2012 December 10 « nuclear-news

USA’s abandoned uranium mines – need for federal funded cleanup

Congressmen press uranium mine cleanups http://www.krqe.com/dpp/news/politics/congressmen-press-uranium-mine-cleanups 06 Dec 2012, ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) – Two members of New Mexico’s congressional delegation are pushing for a House vote on legislation that would free up federal funding to clean up abandoned uranium mines.

U.S. Reps. Steve Pearce, R-N.M., and Ben Ray Lujan, D-N.M., say House
approval is needed to get the bill to the president’s desk. Pearce and
Lujan spelled out their request in a letter to House leaders on
Wednesday.

The legislation was introduced by U.S. Sen. Jeff Bingaman, D-N.M. The
Senate has already voted unanimously in favor of the bill.

Under the Abandoned Mine Land program, the federal government collects
revenue from coal companies to fund abandoned mine cleanup. Each state receives a share of the money, but the program currently restricts the
ability of states to use the money for cleaning up

December 10, 2012 Posted by Christina Macpherson | environment, Uranium, USA | Leave a comment

Nuclear smuggling raises risks of a “dirty bomb”

“Real buyers are rare in nuclear smuggling cases, and raise real risks,” “They suggest someone is actively seeking to buy material for a clandestine bomb.”

an attack with a dirty bomb — explosives packed with radioactive material — would be easier for a terrorist to pull off. And terrorist groups, including al-Qaida, have sought the material to do so. A study by the National Defense University found that the economic impact from a dirty bomb attack of a sufficient scale on a city center could exceed that of the September 11, 2011, attacks on New York and Washington……

Georgia details nuclear black market probes Army Times By Desmond Butler – The Associated Press Dec 9, 2012 “…….. Despite years of effort and hundreds of millions of dollars spent in the fight against the illicit sale of nuclear contraband, the black market remains active in the countries around the former Soviet Union. The radioactive materials, mostly left over from the Cold War, include nuclear bomb-grade uranium and plutonium, and dirty-bomb isotopes like cesium and iridium.

The extent of the black market is unknown, but a steady stream of attempted sales of radioactive materials in recent years suggests smugglers have sometimes crossed borders undetected. Continue reading →

December 10, 2012 Posted by Christina Macpherson | EUROPE, safety | Leave a comment

Federal authority orders operator of San Onofre nuclear plant to hand over documents

APNewsBreak: Dispute over records at nuclear plant, HUFFINGTON POST, MICHAEL R. BLOOD | December 7, 2012 LOS ANGELES — A federal board Friday ordered the operator of a shuttered nuclear power plant in California to turn over dozens of pages of documents that were withheld when the company submitted a plan to restart one of its damaged twin reactors.

The records at issue were prepared by industry experts who have helped Southern California Edison investigate why the San Onofre plant’s nearly new steam generators caused excessive wear to hundreds of tubes that carry radioactive water…..
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/huff-wires/20121207/us-nuclear-plant-problems/?utm_hp_ref=travel&ir=travel

December 10, 2012 Posted by Christina Macpherson | Legal, USA | Leave a comment

Idaho National Laboratory – problems with nuclear safety

Feds identify weaknesses with nuclear safety team KOMO News.com By Associated Press : Dec 9, 2012 IDAHO FALLS, Idaho – U.S. Department of Energy inspectors have found a handful of weaknesses in the Idaho National Laboratory team responsible for protecting special nuclear material at the eastern Idaho research facility.

Agency officials identified the shortcomings in a Nov. 30 report that looked at INL’s Tactical Response Force, singling out problems with equipment, coordination and communication. The report suggested those weaknesses could contribute to confusion or even public injury if
nuclear material used in research was ever stolen from the site……
http://www.komonews.com/news/local/Feds-identify-weaknesses-with-nuclear-safety-team-182740501.html

December 10, 2012 Posted by Christina Macpherson | safety, USA | Leave a comment

UK’s secret plan to move its nuclear submarines out of Scotland

Angus Robertson, the SNP’s defence spokesman, said: “Anti-independence
politicians have repeatedly tried to claim that the process of removing Trident from Scottish waters would be a problem but now we have yet more confirmation from the Ministry of Defence that these arguments do not stack up.

PLAN B WILL TAKE NUCLEAR SUBS TO DEVON. EXPRESS.co.uk, December 9,2012 By Greg Christison WHITEHALL is secretly preparing a contingency plan to move the UK’s nuclear arsenal south of the Border if Scotland votes for independence, it was claimed last night. Continue reading →

December 10, 2012 Posted by Christina Macpherson | UK, weapons and war | Leave a comment

Huge solar energy installation in New York

Big New York install marks new era for renewable energy firm, Clean Energy Authority.com December 09, 2012 by Amanda H. Miller While one of the largest rooftop solar installations in New York marks a shift in the state’s energy policy, it’s an even bigger milestone for the company that installed it.

The 1-megawatt solar installation that covers a rooftop the size of two football fields in Yonkers, New York, is Half Moon Ventures first solar installation ever.

The Illinois company decided a couple years ago to shift its course completely. It had been focused on utility-scale wind energy projects. “We decided strategically that it was time to exit that business,” said Half Moon CEO Michael Hastings.

Since then, the company has focused on developing smaller renewable energy projects for municipalities and corporations that are used to paying high rates for power. “The onsite generation market is markedly better than the utility-scale market,” Hastings said….. http://www.cleanenergyauthority.com/solar-energy-news/big-new-york-install-marks-new-era-120912

December 10, 2012 Posted by Christina Macpherson | renewable, USA | Leave a comment

Multiple radiation symptoms in Japanese fronm areas around Fukushima

Newspaper: Door-to-door surveys revealed clusters of Fukushima residents with persistent nose bleeds, diarrhea — Fallout refugees talk about bizarre rashes, high fevers, more http://enenews.com/newspaper-fukushima-fallout-refugees-talk-about-bizarre-rashes-high-fevers-blood-noses-is-it-too-late-to-evacuate
December 8th, 2012
Kids exposed to radiation had rash, bloody nose, fever, etc., and brave mothers moved them to Okinawa.　theage.com.au/world/escape-t…
7 Dec 12
Source: The Age (Australia)
Author: Jane Barraclough
Date: December 6, 2011 (Update: Please note report is from 2011)
As radiation hot spots emerge in Tokyo and nuclear contamination plagues the country, some Japanese are fleeing to the Okinawa island chain to avoid the fallout from Fukushima. But is it too late?

[…] 30 other refugees [in Okinawa] from around the mainland — mostly mothers with young children — share the same anxieties. They talk about bizarre rashes, high fevers, blood noses and government and industry failures “they can never forgive”.

[…] door-to-door surveying in non-evacuated areas 60 kilometres from the plant revealed clusters of residents with persistent nose bleeding and diarrhoea. The same symptoms were also found among Tokyo residents.

Hiroshima survivor Dr Shuntaro Hida, who runs a non-profit hospital for Chernobyl and Hiroshima atomic bomb victims, assessed 50 patients at a one-off clinic in the middle of the year.

“People presented with purple spots, nose bleeding, high fevers, diarrhoea, aching bones, and extreme fatigue, ” he says. […]

After seeing patients at the clinic with multiple radiation symptoms, Hida is concerned about radiation in Tokyo. […]

December 10, 2012 Posted by Christina Macpherson | health, Japan | Leave a comment

USA cancelled Middle East nuclear weapons-free zone conference

The US and Israel should welcome the conference if curbing Iranian nuclear programme is their real concern. Iran had explicitly welcomed the conference and vowed its full participation and cooperation. During his August 2012 visit to Iran UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon visited Ayatollah Khamenei, who reiterated Iran’s stand on a ME nuclear weapons-free zone and that the UN should make serious efforts to allay the concerns regarding nuclear weapons. Ali Asghar Soltanieh, Iran’s ambassador to the UN IAEA told reporters: “Iran is determined to participate actively in the Helsinki conference … We are of the strong belief that all countries should be mobilizing themselves to make sure that this noble goal of a Middle East free from all the weapons of mass destruction will be realized.” Iran is the present Chair of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) and is very active in pushing for nuclear-free zone in the ME. The NAM, the largest international organization after the UN, with 120 members, had dismissed the US allegations for cancelling the conference, and has demanded that Israel join the NPT.

American Nuclear Hypocrisy http://mwcnews.net/focus/editorial/23374-eliasakleh-nuclear-hypocrisy.html, 09 December 2012 By Elias Akleh Hypocrisy is the most prominent characteristic of the successive American administrations. The observer could easily detect this hypocrisy when it comes to administration’s policies towards the Middle Eastern countries generally and towards the Palestinians specifically.

One of the administration’s latest hypocritical acts was the cancellation of the Middle East nuclear weapons-free zone conference that was scheduled mid this month in Helsinki, Finland. Continue reading →

December 10, 2012 Posted by Christina Macpherson | Israel, politics international, USA, weapons and war | Leave a comment

Coal Seam Gas – its “fugitive” greenhouse gas emissions are not measured

the sources, and perhaps also the volumes, of fugitive methane releases may differ from those associated with conventional gas production, and that consequently different approaches to the measurement of fugitive emissions may be required.”

CSG worries hinge on timing of climate change, ABC News 10 Dec 12 by Wendy Carlisle for Background Briefing “……..Fugitive emissions Professor Hultman’s paper was cited by the oil and gas lobby group APPEA in their submission to the Federal Government’s review into the way in which fugitive emissions from coal seam gas are measured.

APPEA has consistently said coal seam gas is 70 per cent cleaner than coal.

But in September the Government released a report which found that the absence of published information about fugitive emissions – greenhouse gases that leak into the atmosphere during the extraction process – was a matter of “public policy concern”. Continue reading →

December 10, 2012 Posted by Christina Macpherson | 2 WORLD, climate change | Leave a comment

Public kept in the dark about Europe’s nuclear safety

Still A Way To Go For Nuclear Transparency In Europe, Says The EESC By: Eurasia Review December 9, 2012 European countries have yet to make public all essential information about nuclear safety and to involve the public in decision-making about nuclear energy, said the European Economic and Social Committee.

The conclusion came at the end of a two-day conference convened to assess the implementation of the Aarhus Convention in the field of nuclear safety…..
http://www.eurasiareview.com/09122012-still-a-way-to-go-for-nuclear-transparency-in-europe-says-the-eesc/

December 10, 2012 Posted by Christina Macpherson | EUROPE, safety | Leave a comment

Vague and ineffective – climate change agreement at Doha

Green groups and scientists say while a global treaty to address emissions by 2015 has been agreed upon, it does not go far enough.

“[It’s] a million miles from where we need to be to even have a small chance of preventing runaway climate change,”

Troubled UN climate talks spill over ABC News by Sara Phillips for ABC Environment Dec 8, 2012 International talks aiming to address global climate change have been extended amid fears they may collapse altogether. Continue reading →

December 10, 2012 Posted by Christina Macpherson | 2 WORLD, climate change | Leave a comment

Advance in solar clothing – solar fibre

Solar Fibre A Stepping Stone To True Solar Clothing by Energy Matters, 10 Dec 12 We’ve already seen clothing with embedded flexible solar panels, but soon the clothing itself may be the solar cell.

The solar vest and urban chic solar clothing‘s days may be numbered (some might say thankfully). Solar panels being woven onto fabric could become passé if a new silicon-based optical fiber with solar-cell capabilities works out.

An international team of chemists, physicists and engineers lead by Penn State’s Professor John Badding have created a fibre that can convert solar radiation into direct-current electricity.

The material, thinner than the width of a human hair, is created using high-pressure chemistry techniques to deposit layers of crystalline silicon semiconductor materials directly into tiny holes in optical fibers…… http://www.energymatters.com.au/index.php?main_page=news_article&article_id=3506

December 10, 2012 Posted by Christina Macpherson | 2 WORLD, decentralised | Leave a comment

Exploitation of workers at Fukushima nuclear plant

Asahi: Fukushima workers report exploitation — Told to be like kamikaze — Large numbers leaving — “I wonder if we can raise children” http://enenews.com/asahi-fukushima-workers-report-exploitation-told-to-be-like-kamikaze-large-numbers-leaving-i-wonder-if-we-can-raise-children
December 9th, 2012
Title: Worker wants new government to secure safety at Fukushima plant
Source: AJW by The Asahi Shimbun
Author: Miki Aoki and Toshio Tada
Date: December 09, 2012

A man in his 50s hopes that a new government to be formed after the Dec. 16 Lower House election will protect the health of workers like himself at the stricken Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant […]

The man said workers at the Fukushima No. 1 plant are being exploited. […]

“Many people work without seeing a doctor because they fear they might be told not to come anymore from the next day,” he said. “It is a distortion caused by the layers of subcontractors involved. I want the government to protect us.” […] Continue reading →

December 10, 2012 Posted by Christina Macpherson | employment, Fukushima 2012, Japan | Leave a comment

Mutations in animals following Chernobyl nuclear disaster

“The amount of mutations in people and animals grew sharply after the catastrophe,” states the explanation accompanying the display.

Japan Times column on nuclear mutations: Professor seeing ‘increase in negative effects’ from Fukushima since last year — Report of insect with leg growing from head (PHOTO) http://enenews.com/japan-times-column-nuclear-mutations-professor-increase-negative-effects-report-insect-leg-growing-head-photo December 9th, 2012
Title: Chernobyl factored in the fall of a corrupt regime — Fukushima may too
Source: The Japan Times
Author: ROGER PULVERS
Date: Dec. 9, 2012
There are approximately 7,000 exhibits in Kiev’s Ukrainian National Chornobyl Museum. (The location of the nuclear plant that exploded on April 26, 1986 is spelled this way in Ukrainian.) Continue reading →