私も知り合いに、６月ごろに「あれは地震の揺れ自体で、配管が既に壊れていたらしいって話もあるよ」って言っただけで、陰謀論者扱いされたっけな。

　日立ＧＥニュークリア・エナジー社（GE Hitachi Nuclear Energy ）が、米国内で建設した３５機の原子炉が地震の際、適切に自動停止しない恐れがあるとして、原発オペレターに対して通告した。米ペンシルバニア州西部で発行されている「ピッツバーグ・トリビューン」紙が９月３０日付で報じた。
　
　GE Hitachi Nuclear Energy said 35 reactors it built for utilities from New York to Washington may not shut down properly during an earthquake.

　米原子力規制委員会（ＮＲＣ)への届け出によると、「ＧＥヒタチ」は地震の際、制御棒の完全挿入を阻む摩擦レベルについて確かめるよう勧告している。
　GE Hitachi…… is recommending testing to determine what level of friction would prevent control rods from fully inserting into the reactor core during an earthquake, according to filings with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

　ＧＥヒタチのスポークスマンがトリビューン紙にＥメールで明らかにしたところによると、この問題はことし３月、「フクイチ」事故が起きる数カ月前から分かっていたことだ。
　The issue is a "low probability event" that became known to the company several months before the March earthquake and radiation leaks at the Tokyo Electric Power Co.'s Fukushima Daiichi plant in Japan, Michael Tetuan, a spokesman for GE Hitachi in Wilmington, N.C., said in an e-mail.

　同社スポークスマンはさらに、（同社の原子炉を持つ）原発のうちの小さなパーセンテージが、計測可能な制御ブレードとチャンネル間の摩擦の兆候を示し、制御ブレード自身に対してもわずか数例に過ぎないが、摩擦を起こしていることを認識しているに過ぎない――と表明した。
　"We are only aware of a small percentage of plants that have exhibited signs of measureable control-blade-to-channel friction and on a relatively few number of control blades," he said.　

　これについて、ＮＲＣのフィラデルフィア駐在スポークスマンは、「現段階では制御棒のリコールの議論はない」と言っている。

　ＧＥヒタチでは自動停止しない可能性は「低い」としている。

　　◇

　これはもしかしたら、日本の電力会社に対しても通告している問題かも知れない。
　
　あるいは、「フクイチ」事故の検証の中から浮上した問題かも！

　３・１１の数カ月前に分かっていた問題であれば、フクイチでも何らかの事前の対策・テストが行われていたはず……？

　東京、ワシントンの日本の記者諸君、ぜひ調べていただきたい！

　この問題は３日付けで、米国内の別のメディアが取り上げるなど、拡大の気配を見せている。→　http://washingtonindependent.com/112926/fermi-ii-nuclear-plant-at-risk-during-an-earthquake

Posted by 大沼安史 at 10:55 午前
http://onuma.cocolog-nifty.com/blog1/2011/10/post-4a44.html

原子力発電所を廃止するドイツの今を追った、見学・体験型ドキュメンタリー。
ドイツの"原発解体マニュアル"
2011年11月、東京・渋谷シアター・イメージフォーラム、大阪・シネリーブル梅田ほかにて全国順次ロードショー！公式サイト　http://www.imageforum.co.jp/control/

日本は様々な公害を克服したと、国際社会にアピールしています。
そして殆どの国民は何となくそうかなと思っていますが、
要は、公害被害者をどう丸め込んだかの歴史でしかないという現実もあります。

公害対策技術と言うと、普通一般の国民は、科学的な成果の一つ、何か機械でも開発したのだろうと思いがちですが、実は情報操作術こそがその本質ではないかと思っています。

今回の東電の情報公開と、世間の忘却ぶりを見てですが。

以下年表。

〜水俣病の場合〜
1946年：汚染水の排出開始
3年後：今まで捕れていた魚介類が捕れなくなる
6年後：幼児に精神や運動機能の発達遅れが見られるようになる
8年後：犬猫の変死が相次いでいる事が初めて報道される
10年後：水俣出身者は原因不明の奇病にかかると差別が起こる
15年後：脳性小児マヒ患者16人を胎児性水俣病と初認定
17年後：原因が工場の排水によるものと判明する
28年後：水俣病による死者が100人を超える
29年後：チッソ幹部が「殺人、傷害罪」で告訴される
42年後：チッソ元社長ら業務過失致死罪で有罪判決
58年後：最高裁が国および県の責任を認めた（2004年）

　この場合、熱が外部に逃げないため、圧力は、震災後、２日程度で設計圧力（約５気圧）の２倍まで急上昇する。

この文章は大方にとってはどうでもいいが、某「あっしら」にとっては重要だ。なぜなら、引用文でのＲＣＩＣの動作メカニズムは、あっしらのいう「東電がＲＣＩＣが圧力抑制室から水を汲み上げ過ぎたのを失念し、結果、格納容器と圧力抑制室がツーツーになり、圧力抑制室が格納容器の圧力をもろに受けて破裂した」という
図式が、専門家の言で直接に否定されたことを意味するからだ。

「ＲＣＩＣが圧力抑制室水の汲み上げ過ぎたら格納容器とツーツーになる」などという致命的な設計などもとよりこの世にありえようもなく、そのように想像するのは「想像力」の貧しさに起因する。

貧しい想像力は、「循環冷却水の除染の必要はない」だの、あろうことか「4号機は東電が爆破した」などと基地フレーズを連発するはめにも至った。

ちまちました針の穴から見たような認識を縷縷並べ、果ては事実と矛盾する結論を導きだして、得意になる年老いた男を「ぼけ老」という。

必要なのはちまちま認識に基づく論理力ではないよ。「Big　Picture」を直覚することだよ。ボケ老にはわかるまいな。

KY

Read more: Reactors could fail during an earthquake, maker says - Pittsburgh Tribune-Review http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/business/s_759421.html#ixzz1Zr5wAeaY

GE Hitachi Nuclear Energy said 35 reactors it built for utilities from New York to Washington may not shut down properly during an earthquake. The likelihood of failure is "low," the company said in an advisory to customers on additional actions to take.

GE Hitachi, which made First Energy Corp.'s Perry, Ohio, plant on Lake Erie, about 120 miles northwest of Pittsburgh, and Exelon Corp.'s Oyster Creek plant in New Jersey, is recommending testing to determine what level of friction would prevent control rods from fully inserting into the reactor core during an earthquake, according to filings with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

"There is no discussion of a recall of any control rods at this point," Neil Sheehan, a Philadelphia-based spokesman for the commission, said in an e-mail. "The focus is on testing as evaluations continue on whether any modifications are necessary."

The issue is contained in a series of reports to the federal agency dating to December 2010, Sheehan said. The affected plants don't include Dominion Resources Inc.'s North Anna in Virginia, which remains shut because of a 5.8 magnitude earthquake centered 11 miles away on Aug. 23.

The issue is a "low probability event" that became known to the company several months before the March earthquake and radiation leaks at the Tokyo Electric Power Co.'s Fukushima Daiichi plant in Japan, Michael Tetuan, a spokesman for GE Hitachi in Wilmington, N.C., said in an e-mail.

"We are only aware of a small percentage of plants that have exhibited signs of measureable control-blade-to-channel friction and on a relatively few number of control blades," he said.

FirstEnergy spokeswoman Jennifer Young said the GE Hitachi recommendations do not apply to the Akron, Ohio-based utility's Perry plant because its boiling-water reactor is a newer vintage in which larger size and higher pressures "preclude it from having the same issue." The Perry reactor's control rods would be able to stop nuclear fission in the event of an earthquake, she said.

"If GE Hitachi issues additional guidance, we'll work closely with them and the NRC," said Young.

GE Hitachi's testing program is adequate because it forces owners to replace defective control rods when reactors are shut down for refueling instead of continuing the tests, according to David Lochbaum, director of the Nuclear Safety Project at the Union of Concerned Scientists.

"Lots of things have to line up to produce the bad outcome," he said in an e-mail. "Not all GE control rods have this problem, so owners are replacing them sooner."

The shutdown "capability is expected to be affected due to the added seismic loads at low reactor pressures" in the boiling-water-reactor plants, GE Hitachi said in the filing to the NRC. More testing is needed to determine how much friction is produced by "seismic loads," the filing showed.

Sheehan said the commission is evaluating whether GE Hitachi's emphasis on testing is appropriate and if additional steps are required to ensure plant safety.

"There are still other changes to come in response to the issue," he said. "I don't know off-hand what level of seismic activity could pose a problem."

On a wider level, the NRC plans to issue a letter to all 104 U.S. plants by year's end requesting a response to the agency's new seismic risk modeling and data.

Other plants that may be affected by the control rod issue include Exelon's Clinton, Dresden, LaSalle, and Quad Cities plants in Illinois as well as Limerick and Peach Bottom in Eastern Pennsylvania.

Also on the list are New Orleans-based Entergy Corp.'s FitzPatrick in New York, Vermont Yankee in Vermont, Pilgrim in Massachusetts, Grand Gulf in Mississippi, and the Tennessee Valley Authority's Browns Ferry in Alabama and River Bend in Louisiana.

Elsewhere are Public Service Enterprise Group Inc.'s Hope Creek in New Jersey, Constellation Nuclear Energy Group LLC's Nine Mile Point in New York, and DTE Energy's Fermi 2 in Michigan.

The South includes Progress Energy Inc.'s Brunswick in North Carolina and Southern Co.'s Hatch in Georgia,

Further west are NextEra Energy Inc.'s Duane Arnold in Iowa, Nebraska Public Power District's Cooper in Nebraska, Xcel Energy Inc.'s Monticello in Minnesota and Energy Northwest's Columbia in Washington. Some plants have more than one reactor.

The Yomiuri Shimbun

Tokyo Electric Power Co. and Toshiba Corp. will conduct the nation's first earthquake safety test on a nuclear power station by the end of March to verify the effectiveness of the reactor's shutdown functions in the event of a major quake, according to TEPCO.

In the test on the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear power station in Niigata Prefecture, tremors 1.5 times stronger than those seen in the 2007 Chuetsu offshore quake--which reached upper 6 on Japan's intensity scale up to 7--will be applied to control rods and other parts used to stop nuclear fission in emergencies.

According to TEPCO sources, earthquake tremors can twist nuclear fuel to varying degrees.

Although control rods are inserted into nuclear fuel to control the fission process, changes in the fuel can make it difficult to insert the control rods properly. Quake simulations have been conducted previously by applying horizontal tremors, but this will be the first functional test assuming changes to nuclear fuel that cannot be analyzed by computer.

The upcoming test will be on a reactor constructed to easily produce twisted and uneven nuclear fuel.

The simulated earthquake will be generated by a Toshiba device, and the test is to confirm whether the control rods are accurately inserted into the reactor to stop its operation.

The Kashiwazaki-Kariwa power station's No. 1 reactor was designed to be the most quake-resistant among the site's seven reactors--able to bear a maximum acceleration of 0.28 g.

Although the reactor's control rods functioned properly and automatically stopped the reactor in the Chuetsu earthquake, acceleration during the quake reached 0.69 g, far more than it was built for.

Facing criticism for its lax standards, TEPCO upped the figure to 1.02 g by making the buildings housing the reactors more quake-resistant.

The upcoming test comes at the request of the Niigata prefectural government, which asked the firm to verify its new figure.

"Computer analysis can't completely predict how nuclear fuel will behave in an earthquake. It also can't calculate the forces generated by friction between control rods and fuel. But this test should decrease uncertainty in these areas," said Motoe Suzuki, a member of a Niigata prefectural government panel commissioned to discuss the plant's safety.

TEPCO said the test is intended to remove uncertainty among the local community toward the power plant.

Toshiba's public relations office also said the test will show the superiority of Japan's quake-resistant technology to the world at a time when the government is trying to sell nuclear technology overseas.
(Jan. 11, 2011)

日立ーＧＥは、低出力運転中に地震が起きたとき、古い制御棒が突き刺さる事態が起きることを報告書で認めた。
＞GE Hitachi ( HIT - news - people ) Nuclear Energy acknowledged that its older control rods could get stuck if an earthquake struck when reactors were running at low power.
http://www.forbes.com/feeds/ap/2011/09/02/general-us-nuclear-plants-earthquakes_8655797.html