National Survey of Radiologists Reveals Systemic Problems Hurting Industry and Patient Care
National Survey of Radiologists Reveals Systemic Problems Hurting Industry and Patient Care
Almost Seventy Percent Report Unnecessary or Duplicative Scans
RSNA 2008CHICAGO–(BUSINESS WIRE) 3 Dec 08 –A national survey released today (at RSNA) uncovers a host of systemic problems and challenges that are hindering radiologists’ ability to control skyrocketing demand and negatively impacting patient diagnosis and care……………… The study also discovered that almost seven in ten radiologists surveyed (69%) reported experiencing unnecessary or duplicative scans in the past six months. The growing national concern over the dramatic rise in CT scans nationally stems from evidence of increased cancer risk due to overexposure to radiation. Totaling 62 million CT scans annually1, the amount performed in the U.S. has nearly doubled between 2000 and 20052 with more than 30 percent deemed to be unnecessary or redundant each year3.
National Survey of Radiologists Reveals Systemic Problems Hurting Industry and Patient Care
Critics assail nuclear plan – Local / Metro – The State
Critics assail nuclear plan The State
Dec. 02, 2008
Hearings begin on SCE&G’s proposal to build two reactors at Jenkinsville siteBy CHUCK CRUMBO – ccrumbo@thestate.com
Opponents took aim Monday at SCE&G’s $9.8 billion plan to build two nuclear reactors at its Jenkinsville plant.
On the first day state regulators began hearing the Columbia-based utility’s case for building the reactors, nearly two dozen people — from a former Marine to a peace activist — charged the project is too expensive and too risky.
In light of the country’s current economic woes, Gerald Rudolph of Lexington questioned whether the utility should proceed with the project.
SCE&G, charged Rudolph, a local peace activist, “is about to squander the money of lenders and ratepayers to build this albatross.”…………………opponents of the nuclear project said the utility had not fully considered using alternative energy sources such as solar and wind, as well as promoting conservation.
And, they added, there is no clear plan for disposing of radioactive waste, which must be stored at nuclear plants.
Susan Corbett of the Sierra Club questioned whether passing the problem of nuclear waste disposal on to future generations is “ethical and moral.”
“We’re considering asking future generations to baby-sit our waste,” Corbett said……………“I’m here for my kids,” said Mathew Kip, of Columbia. If SCE&G builds the reactors, “this is just disregarding their futures.”
Nuclear cleanup to cost billions — Page 1 — Times Union – Albany NY
Nuclear cleanup to cost billions
State-funded study puts almost $10 billion price on effort at West Valley TimesUnion.com By BRIAN NEARING, Staff writer December 3, 2008While it will cost taxpayers billions to clean out dangerous radioactive waste from a defunct nuclear fuel reprocessing plant, storing it there would cost billions more over the centuries — and risk contamination of Lake Erie.
That was the conclusion of a state-funded report on the 3,300-acre West Valley nuclear site, closed since the early 1970s and once the nation’s only commercial center for reprocessing spent nuclear fuel.Released Tuesday, the report comes during a growing national debate about stepping up nuclear power as a way to cut the greenhouse gases that cause global warming. Critics continue to question the fate of spent fuel, which is dangerous for thousands of years.he report by Cambridge-based Synapse Energy Economics claimed it will cost nearly $10 billion to clean radioactive waste from West Valley over the next 60 years and ship it to a federal dump that does not exist yet.
But leaving the waste where it is — about 30 miles from Buffalo— would cost up to $13 billion to keep contained over the next 1,000 years. The report said the task could be technologically difficult in an area prone to erosion. It could cost up to $27 billion if radiation escapes the area a century from now and gets into creeks that flow into Lake Erie, endangering the drinking water supply.
Nuclear cleanup to cost billions — Page 1 — Times Union – Albany NY
Deep Green: Atomic renaissance interrupted | Greenpeace UK
Deep Green: Nuclear Renaissance Interrupted
Rex Weyler
Garbage dump
The allegedly safe French nuclear industry faces critical pollution and waste problems. The French reprocessing plant at La Hague retains most of its high-level spent fuel in temporary storage. The plant releases radioactive krypton, tritium, iodine, and carbon-14 into the environment of surrounding villages and some million litres of radioactive effluent into the English Channel every day. French health scientists warn of local leukemia risks, and since 1997, Greenpeace has campaigned to close the site.After a 1972 London Dumping Convention ban, the UK, France, and others nations turned to secretly dumping radioactive waste into the Sea of Biscay from ships MV Topaz and Gem. In 1979, the first voyage of Greenpeace ship Rainbow Warrior confronted and exposed this illegal dumping, winning the new ban in the 1980s.
However, after the 2004 Tsunami, massive drums of toxic and radioactive waste washed up from the Indian Ocean onto 15 beaches in Somalia. Villagers, who attempted to open the containers, were killed, burned, and contaminated by the waste. We don’t yet know if these drums came from France, the UK, the US, or elsewhere, but they represent the hidden cost of nuclear power dumped into the sea, a cost paid by the marine environment and the public.
With radioactive waste accumulating in 50 countries, the Somalia evidence demonstrates that clandestine dumping continues. Professor Geoffrey Boulton of the Royal Society in London has warned that UK waste will soon “multiply by 50 times” as existing power stations are decommissioned. Most plants worldwide, built in the 1970s and 1980s, are nearing the end of their life cycle, and no plan yet exists for processing the massive decommissioning wastes.
Deep Green: Atomic renaissance interrupted | Greenpeace UK
Nuclear renaissance interrupted
Rex WeylerWaiting for waste solutions
Nuclear waste remains the untamed demon of nuclear power. After 40 years of research, not a single kilogram of high-level spent-fuel waste has been stored in a permanent repository. Deadly, radioactive plutonium has a half-life of 24,000 years. Some fuel has been reprocessed, itself a polluting industry, but three-quarters of the waste ever produced remains in temporary storage in 50 countries.According to Dr Mohamed El Baradei, Director of the UN International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), most countries have no geologically appropriate disposal sites, and many lack the expertise or will to deal with the waste that remains vulnerable to leaks and attack.
Deep Green: Atomic renaissance interrupted | Greenpeace UK
Nuclear renaissance interrupted Rex Weyler
Nuclear economics This year, billionaire investment wizard Warren Buffett withdrew financial support for a US nuclear reactor in Idaho, killing the project. Why? Nuclear power is not economical.A full accounting of nuclear power remains obscured by billions in public subsidy and still-uncertain costs of processing waste and decommissioning plants. Nevertheless, Amory Lovins and Imran Sheikh calculate a kilowatt-hour of electricity from a new nuclear power plant averages about 14 cents compared to a wind farm at 7 cents. Even this calculation does not account for capital financing, security, waste disposal, insurance, or public health impacts. No nuclear plant is insured, even with public guarantees, to the full cost of a Chernobyl scale accident, which becomes an unbudgeted liability on the public’s balance sheet……………………….. Of 36 current nuclear construction projects, 14 remain stalled and most of the surviving projects are state-owned in Russia, China, and India. There is no business case for nuclear power except to socialise costs, privatise profits, and leave the garbage for future generations. In the US alone, 104 “private” nuclear power projects have received over $130 billion in taxpayer subsidies, over $1 billion per reactor. Billions more will be needed to solve the nuclear waste backlog.
Deep Green: Atomic renaissance interrupted | Greenpeace UK
Nuclear renaissance interrupted
Rex Weyler “……………Some 439 nuclear plants now operate worldwide. To replace even 25 percent of the world’s current oil and coal energy would require over 1000 new reactors, plus replacement of existing plants as they expire. Decommissioning 400 plants and building 1400 new ones would cost $10-20 trillion, at least, and would triple the world’s unresolved nuclear waste problem. Such a plan would also exhaust global uranium supplies long before the 1400 plants could be built……………………
NTI: Global Security Newswire – WMD Panel Advises Dramatic Steps to Stem Nuclear Spread
WMD Panel Advises Dramatic Steps to Stem Nuclear Spread
NTI Dec. 2, 2008By Elaine M. Grossman Global Security Newswire WASHINGTON — The United States should strengthen the U.N. nuclear watchdog agency and take other steps to prevent non-nuclear states from acquiring atomic weapons, a bipartisan panel said in a report released today (see GSN, Dec. 1)………………….some commissioners said this week that the group’s most substantial findings might be those pertaining to preventing the spread of nuclear technologies. The Commission on the Prevention of Weapons of Mass Destruction Proliferation and Terrorism echoed a recent U.S. intelligence projection that a biological weapons attack could be more likely in the years to come, but a nuclear detonation could prove even more catastrophic………….Several specific proposals advocated by the WMD panel attempt to reduce the risk that civil nuclear power programs could contribute to illicit atomic weapons development efforts.
For example, by discouraging the use of financial subsidies for nuclear energy, the group hopes the market might push growing nations toward embracing alternative energy sources. The commission also urges Washington to agree with its international partners on a “date certain” for ending the civilian use and export of highly enriched uranium, and to declare a moratorium on commercial reprocessing.
NTI: Global Security Newswire – WMD Panel Advises Dramatic Steps to Stem Nuclear Spread
Deep Green: Atomic renaissance interrupted | Greenpeace UK
Deep Green: Atomic Renaissance interrupted Greenpeace UK Rex Weyler 3 December 2008.
The nuclear industry has hitched a ride on the climate change bandwagon, proclaiming that nuclear power will solve the world’s global warming and energy problems in one sweeping “nuclear renaissance.”
As you might expect, there’s a catch. Nuclear energy faces escalating capital costs, a radioactive waste backlog, security and insurance gaps, nuclear weapons proliferation, and expensive reactor decommissioning that will magnify the waste problem. The contention that nuclear energy is “carbon free” and therefore a global warming solution, fails to account for the nuclear fuel cycle – mining, milling, enriching, and transporting uranium; forging steel for pressurised vessels; building massive, complex plants; and handling, shipping, reprocessing, and storing waste – requiring substantial fossil fuel supplies. Nuclear fuel processing also employs halogenated compounds that both erode the ozone and simultaneously produce more global warming impact per volume than carbon dioxide………………..
A dollar invested in nuclear power increases global warming because it consumes scarce resources required by real solutions.
Nuclear economics.………… A full accounting of nuclear power remains obscured by billions in public subsidy and still-uncertain costs of processing waste and decommissioning plants. Nevertheless, Amory Lovins and Imran Sheikh calculate a kilowatt-hour of electricity from a new nuclear power plant averages about 14 cents compared to a wind farm at 7 cents. Even this calculation does not account for capital financing, security, waste disposal, insurance, or public health impacts. No nuclear plant is insured, even with public guarantees, to the full cost of a Chernobyl scale accident, which becomes an unbudgeted liability on the public’s balance sheet.
Nuclear power plants have a dismal safety record, featuring thousands of private, public, and military accidents up to the present day……..
………… Of 36 current nuclear construction projects, 14 remain stalled and most of the surviving projects are state-owned in Russia, China, and India. There is no business case for nuclear power except to socialise costs, privatise profits, and leave the garbage for future generations. In the US alone, 104 “private” nuclear power projects have received over $130 billion in taxpayer subsidies, over $1 billion per reactor. Billions more will be needed to solve the nuclear waste backlog……………………………….Waiting for waste solutions
Nuclear waste remains the untamed demon of nuclear power. After 40 years of research, not a single kilogram of high-level spent-fuel waste has been stored in a permanent repository. Deadly, radioactive plutonium has a half-life of 24,000 years. Some fuel has been reprocessed, itself a polluting industry, but three-quarters of the waste ever produced remains in temporary storage in 50 countries……………
Chainsaws and butter
The assertion that nuclear power will solve, or even help, the global warming challenge is a hoax. Nuclear power is a carbon hog compared to wind, solar, geothermal, and hydropower. Purely on economics, nuclear power fails. The waste backlog, risk of accident or sabotage, and weapons proliferation are added burdens on society.
Human society must now face the inevitable decline in energy use. The oil era was a one-off energy bonanza and there exists no credible alternative that will replace the sheer volume of oil energy. The most important source of clean power in the world is conservation, at zero cost and zero carbon emissions.
The next most effective new power sources include efficiencies such as cogeneration, recovering waste heat that is now sent up smokestacks. Finally, we can build capacity with renewables – wind, solar, hydro, and geothermal – built to appropriate local scale, while creating more jobs and better return on investment than nuclear power plants.
The secret yet to be realised by industrial civilisation is that we can improve real quality of life with less energy and less commodity throughput. We can achieve a richer life without mining the planet to death and strapping future generations with our toxic garbage.
Flashpoint as Calman tests SNP nuclear veto – Scotsman.com News
Flashpoint as Calman tests SNP nuclear veto
SCOTLAND could lose its veto over a new generation of nuclear power stations, it emerged last night following a major report into the devolution settlement.The Calman Commission – set up to look into the powers of the Scottish Parliament – warned yesterday of “friction” between London and Holyrood over nuclear power and said the issue had to be resolved.
Its report did not come up with a conclusion, but suggested that the issue had to be sorted out without disrupting the UK supply network – a statement which the Nationalists interpreted as a clear threat to Scotland’s veto………………………..Energy policy is reserved to Westminster and, as the UK government has a pro-nuclear policy, it should be able to press ahead with new nuclear stations in Scotland.
However, the Scottish Government has the final say over any major electricity generating stations through planning legislation which gives it an effective veto over any new nuclear stations.
This ability to block any new stations has angered UK ministers, who believe they should be able to site new nuclear stations in Scotland.
nt as Calman tests SNP nuclear veto – Scotsman.com News
Going Nuclear
Going Nuclear
REUTERS 3 DEc 08 It is said that all that glitters is not gold. Keep that in mind when considering the bidding war heating up the nuclear power business. France’s EDF has offered $6.5 billion for half of Constellation Energy Group’s nuclear business and some other assets,……………….. If plummeting demand for everything from new cars to tin foil could fell BHP’s monster bid for Rio Tinto, why wouldn’t it weigh on demand for energy? While nuclear power has regained some favor as a cheap, relatively clean alternative to nasty fossil fuels, is it really safe to expect consumers to ramp up electric heat this winter, and air conditioning next summer, when they are worried about losing their jobs? And today brings more evidence that the lengthy, torturous bid process BHP endured before walking away from Rio Tinto may have saved it from dealing with a disastrous downturn in demand.
Scotland aiming to become “Saudi Arabia of renewable marine energy” – 03 Dec 2008 – BusinessGreen
Scotland aiming to become “Saudi Arabia of renewable marine energy””Sheik”
Salmond to offer £10m to first team to deliver commercially viable marine energyJames Murray, BusinessGreen, James Murray 03 Dec 2008 Scottish first minister Alex Salmond yesterday formally launched the £10m Saltire Prize for the first team to develop a commercially viable wave or tidal technology capable of generating power for thousands of homes, claiming that the country had the potential to generate up to a quarter of Europe’s marine energy over the coming decades.
Scotland aiming to become “Saudi Arabia of renewable marine energy” – 03 Dec 2008 – BusinessGreen
Dodson’s outstation review to exclude Aboriginal communities | The Australian
Dodson’s outstation review to exclude Aboriginal communities THE AUSTRALIAN 2 Dec 08
ABORIGINES who live in the most remote parts of the Northern Territory are to be excluded from an inquiry into their very existence.
Territory consultant and Aboriginal leader Patrick Dodson yesterday conceded he would spend the next two weeks conducting public hearings on the future of remote outstations — without visiting any of them.
The Territory Government is formulating a policy on the future of about 500 outstations, following an agreement last year that it would take over responsibility for the settlements from the federal Government…………………………
There is widespread fear in Aboriginal communities that governments are intentionally starving outstations of resources to force people into larger towns.
Much of that fear can be traced back to the colourful language of Howard government indigenous affairs minister Amanda Vanstone, who called outstations “cultural museums” that should be shut down.
Ahead of the public forum planned for Yirrkala in northeast Arnhem Land next week, the Laynhapuy Homelands Association, an outstation resource association that services about 700 indigenous people living in 18 homelands settlements, warned that Aboriginal people on homelands settlements were “here to stay”.
In a submission to the Territory Government lodged yesterday, Barayuwa Mununggurr, chair of the Laynhapuy Homelands Association Incorporated, threw down the gauntlet to governments.
“The message to all levels of government from our homelands people is that we will not be moving out from our traditional lands, and we are here to stay,” Mr Mununggurr said.
Dodson’s outstation review to exclude Aboriginal communities | The Australian
Remote Aborigines celebrate internet – ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)
Remote Aborigines celebrate internet – ABC News 3 Dec 08 “………………….he completion of a project to lay about 800 kilometres of fibre optic cable through the region.
The cable will give some of Australia’s most remote communities access to the internet at speeds comparable to those in Sydney and Melbourne………………Telstra is testing the line but said it should be fully operational by Christmas.
Remote Aborigines celebrate internet – ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)
rio tinto, telstra and Alcan
George Newhouse: The Australian government’s intervention in Aboriginal communities is discriminatory and dehumanising | Comment is free | guardian.co.uk
The Australian government’s intervention in aboriginal communities
The Guardian 3 Dec 08 the Howard government was in election mode and one doesn’t have to be too cynical to see that the “little children” were used to implement a hidden agenda. The intervention was an ideologically driven campaign by a government that was opposed to communal ownership of Aboriginal land and assets.
t allowed the government to grant secretive star-chamber criminal investigative powers against Aboriginal men that had only ever applied to terrorists and mafiosi before. It allowed the government to quarantine the social security payments of indigenous Australians. It allowed a rollback of indigenous cultural institutions such as teaching local languages and the integration of traditional law into our legal system.
……………….It was a brilliant strategy. We could hardly object to protecting women and children from abuse. It didn’t matter that the thrust of the government’s policies were not connected to child abuse at all……………………..If the government’s primary objective was to address child abuse, it would have implemented the recommendations in the report and taken a national approach to the problem……………….We cannot celebrate the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights while the first Australians are suffering from regressive and discriminatory laws.
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