Last summer, in the dead of night, three peace activists penetrated the exterior of Y-12 in Tennessee, supposedly one of the most secure nuclear-weapons facilities in the United States. washingtonpost.com

Plastic bags, tape and broomsticks were used to fix a leak at the San Onofre nuclear reactor. 10news.com

Flow of tainted water is the latest crisis at the Fukushima nuclear plant. nytimes.com

French electric utility EDF said on Tuesday cost-cuts and higher nuclear production should boost second-half profits after cold weather helped to produce a 4.7 percent increase in the company’s first quarter sales on a like-for-like basis.  reuters.com

Geiger Counter Readings in Seattle, WA on Apri30, 2013

Ambient office = .079 microsieverts per hour

Ambient outside = .136 microsieverts per hour

Soil exposed to rain water = .142 microsieverts per hour

Sliced black olives from local grocery store = .087 microsieverts per hour

Tap water = .059 microsieverts per hour

Filtered water = .044 microsieverts per hour

             I have mentioned India in a number of previous posts. They have nuclear weapons and an active commercial nuclear reactor program. In this post, I am going to dig a little deeper into the domestic Indian nuclear program.

               The Nuclear Fuel complex in Hyderabad, India is a key facility in the Indian nuclear industry. All the fuel for Indian nuclear reactors is produced at this facility. It has plants that convert yellow cake from uranium ore processing into uranium oxide. The uranium oxide is then converted into uranium hexa-fluoride in order to produce enriched uranium oxide in other plants. The enriched uranium is made into pellets which are then inserted into zircaloy tubes to create fuel assemblies. Eight hundred and fifty tons of fuel  are produced for India’s fleet of pressurized heavy water reactors. All of this is accomplished on site at the complex. Other components for nuclear reactors are also produced at this complex.

              There are serious concerns in Hyderabad about pollution from the plant threatening the people and the environment. When the plant was first built, it was outside the city. Although the guidelines for urban development say that the any residences should be miles away from such a facility, now it is surrounded by residences. Zirconium and other wastes from the plants on the site used to be dumped in an unprotected area. People would visit the dump regularly looking for anything useful or salable.  After a fire broke out in the dump, killing several people and injuring others, a big wall was built around the dump site to prevent public access. Ground water pollution has been detected in the area around the site. Members of a government pollution control board were denied entrance to the complex and denied information about what goes on there in violation of India’s Environmental Protection Act. Rail cars that bring in uranium ore are not labeled and may be used for transporting food or other products when they leave Hyderabad. Emergency plans for the complex are not being shared with the local authorities. There have been accidents and explosions inside the complex but authorities were assured that they posed no threat and were not allowed inside to investigate. Recent plans for urban development include expansion of residential density around the complex.

            I have highlighted a lot of problems with monitoring and regulating nuclear processing facilities in the United States. But I have never seen anything like the cavalier attitude exhibited by the people who operate the Hyderabad Nuclear Fuel complex in India. The operators seem totally unconcerned with the threat that they pose to the people around the plant. Huge tanks of noxious chemicals are kept there and if any of them were breached, millions of people could be under threat. The local authorities are incompetent, corrupt or powerless. And the national government seems inclined to let the abuses and problems at the complex continue without serious investigation. I very much fear that only a major accident with loss of many lives will cause any significant change in this dangerous situation.

Hyderabad, India from a photo by Bikash Mishra:

Are tea, seaweed, fish oil, kelp & chlorella supplements grown in Asia radioactive and contaminated with heavy metals? investmentwatchblog.com

In a video appeal, a Fukushima woman said that a young girl died of leukemia and begged authorities to investigate what is happening in Fukushima. fukushimavoice-eng.blogspot.com

Wall Street Journal praises new EPA guidelines on how much radiation is too much.  washingtonpost.com

Wholesale power prices per megawatt-hour in California dipped just 2 percent last year, barely reflecting a 30 percent drop in average natural gas prices as the absence of two Southern California nuclear units, less hydro power and more demand kept prices up. reuters.com

Geiger Counter Readings in Seattle, WA on April 29, 2013

Ambient office = .088 microsieverts per hour

Ambient outside = .083 microsieverts per hour

Soil exposed to rain water = .074 microsieverts per hour

Fobidden City black rice from local grocery store = .066 microsieverts per hour

Tap water = .085 microsieverts per hour

Filtered water = .071 microsieverts per hour

The fallout level in Tokyo was the highest this March since May of 2011. fukushima-diary.com

Samples of groundwater taken from monitoring holes around the sunken reservoirs at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant are proving radioactive.    japantimes.co.jp

Fukushima’s Catastrophic Aftermath Continues. rense.com

Toru Hashimoto, Mayor of Osaka City, says that he wants spent fuel from reactors in Fukui Prefecture to be stored inside the city, and all he needs is the assurance from the Japanese national government that it is safe to do so. ex-skf.blogspot.jp

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

Ambient office = .089 microsieverts per hour

Ambient outside = .115 microsieverts per hour

Soil exposed to rain water = .149 microsieverts per hour

Planters peanut butter from local grocery store = .077 microsieverts per hour

Tap water = .110 microsieverts per hour

Filtered water = .068 microsieverts per hour

 Japanese court rejects demands to evacuate children while acknowledging that radiation is a risk in health. washingtonpost.com

For the first time, a source from inside the San Onofre nuclear power plant has come forward to warn that restarting the power plant is too dangerous. enenews.com

South Korea wants to recycle and reprocess used reactor fuel but requires American consent. world-nuclear-news.org

 Nuclear safety regulators will remain on site to inspect the Kewaunee Power Station as it moves from generating power to shutting down and decommissioning.  jsonline.com

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

Ambient office = .099 microsieverts per hour

Ambient outside = .126 microsieverts per hour

Soil exposed to rain water = .083 microsieverts per hour

Vine ripened tomato from local grocery store = .109 microsieverts per hour

Tap water = .073 microsieverts per hour

Filtered water = .052 microsieverts per hour

               The U.S. Congress has been debating policies with respect to the disposal of spent nuclear fuel rods. The pools at U.S. nuclear reactors will all be full in five years if alternatives are not found. Temporary storage such as dry casks on site will require massive investment to be practical. And, after cancellation of the Yucca Mountain Repository, it is estimated that it may require forty years to site and construct a new permanent U.S. geological repository.  To make matters worse, the U.S. Nuclear Waste Fund for a permanent repository that was promised in 1999 is under attack by lawsuits from utilities seeking to claw back money that they have already paid.

              A Blue Ribbon panel commissioned by President Obama issued its final recommendations in January of 2012 urging action on interim storage of nuclear waste, resumption of the site selection process for a new geological repository and the creation of a quasi-government agency to manage the new program and to take control of the Nuclear Waste Fund.  It may be possible for the new agency to use only the Nuclear Waste Fund and not have to get Congressional appropriations.  Most of this could be accomplished by revisions to the 1987 amendment to the Nuclear Waste Policy Act.

              Temporary storage would allow high level waste to be kept readily available for reuse in reactors or allow it time to cool off for permanent storage. The new permanent repository would only be storing waste that could not be reused. It would be cool enough so that different criterion could be used in site selection which would increase the number of possible sites. The new agency would seek consensus from every level of government including local, tribal, state, regional and national in its search for a new permanent repository.

               Senators Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., Ron Wyden, D-Ore., and Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska have collaborated to produce draft legislation that would implement many of the recommendations from the Blue Ribbon Panel. Under the provisions of the new legislation, the Department of Energy would no longer be responsible for nuclear waste disposal. Nuclear waste would now be handled by a new agency with a director appointed by the President. The new agency would have authority over the Nuclear Waste Fund. It would create a consent based process for siting new temporary waste storage facilities in communities that would accept them. This new process could be in place as soon as 2021.

               The new legislation is certainly welcome and, being bipartisan, should not be controversial. Congress should move quickly to pass this legislation so the new agency can be created and begin its work as soon as possible. The U.S. Government has already spent over two and a half billion dollars on lawsuits over nuclear waste disposal. If nothing is done, these lawsuits could amount to over twenty billion dollars by 2020 which is a substantial portion of the twenty seven billion dollar Nuclear Waste Fund. Passing this legislation should halt the lawsuits. In addition, time is running out. Estimates are that the spent fuel pools at U.S. reactors will all be full by 2019, two years before the earliest implementation of the plan in the legislation. If the full pools necessitate shutting down U.S. reactors, there could be serious energy short falls around 2020 even with the passage of the legislation.