The Radiation Oncology Institute (ROI) is seeking proposals to examine the comparative value of radiation therapy and will provide support for the research project in the amount of $200,000 over two years. newswise.com

Seaweed caused the shutdown of multiple nuclear reactors in the United Kingdom. enenews.com

Iran’s presidential candidates clash over their approach to Iran’s nuclear program.  reuters.com

Kentucky’s Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant will begin shutting down at the end of this week. nuclearstreet.com

Geiger Counter Readings in Seattle, WA on May 28, 2013

Ambient office = .103 microsieverts per hour

Ambient outside = .115 microsieverts per hour

Soil exposed to rain water = .133 microsieverts per hour

Mango from local grocery store =  .076 microsieverts per hour

Tap water = .087 microsieverts per hour

Filtered water = .081 microsieverts per hour

               In a recent blog, I discussed an argument by the Nuclear Energy Institute to the effect that new nuclear reactors were necessary because of rising electricity demand. Apparently, the idea that electrical demand is rising is not universally accepted.

           Sweden began investigating nuclear energy in the forties and built several heavy water reactors that could utilize Swedish uranium without needing isotope enrichment. When Sweden signed the Non-Proliferation treaty in 1968 which precluded the use of plutonium as fuel for reactors, they switched to light water reactors. Six reactors began commercial operations in the 1970s, another six were built by 1985. Two reactors have been closed leaving a total of ten operating reactors at three nuclear power plants. Nuclear power currently supplies about half of Sweden’s electricity.

           After the nuclear accident at Three Mile Island in the United States in 1979, Sweden held a national referendum on the future of nuclear power in Sweden. The people voted against nuclear power and the Swedish government put a ban on the construction of new reactors in 1980. They also created a nuclear phase-out policy which intended to end the use of nuclear power in Sweden.

           In 1992, it was found that five reactors had been operating without emergency cooling capability because of clogged drains. All five were shut down and repairs were made. There have been other problems at Swedish nuclear reactors since then and the political debate over the phase out continued. Ultimately, concerns about energy security and global warming caused the Swedish parliament to reverse the existing ban on reactor construction and end the phase-out plans in June of 2010..

              Vattenfall AB, is the largest Scandinavian utility. It generates power through hydroelectric and nuclear energy.  It currently operates seven nuclear reactors in Sweden at the Forsmark and Ringhals power plants. When the change in policy was announced by the Swedish government, Vattenfall quickly requested permission to build an unspecified number of new reactors starting in 2025.

               Vattenfall recently announced that it was going to extend the lifespan of existing Swedish nuclear reactors and delay the construction of any new Swedish reactors for at least five years. The reason they offered for such a decision was the fact that their forecasts fail to anticipate a rise in demand for electricity and rising electricity production as wind turbines are brought online in the near future. Their analysis of electricity demands and need for new reactors is ongoing and they do not feel that they will be able to make a well-informed decision on investment in new reactors for at least another ten years. Their plan calls for modernization of their Ringhals reactors to extend their lifespan by ten years. Under the new plan, two of Vattenfall’s reactors at the Ringhals power stations will operate until 2025 and another two Ringhals reactors will operate until 2040.

              So even a country with its own supply of uranium and reactors that supply half its electricity is not sure it wants or needs more nuclear reactors.

Ringhals power plant:

As many as 55 people may have exposed to radiation when a lab accident in northern Japan released ‘exotic soup’ of radioactive material. enenews.com

In Niger, the Arit uranium mine and the Agadez military barracks were attacked by radical Islamic terrorists. radiationnews.blogspot.com

North Korea’s state media on Sunday reiterated Pyongyang’s commitment to building nuclear weapons, dousing limited hopes that the isolated state might engage in talks about its nuclear program under pressure from China. online.wsj.com

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe will clarify his government’s plan to resume operation of idled nuclear power plants in a growth strategy to be compiled in mid-June. marketwatch.com

Geiger Counter Readings in Seattle, WA on May 27, 2013

Ambient office = .114 microsieverts per hour

Ambient outside = .079 microsieverts per hour

Soil exposed to rain water = .109 microsieverts per hour

Iceberg lettuce from local grocery store =  .101 microsieverts per hour

Tap water = .118 microsieverts per hour

Filtered water = .110 microsieverts per hour

Nuclear policy expert Robert Alvarez joined Arnie Gunderson for a discussion the ongoing environmental damage to the Hanford site. fairewinds.org

On 6 – 13 July 2013 Nuclear Abolition Week kicks off with activities across the world for a ban on nuclear weapons. icanw.org

Fukushima radiation has spread worldwide. junogalaxy.blogspot.com.au

Canada is funding three new projects for alternative technetium-99m production for medical use. ans.org

Geiger Counter Readings in Seattle, WA on May 26, 2013

Ambient office = .064 microsieverts per hour

Ambient outside = .078 microsieverts per hour

Soil exposed to rain water = .112 microsieverts per hour

Iceberg lettuce from local grocery store =  .084 microsieverts per hour

Tap water = .077 microsieverts per hour

Filtered water = .060 microsieverts per hour

An atomic research lab in northern Japan has reported a radiation leak that may have affected about 55 people, though none were hospitalized and no impact was expected outside the facility, the lab’s operator said Saturday. mercurynews.com

Hundreds of people living just outside Japan’s Fukushima prefecture say they have been denied adequate compensation after the country’s 2011 nuclear disaster despite suffering elevated radiation levels.  calgaryherald.com

Scana and its South Carolina Electric and Gas subsidiary continue to make headway in building two new reactors at the V.C. Summer nuclear plant, reporting to state regulators that the project is on budget but has seen some milestones drop behind schedule. nuclearstreet.com

Dominion Resources Inc., owner of Kewuanee Power Station, notified the Nuclear Regulatory Commission on May 14 it had removed all nuclear fuel from the reactor. greenbaypressgazette.com

Geiger Counter Readings in Seattle, WA on May 25, 2013

Ambient office = .086 microsieverts per hour

Ambient outside = .104 microsieverts per hour

Soil exposed to rain water = .088 microsieverts per hour

Hass avacado from local grocery store = 079 microsieverts per hour

Tap water = .107 microsieverts per hour

Filtered water = .086 microsieverts per hour

              The last couple of posts to this blog featured boosters of nuclear power claiming that with the construction of new reactors in the U.S., the future is bright for nuclear power. I believe that the past year’s worth of posts to this blog detail just how wrong that assessment is. The boosters brush off past nuclear accidents as not really that serious and claim that the new reactors will be even safer and more immune to accidents. Nuclear fallout from bombs and accidents is a serious concern but there is another kind of  “nuclear “fallout. My posts and links about Fukushima show how a nuclear disaster such as Fukushima reverberates throughout the country of origin and, indeed, the entire world. There are social, political, economic and health impacts that are still causing problems almost two years after the disaster. Even if a nuclear disaster does not immediately kill a lot of people, the repercussions go on for years and cost billions of dollars.

              France is considering what to do about their nuclear power program. A recent analysis suggested that France should either commit to continue getting eighty percent of their power from nuclear sources or they should immediately start to wind down their dependence on nuclear power. One of the problems with continuing to use nuclear power is the fact that there are many unsolved problems and countries such as Germany are eliminating nuclear power. The disaster at Fukushima has caused a worldwide reappraisal of the wisdom of using nuclear energy to generate electricity and generated a ground swell of public rejection of nuclear energy. The analysis concluded that of the two main choices, ending nuclear power would be the better one. One of their arguments is that the pool of skilled personnel needed to run their reactors is diminishing. Many nuclear professionals will be retiring soon and young people considering what to study in college may turn away from nuclear engineering because of the uncertainty of nuclear power’s future in France. Unfortunately, the analysis also concluded that it was most likely that France would choose neither of the main alternatives and would, instead, engage in a protracted debate on nuclear power which would cause even more problems in the long run than getting out of or committing to stay in nuclear power now.

              There are new stories emerging from Fukushima that claim that it is getting to be more and more difficult for the operators of the stricken Fukushima power plant to find the skilled workers that it needs to keep working on recovery from the disaster. One reason is that some of the staff are reaching their limit of long term radiation exposure and will have to retire for health reasons. Another reason is that there are many better paying jobs in the construction industry rebuilding from the aftermath of the earthquake and tsunami that destroyed the Fukushima power plant. There is also the possibility that as reactors are being built in other countries, Japanese nuclear professionals may be lured away to work outside of Japan.

             TEPCO, the operators of the Fukushima plant, claim that they are not aware of any problems with staffing. One possible reason for this is the fact that TEPCO subcontracts with other firms for staffing. Some of these firms, in turn, subcontract from other firms. In some cases, there may be as many as five levels of contractors between TEPCO and the companies that are actually hiring people. The reports of a lack of available workers are coming from the lower level contractors so TEPCO is not really aware of the problem.  A survey in December of 2012 found that over half the works at Fukushima were not actually working for the particular contractors who were supposed to be employing them.

             The world wide attraction of nuclear engineering jobs took a big hit from the Fukushima disaster. Another big nuclear disaster will make working in the industry even less attractive. The staffing problem is just another one of the peripheral problems haunting the global nuclear industry aside from the big problems such as accidents and waste disposal.

Nuclear workers in training: