14 October 2012 – The medics in prison go on hunger strike to demand that all charges are dropped and their immediate release.
Sat Oct 27, 2012 3:54PM GMT
Saudi-backed Bahraini forces have attacked anti-regime protesters in the village of Nuwaidrat, using tear gas and rubber bullets to disperse them.
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/2012/10/27/269053/bahraini-forces-attack-protesters/
more info on the link below with video pleas for help
26/10/2012 – 2:19 p | Hits: 66
Doctors and medics volunteered to offer assistance to injured protesters during the uprisings in Bahrain (Photo/Bahrainmujaz)
Roula al-Saffar was arrested in March 2011 by the Bahraini authorities.
Roula is the head of nursing at the Salmaniya Medical Complex in Manama, and like many other Bahraini medics and doctors she had assisted injured protesters during the uprising in Manama.
They were then accused of inciting sectarian hatred and the overthrow of the regime. These medics were detained, tortured and harassed for nearly two months and many were initially sentenced to 15 years in prison by a military court.
The individual stories can be found on the human rights websites Doctors in chains and Physicians for human rights.
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October 27, 2012
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TOKYO | Sat Oct 27, 2012 11:29am BST
(Reuters) – Hitachi Ltd (6501.T), Japan‘s largest industrial electronics maker, is close to buying British nuclear new-build project Horizon in a deal expected to be worth more than 50 billion yen ($628.46 million), Japanese media said on Saturday.
Horizon, which plans to build 6 gigawatts of nuclear capacity, was put up for sale by its German owners E.ON AG (EONGn.DE) and RWE AG (RWEG.DE) in March, as Germany‘s decision to pull out of nuclear power hurt the utilities’ finances.
“Hitachi has made the best offer and has a good chance to get Horizon,” a source inside the consortium familiar with the process told Reuters, speaking on condition of anonymity. Another person with knowledge of the proceedings also said Hitachi was likely to be the winner.
Hitachi is expected to hold a board meeting on Tuesday to approve the deal and officially announce it later that day, both the Asahi daily newspaper and Kyodo newswire reported, citing sources familiar with the matter.
Another newspaper, the Mainichi daily, reported that in addition to building the nuclear units, Hitachi is also expected to win a contract for about 40 years to operate and maintain the reactors.
Hitachi officials were not immediately available to comment on the report.
Officials at E.ON and Horizon declined to comment, while a RWE spokesman said: “We are in the final stages. We will probably say more in the coming days.”
On Thursday, a RWE said it was in advanced talks to sell Horizon, after a German newspaper reported that a consortium led by Hitachi was the front runner for the Gloucester-based venture.
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October 27, 2012
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Nuclear Fusion Project Struggles to Put the Pieces Together Scientific America, 27 Oct 12, Contracting woes may cause further delays for $19.4-billion ITER, a project designed to show the feasibility of nuclear fusion as a power source
By Geoff Brumfiel and Nature magazine The world’s largest scientific project is threatened with further delays, as agencies struggle to complete the design and sign contracts worth hundred of millions of euros with industrial partners, Nature has learned.
ITER is a massive project designed to show the feasibility of nuclear fusion as a power source. Continue reading →
October 27, 2012
Posted by Christina Macpherson |
2 WORLD, Reference, technology |
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Britain views pre-emptive strike on Iran nuclear facilities as illegal Telegraph UK, 26 Oct 12 Britain views a pre-emptive strike on Iran’s nuclear facilities as illegal under present circumstances and would not allow UK military bases to be used for this purpose, according to reports.
The Foreign Office declined to comment on suggestions that British ministers have been advised that a strike on Iran would breach international law because no imminent threat currently exists.
If the US were to attack Iran’s nuclear plants, it could request permission to use the RAF base at Akrotiri in Cyprus and the American military facilities located on the British territory of Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean. However, The Guardian reports that the Britain would reject any such request under present conditions…..
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/iran/9636134/Britain-views-pre-emptive-strike-on-Iran-nuclear-facilities-as-illegal.html
October 27, 2012
Posted by Christina Macpherson |
UK, weapons and war |
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PEC-funded projects have brought power to the lives of more than 10,000 people in the Solomon Islands; will reduce Samoa’s fuel usage by 135,000 litres per annum; and, in the Federated States of Micronesia, reduce carbon emissions by 500 tonnes and induce fuel cost savings of 486,000 dollars per year.
Pacific Island Sets Renewable Energy Record, Alert Net, 26 Oct 2012 By Catherine Wilson BRISBANE, (IPS) – Tokelau, a small Polynesian territory in the central Pacific, has surpassed the rest of the world in replacing fossil fuels and raised the benchmark of achievement on sustainable development. Continue reading →
October 27, 2012
Posted by Christina Macpherson |
OCEANIA, renewable |
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this failure to make the promise of renewables a keynote in the debate is a huge missed opportunity. In particular, it ignores the dramatic reduction in the cost of photovoltaic solar power worldwide and the considerable benefits to U.S. consumers and the environment
Solar Energy Is Ready. The U.S. Isn’t Bloomberg, By Ken Wells – Oct 25, 2012 Clean energy has become a dirty word in presidential politics. In their second debate, Mitt Romney and Barack Obama each tried to 
outdo the other’s love of fossil fuels: Obama extolling his record on oil and natural gas production, Romney vowing to take “advantage of the oil and coal we have here.” Continue reading →
October 27, 2012
Posted by Christina Macpherson |
decentralised, renewable, USA |
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Tepco: Water used to cool Fukushima reactors could be released into ocean — Outside experts worried http://enenews.com/tepco-water-cool-fukushima-reactors-could-be-released-ocean-experts-worried-about-lasting-impact
October 25th, 2012 Title AP Interview: Japan Nuke Plant Water Worries Rise (PHOTOS)
Source: Associated Press
Author: MARI YAMAGUCHI (Malcolm Foster contributed to this report)
Date: October 25, 2012
Japan’s crippled nuclear power plant is struggling to find space to store [… a]bout 200,000 tons of radioactive water […]
TEPCO is close to running a new treatment system that could make the water safe enough to release into the ocean. […]
Outside experts worry that if contaminated water is released, there will be lasting impact on the environment. […]
TEPCO claims the treated water from this new system is clean enough to be potentially released into the ocean, although it hasn’t said whether it would do that. […]
October 27, 2012
Posted by Christina Macpherson |
Fukushima 2012, Japan, oceans |
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Nuclear weapons still have the power to instantly destroy the world October 23, 2012, This month is the 50th anniversary of the Cuban Missile Crisis — which took place Oct. 16-28 in 1962 — so we’re going to hear a great deal about the weeks when the world almost died. But the past is a foreign country, a place where everything was in black and white, and men still wore hats, so it’s just scary stories about a long-gone time.
Or so it seems.
The outlines of the tale are well known. It was 17 years since the United States had used nuclear weapons on Japan, and the Soviet Union now had them, too. Lots of them. The American and Soviet arsenals included some 30,000 nuclear weapons, and not all of them were carried by bombers any more. Some were mounted on rockets that could reach
their targets in the other country in half an hour……
What almost nobody knew until very recently is that the crisis did not really end on Oct. 28. A new book by Sergo Mikoyan — “The Soviet Cuban Missile Crisis: Castro, Mikoyan, Kennedy, Khrushchev, and the Missiles of November” — reveals that it continued all the way through November……. the whole world could have ended.
As Robert McNamara, Kennedy’s defence secretary in 1962, said 40 years later: “We were just plain lucky in October 1962 — and without that luck most of you would never have been born because the world would have been destroyed instantly or made unlivable in October 1962.”
Then he said the bit that applies to us. “Something like that could happen today, tomorrow, next year. It will happen at some point. That is why we must abolish nuclear weapons as soon as possible.” They are still there, you know, and human beings still make mistakes.
http://www.capebretonpost.com/Opinion/Columns/2012-10-23/article-3105130/Nuclear-weapons-still-have-the-power-to-instantly-destroy-the-world/1
October 27, 2012
Posted by Christina Macpherson |
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100 foot deep wall at Fukushima plant still being built, says Tepco — Trying to keep underground contamination from ocean — Years from completion? http://enenews.com/tepco-100-foot-deep-underground-wall-being-built-to-try-and-stop-water-from-seeping-out-of-plant-and-into-ocean-will-take-until-mid-2014 October 25th, 2012
Title: Fish Off Fukushima, Japan, Show Elevated Levels of Cesium
Source: New York Times
Author: HIROKO TABUCHI
October 25, 2012
To stop water from seeping out of the plant, Tokyo Electric is building a 2,400-foot-long wall between the site’s reactors and the ocean. But [Yoshikazu Nagai, a spokesman for Tepco] said the steel-and-concrete wall, which will reach 100 feet underground, will take until mid-2014 to build.
October 27, 2012
Posted by Christina Macpherson |
Fukushima 2012 |
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Senior Iranian figures push for compromise over nuclear issue Telegraph, 27 Oct 12, Senior figures inside Iran’s regime have “succumbed” to the pressure imposed by sanctions and favour compromise over the nuclear issue, according to the public comments of their colleagues. By David Blair, Chief Foreign Correspondent Continue reading →
October 27, 2012
Posted by Christina Macpherson |
Iran, politics international |
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Bulgaria: a nuclear referendum Ft.com October 26, 2012 by Andrew MacDowall High Pre-election machinations may be behind a decision by Bulgaria’s parliament this week to hold a referendum on a nuclear power plant .
The referendum, to be held in January, follows the government’s March decision to cancel the development of the Danube-side Belene nuclear power plant (NPP), in which Bulgaria had already invested 1.4bn levs ($925m), with one reactor already completed.
The Belene project has been one of the longest-running sagas in Bulgarian politics, first proposed in the 1970s under communism. Construction started in the 1980s but was then halted until 2008, when the government, then dominated by the Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP), awarded the construction contract for the 2000MW plant to Atomstroyexport, a subsidiary of Russia’s Rosatom.
As several energy analysts told beyondbrics at the time of the cancellation, the project had become economically unfeasible, given pressures on the national budget, the spiralling costs (variously estimated at between €4bn and €10bn-plus) and the outlook for power demand, with Bulgaria’s population shrinking and power prices on the rise. Concerns had also been raised about the baleful influence of Russia, which already supplies almost all Bulgaria’s gas…….
In any case, it seems likely that the referendum is declared void. For the vote to be considered valid, the turnout must match the 60 per cent turnout of the last general election, setting a high hurdle of more than 4m voters bothering to cast their ballots. A recent poll suggested that more than 40 per cent of the electorate is unaware that the vote is happening at all. And even if the referendum is in favour, and is validated by turnout, the government is not bound to any timeline for further NPP development.
So: a rather open-ended question on a topic that is hardly constitutionally vital, and indeed regards a project widely seen by experts as dead in the water, put to a referendum which may well be invalid anyway….. http://blogs.ft.com/beyond-brics/2012/10/26/bulgaria-a-nuclear-referendum/#axzz2AWxym4na
October 27, 2012
Posted by Christina Macpherson |
Bulgaria, politics |
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Radiation settles on seabed off Japan Radio Australia 26 October 2012, New research suggests radiation from the crippled Fukushima nuclear plant has settled on the ocean floor off Japan, and could contaminate sea life for decades.
Contamination may be due to low-level leaks from the Fukushima nuclear plant. (Credit: AFP) Marine chemist Ken Buesseler of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution reviewed official Japanese data on radiation levels in fish, shellfish and seaweed collected near the crippled nuclear plant. He concluded the lingering contamination may be due to low-level leaks from the facility, or contaminated sediment on the ocean floor.
His research, published on Thursday in the US magazine Science, estimated that about 40 per cent of fish caught near Fukushima are considered unfit for consumption under Japanese
regulations…..http://www.radioaustralia.net.au/international/2012-10-26/radiation-settles-on-seabed-off-japan/1036750
October 27, 2012
Posted by Christina Macpherson |
Japan, oceans |
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Federal judge throws out Vt. Yankee tax challenge Boston.com AP / October 25, 2012 RUTLAND, Vt. (AP) — A federal judge on Thursday dismissed a lawsuit filed by the Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant against the state, challenging taxes on the plant that were passed earlier this year by the legislature.
U.S. District Court Judge Christina Reiss rejected the argument made by New Orleans-based plant owner Entergy Corp. that the payment is not a tax and said federal court lacked jurisdiction over the case.
Reiss granted the state’s motion to dismiss the case saying, Entergy’s challenge ‘‘could be brought directly in Vermont’s state courts.’’
Entergy had challenged the taxes that it said increased the reactor’s annual state tax from about $5 million to about $12.8 million. Supporters of the new taxes said they were designed to replace money the plant paid the state under agreements in 2003 and 2005 that saw
the state drop its opposition to the plant boosting its power output by 20 percent and to the plant’s plan for storage of more highly radioactive nuclear waste on its grounds. Those agreements lasted until March 21, when the plant’s 40-year operating license expired.
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission approved a 20-year license extension last year…. http://www.boston.com/news/local/vermont/2012/10/25/federal-judge-throws-out-yankee-tax-challenge/fuHCQ3LNFULA0aH8NbsouI/story.html
October 27, 2012
Posted by Christina Macpherson |
Legal, USA |
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The Project on Nuclear Issues (PONI) aims to build and sustain a networked community of young nuclear experts from the military, national laboratories, industry, academia, and policy communities.
About the Project on Nuclear Issues
Addressing the complex array of nuclear weapons challenges will require a solid foundation of expertise across numerous sectors. Because most of these challenges are long-term, the Project on Nuclear Issues (PONI) aims to build and sustain a vibrant community of young nuclear experts from the military, national laboratories, industry, academia, and the policy community. To that end, PONI maintains an enterprise-wide membership base, hosts four major conferences and several smaller events each year, maintains an online blog, holds live debates on critical nuclear weapons issues, runs a six-month academic program for young experts, organizes bilateral exchanges involving young experts from the U.S. and abroad, oversees a working group of top young professionals, and distributes bi-weekly news and event announcements to members.
The project has three primary objectives. First, PONI aims to build and sustain a networked community of young nuclear experts from across the nuclear enterprise, including in the laboratories, military, industry, academia, and policy world. Second, the project seeks to help develop the next generation of leaders with both the necessary subject matter expertise and the professional skills to be effective in shaping and implementing policy. Third, PONI works to mobilize the wide-ranging nuclear expertise within its membership ranks to generate new ideas and advance the public debate on all issues concerning nuclear weapons.
There are over 1,100 PONI members and affiliated programs in the UK and France. Membership is open to anyone working in the nuclear field or studying nuclear weapons issues. Members receive a biweekly newsletter containing updates on activities, invitations to events and information on job opportunities in the field. Visit the PONI Membershippage to the left for more information about the community, including the PONI chapters in the UK and France, or click here to go directly to the application.
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October 27, 2012
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