Japan Declares Fukushima STABLE!

16 December 2011 "Japan has declared that its tsunami-stricken Fukushima nuclear power plant has reached cold shutdown condition, passing a key milestone in efforts to bring under control the world's worst nuclear accident since Chernobyl 25 years ago. "The reactors have reached a state of cold shutdown condition," Yoshihiko Noda, Japan's prime minister, said at the government's nuclear emergency response meeting on Friday. "Even if unforeseeable incidents happen, the situation is such that radiation levels on the boundary of the plant can now be maintained at a low level," he said. "The government is due to set a clear road map and will do the utmost to decommission the plant," the Japanese PM said. The Fukushima Daiichi plant, 240km northeast of Tokyo, was damaged on March 11 by a devastating earthquake and a 10-metre-high tsunami, which damaged its cooling systems, triggering meltdowns and radiation leaks. Declaring a cold shutdown condition will have repercussions well beyond the plant: it is a government pre-condition before it allows about 80,000 residents evacuated from within a 20km radius of the plant to return home. A cold shutdown condition is when water used to cool nuclear fuel rods remains below its boiling point, preventing the fuel from reheating. One of the chief aims of the plant's operator, Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO), had been to bring the reactors to this stage by the year-end. After months of efforts, the water temperature in all three of the affected reactors fell below boiling point by September, but TEPCO has been cautious of declaring a cold shutdown, saying it had to see if temperatures and the amount of radiation emitted from the plant remained stable. In an interview with Al Jazeera, Imad Khadduri, a nuclear scientist, said: "The Japanese PM’s plans are very formidable and very ambitious and detailed. And one measure of the success of this plan of decontamination can be juxtaposed against the efforts since March when the accident happened. "I am very hopeful that the decontamination will be done in a very meticulous and rigorous manner unlike that of the Chernobyl in Russia nearly 25 years ago," he said. Massive cleanup Khadduri said: "The nuclear power plants, in fact, are large stainless steel eggs under huge pressure, almost 72 times the atmospheric pressure. And by cold shutdown, they mean that the pressure inside the plant has been brought down to the atmospheric level. "In the past more than eight months, they have managed to reduce the temperature of fuel elements to under 95 degrees celsius, which is equal to the atmospheric pressure. "Decommission means: They can remove the top part of the stainless steel egg and take out nuclear fuel elements, store them safely and starting to dissemble the plant and tube them with concrete materials." He further added: "These [highly radioactive nuclear fuels] are stored at radio-established spent fuel storage tanks. These can be stored at nearly 54 other nuclear power stations that have large capacity for spent fuel storage." TEPCO said early in the crisis that it did not plan to entomb the damaged Daiichi reactors in concrete, the option chosen at Ukraine's Chernobyl where reactors caught fire and burned for days. Instead, it favoured the gradual removal of the nuclear fuel for storage elsewhere. The government and TEPCO will aim to begin removing the undamaged nuclear rods from Daiichi's spent fuel pools as early as next year. However, retrieval of fuel that melted down in their reactors may not begin for another decade, with the complete dismantling of the plant expected to take up to 40 years, domestic media reported on Thursday. The enormous cost of the cleanup and compensating the victims of the disaster has drained TEPCO financially. The government may inject about $13bn into the company as early as next summer in a de facto nationalisation, sources told the Reuters news agency last week. Japan also faces a massive cleanup task outside the plant if residents are to be allowed to return home. The environment ministry says about 2,400sq km of land around the plant may need to be decontaminated. The crisis shook the public's faith in nuclear energy and Japan is now reviewing its earlier plan to raise the proportion of electricity generated from nuclear power to 50 per cent by 2030 from 30 per cent in 2010. Living in fear of radiation is part of life for residents both near and far from the plant. Cases of excessive radiation in vegetables, tea, milk, seafood and water have stoked anxiety despite assurances from public officials that the levels detected are not dangerous. Chernobyl's experience shows that anxiety is likely to persist for years to come, with residents living near the former Soviet plant still regularly checking local produce for radiation before consuming them 25 years after the disaster. The announcement may not dramatically improve Noda's support ratings, eroded by his steadfast commitment to a sales tax increase to cope with a public debt burden twice the size of Japan's economy. Noda is also faced with a formidable list of other tasks, such as helping a stagnant economy deal with the yen's rise to historic highs." Taken from http://www.aljazeera.com/news/asia-pacific/2011/12/201112167758128873.html At long last we have waited this moment where Fukushima Daiichi NPP to settle down and be stable.  A joyous news for us!   PS: Okuu-chan is settling down with a cold blanket >XD

Nuclear Battery Technology

                 Many people may think about nuclear power car or plane, but do you ever think about the uclear power laptop, watch or iphone. Well, the nuclear reactor may be fitted in for large application like car(although still not possible nowdays..), how about the small device??

                The answer is the nuclear battery.  Nuclear attery or atomic battery is defined as a device which use the emissions of radioactive isopote to generate electricity. While the nuclear reactor require the chain reaction to produce the energy, the nuclear battery works diffently. Conversion techniques can be grouped into two types: thermal and non-thermal. The thermal converters (whose output power is a function of a temperature differential) include thermoelectric and thermionic generators. The non-thermal converters (whose output power is not a function of a temperature difference) extract a fraction of the incident energy as it is being degraded into heat rather than using thermal energy to run electrons in a cycle.

 

Researchers create penny-sized nuclear battery.

                This technology have began in early 1913, when Henry Mosely firsr demonstrated the beta cell.  The field received considerable in-depth research attention for applications requiring long-life power sources for space needs during the 50s and 60s. Over the years many types and methods have been developed. The batery is costlly compare to other battery, thus they are mainly used as power sources for equipment that must operate unattended for long periods of time, such as spacecraft and automated scientific stations.

                The latest news about this nuclear battery are they are been used to power-up the NASA new rover thet will been send to the Mars.

            “The rover isn’t powered by a nuclear reactor but the insulated Pu-238 generates so much heat that it actually glows a dull red in the dark. This excess warmth will be put to good use, generating approximately 110 watts of electricity through thermoelectric lead tellurite –- a material that creates electricity when there is a temperature gradient. This power can keep the rover chugging along for years if needed, though MSL’s current mission is only scheduled to last 23 months.”  - http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/11/nuclear-mars-rover/

 

NASA new rover

                While most people hear the word 'nuclear' and think of something very dangerous,but it already prove itself that nuclear power sources have already been safely powering a variety of devices, such as pacemakers, space satellites and underwater systems.

[Video] Three Mile Island, 32 Years Later

32 years later after the incident three mile island.  Three Mile Island, the first nuclear incident in the world, before the most famous Chernobyl.  So dig in!

 

 PS: Okuu-chan almost undergoes meltdown but saved by Rin, her friend, "You're a nuclear core not a heater!"  Now Okuu understands.

[Video] Fukushima Nuclear Crisis, Six Month Later

There's no need to explain, just watch the video.

PS: Regarding TEPCO, I found a gag on the internet (as usual >XD) Okuu-chan apologise and Kappa can just pity at her >XP

Sunflowers battle radiation in Fukushima, Japan

30 August 2011

"Fifty kilometres away from the plant site the Buddhist Joenji temple. There, chief monk Koyu Abe and a team of 100 volunteers began growing and distributing sunflowers, hoping to both lift spirits and lighten the radiation's impact.

"We plant sunflowers, field mustard, amaranthus and cockscomb, which are all believed to absorb radiation," said the monk. "So far we have grown at least 200,000 flowers (at this temple) and distributed many more seeds. At least 8 million sunflowers blooming in Fukushima originated from here."

Scientists are currently testing the effectiveness of sunflowers used to battle radiation.

One local villager with a home near a radioactive hot spot found that sunflowers helped reduce radiation to exceed government safety levels, MSNBC reports.

Fukushima City's Water Bureau has launched its own sunflower-planting project, hoping to decontaminate the soil in a popular park once home to annual cherry blossom banquets.

In another experimental initiative, a space agriculture professor at Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency has planted sunflower seeds in three plots of farmland in the region.

Sunflowers were grown near Chernobyl after the 1986 nuclear disaster. The Wall Street Journal says that researchers discovered that he flowers "absorbed radioactive cesium and strontium from their roots.""

Quoted from http://ca.news.yahoo.com/blogs/good-news/sunflowers-battle-radiation-fukushima-japan-162924686.html

Looking at the picture above (the picture does not have anything to do with the news), its a preview to us on how future nuclear power plant would look like if the sunflowers are proven to absorb the radiation. Let us pray it does since relating sunflowers and nuclear, it would change people opinion with nuclear power. Since flower are symbols of anything related to peace, calm and beautiful. Thus, people will view nuclear power as a safe and beautiful source of electricity ^^.

PS: Okuu thinks the idea is great and she likes the idea >XD

Fukushima water leak plugged

Japanese nuclear regulators have ordered Tepco to investigate the cause of a leak from a plant used to treat contaminated water at the damaged Fukushima Daiichi plant.

Puddles of leaked water around evaporative condensation apparatus at Fukushima (Image: Tepco)

A puddle of around 45 cubic metres of water was discovered inside a containment barrier around the evaporative condensation apparatus on 4 December. The apparatus is used to desalinate concentrated salt water produced during the treatment of radioactively contaminated water. Treated water is then re-used for cooling the stricken reactors at the site.

Subsequent investigations revealed a crack in the concrete barrier through which water was leaking into a gutter. Radiation dose rates at the surface of the water were measured at some 112 millisieverts per hour indicting some level of treatment but of course not full decontamination. The leak was stopped with sandbags, and the water that had accumulated inside the barrier was transferred by pump to a waste liquid storage tank.

The gutter into which the water had leaked is connected to the power station's central drainage channel. Plant owner Tokyo Electric Power Company (Tepco) reports that water samples taken from the water channel near the desalination apparatus and also at the seaward end of the drain returned radionuclide analyses that were similar to "or slightly higher" than previous readings, although samples taken the following day showed levels no different to those recorded before the leak.

Japan's Nuclear Industrial Safety Agency has instructed Tepco to investigate the cause of the leak and to take steps to prevent any similar incidents in future. Since there was a leak through the concrete barrier, the regulator has also instructed the company to immediately confirm the soundness of other barrages and strengthen them if necessary, as well as confirming the range and amount of the leakage, whether or not there was any discharge to the ocean, and evaluating the impact of any radioactive materials on the surrounding area.
  by World Nuclear News (05 December 2011)

Malaysia Aims to Build Two Nuclear Power Plants

Kuala Lumpur (AFP- Agence France-Presse ) Dec 19, 2010


Malaysia is looking to build two 1,000 megawatt nuclear power plants by 2022 to counter an "imbalance" in its energy supplies, the energy minister said Sunday.


Peter Chin's comments to state media follow his announcement in May that the cabinet had approved in principle the construction of the country's first ever nuclear power plant by 2021.

"Hopefully, by 2013 or 2014, we will able to finish evaluating (the requirements for the nuclear power plants)," Chin told the Bernama news agency.

Chin said the country was heavily reliant on fossil fuels for its electricity supply, with gas accounting for 64 percent of Malaysia's total energy generation and the rest coming from coal.

"We must get away from this. (It is) very much (an) imbalance. Most countries have a good balance," he added.

The nuclear plan has been attacked by environmental activists who say the government has not thoroughly considered other forms of energy generation such as solar, hydroelectric and wind power.
But Chin said the potential for renewable sources was limited.

"Yes, very good, everyone wants to say that we want renewables, but what about cost? Can we force the people to accept high tariffs?" he said.

"We want hydropower to assume a prominent role as it is clean, but this can only be achieved in Sabah and Sarawak (on Borneo island) where there is much potential -- but not in peninsular Malaysia."

State energy firm Tenaga has said it could construct the first nuclear power plant at a cost of 3.1 billion dollars.