The nuclear week that was
Christina Macpherson’s websites & blogs
Japan Business prioritised above safety: Japan caves in to global nuclear Establishment, and backs away from its zero nuclear power commitment. Japan sets up a new Nuclear Regulation Authority which has a daunting, years long, task to develop safety rules. News on the environmental/health effects of Fukushima continue to filter out. Japan to renew building of two new nuclear reactors.
India’s Kudankulam anti nuclear movement widens to a national movement, despite the government’s continued repression of anti nuclear activists.
NIMBY in Britain – Not in My Backyard, say UK Councils about nuclear waste burial, (even if it is the least worst way to deal with UK’s pile of plutonium.) New nuclear looking pretty much impossible in UK, as even the Supporters of Nuclear Energy are rejecting the government’s plan.
France shutting down Fessenheim, its oldest nuclear reactor- to cries of rage from EDF.
Choruses of pro nuclear hype from vested interests around the world – promoting continuance of nuclear power in Japan, exalting all the nuclear dream factory’s latest illusions – especially thorium as a nuclear fuel. Meanwhile many sources explain the flaws in thorium reactors – not least of which is their lack of economic viability.
Climate change – reaching a crisis point, with summer sea ice at its lowest level ever. Nuclear reactors in USA continue to be affected by heat – e.g Vermont Yankee causing heat pollution in the Connecticut River .
USA government minimised health risks from Fukushima radiation
Impact to US West Coast from Fukushima disaster likely larger than anticipated, several reports indicate, Bellona 21 Sept 12, “…..US government environmental agencies remain mum In the immediate aftermath of the Fukushima accident, the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) refused to answer questions or to explain the exact location and number of monitors, or the levels of radiation, if any, being recorded at existing monitors in California, the San Jose Mercury News reported.
On March 21, 2011, the EPA pulled 8 of 18 air monitors in California, Oregon and Washington state that track radiation from Japan’s nuclear reactors out of service for “quality reviews.”
By April, 2011 the EPA had temporarily raised limits for radiation exposure by rewriting its Protective Action Guides (PAGs) to radically increase the allowable levels of iodine-131 by 3,000 times, a 1,000-fold hike for exposure to strontium-90, and a 25,000-fold increase in exposure limits to radioactive Nikel-63.
The EU followed suit by implementing an “emergency” order without informing the public that increased the amount of radiation in food by up to 20 times previous food standards, according to Kopp Online and Xander News. According to EU bylaws, radiation limits may be raised during a nuclear emergency to prevent food shortages.
How will longer term radiation exposure affect the US Pacific Coast?
David Brenner, a professor of radiation biophysics and the director of the Center for Radiological Research at Columbia University Medical Center wrote in the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists in June that the extra individual risks of cancer from long term exposure to radionuclides from Fukushima will be small.
But he added that when the problem is examined not from a perspective of individuals at risk, but rather that of the entire population, the extra risk becomes far more significant.
“A tiny extra risk to a few people is one thing. But here we have a potential tiny extra risk to millions or even billions of people,” he wrote. “Think of buying a lottery ticket — just like the millions of other people who buy a ticket, your chances of winning are miniscule. Yet among these millions of lottery players, a few people will certainly win; we just can’t predict who they will be.” http://www.bellona.org/articles/articles_2012/fukushima-westcoast-radiation
Radiation caused cancer hit US movie stars
“The connection between fallout radiation and cancer in individual cases has been practically impossible to prove conclusively. But in a group this size you’d expect only 30-some cancers to develop. With 91, I think the tie-in to their exposure on the set of The Conqueror would hold up even in a court of law.”
FROM PEOPLE MAGAZINE:Occupy the NRC 21 Sept 12, Few moviegoers remember The Conqueror, a sappy 1956 film about a love affair between Genghis Khan and a beautiful captive princess. But to the families of its stars, John Wayne and Susan Hayward, and of its director-producer, Dick Powell, memories of The Conqueror have begun to acquire nightmarish clarity.
The movie was shot from June through August 1954 among the scenic red bluffs and white dunes near Saint George, Utah, an area chosen by Powell for its similarity to the central Asian steppes. At the time it did not seem significant that Saint George was only 137 miles from the atomic testing range at Yucca Flat, Nev.; the federal government, after all, was constantly reassuring local residents back then that the bomb tests posed no health hazard. Now, 17 years after aboveground nuclear tests were outlawed, Saint George is plagued by an extraordinarily high rate of cancer (PEOPLE, Oct. 1, 1979)—and the illustrious alumni of The Conqueror and their offspring are wondering whether their own grim medical histories are more than an uncommon run of bad luck. Continue reading
Business ahead of safety, as Japan waters down its nuclear power phaseout
Business leaders praised the Cabinet’s perceived backpedaling
Japan Nuclear Phase-Out Plan Falls Apart HUFFINGTON POST, By MARI YAMAGUCHI 09/19/12 TOKYO — Japan’s Cabinet stopped short of a commitment Wednesday to phase out nuclear power by 2040, backtracking from an advisory panel’s recommendation in the face of opposition from pro-nuclear businesses and groups.
The decision came on the same day that Japan launched a new nuclear regulatory body to replace an agency whose links to the nuclear industry reportedly contributed to last year’s disaster at the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant. Continue reading
Daunting tasks for Japan’s new Nuclear Regulation Authority
Nuclear regulatory body faces 
mountain of urgent tasks http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/dy/national/T120920003922.htm Koichi Yasuda / Yomiuri Shimbun 21 Sept 12, Five members of the new nuclear regulatory commission, headed by Shunichi Tanaka, showed strong determination to ensure the safety of the nation’s nuclear facilities and restore public confidence, based on lessons learned from the crisis at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear
power plant.
However, the Nuclear Regulation Authority faces a growing number of urgent tasks, including establishing new regulations for nuclear power generation.
The commission must first determine how to evaluate stress tests that have served as a tentative yardstick for restarting reactors in the aftermath of last year’s disaster.
It must also decide what requirements need to be met to allow nuclear reactors to operate more than 40 years–which would be an exception to the government’s new energy strategy announced earlier this month.
It remains to be seen how the commission will conduct research on active faults under nuclear power plants nationwide.
Lastly, it also needs to introduce mandatory countermeasures for severe accidents, including reactor meltdowns, as well as expand disaster preparedness zones around nuclear plants. The fact that the commission was launched with members who were not approved by the Diet has added to these concerns.
Former Nuclear Safety Commission Chairman Shojiro Matsuura, 76, said establishing the above rules is “essentially a job that would take years for specialists to accomplish.
“I’m worried whether [the commission] will be able to tackle the problems without support of both the ruling and opposition parties,” he said.
Considering the head of the new commission will be given greater command authority during emergencies, Matsuura’s concern is reasonable.
The new commission, which has been granted a high level of independence, must pursue safety improvements at nuclear power plants from scientific and technological viewpoints, and keep a distance from political and economic concerns. The public will closely watch its
every action.
‘Not In My Backyard’ say UK Councils about nuclear waste plan
Romney Marsh nuclear waste storage plant plan rejected, BBC News, 20 Sept 12 The facility would have had nuclear waste underground with research facilities at ground level Plans to build a nuclear waste storage facility on Romney Marsh in Kent have been thrown out by Shepway council. The final decision was taken by Conservative council leader Robert Bliss after councillors voted against the proposals on Wednesday.
The issue had split residents with 63% of people rejecting it in a survey.
Councillors voted 21 to 13 against formally expressing interest in the government’s facility for the geological disposal of nuclear waste……
The public gallery was packed with residents opposed to the scheme as the full council debated the waste plant on Wednesday evening.
Lydd Conservative councillor Victoria Dawson said members had been assured the proposal would not go ahead if the community was againstit….. Kent County Council and neighbouring East Sussex County Council both opposed the plan.
The area is the site of Dungeness nuclear power station, where Dungeness A is being decommissioned and Dungeness B is due to stop generating power in 2018 or 2023.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-kent-19656382
Fukushima: genetic effects the same as those in Chernobyl
Wertelecki: There’s a team of experts on birds and ornithology form France, very distinguished Danish ornithologist who found in Chernobyl area very, very major disturbing findings that exactly the same is happening in Fukushima.
In other words these birds cannot migrate because they become exhausted… they find microcephaly just like we do, they find all kind of instability like random spotted changes to fur, which are local mutations of course on so on and so on.
AUDIO Top Genetics Expert: Japan’s path closely resembles Chernobyl’s — “Very, very major disturbing findings” (VIDEO) http://enenews.com/top-genetics-expert-japans-path-closely-resembles-chernobyls-very-very-major-disturbing-findings-audio September 18th, 2012 By ENENews
Title: Dr. Wladimir Wertelecki on birth defects caused by Chernobyl and how nuclear power devastates human health Source: If You Love This Planet Radio with Dr. Helen Caldicott Date: Sept 14, 2012 Continue reading
Radioactive murder of Litvinenko – a State sponsored crime?
Was Alexander Litvinenko killed by ‘state-sponsored nuclear terrorism’? The Telegraph A senior judge will examine whether Russia ordered the murder of dissident Alexander Litvinenko in an act of “state-sponsored nuclear terrorism”, his inquest heard. By Tom Whitehead, Security Editor 20 Sep 2012
The former KGB agent died from the radioactive poison polonium-210 after allegedly meeting former security colleagues in London in 2006. Allegations that the Russian authorities ordered and directed his death will now form a key part of the inquest, Sir Robert Owen, the High Court judge leading it, signalled.
Lawyers for Mr Litvinenko’s widow, Marina, said if the claims were substantiated, it meant “state-sponsored nuclear terrorism on the streets of London”.
It emerged one of the main suspects in the death, Andrei Lugovoi, could give evidence via video link from Russia, where he is resisting an extradition request.
However, details of a police investigation in to whether Mr Litvinenko, who fled to the UK in 2000, had been in regular contact with the British spy agencies while here will be kept a secret.
Mr Litvinenko, 43, was allegedly poisoned while drinking tea during a meeting with former KGB contacts at the Millennium Hotel in Grosvenor Square in November 2006. He died three weeks later in University College Hospital……
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/russia/9555262/Was-Alexander-Litvinenko-killed-by-state-sponsored-nuclear-terrorism.html
Key indicators show the decline of the nuclear industry
Campaign Against Nuclear Waste in Namibia (CANWIN) http://www.facebook.com/CANWIN2 The market niche that nuclear power once held is disappearing. The key nuclear indicators—including the number of operating reactors, installed capacity, power generation, and share of total electricity generation—all show that the global nuclear industry is in decline. In 2012, nuclear power’s competitors—most notably, wind and solar generation—are rapidly gaining market share as long lead times, construction delays, cost overruns, and safety concerns have combined to make nuclear power a risky investment that the markets are increasingly unwilling to make. To renew the aging world nuclear fleet, nuclear utilities would need to surmount a number of major problems, including a short-term manufacturing bottleneck, a shortage of skilled workers, regulatory uncertainty, a skeptical financial sector, and negative public opinion. The aftermath of the Fukushima disaster and the world economic crisis have only exacerbated these problems. The authors write that a realistic scenario that leads to an increase in nuclear’s share of the world’s electricity is hard to imagine.
San Francisco – pay a little more for 100% renewable energy?
San Francisco’s 100% renewable energy plan, Smart Planet, By Tyler Falk | September 20, 2012, San Francisco is one step closer to offering residents the option to switch to 100 percent renewable energy after the city’s Board of Supervisors voted 8-3 in favor of the program that would lead to significant cuts in carbon emissions.
CleanPowerSF , a $19.5 million program run by Shell Energy North America, will automatically opt-in half of San Francisco residents and then give them the option to opt-out. It’s a roundabout way of giving people choice, but the five-year program will need 90,000 of 375,000 residents to make the switch to make the program worthwhile.
If the city is successful at getting residents to buy into the program (and stick with it) CleanPowerSF could do more than previous efforts to reduce carbon emissions. According to the city, it would see a cut 10 times greater than the amount the city has already cut.
The program will also provide competition to Pacific Gas and Electric Company, which currently operates utilities in San Francisco. The city is able to do this because of a 2002 state law that allows municipalities to choose their electricity provider. A community-choice aggregation system, as it’s called, is also available in Marion, County California.
But choice and carbon emissions reductions will come at a price. Residents who stay in the program will see their utility bill rise by $9 a month while the commercial increase will be about $18 a month. If customers decide that’s too much then San Francisco could owe Shell as much as $15 million. If residents are willing to pay more for green power, the city will profit and use the money to build city-owned renewable energy facilities.
It’s a risk the city seems willing to take….. http://www.smartplanet.com/blog/bulletin/san-franciscos-100-renewable-energy-plan/658
Radioactive air, water, marine life, debris from Fukushima to USA West Coast
reports of radioactive air, water, marine life, and weather reaching the US Pacific Coast in such significant quantities
Impact to US West Coast from Fukushima disaster likely larger than anticipated, several reports indicate, Bellona 21 Sept 12, Part of: Nuclear meltdown in Japan The massive release of anthropogenic – or non-naturally occurring radionuclides such as cesium 137 and cesium 134 – by the meltdowns and explosions that rocked Fukushima Daiichi occurred in the five days following the beginning of the accident, according to a new report. www.greenpeace.org
Non-naturally occurring radionuclides from the Fukushima-Daiichi nuclear power plant’s triple meltdown last year radioactively contaminated the entire northern hemisphere within days and the US west coast bore a significant brunt of so called hot particles, an independent scientific paper released yesterday claims. Charles Digges, 19/09-2012
US government environmental monitoring agencies have either declared as safe, refused to comment on, or – say several independent researchers – vastly understated what impacts, if any, this could have for America’s western coastal population. Significant omissions in data reporting and hobbling of radioactive monitoring systems, say many, make it seem unlikely that hard government facts will be forthcoming to support evidence presented by independent researchers. Continue reading
Sea ice at record low – climate change nears crisis point
What the scientific community understands is that Arctic ice is melting at an accelerated rate — and that humans play a role in these changes.
includes VIDEO Arctic Sea Ice Levels Hit Record Low, Scientists Say We’re ‘Running Out Of Time’, HUFFINGTON POST Joanna Zelman James Gerken
09/19/2012 As Arctic sea ice levels hit a new record low this month, scientists and activists gathered to discuss how to bridge the gap between scientific facts and the public’s limited understanding that we are, in their words, “really running out of time.”
The National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC) released preliminary findings Wednesday suggesting that on Sept. 16, Arctic ice covered just 1.32 million square miles — the lowest extent ever recorded. This minimum is 49 percent below the 1979 average, when satellite records began. Continue reading
Significant increase in ionising radiation around Tokyo
Japan Scientists: Radiation dose has been “significantly increased” around Tokyo metropolitan area after Fukushima http://enenews.com/japan-scientists-radiation-dose-has-been-significantly-increased-around-tokyo-metropolitan-area-after-fukushima
September 19th, 2012
By ENENews Title: MEASURES AGAINST INCREASED ENVIRONMENTAL RADIATION DOSE BY THE TEPCO FUKUSHIMA DAI-ICHI NPP ACCIDENT IN SOME LOCAL GOVERNMENTS IN THE TOKYO METROPOLITAN AREA
Source: Radiation Protection Dosimetry (Oxford Journals)
Author: Iimoto T, Fujii H, Oda S, Nakamura T, Hayashi R, Kuroda R, Furusawa M, Umekage T, Ohkubo Y.
Date: 2012 Aug 26
Abstract The accident of the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant of Tokyo Electric Power Cooperation (TEPCO) after the great east Japan earthquake (11 March 2011) elevated the background level of environmental radiation in Eastern Japan.
Around the Tokyo metropolitan area, especially around Kashiwa and Nagareyama cities, the ambient dose equivalent rate has been significantly increased after the accident. Responding to strong requests from citizens, the local governments started to monitor the ambient dose equivalent rate precisely and officially, about 3 months after the accident had occurred. The two cities in cooperation with each other also organised a local forum supported by three radiation specialists.
In this article, the activities of the local governments are introduced, with main focus on radiation monitoring and measurements. Topics are standardisation of environmental radiation measurements for ambient dose rate, dose mapping activity, investigation of foodstuff and drinking water, lending survey meters to citizens, etc. Based on the data and facts mainly gained by radiation monitoring, risk management and relating activity have been organised. ‘Small consultation meetings in kindergartens’, ‘health consultation service for citizens’, ‘education meeting on radiation protection for teachers, medical staffs, local government staffs, and leaders of active volunteer parties’ and ‘decontamination activity’, etc. are present key activities of the risk management and restoration around the Tokyo metropolitan area.
Japan’s Nuclear Dilemma
Nuclear or not to nuclear: Japan struggles with the question Guardian By Mark Halper | September 20, 2012, they say a week is a long time in politics. Make that 5 days.
That’s how long it took the Japanese government to back off its statement last Friday that it would completely phase out nuclear power by 2040.
“We are going to begin an extremely difficult challenge,” declared Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda in announcing the plan as reported by The Guardian newspaper on Sept. 14 . ”No matter how diffiicult it is, we can no longer put it off.”
Well, it seems there’s extremely difficult, and then there’s really, really extremely difficult. By yesterday, the language from Tokyo had transformed from bold determination into sheepish second thoughts. “Japan has effectively abandoned a commitment to end its reliance on nuclear power by 2040,” The Guardian wrote . The about face came as Japan’s Cabinet “gave only a vague endorsement” of a report that provided the basis for last Friday’s no-more-nukes declaration.
The report had called for renewable energy like wind and solar to comprise 30 percent of the country’s energy mix – the same proportion that nuclear had contributed prior to shut downs following the Fukushima meltdowns last year, and an eightfold increase from 2010 renewables levels. The plan also relied on sustainable fossil fuel technologies, professing that, “We will launch all possible policy measures to achieve a nuclear-free society by the 2030s.”
But as The Guardian noted, the Cabinet’s tepid endorsement yesterday “dropped any mention of plans to complete the phase-out some time in the 2030s.”….. The prevarication reflects strong public opposition to nuclear, versus pressure from business and industry which says that the shut down will drive up energy costs and force companies to relocate operations to foreign countries….. http://www.smartplanet.com/blog/bulletin/nuclear-or-not-to-nuclear-japan-struggles-with-the-question/635
Angry crowd shouts at Japan’s Prime Minister
Video: “Frankly, things like this have never ever happened in Japan before — Ordinary people shouting down leadership of country” http://enenews.com/watch-frankly-like-never-happened-japan-before-ordinary-people-shouting-down-leadership-country-video
September 20th, 20 Title: Angry Crowd Shout “GO HOME! GO HOME!” to PM Noda and Leadership Candidates in Shinjuku, Tokyo
Source: EXSKF
Date: Sept 19, 2012
Frankly, things like this have never ever happened in Japan before – ordinary people shouting down the leadership of the country.
“帰れ、帰れ！ 解散しろ！” Go home, go home! Dissolve the Diet and hold election! People shouted at the DPJ leadership candidates speaking atop the van, on September 19, 2012 on the street corner in Shinjuku, Tokyo.
According to people who watched the snippet in the evening news in Japan, the television stations all filtered out the angry crowd.
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