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Former Tokyo Governor calls for nuclear weapons for Japan

Possible kingmaker calls for nuclear-armed Japan Sunday Times Sri Lanka,  20 NOVEMBER 2012 TOKYO,  (AFP) – Firebrand former Tokyo governor Shintaro Ishihara, a potential kingmaker in next month’s general election, said Tuesday Japan must acquire nuclear weapons if it wants to be taken seriously.
At very least, avowedly pacifist Japan should examine what it would need to do to join the club of declared nuclear powers, the 80-year-old arch conservative told foreign journalists in Tokyo. “I think Japan should at least carry out an analysis on going nuclear,” Ishihara said.
“The diplomatic voice of countries without nuclear weapons is overwhelmingly weak,” he said.

Ishihara has a long track record of saying controversial things and breaking cultural taboos. He has previously expressed the same thoughts on Japan — the only country on which a nuclear attack has ever taken place — getting atomic weapons.

But his comments Tuesday come just days after he was declared leader of a populist party forged ahead of the December 16 general election with the express aim of challenging the two major forces in Japanese politics.
Next month’s poll is expected to end without a clear result, with prime minister Yoshihiko Noda’s Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) and the main opposition Liberal Democratic Party seen likely to fall short
of a majority.
Commentators expect a period of horse trading as a coalition is forged, with Ishihara’s Japan Restoration Party (JRP) a leading contender for a post-election political marriage…….
http://www.sundaytimes.lk/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=27076:-possible-kingmaker-calls-for-nuclear-armed-japan&catid=81:news&Itemid=625

November 21, 2012 Posted by | Japan, politics, weapons and war | Leave a comment

Podcast: Tokyo’s highly radioactive soil

Podcast Gundersen: Tokyo soil so hot it should be sent to nuclear waste dump — Really severe releases hit city  http://enenews.com/gundersen-tokyo-soil-hot-be-shipped-radioactive-dump    http://www.fairewinds.com/content/fairewinds-podcast
November 19th, 2012  
Fairewinds Podcast, Nov. 18, 2012:
Nuclear Expert Arnie Gundersen, Fairewinds Energy Education: : Our readers may remember when I came back from Tokyo back in February, I had 5 samples of dirt that I had taken just randomly around the city. They were all over 7,000 disintegrations per second in a two pound bag (Bq/kg). What that told me was that the releases from the accident were really severe even as far away as Tokyo. And I said then that if this were contaminated ground at a nuclear power plant it would have to be considered as nuclear waste. Well, we took a lot flack for that on the Fairewinds site, but we were right on the mark.

What happened just last week was that in a suburb of Tokyo another sample was taken by citizens and they brought it to the attention of the government that then sampled it. But basically they had a hot spot that was in excess of 10,000 disintegrations per second per kilogram of their sample. So here we are 9 months after I took my samples and citizens are still finding hot spots all over the Tokyo area. I think it speaks to one, the magnitude of the initial release. This was a serious release, not just for Fukushima Prefecture but for Tokyo and its suburbs as well. […]

So if Tokyo could be highly contaminated to the point where its soil should be shipped to a nuclear waste dump […] if Tokyo can have soil so hot that it should be shipped to a radioactive dump, what might happen to our nation’s capitol, the biggest city in the United States, or to L.A. in the event of a nuclear accident? We’re really not prepared. Our policy makers at the NRC have not even envisioned that as a possibility.

November 21, 2012 Posted by | environment, Japan, Resources -audiovicual | Leave a comment

USA: Nuclear Free Movement Has Made Progress in 2012

Nuclear Information and Resource Center, 20 Nov 12 Sometimes it’s important to step back and reflect on our movement’s accomplishments…. Think about how far we’ve come this year: Continue reading →

November 21, 2012 Posted by | general | Leave a comment

World Bank calls for action on warming planet

World Bank fears 4-degree warmer planet ,  Nov 19, 2012   (ABC News: Giulio Saggin) The World Bank has warned global temperatures could rise by four degrees Celsius this century without immediate action, with potentially devastating consequences for coastal cities and the poor. Continue reading →

November 21, 2012 Posted by | 2 WORLD, climate change | Leave a comment

In Lithuania – wind to take over from nuclear power?

Lithuania May Partly Replace Nuclear Power With Wind, Lobby Says Bloomberg, By Torsten Fagerholm – Nov 19, 2012 An expansion of wind power in Lithuania may help the country to improve its energy independence and offset a shortfall caused by closure of nuclear capacity.
Installed wind power capacity is likely double to 500 megawatts by 2015, five years ahead of schedule, paving the way for energy independence without nuclear power, Continue reading →

November 21, 2012 Posted by | EUROPE, renewable | Leave a comment

Radiologists plan for conservative use of medical radiation – Image Wisely

Image Wisely urges nuclear medicine docs to take the pledge Dot Med News, November 20, 2012 by Brendon Nafziger , DOTmed News Associate Editor A campaign by radiologists to encourage health care providers to expose patients to less ionizing radiation is urging nuclear medicine doctors and technicians to take the pledge.

Image Wisely announced Wednesday that it worked with the Society of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging, its technologist section, and the American Society of Nuclear Cardiology to create online documents to help providers use the lowest dose of radiopharmaceuticals
necessary to take a scan. …..
The campaign asks providers to agree to a four-point pledge: to perform nuclear medicine procedures only when clinically indicated; individualize administered doses; take steps to minimize radiation dose; and become familiar with the radiopharmaceutical’s recommended
administered activity. …
The pledge can be taken by radiologists, technologists, referring physicians, imaging facilities and medical associations. As of this writing, 15,881 pledges have been taken, according to the
organization.

The Image Wisely campaign was created by the American College of Radiology, the Radiological Society of North America, the American Association of Physicists in Medicine and the American Society of Radiologic Technologists.  http://www.dotmed.com/news/story/19948/

November 21, 2012 Posted by | health, USA | Leave a comment

Cumbran opposition to UK nuclear waste Solway dump plan

MARYPORT HOSTS ‘CRISIS’ TALKS ON SOLWAY NUCLEAR DUMP http://www.in-cumbria.com/maryport-hosts-crisis-talks-on-solway-nuclear-dump-1.1014583?referrerPath=news-archive/mediawatch , 20 November 2012
A campaign to stop an underground nuclear waste store being built on the Solway Plain will step up a gear next week. A series of what are described as “crisis” meetings will be held in Maryport and Silloth.

A recently formed protest group, Solway Plain Against Nuclear Dump, will hold its first public meeting at Maryport’s Wave Centre on Wednesday. Continue reading →

November 21, 2012 Posted by | general | Leave a comment

Cleanup of 70 year old thorium uranium waste site at Brookly/Queens border

Site on borough border being purged of radiation, Queens Ledger,  by Kathleen Lees Nov 20, 2012   A piece of property along the Brooklyn/Queens border, formerly owned and operated by the Wolff-Alport Chemical Company, is currently undergoing a process to help reduce levels of elevated radiation in the area.

During the 1940s, the organization imported monazite sand at its location at 1125-1139 Irving Ave., which contains thorium and small amounts of uranium byproducts. When the company closed in 1954 and went out of business, an EPA document stated that some waste products
from the site were disposed into a nearby sewer or buried at the location. Continue reading →

November 21, 2012 Posted by | general | Leave a comment

Nuclear building dispute in Czech Republic

Czech nuclear tender dispute: Areva wins some breathing space Ft.com November 20, 2012 by beyondbrics The Czech authorities have temporarily blocked the state power company CEZ from signing a contract to build two nuclear reactors while they consider an appeal from France’s Areva against its disqualification from the tender.

The order from the Office for the Protection of Competition (UOHS) is not the body blow to the tender that Areva, angry at its exclusion, is trying to engineer.

But it injects more uncertainty into a process that was knocked sideways by CEZ’s surprise decision last month to drop Areva, leaving only Toshiba’s US subsidiary Westinghouse and a Czech-Russian consortium to contest the estimated €8bn-$10bn project for two reactors at the Temelin plant….. http://blogs.ft.com/beyond-brics/2012/11/20/czech-nuclear-tender-dispute-areva-wins-some-breathing-space/#axzz2CsZBwCx5

November 21, 2012 Posted by | general | Leave a comment

Radiation harms space technology, as well as people

Pioneering planet hunter suffers radiation overdose, New Scientist, 20 November 2012 by Lisa Grossman The first space telescope to hunt for transiting exoplanets may be on its deathbed.

On 2 November, the COROT satellite, which launched in 2006, lost the use of its only remaining onboard computer. The spacecraft can no longer receive data from its 30-centimetre telescope, which searches for the telltale dimming of stars as planets cross in front of them.

The culprit was too much radiation, says project scientist Malcolm Fridlund of the European Space Agency. The orbiting spacecraft had spent a long time in a harsh particle environment called the South Atlantic Anomaly.

Earth’s magnetic field is especially weak at this region about 200 to 800 kilometres above the surface, leading to high levels of damaging radiation. Because of its passages through the anomaly, COROT had survived more than twice the amount of radiation it was designed to
withstand….. http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn22517-pioneering-planet-hunter-suffers-radiation-overdose.html

November 21, 2012 Posted by | 2 WORLD, technology | Leave a comment

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