TEPCO wants $12 billion from Japanese government to avoid bankruptcy
Tepco to Ask for $12 Billion From Government, Nikkei Reports, October 27, 2011, By Tsuyoshi Inajima Oct. 28 (Bloomberg) –– Tokyo Electric Power Co. will ask the government for 900 billion yen ($12 billion) to avoid bankruptcy, the Nikkei newspaper said, the first state support since the Fukushima nuclear disaster almost eight months ago.
The aid will be the first disbursement from the Nuclear Damage Liability Facilitation Fund that was set up last month. Tepco and the fund have been drafting a business plan to pave the way for government support for the utility, which may have to pay 4.5 trillion yen in compensation to residents and businesses hurt by the disaster by March 2013.
Tokyo Electric’s Fukushima Dai-Ichi atomic plant has been discharging radiation since the March 11 earthquake and tsunami knocked out cooling systems, causing three meltdowns and explosions. The catastrophe forced 160,000 people to flee radiation and damaged fishing, farming and forestry businesses….Tepco may face 8.6 trillion yen in funding shortages during the next decade if none of its nuclear power plants come back online and electricity prices aren’t increased, a government panel said earlier this month after reviewing the company’s finances. ..http://www.businessweek.com/news/2011-10-27/tepco-to-ask-for-12-billion-from-government-nikkei-reports.html
AREVA’s uranium mining revenues fall
Areva 9-month revenues fall 3.5 pct,
By Caroline Jacobs and Christian Plumb PARIS, Oct 27 (Reuters) – French nuclear group Areva posted a 3.5 percent decline in nine-month sales on Thursday, squeezed by weakness in its uranium mining and waste-processing businesses.
Revenues reached 5.95 billion euros ($8.4 billion) and were down 1.5 percent on a like-for-like basis, state-owned Areva said in a statement. For the third-quarter alone, revenues fell 2.9 percent to 1.95 billion euros, Areva said, without providing details about specific business lines’ performance for the period…..
Since the nuclear disaster at Japan’s Fukushima power plant in March, order cancellations have been just 301 million euros, Areva said.
Countries such as Germany, Switzerland and Italy have shelved nuclear plans after the incident, but others such as Britain, Poland or the Czech Republic said they would go ahead with the construction of new plants.
Areva is assessing what consequences Fukushima will have on its business and will announce its five-year strategy plan in December….
http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/10/27/aereva-revenue-idUSL5E7LR5BZ20111027
Fukushima’s radiation pollution of the Pacific ocean
Fukushima’s nuclear pollution of Pacific the world’s greatest: nuclear monitor, The Vancouver Sun, Agence France-Presse October 27, 2011 The IRSN cites deep-water fish, fish at the top of the marine food chain and molluscs and other filtrating organisms as “the species that are the most sensitive” to caesium pollution.
PARIS – France’s nuclear monitor said on Thursday that the amount of caesium 137 that leaked into the Pacific from the Fukushima disaster was the greatest single nuclear contamination of the sea ever seen….. Continue reading
Canada could be drawn into USA military operations
By participating in such a program, … there’s a risk of making Canada more likely to become involved in future U.S. military operations.
Ottawa to spend up to $477M on U.S. military satellites, NATIONAL POST Canada, By Lee Berthiaume, Oct 26, 2011 OTTAWA — The federal government is planning to spend as much as $477-million to participate in a U.S.-led military satellite program that has been subject to delays and cost overruns over the past decade, Postmedia News has learned.
The Wideband Global Satellite system has been advertised by the U.S. Defense Department as a communications system for “U.S. warfighters, allies and coalition partners during all levels of conflict, short of nuclear war.”
The idea is to have as many as nine military satellites hovering over different parts of the world, ready to provide high-frequency bandwidth for U.S. and allied forces wherever they may be operating….. Continue reading
Nuclear radiation more harmful to women
ATOMIC RADIATION IS MORE HARMFUL TO WOMEN , Nuclear Information and Referral Service, 27 Oct 11, Women as a group suffer significantly more from the impact of ionizing radiation than do men. Today Nuclear Information and Resource Service published a Briefing Paper that focuses on a dramatic fifty-percent greater incidence of cancer and fifty-percent greater rate of death from cancer among women, compared to the same radiation dose
level to men. To be clear: males suffer cancer and cancer death from exposure to ionizing radiation; but gender difference in the level of harm has been to date underreported.
The data leading to this conclusion originally was reported in the National Academy of Sciences 2006 report, “BEIR VII” which is the seventh report in a series on the Biological Effects of Ionizing Radiation. Continue reading
New data study shows radiation from Fukushima much higher than claimed
Fallout Forensics: Fukushima’s radiation toll much higher than claimed, Smart Planet, By Janet Fang | October 25, 2011, Far more radiation was released after the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant accident than the Japanese government has claimed, new global data conclude.
This new study on the post-earthquake disaster in March combines radioactivity data from around the world to estimate the scale and fate of emissions from the plant. Nature News reports.
This is the most comprehensive effort yet to understand the amount of radiation released from the power plant (pictured), according to study researcher Andreas Stohl from the Norwegian Institute for Air Research. Continue reading
China waking up to the danger of its nuclear program
Nuclear-safety risks rising in China, warns minister, Economic Times, 27 OCT, 2011, BEIJING: China is facing increasing safety risks from its nuclear power plants as existing facilities age and a large number of new reactors go into operation, the country’s environmental minister said in comments published on Wednesday. “The safety standards of China’s early-phase nuclear facilities are relatively low, operation times are long, some facilities are obsolete and the safety risks are increasing ,” said Zhou Shengxian in a speech published on the website of China’s parliament, the National People’sCongress. Zhou told legislators that the scale and pace of nuclear construction had accelerated, a larger range of technologies had been introduced, and potential sources of radiation had become more widespread, making it harder to monitor safety .
China has 13 nuclear reactors in operation and another 28 under construction, but it has suspended all new project approvals in the wake of the tsunami in northeast Japan, which left the Fukushima Daiichi reactor on the brink of meltdown. After the suspension, Beijing launched a nationwide inspection of all nuclear sites, including reactors already operating and those under construction, and is drawing up comprehensive new industry guidelines.. http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/politics/nation/nuclear-safety-risks-rising-in-china-warns-minister/articleshow/10503077.cms
How the media underplays seriousness of Fukushima radiation
Radioactive contamination of soil, tap water, rain water, groundwater, beef, fish, vegetables, animal feed and incinerator ash are almost always said to be of little or “no immediate” danger, which helps explain why Fukushima has faded from public consciousness.
Radiation Reporting: Blind, Idiotic, Corrupt — or All Three Huntington News, , October 26, 2011 BY JOHN LAFORGE The ongoing radiation catastrophe stemming from three out-of-control nuclear reactors in Fukushima, Japan has taken a back seat to far graver news events of late: Michael Jackson’s doctor, fund-raising by presidential hopefuls, the World Series, and Netflix stock.
Why China might put nuclear warheads in underground tunnels
try to understand China’s strategic challenges and why it might go to some fairly extreme lengths to try to solve them.
The “Underground Great Wall:” An Alternative Explanation James M. Acton PROLIFERATION ANALYSIS, OCTOBER 26, 2011 It is tempting to dismiss the story in Monday’s Wall Street Journal claiming that China has around 3,000 nuclear warheads as the kind of reporting that could only be considered “fair and balanced” on Fox News and just ignore it. After all, as long ago as 2004, Jeffrey Lewis tracked down the origin of media reports cited by the Journal that China has 2,350 nuclear weapons. Embarrassingly, the source is an online essay based on bogus U.S. intelligence information that was posted by a Singapore University student. Moreover, it hardly seems worth wasting storage space on the Carnegie server explaining why it is invalid to estimate the size of China’s contemporary arsenal by taking a 1960s U.S. intelligence report that predicted how many warheads China would have in 1973 and then assuming that it has built up at a constant rate since then. Continue reading
A stop to new uranium mines near Grand Canyon
Obama to block new uranium mine claims near Grand Canyon, Miami Herald, 26 Oct 11, BY RENEE SCHOOF, WASHINGTON – New uranium mining claims on 1 million acres around the Grand Canyon will be blocked for 20 years under a decision the Bureau of Land Management announced Wednesday.
The announcement confirmed that the Obama administration was proceeding with a plan that Interior Secretary Ken Salazar announced in July and is expected to make final in 30 days. The decision withdraws a right to Western public lands that mining companies otherwise would have under the 1872 Mining Law. Continue reading
Study on cancer rates near nuclear power plants
As the nation explores whether to invest more in nuclear energy, the National Academy of Sciences is working on a study of cancer rates among people living near nuclear facilities.
“If you show living near a nuclear facility increases your chances of getting cancer, there will have to be radical changes,”
Study aims to bring facts to nuclear power debate, including facilty north of Asheville Parts of WNC Citizen Times, ASHEVILLE, 26 Oct 11, — From a small town in east Tennessee to the nation’s capital, scientists studying cancer rates heard a similar call from those who live near nuclear power plants.
“I really would like to see some real science out there that really analyzes and understands the root causes behind this,” Westmont, Ill., resident and mother Shari Katz, said during a Chicago hearing on the study earlier this year. Continue reading
USA Republicans scrutinise solar energy loans, but not nuclear loans!
House Dems to Republicans: What about nuclear loan guarantees?, THE HILL, By Andrew Restuccia – 10/26/11 Democrats on the House Energy and Commerce Committee pressed Republicans Wednesday to broaden their loan guarantee investigation to include investments in nuclear energy projects.
Republicans are “picking oversight targets based on which administration approved the loan or loan guarantee or on whether [they] approve or disapprove of the type of energy produced,” the Democrats said. Continue reading
New Start nuclear weapons data increases uncertainty
though not yet 1 year old, the New START treaty is already beginning to increase uncertainty about the status of U.S. and Russian nuclear forces,”
U.S. Releases New START Nuke DataNTI Global Security Newswire, Oct. 26, 2011 The United States as of last month officially had 1,790 deployed strategic nuclear warheads, while Russia had fielded 1,566 long-range weapons, according to details from a semiannual information swap mandated under a strategic nuclear arms control treaty between the two countries (see GSN, Aug. 5). Continue reading
Canada underestimated radiation doses of health care workers
Radiation doses of 1,769 health care workers under-reported for four years The Star. com, 26 oct 11, A system used by 1,769 health care and research workers to measure their workplace radiation exposure may have under-reported radiation levels since 2008, says the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission. The commission says a “calculation error” in the management system used by the devices is responsible for the low readings. Continue reading
South Korea’s nuclear regulator serving the industry rather than safety
concerns that this organization created to regulate nuclear power plant safety will merely serve to bolster the industry and serve as its shield
A conflict of interest in nuclear safety oversight, THE HANKYOREH , 26 oct 11, Today sees the launch of a presidential commission on nuclear safety and security. It was established to assume the safety regulation duties of nuclear power promotion organizations and conducting proper examinations of nuclear power safety so that citizens can rest easy. But the commission has gotten off on the wrong foot.
The individual appointed as the commission’s chair, a position comparable Cabinet minister, is Seoul National University Emeritus Professor of Nuclear Engineering Kang Chang-soon, a leading figure in the nuclear power industry. Kang reportedly held the post of vice chairman of the Korea Atomic Industrial Forum, an organization of nuclear power industry figures, only to resign that post just after his nomination. He previously served as an outside director for Doosan Heavy Industries and Construction, a firm that builds nuclear power plants, and as an advisory committee member for the Korea Hydro and Nuclear Power Company, which manages them. He has taken on numerous projects commissioned by nuclear power companies and stated his belief that South Korea should increase its reliance on nuclear power to 70%. Continue reading
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