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Japan’s government to continue promoting sales of nuclear technology

EDITORIAL: Government should not lead nuclear technology sales drive, 2011/08/24.The Asahi Shimbun, Aug. 23 The government has decided to continue promoting exports of Japanese nuclear power technology, at least for the time being.

During the current Diet session, lawmakers have been considering a proposed nuclear deal between Japan and Jordan…… Continue reading →

August 25, 2011 Posted by | Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Colorado State makes things financially easier for uranium milling company

State defers Energy Fuels’ bond deadlines Telluride Daily Planet, By Kathrine Warren August 24, 2011
As Energy Fuels wades through regulation and litigation surrounding its planned Piñon Ridge Mill, the State of Colorado announced on Tuesday that it will defer the company’s requirement to pay upcoming bonds until construction begins. Continue reading →

August 25, 2011 Posted by | business and costs, Uranium, USA | Leave a comment

Solar energy costs to beat fossil fuels, as China, Japan introduce feed in tariff

“The likelihood that Japan will follow China in rolling out major policy incentives to scale up renewable energy production is an exciting prospect. The demand created by these two Asian giants could well provide the global tipping point that accelerates the emergence of renewables as cost-competitive or indeed cost-beating alternatives to fossil fuel power generation.”

Japan’s Feed In Tariffs Could Accelerate Global Solar Grid Parity, Renewable Energy News,   24 Aug 11,. New legislation in place in China and laws about to be enacted in Japan could be the global tipping point for renewables achieving grid parity with fossil fuel based power generation sooner than most expected. Continue reading →

August 25, 2011 Posted by | India, Japan, renewable | Leave a comment

Following public outcry, Japan to lower the “allowable” radiation limit for schoolchildren

Govt to lower school radiation limit, The Yomiuri Shimbun, 245 Aug 11, The government likely will dramatically tighten its current safety limit–3.8 microsieverts per hour–on the amount of radiation to which children may be exposed during outdoor activities at school facilities, government sources said.

The move will be followed by efforts to decontaminate playgrounds and other school facilities with the aim of reducing the amount of radiation exposure affecting schoolchildren to 1 microsievert per hour.

The action is a response to criticism that the current safety limit is too high. The government has also taken note of the fact that local governments in and around Fukushima Prefecture are taking their own initiatives to decontaminate tracts of land affected by the ongoing nuclear crisis.

In effect, these steps amount to a reconsideration of the government’s current safety standards for radiation exposure, according to observers.

The Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology Ministry plans to offer financial aid for decontamination projects, with the aim of limiting the annual accumulated radiation students are exposed to at school to 1 millisievert (1,000 microsieverts).http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424053111904009304576528690610416826.html?mod=googlenews_wsj

August 25, 2011 Posted by | health, Japan | Leave a comment

Investors fleeing from uranium mining

Uranium Spot Market a ‘Ghost Town’ With No Price Change, Ux Says, Bloomberg, , By Jason Scott – Aug 22, 2011  Uranium spot prices, depressed by the nuclear crisis in Japan , were unchanged last week amid low trading volume, says Ux Consulting co.

Uranium-oxide concentrate for immediate delivery sold for $50.50 a pound in the seven days ended yesterday, the same as the previous week, Ux said in an e-mailed report today. That’s based on the most-competitive offer tracked by the Roswell, Georgia-based company.

The spot price for the nuclear fuel has declined 24 percent since the week before the March 11 earthquake and tsunami damaged Tokyo Electric Power Co.’s Fukushima Dai-Ichi power station. The crisis prompted some nations to put their atomic power plans on hold.

“A number of market participants have indicated that recent market activity has been very limited,” Ux said in the report. “This lack of activity has been described as the market looking like a ghost town.”…http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-08-23/uranium-spot-market-a-ghost-town-with-no-price-change-ux-says.html

August 25, 2011 Posted by | 2 WORLD, business and costs, Uranium | Leave a comment

Safety concerns over USA nuclear reactors, after earthquake

Tuesday’s quake, which was felt along the East Coast as far north as Canada, was the region’s largest since a 5.9 quake hit New York State in 1944…..

Quake raises safety concerns as nuclear plant shut, By Eileen O’Grady and Joshua Schneyer, HOUSTON/NEW YORK   Aug 23, 2011  (Reuters) – The largest earthquake to hit the East Coast of the United States in 67 years raised concerns on Tuesday about the safety of the country’s nuclear power plants. Continue reading →

August 25, 2011 Posted by | safety, USA | Leave a comment

Japan increasing radiation monitoring, as more “hot spots” appear

Japan Triples Airborne Radiation Checks as ‘Hot Spots’ Spread, Bloomberg, By Tsuyoshi Inajima and Yuji Okada – Aug 23, 2011 Japan will more than triple the number of regions it checks for airborne radiation as more contaminated “hot spots” are discovered far from Tokyo Electric Power Co.’s crippled Fukushima nuclear power station.

The government said it will increase radiation monitoring by helicopter to 22 prefectures from the six closest to the plant, which began spewing radiation after an earthquake and tsunami struck the station in March. The plan comes after radioactive waste more than double the regulatory limit was found 200 kilometers (125 miles) from the plant this week.

Authorities have refused to give a cumulative figure for radiation released from the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant after estimating in June that fallout in the six days following the quake was equal to 15 percent of total radiation released in the Chernobyl nuclear disaster in 1986. The authorities have been too slow to widen airborne radiation testing, said Tetsuo Ito, the head of Kinki University’s Atomic Energy Research Institute in Osaka…..http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-08-24/japan-triples-air-radiation-checks-for-hot-spots-.html

August 25, 2011 Posted by | environment, Japan | Leave a comment

Maps of 104 USA nuclear plants and earthquake history

see map http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2011/aug/24/east-coast-earthquake-nuclear-plants What the east coast earthquake means for US nuclear plants Tuesday’s earthquake on the US east coast shut down several nuclear plants. Seismic activity in the US is unlikely to cause a meltdown, but it poses serious engineering challenges

Michael D. Lemonick for Climate Central, Network, guardian.co.uk,   24 August 2011 Continue reading →

August 25, 2011 Posted by | Resources -audiovicual | Leave a comment

Real or show trial? – guilty plea in assassination of Iran nuclear scientist

Man pleads guilty to assassinating Iranian nuclear scientist, Iran accused Majid Jamali-Fashi in suspected show trial of ‘Israeli sponsored’ murder of Masoud Ali-Mohammad, , guardian.co.uk,  23 August 2011 A man accused by Iran of carrying out an assassination “sponsored and designed by Israel” has pleaded guilty to the murder of an Iranian “nuclear scientist”. Continue reading →

August 25, 2011 Posted by | Iran, Legal | Leave a comment

100% renewable energy to run Germany’s railways

Germany’s road to a 100% renewable railway, Nuclear power was once a go-to source for keeping German trains on the go. Fukushima changed that. In response to Japan’s nuclear disaster, Germany decided to put the brakes on its nuclear plants by 2020. Now, Deutsche Bahn, the country’s biggest electricity consumer, is looking elsewhere. Smart PLanet, By Melissa Mahony | August 24, 2011 

The national railway operator plans to switch over entirely to renewable energy by 2050. Continue reading →

August 25, 2011 Posted by | Germany, renewable | Leave a comment

Brave Japanese couple continue thier fight against Japan’s powerful nuclear establishment

Taking on the nuclear strongmen, The Canberra Times , 24 Aug 11 “……..Together, Yuichi Kaido and Mizuho Fukushima are perhaps Japan’s most prominent pair of anti- nuclear activists. For three decades, the couple were at the forefront of an often futile fight against the utilities that operated the nation’s reactors, the corporations that built and maintain them and the politicians and bureaucrats who enabled them. Yet in case after case, judges rejected Kaido’s claims that Japan’s nuclear reactors were dangerous. Continue reading →

August 25, 2011 Posted by | Japan, opposition to nuclear | Leave a comment

Risk of earthquakes to USA’s East coast nuclear plants

Nuclear quake risk on East Coast: 1 plant down, 12 shook, , Human Rights Examiner, August 24, 2011 

Nuclear energy plants keep Americans at risk: ‘Redesigning from Scratch’ needed As a big blue Freedom Bus rolls through cities proving nuclear energy, like other non-renewable sources, is inhumane, twelve U.S. nuclear plants were shaken, eight declared “unusual events,” and two extra risky reactors shut down during Tuesday’s east coast intense quake after which it was reported that the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) previously “meant to identify” earthquake risks at North Anna nuclear energy plant near Tuesday’s epicenter, as various parts, systems, and hose stations at that facility “are not seismically designed.”

Continue reading on Examiner.com Nuclear quake risk on East Coast: 1 plant down, 12 shook – National Human Rights | Examiner.com http://www.examiner.com/human-rights-in-national/nuclear-quake-risk-on-east-coast-1-plant-still-down-12-shook?CID=examiner_alerts_article#ixzz1W5QTDFzu

August 25, 2011 Posted by | safety, USA | Leave a comment

Radiation evacuees from Fukushima not to return home, ever?

The government is expected to tell many of these residents that they will not be permitted to return to their homes for an indefinite period.

Large Zone Near Japanese Reactors to Be Off Limits, NYTimes.com, By MARTIN FACKLER August 21, 2011 TOKYO — Broad areas around the stricken Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant could soon be declared uninhabitable, perhaps for decades, after a government survey found radioactive contamination that far exceeded safe levels, several major media outlets said Monday.
The formal announcement, expected from the government in coming days, would be the first official recognition that the March accident could force the long-term depopulation of communities near the plant, an eventuality that scientists and some officials have been warning about for months. Continue reading →

August 23, 2011 Posted by | - Fukushima 2011, environment, Japan | Leave a comment

Science and Climate Change action under attack from Republican presidential candidates

Rick Perry denounces the concept of man-made global warming as “one contrived phony mess that is falling apart under its own weight”..

..poll found that 98 per cent of scientists accepted the idea [of globalwarming]…..

GOP presidential hopefuls rush to deny climate change  The Australian, Catherine Philp, Washington  August 23, 2011 “…..In the past week, the Environmental Protection Agency has become the new target for Republican hopefuls, with conservative candidates scrambling to outdo each other over how quickly they would abolish it. The attacks have exposed a sharp split in the field between those who accept the scientific basis of climate change and those who do not.

Michele Bachmann, the Tea Party insurgent, said that on the first day of her presidency, “the EPA will have the doors locked and lights turned off”. Continue reading →

August 23, 2011 Posted by | climate change, politics, USA | Leave a comment

Vermont Yankee – nuclear plant’s lawyers trying to suppress witnesses in court action

Entergy tries to block Vt. witnesses in nuke trial  Houston Chronicle, August 22, 2011, BRATTLEBORO, Vt. (AP) — Lawyers for the Vermont Yankee nuclear plant’s owners are trying to block three witnesses for the state of Vermont from testifying at the upcoming trial that could determine the fate of the plant.

Entergy Corp. is suing Vermont to block the state’s efforts to shut Vermont Yankee down when the plant’s initial 40-year license expires next March. The plant has won federal approval for a 20-year license extension, but Vermont is moving to shut the reactor down.

The Brattleboro Reformer (http://bit.ly/nHL97P ) says Entergy has asked Judge J. Garvan Murtha to bar former federal regulator Peter Bradford, consultant Bruce Hinkley and former Vermont regulator William Steinhurst from offering testimony about the preemptive scope of the Atomic Energy Act, the federal law governing nuclear power….Entergy tries to block Vt. witnesses in nuke trial – Houston Chronicle

August 23, 2011 Posted by | Legal, USA | Leave a comment

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