TEPCO announced on Tuesday that it had felt a group net loss of over $7 billion dollars in 2012, the third year running that the company has remained in the red. Utility officials blamed thermal power fuel costs and the suspension of its nuclear power plants for the losses. The utility is also still facing […]
A licensed reactor operator at the Grand Gulf Nuclear Power Plant in Mississippi tested positive test for illegal drugs during a random fitness-for-duty test. The operator has had access to the GE BWR reactor site terminated. Source: NRC Event Notifications
An employee supervisor at the Limerick nuclear power plant in Pennsylvania confirmed positive for alcohol during a random fitness-for-duty test. The employee’s access to the site has been restricted. Source: NRC Event Notifications
In 2009, President Obama issued a memorandum to executive agencies which outlined guidance for the use of social media to increase outreach efforts. In January 2011, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission launched its first official blog. Over the course of the last few years, the NRC has been working to expand their social media impact. The […]
After investigating the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant last week, Juan Carlos Lentijo, the head of the investigating team, admitted that the work to decommission and stabilize the reactors the plant is so complex that it is “impossible” for experts to predict how long the project may last. “As for the duration of the decommissioning […]
TEPCO officials have been flushed and squirming lately. There are serious leaks from previously undisclosed underground pits and on three separate occasions TEPCO workers have been forced to shut down critical cooling systems at Fukushima Daiichi in response to invasions by small rodents and mice. The utility has also had to acknowledge its own mistakes […]
For the last year and a half, workers at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant have been working to clear debris from atop the decimated reactor building. After an explosion ripped the building apart, twisted metal trusses, rubble and debris prevented clear access and visibility of the spent fuel pool. By March of this year, […]
Former Chairman of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Gregory Jaczko, has been appointed to an little-known panel with the National Nuclear Security Administration this week. The Congressional Advisory Panel was created by the 2013 National Defense Authorization Act, will include 12 congressionally appointed members, and will work to make recommendations to improve operations culminating in a […]
The JiJi Press is reporting that after discovering radioactive water leaking from underground storage pits, TEPCO sent 14 workers at Fukushima Daiichi to carry out efforts to transport water, but did not give them the appropriate dosimeters which would have allowed them to measure the exposure received by the workers. Source: JiJi Press
At the 2013 Carnegie International Nuclear Policy Conference in Washington, DC on April 8th and 9th, former Nuclear Regulatory Commission Chairman Gregory Jaczko called for the phase out of all 103 operating reactors in the United States. He argued that all nuclear power plants in the United States have a “fundamental design problem”, which cannot […]
Officials from the Millstone nuclear power plant updated the Nuclear Regulatory Commission that on Tuesday, April 16th, a licensed operator had failed a for-cause fitness for duty test and confirmed positive for alcohol. The employee has been blocked from accessing the site. Source: NRC
At a press conference this week, a Vice President from TEPCO admitted that TEPCO was falling short of their goals to decommission the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant and decontaminate the accumulating amounts of radioactive water and nuclear waste on-site. Last month, a rat caused a power outage after it short-circuited a temporary switchboard which […]
TEPCO has been forced to take drastic measures to deal with the continual contamination of the Pacific Ocean from the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant. To quell the transfer of contaminated marine soil, the utility worked to cover the ocean floor in the port with concrete. They later discovered that the fish life in […]
Dr. Gordon Edwards, a well respected nuclear expert, explains the background of Chairman Jaczko’s decision: Gregory Jaczko, Chairman of the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission until last year, has arrived at a very basic realization: every potentially dangerous machine should have an emergency “off” switch that shuts everything down completely. And nuclear power reactors don’t have […]
On April 11th and 12th, workers at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power station used an endoscopic camera to investigate the torus chamber in the Unit 2 reactor building. On the second day, workers used a sediment collection device to sample water and sediment from the Torus Chamber. Radiation levels jumped to 134 millisieverts per hour […]
TEPCO announced that more radioactive water had leaked on Thursday at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant while workers were transferring contaminated water between leaking underground storage pits. The incident happened one day after TEPCO announced a plant to transfer water from the Number 3 reservoir pit which holds some 10.400 tons of contaminated water […]
Last week, problems at the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant reminded citizens around the world of the precarious state the decommissioning work is being conducted in. Nuclear Regulation Authority Chairman Shunichi Tanaka was speaking to reporters on Wednesday, when he said that the plant, which relies on temporary ad-hoc cooling systems, remains highly vulnerable […]
On Wednesday, officials from Japan’s Nuclear Regulation Authority approved a new set of nuclear safety guidelines for utilities to follow in order to prepare for emergencies and natural disasters, the new rules will go into effect in July. The rules are stricter in controlling how utilities prepare for serious accidents and most will need to […]
This week, German Environment Minister Peter Altmaier was interviewed by N24 television, when he said that German nuclear power operators will be forced to bear the estimated $2.6 billion dollar costs of dealing with the nuclear waste they created. “The cost of dealing with nuclear waste will be borne by those who produced it,” Altmaier […]
A former energy advisor to the French government, Mycle Schneider, was being interviewed by BBC this week when he questioned the French utility EDF’s ability to build new nuclear power plants in Britain. “EDF is in big trouble. The whole of the nuclear power industry in France is in big trouble,” he said. According to […]