Footage of the NYC Press Conference May 4th 2012 Cinema Forum Fukushima
New York — Description: Japanese Nuclear Scientist and Japanese and US medical doctors to discuss current radiological health conditions and concerns in Japan after the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear reactor catastrophe.
Hiroaki KOIDE / Nuclear Reactor Specialist and Assistant Professor at Kyoto University Research Reactor Institute
Excerpt
There is also a law that says that when transporting radioactive material, it is illegal to transport any material which has a greater dose than 40,000 becquerels per square meter.
In fact, if that law were to be followed, then the amount of square kilometers that need to be evacuated is approximately 20,000km — in other words 20,000 square kilometers should be completely devoid of people.
Ms. Yamatani from The Liberal Democratic Party reads interview with Idogawa, Futaba town mayor.
“I asked Japanese prime minister Noda, if he thinks Futaba citizens are Japanese people, but Japanese government submit SPEEDI data to US and concealed it from Japanese people. Even now, SPEEDI data is not given to Futaba town.
If we have had that information, we would have escaped to Sendai. We were not even informed of venting. Tepco also explained they would stop, cool down, and close the reactor in case of an accident, so it’s absolutely safe, but Fukushima accident happened. We don’t even have a place to live. Radiation took schools, hospitals, jobs, and everything from us and everything is collapsed. I’m losing my hair and have nosebleed everyday. The other day, I asked for blood test at a hospital in Tokyo because I’m exposed but they refused it. We were even exposed and there is even no treatment, or proper inspection. Medical check up for Fukushima citizens are not detailed enough either.”
Gas Sampling Results of Unit 2 PCV Gas Control System Tokyo Electric Power Company May 8, 2012
May 8: 260 Bq/cm³ May 2: 130 Bq/cm³ Apr. 25: 55 Bq/cm³ Apr. 11: 32 Bq/cm³ Apr. 3: 97 Bq/cm³ Mar. 28: 73 Bq/cm³ Mar. 14: Less than 26 Bq/cm³ Feb. 17: Less than 28 Bq/cm³ Feb. 1: Less than 25 Bq/cm³ Jan. 4: 270 Bq/cm³
Krypton-85 is produced in small quantities by the interaction of cosmic rays with the stable krypton-84 (which is present in concentrations of about 1 cm3 per cubic meter). However, since the mid-1940s, much larger quantities have been artificially produced as a product of nuclear fission. When uranium-235, or another fissile nucleus fissions, it usually splits into two large fragments (fission products) with mass numbers around 90-140, and two or three neutrons. About three atoms of krypton-85 are produced for every 1000 fissions (i.e. it has a fission yield of 0.3%).[4] This is only about 20% of the total fission product of mass 85, as most decay from a short-lived excited state of 85Kr directly to 85Rb without passing through the longer-lived nuclear isomer. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Krypton-85
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dennis_6 Member
Posts: 7196 From: between here and there Registered: Aug 2001
Possibly angry at this situation, on April 21st a 62-year-old nuclear worker broke the silence on the continued leakage of contaminated water from Fukushima Daiichi. Speaking to me, he requested anonymity for fear of losing his job. He supervises a construction site aimed at building a new facility to extract radioactive materials such as cesium and strontium from the contaminated water used to cool the plant’s crippled reactors. He revealed that the current facility removes only cesium and that other radioactive materials such as strontium cannot be cleaned up.
He expressed astonishment at the scale of the cleanup operation. “You know how much contaminated water is stored at the Fukushima Daiichi site? It is 200,000 tons. It is an enormous amount!” “In reality,” he said, raising his voice, "it is impossible to store that much water on site. So, it is obvious that some of the contaminated water has been leaked into the ocean.”
TEPCO announced on March 26th, 2012 that approximately 120 tons of water had leaked from a treatment pipe, forcing them to halt operating the treatment facility. Thi was the second time in two weeks that contaminated water leaked from the nuclear power plant.3
After being used to cool the reactors, the water contains massive amounts of radioactive substances and is put into the water-processing facility so it can be recycled for use as a coolant. “Everyone there knows that the amount of water is huge but does not speak about it. Anyone who works there understands that nothing can be done except to leak the water!” he stressed. "Everyone criticizes North Korea for its missiles. But what about Japanese morality? The contamination will spread all over the world, reaching to Kamchatka, Hawaii and the U.S. soon,” he added.
Toward the end of our conversation, he said, “You know, in Japan, there is ‘honne’ (honest feeling) and ‘tatemae’ (polite-face). “Our tatemae is that we are doing our utmost to stop the leakage of contamination, and our honnne is that we are dumping massive amounts of contaminated water into the ocean.”
After hearing his testimony, on April 25th I watched Japan’s Nippon TV special program, "Continued Days of Inspection: The Safety of Tap Water.” The program focused on the efforts made by the Water Bureau of the Tokyo Metropolitan Government to deal with concerns over radioactive materials in the water. Officials spoke while the screen showed TV crews at the bureau’s site examining the cleanup of radioactive materials. A mother of small children who refuses to drink tap water and instead buys bottled water appeared as a consumer representative. The water official held a lump of soil taken from the water facility and said: “Even though we found 38 becquerels of cesium per kilogram, this is below government standards. So, we can safely drink the water.” The announcer stated that the Tokyo Water Bureau updates its water examination every day on their website.
The Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare in December announced a new standard for safe drinking water of 10 becquerels of cesium per kilogram. The ministry had previously set a provisional standard of 200 becquerels per kilogram (cesium), 300 bec (iodine), 20 bec (uranium) and 1 bec (plutonium) for drinking water, according to the official press release on March 17th.4
At the end of the program, a young male announcer concluded saying, “I have an impression that there is still a gap between the endeavors of the water bureau and the mentality of consumers. Today, also, no radioactive materials were detected in the water.”
Reflecting on the nuclear whistleblower who warned about the Daiichi cleanup, we must ask whether this assurance of the safety of Tokyo’s tap wateris ‘tatemae’ or ‘honnne’?
Makiko SEGAWA is a freelance journalist based in Japan, as well as a translator and guide to overseas media. Her clients include France 24, The Wall Street Journal and other European television production companies such as RAI TV, the U.K Performgroup, AB International and Seven Saint Production. She can be contacted at makikosegawa@gmail.com http://japanfocus.org/-Makiko-Segawa/3752
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May 10th, 2012
dennis_6 Member
Posts: 7196 From: between here and there Registered: Aug 2001
Bereaved family of Fukushima woman who committed suicide set to sue TEPCO
FUKUSHIMA -- Mikio Watanabe, 61, and his family are poised to file a lawsuit against Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO) on May 18 demanding about 72.5 million yen in compensation for his wife's suicide soon after the outbreak of the nuclear crisis at the Fukushima No. 1 Nuclear Power Plant, it has been learned.
Along with three other family members, Mikio Watanabe plans to bring the case to the Fukushima District Court on May 18. Watanabe and his family argue that the Fukushima nuclear disaster led his wife, Hamako, to suffer depression and commit suicide at the age of 58. According to a group of lawyers supporting victims of the Fukushima nuclear disaster, it will be the first lawsuit to be filed over suicides related to the nuclear crisis.
According to the group of lawyers, on the morning of July 1, 2011 Hamako committed suicide by pouring gasoline over her body and setting herself on fire at a garbage incinerator near her house, to which she made a temporary visit with Mikio from their apartment that the local government had rented for them in the city of Fukushima.
The couple had taken shelter at their relatives' homes and gymnasiums in Fukushima Prefecture since March 15, 2011. They then returned to their home once, but because the Yamakiya district, about 40 kilometers northwest of the crippled Fukushima No. 1 Nuclear Power Plant, where their home was located, was designated as a planned evacuation zone in April last year, they moved to the rented apartment in the city of Fukushima in June after a few months of waiting.
During this period, Hamako's place of work was closed down and she had to live apart from her 37-year-old eldest son and other relatives, and she started to show symptoms of insomnia and had a poor appetite. The group of lawyers says, "Because she was deprived of the basics of life such as her residence and job, she suffered an extremely heavy psychological burden." Thus the group of lawyers says that's why she started to develop depression. Therefore, they argue that there are causal relations between the nuclear disaster and her depression and her suicide.
Her husband, Mikio, said, "The accident changed everything in our lives. I decided to go to court because I thought no more victims should cry themselves to sleep."
On the planned lawsuit, an official of the public relations department at TEPCO only said, "We are not aware of it. Therefore we would like to decline comment."
Thursday, May 10, 2012 Minami Soma Assemblyman: "5.57 Million Bq/kg Cesium from Soil, and People Are Cleaning Out Their Homes"
Part of Minami Soma City in Fukushima was inside the "no-entry zone" but the designation was lifted as of April 16 this year and people are returning. One such area is Odaka District, and as NHK reported, the returning residents are being assisted by volunteers from all over Japan in cleaning up the damage from the March 11, 2011 earthquake and tsunami.
Minami Soma Assemblyman Koichi Ooyama says he went and collected soil samples (what he calls "black dust") in locations in Minami Soma, including several in Odaka District after the no-entry zone designation was lifted. He had them tested by the city's laboratory for radioactive cesium, and the result, as posted on his blog (5/10/2012) is shocking. The maximum is 5,570,000 becquerels/kg of radioactive cesium in soil in Odaka District. In the same district, half a million becquerels/kg of cesium in cow dung was also found.
Mr. Ooyama lists those with high radioactive cesium content, because the numbers are not in sequence. English labels are by me. (Unit is bq/kg, dry weight):
Even if these samples are from areas where radioactive cesium is getting highly concentrated, I haven't seen numbers like this anywhere else in Fukushima outside the immediate vicinity of Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant.
NHK News said the volunteers helping the home owners in Odaka District were scooping out the sludges - probably highly contaminated sludge - with hardly any protection other than flimsy masks and gloves. Who is going to be responsible if anything should happen to these volunteers later? Volunteers themselves.
Assemblyman Ooyama screams, "And they're going to do what? Spring athletic meets? Swimming pool opening? I can't take it any more!"
(For the mind-numbing routine in post-Fukushima Japan in spring and summer, see my previous post.)
Published: May 10th, 2012 at 11:29 am ET By ENENews Email Article Email Article one comment Share16 Footage of the NYC Press Conference May 4th 2012 Cinema Forum Fukushima
Dr. Junro FUSE, Internist and head of Kosugi Medical Clinic near Tokyo, Japan (in Japanese with English interpretation)
“The European Commission [Committee] on Radiation Risk has stated that they believe the risk from internal exposure is between 200 and 600 times greater than the risk from external exposure.”
America Is Letting China Steal Our Valuable Nuclear Innovations George Washington's picture Submitted by George Washington on 03/15/2012 02:57 -0400 Microsoft and Apple grew rich by using Xerox's innovation.
Xerox's research arm (called Xerox Parc) invented the "graphical user interface" used by all modern computers. Bill Gates famously admitted to Steve Jobs that both Microsoft and Apple had ripped of Xerox's GUI.
Xerox could have made a fortune on its innovation. But it didn't realize what it had ... and failed to capitalize on its breakthroughs (Xerox tried to sue to protect its invention ... but years too late, and the lawsuit was thrown out because Xerox had missed the deadline for suing).
The same dynamic is playing out in the nuclear industry.
Specifically, the U.S. created a safer, more efficient form of nuclear energy running on thorium. But - like Xerox Parc - America isn't doing anything with its innovation, and China is running off with prize.
The Telegraph's Ambrose Evans-Pritchard notes:
If China’s dash for thorium power succeeds, it will vastly alter the global energy landscape ....
China’s Academy of Sciences said it had chosen a “thorium-based molten salt reactor system”. The liquid fuel idea was pioneered by US physicists at Oak Ridge National Lab in the 1960s, but the US has long since dropped the ball. Further evidence of Barack `Obama’s “Sputnik moment”, you could say.
Chinese scientists claim that hazardous waste will be a thousand times less than with uranium. The system is inherently less prone to disaster.
“The reactor has an amazing safety feature,” said Kirk Sorensen, a former NASA engineer at Teledyne Brown and a thorium expert.
“If it begins to overheat, a little plug melts and the salts drain into a pan. There is no need for computers, or the sort of electrical pumps that were crippled by the tsunami. The reactor saves itself,” he said.
“They operate at atmospheric pressure so you don’t have the sort of hydrogen explosions we’ve seen in Japan. One of these reactors would have come through the tsunami just fine. There would have been no radiation release.” http://www.zerohedge.com/co...-nuclear-innovations
[This message has been edited by dennis_6 (edited 05-10-2012).]
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dennis_6 Member
Posts: 7196 From: between here and there Registered: Aug 2001
There have been several significant demonstrations of the use of thorium-based fuels to generate electricity in several reactor types. Many of these early trials were able to use high-enriched uranium (HEU) as the fissile ‘driver’ component, and this would not be considered today.
The 300 MWe Thorium High Temperature Reactor (THTR) in Germany, a HTR, operated with thorium-HEU fuel between 1983 and 1989. Over half of its 674,000 pebbles contained Th-HEU fuel particles (the rest graphite moderator and some neutron absorbers). These were continuously moved through the reactor as it operated, and on average each fuel pebble passed six times through the core. The 40 MWe Peach Bottom HTR in the USA was a demonstration thorium-fuelled reactor that ran from 1967-74 [2]. It used a thorium-HEU fuel in the form of microspheres of mixed thorium-uranium carbide coated with pyrolytic carbon. These were embedded in annular graphite segments (not pebbles). This reactor produced 33 billion kWh over 1349 equivalent full-power days with a capacity factor of 74%. The 330 MWe Fort St Vrain HTR in Colorado, USA, was a larger-scale commercial successor to the Peach Bottom reactor and ran from 1976-89. It also used thorium-HEU fuel in the form of microspheres of mixed thorium-uranium carbide coated with silicon oxide and pyrolytic carbon to retain fission products. These were embedded in graphite ‘compacts’ that were arranged in hexagonal columns ('prisms'). Almost 25 tonnes of thorium was used in fuel for the reactor, much of which attained a burn-up of about 170 GWd/t. A unique thorium-fuelled Light Water Breeder Reactor operated from 1977 to 1982 at Shippingport in the USA [3] – it used uranium-233 as the fissile driver in special fuel assemblies having independently movable ‘seed’ regions. The reactor core was housed in a reconfigured early PWR. It operated at 60 MWe (236 MWt) with an availability factor of 86% producing over 2.1 billion kWh. Post-operation inspections revealed that 1.39% more fissile fuel was present at the end of core life, proving that breeding had occurred. * The core of the Shippingport demonstration LWBR consisted of an array of seed and blanket modules surrounded by an outer reflector region. In the seed and blanket regions, the fuel pellets contained a mixture of thorium-232 oxide (ThO2) and uranium oxide (UO2) that was over 98% enriched in U-233. The proportion by weight of UO2 was around 5-6% in the seed region, and about 1.5-3% in the blanket region. The reflector region contained only thorium oxide at the beginning of the core life. U-233 was used because at the time it was believed that U-235 would not release enough neutrons per fission and Pu-239 would parasitically capture too many neutrons to allow breeding in a PWR. Indian heavy water reactors (PHWRs) have for a long time used thorium-bearing fuel bundles for power flattening in some fuel channels – especially in initial cores when special reactivity control measures are needed.
Other Thorium Energy R&D – Past & Present
Research into the use of thorium as a nuclear fuel has been taking place for over 40 years, though with much less intensity than that for uranium or uranium-plutonium fuels. Basic development work has been conducted in Germany, India, Canada, Japan, China, Netherlands, Belgium, Norway, Russia, Brazil, the UK & the USA. Test irradiations have been conducted on a number of different thorium-based fuel forms.
Noteworthy studies and experiments involving thorium fuel include:
Heavy Water Reactors: Thorium-based fuels for the ‘Candu’ PHWR system have been designed and tested in Canada for more than 50 years, including burn-up to 47 GWd/t. Dozens of test irradiations have been performed on fuels including: ThO2, mixed ThO2-UO2, (both LEU and HEU), and mixed ThO2-PuO2, (both reactor- and weapons-grade). R&D into thorium fuel use in CANDU reactors continues to be pursued by Canadian and Chinese groups. The fuels have performed well in terms of their material properties.
Closed thorium fuel cycles have been designed [4] in which PHWRs play a key role due to their fuelling flexibility: thoria-based HWR fuels can incorporate recycled U-233, residual plutonium and uranium from used LWR fuel, and also minor actinide components in waste-reduction strategies.
India’s nuclear developers have designed an Advanced Heavy Water Reactor (AHWR) specifically as a means for ‘burning’ thorium – this will be the final phase of their 3-phase nuclear energy infrastructure plan (see below). The reactor will operate with a power of 300 MWe using thorium-plutonium or thorium-U-233 seed fuel in mixed oxide form. It is heavy water moderated (& light water cooled) and is capable of self-sustaining U-233 production. In each assembly 30 of the fuel pins will be Th-U-233 oxide, arranged in concentric rings. About 75% of the power will come from the thorium. Construction of the pilot AHWR may start in 2012.
High-Temperature Gas-Cooled Reactors: Thorium fuel was used in HTRs prior to the successful demonstration reactors described above. The UK operated the 20 MWth Dragon HTR from 1964 to 1973 for 741 full power days. Dragon was run as an OECD/Euratom cooperation project, involving Austria, Denmark, Sweden, Norway and Switzerland in addition to the UK. This reactor used thorium-HEU fuel elements in a 'breed and feed' mode in which the U-233 formed during operation replaced the consumption of U-235 at about the same rate. The fuel could be left in the reactor for about six years.
Germany operated the Atom Versuchs Reaktor (AVR) at Jülich for over 750 weeks between 1967 and 1988. This was a small pebble bed reactor that operated at 15 MWe, mainly with thorium-HEU fuel. About 1360 kg of thorium was used in some 100,000 pebbles. Burn-ups of 150 GWd/t were achieved.
Pebble bed reactor development builds on German work with the AVR and THTR and is under development in China (HTR-10, and HTR-PM).
Light Water Reactors: The feasibility of using thorium fuels in a PWR was studied in considerable detail during a collaborative project between Germany and Brazil in the 1980s [5]. The vision was to design fuel strategies that used materials effectively – recycling of plutonium and U-233 was seen to be logical. The study showed that appreciable conversion to U-233 could be obtained with various thorium fuels, and that useful uranium savings could be achieved. The program terminated in 1988 for non-technical reasons. It did not reach its later stages which would have involved trial irradiations of thorium-plutonium fuels in the Angra-1 PWR in Brazil, although preliminary Th-fuel irradiation experiments were performed in Germany. Most findings from this study remain relevant today.
Thorium-plutonium oxide (Th-MOX) fuels for LWRs are being developed by Norwegian proponents with a view that these are the most readily achievable option for tapping energy from thorium. This is because such fuel is usable in existing reactors (with minimal modification) and the fuel can be made in existing uranium-MOX plants, using existing technology and licensing experience. A thorium-MOX fuel irradiation experiment will get underway in the Halden fuel testing reactor in 2012.
The so-called Radkowsky Thorium Reactor is a specific, heterogeneous ‘seed & blanket’ thorium fuel concept, originally designed for Russian-type LWRs (VVERs) [6]. Enriched uranium (20% U-235) or plutonium is used in a seed region at the centre of a fuel assembly, with this fuel being in a unique metallic form. The central seed portion is demountable from the blanket material which remains in the reactor for nine years e, but the centre seed portion is burned for only three years (as in a normal VVER). Design of the seed fuel rods in the centre portion draws on experience of Russian naval reactors.
The European Framework Program has supported a number of relevant research activities into thorium fuel use in LWRs. Three distinct trial irradiations have been performed on thorium-plutonium fuels, including a test pin loaded in the Obrigheim PWR over 2002-06 during which it achieved about 38 GWd/t burnup.
A small amount of thorium-plutonium fuel was irradiated in the 60 MWe Lingen BWR in Germany in the early 1970s. The fuel contained 2.6 % of high fissile-grade plutonium (86% Pu-239) and the fuel achieved about 20 GWd/t burnup. The experiment was not representative of commercial fuel, however the experiment allowed for fundamental data collection and benchmarking of codes for this fuel material.
Molten Salt Reactors: The Oak Ridge National Laboratory (USA) designed and built a thorium-based demonstration MSR using U-233 as the main fissile driver. The reactor ran over 1965-69 and operated at powers up to 7.4 MWt. The lithium-beryllium-thorium salt worked at 600-700oC and ambient pressure. The R&D program demonstrated the feasibility of this system and highlighted some unique corrosion and operational issues that need to be addressed if constructing a larger pilot MSR.
There is significant renewed interest in developing thorium-fuelled MSRs. Projects are (or have recently been) underway in China, Japan, Russia, France and the USA.
It is notable that the MSR is one of the six ‘Generation IV’ reactor designs selected as worthy of further development (see information page on Generation IV Nuclear Reactors). The thorium-fuelled MSR variant is sometimes referred to at the Liquid Fluoride Thorium Reactor (LFTR). See subsection below.
An aqueous homogenous suspension reactor operated in the Netherlands at 1 MWth for three years using thorium in the mid-1970s. The thorium-HEU fuel was circulated in solution with continuous reprocessing outside the core to remove fission products, resulting in a high conversion rate to U-233.
Accelerator-Driven Reactors: A number of groups have investigated how a thorium-fuelled accelerator-driven reactor (ADS) may work and appear. Perhaps most notable is the ‘ADTR’ design patented by a UK group. This reactor operates very close to criticality and therefore requires a relatively small proton beam to drive the spallation neutron source. Earlier proposals for ADS reactors required high-energy and high-current proton beams which are energy-intensive to produce, and for which operational reliability is a problem.
Research Reactor ‘Kamini’: India has been operating a low-power U-233 fuelled reactor at Kalpakkam since 1996 – this is a 30 kWth experimental facility using U-233 in aluminium plates (a typical fuel-form for research reactors). Kamini is water cooled with a beryllia neutron reflector. The total mass of U-233 in the core is around 600 grams. It is noteworthy for being the only U-233 fuelled reactor in the world, though it does not in itself directly support thorium fuel R&D. The reactor is adjacent to the 40 MWt Fast Breeder Test Reactor in which ThO2 is irradiated, producing the U-233 for Kamini.
Fast breeder reactors (FBRs) play an ancillary role in India's three-stage nuclear power program (see subsection on India's plans for thorium cycle below) but do not themselves use thorium.
Liquid Fluoride Thorium Reactor
A development of the MSR concept is the Liquid Fluoride Thorium Reactor (LFTR), utilizing U-233 which has been bred in a liquid thorium salt blanket.* * The molten salt in the core circuit consists of lithium, beryllium and fissile U-233 fluorides. It operates at some 700°C and circulates at low pressure within a graphite structure that serves as a moderator and neutron reflector. Most fission products dissolve or suspend in the salt and some of these are removed progressively in an adjacent radiochemical processing unit. Actinides are less-readily formed than in fuel with atomic mass greater than 235. The blanket circuit contains a significant amount of thorium tetrafluoride in the molten Li-Be fluoride salt. Newly-formed U-233 forms soluble uranium tetrafluoride (UF4), which is converted to gaseous uranium hexafluoride (UF6) by bubbling fluorine gas through the salt (which does not chemically affect the less-reactive thorium tetrafluoride). The volatile uranium hexafluoride is captured, reduced back to soluble UF4 by hydrogen gas, and finally is directed to the core to serve as fissile fuel.
Safety is achieved with a freeze plug which if power is cut allows the fuel to drain into subcritical geometry in a catch basin. There is also a negative temperature coefficient of reactivity due to expansion of the fuel.
The China Academy of Sciences in January 2011 launched an R&D program on LFTR, known there as the thorium-breeding molten-salt reactor (Th-MSR or TMSR), and claimed to have the world's largest national effort on it, hoping to obtain full intellectual property rights on the technology.
India's plans for thorium cycle
With huge resources of easily-accessible thorium and relatively little uranium, India has made utilization of thorium for large-scale energy production a major goal in its nuclear power programme, utilising a three-stage concept:
Pressurised heavy water reactors (PHWRs) fuelled by natural uranium, plus light water reactors, producing plutonium. Fast breeder reactors (FBRs) using plutonium-based fuel to breed U-233 from thorium. The blanket around the core will have uranium as well as thorium, so that further plutonium (particularly Pu-239) is produced as well as the U-233. Advanced heavy water reactors (AHWRs) burn the U-233 and this plutonium with thorium, getting about 75% of their power from the thorium. The used fuel will then be reprocessed to recover fissile materials for recycling.
This Indian programme has moved from aiming to be sustained simply with thorium to one 'driven' with the addition of further fissile plutonium from the FBR fleet, to give greater efficiency. In 2009, despite the relaxation of trade restrictions on uranium, India reaffirmed its intention to proceed with developing the thorium cycle.
A 500 MWe prototype FBR under construction in Kalpakkam is designed to produce plutonium to enable AHWRs to breed U-233 from thorium. India is focusing and prioritizing the construction and commissioning of its sodium-cooled fast reactor fleet in which it will breed the required plutonium. This will take another 15 – 20 years and so it will still be some time before India is using thorium energy to a significant extent.
A prototype is an early sample or model built to test a concept or process or to act as a thing to be replicated or learned from. It is a term used in a variety of contexts, including semantics, design, electronics, and software programming. A prototype is designed to test and trial a new design to enhance precision by system analysts and users. Prototyping serves to provide specifications for a real, working system rather than a theoretical one.
Prototypes that make power for years, not something that has yet to even break even like fusion. The only reason Thorium remains in prototype stage, is because no one has yet built a commercial reactor. The research reactors worked. Uranium and Plutonium reactors would be prototypes if development stopped there. There is no legit reason, why thorium has not been pursued.
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Posts: 12351 From: salisbury nc usa Registered: Feb 2002
It is a ongoing disaster with new information daily. One of us is trying to get the information out there. The other is playing apologist for the industry.
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Posts: 12351 From: salisbury nc usa Registered: Feb 2002
Ukraine is making plans to rebuild civil society in the areas affected by the Chernobyl accident, as the man responsible for the Exclusion Zone announces most of the affected towns could be resettled.
A round of comments have come from Ukrainian leaders today ahead of tomorrow's 26th anniversary of the Chernobyl accident.
Speaking to parliament, prime minsiter Mykola Azarov announced extra funding for Chernobyl programs amounting to UAH3.7 billion ($460 million). The pensions of the 'liquidators' that performed emergency clean-up are to be increased and there will also be more money available for other people badly affected by the accident. Azarov said he is doing so 'despite huge payments on debts, despite the frantic overpayment for Russian gas', and because he does not want to make empty promises.
At the same time, Vladimir Kholosha, chairman of the State Agency for the Exclusion Zone (DAZV) gave a briefing at Government House. He gave the results of radiological surveys carried out last year in 2155 of the 2293 settlements in the Exclusion Zone. It revealed that 'most of these towns can function without restrictions due to radiation'.
He said this is because time, natural processes and countermeasures have significantly reduced radiation hazard compared to the time immediately after the accident some 26 years ago.
Approaches to evacuation
The Exclusion Zone around Chernobyl was drawn to limit additional radiation doses from the accident to 1 millisievert per year, compared to the 2.4 millisieverts per year people receive from all sources. This resulted in a very wide evacuation area, affecting hundreds of thousands of people.
By contrast, radiation experts in Japan have said that Fukushima residents should be able to return home to areas where additional doses would be up to 20 millisieverts per year, although their wish is for additional doses to be as low as possible. Some areas have already been opened during daylight hours for residents and workers to make repairs ahead of a permanent return.
Kholosha also connected the towns with potential socio-economic development, which Azarov separately said was the only way to alleviate the chronic 'state of poverty' that hampers some of the affected regions.
A draft bill towards a definition of the 'concept of state policy on development activities in the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone' was published by the DAZV on 7 December last year but Kholosha did not reveal any specific areas he may be considering for potential development.
The only area specified in documents available from the DAZV is the Chernobyl power plant site, where other industrial activities could take place to make better use of the labour force maintained in the worker town of Slavutych.
DAZV will work with local authorities and labour unions to promote volunteerism and development of supporting civil society groups. One concrete measure will be the creation of a radio station for the region, which is due to begin broadcasting before the middle of this year.
Belarusian example
Belarus lies close-by to the north of the Chernobyl site and was badly affected by contamination spread on the wind during the accident. In 2010 that country announced a multi-year plan to promote basic economic activity in its evacuated Gomel and Mogilev regions.
The official plan begins by reducing fire risk by clearing overgrown areas and then properly disposing of buried contaminated items. Infrastructure work can then follow - the rebuilding of roads and reconnection to gas and electrical grids.
Among the first self-sustaining industries in the Belarusian regions could be forestry, with schools and housing provided for the families of specialist workers before broader development begins.
Ukraine is making plans to rebuild civil society in the areas affected by the Chernobyl accident, as the man responsible for the Exclusion Zone announces most of the affected towns could be resettled.
A round of comments have come from Ukrainian leaders today ahead of tomorrow's 26th anniversary of the Chernobyl accident.
Speaking to parliament, prime minsiter Mykola Azarov announced extra funding for Chernobyl programs amounting to UAH3.7 billion ($460 million). The pensions of the 'liquidators' that performed emergency clean-up are to be increased and there will also be more money available for other people badly affected by the accident. Azarov said he is doing so 'despite huge payments on debts, despite the frantic overpayment for Russian gas', and because he does not want to make empty promises.
At the same time, Vladimir Kholosha, chairman of the State Agency for the Exclusion Zone (DAZV) gave a briefing at Government House. He gave the results of radiological surveys carried out last year in 2155 of the 2293 settlements in the Exclusion Zone. It revealed that 'most of these towns can function without restrictions due to radiation'.
He said this is because time, natural processes and countermeasures have significantly reduced radiation hazard compared to the time immediately after the accident some 26 years ago.
Approaches to evacuation
The Exclusion Zone around Chernobyl was drawn to limit additional radiation doses from the accident to 1 millisievert per year, compared to the 2.4 millisieverts per year people receive from all sources. This resulted in a very wide evacuation area, affecting hundreds of thousands of people.
By contrast, radiation experts in Japan have said that Fukushima residents should be able to return home to areas where additional doses would be up to 20 millisieverts per year, although their wish is for additional doses to be as low as possible. Some areas have already been opened during daylight hours for residents and workers to make repairs ahead of a permanent return.
Kholosha also connected the towns with potential socio-economic development, which Azarov separately said was the only way to alleviate the chronic 'state of poverty' that hampers some of the affected regions.
A draft bill towards a definition of the 'concept of state policy on development activities in the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone' was published by the DAZV on 7 December last year but Kholosha did not reveal any specific areas he may be considering for potential development.
The only area specified in documents available from the DAZV is the Chernobyl power plant site, where other industrial activities could take place to make better use of the labour force maintained in the worker town of Slavutych.
DAZV will work with local authorities and labour unions to promote volunteerism and development of supporting civil society groups. One concrete measure will be the creation of a radio station for the region, which is due to begin broadcasting before the middle of this year.
Belarusian example
Belarus lies close-by to the north of the Chernobyl site and was badly affected by contamination spread on the wind during the accident. In 2010 that country announced a multi-year plan to promote basic economic activity in its evacuated Gomel and Mogilev regions.
The official plan begins by reducing fire risk by clearing overgrown areas and then properly disposing of buried contaminated items. Infrastructure work can then follow - the rebuilding of roads and reconnection to gas and electrical grids.
Among the first self-sustaining industries in the Belarusian regions could be forestry, with schools and housing provided for the families of specialist workers before broader development begins.
But I am sure dennis_6 is going to tell us how he knows more than the scientists and how he knows it is deadly to live there. Rumor has it that everyone who lives there dies sooner or later.
Maybe dennis_6 will tell us of how Hiroshima is 'going critical' again.
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12:07 AM
dennis_6 Member
Posts: 7196 From: between here and there Registered: Aug 2001
But I am sure dennis_6 is going to tell us how he knows more than the scientists and how he knows it is deadly to live there. Rumor has it that everyone who lives there dies sooner or later.
Maybe dennis_6 will tell us of how Hiroshima is 'going critical' again.
You truly are a shill, I just said people live where we dropped the bombs in Japan. No secret, most radiation disperses over time. The problem with Fukushima, is it is still leaking radiation, unlike the bombs, which were one time events. Stop supporting a corrupt industry, it is like saying congress is noble, you look like a idiot. Nuclear power, is very promising for mankind, I have zero problems with the technology, just the industries. Phonedawgz,you probably invested your life savings into the industry, and that is why you try and discredit facts. Now tell me again, how the increases in Krypton do not correlate to fission?
Just so you can't get on your radiation is harmless kick...
[This message has been edited by dennis_6 (edited 05-11-2012).]
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12:40 AM
phonedawgz Member
Posts: 17091 From: Green Bay, WI USA Registered: Dec 2009
I have never said radiation is harmless. You have repeatedly tried to put those words in my mouth. And I have repeatedly restated that you are a liar because of your tries.
And you still are a liar. (and an idiot)
I have never said radiation is harmless, but I have stated that radiation can be harmful depending on the exposure.
[This message has been edited by phonedawgz (edited 05-11-2012).]
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01:05 AM
dennis_6 Member
Posts: 7196 From: between here and there Registered: Aug 2001
I have never said radiation is harmless. You have repeatedly tried to put those words in my mouth. And I have repeatedly restated that you are a liar because of your tries.
And you still are a liar. (and an idiot)
I have never said radiation is harmless, but I have stated that radiation can be harmful depending on the exposure.
If that was all you stated there would be no disagreement. Nothing magical lies in exposure to radiation, just we differ on the levels that are required for harm. I dare say, you don't give a damn about Japan, nor anyone on the west coast, your investment is your god, and you will fight to death for that false deity.
[This message has been edited by dennis_6 (edited 05-11-2012).]
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01:11 AM
phonedawgz Member
Posts: 17091 From: Green Bay, WI USA Registered: Dec 2009
If that was all you stated there would be no disagreement. Nothing magical lies in exposure to radiation, just we differ on the levels that are required for harm. I dare say, you don't give a damn about Japan, nor anyone on the west coast, your investment is your god, and you will fight to death for that false deity.
One more false made up 'fact' so typical of you. Again may I suggest you stick to things that you know, rather than make up lies.
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06:13 AM
May 12th, 2012
dennis_6 Member
Posts: 7196 From: between here and there Registered: Aug 2001
One more false made up 'fact' so typical of you. Again may I suggest you stick to things that you know, rather than make up lies.
? So the kryopton 85 levels, is there a large amount of sunlight shining on the rods? Or, is there fission on and off, despite the fact you called me a maroon? Yes, I am calling you out, and yes I expect a public apology.
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03:06 AM
phonedawgz Member
Posts: 17091 From: Green Bay, WI USA Registered: Dec 2009
... I dare say, you don't give a damn about Japan, nor anyone on the west coast, your investment is your god, and you will fight to death for that false deity.
Yes this is what you just made up. It is blatantly false. Just like you previously made up the idea that I am getting paid by nuclear industry. That also is blatantly false. Yes you male up facts, and specifically you make up facts about me that are not true.
Basically you are a liar.
Yes your actions qualify as libel. Yes it is actionable.
So if someone has an apology to give that is overdue, it is you dennis_6.
Yes this is what you just made up. It is blatantly false. Just like you previously made up the idea that I am getting paid by nuclear industry. That also is blatantly false. Yes you male up facts, and specifically you make up facts about me that are not true.
Basically you are a liar.
Yes your actions qualify as libel. Yes it is actionable.
So if someone has an apology to give that is overdue, it is you dennis_6.
PM me your name and address so I can start the action.
So, now a threat on a public forum? BTW, your constant accusations that I am at liberal and idiot, also qualify as libel. You also falsely accused me of laughing about deaths in Japan, on multiple occasions. That would be libel.
[This message has been edited by dennis_6 (edited 05-14-2012).]
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06:03 PM
dennis_6 Member
Posts: 7196 From: between here and there Registered: Aug 2001
Physicist: Unit 2 completely liquified, 100% liquification of uranium core — “We’ve never seen this before in the history of nuclear power” (VIDEO)
Published: May 14th, 2012 at 12:37 pm ET By ENENews Email Article Email Article 22 comments Share186 *UPDATED* ORIGINAL PRESENTATION HERE: Professor Shocked: "The core completely liquified -- There's nothing left -- There's no hook -- There's no remaining collapsed core" (VIDEO)
Interview with Michio Kaku Flashpoints (KPFA) May 9, 2012
Fukushima reactor 4 still threatens the world as we know. We’ll spend the hour with Dr. Micio Kaku.
At ~3:30 in
Unit 2 we now know completely liquified. We’ve never seen this before in the history of nuclear power. A 100% liquification of a uranium core.
You know this thread isn't even worth keeping up. I am done. I have a family to be concerned about, and not waste time in a frivolous lawsuit. I retract every comment I have made about phonedawgz, regardless of his statements about me. All comments of mine were a matter of opinion, not fact, and in no way intended to be fact, and I apologize for anything I said, that may turn out to be false.
There is zero chance you can win a case for libel, without being counter sued yourself. There are so many false statements, made about me in thread, it is unreal. Remember, you have to prove them false, and they have to cause actual harm. I really don't feel like wasting my or the courts time with this stupidity, so you win.
Don't forget the wacko comments, the alarmist comments,anti nuclear, the accusation that I started another thread, that was actually started by another member, and I am sure plenty more if I dig.
[This message has been edited by dennis_6 (edited 05-15-2012).]
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06:31 PM
Oct 22nd, 2013
Purple86GT Member
Posts: 1592 From: Ontario, Canada Registered: Mar 2012
Just bumping this topic (and hopefully not the arguing) back to the top. Fukushima is still an ongoing emergency that, for whatever reason, mainstream media is not covering...
It’s scary to think that food deemed too contaminated in Japan is sold to the US and Canada for consumption… Radio-Contamination limits are much stricter in Japan that over here…
The pacific ocean is ruined...by the time it is made known to the ignorant masses and they finally demand the criminals responsible for hiding the truth and not working to contain this enough be held accountable, they will be either dead of old age or immune to prosecution in relation to their crimes simply because they were elected to an office...
If the reality and time tables of the radiation and health risk to humans were made public, can you imagine what that would do? Millions of people in exodus fleeing the massive areas of contamination, ruined values of entire regions of real estate, financial markets, businesses. A global market collapse could theoretically be triggered. And that is why this will for years be concealed and flat out lied about. Only when there are more dead sea life and humans than they can hide or misdiagnose, will the truth be too big to hide, but by then it will be too late for many people who will be suffering the radioactive and financial fallout.
Chernobyl was nothing compared to what F***ashima will be doing to this planet for generations to come. But by all means, keep generating power from nuclear......it is soooo cheap and safe....3 digit numbers of reactors on earth and only 1 or 2 of them having accidents can ruin the entire planet? what could 'possibly' go wrong......
Edit; P.S. I would seriously consider NOT eating any seafood plucked out of the Pacific ocean. And the CA beaches are off limits to my kids here. Boats, houses and garbage from The tsunami are still landing here. It would be foolish to believe radiation cant make the trip as well
[This message has been edited by FieroMonkey (edited 10-23-2013).]
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12:47 PM
Purple86GT Member
Posts: 1592 From: Ontario, Canada Registered: Mar 2012
Agreed... When I buy seafood I'm checking where it came from... Very hard to find anything NOT from the Pacific... And I'm closer to the Atlantic... strange..
As an added note, I think Fukushima NPP is in the direct path of yet another typhoon.. sigh…
You know that radioactive material is many, many times heavier than sea water, and will eventually end up at the bottom of a trench many miles below the surface stuck for millennia to decompose. And water is a natural barrier of radiation. Within 10 feet underwater from radioactive material, you are safe. I agree that it could be a problem, but that ocean is huge. And mother nature takes care of herself.
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02:23 PM
Purple86GT Member
Posts: 1592 From: Ontario, Canada Registered: Mar 2012
You know that radioactive material is many, many times heavier than sea water, and will eventually end up at the bottom of a trench many miles below the surface stuck for millennia to decompose. And water is a natural barrier of radiation. Within 10 feet underwater from radioactive material, you are safe. I agree that it could be a problem, but that ocean is huge. And mother nature takes care of herself.
Just off the top of my head, Caesium-137 and Tritium are water soluble and Iodine-131 contaminates water pretty good. Then you have Xenon gas... Then you have hot particles in the air and finally you have bioaccumulation in the food sources.
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02:37 PM
rinselberg Member
Posts: 16118 From: Sunnyvale, CA (USA) Registered: Mar 2010
Originally posted by fieroX: You know that radioactive material is many, many times heavier than sea water, and will eventually end up at the bottom of a trench many miles below the surface stuck for millennia to decompose. And water is a natural barrier of radiation. Within 10 feet underwater from radioactive material, you are safe. I agree that it could be a problem, but that ocean is huge. And mother nature takes care of herself.
That's not at all reassuring. The radioisotopes are absorbed by living organisms, and concentrated in the organisms at the top of the food chain, which are the organisms that people like to eat--fish and shellfish. So there is potential for people ingesting the radioactive material. This would all happen long before the radioisotopes are separated from the seawater by natural processes and segregated below the seafloor. (If that's an accurate prediction, which I am already skeptical of.)
Not saying that the hazards are not being overblown by alarmist reports--I really don't know.
But I don't think that you've got a handle on why there is concern about what's going on with the radioactive isotopes that are going into the sea.
Have any sources to confirm what you just posted..?
