Nuclear Radiation and Women – theme for May 2013
As the nuclear lobby is busy persuading the world that ionising radiation is OK really, the facts are different. The most recent National Academy of Sciences Biological Effects of Ionising Radiation ( BEIR VII) in studying the cancer risk, supplied tables that showed the clear difference between radiation effects on males and females.
This lifespan graph (By Ian Goddard, deriving data from those tables) shows increased cancer risk by exposure to a given amount of radiation. Note the high risk for infant and little girls.
The pink line shows the risk for girls, the blue line for boys. Look at left hand part of the graph. It covers from zero to 5 years, and includes pre birth. We see a striking difference between the blue line and the pink line. The nuclear regulators assume that the risk shown here at age 30– in the blue line- is the same for every individual regardless of age or gender, – this is marked by the green circle. Yet, even at ages 40 – 60 the cancer risk from radiation is significantly more for women, than for men. - Mary Olson
That’s just looking at cancer risk. Not even considering risks to reproductive system pregnancy, and genetic effects.
Tornado Passes Over The Oldest Nuclear Power Plant In The World
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Published on May 24, 2013
Tornado over the world’s first nuclear power plant in Obninsk.
How Polish nuclear boss commemorated Chernobyl nuclear disaster – Greenpeace
Jan Haverkamp – May 24, 2013
On the 27th anniversary of the Chernobyl nuclear catastrophe, Aleksander Grad, the nuclear director of Polish utility PGE, sat behind his huge desk in his likewise huge office in Warsaw.
What was he doing? Keeping two minutes of silence to remember the hundreds of thousands of people who suffered from the Chernobyl nuclear catastrophe? Contemplating how his own nuclear plans could lead to a similar catastrophe? Realising that no emergency plan would protect the people around Lubiatowo and Zarnowiec or further down the road, areas where PGE wants to build Poland’s first nuclear power stations?
No.
Instead, Mr. Grad signed a letter threatening legal action against Tadeusz Pastusiak, president of “Lubiatowo Dunes“, a tiny environmental tourism organisation. Grad’s letter accused Pastusiak of spreading lies that would tarnish the good name of giant PGE and could lead to social unrest!
Seaweed stops Scottish EDF nuclear plant
UPDATE 1-Seaweed stops Scottish EDF nuclear plant
By John McGarrity
http://www.fxmemo.com/forum/thread/4013617/
LONDON, May 24 (Reuters) – A rising tide of seaweed halted a nuclear power station near Edinburgh late on Thursday, threatening to clog up its cooling system.
EDF Energy took both reactors offline at its 1,280MW Torness nuclear plant, the company said in a statement on Friday.
‘Around 1130 (BST) last night, Thursday 23 May, Unit 2 at Torness power station came offline due to increased seaweed levels as a result of the severe weather and sea conditions in the area,’ EDF said.
It added: ‘This was followed by a decision to take Unit 1 offline just after 3am today, Friday 24 May, as a precautionary measure when it was clear that the seaweed levels weren’t reducing.’
According a regulatory update on EDF’s website, the 640-MW reactor 1 will be offline for the next 14 days while reactor 2, which also has a capacity of 640-MW, will not generate electricity for at least a week.
The EDF statement said power plant staff are trained to deal with high seaweed levels resulting from weather conditions in the Forth Estuary, and that the plant can be taken offline if there are signs that the cooling system could be affected.
The Torness plant was forced to shut down in 2011 after large numbers of jellyfish were found in the sea water entering the plant.
(Editing by William Hardy) Keywords: EDF BRITAIN/SEAWEED
Michio Kaku: Nuclear Power Is a Faustian Bargain
http://www.meed.tv/9DPd58xljM0E5
The U.S. hasn’t commissioned a new nuclear plant since before the Three Mile Island meltdown in 1979, and will soon have to decommission all its ageing reactors. What, if anything, will replace these nuclear plants?
Glencore says Iran metals swap deals did not violate sanctions
By Louis Charbonneau
UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) -
Swiss-based commodities giant Glencore Xstrata (GLEN.L) said on Thursday that it had done nothing wrong when it engaged in metal swaps with Iran, rejecting a suggestion by U.N. experts that such bartering could have been a way of evading sanctions against Tehran over its nuclear program.
A confidential U.N. Panel of Experts report seen by Reuters on Wednesday said alumina-for-aluminum swap deals with Iran by Switzerland-based commodities giants Glencore and Trafigura TRAFG.UL could have been a way to bypass international sanctions.
A Glencore spokesman said the company broke no regulations and did not violate the sanctions. Trafigura said in a statement to Reuters that it could not comment specifically on the experts’ report, which the company said it has not seen.
Reuters reported on March 1 that Glencore had supplied thousands of tons of alumina to an Iranian firm that has provided aluminum to Iran’s nuclear program. Afterward, Trafigura acknowledged it had also traded with the same Iranian firm.
Glencore has confirmed the deals with Iran but insisted it had no knowledge that the company it was supplying alumina to – the Iranian Aluminum Company (Iralco) – was in turn providing aluminum metal to Iran Centrifuge Technology Co (TESA), which the European Union sanctioned in December 2012.
In a February statement to Reuters, Glencore said it first learned about the TESA-Iralco relationship in December and immediately “ceased transactions” with Iralco. It said its last actual trade as part of the barter arrangement was in October 2012, two months before the EU move.
Czech minister ‘disappointed’ by Temelin nuclear power bids
‘I must say that offers of both bidder surprised us very unpleasantly in terms of price,’
PRAGUE, May 24 (Reuters) – Bids submitted for the expansion of the Czech Republic’s Temelin nuclear power plant have been disappointing, Finance Minister Miroslav Kalousek was quoted as saying in a newspaper on Friday.
Westinghouse, a unit of Japan’s Toshiba Corp, has taken the lead in competition with a consortium led by Russia’s Atomstroyexport in the tender competition to build two new units at Temelin with a capacity of more than 1,000 megawatts.
Temelin is owned by state-controlled power utility CEZ
‘I must say that offers of both bidder surprised us very unpleasantly in terms of price,’ Kalousek is quoted as saying in the newspaper, Hospodarske Noviny.
French group Areva has been excluded from the tendering but has appealed.
(Reporting by Jana Mlcochova; Editing by Greg Mahlich)
Japan NRA Finds that Tsuruga NPP sits on Active Fault Line
Published on May 23, 2013
The NRA in Japan has accepted a report that Tsuruga NPP it sitting directly on an active fault line.
Are the big nuclear companies cushioned from this type of scrutiny? Is Japan Atomic being used as a a sacrificial lamb to appease the regulators and the public?
Fukushima Rad News 5/23/13: 56,000 Bq/m3 of Strontium-90 Reactor 2; Robot For Decommissioning
Published on May 23, 2013
NRA: Tsuruga nuclear plant built on active fault
Japan’s Nuclear Regulation Authority has officially endorsed a report by its expert panel that said a reactor in Fukui Prefecture, central Japan, sits on an active fault.
NRA Chairman Shunichi Tanaka announced the conclusion at a meeting on Wednesday. He said his organization takes seriously the result of the expert panel’s probe into the Number 2 reactor at the Tsuruga nuclear power plant, which was released last week.
Robot for nuclear decommissioning
The government and Tokyo Electric Power Company say they plan to build a facility to develop a robot to help decommission the reactors at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant.
Radiation levels in the plant are too high for workers to remove melted nuclear fuel rods.
Finland to bury nuclear waste underground
Country plans to solve problem of disposing radioactive waste permanently by using tunnels.
Finland has struggled with disposal of radioactive waste for decades, with temporary storage sites requiring constant monitoring.
Stricken Japan Fukushima nuclear plant struggles to keep staff
AP | May 23rd, 2013, 7:43am
Keeping the meltdown-stricken Fukushima nuclear plant in northeastern Japan in stable condition requires a cast of thousands. Increasingly the plant’s operator is struggling to find enough workers, a trend that many expect to worsen and hamper progress in the decades-long effort to safely decommission it.
http://www.scpr.org/news/2013/05/23/3…
http://fukushima-diary.com/2013/05/th…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=…
http://fukushima-diary.com/2013/05/56…
http://fukushima-diary.com/2013/05/pl…
[Major leakage] Tritium detected from 13 of 14 observation holes, “To be discharged to the sea”
http://fukushima-diary.com/2013/05/ma…
Mayor of Fukushima-devastated town: Say no to nuclear energy
http://www.bellona.org/articles/artic…
Fukushima Nuclear Crisis Update for May 21st to May 22nd, 2013
http://www.greenpeace.org/internation…)
San Onofre Power Plant And It`s Potential Fallout In A Disaster
Thu, May 23, 2013, 6:55pm EDT
What would happen in the event of different natural disaster striking San Onfore, specifically the environmental and economic fallout of how a tsunami, earthquake, etc. would impact the region.
Fukushima breaking news A historical NUCLEAR . S.O.N.G.S PUBLIC Hearing
Kevin Blanch
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q9et0x…
Expert: “Incipient collapse” of radioactive waste tanks possible at U.S. nuclear site (AUDIO)
http://fairewinds.org/podcast/great-h…
http://enenews.com/report-terrorist-a…
http://enenews.com/object-dropped-nuc…
Countdown to Nuclear Ruin at Paducah
Disaster is about to strike in western Kentucky, a full-blown nuclear catastrophe involving hundreds of tons of enriched uranium tainted with plutonium, technetium, arsenic, beryllium and a toxic chemical brew. But this nuke calamity will be no fluke. It’s been foreseen, planned, even programmed, the result of an atomic extortion game played out between the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) and the most failed American experiment in privatization, the company that has run the Paducah plant into the poisoned ground,
http://ecowatch.com/2013/countdown-to…
IAEA Outlines ‘Challenges And Uncertainty’ For Fukushima Decommissioning
24 May (NucNet): Relatively stable cooling of fuel and fuel debris in the reactors and spent fuel pools has been established at Fukushima-Daiichi, but there are still “several challenges” to be met before “a sustainable situation” is achieved at the plant, the International Atomic Energy Agency has said.
http://www.nucnet.org/all-the-news/20…
Japan’s Tsuruga nuclear reactor ruled unsafe, for permanent closure
JAPAN NUCLEAR REACTOR ATOP ACTIVE FAULT: REGULATOR, Yahoo 7 News, May 23, 2013TOKYO (AFP) – Japan’s nuclear watchdog said Wednesday that one reactor was sitting directly above an active tectonic fault, effectively ruling out a restart forever.
The Nuclear Regulation Authority (NRA) said it had approved a report from experts which found a crack in the Earth’s crust lying underneath the reactor at a plant in Tsuruga, western Japan, was active. ”There is a need for us to take the report seriously,” NRA chairman
Shunichi Tanaka said.
It is the first time the newly-minted NRA has made such a ruling. It is still investigating possibly-active faults under five other
reactors. A second reactor at Tsuruga, which sits 300 metres (328 yards) away, is not one of this number.
The final decision on a restart rests with the government, who are expected to be asked by plant operator Japan Atomic Power to overrule
the watchdog.
Observers say despite its pro-nuclear stance, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s administration is unlikely to risk public ire by backing the
operator, meaning the reactor would become the first to be permanently shuttered since the Fukushima disaster……
http://au.news.yahoo.com/latest/a/-/latest/17290072/japan-nuclear-reactor-atop-active-fault-regulator/
Latest earthquake caused leak from Fukushima Daiichi Units 5-6
Tepco: M6 quake caused leak at Fukushima Daiichi — Water coming from pipe of Units 5, 6 http://enenews.com/m6-quake-caused-leak-at-fukushima-daiichi-water-coming-from-pipe-of-units-5-6
Title: Earthquake Occurred on May 18, 2013 (Fukushima Daiichi and Daini Nuclear Power Stations) (Follow-up Information No.2)
Source: Tepco Press Release
Date: May 20, 2013
h/t Anonymous tip
This is a follow-up report on the statuses of Fukushima Daiichi and Daini Nuclear Power Stations after the earthquake occurred in the offshore of Fukushima Prefecture (M5.9) at around 2:48 PM on May 18.
At around 4:10 PM in Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station, a TEPCO employee found water dropping from an overflow pipe of Units 5-6 RO treated water tank (D7 tank) where the leakage was found yesterday on the site patrol after the earthquake. [...]
Regarding the treated water dropping from an overflow pipe of Units 5-6 RO treated water tank, the leakage area is estimated to be about 2 m x about 2 m and the leakage amount is estimated to be about 4 liters. [...]
The water dropping is assumed to be caused by the earthquake occurred at around 2:48 PM today since the treated water tank was at full capacity from yesterday. [...]
See also: Strong M6 quake hits near Fukushima nuclear plant — Intensity 5+ on JMA scale — Officials: “No reports of damage so far”
Germany’s post-nuclear vision is working, a practical transition to renewables
the sudden shutdown of seven nuclear power plants had no detrimental effect on security of supply, and was compensated for within the German energy infrastructure
Nuclear futures: renewables blossom in Germany’s post-nuclear vision .http://theconversation.com/nuclear-futures-renewables-blossom-in-germanys-post-nuclear-vision-14364 Erik Gawel, Sebastian Strunz 22 May 
2013, When the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant in Japan was hit by a tsunami in March 2011, the disaster had a profound effect on German energy policy. Chancellor Angela Merkel reasoned that “Fukushima has forever changed the way we define risk in Germany.”
Three days after the news of meltdown in three of Fukushima’s reactors, Chancellor Merkel drew a line under German nuclear power. The seven oldest nuclear power plants in Germany were immediately taken off the grid, and two months later the government made this permanent. The remaining German nuclear power plants, it was decided, would be shut down by 2022.
This decision was a spectacular policy U-turn, as the same conservative government had only recently overturned an earlier attempt to ban nuclear power in Germany. In 2010, Chancellor Merkel’s coalition had argued that nuclear power was a “bridge technology” ecessary to pave the way towards a carbon-free energy system. The prolonged use of nuclear power would be indispensable in order to guarantee security of supply, it was claimed.
This raises two questions: did removing seven power plants endanger the security of supply to the German national grid? And what convincing long-term strategy is there in place to manage the shift to carbon-free energy without nuclear power? Read more »
1957 Mayak nuclear disaster – the forgotten event near Ozyorsk
Ozyorsk was and remains a closed town because of its proximity to the Mayak plant,
To consider how insanely radioactive Lake Karachay is, think about this: Chernobyl disaster: 5-12 exabecquerels blown over thousands of square miles Lake Karachay: 4 exabecquerels in this tiny lake, less than a quarter of a mile in diameter. Even approaching the lake will get you a lethal dose within an hour. And they ARE starting to cover it up with concrete and gravel as the water evaporates. As the water recedes, they lay down dirt, gravel and concrete over the area so it can’t fill back in and the sediment doesn’t get disturbed by the wind.
The 10 Worst Civilian Nuclear Accidents in History http://www.neatorama.com/2013/05/21/The-10-Worst-Civilian-Nuclear-Accidents-in-History/ Miss Cellania , May 21, 2013 Quick -how many nuclear accidents can you name? Chernobyl, Three Mile Island, Fukushima …any more? There have been quite a few nuclear accidents of varying danger that you probably never heard of, including some fatal incidents. For example, in 1957, nuclear waste exploded at a reactor near the Soviet town of Ozyorsk.
One of the storage tanks contained around 70 to 80 tons of radioactive liquid waste, and its cooling mechanism stopped working and wasn’t fixed. The tank’s contents, made up mostly of ammonium nitrate and acetates, began to dry out as the liquid heated up and evaporated. Moreover, the temperature increase caused an explosion whose force was equivalent to 70 to 100 tons of TNT, and this sent huge amounts of radioactivity – roughly 20 MCi (800 PBq) – into the environment. The fallout cloud from the explosion contaminated an area of up to 7,722 square miles (20,000 square kilometers).
Over a period of nearly two years, about 10,000 people were evacuated from the surrounding area. In terms of fatalities, the exact cost of the incident is not known, but immediately around the site of the explosion there were 66 diagnosed cases of chronic radiation syndrome.
Read more about the Ozyorsk incident and nine others in a list at Tech Graffiti. Link -via the Presurfer
VIDEO: continuing damage at Hanford radioactive waste facility
VIDEO: Great Haste Made Great Waste at Hanford http://fairewinds.org/podcast/great-haste-made-great-waste-at-hanford The Hanford nuclear site, located on the Columbia River in Washington state, was built as part of the Manhattan Project to process plutonium for nuclear weapons. Operated until the end of the Cold War, the decades of weapons production has left Hanford as the most contaminated nuclear site in the US, with a long history of cover-ups about the leaking high-level radioactive waste. In a project that is currently 10-years behind schedule, the DOE is attempting to build a vitrification plant at Hanford to process and neutralize the massive amounts of radioactive waste left behind by the creation of nuclear bombs. Today, nuclear policy expert Robert Alvarez joins Kevin and Arnie to discuss the ongoing environmental damage to the Hanford site.
Whistleblower revealed CIA’s complicity with AQ Khan’s nuclear design thefts
(i cludes video)Nuclear Secrets: How America Helped Pakistan Get the Bomb http://www.corbettreport.com/nuclear-secrets-how-america-helped-pakistan-get-the-bomb/ by James Corbett BoilingFrogsPost.com May 21, 2013 In this series of Eyeopener 
reports, we have been exploring the whistleblowers in the national intelligence establishment of the United States that have put their careers (and in some cases even their lives) on the line to shine a spotlight on the fraud, corruption and treason in the highest positions of power in the land. From the abuses of the NSA in its war against the American citizenry to the shocking details of Homeland Security informants participating in murders in Mexico with the full complicity of their government handlers, there is sadly no shortage of stories to explore. Perhaps one of the most unsettling stories, however, concerns what has been for the past half century regarded as one of the primary security threats not just to the United States but to the entire planet: nuclear proliferation.
Abdul Qadeer Khan, a Pakistani national, was working at a centrifuge production facility in the Netherlands in 1974 when he first offered his services to the Pakistani government to offer them help with their nuclear program. After convincing them to develop a uranium-based bomb, he began stealing nuclear designs from the Dutch company he was working for. What followed was a three decade affair in which Khan and the nuclear network he developed not only successfully helped Pakistan acquire the knowledge, equipment and materials to build their own bomb, but allegedly helped to proliferate that technology to Iran, Libya and North Korea as well.
As we explored in a previous edition of the Eyeopener, however, the Khan network was known about and actively protected from its very inception by the CIA. Read more »
SEARCH for particular names or topics at the SEARCH BOX at very bottom of this sidebar
- AUDIO About San Onofre Nuclear plant. Nuclear Regulatory Commission – NRC: Lapdog or Watchdog? http://www.fairewinds.org/content/nrc-lapdog-or-watchdog
- and this Japan’s nuclear safety record criticised by regulator http://www.radioaustralia.net.au/international/radio/program/connect-asia/japans-nuclear-safety-record-criticised-by-regulator/1132464
- VIDEO: Great Haste Made Great Waste at Hanford http://fairewinds.org/podcast/great-haste-made-great-waste-at-hanford
- and this VIDEO Printing Australia’s Largest Solar Cells
http://cleantechnica.com/2013/05/19/printing-australias-largest-solar-cells/#I2hPrL1dDL6WTXwD.99 - and this VIDEO: Japan to open nuclear plant http://www.abc.net.au/lateline/content/2013/s3761126.ht
From Fukushima to New York: Continuing Dangers of Nuclear PowerEVENTS
San Onofre at the No Nukes Brink: It’s Time to Take Action & WIN!!!
http://www.nukefree.org/stop-san-onofre-re-start-call-petition-now
Women and nuclear radiation – Mary Olson speaks
Mary Olson, from Nuclear Information and Resource Service, spoke at the New York symposium on Fukushima’s effects, March 2013.
Here are some highlights:
Mary Olson discussed the findings of the latest National Academy of Sciences Biological Effects of Ionising Radiation ( BEIR VII) , illustrated by this graph:
This lifespan graph shows increased cancer risk by exposure to a given amount of radiation, The pink line shows the risk for girls, the blue line for boys. Look at left hand part of the graph. It covers from zero to 5 years, and includes pre birth. We see a striking difference between the blue line and the pink line. The nuclear regulators assume that the risk shown here at age 40 – in the blue line- is the same for every individual regardless of age or gender. Yet, even at ages 40 – 60 the cancer risk from radiation is significantly more for women, than for men.
The cancer danger from ionising radiation depends on the type of radiation, the amount, and the duration of the exposure. But it also depends on who is exposed. Radiation exposure endangers some individuals more than others. In order, the most vulnerable are:
Primary germ cells/ Embryo
Foetus
Children
Elders
Some genotypes
Females – both juvenile and adult
All of the world’s scientific authorities agree that there is no safe dose of radiation. That includes the WHO, EPA, NRC, and national Academy of Science.
The standards for permissable levels of ionising radiation were originally written to cover doctors using radiation, then were intended for the purpose of sending military into radiological areas. Yet these standads, based on a 30 year old man, are applied to everyone.
Over 100 years, man’s activities have increased the background radiation by 25%
The ratio of cancer risks from radiation for males and females is 3 to 2. That is for every 2 males who get cancer from ionising radiation, there are 3 females. In reports from BEIR and the Lifespan study of Hiroshima survivors only external radiation is considered, not internal radiation. The risk for females is being underestimated in reports and in regulations about radiation
The World Health Organisation is the first big agency to acknowledge this difference in radiation risk between males and females, in its latest report. WHO is also saying that there is 70% higher risk of thyroid cancer for little girls exposed to radiation.
Studies are continuing, and animal studies, too, are showing this gender difference. We must move towards prevention and precaution as the basis of policy. Sadly, it is too late for a lot of prevention. We need to cahnge the priorities – to protect first, study second
And we need to get a whole lot more women motivated to get involved.
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