Roundup of the week’s nuclear news
Christina Macpherson’s websites & blogs
USA is not looking good in the nuclear non proliferation stakes. First of all, it has justed exploded another nuclear bomb test. Secondly USA cancelled the Middle East nuclear weapons-free zone conference that was scheduled mid this month in Helsinki, Finland.
The USA military came out with an extraordinary attitude to drone killing of Afghan children – “it was thought that the children had hostile intent” http://antiwar.com/blog/2012/12/04/us-military-says-killing-afghan-children-is-fair-game/
USA nuclear companies are spending a lot of money on all kinds of equipment that will prepare them for a nuclear accident – the FLEX program – costs are not yet known.
UK has a secret plan to move its Trident nuclear submarines out of Scotland, in the event that Scotland chooses independence from UK – Scotland opposes the nuclear weapons presence on its land
India is still holding fast to it Nuclear Liability Law – despite USA pressure -( the law would make make USA nuclear companies accountable for accidents involving their technology)
Renewable energy – Saudi Arabia (and Qatar) will become the” Saudi Arabia of solar energy “- with their massive initiatives in Concentrated Thermal Solar Power.
European Economic and Social Committee at a nuclear safety conference on the Aarhus Convention in the field of nuclear safety found that the public is not being informed about the safety tests of Europe’s nuclear reactors.
Fukushima NHK Documentary:Letters of hope – Children from the tsunami zone
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CaXtfZ5WGf8 Letters of hope – Children from the tsunami zone aired 12/8/12 (excerpt) MissingSky101 Dec 8, 2012 A very moving and poignant video diary selection describing the hopes and fears of the children living near the nuclear disaster site.
Children talk about the nuclear accident after the earthquake. with updates a year and a half on.
NHK March to Recovery Series:
One year has passed since the Great East Japan Earthquake. Reconstruction initiatives are underway in many places, including the disaster-stricken areas. March to Recovery shows how the nation is recovering from the unprecedented disaster.
VIDEO – frenzied consumerism
Fetid Consumer Society – Black Friday Feeding Frenzy http://deadwildroses.wordpress.com/2012/11/27/fetid-consumer-society-black-friday-feeding-frenzy/ November 27, 2012
This is what we get when people accept the idea that we are nation of consumers rather than a nation of individuals with rights and responsibilities to ourselves and others.–
The Work and Spend trap – how we all fell for the consumerist con
One analysis at the University of Melbourne sought to discover the reasons why people are increasingly compelled to work more than 50 hours a week.
The correct answer was consumerism. It was the “work-and-spend” trap, an endless cycle characterised by the desire for higher living standards, linked with greater levels of debt that can only be managed by working longer and harder.
A frenzy of consumerism http://www.theage.com.au/small-business/blogs/work-in-progress/a-frenzy-of-consumerism-20121207-2ayut.html#ixzz2EgEa2wIK The Age, December 7, 2012 James Adonis There was something quite tragic about There was something quite tragic about the Click Frenzy
frenzy, wasn’t there? The same could be said about the Black Friday stampedes in the US, It’s tasteless consumerism to the max, turning ordinary people into ravenous and mindless shoppers, with flow-on effects in the workplace.
But first, let’s go back to 1929. In an article written for Nation’s Business magazine, Charles Kettering – a director of General Motors Research – opined on the need for companies to keep consumers dissatisfied. The moment people are happy with what they have, “almost immediately hard times would be upon us”, he wrote.
And so it is that marketers persevere with advertising to convince us we’re not sexy enough, popular enough, smart enough, or (whatever) enough, unless we purchase what they’re selling. Continue reading
Nuclear power “like burning $20 bills to generate electricity”
It was Wall Street, not environmentalists, that put the kibosh to nuclear power: McKibben http://www.mining.com/it-was-wall-street-not-environmentalists-that-put-the-kibosh-to-nuclear-power-mckibben-36270/ Michael Allan McCrae | December 9, 2012 People aren’t looking to nuclear power as a solution to global warming because building a plant is just too expensive, says American environmentalist and author Bill McKibben.
“Given what happened in Fukushima it seems entirely unlikely to me you are going to convince people to put these in,” McKibben told the Daily Dish in a recent interview.
“[But] it wasn’t really environmentalists that put the kibosh on nuclear power, it was pretty much Wall Street. Nobody was willing to pay for these things.
“It’s like burning $20 bills to generate electricity.” McKibben admits there are few places like China where nuclear power is being built “for a variety of reasons.”
“But even in China they are putting in vastly more renewable energy than nuclear power because they can do it quickly, and they can do it economically.”
Japan workers organise for a nuclear free society
It’s Labor’s Turn! – Workers’ Committee to Aim for Nuclear Free Society Established http://labornetjp.blogspot.com.au/2012/12/its-labors-turn-workers-committee-to.html “Civil society is active in no nukes movement, but it’s our turn now to mobilize workers and unions,” HASEGAWA Takehisa, president of Japan Construction and Transport Industry Workers Solidarity Union, said on Nov. 20 in Tokyo. “We have long made effort to protect our jobs and livelihoods, but as we are threatened even for our existence by nuclear plants, we must protect our lives and safety. No life, no job. We would build solidarity with those who are deprived of decent work and living due to dangerous work in radioactive environment.” The committee formed by seven unions plans to hold a simultaneous actions in March and movie screening of a documentary on people of Futaba. Some 60 attended the meeting held for establishment of the committee and listened to KAIDO Yuichi, lawyer, who spoke of the basic law on nuclear free society. (By M)
India standing firm against USA pressure to weaken its Nuclear Liability Law
Won’t bow to US on nuclear liability law: Salman Khurshid Jayanth Jacob,Hindustan Times New Delhi, December 10, 2012 India has strongly rejected mounting US pressure to tweak its nuclear liability law — including suggestions that the legislation be interpreted by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and revisited by Parliament.
Washington, DC, says the Indian law with stringent supplier international regimes on nuclear liability. If the IAEA says it is not compliant with the international system — as the Americans believe — they want India to “rework the law”, passed by Parliament. “The law (the Civil Liability for Nuclear Damage Act, 2010) has to be interpreted by our courts. Our courts are not subservient to any international organisation. They take into account our international obligations,” external affairs minister Salman Khurshid told HT in an exclusive interview……
The tough negotiations between India and the US also implies that commercial agreements for American companies to sell reactors to India are not likely any time soon, making operationalisation of the historic nuclear deal stuck in the last lap…..
http://www.hindustantimes.com/India-news/NewDelhi/Won-t-bow-to-US-on-nuclear-liability-law-Salman-Khurshid/Article1-970731.aspx
America’s latest nuclear bomb test – an act of hypocrisy
American Nuclear Hypocrisy , 09 December 2012 By Elias Akleh“…….The American nuclear hypocrisy was lately demonstrated when the US National Nuclear Security Administration had detonated plutonium in a deep shaft in Nevada National Security Site on Wednesday 12/5/2012, allegedly to test the safety and effectiveness of the American nuclear weapons. The test, known as Pollux, was conducted jointly by the Nevada National Security Site, the Los Alamos National Laboratory, and Sandia National Laboratories. International inspectors were not allowed to witness the test since the US had prevented access to its test sites since late 1990s.
Let us not forget that the US is the only country that used nuclear bombs against civilians in 1945. The US dropped an atomic bomb on the Japanese city of Hiroshima incinerating at least 140 thousand civilians in seconds. Three days later the US dropped another nuclear bomb on Nagazaki incinerating further 70 thousand civilians. Hundreds of thousands others died later due to radiation. http://mwcnews.net/focus/editorial/23374-eliasakleh-nuclear-hypocrisy.html
Saudi Arabia, Qatar to become, well, the Saudi Arabia of solar power
Gulf riches could supercharge concentrated solar, REneweconomy, By Giles Parkinson 10 December 2012 The concentrated solar power (CSP) sector is expected to finally spring to life – and begin its long-awaited journey down the cost curve – as the oil and gas-rich Gulf nations deploy their massive sovereign wealth in solar technologies.
At the climate change talks in Doha, both Saudi Arabia and the host country Qatar reinforced their intentions to invest tens of billions of dollars into large-scale CSP – which includes solar thermal and concentrated solar PV technologies. The biggest oil and gas exporters in the world want to become, well, the Saudi Arabia and Qatar of the solar industry too. Continue reading
Doha – a weak and ineffective agreement on Climate Change
“The solutions to climate change are becoming very good investments,” Jennifer Morgan, from the World Resources Institute, told RenewEconomy at the close of the conference. “Whether it is CSP or wind, you have incentive to invest in these technologies for a range of reasons. Then you can build the political Doha saved 250 trees, but it couldn’t save
the planet
Doha saved 250 trees, but it couldn’t save the planet http://reneweconomy.com.au/2012/doha-saved-250-trees-but-it-couldnt-save-the-planet-54848 REneweconomy, By Giles Parkinson 10 December 2012
DOHA: As the stalemate on the plenary floor in the climate change negotiations in Doha reached its tortuous 10th hour on Saturday evening, members of the French delegation gathered in a tight knot in the main aisle and expressed their alarm at the course of events. “We cannot allow this to happen in Paris in 2015,” I heard one of them say. “That would be a disaster.” Continue reading
Greenhouse gases from Coal Seam Gas – important, underestimated
CSG worries hinge on timing of climate change, ABC News 10 Dec 12 by Wendy Carlisle for Background Briefing An expert in public policy says the debate over whether coal seam gas is cleaner than coal depends on the timeframe used to measure emissions.
According to a scientific paper by US academic Nathan Hultman, coal seam gas is 56 per cent cleaner than coal over a 100-year time frame, but when compared to coal over 20 years it is less than 20 per cent cleaner. Professor Hultman, from the school of public policy at the University of Maryland, says using the “most extreme assumptions”, coal seam gas is actually dirtier than coal over a 20-year time frame.
He told Radio National’s Background Briefing the choice of timescale was a “value judgment” and “depended on when you thought the real problem of climate change was going to bite”.
“The reason you would be worried about methane in particular over a 20-year time horizon is if you are thinking we are on the verge of a kind of tipping point in climate change right now,” he said.
“If you really think right now we are very close to melting the ice caps or pushing the climate from a moderately steady state into a kind of bad outcome where you’ve got runaway climate change.”
According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the global warming impact of greenhouse gases can be measured across three different times frames: 20 years, 100 years or 500 years.
Each is valid and chosen by atmospheric scientists depending on what scientific point they wish to highlight.
Coal seam gas is mostly methane – a powerful greenhouse gas that has a relatively short life span.
This means that over a 20-year time frame, coal seam gas has a much higher global warming impact than if it is measured over 100 years. http://www.abc.net.au/news/2012-12-09/background-briefing-coal-seam-gas/4416808
Christmas – more than Buy Buy – Pope Benedict
Pope Benedict: Christmas is more than a party http://www.patheos.com/blogs/publiccatholic/2012/12/pope-benedict-christmas-is-more-than-a-party/ December 9, 2012 By Rebecca Hamilton I had just clicked on “buy” for a couple of Christmas gifts when I saw this reflection by the Holy Father.
In this buy, buy, buy society of ours, we all need reminding that, while Christmas is a time of rejoicing, feasting and fun, what we are celebrating is the coming of the Son of God.
Read the Pope’s thoughts on this below and have a blessed Sunday. Continue reading
USA’s nuclear industry making big, costly, effort to prepare for nuclear disasters
Nuclear industry plans rescue wagon for disasters, Canadian Business By AP | December 09, 2012 “…….The FLEX program is supposed to help nuclear plants handle the biggest disasters. The equipment is meant to assist in the most critical tasks during a crisis: keeping nuclear fuel cool, keeping radioactive barriers intact and making sure old stores of used nuclear fuel don’t overheat. If a cooling system fails and nuclear fuel gets too hot, the heat and pressure can rupture a reactor or even cause explosions that send radiation into the environment.
Utility companies must tell federal regulators early next year what equipment they are buying as part of the effort. Those supplies could include portable pumps, generators, batteries and chargers, compressors, hoses, tools and temporary flood barriers, according to
industry plans filed with the NRC. Plant operators started buying some of this supplemental equipment to comply with disaster rules stemming from the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. The cost for individual plants is not yet clear……
http://www.canadianbusiness.com/article/109526–nuclear-industry-plans-rescue-wagon-for-disasters
Person of the year: Bradley Manning wins award
Breaking News: Manning wins Person of Year 2012 in landslide DECEMBER 8, 2012 BY: DEBORAH DUPRE http://www.examiner.com/article/breaking-news-manning-wins-person-of-year-2012-landslide?CID=examiner_alerts_article Bradley Manning has won the Person of the Year 2012 conducted by The Guardian with a landslide 70 percent of the votes.
Although the Guardian has not made the official announcement, WikiLeaks and Anonymous were among the first to tweet the news that Bradley Manning has won the Guardian’s Person of the Year Award 2012. Continue reading
Nuclear weapons proliferation risk from Thorium reactors
just 1.6 tonnes of thorium metal would be enough to produce 8kg of uranium-233 which is the minimum amount required for a nuclear weapon.
”Small-scale chemical reprocessing of irradiated thorium can create an isotope of uranium – uranium-233 – that could be used in nuclear weapons. If nothing else, this raises a serious proliferation concern.”
Thorium: Proliferation warnings on nuclear ‘wonder-fuel’ , Phys Org, December 5, 2012Thorium is being touted as an ideal fuel for a new generation of nuclear power plants, but in a piece in this week’s Nature, researchers suggest it may not be as benign as portrayed.
The element thorium, which many regard as a potential nuclear “wonder-fuel”, could be a greater proliferation threat than previously thought, scientists have warned. Continue reading
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