"The government's nuclear agency said Tuesday that water may be leaking from the No. 1 reactor container of the crisis-hit Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, and that remote-controlled robots are expected to check the situation inside the reactor building." Kyodo News (subscription required)
A protester has been killed opposing the massive French nulcear reactor project proposed at Jaitapur, situated in one of the most precious ecosystems in India. The project - made possible by the nuclear Non-Porliferation Treaty-breaking U.S.-India nuclear agreement, has been imposed against the will of villagers, farmers and fishermen who have been staging mass protests for many months. Please consider signing the petition to urge Prithviraj Chavan, Maharashtra Chief Minister, to listen to his people and abandon the EPR nuclear project, which was determined with no democratic process.
"Japan's government announced Thursday it is creating a formal ban on entry into the 20-kilometer evacuation zone around the quake-hit Fukushima Daiichi nuclear-power plant after some residents ignored pleas to stay away from the potentially hazardous areas.
The announcement came as workers at the plant are pumping water that is flooding the basement of the turbine building for reactor No. 2, which contains more than 30 million times Japan's allowable level of Cesium-137, a long-lived radioactive isotope." The Wall Street Journal
"Japanese authorities have decided to revise a marginal portion of the Fukushima evacuation zone and police the area more strictly. The government said the zone is not forced by dose rates within it, but remains a precaution until the plant comes under full control." World Nuclear News
Beyond Nuclear has submitted a Title 10 Code of Federal Regulations Part 2.206 (10CFR2.206) "emergency enforcement petition" to the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) urging the suspension of 21 General Electric Boiling Water Reactor Mark 1s' operating licenses in the wake of the catastrophic failure of identical containment systems at the Fukushima Dai-Ichi nuclear power plant in Japan. In addition, Beyond Nuclear has petitioned that a total of 24 GE BWR Mark 1 storage pools for high-level radioactive waste in the U.S. be required to install backup power supplies for running cooling water circulation systems in the event of a loss of the primary electrical grid, something they now lack, despite their location outside of a primary containment structure. See Beyond Nuclear's 2.206 "emergency enforcement petition," as well as NRC's announcement of its docketing. Also see Beyond Nuclear's media release on this petition.
"Italy's conservative government on Tuesday said it was indefinitely putting on hold plans to build nuclear power plants in the country. The move came after Japan's ongoing Fukishima nuclear disaster and ahead of a referendum on re-introducing nuclear energy in June, a plebiscite the government says is no longer necessary."ADNKronos International
April 26, 2011
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