US Sen. Wyden tours Fukushima Daiichi, reveals situation worse than reported, urges Japan to accept international assistance

U.S. Senator Ron Wyden (D-OR), a senior member of the U.S. Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, recently donned a radiation suit and investigated firsthand the devastated Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant in Japan. He reveals the situation is worse than reported, and is urging the Japanese Ambassador to the United States, Ichiro Fujisaki, to accept international assistance to address ongoing risks of catastrophic radioactivity releases, especially from the hundreds of tons of high-level radioactive waste stored in precarious pools vulnerable to earthquakes and tsunamis. Wyden has issued a press release, and posted his letter to the Japanese Ambassador.

In the letter, Wyden wrote: “The scope of damage to the plants and to the surrounding area was far beyond what I expected and the scope of the challenges to the utility owner, the government of Japan, and to the people of the region are daunting. The precarious status of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear units and the risk presented by the enormous inventory of radioactive materials and spent fuel in the event of further earthquake threats should be of concern to all and a focus of greater international support and assistance.” 

Wyden also wrote U.S. Energy Secretary Chu, Secretary of State Clinton, and NRC Chairman Jaczko, urging the full resources and expertise of the United States government be offered to Japan to prevent yet another catastrophic radioactivity release at Fukushima Daiichi due to a failed pool fire.

Please contact Sen. Wyden to thank him for his vital efforts, and contact Secretary Chu, Secretary Clinton, andChairman Jaczko, urging they do what Sen. Wyden calls for. You can also contact your U.S. Senators andRepresentative, to urge them to add their voices to Sen. Wyden's effort.

FOE working hard to keep San Onofre shut down

NRC file photo of San OnofreFriends of the Earth (FOE) is working hard to keep San Onofre shut down. FOE is running t.v. ads, and has commissioned two reports by nuclear engineer Arnie Gundersen of Fairewinds Associates in Vermont: the first report warned that the two San Onofre reactors should remain shut down, until Southern California Edison's secretive design changes to prematurely failing steam generator tubes could be further investigated; the second report documents that indeed, design changes are likely behind the dangerous steam generator tube degradation.See FOE's San Onofre website section here.

"Lessons from Fukushima: is Ohio next?" Antioch University Midwest, Yellow Springs, Ohio, Sat., April 21st

Beyond Nuclear is honored to take part in an Earth Day forum on Sat., April 21st at Antioch University Midwest in Yellow Springs, Ohio entitled "Lessons from Fukushima: is Ohio next?" A schedule for the forum, as well as a promotional flyer, are available. Beyond Nuclear's Kevin Kamps has been invited to speak about "What really happened at Fukushima-Daiichi in Japan?" While focusing on the cause of the nuclear power catastrophe, he will also provide an update on the ongoing dangerous state of what is left of the atomic reactors at Fukushima, and the relevance of "lessons learned" for the problem-plagued Davis-Besse and Perry atomic reactors in Ohio. Beyond Nuclear has, along with environmental coalition allies Citizens Environment Alliance of Southwestern Ontario, Don't Waste Michigan, and the Green Party of Ohio, officially intervened against FirstEnergy Nuclear Operating Company's proposed 20 year license extension at Davis-Besse near Toledo; FENOC's Perry plant near Cleveland is ranked by the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission as one of the five least safe reactors in the U.S.

NRC has rubber-stamped license extensions and "power uprates" at 22 of 23 GE BWR Mark I reactors operating in the U.S.

Pat Birnie of the GE Shareholders Alliance has compiled U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) data on "power uprates" which the agency has approved at 22 of the 23 General Electric boiling water reactors of the Mark I design still operating across the U.S. (Nine Mile Point Unit 1 in NY is the only exception). Her chart is accessible here. The Fukushima Daiichi Units 1 to 4 which exploded and melted down beginning in March 2011 are also GE BWR Mark Is.

The single biggest power uprate, as a percentage of heat output (measured as Megawatts-thermal, or MWt), was a 20% "extended" type power uprate, granted in 2006 to Entergy Nuclear at its 34 year old (at the time) Vermont Yankee atomic reactor. This amounted to a 319 MWt power uprate (MWt must be divided by three to determine the Megawatts-electric, MWe, generated, due to the fact that 2/3rds of the heat generated by splitting atoms is lost as waste). The vibrational stresses caused by Vermont Yankee's power uprate led to the collapse of its cooling tower (see photo at left), and even contributed to a separate fiery explosion, when the increased pressure of flowing steam picked up loose metallic slag that had lain dormant for decades and slammed it into an operational transformer.

However, even bigger power uprates have been rubberstamped by NRC. The single biggest, at an individual Mark I reactor, was the 547 MWt of power uprates, granted in two installments (one a "Measurement Uncertainty Recapture" type uprate), at the Hope Creek, New Jersey Mark I. However, both Brunswick Mark Is, Units #1 and #2 in North Carolina, have each enjoyed a total of 487 MWt of power uprates, including a "stretch" type uprate, for a whopping 974 MWt of power uprates at the Brunswick nuclear power plant.

NRC gave the newly formed Exelon Nuclear Corporation (formed by the merger of Commonwealth Edison of Chicago and Philadelphia Electric Company, the first and second largest nuclear utilities in the U.S.) an early Christmas gift in 2001: a 17.8% power uprate at both of its Quad Cities 1 & 2 Mark Is, worth 446 MWt each; and a 17% power uprate, worth 430 MWt, at each of its Dresden 2 & 3 Mark Is. All four approvals took place on a single day, December 21, 2001. The combined power uprates at the four Mark I reactors netted Exelon 1,752 MWt of additional output.

While the nuclear utilities enjoy increased profits from the additional electricity sales associated with power uprates, the public downwind and downstream bears the risks of running these Mark Is harder and hotter than they were originally licensed or designed for. To make safety risks even worse, 22 of the 23 operating Mark Is have already received NRC rubberstamps for 20 year license extensions; Fermi 2 is the only exception, and it plans to apply for one in 2014. Pat Birnie has also compiled a listing of the 23 operating Mark Is in the U.S., including the reactor units' names, locations, expiration dates for their original 40 year licenses, and expiration dates for their NRC-authorized 20 year license extensions.

Pat Birnie has succeeded in getting an anti-nuclear shareholder resolution, written in the aftermath of the Fukushima Nuclear Catastrophe, onto the agenda of the General Electric annual shareholders meeting, to be held in downtown Detroit on April 25th.

Update on April 2, 2012 by admin

The GE Stockholders Alliance issued a press release about the upcoming April 25th annual meeting today.

NRC public mtg. on 3/21 in South Haven to review Palisades' dangerously troubled 2011

NRC file photo of Entergy's Palisades atomic reactor in Covert, MI on the Lake Michigan shoreline

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) has announced its next very important public meeting regarding Entergy's Palisades atomic reactor's very troubled performance in 2011. Palisades (pictured left) is located in Covert, MI, less than 5 miles south of South Haven, on the Lake Michigan shoreline.

Date and Time: Wed., March 21st, 6 to 8:30pm Eastern

The meeting location is: Beach Haven Event Center, 10420 M-140, South Haven, MI 49090. If you can make it in person, please do so; otherwise, please call-in:

Phone number: 1-800-621-9524

Passcode:  2133121.

NRC has put out a press release about the meeting. NRC has also posted a meeting announcement, with a link to a more detailed notice.

In 2011 alone, Palisades had five "un-planned shutdowns": some of the accidents amounted to close calls with catastrophe. The most risky accident of all was a Sept. 25, 2011 loss of electricity to half the control room, which threw the plant into chaos, and came precariously close to injecting cooling water from the Emergency Core Cooling System into the hot, brittle reactor pressure vessel. This could have fractured it like a hot glass under cold water, leading instantly to a Loss of Coolant Accident and potential meltdown. Even the NRC, infamous for its regulatory rollbacks, acknowledged the incident was of "substantial significance to safety."

The 3/21 meeting includes a public open house from 5:30 to 6pm, followed by a formal business meeting from 6 to 8:30pm. After NRC concludes its business portion of the meeting with Entergy Palisades executives, it will then take questions from the public.