2009 April 29 « nuclear-news

1,250 tonnes of depleted uranium railed through densely populated Germany – to France?

1,250 tonnes of depleted uranium railed through densely populated Germany – to France?

Sydney Indymedia April 29th, 2009 By Diet Simon, adapting Cecile Lecomte’s report A 25-car train half a kilometre long has just carried 1,250 tonnes of depleted uranium through the most densely populated region of Germany – destination unknown, presumably France.

The train left Germany’s only uranium enrichment plant at Gronau (52° 12′, 160 km south of Hamburg) in the night from 27 to 28 April.Usually trains from the German-Dutch-British-owned enrichment plant close to the city of Münster and the Dutch border have taken depleted uranium to Rotterdam for shipment to Russia, where it’s been dumped in the open air.

The Urenco company is extremely secretive about the transports. This time journalists were told by federal police that the train headed for Duisburg and on to France.That would have taken the dangerous cargo through the densely populated Ruhr and Rhineland areas – if the police information is correct…………….
…….The train from Gronau was held up by two hours because a female French activist who lives in Germany, 27-year-old Cécile Lecomte, had abseiled over the tracks from a road overpass. She and other climbers have made such a name for themselves in disrupting nuclear transports that police now always have climbing specialists along on the trains to take the protesters down……….
………….”The aim is to reveal the secret atomic transports from the Gronau uranium enrichment plant and to draw people’s attention to the policy of Urenco,” she writes. ………………………..

“Radioactivity knows no borders. What kind of an end to atomic power is it if Gronau is expanded, thereby supporting the construction of new nuclear plants – such as the EPR in Flamanville, France – by supplying the product to power stations all over the globe.

“The waste is carted right across Europe in secret transports. That is no solution to the nuclear waste problem. On the contrary, the population is exposed to ever more dangers, the environment is polluted ever more…..”………………….’

1,250 tonnes of depleted uranium railed through densely populated Germany – to France? | Sydney Indymedia

April 29, 2009 Posted by Christina Macpherson | Germany, wastes | antinuclear, nuclear, nuclear wastes, radioactive | Leave a comment

Native Americans: Power for the persecuted

Native Americans: Power for the persecuted DIAMONDBACKONLINE Matt DernogaIs- 4/28/09 “……………Native American reservations contain large quantities of natural resources, including energy. There is little to no access or control over as to how they are used – 65 percent of North America’s uranium lies on these reservations, as is 80 percent of all the uranium mining and 100 percent of all the uranium processing in the country.

The result has been high rates of cancer, respiratory ailments, miscarriages and birth defects. The water and soil are loaded with lead, radium, thorium and other toxins. People who work in the mines rarely receive clothing, protection, medical evaluation or compensation. There is almost no wealth to show for this exploitation, and our tax dollars subsidize it daily through our funding of uneconomical nuclear power…………….

………..The reservations on the Great Plains have a windpower potential that tops 300 gigawatts, half our annual electric generation. Everyone wins with a clean energy economy, but I can’t think of a group in this country who would benefit more than Native Americans.

This would explain why I’ve been seeing and hearing a lot more of groups like the Indigenous Environmental Network. A good climate bill, a green energy bill and a new electric grid only benefit indigenous people if they are involved in the legislative process. We can’t abuse their renewable resources like we’ve abused their traditional resources. They need to be a partner, not a tool. The less we understand about their culture and history, the harder this will be.

Matt Dernoga

April 29, 2009 Posted by Christina Macpherson | ENERGY, USA | antinuclear, nuclear, renewables, uranium | Leave a comment

The period of “Chernobyl’s decay” /ДЕНЬ/

The period of “Chernobyl’s decay”U kraine will be exposed to residual radiation for hundreds of years. What can be done today? day.kiev.ua By Oleksandra SHEPEL 28 April 09

Twenty-three years have passed since The Day of April 26 divided human fates into “before” and “after” the disaster at the Chornobyl Nuclear Power Plant. Until this day it is the world’s worst anthropogenic catastrophe unmatched for its environmental impact.

For Ukraine Chornobyl is an everyday reality and a host of global-scale problems. Unfortunately, the problems caused by the catastrophe are as acute today as they were 23 years ago. Can one get used to devastated villages and abandoned fertile land?………………………..

Radioisotopes of iodine, which were present in the air in the largest quantities, were the most dangerous for people. Therefore, Ukrainians who were outside under the radioactive clouds in the last days of April and early May picked up plenty of this isotope. Their thyroid glands accumulating this substance, received the largest dose of irradiation of all the parts of body, and suffered worst. As a result, several years after the Chornobyl disaster, doctors registered a spike in thyroid cancer among children.

Some experts assert that the life of radioactive iodine is short, so it cannot be affecting our health today. In fact, radioactive iodine does not disappear within eight days, as some write, but plants itself in the thyroid of its victims and stays there for 80 days.

Back in 1978 the children’s doctor Helen Caldicott warned humanity that the silence of doctors about the consequences of nuclear technologies and radiation would lead to an increase in cancer and hereditary diseases. In 1982 Ukraine published data of foreign authors proving the dangerous influence of radiation on the health of pregnant women and children, specifically mentioning children with inborn defects born of irradiated parents.

Before the Chornobyl catastrophe, in 1985, academician Valeri Legasov argued that the residual radioactivity after nuclear plant explosions increases with time because of accumulation of long-lived radionuclides. Alice Stuart, an expert on the effects of low levels of radiation, studied the state of health of the employees of the Hanford military plant, and victims of nuclear bombing in Japanese cities, and proved that small doses of radiation over a longer period of time are more of a carcinogenic threat than a one-time equivalent.

Are the restless experts of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) aware of this?………………………………….plutonium-241 will “leave the arena” in a century — it will be replaced by more mobile “long-lived” americium-241. Experts are afraid that this isotope, able to percolate into the ground, will contaminate the subsoil waters and will spread from the worst contaminated zone to clean territories over several thousands of years.

The period of “Chornobyl’s decay” /ДЕНЬ/

April 29, 2009 Posted by Christina Macpherson | environment, Ukraine | antinuclear, nuclear, nuclear wastes, radioactive | Leave a comment

Espionage and the ‘Nuclear Renaissance’

Espionage and the ‘Nuclear Renaissance’ The New York Times April 28, 2009,By James Kanter Accusations of spying and corporate hacking are swirling in Europe’s nuclear industry. – “………………

French judges last month opened an investigation into allegations that the power company’s executives may have been involved in espionage — including breaking into computer systems at Greenpeace offices.

Another dimension to the affair could involve Britain, where Greenpeace is concerned that spying activities also took place.

E.D.F. has suspended two staff members from their duties while the French inquiry continues………………………….The allegations of espionage are important for the future of nuclear power because they do little to help generate trust in major operators like E.D.F., which are seeking to rebuild an industry plagued by giant cost overruns and the legacies of nuclear accidents at Three Mile Island and Chernobyl.

Espionage and the ‘Nuclear Renaissance’ – Green Inc. Blog – NYTimes.com

April 29, 2009 Posted by Christina Macpherson | France, secrets,lies and civil liberties | antinuclear, nuclear, radioactive, uranium | Leave a comment