The Top Short-Term Threat to Humanity: The Fuel Pools of Fukushima

The Greatest Single Threat to Humanity: Fuel Pool Number 4

We noted days after the Japanese earthquake that the biggest threat was from the spent fuel rods in the fuel pool at Fukushima unit number 4, and not from the reactors themselves. See this and this.

We noted in February:

Scientists say that there is a 70% chance of a magnitude 7.0 earthquake hitting Fukushima this year, and a 98% chance within the next 3 years.

Given that nuclear expert Arnie Gundersen says that an earthquake of 7.0 or larger could cause the entire fuel pool structure collapse, it is urgent that everything humanly possible is done to stabilize the structure housing the fuel pools at reactor number 4.

Tepco is doing some construction at the building … it is a race against time under very difficult circumstances, and hopefully Tepco will win.

As AP points out:

The structural integrity of the damaged Unit 4 reactor building has long been a major concern among experts because a collapse of its spent fuel cooling pool could cause a disaster worse than the three reactor meltdowns.

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Gundersen (who used to build spent fuel pools) explains that there is no protection surrounding the radioactive fuel in the pools. He warns that – if the fuel pools at reactor 4 collapse due to an earthquake – people should get out of Japan, and residents of the West Coast of America and Canada should shut all of their windows and stay inside for a while.

The fuel pool number 4 is apparently not in great shape, and there have already been countless earthquakes near the Fukushima region since the 9.0 earthquake last March.

Continue reading Top Threat to Humanity: The Fuel Pools of Fukushima →

End Student Debt!

The student loan crisis finally reached center stage in Washington after the House GOP budget called for letting interest rates double on government-subsidized loans (and for deep cuts in Pell grants and other student support). If it passes, students who borrow the maximum will end up paying as much as $1,000 a year in added interest. President Obama sensibly called for extending the lower rate, stumping at colleges and on talk-shows to enlist students and others in the cause.

Republican leaders quickly realized the perils of angering young voters. In another flip-flop, Mitt Romney decided to support extending the lower rate, while the House GOP passed an extension but taunted the president by stipulating that it be paid for with money taken from the preventive health fund created by the Affordable Care Act. Senate Democrats propose paying for it by closing a loophole that doctors, lawyers and small businesses use to avoid payroll taxes.

Ignored in the standoff is that even at the lower rates, more and more students can’t afford the college education or advanced training everyone but Rick Santorum believes they need. Since 1982 the cost of living has doubled and healthcare costs have tripled; college tuition and fees have exploded more than four times. All this comes amid revelations about the hundreds of billions in loans—at below-market rates—ladled out to the banks by the Federal Reserve and Treasury during the financial crisis.

Continue reading Bailout Student Loan Debt – Tax Wall Street →

Philadelphia Daily News reporter Will Bunch, in  “How a Natural-gas Tycoon Tapped into Corbett,” has helped reveal the tragic impact of massive gas industry campaign contributions on Pennsylvania politics (for the big picture see MarcellusMoney.org, meticulously researched up to the minute by Common Cause).   Chesapeake Energy CEO Aubrey McClendon has been bankrolling Pennsylvania’s current gas-loving governor as far back as 2004.

Will Bunch’s feature on Governor Corbett’s rise to power and the role the gas industry has played in it was the cover story in yesterday’s Daily News. (Source: Keegan Gibson/politicspa.com)

In the Daily News’ June 29th cover story,  Bunch explains that a wildcat well is “when a prospector takes a big risk drilling deep in an unexplored area.” Bunch then suggests that a “flamboyant Oklahoma City multimillionaire” did just this – and struck it big – back in 2004:

The $450,000 in campaign checks that energy mogul Aubrey McClendon wrote that fall helped elect a man he said he’d never even met – a relatively obscure GOP candidate for Pennsylvania attorney general, Tom Corbett.

And so the story goes in Bunch’s high-profile article exploring the power relationships behind Governor Corbett’s devotion to the natural gas industry in Pennsylvania. While Bunch begins by raising unanswerable questions of intent and foresight on the part of McClendon, the CEO of Chesapeake Energy, the overall impact of industry donations is unquestionably terrible for the environment and public health.

Continue reading PA Governor Corbett Bankrolled by Gas Drillers →

Why Fukushima Is a Greater Disaster than Chernobyl and a Warning Sign for the U.S.

April 20, 2012 · By Robert Alvarez

The radioactive inventory of all the irradiated nuclear fuel stored in spent fuel pools at Fukushima is far greater and even more problematic than the molten cores.

In the aftermath of the world’s worst nuclear power disaster, the news media is just beginning to grasp that the dangers to Japan and the rest of the world posed by the Fukushima-Dai-Ichi site are far from over.   After repeated warnings by former senior Japanese officials, nuclear experts, and now a U.S. Senator, it is sinking in that the irradiated nuclear fuel stored in spent fuel pools amidst the reactor ruins may have far greater potential offsite consequences  than the molten cores.

After visiting the site recently, Senator Ron Wyden (D-OR) wrote to Japan’s ambassador to the U.S. stating that, “loss of containment in any of these pools could result in an even greater release than the initial accident.”

This is why:

• Each pool contains irradiated fuel from several years of operation, making for an extremely large radioactive inventory without a strong containment structure that encloses the  reactor cores;
• Several  pools are now completely open to the atmosphere because the reactor buildings were  demolished by explosions; they are about 100 feet above ground and could possibly topple or collapse from structural damage coupled with another powerful earthquake;
• The loss of water exposing the spent fuel will result in overheating can cause melting and ignite its zirconium metal cladding – resulting in a fire that could deposit large amounts of radioactive materials over hundreds of miles.

Irradiated nuclear fuel, also called “spent fuel,” is extraordinarily radioactive.  In a matter of seconds, an unprotected human one foot away from a single freshly removed spent fuel assembly would receive a lethal dose of radiation within seconds. As one of the most dangerous materials in the world, spent reactor fuel poses significant long-term risks, requiring isolation in a geological disposal site that can protect the human environment for tens of thousands of years.

Fukushima’s devastation two weeks after the tsunami.

Continue reading Fukushima Spent Fuel Rods Greatest Threat →

 

HARRISBURG — The debate over Pennsylvania’s new voter ID law is heading from the state House to the courthouse.

Groups opposed to requiring photo identification at the polls plan to file a lawsuit today in Commonwealth Court seeking to prevent the law from taking full effect at the November elections. The lawsuit will name about 10 people who lack the documents needed to obtain an acceptable form of identification, said three attorneys involved in the suit.

Continue reading ACLU Sues to Overturn PA Voter Restriction Law →

Underdog Critz defeats Altmire

Tuesday, 24 April 2012 22:21

Written by Tim McNulty

Up 8 points at 10:15 p.m., the campaign for U.S. Rep. Mark Critz, D-Johnstown, announced tonight that Democratic foe Jason Altmire has called to concede the primary tonight.

Mr. Critz used his deep home base support and the awakened might of organized labor to win his fratricidal bout with fellow Democrat Jason Altmire, picking up his latest latest narrow victory in an increasingly conservative congressional district. He piled bigger margins in Cambria and Somerset counties than Altmire was able to do in his Allegheny/Beaver home base.

Mr. Critz now faces Mr. Altmire’s 2010 Republican foe Keith Rothfus in the 12th District race. He will have to refill a warchest weakened by his battle with Mr. Altmire, a battle that was forced by Republican mapmakers who put the incumbents in the same seat during decennial redistricting.

Mr. Altmire is a former UPMC lobbyist and his 2010 vote against President Obama’s health care reform package may have been his undoing.  Mr. Critz was not in Congress at the time of the health care vote. although he said that he would have opposed ti as well.  But Mr. Altmire earned the enmity of labor leaders over the issue as they claimed he lied to them over whether he would support the final comprimise.  In retaliation, the union hierarchy went all out to beat the former UPMC executive, with almost 20 union bodies pledging get-out-the-vote efforts on Mr. Critz’s behalf.

UPDATE:

Here’s Altmire’s statement:

WASHINGTON, DC – Congratulations to my colleague Congressman Mark Critz on his hard-fought and well-deserved victory in the primary. He has my full support as his campaign moves on to the fall.

I want to thank my constituents who supported me by an overwhelming margin in the portion of the new 12th District that I have represented. It is gratifying to know that democratic voters in my current district continue to support me by such a large margin.

Congratulations also to the democrats who reside in Mark’s portion of the new 12th District, especially those in Cambria County, who turned out to vote in astounding numbers to support their candidate. It was that turnout that won the election, and I have no doubt that the remainder of the district will have the same level of support for Congressman Critz as they get to know him.

As I finish the remainder of my term, it continues to be my honor to serve the people of the 4th Congressional District of Pennsylvania.

Marcellus committee launches ‘rapid response’ effort

The Service Creek Reservoir draws from a 17.7-square-mile area and serves more than 35,000 customers in Beaver and Allegheny counties through the Ambridge Water Authority.

Link to Times article here.

Posted: Saturday, April 21, 2012 11:30 pm

By Bill Utterback butterback@timesonline.com

AMBRIDGE — As nearly 100 residents walked out of a three-hour water protection presentation Saturday, Marcia Lehman was one of several people collecting fistfuls of blue volunteer cards.

“We’re getting a ton of these,” she said after the meeting in the Ambridge Area High School auditorium.

The Beaver County Marcellus Awareness Committee is assembling a “rapid response” team to activate if any gas developer should apply for a drilling permit from the state Department of Environmental Protection for property inside the Service Creek watershed in Independence and Raccoon townships.

The Service Creek Reservoir, which draws from a 17.7-square-mile area, serves more than 35,000 customers in Beaver and Allegheny counties through the Ambridge Water Authority. No drillers have applied for DEP permits in the watershed, but firms hold leases for property inside the watershed’s perimeter.

“We expect that sooner or later, there will be an application,” Lehman, an Economy resident, said. “It’s important that we be ready.”

The rapid response team’s exact response to a permit application has not yet been determined, but it will ask the DEP to hold a public hearing before any permit in the watershed is granted.

Continue reading Beaver County Times Covers Ambridge Reservoir Public Meeting →

HARRISBURG — A Commonwealth Court judge has denied a request by the gas-drilling industry and top Republican legislators to intervene in a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of the state’s new Marcellus Shale law.

Senior Judge Keith B. Quigley wrote in a decision today that the legislators do not have a “legally enforceable interest” in defending the intent behind their law. He wrote that the interests of the industry will be represented by the state as it defends the constitutionality of the law.

The judge turned down requests to participate in the case by Senate President Pro Tem Joe Scarnati and House Speaker Sam Smith, as well as those by a collection of industry trade associations and companies.

Officials from seven municipalities, along with a Monroeville doctor and members of the Delaware Riverkeepers Network, have filed a suit arguing the the law constrains their ability to protect residents by how they craft zoning rules. Last week, Judge Quigley granted a 120-stay to the portion of the law affecting local zoning rules.

The remainder of the law went into effect on Saturday.

Earlier this week, attorneys for the legislators and the industry groups argued in court that they should be able to participate in the case.

The White House and Mortgage Fraud: So Far It’s All Talk, No Action