Quote:Fukushima Daiichi The reactors at the Fukushima Daiichi plant are in stable condition and are being cooled with seawater, but workers at the plant continue efforts to add cooling water to fuel pools at reactors 3 and 4.



[color="#FF0000"]The status of the reactors at the site is as follows:[/color]



Reactor 1’s primary containment is believed to be intact and the reactor is in a stable condition. Seawater injection into the reactor is continuing.



Reactor 2 is in stable condition with seawater injection continuing. The reactor’s primary containment may not have been breached, Tokyo Electric Power Co. and World Association of Nuclear Operators officials said on Thursday.



Access problems at the site have delayed connection of a temporary cable to restore off-site electricity. The connection will provide power to the control rod drive pump, instrumentation, batteries and the control room. Power has not been available at the site since the earthquake on March 11.



Reactor 3 is in stable condition with seawater injection continuing. The primary containment is believed to be intact. Pressure in the containment has fluctuated due to venting of the reactor containment structure.



TEPCO officials say that although one side of the concrete wall of the fuel pool structure has collapsed, the steel liner of the pool remains intact, based on aerial photos of the reactor taken on March 17. The pool still has water providing some cooling for the fuel; however, helicopters dropped water on the reactor four times during the morning (Japan time) on March 17. Water also was sprayed at reactor 4 using high-pressure water cannons.



Reactors 5 and 6 were both shut down before the quake occurred. Primary and secondary containments are intact at both reactors. Temperature instruments in the spent fuel pools at reactors 5 and 6 are operational, and temperatures are being maintained at about 62 degrees Celsius. TEPCO is continuing efforts to restore power at reactor 5.



Fukushima Daini[color="#FF0000"] All four reactors at the Fukushima Daini plant have reached cold shutdown conditions with normal cooling being maintained using residual heat removal systems.[/color]

Quote:TORONTO - Canada's nuclear regulator says a leak at a power plant in Ontario caused more than 19,200 gallons (73,000 liters) of demineralized water to be released into Lake Ontario, but there is [color="#FF0000"]no significant risks [/color]to public health.



The Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission said Wednesday that the water was released from the Ontario Power Generation plant in Pickering, Ontario, around 11:30 p.m. Monday. The agency says the leak was caused by pump seal failure.



Ontario Power Generation says the leak was stopped immediately and the pump seal is being replaced.



The plant says the filtered water contained trace amounts of tritium — far below any regulatory limits — and should have no impact on the quality of the drinking water, some of which is sourced from Lake Ontario.

Quote:Initial readings are "about a billion times beneath levels that would be health threatening," the diplomat told The Associated Press, speaking on condition of anonymity because the CTBTO does not make its findings public

Quote:Updates With News of Resumption of Cooling in Reactors 4 and 5 --Work Continuing to Restart Cooling in Reactors 1 and 2 --TEPCO Expects to Connect Power to All Reactors by Sunday --Acceptable Radiation Level Raised After Workers Surpass Limit

Quote:Water spraying continued overnight as officials worked to keep temperatures down in the cooling pond of the key Reactor 3, whose fuel rods contains plutonium, which is particularly toxic.

Quote:TEPCO said Saturday that it was raising the maximum acceptable exposure for its workers to 150 millisieverts after a number of them showed exposure greater than 100 millisieverts, the previous maximum. It said, however, that it would not send workers back in to the plant once they have been exposed to more than 100 millisieverts.

A typical CT scan exposes a patient to 10 millisieverts.

Quote:India's development of thorium for nuclear power generation caught world interest in the light of the blasts at Japan's nuclear power stations. CNBC-TV18’s Sanjay Suri and Anup Gomen report.



India is considered as the world leader in thorium. The Kakrapar-1 reactor located near Surat in Gujarat is the world's first reactor which uses thorium than depleted uranium for vital power generation. Compated to uranium, thorium has less fissile. The nuclear physicists are now looking at thorium as the safer model.



Ian Hore-Lacy from World Nuclear Association said, "India is the only country in the world that develops thorium fuel cycle. The expertise in India is world class and it is applied very rigorously to the safety of nuclear plants in India."



India has about 25% of the world's thorium reserves and is keen to tap thorium for the growing needs of its population," Hore-Lacy added.



Paddy Regan, Professor of Nuclear Physics from University of Surrey said, “India has a population of a billion people and has massive reserves of thorium. India's nuclear programme, based on the thorium cycle, is slightly different. Indian model thorium based reactors seem to be a very sensible way to go."



Pioneering Indian technology using thorium rather than uranium generated new interest around the world. Thorium is considered less efficient but certainly is much safer. In the light of what has happened in Japan, critics are less inclined to dismiss thorium than they were before.

Quote:In a written statement, the Environmental Protection Agency said that results from a screening sample taken March 25 from Spokane, Wash., detected 0.8 pCi/L of iodine-131. That would be more than 5,000 times lower than the Derived Intervention Level set by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, the agency said.



The EPA statement said it has increased the level of radiation monitoring in response to the radiation leaks from the earthquake stricken Fukushima Daiichi nuclear complex in Japan. The agency said it expects more findings of radiation "in the coming days" but added that they are "far below levels of public health concern, including for infants and children."



Iodine-131 has a half life of approximately eight days, and the level detected in milk and milk products is therefore expected to drop relatively quickly, the agency said.