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International Energy Agency predicts boom for natural gas

IEA forecasts a golden age for natural gas, The Financial Express,13 June 11The International Energy Agency (IEA) has forecast that natural gas will play an increasingly important role in meeting global energy consumption in the years to 2035 because of its easy availability and also due to its effectiveness in fighting global warming. Natural gas is an attractive option for countries like India where energy consumption is growing fast, according to the IEA. However, the big question is if India is prepared to switch over to the clean fuel on a large scale.“Gas is a particularly attractive fuel for regions such as China, India and the Middle East,” the IEA says in its report ‘World Energy Outlook 2011’ released recently. ….. IEA forecasts a golden age for natural gas

June 13, 2011 Posted by | 2 WORLD, ENERGY | Leave a comment

OECD warned about nuclear plants in earthquake areas

Kosciusko-Morizet also called on the UN nuclear watchdog to review its safety standards – particularly on the construction and operation of nuclear plants in seismic zones – and “ensure their proper application.” “We cannot continue to think the way we did before Fukushima,” she said.

OECD urges global nuclear stress tests, natural gas gains ground – New Europe, 12 June 11, Ministers from 33 countries reached broad agreement in Paris on 7 June on the need for global nuclear stress tests. French Ecology Minister Nathalie Kosciusko-Morizet is chairing a two-day meeting on nuclear safety at the Nuclear Energy Agency of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) in Paris. Continue reading →

June 13, 2011 Posted by | 2 WORLD, safety | Leave a comment

Disillusion of Japanese over TEPCO and Fukushima radiation

A long wait for solace in a ravaged land, Sydney Morning Herald, Russell Skelton, June 11, 2011″……..Emotions towards the government and some local authorities vary from fury to resignation. People are incensed by dithering politicians, and last week’s challenge to Prime Minister Kan’s leadership was seen as displaying callous disregard for the national recovery effort.

There is widespread contempt for the mostly anonymous, seemingly slippery and always secretive management of TEPCO. The company has a long history of dodgy auditing and cover-ups at the Fukushima plant.Since the nuclear meltdown, some 80,000 people have been evacuated from the towns and villages surrounding the crippled power station. Nobody interviewed by The Saturday Age within 200 kilometres of the reactor feels safe or has confidence in the government to effectively manage the recovery and reconstruction.
At first, the dithering Democratic Party government set the evacuation zone around the Fukushima plant at 10 kilometres, then 20 and by the end of this month it will be extended to a recommended but voluntary 30 kilometres. The International Atomic Energy Agency has said the exclusion zone should be 40 kilometres, and Australia’s radiation protection authority has suggested a precautionary zone of 80 kilometres….
A long wait for solace in a ravaged land

June 13, 2011 Posted by | - Fukushima 2011 | Leave a comment

Government spending cuts raise fears for Faslane nuclear safety

Defence cuts ‘raise nuclear safety fears at Faslane’ – Scotsman.com News,By Andrew Whitaker, 13 June 2011rPoliticians are demanding answers from the Ministry of Defence after documents revealed fears over safety at Faslane nuclear base on the Clyde as a result of spending cuts…. Defence cuts ‘raise nuclear safety fears at Faslane’ – Scotsman.com News

June 13, 2011 Posted by | general | Leave a comment

Mainstream media not reporting the full story on Fukushima disaster

Water remains a primary complication; 15 million highly radioactive gallons await proper treatment and storage. That’s equivalent to about thirty highly contaminated Olympic-sized swimming pools. It is unclear how much of this water has already been released into the Pacific Ocean, but it is likely in the hundreds of thousands, if not millions of gallons. 

Japan Update, Footprints  Sara Barczak , 10 June 11 Unfortunately, the mainstream media is reporting increasingly less on the nuclear disaster at the Fukushima Dai-ichi plant in Japan. Nonetheless, radioactivity continues to be released into the air and water at the severely damaged facility. Continue reading →

June 11, 2011 Posted by | - Fukushima 2011 | 1 Comment

High radiation levels in No. 3 reactor force workers to stop nuclear cleanup

Fukushima: Radiation in No. 3 reactor too high for work H5 NI Via NHK: Radiation in No. 3 reactor too high for work. The operator of the damaged Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant says radiation levels in one of the reactor buildings remain too high for workers to do their jobs.

Tokyo Electric Power Company, or TEPCO, sent 9 workers into the No.3 reactor building for about 20 minutes on Thursday, in a bid to start stabilizing the reactor. The utility plans to inject nitrogen gas into the containment vessel to prevent accumulated hydrogen from causing an explosion. It also intends to install a system to cool the reactor with circulating water.
The workers withdrew after measuring radiation of 100 millisieverts per hour near the reactor’s containment vessel.  TEPCO says it intended to limit the workers’ exposure to below 5 millisieverts per hour. But as all 9 received higher doses, it has suspended work while considering a course of action…http://crofsblogs.typepad.com/h5n1/2011/06/fukushima-radiation-in-no-3-reactor-too-high-for-work.html

June 11, 2011 Posted by | - Fukushima 2011 | Leave a comment

Three more Fukushima nuclear workers get highly irradiated

Three nuclear workers exposed to high radiation Asia One News TOKYO – Three male emergency workers at a crippled Japanese nuclear plant have been exposed to more than twice the legally permitted level of radiation, an official watchdog agency said Friday.AFP Jun 10, 2011 

The agency said another man in his 50s was found to have received more than the 250 millisieverts of exposure allowed for emergency crews working at the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant……

A man in his 30s was confirmed to have been exposed to 678 millisieverts of radiation, while a man in his 40s received 643 millisieverts, according to the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency (NISA)…..http://news.asiaone.com/News/Latest%2BNews/Asia/Story/A1Story20110610-283483.html

June 11, 2011 Posted by | - Fukushima 2011 | Leave a comment

Water cooling at Fukushima nuclear plant causes more problems

Workers must inject the reactor cores with water to keep them cool. But that step guarantees that water will leak through the damaged plant and into the basement-level turbine rooms……..”They’re just perpetuating the problem and making a bigger and bigger mess,” said Lake Barrett, a nuclear engineer who directed the cleanup of the hobbled Three Mile Island plant in Pennsylvania.-

Water cooling Japan plant now a problem, FRANCE, June 9, 2011 , News Day.com By CHICO HARLAN. The Washington Post, Tokyo   At the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant, nothing is more problematic than the contaminated water that covers the basement floors, leaks into the environment and endangers any worker who goes near it. Continue reading →

June 11, 2011 Posted by | - Fukushima 2011 | Leave a comment

Italy goes to vote, with nuclear issue in mind

Italy, also a seismically active country, shut down its nuclear power program in a 1987 referendum following the Chernobyl disaster. Although the referendum was legally binding for only five years, its political staying power proved more durable. Berlusconi pledged in 2009 to revive nuclear power …...
Italians vote on nuclear, water policies, Google News By COLLEEN BARRY, Associated Press – 11 June 11 MILAN (AP) — Premier Silvio Berlusconi would rather Italians head to the beach and not to the polls this weekend. Continue reading →

June 11, 2011 Posted by | Italy, politics | Leave a comment

Danger of unstable nations having nuclear power

A trove of U.S. diplomatic cables obtained by WikiLeaks and provided to Reuters by a third party provide colorful and sometimes scary commentary on the conditions in developing nations with nuclear power aspirations……Turmoil of the kind sweeping north Africa and the Middle East could affect the security of power plants and nuclear fuel – which some fear could be turned into weapons in case of a coup or if they fell into the hands of terrorists. 

After Japan, Where’s the Next Nuclear Weak Link?, Reuters By Nick Carey, Jun 10, 2011  It may sound alarming but that is what could happen in many developing countries which are either building nuclear power plants or considering doing so – a prospect that raises serious questions after Japan’s experience handling a nuclear crisis.

Imagine a country where corruption is rampant, infrastructure is very poor, or the quality of security is in question. Now what if that country built a nuclear power plant?  Continue reading →

June 11, 2011 Posted by | MIDDLE EAST, safety | Leave a comment

Fear of radiation leads to discrimination against Fukushima victims

Although such examples are isolated, the severity and callousness of them led chief government spokesman Yukio Edano to condemn such actions. But many Japanese from outside the affected area remain wary in their dealings with Fukushima locals….The Fukushima Bar Association says evacuees and their children have been victimised and petrol stations have denied access to cars with Fukushima plates……

Discrimination increases torment of Fukushima, THE AUSTRALIAN, Rick Wallace, Tokyo correspondent  June 11, 2011   IT was supposed to be a lifetime highlight, but the wedding plans of a bride-to-be from Fukushima have turned into a nightmare thanks to the new post-crisis phenomenon of radiation discrimination. Continue reading →

June 11, 2011 Posted by | - Fukushima 2011 | Leave a comment

Power transmission companies benefit from Germany’s nuclear shutdown

Dealtalk: German nuclear exit a boon for Siemens, ABB, By Marilyn Gerlach, FRANKFURT | Jun 10, 2011 (Reuters) – Germany’s nuclear exit and power shortages in China may help boost demand for switchgears and transformers, benefiting European power transmission suppliers such as Siemens and ABB.

Germany’s parliament began debating its new energy bill on Thursday, clearing the way for the shutdown of 17 nuclear reactors from 2015. Analysts say the nuclear capacity gap could be replaced mostly by renewables, which are volatile sources of energy and so trigger a need to invest in grid transmission infrastructure. ….http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/06/10/us-germany-siemens-idUSTRE7592YQ20110610

 

June 11, 2011 Posted by | business and costs, Germany | Leave a comment

Tokyo Electric – too big to fail, but it’s failing

In a sense, it is because Japan allowed Tokyo Electric to become too big to fail that it must now deal with the consequences of its potential demise. Led by Tokyo Electric, Japan’s 10 electricity companies have long resisted efforts to liberalize the market, leaving them with virtual monopolies in their respective regions.

After Nuclear Crisis, Japan’s Biggest Utility Faces Insolvency Risk, NYT By , June 9, 2011 On Thursday, shares in Tokyo Electric again fell to a record low, at one point slumping to 148 yen ($1.85), down 93 percent from prequake levels. Shares finished at 192 yen ($2.40), down 4 percent from the previous day, and the company already had a 1.25 trillion yen loss in the year ending March 31, the largest annual loss for a nonfinancial institution in Japanese history. Continue reading →

June 11, 2011 Posted by | Japan | Leave a comment

Google’s move into renewable energy – a commercial and environmental plus

By developing or investing in the technology that makes that goal achievable, Google gets in at the ground level of an industry that’s likely to generate significant revenue in the coming decades. 

Google Takes Aim At Renewable Energy, Wired, By Duncan Geere   June 8, 2011  Google’s founder and CEO, Larry Page, has announced that the company has tasked an R&D team with making renewable energy cheaper than fossil fuels.  Continue reading →

June 11, 2011 Posted by | renewable, USA | 1 Comment

Corrupt authoritarian regimes and nuclear power – example Azerbaijan

Rampant corruption in some developing countries could also lead to corners being cut in everything from plant construction to security,

In Azerbaijan, a cable written in November 2008 describes the man who would have the responsibility for regulation of a proposed nuclear program, Kamaladdin Heydarov, as “ubiquitous, with his hands in everything from construction to customs.”.

After Japan, Where’s the Next Nuclear Weak Link?, Reuters By Nick Carey, Jun 10, 2011″…..REGULATION AND CORRUPTION For many, rule No.1 for a safe nuclear program is a regulator with at least some semblance of independence from government or corporate influence.

Critics worry that authoritarian governments will not tolerate an authority with even pretensions to partial independence or transparency of decision-making. While nuclear authorities in the West have also faced criticism for being too close to the industry they regulate, they are at least open to media and lawmaker scrutiny. Continue reading →

June 11, 2011 Posted by | MIDDLE EAST, safety | Leave a comment

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