2009 February 23 « nuclear-news

Philippines Activists hold rally to oppose revival of mothballed nuke plant

Activists hold rally to oppose revival of mothballed nuke plant
abs-cbnNEWS.com | 02/22/2009

Hundreds of protesters urged legislators on Sunday not to support a bill in Congress to revive the mothballed Bataan Nuclear Power Plant (BNPP).

Volunteers of environmental activist group Greenpeace and members of a network opposed to the BNPP also formed a human banner at the UP sunken garden forming the words – “NO TO BNPP.”

They called on members of the House of Representatives who indicated their support to the bill to withdraw their signatures and ensure it does not get past the House Committee on Appropriations……………………Protesters said reviving BNPP is not the answer to the country’s energy problem, adding neither will it solve climate change. Instead, they said government should expand the country’s renewable-energy capacity and promote energy-efficient technology.

Members of the Network Opposed to the Bataan Nuclear Power Plant revival also held a rally in front of UP Diliman’s Quezon Hall to call attention to the surcharge that would be imposed on power consumers if the bill is passed.

The group also called for the junking of House Bill (HB) 4631 which proposes the recommissioning of the BNPP. The group also said the BNPP revival will not address the expected energy crisis. They urged government to turn to indigenous energy sources instead.

Activists hold rally to oppose revival of mothballed nuke plant | ABS-CBN News Online Beta

February 23, 2009 Posted by Christina Macpherson | Philippines, politics | Leave a comment

Florida Green Party Files Petition Opposing New Nuclear Power Plant

Florida Green Party Files Petition Opposing New Nuclear Power PlantF Green Party Watch February 20th, 2009 by Ronald Hardy “……………………..

Gainesville, FL — On February 6, 2009 the Green Party of Florida (GPF, http://www.floridagreens.org) joined with the Nuclear Information and Resource Service (NIRS, http://www.nirs.org) and the Ecology Party to file a legal challenge to a new nuclear power plant proposed by Progress Energy Florida (PEF) for a site in Levy County, near Inglis, Florida.

The filing is a formal Petition to Intervene in the NRC’s licensing process for nuclear power plants, the latest in a series of such actions taken by NIRS and other groups nationwide to protect the health and safety of the public and the natural resources that are placed at risk by this industry. The interventions by parties with standing, which must follow rules established by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), are intended to stop these nuclear boondoggles before construction work starts and millions of dollars are wasted.

Florida Green Party Files Petition Opposing New Nuclear Power Plant

February 23, 2009 Posted by Christina Macpherson | politics, USA | Leave a comment

Dirty deal

Dirty deal Salt Lake tribune Lee Badger 02/22/2009 “……………The name EnergySolutions is a misnomer for a company that would make Utah the dumping ground for the world’s nuclear waste. With its ads, scholarships and Jazz arena name, it wants to endear the company to Utahns, hoping that we’ll allow it to bring in more waste. Now it even claims that it might share it profits to help solve Utah’s budget problems — a billion dollars! With that, and its substantial political contributions, clearly it’s trying to buy legislative permission to import hotter and foreign waste.

Of course, if something goes wrong with nuclear waste transportation or storage — well, then, the entire Wasatch Front will be downwinders. Profit sharing ? Why share with EnergySolutions when we’ll be taking all the risk?

Dirty deal – Salt Lake Tribune

February 23, 2009 Posted by Christina Macpherson | USA, wastes | Leave a comment

New technologies can replace nuclear

New technologies can replace nuclear APP.com Matt Elliot February 22, 2009 “……….It’s a technology riddled with serious issues — cost, security and waste — that the industry is unable to solve. It’s time to leave nuclear behind and move our energy grid into the 21st century.

Congress got it right when it stripped nuclear subsidies from the federal stimulus bill, investing instead in renewable energy and energy efficiency. And in New Jersey, Gov. Jon Corzine has committed to reducing energy demand by retrofitting homes and businesses, and to bringing more clean, renewable electricity to the grid.

New Jersey’s offshore wind farm alone will power the equivalent of 300,000 homes by 2012 and 1 million by 2020. With less demand and so much more electricity, we can begin to make smarter energy choices and retire the state’s oldest and dirtiest power plants. Oyster Creek should be at the top of the list.

New technologies can replace nuclear | APP.com | Asbury Park Press

February 23, 2009 Posted by Christina Macpherson | ENERGY, NORTH AMERICA | Leave a comment

Kill Yucca, then get going on the rest of our problems

Kill Yucca, then get going on the rest of our problemsBy Brian Greenspun Las Vegas Sun, Feb 22, 2009 (2 a.m.)President Barack Obama says the Yucca Mountain project is dead.Nevada’s senior U.S. senator, Majority Leader Harry Reid, says the high-level nuclear waste dump is dead.

The nation’s nuclear power players — the folks who want to bury their problems in our back yard — aren’t saying it is dead, but they are acting as if it is in a coma and on its last legs.

And the majority of voters in Nevada — the people who put their trust in the president’s promise to kill their worst nightmare and helped elect him in November — believe the nation’s proposed high-level waste dump won’t happen.

So, given all that, why are Gov. Jim Gibbons and his champion, Nevada GOP Chairman Sue Lowden, doing all they can to breathe life into the moribund dump, thereby threatening countless thousands of Nevadans, their kids and those not yet born?……………………. the people of Nevada say they oppose the dump but remain oblivious to the subterfuge and incompetence that surround them.

What does all that mean? It means Yucca is not dead. Not even close. As long as we tolerate our own politicians sending mixed signals at best and clear signals of capitulation at worst, we will get that dump.

We are in the second generation of Nevadans fighting against the Goliath of the federal government and its multibillion-dollar friends in the power companies who care not about us but only about the almighty dollars they can make by turning us into a glowing, radiating, deadly dump. We are closer to winning than we have ever been. Now is not the time to let the little minds among us prevail.

Now is the time to do something. What we should not do, though, is tolerate for one moment longer those among us who would sell us out.

Kill Yucca, then get going on the rest of our problems – Las Vegas Sun

February 23, 2009 Posted by Christina Macpherson | politics, USA | Leave a comment

We Owe It To Ourselves To Abandon Nuclear Energy

We owe it to ourselves to abandon nuclear energy

The Herald Peter Curran 23 Feb 09 “……………Every advocate of civil nuclear power generation I have read, heard or met personally is either an advocate of nuclear weapons, nuclear defence policies and the so-called “nuclear deterrent”, or, frankly, must be naive, and unaware or badly informed about this insidious linking of the civil and military aspects.

Any country that has nuclear power has the undeniable potential to make nuclear weapons. This is why the west is making such a fuss over Iran’s nuclear programme. It was also the ostensible reason for invading Iraq. The UK is a massive exporter of nuclear technology and uranium enrichment processes, and this is at the core of nuclear weapons production. If the UK abandoned this deadly trade and never built another nuclear power station, it would be taking a major step towards reducing international tension, nuclear proliferation and creating a safer planet.

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) is charged with investigating the regular, and sinister, transfer of nuclear material between civil and military stockpiles, but its powers are limited, and, by the UK government’s own admission, its acceptance of inspection was not intended to provide an assurance that such material would not be used for defence purposes……………………..The nuclear power industry and the nuclear arms industry are conjoined twins, locked forever in a deadly embrace, and cannot be separated. You can’t have one without the other. Until homo sapiens evolves into a greater maturity, the world can afford neither nuclear power generation nor nuclear arms. We owe it to ourselves, our children and our grandchildren to reject these deadly twins.

We Owe It To Ourselves To Abandon Nuclear Energy (from The Herald )

February 23, 2009 Posted by Christina Macpherson | 2 WORLD, weapons and war | Leave a comment

The Solution to the United States Ageing Nuclear Arsenal

The Solution to the United States Ageing Nuclear Arsenal
Cleantech 23 Feb 09

The United States’ thousands of nuclear warheads have the explosive equivalent of over 1 gigaton of TNT. It’s an amount of energy that could literally move mountains, reroute rivers, alter climate, and result in the deaths of hundreds of millions or even billions of people, through fire, radiation, and starvation………..

…………….In the March 2009 issue of IEEE Spectrum, Francis Slakey and Benn Tannenbaum argue that the current program of “stockpile stewardship,” with some modifications, will be sufficient to preserve the U.S. arsenal for the foreseeable future. It isn’t necessary, and may even be counterproductive, they say, for the United States to pursue new warheads.

The Solution to the United States Ageing Nuclear Arsenal

February 23, 2009 Posted by Christina Macpherson | USA, weapons and war | Leave a comment

Russia amends decree to facilitate nuclear exports

Russia amends decree to facilitate nuclear exports “THE HINDU Business Line 22 Feb 09 The blanket clause requiring all nuclear facilities to be put under IAEA safeguards has now been removed.”

Anil Sasi

New Delhi, Feb. 21 Russia has amended a restrictive decree on its nuclear exports, which formally paves the way for the export of Russian reactor equipment and nuclear material to India. This will help the new set of Russian-made Light Water Reactor capacities on the anvil.

Prior to the amendment, the 1992 decree prevented nuclear exports from Russia to any non-nuclear weapons State, unless “all nuclear activities of that state” were placed under the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) safeguards……………….The blanket clause requiring all nuclear facilities to be put under safeguards has now been removed, Department of Atomic Energy sources said…………………………Russia agreed late last year that it would build four more reactors at the same site. Russia’s state-owned nuclear fuel monopoly TVEL Corporation has also inked deal to deliver 2,000 tonnes of uranium pellets to India.

The Hindu Business Line : Russia amends decree to facilitate nuclear exports

February 23, 2009 Posted by Christina Macpherson | Russia, safety | Leave a comment