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

Nuclear renaissance not viable, say experts, even from Exelon!

Power complexes that combine increasingly plentiful and cheap natural gas with renewable sources like wind and solar power are now seen as a financially viable, safer and cleaner alternative.

Why The Days Of Rampant Nuclear Power Growth Are Over, Business Insider, Merrill Goozner, The Fiscal Times | May 9, 2011 “……..Experts say the heavy subsidies needed to build new nuclear plants and the increased costs from tougher safety standards are a nonstarter given the nation’s fiscal crisis.  As a result, nuclear is a less competitive option for producing electricity than a mix of cheap natural gas, wind and even solar power, which is rapidly declining in cost. Although prospects for a revival seemed bright only a few years ago, the steep price tag, coupled with the festering problem of disposing of spent nuclear fuel, creates a hostile environment for investing in nuclear power. Continue reading →

May 12, 2011 Posted by | business and costs, USA | Leave a comment

Northern Japan: bank problems as business clients fear radiation

“This is such a tragedy for the people of Fukushima, particularly our youth,” said Toyo System’s Shoji, who has two children. “Radioactive contamination has literally jeopardized the seeds and soil of our future growth.”

Nuclear Fear Snags Loan Push by Fukushima Banks as Clients Flee Radiation,  Bloomberg, By Shigeru Sato and Shingo Kawamoto – May 11, 2011  “……Daito and larger rivals in the prefecture, Toho Bank Ltd. (8346) and Fukushima Bank Ltd., are three of the worst five performers on Japan’s 83-member Topix Banks Index (TPNBNK) since the March 11 quake and tsunami. They are struggling to keep customers and prevent loans from souring…… Continue reading →

May 12, 2011 Posted by | - Fukushima 2011, business and costs, Japan | Leave a comment

Dangers of fire and other threats to US nuclear reactors

On other fronts, the NRC has acquired a reputation for being lenient and too close to industry. For instance, despite compelling evidence after September 11, 2001, that reactors could be vulnerable to terrorist attacks, the NRC still allowed many security gaps. And the NRC has allowed reactors to continue operating despite known design problems and deteriorating equipment that could lead to a loss of coolant and fuel damage. At some two dozen of the nation’s reactors, spent fuel sits in unsecured, above-ground storage pools — a radiological threat underscored by recent events at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant. The potentially lethal waste in those pools far exceeds the stored rods in Japan….

A more likely nuclear nightmare HUFFINGTON POST, By Susan Q. Stranahan, 11 May 11“……..Fires regularly occur at the 104 U.S. nuclear plants, nearly 10 times a year on average. Continue reading →

May 12, 2011 Posted by | safety, USA | Leave a comment

Students boycott their own convocation ceremony in anti-nuclear protest

TISS students protest against Ramesh – Hindustan Times, 11 may 11“……The students – some carrying placards, others sporting yellow-and-black t-shirts with anti-nuke slogans, several more sporting black bands – greeted the minister by raising slogans when he arrived at the TISS Deonar Campus to deliver the convocation address Wednesday afternoon.”We are protesting against the 9,900-MW Jaitapur Nuclear Power Project in Ratnagiri in Maharashtra and other mega-projects in Orissa and Jharkhand. Thousands of common people are being displaced or uprooted there,” said Pranab Doley, an organiser of the protest.
He said that since the student community is feeling strongly about these huge developmental projects, they decided to boycott their own convocation ceremony in which they would have been presented their coveted degree certificates at the hands of the minister…..
TISS students protest against Ramesh – Hindustan Times

May 12, 2011 Posted by | India, opposition to nuclear | Leave a comment

Graduating students show opposition to Jaitapur nuclear plant

TISS students greet Ramesh with anti-nuke placards,TNN | May 12, 2011,MUMBAI: As students of the Tata Institute of Social Science (TISS) walked up to the podium to get their medals during the 71st convocation ceremony from the chief guest, they handed him pocket-sized anti-nuclear placards in return.
For, the chief guest was Union environment minister Jairam Ramesh and the students were staging a silent protest against the Jaitapur nuclear power plant in Maharashtra and the Posco steel project in Orrisa.  While about 30 graduating students boycotted the convocation ceremony, several others wore anti-nuclear Tshirts and badges.
Students of TISS have been very active on the Jaitapur issue and five were also arrested two weeks ago when they participated in a protest yatra from Tarapur to Jaitapur.
TISS students greet Ramesh with anti-nuke placards – The Times of India

May 12, 2011 Posted by | India, opposition to nuclear | Leave a comment

European Commission chief says nuclear safety must include terrorism risks

EU nuclear safety test must cover ‘man-made’ events: Barroso, Google News, (AFP) –  12 May, 11, BRUSSELS — Tests on the ability of Europe’s nuclear power plants to withstand disasters should include man-made events, the head of the European Commission said Wednesday.European nuclear regulators and EU energy chief Guenther Oettinger meet Thursday to draw up the parameters for a safety sweep of Europe’s 143 nuclear reactors in the wake of the Fukushima atomic crisis in Japan…..
Oettinger is pushing for simulated responses to terror attacks and plane crashes to be undertaken as part of the exercise, while regulators from Europe’s 14 nuclear nations want to limit them to natural disasters.
AFP: EU nuclear safety test must cover ‘man-made’ events: Barroso

May 12, 2011 Posted by | EUROPE, safety | Leave a comment

Police warning to anti nuclear protestors

Police Warn Of Stern Action Against Trouble Makers In Protest Against Plant, KUANTAN, May 11 (Bernama) — Police warned today that stern action will be taken against anyone trying to create chaos from the protest against the building of a rare earth plant in the Gebeng industrial area here.

Pahang police chief Datuk Saifuddin Abdul Ghani said the “protest programme”, including demonstrations and lecture sessions, was being closely monitored.

……The protestors alleged that the processing of rare earth would cause radiation injurious to the health of people in and around the area.

Social activists claimed that the plant would produce 20,000 tonnes of radioactive waste a year.

The sessions organised by the Atomic Energy Licensing Board and the state government to explain the project to the people do not seem to have had much impact…..http://www.bernama.com.my/bernama/v5/newsgeneral.php?id=585620

May 12, 2011 Posted by | general | Leave a comment

Secret plan for dumping nuclear waste in Mongolia

Japan, U.S. negotiating construction of nuclear waste facility in Mongolia, Mainichi Daily News 10 May 11 ULAN BATOR, Mongolia — Japan’s Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry and the U.S. Department of Energy have secretly been advancing plans to construct the world’s first international storage and disposal facility for spent nuclear fuel in Mongolia, it has been learned. Continue reading →

May 10, 2011 Posted by | Japan, secrets,lies and civil liberties, USA, wastes | Leave a comment

German Chancellor Angela Merkel now a force for renewable energy

“We want to end the use of nuclear energy and reach the age of renewable energy as fast as possible,” Merkel said……”It’s over,” she told one of her advisers immediately after watching on TV as the roof of a Fukushima reactor blew off. “Fukushima has forever changed the way we define risk in Germany.”

How Angela Merkel became Germany’s unlikely green energy champion: Fukushima has seen German chancellor Angela Merkel embark on the world’s most ambitious plan to power an industrial economy on renewable sources of energy, Christian Schwägerl for Yale Environment 360 guardian.co.uk,  9 May 2011 German Chancellor Angela Merkel is anything but a left-wing greenie. The party she leads, the Christian Democratic Union, is the political equivalent of the Republicans in the US. Her coalition government is decidedly pro-business. Often described as Europe’s most powerful politician, Merkel’s top priority is job creation and economic growth.Yet if the chancellor succeeds with her new energy policy, she will become the first leader to transform an industrialized nation from nuclear and fossil fuel energy to renewable power. Continue reading →

May 10, 2011 Posted by | Germany, politics | Leave a comment

Fukushima nuclear reactor No1 has dangerous radiation level

Dangerous Radiation Level at Fukushima No 1 Reactor Detected
Moscow, May 10 (IANS/RIA Novosti) Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO), detected a potentially dangerous radiation level at the damaged No.1 reactor of crippled Fukushima nuclear power plant, Kyodo news agency said Monday.

The recent 9.0-magnitude quake and tsunami in Japan triggered a number of explosions at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant, which caused the worst nuclear crisis since Chernobyl in 1986.

The radiation levels in the building exceed expected levels reaching as high as 700 millisieverts per hour.

A level of radiation at 500 millisieverts per hour may cause cancer, while an acute radiation sickness begins with a dose of 1 sievert and chronic radiation sickness – from 1.5 sievert.

A group of nine specialists from the plant’s operator, TEPCO, entered the No. 1 reactor building at the Fukushima nuclear power plant early in the morning on Monday and spent 30 minutes there, measuring radiation levels.

Japanese officials earlier reported that radiation levels had dropped inside the building after ventilators were installed last week to filter out radioactive substances…… http://www.daijiworld.com/news/news_disp.asp?n_id=101529&n_tit=Dangerous+Radiation+Level+at+Fukushima+No+1+Reactor+Detected

May 10, 2011 Posted by | - Fukushima 2011 | Leave a comment

Tepco shares plunge, – Fukushima compensation more than $100 billion?

Tepco wants government help for compensation payments BBC News 10 May 11 ……Total compensation claims are yet to be known, but analysts say they may be more than $100bn (£61bn). Engineers are still struggling to contain damage at the Fukushima Daiichi plant in northeastern Japan.

The government of Prime Minister Naoto Kan is now under pressure to review Japan’s energy policy, which has been heavily dependent on nuclear power.

…… Shares in Tepco have plunged since the 11 March quake and subsequent tsunami.

Japanese media has reported that Tepco may have to raise electricity prices in order to help pay for payments….. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-pacific-13330263

May 10, 2011 Posted by | business and costs, Japan | Leave a comment

Don’t trust nuclear power people’s story on Fukushima disaster

“It’s very important to have scientists who are not already paid by the nuclear power industry,” …”If they are the same people from Euratom and national authorities they use today, why would they say anything different to what they say all the time?”

Deadly Silence on Fukushima, (VIDEO) Huffington Post , Vivian Morris, : 05/ 9/    I received the following email a few days ago from a Russian nuclear physicist friend who is an expert on the kinds of gases being released at Fukushima. Here is what he wrote:

About Japan: the problem is that the reactor uses “dirty” fuel. It is a combination of plutonium and uranium (MOX). I suspect that the old fuel rods have bean spread out due to the explosion and the surrounding area is contaminated with plutonium which means you can never return to this place again. It is like a new Tchernobyl. Personally, I am not surprised that the authority has not informed people about this. Continue reading →

May 10, 2011 Posted by | Japan, secrets,lies and civil liberties | Leave a comment

Japan’s richest man pushes for move away from nuclear energy

Masayoshi Son, the founder of Softbank and Japan’s richest man, said last month that he would donate about $12 million to start a research foundation for renewable energy. Continued reliance on atomic energy, he told a news conference, “would be a sin against our children, grandchildren and future generations.”

Japan’s Nuclear Future in the Balance, New York Times, by ANDREW POLLACK,  May 9, 2011 TOKYO — The accident at the Fukushima Daiichi power plant has done more than spew radiation into the air and sea and force tens of thousands of people to evacuate their homes. It has blown a big hole in Japan’s energy policy, which had assumed that nuclear power would supply a growing part of the country’s needs….. Continue reading →

May 10, 2011 Posted by | Japan, opposition to nuclear | Leave a comment

Duke – Progress Energy a powerful nuclear lobbying merger

At Progress Energy’s final annual meeting, it’s all in for nuclear power, Tampa Bay.com By Robert Trigaux,   May 10, 2011 “…….it’s the latest tale of the bigger devouring the big. In 2000, Progress Energy gobbled up St. Petersburg’s Florida Power, arguing utilities must get larger to compete. We hear a similar message in Duke’s $13 billion-plus purchase of Progress Energy.……..A merged Duke-Progress Energy will lobby aggressively for such pro-nuclear aid as cheaper government loans and energy incentives.

It will seek the power to charge more consumers up front for the expense of building nuclear plants.

Florida lawmakers already allow utilities with nuclear ambitions to charge customers in advance.

Leery of Japan’s predicament, North Carolina legislators recently rebuffed Duke and Progress Energy for seeking similar powers in their home state…. http://www.tampabay.com/news/business/energy/at-progress-energys-final-annual-meeting-its-all-in-for-nuclear-power/1168665

May 10, 2011 Posted by | business and costs, USA | Leave a comment

VIDEOS on Fukushima and other nuclear issues

VIDEOS:    http://www.fairewinds.com/updates        FAIREWINDS ASSOCIATES, 10 May 11

  • Fukushima Groundwater Contamination Worst in Nuclear History
  • Where is all that Fukushima radiation going, and why does it matter?
  • Gundersen Postulates Unit 3 Explosion May Have Been Prompt Criticality in Fuel Pool
  • Fairewinds Calls for the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to Delay Licensing Until Fukushima Lessons Are Evaluated
  • Epidemiologist, Dr. Steven Wing, Discusses Global Radiation Exposures and Consequences with Gundersen
  • Gundersen Discusses Current Condition of Reactors, TEPCO Claim of “No Fission” in Fuel Pool, and Lack of Radiation Monitoring in Fish
  • Closing Ranks: The NRC, the Nuclear Industry, and TEPCO are Limiting the Flow of Information

May 10, 2011 Posted by | Resources -audiovicual | 1 Comment

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