Radioactive material from reactors is 2 billion times more toxic than industrial poisons. enenews.com

 Tucked in President Barack Obama’s $94.7 billion fiscal year 2016 budget request for the Department of Transportation is $3 million for a ship berthed in Baltimore that has carried neither cargo nor passengers since 1970. redding.com

At the start of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) conference on Sunday, U.S. Sens. Ben Cardin (D-Md.) and Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) both called for strict oversight of the Iranian nuclear program in any deal that is reached with the Islamic Republic.  jns.org

Iran’s Bushehr nuclear power plant will be disconnected from the national grid for a two-month period, beginning Sunday night, the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI) announced. tasnimnews.com

Still excessively high level of radiation is detected from fish caught inside of Fukushima plant port. fukushima-diary.com

Fishermen in Fukushima Prefecture slammed Tokyo Electric Power Co. on Wednesday after it emerged that water containing cesium and other radioactive isotopes has been draining into the Pacific near the Fukushima No. 1 plant and that TEPCO did nothing to prevent it despite learning of the leak last May. japantimes.co.jp

Legislation to cut carbon emissions currently before the Illinois general assembly would ensure the continued operation of the state’s nuclear power plants, according to Exelon. world-nuclear-news.org

The Nuclear Energy Institute this week commended the U.S. Department of Energy for its efforts to revamp nuclear technology exporting laws for the first time in 25 years. nuclearstreet.com

 

         The R Street Institute, a Washington D.C. based think-tank, recently issued a report titled “The Role of US Research and Development Policy in Nuclear Power” authored by George David Banks. R Street says this about themselves, “The R Street Institute is a non-profit, non-partisan, public policy research organization Our mission is to engage in policy research and outreach to promote free markets and limited, effective government.”

          Banks says that “US federal research policy should recognize the nuclear sector as a national asset and treat it equally with other non-greenhouse gas emitting energy sources.” He also claims that ” the civilian nuclear sector is key to the USA’s influential role in world nuclear safety and non-proliferation, but warns that the country’s international influence will be eroded if the country becomes a “marginal” supplier of nuclear goods and services.”

          Banks focuses on problems facing the U.S. nuclear industry such as the fact that only a few new reactors are under construction, the U.S. market share of nuclear technology exports is falling, competition is heating up from foreign suppliers of nuclear technology that are often state run or state supported companies, and deregulation has posed challenges for the industry. Cheap natural gas from shale has reduced the demand for new nuclear power reactors. There are federal and state mandates and subsides for alternate renewable and sustainable energy sources. The cheap natural gas and the support for renewable are the biggest challenges according to Banks.

         Last June, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency released its proposal for a Clean Power Plan which will reduce U.S. carbon dioxide emissions from power generation by thirty percent from 2005 levels by 2030. Banks criticizes the EPA plan because he says that it does not adequately recognize nuclear power. His report recommends that nuclear power be considered and supported along with other low-carbon energy sources. “Regulators and grid operators should pursue initiatives that provide adequate compensation for the positive attributes of nuclear power, including on-site fuel, diversity of supply and reliability.” The report blames the recent shut down of uncompetitive nuclear power reactors in the U.S. on what it calls market distortions and flaws. It says that these shutdowns are “a threat to grid reliability and the attainment of environmental and climate objectives.”

        The R Street report states that the U.S. nuclear power industry must increase its effectiveness in order to compete with cheap natural gas and subsidies that support other types of power generation. It recommends that the U.S. change the focus of research programs to advanced reactor designs and new materials. It says that the U.S. government must fund research that the nuclear industry cannot pay for that involved high risks but also high rewards. Currently federal R&D projects usually require private sector partners to supply at least twenty percent of the cost of projects. The report suggests that even this is too much to require and other arrangements should be explored.

        First of all, I would like to point out that nuclear power generation is not a no-carbon emission energy source. Depending on rough estimates over the lifespan of a nuclear power plant including the fuel cycle, nuclear power generates more carbon dioxide than hydropower, about the same amount as wind and a little less than current solar power stations. Second, with respect to the share of the global nuclear technology market, the major U.S. company involved in exporting reactors and supporting technology is Westinghouse which is now a wholly owned subsidiary of Toshiba, a Japanese company. Third, the changes to the global nuclear energy marketplace are just that, they are not distortions or flaws. If nuclear energy cannot compete, it should be abandoned. Fourth, the U.S. government has already spent trillions of dollars on nuclear research which wound up benefiting private companies and it is about time the private sector paid for their own research. Fifth, it can take up to ten years to submit, test, license, build and operate a new nuclear power reactor. We simply do not have the time to waste in combating carbon dioxide emissions. And, finally, spent nuclear fuel is piling up all over the U.S. with no permanent repository available before 2050 at the earliest. I strongly disagree with the conclusions and recommendations of the R Street report. 

Still excessively high level of radiation is detected from fish caught inside of Fukushima plant port. fukushima-diary.com

Fishermen in Fukushima Prefecture slammed Tokyo Electric Power Co. on Wednesday after it emerged that water containing cesium and other radioactive isotopes has been draining into the Pacific near the Fukushima No. 1 plant and that TEPCO did nothing to prevent it despite learning of the leak last May. japantimes.co.jp

Legislation to cut carbon emissions currently before the Illinois general assembly would ensure the continued operation of the state’s nuclear power plants, according to Exelon. world-nuclear-news.org

The Nuclear Energy Institute this week commended the U.S. Department of Energy for its efforts to revamp nuclear technology exporting laws for the first time in 25 years. nuclearstreet.com

         I have often blogged about the aftermath of the Fukushima nuclear disaster in March of 2011. The current Prime Minister of Japan, Shinzo Abe, has made nuclear power a major part of his economic development plan for Japan. Despite public opposition, he is working to restart the idled fleet of Japan’s nuclear power reactors. He is also promoting the manufacture and export of nuclear technology to other countries. Japan passed a law after Fukushima that appears to be aimed at suppressing media coverage of those who oppose Abe’s plan and try of offer evidence against his claims about the benefits of nuclear power and nuclear technology exports.

         In the past, the Japanese media often spoke truth to power. Now the national media appears to be losing its passion for challenging powerful interests. Although the new law is vague, the Japanese government has succeeded in sending a message to the media. If they criticize the government position with respect to Fukushima, the nuclear industry and/or the government nuclear regulatory agencies, they risk losing access to high level officials in corporations and government. This has led to the practice of “self-censorship” where media organizations voluntarily stay away from sensitive subjects such as the nuclear contamination caused by Fukushima, corporate corruption and failure of government regulatory agencies.

         PM Abe appointed Katsuto Momii to be chairman of NHK, the Japanese Broadcasting Corporation, the national public broadcasting organization and the largest media organization in Japan. It operates two terrestrial TV stations, two satellite TV stations and three radio stations. After his appointment, Momii said “We cannot say left when the government says right.” An Abe aide sent a letter to media organizations late last year that demanded “fair” campaign coverage. Many in the media saw the letter as a threat to their government access if they were too critical. Prior media self-censorship usually involved the Imperial Family.

         A former NHK producer and current professor of media studies at Musashi University says that “Criticism of the government has dropped sharply.” A producer of a major nightly television news show was reassigned to a new position because she would not follow internal warnings about not criticizing the Abe government. Shigeaki Koga, a guest commentator on the same news show, will be dropped in March because he criticized the way that the Abe government dealt with the killing of two Japanese hostages of ISIS. The network producing the news show denied that they had made any decisions with respect to anchors or guests on the show.

         A government representative said that the airing of the segment criticizing how the hostage crisis was handled showed that there was press freedom in Japan. However, just this month, three thousand people including journalists, scholars and other people involved in the Japanese media, signed a statement of concern over press freedom. As Koga, the guest commentator on the news show, put it, “We’ve reached the stage where even without the government doing anything, mass media produce articles that cozy up to authorities or refrain from criticism. The public is not getting the right information to make decisions.”

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Less than one-fifth of evacuees from the Fukushima nuclear disaster say they want to return to their homes, despite government efforts to speed up reconstruction in areas with lower radiation levels. ajw.asahi.com

An oil leak occurred in the spent fuel pool of unit 3 at Fukushima Daiichi today as work was under way to remove parts of the fuel handling machine.  fukuleaks.org

Government today insisted that no provision related to compensation under the Civil Liability for Nuclear Damage Act (CLND) has been waived off in the recent Indo-US agreement and said the provision of Rs 1500 crore is for immediate compensation only.   economictimes.indiantimes.com

The second unit of the Shin Wolsong plant was connected to the power grid today following the successful completion of commissioning tests, plant owner Korea Hydro and Nuclear Power (KHNP) announced.  world-nuclear-news.org