The operators of the Shearon Harris nuclear plant near New Hills, North Carolina have announced that a quarter inch crack was found in a reactor sensor. The operators said that there was no evidence that any radioactive materials had leaked and they shut the plant down to be on the safe side.  They did not know how long it would take to repair the crack but insisted that they had plenty of electrical capacity in the area and it would not be necessary to purchase external power. Not operating the reactor could cost Duke Energy up to one million dollars a day.

               So far, this sound fine. A problem was found and is being dealt with before it poses a public risk. Unfortunately , when you drill a little deeper, the situation becomes more complex. When Duke took the reactor offline for refueling a year ago, ultrasonic scans were made of the system. Now they report that “secondary review” of the ultrasonic scans just revealed “primary water stress corrosion cracking on a temperature sensor near where cooling rods attach to the reactor head.” So here is a question. Did they know about what the scans revealed a year ago? If they did, why did they wait to take action? If they didn’t, why did they wait for a year to check ultrasonic scans of critical components in the reactor? They did say that there were inspections of the top of the reactor during the refueling that did not reveal any leakage. If they were inspecting, why would they not look at the ultrasonic scans taken at the same time?

              Any crack in the reactor shell could eventually widen into a leak. A leak at the location of the identified crack could have allowed coolant to escape from the system. If sufficient coolant leaked out, the reactor could have been at risk for a meltdown. In such a case, release of radiation would be very probable. Either Duke did not report a potential problem or they were not diligent enough when they were refueling the system.

              The Nuclear Regulatory Commission is sending someone to the power plant to question the operators. There will be a public Question and Answer session. Apparently this particular problem with cracks in sensors is not new. It has been known to be a possibility for over ten years. The U.S. nuclear fleet is aging and it is important that a close watch be kept for appearance of common problems. At the very least, Duke procedures for inspecting reactors need to be reviewed and improved.

               Duke Energy acquired the Crystal River nuclear plant in Florida recently. The reactors at the plant were shut down in 2009 because serious cracks were discovered and have not been restarted. Duke has announced that it may shut Crystal River permanently. How many more reactors can Duke afford to shut down before It loses enough money to drop its involvement in the nuclear industry?  And what will happen to those reactors that have to be decommissioned and the existing waste that must be disposed of if Duke does leave the business and cannot find buyers for the reactors? Will the taxpayers be left with a bill in the billions of dollars?

TEPCO does not know how to stop contaminated water from eventually flowing into the ocean at Fukushima.  fukushima-diary.com

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s Atomic Safety and Licensing Board is saying that to restart operations at the San Onofre nuclear power would be an experiment.  enenews.com

Nuclear reactor operators discuss committing bank robberies, armored car heists.  enenews.com

Czechs turn Soviet nuclear warhead depot into Iron Curtain museum. reuters.com

Geiger Counter Readings in Seattle, WA on May 17, 2013

Ambient office = .085 microsieverts per hour

Ambient outside = .061 microsieverts per hour

Soil exposed to rain water = .056 microsieverts per hour

Asparagus from Costco = .128 microsieverts per hour

Tap water = .105 microsieverts per hour

Filtered water = .098 microsieverts per hour

               I have mentioned in a previous blog about the involvement of the Yakuza, the Japanese criminal syndicates, in the nuclear industry in Japan. For decades, they have supplied cheap labor to the nuclear industry. They are connected to the real estate market and construction industry in Japan. Their influence reaches into government. The pervasive presence of the Yakuza in the Japanese nuclear industry has been getting increase scrutiny lately because of Fukushima. Recently, a Yakuza member was arrested for skimming off the wages of temp workers hired for the Fukushima cleanup.

               One major concern that has been raised is the fact that there is no requirement of a comprehensive background check for employment at nuclear plants in Japan. This is understandable if they are hiring people from the underworld including convicts, people hiding from the police, drug addicts, etc. Of course they don’t want background checks.

               There are a number of problems related to this lack of background checks. The first question would be whether or not the person being hired is actually competent to do their job. If they have drug problems they may be under the influence of drugs when they are at work. There are enough problems at Japanese power plants without the risk of mistakes by incompetent or stoned workers.

               Second, the radioactive materials in nuclear facilities are in demand in the black market and would fetch a high price. If a thief is working at a nuclear plant and there is profit to be made in stealing uranium or plutonium, why would he hesitate?

                Third, there have been attacks by terrorists in Japan with chemical weapons. Wouldn’t such terrorists also be tempted to construct a dirty bomb from radioactive materials? Who would know if a terrorist or a person with ties to terrorists was working at a Japanese nuclear plant?

               And, finally, a terrorist could just sabotage a nuclear plant and endanger millions of Japanese.. There are many different actions that could put a nuclear plant at risk if there was a motivation to cause a release of radioactive material.

              Fortunately, the Japanese Nuclear Regulatory Authority is finally seriously considering putting measure in place for the thorough investigation of the background of anyone applying for work at a nuclear plant. They should also check everyone currently employed in the nuclear industry while they are at it.

              Apparently security at the nuclear sites in Japan for people entering and leaving is also a problem. There was lax security during the Fukushima disaster where people entering and leaving the site were not properly processed through a security system. TEPCO is still unable to locate dozens of workers who were present at the time of the Fukushima disaster two years after the event.

                  Japan is a key player in the global nuclear industry. Companies in Japan are currently manufacturing reactors and parts for reactors for export to other countries. There is evidence of connections between companies manufacturing nuclear components and the Yakuza. Recently the NRA of Japan was charged with failing to certify over 10,000 components used at the Monju fast breeder reactor. It is unclear whether this is just incompetence or corruption. The fact that the Yakuza is deeply involved with the Japanese nuclear industry is not just a problem for Japan. Nuclear accidents or sabotage inside Japan can affect the entire world as Fukushima proved and export of faulty reactor components to nuclear power plants in other countries directly threatens people outside of Japan with their own nuclear disasters.

Sign warning about Yakuza:

 

One of two reactors at the Indian Point nuclear plant north of New York City will soon be operating with an expired license.  newyork.cbslocal.com

Fukushima fishermen’s distrust leads to rejection of TEPCO plan to release contaminated groundwater into the ocean.  ajw.asahi.com

LAKE WYLIE More than 100 gallons of water with traces of tritium, a radioactive isotope of hydrogen, leaked from a discharge pipe at the Catawba Nuclear Station.  charlotteobserver.com

A former Fukushima worker commented on Twitter that the decommissioning cost may be over 100 trillion yen, or can’t even be estimated. fukushima-diary.com

Geiger Counter Readings in Seattle, WA on May 16, 2013

Ambient office = .141 microsieverts per hour

Ambient outside = .103 microsieverts per hour

Soil exposed to rain water = .112 microsieverts per hour

Asparagus from Costco = .123 microsieverts per hour

Tap water = .114 microsieverts per hour

Filtered water = .099 microsieverts per hour

      Japan is poor in conventional energy resources. It is dependent on coal, oil and natural gas imports for the majority of its power generation.  Nuclear power was seen as an alternative source of energy despite the fact that uranium fuel has to be imported.  One possible solution to that problem was the creation of a fast-breeder reactor program. The fast breeder reactor was going to recycle the spent fuel rods from the uranium reactors in order to create a mixed plutonium and uranium fuel called MOX for mixed oxide. Theoretically, this would extend the power generating capability of uranium by a factor of twenty five.

             The Monju fast breeder reactor is located on the Japanese coast in Tsuruga, Fukui Prefecture.  Construction was begun in 1983 and finished in 1991. The first critical reaction test of the reactor was in 1994. In December of 1995, severe vibrations in a coolant pipe cased a leak which spewed  hundreds of pounds of liquid sodium onto the floor of the building. The liquid sodium reacted with oxygen and moisture in the air and burst into flames. The room was filled with toxic fumes. The heat rose to several hundred degrees Centigrade which actually warped some of the steel superstructure of the building. Later several tons of solid sodium were found on the floor of the room where the fire broke out. The reactor was shut down because of the leak.

The incident became a scandal because the plant operators tried to hide it from the public. The Power Reactor and Development Corporation falsified reports of the accident and actually edited video tape to try to prevent details from leaking out. An investigator committed suicide in 1996. His family claimed that he was being pressured to lie about the results of his investigation.

In late 2000, the Japan Atomic Energy Agency announced that they intended to restart the Monju reactor. Law suits against the restart followed which eventually worked their way up to the Japanese Supreme Court. The Court ruled in 2005 that the reactor could be restarted. Due to radioactive decay in the original fuel during all the delays, by 2008 the plutionium-241content of the fuel had dropped by fifty percent. This made a restart impossible with that fuel so the reactor had to be refueled. The restart was delayed again because holes were discovered in the reactor’s auxiliary building.

Finally, in 2010 start up procedures and testing began. The reactor achieved criticality in May of 2010 and was going to undergo testing until 2013 before being connected to the grid. In August of 2010, a three ton fuel loading machine fell into the reactor vessel and the reactor was shut down again. The repairs to the plant cost over sixteen million dollars. An Agency official in charge of the repairs killed himself during the work.

The disaster at Fukushima in March of 2011 caused the Japanese government to reevaluate the entire nuclear energy program in Japan. Testing for the restart of Monju was halted. Another scandal broke out in May of this year when it was discovered that Japan Atomic Energy Agency did not check over ten thousand components in use at Monju. Apologies and excuses were offered along with the usual promise to take care of the problem immediately.

            The Monju project has cost almost ten billion dollars to date. The Japanese government recently announced that it was considering permanently closing the Monju plant. It would be far better for Japan to concentrate on alternative renewable energy sources such as wind, solar and geothermal which are all readily available in Japan than to keep throwing money down the nuclear rat hole.

Perry nuclear power plant security investigators reviewing video recordings have not been able to identify the person who left radioactive goldfish in a steam tunnel. cleveland.com

Construction at Georgia’s Plant Vogtle, where Southern Co. is leading a project to add two Westinghouse AP1000 reactors, continued to make visible progress in April. nuclearstreet.com

Uranium production has begun at North Butte, a satellite facility to Cameco’s Smith Ranch-Highland in situ leach (ISL) uranium project in Wyoming, in a step described as a significant milestone for the company’s US operations. world-nuclear-news.org

UN agency fails again to reach a deal with Iran on restarting a nuclear probe. foxnews.com

Geiger Counter Readings in Seattle, WA on May 15, 2013

Ambient office = .116 microsieverts per hour

Ambient outside = .080 microsieverts per hour

Soil exposed to rain water = .084 microsieverts per hour

Celery from Costco = .105 microsieverts per hour

Tap water = .076 microsieverts per hour

Filtered water = .067 microsieverts per hour

              I briefly mentioned radioactive materials and landfills recently in the context of disposal of drill tailings from fracking. There are standards for what levels of radioactivity are acceptable in landfills today. However, there are exemptions for wastes generated by nuclear weapons related operations.

              The West Lake Landfill in Bridgeton, Missouri near St. Louis contains over eight thousand tons of nuclear waste. This old waste is left over from Mallinckrodt Chemical Company’s uranium processing operation during the Cold war. The West Lake Landfill is designated as an Environmental Protection Agency Superfund site. The old landfill has none of the modern safety features such as a liner to prevent leakage into the groundwater or a cap to prevent gases from escaping. It is sitting a few miles upstream from a reservoir that supplies drinking water to St. Louis.

             The Bridgeport Landfill is located within a thousand feet of the buried nuclear waste. Normally, this should not be a reason for increased concern but, unfortunately, there is a fire burning underground in the landfill. Temperatures underground are way above normal levels. The company that manages the landfill, Republic Services, says that the horrible odor from the burning landfill that is polluting the air miles away, is not a safety hazard. On the other hand, the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services has detected dangerous levels of benzene and hydrogen sulfide in the air around the landfill. Missouri’s Department of Natural Resources sent out a notice that people with chronic respiratory disease should not remain near the landfill. Republic Services has been sued by the state attorney general for environmental violations.

             Some concrete pipes that are allowing the odor to escape are being removed. Holes are being drilled to cope with the situation. Unfortunately, the excavation and drilling will increase the intensity of the current smells for a short time. A one mile area has been designated for evacuating people but some groups are calling for a five mile evacuation zone.

             The big worry is that the underground fire at the Bridgeton Landfill will spread to the nuclear waste in the West Lake Landfill. No one knows what will happen if the fire reaches the waste but in a worst case scenario, it would be something like an accidental “dirty bomb.” There would be no nuclear or conventional chemical explosion, but there would be a release of radioactive particles into the atmosphere over Bridgeton area. The particles could reach as far as ten miles away from the West Lake Landfill. This would require the evacuation of all residents in that area and the halt of all economic activity. It would become an abandoned zone. Radioactive particles could be carried further by surface water and threaten a wider area.

            Republic Services says that there is no real danger of the fire reaching the nuclear waste. However, they have already been caught lying about the fumes from the f ire and are being sued for environmental violations by the state. The people in the area are not convinced that they can accept the assurances of Republic Services that they are not at risk from the nuclear waste. Activists are calling for a greater governmental involvement in protecting the public in the area from these two problematic landfills.

West Lake Landfill, Bridgeton, Missouri: