Environment Memo

Led by a Nobel Prize winner, AP reports that a group in Japan aims to collect 10 million signatures and submit them to the government next March demanding of the government, among other things the cancellation of construction plans for new nuclear power plants and the planned termination of existing nuclear power plants, including the [...]

Calling it “radioactive water” at Fukushima really does readers a disservice, because not only is it incorrect, it omits important implications of the problem. Water is H2O, right, as we all know (I hope).  So H2O is only radioactive if one of the hydrogens or the oxygen atom is a radioisotope. What we have at [...]

So, it’s official, there was a melt-down at Fukishima, although they are mincing words: Japanese authorities have admitted the possibility that the fuel suffered “melt-through” … Some are calling a “melt-down” something different than what I’m used to, as in the wikipedia entry: Nuclear meltdown is an informal term for a severe nuclear reactor accident [...]

TEPCO (Tokyo Electric Power Company) shares plummet. Why didn’t I short it?

It’s what the vast majority of the German public wants, and now the government of Germany is responding. Germany plans to shut down all its nuclear power plants by 2022. As Reuters reports, the government said it planned to cut power use by 10 percent by 2020 and further expand the use of renewables such [...]

Rural areas in Japan were basically bought off to allow nuclear power plants in their back yards. It’s difficult to explain otherwise how Japan would go nuclear after WWII.

Reminds me of what they used to say about nuclear power plants. The Titanic slipped into the sea on May 31, 1911. I’m sure I’m not the only one to point out the ironies here. The ship was unsinkable, being as how

These guys must be getting money from somewhere to be pushing this: Legislation designed to facilitate development of small, scalable reactors was introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives this week. As the Nuclear Energy Institute puts it

In my experience, there is absolutely no way to know what is going on at a nuclear power plant without basically living there, and for a long time, probably permanently. These facilities are a complicated mix of people and technology that can’t be adequately assessed via inspections. Having people in residence is the only feasible [...]

At the No. 1 reactor at Fukushima, they are having trouble keeping water on top of things because it’s leaking out the bottom where, as one utility manager put it according to Reuters: “The fuel pellets likely melted and fell, and in the process may have damaged … the pressure vessel itself and created a [...]

Modelers can be really smart, and their models can be really sophisticated. But there’s a danger that they, or those in positions of authority, actually believe the models. Recall that modeling low-probability events is fraught with difficulty. And they may be missing some simple, cost-effective solutions by over-relying on computer-generated scenarios. A recent article points [...]

From the wikipedia article on the recent movie: Into Eternity is a feature documentary film directed by Michael Madsen, released in 2010.  It follows the digging and pre-implementation of the Onkalo nuclear waste repository on the island of Olkiluoto, Finland. Director Michael Madsen questions Onkalo’s intended eternal existence, addressing an audience in the remote future. [...]

The NYTimes has an article getting into radiation fears and how they are “overblown,” but unfortunately the author does not use the term “radioisotopes,” and does not distinguish between radiation we receive from x-ray machines and the like, and radiation we can receive from ingestion of radioisotopes. As an example, the article states that at [...]

Much has been written about the Yucca Mountain nuclear repository, which most are saying is dead in the water because funding for it has ended. Congress has been grilling NRC Chairman Jaczko about what some are calling foot-dragging over the Yucca Mountain decision, and, from what I gather, whether delays in a final NRC vote [...]

WSJ reports Regulations currently require nuclear power plants to have as few as four hours of emergency power. NRC Chairman Gregory Jaczko said during a commission meeting that this might not be enough, That’s pretty outrageous, even without the events in Japan. The larger question is, what else is there that this bare-bones standby power [...]

There’s lot’s of activity on the net about the 25th anniversary of the nuclear power plant accident at Chernobyl, with a nice compendium of photos here at Boston.com. And of course, it’s still not over. The containment needs rebuilding, and there’s danger of spread of radioisotopes due to burning of trees that contain them, with [...]

As announced recently: The second-largest power generator in the state said Tuesday it will stop spending money on plans to build two more reactors at the South Texas Project, outside of Houston. The project was doomed when a financial partner, Tokyo Electric Power Co., saw its reactors in Japan explode after the earthquake. Not the [...]

Soil sampling results will really tell the tale about what is going on near the reactors in Japan, and whether and when people can go back there. Greenpeace notes that they’ve done some soil sampling 60 km from the reactors, but I don’t find the results yet. And results closer in should be very revealing. [...]

The news now is that, in Japan No one will be allowed within 3 kilometers of the crippled nuclear facility and entry within 20 kilometers of the plant will be highly regulated …

I did not know about current concerns re Chernobyl, whose makeshift shelter has five years left in its lifespan and still leaks radiation. So, they are having a fund raiser to help get money for a 105-meter high arched roof that, once assembled on a field next to the damaged reactor, will be rolled into [...]

WaPo reports that the nuclear plant operator’s plan for stopping radiation leaks and stabilizing damaged reactors within the next six to nine months as a first step toward allowing some of the tens of thousands of evacuees to return to their homes. I’m a bit dubious about this, partly because of the use of the [...]

AP reports that The former head of the U.N.’s atomic energy watchdog says Japan’s reactor crisis could pose a significant setback to public acceptance of nuclear power.

Observers at UC Berkeley stated on March 23 that, with respect to its monitoring in California: Our equipment would be able to see plutonium particles by observing gamma-ray emissions. We do look for this signature and we do not have any evidence of plutonium at this point. This is work done at their Department of [...]

The LATimes ran a story last year after the death of the inventor of the neutron bomb, Samuel T. Cohen. Cohen believed that this bomb would lead to safer warfare, but, as one might imagine, others disagreed. Apparently, President Reagan ordered up many hundreds of these bombs, which were supposed to have been dismantled following [...]

Apparently, this will be the first new construction license for a nuclear power plant in the US. Small wonder that Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Thomas Fanning, whose company [Southern] won $8.33 billion in U.S. nuclear loan guarantees last year, said the nation should build reactors without letting radiation releases from a Japanese plant “distract [...]