{"id":69082,"date":"2016-01-25T12:00:44","date_gmt":"2016-01-25T12:00:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=69082"},"modified":"2016-01-23T12:25:06","modified_gmt":"2016-01-23T12:25:06","slug":"the-us-tiger-and-the-north-korean-mouse","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2016\/01\/the-us-tiger-and-the-north-korean-mouse\/","title":{"rendered":"The US Tiger and the North Korean Mouse"},"content":{"rendered":"

Meanwhile, down at the Nuclear Power Plant, Something\u2019s Going Wrong<\/em><\/p>\n

Weakening radiation standards, a cap on accident liability, reactor propaganda vs improvements, old units running past expiration dates, revving the engines beyond design specs \u2026. You\u2019d think we were itching for a meltdown.<\/p>\n

The Environmental Protection Agency has recommended<\/a> increased radiation exposure limits following major releases. It would save the industry a bundle to permit large human exposures, rather than shut down rickety reactors.<\/p>\n

The EPA proposal is a knock-off prompted by Fukushima, because after the triple meltdown started three years ago, Japan increased — by 20 times — the allowable radiation exposures deemed tolerable for humans. Prior to the meltdowns of March 2011, Japan allowed one milliSievert of radiation per year in an individual\u2019s personal space. Now, the limit is 20 milliSieverts per year. This is not safe, it\u2019s just allowable, or, rather, affordable, since the cost of decontaminating 1,000 square miles of Japan to the stricter standard could bust the bank.<\/p>\n

The Price Anderson Act provides US reactor owners with a liability cap and a tax-payer bailout in the event of serious radiation releases. The law relieves utilities of hundreds of $billions in financial risk posed by our ongoing meltdown roulette game. The owners won\u2019t be bankrupted by the next loss-of-coolant disaster, but the US might.<\/p>\n

Fukushima has spewed more long-lived radioactive chemicals to the air, the soil and the ocean than any catastrophe in history. But the corporate\/government chant heard round the world is: \u201cThe dose is low, there\u2019s no immediate danger.\u201d Promoters of nuclear power repeat this mantra at every opportunity, hoping to dodge Germany\u2019s answer to Fukushima — a permanent reactor phase-out — and it has nearly drowned out all warnings of radiation\u2019s health and environmental effects.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Physicians for Social Responsibility produced a report \u201cHealth risks of the releases of radioactivity from the Fukushima reactors: Are they a concern for residents of the US?\u201d International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War issued in June 2014, \u201cCritical Analysis of the UNSCEAR [United Nations Scientific Committee on the Effects of Atomic Radiation] Report.\u201d Also, there is the Nov. 2012 \u201cReport of the UN Special Rapporteur on the right to health within the context of the nuclear accident at Fukushima,\u201d and Greenpeace\u2019s two major reports, \u201cLessons from Fukushima,\u201d and \u201cFukushima Fallout,\u201d The feds would rather you read the UN Scientific Committee\u2019s exec. summary which claims Fukushima\u2019s effects are \u201cunlikely to be observable.\u201d This conclusion was made before any research was done.<\/em><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

The chances of radiation disasters will increase further if the Nuclear Regulatory Commission allows US reactors to run for 80 years. This is what Duke Power, Dominion Power and Exelon suggest for seven of their 40-year-old rattle traps now operating in Pennsylvania, Virginia and South Carolina.<\/p>\n

These seven reactors were designed and licensed to be shut down in the current decade. However, since 1991 the nuclear industry has been granted 70 \u201clicense extensions\u201d that have generally added 20 years. Now the owners want to push their units an extra 40 years (or until the American Fukushima, whichever comes first).<\/p>\n

Former NRC Commissioner George Apostolakis wasn\u2019t apoplectic when the commission considered the idea, but, according to the New York Times, he said<\/a>, \u201cI don\u2019t know how we would explain to the public that these designs, 90-year-old designs, 100-year-old designs, are still safe to operate.\u201d The NRC has yet to rule on the 80-year option, but it\u2019s never denied a single license extension request.<\/p>\n

Gunning old Fukushima-type engines<\/strong><\/p>\n

Captured by the industry it\u2019s supposed to govern, the NRC has approved 149 reactor \u201cpower uprate\u201d applications and has denied exactly one. Power uprates boost the output of old reactors beyond what their original licenses permit. It\u2019s done by packing reactor cores with extra fuel rods and, feeling lucky, running them harder.<\/p>\n

Chillingly, 23 operating US reactors are duplicates of the Fukushima-type General Electric Mark 1. Fifteen of these clunkers have been granted power uprates, and seven of these 15 have been granted a second power uprate<\/em>. Susquehanna\u2019s two 31-year-old Fukushima clones in Pennsylvania were granted a hair-raising three<\/em> power uprates.<\/p>\n

With the radiation industry and the NRC working to deny or delay post-Fukushima safety improvements<\/a>, how do you feel<\/a> about reactor operators stomping the accelerator while they run their geriatric uranium jalopies toward the cliff?<\/p>\n

\"Nuclear<\/a>

Nuclear Blast<\/p><\/div>\n

________________________________________<\/p>\n

John LaForge is a Co-director of Nukewatch, a nuclear watchdog and environmental justice group in Wisconsin, edits its quarterly newsletter, and writes for <\/em>PeaceVoice<\/em><\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Environmental Protection Agency has recommended increased radiation exposure limits. It would save the industry a bundle to permit large human exposures, rather than shut down rickety reactors. The EPA proposal is a knock-off prompted by Fukushima, because after the triple meltdown Japan increased — by 20 times — the allowable radiation exposures deemed tolerable for humans.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[68],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-69082","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-weapons-of-mass-destruction"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69082","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=69082"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69082\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=69082"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=69082"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=69082"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}