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Giant industrial company Siemens abandons nuclear energy, favors renewables

Siemens to quit nuclear industry BBC News, 19 Sept,11,  German industrial and engineering conglomerate Siemens is to withdraw entirely from the nuclear industry…  chief executive Peter Loescher said, announcing that the firm will no longer build nuclear power stations.  ”The chapter for us is closed,”

A long-planned joint venture with Russian nuclear firm Rosatom will also be cancelled, although Mr Loescher said he would still seek to work with their partner “in other fields”….
The latest decision appears to imply a step back from building “conventional islands” – the non-nuclear plant in nuclear power stations – an area in which Siemens has remained active….
U-turnHe also gave his backing to the German government’s planned switch to renewable energy sources, calling it a “project of the century” and claiming Berlin’s target of reaching 35% renewable energy by 2020 was achievable…. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-14963575

September 19, 2011 Posted by | business and costs, Germany | Leave a comment

USA’s secret Plutonium ‘Bomb Plant’ exposed

Obama’s dirtiest, deadly secret exposed: Plutonium ‘Bomb Plant,’ ‘Green future’ , Human Rights ExaminerSeptember 14, 2011 – 

Obama’s dirty, deadly nuclear industry secret touted as “green future’ exposed

Joseph Trento, investigative journalist of 35 years and DC Bureau editor has released on Tuesday an introduction to “The Bomb Plant,” a multi-media research report based on two years of probing, that documents America’s most radioactive Superfund site is touted by the Obama administration as the pathway to a green future. The report reveals a MOX plant’s weapons-grade plutonium being built in S. Carolina on top of the region’s most dangerous fault line, and how environmentalists led to be “climate change” protesters joined Big Energy and how critics have been targeted, sidelined or silenced.

Continue reading on Examiner.com Obama’s dirtiest, deadly secret exposed: Plutonium ‘Bomb Plant,’ ‘Green future’ – National Human Rights | Examiner.com http://www.examiner.com/human-rights-in-national/obama-s-dirtiest-deadly-secret-exposed-plutonium-bomb-plant-green-future?CID=examiner_alerts_article#ixzz1YSEG73Mf

September 19, 2011 Posted by | secrets,lies and civil liberties, USA | Leave a comment

VIDEO – Fukushima radiation worse than Chernobyl

VIDEO http://english.aljazeera.net/video/asia-pacific/2011/09/201191845015428149.html Experts say Fukushima “worse than Chernobyl”, Al Jazeera,  Steve Chao  18 Sept 11, Experts estimate the radiation leaked from Fukushima nuclear plant will exceed that of Chernobyl. Experts say that the total radiation leaked will eventually exceed the amounts released from the Chernobyl disaster that the Ukraine in April 1986. This amount would make Fukushima the worst nuclear disaster in history.At least one billion becquerels of radiation continue to leak from Japan’s Fukushima nuclear plant each day even though it is now more than five months after the March earthquake and tsunami that damaged the facility.

September 19, 2011 Posted by | Resources -audiovicual | Leave a comment

North Anna nuclear plant – a test case for USA nuclear regulators

North Anna, 90 miles southwest of the White House, is emerging as a test case for the nuclear industry as it faces increased scrutiny. A presidential task force recommended stricter quake-readiness standards after a quake and tsunami caused meltdowns at Japan’s Fukushima Dai-ichi plant in March.

It’s also challenging federal regulators as they ponder what to review before they allow the plant to restart. ….

the [earthquake] hazards could be greater than was known when many of the plants were designed.

Weeks after quake, town near nuclear plant remains rattled, By Wendy Koch, USA TODAY, 18 Sept 11,  MINERAL, VA. – At the Sweet Delights Bakery, amid the aroma of fresh biscuits, talk turns to an unprecedented U.S. nuclear event that happened near its doorstep.

“You can’t not think about it,” says customer Roger Tignor, about the recent magnitude-5.8 quake that jolted the North Anna Power Station 11 miles away. Continue reading →

September 19, 2011 Posted by | safety, USA | Leave a comment

Renewable energy prospects:Japan’s nuclear heirarchy failing to convince.

The nuclear village and its hired guns in the academic and administrative and political sectors have worked together to craft a mechanism through which compensation will almost inevitably be torn out of the public budget as well as the pockets of utility ratepayers.

Creating a Solar Belt in East Japan: The Energy Future, Japan Focus , Son Masayoshi with an introduction by Andrew DeWit, 19 Sept 11   Introduction  “……..In fact, the fight over Japan’s energy options is not at all ended. The nuclear village’s effort to portray Fukushima as merely a setback has failed in the face of the facts, of course. Continue reading →

September 19, 2011 Posted by | Japan, renewable | Leave a comment

IAEA nuclear safety plan derailed by nuclear countries

The proposal–which included a one-year deadline for new safety standards and an 18-month window for stress tests on all reactors–had the backing of large nuclear power-generating nations such as Canada, Germany, and Australia, as well as many non-nuclear nations across the globe, but that support and the ongoing disaster in Japan were not enough to overcome sustained, behind-the-scenes efforts to derail this plan. ..

. When the IAEA finally took up a draft resolution on Tuesday, it contained no timelines, deadlines or mandatory inspections. 

Though Nuclear Crisis Continues, IAEA Can’t Force Safety Overhaul, Truth Out,  18 September 2011 by: Gregg Levine,  On Monday, September 12, an incinerator explosion at a French nuclear waste processing center killed one, injured four, and created just enough nuclear news to edge this week’s other nuclear story right out of the headlines. Continue reading →

September 19, 2011 Posted by | 2 WORLD, safety | Leave a comment

TEPCO hides information from Japan’s govt nuclear agancy

Head of nuclear watchdog criticizes TEPCO over blacked-out documents, Paul Langley’s Nuclear History Blog, 19 Sept 11 The head of a government nuclear watchdog has criticized Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO) for not being transparent enough, after it submitted documents earlier this month that were mostly blacked out. Continue reading →

September 19, 2011 Posted by | Japan, secrets,lies and civil liberties | Leave a comment

Government Accountability Office report rejected by USA nuclear agancies

“The agencies have not systematically visited countries believed to be holding the highest proliferation risk quantities of U.S. nuclear material, or systematically revisited facilities not meeting international physical security guidelines in a timely manner,” the GAO report warned…
The U.S agencies rejected the recommendations, claiming that keeping a comprehensive inventory would be costly, impractical and unwarranted,
U.S. unable to account for 16,000 kilograms of exported enriched uranium
By Eric W. Dolan, The Raw Story, September 13th, 2011  The United States could only account for 1,160 out of 17,500 kilograms of Highly-Enriched Uranium (HEU) — weapon-usable nuclear material — exported to 27 countries in response to a 1992 congressional mandate, according to a Government Accountability Office (GAO) report released last week. Continue reading →

September 19, 2011 Posted by | safety, USA | Leave a comment

Former PM Kan now free to reveal Fukushima facts

Kan reveals Tokyo nuclear evacuation plans ABC Radio 774, Tokyo correspondent  September 19, 2011  Japan’s former prime minister Naoto Kan has revealed he contemplated evacuating as many as 30 million people from Tokyo and surrounding areas during the Fukushima nuclear disaster. Continue reading →

September 19, 2011 Posted by | general | 1 Comment

… Are nuclear power plants actually cheap while natural energy is expensive?

Creating a Solar Belt in East Japan: The Energy Future, Japan Focus , Son Masayoshi with an introduction by Andrew DeWit, 19 Sept 11  ”……… Are nuclear power plants actually cheap while natural energy is expensive?   From the standpoint of practical, economical logic, solar power and natural energy are expensive. I had always believed that nuclear power was the most inexpensive way of producing power, at 5-6 yen per kilowatt-hour; therefore we have to use nuclear power and construct new plants. I am sure that many people thought the same.

But is this really true? According to figures listed on an application for approval of the nuclear power plant installation, its unit cost is 15-20 yen. This is the actual data; the pre-accident cost. Continue reading →

September 19, 2011 Posted by | Japan, renewable | Leave a comment