Democracy is dead in Shizuoka Prefecture! Japan -No right to vote! But unsafe for Nuclear Power Plants
“Nuclear energy policy is connected with economic growth, employment and national security, among other concerns. It is not a matter that should be settled by referendums.
On the reactivation of reactors at nuclear power plants where safety has been confirmed, the government needs to be responsible for making decisions while taking local opinions into consideration.”
Tokyo’s Nikkiso moves manufacturing plant to avoid predicted earthquake on Pacific coast
Published on Oct 18, 2012 by mamaknock
Oct. 18, 2012 – Updated 07:56 www3.nhk.or.jp
A major Japanese precision equipment maker plans to relocate its plant to the Sea of Japan coast to avoid the negative impact of a predicted major earthquake along the country’s Pacific coast.
Tokyo’s Nikkiso Company manufactures medical equipment and aircraft parts at its plant in Makinohara City on the Pacific coast of Shizuoka Prefecture, central Japan.
But the Japanese government released projections in August suggesting more than 300,000 people could be killed in a massive earthquake and tsunami that could possibly occur near the Nankai Trough along the country’s Pacific coast.
The manufacturer decided to move the plant to the Sea of Japan coast city of Kanazawa, Ishikawa Prefecture.
The company’s CEO Toshihiko Kai visited Ishikawa prefectural office on Thursday. He reported the relocation plan to Ishikawa Governor Masanori Tanimoto and Kanazawa Mayor Yukiyoshi Yamano.
Kai said it would be difficult for a medical equipment maker in Shizuoka to fulfill its heavy social responsibility in the event of major disaster.
| Referendums no way to decide restarts of nuclear reactors -say Shizuoka Prefectural Assembly |
| Editorial Desk The Yomiuri Shimbun Publication Date : 18-10-2012 |
| Nuclear energy policy is connected with economic growth, employment and national security, among other concerns. It is not a matter that should be settled by referendums.
On the reactivation of reactors at nuclear power plants where safety has been confirmed, the government needs to be responsible for making decisions while taking local opinions into consideration. The Shizuoka Prefectural Assembly has rejected a draft ordinance on holding a referendum to ask residents whether they would support the restart of reactors at Chubu Electric Power Co.’s Hamaoka nuclear plant in the prefecture. The draft ordinance was requested of the prefectural government by a citizens organisation that collected the signatures of more than 160,000 residents in the prefecture. Far-reaching ramifications Even if such a referendum were held, the result would not be legally binding. But it would likely affect decisions made by the central government, concerned local governments and the utility company. We praise the prefectural assembly for its sound judgment in rejecting it and preventing unnecessary confusion.
The problem is that Shizuoka Gov. Heita Kawakatsu expressed support for holding a referendum on the grounds that there were a large number of signatures in favor of submitting a draft ordinance. |
THE FUKUSHIMA CHILDREN’S LIVES ARE IN DANGER! ( Urgent Petition request)
2012年1月12日木曜日
Message from Noam Chomsky about support to the Fukushima Evacuate Children Lawsuit
It is a privilege to be able to lend personal support to the Fukushima Evacuate Children Lawsuit.
There is no better measure of the moral health of a society than how it treats the most vulnerable people within it, and none or more vulnerable, or more precious, than children who are the victims of unconscionable actions.
For Japan, and for all of us, this is a test that we must not fail.
The Fukushima children’s lives are in danger!
China issues nuclear safety blueprint, eyes $13 billion investment
“The current [nuclear] safety situation isn’t optimistic,” the report
said.“Its official nuclear capacity target for 2020 for now is 40 GW, less than 5
percent of its current total installed capacity, but enough to power Spain.”
(Reuters) – China will have
to spend around 80 billion yuan ($12.74 billion) by 2015 to upgrade the security
of its nuclear facilities and radioactive contamination control to international
standards, a report issued by the Ministry of Environmental Protection
said.
China, which has an ambitious plan to build as many as 100 reactors over the
next two decades, imposed a ban on approving new nuclear power plants after
Japan’s nuclear crisis in March 2011 and ordered nationwide safety checks on its
41 plants.
The report, which laid out a road map for China’s nuclear safety to reach
international standards by 2020, suggested the government was moving closer to
restarting the approval process for reactor expansion.
It evaluated safety in China’s nuclear-power industry and recommended phasing
out older nuclear reactors sooner, sharing and improving access to information,
enhancing the research and development of nuclear safety and improving the
handling of radioactive waste.
Australia Nuclear agency boss accused of being “…a lying piece of shit.”
”You’ve fabricated the findings, covered up safety incidents … you guys covered it over. You’re a lying piece of shit.”
By Bianca Hall
Oct. 18, 2012, 3 a.m.
THE head of Australia’s nuclear agency briefly broke down at a dramatic Senate estimates hearing yesterday, after an angry whistleblower accused him of covering up a serious incident in which workers were splashed with radioactive material.
Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation chief executive Adrian Paterson was comforted by Senators and staff, and refused to leave the room until the man had left the building.
Listening to Mr Paterson give evidence was former ANSTO worker and whistleblower David Reid, who worked at the facility for almost 30 years, including years as his colleagues’ occupational health and safety representative.”You’re a liar,” Mr Reid growled when Mr Paterson finished telling the inquiry he did not believe the incident had occurred.
”You’ve fabricated the findings, covered up safety incidents … you guys covered it over. You’re a lying piece of shit.”
Mr Reid later told The Age he had been sacked after bringing claims of the incident to management. ”It’s trashed my life; I’ve just been obsessed with it. My marriage fell apart, and I lost my house and I’m living in a caravan. But I can’t let it go.”
New Nobel Prize winner bangs the drums of war! -Tarpley _Press tv banned!
“We also have followed, in quite a bit of detail back in July, around the 15th or the 20th of July this year when NATO attempted to overthrow the government of Syria with a kind of shock and awe, a series of converging deployments; one of the things that they did was to purge the pro-Assad Syrian state media off of ArabSat and NileSat and insert CIA programming and so forth.”
EU banning of Press TV shows opinion dictatorship: Analyst
The company has ordered media services company, Arqiva, to take the Iranian satellite channels off one of its Hot Bird frequencies.
The Iranian channels being taken off the air include Press TV, al-Alam, Jam-e-Jam 1 and 2, Sahar 1 and 2, Islamic Republic of Iran News Network, Quran TV, and the Arabic-language al-Kawthar.
The illegal ban will also affect the satellite broadcast of several Iranian radio stations.
Meanwhile many Press TV viewers have condemned as illegal and hypocritical the ban imposed by the European officials on the broadcast of several Iranian satellite channels, saying that the move throws into question the West’s freedom of speech claims.
Press TV has conducted an interview with Author and Historian Webster Griffin Tarpley from Washington to shed more light on the issue at hand.
He is joined by two additional guests: Robert Oulds, director of the Bruges Group, from Londonand Gordon Duff, the senior editor of Veterans Today from Ohio
What follows is an approximate transcription of the interview.
Australia’s rather dodgy “medical” nuclear reactor
ANSTO chief ducks and weaves on 
questioning about incidents at Lucas Heights nuclear reactor
Noel Wauchope 18 Oct 12, I guess that we can rely on the mainstream media to give a sympathetic coverage to Dr Adi Paterson, chief of Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation (ANSTO) – who was very distressed after being put on the spot in the Senate yesterday. At one point in the polite, but persistent, questioning by Senator Scott Ludlam, the discussion was interrupted by an interjection from David Reid. Reid was the whistleblower who alerted us all to a radiation incident at Lucas Heights, and was sacked for this
Anyway, the most recent KPMG report on the 2007 incident criticised the Australian Radiation Protection and Nuclear Safety Agency (ARPANSA) for its poor response to the incident.
This report was one of several reports on the matter. In February 2011, Australia’s workplace health and safety regulator, Comcare, found the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation, or ANSTO, has under-reported accidents and breached safety standards. Investigating radiation incidents, Comcare found that ANSTO breached health and safety laws. It also reported that Mr Reid’s suspension was somewhat extreme and Mr Reid was substantially denied procedural fairness.
In the Senate yesterday Senator Scott Ludlam got devious answers from Dr Paterson, who seemed bent on asserting that the radioactive spill incidents never happened, anyway. No wonder that David Reid angrily interjected!
SENATOR LUDLAM: ” The KPMG report finds that ANSTO technical and supervisory staff and the executive management covered up the fact that three staff were contaminated by the beta emitter yttrium on the relevant day and that Mr Reid witnessed an incident between two men at the contamination barrier on the day in question n. He reported that one man had yttrium contamination, which is a beta radiation emitter, all down his clothes and in his mouth and that the other man’s supervisor was trying to clean him up and was telling him not to report the contamination….Mr Paterson, are you still contesting that these events even occurred at all? “
DR PATERSON: We were not involved in this investigation in a way that would have allowed us to put all of the issues on the table this was a report that was, indeed, intended for ARPANSA. It was not intended to make any findings in relation to ANSTO, and I do not believe it has done.
SENATOR LUDLAM: It is your facility; it is your plant. It is a report about an accident involving your staff at your facility. I am not quite sure why we are creating this distance. It was created for the regulator because they were extremely unhappy—I will contest these contentions later on this morning with ANSTO—with ANSTO’S response to these incidents, which did indeed occur. These are not alleged incidents. These are a matter of public record.
DR PATERSON I believe that we have been very clear on this matter. If indeed this incident did take place— —(interjection here from David Reid)…
SENATOR LUDLAM: So you contest the existence?
DR PATERSON: : I can contest whether there was an incident of this nature at the time that has been outlined in the report.
Global nuclear medicine planning flawed! -Australian plans to combat looming nuclear medicine supply crisis
The Australian Parliament has been updated today on plans to put our country front and centre in the fight against a looming international nuclear medicine supply crisis.
Romania asks companies to reconsider nuclear plan – Investment is going to wind and solar generation
BUCHAREST | Wed Oct 17, 2012 11:10am BST
Oct 17 (Reuters) – Romania has asked four of Europe’s largest power companies to reconsider a plan to build two nuclear reactors after it failed to find other investors, the Eastern European nation’s deputy economy minister said on Wednesday.
Romania, which must replace a third of its plants by 2020, needs new power generation or faces future supply shortages and rising import costs.
However, many power companies have been scaling back investment in central and eastern Europe in light of the euro zone debt crisis and with a renewed focus on wind and solar capacity.
http://uk.reuters.com/article/2012/10/17/romania-nuclear-idUKL5E8LH6XG20121017
McCarthyism -Activist, Leah-Lynn Plante – Jailed for staying silent! (Video plea)
Source of Article Disclose TV
October 12, 2012 –
“Today is October 10th, 2012, and I am ready to go to prison,”
“The arbitrary issuing of subpoenas to activists and pressuring them to divulge information about others in secret proceedings extends to arresting them when they decide to resist,”
“Today is October 10th, 2012, and I am ready to go to prison,” announced 24-year-old Leah-Lynn Plante yesterday. By Thursday morning, the Portland activist was in custody and could remain incarcerated in a U.S. federal prison for 18 months, although she has not been charged with a crime.
Along with two others in the Pacific Northwest, Plante was remanded into federal custody for her refusal to provide a grand jury testimony regarding activists in the region. Matt Duran and Kteeo Olejnik were jailed in previous weeks for, like Plante, refusing to cooperate with a grand jury. All three are now being held in U.S. federal prison, not because they are being punished for crime, but, as the National Lawyers Guild’s executive director Heidi Boghosian told me earlier this year, “to coerce cooperation.”
Writing for Truth-Out in August about the Northwest grand juries and those resisting cooperation, I noted that grand juries “are among the blackest boxes in the federal judiciary system.” The closed-door procedures are rare instances in which an individual loses the right to remain silent. As was the case with the Northwest grand juries resistors, the grand jury can grant a subpoenaed individual personal immunity; Fifth Amendment rights against self-incrimination are therefore protected, but silence is not. In these instances, refusal to speak can be considered civil contempt. Non-cooperators can be jailed for the 18-month length of the grand jury.
MIchigan -Calls for temporary ‘hardened on-site storage’ of nuclear waste
“Users pay as taxpayers, too – for dry storage,” AP said. “Utilities that have run out of storage space in pools successfully sued the federal government for breach of contract, because it failed to keep to the 1998 deadline to establish long-term storage. By law, the money for dry casks cannot come from the nuclear waste fund, and must come from the federal budget.”
“We can’t keep generating more and more of this waste,” said Jackson, “It’s not socially responsible.”
Published: Monday, October 15, 2012
By Jim Bloch, Voice Reporter
They oppose reprocessing spent nuclear fuel rods. They are critical of current methods of storing high level nuclear waste in cooling pools and dry casks.What do they propose to do with the more than 68,000 tons of spent fuel in the U.S. as of 2009, according to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, which is growing by 2,000-2,400 tons per year?
The short answer is hardened on-site storage of used fuel rods.
Eternal danger
The problem with high level nuclear waste is that it remains dangerously radioactive for hundreds of thousands, sometimes millions of years.
“Spent nuclear fuel is about 95 percent uranium,” said a 2011 AP report. “About 1 percent are other heavy elements such as curium, americium and plutonium-239, best known as fuel for nuclear weapons. Each has an extremely long half-life” – the time it takes to lose half its radioactivity – “(and) some take hundreds of thousands of years to lose all of their radioactive potency. The rest, about 4 percent, is a cocktail of byproducts of fission that break down over much shorter time periods, such as cesium-137 and strontium-90, which break down completely in about 300 years.”
Birth defects in iraq from depleted uranium
Depleted Uranium to Blame for Iraqi Birth Defects? http://www.americamagazine.org/blog/entry.cfm?blog_id=2&entry_id=5425 AMERICA – THE NATIONAL CATHOLIC WEEKLY , OCTOBER 16, 2012 by KEVIN CLARKE The U.S. military has consistently downplayed or denied possible adverse health and environmental effects because of its use of depleted uranium ordnance , yet birth defects and spikes in sometimes odd health problems seem to follow closely behind in communities unfortunate enough to have been the site of the heavy use of such munitions. U.S. and NATO forces used D.U. penetrator munitions in the 1991 Gulf War, the Bosnia war, Serbia and the 2003 invasion of Iraq.
Now in Fallujah, Iraq, the site of two rounds of intense fighting and bombing raids by U.S. forces in March and April 2004, a University of Michigan study (<-warning: not for faint of heart) funded by the World Health Organization has uncovered “staggering” increases in sometimes bizarre birth defects—babies born with brains and other organs outside their bodies—according to a report in Britain’s Independent . The study found that in Fallujah, more than half of all babies born between 2007 and 2010 suffered some kind of birth defect. “Before the siege, this figure was more like one in 10.” Continue reading
Australian Prime Minister unwise to support India’s dodgy nuclear power program
India is pursuing an unreliable technology. The DAE’s plans involve constructing hundreds of fast breeder reactors.
there are reasons to be worried about the risk of severe accidents at Indian nuclear facilities.
there are ongoing protests at all new sites selected for nuclear plants. The protracted and intense protests over commissioning of the Koodankulam reactors in Tamil Nadu is just the most spectacular of these.
India’s nuclear power failures warn against uranium exports, The Conversation, MV Ramana 16 October 2012, Selling Australian uranium is reportedly at the top of Prime Minister Julia Gillard’s priorities as she travels to India this week. Before she decides to do that, there are three facts she may want to consider. Continue reading
International Renewable Energy Agency’s success in developing countries
The World Energy Forum in Dubai from October 22 to 24 is a major event. It is the first time this event is being held away from UN headquarters in New York.
Renewable energy in developing countries to inspire world http://gulfnews.com/news/gulf/uae/environment/renewable-energy-in-developing-countries-to-inspire-world-1.1090242 Around 160 countries joined Irena within a few years — an unprecedented achievement By Binsal Abdul Kader, October 16, 2012 Abu Dhabi: Initiatives in renewable energy in developing countries will inspire the world to adopt clean energy to address energy poverty and climate change caused by pollution, a top official of International Renewable Energy said on Monday. Continue reading
Nuclear power UNsafety in India
India questions its own nuclear industry, SMH, October 15, 2012 ”…….India’s comptroller and auditor-general, Vinod Rai, has found the body that oversees nuclear safety in India, the Atomic Energy Regulatory Board, is ineffective, mired in bureaucracy and negligent in monitoring safety.
Sixty per cent of regulatory inspection reports for operating nuclear power plants in India were either delayed – up to 153 days late – or not undertaken at all. For power plants under construction, the number of regulatory inspections delayed or not done was 66 per cent.
Smaller radiation facilities operate throughout the country with no licences and no oversight at all. In many cases there are no rules for nuclear operators to follow. Despite an order from the government in 1983, the board has still not developed an overarching nuclear and radiation safety policy for India.
And even when laws do exist and are broken, the existing legislation gives the board almost no punitive power. In some cases, the fines for nuclear safety transgressions are as low as 500 rupees – less than $10.
India has had nuclear scares already. In 2010, a gamma irradiation machine containing Cobalt-60 was sold off by Delhi University for scrap. Pulled apart, it unleashed a massive dose of radiation, killing one person and putting another six in hospital.
The Indian government has legislation before parliament to replace the board with a new body, the proposed Nuclear Safety Regulatory Authority.
But Prabir Purkayastha from the Delhi Science Forum said: ”It is a very weak piece of legislation, that makes the regulator subservient to a group of ministers. It is a weakening of the current regulation.” http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/political-news/india-questions-its-own-nuclear-industry-20121014-27l0a.html#ixzz29Zt1gRpm
Lithuanium referendum result is a blow to global nuclear industry
As these companies have no prospect of building a new nuclear plant in Japan since the government reviewed the nuclear energy policy after the Fukushima crisis, they must try to expand their businesses overseas
Hitachi’s nuclear plan hits bump / Lithuania referendum on construction project could hurt export strategy The Yomiuri Shimbun, 17 Oct 12 A Lithuanian referendum result has cast a shadow over Hitachi Ltd.’s strategy to increase sales from its nuclear business–and could affect other Japanese companies in the nuclear industry. Continue reading
1 This Month
Protect Sazan Island from the Trump family! https://secure.avaaz.org/campaign/en/protect_sazan_island_from_the_trump_family_loc/?bqFCVab&v=174511&cl=22707147157&_checksum=5e9dde668860e8231c33699735e16a1fbf22ab2cb01da50c999fe8732b9775ef&utm_source=email&utm_medium=blast_email&utm_campaign=174511
Cuba Is Not a Failed State – It Is a Besieged State
PETITION: “Global Appeal to Endorse Palestinian Right of Return of Refugees”
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