CO2 Threats to World´s Oceans Rising, Scientists Warn

source: www.iaea.org

Monaco Declaration on Ocean Acidification Cites Links to Climate Change
Staff Report
2 February 2009

In Monaco, scientists at the IAEA Marine Environment Laboratories (IAEA-MEL) have joined more than 150 experts from 26 countries calling for urgent actions to halt rising levels of acidity in the world´s oceans.

"It is the other CO2 problem that must be grappled with alongside climate change. Reining in this double threat, caused by our dependence on fossil fuels, is the challenge of the century," the marine scientists say.

The leading scientists joined to back the Monaco Declaration on Ocean Acidification, directed at government leaders worldwide. The Declaration emphasizes that levels of acidity in oceans are accelerating and that the negative socio-economic impacts can only be limited by cutting back on the amounts of greenhouse gases released into the atmosphere.

"The chemistry is so fundamental and changes so rapid and severe that impacts on organisms appear unavoidable," said James Orr, an IAEA research scientist at MEL´s Radiometrics Laboratory. "The questions are now how bad will it be and how soon will it happen."

Dr. Orr chaired the Second International Symposium on the Ocean in a High-CO2 World, held in October 2008, where scientists presented reports that form the Declaration´s basis. The Symposium summarized the state of the science and priorities for future research, while the Monaco Declaration implores political leaders to launch urgent actions to limit the source of the problem, he says.

Prince Albert II of Monaco, whose enviornmental foundation financially supported the 2008 ocean symposium, voiced support for the Declaration, and cited its importance in light of the forthcoming UN Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen in December 2009.

Background:

Facts from the Declaration: The ocean absorbs CO2 from the atmosphere at a rate of more than 20 million tons per day, thus removing one-fourth of the anthropogenic CO2 emitted to the atmosphere each year and reducing the climate-change impacts of this greenhouse gas. However, when CO2 dissolves in seawater, it forms carbonic acid. As this "ocean acidification" continues, it decreases both ocean pH and the concentration of carbonate ion, the basic building block of the shells and skeletons of many marine organisms.

The rate of current acidification is much more rapid that past natural changes. Surface ocean pH has already dropped by 0.1 units since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution. This rate of acidification has not been experienced by marine organisms, including reef-building corals, for many millions of years. The future chemical changes that will occur in the ocean as a result of increasing atmospheric CO2 are highly predictable.

According to the experts, ocean acidification may render most regions of the ocean inhospitable to coral reefs by 2050 if atmospheric CO2 levels continue to increase. It could lead to substantial changes in commercial fish stocks, threatening food security for millions of people as well as the multi-billion dollar fishing industry.

The IAEA Marine Environment Laboratories (IAEA-MEL) in Monaco were established in 1961 as today are part of the IAEA Department of Nuclear Sciences and Applications. They are the only marine laboratories within the UN system.

India Safeguards Agreement Signed

source: www.iaea.org

Staff Report
2 February 2009

An Agreement between the Government of India and the IAEA for the Application of Safeguards to Civilian Nuclear Facilities was signed today in Vienna by IAEA Director General Mohamed ElBaradei and Ambassador Saurabh Kumar of India.

The safeguards agreement, which is the result of several rounds of consultations conducted between India and the IAEA since November 2007,

was approved by the IAEA Board of Governors in August 2008. The agreement will enter into force on the date the IAEA receives from India written notification that its statutory and/or constitutional requirements for entry into force have been met.

The IAEA currently applies safeguards to six nuclear reactors in India under safeguards agreements concluded between 1971 and 1994. In the future, additional reactors are expected to be under IAEA safeguards under the newly-signed agreement.

Third IAEA Report on Kashiwazaki-Kariwa Nuclear Power Plant Published

source: www.iaea.org

Staff Report
29 January 2009

The safe performance of the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear power plant during and after the earthquake that hit Japan´s Niigata and Nagano prefectures on 16 July 2007 has been confirmed, according to a IAEA report published today.

The report is the third in a series issued by an IAEA-led team of international experts that completed its mission in December 2008. Two previous missions were carried out by the same team in August 2007 and January 2008. All missions were carried out at the invitation of the Government of Japan.

The consequences of the July 2007 earthquake on the plant were unique in the sense that the levels of seismic ground motion estimated in the design process were very significantly exceeded by the event. The mission found that there is consensus in the scientific community about the causes of those unexpectedly large ground motions experienced at the plant site and, consequently, it has been possible to identify the precautions needed to be taken in relation to possible future events and the newly calculated seismic hazard at the site is much higher than both the July 2007 event and the original design earthquake level.

These precautions were based on extensive studies and assessments conducted by a number of specialized institutions and experts in different fields. The necessary upgrades and actions were consequently defined and are being implemented by the Japanese utility for both safety and non-safety related components at the nuclear power plant.

The report made public today was also provided to the Japanese Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency (NISA).

The lessons learned from the results of the plant integrity evaluation process applied to the July 2007 earthquake and used for the seismic safety re-evaluation to the new higher seismic input will improve the design and evaluation criteria and approaches currently used in Japan and worldwide. In the same way, these results are contributing to the ongoing review and revision of the related IAEA safety standards. These updated standards are expected to be released shortly.

Small reactor leak posed no peril: AECL

source: www.ottawacitizen.com

Spill at Chalk River Nuclear Labs happened Dec. 5: Reports

By Tom Spears, Ottawa Citizen January 27, 2009

OTTAWA — There was a leak of mildly radioactive heavy water at Canada's oldest nuclear reactor in early December, but Atomic Energy of Canada Ltd., said Tuesday almost nothing escaped and there's no danger.

The company says that 47 kilograms (fewer than 47 litres) of heavy water leaked from the National Research Universal reactor at Chalk River, Ont., west of Ottawa, on Dec. 5. But the leak stopped of its own accord — before the source could be identified — and so AECL hasn't made any repairs.

"We didn't pinpoint it definitely. We had indication that it was coming from a seal," said Bill Pilkington, AECL's vice-president in charge of the plant.

"Losing 47 kg. of heavy water is not insignificant," he said. "At the same time, we wouldn't characterize it as a large, sustained leak." He said there was no danger to the public.

Most of the leaked heavy water was caught and the radioactive tritium in it will be recovered, he said. A few litres evaporated, but the amount was within one-thousandth of the amount permitted as air emissions under the plant's licence.

Tritium forms when heavy water is exposed to radiation, usually in a reactor. Heavy water is used as coolant in NRU, and also as a "moderator" — something that helps the process of breaking apart uranium atoms.

"In this case, the concentration was quite low," Pilkington said. "We don't consider that there's a safety issue here. There was no significant radiation exposure to workers, there was no release to the environment, there was no exposure to the public." The NRU has been working since 1957, producing medical isotopes.

Last year, AECL abandoned the two new reactors that were supposed to replace NRU. The twin MAPLE-1 and -2 reactors, also at Chalk River, were supposed to have been commissioned years ago, but both ran into repeated technical problems and breakdowns after hundreds of millions of dollars in construction costs. Neither was ever brought into service.

"The NRU continues to operate safely and reliably," Pilkington said.

"However it is not going to operate indefinitely, so there do need to be plans to replace NRU for isotope production at some point."

During question period Tuesday, Liberal MP Geoff Regan asked why Canadians weren't told earlier about the leak.

Natural Resources Minister Lisa Raitt said in the House the incident had no "adverse effect on human health or on the environment."

"The reactor at Chalk River continues to operate consistently and meet(s) all safety regulations and security regulations and we continue to work with CNSC (Canadian Nuclear Safety Comiission) to ensure safety requirements at Chalk River labs continue today," she added.

Also on Tuesday, the Conservative government committed $351 million to AECL. Part of that money, the government says in budget documents, would be to "maintain safe and reliable operations at the Chalk River Laboratories."

Ottawa Riverkeeper Meredith Brown is on an environmental stewardship council set up by AECL to deal with the plant's relationship to its surroundings. But she said she couldn't get anyone at the company to talk to her Tuesday.

"I've tried to get through," she said, but no one at the company would take her call. The council does have a meeting set for next week.

"I did receive a couple of convoluted messages from them (AECL) back in December," she said. "None of it say anything about a spill or a leak. It made it seem like it's ongoing maintenance."

Last year, a panel of experts said the federal government needs to find a replacement, as fast as possible for the aging NRU reactor.

"Canada needs reactors that are designed to expand their production capabilities quickly in response to an emergency," the panel says in a report it submitted to federal Health Minister Tony Clement.

The report, dated May 2008, was posted on Health Canada's website in July.

Clement convened the panel in December 2007 shortly after the Chalk River reactor was shut down by AECL.

AECL took that step because it believed it could not meet safety standards administered by the federal regulator, the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission.

The shutdown sparked a global medical crisis and forced Parliament to take the extraordinary step of overruling the safety commission to allow AECL to start up the reactor.
© Copyright (c) Canwest News Service

IAEA Plays Vital Role in Task Force on Global Food Security Crisis

source: www.iaea.org

26 January 2009

Nuclear contribution to food security is among the topics being discussed at the High-Level Meeting on Food Security for All taking place in Madrid, Spain from 26-27 January. The event is a gathering of UN officials and representatives of international agencies belonging to the High Level Task Force on Global Food Security Crisis set up by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on 28 April 2008.

In a statement circulated to the participants of the Madrid event on behalf of IAEA Director General Mohamed ElBaradei, Werner Burkart, Deputy Director General for Nuclear Sciences and Applications, said that scientific and technological innovation will play a crucial role in promoting global food safety and security.

"Applications of nuclear science and technology have much to contribute in improving the quality and variety of foods and in boosting crop and livestock production," he said.

Nuclear techniques are used extensively in agriculture to make food crops more resistant to disease, boost crop yields and combat pests and animal diseases. The IAEA has an extensive technical cooperation programme in around 100 countries to deliver Nuclear-based solutions to Member States.

Nuclear contribution to food security is among the topics being discussed at the High-Level Meeting on Food Security for All taking place in Madrid, Spain from 26-27 January. Dr. Chikelu Mba, Head of the IAEA Plant Breeding Unit, examines mutant banana samples at the IAEA´s Seibersdorf laboratory. (Photo: D. Calma/IAEA)

A small list of some of the successful IAEA-backed programmes include helping 24 African countries eradicating the deadly cattle disease rinderpest, combating the fruit fly in Latin America, and introducing a variety of wheat in Keya that is yielding 11 percent more, under drought conditions, than the best varieties available until now.

Much of the IAEA´s work in this area has been carried out through a partnership with the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), which was first established in 1964. The organisations founded what they called a Joint Division for Food and Agriculture, which pioneered the use of nuclear techniques in agriculture.

"The work of the IAEA-FAO Joint Division has been an excellent example of what the UN family now calls Delivering as One - since long before the term was invented," Burkart said.

"Requests for assistance from our Member States make it clear that the IAEA and its partners will continue to play a vital role in the coming years in the area of food security."

Background

The High-Level Meeting on Food Security for All, which is hosted and organized by the Spanish Government, is a follow-up event to the June 2008 "food summit" held in Rome, Italy.

In the 5 June Rome Declaration, 181 States and the European Community pledged to alleviate the suffering caused by the soaring food prices, stimulate agricultural development, food and small holder farmer production and address obstacles to food access and adequate nutrition.