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The News That Matters about the Nuclear Industry Fukushima Chernobyl Mayak Three Mile Island Atomic Testing Radiation Isotope

Many thousands of tons of radioactive water accumulating at Fukushima

Tepco estimates that the amount of treated water requiring storage is increasing by 200 to 500 tons every day. 

Japan’s earthquake-hit nuclear plant scraps plan to dump water in sea, Reuters  Tokyo December 12, 2011 Japan’s utility operating the crippled Fukushima nuclear power plant said on Friday it has scrapped a plan to dump water it treated for radiation contamination into the sea following fierce protests from fishing groups. Continue reading →

December 12, 2011 Posted by | Japan, oceans, wastes | Leave a comment

France’s nuclear corporation AREVA facing big losses

Areva was already facing problems before that incident. Its Olkiluoto nuclear project in Finland was delayed and uranium mines it bought in 2007 were performing below expectations.

The Socialist presidential candidate has promised to shut almost half os France’s nuclear reactors if he is elected. Last week demonstrators protested outside Areva’s headquarters in Paris ahead of this week’s meeting.

France nuclear giant to announce big loss – minister France’s state-owned nuclear reactor maker Areva is set to announce large losses, the French industry minister says.BBC News 11 December 2011 In an interview with a radio station, Eric Besson said: “I can confirm that Areva will announce losses. In all likelihood they will be big.”  Continue reading →

December 12, 2011 Posted by | business and costs, France | Leave a comment

Turmoil over Hanford’s huge radioactive wastes, whistleblowers targeted?

the worst of the waste is still decades away from being completely removed. Millions of gallons of a highly radioactive stew — enough to fill dozens of Olympic-size swimming pools — are stored in aging underground tanks. Some of those tanks have leaked, threatening the groundwater and the river.

 Hanford workers filed suit as whistleblowers, claiming they were targeted for reprisals after raising safety concerns. 

New concerns about Northwest nuclear waste plant Google News, By SHANNON DININNY,12 Dec 11 RICHLAND, Wash. (AP) — The federal government says a one-of-a-kind plant that will convert radioactive waste into a stable and storable substance that resembles glass will cost hundreds of millions of dollars more and may take longer to build, adding to a string of delays and skyrocketing price tag for the project.

In addition, several workers at southeast Washington’s Hanford nuclear reservation have raised concerns about the safety of the plant’s design — and complained they’ve been retaliated against for voicing their issues. Continue reading →

December 12, 2011 Posted by | USA, wastes | Leave a comment

Australia wrong to sell uranium to India, says former conservative Prime Minister

A reason India wants access to nuclear trade including uranium is precisely to further its nuclear proliferation. Senior Indian military leaders have publicly said so…..

India reserves the right to classify future reactors as civilian or military. It was not required in return to commit to significant positive measures – indeed, it has made no nuclear disarmament commitments, it has not ratified the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty

Why Gillard’s uranium-to-India policy is dangerously wrong, SMH Malcolm Fraser, December 12, 2011 Canberra’s abject submission to US pressure is shameful. ON SELLING uranium to India, Julia Gillard is wrong, dead wrong. Ramming the policy change through a deeply divided ALP national conference last weekend was not smart politics, but a failure of leadership.

The unequivocal longer-term consequences of this policy backflip are aggravating India’s nuclear arms race with Pakistan and eroding the already failing brakes on proliferation of nuclear weapons. A nuclear war between India and Pakistan is not some theoretical possibility, but a real and growing danger. …. Continue reading →

December 12, 2011 Posted by | AUSTRALIA, India, politics international, weapons and war | Leave a comment

Nuclear industry facing total collapse, or at best, slow decline

Fukushima fallout slows nuclear industry, Sky News,  December 11, 2011 “……Anxious to restore public faith in nuclear plants, officials travelled the world testing power stations and delaying numerous projects.

Japan switched off several reactors for tests, leaving only nine reactors up and running. Results won’t be known until next year, but it’s certain that safety margins will need to be improved, forcing nuclear power to become more expensive and less competitive.

Fukushima was the world’s third large-scale nuclear disaster, after Three Mile Island in 1979 and Chernobyl in 1986. It’s not clear how giants in the nuclear industry — GE-Hitachi, Toshiba-Westinghouse, Russia’s Rosatom and France’s Areva — will react to the crisis.

Experts are torn over whether the industry faces total collapse, a more modest decline, or diminished growth.

One scenario from the International Atomic Energy Agency is the cancellation of 50 per cent of new projects, no new construction in developed countries and a 15 per cent reduction in the number of existing power stations…

December 12, 2011 Posted by | 2 WORLD, business and costs | Leave a comment

Climate change deniers attack renewable energy in North Carolina

Climate-warming opponents join forces against NC renewable-energy program Xpress, By Jeff Fobes on 12/11/2011  Progressive think-tank and news outlet Facing South reports:
Climate-science deniers with ties to the fossil-fuel industry have joined forces in an assault on North Carolina’s renewable energy program and particularly wind power, which has been making big gains in the U.S. in recent years. Continue reading →

December 12, 2011 Posted by | spinbuster | Leave a comment

Full cleanup of Fukushima area to begin in March or later

Japan to Begin Radiation Cleanup from Late March or Later Arirang, DEC 12, 2011, Reporter : emilyfwang@arirang.co.kr Over in Japan where authorities are still struggling to contain the nuclear fallout from March’s earthquake and tsunami the government says a full radiation cleanup of areas contaminated by radiation from the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant disaster can only begin in March next year, at the earliest. Continue reading →

December 12, 2011 Posted by | environment, Japan | Leave a comment

Workers inside Kudankulam Nuclear project to leave by Dec 15

Siege of Kudankulam Nuclear plant called off IBN Live 11 Dec 11, Chennai: The day-long siege at the Kudankulam Nuclear Power Plant (KNPP) in Tirunelveli district on Saturday by around 1,500 villagers has been called off on the assurance that the workers and others inside the project campus would be vacated by Dec 15, said an activist. Continue reading →

December 12, 2011 Posted by | India, opposition to nuclear | Leave a comment

Anxiety in Ontario at the prospect of nuclear waste dump

Peabody said Walkerton’s tainted water tragedy a decade ago should be
reason enough to stay out of the radioactive-waste business.

“I would (also) question the wisdom of putting all of Canada’s nuclear
waste beside or close to Lake Huron under some of Canada’s best farm
land.” 

Nuclear waste dump idea sparks unease in Ontario The Canadian Press, Dec. 11, 2011  TORONTO — A community on the shores of Lake Huron has cracked open the door to southern Ontario’s becoming the permanent storage site for Canada’s spent, but still dangerously radioactive, nuclear fuel. Continue reading →

December 12, 2011 Posted by | Canada, wastes | Leave a comment