Deteriorating Nuclear Plants -Crying Wolf or Gambling
Deteriorating Nuclear Plants -Crying Wolf or Gambling
Recognizing Ontario's Bruce nuclear plant similarity in size and vintage to the Fukushima one, we must weigh potential impacts of damages of a volume of Fukushima-type radioactive leakage into the Pacific Ocean compared to a similar volume of radioactive contaminants spilling into the much smaller Great Lakes (Canada/US) fresh water system.
If you are one of the captive Canadian and American millions breathing air, drinking water and snoozing down stream or down wind of "The Bruce Colossus" read on -and spread the alarm in a time of stubborn inaction.
"Nuclear reactors need to be located near a massive body of coolant water, but away from dense population zones and natural disaster zones. Every nuclear power station needs to be decommissioned after 40-60 years of operation due to neutron embrittlement - cracks that develop on the metal surfaces due to radiation. Currently, it takes 6-12 years to build a nuclear station, and up to 20 years to decommission one..." https://phys.org/news/2011-05-nuclear-power-world-energy.html
In the last fifty years the number of disasters at atomic power plants and waste storage areas are miniscule. But, the sheer magnitude of either one of a Chernobyl or Fukushima type disaster exceeds all the economic and environmental damage ever done by all other types of polluting power plants combined.
Yet, atomic plant operators, apologists and lobbyists champion operating extension of Candu reactors built in the 1970s and 1980s, with design lifetimes of 30 to 50 years.
Regulators are likely to approve extensions of these over-age reactors -even as harmless LENR industrial heating systems enter world markets. Indeed, if there is no public outcry, regulators will continue to accommodate the industry's wishes for plant refurbishment, -and burial of radioactive waste (deep in fragmented limestone) near Lake Huron's shore.
"Even with robotic assist in monitoring safety of old nuclear plants, millions of people living immediately down-wind and down-stream of old Candu time-bombs await waste cities and farmlands in the Lower Great Lakes region. France, at least, issues iodine pills to populations around its nuclear plants, while Canada, US and UK leave citizens at risk. https://www.thelocal.fr/20190918/france-to-give-millions-of-people-iodine-pills-in-case-of-nuclear-accident
The WW2 fission process made effective atomic bombs, but its energy applications are flawed due to accidents, waste disposal, deterioration and decommissioning problems. Big Nuclear does not want to hear the truth about their “so-called” clean energy, or the emerging (radioactive free) LENR alternative. None-the-less, it seems to be successful in keeping government support flowing its way.
From a Londont blog post of July 2015: An Important Question:
Is a mid-continent earthquake of a 7.0 magnitude in 1811-12 likely to occur before we can decommission existing nuclear plants and safely dispose of all radioactive debris and stores of spent-fuel before a similar earthquake runs up the Mississippi Valley and under Lake Huron towards the proposed Kincardine limestone vault for nuclear waste?
A US Geological Report of 1974 attempted to answer such a question:
"The felt areas of the three largest earthquakes were extremely large. They extended south to the gulf coast, southeast to the Atlantic coast, and northeast to Quebec, Canada."“It is easier to speculate on the effects that an earthquake the size of the 1811-12 series would have if it were to occur today than it is to predict when it will happen. In the epicentral area, a repeat of the kind of surficial damage experienced in 1811-12 can be expected... However, this would result in a much greater loss of life and property today because of the much larger number of people and man-made structures in the region than were there 162 years ago... The emotional and psychological effects of a large earthquake in the central part of the country would probably also be considerable, particularly if the earthquake had a long aftershock pattern as the 1811-12 sequence did.
Perhaps the greatest danger of all arises from the sense of complacency, or perhaps total ignorance, about the potential threat of a large earthquake. The frequency of occurrence of earthquakes the size of those that took place in 1811-12 is very low; however, continuing minor to moderate seismic activity in the central Mississippi Valley area is an indication that a large magnitude tremor can someday be expected there again.”
The above excerpts are from the concluding paragraphs of the usgs report; for the full report go to:
http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/states/events/1811_overview.phphttp:hp
Those daring to predict the impacts of energy technology might familiarize themselves with the current status of LENR engineering and the dangers of nuclear plants and oil/gas pipelines near seismic rifts.
A majority of the 400-odd nuclear reactors around the world have either met or are about to meet decommissioning dates mainly because of a type of concrete decay called alkali-silica reaction plus neutron embrittlement -cracks that develop on metal surfaces.https://inis.iaea.org/search/search.aspx?orig_q=RN:47070670 and https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/7857856
State-side, some operators are shutting down vintage atomic plants because they cannot compete on cost with natural gas, let alone, LENR. Before proceeding further, readers' attention is drawn to a March 2019 press release by the Ontario Chamber of Commerce:
https://occ.ca/mediareleases/bruce-power-major-component-replacement-project-supports-ontario-jobs-low-cost-power-economy-and-environment/
"March 25, 2019) – Today, the Ontario Chamber of Commerce (OCC) released a report commissioned by Bruce Power outlining an impartial economic impact assessment of the Major Component Replacement (MCR) Project undertaken as part of Bruce Power’s Life-Extension Program."
https://occ.ca/mediareleases/transparency-and-affordability-for-ontarios-energy-system-critical-to-a-stronger-ontario/
Excerpt: “As Ontario’s energy demand grows, nuclear truly is the best option to meet those demands with reduced GHG emissions. The Bruce Power Major Component Replacement Project will not only drive economic growth in the region, it will position Ontario as a global leader in nuclear innovation and expertise.”
With it's electricity pricing scheme, the Ontario government of 2017 may have put the brakes on LENR in throwing an expensive taxpayer lifeline to a flawed nuclear industry by locking in ever-increasing costs of nuclear refurbishments for 30 years -even as cheap and distributed LENR was being engineered.
Regardless of negative safety and trade impacts, the government's 2017 document shows the average household monthly electricity bill in Ontario rising from $123 in 2017 to $195 in 2027, then $222 in 2037 and $231 in 2047 ...as other nations move to phase-out coal, oil and nuclear.
See: http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/ontario-hydro-bills-projections-cabinet-document-1.4110539
The reality is: After permanent evacuations of Chernobyl and Fukushima cities, the public will never accept industry's argument that refurbished nuclear reactors will be fail-safe. Hence, the new Premier and his Ministers have an ethical responsibility to reverse the course taken in 2017. They have to Do the Right Think on probabilities of domino effect of melt-downs in multi-reactor nuclear plants.
Accountable politicians realize local jobs in nuclear plant refurbishment should be sacrificed for safety of a densely populated International Great Lakes Region. Keeping silent is no excuse, given the evidence of major nuclear accidents in Japan and the Ukraine plus disastrous earthquakes and mounting sabotage threats around the world. And, let's not forget belated UN concern over a likely leak in the "radioactive coffin" on Enewtak Atoll in the South Pacific Marshall Islands.
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2019/05/chief-guterres-concerned-nuclear-coffin-leaking-pacific-190516073758642.html
South of Ontario, the means of snuffing the smoldering threat of radioactive contamination is possible in a proposed US Green Deal. In the face of ever-increasing nuclear expense and colliding human, environmental and energy crises, gung-ho applause by an Ontario business association is, to put it mildly, dismaying.
PS #1
Here is a link to a short backgrounder on the Bruce Colossus.
http://www.lfpress.com/2017/05/24/the-mighty-bruce-energy-colossus
and a summary of LENR progress in 2019.
https://neuenergy.blogspot.com/2019/03/paradigm-shift-in-industrial-energy.html
PS #2
Sobering 2019 Update on Fukushima Disaster
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O4MID3am_qI
PS #3
An article by Harvard's Dr. Glaeser on the fate of Buffalo, NY, highlights the genius of democracy. Business leaders and voters are ultimately to blame for procrastination leading to regional economic decay and population decline. Apathy is complicity.
If this resonates, then join in pushing some editorial and political buttons on an avoidable nuclear gamble.
Update #1
https://lfpress.com/news/local-news/bruce-power-regulator-defend-environmental-work-faulted-by-legal-group
"On the threshold of a $13-billion rebuild of nuclear reactors -the largest infrastructure project in Canada at the world's largest nuclear facility- the Canadian Environmental Law Association (CELA) is charging that the best quality environmental assessments have not been done for some of that work, as well as for work already underway."
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Recognizing Ontario's Bruce nuclear plant similarity in size and vintage to the Fukushima one, we must weigh potential impacts of damages of a volume of Fukushima-type radioactive leakage into the Pacific Ocean compared to a similar volume of radioactive contaminants spilling into the much smaller Great Lakes (Canada/US) fresh water system.
If you are one of the captive Canadian and American millions breathing air, drinking water and snoozing down stream or down wind of "The Bruce Colossus" read on -and spread the alarm in a time of stubborn inaction.
"Nuclear reactors need to be located near a massive body of coolant water, but away from dense population zones and natural disaster zones. Every nuclear power station needs to be decommissioned after 40-60 years of operation due to neutron embrittlement - cracks that develop on the metal surfaces due to radiation. Currently, it takes 6-12 years to build a nuclear station, and up to 20 years to decommission one..." https://phys.org/news/2011-05-nuclear-power-world-energy.html
In the last fifty years the number of disasters at atomic power plants and waste storage areas are miniscule. But, the sheer magnitude of either one of a Chernobyl or Fukushima type disaster exceeds all the economic and environmental damage ever done by all other types of polluting power plants combined.
Yet, atomic plant operators, apologists and lobbyists champion operating extension of Candu reactors built in the 1970s and 1980s, with design lifetimes of 30 to 50 years.
Regulators are likely to approve extensions of these over-age reactors -even as harmless LENR industrial heating systems enter world markets. Indeed, if there is no public outcry, regulators will continue to accommodate the industry's wishes for plant refurbishment, -and burial of radioactive waste (deep in fragmented limestone) near Lake Huron's shore.
"Even with robotic assist in monitoring safety of old nuclear plants, millions of people living immediately down-wind and down-stream of old Candu time-bombs await waste cities and farmlands in the Lower Great Lakes region. France, at least, issues iodine pills to populations around its nuclear plants, while Canada, US and UK leave citizens at risk. https://www.thelocal.fr/20190918/france-to-give-millions-of-people-iodine-pills-in-case-of-nuclear-accident
The WW2 fission process made effective atomic bombs, but its energy applications are flawed due to accidents, waste disposal, deterioration and decommissioning problems. Big Nuclear does not want to hear the truth about their “so-called” clean energy, or the emerging (radioactive free) LENR alternative. None-the-less, it seems to be successful in keeping government support flowing its way.
From a Londont blog post of July 2015: An Important Question:
Is a mid-continent earthquake of a 7.0 magnitude in 1811-12 likely to occur before we can decommission existing nuclear plants and safely dispose of all radioactive debris and stores of spent-fuel before a similar earthquake runs up the Mississippi Valley and under Lake Huron towards the proposed Kincardine limestone vault for nuclear waste?
A US Geological Report of 1974 attempted to answer such a question:
"The felt areas of the three largest earthquakes were extremely large. They extended south to the gulf coast, southeast to the Atlantic coast, and northeast to Quebec, Canada."“It is easier to speculate on the effects that an earthquake the size of the 1811-12 series would have if it were to occur today than it is to predict when it will happen. In the epicentral area, a repeat of the kind of surficial damage experienced in 1811-12 can be expected... However, this would result in a much greater loss of life and property today because of the much larger number of people and man-made structures in the region than were there 162 years ago... The emotional and psychological effects of a large earthquake in the central part of the country would probably also be considerable, particularly if the earthquake had a long aftershock pattern as the 1811-12 sequence did.
Perhaps the greatest danger of all arises from the sense of complacency, or perhaps total ignorance, about the potential threat of a large earthquake. The frequency of occurrence of earthquakes the size of those that took place in 1811-12 is very low; however, continuing minor to moderate seismic activity in the central Mississippi Valley area is an indication that a large magnitude tremor can someday be expected there again.”
The above excerpts are from the concluding paragraphs of the usgs report; for the full report go to:
http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/states/events/1811_overview.phphttp:hp
Those daring to predict the impacts of energy technology might familiarize themselves with the current status of LENR engineering and the dangers of nuclear plants and oil/gas pipelines near seismic rifts.
A majority of the 400-odd nuclear reactors around the world have either met or are about to meet decommissioning dates mainly because of a type of concrete decay called alkali-silica reaction plus neutron embrittlement -cracks that develop on metal surfaces.https://inis.iaea.org/search/search.aspx?orig_q=RN:47070670 and https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/7857856
State-side, some operators are shutting down vintage atomic plants because they cannot compete on cost with natural gas, let alone, LENR. Before proceeding further, readers' attention is drawn to a March 2019 press release by the Ontario Chamber of Commerce:
https://occ.ca/mediareleases/bruce-power-major-component-replacement-project-supports-ontario-jobs-low-cost-power-economy-and-environment/
"March 25, 2019) – Today, the Ontario Chamber of Commerce (OCC) released a report commissioned by Bruce Power outlining an impartial economic impact assessment of the Major Component Replacement (MCR) Project undertaken as part of Bruce Power’s Life-Extension Program."
https://occ.ca/mediareleases/transparency-and-affordability-for-ontarios-energy-system-critical-to-a-stronger-ontario/
Excerpt: “As Ontario’s energy demand grows, nuclear truly is the best option to meet those demands with reduced GHG emissions. The Bruce Power Major Component Replacement Project will not only drive economic growth in the region, it will position Ontario as a global leader in nuclear innovation and expertise.”
With it's electricity pricing scheme, the Ontario government of 2017 may have put the brakes on LENR in throwing an expensive taxpayer lifeline to a flawed nuclear industry by locking in ever-increasing costs of nuclear refurbishments for 30 years -even as cheap and distributed LENR was being engineered.
Regardless of negative safety and trade impacts, the government's 2017 document shows the average household monthly electricity bill in Ontario rising from $123 in 2017 to $195 in 2027, then $222 in 2037 and $231 in 2047 ...as other nations move to phase-out coal, oil and nuclear.
See: http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/ontario-hydro-bills-projections-cabinet-document-1.4110539
The reality is: After permanent evacuations of Chernobyl and Fukushima cities, the public will never accept industry's argument that refurbished nuclear reactors will be fail-safe. Hence, the new Premier and his Ministers have an ethical responsibility to reverse the course taken in 2017. They have to Do the Right Think on probabilities of domino effect of melt-downs in multi-reactor nuclear plants.
Accountable politicians realize local jobs in nuclear plant refurbishment should be sacrificed for safety of a densely populated International Great Lakes Region. Keeping silent is no excuse, given the evidence of major nuclear accidents in Japan and the Ukraine plus disastrous earthquakes and mounting sabotage threats around the world. And, let's not forget belated UN concern over a likely leak in the "radioactive coffin" on Enewtak Atoll in the South Pacific Marshall Islands.
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2019/05/chief-guterres-concerned-nuclear-coffin-leaking-pacific-190516073758642.html
South of Ontario, the means of snuffing the smoldering threat of radioactive contamination is possible in a proposed US Green Deal. In the face of ever-increasing nuclear expense and colliding human, environmental and energy crises, gung-ho applause by an Ontario business association is, to put it mildly, dismaying.
PS #1
Here is a link to a short backgrounder on the Bruce Colossus.
http://www.lfpress.com/2017/05/24/the-mighty-bruce-energy-colossus
and a summary of LENR progress in 2019.
https://neuenergy.blogspot.com/2019/03/paradigm-shift-in-industrial-energy.html
PS #2
Sobering 2019 Update on Fukushima Disaster
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O4MID3am_qI
PS #3
An article by Harvard's Dr. Glaeser on the fate of Buffalo, NY, highlights the genius of democracy. Business leaders and voters are ultimately to blame for procrastination leading to regional economic decay and population decline. Apathy is complicity.
If this resonates, then join in pushing some editorial and political buttons on an avoidable nuclear gamble.
Update #1
https://lfpress.com/news/local-news/bruce-power-regulator-defend-environmental-work-faulted-by-legal-group
"On the threshold of a $13-billion rebuild of nuclear reactors -the largest infrastructure project in Canada at the world's largest nuclear facility- the Canadian Environmental Law Association (CELA) is charging that the best quality environmental assessments have not been done for some of that work, as well as for work already underway."
---------------------------------------------------------0------------------------------------------------------------
Nuclear authorities must approach issues of saboteurs, structural defects and quality of environmental assessments with overkill, redundancy, and enforcement of controls -especially where there is evidence of short cuts on matters of potential catastrophic radioactive releases into air, land and fresh water systems.
Update #2 Most serious release of radioactive material since Fukushima reported by Vienna's University of Technology. https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2019/07/190729151844.htm and
https://www.businessinsider.com/russian-missile-disaster-shows-signs-nuke-reactor-blew-up-experts-2019-8
US experts suspect the failed August Russian weapons test involved the 9M730 nuclear cruise missile, a superweapon NATO calls the SSC-X-9 Skyfall..
||Update #2 Most serious release of radioactive material since Fukushima reported by Vienna's University of Technology. https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2019/07/190729151844.htm and
https://www.businessinsider.com/russian-missile-disaster-shows-signs-nuke-reactor-blew-up-experts-2019-8
US experts suspect the failed August Russian weapons test involved the 9M730 nuclear cruise missile, a superweapon NATO calls the SSC-X-9 Skyfall..
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When Nucular power supply's 60% of Ontario's consumption how do we quickly and cost effectively shift this demand ? Do we need to invest Billions of dollars on multiple mega dam here in Ontario ? keeping our budget and environment in mind.
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