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Santa Monica council calls for full investigation of San Onofre nuclear plant

Santa Monica Council urges probe of San Onofre reactors  Aug. 15, 2012 Council unanimously votes for state investigation of San Onofre costs, reliability and alternative energy resources and urges federal license amendment hearing

SANTA MONICA, CALIF. — Last night, the Santa Monica City Council voted unanimously to urge the state to fully investigate the costs and reliability of the crippled San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station and to compare it to other available energy sources. The council also voted unanimously to urge federal regulators to hold a transparent and public license amendment procedure for the plant’s twin reactors…..

Under state law, Edison can ask the California Public Utilities Commission to allow it to recover its costs through rate increases to its customers. An investigation by the CPUC, such as the one called for by the Santa Monica City Council, could end in a ruling that Edison, not its customers, is liable for the costs. Such a ruling could push Edison to  permanently shut down the reactors rather than incur additional expenses.

The Council vote also directs the City of Santa Monica to urge the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to conduct a public, transparent license amendment hearing on San Onofre. A license amendment is a formal, open and legally adjudicated procedure that would allow for independent expert review of the significant modifications to the replacement steam generators. Under NRC rules, a license amendment is required for major design changes to replacement equipment like those Edison made to these replacement components. In a petition before the NRC, Friends of the Earth and other public interest groups charge that the replacement generators were not “like for like” as Edison presented them to regulators, but instead were substantially altered.

Santa Monica’s action is similar to the resolution unanimously adopted last week by the Laguna Beach City Council.

Contact: Kendra Ulrich: (216) 571-7340, kulrich@foe.org

Diane Moss: (310) 463-1355  http://www.foe.org/news/news-releases/2012-08-santa-monica-council-urges-probe-of-san-onofre-reactors

August 17, 2012 Posted by | opposition to nuclear, USA | 1 Comment

Israeli President Shimon Peres rejects idea of attacking Iran

Israel’s Peres against any solo Iran attack, trusts Obama August 17, 2012 Business Recorder  Israeli President Shimon Peres on Thursday came out against any go-it-alone Israeli attack on Iran, saying he trusted US President Barack Obama’s pledge to prevent Tehran from producing nuclear weapons.

His comments appeared to challenge Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defence Minister Ehud Barak, who have both raised the prospect of a unilateral Israeli strike, despite assurances from Washington it will not let Iran get the atomic bomb.

“I am convinced this is an American interest. I am convinced (Obama) recognises the American interest and he isn’t saying this just to keep us happy. I have no doubt about it, after having had talks with him,” Peres told Channel Two television. “Now, it’s clear to us that we can’t do it alone. We can delay (Iran’s nuclear programme). It’s clear to us we have to proceed together with America. There are questions about co-ordination and timing, but as serious as the danger is, this time at least we are not alone.” …..

August 17, 2012 Posted by | general | Leave a comment

Climate change: understanding grows as climate ‘sceptics’ won over by the evidence

Climate sceptics shifting their views, SARA PHILLIPS ABC 15 AUG 2012 ”……..among those who deny that climate change is real, there appears to have been a palpable shift away from a refusal to accept the climate is warming and towards those who doubt the severity of the damage.

It’s a subtle but important shift, and suggests that holding the view that climate change is not occurring is intellectually untenable in the long-term.

American physicist Richard Muller is one climate sceptic who has recently changed his mind after reviewing the evidence.
Muller crunched a bunch of numbers to do with global temperatures and announced in the New York Times that he is a “converted sceptic”. It was this opinion piece in arguably the world’s most influential paper that set tongues wagging about climate change all over again……
Over time, it seems that the weight of evidence is pushing those who disbelieve climate science further and further towards the view of the majority of researchers working in the area. Few so-called climate sceptics now doubt that humans play a role; fewer still doubt that temperatures are rising.

The roadblocks that have slowed or prevented action to reduce the effects of climate change are being smoothed.
While there will always be hold-outs who cling to their own beliefs despite the evidence, the trend away from complete denial can only be positive news for those on the road to addressing climate change.
http://www.abc.net.au/environment/articles/2012/08/15/3568554.htm

August 17, 2012 Posted by | general | Leave a comment

Pacific islands Tonga and Tokelau moving to 100% solar energy

Tonga joins Pacific solar drive to cheaper, safer, cleaner power REneweconomy By   17 August 2012 Last week, New Zealand-based Powersmart Solar officially switched on the first of three solar power systems being installed on the South Pacific archipelago of Tokelau. As reported on RenewEconomy earlier this month, Tokelau is replacing the diesel electricity systems that have powered its three atolls with solar power systems and battery storage.

But Tokelau is not the the only South Pacific nation currently undergoing a solar transformation. The Kingdom of Tonga switched on its own maiden solar plant at the end of last month – another New Zealand-funded project that, along with the plant at Tokelau’s Fakaofo atoll, are set to be the first of many to come in the region, according to NZ Foreign Affairs Minister Murray McCully.

As is the case in Tokelau, the Tongan solar plant – Ma’ama Mai, which means “Let there be Light” – is part of a scheme to reduce the island nation’s dependence on fossil fuels and, in particular, diesel. According to reports, Tonga was consuming about 30 million litres of diesel a year; an average of about one litre every two seconds.

A collaborative effort between Tonga Power and NSW-based Meridian Energy, Ma’ama Mai’s nearly 6,000 solar panels will generate around 1MW a year, which equates to 4 per cent of electricity used on the main island of Tongatapu. For such a seemingly small amount, this will help Tonga save an estimated 470,000 litres of diesel – $NZ15 million-worth – over the 25-year-life of the plant.

According to an ABC News report, the plant was originally going to be funded by Tonga Power and the Tongan Government, but the World Bank would not loan Tonga any more funds, so New Zealand stepped in to cover the $7.9 million cost.

Already it is paying off, with the government announcing a reduction in the price Tongans pay for electricity from August 1. And this could just be the beginning – Tonga’s Minister for Public Enterprises, William Clive Edwards, says the aim is to have 50 per cent of the country’s energy to come from renewable sources by 2018; including solar, wind and biomass….. http://reneweconomy.com.au/2012/tonga-joins-pacific-solar-drive-to-cheaper-safer-cleaner-power-60042

August 17, 2012 Posted by | decentralised, OCEANIA | Leave a comment

Saudi Arabia to go solar energy in a big way

Kingdom eyes 40 GW solar energy by 2032 Saudi Gazette, August 16, 2012  JEDDAH – Saudi Arabia has set an ambitious target of installing more than 40 GW of solar power capacity by 2032, of which 60 percent would be from concentrated solar power (CSP) and remaining from photovoltaics (PV). Continue reading →

August 17, 2012 Posted by | renewable, Saudi Arabia | Leave a comment

Fort Calhoun nuclear plant to be run by private company

Private firm to run nuclear plant Omaha.com By Erin Golden, 16 Aug 12,    BLAIR, Neb. — The Omaha Public Power District is planning to turn over control of Fort Calhoun Nuclear Station to a private company — a move the district’s board says is essential if the plant is to reopen.

In a meeting Thursday night at Blair City Hall, the board voted unanimously to allow OPPD officials to negotiate a 20-year contract with Exelon Corp. for day-to-day operations of the troubled plant, which is about 20 miles north of Omaha.

The plant’s reactor has been shut down since April 2011 because of concerns over Missouri River flooding and a series of safety violations. The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, which is overseeing the facility, has not set a restart date for Fort Calhoun.

One board member, John Green, said it has become clear that the NRC
was interested in outside management of the facility. “I’ve been convinced over the last few months … that we weren’t going to be able to open the plant without doing this,” Green said.

Gary Gates, the utility’s CEO, said the district has been considering looking to an outside company for some time and has been negotiating with Exelon for a month….. An NRC spokesman declined to comment….. http://www.omaha.com/article/20120817/NEWS/708179925/1685

August 17, 2012 Posted by | business and costs, USA | Leave a comment

Film reveals the secret story of nuclear research on the Marshall Islands people

The long term study of the human health effects of exposure to fallout and remaining nuclear waste in the Marshallese environment extended over four decades with a total of 72 research excursions to the Marshall Islands involving Marshallese citizens from Rongelap, Utrik, Likiep, Enewetak and Majuro Atolls. Some 539 men, women, and children were subject to studies documenting and monitoring the varied late effects of radiation. In addition to the purposeful exposure of humans to the toxic and radioactive waste from nuclear weapons, some Marshallese received radioisotope injections, underwent experimental surgery, and were subject to other procedures in experiments addressing scientific questions which, at times, had little or no relevance to medical treatment needs and in some instances involved procedures that were detrimental to their health. 

Human Rights, Environment and Nuclear Disaster  Nuclear Savages http://www.counterpunch.org/2012/06/01/nuclear-savages/  Counter Punch by BARBARA ROSE JOHNSTON, June 2012  also at http://snippits-and-slappits.blogspot.com.au/2012/06/nuclear-savages.html  (with video) Are you wondering about the disconcerting contradictions in the nuclear news in recent weeks?…. We have been here before, in a world blanketed with nuclear fallout, where massive amounts of iodine, cesium, strontium and other radioactive isotopes moved through the marine and terrestrial food chain and the human body, in well-documented ways, with degenerative and at times deadly outcomes.  Yet, for many reasons, while the environmental and biomedical trajectory of such exposures are well documented, the human experience and associated public health risks are largely suppressed, classified, or simply and persistently denied.
Sometimes clarity is best achieved by stepping back, taking pause, and considering the historical antecedents and experiences that have brought us to these chaotic times.  A new documentary film by Adam Horowitz offers an opportunity to do just that.

Premiering June 2, at 6:30 pm at the  Lincoln Center in New York City, Nuclear Savage: The Islands of Secret Project 4.1    is a poignant, provocative, and deeply troubling look at lingering and lasting effects of nuclear disaster and the human consequences of US government efforts to define, contain, and control public awareness and concern.

Nuclear Savage recounts the experiences of the Marshallese nation in the years following World War II, as they played host to the US’s Pacific Proving Grounds and served as human subjects in the classified, abusive pseudoscience that characterized the US government medical response to civilian exposures from the 1954 Bravo Test, the largest and dirtiest hydrogen bomb detonated by the United States. Detonated in the populated nation of the Marshall Islands.

Here is the story: Continue reading →

August 17, 2012 Posted by | history, indigenous issues, Reference | Leave a comment

“送り火・2012″Sending-off bonfire(Environmental art video)

“送り火・2012″Sending-off bonfire

Link to video here

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x9MtR3XFLbg

Hazuki is the old Japanese name for the month of August. It is a shortened form of Haochizuki, which means “leaf-falling month.” As with many of the old month names, they make more sense when we consider that, when they were in wide use, Japan was on a lunar calendar.

Although there are no official holidays in Hazuki, arguably the second most important celebration of the year takes place this month: Obon. The Bon Festivals are held to pray for the repose of the souls of ancestors. Deceased family members are believed to revisit the homestead during Bon to be reunited with their family. To guide the souls back, a small bonfire is lit outside the house. This is called the mukae-bi, or welcoming flame. Then, the house is cleaned and fruits and vegetables are offered at family altars. When Bon ends, the spirits are sent off with another bonfire, called okuri-bi. Some regions release small lanterns down rivers or into the sea as part of the okuri-bi ritual.

More from this artist and activist

「滅原発を!」 Destroy Nuclear Mafia.

Download freely, and please use.(Copyright free)
However, use only for Anti-Nuclear movement.
Meaning of a character is “Destroy” (Cursive style)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mJl7F1PN29s&feature=plcp

August 17, 2012 Posted by | Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Fractured Friday Protest May Be Leaving the Original Organizers and Spread to Other Locations

http://ex-skf.blogspot.co.uk/2012/08/fractured-friday-protest-may-be-leaving.html

“…The increasingly fractured Friday protest is on again this Friday at the Prime Minister’s Official Residence, as more and more participants have had enough of following orders from the young organizers who talk trash (one literally calling older protesters “piece of garbage”).

The Friday protest by the Metropolitan Coalition Against Nukes will be still at the PM’s Official Residence, same time, same rules (“single issue” plus one, no other slogans, nothing about radiation contamination, etc.).

But here are other locations near the PM’s Official Residence where people will gather to protest against a host of different issues, FREELY….”

A list of different protests on the link to exskf

OTHER PROTEST RESOURCES

http://iwj.co.jp/  (japanese but translates well)

http://iwj.co.jp/channels/main/  (Japanese speaking video streams but you can see the protests etc both live and recorded)

https://www.youtube.com/user/freedomwv/videos  (link to american blogger living in japan who covers the protest in english and has news item too.)

August 17, 2012 Posted by | Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Radioactive Japan: Over 200 Evacuees from Futaba-machi Still Lives in Classrooms, Partitioned with Cardboards!

Source http://ex-skf.blogspot.co.uk/2012/08/radioactive-japan-over-200-evacuees.html

“….An organization called “Enechen” (“energy change”, in Japanese English) is asking for help so that they can at least provide hot meals to the 200 evacuees from Futaba-machi who continue to live in the classrooms in a closed high school building in Saitama Prefecture where the town’s government has temporarily relocated. They are mostly elderly residents, and they have nowhere else to go. 

After nearly 17 months since the accident, the country is quite happy having them live in classrooms with card board partitions…..”

 Image

From the organization’s website (8/12/2012): (Translated by exskf)

“..As of August 2012, about 200 elderly residents at Futaba-machi Shelter continue to live in the rooms partitioned with corrugated cardboards in a closed school building, with all their meals in bento (boxed lunch/dinner), 1 year and 4 months since they evacuated there….”

“..Hardly any hot meals are served any more, except for hot miso soups once a week, we’ve learned….”

(Picture, Dalai Lama visits fukushima last year)

“..We want to provide these people with hot meals, so we have launched this project….”

“..It’s been about one year and 4 months since then. Initially there were more than 1,000 evacuees staying at the high school building, but most have moved out to temporary housing. However, as of August 2012, there are still 210 people living in the school building….”

 

“..Most of them are elderly people, and it seems they have various reasons or problems that prevent them from living independently….”

“..Nothing has been decided what will happen to these more than 200 people at this shelter….”

“..Time passes, with no prospect for the future…”

 

(picture japanese Emporer and wife with refugees last year)

“…What have the national government, and the municipal government, been doing?…”

“..There are many people who still suffer from the nuclear accident. Most haven’t even received the compensation money…”

 

More here.. (with Japanese version)

http://ex-skf.blogspot.co.uk/2012/08/radioactive-japan-over-200-evacuees.html

 More on victims here…

Human Rights Violations of Persons with Disabilities in Fukushima after the Great East Japan Earthquake, Tsunami, and Nuclear Power Plant Accident

Continue reading →

August 17, 2012 Posted by | Uncategorized | 1 Comment

Japan gov’t concealed Reactor No. 3 explosion until just before it happened — Ordered that alarming spike of pressure inside containment vessel be kept from public

http://enenews.com/japan-govt-concealed-explosion-of-reactor-no-3-until-just-before-it-happened-ordered-that-alarming-spike-of-pressure-inside-containment-vessel-be-kept-from-public
 
Published: August 16th, 2012 at 7:26 pm ET 
By  

after pressure inside the reactor 3 containment vessel suddenly spiked to alarming levels around 6 a.m. March 14.

The agency then made an announcement shortly after 9 a.m. March 14 — just two hours before a hydrogen explosion destroyed the upper part of the structure housing reactor 3.

Image

 

and from another article

NISA told Tepco to delay reporting looming explosion

Jiji  Thursday, Aug. 16, 2012

“NISA officials are blocking any release of information on the matter,” a person who appears to be a head office employee says in the video images. “The agency’s officials are saying that (Tepco) should not be the entity to announce this either.”

Another voice on the recordings can be heard stating that NISA had refused to give Tepco permission to announce the pressure surge, saying, “We’ve been strongly requested, instructed not to announce this.”

NISA has said it kept Tepco’s announcement on hold because officials were unable to get in touch with its chief to obtain the necessary permission.

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/text/nn20120816a4.html

 

August 16, 2012 Posted by | Uncategorized | Leave a comment

15 August 2012 Thousands of Naraha residents can return to homes and businesses during daylight hours

Article posted to World Nuclear News

Another evacuation order lifted

“…The town lies 13 kilometres to the south of Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant that suffered a multiple reactor accident and radiation release after the natural disasters of 11 March 2011. The town’s border includes a portion of the Fukushima Daini plant that also saw an emergency situation last year. All of the municipality’s 7200 residents were evacuated by the end of April 2011, but the area did not suffer any serious radioactive contamination.

Now, Japanese authorities consider the area safe for daylight visits with no need for monitoring equipment or protective clothing. This means people may return to businesses and properties, a large number of which need serious repair or even total redevelopment as a result of the earthquake and tsunami….”

“..Controls on entry to the area were relaxed at midnight on 10 August by the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI). It is the fourth revision the ministry has made as it assesses evacuated areas and works towards normalisation of as much as possible. At the same time it changed restrictions at sea, reducing the no-go zone for shipping from 20 kilometres to five. .. “

“..Many residents were evacuated after the meltdown, but by August 2011, approximately half had returned. A voluntary screening program for levels of cesium, known to be representative of total internal radiation exposure, was conducted between September 2011 and March 2012 for all residents ages 6 years or older. Total cesium exposure was converted into committed effective dose (sievert, Sv)…”

“…Residents may return at will to areas marked green to visit and work without the use of protective equipment. The only restriction is that they may not stay overnight…”

“…In the orange ‘restricted’ areas people can carry out specific jobs without being monitored or using protective equipment…

….People entering these zones are advised to avoid doing so unnecessarily, to refrain from working outdoors, to use cars rather than to walk for more than a short period and to wash upon re-entering a building…”

“….The third category of area is known as ‘difficult’ to return to because of an ambient dose rate of over 50 millisieverts per year, which is not expected to go below 20 millisieverts per year before March 2016…”

http://www.world-nuclear-news.org/RS_Naraha_evacuation_order_lifted_1508121.html

August 16, 2012 Posted by | Uncategorized | Leave a comment

10 times more deformed worms in Fukushima town — Some have 2 abdomens, legs with necrosis, damaged feelers

http://enenews.com/japan-prof-10x-more-deformed-worms-in-fukushima-town-some-have-2-abdomens-legs-with-necrosis-damaged-feelers/comment-page-1#comment-280017

Published: August 16th, 2012 at 4:38 am ET 
By  

 

Follow-up to: Japan Paper: Malformations in 10% of cotton worms from Fukushima town -Entomologist (PHOTO)

Report from the Hokkaido Shinbun with a summarized translation by Fukushima Diary:

 

“..Prof. Akimoto [of Hokkaido University] collected 200 samples from Japanese elms to find about 10% of them deformed.

Their bodies and the cast-off skins showed their legs had necrosis,or feelers are damaged, and also some of them had 2 abdomens…”

 

Click on links for more

August 16, 2012 Posted by | Uncategorized | Leave a comment

A week of hypocrisy – Japan, USA, Australia

Christina Macpherson’s websites & blogs

 Japan is very quiet on the health effects of Fukushima radiation.  Nuclear lobby writers are out in force – attempting to discredit ionising radiation “low levl” as a cause of cancers and genetic malformations. Indeed they’re still pushing the “hormesis” idea – (“low level” radiation is good for you)   meanwhile scientific findings on butterflies in Japan reveal the harmful effects of low level radiation, that are passed down through generations.

In USA the mainstream media are putting a calm face on the decision by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to halt licensing of nuclear reactors, because – well, a court has ruled that there’s no confidence in the NRC’s Waste Confidence Rule.  That rule has allowed nuclear reactors to be licensed, even though nobody knows what to do with the radioactive wastes.   There is also a calm face on the USA’s current extreme heat wave, which is causing one nuclear reactor after another to slow down , or shut down –   due to problems of hot cooling water.

The Australian government is pretty disgustingly hypocritical over the fate of Australian citizen Julian Assange.  Their two-faced Foreign Minister, Bob Carr, pretends that USA has no intention of extraditing Assange from Sweden, to be tried for espionage. Prime Minister Julia Gillard is now shutting up about it, bust has previously backed USA’s view that Assange (of Wikileaks fame) has been some sort of traitor.

The Australian uranium industry – very much in the doldrums, is to embark on  a “community education” campaign.  Not likely to persuade investors, with Paladin Uranium losing $39 billion in 9 months, recently.

August 16, 2012 Posted by | Christina's notes | Leave a comment

Lest we forget – thermonuclear bombs exploded over the Pacific Ocean

Going Nuclear Over the Pacific , Past Imperfect, Smithsonian.com August 15, 2012“…Fifty years ago this summer there were strange doings in the skies above earth as well…..  But of all the things happening in the skies that summer, nothing would be quite as spectacular, surreal and frightening as the military project code-named Starfish Prime . Just five days after Americans across the country witnessed traditional Fourth of July fireworks displays, the Atomic Energy Commission created the greatest man-made light show in history when it launched a thermonuclear warhead on the nose of a Thor rocket, creating a suborbital nuclear detonation 250 miles above the Pacific Ocean. Continue reading →

August 16, 2012 Posted by | history, Reference | 2 Comments

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