Inslee: 6 underground Hanford nuclear tanks leaking!
YAKIMA, Wash. (AP) – Six underground radioactive waste tanks at the nation’s most contaminated nuclear site are leaking, Gov. Jay Inslee said Friday.
By SHANNON DININNY Associated Press Published: Feb 22, 2013 at 2:42 PM PST
Inslee made the announcement after meeting with federal officials in Washington, D.C. Last week it was revealed that one of the 177 tanks at south-central Washington’s Hanford Nuclear Reservation was leaking liquids. Inslee called the latest news “disturbing.”
The tanks, which already are long past their intended 20-year life span, hold millions of gallons of a highly radioactive stew left from decades of plutonium production for nuclear weapons.
The U.S. Department of Energy said earlier that liquid levels were decreasing in one of the tanks at the site. Monitoring wells near the tank have not detected higher radiation levels.
The federal government created Hanford in the 1940s as part of the top-secret Manhattan Project to build the atomic bomb. The government spends $2 billion each year on Hanford cleanup – one-third of its entire budget for nuclear cleanup nationally. The cleanup is expected to last decades.
Central to cleanup is the construction of a plant to convert millions of gallons of waste into glasslike logs for safe, secure storage. The $12.3 billion plant is billions of dollars over budget and behind schedule.
Inslee and Oregon Gov. John Kitzhaber have championed building additional tanks to ensure safe storage of the waste until the plant is completed. Democratic Sen. Ron Wyden of Oregon said earlier this week that he shares their concerns about the integrity of the tanks, but that he wants more scientific information to determine it’s the correct way to spend scarce money.
Wyden noted the nation’s most contaminated nuclear site – and the challenges associated with ridding it of its toxic legacy – will be a subject of upcoming hearings and a higher priority in Washington D.C
http://www.komonews.com/news/local/Inslee-6-underground-Hanford-nuclear-tanks-leaking-192588501.html
Syria: IAF to blame for uranium traces at suspected nukes site – A depleted uranium mystery?
In Syria, for example, the IAEA was successful in collecting uranium particles at a site that had been “sanitized.” But then the IAEA cavalierly dismissed Syrian explanations that the natural uranium particles found at a bombed suspect site came from Israeli missiles. The agency’s claims that the particles are not of the correct isotopic and chemical composition for missiles, displays an appalling lack of technical knowledge about military munitions based on information from questionable sources. If the IAEA is to be respected it must get proper technical advice. For example deep earth penetrating bombs, not missiles were used in Syria. (February 06, 2013 update 2nd article below)
Image source: http://inesad.edu.bo/developmentroast/2012/02/guest-roast-cancer-and-condescension-the-case-of-iraqs-imposed-epidemic/
Syrian FM: IAF bombs last September may have contained uranium, West is trying to pressure Damascus.
By The Associated Press | Nov.12, 2008
Syria’s foreign minister suggested on Wednesday that Israel Air Force bombs may have been the source of uranium traces diplomats from the United Nations nuclear agency said were found a suspected nuclear site in Syria.
Foreign Minister Walid Mouallem said the leaks by the UN diplomats about the traces found at the site were politically motivated and aimed at pressuring Syria.
Unnamed diplomats at the Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency have said samples taken from a suspected nuclear site allegedly bombed by Israeli planes last September contained uranium combined with other elements that merit further investigation.
‘Ban on Iran channels lacks legal basis’ -Video
“This is a great disaster from the point of view of Britain, America and France. We would not be in this terrible nonsense in Syria supporting al-Qaeda and supporting the Saudis in their attempt to wreck Syria if we had proper debate on the BBC, on the ITV and on the Sky; but we do not get that debate,” the analyst explained
Fri Feb 22, 2013 5:25PM
Image source: http://kasamaproject.org/1636-68keeping-the-war-and-its-horrors-hidden
“I think what is behind it is some authoritarian personality in the United States of America and/or Paris, and/or London, who are thoroughly debased in their thinking, who have not the slightest trace of liberal values at all,” William Spring said in an interview with Press TV on Thursday.
He went on to say that although it is clear that banning Iranian media has no legal basis, getting this message across to European governments and the European courts is extremely difficult.
“I made an application for an injunction [and] judicial review in the UK courts, when they first took Press TV off the air and they, basically, did not appear to want to listen to legal arguments at all,” Spring added.
The activist also noted that the authoritarian personality in Europe permeates the thinking of the British, French and American establishments which say under no circumstances must free speech be allowed and it must be discouraged.
“This is a great disaster from the point of view of Britain, America and France. We would not be in this terrible nonsense in Syria supporting al-Qaeda and supporting the Saudis in their attempt to wreck Syria if we had proper debate on the BBC, on the ITV and on the Sky; but we do not get that debate,” the analyst explained
On Wednesday, the Arab satellite provider Gulfsat banned Iranian channels iFilm and Al-Kawthar under direct pressure from the European satellite company, Eutelsat.
The fresh encroachment upon freedom of speech targeting movie channel, iFilm, and Iran’s Arabic-language Al-Kawthar came one day after Eutelsat, owned by Franco-Israeli Michel de Rosen, asked Nilesat to take Press TV off the air.
TNP/HGH/SS
Video on link:
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/2013/02/22/290322/ban-on-iran-channels-lacks-legal-basis/
Syrian Foreign Ministry: Al-Qaeda-linked Groups Carried out Several Terrorist Bombings in Damascus, including al-Thawra St. Explosion
“Almost 60 people were killed in the blast that rocked the city with many children among those wounded.”
“But if the UNSC turns a blind eye to this terrorist act just as it did previously, It will deepen doubts in its seriousness in combating terrorism and its commitment to implementing its resolutions in this regard, in addition to the fact this will be considered as a kind of political concealment of these crimes,” the Ministry noted.
Feb 22, 2013
Image source: http://www.thejournal.ie/damascus-bomb-syria-804850-Feb2013/
DAMASCUS, (SANA) – Foreign and Expatriates Ministry addressed two identical letters to the President of the UN Security Council and the UN Secretary General on terrorist bombings which hit Damascus City on Thursday, the most violent of which is the terrorist bombing in al-Thawra Street.
The Ministry said in the letters that Damascus witnessed a series of terrorist bombings on Thursday, the most violent of which was the terrorist bombing which hit al-Thawra St. near al-Mazaraa neighborhood and claimed the lives of 53 martyrs while hundreds were injured, including children and students.
The ministry added that the terrorist bombing caused huge damage to al-Hayat Hospital and Abdullah bin al-Zubair School, in addition to burning several cars.
Authorities stopped a car loaded with tons of explosives in the same site and arrested the suicide terrorist who was driving the car.
The ministry added that those terrorist acts coincided with targeting a number of residential buildings with mortar shells, causing material damage, while the armed terrorist groups targeted on Wednesday the Syrian sports institutions as they attacked Tishreen Sports City with two mortar shells, causing the martyrdom of player Youssef Suleiman and injuring others.
The Ministry said that those coward terrorist acts which targeted crowded areas in the Syrian capital, Damascus, come in continuation of the terrorist bombings witnessed in Damascus and other Syrian provinces which were perpetrated by al-Qaeda-linked armed terrorist groups which receive financial and logistic support and media and political coverage from regional and foreign countries.
The Ministry added that the credibility of combating terrorism which has always been a matter of concern for the international community is now under unprecedented test as the most disgusting form of terrorism hit the Syrian civilians with no mercy or differentiating between an elderly man or a child.
The Ministry added that the credibility of combating terrorism which has always been a matter of concern for the international community is now under unprecedented test as the most disgusting form of terrorism hit the Syrian civilians with no mercy or differentiating between an elderly man or a child.
The Ministry added that the credibility of combating terrorism which has always been a matter of concern for the international community is now under unprecedented test as the most disgusting form of terrorism hit the Syrian civilians with no mercy or differentiating between an elderly man or a child.
The Ministry added that the credibility of combating terrorism which has always been a matter of concern for the international community is now under unprecedented test as the most disgusting form of terrorism hit the Syrian civilians with no mercy or differentiating between an elderly man or a child.
Radiation situation at Fukushima is unimaginably bad
No workers were visible around the No. 3 reactor building. An unmanned crane was removing debris on the roof.
It is hazardous to human health to work in the reactor building where
radiation levels range from 20 to 100 millisieverts per hour.
The amount of radioactive water stored in tanks and other facilities
rose to 230,000 tons this month, up from 10,000 tons in July 2011.
In addition, an estimated 100,000 tons of water have accumulated in
the basements of buildings.
Decommissioning will not be completed for the next 30 to 40 years
High radiation bars decommissioning of Fukushima plant Asahi 
Shimbun,
February 21, 2013
By HISASHI HATTORI/ Senior Staff Writer
Preparations for the mammoth task of decommissioning crippled reactors
at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant are being stymied by
continued high levels of radiation from the triple meltdowns there two
years ago.
Tokyo Electric Power Co., operator of the plant, has had to install
more tanks to store radioactive water, which continues to swell by
several hundreds of tons daily.
Asahi Shimbun reporters entered the No. 4 reactor building on Feb. 20,
accompanied by inspectors from the secretariat of the Nuclear
Regulation Authority, to assess the situation….. Continue reading
Australia – Marcia Langton defends non-disclosure on mining cash before Boyers Lectures
“For 40 years this racist assumption in the green movement about Aboriginal people being the enemies of the wilderness is a leitmotif of deals between conservation groups and state governments to deny Aboriginal people their rights as landowners and citizens of Australia.”
Andrew Crook | Feb 22, 2013 11:54AM
The academic background to last year’s Boyer Lectures was funded by global miners Rio Tinto and Woodside. But the audience was none the wiser. Should she and the ABC have disclosed?
Indigenous leader Marcia Langton and the ABC have defended a lack of disclosure over last year’s Boyer Lectures, despite tens of thousands of dollars in cash for Langton’s academic research being sourced from resources giants Rio Tinto, Woodside and Santos.
The series of five Boyers, titled “The Quiet Revolution: Indigenous People and the Resources Boom”, were delivered late last year by Langton at the ABC’s Brisbane studios and beamed around the country on Radio National.
They argued the boom had substantively benefited indigenous communities, with Langton lauding the work of a number of corporate behemoths — notably Rio — in providing job opportunities and friendly chop-outs. One lecture featured a full frontal attack on the “conceit” of anti-mining greenies.
But what listeners weren’t aware of was that two of the companies Langton praised were also bankrolling her.
The Melbourne School of Population and Global Health, where Langton serves as chairperson of the Australian Indigenous Studies, shows in its 2010 annual report that $480,000 in funding had been secured over four years for Langton’s joint Australian Research Council project ”Poverty in the Midst of Plenty: Economic Empowerment, Wealth Creation and Industrial Reform for Sustainable Indigenous and Local Communities”. The cash was provided by the federal government, corporate partners Woodside, Rio and Santos, and the Marnda Mia Central Negotiating Committee, a company that represents traditional owners in deals with Rio management.
According to a project outline, the study aimed to “promote economic empowerment for sustainable indigenous and local communities” by, among other things, removing the barriers to indigenous participation in large-scale resources projects. While a funding breakdown is not provided, Woodside confirmed it had provided $30,000 over three years. The project ran from 2009 until 2012.
Crikey asked Langton, the University of Melbourne and the ABC to explain the lack of disclosure. The university referred all queries to Langton. In an emailed statement, Langton told Crikey she had delivered the Boyers in a “private capacity”:
“I and the other members of the research team have complied with the university’s and ARC requirements for publications. The Boyer Lectures, however, are not subject to the university statutes.”
She says full details of the grant are available on an indigenous website, www.atns.net.au.
University of Melbourne researchers are required, under an official code of conduct, to ensure all:
“… publications must include information on the sources of financial support for the research and must include a disclosure of any potential conflicts of interest.”
The ABC’s Editorial Policies require the national broadcaster to:
“… ensure appropriate disclosure of any external funding arrangement … where the arrangement or acceptance, if it were not disclosed but later became public, may reasonably be perceived to distort the editorial content or otherwise undermine the ABC’s independence or integrity.”
Germany’s nuclear waste nightmare- the Gorleben salt mines
Abyss of Uncertainty: Germany’s Homemade Nuclear Waste Disaster Spiegal online, By Michael Fröhlingsdorf, Udo Ludwig and Alfred Weinzier, 21 Feb 13, Some 126,000 barrels of nuclear waste have been dumped in the Asse II salt mine over the last 50 years. German politicians are pushing for a law promising their removal. But the safety, technical and financial hurdles are enormous, and experts warn that removal is more dangerous than leaving them put……
Germany’s Federal Office for Radiation Protection (BfS) has been responsible for Asse since 2009. This is an agency that was originally founded to monitor things such as the safety of workers in nuclear research facilities. In early 2010, the federal government ordered the BfS to assess whether the radioactive waste in the Asse mine can be retrieved. The agency estimated that it would take three years to prepare the project. Most recently, the BfS said it would need 10 years for the fact-finding phase alone.
The BfS still has no detailed concept for the retrieval, no timetable, no script that maps out the technical procedures. It’s essentially a flight by the seat of the pants, and problems are encountered for which no solutions have been found anywhere in the world…. Continue reading
Cash strapped Japanese nuclear power companies selling uranium back to original sellers at a lower price!
A senior official of a major utility said the move was exceptional because it likely meant selling the uranium for less than the import price.
Japan Atomic Power takes rare step of selling uranium to pay off loans http://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2013/02/21/national/japan-atomic-power-takes-rare-step-of-selling-uranium-to-pay-off-loans/#.USfWWB1wpLt
KYODO
A Japanese nuclear power company has taken the rare step of selling some of its uranium, apparently to help repay loans amid its faltering business conditions, according to sources.Japan Atomic Power Co. apparently needs to secure money to repay loans due in April amid uncertainty over when it can resume operating its three idled reactors.
Tokyo Electric Power Co. is considering taking similar action as it continues to face funding difficulties following the crisis at the Fukushima No. 1 complex, the sources said. Continue reading
Nuclear power on the wane, and cheap gas is hastening that decline
Another casualty of the shale gas boom: Nuclear power WP by Brad Plumer February 21, 2013 The last few years have seen all sorts of drastic upheavals in the U.S. energy sector. Cheap natural gas is dominating. Wind and solar are growing. Coal is dwindling.
Now we can add another trend to the list: Nuclear power is on the decline. Since 2010, the amount of electricity generated from America’s nuclear reactors has fallen about 3 percent, or 29 billion kilowatt-hours. That’s a sizable drop.
So why is nuclear on the wane? Part of the story here is that America’s fleet of reactors is aging, which means they need to be taken offline more frequently for repairs. The San Onofre plant near San Diego, for instance, has been out since January 2012.
But a huge part of the story here is competition from cheap shale gas. This month, Duke Energy decided to close its Crystal River nuclear plant in Tampa rather than pay $1.5 billion to repair a cracked dome. The reason? It was easier to build new natural-gas turbines to replace the lost electricity. Last fall, Dominion Power announced that it would close its Kewaunee reactor in Wisconsin for similar reasons.
And that’s just the start: One energy analyst told Bloomberg that at least four other U.S. reactors are now at risk of early retirement “due to new power market economics.” Not only that, but the gas boom is killing off future reactors, too: Back in 2011, NRG scrapped plans for two new nuclear units in Texas. The reason? Other sources were cheaper and easier, including gas and wind.
Fukushima nuclear catastrophe is not fading away, a world history turning point
Academic Journal: Fukushima catastrophe becoming turning point in world history — “Its long-term impact and meaning are impossible to repress” Title: Thinking after Fukushima. Epistemic shift in social sciences
Source: Asia Europe Journal,
February 20th, 2013
Title: Thinking after Fukushima. Epistemic shift in social sciences
Source: Asia Europe Journal, Volume 11, Issue 1, pp 65-78
Author: Alain-Marc Rieu
Date: March 2013
The Fukushima catastrophe is a turning point in the conception, role and management of technology in industrial societies. As did Hiroshima (on another dimension) after 1945, the Fukushima nuclear accident questions and transforms established conceptions and values concerning the relations between technology, politics, industry, society and the environment. It has become impossible to think after Fukushima as we did before. This catastrophe initiates a major epistemic and conceptual shift with long-term consequences. […]
More than a year after the catastrophe, the time has come to evaluate its historical meaning. Fukushirna is not a disaster like others. This is the reason why it is becoming a turning point in world history: relations between technology, politics, industry, society and ecology are forever transformed. Its long-term impact and meaning are impossible to repress: wherever they live, people will never see and understand nuclear energy and nuclear industry as they did before […]
Read the article here
Florida State senators fed up with the delay in building nukes, as Duke Energy pockets resident’s money
State senators to utilities: Build nuclear power or risk loss of funding By Ivan Penn and Mary Ellen Klas, Tampa Bay Times/Herald Tallahassee Bureau February 21,2013 TALLAHASSEE – Fed up Tampa Bay area state senators want utilities to either start building nuclear power plants or lose a state law that allows them to charge customers for the plants in advance.
Duke Energy customers already are on the hook for $1.5 billion for a proposed plant in Levy County that the utility has delayed for almost a decade and still has not committed to build. The utility gets to pocket about $150 million of that money. Continue reading
No costs for nuclear firms that built Fukushima reactors, but residents must pay back compensation
the firms that helped design and build the Fukushima reactors, such as General Electric, Toshiba and Hitachi, are not required to pay a cent in compensation.
Aslihan Tumer, Greenpeace’s international nuclear project leader, says some of the companies are continuing to profit from the reactor.
“Nuclear suppliers are completely protected from accepting any liability or being held accountable in case of an accident,” he said.
Residents paying back Fukushima compensation ABC News, By North Asia correspondent Mark Willacy Feb 19, 2013 Nearly two years on from the meltdowns at the Fukushima nuclear plant, there are accusations the nuclear industry is evading its responsibilities.
The disaster has mostly dropped out of the news in Japan and its victims remain largely hidden after being placed in tiny, so-called temporary apartments across the country.
The ABC has learned that TEPCO, the operator of the Fukushima plant, is handing out what are called “temporary compensation” payments – money handed out to victims of the meltdowns, but which must be repaid….. Continue reading
VIDEO: Australia’s veterans of atomic bomb test call for justice
‘‘We were human guinea pigs,’’
VIDEO, GALLERY: Victims of atomic tests want justice http://www.theherald.com.au/story/1317774/video-gallery-victims-of-atomic-tests-want-justice/?cs=12 IN his log book for October 3, 1952, former HMAS Murchison chief petty officer John Quinn noted the following: ‘‘Atomic bomb exploded on HMS Plym.’’
The log book recorded the facts of the first of 12 British atomic tests in Australia in the 1950s, but this week Mr Quinn, 86, of Shoal Bay, recounted the emotion of that day on an Australian frigate in the waters of Monte Bello. Continue reading
Taiwan anti nuclear rally for March 9
Anti-nuclear groups call for March 9 rally By Loa Iok-sin 21 Feb 13, / As the anniversary of the March 2011 earthquake-tsunami disaster and nuclear crisis in Japan approaches, activists yesterday called on the public to join a nationwide anti-nuclear demonstration on March 9.
“Stop the budget hike for the Fourth Nuclear Power Plant! Stop dangerous nuclear energy,” dozens of people representing a number of environmental groups, including the Green Citizens’ Action Alliance, Nuclear Free Homeland Alliance and Citizen of the Earth Taiwan, chanted during a press conference on Ketagalan Boulevard in front of the Presidential Office in Taipei.
“Through our action, we demand the government stop injecting more money into the Fourth Nuclear Power Plant; stop unsafe nuclear energy programs; stop operations at the first, second and third nuclear power plants as soon as possible; and move nuclear waste out of Lanyu (蘭嶼) immediately,” Green Citizens’ Action Alliance secretary-general Tsuei Su-hsin (崔愫欣) told the press conference. Continue reading
Taiwan government downgrades nuclear safety regulator
Cabinet demotes nuclear safety body Taipei Times, 21 Feb 13, SAFE?With the ministerial-level Atomic Energy Council set to be disbanded, the new nuclear safety regulator will be a third-level agency under the Executive Yuan
By Shih Hsiu-chuan / Staff reporterDespite mounting public concern, the Cabinet yesterday declared that the agency overseeing nuclear safety would be downgraded from a ministerial-level council as part of an ongoing government restructuring plan.
The Cabinet yesterday approved the draft organic law of the nuclear safety regulatory authority, in which the current regulator, the Atomic Energy Council (AEC), would be disbanded and replaced by a third-level independent agency subordinate to the Executive Yuan. Part of the AEC’s functions will also be transferred to two ministries in charge of economic affairs and energy and technology, as part of the government’s efforts to streamline its agencies.
As a third-level agency subordinate to the Executive Yuan, the nuclear safety regulator would have the same rank as an institution like the Aviation Security Council, according to the Cabinet’s Research, Development and Evaluation Commission.
Lawmakers, anti-nuclear activists and even some AEC officials have said that the downgrade would make it more difficult for officials in charge of nuclear safety regulation to coordinate with ministerial-level bodies to ensure nuclear safety……. http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/front/archives/2013/02/22/2003555394
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