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Nuclear waste train delayed by huge anti nuclear protest

Thousands block nuke train in Germany  ABC 702 Sydney, 28 Nov 11, German police battled thousands of anti-nuclear protesters trying to block a train carrying nuclear waste in the north of the country. The convoy taking the German waste is now nearing the end of its 1,200-kilometre journey from a reprocessing centre in north-western France to a storage facility in the northern German city of Dannenberg.

After stopping for 18 hours, including overnight, amid mass demonstrations, the train only covered about 30 kilometres in four hours. Thousands of activists swarmed the tracks along the route near Dannenberg and boasted that the train’s journey had now topped the 92-hour record set during a shipment one year ago. Continue reading →

November 28, 2011 Posted by | Germany, opposition to nuclear | Leave a comment

British Ministry of Defence’s secrecy on nuclear weapons spending

Details of the MoD’s investments have been unveiled for the first time. 

The figures have been released by the defence minister Peter Luff inanswer to a parliamentary question by the Green MP Caroline Lucas. Although a few were known from freedom of information requests or other sources, the bulk had previously been kept confidential.

 “By spending billions of pounds now, the MoD is trying to force the hands of future governments into developing a new nuclear warhead, regardless of whether it will be necessary or affordable,”

MoD spends £2bn on nuclear weapons ahead of Trident renewal decision  Ministry accused of pre-empting parliament’s decision on Trident and attempting to force the hand of future governments  Rob Edwards, guardian.co.uk,  27 November 2011

The Ministry of Defence is spending £2bn on new nuclear weaponsplants before a formal decision has been taken over whether to replaceTrident warheads, according to ministers. The revelation has prompted fierce attacks on the MoD for making “a complete mockery” of the democratic process by pre-empting a decision and so attempting to force the hands of future governments. Continue reading →

November 28, 2011 Posted by | UK, weapons and war | Leave a comment

People’s Movement Against Nuclear Energy details faults in Kudankulam report

Activists dub report on Kudankulam as flawed, THE HINDU 27 Nov 11  Rebuttal by People’s Movement Against Nuclear Energy soon The People’s Movement Against Nuclear Energy (PMANE) on Sunday slammed the report of the Government-appointed expert committee on Kudankulam as being extremely flawed, premised on obsolete demographic data and opaque on the risks from sub-volcanic activity near the site or health impact on the local population.

The PMANE also released a letter to Chief Minister Jayalalithaa seeking her intervention in scrapping the project.

In the letter to the Chief Minister–copies of which were circulated to media – PMANE leaders flayed the Expert Group for ignoring valid questions on liability and declining to give specific or scientific information on nuclear waste or the fresh water needs of the KKNPP. The Expert Group had not talked to any section of the public nor tried to allay the fears and concerns of the people.

“Campaign of canards” The letter also took exception to the Central government’s “campaign of canards” about the anti-nuke activists receiving foreign funds, support and guidance to drive a wedge in the movement and sought to reassure the Chief Minister that there was not an iota of truth in these charges. Continue reading →

November 28, 2011 Posted by | India, opposition to nuclear, politics | 1 Comment

Millions of fishermen and farmers would be affected by India’s nuclear power plans

Both areas support millions of subsistence fishing and farming families who, faced with the forced acquisition of their land and loss of livelihoods, pose a formidable opposition to a government sensitive to the loss of a core constituency.

Dr (Anil) Kakodkar projected that India would be generating 650,000MW of nuclear power by 2050. That’s 650 1000MW nuclear reactors,” he says. “You would almost need to evict the entire fishermen population of India.”……..

Heat rises beyond the smog in India  AMANDA HODGE, SOUTH ASIA CORRESPONDENT : The Australian November 26, 2011 “….. In India, where its nuclear capability has traditionally stirred great national pride, Fukushima gave meaning and pictures to environmentalists’ warnings. “People are realising that if something like this can happen in Japan, where everything runs on time, it can definitely happen here,” Greenpeace India nuclear spokeswoman Karuna Raina says.

India’s anti-nuclear fervour is centred on two huge atomic energy projects: one built and ready to go in Koodankulam in southern Tamil Nadu, the other mooted for Jaitapur on the fertile coast of Maharashtra. Continue reading →

November 28, 2011 Posted by | India, politics | Leave a comment

Secrecy in Japan’s radiation studies

Will the Government of Japan’s radiation studies on the people exposed to radiation include removing tissue and bone samples after they have died? Will they inform the public or keep it a secret? dedicated to the mystery surrounding the 2 tsunami dogs 26 Nov 11

The citizens that were exposed to radiation from the Fukushima Prefecture have a surprise coming to them.  It won’t matter to them, actually, because this will happen to them after they die.  It is justwhat has been happening with the animals that have been killed andtheir bodies examined for cesium levels.  Don’t think that it won’t happen to the Fukushima citizens that have been exposed to radiation.
Those same scientists that are examining the animals will want to examine the people also.  This is where the Government of Japan will either tell people or keep it a secret and just take the samples and hope that no one will notice.  The scientists that are like vultures
waiting, will want those samples to see what the levels of cesium are in those people.

If they think that their participation of the research being done by the Government of Japan on their exposure to the radiation is limited to just being monitored, it is not. Continue reading →

November 28, 2011 Posted by | Japan, secrets,lies and civil liberties | Leave a comment

Japanese anti nuclear activists ignored by media

 activists say they are being ignored by the domestic media and threatened by ultra-nationalist groups. 

“The Japanese newspapers and TV stations all take so much advertising money from the power companies that they won’t report on the strength of the anti-nuclear movement or cover our protests,” 

Anti-nuclear protesters have an unlikely ally in Masayoshi Son, Japan’s richest man.

Japan’s anti-nuclear protesters find the going tough, despite Fukushima disaster Polls show the public turning against nuclear energy after Japan’s Fukushima disaster. But low coverage of protests and powerful business and political interests have complicated efforts to promote change. Christian Science Monitor,  By Gavin Blair, Correspondent / November 23, 2011 Continue reading →

November 28, 2011 Posted by | Japan, media | Leave a comment

Iran warns it will retaliate on NATO bases if attacked by U.S. or Israel

Iran threatens to bomb Turkey if U.S. or Israel attacks its nuclear installations, By DAILY MAIL REPORTER, 28th November 2011 Iran will bomb Turkey if the U.S. or Israel tries to destroy its nuclear installations, a senior military commander warned today. Continue reading →

November 28, 2011 Posted by | Iran, weapons and war | Leave a comment

World’s nuclear waste problem becoming ever more urgent

A New Urgency to the Problem of Storing Nuclear Waste, NYT By KATE GALBRAITH, November 27, 2011 AUSTIN, TEXAS — The nuclear disaster in Fukushima, Japan, earlier this year caused many countries to rethink their appetite for nuclear power. It is also, in subtler ways, altering the fraught discussion of what to do with nuclear plants’ wastes.

A prime example is Germany, which decided to shut down all its nuclear power plants by 2022 after the partial reactor meltdowns at Fukushima. That decision is making it easier for Germans to have a calm and focused discussion about a permanent disposal site for the plants’
wastes, analysts say.

Previously, opponents of nuclear power worried that backing a permanent solution for the wastes would make it easier for nuclear power plants to continue to exist, according to Michael Sailer, the chief executive at the Öko-Institut in Berlin, a research and consulting group focused on sustainability.

Anti-nuclear politicians, he said, felt that if they came out in favor of a permanent disposal site, “they support pro-nuclear people because they solve the waste problem.”….

Germany is now moving forward on the waste issue. Continue reading →

November 28, 2011 Posted by | 2 WORLD, wastes | Leave a comment

Claim that Pakistan’s nuclear program is unsafe

Pakistan’s nuclear program unsafe in Zardari’s hands, says Qureshi, By AZHAR MASOOD, Arab News Nov 27, 2011 ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s former Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi Sunday claimed that the country’s nuclear program was in “unsafe
hands.” Qureshi, who joined Imran Khan’s Tehreek-e-Insaaf party at a rally in Ghotki on Sunday, said, “Pakistan’s nuclear program is unsafe as long Asif Ali Zardari was at the helm of affairs.”

Qureshi alleged, “Zardari has turned the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) a backyard of the CIA.” Qureshi added, “I will make more disclosures in this regard before Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf’s rally in Karachi on Dec. 25.” http://arabnews.com/world/article539536.ece

November 28, 2011 Posted by | general | Leave a comment

Feed-in Tariffs – the renewable energy way to go

Feed-in Tariffs the Way Forward for Renewable Energy, Peter Lynch with an introduction by Andrew DeWit, 28 Nov 11 Peter Lynch, an expert on the renewable energy sector, offers a concise introduction to the central role of feed-in tariffs (FITs) in fostering the ongoing transition from conventional, carbon-laden sources of generating electricity to renewables such as solar, wind and geothermal. As the author points out, FITs guarantee markets and prices for renewable power, and drive down their cost through deployment and the encouragement of yet more technical advance. FITs thus offer much hope to a world that seems unable to reach any sort of global agreement on cutting emissions which have continued to spiral since the 1997 Kyoto Protocol.

Last year, according to figures from Bloomberg New Energy Finance (link), investment in new generation capacity from renewable energy sources (excluding hydro) totaled USD 187 billion, outpacing the USD 157 billion new investment in natural gas, oil, and coal-fired generating capacity. This rapid ramping up of deployment of existing technologies is key for renewables, as Bloomberg notes. For example, since the mid-1980s each doubling of wind generation capacity has led to a 14% reduction in cost through technical improvements in production, better materials, learning by doing, and the like. Advances have come so rapidly that the Bloomberg New Energy Finance researchers “expect wind to become fully competitive with energy produced from combined-cycle gas turbines by 2016 in most regions offering fair wind conditions.”

The article highlights the role of the German FIT in driving this energy revolution. It notes that a decade ago Germany targeted a 12.5% share of electricity from renewables for 2010, but blew through the target in 2007 to achieve a 15.1% share……..

Feed-in Tariffs: The Proven Road NOT Taken…Why?

Peter Lynch……. http://japanfocus.org/-Peter-Lynch/3654

November 28, 2011 Posted by | 2 WORLD, renewable | Leave a comment

Japan’s new nuclear watchdog – an unknown quantity

 “Concrete steps will be taken only after actual health problems have come to light, and if such damage could be recognized as a pollution-caused disease like Minamata disease, the sources said.”

This item is a bit of  a worry.  Nothing in here to say that those made ill from radiation will get any help.  And the suggestion is that it will be hard for them to prove it – so don’t expect any help? – Christina Macpherson 

N-watchdog gets health role / New agency to handle residents’ well-being, not just reactors, The Yomiuri Shimbun, 25 Nov 11 A new nuclear safety agency to be established in April will deal with health problems caused by radioactive materials released from the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant, it has been learned. Continue reading →

November 28, 2011 Posted by | health, Japan | Leave a comment

Philippines ditches nuclear power study

DoE shelves P100M nuclear safety study, Budget to be channeled to other energy programs, ,  , November 28th, 2011 The Department of Energy (DoE) has completely shelved its P100-million nuclear safety study and will instead channel the full amount to more important energy programs of the government.

Energy Secretary Jose Rene D. Almendras told the Inquirer that the bulk, or 40 percent, of the budget would go to the Fueling Sustainable Transport Program (FSTP). With the program, DoE hopes to reduce greenhouse gas emissions while providing cheaper alternatives to gasoline and diesel….. http://business.inquirer.net/32403/doe-shelves-p100m-nuclear-safety-study

November 28, 2011 Posted by | Philippines, politics | Leave a comment

How Japan rigged public opinion to support MOX plutonium nuclear reactor

Rigging opinions on nuclear power, Japan Times, , Nov. 28, 2011, EDITORIAL A third-party committee of the Hokkaido government on Wednesday reported that the then chief of the regional government’s nuclear power safety measures section asked Hokkaido Electric Power Co. in July 2008 to collect opinions that favored the use of MOX (mixed oxide) nuclear fuel in the No. 3 reactor of its Tomari nuclear power plant.

 The chief made the request because a majority of opinions collected by the Hokkaido government up to that point had been decidedly against the use of MOX fuel, which contains both plutonium and uranium, the committee said.

This is just the latest revelation of attempts to rig public opinions on nuclear power. Continue reading →

November 28, 2011 Posted by | Japan, secrets,lies and civil liberties | Leave a comment

Background to India’s Koodankulam anti nuclear campaign

Heat rises beyond the smog in India  AMANDA HODGE, SOUTH ASIA CORRESPONDENT : The Australian November 26, 2011 “ “…..The nucleus of the campaign to stop Koodankulam can be found near India’s southern-most tip in the Tamil Nadu fishing village of Idinthakarai, and the man driving it is SP Udayakumar. The articulate idealist with a doctorate in political science says that opposition to the project dates back to the late 1980s, when it was conceived as a symbol of the India-Soviet relationship. Continue reading →

November 28, 2011 Posted by | history, India | Leave a comment