Bulgarian parliament suspends power plant construction!
27 February
Image Source : http://cryptome.org/info/nuclear-protest2/nuclear-protest2.htm
RT Breaking News
The Bulgarian parliament has suspended the construction of the country’s second nuclear power plant (NPP) that was approved in 2005. The decision comes after more than 60 per cent of voters in a referendum in January said “yes” to the question on whether the country should build a new NPP. However, only 20 per cent of the eligible population took part in the referendum. In accordance with the Bulgarian constitution the decision still needed approval from parliament. The project has been frozen since July 2009 when the GERB party of Prime-minister Boyko Borisov came to power.
映画「カリーナの林檎 チェルノブイリの森」Web予告 – Kalinas Apple, Forest of Chernobyl
Russian with Japanese subtitles
SAMBOLGHINI·
Uploaded on Apr 16, 2011
映画「カリーナの林檎 チェルノブイリの森」Web用予告編です。
この映画を、取材途中で亡くなったカリーナ（仮名）という少女に捧げたいと思います。
Akiyoshi Imazeki began shooting “Kalina’s Apple, Forest of Chernobyl” in 2003, a film about a girl who falls sick by eating the radiated apples grown on her grandmother’s farm. It was a film he believed in, but he had never hoped for massive appeal.
His post-Fukushima 2011 re-edit _ with its juxtaposition of pastoral lakes and forests, so much like Fukushima landscapes, with the forlorn faces of children hospitalized for cancer _ is striking home with many Japanese.
The film was shot quietly like many Japanese classics, and the cast is entirely Belarusian and Russian. But the dozens of screenings in Fukushima are drawing positive reviews.
“They all cry,” said Imazeki.
Imazeki is convinced the parallels between Fukushima and Chernobyl are striking, and stressed “Kalina’s Apple, Forest of Chernobyl” dramatizes the tragedy of radiation.
“The invisibility adds to the turmoil,” he said. “Families can no longer live normal happy lives.”
New! Iran, P5+1 to return to Almaty after expert-level nuclear talks: report
Image source : http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/02/26/iran-nuclear-talks_n_2764270.html
Reuters
27 February 2013
(Reporting By Marcus George; Editing by Pravin Char)
DUBAI (Reuters) – Iran and world powers have agreed to hold a further meeting to discuss Iran’s nuclear program in Almaty, Kazakhstan, after first holding “expert-level” talks in Istanbul, Iran’s Fars news agency reported on Wednesday.
The report did not specify any dates for the two meetings but said the expert-level talks would take place “days before” the Almaty meeting. There were no further details.
The two sides met in Almaty on Tuesday and Wednesday in an attempt to resolve international concerns over Iran’s nuclear activities.
http://sg.finance.yahoo.com/news/iran-p5-1-return-almaty-expert-level-nuclear-080102462–sector.html
Nuclear plant safety tests to continue: Taiwan government
Hwang predicted problems at least before 2015 as power plants closed and economic growth picked up again, leading to increased demand from business. Using coal to produce power would damage the environment, while gas was hard to store more than seven days during the low season in summer, he reportedly told lawmakers. He didn’t rule out the possibility of his company going bankrupt if problems continued to mount..
With abundant wind resources along the west coast and on offshore island, Taiwan has superior advantages in geographic location to develop wind energy……
http://web3.moeaboe.gov.tw/ECW_WEBPAGE/webpage/book_en1/page1.htm
Taiwan News, Staff Writer
2013-02-27 03:50 PM
TAIPEI (Taiwan News) – Safety tests at the fourth nuclear plant will continue despite a Legislative Yuan decision to stop work on the project ahead of an eventual referendum, the government said Wednesday.
Premier Jiang Yi-huah announced Monday that he would allow a referendum about the controversial reactors under construction in Gongliao, New Taipei City, while caucuses at the Legislature agreed on Tuesday that work should be halted and new funding would not be approved as long as the vote had not been held.
Cabinet spokeswoman Cheng Li-wun said Wednesday the lawmakers had agreed that safety-related work could continue, so the government would still invite domestic and foreign experts to visit the plant and conduct safety tests. In the wake of the 2011 Fukushima disaster, public concern has been mounting that an earthquake could cause a nuclear calamity in Taiwan as well.
Additional budgets for the plant requested by the state-run Taiwan Power Corporation will not be approved but the installation of the first fuel rods will not be affected by the legislative agreement because it was planned for next year, Cheng said.
Opposition Demands Fair Referendum on New Taiwan Nuclear Plant
Opposition-backed demonstrators have demanded a halt to the New Taipei City project, with many protesters citing design and construction flaws.
Clare Jim | February 27, 2013
Taipei, Taiwan. Taiwan’s main opposition party called on Tuesday for a change in the law governing referendums to give voters a fair chance to decide whether to halt construction of a fourth nuclear power station on the self-governing island.
The ruling Nationalist Party, long a backer of the project, bowed to opposition demands on Monday to hold a referendum on halting the construction of two reactors in New Taipei City county in northern Taiwan.
The opposition says provisions of Taiwan’s Referendum Act make it difficult to pass any motion submitted for approval, as half of all voters must take part, and half of them must vote in favor of a motion for it to pass.
“We want an impartial and fair referendum,” opposition Democratic Progressive Party Chairman Su Tseng-chang said in a statement. “Not with this ‘bird cage’ referendum law and not in this deceptive manner.”
The government is clearly gambling on a favorable vote to proceed.
Construction is 98 percent complete and tests have begun on the first reactor. Any halt to the project would incur huge costs, with the budget standing at T$283.8 billion ($9.57 billion), according to state-owned Taipower, and the cabinet is expected to seek additional funds in June.
Opposition to nuclear power swept across the world following the 2011 crisis at Japan’s Fukushima Daiichi plant, triggered by an earthquake and tsunami. But pressure on governments to reduce reliance on oil and tap cheaper energy forms is bringing projects back to the drawing board.
Last month, South Korea decided to expand its nuclear program despite safety concerns and scares that closed two reactors. China this month started up the first reactor commissioned since the meltdowns at Fukushima, the world’s worst nuclear accident in 25 years.
Continue reading
Korean Kids Lose Out in Japan After Pyongyang’s Nuclear Test
“North Korea fired its missile and went ahead with a nuclear test. They are such provocative actions against the wishes of the international community,” he said at a press conference. “I have no intention of continuing to defend Korean schools anymore.” Governor Yuji Kuroiwa
“I once thought maybe the schools could become independent [from Pyongyang] — but not now,” she said. “Not until Japan becomes completely free of discrimination against Koreans.”
And beyond all the politicking, Han Bok-Myong, a mother of three students at the school, says it is the children who are suffering.
No Free Education for Pro-DPRK High School in Japan
February 27, 2013
As the world rushed to condemn North Korea for its nuclear test, the shockwaves from international politics rippled into the daily lives of ethnic Korean children living in Japan.
Amid clamor for an effective way to punish a Pyongyang leadership that has proved immune to years of diplomatic pressure, youngsters who have never lived under the regime are bearing the brunt of Japanese anger.
The schools many of these children attend are having their funding withdrawn by Japan, leaving students and parents wondering why they are being punished for something they cannot control.
“Every time something happens in our fatherland of Korea, small Korean children get harassed verbally and physically by those who watch the news,” said Kim Su-Hong, a 17-year-old pupil at a school in Yokohama, near Tokyo. “The daily reality of discrimination that we face really hurts.”
There are around 500,000 ethnic Koreans in Japan, mostly descendants of migrants and forced workers from Tokyo’s sometimes brutal 1910-1945 occupation of the Korean peninsula.
Many are effectively stateless, having forfeited their Japanese nationality with Japan’s 1945 defeat. They remain without the vote in their host country.
When Korea was divided in 1953, they were forced to choose between allegiance to the US-allied Seoul or to Beijing-backed Pyongyang.
Plant Vogtle – Lawmakers debate penalizing utility over nuclear expenses
Martin said Chapman needed to better define what qualifies as a cost overrun. But time is getting short. The bill would have to be adopted by a committee and be approved by the entire House in six legislative days or else it fails for the year.
Associated Press Writer
Part of the containment vessel for a new nuclear reactor at the Plant Vogtle nuclear power plant is under construction in Augusta in 2012. Rep. Jeff Chapman (R-Brunswick) asked a House subcommittee Tuesday to support his proposal to cut into the profits of Georgia Power if the company’s cost of building Plant Vogtle exceeds a state-approved budget of roughly $6.1 billion.
The Associated Press
Rep. Jeff Chapman (R-Brunswick) asked a House subcommittee Tuesday to support his proposal to cut into the profits of Georgia Power if the company’s cost of building Plant Vogtle near Augusta exceeds a state-approved budget of roughly $6.1 billion. Georgia Power is a subsidiary of the Atlanta-based Southern Co.
As a regulated monopoly, the utility earns a profit of roughly 11 percent on every dollar it invests in the capital project. Chapman’s plan would force the utility to earn a much lower profit on any spending in excess of its budget.
“The way it’s set up today, it actually incentivizes cost overruns,” Chapman said. “Now I don’t believe Georgia Power would intend to do that. But they can legally now charge and profit from cost overruns.”
Georgia Power officials say the project is already monitored by the state’s Public Service Commission, which can prevent the utility from passing along costs to customers if it decides any project spending is egregious.
Continue reading
Vermont Yankee and nuclear optimism!
Perhaps a similar principle sometimes applies to blogs. If there’s a subject you have covered in a series of blog posts, you can put an eBook together, and the book will be something you can point to, refer to, or suggest that people buy. “Get the eBook” is far more understandable than telling people that if they go to a blog and search for the keyword “economics” (for example) they will find some interesting stuff.
By Meredith Angwin
Refueling optimism
The Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant will refuel this spring, probably in March or April. Vermont Yankee’s statement announcing the refueling was optimistic about the plant’s future. Spokesman Rob Williams:
“We’re proceeding business-as-usual and making upgrades where necessary. As we plan this outage our assumption is we’re operating until 2032” (quoted by Terri Hallenbeck in the Burlington Free Press).
The Hallenbeck article also noted: There’s been much speculation that the 41-year-old plant’s closure might be impending…
This negative speculation about the plant was based on a UBS report that claimed that Vermont Yankee is uneconomical and might well be closed by Entergy. Andrew Stein at Vermont Digger reported on this analysis, and an earlier article by Stein provides a link directly to the UBS report.
I wasn’t negative. I thought Vermont Yankee would refuel. As a matter of fact, I posted a blog article titled: Vermont Yankee is Refueling and I Sort of Told You So.
The “I told you so” incident came about a week before Entergy announced that it was refueling. Pat Bradley ( WAMC Plattsburgh NY) interviewed three people, including me. She asked us all about the UBS report, and I was the only one who thought the plant would continue to operate. (A link to the interview is here—it’s about three minutes long).
My optimism
Japan tsunami and nuclear disaster movies seek to tell untold stories of forgotten victims
The movie started with 1,400 people in the school building, but that has dwindled lately to about 100. Funahashi is determined to keep filming until the last person leaves.
“The evacuated people are being forgotten,” said Funahashi. “And criminal responsibility is also being forgotten.”
Such scenes fill the flurry of independent films inspired by Japan’s March 2011 catastrophe that tell stories of regular people who became overnight victims _ stories the creators feel are being ignored by mainstream media and often silenced by the authorities.
Nearly two years after the quake and tsunami disaster, the films are an attempt by the creative minds of Japan’s movie industry not only to confront the horrors of the worst nuclear disaster since Chernobyl, but also as a legacy and to empower the victims by telling their story for international audiences.
The impact these films have on the global and Japanese audiences could perhaps even help change Japan, the directors say.
What’s striking is that many of the works convey a prevailing message: The political, scientific and regulatory establishment isn’t telling the whole truth about the nuclear disaster. And much of the public had been in the past ignorant and uncaring about Fukushima.
And so the films were needed, the auteurs say. The people leading Japan were too evasive about the true consequences of the multiple meltdowns at Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant _ minimizing people’s suffering, playing down health risks and shrugging off accountability for past go-go pro-nuclear government policies.
“Japan’s response is ambiguous and irresponsible. But, meanwhile, time is passing,” said Atsushi Funahashi, director of “Nuclear Nation,” which documented the story of the residents of Futaba, Fukushima, the town where the crippled Fukushima Dai-ichi plant is located.
The entire town became a no-go zone _ contaminated by radiation in the air, water and ground after the tsunami destroyed the plant’s cooling systems, causing meltdowns in three reactors. Decommissioning the reactors is expected to take decades.
Of all Fukushima communities forced to evacuate, Futaba chose the farthest spot from the nuclear plant _ an abandoned high school in Saitama Prefecture, near Tokyo. That choice Funahashi feels highlights a keen awareness of the dangers of radiation and distrust of officials as the town had been repeatedly told the plant was safe.
The outburst of post-disaster filmmaking includes Americans living in or visiting Japan, such as “Surviving Japan,” by Christopher Noland, “Pray for Japan,” by Stuart Levy and “In the Grey Zone” and “A2” by Ian Thomas Ash.
Fukushima Prefectural Officials Want Children to Come to Fukushima on School Trips, Promise “Charm and Safety” and “Heart-Throbbing Experience”
Tuesday, February 26, 2013
EXSKF
http://ex-skf.blogspot.co.uk/2013/02/fukushima-prefectural-officials-want.html
Meanwhile in Fukushima Prefecture, the officials are ever more eager to persuade schools in other parts of Japan to send their pupils and students to Fukushima, for educational trips.
The officials hope that school educational trips will result in increase of tourism revenue for the prefecture.
From one of the Fukushima local newspaper Kahoku Shinpo (2/23/2013):
「教育旅行」福島に来れ！ 県、呼び戻しへ本腰
Come to Fukushima on “educational trips”! The prefecture to make serious effort to win them back
福島県は福島第１原発事故で減った修学旅行や遠足の呼び戻しに本腰を入れる。原発事故と東日本大震災に遭った経験を生かして旅行企画を開発し、教諭や保護者、児童生徒に魅力と安全性をアピールする。
Fukushima Prefecture will make serious effort to win back the school trips and excursions to Fukushima, which have declined in numbers after the Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant accident. The prefecture will develop trip plans based on the experience of the nuclear accident and the March 11, 2011 disaster, and sell such trip plans to teachers, parents and children on Fukushima’s charm and safety.
津波被災地や原発事故の避難区域の住民が「語り部」となって被災体験を伝える。従来の観光スポットに加え、可能な範囲で被災地を見てもらう。複数の旅行会社に企画提案を募る。
Residents from the tsunami-affected areas and (former) evacuees in the nuclear accident evacuation zone will act as “storytellers” to relate their experience to the children. In addition to regular tourist spots, children will get to see the disaster-affected areas where possible. The prefecture will ask multiple travel agencies to propose trip plans.
原発事故で福島行きを取りやめた首都圏や九州の学校に出向いて誘致する活動も続ける。県は２０１３年度当初予算案に関連費約７５００万円を計上した。
The prefecture will continue to visit schools in the Tokyo Metropolitan areas and in Kyushu to persuade them to come to Fukushima again. These schools stopped school trips to Fukushima after the nuclear accident. The budget of about 75 million yen [US$814,000] has been included in the fiscal 2013 budget.
Pirate Bay abandons Sweden for Norway and Spain after legal threats
“Being in the moral and legal right is something completely different from winning in a courtroom,” he said. “In the trial against the Pirate Bay operators, you saw everything from a corrupt judge who was part of the same interest group as the plaintiffs to an investigating police officer who was flat-out hired by Warner Brothers while doing the investigation.”
“It was a travesty of everything justice is supposed to be,” Falkvinge added.
Published time: February 26, 2013 13:47
RT
The Swedish Pirate Party has handed over hosting of the Pirate Bay to sister parties in Norway and Spain after the country’s copyright lobby sent a letter threatening criminal charges for hosting the controversial file-sharing website.
The Swedish Rights Alliance gave the party until Tuesday to cut all ties with the Pirate Bay following threats of serious legal consequences. In a letter sent directly to the party’s board members earlier this month, the Swedish Pirate Party was accused of violating copyright law by acting as an Internet service provider for the popular bittorrent site.
The alliance also charged that the Supreme Court of Sweden had “legally settled that not only those who operate an illegal file-sharing service, but also those who provide internet access to such an illegal service are committing a criminal act.”
The Rights Alliance said that such violations of copyright law could entail stiff fines for noncompliance, payment of damages and even potential prison terms. “These rules apply to legal entities, including non-profit organizations such as The Pirate Party and Serious Tubes, their board members, and other representatives of the organizations,” the letter continued.
Proposal for Paducah laser enrichment plant – Wilmington in North Carolina
USEC made progress on a demonstration cascade of its indigenously developed American Centrifuge technology, although a commercial facility has struggled to obtain a loan guarantee necessary for the project to proceed. Should GLE decide to construct a laser enrichment plant at Paducah, it may be eligible for that loan guarantee.
26 February 2013
WNN
GE-Hitachi subsidiary Global Laser Enrichment (GLE) has formalised a proposal to set up a laser uranium enrichment plant using SILEX technology at the US Department of Energy (DoE)’s Paducah enrichment site in Kentucky.
 |
| Paducah (Image: US DoE) |
GLE submitted an expression of interest including a non-binding proposal for the plant to the DoE on 21 February, SILEX developer Silex Systems Ltd announced in its half-yearly update. GLE is developing and commercialising the SILEX (Separation of Isotopes by Laser Excitation) technology under an exclusive agreement signed with Australian company Silex Systems in 2006, and has been involved in preliminary discussions with DoE about a possible Paducah plant since November 2012.
GLE already has a licence to construct and operate a commercial uranium enrichment plant using SILEX technology at Wilmington in North Carolina: an initial licence decision issued by the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission in September 2012 became final in January 2013. The Wilmington site is already home to GEH’s nuclear fuel manufacturing facility. However, Silex Systems claims that it could be significantly quicker and less costly to set up a commercial SILEX laser enrichment facility at Paducah, where existing facilities could be utilised.
The Paducah gaseous diffusion enrichment plant is the oldest operating uranium enrichment plant in the world, but is expected to close down in May 2013 after over 60 years of operations as new US centrifuge capacity comes online. The DoE has been evaluating possible future opportunities for the plant.
TV: US nuclear plants “very vulnerable” to cyberattack — They’ve been quite successful disrupting these reactors (VIDEO)
Published: February 26th, 2013 at 10:25 am ET
By ENENews
Title: ‘US nuclear power plants very vulnerable to cyber attacks’
Source: RT
Date: Feb 25, 2013
Former Pentagon official Michael Maloof: In the case of the United States it’s aimed at our grid system, as the president point out, and at our critical infrastructure, which is very vulnerable already and this has been known, including our nuclear reactors.
There have been recent tests on this and they’ve been quite successful in disrupting the ability of these nuclear reactors to respond.
So the threat of a cyber attack from unknown entities is very serious.
Watch the video here
Stuxnet origins: US targeted Iran’s nuclear research facility before its erection
Published time: February 26, 2013 21:38
RT
The first potentially explosive cyber-weapon used to attack Iran’s nuclear research infrastructure was developed before Iran even started enriching uranium at the Natanz facility, researchers at the security company Symantec have discovered.
The dormant computer virus that was behind an attack on Iran’s nuclear program as early as 2005 still threatens computers worldwide, mainly in Iran and the United States, Symantec’s new report suggests.
The anti-virus giant, on Tuesday, claimed that a team of specialists has discovered a version of the Stuxnet computer virus that was used against Tehran in November 2007, two years earlier than previously assumed.
The threat, Stuxnet version 1.001, which the company helped to uncover in July 2010, “one of the most sophisticated pieces of malware ever written” is now believed to have had an impact on the critical national infrastructure of nation states.
When the virus originally surfaced, it was alleged that Washington and Tel Aviv used it to attack an Iranian nuclear plant at Natanz.
But the latest analysis by the Symantec Security Response has revealed that an earlier version of 1.001, Stuxnet 0.5 was in operation between 2007 and 2009 with the possibility of even earlier variants going back to 2005.
Yet eight years ago Iran was in the process of building its uranium enrichment facility, said Symantec researcher Liam O’Murchu, as the plant became operational in 2007.
“It is really mind-blowing that they were thinking about creating a project like that in 2005,” O’Murchu told Reuters ahead of the report’s release at the RSA security conference in San Francisco.
All versions of Stuxnet have allegedly been used to change the speeds of around 1,000 gas-spinning centrifuges without being detected, thus sabotaging the research process of Iranian scientists. Such manipulation, say some experts, could potentially lead to an explosion.
Litvinenko family lawyer accuses UK of coverup
Litvinenko, who was once an officer of the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) and later a fierce critic of the Kremlin, died on November 23, 2006. He was poisoned on November 1, 2006 with polonium-210, a highly toxic radioactive isotope, at a hotel in central London.
On his deathbed in London, the 43-year-old accused Russian spies of ordering his assassination. The Kremlin denied the allegations and said Litvinenko, who had been granted British citizenship, was a British spy.
“It is crucial, absolutely crucial, that the outcome of this hearing is to scotch, once and for all, any possible suggestion that it is because (Prime Minister) David Cameron is interested in promoting trade with Russia that he is trying to close down the truth about this inquest,” Emmerson said.
However, lawyers for British Foreign Secretary William Hague said that the examination of some government documents in open court is not in the public interest.
They argued that confidential information held by the government about Litvinenko should be subject to a public interest immunity (PII) certificate.
“The disclosure of material would pose a real risk of serious harm to public interest,” said Neil Sheldon, who is one of Hague’s lawyers.
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