2009 December « nuclear-news

Radioactive leak into Lake Ontario

Toronto-area nuclear plant spills water TORONTO, Dec. 23 (UPI) — Nuclear officials were monitoring water supplies east of Toronto Wednesday after a nuclear plant leaked 52,000 gallons of tritium-laced water into Lake Ontario.

Toronto-area nuclear plant spills water – UPI.com

December 24, 2009 Posted by Christina Macpherson | Canada, environment | antinuclear, nuclear, radiation, radioactive | Leave a comment

Nuclear resurgence just not really happening

Nuclear economics just don’t add up Sydney Morning Herald MICHAEL R. JAMES December 24, 2009 -……………………..Contrary to the claims of a nuclear resurgence in Europe and the world, it is far from certain how much of Europe will actually implement their plans. Most nuclear plants under construction are in Asia, principally China (15 plants), India (six), South Korea (five) and Russia (nine). Continue reading →

December 24, 2009 Posted by Christina Macpherson | 2 WORLD, business and costs | antinuclear, nuclear, nuclear costs | Leave a comment

USA’s nuclear deal rejected by Iran

Iran rejects nuclear swap deadline set by U.S.http://www.chinaview.cn 2009-12-24 Iran rejected the December deadline for Iran to accept uranium swap deal.

·Iran is still waiting for response to its nuclear fuel swap proposal.

·U.S. has threatened another UN sanctions if Iran does not abide by the year-end deadline.

TEHRAN, Dec. 23 (Xinhua) — Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast on Wednesday rejected a nuclear swap deadline set by the United States, the state-run IRNA news agency reported……….. Continue reading →

December 24, 2009 Posted by Christina Macpherson | Iran, politics international | antinuclear, nuclear, nuclear secrecy, nuclear weapons | Leave a comment

USA’s nuclear energy prospects are uncertain, despit govt boost

the forthcoming loan guarantees amount to only $18.5 billion, and the nuclear industry says it needs tens of billions more.

Nuclear Power, Long Dormant, Gets Wake-Up Call

The New York Times By MATTHEW L. WALD

December 23, 2009

WASHINGTON — When experts on power grid reliability asked themselves recently how a cleaner energy future would look, seven of eight regional councils imagined how their systems would work with 10 percent wind power.

Only one, representing the southeastern United States, chose a radically different option: doubling nuclear power capacity. Continue reading →

December 24, 2009 Posted by Christina Macpherson | business and costs, USA | antinuclear, nuclear, nuclear costs, nuclear secrecy, nuclear wastes | Leave a comment

Spain extending nuke plants, with no radioactive waste solution

The country’s nuclear power stations no longer have room to store much more than the 6,700 tonnes of spent fuel rods they have accumulated.

Spain mulls extending nuclear plant working lives Reuters 23 Dec 09 – “……………..Although the Socialist government had recently suggested it would extend the plants’ working lives, it has also repeatedly said it will not support building new ones. Continue reading →

December 24, 2009 Posted by Christina Macpherson | business and costs, Spain | antinuclear, nuclear, nuclear costs, nuclear secrecy, nuclear spin, nuclear wastes, radiation, radioactive, wastes | Leave a comment

Jury finds priest guilty in anti nuclear action

Jury finds priest guilty in nuclear silo breach The Tribune December 22, 2009 After only an hour of deliberation this afternoon, a Weld County Court jury found a Catholic priest guilty of damaging and trespassing on government property that housed a nuclear missile silo in northeastern Weld County last August. Continue reading →

December 23, 2009 Posted by Christina Macpherson | Religion and ethics, USA | antinuclear, nuclear, nuclear weapons | Leave a comment

Catholic priest’s anti nuclear battle

Tenacious Priest Fights Colo. Nukes Dec 22, 2009 SHARON DUNN, The Greeley Tribune GREELEY, Colo. (AP) ― Five months in Weld County Jail was starting to wear thin on Father Carl Kabat’s normally patient and jovial demeanor.He misses the outdoors, the freedom to move around, which at 76 is getting harder to do anyway……. Continue reading →

December 23, 2009 Posted by Christina Macpherson | Religion and ethics, USA | antinuclear, nuclear, nuclear wastes, nuclear weapons | Leave a comment

Religious protest against exploitation of indigenous land

Quaker Indian Committee disavows Doctrine of Discovery, affirms Declaration Indian Country Today By Gale Courey Toensing Dec 17, 2009 PHILADELPHIA – Inspired by the actions of the Episcopal Church, a Quaker group has disavowed the Christian Doctrine of Discovery and voiced its support for the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. Continue reading →

December 23, 2009 Posted by Christina Macpherson | indigenous issues, Religion and ethics, USA | antinuclear, indigenous, nuclear, nuclear wastes, radiation, radioactive, uranium | Leave a comment

Lies and omissions at Copenhagen, about nuclear power

Helen Caldicott slams environmental groups on Climate Bill, Nuclear Concessions 22 December 2009 by: Art Levine, t r u t h o u t | Report

Dr. Helen Caldicott, the pioneering Australian antinuclear activist and pediatrician who spearheaded the global nuclear freeze movement of the 1980s and co-founded Physicians for Social Responsibility (PSR), has joined with left-leaning environmental groups here in an uphill fight to halt nuclear power as a “solution” to the global warming crisis. “Global warming is the greatest gift the nuclear industry has ever received,” Dr. Caldicott told Truthout. Continue reading →

December 23, 2009 Posted by Christina Macpherson | 2 WORLD, climate change | antinuclear, climate change, Copenhagen, nuclear, nuclear wastes | Leave a comment

What a Nuclear War would do to Climate

Ho Hum Nuclear Winter Overcoming Bias 22 Dec 09 “……The effects of a war involving the entire current global nuclear arsenal … [include] a global average surface cooling of –7°C to –8°C persists for years, and after a decade the cooling is still –4°C (Fig. 2). … Cooling of more than –20°C occurs over large areas of North America and of more than –30°C over much of Eurasia, including all agricultural regions.So, the first news about nuclear winter was shocking enough to induce cold war adversaries to agree to big cuts.

Today we know the situation is even worse – not only is nuclear winter easier than we thought to trigger, but more nations now have big enough arsenals to trigger it. Yet today there is far less international discussion or momentum to prevent such disaster. Why the difference?

Overcoming Bias : Ho Hum Nuclear Winter

December 23, 2009 Posted by Christina Macpherson | 2 WORLD, climate change | climate change, nuclear secrecy, nuclear weapons | Leave a comment

Secret USA-Japan nuclear deal revealed

Japan-US secret nuclear deal discovered: reports Full Story Tokyo, Dec 22 (AFP) A secret agreement under which Japan allowed the US military to bring nuclear weapons to the Asian nation has been uncovered despite years of denial of its existence by Tokyo, media reports said today. Continue reading →

December 23, 2009 Posted by Christina Macpherson | Japan, politics international | antinuclear, nuclear, nuclear secrecy, nuclear weapons, radiation, radioactive | Leave a comment

Canadian govt carefully tweaks nuclear information

Nuclear safety HARPER BIZARRO (Canada) December 22, 2009 …On January 15, 2008 – in the dead of the night – Stephen Harper and Gary Lunn fired Canada’s world-respected nuclear regulator, Linda Keen.

They then appointed a career bureaucrat to head up the Nuclear Safety Commission. They wanted to silence the regulatory arm of Canada’s nuclear industry. They have succeeded, apparently. Continue reading →

December 23, 2009 Posted by Christina Macpherson | Canada, secrets,lies and civil liberties | antinuclear, nuclear, nuclear secrecy, nuclear wastes, radiation, radioactive, uranium | Leave a comment

French nuclear test victims to jump hurdles to get compensation

Compensation will be decided on a case-by-case basis. Victims are to submit a claim to a committee

France to compensate people who suffered health problems from nuclear tests Google News By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS (CP) – 23 Dec ARIS — France’s parliament on Tuesday passed a law to compensate victims of nuclear tests in Algeria and the South Pacific, a response to decades of complaints by people sickened by radiation. Continue reading →

December 23, 2009 Posted by Christina Macpherson | France, Legal | antinuclear, France, nuclear, nuclear weapons, radiation, radioactive | Leave a comment

Unique problem in managing depleted uranium wastes

At issue is the unique composition of depleted uraniumm — a byproduct of the process that enriches uranium, in this case from weapons production — that results in the material becoming more radioactive over time.

Weather slows unloading of depleted uranium at EnergySolution By Arthur RaymondDeseret News , Dec. 22, 2009 Continue reading →

December 23, 2009 Posted by Christina Macpherson | USA, wastes | antinuclear, depleted, nuclear, nuclear costs, nuclear secrecy, nuclear wastes, uranium, wastes | Leave a comment

Nuclear winter would be quick and devastating

Ho Hum Nuclear Winter Overcoming Bias By Robin Hanson · December 20, 2009
From the January Scientific American:

Twenty-five years ago international teams of scientists showed that a nuclear war between the U.S. and the Soviet Union could produce a “nuclear winter.” … killing plants worldwide and eliminating our food supply. Continue reading →

December 23, 2009 Posted by Christina Macpherson | 2 WORLD, climate change | antinuclear, climate change, nuclear, nuclear weapons, radioactive | Leave a comment