U.K. Nuclear Regulator Approves EDF, Areva Reactor Design
“The GDA acceptance doesn’t allow for construction to proceed. That still requires site specific approvals, such as planning permission, environmental permits and nuclear site licences.”
“It asked the companies to address 31 concerns, the last of which was settled on Dec. 7, the watchdog said in a statement on its website yesterday. One of those concerns was added after the Fukushima disaster,” [only one? Arclight]
By Sally Bakewell on December 13, 2012
The U.K. nuclear regulator gave approval to a reactor design by Areva SA (AREVA) and Electricite de France SA, bringing EDF closer to its goal of expanding in England.
The Office for Nuclear Regulation and the Environment Agency permitted Areva’s U.K. European pressurized water reactor design for construction in Britain, according to a statement today on the ONR website.
The government wants to make building new nuclear stations more palatable for investors while reassuring consumers the industry is safe as it pushes low-carbon energy sources to meet growing demand. EDF, GDF Suez (GSZ) SA and Iberdrola SA (IBE) are among companies studying whether to build nuclear plants in Britain, which is seeking to replace an aging power station without adding to carbon emissions.
Norway begin experiment with Thorium in Nuclear Reactor near Oslo -Why bother?
From the comments on December 13 2012 said: (Article correction)
“Thorium will never be a replacement for uranium because it is not fissile, it is fertile.”This is obvious when you look at how thorium works in a reactor: Thorium-232 + neutron -> Thorium-233 which beta decays to Protactinium-233 which then also beta decays to Uranium-233. U-233 is fissile and is what is fissioned to produce heat and more neutrons.So, using Thorium does not change the fact that Uranium is still fissioning to produce heat.
Another thing, a reactor that is going to use Th to produce heat (through the reaction above) needs a load of fissile to produce neutrons to start the reaction above. Therefore, unless you use pure U-235 or U-233 with no U-238 to start the reactor, you will produce Pu [Plutonium]. Assuming an initial U-235/238 fissile load, you must reprocess the spent fuel and stick it in a fast reactor or you will still end up with long lived transuranics.
The benefits you attribute to thorium mainly arise when it is used in a Molten Salt Reactor with re-processing.”
By Joao Peixe | Wed, 12 December 2012
Norway is the biggest oil producer in Europe, and the 13th largest producer in the world, yet this fact does not stop it from pursing an alternative source of energy for producing electricity domestically.
That is not to say that it will dump fossil fuels, the energy switch that it is hoping to make is from uranium nuclear power plants, to thorium nuclear power plants.
Thor Energy will team up with the Norwegian government and Westinghouse of the US to begin a four year test which will determine whether or not thorium is a viable alternative to uranium. The test will occur at the government controlled nuclear reactor in Halden.
For decades supporters of thorium have argued that it is superior to uranium in every way, yet nearly all of the world’s nuclear reactors have been designed around uranium. Thorium reacts more efficiently than uranium, the resultant radioactive waste has a much shorter half-life, due to its very high melting point nuclear meltdowns are impossible, and no plutonium is produced in the reaction, therefore it cannot be used to create nuclear weapons.
Whilst many proclaim that molten salt reactors are the best type of reactor for thorium fuel, none currently exist or have received regulatory approval. Thor Energy will test the thorium in a heavy water reactor at Halden. The reaction may not be as efficient as possible, but for the fact that the reactor has already been officially approved the testing can begin right away rather than waiting years for a molten salt reactor to be built, checked and approved.
Really what the Norwegians will be looking to determine is whether or not the benefits of using thorium justify the cost of switching to it as a fuel source.
By. Joao Peixe of Oilprice.com
Frantic consumerism should not take over from true meaning of Christmas
There is a prime example from history that tells us what the true meaning of the Christmas holiday is. It began on Christmas Eve 1914, on the battlefields of Europe during World War I.
Thousands of troops on the Western Front put down their weapons and ventured into the frosty wastes of no man’s land. There they were greeted by the enemy — the very people they were fighting against.
They exchanged pleasantries and proceeded to produce a small beacon of sanity in the vast disillusionment of that war. It is called the Christmas Truce, and it displayed actual humanity in a time of misery, hatred and immense pain. The soldiers, whether they were British, French, Austro-Hungarian or German, broke their differences and came together to celebrate the holiday.
Holiday cheer translates into consumerism, fear http://www.dailytargum.com/opinion/columnists/holiday-cheer-translates-into-consumerism-fear/article_433c225e-3dd9-11e2-b050-001a4bcf6878.html , December 4, 2012 By Mike Denis It’s that time of the season again. The hollies have been put up and the trees have been lit. Stockings will be stuffed, holiday meals will be cooked, and families will get together to celebrate the Christmas holiday. It truly is a time for happiness, as well as a time for giving.
Whether or not you celebrate Christmas, you should agree that it is a holiday that brings people together and gives back to those that are less fortunate. But as I have found, and I sure some of those who are reading this have found, there is a disturbing trend in the
commercialism of the holiday. Continue reading
North Korean propaganda film contains some disturbing truths
PROPAGANDA | FULL ENGLISH VERSION (2012) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6NMr2VrhmFI&oref=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3D6NMr2VrhmFI&has_verified=1 Published on 13 Jul 2012 Here is the formal statement I gave to Federal Police on 16 June 2012:
On a trip to visit family in Seoul in April, I was approached by a man and a woman who claimed to be North Korean defectors. They presented me with a DVD that recently came into their possession and asked me to translate it. They also asked me to post the completed film on the Internet so that it could reach a worldwide audience. I believed what I was told and an agreement was made to protect their identities (and mine).
Despite my concerns about what I was viewing when I returned home, I proceeded to translate and post the film on You Tube because of the film’s extraordinary content. I have now made public my belief that this film was never intended for a domestic audience in the DPRK. Instead, I believe that these people, who presented themselves as ‘defectors’ specifically targeted me because of my reputation as a translator and interpreter.
Furthermore, I now believe these people work for the DPRK. The fact that I have continued to translate and post the film in spite of this belief does not make me complicit in their intention to spread their ideology. I chose to keep posting this film because – regardless of who made it – I believe people should see it because of the issues it raises and I stand by my right to post it for people to share and discuss freely with each other.
Sabine
I have translated this film, laid in the English voice over and subtitles, and on legal advice have blurred the identity of the presenter and/or blacked out certain elements.
0:00 Introduction
6:54 Creating Ideas & Illusions
16:48 Fear
19:35 Religion
25:00 Beware the 1%
28:10 Emulating Psychosis
31:21 Rewriting History
41:15 The Birth of Propaganda
45:49 Cover Ups and Omissions
54:10 Complicity
58:05 Censorship
1:01:50 International Diplomacy
1:06:14 Television
1:08:11 Advertising
1:14:36 The Cult of Celebrity
1:22:34 Distraction
1:28:01 Terrorism
1:35:00 The Revolution Starts Now
Please share and discuss with as many people as you can, and if you have questions for me or want to discuss the content further, please do so below or go to: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Propagandafilm/427263763965283
Tsuruga nuclear plant not safe to restart: how many others are the same?
EDITORIAL: Why flirt with disaster? Decommission Tsuruga nuclear reactor Asahi Shimbun December 12, 2012 Breaking away from the “safety myth” that surrounded nuclear energy, the Nuclear Regulation Authority (NRA) has changed the way Japan judges the safety of nuclear power plants.
The new industry watchdog said Dec. 10 there is a high possibility that a fault line running directly beneath a reactor at Japan Atomic Power Co.’s Tsuruga nuclear plant in Fukui Prefecture is active. “Under the current circumstances, there is no way we can carry out the
safety assessments (that are required) for a restart (of the reactor),” NRA Chairman Shunichi Tanaka said.
This signals a major turning point in the nation’s nuclear regulation administration. Continue reading
Free interactive map of U.S. nuclear weapons complex
U.S. Nuclear Weapons Complex in Google Earth http://allthingsnuclear.org/u-s-nuclear-weapons-complex-in-google-earth/ emacdonald, analyst December 12, 2012
Today we released a free, interactive web map of the U.S. nuclear weapons complex, the collection of facilities that produce, maintain and dismantle U.S. nuclear weapons. The map is part of a larger UCS project evaluating and making recommendations for the future of the complex in light of the fact that the U.S. nuclear arsenal is shrinking.
The map is designed to be used with Google Earth, and shows the locations of hundreds of facilities, with detailed information about many of the major buildings. Users can move around the map and click on facilities to display information about them. The sites on the map include the nuclear weapons design labs at Los Alamos, New Mexico, and Livermore, California, the production and storage site at Pantex in Texas, and others. All the information is from public sources.
The map is a work in progress. We will continue to expand, update, and correct the map, which is designed to load the most recent data to your computer from the UCS website each time Google Earth is opened. We have set up an email address, NuclearComplexMap@ucsusa.org, where users can send us corrections or additional information.
To use the Complex Map, you must have Google Earth on your computer. This is free to download and install from Google. More information about the map, including a user’s manual and an installation program, is available on the UCS website.
Britain’s taxpayers up for more than 100 billion pounds in nuclear cleanup
Nuclear clean-up to cost £100bn and take 120 years. Decommissioning, no2nuclearpower, 9 December 2012 BRITAIN’S taxpayers will be landed with a bill of more than £100bn for cleaning up radioactive waste from sites such as Sellafield and Dounreay, according to the chief executive of the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA).
The amount represents a near-doubling of the £56bn cleanup cost announced when the NDA began operating in 2005, and could rise still more. The warning comes as NDA 
engineers start work on some of the biggest and most expensive engineering projects seen in Britain — building giant robotic grabs to lift deadly nuclear waste from Sellafield’s decaying 1950s repositories.
The buildings being targeted include Sellafield’s B29 and B30 cooling ponds, where decaying 1950s fuel rods are stored. This weekend John Clarke, chief executive of the NDA, said he was spending £3bn a year on the cleanup, with about £1.6bn of that going on Sellafield alone. Such sums are similar to those spent on the London Olympic site at the peak of construction.
Figures released by the Department of Energy and Climate Change show that, since Britain’s first nuclear power station opened in 1956, they have generated 2.5 billion megawatt hours of electricity — worth £125 billion at today’s prices. If the cost of building Britain’s 20-odd nuclear power stations (around £10bn-£12bn each in today’s money), is included, it would far exceed the value of the power produced, say experts.
Such figures show why power companies, which would be responsible for the waste, are refusing to build new nuclear power stations without government guarantees of a consumer subsidy that will almost double the market price for their power.
Sunday Times 9th Dec 2012 more >> http://www.no2nuclearpower.org.uk/news/daily12/daily.php?dailynewsid=343
Safety finding about Tsuruga plant brings gloom to Japan’s nuclear utilities
Japan Utilities Plunge After Fault Found Under Nuclear Plant, Bloomberg, By Tsuyoshi Inajima – Dec 10, 2012 Kansai Electric Power Co. led declines in Japan’s utilities after geologists said an earthquake faultline may be active under a nuclear plant that houses the country’s oldest reactor. Kansai Electric shares fell as much as 9.7 percent, their biggest
intraday decline since Oct. 23, and closed 4.4 percent lower at 742yen in Tokyo. The Topix Electric Power & Gas Index fell 1 percent.
The company is the second-biggest stakeholder in Japan Atomic Power Co., which runs the Tsuruga nuclear plant on the coast 127 kilometers (79 miles) northeast of Osaka that was examined by geologists this month. The finding was announced yesterday and may lead to decommissioning of the unit.
“The assessment raises the risk” that the nuclear watchdog will come to a similar conclusion for other atomic generators under investigation, Reiji Ogino, a Tokyo-based analyst at Mitsubishi UFJ Morgan Stanley, said by phone today. Continue reading
Deterioration of Fukushima’s spent nuclear fuel pool No 4
Fukushima Worker: Concrete reinforcement of Spent Fuel Pool No. 4 is terribly deteriorating… now in a “dangerous state” — Cooling system stopped working, men helicoptered in http://enenews.com/fukushima-worker-concrete-reinforcement-of-spent-fuel-pool-no-4-is-terribly-deteriorating-in-a-dangerous-state
December 11th, 2012
Source: Iwakami Yasumi, Japanese journalist
Translation: Fukushima Diary
Date: Dec. 11, 2012
On December 11, 2012, Japanese journalist Iwakami Yasumi received this email from Mitsuhei Murata, former Japanese ambassador to Switzerland
I received this message on 12/9/2012.
The pump of the SFP in reactor4 had been having the spotty trouble, but it went out of order on 12/8/2012 at the end.
Nuclear workers were collected for emergency to replace the pump but it takes more 2~3 days to fix they say. (Extra workers were brought by helicopter even at night.)
According to a nuclear worker collected for emergency, the concrete to reinforce the SFP is terribly deteriorating to be in the “dangerous state”.
[…] a former executive manager of a major company commented this, which is very insightful.
“My fear has come into the truth. If it was merely the problem of the pump, it wouldn’t be such an issue but if the base to support SFP4 has some damage where we can’t see, the situation is much more serious.” […]
Ambassador Murata: “I sent this email to all the chief editors of national newspaper companies, NHK and influential people of major mass media but they all ignored it. I was shocked. I called the manager of disaster headquarter of Fukushima prefectural government but he didn’t know that. It seems like they didn’t report it to Fukushima local government. ”
Global uranium mining industry is in a dismal state
Uranium miners still struggling to emerge from shadow of Fukushima Canada.com. BY PETER KOVEN, FINANCIAL POST DECEMBER 12, 2012 Following the Fukushima nuclear facility disaster in March 2011, uranium miners were quick to rationalize that the fundamentals of their business were unlikely to change and the world still needed more nuclear power.
They were wrong, to put it kindly.
The recovery in Japan has been slower than we expected More than 21 months after Fukushima, the uranium business is still stuck in a rut. Uranium’s spot price has plummeted to nearly US$40 a pound (compared to a high topping US$135 in 2007), and there has been minimal activity in the spot market. Utilities are well-supplied with uranium for the foreseeable future, and, thanks to Fukushima, the outlook for demand growth is not nearly as healthy as it was a couple of years ago Now the question on everyone’s mind is whether things will finally start to turn around in 2013? Continue reading
UN calls on Israel to join the Nuclear Non Proliferation Treaty
UN Calls on Israel to Open Nuclear Facilities TIME By Associated Press Dec. 04, 2012 (UNITED NATIONS) — The U.N. General Assembly has overwhelmingly approved a resolution calling on Israel to quickly open its nuclear program for inspection and backing
a high-level conference to ban nuclear weapons from the Middle East which was just canceled.
All the Arab nations and Iran had planned to attend the conference in mid-December in Helsinki, Finland, but the United States announced on Nov. 23 that it wouldn’t take place, Continue reading
United Nations wants Israel to come clean about its nuclear weapons, but USA does not agree
UN call on Israel to open its nuclear program is opposed by US 
MONDOWEISS, by Annie Robbins December 10, 2012 Last month, four days after Iran announced that it planned to attend a high-profile meeting on the banning of WMD’s in the Middle East, the
US backed out, saying that the “time is not opportune.”
But along with Russia and the UK, the U.S. was one of the key sponsors of the conference, set to take place in Helsinki, Finland, by the end of 2012. 189 member nations of the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty had agreed to attend, but not Israel. Now the meeting has been called off.
That is the backdrop behind the UN General Assembly’s approval of a resolution last week calling on Israel to join the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty and open its nuclear program for
inspection:…. http://mondoweiss.net/2012/12/un-call-on-israel-to-open-its-nuclear-program-is-opposed-by-us.html
South Korea’s and Japan’s nuclear operators – not to be trusted
Now, South Korea wants to develop uranium enrichment technology in violation of its commitments under the 1992 Joint Declaration on the Denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula.
South Korea has no legitimate need for enrichment technology (there is ample global enrichment capacity) and there are serious proliferation concerns as enrichment provides a direct route to nuclear weapons material in the form of highly-enriched uranium…..
Japan’s plutonium program demonstrably fans regional proliferation tensions.
How can we trust nuclear, if we can’t trust its operators? The Punch, by Jim Green 13 DEC “……Widespread safety breaches and proliferation concerns in North Asia are recent manifestations of the problem. In May, fiveengineers were charged with covering up a potentially dangerous power failure at South Korea’s Kori-I reactor which led to a rapid rise in the reactor core temperature. The accident occurred because of a failure to follow safety procedures. A manager decided to conceal theincident and to delete records, despite a legal obligation to notify the Nuclear Safety and Security Commission.
In October, authorities temporarily shut down two reactors at separateSouth Korean nuclear plants after system malfunctions. Continue reading
Podcast on Japan’s nuclear plants’ risks from earthquakes
WHAT ARE THE CONSEQUENCES OF SITING A NUCLEAR PLANT IN A SEISMICALLY ACTIVE AREA? December 9, 2012 http://www.fairewinds.com/content/fairewinds-podcastConflict of interest in Japanese scientists on International Commission on Radiological Protection (ICRP)
The doctor on the parliamentary panel, Hisako Sakiyama, is outraged about utility funding for Japan’s ICRP members. She fears that radiation standards are being set leniently to limit costly evacuations.
“The assertion of the utilities became the rule. That’s ethically unacceptable. People’s health is at stake,” she says. “The view was twisted so it came out as though there is no clear evidence of the risks, or that we simply don’t know.”
Japanese Radiation Regulators Admit Conflict of Interest, Laboratory Equipment, 12 Dec 12 Yuri Kageyama Influential scientists who help set Japan’s radiation exposure limits have for years had trips paid for by the country’s nuclear plant operators to attend overseas meetings of the world’s top academic group on radiation safety.
The potential conflict of interest is revealed in one sentence buried in a 600-page parliamentary investigation into last year’s Fukushima Dai-Ichi nuclear power plant disaster and pointed out to The Associated Press by a medical doctor on the 10-person investigation
panel.
Some of these same scientists have consistently given optimistic assessments about the health risks of radiation, interviews with the scientists and government documents show. Their pivotal role in setting policy after the March 2011 tsunami and ensuing nuclear meltdowns meant the difference between schoolchildren playing outside or indoors and families staying or evacuating their homes.
One leading scientist, Ohtsura Niwa, acknowledged that the electricity industry pays for flights and hotels to go to meetings of the International Commission on Radiological Protection, and for overseas members visiting Japan……… Continue reading
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