Nuclear Thread - 4

[Guest]

Here is IAEA site, daily info

http://www.iaea.org/newscenter/news/tsun...ate01.html



Nothing suggests anything alarming.

[Guest]

[url="http://www.nei.org/newsandevents/information-on-the-japanese-earthquake-and-reactors-in-that-region/"]Information on the Japanese Earthquake and Reactors in That Region[/url]

Update last hour -

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]

[Guest]

This happened day before yesterday, and see no news of Lame stream media.

[url="http://www.startribune.com/world/118122319.html"]Officials say water leak from Canadian nuclear station into Lake Ontario poses no safety risk[/url]

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.

[Guest]

[url="http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/UN_JAPAN_EARTHQUAKE?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2011-03-18-09-14-32"] APNewsBreak: Source: minuscule fallout reaches US[/url]

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

Gosh, radiation is less than granites in modern kitchens all over USA.

[Guest]

“U.S. government nuclear experts believe a spent fuel pool at Japan’s crippled Fukushima reactor complex has a breach in the wall or floor,”

[Guest]

[url="http://www.rediff.com/news/column/india-corruption-nuclear-safety/20110318.htm"]Can corrupt India handle nuclear safety?[/url]

Really, a valid question.

[gangajal1]

[quote name='Mudy' date='18 March 2011 - 08:47 PM' timestamp='1300460968' post='111180']

[url="http://www.rediff.com/news/column/india-corruption-nuclear-safety/20110318.htm"]Can corrupt India handle nuclear safety?[/url]

Really, a valid question.

[/quote]



Yes, it is a valid question. However, we know the answer. The value of human life is low in the eyes of the authorities who run India. Every year 130,000 people die of traffic accidents. Nothing is done to reduce it or it is possible that it would be too expensive to reduce it. Every year 400 women out of 100000 die during child birth. The comparable figure in the western world is less than 10. Government expenditure on health is less than 2 % of the miniscule Indian GDP compared to the massive 10 % of GDP in developed countries. These statistics suggest that the benefits of plentiful electricity from nuclear power plants far outweigh any harmful effects. I would say that it would be towards the end of this century that we would be in a position to worry about any harmful effects of nuclear power.

[Guest]

[url="http://www.automatedtrader.net/real-time-news/72087/japan-update-cooling-resumed-at-reactors-4--5-at-fukushima"]Japan Update: Cooling Resumed at Reactors 4 & 5 at Fukushima[/url]

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

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.

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.

[Guest]

[url="http://www.moneycontrol.com/news/cnbc-tv18-comments/thorium-catches-worlds-eye-post-japanese-nuke-disaster_530566.html"]Thorium catches world's eye post Japanese nuke disaster [/url]

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.

[Arun_S]

Thorium based reactors by definition are immune to core meltdown.



However its spent fuel rods is no less hot than other types of fissile material for initial few weeks and months.



Unlike other fuel cycle, however Thorium fuel spent rods have actinides with much longer half cycle for strong Gamma ray radiation, that requires remote robotic handling for re-processing. However some new physical processes have been invented (ultrasonics) that reduce the half life of those actinides by many orders (i.e. 100 to 1000 times). That invention makes Thorium a very good low mining foot print source of clean energy, that is also proliferation resistant (to lay Abduls as well as any country other than top 10 nations which are already in NSG and India (but not Saudi Arabia, Libya, Iran or Pakistan). Not to mention many time larger total available energy from Thorium from global reserves.

[Guest]

[quote name='Arun_S' date='22 March 2011 - 09:19 PM' timestamp='1300849905' post='111227']

Thorium based reactors by definition are immune to core meltdown.



However its spent fuel rods is no less hot than other types of fissile material for initial few weeks and months.



Unlike other fuel cycle, however Thorium fuel spent rods have actinides with much longer half cycle for strong Gamma ray radiation, that requires remote robotic handling for re-processing. However some new physical processes have been invented (ultrasonics) that reduce the half life of those actinides by many orders (i.e. 100 to 1000 times). That invention makes Thorium a very good low mining foot print source of clean energy, that is also proliferation resistant (to lay Abduls as well as any country other than top 10 nations which are already in NSG and India (but not Saudi Arabia, Libya, Iran or Pakistan). Not to mention many time larger total available energy from Thorium from global reserves.

[/quote]



Arunji,



Another option would be use of AVLIS (atomic vapour laser isotope separation) to separate U232 from U233. It is known that the U.S in late 80's had developed AVLIS plants to turn RGPu from LWRs into WGPu (though the program was closed in the early 1990's after the cold war ended). Needless to say, AVLIS if well developed, could be useful to clean our own RGPu stocks....Hope DAE has advanced in this direction...

[Arun_S]

IMVHO the problem is doing the separation it in presence of hard Gamma emitting actinides. The new invention allows forcibly decaying the material at much faster rate so that reprocessing cost can be brought down and solve the radio active waste storage problem.

[Guest]

[url="http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703806304576233221749626458.html?mod=googlenews_wsj"]EPA Says Radiation Found in U.S. Milk[/url]

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.

[Guest]

[url="http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703841904576256742249147126.html"]Japanese Declare Crisis at Level of Chernobyl[/url]

[Guest]

[url="http://www.naturalnews.com/032048_radiation_milk.html"]Fukushima radiation taints US milk supplies at levels 300% higher than EPA maximums [/url]

Los Angeles, Calif. - 0.39 pCi/l (4/4/11)

Philadelphia (Baxter), Penn. - 0.46 pCi/l (4/4/11)

Philadelphia (Belmont), Penn. - 1.3 pCi/l (4/4/11)

Philadelphia (Queen), Penn. - 2.2 pCi/l (4/4/11)

Muscle Shoals, Al. - 0.16 pCi/l (3/31/11)

Niagara Falls, NY - 0.14 pCi/l (3/31/11)

Denver, Colo. - 0.17 pCi/l (3/31/11)

Detroit, Mich. - 0.28 pCi/l (3/31/11)

East Liverpool, Oh. - 0.42 pCi/l (3/30/11)

Trenton, NJ - 0.38 pCi/l (3/29/11)

Painesville, Oh. - 0.43 pCi/l (3/29/11)

Columbia, Penn. - 0.20 pCi/l (3/29/11)

Oak Ridge (4442), Tenn. - 0.28 pCi/l (3/29/11)

Oak Ridge (772), Tenn. - 0.20 pCi/l (3/29/11)

Oak Ridge (360), Tenn. - 0.18 pCi/l (3/29/11)

Helena, Mont. - 0.18 pCi/l (3/28/11)

Waretown, NJ - 0.38 pCi/l (3/28/11)

Cincinnati, Oh. - 0.13 pCi/l (3/28/11)

Pittsburgh, Penn. - 0.36 pCi/l (3/28/11)

Oak Ridge (371), Tenn. - 0.63 pCi/l (3/28/11)

Chattanooga, Tenn. - 1.6 pCi/l (3/28/11)

Boise, Id. - 0.2 pCi/l (3/28/11)

Richland, Wash. - 0.23 pCi/l (3/28/11)

[Guest]

Anti Nuclear plant demonstration are going on, these demonstration had become violent. Any clue who is behind or who will be collaborating for this plant?

[Guest]

[url="http://www.dailypioneer.com/332820/Jaitapur-bandh-turns-violent-mob-ransack-hospital.html"]Jaitapur bandh turns violent, mob ransack hospital[/url]

[Guest]

[url="http://www.hindustantimes.com/Firms-paid-Sena-to-scuttle-N-project/H1-Article1-688120.aspx"]‘Firms paid Sena to scuttle N-project’[/url]

As expected, but finger is on wrong industrial group.

[Arun_S]

Admins please remove the above that is not relevant to this thread.

[Lalitaditya]

I put that post here because it deals with a nuclear topic and how Aussies wrote in their papers that India was not advanced in the nuclear field. It is relevant to the nuclear thread but I will let the Admins decide on that.