Global nuclear power industry can’t do “business as usual” – UN chief
UN nuke chief: Japan crisis a ‘major challenge’, STRAITS TIMES 5 April 11VIENNA – JAPAN’S reactor crisis poses a major challenge with enormous implications for nuclear power, the head of the UN’s atomic watchdog said on Monday, while separately appearing to criticise the operator of the crippled complex.Yukiya Amano, head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, also stressed that the global nuclear community cannot take a ‘business-as-usual approach.’ Lessons must be learned from the fact that the Fukushima Dai-ichi plant has been leaking radiation into the environment ever since it was hit March 11 by a massive tsunami, he said…….UN nuke chief: Japan crisis a ‘major challenge’
Uranium miners desperately hyping their product
Buying Opportunity: Uranium Prices And Producers Are Poised To Rebound ETF DAILY NEWS, Jason Simpkins, 4 April,11 …….those closest to the situation do not believe that Japan’s disaster will be the death knell for nuclear power. On the contrary, they see it as a short-term blip that will drive antsy speculators out of the market and make room for investors looking to profit from the energy of the future…….there is still a gaping need for an alternative energy source that doesn’t carry the monetary [?] or environmental [?] cost of fossil fuels…….. A Buying Opportunity Indeed, the growth prospects for nuclear power remain strong, as do the prospects for its yellow cake fuel……..
Fukushima radiation and the marine food chain
there is a very strong likelihood that caesium, iodine and strontium could accumulate in the food chain from phytoplankton and algae to edible fish.
The World Today – Scientists monitor fallout from Fukushima 04/04/2011 The World Today , 4 April 11, ELEANOR HALL: Conservation groups and marine scientists say they remain very concerned about the ocean fallout from Japan’s crippled nuclear plant. The Japanese government says it could take months to stop radiation leaking from the plant. Continue reading
Newspaper and sawdust to fix Fukushima nuclear leak?
Japan nuclear crisis: workers using newspaper and sawdust to block pipes, Japanese workers battling to stop a radioactive water leak into the Pacific from the beleaguered nuclear power plant have resorted to using newspaper and sawdust to try and block the pipes. – Telegraph, By Danielle Demetriou, Tokyo 04 Apr 2011
TEPCO workers were using a polymer mixed with shredded paper and sawdust to try to close off pipes through which the water has flowed into a cracked concrete pit at the Fukushima Daiichi plant, from where it has run into the sea. An earlier attempt to seal the crack with cement failed to stop the leak.”From the afternoon, the workers began pouring polymeric powder, sawdust, newspaper – things we could think of to clog up the holes,” said Hidehiko Nishiyama, a spokesman for the nuclear safety agency.
“So far, there has not been any clear indication that the volume of leaking water has been reduced.”…… Japan nuclear crisis: workers using newspaper and sawdust to block pipes – Telegraph
Fukushima “worst nuclear disaster in history”? – with release of radioactive Cesium 137
The highest cesium-137 levels in some villages near Chernobyl were 5 million Bq/m2. If true, Fukushima has already released higher levels of Cesium 137 than Chernobyl, making it the worst source of nuclear radiation release in history…..If preliminary information is correct, Fukushima already is the worst nuclear disaster in history.
Japan’s Government Needs to Move Quickly, THE HUFFINGTON POST, Daniel Wagner, 4 April 11, Daniel Wagner is managing director of Country Risk Solutions, a political risk consulting firm based in Connecticut, and senior advisor to the PRS Group. Why the Japanese Government Needs to Move Quickly The focus of much of the press since the quake and tsunami has been on levels of radioactive iodine that has been released into the environment, but cesium-137 is a much greater health concern and has been linked to cancer deaths nine times greater than radioactive iodine, with a half life of 30 years. Last week, for the first time, the Japanese science ministry began to release measurements of cesium-137 in soil around the plant. Continue reading
German public, churches, oppose nuclear energy, prefer more modest lifestyle
Those in favour of ditching nuclear energy have the churches on their side too, it emerged on Sunday, when the Catholic and Protestant representatives on the Ethics Commission on Atomic Energy expressed their views.
Most Germans would sacrifice lifestyle to ditch nuclear energy – The Local, 4 April 11, A majority of Germans would sacrifice a certain level of quality of life in order to close down the country’s nuclear power stations, according to a new survey. Continue reading
Refuting George Monbiot on the dangers of ionising radiation
If you inhale a millionth of a gram of plutonium, the surrounding cells receive a very, very high dose. Most die within that area, because it’s an alpha emitter. The cells on the periphery remain viable. They mutate, and the regulatory genes are damaged. Years later, that person develops cancer….]t’s imperative that people understand that internal emitters cause cancer, but the incubation time for cancer is any time from two to 60 years. …
VIDEO Nuclear industry propaganda about low-level radiation is “absolute rubbish” says physician who taught at Harvard Med School — It’s all about internal emitters (VIDEO) « Energy News Energy News, HELEN CALDICOTT, 4 April 11, : … Up to a million people have already died from Chernobyl, and people will continue to die from cancer for virtually the rest of time. Continue reading
The unknown present and future costs of nuclear power
the total costs of nuclear power are, in any meaningful sense, incalculable. Investors face cost overruns that could burn through even the deepest pockets. The true cost of waste disposal still is not known. The cost of decommissioning, even decades away, is also a big unknown. And the cost of catastrophic failure is more than a company as large as GE is willing to face. How can any investor calculate the return on investment with such large uncertainties?……
The incalculable cost of nuclear power, guardian.co.uk, Thomas Noyes , 3 April 11 Despite the Fukushima catastrophe, nuclear energy has green advocates. Low carbon it may be, but are they pricing it right? “……the costs and uncertainties of the industry cast serious doubt on the prospects for a nuclear renaissance….. Continue reading
India’s coastline at risk from its nuclear power programme
‘N-power plan will turn coastline into disaster zone’ The Times of India, Apr 4, 2011 NEW DELHI: Former Atomic Energy Regulatory Board (AERB) chairman A Gopalakrishnan has raised alarm over the government’s nuclear power programme based on imported reactors, saying it would turn India’s entire coastline into a disaster zone in waiting.
In a statement issued on Sunday, Gopalakrishnan argued that Department of Atomic Energy’s projection of 6,55,000 MW nuclear power generation capacity by 2050 — with additional fast-breeder reactors that would use plutonium from the imported plants — would mean 655 nuclear power reactors each of 1,000 MW capacity.
Gopalakrishnan said, “These would be stringed along a total coastline of about 6,000 km the country has — about 109 six-reactor nuclear parks, spaced along the coast every 55 km apart”.
He said the reactors being imported were new types, which foreigners had no experience of…
‘N-power plan will turn coastline into disaster zone’ – The Times of India
The anger of evacuated Japanese citizens against nuclear company
In Japan, evacuees direct anger at nuclear-plant owner Tokyo Electric Power Co. The Washington Post By Andrew Higgins, April 3, TAMURA, JAPAN — When the boss of Tokyo Electric Power Co. checked into a Tokyo hospital last week with high blood pressure, he didn’t get any sympathy from Tomishige Maruzoi. “High blood pressure? We’ve all got high blood pressure,” said Maruzoi, a 57-year-old construction worker who now sleeps on a piece of cardboard in a gymnasium. “I feel nothing but anger.”
Maruzoi fled his home, less than two miles from the stricken Fukushima Daiichi nuclear complex, on March 12. In a fit of fury and despair, he decided last week to return and see for himself the havoc wrought by Tokyo Electric, known as Tepco….He stayed for less than an hour, just long enough to inspect his property, grab some clothes — and dig up some soil from his garden.He wrapped the earth in plastic and set off back to Tamura,….Back in the gymnasium, Maruzoi had the soil tested at a radiation screening center. The Geiger counter flashed an alarm. Maruzoi quickly got rid of his contaminated sod. He also ditched all hope of returning to Okuma to live anytime soon.“I wish I could go back, but realistically it will not be possible for 20 or 30 years,”….. In Japan, evacuees direct anger at nuclear-plant owner Tokyo Electric Power Co. – The Washington Post
France’s nuclear plant owners not liable for accident costs
Whereas nuclear power plants are liable under German regulations for damages of up to 2.5 billion euros, for example, those in France can be found only liable for just 91.5 million.
“It is unfair that a nuclear power plant only needs to insure itself against a fraction of its risks.” Green European MP Claude Turmes told the business magazine.
Pressure rising on Europe’s nuclear plant owners Reuters Apr 3, 2011 “….. FATAL EXPANSION Separately, WirtschaftsWoche reported Oettinger plans to talk to nuclear power plant operators and insurers in Brussels on Tuesday about harmonising liabilities across the EU, seen as an implicit subsidy for operators in certain countries. Continue reading
Earthquake danger to Iran’s nuclear plant
Iran is one of the most seismic countries in the word. The Islamic Republic experiences at least one slight earthquake every day and even moderate earthquakes have killed thousands of people in more remote areas. Iran is surrounded by tectonically active zones and has experienced several heavy earthquakes in the recent years striking all sides of the country…..Surprisingly little attention is paid by scholars and the media to how earthquakes could possibly affect Iran’s nuclear facilities.
Earthquakes: Iran not Safe for Nuclear Energy, Global Arab Network |Gerlinde Gerber, 4 April 11, “………As the world anxiously looks to the nuclear reactors in Japan, with a broken down cooling system following an earthquake and tsunami, the dangers and vulnerabilities of nuclear energy production once again come to mind. A country, which is equally prone to earthquakes like Japan, is Iran……. Continue reading
50 prominent Indians call for moratorium on nuclear projects
Are India and Germany beginning to show the way for other democracies around the world? The nuclear moratorium issue appears to be fast becoming the clarion call of our times.
“I” for India comes after “G” for Germany. Energy Collective 4 April 11, A top Indian scientist and government advisor, backed by more than 50 prominent figures, has called for a moratorium on all future nuclear projects following the nuclear crisis in tsunami-hit Japan. Continue reading
At UN meeting, call for renewable energy
Activists call for renewable energy at UN meeting (AP) Google news, 4 April 11, BANGKOK — Citing the nuclear disaster in Fukushima, environmental activists at a U.N. meeting Sunday urged bolder steps to tap renewable energy so the world doesn’t have to choose between the dangers of nuclear power and the ravages of climate change. The call came at the opening of the six-day meeting aimed at implementing resolutions tabled at the U.N. Climate Change Conference in Cancun, Mexico, in December.
Senior officials from governments and international organizations will already be playing some catch-up as deadlines — including one for the formation of a multibillion fund to help developing nations obtain clean-energy technology — have been missed along a roadmap leading to another climate summit at the end of the year in Durban, South Africa…….
One of the issues taken up in Bangkok will be the formation of the Green Climate Fund, which is to aid developing nations obtain clean-energy technology. Governments have agreed to mobilize $100 billion a year, starting in 2020, but a “transition committee” to design the fund, which was to have been formed last month, is still being discussed along with exactly how the money will be raised…….The Associated Press: Activists call for renewable energy at UN meeting
People power can once again stop the nuclear industry
Society’s energy “needs” (“wants” being the more operative word) exist on one side of the scales, and society’s concern for preventing the fouling of the only nest we have is on the other. It is up to us, the people, to educate ourselves and ensure rational protections. If we leave it to the money people, the profiteers — well, we’ve seen what Wall Street’s greed can do to our economy. Short-sighted greed and arrogance will also wreck our living planet, if left to run free……..The energy-consuming public will continue to hear from industry promoters and the scientists and engineers whose work is funded by them that the latest designs are foolproof
Right back on the nuclear fool cycle Stay informed about nuclear dangers because the lessons are always lost on politicians and the industry By Vip Short The Register-Guard 4 Aprl 11 Ah, lesson learned — until repeated. Here we are again at the next climactic moment of what may someday be called the nuclear fool cycle. While President Obama has recently renewed his call for more nuclear power plants, The Register-Guard wisely points to the many inherent and unsolved dangers in a March 15 editorial, “Nuclear failure in Japan.” Continue reading
1 This Month
of the week–London Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament
Tell the Ukrainian Government to Drop Prosecution of Peace Activist Yurii Sheliazhenko
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