Taxpayer foots the bill for nuclear bonuses – Times Online
Taxpayer foots the bill for nuclear bonuses TIMESONLINE
Public servants working in Britain’s nuclear industry are being paid millions of pounds of taxpayer-funded bonuses every year, The Times has learnt.
The finding, which emerged from the response to an inquiry under the Freedom of Information Act, has prompted fresh accusations of government waste as the Chancellor prepares the most austere Budget in decades today.
The response from the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA), the agency responsible for the clean-up of Britain’s nuclear sites, shows that the organisation paid nearly £3.8 million in bonuses to its 315 staff last year.
The average bonus was £11,954, with some regular, non-director level staff receiving £36,917 – up to 40 per cent of their salary. NDA directors received bonuses as high as £85,000.
The figures also show that every one of the NDA’s regular workforce received a bonus last year, as they did in 2007. The payments were made on top of the regular salary payments, which totalled £19.5 million in 2008.
On Earth Day, Obama pushes ambitious climate agenda — chicagotribune.com
On Earth Day, Obama pushes ambitious climate agendaB Chicago Tribune y Jim Tankersley | Washington Bureau April 22, 2009 – “……………………A recent analysis by the nonprofit Center for Public Integrity estimated that 770 firms and interest groups hired some 2,340 climate lobbyists in the past year.
Intense negotiations are also under way among the House energy committee, the White House and a key group of moderate Senate Democrats. The outcome of those talks may determine the fate of what advocates and foes alike call the farthest-reaching attempt yet by Congress to limit the emissions scientists blame for global warming
On Earth Day, Obama pushes ambitious climate agenda — chicagotribune.com
Resolve nuclear waste site first
Resolve nuclear waste site first post-Bulletin Jay Youmans 20 April 09
It makes no sense to lift the legal moratorium or build new nuclear power plants in Minnesota until the nuclear industry finds a solution for the radioactive waste produced at nuclear plants.
It makes no sense to pass the costs of electrical production and use on to future generations by leaving them nuclear waste that has to be stored and is dangerous for longer than recorded human history.
How can we justify passing this cost and legacy onto our children?
……………………..Yucca is located in an active earthquake zone with more than 30 known faults in the area (a 5.6 earthquake in 1992 did $100 million damage to the site). Since 1976, there have been 621 seismic events of magnitude greater than 2.5 within a 50-mile radius of Yucca Mountain. Today there is more civilian and military nuclear waste than the Yucca depository’s 70,000 metric ton capacity.
China Nuclear Safety Chief Warns Of Over-Rapid Growth – Planet Ark
China Nuclear Safety Chief Warns Of Over-Rapid Growth Planet Ark 21-Apr-09Country: CHINA : REUTERS BEIJING – China will face safety issues and environmental hazards involving nuclear waste disposal if the nuclear power sector is expanded too fast, the country’s nuclear safety chief said on Monday……………………
“At the current stage, if we are not fully aware of the sector’s over-rapid expansions, it will threaten construction quality and operation safety of nuclear power plants,” Li Ganjie, director of National Nuclear Safety Administration, told the International Ministerial Conference on Nuclear Energy.
It would also undermine the country’s plan to use more domestic technology and pose problems in the disposal of nuclear waste, said Li, who is also a vice minister of Ministry of Environmental Protection
World Environment News – China Nuclear Safety Chief Warns Of Over-Rapid Growth – Planet Ark
A new Yucca Mountain in New Mexico?
A new Yucca Mountain in New Mexico?By Lisa Mascaro Las Vegas Sun April 21, 2009 ·
WASHINGTON — Is a salt formation in New Mexico the new Yucca Mountain?
A trade industry publication reports today that discussions are underway to promote an existing facility in New Mexico as an alternative to storing the nation’s spent nuclear fuel in the desert north of Las Vegas..
The Obama administration has promised to “scale back” funds for the Yucca Mountain project, and the president has vowed it will not open as a waste dump. A report last week indicated the fiscal 2010 funding cut would be severe……………………………
“Nuclear industry officials and policymakers are quietly mounting support for constructing a permanent nuclear waste repository inside a large New Mexico salt formation already used for permanent storage of low-level transuranic waste,” Energy Washington Week reports.
The publication reports former Republican Sen. Pete Domenici of New Mexico, a longtime leader in nuclear issues, recently mentioned the idea……………………Transporting the nation’s civilian nuclear waste to WIPP has its own legislative obstacles. Current law now restricts what can be dumped there and would need to be altered.
A new Yucca Mountain in New Mexico? – Politics: The Early Line – Las Vegas Sun
Deadlier thyroid cancers more common after radiation exposure, study suggests
Deadlier thyroid cancers more common after radiation exposure, study suggestsLast Updated: Monday, April 20, 2009 | 6:15 PM ET Comments5Recommend9CBC NewsThyroid cancer seems to be more aggressive in patients who were exposed to radiation at work or for treatment of another condition, a Canadian study says.Survivors of atomic bombs and children living near areas contaminated by the 1986 nuclear reactor accident in Chernobyl, Ukraine suggest radiation is linked to both benign and malignant thyroid tumours, according to the study in the April issue of the Archives of Otolaryngology — Head & Neck Surgery…………………..
Over an average of 10.6 years of followup, the radiation-exposed group was more likely to:
- Have their thyroid removed (83 per cent versus 38 per cent in the group that wasn’t exposed to radiation).
- Need more surgery (23 per cent versus two per cent).
- Have advanced stage IV disease (16 per cent versus five per cent).
- Have distant metastases, or spread far from the original site (nine per cent versus two per cent).
- Have thyroid cancer at followup (eight per cent versus three per cent).
- Have died of the disease (four per cent versus 1.5 per cent)……………………………..Last week, the Canadian Cancer Society noted that more cases of thyroid cancer are being diagnosed, particularly among young people. The uptick in cases, which was estimated to be 4,300 in 2008 across the country, is attributed to improvements in diagnostic technology.
Deadlier thyroid cancers more common after radiation exposure, study suggests
The European roots of Somali piracy
The European roots of Somali piracy euobserver.com LEIGH PHILLIPS21.04.2009 @ 10:49 CETEUOBSERVER / FEATURE – As global powers ratchet up the naval pressure off the coast of Somalia and the European Union this week prepares to play host to a major international conference on the growing scourge of piracy, very little attention is being paid to the other ‘piracy’ in the area – the decades of European illegal fishing and dumping of toxic waste in Somali waters……………………This irregular, self-styled coast guard also set out to put an end to widespread use of their waters as essentially an exceedingly cheap landfill, scrap yard, toilet and nuclear storage site all rolled into one by foreign ships that have been dumping industrial, medical and even radioactive waste.
As early as 2005, the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) warned that the vicious tsunami of the previous December had broken up tonnes of rusting barrels of such waste illegally that had been dumped in the country’s waters for years.
Some 300 people died at the time from contact with the waste, while others, according to a UN report, notably in the regions near the northeastern coastal towns of Hobbio and Benadir, were afflicted with a range of respiratory and skin infections, mouth ulcers and bleeding, and abdominal haemorrhages at rates far above normal………………
………Over a decade ago, from 1997 to 1998, Greenpeace Italy and the Famiglia Cristiana newspaper uncovered evidence that Swiss-based Achair Partners and Progresso, an Italian waste broker had signed agreements with warlord Ali Mahdi to dump hazardous waste in Somali waters.
Greens vow to stop nuclear power plant
Greens vow to stop nuclear power plant North West Evening Mail Tuesday, 21 April 2009
A NUCLEAR power plant near Millom would leave Cumbria open to “catastrophic accident or terrorist attack”, resulting in huge loss of life and leaving large parts of the county uninhabitable, green campaigners have warned.
Political group the Green Party has vowed to block plans to build a new plant a Layriggs Farm in Kirksanton.
The defiant stand was announced after a list of 11 potential sites across the country was released by the government on Wednesday (15).
The list also includes land at Braystones, near Egremont, and a plot near Sellafield……………………………
Green Party member Peter Cranie said: “The Green Party has long campaigned against nuclear power due to its high cost and the unsolved problems with radioactive waste and risks of radioactive discharges. There also remains a small, but real, risk of a catastrophic accident.
“New nuclear power stations should not be built on green field sites on the Cumbrian coast, and not at Sellafield either. Sellafield should devote itself to decommissioning and dealing with the radioactive waste already produced.”
The party has expressed concern that a final decision could also be snatched away from “local communities” and handed to a specialist government commission.
North West Evening Mail | News | Greens vow to stop nuclear power plant
Nuclear power Earth Day’s focus
Nuclear power Earth Day’s focusENERGY: Ontario Clean Air Alliance hosting meeting tomorrowPosted By DAN MCCAFFERY, THE OBSERVERP 22 April 09 Ontario’s controversial nuclear power proposals will be front and centre when Sarnia marks Earth Day tomorrow.That’s because Jack Gibbons of the Ontario Clean Air Alliance will address the subject while taking part in a Town Hall-style meeting at the Lochiel Kiwanis Centre at 7 p. m.
Gibbons will also discuss key features of the provincial government’s proposed Green Energy Act in a speech entitled ‘Ontario’s Green Future: How we can build a 100 per cent renewable electricity grid by 2027……………….
……………..Celebrated every April 22 since 1970, Earth Day has grown into the biggest environmental event on the planet. In fact, some six million Canadians took part in activities last year, including most of the country’s school children. Across the globe, an estimated one billion people staged various events and projects to mark the day.’
Nuclear power Earth Day’s focus – The Sarnia Observer – Ontario, CA
Bulgaria opposition urges freeze of nuclear project | Reuters
Bulgaria opposition urges freeze of nuclear projectTue Apr 21, 2009 – “………………….. SOFIA, April 21 (Reuters) – Bulgaria’s rightist opposition urged the government on Tuesday to freeze a multi-billion project to build a new nuclear power plant due to problems with funding in times of a global economic crisis…………..
…………sources close to the project say the state-owned utility NEK, which has a 51 percent stake in the project, has problems raising funding and Belene faces a delay. The government has estimated costs at 4 billion euros ($5.16 billion) but analysts and sources have said the price tag was more likely to be 6 billion. ………………………
“Bulgaria is the only European Union country which intends to build a nuclear power plant and take such huge loans in times of financial crisis,” UDF’s chairman Martin Dimitrov said.
He said such loans would only add to the economic pain Bulgaria was now experiencing and urged parliament to interfere and try to stop taking loans from Russia.
Bulgaria opposition urges freeze of nuclear project | Reuters
Australia to shun UN racism talks | theage.com.au
Australia to shun UN racism talks * The Age Daniel Flitton * April 20, 2009AUSTRALIA will boycott a United Nations forum on racism in Geneva starting today over fears that the meeting could be used as a platform to air anti-Semitic views…………………………………human rights groups were disappointed by Australia’s decision to pull out.
The National director of Australians for Native Title and Reconciliation, David Cooper, said that while he deplored racism of any kind, Australia stood to gain from the forum.
“It’s a great disappointment that countries like Australia, the US and Canada that have got significant indigenous populations are not going to be participating,” he said, adding that the forum offered the first chance to discuss the international declaration on the rights of indigenous peoples.
The president of the United Nations Association of Australia, John Langmore, said Australia’s failure to attend the racism forum was inconsistent with its support for the indigenous rights declaration, signed earlier this month.
Malawi church group says Australian uranium miner back tracks
Malawi church group says Australian uranium miner back tracks Ecumenical News Blantyre (ENI). Malawi’s Catholic Commission for Justice and Peace has accused Australian-based uranium miner Paladin Energy of back tracking on pledges to the people of the Karonga region where it operates the Kayelekera Uranium Mine
theage.com.au – The Age
BHP Billiton Production Report – Period Ended 31 March 2009 Uranium – Production was lower than the quarter and nine months ended March 2008 due to lower grade at Olympic Dam (Australia).
Spying by French nuclear company?
GOING NUCLEAR
UN Dispatch Morning Coffee – 21 April 2009
<!–
–> Lindsay Beyerstein – April 21, 2009 – 6:30am
– A judicial inquiry in France is trying to determine whether the state-run electricity generation and distribution company, EDF, broke the law by paying spies to infiltrate anti-nuclear groups across Europe.
A security officer testified that he organized surveillance of Greenpeace and other groups starting around 2002, but did not seek to hack into their private networks. This is a particularly sensitive issue in France as memories are still fresh from the 1985 sinking of Greenpeace’s Rainbow Warrior by French intelligence officers. Brits likely perked up at the news too, as EDF just bought British Energy, the UK’s nuclear operator. Link
Lehman Brothers and yellowcake
Lehman Brothers and Yellowcake BIZMOLOGY by Larry Bills, April 20th, 2009 “………It turns out that Lehman Brothers, the powerful investment bank which collapsed last year and signaled the beginning of the economic meltdown, owns 500,000 pounds of uranium “yellowcake,” slightly less than what’s needed to make one nuclear bomb……………….. I don’t know if I’m crazy about a bankrupt company — struggling to pay off creditors — stockpiling uranium.
Bizmology » Blog Archive » Lehman Brothers and yellowcake
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