2010 June « nuclear-news

Nuclear bomb to solve oil spill crisis – a crazy idea, says USA

Nuclear Option on Gulf Oil Spill? No Way, U.S. Says, NYTimes.com, By WILLIAM J. BROAD : June 2, 2010 The chatter began weeks ago as armchair engineers brainstormed for ways to stop the torrent of oil spilling into the Gulf of Mexico: What about nuking the well?…. Stephanie Mueller, a spokeswoman for the Energy Department, said that neither Energy Secretary, Steven Chu nor anyone else was thinking about a nuclear blast under the gulf. The nuclear option was not — and never had been — on the table, federal officials said. “It’s crazy,” one senior official said.

Government and private nuclear experts agreed that using a nuclear bomb would be not only risky technically, with unknown and possibly disastrous consequences from radiation, but also unwise geopolitically — it would violate arms treaties that the United States has signed and championed over the decades and do so at a time when President Obama is pushing for global nuclear disarmament.Nuclear Option on Gulf Oil Spill? No Way, U.S. Says – NYTimes.com

June 6, 2010 Posted by Christina Macpherson | safety, USA | antinuclear, nuclear, nuclear costs, nuclear spin, nuclear technology, nuclear weapons, radiation, radioactive | Leave a comment

Increased investment in UK renewable energy creating jobs

Renewable energy creating mass opportunities for manufacturing » Conveying News, 25 May 2010, Britain’s manufacturing industries will benefit greatly from the transition to renewable and sustainable energy sources.That is according to the Renewable Energy Centre, which states that increased investment in the sector is creating employment opportunities and cross-industry business.”Undoubtedly with more renewables being planned and implemented, a new set of skills and manufacturing opportunities come with it which, in turn, can only have a positive effect on the British economy,” a spokesperson said.They went on to say that it is vital the new government continues to support the industry in order to ensure it is given room to grow and embrace the opportunities available for expansion.According to targets set out in the Low Carbon Transition Plan, a report from the Department of Energy and Climate Change, 1.2 million people are to be emplyed in ‘green jobs’ by 2020.

June 5, 2010 Posted by Christina Macpherson | renewable, UK | energy efficiency | Leave a comment

Falsifying records – a world wide feature of the nuclear industry

Then there’s the cover-up, deception and fraud. Workers at the UK’s Sellafield nuclear facility falsified safety records. Japan’s Tokyo Electric Power Company falsified safety records. Falsified records. Falsified records. Falsified records. Falsified records.

More nuclear history repeating | Greenpeace International, 4 June 2010, The news coming out about nuclear power can read merely like a series of isolated, unconnected events. But if you read the nuclear news often, as we do, patterns start to form.A story from one part of the world is horribly similar to another from somewhere else. The nuclear industries around the world seem to have a shared behaviour that emerges when you take a step back. Continue reading →

June 5, 2010 Posted by Christina Macpherson | 2 WORLD, secrets,lies and civil liberties | Leave a comment

Occupational health danger at Hanford nuclear facility

Workers … may develop chronic beryllium disease, an incurable and often debilitating lung disease, if they breath in fine particles of the metal

Hanford workers need more prevention against berylium disease, Yakima Herald By ANNETTE CARYTRI 3 June 2010, RICHLAND, Wash. — Hanford needs to do more to prevent chronic beryllium disease in its workers, moving more quickly and aggressively to implement a new protection program, according to the report on a three-month investigation released Wednesday. Continue reading →

June 5, 2010 Posted by Christina Macpherson | health, USA | Leave a comment

Australian Aboriginals’ legal challenge to planned nuclear waste dump

Aboriginal group challenges planned nuclear dump in court, Sydney Morning Herald LINDSAY MURDOCH DARWIN, June 4, 2010 ABORIGINAL traditional owners have initiated a Federal Court legal challenge to plans by the federal government to build Australia’s first national radioactive waste dump near Tennant Creek, in the Northern Territory. Continue reading →

June 5, 2010 Posted by Christina Macpherson | AUSTRALIA, Legal | Leave a comment

Oyster Creek nuclear plant ordered to clean up radioactive water leak

N.J. orders Oyster Creek nuclear plant to beef up water monitoring after leak, NJ.com, By Brian T. Murray/The Star-LedgerJune 03, 2010, he state Department of Environmental Protection invoked the state’s “Spill Act” today, ordering the Oyster Creek Nuclear Generating Station to drill new test wells, increase monitoring on existing wells and review its data on tritium contamination around the Lacey Township plant. The tests are part of a new monitoring plan ordered by DEP Commissioner Bob Martin, who has been pushing Exelon Generation Co., the Illinois-based owner of the electrical generating facility, to expedite a cleanup of the tritium pollution discovered more than a year ago……. Continue reading →

June 5, 2010 Posted by Christina Macpherson | safety, USA | Leave a comment

Uranium mining and polonium: remember Litvinenko

Roxby’s radioactive risk, The Independent Weekly. HENDRIK GOUT04 Jun, 2010 “…….Litvinenko was a high-ranking Soviet intelligence operative who turned against the KGB over a range of political assassinations he said had been carried out by the spy agency.He was then murdered, almost certainly by a former KGB colleague acting – so Litvinenko alleged before he died – on the implicit orders of Russian President Vladimir Putin.

The murder weapon was polonium-210, a radioactive metalloid and one of the most toxic elements known to science – a quarter of a million times more toxic than cyanide. A particle weighing less than one-hundredth of one microgram (about the weight of a single scale on a butterfly’s wing) is a lethal dose. Continue reading →

June 5, 2010 Posted by Christina Macpherson | Russia | 1 Comment

Pakistan’s nuclear weapons arsenal

Pakistan has 60 nuclear warheads, Gulf Times, 4 June 2010, Pakistan has at least 60 nuclear warheads and with two new plutonium reactors nearing completion in Khushab in Punjab, its weapons grade plutonium production will jump seven-fold, according to the latest figures released by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute. “Our conservative estimates are that Pakistan has 60 warheads and can produce 100 nuclear weapons at short notice,” the SIPRI report released this week in its latest annual report. The report claimed that Pakistan is developing an air-launched cruise missile Ra’ad and has also carried out four tests of its land-launched subsonic cruise missile Babar.

Gulf Times – Qatar’s top-selling English daily newspaper – Pakistan/Afghanistan

June 5, 2010 Posted by Christina Macpherson | Pakistan, weapons and war | Leave a comment

Full body scanning linked to skin cancer

How flying can harm your health | mytraveladventure.com.au 4 June 2010, Full-body scanner cancer link Some scientists fear radiation from the controversial “naked” full-body airport scanners has been dangerously underestimated and could increase the risk of skin cancer.University of California biochemist David Agard says that unlike other scanners, the radiation from these devices is delivered at low energy beam levels, with most of the dose concentrated in the skin and underlying tissue.David Brenner, the head of Columbia University’s Centre for Radiological Research, says the radiation dose to the skin is actually 20 times higher than the official estimate.The devices are scheduled to be rolled out across Australia next year How flying can harm your health | mytraveladventure.com.au

June 5, 2010 Posted by Christina Macpherson | 2 WORLD, health | Leave a comment

Burma starting on the road to nuclear weapons

Report says Burma is taking steps toward nuclear weapons program By Joby Warric Washington Post Staff Writer Friday, June 4, 2010 Burma has begun secretly acquiring key components for a nuclear weapons program, including specialized equipment used to make uranium metal for nuclear bombs, according to a report that cites documents and photos from a Burmese army officer who recently fled the country.

The smuggled evidence shows Burma’s military rulers taking concrete steps toward obtaining atomic weapons, according to an analysis co-written by an independent nuclear expert. But it also points to enormous gaps in Burmese technical know-how and suggests that the country is many years from developing an actual bomb.

The analysis, commissioned by the dissident group Democratic Voice of Burma, concludes with “high confidence” that Burma is seeking nuclear technology, and adds: “This technology is only for nuclear weapons and not for civilian use or nuclear power.”

Report says Burma is taking steps toward nuclear weapons program

June 5, 2010 Posted by Christina Macpherson | ASIA, weapons and war | Leave a comment

Uncertain future for industry related to nuclear power

Loan to Sheffield Forgemasters being reviewed – minister LONDON, June 3 (Reuters) – A loan granted by Britain’s last government to a steelworks company to help it build a manufacturing facility for the nuclear industry is under review, the new business minister said on Thursday. Continue reading →

June 5, 2010 Posted by Christina Macpherson | business and costs, UK | Leave a comment

Vermont Yankee’s history of nuclear problems and radiation leaks

Latest leak at Vermont Yankee didn’t occur “overnight” | Vtdigger.org, by Anne Galloway on June 1, 2010, Vermont Yankee is leaking radioactive liquid again — two months after the first two leaks found at the plant in January were repaired.Larry Smith, spokesman for Vermont Yankee, made the announcement on Saturday.The original leaks of tritium, a radioactive isotope, were discovered at the 680-megawatt nuclear power plant in Vernon on Jan. 7.
The latest leak comes on the heels of other problems for the 38-year-old reactor on the banks of the Connecticut River. Continue reading →

June 5, 2010 Posted by Christina Macpherson | safety, USA | Leave a comment

Allegations of radiation sickness in security guards

Security Guards Allege Radiation Sickness, allAfrica.com, 3 June 2010, Maputo — Over 100 security guards working for the British-based security company Group Four Securicor (G4S) have complained that working near scanners in the port of Maputo is making them ill, and has even caused the death of some of their colleagues, reports Thursday’s issue of the independent daily “O Pais”.The guards claim that they are exposed to radiation from the scanners without any protective clothing, and that this has caused diseases such as tuberculosis and cancer. allAfrica.com: Mozambique: Security Guards Allege Radiation Sickness

June 4, 2010 Posted by Christina Macpherson | general | Leave a comment

At least the USA TALKS about nuclear wastes!

Christina Macpherson's websites & blogs

This website might well give the impression that it is anti-American, anti-British etc, – especially on the subject of nuclear wastes.

But – spare a thought for those two countries. At least the nuclear waste subject is RAISED there. (That’s how we can publish it)

Very hard to get a few lines about Russia’s nuclear wastes.

As for China, France and also a few other countries (India, Korea, European states , Israel...) – well there’s nary a word about their nuclear wastes! What do they do with radioactive wastes? It’s a worry. And it seems to me to be complete lunacy for countries like Australia to piously claim safety policy, while selling uranium to such countries.

June 3, 2010 Posted by Christina Macpherson | Christina's notes | antinuclear, AUSTRALIA, nuclear, nuclear renaissance, nuclear secrecy, nuclear spin, nuclear wastes, radiation, reactors | Leave a comment

Britain faces ever-increasing debt with nuclear wastes

Chris Huhne warns of £4bn black hole in nuclear power budget, guardian.co.uk, Patrick Wintour, 1 June 2010 Energy secretary blames predecessors for avoiding tough decisions in ‘classic example of short-termism’ Chris Huhne, the new energy secretary, said: ‘What we are effectively paying for here is decades of cheap nuclear electricity.’
Britain is facing a £4bn black hole in unavoidable nuclear decommissioning and waste costs, Chris Huhne, the energy and climate change secretary disclosed tonight. Continue reading →