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Japan’s govt to build two new nuclear power plants

JP Gov to restart the construction of 2 nuclear plants by   September 15th, 2012 ·   Japanese government is not going to shut down nuclear plants.

They approved the construction of 2 more nuclear plants in Aomori and Shimane.

On 9/15/2012, Edano, Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry had a meeting with Aomori governor and headmen of local governments in Aomori city and approved the construction and restart of nuclear plants in Oma (Aomori) and Shimane nuclear plant.
It’s unit3 that they are going to restart the construction in Shimane nuclear plant. Oma nuclear plant belongs to J-power (construction progress 37.6%) , Shimane nuclear plant belongs to The Chugoku Electric Power Co.,Inc. (construction progress 93.6%)

Those constructions have been stopped since 311. This will be the first restart of construction of nuclear plants since Fukushima accident.
Japanese government decided on 9/14/2012 to phase out nuclear power completely sometime in the 2030s, approving a “massive” shift in national energy policy 18 months after the Fukushima Daiichi plant disaster spurred strong public opposition to nuclear power in the earthquake-prone nation…… because they are going to allow these newly constructed nuclear plants to run for 40 years, they will be generating power until 2050s, which contradicts 2030 policy.

The construction of Higashi dori nuclear plant in Aomori has also been stopped since 311 as well, which belongs to Tepco. Edano is pending the approval to restart the construction to comment Tepco is not ready to have a discussion about the restart.In total, there are 12 plans to build new nuclear plants in Japan….. http://fukushima-diary.com/2012/09/jp-gov-to-restart-the-construction-of-2-nuclear-plants/

September 17, 2012 Posted by | Japan, politics | Leave a comment

250 arrested in Tuticorin as India’s govt cracks down on anti nuclear movement

Kudankulam protest: 250 anti-nuclear activists arrested Zee News, September 16, 2012, Kudankulam (TN): Around 250 people were arrested in Tuticorin when they attempted to set out on a march to express solidarity with anti-nuclear agitators here who on Sunday buried themselves upto waist in beach sand, in a new form of protest against loading of fuel in Kudankuklam plant.

A ‘solidarity march’ by cultural leaders from Kerala to Kudankulam to express support with the anti-nuclear activists here was also stopped on the state’s border with Tamil Nadu.

Leader of Peoples Movement Against Nuclear Energy (PMANE), which is spearheading the protest here, meanwhile, offered unconditional talks with the central and state governments and said they were ready to give up the agitation if the government assured that fuel would not be loaded for now. ….. Continue reading →

September 17, 2012 Posted by | civil liberties, India, opposition to nuclear | Leave a comment

India: Police block march of peaceful anti nuclear writers and activists

Kerala marchers stopped Deccan Chronicle, September 17, 2012 Thiruvananthapuram | Chennai     The Kerala-Kudankulam march led by writers and social activists on Sunday to express solidarity with the anti-nuclear protests in Kudankulam was blocked by the police near the Kerala-Tamil Nadu border at Inchivila.

Kerala Anti-Nuclear Support Group, which organised the march, then tried to bus the activists to the protest site.

But this attempt was also derailed when the bus was stopped and asked to return by TN police before Kudankulam.

The march, undertaken by over 200 people, was inaugurated by poetess Sugatha Kumari at Parassala. Other noted personalities who took part in the march were: writer Sara Joseph, former diplomat M.K. Bhadrakumar, Latin Diocese Vicar-General Eugene Pereira, social activist B.R.P. Bhaskar, Gandhian P. Gopinathan and former naxallite K. Ajitha…… http://www.deccanchronicle.com/channels/nation/south/kerala-marchers-stopped-454

September 17, 2012 Posted by | civil liberties, India | Leave a comment

Australian Greens urge Prime Minister Gillard to raise human rights issue in India

Senator Scott Ludlam. 16 September 2012. The Australian Greens have urged the Prime Minister to use her impending visit to India to speak out on the ongoing repression of Indian communities opposed to nuclear power.

Massive protests against new reactors in India are adding to the global pressure on the slumping nuclear power industry.

Greens Senator Scott Ludlam said the democratic right to protest was being steamrolled by the Indian police.

“In Koodankulum nuclear reactors are being forced on local residents at gunpoint, and uranium fuel loading is imminent despite 10 safety guidelines having not been met.  Brutal repression has been carried out by the police against tens of thousands of peaceful protestors at the reactor.  Two people have been shot dead by police, most recently Anthony Samy just five days ago.  There have been at least five deaths in the struggles against Koodankulam, Jaitapur (Maharashtra) and Gorakhpur (Haryana) nuclear power plants since 2010.

“In 2011 one of India’s pioneer nuclear scientists and formerly a member of India’s Atomic Energy Commission, Dr MP Parameswaran, said India should suspend its entire nuclear program because of safety risks and the unresolved problem of nuclear waste.

“Earlier this year India was ranked 28th out of 32 countries in terms of the security of their nuclear stockpiles.  Making matters worse, the new Nuclear Safety Regulatory Authority (NSRA) has fewer powers and less independence than the previous Atomic Energy Regulatory Board.  The NSRA is a puppet body: answerable to a handful of government ministers who can issue orders to the body, and sack its members.”

Senator Ludlam will move a motion for the Senate to call on the Prime Minister to make nuclear safety, nuclear proliferation, and the human right to peaceful protest major issues in her October visit to India.

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

AS USA’s nuclear wastes pile up, solutions seem further away

Piling up spent nuclear fuel presents future disposal challenge,Fierce Homeland Security September 16, 2012 | By David Perera Even were the Energy Department to resume this year licensing efforts for Yucca Mountain as a permanent nuclear power waste disposal facility, it would still be 15 years before the site could start accepting spent fuel, says the Government Accountability Office.

By then, about 50,000 metric tons of spent fuel stored roughly equally in wet and dry storage will have accumulated, assuming that no new nuclear power plants open in the interim, according to Nuclear Energy Institute estimates cited by the GAO in an Aug. 15 report  (.pdf) not posted online until Sept. 14……. Continue reading →

September 17, 2012 Posted by | Reference, USA, wastes | Leave a comment

India: opposition to nuclear power despite government repression of protestors

India’s Judiciary creates scam over Kudankulam The Canadian,  17 SEPTEMBER 2012  There is no reason why the judiciary, the conscience of the nation, should willingly play pro-regime roles by opposing people’s and humanity concerns……
as national support for the five-year-long campaign against the Jaitapur plant snowballed. The National Committee in Solidarity with the Jaitapur Struggle – comprising leaders like Prakash Karat, AB Bardhan, Sitaram Yechury and Ram Vilas Paswan, independent experts and intellectuals – trenchantly criticised the project, based on French company Areva’s troubled European Pressurised Reactors (EPRs).

The grounds of protest against the 9,800 MW plant in Maharashtra are somewhat similar to those being echoed in Tamil Nadu. The protestors argue that the plant will damage local ecology, their consent for the plant wasn’t sought and also speak of the obvious fear of how a potential accident at the plant could affect them. While the issue is currently not in the headlines anymore, the agitators in the Ratnagiri district of Maharashtra are no doubt closely following the developments in Kudankulam……
Regime-Judiciary Nexus

When the Madras High court refused to stay the deadly fuelling operation in the nuclear terror plant, the people of Kudankulam and the humanity at large, besieged by nuclear terror operations of state, still had hopes of getting justice from Supreme court but when apex court also sided with the state terror operators and delivered an interim judgment in favour of  state nuclear terror intent against the people, humanity has become shaky, felt betrayed yet again, losing trust  in the judicial ability in justice delivery.  As suggested by the regime and nuclear mafias, the courts have protected the transnational nuclear mafias.
Declining to put on hold for now the loading of fuel rods in one of the two reactors of Kundankulam nuclear power plant in Tamil Nadu, the Supreme Court Thursday Sep 13 said it would hear Sep 20 the plea seeking to restrain the central government.

The apex court’s decision came as hundreds of people from Tamilnadu’s Idinthakarai village, the epicentre of the protests against the Kudankulam Nuclear Power Plant (KNPP), stood in the sea water Thursday to protest moves to load uranium fuel in one of the two reactors.

Justice K. S. Radhakrishnan and Justice Dipak Misra declined to pass any immediate order on a petition seeking to restrain the government from going ahead with the loading of nuclear fuel rods in the reactor of the plant. The court said it would hear Sep 20 the plea seeking to restrain the central government from doing so.

Judiciary mischief is perhaps the worst kind of menace and brute evil. Madras High court seems have created the basis for the Supreme court to promote state nuclear terror agenda. Supreme Court has just said the regime must ensure security and safety of the people and the regime knows it has to just file another affidavit stating that people are safe. In other words, the judiciary has clearly offered the regime and nuclear mafias to ensure safety of the people by killing them so that they need not to live until the nuclear plant blasts.

The nuclear terror project was cleared in haste in violation of the recommendations of an official Task Force, and without even the fig leaf of an Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) report. The NPCIL has refused to furnish to the public the site evaluation and safety analysis reports, although so directed by the Central Information Commission………http://www.agoracosmopolitan.com/news/intrnational/2012/09/17/4465.html

September 17, 2012 Posted by | India, opposition to nuclear | Leave a comment

$352 billion the minimum cost to fix up USA’s Los Alamos nuclear arsenal

A study this summer by the nonpartisan Stimson Center, a Washington think tank, estimated costs would be at least $352 billion over the coming decade to operate and modernize the current arsenal. Others say the figure could be far higher, particularly if the work is delayed even longer.

 Aging U.S. nuclear arsenal slated for costly and long-delayed modernization WP, By Dana Priest,   September 15 The U.S. nuclear arsenal, the most powerful but indiscriminate class of weapons ever created, is set to undergo the costliest overhaul in its history, even as the military faces spending cuts to its conventional arms programs at a time of fiscal crisis.

For two decades, U.S. administrations have confronted the decrepit, neglected state of the aging nuclear weapons complex. Yet officials have repeatedly put off sinking huge sums into projects that receive little public recognition, driving up the costs even further. Now, as the nation struggles to emerge from the worst recession of the postwar era and Congress faces an end-of-year deadline to avoid $1.2 trillion in automatic cuts to the federal budget over 10 years, the Obama administration is overseeing the gargantuan task of modernizing the nuclear arsenal to keep it safe and reliable.

There is no official price tag for the effort to upgrade and maintain the 5,113 warheads in the inventory, to replace old delivery systems and to renovate the aging facilities where nuclear work is performed. Continue reading →

September 17, 2012 Posted by | business and costs, USA, weapons and war | Leave a comment

Japan’s science panel calls for a curb on nuclear waste production

The recommendation said it is essential to set an upper limit on the total amount of radioactive waste and to implement controls to prevent it from increasing without limits. 

Science panel recommends delaying burying radioactive waste http://ajw.asahi.com/article/behind_news/social_affairs/AJ201209120009 September 12, 2012 THE ASAHI SHIMBUN, Jin Nishikawa contributed to this article. Citing the country’s geologically unstable archipelago as a threat, the Science Council of Japan is recommending that the government build temporary storage facilities to hold more than 27,000 cylinders of high-level radioactive waste.

The council on Sept. 11 completed a report that calls for regulating the total amount of radioactive waste from nuclear power plants and storing it temporarily. Continue reading →

September 17, 2012 Posted by | Japan, Reference, wastes | Leave a comment

Solar lighting for Delhi’s historic sites

Delhi’s monuments will be lit by solar energy Zee News, September 16, 2012,  New Delhi: More and more of the capital’s best known monuments may now be illuminated through solarenergy.

Building on the experience gained over the last three years and keen on promoting the use of environment-friendly solar energy, the Delhi government plans to light up more of the capital’s historical sites through cheap and plentiful energy from the sun.

The 13th century Qutub Minar, the 17th century red sandstone Red Fort and the 16th century Humayun’s Tomb – all declared UNESCO World Heritage Sites – are among the six sites where the Delhi government plans to install solar power plants to replace conventional sources of electricity. Continue reading →

September 17, 2012 Posted by | decentralised, India | Leave a comment

Youtube video – fake worker documents at Fukushima

Watch: Fukushima worker films at plant — I was asked to fake documents — Underage people employed (VIDEO)http://enenews.com/watch-fukushima-worker-films-plant-asked-fake-documents-underage-workers-employed-video September 14th, 2012 By ENENews Source: 8bitnews Translation: mina564da 
Date Filmed: June 18, 2012(?) Date Published: Sept 11, 2012

I was employed by a subcontractor of Tepco.

I was asked to write a fake CV by the contracting company.

I was told my duty was to be logistical support. But the reality was to work at the highly radioactive area (over 1 milliSv/hr).

Most of the workers come from all over Japan as a day laborer.

Underage workers (18 & 19 years old) are also employed.

These are just ordinary people without good knowledge of radiation. The fake CV establishes them as an experienced worker and they are sent to the Fuksuhima Daiichi NPP.

September 17, 2012 Posted by | Fukushima 2012, Japan, Resources -audiovicual, secrets,lies and civil liberties | Leave a comment

Comparing the policies of Barack Obama, Mitt Romney, and Jill Stein

 Both the Obama and Romney campaigns are enthusiastically supportive of nuclear power, with Obama touting the licensing of the first new nuclear power plant in decades, and Romney vowing to speed up licensing of new nuclear power plants.

Jill Stein opposes the use of nuclear power.

Stein gets the nod on renewables as well.

Obama, Romney, or Stein: Who Has the Greenest Energy Policy? Tree Hugger, Mat McDermott, September 7, 2012 There may be a stark difference between Obama and Romney in their climate change rhetoric (let’s turn a blind eye for a second to climate change action), but what about on energy policy?

After all, in different degrees both Obama and Romney pay lip service to supporting both fossil fuels and renewable energy. And what about Dr Jill Stein, the presidential candidate from the Green Party?

Let’s take a quick look at several key energy issues and what Obama, Romney and Stein propose doing about it. Continue reading →

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

Japan insurance company won’t cover damage caused by nuclear fuel material

Insurance company “no coverage for damage caused by nuclear fuel material” http://fukushima-diary.com/2012/09/insurance-company-no-coverage-for-damage-caused-by-nuclear-fuel-material/  by Mochizuki   September 15th, 2012 · 

 Insurance company or life insurance company writes on instruction that they won’t cover damage from nuclear fuel material recently.

A Japanese posted tweeted like this below,

<Translate>

Recently insurance company adds this item on their instruction.

“We won’t pay insurance for the damage caused by nuclear fuel material.”

<End>

We need to verify how it was before 311.

September 17, 2012 Posted by | business and costs, Japan | Leave a comment

Peaceful anti nuclear protestors from Kerala stopped by large police presence at border

The activists, writers and poets from Kerala, including writers Sugathakumari and Sara Joseph, social activist K Ajitha, environmental activist C R Neelakantan had sought permission from the Kerala police to take out a march from Parasalai to Idinthakarai, but were denied permission.

KKNPP: Kerala activists try to enter TN  http://timesofindia indiatimes.com/city/madurai/KKNPP-Kerala-activists-try-to-enter-TN/articleshow/16429530.cms  TNN | Sep 17, 2012, TIRUNELVELI: A group of activists from Kerala, who took out a march to Idinthakarai were prevented from entering the Tamil Nadu border at Kaliyakkavilai in Kanyakumari district on Sunday. Continue reading →

September 17, 2012 Posted by | civil liberties, India | Leave a comment

Kolkata’s solar energy policies going ahead

Solar heaters a must for Kolkata highrises Suman Chakraborti, TNN | Sep 17, 2012, KOLKATA: Civic bodies of Kolkata, Howrah, Durgapur and Siliguri are bringing some provisions in the building by-laws, which will make installation of solar water heaters in all multi storied commercial establishments, including hospitals and five-star hotels, mandatory.that the state government came out with earlier this year.

Representatives from the ministry of new and renewable energy (MNRE) and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) are coming to the city on September 29 to meet the officials of these four civic bodies. where this matter will be looked into.

Officials of the New Town Kolkata Development Authority (NKDA) and West Bengal Renewable Energy Development Agency (WBREDA) will also attend the meeting.

It may be noted that the state has already come out with the renewable energy policy this year. …. http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/kolkata/Solar-heaters-a-must-for-Kolkata-highrises/articleshow/16428464.cms

September 17, 2012 Posted by | India, renewable | Leave a comment

Inadequate safety plans for Kudankulam nuclear reactors

India’s Judiciary creates scam over Kudankulam The Canadian,  17 SEPTEMBER 2012“……In the name of nation and national interests they protect the rich and multinationals and want the common people also support that. Recent disclosures from a special official safety review on all Russian reactor designs reveal their several generic flaws, including inadequate emergency cooling, poor evacuation procedures, and non-factoring of earthquake hazards. The Kudankulam reactors lack an independent freshwater source, critical to cooling them in emergencies. They are probably the world’s only nuclear reactors dependent on unreliable seawater desalination, which can fail and has no backup. The Atomic Energy Regulatory Board (AERB) approved the fuel-loading despite all this and without the mandatory emergency evacuation drill in a 16-km radius. AERB approval is NPCIL’s clinching justification for fuel-loading.  The AERB “has no rule-making powers.” It never fulfilled the mandate to prepare an overall nuclear and radiation safety policy.

It has failed to develop as many as 27 of the 168 Standards, Codes and Guides it itself termed essential. It has no role in radiological surveillance and monitoring workers’ health. It doesn’t directly oversee on-site emergency drills. The AERB doesn’t even possess a full inventory of nuclear materials and radiation sources.  It has no framework for decommissioning nuclear plants…….  http://www.agoracosmopolitan.com/news/intrnational/2012/09/17/4465.html

September 17, 2012 Posted by | India, safety | Leave a comment

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