Wales Green Party will not u-turn on nuclear power
27 SEPTEMBER 2012
‘”..This is where the Greens are different from all other political parties. We have the courage of our convictions, and when we say no to nuclear, we mean it!..”
No U turn for Wales Green Party!
The leader of Plaid Cymru has done a U turn on nuclear power. When questioned by the BBC she indicated that her party would not interfere with any move to build a bigger nuclear power station on Anglesey.
Pippa Bartolotti, Leader of the Greens in Wales said: ‘Just a few months ago Leanne Wood was proud to say that she was against nuclear, and that Plaid was against nuclear, and on this basis she was elected. It is very sad to see how easily a person can change their views when there are a few votes in it.’
Ties to Obama Aided in Access for Big Utility, NYT By ERIC LIPTON August 22, 2012 WASHINGTON— Early in the Obama administration, a lobbyist for the Illinois-based energy producer Exelon Corporation proudly called it “the president’s utility.” And it was not just because it delivers power to Barack Obama’s Hyde Park neighborhood in Chicago.
Exelon’s top executives were early and frequent supporters of Mr. Obama as he rose from the Illinois State Senate to the White House. John W. Rogers Jr., a friend of the president’s and one of his top fund-raisers, is an Exelon board member. David Axelrod, Mr. Obama’s longtime political strategist, once worked as an Exelon consultant, and Rahm Emanuel, the Chicago mayor and Mr. Obama’s former chief of staff, helped create the company through a corporate merger in 2000 while working as an investment banker.
With energy an increasingly pivotal issue for the Obama White House, a review of Exelon’s relationship with the administration shows how familiarity has helped foster access at the upper reaches of government and how, in some cases, the outcome has been favorable for Exelon. Continue reading →
Third steel beam found beside the fuel rack. Tepco “Fuel assemblies may be damaged”Fukushima Diary, by Mochizuki on September 25th, 2012 ·
As to the latest accident in reactor3, Fukushima Diary reported Tepco
found 2 steel beams in SFP3.
(cf. [Reactor3] Underwater video, “Two steel beams were found in the pool”)
After this article, Tepco found another steel beam in the pool, now
they are considering the possibility that the fuel assemblies are
damaged.
So far, Tepco finished investigating the 1/8 of the pool and found 3
steel beams in total. One of the 3 steel beams was found beside a rack
of fuel assemblies.
Tepco still hasn’t verified the dropped steel beam.
HMRC boss Dave Hartnett is the man responsible for cutting dodgy deals with Vodafone, Goldman Sachs and other large corporations that have cost the taxpayer billions in lost revenue.
When we discovered that he was making his retirement speech at an elite tax avoidance conference, we couldn’t resist popping in. We donned our best Goldman Sachs and Vodafone costumes, bought some flowers and knocked up a fake award. This is what happened.
Ousted defence minister Nick Harvey claims military and Whitehall backing for cheaper alternatives
“If you can just break yourself out of that frankly almost lunatic mindset for a second, all sorts of alternatives start to look possible, indeed credible.”
The Guardian, Wednesday 26 September 2012 20.30 BST
[…]
The government’s review of the future of the Trident submarine nuclear missile system is likely to suggest a significant downgrading of the UK’s nuclear deterrent, including the possibility of locking the warheads “in a cupboard” for delayed launch only after several weeks of mounting international tension.
The revelation was made by Sir Nick Harvey, the Liberal Democrat who was the defence minister leading the review until the government reshuffle this month. The MP for North Devon said he believed the policy could get support in Whitehall and from senior military figures and Labour.
Harvey said past policy on Trident had been dictated by the 1980s view that the only deterrent to a nuclear attack from the then Soviet Union was the belief that the UK could “flatten Moscow” in retaliation. This led to the UK building Trident and having at least one armed submarine at sea every hour of every day since.
Speaking in detail about the Trident review for the first time since he was sacked as minister, Harvey said: “If you can just break yourself out of that frankly almost lunatic mindset for a second, all sorts of alternatives start to look possible, indeed credible.”
[…]
Harvey’s response was that creating jobs in Barrow should be the last consideration. “The idea that you should produce weapons of mass destruction in order to keep 1,500 jobs going in the Barrow shipyard is palpably ludicrous. We could give them all a couple of million quid and send them to the Bahamas for the rest of their lives , and the world would be a much better place, and we would have saved a lot of money,” he said.
On Tuesday, GE-Hitachi Global Laser Enrichment LLC, a partnership between General Electric Co. (NYSE: GE) and Hitachi Ltd. (TYO: 6501), received approval from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) to build a laser enrichment facility.
The partnership is a subset of GE Hitachi Nuclear Energy, a company that makes nuclear reactor components. The new facility will be built at its headquarters in Wilmington, North Carolina.
The company received the technology for the facility from Silex Systems (ASX: SLX), an Australian company focused on research and development for uranium enrichment. The technology, which uses lasers to enrich uranium, had to undergo several years of regulation review before it was approved.
“Receiving our NRC license is a tremendous accomplishment and strong testament to everyone involved in this project,” said Chris Monetta, president and CEO of Global Laser Enrichment. “The technology we’ve developed could be one of the keys to the nation’s long-term energy security. At a minimum, it could provide a steady supply of uranium enriched right here in the U.S. to the country’s nuclear reactors. These reactors provide approximately 20 percent of the nation’s electricity today and will continue to be an important part of the energy mix for decades to come.”
The laser technology is cheaper than many options, and it will bring a flow of enriched uranium right to the U.S. The facility will be able to produce 6 million single work units (SWU) annually, enough to power 42 reactors.
The set of links below are designed to show how the powerful corporations mitigate bad news and show a story line in front of the truth. A simple human rights report that shakes the corporations to their knees. Bp covering up a lack of workers rights concerning Kazahkstan.
BP is also trying to sell shares in a Multibillion dollar deal to clear the last of the gulf compensation payment to the USA
To begin with, below are links to a 95 year old blogger that has been annoying Royal Dutch Shell
FROM A HAPLESS SHELL OFFICIAL:
John and Alfred Donovan well known in UK / Hague. They perceive Shell played them and so have made it their mission to embarrass, belittle and criticize Shell, which they do quite well. Their website, royaldutchsellplc.com is an excellent source of group news and comment and I recommend it far above what our own group internal comms puts out.
After Mishaps, Shell Dials Back Arctic Oil-Drilling Plans
Sep 17th, 2012 by John Donovan.
Christopher Helman, Forbes Staff: 9/17/2012
[…]
But this is a disappointment for Shell, which has spent $5 billion so far on its dream of drilling the Alaskan arctic and had earlier hoped to complete five Alaska wells this year in both the Chukchi and Beaufort seas. Drilling of the Beaufort wells have not yet been approved, and the window of opportunity there closes by Halloween.
Today’s announcement was triggered by damage to a piece of equipment called a containment dome that would be lowered to the seabed to trap oil in the unlikely case of a blowout. The damage occurred during a test of what Shell says would be the first-ever containment system deployed in Arctic waters. “It is clear that some days will be required to repair and fully assess dome readiness,” said Shell in a statement this morning.
and here is a warning to prospective whistleblowers!
[…]
WARNING TO SHELL EMPLOYEES: Shell Global Affairs Security “CAS”) is spying on Shell employees globally trying to trace who is visiting, posting, or leaking information to this website from Shell premises. Threats, including death threats, have allegedly been made against conscience driven Shell whistleblowers supplying us with information. The worlds biggest leak of employee details as part of a claimed corporate revolution by 116 Shell employees, suggest the espionage operation, threats and draconian litigation have not been entirely successful in cutting off the supply of information to this website.
[…]
On the main home page
Of course Royal Dutch Shell are in a lot of places such as Kazahkstan
By Nariman Gizitdinov on August 30, 2012
[…]
Exxon Mobil Corp. (XOM) and Royal Dutch Shell Plc (RDSA) are seeking bigger stakes in the Kashagan oil field and operating control before starting to expand the $46 billion project, according to two people with knowledge of the matter.
Stop New Nuclear
Press Release 17 September 2012 MASS TRESPASS PLANNED AT HINKLEY POINT NUCLEAR POWER STATION – 8 October
Protesters from all over the UK are gearing up for a mass trespass at the site
earmarked for the first of a new generation of nuclear power stations. Hundreds are
planning to converge at a weekend protest camp before scaling the fence round land
being cleared for the controversial Hinkley C power plant in Somerset.
The Stop New Nuclear Alliance expects many people to be arrested. “The
government is refusing to acknowledge that its ‘new nuclear’ strategy is dangerous
and expensive so we are being forced to raise our game,” said spokesperson Nancy
Birch.
AREVA, a global leader in nuclear energy and Atkins, one of the world’s leading engineering and design consultancies, have formed a joint venture to compete for projects in the UK nuclear fuel management and decommissioning sector.
The AREVA-ATKINS Partnership UK is expected to bid for significant contracts at Tier 2 level* in the UK nuclear engineering sector.
[…]
AREVA is the world leader in the back end of the nuclear fuel cycle with expertise in all back-end operations. Back-end activities include used-fuel recycling, decommissioning, waste management and transport solutions for each stage of the cycle. AREVA is part of Nuclear Management Partners in the United Kingdom which manages Sellafield.
Atkins is one of the world’s leading engineering and design consultancies with around 9,000 of its 17,500 people based in the UK. Its international nuclear consultancy has been working at Sellafield, Magnox and former UKAEA sites for around 25 years.
The AREVA-ATKINS Partnership UK will have its headquarters in Warrington, in North West England.
“The time the children spend here is desperately needed to boost their immune system which was badly affected by radiation,” said Ms Keogh.
“The difference it makes to their health is amazing.
“We also keep in contact with them throughout the year, and have someone working for us in Belarus.”
[…]
From Kazahkstan Today
11:45 26.09.2012
“North Kazakhstan Oblast is viewed as a northern gateway of the country. The regional economy is perfect for developing cooperation in agriculture as far as we are an agricultural region of the country. Every year the oblast provides 30% of Kazakhstan’s croppage. We are interested in close cooperation with Belarusian partners in what regards agriculture,” BelTA quotes Nelli Kukushkina.
When I saw the tweet, I thought it was another prank. The tweet had a link to a PDF file about the high levels of radioactive cesium in one tree in the yard of a resident in Abiko City located on the west corridor of Chiba with relatively high radiation contamination. The web address of the link indicated it was from the city government, but there was no mention of the city in the document. So I went to the homepage of Abiko City, and see if I could find the same document from the links at the homepage.
Well I could. After 4 clicks, I landed on this particular page which has a link to the
The apple in question was brought by a city resident and tested on August 20, 2012 using the city’s NaI scintillation survey meter. As the number was extraordinarily high, the city sent officials to the resident’s home to collect more samples and tested them using the germanium semiconductor detector to be more precise. The result using the germanium detector was even higher.
The city says it was cautious in releasing the information, for fear that it might generate “baseless rumors”. The amount of radioactive cesium in the apples, leaves and branches from the particular tree was extremely high, and couldn’t be explained by comparing it to the samples taken in the same yard and in the neighborhood.
Extract from IAEA website concerning the statement referred to by Reuters below..
[…]
Assumptions
The low projection assumes current trends continue with few changes in policies affecting nuclear power. It does not assume that all national targets for nuclear power will be achieved. It is a “conservative but plausible” projection.
The high projection assumes that the current financial and economic crises will be overcome relatively soon and past rates of economic growth and electricity demand will resume, notably in the Far East. It assumes stringent global policies to mitigate climate change.
The low and high projections are developed by experts from around the world who are assembled by the IAEA each spring. They consider all the operating reactors, possible license renewals, planned shutdowns and plausible construction projects foreseen for the next several decades. They build the projections project-by-project by assessing the plausibility of each in light of, first, the low projection’s assumptions and, second, the high projection’s assumptions.
The projections are made at a regional, rather than national, level. The new low scenario is compatible with a potential decline of the share of nuclear power in Japan’s electricity mix.
[..]
and it looks like Reuters doesnt want people to know the way the conclusions were scientifically and in a peer review setting realised, so they left out the above qoute..
And here is the Reuters article
[…]
VIENNA, Sept 26 (Reuters) – The U.N. atomic agency cut its forecast for nuclear energy growth for a second year as the industry continued to feel the effect of the Fukushima disaster in Japanand said most of the expansion would be in Asia.
The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said its projection for global nuclear generating capacity by 2030 was down between one and nine percent compared with last year.
Against expectations before the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami in Japan, the projections are between eight and 16 percent lower.
The IAEA said on its website that overall capacity would grow between 25 and 100 percent by 2030, depending on a wide range of factors such as global economic growth.
“Continuing growth in nuclear power following the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear accident is expected, however at a rate lower than estimated a year ago,” the IAEA said.
BEIJING, Sept 26 (Reuters) – China’s ambitious reactor building programme is set to resume in the fourth quarter following a suspension imposed after Japan’s March 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster, official media reported on Wednesday.
The Shanghai Securities News, citing government sources, said new safety regulations were about to be published, paving the way for China to launch new projects for the first time since an earthquake and tsunami left the Fukushima Daiichi reactor complex in northeast Japan on the verge of meltdown.
Following the disaster, the Chinese government suspended construction at all nuclear power projects and ended all new project approvals pending a nationwide safety inspection, and it also promised to “adjust and improve” its plans for the sector.
Before the disaster, Beijing had been expected to set a new 2020 nuclear capacity target of more than 80 gigawatts, but that target is now expected to be scaled back. China’s current total nuclear installed capacity stands at 12.57 gigawatts.
Shanghai Securities News said China’s Ministry of Environmental Protection had already started accelerating the approval process for the nuclear sector.
It also said the second phase of the Sino-Russian Tianwan nuclear project in Jiangsu province on the eastern coast was certain to start construction in December. (Reporting by David Stanway; Editing by Ken Wills)
By Stephanie Manley
nuclear-news 