Pacific herring in Canada are bleeding from eyeballs, faces, fins, tails. enenews.com

The Japanese do not know where the melted cores from Fukushima are. enenews.com

The new Chairman of the Oregon Republican Party suggests dropping nuclear waste from airplanes for its health benefits. enenews.com

Doctors who invest in radiation treatments and centers are more likely to prescribe it to their prostate cancer patients, a government report finds. cbsnews.com

Ambient office = .084 microsieverts per hour

Ambient outside = .072 microsieverts per hour

Soil exposed to rain water = .070 microsieverts per hour

Balance nutrition bar from Costco =  .080 microsieverts per hour

Tap water = .088 microsieverts per hour

Filtered water = .081 microsieverts per hour

Japan expert says radiation levels in ocean too high to be explained by groundwater flow from Fukushima alone. www3.nhk.or.jp

Japanese seek relief from heat at beaches near Fukushima disaster. cbsnews.com

The Japanese and the world community should come to terms with the hard reality that this island nation is the only one in human history to have suffered three nuclear disasters. japantimes.co.jp

The start of operation of the Four Mile uranium mine in South Australia has moved a step closer with final environmental approval. world-nuclear-news.org

Ambient office = .114 microsieverts per hour

Ambient outside = .070 microsieverts per hour

Soil exposed to rain water = .109 microsieverts per hour

Raw pistachios from Costco =  .089 microsieverts per hour

Tap water = .081 microsieverts per hour

Filtered water = .071 microsieverts per hour

            Yesterday I posted a blog article about problems with Rosatom, the Russian state corporation that regulates and promotes nuclear industry in Russia. I also mentioned problems with the Japanese nuclear industry and the South Korean nuclear industry. All three of these countries are busy trying to sell questionable nuclear technology to other countries. There are not a lot of countries manufacturing nuclear reactors these days. France is a member of the nuclear club and like Russia, Japan and South Korea, it is trying to sell its nuclear technology abroad. France relies on nuclear power for eighty percent of its electricity and their need to keep their nuclear industry alive is as much aimed at domestic power generation as it is in stimulating export sales of nuclear technology.

            AREVA is a French public corporation with strong ties to the French national government. It was created in 2001 by the merger of several companies active in various nuclear industries in Europe It is the only major international nuclear company that is involved in every facet of nuclear energy and research including “mining, chemistry, enrichment, combustibles, services, engineering, nuclear propulsion and reactors, treatment, recycling, stabilization, and dismantling.” They appear to have a better record of competence and integrity than the Russian, Japanese and South Korean nuclear companies but they have had some problems.

           In 2003, Finland ordered a new reactor system from AREVA. When there were serious cost overruns, AREVA refused to pick up the extra costs and the case is in arbitration. Currently, the project is four years behind schedule and ninety percent over budget. It is unlikely that the reactor will start producing electricity before 2015.

         In 2007, the French government signed an agreement with Libya for civilian nuclear power. It was announced that the project was aim at desalinization of sea water but some critics claimed that it was really just an excuse to export AREVA’s expensive nuclear technology. Other critics said that the nuclear power deal was related to the release of Belgian nurses being held by the Libyans. The German government denounced the deal.

         In 2007, AREVA was fined fifty three million Euros for “rigging European Union electricity markets through a cartel involving eleven companies..”

          In 2010, anti-nuclear activist fought the construction of a new AREVA nuclear power plant on the Normandy coast because of design changes to the fuel pellet cladding. AREVA made the changes when its original design was challenged on safety grounds. The critics said that the changes that were made were not sufficient to solve the problems.

         Also in 2010, complaints were raised by Greenpeace about nuclear dust contamination of native villages near the uranium min which provided one half of AREAVA’s uranium. AREVA carried out some cleanup activities and declared that the problem was solved. Investigators who went to the villages after the cleanup still found high levels of radioactive contamination.

           At the end of 2011, the new director of AREVA announced a three billion dollar writedown due to a downturn in the nuclear market. Half of that was related to the purchase of UraMin, a uranium mining stock. The woman who had managed the company for ten years was investigated covertly and then removed from her post. She was blamed for making the decision to purchase the UraMin stock. On the other hand, she accused the man who replaced her as director of incompetence in the management of project to develop a third generation nuclear reactor which was over budget and behind schedule.  The new director also said that they might lose as much as two billion in 2012 and that they would have to lay off fifteen hundred workers.        

          In 2012, AREVA faced problems with a bid to build a United Kingdom reactor. Other bidders were threatening to trigger a market monopoly investigation if AREVA won the bid.

          While AREVA has not been accused of using substandard part and other types of overt corruption and crime, they still have had safety and legal problems in the international marketplace. In addition, their close ties to the French government have led to questionable behavior. I am afraid that doing business with AREVA could be problematic for other countries seeking new reactors for power generation.

Studies on dental X-rays have linked them to cancer, meningiomas (brain tumors), and more, yet radiation in many dental offices is actually rising as CT manufacturers heavily market the machines to dentists. straight.com

Ten workers at Japan’s crippled nuclear plant were exposed Monday to small amounts of radiation while conducting cleanup activities, foxnews.com

TEPCO has sent engineers on visits to the Hanford site in Washington state this year to learn from decades of work treating millions of gallons of radioactive waste. Bloomberg.com

An international fund managed by the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development is spending an estimated $2 billion to build a new confinement shelter to protect the world from Chernobyl’s radioactivity for the next 100 years. Nuclear-news.net

Ambient office = .141 microsieverts per hour

Ambient outside = .090 microsieverts per hour

Soil exposed to rain water = .087 microsieverts per hour

Locally grow zuccinni from local grocery =  .143 microsieverts per hour

Tap water = .073 microsieverts per hour

Filtered water = .058 microsieverts per hour

           I have had a lot to say about problems in the Japanese nuclear industry in previous blog posts. Major players in the industry have been shown to be corrupt as have government agencies that should be regulating the industry. TEPCO knew about the problems that caused the Fukushima disaster and could have done something about them before the tsunami. Other problems have been reported with reactor designs and manufacture of reactor components.

           Recently, I posted a blog about problems in the South Korea nuclear industry which a government study termed an “entrenched chain of corruption.” Substandard parts were being fraudulently certified as meeting standards and had been installed in fourteen out of twenty three reactors operating in South Korea. Both Japan and South Korea have been investing heavily in the export of nuclear technology to help stimulate their economies.

         Another country that is aggressively pushing the export of nuclear technology to other countries is Russia. Rosatom Nuclear Energy State Corporation is a state corporation that controls the nuclear weapons industry, nuclear research facilities, radiation safety agencies and the use of nuclear energy for commercial purposes such as the generation of electricity. As in many other countries, Rosatom faces the same conflict of interest in both regulating the nuclear industry and promoting the nuclear industry. There is no significant oversight of Rosatom activities.

         There are watchdog groups in Russia that are demanding official investigations into widespread reports of violations and abuses in the nuclear industry. One big concern is the purchase and installation of counterfeit and uncertified reactor components both inside Russia and in reactors that Russia is constructing in other countries. Another major concern is that reactor construction is compromised by theft in the form of substitution of cheaper and sub-quality materials with the construction company pocketing the difference in cost. Rosatom has its own standards for negotiating contracts which are not as strict as the usual Russian federal contracting standards. It is now legal for reactor designers to purchase components from any company that they choose without going through the tender process of requesting bids from competing companies.

          The National Ecological Centre of Ukraine posted the following statement on their website: “The numerous violations of construction norms and standards, and working conditions, which lead to serious incidents at nuclear power plant construction sites in Russia, cast doubt on the capability of the State Corporation Rosatom and its subcontractor companies of carrying out quality and reliable construction projects as per Rosatom’s export contracts.”

          The Belarusian Anti-Nuclear Campaign fighting the construction of a Russian reactor in the town of Ostrovets said this: “The known incidents and deficiencies in the operation and construction of Russian-built NPPs in Russia, Iran, and China, as well as the recent collapse of reinforcing steelwork at the construction site of the containment building at [Leningrad] NPP-2, are evidence that Rosatom and its structures have serious problems of a systemic nature and cannot guarantee the quality of their sites. This propagation of dangerous nuclear technologies places a special responsibility on the Russian government.” China has filed thousands of complaints about the quality of equipment being installed in a Russian reactor being built there.

           Countries without their own nuclear industries are being courted by Russia, Japan and South Korea as possible customers for nuclear reactor technology. If I were a decision maker in any of country considering the purchase of a nuclear power plant, I would think twice before buying a reactor from Russia, Japan or South Korea.

The National Space Biomedical Research Institute is soliciting for program proposals to establish a Center for Space Radiation Research in collaboration with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. reuters.com

It may be a century before Japan is able to deal with Fukushima’s melted cores. enenews.com

Many U.S. sailors are suffering serious symptoms of radiation sickness after being contaminated during the Fukushima nuclear disaster. enenews.com

Entergy has prevailed in another court battle with the state of Vermont over the Legislature’s authority to shut down the Vermont Yankee nuclear plant. nuclearstreet.com

Ambient office = .102 microsieverts per hour

Ambient outside = .121 microsieverts per hour

Soil exposed to rain water = .100 microsieverts per hour

Banana from local grocery =  .098 microsieverts per hour

Tap water = .066 microsieverts per hour

Filtered water = .056 microsieverts per hour