Webremix Articles

Areva order book increases despite Fukushima disaster

Thu, 26 Jan 2012 12:00:14 GMT

French nuclear energy giant Areva said Thursday its order book increased by 3.1 percent last year to 45.6 billion euros ($59.8 billion) despite Fukushima nuclear disaster hitting...

Namibia: 'Trekkopje Not Affected,' Says Company

Wed, 18 Jan 2012 11:07:40 GMT

Namibian (Windhoek)-THE current controversy around Areva's Uramin deal in 2007 has no impact on the Trekkopje project, Hilifa Mbako, Areva's country manager for Namibia, said yesterday.

Ex-CEO Accuses Areva of Spying

Tue, 17 Jan 2012 08:46:12 GMT

Areva's ex-CEO, Anne Lauvergeon, is battling the French nuclear company's management over her severance pay and what she says was its use of a private investigator to keep tabs on her.

Areva Says Banks Trim Loans for Offshore Wind Farms on Crisis

Wed, 11 Jan 2012 18:01:50 GMT

Jan. 11 (Bloomberg) -- Areva SA, which is bidding with other companies to build five offshore wind farms in France needing 10 billion euros ($12.8 billion) of investment, said banks are lending less ...

Areva Says Banks Trim Loans for Offshore Wind Farms on Crisis

Wed, 11 Jan 2012 10:43:28 GMT

Areva SA, which is bidding with other companies to build five offshore wind farms in France needing 10 billion euros ($12.8 billion) of investment, said banks are lending less because of the financial crisis.

Don’t Hack The Hippies Take 2: Greenpeace asks French prosecutors to investigate allegations of spying by Areva

Mon, 09 Jan 2012 15:45:00 GMT

With another nuclear company facing accusations of spying on Greenpeace, we’ve got to ask the nuclear industry a question: Dude, you’re 60 years old – isn’t it time you grew up?

In early January 2012 Greenpeace filed a criminal complaint with prosecutors in France asking them to investigate allegations made in the Journal du Dimanche newspaper that the country’s nuclear giant Areva – the world’s largest nuclear company – commissioned a consultancy firm to spy on Greenpeace’s activities. This news comes in the wake of France’s state electricity company Electricité de France SA (EDF) being fined €1.5 million and ordered to pay €500,000 in damages to Greenpeace in November 2011, after being convicted of spying on us. The four men involved - two of them senior EDF executives - went to jail.

Why would they do this? Well, it’s all about the disparity between how the nuclear industry wants us to see it and the how it actually is. When you read the nuclear comic books (industry press releases and propaganda), Nuclear Power is a squared-jawed superhero with his fists on his hips, staring towards the future and poised to save the world from the evils of climate change. KA-POW! Chill out, global warming! BAM! You’re going down, greenhouse gases!

But beneath the disguise, things aren’t what they seem. Nuclear Power is actually a 60 year-old guy with delusions of grandeur, still living with his mom and dependent on hand outs from her. He’s stinking up the place and is really high maintenance. He has embarrassing accidents that his mom has to clean up for him. Sure, he still straps on his corset and pulls on his tights and ignores his aches and pains to get out there to try and fight but it’s not working. He’s exhausted. He tells anyone who will listen about his former glories and triumphs but they’re looking and sounding a bit dubious nowadays. If he was honest with himself, he’d see that over the years he’s done more harm than good. Is it actually possible he’s been a supervillain all this time?

Not only that but the other younger guys, Solar Power, Wind Turbine and their teams, are racing about, beating evil with ease and making him look bad. The public turn out in the thousands to whistle and cheer whenever they appear. When Nuclear Power shows up they all look uncomfortable and say they have to be somewhere else.

Deep down he knows he’s beat but he can’t admit it. He can’t keep up. He thinks of a world without him and shudders. What can he do? What are Solar Power and Wind Turbine’s team up to now? What will they do next? How can he stop them and regain his glory? He needs to know. So he cheats, he sneaks, and he spies. He tries to stop people talking about the bad things he’s done. Then he gets caught because he’s not as clever as he thinks he is, and he ends up looking even more pathetic.

The nuclear industry needs to wake up to reality; the case for nuclear power should speak for itself but it can’t. If its promise that nuclear power is clean, safe, cheap, and able to fight climate change were true, the industry wouldn’t need to rely on dirty tricks, spin, propaganda, and – yes – criminality to further its agenda.

They say nuclear power, having been around for so long, is a mature industry. Its tactics show it to be anything but mature. Time to grow up, dude.

(Image © Patrik Rastenberger / Greenpeace. Greenpeace activists hold up banners as a protest against the nuclear power plant in Olkiluoto, Finland. The French company AREVA is backing the construction which is five years behind schedule and 3.3 billion euros over budget.)

Fukushima Nuclear Crisis Update for January 3rd – January 5th, 2012

Fri, 06 Jan 2012 12:32:00 GMT

(This post is by Christine McCann)

Here’s the latest of our news bulletins from the ongoing crisis at Japan’s Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant.

State of Nuclear Politics in Japan

Speaking before the nation in his annual New Year’s Day address, Japan’s Prime Minister, Yoshihiko Noda, promised to bring “rebirth” to Fukushima in the aftermath of last year’s nuclear disaster. Noda pledged to decontaminate the area surrounding the crippled plant, as well as guarantee compensation payments and health examinations for victims. Noda did not, however, provide a timeline for his promises.

Japan is considering creating a public entity to manage electrical power supplies, in an effort to reduce monopolies and stabilize power supplies. The new entity would be responsible for transmitting and distributing power across regional lines, similar to a system employed by the United States. Officials hope to avoid power shortages even in the case of a natural or man-made disaster. A similar plan was proposed last decade, but the move was opposed by utilities.

Documents obtained by The Japan Times reveal that the Chairman of the Japan Atomic Energy Commission, Shunsuke Kondo, prepared a 20-page worst-case scenario in the days following the nuclear disaster at the Fukushima Daiichi plant. The report, which was prepared at the request of then-Prime Minister Naoto Kan, examined the possibility of mandatory evacuation of residents as far away as 170 km from the plant, and voluntary evacuation of residents within 250 km, including Tokyo, home to approximately 35 million people.

Hiroyuki Fukano, the head of Japan’s Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency (NISA), said he would work to regain public trust in the agency after a December 26 government report revealed numerous issues and problems with its response to the nuclear disaster at the Fukushima Daiichi plant. In April, the government plans to merge NISA with the Nuclear Safety Commission (NSC) to form a new nuclear regulatory agency.

Japan and Ukraine have agreed to share information learned as a result of the Fukushima and Chernobyl nuclear disasters, respectively. Both countries plan to cooperate regarding studying decontamination of farmland and health risks of radiation, as well as jointly dispatching experts to each country. Japan said it will increase staff at its embassy in Ukraine, including radiation experts and interpreters.

Nuclear Crisis Minister Goshi Hosono hopes to eventually establish Fukushima Prefecture as a world-renowned center of nuclear safety. Hosono envisions an institute that will promote nuclear safety and treatment of radiation disease. In addition, the institute will focus on creating robots that can assist with decommissioning the reactors at the Fukushima Daiichi plant.

Over 130 municipalities in Japan are working to establish evacuation plans and secure emergency shelters in response to the government’s decision to expand the proposed evacuation area around nuclear plants from 10 to 30 km.

State of the Reactors

Tokyo Electric Power (TEPCO) reported that the water level in the so-called “skimmer surge tank,” which is adjacent to the spent fuel pool in Reactor 4, began to drop by 8-9 cm per hour following a magnitude 6.8 earthquake on New Year’s Day. Normally, radioactive water flows from the spent fuel pools to the skimmer surge tank, where the particles are filtered and the water is cooled before it is returned to the fuel pools. Officials believe that the strong quake resulted in either leaking pipes or water flowing in the wrong direction. TEPCO is continuing to investigate.

Contamination (Includes Human Exposure)

The number of those applying for licenses for the spring hunting season in Fukushima Prefecture has plunged, raising concerns that wild boar and other animals will overpopulate, causing decimation of crops in the area. Officials blame the drop in hunting license applications on a lack of guns, many of which were abandoned during evacuations or lost during the tsunami, as well as fears of radiation contamination in birds and animals. The number of applications for hunting licenses in Iwate and Miyagi Prefectures has also declined.

Rice Crisis

Officials in Fukushima Prefecture announced that they will test all rice harvested next fall, to prevent a repeat of this year, when excessive levels of cesium were discovered in Fukushima-produced rice, even after the governor declared all rice in the prefecture radiation free. Once examined, each bag of rice will bear a barcode, allowing consumers to access test results online. Equipment to conduct the testing is expected to cost the prefecture approximately two billion yen.

Decontamination and Waste Disposal

Japan’s Environment Ministry has established a nuclear contamination office in Fukushima City, which will provide oversight of decontamination and nuclear waste disposal in the area around the Fukushima Daiichi plant, site of the March disaster. The office, which will eventually employ 210 staff, was created in response to a new nuclear decontamination law, which went into effect on January 1.

Mayors from areas surrounding the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant met with Yuhei Sato, Governor of Fukushima Prefecture, this week to ask for guidance in storing highly radioactive waste. Sato plans to create a forum for municipalities to share expertise with one another. Some mayors are protesting the central government’s decision to temporarily store waste in Futaba County; others say they are resigned to the fact.

Kashiwa government officials have halted operation of a municipal incinerator because they have run out of space to store highly radioactive ash. Currently, the facility is storing approximately 200 tons of ash; an additional 30 tons is still sitting in the incinerator. By law, incinerated ash containing more than 8,000 Bq/kg of cesium cannot be buried in landfills.

In a New Year’s Day address, Futaba City Mayor Katsutaka Idogawa expressed opposition to storing radioactive waste in Futaba County. At the end of December, Nuclear Crisis Minister Goshi Hosono announced that Futaba County would be the temporary storage site for nuclear waste from the Fukushima Daiichi disaster. However, Idogawa said that if the highly radioactive waste is deposited there, evacuees will not be able to return to their homes. Futaba County is home to the Fukushima Daiichi plant, and is designated a no-entry area.

Compensation

Almost 10 months after the nuclear disaster, TEPCO has processed less than half of the first round compensation applications it has received. As of December 31, 2011, 70,000 applicants had submitted forms; only 34,000 had been accepted. TEPCO has promised to assign an additional thousand staff by March to improve the payment process.

Other Nuclear News

In response to the Fukushima nuclear disaster, French nuclear safety regulator ASN has released a 524-page report on the state of nuclear reactors in France. The report says that government-controlled power provider Electricité de France SA (EDF) needs to make significant upgrades “as soon as possible” to its 58 reactors in order to protect them from potential natural disasters. Costs for the upgrades are estimated at 10 billion euros ($13.5 billion); previously planned upgrades to extend the life of the nation’s reactors from 40 to 60 years are now expected to cost as much as 50 billion euros. Modifications include building flood-proof diesel pumps to cool reactors, creating bunkered control rooms, and establishing an emergency task force that can respond to nuclear disasters within 24 hours. Andre Claude Lacoste, the Chairman of ASN, said, “We are not asking the operator to make these investments. We are telling them to do so.” French Energy Minister Eric Besson plans to meet with EDF and reactor maker AREVA, as well as CEA, the government-funded technological research organization, on January 9 to discuss implementation of ASN’s recommendations. Seventy-five percent of France’s energy comes from nuclear power, more than that of any other country. Experts say that the cost of nuclear power in France will almost certainly rise as a result of the required upgrades.

The US Nuclear Regulatory Commission reported that Dominion Power’s North Anna Plant in Virginia shut down again this week after a steam line, which was connected to a reactor turbine via a valve, began leaking. The plant was previously shut down between August and November of 2011, after a magnitude 5.8 earthquake took both reactors at the plant offline. NRC officials said they do not believe the leak was connected to the earthquake, and that no radiation escaped from the plant.

Greenpeace files complaint against French nuclear group

Tue, 03 Jan 2012 11:00:19 GMT

Greenpeace on Tuesday said it had filed a criminal complaint against French nuclear giant Areva which it suspects of having spied on the environmental group.Greenpeace lawyer...

Areva in talks with state fund on selling Eramet stake

Tue, 27 Dec 2011 09:00:46 GMT

French nuclear energy giant Areva said Tuesday it was in exclusive talks with the state investment fund FSI on selling its stake in the Eramet mining company worth more than 600...

Areva's Finnish EPR reactor delayed until August 2014

Thu, 22 Dec 2011 08:00:46 GMT

The start-up of Finland's fifth nuclear reactor, being built by the French-German consortium Areva-Siemens, has been delayed until August 2014, Finnish power company Teollisuuden...

The future of nuclear power takes another hit

Fri, 16 Dec 2011 11:52:00 GMT

In 2009, multinational financial services corporation Citigroup called nuclear power – with its skyrocketing costs, disastrous economics and dependence on public bailouts – a “corporate killer”. Now, in 2011, are we witnessing the slow death of one of the world’s largest nuclear companies?

French nuclear giant AREVA, which designs, builds (or at least tries to), and exports nuclear reactors is in financial trouble. Big trouble.

On December 13th, it announced that this year it made a loss of 1.6bn euros (US$2.1bn), and that it is sacking up to 1,500 workers in Germany, reducing jobs through attrition in France, freezing wages, and selling some assets while reducing the value of others. AREVA will also cut its dividends to investors and its global investment for the next four years by a third. Not only that, the company is suspending its interests in uranium enrichment in the US, investment in uranium mining in Africa, and its projects to expand the output of nuclear reactors in France.

So, what is happening to AREVA? Simply put, with the likes of Germany, Belgium, Italy and Switzerland turning their backs on nuclear power, and public opinion hardening against nuclear power in the aftermath of the Fukushima disaster (not least in AREVA’s native France), the company is facing a fast dwindling number of countries willing to buy its massively expensive and incredibly complex nuclear reactors.

You see, AREVA’s nuclear arm just isn’t really very good at what it does. It’s currently building – not very successfully - four of its much-hyped next generation EPRs (European Pressurised Reactors) in Finland, France and China. The Finnish and French reactors are years behind schedule and billions of euros over budget. Meanwhile, the two EPRs being built in China are suffering the same construction defects and safety concerns that have made the European EPRs such a joke.

It’s a classic case of hubris meeting nemesis. AREVA bet the farm by hoping it would sell 50 new nuclear reactors this decade. It hasn’t received a single order for a reactor since 2007. Apart from the UK, whose own nuclear plans are increasingly delayed, nobody in Europe wants to buy AREVA reactors. AREVA hopes to sell the EPR to India but the country’s nuclear power ambitions are currently strongly opposed by the public and arguments about who pays for the damage and clean up in the event of a nuclear accident (here’s a clue: the nuclear industry doesn’t want to.)

Add to that the global financial situation (there has yet to be a nuclear reactor anywhere in the world built without public cash which is in short supply right now) and it doesn’t add up to a recipe for nuclear success. Renewable energy sources such as solar and wind get cheaper, more efficient every day and offer us a sustainable future while nuclear gets more expensive, troubled and can’t help in the fight against climate change in any meaningful way.

As noted by Citigroup, the smart money doesn’t see a future for nuclear power. AREVA’s future isn’t entirely bleak, if it makes some strategic businesses changes. The company has a renewables arm that specialises in solar and wind energy, biomass, and hydrogen power technologies. By ditching the failing nuclear side of its business and fully devoting its resources to renewables, the company could yet salvage its reputation and its profits.

Namibia: N$420 Million Less for Areva's Trekkopje Project in 2012

Fri, 16 Dec 2011 09:06:10 GMT

AREVA has clipped its Trekkopje uranium project's budget by about U$50 million (N$420m) for 2012, according Areva Resources Namibia managing director, Alain L'Hour.

Areva halts Trekkopje uranium development

Wed, 14 Dec 2011 15:17:53 GMT

AREVA yesterday said it was putting its investment in the US$1 billion Trekkopje uranium project on hold as the French nuclear fuel and services giant braced itself for a worldwide loss of up to US$2 billion for 2011.

Britain gives interim OK for French, US nuclear plant plans

Wed, 14 Dec 2011 09:00:25 GMT

British authorities gave interim approval on Wednesday for designs for two nuclear reactors proposed for construction by French firms EDF and Areva, and by US firm Westinghouse....

Germany's new energy policy to create more jobs: Merkel

Wed, 14 Dec 2011 07:59:10 GMT

BERLIN, Dec. 13 (Xinhua) -- Germany's plan of nuclear exit and renewable energy boost will ultimately create more jobs than it loses, Chancellor Angela Merkel said Tuesday after French nuclear firm Areva announced job cuts in Germany. "The new energy policy will create more jobs than will be lost," Merkel told reporters. Areva, a world leader in nuclear energy, said it would cut over 1,200 jobs in Germany as part of a plan to cut costs caused by the shrinking demands for nuclear power, loc ...

VIDEO: France's Areva cuts nuclear jobs

Tue, 13 Dec 2011 22:35:12 GMT

French nuclear giant Areva unveils cuts to jobs and investments as it forecasts a 1.4bn-1.6bn euro loss.

French nuclear giant Areva to post large loss

Tue, 13 Dec 2011 11:07:12 GMT

France's state-controlled nuclear engineering giant Areva said Monday it will post a massive full-year loss in 2011 because it had to set aside more than euro2 billion to deal with the impacts of a troubled mining project in Namibia and Japan's Fukushima nuclear disaster in March.

France's Areva cuts nuclear jobs

Tue, 13 Dec 2011 10:30:22 GMT

French nuclear giant Areva unveils cuts to jobs and investments as it forecasts a 1.4bn-1.6bn euro loss.

French nuke giant Areva suspends investment in sites

Tue, 13 Dec 2011 10:00:45 GMT

French nuclear giant Areva said Tuesday it is suspending building work at several sites in France, Africa and the United States, one day after forecasting a 1.6 billion ($2.1...

Areva To Cut Up To 1,500 Jobs In Germany

Tue, 13 Dec 2011 09:13:18 GMT

Areva to cut up to 1,500 jobs in Germany

French nuke giant Areva suspends investment in sites

Tue, 13 Dec 2011 08:51:23 GMT

French nuclear giant Areva said Tuesday it is suspending building work at several sites in France, Africa and the United States, one day after forecasting a 1.6 billion ($2.1 billion) euro loss.

The investment freeze came amid mounting controversy over job losses at the majority state-owned group, with a minister denying claims from unions that a restructuring plan would see 1,200 posts cut in France next year.

Areva Sees Huge Write-Down

Mon, 12 Dec 2011 20:10:42 GMT

Areva said it would log a massive write-down in its 2011 accounts, as the nuclear-engineering giant steels itself for several lean years following the nuclear crisis in Japan.

French nuclear giant Areva to post large loss

Mon, 12 Dec 2011 20:02:39 GMT

NUCLEAR ENERGY: Trade suspended for French nuclear giant Areva

Mon, 12 Dec 2011 10:36:04 GMT

French nuclear giant Areva asked to be suspended from trading on Monday in the wake of press reports about its precarious financial situation. The majority state-owned firm was expected to reveal significant losses and layoffs later in the day.

Areva shares suspended before nuclear giant's results

Mon, 12 Dec 2011 10:10:44 GMT

Trading in shares in French nuclear energy giant Areva, hit by the effects of the Fukushima nuclear disaster, was suspended on Monday.

Areva, in which the French state has a majority holding and is considered a jewel of French industry, was expected to reveal major losses and job cuts later in the day, along with a new strategic plan to restructure international operations.

France's Areva sees 2011 loss of up to 1.6 bn euros

Mon, 12 Dec 2011 10:00:49 GMT

French nuclear energy giant Areva warned Monday its 2011 operating loss may top 1.6 billion euros ($2.1 billion) as the Fukushima nuclear disaster hit the value of its mining...

France's Areva sees 2011 loss of up to 1.6 bn euros

Mon, 12 Dec 2011 10:00:47 GMT

French nuclear energy giant Areva warned Monday its 2011 operating loss may top 1.6 billion euros ($2.1 billion) as the Fukushima nuclear disaster hit the value of its mining...

France's Areva sees 2011 opg loss of up to 1.6 bn euros

Mon, 12 Dec 2011 09:00:39 GMT

French nuclear energy giant Areva warned Monday its 2011 operating loss may top 1.6 billion euros ($2.1 billion) as the Fukushima nuclear disaster hit the value of its mining...

French nuclear firm Areva shares to be suspended

Mon, 12 Dec 2011 08:51:19 GMT

French nuclear energy giant Areva asked that trading in its shares be suspended Monday, shortly before the opening of the Paris stock exchange, the company said.

Areva, which is majority owned by the French state, was expected to reveal major losses and job cuts later in the day, along with a new strategic plan to restructure its international operations.

Sources told AFP last month that Areva was planning to cut at least 2,700 jobs and slash investments by 40 percent to generate at least 750 million euros ($1 billion) in annual savings by 2015.

Nuclear giant Areva to post 'significant' loss'

Sun, 11 Dec 2011 20:01:07 GMT

French state-owned nuclear giant Areva is to announce significant losses when it unveils its new corporate strategy this week, Industry Minister Eric Besson said on Sunday.

Nuclear giant Areva to post 'significant' loss'

Sun, 11 Dec 2011 16:29:53 GMT

French state-owned nuclear giant Areva is to announce significant losses when it unveils its new corporate strategy this week, Industry Minister Eric Besson said on Sunday.

"I can confirm that Areva will announce losses, in all likelihood they will be significant," Besson told France's Radio J.

Areva CEO Luc Oursel is to meet with investors on Monday to present the new strategy, which follows decisions by some governments to drop nuclear power after Japan's Fukushima disaster and which is expected to involve major job losses.

France's Areva to 'make big loss'

Sun, 11 Dec 2011 14:06:39 GMT

France's state-owned nuclear reactor maker Areva is set to announce large losses, the French industry minister says. In an interview with a radio station, Eric Besson said: "I can confirm ...

France's Areva to 'make big loss'

Sun, 11 Dec 2011 12:59:53 GMT

The French industry minister has said that nuclear reactor maker Areva will announce large losses on Tuesday.

France's Areva to announce 'significant' losses: minister

Sun, 11 Dec 2011 07:00:35 GMT

French state-owned nuclear giant Areva is to announce significant losses when it unveils its new corporate strategy this week, Industry Minister Eric Besson said on...

IRW-Press: Tournigan Energy Ltd.: Tournigan Forges Alliance With...

Wed, 07 Dec 2011 22:52:41 GMT

Tournigan Energy Ltd. is pleased to announce the following transactions: - Tournigan to undertake an exclusive private placement of 14,285,714 units with AREVA for proceeds of $1,000,000; - Tournigan to enter into a Technical Services Agreement with AREVA whereby AREVA will perform a work program comprising metallurgical and environmental test work ... (more)

Fukushima Nuclear Crisis Update for December 2nd –December 5th, 2011

Tue, 06 Dec 2011 13:10:00 GMT

(This post is by Christine McCann)

Here’s the latest of our news bulletins from the ongoing crisis at Japan’s Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant.

State of Nuclear Politics in Japan

A Ministry of Economy, Trade, and Industry (METI) memo has revealed a 2002 secret meeting between METI officials and Tokyo Electric Power (TEPCO)’s Chairman, President, and Vice President, in which participants discussed abandoning the Rokkasho Reprocessing Plant in Aomori Prefecture. METI was concerned about several problems with the plant, including major budget issues. Costs for the project were originally estimated at 760 billion yen, but estimates bloomed to more than two trillion yen (25 billion USD), plus another trillion in demolition costs. A follow up meeting was scheduled but never took place, because TEPCO’s president and chairman resigned over a cover up regarding damaged equipment. The Rokkasho project - combined with similarly crippled Monju fast breeder reactor - played a central part in Japan’s nuclear fuel plan, and these revelations may influence the Japan Atomic Energy Commission as it establishes new nuclear policies this summer.

Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda announced last week that Japan will continue to export nuclear equipment and technology to those countries that want it, in spite of a lack of popular support for the idea in the wake of the Fukushima nuclear disaster. Japan’s Diet is set to approve nuclear accords next week with Jordan, Russia, South Korea, and Vietnam. The country is also in discussions with Turkey, India, and Brazil.

TEPCO

TEPCO has released an interim report on the ongoing nuclear crisis at its Fukushima Daiichi plant. The report claims that TEPCO employees made no errors in the handling of the disaster and attributes the cause of the meltdowns to the tsunami, not the magnitude 9.0 earthquake. The utility said that such a large tsunami could not have been anticipated, in spite of the fact that it ignored its own research from 2008 showing that a tsunami exceeding 10 meters was possible.

However, experts are criticizing the report and the company’s lack of transparency. They say the report fails to address questions about why workers shut down a cooling system that could have prevented meltdowns at the reactors, as well as why the utility has been unable to discover the source of continuing water leaks at the plant. Moreover, TEPCO was not able to explain the large spike in radiation levels on March 15, nor does it know why hydrogen explosions occurred at the plant. Tetsuo Sewada, an assistant professor at the Tokyo Institute of Technology, said, “TEPCO should not have had a system that doesn’t work in an actual emergency.”

Significantly, a majority of members of a government panel investigating the nuclear crisis doubt TEPCO’s claims that the tsunami caused the disaster, instead believing that the 9.0 magnitude earthquake contributed to the problems at the Fukushima plant, including damaging the piping responsible for cooling the reactors. This could have crucial impact on the decision to restart other reactors around the country, most of which are currently idled.

Japan’s central government and TEPCO could jointly announce that the utility has achieved cold shutdown status at the crippled Fukushima Daiichi plant as early as 16 December. Some experts have questioned the validity of that assessment, when the internal condition of the reactors is still unknown and the company is struggling to keep the situation at the plant under control. The plant has suffered numerous issues in the past month, including a large leak of radioactive water.

Reactor Status

TEPCO revealed this week that at least 45 tons of radioactive water have leaked from the Fukushima Daiichi plant, and may have flowed into the ocean, which is only 500-600 meters from the site of the incident. It took workers 21 hours to identify the issue, which occurred after water flooded a purification device and then poured through a cracked wall. The water was used to cool the plant’s reactors. TEPCO officials estimate that the contaminated water contained one million times the legal limit of strontium (100 million becquerels per liter) and 300 times the legal limit of cesium (45,000 becquerels per liter). Both substances can be absorbed by humans and are cancer causing.

The new admission means that up to 220 tons of contaminated water have reached the sea since March. The fisheries cooperative association in Fukushima Prefecture has filed a complaint against TEPCO, citing concerns about the effect on sea life and demanded details on which areas of the ocean were affected. Japan’s Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency (NISA) has ordered TEPCO to determine the cause of the leak and outline how it will prevent it from recurring. In the meantime, the utility insists that the incident will not affect efforts to establish cold-shutdown status at the plant.

TEPCO said that it will replace part of the water decontamination system at the Fukushima plant this week, a move that it hopes will improve decontamination efforts and reduce waste generated by the process. US based Kurion built the current system; previously, it was used in conjunction with a system made by Areva. However, the Areva system has been plagued with problems and is no longer working.

Contamination (Includes Human Exposure)

The Japan Chemical Analysis Center said that the Fukushima nuclear disaster resulted in a release of xenon-133 that exceeded normal levels in Chiba Prefecture by 400,000 times. However, researchers said that the excessive measurements—which took three months to return to normal—did not pose a risk to humans. The Center revealed the new data at a meeting sponsored by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science, and Technology (MEXT).

Japan plans to establish three zones around the Fukushima Daiichi plant, signifying different contamination levels. In the zone with the highest radiation readings, the government may purchase land from evacuees. In other areas, decontamination and reconstruction plans will be implemented.

Rice Crisis

New bans were placed on rice shipments from Fukushima’s Watari District, 60 km from the Fukushima Daiichi plant, after officials discovered rice containing 590 Bq/kg of cesium. Japan’s legal limit is 500 Bq/kg. The move follows bans on rice shipments from the Onami District and Date City, and will affect 406 farms. Previously, Fukushima prefectural officials had said that all rice from the prefecture was safe to consume.

Decontamination Efforts and Waste Disposal

A scientist from Osaka University and a former professor at the Tokyo University of Science are calling for radioactive soil, contaminated as a result of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear crisis, to be dumped into the sea. The researchers, who were speaking at a study meeting at Osaka University, said they would submit a proposal to do so to the central government. Experts say that the proposal would violate the London Convention, which prohibits dumping of waste into the ocean. In addition, the move is expected to spark criticism from the international community.

Fukushima Prefectural officials have unveiled a white paper outlining decontamination plans for farms and forests in the prefecture. Officials plan to spray decontamination agents; remove topsoil, tree bark, and leaves; and employ water jet cleaners, in order to reduce contamination levels within two years. The prefecture will also assist local municipalities in drawing up contamination plans.

Compensation

TEPCO’s compensation office in Tokyo began accepting applications this week for a second round of compensation, covering September through November. The center, which employs 5,000 workers, receives approximately 700 applications each day, but already has a daily backlog of about 100 applications. Takashi Nakamura, who heads the center, apologized for the delay and said that TEPCO did not expect to receive so many applications. In addition, he said, the company is not accustomed to such work.

Other Nuclear News

The United Kingdom is planning to become the first county to bury plutonium stores in Cumbria, in an effort to reduce terrorist threats and reduce maintenance costs. Officials said they will encase the plutonium in concrete and bury it hundreds of meters underground. Disposal is scheduled to begin in 2040. By that time, the country expects to have over 130 tons of plutonium--enough to construct over 10,000 nuclear weapons should it reach the wrong hands. Each weapon requires only 8 kg of high-grade plutonium.

Areva Diversifies Further Into Wind

Mon, 28 Nov 2011 18:58:48 GMT

Areva said it is in advanced talks to build about 120 wind turbines at two offshore wind farms in Germany, as the engineering group continues to diversify away from nuclear energy.

Nuclear follies: ignoring radiation ownership and ignoring earthquake risks

Mon, 28 Nov 2011 15:49:00 GMT

It never ceases to amaze us how far the nuclear industry will go to ignore its responsibilities, or to avoid protecting the public from the risks of radiation. Two new entries in the nuclear follies scrapbook demonstrate.

Folly one: Last week two leading geologists, Roger Bilham from the department of geological sciences at the University of Colorado and Vinod Gaur from the Centre for Mathematical Modelling and Computer Simulation, published a new study in a prestigious Indian science journal which says that Jaitapur is in the same earthquake zone where quakes in 1967 killed more than 20,000 people, injured 32,000 more and left thousands homeless. This geological warning makes plans in India to build the world’s largest nuclear power plant in an earthquake zone at Jaitapur on India’s west coast look reckless and irresponsible in the extreme.

Will the Indian government listen to these experts? The historical precedents aren’t good. Japanese seismologist Katsuhiko Ishibashi was dismissed as an “amateur” and a “nobody” when in 1997 he said the country’s nuclear reactor were vulnerable to earthquakes. Now, in 2011, he says, “If Japan had faced up to the dangers earlier, we could have prevented Fukushima.” He goes on to say that the nuclear industry still doesn’t understand the danger it is putting us all in.

India’s Nuclear Power Corporation, which is building the Jaitapur reactors in partnership with French nuclear giant AREVA, says the plant does not face a seismic risk. That’s what they said in Japan as well. In 1997, Haruki Madarame, now head of Japan’s Nuclear Safety Commission, said: “In the field of nuclear engineering, Mr. Ishibashi is a nobody.” But he is certainly asomebody in the field of geology, as are the authors of the new warning of earthquake risks at Jaitapur, Mr Bilham and Mr Gaur from the Centre for Mathematical Modelling and Computer Simulation.

Greenpeace gets accused of being “anti-science” and “anti-human” by its critics all the time. That’s despite us working all over the world in the name of saving lives, pioneering new technologies like Greenfreeze and SolarChill, and promoting the Energy Revolution that could lead the planet into a long-term sustainable future of renewable energy and energy efficiency. When we see the nuclear industry and a government ignoring serious scientific advice - and the catastrophic consequences than can lead from that ignorance - and we have to ask just who is “anti-science” and “anti-human” here?

Folly two: In Japan the owner of the Fukushima disaster, Tokyo Electric Power (TEPCO), has tried to wriggle out of a lawsuit by claiming in court that ‘radioactive materials (such as cesium) that scattered and fell from the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant belong to individual landowners there, not TEPCO’. It is making this amazing claim so it can dodge the cleanup costs. The company is dumping the responsibility and expense for its disastrous incompetence on the victims. How very honourable. The court rejected that bad idea, but also amazingly said the responsibility for the cleanup rested with government, not TEPCO.

Who would own the radiation escaping from Jaitapur in the event of a devastating earthquake? Who would shoulder the liability? It looks very much like Nuclear Power Corporation and AREVA would make a lovely gift of it to the Indian people. As has been the case ever since the nuclear industry was born, the public suffers the health consequences and the taxpayer pays for the nuclear industry’s mistakes. Without the public’s forced generosity, nuclear power would have never escaped the 1950s.

Jaitapur is also an example of another folly, of grandiose ambitions. The Indian government wants to create the biggest nuclear site in the world to make itself a big player on the world stage. It should remember that no country gains prestige by putting its people and the wider world in danger. There are signs that India is ‘reviewing’ its nuclear power plans. Good. It should abandon the Jaitapur project immediately.

Areva to slash at least 2,700 jobs: sources

Mon, 21 Nov 2011 10:00:27 GMT

France's nuclear giant Areva will cut at least 2,700 jobs and slash planned investments by 40 percent to generate at least 500 million euros in savings per year by 2013, sources...

Nuclear giant Areva to slash 1,300 jobs in Germany: report

Sun, 20 Nov 2011 13:00:18 GMT

France's nuclear giant Areva will cut 1,300 jobs in Germany and close down two of its sites after Berlin's decision to abandon nuclear energy, news weekly Der Spiegel reported on...

Nuclear giant Areva to 'cut 1,300 jobs' in Germany

Sun, 20 Nov 2011 12:31:17 GMT

France's nuclear giant Areva will cut 1,300 jobs in Germany and close down two of its sites after Berlin's decision to abandon nuclear energy, news weekly Der Spiegel reported on Sunday.

The firm will slash its workforce by around 20 percent at its main site in Erlangen in central Germany, as well as making cuts at other sites across the country, Spiegel said, without citing its sources.

The extent of the job cuts would be nearly twice as high as the 800 redundancies cited in the French press. The company is expected to announce the move on December 13 in Paris.

Nuclear Madness: Iran, Kuwait, or the IAEA?

Thu, 17 Nov 2011 00:22:34 GMT

By Felicity Arbuthnot

'The Public cannot be too curious concerning the characters of public men.' -- Samuel Adams, letter to James Warren, 1775.

As the sabre rattling against Iran becomes more deafening, week on week, with threats of the nuclear insanity of potentially, deliberately, creating a few Chenobyls or a Fukushima by bombing working nuclear power plants, another potential nuclear madness is planned, geographically “next door.”

The IAEA appears to be behaving in as partisan, shameless way regarding Iran as it did with Iraq. Then accusations, with considerable justification, were that the inspection teams were more about spying than neutral observation. “The way back to (the UN) was via Tel Aviv”, remarked one former inspector, memorably.

Gareth Porter has meticulously, comprehensively trashed the IAEA’s latest Report on Iran, showing disturbing parallels with the tragic Iraq fiasco. Iraq had Ahmed Chalabi, Iyad Allawi and “Curveball”, selling fairy stories. Iran, seemingly, has an expert in nanodiamonds, Vyacheslav Danilenko, apparently doubling as a nuclear weapons expert, and a plethora of unidentified spokespersons for “Member States.” Hardly rigid, verifiable scholarship.

Previous “concerns” expressed have been that Iran has vast oil reserves, so there must be a weapons-related reason to expand nuclear power. However, Iran has been under increasingly stringent sanctions since 14 November 1979, ironically necessitating additional sources of energy – for which it is now being threatened with Iraq’s fate.

Yet headlines in the Middle East warning: “Most volatile region in the world is going nuclear”, one with a helpful map of “volatile” countries with advanced nuclear ambitions, seem to have escaped IAEA notice. Iran, of course, has no history of belligerence towards its neighbours for decades. Indeed, in 2003, in spite of the terrible cost of the eight year war after the 1980 (Western driven) invasion by Iraq, the world was told by Washington that the country was still a “threat to its neighbours”. Tehran repeatedly responded that it was not.

Consider then the case of Kuwait: “Blessed with an abundance of natural petroleum resources …” (Gulf News 25 February 2011) which has advanced plans for up to four nuclear power stations – two apparently to be built on two islands, Warba and Bubiyan, which have been the source of conflict for nearly a century – many scholars contend longer – the dispute over which contributed to the disaster of Iraq’s invasion and that country’s subsequent decimation of 2 August 1990.

Theodore Draper outlined the vast complexities in 1993:

The suddenness of the [Iraqi] action [invading Kuwait] and the coverage it has received should not disguise the fact that Iraqi claims to Kuwaiti territory have been pursued with remarkable consistency over the last half-century, through Hashemite and revolutionary rule alike.

There is some justification for the argument (which) predates by a considerable length of time, the accession of Saddam Hussain to the Iraqi Presidency.

These claims will not disappear with a settlement of the present Kuwait Crisis, whether or not this involves a change of regime in Baghdad.

It is necessary to take these historical roots into account because they left such an explosive legacy in the Gulf region—the Iraqi quest for a coastal outlet, the obstruction of the Kuwaiti barrier islands of Warba and Bubiyan, the dispute over Kuwait’s exploitation of the Rumaila oil field, the precarious borders … But as Richard Schofield(1) points out:

Thus there was more to Saddam Hussein’s attempt to annex Kuwait than one man’s evil character. Whatever may happen to him, the Iraqi grievances will not go away.

For more than two centuries, Kuwait managed to survive by playing off one major power against another. As a nation, it did not have the ancient roots that Iraq has in Mesopotamia.

Throughout the 1930s, Iraq refused to agree to a demarcation of the boundary with Kuwait unless the latter was willing to give up control of the islands, Warba and Bubiyan, and thus secure the narrow Iraqi Persian Gulf coastline. Despite its vulnerability, Kuwait refused to make concessions.

By 1935, Iraqi propaganda openly called for the incorporation of Kuwait. Three years later, Iraq made this claim official, with the same justification used by Saddam Hussein five decades later—that Kuwait had once been attached to the Ottoman province of Basra.

Swimming distance from Iraq, which Patrick Markey has described as “… a flash point, a country still struggling with violence, sectarianism and pressure from neighbours in an unstable region”, $20 Billion is to be spent on the Warba Island nuclear reactor, just 500 metres from the nearest Iraqi inhabited area, at the port of Umm Qasr. It is 30 miles from Kuwait.

Pointing out that it is on the still disputed border between Iraq and Kuwait arising from further boundary tinkering after the 1991 hostilities, Iraqi parliamentarian Ms Alya Nasif has requested of Prime Minister Nuri Maliki that he demands in the strongest terms that plans be halted.

The main contractors are French giant, AREVA, who, in December 2010 the Kuwaiti Investment Authority invested $794 million and Kuwait acquired a 4.8% stake, making it the third largest investor, the French State being the largest. AREVA has extensive contracts and mutual interests with the United States.

Further, in September last year, Kuwait signed “ … a bilateral agreement with Japan for cooperation on the peaceful use of nuclear energy, covering issues such as expertise exchange, human resource development, nuclear safety, following similar deals with France and the US earlier this year.”

The five year deal with Japan, includes:

“ … preparation, planning and promotion of nuclear power development … safety and security.

“The scope of the cooperation includes training, human resources and infrastructure development, and the appropriate application of nuclear power generation and related technology.”

I wonder if Fukushima’s radioactive air borne or sea borne fallout has reached the Gulf yet.

The UK Foreign Office website states of Kuwait:

“There is a general threat from terrorism. Attacks cannot be ruled out and could be indiscriminate. These include references to attacks on Western interests … military, oil, transport and aviation interests.”

What a prize a nuclear power station would be!

“Many areas of the Gulf are highly sensitive, including near maritime boundaries and the islands of Bubiyan and Warbah …”

Further, reminds the Foreign Office:

“The area in the northern Gulf, between Iran, Iraq and Kuwait has not been demarcated …”

It would be hard to find a more volatile place to build a nuclear installation. Oh, and the land is low lying and subject to silting and shifting.

With the IAEA berating Iran for its nuclear programme, it seems bewildering that the very real and present dangers of these terrifying, madcap projects have passed them by.

Heaven forbid that the fifty years fruitful trade relations between Japan and Kuwait, celebrated in May this year, has tempted Japan’s Mr Yukiya Amano, heading the IAEA, to put country before nuclear madness.

And then there are the potential suicide bombers.

- Felicity Arbuthnot is a journalist with special knowledge of Iraq. Author, with Nikki van der Gaag, of Baghdad in the Great City series for World Almanac books, she has also been Senior Researcher for two Award winning documentaries on Iraq, John Pilger's Paying the Price: Killing the Children of Iraq and Denis Halliday Returns for RTE (Ireland.) She contributed this article to PalestineChronicle.com.

Notes:

1.Islands and Maritime Boundaries in the Gulf 1798-1960, pub: 1990: R Schofield. ISBN: (13) 978-1-85207-275-9

Areva High-Tech Reactor Hits New Snag

Tue, 08 Nov 2011 19:16:42 GMT

Areva's state-of-the-art nuclear reactor may not be connected to the electricity grid until 2014, its Finnish utility client said, suggesting yet another delay to a troubled project.

Nuclear history repeating: why can’t anybody build a new nuclear reactor?

Tue, 08 Nov 2011 13:55:00 GMT

With the news that two new nuclear reactors being built in China are having the same serious problems as two being built in France and Finland, it looks like lightning has struck four times for the next generation of nuclear power.

You may or may not have heard of the European Pressurised Reactor (EPR), the world’s largest nuclear reactor. It’s supposedly cutting-edge, so-called 3rd Generation technology, designed by French nuclear giant AREVA. According to nuclear industry hype, 3rd Generation reactors will lead nuclear power into a golden age – the nuclear ‘renaissance’.

So does the hype match up to reality? Not at all.

Construction of the first EPR began at Olkiluoto, Finland in 2005. It was scheduled to begin electricity generation in 2009 and cost 3 billion euros. The project has been beset by thousands of safety concerns and construction defects. The concrete foundations were found to be substandard. Contractors working on the reactor were inexperienced and poorly supervised. Foreign workers did not share a common language leading to communication problems. Blueprints and guidelines were not approved. Mandatory quality controls were skipped. There was a deliberate cover up of structural defects. Six years later and the reactor will not go online until 2014 at the earliest and its costs have rocketed to 6.6 billion euros. And it’s not over yet. AREVA has promised lessons would be learned in future construction of EPRs.

In 2007 construction AREVA began work on another EPR, this time at Flamanville, France. The project would be completed in 2011 and cost 3.3 billion euros. Like in Finland, the French EPR has suffered thousands of safety concerns and construction defects. Again, the concrete used was found to be substandard. Again, contractors working on the reactor lacked experience and adequate supervision. Again, foreign workers not sharing a common language led to communication problems. Again, blueprints and guidelines were not approved. Again, corners were cut with mandatory quality controls. Again, structural defects were deliberately covered up. Four years later AREVA announced that the reactor will not be ready until 2016 and costs have almost doubled to 6 billion euros. Once again, AREVA gave assurances that lessons would be learned when building EPRs in the future.

Have lessons been learned? Absolutely not. We’re seeing exactly the same mistakes in Finland, France and now China.

Construction of the third and fourth EPRs began at Taishan, China in 2009 and 2010 respectively. Building is (or was?) expected to take four years. We now hear that there are quality problems in the reactors’ concrete. Contractors are inexperienced and poorly supervised. Language problems have lead to shortcomings in the translation of blueprints. When will these reactors start electricity production and what will their final costs be? Your guess is as good as ours (or the nuclear industry’s).

Sound familiar?

Why is this important? In the aftermath of the nuclear disaster at Fukushima, confidence and belief in nuclear power is as low as it’s ever been. These EPR projects have been subject to literally thousands of problems. Defects in reactors, it should go without saying, can cause or exacerbate serious accidents. STUK, the Finnish nuclear watchdog, said in 2006 that the number of problems at Olkiluoto was so high that not all of them may have been found. Not only that, these spiralling costs mean taxpayers and electricity users pick up the big bill for cost overruns.

Look at the time, resources and billions that have been wasted building EPRs. Imagine the advances that could have been made against climate change if they had been devoted to renewable energy and energy efficiency measures instead of nuclear power. According to the International Energy Agency, ‘even if existing nuclear power capacity could be quadrupled by 2050, this would reduce carbon dioxide emissions by less than 4 percent’.

So, where now for the EPR? The UK government wants to build a bunch of them as part of its own nuclear ‘renaissance’. In a speech recently the country’s climate change minister said that when it comes to nuclear power ‘we must show that we have learned the lessons of the past’. Would you bet money on those lessons being learned?

Areva suspends CAR uranium mine project

Thu, 03 Nov 2011 18:20:20 GMT

French nuclear group Areva has suspended its uranium mining project in the Central African Republic for two years, following a fall in uranium prices after the Fukushima disaster, an Areva official said on Thursday.

Areva finds 12,300 tonnes of uranium in Jordan: report

Tue, 01 Nov 2011 11:00:21 GMT

French nuclear giant Areva has discovered 12,300 tonnes of uranium in central Jordan, state-run media said on Tuesday, as the parched kingdom tries to develop nuclear energy to meet...

Areva to get $1.19 bln cash injection

Fri, 28 Oct 2011 21:25:34 GMT

Areva looked set to finalize the first leg of a long-awaited fundraising, after France and Kuwait agreed to inject 900 million euros ($1.19 billion) into the French nuclear group.

Areva's Finnish EPR reactor delayed again

Wed, 12 Oct 2011 10:27:32 GMT

A third generation EPR nuclear reactor being built in Finland by French-German consortium Areva-Siemens will likely be delayed once again, to 2014 from 2013, Finnish power company...

Can the world live with a self-regulating nuclear industry?

Wed, 05 Oct 2011 14:44:00 GMT

Take a look at this video. In it, Olivier Loubiere, Corporate Business Ethics Advisor of French nuclear conglomerate AREVA (it mines uranium, designs and builds reactors, and attempts – badly - to deal with nuclear waste), tells us how the company is to ‘self-regulate’ and adopt ‘a set of voluntary best practices’.

The nuclear industry is said to be one of the most tightly regulated industries in the world. The problem is, when you see what the nuclear industry gets up to under the supposedly watchful eye of its government watchdogs – leaks, accidents, cover-ups, and attempts to influence public opinion by subterfuge – one wonders what it might do under so-called self-regulation.

The problem is this: what the nuclear industry gets up to in the public eye is bad enough. What it does away from the public gaze can be even worse.

Has AREVA’s Corporate Business Ethics Advisor visited Niger where villages are contaminated by the nearby uranium mines operated by his company? Despite the country supplying France with around 30% of the uranium needed to run French reactors, Niger is stuck at the bottom of the United Nation’s Human Development Index which measures worldwide levels of life expectancy, literacy, education and standards of living. AREVA has been operating in Niger for 40 years - are we seeing ethics or exploitation here?

Talking of exploitation, has Mr Loubiere visited Olkiluoto in Finland where AREVA is building a new nuclear reactor and the migrant workers there are being paid slave wages? Is that ‘best practice’? He has been AREVA’s Corporate Business Ethics Advisor for quite a few years. So where was he in 2009 when the company attempted to block the screening of a documentary in France that detailed the contamination and lack of security at the country’s exhausted uranium mines? Is that ethical? Don’t the French people have a right to know?

Will self-regulation address these issues? We very much doubt it. There is little enough proper official regulation as it is and that has failed to prevent the scandals mentioned above. So why expect the nuclear industry to clean up its own messes voluntarily? What’s needed instead is far tighter and more accountable official nuclear regulation without the kinds of conflicts of interest we see at the International Atomic Energy Agency.

In the video above, Mr Loubiere talks of an ‘ethical approach’. We’re struggling to see the ethics in AREVA’s approach to nuclear power. With the nuclear industry only talk is cheap. Everything else is hugely expensive and it’s the people, not AREVA, who end up paying the bill. We’ll judge Olivier Loubiere and AREVA by their deeds not their words.

Fukushima Nuclear Crisis Update for September 30th – October 3rd, 2011

Tue, 04 Oct 2011 11:34:00 GMT

(This post is by Christine McCann)

Here’s the latest of our news bulletins from the ongoing crisis at Japan’s Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant.

State of Nuclear Politics in Japan

A newly appointed government panel, tasked with revising Japan’s energy policy, convened their initial meeting this week. For the first time, the panel includes members who oppose the use of nuclear power. Utility companies are not represented on the panel.

Rengo, the largest labor union in Japan, will meet this week to discuss the possibility of embracing an anti-nuclear stance. The move is significant; Rengo was previously pro-nuclear.

The Mayor of Tokai Village in Ibaraki Prefecture, Tatsuya Murakami, sharply criticized the Japanese government’s handling of nuclear disasters, including the March disaster at Fukushima. He was speaking at an anniversary event commemorating a nuclear accident that took place in Tokai 12 years earlier. That event killed two and exposed 666 people to radiation. Murakami opposes restarting the Tokai plant, which is currently offline for routine maintenance. Over one million people live within 30 kilometers of the Tokai reactors.

Iwanai Town in Hokkaido Prefecture re-elected a pro-nuclear mayor in a landslide win. Yuji Kamioka is a proponent of restarting idled reactors at the nearby Tomari plant.

Policemen working at nine headquarters around Japan will soon have access to radiation-proof lead-lined vehicles, in order to step up anti-terrorism efforts near nuclear plants. In addition, the vehicles will be used to rescue victims in case of another nuclear disaster. Representatives of the National Police Agency believe that the Fukushima disaster has made the country more vulnerable to terrorist attacks on nuclear facilities.

TEPCO

A government panel tasked with oversight of compensation from the Fukushima Daiichi disaster submitted a report to Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda this week. The panel said that Tokyo Electric Power (TEPCO) must be completely restructured in order to meet its financial obligations, now estimated at JY4.54 trillion through March 2013. Costs are expected to rise as time goes on. The panel recommended cost reductions of JY2.41 trillion over the next decade, including real estate sales and the cutting of 7,400 jobs. In addition, they said that rates should not be raised until cost reductions have been made, noting that TEPCO overcharged for utility costs over the past decade. Those power charges were an astronomical JY618.6 billion over actual costs.

Status of the Fukushima Daiichi Reactors

TEPCO admitted this week that if water injections to the damaged Fukushima Daiichi plant are interrupted for 38 hours, another meltdown could occur. The assessment estimates that temperatures of the reactors’ cores would rise approximately 50ºC each hour, finally reaching melting point at 2,200ºC. TEPCO said that the likelihood of such an occurrence was small, and that in most cases, water injections could be restarted within three hours.

Hiroyuki Fukano, head of Japan’s Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency (NISA) said that “makeshift equipment” being used at the Fukushima Daiichi plant could break down in case of another earthquake, and backup systems need to be assessed. He also expressed concern about the so-called stress tests that are being implemented at nuclear plants around the country, questioning the very standards that are being used to evaluate them.

TEPCO has revised an earlier assertion that a hydrogen explosion occurred in Reactor 2 on March 15. Initially, TEPCO assumed an explosion had occurred nearly simultaneously in Reactors 2 and 4 after a loud noise was heard at 2, and pressure dropped precipitously. However, seismometer readings contradict that hypothesis. TEPCO provided no explanation for the damage that occurred in Reactor 2 or the drop in pressure.

The conclusion was released in a draft report being prepared by TEPCO’s own committee, which is investigating the cause of the disaster at the Fukushima Daiichi plant. The report includes several pages defending TEPCO. One section says that the company could not have anticipated the size of the tsunami—in spite of the fact that the same week, the government released a report, written by TEPCO in 2008, admitting that the company was aware of the risk of a tsunami that exceeded the plant’s design.

TEPCO did not admit this to the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency (NISA) until March 7, 2011, just a few days before the March earthquake and tsunami occurred, a move that NISA has sharply denounced. The report will not be released until at least November of this year.

Contamination (Including Human Exposure)

Plutonium-239 and -240 was detected in six locations around Japan in June, including the towns of Futaba, Namie, and Iitate Village. The locations range as far as 80 kilometers from the Fukushima Daiichi plant; plutonium was discovered previously within the grounds of the plant itself. If plutonium is inhaled or ingested, it remains in the body for decades, and can cause cancer. Plutonium-239 has a half-life of 24,100 years; the half-life of plutonium-240 is 6,563 years. However, the government said that the amounts detected were small and risk of exposure was low.

In addition, strontium-90 was detected in 45 locations. The Ministry collected samples in June and July within a 100-kilometer radius of the plant. Strontium is known to accumulate in human bones, and has a half-life of 29 years.

Japan’s Science Ministry released a new radiation map this week, showing high levels of cesium-137 in Chiba and Saitama Prefectures. Levels in both prefectures, which are more than 200 kilometers from the plant, measured between 30,000 and 60,000 Bq/m2.

As the new sake season kicks off, Sake makers in Japan are voluntarily monitoring sake, as well as the rice they use to make it, for radiation. Brewers are hoping to avoid reductions in sales from radiation fears, as seen in other industries. The cost of testing at one company alone, the Okunomatsu Sake Brewery in Nohonmatsu, is more than JY1 million.

Decontamination and Waste Disposal

Radioactive waste is piling up at the Fukushima Daiichi plant, as continued efforts to cool reactors generate huge amounts of contaminated sludge and other waste. More than six months after the nuclear disaster there, the government has no concrete plans for long-term disposal. In order to cool the reactors, TEPCO is using a decontamination system built by nuclear powerhouses Areva and Kurion. The process uses large filters (each measuring .9 meter wide and 2.3 meters high), which must be changed every few days. The used filters are radioactive and must be disposed of. In addition, the process produces highly contaminated sludge.

Nihonmatsu City in Fukushima Prefecture has created its own six-person decontamination unit, charged with measuring radiation levels and creating decontamination plans. Nihommatsu City is located 50 kilometers from the Fukushima Daiichi plant; high levels of radiation have been detected there, including in the local rice crop.

Evacuation Zones

For the first time, Japan lifted its evacuation advisory for five towns within 20-30 kilometers of the Fukushima Daiichi plant. Residents of Hirono, Naraha, Kawauchi Village, Tamura, and Minamisoma had been advised to stay indoors and be prepared for immediate evacuation in case of another nuclear disaster; many evacuated. The move came after all five municipalities submitted plans for decontamination and rebuilding of infrastructure. The government said that the situation at the plant has improved.

However, numerous obstacles to repopulation remain. Major decontamination needs to take place, and radiation levels remain high. In addition, schools, hospitals, and shops are closed; most doctors and nurses have evacuated to other areas; and the tsunami damaged sewage systems in several locations. Town officials are struggling.

Compensation

After wide criticism for failing to offer financial and technical assistance to communities where radiation readings were estimated at less than 5 millisieverts per year, Japan reversed its decision and said that assistance will also be provided to areas where radiation readings range between 1 and 5 millisieverts per year. The decision carries a stipulation that municipalities submit contamination plans. Yuhei Sato, Governor of Fukushima Prefecture, said that residents should not be responsible for decontamination and the handling radioactive materials.

Power Company Scandals

A panel investigating corruption has confirmed seven cases of collusion between the Japanese government and nuclear power companies, involving town-hall meetings designed to assess public opinion on nuclear power. The group determined that NISA officials asked executives from Kyushu, Shikoku, and Chubu power companies to ensure that pro-nuclear views were well represented at community meetings. Accordingly, those utility executives made staff attend the meetings and ask pro-nuclear questions, copies of which were provided to them beforehand.

Kyushu Electric confirmed accusations that the company improperly influenced public opinion regarding restarting two reactors at Kyushu’s Genkai plant. Yasushi Furukawa, the governor of Saga Prefecture, was also implicated, after putting pressure on Kyushu to solicit the support from its employees at a town-hall meeting conducted in June. In response, the Kyushu employees sent emails expressing desire to restart the reactors. In addition, Kyushu is accused of improperly influencing the outcome of a community meeting involving the Tomari plant and Tohoku Electric’s Onagawa plant in 2006.

Other Nuclear News

The US Nuclear Regulatory Commission announced that the North Anna nuclear plant in Virginia will remain closed through October 14, while investigations continue. The plant shut down in August after a 5.9 magnitude earthquake caused problems at the plant, including moving steel casks of nuclear waste several inches. Each cask weighed over 115 tons.