Published: August 29th, 2011 at 5:28 pm ET
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Current Event Notification Report for August 29, 2011, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission:
Power Reactor Event Number: 47201
Facility: NORTH ANNA
Region: 2 State: VA
[...]
Event Date: 08/26/2011
Event Time: 13:00 [EDT]
[...]
Event Text
UNANALYZED CONDITION BASED ON SEISMIC ACTIVITY THAT POTENTIALLY EXCEEDED DESIGN BASIS EARTHQUAKE MAGNITUDEOn August 23, 2011 at 1351 hours, North Anna Power Station experienced a seismic activity event which resulted in a loss of offsite power and automatic reactor trip of both units. At 1403 hours, an Alert was declared. based on Shift Manager judgment, due to significant seismic activity on the site. Subsequent to the earthquake, both units were stabilized and offsite power was restored. Following the event, seismic data was retrieved from the installed monitoring system and shipped to the vendor to determine the response spectrum for the event. On August 26, 2011 at 1340 hours, initial reviews of the data determined that the seismic activity potentially exceeded the Design Basis Earthquake magnitude value above 5 Hz. Therefore, this is reportable per 10CFR50.72(b)(3)(ii) (B) for the nuclear power plant being in an unanalyzed condition that significantly degrades plant safety.
North Anna Unit 1 is currently in Cold Shutdown with the Residual Heat Removal System providing core cooling. North Anna Unit 2 is currently in Hot Shutdown and will be taken to Cold Shutdown with the Residual Heat Removal System providing core cooling. No significant equipment damage to Safety Related system (including Class 1 Structures) has been identified through site walk-downs nor has equipment degradation been detected through plant performance and surveillance testing following the earthquake. Therefore, there is reasonable assurance that the Safety Related systems are fully functional. [...]
Published: August 29th, 2011 at 5:28 pm ET
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Nice… and you do know they could do NO inspections on the day of the Hurricane!….
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Potrblog has issued a safety alert for citizens in the area of the North Anna nuclear plant.
http://www.potrblog.com/
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At least there’s been no increase in Lake Anna leakage per measurements on 8/23, 8/24 & 8/25… That’s a very GOOD sign.
If the weather stays as perfect as it is now, I’m sure that they can make any necessary repairs. As for Calvert Cliffs???…
What about all those plants up north that got deluged in CT, any in MA or VT? They had a virtual tsunami flood.
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I am not fear mongering. I respect potrblog because he seems to know what he is doing.
Everyone should make their own evaluations.
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I know some things from those who are on site, taking measurements….
I’ve talked to people high up who regulate and monitor this plant. They are not just complacent about Dominion. So far, it’s holding up. I’m all for information, but let’s not wish for the worst, thanks!
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Some water just sloshed out of the tank it seems
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Also saw Missouri HOT Rain. 39x on Sunday.
It has also been reported on Potrblog’s site that the rain in Missouri was 39 x Background on Sunday. That was his third highest reading.
This ‘stuff’ has not really slowed down from what I see. Coming up on six months of fallout soon. Plus, the overall ‘spread’ effect and a-c-c-u-m-u-l-a-t-i-o-n-!
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The truth is that ANY of these plants could go berserk at any time!
I’m so glad that I got the direct report from the VA state radiological health division that shows that there has been no increase in radionuclides in the air or water at the plant since the earthquake. I actually trust that data more than blog guesswork.
Please don’t be wishing for things to happen here, folks! We don’t need the negative energy!!:P
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“Date shows quake may have exceeded design basis.”
In other words the quake DID exceed design basis.
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Not too sure about the safety of the other plants we heard about in the past week but this one we can all be reasonably assured it is safe. that is brutal i can’t imagine being a worker at one of those places and being expected to go into work everyday and feel safe. i wouldnt last long i imagine they would let me go for asking too many safety questions.
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Not that this aspect matters heavily, but I am offering my opinion on the technical text in the statement above to clarify some ambiguous and confusing terminology they used.
“the seismic activity potentially exceeded the Design Basis Earthquake magnitude value above 5 Hz”
At first glance it sounds like they are using Hz as a measurement of how much it exceeded the Design Basis Earthquake magnitude. But frequency isn’t typically used this way. Magnitude is the key word that is more in line with a unit that would be used for measurement.
So I would re-word it to this, which is what I think they are intending to describe:
“At frequencies above 5Hz, the seismic energy may have exceeded the Design Basis Earthquake magnitude.”
This would make much more sense. Waveforms such as earthquakes contain different amounts of energy at different frequencies. Earthquakes are similar to audio waves, but at much lower frequencies. If this interpretation is correct, they are saying that for the “higher” frequencies of the earthquake the maximum magnitude (level) of energy might have been exceeded.
Either which way, it makes no difference on the statement itself. But I noticed that the blog linked above referenced 5Hz as a unit of measurement for how much the magnitude was exceeded by. I don’t think that’s what the line above was intending to describe, although grammatically it seems that way. Frequency (Hz) isn’t used as a measurement of magnitude. It is rather used as a characteristic of a waveform for which magnitude is measured.
Why does it matter? Because structures have resonant frequencies and tolerances at those frequencies in terms of the level of energy it can handle. If that structure had a resonant frequency above 5Hz in a crucial location, then there’s a potential it was damaged in some manner – or at least shaken more than they ever wanted it to be.
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Um, Undertow,
Although the frequency in hertz maters as applied to the amount of time the structure shakes, nuclear plants are designed for peak ground acceleration in relation to gravity. ie 1.0g
The north anna plant apparently, from researching and comments of another poster, was designed for a pga of .12-.18 pga. The earthquake aparently shook that plant at .535 pga. In contrast all new plants are designed around a pga of 0.3g. That is the acceleration force that the plant experienced or the amplitude of the shake. The frequency in hertz is the, well, frequency or length of wave that it shook. Taken together on a graph is where the data will show, I believe, that YES it did experience an earthquake that exceeded its design chacteristics. The magnitude of the earthquake means nothing except to be a simple scale for public consumption.
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The frequency in hertz would matter more if the plant was subject to continous shaking over a longer length of time, but earthquakes tend to only last only for a minute or so and that is why they are designed with the PGA being weighted more than the frequency in hertz from an engineering standpoint. The strata or subsoil below the plant has a tremendous impact on the engineering design also.
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. Frequency (Hz) isn’t used as a measurement of magnitude. Sure but does rep Amplitude which is why its deliberately used to confuse and obfuscate whats goin down here- depop
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Party like its 1999
USA = Japan
red red wine
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Speaking of red…does this look like another typhoon heading Japan’s way?
http://www.weather-report.jp/com/home/kishomap/fusoku/japan_l.html
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Yes Talas is expected to make landfall this weekend perhaps Friday.
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The JTWC forecast calls for Talas to steadily intensify over the weekend because of warm sea surface temperatures and favorable upper level atmospheric conditions. Talas is expected to take a more northerly track and pass just to the west of Iwo To over the weekend, and past Chichi Jima on Monday, August 29.
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Someone may have already mentioned Kashiwazaki Kariwa (KK), Honshu JP, July 16, 2007, 6.8 earthquake. KK was reportedly designed for the ground acceleration associated, potentially, with an earthquake of that magnitude; but turned out the facility was only able to withstand half the ground acceleration produced by that temblor. There was a meltdown without breach of containment building with venting and a nearly complete news black-out about it from then to the present. The quake in Virginia may have also exceeded design tolerances for ground acceleration there. The tectonic fault in the case of Kashiwazaki Kariwa is a different type; but that may not really matter when it comes to the bizarre industry standard of very narrow margins of error inherent or built-in, due to profiteering motives in every single one of the 1000 civilian commercial nuclear reactors on the planet. Long passed time for chop from the top.
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They may be setting the stage to let us know there “has been” structural damage !
“seismic activity potentially exceeded the Design Basis”
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Dear xdr: I believe that is the case.
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Pallas and fox, that’s exactly what they’re doing. Just like when Obama said he is fearing a ‘lone wolf’ attack on 9/11 this year.
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I believe they have found cracks and are doing ex-rays to see how deep they run in the concrete structure, and if it may continue cracking with further quakes !
There is also where and why did the lake coolant water go ! The only answer would be a crack there, and is there a risk of dropping more without/with more quakes !
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Take it easy, xdrfox… All the buildings here withstood it just fine!
And they are NOT comparable to North Anna. They designed North Anna to withstand a direct strike by a crashing jet plane!…
They do need to fully inspect & monitor it though, repeatedly.
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@ alasanon
Ever get a stone ding in your windshield and any further vibrations to it going down the road and you watch it crack more and more in one or more directions, it is the same when concrete is cracked even a little, more vibrations or jolts can make the cracks spread !
Year back, I would take a drimal tool with a small diamond bit drilling a hole near the end of the crack and injected Elmer’s Glue into it to stop the further cracking !
It worked on several cars and wreckers I had !
Gorilla Glue is best bet on a concrete nuclear reactor building !
: D
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I was thinking super glue myself! ha!
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They’re gonna need a hell of a lot of super glue lol
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nuclear power is safe on average
the simulations proved it will withstand
a typical earthquake for a period of 2 seconds
or less duration but only once in its 30 year lifetime
the insurance cost must be astronomical for these things
Oh that’s right we are holding the bag on mishaps and no law suits allowed
and the ridiculous high cost to build these things it is charged to the customers who have no say in what we have to live with or is it to die from.
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And they continue to have albeit small aftershocks. I’m about 180 miles north of the plant but they seem to have in under control as I have not heard of any leakage or increase in rads.
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And by all bets, you wont hear anything either, even if….
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I saw a geiger counter measuring Central VA air with my own eyes that week. It was a reasonable background level after the earthquake–same as usual.
I really think we got lucky, all things considered!!
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@ Pallas89juno
Drips and drabs, never told the hard facts from the get go anymore !
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Fukushima Update
10:00 PM EDT
Tonight on Rense Radio:
From Hong Kong
Yoichi Shimatsu
Dr. Bill Deagle
Michael Collins
West Coast Radiation Monitoring
http://www.rense.com/
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here’s the quick App, live feed for Rense Radio “Jeff Rense Program”
http://rense.gsradio.net:8080/rense/livefeeds/16k.asx
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ty – xdrfox and CindyH I’ll be there. I hope this gets heavily tweeted!
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I respect Rense but sometimes he tends to exaggerate and you have to check his quotes as to accuracy. He did that with Ft. Calhoun.
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Five realities of nuclear energy to reassure public
Jerry Paul South Florida Sun-Sentinel
August 28, 2011
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/outlook/sfl-outlook-nukerealities-82811,0,3327716.story
*** Thanks Jerry(the writer)…. am I supposed to feel reassured at this point?*****
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Anybody heard how Indian Point is doing? Friends north of NYC lost power and had flooding. Couldn’t talk to them long, they were trying to make several calls on low battery-cells.
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Yes, they have tons of flooding up north in VT, too. Vermont Yankee??! Where’s Arnie???
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GoddardsJournal is back!
http://australiancannonball.com/2011/08/30/fukushima-%e2%98%a2-nuclear-blast/
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Scary stuff seein how I live in Cali
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Posted to HP thread Cannon! Thanks and keep up the good work.
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watched and i should point out:
number one explosion was very fast upward but it was not carrying debris upward. you see a cloud moving upward and then it becomes invisible… this does not mean it stops moving upward.
and the number-one-reactor explosion upward, considering the speed of the cloud which disappears, is faster.
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hey guys and gals, this UK paper did an article on why Fukushima is worse than Chernobyl, and then an army of pro-nuclear trolls invaded, check it out.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/why-the-fukushima-disaster-is-worse-than-chernobyl-2345542.html
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I dont see how we can avoid this anymore.
RENSE RADIO
http://tinyurl.com/3bdu7nc
Quick Review:
Shimatsu maintains that the reactors were built on fill. One of the cores has gone through the containment and is encountering water.
The government of Japan intentionally minimized the situation.
7,000 tonnes of spent and unused fuel is sitting around.
The burning of radioactive debris is coming soon. North America will be hit by the fallout. Farmers are burning thier debris right now from rice chaff.
Canada and the USA are not objecting, apparently.
STAY OUT OF THE RAIN FROM HERE ON OUT
In 2 years we’ll be covered in the shit.
RENSE SAID NO GOOD WILL COME FROM WRITING ELECTED OFFICIALS BUT I JUST WROTE MINE ANYWAY.
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I don’t think the NRC filing that the plant “may have exceeded the design limits” – is a cause for panic. Even if it did exceed the design limits, that does not mean the plant has been compromised. As I described in my post on a previous thread engineering is not nearly precise enough to predict when a complex system like this will fail – with any accuracy.
What it does mean is that a very thorough inspection is necessary.
However – what this also proves is that the public will be lied to if an event ever does happen. All of the information presented to the public has been that it did not exceed design limits, and there are no problems, however the private filings confirm this is incorrect.
It also proves that this plant very easily could have had a disastrous meltdown, and we could very easily have our on Fukushima on our hands in the US.
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CRYSTAL RIVER — From the start, one question especially has concerned the federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission: Why Crystal River?
Why did a 42-inch-thick wall at that nuclear plant separate into two layers during a big maintenance project last fall? Other nuclear plants have done similar jobs 26 times around the country, but no one ever saw a crack like Crystal River’s — a crack that has kept the plant off-line for 11 months and piled up nearly a quarter of a billion dollars in outage costs.
On Thursday, NRC officials said …
http://www.tampabay.com/news/business/energy/crack-at-crystal-river-nuclear-power-plant-explained/1119240
Shutting down a nuclear plant involves hundreds of millions of dollars in costs. Progress Energy also has already made it known that it will need another power generator to make up for the loss — also an expense the utility’s customers would shoulder.
“It they decommission the plant, it could end up costing ratepayers a heck of a lot,” …
http://www.tampabay.com/news/business/energy/if-crystal-river-nuclear-power-plant-never-comes-back-online-what-happens/1175479
The Crystal River containment structure is about 42 inches thick, contains steel support tendons, and is lined with steel plates. The crack was found about nine inches from the outer surface of the concrete.
The inspection team will be made up of NRC personnel from its Atlanta office, those already working out of the Crystal River Plant and from NRC headquarters in Rockville, Maryland. It is also likely the NRC will contract one or more independent experts to assist in the inspection, …
http://www.homelandsecuritynewswire.com/nrc-investigates-crack-crystal-river-nuclear-plant
Radioactive iodine detected by Tampa-area nuclear plant — “Iodine …
26 Mar 2011 … http://www.floridaoilspilllaw.com/gulf-coast-nuclear-plant-crack- … All the testers in Florida on the FDA site (there but readings N/A) have not …
http://enenews.com/tampa-area-nuclear-plant-detects-radioactive-iodine-iodine-travels-through-the-air-very-easily
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There’s THE RUB!!
“Shutting down a nuclear plant involves hundreds of millions of dollars in costs.”
The very reason we see them hesitate and delay repairs! Good god.
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The scary part is knowing that most need to be shut down, just look at delays in many areas to fix or repair/replace, or even to inspect these plants !! (instead they put off/delay times and frequency’s inspections) so it would be such a large cost they are continued able to run ???
Who thinks most plants are not having ex-rays in the inspections ? Better not to know the industry may say !!
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It’s f**ked up xdrfox! And very SCARY.
Of course the N.C. continue to say things are fine.
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EDIT:
MONEY IS WHAT DRIVES THESE PEOPLE
NEVER EVER CONCERN OR COMPASSION.
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They’ve been all over this thread I see this morning:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/sen-dianne-feinstein/nuclear-safety-and-the-ea_b_937053.html
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GOOD !!!
“They’ve been all over this thread I see this morning:”
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Like 3/11 is the ‘New 9/11
The Nuclear Cheerleaders are:
The New Chickenhawks.
Never serving in a NUCLEAR CRISIS like Japan.
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Gulf of Mexico nuclear plant has “crack” in reactor’s containment …
17 Mar 2011 … A new crack in Progress Energy’s Crystal River nuclear plant’s containment building has forced the utility company to again scrap its plans to …
http://www.floridaoilspilllaw.com/gulf-coast-nuclear-plant-crack-reactors-containment-building
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NRC inspects crack at Progress Florida nuclear unit | Reuters
9 Oct 2009 … N) 838-megawatt Crystal River nuclear power station in Florida, the agency … is located in Red Level, Florida, about 85 miles north of Tampa. …
http://www.reuters.com/article/2009/10/09/utilities-nrc-progress-idUSN097385720091009
I think the first crack was found in Sept. 2008
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November 30, 2002 by the Cleveland Plain Dealer
Nuclear Plant Fiascoes Likely with Age, Secret Study Suggests
by Stephen Koff
WASHINGTON — Equipment breakdowns at nuclear power plants are not unusual.
Pipes crack, break or clog, springing leaks with some regularity. Pumps stall or freeze up. Steam generator tubes burst. Steel components can get brittle from being bombarded with radioactivity. Nuclear-industry officials acknowledge as much. …
…”Given plant aging and materials issues,” cracks and leaks like those that led to the Davis-Besse fiasco, where leaking boric acid ate a hole in the reactor lid, are likely to recur, says a confidential analysis by the influential Institute of Nuclear Power Operations. …
There’s a big move on to reduce costs, to take tests that were once done monthly and now make them quarterly, and things that used to be done quarterly are now done yearly, and so on. Aging equipment, coupled with fewer safety checks and inspections, makes it more likely that something will break or fail or be degraded below the prescribed safety margins, and not be detected before it is challenged.
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines02/1130-02.htm
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A hero falls
“Nuclear plant worker dies of acute leukemia”
http://mdn.mainichi.jp/mdnnews/news/20110830p2g00m0dm084000c.html
TEPCO claims this person did not get ill from working at the plant.
It is possible that this person volunteered to work at the plant because he already had this terrible disease.
It is also possible that he developed radiation sickness while working at the plant from exposure to one of the very high radiation sources at the plant.
Recall that areas of the plant have been found to be extraordinarily “hot,” at 10 sieverts an hour.
Exposure to 10 sieverts would kill a person within days.
Relevant Links for Hot Areas at Plant
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/japan/8565020/Nuclear-fuel-has-melted-through-base-of-Fukushima-plant.html
http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/dy/national/T110607005367.htm
http://mdn.mainichi.jp/mdnnews/news/20110823p2a00m0na019000c.html
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THEY ARE LYING. Just like they have since 3/11. And it’s only gonna get worse when the REAL censorship begins. Thanks Majia. Posted here:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/08/19/japan-earthquake-tsunami-warning-_n_931417.html
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here’s the App, live feed for Rense Radio “Jeff Rense Program”
http://rense.gsradio.net:8080/rense/livefeeds/16k.asx
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14 tons of water per hour into Fukushima reactors, all are at or above boiling
http://www.tepco.co.jp/nu/fukushima-np/f1/images/11083012_table_summary-j.pdf
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