No such thing as clean coal
Clean Coal? There’s No Such Thing – North Star
Eric
Baerren
December 29, 2008 “……………………………The term “clean coal” is cleverly designed. It’s supposed to seduce people into thinking that coal – the dirtiest source of energy we have – can be scrubbed and made as clean and fresh as a sunny spring afternoon……………………..
The last few months, coal and energy producers have attempted to put lipstick on the coal pig. They’ve pitched new and innovative ways to clean up coal’s image, almost all of which have involved finding ways to address the problems of coal’s waste released into the air.
Just as you can’t put lipstick on a pig, there is no clean way to burn coal. None of the ways proposed to address coal’s emissions have been made to work anywhere on the kind of large scale necessary to meet the nation’s energy needs, and none of them begin to approach the issue of what to do about the solid waste.
Solid waste helped give nuclear energy a bad name in the United States (although cost overruns, constant design changes and the uncertainty of return on investment killed the industry), and environmentalists rightly say that going nuclear means finding some long-term solution to the waste. The same ought to apply to coal plants,……………..
The Obama Administration could simply answer the question by not allowing any more traditional coal-fired plants to be built. The authority to regulate carbon dioxide as a pollutant was handed to the Bush Administration by the U.S. Supreme Court, and the Obama Administration could overturn some of the enforcement rules that have prevented the enactment of a climate change policy. It could be that President Obama’s approach to coal emissions is to let America’s coal-fired power plant fleet die of old age.
North Star Writers Group – Syndicated Commentary: Opinion, Humor and Features
Nuclear Material Disposal an Issue
Nuclear Material Disposal an Issue
The Intelligencer News register By The Intelligencer December 29, 2008
Among the most important – and politically sensitive – questions facing President-elect Barack Obama and the new Congress is disposal of nuclear waste. Because the matter is so controversial, the current Congress and president have not had the courage to address it.
Not much was said about the matter during the presidential election campaign earlier this year – again, because it is such a political hot potato.
The problem involves nuclear waste that comes from a variety of facilities, ranging from health care institutions to nuclear power plants. As matters stand, the radioactive waste is being stored “temporarily” at hundreds of sites throughout the country. The danger in allowing that to continue is obvious. Just one possibility, that terrorists could get their hands on some of the waste and use it as a weapon of mass destruction, is worrisome. Though the waste could not be used to make an atomic device, it could be used in a “dirty bomb” that could spread radioactive material in a wide area…………………….Once Obama takes office, he should make it a priority to either proceed with Yucca Mountain or find another suitable alternative. Doing nothing is simply not prudent.
Nuclear Material Disposal an Issue – News, Sports, Jobs – The Intelligencer / Wheeling News-Register
Nuclear Material Disposal an Issue
Nuclear Material Disposal an Issue
The Intelligencer News register By The Intelligencer December 29, 2008
Among the most important – and politically sensitive – questions facing President-elect Barack Obama and the new Congress is disposal of nuclear waste. Because the matter is so controversial, the current Congress and president have not had the courage to address it.
Not much was said about the matter during the presidential election campaign earlier this year – again, because it is such a political hot potato.
The problem involves nuclear waste that comes from a variety of facilities, ranging from health care institutions to nuclear power plants. As matters stand, the radioactive waste is being stored “temporarily” at hundreds of sites throughout the country. The danger in allowing that to continue is obvious. Just one possibility, that terrorists could get their hands on some of the waste and use it as a weapon of mass destruction, is worrisome. Though the waste could not be used to make an atomic device, it could be used in a “dirty bomb” that could spread radioactive material in a wide area…………………….Once Obama takes office, he should make it a priority to either proceed with Yucca Mountain or find another suitable alternative. Doing nothing is simply not prudent.
Nuclear Material Disposal an Issue – News, Sports, Jobs – The Intelligencer / Wheeling News-Register
Business Spectator – Ending the energy binge
Business Spectator
by Keith OrchisonPosted 29 Dec 2008 11:22 AM Ending the energy binge While much of the debate on Australian carbon abatement focuses on the use of renewable energy versus fossil fuels to make electricity, one of the most important developments over the next 10-12 years will be how users manage power consumption.The latest Federal government report, released in mid-December by the Australian Bureau of Agricultural & Resource Economics (ABARE), shows both how business, which accounts for 72 percent of electricity demand, has made some gains and how complex the issue is………………… without the efficiency gains since 1989-90, Australian manufacturing, mining, construction, services and agriculture would have used 759 PJ more energy by 2005-06.The gains would be greater if the mining and petroleum sector had been able to follow the trend – ABARE reports that its energy intensity has risen as miners dig deeper and exploit lower grade ores.
British secretly dumped Maralinga plutonium in ocean | The Courier-Mail
British secretly dumped Maralinga plutonium in ocean Courier Mail
December 29, 2008
………………………..Just how much radioactive waste resulted from the British series of tests at Maralinga, in South Australia, and how the then British government disposed of it has always been a mystery. However, declassified British Government documents to be released publicly today under the 30-year rule reveal for the first time the plutonium’s final resting place was probably the ocean floor……………………………….At the height of the nuclear debate in Australia in 1978 the British agreed to clean the site they contaminated between 1955 and 1963, predominantly because they wanted to win favour with then prime minister Malcolm Fraser (Liberal Party) to secure exports of mined uranium to meet their growing energy needs.
They agreed to secretly remove half a kilogram of plutonium and about 20kg of radioactive waste, intermingled with debris, on condition its final resting place was never publicly revealed and Australia never repeated its clean-up request.
“The Ministry of Defence considers that, however carefully presented, a reference to disposal of plutonium at sea could provoke opposition, eg from the Greenpeace movement, to our sea-dumping program,” one confidential memo seen by The Courier-Mail states.
“It will also focus public attention on sea dumping at a time when we are likely to face pressure from the United States to reduce our sea-dumping activities, which are internationally supervised.” The British authorities demanded their Australian counterparts maintain maximum secrecy over the issue and reminded them they were under no legal obligation to clean up their contaminated work in Australia.
Another clean-up involving 350,000 cubic metres of soil was conducted in 2000 at a cost of $110 million.
Hundreds of servicemen and their families from Britain and Australia have sought compensation for exposure and a range of contracted cancers.
British secretly dumped Maralinga plutonium in ocean | The Courier-Mail
Bomb survivors seek end to nuclear arms – Breaking News – National – Breaking News
Bomb survivors seek end to nuclear arms The Age December 29, 2008 Ikeda Michiaki closes his eyes and clenches his fist as he remembers the darkness that descended upon Nagasaki after an atomic bomb was dropped on the Japanese city in 1945.
Mr Michiaki, 69, remembers waking in the wreckage of the building and running past mangled bodies as he tried to escape to a nearby mountain.
Dark clouds covered the city and large drops of black rain fell from the sky………………”When I got out to the yard, what I saw was many people who had been killed and their eyeballs were literally popping out of their faces … and all parts of their bodies were puffed and swollen to over twice their normal size.”………….
The Nagasaki bombing killed about 80,000 people, three days after the bombing of Hiroshima killed just as many.
Mr Michiaki was in Sydney with other Hibakusha – or atomic bomb survivors – on a stop-off as part of a three-month global sea voyage to share their experiences and oppose nuclear weapons.
They presented a letter to the federal government praising Australia for its decision to establish the International Commission on Nuclear Non-Proliferation and Disarmament.
The letter urged Australia to lead other countries in the abolition of nuclear weapons……………………..
Western Australian Greens senator Scott Ludlam, who travelled with the survivors for five days, said the government needed to remove any mention of nuclear weapons from its security policy.
“We still have nuclear weapons embedded in our security policy. We lie under the United States’ nuclear umbrella,” Mr Ludlam told reporters.
“Every time a warship comes into an Australian port carrying nuclear weapons, that is one instance of US nuclear weapons being part of our security policy.”
Bomb survivors seek end to nuclear arms – Breaking News – National – Breaking News
Rights push by Indigenous South Australians – ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)
Rights push by Indigenous South Australians
Calls for an an Indigenous bill of rights have been supported by the Aboriginal Legal Rights Movement (ALRM).
Kaurna elders used Sunday’s Proclamation Day anniversary in South Australia to call on government to honour a promise made in 1836 to establish a treaty……………………….CEO of the Aboriginal Legal Rights Movement, Neil Gillespie, says the Government is failing to provide Indigenous people with access to the basic human rights outlined in international conventions.
“Australia, except for the declaration of rights for Indigenous people is, as I understand it, a signatory to these international conventions and yet we are continuing to fail in meeting our obligations to the extent that ALRM has lodged a formal complaint against both the federal and state governments for their continued breaching of basic human rights for Aboriginal people,” he said.
Rights push by Indigenous South Australians – ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)
Bill levies waste fee on haulers
Bill levies waste fee on haulers
By JANESE HEAVIN of the Columbia Tribune’s staff December 27, 2008 “………………….Sen.-elect Kurt Schaefer, R-Columbia, has pre-filed a bill that would charge trucking companies $1,800 to haul a container of radioactive wastes through the state and $1,300 for every load transported via rail. The money would be used to reimburse the Missouri State Highway Patrol, which, by law, must escort rigs that ship radioactive waste.
Bill levies waste fee on haulers
Tags: nuclear
Few tears will be shed over Bush’s departure – Americas – Independent.ie
Few tears will be shed over Bush’s departure
Sunday December 28 2008
It is hard to imagine that many people will be looking back on the Bush Junior years with nostalgia. -“………………………………….
One of the main beneficiaries of the war in Iraq has been Iran, which now emerges as the regional superpower thanks to the installation in Baghdad of a pro-Iranian Shia-dominated government and all this at the hands of the “great Satan” as the Iranians call the United States. It must seem too good to be true to the mullahs. A government as divided and incompetent as the current one in Iran, which has alienated so much of its population, could be expected by now to have been significantly weakened. Yet the militaristic rhetoric coming out of Washington has united the country in a predictable way under the banner of Iranian nationalism and its right to develop nuclear power.
Nobody I know thinks that the Iranian government will stop at peaceful uses of nuclear power; on the other hand, can they be entirely blamed for wanting to develop nuclear weapons when so many of their neighbours or near-neighbours have done so? Iraq was certainly on this track in the Nineties. Israel, India and Pakistan are all nuclear states. Syria has ambitions in that direction. Why should Iran be the one out of step? That is of course the view in Tehran. For the rest of us, non-proliferation and the dramatic reduction of all nuclear arsenals remains the preferred option. It seems at this stage unlikely that the Bush administration will feel up to launching or condoning a military strike on Iran. The days of the neo-cons’ quip “everyone wants to go to Baghdad, real men want to go to Tehran” quoted in Newsweek before the invasion seem long gone. But Obama/Clinton will have to give Iran a very high priority in their foreign policy programme. Talking to the Iranians rather than threatening to bomb them might be a good place to start.
Few tears will be shed over Bush’s departure – Americas – Independent.ie
Tags: nuclear
Call for Action to Stop Nuclear Arms Buildup in Europe
Call for Action to Stop Nuclear Arms Buildup in Europe
by arn specter
Tags: nuclear
1 This Month
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