2011 August 15 « nuclear-news

Cost of nuclear test refugees from Micronesia, the Marshall Islands, and Palau

Hawaii demanding assistance from the federal government, ETN News, Aug 14, 2011, The cost of providing Hawaii government services to Pacific island migrants has more than tripled over the last eight years, according to a state report completed this week.

Retired cook Calvin Nelson says that when he came to Hawaii from Kwajalein, after the United States had seized his home for a new missile range, he was told, “everything will be covered.” Him and thousands of other Micronesian immigrants need the kidney dialysis that kept him alive.

State government expenses to pay for services to migrants from Micronesia, the Marshall Islands, and Palau rose to US$115 million last year from US$32 million in 2002, the report said……..

Micronesia, the Marshall Islands, and Palau are beneficiaries of the Compact of Free Association. After the US used the Pacific islands for nuclear weapons testing from 1946 to 1958, it agreed in the 1986 pact to provide financial assistance and migration rights in exchange for the right to use defense sites.

People from the areas included in the compact suffer from higher rates of cancer and kidney disease, which come with expensive treatments such as chemotherapy and dialysis.

The federal government provides the state with only US$11 million each year to help the state cover the costs of the US treaty….http://www.eturbonews.com/24598/hawaii-demanding-assistance-federal-government

August 15, 2011 Posted by Christina Macpherson | politics, USA | 2 Comments

USA to cut funding for research on low level radiation and health?

many more people may have incurred fatal cancers from low doses, simply based on the statistical probably of those fatalities occurring across very large populations.

Budget Deal Could Crush Low-Dose Radiation Research, Forbes, by Jeff McMahon, 15 Aug 11, “…..The nation’s only Low-Dose Radiation Research program is likely to suffer a severe cut in funding not long after the United States was blanketed with low doses of radioactive fallout from the Fukushima nuclear disaster in Japan…….Dr. David J. Brenner, a professor in the Columbia University medical school’s Center for Radiological Research, in a recent editorial in The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists. Continue reading →

August 15, 2011 Posted by Christina Macpherson | health, USA | Leave a comment

Delay for India’s Jaitapur nuclear power project

First phase of Jaitapur nuclear project may be delayed by 1 year, Business Standard, 15 Aug 11, Sanjay Jog / Mumbai August 15, 2011, The commissioning of the first phase of the 9,900-Mw Jaitapur nuclear power project in Maharashtra is likely to be delayed by a year, since the developer, Nuclear Power Corporation (NPC), would first have to upgrade and strengthen the safety applications in the wake of the Fukushima disaster.

The first evolutionary pressurised reactor (EPR) of 1,650 Mw would be operational in 2018-19 instead of the originally planned 2017-18. French nuclear energy firm Areva was asked by the country’s nuclear safety regulatory authority ASN to conduct a safety audit after the Fukushima disaster. The audit is expected to be completes by September….

August 15, 2011 Posted by Christina Macpherson | business and costs, India | Leave a comment

TVA’s multi billion nuclear reactor dollar gamble in Alabama

TVA gambles on Bellefonte nuclear reactors, Footprints, August 11th, 2011 › Nuclear, SACE Reports › Dr. Stephen A. Smith › Southern Alliance for Clean Energy has long been concerned with the Tennessee Valley Authority’s (TVA) push to add more nuclear reactors to their energy mix in spite of readily available energy efficiency and renewable energy alternatives. But TVA’s dogged pursuit to complete the nearly forty-year-old, antiquated Bellefonte site in Alabama is a unique and especially risky proposition. Simply put, finishing these two abandoned and degraded reactors is a multi-billion dollar bet TVA should not place. The risks to public health and safety, potential financial impacts to TVA ratepayers and U.S. taxpayers are too significant to ignore. Continue reading →