Doom and gloom for the uranium industry – no improvement in sight
End of last month, the price had fallen to US$49.25 and for most of September, it hovered at the US$48 mark. This is almost 60% below the entry level target as calculated by Bannerman. The impact on the development of new mines, is obvious.
I believe the commodities boom is over, or at least on hold for another five years. In the meantime, no new mines.
Our Anticipated Uranium Projects Will Not Go Ahead, Except One [analysis] Equities.com Daniel Steinmann All Africa Global Media 22 Sept12, Bannerman Resources, the Australian company driving one of four new uranium projects in Namibia, recently said at a mining conference, the price for uranium U308 needs to be between US$75 and US$90 per pound (0.454kg) to drive any new investment in greenfields uranium mines.
Hidden in this seemingly neutral observation and analysis, are many serious consequences for the further development of the uranium sector Continue reading
USA elections: Republicans and Democrats exclude other from the debates
Open the Debates: Demand inclusion of Jill Stein and Gary Johnson! My FDL, By: Scott McLarty Thursday September 20, 2012 It’s time for Americans of all political persuasions to unite and demand real presidential debates, with the participation of Green Party candidate Jill Stein and Libertarian Party candidate Gary Johnson.
Three debates are planned, the first on October 3. The Commission on Presidential Debates (CPD), which controls the debates, is determined that only Barack Obama and Mitt Romney will be allowed in front of the microphones.
That’s because the CPD is owned and run by the Democratic and Republican parties and the two parties’ corporate funders. The CPD took over the debates to limit the stage to their own candidates and to make sure that no challenging questions get asked.
The League of Women Voters, which sponsored the debates before the CPD took over, has called this situation “a fraud on the American voter.”
But we don’t have to remain silent about this affront to democracy and fair elections. • Challenge the Commission on Presidential Debates!
Visit the ‘Occupy the CPD!’ web site and sign on to the statement. Tell the CPD that the debates must include every candidate who is on enough ballots to win the White House and who has demonstrated a minimal level of support — either 1% of the vote in a credible national poll or qualification for federal matching funds or both. Jill Stein and Gary Johnson meet all of these criteria.
• Challenge the Media!….. http://my.firedoglake.com/scottmclarty/2012/09/20/open-the-debates-demand-inclusion-of-jill-stein-and-gary-johnson/
UK: No new nukes if no waste solution
Nuclear new build programme faces uncertainty, FT.com, September 21, 2012
By Andrew Bounds and Jim Pickard“……In the run-up to the general election, David Cameron accused the Labour government of being “irresponsible” for failing to deal with the issue of nuclear waste: “They have to be dealt with in order to make any new investment [in nuclear power] possible,” he said, Jim
Pickard reports.
Two years later, as Mr Cameron’s administration tries to draw in private investment for a new wave of nuclear reactors, the issue is as far from resolved as ever.
Britain is not alone in its attempts to find a site for a gigantic underground repository, a construction project on the same scale as the Channel tunnel.
Governments worldwide have failed to find a permanent solution for the tens of thousands of tonnes of high-level radioactive waste currently stored in temporary facilities.
The disaster at Fukushima in Japan in 2011 highlighted the potential dangers; spent fuel rods were stuffed into cooling tanks at the site, each packed with lethal levels of radioactive isotopes.
Campaigners such as Greenpeace argue that it is foolish for governments to proceed with new nuclear plants when they have not yet resolved this legacy problem from half a century of nuclear power.
One of the few countries going ahead with a permanent repository is Sweden, where two communities competed for the project and the hundreds of jobs it provided.
By contrast, the US has a deep level repository in New Mexico, but it only accepts waste from weapons research and production. A permanent repository for civil waste was proposed for Nevada but the controversial project was scrapped by President Barack Obama. Opponents of underground repositories say spent fuel can be safely
kept for decades while more research is done on alternatives. But the Fukushima crisis has placed a question mark over that argument. http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/fefcb306-040d-11e2-9675-00144feabdc0.html#axzz27ETNh6qF
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.
=======================================
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)
1 This Month
10 June – Assessing Canada’s Investments in Small Modular Nuclear Reactors – https://zoom.us/meeting/register/IiqHA5feRhaEBycOLNTJlA#/registration
Cuba Is Not a Failed State – It Is a Besieged State
PETITION: “Global Appeal to Endorse Palestinian Right of Return of Refugees”
To see nuclear-related stories in greater depth and intensity – go to https://nuclearinformation.wordpress.com
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