2013 January 19 « nuclear-news

Fukushima fish – radiation levels 2500 times the legal limit

Record high radiation level found in fish http://www.news.com.au/breaking-news/world/record-high-radiation-level-found-in-fish/story-e6frfkui-1226557111874#ixzz2IRxmSfvD January 19, 2013

A FISH contaminated with radiation levels more than 2500 times the legal limit has been caught near Japan’s crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant, its operator says.

Tokyo Electric Power Co (TEPCO) said caesium equivalent to 254,000 becquerels per kilogram – or 2540 times more than the government seafood limit – was detected in a “murasoi” fish.

The fish, similar to rockfish, was caught at a port inside the Fukushima plant, a TEPCO spokesman said.

The Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant was battered by a towering tsunami following a huge earthquake on March 11, 2011, causing reactor meltdowns which spewed radioactive contamination into the atmosphere.

Fishing around Fukushima was halted and the government banned beef, milk, mushrooms and vegetables from being produced in surrounding areas.

January 19, 2013 Posted by Christina Macpherson | Fukushima 2013 | 2 Comments

Today is USA’s National Gun Appreciation Day

GOP Leaders Criticize Obama on Tactical Nuclear Weapons, http://www.huffingtonpost.com/steven-clifford/gop-leaders-criticize-oba_b_2457682.html Huff Post COMEDY, 01/17/2013 Seeking bipartisan support, President Obama today called for tighter controls on individual purchasing tactical nuclear weapons. The president asked Congress to approve a three-day waiting period prior to purchase, during which the individual would need to present evidence that he is not Iran or North Korea.

The NRA reacted immediately labeling this “an outrageous attempt by socialist Big Brother and to destroy American liberties.”

“Tactical nuclear weapons don’t kill people,” NRA executive director Chris Cox stated. “People kill people. To be more specific, atheists, socialists, and pro-choice people kill people.” Continue reading →

January 19, 2013 Posted by Christina Macpherson | general | 1 Comment

Taiwanese lead the way in cultural opposition to the nuclear industry

Directors seek to boost anti-nuclear bid http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/taiwan/archives/2013/01/19/2003552898/2 CREATIVE PROTESTS:The directors called on artistic heavyweights to join their anti-nuclear bid, and said that art rather than rhetoric could best serve the cause By Tang Chia-ling and Stacy Hsu / Staff reporter, with Staff writer In a move to strengthen their anti-nuclear efforts, film directors Ko I-chen (柯一正) and Wu Yi-feng (吳乙峰) are considering inviting well-known people from the artistic and entertainment industries to endorse their petition against the construction of the nation’s controversy-plagued Fourth Nuclear Power Plant in Gongliao (貢寮), New Taipei City (新北市).

In a statement jointly authored by Ko and Wu, which they said would be published on their Facebook pages in the near future, the pair called on heavyweights from the artistic and cultural sectors to weigh in on their anti-nuclear bid.

“We will spare no effort in inviting Taiwanese ‘living national treasures’ to join our cause, such as globally acclaimed director Hou Hsiao-hsien (侯孝賢) and Cloud Gate founder Lin Hwai-min (林懷民),” Ko said.

The statement also urged the government to scrap a budget proposal to invest several billion NT dollars more in the contentious plant, “for the sake of offering peace of mind to the many parents in the country and their offspring.” Continue reading →

January 19, 2013 Posted by Christina Macpherson | opposition to nuclear, Taiwan | Leave a comment

Good news: “backscatter” ionising radiation airport scanners to go

Bye-Bye to the Rapiscan Backscatter Machines The Atlantic, James Fallows, JAN 18 2013, Good news from our friends at TSA: they are getting rid of the hated (by me) Rapiscan “backscatter” screening machines like the one shown at right. These are the scanners in which you stand between two big, opaque boxes, raise your hands, and have X-rays shot at your body. The systems measure the “backscatter” radiation that reflects back from hard and soft surfaces on your body and clothing. Radiation in such backscatter systems is much weaker than medical X-rays, which are of course meant to go right through your body. Still, it is ionizing radiation, which is guilty until proven innocent in terms of possible health effects.

The TSA had decommissioned about one third of its Rapiscan systems already and now will get rid of the rest. Details from BBW and, with additional tech details, from Wired…….

The full-body screeners the TSA will now use are the “millimeter wave” scanners Continue reading →

January 19, 2013 Posted by Christina Macpherson | health, USA | 1 Comment

Missouri’s West Lake Landfill Superfund Site- a radioactive time bomb

“Our community can no longer tolerate delays—we’re sitting on a ticking toxic time bomb,”

Community, Environmentalists, Teamsters Tell EPA: Stop Nuclear Fires At Republic Landfill In Missouri, Daily Markets, ST. LOUIS, Jan. 18, 2013 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ — Last night, more than 300 people from the Missouri Coalition for the Environment, Missouri Jobs with Justice, and the Teamsters Union attended a public meeting held by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). There, community leaders spoke out against the increasingly dangerous and volatile situation at West Lake Landfill Superfund Site in Bridgeton, Mo. The landfill is operated by Republic Services [NYSE: RSG], the nation’s second-largest trash company.

The site, located in the Missouri River floodplain, is home to radioactive wastes dumped there in 1973 following secret uranium processing in downtown St. Louis. In late October 2012, residents around the landfill began complaining of foul odors and burning eyes—and the Pattonville Fire Department expressed alarm at rising underground temperatures and the danger that the developing underground landfill fire could migrate toward the buried nuclear waste sites. Continue reading →

January 19, 2013 Posted by Christina Macpherson | safety, USA | Leave a comment

Australian government kept secret on atomic bomb tests’ effects on Aborigines

a detailed description of how nuclear authorities denied diagnosis for decades, “lost” medical records, when diagnosis of survivors was made 3 decades after the event, the event which caused the symptoms was not referenced and specifically in relation to recurrent local radiation injury to skin, which can become a chronic and cyclic event, outbreaks of symptoms recurring in cycles over decades. This is diagnosed in at least some cases, one specifically known to me, not as local radiation injury (beta burn) but as psoriasis.

It is an easy thing to deny diagnosis, as was done – affected people asked for diagnosis in 1953 and later and doctors in Australia REFUSED to give a diagnosis.

Now, in 2013, British authorities claim nothing can be proven to show it is liable for the suffering and death it visited by its actions and in concert with Australian authorities upon Aboriginal people

Aboriginal Truth Buried Under Atomic Fudge, Paul Langley’s Nuclear history Blog, 19 Jan 13 The refusal of British authorities to acknowledge that British nuclear weapon testing in Australia in the 1950s and related “minor trials” which continued into the 1960s (including some which contravened the spirit if not the bones of the LTBT) and the Operation Brumby “cleanup” which resulted in a worsened situation of contamination on Aboriginal land.

For many years a sign on the road from Maralinga to Oak Valley warned people to stay in their vehicles.

On this same land Aboriginal people hunted and hunt and gather.

A Vulcan bomber fired a loaded but disarmed nuclear missile over the Maralinga Range. The missile overshot its target, resulting in the missile disintegrating and spreading plutonium dust over a wide area off of the Range.

In the 1980s the Adelaide Advertiser reported on the discovery of plutonium in the Oak Valley school yard and buildings. The white teachers refused to work and returned to Adelaide. The people of Oak Valley had to continue to live there. Continue reading →

January 19, 2013 Posted by Christina Macpherson | AUSTRALIA, indigenous issues | Leave a comment

Renewable energy:192,000 acres of government-owned land in Arizona

U.S. Establishes Renewable-Energy Zone on Public Land in Arizona http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-01-18/u-s-establishes-renewable-energy-zone-on-public-land-in-arizona.html
By Justin Doom – Jan 18, 2013 6

The U.S. identified about 192,000 acres of government-owned land in Arizona that are suitable for commercial-scale solar and wind farms.

The agency also established the Agua Caliente Solar Energy Zone, 2,550 acres in the state with strong sunlight and few resource conflicts that are well-suited for solar projects, according to a U.S. Interior Department statement today.

Agua Caliente is the third solar zone in Arizona and the 18th in the nation. Establishing such areas will facilitate development by identifying sites where projects are unlikely to face environmental hurdles and other potential problems.

Creating zones for renewable energy “lays a solid foundation for making sure it happens in the right way and the right places,” Interior Secretary Ken Salazar said in the statement. The agency is working with environmentalists, local communities, American Indian tribes and other groups “to reduce potential resource conflicts and expedite appropriate projects.”

The U.S. is promoting wider use of renewable energy to reduce consumption of foreign oil and create clean-energy jobs, Salazar said. The agency has approved 34 utility-scale wind, solar and geothermal projects on public land since 2009 with more than 10,400 megawatts of capacity.

January 19, 2013 Posted by Christina Macpherson | renewable, USA | Leave a comment

Uranium now the justification for invading Syria?

NOW IT’S SYRIA’S URANIUM??? Giza Death Star, JANUARY 17, 2013 BY JOSEPH P. FARRELL Really…it’s getting to be like a bit of theater isn’t it? It would be laughable, were it not for the loss of life and suffering involved. We’ve seen every excuse in the world trotted out, it seems, to justify an “intervention” by the West in Syria, with the usual “human rights” leading the charge. That, of course, didn’t pan out too well. So now, it seems, Syria has a lot of uranium we should all be worried about:

Now the West Is Worried About Syrian Uranium! Must Invade? This, it seems, is the latest scam….. The mention of Iraq in this article may recall, for some who remember the whole fiasco, what happened when we were all lied to about the necessity of the need to invade that country. First we were told that Saddam Hussein was sponsoring terrorism. That one quickly fell by the wayside to be replaced by the prospect of an immanent nuclear Iraq. He was building “weapons of mass destruction” (specifically atomic bombs), and had demonstrated his willingness to use such weapons by gassing the Kurds. No doubt, the man was evil, and may even have used a-bombs had he had them. Of course, Saddam was no fool either, and may not have used them, knowing that it may have called forth a similar response from the west. But in any case, he didn’t have them.

But you’ll recall there was story that was quickly circulated as the invasion was under way, and the evidence for such a program was not forthcoming: Saddam, we were informed, had dismantled his whole program and shipped it, lock, stock, and German-made centrifuge, to…

…Syria.

So in a certain sense, invading Syria would (follow the twisted logic here), be completing what we started in Iraq….. Watch this one carefully folks, because this seems to be what is happening here: a way to piggyback an Iranian project on a Syrian one. Same ole same ole. http://gizadeathstar.com/2013/01/now-its-syrias-uranium/

January 19, 2013 Posted by Christina Macpherson | Syria, weapons and war | Leave a comment

Films awaken Indian audiences to the dangers of the nuclear industry

Uranium Film Festival: Capturing Fallout Tehelka Blog, 17 Jan 13 Author: Ajachi Chakrabarti “I am now in this place where you should never come. We call it Onkalo. Onkalo means ‘hiding place’. In my time it is not yet finished, though work began in the 20th century, when I was just a child. Work will be completed in the 22nd century, long after my death. Onkalo must last 100,000 years. Nothing built by man has lasted even a tenth of that timespan.But we consider ourselves a very potent civilisation. If we succeed, Onkalo will most likely be the longest lasting remains of our civilisation. If you, sometime far in the future, find this, what would it tell you about us?”

Thus begins Into Eternity, Danish director Michael Madsen’s documentary about the Onkalo spent nuclear waste repository on the island of Oikiluoto in Finland. In 1994, the legislature amended the Finnish Nuclear Energy Act to specify that all nuclear waste produced in Finland must be disposed of in Finland. The solution was the repository, a deep cavern to be filled with radioactive waste that is designed to hold for ten half lives – in some cases, as long as 250,000 years – the accepted timespan for such waste to be considered safe.

Obvious geological fears aside, the fear that Madsen taps into in this film is that of communicating to future civilisations that the contents of this cavern they would find are very toxic Continue reading →

January 19, 2013 Posted by Christina Macpherson | Resources -audiovicual | 3 Comments

160 nations endorse doubling of renewable energy – IRENA

Adirec sees consensus on doubling deployment of renewable energy, The Gulf Today,, 19 Jan 13, ABU DHABI: Over 160 countries on Thursday endorsed the growth of renewable energy in a balanced global energy portfolio and noted the leading role of the UAE and Middle East.

Capping three days of discussions involving government delegations, business leaders, NGOs, and global organisations, ministers in the Declaration of the Abu Dhabi International Renewable Energy Conference (Adirec), called for a doubling of the world’s share of renewable energy by 2030 under the leadership of the International Renewable Energy Agency (Irena).

Held this year as part of Abu Dhabi Sustainability Week (ADSW), which saw 30,000 participants, Adirec is the fifth IREC, building upon successful outcomes in Delhi in 2010 (DIREC), Washington in 2008 (WIREC), Beijing in 2005, and Bonn in 2004.

Adirec this year also complements the General Assembly of Irena, the 159-member country organisation headquartered in Abu Dhabi.

“Adirec and Abu Dhabi Sustainability Week spotlight the huge transformation in both global and regional energy markets, with billions of dollars of new renewable energy projects in the Gulf alone,” the UAE’s Special Envoy for Energy and Climate Change and MD and CEO of Masdar, Dr Sultan Al Jaber, commented.

The renewable energy market in the Mena region is rapidly expanding, with a diverse range of countries announcing projects and policies to harness the region’s abundance of renewable energy resources for economic growth and energy security enhancement.

With its strong demographic growth, urbanisation and expanding economy, as well as high temperatures, the Mena region is experiencing marked growth in energy and electricity demand, which conference participants and Irena estimate, could be met by renewable energy on a cost-competitive basis. …. http://gulftoday.ae/portal/d508ae64-dd4b-40fd-8255-eee2d2dba654.aspx

January 19, 2013 Posted by Christina Macpherson | MIDDLE EAST, renewable | Leave a comment

Economic dangers of climate change – The World Economic Forum (WEF) Global Risks Report 2013

Reports Reiterate Link Between Environment and Economy http://www.enn.com/ecosystems/article/45486 18 Jan 13, Two new reports reiterate the scientific veracity of anthropogenic climate change while reinforcing the interconnectedness of the economy and the environment. The World Economic Forum (WEF) Global Risks Report 2013 clearly points to the interrelationship between the environment and the economy. (Diagram on left illustrates the true basis of the economy – on the right, the false basis.)

A draft of the third National Climate Assessment Report indicates that climate change is both an environmental and economic issue.

The draft report was prepared by a Federal Advisory Committee known as the “National Climate Assessment and Development Advisory Committee” (NCADAC). The report was mandated by Congress in 1990 with the passage of the Global Change Research Act, which requires that a national climate assessment be conducted every four years and the results be issued to the President and Congress. As a consequence of the 1990 legislation, the US Global Change Research Program was formed, which is an inter-governmental body involving 13 federal agencies and departments.A draft of the third National Climate Assessment Report indicates that climate change is both an environmental and economic issue. The draft report was prepared by a federal committee and offers a comprehensive analysis of the latest and best peer-reviewed science on the extent and impacts of global warming on the US. The report restates the fact that climate change will have a wide range of impacts ranging from agriculture to water.

The 2013 NCADAC report, which engaged more than 240 authors, indicated that one of the salient reasons given for the rapidly changing climate is the copious burning of fossil fuels. Following two consecutive years of extreme weather, the report makes the connection between the increased incidence and severity of extreme weather and anthropogenic climate change. Continue reading →

January 19, 2013 Posted by Christina Macpherson | 2 WORLD, climate change | Leave a comment

France’s drive to sell nuclear abroad, while getting out of it at home

France on nuclear charm offensive in Saudi Arabia, By Geert De Clercq PARIS, Jan 18 (Reuters) – A top French minister and the chief executives of French utility EDF and reactor builder Areva are visiting Saudi Arabiathis weekend to build a case for selling French nuclear reactors to the oil-rich country.

Industry Minister Arnaud Montebourg will meet with Saudi officials and with representatives of EDF and Areva, who opened a joint office in Riyadh six months ago to lay the groundwork for a French nuclear offer.

Montebourg will build on a Nov. 4 visit by French President Francois Hollande to Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah and a 2011 agreement betweenFrance and Saudi Arabia that offered the Saudis atomic know-how and training for local staff….

France plays a strong hand in Saudi Arabia, which has no nuclear capabilities of its own but has deep pockets and wants to acquire the most modern technology…..

Unlike other suppliers, Areva also sells uranium, offering utilities long-term supply contracts…….

he French will face formidable competition from U.S., Japanese and South Korean consortia. Westinghouse-Toshiba has deep ties with the Middle East, and a Korean-led consortium dealt the French a humiliating blow with its surprise win of a $40 billion contract in Abu Dhabi three years ago…….

Hollande’s government, despite having decided to cut the share of nuclear in French electricity generation to 50 percent in 2025 from the current 75 percent, is keen to export reactors….. http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/01/18/france-saudi-nuclear-idUSL6N0ANEA120130118

January 19, 2013 Posted by Christina Macpherson | France, marketing | Leave a comment

Iran answers IAEA questions if it sees an end to process: Analyst (video)

“Just take a look at the history of IAEA’s dealings with Tehran, they first raised the issue of a laptop that they got from nowhere and focused on it for several years and then totally forgot about it and moved on to a different issue which is the Parchin military site.”

Fri Jan 18, 2013 3:22PM GMT

Press TV

Image socioecohistory.wordpress.com

A political commentator says Tehran is ready to answer International Atomic Energy Agency’s (IAEA) questions provided that when they are answered the process comes to an end.

“I have talked to Iranian diplomats and they told me that Iran has constantly expressed its willingness to answer all the questions that have been raised [by IAEA], provided that when the questions are answered, the process comes to an end,” Hamid Reza Emadi said in an interview with Press TV on Friday.

He went on to say that the United States has stopped the IAEA from fulfilling its duties, making the agency unwilling to end its questioning process with regards to Iran.

“The International Atomic Energy Agency, which is clearly working under a US-dictated mandate that has prevented it from performing its professional obligations, wants to maintain the pressure on Tehran. The agency, as the diplomats told me, does not want the case to be closed any time soon and they want to raise more questions, to raise more issues once the existing questions are fully answered by Iran. So this is going to be an endless process,” Emadi pointed out.