2009 January 09 « nuclear-news

Depleted uranium found in Gaza victims

radiation-warning

Depleted uranium found in Gaza victims
Global research 9 Jan 09 “………..Norwegian medics told Press TV correspondent Akram al-Sattari that some of the victims who have been wounded since Israel began its attacks on the Gaza Strip on December 27 have traces of depleted uranium in their bodies.

The report comes after Israeli tanks and troops swept across the border into Gaza on Saturday night, opening a ground operation after eight days of intensive attacks by Israeli air and naval forces on the impoverished region.

Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak warned on Sunday that the wide-ranging ground offensive in the Gaza Strip would be “full of surprises.”

Depleted uranium found in Gaza victims

Tags: nuclear, antinuclear, uranium, radioactive

January 9, 2009 Posted by Christina Macpherson | environment | 1 Comment

BRADWELL: Radioactive leak at nuclear plant

BRADWELL: Radioactive leak at nuclear plant

Essex Chroinic le January 08, 2009, 11:25RADIOACTIVE waste seeped into the ground beneath Bradwell’s Magnox nuclear power station for at least 14 years, a jury heard.The radioactive cocktail of tritium, caesium, cobalt and americium that leaked from a decontamination unit was not discovered until the twin reactors were decommissioned five years ago.The Environment Agency accused Magnox Electric Ltd at Chelmsford Crown Court of unlawfully allowing the leak to occur and failing to maintain its waste disposal system between 1990 and 2004.

BRADWELL: Radioactive leak at nuclear plant

Tags: nuclear, antinuclear, uranium, radioactive

January 9, 2009 Posted by Christina Macpherson | safety | Leave a comment

Entergy: Yankee leaked radioactive water:

Entergy: Yankee leaked radioactive water

Rutland Herald By Susan Smallheer Herald Staff – Published: January 8, 2009

BRATTLEBORO — A valve leaking radioactive water inside Vermont Yankee’s reactor building was undergoing emergency repairs Wednesday, Entergy Nuclear said…………………News of the leak prompted a longtime Vermont Yankee critic to say the leak was just the latest in a long line of leaks at the 37-year-old reactor and another indication that Entergy and the NRC was not managing the aging problems at the plant.

“Sounds like another Bondo and duct-tape job,” said Raymond Shadis, senior technical adviser to the New England Coalition, who noted that nuclear power plants had thousands of valves.

“They’ve had many problems at Vermont Yankee with leaky valves,” said Shadis, noting the portion of the system that sprung a leak in the reactor building wasn’t in the crucial safety systems at the plant.

But Shadis said that any leak at a nuclear plant was cause for concern.

“It’s an indication of a declining, deteriorating situation,” he said.

Entergy: Yankee leaked radioactive water: Rutland Herald Online

Tags: nuclear, antinuclear, uranium, radioactive

January 9, 2009 Posted by Christina Macpherson | ENERGY | Leave a comment

Philippines and its white elephant nuclear plant

Philippines revisits nuclear energy option at ‘white elephant’ plant

MORONG, Philippines (AFP) 9 Jan 09 — The Bataan nuclear power plant stands as a monument to the greed and corruption of the years the Philippines spent under strongman president Ferdinand Marcos.It was originally meant to cost around 500 million dollars, but the final price tag of 2.3 billion dollars was only paid off in April 2007.A huge slice of the inflated balance was allegedly stolen by Marcos and his cronies.And it has never powered so much as a light bulb…..

….by 2011, the Philippines is expected to produce less electricity than it needs, and so now there’s a plan afoot to bring the gigantic, chipped and rusted white elephant to life…………….

The Philippines is a geologically volatile country and the land near the plant is particularly vulnerable to seismic activity, much of it caused by the huge Manila Trench fault in the South China Sea to the west of the plant.

In 1991 Mount Pinatubo, a volcano to the north of the plant that was once thought to be dormant, exploded, killing 300 people. Seismologists say Mount Natib nearby is “potentially active”.

Bishop Socrates Villegas, the prelate for the nearby city of Balanga, sees Mount Pinatubo as a warning against commissioning Bataan.

“The nuclear power plant stands at the foot of Mount Natib, which is a volcano. Now, can you imagine a volcano erupting and at the foot of it is a nuclear power plant that did not meet safety standards? Can you imagine the devastation?”

The area is also frequently battered by typhoons.

Tags: nuclear, antinuclear, uranium, radioactive

January 9, 2009 Posted by Christina Macpherson | safety | Leave a comment

Obama Calls for Doubling Renewable Energy in Three Years

Obama Calls for Doubling Renewable Energy in Three Years
GreenTech Media 8 Jan 09 President-elect Barack Obama called for doubling the nation’s renewable energy production in three years in a Thursday speech asking Congress to support his economic stimulus plan. He also wants funding for energy efficiency improvements to federal buildings and millions of homes.by: Jeff St. JohnBullet Arrow January 8, 2009
President-elect Barack Obama on Thursday called for doubling the nation’s renewable energy production over the next three years, setting a timeline to one green piece of his economic stimulus plan.

Obama also called for funding to modernize the nation’s electricity grid and make 75 percent of all federal buildings and up to 2 million American homes more energy efficient.

“In the process, we will put Americans to work in new jobs that pay well and can’t be outsourced – jobs building solar panels and wind turbines; constructing fuel-efficient cars and buildings; and developing the new energy technologies that will lead to even more jobs, more savings, and a cleaner, safer planet in the bargain,” Obama said Thursday in a speech at George Mason University.

Greentech Media | Obama Calls for Doubling Renewable Energy in Three Years

Tags: renewables

January 9, 2009 Posted by Christina Macpherson | ENERGY | Leave a comment

Uranium Mining foes dominate hearing

Mining foes dominate hearing
The News Record 9 Jan 09 All sides in Southside Virginia’s raging uranium debate had a chance Tuesday night to weigh in on a pending scientific study of uranium mining, but they were also cautioned that a decision on the fate of the Coles Hill project in Pittsylvania County is a long ways off……………The meeting at Chatham High School was held to gather citizen input on a scientific study of uranium mining that the Coal and Energy Commission will oversee……………………The capacity crowd was dominated by opponents of uranium mining at the Coles Hill site near Chatham, which is believed to contain one of the largest deposits of uranium in the nation.
More than sixty residents spoke to the subcommittee, mostly living in Chatham, Danville, Halifax and Mecklenburg counties, along with several residents of the Smith Mountain Lake community. Also addressing the committee members were several employees of Virginia Uranium Company.
Many speakers said they were concerned with health problems emanating from radioactive tailings left behind from the mining; others worried about the quality of downstream water and air quality…………………………….Gregg Vickrey, chairman of the Chatham/Pittsylvania County chapter of SCC, asked members how they could convince citizens that the study would be unbiased in light of the political contributions they have received from Virginia Uranium. “There’s been no referendum on this — only a request from a private for-profit corporation,” said Vickery. “Who are you representing, the people who you are elected to represent or the interests of a corporation that has contributed to your campaigns?”
Said Shireen Parsons, an organizer with the Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund, which is advising SCC: “It is we, the people, who decide. This is a travesty and mockery of democracy.”

The News & Record

Tags: nuclear, antinuclear, uranium, radioactive

January 9, 2009 Posted by Christina Macpherson | politics | Leave a comment

Radiologists see overuse of patient scans; specialists see turf battle

Radiologists see overuse of patient scans; specialists see turf battle
Stesman.com 9 Jan 09 Lawmakers expected to be asked to referee dispute between radiologists and other doctors investing in own scanning equipment.By Mary Ann RoserAMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFFThursday, January 08, 2009Are you being overexposed?Some Texas radiologists — the doctors who use scans such as CT and MRI to see inside the body — say yes. And they want the Legislature to consider regulating who can scan, where the scanning is done and who reads the tests.

Once lawmakers convene for a new session Tuesday, radiologists plan to ask them to order a study of who owns scanning equipment, hoping to curb what they say is a growing problem: a rising number of scans being done by specialists who are not radiologists but who own advanced imaging equipment.

They say this is a conflict of interest that is driving up health care costs and exposing some patients to unnecessary radiation………..

……………….At issue is the use of CT, or computed tomography, and MRI, or magnetic resonance imaging, both of which scan organs inside the body, and PET, or positron emission tomography, which uses a radioactive substance to show the functioning of organs and tissues. With a CT scan, patients are exposed to 100 times more radiation than with a standard X-ray, Perkins said. MRI does not use radiation…………

…….A November 2007 study in the New England Journal of Medicine said…..

….with rising CT use about 1.5 percent to 2 percent of all cancers could be attributed to CT scans in future decades, based on scans received today, the study said. CT scans increased from 3 million in 1980 to 62 million per year in the mid-2000s.

Radiologists see overuse of patient scans; specialists see turf battle

Tags: nuclear, antinuclear, uranium, radioactive

January 9, 2009 Posted by Christina Macpherson | environment | Leave a comment

The Uncertain Business of Building New Nuclear

The Uncertain Business of Building New Nuclear BNET industries By Chris Morrison | January 7th, 2009

A new study on Climate Progress has some surprising conclusions for nuclear power. Final costs for generating power at new plants, the study says, will be 25 to 30 cents per kilowatt-hour, which is some three times the cost of today’s energy.

Nuclear is a major part of some plans to move away from fossil fuels like coal and gas, so numbers like this should be extremely worrying to advocates of atomic power……………..
…………….. Historical costs have exceeded initial estimates, and current costs are rising

Severance points to a Cambridge Energy Research Associates report that shows a 131 percent increase in the cost of power plants from 2000 – 2008. That’s is a particular problem for nuclear, because plants can take 10 years or more to build, meaning initial estimates have to factor in future cost increases (or be wrong).

This is a vicious circle, because the long time frame involved increases the business risks of the project, risk that in turn increases expenses. Furthermore, the length of time it takes to build plants means that utilities must pay interest on any debt they took out for construction (usually running in the the billions of dollars) for years before seeing any income.

These might appear to be problems that can be overcome with good planning. Unfortunately, most current designs for nuclear plants haven’t been proven in the field, meaning there’s an element of learn-as-you-go for the people who are building. On a $10 billion project, that’s not a good thing………………..For any cost overruns that do occur, it will likely be the utility or ratepayers that foot the bill, as nuclear plant construction firms are wising up and adding contract provisions that mandate profits for them……………………………One potential side-affect of cost-overruns and delays is outright abandonment of projects. That happened with the Washington Public Power Supply System, which defaulted on $2.25 billion in loans when it walked away from a nuclear project.

Utilities constructing nuclear plants may find their credit ratings dropping……………………..

Higher electricity rates from nuclear may destroy demand for the energy

If the above issues come to a head and ratepayers end up eating the costs, they may simply choose to use less power, or tap into sources like home solar and wind, which may well become cheaper than energy from the utility.