Former International Energy Agency executive director Nobuo Tanaka outlined Japan’s journey back to nuclear power and its potential to become the world leader on new nuclear technology. huffingtonpost.com

TEPCO  announced today that the “Warrior” robot, designed and engineered in the United States, tipped over during an inspection of the Fukushima Unit 2 reactor building two weeks ago and could not be retrieved due a dead battery. fukushimaupdate.com

North Korea said on Friday that the world would have to “wait and see” when asked for details of “a new form” of nuclear test it threatened to carry out after the United Nations Security Council condemned Pyongyang’s recent ballistic missile launch. nydailynews.com

The Hanford Nuclear Reservation is America’s most contaminated nuclear site, and the focus of an ongoing cleanup that is costing taxpayers some $2 billion per year. io9.com

          I have been devoting a lot of my blog lately to international affairs and problems with nuclear reactors. While there are important economic, political, public health and environmental issues involving nuclear power, there is another use of nuclear materials that is much more personal. I am talking about the use of radioactive isotopes in treating cancer. Today I am going to turn to some new discoveries that can improve the safety and effectiveness of medical treatments involving radioactive isotopes.

          One of the treatments for cancers consists of encapsulating radioactive isotopes in molecular containers and then moving the containers to the vicinity of the tumor so the isotope can destroy cancerous tissue. Alpha particles emitted  by the decay of the isotope are highly energetic and destroy the DNA and cellular machinery of the cancerous cells.

          Actinium-225 is a radioactive isotope that has been tested in medical treatments for prostate cancer, bladder cancer, ovarian cancer, pancreatic cancer, melanoma and non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, and myeloid leukemia. When an atom of Actinium-225 decays and emits alpha particles, it triggers a chain of decay products which include francium, astatine, bismuth, thallium, polonium and lead. Most of the decays involve the emission of an alpha particle. While these daughter products are toxic substances elements, the minute quantity of each does not pose a danger to human tissue.

         One of the problems encountered in the medical use of radioactive isotopes such as actinium-225 that emit alpha particles is the fact that such alpha emitters generate radioactive alpha emitting “daughter” ions as is the case with actinium-225. The current targeting and containment molecules being used cannot prevent the energetic daughter ions of actinium-225 from escaping the target area being treated. Such daughter ions present a threat to healthy tissue  because they too can emit alpha particles which destroy healthy tissue.

        Recently a research team working with Actinium-225 made advancements in isotope containment. The scientists found two sequences of amino acids which, when combined, created a “very small, hollow nanocapsule similar to a bubble.” Prior to this discovery, the capsules created to hold the isotope were less stable than the new capsules and tend to breakdown and release their contents outside of the targeted area. The new capsules are very stable and are not broken down by the clearance systems in human cells. They enter diseased cells and migrate to the area around the nucleus, causing maximum damage to the DNA.

          When the Actinium-225 decays and produces daughter isotopes, the daughters bounce off the walls of the capsule and do not escape to endanger healthy tissue. This is a great improvement over the unreliable capsules that are currently in use. The new capsules are easy to create and to work with. This research marks a major advance in the utilization of actinium-225 to treat cancer. Actinium has been in short supply recently so the U.S. Department of Energy’s Idaho National Laboratory has developed the Medical Actinium for Therapeutic Treatment technology for the purpose of increasing the production of actinium-225 one hundredfold.

Amino acid capsule for delivering actinium-225:

actinium capsule.gif

Helen Caldicott: says that all of Japan has been contaminated by Fukushima. enenews.com

Arnie Gundersen says that a video confirms that reactor core materials have found over a thousand miles from Fukushima plant. enenews.com

The National Radioactive Waste Disposal Institute has been formally launched by South Africa’s energy minister.  world-nuclear-news.org

The Perry nuclear plant in Ohio issued an unusual event declaration Wednesday in response to a gas leak in an auxiliary building. nuclearstreet.com

          Before the Fukushima disaster in 2011, the Japanese fleet of fifty four nuclear reactors supplied about thirty percent of Japan’s electricity. Japan has the third largest number of nuclear power reactors behind France and the United States. After the Fukushima disaster, the entire reactor fleet was shut down and none of the reactors has been put back into full-time operation. This has resulted in a rise in the importation of fossil fuels that has caused a negative trade imbalance. There is strong public support for an end to the use of nuclear power in Japan.

          The new administration of Prime Minister Abe has made nuclear power and nuclear technology export a major piece of their plan for Japan’s economic renewal and expansion. Without nuclear power, Japan will have serious problems satisfying their need for electricity in the coming years. The Japanese public is opposed to restarting the reactors by about a two to one ratio but the Japanese government is moving ahead with its plans to restart at least some of the idle reactor fleet. Laws have been passed to suppress independent reporting on the nuclear disaster and its aftermath. Political pressure has been applied to silence critics. Heavy PR campaigns are being waged to regain public confidence and support for nuclear power.

          The shut down gave the Japanese nuclear industry and regulatory agencies time to study the causes of the Fukushima disaster and to make certain that all Japanese nuclear power reactors were in compliance with strict new safety rules. After exhaustive analysis of safety regulations as well as seismological, economic, logistical and political problems associated with restarting the idle Japanese reactors, it appears that some of the reactors may never be restarted.

           The most optimistic projections suggest that, at most, two thirds of Japanese power reactors will be able to satisfy all the requirements necessary to resume operation. Of the forty eight remain power reactors in Japan, fourteen will likely be restarted in the near future. Seventeen more may be restarted but there are concerns about them. A final seventeen reactors will likely be retired permanently. The proportion of Japanese electricity generated by nuclear power may fall to about ten percent. Electric utilities will have to pay for decommissioning at least seventeen reactors as well as continuing to pay the higher cost of fossil fuel. This increase in the cost of electricity will have a negative impact on the Japanese economy.

           If many of the problematic seventeen reactors cannot be restarted, it will be impossible for nuclear power to be what is called a “base load” power source in Japan. This refers to a power source that is able to feed a minimum amount of electricity to the Japanese power grid as specified in a draft of a new Japanese national energy plan that will be adopted soon by the Japanese Diet. Applications have been filed and tests are being held to restart some reactors. The government is working on restarting the safest and most technically advanced reactors that are in areas where the resistance to nuclear power is weakest. Ultimately the Japanese central government will defer to local sentiment in choosing which reactors to bring back online.

           Japan is poor in conventional fossil fuel reserves which made the prospect of nuclear power very attractive. After Fukushima, nuclear power is not looking so good. On the other hand, Japan has incredible alternative energy potential. The Japanese people would be better served by a crash program to harness geothermal and tidal power than efforts to revive the nuclear reactor fleet.

Japanese nuclear power stations:

Japanese nuclear power stations map.jpg

Fukushima plant cancels work and moves cooling pumps and emergency generators to higher ground in anticipation of tsunami from Chilean quake. enenews.com

Iran and six world powers began an expert-level meeting about Tehran’s nuclear program today. uk.reuters.com

Workers have re-entered the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) in New Mexico for the first time since a radiological event occurred there in mid-February.  world-nuclear-news.com

The Quad Cities nuclear plant in Illinois declared an alert Wednesday after reports of smoke in a turbine hall. nuclearstreet.com

          The safety of nuclear power plants has been hotly debated. Adverse health effects of nuclear accidents have been documented where large amounts of radioactive materials have been emitted into the environment. One big question that remains is whether there are dangers to the health of people living near a normally operating nuclear power plant.

            There have been studies in France and Germany that indicate that children mainly between the ages of two to four who live within three miles of an operating nuclear reactor are twice as likely to develop acute leukemia those who do not live close to a reactor. U.S. authorities cite a twenty five year old study that concluded that “From the data at hand, there was no convincing evidence of any increased risk of death from any of the cancers we surveyed due to living near nuclear facilities.” It is about time that that new studies tested this old hypothesis.

            Last week, the results of a controversial study by the World Business Academy were released. The study found that the baby teeth of children who lived near the Diablo Canyon nuclear power plant contained one third more Strontium-90 than the baby teeth of California children who did not live near a nuclear power plant. Strontium-90 is a radioactive isotope that can cause bone cancer and leukemia. The study covered the period from 1979 to 1997.

           In addition to the findings about the baby teeth, the study also found that there were increased rates of disease and death from infant mortality, cancers in children and cancers for all age groups in the county where the Diablo Canyon reactor is located when compared to other counties in California.  The researchers admit their study does not prove conclusively that the federally permitted level of radiation release at Diablo Canyon caused the difference in public health but the Diablo Canyon reactor is probably a contributing factor. They point out that when the Rancho Seco nuclear power plant in Sacramento County was shut down in 1989, the abnormal local death rates declined back to the average for California.

           Of course Pacific Gas & Electric which operates the Diablo Canyon nuclear power plant dismissed the study saying that the conclusions were based on prior discredited research. The author of the study report has been attacked in the past with accusations of being highly selective in his choice of relevant data. The nuclear industry in California continues to maintain that nuclear power is safe and no threat to public health. They point to the fact the NRC has stated that Diablo Canyon is being operated within NRC standards and is no danger to the public.

           Researchers from the National Academy of Sciences will meet at Irvine’s Beckman Center to consider the question of whether or not living next to a nuclear reactor is bad for your health. The two million dollar study is going to examine the health data of people living near the shuttered San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station and six other nuclear power plants across the U.S. The Irvine meeting is just the first in a series of meetings that will take place in different states to provide information to and the opportunity for comments from the public.

            Even before the study is underway, there are charges that the results will not be objective because of the regulatory capture of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission by the U.S. nuclear industry. On the other side of the debate, critics of the Diablo Canyon study question its scientific validity and claim that opponents of nuclear power are trying too hard to find reasons for ending it. Hopefully this new study will help answer questions about health dangers of living near nuclear reactors.

Diablo Canyon Power Plant:

Diablo Canyon.PNG

Dumping of contaminated Fukushima groundwater into the Pacific Ocean will begin in May. voiceofrussia.com

High concentrations of Fukushima cesium have been found in the Vancouver area of British Columbia, Canada. enenews.com

Russia has fielded more strategic nuclear weapons over the past six months, but a longtime U.S. analyst suggests the development is unremarkable. nationaljournal.com

Lawsuits filed in recent days by Westinghouse and Duke Energy both assert they are owed money for work related to a proposed nuclear plant in Levy County, Fla., that was not built. nuclearstreet.com