Youthful protestors lead anti nuclear push in Russia
On Murmansk Oblast’s Kola peninsula, however, nuclear backers face one of the strongest environmental organizations in Russia. For more than 10 years, Vitaly Servetnik and other activists at Priroda i molodezh (Nature and Youth) have battled attempts to build new reactors and extend the life of existing ones at the Kola nuclear plant, carrying out more than 100 protest campaigns
Servetnik accuses the authorities of using the Interior Ministry’s anti-terror police, known as Center E, to spy on his small group based in Murmansk.
ecologists persuaded authorities in Volgodonsk, southern Russia, to hold round table talks on the planned power increase of one reactor at the Rostov nuclear plant. In the Kaliningrad exclave, opposition is mounting to the planned 2016 launch of a new reactor at the Baltic plant.
Nuclear-Strength Kola TOL Special Report: In Russia’s northwest, a scrappy bunch of young environmentalists faces off against a powerful nuclear lobby. By Alexander Tretyakov reporter for SOTV, a publicly funded Internet television channel in Moscow. 24 May 2012 This is the fourth in a series of articles on the state of the environment in Russia.
MOSCOW | Murmansk Oblast in northern Russia has one of the highest
concentrations of nuclear energy on earth. Nuclear submarines and
icebreakers of the Russian Northern Fleet sail the White and Barents
seas, and the Kola nuclear power plant is still going strong nearly 40
years after its first reactor hummed into life.
Russia’s nuclear industry is due for a massive expansion under a
government plan to increase nuclear’s share in national power
production. Russia has shown no sign of wavering on nuclear power in
the wake of last year’s Fukushima disaster, ….. Read more »
Theft of uranium 235
Moldova: 3 Sentenced in Nuclear Case http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/25/world/europe/moldova-3-sentenced-in-nuclear-case.html By REUTERS May 24, 2012 A Moldovan court sentenced three people on Thursday for their part in illegal trafficking of uranium-235, which can be used in making nuclear weapons. The three were part of a five-member group seized by the police in June during what was said to be an exchange of a cylinder containing the radioactive material for cash. Intelligence services from several other countries, principally the United States, Germany and Ukraine, were involved in the case, the justice authorities in Moldova said. According to the general prosecutor’s office, a Russian woman was sentenced to three years in prison, and her accomplice got five years. A third person was fined $1,200. The group had been trying to sell about two pounds of uranium-235 for $38 million, the prosecution said. It was not clear to what degree the uranium was enriched.
Better ways than nuclear power to manage electricity
Nuclear is not the only option The Guardian UK , Alan Mitcham, 25 May 12, I can’t understand why the government is pushing for more investment in nuclear power when Fukushima is so recent. I’ve also heard Ed Davey “squirming” on the BBC and saying we need investment to ”keep the lights on”. Keep the lights on?
Maybe 50 years ago this was the primary use of electricity but now most goes on powering masses of superfluous appliances and gadgets. So we should ask ourselves how we might distinguish between essential (keeping the lights on) and luxury (frothing coffee) electricity?
One way would be to install a supplementary DC circuit in every home. Here batteries would be charged at cheap night-time rates or from solar panels, with them supplying a limited amount of essential electricity. The cost for daytime AC power could then be increased significantly so we all start to feel a real level of “financial pain” when we run the tumble-drier,
switch on air-conditioning or leave the TV running when we are not
really watching it.
Phil Booth It ill behoves those of us who have lived long lives of
profligate energy consumption to wring our hands as if nothing can be
done to rationalise UK energy policy. 0ur best efforts make little
impression on the global problem and may not impress India or China,
but to do nothing sends a message about the greed of arrogant
developed nations which they and others will seize with both hands.
And we don’t need to wait for Jenkins’s wise mathematician to deliver
answers. We should begin now by taking aggressive measures to cut
energy use; not a glamorous step but effective, and cost-effective
too….. http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2012/may/24/nuclear-power-not-only-option?newsfeed=true
Germany doing well with nuclear phaseout – despite the nuclear lobby’s lies about this
Busting the carbon and cost myths of Germany’s nuclear exit, Guardian UK Damian Carrington, 23 May 12 Critics of the atomic phase-out said energy emissions, costs and imports would all rise. They were wrong. it’s worth taking a look at what actually happens when you phase out nuclear power in a large, industrial nation.
That is what Germany chose to do after the Fukushima nuclear disaster, closing eight plants immediately – 7GW – and another nine by 2022. The shrillest critics predicted blackouts, which was always daft and did not happen.
But more serious critics worried that the three things at the heart of th eenergy and climate change debate – carbon, cost and security of supply – would all head in the wrong direction. Here in Berlin, I have found they were wrong on every count. Read more »
German government working carefully on phasing out nuclear power
Germany beefs up monitoring of nuclear shutdown, Google News By JUERGEN BAETZ, Associated Press 24 May 12, BERLIN (AP) — The German government will more closely oversee the country’s move from nuclear power to renewable energy, Chancellor Angela Merkel said Wednesday — a mammoth 10-year project for Europe’s biggest economy that has been going slowly so far.
Merkel said she will be meeting with all of Germany’s 16 state governors twice a year to take stock of the transformation’s progress and shortcomings, stressing that everything must be done to avoid blackouts and ensure affordable energy. Read more »
UK government’s folly in persisting with nuclear power plans
the UK, where the nuclear industry is so embedded in government it supplies staff free-of-charge to work within the energy ministry. Perhaps it’s no wonder that even when half of the UK’s big six energy companies bale out of nuclear on cost grounds, ministers plough on regardless.
while mass-produced renewable energy technologies are pushing the costs downwards, nuclear energy is completing the journey from “too cheap to meter” to “too expensive to count”
Only renewables – not nuclear – could be too cheap to meter http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/damian-carrington-blog/2012/may/22/energy-nuclear-renewables Damian Carrington, The Guardian UK, 22 May 12, Germany’s long support for wind and solar energy is delivering zero-cost electricity at times. In contrast, the UK’s new energy policy seeks to underwrite the rising cost of nuclear ”Too cheap to meter”: that was the infamous boast of the nuclear powerindustry in its heyday. It has been catastrophically discredited by history. Read more »
Promote clean energy, don’t subsidise nuclear – says Scotland
” the UK Government must recognise that the purpose of this reform is to support renewable energy, not to provide subsidies for nuclear energy.”
Government: Renewables not nuclear Google News(UKPA) – 23 May 12, Planned reforms to the electricity market must focus on renewable energy rather than nuclear subsidies, according to the Scottish Government.
The comment follows publication of the draft UK Energy Bill which the British Government hopes will deliver the £110 billion investment needed to build new low-carbon capacity. Read more »
Britain setting up huge subsidies for nuclear industry, poorly hidden in consumers’ costs
Britain’s proposals appear to be drafted to sidestep E.U. restrictions on state aid that might prevent direct subsidies for the construction of new nuclear power plants.
Britain hopes that this guaranteed price, to be paid by businesses and consumers, will secure the financial commitment from energy utilities to construct nuclear reactors
This proposal has distorted policy in order to try to disguise the massive subsidies nuclear will need, but they remain so huge that the policy will fail anyway,”
Britain Charts Way to Wider Nuclear Investment, NYT, By STEPHEN CASTLE, May 22, 2012 LONDON — Britain announced plans Tuesday to finance a new generation of nuclear power plants and renewable energy facilities in a move that illustrates divergent energy policies within the European Union as it grapples with the challenge of reconciling economic and environmental objectives. While Germany intends to phase out nuclear power and France’s new president, François Hollande, aims to reduce his country’s reliance on it, the British government appears to be moving in the opposite direction with its proposals, aimed at luring investment of £110 billion, or $175 billion, to build new reactors and renewable energy plants. Read more »
Stop Kent nuclear waste bunker plan says Campaign to Protect Rural England,
Environmental group slams Kent nuclear waste bunker proposal BBC 20 May 2012 A proposal to build a nuclear waste bunker in Kent has been criticised by an environmental group.
Shepway District Council is considering whether a nuclear disposal facility, where waste is buried underground, could be built at Romney Marsh.
Protect Kent have reacted strongly to the proposal saying it must be “quashed at the outset”.
The council said it has “no formal view” about the proposal.
The Romney Marsh Nuclear Research and Disposal Facility would be buried 200m (656ft) to 1,000m (3,280ft) below ground……. Kent County Council has already signalled its opposition to the idea, saying it would push for a county-wide referendum.
Andrew Ogden, from Protect Kent, local branch of the Campaign to Protect Rural England, said the proposal was “unfeasible”.
“This is an ill-considered idea that must be quashed at the outset,” he said.
“Perhaps more significantly, it is a proposal that is so unfeasible and so unlikely to be given any credence by the government. Shepway District Council are wasting time, energy and money in trying to pursue it.”….. Shepway District Council will hold a series of public exhibitions over the next three weeks detailing the proposals. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-kent-18137403
NATO should stop kow towing to USA militarism
New thinking is needed on Nato http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/may/20/new-thinking-needed-nato guardian.co.uk, Rae Street 20 May 2012 As Nato meets in Chicago , it is high time our politicians started to take a hard look at the organisation. They need to stop kowtowing to a US agenda of global military dominance through Nato and realise that Nato is not bringing peace and security, but dangerous instability. Seumas Milne (Comment, 16 May) outlined the dangers from wars of intervention; Malalai Joya described the suffering brought to Afghanistan by the occupying forces (Our Chicago resistance, 17 May).
But the dangers are even wider. Nato continues to assert it needsnuclear weapons for defence and still holds a policy of first use of nuclear weapons. At the Lisbon summit Nato leaders reaffirmed their addiction to nuclear weapons, ignoring the nuclear non-proliferation treaty which states that nuclear weapon states should disarm “in good faith”.
Trident is integrated into Nato and there are five nuclear-armed Nato bases in Europe from Belgium to Turkey. Nato is building its missile-defence programme in European bases – aimed at Russia? Outside Europe, Nato is expanding its influence from the Mediterranean to the Pacific.
Nato brings with it enormous cost. Eisenhower’s military-industrial complex is alive and profiting. Since all Nato military forces have to have interoperability, they are constrained to buy the same fighter planes, mainly from Lockheed Martin . In times of austerity the military manufacturers flourish while, in Nato states, people are being hit by savage cuts in welfare services.
Can we hope that new thinking will come out of the Nato summit?
Kudankulam nuclear plant unsafe say protestors in London
The fact is that the Indian nuclear programme itself is backed up heavily by the US and foreign corporates (like Atomsroyexport) and US companies are salivating over deals with the Nuclear Power Corporation of India.”
Protest in Britain over Kudankulam nuclear plant 
http://ibnlive.in.com/news/protest-in-britain-over-kudankulam-nuclear-plant/259242-62-128.html IBN Tamil Nadu 19, 2012 London: Anti-nuclear and rights group on Friday held a noisy demonstration in front of the Indian High Commission here in protest against the Kudankulam Nuclear Power Plant being built in a tsunami-prone area of Tamil Nadu. Read more »
Nuclear weapons, AND missile shields to stay in Europe – NATO
NATO’s Missile Shield To Keep Nations’ Nuclear Weapons http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-05-20/nato-s-missile-shield-to-keep-nations-nuclear-weapons.html By Helene Fouquet – May 20, 2012 France and the U.K. will get NATO’s assurance that the European missile defense shield isn’t intended to take the place of their nuclear weapons, according to a European official with knowledge of the discussions. Read more »
UK weapons spending – $550 million for nuclear submarines
U.K. To Announce $550 Million In Nuclear Submarine Contracts, Bloomberg, By Robert Hutton – May 20, 2012 The U.K. plans to announce this week which British companies will be sharing in 350 million pounds ($550 million) worth of contracts designing its next generation of nuclear-powered submarines…… During the 2010 general election, the Liberal Democrats, the junior partner in Prime Minister David Cameron ’s coalition, called for Trident to be replaced with a cheaper, land-based missile system. The government will argue that it has since brought defense spending under control.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-05-20/u-k-to-announce-550-million-in-nuclear-submarine-contracts.html
“Show of strength” – UK’s hunter killer nuclear submarine to the Falklands
England sends ‘hunter-killer’ nuclear-powered sub to Falklands, Digital Journal, By Igor I. Solar May 20, 2012 Cape Town - The UK is sending the powerful nuclear submarine “HMS Talent” to the Falkland/Malvinas Islands as a “a show of strength” to Argentina amid a growing diplomatic wrangle over the future of the South Atlantic islands.
The “HMS Talent” (S92) is one of six nuclear-powered Trafalgar Class ’hunter-killer’ submarines of the Royal Navy. According to the Daily Mail , the submarine “slipped into a port in South Africa last week under a cloak of secrecy” after requesting “a nuclear permission” to dock in Cape Town from May 10 to 30. From Cape Town the sub will depart to the Falklands/Malvinas, in what has been called “a show of strength” planned in London by the Ministry of Defence. http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/325213#ixzz1vXyXr2Vh
UK’s 20 Billion pound nuclear weapons rebuild is under review
UK considers downgrading nuclear arsenal and scrapping Moscow By TOM PETERKIN Scotsman, 19 May 2012 ARMED forces minister Nick Harvey is conducting a government review exploring whether Britain could downgrade its nuclear arsenal, it was revealed yesterday.
Mr Harvey’s review will consider whether £20 billion plans to rebuild the Trident-based deterrent at Faslane on the Clyde should be replaced with a cheaper, more flexible nuclear option – but one which lacks the same range and firepower. Read more »
1 THIS MONTH
- http://ifyoulovethisplanet.org/?p=5755 Mary Olson on how women are more vulnerable to atomic radiation
http://soundcloud.com/flashpoints/flashpoints-daily-newsmag-05-6Fukushima reactor 4 still threatens the world Dr. Micio Kaku
of the week http://www.youtube.com/user/GoddardsJournal
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San Onofre: Bad Vibrations http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RP7e83MErWw&feature=share - Low-Dose Radiation ☢ NEW A-Bomb Study http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-VAncqK6bl0&feature=share
“Pay-to-print”: How Media Corruption Undermines Indian Democracy http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AbjsQ_dYuJQ&feature=share
VIDEO http://vimeo.com/35212151 Cancer Risk To Young Children Near Fukushima Daiichi Underestimated
- and this VIDEO Kazakhstan’s Nuclear Legacy http://www.euronews.com/2010/04/14/kazakhstan-s-nuclear-legacy/
ACTION
USA EMERGENCY PLANNING PETITION NOW OPEN FOR PUBLIC COMMENT
PLEASE SUBMIT YOUR COMMENTS IN FAVOR OF EXPANDING EMERGENCY PLANNING ZONES; IMPROVING REGULATIONS The deadline for public comments is July 16, 2012. You can submit your comments here. more information at http://nuclear-news.net/action/
- Shut down the nuclear restart. Sign now!! http://www.avaaz.org/en/japan_no_to_nuclear_restart_ms/
- Stop Kudankulam - Please sign http://org2.democracyinaction.org/o/5502/p/dia/action/public/?action_KEY=10090 –
EVENTS – USA
- May 31 - Portland, Maine, Bonnie Raitt benefit concert for New England Coalition on Nuclear Pollution
The Nuclear Industry and WOMEN- theme for May 2012
Although women have rarely been part of decision-making about nuclear power, they have been at the forefront in opposing it.Women in organisations Strongly present in anti-nuclear activities in peace, environmental, religious and civil liberties, women have also formed their own anti-nuclear organisations . e.g. Women’s International League For Peace and Freedom, Women For Peace. Women Against Nuclear Power, Women Against Nuclear Energy,
“When it comes to opposing nuclear power in Finland, the toughest and most active and conspicuous resistance has been among women. A rather small group of women working as teachers, freelance editors, authors and in rather alternative professions. Women who perfectly well are aware of the fact that they are far too radical to be promoted for high posts within traditional parties or getting well-paying jobs in some big companies. Women who are not trying to reach equality on male values. These women have kept the resistance alive, have invited foreign speakers getting through in the mass media, have arranged post-card campaigns aiming at parliamentarians, have written inserts in daily newspapers, have collected signatures from organizations worldwide against nuclear power, etc.
If women had been asked if nuclear power should be used for energy production or if nuclear weapons should be produced there would hardly be any nuclear power stations in the world and no nuclear weapons. Women represent half of humanity. Our voice must be heard! “- Ulla Klötzer WISE – Nuclear issues information service service
Below, a note on some of the courageous women who have stood out against the nuclear forces and apologies for the thousands of such women who are not mentioned here
Dr Helen Caldicott. - Australia and The World. The single most articulate and passionate advocate of citizen action to remedy the nuclear and environmental crises, Dr Helen Caldicott, has devoted the last 38 years to an international campaign to educate the public about the medical hazards of the nuclear age and the necessary changes in human behavior to stop environmental destruction. Helen Caldicott – About
Jean McSorley. – UK. A prolific writer and activist, Jean McSorley has advised government and environmental organisations, in the UK and abroad, for many years revealing the facts about Sellafield, and other UK nuclear facilities.
Her MajestyQueen Noor ofJordan is an international humanitarian activist and an outspoken voice on issues of world peace and justice. Today Her Majesty Queen Noor plays a major role in promoting international exchange and understanding of Arab and Muslim culture and politics, Arab-Western relations, and conflict prevention. Queen Noor | Global Zero
Ulla Klötzer - Finland. A powerful speaker and writer, Ulla Klötzer continues to oppose uranium mining, nuclear proliferation, and to expose the construction of Finlands reactor, Olkiluto OL 3 – the biggest nuclear reactor in the world.
Satomi Oba –Japan. Another leading voice for non-proliferation and disarmament was Japan’s Satomi Oba, former president of Plutonium Action Hiroshima and chair member of the international non-proliferation movement Abolition 2000. For decades before her untimely death in February 2005, Oba organized grassroots events, spoke to international groups and broke ground for other activists
Dianne Stokes – Australia An Aboriginal elder of the Yapa Yapa clan, which owns land at Muckaty in the Northern Territory, has for years continued the fight against the Australian government’s plan to put a nuclear waste dump on Aboriginal land, – resisting enormous pressure from powerful interests and politicians Toxic feelings at proposed nuclear dump – National – smh.com.au
Jean Grossholtz – (USA) Professor emeritus at the Dept. of Women’s Studies, Mt. Holyoke College, Jean helped organize the Women’s Pentagon Action (1980-82) and has long been active in peace and social justice work.
Ellen Diederich –Germany A peace activist for more than three decades, Ellen Diederich is Director of the German-based International Fasia Jansen Women’s Peace Archive, an extensive collection of books, print, audio-visual and artistic resources on women and militarism and women’s action for peace, world-wide, collected over 25 years.
Corazon Valdez Fabros - Philippines A lawyer by profession, Corazon Fabros is Chairperson of the Pacific Concerns Resource Centre (the Secretariat of the Nuclear Free and Independent Pacific Movement) and Secretary General of the Nuclear Free Philippines Coalition, which led the successful campaign to stop the nuclear power plant projects in the Philippines . Currently Philippine Coordinator of the No Nukes Asia Forum and the International Network on Military Activities and Environmental Justice.
Karen Silkwood remembered In 1974, US anti-nuclear activist Karen Silkwood was killed in a car crash many suspect was deliberately caused by the Kerr McGee nuclear company.Karen Silkwood will be remembered as someone who fought an uphill and often unpopular battle against the ruthless nuclear industry. She is an inspiration to all who believe in environmental justice and workers’ rights BY SHARYN JENKINS. Karen Silkwood remembered | Green Left Weekly
Much of the material here was obtained from Women and Life on Earth: English by Anna Gyorgy, Women & Life on Earth Network coordinator, English website editor. Contact: info(at)wloe.org
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