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  1. Link to Post #81
    Australia Avalon Member panopticon's Avatar
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    Default Re: Not looking good at Fukushima

    For those who might be concerned about the effect that the accident at the Fukushima Daiichi NPS has had on ocean radiation levels I might suggest a quick read of Marine Chemists blog over at Dailykos. The PICES presentation (above) was mentioned there a few weeks ago:

    Quote About 93% of radioactivity in seawater results from the presence of primordial, naturally occurring potassium-40 (K-40) and rubidium-87 (Rb-87). The remaining 7% are radioactive elements deposited to the ocean from past atmospheric nuclear testing. The sum of these activities is about 14 Bq/L on average though there are regional differences that scale with ocean salinity.

    Ongoing time series measurements are being carried out by the Department of Fisheries and Oceans to determine when and how much radioactivity from the Fukushima disaster will arrive along the west coast of North America.

    Results of the Line P Time Series Program thus far can be summarized as follows:
    1) Cs levels in June 2011 were consistent with pre-Fukushima levels present from atmospheric nuclear test fallout
    2) In June 2012 surface waters ~1500 km offshore had detectable Cs-134 from Fukushima and associated Cs-137 of 0.0003 Bq/L or roughly 0.002% of naturally occurring background radiation
    3) Fukushima derived Cs was detected all the way to the coast in June 2013 with the highest levels of Cs-137 farthest offshore (0.0009 Bq/L or roughly 0.006% of background radiation) and lower levels of 0.0003 Bq/L toward the coast.
    4) The timing of the arrival of the plume agrees with the modeling study of Rossi et al. (2013) published in the peer-reviewed journal Deep-Sea Research (link) but the concentrations are lower than predicted
    Source
    BTW, the PICES presentation had 2 misleading images at the beginning. The hoax "Nuclear Fallout Map" that circulated just after the accident and was supposedly from ARS (it wasn't, as can be seen from the ARS disclaimer at the time) and the widely posted but misleading graphic from ASR showing a computer animation of projected dispersal pattern of free floating material in the ocean. To quote ASR:
    Quote THIS IS NOT A REPRESENTATION OF THE RADIOACTIVE PLUME CONCENTRATION.
    Source
    For a number of different models on dispersal/transport patterns of radionuclides at different depths try the bottom of this page (nifty short movie for each one):
    http://fvcom.smast.umassd.edu/resear...FVCOM_Tsunami/

    Hope this was useful to someone.

    -- Pan
    "What we think, or what we know, or what we believe is, in the end, of little consequence.
    The only consequence is what we do."

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  3. Link to Post #82
    Ireland On Sabbatical regnak's Avatar
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    Default Re: Not looking good at Fukushima

    I was a paying scriber to fulford years ago for like 2 months you get a in depth analysis from him and in the end I stopped because what he was talking about was a load of nonsense my opinion only for if I state something I like to give evidence or back up the statement with data which can be verified

    Making wild statement with no verifiable data I think he means well

    I read ( rexresearch )who says japan should be covered completely in lava and sunk into the sea over the Nuclear disaster ( Fukushima Daiichi ).The multiple melt downs of ( Fukushima Daiichi ) have not been solved yet and this is a extinction level event (E.L.E) most of the nuclear cores of ( Fukushima Daiichi ) have not been found and the building are sinking into the ground because the foundations have been compromised by two much water been pumped into the ground over the last ten years trying to cool the missing nuclear reactors . The nuclear cores of ( Fukushima Daiichi ) melted down through the concrete ( at the time of the disater ) and are missing robots have ben sent down looking for these core but because of the high radiation the robots malfunction and the cores have yet to be found .

    If they stop pumping water volcanic nuclear eruption from multiple nuclear cores .

    If another large earthquake happens the buildings will collapse all 4 and there will be a melt down three mile island x million if happens evacuate Japan .

    Solution guys I read say the gravel should be converted into concrete overnight brown gas should be brought in to reduce radioactive by 99% the country should be covered with special soil that’s eats radio activity reduces soil by over 95% to a reasonable levels the missing core and the radioactive at the core of the site might need very exotic treatment or a manhattan project but it can be sealed off I would cover it with a pryminad which reduces radioactive rexresearch

    Cost will be billion maybe more estimated only
    Last edited by regnak; 28th December 2018 at 14:51.

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  5. Link to Post #83
    United States Avalon Member onawah's Avatar
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    Default Re: Not looking good at Fukushima

    The Run For Your Life Tokyo Olympics --Atomic Balm Part 2:
    March 08, 2019
    Written by Arnie Gundersen
    https://www.fairewinds.org/demystify...tokyo-olympics

    "Thank you to Fairewinds’ Friends, who have written and called us to share their appreciation for Fairewinds’ post Atomic Balm Part 1, and for taking the time to read and understand our analysis of the real reasons the Summer Olympics were placed in Tokyo in 2020.

    To begin Part 2, let’s talk about the scientific studies that Dr. Marco Kaltofen and I began together back in 2012. Before the ongoing catastrophe created by the Fukushima meltdowns, the maximum allowable radiation exposure emanating from commercial atomic power reactors was 100 millirem per year (1 milli Sievert per year) to civilians worldwide. Because radiation workers receive compensation for the increased body burden they take on by working in a high radiation risk environment, workers were allowed a maximum of 5,000 millirem per year of radiation (50 milli Seiverts of 5 Rem – depending upon which term one is applying). Although that is the legal upper limit, most workers in atomic power industry actually receive approximately 2,000 millirem per year (20 milli Sieverts or 2 Rem). According to DOE 2016 Occupational Radiation Exposure

    Over the past 5-year period, all monitored individuals received measurable total effective dose (TED) below the 2 rem (20 mSv) TED ACL, which is well below the DOE regulatory limit of 5 rem (50 mSv) TED annually.

    Since the Fukushima meltdowns, the government of Japan changed the rules by increasing the allowable amount of radiation civilians are subjected to at 20-times higher than was previously allowed, which is almost the same as the highest dose exposure nuke workers may receive in an entire year!

    A significant portion of the Olympic games, including men’s baseball and women’s softball and the Olympic torch run, as well as the soccer training facility, will occur on land that the government of Japan has declared to be part of a “nuclear emergency”. This means that athletes and civilians will legally be exposed to allowable radiation levels that are 20 times higher than levels that exist at other athletic facilities on any other continent. Therefore, according to the National Academy of Science’s Linear No Threshold (LNT) radiation risk assessment, the athlete’s risk of radiation related maladies has also increased 20 times higher than if they stayed home.

    The people living in and around the Fukushima Daiichi disaster were informed by Japan’s government that they must return to their contaminated homes and villages if the radiation levels there were 2 Rem, even though they are being subjected to daily doses of radiation that is 20 times higher than any people living near any nuclear plants in Japan were ever subjected to.

    Rather than completing an effective cleanup, Japan’s government is forcing its evacuees to return to their allegedly clean but still highly contaminated homes if they wanted to continue to receive their financial refugee stipend. There are three fundamental problems that make the exposure to Japanese civilians much worse than the new dose limit.

    The first problem is with the government of Japan’s clearance criteria that only areas in and around homes have been allegedly decontaminated. I measured radiation along highways and then 50-feet into the surrounding woods, only to find that the woods remained highly contaminated, so that when it rains or snows, or the wind blows the dust or pollen from the woods, that radiation migrates back to people’s supposedly clean and radiation-free homes. I went to the top of 4-story high rooftops in Minamisoma that had been completely cleaned and repainted following the meltdowns. These rooftops were recontaminated by dust on the wind, blowing in radiation from the surrounding mountains. Peoples’ homes and communities that were claimed to be clean are indeed being recontaminated every day.

    The second problem is that the government of Japan is measuring only one type of radiation prior to forcing the refugees to return. Only the direct radiation from cesium is being measured with handheld Geiger Counters. Such measurements are the measurement of external gamma rays that travel through the human body uniformly, much like X-rays. Dr. Marco Kaltofen and I have long noted that ingestion of small radioactive particles, called hot particles or fine radioactive dust (or nanoparticles), migrate into peoples’ lungs and GI systems causing internal organs to receive heavy radiation doses for years on end. TEPCO and the government of Japan are ignoring the presence of these hot particles.

    The third and final problem is that some hot particles are extraordinarily radioactive, much more so than the average hot particles. In a peer-reviewed paper that Dr. Kaltofen and I wrote, we detail our scientific research which proves that more than 5% of these particles are up to 10,000 times more radioactive than the average of all 300-particles we studied. Of course, this means that peoples’ internal organs are constantly bombarded with extraordinarily high levels of radiation, much higher than the civilian evacuees are subjected to.

    These three additional selfie-videos that I took while in Fukushima during September 2017 show what is really happening near Fukushima. We cannot forget about the magnitude of these exposures to all people in order to create an image of normalcy by Japan’s hosting of the Tokyo Olympics.

    (Go to the link https://www.fairewinds.org/demystify...tokyo-olympics to see the Vimeo vids)

    The migrating radioactive dust from Fukushima has had and will continue to have a devastating effect on thousands of people who lived near the reactors and are now being forced to return as well as hundreds of thousands who reside much further away. Highly radioactive samples were found as far away and in such populous places as Tokyo. In its effort to try and restore everything to the way it was before the triple meltdowns, the government of Japan has failed to realize that Japan and in fact the world, is a much different place than it was before the Fukushima Daiichi disaster. Japan continues to force refugees to return to contaminated villages and is marketing what can only be irradiated products from Fukushima.

    Cleaning up after a nuclear meltdown is no easy task, in fact a total clean-up is technically impossible, by slapping Band-Aids and quick fixes onto the problem instead of acknowledging the scope, severity, and root causes of the issues, the politicians and government officials of Japan and TECPO are endangering the lives of thousands of Japan’s citizens in order to protect their political standing, personal financial status, and the wallets of the nuclear industry.

    According to the Asia Pacific Journal (AJP) last week, in a brilliant essay written by University of Chicago professor Dr. Norma Field, a Robert S. Ingersoll Distinguished Service Professor in Japanese Studies in East Asian Languages and Civilizations:

    We might pause over predictions that the 2020 Olympics-Paralympics may end up costing 3 trillion yen (approximately 26.4 billion USD), many times the original budget for what was promised to be the most “compact Olympics” ever. These games are often touted as the “recovery Olympics” .

    It is not hard to conjure ways that these monies might have been used to benefit the entire region afflicted by the triple disaster and especially, the victims of the enduring nuclear disaster. A pittance of the Olympics budget would have sustained modest housing support for evacuees, compulsory or “voluntary.” Instead, the highly restricted, arbitrarily drawn evacuation zones have been recklessly opened for return of evacuated citizens despite worrisome conditions prevailing over wide swaths of the region.

    The Olympic soccer center that served TEPCO as a base for radioactively contaminated disaster workers (where they slept, donned protective gear, and were screened) has been contaminated by radioactivity yet is scheduled to be the training site for the national soccer team.

    In Dr. Field’s essay for APJ, which was an introduction to a longer essay by the recently retired Kyoto University Reactor Research Institute professor: Dr. Koide Hiroaki, she wrote:

    …As medical journalist Aihara Hiroko observes with not a little irony, “Surely the Tokyo Olympics will be a superb occasion for displaying ‘recovery from disaster,’” but also for revealing to the international community the “real consequences of the human-made disaster resulting from the national nuclear energy policy: the imposition of long-term evacuation and sacrifice on the part of area residents.”

    Dr. Field’s introduction and Dr. Koide Hiroaki’s extensive article in APJ are crushing to read, yet they do not tell the whole story. I feel it is important to expand upon the ongoing radiation exposures that the 160,000 Fukushima refugees are still experiencing, eight years after the meltdowns. This science, that governments are hiding from people around the world, is not difficult to understand, especially if we also focus on the desire of world governments to keep alive the ever-intertwined nuclear power and nuclear weapons opportunities they have invested in so heavily ­– financially, politically, and emotionally. During my four trips to Japan, and from all the people who have written to Fairewinds from Japan since we first published our book there, I have met, spoken with, or communicated with numerous refugees from Fukushima and truly believe that Fairewinds understands their traumatic losses.

    While people world-wide might cheer the Tokyo Olympians, the human perspective should focus on the real victims, those who are being shoved out-of-sight.

    The bottom line is that to reduce cleanup costs while spending enormous funds on the Olympics, the government of Japan treats its 160,000 Fukushima evacuees as if they were radiation Guinea Pigs, forcing them to return to recontaminated areas to try and convince the world everything is ok, meanwhile making it difficult for serious scientists to accurately assess the effects of radiation on these evacuees. The billions of dollars being spent on the Olympics would be much better used to help those displaced by the Fukushima Daiichi disaster. Help these families find permanent homes and employment and new supportive communities far away from the contaminated areas that they are now forcibly being returned to.

    Fairewinds will keep you informed. "
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  7. Link to Post #84
    United States Avalon Member onawah's Avatar
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    Default Re: Not looking good at Fukushima

    Fukushima: Ongoing Cover-Up of the Nuclear Hazards in Japan and Abroad
    Fairewinds on Global Research News Hour
    3/21/19

    Arnie was recently interviewed on the Global Research News Hour podcast, hosted by Michael Welch. The topic of the podcast was Fukushima at 8 years and Arnie shares his understanding of the spread of nuclear contamination at Fukushima, the Japanese government’s bid to distract the public with heavy investment in and promotion of the 2020 Olympics, and the general tendency of governments and regulators to put the health of the industry above the safety of the public. Arnie also discusses the meltdown at Three Mile Island that took place 40-years ago near Harrisburg Pennsylvania on March 28th.

    To listen to the interview click here:
    https://www.fairewinds.org/nuclear-e...arch-news-hour
    About the Interview
    Arnie Gundersen appears on Global Research News Hour, Hosted by Michael Welch, to share his understanding of the spread of nuclear contamination at Fukushima, the Japanese government’s bid to distract the public with heavy investment in and promotion of the 2020 Olympics, and the general tendency of governments and regulators to put the health of the industry above the safety of the public. He also addresses some of the background of the Three Mile Island incident which took place 40 years ago this month in Pennsylvania, near Harrisburg.
    Note
    This version has been edited down just to showcase Arnie's interview. For the full length podcast including Dr. Helen Caldicott's interview, follow the link here:
    https://www.globalresearch.ca/fukush...abroad/5671690

    Don’t Miss the Nationwide Premiere of Power Struggle
    Filmed over five years, this feature-length documentary chronicles the heated political battle to close the Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant, located on the banks of the Connecticut River in southern Vermont. Power Struggle follows the unfolding drama as citizen activists and elected officials – alarmed at increasing safety violations – take on the federal government and one of the biggest nuclear power companies in America to call for closure of the reactor when its original 40-year license expires.

    The film captures perspectives on all sides of the controversy, including from local residents both for and against nuclear power, elected officials (including Sen. Bernie Sanders and Vermont Gov. Peter Shumlin), nuclear engineer Arnie Gundersen, a Vermont Yankee spokesperson, and federal nuclear regulators.

    Tune in to Free Speech TV on Thursday, March 28 at 8 pm ET for the national broadcast premiere of Power Struggle.

    To read more about the film follow the link here:
    https://www.powerstrugglemovie.com/

    Watch the POWER STRUGGLE Trailer from Robbie Leppzer on Vimeo:
    https://vimeo.com/180335949
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    Default Re: Not looking good at Fukushima

    Radioactive iodine is one of first substances that appears in a nuclear catastrophe like Fukushima.
    Broad leaf vegetables are affected as the dust comes down.

    Real threat is radioactive sesium that comes next, polluting the soil. However, sosium is water-soluble, so it sinks deeper into the soil with rain. Rice sucks up a lot of water, so it's necessary to forget about the rice crop of that year.

    At this stage, taking iodine doesn't do you any good.

    Fukushima: Israeli terrorism
    http://82.221.129.208/fukureport1b.pdf

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    United States Avalon Member onawah's Avatar
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    Default Re: Not looking good at Fukushima

    Brief Fukushima Prefecture Update
    https://www.fairewinds.org/demystify...fecture-update
    October 16, 2019


    "At Least 14 levees broke in Fukushima Prefecture

    News outlets worldwide are reporting that at least 66 residents of Japan have died as a result of Typhoon Hagibis. Our hearts reach out to the people of Japan and the families of the deceased.

    The news coverage from Reuters caught our attention due to its research that Fukushima Prefecture was apparently the region hardest hit by the typhoon. According to the Reuters story entitled: Rescuers slog through mud as Japan typhoon death toll rises to 66:

    “The highest toll was in Fukushima prefecture north of Tokyo, where levees burst in at least 14 places along the Abukuma River, which meanders through a number of cities in the largely agricultural prefecture. At least 25 people died in Fukushima, including a mother and child who were caught in flood waters, NHK said…. Residents in Koriyama, one of Fukushima's larger cities, said they were taken by surprise by the flooding. Police were searching house-to-house to make sure nobody had been left behind or was in need of help.

    "The river has never flooded like this before, and some houses have been completely swept away. I think it might be time to redraw hazard maps or reconsider evacuation plans," said Masaharu Ishizawa, a 26-year-old high school teacher …”


    Fukushima prefecture is very mountainous and largely remote. The radioactive fallout, which spread throughout Japan after the three Fukushima nuclear meltdowns in 2011, is impossible to clean up in these inaccessible mountainous areas that lie throughout Fukushima Prefecture. Even in populous Tokyo, more than one-year after the meltdowns, Fairewinds’ research identified randomly selected Soil Samples Would Be Considered Nuclear Waste in the US, which we discussed in the video on Fairewinds’ website. https://www.fairewinds.org/nuclear-e...aste-in-the-us

    Plastic bags containing greenery collected during decontamination efforts after the 2011 Japanese nuclear disaster were washed down a river during Typhoon Hagibis.

    It is our belief from our ongoing research that the ensuing flooding induced by Typhoon Hagibis is moving significant amounts of radiation from high in the mountains down to cities, towns, and farmland in Japan. Our analysis on several radiation sampling trips to the prefecture proves that there are huge amounts of residual radiation that were previously trapped in the soil.

    Now, due to the heavy rain, subsequent river flooding, and burst levees (dams) this radioactive soil is moving and being pushed from the mountains down into more populous areas where people live and crops are grown. Once again it appears that government authorities and rescue organizations are ignoring this new, long-term threat, or have not been apprised by the JAEA (Japan Atomic Energy Agency) and nuclear power industry of the monumental health risks involved.

    At Fairewinds, we know Radiation Knows No Borders! "
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    Default Re: Not looking good at Fukushima

    Japan planning to release over a million tonnes of radioactive water into sea from Fukushima power plant
    Coolant contains toxic element which cannot be removed
    Harry Cockburn
    2/1/20

    https://www.independent.co.uk/enviro...-a9312246.html
    "Massive amounts of radioactive water being stored at Japan’s Fukushima power plant could be released into the sea under plans provisionally accepted by the country’s government.

    Tokyo Electric has collected nearly 1.2 million tonnes of contaminated water from cooling pipes used to keep fuel cores from melting since the plant was devastated by the earthquake and tsunami which hit eastern Japan in 2011.

    The water, containing 62 radioactive elements, is stored in huge tanks on the site of the now disabled power plant, but Tokyo Electric has said it will run out of room to store the water by 2022.

    The water has been treated and Tokyo Electric said it is able to remove all radioactive particles from the water to levels not harmful to humans, except tritium, an isotope of hydrogen which is more difficult to separate from water.

    A panel of experts working for Japan’s economy and industry ministry concluded that letting the water run into the sea was the best option after looking at other proposals. The only other viable option considered was to let the water evaporate.In Friday’s proposal, the ministry said the controlled release to the sea is superior because its route is predictable and easier to sample and monitor.

    “Compared to evaporation, ocean release can be done more securely,” the committee said, pointing to common practice around the world where nuclear power stations operating under normal conditions routinely release water containing tritium into the sea.

    But the decision will alarm neighbouring countries and comes ahead of Japan’s hosting of the 2020 Olympic Games, with some events due to be held less than 60km away from the Fukushima site.

    Fishermen and residents also fear health effects from releasing the radioactive water as well as harm to the region’s image and farm industries.Neighbouring South Korea has retained a ban on imports of seafood from Japan’s Fukushima region imposed after the nuclear disaster and summoned a senior Japanese embassy official last year to explain how the Fukushima water would be dealt with, Reuters reported.

    South Korean athletes are planning to bring their own radiation detectors and food to the Games.

    Experts say there is no established method to fully separate tritium from water, but it is not a problem in small amounts. Government officials also say tritium is routinely released from existing nuclear power plants around the world.

    The report acknowledges the water releases would harm industries that still face reluctant consumers despite safety checks. It promised to reinforce monitoring of tritium levels and food safety checks to address safety concerns."

    ( "But the decision will alarm neighbouring countries and comes ahead of Japan’s hosting of the 2020 Olympic Games, with some events due to be held less than 60km away from the Fukushima site." Why in the world are the 2020 Olympics being held so close to all that toxic mess? )
    Last edited by onawah; 3rd February 2020 at 19:03.
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    Default Re: Not looking good at Fukushima


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    Default Re: Not looking good at Fukushima

    Georgia Nuclear: Vogtle Unit 3 Is Sinking! [BREDL Petition]
    May 14, 2020
    What Does the Leaning Tower of Pisa Have In Common with the Vogtle Nuclear Reactor?
    https://www.fairewinds.org/demystify...bredl-petition



    "Last month, Vogtle’s owner, Sothern Nuclear Operating Company (SNC), tried to amend its operating license with information that had been kept secret from the public. When that now leaning wall was first built five years ago, SNC established a program to monitor the lack of stability in the foundation.

    Honestly, truth is stranger than fiction – you can’t make this stuff up! Now we learn that the Vogtle Unit 3 atomic power reactor is sinking into the red Georgia clay causing an inner wall to tilt! Yes, this is the same Vogtle Unit 3 that is already billions of dollars over budget and at least 5-years behind schedule.

    ******************
    By The Fairewinds Crew
    "The famous tower in Pisa, Italy was designed to stand straight up, and like Vogtle, it began to lean during construction. During the ensuing years after construction, the Pisa tower continued to sink into the ground due to the inability of the failing foundation to sustain the tower’s heavy weight. It became known as the Leaning Tower of Pisa. Similarly, the Vogtle Unit 3 nuclear power plant was designed to be straight on its firm ‘basemat foundation’, which is designed with extra rebar and mathematical calculations to assure that the foundation can support an atomic reactor as heavy as the unique design of the AP1000 with 8-million-pounds of emergency cooling water sitting on top of the containment.

    Last month, Vogtle’s owner, Sothern Nuclear Operating Company (SNC), tried to amend its operating license with information that had been kept secret from the public. When that now leaning wall was first built five years ago, SNC established a program to monitor the lack of stability in the foundation.

    Honestly, truth is stranger than fiction – you can’t make this stuff up! Now we learn that the Vogtle Unit 3 atomic power reactor is sinking into the red Georgia clay causing an inner wall to tilt! Yes, this is the same Vogtle Unit 3 that is already billions of dollars over budget and at least 5-years behind schedule.

    On Tuesday, May 12, 2020, the Blue Ridge Environmental Defense League [BREDL] announced that part of the Vogtle Unit 3 nuclear power plant currently under construction in Waynesboro, Georgia, is sinking. According to BREDL’s press release, “In a legal action filed Monday with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), the group called on regulators to revoke the plant’s license for false statements made by its owners, Southern Nuclear Operating Company. On May 11, BREDL filed a nineteen-page legal petition requesting a hearing before the Atomic Safety and Licensing Board on a License Amendment for Plant Vogtle’s Unit 3. The petition is supported by detailed, specific expert opinion. Under rules of procedure, Southern Company has 25 days to respond.”
    https://www.fairewinds.org/nuclear-e...ague/#petition
    Fairewinds Associates, Inc Chief Engineer Arnie Gundersen wrote an expert witness report submitted by BREDL to the NRC in which he said that Southern Nuclear Operating Company (SNC) chose not to disclose that the Vogtle Unit 3 foundation was sinking faster in the middle than at the edges, in the shape of a dish, causing internal walls to lean. From our point of view, leaning walls may have created a tourist destination for the Tower in Pisa, however, a leaning tower and failing foundation at a nuke plant is a meltdown waiting to happen.

    BREDL has informed the NRC that there must be an entire reevaluation of the seismic/structural integrity of the entire nuclear plant. This means that a completely new licensing review and full analysis of all new stress conditions placed on other components that are no longer level needs to be conducted and receive an independent engineering review as well, since SCE has not publicized this fact to the people of Georgia.

    View fullsize
    The 2 million pound roof of the Vogtle Unit 3 shield building has been set into place at Georgia Power’s nuclear expansion project near Waynesboro, Georgia. Credit: Georgia Power

    Vogtle Units 3 & 4 are notoriously over budget, and their construction has been delayed for years. Now with the Covid-19 Pandemic, and these newly uncovered flaws, the construction will slow further as a complete safety review must be conducted to ascertain whether the ‘basemat foundation’ meets the foundation integrity demanded for a nuclear island (NI). The Vogtle Unit 3 nuclear island underlies the strange heavy design of the AP1000 with its donut-shaped 8-million-pound water tank at the apex of the entire containment system that is meant to protect us from a meltdown.

    Let’s look more closely at the history of Vogtle and the so-called nuclear renaissance that never happened. Complicit in this financial boondoggle is the Georgia Public Service Commission (GPSC) whose members have greenlighted all these cost overruns in return for campaign contributions from the nuclear industry. That’s why we wrote The Night The Lights Went Out in Georgia. At Vogtle, all the extensive cost overruns have been shifted to Georgia taxpayers and ratepayers, and originally these plants were built with federal loan guarantees – that is our money folks, and a story for another time in the Vogtle saga.

    During the past decade Fairewinds joined with other nuclear risk and environmental advocacy groups to raise awareness about the numerous safety flaws and operational issues associated with the AP1000 reactor design. You can read more about those problems and issues here.https://www.fairewinds.org/nuclear-e...ment-leakage-2

    In its legal brief, based on this Fairewinds Associates report, BREDL asked for a formal investigation of the Southern Nuclear Operating Company for making “materially false statements” to the NRC by claiming that the leaning walls were caused by construction tolerance measurements when the real reason the walls have moved is that the ‘basemat foundation’ of the Vogtle nuclear island (NI) is sinking.

    You can find the Fairewinds Associates expert report and BREDL’s legal filing here and under the reports section of this Fairewinds site. You also may read BREDL’s legal filing and the other documents filed on BREDL’s home site, where you will also see the breadth and depth of the environmental work conducted by the Blue Ridge Environmental Defense League and its associated chapters in many states.



    Each breath a gift...
    _____________

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  18. Link to Post #90
    United States Avalon Member onawah's Avatar
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    Default Re: Not looking good at Fukushima

    California:Climate Emergency/Nuclear Mismanagement
    California: A Climate Emergency Fraught with Nuclear Utility Mismanagement
    August 21, 2020
    Fairwinds Energy Education

    https://www.fairewinds.org/demystify...-mismanagement

    By Arnie Gundersen

    "I began the pursuit of my two nuclear engineering degrees in 1967 as a freshman at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) in Troy, NY. That same year the Beatles released “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band” album and the New York musical Hair opened on Broadway with the hit song “Age of Aquarius”.

    Unfortunately, 1967 was not the Dawning of the Age of Aquarius for many of us growing up in America during that time. The Vietnam war was raging, the civil rights act and the voting rights act had passed, and the country was in turmoil over war, voting rights, racial inequality, and feminism. And, in California, against a strong environmental movement, construction began on Pacific Gas and Electric’s (PG&E’s) two large atomic reactors located at Diablo Canyon in California.



    From the beginning, their design and fabrication were one fiasco after another that led to almost 20-years of construction delays, during which portions of one Diablo Canyon reactor were built backward. The two nukes, first designed when I was in high school, were finally started up in 1985 and 1986. To say these atomic reactors are now outmoded is an understatement.

    Several years ago, Fairewinds Associates, Inc [the paralegal and expert witness firm that Maggie founded in 2003] was retained by Mothers for Peace in St. Luis Obispo, California, to assess the condition and reliability of the two Diablo Canyon Reactors. Fairewinds’ testimony, which was submitted to the CPUC (California Public Utilities Commission), delineated the daunting unreliability of both PG&E atomic reactors.

    In that report, Fairewinds Associates, Inc wrote:

    The closure of Diablo Canyon Nuclear Power Plant (“Diablo Canyon”) has been inevitable for years. The degraded condition and economic infeasibility of the Diablo Canyon Units 1 and 2 make it imperative for economic, safety, and environmental reasons that the reactors join the long list of atomic power plants that will permanently close during the next several years. The proposed joint agreement which allows Diablo Canyon Unit 1 to continue to operate until 2024 and Diablo Canyon Unit 2 until 2025 is not substantiated by available engineering and/or economic data produced by Pacific Gas & Electric (“PG&E”) or from published data regarding the operational longevity of any other nuclear power plant operated in the United States. The proposed shutting of the plant in 2024/2025 does not appear to be based on science and technical assessment of the condition of the plant and the best interests of ratepayers, but rather merely because 2024/2025 is the end of the operating license for the plant. The scientific and engineering evidence demonstrates that it is imperative that both PG&E atomic reactors are shut down in 2019. … As atomic power reactors age around the globe, these types of component malfunctions and replacements have proven to be systemic and costly, further reducing the operational reliability of old plants like Diablo Canyon as the cost to ratepayers increases with the continuous maintenance required to operate such an antiquated behemoth. Even in the best case with no serious mechanical failures, aging will inevitably cause increased costs; this technology has repeatedly shown itself to be uneconomical. Mechanical failure is likely and there remains a finite possibility of a serious mechanical failure with a significant release of radiation from the Diablo Canyon atomic power reactors as they age further.

    Now, in August 2020, the untimely events at these two 54-year-old Diablo Canyon atomic reactors are proving that the Fairewinds Associates analysis identifying the unreliability and actual danger of continued operation of these two old, poorly maintained, and dysfunctional reactors, was spot-on.

    Here are the latest calamities that have occurred at the Diablo Canyon atomic reactors during the last 20 days:

    1.) In late July 2020, PG&E noticed that the hydrogen used to cool its electrical generator at Diablo Unit 2 was leaking. Although PG&E has repeatedly claimed that it has a rigorous inspection and maintenance program, its previous inspections failed to identify the mechanical flaws that led to this leak. Therefore, Unit 2 had to shut down for more than one week to avoid a possible catastrophe if the leaking hydrogen ignited. Diablo Canyon Unit 2 finally began operating again on August 3, 2020.

    2.) A few days later that week, a staff member at Diablo Canyon Unit 2 noticed water leaking from the Auxiliary Feed Water system (AFW).

    The AFW (Auxiliary Feed Water) system is a critical piece of reactor operating equipment, and as a result, is classified by nuclear regulations as safety-related equipment. Think of it this way, the AFW system acts as the brakes to cool the reactor in the event of other mechanical failures.

    Did you know that it was the failure of the AFW (Auxiliary Feed Water) system that led to the meltdown at Three Mile Island (TMI) nuclear power plant in Pennsylvania more than 40-years ago?

    Despite decades of AFW system inspections at Diablo Canyon Unit 2, PG&E failed to identify the flaw that led to this latest leak and mechanical defect. In nuke industry parlance [what we often call nukespeak], if a pipe leaks that should have been found defective during an inspection, it is called a self-revealing failure.

    Initial inspection seems to show that the AFW system had a pipe that has worn out by thinning from the inside out, and thus the pipe wall simply became too thin to hold water.

    Imagine the brake fluid leaking and the brakes beginning to fail as you drive your car. Luckily [and just dumb luck], it was not needed at the time to act as a brake on the reactor’s acceleration!

    Diablo Canyon Unit 2 replaced the leaking piping and restarted this past week, however, how many other 54-year-old pipes or other mechanical equipment are also near-immediate failures at a reactor too vulnerable from aging defects to keep operating.

    3.) The AFW system in Unit 1 is almost identical to the AFW system in Diablo Canyon Unit 2. Waiting until Unit 2 was operating again, PG&E suddenly noticed that the mechanical equipment inspections at Diablo Canyon Unit 1 might have also failed to uncover the same problem that they already discovered and repaired at Diablo Canyon Unit 2.

    4.) Does PG&E plan to immediately shut down Unit 1 to perform this critical safety-related inspection? [Remember the brake line on your car.] No… instead, PG&E is requesting a license change from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), allowing the corporation to shut off the AFW safety system while this old and deficient reactor keeps operating. Imagine changing the brake pads on your car while driving your vehicle at 60-MPH!

    5.) I believe that the NRC should not grant this license change, as it places Californians at greater risk of an atomic reactor meltdown.

    In several of our newsletters and blog posts at Fairewinds Energy Education 501(c)3 nonprofit, we have previously discussed PG&E’s mismanagement of these two old and vulnerable nukes.

    California’s largest utility, Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E), has a dubious safety record. PG&E customers have already seen their fair share of environmental threats, mismanagement and costly drama. PG&E has contaminated the groundwater at Hinkley (you remember Erin Brokovich), was on legal probation for killing eight people when one of its gas lines exploded in San Bruno in 2010, and then last year PG&E’s high voltage transmission line likely failed in high winds causing the Camp Fire that killed more than eighty others…. Now PG&E has declared bankruptcy in order to protect itself from more legal claims. And unfortunately, it is also the owner of California’s last nuclear power plant at Diablo Canyon, which is next to the San Andreas Fault. What more could possibly go wrong?

    Let’s come back to August 2020. Now, we find California is in the middle of a climate emergency-induced heatwave that has ignited at least 23 forest fires that have forced entire swaths of the state to experience rolling blackouts.

    In his third article about California’s latest utility and regulator provoked lack of electricity for the state, The New York Times Los Angeles based journalist Ivan Penn wrote:

    “ “Some conservatives have blamed California’s growing reliance on solar and wind power for undermining the reliability of the state’s grid. President Trump said on Twitter that the state’s Democratic leaders had “intentionally implemented rolling blackouts — forcing Americans in the dark.” He added that the Green New Deal, a proposal for 100 percent renewable and zero-emission energy embraced by many liberals, “would take California’s failed policies to every American!”

    “But Mr. Berberich [President and CEO of the California ISO (Independent System Operator)] said the reliance on renewables was not a factor because the state was facing such a huge shortfall in generating capacity. “It’s simply a matter of raw capacity.” ” [Emphasis Added]

    After blocking rooftop solar on homes and business for years, the condition of PG&E equipment is so bad that this allegedly public utility must rush to get more electricity to the electric grid. Now, PG&E hopes to use public need during a climate crisis as an excuse to receive emergency license changes for inspection requirements for the Diablo Canyon Unit 1 atomic reactor. If granted, this NRC dispensation would allow Unit 1 to run without a critical safety system.

    Is this a safe decision for Californians? ––– We know PGE’s failure to inspect pipes and power lines resulted in the San Bruno explosion in 2010 and the Camp Fire destruction of an entire community in 2018. Together these calamities resulted in the deaths of at least 90-people followed by PG&Es’ bankruptcy to avoid its responsibilities.

    Once again, the public will be placed at significant risk by PG&E mismanagement if Diablo Canyon Unit 1 does not close for its essential safety inspection.

    Will Californians ever be safe from PG&E and its political cronies?

    Fairewinds will keep you informed. "

    Additional Resources:
    Poor Planning Left California Short of Electricity in a Heat Wave
    https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/20/b...tric-grid.html
    By Ivan Penn on August 20, 2020

    California Expresses Frustration as Blackouts Enter 4th Day
    https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/19/u...wildfires.html
    By Ivan Penn on August 17, 2020

    Rolling Blackouts in California Have Power Experts Stumped
    https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/16/b...blackouts.html
    By Ivan Penn on August 16, 2020

    Fires are coming. But PG&E and some cities are holding up battery backups
    https://www.latimes.com/environment/...ries-essential
    By Sammy Roth on April 29, 2020
    Each breath a gift...
    _____________

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  20. Link to Post #91
    United States Avalon Member onawah's Avatar
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    Default Re: Not looking good at Fukushima

    Fukushima’s First Decade In A 100-Year Long Catastrophe
    BY ARNIE GUNDERSEN
    3/10/21
    https://www.fairewinds.org/demystify...T02%3A23%3A11Z

    "On this 10th commemoration of the Fukushima Dai-ichi disaster in Japan, our thoughts and hearts continue to be with those impacted by both the ongoing radioactive contamination throughout Japan as well as those permanently displaced since March 11, 2011.With that being said, author and journalist Thomas Bass interviewed Fairewinds on Fukushima-related analyses for a previous publication. We found him accurate in his research, and his latest article for the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists (BAS) continues this trend.

    As I read Thomas’s BAS article for the 10th commemoration of the three meltdowns at Fukushima Dai-ichi, I was struck by how the pioneering analysis and commentary that Fairewinds brought forward in 2011 has now finally become the accepted tenets of the Fukushima story.

    Long-time members of the Fairewinds Energy Education community should remember our pioneering analysis of topics, including but not limited to: the actual cost of decommissioning Fukushima, hot particle contamination, detonation shock waves, the need to evacuate women and children, and all of us worldwide were so lucky that the meltdowns at Fukushima were not more destructive and did not contaminate the entire northern hemisphere with what easily could have been a series 10-atomic-reactor meltdowns.

    Fukushima Daiichi: The Truth and the Way Forward

    At Fairewinds, we are thrilled that our pioneering language and findings as memorialized by hundreds of Fairewinds’ videos, our book: Fukushima Daiichi: The Truth and the Way Forward, and in hundreds of media interviews (CNN, The Washington Post, The New York Times, and many more print, television, radio, and internet interviews). Now to see our framing, pioneering language, and nuclear engineering evaluations as a part of the worldwide Fukushima lexicon truly makes us proud of all the work we began in March 2011 and continue today.

    So, I offer a hat tip to my wife Maggie, the organization that she founded, and the concepts and model she created so we could respond accurately and in real-time as the Fukushima disasters were unfolding! Most of all, a special thank you to Fairewinds donors, the foundations who have supported and continue to support our work, and our scientific colleagues, who continue to conduct this valuable research with us. We do not and cannot do this work by ourselves!

    Worldwide, it will continue to take all of us working together to change the global view of the vast risks of atomic power, nuclear waste storage, defunct leaking uranium mines, and experimental reactors. Hanging on to the expensive and dying nuke industry derails the world from moving to electric energy production that is safe for the environment and the species that live here, fully viable, saves billions of dollars, and creates new jobs for a healthy economy.

    It is time we moved from an old, outmoded 20th-century methodology designed with a slide rule way back in the 1950s. Let’s all get on board with the 21st century; we’ve already lost 20+ years!

    Please read the BAS article by Thomas Bass and a previous article he wrote entitled Made In Japan, published in May 2020. Thomas’s writing always captivates us by painting vivid pictures of what the victims of Fukushima face every day.

    Fukushima is oddly tidy for all that death that lurks in its forested hills and emerald-green river valleys.

    During the next two months, Fairewinds Energy Education will continue to follow up on the meltdowns and subsequent human catastrophes at Fukushima Dai-ichi in Japan, Three Mile Island (TMI) Pennsylvania, U.S., and Chernobyl in Ukraine. We will also be analyzing and discussing the fallacy that atomic power is a solution to the world’s climate emergency. We should focus on renewable and sustainable energy that creates millions of jobs and does not contaminate the environment or poison our communities with toxic nuke waste.

    Remember, Radiation Knows No Borders! "

    Free Online Event Hosted by Mothers For Peace


    "On the 10th anniversary of the Fukushima disaster, Mothers for Peace is hosting an online event, featuring a presentation by biologist Mary Olson. Learn about her work showing greater harm to the female body from radiation than the male body, the basis of data for regulators. This must change!

    The event will begin with a current update on Fukushima by Yuji and Beverly Findlay Kaneko, co-producers of Voices from Japan, a special segment of Libbe HaLevy’s Nuclear Hotseat podcast.

    The event is a free public event.

    There will be ample time for questions and comments!"
    Register here: https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/regi...4EimnWcl_QtaSV
    Each breath a gift...
    _____________

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