2012 September 03 « nuclear-news

Political problems with China’s involvement in building UK’s nuclear reactors

any Chinese involvement in EDF’s new nuclear plans would raise concerns on a number of fronts and could even require a direct UK government involvement through some kind of golden share.

China could take key role in UK nuclear infrastructure through Hinkley Point
• EDF in talks with China to share £10bn reactor costs
• French company’s debt levels rocket to £30bn
• Security concerns raise possibility of government taking ‘golden
share’ in development Terry Macalister guardian.co.uk, 2 September 2012 EDF has been holding talks with China about sharing the soaring cost of building £10bn worth of new reactors at Hinkley Point, Somerset.

The move underlines growing pressure on the French company’s internal finances and has reignited a fractious debate about Communist state-run businesses playing a critical role in sensitive western energy infrastructure.

The overtures to Beijing’s state corporations – as well as approaches to Middle Eastern sovereign wealth funds – come as EDF faces growing investment demands in France and the UK that have sent debt levels rocketing to €39.7bn (£30bn)…… Continue reading →

September 3, 2012 Posted by Christina Macpherson | politics, UK | Leave a comment

Non aligned Nations endorse Iran’s nuclear power project

NAM nations back Iran’s nuclear bid Times of India Thomas Erdbrink, NYT News Service | Sep 2, 2012, TEHRAN: The 120-nation Nonaligned Movement handed its host Iran a diplomatic victory on Friday, unanimously decreeing support for the disputed Iranian nuclear energy programme and criticizing the US-led attempt to isolate and punish Iran with unilateral economic sanctions.

But the group’s communique, issued by Iranian state news media at the end of its annual meeting, omitted any mention of support for Syria, Iran’s vital Middle East ally, which appeared to reflect a view among many members that the Syrian government’s attempt to crush the uprising there was indefensible…..
The Tehran Declaration document not only emphasizes Iran’s right to peaceful nuclear energy but acknowledges the right to ownership of a full nuclear fuel cycle, which means uranium enrichment – a matter of deep dispute. Continue reading →

September 3, 2012 Posted by Christina Macpherson | Iran, politics international | 1 Comment

75% drop in cost of solar photovoltaic energy with new technology

Now, technology to reduce cost of solar energy by 75% Business Line, WASHINGTON, SEPT 2: Scientists have developed a new technology which they claim could make production of solar energy cheaper by 75 per cent, and thus speed-up its market adoption. Continue reading →

September 3, 2012 Posted by Christina Macpherson | 2 WORLD, renewable | Leave a comment

UK puts Assange’s lawyer on ‘inhibited person list’

Lawyer for Assange detained at Heathrow and told she was on a ‘secret watch list’ Daily Mail, By ABUL TAHER, 1 September 2012 A lawyer acting for WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange says she was stopped at Heathrow and told that she was on a secret watch-list and required special clearance before she could board her plane.

Australian Jennifer Robinson said she was left stunned after being told by an airline crew that she was on an ‘inhibited person list’ that means she must have ‘done something controversial’.

Ms Robinson said that she could not understand why she was on the list as she had never done anything controversial or criminal. She had only represented clients around the world, one of whom was Mr Assange….. Ms Robinson, 31, said: ‘This incident raises so many questions.
‘Why would I need clearance to travel to my own country? So far I have not had a proper explanation.’
The human rights lawyer is a member of Mr Assange’s legal team, which has been fighting his extradition to Sweden on alleged sexual assault offences.
She was also his legal adviser when WikiLeaks published US military documents as well as diplomatic cables from American embassies. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2197003/Lawyer-Assange-detained-Heathrow-told-secret-watch-list.html#ixzz25RNRNfJl

September 3, 2012 Posted by Christina Macpherson | civil liberties, UK | 1 Comment

Dependence on fossil fuels leads us toward a hostile climate

Paul Fieber: Dependence on fossil fuels not the answer http://host.madison.com/news/opinion/mailbag/paul-fieber-dependence-on-fossil-fuels-not-the-answer/article_a1fd743e-f3c7-11e1-b413-0019bb2963f4.html#ixzz25R89T9rx
2 Sept 12, Should America make reducing oil imports a top goal and work hard to achieve it?
I don’t think oil independence is the answer. A switch to domestic sources trashes our environment but doesn’t reduce carbon emissions.
With 5 percent of the world’s people, the United States is already spewing about 20 percent of the world’s carbon dioxide.

We must listen to established climate scientists who agree that our current path leads to an incredibly hostile and deadly planet, with a likely temperature increase of 11 degrees F through this century.

Our top goals should be energy efficiency, conservation and ending barriers to broad use of proven solar and wind technologies. We should leave most of the fossil fuel in the ground.

To help support sustainable energy goals, we can recapture and reinvest the billions in subsidies flowing to the global fossil fuel industry. In the United States alone, between 2005 and 2010, five major oil companies pocketed $4 billion a year in tax subsidies. This is outrageous.

But there’s good news, too. European nations such as Denmark and Germany use renewable energy for much of their electricity. According to the New York Times, San Francisco aims to be 100 percent renewable by 2020. These and other worldwide efforts led Canadian activist and author Naomi Klein to say the world seems to have reached “a no kidding around moment.” Let’s do it!

September 3, 2012 Posted by Christina Macpherson | general | Leave a comment

Aging activists defending the planet against aging nuclear plants

Civil disobedience BY KENNETTE BENEDICT | 9 AUGUST 2012″……….I was struck by the image of three white-haired activists from a movement that began in the early 1980s at the height of the Cold War. Some might find it odd that an 82-year-old nun and her companions — aged 63 and 57 — are protesting nuclear weapons. In a way, though, the weapons themselves are just as odd these days. They are aging, too. But, unlike the protesters, nuclear weapons are no longer relevant, and they need to be quietly laid to rest. Instead of creating new materials to renovate old warheads, it is time to let them go gently into that good night. In other words, it is time for nuclear weapons to retire and, in time, to be buried.

And who better to bury them than those who grew up with them? Aging baby-boomers are also Cold War babies. We remember civil defense drills in school, the tense days of the Cuban Missile Crisis, nuclear bomb shelters, and the fear of a nuclear war from which no one could hide. We still have memories that stir horror and a sense of helplessness.

Before we too go gently into that good night, perhaps Cold War boomers should make sure nuclear weapons go with us to the grave. For those of us in our 60s and 70s, still active and with time on our hands, the abolition of nuclear weapons is a worthy goal. We claim to have ended the Vietnam War with our protests and our marches. Perhaps we have one last act of social justice in us. Perhaps we could bring about the end of nuclear weapons and remove the prospect of nuclear war for our children and grandchildren. http://www.thebulletin.org/web-edition/columnists/kennette-benedict/civil-disobedience

September 3, 2012 Posted by Christina Macpherson | general | Leave a comment

“multiple system failures on many levels” US nuclear weapons plant safety audit

Weapons Plant Security Issues Are Described in U.S. Audit, NYT, By MATTHEW L. WALD, August 31, 2012 WASHINGTON — The contractors in charge of guarding the national stockpile of bomb-grade uranium in Tennessee knew well before an 82-year-old nun and two other pacifists broke through three barriers this summer that a lot of the security equipment was broken, and government managers knew it too, according to an internal audit of Energy Department operations at the weapons facility. The inspector general’s investigation found “troubling displays of ineptitude.” The intruders used ordinary bolt cutters to penetrate as far as the uranium storage building before dawn on July 28, and then went undiscovered until they approached an officer in his vehicle and surrendered, according to the audit. The officer failed to draw his gun or even secure his gun from seizure, “and permitted the trespassers to roam about and retrieve various items from backpacks they had apparently brought into the area,” the report said.

The three antiwar protesters — Sister Megan Gillespie Rice, of Las Vegas; Michael R. Walli, 63, of Washington; and Gregory I. Boertje-Obed, 57, of Duluth, Minn. — have been charged with felonies in connection with damage to the building. They said they had brought bread and candles for a Christian ritual.

The guard told The Knoxville News that he was being used as a scapegoat, and that it was obvious that the trio posed no threat.

Internal communications at the weapons plant, Y-12, near Oak Ridge, Tenn., were generally so poor that security officers told the auditors that it was not unusual for roofers or utility repair personnel to show up unannounced, and that when they heard the trespassers banging on the exterior wall of the storage building with hammers, they assumed it was maintenance workers.

The Energy Department’s inspector general, Gregory H. Friedman, said in the report that the episode showed “multiple system failures on many levels.”…. http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/01/science/earth/audit-finds-security-lapses-at-y-12-uranium-storage-plant.html?_r=1&smid=fb-share

September 3, 2012 Posted by Christina Macpherson | safety, USA | Leave a comment

A letter to President Putin from Kumi Naidoo (Greenpeace)

http://www.greenpeace.org/international/en/news/Blogs/makingwaves/a-letter-to-president-putin/blog/41950/

Blogpost by Kumi Naidoo – August 30, 2012

[…]

Dear Mr. President,

I write these lines to you on board the Greenpeace vessel Arctic Sunrise, as we leave the Russian economic zone waters north of the Kola Peninsula. You may be aware that for the last 5 days people from our ship were engaging in a peaceful protest against the planned start up of
drilling for oil on the Russian Arctic shelf by Gazprom’s Prirazlomnaya platform. I want to personally assure you that these protests were in no way directed against the interests of Russia, of people working on the platform, or even against the company of Gazprom. These protests are
part of a global campaign that we have been carrying out for a number of years, protesting against oil drilling in the Arctic Ocean, from Greenland to Alaska.

Mr. President. It is my deeply held conviction that oil production in the Arctic is counter to the environmental and economic security of Russia. Two weeks ago I had the privilege of meeting with your minister of Environment and Natural Resources, Mr Donskoy. I presented him the
findings of the group of respected Russian scientists, who concluded that oil production even on a comparatively near- shore platform such as Prirazlomnaya, carries a high risk of severe contamination of the fragile Arctic marine and coastal environment, while the ability to clean up
such a spill is extremely low, due to the climactic and geographic conditions of the region.

Mr. President, I would like to emphasize again, that this is not unique to Russia. Similar analyses have yielded similar results for oil production on the Greenlandic and US Arctic shelves.

The Minister also received from us a report presented earlier this year which analyses the economic feasibility of oil production on the Arctic shelf. It is clear that the production costs are so high as to make the venture unprofitable. Indeed, instead of contributing positively to the Russian economy, it is more likely to become a drain on Federal, and perhaps regional budgets.

Ironically, we are just now passing close to the Shtokman gas field – a project which has now hit what seems to be a final obstacle and is in the process of dissolution, testifying its economic unfeasibility.

Mr. President I want to be very clear, we are not calling for stopping the use of petroleum products today. However it is clear that global oil production will not be able to be maintained much longer at the current level. We will be forced to develop and implement alternative, sustainable sources of energy. Russia possesses an immense wealth of such sources – from wind and solar to biomass and geothermal, as well as a huge potential for energy conservation which can provide cheaper and quicker energy equivalents than it planned to obtain in the Arctic offshore – Russia is capable to become the LEADING country in the world for developing clean energy for the future.

Mr. President, I am deeply concerned that the decision to develop oil fields on the Arctic shelf risks devastating the environment, while closing the channels of investment towards renewable energysources. I completely support the sentiment you expressed at the congress of the All-Russian public organization “Business Russia” when you said: “It is obvious for us that the ambitious goals that we set for ourselves can only be achieved within the framework of a new model of economic growth, whose driver will be not the resource complex, but a powerful high
technology-based business…”

Opening extremely expensive oil fields in Arctic offshore doesn’t help to stop the dependence of Russian national budget on oil and gas and on volatile oil and gas prices on the international market.

Mr. President, one other aspect needs to be mentioned. The climate crisis that the scientific community has been warning about for years is upon us. The data released 3 days ago by scientists from the US National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC) clearly shows that the extent of the Arctic ice cover is at its all-time minimum – frightening proof of the fact that the geophysical profile of our planet is undergoing rapid and violent changes, which threaten all of our futures, and indeed are already causing humanitarian catastrophes, both in my homeland, where droughts are devastating the African continent, as well as in yours, Mr. President, where we witnessed widespread forest fires two years ago. I am sure you agree with me, Mr. President, that it is not fair, that people of the developing world who have contributed least to carbon emissions are the ones that are already paying the first and most brutal impacts of climate change.

Part of the mission of Greenpeace is to bring to the public eye the destruction that our planet is suffering. Our ship will now proceed to the edge of the Arctic ice north of the Norwegian coast where together with representatives of the scientific community and representatives of the global public we will document and bear witness to the reality of the disappearing of the Earth’s ice shield.

Mr. President, I am reminded of your words in the interview to a Canadian newspaper in 2000. You said “I’ve always admired people who devote their lives to environmental problems, I’ve watched with astonishment as a group of people on a little boat oppose a military or industrial ship. I must say it inspires only sympathy.” Mr. President, I hope that you understand that our protest at Prirazlomnaya was done with the spirit of taking personal action that you say you admire. In the same spirit I would like to extend an invitation to you. I would be honored if you joined us on board the Arctic Sunrise in the upcoming trip to the retreating edge of the Arctic ice, so you could see for yourself the beauty of this remarkable region, the risk that it is exposed to, and hopefully be inspired to use your position to protect it against destruction.

We need global leadership to ensure that the Arctic is declared a global sanctuary and I appeal to you to step forward to provide it.

With deep respect,

Kumi Naidoo

Executive Director Greenpeace International

[…]

Blog post by: Kumi Naidoo

Born in 1965 and hailing from South Africa, Kumi Naidoo has been Greenpeace’s International Executive Director since November 2009.

Follow Kumi on Facebook at: http://www.facebook.com/NaidooKumi

All blogposts by Kumi Naidoo

And this link to a possible Scandinavia/Russo nuclear tragedy in the Arctic.. the case of the missing and badly corroded by now Russian nuclear submarine et al.