THE GREAT EASTERN JAPAN EARTHQUAKE 11MAR2011: Japan Failed to Release Radiation Threat Data

Tuesday, Aug. 9, 2011

Japan's government initially failed to make public computer data on the anticipated movement of radioactive contaminants from the damaged Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant in March, resulting in evacuees congregating in some areas threatened by radiation, the Associated Press reported (see GSN, Aug. 8).

(Aug. 9) - Evacuees occupy a shelter in Minamisoma, Japan, one day after an earthquake and tsunami severely damaged a nuclear power plant in the region. The Japanese government failed early in the crisis to release computer calculations forecasting the spread of radioactive contaminants from the plant to Minamisoma and other inhabited areas (Kazuhiro Nogi/Getty Images).

Authorities have battled to prevent radioactive contaminants from escaping the six-reactor facility following a March 11 earthquake and tsunami that left more than 20,000 people dead or missing in Japan.

Tokyo failed to take full advantage of radiation threat information early in the crisis, due partly to lapses in coordination between government entities and a poor understanding among senior officials of the nation's radioactive plume modeling system, dubbed the System for Prediction of Environmental Emergency Dose Information, according to discussions with critical officials and an examination of records and documented exchanges within the Japanese legislature.

Lower-level Japanese officials ordered 18 or more reports from the 25-year-old, $140 million modeling system within the first day of the crisis, as Tokyo urged the plant's operator to vent radiation-tainted vapor from the site in an attempt to prevent an explosion. The assessments included a warning that radioactive materials would spread to multiple local communities, but Japan's Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency did not pass the information to the nation's leaders
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NUCLEAR: Japan to Propose New Atomic Oversight Body

Wednesday, Aug. 3, 2011Japan is expected on Friday to announce a proposal for establishing a new nuclear accident prevention oversight agency in light of the ongoing crisis at the Fukushima Daiichi atomic energy plant, Reuters reported (see GSN, Aug. 2).

photo courtesy of:
japanfocus.org

Authorities have battled to prevent radioactive contaminants from escaping the six-reactor facility following a March 11 earthquake and tsunami that left more than 20,000 people dead or missing in Japan. The lack of measures sufficient to prevent the crisis has been blamed in part on the energy sector's close relationship with the Japanese Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency, the nation's current atomic oversight body, according to Reuters.

The reform proposal -- one of several being studied, according to Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano -- would unite within Japan's Environment Ministry the existing agency and a separate atomic consultation entity, news reports indicated. Legal measures to adopt such reforms must clear Japan's politically split legislature, government adviser Goshi Hosono said, adding he wanted to put updates into effect next April.

Specialists said the plan was not enough on its own to guarantee sufficient supervision of Japan's atomic power companies or to shore up national confidence in the nation's energy sector.

"The key is if the new agency will not be independent just in appearance, but if it can actually secure its ability to regulate," University of Tokyo professor Hideaki Shiroyama said ahead of the latest news developments (Yoko Kubota, Reuters, Aug. 3).  Read more

NUCLEAR > TheThreat of Nuclear Terror

U.S. - Russian assessment says safeguards needed, and fast

image courtesy of Harvard Kennedy School

Researchers from the United States and Russia issued a joint assessment Monday (June 6) on the global threat of nuclear terrorism, warning of a persistent danger that terrorists could obtain or make a nuclear device and use it with catastrophic consequences.

The first joint threat assessment by experts from the world’s two major nuclear powers concludes: “If current approaches toward eliminating the threat are not replaced with a sense of urgency and resolve, the question will become not if but when, and on what scale, the first act of nuclear terrorism occurs.”

The study recommends measures to tighten security over existing nuclear weapons and the nuclear materials that terrorists would need to make a crude nuclear bomb, along with expanded police and intelligence cooperation to interdict nuclear smuggling and stop terrorist plots. The report also calls for improved protection of nuclear facilities that might be sabotaged, and of radiological materials that might be used in a dirty bomb.

The “The U.S.-Russia Joint Threat Assessment on Nuclear Terrorism” report, released in Cambridge and in Moscow, results from a nearly yearlong partnership by authorities on nuclear security from the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs at Harvard Kennedy School and theInstitute for U.S. and Canadian Studies in Moscow, a leading Russian research center.  Read more

NUCLEAR > Two antinuclear activists become pro-nuclear technology communicators

Posted on July 12, 2011 by rmichal

By Rod Adams

Two British environmental writers who were bitterly opposed to nuclear energy development just a few years ago decided to do some homework. Their questioning attitude and fact seeking minds have led them to the inescapable conclusion that most of the arguments against nuclear energy repeatedly offered by the opposition have been pure fabrications. George Monbiot and Mark Lynas both bring assets to the battle for hearts and minds in the energy source debate that are hard to match – they are recent converts to a pro-nuclear technology position with deep credentials in the environmental community. In addition, they are professional communicators with stories to tell.


Last Friday, Lynas’s publisher launched his new book titled The God Species: How the Planet Can Survive the Age of Humans. Within hours, customers who tried to access the book via Amazon.co.uk received a message stating that the book was not currently being offered because it was under review/investigation. Since Lynas had taken some aggressively controversial positions in the book, several of his fans offered conspiratorial explanations for Amazon’s decision to pull the book off of the virtual shelves.


After a flurry of Twitter tweets and blog posts, the issue was resolved and access to the book was restored. Apparently someone thought that the book would be a hardcover and complained to Amazon when they received it in a trade paperback format. As someone in the entertainment business once said – no publicity is bad publicity as long as they spell your name right. I bought the book for my Kindle partially based on the attention that the implications of possible censorship generated in the social media world.  For more

RUSSIAN MILITARY > Russia to Allocate $730B for Armaments by 2020

Thursday, July 7, 2011 [Full article]

photo courtesy of DoD

Russia plans to acquire eight ballistic-missile submarines as part of a $730 billion armaments upgrade plan extending through 2020, Voice of America reported on Wednesday (see GSN, April 21).

The procurements declared by Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, which are also expected to include 600 flight assets and S-400 and S-500 air defenses, would boost Moscow's military holdings of up-to-date armaments to 70 percent of the total stockpile by the end of the effort.

Russia's highest priority is to upgrade its strategic nuclear deterrent, but it must also make changes to other weapons and equipment, defense expert Pavel Felgenhauer said. "Then there's of course the air force, the air defense system, the army -- actually, everything needs rearming because right now they say that (only) 10-15 percent of our weaponry is modern," he said.

Russia's defense spending is 10 times its level from a decade ago, but the modernization effort still lags, Felgenhauer said.

"Now the present defense minister says that there was massive misappropriation of funds," the analyst said. "The Russian defense industry, which is also downgraded, and its capabilities are much smaller than in Soviet times, responded to more funding by just raising prices. They are producing the same several fighters or missiles, but for a much bigger price" (Anya Ardayeva, Voice of America, July 6).

Russian Defense Minister Anatoly Serdyukov received instructions from President Dmitry Medvedev on Wednesday to present a declaration within three days on the government's execution of this year's military acquisition plans, RIA Novosti reported.

The Defense Ministry has held up the finalization of deals for strategic nuclear weapons purchases and other acquisitions, placing the 2011 plans at risk, top missile designer Yuri Solomonov told the newspaperKommersant. The arrangements were originally expected to be in place by April 15; Medvedev pushed the due date back to end of May, though, and early that month criticized the defense sector over the slowdown (see GSN, May 11).

Medvedev on Wednesday pressed the defense minister to "find out what is going on."

"If the reports about the disruption of the state defense order are true, then those responsible for this should be punished regardless of their ranks and posts," Medvedev told Serdyukov in a video discussion. "I expect you to report back in three days" (RIA Novosti, July 6).

JAPAN > Plant Decontamination Progress Slower Than Planned

photo courtesy of csmonitor.com

Thursday, July 7, 2011 [Full article]

Tokyo Electric Power said a new mechanism for decontaminating radiation-tainted water at Japan's Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant ran at roughly 76 percent efficiency over a seven-day period that ended on Tuesday, falling short of a goal for the equipment to achieve four-fifths of its maximum possible output, Kyodo News reported (see GSN, July 6).

The plant operator has battled to prevent radioactive contaminants from escaping the six-reactor Fukushima facility following a March 11 earthquake and tsunami that left more than 20,000 people dead or missing in Japan. The firm has pumped water into the plant on an ongoing basis in an effort to cool components; the new system is intended to cleanse tainted fluid for reuse in the temperature control efforts.

The company now believes it would need until the middle of next month, or roughly 10 days later than previously planned, to reduce the depth of significantly contaminated water at the No. 2 and No. 3 reactor sites to 1 meter under the groundwater threshold.

The decontamination unit has treated 14,970 tons of highly radioactive water since it was first activated on June 17, Tokyo Electric Power indicated. The 6,830 tons of fluid it processed over the seven-day reporting period fell 2,020 tons short of the intended target.

Technical problems forced that forced numerous shutdowns of the system are in part to blame for the processing shortfall, the company said, adding it hoped to reach the 80 percent decontamination goal in July and 90 percent treatment efficiency next month (Kyodo News/Mainichi Daily News, July 7).

Meanwhile, specialists have launched an effort to model the dispersal of radioactive cesium from the plant through Japan's Kanto region, the Asahi Shimbun reported on Thursday (Hirohiko Nakamura, Asahi Shimbun, July 7).

NUCLEAR PAKISTAN > Scientist claims NKorea paid $3.5 million to Pakistani military officials for nuclear tech

image courtesy of trt-world.com

By Associated Press, Published: July 6 | Updated: Thursday, July 7, 7:01 AM

WASHINGTON — The founder of Pakistan’s nuclear weapons program claims that in the late 1990s North Korean officials paid kickbacks to senior Pakistani military figures in exchange for critical weapons technology.

Abdul Qadeer Khan has given a United States-based expert documents that appear to show North Korea’s government paid more than $3.5 million to two Pakistani military officials as part of the deal, the expert told The Associated Press Wednesday.

To back up his claim, Khan released what he said was a copy of a North Korean official’s 1998 letter to him, written in English, that purports to describe the secret deal.

Khan gave the documents to Simon Henderson of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, an authority on Pakistan’s weapons program. He did so because he has been accused by his government of running a covert nuclear smuggling operation without official knowledge or consent

“He gave it to me because he regarded it as showing that the story, the perception that he had been a rogue operator was false,” Henderson said.  Read more

NUCLEAR > Nuclear Safety Journal Launched

Published 7 July 2011

Three Mile Island, Chernobyl, Fukushima: for the third time in twenty-five years a nuclear power plant suffered a serious accident, precipitating a global review of the way to govern nuclear safety and security; a publisher of scientific journal is launching a new journal -- International Journal of Nuclear Safety and Security (IJNSS) -- which will offer a forum for the serious discussion of nuclear power plants' safety

pThree Mile Island, Chernobyl, Fukushima: for the third time in twenty-five years a nuclear power plant suffered a serious accident, precipitating a global review of the way to govern nuclear safety and security.

The 11 March Fukushima accident was especially poignant because it came during — and may well put an end to — what was correctly termed a Nuclear Renaissance: as worries about climate change and the volatility of oil prices grew, interest in nuclear power generation was rekindled.

InderScience Publishers is launching a new journal — teInternational Journal of Nuclear Safety and Security (IJNSS) — which aims to address the growing interest in, and concern about, nuclear safety.

The publisher says that the international community must learn from these accidents in order to improve international co-operation, both in terms of crisis management and prevention of risks. IJNSS will provide an opportunity to exchange information on the implications of safe and secure operation of nuclear power plants and approaches taken by countries worldwide.   Full article

Among the topics which will be covered by the new journal:

• Strategic, managerial, organizational issues; total quality management (TQM) and environmental management
• Macroeconomics, nuclear economics and business
• Technological advances, issues, innovation, hazards; role of information and communication technologies (ICTs)
• Analysis/assessment methodologies, performance measurement
• Governance, policy strategy, assessment, review
• National/international environmental protection policy; ecosystem research
• Ecological/environmental impacts; risk assessment/legal aspects of pollution
• Waste disposal strategies; clean technologies
• Energy security and risk assessment; policy, standards and regulations
• Critical infrastructures design, protection, management
• Risk assessment, control, characterization, perception, communications, models
• Integrated risk assessment and safety management
• Nuclear systems management, transport, resource development, power quality
• Public policy, regulations, governance and nuclear use; public attitudes
• Knowledge based policies and education; knowledge transfer

Japan Plans Safety Review for Every Atomic Reactor

Image courtesy of: http://www.nucleartourist.com/world/japan.htm 

Japan on Wednesday announced plans to probe how well each of its atomic energy facilities could stand up to significant environmental pressures, a new effort to alleviate the fear of nearby populations following the disaster at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, Jiji Press reported (see GSN, July 5).Wednesday, July 6, 2011The Fukushima plant's operator has struggled to prevent radioactive contaminants from escaping the six-reactor facility following a March 11 earthquake and tsunami that left more than 20,000 people dead or missing in Japan (Jiji Press, July 6). Multiple additional reactors in Japan have remained switched off amid fears of potential new crises, Reuters reported (Tsukimori/White, Reuters, July 6).

The "stress tests" would take place in addition to standard risk audits, Jiji Press quoted Japanese Industry Minister Banri Kaieda as saying.

"Although the safety of nuclear power plants in Japan has already been ensured, we will be doing the stress tests to have Japanese people feel safer," Kaieda said (Jiji Press).

Meanwhile, a trace amount of cesium 137 has turned up in Tokyo's public water supply, the Dow Jones Newswires reported on Monday.

A quantity drawn on Saturday had .14 becquerels per kilogram of the radioactive substance, down from the .21 becquerels found in a April 22 check, the Tokyo Metropolitan Institute of Public Health said. Cesium 137 was the only contaminant seen in the fluid, the organization indicated.

Water containing as much as 100 becquerels per kilogram is considered reasonable for consumption by very young children (Hiroyuki Kachi, Dow Jones Newswires, July 4)

Japan > Fuel Melted in Additional Japan Nuclear Reactors: Operator

Fuel Melted in Additional Japan Nuclear Reactors: Operator

Tuesday, May 24, 2011

photo courtesy channel4.com

Nuclear material melted down inside three reactors at Japan's Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant after a March 11 earthquake and tsunami severely damaged the facility, according to an initial Tokyo Electric Power assessment made public on Tuesday (see GSN, May 23).  

The finding suggests fuel in the six-reactor Fukushima plant's No. 2 and No. 3 reactors sustained a level of damage comparable to what Tokyo and independent specialists said the No. 1 reactor's material had experienced in the aftermath of the the March 11 events, Reuters reported. The devastating earthquake and tsunami left more than 20,000 people dead or missing in Japan (Shinichi Saoshiro, Reuters I, May 24).

“We have analyzed data, which showed that it was highly likely that most of the fuel rods have melted. But it is unlikely that melting fuel rods could worsen the crisis because the melted fuels are covered in water,” the Associated Press quoted firm spokesman Takeo Iwamoto as saying (Associated Press/Washington Post, May 23).Full article

Bombed Syrian Facility Likely Contained Reactor: IAEA

Tuesday, May 24, 2011

The International Atomic Energy Agency in a new safeguards report said a Syrian facility destroyed in a 2007 Israeli airstrike had quite possibly housed an undisclosed nuclear reactor nearing completion, the Associated Press reported on Tuesday (George Jahn, Associated Press/Washington Times, May 24; seeGSN, May 20).

"Features of the destroyed building are comparable to those of gas cooled graphite moderated
reactors of the type and size alleged," IAEA Director General Yukiya Amano asserted in the document. "Prior to the bombing, the configuration of the infrastructure at the site, including its connections for cooling and treated water, was able to support the operation of such a reactor and was not consistent with Syria’s claims regarding the purpose of the infrastructure," he added.

"In addition, a number of other features of the site add to its suitability for the construction and
operation of a nuclear reactor; analysis of samples from the site indicates a connection to nuclear related activities; and the features of the destroyed building and the site could not have served the purpose claimed by Syria," the report states.

Amano concluded: "Based on all the information available to the agency and its technical evaluation of that information, the agency assesses that it is very likely that the building destroyed at the Dair Alzour site was a nuclear reactor which should have been declared to the agency" (International Atomic Energy Agency safeguards report, May 24)  Full article
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Pakistan > Militant Strike Refreshes Doubts on Pakistani Nuke Security

Militant Strike Refreshes Doubts on Pakistani Nuke Security

Tuesday, May 24, 2011

The siege by militants on a Pakistani military base on Monday is expected to again increase concerns about the South Asian state's capacity to protect its nuclear arsenal, the Los Angeles Times reported (see GSN, May 23).

(May. 24) - Military personnel arrive on Monday at Pakistan's Mehran Naval Station following an attack on the installation by Taliban gunmen. The strike could heighten worries over Pakistan's capacity to secure its nuclear weapons (Rizwan Tabassum/Getty Images).

Four to six militants were initially believed involved in the physical operation that killed no fewer than 10 and hurt another 15 at the Mehran Naval Station in Karachi. The number of attackers as of Tuesday was being assessed at up to 12.

The attackers used two ladders and wire cutters to overcome the security perimeter of the installation, where they proceeded to destroy two high-tech spy aircraft provided by the United States. It took Pakistani authorities the better part of the day to overpower the attackers who were armed with grenades, rocket launchers and guns.

The Pakistani Taliban has taken credit for the siege, which it said was retaliation for the U.S. killing earlier this month of al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden (see related GSN story, today).  Full article

Military > Cartwright Passed Over for Top U.S. Military Post

Cartwright Passed Over for Top U.S. Military Post

Tuesday, May 24, 2011

By Elaine M. Grossman

Global Security Newswire

WASHINGTON -- President Obama has decided to pass over Gen. James Cartwright for the U.S. military's highest post as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, according to defense sources (see GSN, Dec. 17, 2010).

(May. 24) - Vice Chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. James Cartwright, left, stands with President Obama at a White House event earlier this month. Obama has decided against appointing Cartwright to the country's top military position, according to defense sources (Saul Loeb/Getty Images).

Said to be Obama's "favorite general," Cartwright enjoys bipartisan support in the Senate -- which would have been asked to confirm him -- and was believed to be the front-runner to take the post when Adm. Michael Mullen retires this summer.

However, serving as the nation's No. 2 military officer since August 2007, the Marine general has frequently crossed swords with Mullen. It is widely believed this discord jeopardized the 61-year-old officer's hopes of continuing his military career.

Cartwright's spokesman declined comment on the matter.

The Rockford, Ill., native did not actively lobby for the chairman's job but would have been happy to undertake the post, according to a number of military officials.

He is widely regarded as a brainy and enormously capable officer who has established close ties with top Pentagon and White House civilians, but has clashed with a number of his peers over both substantive issues and operating style.  Full article

Japan > Nuclear Plant Reactor Structure Opened to Personnel

Third Japan Plant Reactor Structure Opened to Personnel

Thursday, May 19, 2011

image courtesy of  gc.nautilus.org

Personnel on Wednesday moved inside the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant's No. 3 reactor site for the first time since a March earthquake and tsunami devastated the Japanese facility, Reuters reported (see GSN, May 18).

Plant operator Tokyo Electric Power dispatched two workers who remained in the building for 10 minutes and received under three millisieverts of radiation in that period. Plant personnel have been battling to prevent new radiation releases from the six-reactor facility, both by restoring critical cooling systems and implementing measures to help prevent additional hydrogen explosions. The March 11 events left more than 20,000 people dead or missing in Japan.

Personnel previously ventured into the outer structures of the plant's No. 1 and No. 2 reactors, the other two segments of the plant that were active at the start of the crisis (Reuters I, May 19).

"Workers being able to enter the reactors is perhaps the biggest improvement" since Tokyo Electric Power announced the schedule for bringing plant components under control, one atomic power specialist told Reuters. "They have made the ventilation of the reactor building possible and it also enables [Tokyo Electric Power] to install heat exchangers and pumps" (Reuters II, May 19).

The plant is due on Friday to receive a massive steel containment system for holding 10,000 metric tons of radiation-tainted fluid that has flooded parts of the facility, hindering restoration efforts, the operator said. In excess of 90,000 metric tons of irradiated liquid is thought to be pooling within and near the site (Reuters I).

The discovery of additional damage to plant components has forced the firm to dramatically revise its site stabilization strategy, which now includes the planned installation of technology to reinsert leaked reactor coolant into the systems, the Asahi Shimbun reported. Tokyo Electric Power, though, says it remains on schedule to put the site into "cold shutdown" five to eight months from now.

The company must also contend with the threat of contaminated fluid seeping into the earth or the Pacific Ocean (Eisuke Sasaki, Asahi Shimbun I, May 19).

Tokyo is permitting the International Atomic Energy Agency to dispatch a team to gather information on the crisis, Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano said on Tuesday. The U.N. group is expected to include roughly 20 atomic experts (Asahi Shimbun II, May 19).

China and Japan are due on Friday to hold their first bilateral meeting of atomic specialists to address the crisis, Kyodo News reported (Kyodo News, May 19)
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Nuclear > Interpol Stands Up Nuclear Counterterrorism Unit

Thursday, May 19, 2011

Interpol on Wednesday said it has a established a unit to take on terrorism threats involving nuclear, radiological and other unconventional materials (seeGSN, Sept. 28, 2010).

The Radiological and Nuclear Terrorism Prevention Unit "crucially will expand the world police body’s antibioterrorism activities to take in chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear and explosive (CBRNe) threats by using an integrated approach that leverages international partnerships and expertise across all sectors," according to an Interpol release (see GSN, Feb. 24, 2010).

The update acknowledges the dangers that weapons of mass destruction pose to the 188 nations that participate in Interpol, organization Secretary General Ronald Noble said during a conference in Lyon, France, on preventing nuclear and radiological terrorism.

“Only one week after the 9/11 terrorist attacks, the United States was struck once again with the ‘anthrax case’, in which a single individual with scientific knowledge and access to the right biological strain was able to murder five people, injure 17 and temporarily shut down the entire mail system of the United States for an estimated loss of $1 billion, while terrorizing other countries in the process,” he said.

The primary goal of the event and of the new unit, Noble said, is “to build police capacity globally, to prevent the next bioterrorist attack. This objective requires police to have at its side the public, private and scientific sectors together as one in order to successfully address the whole threat spectrum."

One database developed by the International Atomic Energy Agency, Interpol and other organizations lists in excess of 2,500 incidents linked to the illicit movement of nuclear and radiological materials, the Interpol release states.

The updated counter-WMD effort at Interpol "will combine intelligence analysis via global information sharing, capacity building and training, and will also provide operational supporrt through the deployment of specialized teams," the organization said (Interpol release, May 18).