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California’s solar electricity exceeds nuclear by 6%

California rooftop solar installations surge; renewable energy approaches oil output, reports say, LA Times 6 July 11 Renewable sources in the U.S. are starting to produce enough energy to rival oil output, according to the federal Energy Information Administration.

Biomass and biofuels along with geothermal, solar, water and wind-power generation were responsible for nearly 12% of the country’s energy production during the first quarter of the year. That’s nearly 6% more than nuclear’s output and 77% of the amount coming from domestic crude oil, the agency said. Continue reading →

July 6, 2011 Posted by | decentralised, USA | Leave a comment

Baseload solar energy is here

The dawn of baseload solar energy, 6 Jul 2011, Climate Spectator, Giles ParkinsonSolar energy and baseload power are not usually two words that detractors of renewable energy allow to be included in the same phrase, unless it is accompanied by the word “not.” From now on though, they may become indelibly linked. Continue reading →

July 6, 2011 Posted by | 2 WORLD, renewable | Leave a comment

Dangers of USA’s spent nuclear fuel pools

A Safer Nuclear Crypt, NYT, By ,  July 5, 2011, The nuclear calamity at Japan’s Fukushima Daiichi plant has refocused attention on the vulnerability of spent fuel pools at the 104 operating American nuclear plants.

“…….The pools are generally far more packed than the damaged ones at Fukushima. Some scientists argue that the crowding raises the risk of a fire and makes the pools a tempting target for terrorists. Continue reading →

July 6, 2011 Posted by | USA, wastes | Leave a comment

Collusion by government and industry to downplay Fukushima radiation report

the government is diluting real mortality rates of children by burying the expected death rates for children exposed in with statistics that are derived from the entire population…

Nuclear apologists will be quick to say this (criticism) is all hysteria and turn to their common talking points such as “show me one person who has become sick or has died from Fukushima radiation.” Even though it is well known it can take up to 20 years after radiation exposure to develop cancer, they stick to such cleverly constructed tricks which easily deceive the majority of the masses who are have not yet been equipped with the knowledge required to counter their propaganda.

Nuclear Radiation Survey: 1 in 20 Fukushima Children Will Develop Thyroid Cancer, The Intel Hub, By Alexander Higgins – Contributing Writer, July 5, 2011

Japan finally releases a nuclear radiation survey that reveals that 45% of Fukushima children had sustained thyroid radiation exposure by the end of March. Despite government attempts to downplay the survey results, the data shows that at least 1 in 20 children will develop thyroid cancer. Unfortunately, this is just the latest side show in the 3 ring circus being ran by our corporate dictators. Continue reading →

July 6, 2011 Posted by | Japan, spinbuster | 1 Comment

Training US nuclear staff for nuclear calamities

At U.S. Nuclear Reactors, Crews Train For The Worst, 5 July 11NPR, by RICHARD HARRIS..…..”…….— Berry says reactor operators in these training scenarios can respond to some pretty intense crises, on the scale even of Fukushima. But David Lochbaum, a nuclear engineer at a watchdog group called the Union of Concerned Scientists, says he’s skeptical that the mess in Japan could have been prevented, given the real-world conditions there….

He adds that you can’t truly simulate the kind of crisis response we saw at Fukushima, where a lot of the action took place outside the control rooms. Workers scrambled around to try to read dials, fix electrical circuits and struggle with stalled pumps. And he adds training might not be enough when a crew is confronting not only severe conditions but simultaneous crises at multiple reactors.

“Fukushima showed us that we could have an across-the-board situation where all the reactors are in jeopardy and there’s no on-site cavalry that can come running to the aid of the accident unit,” Lochbaum says.

He adds that overall, the U.S. training system is an important element of emergency preparedness. But it’s no guarantee that crews here can handle anything and everything thrown their way.http://www.npr.org/2011/07/06/137633351/at-u-s-nuclear-reactors-crews-train-for-the-worst

July 6, 2011 Posted by | safety, USA | Leave a comment

Video on flooded Fort Calhoun Nuclear Plant

VIDEO .http://news.xinhuanet.com/english2010/video/2011-07/05/c_13965568.htm  U.S. Fort Calhoun nuclear plant flooded BEIJING, July 5 (Xinhuanet) — The Fort Calhoun plant north of Omaha in the US state of Nebraska has been surrounded by flood water from the Missouri River for over ten days. As worries mount, US authorities have reassured the public the plant is safe.

Could this be another Fukushima?

Operators of the Fort Calhoun plant say no.

But pictures like this make it hard to believe the official statement that only part of the utilities are flooded.

Rumors have spread that the reactors suffered a complete meltdown and that radioactive tritium is leaking into the river.

Nebraska has two nuclear plants along the Missouri River. The troubling photos have brought the Fort Calhoun facility into the spotlight.

But plant operator, Omaha Public Power, says all key buildings in the plant are secure. No flooding, no meltdown, no radioactive leakage……..

July 6, 2011 Posted by | Resources -audiovicual | Leave a comment

Fukushima soil more radioactive than Chernobyl’s was

Japan groups alarmed by radioactive soil, News 5 July(AFP) , TOKYO — Soil radiation in a city 60 kilometres (40 miles) from Japan’s stricken nuclear plant is above levels that prompted resettlement after the Chernobyl disaster, citizens’ groups said Tuesday.

The survey of four locations in Fukushima city, outside the nuclear evacuation zone, showed that all soil samples contained caesium exceeding Japan’s legal limit of 10,000 becquerels per kilogram (4,500 per pound), they said. The highest level was 46,540 becquerels per kilogram, and the three other readings were between 16,290 and 19,220 becquerels per kilogram, they said.

The citizens’ groups — the Fukushima Network for Saving Children from Radiation and five other non-governmental organisations — have called for the evacuation of pregnant women and children from the town.The highest reading in the city of 290,000 people far exceeded the level that triggered compulsory resettlement ordered by Soviet authorities following the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear disaster in Ukraine, they said.

Kobe University radiation expert professor Tomoya Yamauchi conducted the survey on June 26 following a request from the groups.

“Soil contamination is spreading in the city,” Yamauchi said in a statement. “Children are playing with the soil, meaning they are playing with high levels of radioactive substances. Evacuation must be conducted as soon as possible.” The coastal Fukushima Daiichi plant has been spewing radiation since the March 11 earthquake and tsunami knocked out its cooling systems…..http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5ivr747xKaxw9RGq5zMSDO-On_WRQ?docId=CNG.62875ee35cc28aa30725ee1bfd4cfbde.111

July 6, 2011 Posted by | - Fukushima 2011 | Leave a comment

French regulators allow oldest nuclear reactor to keep going

French nuclear watchdog allows Fessenheim to continue,  PARIS, July 4 (Reuters) – France’s nuclear watchdog on Monday gave its go-ahead for France’s oldest operating nuclear reactor in eastern France to continue working for another 10 years, a move that will anger ecologists.

But the government could still decide to shut the plant, commissioned in 1978, permanently after results of post-Fukushima stress tests are made public around mid-November.

There has been mounting pressure from ecologists over the last few years to permanently shut the plant because of its age, location in a seismic area and its proximity to the German border.

Fessenheim’s opponents stepped up their pressure after Japan’s nuclear disaster in March and after Germany decided last month to pull out of nuclear energy by 2022, arguing the plant would not resist an earthquake…….http://af.reuters.com/article/energyOilNews/idAFWEB831820110704

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July 6, 2011 Posted by | France, safety | Leave a comment

Finish nuclear power – says Japan’s potential next Prime Minister

Japan PM contender says ditch nuclear, FT.com, By Mure Dickie and Tom O’Sullivan in Tokyo 4 July 11,   A leading contender to replace Naoto Kan as Japan’s prime minister has called for the country to phase out nuclear power over the next two decades.

Seiji Maehara, one of the most popular figures in the ruling Democratic party, told the Financial Times in an interview that construction of new nuclear reactors should “basically be stopped” following the crisis at the tsunami-crippled Fukushima Daiichi atomic plant……A Japanese retreat from atomic power would have far-reaching implications for domestic utilities and companies such as Toshiba, Hitachi and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, which are seeking to sell nuclear technology overseas.….

Opinion polls suggest a majority of voters support a gradual reduction in the use of atomic energy. Mr Maehara said Japan should aim to phase out nuclear power completely. “That is what is going to happen and … what should happen, but given that we depend on nuclear power for 30 per cent of electricity generation, we can’t get rid of it right away,” he said. “While increasing the safety of nuclear power, we need to use preferential policies to reduce our dependence on it over 10 or 20 years.”

Mr Maehara’s relative popularity and status as a former leader of the DPJ mean his call for a nuclear phase-out could put the issue at the centre of any party election to replace Mr Kan.  Mr Maehara’s status as a possible successor to Mr Kan has been boosted by recent opinion polls. One survey by the Nikkei Shimbun suggested one-fifth of voters thought him the most suitable person to become DPJ leader and thus premier….   http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/caa106b6-a581-11e0-83b2-00144feabdc0.html#ixzz1R7kQ1HSH

July 4, 2011 Posted by | Japan, politics | Leave a comment

Fukushima: How the nuclear industry, governments and media went into PR damage control right from the start

The emails show that the Fukushima “PR campaign” cover-up planning started hours after the catastrophe, specifically targeted nuclear disarmament human rights defenders, and aimed to protect industry’s plans for more nuclear facilities rather than protect human life……..Major news networks are owned by energy corporations, as only days ago, investigative journalist Wayne Madsen explained during a June 24th Russia Today interview …..

Scandalous collusion’: Gov’t, nuclear industry planned Fukushima cover-up, Government, nuclear industry covert media blackout, Examiner.com , Human Rights Examiner, July 1, 2011, Human rights to health of children and pregnant women, the most vulnerable to radiation, have been violated in what Greenpeace called ”scandalous collusion,” a planned Fukushima nuclear cover-up conducted by government and the multi-national nuclear industry according to leaked emails to the Guardian that it exposed Thursday. The emails show that the Fukushima “PR campaign” cover-up planning started hours after the catastrophe, specifically targeted nuclear disarmament human rights defenders, and aimed to protect industry’s plans for more nuclear facilities rather than protect human life.

For over three months, Japanese and American outrage about Fukushima disinformation and lack of aid for people at risk of Fukushima fall-out, has seemingly fallen on deaf ears. Gulf of Mexico coastal residents find the Fukushima scenario all too familiar, having experienced a similar intensive media blackout andprotection of BP rather than humans suffering for over a year. (La emergency summit fisher wife slams media black-out (video), Examiner, June 20, 2010)

The Guardian‘s leaked emails indicate that British government and industry possibly have had a hand to play in both Fukushima and Gulf Coast survivors’ misery. One implication of media black-outs result is that survivors gain little or no support otherwise forthcoming from people of goodwill.

“Internal emails seen by the Guardian show how the business and energy departments worked closely behind the scenes with the multinational companies EDF Energy, Areva and Westinghouse to try to ensure the [Fukushima] accident did not derail their plans for a new generation of nuclear stations in the UK,” theGuardian reports in its article, “Revealed: British government’s plan to play down Fukushima.”

Major news networks are owned by energy corporations, as only days ago, investigative journalist Wayne Madsen explained during a June 24th Russia Today interview …..

http://www.examiner.com/human-rights-in-national/scandalous-collusion-gov-t-nuclear-industry-planned-fukushima-cover-up

July 4, 2011 Posted by | 2 WORLD, spinbuster | Leave a comment

Britain drags out nuclear veterans compensation case, hoping they’ll all die off

Britain urged to settle nuclear payout for veterans, THE AUSTRALIAN , July 04, 2011 THE British government was under pressure last night to settle a multimillion-pound fight with more than 1000 veterans of nuclear tests in Australia and the Pacific or risk wasting even more money on a “morally unjustifiable” legal battle that could drag on for years.

Supporters of the pensioners, who participated in Britain’s atomic bomb trials in the Pacific in the 1950s, said that it was time for the Ministry of Defence to follow the world’s four other main nuclear powers and pay compensation. Continue reading →

July 4, 2011 Posted by | Legal, UK | Leave a comment

Authorities are not giving a clear story on nuclear radiation and nuclear safety

Reporting from the scene of the disaster is hobbled. The only people with access are workers for the Tokyo Electric Power Co., owner of the reactors, and there is abundant evidence that they have downplayed the seriousness at every juncture, for obvious reasons…….

Nuclear plants a ‘plague’ , By Kevin Brooker, Calgary Herald,  July 4, 2011, “…….Earlier this decade, when nuclear power plants were being painted with a green brush by their promoters, Caldicott fired back with a 2006 book, Nuclear Power Is Not the Answer. In it, she contends that nuclear power cannot sustain itself without many, often hidden, subsidies, and moreover, that its supply chain from mining to processing to reactor is itself a massive producer of greenhouse gases. Worse yet, one of the byproducts is plutonium, making them virtual nuclear weapons factories. Continue reading →

July 4, 2011 Posted by | general | Leave a comment

India not happy with restrictions on nuclear technology purchases

India offers veiled warning to nuclear suppliers, Google news, 4 July 11, NEW DELHI — India has suggested that countries refusing to match nuclear reactor sales with technology transfers could be frozen out of one of the world’s largest reactor markets.The veiled threat came in a television interview broadcast Sunday, in which Foreign Secretary Nirupama Rao was asked about new Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) guidelines on sensitive uranium enrichment and reprocessing technology.

The guidelines restrict the sale of such technology to countries which, like nuclear-armed India, have not signed up to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.

India sees the move as a challenge to the waiver from NSG rules — negotiated by the United States — that the country was granted in 2008.

Companies from France, Russia, the United States and Japan are competing for a slice of the $175 billion India plans to spend on nuclear reactors, and Rao hinted that a willingness to provide technology transfers would be a factor in awarding contracts…….http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5jkXesvZlAN_8w4o-iAseAmj42rUA?docId=CNG.a2927e2a2a9f66d6246282cccdc54dd8.651

July 4, 2011 Posted by | India, politics | Leave a comment

Nuclear and Uranium Policy – Western Australia Labor Party

Labor policy adopted- 25th June 2011, Chapter 4: Economics, Industry and Regional Development, Minerals and Energy, Uranium Mining and Nuclear Energy

241. Recognising the hazards and dangers of nuclear power, especially relating to:

a. The safety of the nuclear fuel cycle;

b. The unsolved problems pertaining to the reprocessing and storage of radioactive wastes and spent fuel;

c. The growing concern about the biomedical effects of even low radiation

d. The coupling of nuclear energy and nuclear weapon developments

e. The added danger of a future plutonium economy and the threats to civil liberties involved in a nuclear economy; and

f. The fact that Labor policy contained herein on fossil fuels, energy conservation and renewable resources will ensure Western Australia energy self sufficiency.

242. Labor will:

a. Reject nuclear power as an option for electricity generation in Western Australia;

b. Oppose the establishment of a nuclear enrichment facility in the State;

c. Reject the establishment of nuclear processing plants or the storage of nuclear wastes in the state;

d. allow no uranium mining or development in Western Australia; and

e. The platform recognises WA long and continuous opposition to uranium mining. The commencement and continuation of any uranium project is inconsistent with Labor Policy. Labor will accept no obligation to complete approval processes or honour contractual arrangements entered into by a previous government where such approvals or contracts are directed towards an outcome inconsistent with Labor s, restrictions and conditions applicable to the mining, processing, sale and transportation of uranium platform.

f. place thorium under the currently mines in Australia as outlines in the Resources and Energy section of the National Platform, so far as they relate to nuclear non-proliferation.

 

July 4, 2011 Posted by | AUSTRALIA, politics | Leave a comment

Decentralised solar energy boom taking off in India

 solar technology presents an elegant and immediate solution to powering everything from light bulbs and heaters to water purifiers and pumps…….most new grid capacity will be sucked up by industry, leaving little for the poor who live in off-grid desert outcrops, mountain hamlets and jungle villages like Nada. For them, the surest way to get electricity anytime soon may be to get a solar panel and make it themselves.

Fuel for solar boom could come from rural India, where thousands give up on grid, buy panels, Washington Post, 2 July 11 “……….Across India, thousands of homes are receiving their first light through small companies and aid programs that are bypassing the central electricity grid to deliver solar panels to the rural poor. Those customers could provide the human energy that advocates of solar power have been looking for to fuel a boom in the next decade.

With 40 percent of India’s rural households lacking electricity and nearly a third of its 30 million agricultural water pumps running on subsidized diesel, “there is a huge market and a lot of potential,” said Santosh Kamath, executive director of consulting firm KPMG in India. “Decentralized solar installations are going to take off in a very big way and will probably be larger than the grid-connected segment.”…… Continue reading →

July 3, 2011 Posted by | decentralised, India | Leave a comment

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