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Thousands rally again in anti nuclear protest in Tokyo

Tokyo’s anti-nuclear protesters remember WWII http://www.brecorder.com/general-news/172/1229068/ August 18, 2012 BUSINESS RECORDER   Japanese anti-nuclear demonstrators on Friday recounted the horror of  World War II, days after the region marked Tokyo’s surrender nearly seven decades earlier. Thousands of marchers took to streets in the
capital for a weekly rally in front of the prime minister’s office and parliament to pressure the government to drop its policy of using nuclear power. Continue reading →

August 18, 2012 Posted by | Japan, opposition to nuclear | Leave a comment

Dubious ‘safety culture’ at Tennessee Nuclear Weapons Facility

Workers at Tennessee Nuclear Facility Say Safety Takes Backseat to Deadlines Project on Government Oversight (POGO) By MIA STEINLE, 17 Aug 12 Some workers who are designing and building a major nuclear weapons facility for the government say they feel pressure to put deadlines ahead of safety,  according to a recent Department of Energy report

“Interviewees indicated that schedule pressures can inhibit reporting of concerns,” the report said. “The heavy emphasis on performance metrics and cost, often at the perceived expense of understanding and developing the right technology, has created issues for the completion of the project,” the report said.

The June report focused on part of the Y-12 National Security Complex in Oak Ridge, Tenn., that is intended to consolidate operations involving bomb-grade uranium for the nation’s nuclear arsenal. When completed, the Uranium Processing Facility will be used for the assembly, disassembly and storage of bomb components and of bomb-grade uranium, according to its website.

The report was posted on a government web site just days after  a major security breach at Y-12 last month, when three protesters, including an 82-year-old nun, broke into a high-security area of Y-12. The anti-nuclear activists bypassed security guards and several fences to enter the complex, the Knoxville News-Sentinel reported. The new uranium facility is being built in the same high-security area.

A team of external safety culture experts evaluating the ongoing design and construction work for the Department of Energy interviewed and surveyed more than 800 people involved in the project.  Those interviewed are employed by the government or by private companies under contract to the government……
The report said there are “negative perceptions around feeling free to challenge management decisions” at the site.   It added that there is “a lack of ownership and accountability for safety” among contractors on the project.

“There is the expectation [among the contractors] that someone else or something else will take care of accountability,” the report said.  http://pogoblog.typepad.com/pogo/2012/08/workers-at-tennessee-nuclear-facility-say-safety-takes-backseat-to-deadlines.html

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

Eastern Connecticut’s nuclear waste problem

if no national repository is built, the nuclear waste will have to stay there forever and the property will not be marketable.

Public Voices Concerns About More Nuclear Waste In Eastern Connecticut
At a public forum by Dominion, neighbors voiced their concerns about Millstone increasing its capacity for nuclear waste, although said there is little other choice. Groton Patch 17 Aug 12, By Paul Petrone At a public forum Wednesday night, neighbors and an anti-nuclear activist raised concerns about Millstone Power Station’s plans to vastly increase the amount of nuclear waste it can store on site , although most agreed there was no other option.

“I feel bad for the people growing up in this area,” said Ed Saller, who lives within 2,000 feet of Millstone. “We have a dysfunctional government, I don’t know how they can ever solve this issue.”

Dominion, owners of Millstone, are asking the Connecticut Siting Council if they can put on the top layer of a nearly two-acre concrete pad that would hold nearly 60 years of nuclear waste in dry cask storage. Continue reading →

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

Netanyahu and Ehud Barak wanting war, against all good advice?

Zone of Insanity Are Bibi Netanyahu and Ehud Barak really crazy enough to bomb Iran — against the wishes of the United States and their own people? Foreign Policy,   BY JAMES TRAUB | AUGUST 17, 2012  It must drive Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu crazy that scarcely anybody outside his immediate circle of advisors — oh, and Mitt Romney — understands the imperative for war against Iran.

Israel’s retired security chiefs uniformly consider a war unnecessary right now. Israel’s president, Shimon Peres, agrees. A poll released this week found the Israeli public opposed to war by a solid 46 percent to 32 percent. As for the United States, Defense Secretary Leon Panettainsists that “the window is still open to try to work toward a diplomatic solution.” ……

It’s unclear whether Netanyahu is trying to prepare domestic public opinion for an imminent Israeli strike on Iran, or hoping to bully U.S. President Barack Obama into making some sort of ironclad promise to launch airstrikes — should Iran cross some stipulated red line or should diplomacy fail to deter the Iranians by a stipulated date. Netanyahu would plainly prefer an American attack, which would do far more damage to Iran’s nuclear infrastructure than an Israeli one would, but he may have concluded (as Barak intimated) that Israel will have to act alone rather than risk American inaction. Yet Netanyahu has put Obama in the almost impossible position of having to reassure Israel that the United States will act if necessary — thus reassuring American swing voters that he has Israel’s back — without binding himself to fight Israel’s war on Israel’s terms. Obama has already allowed Israel to back him into a corner by saying that he would go to war rather than accept a nuclear Iran, but apparently Netanyahu and Barak don’t believe him…..

The real danger, of course, is that Netanyahu might conclude that Israel has to go it alone. The smart money still thinks he’s bluffing, but Ross told me that the “decision-maker” interview convinced him that Barak and Netanyahu really are prepared to fight their own war. The Obama administration has prepared for this eventuality with a series of statements paying elaborate deference to Israel’s sovereign right to defend itself as it sees fit. I can only say that I hope that officials are sending a different message in private — making it very clear to their Israeli counterparts that they will not be drawn into a war with Iran and that a unilateral decision by Israel will do very grave harm to relations with the United States. If Netanyahu wants to go ahead anyway and pay that price on top of everything else — if “an existential threat” means that it’s irresponsible to balance benefits with costs — then it’s up to the Israeli public to decide what to do about their fearless, feckless leader. http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2012/08/17/zone_of_insanity

August 18, 2012 Posted by | Israel, weapons and war | Leave a comment

Ahmadinejad on Israel and the Middle East

Does Ahmadinejad mean “Israel as a Jewish State”.  I for one, cannot understand why Israeli leaders insist on calling the place “A Jewish State”.  They’ve got Muslims, and Christians and atheists , and who knows what else living there.  Not everybody in Israel is Jewish.  Why can’t Israel be a secular State, like plenty of other countries are – with recognition of all religions?  – Christina Macpherson
Ahmadinejad says no place for Israel in new Middle East August 18, 2012  Business RECORDER  Many thousands of Iranians shouted “Death to America, death to
Israel” during state-organised protests on Friday and President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad told them there was no place for the Jewish state in a future Middle East. Iran, penalised by tough Western sanctions, faces the threat of an Israeli or US military strike on its disputed
nuclear facilities. Continue reading →

August 18, 2012 Posted by | Christina's notes | Leave a comment

Direct Investments in Renewable Energy Increasingly Attractive to Pension Funds, Insurers  Triple Pundit, By Andrew Burger | August 17th, 2012 Institutional investors, such as pension funds and insurance companies, are increasingly investing directly in wind, solar and other renewable energy projects, providing much needed capital to companies in the fast-growing clean energy sector even as banks, still suffering from accumulated bad loans and high debt levels, have tightened lending standards and struggle to raise capital to shore up their finances.

This is particularly true in Europe, where banks find themselves caught in a web of bad debts accumulated from prior their own housing and property lending and investments and subsequent government efforts to bail them out with sovereign debt, which has led them to purchase large amounts of euro zone treasury securities.  Multinational insurer Munich Re’s bought three UK wind farms with a combined 102-MW capacity, boosting the total amount it’s invested in renewable energy projects to more than €600 million ($737 million), Bloomberg News reported on Aug. 12 . Looking to reduce its reliance on bank loans, Swedish renewable energy project developer Arise Windpower AB is turning to pension funds and other institutional investors to help finance its new projects …. http://www.triplepundit.com/2012/08/renewable-energy-pension-funds/

August 18, 2012 Posted by | business and costs, renewable | Leave a comment

State regulator: Vermont Yankee nuclear plant needs more NRC scrutiny
The Republic By DAVE GRAM  Associated Press August 17, 2012 MONTPELIER, Vt. — A top Vermont utility regulator is renewing her push for stepped-up scrutiny by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission after a series of problems at the Vermont Yankee nuclear plant. Continue reading →

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

UN watchdog may lower its estimate of ‘missing’ Iran uranium August 17, 2012 BUSINESS RECORDER    The United Nations’ atomic watchdog may decide that less uranium is missing at an Iranian research site than it had previously thought, diplomats say, and that may go some way to easing concerns that it may have been diverted for military use…. http://www.brecorder.com/general-news/172/1228763/

August 18, 2012 Posted by | Iran, weapons and war | Leave a comment

How America Can Slow Israel’s March to War,

NYT, 17 Aug 12 By DENNIS B. ROSS Washington OBAMA administration officials have made it clear that they believe
there is still time and space for diplomatic efforts to succeed in stopping Iran  from achieving a nuclear weapons  capability. But Israel ’s deputy foreign minister, Danny Ayalon , has said it is time to declare that “diplomacy has failed.”…… Continue reading →

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

UK censored? Drinking water standards cover up!

last year in May/June 2011 i downloaded a copy of the water quality measurements for isotopes.. i got the base levels but had to wait until May/June 2012 for the data of 2011, to see the difference. However, the report has been “delayed” until September?

So, i searched the web for relevent information and struck gold.

The did not look at the cesium range.. only alpha and beta in the contaminants?
September would have been late for the Fukushima Iodines but we just had the Budapest Institute in Hungary with a large confirmed release that covered the whole of europe, then we had the Mercoule disaster where i believe more Iodine Lead etc was released..
heres the link to the report.. found it on html version
http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:bj00u3JicBUJ:www.mildenhall.af.mil/shared/media/document/AFD-120629-008.pdf+&hl=en&gl=uk
heres the original, but link dead
This is the html version of the file
 http://www.mildenhall.af.mil/shared/media/document/AFD-120629-008.pdf.
[Google automatically generates html versions of documents as we crawl the web.]
The report is called the “consumer confidence report”  All American bases have to submit these reports to the uk authorities annually.
Interestingly they were  on the notifiable amount in September and in October for lead .
 “..results in the table below include all chemi-

cals covered by the US EPA’s Safe Drinking Water
Act for which analysis was performed and concen-
trations of the chemicals that were detected from 1
January 2011 to 31 December 2011. Although
Lead is reported as reaching the maximum contami-
nant limit during CY 2011 sampling time frame,
RAF Mildenhall received zero exceedances for any
of the chemicals of health concern. At the time of
sampling the MCL for lead was 0.020 and was
reduced to the current standard of 0.015 in October
2011. The sample was taken in September 2011…”
The Pb Lead was likely from the Mercoule accident .. and both these incidents shows direct evidence of pollution hitting the uk, with plenty of Radon theat leaves Pb lead (the only nuclide available on the web this year?) to bioaccumulate.
And everyone was breathing this lethal isotopic cocktail in. the UK was the furthest country away, so the nearer countries got hit badly to.. other isotopes were measured but in smaller quantities if you can believe EURDEP the European radiation monitoring system. Even the professionals say it is not “fit for purpose” even though the emergency services are supposed to rely on it in case of an emergency.. a very dangerous situation indeed. and it looks like what little transparency there was is now gone.
And this was the cause of the large part of the contamination. The Budapest isotope Institute

 Translation of CRIIRAD report n Hungary

Serious long lasting contamination found in hungary!

“..Iodine 125 with a half life of 60 days found in grass clippings near the institute of
Hungarian production of radioisotopes…”

“..CRIIRAD warned in its letter of 15 November 2011 on the need quickly determine the source of contamination “because people close to the source could have been and still be exposed to large doses…” ”

Continue reading →

August 18, 2012 Posted by | Uncategorized | 5 Comments

English speaking activist bloggers in Japan (2 VIDEOS)

Anti-Nuclear Protest with Heavy Police Barricades August 17th 2012 at Japanese PM`s office Tokyo

Published on Aug 17, 2012 by 

“…Occupy Tokyo was police free but near the Japanese PM`s office Tokyo metro police set up heavy barricades and attempted to block protestersaccess along the sidewalk. I even had a little `interaction` with the police. Despite the static from the police, the protesters still protested with the same message; No nuclear power in Japan…”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VEq8Y5X14jI

 

The moment of Truth Mr. Idogawa, Futaba Mayor talking to JP GVNMT

“..Mr. Idogawa, Mayor of Futaba Town where Fukushima Daiichi located testified about the day of Unit 1′s explosion. Japanese government did not announce SPEEDI data, so Futaba’s citizens evacuated to northwest where radiation drifted. Many citizens of Futaba were exposed to radiation including children. Senator Masako Mori severely questioned to Prime Minister Noda about Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Plant’s accident….”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tjTHd8IWCyE

 

More on the questions here, includes Mrs Mori giving Prime minister Noda the third degree!

 

Mayor in Fukushima Town: “My hair fell off” one woman told me with tears in her eyes — I’m so sorry for them still (VIDEO)

http://enenews.com/nhk-us-halts-shipments-of-japanese-beef-due-to-concerns-of-radioactive-contamination-from-fukushima-disaster-video/comment-page-1#comment-280515

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

(Part 2 of 2) Video Interview Transcript of Former Plant Manager of #Fukushima I Nuke Plant Masao Yoshida

http://ex-skf.blogspot.co.uk/2012/08/part-2-of-2-video-interview-transcript.html

POSTED BY AREVAMIRPAL::LAPRIMAVERA

THURSDAY, AUGUST 16, 2012

“…Following the part 1 , here’s the part 2 of the video transcript of Mr. Masao Yoshida, former plant manager of Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant.

Again, the occasion was a small symposium in Fukushima on August 11, 2012, and Mr. Yoshida’s video interview was done in July, before he had cerebral hemorrhage.

The transcript is from Mainichi Shinbun article (8/11/2012), not from the video which only 140 or so people who attended the seminar got to watch….”

Qoute here translated by EXSKF by Mr Yoshida

“…In addition to Reactor 1 [‘s explosion], Reactor 3’s explosion made the strongest impact [on me]. In retrospect it was a hydrogen explosion, but at that time we didn’t know what was happening. I thought something catastrophic had happened. About the explosions. I could die, and all people in the Anti-Seismic Building could die, at any moment. It was particularly so after the explosion at Reactor 3. That much debris flying all over. When I first heard that several people were missing, safety of tens of people was not confirmed yet. I thought, maybe more than 10 people just died. Then, more information started to come in, confirming the safety of people, though there were some with minor injuries. And I feel very sorry for the Self Defense Force. The SDF troop came to supply water and they were caught in the explosion and were injured. I am very sorry. One consolation is that injuries were not life-threatening, and I feel as if it was some kind of divine providence….”

 

Nice summary from the admin at EXKSF here..

“…All Mr. Yoshida said was the plant needs to be made more stable, in a proper way – replacing Kanaflex hoses would be one, removing the debris and clutter would be another – so that the plant’s various operations can run in a smooth, predictable manner, with no accidents like small fires and water leaks, not to mention major accidents.

By the way, this “Yoshida said the plant is not stable” duly came back to Japan as a credible piece of news in English, but it quickly disappeared among more sensational headlines (like butterfly mutation due to Fukushima radiation, for one)….”

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

Reuters: Thyroid cancer risk lasts entire life after radiation exposure — Leukemia risk peaks in a few years

http://enenews.com/reuters-thyroid-cancer-risk-lasts-entire-life-after-radiation-exposure-leukemia-risk-peaks-years-researchers

Published: August 17th, 2012 at 7:43 pm ET 
By  

Title: Thyroid cancer risk persists decades after radiation – chicagotribune.com
Source: Reuters
Author: Genevra Pittman
Date: August 17, 2012

“..Study confirms findings from the United States that people remain at higher risk of thyroid cancer for decades after they’re exposed to radiation.”

“..The risk appears to last pretty much your entire life..” 

“..That’s because thyroid cells are permanently damaged by radiation unless the radiation dose is so high that they’re killed completely..”

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

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

Published: August 17th, 2012 at 4:38 pm ET 
By  

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

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 | Uncategorized | Leave a comment

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