Reality Show Star Slams Iran Deal

"Don’t say it’s unbelievable. Of course it’s believable. This is the world we live in today under American leadership that would surrender Israel’s security and our own. Don’t say it’s unbelievable. When Barack Obama warned voters he would “fundamentally transform America” and they voted for him anyway – twice – what was once the most powerful office in the world crumbled under perverted political ambition. I’ve always said, 'We can survive this President, but can we survive the people who voted for him a SECOND time?'  But after today, do you believe there is assurance we will survive this President? His wink and a nod to an evil regime hell-bent on destroying us just made his 'fundamental transformation' job a whole lot easier. We must build up the foundation again; rebuild the wall protecting our – and Israel’s – sovereignty. There are 554 days until we do that, by fundamentally restoring America. In the meantime, Congress, stop the madness. Do your job. Veto Obama’s act of capitulation. Take the white flag of surrender out of this President’s hand." - Foreign policy expert, nuclear physicist, and failed reality show cast member Sarah Palin, writing for Breitbart.

Major Quake Strikes Near Fukushima

Story developing...

Branding Fail

The Independent reports:

As sending positive brand signals go, naming your mascot Fukuppy is probably a step in the wrong direction. Indeed, it would seem this refrigerator company have had their very own fukuppy with the unfortunate christening of this cartoon egg. Social media users seized on the winged ovum's name to ridicule Fukushima Industries' mascot, with initial reports linking the upbeat ovum with Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant. The Fukushima plant suffered a nuclear meltdown in 2011, forcing the evacuation of 300,000 people, and there are still reports of leaks and contamination. However this innocent egg is actually attached to Fukushima Industries, a company who make refrigerators, based hundreds of miles away in Osaka.

The company is now considering another name.

CONNECTICUT: Warm Seas Force Shutdown Of Nuclear Power Plant

Connecticut's Millstone nuclear power plant has been shut down because the ocean water used to cool the machinery is now too warm to be effective.

Millstone Power Station has occasionally shut for maintenance or other issues, but in its 37-year history it has never gone down due to excessively warm water, spokesman Ken Holt said on Monday. Water from Long Island Sound is used to cool key components of the plant and is discharged back into the sound. The water may not be warmer than 75 degrees and following the hottest July on record has been averaging 1.7 degrees above the limit, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission said. The federal agency issued an "emergency license amendment" last week, allowing Millstone, a subsidiary of Dominion Resources Inc., to use an average temperature of several readings. "It wasn't enough to prevent us from shutting down," Holt said. Richmond, Va.-based Dominion does not have an estimate of when the unit will restart, Holt said.

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission says the only remedy is to wait until the ocean cools down. The plant provides 50% of Connecticut's electrical supply, but remains partially in operation. (Tipped by JMG reader Kevin)

Photo Of The Day - Chernobyl Control

Photojournalist Gerd Ludwig has documented the present state of the world's most infamous nuclear power plant and the town that once surrounded it. Lots more fascinating (and grim) photos at the link, courtesy of the Boston Globe's always compelling Big Picture feature.

11:55

The doomsday clock was moved up one minute this week.

The most significant contributing factors to the decision were the narrowly averted nuclear disaster at the Fukushima plant in Japan which was caused by the earthquake and tsunami on March 11. There were also concerns about the danger from Iran which has begun to enrich uranium at a secret underground site - a move which could be a step towards developing a nuclear bomb. Further cause to move the clock closer to midnight came from North Korea where the death of Kim Jong Il saw his young and untested son Kim Jong Un put in control of a country widely believed to have full nuclear capabilities. Today's announcement by the BAS followed a year of deliberations by the group of experts who determine the risk.

Fukishima Fallout

Via Think Progress: "Japan’s science ministry says 8 per cent of the country’s surface area has been contaminated by radiation from the crippled Fukushima nuclear plant. It says more than 30,000 square kilometers of the country has been blanketed by radioactive cesium."

Ammonia Leak At CA Nuclear Plant

There's been an apparently serious ammonia leak at the oceanfront nuclear power plant near San Diego. The warning has gone from a Level One to a Level Three alert in the last hour.

The leak posed no danger to the public, and no radiation was released during the emergency, said Lauren Bartlett, a spokeswoman for Southern California Edison. Under federal regulations, there are four emergency levels, depending on the severity of the situation. Level Two involves any "potential substandard degradation in the level of safety of the plant."

I never trust these "all is well" messages when it comes to nuclear power. Never.

FRANCE: Explosion At Nuclear Plant

Details are just starting to come in:

At least one person has been killed and three more wounded in an explosion which rocked on Monday a nuclear power plant in Marcoule, southern France. ­According to the rescuers, there is a risk of a radioactive leak after the blast. All of the plant's reactors have been shut down following the incident. There is no clear information immediately available as to how much risk the incident poses. The site is involved in the decommissioning of nuclear facilities, and operates a pressurized water reactor used to produce tritium. Sources say the blast happened in one of the workshops where nuclear waste is disposed of.

Germany To Shut All Nuclear Plants

Germany has announced plans to close all its nuclear power plants by 2022.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s coalition endorsed a blueprint to shut its nuclear-power plants by 2022, repealing the law she pushed to extend the life of the reactors to become the biggest nation to exit atomic power. The decision in the early morning hours today by coalition leaders in Berlin underscored Merkel’s flip-flop from a 2009 re- election promise to extend the life of nuclear reactors. She did her about-face after the March meltdown in Japan as the anti- nuclear Green Party gained in polls. Her party lost control of Baden-Wuerttemberg state to the Greens in March and finished behind them in a state election for the first time on May 22.

Ann Coulter: Radiation Is Good For You

Gov. Cuomo: Close NYC's Nuclear Plant

NY Gov. Andrew Cuomo has long been an opponent of Indian Point, the aging nuclear power plant just 20 minutes north of New York City. Yesterday he called for the plant's permanent closure in light of the disaster in Japan.

"The suggestion is that of all the [104] power plants across the country, that the Indian Point power plant is most susceptible to an earthquake because Reactor No. 3 is on a fault [line]," Cuomo said as nuclear meltdown fears deepened in Japan. "It should be closed. This plant in this proximity to the city was never a good risk." Cuomo, who has long opposed the plant, spoke after new data from the federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission show the Hudson River plant was the most vulnerable to a quake. It also came about two weeks after a judge let the Indian Point nuke plant - just 24 miles north of the Bronx - cut back on meltdown prevention. In its 40-year history, Indian Point has suffered radiation leaks, useless warning sirens, transformer explosions and oil spills.

Twenty million people live within 50 miles of Indian Point. Its license to operate expires in 2013.

Tweet Of The Day

Oh, this will totally dampen the hysteria. Story here.

U.S. Warns Japan On Radiation

Via New York Times:

The chairman of the United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission gave a significantly bleaker appraisal of the threat posed by Japan’s nuclear crisis than the Japanese government, saying on Wednesday that the damage at one crippled reactor was much more serious than Japanese officials had acknowledged and advising to Americans to evacuate a wider area around the plant than the perimeter established by Japan. The announcement marked a new and ominous chapter in the five-day long effort by Japanese engineers to bring four side-by-side reactors under control after their cooling systems were knocked out by an earthquake and tsunami last Friday. But it also created a split between Washington and Tokyo, after American officials concluded that the Japanese warnings were insufficient, and that, deliberately or not, they had understated the potential threat of what is taking place inside the nuclear facility.

Worse and worse and worse.

Japanese Diet Pills

Walgreens, Upper East Side, Monday 10pm

Old Lady: "Where can I get some of those nuclear pills?"

Clerk: "What, like, diet pills?"

Old Lady: "No! No! The ones they have in Japan!"

Clerk: "Japanese diet pills?"

JAPAN: Nuclear Crisis Worsens

The New York Times reports:

Industry executives said that in fact the situation had spiraled out of control and that all plant workers needed to leave the plant to avoid excessive exposure to radioactive leaks. If all workers do in fact leave the plant, the nuclear fuel in all three reactors is likely to melt down, which would lead to wholesale releases of radioactive material — by far the largest accident of its kind since the Chernobyl disaster 25 years ago. Reports of an imminent worsening of the problem came after a frantic day and night of rescue efforts focused largely on the No. 2 reactor. There, a malfunctioning valve prevented workers from manually venting the containment vessel to release pressure and allow fresh seawater to be injected into it. That meant that the extraordinary remedy emergency workers have been using to keep the nuclear fuel from overheating no longer worked. As a result, the nuclear fuel in that reactor was exposed for many hours, increasing the risk of a breach of the container vessel and a more dangerous emissions of radioactive particles.

VIDEO: Breaking report by Lawrence O'Donnell.


UPDATE: English-language NHK Tokyo is live-streaming their video reports.

JAPAN: Nuclear Power Plant Explodes

Sen. Harry Reid: Sharron Angle Is Going To Kill Us All With Nuclear Waste

Reactor Shutdown At Indian Point

The Indian River nuclear power plant, 35 miles north of NYC, experienced another "automatic" reactor shutdown yesterday, the second such incident in two months.

Indian Point’s unit 2 nuclear power plant automatically shut down Monday afternoon at about 4 p.m., due to a problem with its main electrical generator, Entergy officials said. There was no threat to the safety of workers or the public. Plant equipment performed as designed during the shutdown. The exact cause of the shutdown is being reviewed. As of late Monday, Entergy was working to better understand the underlying cause(s) of the generator trip. There was work being conducted by maintenance personnel associated with the generator exciter system at the time of the trip. NRC resident inspectors responded to the control room and continue to follow the event. Preliminarily, operator actions in response to the generator trip and subsequent plant shutdown appear appropriate and in accordance with operating procedures, the NRC said.

The shutdown in November resulted in 600,000 gallons of radioactive steam being released over the Hudson Valley. Which they totally meant to do. And which was completely safe, according to officials.