Ionising radiation puts medical specialists at risk of rare brain cancer
‘Cardiologists exposed to radiation susceptible to tumors’, Jerusalem Post, By JUDY SIEGEL-ITZKOVICH02/15/2012 Israelis publish evidence of brain cancer as occupational hazard for certain medical specialists.
Interventional cardiologists around the world have expressed concern over the findings of an Israeli colleague’s medical journal report suggesting aggressive brain cancer – especially on the left side of the head – may be an occupationalhazard from their exposure to ionizing radiation. Continue reading
USA’s Energy Secretary Chu’s trip to promote nuclear power to Georgia
OVERNIGHT ENERGY: Chu to tout nuclear in Georgia The Hill, By Andrew Restuccia and Ben Geman – 02/14/12 State of play: Energy Secretary Steven Chu will tout the Obama administration’s support for nuclear energy Wednesday at a Georgia power plant whose owner recently won approval to build the first new U.S. reactors in more than 30 years.
Rep. Edward Markey (D-Mass.)has called on President Obama to hold off on finalizing the loan guarantee until the Energy Department makes improvements to its loan program, recommended in a White House-mandated report released last week…… http://thehill.com/blogs/e2-wire/e2-wire/210651-overnight-energy
USA taxpayers up for huge costs as NRC approves 2 new and unsafe nuclear reactors
The safety of the reactor design has been challenged over many years. An engineering study commissioned by Friends of the Earth and other groups opposed to the project identified seven key safety areas, including failure risks for the reactor containment, cooling functions and spent fuel pool integrity
Feds Approve Unsafe New Nuclear Reactors Requiring Billions Of Taxpayer Dollars ENews Park Forest, Washington, D.C.—(ENEWSPF)—February 14, 2012. Despite the opposition of its chair, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission last Thursday approved the first new construction of a new design of nuclear reactor since the Three Mile Island nuclear disaster in 1979. Friends of the Earth stated today that the decision to give the green light to building two nuclear reactors at Vogtle, Georgia raises fundamental safety and economic 
concerns.
The NRC ruling, the first such approval in the U.S. in more than 30 years, will saddle Georgians with higher electricity rates and leave American taxpayers on the hook for billions of dollars — all for a dangerous energy source with a long history of construction delays, cost overruns and safety lapses. Continue reading
Japan: push for a referendum on nuclear power
The anti-nuclear side has won all three referendums already held.
Japan group seeks local referendum on nuclear power * Osaka city assembly to decide on nuclear plebiscite
* Osaka mayor anti-nuclear but lukewarm on referendum
* Activists battle apathy a year after Fukushima crisis
By Yoko Kubota TOKYO, Feb 14 (Reuters) – A group of Japanese activists submitted a petition to the western city of Osaka on Tuesday seeking a referendum on scrapping atomic power, a step some hope will boost a campaign that appears to be flagging a year after the Fukushima disaster….. Plebiscites are rare in Japan Continue reading
Upfront costs for nuclear reactors, even if they’re never built
Critic: Proposed MidAmerican nuclear plant is “socialism” Des Moines Register 14 Feb 12, A steady critic of MidAmerican Energy’s proposed nuclear plant in Iowa said legislation backing the project amounts to “socialism” and would cost average ratepayer more than $800 a year.
That bill stalled last year in the Iowa Senate, where it now is before the Commerce Committee and has substantial support.
Mark Cooper, senior fellow at Vermont Law School’s Institute for Energy and the Environment, said the legislation amounts to “nuclear socialism.” “Building new nuclear reactors is entirely uneconomic,” Cooper said. “Nuclear reactors cannot compete with a range of alternatives on price. Construction is so risky, the capital market has said they won’t fund them at normal rates.”
“Under normal market conditions, this power wouldn’t be supplied. The utilities recognize that,so they are pushing for special treatment,” Cooper said. “They want suspension o fmarket forces and suspension of consumer protection.”…. http://www.desmoinesregister.com/article/20120214/NEWS/120214020/1007/NEWS05
Obama administration considering deep cuts to nuclear weapons deployed
US weighing steep nuclear arms cuts (AP) WASHINGTON , CBS News, Robert Burns, February 14, 2012— The Obama administration is weighing options for sharp new cuts to the U.S. nuclear force, including a reduction of up to 80 percent in the number of deployed weapons, The Associated Press has learned.
Even the most modest option now under consideration would be an historic and politically bold disarmament step in a presidential election year, although the plan is in line with President Barack Obama’s 2009 pledge to pursue the elimination of nuclear weapons. Continue reading
Palisades and Browns Ferry nuclear reactors rated at the bottom for safety
Michigan Nuclear Plant Downgraded Over Safety, WSJ, FEBRUARY 14, 2012, COVERT TOWNSHIP, Mich.—Federal regulators said Tuesday that safety violations at the Palisades nuclear-power plant in southwestern Michigan had led them to downgrade the plant to a status held by just two others in the U.S.
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission assigns the more than 100 nuclear reactors in the U.S. to one of five categories based on their safety performance. Most are in the top-performing group. Palisades was bumped to the No. 2 category last month and now will join two others
in the third category: the Perry Nuclear Power Plant’s Unit 1 generator near Cleveland and the Susquehanna Nuclear Power Plant’s Unit 1 generator in Berwick, Pa.
The only reactor that ranks lower is Browns Ferry Unit 1 near Athens, Ala., which is in the fourth category….. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204883304577223561511417868.html
Dramatic loss and share price fall for Paladin Uranium
Paladin’s annus horribilis worsens, The Age, Peter Ker February 15, 2012 URANIUM miner Paladin Energy has managed to underwhelm the market yet again, despite the worst aspects of yesterday’s $US120.2 million loss being known for several months.
Investors wiped more than 5 per cent off the value of the stock … The loss was largely due to a $US133 million write-down on the value of Paladin’s Kayelekera mine in Malawi. Paladin revealed the write-down to the market late last year. …
the market was not impressed. Analysts at Goldman Sachs said the result was worse than expected, and by the close of trading 10¢ had been shaved off Paladin’s share price, taking it to $1.70 – dramatically lower than the $5.40 it was fetching less than a year
ago.
Some of the negativity appeared to be linked to ballooning expenses, despite chief executive John Borshoff cutting his own pay by 25 per cent and reducing exploration in an effort to rein in costs.
From $US31 a pound in the first half of 2010, Paladin’s costs rose to $US34 a pound in the six months to December 31, and costs at the Kayelekera mine were as high as $US46 a pound in the final quarter of last year. http://www.theage.com.au/business/paladins-annus-horribilis-worsens-20120214-1t45b.html#ixzz1mVWU3qJN
The week’s nuclear news in brief
Christina Macpherson's websites & blogs
Nuclear “decommissioning” United Nations Environment Programme’s (UNEP) is concerned about the global unsolved problem of dealing with dying and dead nuclear reactors
Japan – Fukushima nuclear reactor heating up again. Anti nuclear protests by thousands, in Japan. Japanese nuclear companies are happy, as they are getting lucrative contracts to do radiation cleanup work.
Poland: a refrendum in Baltic Sea resort Mielno results in 94% rejection of nuclear power plant.
USA: NRC approves 2 new nuclear reactors, and within aweek, it’s expected that an $8.3 billion tax-payer funded loan guarantee will be provided for them. Not everyone in Washington is happy about this.
Britain: Sellafield nuclear reprocessing project in trouble, especially financial.
Russia: government deception over the true danger of athe fire on a nuclear submarine. Medical science showing that exposure to ionising radiation to male foetuses increases the risk of cancer of the testicles.
France – Government is to pressing on with expensive safety upgrades of existing nuclear reactors, because that’s cheaper than new ones. Nuclear power becoming an election issue in France.
15 tonnes of water hourly, as Fukushima nuclear reactor hots up again
Fukushima reactor heats up again, ABC News, By Mark Willacy in Fukushima The operator of the Fukushima nuclear plant has begun injecting more water into one of the reactors, after the core temperature rose above Japan’s safety limit.
A gauge inside Fukushima’s reactor number two showed the temperature rising to 82 degrees Celsius over the weekend, its highest level since the reactor was put into a state of cold shutdown two months ago. Operator TEPCO insists there has been no nuclear reaction and that the reactor can be controlled.
Responding to the increase, the operator began injecting 15 tonnes of water an hour into the reactor in a bid to get the temperature down. TEPCO says it has not detected any xenon gas, which is created when a
nuclear reaction has been triggered.
The company suspects that cooling water has not been flowing freely into the the number two reactor, causing the
In Japan thousands rally for “Sayonora to nuclear plants,”
Thousands rally against nuclear power in Japan Business Recorder FEBRUARY 12, 2012 Thousands demonstrated in Tokyo on Saturday against nuclear power generation, 11 months after a massive earthquake and tsunami sparked reactor meltdowns at the Fukushima nuclear power plant.
Kenzaburo Oe, the 1994 Nobel prize winner for literature, told a central rally at Yoyogi Park, “Radioactive waste from nuclear power plants will be borne by generations to come.” Continue reading
Local community against nuclear power, as Poland’s government launches pro nuclear campaign
“People are very determined not to have the nuclear plant here,”
Poland’s centrist government plans to launch a pro-nuclear public campaign in March,….
Polish sea resort poll rejects nuclear plant
* Some 94 percent of local community opposed to nuclear plant
* Warsaw says will consider the decision
By Maciej Onoszko MIELNO, Poland, Feb 13 (Reuters) – Residents of popular Baltic Sea resort Mielno, one of three sites shortlisted to host Poland’s first nuclear plant early in the next decade, on Sunday voted overwhelmingly against the plan.
Some 94 percent of the 2,389 people who took part in the referendum opposed the plant, and only 5 percent supported it, Mielno Mayor Olga Roszak-Pezala told Reuters…
The village of Gaski in the Mielno municipality is one of three sites selected by Polish power company PGE last November to host a power station with a capacity of 3 gigawatts, which is set to double in the 2030s.
The emergence of Gaski on the PGE shortlist caught local authorities and citizens by surprise, with some 90 percent of them earning their living from tourism, Roszak-Pezala said. Continue reading
Testicular cancer linked to ionising radiation affecting fetus
Fetal exposure to radiation increases risk of testicular cancer Medical Express February 13, 2012 Male fetuses of mothers that are exposed to radiation during early pregnancy may have an increased chance of developing testicular cancer, according to a study in mice at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center
According to the American Cancer Society, more than 8,500 new cases of testicular cancer are diagnosed each year in the United States. During the past 50 years, the incidence has tripled in young Caucasian men throughout the world. Continue reading
Global problems of the nuclear industry
Nuclear Problems, Environmental Research Web, 12 Feb 12, The European Pressurised-water Reactor (EPR) being built at Olkiluoto in Finland is now unlikely to be completed until 2014- five years late- and $3bn or more over-budget. Similar problems face the EPR being built at Flammanville in France.
And similar problems have emerged at the two 1.7GW EPRs being built at Taishan in China, 140km west of Hong Kong: variable concrete quality, unqualified or inexperienced subcontractors, poor documentation, language issues.
Unit 1 is meant to be ready in 2013, Unit 2 in 2014, followed by two more. China has also had some problems with rapidly deploying its re-engineered version of the Westinghouse AP1000, Continue reading
Monumental mess of UK’s monumental nuclear reprocessing project
Sellafield faces nuclear option as overspending threatens plant’s future, The Independent UK, 13 Feb 2010 Britain’s biggest single nuclear project has run into serious trouble, with missed deadlines and cost overruns threatening the future of the nuclear reprocessing operation at Sellafield in Cumbria.
Nuclear authorities have ordered a review of a monumental construction project at Sellafield that is millions of pounds over budget and more than four years late following a series of delays and financial mismanagement. Continue reading
1 This Month
10 June – Assessing Canada’s Investments in Small Modular Nuclear Reactors – https://zoom.us/meeting/register/IiqHA5feRhaEBycOLNTJlA#/registration
Cuba Is Not a Failed State – It Is a Besieged State
PETITION: “Global Appeal to Endorse Palestinian Right of Return of Refugees”
To see nuclear-related stories in greater depth and intensity – go to https://nuclearinformation.wordpress.com
-
Archives
- June 2026 (89)
- May 2026 (306)
- April 2026 (356)
- March 2026 (251)
- February 2026 (268)
- January 2026 (308)
- December 2025 (358)
- November 2025 (359)
- October 2025 (376)
- September 2025 (257)
- August 2025 (319)
- July 2025 (230)
-
Categories
- 1
- 1 NUCLEAR ISSUES
- business and costs
- climate change
- culture and arts
- ENERGY
- environment
- health
- history
- indigenous issues
- Legal
- marketing of nuclear
- media
- opposition to nuclear
- PERSONAL STORIES
- politics
- politics international
- Religion and ethics
- safety
- secrets,lies and civil liberties
- spinbuster
- technology
- Uranium
- wastes
- weapons and war
- Women
- 2 WORLD
- ACTION
- AFRICA
- Atrocities
- AUSTRALIA
- Christina's notes
- Christina's themes
- culture and arts
- Events
- Fuk 2022
- Fuk 2023
- Fukushima 2017
- Fukushima 2018
- fukushima 2019
- Fukushima 2020
- Fukushima 2021
- general
- global warming
- Humour (God we need it)
- Nuclear
- RARE EARTHS
- Reference
- resources – print
- Resources -audiovicual
- Weekly Newsletter
- World
- World Nuclear
- YouTube
-
RSS
Entries RSS
Comments RSS
nuclear-news 