SOLARWINDPRONET

SOLARWINDPRONET

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Teacher, activist, interested in energy technology, climate change, environmental issues and global security.

Tuesday, December 18, 2012

Onkalo In Trouble - Copper Capsules Thousands of Times More Sensitive To Corrosion Than Predicted

Copper canisters planned to be used by Posiva and SKB for depositing spent fuel of nuclear reactors are thousands of times more corrosion sensitive than nuclear industry claims (Photo: Jukka Seppälä/Creator's Fingerprints)


Swedish corrosion researchers at KTH in Stocholm have found out that the thick copper canisters that are planned to be used for safely burying spent nuclear fuel of Finland and Sweden deep in the bedrock are not as corrosion safe as the companies planning the nuclear waste caves claim. According to recent Swedish studies the capsules can corrode thousands of times faster in anoxic water than the nuclear industry predicts on their own studies. Recently, after having checked out the swedish studies, STUK (Finnish nuclear safety official) has asked Posiva for further explanation. The Swedish research group led by Peter Szakálos found that copper capsules would last only about 1000 years instead of 100 000 years calculated by Posiva and Swedish nuclear waste depositing company  SKB.

LINKS (Finnish) - YLE:

http://yle.fi/uutiset/ydinjatteen_loppusijoitus_ajautumassa_vaikeuksiin/6421859

http://areena.yle.fi/tv/1740835

LINK - COPPER CANISTER CORROSION STUDY - STRALSAKERHETSMYNDIGHETEN:
http://www.stralsakerhetsmyndigheten.se/Global/Publikationer/Rapport/Technical%20Note/2012/SSM-Rapport-2012-17.pdf

There are also open questions about bentonite - the clay layer around the copper cylinders - how it reacts with ground water or if it gets frozen during the next ice ages. STUK is ivestigating the possible weaknesses of this nuclear waste depositing process before giving their final green light for the project.

100 000 years is a long time. I agree with nuclear engineer Arnie Gundersen: it would be easier for the engineers to solve the problem how to store solar or wind energy over one night than to try to work out how to store highly radioactive waste for hundreds of thousands of years.


JPS

Thursday, December 13, 2012

Olkiluoto-3 EPR to Cost at Least 8.5 Billion Euros

Olkiluoto-3 EPR in Finland will cost at least 8,5 Billion Euros. It will never be profitable. (Photo: Jukka Seppälä/Creator's Fingerprints)



Today the price of Finnish TVO Olkiluoto-3 EPR nuclear reactor project was updated to 8.5 Billion Euros, at the same level as its sister reactor under construction in Flamanville, France.

Just recently the Italian Company ENEL was withdrawing from the French EPR -project because of extremely high costs, constantly rising. This last update rose the costs of a single EPR reactor with 2 Billion Euros, which is more than a half of the projects original price estimate of 3 Billion Euros. So the reactor is now estimated to cost roughly 3 times the original price-estimate.

But does the rising of the costs finish here. Personally I believe that this reactor type will cost at least 10 Billion Euros to be ready to generate energy. If the trend of rising costs continues and the costs that follow from European stress tests for nuclear reactors will be fully recognized 10 Billion may not be  an overestimate. The complicated new tecnologies that are to be developed during the construction of the reactor and updated according to new data of safety issues will be really demanding economically.

But even if we take this 8.5 Billion Euros as a realistic price and add fuel and maintenance costs, decommisioning the reactors (300 million to 3.7 Billion Euros depending who is making the calculations) and hundreds of millions of Euros to safely (?) bury the nuclear waste and spent fuel, we'll end up in a sum huge enough to make some comparison with renewables.

The electric power generating capacity of Olkiluoto-3 (and Flamainville reactor) would be 1600 MW, so it would be the most powerful (experimental) nuclear reactor in the world. If we take large 4,5 MW Wind generators, we need 356 of them to generate the same amount of power on windy days at optimal locations. But if we think more realistically we would need 1068 - so three times that much - these windmills to generate the same amount of power yearly.

Now we could make some calculations. If we take 1068 of these mills and start producing energy with them, we have the ability to ask, which is more economical and safe as investment? Those mills would be at the present price-level about 5 Million Euros per unit, so the total price would be about 5.34 Billion Euros for total capacity of 4806 MW which is equivalent to a single 1600MW nuclear power plant that costs now at least 8,5 Billion Euros.

Or then we could read some Finnish studies about the subject to make our own conclusions.
In 2009 there was made a cost comparison between different energy generation methods. The study found nuclear power to be the cheapest alternative. But when you read the study more carefully and the statistics of power generating costs, you'll end up to a conclusion that Olkiluoto-3  and Flamainville EPR-reactors will be economically catastrophal for their owners (and in the end for the tax-payers).

The study made in Lappeenranta Technical University by Essi Ahonen 2009 showed the lowest power price for a new nuclear power plant of 1500 MW and 4.1 Billion Euros to pay back the investment during its 40 years economical plant life to be 35 Euros / MW. The recent estimates of power price on nordic markets tell the price to sink to 34 Euros / MWh next year and even to 25 Euros / MWh year 2018. And there is a 50% chance that power price would be about 20 Euros / MWh during the last quartal of 2013 if Olkiluoto-3 starts production. Last year the average price for selling power was 46,1 Euros / MW.

The cause of decreasing trend of power prices in Nordic countries seems to be miscalculations of available generating capacity and use of electricity because of dry and cold years 2010 - 2011. The long lasting trend of sinking power prices was forgotten for a while. And now building of large scale wind power capacity as well as huge NPPs like Olkiluoto-3 are creating over capacity which is pushing the prices down. Also decreasing energy consumption due to change in our basic industrial structure is causing power price to go down.

So you don't have to be an economist to see what is happening to companies that build new nuclear power capacity. They will be bankcrupted if they continue with their projects. If a NPP needed 40 years to pay back investments with 35 Euros / MW power price and 4.1 Billion Euros investment, how could a NPP like Olkiluoto-3 or Flamanville do that with 25 Euros / MW power price and 8,5 Billion Investment? According to my mathematics it will be a MISSION IMPOSSIBLE!

It would be cheapest to stop all construction work at Olkiluoto-3 and Flamanville -sites and decommission these projects permanently. Perhaps we could modify these plants to realtively safe spent fuel storage sites while searching for better solutions. If they will continue these NPP-projects they will find out that every single generated MW will be increasing their economical loss. But Finns are famous to have SISU. But in this case I would call it STUPIDITY. Let's hope we have learned something as a nation!

LINKS:

OLKILUOTO-3 PRICE UP (Finnish) - KAUPPALEHTI: http://www.kauppalehti.fi/etusivu/olkiluoto+kolmonen+maksaa+8,5+miljardia/201212321921

LAPPEENRANTA UNIVERSITY STUDY (Finnish) - DORIA: http://www.doria.fi/bitstream/handle/10024/45095/nbnfi-fe200905151457.pdf?sequence=3

POWER PRICES (Finnish) - TALOUSSANOMAT: http://www.taloussanomat.fi/energia/2012/10/02/pankki-sahkon-hinta-ensi-syksyna-vain-puolet-nykyisesta/201239038/12

WIND POWER PRICES IN FINLAND (Finnish) - SIMO: http://www.simo.fi/?g=kuntainfo&pid=730&cg=385


JPS

Tuesday, December 11, 2012

Fukushima Daichi And Daini Having Still Risks of Continuous Radiation Releases

Last weeks 7.4 on Richter scale earthquake (updated from 7.3 to 7.4 afterwards) and a 1 meter tsunami made it clear to everyone that the danger of new wide spreading radioactive releases still exists at Fukushima Daichi and surprisingly also at Fukushima Daini nuclear power plant that is situated a few miles south of F. Daichi.

The earthquake made some kind of nuclear reaction to occur in Fukushima Daichi reactor 1 causing hydrogen levels in torus room and containment vessel to spike up. Nuclear engineers are concerned of situation though hydrogen levels haven't reached explosive mixture yet.

LINK - ENENEWS: http://enenews.com/gundersen-dont-believe-tepco-indications-problem-unit-1-fukushima-daiichi-hydrogen-levels-dramatically-video

But the dark secret of TEPCO remain unsolved: what is the damage for the reactor core for Fukushima Daini reactors or even to Fukushima Daichi reactors 5 and 6 that have not been widely discussed publicly. The pressure of the containment vessel of Daini reactor 1 was increased after the recent earthquake and at least senior nuclear engineer Arnie Gundersen supposes some core damage have occurred in Daini reactor number 1 and perhaps in Daichi reactors 5 and 6 also. He came to this conclusion after having read the data of loss of cooling times after the tsunami had destroyed the possibility to cool down the reactors effectively. Loosing the diesel generators may have caused some core damage to F. Daini reactor 1 and this was perhaps causing the pressure increase also after the last week EQ.

LINK - FAIREWINDS ENERGY EDUCATION-PODCAST: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=ufnRZ6H7A0Y

Geologists have warned of a possible new earthquake of 8 on Richter scale to occur at the same region as last weeks EQ. That kind of quake could trigger a new nuclear disaster if the spent fuel pools couldn't stand the force of it. The fuel could run dry and overheat causing a significant fallout and make controlling of the  reactors very difficult or even impossible. That could mean a world wide fallout much more severe than Chernobyl was.

We can only hope and pray the worst scenarios not to happen. Meanwhile, we could learn something of the mistakes of the past.


LINK - NHK-DOCUMENTARY OF FUKUSHIMA-ACCIDENT:


http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=vpA0TOgB9-o


JPS

Wednesday, November 28, 2012

How to Reduce Warming - Cooling Costs Radically?

I was surprized by a Finnish company importing warming - cooling systems: their new inverter split type room air conditioner is capable of using straight solar PV-energy, then batteries and if that isn't enough, using the grid. The company speaks about 50 euros per year warming/cooling costs in ideal conditions (in Finland!).

And they say that this sum was counted with only one monochrystallite PV solar panel with efficiency of 190W. The unit can be equipped up to three of this kind of PV-panels, so the total maximum solar effect would be 570W.

The maximum input of the air conditioner is 800W for warming and 900W for cooling. The output is 3900W for warming, 3700W for cooling.

And what is the price? The air conditioner slightly less than 1000 euros, PV-panels about 250 euros each, installing service just under 400 euros. If you by all the stuff needed (batteries, 1 PV, installing series etc.) the total price could be somewhere between 2000-2500 euros. You will still need extra heating device for the most coldest days (under -20 degrees centigrade, when the conditioner is not able to produce enough warming for your house and water, of course, must be warmed by other means). But this kind of quite simple energy technology innovation is something that can have a major effect on energy market if it is widely adapted by consumers.

Ten years ago the same company made it possible for the Finns to buy their air conditioners at European prices when they bought the equipment straight from manufacturers and the price niveau of air warming/cooling devices dropped dramatically. Now it remains to be seen if they do the same with solar PV technology. At least their advanced solar panels seem to be the cheapiest I have found in Finnish market.

Here is the link for this new device English Manual: https://emea.salesforce.com/sfc/p/200000006Q3qyNXVtpsvDxXa3TwCXrp9UGC68K4=

(Exceptionally I do not add the link to their Finnish websites here, but if you want to Google-search for this Finnish company it is called Ultimatemarket.) And I don't get any money from them (though I'm using their air-to water warming device as a part of the heating system of my house).

JPS

Friday, November 23, 2012

Michio Kaku: Solar Flares Can Cause Multiple Fukushima-Style Meltdowns and Worldwide Chaos in Near Future

In This 6th of June 2012 Transit of Venus -Picture the Sun is still very silent with no flares but things are rapidly changing when solar maximum begins (Photo: Jukka Seppälä/Creator's Fingerprints)



There was a fresh radio interview of Physisist Michio Kaku, who is widely known of popular science TV-programs and books. In this interview Mr. Kaku tells his concerns about recent growing of solar activity and the worldwide consequences it could have. The possibility of long power blackouts could mean core meltdowns in several nuclear reactors and severe contamination worldwide.

As from the very first page of my SOLARWINDPRONET and SOLARWINDPRONET-SUOMI energy blogs I have been sharing my concern of this same issue (please visit my first blog pages: http://solarwindpronet.blogspot.fi/2011_10_01_archive.html  and  http://solarwindpronet-suomi.blogspot.fi/2011_10_01_archive.html ), Mr. Kaku sees the situation to be quite severe and hopes the governments to invest in securing at least power grids, nuclear power plants and satellites. They had asked the US government to give 200 million dollars to secure these vital infrastructure, but they got zero.

LINK - ENENEWS: http://enenews.com/professor-really-disturbed-solar-flares-week-could-lots-fukushima-type-events-around-one-power-blackout-all-hell-could-break-lose-video

When does the world wake up, when does politicians and citizens start using their brain capacity. I'm afraid we don't have time enough. But we should at least try!

JPS


P.S.

I'm sorry I have been too busy to update my blog for a week now - I have been participating Vaasa Wildlife - Nature Film Festival http://wildlife.vaasa.fi/index.php/en/festival-2012  where my film "The Battle of Our Energy Future" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MPL_q3XOSWA&feature=plcp   was among the finalists. I'll try to update my blogs more frequently in the future.

JPS

Thursday, November 15, 2012

Navajo Indians and Talvivaara

I just read Karl Grossmans excellent piece "Fracking and Radium, the Silvery-White Monster"   http://www.huffingtonpost.com/karl-grossman/fracking-and-radium_b_2096539.html .

There was something that reminded me of our very own  fresh environmental catastrophy in Talvivaara nickel-uranium mine in Northern Finland. It was the indians. Navajo tribe had been used as working labor to dig  uranium from mines in their own homeland. It was uranium for the Manhattan project - the Bomb in 1940ies. Nobody told them about the dangers of radiation. So they begin to get lugn cancers and other cancers in 1960ies. But they didn't get any compensation before1990ies. And the compensation was minimal - if you needed a lugn transplant that costed USD 300 000 so you could get perhaps slightly over USD 100 000 as compensation.

So the ground water got contaminated by uranium as did the rivers. That's exactly the same that happens now here in Finland. A waste water pond having 185 000 kg of uranium and other toxic metals gets empty and the contaminated water runs downriver polluting two routes of rivers and lakes. There was 350 micrograms of uranium in every single liter of water in Lumijoki -river a few days ago. You shouldn't drink that kind of water. You shouldn't go fishing there. You shouldn't have sauna with that water.

I hope that the Sami people, the original inhabitants of Lapland and northern Finland, will be critical  enough to demand not to give licenses to mines like Talvivaara to ruin the beautiful nature and landscape of Northern Finland and their traditional way of life. Uranium should stay deep inside the bedrock. Navajos got really a sad story to tell us. But do we learn?

http://www.culturalsurvival.org/publications/cultural-survival-quarterly/united-states/uranium-mining-navajo-indian-land


JPS

Sunday, November 11, 2012

Talvivaara Waste Water Pond May Become Totally Empty Due to the Leak

According to MTV3 news, the waste water gypsum pond of Talvivaara nickel mine may be totally emty in a few days. The leak continues but the company has built security dams to prevent the highly nickel-, cadmium- and uranium-contaminated water to enter the down stream rivers and lakes.

LINK - STOPTALVIVAARA:




SOLAR-WIND -NEWS BRIEFLY:

Renewables Made Electric Power Too Cheap in Germany - Caused Turbulences on Energy Market

There is still lots to learn in generating power with renewables - sometimes it can be too cheap!
http://www.dw.de/power-exports-peak-despite-nuclear-phase-out/a-16370444

In Finland It Is Still Too Expensive to Have Solar Panels - Because of Lacking Rules to Get Paid For the Extra Power

Finns don't get any money from their own power company for the extra power they give to the grid generated by their own Solar PV -panels.

The Germans Just Compared All the Costs of Power Generation - the Cheapest Was Wind and Solar, the Most Expensive Was - Nuclear Power!
http://www.dw.de/calculating-the-true-cost-of-electricity/a-16235063

Up to 41% Effeciency - New Type of PV -Solar Panels With Light Concentrating Lenses Developed in Germany

With clear skies - as in the Mediterranean area - the new type of PV -solar cells make a difference. New promising technology introduced by a German company.
http://www.dw.de/high-efficiency-solar-cell-grabs-top-prize/a-16276046


JPS

Saturday, November 10, 2012

USA Is Trying to Force Japan Remain Nuclear Because of Strategic Reasons

Why is the USA trying to press the Japanese government to remain nuclear power dependant? And why is president Obama backing new nuclear reactor plans for America?

There is ever growing concern among US politicians and military personnel whether The US-European hegemony in nuclear power (and plutonium) generation will be lost to growing eastern powers like China, India and the old brother Russia.

Well, the point seems to be who's got the biggest bomb in the future. In 1940ies they took satan to the back seat of their jeep when they thought they can control the world's nuclear arms production by keeping the techniques secret and having monopoly on the subject. But Russians did the Bomb, after that did also the Chinese. It was time for 'Atoms For Peace' - now sharing the technology with allies and friendly countries, so that they don't want to do their own independant nuclear research programs (and the Bomb), as for example Sweden did with its up to 100 nuclear warhead-goal -secret program. http://solarwindpronet.blogspot.fi/2012/10/the-secret-swedish-nuclear-arms-program.html 

Now when nuclear power is not economically competative any more with gas and renewables and the obvious risks and dangers have become reality after Harrisburg, Chernobyl and Fukushima, there is a strong trend to abandon nuclear power generation in Europe, Japan and also in the USA. Remarkable is also that China suspended its ambious nuclear program for months and leading Chinese nuclear experts were concerned about the safety of Chinese nuclear plants. There have been also wide demonstrations against Indian nuclear power stations. People begin to be tired of lies of nuclear industrys safety worldwide. At the same time renewable energy offers safe and solid stream of energy and working places for the new industry and the examples of Germany, Denmark and all the other countries that have heavily invested - politically and economically - to renewables shows that they are doing just well. Renewables is the main stream in the future and new technologies are being developed rapidly into commercial phase.

This could be a time for world wide nuclear disarmament: new generation of leaders is taking the responsibility of their nation in China, as did in the USA. In a few years in Russia too. India could follow the example if others would take the first step.

Now, who is the leader with enough courage to tell the truth to his own nation: nuclear power is only needed in the world because of nuclear weapons production. Let's change that. Let's get rid of nuclear weapons with international agreement. The decomissioning of nuclear weapons should be organized by UN and also the atomic energy watch-dog IAEA should be reorganized so that it would not promote nuclear power generation any more but watch over the decomissioning nuclear warheads and nuclear power plants and safe disposal of nuclear waste.

As long as the leading countries of the world are trying to secretly develop hegemony in military power or remain their hegemony we'll never see nuclear arms or nuclear power totally disappearing from this planet.
But we all should have that as main task to secure our grandchildren's future not to be facing nuclear nightmares - in the form of thermo-nuclear war or NPP -accidents.

This subject should be discussed openly on international leaders summits. It should be discussed in headquarters of Republicans and Democrats, it should be discussed in Chinese Communist Party. It should be discussed in Moscow and among political leaders in India. It should be discussed among economists, politicians and military leaders. It should be discussed in the internet  and on newspapers among citizens of the nations of the world.

The subject is now discussed with 'read between the lines' articles as this on which John Hamre the president and CEO of the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington (CSIS) states that Japan's getting out of nuclear age would be a threat to US interests as well as to Japan.
LINK - JAPANTIMES: http://www.japantimes.co.jp/text/nb20121103d1.html

But when you watch this video where Hamre analyzes the state of US nuclear industry and show slides of global nuclear industry trends, you can quite easily read between the lines the worry of the strategic power (military and economical)  to be quickly accumulating (with nuclear power) to China, India and Russia.
LINK - CSIS-VIDEO:  http://vimeo.com/41417681

We all should be concerned of this. But the means to fight this phenomen should be totally different. Instead of promoting nuclear power and giving keys for atomic weapons for countries like Iran, Saudi-Arabia, The Arab-Emirates, Egypt, Vietnam, Syria etc. we should be fighting to get all countries of the world with joint agreement to abandon nuclear power generation and nuclear arms. We now need more brave politicians like Naoto Kan in Japan or Angela Merkel in Germany. The world is waiting for the next ones!



JPS

Wednesday, November 7, 2012

Leaking Waste Water of Talvivaara Mine Includes Uranium 100-200 Bq/l

According to STUK - Finnish Radiation Protection Authority - leaking water from Talvivaara mine has uranium more than expected, 100 - 200 Bequerels per litre. In Finnish natural water there is normally uranium about 1 Bq/l , so the amount of this radioactive poisonous substance is hundreds of times the natural background value.

Finnish officials fear that the escape of uranium and heavy metal acid water to downriver waters cannot be prevented. The company has found the leaking spot at the waste water pond, but contaminated water is still leaking out.

LINKS (Finnish) - KAUPPALEHTI:


http://www.kauppalehti.fi/etusivu/talvivaaran+vuotovedessa+isot+uraaniarvot/201211299157

http://www.kauppalehti.fi/etusivu/niinisto+suivaantui+talvivaaraan+nyt+riittaa/201211299209

JPS

Thursday, November 1, 2012

Red Light Shown For Fennovoima NPP Project By Many Analysts

Increasing amount of analysts are seeing the Fennovoima nuclear power plant project in Pyhäjoki as a dying plan.

Now also Businessweek sees it quite possible that the project will fail. The Finnish government should update their energy plan because nuclear power has become uneconomical, too risky and too slow compared to renewable wind, biomass and solar. The Finnish government does not include Solar PV energy in their former plans, but the example of Germany and Denmark shows clearly that it is possible to generate yearly at least the amount of solar power eqvivalent to a single nuclear reactor also in Finland.

LINK - BUSINESSWEEK : http://www.businessweek.com/news/2012-11-01/eon-exit-from-finnish-nuclear-reactor-may-trigger-failure


                                                       (Photo: Jukka Seppälä/Creator's Fingerprints)
JPS

Monday, October 29, 2012

TEPCO Will Need 100 000 Clean-up Workers Each Year To Work at Fukushima Daichi

According to some japanese sources translated by  Fukushima Diary TEPCO will force its own employees (100 000 people per year) to work in Fukushima Daichi to decontaminate and keep the crippled power plant in control.
It may take next 40 - 50 years to decommision the plant according to TEPCOs own plan. But some nuclear specialists say that TEPCO may be forced to seal the plant in concrete for next hundred(s) of years, and then it is perhaps possible to decommission the plant permanently.
LINK - FUKUSHIMA DIARY: http://fukushima-diary.com/2012/10/fukushima-conscription-started-tepco-will-oblige-all-the-employees-to-go-to-fukushima-100000pply-in-total/
There are also some good guesses about the location of the melted fuel of Reactor 1 of FD: the melted fuel may have escaped the main containment building and found its way to the west side torus room or just under it, according to SIMPLYINFO: http://www.simplyinfo.org/?p=7955

It seems that FD reactors are still leaking radioactivity directly or via ground water to the ocean - the amount of Cesium -isotopes in sea fish has remained high near Fukushima reactors. A good summary on FUKUSHIMA DIARY: http://fukushima-diary.com/2012/10/bbc-fukushima-fish-still-contaminated-from-nuclear-accident/


JPS

Tuesday, October 23, 2012

The Dominion Effect

Dominion shuts down its Kewaunee NPP as unprofitable. When the Finnish NP companies will do the same? (Arts-Photo: Jukka Seppälä/Creator's Fingerprints)


Now it has started  - The Dominion Effect! Dominion just decided to close its Kewaunee nuclear power plant for economical reasons. This is the first US NPP to shut down for business reasons - other power generating sources like natural gas just happen to be cheaper and the demand of electric power is decreasing. The plant had just got a licence renewal in 2011: it could have been operated up to 2033. The last operating years of a reactor tend to be the most profitable in nuclear power generation so the Kewaunee shut-down is casting a long shadow over the newer NPPs economy.

Will this be the first of series of NPP shutdowns in US nuclear power market - Donminion says no - but I personally believe yes. Many grand old nuclear gentlemen have earlier said that nuclear power is not a profitable way of power generating; neither now - nor in the future. Arnie Gundersen have mentioned earlier that Wall Street will end the nuclear era. I believe that to be true. And now it's happening.

One thing struck me when I read the Dominion news: how do the Americans manage to decommission a nuclear plant with only USD 392 Million when the british nuclear regulatory officials have counted the cost of decommissioning a single reactor to be Euro 3,7 Billion? I just wonder if the Yankees do it with a tenth of the money we'll spend for that in Europe.

Finnish Fortum has also problems. They are searching for Euro1 Billion savings a year. Nuclear is not so profitable any more, they admit it. And they are angry about the cheap state subvented wind power that occassionally drives the power prices low. How about their decades long state subvented guaranteed-to-be-bought nuclear power hegemony. Times, they are a'changing!

Decommission all the nuclear power plants we have - stop the construction and planning of new projects. That's the best thing we can do for the future. Let's invest in renewables - it's the only sensible way to go.

JPS

LINKS: http://www.world-nuclear-news.org/C-Dominion_decides_to_close_Kewaunee-2210124.html

             http://www.fitchratings.com/web/en/dynamic/articles/Domino-Effect-Unlikely-from-US-Nuclear-Plant-Closures.jsp

Saturday, October 20, 2012

The Secret Swedish Nuclear Arms Program Produced Plutonium For Several Nuclear Warheads

                                         Olkiluoto -1 and -2 were build by a Swedish (originally) nuclear arms company
                                         AB ASEA-ATOM (Photo: Jukka Seppälä/Creator's Fingerprints)

This is no news for many people - years ago it has been revealed that Sweden had its own nuclear arms program that has up to 100 nuclear warheads as a goal. But for me this was a real schock when I found out that the peace-loving, anti-Vietnam-war-Swedes turned out to be secretly manufacturing  plutonium for bombs in several "experimental" reactors.

And this activity continued decades after Sweden had signed the international Non-Proliferation Treaty that forbid any kind of nuclear arms manufacturing. It was not until mid 1990ies when Swedish plutonium producing capable reactors were taken totally out of use. They had been kept in reserve - capable of producing bomb grade plutonium.

It was this year, March 27th 2012, when Sweden transported the rest (really all?) of its plutonium to the USA in a top secret operation that was planned for years with the American colleques. 3,3 kg of plutonium and about 9 kg of natural and depleted uranium was shipped to US officials.

Sweden had made (or partly bought from abroad) 24,4 kg of plutonium according to SKI, but the "research" reactor R3 was planned to produce 20 - 23 kg of bomb grade plutonium per year. Nobody knows what the real figures are. When you start covering up you can continue by admitting nasty things only gradually, leaving something in the dark, if you see it politically wise or impossible to reveal from the military point of view.

Soviet Union was the threat Sweden was planning its nuclear arms for. And it seems clear that the Soviets did know about the Swedish bomb program. So did the Americans. But after some decades it became clear for the Swedish politicians and Military leaders that Sweden would be under the American nuclear umbrella and the USA made it clear for the Swedes that they should give up making their own bomb. Conventional weapons could be bought by the Swedes from Western NATO countries and the nuclear weapons program was partly abandonned. But only partly, the Swedes kept the option of producing plutonium by not decommissioning all their plutonium reactors. And the nuclear weapons expertize inside Swedish army was kept alive. And the Swedes had the fift largest air force in the world.

There is something remarkable in this Swedish nuclear arms process: the US analytics were really nervous about Sweden developing their own bomb - if Sweden manages to do that even though it claims officially to be against nuclear arms, what would all the other countries that have nuclear power plants and research reactors do after Sweden has detonated its first nuclear bomb?

That's a good question for us all now when Iran is claimed to produce its own bomb. Saudi-Arabia, The Arab Emirates and many others are now considering to have own nuke programs for bomb or buying nuclear warheads. All the countries that have nuclear reactors are potential nuclear weapons developers. Even Finland is listed as a country capable of making nuclear weapons because of our nuclear know-how. The idea of own uranium production is too near to own nuclear weapons program. If you do it virtually you can do it for real. Virtual nuclear weapons countries include Japan, Germany, Italy, Switzerland, Canada, South Korea and Taiwan according to international experts. They could make own N-bombs in a very short time, they have all it takes.

The Swedish program was cleverly stated to be a research program that finds out how nuclear weapons work so that the Swedish army could protect the country against such weapons. And Olof Palme, the Swedish anti-nuke prime minister was the secretary of this secret project when he was a young politician.

By the way - our Olkiluoto-1 and -2 reactors are planned and manufactured by a company that originally had been established for planning and manufacturing Swedish nuclear weapons - AB ASEA -ATOM.

JPS

LINKS:

http://www.stralsakerhetsmyndigheten.se/In-English/About-the-Swedish-Radiation-Safety-Authority1/News1/Swedish-plutonium-to-the-United-States/

http://www.climatesceptics.org/europe/sweden/agesta/neutral-sweden-quietly-keeps-nuclear-option-open

http://www.stralsakerhetsmyndigheten.se/Global/Publikationer/SKI_import/020618/8f4539c984fbccb42e20871d06931c7c/02-18%20.pdf

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sweden_and_weapons_of_mass_destruction

http://www.wise-paris.org/index.html?/english/ournewsletter/14_15/page3.html&/english/frame/menu.html&/english/frame/band.html

http://www.dtic.mil/cgi-bin/GetTRDoc?AD=ADA531966 

Clean Winners Of The Future: Finnish Cross-Country Skiing Team Sponsored By Leading Finnish Renewable Energy Company

Finnish cross-country skiers were leaving for a training camp on Tuesday 16th October in Helsinki.
I was priviledged to join the press conference for photographing the event. I also had the opportunity to briefly discuss with the managers of their main sponsor St1 - a Finnish energy company. And I came to the conclusion that both of the teams - Finnish skiers and St1 - are having the Fair Play -cards in their hands, and are both potential winners of this beginning term.


                                               Finnish Cross-Country Skiing Team 2012-2013 (part of the team)
                                                                                    (Photo: Jukka Seppälä/Creator's Fingerprints)

Finnish Cross-Country SkiingTeam
has a brand new strategy for their sports activities and it seems to me that it is largely based on hard work, commitment to a greener way of life (including sports) and also their main sponsor is clean tech oriented.

For an oil company it is admirable to search new goals for the future, cleaner technology and a wide range of alternative fuels and energy sources in sight . St1 http://www.st1.eu/index.php?id=2875   has been making brave decisions and developed leading technology for making bio-ethanol fuel out of waste: waste food and waste of food industry.
They have an ambisious plan to produce yearly 300 million litres of bioethanol traffic fuel in 2020. And all that without cutting down rain forests but utilizing waste. http://www.st1.eu/index.php?id=2883  Not bad at all!



Mika Wiljanen, The Managing Director of St1Oy joined also the press conference
(Photo: Jukka Seppälä/Creator's Fingerprints)

Watch the excellent video of the company  "From Oil to Renewables - The Story of St1" here: http://vimeo.com/32563164

Secondly the company has a powerful industrial wind power program via its TuuliWatti -wind energy company that is owned mostly by St1 and S-ryhmä.   http://www.tuuliwatti.fi/ TuuliWatti just bought four 4,5 MW Gamesa wind generators http://www.gamesacorp.com/en/gamesaen/  for their Simo Wind-park. They have now a framework agreement to buy the coming months 26 more of Gamesa 4,5 MW wind generators with total effect of 117 MW.

I wish the Finnish Cross-Country Skiing Team a succesful sports-winter and the Green Energy Company St1 succes in their renewable investments and business!

JPS

Wednesday, October 10, 2012

Are Minor and Middle-Scale Solar Storms More Dangerous For Power Transmission Systems Than Generally Thought

Vulnerability of power grids is a hot question (photo: Jukka Seppälä/Creator's Fingerprints)


When I read the year 2009 US-study of the vulnerability of power grids in the USA, ( METATECH: http://www.fas.org/irp/eprint/geomag.pdf ) I found one quite strange remark made by the authors of the report: the large transformers of nuclear power plants had been several times getting fire or exploded just a few days after or during a geo-magnetic storm caused by the sun. The power companies denied the statistical correlation between the solar storms and failure of NPP transformers. But the study saw it to be quite obvious.

Yesterday when I did some google-searching for the several days continuing mild geo-magnetic storm if there was any damage to the NPPs transformers in the news, I found out a strange thing. There were masses of news of minor transformer fires and explosions earlier this year and I got an idea. If I read these news and find out the exact date and time of these incidents I can compare them with the information of a russian website  (TESIS:  http://www.tesis.lebedev.ru/en/magnetic_storms.html?m=1&d=7&y=2012 ) that have statistics of all recent geomagnetic storms. And to my surprise most of the transformer fires occurred just during or shortly after relatively high geo-magnetic activity. I haven't seen any studies about this correlation between solar storms or risen geo-magnetic activity and the transformer fires but after what I found out with my non-scientific quick-search, it would be interesting to know if there really exists a correlation. And if such exists, what could be done to protect power grids and also the smaller transformers from exploding or getting fire because of solar activity. Many homes, cars and lorries were destroyed  because of these fires and thousands and again thousands of people were varying times without power. Economical costs can be quite high and sometimes the loss of human lives can not be avoided because of these fires.

So, I'm waiting for the power companies or state officials to take the initiative to find out if there is a hidden danger in these minor solar storms also. Only time will tell if someone hears my call.


JPS

P.S. In the USA the officials and energy industry have taken seriously the warnings of solar storms and the manufacturing of large power transformers is beginning new in US factories. The new model under development is going to offer a revolutionary one week replacing time when the older models took months or years to replace. The new (2012) governemental study of power grid security in US is worth reading.

LINK - ENERGY.GOV: http://energy.gov/sites/prod/files/Large%20Power%20Transformer%20Study%20-%20June%202012_0.pdf

JPS

Saturday, October 6, 2012

Fukushima Reactors Were Destroyed by Earthquake Not Only by the Tsunami

There is now more evidence available that the Fukushima Daichi reactors were destroyed already by the earthquake and meltdowns started occurring before the tsunami hit. Also the radiation levels rose before the tsunami had destroyed the power generators and caused a total black-out at the plant. Sounds of loud explosions had been heard right after the EQ and some of the workers on site saw white smoke coming out from the reactor building and the walls of the turbine building collapsing or getting large holes on them before the tsunami came. Some of the cooling system pipes of reactor -1 had been seen getting broken and leaking, and the emergency cooling system was automatically activated after the EQ to cool down the core that had lost cooling when the pipes broke.

For nuclear industry and the so called nuclear watchdogs - nuclear regulators and safety agencies - that are rowing the same boat as nuclear industry, it seems to be impossible to admit that earthquakes cause nuclear meltdowns. That would force them to shut down tens of nuclear reactors that are sitting on the EQ-faults.

No more lies this time, let's check this out! Regulators should now take care of their main job: safety first!

LINK - ROBERT JACOBS ON YOUTUBE:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=xmDbAKmUI8s

JPS

Friday, October 5, 2012

Mafia Connected to One Subcontractor of TVO Olkiluoto-3 EPR Nuclear Reactor Construction Work

TVO Olkiluoto-3 construction problems continue. Now revealed are possible mafia -connections of a subcontractor. (Photo: Jukka Seppälä/Creator's Fingerprints)

According to YLE -news today, Some Bulgarian subcontractor at Olkiluoto-3 NPP construction site had demanded the workers to pay 50 euros per week as protection money. This construction company may have had mafia connections or may be owned by mafia. The workers are not willing to publish the information with their own names fearing that violence could be addressed to their families by local mafia. TVO tells that this subcontractor doesn't work for them any more.

There have been news before of workers that have not been paid their wages according to agreements and Finnish law. Sometimes the workers have been only paid  two euros per hour and concerns have been arising of misuse of social security insurances that could be profitable to these companies.

LINKS - YLE-NEWS (Finnish):

http://yle.fi/uutiset/lehtivaite_mafia_vaatinut_olkiluoto_3n_rakentajilta_suojelurahaa/6323144

http://yle.fi/uutiset/ihalainen_olkiluoto-uutiset_jo_uskomattomia/6324311

http://yle.fi/uutiset/olkiluodossa_tyota_kahden_euron_tuntipalkalla_-_palkkakuitti_todisteena/5427790 '

JPS

 

Wednesday, October 3, 2012

Thirty Five Minutes To Meltdown - The Most Dangerous Nuclear Power Plants Are Forsmark in Sweden and Olkiluoto 1-2 in Finland According to the EU -Stress Tests

Olkiluoto 1-2 nuclear reactors, both built in late 1970ies and Forsmark reactors in Sweden have a high meltdown risk in a blackout situation according to news of  EU-stress tests being published this week (Photo: Jukka Seppälä/Creator's Fingerprints)

According to news given out by Der Spiegel and some other news sources, having some pre-information of the EU -stress tests for nuclear power plants that will be made public in two days, among the most risky nuclear power plants are Forsmark NPP in Sweden and Olkiluoto NPP in Finland. According to the EU-analysis in the case of serious cooling pipe-damage or total facility blackout the operators of these NPPs would have only 35 minutes or less than an hour to relaunch the power to avoid a serious meltdown accident.

Finnish radiation protection authority (STUK) denies the seriousity of the situation, though they admit the fact that there would be problems in less than an hour if a total blackout occurs, and they blame the EU-study to be one-sided.

LINKS:

DER SPIEGEL (IN GERMAN):
http://www.spiegel.de/wissenschaft/technik/eu-stresstest-sicherheitsluecken-bei-zwoelf-deutschen-akw-a-858881.html

SWR (GERMAN):
http://www.swr.de/nachrichten/-/id=396/nid=396/did=10397958/z8x8f0/index.html

HS (FINNISH):
http://www.hs.fi/ulkomaat/Der+Spiegel+Olkiluodossa+erityisen+pahoja+turvallisuuspuutteita/a1305603007482
HS (FINNISH):
http://www.hs.fi/kotimaa/Stuk+Olkiluodon+turvallisuusuhista+varoittava+raportti+on+yksipuolinen/a1305603203969

KALEVA (FINNISH):
http://www.kaleva.fi/uutiset/kotimaa/niinisto-yllattyi-turvallisuusraportista-olkiluodon-ydinvoimala-haavoittuva/607702/?utm_source=latest_news_page&utm_medium=kfi&utm_campaign=latest_news_campaign

Yet, we have to wait for the EU-stress tests to get published to get more detailed information about the situation. If these preliminary news are correct, we have serious discussion ahead whether these dangerous nucler power plants should be immediately closed down, repaired and secured against this type of serious accidents - and if they occure to be too old and difficult and expensive to be repaired, then we should permanently decommission them.

JPS

Monday, October 1, 2012

Dark Clouds Gathering Around Finnish Nuclear Industry



Dark clouds are surrounding Finnish nuclear idustry - ultraexpensive reactor constructing is causing turbulence (Arts pic - Jukka Seppälä/Creator's Fingerprints)

Todays news keep on following the recent line of nuclear news around the world: no news would be good news.

The CEO of Finnish nuclear power company Fennovoima, Tapio Saarenpää, had to go  http://in.reuters.com/article/2012/10/01/nuclear-fennovoima-idINL6E8L1HQ120121001 as well as the chairman of the board Juha Rantanen a few weeks ago http://www.fennovoima.com/en/news/news/fennovoima-s-board-gets-a-new-chairman . Many investors have already abandonned the ship earlier and it seems now that it is only a question of time when the others also see investing in zero-business not worth continuing.

Also TVO had risen its demands for compensations for delay of Olkiluoto-3 NPP to 1,8 Billion Euros. http://yle.fi/uutiset/tvo_ups_stakes_in_areva_compensation_duel/6316761 TVO is trying to get AREVA pay that sum via court. But Areva-Siemens is also demanding TVO to pay them 1,9 Billion Euros for the delay. Bad business is searcing for funders using laywers that will be the real winners of this game.

And the real loosers are the taxpayers and electric power consumers of Finland, France and Germany - they are paying the gamers bills the same way as they are paying for rescueing Euro.

If we look at the global megatrends of energy industry nuclear power is a clear looser. http://nuclear-news.info/2012/07/21/comprehensive-report-on-the-status-of-the-global-nuclear-industry/#more-956  Generating power with nuclear power will be much more expensive in the future, more expensive than with renewables or natural gas. There's an ongoing trend to make the industry to pay all costs of constructing the nuclear power plants, taking care of the security of the plants, paying the real costs of decommissioning the reactors (3,7 billion euros/reactor according to brittish studies - 10 000 times more expensive than expected in 1960ies) and taking care of the spent fuel and radioactive waste for several hundreds of thousands of years. http://www.decc.gov.uk/en/content/cms/news/ch_sp_royal/ch_sp_royal.aspx

It is really hard to sell the citizens the thought that they should pay the multi billion costs for benefitting this high tech power generating technology when there are awailable safe and less expensive alternatives like solar, wind, waves and bioenergy. It's true that you may have to pay a little bit more for your power in the beginning of the alternatives era, but in the long run all will be winners with clean energy. And no more evacuation zones and forcing hundreds of thousands of people to leave their homes and live in fear for the rest of their lives.

When people and politicians worlwide are getting the results of recent studies that low level radiation is much more harmful that it has been told before (for example Hiroshima - Nagasaki survivers -study last round or international nuclear industry workers low level radiation-cancer -study, or medical x-rays related cancer -studies, tell all the same thing - things are far worse than everybody previously have been thinking), there will be a wide discussion  about how nuclear industry should pay for the damage it is causing. And the levels of radioactive emmissions allowed in the future will be far stricker than today. I think there will be demands of shutting down the NPPs that are polluting environment with most highest amounts of Tritium because it causes leukemia and cancers among young children living close to NPPs. According to some experts Areva-originated EPR-reactors (like the ones being built in Finland and France) are polluting the environment ten times more than the old BWRs or PWRs.

A few links for check-up:

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2776242/
http://www.wise-uranium.org/ehw.html
http://apps.who.int/bookorders/anglais/detart1.jsp?codlan=1&codcol=77&codcch=25
http://www.counterpunch.org/2012/01/26/childhood-leukemia-spikes-near-nuclear-power-plants/
http://www.rrjournal.org/doi/pdf/10.1667/RR2629.1
http://enformable.com/2012/06/adults-at-higher-risk-for-developing-cancer-later-in-life-after-childhood-exposures/
http://nuclearhistory.wordpress.com/2012/07/24/wall-street-journal-past-haunts-tally-of-japans-nuke-crisis/
http://enenews.com/just-in-u-s-freezes-all-nuclear-reactor-construction-operating-licenses 
http://www.ratical.org/radiation/Chernobyl/HEofC25yrsAC.html
http://solarwindpronet.blogspot.fi/2012/01/too-hot-to-handle-what-if-nuclear.html 

So it may be like entering a financically very high risk zone to invest in Nuclear power or even finish the projects that have been started years ago. For me it seems that the right thing to do now for the real businessman would be getting rid of any nuclear power project that his or hers enterprice is involved as quick as possible. There just isn't any sense to carry whole the time more water into a barrel that is rotten and full of holes.

My guess is that the companies that continue to do that will result into nuclear poverty. Well, we'll see.

JPS    

Friday, September 28, 2012

Minister of Economic Affairs Jyri Häkämies: Finland to Co-operate With Japan and Germany on Renevable Energy and Cleantech



Minister of Economic Affairs Jyri Häkämies pointed out the role of sustainable growth in Finland during the next decades (Photo: Jukka Seppälä/Creator's Fingerprints)

According to Finnish Minister of Economic Affairs Jyri Häkämies Finland continues to co-operate with countries like Germany and Japan which have made the decision to abandon nuclear power and are searching for clean alternatives to produce energy. Häkämies mentioned Finnish government already having cleantech co-operation with Japan that has made a decision of a major energy change and needs now new alternative energy solutions. In two months Minister Häkämies and President Sauli Niinistö will be participating a meeting in Germany concentrating on energy issues . The German Energy Minister had recently visited Finland and the countries are jointly making an EU-initiative in energy politics.

Minister Häkämies was setting sustainable growth as one of the main targits of  "Tulevaisuus 2030 (Future 2030)-project. Häkämies was giving the closing speech of "Tulevaisuuden taitajat - Tulevaisuus 2030" -seminarium in Helsinki 27th September 2012. The meeting was organized by the Prime Ministers Office as a part of citizens consulting process of Government Foresight 2030 -report. http://vnk.fi/ajankohtaista/tiedotteet/tiedote/en.jsp?oid=353659

The participants of the meeting were discussing ideas and topics covering possibilities of foreseeing the future national and global trends and how to react or control them.

More about the meeting can be found on my Finnish blog-site:  http://solarwindpronet-suomi.blogspot.fi/2012/09/ministerit-linjasivat-uusiutuvat.html
or on the official Tulevaisuus 2030-site (Finnish): http://www.2030.fi/tilaisuudet

JPS 

Tuesday, September 25, 2012

Finland Has No New Nokia In Sight - But the Network Of Clean-Tech Companies Could Be One In the Future

There is an ongoing discussion in Finland whether there exists a company capable of inheriting the role of Nokia as a global business leader. The Angry Birds-fenomen has been giving some hope that Finnish know-how in portable device gaming and entertainment business would create new nokialike enterprices.

But personally I think there perhaps will not exist one single super-company that rules the world in its own business sector. I believe that network of mid-sized or smaller companies have the possibility to win the game in the future. It's kind of less vulnerable model of making business if you don't have all the fuel in the same tank.

The recent hard times for Nokia have made some politicians desperate in Finland. If Nokia loses the game it will cause bad disturbances also in Finnish economy as whole.

But this kind of thinking may include some kind of ghosts of "back to 70ies" nostalgy. Big companies, ten year planning, bilateral trade with the Soviet Union, etc. I can hear here also the old centralized energy policy speaking: without nuclear power and other big power generating units we just can't manage; 'don't even speak about wind, biomass or solar - it's rubbish'.

And here's my point: new world economy - with plenty of uncertainties - needs a new kind of economical thinking. I see it extremely dangerous to lean on only one company or technology, especially if it needs decades to build and takes the major part of the money available in the market for investments and R&D money given by the taxpayers. If that technology fails it takes whole the national economy with it. And the negative psycological impact for the nation may be huge.

If we and our politicians and business leaders prefer technologies that don't take decades to become mature enough to start bringing back investments, though the profit would not be so huge but secure, we could be the overall winners in the long run. Clean technology - the renewables- wind, solar, waves, bioenergy are the great new wave of energy technology that's rolling around the world like a tsunami right now. And the other wave of big business opportunities will be decommissioning our own existing nuclear power plants safely and taking really good care of nuclear waste and the million-Hiroshimas-plutonium that's sleeping in there - for several hundreds of thousands of years.

This all needs political steering and guidance and also economical supporting by the state. In the beginning new technologies like wind and solar tend to overheat the market and the disturbances caused by costly R&D, over capacity in production and the competition of developing economies with their  low pricing, makes the new market unstable. To survive the industry needs some balancing subsidiaries that make the pricing of clean power generated with renewables competitive with conventional coal and nuclear power that have earned billions of subsidiaries, hidden or public, during the last decades. Now it's time for the renewables to get the big money.

 (If you have doubts about the subsidiaries got by the nuclear industry I suggest for you to do some critical research on the subject. In the USA the situation is mainly similar to other countries with NPPs, though they have their nuclear weapons production on the background. This link tells the US-situation in short: ROBERT F. KENNEDY Jr. - YOUTUBE:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=2p-UNk2kn-c   )

By supporting networks of clean tech companies we could create clusters that change the world, give us and other countries possibility to cut their carbon emmissions, reduce their particle emissions and eliminate the danger of worldwide nuclear isotope emissions connected with use and accidents of nuclear power. Meantime developing economies could have gain to safe, profitable way of generating power even to the villages far from big cities. And the dependance on rich countries and their powerful enterprises would deminish when they won't have to import the energy or fuel any more. This all would create prosperity the same way in these countries as it would do in our own country. It's a win-win situation that we could create now mostly with political decision making. But it takes some courage to be done.

JPS

Sunday, September 23, 2012

What Is the Responsibilty Of Companies When Dealing With Nuclear Power Projects?

Nuclear power projects tend to be dealing with big money. And big money tends to finish critical thinking.


This photovoltage solar power station is under construction on Creete. Arab countries and most of the countries of tropical or subtropical climate zone would have at least as good possibilities as Greece  to use solar power as one of their main power generating sources. Nuclear is not needed nor rational.
When you look at recent new nuclear power projects, most of them are being planned by old nuclear weapon countries or new potential nuclear weapon countries. There are plenty of arab countries starting their nuclear era with several reactors per country plans. Some of them are also dreaming of own nuclear fuel cycle from uranium mining, enriching and making their own fuel, perhaps recycling the old fuel rods to new fuel - plutonium.

The problem is the poor condition of nuclear industry. According to a recent report it's doing really badly worldwide. And that's why the industry begins to accept orders from countries like Egypt, Vietnam, Saudi- Arabia or United Arab Emirates. It's a question of money and industry surviving. Don't ask nasty questions - sell! Make money when you can!

LINK - WORLDNUCLEARREPORT:
http://www.worldnuclearreport.org/IMG/pdf/2012MSC-WorldNuclearReport-EN-V2.pdf



Nobody asks the right questions: why should countries having the best possibilities of using solar and wind power build nuclear? Countries lacking water for acriculture should construct nuclear power plants using huge amounts of cooling water. And if situated along seashores the risks of tsunamis occure once again.

Many of these countries have also huge plans to build wind, solar and wave power, but entering into nuke-club, it makes no sense.

Or, perhaps we should think once more. If Iran is going nuclear, why shouldn't all of its neighbours too?

A Finnish-origin international consulting company Pöyry won the deal for making plans to power Saudi-Arabia with wind, solar - and nuclear. I don't know what kind of analysis Pöyry made for Saudis about own uranium mining, enriching and constructing own fleet of nuclear power plants but  let's hope they found it inprofitable.

LINK - POYRY:
http://www.poyry.co.uk/sites/www.poyry.co.uk/files/poyry_energy_day_20120515_v_20.pdf

  LINK - POWER-ENG:
http://www.power-eng.com/articles/npi/print/volume-4/issue-3/nucleus/saudi-arabia-commits-100-billion-for-civil-nuclear-program.html

But things begin to be a little bit complicated when the representatives of Saudi-Arabian ruling dynasty openly tell their will to develop or buy nuclear warheads if Iran is having their own bomb.

LINK - NYTIMES:
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/07/world/middleeast/saudi-arabia-may-seek-nuclear-weapons-prince-says.html?_r=0

LINK - PRESSTV:
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/2012/07/26/252852/s-arabia-mulls-buying-pakistani-nukes/

  LINK - INQUISITR:
http://www.inquisitr.com/282628/saudi-arabia-to-purchase-nuclear-capable-missiles-from-china-video/

Should  companies share their knowledge and help making these nuclear dreams to become reality? Is money the only thing that steers nuclear business. Should we accept the amount of nuclear weapon countries to increase by tens of new muscle armies or perhaps hundreds of them - just to save our sick nuclear industry from starving to death?

I think it is ethically a wrong decision to let money steer this extremely dangerous industry.  Or some day we may wake up seeing a real nightmare - a nuclear dream come true.


JPS

Thursday, September 20, 2012

Just In: Reactor Emergency Shutdown At Three Mile Island Nuclear Power Plant Due to Cooling Pump Failure

There was a emergency shutdown at Harrisburg Three Mile Island nuclear reactor on thursday 20th September at 2 pm, when one of the four cooling pumps failed. Big amount of steam was causing a jet-like sound according to local residents. A NRC official entered the control room to follow how the situation develops. According to news channels the NRC offficial and the representatives of the power company don't think there exists any danger to the public and claim the steam contained no detectable amounts of radioactive substances.


LINK - ENENEWS:
http://enenews.com/reactor-shutdown-at-three-mile-island-steam-release-sounded-like-a-jet-engine-official-admits-steam-may-be-radioactive-nrc-inspector-inside-control-room


The most severe accident in US nuclear history happened in 1979 just at Three Mile Island reactor. Then the accident caused acute radiation symptoms (hair loss, womiting, bleeding for some people and killed pet animals. Some researchers have found out that the accident caused widely cancer deaths for people living downwind from the plant. The official estimates of the radiation releases of the accident are shown out by many researchers to be severely underestimated.

Let's hope this accident won't turn out to be severe.

JPS

Wednesday, September 19, 2012

Solar Power In Israel

Israel has not been among the most active solar power countries. But now it seems that solar power generation is spreading rapidly in this land of plenty of sunny days. What do you think about a kibbutz that makes solar power a good new business? It's called  Arava Power Company, estimated to grow up to 2 billion USD Solar power enterpise in the future.

And their example has started a solar power boom in Israel. Now, for example,  the daytime peak power consumtion of the city of Eilat is covered by one third with solar power.

The Arab countries could also use their large desert areas to generate enough solar and wind energy for them and their neighbour countries.

LINK - NEW YORK TIMES:

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/21/world/middleeast/kibbutz-in-israeli-desert-turns-to-solar-power.html?_r=1&ref=middleeast


 JPS

Monday, September 17, 2012

Just In: NRC Cover-Up - almost 100% Probability of Three Reactors Meltdown If Jocassee Dam Fails

The odds that Jocassee Dam in USA fails are much greater than odds were that a big tsunami hits Fukushima Daichi NPP. Also other dams with nuclear power plants downstream are likely to fail with far greater possibility than having a tsunami run over Japanese nuclear plants.

NRC (Nuclear Regulatory Commission) has known that for a long time but has not been willing to publish the information or force the licencees to strenghten the facilities against water masses that are coming downstream after a major failure of a dam.

Now a couple of NRC-engineers have come out and made the whole story public. These whistleblowers are pointing out that these events are quite possible and that the consequences may be as severe as in Fukushima: multireactor simultaneous meltdowns, breaching of containment vessels and a large radioactive fallout.

LINK - ENENEWS: http://enenews.com/nrc-engineers-charge-regulators-with-coverup-reactor-melt-down-an-absolute-certainty-if-dam-failed

I remember Nuclear Engineer Arnie Gundersen of Fairewinds Associates having told about the inland tsunamis that dam failures could cause during the exeptionally high water emergency situation at some river areas and river-side nuclear reactors last year. It seems that he was once more right with his predictions - a second Fukushima scaled accident was really near then.

JPS

The Soviet Way of Getting Rid Of Nuclear Waste

The Russian Environmental Organization Bellona  told  new information about Russian nuclear waste and nuclear submarines dumping into the sea in Northern Siberia. There are more nuclear waste, old nuclear reactors and submarines with some of them the fuel still in reactor than previously known. The Russian authorities have given little by little new information about nuclear dumping that took mostly place during the Soviet era.

According to Norwegian sources 17 000 containers of radioactive waste, 19 ships with radioactive waste, 14 nuclear reactors, five of them filled with fuel are dumped there. Also 735 pieces of radioactive heavy machinery and K-27 nuclear submarine with two reactors full of fuel are on the sea bottom.

The scientists are worried about the possibility of fueled nuclear reactors to become critical and explode. And of course spreading of the radioactive contamination to the sea ecosystem is a serious issue.


LINK - ENENEWS: http://enenews.com/alarm-14-nuclear-reactors-dumped-in-ocean-some-filled-with-fuel-could-reachieve-criticality-explode


I just wonder how many containers of radioactive waste there are dumped by the western countries during 1940ies to 2000. Even now there are reports about the Italian Mafia to dump radioactive waste with old ships and getting paid for the ships by the insurance companies - a double fraud.

Let's hope the ships or the most dangerous waste can be taken out from the seabed to safer locations.

JPS