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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

September 22, 2012 Posted by | ASIA, weapons and war | Leave a comment

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 →

September 22, 2012 Posted by | Japan, psychology - mental health | 1 Comment

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/

September 22, 2012 Posted by | business and costs, USA | Leave a comment

USA and Israel’s demonisation of Iran

On a Pedestal of Nuclear Immorality, Counter Punch by SAUL LANDAU, 21 Sept 12, “…….Western leaders did not predict, however, the political turnaround that occurred with the Iranian revolution. The fiercely pro western orientation of the Shah quickly turned as millions of Iranians backed a nationalist and anti American ideology in which the country’s leaders rejected both western ideology and the legitimacy of its regional representative, Israel.

Teheran denounced the very idea of a Jewish state and began to refurbish the old plans to produce nuclear power, which the U.S. and Israel now claim is a cover for a nuclear weapons program. The Ayatollah Khamenei, however, has condemned nuclear weapons and denies nuclear weapon ambitions.

 Continue reading →

September 22, 2012 Posted by | Iran, Religion and ethics | Leave a comment

British female student awarded top prize by Nobel winners for solar-powered fridge invention DAILY MAIL  25 October 2010 A 23-year-old British inventor has become the only female – and the only  European – to be honoured by Nobel Prize winners in an international ceremony.
Emily Cummins was named among the top 10 most outstanding young people in the world and is receiving two major honours for her inventions which include a solar-powered fridge and a water carrying device designed for use in  Africa.
The Leeds University graduate was selected as an Oslo Business for
Peace Honouree by a jury of Nobel prize winners during an awards
ceremony in Norway…..
The solar-powered fridge, which she designed while still a schoolgirl,
is now  helping families in Namibia, South Africa, Zambia, Botswana
and Zimbabwe.
It works through evaporation and can be used to keep perishable goods
such as milk and meat cool for days.
Without using any power, temperatures stay at around 6C.
The fridge comprises two cylinders  –  one inside the other. The inner
cylinder is made from metal but the outer cylinder can be made from
anything to hand, including wood and plastic.  http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-1323646/UK-female-student-awarded-prize-Nobel-winners-solar-powered-fridge-invention.html#ixzz27E46eUB8

September 22, 2012 Posted by | decentralised, EUROPE | Leave a comment

Steel plates sent to Plant Vogtle fail NRC inspections, The Augusta Chronicle, By Rob Pavey Staff Writer, Sept. 20, 2012 At least 211 steel plates built for use in Plant Vogtle’s new reactors failed inspections by the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Continue reading →

September 22, 2012 Posted by | general | Leave a comment

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 .

September 21, 2012 Posted by | Christina's notes | Leave a comment

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

September 21, 2012 Posted by | secrets,lies and civil liberties, USA | Leave a comment

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 →

September 21, 2012 Posted by | health, secrets,lies and civil liberties, USA | Leave a comment

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 →

September 21, 2012 Posted by | Japan, politics | Leave a comment

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.

September 21, 2012 Posted by | Japan, Reference, safety | Leave a comment

‘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

September 21, 2012 Posted by | politics, UK, wastes | Leave a comment

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 →

September 21, 2012 Posted by | general | Leave a comment

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

September 21, 2012 Posted by | Legal, UK | Leave a comment

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.

2011–2012 world nuclear industry status report
bos.sagepub.com

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, …

September 21, 2012 Posted by | general | Leave a comment

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