2009 July 27 « nuclear-news

Greenpeace threatens E.ON with legal action over nuclear reactors

The Guardian, Terry Macalister, 26 july 09 Greenpeace is threatening to take legal action against E.ON and other nuclear power companies for rushing ahead with plans to build new reactors before they have got the proper consents.

The move has been triggered by reports that preparatory bore holes for new reactors will start to be drilled for E.ON on 3 August at Oldbury in Gloucestershire. EDF is said to be considering similar work.

A Greenpeace spokesman said its lawyers were reviewing a situation which made a mockery of a whole raft of hurdles that were meant to be overcome before the government starts official licensing in 2013.

The environmental campaigning group said there has not yet been a final national policy statement on nuclear, an official “justification” process for building more stations as needed by law, or an assessment of reactor designs by the Nuclear Installations Inspectorate (NII).

The green group has sent a letter to the government telling it to put a brake on E.ON…………………..

The moves come amid reports from Canada that the Ontario government has put its nuclear power plants on hold because the only bid from Atomic Energy of Canada, the only “compliant” one received, came in at more than three times more than the province expected to pay.

The first nuclear reactor built in Western Europe for three decades – in Finland – has also been attracting negative publicity with some politicians saying the cost overruns put a question mark over whether any further plants should be constructed.

Greenpeace threatens E.ON with legal action over nuclear reactors | Business | guardian.co.uk

July 27, 2009 Posted by Christina Macpherson | EUROPE, politics | antinuclear, nuclear, radioactive, uranium | Leave a comment

Germany’s nuclear misadventures continue

PRESS TV 25 July 09
Technical problem at two more nuclear reactors in Germany have fuelled the anti-nuclear debate,…………………..The latest mishaps came less than three weeks after a fault at the Kruemmel reactor cuts power and water supplies to thousand of homes, breathing new life into the major campaign issue which has divided the country’s coalition government ahead of the September elections…..

…….a recent poll revealed more public opposition to atomic energy……………

…….Technical faults are not the only demons haunting the country’s nuclear issue.

Last week, a report by Germany’s Federal Office for Radiation Protection (BfS) questioned the safety of a controversial nuclear waste dump facility in Asse, rating the salt-mine storage facility as one of the most unreliable nuclear waste dumps in use after officials found radioactive water leak.

Germany’s nuclear misadventures continue

July 27, 2009 Posted by Christina Macpherson | Germany, safety | antinuclear, nuclear, radioactive, uranium | Leave a comment

Uranium contamination haunts Navajo country

THE NEW YORK TIMES by Luis Hipolito on 07/26/2009

“………….The legacy wrought from decades of uranium mining is long and painful here on the expansive reservation. Over the years, Navajo miners extracted some four million tons of uranium ore from the ground, much of it used by the United States government to make weapons.

Many miners died from radiation-related illnesses, and some, unaware of harmful health effects, hauled contaminated rocks and tailings from local mines and mills to build homes for their families.

Now, those homes are being demolished and rebuilt under a new government program that seeks to identify what are very likely dozens of uranium-contaminated structures still standing on Navajo land and to temporarily relocate people living in them until the homes can be torn down and rebuilt.

Stephen B. Etsitty, executive director of the Navajo Nation Environmental Protection Agency, and other tribal officials have been grappling for years with the environmental fallout from uranium mining.

“There were a lot of things people weren’t told about the plight of Navajos and uranium mining,” Mr. Etsitty said. “These legacy issues are impacting generations. At some point people are saying, ‘It’s got to end’”.

Uranium Contamination Haunts Navajo Country « The Blogger

July 27, 2009 Posted by Christina Macpherson | indigenous issues, USA | antinuclear, indigenous, nuclear, radioactive, uranium | Leave a comment

Hiroshima: A Visual Record

The Asia Pacific Journal: Japan Focus 27 July 09 by elin o’Hara slavick
On August 6, 1945, the United States of America dropped an atomic bomb fueled by enriched uranium on the city of Hiroshima. 70,000 people died instantly. Another 70,000 died by the end of 1945 as a result of exposure to radiation and other related injuries. Scores of thousands would continue to die from the effects of the bomb over subsequent decades………………

……………There are 258,000 names of A-bomb victims registered under the cenotaph. Each year on August 6, new names are added. The Flame of Peace is not an eternal flame because it will only burn until nuclear weapons are abolished. Hiroshima has 20/20 vision—a vision of a nuclear weapons-free world 75 years after the A-bomb was dropped on Hiroshima. 2,000 cities outside of Japan participate in the annual conference of Mayors for Peace, an organization started in Hiroshima………………..
……… Parents who lost children, old parents, rush to see with slight hope if they can find a clue of their children. These parents are in their 80s and 90s now. Today there are over 30,000 nuclear weapons in this world. Hiroshima and Nagasaki are not past events. They are about today’s situation.”

JapanFocus

July 27, 2009 Posted by Christina Macpherson | Japan, weapons and war | antinuclear, nuclear, radioactive, uranium | Leave a comment