nuclear-news

Nicki Minaj goes from Hawaii beach to Dungeness nuclear power station – and Cornelia Hesse-Honegger

Nicki Minaj’s last video saw her bikini-clad bod sprawled across a tropical island.

Her latest sees her on a shingle beach. In Dungeness. In November.

The American star, 29, has spent the past four days prancing around the frozen headland on the coast of Kent, shooting her new no expense spared video.

The sunshine-heavy clip for her hit Starships was filmed on Hawaii’s Oahu island.

That was very much a one-take number – but her new video will have to be heavily air-brushed because of Dungeness’ unsightly nuclear power plant.

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“As well as clever editing to remove the power station from certain beach shots, Dungeness has no luxury hotels, beach bars or casinos so the special effects team are having to pool all their resources.

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“It wasn’t glamorous, or pretty.”

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Whereas Nicki’s seven-day stint in Hawaii saw her snorkel and sunbathe when off duty, Dungeness has afforded her no such opportunity.

Waste hot water and sewage from the nuclear power stations are pumped into the sea through two pipes, meaning it is not the ideal swimming destination.

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November 7, 2012 Posted by arclight2011 | Uncategorized | Leave a comment

IAEA to offer nuclear oversight assurance for India/Canada nuclear deal ..no real oversight?

“”It defies logic that the Nuclear Suppliers Group would provide an exemption for nuclear trade with India, thereby ‘rewarding’ a country that is neither a member of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty nor a signatory of the Comprehensive Test-Ban Treaty — and continues to produce fissile material,” Jaramillo wrote.”

“”We don’t oversee, we’ll be receiving those assurances from the IAEA,” Aurele Gervais, a spokesman with the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission, told The Canadian Press.

“The agreement that was successfully negotiated and will be signed in the near future will ensure that Canada receives the necessary assurances from India and from the International Atomic Energy Agency that the materials will be peacefully used.”

India hasn’t signed the non-proliferation or test-ban treaties but in February 2009 it agreed to begin reporting to the UN-based IAEA on its civilian nuclear plants.”

NEW DELHI – A long-delayed nuclear co-operation deal that will see Canadian uranium shipped to nuclear-armed India has been negotiated to “achieve all of our objectives in terms of non-proliferation,” Prime Minister Stephen Harper said Tuesday.

Harper and his Indian counterpart Manmohan Singh announced the completion of negotiations on the technical details that will permit a nuclear co-operation agreement to be ratified.

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Nuclear trade talks between India and Canada began in January 2009 but progressed slowly, blowing past Harper’s November 2009 visit to the South Asia giant.

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India used a Canadian-supplied reactor to create the plutonium for its “Smiling Buddha” nuclear test blast in 1974.

The detonation harmed bilateral relations for two decades. It also sparked a nuclear sales moratorium and helped boost the global non-proliferation movement.

India has never signed the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons or the Comprehensive Test-Ban Treaty.

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November 7, 2012 Posted by arclight2011 | Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Sellafield nuclear waste storage poses ‘intolerable risk’ -Hitachi to burn plutonium

“It also concluded that over the five decades it was open, operators failed to plan how to dispose of the radioactive waste and some of the older facilities have “deteriorated so much that their contents pose significant risks to people and the environment”.”

Sellafield audit shows safety costs spiralling

• Rajeev Syal and Fiona Harvey
• guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 7 November 2012

The projected cost of safely storing radioactive material at Britain’s largest nuclear site in Sellafield has increased by more than £900m in 10 months, the National Audit Office says in a report released on Wednesday.

Plans to replace the ageing nuclear waste facilities in Cumbria have suffered severe delays, auditors said. Twelve out of 14 of the major projects launched last year to build facilities to store material safely are over budget, they have concluded.

The findings have been described as “dire” by MPs. It is the first official audit of the Cumbrian site since a consortium of private companies was brought in to oversee safety in 2008.

Margaret Hodge, who chairs parliament’s public accounts committee, urged the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA) to “get a grip” on the spiralling costs. “My concern is that unless the authority holds Sellafield Limited [the company responsible for the site] to a clear and rigorously benchmarked plan, timetables will continue to slip and costs spiral.

“It is totally unacceptable to allow today’s poor management to shift the burden and expense of Sellafield to future generations of taxpayers and their families,” she said.

In 2008, the authority appointed a consortium of private sector companies – URS, AMEC and Areva – as a parent body of the site to bring in outside expertise. The authority plans to clear up the site over the next 108 years.

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November 7, 2012 Posted by arclight2011 | Uncategorized | 3 Comments