Japanese government reports large spike in health problems for Fukushima nuclear workers including unhealthy white blood cell counts. enenews.com

Senior U.S. scientist says that Fukushima giant ‘ice wall’ will make crisis worse because of saltwater intrusion.  enenews.com

Is nuclear power really the core of Iran’s identity?  csmonitor.com

A planned outage at the Duke Energy’s H.B. Robinson nuclear plant in South Carolina will cost about $60 million, according to officials. enquirerherald.com

Ambient office = .101 microsieverts per hour

Ambient outside = .106 microsieverts per hour

Soil exposed to rain water = .099 microsieverts per hour

Redleaf lettuce from Costco =  .081 microsieverts per hour

Tap water = .112 microsieverts per hour

Filtered water = .084 microsieverts per hour

A major quake shook the Fukushima area this week and TEPCO is checking for any damage to the tanks containing contaminated water. www3.nhk.or.jp

Yale professor says that Fukushima Unit 4 pool is in perilous condition and there is a danger of collapse during a storm or while they are attempting removal of the fuel rods. huffingtonpost.com

China’s foreign minister pushed Friday for the restart of international talks on North Korea’s nuclear program, saying that Pyongyang is ready to recommit to the goal of denuclearization. abcnews.go.com

 France will introduce a levy on nuclear energy as well as a tax on carbon emissions from fossil fuels to raise billions needed to boost renewable power and improve energy efficiency. bloomberg.com

Ambient office = .102 microsieverts per hour

Ambient outside = .164 microsieverts per hour

Soil exposed to rain water = .141 microsieverts per hour

Banana from Costco =  .116 microsieverts per hour

Tap water = .113 microsieverts per hour

Filtered water = .081 microsieverts per hour

         In my last post, I discussed the Chinese National Nuclear Corporation and its great power in the Chinese nuclear industry. In 1994, the China Guangdong Nuclear Power Group (CGNPG) comprised of twenty subsidiary companies was capitalized by the Chinese government with nuclear power as its core business. It currently owns and operates two reactors in southern China with six more under construction and four being planned. It is also working on solar, wind and hydro power projects.

        The first reactors of the CGNPG were of French design, built by Framatone. Working with the French technology, the CGNPG then developed the CPR-1000 pressurized water reactor which is intended to be the design for many of the new reactors being planned in China. In 2007, CGNPG contracted with the French company Areva for a new European Pressurized Reactor and with Westinghouse for a new AP1000 pressurized water reactor at Taishan. These new reactors are considered to be advanced Generation III reactors.

        The Taishan reactor is being built in the heavily populated Pearl River Delta near Hong Kong. It will be the biggest nuclear reactor in the world with three times the radioactive materials of the Fukushima Unit One reactor that melted down in 2011. I have already mentioned that activists in Hong Kong are very concerned with the potential damage that an accident at the Taishan plant could cause. To this date, the Chinese government has not published detailed information on the design of the reactor and safety measure that will be implemented. The reactor will start operating in December of this year.

        Greenpeace has reported that there have been a number of reports of problems with the construction of the reactor and that the radiation level around the reactor is already higher than the levels at a nearby operating reactor. The government has cancelled plans for another reactor in the Delta due to massive public protests.

        In 2009, CGNPG set up a fund to raise over a billion dollars US for new energy projects. This was the first such fund set up by a state owned enterprise with the approval of the Chinese State Council. The Bank of China, the China Development Bank and other financial institutions will contribute to the fund and  be part owners of the resulting projects. In 2013, the company changed its name to the China Nuclear Power Group signifying its intention to operate beyond the Guangdong province.

        Here we are again. A huge corporation is building reactors in southern China and to keeping the public informed. Many defects are found in the construction indicating a lax attitude toward safety. An angry public has forced the government to cancel plans for reactor suggesting that social unrest is going to be a problem for future nuclear plans.  This pattern is all too familiar. Once again, I have to say that I am afraid that China will not be able to construct and safely operate all the reactors  that they have planned.

Taishan reactor:

 

The Nuclear Regulation Authority has launched an investigation of the seafloor off the coast of Fukushima Prefecture to check current contamination levels from the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant meltdowns.  japantimes.co.jp

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe ordered the operator of the country’s crippled nuclear power plant on Thursday to scrap all six reactors at the site instead of just four already slated for decommissioning and to concentrate on tackling pressing issues like leaks of radioactive water.  news.yahoo.com

India is making a last-minute push to close a nuclear deal in time for a meeting between U.S. President Barack Obama and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, who has made atomic energy cooperation with Washington a hallmark of his tenure. reuters.com

Member states of the UN nuclear agency on Friday rejected an Iranian-backed Arab bid to single out Israel for criticism over its assumed atomic arsenal, in a diplomatic victory for Western powers that opposed the initiative. jpost.com

Ambient office = .075 microsieverts per hour

Ambient outside = .106 microsieverts per hour

Soil exposed to rain water = .106 microsieverts per hour

Bell pepper from Costco =  .126 microsieverts per hour

Tap water = .126 microsieverts per hour

Filtered water = .119 microsieverts per hour

          There was recently a nuclear industry conference in London sponsored by the World Nuclear Association (WNA). In their own words, the WNA is made up of “members  who are responsible for virtually all of world uranium mining, conversion, enrichment and fuel fabrication; all reactor vendors; major nuclear engineering, construction, and waste management companies; and nearly 90% of world nuclear generation. Other WNA members provide international services in nuclear transport, law, insurance, brokerage, industry analysis and finance.”

            Of course, any industry conference will promote the industry attending the conference and the London WNA conference was no exception. Nuclear power was touted as being critical to fighting global climate change. Exxon called for doubling the number of nuclear power reactors in the world by 2040. This would require that about four hundred new reactors  be built and brought online in the next twenty six years. This would, of course, insure the viability and profitability of the nuclear reactor industry for decades.

          Exxon Mobile presented their report Outlook for Energy that “bases its findings on data from 100 countries across the globe, looking at 15 demand centers and 20 fuel types. It also takes into consideration the technology and policy issues underpinning the world’s energy situation.” They concluded that nuclear was the cheapest low CO2 energy source and that alternatives like wind and solar had “significant grid knock-on costs.” If you will forgive my cynicism, I doubt that their analysis was unbiased. I will be posting future articles on the Exxon report.

         The head of the European Union’s Nuclear Energy Agency called for greater transparency in pricing of energy sources. He was claiming that the only reason that sustainable alternatives had shown such explosive growth in the past few years was because of large subsidies. I have to admit that I am in favor of more transparency myself. I think that it is safe to say that had all the externalized costs in the fossil fuel industry been folded back into the cost of energy, sustainable alternative sources would be much cheaper. Fossil fuels have enjoyed massive subsidies and most of their astronomical profits would vanish if their subsidies were pulled by the U.S. Government. As for nuclear power, it would not exist if not for the nuclear weapons race during the Cold War. As far as transparency goes, if all the externalized costs of nuclear power that are not included in estimating the cost of nuclear power were included, it may be that it never was an economical source of power.

        With respect to CO2 calculations, a little transparency would be helpful too. It has been estimated that it can take up to fifteen years for a nuclear reactor to offset the CO2 generated by mining, refining, construction, transportation, and waste disposal associated with nuclear power.

         I would be overjoyed if there was an honest global discussion of the real costs associated with each of the sources of energy that are currently in wide use. I am confident that sustainable alternatives such as solar, wind, hydro, and geothermal would win over fossil and nuclear by a wide margin.

 

World Nuclear Association Logo:

Radioactive cesium has been found on an estimated 200 to 300 tons of wood chips that were left months ago near Lake Biwa in Shiga Prefecture, Japan. japantimes.co.jp

 Officials are concerned about 400 foot tall pipe near Fukushima reactors may collapsing during quake because of 8 cracks found in the support brace. Enenews.com

Engineers began pouring concrete for Yangjiang 5 yesterday. The new power plant in China’s Guangdong province is the largest nuclear construction site in the world. world-nuclear-news.org

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani vowed on Wednesday that his government will never develop nuclear weapons. uk.reuters.com

Ambient office = .078 microsieverts per hour

Ambient outside = .080 microsieverts per hour

Soil exposed to rain water = .073 microsieverts per hour

Pear from Costco =  .114 microsieverts per hour

Tap water = .080 microsieverts per hour

Filtered water = .072 microsieverts per hour