているだけでは本当の復興はありえないということは、福島では誰でもハラの中では分かっている」と県建設業協会の幹部は言う。

分 かってはいても、住民は沈黙した。カンフル剤と連動して設計された生活支援や東電からの賠償金制度には、住民を黙らせる十分な効果があった。細かく線引き された地域区分によって目先、手に入るカネに差がつき、住民の団結は阻まれた。地域の将来像を語ろうという声は、住民同士の対立の中にかき消えた。

故郷が直面した危機的事態を前に、福島の自治は崩壊したのである。

(略)

失われる「貴重なデータ」

地域社会を愚弄したのは、中途半端な除染事業だけではない。

「人類が経験したことのないほどの福島の事故なのに、被害の実態がはっきりつかめない。それを把握しようという努力さえせず、他の原発の再稼働を急ぐのは問題だと思います」と、南相馬市立総合病院の坪倉正治医師は言う。

ふだんは慎重に言葉を選ぶ同氏だが、「この大事故は一体何だったのか」、このままではあいまいなまま歴史の闇に埋もれてしまうと言うとき、口調は鋭くなった。

同氏は、東京大学医科学研究所から自ら希望して南相馬に赴任した。地域医療への関心に加え、専門の白血病研究にとっても貴重な経験になると考えたからだ。

しかし、この期待は裏切られた。

(略)

「なかったこと」に

たとえば福島で被ばくした人が大阪に引っ越したとする。公衆衛生の所管は自治体だから、これらのデー タ収集については被ばく者が現在住む自治体の協力を求めなければならないが、自治体にとってはこれら住民の個人情報は保護の対象である。政府が「特殊な ケース」として強く自治体を指導し、情報の全国的な集約と秘匿の方策を徹底させなければ、こうした重要な追跡調査は実現しない。

今日の医療法では、医療機関のカルテ保存義務は5年間だ。来年3月には、福島事故から5年が経過する。もし、被ばく者や被ばく後にがんを発症した患者のカルテが廃棄されてしまえば、「あの事故は医療研究にとって『なかったこと』になってしまう」。

全文は福島原発事故「4年半」の現実(下)「除染ゴールド・ラッシュ」の果てに

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Nuclear Whistle-blower Vanunu Is Israel’s Edward Snowden via Haaretz

By Avner Cohen

The interview Channel 2 conducted with Mordechai Vanunu earlier this month was fascinating and informative. This was the first time that the Israeli public got a look at the life and the world of the person who in Israel is considered the ultimate traitor. For the first time, Vanunu was making an appearance on an Israeli media outlet as a flesh-and-blood human being.
It was also a courageous interview. Up to now, Vanunu had refused to speak to the Israeli public in his own language. Israelis had rejected him, and he rejected them. This interview was also a blatant and defiant violation of the draconian limitations that have been imposed upon him since his 2004 release from prison. True, Vanunu had also violated the restrictions in the past, and was punished for it, but then he did it in a low-profile manner with third-rank foreign media outlets. This time he did it openly and in Hebrew.

[…]
Like Snowden, Vanunu was not a spy, but rather a whistleblower. But much more than Snowden did, through his revelations, Vanunu betrayed the deepest Israeli conspiracy of silence: the desire not to know what was happening at the secret complex at Dimona. Unlike Snowden, who was successful in spurring national and global debate through his revelations, Vanunu suffered nearly total failure in his attempt to break the Israeli taboo. The conspiracy of silence remained intact.
The success of the Channel 2 interview was in its revelation of Mordechai Vanunu, the man, for all he is, and also what he isn’t. He really does have rare persistence and personal resilience. The fact that he survived more than a decade in total solitary confinement, on the pretext of security but in fact out of a desire to break him emotionally, is an amazing accomplishment.
[…]
Roughly put, Vanunu said the following: I was in possession of rare information. I was convinced that it needed to become public, and I had to disclose it to the world because I knew no one else would. Even those who object to what Vanunu (or Snowden) did can’t help but appreciate their courage and the fact that they were acting according to their own consciences.
The bottom line is that the Channel 2 television interview revealed the intensity of Israeli vindictiveness. When it comes to the one and only sacred national taboo, Israel does not forget and will always bear a grudge. The time has come to leave this brave man alone and let him go where he pleases.
The writer is professor of nuclear studies at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies in Monterey, California and author of “Israel and the Bomb.”
read more: http://www.haaretz.com/opinion/.premium-1.676206

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Pope Francis’ call for nuclear disarmament not new in church history via National Catholic Reporter

WASHINGTON Repeated calls from Pope Francis for the world to empty its nuclear weapons arsenals are little known and often overlooked, but carry the moral weight of Catholic social teaching, a panel of experts concurred during a panel discussion at the Council on Foreign Relations.
His pleas should come as no surprise because they reflect a view that has existed within the Holy See since the papacy of St. John XXIII and the days of the Second Vatican Council, said Bishop Oscar Cantu of Las Cruces, New Mexico, chairman of the U.S bishops’ Committee on International Justice and Peace, during a program in advance of the pope’s visit to the United States Sept. 22-27.

Citing statements from Vatican II, Francis and his predecessors and pastoral letters by the U.S. bishops, Cantu said Thursday that the church has offered consistent messages that question the morality of the use of nuclear weapons.

More recently, the Vatican and Francis have moved away from accepting the concept of nuclear deterrence, saying that such acceptance implies that it is acceptable to use such weapons. The Vatican has always maintained that using nuclear weapons is immoral.

Acknowledging that new perception, Maryann Cusimano Love, associate professor of international relations at The Catholic University of America, said the Holy See is working to reframe the way the world views nuclear weapons and “to put people first.”
[…]

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放射線の影響知ってviaタウンニュース 小田原版

 県西地域に焦点をあてた「内部被曝・低線量被曝学習会」が10月4日(日)、谷津公民館(城山1の8の20)で開催される。午後2時から4時まで。

 福島の原発事故から4年半が過ぎ、放射線が及ぼす人体への影響をもっと知ってもらおうと、「さよなら原発小田原」が学習会を企画。講師は、原発と教育を考える会メンバーで、8月にチェルノブイリ原発事故から29年目を迎えた現地を視察した根岸富男さんが務める。
[…]
参加費300円(資料代含む)。問合せは大久保さん【携帯電話】090・7209・0100。

もっと読む。

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<除染廃棄物流出>飯舘村の除染袋川に流出 240袋→293袋via みんな楽しくhappyがいい

[…]
望月環境相は「まずは、おわびを申し上げたいと思います」と述べた。
福島市で取材に応じ、謝罪した望月環境相。

この問題は、大雨の影響で飯舘村の河川が氾濫し、仮置き場に運ぶ前に、水田に置いてい­た「フレコンバッグ」が周辺に流れ出たもの。
「。。。」東京電力福島第1原発事故の除染による廃棄物を詰めた大型袋(容量1立方メートル)が、大雨で氾濫した福島県飯舘村の河川に流出した問題で、環境省は12日、同村内で238袋、下流の南相馬市原町区で2袋の計240袋を発見したと発表した。南相馬市の2袋は中に何も入っておらず、流失したとみられる。飯舘村では111袋を回収したが、残る127袋は重機や人が近づけない河川の中州や対岸にあり、水位の低下を待って回収する。

 中身が入っていなかった2袋について、同省は「いずれも最近刈り取られた草などで放射性物質濃度は比較的低く、周辺環境への影響はほとんどない」と説明している。【大塚卓也】
「。。。」

もっと読む。

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Pro-nuclear environmentalists in call to scrap Hinkley C plans via The Guardian

Three leading experts urge government to end nuclear project saying delays will create panicked scramble back to fossil fuels

Three leading environmentalists who broke ranks to give their support to a new generation of nuclear plants have now urged the government to scrap plans for Hinkley Point C.

The call comes as George Osborne and Amber Rudd, the secretary of state for energy and climate change, head off to China, where they will discuss Beijing’s proposed investment in the new nuclear plant in Somerset.

George Monbiot, Mark Lynas and Chris Goodall say the soaring cost and delays to the Hinkley project leave ministers with no option but to pour the estimated £24.5bn worth of investment into other low-carbon technologies.

“Hinkley C bears all the distinguishing features of a white elephant: overpriced, overcomplicated and overdue. The delay that was announced recently should be the final straw. The government should kill the project,” they write in a comment piece for the Guardian.

“The new delay should not surprise anyone who’s aware of the technological issues,” said Tony Roulstone, who runs the masters programme in nuclear engineering at Cambridge University. He argues that the plan for Hinkley C is like “building a cathedral within a cathedral”. It is, he concludes, “unconstructable”.

Most environmentalists are opposed to nuclear power on the grounds of safety fears and the difficulties of dealing with atomic waste. But Monbiot and others broke the consensus by arguing that climate change was a greater threat. This delighted the nuclear industry and successive UK governments that have supported nuclear, partly as it contrasts with the intermittent nature of wind and solar power.

EDF, the French energy group, promoting Hinkley, has already won a generous financial aid package from the government through its “contract for difference” mechanism but has yet to sign the definitive deal it needs with Beijing investors.

This is expected to happen when the Chinese premier visits the UK next month, leaving EDF in a position to finally give the green light to the first nuclear plant to be built in the UK for 20 years.

But the energy company and its French engineering partner, Areva, have been beset by problems, leaving a growing number of former supporters from the world of energy and the City to question the viability of the whole project.

Monbiot and his colleagues are particularly worried that a failure to build a new nuclear plant on time will force more gas and even coal to be burned, a move that would exacerbate global warming.

They write: “The greatest problem Hinkley C imposes is energy blight. As the project is delayed, the power it would otherwise have generated is likely to be supplied instead by fossil fuel plants. If it does indeed turn out to be unconstructable, the result is likely to be a panicked scramble back into gas and even, perhaps, coal.”
[…]

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850 Tons of Treated Fukushima Water Dumped Into the Pacific via EcoWatch

Despite the objections of environmentalists and after overcoming local opposition from fishermen, the Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO) pumped more than 850 tons of groundwater from below the Fukushimanuclear power plant into the Pacific Ocean on Monday.

More than four years after a tsunami destroyed the plant and triggered a meltdown, the cleanup effort remains frought with numerous difficulties, including the nearly impossible task of dealing with the millions of gallons of contaminated and radioactive water—both treated and untreated—that have accumulated in thousands of tanks constructed in the shadow of the destroyed power station. On a daily basis, approximately 300 tons of groundwater are pumped to the surface to undergo treatment before being placed into storage.

According to Asahi Shimbun:

The discharge marks the first release under the utility’s “subdrain plan,” an additional measure conceived to help diminish the build-up of contaminated groundwater at the crippled facility.

TEPCO began discharging water after a third-party panel confirmed that the radioactive content was below the standard set by the utility.

[…]

Fishermen had argued that the discharge even of the groundwater would heighten contamination concerns and hurt their already battered reputation.

They had fought to stop the water being released into the sea, even after it is filtered, but eventually bowed to pressure from TEPCO, which is struggling to find space to store the tainted supplies.

But it has yet to find a solution to deal with another highly radioactive 680,000 tons of water that was used to cool the reactors during the meltdown, which is still stored on site.

Read more at 850 Tons of Treated Fukushima Water Dumped Into the Pacific

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