nuclear-news

France slams media blackout on Mali war -PressTV

On January 11, France launched the war under the pretext of halting the advance of fighters in Mali. However, as Paris has stepped up its ground offensive and aerial strikes in Mali few images of the conflict have come out of the African country.

French networks TF1 and France Televisions have also sent several teams to Bamako, but a media blackout on images of the clashes has confined all journalists to the city.

This comes as French Defense Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian has said the number of French troops on the ground in the West African country could top the initially-planned number of 2,500.

“Two thousand five hundred is what was initially announced, maybe that will be exceeded,” Le Drian said in a Saturday television interview.

Also on Sunday, Le Drian announced that Paris’ goal in the African country “is the total reconquest of Mali,” adding, “We will not leave any pockets” of resistance.

Meanwhile, the United Nations refugee agency, UNHCR, said it was preparing for around 700,000 people to flee the violence in Mali.

The United States, Canada, Britain, Belgium, Germany, and Denmark have already said they would support the French war against Mali.

The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) has also pledged to support the French war by sending 5,800 soldiers to Mali.

Some analysts believe that Malian abandoned naturalresources, including gold and uranium reserves, could be one of the reasons behind French war on the country.

http://www.presstv.ir/detail/2013/01/21/284689/france-slams-media-blackout-on-mali-war/

January 21, 2013 Posted by arclight2011 | Uncategorized | Leave a comment

World Nuclear Electricit​y Generation Down 5 Percent Since 2006 and Canada issues

SUNDAY, JANUARY 20, 2013

January 20, 2013 Posted by arclight2011 | Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Russian nuclear icebreaker traversing Norwegian waters, worrying Bellona

The Russian nuclear icebreaker, the Rossiya, has left the Murmansk-based icebreaker port of Atomflot on Tuesday en route to the St. Petersburg area on what is likely to be its last voyage of Russia’s forth-oldest ship of this type.

Charles Digges, 17/01-2013

The icebreaker will likely be taken out of service because it has surpassed its intended useful lifespan.

As of 11:00 Central European time  Thursday, the Rossiya was located 200 kilometers east southeast of the Northern Norwegian city of Bodø travelling at 17 knots, according to the Norwegian Coastal Administration (NCA).

Nils Bøhmer, Bellona’s general manager and nuclear physicist expressed concern that the Rossiya would be completing the some 5000 kilometer along Norway’s 100,000 kilometer-long coastline as it steams to the Gulf of Finland where it will be deployed until April to help with commercial ship navigation in icy conditions, he said.

He said the potential for accidents aboard the vessel such as fires or reactor trouble were heightened because of its age. The vessel put to sea in 1985.

Bøhmer said NCA officials were notified on Christmas that the Rossiya would be sailing along its coast, but – as has happened in the past to the chagrin of Norwegian authorities  – officials were given no specific dates for the voyage.

The ship’s route will take it from Russia’s far north port of Atomflot, along Norway’s western coast, through the narrow Øresund between Sweden and Denmark to the Gulf of Finland, the Barents Observer news portal reported.

The Rossiya has experienced no major radiological or other technical problems during its service period, and has even been used to shuttle tourists to the North Pole.

But other icebreaker mishaps over the past several years nonetheless give Bøhmer pause.

“The age of such vessels, the wear on reactors, andexamples of other mishaps aboard ships of Russia’s nuclear icebreaker fleet are a cause for concern to Norway’s public and the population of those countries the Rossiya will also pass,” he said.

Fire kills two aboard Vaygach

A recent example was a fire aboard Russia’s Vaygachnuclear powered icebreaker, which killed two in December 2011.

The Vaygach, which had departed from Dudinka 2,800 kilometers northeast of Moscow, was breaking the way for the freight carrier Kapitan Danilkin along the Yenisei river that runs north through Siberia when the blaze broke out.

Though the fire left the Vaygach’s reactor untouched, it burned for three hours at the mouth of the Yenisei were it spills into the Kara Sea.

A third man suffered burns and smoke inhalation, but theVaygach eventually returned to Atomflot under its own steam. The Vaygach put to sea in 1990.

In another 2011 incident, this one in May, the Russian nuclear icebreaker Taimyr was forced to return to port when tiny cracks in the first cooling circuit of the ship’s reactor were found to be leaking large quantities of cooling water.

Coolant leak hobbles Taimyr at sea

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January 20, 2013 Posted by arclight2011 | Uncategorized | Leave a comment

A bloggers critique of corporate resource stripping in Africa

“People don’t seem to like the way Glencore does business and they do not agree with what they do, especially in Africa. “[Glencore] is cheating other people, taking things out of the ground and not paying [much in taxes in the countries in which it operates] and selling it at a lot of profit.”

“Tony Hayward is not only the President and CEO of Genel Energy, he is also the Senior Independent Director at Glencore International Plc.”

http://www.tumblr.com/tagged/tony%20hayward

January 20, 2013 Posted by arclight2011 | Uncategorized | 1 Comment

Fukushima Nuclear Crisis Update for January 15th to January 17th, 2013 -Greenpeace

“…In addition, utilities used advertising budgets—also covered by utility fees paid for by consumers—on expensive dinners and drinks for media executives. They sponsored television shows and bought advertising in publications run by Prime Minister Abe’s Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), which currently holds control of the Lower House of the Diet. Spending doubled after the Chernobyl nuclear disaster in 1986, when many began to seriously question nuclear power’s safety. “It is easy to see that by spending a large sum on ads, utilities tried to keep a close eye on media organizations’ negative reporting on nuclear power plants,” noted Hiroyoshi Sunakawa, an associate professor of media theory at Rikkyo University. Tatsuo Hatta, a visiting professor of economics at Gakushuin University, agreed: “With advertising money, media organizations became dependent on utilities for revenue and found it hard to criticize nuclear power.”….”

Here’s the latest of our news bulletins from the ongoing crisis at Japan’s Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant.

Blogpost by Christine McCann – January 18, 2013

Decontamination Scandal

A major decontamination scandal continues to unfold in Fukushima Prefecture, prompting the Environment Ministry to conduct its own investigation into shoddy practices after a series of articles in the Asahi Shimbun revealed photographic, video, and audio evidence of contracted workers blatantly disregarding Ministry rules regarding appropriate disposal of radioactive materials and other decontamination procedures. After the articles first began to appear in Asahi on January 4, Ministry officials asked four construction firms contracted to do the decontamination to conduct their own investigations into the charges, which included illegally dumping radioactive materials into rivers, streams, and forested areas. However, the construction company officials only admitted the three infractions, including allowing contaminated water from high-pressure sprayers to flow intogutters and washing boots and other equipment covered in radioactive mud in rivers and ditches. They blatantly denied the other allegations, despite a mountain of evidence to the contrary.

Asahi reporters uncovered 14 instances of wrongdoing, and approximately 30 whistleblowers who had worked at the decontamination sites contacted the Ministry after being ordered to improperly dispose of the debris. In one instance, reporters took a series of 27 photographs of a Kajima Corporation supervisor kicking radioactive leaves into a river. Kajima officials continue to insist that the incident didn’t happen, instead saying that he was trying to recover a rake that had slid down an embankment into the river. However, none of the pictures showed a rake, and the embankment near the river was covered with roots, branches, and other foliage, making it difficult or impossible for the rake to slide down the hill. In another instance, a report said that contractors did not use pressurized sprayers to clean roofs, when Asahi photographs clearly show that they were used, a violation of Environment Ministry decontamination policies.

Some workers have blamed lack of training and the prospect of a nearly impossible task with no clear-cut goals for the poor work practices. One worker mused, “Theories and experience in the field are different. It’s something no one has experienced before. No one knows how it should be done, exactly.” He added, “Those overseeing us from the contracting company or government offices nag at us to work safely, but they don’t give us any specific instructions,” noting that some workers in his crew did not even wear protective footwear when working in highly radioactive areas.

In addition, problems have surfaced in Fukushima City, which is not one of the central government’s 11 officially designated “special decontamination areas”, but has received government funding for cleanup. Although the prefectural government told Environment Ministry officials that it would use zeolite-filled sandbags to filter radioactive materials out of water contaminated by the cleaning process, it failed to do so, instead allowing the water produced by pressurized sprayers to flow into gutters. Ministry guidelines say that houses are supposed to be decontaminated by wiping, not spraying, and when spraying is used, radioactive water should be collected. Officials blamed the failure on lack of temporary storage space for the contaminated sandbags. In Fukushima City, although 90,000 homes have been certified radioactive, only 4,000 have been decontaminated almost two years after the nuclear disaster first began to unfold.

Nuclear Politics in Japan

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January 20, 2013 Posted by arclight2011 | Uncategorized | Leave a comment