TMI Update: Jan 14, 2024

March 27, 2011,

Dear Friends,

It has been more than two weeks since the earthquake and tsunami struck Japan, triggering an unparalleled nuclear crisis that shows no signs of abating.

While a few days ago, utility officials claimed the situation at Fukushima had at least been stabilized, what we are seeing in reality are continued extraordinarily high levels of radation at the plant site and continued high levels even outside the expanded evacuation zone. We are continuing to post updates on our website: www.nirs.org.

Our response to this disaster has been on many fronts:

*We have expanded our efforts to end taxpayer subsidies for new reactors in the U.S. If we can cut off their gouging of U.S. taxpayers to pay for their failed nuclear dream, we can ensure that no new reactors will be built. We have ads running (thanks to your donations!) on Mother Jones and Alternet leading to our action page. Yet not everyone even on this list has taken action. If you haven't, please do so now. And if you have, please take a moment to share the action page via e-mail, Facebook and other networking sites. 74% of the American people now want an end to taxpayer loans for new reactors. But Congress isn't going to do that unless they hear from all of us. We can end this funding if we all act.

*We have begun a new campaign to permanently close the 23 General Electric Mark I reactors that are carbon copies of those at Fukushima. Top safety officials have warned for 40 years that these reactors would fail under accident conditions. Unfortunately, those officials have been proven right. If you haven't taken action on this campaign yet, please do so now. And, again, please help spread the word.

*We are supporting Greenpeace in their call for vigils tomorrow, Monday, March 28--the anniversary of the Three Mile Island accident, across the country. We hope everyone will attend one of these. You can find the vigil closest to you here.

*We are calling for new actions in April across the country, joining with our colleagues across the world to commemorate the Chernobyl catastrophe (April 26) and to say to the world: No More Fukushimas. Rallies and other actions are being planned: if your group is planning one, please let us know. We will set up a master list on our website to help in organizing. We want to especially note today an April 16 rally at Diablo Canyon, being sponsored by Mothers for Peace and endorsed by NIRS. We hope everyone in California will be there. More details soon.

*We have sent five radiation monitors to Japan for independent monitoring and software to allow monitoring data to be posted on the internet; we hope to send more.

*We, along with Friends of the Earth and Physicians for Social Reponsibility, have filed a Freedom of Information Act demand for speedy release of radiation data at Fukushima taken by the U.S. government.

*We have done press conferences, multitudes of media interviews and appearances, and much, much more.

And we have sponsored three national grassroots conference calls to think about and talk about our next steps. From those calls and conversations, we have developed a new Post-Fukushima Program for Increased Nuclear Security and Safety in the U.S. We have posted it and a petition here.

We now seek your support for this program. If you are an individual, you may sign the petition in support here. If you can sign on for an organization, we ask that you e-mail your name, organization, city and state (and country if outside the U.S.) to us at nirsnet@nirs.org. We are contemplating taking out a large ad in a progressive publication to state this program and list supporters as a means of furthering debate and action. It is our intent that grassroots groups can use this program in your local and regional work--and point to a large and growing support for its principles.

This is no time to be timid. NIRS has worked for more than 30 years to prevent nuclear disasters--the kind the nuclear industry and governments have told us happen only once every 10,000 years. They lied. Instead, they average about once every ten years. We couldn't prevent Three Mile Island; we couldn't prevent Chernobyl; we couldn't prevent Fukushima. We must prevent the next one. It could happen next decade, next year, next month, tomorrow. So we must act now.

Your contributions remain critical. We are working non-stop to expand our efforts on all fronts. We need more staff to meet the vastly increased demand and hope to be hiring soon. We thank all of you who have contributed so generously this month; if you haven't contributed yet, we hope you will now. If you don't want to give online, please send your donation to NIRS, 6930 Carroll Avenue, Suite 340, Takoma Park, MD 20912.

It truly is time to end the nuclear age, and bring in a safe, clean and affordable nuclear-free, carbon-free energy future.

Thanks for all you do,

Michael Mariotte
Executive Director
Nuclear Information and Resource Service
nirsnet@nirs.org
www.nirs.org

From Greanpeace:

Fukushima, March 27, 2011: Greenpeace radiation experts have confirmed radiation levels of up to ten micro Sieverts per hour (1) in Iitate village, 40km northwest of the crisis-stricken Fukushima/Daiichi nuclear plant, and 20km (2) beyond the official evacuation zone. These levels are high enough to require evacuation.

“The Japanese authorities are fully aware (3) that high levels of radiation from the stricken Fukushima nuclear plant have spread far beyond the official evacuation zone to places like Iitate, yet are still not taking action to properly protect people or keep them informed them about the risks to their health”, said Greenpeace radiation safety expert Jan van de Putte. 

“It is clearly not safe for people to remain in Iitate, especially children and pregnant women, when it could mean receiving the maximum allowed annual dose of radiation in only a few days. When further contamination from possible ingestion or inhalation of radioactive particles is factored in, the risks are even higher.”

“The authorities must stop choosing politics over science and determine evacuation zones around the Fukushima nuclear plant that reflect the radiation levels being found in the environment. In addition to coming clean on the true dangers of the current nuclear crisis, the smartest move for Japan and governments around the world is heavily invest in energy efficiency, and redouble their efforts to harness safe and secure renewable energy sources.”

Take action to eliminate risky loan guarantees for new reactors!

From the Mainichi Daily News:

Japanese officials reported a huge jump in radioactivity -- levels 10 million times the norm -- in water in one reactor unit at a tsunami-damaged nuclear plant Sunday, forcing workers to evacuate and again delaying efforts to control the leaking complex.

The air, meanwhile, measured 1,000 millisieverts per hour -- four times the limit of 250 millisieverts deemed safe by the government, Tokyo Electric Power Co. spokesman Takashi Kurita told reporters.

...

Just outside a reactor at the coastal Fukushima nuclear plant, radioactivity in seawater tested about 1,250 times higher than normal, officials. Nishiyama has said the area is not a source of seafood and that the contamination posed no immediate threat to human health.

Read more

From Bloomberg:

The following is the status of each of six nuclear reactors at Tokyo Electric Power Co.’s crippled Fukushima Dai-Ichi power plant as of 9 a.m., Japan time.

The company pumped fresh water into No. 1, No. 2, and No. 3 reactors, Japan’s Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency said. The external power supply has been restored for all six reactors as of March 22, according to Tokyo Electric Power.

Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano said a “certain level of progress” has been made while speaking on an NHK television program today.

No. 1: Contaminated water in the turbine structure contains 10,000 times the radiation of regular cooling water, NHK said. The company has started removing contaminated water from the basement of the turbine building and will prepare more pumps to drain the water, the agency said. The unit has been damaged since a March 12 hydrogen explosion destroyed the building’s walls. The seriousness of the reactor’s threat to safety is rated level five on an international scale of 1-7.

No. 2: Contaminated water in the turbine structure contains 10 million times more radiation than normal cooling water, NHK said. The company plans to remove contaminated water as early as today, the agency said. The company plans to start using freshwater on fuel pool from March 28, the agency said. The containment chamber may have been damaged in a March 15 explosion, and a power cable was reconnected to the unit on March 19. The reactor is rated a level-five threat.

No. 3: Contaminated water in the turbine structure contains 10,000 times the normal radiation, NHK said. The company is considering ways to remove the contaminated water, the agency said. A March 14 explosion damaged the unit’s fuel cover. The reactor is rated a level-five threat.

No. 4: The company plans to spray water in the spent-fuel cooling pool this afternoon, the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency said. The agency said on March 17 there may be no water in the pool. It’s rated at three on the threat level. This reactor was undergoing maintenance when the earthquake hit.

No. 5: The unit was idle for maintenance before the earthquake.

No. 6: The reactor achieved cold shutdown at 7:27 p.m. on March 20 when the temperature fell below 100 degrees Celsius, the company said. A backup generator was fixed March 19, according to a company press release. The unit was idle for maintenance before the earthquake.

Institute Calls for More Intensive Contingency Planning by Japanese Authorities; U.S. Should Move as Much Spent Fuel as Possible to Dry Storage to Reduce Most Severe Risks and Suspend Licensing and Relicensing during Review

Takoma Park, Maryland – The damaged Fukushima Daiichi reactors in Japan continue to release radioactivity into the atmosphere. So far, the accident has released far more radioactivity than the 1979 Three Mile Island (TMI) accident. While Chernobyl had one source of radioactivity, its reactor, there are seven leaking radiation sources at the Japanese site. Together, the three damaged reactors and four spent fuel pools at Fukushima Daiichi contain far more long-lived radioactivity, notably cesium-137, than the Chernobyl reactor.

Download PDF to read more

THREE MILE ISLAND NUCLEAR STATION, UNIT 1 - REQUEST FOR ADDITIONAL INFORMATION REGARDING LICENSE AMENDMENT REQUEST PROPOSING CHANGES TO THE NUMBER OF REQUIRED OPERABLE MAIN STEAM SAFETY VALVES (TAC NO. ME4808)

Download ML110620167

Urges Governors to Distribute Potassium Iodide to Residents Near Nuclear Power Plants, and Requests Implementation of 2002 Markey Law to Protect More People
 

WASHINGTON, D.C. (March 25, 2011) – With today’s announcement that the evacuation zone around the site of the Fukushima meltdown would be expanded to 19 miles, and news of a possible dangerous breach of containment at one reactor, today Congressman Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.) wrote ten state governors urging them to join 22 other states who have already taken advantage of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s (NRC’s) policy of providing a free supply of potassium iodide to states that request it for residents that live within ten miles of an operating nuclear power plant. Potassium iodide, also called KI, has been found to protect individuals, especially young children, from the cancer-causing releases of radioactive iodine contained in the fallout that would be discharged in the event if a nuclear disaster occurred in the U.S. Thyroid cancer was the biggest negative health impact caused by the Chernobyl nuclear reactor disaster. More than 6,000 Russian, Ukrainian and Belarusian residents who were children at the time of the Chernobyl nuclear reactor disaster developed thyroid cancer. The Japanese and American governments have already distributed KI to those living near Fukushima or participating in the emergency response. Congressman Markey also sent a letter to the National Governors Association requesting its assistance in urging the Obama Administration to implement the 2002 Markey law requiring the distribution of KI to a larger 20-mile radius around operating nuclear power plants.
 
“I urge the Governors and the Obama Administration to take all necessary steps to protect residents living near nuclear power plants,” said Rep. Markey. “It does not make sense to wait for a catastrophic accident at or a terrorist attack on a nuclear reactor in this country to occur to implement this common-sense emergency preparedness measure.”
 
Markey-authored Section 127 of the 2002 Bioterrorism Preparedness and Response Act directed the President to establish a program to make potassium iodide available free to state and local governments for distribution to residents living within 20 miles of a nuclear power plant. Previously, distribution was limited to just those living within 10 miles, and todate, ten states have not yet requested this free medication from the NRC. The Bush administration improperly waived the law requiring distribution of the pharmaceutical safeguard to occur within 20 miles, and the Obama Administration has not yet reversed that action. 
  
Copies of the letters to the ten Governors urging them to request potassium iodide for residents living within 10 miles of a nuclear power plant can be found HERE.
 

A copy of the letter to the National Governor’s Association requesting that they urge the Obama Administration to allow residents living within 20 miles of a nuclear power plant to receive potassium iodide can be found HERE.
 

Since the Japanese earthquake, tsunami and power outage that caused the nuclear meltdown in Japan, Rep. Markey has also written to Presidential Science Advisor John Holdren asking him to fully implement his 2002 law. Additionally, Rep. Markey wrote to the Department of Health and Human Services urging them to call on the Obama administration to reverse the Bush Administration’s decision to remove HHS’s authority to implement it.
 
Rep. Markey, the top Democrat on the House Natural Resources Committee and a senior member of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, has served on the Committees that have oversight over the NRC and the nuclear utility industry since 1976.  For more than three decades, Rep. Markey has worked to secure nuclear power plants and ensure the public safety in the event of a nuclear disaster. In 1979, before the Three Mile Island accident occurred, Rep. Markey introduced legislation providing for a three year moratorium on licensing of new nuclear power plants until a top to bottom safety analysis on nuclear reactors could be performed.  In the early and mid-1980s, Rep. Markey chaired hearings on the lessons of the Three Mile Island accident, including a March 1982 hearing on the need to make KI available to those living around U.S. nuclear power plants. In 1986, he chaired hearings on the causes and consequences of the disaster at Chernobyl. Following the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, Rep. Markey passed a law to strengthen security for nuclear reactors and materials, and a law providing for distribution of potassium iodide to those living within 20 miles of a nuclear reactor. And before the catastrophe in Japan, Rep. Markey raised concerns of the seismic resiliency of our reactors.