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Japan to decide on level for lifetime exposure to ionising radiation

The report pointed out effects of radiation exposure on children are more serious than those on adults, 

Govt to cap radiation limit / Report recommends lifetime exposure of no more than 100mSv, The Yomiuri Shimbun, 29 Oct 11, A report by the Cabinet Office’s Food Safety Commission has recommended a person’s cumulative lifetime radiation exposure from food should be limited to about 100 millisieverts.

The report compiled Thursday covers possible effects on health from internal exposure from food containing radioactive substances. Based on the report, the Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry will begin considering individual regulatory figures for foods.

It is likely the new limits will be stricter than interim limits, hurriedly implemented shortly after the crisis began at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant. Continue reading →

October 29, 2011 Posted by | health, Japan | Leave a comment

The danger of dismantling nuclear submarines in a city

It is the magnitude of the consequences of a nuclear accident that make it unacceptable to locate such a facility in the middle of a city of 250,000 people….

 Devonport is not immune from accidents. There have been nine radioactive leaks since 1997.   The impact of a significant accident in the dockyard would be devastating. It would not remain confined behind its walls but would affect a much wider area.

Should N-subs be dismantled in city? Plymouth Herald, October 28, 2011 ONE of the most controversial proposals to affect Plymouth in generations is set to be thrust firmly into the public domain from today.

The Ministry of Defence has today begun a 16-week consultation exercise exploring the options for dismantling decommissioned nuclear-powered submarines. The consultation aims to find a permanent home for The Submarine Dismantling Project (SDP) – either in Plymouth, or Scotland. Continue reading →

October 29, 2011 Posted by | decommission reactor, safety, UK, weapons and war | Leave a comment

Quiet wind turbine for decentralised energy systems

Suited to grid and non-grid connections, the turbine is extremely versatile and has great appeal for commercial sites, urban environments, such as industrial parks, airports, community groups, universities, councils, ports and manufacturing facilities…..

VIDEO
http://www.azocleantech.com/news.aspx?newsID=15749   Australian Company Launches World’s Quietest Wind Turbine, AZO CleanTech October 26, 2011   Australian renewable energy innovation continues to lead the way with the launch of the worlds’ quietest wind turbine, released to market this week. The cutting edge turbine stands 21 metres high and features a unique, intuitive blade design that is virtually silent.

The Eco Whisper Turbine is set to revolutionise delivery of renewable electricity supply for urban and rural applications, Continue reading →

October 29, 2011 Posted by | AUSTRALIA, renewable | Leave a comment

Japan ceases policy of promoting nuclear energy

Japan drops nuclear promotion, Today, Oct 29, 2011 TOKYO – Japan’s government abandoned its policy of promoting atomic power, saying it will reduce reliance on the sector in its first annual review of energy since the Fukushima nuclear disaster. Continue reading →

October 29, 2011 Posted by | Japan, politics | Leave a comment

Wikileaks reveal Saudi Arabia’s fears about Iran’s nuclear plant

Plumbing WikiLeaks: Saudi Arabia Fears Iranian Nuclear Meltdown and Potential Terrorism to Desalination, Circle of Blue, By Brett Walton, 28 OCTOBER 2011  Classified cables show that Saudi and U.S. officials believe water supplies along the Persian Gulf are at high-risk for terrorist attacks and possible contamination from nearby nuclear plants. This is the first of a new series that will analyze the water-related U.S. embassy cables published by WikiLeaks.

“The location is so dangerous,” said Prince Turki Al-Kabeer, the undersecretary for multilateral affairs from the Saudi Ministry of Foreign Affairs. “Not just to us, but to the world economy!”

Ostensibly, Prince Turki was meeting with the Netherlands ambassador, the Russian ambassador, and a political/military counselor from the American embassy to discuss an initiative against nuclear terrorism. But — according to a classified American embassy cable from 2009 that has since been published by WikiLeaks — the conversation turned to Iran’s nuclear program and the Russian-built reactor at Bushehr, a site less than 300 kilometers (186 miles) from Saudi shores on Iran’s Persian Gulf coast.

Prince Turki went on to say that Russia should “use its influence” to persuade Iran to relocate the reactor to the Caspian Sea, where there would be sufficient water for cooling, and, the cable’s author makes clear, isolation from Saudi territory, if a nuclear accident were to occur.

At risk, according to both Saudi and U.S. officials, are the desalination plants supplying much of Saudi Arabia’s drinking water, and the Persian Gulf waterway that conveys a large portion of the world’s oil exports — 6.6 million barrels per day… http://www.circleofblue.org/waternews/2011/world/plumbing-wikileaks-saudi-arabia-fears-iranian-nuclear-meltdown-and-potential-terrorism-to-desalination/

October 29, 2011 Posted by | politics international, Saudi Arabia, water | Leave a comment

Compelling evidence that global warming is real

He and his fellow researchers examined a huge data set of observed temperatures from monitoring stations around the world and concluded the average land temperature has risen 1 degree  since the mid-1950s. This agrees with the rise estimated by the United Nations-sponsored Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

Muller and his colleagues looked at five times as many temperature readings as did other researchers,  a total of 1.6 billion records, and now have put that merged database online

It is the know-nothing politicians — not scientists — who are committing an unforgivable fraud

Chilling news for climate sceptics, The Age, Eugene Robinson, October 28, 2011 Research by a former poster boy for doubters makes it much harder to deny warming.

FOR the clueless or cynical diehards who deny global warming, it’s getting awfully cold out there. The latest icy blast of reality comes from an eminent scientist whom climate-change sceptics once lauded as one of their own.

Richard Muller, a respected physicist at the University of California, Berkeley, used to dismiss alarming climate research as “polluted by political and activist frenzy’’. Frustrated at what he considered shoddy science, Muller launched his own comprehensive study to set the record straight.

Instead, the record set him straight. Continue reading →

October 29, 2011 Posted by | 2 WORLD, climate change | Leave a comment

Nuclear industry admits that it cannot compete on costs

Is Nuclear Energy a Fuel with a Future?, Huffington Post, Andy Mannle, : 10/28/11 “……… Powerful industry lobbies in the U.S. and elsewhere will continue to support nuclear as a fuel source, of course, but even the industry recognizes that a major expansion is unlikely.

Speaking at an American Nuclear Society conference in August 2011, John Rowe, CEO of Exelon, the country’s largest nuclear utility said 3 of the 4 conditions necessary for expanding nuclear cannot be met. While newer designs offer the right technology, Rowe argues that the government has not resolved waste disposal issues. Additionally, there is currently excess generation capacity because the economic recession has slowed energy consumption. While this will likely change as we retire more coal plants and the economy grows, the influx of cheap natural gas from shale has undercut nuclear’s higher prices.

Today, nuclear cannot compete on cost with fossil fuels, and cannot compete on quality with renewables. Going forward, renewables offer rapid growth and innovation combined with falling costs, which will make it harder for nuclear to compete in the future. And as fossil fuel prices rise, they will also likely drive up nuclear’s construction costs, offsetting any price advantage there.

Without a major breakthrough, it seems safe to say nuclear will never be cheaper than coal or natural gas; nor will it be as safe, clean, and attractive to consumers and investors as renewables. In the end, the most likely option for nuclear energy is neither renaissance nor retreat, but continued slow growth, with heated arguments on all sides…. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/andy-mannle/nuclear-energy-a-fuel-with_b_1032727.html

October 29, 2011 Posted by | 2 WORLD, business and costs | Leave a comment

Las Vegas’ water supply must be protected from uranium mining

Keep uranium out of our water supply, Launce Rake, Las Vegas Sun,  Oct. 28, 2011   Uranium mining on the Colorado River, near the Grand Canyon National Park, is a bad idea that needs to be rejected by Nevada’s representatives in Congress. Uranium mining contaminates rivers — even mines that closed years or decades ago leach toxic and radioactive material into our water. The mining industry wants to start mining about 90 miles northeast of Las Vegas on the Arizona Strip, within range of Lake Mead and our water supply.

The U.S. Department of Interior told the uranium mining industry this week that our water is too important to risk with its mines. Our entire congressional delegation should support the decision and keep the mines away from our drinking water. http://www.lasvegassun.com/news/2011/oct/28/keep-uranium-out-our-water-supply/

October 29, 2011 Posted by | Uranium, USA, water | Leave a comment

India’s nuclear power safety problems are getting worse

Admitting problems, the federal Department of Atomic Energy (DAE) has said there could be a delay in the two projects.
Meanwhile, the state government of West Bengal state has refused permission to a proposed 6000 MW facility near the town of Haripur that intended to host six Russian reactors. ..

 activists and experts have called for an audit by an independent body. They say that given the non-transparent nature of India’s state-controlled nuclear energy sector – there is no way to estimate whether safety issues will be carefully followed

India’s Rising Nuclear safety Concerns , Asia Sentinel, Siddharth Srivastava, 27 Oct 11, Concerns about safety of nuclear power plants (NPPs) are threateningIndia’s massive investment plans in the sector..

Post the Fukushima nuclear disaster in Japan populations around proposed Indian NPP sites have launched protests that are now finding resonance around the country, raising questions about atomic energy as a clean and safe alternative to fossil fuels. Continue reading →

October 28, 2011 Posted by | India, safety | Leave a comment

Support for India’s Kudankulam anti nuclear protestors

Kudankulam anti-nuclear team hopeful of support of local bodies, Economic Times, 28 OCT, 2011,  JOE A SCARIA,   CHENNAI: The anti-nuclear protests at Kudankulam entered the tenth day on Thursday, with leaders of the rainbow organisations demanding scrapping of the nuclear plant in the village hopeful that the newly-elected local body representatives will support their cause.

AIADMK had scored an emphatic win last week in the local body elections in Tamil Nadu. The nuclear plant at Kudankulam was an election issue across Kanyakumari, Nagercoil and Tirunelveli districts. The polls have also thrown up a number of independent candidates in panchayats like Idinthakarai, where the protests are being staged, and at Kudankulam. “We are speaking to the newly-elected local body representatives and they are in support of our demand,” convenor of the Coastal People’s Federation M Pushparayan, one of the organisations fighting for closure of the Indo-Russian joint ventureKudankulam Nuclear Power Project, told ET.
The Centre had set up a 15-member expert committee to study the issue, but protest leaders say they want a halt to the work at the plant before they can hold discussions with the expert committee.

Roughly 500 people are taking turns each day for the relay fast at Idinthikarai village, close to the Kudankulam nuclear power plant. Pushparayan said villagers from Koottapanai and Kuttuthalai were on fast on Thursday. Among the prominent persons visiting the site on Thursday was the Church of South India’s bishop for Tuticorin, JAD Jebachandran.

Protestors have also expressed disappointment over the composition of the expert committee. “We are not against the committee, but the fact is that the committee was set up without our knowledge and also without taking the state government into confidence,” Pushparayan said.

The Tamil Nadu Cabinet had passed a resolution demanding halt to work at the project, and J Jayalalithaa had assured her support to the local people during the local body poll campaign. .. http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/politics/nation/kudankulam-anti-nuclear-team-hopeful-of-support-of-local-bodies/articleshow/10514024.cms

October 28, 2011 Posted by | India, opposition to nuclear | 2 Comments

Dealing with wrecked Fukushima nuclear reactors will take decades

Three decades needed to make Fukushima safe, ABC News, By North Asia correspondent, October 28, 2011  30 years to decommission: Inside the Fukushima nuclear plant A draft report by Japan’s nuclear agency says it will take more than 30 years to decommission the shattered Fukushima nuclear plant.

Authorities hope to have the stricken reactors in a state of cold shutdown by the end of the year. The draft report from the cabinet’s nuclear agency estimates that reactors number one through to four at the Fukushima plant will not be fully decommissioned until 2042.

As well as achieving cold shutdown of the reactors, each reactor building has to be decontaminated, and then fuel from the spent fuel pools has to be collected.

The final stage involves collecting nuclear fuel from inside the four reactors. Reactors one, two and three all suffered meltdowns after a tsunami slammed into the plant in March… http://www.abc.net.au/news/2011-10-28/fukushima-nuclear-decommission/3605094/?site=melbourne

October 28, 2011 Posted by | decommission reactor, Japan | Leave a comment

Russian nuclear experts have left India’s Kudankulam nuclear project site

Russian team leaves Kudankulam site,THE HINDU 28 Oct 11A team of experts from Atomstroyexports, the Russian firm that supplies technology and the equipment for the 2 X 1,000 MWe nuclear reactors of Kudankulam Nuclear Power Project, who had camped at Kudankulam to inspect the quality of the work completed so far and witness the functioning of the equipment installed, have left the site. The Russians took this decision as they could not get permission to go to the KKNPP site from Anu Vijay Township, where they were staying in the wake of the ongoing protest against the nuclear power project…. http://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/Madurai/article2574703.ece

October 28, 2011 Posted by | business and costs, India | Leave a comment

Radioactive cores of B53 nuclear bombers remain dangerous

 

 

 The announcement of the disassembly of the last B53 may seem to imply that everything has been taken apart and made safe. This is correct as far as the direct risk of a nuclear explosion is concerned; but the reality is that the highly radioactive cores of B53 and other dismantled weapons, known as “pits”, are simply being put into protected storage.  …..many have been dismantled, but the pits are still there and will remain so for many years to come…

learning the lessons of the cold war is a matter as much for the future as for the past.     

 

Mad Men: Nuclear Pasts, Human Futures The dismantling of a powerful nuclear bomb closes a chapter of the cold war. But the choices and responsibilities embedded in the story of the B53 make this a 21st-century story too.ISN By Paul Rogers for OpenDemocracy, 28 Oct 11 The last of the most powerful thermonuclear bombs in the United States arsenal – the B53 – was dismantled in Texas on 25 October 2011. Is this a significant moment, or is it scarcely relevant in a world of slow nuclear proliferation? Continue reading →

October 28, 2011 Posted by | Religion and ethics, USA, weapons and war | Leave a comment

A global program to rid the world of the nuclear power chain

FREE THE WORLD FROM THE NUCLEAR CHAIN By Xanthe Hall*  IDN-InDepth NewsViewpoint  27 Oct 11 Nuclear Power and the Bomb are inextricably linked through an atomic chain. The nuclear era began in Germany, so we have a specific responsibility to end it sooner rather than later.

BERLIN (IDN) – We talk about abandoning nuclear energy or abolishing nuclear weapons. But this is not enough. They are only the visible products of a whole chain of production that binds us – the nuclear chain. This chain does much more damage than we are aware of. Continue reading →

October 28, 2011 Posted by | general | Leave a comment

Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting – behind the scenes, India lobbies for Australian uranium

India lobbies for Australian uranium, THE HINDU PRISCILLA JEBARAJ, 28 Oct 11 “……Informal, behind-the-scenes diplomacy is a key part of the CHOGM summits, and India seemed to be using the opportunity to lobby for a change in Australia’s uranium exports policy banning sales to India, which is not a signatory of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).

The issue reportedly came up at Mr. Ansari’s meeting with Australian Leader of the Opposition Tony Abbott on Thursday. Mr. Abbott heads the centre-right Liberal Party of Australia, which favours allowing Australia — which has the world’s largest reserves of uranium — to export the mineral to India…..

Mr. Ansari is also likely to discuss the issue at his bilateral meeting with Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard later this week. The ruling Labour party is split on the issue, which is expected to be a subject of hot debate at the party conference this December. Foreign Minister Kevin Rudd argued that India’s civil nuclear power programme was not dependent on Australian uranium.

“If you hear an argument from an Indian businessperson that the future of the nuclear industry in India depends exclusively on access to uranium, that is simply not sustainable as a proposition. Have a look at the data,” he said at a mining industry breakfast, according to a report by Australian news agency AAP. Both Indian officials and businessmen have been raising the issue on the sidelines of the CHOGM. “There is no problem in terms of global supply, let’s just be very, very blunt about this.”However, Resources Minister Martin Ferguson who supports uranium exports to India, said he was eager to debate the issue at the party conference, which could turn out to be pivotal for India’s hopes of accessing Australian uranium….http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/article2574653.ece

October 28, 2011 Posted by | India, politics international, Uranium | Leave a comment

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