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

India weakens nuclear safety, and nuclear liability law

The bill aims at a formal ‘regulatory capture’ of the nuclear sector so that a few top people in the executive branch, in collusion with some of the senior atomic scientists, bureaucrats and politicians, can help the Indian and foreign corporate sectors in importing foreign power reactors into India on their terms, irrespective of their
relative safety or cost merits.”

 Safety fears for new uranium customer SMH, Ben Doherty, Som Patidar, Som Patidar December 23, 2011 NEW DELHI: India, Australia’s newest uranium export destination, is to dismantle its nuclear regulator, replacing the expert panel with a government-controlled body critics say will be a ”sham” and ”no regulator at all”. Legislation before the Indian parliament would replace the Atomic Energy Regulatory Board, which has monitored the use, transfer and disposal of nuclear material in India for 28 years, with the Nuclear Safety Regulatory Authority.

The NSRA will be answerable to a clutch of government ministers who can direct the regulator, even sack its members, giving rise to allegations that the new body will be captive to government. The controversial move comes as Australian officials prepare to begin negotiations with India about the sale of uranium to its civilian nuclear program.
This month the Labor Party overturned a long-standing ban on selling uranium to India because it refused to sign the nuclear non-proliferation treaty. India remains steadfastly outside the treaty  Continue reading →

December 23, 2011 Posted by | India, safety | 2 Comments

The coming cancer cost from Fukushma ionising radiation

Nuclear Expert: 1,000,000 cancers from Fukushima in Japan over next 20 years  ENE News — First thyroid, then lung, organ, brain, leukemia (VIDEO)  Title: Fukushima – Total Cost http://enenews.com/nuclear-expert-forecasts-1000000-cancers-from-fukushima-in-japan-first-thyroid-then-lung-organ-brain-leukemia-vide0  Dec 21, 2011

Description: Arnie Gundersen of Fairwinds Associates (a leading nuclear expert) and Warren Pollock (http://www.wepollock.com ) redefine the Fukushima nuclear incidents (meltdowns and explosions) in terms of human and total cost. […]

I think the 20 year cost from Fukushima will be about one million cancers

  • Based on Three Mile Island studies
  • About a 20% increase in lung cancer 3-5 years after TMI
  • And that was small compared to Fukushima
  • And in a much lower population density
  • First thyroid cancer
  • Then lung cancer
  • Then organ cancer, leukemia, brain cancer, things like that

December 23, 2011 Posted by | Resources -audiovicual | Leave a comment

Victims of low level radiation wain legal cases in Japan

The 1986 nuclear accident at Chernobyl in Ukraine deepened the understanding of internal exposure. When thyroid cancer surged among children there, it was traced to contaminated cows’ milk they had consumed. ..

 Since 2006, about 300 hibakusha [in Japan] have won in 30 class-action suits nationwide. In many, judges ruled “early entrants” should also get benefits. In effect, this was the first official acknowledgment that internal exposure could cause health problems, given that these people weren’t exposed to the blasts, but to later fallout.

Discovery of radiation in autumn rice crops from Fukushima has put people on alert. …..

Extended low-level exposure might actually be more hazardous than a one-time blast if a brief, high dose just kills cells, whereas internal exposure could damage them even at low levels, ultimately causing cancer. 

Past Haunts Tally of Japan’s Nuke Crisis, WSJ  By YUKA HAYASHI, 23 Dec 11 KASHIWA, Japan—The struggle to understand the health consequences of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear meltdown carries an eerie echo of Japan’s past: The nation is still debating who is a victim of the atomic bombs that destroyed Hiroshima and Nagasaki in World War II.

On Wednesday, in the latest in a series of high-profile lawsuits, four of five people who were exposed to radiation from the bombings—but weren’t present at the actual blasts—won official recognition as victims. Until recent years, Japan held that only people who experienced the actual blasts at close range were victims, because secondary radiation posed negligible danger.

This debate resonates today because many potential victims of the Fukushima disaster will have received only secondary radiation, for instance from eating tainted food or inhaling dust. Continue reading →

December 23, 2011 Posted by | Japan, Legal | Leave a comment

Farmers can provide renewable energy along with agriculture

 Farmers, fishermen and food processing businesses have opportunities to install technologies to generate wind power, solar power, micro-hydropower.

in remote rural areas without access to the electricity grid, autonomous renewable energy systems are competitive because they allow users to avoid the high expenses in connecting to the grid.

Clean and green farming is feasible, Malaya Business Insights, 23 Dec 11 REDUCING the dependence of food systems on fossil fuels by using renewable energy is feasible. Renewable energy can also be used for transporting raw food feedstocks, processing food, distributing finished products and cooking.

In poor countries, renewable energy presents opportunities to provide much needed basic energy services such as in post-harvest stages that are important for reducing food losses. In Sri Lanka, for example, wood biomass is being used to dry spices. Continue reading →

December 23, 2011 Posted by | 2 WORLD, decentralised | Leave a comment

United Nations concerned about Libya’s unsafe uranium stores

UN watchdog worries about Kadhafi uranium in Libya Google News, (AFP)  23 Dec 11 UNITED NATIONS — The UN atomic watchdog has told Libya to urgently find a home for yellow cake uranium from the Moamer Kadhafi era left in thousands of deteriorating barrels, a UN envoy said Thursday.
Kadhafi renounced efforts to make weapons of mass destruction, including nuclear bombs, in 2003, but a major storage base with the raw uranium was found in the uprising which led to his death in October.
An International Atomic Energy Agency team completed a visit to the Tajoura nuclear complex in Tripoli and the Sabha uranium storage base, in the desert of southern Libya, on December 9, UN envoy to Libya, Ian Martin, told the UN Security Council….
http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5hQJCokPyuiEQ14EK2iCPsN0zw_yA?docId=CNG.e2eaa3a1d5b6df35ac9841bb3a6ef85b.431

December 23, 2011 Posted by | Libya, safety | Leave a comment

MRI scans better and safer than radiation methods for heart checks

MRI scans ‘are better for heart checks’, experts say, BBC News, 23 Dec 11 Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans should be used to assess patients with suspected heart disease, rather than standard checks, experts say.

A University of Leeds study of 750 people found MRI was better at detecting the condition, and of ruling it out in unaffected patients.

MRI was also non-invasive and did not use radiation, unlike the usual tests. A spokesman for the British Heart Foundation, which backed the study, said MRI should be used more widely…… Patients with suspected angina are currently most likely to have either an angiogram – an invasive test where dye is injected directly into the heart’s arteries
– or a non-invasive imaging test called SPECT.

Angiograms and SPECT tests both involve ionising radiation…… http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-16305278

December 23, 2011 Posted by | health, UK | 1 Comment

Claim that AQ Khan gave nuclear weapons technology to India

AQ Khan gave India nuclear technology: US expert, IBN Live 23 Dec Washington: India got shortcut tips on nuclear weapons from Pakistani Scientist AQ Khan claims a bizarre article written in the Playboy magazine by an American arms expert.
This astonishing claim is according to US arms control expert Joshua Pollack and whats even more is that he wrote this article in the Playboy magazine.

Pollock has claimed that Khan provided a shortcut to a nuclear weapon to India, along with Iran, Libya and North Korea. India had conducted its first nuclear test on May 18, 1974, while
Pakistan did it only in 1998……
http://ibnlive.in.com/news/aq-khan-gave-india-nuclear-tech-us-expert/214363-2.html

December 23, 2011 Posted by | general | Leave a comment