nuclear-news

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

If Japan can get through summer without nuclear reactors, perhaps it won’t need them – ever!

Japan fears non-nuclear summer will hamper restarts

* Japan PM, ministers discuss reactor restarts, to meet again today

Daily Times, 6 April 12, TOKYO: Japan’s government is rushing to try to restart two nuclear reactors, idled after the Fukushima crisis, by next month out of what experts say is a fear that surviving a total shutdown would make it hard to convince the public that atomic energy is vital.

Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda and three cabinet ministers are to meet for a third time on Friday to discuss the possible restarts of the No. 3 and No. 4 reactors at Kansai Electric Power Co’s Ohi plant in Fukui, western Japan – a region dubbed the “nuclear arcade” for the string of atomic plants that dot its coast. …http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2012%5C04%5C06%5Cstory_6-4-2012_pg4_5

April 7, 2012 Posted by | general | Leave a comment

Japanese government can override community opposition to nuclear reactor restarts

The new accident touched a nerve among the public at a time when Japan’s government is working to convince its people that atomic power is vital.

 Chief Cabinet Secretary Osamu Fujimura underscored that there was no legal requirement for local communities to sign off on the restarts.

Japan races to get nuclear reactors running again China Daily-Reuters  2012-04-06 About 12 tons of radioactive water has leaked at Japan’s Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant while the Japanese government is racing to get two nuclear reactors of Kansai Electric Power Company running again by next month. Continue reading →

April 7, 2012 Posted by | Japan, politics | Leave a comment

Japan: Governor of critical region Shiga threatens to oppose nuclear reactor startups

“It appears to me that they are compromising technological safety in a half-baked way,” 

reactors should not be restarted until a new, more independent regulatory agency is set up.

Japan Shiga threatens to rain on nuclear restarts Apr 6, 2012  (Reuters) – Japan’s western Shiga prefecture, one of the nation’s biggest sources of drinking water, threatened on Friday to oppose the restart of nearby nuclear reactors unless the government met several demands designed to prevent a repeat of the Fukushima disaster.

Shiga, whose Lake Biwa provides water for 14 million people, more than one in 10 Japanese, lies near a string of nuclear plants in adjacent Fukui prefecture – giving Shiga a distinctive voice in the debate over the future of atomic power. Continue reading →

April 7, 2012 Posted by | Japan, opposition to nuclear | Leave a comment

Many thousands of jobs created by USA’s renewable energy grants program

DOE: Renewable grant program was a big jobs creator Politico,  By ALEX GUILLEN | 4/6/12  A $9 billion Obama administration grant program for renewable energy projects has created tens of thousands of jobs, an Energy Department report out Friday concludes.

The report comes just one week after Speaker John Boehner slammed Energy Secretary Steven Chu over the claim and challenged him to provide proof of the jobs creation. The report — conducted by DOE’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory — concludes that the program supported 52,000 to 75,000 construction and installation jobs on average over the three years it was in effect. Continue reading →

April 7, 2012 Posted by | employment, renewable, USA | Leave a comment

Decentralised energy: solar rooftop array provides electricity to 200 homes

Local solar panel array lights up region, New Bern Sun Journal, April 05, 2012  Eddie Fitzgerald The largest solar energy collecting array in Eastern North Carolina, which is located in New Bern, is now online and producing electricity for Progress Energy. Continue reading →

April 7, 2012 Posted by | decentralised, USA | Leave a comment

Greece gearing up for solar energy export industry

Greece Eyes Jobs, Growth Impulse From Solar Energy Export http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-04-06/greece-eyes-jobs-growth-impulse-from-solar-energy-export.html  By Paul Tugwell – Apr 5, 2012  A group led by Germany’s Fichtner GmbH & Co. KG was chosen as technical adviser forGreece’s 20- billion euro ($26.1 billion) Helios solar power project, according to the country’s committee on privatizations.

The other members of the venture are all from Greece; Kantor Management Consultants SA, the Centre for Renewable Energy Sources and the National Technical University of Athens, according to a statement from the committee posted on the Greek government’s ministerial decision website.

The Helios project, named after the ancient god of the sun, would install as many as 10 gigawatts of solar panels by 2050, enabling Greece to export power from the natural energy to other European Union countries.

April 7, 2012 Posted by | Greece, renewable | Leave a comment

Drop in Japan’s nuclear power use

Japan March nuclear plant use falls to 4.2 pct  Apr 6, 2012 
* Down from 6.1 pct in Feb. and 58.3 pct a year ago

* Fall reflects shutdown of Tepco’s last active reactor

* 2011/12 run rate falls to record-low 23.7 pct 

TOKYO, April 6 (Reuters) – Japan’s nuclear power plant utilisation rate for 10 utilities with reactors fell to an average 4.2 percent in March from 58.3 percent a year earlier, Japan Atomic Industrial Forum Inc (JAIF) said on Friday. Continue reading →

April 7, 2012 Posted by | general | Leave a comment

Japan’s government wants to restart nuclear reactors, but under pressure not to

Experts say the government is racing to try to restart two nuclear reactors by next month out of fear that surviving a total shutdown would make it hard to convince the public that atomic energy is vital to avoid serious power shortages.

A group of seven lawmakers from ruling and opposition parties, which wants Japan to abandon nuclear power, urged the government on Friday not to approve restarts hastily……

Cut nuclear reliance to zero: Japan energy minister abs-cbn news, by Risa Maeda, Reuters  04/07/2012  TOKYO – Japan should aspire to phase out nuclear power completely, its energy minister said on Friday, even as the government struggles to persuade a wary public that it is safe to restart reactors after the world’s worst nuclear crisis in 25 years. Continue reading →

April 7, 2012 Posted by | Japan, politics | Leave a comment

Far from being over, Japan’s government fears worse to come from Fukushima

Such an event would cause widespread nuclear fallout throughout the region and force the government to evacuate the nearly 10 million residents of Tokyo and surrounding areas, a scenario which government emergency planners are now taking into serious consideration.

It’s Not Over: Government Plans for the Worst: Forced Evacuation of Tokyo. Mac Slavo SHTF Plan.com, April 3rd, 2012  While it has for the most part disappeared from mainstream view, the Fukushima nuclear disaster is anything but over. In fact, the situation in Japan has gone from bad to worse.

Bottom line: There is no way to contain the radiation.

Even more alarming is that the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) and other agencies have warned that the nuclear storage pools (the containment units that are being used to cool the nuclear fuel) have been damaged and may collapse under their own weight. Continue reading →

April 6, 2012 Posted by | Japan, safety | Leave a comment

Protest movement against nuclear power grows amongst rural Indians

“We have been holding a sit-in protest outside the Fatehabad mini-secretariat. We now plan to join hands with protesters fighting against the setting up of a nuclear plant in Jaitapur and those protesting in Koodankulam.”

Farmers are incensed that three elderly protesting farmers have already lost their lives in this agitation which has now completed over 580 days.

Protest against Haryana nuke plant intensifies http://www.deccanchronicle.com/channels/nation/north/protest-against-haryana-nuke-plant-intensifies-152
April 3, 2012 By Rashme Sehgal  Farmers in Haryana have stepped up their campaign against the setting up of the Gorakhpur Nuclear Power Plant in the Fatehabad district of the state.
The Nuclear Power Corporation of India Ltd (NPCIL) has earmarked over 628 hectares of land to set up a 2,800-MW power plant which will use pressurised heavy water reactors at a cost of `13,000 crores. The villages earmarked for site selection include Gorakhpur, Kumaharia and Kajalhedi. Continue reading →

April 6, 2012 Posted by | India, opposition to nuclear | Leave a comment

Nuclear dream turning sour in San Clemente, USA

“It’s easy to get distracted by the beauty here and not think about a nuclear meltdown,” he said. But he added he thinks about that more often. “It would be great to just shut it down.”

Residents Rethink a Nuclear Neighbor, Deteriorating Pipes, Japan Disaster Spark Calls to Close California Plant, but Shortages Are Feared WSJ, By TAMARA AUDI, 6 April 12 SAN CLEMENTE, Calif.—For three decades, the reactor domes of the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station have been fixtures on the coastline here less than five miles south of this surfer’s paradise.

“You see it, you just don’t think about it,” said Dan Kenton, a 49-year-old San Clemente resident.

That appears to be changing. Concern over the plant’s safety is growing in communities around San Onofre—about halfway between Los Angeles and San Diego—after officials found deteriorating steam pipes in both reactors earlier this year. Both are now shut….. Continue reading →

April 6, 2012 Posted by | opposition to nuclear, USA | Leave a comment

Fukushima nuclear plant not ‘under control’ as radioactive water spills

Tons of radioactive water spill from Fukushima nuclear plant http://rt.com/news/fukushima-nuclear-water-leak-378/  05 April, 2012, Officials at the Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO), which acts as the operator of the crippled nuclear
facility, say there is reason to believe some of the 12 tons of radioactive water has flowed into the Pacific Ocean.
A leak was found in a pipe attached to a temporary decontamination system. The water, once it has been used to cool the reactors, contains massive amounts of radioactive substances and is put into the water-processing facility so it can be recycled for use as a coolant.
“Our officials confirmed that cooling water leaked at a joint in the pipes,” a TEPCO spokesman told reporters, adding that “it is possible that some of the water may have flowed outside the facility and pouredinto the ocean.”

This accident is the latest of several leaks of radioactive water at the plant, undermining the government’s claim that the shuttered  reactors were now under control.

Just last month, about 120 tons of radioactive water leaked at the plant’s water decontamination system and about 80 liters (21 gallons) seeped into the ocean, according to TEPCO. The plant, which is just north-east of Tokyo, was crippled by
meltdowns and explosions caused by Japan’s massive earthquake and tsunami

April 6, 2012 Posted by | incidents, Japan | Leave a comment

America’s 2 new nukes are on the brink of death

Harvey Wasserman April 5, 2012
The only two US reactor projects now technically under construction are on the brink of death for financial reasons.

If they go under, there will almost certainly be no new reactors built here.

The much mythologized “nuclear renaissance” will be officially buried, and the US can take a definitive leap toward a green-powered future that will actually work and that won’t threaten the continent with radioactive contamination.

As this drama unfolds, the collapse of global nuclear power continues, Continue reading →

April 6, 2012 Posted by | general | Leave a comment

The Czech Republic’s cruel history of uranium mining

Around 80,000 people are believed to have been sentenced to work in the uranium mines by the Czechoslovak communist regime 

A cheap and plentiful source of labor was concocted by the communist regime as it turned on its real and imaginary enemies after taking power…. Brutal conditions in the mines and the camps

Czech historian produces death tally for communist uranium camps Czech historian says he has drawn up the first accurate death tally for the former communist regime’s uranium labor camps Czech Position.com Chris Johnstone | 05.04.2012 A Czech historian has drawn up the first list of prisoners who perished in the Czechoslovak communist regime’s infamous network of uranium mining camps. Continue reading →

April 6, 2012 Posted by | EUROPE, history, Reference, Uranium | 1 Comment

France wants to be sure of not being liable for nuclear accidents, in selling nukes to India

According to the new Rules of the Civil Liability for Nuclear Damages Act, the foreign suppliers of nuclear material to Indian nuclear power plants would not be held liable for accidents caused by defective or faulty equipment supplied by them if the accident takes place after a guarantee period specified by them

France waits for India to clarify N-liability framework  IBN LiveNew Delhi, 5 April 12, : In the midst of the run-up to the French presidential elections, France has been in dialogue with India to clarify issues relating to the nuclear liability law, and is waiting for New Delhi to establish the legal framework before signing commercial contracts for setting up atomic reactors. Continue reading →

April 6, 2012 Posted by | France, India, Legal | Leave a comment

« Previous Entries     Next Entries »