Cherry blossoms in the foreground of Mount Fuji (image: ladyadventurer.co.uk) So far, at least, the famed blossoming cherry trees of Japan don’t discriminate geographically. This time of year, they grace even the surroundings of nuclear power generators shaken by earthquake, tsunami, and meltdowns three years ago. Otherwise, though, the Fukushima landscape remains desolate. Despite widespread
For this little Fukushima irony, many thanks to Fukushimaemergencywhatcanwedo.blogspot.com!
Though we try to keep a very positive focus here, PlanetSave isn’t just a blog about the wonders of the natural world and the glory of Mankind’s inventions. It also offers knowledge and a caution about our failures as individuals and as a species. We’ve all made mistakes before, big and small. By acknowledging anthropogenic
Construction of the Advanced Liquid Processing System at TEPCO’s ruined Fukushima nuclear power complex (photo: TEPCO, via mainichi.jp). Still dealing with the aftermath of the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake, subsequent tsunami, and three meltdowns at its Fukushima I nuclear power complex, Tokyo Electric Power Company had more bad news yesterday about its Fukushima ALPS cleanup efforts.
TEPCO workers lower the 91-ton shielded transfer cask in preparation for relocating unused nuclear fuel. (Photo from TEPCO.) Today, officials at Tokyo Electric Power Company could breathe a sigh of relief. Using remote-controlled cranes, workers at Fukushima Daiichi cleared some of the dangerously radioactive uranium fuel rod racks from the upper-story cooling pond of damaged
NHK World reports the beginning of Fukushima Reactor Unit 4 fuel rod transfer. (Screenshot of NHK broadcast, video released by TEPCO.) The ticklish operations involved in decommissioning Tokyo Electric’s ruined nuclear power plant at Fukushima began on Monday. Workers at the plant began removing unused nuclear fuel from the fourth-floor storage pool at the damaged
Readying Fukushima 1 Unit 4 for decommission operation, but… (Kyodo News/flickr.com/photos/simplyinfo/) Not so fast with the Fukushima decommissioning, TEPCO. A Japanese government-affiliated agency (the Japan Nuclear Energy Safety Organization) has advised the Tokyo Electric Power Company that its proposed method of clearing Reactor Unit 4’s exposed cooling pool needs a test run before anyone commits
Here’s what the Fukushima I power nuclear plant complex looked like prior to the natural disasters and explosions. (Source: ad-hoc-news.de.) Before March 2011, if you heard the words “Fukushima Daiichi,” you might wonder if someone had concocted a new sushi roll. Now most of us know about the nuclear accident cascade following Japan’s massive Tōhoku
Preparing to decommission the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant, TEPCO recently dismantled the damaged roof parapet of Unit 4 and removed debris there. (Screenshot source: Enformable.com/Lucas W. Hixson.) As early as next Friday (November 8), the scariest decommissioning work at the ruined nuclear power complex may begin. Tokyo Electric Power (TEPCO), the largest electrical utility in
“Threat analysis from TEPCO. Accuracy? Credibility?” (Photo and story from International Business Times.)
Over 200 anti-nuclear activists blocked the Hinkley Point power plant in Somerset, UK yesterday. While the effort is now over, the activists consider the event to have been a wonderful success.
Hurricane Irene has spent its force, entering New York as a downgraded Tropical Storm, and left many residents and experts breathing a sigh of relief over a storm that they thought could have been much, much worse.
The North Anna nuclear power plant, located 20 miles from the epicenter, is shut down and in a safe condition, a company official and the Louisa County public information office report. There has been no release of nuclear material, Louisa County spokeswoman Amanda Reidelbach said
We have featured a number of WellHome’s infographics on our site and, as a result, the folks there decided to ask us what matters we thought were most important at the moment and worth creating infographics about. I supplied them with my feedback and they’ve gone ahead and made an infographic on some of the topics I thought was hot and worthy of their time.
One of our most popular stories over the past week was about a Nebraska nuclear power plant (or two, actually) at risk of some serious problems. A ton of people have been coming to our site via Google searches related to that for days. Normally, with such big news, we have to compete with other leading news sites for such views and may get a lot fo traffic for awhile, but generally not for several days. But, that didn’t seem to happen this time. Turns out, there may have been an obvious reason for that.
A fire in an electrical switch room on Tuesday briefly knocked out cooling for a pool holding spent nuclear fuel at the Fort Calhoun nuclear plant outside Omaha, Neb., plant officials said….
One of the big news stories of the day is a bright one for those concerned about nuclear power. In Italy, Silvio Berlusconi’s nuclear power plans got crushed by a public referendum when well over 90% of voters voted “Heck No!” (but yeah, not in those words).
Check that out! Some Greenpeace activists in Italy dropped a huge anti-nuclear banner 20 minutes into a huge Italian soccer match (and you know Italians are huge soccer fans). Furthermore, the banner stayed up for the whole game!
The game was apparently the Italian league finals for the Coppa Italia — the Italian Cup. The two teams playing were renowned Palermo and Internazionale (Inter) Milan.
One of our loyal readers (the creator of the environmental music film above) passed on to me that Florida Power & Light (FPL) wants to put two new nuclear reactors on the shores of Biscayne Bay and the South Florida Wildlands Association is organizing a mock evacuation and rally for tomorrow (Saturday) in opposition to such a plan. Here’s more….
The title above comes fro the YouTube page. For more, watch the video
The Tokyo Electric Power Company has released new images from Fukushima, depicting the current problem and photos of the day of the tsunami.
Japan’s Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency announced that they would be raising the rating of the Fukushima nuclear crisis to a level 7.
Here are a couple of great cartoons by Tom Toles on U.S. politics, Wall Street, energy “policy” in the U.S., climate change, and our response to the nuclear disaster in Japan.
Radioactive materials have been detected in seawater south of the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station according to a press release from the Tokyo Electric Power Company. The radioactive materials were found from seawater around the discharge canal, which runs south from the nuclear plant which was damaged by the earthquake on March 11.
In a forceful, March 16 statement on behalf of the Union of Concerned Scientist to the U.S. Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, Chief Scientist Dr. Edwin Lyman states:
“The NRC and the industry cannot hide this time behind the ‘it can’t happen here’ excuse. We have 23 plants of the same design. We have plants that are just as old. We have had station blackouts.”
Two months ago, I wrote a post on a survey of energy professionals and what energy policies they recommended. The results of the survey, which was conducted by Bloomberg Businessweek Research Services and funded by ABB, are worth coming back to in light of the horrible nuclear catastrophe occurring in Japan right now.
The EU’s Commissioner for Energy, Günther Oettinger, has announced that the union will conduct a series of stress tests upon its nuclear power stations later in the year. He described the tests as “extraordinary” and said they would include the impact of earthquakes and high water.
The tests will also be conducted on the nuclear power stations of neighbouring non-EU countries, including Switzerland, Turkey and Russia.
However one thing seems to be clear: some 40 to 70 nuclear engineers have not been evacuated from the power plant, choosing instead to stay behind in potentially fatal conditions in an attempt to prevent a nuclear meltdown which could plausibly harm thousands.
Summary update from the Guardian at 8:35am EST: • A “core meltdown” might have occurred at reactor 2 Fukushima Daiichi. NHK World reports, as fears grow over the safety of the nuclear plant continues. Fuel rods are reportedly fully exposed. The nuclear and industrial safety agency (NISA) has tried to circulate the coolant by steam
The U.S. Seventh Fleet said Monday it had moved its ships and aircraft away from a quake-stricken Japanese nuclear power plant after discovering low-level radioactive contamination.
Yes, first of all, by stabilize we don’t mean keep it exactly the same — that is impossible. We mean not pumping it so full of CO2 that we see unprecedented warming and ‘natural’ disasters and perhaps even an unlivable climate at some point. Anyway, this post is a share of an in-depth post by
Greenpeace flew a blimp (or “airship”) over the Vermont Nuclear Reactor “Vermont Yankee” this week,.. as you know since you already read our first story on the activist effort, right? (Hint: read the back story if you haven’t yet.) Greenpeace has now released a video (below) and several pictures of this flight over Vermont Yankee. Additionally,
An old nuclear reactor in Vermont, the Vermont Yankee Nuclear Power Station, has had a number of problems lately and Greenpeace has taken notice. “The 38-year-old reactor has a history of contamination issues, including a recent leak of radioactive water,” Becky Striepe of our sister site Ecoscraps writes. In February, the Vermont Senate voted 26-4
With the historic passage of climate legislation through the House of Representatives, many concerns have trickled forth. Does the climate legislation do enough? Will it even work? Does it have the right aim? With the issuance of similar concerns have come proposed solutions and substitutions. The republicans have proposed that 100 nuclear power plants be built by 2030 in place of the proposed cap-and-trade climate bill. I’ve recently written two articles on the republican “solution” to both the climate and economic crises. And today I’m writing more.
“We all remember this time last year,” said Senator Roger Wicker, R-Miss., at a hearing on Capitol Hill on Monday. “We were in the midst of an energy crisis, paying $4 for a gallon of gasoline, and Americans were seeing their utility bills skyrocketing.” Since then, he went on to say, the energy problems haven’t disappeared and no changes in policy have been made.
[social_buttons] In southeast Utah rests a peaceful town located on the banks of a peaceful river. Here the Green River flows between two canyons, Gray and Labyrinth, allowing for farming and ranching in an arid desert. Driving through Green River, Utah doesn’t take but a few moments, including a stop to purchase some mouth-watering melons,
The National Wildlife Federation has credited the Turkey Point nuclear power plant in Florida for helping save endangered crocodiles by creating a makeshift sanctuary for the reptiles within their 6,800-acre network of canals for the past 30 years. [social_buttons] In 1985, only 19 crocodiles lived around Turkey Point, but now around 400 live among the
Yucca Mountain, “Yes”; transport waste through my state?, “No”; what Grand Canyon? It’s hard to tell if Senator McCain’s age is catching up with his memory, or if he’s just trying to ride a lot of fences when it comes to nuclear power. The Sierra Club sent out a release today, pointing out the Senator’s
The folks in Idaho, according to a release by the Environment News Service, are apparently tickled pink that the French Company, AREVA, is planning construction of a $2 billion uranium enrichment plant near Idaho Falls, Idaho. It’s AREVA’s first such facility in the U.S. and it plans to serve the nuclear power industry. There are
My Issues and Support of Nuclear Power In the past year or so I’ve been writing articles in opposition to the proliferation of nuclear power stations, not only in the United States, but in the world. The responses have been enlightening, intelligent, pedestrian and downright rude. In each case, the respondents seem to have either
In what was reported earlier as a minor situation, comes news that a uranium leak from one of France’s nuclear power plants has tainted well water and two rivers 30 miles from the tourist city of Avignon, which is currently hosting an arts festival. No Fishing Allowed and Drinking Well Water is Banned According to
Just another reason why uranium isn’t the way to go, it costs the taxpayer way too much money for what he receives. Take the former Fernald Feed Materials Production Center at Fernald, Ohio, that’s about 20 miles northwest of Cincinnati. The former uranium processing site opened in complete secrecy during the Cold War in 1951.
No matter what new energy proposal someone makes, it’s bound to attract an outcry of NIMBYs (Not In My Backyard). (My recent post about the U.S. generating all the energy it needed via a 100-mile-by-100-mile solar installation in the Mojave Desert, for example, evoked some protest.) So I thought it might help to pose the
April 26 marks the 22nd anniversary of the 1986 nuclear accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in Slavutych, Ukraine. That one incident resulted in hundreds and possibly thousands of deaths, lingering health issues, radioactive contamination of a wide swath of land, property losses and on-going clean-up costs totaling billions of dollars.The Ukranian-American Environmental Association
Those steel tanks you see are some of the 177 that contain 53 million gallons of heavy metals, acids and solvents. They also contain plutonium, cesium, strontium and uranium. All are buried underground. Of those 177, sixty-seven are confirmed leakers, meaning their contents are leaching into the soil and headed toward the Columbia River. Most
I was reading some recent headlines about Yucca Mountain, claiming the federal government will face heavy penalties and judgments if the project isn’t finished. Read beyond the headlines my friends, “we” fund the government, the money comes from our pockets, and it isn’t chicken feed. The latest estimates are, that if Yucca Mountain isn’t finished
We’ve all read about the drought in America’s Southeast, and if it doesn’t let up very quickly, some nuclear power stations may have to either cut back operations or shut down temporarily because of a lack of water. An Alabama reactor had to shutdown for a brief period in the summer, and officials in
I’ve been going on for some time now about the nuclear industry, the possibility of more nuclear power stations going online, and especially what to do with radioactive waste that’s been piling up for 50 years. The answer to the waste situation was supposed to have been Yucca Mountain, a remote natural structure some 100
