Shades of some superhero back story but scientist have discovered a strange growth that resembles a white spider web showing up in the racks of spent nuclear fuel that has been collected from foreign governments.

The spent fuel assemblies were submerged in deep pools in the L Area of the Savannah River but the growth, which scientists are characterizing as a “white string-like” substance but they have yet to figure out exactly what it is.

The Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board says that due to the fact that they have too small of a sample to be able to do a full characterization there will still need to be further evaluation done.

Will Callicott, a spokesman for Savannah River National Laboratory, said in an e-mail that officials hope to collect a larger sample for analysis.

“But whatever it is, doesn’t appear to be causing any damage,” he said.

via The Augusta Chronicle

Sorry but this whole nuclear waste and weird while spider like substance is just to close to a science fiction type scenario for any comfort. Oh and is it just me or just the upcoming Superman movie seem to be a little  to coincidental with this news?

Nuclear waste site sporting some strange white web-like substance is a post from: The Inquisitr

Japan official say the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant is close to being stable but will need to remain open for at least 30 years before it can be safely decommissioned and closed.

The announcement comes from a panel of experts who were named by Japan’s Atomic Energy Commission to oversee the decommissioning of the power plant after an earthquake and preceding tsunami damaged the facility earlier this year.

Officials noted in their 30-year estimate that U.S. agents spent more than a decade removing nuclear fuel from Three Mile Island and because of the complex nature of the Fukushima plant the process will take up to three times longer to complete. Officials will not even begin to remove fuel rods until 2021.

It’s not all bad news for the plant, reactors have begun to cool and there is far less radiation leaking when compared to the start of cleanup efforts.

Authorities have noted that there are still radiation “hot spots” being discovered around the Tokyo area and they say the cleanup and decommissioning process will cost approximately $19 billion. Among part of that cleanup process is covering damaged units in airtight polyester while creating a 12-mile exclusion zone around the plant.

Are you surprised to learn that it will take 30-years to clean up Japan’s nuclear mess?

Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant Will Take 30 Years To Shut Down is a post from: The Inquisitr

Tragic news to report out of France, a furnace at a nuclear power plant exploded on Monday killing one employee and injuring four others.

According to French energy company EDF no radioactive leaks were detected and no waste was released during the explosion.

The blast occurred in one of the plants areas responsible for processing and decommissioning nuclear waste and inspectors were immediately released to the area in order to conduct inspections. Inspectors say the building was not structurally damaged.

The plant, located in Marcoule, in southeastern France use to produce weapons-grade plutonium and is one of the oldest nuclear facilities in the country. France no longer produces plutonium.

No power drain is expected on the country, France currently receives 80% of their electricity production from their nuclear power facilities.

In the meantime officials in the country continue to debate the use of such power after the March 2011 Fukushima explosions in Japan drew international attention.

The U.S. which stores used nuclear waste in the hopes of recycling it in the future has also come under fire since that low-level waste during an explosion or another disaster could pose significant threats.

In the meantime officials are expected to continue closely monitoring the area of the building where the explosion occurred to ensure all safety guidelines are met. As you can see from the map (shown above) Paris is a considerable distance from the Marcoule plant.

Do you think country’s around the world need to get away from nuclear waste and move towards more sustainable sources of energy such as wind and solar power?

France Nuclear Power Plant Blast Kills 1, Injures 4 is a post from: The Inquisitr

Iran’s state radio revealed on Sunday that the countries leaders have officially brought online the countries first ever nuclear power plant, connecting it to the national power grid for a test run.

Quoting Mohammad Ahmadian, Iran’s deputy nuclear chief the radio report says the plant which went online around midnight has been pumping out 60 megawatts of electricity. When fully activated the Russian-built plant is expected to produce 2.5% of the nation’s electricity with 1000 megawatts of capacity at full run.

A ceremony is expected to be held on Monday and the plant should be able to reach full capacity in the next several months.

The nuclear power plant was expected to power up for years however the project was met with various production delays and outcry from the international community who believed the country was attempting to create nuclear weapons and not nuclear power, a sentiment still shared by many nations who have an eye on Iran’s terrorist movements.

Do you think Iran is still building nuclear weapons? A nuclear power plant sure seems like a good cover for those actions.

Iran Brings First Nuclear Power Plant Online, Will Eventually Pump Out 1,000 Megawatts is a post from: The Inquisitr

Tokyo Electric was confident that their water filtration system at the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant would save the plant from further devastation, unfortunately after just five hours of operation the company was forced to shut down the system.

Plant workers are currently running out of space to house the plants contaminated water and without a working filtration system they could now watch as overflow begins to occur within the next several days due to holding tanks capacity.

The system was shut down when Cesium levels became so high that a filter change was required, a change that was suppose to take a month to reach, not the five hours it consumed.

At this time the company is not discussing any backup plans they may have for the plant, however some experts are worried that the plant will once again be forced to dump their overflow into the ocean.

Fukushima Water Filtration Plan Halted After Several Hours is a post from: The Inquisitr

Kiefer Sutherland’s hit series 24 won’t be showing the final season in Japan since much of the series’ final season deals with radiation poisoning.

You may recall that the final season surrounds the son of a Russian terrorist who becomes sick after being exposed to nuclear rods. TV Tokyo executives have said that the topic is too sensitive given the countries current nuclear issues caused by last months 9.0-magnitude earthquake and following Tsunami which damaged the Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant, eventually leading to radiation leaks.

According to the network:

“With the many victims of the current disaster in Japan, and ongoing concerns about radiation leaks from the nuclear power station, TV Tokyo has decided not to show the planned final season and show season five instead.”

In place of the final season the TV network will air the fifth season of 24.

Final Season Of ’24′ Won’t Air In Japan is a post from: The Inquisitr

While this post technically will go under the Green Tech category here at The Inquisitr it equally could go under the Funny category because it really would be funny if not for the fact that it is stupid. According to the folks over at Treehugger there is an author over at The New American that is trying to make the case that wind power is more dangerous than nuclear power because there have been more wind power related deaths than the zero death rate encountered in the nuclear industry.

That’s right folks – the suggestion the author is making is that nuclear power is safer than wind power because there hasn’t been a single nuclear plant related death in 40 years. With the short life of wind power though we have a growing number of deaths; which Treehugger kindly listed out for us

Summary of Wind Turbine Incidents (December 2008):
• 41 Worker Fatalities, 16 Public- Includes falling from turbine towers and transporting turbines on the highway.
• 39 Incidents of Blade Failure- Failed blades have been known to travel over a quarter mile, killing any unfortunate bystanders within its path of destruction.
• 110 Incidents of Fire- When a wind turbine fire occurs, local fire departments can do little but watch due to the 30-story height of these turbine units. The falling debris are then carried across the distance and cause new fires.
• 60 Incidents of Structural Failure- As turbines become more prevalent, these breakages will become more common in public areas, thereby causing more deaths and dismemberment’s from falling debris.
• 24 incidents of "hurling ice”- Ice forms on these giant blades and is reportedly hurled at deathly speeds in all directions. Author reports that some 880 ice incidents of this nature have occurred over Germany’s 13-years of harnessing wind power.

Source: Treehugger

They go on to suggest that this type of death toll will rise rapidly in the the future as more and more rooftop solar panels are installed around the nation.

What a great rib tickler for a Sunday afternoon.

Wind power causes more deaths than nuclear power is a post from: The Inquisitr

These miniature reactors will not contain any weapons grade material and additionally they will be nearly impossible to steal because they will be encased in concrete and buried underground. Hyperion is confident that they will be able to start mass producing these mini-reactors within fives years and have already taken firm orders for some.

John Deal, chief executive of Hyperion, believes they will be able to generate electricity for 10 cents a watt anywhere in the world. Mind you these babies won;t be cheap as each one is estimated to cost around the $25 million mark. the sales pitch is though that for a community of 10,000 homes the end price would work out to $250 per household.

Business looks good if what Deal said to the Guardian is correct

Deal claims to have more than 100 firm orders, largely from the oil and electricity industries, but says the company is also targeting developing countries and isolated communities. ‘It’s leapfrog technology,’ he said.

The company plans to set up three factories to produce 4,000 plants between 2013 and 2023. ‘We already have a pipeline for 100 reactors, and we are taking our time to tool up to mass-produce this reactor.’

Hyperion isn’t alone in the mini-reactor business either as Toshiba has been testing 200KW reactors that are designed to fuel smaller numbers of homes for a longer period of time; even powering a single building for some 40 years.

Neighbourhood size reactors within 5 years is a post from: The Inquisitr