Fukushima accident and the lessons for the US and the world

Source: www.fairewinds.com/updates

The Implications of the Fukushima Accident on the World's Operating Reactors from Fairewinds Associates on Vimeo.

Risk from spent nuclear fuel is greater in the US than in Japan, Study says

Todays NYT has an interesting article comparing the risk from spent nuclear fuel in the US vs. Japan. In the case of Fukushima, the explosion at Unit 3 was postulated to be a detonation of the nuclear fuel in the spent fuel pool (not a hydrogen explosion), leading to uncontained volatilized dust of plutonium and other radioactive materials to be sent far and wide. Traces of plutonium from Fukushima was detected here on the West Coast and as far as New England. (You can read more about this from nuclear engineer Gundersen's analysis at www.fairewinds.com/updates). However, the risk from spent nuclear fuel in the US is much greater than in Japan, according to a study by the Institute of Policy Studies. The amount of spent fuel in the single-reactor Vermont Yankee power plant alone, for example, exceeds the inventory in all four of the damaged Fukushima reactors combined.

Read the article excerpt below or click here for the full article.

Risk From Spent Nuclear Reactor Fuel Is Greater in U.S. Than in Japan, Study Says

NYTimes By MATTHEW L. WALD Published: May 24, 2011

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/25/business/energy-environment/25nuke.html?_r=1&emc=tnt&tntemail1=y

WASHINGTON — The threat of a catastrophic release of radioactive materials from a spent fuel pool at Japan’s Fukushima Daiichi plant is dwarfed by the risk posed by such pools in the United States, which are typically filled with far more radioactive material, according to a study released on Tuesday by a nonprofit institute.

“The largest concentrations of radioactivity on the planet will remain in storage at U.S. reactor sites for the indefinite future,” the report’s author, Robert Alvarez, a senior scholar at the Institute for Policy Studies, wrote. “In protecting America from nuclear catastrophe, safely securing the spent fuel by eliminating highly radioactive, crowded pools should be a public safety priority of the highest degree.”

Adding to concern, President Obama canceled a plan for a repository at Yucca Mountain in the Nevada desert last year, making it likely that the spent fuel will accumulate at the nation’s reactors for years to come....

Update on Fukushima - nuclear meltdown is now officially admitted

Below is an excerpt from Telegraph:

Nuclear meltdown at Fukushima plant

One of the reactors at the crippled Fukushima Daiichi power plant did suffer a nuclear meltdown, Japanese officials admitted for the first time today, describing a pool of molten fuel at the bottom of the reactor's containment vessel.

By Julian Ryall in Tokyo 2:01PM BST 12 May 2011

Engineers from the Tokyo Electric Power company (Tepco) entered the No.1 reactor at the end of last week for the first time and saw the top five feet or so of the core's 13ft-long fuel rods had been exposed to the air and melted down.

Previously, Tepco believed that the core of the reactor was submerged in enough water to keep it stable and that only 55 per cent of the core had been damaged.

Now the company is worried that the molten pool of radioactive fuel may have burned a hole through the bottom of the containment vessel, causing water to leak.

"We will have to revise our plans," said Junichi Matsumoto, a spokesman for Tepco. "We cannot deny the possibility that a hole in the pressure vessel caused water to leak".

Tepco has not clarified what other barriers there are to stop radioactive fuel leaking if the steel containment vessel has been breached. Greenpeace said the situation could escalate rapidly if "the lava melts through the vessel".

....

Greenpeace said significant amounts of radioactive material had been released into the sea and that samples of seaweed taken from as far as 40 miles of the Fukushima plant had been found to contain radiation well above legal limits. Of the 22 samples tested, ten were contaminated with five times the legal limit of iodine 131 and 20 times of caesium 137.

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To read the full article, please go to: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/japan/8509502/Nuclear-meltdown-at-Fukushima-plant.html

Spike of radioactive releases from Fukushima and Xe-133 cloud over Washington

Fukushima forecast shows large radiation cloud over U.S. West Coast on April 14, 15 (video).

What does it mean to see a spike of Xe-133 (an unstable, radioactive isotope of xenon gas)? According to Wikipedia, Xe-133 is one "of the fission products of both 235U and 239Pu, and therefore used as indicators of nuclear explosions". There were also reports of spikes in cesium (Cs-137) and iodine (I-131) releases soon after the 7.1 magnitude aftershock on April 9. See graphs from IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency) as reported by enernews.com below.



TEPCO however said the spikes of radioactive materials was because "the gauge used to measure radiation was most likely broken" (as reported by NYT). If that's the case, should we be concerned about low readings from the broken gauge? Or the gauge is only "broken" when the readings are high? I am concerned about the lack of information and transparency.

Source:
http://enenews.com/fukushima-forecast-shows-large-radiation-cloud-over-u-s-west-coast-on-april-14-15

From Fukushima to San Juan Islands and beyond: the journey of I-131 to our food chain

I've been following the development in Japan's nuclear crisis with great interest and a heavy heart. And the contamination has entered the food chain here (see the news from NYT below). No need for alarm (yet) though.

The image above is from the Central Institute of Meteorology and Geodynamics of Austria. It shows the spreading radioactivity in the form of I-131 from Fukushima to the US and beyond during March 19-27. The modeling is based on actual data from very sensitive radionuclide stations in the CTBTO (the Nuclear Test Ban Organization) global network. The US seems to be in the direct path of the fallout. I'm relieved though that the toxic plume does not blow directly inland over Japan.

Yesterday (Mar 30), TEPCO (owner/operator of the Fukushima nuclear plant) Chairman announced at a news conference that it was presently unclear how the problems at the plant would be resolved. Looks like we are in for a wild ride. Hold on tight!

On a related note, Obama yesterday in his speech on US energy strategy just reaffirmed the continued need to rely on and safety of nuclear power. To me, this means the need for local action and conversations on reducing our dependency on nuke is greater than ever. Let's start thinking about energy self-sufficiency! :)

And here is the NYT news:

U.S. | March 31, 2011
Low Levels of Radiation Found in American Milk
By MATTHEW L. WALD
Tests of milk samples in Washington State indicated the presence of radioactive iodine from Japan, but officials said that the levels were below public health concern.