WZTV FOX 17 :: Newsroom - Top Stories - TVA Nuclear Charges

Federal prosecutors have charged a sub-contractor employee at the Tennessee Valley Authority's Watts Bar Nuclear Plant with lying about inspections.

The U.S. attorney in Knoxville said Thursday that 31-year-old Matthew David Correll of Hixson has been charged in a two-count indictment with making false statements. Prosecutors say the inspections were related to planning for safety system power cables at the nation's only current reactor construction site.

Correll appeared Thursday before a federal magistrate in Chattanooga and has been released pending a May 23 trial.

U.S. Attorney Bill Killian declined to discuss any motive.
TVA nuclear executive Ashok Bhatnagar says the falsified paperwork was discovered in the checks and balances procedures at the plant near Spring City, between Knoxville and Chattanooga. Bhatnagar said the system worked as it should and there is no danger.

(Copyright 2011 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)


Source: FOX WZTV

Complete guide: How to root, backup, and flash new ROM and kernel on your HTC EVO

WARNING: Follow this tutorial at your own risk. Make sure you're OK with anything on your phone disappearing. Sync your contacts, backup what you can, and kiss your Angry Birds save point goodbye (unless you backup with Titanium Backup first).

Quick Note: I've added some steps to these great instructions from Good and Evo that I needed to take in order to get unrevoked3 on my Windows PC and recognize my HTC Evo so that the application would start the root process.  I hope this helps some of you out.

How to Root

You're going to need a couple of things downloaded to your Windows computer before you root:

• unrevoked3 (as previously mentioned, v3.3 works with the latest EVO software update)
• HBOOT drivers

Now let's get started.

1. INSTALL HTC Sync if you don't not have it on your Windows PC.  Once installed uninstall HTC Sync; you can re-install it later if you want to. (You must do this in order to get the correct drivers installed.)
2. Install the HBOOT drivers as per the instructions provided by the unrevoked team. (Even more drivers you need installed.)
3. Turn on USB debugging on your EVO by tapping Menu -> Settings -> Applications -> Development -> USB debugging. If you skip this step, unrevoked will fail after your phone reboots (failing will cause a window to pop up that said it failed).
4. Plug your EVO into your computer and make sure the USB connection is set to charge only.
5. Run unrevoked's reflash_package. (You will see the unrevoked3 application pop up and it will say waiting for device.  Now that you know your phone is in USB ONLY mode from the previous step and have the unrevoked3 window up waiting for your device you should unplug your phone and then plug it back in.  For some reason then get the unrevoked3 application to find your phone!)  The application with now run and reboot your phone a few times.
6. Once done the unrevoked3 application window with show that it's complete and your phone will be booted into it's recovery menu.  

Congrats! You're rooted. You can stop here if you want, or you can continue reading to see how far down the rabbit hole goes. You shouldn't have lost any data at this point.

Read More: Good and Evo


Once you're done with that scan the QR code below or click the link to head on over to xda-developers to grab your customer ROM with some installation instructions.

U.S Embassy Issues Warning on Drinking Water in Tokyo, Japan

INFORMATION FOR TRAVELERS

Warning For Parents and Caretakers About Radioactive Iodine Detected in Tokyo Drinking Water Supply

March 24, 2011

The Tokyo metropolitan government on Wednesday, March 23, 2011, cautioned residents that infants should drink only bottled water because radioactive iodine exceeding the limit for that age group was detected in water at a purification plant.

The U.S. Embassy in Japan suggests U.S. citizens who live in Tokyo follow these recommendations. In addition, women who are pregnant or nursing should also follow these recommendations and drink bottled water. This guidance is consistent with the guidance that the United States Government would provide to Americans in the United States under similar circumstances.

U.S. citizens in metropolitan Tokyo can take the following steps to safeguard the health of infants (aged 0-3 years):

• If giving water to infants, use only bottled water.
• Use only bottled water to mix formula, cereal or other infant foods.

Health experts say that changing the water source for infants from tap water to bottled water should be adequate protection from exposure to radioactive iodine. No additional medication, such as potassium iodide (KI), is necessary at this time. Taking KI when it is not needed can harm a person's health.

At this time, no changes in drinking water are recommended for adults because the limit for adults is higher than the amount detected in the water purification plant. Embassy staff is consulting with health experts and radiation experts to continuously monitor these new developments. If more information becomes available, we will share it with you on theEmbassy Web site.

Q & A:

1. What are we advising U.S. citizens? Why?
   Due to an elevated level of Iodine-131 found at a local Tokyo water purification plant, we are advising American citizens in Tokyo that infants (aged 0-3), as well as women who are pregnant or nursing, should drink only bottled water.
2. What is the Japanese standard being used?
   The Japanese standard for Iodine-131 in drinking water is 100 becquerels per liter if the water is to be consumed by an infant (0-12 months) and 300 becquerels per liter if the water is to be consumed by an adult. The current reported contamination of 210 becquerels per liter is therefore about twice the permitted level for infants and about two thirds of the permitted level for adults, under Japanese regulations.
3. What is the U.S. standard?
   The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s published standard for Iodine-131 contamination in drinking water is 3 picocuries per liter, which is equal to about 0.1 becquerels per liter. However, the assumptions underlying the EPA standard for continuous exposure do not apply to the current situation in Japan, which is a temporary exposure resulting from an accidental release. In addition, the science of radiation protection has advanced considerably since the EPA standard was published in 1974. If one uses the latest science and makes the adjustments in the calculations underlying the EPA standard in order to make it applicable to the temporary exposure occurring in Japan, one obtains a figure practically identical to the standard that the Japanese authorities are applying.
4. What is the risk of the current Iodine-131 levels to adults drinking the water?
   Short-term exposures at the levels that have been reported do not present significantly increased risks beyond the sensitive populations already identified.

Source: USEmbassy

Apple ignores requests by poisoned workers

As the workers are now expriencing recurring symptoms, we now demand:

1. United Win immediately offer check-ups and follow-up treatments to the workers in hospitals that recognized and trusted by the workers. Meanwhile, United Win should pay workers basic salaries, and sufficient allowance for hospitalization and food. For the workers who have resumed work in United Win, Apple and United Win must ensure decent wage and sufficient rest time;

2. Apple have to monitor and pay for the rectification of United Win. Apple should not cut the order in United Win and should provide workers with suitable and effective protective measures and equipments;

3. Apple have to monitor United Win to stop using dispatch workers, and facilitate United Win to convert the dispatch workers into regular workers by signing contract with United Win according to the China Labour Law and China Labour Contract Law;

4. Apple have to raise its unit price, so that United Win could pay the workers with decent living wage. For now, workers are forced to work overtime 18 hours every week, which is violating the requirement of the China Labour Law that overtime work should be limited to 36 hours a mouth.

Full Story

Source: SACOM

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Neutron beam observed 13 times | The Japan Times Online

Neutron beam observed 13 times

Kyodo News

Tokyo Electric Power Co. said Wednesday it has observed a neutron beam, a kind of radioactive ray, 13 times on the premises of its crippled Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant.

Tepco said the neutron beam measured about 1.5 km southwest of the plant's Nos. 1 and 2 reactors over three days from March 13 and is equivalent to 0.01 to 0.02 microsieverts per hour. This is not a dangerous level of radiation, it added.

The utility said it will also measure uranium and plutonium, which could emit a neutron beam.

In the 1999 criticality accident at a nuclear fuel processing plant run by JCO Co. in Tokai, Ibaraki Prefecture, uranium broke apart continually in nuclear fission, causing a massive amount of neutron beams.

In the latest case at the Fukushima No. 1 plant, a criticality accident has yet to happen.

But the measured neutron beam may be evidence that uranium and plutonium leaked from the plant's nuclear reactors and spent nuclear fuel have discharged a small amount of neutron beams via fission.

Germany set to abandon nuclear power for good - Yahoo! News

The transition was supposed to happen slowly over the next 25 years, but is now being accelerated in the wake of Japan's Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant disaster, which Chancellor Angela Merkel has called a "catastrophe of apocalyptic dimensions."

"If we had the winds of Texas or the sun of California, the task here would be even easier," said Felix Matthes of Germany's renowned Institute for Applied Ecology. "Given the great potential in the U.S., it would be feasible there in the long run too, even though it would necessitate huge infrastructure investments."

Germany currently gets 23 percent of its energy from nuclear power — about as much as the U.S. Its ambitious plan to shut down its reactors will require at least euro150 billion ($210 billion) investment in alternative energy sources, which experts say will likely lead to higher electricity prices.

Many decades-old reactors are highly profitable as their initial cost has been written off, but they now face higher costs as regulators push for safety upgrades in the wake of the Fukushima disaster. One of the most pressing — and costly — requirements is likely to be a mandatory upgrade to reinforce all nuclear power plants' outer shell to withstand a crash of a commercial airliner.