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France’s President insists that aging nuclear plant is safe

Sarkozy refuses to close aging nuclear plant despite growing resistance Washington Post, By Associated Press,   February 9 FESSENHEIM, France — French President Nicolas Sarkozy is refusing to shut down an aging nuclear plant that has become a symbol of growing resistance to nuclear energy in France…. He insisted there was no doubt about the plant’s safety…. http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/europe/sarkozy-refuses-to-close-aging-nuclear-plant-despite-growing-resistance/2012/02/09/gIQAYDH60Q_story.html

February 10, 2012 Posted by | general | Leave a comment

New ways to store surplus renewable energy

As the use of renewable energy spreads, some companies are storing energy as heat rather than cold. And some are harnessing batteries at the point of generation.

Surplus Renewable Energy: An Update, NYT, By MATTHEW L. WALD, 9 Feb 2012 Last year I wrote about sudden surges in renewable energy that set up a conflict between wind producers in the Pacific Northwest and the Bonneville Power Administration, a federal agency that runs hydroelectric dams and the regional grid. ….

…at a two-day National Electricity Forum sponsored by the Energy Department and others, the federal energy secretary, Steven Chu, on Wednesday proposed a different set of solutions to the problem, which is likely to emerge elsewhere as installations of renewable energy expand and systems have to cope with surges or deficits of power they cannot predict. Continue reading →

February 10, 2012 Posted by | renewable, USA | Leave a comment

Vermont’s renewable energy kickstarts energy independence for the State

Local renewable industry poised to make ‘Vermont energy strong’ , VT Digger, Gabrielle Stebbins, 9 Feb 2012 Montpelier, Vermont – Vermont’s local renewable energy industry— made up of diverse manufacturers, construction contractors, installers, developers, and suppliers— announced today the industry is equipped to help make “Vermont energy strong” in the 21st Century.

The industry, which ranges from local fabricators assembling electrical boards and contractors that specialize in hot water, solar, wind, hydro, geothermal and biomass heating installations to regional and international manufacturers of innovative renewable energy technologies, held a press conference on pending policy issues today in Montpelier.

“The benefits of a strong renewable industry flow throughout the state by creating local jobs, producing energy locally, and providing energy security,” said Gabrielle Stebbins, Executive Director of Renewable Energy Vermont (REV), the state trade association representing more than 300 renewables and efficiency businesses in the state. “Growing our own renewable energy in-state is in keeping with Vermonters’ desire for self reliance, a clean energy future that leaves a better legacy for our children, and keeping our dollars local.” Continue reading →

February 10, 2012 Posted by | renewable, USA | Leave a comment

Bonnir Raitt to sing against nuclear power on May 31

Bonnie Raitt helps the fight to end nuclear power in New England Mass.Market, 2012 February 9 by Jon Chesto The nuclear industry in New England has another high-profile foe, with guitarist Bonnie Raitt stepping up to support the cause this spring.

The Guacamole Fund, a nonprofit that helps put together benefit concerts for grass-roots organizations, is selling tickets for a Bonnie Raitt concert in Portland, Maine, and a dessert reception after the show with the musician. Tickets for the May 31 concert and reception are selling for $300 apiece, and proceeds go to the New England Coalition, a group  main goal is to oppose nuclear power in the region…. Continue reading →

February 10, 2012 Posted by | general | Leave a comment

Canadian govt to sell nuclear laboratories, to reduce taxpayers’ financial risks

Government of Canada to Unload AECL Laboratories, TechFinance, February 9, 2012 Government of Canada is seeking “Expression of Interest” as a process of selling Atomic Energy of Canada Limited (AECL)’s Nuclear Laboratories.

Government of Canada said this process will help inform the restructuring process, a critical step to further strengthen Canada’s nuclear industry while reducing taxpayers’ exposure to financial risks in this sector.
AECL’s Nuclear Laboratories include two main sites: Chalk River Laboratories (CRL), located in Ontario, and Whiteshell Laboratories, located at Pinawa, Manitoba…….
http://news.techfinance.ca/government-of-canada-to-unload-aecl-laboratories/

February 10, 2012 Posted by | Canada, politics | Leave a comment

Climate change can still be reversed

Don’t despair – still time to reverse climate change, Canberra Times, JOHN QUIGGIN 09 Feb, 2012 The numbers are daunting. Global atmospheric concentrations of greenhouse gases already amount to the equivalent of 390ppm, and current emissions are contributing around 2ppm each year. Emissions are still increasing, and were barely dented by the global financial crisis. The time remaining to turn this around is short. Patterns of energy use are largely determined by long-lived capital investments in electricity generation, transport networks and motor vehicle production systems. If current patterns of investment persist until 2025 or beyond, the chances of reaching the 2025 target are bleak.

The good news is that, at least for electricity generation, a decarbonised energy system appears to be feasible. The prices of the main renewable technologies, wind and solar photovoltaics have been dropping rapidly, to the point where they are feasible alternatives to fossil fuels. The same has not been true, so far, for nuclear power,……

Time is running short, but there are a few hopeful signs. China and India have dipped a toe or two in the water, introducing both carbon taxes and feed-in tariffs for renewable energy. The taxes are at very low levels initially, but may be increased over time. There is even an outside chance that the political situation in the US, which came agonizingly close to introducing an emissions trading scheme in 2009 and 2010, might change for the better. Looking at the huge amount that needs to be done to stabilise the global climate, and the limited time left to do it, it is easy to give way to despair. But there is still (just) enough time to turn things around, if world leaders can be made to put our long-term future ahead of short-run expediency. http://www.canberratimes.com.au/news/opinion/editorial/general/dont-despair-still-time-to-reverse-climate-change/2449321.aspx?storypage=2

February 10, 2012 Posted by | general | Leave a comment

Radiation induced mutations in insects

Mousseau et al confirms Cornelia Hesse-Honegge, Paul Langley’s Nuclear History Blog, 10 Feb 12,    http://www.wissenskunst.ch/en/biographie.htm have a look at the illustrations. quote: Biography Cornelia Hesse-Honegger, scientific illustrator and science artist, was born in 1944 in Zurich, Switzerland. For 25 years she worked as a scientific illustrator for the scientific department of the Natural History Museum at the University of Zurich. Since 1969 she has collected and painted leaf bugs, Heteroptera. Her watercolors are exhibited internationally at museums and galleries. Her work is an interface between art and science; it plays witness to a beautiful but endangered nature.

Since the catastrophe of Chernobyl in 1986, she has collected, studied and painted morphologically disturbed insects, which she finds in the fallout areas of Chernobyl as well as near nuclear installations.  http://nuclearhistory.wordpress.com/2012/02/09/mousseau-et-al-confirms-cornelia-hesse-honegger/

February 10, 2012 Posted by | environment, EUROPE | Leave a comment

Energy efficiency program by Australian government

New Australian government energy efficiency programs opened  Eco Business, February 9th, 2012  By : Energy Matters The Gillard Government has just announced the opening of series of energy efficiency initiatives and assistance targeted towards business, local government, households and communities.

A joint statement from Minister for Climate Change and Energy Efficiency Greg Combet, Minister for Regional Australia, Regional Development and Local Government Simon Crean; and Parliamentary Secretary for Climate Change and Energy Efficiency Mark Dreyfus states these programs will make it easier for regional communities and smaller councils to access assistance and support in the transition to a low carbon future.

The programs include:

Community Energy Efficiency Program – $200 million

To assist local government, not-for-profit and community organisations to undertake energy efficiency upgrades to community infrastructure, including council buildings, stadiums, education facilities, town halls and nursing homes. Continue reading →

February 10, 2012 Posted by | AUSTRALIA, ENERGY | Leave a comment

5 million signed anti nuclear petition – enough for referenda in 2 Japanese cities

Japanese Anti-Nuclear Campaign Says It Has 5 Million Petition Signatures, VOA, 08 February 2012 Steve Herman | Tokyo A citizen’s group in Japan says it has collectedfive million signatures – halfway to its goal – on a petition calling on the government to permanently shut down all nuclear power plants in the country.

But amid traditional apathy among Japanese toward political movements and longstanding strong ties between power companies and lawmakers in a resource-poor country, anti-nuclear
campaigners are acknowledging an uphill struggle….

Petitioners in Tokyo and Osaka separately say they have collected enough signatures
for referenda in Japan’s two largest cities. But it is unclear if those campaigns will clear all the legal hurdles to get on the ballot. Continue reading →

February 9, 2012 Posted by | Japan, politics | Leave a comment

A golden reminder – wind and solar are FREE energy fuel

This golden age of energy prosperity will make a sharper contrast between these nations and states and those that will face higher fossil energy costs.

Renewables will bring golden age of free energy  http://www.tgdaily.com/sustainability-features/61320-renewables-will-bring-golden-age-of-free-energy February 8, 2012   by Susan Kraemer, EarthTechling Most people understand that once solar panels are paid off, the energy they provide is free. But what about on a national level?

Many haven’t really internalized the corresponding fact. The same people worry that government investment in solar, or policies that encourage it, is somehow wasting money. But solar works the same way at the national level. Once the infrastructure is paid for, the energy is free. The same with wind. It is money well spent.

A new coal plant must be paid for, too, but after that initial cost is paid, money must continue to be pumped in, day in, day out, shoveling a fresh train-car-load of coal into a furnace every 12 hours, for the next 30 years.

Some nations have invested in so much renewable power in the last few years, that their citizens will share a future golden age of free energy , starting as soon as 2020. And that investment will yield increasing dividends in the decades after that, as yet more wind and solar, now in the pipeline, gets connected. Continue reading →

February 9, 2012 Posted by | general | Leave a comment

Bombing Iran’s nuclear facilities would be counter productive

If we bomb Iran, Tehran will go nuclear. Is that really what Niall Ferguson wants? Telegraph UK, By David Blair,   February 8th, 2012 What should Israel and the West do about Iran? Niall Ferguson thinks that war would be justified and in this week’s Newsweek he sets out to demolish the case against a pre-emptive strike on Iran’s nuclear facilities. He lists the “five reasons” why people oppose military action and knocks them down one by one.

But, oddly, he doesn’t bother with the biggest objection of all: going to war with Iran would not solve the problem. Continue reading →

February 9, 2012 Posted by | general | Leave a comment

Secrecy over possible plutonium from Felon 22 air crash

The list of witnesses who were interviewed and their statements were withheld, as were the findings of the investigators and the health reports on the victims of the crash.

Radiation fears still cloud the crash of Felon 22, by Lee Bennett, Feb 08, 2012 | San Juan Record – From the time Felon 22 tore apart in the skies over Monticello, UT, in January, 1961, there were fears that atomic bombs on board the plane might have spilled radioactive debris.
………a Pentagon report listed the crash “among 29 documented nuclear accidents that have occurred since 1950.” Continue reading →

February 9, 2012 Posted by | EUROPE, safety, secrets,lies and civil liberties, USA | Leave a comment

New communications can help to rid the world of nuclear dangers

Crowdsourcing Nuclear Problems, NPR 8 Feb 2012 “….Rose Gottemoeller, acting undersecretary of state for arms control, ….. She’s behind a campaign to discover how new
communications tools can help rid the world of some of the dangers of nuclear weapons.   Continue reading →

February 9, 2012 Posted by | 2 WORLD, media | Leave a comment

Astroturf in Australia – fake citizen action by fossil fuel lobby

Faked “citizen action” was the brainchild of PR heavyweight Burson Marsteller, whose leaked email “Doubt is our Product” laid bare the ruse behind tobacco’s denial campaign during the tobacco wars.

The same ruse has been used for the last decade by the mining industry to create doubt about global warming….

 a cynical campaign run by ideological advocates Americans for Prosperity, funded by “free marketeer” mining billionaires — the Koch Brothers.

Deception is our product Independent Australia 9 Feb 2012,   Environment editor Sandi Keane exposes the shadowy world of PR, where astroturfing and propaganda is used to coerce the public into sacrificing their own interests for those of big corporations.

Deceiving the public these days is a lucrative industry. Experienced PR practitioners now coerce you through astroturfing and other socially engineered forms of brainwashing to sacrifice your interests for those of their clients – especially those with the biggest war chest – the fossil fuel industry…. Continue reading →

February 9, 2012 Posted by | AUSTRALIA, spinbuster | 1 Comment

Germany’s prosperity with wind and solar feed-in tariffs

Energy production using fossil and nuclear fuels is penalised in Germany by virtue of the Renewable Energy Act, which guarantees higher prices for generators of electricity sourced from wind and solar through feed-in-tariffs.

Today Germany has over 150 million solar panels installed or 25,000MW,

Germany has the wind at its back, MATTHEW WRIGHT, ABC 9 FEB 2012, Germany is currently the world-leader in installing renewable energy THE recent clinching of a $1.9 billion Australian defence contract by the Germans illustrates to carbon price knockers that they need look no further for proof that an economy which relies on renewable energy can outsmart one dependent on fossil fuels.

Germany’s electricity sector delivers 21 per cent of its power from renewable sources, such as the wind and the sun.  …..

what of Germany, which finds itself at the epicenter of the EU debt maelstrom?

How is it possible that a nation shouldering the lion’s share of bailing out Europe’s basket-case economies has its finances in the best shape ever in two decades?

The yearly German unemployment rate keeps falling and at 6.7 per cent  in January was the lowest since reunification. The Berlin based BGA Exporters and Wholesalers group estimated total German exports hit a record $US1.3 trillion last year.

This is hardly a picture of an economy that has been struggling under the impost of a carbon cost and renewable energy subsidies.

Energy production using fossil and nuclear fuels is penalised in Germany by virtue of the Renewable Energy Act, which guarantees higher prices for generators of electricity sourced from wind and solar through feed-in-tariffs.

The legislation has encouraged a phenomenal uptake of solar roof panels for a nation that hardly boasts sunny weather. ….

Critics who claim that pricing carbon using feed-in-tariffs, taxes or emissions trading is somehow linked to an underperforming economy and high jobless rates ought to be silenced by Germany’s success in bursting that myth.

And if the proof in the pudding is not enough for the naysayers, they could look to volumes of published material demonstrating that the early costs of encouraging renewable energy benefit an economy in a matter of years.
Respected energy experts Dr Wolfram Krewitt and Dr Joachim Nitsch’s published research while at the German Aerospace Centre that is regularly cited to drive home this point.

In a peer reviewed paper they wrote: “While the success of the German Renewable Energy Sources Act in supporting the use of renewable energy sources for electricity generation is widely acknowledged, it is partly criticised for imposing unjustified extra costs on society.

“[This] paper makes an attempt to estimate the external costs avoided in the German energy system due to the use of renewable energies for electricity generation, and to compare them against the compensation to be paid by grid operators for electricity from renewable energies according to the Renewable Energy Sources Act.

“… [R]esults clearly indicate that the reduced environmental impacts and related economic benefits do outweigh the additional costs for the compensation of electricity from renewable energies,” Krewitt and Nitsch concluded.

Another misleading argument renewable energy doubters like to peddle is that the rise in renewable energy use and the reduction in coal use is only possible in economies that also have a nuclear sector, to supply supposedly ‘reliable’ electricity when ‘the sun don’t shine and the wind don’t blow’.

Germany also recently burst this myth…..http://www.abc.net.au/environment/articles/2012/02/09/3426757.htm

February 9, 2012 Posted by | Germany, renewable | Leave a comment

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