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The very real health danger of low level radiation

each successive report of the Biological Effects of Ionizing Radiation committee, a committee of the prestigious National Academy of Sciences, has acknowledged a greater danger to low-dose radiation. Their most recent report states there is “no evidence of a threshold below which no cellular damage occurs.” (5) That is, even the lowest of doses may be dangerous

Airport Body Scanners: More Radiation Than You Think?, THE HUFFINGTON POST, by Gayle Greene:, 3 March 11, Late last year, the American Pilots Association persuaded the TSA to allow pilots exemption from screening by full-body scanners. Captain Dave Bates, president of the association, argued that pilots “experience significantly higher exposure than most other occupations, and there is mounting evidence of higher-than-average cancer rates as a consequence.” (1)

But what about the rest of us? Continue reading →

March 3, 2011 Posted by | 2 WORLD, health | Leave a comment

Nuclear plants,waste pools, waste storage – targets for terrorism

we must very carefully consider the vulnerability of reactor fuel, spent fuel pools, dry storage casks, and related fissile materials and facilities to sabotage, attack, and theft.

Gorbachev Warns of Terrorist Threat to Nuclear Power Plants, NTI: Global Security Newswire, March 2, 2011 The 1986 Chernobyl disaster offers a “warning” of the potential human and environmental cost of a terrorist attack against an atomic energy facility, former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev wrote in a commentary published yesterday by the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists Continue reading →

March 3, 2011 Posted by | 2 WORLD, safety | Leave a comment

US budget constraints on nuclear arsenal

D’Agostino and other officials also had to explain why the agency’s Weapons Dismantlement and Disposition budget would shrink from slightly more than $96 million in fiscal 2010 to less than $57 million in the upcoming budget year.

Senior Lawmakers Wary of Nuclear Agency Budget Increase, NTI: Global Security Newswire, March 2, 2011, By Martin Matishak WASHINGTON Continue reading →

March 3, 2011 Posted by | USA, weapons and war | Leave a comment

Funds for new nuclear research at University of Saskatchewan

$30 million for a new nuclear research centre at U of S, 650 CKOM, Premier Brad Wall believes province will be a leader in nuclear material science  By Chris Carr  March 2, 2011 It will make Saskatchewan the focal point for nuclear research in western Canada.

$30 million is being set aside over seven years for a new nuclear research centre at the University of Saskatchewan……  Wall believes the new money will make the province a leader in nuclear material science, and small reactor technology….

March 3, 2011 Posted by | Canada, marketing | Leave a comment

The danger of nuclear plants that are out of sight

The concern arises from new and anticipated developments that will allow nuclear fuel facilities — uranium enrichment technologies — to get so small and so efficient that U.S. surveillance methods can’t spot them.

Why we need to keep nuclear facilities in plain sight, The Hill, By Francis Slakey – 03/02/11 ……… technology over the last few decades that got smaller, more efficient, and easier to conceal. Facilities that manufacture nuclear fuel are following that same trend – one that’s creating a national security risk . Continue reading →

March 3, 2011 Posted by | safety, technology, USA | Leave a comment

France’s plan for nuclear reactors out of sight, undersea

Anti-nuclear groups such as “Sortir du Nucleaire” (“Phasing Out of the Nuclear Age”) have described the project as “absurd”.

“Radioactivity would spread even more quickly in the water than in the air, with even fewer means to control leaks,” said Sortir du Nucleaire coordinator Anne-Laure Meladeck in Lyon……

French scientists eye underwater nuclear plants By Marie Maitre PARIS, March 2 (Reuters) – French scientists are looking at the possibility of submerging small nuclear power plants deep underwater to supply low-cost energy to isolated countries or islands that cannot afford a major inland atomic plant. Continue reading →

March 3, 2011 Posted by | France, technology | Leave a comment

India’s new nuclear projects face a number of hurdles

in the upcoming 9,900 MW Jaitapur nuclear power project in the coastal Ratnagiri district, NPCIL is planning to line up a number of sops for the land losers.

Work on NPCIL Haripur project to start in 2014 Business Standard,  Kolkata March 3, 2011, Amid controversies surrounding the proposed nuclear power plant at Haripur in West Bengal, the Nuclear Power Corporation of India (NPCIL) has said that work on the project will start by 2014.The environmental evaluation process is expected to be over by 2012 and the land acquisition will kick off only after that. Continue reading →

March 3, 2011 Posted by | business and costs, India | Leave a comment

Don’t let Entergy off the hook on nuclear waste cleanup

SAFSTOR “would let Entergy off the hook” for cleanup and waste disposal for years or even decades, wrote the delegation.

“While Entergy may prefer leaving the plant to sit like an abandoned factory because it has not saved the necessary funds to fully decommission the plant, this is not the safest option for Vermonters,” Leahy, Sanders and Welch wrote..

Leahy, Sanders, Welch say no to SAFSTOR, Brattleboro Reformer By BOB AUDETTE / Reformer Staff March 2, 2011 BRATTLEBORO — Vermont’s congressional delegation is urging the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to ensure it will force Entergy to clean up the site of Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant as soon as it closes down. Continue reading →

March 3, 2011 Posted by | decommission reactor, USA, wastes | Leave a comment

Inspection of Syria’s nuclear sites by IAEA

Syria agrees to IAEA inspection of nuclear site, Google hosted news, (AFP) – 3 March 11, VIENNA — Syria has agreed to a vist by inspectors from the Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency to a nuclear site for the first time since June 2008, diplomats said Wednesday.The site, at Homs in the west of the country, is known to the IAEA and is not thought to be suspect.”Syria has agreed to the principle of a visit,” said a source close to the IAEA. It is due to take place on April 1 though the details remain to be determined.The agreement follows numerous requests and growing impatience on the part of the agency with Damascus’s refusals.The visit will not take in a posible uranium enrichment facility at Al Kibar, which was bombed by Israeli warplanes in 2007, the source said….. AFP: Syria agrees to IAEA inspection of nuclear site

March 3, 2011 Posted by | politics international, Syria | Leave a comment