Doubts about China, France involved in UK’s new nuclear programme
Should China be involved in the UK’s nuclear energy infrastructure? Guardian UK, Paul Dorfman, 21 Sept 12 A more responsible way forward to this ethically questionable strategy can be found with Germany’s energy policy Government officials have been in Beijing this week with their Chinese counterparts for an “unprecedented” collaboration on energy . On the table was new nuclear power, and its role in moving the UK to a low-carbon economy.
So far, the Department of Energy and Climate Change (Decc) has been relentlessly optimistic about new nuclear, and hopes that its electricity market reform plans for a draft energy bill will do the trick, despite strong and sustained criticism from a parliamentary select committee on energy, and more recently a House of Lords working group who conclude that the reforms are “unworkable”. But Decc is still loyal to the nuclear project and hopes the financial support implied in these market reforms will attract foreign investment.
France’s state nuclear corporation EDF and their UK junior partner, Centrica, have been centre stage in this nuclear fiscal drama. Centrica appears increasingly lukewarm, and City insiders doubt whether it will maintain a 20% stake in the nuclear consortium. Centrica’s potential departure could have something to do with the economics of nuclear power, with construction costs more than doubling from €3bn to over €6bn – and rising for each of the French-designed European pressurised reactors being built in Finland at Olkiluoto, and Flamanville in France.
Separately, since Germany’s RWE and E.ON in March pulled out of the UK’s second nuclear consortium, Horizon Nuclear Power, two Chinese nuclear state corporations, China Guangdong Nuclear Power and State Nuclear Power Technology, are considering taking on the consortium. Rosatom, the Russian state nuclear energy corporation, has also expressed an interest in the UK nuclear market.
At this point, it’s worth looking at the underlying business ethics of the Russian and Chinese nuclear industries, and questioning the wisdom of their strategic involvement in key UK energy infrastructure……http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/blog/2012/sep/21/nuclearpower-energy?newsfeed=true
Japanese govt fumbling over energy policy, as election nears
Japan pays lip service to nuclear phase-out Winnipeg Free Press, 21 Sept 12 By: The Economist With doubts running high about how long the Japanese government can survive, its decision last week to phase out nuclear power by the end of the 2030s looked half-baked. Sure enough, on Sept. 19 it dropped any pretense of a deadline, leaving open the possibility that at least two reactors under construction could operate until the 2050s.
The ambiguity has much to do with the general election which Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda has promised to call soon. Polling indicates that, since the Fukushima nuclear disaster in March 2011, public opinion has turned firmly against nuclear energy. Big business argues, however, that Japan’s economy will suffer if the phase-out occurs too quickly. Local governors whose prefectures host nuclear-power plants also complain about the strategy.
For the time being, the government’s policy appears to be to pay lip service to a phase-out that it is too timid to implement, while also scrambling for alternative sources of energy. Even before the nuclear disaster, Japan was the world’s biggest importer of liquefied natural gas, and now it consumes nearly a third of global output. But ensuring reliable supplies, as well as securing a good price, is becoming a foreign-policy headache….
http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/opinion/westview/Japan-pays-lip-service-to-nuclear-phase-out-170739926.html
China still has poor record on nuclear safety, uranium environmental damage
Should China be involved in the UK’s nuclear energy infrastructure? Guardian UK, Paul Dorfman, 21 Sept 12“….In Tibet, the Chinese nuclear industry is engaged in a determined effort to secure uranium deposits located in Amdo, where leaching and open pit extraction are reported to have resulted in significant environmental contamination. Regulation of safety oversight mechanisms is relatively weak in the Chinese nuclear industry, and according to a recent Nuclear Materials Security Index report, China ranks 29th among the group of 32 nuclear nations in terms of nuclear security and materials transparency. Although it’s to be hoped that greater corporate social responsibility and sensitivity to vulnerable industrial communities is evolving in both Russia and China, it’s still troubling to reflect on their respective human rights situations, documented by Amnesty International……http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/blog/2012/sep/21/nuclearpower-energy?newsfeed=true
Exelon nuclear power company’s attack on wind energy splits Republicans
Nuclear Attack on Wind Turbines — Energy Wars Begin By MERRILL GOOZNER, The Fiscal Times September 21, 2012 The nation’s largest nuclear 
utility is leading a full court lobbying blitz to eliminate subsidies for the wind energy industry, which built 35 percent of new U.S. electricity generation capacity since 2007.
The campaign has opened a fissure between Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney, who backs elimination of the wind production tax credit (PTC), and some moderate Republicans who represent states that have benefited from wind power’s rapid expansion. Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, whose state now gets 20 percent of its power from wind, recently likened Romney’s opposition to the PTC as “a knife in my back.” Continue reading
Youtube: uranium, thorium danger as wildfire rages in Idaho
RADIOACTIVE WILDFIRE?MUSTANG WILDFIRE IS BURNING THROUGH URANIUM and THORIUM ORE http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5RKPT5EWbzc Sep 21, 2012 by warning616 BREAKING: The Mustang fire has been burning through old uranium mining sites, and abandoned gold mining sites contaminated with surface radiation—-sending radioactive uranium and thorium into the air within it’s blazing smoke.Which has been drifting Eastward as far as Great Falls— really in just about every direction. * many thanks to my new youtube contact who flashed this to me just about an hour ago. Dios Mio.
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ATTRIBUTION: THIS ARTICLE BY Laura Zuckerman, REUTERS, as carried in the Chicago Tribune.http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/sns-rt-us-usa-wildfiresbre88k063-20120920,…
Montebello atomic tests left a legacy of cancer
Pat Coverley, now 83, saw most of his shipmates die young, “of various cancers suspected to be linked to radiation”
The [Royal Commission] findings delivered a scathing indictment of the manner with which these tests were conducted
Despite the findings, Drewe says the British and Australian governments have ever since fobbed off allegations that servicemen were exposed to high levels of radiation, making it almost impossible to mount a successful compensation claim.
One man’s island SMH, September 22, 2012 ”……..Drewe’s arrival by dinghy to the still-contaminated island (visit limit: one hour) was the eerie culmination of a lifelong obsession with the Montebello Islands. “It amazes me how fewAustralians know about these nuclear tests Britain arrogantly conducted in our backyard,” he declares. Continue reading
History of the West’s encouragement of Iran’s nuclear programme
Hypocritical Threats Against Iran On a Pedestal of Nuclear Immorality by SAUL LANDAU, CounterPunch 21 Sept 12, The U.S. government gave U.S. nuclear-energy companies a green light to sell their knowledge and technical support to Iran. With their blessings, the Shah also established close ties to European companies, who hustled to Teheran to do business. Continue reading
Radiation Maps of Children of Belarus
Children Radiation Maps, Blog by Jan Hemmer April 14, 2012 by Mikkai
http://www.scribd.com/doc/15770206/NesterenkoBelrad Continue reading
Radioactivity at high levels in Louisiana sinkhole
Testing of total alpha and total beta radiation showed that these were at levels about twice the natural background.
The State of Louisiana found much higher levels of radiation in deeper parts of the sink hole than the place where we received our surface sample
Sinkhole: Radioactivity at 5,900 picocuries per kilogram from uranium and thorium floating on surface, about double background — “Much higher levels of radiation” down deeper — Residents’ frustration growing (VIDEO)
September 21st, 2012
By ENENews Title: Sampling Continues at Bayou Corne as Sinkhole Expands http://enenews.com/sinkhole-surface-radioactivity-at-5900-picocuries-per-kg-from-uranium-and-thorium-about-double-background-levels-much-higher-levels-of-radiation-down-deeper
Source: Louisiana Environmental Action Network
Author: Wilma Subra
Date: Sept 22, 2012 Continue reading
Measuring radiation risk of Japanese foodstuffs to Europe
Radiation Risk by Consumption of Contaminated Food after the Catastrophe at Fukushima Dai-ichi Nuclear Power Plant German Society for Radiation Protection www.strahlentelex.de (Gesellschaft für Strahlenschutz e.V.) Thomas Dersee / 12. April 2011
The German Federal Minister for Nutrition, Agriculture and Consumer Protection has announced that the European Commission and the EU member states have agreed on April
8 to adopt the valid Japanese allowable limits for maximum contamination by radionuclides
as new limits for food and animal feed from Japan imported into the European Union.
The respective contamination limits are as follows, in Becquerel per
kilogram (Bq/kg)…….
http://www.strahlentelex.de/RadiationRisk_EU_042011_engl.pdf
Concern over Idaho wildfire at uranium contaminated site
One area of concern is a defunct uranium mine and milling operation 5 miles west of North Fork, where the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency conducted a cleanup several years ago of polluted soil, hazardous wastes and piles of raw uranium and thorium ore.
No decontamination of buildings at that site was ever performed, and at least one of those buildings burned in the fire, according to officials from the state Department of Environmental Quality
Idaho wildfire roars through former uranium mine site Laura Zuckerman
Reuters, September 21, 2012 SALMON, Idaho Continue reading
Businesses Increasingly Using Renewable Energy Options to Cut Costs SEPTEMBER 21, 2012 Clean Technica BY NATHAN According to a new report from the Bloomberg New Energy Finance (BNEF) and Vestas, a growing number of green businesses are beginning to source their power exclusively from renewables instead of just making a small token purchase. The new report, the 2012 Corporate Renewable Energy Index (CREX), is a ranking of over 300 global companies based on their voluntary sourcing of renewable energy, and the reasons for why they do it.
The companies ranked in the CREX have tended to fall into two extremes, but there is a newly emerging group that is choosing to get 100% of its energy from renewable sources.Clean Technica (http://s.tt/1o1dB)
http://cleantechnica.com/2012/09/21/businesses-increasingly-using-renewable-energy-options-to-cut-costs/
Clean Technica (http://s.tt/1o1dB)
Danger of nuclear war in Asia
India-Pakistan dispute may pose nuclear threat to Asia: ex-Oz PM Indian Express 22 Sept 12 Asia continue to face three key conflicts involving states with nuclear weapons and highly uncertain nuclear doctrines, former Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd warned today.
“Asia Pacific was sprinkled with three flashpoints, each of which was capable of triggering one form of conflict or another,” Rudd said in his keynote address at the Singapore Global Dialogue.
“We must never forget that all three of these disputes involve nuclear states and in some cases, states with highly uncertain nuclear doctrines,” he warned, pointing to the dispute involving India-Pakistan, the Korean Peninsula, and the Taiwan Straits……. He called for restrain and reason on behalf of all parties to these disputes though acknowledged that the stakes were becoming increasingly high among claimants of islands in the East Asian waters.
http://www.indianexpress.com/news/indiapakistan-dispute-may-pose-nuclear-threat-to-asia-exoz-pm/1005908/2
Less than a quarter of Japan’s nuclear engineers think that the industry is trustworthy
Only 23.4 percent, down from 43.8 percent a year earlier, said they “can agree” with the view that “the safety awareness and efforts of those engaged in the use of nuclear energy are trustworthy.”
Atomic engineers feel less confident about nuke safety September 22, 2012 THE ASAHI SHIMBUN After watching one of the world’s worst nuclear disasters in their own backyard, members of the Atomic Energy Society of Japan, a pro-nuclear association of nuclear engineers, are not surprisingly feeling much less confident about the safety of their industry. Continue reading
Fort Calhoun nuclear repairs: Exelon Corporation to get $millions from Omaha Public Power District
NE: Nuke plant fixer to get millions September 20, 2012 Joe Jordan | Nebraska Watchdog OMAHA—The price-tag to get the troubled nuclear power plant at Fort Calhoun up and running after nearly 18 months is in, and it’s loaded with zeroes.
Nebraska Watchdog has learned that the Omaha Public Power District—unable to get the reactor on line itself—is shelling out $400 million to a private firm, Exelon Corp.
Exelon will be paid $20 million a year for the next 20 years, according to information released by OPPD.
Nebraska Watchdog requested but was denied copies of contracts between the utility and Exelon.
OPPD said state law covering confidential information—involving trade secrets, academic and scientific research—allows those contracts to “be withheld from the public.”
OPPD did provide a “summary of key provisions of the Exelon agreements” information that included the $400 million payout….. The Fort Calhoun plant is still on the shelf and OPPD officials believe Exelon will get the reactor running sooner than later.
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission, which has the final say over start-up, has given no indication when the plant will be back on-line. http://watchdog.org/56953/ne-troubled-nuke-plant-costing-millions/
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