The Fukushima power plant operator Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) announced on Monday that the removal of protective dome installed over the first power generating unit was completed. sputniknews.com

Police are pushing for criminal charges to be filed against Tokyo Electric Power Co. and 32 of its current and former executives over leakages of contaminated water from the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant. ajw.asahi.com

A couple of glitches aside, the U.S. nuclear power plant fleet has been posting very high plant capacity factors for the year to date, according to the federal Energy Information Administration. nuclearstreet.com

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission said that it had made several senior level management changes to help streamline the agency’s management “and broaden the scope and diversity of its leadership.” The moves were made in anticipation of a reduction in the size of the agency as a whole, which reflects the sobering business environment for the nuclear power industry. nuclearstreet.com

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Reluctant to speak, Fukushima moms admit fear of radiation, pressure from families japantimes.co.jp

Fukushima police have finally reacted to a criminal complaint filed against TEPCO and 32 of its top officials two years ago over the contamination caused by the 2011 nuclear disaster. They have referred the case to prosecutors. rt.com

Exelon weighs options for Three Mile Island after plant’s failed bid. ydr.com

Wildlife thriving around Chernobyl nuclear plant despite radiation. theguardian.com

        Jeremy Corbyn is a British politician who is a member of the  British Labour Party. In 2015 he was elected to his current position as Leader of the Labour Party. He is also the Leader of the Opposition in Parliament. Corbyn describes himself as a democratic socialist. He has been sharply critical of inequality and poverty in the U.K. He advocates the nationalization of public utilities and the railways, abolishing university tuition fees and a unilateral nuclear disarmament.

         This week, he said on a BBC radio program, “I am opposed to the use of nuclear weapons. I am opposed to the holding of nuclear weapons. I want to see a nuclear-free world. I believe it is possible. I do not think we should be renewing Trident… I think we should be promoting an international nuclear weapons convention which would lead to a nuclear-free world.” As might be expected, such a bold statement aroused controversy in the U.K. Supporters of nuclear weapons were quick to condemn Corbyn’s position.

         The only nuclear weapons that Britain has are U.S. manufactured Trident intercontinental ballistic missiles on four Vanguard-class submarines based at Faslane in Scotland. Each sub can carry as many as sixteen missiles and each missile can carry up to twelve independently targetable nuclear warheads. Each warhead has a maximum yield equivalent to one hundred kilotons of TNT. If one of these warheads detonated in the air over central London, about two hundred and fifty thousand people would be killed. The Trident missile has a range of about four thousand six hundred  miles and takes about twenty minutes to reach its maximum range.

        It is believed that the British Royal Navy only has fifty eight Trident missiles and one hundred and ninety two warheads. The British only have one sub on patrol at any time. Each missile on the patrolling sub probably has three warheads. This count estimates that the patrolling sub has about forty eight warheads.
So the British sub on patrol could theoretically kill about three million people bytargetingforty eight of the biggest cities in Russia. The theory is that if Britain were attacked and destroyed by Russian nuclear missiles and bombs, the patrolling sub could still devastate Russia. The subs are based at Faslane in Scotland.

         The current four submarines are going to be retired in 2020. Parliament voted to replace them with new submarines which are estimated by the Ministry of Defence to cost about forty billion dollars. Greenpeace estimates the cost at around fifty billion. Corbyn gives a much higher number but he may be talking about the total cost of the nuclear deterrence system. In any case, the replacement of the submarines will be a major expense for Britain.

         Only the Prime Minister has the authority to launch Britain’s Trident missiles. When a new Prime Minister is elected, the commanders of each of the four submarines are given sealed letters which are known as letters of last resort. They contain instruction for the commanders of the vessels to carry out in case the British government and chain of command have been destroyed. When a Prime Minister leaves office, his letters of last resort are destroyed. It is believed that there are four different options that may be contained in a particular letter of last resort. 1) Retaliate with nuclear warheads against the country that attacked Britain. 2) Do not retaliate. 3) The commander is to exercise his own judgement. 4) Turn over the command of the sub to a surviving ally. It has been claimed that if a sub cannot reach Royal Naval command and the BBB Radio 4 station has not broadcast for several days, the commander is to assume that Britain has been destroyed.

       I believe that Jeremy Corbyn has taken a brave and wise position to foreswear nuclear weapons. Nuclear war  is unwinnable and retaliation would serve to kill many more civilians that would be killed in the initial attack on Britain.

British Vanguard submarine:

 

Isis planning ‘nuclear holocaust’ to wipe hundreds of millions from face of the earth’, claims reporter who embedded with the extremists. dailymail.co.uk

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services is boosting the nation’s stockpile of burn treatments in case of nuclear attack. cnsnews.com

The last portion of the steel piling wall has been installed in the sea front of Fukushima Daiichi has been closed. fukuleaks.org

A series of new robot investigations at Fukushima were announced by TEPCO last week. fukuleaks.org

        In a past blog post about fraud in the global nuclear industry, I mentioned a problem that had been revealed in South Korea in 2012. I am going to expand on South Korean nuclear industry misbehavior in this blog post.

        In 2012, two reactors at the Yonggwang  Nuclear Power Plant in S. K. were shut down because it was discovered that quality certificates had been forged for some parts. The parts in question were things like fuses and power switches that didn’t pose a threat of radiation release. Eight suppliers had sold Korean Hydro & Nuclear Power Company almost eight thousand questionable parts for around seven hundred thousand dollars. These two power plants supplied about five percent of the electricity for S. K. and their loss put a strain on the national power supply system.

       Investigation of fraudulent documentation continued and six reactors were shut down in 2013. Over 100 people were indicted in the corruption scandal. The South Korean nuclear industry is very closed and secrective which prosecutors said bred a culture of corrupt practices. Two high ranking executives at nuclear power companies were charged with bribery. The six closed reactors had the uncertified parts replaced and were brought back into service. In spite of the 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster and the parts scandal, S.K. remained committed to nuclear power.

       In 2014, the investigations were continued and expanded. Previously domestic nuclear plant parts were the focus of the investigations but then parts supplied by foreign manufacturers came under scrutiny. The Nuclear Safety and Security Commission decided to check all parts manufactured overseas and supplied to S.K. nuclear power plants from 2008 to the present. A total of two hundred thousand parts from the United States, Canada, France, Britain, Germany and other countries, along with their safety documentation were targeted for investigated.

       Nuclear power provides about a third of the electricity for S.K. Even with the expanding investigations into fraudulent documentation from domestic and foreign suppliers, S.K. continued to support nuclear power and stood by plans to build at least sixteen new reactors in the next twenty years. In addition to the domestic  projects, S.K. intends to export nuclear technology to other countries.

       I have spent a lot of time in this blog on concerns that the companies which build and operate nuclear reactors for power generation cannot be trusted to follow regulations and safe practices in the construction and operation of their power plants. I have also pointed out that regulatory agencies are often underfunded and incompetent. Some have been “captured” by their nuclear industries and actually aid nuclear power companies who seek to evade regulation and oversight. The S.K. situation is not unique. How many nuclear parts manufacturers have evaded proper certification for their parts that are being sold to nuclear power companies? In Japan, less than half of the parts being exported to the global nuclear industry have been properly inspected. Even if the nuclear regulatory agencies and the nuclear power companies act ethically and competently, the world is still be endangered by unethical behavior of companies manufacturing nuclear components.

 

Isis planning ‘nuclear holocaust’ to wipe hundreds of millions from face of the earth’, claims reporter who embedded with the extremists. dailymail.co.uk

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services is boosting the nation’s stockpile of burn treatments in case of nuclear attack. cnsnews.com

The last portion of the steel piling wall has been installed in the sea front of Fukushima Daiichi has been closed. fukuleaks.org

A series of new robot investigations at Fukushima were announced by TEPCO last week. fukuleaks.org