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

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

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

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