Japan PM criticises nuclear safety agency

Tokyo (AP) - criticised Prime Minister of Japan on Sunday of the country's nuclear safety agency for allegedly trying to questions, to support nuclear energy in public forums of plants.

Prime Minister Naoto Kan said the nuclear and Agency for industrial side of the industry was, rather than as a regular. He said that it stressed a cosy relationship and the deep-rooted problem which must be corrected tsunami and the nuclear crisis following on the 11 March.

"NISA that nuclear safety, to check the interest to the general public, provided support for the promoter represented." "It, if true was more than just a help," Kan said at an energy Symposium.

Kan's comment followed a report from the Government show that NISA allegedly tried to manipulate public opinion on town meeting on the promotion of nuclear energy.

Public support towards nuclear energy has moved since March disaster that crippled the Fukushima Dai-Ichi nuclear power plant.

International atomic and Energy Agency has criticized Japan's murky nuclear regulation system, while NISA separate the Government recognized the need of the trade and industry Ministry, promoting nuclear energy.

In its report Friday to the Department of Commerce in the Chubu Electric Power Co. said, based in Central Japan, NISA asked the company had in fans, bring it in 2007 organized a public forum and let issues offset anti-nuclear views.

The report was part of the Ministry survey of Japanese nuclear power operator on their public forums in the last five years. Another operator, Shikoku electric power co., said that it had received a similar application from NISA.

Chubu said it encourages enterprise staff participate in the meeting, but not give them with questions as it considers it inappropriate.

Trade Minister Banri Kaieda apologized for NISA the question of planting and promised an independent probe.

The problem surfaced in early July, when another utility, Kyushu electric power co., acknowledged June to send mobilization of dozens of people in supporting comments to a public hearing on whether two of its nuclear reactors restart.

Currently Japan 35 54 reactors idle, cause power bottlenecks in the midst of heat wave. The Government has ordered that all reactors security checks after the worst nuclear crisis since Chernobyl.

Kan called for a long-term effort Friday to scale back Japan's nuclear energy directed policy Overtrhe four decades and to renewable energies.

View the original article here

US regulatory agency says Japan's reactors not yet stable,

"We major changes not displayed from day to day," said the Chairman Gregory B. Jaczko, while added, that the risk of big additional releases will be small as every day goes by.

Long-term regular cooling of the reactors was not recovered, nor has a regular way of delivering water to the spent fuel pools, he said the Senate Environment and public works Committee. And when an aftershock hit the site and cut some offshore power supplies, he said, some pumps failed and cooling for 50 minutes ended.

The situation is "not stable" and remains so long, until "Such would be handled by situation in a predictable manner," he said.

Mr Jaczko offered a new theory about the cause of the explosions of that destroyed the secondary containment structures of several of the reactors. The prevailing theory was that hydrogen was created when it overheated reactor cores and with steam instead of water filled; Steam responds turns with the metal into a powder and then is from hydrogen.

The Tokyo electric power company, which nuclear operates plants, intended, vent excess steam, as well as the hydrogen outside the plant, but experts suspect, if try operators, broken the vents, so that the hydrogen give the secondary spot welds.

But Mr Jaczko said on Tuesday that the explosions in the created could have been caused secondary spot welds by hydrogen in the spent fuel pools within this spot welds.

If true, the introduction of hardened openings with reactors of nuclear power plants in the United States, that would mean - cited as an improvement that such an explosion happens prevent would - in the Act would make no difference.

This theory raises the possibility that it may be safer, move some of the spent fuel in dry storage, an idea that attracts a support in Congress and the pools containment structures. Spent nuclear fuel in the water for the first five years or so, but cool must remain in small steel and concrete silos without moving parts are stored.

The industry uses this "dry barrels" only if its pools are full. And so far the regulatory Commission has said, that pool and thin cut memory are as safe. Some industry executives would also tap to pay federal funds set aside for a thin permanent waste repository of nuclear waste Fund cut memory, an idea that is favoured by some environmentalists.

Mr Jaczko statement on the possible source of the hydrogen is the third large resolution in the Commission statements on the nuclear crisis on the Fukushima.

Commission officials have certainly seemed also less after indicating that the spent fuel pool in the reactor No. 4 was empty or near empty, a situation that was obviously a 50-miles evacuation for Americans in the vicinity of the plant the basis for the recommendation. Commission experts also said that radiation readings proposed that nuclear material slipped from the ship of the reactor No. 2 and a Drywell in the primary containment had entered only to retreat again about whether that was indeed the case.

Mr Jaczko also signals that the regulatory Commission from one extreme warning mode for a sustained long-term effort monitor was moved Japan's crisis. Staff in the Commission around the clock Emergency Center at the headquarters in Rockville, MD., has been reduced, he said, with many employees back to their regular duties but available if events warrant.

He drew praise from the Committee Chairman, Senator Barbara Boxer, a California Democrat, but also criticism. You looking for a particularly high degree of control for two twin reactor plants in their State, are the only ones who says the Commission in areas of high seismic activity. Mr Jaczko said that all the reactors have been evaluated.

You say neutralized that these two plants, Diablo Canyon and San Onofre, were at the highest risk. Mr Jaczko said they were not to explain that they were designed with the earthquake risk in mind and that risks to the American plants in General were low.

Woman Boxer replied that, at least until the March 11 accident had said the Japanese the same thing. "It gives me the creeps," she said. "I not enough humility of all us here sense."

A further witness, Charles G. Pardee, Chief Operating Officer, Exelon generation, the largest nuclear operator in the United States, testified also that for the worst natural disaster observed in their areas, plus a substantial safety margin in the country's nuclear power plants have been developed.

Thomas B. Cochran, a physicist at the natural resources Defense Council, gave some credit to American operators. Worldwide, he said, reactors are "The next nuclear power plant disaster is more abroad than in the United States" "do not sufficiently sure", but

But the industry to rethink its practices still must he said. "If the nuclear power industry is a long-term future have, on existing operational reactors must be respected," said Mr. Cochran. He ticked off a long list of factors, including the American reactors, which would them be Fukushima's basic design, together, using reasons for the phasing out.

View the original article here

Agency: Container can cause radiation spike

Evacuations at damaged power plantAuthorities say latest smoke spotted may be caused by containment vessel breachWorkers are allowed to return to the plant after an evacuation order is liftedPlant managers may remove part of two reactor buildings to prevent more explosionsA fire and explosion Tuesday at the Fukushima Daiichi plant led to temporary radiation spike

Tokyo (CNN) -- Officials asked workers at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant to evacuate temporarily Wednesday after a white cloud of smoke rose above the plant and radiation levels spiked.

Workers were "asked to withdraw to a safe area," Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano said. Authorities later allowed them to return after radiation levels dropped, the Tokyo Electric Power Company said.

Radiation levels at the plant have surged and dropped repeatedly over the past few days. The most recent spike "probably" occurred "because the containment vessel in reactor No. 3 has been damaged," a spokesman for Japan's nuclear safety agency later told reporters.

Edano said the smoke or vapor above the plant may have been caused by breach in the containment structure around the No. 3 reactor's containment vessel -- the steel and concrete shell that insulates radioactive material inside.

It was the second visible sign of trouble at the earthquake-damaged nuclear plant Wednesday.

Earlier in the day, firefighters battled a blaze in the plant's No. 4 reactor building.

Since the 9.0-magnitude earthquake and the resulting tsunami Friday, the plant has suffered a series of setbacks that have heightened fears about the possibility of widespread radiation contamination.

A hydrogen explosion took place at the plant's No. 2 reactor Tuesday. Hydrogen explosions had previously occurred in the plant's No. 1 and No. 3 reactors.

Another fire had broken out Tuesday in the No. 4 reactor. While it burned, radiation levels at the plant increased to about 167 times the average dose, the International Atomic Energy Agency said.

That dose quickly diminished with distance from the plant, and radiation fell back to levels where it posed no immediate public health threat, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano said.

But the deteriorating situation and concerns about a potential shift in wind direction that could send radiation toward populated areas prompted authorities to warn people as far as 18.6 miles (30 kilometers) from the plant to stay inside.

"There is still a very high risk of further radioactive material coming out," Prime Minister Naoto Kan said Tuesday, asking people to remain calm.

In all, the plant holds six reactors. At the time of Friday quake, Unit 4 was shut for maintenance and all fuel from the reactor had been moved to its spent fuel pool. Units 5 and 6 were also shut at the time of the quake, but both its reactors are loaded with fuel, the IAEA said.

About 200,000 people living within a 12.4-mile (20 kilometer) radius of the plant already had been evacuated.

Authorities also banned flights over the area.

Between Units 3 and 4, Japanese authorities said they had measured radiation dose rates of up to 400 millisieverts-per-hour, IAEA reported. That's equivalent to about 2,000 chest x-rays per hour, the agency said on its website. "This is a high dose-level value, but it is a local value at a single location and at a certain point in time," it added.

As a result of the monitoring of about 150 people from around the Daiichi site, 23 have been decontaminated, IAEA said.

The number of nuclear workers who remained on site has been slashed from 800 to 50.

"Their situation is not great," said David Brenner, director of the Center for Radiological Research at Columbia University. "It's pretty clear that they will be getting very high doses of radiation. There's certainly the potential for lethal doses of radiation. They know it, and I think you have to call these people heroes."

Although the plant's three functioning reactors shut down automatically when the quake occurred, the tsunami that followed swamped the diesel generators that provided backup power to the reactor cooling systems.

Crews restored backup power, but problems keeping the reactors cool forced plant officials to take the drastic step of flooding them with seawater. Still, pressure buildups, problems with valves and a failure to fill a generator's gas tank led to hydrogen explosions and other problems.

Tuesday's events appeared to escalate the situation: Edano said the radiation releases from the explosion and fire were the first that appeared to pose a threat to human health, if only briefly.

On Monday, an explosion in the building housing the plant's No. 3 reactor apparently damaged both a water-filled chamber at the base of the reactor and the reactor containment unit itself, IAEA Director General Yukiya Amano told reporters Tuesday.

Damage to the core involved about 5% of its nuclear fuel, Amano said.

It was unclear how much radioactive material may have been emitted, what kind of health threat that could pose or when the danger would end.

"There are enormous quantities of radiation," said Dr. Ira Helfand, a member of Physicians for Social Responsibility, which opposes the use of nuclear power. "The containment is not nearly as good as around the reactor cores themselves. The potential for a major release of radiation from those sites is very real, as we saw last night with the fire."

Japanese officials told the IAEA that radioactivity had been released "directly into the atmosphere" during Tuesday's fire in the No. 4 reactor, the U.N. watchdog organization said.

Crews put that fire out, and by Tuesday afternoon, Edano said, radiation readings -- which had reached dangerously high levels at the plant earlier -- had decreased.

Still, concerns about radioactive fuel boiling off its coolant and igniting continued Wednesday. Plant operators and government officials initially considered using helicopters to drop water into the cooling pond through the damaged roof of the reactor building, but rejected the idea when they discovered that the spent fuel pond was too far from the hole in the roof, a Kyodo News report said.

In addition, Edano said, cooling systems at two other reactors, No. 5 and No. 6, were "not functioning well."

Plant managers were considering removing panels from the buildings housing those reactors in an effort to prevent the hydrogen buildup that officials believe caused the other explosions, the IAEA said.

Edano said earlier that he could not rule out the possibility of a meltdown at all three troubled reactors at the plant.

A meltdown occurs when nuclear fuel rods cannot be cooled and melt the steel and concrete structure containing them. In the worst-case scenario, the fuel can spill out of the containment unit and spread radioactivity through the air and water. That, public health officials say, can cause both immediate and long-term health problems, including radiation poisoning and cancer.

If fuel rods inside the reactors are melting, "the million-dollar question is whether that melting will be contained," said James Walsh, a CNN contributor and research associate at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's security studies program.

At present, the long-term impact on public health from the crisis appears minimal, Brenner said.

"I think, at this point in time, there's no real evidence that there are health risks to the general population," he said.

The weather has emerged as a key variable, but on Wednesday morning, winds were blowing out to sea, CNN Meteorologist Sean Morris said.

Radiation levels in Tokyo, about 225 kilometers (140 miles) southwest of the plant, were twice the usual level on Tuesday. But the concentration -- 0.809 microsieverts per hour -- posed no health threat, the Tokyo Metropolitan Government said.

CNN's Stan Grant, Steven Jiang, Sabriya Rice and Richard Greene contributed to this report.

View the original article here

Agency says wind energy tax hit fears were hot air

The State Tax Commission was withdrawn what had a dire report that sales tax rebates for wind energy developments of the next two years a unexpected $47 million bite out of Idaho tax revenues would take.

The Agency said legislative budget writers Tuesday discounts are a "net neutral event as far as impact on the General Fund revenue."

Wind energy developers who feared this alleged budget hit their hopes extending the tax rebates past its June 30 end scuttle could said this latest turn of events great news.

And joint finances write appropriation Senator Dean Cameron, co-Chair of the Budget Committee, the budget cuts for fiscal said the turnaround means 2012 probably not as deep as a few days ago to be feared.

"It will be even more difficult." "It is still painful" said Cameron. "But it is not as hard as we, thought two weeks ago."

The State that announced to the time that wind power developers, including the likes of General Electric Co. made quickly and unexpectedly good 2005 working spur the industry to a finding discounts the 6 percent in sales taxes paid on equipment that produces electricity.

Revenue, with lackluster December combined hit revenues and costs for Idaho matches up to $70 million had opened the new federal tax code, c.l. "Butch" Otter had predicted what Gov't in January would be a 35 million US-dollars deficit to $ 185 million. As a result, Cameron warned to prepare for deep, deep cuts public schools and Medicaid.

This latest news on the wind energy rebates, legislation that significantly reduced the cost of conformity of the Swiss Federal tax administration leaves the projected deficit around 92 million $.

And there is a number that could still fall, better than expected should have Idaho tax returns during the remaining months of fiscal year 2011.

So what happened? In your letter wrote Tuesday, the Commission, that a further review of the tax payments were determined that the wind energy company claims almost payments and their accompanying rebate simultaneously submitted.

"The submittal of the claim, the receipt of the tax from the vendor and the actual payment of the rebate occur in a small window of time" wrote Commissioner Sam haws. "The bottom line is that based on our experience so far of the claims existing operations and processes, it should be a net neutral event as far as impact on the General Fund revenue."

This is good news for wind energy companies such as exergy development, General Electric, ridgeline energy and shell, which the 2011 legislature to extend the 6 percent tax want discounts this year out.

Many industry advocates say, discounts, along with other State and federal incentives such as cash grants from the U.S. Treasury, critical helps Idaho's modest wind resources on terms you use, which fired with traditional forms of electricity produced by dams, coal or natural gas can compete.

Legislator to decide on the discounts to extend something to examine other have to.

Tuesday tax economists beneath John Church of Boise State University published a report in most energy develops 300 megawatts of exergy 120 million dollars in would produce from all sources over the next quarter century, and a further $50 million in royalties to the private owners of rural property where turbines are built.

"The discount still more jobs, more clean energy have the only means it and hopefully create a better future for the State of Idaho," said exergy President James car kulis, whose undertaking funded the study.

Wayne Hammon, Otter's budget Chief, on Jan. 28 said - if the original message purported hit to public tax revenue was made by the discounts-, the Republican Chief Executive could no longer support an extension of the rebate in its current form in terms of the budget implications.

Hammon back immediately a phone call Tuesday seek comment on whether the tax of Commission Otter's letter would change mind.

View the original article here