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Call to shut down Switzerland’s old Beznau nuclear plant

Swiss environmental groups want Beznau nuclear plant shut Google News, (AFP) – 24 Feb 12 GENEVA — Switzerland’s Beznau nuclear plant will soon boast the “dubious record” of being the oldest nuclear plant in the world and should be shut down, a group of environmental organisations said Thursday.
The 15 organisations which include WWF Switzerland, Greenpeace, Fokus Anti-Atom and various chapters of the Green Party, noted that Oldbury in England, inaugurated in 1967, will shut down next week. They said Beznau should also be shut down.
“Many security problems show that Beznau has run its course,” said the organizations in a joint statement about the nuclear plant that began operating in 1969.
They said there are cracks in the mantle of the reactor and in the steel containment shell, something strongly denied by Axpo, the energy company that operates Beznau. “As a precaution the lid of the reactor is to be changed, but there is no crack,” said an Axpo spokeswoman.
Beznau is scheduled for decommissioning in 2019 after 50 years of operation. Last September, the Swiss Parliament approved a nuclear phase-out for the country’s five nuclear reactors, due to be decommissioned by 2034.
http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5iNboOs4ir0vGEj7pkKhu4r6ryvQw?docId=CNG.72ca66ee1a4afc263528e0bb35442cac.1b1

February 24, 2012 Posted by | politics, Switzerland | Leave a comment

55,000 Osaka residents want plebiscite on nuclear power

Hashimoto’s opposition a big hurdle in Osaka nuclear plebiscite drive, Japan Times,  By ERIC JOHNSTON Staff writer, 24 Feb 12,  OSAKA — Efforts by a citizens’ group to hold a plebiscite in Osaka on the future of nuclear power hit a major stumbling block when Mayor Toru Hashimoto formally announced his opposition to the plan this week.

Earlier this month, the group pushing for a plebiscite to allow residents to vote on whether to abolish local atomic power plants submitted a petition with the signatures of more than 55,000 Osaka residents eligible to vote. The total is more than the number required to force the municipal assembly to vote on whether to hold the referendum. Continue reading →

February 24, 2012 Posted by | Japan, politics | Leave a comment

Nuclear bombing: find out how your city would fare – with NUKEMAP

Nukemap: Shall we play a game? cnet, by   February 23, 2012  
Tool shows what would happen if history’s most notorious nuclear weapons were dropped on different cities. It’s scary and sobering–and more than a million people have used it. Want to play god much?

With Nukemap, a new tool that lets anyone test out–on a Google Map–the effects of some of history’s most famous nuclear explosions on cities around the world, you can. Continue reading →

February 24, 2012 Posted by | Resources -audiovicual, technology, USA | Leave a comment

Confusing schoolchildren with anti science, climate denialism

Don’t cloud young minds http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg21328533.600-dont-cloud-young-minds.html New Scientist, 22 February 2012 THERE is a strong sense of déjà vu about what is emerging over leaked emails from the Heartland Institute. The US libertarian think tank, which argues that global warming is not primarily caused by humans, intends to develop teaching material that would cast doubt on the scientific consensus on climate change. Its approach is sadly reminiscent of fogging tactics employed by the tobacco industry and creationists

 Children should be taught honestly what we know about climate change, as well as what we don’t know and where the uncertainties lie. Yet a plan outlined in documents allegedly from Heartland would build a curriculum around statements such as “whether humans are changing the climate is a major scientific controversy” (see “Climate sceptics may find fertile ground in US schools“). This is to create controversy where none exists.

There simply is no credible scientific alternative to the theory that humans are warming the atmosphere. In 2010, a survey of 1372 climate scientists found that 97 per cent of those who publish most frequently in the field were in no doubt. They agreed with the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change that human activity had caused most of Earth’s warming over the second half of the 20th century. By comparison with these scientists, the climate expertise of the small group of contrarians was substantially lower (Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1003187107). Continue reading →

February 24, 2012 Posted by | spinbuster, USA | Leave a comment

A smartphone app to measure ionising radition

DIY Geiger counter smartphone app to measure radiation 23 February 2012 Kat Austen, CultureLab editor In the wake of Japan’s Fukushima disaster, amidst a climate of  general mistrust of government radiation data, a number of crowdsourced initiatives for mapping radiation levels sprang up, such as Japan Geigermap, in which radiation readings from citizens are aggregated and displayed online using a web service called pachube.

But most Geiger counters for personal use cost around $200, prohibiting many from measuring radiation for themselves. That’s where non-profit organisation radiation-watch.org has stepped in.

They have devised a way for people to construct their own smartphone-compatible Geiger counter at home. Pocket Geiger uses 8 photodiodes to detect the radiation, aluminium foil to screen alpha and beta particles, and a plastic “Frisk” sweet box for the housing. The total cost is just $46.

Ishigaki started the project in June last year, and with the help of supporting scientists and a team of hackers he has developed the self-assembly Geiger counter and app to allow anyone to measure radiation levels in their home or neighbourhood and upload them to a central server, where they can be visualised on a map.

The project has now grown to over 10,000 users, but due to privacy issues the maps can only be viewed within the radiation-watch.org community.

Continuing to develop the technology, the team have recently launched the Pokega Type2. The first Geiger counter without an internal battery, the Pokega Type2 uses the same technology as its predecessor, except that it uses the smartphone as a source of power.

Costing just $65, the Pokega Type2 was developed with the help of a variety of external organisations, such as Japan’s High Energy Accelerator Research Organization and the Dutch Metrology Institute. http://www.newscientist.com/blogs/onepercent/2012/02/diy-geiger-counter-smartphone.html

February 24, 2012 Posted by | 2 WORLD, technology | Leave a comment

Expand public’s right to question nuclear safety, says Nuclear Regulatory Commission chief

Nuclear Regulatory Commission chief sides with Pilgrim watchdog group, By Christopher Burrell, Enterprise News.com, The Patriot Ledger  Feb 23, 2012 In a surprising move to side with critics of the Pilgrim nuclear power plant, the chairman of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission is arguing to expand, not limit, the public’s chance to ask plant-safety questions in light of last year’s Fukushima Dai-ichi disaster in Japan.

The Fukushima nuclear plant has a similar reactor to the one at Pilgrim, which has been trying for six years to win approval from the NRC for a 20-year extension of its operating license. “Given the significance of that accident (at Fukushima) and the potential implications for the safety of our nuclear reactors, we should allow members of the public to obtain hearings on new contentions on emerging information,” NRC Chairman Gregory Jaczko
wrote in a dissenting opinion released Wednesday. Jaczko was the sole dissenter on the five-member commission, which is appointed by the president. Continue reading →

February 24, 2012 Posted by | safety, USA | Leave a comment

Europe’s clean energy firms get together to lobby EU

Progressive energy firms launch new climate alliance EurActve 23 Feb 12, Eight of Europe’s largest energy companies have launched a clean energy alliance with a call for the EU to set legally enforceable targets for 2030 in emissions reductions, renewable energy and energy efficiency.

The informal alliance describes itself as “a loosely-founded coalition of progressive energy companies [that] share the same views on accelerated transformation of the energy system”.

Its members are Acciona (Spain), DONG Energy (Denmark), EDP (Portugal), Eneco (the Netherlands), EWE (Germany), Public Power Corporation (Greece), Sorgenia (Italy) and SSE (UK).

“The lack of binding targets post-2020, an ETS failing to stimulate investment in renewables, and an outdated energy infrastructure, severely threaten to wreck the needed modernisation and decarbonisation of the European energy sector,” the group says in a strongly worded open letter to the European Commission.

“We call on the Commission and the Presidency of the Council to… decide on legal mandates for binding 2030 renewables, CO2, and energy efficiency targets,” the letter continues….
http://www.euractiv.com/climate-environment/progressive-energy-firms-launch-new-climate-alliance-news-511048

February 24, 2012 Posted by | EUROPE, renewable | Leave a comment

Asia and Pacific powering ahead with decentralised renewable eneergy

The Asian Development Bank (ADB), United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) and the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) released the report “Green Growth, Resources, and Resilience” this week.

On the road to green economies, Malaya Business Insights, 24 Feb12, Net metering is empowering electric consumers in the Philippines. The scheme is embodied in the Philippines’ Renewable Energy Act of 2008 – considered to be the most comprehensive renewable energy law in Southeast Asia.

It allows electric consumers to sell power to the grid at an approved feed-in tariff and buy power as necessary at the normal retail tariff. The feed-in tariff will provide a guaranteed fixed price for at least 12 years for electricity produced from emerging renewable resources: wind, solar power, ocean, run-of-river hydropower, and biomass.

With net metering, the consumer generates electricity at the point of use, and is able to supply excess electricity generated into the grid, either earning revenue or reducing net payable consumption.

Net metering provides a regulatory basis for distributed and decentralized energy systems and at the same time provides a powerful incentive for end-use efficiency improvements. Net metering can be combined with feed-in-tariffs to promote renewable energy generation in decentralized applications. Continue reading →

February 24, 2012 Posted by | ASIA, decentralised, Philippines | 1 Comment