France’s nuclear weapons program secretly was helped by USA
US secretly helped French nuclear program: documents, Google News By Shaun Tandon (AFP) – 26 May 11, WASHINGTON — The United States secretly helped France develop advanced nuclear weapons in the 1970s as part of a bid by the Nixon administration to sow divisions in Europe, declassified US documents showed. Continue reading
Beyond Nuclear grows: New England Coalition joins up
New England Coalition Joins With National Organizations in Urging In Depth N-Plant Review Following Japan Disaster, vtdigger.org, 25 May 11, On May 19th, NEC joined the Maryland-based national organization, Beyond Nuclear, and an unknown number of regional organizations, in an enforcement petition with the NRC that would have that agency undertake a precautionary shutdown of 24 US “boiling water” nuclear reactors, including in New England, Entergy Pilgrim and Entergy Vermont Yankee, until basic design flaws that became evident at Fukushima are fixed and the remedies independently verified as technically sound and workable. Continue reading
Wikileaks reveal global concerns about Pakistan’s nukes
VIDEO WikiLeaks: US raised concerns about safety of Pakistan’s nuclear 
assets, NDTV May 26, 2011 New Delhi: Defence Minister AK Antony voiced India’s apprehension on Wednesday about the safety of Pakistan’s nuclear arsenal and said it was a matter of global concern. “Naturally, it is a concern not only for us but for everybody,” Antony said in response to reporters’ questions on whether the security of Pakistan’s nuclear arsenal was under threat in the wake of terror strikes such as the one at the Mehran naval air base in Karachi on Sunday night. (Watch – India’s new worry: Are Pak’s N-weapons safe?)
US cables, accessed exclusively by NDTV through WikiLeaks, show that this concern is indeed a global one and has been voiced by several countries since the present government took over in 2008. Several cables between US embassies and Washington during in a year-long period between mid 2008 and mid 2009, reveal that the US had raised concerns about the security of Pakistan’s nuclear arsenal with Pakistan and China and had sought to reassure a worried Russia……
WikiLeaks: US raised concerns about safety of Pakistan’s nuclear assets
IAEA concerned about nuclear developments in Iran and Syria
AUDIO Nuclear Watchdog Details Concerns In Iran, Syria : NPR, 26 May 11, The International Atomic Energy Agency has released troubling new reports on the nuclear activities of Iran and Syria.The Iran report indicates the production of enriched uranium there is increasing and raises more questions about Iran’s possible research into the military applications of nuclear technology. Continue reading
European Union’s new nuclear power safety tests won’t be independent
Switzerland Decides on Nuclear Phase-Out – NYTimes.com, 25 May,11“………national regulators from across the 27-nation European Union are planning new safety tests for the 143 operating nuclear reactors in their territories…..The E.U. energy commissioner, Günther Oettinger, said at a news conference in Brussels that the tests would be robust……
Greenpeace, an environmental group that opposes nuclear power, strongly disagreed.
The tests “won’t be independent, won’t cover plans for emergencies and won’t always tell us whether some of Europe’s most obvious terrorist targets are protected or not,” said Jan Haverkamp, a nuclear policy adviser at Greenpeace.
Britain, France and the Czech Republic were among countries that had fought hardest to water down the tests, Mr. Haverkamp said……Switzerland Decides on Nuclear Phase-Out – NYTimes.com
Thousands of tons of radioactive water to be stored somehow at Fukushima
Facility for tainted water almost full, New storage sites needed at Fukushima No. 1 Japan Times, May 24, 2011 Kyodo A nuclear waste disposal facility being used to store radioactive water from the crippled Fukushima No. 1 power plant will soon be full, Tokyo Electric Power Co. officials said Monday. The operator, known as Tepco, plans to suspend the extraction operation until mid-June once the facility becomes filled and until a new water treatment facility begins operating. Continue reading Japanese parents angry over radiation levels for children
Japanese ire over radiation limit for kids. Herald Sun AAP , May 23, 2011 FURIOUS parents at the centre of Japan’s atomic crisis and hundreds of their supporters rallied in Tokyo today against revised nuclear safety standards in schools they say are putting children at risk.
Japanese children can now be exposed to 20 times the radiation that was permissible before the March 11 tsunami caused a meltdown at the Fukushima nuclear plant, sparking the world’s worst nuclear crisis since Chernobyl. Around 400 protesters, many from areas around the stricken plant, flocked to the education and science ministry to demand a rethink on the new limit, which allows exposure of up to 20 millisieverts a year.
A group of Fukushima residents submitted a letter for the education minister demanding the ministry do all it can to lower radiation levels at schools and offer financial support.
Protest organisers said the radiation limit for playgrounds was about six times as much as the 0.6 microsievert-per-hour legal maximum under which under-18s are allowed to work…….The nuclear crisis remains unresolved and tens of thousands of people are still unable to return to homes, farms and businesses in a 20-kilometre zone around the radiation-spewing plant.
More than 20 elementary and junior high schools within 30 kilometres have been forced to close since the accident, affecting some 5000 pupils, the Yomiuri daily newspaper reported today….http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/breaking-news/japanese-ire-over-radiation-limit-for-kids/story-e6frf7jx-1226061484710
Germany to become front runner in renewable energy technologies
The expertise of carbuilders and machine-tool makers would drive the switch to renewables, Mr Röttgen said. Germany could become “a frontrunner” in the shift from fossil fuels – a move even the US and China saw as being one of the century’s key competitive challenges.
Röttgen sees rewards in non-nuclear policy, Ft,com By Gerrit Wiesmann and Quentin Peel in Berlin May 23 2011 Phasing out nuclear power in the next decade could boost competitiveness and “reap enormous pay-offs for the economy”, Germany’s environment minister has claimed in a powerful snub to critics… Continue reading
Pakistan and the nuclear terrorism risk
Pakistan is the nuclear Somalia...- By: Sumantra Maitra 05/23/11 The Examiner Pakistani Talibans last night attacked a heavily secured Air Force base in Karachi, Pakistan at approximately 2 AM. Around 15-20 heavily armed terrorists, with rocket propelled granades, shoulder fired missile launchers, and assault rifles, attacked the Air Force base PNS Mehran, which also houses the Pakistani Navy air group, right at the heart of the commercial capital of Pakistan raises question on the failing state.
The Pakistani Taliban spokesperson Ihsan Ullah claimed the attack to be a “revenge for the death of Osama Bin Laden and against the entire infidel foprces of the World.” Hw also warned saying that this attack proves that they are capable of attacking any place in the World, at anytime. …….The PNS Mehran base is within miles of the largest air force base of Pakistan, which is probably also a suspected place of storage of nuclear materials. The attack points out to the increasing radicalisation of the armed forces of Pakistan, as such an attack could not be planned and executed without some inside help from someone inside the Pakistani Navy.
Also it raises the unanswered question about the safety of the nuclear materials in the custody of Pakistan. If the Terrorists can get hold of any IRBM and nuclear materials, a few Indian and Israeli cities, and a few thousand NATO soldiers in Afghanistan might go up in smoke…. Read more at the Washington Examiner: http://washingtonexaminer.com/blogs/opinion-zone/2011/05/pakistan-nuclear-somalia#ixzz1NHl9k74X
Electromagnetic radiation, as well as ionising radiation, may be harmful
Christina Macpherson's websites & blogs
Once again, I am reluctant to get involved in a new area, not really related at all to nuclear power. We KNOW that ionising radiation causes cell damage, cancer, and birth deormities.
Electromagnetic radiation is different. We don’t KNOW that it’s harmful. But – it might be.
New Studies Reveal Stunning Evidence That Cell Phone Radiation Damages DNA, Brain and Sperm Newswise24 May 11 — Cell phones are a ubiquitous part of our lives. New independent studies offer stunning proof that confirms findings from the Council of Europe—pulsed digital signals from cell phones disrupt DNA, impair brain function and lower sperm count. Continue reading
UK plan to dump nuclear waste in sea
Hinkley Point nuclear waste sea disposal plan Nuclear waste is currently stored in vaults at Hinkley Point, BBC News, 23 May 2011 Plans being developed to deal with nuclear waste at Hinkley Point A in west Somerset will see radioactive gas and liquid released into the sea.The power station began decommissioning in 2001 and is working on a system to put “intermediate” waste in vats of acid to reduce it down.
Magnox, the company that manages the site, said there would be no risk to public health or the environment.
But a nuclear expert questioned the controls in place at Hinkley Point……John Large, a nuclear consultant who has worked with power companies and Greenpeace, said: “If you look at the history and the development of the British nuclear industry, and look at the calamity that was caused by radioactive discharges around Sellafield, if the past practice is a sign I don’t think sufficient guards and controls will be in place at this station.”
Before this process can start, it needs to be approved by the Environment Agency and the Office for Nuclear Regulation, and the company will have to apply for planning permission for a new building….http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-somerset-13501260
Doubts on safety of South Asian nuclear facilities
In a webcast lecture made available late Friday, Scott D Sagan said that if developed countries with competent civilian controls can make errors it was safe to assume that countries with “less vigorous civilian controls, less professionalised militaries” will behave in dangerous ways.
According to Sagan, a professor of political science at Stanford University, some states that have nuclear weapons don’t see them as a deterrent but as a shield behind which they can take more aggressive action…..http://tribune.com.pk/story/174148/south-asian-nuclear-safety-in-fallible-hands-us-expert/
Nuclear power and unstable Middle east regimes
Nuclear Power and Unstable Regimes Council on Foreign Relations, Jonathon Pearl 23 May 11, “………However, many of the same regimes that have signed some form of nuclear agreement with a foreign supplier (eg, Egypt, Libya, Tunisia, and Bahrain) have already been toppled or face serious domestic threats to regime survival. Other states in the region such as Jordan and Saudi Arabia, which are relatively more stable, have witnessed their share of domestic protests and are increasingly concerned about their future. Continue reading
Massive radioactive wastes for Malaysia, from Australian company Lynas
- the space for underground wastes storage cells is very limited due to the groundwater being extremely close to the surface;
- the ground is susceptible to subsidence as it is a former peat swamp area;
Lynas plant rushed ahead before radiation study malaysiaKini 23 May 11SM Mohamed Idris, president of Consumers Association of Penang and Sahabat Alam Malaysia
— The Lynas plant in Kuantan is unravelling into a nightmare. The lanthamide concentrates (rare earths) from Australia that Lynas will import into Malaysia contain thorium AND uranium, which suggests the processing in Kuantan will produce massive amount of radioactive wastes. Continue reading
Warning to patients on medical radiation
exposure to radiation from a single diagnostic medical procedure is thought to produce little or no risk to the patient.
However, repeated exposure to ionizing radiation is becoming more common, particularly in acute medical settings such as hospitals
Health-care radiation: How big a problem? The Durango Herald, Dr. Matthew A. Clark, 24 May 11, With advancing medical technologies, health-care decisions are becoming more and more confusing for the general public. Patients need to take a proactive role in informing themselves about their health care……the effect of radiation exposure from diagnostic medical procedures on long-term health. With the increase in use of these procedures, including CAT scan and fluoroscopy, there has been a significant increase in exposure of Americans to ionizing radiation. Ionizing radiation is the kind of radiation that can damage the body’s cells…. Continue reading
1 This Month
of the week – Shut Down Drone Warfare!
Tell the Ukrainian Government to Drop Prosecution of Peace Activist Yurii Sheliazhenko
Petition to revoke the licensing of the Near Surface Nuclear Disposal Facility (NSDF) at Chalk River. https://www.ourcommons.ca/petitions/en/Petition/Details?Petition=e-7247
To see nuclear-related stories in greater depth and intensity – go to https://nuclearinformation.wordpress.com
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