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USA’s National Center for Science Education defends Climate Change

NCSE’s climate change initiative launched, National Center for Science Education, January 16th, 2012  NCSE is proud to announce the launch of its new initiative aimed at defending the teaching of climate change. Like evolution, climate change is accepted by the scientific community but controversial among the public.

As a result, educators trying to teach climate change, like their counterparts trying to teach evolution, are often likewise pressured to compromise the scientific and pedagogical integrity of their instruction. But there was no NCSE for climate — no organization, that is, specializing in providing advice and support to those facing challenges to climate change education.

With the launching of the initiative, NCSE itself becomes that organization. As NCSE’s executive director Eugenie C. Scott explained in a January 16, 2012, press release, “We consider climate change a critical issue in our own mission to protect the integrity of science education.” She added, “Climate affects everyone, and the decisions we make today will affect generations to come. We need to teach kids now about the realities of global warming and climate change, so that they’re prepared to make informed, intelligent decisions in the future.”

The response from the scientific and education communities has been enthusiastic…. Included in the climate change initiative is a new area of NCSE’s websitedevoted to climate change education….. http://ncse.com/news/2012/01/ncses-climate-change-initiative-launched-007149

January 20, 2012 Posted by | climate change, USA | Leave a comment

US education’s battles: first evolution, now climate change

“Climate change education is kind of where evolution education was 30 years ago,”

US education advocates tackle climate change sceptics New Scientist, 19 January 2012 Read more: “Education campaigner wants to expel climate denial“A NEW front has opened in the battle over US school science curricula. After decades of fighting to keep creationism out of the classroom, US science education advocates are steeling themselves to face a new foe: climate change sceptics.

Over the past few years, several US states and local school boards have introduced measures that would mean teachers must include the views of those who are sceptical of a human influence on climate change in science lessons. Continue reading →

January 20, 2012 Posted by | climate change, USA | Leave a comment

Violence, gunshots, and radioactive material stolen from Egyptian nuclear facility site

Radioactive material stolen from Egyptian power station: report Reuters  Jan 19, 2012 CAIRO – Radioactive material has been stolen from a nuclear power station on Egypt’s Mediterranean coast that was the scene of violent protests last week, the state-run al-Ahram newspaper reported on Thursday.

A safe containing radioactive material at the Dabaa nuclear power plant, which is still under construction, was seized while another also containing radioactive material was broken open and part of its contents taken, the newspaper said.

In Vienna, an official of the U.N. nuclear agency described the items missing as “low-level radioactive sources” which had been taken from a laboratory at the construction site. He could not give any details on the nature of the stolen items…

.. More than a dozen people were wounded last week when military police tried to disperse hundreds of Egyptian protesters demanding the relocation of the Dabaa plant.

Plant staff have refused to go to the site because of the deterioration in the security situation there, al-Ahram said. About 500 Egyptians rallied in front of the plant last week to demand that the project be terminated, with some saying they had lost their land on the site.

Soldiers and the demonstrators threw stones at each other and exchanged gunfire after the protesters demolished a wall surrounding the site, a security source and witnesses said…
http://news.nationalpost.com/2012/01/19/radioactive-material-stolen-from-egyptian-power-station-report/

January 20, 2012 Posted by | Egypt, safety | Leave a comment

A nuclear free Scotland would make England pay up for Trident submarine base

The nuclear issue is the one that concerns ministers most; where would the new Trident submarines be based, if not at Faslane on the Clyde?

SNP’s defence policies are ‘laughable’, says Philip Hammond, Nick Hopkins, guardian.co.uk,   19 January 2012 Defence secretary wades into the debate over devolution as the likely effects – and costs – of Scottish independence rattle the MoD.… The new defence secretary, Philip Hammond, is pretty choosy about the media he does, and on what subjects. Today, he went on the record over devolution, and the effects it might have on defence.

No wonder he was prepared to speak, and in such unusually fruity language for a man not known for rhetorical flourish.

He knows the ramifications for the military, and the Treasury, are enormous.  The key themes for the SNP are easy enough to spell out – Scotlandwould not be a member of Nato and would be nuclear free. Continue reading →

January 20, 2012 Posted by | politics, UK | Leave a comment

Taxpayers to fund massive nuclear waste dump, damaging to Cumbria

A public inquiry and appeal agreed with Cumbria County Council 15 years ago that the risk of radioactive waste migrating to the surface was too great for geological disposal of intermediate level waste.

Today, that same authority is a partner in the plan which now includes high-level waste.

A nuclear dump would blight Cumbria’s major industries of agriculture and tourism…. MRWS is now sinking taxpayers’ millions into a timetabled process too big to fail.

NUCLEAR DEBATE: RADIATION FREE LAKELAND:   JUST SAY NO:  Times and Star By Marianne Birkby,  19 January 2012 The last government set up a quango called Managing Radioactive Waste Safely. MRWS aims to give lucrative contracts, courtesy of the taxpayer, to private companies for a mine 3,280ft deep by 269 sq ft.

Put in perspective, Scafell Pike is 3,208ft. Imagine that size mine filled with high-level radioactive waste by 2026, setting a world first. Continue reading →

January 20, 2012 Posted by | UK, wastes | 1 Comment

Violence as protestors oppose Egypt’s new nuclear power plant

Protests at nuclear power station construction site escalate, Egypt Independent, Al-Masry Al-Youm Staff, 19/01/2012 Protesters at the nuclear power station site in Dabaa, located in the Matrouh Governorate on the North Coast, said on Thursday they would continue their sit-in and asserted that the government would not be able to force them out.

Egypt’s first nuclear power station is planned to be built in Dabaa, but the residents stormed the site last week, destroying many buildings and staging a sit-in.

They have already built 50 houses on the site, changed its name to New Dabaa and decided to move the cattle market there.
They also said they would give 1,000 square meters for free to young people who cannot afford a place to live. Dabaa residents say the government did not compensate them for the land it allocated to the project.

The protesters rejected Prime Minister Kamal al-Ganzouri’s assurances that the government will go ahead with plans to build the plant on this site…. The plant’s construction site was looted and vandalized earlier this
week, resulting in LE500 million in losses.

There have been conflicting reports regarding the Nuclear Stations Authority committee that went to inspect the site on Thursday in order to assess the damages. It was rumored that committee members refused to enter the site upon hearing that safes containing radioactive elements were missing…… http://www.almasryalyoum.com/en/node/609946

January 20, 2012 Posted by | Egypt, opposition to nuclear, safety | Leave a comment

Radioactive gravel in school building in Japan

Radioactive gravel finds way to school, Japan Times, 20 Jan 12, Hunt is on for other shipments from quarry in evacuation zone Kyodo FUKUSHIMA — Radiation-contaminated gravel shipped from a quarry in the evacuation zone around the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant found its way to an elementary school building as well as roads and pathways around
houses, sources said Wednesday. The gravel went into concrete that was used to make an elementary school in Nihonmatsu, Fukushima Prefecture, more resistant to earthquakes. The area where the gravel was used had a radiation reading of 0.1 to 0.2 microsieverts per hour.

“We are surprised at the news as we had never expected it. We’d like to make efforts to ensure children’s health by checking the radiation level on a regular basis,” the school’s principal said. Continue reading →

January 20, 2012 Posted by | incidents, Japan | Leave a comment

Betrayal of Japanese people in government silence on radiation

With no information coming from Tokyo, mayor Tamotsu Baba decided to lead the people of his community further north away from the plant. He did not know it at the time, but that was the very direction the plumes of radiation were also blowing.

For the 20,000 people of Namie  – they have lost their homes and many fear for the health of their children.

A system that was designed to protect and warn them has clearly failed.

Japan ‘betrayed citizens’ over radiation danger, ABC News AM By North Asia correspondent Mark Willacy January 20, 2012 Japan has been accused of betraying its own people by giving the American military information about the spread of radiation from Fukushima more than a week before it told the Japanese public.

The mayor of a Japanese community abandoned because of its proximity to the Fukushima nuclear plant has told AM the government’s actions are akin to murder.

An official from Japan’s science ministry, which was in charge of mapping the spread of radiation, has acknowledged to AM that perhaps the public should have been told about the dangers at the same time the US military was informed.

In the hours after the meltdowns at Fukushima, unseen plumes of radiation began to roll over the Japanese landscape. Just a few kilometres from the oozing remains of the nuclear plant the people of Namie village gathered to evacuate. Continue reading →

January 20, 2012 Posted by | Japan, secrets,lies and civil liberties | Leave a comment

American public opinion – wanting renewable energy, not nuclear power

 Americans overwhelmingly support greater investments in renewable energy sources like solar, wind, and hydropower. They favor requiring utilities to use more alternative energy (even if this proves more expensive) and providing tax incentives to encourage the development and use of such technologies.

in the wake of the Fukushima disaster, a clear majority of Americans opposes building new nuclear power plants

Americans on Renewable Energy, Council on Foreign Relations  by Stewart M. Patrick  January 18, 2012  With Iran threatening to close the Strait of Hormuz, energy security is once again at the top of the global agenda—and not just in Rick Perry’s debate talking points. But true “energy security” will require more than independence from unreliable or unstable suppliers. It will also oblige governments and companies to invest in a wider range of energy sources—many of them renewable.

That is the message of the World Future Energy Summit, which opened in Abu Dhabi this week. In his keynote address, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon called for the world to double its use of renewable energy by 2030. Ban’s words should resonate strongly in the United States, according to a new digest of polls on energy security released by the International Institutions and Global Governanceprogram and worldpublicopinion.org.

Americans, it turns out, are deeply anxious about energy security. An overwhelming majority (85 percent) consider it important (67 percent “very important”) to “decrease American dependence on oil imported from the Middle East”. Nearly two in three Americans (64%) favor creating a new international institution to “monitor the worldwide energy market and predict potential shortages.” Large majorities worry that energy shortages and higher prices could lead to destabilization of the world economy, that energy competition could lead to international conflict (or even war), and that current energy production is causing unacceptable environmental damage. Continue reading →

January 20, 2012 Posted by | renewable, USA | Leave a comment

Idaho National Laboratory did not properly assess plutonium risks

The effects of radiation worsen the longer radioactive material remains in the body.
Plutonium is considered more dangerous when inhaled than ingested because particles lodge in the lungs instead of being eliminated by the body, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Federal panel faults Idaho lab for radiation exposure mishap, By Laura Zuckerman SALMON, Idaho   Jan 18, 2012  (Reuters) – The radiation exposure of 16 workers at a nuclear research lab in Idaho stemmed from a failure to properly assess the risks posed by the handling of decades-old plutonium fuel cells, federal investigators concluded on Wednesday. Continue reading →

January 20, 2012 Posted by | - plutonium, USA | Leave a comment

Fukushima nuclear accident – not all that bad?

For Tipton, When Does “Reasonably Well” Become “Horribly Catastrophic”? HUFFINGTON POST, Jason Salzman, 19 Jan  Rep. Scott Tipton said in a radio interview last week that Japan’s Fukushima nuclear reactors “held up reasonably well” after being struck by an earthquake and tsunami.

So they could have been flattened, yes. But did they really hold up reasonably well?

It’s widely agreed now that the disaster caused a meltdown in three Fukushima reactors. Over ten thousand people were evacuated, and the fate of dozens of plant workers who experienced serious radiation exposure is unknown but of serious concern (at least three died). Elevated levels of radiation have been found in rice, beef, milk, spinach, and tea. Leaks of radioactive material to the ocean and land still threaten fish and wildlife. The reactors remain vulnerable to earthquakes, and cleanup is estimated to take 40 years…… http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jason-salzman/for-tipton-when-does-reas_b_1216153.html

January 20, 2012 Posted by | Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Virginia Governor on pausing action on uranium mining regulation

Uranium Moratorium,  Governors Journal Daily By GoJo Staff  January 19, 2012 (Richmond, VA) – Virginia Governor Bob McDonnell(R) is asking the state legislature to take no action this year on the regulation of uranium mining, while the issue is studied further. In the meantime, he is asking a multi-agency task force to review “scientific and legal” issues associated with uranium mining and he is asking that task force to report back with recommendations by the end of the year.

McDonnell’s decision comes after a review of a National Academy of Sciences report that looked into the prospects for uranium mining in Pittsylvania County where there is the potential for an operation at Coles Hill….

McDonnell’s request to extend the current Virginia moratorium on uranium mining, may be seen by some as at odds with a general policy held by the Republican Party nationally to move forward aggressively with the development of homegrown sources of energy. McDonnell clearly believes the unknowns associated with uranium are far greater than those involving pipelines, or drilling for natural gas, or oil.

“Public safety must be the primary factor in the ultimate determination as to whether to proceed with uranium mining,” McDonnell said in his statement. http://governorsjournal.com/2012/01/uranium-moratorium/

January 20, 2012 Posted by | general | Leave a comment