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Nuclear Power Can’t Be a Solution to Global Warming Precisely because of Global Warming

Nuclear Power Can’t Be a Solution to Global Warming Precisely because of Global Warming DISSIDENT VOICE Extreme Weather Events Multiply Existing Risks and Vulnerabilities of Nuclear Power: From Natural Disasters to Nuclear Disasters?by Jo-Shing Yang / February 7th, 2009 A new dawn is coming for nuclear power.

This week, America found out that President Obama’s economic stimulus plan includes a $50 billion loan guarantee for nuclear power plants in the Senate version. Nuclear power is about to be revived from its political and public-opinion grave to enjoy a “green renaissance,” now with 35 new nuclear reactors being planned. This lethally radioactive zombie is about to get an extreme makeover with the cosmetics of combating global warming, achieving environmental stewardship, deepening economic prosperity, and attaining energy independence..

Then it will get a new name: the new green energy. The irony is that while nuclear proponents cite global warming as the key impetus for expanding nuclear power, it is precisely global climate disruptions and the associated extreme weather events which will significantly multiply and amplify the existing risks and costs of nuclear power to make it more costly, risky, lethal, and unreliable. With global warming, nuclear power threatens to turn ordinary natural disasters (such as floods, tornadoes, hurricanes, wildfires, and droughts) into potential nuclear disasters……………………

……… Droughts, Chronic Water Shortages, and the Coming Water Scarcity Are Achilles Heel of Nuclear Power Plants: No Water, No Nuclear Power. Period.

Nuclear power plants are a voracious consumer of water. Nuclear power requires even more water than gas-fired generators, at 3,100 liters per megawatt hour of electricity, just to keep the nuclear reactors from overheating. (Coal and natural gas use 2,800 liters and 2,300 liters per megawatt hours, respectively.) According to the U.S. Department of Energy’s 2006 “Report to the Congress on the Interdependency of Energy and Water,” the most water-intensive form of electricity generation is nuclear power………

……………….In the well-publicized drought and the heat waves when temperatures soaring above 100° F in summer 2003 led to thousands of deaths across Europe, Electricité de France (EDF) had to shut down a quarter of its 58 nuclear power plants in France while the average electricity price skyrocketed by some 1,300%………..

….. during Europe’s 2006 heat wave, French, German, and Spanish utilities were forced to shut down several nuclear power plants and reduce power at others for as much as a week due to low water levels……………

…………….Water will become scarcer and more expensive as global climate disruptions exacerbate existing water problems of groundwater and surface water pollution and intensify chronic water shortages worldwide………..

……………….The sensible solution to reducing greenhouse gas emissions is not with more nuclear power, but with small, deconcentrated (as opposed to corporate monopolies), and decentralized power systems that can adapt to local conditions.

Dissident Voice : Nuclear Power Can’t Be a Solution to Global Warming Precisely because of Global Warming

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February 9, 2009 Posted by | environment, spinbuster, USA | 1 Comment

Old radioactive mine tailings pose slow-motion threat

Old radioactive mine tailings pose slow-motion threat

Payson Roundup 8 Feb 09
After decades of delay, the U.S. Forest Service is seeking public comments about a slow-motion contamination risk — the radioactive dirt piles left over from now-abandoned uranium mines in the Young Ranger District along popular Workman Creek in the Sierra Anchas……………

………….Many of these tailings dump sites lie along Workman Creek, which drains into Roosevelt Lake, which is a drinking water reservoir for Phoenix. Tests show sufficiently high radiation levels in the creek that the Forest Service advises people against eating fish caught in the creek…………….

………..Although federal officials have known for years of the contamination along the creek that empties into Roosevelt Lake, they still have no idea how much a cleanup will cost…………….

………….The tailings and abandoned mine shafts represent one small, local toll in the rush after the invention of the atom bomb to mine enough of the dense, weakly radioactive material to build thousands of warheads and fuel nuclear power plants. Other fallout from that boom in exploration locally before doctors understood fully the low-term effects of low-level radiation includes a raft of cancer cases among Navajo miners.

The Payson Roundup / Old radioactive mine tailings pose slow-motion threat

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February 9, 2009 Posted by | environment, USA | Leave a comment

Black Fox protest killed nuclear power plant

Black Fox protest killed power plant The Norman Transcript By M. Scott Carter Feb 08 2009 Mention “Black Fox” in Oklahoma and most people won’t think of a little animal. Instead they’ll talk about the how an eastern Oklahoma grandmother derailed a nuclear power plant……………………………

In an effort to stop the plant, Carrie Barefoot Dickerson and Citizens’ Action for Safe Energy began a decade-long protest and legal battle which eventually forced PSO to abandon its plans to build the plant.

According to the group, the Black Fox plant was the only nuclear power plant in the United States to be canceled by a combination of legal and citizen action after construction had started. Since then, no nuclear plant has been built in Oklahoma.

After the protest, Dickerson founded the Carrie Dickerson Foundation, a nonprofit group designed to educate people about the ills of nuclear energy.

The Norman Transcript – Black Fox protest killed power plant

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February 9, 2009 Posted by | politics, USA | Leave a comment

Nuke plant unsafe, says study

Nuke plant unsafe, says study
By Leila Salaverria Philippine Daily Inquirer 02/08/2009 MANILA, Philippines—The Senate and the Office of the President have in their possession an explosive study whose disclosure could very well result in the permanent shuttering of the mothballed Bataan Nuclear Power Plant and end moves in Congress to reopen the facility, according to environmentalist Nicanor Perlas.According to Perlas, it is important that the four-year study be made public as Congress has now begun debates on a bill filed by Pangasinan Rep. Mark Cojuangco seeking to rehabilitate the BNPP at a cost of $1 billion.He said the study, conducted in 1991 by local and foreign experts, showed that the plant’s most serious defect concerned its Quality Assurance Program, which the experts found to be sloppy and below regulatory standards………………………………

Even if $1 billion is spent to rehabilitate the plant, this would not be enough to cure the defects because in the first place, there is no way of pinpointing where all these problems are, Perlas said.

“The design and construction problems of BNPP are frozen in concrete and steel,” he said…………………………..

He said that at the time the Philippine Atomic Energy Commission had minimal experience in nuclear regulation. And the energy department at the time was run by the dictator Ferdinand Marcos’ energy czar. Thus, the regulator had a conflict of interest.

“So it was very shady… This is where the corruption meets the technical and creates a nightmare scenario for the quality of the plant,” Perlas said.

If there should be an accident as a result of an earthquake, volcanic eruption, tsunami, faulty equipment or operator error, the resulting meltdown would cause an unspeakable disaster, he warned.

Nuke plant unsafe, says study – INQUIRER.net, Philippine News for Filipinos

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February 9, 2009 Posted by | Philippines, safety | Leave a comment

Opponents in Missouri mobilize over positioning nuke plants as ‘clean’ –

Opponents in Missouri mobilize over positioning nuke plants as ‘clean’
By Jeffrey Tomich ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH 02/08/2009When the “Clean and Renewable Energy Construction Act” was introduced in the Missouri Senate, the bill’s title evoked images of new wind turbines sprouting from the northwest Missouri plains and solar panels lining St. Louis rooftops.A more fitting image might be two more massive cooling towers rising in Callaway County.While the legislation proposed last month may one day aid the development of more renewable energy or a next-generation coal-fired power plant, there’s little doubt that its primary purpose is helping AmerenUE build a second nuclear reactor. It would do so by removing a key barrier — a 1976 law that prohibits the utility from charging customers for the plant before it’s complete.The nuclear industry spent more than two decades repairing an image badly damaged a generation ago by accidents and cost overruns. Now, proponents here and around the country are going a step further by pushing nuclear power as a greener energy source than coal and a key to helping curb global warming.
In the legislation that would repeal Missouri’s ban on charges for construction work in progress, the text uses the word “clean” 26 times, while “nuclear” appears once. In Florida, a utility planning two new reactors unsuccessfully tried last fall to persuade regulators to define new nuclear plants as renewable energy.

Such efforts have been met with disdain by environmentalists, many of whom say categorizing nuclear power as “clean” energy is greenwashing.
“They’re putting a green bow on a box of radioactive waste that’s never going to go away,” said Kathleen Logan Smith, executive director of St. Louis-based Missouri Coalition for the Environment.

Nationwide, applications have been submitted for 26 new reactors in 14 states, according to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. The agency has been told to expect filings for an additional nine by the end of next year. And wherever new plants are proposed, pro- and anti-nuclear groups are clashing.

02/08/2009 – Opponents in Missouri mobilize over positioning nuke plants as ‘clean’ – STLtoday.com

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February 9, 2009 Posted by | spinbuster, USA | Leave a comment

Probe Into Kickback Case Involving Nuclear Operators Expanding

02-08-2009  Probe Into Kickback Case Involving Nuclear Operators Expanding
By Kim Tong-hyungS taff ReporterThe Korean government is expanding its probe into a kickback- for-contracts case involving employees of its nuclear power firm and a California-based vendor. Knowledge Economy Minister Lee Youn-ho ordered a thorough investigation into the case Sunday, vowing severe punishment for those found to be involved……………………….. According to court documents, bribes were paid to officials at KHNP, China’s China National Offshore Oil Company, Petro China and Jiangsu Nuclear Power Corporation, Romania’s Rovinari Power and Saudi Arabia’s Safco.

Probe Into Kickback Case Involving Nuclear Operators Expanding

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February 9, 2009 Posted by | Uncategorized | Leave a comment

WFC Advocating Feed In Tariffs For Renewables

WFC Advocating Feed In Tariffs For Renewables

by Energy Matters 9 Feb 09 The World Future Council (WFC) is a global advocate for the concerns of future generations, actively pursuing issues relating to human rights, sustainability, cultural and economic justice. The council consists of dozens of experts in their particular field, plus high profile personalities such as Bianca Jagger.One of the WFC’s current projects is climate and sustainability – how the use of alternative energies such as solar power and wind energy can be supported by the implementation of gross feed in tariffs.The WFC’s mission is to assist policy makers and opinion leaders in the challenges facing future generations, while providing them with practical solutions, drawing on the knowledge and experiences of a network of thousands of parliamentarians, institutions and organizations around the globe.

WFC Advocating Feed In Tariffs For Renewables : Renewable Energy News

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February 9, 2009 Posted by | 2 WORLD, ENERGY | Leave a comment

A-bomb test vet hopeful of win –

A-bomb test vet hopeful of win
THE SHIEKDS GAZETTE :06 February 2009 By Terry Kelly A SOUTH Tyneside atom bomb test veteran today said he was “optimistic” of victory in a landmark compensation case battle in the High Court.More than 1,000 atom bomb test veterans and their families will have to wait until after Easter before discovering if their compensation claims can go ahead, a High Court judge ruled yesterday at the end of a three-week case The ex-servicemen, their widows and families claim the men were made ill by radiation exposure after nuclear tests in the Pacific and mainland Australia in the 1950s…………………………….The claims, if successful, could potentially cost the Ministry of Defence hundreds of millions of pounds in compensation payments for a wide range of health problems.

Over the last three weeks, MoD lawyers have tried to convince Mr Justice Foskett to halt the claims.

They say the claims were made far too late and that, in any event, are doomed to fail due to the lack of evidence proving a link between their health problems and events of half a century ago.

The case came to a conclusion yesterday, with the judge opting to go away to read and consider the evidence and submissions before giving a decision.

heir widows and families claim the men were made ill by radiation exposure after nuclear tests in the Pacific and mainland

A-bomb test vet hopeful of win – Shields Gazette

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February 9, 2009 Posted by | UK, weapons and war | Leave a comment

The Hindu News Update Service

Global warming may delay recovery of stratospheric ozone
THE HINDU February 6, 2009 Global warming may delay recovery of stratospheric ozone Increasing greenhouse gases could delay, or even postpone indefinitely the recovery of stratospheric ozone in some regions of the Earth, a new study suggests. This change might take a toll on public health.Darryn W. Waugh, an atmospheric scientist at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, and his colleagues report that climate change could provoke variations in the circulation of air in the lower stratosphere in tropical and southern mid-latitudes — a band of the Earth including Australia and Brazil. The circulation changes would cause ozone levels in these areas never to return to levels that were present before decline began, even after ozone-depleting substances have been wiped out from the atmosphere.”Global warming causes changes in the speed that the air is transported into and through the lower stratosphere [in tropical and southern mid-latitudes],” says Waugh. “You’re moving the air through it quicker, so less ozone gets formed.”……………………………………..

According to a press release issued by EurekAlert, Dan Lubin, an atmospheric scientist who has studied the relationship between ozone depletion and variations in the ultraviolet radiation that reaches the Earth, says Waugh’s findings could bode ill for people living in the tropics and southern mid-latitudes.

If ozone levels never return to pre-1960 levels in those regions, “the risk of skin cancer for fair-skinned populations living in countries like Australia and New Zealand, and probably in Chile and Argentina too, will be greater in the 21st century than it was during the 20th century,” says Lubin,

The Hindu News Update Service

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February 9, 2009 Posted by | Uncategorized | Leave a comment