2013 June « nuclear-news

Radioactive waste a danger near underground landfill fire

“Emergency Action”: Lawmaker says nuclear waste is under threat from underground landfill fire near St. Louis http://enenews.com/emergency-action-lawmaker-says-nuclear-waste-is-under-threat-from-underground-landfill-fire-near-st-louis

Title: St. Louis-area lawmaker seeks removal of radioactive waste from Bridgeton landfill
Source: AP
Date: June 17, 2013
St. Louis-area lawmaker seeks removal of radioactive waste from Bridgeton landfill […]
Bridgeton Landfill is part of the larger West Lake Landfill. Another area of West Lake contains nuclear waste from the Cold War era. Democratic State Rep. Bill Otto of St. Charles on Monday called for emergency action to remove the nuclear waste, citing the threat from the underground fire.
The Environmental Protection Agency says the radioactive material is not endangered by the fire and there are no plans to remove it.

5.7 million people employed in renewable energy

An estimated 5.7 million people globally were working directly or indirectly in the renewable energy sector in 2012. The majority of employment remains focused in countries such as Brazil, China, India, some EU member states and the USA. The report quotes the example of Bangladesh, where selling, installing and maintaining small solar panels in rural areas directly employs up to 70,000 people; with an additional estimated 80,000 employed indirectly.

Renewable Energy Employing 5.7 Million http://www.energymatters.com.au/index.php?main_page=news_article&article_id=3797 19 June 13, In 2012, an estimated 5.7 million people worldwide worked directly or indirectly in the renewable energy sector says REN21.

REN21’s Renewables 2013 Global Status Report and UNEP/BNEF’s Global Trends in Renewable Energy Investment 2013 were launched last week; showing demand for renewable energy continued to increase during 2011 and 2012, providing an estimated 19% of global final energy consumption in 2011.

2012 was the second highest year ever for renewable energy investments – but being “second” doesn’t reflect installed capacity as prices for renewable energy equipment, particularly related to solar power, have plummeted.

Last year was another record year in terms of installed capacity; with 115 GW of new renewables put in place globally. However, 2012 saw the most significant change so far in the balance of renewable energy investment activity between developed and developing economies. Continue reading →

June 19, 2013 Posted by Christina Macpherson | 2 WORLD, employment, Reference, renewable | 2 Comments

48 USA mayors pledge action to deal with climate chnage

US cities seek greater climate resilience http://www.smh.com.au/environment/climate-change/us-cities-seek-greater-climate-resilience-20130618-2of9f.html June 18, 2013US mayors pledged Monday to make their communities more resilient to increasingly severe floods, droughts, extreme storms and wildfires, which they said was more efficient and cost-effective than disaster clean-up afterwards.

Four dozen elected officials, from localities as diverse as Washington DC, Des Moines, Iowa and Santa Barbara County, California, released a one-page plan which laid out actions such as using more renewable energy and making buildings and infrastructure more energy-efficient.

The Resilient Communities for America Agreement was launched less than a week after New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg announced a $US20 billion plan to prepare his city for rising sea levels and hotter summers.

The actions by local officials took place as anticipation builds that the White House is planning a series of executive actions in July to address climate.

Federal action can help, but local officials are at the front lines of natural disasters, said Des Moines Mayor Frank Cownie. Iowa’s biggest city saw severe flooding in 2008, a trio of “500-year” floods in 2010, a drought in 2012 and the wettest year in 140 years of record-keeping so far in 2013.

“These extreme events are becoming more and more prevalent, and local government is really where it happens,” Cownie said.

June 19, 2013 Posted by Christina Macpherson | climate change, USA | Leave a comment

Collapse of nuclear industry due to financial realities

In short: Cost estimates for new nuclear plants are not credible. I have yet to find a single one that stood up to close scrutiny. And as far as I am aware, no nuclear plant has ever been built for close to its original cost estimate.

The real reason to fight nuclear power has nothing to do with health risks, Quartz, By Chris Nelder, 17 June 13 Chris Nelder is an energy analyst, consultant and speaker who has written about energy and investing for more than a decade.

Nuclear proponents are launching a full-court press for fresh investment in the technologyThe release of the new film Pandora’s Promise, another editorial from ardent nuclear champions Michael Shellenberger and Ted Nordhaus of the Breakthrough Institute, and Paul Blustein’s recent piece in Quartz, “Everything you thought you knew about the risks of nuclear energy is wrong,” are part of an effort to put a new shine on a technology that once offered, but failed to deliver, electricity “too cheap to meter.”

Missing from the entire debate about nuclear is the most important fact of all: Nuclear is dying due to poor economics, and the debate is already over as far as the market is concerned.

Shellenberger and Nordhaus have backed up their arguments with junk accounting on nuclear energy’s costs. This is where the discussion must depart from mere boosterism and descend into the deep, dark world of energy economics—a subject that Blustein did not even address. Continue reading →

June 19, 2013 Posted by Christina Macpherson | business and costs, USA | Leave a comment

AUDIO: China starts carbon trading scheme

AUDIO China launches carbon trading scheme in bid to reduce emissions in Shenzhen http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-06-18/china-launches-its-first-carbon-trading-scheme/4763770 19 June 13 China, the world’s largest carbon emitter, has launched its first carbon trading scheme as it tries to reduce pollution from greenhouse gases. A platform allowing businesses in the southern city of Shenzhen to trade permits to emit carbon was established on Sunday, and trading began on Tuesday.

Under the scheme, companies will be assigned an emissions quota and will be able to profit from selling excess permits to other firms if they emit below their quota.

China plans to open similar schemes in seven areas including the capital Beijing, the major commercial centre of Shanghai, the port city of Tianjin and Guangdong province before 2014, in what analysts say is a step towards a nationwide carbon market.
The pilot programs will cover areas in which tens of millions of people live and cover far more emissions than the entire carbon market in Australia.

They also come as the European carbon trading market has collapsed, while Australia’s could be scrapped depending on the outcome of the September 14 election.Climate Institute deputy CEO Irwin Jackson says the scheme is a significant step forward for China.

June 19, 2013 Posted by Christina Macpherson | Resources -audiovicual | 1 Comment

Nuclear power problems in South Korea

South Korea’s Nuclear Blues The Diplomat, By Sebastian Sarmiento-Saher June 19, 2013 “…..Although South Korea’s burgeoning nuclear energy industry looks set to become a world leader, Seoul will first have to address domestic corruption in the atomic sector and international questions regarding its right to reprocess spent fuel at home. Continue reading →

June 19, 2013 Posted by Christina Macpherson | politics, South Korea | Leave a comment

Lynas rare earths company drops defamation case against Save Malaysia Stop Lynas.

Lynas drops case against Malaysia greens AAP JUNE 18, 2013 AUSTRALIAN rare earths miner Lynas Corporation has dropped defamation action against a Malaysian green group. In April last year, Lynas initiated legal proceedings against Save Malaysia Stop Lynas.

Two months later, independent media website Free Malaysia Today apologised for running stories sympathetic to the activists, who opposed plans for a processing plant. Lynas Corporation chief executive Eric Noyrez on Tuesday said solicitors had been instructed to discontinue legal action against the activist group.

“There is no value in continuing disputes with members of our local community,” he said in a statement.

“Therefore, Lynas intends to instruct its solicitors to discontinue its defamation claim against the Save Malaysia Stop Lynas group.”…. Lynas shares fell 1.25 cents, or 2.84 per cent, to 42.75 cents following the statement’s release.http://www.heraldsun.com.au/business/breaking-news/lynas-drops-case-against-malaysia-greens/story-fni0xqe4-1226665659143

June 19, 2013 Posted by Christina Macpherson | Legal, Malaysia | Leave a comment

World Bank is Mapping the Renewable Energy Revolution

Mapping the Renewable Energy Revolution World Bank, June 17, 2013 STORY HIGHLIGHTS
A new World Bank program is helping developing countries map their renewable energy potential in a new way that produces rich, nationwidedata.
The project goes beyond existing solar and wind maps to provide the granular data governments need to understand the country’s fullresource potential and to pinpoint the best locations for serving thepopulation……..http://www.worldbank.org/en/news/feature/2013/06/17/mapping-the-energy-revolution

June 19, 2013 Posted by Christina Macpherson | 2 WORLD, renewable | Leave a comment

Catholic Pope and other religions acting on climate change

Climate change gets religious SMH, 19 June 13 Few religious communities have gone as far in fighting climate change as a church in Queensland which has 24 solar panels bolted to the roof in the shape of a Christian cross. “It’s very effective. It’s inspired some members of our congregation to install panels on their homes,” Reverend David Lowry said of the “solar cross” mounted in 2009 on the Caloundra Uniting Church, which groups three Protestant denominations.

Many religions have been wary of moving to install renewable energy sources on their places of worship, from cathedrals to mosques – or of taking a strong stand on climate change in general – despite teachings that people should be custodians of nature.

But slowly, that may be changing, thanks to new religious leaders including Pope Francis, the head of the Roman Catholic Church.

Francis’s stress on environmental protection since he was elected in March and his choice of the name of a 13th century nature lover – Saint Francis of Assisi – may make a difference for all religions trying to work out how to safeguard the planet from threats including climate change. Continue reading →

June 19, 2013 Posted by Christina Macpherson | 2 WORLD, AUSTRALIA, climate change, Religion and ethics | Leave a comment

Problems in nuclear pyroprocessing

South Korea’s Nuclear Blues The Diplomat, By Sebastian Sarmiento-Saher June 19, 2013“…..Assuming that South Korea does gain approval to conduct pyroprocessing, it may take years to do so in a way that is both technically and economically viable. The Diplomat spoke with Olli Heinonen, a Senior Fellow at Harvard’s Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, who said that “[t]he product to the ROK pyroprocessing scheme is a uranium/transuranium/zirconium fuel, which is not suitable to fuel ROK’s LWR [Light Water Reactor] or CANDU [Canada Deuterium Uranium] reactors. Thus ROK is developing a prototype Sodium Fast Reactor (SFR), which is planned to be operational around 2028. A commercial scale SFR is envisioned to be available by the mid of the Century.”

In addition to a long wait time, pyroprocessing results in other fissile materials like Neptunium that can be used for nuclear bombs and must be safeguarded. Neptunium must be separated out, but as Dr. Heinonen added, “[i]t is fairly easy and straight forward for the IAEA to monitor and confirm that this does not take place.” This will mean that additional safeguarding efforts would need to be implemented – all of which will ultimately depend on South Korea’s willingness to abide by them.

Finally, how proliferation resistant is pyroprocessing in terms of achieving pure plutonium metal needed for nuclear weapons and timing? Dr. Heinonen gave his take: “The fact that plutonium is not fully separated from other elements gives to the ROK officials basis to argue that this difference makes pyroprocessing more proliferation resistant than traditional reprocessing.”

“In order to have pure plutonium separated, additional process steps are required either at the pyroprocessing plant or at a separate installation, which would be found by the IAEA. If such process steps are made it would take 1-3 weeks to turn the material to plutonium metal. However, before that the process steps need to be developed and constructed, but the bottom line is that by having the envisioned uranium/plutonium metal, a proliferator is substantially closer to pure plutonium metal.” ….. http://thediplomat.com/pacific-money/2013/06/19/south-koreas-nuclear-blues/

June 19, 2013 Posted by Christina Macpherson | Reference, South Korea, technology | Leave a comment

High Court orders withdrawal of criminal charges against Kudankulam protestors

HC notice to Govt for withdrawal of cases against anti-nuclear
activists http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/tamil-nadu/hc-notice-to-govt-for-withdrawal-of-cases-against-antinuclear-activists/article4825993.ece , 18 June, 13 The Madras High Court on Tuesday ordered issueof notice to Tamil Nadu Government asking why steps were not taken to withdraw cases filed against anti-nuclear activists protesting against Kudankulam Nuclear Power Project.

First Bench comprising Acting Chief Justice Rajesh Kumar Agrawal and
Justice M. Sathyanarayanan, ordered notice to the state government and
sought reply within three weeks.

The notice was issued on a petition which sought a direction to the
state government to withdraw all criminal cases filed against
anti-nuclear activists, who have been protesting against the
Indo-Russian project in Tirunelveli District.

The petition referred to the Supreme Court’s direction to the state
government to withdraw all criminal cases against the protestors.

June 19, 2013 Posted by Christina Macpherson | India, Legal | Leave a comment

Iran considers halting 20%uranium enrichment

Russian FM: Iran willing to halt 20% uranium enrichment http://www.jpost.com/Iranian-Threat/News/Russian-foreign-minister-Iran-willing-to-halt-20-percent-uranium-enrichment-316937 Lavrov: International community should react to Iran’s constructive steps by similar measures. By JPOST.COM STAFF 06/18/2013 Iran has expressed readiness to stop uranium enrichment to a fissile concentration of 20 percent in exchange for the easing of sanctions imposed by the P5+1 countries on the Islamic Republic, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told the Kuwait News Agency (KUNA) on Tuesday.

“The international community should react to Iran’s constructive steps by similar measures [such as the] gradual halt of sanctions and scrapping them, including the curbs of unilateral basis or those approved by the Security Council,” Lavrov said. Lavrov added that in light of Iran’s willingness to cooperate with the West, sanctions should not be tightened, but eased.

He urged both Iran and the six world powers (five permanent members of the UN Security Council and Germany) to show flexibility in nuclear talks in order to move forward.On Sunday, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said Iran was making “steady progress” in expending its nuclear program despite international sanctions, that do not seem to be slowing it down.

“There is a steady increase of capacity and production” in Iran’s nuclear program, Yukiya Amano said in an interview with Reuters.

He spoke shortly after Iranian President-elect Hassan Rohani pledged, during a news conference in Tehran, to be more transparent about Iran’s nuclear program in order to see sanctions lifted.

But Rohani also said Tehran was not ready to suspend its enrichment of uranium, which the West fears is aimed at producing a nuclear weapons capability – something Iran denies.

June 19, 2013 Posted by Christina Macpherson | Iran, politics international, Uranium | Leave a comment

10 million radiation monitoring data points now reached by Safecast

Safecast, crowdsourced radiation monitoring project, logs 10 million data points http://boingboing.net/2013/06/17/safecast-crowdsourced-radiati.html Xeni Jardin, Jun 17, 2013The crowdsourced radiation monitoring project Safecast, which was launched in the weeks after the Fukushima nuclear disaster in Japan, has reached a big milestone: they have collected and published over 10,000,000 individual data points.

June 19, 2013 Posted by Christina Macpherson | general | Leave a comment

Obama’s plans to reduce nuclear weapons stockpile in Europe

No Word From Russia as Obama Will Announce U.S. Nuclear Reductions The Daily Beast, by Josh Rogin Jun 18, 2013 There’s no word yet if the Russians will follow suit after President Obama. In his first visit to Berlin since becoming president, Barack Obama will give a speech including an update on his plan to rid the world of nuclear weapons and an announcement that he wants to further reduce America’s deployed stockpile of nuclear bombs by one third, a proposal that already faces stiff GOP opposition. Obama laid out his famous Prague agenda in a landmark speech speech in the Czech capital only three months into his presidency in 2009….. http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2013/06/18/no-word-from-russia-as-obama-will-announce-u-s-nuclear-reductions.html

June 19, 2013 Posted by Christina Macpherson | general | Leave a comment

Poland likely to delay nuclear power program

Poland may delay launch of nuclear plants Phys Org, 18 June 13 Poland could delay building its first nuclear power plants as natural gas, including shale gas, becomes less costly, the prime minister of the central European heavyweight said Tuesday. Read more at: http://phys.org/news/2013-06-poland-nuclear.html#jCp

June 19, 2013 Posted by Christina Macpherson | business and costs, EUROPE | Leave a comment

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