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

Danger and expense in relicensing aging nuclear reactor

relicensing this aging nuclear plant simply makes no sense. If the true costs are included, the energy produced is extremely expensive, and the toxic wastes produced pose an unacceptable health risk.

Columbia Generating Station: Why relicense a nuclear power plant 10 years early? http://www.oregonlive.com/opinion/index.ssf/2012/07/columbia_generating_station_wh.html, July 30, 2012, By John Pearson In May, 10 years earlier than required, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission extended the license of the Columbia Generating Station, the Northwest’s only commercial nuclear power plant, to 2043.

Located along the Columbia River within Washington’s Hanford Nuclear Reservation, the Columbia Generating Station is now 30 years old. It was formerly known as Washington Public Power Supply System Nuclear Plant No. 2 — the only nuclear plant completed by Washington public power utilities out of five under construction, leading to what was at
the time the largest municipal bond default in U.S. history. Continue reading →

July 31, 2012 Posted by | safety, USA | Leave a comment

Kyodo: Alarm sounds at MOX reactor in Japan, no “actual leakage” detected — Nuclear fuel loaded inside July 30th, 2012 By   (Subscription Only) Title: Monju alarm on sodium leakage malfunctions Source: Kyodo  

Japan Atomic Energy Agency said an alarm was activated early Monday morning indicating a sodium coolant leakage at its Monju prototype fast breeder reactor in Tsuruga, Fukui Prefecture. Continue reading →

July 31, 2012 Posted by | reprocessing, safety | Leave a comment

Arnold Gundersen with the latest on Fukushima:

I think they will get to point of throwing concrete on Fukushima reactors and coming back in 300 to 500 years -Gundersen (VIDEO) July 30th, 2012  By    : Arnold Gundersen with the latest on Fukushima: its effects on Japan, and the global risks posed by the No. 4 reactor

Source: If You Love This Planet Radio Author: Dr. Helen Caldicott Date: July 27, 2012  Arnold Gundersen, Nuclear Engineer: So I think they get to the point where they throw some concrete down on the top of it and come back in 300 years… This is not something I can figure out how one would clean up… 300, 400, 500 years. http://enenews.com/will-point-throwing-concrete-top-fukushima-reactors-coming-300-500-years-gundersen-video

July 31, 2012 Posted by | Resources -audiovicual | Leave a comment

Russia to get stronger nuclear navy, Putin says By Gleb Bryanski SEVERODVINSK, Russia | Mon Jul 30, 2012  (Reuters) – President Vladimir Putin oversaw the start of construction of one of Russia’s newest generation submarines on Monday and vowed to boost nuclear naval forces to safeguard the country’s position as a leading sea power.

Warning that its navy would protect top energy producer Russia’s interests in the oil-rich Arctic, Putin led the ceremony to begin building the submarine Prince Vladimir, named after the ruler who founded a precursor state to modern Russia.

The vessel is the fourth Borei class submarine, designed to carry one of the country’s newest and most powerful intercontinental nuclear missiles, the Bulava, or Mace…… Putin is working to make the submarines and the missiles they will carry a cornerstone of the Russian navy, which will receive nearly a quarter of the 20 trillionroubles ($621.31 billion) to be spent by the end of the decade…… http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/07/30/us-russia-putin-navy-idUSBRE86T1D320120730

July 31, 2012 Posted by | Russia, weapons and war | Leave a comment

a SILEX facility could make it much easier for a rogue state to clandestinely enrich weapons grade uranium to create nuclear bombs

SILEX could become America’s proliferation Fukushima,

Controversial nuclear technology alarms watchdogs  http://www.smartplanet.com/blog/intelligent-energy/controversial-nuclear-technology-alarms-watchdogs/18138  By David Worthington | July 30, 2012 A controversial nuclear technology is raising alarms bells among critics who claim it may be better suited for making nuclear weapons than lowering the cost of nuclear power and could lead to a nonproliferation “Fukushima” for the United States. Continue reading →

July 31, 2012 Posted by | Reference, safety, technology, Uranium, USA | Leave a comment

Reid: Nuclear official is a ‘first-class rat’ and a ‘treacherous, miserable liar’
http://thehill.com/blogs/e2-wire/e2-wire/240995-reid-dem-nuke-agency-member-is-a-first-class-rat-and-liar By Ben Geman     – 07/30/12   Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) has launched a blistering verbal assault against William Magwood, a Democratic member of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission nominated by President Obama, calling
him a “liar,” a “first-class rat,” and a “s**t-stirrer.”

Reid, in an interview with The Huffington Post, also calls Magwood a “tool of the nuclear industry” and says he’s “unethical” and “incompetent.” Continue reading →

July 31, 2012 Posted by | general | Leave a comment

Supercomputer Powered By Solar Panels, by Energy Matters, 31 July 12 A supercomputer used by Britain’s Met Office (the equivalent of Australia’s Bureau of Meteorology) is now powered by solar panels. The solar panel array will generate 221,000 kW hours of electricity per year – enough energy to power 67 UK households – and will avoid around 116 tonnes of carbon emissions annually.

  Installed on the rooftop of the Met Office’s Exeter HQ Energy Centre, the array is linked to an electricity management system allowing for real-time monitoring of the panels’ performance The 250kW solar power system consists of 1,000 solar modules. The system was installed by UK company Sungift Solar.

Drawing on more than 10 million weather observations each 24 hours, an advanced atmospheric model and three high performance supercomputers are used to create 3,000 tailored forecasts and briefings a day.

Among the Met Office’s other sustainability efforts in relation to its supercomputers is a Direct Current (DC) power project; a system that is delivering a 10% power reduction and a £200,000 electricity cost saving per year.
The organisation has also invested in evaporative free cooling for its supercomputers. Large tanks installed on the roof of its headquarters in Exeter allow for cooling at ambient temperature outside the building for much of the time, rather than total reliance on mechanical cooling. …. http://www.energymatters.com.au/index.php?main_page=news_article&article_id=3318

July 31, 2012 Posted by | renewable, UK | Leave a comment

Arrests of Plowshare protestors at Oak Ridge nuclear weapons site

Protesters Arrested At Oak Ridge’s Y-12 Nuclear Site http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/07/29/protesters-arrested-oak-ridge-y-12_n_1715732.html   OAK RIDGE, Tenn. — Officials say three protesters have been arrested for trespassing and defacing a building in a high-security area of a nuclear weapons site in Tennessee.

Steven Wyatt is a spokesman for the Y-12 National Security Complex in Oak Ridge. He says the activists spray painted the building and defaced it with a substance that looked like blood. The protesters were arrested early Saturday.

The group’s spokeswoman, Ellen Barfield, says the three protesters had to cut through fences to get to the building.

The Department of Energy is investigating the security breach.

Y-12 maintains the U.S. nuclear weapons stockpile and provides nuclear
fuel for the Navy and for research reactors worldwide.

July 30, 2012 Posted by | opposition to nuclear, USA | Leave a comment

Plowshares speak out against USA nuclear weapons facility

Transform Now Plowshares Continues a Long Tradition   by Leonard Eiger for Salem-News.com 29 July 12Includes two statements from Transform Plowshares about Y-12 nuclear weapons facility, Courtesy: disarmnowplowshares.wordpress.com

(OAK RIDGE, TN) – Early this morning three plowshares activists performed a disarmament action in response to Government plans to invest $80 billion to sustain and modernize the nuclear weapons complex. Calling themselves Transform Now Plowshares, Michael R. Walli (63), Megan Rice (82), and Greg Boertje-Obed (57) entered the Y-12 nuclear
weapons facility before dawn.

They released a faith-based statement saying, “A loving and compassionate Creator invites us to take the urgent and decisive steps to transform the U.S. empire, and this facility, into life-giving alternatives which resolve real problems of poverty and environmental degradation for all.”

The actors also delivered an indictment citing U.S. Constitutional and Treaty Law as well as the Nuremberg Principles:

“The ongoing building and maintenance of Oak Ridge Y-12 constitute war crimes that can and should be investigated and prosecuted by judicial authorities at all levels. We are required by International Law to denounce and resist known crimes.”

This action is one of a long tradition of Plowshares disarmament actions in the US and around the world which challenge war-making and weapons of mass destruction.

At Y-12 NNSA plans to replace facilities for production and dismantlement of enriched uranium components with a new consolidated Uranium Processing Facility (UPF). It is budgeted to cost more than $6.5 billion……
http://www.salem-news.com/articles/july292012/transform-plowshares-le.php

July 30, 2012 Posted by | Religion and ethics, USA | Leave a comment

Conservative USA think tank finds that human changed climate is real!

Climate results turn sceptic: ‘let the evidence change our minds’ The Age July 30, 2012,  Leo Hickman THE Earth’s land has warmed by 1.5 degrees Celsius in the past 250 years and ”humans are almost entirely the cause”, according to a scientific study set up to address climate sceptic concerns about whether human-induced global warming is occurring. Richard Muller, a climate sceptic physicist who founded the Berkeley Earth Surface Temperature (BEST) project, said he was ”surprised” by the findings. ”We were not expecting this, but as scientists, it is our duty to let the evidence change our minds.”

He said he considered himself a ”converted sceptic” and his views had received a ”total turnaround” in a short space of time. ”Our results show that the average temperature of the Earth’s land has risen by 2½ degrees Fahrenheit over the past 250 years, including an increase of 1½ degrees over the most recent 50 years.

Moreover, it appears likely that essentially all of this increase results from the human emission of greenhouse gases,”Professor Muller wrote in an opinion piece for The New York Times.

The team of scientists based at the University of California, Berkeley, gathered and merged 14.4 million land temperature observations from 44,455 sites across the world dating back to 1753. Previous datasets created by NASA, the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Britain’s Meteorological Office and the University of East Anglia’s Climate Research Unit had gone back only to the mid-1800s and used five times fewer weather station records.

The funding for the project included $US150,000 from the Charles G. Koch Charitable Foundation, set up by the billionaire US coal magnate who is a key backer of the climate sceptic Heartland Institute think tank.  http://www.theage.com.au/environment/climate-change/climate-results-turn-sceptic-let-the-evidence-change-our-minds-20120730-23769.html#ixzz229AhMmUv

July 30, 2012 Posted by | climate change, USA | Leave a comment

What has happened with UK’s nuclear Polaris missiles?

Faslane and Coulport nuclear weapons maintenance to be privatised – Polaris? For Argyll.com  July 28, 2012  The Ministry of Defence (MoD) has made a contractual commitment to hand over to a private sector consortium the maintenance of the UK’s nuclear weapons – described by the BBC as ‘Trident and Polaris weapons systems’ – held in Argyll at Faslane and Coulport on the Clyde.

This raises an immediate public information issue.

What is our position on the Polaris system? It was quite a shock to see it mentioned, like a rising from almost forgotten history. Polaris – and are we storing redundant warheads? Continue reading →

July 30, 2012 Posted by | history, UK, weapons and war | Leave a comment

Green Party formed in Japanese politics

Japanese Green Party forms with an eye on national politics, Asahi Shimbun, July 30, 2012 By KOJI SONODA Sensing the timing is right, a Japanese version of the environmentalist Green Party has been formed to nudge Japan to abandoning nuclear power by fielding candidates in upcoming national elections.  subscription only

July 30, 2012 Posted by | Japan, politics | Leave a comment

NUKES TO GO PRIVATE  PRIVATE Daily Star 29 July 12  “… contractors are to take over the maintenance of the UK’s nuclear weapons in Scotland.
The MoD has signed a 15-year deal with a consortium to provide support for the Trident weapons ­ system at the Royal Navy’s Clyde bases.
Under the contract 149 MoD civilian posts will transfer to thecontractor, ABL Alliance…..
http://www.dailystar.co.uk/news/view/264444/Nukes-to-go-private/

July 30, 2012 Posted by | UK, weapons and war | Leave a comment

Oak Ridge Y-12 Indicted for War Crimes

Statement from Transform Plowshares about Y-12 nuclear weapons facility. 29 July 12 Courtesy: disarmnowplowshares.wordpress.com

Oak Ridge Y-12 Indicted for War Crimes“Today, through our nonviolent action, we—Transform Now Plowshares—indict the U.S. government nuclear modernization program,

including the new Uranium Processing Facility planned at Oak Ridge and the dedication of billions of public dollars to the continuation of the Y-12 facility.

WHEREAS, This program is an ongoing criminal endeavor in violation of international treaty law binding on the United States under the supremacy clause of the U.S. Constitution (Article VI): Continue reading →

July 30, 2012 Posted by | Reference, UK, weapons and war | Leave a comment

Ionising radiation as a cause of breast cancer

In the United States, more than 220,000 women are expected to be diagnosed with breast cancer each year and the disease kills more than 37,000 women each year in the U.S., according to the National Cancer Institute. 

Radiation a major risk factor for breast cancer? Food Consumer, By David Liu, PHD July 29, 2012 (foodconsumer.org) — Last December a committee of the Institute of healths released a study report sponsored by Susan G. Komen for the Cure indicating that medical radiation and hormone-based therapy are two major risk factors for breast cancer for women in the United States.

The IOM press release says that women can reduce their risk for breast cancer by avoiding unnecessary medical radiation, Continue reading →

July 30, 2012 Posted by | USA, women | Leave a comment

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