Bill Gates has fully realized the potential of nuclear and he has spoken often and a lot on the issue. Here are a few videos that are well worth watching.
The Gate Notes: Nuclear Energy after Fukushima (click on the link, video can not be embedded here)
The Gate Notes: An Energy Briefing with Daniel Yergin: Nuclear Energy
And here are two videos embedded. (more...)
A powerpoint presentation made by professor Majia Holmer Nadesan is getting some attention around the web, in the presentation she claims that the Japanese authorities, among others, lied and covered up information about the Fukushima accident. So let's have a look at it.
Ok, now it is official: Germany has gone batshit crazy.
Power firms should invest massively in coal and gas-fired power technology and renewable energy sources, Harry Voigtsberger, economy minister of Germany's most populous state North Rhine Westphalia, said in the Financial Times Deutschland.
The original article can be read here (in german).
Angela Markel seems to be agreeing...
In a document from Friday's meeting obtained by Reuters, Merkel and her ministers laid out a six-point plan that includes a 5 billion-euro credit programme to support renewables.
It will also require building new gas and coal plants, Merkel said. "Gas and coal power plants were discussed... an accelerated exit from nuclear energy will lead to replacement power stations," she said.
Why? So they can get rid of nuclear power...
This is about as stupid an idea as to say that in order to prevent paper cuts to your finger you should cut off your arms!
Sure... you achieve what you aimed for... but did you really concider the side effects before you took a knife and started carving?
Diese dummen Deutschen...
George Monbiot, environmentalist and journalist... and once a strong opponent to nuclear power has faced an "unpalatable truth": the anti-nuclear lobby lied to us.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/apr/05/anti-nuclear-lobby-misled-world
The article is only about 30 years overdue... but I cannot stop smiling when I read this. Monbiot did what everyone should do: check the facts, think for yourself, dare to think you may have been either right or wrong.
I've discovered that when the facts don't suit them, the movement resorts to the follies of cover-up they usually denounce
Over the last fortnight I've made a deeply troubling discovery. The anti-nuclear movement to which I once belonged has misled the world about the impacts of radiation on human health. The claims we have made are ungrounded in science, unsupportable when challenged, and wildly wrong. We have done other people, and ourselves, a terrible disservice.
Thank yo so much for this George. Along with Mark Lynas and Patrick Moore, you have shown that "green" does not have to mean "unscientific zeal".
This is not so much an April Fools joke as it is a little riddle. It connects to a current event... and to things that happened in the last century. And of course it has something to do with nuclear power.
What are these equations?
This is a comparison between two estimated values... what are they?
Update: we have a winner! Tony scored a perfect bullseye. I'm quoting him here:
‘a’ is the number of iodine atoms that would fill the known universe, if the iodine were at ‘normal’ temperature/pressure.
the second number is the number of radioactive iodine atoms you would have needed, when Chernobyl exploded, in order to have one radioactive iodine atom left today.
An added trivia is that the estimated number of atoms in the known universe is approximately 10^80.
The upshot of all this is this: there is not a single atom of Iodine-131 released by Chernobyl in existence today. The last atom decayed in no more than 4 years after the accident.
/Michael
Update 15:00(UTC)/16:00(CET)/00:00(JST)
NISA has released their update, link 1, link 2, link 3. I have also reattached the earlier JAIF figures at the bottom of the last update to see if it will fix the bug that gives an error when one clicks on the pictures.
As usual the NISA figures are between (). The NISA data is 3 hours older than the JAIF data.
Reactor 1:
Water level in the core: 1.65(1.65) meters below the top of fuel assemblies
Flow rate of injected water: 7.2 cubic meters per hour
Core pressure: 476 (477) kPa
Containment pressure: 270 (270) kPa *note, in the last update I misstakenly wrote 370 kPa as containment pressure.
Core temperature(feedwater nozzle): 195.3 Celsius
Core temperature(bottom head) 146.3 Celsius
Dose rate within containment: 35.1 Sv/hour
Reactor 2:
Water level in the core: 1.1 (1.1) meters below the top of fuel assemblies
Flow rate of injected water: 18.6 cubic meters per hour
Core pressure: unknown
Containment pressure: 116 (115) kPa
Core temperature(feedwater nozzle): 107 Celcius
Core temperature(bottom head): 100 Celsius
Dose rate within containment: 43.4 Sv/hour
Spent fuel pool temperature: 57 Celsius
Reactor 3:
Water level in the core: 2.3 meters below the top of fuel assemblies
Flow rate of injected water: 14.5 cubic meters per hour
Core pressure: 139 (139) kPa *note, I wrote the wrong pressure in the last update
Containment pressure: 106.6 (106.6) kPa
Core temperature(feedwater nozzle): 37.6 Celsius (sounds like an error on equipment)
Core temperature(bottom head): 106.1 Celsius
Dose rate within containment: 36.1 Sv/hour
Due to my error with containment pressure in the last update I withdraw my speculation that its hard to control the pressure in number 1. Rather it seems like the situation is fairly stable. Otherwise not much new information.
The US Department of Energy has done some arial surveys around Fukushima Daiichi and released the data. I have one pictures from it below(hats of to http://neutroneconomy.blogspot.com/ where I found the pictures). The dose rate unit used on the picture is millirad. 1 millirad=10 microgray =* 10 microsievert
*that equality between gray and sievert is only valid for gamma radiation. Gray measures the energy deposited while sievert is weighted in such a way that it expresses a cancer risk. For gamma the weighting factor is 1.
Update 12:00(UTC)/13:00(CET)/21:00(JST)
No NISA updates have been released yet today, JAIF has released their update as usual(one hour old as of writing this).
Reactor 1:
Water level in the core: 1.65 meters below the top of fuel assemblies
Core pressure: 476 kPa
Containment pressure: 370 kPa
Core temperature(feedwater nozzle): no new data
Core temperature(bottom head) no new data
Dose rate within containment: no new data
Reactor 2:
Water level in the core: 1.1 meters below the top of fuel assemblies
Core pressure: unknown
Containment pressure: 116 kPa
Core temperature(feedwater nozzle): no new data
Core temperature(bottom head) no new data
Dose rate within containment: no new data
Reactor 3:
Water level in the core: 2.3 meters below the top of fuel assemblies
Core pressure: 202 kPa
Containment pressure: 106.6 kPa
Core temperature(feedwater nozzle): no new data
Core temperature(bottom head) no new data
Dose rate within containment: no new data
All 3 reactors are now cooled with freshwater instead of sea water. It seems hard for them to get the pressure in the number one reactor under complete control. In JAIF's written update they say lights are on in all control rooms now. Levels of radioactive materials in the seawater around the plant is climbing. TEPCO is releasing updates on activity in both sea and air, I have attached levels as pictures in the bottom of this update.
The ground deposits of I-131 the prefectures around Fukushima ranges from less than 1 to 16 kBq per square meter. The cesium ground deposits ranges from less than 0.1 to 1.9 kBq per square meter(here are the last 3 MEXT updates on ground deposts link 1, link 2, link 3). The data form the worst effected prefectures are however omitted, we hope MEXT will make those figures available asap! As a comparison the ground deposits of cesium due to Chernobyl ranged from a couple of hundreds to a couple of thousand kBq per square meter.
Update, March 26, 12:00 (UTC) / 13:00 (CET) / 21:00 (JST)
Not much to add today. The radiation levels in the sea outside Fukushima I are sky-high. The long term effects are hard to predict now since a sea contamination is entirly different from a land contamination, where land is basicly a 2D area, which leads to a thin and high concentration on the surface, and where rains soon concentrate the contamination to "hotspots". The sea on the other hand is a 3D volume where currents quickly dilute any contaminant by dispersing them over very wide areas.
The JAIF updates from 10:00, 16:00 and 21:00 (JST) for March 26 are pretty much uniform. The big news is that freshwater injection to the cores of 1, 2 and 3 has started as opposed to using salty sea water. Apart from that nothing new. The radiation readings at the main gate (1 km out) has stayed at 170 μSv/h all day. The west gate read 147 μSv/h at 13:30.
NISA has not said anything new since last night.
Links(english):
BBC We should stop running away from radiation
Hufftington post US brings fresh water to japan nuclear plant
NY Times Japan presses nuclear plant repair as more damage is found
Rod Adams Shaken, flooded, stressed by power outages, Fukushima Daiichi moves into second place
The Independent Fear and devastation on the road to Japan's nuclear disaster zone
Links(swedish):
Röda berget
Dr Angels blog
DN Radioaktivt jod tusen gånger tillåten nivå i havet
Aftonbladet Strålningen ökar runt Fukushima
SvD Radioaktivt vatten i reaktorer
Tänkvärt? Eller inte!
Grön horizont
Uppdate 22:45(UTC) / 23:450(CET) / 07:45(JST)
There has been no further info yet on the status of the exposed workers or the status of the reactors. Only news about the reactors is that both number 1 and number 3 have now switched to fresh water injection into the core and number 2 was supposed to follow promptly. I end todays updates with a few video clips of the explosion in one of the refineries that was hit worst by the earthquake and tsunami. This disaster has struck so many lifes, so many industries and so many towns that it is hard to fathom.
Uppdate 16:30(UTC) / 17:30(CET) / 00:30(JST)
The 2 workes taken to hospital reportedly got a dose to their feet and lower legs between 2-6 Sieverts from beta radiation. They also got close to 200 mSv from gamma and an unknown internal dose.
They have not shown any signs of acute radiation sickness so far. But the dose to the legs are very worrying and in the worst case might mean amputation.
Update 14:15 (UTC) / 13:15 (CET) / 22:15 (JST)
New updates from JAIF and NISA(link 1, link 2, link3). JAIF status is from 15:00 JST and NISA updates from 10:00 and 12:30 JST. As before the first number is from the JAIF update and the number within () is from the older NISA update.
Reactor 1:
Water level in the core: 1.65 (1.65) meters below the top of fuel assemblies
Core pressure: 450 kPa (450 kPa)
Containment pressure: 295 (295) kPa
Core temperature(feedwater nozzle): 197.8 Celsius
Core temperature(bottom head) 153.6 Celsius
Dose rate within containment: 38.9 Sievert/hour
If one looks at the JAIF status updates one can see a very encouraging piece of information, they have switched from seawater to fresh water injection into the pressure vessel! That is one significant step in the direction of stabilizing the reactor since seawater injection could never be a permanent solution. They are still not using the internal pumps however. The temperature of the core seems to have been brought under control and the high containment pressure is on a slowly declining trend. We can only keep our hopes up that they will be able to avoid venting the containment.
Reactor 2:
Water level in the core: 1.20 (1.2) meters below the top of fuel assemblies
Core pressure: unknown
Containment pressure: 120 (120) kPa
Core temperature(feedwater nozzle): 107 Celsius
Core temperature(bottom head) 105 Celsius
Dose rate within containment: 45.6 Sievert/hour
Reactor 3.
Water level in the core: 2.3 m below the top of fuel assemblies.
Core pressure: 139 (139) kPa
Containment pressure: 107 kPa
Core temperature(feedwater nozzle): 42.8 Celsius (probably junk)
Core temperature(bottom head) 111,6 Celsius
Dose rate within containment: 51 Sievert/hour
Preparations are being made to switch from seawater to fresh water for reactor 2 and 3. If it goes as quickly as for number one it should be done within half a day. Work with electrical equipment on going.
We have earlier warned for the possibility that molten material in the core can be lying on the bottom of the vessel and eating its way through, now that seems unlikely considering how low the bottom head temperatures of the vessel are. All of them are below 200 degrees.
Dose rate at main gate around 200 micro sievert per hour.
Update 12:30 (UTC) / 11:30 (CET) / 20:30 (JST)
TEPCO is preparing to switch from salt water to fresh water for the core cooling. From NHK:
TEPCO says it intends to switch over from pumping sea water to pumping fresh water into the 3 reactors, as salt in the sea water could cause corrosion and buildup, hampering the smooth flow of water inside the structures.
The company has been pumping seawater as an emergency measure.
The power company also says preparations to switch to fresh water were completed at the No.1 reactor on Friday afternoon.
Operations to pump fresh water into reactors No.2 and No 3 are expected to start later in the day.
Update 10:00 (UTC) / 11:00 (CET) / 19:00 (JST)
Here are the status tables from the JAIF update described below and summary.
Reactor 1:
Water level in the core: 1.7 meters below the top of fuel assemblies
Core pressure: 465 kPa
Containment pressure: 310 kPa
Core temperature(feedwater nozzle): no new info yet today
Dose rate within containment: no new info yet today
Pressure has decreased by about 60-80 kPa in both vessel and containment since yesterday.
Reactor 2:
Water level in the core: 1.10 meters below the top of fuel assemblies
Core pressure: unknown
Containment pressure: 120 kPa
Core temperature (feedwater nozzle): no new info yet today
Dose rate within containment: no new info yet today
Reactor 3.
Water level in the core: 2.3 m below the top of fuel assemblies.
Core pressure: 139 kPa
Containment pressure: 107 kPa
Core temperature (bottom head): no new info yet today
Dose rate within containment: no new info yet today
Containment damage is again suspected on number 3, otherwise no major changes since yesterday. Let's hope the containment is not damaged! Luckily the reactors in the possibly damaged containments are behaving more stable than the number one reactor (that has a undamaged containment).
Picture of reactor number 3 building
Update 08:45 (UTC) / 09:45 (CET) / 17:45 (JST)
The 16:00 JAIF update for March 25 has been published. Two changes:
...so far seventeen workers have been exposed to more than 100 mSv of radiation.
100 mSv is the limit where an increase in cancer risk has been proven. At 100 mSv, the lifetime risk of getting cancer increases from about 25-32% to 29-36%.
Keep in mind that this does not say whether or not any of these workers will actually get any cancer, much less die from it. It is safe to assume that just as after Hirosima/Nagasaki, the medical authorities will keep those exposed under very close watch, meaning their chances of getting diagnosed early and thus surviving any cancer will be quite good.
The other change is that the radiation reading at the main gate has gone up again:
The Main Gate: 259.0μSv/h at 11:00, Mar. 25
The pressure in the #1 containment vessel is moving up and down. #2 is stable. The #3 pressure is slowly decreasing. With the worries of a leak from #3, this may have more than one explanation, not all of them good.
Update 07:20 (UTC) / 08:20 (CET) / 16:20 (JST)
The 10:00 (JST) JAIF update for March 25 has the following new entries:
Monitoring results of seawater sampled at the coast near the Fukushima Dai-ichi NPS on Mar. 23rd showed that radioactive Iodine, Cesium, Ruthenium, and Tellurium exceeding the regulatory limit were detected. Also, monitoring results of seawater sampled at coasts within about 16km from the Fukushima Dai-ichi NPS in Mar. 23rd showed that radioactive Iodine and Ruthenium exceeding the regulatory limit were detected.
Nuclear Safety Commission of Japan reported the result of preliminary calculation of exposure dose in the surrounding area of Fukushima Dai-ichi NPS.
The dose rate mesaured at the main gate has dropped slightly, from 209.4μSv/h at 12:00, Mar. 24 to 193.8μSv/h at 06:00, Mar. 25.
The high exposure of three workers in the number three turbine hall suggests that #3 may have a leak after all, says the government's Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency.
Water supplies continue to show taints of Iodine-131, but the readings fluctuate and it's still hard to make out a general trend. Tokyo is no longer under a recommendation not to drink the tap water, but concerned citizens continue to use bottled water to some extent.
Following the latest findings, the Tokyo officials said it will no longer warn against consumption of tap water in the metropolitan area.
''I believe readings will go up and down. But even if levels exceed standards temporarily, it will be no problem as long as they stay (most of the time) within the range throughout the year,'' Tokyo Gov. Shintaro Ishihara said at a news conference. ''I hope people in Tokyo would act calmly.''
Still, people in the capital area -- located about 220 kilometers from the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant -- and elsewhere continued to buy up limited supplies of bottled water from shops and vending machines.
The government has asked that people in the 20-30 km zone around the crippled Fukushima plant to evacuate volontarily out of concern for supplies for daily necessities.
The Japanese government has encouraged people living within 20 to 30 kilometers of the troubled nuclear plant in Fukushima Prefecture to leave voluntarily, with concerns over access to daily necessities rather than resident safety prompting the advice, top government spokesman Yukio Edano said Friday.
Länkar:
SvD mycket troligt en läcka i 3an
Flute
Kommunisternas blogg
Martin Mobergs blogg
Röda berget
Aktieskolan
Cornucopia
Röda malmö
Divage
DN Kärnan kan vara skadad (den person som valde den här rubriken borde sluta använda google translate....)
DN cesium i grönsaker i Tokyo
Aftonbladet hotet i japan är osynligt
Uppdate,
I realised that I forgot to counter the 5th argument by Takahashi. I have now added it.
In the Huffington post Patrick Takahashi flaunts some misconceptions about nuclear and the technological impact the Fukushima accident will have on future new builds. We will take a look at some of the flaws here on his 4 point list.
1. Economics
Patric states that due to increasing regulatory demands on nuclear after this accident the price of nuclear will escalate into the industries oblivion. But that doesn't necessarily have to be the case and should not be the case of the issue is treated rationally by the regulatory bodies. What Fukushima has shown us is that one can not rely on emergency diesel generators for core cooling and that spent fuel pools are sensitive. Let's look into those two issues.
I can't say I fully agree with George Monbiot on this one... he may very well be jumping to conclusions. At NPYP we are so far very cutiously optimistic and extremely tense until we get the reassuring word that "all six reactors at Fukushima Dai-ichi are now in cold shutdown".
Still... I think we are going to see lots more of this sentiment like the one he posted in The Guardian, headlined "Why Fukushima made me stop worrying and love nuclear power":
You will not be surprised to hear that the events in Japan have changed my view of nuclear power. You will be surprised to hear how they have changed it. As a result of the disaster at Fukushima, I am no longer nuclear-neutral. I now support the technology.
A crappy old plant with inadequate safety features was hit by a monster earthquake and a vast tsunami. The electricity supply failed, knocking out the cooling system. The reactors began to explode and melt down. The disaster exposed a familiar legacy of poor design and corner-cutting. Yet, as far as we know, no one has yet received a lethal dose of radiation.
Some greens have wildly exaggerated the dangers of radioactive pollution. For a clearer view, look at the graphic published by xkcd.com. It shows that the average total dose from the Three Mile Island disaster for someone living within 10 miles of the plant was one 625th of the maximum yearly amount permitted for US radiation workers. This, in turn, is half of the lowest one-year dose clearly linked to an increased cancer risk, which, in its turn, is one 80th of an invariably fatal exposure. I'm not proposing complacency here. I am proposing perspective.
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Why I do not trust "We don't need nuclear" rethorics
Thursday, May 5th, 2011Dear Mr./Ms. Anti-Nuclear Activist... for decades You have been telling me "It's easy to get off nuclear, if we just want to!". Well, alot more powerful people than You have made similar promises...
The Daily Show - An Energy-Independent Future
Tags: Daily Show Full Episodes,Political Humor & Satire Blog,The Daily Show on Facebook
Where do we stand today after all these promises? Pretty much exactly where we were 5-10-20-40 years ago.
So - dear Mr./Ms. Anti-Nuclear Activist - You promise me gold and green forests... but You don't deliver. Maybe this wasn't Your fault. Maybe You'd like to blame Big Oil or lazy politicians or a public that just won't see things the way You do. It's allright... You can try to shift the blame any place You want. But it doesn't matter whose fault it is, becasue assigning blame does not alleviate the problem.
So when You - dear Mr./Ms. Anti-Nuclear Activist - today, yet again, try to tell me it's allright to renounce nuclear power, it means I cannot trust You, because things might no go they way You promise me they will.
What will You - dear Mr./Ms. Anti-Nuclear Activist - need to do to gain my trust again?
Well it's easy: get the replacements up and running. Get full replacements for fossil fuels and nuclear power up and running, hooked to the grids and pumping GigaWatthours of energy into them, and I'll trust You again.
So... dear Mr./Ms. Anti-Nuclear Activist.... get to work. We're eagerly waiting for You.
Oh... and one last thing: while we wait for you to get this work done, You do not get to say we cannot make any new nuclear power if we want to, at least on the "We're not gonna need it in a while"-argument alone. Just saying this FYI...
Tags: An Energy-Independent Future, anti-nuclear activism, anti-nuclear activist, debate, John Stewart, nuclear power, The Daily Show
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