Nuclear Plant Status Reports - Nuclear Power Plants World Wide - Nuclear Power Plants - Nuclear Street - Nuclear Power Portal

Nuclear Plant Status Reports - Nuclear Power Plants World Wide - Nuclear Power Plants - Nuclear Street - Nuclear Power Portal

Nuclear plant chief weeps as Japanese finally admit that radiation leak is serious enough to kill people | Mail Online

Nuclear plant chief weeps as Japanese finally admit that radiation leak is serious enough to kill people | Mail Online

Nuclear Power Subsidies Will Shift Financial Risks to Taxpayers | Union of Concerned Scientists

Nuclear Power Subsidies Will Shift Financial Risks to Taxpayers | Union of Concerned Scientists

A Nuclear Reactor Explained by Poop and Farts: Nuclear Reactor Boy's Tummy Ache

Source: YouTube

Forecast for Plume's Path Is a Function of Wind and Weather

A forecast by the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty Organization shows how weather patterns this week might disperse radiation from a continuous source in Fukushima, Japan. The forecast does not show actual levels of radiation, but it does allow the organization to estimate when different monitoring stations, marked with small dots, might be able to detect extremely low levels of radiation. Health and nuclear experts emphasize that any plume will be diluted as it travels and, at worst, would have extremely minor health consequences in the United States."

Source: NYTimes

Radiation Plume Course Charted by U.N. Agency - NYTimes.com

Health and nuclear experts emphasize that radiation in the plume will be diluted as it travels and, at worst, would have extremely minor health consequences in the United States, even if hints of it are ultimately detectable. In a similar way, radiation from the Chernobyl disaster in 1986 spread around the globe and reached the West Coast of the United States in 10 days, its levels measurable but minuscule.

The chairman of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Gregory B. Jaczko, said Monday that the plume posed no danger to the United States. “You just aren’t going to have any radiological material that, by the time it traveled those large distances, could present any risk to the American public,” he said in a White House briefing.

Mr. Jaczko was asked if the meltdown of a core of one of the reactors would increase the chance of harmful radiation reaching Hawaii or the West Coast.

“I don’t want to speculate on various scenarios,” he replied. “But based on the design and the distances involved, it is very unlikely that there would be any harmful impacts.”

Source: NYTimes

Nuclear Roulette - 14 Incidents at U.S. Nuclear Facilities in 2010

Union of Concerned Scientists criticizes U.S. nuke plant safety

The organization's report, focusing on 14 incidents at U.S. nuclear facilities last year, concludes the Nuclear Regulatory Commission has a mixed record of responding to safety issues, sometimes catching deficiencies, other times overlooking or dismissing operational problems.

Among the lapses cited in the report is a case in which critical safety components were disabled at the Calvert Cliffs nuclear power plant in Maryland because of the failure of an electrical device that had been in use beyond its service lifetime.

The report says this was the result of the reactor owners ending a program to routinely replace safety components. Only later, it says, did the plant initiate a new system for monitoring degradation of safety parts.

Source: CNN