On the Brink of a Meltdown

[irishbobcat]

Ohio's 2 nuclear plants face critics of safety
Critics cite Japan, Ohio's past flaws
Monday, March 21, 2011  03:05 AM
By Spencer Hunt

THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH
A little more than a year ago, power-industry officials promoted a new generation of nuclear reactors as a clean source of electricity that wouldn't contribute to climate change.

That was then. Today, as Japan's nuclear crisis grows, so has criticism of the United States' proposed "nuclear renaissance."

The nation's 104 nuclear-power stations, including two in Ohio, face more scrutiny and federal inspections.

Officials with Akron-based FirstEnergy said their Davis-Besse and Perry stations along Lake Erie are safe and secure.

"We will be reviewing our procedures, policies and seismic equipment to ensure that the plants will stay in a safe condition during an earthquake," said Todd Schneider, a FirstEnergy spokesman.

At the same time, officials of Cincinnati-based Duke Energy say they still plan to build Ohio's third plant, near Piketon in southern Ohio.

Critics are quick to bring up a string of safety issues that have plagued the Davis-Besse and Perry plants, and they contend that the crisis in Japan illustrates the danger of nuclear power.

"You cannot plan for every contingency," said Johanna Neumann, a safe-energy advocate with the U.S. Public Interest Research Group.

In recent years, nuclear-power plants have been praised by some groups as a "green" power option because they emit no carbon dioxide, a key gas linked to climate change.

In 2007, when the No. 1 reactor at Browns Ferry near Athens, Ala., began producing electricity again after a 22-year shutdown, it was the first reactor to go online in the United States since 1996. The Energy Department estimated that as many as 50 new reactors might be needed by 2030.

Clean, however, is a relative term. Nuclear plants produce more than 2,200 tons of radioactive waste each year, including plutonium 239, which has a half-life of 24,000 years.

There is no one repository to put the waste. Plans for a permanent storage site under Yucca Mountain in Nevada have been stalled for years.

Schneider said spent fuel rods from reactors are stored in deep pools of water at Davis-Besse and Perry. Both pools are in concrete buildings "in the most-protected areas of the plants," Schneider said.

Davis-Besse also stores some of its spent rods in thick concrete "casks." Schneider said FirstEnergy will put rods in casks at Perry in 2013 after the water storage is full.

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission ordered a shutdown at Davis-Besse in 2002 after inspectors found that acid had nearly eaten through a 6-inch steel cap on its reactor vessel. The plant reopened in 2004 after repairs.

Subsequent inspections of the replacement cap found signs of cracking in 24 of its 69 nozzles. Schneider said a third replacement cap will be installed in October.

The Perry plant was shut down in December 2004 and January 2005 after NRC inspections revealed problems with pumps that circulate coolant through the reactor's core.

Duke Energy spokeswoman Sally Thelen said it's too early to tell whether the crisis in Japan will create problems for its proposal to build a nuclear plant near Piketon. Company and state officials announced the project in June 2009.

Thelen said the application process is slow, and the company hopes to open the plant by 2024.

[irishbobcat]

NO NUKES!!!!!!!!!

Germany suspends extensions for nuke power......

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EOMqZaUNNlU

[sfc_oliver]

I am told that more people have died from wind power than nuclear power.

I hadn't heard that, but I can bet birds have..... Not that I care about a few birds..... But the greenies might... Unless of course it interferes with their dream.

[Dan Moadus]

I am told that more people have died from wind power than nuclear power.

[irishbobcat]

WASHINGTON, DC -- US Green Party leaders urged a moratorium on nuclear power plants and cancellation of license renewals for 23 General Electric reactors in the US that have the same design as reactors in Japan.

Greens also called for a close monitoring by US agencies of radiation levels throughout the Pacific and along the west coast, with accurate information published about any radioactivity discovered in these areas, especially in farm produce and other food supplies. In the event of radioactive emissions from Japanese nuclear power plants damaged by the tsunami, Greens said President Obama must authorize public health agencies to make potassium iodide pills and filtering masks available for young people in Hawaii, Alaska, and the west coast of the contiguous states.

"After the Chernobyl disaster, cancer rates spiked in the Soviet Union and Europe when the radioactive plume from a nuclear reactor meltdown spread thousands of miles. Potassium iodide pills protect people from cancerous radiation and they're not expensive. If there is any hint of a threat to our children, this is a step worth taking," said Audrey Clement, co-chair of the Green Party of the United States.

According to the book "Chernobyl: Consequences of the Catastrophe for People and the Environment," published by the New York Academy of Sciences in 2010, the Chernobyl radiation affected the entire northern hemisphere (http://www.ens-newswire.com/ens/apr2010/2010-04-26-01.html).

"The Fukushima power plant catastrophe should deflate the myth that nuclear energy is a safe, clean alternative to fossil fuels. In February 2010, President Obama announced a $5.4 billion loan -- really a subsidy -- for a nuclear plant in Burke County, Georgia, with taxpayers assuming 80% of the financial risk. Nuclear power plants are so expensive and inherently dangerous that private companies won't invest in them, so the nuclear industry forces the public to foot the bill and to guarantee their profits. We need a permanent moratorium on nuclear power plants and a deactivation of nuclear plants near earthquake faultlines and other unstable areas in the US and eventual decommissioning of all such facilities," said Michael Canney, co-chair of the Green Party of Florida, who has led efforts to stop a proposed new nuclear plant in Levy County, Florida (http://gp.org/greenpages-blog/?p=2143).

Greens noted further that insurance companies have acknowledged the dangers posed by nuclear power plants, including vulnerability to natural disaster and sabotage, and have been exempted from insuring such plants under the Price-Anderson Nuclear Industries Indemnity Act. Hundreds of spent fuel pools across the US remain a serious danger to public health.

On Sunday, March 13, the US Green Party's International Committee (http://www.gp.org/committees/intl) sent a message of condolence and solidary to the Green Party of Japan. The message was addressed to Japanese Green leaders Shuji Imamoto and Satoko Watanabe and signed by International Committee co-chairs Marian Douglas-Ungaro and Justine McCabe and US representatives to the Global Green Network (Romi Elnagar, John Rensenbrink, and Bahram Zandi):

"On behalf of the Green Party of the United States, we extend our deepest sympathies and concern to the victims of the earthquake, tsunami and nuclear power plant disaster in Japan. With great sorrow, we also acknowledge that Japanese Greens' warning against the dangers of nuclear power has now become a reality. We stand ready to aid our fellow Green Party members and the people of Japan in whatever way we can." (http://www.gp.org/committees/intl/statement-on-japan.html)

[sfc_oliver]

From you I'll take that as a compliment.

[irishbobcat]

Trust me Sarge, your posts are nothing but garbage as well......

[sfc_oliver]

Trust me, at least 90%of your cut and pastes are rubbish.

[irishbobcat]

Listen Sarge, it's not rubbish...it's called the truth......and you can't handle it.....

FUKUSHIMA, Japan -- An unexpected spike in pressure inside a troubled reactor set back efforts to bring Japan's overheating, leaking nuclear complex under control Sunday as concerns grew that as-yet minor contamination of food and water is spreading.

The pressure increase raised the possibility that plant operators may need to deliberately release radioactive gas, erasing some progress in a nuclear crisis as the government continued its halting response to a catastrophic earthquake and tsunami that savaged northeast Japan on March 11.

[sfc_oliver]

The fact is a problem such as a terrorist attack on the Perry plant could result in as much of a danger as an earthquake.....
what army were you in again, Sarge?

I was in the Army that makes sure you have the freedom to speak your rubbish in public.

And that's Sergeant to you.

[irishbobcat]

If Nuke Power Plants are so safe, why does the East Liverpool, Ohio phone book devote 5-10 pages on
emergency information on what to do in case of a nuke accident?

The pages also include what emergency road exits residents should take out of East Liverpool in case of an
accident.....


Doesn't sound safe to me......

[Towntalk]

The views expressed in the following article may or may not express the views of the poster who may or may not agree with the contents of the article, the writer or the publication.

Nuclear POWER PLANTS — ARE WE IN DANGER?
http://www.vindy.com/news/2011/mar/20/by-karl-henkel/

[irishbobcat]

Trust me Shrimp, more people laugh at you.....

they also laugh at your refusal to pay property taxes.....

they also laugh at you chopping down other people's trees illegally in boardman and Youngstown.....

they also laugh at your muddy, dirty, shrimp ponds......

when will you get a life, little man?

[Youngstownshrimp]

It makes me laugh to see every other day how insignificant of a life you have, what a waste, aren't you sad that your existence is just an obscure post on a screen wherein most of the forum make fun of you?  Dennis, people are not laughing with you, they laugh at you.

[irishbobcat]

I put up with your garbage, shrimpy.....that's worth at least two wars.....