To cut a long story short
O rosário vai-se desfiando lentamente, inexoravelmente.
As imagens, as notícias falam por si.
Na televisão surgem uns senhores, representantes da Tokyo Electric Power Company (Tepco), com um nobilíssimo, respeitabilíssimo, comentando alguns factos inescapáveis quando já são do domínio público.
Vale a pena ler com calma o World Nuclear Industry Status Report 2007.
Neste post chamo a atenção para o levantamento da situação quanto ao nuclear japonês, e o papel que nele desempenham esses senhores com um ar que ninguém leva presos:
"Japan operates 55 reactors that in 2006 provided 30% of the country’s electricity (up from 25% in 2003).
But in 2002 nuclear energy had produced almost 35% of Japan’s electricity.
On 9 August 2004 five workers were killed after a steam leak at the Mihama-3 station – a dreadful day, particularly in Japan, since this is the anniversary of the Nagasaki bombing. The subsequent investigation revealed a serious lack in systematic inspection in Japanese nuclear plants and led to a massive inspection program.
The terrible event is only one in a series of serious accidents at Japanese nuclear facilities: the fast breeder Monju sodium leak in December 1995 (the reactor is still shut-down), the Tokai reprocessing waste explosion in March 1997, the criticality accident at the Tokai fuel fabrication facility in September 1999 and the massive falsification scandal starting in August 2002 that lead to shut down all of Tokyo Electric Power Company’s 17 nuclear reactors.
TEPCO officials had falsified the inspection records and attempted to hide cracks in reactor vessel shrouds in 13 of its 17 units.84 Later the scandal widened to other nuclear utilities. No wonder that the nuclear electricity generation in the country dropped by over a quarter between 2002 and 2003 and the average load factor of the Japanese nuclear plants crashed to less than 60%.
As imagens, as notícias falam por si.
Na televisão surgem uns senhores, representantes da Tokyo Electric Power Company (Tepco), com um nobilíssimo, respeitabilíssimo, comentando alguns factos inescapáveis quando já são do domínio público.
Vale a pena ler com calma o World Nuclear Industry Status Report 2007.
Neste post chamo a atenção para o levantamento da situação quanto ao nuclear japonês, e o papel que nele desempenham esses senhores com um ar que ninguém leva presos:
"Japan operates 55 reactors that in 2006 provided 30% of the country’s electricity (up from 25% in 2003).
But in 2002 nuclear energy had produced almost 35% of Japan’s electricity.
On 9 August 2004 five workers were killed after a steam leak at the Mihama-3 station – a dreadful day, particularly in Japan, since this is the anniversary of the Nagasaki bombing. The subsequent investigation revealed a serious lack in systematic inspection in Japanese nuclear plants and led to a massive inspection program.
The terrible event is only one in a series of serious accidents at Japanese nuclear facilities: the fast breeder Monju sodium leak in December 1995 (the reactor is still shut-down), the Tokai reprocessing waste explosion in March 1997, the criticality accident at the Tokai fuel fabrication facility in September 1999 and the massive falsification scandal starting in August 2002 that lead to shut down all of Tokyo Electric Power Company’s 17 nuclear reactors.
TEPCO officials had falsified the inspection records and attempted to hide cracks in reactor vessel shrouds in 13 of its 17 units.84 Later the scandal widened to other nuclear utilities. No wonder that the nuclear electricity generation in the country dropped by over a quarter between 2002 and 2003 and the average load factor of the Japanese nuclear plants crashed to less than 60%.
On 16 July 2007 a severe earthquake measuring 6.8 on the Richter scale hit the region that houses TEPCO’s Kashiwasaki-kariwa plant. The plant with seven units is the largest single nuclear power station in the world.
The reactors were shut down and are expected to remain closed for damage verification and repairs for at least one year.
Since the seismic acceleration of the quake detected at one of the reactors was at least 2.5 times as high as the design basis of the nuclear facilities it is unclear whether the units can ever restart.
When on 11 October 2007 the first vessel head was taken off unit seven for inspection, one control rod was stuck in the core and could not be moved.
This means that a key safety feature was not properly working. The discovery is likely to lead to additional delays in the operation of the units.
So far, TEPCO projects the impact of the quake on its FY2007 results to be some 603.5 billion yen (€3.6 billion), 440 billion yen coming from fuel costs and the remaining 163.5 billion yen from restoration expenses.
Since the seismic acceleration of the quake detected at one of the reactors was at least 2.5 times as high as the design basis of the nuclear facilities it is unclear whether the units can ever restart.
When on 11 October 2007 the first vessel head was taken off unit seven for inspection, one control rod was stuck in the core and could not be moved.
This means that a key safety feature was not properly working. The discovery is likely to lead to additional delays in the operation of the units.
So far, TEPCO projects the impact of the quake on its FY2007 results to be some 603.5 billion yen (€3.6 billion), 440 billion yen coming from fuel costs and the remaining 163.5 billion yen from restoration expenses.
Officially there is one reactor listed as under construction, down from three in 2003. The Monju reactor is considered in “long term shutdown”. Further construction plans are vague and have been scaled back several times.
The plutonium separation plant in Rokkasho-mura started active testing in March 2006. The reprocessing facility with a nominal annual throughput of 800 t experienced its first technical problems less than a month later (a leak in the cleaning tank for hulls and nozzles).
The accidents and scandals of the last years have significantly delayed introduction of plutonium in MOX (uranium-plutonium mixed oxide) fuel. So far, no MOX fuel has been used and Japan has a significant stock of plutonium of about 43 t, of which about 37 t are in France and the UK."
The accidents and scandals of the last years have significantly delayed introduction of plutonium in MOX (uranium-plutonium mixed oxide) fuel. So far, no MOX fuel has been used and Japan has a significant stock of plutonium of about 43 t, of which about 37 t are in France and the UK."
