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USA’s EPA gave miners more than 1,500 permits to pollute deep aquifers

In a parched world, Mexico City is sending a message: Deep, unknown potential sources of drinking water matter, and the U.S. pollutes them at its peril.

Message from Mexico: The US is Polluting Water it May Someday Need to Drink, World News Curator , January 25, 2013 By .  By Abrahm Lustgarten from ProPublica Mexico City plans to draw drinking water from a mile-deep aquifer, according to a report in the Los Angeles Times. The Mexican effort challenges a key tenet of U.S. clean water policy: that water far underground can be intentionally polluted because it will never be used.

U.S. environmental regulators have long assumed that reservoirs located thousands of feet underground will be too expensive to tap. So even as population increases, temperatures rise, and traditional water supplies dry up, American scientists and policy-makers often exempt these deep aquifers from clean water protections and allow energy and mining companies to inject pollutants directly into them.

As ProPublica has reported in an ongoing investigation about America’s management of its underground water, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has issued more than 1,500 permits for companies to pollute such aquifers in some of the driest regions. Frequently, the reason was that the water lies too deep to be worth protecting. Continue reading →

January 26, 2013 Posted by | USA, water | Leave a comment

Atoms for Peace, Problems Forever

wastes-1 leaves America today with what amounts to over five dozen nominally temporary repositories for high-level radioactive waste – and no defined plan to change that situation anytime soon.

Seventy Years of Nuclear Fission, Thousands of Centuries of Nuclear Waste ,25 January 2013 By Gregg Levine, Truthout   “……The Manhattan Project’s goal was a bomb, but soon after the end of the war, scientists, politicians, the military and private industry looked for ways to harness the power of the atom for civilian use, or, perhaps more to the point, for commercial profit. Fifteen years to the day after CP-1 achieved criticality, President Dwight Eisenhower threw a ceremonial switch to start the reactor at Shippingport, Pennsylvania, which was billed as the first full-scale nuclear power plant built expressly for civilian electrical generation.

Shippingport was, in reality, little more than a submarine engine on blocks, but the nuclear industry and its acolytes will say that it was the beginning of billions of kilowatts of power, promoted (without a hint of irony) as “clean, safe and too cheap to meter.” It was also, however, the beginning of what is now a weightier legacy: 72,000 tons of nuclear waste.

Atoms for Peace, Problems Forever

News of Fermi’s initial success was communicated by physicist Arthur Compton to the head of the National Defense Research Committee, James Conant, with artistically coded flair:

Compton: The Italian navigator has landed in the New World.

Conant: How were the natives?

Compton: Very friendly.

But soon after that initial success, CP-1 was disassembled and reassembled a short drive away, in Red Gate Woods. The optimism of the physicists notwithstanding, it was thought best to continue the experiments with better radiation shielding – and slightly removed from the center of a heavily populated campus. The move was perhaps the first necessitated by the uneasy relationship between fissile material and the health and safety of those around it, but if it was understood as a broader cautionary tale, no one let that get in the way of “progress.” Continue reading →

January 26, 2013 Posted by | history, USA, wastes | Leave a comment

Farmers worried about nuclear waste dumping near Great Lakes

Plan for nuclear waste storage should be met with caution, says farmers union president http://huron.bulletnewscanada.ca/2013/01/25/plan-for-nuclear-waste-storage-should-be-met-with-caution-says-farmers-union-president/

CENTRAL HURON – The idea of storing high-level nuclear waste in Central Huron should be met with caution, says a local farmers union president.

“The decision to put all of Canada’s high level radioactive reactor fuel waste under some of Canada’s best farm land and beside the Great Lakes is one that should be considered very cautiously” said Tony McQuail, who is the president of the Huron National Farmers Union (NFU) Local 335.In co-operation with the Huron District of the Christian Farmers Federation of Ontario, Huron NFU has scheduled an information session on Saturday, Feb. 9 at 2 p.m. at the Regional Equine and Agricultural Centre of Huron, which is located in Clinton. It expects to have information on both the benefits and risks of storing the country high-level nuclear waste. Continue reading →

January 26, 2013 Posted by | general | Leave a comment

“Death River” Over 30μSv/h, Over 400,000 Bq/Kg of Radioactive Cesium

guardianofmiyagi

Published on Jan 25, 2013

Duration 2.37 mins

Abukuma River
The Abukuma River, with a length of 234 km, is the second longest river in the Tōhoku region of Japan and the 6th longest river in Japan. Wikipedia
Discharge: 67.3 m³/s
Length: 239 km

Fukushima decontamination company is dumping radioactive mud from decontamination to Abukuma river

Posted by Mochizuki on February 8th, 2012
Fukushima Diary

Basin area is 5,400km2. More than 1,389,000 people use the water, runs for 239 km.

@chummiboy
於保清見
福島県民の目撃・「福島を流れる阿武隈川に夜どんどん車が向かっていて一体何を しているのかと思ったら除染作業で出た大量の汚染土を阿武隈川に捨てている。それを見て、その阿 武隈川の水を飲まないといけない生活はもうできないとゾッとして、福島には居られないと思い移住してきた。」Source

<Translate>
A Fukushima citizen watched lots of trucks go to Abukuma river at night. They came to the river to dump tones of the radioactive mud made from decontamination. He was terrified to think he has to drink the water from the river, decided to evacuate Fukushima.
<End>

I

Fukushima decontamination company is dumping radioactive mud from decontamination to Abukuma river

 

January 26, 2013 Posted by | Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Koriyama- Toshio Yanagihara Speaks at UN Human Rights Council -“Save the children NOW!”

30 October 2012

Published on Jan 25, 2013

Duration 13.58 mins

WorldNetworkChildren

Fukushima Collective Evacuation Trial is a citizen’s collective lawsuit demanding the local government of Koriyama City, Fukushima to evacuate the children to the areas under 1mS/y of background radioactive dose.

If the case of the children in Koriyama is approved by the court, other authorities of the high radiation areas will have to embrace this standard and ensure children the unconditional support for the evacuation.

The Fukushima Collective Evacuation Trial
http://fukushima-evacuation-e.blogspot.jp/
World Network for Saving Children from Radiation
http://www.save-children-from-radiation.org/

January 26, 2013 Posted by | Uncategorized | 1 Comment

USA-Hagel walks back from anti-nuclear positions in his “flip flops”

“…The Global Zero nuclear pledge Hagel signed, however, states, “We, the undersigned, believe that to protect our children, our grandchildren and our civilization from the threat of nuclear catastrophe, we must eliminate all nuclear weapons globally.”….”

BY: 
January 25, 2013 4:48 pm

Sen. Chuck Hagel backed down this week from previously held positions on nuclear arms cuts during meetings with senators who are considering his nomination to be defense secretary in an apparent effort to sway those concerned about his liberal anti-nuclear views.

Hagel has told senators he is no longer a staunch supporter of the nuclear weapons views of retired Marine Corps Gen. James Cartwright, who authored an anti-nuclear weapons report sponsored by the international disarmament group Global Zero.

“Hagel has thrown Cartwright under the bus about the Global Zero [report] in his meetings with senators,” said a congressional aide familiar with the closed-door sessions.

An administration official working with Hagel on the confirmation disputed the notion the former senator is changing his views during the meetings.

“He is answering questions and clarifying his long-held beliefs…about our nuclear arsenal,” the official said.

The official said Hagel believes that as long as there are nuclear threats the United States needs a safe, strong and ready nuclear arsenal and supports keeping all legs of the nuclear triad – land-based and sea-based missiles and bombers.

The former Republican senator from Nebraska has come under fire from national security specialists in the Senate and outside government who are concerned he would adopt radical anti-nuclear policies as defense secretary.

Hagel took part in a six-member Global Zero Nuclear Policy Commission headed by Cartwright that called for cutting United States nuclear warheads to 900 strategic weapons by 2022, with 450 deployed and the rest in storage.

Sen. Bob Corker (R., Tenn.) raised the issue of Hagel’s support for the Global Zero nuclear cuts during the nomination hearing Thursday of Sen. John Kerry (D., Mass.) to be secretary of state.

“[Hagel] was part of a group called Global Zero, and for those of us who care deeply about our nuclear arsenal and modernization and that type of thing, some of the things that were authored in this report candidly are just concerning,” Corker said.

Corker, new ranking Republican on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said that if Hagel is confirmed for defense secretary, the traditional balance between the State Department, which favors arms control, and the Pentagon, which supports the weapons, “is not going to be there.”

Corker said the Obama administration’s promised nuclear modernization that was a key to gaining Republican support for ratifying the 2010 New STARTarms treaty with Russia “is not occurring.”

Kerry defended Hagel as “mainstream” even as he challenged those who, like Hagel, have advocated for the complete elimination of nuclear arms. “I believe in deterrence, and I find it very hard to think how you can get down to that number [zero] in today’s world,” Kerry said.

Kerry said the complete elimination of nuclear arms is “aspirational, but it’s not something that could happen in today’s world and nor could any leader today sit here or in any other chair and promote to you the notion that we ought to be cutting down our deterrent level below an adequate level to maintain deterrence.”

Kerry said Hagel is “realistic” about arms cuts and does not believe the former senator would go to the Pentagon and eliminate all nuclear weapons if he is confirmed as defense secretary. “It’s worth aspiring to, but we’ll be lucky if we get there in however many centuries the way we’re going,” he said.

The Pentagon, in its lobbying effort to win confirmation, recently published a list of “myths” about Hagel, including the claim that “Hagel would weaken our nuclear deterrent.”

The report says Hagel believes the United States and “mankind” should “work towards a world free of nuclear weapons—a goal that is squarely in line with the vision President Obama.”

However, it stated that Hagel has always believed that as long as nuclear threats exist “the United States must maintain a strong and ready nuclear arsenal.”

Continue reading →

January 26, 2013 Posted by | Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Earthquake Friday near Flamanville Nuclear and EDF ramp up UK nuclear shelf lifes

“…The French Flamanville project is years behind schedule and billions of euros over budget at 8.5 billion euros….”

Distance from Flamanville Nuclear Power Plant 11.07 km

Distance from La Hague Reprosessing 21.43 km

Magnitude 3

Depth 2 Km

EDIS number EQ-20130125-301017-FRA

Friday, January 25, 2013 at 15:38 in the afternoon at epicenter

http://hisz.rsoe.hu/alertmap/site/index.php?pageid=seism_index&rid=301017

EDF eyes 10-year extension for UK nuclear plant

Fri, 25th Jan 2013 16:35

By Karolin Schaps

LONDON, Jan 25 (Reuters) – French utility EDF could run its Dungeness B

 nuclear power plant in south-east England for another 10 years beyond its current shutdown date in 2018, the company’s UK chief executive said. 


The commercial decision to run nuclear plants beyond current decommissioning dates are in the hands of their operators, while Britain’s nuclear regulator reviews the plants’ safety on a regular basis and has the power to order the shutdown of a plant if it deems it not safely operated.

Last month EDF, the UK’s biggest nuclear power operator, said it expected an average 7-year lifetime extension across its UK nuclear fleet, but it now sees a longer extension of its 1,040 megawatt (MW) Dungeness B power plant, according to an update sent to employees by chief executive Vincent de Rivaz, and seen by Reuters.

‘Our judgement, at this stage, is that there is the potential for a 10 year extension to the life of Dungeness B,’ he said, adding that a decision on the extension was planned by the end of 2014.

EDF, which operates eight of Britain’s nine nuclear power stations, last month announced a 7-year lifetime extension at its Hinkley Point B and Hunterston B nuclear plants to 2023.

EDF, whose UK operations contributed about 13 percent of its turnover in the first nine months of 2012, plans to build four new nuclear plants in Britain, with the first expected to open at Hinkley Point in Somerset.

Continue reading →

January 26, 2013 Posted by | Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Nuclear dispute with Iran must be resolved peacefully: IAEA chief

Fri Jan 25, 2013 4:45PM GMT
Director General of International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Yukiya Amano has underlined the need for a peaceful resolution to the West’s standoff with Iran over Tehran’s nuclear energy program.

During a meeting with Israeli President Shimon Peres at the World Economic Forum in Switzerland on Thursday, Amano said the Vienna-based UN body has intensified “dialogue” with Iran.

Iran and the IAEA wrapped up two days of talks in the Iranian capital Tehran on January 17-18. The IAEA has announced that the next round of talks with Tehran will be held in the Iranian capital on February 13.

According to a statement released by the IAEA on Friday, Amano “made clear the Agency’s commitment to dialogue, and the need to resolve issues with Iran through diplomatic means.”

The comments come after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu once again threatened Iran over its nuclear energy program in an election victory speech on January 23.

The United States, Israel and some of their allies have repeatedly accused Iran of pursuing non-civilian objectives in its nuclear energy program.

Iran has categorically rejected the allegation, arguing that as a committed signatory to the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) and a member of the IAEA, it is entitled to develop and acquire nuclear technology for peaceful purposes.

“Amano also stressed the importance of a successfulconference on a Middle East free of nuclear and other weapons of mass destruction,” the IAEA statement added.

Israel, the only possessor of nuclear weapons in the Middle East, is widely known to have between 200 and 400 nuclear warheads.

The Israeli regime rejects all the regulatory international nuclear agreements — the NPT in particular — and refuses to allow its nuclear facilities to come under international regulatory inspections.

MP/HMV/SS

http://www.presstv.ir/detail/2013/01/25/285515/iran-ncase-must-be-resolved-peacefully/

January 26, 2013 Posted by | Uncategorized | Leave a comment

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