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20 years on, radioactive debris still found on Scottish shore

Radioactive lockdown on the shores of Fife,  News Scotsman.com13 October 2011  A SECTION of Scottish coastline has been cordoned off after scientists found a radioactive object ten times more contaminated than any found there before.

Particles were first found on the shoreline of Dalgety Bay more than 20 years ago and the contamination has been linked to childhood cancer. Continue reading →

October 14, 2011 Posted by | environment, UK | Leave a comment

Chief Minister backs protest, as 10,000 activists block nuclear project site

Jayalalithaa plays safe as nuclear protesters pitch up   Oct 14, 2011,   By DNA Correspondent : Chennai   The agitation against the Kudankulam nuclear power plant (KNPP) near Tirunelveli reached a feverish pitch on Thursday with over 10,000 activists laying siege to all the entry points to the project site. Over 700 scientists and technicians who reached KNPP for their morning shift could not enter the reactor premises, which brought the routine work to a grinding halt.

“The maintenance work was carried out by the staff on overnight duty who could not come out of the plant because of the road blockade,” a senior executive of KNPP told DNA.

This is for the first time in the country that work in a nuclear reactor was hit due to agitation by local residents.

The People’s Movement Against Nuclear Energy (PMANE) intensified its agitation within 12 hours of the prime minister’s letter to chief minister J Jayalalithaa asking her to help the Centre to implement the project as scheduled. However, Jayalalithaa on Thursday said her government would respect the sentiments of locals on the project. “I will be one among you in the issue,” she told a rally in Tuticorin for the civic polls.

Pushparayan, the second-in-command to Udaya Kumar, who heads PMANE, said the agitation would continue in a peaceful manner till the reactor was shut down. “Today (Thursday) morning’s road block is an indication that our agitation has entered a critical phase. We will not allow anyone to enter the KNPP premises,” Pushparayan said.

The road block which began at 8 am on the East Coast Road was shifted to vantage points near KNPP. “Ours is a Gandhian style agitation and we do not want to create any inconvenience to the people. But this will continue till the government orders closure of the plant. We do not want the nuclear reactors,” he added.

Even NK Balaji, project director, KNPP, could not enter the plant. “I was asked by the district administration to stay put in my house since the roads have been blocked,” he said. Both the Tirunelveli collector and superintendent of police were unavailable for comment. ..   http://www.dnaindia.com/india/report_jayalalithaa-plays-safe-as-nuclear-protestors-pitch-up_1598475

October 14, 2011 Posted by | India, opposition to nuclear | Leave a comment

Nuclear terrorism in London – the murder of Alexander Litvinenko

Alexander Litvinenko murder was ‘London nuclear terror’, BBC News 13 Oct 11 The murder of Russian dissident Alexander Litvinenko was “an act of nuclear terrorism on the streets of London”, a coroner has heard.

Mr Litvinenko died in 2006 after he was apparently poisoned with the radioactive substance polonium-210. Ben Emmerson QC said 700 people had to be tested for radioactive poisoning.St Pancras coroner Dr Andrew Reid is holding a pre-inquest review where he will decide whether he or a top judge should hear the inquest into the death.

‘Grave suspicion’  Mr Emmerson, representing Mr Litvinenko’s family, said a number of locations were closed for several months as health agencies tried to contain the risk of contamination. He told the hearing at St Pancras coroner’s court in London that the case gave rise to the “grave suspicion” that Mr Litvinenko’s death was the result of state-directed execution by Russia.

British authorities had abandoned the search for truth in order to maintain trade relations with the Russian government, he added. The prime suspect for Mr Litvinenko’s death is ex-KGB officer Andrei Lugovoi who was represented in court. His legal team says he denies any involvement.The family of former Russian spy Mr Litvinenko has called for a senior High Court judge to be appointed to conduct the inquest. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-15293395

October 14, 2011 Posted by | Legal, secrets,lies and civil liberties, UK | Leave a comment

Mayor of Japanese town calls for closure of nuclear reactor

Japan Mayor Wants Reactor Near Tokyo Decommissioned, Planet Ark,  13-Oct-11 Risa Maeda A Japanese mayor has called on the government to decommission the nuclear reactor in his village, 110 km northeast of Tokyo, the first local leader to urge scrapping a reactor as Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda tries to rehabilitate the tarnished nuclear sector to help meet the nation’s power needs. Continue reading →

October 14, 2011 Posted by | Japan, opposition to nuclear | Leave a comment

France’s distressed nuclear companies desperate to sell reactors to South Africa

The French companies Areva and EDF need to sell reactors abroad to survive and, after Fukushima, the number of countries investing in new nuclear industry is very limited. Hence France’s strong nuclear lobby and “friendship” with South African politicians over the past few years.

Nuclear power will cost the country dearly, Mail and Guardian RIANNE TEULE: ENERGY Oct 14 2011   The Mail & Guardian’s front-page story last week (October 7) highlighted the upcoming nuclear battle for a total of R1-trillion worth of reactors in South Africa and the fact that the country is being forcefully lobbied by the French and other nuclear countries. The exorbitant costs and the nuclear industry’s desperation prove that it is absolute lunacy for South Africa to choose the nuclear route.  Continue reading →

October 14, 2011 Posted by | politics international, South Africa | 1 Comment

Japan facing a massive radiation decontamination task, as radiation “hot spots” fopund

Strontium 90 detected in region around Tokyo, Washington Post, By , October 13 SEOUL — Tokyo residents carrying radiation-detection equipment have found small hot spots in several areas of the city, prompting Japanese officials to promise more detailed government monitoring of radiation levels in the country’s most populous region.

Tokyo is more than 125 miles from the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear facility that was heavily damaged by the March 11 earthquake and tsunami, but residents reported Thursday that they had found two small areas with radiation levels higher than some within the 12-mile evacuation zone……..

Separately, a soil sample in Yokohama, just south of Tokyo, was found this week to contain strontium-90, an isotope that can accumulate in bones and cause cancer. It was the first time that strontium, with a half-life of 29 years, was detected more than 60 miles from the plant. The strontium was found atop an apartment building in a measurement made by a private agency at a resident’s request……

Apart from the latest radiation detections, Japan faces a massive decontamination job that will require years of work and billions of dollars. Officials say an area of 925 square miles must be decontaminated by a combination of scrubbing and topsoil removal.

The towns closest to the plant, located along the coast in Fukushima prefecture, will not be habitable for decades. Last week, health-care workers began conducting checkups on more than 300,000 children in Fukushima…..  http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/asia_pacific/mini-hotspots-strontium-90-detected-in-region-around-tokyo/2011/10/13/gIQA6XqHhL_story.html

October 14, 2011 Posted by | environment, Japan | Leave a comment

UK’s climate change secretary, Chris Huhne two faced on nuclear power

Huhne noted the UK has enough high-level nuclear waste to fill “three Olympic-sized swimming pools, and enough intermediate waste to fill a supertanker”. Because of the errors of the past, his department was spending £2bn a year “cleaning up” the “mess” of nuclear waste which he said would rise two thirds next year.

Chris Huhne: UK’s nuclear policy is most expensive postwar failure Climate change secretary, under pressure from fellow Lib Dems over nuclear power, says UK must learn from past mistakes   Guardian Uk 13 Oct 11, The climate change secretary, Chris Huhne, has described the UK’s nuclear policy as the “most expensive failure of postwar British policy-making” in a “crowded and highly-contested field”.

Huhne set out five tests for how power plants would be adopted in a cautious new regime, but is under pressure from his party to ensure any new-builds do not receive public subsidy – something the coalition has pledged it will not allow…..

The energy secretary’s speech was emphatically critical of the industry in the UK, Continue reading →

October 14, 2011 Posted by | politics, UK | Leave a comment

Shroud of secrecy over USA nuclear loan guarantee program

 Of particular concern: the amount of taxpayer-backed obligations for the proposed Vogtle reactors is roughly 15 times greater than the failed Solyndra loan guarantee, which is receiving extensive Congressional scrutiny. Though the Vogtle project poses a much greater risk to taxpayers if default occurs, most in Congress havepaid little attention. 
Nuclear Secrecy – Plant Vogtle Federal Loan Guarantee History Clean Energy.org   October 13th, 2011   Sara Barczak  After more than a year and a half of stonewalling by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy (SACE) continues to press ahead with our Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) litigation so that U.S. taxpayers can learn the full extent of the risks to which they are exposed in the massive commitment of$8.33 billion in conditional federal loan guarantees to Southern Company and their utility partners for two proposed new nuclear reactors at Plant Vogtle in Georgia. Continue reading →

October 14, 2011 Posted by | Legal, secrets,lies and civil liberties, USA | Leave a comment

Propaganda drive in effort to win Poles over to nuclear power

Poland’s PGE Launches Campaign to Rally Support for Nuclear Power, WSJ By Marynia Kruk, 13 Oct 11 WARSAW — Poland’s largest power utility, PGE Polska Grupa Energetyczna SA, Thursday launched a campaign to boost support for nuclear power in the coal-reliant country.

PGE plans to build Poland’s first nuclear power plant by 2020. Public opinion polls this year showed about half of the nation opposes the plan, while only a minority of about one third of respondents supported it, according to an August poll by TNS OBOP.

PGE is hoping to stimulate a dialog with the public in order to bolster support for nuclear power, said Chief Financial Officer Marzena Piszczek. ….

Poland plans to build two nuclear power plants, each with a 3,000-megawatt capacity, as part of a strategy to diversity its energy sources away from coal and an over-reliance on Russian natural gas. Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said in June there was no need for a referendum on the plan.

Poland’s communist-era government began construction of a nuclear power plant in the 1980s, but the project was deeply unpopular, especially after the 1987 Chernobyl disaster in Ukraine, and was never completed.

October 14, 2011 Posted by | EUROPE, marketing | Leave a comment

Big price fall for First Energy due to crack in Davis-Besse nuclear plant.

FirstEnergy Falls After Report of Nuclear Reactor Cracks Bloomberg By Julie Johnsson and Mark Chediak – Oct 13, 2011  FirstEnergy Corp. (FE) fell after a report that engineers discovered cracks in the concrete shell of its Davis-Besse nuclear plant.

FirstEnergy fell 2.8 percent to $43.76 at the close in New York. The Akron, Ohio-based power company had earlier dropped 5 percent, its biggest intraday decline since Aug. 8, according to data compiled by Bloomberg…..

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission is investigating the structural damage to the concrete building that protects the reactor from tornadoes and other hazards, said Viktoria Mitlyng, spokeswoman for the nuclear agency, in a telephone interview.

Previous Problems  Davis-Besse was shuttered for more than three months in 2010 after workers discovered cooling water leaking through cracks in some reactor-head nozzles, steel casings that hold fuel and control rods.

Leaks and reactor corrosion prompted FirstEnergy to close the plant for two years, from 2002 to 2004, while the company retrained or replaced workers who ignored signs of damage, and eventually replaced the reactor head.

The leaks found last year at the 900-megawatt plant prompted the Union of Concerned Scientists in April 2010 to demand that the plant remain closed until its owners established better controls to maintain health and safety standards.

October 14, 2011 Posted by | incidents | Leave a comment

Environmentalists from several European countries against Belarus – Russia nuclear power deal

Belarus and Russia sign off on Ostrovets nuclear plant in dubious contract Bellona Charles Digges, 13/10-2011 Russian and Belarusian environmentalists are concerned over a contract agreement signed by the Belarusian president, Alexander Lukashenko, for construction of the first two nuclear reactors in the Stalinist country, which was signed earlier this week.

Belarus’s state-owned Directorate for Construction of Nuclear Power Plants signed the contract with Atomstoriexport, the foreign construction wing of the Russia’s state nuclear corporation, Rosatom, for the construction of a 2400 megawatt plant of the untested AES 2006 (NPP -2006) design.

The site for the plant is in Ostrovets in the Grodno region, close to Lithuania – which has vociferously protested the building of the nuclear power plan. Continue reading →

October 14, 2011 Posted by | Belarus, opposition to nuclear, politics international | Leave a comment