2009 February 14 « nuclear-news

Areva Fails to Block Television Exposé

Areva Fails to Block Television Exposé
Beyond Nuclear 14 Feb 09 Areva was unsuccessful in its attempt to block the transmission of a television expose that revealed high levels or radioactive contamination around France’s abandoned uranium mine sites. The program – Uranium, the scandal of contaminated France – aired on France 3 and featured the findings of the CRIIRAD independent laboratory led by Dr. Bruno Chareyron.

Nuclear France – Myths and Fantasies

February 14, 2009 Posted by Christina Macpherson | France, secrets,lies and civil liberties | Leave a comment

TV show reveals radioactive risk

TV show reveals radioactive risk The Connexion February 14, 2009 FEARS that radioactive material taken from France’s old uranium mines has been used in construction have been raised by a TV documentary.

According to investigators for the programme Pièces à Conviction (Incriminating evidence), there are many sites where radioactive material is a potential health risk including schools, playgrounds, buildings and car parks.

Very little uranium is now mined in Europe, but France carried out mining from 1945 – 2001 at 210 sites which have now been revealed by IRSN, the Institute of Radioprotection and Nuclear Safety on its website……………………Problems stem from millions of tonnes of reject rock which contained small amount of uranium which are still stocked at some of the sites along with 50 million tones of waste from extraction factories.

The documentary on France 3 also revealed that some reject rock has also been used as construction rubble in areas used by the public, that there have been some radioactive leaks into the environment from waste and that some “rehabilitated” areas where building has been taken place had been contaminated with radon.

Reject rock has been used at sites including carparks, buildings, roads and even schools and children’s playgrounds, the programme said.

Volunteers with Geiger counters have found that some sites where it was used have worryingly high radiation levels.

The programme makers said they had “opened a national debate on uranium waste in France”.

Environment Minister Jean-Louis Borloo has admitted that uranium extraction had little state regulation and has called on the firm which was responsible for most of the sites, Areva, to “do its job” and to take better safety measures regarding the waste.

Before the programme went out Areva had lodged a complaint about it with the Conseil Supérieur de l’Audiovisuel concerned that its intention was to make accusations against the firm.

The Connexion – The Newspaper for English-Speakers in France

February 14, 2009 Posted by Christina Macpherson | environment, France | Leave a comment

The problem of space junk

The problem of space junk The Space Fellowship 13 Feb 09 “………………………………Accumulation of space debris is also increasing radiation levels in the near-Earth environment.
In its day, the Soviet Union launched 33 spacecraft with nuclear power units aboard. After fulfilling their missions, the units were jettisoned from the satellites and put in the so-called burial orbit (700 to 1,000 kilometers). There, their cores, consisting of fuel clusters, were jettisoned in turn.Currently, 44 radiation sources from Russia are parked in the burial orbit. They are: two satellites with unseparated nuclear power units (Cosmos-1818 and Cosmos-1867), fuel assemblies and 12 closed-down reactors with a liquid metal coolant, 15 nuclear-fuel assemblies, and 15 fuel-free units with a coolant in the secondary cooling loop. They are to spend no less than 300 to 400 passive years in the orbit. That is enough for uranium-235 fission products to decay to safe levels.

The United States is another contributor to the high levels of radiation in near-Earth space. In April 1964, its Transit-SB navigation satellite with a radio isotope generator aboard failed to enter orbit and broke into pieces. While burning up in the atmosphere, it scattered about a kilogram of plutonium-238 over the western part of the Indian Ocean north of Madagascar. The result has been a 15-fold increase in background radiation around the world. A few years later, the Nimbus-B weather satellite with a uranium-235 reactor crashed into the Indian Ocean.

Today, there are seven American radiation sources circling the Earth in orbits ranging from 800 kilometers to 1,100 kilometers, and two more in near-geostationary ones.The lurking threat of both Russian and American nuclear satellites is that, should they fall apart upon collision with space debris, vast expanses of near-Earth space would be contaminated. Additionally, if some of the fragments had a velocity after collision and destruction that was below orbital speed, they would fall out of orbit and pollute some parts of the Earth’s surface. In the worst-case scenario, the atmosphere could be heavily contaminated.

The Space Fellowship

February 14, 2009 Posted by Christina Macpherson | 2 WORLD, wastes | 1 Comment

Iran next target, warns Israeli diplomat

Iran next target, warns Israeli diplomat The Age Jason Koutsoukis, Jerusalem * February 14, 2009

A SENIOR Israeli diplomat has warned that Israel is ready to launch a military offensive against Iran to prevent it from developing nuclear weapons.

In an interview with The Age, Dan Gillerman, who was Israel’s permanent representative at the United Nations from 2003 until last September, said time for diplomatic efforts to stop Iran acquiring a nuclear capability might have already expired……………………….Detailed military plans to bomb Iran’s nuclear enrichment plant have long been on the table of Israeli military commanders……………….

Israel has carried out two strikes on suspected nuclear sites over the past 30 years. In 1981, its jets bombed Iraq’s nuclear reactor at Osirak, and in September 2007, Israeli aircraft bombed a structure in Syria that was alleged to have housed a nuclear reactor.

Any new attack against Iran would be much more complicated, with the country’s uranium enrichment plants spread across many sites. Iran’s comparatively sophisticated military and its distance from Israel would present further complications for military planners and risk setting off a full-scale war.

Iran next target, warns Israeli diplomat | theage.com.au

February 14, 2009 Posted by Christina Macpherson | Israel, weapons and war | Leave a comment

U.S. intelligence reconfirms Iran has no nuclear arms program

U.S. intelligence reconfirms Iran has no nuclear arms program TEHRAN TIMES February 14, 2009 WASHINGTON (Agencies) – U.S. intelligence reconfirms that Iran has no nuclear weapons program, the new U.S. intelligence director Dennis Blair said in an annual threat assessment to Congress on Thursday……………………………Asked about it at a Senate hearing, Blair acknowledged it was a difficult question to deal with in a public setting.

“I can say at this point that Iran is clearly developing all the components of a deliverable nuclear weapons program — fissionable material, nuclear weaponizing capability and the means to deliver it,” he said.

“Whether they take it all the way to nuclear weapons and become a nuclear power will depend a great deal on their own internal decisions,” AFP quoted him as saying.

The assessment comes at a time when the new U.S. administration and Tehran appear to be in a diplomatic dance over whether and how to engage in direct dialogue.

tehran times : U.S. intelligence reconfirms Iran has no nuclear arms program

February 14, 2009 Posted by Christina Macpherson | Iran, weapons and war | Leave a comment

The most serious accident in US commercial nuclear power history: people vs. government

The most serious accident in US commercial nuclear power history: people vs. government the Morehead News By Nicole Back February 13, 2009 After three decades, the debate continues.The Nuclear Regulatory Commission stands by its claim that the most serious accident in US commercial nuclear power history did not cause any physical harm to those who were directly affected.Hundreds of people lived near Three Mile Island when equipment malfunctions, design related problems and worker errors led to the partial meltdown of the TMI-2 reactor core. Residents insist the US government is lying about what really happened to them.“Here I am 30 years later and I’m absolutely astounded that they got away with murder,” Mary Osborne said………………………..Osborne has been researching the accident and its effects on her and her neighbors ever since it happened. She takes pictures of mutated plants and animals, collects official documents and gives presentations in Washington, D.C. She has written separate letters to The Economist and Fortune Magazine. Her work was presented in Japan in 1987 and at DePaul University in Chicago in 2001…………………………………A professor with the University of North Carolina School of Public Health led a study of cancer cases within 10 miles of the facility from 1975-85. Dr. Steven Wing’s findings were published in the Journal of the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences in November 2003.

According to his report, hundreds of local residents questioned the NRC’s position that high-level radiation exposure as a result of TMI was impossible. People who lived near TMI reported metallic taste, nausea, vomiting diarrhea, erythema, hair loss, deaths of pets and farm and wild animals and damage to plants………………………..Lung cancer and leukemia rates were two to 10 times higher downwind of the TMI reactor than upwind……………………..On December 3, 2002 The United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit upheld the Summary Judgment of the United Sates District Court for the Middle District. Lawyers for 1,990 plaintiffs who claimed they suffered health damage from radiation released during the reactor meltdown gave up. The lawsuits were mostly against former TMI owner General Public Utilities Corp.

The Morehead News – The most serious accident in US commercial nuclear power history: people vs. government

Tags: nuclear, antinuclear, urasnium, radioactive

February 14, 2009 Posted by Christina Macpherson | safety, USA | Leave a comment

Emergency nuke centers ordered to bolster radiation protection

The Japan Times Saturday, Feb. 14, 2009 Emergency nuke centers ordered to bolster radiation protectionKyodo NewsThe internal affairs ministry Friday advised seven facilities designated to serve as command centers in the event of a nuclear emergency to bolster their safety systems against radiation exposure.The seven are among 22 command centers across Japan operated by the industry and science ministries. Each was built within 20 km of a nuclear plant so it can expeditiously deal with an emergency.
A recent inspection of 13 centers by the Internal Affairs and Communications Ministry found that seven would have problems with radioactive contamination in an accident, exposing those inside to the risk of radiation sickness.………………….The centers in question are in Hokkaido, Aomori, Miyagi, Fukushima, Shizuoka, Ishikawa and Ehime prefectures.

Five were found to have ventilation problems, but shielding was found inadequate at all seven facilities.

Emergency nuke centers ordered to bolster radiation protection | The Japan Times Online

February 14, 2009 Posted by Christina Macpherson | Japan, safety | Leave a comment