nuclear-news

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

Brutal murder of Ukrainian anti nuclear leader

http://www.beyondnuclear.org/home/2012/8/15/ukrainian-environmentalist-brutally-beaten-to-death.html  18 Aug 12 Volodymyr Goncharenko EJOLT (Environmental Justice Organizations, Liabilities and Trade) reports the horrific news that, four days after conducting a press conference to warn that 180 tons of dangerous chemical and radioactive industrial waste had arrived at the city of Kryvyi Rih (in the Dnipropetrovsk area of Ukraine), which was likely to be “recycled” into the consumer product stream, 57 year old Volodymyr Goncharenko (photo, left) was brutally beaten to death.
He was the Chairman of Social Movement of Ukraine: For the Rights of Citizens to Environmental Security. As reported by EJOLT, “According to Goncharenko, during the past several years, scavengers have removed from the Chernobyl exclusion zone 6 million metric tons of scrap metal that was subsequently smelted at metallurgical combines and reprocessed into new metal. While in theory each metallurgical combine should be equipped with radiation-monitoring equipment to check all incoming scrap, financial shortfalls have meant this was rarely the case. In 2007 Ukraine ranked eighth in global steel production and steel is Ukraine’s leading export. One can only guess how much radioactive scrap metal has ended up in exported steel.”

Pavlo Khazan of the Ukrainian Green Party stated: “We collaborated with Volodymyr for 15 years in professional and public areas. The Ukrainian Green Party has no doubt that the murder was linked to his professional activities.” Although the Ukrainian police have opened an investigation into Goncharenko’s murder, Khazan feels that to deliver justice in this case, international attention and pressure will be needed.

Please contact the Embassy of Ukraine, urging a thorough investigation of Goncharenko’s murder, as well as for an end to the “recycling” of radioactive metals and other materials into the consumer product stream. In the U.S., the Embassy of Ukraine can be written at 3350 M Street, N.W., Washington, D.C. 20007, faxed at (202) 333-0817, or phoned at (202) 349-2920.Embassies and Consulates of Ukraine elsewhere in the U.S., or in other countries, can also be contacted.

Thanks to Nuclear Energy Information Service in Illinois for alerting us to this story.

Click here to learn more about anti-nuclear resistance to attempts at “radioactive recycling” in North America.

Advertisement

August 18, 2012 Posted by | safety, secrets,lies and civil liberties, Ukraine | Leave a comment

Urgent nuclear waste problem in Ukraine

Ukraine badly needs waste nuclear fuel storage facility, says Emergencies Ministry Interfax, 17 Aug 12, Ukraine needs to give a serious thought to building a centralized storage facility for waste nuclear fuel since waste fuel from Ukrainian nuclear power plants (NPPs), which is temporary stored in the Russian Federation will start to come back from 2013, the Emergencies Ministry said. Continue reading →

August 18, 2012 Posted by | Ukraine, wastes | Leave a comment

USA’s Treasure Island hid nasty radiation secret

 residents were not fully informed about contamination. “They should have been more open and upfront, because there would have been people who would have chosen not to live here,”

Treasure Island radiation discovery casts shadow over expansion plans
Contamination left by US navy found to have 400 times the EPA’s human exposure limits, but military branch denies report Rory Carroll in Los Angeles guardian.co.uk,  17 August 2012  It was called Treasure Island in honour of Robert Louis Stevenson’s pirate classic, but the artificial island off San Francisco bay has nothing but trouble buried in its soil: radioactive contamination left by the US navy.

Internal documents and emails from the navy and public health officials reveal that the contamination, a legacy of ships exposed to atomic blasts and radiation training during the cold war, is more widespread than previously thought. Continue reading →

August 18, 2012 Posted by | environment, history, USA | Leave a comment

UK’s plans for nuclear waste burial in Cumbria

Full report published on Cumbria nuclear waste burial and local involvement  http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/the-northerner/2012/aug/17/lakedistrict-nuclearpower-west-cumbria-managing-nuclear-waste-safely-partnership?newsfeed=true
by   17 August 2012 Findings of three-year review by the West Cumbria Managing Radioactive Waste Safely Partnership are now in print and online The complicated and contentious issue of burying nuclear waste in Cumbria is heading for a milestone on 11 October when the three local councils which have expressed an interest meet to debate further involvement.

A useful waymarker has now been published in full, based on the views of some 2,300 people and organisations whose submissions, while often very different and sometimes in direct conflict, have led to changes and hesitations, albeit not altering the general approach of cautiously making headway.

The document was summarised on 19 July and you can read a precis of that here. The full report has now gone up online and that is availablehere. It is the work of the West Cumbria Managing Radioactive Waste Safely Partnership which is made up of the councils – Cumbria countyand Allerdale and Copeland districts – and other groups including the National Farmers Union, the Lake District national park authority and representatives of all the parish councils potentially involved.  Continue reading →

August 18, 2012 Posted by | Reference, UK, wastes | Leave a comment

Clear that USA pursues Julian Assange, while Australian government feigns ignorance

US in pursuit of Assange, cables reveal,The Age, August 18, 2012, Philip DorlingAUSTRALIAN diplomats have no doubt the United States is still gunning for Julian Assange, according to Foreign Affairs Department documents obtained by The Saturday Age. The Australian embassy in Washington has been tracking a US espionage investigation targeting the WikiLeaks publisher for more than 18 months.

The declassified diplomatic cables, released under freedom of information laws, show Australia’s diplomatic service takes seriously the likelihood that Assange will eventually be extradited to the US on charges arising from WikiLeaks obtaining leaked US military and diplomatic documents.

This view is at odds with Foreign Minister Bob Carr’s repeated dismissal of such a prospect. Continue reading →

August 18, 2012 Posted by | AUSTRALIA, secrets,lies and civil liberties, UK, USA | Leave a comment

International Court of Justice may hear case for Julian Assange’s refuge in Ecuador

Assange looks to international court THE AGE August 18, 2012, Karen Kissane, EuropeWIKILEAKS founder Julian Assange will appeal to the International Court of Justice if Britain prevents him from going to Ecuador, according to a senior Spanish human rights lawyer. Baltasar Garzon, who is working on Assange’s defence, told Spanish newspaper El Pais that Britain was legally required to allow Assange to leave once he had diplomatic asylum.

“What the United Kingdom must do is apply the diplomatic obligations of the refugee convention and let him leave, giving him safe conduct,” he said. “Otherwise, he will go to the International Court of Justice.” Continue reading →

August 18, 2012 Posted by | 2 WORLD, Legal | Leave a comment

Youtube – Assange granted asylum by Ecuador

Aug 16, 2012 http://www.youtube.com/watch v=0Zs0sNyrZ7s&feature=youtu.be    by TheYoungTurks “WikiLeaks chief Julian Assange was granted political asylum by Ecuador on Thursday, setting up a standoff with the British government, which has vowed to block his exit from the country. The announcement was made by the Ecuadorian foreign minister, Ricardo Patiño. He said that Ecuador was granting Assange political asylum because it believed he was being persecuted for his actions as the head of WikiLeaks…”.* The Young Turks host Cenk Uygur breaks it down….

August 18, 2012 Posted by | Resources -audiovicual | Leave a comment

Using deceptive measuring to make low level radiation look safe

“We should pay particular attention to the fact that the presence of even relatively small amounts of Cs-137 in children from 10-30Bq/kg…leads to a doubling in the number of children with electrocardiographic disorders.”

 200 Bq/kg, in a pregnant woman can result in fetal death according to the Belarus studies.

 the longer someone stays in a contaminated area, eats contaminated food and/or raises a family in these conditions, the more damage will accumulate and the more, even what were once considered small doses, will have great detriment on health.

Deception in Sieverts: how a measure of radiation damage can actually be used to hide damage http://www.beyondnuclear.org/children-health/2012/8/17/deception-in-sieverts-how-a-measure-of-radiation-damage-can.html According to a research letter published this week in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), levels of internal cesium
contamination after Fukushima are “low…much lower than those reported in studies years after the Chernobyl incident”.

However, longer-term, internal exposure to even low levels of cesium can cause a range of
diseases and pre-disease conditions, including cancer. The contamination levels found in the people examined in this research are within this range of concern. Continue reading →

August 18, 2012 Posted by | 2 WORLD, Reference, secrets,lies and civil liberties | Leave a comment

Australians lead the world in distributed solar energy on housetops

Australians lead in fitting solar panels on homes, SMH, August 18, 2012 Ben Cubby AUSTRALIANS put more household solar panel systems on their roofs than anyone else in the world last year, new data from the Clean Energy Regulator and the International Energy Agency show. The statistic astonished many in the solar industry, given Australia’s small population compared with renewable energy market leaders such as European Union countries, China, Japan and the United States. Continue reading →

August 18, 2012 Posted by | AUSTRALIA, decentralised | Leave a comment

3 out of 4 Americans want clean, renewable, energy

U.S., Facing Drought, Wants More Clean Energy, Poll Says By Bloomberg – Aug 17, 2012 Three out of four Americans think the U.S. needs “to start focusing more” on clean-energy sources like wind and solar that require less water than conventional power generation as the country faces its most widespread drought since 1956, according to a think-tank survey.

The concern about water and its use is shared by 61 percent of Republicans, 84 percent of Democrats and 80 percent of independents, the Newton, Massachusetts-based, non-partisan Civil Society Institute said yesterday in a statement.

The Palmer Drought Index reported on Aug. 15 that drought covered 57.2 percent of the contiguous 48 states in July, the worst since December 1956, when 57.6 percent of the country was dry. About 50 percent of U.S. water withdrawn on average is used to cool and make steam at power plants, Seth Sheldon, an analyst at the institute, said in the statement…. http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-08-16/u-s-facing-drought-wants-more-clean-energy-poll-says.html

August 18, 2012 Posted by | renewable, USA | Leave a comment

Japanese beef shipments halted: fear of radioactive contamination

NHK: US halts shipments of Japanese beef due to concerns of radioactive contamination from Fukushima disaster (VIDEO) http://enenews.com/nhk-us-halts-shipments-of-japanese-beef-due-to-concerns-of-radioactive-contamination-from-fukushima-disaster-video

Title: Japanese beef exports to US postponed
Source: NHK WORLD English
Date: Aug. 17, 2012

Japan has been forced to put off resuming beef exports to the United States at the last minute, due to US concerns about effects of last year’s nuclear accident.

Shipments were due to resume on Saturday starting with cattle processed that day.

Japanese beef exports to the United States had been suspended for over two years after an outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease in the southwestern prefecture of Miyazaki.

But Japanese officials say the US side requested a halt on Thursday, saying it wanted to check how Japan is inspecting beef and managing feed to prevent radioactive contamination.

[…]

August 18, 2012 Posted by | general | Leave a comment

Belgian reactor likely to have 1000s of cracks

Nuclear chief says Belgium reactor could have ‘thousands of cracks’ 17/08/2012
By Diarmaid Williams International Digital Editor Belgium’s Federal Agency for Nuclear Control (FANC) held an international meeting of nuclear experts on Thursday as nuclear safety chief, Willy De Roovere, confirmed that there could be thousands of cracks in the reactor vessel of the Doel 3 nuclear reactor near Antwerp, on the Dutch border….
http://www.powerengineeringint.com/articles/2012/08/nuclear-chief-says-belgium-reactor-could-have-thousands-of-cracks.html

August 18, 2012 Posted by | EUROPE, safety | 1 Comment

Injustice USA: Bradley Manning needs our help

Save human rights whistleblower Bradley Manning! Why this is important
http://www.avaaz.org/en/petition/Save_human_rights_whistleblower_Bradley_Manning/?wnQTQbb Accused WikiLeaks whistleblower and Nobel Peace Prize nominee Bradley
Manning will spend the rest of his life in prison for telling the public the truth, if US officials get their way. Government conduct, apparently aimed at discouraging whistleblowers, has ignored due process and made a fair trial impossible. But, in the past, outrageous government conduct has led judges to dismiss the charges against whistleblowers. Tell the judge in Bradley’s military Court Martial to do the same!

– Bradley was held in pre-trial solitary confinement for 11 months, in conditions condemned by the UN Rapporteur on Torture as “cruel, inhuman and degrading,” including being stripped and made to stand naked at roll call. This was a clear violation of the US military’s
Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ: Article 13). Yet, only worldwide outrage–including over 500,000 Avaaz members signing a petition–ended this illegal treatment. Continue reading →

August 18, 2012 Posted by | civil liberties, USA | Leave a comment

Wikileakes revealed the collusion of USA and Australia against ElBaradei

 

US, Australia schemed against IAEA chief: cable BUSINESS RECORDER  The United States and Australia schemed unsuccessfully in 2005 to block Mohamed ElBaradei’s election to a third term as head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, a newly leaked US diplomatic cable shows.

Both countries were unhappy with ElBaradei’s “unhelpful” response to Iran’s nuclear program, but the bid to prevent his re-election to the nuclear regulatory agency’s leadership ultimately failed for lack of international support. Continue reading →

August 18, 2012 Posted by | AUSTRALIA, secrets,lies and civil liberties, USA | Leave a comment

Governments’ history of covering up radiation danger

Radiation Danger Covered Up Ever Since Nuclear Weapons Invented  http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=32390  Global Research, August 17, 2012  Government Has Been Covering up Radiation Danger for 67 Years The U.S. and other governments have been covering up nuclear meltdowns for fifty years to protect the nuclear power industry.

It turns out that the U.S. tried to cover up the destructive nature of radiation produced by nuclear weapons 67 years ago. As Democracy Nowreports:

The army was well aware in 1943 of the enormous potential for radiation dangers to civilians and military personnel as a result of the use of radioactive weapons ….

[The New York Times] was essentially putting out the official government narrative [regarding the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki], which is that atomic radiation is not harmful, is not a major byproduct of the nuclear weapons program. You know, it’s only the blast that has essentially a very short impact. The reason that this has importance is that for really a half century, this narrative became the government’s response to all protests against nuclear power, the nuclear weapons programs of the 1950s and 1960s and the Cold War. So, [The New York Times] essentially set the table that the government was to occupy for the next half century as they disputed any attempt to rein in, you know, the rapid acceleration of nuclear weapons and power programs.

Nothing has changed. Governments worldwide continue to this day to cover up the amount – and health effects – of radiation released by military and energy facilities.

And the same considerations which drove the cover up in 1945 are still driving it. The archaic uranium reactor designs developed more than 40 years ago are good for making bombs.

August 18, 2012 Posted by | history, USA | Leave a comment

« Previous Entries