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Prospects improving for renewable energy in USA

Renewable Energy Funds Boosted as House Passes Energy Funding Bill, Science Insider, by Eli Kintisch ,  16 July 11, An amendment to bring proposed 2012 funding for ARPA-E, the blue-sky research arm of the Department of Energy, up to the current year level of $180 million passed the House today by a vote of 214-213. That level is far lower than the $550 million that the Obama Administration requested. But it does suggest that the likely worst-case scenario for the agency is a flat budget next year, as the Democratic-controlled Senate, which takes up the legislation next, generally supports increases for energy research. The amendment added $80 million to the $100 million approved by the House appropriations panel.

Meanwhile, a number of amendments in the House of Representatives sought to cut the renewable energy and energy efficiency research program at the Department of Energy, but they all failed. So, too, did a number of proposals to boost research into renewables or fossil fuel energy. An amendment to add $10 million to the solar energy research program passed, however, by a close vote of 212-210. ..http://news.sciencemag.org/scienceinsider/2011/07/renewable-energy-funds-boosted-a.html

July 16, 2011 Posted by | renewable, USA | Leave a comment

Doubts on when, or IF, Japan’s idled nuclear reactors will restart

Restart schedule for idled nuclear reactors still in limbo, Mainichi Daily News, Japan July 16, 2011 The Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency’s draft plan for two-stage stress tests on Japan’s nuclear reactors does not state how long the first stage of the assessments will take, making it impossible to predict when currently idled reactors can be restarted.

The government agency simply said timing for the restart of reactors idled for regular inspections or shut down in the aftermath of the crisis at the Fukushima No. 1 Nuclear Power Plant depends on the investigative reports to be submitted by nuclear plant operators. Furthermore, Prime Minister Naoto Kan and three Cabinet members will decide whether to allow any of the idled reactors to be restarted. Continue reading →

July 16, 2011 Posted by | Japan, politics | Leave a comment

USA taxpayers paying up for nuclear companies’ radioactive wastes

NPPD gets $61M to pay for storing nuclear waste, BLOOMBERG, 16 JULY 11BROWNVILLE, NEB., The Nebraska Public Power District has received nearly $61 million from the federal Energy Department to help pay for the cost of storing spent fuel at Cooper nuclear power plant.

The Columbus-based utility says it also reached an agreement with federal officials about how future fuel storage costs will be handled, so its lawsuit against the Energy Department has been dismissed.

The initial payment covers about 90 percent of NPPD’s storage costs from 2007 through 2009. NPPD says it had to build a facility to store spent fuel at Cooper because the federal government never set up the promised national repository for radioactive waste…..http://www.businessweek.com/ap/financialnews/D9OG8UCG2.htm

July 16, 2011 Posted by | USA, wastes | Leave a comment

US Defense Dept supportive of renewable energy projects

Pentagon clears Kansas wind projects,  July 15, 2011, BLOOMBERG, TOPEKA, KAN., The Defense Department says a half-dozen wind energy projects planned in Kansas would have little or no effect on military missions.

The Pentagon issued a report Thursday on its review of 249 renewable energy projects in 35 states and Puerto Rico. The department found no problems with 229 of the projects.The report cleared all six of the Kansas wind projects reviewed. They’re located in Cimarron, El Dorado, Ensign, Lakin, Pratt and Ulysses.

Defense officials also said in the report that renewable projects will help the U.S. maintain its energy security.http://www.businessweek.com/ap/financialnews/D9OG64T00.htm

July 16, 2011 Posted by | renewable, USA | Leave a comment

Two patients still irradiated months after medical scans

The agency said it recently became aware of two patients who underwent PET imaging scans with CardioGen-82 and were later found to have detectable levels of radiation several months after their PET scans. Both patients were crossing the border to or from the United States when radiation detectors identified radiation originating from them.

The FDA said the scans had been performed 2 and 4 months earlier.

FDA Investigating Exposure To Excess Radiation From Certain Heart Scans, WSJ, By Jennifer Corbett Dooren, WASHINGTON (Dow Jones) 16 July 11–-The Food and Drug Administration Friday warned about the potential for excess radiation exposure in patients who underwent heart scans involving a radioactive drug called CardioGen-82. Continue reading →

July 16, 2011 Posted by | health, USA | Leave a comment

Radioactive water leak closes New Jersey nuclear plant

NJ nuclear plant taken offline due to water leak  , LOWER ALLOWAYS CREEK TOWNSHIP, N.J. 16 JULY 11, The Salem 2 nuclear plant in southern New Jersey has been taken offline after a leak of low-level radioactive water developed during routine testing of an emergency cooling system…. it’s not known when the plant will return to service….http://www.businessweek.com/ap/financialnews/D9OGD6UG0.htm

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July 16, 2011 Posted by | safety, USA | Leave a comment

Japan might suspend developing its troubled fast breeder reactor

Unlike regular light-water reactors fueled by uranium, the Monju reactor, operated by the Japan Atomic Energy Agency, runs on an oxide mix of plutonium and uranium, or MOX, made from spent nuclear fuel from existing plants.

The reactor first achieved criticality in 1994, but was shut down due to a serious accident involving a leak of sodium coolant and a resulting fire in 1995.

Science minister says gov’t will mull halting Monju prototype reactor project, Mainichi Japan) July 15, 2011TOKYO (Kyodo) — Science minister Yoshiaki Takaki indicated Friday that the government will consider suspending the development of the prototype fast-breeder reactor Monju in the wake of the country’s worst nuclear crisis that continues at the Fukushima Daiichi power plant. Continue reading →

July 15, 2011 Posted by | Japan, reprocessing | Leave a comment

Japanese mothers and pregnant women at risk from Fukushima radiation

VIDEOS,  (scroll down page for videos)  http://womennewsnetwork.net/2011/07/13/nuclear-radiation-mothers-japan/Nuclear radiation exposure
 concerns mount for mothers Japan Women News Network, Eva Fernández Ortiz and Shubhi Tandon  14 July 11,   As parents from Fukushima prefecture line up in Tokyo for public protests and a more recent 7.0 level earthquake hit off shore of the east coast of Honshu, Japan on July 9, the latest data on nuclear power reveals: the amount of radiation inside the plant’s reactor has reached much higher than originally expected levels. Current released figures through JAIN – Japan Atomic Industrial Forum show 4,000 millisieverts per hour of radiation on June 4 was measured in Reactor No. 1 through a steam release rising from a crevice in the floor……

Current radiation release figures from TEPCO, the power company that operates and manages the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant now reveals that larger than originally reported releases of radiation at 770,000 terabecquerels did happen, a level that may hold much more significance as the disabled plant is expected to continue to release radioactive isotopes over an extended period of time. Continue reading →

July 15, 2011 Posted by | Japan, Resources -audiovicual, women | Leave a comment

Billions of yen, and decades, to clean up Fukushima’s radiation

Japan aims to totally clean Fukushima of radiation, Prokerala News 15 July 11, The Japanese city of Fukushima, whose nuclear power plant was badly damaged by a magnitude-9 earthquake, has now revealed a plan to clean every building and road of radiation, a British newspaper reported.

The local government said the plan to scrub every building and road clean of radioactivity may take up to 20 years, the Daily Telegraph reported from Tokyo.

“We are drawing up a plan to clean our city and the first phase of the project will be announced early next month,” said Akane Saito, a spokeswoman for thecity government.

Authorities are hoping to receive funding from the national government and the Tokyo Electric Power Co., the operator of the crippled nuclear plant. The cost of the two-decade clean-up operatioon is likely to run into billions of yen.

An 18-mile exclusion zone has been declared around the plant, where emergency teams are working around the clock to keep the plant reactors cool and contain further leaks of radioactivity.

However, radioactivity has gone well beyond the no-go zone. At least 10 children from Fukushima had urine samples tested for radioactivity and came back positive….. http://www.prokerala.com/news/articles/a234067.html

 

July 15, 2011 Posted by | - Fukushima 2011 | Leave a comment

20,000 nuclear weapons – all illegal

July 8 marked the 15th anniversary of the International Court of Justice’s landmark advisory opinion on the legality of the threat or use of nuclear weapons. The court unanimously held that nations have a legal obligation to pursue in good faith and bring to a conclusion negotiations for the complete elimination of nuclear weapons under strict and effective international control. …..

Today there are more than 20,000 nuclear weapons in the arsenals of eight or nine countries, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) Yearbook 2011. 

Nukes Are Illegal – But Still Around, By Neena Bhandari, IDN-InDepth NewsFeature, 15 July 11, SYDNEY (IDN) – Junko Morimoto was 13 years old when the United States of America dropped the first atomic bomb on her hometown of Hiroshima. She was only 1,700 metres away from the hypocentre and if it weren’t for a stomach bug that confined her to home, she would have been amongst the 360 students who died at her city centre school on August 6, 1945.

Morimoto has an inoperable brain tumour affecting her balance. Nearly seven decades after the nuclear bombs exploded, Japanese people are still living each day with the terrible aftermath of the radiation on the environment and their health, with genetic damage passing to future generations.  Continue reading →

July 15, 2011 Posted by | 2 WORLD, weapons and war | Leave a comment

USA Republicans use budget Bill to promote Grand Canyon uranium mining

The Interior spending bill now goes to the full House for approval. If it passes — as expected, on a largely party-line vote — the Senate should make certain that none of the anti-environmental provisions survive in the final appropriations bill. And President Obama should veto any legislation that includes them.

EDITORIAL: Protect the Grand Canyon, House Republicans target a mining moratorium, Register Guard,  July 14, Congressional Republicans are continuing their assault on the nation’s environmental safeguards with a proposal to reverse a recently imposed 20-year ban on mining 1 million acres bordering the Grand Canyon.

Democrats were unable to strip this rapacious proposal from an Interior spending bill that was approved Tuesday by the House Appropriations Committee. Never mind that 3,500 mining claims have been filed in the Grand Canyon area alone. Never mind that uranium mining would generate toxic wastes that would pollute the Colorado River, on which millions of Americans rely for drinking water. Continue reading →

July 15, 2011 Posted by | politics, Uranium, USA | 2 Comments

Health impact of Fukushima radiation will come many years later

“Many people really don’t care because they cannot see the radiation, they cannot smell the radiation,” …

“But the impact of the radiation will come maybe 10 years later.

“It will be a silent killer into the future.”

Fukushima a future silent killer – expert, Herald Sun, AAP , July 15, 2011, JAPAN’S Fukushima nuclear disaster is a silent killer that will claim lives for years to come, an anti-nuclear campaigner from Tokyo says., Rikiya Adachi, who also lectures on Peace Studies at the National University of Japan, recently toured the area north of Japanese capital that had been affected by the nuclear incident and high radiation levels.

He said it was disturbing to see many people still living close to the exclusion zone despite the serious risk to their health after the nuclear meltdown sparked by an earthquake and tsunami on March 11….. Continue reading →

July 15, 2011 Posted by | general | Leave a comment

Pakistan wants to join the nuclear power cartel

Pakistan wants to join Nuclear Suppliers Group, The Express Tribune, July 15th, 2011., By Zia Khan, ISLAMABAD:  Pakistan has offered to join four nuclear export control regimes, including the Nuclear Suppliers Group, if the international community recognises it as a nuclear weapons state, but remains unwilling to sign the nuclear non-proliferation treaty.

At a meeting in Islamabad on Thursday, the country’s top political and military leadership said Pakistan wished to be part of global non-proliferation efforts but only if it was accepted as a nuclear weapons state…..

Foreign Office spokeswoman Tehmina Janjua later told The Express Tribune that Pakistan was willing to join four ‘technology cartels’ that control the international trade of nuclear and missile technologies: the Missile Technology Control Regime (MTCR), the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG), the Australia and the Wassenaar groups.

The MTCR and the NSG deal with the international trade of missile and nuclear technologies while the Australia and the Wassenaar groups manage trade in conventional small weapons and various materials used in the manufacturing of arms respectively.

Janjua said Pakistan’s ‘principled’ position on Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) and Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT) was the same. About NPT, she added that Islamabad considered it as a ‘discriminatory’ arrangement and will not sign the CTBT unless the United States and India do the same….http://tribune.com.pk/story/210107/pakistan-wants-to-join-nuclear-suppliers-group/

July 15, 2011 Posted by | business and costs, Pakistan | 1 Comment

Rossing uranium mine workers on strike for fairer pay

“It is the second largest employer after Namdeb. Rössing already made a loss last year, so this is big stuff.”

Rössing workers defy court order, Namibian 15 July 11, By: DENVER KISTING, YESTERDAY afternoon, Rössing Uranium employees ignored an order by Judge President Petrus Damaseb, who had ruled that their three-day strike was illegal and they must return to work immediately.

This means that by this morning, the accumulated loss for the uranium giant as a result of the strike amounted to approximately N$22,5 million. In court papers filed at the High Court in Windhoek yesterday, the company’s Chief Operating Officer (COO), Mpho Mothoa, said Rössing has lost approximately N$2,5 million per shift. It has three shifts per day. Continue reading →

July 15, 2011 Posted by | employment, Namibia, Uranium | Leave a comment

$20 million budget for NRC to review licensing application for Yucca Mt as radioactive waste repositary

House increases money for nuclear waste review, Fuel Fix, July 14, WASHINGTON — The House has approved more money to review an application to store nuclear waste at Yucca Mountain in Nevada, deviating from the Barack Obama administration effort to kill the project.

The 297-130 vote on an amendment to an energy spending bill doubles from $10 million to $20 million the budget for the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to review a licensing application for the Yucca operation.

Some $15 billion has been spent over the past several decades to prepare Yucca Mountain as the central burying point for the nation’s nuclear waste, but Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada has long opposed the project and Obama has followed through on a campaign promise to shut down the project. His administration has sought to withdraw the government application to build the dump……http://fuelfix.com/blog/2011/07/14/house-increases-money-for-nuclear-waste-review/


July 15, 2011 Posted by | USA, wastes | Leave a comment

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