Strange deaths have been plaguing the India nuclear scientists for a decade. In 2004, there were allegations that an armed group tried to abduct an official with India’s Nuclear Power Corporation (NPC) but the man escaped. In 2009, an employee of NPC named Ravi Mule was murdered. The police were unable to make any progress in the case and his family was left to investigate on their own. Weeks later, the body of Lokanathan Mahalingam, another nuclear scientist was found in the same forest where the attempted abduction occurred five years earlier. A forensic laboratory issued a report claiming that Mahalingam’s death was a suicide but this judgment was challenged by people in India and Pakistani officials. In 2011, a former scientist named Uma Rao was found dead. The official ruling was suicide but once again there was no evidence that Rao was suicidal and his family contested the ruling.

          In October of 2013, two of the top engineers for India’s first nuclear powered submarine were found dead with their bodies laying on railroad tracks. The bodies were recovered before being run over by trains. There were no marks on the bodies raising the suggestion that they had been poisoned before being placed on the tracks. The official ruling was that it was all an unfortunate accident. A journalist who has been following the case has reported that there was no evidence of depression or other family problems that could have been the cause of suicide.

         If the police cannot make sense of a death, they may label it as unexplained. Once a case has been given this label, there is often little further attempt to solve it. One man died with hemorrhaging inside his skull. There were no cuts, bruises or other signs of injuries to his head so the case was labeled unexplained and further investigations not vigorously pursued.

         Critics of the police investigation of deaths of the two nuclear submarine engineers say that the police gave up too soon. They point out that the suicide or murder of two men working on such an important Indian military project should have generated much more publicity and should have been investigated more vigorously. They point to the explosions that sunk an Indian submarine in 2013 as possible deliberate sabotage and complain that it has been inadequately investigated. Whistleblowers in the nuclear industry are afraid that they are being targeted and many are leaving India to work in other countries.

        There have been a number of obvious murders of nuclear scientists in Iran. Someone is trying to slow down or stop Iranian nuclear research and development. There are accusations that the United States and/or Israel are behind the murders. Those who fear that Indian scientists are also being targeted say that it could be the United States, China or Pakistan who are trying to interfere with the Indian nuclear program.

        These deaths may be coincidental suicides and accidents but they certainly appear to be suspicious. It may be that the Indian government has some idea of who is doing it but is not going public with their suspicions for reasons of national security.

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The Japanese government began funding a project to build an frozen underground wall  after it was discovered TEPCO had realized the need, yet hid the problem and skipped the project due to the massive cost involved. fukuleaks.org

There’s just very few of the birds left in the high contamination from the Fukushima plant.  enenews.com

Rolls-Royce plans to focus more on civilian nuclear power following the sale of its gas turbine and compressor business to Siemens. nuclearstreet.com

The Obama administration on Thursday submitted to Congress a nuclear trade accord with Vietnam after a reported Tuesday signing ceremony.  nationaljournal.com

           Hanford is the gift that keeps on giving. I could blog about nothing but the cleanup work at the Hanford Nuclear Reservation and never run out of material. Recently there have been a series of Hanford Cleanup public meeting in Seattle, Portland and Richland. Well prepared officials from Hanford came to the meetings with slide shows and glossy handouts explaining how well everything is going. One thing that they failed to mention is the explosion at the Hanford Plutonium Finishing Plant (PFP) during demolition work a couple of weeks ago. The PFP may be the most radioactively contaminated building in the United States.

         Workers at the Plutonium Finishing Plant reported that they first saw a spark and then flames shot out of a pipe that workers cutting into. Hanford management said that the incident was just a small pop but the workers who witnessed it said that it was a loud blast that was more like a shotgun being fired. The pipe was contained in a special structure to prevent worker exposure. However, if the pipe broke there was a possibility that workers could have inhaled particles of plutonium which could have had deadly consequences.

         CH2M HILL Plateau Remediation Company(CHPRC) is the prime contractor for the environmental cleanup of the Central Plateau at the Hanford Site. A union representative suggested that CHPRC was downplaying the seriousness of the incident to avoid fines and litigation that could delay work..They feel that CHPRC is more interested in schedules and budgets that worker safety. The union representative also said that when workers express concerns about risks and safety, it “falls on deaf ears.” There have been charges that CHPRC has decided that they do not want experienced workers at the PFP because experienced workers raise too many uncomfortable questions.

        CHPRC issued a stop order for pipe cutting following the incident. Some workers have said that they don’t think enough is being done to insure their future safety when work on the pipes resumes. CHPRC pointed out that the workers responded appropriately and no one was exposed to the plutonium in the pipe. They also said that there was no evidence of a release of radioactive materials from the pipe. For the time being the use of the mechanical pipe cutting equipment will be halted until it can be determined exactly what caused the explosion.

       The U.S. Department of Energy has issued a statement that they are monitoring the response of CHPRC to the incident and will continue to do so until the cause has been determined and steps are taken to prevent a recurrence.

       Recently there was an explosive release of vapors from waste storage tanks at Hanford. Twenty four workers were briefly hospitalized and treated for exposure to toxic fumes. Hanford management said that no one sustained serious injuries and all have returned to work. Some of the workers who were hospitalized have disagreed with the Hanford announcement saying that everyone has not returned to work and at least one man sustained injuries that will cause long term health problems.

      Over and over Hanford management has been accused of putting budgets and schedules ahead of worker safety and downplaying the seriousness of any accidents. These are just two of the most recent incidents. While I agree that the contamination at Hanford must be cleaned up as quickly as possible, it should not be at the cost of workers’ health and lives. 

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Unit 1 at Maryland’s Calvert Cliffs nuclear plant returned to service over the weekend following an automatic reactor trip Thursday. nuclearstreet.com

The company building the world’s first AP1000 reactors in China has filed for a $2.6 billion IPO to raise capital for further nuclear plant construction. nuclearstreet.com

The G7 group of industrialized nations has focused on energy security, prioritizing low-carbon sources including nuclear power for deployment in an effort to establish resilient low-carbon power systems. world-nuclear-news.org

A change in priorities is needed at Germany’s Federal Office for Radiation Protection in an effort to resolve outstanding questions about the storage and disposal of radioactive waste in Germany. nucnet.org

      More information keeps coming out about the February 14th accident at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant which resulted in the release of particles of plutonium and americium into the environment around Carlsbad, New Mexico. There are reports that the radioactive isotopes have been found much further away from the plant. Twenty one people in the facility were exposed to radiation during the accident. The site has been closed since the accident with only a skeleton staff and investigators being allowed into the facility. The room where the radiation was released has been so hot that investigators were having problems entering the area where the radiation release occurred. It is still not clear at this time exactly what happened.

           The plant accepts mildly radioactive waste, tools, clothes and other materials generated by the production of U.S. nuclear weapons. It is located in an old salt mine where drums of waste are piled in large open “panels” which are each divided into seven rooms. When a room is full, it is sealed off. Bags of magnesium oxide powder weighing up to two tons each are placed on top of the drums of waste to serve as backfill. In addition, if water found its way into the room after it was closed off, the magnesium oxide would combine with the water to form a compact solid, immobilizing the radioactive materials and prevent the water from dissolving them and washing them out of the room. The magnesium oxide powder also absorbs carbon dioxide.

           Two theories of what caused the accident were put forward. One suggested that gases built up in a drum of waste and then exploded, damaging other drums. The other theory suggests that the roof of the room collapsed on the drums and damaged them. Using cameras on telescopic extensions, on April 30 the investigators were able see deep into the room where the accident occurred and were able to verify that there was no evidence of damage to either the ceiling or the walls of the room. What was found was that there was damage to some of the bags of magnesium oxide. Large piles of powder were found on top of other bags but there was no sign of the bags that should have contained the loose powder.

          With respect to the other theory about gas build up there have been reports that testing for gas build up had been declining since the facility was put into operation. Inspectors are checking the processing of some of the last drums of waste that were placed in that room to see if they were vented within sixty days of arrival as required by regulations.

          Ninety staff members of WIPP have completed training courses on facility operations and have just been allowed to return to the facility. “Upon returning to the site, workers will perform plant and equipment maintenance and restoration, radiological checks, sampling activities, and support work procedure revisions.” Hopefully, the cause of the accident will be identified and dealt with before the facility is reopened to take waste.

Bags of magnesium oxide in the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant:

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Shocking 62,700 Bq/kg of cesium has been measured in mushrooms near Fukushima. enenews.com

Nuclear fuel fragments from Fukushima have been found in Europe.  enenews.com

A Toshiba-GDF Suez consortium hoping to build a new nuclear power station adjacent to Sellafield has extended its option to purchase the land until after the European Commission ruling on UK market reforms.  world-nuclear-news.org

Nuclear power remains important for France and Japan, the leaders of both countries have affirmed.  world-nuclear-news.org