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France’s Nuclear Failures

France’s Nuclear Failures Greenpeace 3 Feb 09 Hazardous waste, illegitimate and dangerous new reactors and a diversion to the solutions to climate change – here’s why France’s picture of nuclear energy is just a ‘great illusion’…Despite the French government’s global marketing of its flagship European Pressurised Reactor (EPR) as cheap and safe, nuclear energy is rapidly becoming the most expensive way to produce electricity, and its highly radioactive waste poses an ever-increasing problem.

Greenpeace has recently uncovered evidence that nuclear waste from the European Pressurised Reactor (EPR) – the flagship of the French nuclear industry – will be up to seven times more hazardous than waste produced by existing nuclear reactors, increasing costs and the danger to health and the environment.

This alarming evidence was buried away in the environmental impact assessment report from Posiva, the company responsible for managing waste at the world’s first EPR under construction at Olkiluoto in Finland, and in EU-funded research……………………………………. No appropriate waste facilities exist – or are even being planned – in Finland, France or any of the countries considering buying the EPR (including the UK, the US, Canada and India). In Finland, plans for burying the nuclear waste that are awaiting approval are simply inadequate for preventing interim and long-term health risks, and will pass on huge financial liabilities to future generations…………………………..The Global Chance report shows:

  • how France’s nuclear programme fails to rise to the challenges of climate change and energy security;
  • how France has not benefited economically from their ‘all electric, all nuclear’ approach
  • how nuclear power is liable to suffer serious accidents – whether due to system failure, natural disaster or deliberate attack
  • how no satisfactory solution has been found for the management of long-term waste; and
  • how France contributes to proliferation, which remains a major risk for global security.

France’s Nuclear Failures | Greenpeace International

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February 4, 2009 Posted by | France, politics | 1 Comment

None Dare Call It Treason

None Dare Call It Treason
Author * Morton S. Skorodin, M.D. Arkansas Indymedia 4 Feb 09 Politicians backed by powerful business interests have initiated a legislative assault to bring nuclear power back to Oklahoma. There are numerous reasons why this is a bad idea, some of which are discussed in this article. Oklahomans successfully fought off the attempt to build a nuclear reactor at Black Fox a generation ago. We will fight it again.

This will, if the sponsor and his backers prevail, bring jobs and cancer to our state.
We’ve got a problem. We humans interpret the world and have survived by our five senses of sight, sound, touch, taste and smell. They have served us well; they guide our behavior, and this is all obvious as we look around.

During the twentieth century and beyond, we have seen new things and new types of events, in defiance of the old saying: “There is nothing new under the sun.” Most important was the development of man made nuclear radiation.

We haven’t had hundreds or thousands of years to adapt to this new and insanely dangerous phenomenon. We can not see, hear, feel, smell or taste nuclear radiation.

The danger of nuclear power is as great as our ability to perceive it is small………………………………..To compound this problem, many facts about nuclear power and nuclear munitions are not widely known. Additionally, many problems and potential problems have not been made public.

Remember, it is a business. It is the legally binding responsibility of top management of all firms involved in this business to make as much money as possible. Ugly facts would get in the way of this Prime Directive. Thus the impulse to hide unpleasant information is overwhelming. Monkey see no evil, hear no evil, tell no evil.

We, the people, have to do the heavy digging. We have no other choice. Like a putrid abscess this abomination must be eliminated by exposure to fresh air and sunlight………………………………………..There appears to be more public awareness of the dangers of non-radioactive chemical pollutants than of the radioactive and it is evident that more than one factor goes to making cancer. What serious investigators fear is that radiation (nuclear) pollution interacts with chemical poisons to magnify the problem. By itself, Uranium interacts with the body’s estrogen hormone system, disrupting it as do a number of other pollutants. It can do its dirty work even if present at tiny amounts- amounts lower than current federal EPA standards for this poison.

Arkansas IMC: None Dare Call It Treason

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February 4, 2009 Posted by | 2 WORLD, environment | Leave a comment

President Obama seeks Russia deal to slash nuclear weapons e

President Obama seeks Russia deal to slash nuclear weapons

President Obama will convene the most ambitious arms reduction talks with Russia for a generation, aiming to slash each country’s stockpile of nuclear weapons by 80 per cent.

The radical treaty would cut the number of nuclear warheads to 1,000 each, The Times has learnt. Key to the initiative is a review of the Bush Administration’s plan for a US missile defence shield in Eastern Europe, a project fiercely opposed by Moscow.

Mr Obama is to establish a non-proliferation office at the White House to oversee the talks, expected to be headed by Gary Samore, a non-proliferation negotiator in the Clinton Administration. The talks will be driven by Hillary Clinton’s State Department.

No final decision on the defence shield has been taken by Mr Obama. Yet merely delaying the placement of US missiles in Poland and a radar station in the Czech Republic — which if deployed would cost the US $4 billion annually — removes what has been a major impediment to Russian co-operation on arms reduction…………….. Mr Obama has pledged to put nuclear weapons reduction at the heart of his presidency

President Obama seeks Russia deal to slash nuclear weapons – Times Online

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February 4, 2009 Posted by | NORTH AMERICA, weapons and war | Leave a comment

Letter: Data withheld on nuclear waste storage

Data withheld on nuclear waste storage The Guardian Hugh Richards 3 February 2009 We as taxpayers are being asked to take responsibility for significant amounts of spent fuel – something omitted by Rivaz. Spent nuclear fuel contains most of the radioactivity from the new reactors, but neither government nor its regulators have assessed its “disposability”, or the health effects of managing it. The Nuclear Industry Association says a repository dealing with legacy wastes could readily accommodate the smaller volumes of easier-to-handle wastes from the new nuclear plants.

But the spent fuel from EDF’s planned European pressurised reactors in England would be hotter and more radioactive than that from the EPR at Olkiluoto, in Finland. There are serious doubts it could be disposed of in the deep geological repository for legacy waste, but the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority has only recently received the detailed information from EDF that will allow it to make the assessment. Having asked for a copy of that information, I have been told by the NDA that it was submitted in confidence under contractual arrangements, and agreement to the release of the information has not been granted. Thus data directly relevant to independent assessment of health detriments during the storage, retrieval, encapsulation, emplacement and subsequent abandonment of spent fuel, is being withheld by the company concerned……………………………..I have asked the energy department to publish the data, but the secretary of state is busy promoting nuclear power by “reducing regulatory risks for investors”. He is also the “sole justifying authority” that will decide whether benefits from new reactors outweigh any health detriments, a somewhat dangerous conflict of interests.

Letter: Data withheld on nuclear waste storage | Environment | The Guardian

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February 4, 2009 Posted by | secrets,lies and civil liberties, UK | Leave a comment