Fukushima wake up call
By Thom Hartmann A...
Here is the Fukushima wake up call - will it go unheard?
A new report, from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, says, the 2011 Fukushima Daiichi nuclear accident should serve as a wake-up call to nuclear plant operators and regulators on the crucial importance of measuring, maintaining, and restoring cooling in spent fuel pools - in the face of, severe accidents and terrorist attacks.
The committee recommends that the U.S. nuclear industry and the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (USNRC) improve the ability of plant operators to measure real-time conditions in spent fuel pools and maintain adequate cooling of stored spent fuel during severe accidents and terrorist attacks.
These improvements need to go beyond the current, post-Fukushima response to include hardened and redundant physical surveillance systems such as cameras, radiation monitors, pool temperature and water-level monitors, and means to deliver makeup water or sprays to the pools, even when physical access is limited by facility damage or high radiation levels. Let’s learn from Fukushima!
Comments
#2
We need end the era of nuclear energy And the sooner the better.Storing the waste alone present problems beyond today being able to uncover and the length of time it must be safely stored a problem from some future if any left inhabitants so sad.
#3
I am so proud that California IS closing the last Nuclear Reactor Power Station - soon! People are always so scared of being without power... I lived for 18 years when I was growing up without A/C and/or heat because of the Winter storms and year-round thunder storms. We were always planning for the next power outtage. Yes, Summers and a few other times of the year we have heat waves, but that's not nearly as awful as being in -20 degrees (below ZERO!) and having the electricity go out... I'm so thankful I moved to the S/W where we can at least sit outside under shade trees, or drive to somewhere that's cooler. I wish other states would become as Climate Change conscience as we are. To NOT become so just reaps more havoc on our climate and all the other creatures therein. To save ourselves, we must also save everything else.
#4
Please.
#5
When you chose a nuclear plant location and design a plant, it is Engineering 101 that you design and site for worst case scenario. This was obviously not done on the East Coast of Japan as in the last 100 years they have had larger Tsunami's. No plant on the East Coast of Japan should be started again.
PG&E has announced that it is going to decommission Diablo Canyon in 2024 and 2025. The news media keeps saying that they are shutting down the reactors early. In fact they will be shutting down at the end of the 40 year designed operating license time frame. Many plants have applied for a 20 year extension to this license. They have to do an expensive evaluation and review by the NRC to obtain this extension. In Diablo Canyons case they have decided not to pursue this. Diablo Canyon had about 10 years of construction delays, so the plants are physically older than the 40 years. The design is from the 60's. When the plants were designed computers were very low powered for a seismic design. Today's design with new computers and knowledge of seismic design would be much different. So they probably realized that they would never get an extension anyway, considering the faults in the local area. In the last few years decommisoning nuclear plants has become a hand me down project to the next generation. They will delay it for 40 years and let it sit in mothballs until then. No one can predict the costs or ramifications of this delay. Meanwhile they collect off of the funds that they have charged the public and set aside for the decommisioning. Also there is no place for the 1000's of fuel assemblies to go. Something that the nuclear industry has has 60 years to do something about.
#6
The wake up call really goes out to people like you Thom who fail to educate yourself about nuclear power and why it is here to stay and continue to replace coal for example. Just to add a fun fact, Fukushima actually withstood the tsunami/earthquake. Problem was that those who designed that facility placed the cooling pumps and emergency generators in the basement instead of a safer place on hi ground. There are over 100 nuclear plants being built world wide now so read and support nuclear power.
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Appreciate the editorial focus on a horrilbe situation that is not much better than after the disaster.
Lke idiots Japan is burning contaminated waste in every province so there will not be mass exits of people to safe areas.
My concern with the US:
How can nuclear power companies get the plant license extended after the 40 year design life has expired?
Need I answer: profit and screw the nearby population.
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