Iran seeking compromise over the nuclear issue?
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
Bulgaria’s nuclear referendum
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
Seabed off Fukushima radioactive for decades to come
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
Supervisor at Calvert Cliffs confirmed positive for alcohol during fitness for duty test 26 Oct 12 http://enformable.com/2012/10/supervisor-at-calvert-cliffs-confirmed-positive-for-alcohol-during-fitness-for-duty-test/?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter
Federal judge uphold’s Vermont State’s right to tax nuclear power plant
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
Project on Nuclear Issues – Rather well funded! Missing Pallets of cash?
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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This blog pushes the nuclear debate forward with daily posts, original contributions by members, and guest commentary from senior experts.
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Each year PONI hosts four conferences that bring together people from across the nuclear enterprise to discuss a range of nuclear issues.
Nuclear lobby overrides democracy in India – ban on Australian filmmaker David Bradbury
Australia’s best-known documentary film-maker, David Bradbury, was prevented by the Tamil Nadu Police from entering Idinthakarai.
The detention is likely to have international ramifications given the stature of Bradbury as a film-maker
Australian Film-Maker Stopped by Police in Koodankulam, Tamil Nadu By Sri Lanka Guardian October 26, 2012 Chennai, Amid conflicting reports about detention of Australian Film-maker David Bradbury in Koodankulam, we are posting below the updates as we receive them. After deportation of a German tourist and 3 Japanese activists, this is yet another move of stifling democracy by the Government which must be condemned in strongest terms. Continue reading
US use of nuclear weapons, crying shame: Analyst (Video) -Ploughshares
Beregin: The American people are, more and more, making their voices heard againstBush and his warrior clones. Bush and his minions slip out of control, determined to go to war, determined to go it alone, determined to endanger the Palestinians further, determined to control Iraqi oil, determined to ravage further a suffering people and their shattered society. The American people can stop Bush, can yank his feet closer to the fire, can banish the war makers from Washington D.C., can turn this society around and restore it to faith and sanity.Obuszewksi: Absolutely. The Obama administration has asked for USD 585 billion to upgrade the nuclear arsenal. It is a crying shame. The dangers are evident. The radiation is poisoning.Obuszewksi: Well, it is our government officials. It is our military. Your listeners should know this. December 19th, 1999, four peace activists went to a military base outside of Baltimore to disarm helicopters which fired depleted uranium. This was Philip Berrigan and three of his colleagues. Philip Berrigan is now dead. He was the founder of the Plowshares Movement but they recognized, far back, the dangers of depleted uranium.
Tens of thousands of people, including the survivors, victims’ relatives, and government officials attended the annual ceremony at Hiroshima Peace Memorial, commonly called the Atomic Bomb Dome, on Monday.
Hiroshima was devastated on August 6, 1945 after the US B-29 bomber Enola Gay dropped an atomic bomb on the city, killing an estimated 140,000 people instantly or gradually from radiation sickness and cancers. Three days later, another atomic bomb was dropped on Nagasaki, killing more than 70,000.
Press TV has conducted an interview with Max Obuszewksi, peace activist from Baltimore, to further discuss the issue.
The video also offers the opinions of two other guests: senior editor of Veterans Today (VT) website, Gordon Duff and Vietnamese-American political analyst and writer, Linh Dinh.
The following is a rough transcription of the interview. (And link to the video)
Europe’s Extreme light Infrastructure Nuclear Laser project still being hyped. To good to be true?
“..Dr Goldsworthy hopes that in 20 years the laser technology could be enriching a third of the world’s power station uranium, returning “handsome royalty streams” to Australia…”
“ELI will have a large societal benefit in medicine with new radiography and hadron therapy methods. It will also considerably contribute to material science with the possibility to unravel and slow down the aging process in nuclear reactors and in the environment by offering new ways to treat nuclear wastes.”
“…Similarly, the final amplification stage takes multiple lines and one needs to coherently superpose them, as many as 10 or so at the highest power. This is a challenge that the world has never encountered nor has been carried out at this level…”
Zapping Nuclear Waste With Laser Beams Could Actually Be A Great Idea
by MARK MEMMOTT
“World’s Most Powerful Laser Beams To Zap Nuclear Waste.”
That Bloomberg Businessweek headline got our attention. We were imagining the explosion that might result.
But as it turns out, the zapping “could destroy nuclear waste and provide new cancer treatments,” according to the story.
Japanese Legal Expert: “Even residents of Tokyo are evacuating” — More and more people fleeing Fukushima (VIDEO)
“…more and more people evacuate Fukushima…”
http://enenews.com/even-residents-of-tokyo-are-evacuating
Published: October 26th, 2012 at 9:16 am ET
By ENENews
Title: Japanese Attorney Masaki Kito on Fukushima and real estate
Published by: A4NR
Published on: Oct 26, 2012
And this press release from Brunei concerning contaminated food from Japan
THURSDAY, 11 OCTOBER 2012 08:50ROKIAH MAHMUD
-Importation Of Some Food Items From Japan Suspended -Lack of trust? -Brunei Darussalam
“In this regard, importers and the public have been informed that the importation of certain food categories has been suspended.
The importation of any meat, seafood, milk and milk products, fruits and vegetables (fresh and processed), tubers including potato and sweet Potato, seaweed and green tea products from Fukushima, Ibaraki, Tochigi, Gunma, Saitama, Kanagawa, Tokyo and Chiba Prefectures are temporarily suspended.”
Urgent petition to save the children of Fukushima -Evacuate now!
UK -Horizon nuclear to be sold to the Chinese and Japanese?
By David Coates
Published on Friday 28 September 2012 09:20
A battle between China and Japan’s financial heavyweights will decide the future of a huge contract to build new nuclear power stations.
The bidding war to buy Horizon Nuclear Power, a group which owns two sites earmarked for a pair of reactors in North Wales and Gloucestershire, has stepped up with Japanese giant Hitachi entering the fray.
It is up against consortiums led by reactor-building group Westinghouse, backed by the financial muscle of China’s State Nuclear Power Technology Corp, and rival reactor firm Areva and China’s Guangdong Nuclear Power Group Company.
A successful bid for Horizon by Westinghouse would see the contract for decades of fuel for the new reactors head to Springfields Fuels factory in Salwick, near Preston, which employs nearly 1,000 people.
The group has also vowed to ramp up its headquarters on Matrix Park at Buckshaw Village, near Leyland, if it is successful in building its AP1000 reactor across the UK.
The Evening Post understands Hitachi has entered the battle having teamed up with Canadian company, SNC Lavalin.
On Friday, Mike Graham, national secretary of nuclear workers’ trade union, Prospect, said the battle to acquired Horizon had come down to a bidding war between China and Japan.
Scientific symposium in Tokyo on November 12 and 13 2012 – Still limited data after 18 months
“What we really need is a better understanding of the sources and sinks of cesium and other radionuclides that continue to drive what we’re seeing in the ocean off Fukushima.”
Japan’s “triple disaster,” as it has become known, began on March 11, 2011, and remains unprecedented in its scope and complexity. To understand the lingering effects and potential public health implications of that chain of events, scientists are turning to a diverse and widespread sentinel in the world’s ocean: fish.
[…]
As a result, Buesseler concludes that there may be a continuing source of radionuclides into the ocean, either in the form of low-level leaks from the reactor site itself or contaminated sediment on the seafloor. In addition, the varying levels of contamination across fish types points to complex methods of uptake and release by different species, making the task of regulation and of communicating the reasons behind decision-making to the fish-hungry Japanese public all the more difficult. “To predict the how patterns of contamination will change over time will take more than just studies of fish,” said Buesseler, who led an international research cruise in 2011 to study the spread of radionuclides from Fukushima. “What we really need is a better understanding of the sources and sinks of cesium and other radionuclides that continue to drive what we’re seeing in the ocean off Fukushima.” To help achieve this, Buesseler and his colleague Mitsuo Uematsu at the University of Tokyo are organizing a scientific symposium in Tokyo on November 12 and 13 to present the most current findings available about how radionuclides from Fukushima Dai-ichi have affected the ocean, marine life, seafood, policy decisions, and media coverage to date. The event will also include a free public colloquium in Tokyo on November 14 to help spread information about the lessons learned to the broadest possible audience.
[….]
Read more at: http://phys.org/news/2012-10-fishing-fukushima.html#jCp
Leaflet distribution against Kudankulam nuclear plant
(Mirror) – The Movement for People’s Struggle is conducting a leaflet distribution in Jaffna, Vavuniya and Mannar against the Kudankulam nuclear plant in South India.
It warns the lives of 1.5 million Sri Lankans, including one million in the north, are in danger due to this nuclear plant.
It accuses the government of keeping silent over this grave threat.
http://www.mirror.lk/news/2711-leaflet-distribution-against-kudankulam-nuclear-plant
Slovak Nuclear Power Plants Must Ramp Up Power Supply -Bloomberg
The accident occurred when a tsunami knocked out power supply to Fukushima reactors, disrupting the cooling process that led to reactor meltdown, causing mass evacuations and leading to long-term environmental damage.
Correction to article: meltdown should read meltdowns (3 ) arclight2011
By Ladka Bauerova – Oct 26, 2012
Stress tests at Slovakia’s two nuclear power stations revealed that the facilities need to improve the safety of auxiliary electricity supply, the country’s nuclear security chief said.
Plants in Jaslovske Bohunice and Mochovce, controlled by Enel SpA (ENEL), were forced toreview and improve the diesel generators that ensure the supply of power to the power stations, especially the circuits operating the nuclear reactors, Marta Ziakova, the chairwoman of the Slovak Nuclear Safety Office, said in an interview in Valec, Czech Republic yesterday.
The Mochovce plant, which currently operates two Soviet- designed water-pressure reactors VVER and is building two more, had to increase the capacity of its diesel generators to be able to supply all four units with electricity at the same time, she said. Her office also asked the Jaslovske Bohunice plant to carry out a seismic safety review.
“We asked the Bohunice management to review the plant’s resistance to seismic activities, especially the resistance of the diesel generators,” Ziakova said.
The reviews were part of Europe-wide nuclear stress tests carried out after the reactor disaster at Japan’s Fukushima Dai- Ichi plant in March last year. The accident occurred when a tsunami knocked out power supply to Fukushima reactors, disrupting the cooling process that led to reactor meltdown, causing mass evacuations and leading to long-term environmental damage.
The post-Fukushima stress tests have delayed the completion of units 3 and 4 at Mochovce to 2014-15. So far there is no indication of further delays, Ziakova said.
The older Jaslovske Bohunice reactors received a 10-year life extension in 2008. Slovenske Elektrarne AS, the Slovak utility controlled by Enel, invested about 500 million euros ($645 million) into modernization and improving output. Slovenske can apply for further lifespan extension by 2014, she said.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-10-26/slovak-nuclear-power-plants-must-ramp-up-power-supply.html
Future of UK nuclear power hangs in the balance, says EDF boss -Guardian
The company says it is waiting for government reassurances before going ahead with a nuclear construction programme.
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Fiona Harvey, environment correspondent
- The Guardian, Tuesday 23 October 2012
[,,,]
Vincent de Rivaz, chief executive of EDF Energy, told MPs at a select committee hearing on Tuesday that he had still not made up his mind whether to go ahead with a construction programme that would see the first new nuclear power stations in the UK for decades.
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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