Japan Industry Minister: no more radioactive "whack-a-mole" at Fukushima Daiichi

Japan's Industry Minister (in red hard hat) points at leaking tank farm for highly radioactive water storageAs reported by CNN, Japan's Minister of Economy, Trade, and Industry, Toshimitsu Motegi, has said:

"Countermeasures led by Tepco to stop the contaminated water leaks have been like a "whack-a-mole" arcade game. From now on, the government is going to step forward."

Motegi made the remarks after donning a radiation protection suit and respirator, and touring the tank farm (photo, above left) where highly radioactive water leaks have been detected and/or admitted to in recent days and weeks.

Motegi's remarks echo earlier ones of his boss, Japanese Prime Minister Abe, who has declared that the Japanese national government will step up, given Tokyo Electric Power Company's clear failures.

OPG radioactive waste dump a "declaration of war against the Great Lakes"

As reported in last week's Beyond Nuclear email bulletin, resistance is mounting on both sides of the Great Lakes international border to Ontario Power Generation's (OPG) plan to bury radioactive wastes on the Lake Huron shoreline.

On Aug. 19, Beyond Nuclear's Radioactive Waste Watchdog, Kevin Kamps, was honored to be invited to speak at the ‘Save the Great Lakes from Nuclear Waste’ town hall meeting at Wayne State University Law School in Detroit. Michigan State Sen. Hoon-Yung Hopgood, D-Taylor, and State Rep. Sarah Roberts, D-St. Clair Shores, organized the event. In May, Hopgood introduced a resolution, which passed the Michigan State Senate unanimously, urging the U.S. House and Senate to oppose the plan. Roberts is poised to introduce a similar resolution once the Michigan State House legislative session resumes.

Hopgood and Roberts, along with a panel of experts, which included Ed McArdle of the Sierra Club's South East Michigan Group, as well as Beverly Fernandez of the Ontario-based group Stop the Great Lakes Nuclear Dump, provided information about OPG's proposed deep geological repository at the Bruce Nuclear Power Plant on the Lake Huron shoreline, and the impact it could have on Michigan’s water, economy, fishing, tourism, health and future.

Those opposed to the DUD plan are urged to sign Stop the Great Lakes Nuclear Dump's online petition.

As reported by the Detroit Free Press:

'Opponents of a proposal to build an underground nuclear waste dump less than a mile from the shores of Lake Huron railed tonight in Detroit against a project they called a declaration of war against the Great Lakes...

Kevin Kamps, radioactive waste specialist for Takoma Park, Md.-based Beyond Nuclear, said the project would be unprecedented because nuclear waste has not been stored underground in the Great Lakes region and could be dangerous for hundreds of thousands of years.

“This proposal is insane. It’s a declaration of war against the Great Lakes,” Kamps said...'.

The Macomb Daily Tribune also reported on this story.

On August 12th, the Macomb Daily Tribune ran another comprehensive article about the proposed Canadian radioactive waste dump, and opposition to it downstream in eastern Michigan.

Ontario's Lucknow Sentinel also reported on the town hall meeting.

Top Japanese nuclear regulator: Fukushima Daiichi a "house of horrors"

U.S. NRC Chairwoman Macfarlane and Japanese Nuclear Regulation Authority Chairman Tanaka meeting in Japan in December 2012As reported by CNN, Japan's top nuclear regulator has compared the devastated and leaking Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant to a "house of horrors" at an amusement park, after a growing list of leaks of highly radioactive water.

Tanka's description was also documented in an August 29th op-ed to the Japan Times, calling for the Japanese government to take over the catastrophe recovery operations at the Fukushima Daiichi site:

'...Crises have been arising with such frequency that NRA Chairman Shunichi Tanaka has described the plant as being like a “haunted house” in which “mishaps keep happening one after the other.”...'.

Above left, Tanaka is shown with U.S. NRC Chairwoman Allison Macfarlane, who visited Japan in December 2012.

Joseph Mangano/RPHP report on radioactivity releases from Palisades and increased death rates in the surrounding area

Entergy's problem-plagued Palisades atomic reactor in Covert, MI, on the Lake Michigan shorelineJoseph Mangano, Executive Director of Radiation and Public Health Project, has published a report, commissioned and endorsed by Beyond Nuclear, Don't Waste Michigan, Michigan Safe Energy Future, and Nuclear Energy Information Service. Based on government data and documentation on radioactivity releases from Palisades, as well as area health statistics, the report's major findings raise serious questions about the connections between radioactivity releases and increased overall death and cancer mortality rates.

Palisades received a U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) rubber-stamp for 20 extended years of operations -- out to 2031 -- back in 2007, despite hard-fought resistance that sought to block it.

Palisades' radioactivity releases -- as with all atomic reactors on the Great Lakes -- can and should be seen as an international issue. The five Great Lakes are inextricably interconnected, and form the drinking water supply for 40 million people in 8 U.S. state, 2 Canadian provinces, and a large number of Native American First Nations.

Press release

Full report: NUCLEAR CONTAMINATION AND HEALTH RISKS FROM THE ENTERGY PALISADES NUCLEAR REACTOR.

As stated in the press release:

"...Mangano’s main findings include that the Van Buren County death rate from all causes was 3 to 6 percent below the state in the 1970s and early 1980s, but has risen since, to a level 12.5% greater than Michigan (2003-2010).  This change suggests that 1,330 “excess” deaths have occurred in the county since the Palisades atomic reactor started operating in 1971.  Elevated levels were observed for all age groups (especially children/young adults), both genders, and all major causes of death..." (emphasis added).

As Mangano's report documents, "[i]n the late 1990s, the latest data available, tritium levels in Lake Michigan at South Haven (near Palisades) exceeded those of most U.S. reactors."

Beyond Nuclear pamphlet "Routine Radiation Releases from U.S. Atomic Reators: What Are The Dangers?" Note that the water discharge pathway photo was taken (by Gabriela Bulisova) at the Palisades atomic reactor, discharging into Lake Michigan. Although the atmospheric discharge pathway was photographed at the Callaway atomic reactor in Missouri, Palisades has a very similar vent attached to its containment building for aerial discharges of radioactive gases and vapors).

Beyond Nuclear report (published April 2010) by Reactor Oversight Project Director Paul Gunter, "Leak First, Fix Later," with a chapter on Palisades' tritium leaks into groundwater, first reported by Entergy Nuclear in 2007.

Update on August 21, 2013 by admin

WWMT TV 3 Kalamazoo reported on this story -- including a short summary at noon, and a longer story on the evening news -- as have WSBT TV-22 South Bend, Indiana and ABC57 News South Bend, as well as WKZO Radio Kalamazoo. The Detroit News and Holland Sentinel published articles, as has the Kalamazoo Gazette/MLive. WKZO Radio also interviewed Kevin on Lori Moore's morning show on Wed., Aug. 21st.

Kudankulam goes critical

The Hindu: The Coalition for Nuclear Disarmament and Peace (CNDP) has demanded an immediate halt to the commissioning of the Kudankulam nuclear power project (KKNPP) and initiation of an independent safety review.

In a statement here on Tuesday, the CNDP described the announcement of the Nuclear Power Corporation of India Limited (NPCIL) that the first Kudankulam nuclear reactor had attained criticality, or the beginning of a fission chain reaction, as a “shocking development.” This important step in the plant’s commissioning, which would make the fission process irreversible, violated the spirit of the Supreme Court’s May 6 order, it said.

REPORT TO BE FILED

The Supreme Court had directed that the NPCIL, the Atomic Energy Regulatory Board, the Ministry of Environment and Forests and the Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board should “oversee each and every aspect of the matter, including the safety of the plant, impact on environment, quality of various components and systems in the plant before commissioning of the plant.” A report was to be filed before the court prior to the commissioning of the plant.

Implicit in the order, the CNDP said, was not just the formal filing of such a report, but its perusal and approval by the Supreme Court. However, the agencies concerned merely filed the report in a sealed envelope, but the court confirmed on July 15 that it had not even seen, let alone approved, the report.

BYPASSING PROCEDURES

The CNDP viewed the development as part of a pattern followed by the nuclear establishment in cutting corners and bypassing essential procedures in matters of safety. It also amounted to a breach of public trust, and showed contempt for democratic and judicial processes.

The statement said the Kudankulam reactor was made critical despite the massive and sustained peaceful popular protests against the plant, and despite numerous warnings by nuclear experts, including the former AERB Chairman A. Gopalakrishnan, about the plant’s vulnerability to hazards and the use of ‘substandard equipment’ supplied by Russian company Zio-Podolsk. “This is profoundly anti-democratic and totally unacceptable,” it said and added that, ironically, the Kudankulam reactor reached criticality on the day that China bowed to public protest by announcing the abandonment of a nuclear processing project in the Southeast.

The signatories — Achin Vanaik, Praful Bidwai, Lalita Ramdas, Abey George and P.K. Sundaram – also wanted the authorities to revoke the criminal charges filed against the protesters in Kudankulam with immediate effect in keeping with the Supreme Court’s order.