Utility unable to unload damaged Hamaoka fuel rod for 17 years

[robdogbucky]

Thursday, July 28, 2011

Utility unable to unload damaged Hamaoka fuel rod for 17 years
Kyodo

SHIZUOKA — Chubu Electric Power Co. revealed Thursday it has been unable to remove a spent fuel rod that was damaged in an accident 17 years ago from its Hamaoka nuclear power plant in Shizuoka Prefecture.

Spent fuel is normally sent to the reprocessing plant in Rokkasho, Aomori Prefecture, or elsewhere, but the damaged rod remains in a special container inside the fuel pool of the plant's decommissioned No. 1 reactor, it said.

The utility said it had asked domestic research organizations and foreign nuclear fuel firms to take it but to no avail. It is still pondering how to get rid of the rod in the absence of clear government rules on how to dispose of damaged fuel that requires more delicate handling.

Chubu Electric denied Thursday that it had urged employees and workers at the Hamaoka plant to express support for its "pluthermal" nuclear power generation project in a government-sponsored promotion event in 2007 when it let them know the event would be held in advance…

http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nn20110728x3.html




Water treatment system running below capacity

A water decontamination system at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant has been operating below its target capacity, resulting in delays to the firm's timetable of about 2 months.

Tokyo Electric Power Company started running the decontamination system in late June to remove radioactive substances from water pooled in reactor buildings' basements. Treated water is sent back into the reactors as coolant.

TEPCO says the system operated at 63 percent capacity from June 17th until Tuesday, though it aimed to run it at 70 percent capacity.

The company was planning to decrease the amount of contaminated water to a safe level by early August. But, it now says the timetable is likely to be pushed back until late September...

Thursday, July 28, 2011 11:48 +0900 (JST)

http://www3.nhk.or.jp/daily/english/28_19.html




Nagasaki mayor: shift from nuclear power needed

The mayor of Nagasaki City will for the first time call for a shift away from nuclear energy in his annual peace declaration on August 9th, amid the ongoing nuclear crisis in Fukushima.

Mayor Tomihisa Taue told reporters on Thursday that the people of his city do not want to see more "Hibakusha," as the victims of the 1945 atomic bombings of Nagasaki and Hiroshima are known.

He said he will call for a move toward safer, renewable energy sources in this year's declaration, no matter how long it might take to achieve that shift.

The mayor's appeal on nuclear power generation will be the first of its kind at a Nagasaki peace ceremony. The annual declaration has always focused on the abolition of nuclear weapons…

Thursday, July 28, 2011 18:58 +0900 (JST)

http://www3.nhk.or.jp/daily/english/28_35.html




11 prefectures decide to test all beef cattle for radiation; expected to cost 4 billion yen

Eleven prefectures have decided as of July 27 to test all beef cattle for radiation contamination after radioactive cesium above the allowable level set by the central government was detected in cattle in some prefectures, and total costs for the measures are expected to reach around 4 billion yen, the Mainichi learned.

The 11 prefectures include Yamagata and Shizuoka, which have already started to test beef cattle for radiation contamination. The central government is reluctant to conduct such tests on all beef cattle across the country except for some parts of Fukushima Prefecture, but eight other prefectures are considering testing all beef cows. A heated debate is likely to emerge on who should shoulder the costs for radiation tests.

Japan first started to test all beef cattle in 2001 after several cases of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), commonly known as "mad-cow disease," were discovered in the country. The tests helped restore consumer confidence in beef. But cesium tests are more complex than those for BSE, and there are only a limited number of measuring instruments.

Although tests on all beef cattle are being conducted mainly by prefectural governments, local chapters of the Japan Agricultural Cooperatives (JA) in Tochigi and Shizuoka prefectures are conducting such tests on beef cattle kept by member farmers. The cost of testing one beef cow amounts to about 20,000 yen. The number of beef cows that are subject to such tests is at least about 190,000, and if all of them were to be tested, it would cost about 4 billion yen…

(Mainichi Japan) July 28, 2011

http://mdn.mainichi.jp/mdnnews/news/20110728p2a00m0na016000c.html

[Poll_Blind]

1. Wow, came back here to finish reading and someone had unrecced it.

So here's a kick, too.

:kick:

PB

[gratuitous]

2. More alarmism

Gee whiz, it's been safely (we presume, but we aren't really going to inquire too closely) stored for 17 years. There's no reason to believe it can't be safely (see previous presumption) stored for another 17 years. At which point, it's half-life would be reduced to only 9,966 years. You could survive that standing on your head!