Scidiv.net: Nuclear energy now supplies around 13.8 per cent of the world’s electricity, with most plants operating in the developed world. And since nuclear plants do not emit any carbon dioxide, they are seen as one way to respond to climate change.
In total 27 plants are under construction in China of 64 worldwide.
Risø DTU has made its eighth report in the series: ‘Nuclear power and Nuclear Safety’, which gives a global overview of nuclear energy with a focus on safety and preparedness. This year’s report is a bit delayed because of the accident in Fukushima, which is also mentioned in the report that would normally cover only the year 2010. Continue
By Harold Feiveson, Zia Mian, M. V. Ramana, and Frank von Hippel | 27 June 2011
Research published in the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists warns if nuclear waste management is not thought out from the beginning, the public in many countries will reject nuclear power as an energy choice.
* Reprocessing spent fuel does not eliminate the need for a geological repository — or ease the challenge of identifying suitable sites.
* Finding sites for geological repositories has proven to be very difficult, and the only successes have come through voluntary, consultative processes.
* Dry-cask storage is becoming more common, and some countries might store spent fuel in casks for 100 years or more as an interim strategy.
Continue: Bulletin of Atomic Scientists
Switzerland latest country to shelve nuclear plant plans – but many states still lack an alternative low-carbon energy supply
Japan PM on Fukushima: “Taking this as a lesson, we will lead the world in clean energy such as solar and biomass”
Prime Minister Naoto Kan said Tuesday that Japan would abandon plans to build new nuclear reactors, saying his country needed to “start from scratch” in creating a new energy policy….
Mr. Kan said Japan would retain nuclear and fossil fuels as energy sources, but vowed to add two new pillars to Japan’s energy policy: renewable energy and conservation.
Continue: Climate Progress
How many people live within certain distances of each of the world’s nuclear power plants.
High-resolution global population density Google Earth map for 2010 created by the NASA Socioeconomic Data and Applications Center operated by Columbia University’s Center for International Earth Science Information Network (CIESIN). The underlying population data is the same as we used in our previous analysis to estimate the size of population in the proximity of nuclear plants.
Posted by Declan Butler on April 22, 2011
Few architects have to design anything to last more than 100 years, so how do you build a nuclear waste facility to last for millennia? And what sign do you put on the door?
Over the weekend, remote-controlled robots entered the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant. The robots took the first photos inside the units 1 and 3 reactors (right) and assessed radiation levels.
Continue: Nature. The Great Beyond
Hot in the news is that the Fukushima Nuclear crisis has been upgraded from INES 5 to INES 7. Note that this is not due to some sudden escalation of events today (aftershocks etc.), but rather it is based on an assessment of the cumulative magnitude of the events that have occurred at the site over the past month
There are now hundreds of radiation-related feeds from Japan on Pachube, monitoring conditions in realtime and underpinning more than half a dozen incredibly valuable applications built by people around the world. They combine ‘official’ data, ‘unofficial’ official data, and, most importantly to us, realtime networked geiger counter measurements contributed by concerned citizens.
The nuclear accident at the Fukushima Daichii power plant will have consequences for the future of nuclear power in Japan and elsewhere. To get a better idea of the world’s current tally of nuclear reactors, NATURE have created a map of the world’s nuclear power plants and reactors using Google Earth – the maps are based on a database kindly supplied to me by staff at the International Atomic Energy Agency’s (IAEA)
The nuclear accident at the Fukushima Daichii power plant will have consequences for the future of nuclear power in Japan and elsewhere. To get a better idea of the world’s current tally of nuclear reactors, NATUREs “Great Beyond” have created a map of the world’s nuclear power plants and reactors using Google Earth – the maps are based on a database supplied by staff at the International Atomic Energy Agency’s (IAEA)
Continue: Nature The Great Beyond
The Japanese government withheld the release of computer projections indicating high levels of radioactivity in areas more than 30 kilometers from the troubled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant.
Continue: NHK Japan
The IAEA adds its voice to Greenpeace, calling for an expansion of the evacuation zone near Fukushima; yet the Japanese gov’t decides not to act ‘until necessary’; TEPCO plans to scrap four of the six stricken reactors
Siden 2009 har op til fire ministerier kæmpet for at slippe for ansvaret med at etablere et dansk slutdepot for atomaffald. Ekspert kalder slagsmålet for barnligt og fuldstændigt uacceptabelt.
(Reuters): Here are some facts about radiation and the health dangers it poses-
Below are different levels of massive radiation exposure in a single dose – all measured in millisieverts — and their likely effects on humans, as published by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency:
– 50-100: changes in blood chemistry
– 500: nausea, within hours
– 700: vomiting
– 750: hair loss, within 2-3 weeks
– 900: diarrhea
– 1,000: hemorrhage
– 4,000: possible death within 2 months, if no treatment
– 10,000: destruction of intestinal lining, internal bleeding and death within 1-2 weeks
– 20,000: damage to the central nervous system and loss of consciousness within minutes, and death within hours or days
Sources: Taiwan Atomic Energy Council, World Nuclear Association, US Department of Transportation, US Environmental Protection Agency
A Greenpeace team of radiation experts is monitoring locations around the evacuation area that surrounds the crisis-stricken Fukushima/Daiichi nuclear plant. They’re there to independently assess the true extent of radiation risks that the local population may be facing.
Continue: Greenpeace Int
The Fukushima fallout will have a bigger impact than the Libyan crisis but if unrest spreads through the Middle East all bets are off, says Malcom Keay, Senior Research Fellow at the Oxford Institute for Energy Studies.
The recent Fukushima Daiichi crisis has reopened the nuclear debate. Risk analysis and mapping firm Maplecroft has produced a global map of nuclear power stations, revealing the vulnerability to seismic, tsunami and storm surge risk of these facilities and the levels of energy security risks that countries face in the long-term; which begs the question about their need to rely on nuclear energy as an alternative to conventional sources.
I værste fald vil en decideret nedsmeltning af det japanske a-kraftværk sende store mængder radioaktive partikler ind over land, mens der er 50 procent sandsynlighed for en total nedsmeltning, lyder vurderingen fra tysk ekspert i drift af reaktorer.
Every day, the world over, large amounts of high-level radioactive waste cre- ated by nuclear power plants is placed in interim storage, which is vulnerable to natural disasters, man-made disasters, and to societal changes. In Finland the world’s first permanent repository is being hewn out of solid rock – a huge system of underground tunnels – that must last 100,000 years as this is how long the waste remains hazardous.
Continue: Into Eternity The Movie
ONKALO is Underground Rock Characterisation Facility being built for rock characterisation for the final disposal of spent nuclear fuel. Read more. Posiva Finland
22 March 2010
Update: Detailed graphical status report on each reactor unit is available.
Continue: BraveNew Climate
Global warming will intensify if leading carbon emitter China drops the world’s most ambitious nuclear power building programme and Germany shuts down its nuclear plants amid panic over Japan’s atomic energy crisis.
A United Nations forecast of the possible movement of the radioactive plume coming from crippled Japanese reactors shows it churning across the Pacific, and touching the Aleutian Islands on Thursday before hitting Southern California late Friday.
Continue: NY Times
Interaktive: NY Times
March 17, 2011
The first readings from American data-collection flights over the stricken Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant in northeastern Japan show that the worst contamination has not spread beyond the 19-mile range of highest concern established by Japanese authorities.
Continue: NY Times
Japan’s science ministry says radiation levels of up to 0.17 millisieverts per hour have been detected about 30 kilometers northwest of the quake-damaged Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant.
Experts say exposure to those levels for 6 hours would result in absorption of the maximum level considered safe for 1 year.
Japan’s science ministry has observed radiation levels of up to 0.33 millisieverts per hour in areas about 20 kilometers northwest of the quake-damaged Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant.
Experts say exposure to such radiation for 3 hours would result in absorption of 1 millisievert, or the maximum considered safe for 1 year.
Rescue operations continued Wednesday following the catastrophic earthquake in Japan, with 80,000 Self-Defense Forces personnel and police officers mobilized in the devastated areas, where temperatures have dropped to midwinter levels.
The National Police Agency said it has confirmed 3,676 deaths in 12 prefectures, while 7,843 people remained unaccounted for in six prefectures as of 12:30 p.m.
The following is the known status as of Wednesday evening of each of the six reactors at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant and the four reactors at the Fukushima No. 2 plant, both in Fukushima Prefecture, which were crippled by Friday’s magnitude 9.0 earthquake and the ensuing tsunami.
They are the faceless 50, the unnamed operators who stayed behind. They have volunteered, or been assigned, to pump seawater on dangerously exposed nuclear fuel, already thought to be partly melting and spewing radioactive material, to prevent full meltdowns that could throw thousands of tons of radioactive dust high into the air and imperil millions of their compatriots.
Continue: NY Times
NewScientist: With muddled media reports of the ongoing crisis, we spell out exactly what has happened up to 15 March, and what might happen next
As Japan braces for a potential radiation catastrophe in the wake of Friday’s devastating earthquake and tsunami, global media have been illustrating the crisis through infographics. Here is a selection.
The Internet had one overwhelming message for the world from Japan on Tuesday — we’re terrified of a nuclear meltdown and desperate to get out.
Japan’s National Police Agency says all residents within 20 kilometers of the quake-damaged Fukushima No.1 nuclear power plant have been evacuated.