Another abstract post today, as it’s a topic that’s been weighing on me. Though, we do have one semi-related source.SOURCE: CTV News: Don’t Force Election in Wake of Japanese Quake: HarperI’ve noticed a rather disturbing trend in Canadian politics, not…
Continue readingPample the Moose: Working on recent history – some reflections
In my professional life, I usually find myself researching and writing on topics that deal with the last fifty or so years of Canadian history. This sometimes leads to people thinking that I’m not a historian, but a political scientist. It also means…
Continue readingInformed on Information: Japan Nuclear: Spent Fuel Containment Pool May Be Open To Atmosphere; Sattellite Images Appear To Show Missing Roof
“…the total amount of long-lived radioactivity in the pool is at least five times that in the reactor core…” “The spent fuel produced by reactors has been a challenge since the dawn of the nuclear industry, with most reactor operators opting to store it in pools of cooling water on
Continue readingInformed on Information: Japan Nuclear: Spent Fuel Containment Pool May Be Open To Atmosphere; Sattellite Images Appear To Show Missing Roof
“…the total amount of long-lived radioactivity in the pool is at least five times that in the reactor core…”
“The spent fuel produced by reactors has been a challenge since the dawn of the nuclear industry, with most reactor operators opting to store it in pools of cooling water on site. At the 40-year-old Fukushima plant, which was built by General Electric, the fuel rods are stored at a pool about three stories up, next to the reactor. Satellite photos raise concerns that the roof of the building housing the pool has been blown off, says Robert Alvarez, a senior scholar at the Institute for Policy Studies and a senior policy adviser to the secretary of energy and deputy assistant secretary for national security and the environment from 1993 to 1999. He and other experts are now warning that any release of radioactivity from the spent-fuel pool could make the releases from the reactors themselves pale in comparison.”
“The pools “contain very large concentrations of radioactivity, can catch fire, and are in much more vulnerable buildings,” he warns. If the pools lose their inflow of circulating cooling water, the water in the pools will evaporate. If the level of water drops to five or six feet above the spent fuel, Alvarez calculates, the release of radioactivity “could be life-threatening near the reactor building.” Since the total amount of long-lived radioactivity in the pool is at least five times that in the reactor core, a catastrophic release would mean “all bets are off,” he says.”
The Daily Beast – The Japan Nuke Problem No One’s Talking About
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OK – my usual motif is to toss a story out and then editorialise on the story. So here’s my editorialisation:
“So, how’s that nuclear safety workin’ for ya?”
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“Moreover, in the spent fuel pools usually situated next to nuclear power plants, there are large numbers of additional fuel rods, used ones, disposed of as waste. There must be constant water circulation in the spent fuel pools. In what is labeled a “loss-of-water’ accident in a spent fuel pool, the zirconium cladding of the fuel rods is projected as exploding—sending into the environment the lethal nuclear poisons in a spent fuel pool…….”
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Image Credit:
nuclear-news
latest news on the uranium/nuclear industry
Technical information on the Fukushima nuclear loss of coolant
Informed on Information: Japan Nuclear: Spent Fuel Containment Pool May Be Open To Atmosphere; Sattellite Images Appear To Show Missing Roof
“…the total amount of long-lived radioactivity in the pool is at least five times that in the reactor core…” “The spent fuel produced by reactors has been a challenge since the dawn of the nuclear industry, with most reactor operators opting to store it in pools of cooling water on
Continue readingpunditman: HUMANITARIAN COALITION: Japan Earthquake and Tsunami: DONATE NOW!
Canadian aid agencies, under the banner of the HUMANITARIAN COALITION, are urging Canadians to support the relief efforts in Japan after a massive 8.9 magnitude earthquake, the largest in the nation’s recorded history, and tsunami has devastated the region. Recent reports suggest that thousands are among the dead after the
Continue readingpunditman: HUMANITARIAN COALITION: Japan Earthquake and Tsunami: DONATE NOW!
Canadian aid agencies, under the banner of the HUMANITARIAN COALITION, are urging Canadians to support the relief efforts in Japan after a massive 8.9 magnitude earthquake, the largest in the nation’s recorded history, and tsunami has devastated the region. Recent reports suggest that thousands are among the dead after the
Continue readingpunditman: HUMANITARIAN COALITION: Japan Earthquake and Tsunami: DONATE NOW!
Canadian aid agencies, under the banner of the HUMANITARIAN COALITION, are urging Canadians to support the relief efforts in Japan after a massive 8.9 magnitude earthquake, the largest in the nation’s recorded history, and tsunami has devastated the region. Recent reports suggest that thousands are among the dead after the quake and a resulting tsunami, which reached a height of up to 10 metres in some areas.
The HUMANITARIAN COALITION is working together with our partners in Japan and will provide funds to help where the Japanese government indicates that help is most needed While the Japanese government is extremely well prepared for such situations, we are stepping up to help and urge Canadians to do the same.
To donate to THE HUMANITARIAN COALITION, Canadians can log onto www.together.ca or send donations to THE HUMANITARIAN COALITION, P.O. Box 7023, Ottawa, ON, K1L 5A0.
michelmonette.net: Stéphane Bédard plaide pour une meilleure représentation des arbres
Dans le nouveau système électoral à deux vitesses que propose le Parti Québécois, les arbres de l’Abitibi ou de la Gaspésie auraient plus de poids à l’Assemblée nationale que les électeurs du Centre-Ville de Québec où je demeure. Cette proposition … Read more »
Continue readingThe Skinny: The Star: Parents must witness their children’s murder to receive compensation
I’m wondering if the young man who had been beheaded on a passenger bus in western Canada had been beheaded in Ontario, would his family not receive victim compensation because the family members had not actually seen the beheading?
The provincial age…
Continue readingMike Powell Fanclub: Radio Topics, Ides of March edition
It’s a good thing I’m not Caesar. This week at 8:00, we’ll speak with Professor Mark Van Vugt about his new book Selected. We’ll also touch on some of the following:
Election watch:
Day, Strahl retire.
Puff pieces on star candidates begin!
Liberals will fund Quebec Arena. Seriously.
Punish tories, vote Liberal quebeckers!
Other stuff!:
McGill fined for charging too much for MBA […]
Just Another Willy Loman: Let me tell you who Omar Alghabra is
Omar is one of the reasons I started to blog back in March 2008. I was reading Progressive Bloggers a lot back then and got so pissed at Stéphanne Dion and other leading Liberals for not showing up to vote against a private members bill that was at…
Continue readingCanadian Political Viewpoints: What’s Good for the Goose
It’s an abstract post today, so brace yourselves.In watching Power & Politics on the CBC this afternoon, I was given what they call ‘The Firing Line’, only because of technical difficulties only former Cabinet Minister Monte Solberg, talking with the …
Continue readingmichelmonette.net: Les paradis fiscaux américains
Je parie qu’il vous vient des images d’îles exotiques quelque part dans le sud en lisant le titre de ce billet. Eh bien, vous êtes dans l’erreur. Les paradis fiscaux dont je veux vous entretenir se situent bien au sud, … Read more »
Continue readingBirth Pangs: GOP Can’t Wait To Strip You Of Your Rights
In their battle against a woman’s right to choose, anti-choice Republicans have adopted a new tactic to enforce their agenda: deem any anti-choice bill an “emergency.” In Texas, Gov. Rick Perry (R) saddled a forced sonogram bill with an “emergency item” status to allow the state GOP to drive it through Congress “within the first […]
Continue readingPoliTeching: E-mail Leak of Alleged Bank of America Fraud
Deepsouthdoug at dailykos have published initial batch of Bank of America leaks that shows alleged fraud. http://www.dailykos.com/story/2011/03/14/956153/-BREAKING-Operation-LeakS-Releases-Initial-BofA-Emails zerohedge blogged about the leak: this appears to be a concerted effort from the ground up to hide foreclosure data from auditors and the Fed in order to obtain select preferential treatment in a variety of housing related […]
Birth Pangs: Anti-Abortion Thought Police
This is not a debate about abortion. This is about a fundamental right to make choices about our sexuality — without the encroachment of a president, the Supreme Court, and certainly without the encroachment of politicians! Faye Wattleton may want to add doctors and nurses to that list. Ms. Taylor became light-headed and fell down […]
Continue readingThe Global Express: Japanese Earthquake Facts
Japan is geographically in the worst position possible. Right on the border of the tectonic plates. There are a lot of facts that we don’t know about Japan that they experience everyday. One thing that I found astonishing last week after the horrific natural disasters in Japan was the number
Continue readingThe Liberal Scarf: Provincial nomination progress, NDP and Greens
Neither the ONDP or GPO have nominated a particularly large slate so far, so I combined them here.The NDP haven’t nominated a whole lot of candidates so far as I can tell, and they so far seemed to have focused on the GTA. I could only find one notice …
Continue readingJapan and Saskatchewan
Well, Saskatchewan, if there is nuclear fallout from that earthquake in Japan it looks like we can accept some responsibility for it. My preliminary research indicates that some Saskatchewan uranium goes to Japan via partnerships among AREVA, Cameco, and Japan’s Overseas Uranium Resources Development as well as Japan-Canada Uranium (JCU Canada). Here’s hoping nothing melts […]