Human errors responsible for deepening Fukushima crisis: IAEA chief

VIENNA (Kyodo) -- The head of the International Atomic Energy Agency said Saturday that human errors were among the factors that exacerbated the nuclear crisis at the Fukushima Daiichi power plant.

"There were a series of human errors" that led to the deepening of the disaster triggered by the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami, IAEA Director General Yukiya Amano said in an interview with Kyodo News.

One of the most serious errors was the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency's failure to effectively supervise Tokyo Electric Power Co., the operator of the Fukushima plant.

The Japanese nuclear safety agency "should have been able to closely monitor" the utility's emergency preparedness as a supervisory organization...

Cambrian Coal Lawsuit: Kentucky Mining Company Settles Over Deadly 2010 Flood

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) — A Kentucky mining company settled a lawsuit Friday that blamed mountaintop mining for stoking a 2010 flood that ravaged a tiny Appalachian community.

The lawsuit filed in August 2010 in Pike County said rainwater runoff from Cambrian Coal Corp.'s surface mine during a July 17, 2010, storm turned nearby Harless Creek into a "raging river." The flooding engulfed homes and carried away cars and other property.

Ned Pillersdorf, a Prestonsburg attorney representing the plaintiffs, said the terms of the settlement reached Friday with Cambrian Coal are confidential. A trial had been scheduled for Monday.

No one answered the phone Friday at Cambrian's office in Belcher, Ky.

Residents argued that the surface mining activity on the mountaintop, which stripped away trees, topsoil and vegetation, caused "excessive water flow that resulted in damages upon all of the plaintiffs' property," the lawsuit said.

A hydrological analysis ...

Japan's Nuclear Cabal
Japan's public is squarely against going back to nuclear power. So why is the government pushing so hard to get the country's nuclear plants back online?
BY NOBUO FUKUDA | MARCH 9, 2012

One year after the devastating earthquake, tsunami, and nuclear disaster that rocked Japan on March 11, 2011, the country looks to be once again back on track as a longtime supporter of nuclear power. Backed by Japan's mighty power companies, the government seems eager to restart the dozens of nuclear reactors across the country that it has kept shuttered in the wake of the crisis. In December, nine months after the disaster, Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda declared an end to the nuclear crisis, announcing that the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant's damaged reactors had been cooled down and stabilized. In February, Japan's nuclear regulators publicly assured the country that two reactors at the Ohi nuclear power plant in Fukui, on Japan's western coast, could survive a combined earthquake and tsunami as large as the one that caused more than 20,000 deaths in northeast Japan in March of last year. And the government even went so far as to get the international seal of approval: The United Nation's nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency, sent in experts in late January who supported this assessment, as the Japanese regulators had expected. Now Noda is planning to visit Fukui to persuade the prefectural governor and other heads of local communities who have expressed concern about the safety of nuclear power to agree to have the reactors run again before the peak energy-intensive summer months.

But is this the path for recovery that the Japanese people want? Apparently not. In a survey conducted in June of last year, 74 percent of respondents said that Japan should phase out nuclear power with an eventual goal of abandoning it.

The picture on the ground is still grim. Due to high levels of radiation around Fukushima, about 100,000 residents have been forced to evacuate, tearing apart families and communities in what was once a close-knit, largely rural area. Even outside the forced evacuation zone, which extends a 20-kilometer radius from the destroyed Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, residents were ordered to vacate their communities.

Farmers who chose to stay -- despite contamination -- stack crops and hay on their land in vain, knowing they can neither sell nor destroy their produce because the government prohibits both trade and disposal.

Iitate is one of those dozens of communities. In this ...

Jack Dalrymple, North Dakota Governor, Joins Protest Against Plan To Reduce Coal-Fired Power
Posted: 03/ 8/2012 7:55 pm


BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) — Top North Dakota officials renewed their protests against a plan to discourage Minnesota utilities from meeting new energy demands by using electric power generated by burning coal.

North Dakota's Industrial Commission on Thursday approved a letter to the Minnesota Public Utilities Commission, arguing utilities should not incur any extra cost for using coal-fired power. At present, the cost is $9 to $34 per ton of carbon dioxide that is given off when coal is burned to provide electricity.

Gov. Jack Dalrymple is the North Dakota commission's chairman. It oversees a state coal research fund, which is financed by a share of North Dakota's tax on lignite mining. The commission's other members are Attorney General Wayne Stenehjem and Agriculture Commissioner Doug Goehring.

If Minnesota regulators make it more expensive for utilities to use coal power, it will throttle the prospects of western North Dakota's lignite industry, Dalrymple said. Coal-fueled power plants in western North Dakota already provide a major share of Minnesota's electric supply.

"It has long-term implications ...

Floating Offshore Wind Farm Planned For Fukushima
Wednesday 07 March 2012

A consortium of companies, academic institutions and research organizations is planning to develop an experimental offshore floating wind farm sponsored by Japan's Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry.

The consortium comprises Marubeni Corp., the University of Tokyo, Mitsubishi, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, IHI Marine United, Mitsui Engineering & Shipbuilding, Nippon Steel, Hitachi, Furukawa Electric, Shimizu and Mizuho Information & Research.

The project will consist of three floating wind turbines and one floating power substation off the coast of Fukushima, Japan. The first stage of the project will begin this year and will consist of one 2 MW floating wind turbine, a 66 kV floating power substation and an undersea cable. The second stage of the project will consist of two 7 MW wind turbines, which will be added between 2013 and 2015.

Through this experimental project, Fukushima Prefecture hopes to develop a large wind farm industry. One of the most important themes of the project is the coexistence of the fishing industry with the offshore wind farm industry. To ensure this happens, the consortium says it will work hard to maintain good relations with the local fishing industry through strong communication while at the same time pursuing the commercialization of the offshore wind project.

The consortium says that ...

High levels of cesium found at former nuclear lab outside L.A.

LOS ANGELES (Kyodo) -- High levels of radioactive cesium have been detected on the ground of a former nuclear facility in the suburbs of Los Angeles called the Santa Susana Field Laboratory, where an experimental nuclear reactor suffered fuel melting in 1959, according to U.S. government data obtained Thursday.

The data, provided to local residents in February as an interim report by the Environmental Protection Agency, which is examining the extent of contamination in the area, show that radioactive cesium measured up to about 7,300 becquerels per kilogram of soil, or nearly 1,000 times the benchmark used by the agency.

The area was decontaminated after the nuclear accident, and the U.S. Department of Energy, which was dealing with research there, declared in the 1980s that the land could now be used as farmland or for residential purposes.

The decision to conduct a detailed study was made in December 2010 after strong demands were lodged by local residents who have expressed health concerns for a long time.

The findings suggest ...

Fukushima No. 4 reactor saved by upgrade mishap
March 08, 2012
By TOSHIHIRO OKUYAMA / Staff Writer

Bungled replacement work and a chance opening in a separator gate very likely saved the No. 4 reactor at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant from descending into a nightmarish situation, it has been learned.

The governments of Japan and the United States were worried that overheating and the decay of spent fuel rods at the No. 4 reactor could trigger catastrophic developments following the disastrous events of last March 11.

It appears now that the coincidental occurrence of the delayed replacement work and the opening in the separator helped avert the potential scenario of a full-blown meltdown.

The core shroud, a large structure in the reactor core, was undergoing...

Is the End of Renewables Nigh as Fukushima Anniversary Nears?
Yes, the Germans Are Cutting Solar PV Tariffs; Yes, the Solar PV Tariffs Do Need to Be Cut; No, It's Not the End of the World
By Paul Gipe, Contributor
March 8, 2012

In the run-up to the 11 March anniversary of the Fukushima reactor meltdown, the steady drip of anti-renewables articles in the mainstream media will become a torrent as the nuclear lobby cranks up its public relations machine. And they're taking aim at European feed-in tariffs, no doubt because of their success. Germany is particularly in their cross-hairs because of its massive development of renewable energy over the past two decades and its plan to close all its reactors for good.

I call this the "end is nigh" strategy. For example, expect to hear that Germany doesn't really produce much with all those renewables, doesn't really employ that many people building wind turbines and solar panels, and has finally seen reason and is abandoning feed-in tariffs.

Here in the U.S., we saw this approach at work this week when one of our most famous right-wing "shock jocks," Rush Limbaugh, trying to deflect a storm of criticism over his most-recent sexist remarks, launch a diatribe that building wind turbines and solar panels does not create "real jobs." That leaves one with the impression that the only "real jobs" are those involved with building, or repairing nuclear power plants — or, we should add — trying to save them from destruction.

Since the 1930s, the key to effective propaganda has been to build it around an element of truth. Thus the media and the blogosphere — at least here in the english-speaking world — are having a field day after learning that Germany's conservative ruling coalition of the CDU and FDP (with particular prodding from Philipp Rösler of the FDP) have reached an agreement to dramatically cut feed-in tariffs for solar photovoltaics (solar PV) even more than already scheduled.

With this background in mind, here are some thoughts on what to expect and how to react to the "end of renewables is nigh."...

March 07, 2012
Court withdraws nuclear plant licence

The Mühleberg atomic plant near Bern will lose its operating licence at the end of June 2013 on security grounds, the Federal Administrative Court has ruled.

The court upheld a complaint by local opponents of the plant against the indefinite extension of the plant's licence by the environment ministry, granted at the end of 2009.

The 1972 plant, one of the oldest in Switzerland, is run by BKW Energy. Last September it was restarted after three months of annual checks and safety improvements.

Before the court’s ruling, Mühleberg's licence was open-ended as long as it met national nuclear safety requirements.

All Swiss ...