• In Japan, a nuclear ghost town stirs to life

    Kyle Drubek

    Odaka, Japan, resembles a ghost town at dusk.

    By Kyle Drubek
    Special to NBC News

    ODAKA, Japan -- The main street is deserted and quiet except for the eerie echoes of music being played somewhere in the distance. Pieces of shattered glass lie scattered along sidewalks outside collapsed buildings, some with their second-story roofs smashed flat on the pavement. Yards and driveways are overgrown with weeds, and schools and playgrounds are silent and forlorn.

    Welcome to Odaka, a Japanese town of about 13,000 residents before a triple disaster of earthquake, tsunami and nuclear meltdown that began on March 11, 2011, turned the once-charming coastal village into a ghost town.

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    While many other Japanese towns and cities suffered the first two calamities, Odaka, which is in the southern district of the larger city Minami Soma, is unusual because of its proximity to the Fukushima Daichi nuclear power plant -- just 6 miles from the southeastern edge of town. The plant, which suffered meltdowns in three of its four nuclear reactors and breaches of its containment walls after the quake, emitted a plume of radioactive smoke that at times drifted over – and through – Odaka’s streets over several months.

    As a result, the town was frozen in time for more than a year after the disaster, abandoned in the so-called “exclusion zone” established by Japanese authorities around the Fukushima plant. Aside from a hurried search for bodies and a few perfunctory cleanup efforts, it remained untouched until April 16, when authorities narrowed the exclusion zone from 20 kilometers to 10 kilometers (6.2 miles) to the north of the plant and allowed residents to return to begin picking through the moldy, shattered and irradiated pieces of their lives.

    As the town slowly begins stirring, it offers a preview of the challenges and travails that await other communities even closer to the plant – if and when they are reopened.

    Kyle Drubek

    Hotel owner Tomoko Kobayashi is slowly emptying her former business and residence of keepsakes. In the meantime she has her hands full chasing out stray cats and cleaning up after an uninvited boarder left empty bottles of liquor scattered in an unkempt room.

    Among the first wave of returnees was Tomoko Kobayashi, the owner of a small hotel, who has begun cleaning up her business despite the fact that no customers are likely to be ringing the bell at the front desk anytime soon.

    Kobayashi, a petite and energetic woman in her 60s, is a third-generation hotelier who took over the family business 10 years ago and had expected it to provide a steady income after her husband’s retirement later this year. But now, between drives of 40 miles each day to and from the couple’s cramped temporary housing unit in Haramachi, she worries that Odaka will never recover, as many business owners and young people elect to start new lives elsewhere.

    Without such residents, she said, Odaka will become “a town of the elderly and restoration workers.”

    Distrust of government
    While Minami Soma city has begun decontamination and reconstruction efforts, Odaka remains under the direct authority of the Japanese government. That means residents must wait for evacuation orders issued shortly after the quake to be rescinded before they can return full-time. For now the town is open 24 hours a day, but no one is allowed to sleep there.

    Kyle Drubek

    On the outskirts of Fukushima city, a farmer spreads zeolite -- intended to absorb and concentrate radioactive cesium -- across his rice field in preparation for planting.

    Because many residents were forced to relocate far from Odaka, relatively few return on a regular basis to sort through their belongings and begin cleaning the tsunami mud and debris from homes and businesses. In their absence, police and volunteer patrols circle the streets, politely questioning anyone who stops and sometimes searching vehicles if they suspect theft. The occasional work crew repairs telephone and power lines or fills potholes with gravel.

    Farms and fishing – once the lifeblood of Odaka – are not going to contribute to a recovery for a long time. Massive swathes of farmland are contaminated by tsunami salt or radiation and the fishing industry has been obliterated.

    But while damage from the quake and tsunami were substantial, radiation remains the main cause of concern both for the government and Odaka residents.

    Tatsuo Miyamoto of the Minami Soma City Reconstruction Department said the reopening of Odaka is “a move to start cleanup in preparation for residents (to) return” once electricity, water and sewage service are restored, he said.

    Slideshow: Then-and-now: Tsunami cleanup

    AP

    View side-by-side the progress that Japan has made since the tsunami and earthquake in March 2011.

    Launch slideshow

    In the meantime, he said, the government believes that radiation levels in the town are safe for “extended exposure,” which it defines as up to 20 millisieverts per year – the same level that the International Commission on Radiological Protection has established for nuclear workers. But it is conducting a thorough survey of the town in 30-meter increments to measure levels in individual plots, which will then be classified as “prepared for return,” “problematic for return” or "prohibited for residency for an extended period.” That survey will determine where decontamination work – such as soil removal, high-pressure spraying and other measures – is required and which parts of the city – if any – will remain off-limits.  

    But decontamination efforts, which were scheduled  to start this month and continue at least through the end of 2013, already have been delayed because sites for disposal of Odaka’s radioactive waste have not yet been approved.

    That leaves early returnees like Kobayashi in a bind. Bags of radioactive tsunami mud collected by volunteer workers remain piled along the sidewalk outside her hotel in a tidy line. “I keep telling them to take it away, but they won’t,” she said, referring to government workers who drive past each day.

    Kyle Drubek

    Test rice paddies are scattered throughout Minami Soma. The rice will be harvested and tested for radioactive cesium later in the year.

    The fallout from the radioactive cloud is not evenly distributed, and the radiation levels remain high in some pockets, especially on foothills around the town, said two volunteer citizen patrolmen, Morio Matsumoto, 65, and Yasumi Murohara, 71, who are taking part in the survey. “Our dosimeter only goes up to 20 microsieverts per hour and it was at maximum,” said Matsumoto, discussing one foray into the hills.

    Questions also are being raised on the efficacy of decontamination efforts.

    The Fukushima Prefecture government said that its work in the field indicates that overall radiation levels decline by 37 percent with decontamination work, which may not be sufficient to make highly contaminated areas suitable for habitation. And areas that are cleaned can be recontaminated by radioactive materials carried by wind or water.

    Despite the radiation already in the city, many Odaka residents and some nuclear energy experts are more concerned about the safety of the battered Fukushima Daichi plant.

    The Japanese government and the plant operator, the Tokyo Electric Power Co., or TEPCO, have assured the public that the plant is stable and that safety systems are being restored.

    Kyle Drubek

    A bicycle lies abandoned at a local elementary school in Odaka.

    But Takahashi Kei, a former cooling system worker at the plant now working as a radiation survey volunteer, said the utility company’s executives are portraying the situation in the best possible light.

    “There are leaks everywhere, wreckage too. It’s not as simple as they portray,” he said.

    Kobayashi also is highly suspicious of the assurances of the Japanese government and TEPCO about the Fukushima Daichi plant’s status.

    “If there is no radiation exposure danger here, then the only danger remaining is the reactors. I think that is why we are not being allowed to return,” she said. “We just want to know the truth, no matter how bad it is. If they hide one thing from us, how can we believe anything they say?”

    Kyle Drubek

    Nuclear reactor specialist Hiroaki Koide.

    'I wouldn't ask younger people to return'
    TEPCO acknowledges that three reactors at the plant remain full of melted and re-solidified fuel that must be removed and that spent fuel pools elsewhere on the grounds must be kept cool to prevent them from releasing radiation again. It estimates it will take about 40 years to completely decommission the site.

    Tetsuo Sawada, a nuclear engineer and assistant professor at the Tokyo Institute of Technology, describes the cleanup as a “difficult and major undertaking.”

    Others see the situation as more dire.

    “The state of the reactors is still deteriorating … the incident is still progressing,” said Hiroaki Koide, a nuclear reactor specialist and an assistant professor at Kyoto University. “The current issues we are faced with is how to remove the radioactive material without releasing it. … All we can presently do is pray that there is not a large earthquake (that could further damage the plant). The possibility of Fukushima releasing more radioactive material than Chernobyl is still a reality.”

    Ultimately, financial pressures may be the deciding factor in whether evacuees return to Odaka. Under current government standards, residents are eligible for property compensation only if evacuation orders stay in place. If the orders are rescinded, they must decide whether to shoulder the loss and walk away from their homes and businesses or return face possible radiation exposure and the danger posed by the damaged nuclear plant.

    What was once a gleaming city full of good jobs, new schools and modern apartments is now a ghost town infected with radiation. NBC's Michelle Kosinski reports.

    Such agonizing mental calculus is evident in the repopulated Haramachi district north of Odaka, where many parents restrict their children to playing indoors, or in school yards or gymnasiums that have been decontaminated. And despite widespread availability of health tests and full-body scanning, many residents are concerned about food contamination, as well as airborne dust and sand that they fear may contain radioactive material.

    Nearer the epicenter of the nuclear nightmare, in Odaka, such fears are bound to be amplified. And in a town where 28 percent of the population was older than 65 before the disaster, that has Kobayashi questioning whether her hometown can survive.

    “I only have another 20 years or so to live, (so) it won’t be an issue for me,” she said. “… (But) I wouldn’t ask the younger people to return.”

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  • What NRC nuclear documents do you want to see? Here's our list

    By Bill Dedman
    Investigative Reporter, NBC News

    The Japanese nuclear emergency has, of course, raised interest in nuclear power in the United States. The federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission's public records staff says it is "experiencing a larger than normal volume" of requests for public records under the federal Freedom of Information Act. To put it mildly, perhaps.

    "Due to the high volume of FOIA requests received as a result of the unexpected events in Japan, response times to requests may be longer than normal," the NRC staff says on its FOIA request page.

    At msnbc.com we continue to pursue several reporting angles on this story. Here are the FOIA requests that we've filed with the NRC. We'll let you know what we find.

    • The daily calendar for each of the NRC commissioners for the past year. PDF file.
    • Any letters or memos documenting exemptions to NRC regulations at a nuclear facility. PDF file.
    • The NRC personnel roster showing the full name of each employee, date hired, job title, division and branch, and rate of pay. PDF file.
    • Any e-mail or electronic messages sent or received during the week after the Japan earthquake by any of the senior staff of the NRC. We have 45 people on our list. PDF files here and here.
    • Any e-mail or electronic messages sent or received during the two weeks after the quake by the 22 key NRC staff involved in seismic issues. PDF file.

    What records would you like to see from the NRC? If you're an industry insider with knowledge of a particular situation, what document would you like to see us request?

    Post a comment here, or use the links below to send us your document suggestions.

  • Senators call on NRC to vouch for safety of U.S. nuclear plants

    By Bill Dedman
    Investigative Reporter, NBC News

    Three U.S. senators on Thursday called on the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to answer for the safety and emergency preparedness at all nuclear facilities in the United States.

    As msnbc.com reported on Wednesday, the NRC has raised its earthquake damage estimates for the nation's 104 commercial nuclear power plants, particularly for those in the eastern and central states, where seismologists say the earthquake risk is higher than previously thought. The estimates by the NRC were provided to msnbc.com, which ranked the reactors by risk.

    The letters from the senators are reprinted below. The first is from Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.), chairman of the Senate's Environment and Public Works Committee, and Sen. Tom Carper (D-Del.), chairman of the Senate Clean Air and Nuclear Safety Subcommittee. The second, focused on California's nuclear power plants, is from Boxer and Sen. Dianne Feinstein. Both were addressed to Gregory Jaczko, chairman of the NRC, which regulates nuclear power plants.

    "We call on the NRC," Boxer and Feinstein wrote, "to conduct a comprehensive investigation of all nuclear facilities in the United States to assess their capacity to withstand catastrophic natural or man-made disasters including scenarios that may be considered remote like the recent events in Japan. These domestic nuclear reactors must be fully evaluated to ensure that they are as safe and resilient as possible, that worst case scenarios are examined and addressed, and that personnel training and equipment for emergency responses are in place and up-to-date. Special and immediate attention should be given to those U.S. nuclear reactors that share similar characteristics as the failing reactors in Japan, including similar designs or located near a coastline or seismic fault line."

    Tom Curry of msnbc.com reports on Congressional reaction to Jaczko's testimony on Wednesday: No move yet in Congress to curb nuclear initiatives.

    And President Obama said Thursday he has asked nuclear regulators for a comprehensive review of the safety of U.S. nuclear power plants.

    How safe are U.S. nuclear plants? NBC's Tom Costello reports, wrapping up our msnbc.com report, NRC statements and a watchdog group's report.

    The letter from Sens. Boxer and Carper:

    Dear Chairman Jaczko:

    The loss of life and physical damage that Japan sustained in last week's devastating earthquake and subsequent destructive tsunami is catastrophic and heartbreaking. Our thoughts and prayers, as well as those of the American people, go out to all citizens of Japan and especially to the families of the thousands of disaster victims.

    As this tragedy continues to unfold, we encourage the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and other U.S. agencies to continue to coordinate fully with the Japanese government to assess the status of public safety in light of the reactors' failures and to provide all technical assistance required.

    The earthquake and tsunami that struck Japan are chilling reminders that we are all vulnerable to unexpected disasters, whether they are an act of nature or a terrorist attack. While we cannot predict with any certainty when or where the next major disaster will occur, we know that adequate preparation and response planning are absolutely vital to minimize injury, death, and destruction when it does happen.

    As the Committee with oversight responsibilities on nuclear safety, we believe it is important to assist Japan to ensure that this nuclear disaster is contained as quickly and effectively as possible. For the long term, the multiple simultaneous failures of backup coolant systems at nuclear reactors in Japan are a clear warning that we must step up efforts to ensure that every precaution is taken to safeguard the American people from a similar incident at a U.S. nuclear facility.

    Therefore, we call on the NRC to conduct a comprehensive investigation of all nuclear facilities in the United States to assess their capacity to withstand catastrophic natural or man-made disasters including scenarios that may be considered remote like the recent events in Japan. These domestic nuclear reactors must be fully evaluated to ensure that they are as safe and resilient as possible, that worst case scenarios are examined and addressed, and that personnel training and equipment for emergency responses are in place and up-to-date. Special and immediate attention should be given to those U.S. nuclear reactors that share similar characteristics as the failing reactors in Japan, including similar designs or located near a coastline or seismic fault line.

    In addition to updating the EPW Committee on a regular basis, we also request that the NRC supply information to the committee as soon as possible regarding the following issues:

    1. Please identify all U.S. nuclear facilities subject to significant seismic activity and/or tsunamis.

    2. U.S. nuclear power plants are designed to be safe based on historical data of the area's maximum credible threat (including earthquakes and tsunamis). What extra safety features does the NRC currently require for facilities that have a credible threat of an earthquake and/or tsunami? In light of the recent events in Japan, we would also like the NRC to re-examine the assumptions used to determine the maximum credible threat and suggest additional options that could provide a greater margin for safety at plants nationwide that might be subject to challenges similar to those currently being seen in Japan following the earthquake and tsunami.

    3. Which U.S. nuclear power plants share similar design features with the affected Japanese reactor facilities? Do these facilities have design vulnerabilities that should be addressed to ensure their cooling systems do not fail when confronted by stresses including those similar to what we have seen in Japan following the earthquake and tsunami?

    4. How comprehensive is the radiation monitoring system in Japan? Would the U.S. take a similar monitoring approach if a serious accident were to occur here? What increased risk is associated with exposure to mixed oxide fuel?

    5. Given what has happened at the Japanese facilities, please describe how the NRC currently ensures the safety of spent fuel pools at U.S. facilities and identify additional steps the NRC could take to better address the vulnerabilities of spent fuel pools at plants in the U.S.

    6. Has the NRC modeled what could happen if the U.S. had multiple nuclear accidents simultaneously? If so, how would the NRC respond to such a disaster?

    Safety is always our number one priority, and therefore it is vital that the NRC immediately evaluate the risks posed to nuclear reactors in the United States. We look forward to working with you to ensure that the nuclear energy industry and NRC regulators are adequately prepared to prevent accidents and to fully address the risks of serious events in the future.

    Sincerely yours,

    Barbara Boxer, Chairman, Committee on Environment and Public Works
    Tom Carper, Chairman, Subcommittee on Clean Air and Nuclear Safety

     

    The letter from Sens. Boxer and Feinstein:

    Dear Chairman Jaczko:

    The unfolding nuclear disaster in Japan has raised questions about the safety of nuclear power plants here in the U.S. As Senators from California, we are particularly interested in the safety of San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station, located in San Clemente, and the Diablo Canyon Nuclear Power Plant near San Luis Obispo, both of which are near earthquake faults.

    Roughly 424,000 live within 50 miles of the Diablo Canyon and 7.4 million live within 50 miles of San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station. Although many safety measures have been taken to address potential hazards associated with these facilities, we need to ensure that the risk is fully evaluated.

    For example, a 2008 California Energy Commission report presented very clear warnings of potential threats at both of these plants. This report found that the San Onofre plant could experience "larger and more frequent earthquakes" than the maximum 7.0 magnitude earthquake predicted when the plant was designed. It is our understanding that the NRC has not taken action to address these warnings in the report. It is also our understanding that the 2008 report found that there is an additional fault near the Diablo Canyon plant that should be taken into consideration as part of NRC's relicensing process. We want to know if the NRC will address all of the threats, including seismic threats, described in the 2008 report at these facilities.

    Therefore we ask that the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) perform a thorough inspection at these two plants to evaluate their safety and emergency preparedness plans.

    In addition, we ask the NRC to answer the questions below regarding plant design and operations, type of reactor, and preparedness to withstand an earthquake or tsunami and other potential threats.

    Plant Design and Operations

    1. What changes to the design or operation of these facilities have improved safety at the plants since they began operating in the mid-1980s?

    2. What emergency notification systems have been installed at California nuclear power plants? Has there ever been a lapse of these systems during previous earthquakes or emergencies?

    3. What safety measures are in place to ensure continued power to California reactors in the event of an extended power failure?

    Type of Reactor

    1. What are the differences and similarities between the reactors being used in California (pressurized water reactors) and those in Japan (boiling water reactors), as well as the facilities used to house the reactors, including the standards to which they were built and their ability to withstand natural and manmade disasters?

    Earthquakes and Tsunamis

    1. We have been told that both Diablo Canyon and San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station are designed to withstand the maximum credible threat at both plants, which we understand to be much less than the 9.0 earthquake that hit Japan. What assumptions have you made about the ability of both plants to withstand an earthquake or tsunami? Given the disaster in Japan, what are our options to provide these plants with a greater margin for safety?

    2. Have new faults been discovered near Diablo Canyon or San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station since those plants began operations? If so, how have the plants been modified to account for the increased risk of an earthquake? How will the NRC consider information on ways to address risks posed by faults near these plants that is produced pursuant to state law or recommendations by state agencies during the NRC relicensing process?

    3. What are the evacuation plans for both plants in the event of an emergency? We understand that Highway 1 is the main route out of San Luis Obispo, what is the plan for evacuation of the nearby population if an earthquake takes out portions of the highway and a nuclear emergency occurs simultaneously?

    4. What is the NRC's role in monitoring radiation in the event of a nuclear accident both here and abroad? What is the role of EPA and other federal agencies?

    5. What monitoring systems currently are in place to track potential impacts on the U.S., including California, associated with the events in Japan?

    6. Which federal agency is leading the monitoring effort and which agencies have responsibility for assessing human health impacts? What impacts have occurred to date on the health or environment of the U.S. or are currently projected or modeled in connection with the events in Japan?

    7. What contingency plans are in place to ensure that the American public is notified in the event that hazardous materials associated with the events in Japan pose an imminent threat to the U.S.?

    The NRC was created in the mid-1970s specifically to ensure the protection of public health and safety with regard to civilian nuclear power. The Commission plays an essential role ensuring that we learn from nuclear accidents and near misses. We hope you agree that we must identify whatever lessons are to be learned from the disaster in Japan in order to make facilities in the United States as safe as possible.

    We look forward to working with you to ensure the safety of our nation's nuclear power plants and to make the changes necessary to ensure a nuclear tragedy does not occur in this country.

    Sincerely,

    Senator Barbara Boxer, Chairman, Environment and Public Works Committee
    Senator Dianne Feinstein, Chairman, Appropriations Subcommittee on Interior, Environment and Related Agencies

     

     

  • Gov. Cuomo orders review of N.Y. reactor after report on quake data

    Mike Groll / AP

    "We are going to check into it ... immediately," said Gov. Andrew Cuomo of New York.

    By Bill Dedman
    Investigative Reporter, NBC News

    New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo ordered a safety review of the Indian Point nuclear plant just up the Hudson River from New York City, after one of its reactors ranked first for risk of damage from an earthquake in a study published Wednesday.

    Update: The state attorney general, Eric T. Schneiderman, on Friday made a similar request, insisting that relicensing of the plant take into account its seismic risk. His statement is here.

    The report by msnbc.com was based on damage estimates for 104 commercial nuclear power plants from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, the federal agency that supervises the industry. The highest risk of damage from an earthquake, according to the NRC's data, was at Indian Point's reactor No. 3, which the NRC said had a 1 in 10,000 chance each year of damage to its radioactive core from an earthquake. The plant lies near the Ramapo Fault zone.

    "We are going to check into it ... immediately," Cuomo, the state's new Democratic governor and former attorney general, told WNBC TV in New York. "This plant in this proximity to New York City was never a good risk. But this is new information we are going to pursue."

    Cuomo told WNBC that he discussed the issue with leaders of the state Senate and General Assembly in a closed-door session on Wednesday. It was not immediately clear what sort of review Cuomo plans, or who would conduct it.

    Mike Segar / Reuters

    Indian Point Energy Center sits on the east bank of the Hudson River, 24 miles from New York City. It provides up to one-third of the electricity for the city and suburban Westchester County.

    The NRC data had been published in August showing an increased risk of earthquakes at power plants in the central and eastern United States, and this week the NRC provided additional data to msnbc.com for the few plants in the western states, allowing msnbc.com to rank the plants by risk. The NRC public affairs staff stressed to all callers on Wednesday that it had not done the rankings, but it did not question the accuracy of the data.

    The NRC emphasized that it believes the risk is low of damage to a nuclear power plant from an earthquake.

    "Operating nuclear power plants are safe," the NRC said when it reported the new risk estimates. Every plant is designed with a margin of safety beyond the strongest earthquake anticipated in that area, the NRC says, but the new data on earthquakes show that the margin of safety has been reduced.

    The full ranking of 104 nuclear power plants is here.

    The Indian Point plant, which has two active reactors, provides up to one-third of the electric power for New York City and suburban Westchester County, N.Y. The plant's second reactor had a lower risk of major damage from a quake, according to the NRC, estimated at 1 in 30,303 each year, still about twice the risk of the typical nuclear power plant.  The plant is 24 miles from New York City. Statewide, New York has six commercial nuclear reactors at four plants.

    The plant's license is up for renewal. Cuomo, when he was attorney general, said the plant should be closed. In 2007 he called the plant "a catastrophe waiting to happen."

    A spokesman for EntergyCorp., the New Orleans company that operates Indian Point, dismissed the possibility of it having troubles like the Fukushima Dai-ichi plant in Japan.

    "I say only if a tsunami could make its way … up New York Harbor and the Hudson River, somehow avoid New York City, and drench our plant,” Jim Streets, director of communications at Entergy Nuclear Northeast, told CBS New York on Wednesday. “It just doesn’t seem very realistic to me.”

    The NRC study based its damage estimates on U.S. Geological Survey data for earthquakes, as well as each plant's type of design and construction.

    The study was also mentioned at Wednesday's U.S. Senate hearing on nuclear power. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) asked the NRC chairman, Gregory B. Jaczko, about the report. He said he wasn't aware of it, but assured senators that there is no reason for concern.

    Related: Alex Johnson of msnbc.com has an article about the licensing battle at another Entergy plant, Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station in Plymouth, Mass.

     

  • Nuclear industry vows that lessons from Japan will make reactors 'even safer'

    By Bill Dedman
    Investigative Reporter, NBC News

    Two days after the earthquake and tsunami pushed Japan into a nuclear emergency, the leading trade and lobbying group for the worldwide nuclear power industry has outlined its position on the future of nuclear energy: “When we fully understand the facts surrounding the event in Japan, we will use those insights to make nuclear energy even safer.”

    The Nuclear Energy Institute posted 19 questions and answers on Sunday, apparently intended to reassure the public, the financial markets and legislators that "public support for nuclear power should not decline dramatically.”

    Kim Kyung-Hoon / Reuters

    An official in protective gear scans for signs of radiation on a man from the evacuation area near the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant in Koriyama, Japan, on Saturday.

    Highlights:

    • "It is premature to draw conclusions from the tragedy in Japan about the U.S. nuclear energy program. Japan is facing what literally can be considered a ‘worst case’ disaster and, so far, even the most seriously damaged of its 54 reactors has not released radiation at levels that would harm the public. That is a testament to their rugged design and construction, and the effectiveness of their employees and the industry’s emergency preparedness planning.”

    • “The U.S. nuclear industry, the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, the Institute of Nuclear Power Operations, the World Association of Nuclear Operators and other expert organizations in the United States and around the world will conduct detailed reviews of the accident, identify lessons learned (both in terms of plant operation and design), and we will incorporate those lessons learned into the design and operation of U.S. nuclear power plants.”

    • “The nuclear energy industry believes that existing seismic design criteria are adequate. Every U.S. nuclear power plant has an in-depth seismic analysis and is designed and constructed to withstand the maximum projected earthquake that could occur in its area without any breach of safety systems. Each reactor is built to withstand the maximum site-specific earthquake by utilizing reinforced concrete and other specialized materials.″

    • “Given the safety record in this country, the robust regulatory infrastructure, the defense in depth that governs operations and designs, and the seismological differences between the U.S. and Japan, we believe that public support for nuclear power should not decline dramatically. The events at Fukushima Daiichi show that nuclear power’s defense-in-depth approach to safety is appropriate and strong. Despite one of the largest earthquakes in world history, with accompanying tsunamis, fires and aftershocks — multiple disasters compounded one on top of the other — the primary containments at reactors near the epicenter have not been breached and the radioactive release has been minimal and controlled. This event will show that even under very severe circumstances, nuclear power plants are designed to withstand natural disasters.″

    The statement by the NEI confirmed msnbc.com's report on Sunday that 23 of the 104 nuclear reactors in the United States are similar to those at Fukushima: General Electric-designed boiling-water reactors with the GE Mark I containment design.  As that report describes, General Electric is a parent company of msnbc.com through GE's 49 percent stake in NBCUniversal. NBCUniversal and Microsoft are equal partners in msnbc.com.

    The full statement by the NEI is here. The Washington group says it represents nearly 350 nuclear power companies in 19 countries.

    If you have information to share with a reporter about the design and operation of nuclear reactors, use the links below. And the discussion forum below is open.

    Here are two related reports from Reuters: Analysis: Nuclear renaissance could fizzle after Japan quake, and Japan nuclear woes cast shadow over U.S. energy policy.

     

  • General Electric-designed reactors in Fukushima have 23 sisters in U.S.

    By Bill Dedman
    Investigative Reporter, NBC News

    The General Electric-designed nuclear reactors involved in the Japanese emergency are very similar to 23 reactors in use in the United States, according to Nuclear Regulatory Commission records.

    The NRC database of nuclear power plants shows that 23 of the 104 nuclear plants in the U.S. are GE boiling-water reactors with GE's Mark I systems for containing radioactivity, the same containment system used by the reactors in trouble at the Fukushima Dai-ichi plant. The U.S. reactors are in Alabama, Georgia, Illinois, Iowa, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Nebraska, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Vermont.

    In addition, 12 reactors in the U.S. have the later Mark II or Mark III containment system from GE. These 12 are in Illinois, Louisiana, Mississippi, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Washington state. See the full list below.

    GE via NRC

    GE's Mark I containment system.

    (General Electric is a parent company of msnbc.com through GE's 49 percent stake in NBCUniversal. NBCUniversal and Microsoft are equal partners in msnbc.com.)

    Msnbc.com sent questions Saturday to GE, asking whether the Japanese reactors differed from those of the same general design used in the U.S.

    A GE spokesman, Michael Tetuan, referred all questions to the Nuclear Energy Institute, an industry trade and lobbying group. Tetuan said GE nuclear staff members in Wilmington, N.C., are focused on assisting GE employees in Japan and standing by to help the Japanese authorities if asked to help. The NEI on Sunday confirmed that the figure of 23 is correct.

    Updates:

    • On Monday, GE Hitachi Nuclear sent the following statement, in full: "The BWR Mark 1 reactor is the industry’s workhorse with a proven track record of safety and reliability for more than 40 years. Today, there are 32 BWR Mark 1 reactors operating as designed worldwide.  There has never been a breach of a Mark 1 containment system."
    • On Friday, GE posted rebuttals to the most common criticisms of the Mark I containment system.

    The six reactors at the Fukushima Dai-ichi power plant, which had explosions on Saturday and Monday, are all GE-designed boiling-water reactors, known in the industry as BWRs. Five have containment systems of GE's Mark I design, and the sixth is of the Mark II type. They were placed in operation between 1971 and 1979.

    A fact sheet from the anti-nuclear advocacy group Nuclear Information and Resource Service contends that the Mark I design has design problems, and that in 1972 an Atomic Energy Commission member, Dr. Stephen Hanuaer, recommended that this type of system be discontinued.

    "Some modifications have been made to U.S. Mark I reactors since 1986, although the fundamental design deficiencies remain," NIRS said. The group has a commentary online describing what it says are hazards of boiling-water reactors: human invervention needed to vent radioactive steam in the case of a core meltdown, and problems with aging.

    Since the earthquake struck Japan on Friday, the early statements by the industry's Nuclear Industry Institute have emphasized that only six plants in the U.S. have precisely the same generation of reactor design (GE boiling-water reactor model 3) as the first reactor to have trouble in Fukushima Daiichi. Problems then developed at different reactors of GE model 4.

    But aside from the generation of reactor design, the following 23 U.S. plants have GE boiling-water reactors (GE models 2, 3 or 4) with the same Mark I containment design used at Fukushima, according to the NRC's online database:

       • Browns Ferry 1, Athens, Alabama, operating license since 1973, reactor type GE 4.

       • Browns Ferry 2, Athens, Alabama, 1974, GE 4.

       • Browns Ferry 3, Athens, Alabama, 1976, GE 4.

       • Brunswick 1, Southport, North Carolina, 1976, GE 4.

       • Brunswick 2, Southport, North Carolina, 1974, GE 4.

       • Cooper, Brownville, Nebraska, 1974, GE 4.

       • Dresden 2, Morris, Illinois, 1970, GE 3.

       • Dresden 3, Morris, Illinois, 1971, GE 3.

       • Duane Arnold, Palo, Iowa, 1974, GE 4.

       • Fermi 2, Monroe, Michigan, 1985, GE 4.

       • FitzPatrick, Scriba, New York, 1974, GE 4.

       • Hatch 1, Baxley, Georgia, 1974, GE 4.

       • Hatch 2, Baxley, Georgia, 1978, GE 4.

       • Hope Creek, Hancock's Bridge, New Jersey, 1986, GE 4.

       • Monticello, Monticello, Minnesota, 1970, GE 3.

       • Nine Mile Point 1, Scriba, New York, 1969, GE 2.

       • Oyster Creek, Forked River, New Jersey, 1969, GE 2.

       • Peach Bottom 2, Delta, Pennsylvania, 1973, GE 4.

       • Peach Bottom 3, Delta, Pennsylvania, 1974,  GE 4.

       • Pilgrim, Plymouth, Massachusetts, 1972, GE 3.

       • Quad Cities 1, Cordova, Illinois, 1972, GE 3.

       • Quad Cities 2, Moline, Illinois, 1972, GE 3.

       • Vermont Yankee, Vernon, Vermont, 1972, GE 4.

     

    And these 12 newer GE boiling-water reactors have a Mark II or Mark III design:

       • Clinton, Clinton, Illinois, 1987, GE 6, Mark III.

       • Columbia Generating Station, Richland, Washington, 1984, GE 5, Mark II.

       • Grand Gulf, Port Gibson, Mississippi, 1984, GE 6, Mark III.

       • LaSalle 1, Marseilles, Illinois, 1982, GE 5, Mark II.

       • LaSalle 2, Marseilles, Illinois, 1983, GE 5, Mark II.

       • Limerick 1, Limerick, Pennsylvania, 1985, GE 4, Mark II.

       • Limerick 2, Limerick, Pennsylvania, 1989, GE 4, Mark II.

       • Nine Mile Point 2, Scriba, New York, 1987, GE 5, Mark II.

       • Perry, Perry, Ohio, 1986, GE 6, Mark III.

       • River Bend, St. Francisville, Louisiana, 1985, GE 6, Mark III.

       • Susquehanna 1, Salem Township, Pennsylvania, 1982, GE 4, Mark II.

       • Susquehanna 2, Salem Township, Pennsylvania, 1984, GE 4, Mark II.

     

    Other resources:

    Details on each U.S. reactor are in the NRC list.

    The NRC has an explainer on boiling-water reactors and the various GE containment designs.

    Here's an earthquake hazard map of the lower 48 United States from the U.S. Geological Survey showing the areas with the greatest risks. More detailed state-by-state maps from the USGS are here.

    Scientific American looks at the technical situation facing the engineers in Japan. And The Wall Street Journal describes how this emergency calls into question the redundancies that nuclear plant designers rely on.

    The Wall Street Journal reported that Tokyo Electric tested the Fukushima plant to withstand an earthquake less severe than the one that struck last week:

    Separately, company documents show that Tokyo Electric tested the Fukushima plant to withstand a maximum seismic jolt lower than Friday's 8.9 earthquake. Tepco's last safety test of nuclear power plant Number 1—one that is currently in danger of meltdown—was done at a seismic magnitude the company considered the highest possible, but in fact turned out to be lower than Friday's quake. The information comes from the company's "Fukushima No. 1 and No. 2 Updated Safety Measures" documents written in Japanese in 2010 and 2009. The documents were reviewed by Dow Jones.

    The company said in the documents that 7.9 was the highest magnitude for which they tested the safety for their No. 1 and No. 2 nuclear power plants in Fukushima.

    Simultaneous seismic activity along the three tectonic plates in the sea east of the plants—the epicenter of Friday's quake—wouldn't surpass 7.9, according to the company's presentation.

    The company based its models partly on previous seismic activity in the area, including a 7.0 earthquake in May 1938 and two simultaneous earthquakes of 7.3 and 7.5 on November 5 of the same year.

    Video from NBC Nightly News:

    NBC's Lester Holt speaks with nuclear energy expert Joe Cirincione.

     

  • Anti-nuclear group in Japan says emergency was predicted

    By Bill Dedman
    Investigative Reporter, NBC News

    An anti-nuclear group in Japan said Saturday that it had warned of just the kind of emergency occurring at the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant.

    "This could and should have been predicted," said a statement from spokesman Philip White of the Citizens' Nuclear Information Center.

    "It was predicted by scientists and NGOs (non-governmental organizations) such as CNIC. We warned that Japan's nuclear power plants could be subjected to much stronger earthquakes and much bigger tsunamis than they were designed to withstand."

    The full statement is below. Note that the group uses the word "meltdown" to describe the situation at the Fukushima plant, although the International Atomic Energy Agency and Japanese officials are not using such provocative language.

    Greenpeace also took the opportunity to call for a ban on nuclear plant construction. Its full statement is below.

    For more on the seismic preparedness of nuclear facilities, see the previous post, 2007 Japan quake was a 'wake-up call' on nuclear safety.

    The CNIC statement:

    The Citizens' Nuclear Information Center (CNIC) is deeply concerned for the health and safety of the people affected by the earthquakes and tsunamis that have struck Japan over the last two days. We are particularly concerned for the people in the vicinity of nuclear power plants, including workers who are trying to minimize the scope of the disaster.

    Unit 1 of the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant is in a state of meltdown. A nuclear disaster which the promoters of nuclear power in Japan said wouldn't happen is in progress. It is occurring as a result of an earthquake that they said would not happen.

    This could and should have been predicted. It was predicted by scientists and NGOs such as CNIC. We warned that Japan's nuclear power plants could be subjected to much stronger earthquakes and much bigger tsunamis than they were designed to withstand.

    Besides the question about how this accident will unfold, the big question now is, will the government and the nuclear industry acknowledge its mistakes and change track?

    Last December the Japanese government began a review of its nuclear energy policy. The review was commenced in the spirit of essentially confirming the existing policy. That approach is no longer viable. The direction of the policy review must be completely reversed. It must be redirected towards developing a policy of phasing out nuclear energy as smoothly and swiftly as possible.

    The Greenpeace statement:

    Reacting to reports that radioactive materials including the isotope Cesium-137 have been released from the Fukushima power plant, and that increased levels of radiation have been detected in the immediate vicinity, Jan Beranek, Head of Greenpeace International Nuclear Campaign said:

    “Our thoughts continue to be with the Japanese people as they face the threat of a nuclear disaster, following already devastating earthquake and tsunami. The authorities must focus on keeping people safe, and avoiding any further releases of radioactivity."

    “The evolving situation at Fukushima remains far from clear, but what we do know is that contamination from the release of Cesium-137 poses a significant health risk to anyone exposed. Cesium-137 has been one if the isotopes causing the greatest health impacts following the Chernobyl disaster, because it can remain in the environment and food chain for 300 years.”

    “Fukushima remains under threat of a serious reactor meltdown; this would potentially create an iodine cloud, which could spread high radiation levels to both the environment and population over many tens of kilometres. By simply communicating to local populations the importance of staying indoors, the government could limit potential radiation doses from this cloud by a factor 2 to 5.”

    “How many more warnings do we before we finally grasp that nuclear reactors are inherently hazardous? The nuclear industry always tells us that situation like this cannot happen with modern reactors, yet Japan is currently in the middle of a potentially devastating nuclear crisis. Once again, we are reminded of the inherent risks of nuclear power, which will always be vulnerable to the potentially deadly combination of human error, design failure and natural disaster.”

    “Greenpeace is calling for the phase out of existing reactors, and no construction of new commercial nuclear reactors. Governments should invest in renewable energy resources that are not only environmentally sound but also affordable and reliable."

     

  • 2007 Japan quake was a 'wake-up call' on nuclear safety

    By Bill Dedman
    Investigative Reporter, NBC News

    A 2007 earthquake that spilled radioactive material into the Sea of Japan was a "wake-up call that reverberated around the globe," according to a report by the International Atomic Energy Agency.

    About 20 percent of the world's nuclear reactors are in areas of significant seismic activity, according to the IAEA.

    The agency set up an International Seismic Safety Centre after the 2007 quake at the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear plant in central Japan. Four reactors at the plant shut down automatically, but water that contained radioactive material was spilled, "though without an adverse effect on human health or the environment," the IAEA reported. The plant was about 11 miles from the epicenter of that quake, magnitude 6.6.

    The tremors in that 2007 earthquake were two and one-half times the levels that the plant had been designed for, the IAEA found, but the reactor did withstand the quake. An inspection by IAEA found no significant damage to the plant.

    "There has been a misconception since the early days of nuclear power," the IAEA reported, "that human error or mechanical failure, in other words risk factors within the plant itself, are the most significant variables regarding possible radiological release to the environment. In fact, the greatest threat to a plant´s operation may lie outside its walls. Nuclear power plants all over the world are exposed to natural hazards, such as hurricanes, floods, fires, tsunamis, volcanoes and earthquakes. With safety always a key concern, engineers, safety specialists and architects also have to take extreme natural forces into consideration."

    In the U.S., the Nuclear Regulatory Commission says that all nuclear power plants are designed to take into account historical data on earthquakes and other dangers at each location, plus a "margin for error." A 2008 study by the NRC found that the risk of hazards from seismic activity had increased, but was "still small." A summary is here.

    Nuclear industry groups say that nuclear reactors have proven they can withstand earthquakes. They point to the 2009 earthquake at Japan's Hamaoka plant, where two reactors shut down automatically without damage, and were restarted safely. Seismic regulations for new plants were strengthened in Japan after the 2007 quake. Industry makes these points:

    • Japanese, and most other, nuclear plants are designed to withstand earthquakes, and in the event of major earth movement, to shut down safely.
    • In 1995, the closest nuclear power plants, some 110 km north of Kobe, were unaffected by the severe Kobe-Osaka earthquake, but in 2004, 2005, 2007 and 2009 Japanese reactors shut down automatically due to ground acceleration exceeding their trip settings. 
    • In 1999, three nuclear reactors shut down automatically during the devastating Taiwan earthquake, and were restarted two days later.

    The anti-nuclear power group Beyond Nuclear put out a statement with the most dire forecast for the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant northeast of Tokyo: "Given the large quantity of irradiated nuclear fuel in the pool, the radioactivity release could be worse than the Chernobyl nuclear reactor catastrophe of 25 years ago."

    A citizens group opposing nuclear power in Japan, Citizens' Nuclear Information Center, has its own arguments online.

    After the 2007 quake the IAEA began testing a monitoring system for nuclear plants after earthquakes and tsunamis. Participating countries included the United States, Japan, India, Indonesia, South Korea, Pakistan and Turkey.

    The Japanese utility company, TEPCO, is providing updates on the nuclear reactor. (Scroll down that page to "press releases.") At midday Eastern time, it reported, "Currently, there is a possibility of a release of radioactive materials due to decrease in reactor water level. Therefore, the national government has instructed evacuation for those local residents within 3km radius of the periphery and indoor standby for those local residents between 3km and 10km radius of the periphery."

    Here are other resources on the topic of nuclear reactors and earthquakes. These open in a new browser window.

    The TEPCO nuclear plants have had other problems. This info comes from a June 2010 report from Nuclear Energy Insider:

    In late June, the Tokyo government’s Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency (NISA) announced that nearly half of Japan’s commercial reactors had problems that needed to be addressed and further inspections were deemed necessary.

    NISA’s report noted that none of the reactors, "…had a problem that is not 'tolerable,”’ and that the majority of the country’s reactors got a passing grade.

    But, the report did cast doubt over Japan’s nuclear safety record.

    A particular problem seems to exist with the reactors operated by the Tokyo Electric Power Corporation (TEPCO) — 14 of their 17 reactors were considered to need additional inspections, with the No. 1 to 4 reactors of the Fukushima Prefecture No. 2 plant considered to have had ‘‘significant’’ problems following the mistaken discharge of radioactive materials into the sea through a drainage pipe that came to light in October 2009.

    The Fukushima reactors have suffered a host of problems including in January 1989, when an impeller blade on one of the reactor coolant pumps in Unit 3 broke at a weld forcing a reactor shut down while in 2006 Fukushima’s Unit 1 was shuttered following leaking irradiated water.