nuclear-news

The News That Matters about the Nuclear Industry Fukushima Chernobyl Mayak Three Mile Island Atomic Testing Radiation Isotope

France increases fines, cracks down on anti nuclear protestors

Post-Fukushima, France breaks silence on nuclear safety, The Hindu VAIJU NARAVANE, 11 Oct 11 “…….France has always come down hard on any anti-nuclear protests and there has been very little debate on the decision taken in the 1950s or under the post-oil-crisis Messmer Plan of 1974, to wholeheartedly embrace nuclear energy. An appeals court in the northern city of Caen on September 27, upped the fines slapped on Greenpeace France for occupying the nuclear site at Flamanville (Normandy) where France’s first EPR reactor is under construction.

Greenpeace France will now have to pay €2,500 instead of the initial €1,500 and individual protesters will have to cough up fines of €200 each. The French electricity giant EDF, which is the constructor and future operator of the reactor, had called for damages and interest amounting to €155,000…. http://www.thehindu.com/opinion/op-ed/article2526288.ece

October 11, 2011 Posted by | civil liberties, France | Leave a comment

Renewables, energy efficiency Florida and Georgia’s cheaper options than nuclear

Why Go Nuclear When Efficiency, Renewables Fit the Bill? UK IB Times.com 09 October 2011,   What’s the likely result if the more than 20 applications for new or expanded nuclear plants are approved by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission? That’s the question addressed in the report, “Big Risks, Better Alternatives,” by Synapse Energy Economics on behalf of the Union of Concerned Scientists.

The main thesis of the report is that forecasts for energy demand growth in the U.S. are now much lower than they were when these projects were initially proposed.

The report focuses on two proposed nuclear projects in Florida and Georgia, states which rank among the worst in the nation in energy efficiency, according to the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy (ACEEE). If either state were to pursue even modest efficiency goals, peak load energy levels could remain below those of 2006. Continue reading →

October 11, 2011 Posted by | renewable, USA | Leave a comment

In 2011, UK’s record growth in renewable energy

UK Reports Record Level of Renewable Energy, October 10th, 2011 by Jenson Brayshaw According to new reports, the second quarter of 2011 has seen green energy contribute to about 9.6 percent of the UK’s total electricity supply. This is a huge rise on 2010 levels. This news was reported by the Department of Energy and Climate Change. Continue reading →

October 11, 2011 Posted by | renewable, UK | Leave a comment

TEPCO now owes $50 billion in Fukushima nuclear compensation

N-disaster price: Tepco to pay $50 bn? Hindustan Times , Aizuwakamatsu, October 10, 2011 “…….Seven months after the triple meltdown at Fukushima Daiichi, Tepco, which operated the facility, owes $50 billion in compensation to the tens of thousands who lived close to the plant. The payments could send the company into bankruptcy, a government panel recently said. At minimum, they will handcuff the utility giant for years, forcing it to cut jobs, sell its assets and perhaps raise electricity rates for its 29 million customers….

The prestige of working for Tepco is gone, and so are many of the perks. It once operated resorts and sponsored clubs for employees. But since the disaster, it has booked $23 billion in losses. Economists say the company will either go bankrupt or carry for years the baggage of debts to evacuees and lenders.. http://www.hindustantimes.com/N-disaster-price-Tepco-to-pay-50-bn/Article1-755743.aspx

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

Norway launches scheme to finance renewable energy in developing countries

 Only clean energy is good enough Energy portal EU, 10 Oct 11 Today the Norwegian government will launch Energy +, a global initiative to finance access to renewable energy, energy efficiency and low carbon development in developing countries. WWF welcomes this effort to bring clean and safe light, heat and energy to the approximate 3 billion people in the world without access to reliable energy, and applauds Norway’s leadership.

Norway will launch Energy + at a high-level conference co-organized by the International Energy Agency and attended by UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon. The conference will include discussion of both renewables and fossil fuels as solutions to energy poverty.

Rasmus Hansson, CEO of WWF-Norway, says: “Ending energy poverty should be part of the solution to climate change, not part of the problem. WWF urges Norway, and other countries, to keep their focus on renewables, the energy of the future – not on the dirty fossil fuels of the past.”…

2012 will be the UN year of sustainable energy for all. “We urge the UN to focus on renewable energy, the only truly sustainable energy source. WWF’s Energy Report shows that we can meet all of the world’s energy needs with 100% renewable energy. We think this is a great focus for 2012, “said Samantha Smith.

http://energyportal.eu/latest-green-energy-news/9734-only-clean-energy-is-good-enough.html

October 11, 2011 Posted by | EUROPE, renewable | Leave a comment

Questions on the huge costs likely for consumers in effort to fix nuclear plant

the total cost of fixing the plant and buying electricity from someone else that the nuke plant should be generating? About $2.5 billion. Progress Energy’s Florida customers will pay hundreds of millions of dollars of that bill…..

Honey, I broke the nuclear power plant, Tampa Bay.com By Robert Trigaux, Times Business Columnist , October 11, 2011 If you missed staff writer Ivan Penn’s investigative piece in Sunday’ St. Petersburg Times, you need to go back and read it. Carefully. (You can find it online at this address: http://tinyurl.com/3u96hk2.) It’s about a misguided decision by Progress Energy to try to repair its one and only nuclear power plant in Florida. Continue reading →

October 11, 2011 Posted by | business and costs, USA | Leave a comment

Delays, defects, and “social dumping” in France’s Flamanville nuclear reactor

Post-Fukushima, France breaks silence on nuclear safety The Hindu VAIJU NARAVANE, 11 Oct 11“…….Construction of the Flamanville EPR reactor which began in 2007 is experiencing significant delays with a large number of accidents including two fatalities. The EPR reactor, of which India plans to buy six, will now not be completed before 2016 at the earliest and its price tag has climbed to an estimated €7 billion per reactor of 1,650MWe capacity. Not a single EPR is as yet operational.

Of the four currently under construction, (one each in France and Finland, two in China) the Finnish reactor (construction began in August1985) is now slated to go on stream in 2013 but costs have risen from €3 billion to over €7 billion and the Finnish utility TVO is locked in costly arbitration (€2.7 billion) with Areva….. Continue reading →

October 11, 2011 Posted by | France, Reference, safety | Leave a comment

Radioactive leak in US National Laboratory

National Lab in NY Halts Some Work After Leak, ABC News, By FRANK ELTMAN Associated Press GARDEN CITY, N.Y. October 10, 2011 (AP) A sealed device used to check whether radiation detectors are working properly at Brookhaven National Laboratory leaked a small amount of radioactivity last month, lab authorities said. There was no threat to public health or the environment, but the lab has halted some operations while it investigates.

The radioactivity was later found on two employees, in a parking lot and private vehicle, and in one of the facility’s buildings, the lab said. The lab is reviewing policies, procedures and training programs.

“Even the leak of a small amount of radiation is unacceptable,” George Goode, assistant director for environmental safety and health at the lab on eastern Long Island, said Monday. “We are treating this very seriously.” Continue reading →

October 11, 2011 Posted by | incidents, USA | Leave a comment

The The Kudankulam anti nuclear protest is spreading through the region


Protests in Kerala against Kudankulam N-plant     THE PIONEER , 09 OCTOBER 2011  The Kudankulam Nuclear Power Plant is not an issue confined to the Tamil Nadu boundaries anymore. Protests are fuming in Kerala also against the Central decision to go ahead with the project. Scientists and environmentalists are pointing out that Kerala is bound to suffer tragedies if any eventuality occurs at the nuclear plant.  Continue reading →

October 10, 2011 Posted by | India, opposition to nuclear | Leave a comment

Real radioactive cleanup from Fukushima area is a long way off

With challenges such as the designation of temporary radioactive waste dumps and interim storage facilities yet unsolved, the road to true decontamination remains a long one.

True radiation decontamination still a long way away, Mainichi Daily News,. Japan October 7, 2011 Though the government last month lifted the “emergency evacuation preparation zone” designation of some areas greatly affected by the ongoing crisis at the Fukushima No. 1 Nuclear Power Plant, radiation decontamination efforts are still taking place in areas with high levels of radiation.

The three main decontamination methods that have been highly publicized through media reports are: the stripping away of surface soil from school playgrounds and athletic fields, the removal of mud accumulated in gutters, and the washing of roofs using high-pressure water cleaners. While the first method is considered effective, the remaining two have been found to be effective only to a certain point, and some especially warn against overestimating the effects of high-pressure water cleaners. Continue reading →

October 10, 2011 Posted by | environment, Japan, Reference | Leave a comment

Iran’s uranium enrichment offer should be accepted by USA

“These measures set out a foundation for diplomatic efforts focusing on establishing enhanced safeguards on Iran,” according to Vaez. He added that he thinks there is still “plenty of time” to strike a diplomatic accord.

U.S. Should Accept Iran’s Latest Uranium Enrichment Offer, Experts Say, Oct. 7, 2011 By Martin Matishak Global Security Newswire WASHINGTON — The United States should accept Iran’s offer to halt its production of higher-enriched uranium if provided equivalent material by Western powers as the first step in breaking the diplomatic standoff between the two countries, a new report by a pair of nonproliferation experts argues (seeGSN, Oct. 5). Continue reading →

October 10, 2011 Posted by | Iran, politics international, Uranium | Leave a comment

Radioactive danger on Scotland’s Fife beach

Revealed: the radiation risk on Fife beach, HERALD SCOTLAND,  ROB EDWARDS , 9 Oct 2011 Young children exposed to radioactive pollution from old military planes at a popular Scottish coastal resort face a “significant” risk of getting cancer later in life, according to a new health study by the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (Sepa).

Babies or toddlers who accidentally swallow one of the tiny “hot particles” that keep polluting the foreshore near a yacht club at Dalgety Bay in Fife could get radiation doses hundreds of times higher than the maximum permitted from nuclear reactors….. http://www.heraldscotland.com/news/transport-environ

October 10, 2011 Posted by | environment, UK | Leave a comment

USA puts the pressure on India to buy US nuclear reactors

US puts onus on India for implementation of nuclear deal, Economic Times 9 OCT, 2011,  WASHINGTON: Putting the onus on India, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton today said the US has made clear the steps New Delhi needs to take “to allow us to move forward” on implementation of bilateral civilnuclear deal.

“We remain fully committed to expanding the civil nuclear cooperation with India and have made clear the steps that India needs to take to allow us to move forward,” she told PTI when asked if India’s nuclear liability bill was an irritant in the bilateral relations. …
India’s liability regime has been a bone of contention between it and many of its nuclear partners, including the US, which have expressed reservations about some aspects of the domestic law that they fear will impose huge penalty on foreign suppliers in case of nuclear accidents.

However, Indian officials have maintained that the law was in accordance with international standards but India was ready to allay any apprehension in this regard. …

Clinton emphasised Washington’s commitment on the issue by citing the recent Nuclear Safety Energy Summit in Mumbai, “where you saw a host of top-tier American companies working to expand our private engagement and investment in the civil nuclear sector.”..

October 10, 2011 Posted by | India, politics international, USA | Leave a comment

Nuclear disarmament is possible, and essential – Mikhail Gorbachev,

A Farewell to Nuclear Arms, by Mikhail Gorbachev, Straits Times, 10 Oct 11, MOSCOW – Twenty-five years ago this month, I sat across from Ronald Reagan in Reykjavik, Iceland to negotiate a deal that would have reduced, and could have ultimately eliminated by 2000, the fearsome arsenals of nuclear weapons held by the United States and the Soviet Union.

For all our differences, Reagan and I shared the strong conviction that civilised countries should not make such barbaric weapons the linchpin of their security. Even though we failed to achieve our highest aspirations in Reykjavik, the summit was nonetheless, in the words of my former counterpart, ‘a major turning point in the quest for a safer and secure world.’

The next few years may well determine if our shared dream of ridding the world of nuclear weapons will ever be realised. Continue reading →

October 10, 2011 Posted by | 2 WORLD, politics international, weapons and war | 1 Comment

Koodankulam anti nuclear protest – 7.000 people fasting

the fast was only “a beginning of their long struggle” against nuclear power and it would be intensified if the KNPP was not scrapped. 

Over 7,000 people observe fast against nuclear project Economic Times, 9 Oct 11, TIRUNELVELI (TN): Breaking the brief truce, more than 7,000 people today observed a token fast against the Koodankulam nuclear power plant(KNPP) and vowed to intensify the struggle if the government did not scrap it.  The renewed protest comes two days after Prime Minister Manmohan Singh assured a multi-party delegation including the anti-KNPP activists that an expert group would be set up to allay their safety concerns.

Slamming Singh’s letter to Chief Minister Jayalalithaa seeking her support to ensure timely implementation of the Indo-Russian project, protesters said it only showed the Centre was not concerned about the safety of people.  The fast at Idinthakarai near Koodankulam in the district was led by Co-ordinator of People’s Movement Against Nuclear Energy S P Udhayakumar, a member of the delegation that had met Singh.

Udhayakumar told reporters the fast was only “a beginning of their long struggle” against nuclear power and it would be intensified if the KNPP was not scrapped.
After meeting the Prime Minister, the activists had claimed it was their first victory. But now they are irked by Singh’s letter to Jayalalithaa seeking her help to complete KNPP.  Udhayakumar said the contents of the letter, dashed off on the same day when they met Singh, only showed that the “Centre is not concerned about the safety and security of the Tamils.”
Despite the state cabinet’s resolution for halting work on the project, the Centre had chosen to go ahead with it. “This is painful,” he said.  People, including fishermen, from 13 villages participated in the fast today. http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/politics/nation/over-7000-people-observe-fast-against-nuclear-project/articleshow/10289655.cms

October 10, 2011 Posted by | India, opposition to nuclear | Leave a comment

« Previous Entries     Next Entries »