Nuclear Safety

TOKYO - The government's candidate to head Japan's new nuclear regulatory body vowed Wednesday to impose stricter safety standards on utility companies that run nuclear power plants and brushed off accusations that he has a pro-industry bias. Shunichi Tanaka is a former executive of the Japan Atomic Energy Agency, which promotes development of nuclear energy. Criticism of collusion between regulators and the nuclear industry after last year's accident at the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant has led to the creation of a more independent regulatory body that is to be launched in September.

In a recent submission to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Philadelphia Electric Co. attorneys called for a reduction or removal of emergency planning standards from the nuclear licensing process. The basic premise of the article by Robert Rader from the law firm of Conner & Weidenmeyer suggests that plans for evacuation and other health and safety issues have no place before the NRC. He believes such issues represent a waste of time and money on the part of the utility company and the NRC. He states, "So much conjecture about latent cancer deaths, premised on an extremely improbable accident, is irrelevant to licensing and only whets the anti-nuclear penchant for scaremongering.

TOKYO - Japan's nuclear safety chief said Wednesday the country's regulations are flawed, outdated and below global standards, and he apologized for their failure when a tsunami crippled one plant last year. Haruki Madarame admitted Japanese safety requirements such as for tsunami and power losses were too loose and many officials have looked the other way and tried to avoid changes. "I must admit that the nuclear safety guidelines that we have issued until now have various flaws," he said.

TOKYO - Another Japanese nuclear reactor was taken off line for maintenance on Monday, leaving the country with only one of its 54 reactors operational following last year's devastating earthquake and tsunami. The last reactor is expected to be shut down by early May, raising the possibility of power shortages across the nation as demand increases in the hot summer months. Japanese reactors are taken off line every 13 months for regular checks. With concerns over nuclear safety high following the Fukushima crisis, none of the reactors that have been shut down for checks, and none that were already off line at the time of the disaster, have been allowed to restart.

The problem of nuclear safety in foreign countries has become "increasingly serious" and probably will worsen because many nuclear reactors coming on line are in developing countries, according to a report released yesterday by the General Accounting Office. The GAO report, released by Sen. John Glenn (D., Ohio), counted 151 significant nuclear-safety-related incidents in 14 countries - which operate more than 200 nuclear reactors - from 1971 to 1984. The worldwide figure may be higher because information from the Soviet Union and Soviet-bloc countries was not available to GAO investigators, Glenn said.

U.N. to analyze nuclear accident UNITED NATIONS - The United Nations will undertake a systemwide study on the implications of the accident at the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant in Japan, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said Friday. Several agencies will prepare a report addressing the effects of nuclear safety in areas including environment, health, and food security. It is to be presented at a high-level meeting on nuclear safety and security Sept. 22 during the General Assembly in New York.

To listen to the media - and, unless you live in a cave, you have precious little choice in the matter - energy experts are deeply concerned about the alleged dangers of nuclear power. That is probably why our "news" purveyors buried so deeply the public announcement of the recent study that indicates precisely the reverse. In the mild words of the study's authors, there is "a gap between what the experts think about nuclear power and what the media report. " The authors are social scientists S. Robert Lichter and Robert Rycroft of George Washington University, Stanley Rothman of Smith College and Linda Lichter of the (non-profit)

Pennsylvania, as a leading producer of low-level radioactive waste, will be the home of a disposal facility for such waste by 1996, state officials said yesterday, and the facility could be located in the Philadelphia area. "We decided not to put population as an exclusionary criterion," William P. Dornsife, of the state Department of Environmental Resources, told a group of area business and industry representatives at DER's regional office in Norristown. In November, Chem-Nuclear Systems Inc. of Columbia, S.C. - which has been contracted by the state to design, site and operate the facility - will complete its search for three potential locations in the state.

Born in secrecy, America's nuclear weapons program has zealously clung to the shroud that has kept its operations hidden from public scrutiny since the days of the Manhattan Project to build the atom bomb. Officials at the Department of Energy - and its predecessor, the Atomic Energy Commission - have long argued that secrecy is essential to protecting national security. That may be true. But the federal government has also used the shroud to hide an environmental record that threatens the health and safety of those who live near weapons-production facilities.

LOS ALAMOS, N.M. - A wildfire burning near the desert birthplace of the atomic bomb advanced on the Los Alamos laboratory and thousands of outdoor drums of plutonium-contaminated waste Tuesday as authorities stepped up efforts to protect the site and monitor the air for radiation. Officials at the nation's premier nuclear weapons lab gave assurances that dangerous materials were safely stored and capable of withstanding flames from the 93-square-mile fire, which as of midday was as close as 50 feet from the grounds.

TOKYO - The government's candidate to head Japan's new nuclear regulatory body vowed Wednesday to impose stricter safety standards on utility companies that run nuclear power plants and brushed off accusations that he has a pro-industry bias. Shunichi Tanaka is a former executive of the Japan Atomic Energy Agency, which promotes development of nuclear energy. Criticism of collusion between regulators and the nuclear industry after last year's accident at the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant has led to the creation of a more independent regulatory body that is to be launched in September.

TOKYO - Another Japanese nuclear reactor was taken off line for maintenance on Monday, leaving the country with only one of its 54 reactors operational following last year's devastating earthquake and tsunami. The last reactor is expected to be shut down by early May, raising the possibility of power shortages across the nation as demand increases in the hot summer months. Japanese reactors are taken off line every 13 months for regular checks. With concerns over nuclear safety high following the Fukushima crisis, none of the reactors that have been shut down for checks, and none that were already off line at the time of the disaster, have been allowed to restart.

TOKYO - Japan's nuclear safety chief said Wednesday the country's regulations are flawed, outdated and below global standards, and he apologized for their failure when a tsunami crippled one plant last year. Haruki Madarame admitted Japanese safety requirements such as for tsunami and power losses were too loose and many officials have looked the other way and tried to avoid changes. "I must admit that the nuclear safety guidelines that we have issued until now have various flaws," he said.

LOS ALAMOS, N.M. - A wildfire burning near the desert birthplace of the atomic bomb advanced on the Los Alamos laboratory and thousands of outdoor drums of plutonium-contaminated waste Tuesday as authorities stepped up efforts to protect the site and monitor the air for radiation. Officials at the nation's premier nuclear weapons lab gave assurances that dangerous materials were safely stored and capable of withstanding flames from the 93-square-mile fire, which as of midday was as close as 50 feet from the grounds.

U.N. to analyze nuclear accident UNITED NATIONS - The United Nations will undertake a systemwide study on the implications of the accident at the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant in Japan, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said Friday. Several agencies will prepare a report addressing the effects of nuclear safety in areas including environment, health, and food security. It is to be presented at a high-level meeting on nuclear safety and security Sept. 22 during the General Assembly in New York.

In April 1981, The Inquirer reported on an emergency exercise that Sydney W. Porter Jr. ran for the Salem Nuclear Generating Station in Lower Alloways Creek, N.J. "It was the first drill of such size to be conducted in the country," the story reported, "since the federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) put new restrictions for emergency preparedness into effect" in the preceding week. In a foreshadowing of the March 11 tsunami's impact on the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plants in Japan, Mr. Porter said his 1981 exercise was meant to deal with "an incredibly unlikely scenario . . . sort of like having the Chicago fire, a tidal wave, and an earthquake happen all at once.

LIVERMORE, Calif. - By the end of 2010, scientists at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory may be celebrating the realization of a decades-long dream: re-creating the reaction that powers the sun and causes hydrogen bombs to explode. Or they'll be sitting on one of the biggest failures in the history of science. The project, called the National Ignition Facility, or NIF, takes up most of a building the size of two football fields. Inside, 192 of the world's most powerful lasers are focused to concentrate unprecedented power into a target of hydrogen atoms, coaxing them to fuse into helium.

Come see for yourself Re: "DROP: As in, 'dead politically,' " Wednesday: While I agree with Monica Yant Kinney's stance on this issue, I wonder how she came up with the conclusion that the Sixth Councilmanic District was "distressed. " I am sure that where Kinney lives, there are rainbows and white picket fences, and the birds are chirping right outside of her window. But I would be more than happy to give her a tour of the Sixth District, including the new Devon Theater, the John Perzel Community Center, and Lexington and Winchester parks.

Susan Q. Stranahan was on the Inquirer staff from 1972 until 2000 When Ed Guthman invited me to leave my reporting job at The Inquirer and join the Editorial Board in 1980, I turned him down flat. Until everybody told me I was nuts. Sheepishly, I returned to his office and told him I had reconsidered. "Great," he said, "that's a good quality in an editorial writer. You'll figure out the rest. " Ed wasn't your typical denizen of that ivory tower of journalism. Given his druthers, he loved being out on the street, talking to people, digging for information.

Barbara Wiler, 40, came from nearby Daretown, with 4-year-old son Mark in tow, promising him a new Godzilla set if he behaved. Willard Burton, 62, came from Bridgeton bringing promises to start a petition drive. And Freida Berryhill, 75, came from her home across the river in Wilmington, vowing to end all her investments in utility companies. The three were among an audience of 50 who turned out yesterday for a three-hour Q&A session conducted by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC)