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Russia can’t afford new nuclear plants, and can’t afford to shut down old ones

The decommissioning of nuclear plants after exhausting their resources will put an enormous strain on Russian state budget. Largely for this reason, Rosatom is making every effort to prolong their operational life, knowing quite well that there will be economic shockwaves in the industry should nuclear units be closed.

Russia’s Dangerous Nuclear Legacy – Analysis Eurasia Review, By: Richard Rousseau June 18, 2012“…….The safety of nuclear reactors is primarily provided through the increased number of sophisticated security systems and physical barriers that limit or contain potential radiation leaks. These systems consist of a combination of natural and artificial barriers that work in tandem and complement each other in assuring the required
long-term isolation of the waste by preventing or limiting the movement of radioactive substances from the infrastructure of the repository to the biosphere.

However, in essence this has made nuclear plants increasingly more complex systems, which in turn drives up their construction and operation costs, while it is still impossible to achieve a 100 percent safety level. Continue reading →

June 20, 2012 Posted by | Reference, Russia, safety | Leave a comment

public Interest petition against Jaitapur nuclear plant withdrawn, for now.

PIL against Jaitapur plant withdrawn http://www.hindustantimes.com/India news/Mumbai/PIL-against-Jaitapur-plant-withdrawn/Article1-873162.aspx
HT Correspondent, Hindustan Times Mumbai, June 16, 2012 Noting that petitioners should do in-depth research before filing petitions regarding the cause and effect of projects, the Bombay high court on Friday permitted an activist to withdraw his petition against the proposed Jaitapur nuclear plant. The court was hearing a public interest litigation (PIL) filed by Hemant Patil, activist and president of Rashtriya Brashtachar Virodhi Janshakti, raising concern over the safety of the proposed Jaitapur nuclear power plant project initiated by the Nuclear Power Corporation of India along with French company Areva.

The petitioner urged the court to appoint an independent commission and a court commissioner to investigate the impact of the project and its effect on nearby villagers, animals and agriculture. “One should do an in-depth study of the issue before raising objections,” a division bench of justice DD Sinha and justice VK Tahilramani noted.

June 20, 2012 Posted by | India, opposition to nuclear | Leave a comment

National Academy of Sciences’ report indicates “keep uranium mining ban in Virginia”

Here are just three of the report’s key findings:

» “Extreme natural events (e.g., hurricanes, earthquakes, intense rainfall events, drought) have the potential to lead to the release of contaminants if facilities are not designed and constructed to withstand such an event, or fail to perform as designed.”

» “The decay products of uranium provide a constant source of radiation in uranium tailings for thousands of years, substantially outlasting the current U.S. regulations for oversight of processing facility tailings.”

» “Because almost all uranium mining and processing to date has taken place in parts of the United States that have a negative water balance (dry climates with low rainfall) federal agencies have limited experience applying laws and regulations in positive water balance (wet climates with medium to high rainfall) situations.”

All the credible science says, ‘Keep the ban’ Go Dan River, By: Robert G. Burnley | GoDanRiver June 17, 2012 I began my career as a water quality scientist in Virginia 40 years ago — six years before uranium deposits were discovered beneath farmland in Pittsylvania County. Since shortly after that discovery, Virginia law has banned uranium mining.

It is my firm belief, based on review of the highly anticipated National Academy of Sciences’ report released last December, that the ban needs to remain in place. Continue reading →

June 20, 2012 Posted by | environment, Uranium, USA | Leave a comment

UK nuclear test veterans take their legal battle to European Court of Human Rights.

Right to the top: Britain’s nuclear test veterans take battle for justice to Europe
http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/british-nuclear-test-victims-to-take-887711
Victims of Britain’s ­nuclear tests are to take their fight for justice to the European Court of Human Rights.

More than 1,000 veterans of the atomic bomb tests carried out in the South Pacific in the 1950s are to ask judges in Strasbourg to rule on their ­demand for a trial accusing the Ministry of Defence of exposing them to radiation.

The veterans and their families claim they have since ­suffered from a catalogue of rare medical conditions, as well as miscarriages and birth defects, but courts here have banned hearings into most of their cases.

But now, as Prime Minister David Cameron comes under repeated fire for ignoring the terms of the Military Covenant which pledges to look after our servicemen, the vets are asking Europe to intervene. Continue reading →

June 20, 2012 Posted by | Legal, UK | 1 Comment

Scotland rejects Trident nuclear submarine plans

Scotland says no to nuclear weapons http://www.snp.org/media centre/news/2012/jun/scotland-says-no-nuclear-weapons 17/06/2012   The SNP has criticised the UK Government for its plans to spend £1 billion on a contract renewing the UK’s nuclear-armed submarines for Faslane, despite Scottish public opinion  consistently being against Trident. Continue reading →

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

Trident nuclear submarine program a political minefield for UK’s coalition govt

Coalition faces split over Trident nuclear replacement As defence secretary confirms £1bn contract for plant, Lib Dems confirm campaign for alternative to Tory plans for 2016 Nicholas Watt, chief political correspondent guardian.co.uk,  17 June 2012  A replacement for Britain’s Trident nuclear deterrent will become highly contentious at the next general election after the Liberal Democrats confirmed that they will campaign for an alternative and the SNP rejected the presence of “weapons of mass destruction in our waters”. Continue reading →

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

Potential disaster at Hanford reservation’s nuclear power plant

Sadly, we have a similarly designed GE Boiling Water Reactor (BWR) with the same potentially disastrous arrangement of spent fuel storage at the Columbia Generating Station (CGS) — formerly known as the WPPSS 2 nuclear power plant — on the Hanford reservation on the Columbia River.

In view of the lessons learned from Fukushima Dai-ichi, it is unfortunate that the Nuclear Regulatory Commission has approved an extension of the CGS license for another 20 years. …  A serious accident at the CGS nuclear power plant could provoke a double disaster because it would probably compromise cleanup of nuclear and toxic wastes at the site.

Shut down the Northwest’s only nuclear power plant, Oregon Live, , June 17, 2012 By John Howieson The Fukushima nuclear power accidents, resulting from the earthquake and tsunami that struck the northeast coast of Japan on March 11, 2011, have brought home to people around the world the perilous nature of nuclear energy. If a country as advanced as Japan cannot adequately regulate its nuclear industry to run its reactors safely, then we cannot assume anyone else is capable of it. ……
Recently, a wall of the spent fuel pool located over the Fukushima Dai-ichi number 4 reactor has revealed a bulge increasing the concern about its stability. Failure of this structure or of the precarious water supply cooling the spent fuel threatens a disastrous further release of radioactivity — an even greater amount than was released last year. Continue reading →

June 20, 2012 Posted by | safety, USA | Leave a comment

State of Massachusetts appeals to revoke license extension for Pilgrim nuclear plant

an appeals court ruled that the agency failed to fully evaluate risks associated with its regulations on the storage of spent nuclear fuel 

The NRC in May granted a 20-year license extension to the Pilgrim plant, located in Plymouth. In its filing with the U.S. Court of Appeals in Boston, the state seeks to vacate the license renewal and require the commission to prepare an environmental impact statement.

NRC License of Nuclear Plant Challenged by Massachusetts, Bloomberg News By David McLaughlin June 19, 2012 Massachusetts, in an appeal of a Nuclear Regulatory Commission decision to relicense Entergy Corp. (ETR) (ETR)’s Pilgrim nuclear power station, asked to have the extension for the facility 40 miles south of Boston canceled pending further review.

The state seeks to require the commission to take steps to ensure the safety of the plant and the residents of the surrounding communities, Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley said yesterday in a statement.

“The NRC, over our objections, chose to relicense Pilgrim without fully considering the important safety issues raised in the aftermath of the Fukushima accident,” she said, referring to the nuclear disaster last year in Japan. Continue reading →

June 20, 2012 Posted by | Legal, USA | Leave a comment

The way to win over climate sceptics

How to convince climate sceptics to be pro-environment, New Scientist,   17 June 2012 by Michael Slezak, Climate change might eventually cause millions of deaths and all kinds of natural disasters. But don’t tell that to a climate-change sceptic if you want them to do anything about it.

Instead, focus on how mitigation efforts can help people become more warm and caring towards others or how it can promote economic and technological development. That’s the advice psychologists give after confirming the strategy in an experiment. Continue reading →

June 20, 2012 Posted by | climate change, psychology - mental health | Leave a comment

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