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Recycling electronic wastes is the way of the future

“We need to recover rare elements to continue manufacturing IT products, batteries for electric cars, solar panels, flat-screen televisions and other increasingly popular products,” 

E-Waste: Annual Gold, Silver ‘Deposits’ in New High-Tech Goods Worth $21B; Less Than 15% Recovered Science Daily (July 6, 2012) — Urban mining’ deposits are 40 to 50 times richer than mined ore, experts tell 1st GeSI and StEP e-Waste Academy in Africa; New PCs, cell phones, tablets, other e-products now use 320 tons of gold, 7,500 tons of silver per year, and rising. A staggering 320 tons of gold and more than 7,500 tons of silver are now used annually to make PCs, cell phones, tablet computers and other new electronic and electrical products worldwide, adding more than $21 billion in value each year to the rich fortunes in metals eventually available through “urban mining” of e-waste, experts say.

Manufacturing these high-tech products requires more than $16 billion in gold and $5 billion in silver: a total of $21 billion — equal to the GDP of El Salvador — locked away annually in e-products. Most of those valuable metals will be squandered, however; just 15% or less is
recovered from e-waste today in developed and developing countries alike.

Electronic waste now contains precious metal “deposits” 40 to 50 times richer than ores mined from the ground, experts told participants from 12 countries at last week’s first-ever GeSI and StEP e-Waste Academy for policymakers and small businesses, co-organized in Accra, Ghana by the United Nations University and the Global e-Sustainability Initiative (GeSI)……. Continue reading →

July 7, 2012 Posted by | 2 WORLD, RARE EARTHS, Reference | Leave a comment

Recycling of minerals in modern technical gadgets

Safely Dispose of Techno Gadgets,EEN.com,  6 July Technology gets old — it’s just the way it works (or stops working). So what do you do with it when it’s time for a new laptop or cell phone? Unless you’ve got one of the new biodegradable cell phones, you probably don’t want to chuck all that plastic and silicon into a landfill where it will probably sit for the next few thousand years.
So what are your options for recycling your technology? The first place you should check out is the EPA website for an extensive list of companies that allow you to recycle your e-waste in
various ways, whether through take-backs, mail-ins, or even trade-in incentive programs. Among the companies listed is Office Depot, which applies a two-dollar cash award to your rewards card for each printer ink cartridge you turn in (although you may also want to look into refilling your used cartridges). Sprint, also listed there, has a “Buy Back” program that gives Sprint customers an account credit forreturning select Sprint or Nextel phones.

The website also has links to places that you can recycle electronic devices like computers,
printers, TVs, and monitors….. http://www.enn.com/pollution/article/44632

July 7, 2012 Posted by | RARE EARTHS | Leave a comment

People’s welfare the last priority – damning report on Fukushima nuclear catastrophe

FINAL REPORT (2) : Concern for people’s lives was not a priority July 06, 2012 THE ASAHI SHIMBUN Concern for people’s lives seemed to be the last thing on the minds of officials at Tokyo Electric Power Co. or the central government as they scrambled to contain the nuclear disaster in Fukushima Prefecture last year.

This is one of the grim assessments that emerge from the final report issued July 5 by a Diet task force that investigated the accident at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant. The Diet’s Fukushima Nuclear Accident Independent Investigation Commission suggested that health and safety concerns simply were not a priority.

The commission was especially critical of the lack of safety measures taken in the past as well as the initial response to the disaster triggered by the magnitude-9.0 Great East Japan Earthquake on March 11, 2011. It concluded that plant operator TEPCO and the central government showed an utter lack of responsibility in doing everything possible to protect the lives of those most affected.

Delay in implementing measures proved to be costly The final report pointed to problems that arose after TEPCO and the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency (NISA) failed to implement safety measures even though they knew the plant was dangerously vulnerable to a major earthquake and tsunami crashing into the coast.

“The accident cannot be said to have been totally unexpected and there is no way that responsibility can be avoided,” the report stated. http://ajw.asahi.com/article/0311disaster/fukushima/AJ201207060088

July 7, 2012 Posted by | Fukushima 2012 | Leave a comment

VIDEO Japanese Raising Voices Against Nuclear Reactors’ Restart VOA, July 06, 2012 TOKYO — For the third consecutive Friday evening, thousands of Japanese took to the streets of their capital to vent frustration with the government’s move to restart idled nuclear power plants. Continue reading →

July 7, 2012 Posted by | Resources -audiovicual | Leave a comment

Gloomy outlook for future of nuclear power industry

“The situation is much worse for the industry than after Chernobyl,” ….. “New projects have a very dull future, but it will put enormous pressure on extending lifetimes and that raises obvious safety issues.”

 “The financial situation has dramatically worsened since Fukushima and there is almost no exception to the rule.”

World Atomic Output Falls by Record in Fukushima’s Aftermath
http://www.businessweek.com/news/2012-07-06/world-atomic-power-output-falls-by-record-in-fukushima-aftermath Bloomberg News, By Kari Lundgren  July 06, 2012  World nuclear power production dropped by a record 4.3 percent last year as the global financial crisis and the Fukushima disaster in Japan prompted plant
shutdowns and slowed construction of new sites. Continue reading →

July 7, 2012 Posted by | 2 WORLD, business and costs | Leave a comment

Fukushima disaster workers forced to do cleanup without safety precautions

there was never any health supervision or monitoring of radiation doses. I am worried about the amount of radioactive substances that may have built up in my body.”

FINAL REPORT (4) : TEPCO failed to warn nuke plant workers after 3/11 http://ajw.asahi.com/article/behind_news/social_affairs/AJ201207060070, THE ASAHI SHIMBUN Workers who remained in the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant even after it was hit by the huge earthquake and tsunami to deal with the fast-moving crisis were praised as heroes dubbed the “Fukushima 50.”

But the reality was that most were forced to do the dangerous work without vital information and safety precautions, the report by the Diet’s investigation panel has revealed.

The final report by the Diet’s Fukushima accident investigation panel has revealed that workers at the nuclear plant after the onset of the disaster were forced to tackle the accident without adequate information and or safety precautions.

The report, issued by the National Diet of Japan Fukushima Nuclear Accident Independent Investigation Commission on July 5, also reveals what Tokyo Electric Power Co. employees and subcontractors experienced and felt during operations after the Great East Japan Earthquake and tsunami hit the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant on March 11, 2011. Continue reading →

July 7, 2012 Posted by | employment, Fukushima 2012, Japan, Reference | Leave a comment

AUDIO: Japan’s anti nuclear protest, and new report on Fukushima

Thousands protest in Tokyo as report finds “collusion” of failure in Fukushima nuclear disaster http://fsrn.org/audio/thousands-protest-tokyo-report-finds-%E2%80%9Ccollusion%E2%80%9D-failure-fukushima-nuclear-disaster/10555  07/06/2012 – 
Length: 4:59 minutes (4.57 MB)
Format: MP3 Mono 44kHz 128Kbps (CBR)
Thousands of protesters filled the streets in Tokyo today calling for an end to nuclear power in the country. Video of the protests streamed online showed a heavy police presence as crowds lined the street chanting and holding umbrellas in the rain. Crowds were prompted to the streets by news that the first nuclear reactor came online this week.

According to Japan Times, Reactor 3 at Oi nuclear plant in Fukui Prefecture resumed  generating electricity Thursday. Others are scheduled to follow. The protests coincide with an independent report that concluded the Fukushima disaster was “man-made” and faulted the
government, regulators and the nuclear industry for failing to adequately prepare for the damage at the Fukushima Daiichi plant and protect public safety. The report, released by the Fukushima Nuclear Accident Independent Investigation Commission said authorities
“effectively betrayed the nation’s right to be safe from nuclear accidents.”

For more on the report and what it could mean for nuclear safety in the US, we’re joined by Karl Grossman, professor of journalism at State University of New York/College at Old  Westbury, and author of “Cover Up: What You Are Not Supposed to Know About Nuclear Power.”

July 7, 2012 Posted by | Resources -audiovicual | Leave a comment

Global warming – hot weather inducing Americans to think about this

Extreme weather shifts US attitudes on climate BY: LAUREN WILSON, The Australian, July 07,  ONE of Barack Obama’s top scientific advisers says extreme weather events are making Americans increasingly attuned to the threat of climate change, despite no evidence linking some of the events to global warming.

Jane Lubchenco, head of the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, yesterday said climate change was being played out in the backyards of many Americans.  subscription only  http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/extreme-weather-shifts-us-attitudes-on-climate/story-fn59niix-1226419447697

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

Could USA’s extreme hot weather shake the faith of climate change denialists?

El Nino may be good for Labor The West, Andrew Probyn  July 6, 2012, Shhhh! Don’t mention the war. As the great heatwave struck the US, knocking off thousands of temperature records, Bob Henson, a meteorologist at the National Centre for Atmospheric Research in Colorado, was asked this week whether any of this could be down to
climate change.

“Climate change is a political question,” he told Fairfax’s US correspondent Nick O’Malley.

“I thought it was a scientific question,” O’Malley responded.

“Well, it’s both.”

This was a fascinating exchange. Especially in a week where scientists could confidently announce they had confirmed the existence of the Higgs boson, the so-called God particle.
Comparatively speaking, there’s less evidence of the Higgs boson than there is of climate change, but we believed the scientists when they told us they had found the elusive subatomic particle that explained mass.

The fact that Mr Henson went straight to the politics of climate change, rather than going to the cause of climate change (anthropomorphic or otherwise) speaks volumes for the success of the campaign against the so-called “warmists”…..http://au.news.yahoo.com/thewest/opinion/post/-/blog/14153477/el-nino-may-be-good-for-labor/

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

Danger to nuclear power plants of extreme weather conditions

Nuclear plants must resist extreme weather http://www.swissinfo.ch/eng/swiss_news/Nuclear_plants_must_resist_extreme_weather.html?cid=33059156   Jul 6, 2012  Switzerland’s nuclear power plants have until the end of 2013 to demonstrate to the country’s safety watchdog that they are equipped to withstand weather conditions such as tornados, high winds, heavy snowfall and extreme temperatures. Continue reading →

July 7, 2012 Posted by | safety, Switzerland | Leave a comment

Tri-Valley Care fights the good fight to save Livermore valley from plutonium wastes

Tri-Valley CAREs has had many successes throughout the years…. the first group in the western US to receive an EPA grant to monitor the Superfund cleanup at Lawrence Livermore National Lab and the first community-based group in the country to win a recognition award from EPA for its effectiveness

For decades, a toxic groundwater plume has flowed westward from Lawrence Livermore National Lab in the Livermore community aquifer towards Dublin. 


Living with the Legacy of the Nuclear Stockpile Next Door in Livermore, CA http://www.arounddublinblog.com/2012/07/livermore-ca-nuclear-stockpile-next-door/ by Around Dublin Team Tri-Valley CAREs  was founded in 1983 in Livermore, CA by concerned neighbors living around Lawrence Livermore National Lab , one of two locations where all US nuclear weapons are designed. This grassroots organization works to strengthen global security by stopping the development of new nuclear weapons in the US and by promoting the elimination of nuclear weapons globally.

It monitors nuclear weapons and environmental clean-up activities throughout the US nuclear
weapons complex, with a special focus on Lawrence Livermore National Lab and the surrounding Tri-Valley communities. Continue reading →

July 7, 2012 Posted by | - plutonium, opposition to nuclear, Reference, USA | 1 Comment

CIA, France, Germany and some Middle Eastern States accused of murdering Iran’s nuclear scientists

Iran spy chief says CIA had help killing nuclear scientists Accuses French and German intelligence services, after previously blaming U.K. and Israel CBC News, The Associated Press  Jul 6, 2012   Iran’s spy chief on Friday accused French and German intelligence services of co-operating with the CIA to kill Iranian nuclear scientists, an allegation likelyto exacerbate tensions between Tehran and the West over the Islamic Republic’s disputed nuclear program. Heidar Moslehi said that other intelligence services in the region — including that of Iran’s arch foe Israel — also took part in the alleged campaign targeting the scientists. Continue reading →

July 7, 2012 Posted by | Iraq, secrets,lies and civil liberties | Leave a comment

Delays in relicensing nuclear reactors, but they can continue to operate

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit last month told the NRC to revisit rules governing the storage of spent nuclear fuel at the nation’s 104 operating reactors. The commission, the court said, failed to conduct an environmental review when it updated its so-called “waste confidence rule” in 2010.

More Nuclear Reactor License Renewals Delays: NRC’s Jaczko to Platts Energy Podium WASHINGTON, July 5, 2012  Market Watch,  — Speaking at a Platts Energy Podium event, the departing chairman of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) said Thursday that the agency may not be able to renew licenses for operating nuclear plants for “a few years” because of a federal court ruling, but the practical impact will be limited…..

.. Jaczko urged the agency to continue to make post-Fukushima improvements to nuclear plants mandatory and warned that there are signs of nuclear industry “pushback” against some of the measures proposed in the wake of the tsunami-induced shutdown of the Japanese nuclear facility. Continue reading →

July 7, 2012 Posted by | safety, USA | Leave a comment

Sign of discreet progress in Iran nuclear talks

 

 

Iran nuclear talks: a thin, faint chink of light,   by, 6 July 2012 guardian.co.uk Iranian negotiators have presented an uncompromising stance on paper but informally they hint a deal could still be done  Continue reading →

July 7, 2012 Posted by | Iran, politics international | Leave a comment

“Neighbourly” campaign by Japan’s anti nuclear activists

they decided to open Yanaka no Iie (“Yanaka house”)–more precisely the home of member Naoko Nishimura–to monthly screenings followed by issue-related discussions over wine and coffee.

Anti-nuclear activists turn to home movie screenings http://ajw.asahi.com/article/behind_news/people/AJ201207060081, July 06, 2012 By LOUIS TEMPLADO/ AJW Staff Writer Protests take on many forms. Some chant in front of the seats of power; others march. But another way to protest is to invite people into your living room to watch movies. Continue reading →

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

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