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?
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
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
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 )
The Solution to the United States Ageing Nuclear Arsenal
The Solution to the United States Ageing Nuclear Arsenal
Cleantech 23 Feb 09The 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.
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
Green Glow Renaissance: Global Nuclear Genocide
The nuclear industry seized on the “peak oil” and “global warming” crisis which they created and turned it to their advantage. They call nuclear a “green”, “clean”, “renewable” resource because they can reuse the deadly waste to make nuclear weapons. They lump it under with wind and solar. The theme of the Canadian Nuclear Association CNA convention and trade show from February 25 to 27 at the Westin in Ottawa is “the reality of renaissance”. [Is that crazy or what?] Yes, they rely on our ignorance and naivety. ………………..They want to build dozens of nuclear reactors all over the world in Indigenous communities along and dump the nuclear waste for us to “manage”!! We live in remote areas far from any place they would want to even visit. …………………….
Meanwhile, Canada helps set up private organizations as government fronts like CNA (Canadian Nuclear Association), NWMO (Nuclear Waste Management Organization) and CAP (Congress of Aboriginal People) and OMAA (Ontario Metis and Aboriginal Association). The latter two are so-called “aboriginal” organizations. NWMO and CNA are funding the Assembly of First Nations, another government set up, and CAP to talk us into managing and storing nuclear fuel waste on our territories. Meetings have gone on for years to get Elders and “leaders” on side. Canada has even sent in Mother Joan Holmes to turn non-natives into “Indians” who can then sign away our inherent rights. Nuclear salesmen are courting “Aboriginal partners” to sign away our birthright and existence.
So-called 34-year old “aboriginal”, Patrick “Fabio-Wannabe” Brazeau, was recently appointed Senator by Canadian Prime Minister Stephen “Ford-Modelling-Agent” Harper. What was this all about? Brazeau’s rap sheet looks like the antithesis of anything anyone would want in the Senate. He was rewarded for fronting the phony CAP to try to destroy Indigenous nations and sovereignty.
CAP has arrangements with NRC (Natural Resources Canada) and NWMO to consider nuclear waste management on or near our communities. Brazeau proposed, “… the 633 native communities in Canada be reduced to between 60 and 80. The 10 Algonquin reserves in Quebec and Ontario, for example, would become one. Same for the Cree. The Mohawk. And so on”. The guy didn’t consult any of us or visit any of our communities. Now, if he has any sense, he’d be afraid to come. He wants to redirect the flow of nearly $10 billion in federal funding for “aboriginal” programs and services in Canada. He thinks we wont need it because we are going to liquidated. So he wants the money to go to the many “aboriginal” that he and Mother Jones have created. …………………………NWMO wants to store nuclear waste in Indigenous communities in the Canadian Shield. Sites in NAN (Nishnaabe Aski Nation) in northern Ontario appear to be the most likely. ………………………………A telling example of these “courtships” with the Indigenous is the recent attempted seduction of the Navaho. Areva, the French nuclear power company, took the council on a recent trip to Paris. Areva “owns” uranium mines in northern Saskatchewan. They want the Navaho to put a nuclear reactor and to do more uranium mining in their territory in the U.S. southwest.
The Navaho know about the devastation of uranium tailings. Most want nothing to do with nuclear development. The same is true of the Ojibwe, Cree and Metis who have been targeted in northern Canada. Nishnaabe are fully aware of and suffering from the ongoing poisoning at Blind River and the tons of nuclear waste at Elliot Lake.
Nuclear promoters like AECL (Atomic Energy Canada Ltd) and CNSC (Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission) will coo soothingly, in their brushed suits, carefully coiffed hair [if they have any] and manicured hands, “There’s no risk”…………………………
We all have to drastically cut back on our materialistic lifestyle. Every household could be generating enough clean energy to power their own grid. We Indigenous understand this basic and practical way of taking only what we need and leaving little or no footprint.
The elders are concerned about the future based on our traditional knowledge. The youth are concerned with living with the legacy of nuclear waste disposal. Women are concerned with protecting the clean and safe water for all people and the environment as this is our traditional role.
http://www.pacificfreepress.com/news/1/3738-green-glow-renaissance-global-nuclear-genocide.html
Nuke site seeks world heritage status
Herald Sun February 20, 2009
BIKINI Atoll, the site of the United States’ largest hydrogen bomb test and the place that lends its name to the skimpy two-piece swimsuit, is seeking recognition as a world heritage site.
“Nuclear bomb tests at Bikini Atoll shaped the history of the people of Bikini, the history of the Marshall Islands and the history of the entire world,” according to the Bikini proposal released today.
The 86-page document, to be presented to UNESCO’s World Heritage program, has been drawn up by Bikini liaison official Jack Niedenthal and Australian-based consultant Nicole Baker. A world heritage nomination involves a multi-level review and a decision is unlikely to be made before June next year, Ms Baker said…………………………”There are only a few 20th century sites, few are in the Pacific and few have confronting values,” she said, referring to Bikini’s status as a nuclear test ground zero as “nuclear colonialism”.
http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,21985,25081441-5012752,00.html
The Pebble Bed Modular Nuclear Reactor – a black hole for public funds
No Amount of Redesign Will Save the PBMR
Earthlife Africa Tristen Taylor
18th of Feb. 2009
With the PBMR Company seeking to redesign the Pebble Bed Modular Reactor
(PBMR) to focus more on heat applications, it is imperative to note that
disadvantages of continuing with the PBMR remain.
The Pebble Bed Modular Reactor has become a black hole for public funds. The
costs involved in the PBMR saga are illustrative of the financial risks
inherent in nuclear power in general.
In 1999, the PMBR (165MW capacity) construction costs were budgeted at R2
billion. By 2005, these construction costs had risen by a factor of seven,
to R14 billion without a single PBMR being constructed. These costs do not
include the decommissioning costs, which will be considerable.
Based upon the 2008 Environmental Impact Assessment for the PBMR
Demonstration Reactor and the decommissioning costs for of the predecessor
to the PBMR-the German AVR-the costs to decommission a single PBMR range
from R1.5 billion to R70 billion. It is nearly impossible, due to the
lifespan of the reactor and the variable rates of contamination, to be more
exact than this. Hence, the decommissioning costs of the PBMR are uncertain
and could incur a heavy burden on future generations, absorbing funds for
vital social programmes.
An additional expense will be the waste storage costs, which are impossible
to calculate due to the long-term nature of storing waste; for example,
uranium-235 has a half-life of 704 million years, plutonium-239 a half-life
of 24,110 years, and caesium a half-life of 30.2 years. These kinds of
timeframes defy economic planning, and, given our pressing social needs,
should not be entertained.
The costs for the PBMR are not efficient in terms of power generation. For
example, Eskom is seeking finance of R5 billion to build a concentrated
solar plant (100MW) in the Northern Cape; R14 billion for 165MW or R5
billion for 100MW capacity, economic sense favours the solar plant. This
also excludes the costs associated with the security apparatus necessary for
the PMBR.
Nuclear materials and equipment need to be protected and highly regulated,
due to the threat of contamination and theft. The consequences of
radioactive material in the hands on malicious organisations could have
profoundly negative consequences and has to be avoided at all costs. While
currently unquantifiable at this stage, these security costs will be passed
onto the state and are unique to nuclear power. Other forms of energy
generation (including heat generation) do not require these increased
security costs.
No matter how much the PBMR Company and the Department of Minerals and
Energy seek to spin the matter, the PBMR has been a waste of vital public
funds and will continue to be so until abandoned.
NRC adopts 1 million year rule for Yucca Mountain |
NRC adopts 1 million year rule for Yucca Mountain
LOS ANGELES, Feb 17 (Reuters) – The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission has approved a rule for allowable radiation levels at the proposed nuclear waste site at Yucca Mountain in Nevada for up to 1 million years, the NRC announced on Tuesday.
The NRC is now accepting the radiation standards from Yucca Mountain as determined by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
The NRC kept the EPA’s rule of limiting the dose of radiation to 15 millirem for the first 10,000 years after disposal. Now, the NRC has adopted the EPA’s limit of 100 millirem from 10,001 years to 1 million years…………
Last year, the DOE estimated that the cost of Yucca Mountain would be more than $96 billion, up from a 2001 estimate of $57.5 billion.
The DOE last June filed an application with the NRC for Yucca Mountain’s operation.
…………….
Handling nuclear waste is a key issue for those considering a possible renaissance for nuclear power in the upcoming decade.
No new nuclear power plants have been approved since the 1970s after an accident at the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant in Pennsylvania. (Reporting by Bernie Woodall; Editing by Marguerita Choy)
NRC adopts 1 million year rule for Yucca Mountain | Markets | US Markets | Reuters
| Nuclear claim in ‘bomb plot’ case
Nuclear claim in ‘bomb plot’ case BBC News 18 Feb 09
An alleged terrorist accused of a plot to blow up airliners researched other targets including nuclear power stations, a jury has heard.
Woolwich Crown Court heard that Assad Sarwar had a memory stick with details of nuclear power stations as potential terror targets.
Mr Sarwar and seven other men are accused of conspiracy to murder by blowing up planes with home-made bombs.
Georgia Power nuclear plan called ‘lousy’
Georgia Nuclear Power Plan Called “Lousy”Creative loafing 16 Feb 09 In 1974, Georgia Power broke ground on nuclear reactors at Plant Vogtle near Augusta, embarking on a nuclear odyssey that would nearly bankrupt the company.Almost 15 years later — and after several delays and environmental hurdles— the project’s construction costs ballooned from $680 million to a staggering $8.4 billion.
And it wasn’t until then that Georgia Power could begin to recoup the cost from ratepayers.
Now, as the state’s largest utility moves forward on two new reactors at Plant Vogtle estimated at $6.4 billion, the first in nearly 30 years, the company wants to cover its assets — and it’s enlisted the assistance of a phalanx of lobbyists and a controversial legislative plan of attack.Introduced by state Sen. Don Balfour, R-Snellville, Senate Bill 31 would allow Georgia Power to begin charging customers — you and me — in advance for two new proposed nuclear reactors at Plant Vogtle. The bill passed the state Senate last week and now moves to the House.
Navy chief warns of nuclear bomb in containers- Politics/Nation-News-The Economic Times
Navy chief warns of nuclear bomb in containers19 Feb 2009, 0354 hrs THE ECONOMIC TIMES , ET Bureau NEW DELHI: Warning of a nuclear threat from the sea, the Indian Navy chief on Wednesday said terrorists may use shipping containers
to smuggle
nuclear weapons into the country.
“Today 70-75% of global cargo is containerised…container is the most likely means for terrorist organisations for illegal transporting of nuclear weapons and, hence, the serious concerns about container security
,” Admiral Mehta told reporters at a seminar on ‘Port Sector, Developments and Security.’
Navy chief warns of nuclear bomb in containers- Politics/Nation-News-The Economic Times
DAILY NATION – Unep conference: Nuclear energy not green, say NGOs
Unep conference: Nuclear energy not green, say Non Government Orgainisations
DAILY NATION (Kenya) By DAVE OPIYO , February 18 2009A group of foreign non-governmental organisations on Wednesday caused a stir at the Unep headquarters when their representatives protested at the inclusion of nuclear power as “green energy”.
They urged delegates attending the ongoing Global Environment Ministers’ Conference in Gigiri, Nairobi, to keep nuclear power “out of the Clean Development Mechanism”. The NGOs said that this form of energy should not be allowed because it had severe health effects.
Kyoto Protocol
Clean Development Mechanism is under the Kyoto Protocol and allows industrialised countries with a greenhouse gas reduction commitment to invest in projects that reduce emissions in developing countries as an alternative to more expensive emission reductions in their own countries.
The demonstrators’ plea comes ahead of a meeting of world governments to decide whether this form of energy is eligible as clean. Mrs Kaisha Atakhanova, the chair of the Eco-Forum (Kazakhstan) said that her country had had Soviet nuclear activity for over 50 years.
“Grandchildren of women who were exposed to radiation have severe defects, worse than the generation that was directly exposed,” she said.
Her sentiments were echoed by Mrs Sabine Bock, the director of Women in Europe for a Common Future, who, quoting previous studies, said: “Even a four-fold expansion of nuclear power by 2050 would provide only marginal reductions in green house gas emissions.”
DAILY NATION – Unep conference: Nuclear energy not green, say NGOs
Cancer questions grow around Fermi nuclear plant
This extract has been reduced in accordance with the request from THE MICHIGAM MESSENGER
State health report shows 31 percent increase in cancer rate among young people in Monroe County since 1996 THE MICHIGAN MESSENGER By Eartha Jane Melzer 17 Feb 09 The cancer rate among people under the age of 25 in Monroe County rose at more than three times the rate of the rest of the state between 1996 and 2005, according to a report generated by the Michigan Department of Community Health (MDCH). …………Monroe is home to DTE Energy’s Fermi II nuclear power plant, which became fully operational in 1988………………………….
Dr. Janette Sherman, adjunct professor at Western Michigan University’s Environmental Institute …….. said that her analysis of leukemia statistics in the United States indicates that kids living near power plants are more likely to get the disease.
Sherman said that the rise in cancer rates around Fermi is significant……………………
Michigan Messenger » Cancer questions grow around Fermi nuclear plant
1 This Month
10 June – Assessing Canada’s Investments in Small Modular Nuclear Reactors – https://zoom.us/meeting/register/IiqHA5feRhaEBycOLNTJlA#/registration
Cuba Is Not a Failed State – It Is a Besieged State
PETITION: “Global Appeal to Endorse Palestinian Right of Return of Refugees”
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