In Mortal Hands – Review

In Mortal Hands – Review Palestine Chronicle By Jim Miles In Mortal Hands – A Cautionary History of the Nuclear Age. Stephanie Cooke. Bloomsbury, New York, 2009.In an era when the corporate media and the corporate politicians and the corporate military men gang up together and denounce and threaten other countries because of their nuclear related activities, they should spend much of that rhetorical energy by cross-examining themselves in a mirror………………………..The real issue as reiterated constantly and perceptively by Stephanie Cooke is that of an industry whose central purpose is to create fissile material for weapons production regardless of and in spite of all other attempts to equate nuclear energy with peaceful purposes and with the ‘greening’ of the energy industry. It is a trillion dollar industry, supported by governments of all genres as no private developer is able to cover the costs of development, the insurance liabilities in case of accident (highly likely, already highly significant), and the huge timelines and costs of decommissioning the radioactive waste from the reactor’s fuel as well as the radioactive hulks of the reactors themselves.    

In short, it is an economically unfeasible and environmentally dangerous business that is supported by public officials and the media in order to keep making weapons. 

That statement will of course lead to derision by spokespeople for the nuclear industry, whether they are within the industry or members of the political and media propaganda that supports them. As we head into a future with the advertised benefits of nuclear power in an era of ‘green’ energy, In Mortal Hands is indeed a cautionary tale that all those involved and everyone in the public should be reading.  

Media, Propaganda, and Secrecy All of the themes are necessarily related and with significant overlaps, but they can be examined through various different foci. Media and its entanglement with propaganda receive a large share of the commentary in the book, as the nuclear industry tried – mostly successfully – to convince the public (the taxpayers supporting it all) that there was a peaceful side to nuclear power and that it was clean and safe. On the other side, the politically provoked fears of communism then and militant Islam now are to convince those same taxpayers that nuclear weapons could be used to act pre-emptively and win a nuclear war with whatever opponent is chosen. ……………………..Once under way, the peaceful use of nuclear fuel and the resulting “uranium boom was really started to ensure the country had enough fuel for the rapid build-up of its nuclear weapons stockpile.” It was supported by “spin-doctoring in Washington, D.C. [reaching] down through the corporate sphere to local people.” …………………………….

Perhaps the current situation has not been clear with all the secrecy, lies, deceit and hypocrisy surrounding the nuclear industry, but after reading this excellent work, there remains a clear and present danger.

As highlighted by Cooke, the nuclear industry is not saf

The Palestine Chronicle: A Leading Online Newspaper on Palestine, Israel and the Middle East

June 15, 2009 Posted by Christina Macpherson | Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Foes of Comanche Peak expansion present their case

Foes of Comanche Peak expansion present their case Star Telegram 15 june 09

By JACK Z. SMITH

GRANBURY “……………….

Luminant Generation, a subsidiary of Dallas-based Energy Future Holdings (the former TXU Corp.), is applying to the federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission for a construction and operating license for two new 1,700-megawatt generating units at Comanche Peak.

Plant-expansion opponents have raised 19 issues, or “contentions,” that express alarm about the potential environmental, public safety and economic effects of adding two units.

With the two-day hearing concluded, the panel headed by Ann Marshall Young will consider the oral arguments in deciding whether to grant plant opponents status as an intervener in the licensing process.

Gaining that status would give opponents a greater say in the licensing process, including participation in a full public hearing on any of the 19 contentions that the panel might judge worthy of additional inquiry…………………..Plant-expansion opponent Karen Hadden, in comments to the Star-Telegram, cited a 1982 study done by Sandia National Laboratories for the NRC that raised the possibility of large-scale fatalities in the event of major radiation leaks from Comanche Peak or other nuclear plants……………………………One issue: cost Luminant Generation estimates that it will spend $15 billion to build two 1,700-megawatt units. A study commissioned by Public Citizen estimated the cost at between $23.8 billion and $27.6 billion.

Foes of Comanche Peak expansion present their case | Business | Star-Telegram.com

June 15, 2009 Posted by Christina Macpherson | Uncategorized | Leave a comment

A cloud lifts

A cloud lifts The Age Nic Maclellan. 15 June 09 “……………..

On June 5, Fijians like Paul Ah Poy joined British and New Zealand veterans of Britain’s nuclear tests to celebrate an important victory. The High Court in London ruled that their case seeking compensation for health effects from the nuclear tests of the 1950s could proceed against Britain’s Ministry of Defence.

Many soldiers and sailors who witnessed the tests believe they were used as guinea pigs, being exposed to hazardous levels of ionising radiation. Their claim has been ridiculed by the British authorities, who have long played down possible health impacts from the 1950s tests.

Between 1952 and 1957, with the consent of Australian prime minister Robert Menzies, the British government held

12 atomic tests in Australia at the Monte Bello islands, Maralinga and Emu Field.

Then in 1957-58, the tests moved to the central Pacific to develop the British hydrogen bomb……………………………….

While the June 5 High Court ruling was an important victory for the veterans, there is still a long way to go before Britain accepts its responsibility to the survivors of the tests. The Ministry of Defence may appeal against the ruling to delay proceedings further.

High Court Justice David Foskett noted that the claimants were men in their 70s and that further delay would make the trial even more difficult — the ageing cohort of witnesses are slowly dying………………………Justice Foskett’s ruling affects thousands of survivors……………………….documents from the British archives show that one of the purposes of the tests in Australia and the Pacific was to study the human effects of nuclear detonations……………….governments are continually seeking more time to study the matter. For men who were exposed to ionising radiation in the 1950s, time is the one thing that they don’t have……………………..1955-63: Seven major nuclear tests are performed at Maralinga, with yields ranging from one to 27 kilotons.

■ Maralinga site was inhabited by the Pitjantjatjara and Yankunytjatjara before testing.

A cloud lifts

June 15, 2009 Posted by Christina Macpherson | Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Is This Uranium Bull Market For Real?

Zoonon June 14, 2009in Evil Energy. n light of Toshiba’s recent proposed acquisition of Westinghouse Electric from the government-owned British Nuclear Fuels (BNFL), historians may be reminded of former Westinghouse Chairman Robert Kirby’s litigious international outcry and prolonged battle over secretive and illegal price manipulation by a global uranium cartel…………………………..Today, Toshiba aims its sights on the lucrative Chinese nuclear energy market, which on the surface appears more ambitious than the U.S. civilian nuclear program of the 1970’s…………………………….According to a special report in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Kirby’s “suspicions heightened when, in late 1976, he received copies of documents suggesting Gulf and 28 other suppliers had conspired to form a cartel to keep Westinghouse out of the uranium business.” The documents were the minutes of a private meeting of uranium suppliers held in Australia………………………………….News reports suggest a number of uranium-heavy countries held an initial meeting in Paris in February 1972 to establish a uranium-producer’s alliance, in essence a de facto uranium cartel…………………….Canadian author Gordon Edwards (Canada’s Nuclear History) bluntly wrote, “The purpose of the cartel was to secretly manipulate world uranium prices using a phony bidding system. Hidden quotas were established by representatives from Canada, France, Australia, South Africa and Rio Tinto Zinc (London Stock Exchange: RIO).” Namibia and Niger were also included in the alliance,…………………………Why is today’s uranium bull market different? Is the current and spectacular rise in spot uranium prices different today than it was in the early to mid 1970’s, when an alleged uranium cartel reportedly bid up prices to an artificial level? Is that same factor occurring during the current steep rise in the spot price of uranium? Will Toshiba sink into the same quicksand, during the balance of this decade, as Westinghouse Electric once did?

Is This Uranium Bull Market For Real? at AskZoon

June 15, 2009 Posted by Christina Macpherson | Uncategorized | Leave a comment

THE ‘CLOUD’ CHAMBER PROJECT – UP-MARKETING URANIUM ‘END PRODUCTS’ «

Posted on June 14, 2009 by Coober Pedy Regional Times

Arkaroola Sanctuary:  Uranium Mining OK, but not in our backyard!  

See The Mining and Milling Process and IEER Factsheet | Uranium (below)

Doug and Margaret Sprigg involved in the ongoing saga, in trying to prevent Marathon Resources mining uranium on their lease on traditional Adnyamathanha land at Arkaroola in the Flinders Ranges, have joined with  Professor Ian and Mrs Maja Sainaish-Plimer in donating private funding to support and promote uranium on traditional aboriginal lands and sacred sites, in conjuntion with sponsorship from Arkaroola Wilderness Sanctuary, Heathgate Resouces, Areva, Pepinini and Petratherm.

The name chosen for the marketing gadget is The Cloud Chamber Project . The device portrays that uranium is harmless and clean particulary as an end product……………………………………..

Arkaroola Wilderness Sanctuary proudly supports this innovative project at the South Australian Museum“.  www.arkaroola.com.au

THE ‘CLOUD’ CHAMBER PROJECT – UP-MARKETING URANIUM ‘END PRODUCTS’ «

June 15, 2009 Posted by Christina Macpherson | Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Green Left – AUSTRALIA: Aboriginal MP: ALP fails on land rights

Aboriginal MP: ALP fails on land rights Peter Robson13 June 2009 – “Marion Scrymgour — the highest ranking Aboriginal member of any government in Australia — quit the Northern Territory Labor Party over its Aboriginal policy on June 4. As an independent, she now holds the balance of power. .The former Indigenous affairs minister quit the party due to disagreements on the proposed “outstations” policy, which would provide priority infrastructure funding to only 20 of the roughly 600 remote Aboriginal homeland communities.

She opposed the policy, saying it was not what the ALP had taken to the August 2008 election. “I feel strongly because we have lied to Aboriginal people”,………………..“You’re allowing a vibrant movement in those homelands to wither and to just be left out there with no government support. There is this fear that, you know, we’re going to just totally walk away from homelands, not put any extra funding in that they need, but to allow them to be abandoned and they have no choice out of necessity to move back to the main community.”

Aboriginal homelands represent some of the earliest forms of native title recognised by Australian law. Their beginnings date back to the Gurindji strike in 1966, when Aboriginal workers fought and won the right to return to their traditional homelands and build communities.

This right was granted in 1975 and today about 10,000 Aboriginal people in the NT live on their ancestral lands. Forty-three of these communities are in Scrymgour’s seat of Arafura. ………………………. As National Indigenous Times editor Chris Graham wrote on Crikey.com on June 5: “Marion Scrymgour just changed black politics forever. In politics you can justify almost anything. But being an Aboriginal member of the Labor or Liberal Party is no longer one of them.”

Green Left – AUSTRALIA: Aboriginal MP: ALP fails on land rights

June 15, 2009 Posted by Christina Macpherson | Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Why Nuclear Energy is Still a Really Bad Idea

Why Nuclear Energy is Still a Really Bad Idea
Jonathan Cloud

After all the literature and public policy discussion and decision-making of the past 50+ years, it is hard to believe that there is still an industry – and a lobby – advocating for the expenditure of vast sums of money for the use of “controlled” nuclear reactions anywhere on this planet, let alone in the densely-populated Northeast.

But nuclear advocates have found new hope in the argument that nuclear power is “carbon-free.” New organizations have been formed to promote nuclear as “clean, affordable, and safe.” As Environment NJ’s Matt Elliott has noted, “Recently, Exelon Corp. funded the creation of a group with the misleading name of Affordable, Clean, Reliable Energy (ACRE) Coalition. The group is little more than a front for the nuclear industry.” (Philadelphia Inquirer – 2007-09-17)………………………………..As John Busby points out,
The claim for the carbon-free status of nuclear power proves to be false. Carbon dioxide is released in every component of the nuclear fuel cycle except the actual fission in the reactor. Fossil fuels are involved in the mining, milling, conversion and enrichment of the ore, in the handling of the mill tailings, in the fuel can preparation, in the construction of the station and in its de-commissioning and demolition, in the handling of the spent waste, in its processing and vitrification and in digging the hole in rock for its deposition.

June 15, 2009 Posted by Christina Macpherson | Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Life under a cloud after nuclear tests – national | Stuff.co.nz

Life under a cloud after nuclear tests

BY LEE UMBERS – Sunday News

Last updated 05:00 14/06/2009

“………………………………….He was one of the New Zealand sailors watching a nuclear mushroom cloud from the front of their frigate.Bill isn’t interested in any compensation, which he would give to charity anyway. “I just want someone to stand up and agree that, `Yes, we did send you there (to the testing sites) as guinea pigs.”‘…………………. he began “getting very suspicious” about the after-effects of Operation Grapple when mates from HMNZS Pukaki began having children with severe health problems.

“Spina bifida, different sorts of cancers, heart defects in new-born babies.”……………………..I’ve got melanomas on my back and I’m just waiting to go back into hospital to have a kidney operation,” saysBill an original member of the New Zealand Nuclear Test Veterans Association.

He feels betrayed by both Britain and by New Zealand. “They obviously didn’t know, they just said (to the British) , ‘Yeah, you can have these fellas’. But they didn’t take much responsibility …”

Life under a cloud after nuclear tests – national | Stuff.co.nz

June 15, 2009 Posted by Christina Macpherson | Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Nuclear disarmament more urgent than ever

Nuclear disarmament more urgent than ever  Business Mirror  Inter Press Service / Mikhail Gorbachev , 14 June 2009 “…………..Nothing fundamentally new has been achieved in the area of nuclear disarmament in the past decade-and-a-half. Twenty years after the end of the Cold War, the arsenals of the nuclear powers still contain thousands of weapons, and the world is facing the very real possibility of a new arms race……………………

The nuclear nonproliferation regime is in jeopardy. While the two major nuclear powers bear the greatest responsibility for this state of affairs, it was the United States that abrogated the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty (ABM Treaty), has failed to ratify the CTBT, and refused to conclude with Russia a legally binding, verifiable treaty on strategic offensive arms.

Only recently have we seen indications that the major nuclear powers understand the current state of affairs is untenable……………………………….Humanity must be wary of a new arms race. Priority is still being given to financing of military programs, and “defense” budgets far exceeding reasonable security requirements keep growing, as does the weapons trade. US military expenditures are almost as high as those of the rest of the world combined. Disregard for international law and for peaceful ways of settling disputes, for the United Nations and its Security Council, is being proclaimed as a kind of policy…………………………..

In the final analysis, the nuclear danger can only be removed by abolishing nuclear weapons. But unless we address the need to demilitarize international relations, reduce military budgets, put an end to the creation of new kinds of weapons, and prevent the weaponization of outer space, all talk about a nuclear-weapon-free world will be just empty rhetoric.

I think that after President Obama’s speech on April 5, there is a real prospect that the United States will ratify the CTBT. This would be an important step forward, particularly in combination with a new strategic arms-reduction treaty between the United States and Russia.

Nuclear disarmament more urgent than ever

June 15, 2009 Posted by Christina Macpherson | Uncategorized | Leave a comment