Audio: Obama sidesteps ‘flat earth’ science deniers with new climate change plan, http://www.abc.net.au/am/content/2013/s3789621.htmABC Radio AM Ben Knight reported this story on , June 26, 2013 TONY EASTLEY: The US president Barack Obama has cited rising water levels in New York Harbour, the increasing prevalence of forest fires and heatwaves in Alaska as he’s laid out a broad new plan to fight climate change.
Because of difficulties getting his legislation through Congress, president Obama plans to use executive powers to get around what he described as “flat earth” science deniers. He wants new restrictions on existing and new power plants to curb carbon emissions and he’s pledged to push new generation clean energy sources. North America correspondent Ben Knight is in Washington……
Despite the dangers of running an aging nuclear plant on two fault-lines beside America’s largest population center, the NRC has shown little will towards fulfilling it’s public safety mandate. Even if the agency is unable to legally relicense the two Indian Point reactors, Diane Screnci says that under timely renewal there is no time limit on how long the reactors can continue to operate. New Yorkers could be forced to live beside a radioactive Pandora’s Box indefinitely or at least until its nuclear lid is lifted.
GERIATRIC NUCLEAR REACTORS COULD KILL US ALL, VICE NEWS, By Peter Rugh 26 June 13 “……….While the company [Entergy] has skimped on infrastructure upgrades at it’s aging plant, a report from the campaign finance watchdog Common Cause NY last month found that Entergy has spent approximately $40 million on lobbying and campaign contributions on a state and federal level since 2005 as its reactor licenses at Indian Point neared expiration. The report notes that Entegy has retained the public relations firm Burson Marstella, “self-described experts in ‘reputation and crisis management strategies,’ who have worked for such highly controversial clients as Union Carbide, Philip Morris, Blackwater, Foxconn, and Babcock & Wilcox (the firm that designed the Three Mile Island nuclear plant).”
Entergy has also set up two front groups to advocate on its behalf, according to Common Cause. SHARE (Safe Healthy Affordable Reliable Energy) targets communities of color in New York City by advocating for nuclear power as a way to reduce pollution and lower asthma rates while NY AREA (Affordable Reliable Energy Alliance) targets unions and environmental groups. Steets insisted that while Entergy executives serve on the boards of these organizations, they are independent of the corporation. Yet doppelgangers of these same groups exist elsewhere where Entergy operates reactors. Take Massachusetts, where company runs the Pilgrim nuclear plant near Plymouth. There’s a group called MASS AREA, whose publicity material nearly matches those of its New York counterpart. Continue reading →
Video: Radiation detected on Hanford waste shipment to contractorhttp://www.king5.com/news/local/Hanford-shipment-is-hot-on-arrival-213053591.htmlby GARY CHITTIM / KING 5 News June 25, 2013 RICHLAND, Wash. — The Washington State Department of Health is investigating the discovery of radioactivity outside the protective packaging of a recent shipment from Hanford. The shipment traveled a short distance from the Hanford site, down public roads, to a private contractor called Permafix.
Workers at the Permafix facility, which disassembles and repackages Hanford materials, reported the radioactive readings to the federal Department of Energy and state Departments of Health and Ecology.
The Health Department dispatched radiation physicists who confirmed the readings. A Health Department spokesman told KING 5 the radiation was discovered in a place it shouldn’t be and something went wrong.
Department of Energy (DOE) officials said they are not responsible for problems found at the contractor’s facility and are not responding to the incident. State Ecology officials say the case falls under the jurisdiction of the Department of Health.
Permafix said the public and workers were never exposed and there was no environmental damage. All the agencies said Permafix made the appropriate notifications.
The watchdog group Hanford Challenge, which uncovered documents about the incident, told KING 5 it was a dangerous situation that put the public and workers at risk. Executive Director Tom Carpenter said DOE cannot allow its contractors to cut corners when transporting plutonium and other dangerous materials just to save money.
Among the roughly 420,000 people authorities have so far finished compiling data on, recalculations show 12,469 received higher doses and 3,649 lower doses than previously estimated.
The margins for revisions range from plus 0.4 millisievert to minus 0.2 millisievert. As a result of the revisions, it was learned that some people were exposed to more than 1 millisievert — the annual limit set by the government for ordinary citizens.
People polled were asked to answer in detail where they were between March 12 and July 11, 2011. Based on their whereabouts, the institute estimated their cumulative amount of external exposure by adding up daily radiation levels measured at their locations over the four months.
Used as reference were actual radiation readings at a number of monitoring posts in the prefecture as well as projections of the spread of radioactive substances by the SPEEDI computer simulation system.
But in some cases, the dates in the survey failed to match those in the reference data.
The report comes on the heels of recent research suggesting the threat of climate change is greater than earlier estimates.
An IEA report released earlier this month warned the world is on track to surpass by more than double the two-degree Celsius warming goal set by the United Nations, unless urgent measures are taken.
The IEA’s recommendations include curtailing coal-fired power stations and phasing out fossil fuel subsidies.
Safety fears over elite police officers drunk on duty at UK’s nuclear sites, The Independent ANDY ROWELL 26 June 13 Police officers with the elite force that guards Britain’s nuclear power stations have been caught drunk, using drugs, misusing firearms and also accused of sexual harassment and assault.
The offences by officers with the Civil Nuclear Constabulary (CNC), released under the Freedom of Information Act, have raised concerns about the safety of the UK’s nuclear plants and radioactive material.
The CNC recently stepped up the number of officers guarding the Sellafield plant in Cumbria. The 1,000 officers in its workforce also protect highly radioactive material as it travels across the country. In one case, a police constable allegedly tested positive for cannabis at work. The matter was deemed so sensitive that the CNC refused to disclose the location or year the offence occurred, in case the identity of the officer could be traced. Even after an internal review of the case, the date the officer resigned was deemed to constitute “personal data”, so it could not be released under the Freedom of Information Act…….
such is the array of serious misdemeanours by the CNC officers– who are funded directly by the energy companies – that it raises grave concerns about the safety of the UK’S nuclear power plants. Paul Flynn MP said: “The UK sent 441 of our soldiers to die in Afghanistan to protect us from alleged terrorist threats to the UK, Nuclear installation are the prime nightmare targets that could create mass devastation. This evidence suggests sacrifices abroad but woefully weak protection standards at home.”
Robin Oakley, Campaigns Director for Greenpeace UK, said: “This deeply worrying catalogue of misdemeanours is a reminder that nuclear reactors will always be vulnerable to human mistakes and irresponsibility. If the people supposed to protect us from probably the highest level of nuclear risk don’t take safety seriously, what confidence can we have in the rest of the nuclear industry’s operations?”
Off duty offences ranged from being drunk and disorderly in a public place to minor public order offences and common assault. The incidents listed also included those which occurred on duty, as well as on and off site. Those on site were dealt with by the CNC, who either dismissed the officers for serious offences or gave warnings. Off-site offences led to police cautions. The CNC was unavailable for comment. http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/safety-fears-over-elite-police-officers-drunk-on-duty-at-uks-nuclear-sites-8675660.html
Political Delays to Hamper Czech Nuclear Tender, WSJ< By SEAN CARNEY, 26 June 13, The Czech Republic’s new interim prime minister Tuesday said he wouldn’t make any decisions that define the country’s long-term geopolitical orientation, likely delaying by months or potentially a year the decision whether the country will sign a $10 billion contract to expand its nuclear capacity.
“I won’t make strategic decisions,” said newly sworn-in Prime Minister
Jiri Rusnok, referring to the tender for two new nuclear reactors at
the Temelin nuclear power plant that would be built by an
American-Japanese consortium or by a Russian state-run company.
This throws into question whether Czech 70% state-owned electricity
company CEZAS BAACEZ.PR +0.89% (BAACEZ.PR) will be able to meet its
end of September deadline to select a winner from the tender
process……..
Mr. Rusnok–who Tuesday replaced Petr Necas as prime minister
following a corruption scandal that led the arrest of Mr. Necas’s
chief of staff–said signing off on the nuclear expansion plan
requires deeper analysis than selecting a winner based solely on the
project’s supposed economics and profitability.
The Prague-based company this spring put back its deadline to
September from the earlier envisaged July to select a tender winner
between Westinghouse Electricity Co., a unit of Japan’s Toshiba Corp. 6502.TO -1.08% (6502.TO), or Russian state-owned Rosatom…….
This is the largest-ever contract in value offered by the Czech
Republic and is the only active tender for new nuclear capacity in the
European Union.
U.N. Downplays Health Effects of Nuclear Radiation, IPS, By George Gao, 26 June 13 UNITED NATIONS, – Fukushima on the Hudson“…… During the Cold War, the Soviet Union conducted 456 nuclear tests at the Semipalatinsk test site in present day Kazakhstan.
“Based on information collected during the missions and subsequent research, there is sufficient evidence to indicate that most of the area has little or no residual radioactivity directly attributed to nuclear tests in Kazakhstan,”according to the IAEA.
But the IAEA narrative differs from those who live around Semipalatinsk. According to the preparatory committee for theComprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization (CTBTO),”A number of genetic defects and illnesses in the region, ranging from cancers to impotency to birth defects and other deformities, have been attributed to nuclear testing.”
“There is even a museum of mutations at the regional medical institute in Semey, the largest city near the old nuclear testing site,” it noted.
“What radiation does – gamma, alpha or beta – is it either kills the cell or changes the biochemistry of the DNA molecule,” Caldicott, who has worked on nuclear issues for 43 years, explained. “One day [the cell] will start to divide by mitosis in an unregulated way, producing literally trillions and trillions of [mutated] cells, and that’s a cancer,” she said.
U.N. Downplays Health Effects of Nuclear Radiation, IPS, By George Gao, 26 June 13 UNITED NATIONS, – “……..Radiation from uranium mining The IAEA promotes “safe, responsible development of uranium resources”, the raw materials used to fuel nuclear reactors and build nuclear bombs.
For Ashish Birulee, a Ho tribal resident of Jadugoda, India, safe uranium mining in his community is far from reality, and the health effects of radiation are as clear as the photographs he has taken to document them.
Birulee, a student and photojournalist, lives next to a tailings dam, filled with radioactive waste from a uranium purification plant operated by the Uranium Corporation of India.
“Lung cancer, skin cancer, tumours, congenital deformities, down syndrome, mental retardation, megacephaly, sterility, infertility in married couples, thalassemia [and] rare birth defects like Gastroschisis [are] common in the area,” he told IPS.
Uranium producer Paladin’s shares slide after stake sale delay BY:BARRY FITZGERALD The Australian June 27, 2013SHARES in African uranium producer Paladin have been pulled back to near 52-week lows because of a delay in a planned debt-reducing sale of a minority equity position in the group’s flagship Langer Heinrich operation in Namibia.
It had been hoped that Paladin would make inroads into its $US740 million debt pile by making the sale the news of which pushed the shares from an April low of 70c to more than $1 a share in late May. But recent concerns that the previously advised June 30 target date would not be met have sent the shares lower.
The concerns were well placed, with Paladin saying yesterday that the planned sale had been delayed until mid-to-late August. Paladin shares closed 6c, or 6.8 per cent, lower at 82c.
Psalms 71:18 “Now also when I am old and greyheaded, O God, forsake me not; until I have shewed thy strength unto this generation, and thy power to every one that is to come.”
USA: 83-year-old Catholic Nun Faces “20” Years in Prison for Break-in Protest at Nuclear Facility
In a statement to the court, Boertje-Obed said: “Nuclear weapons do not provide security. Our actions were providing real security and exposing false security.”
The Japanese Government should support the Fukushima disaster victims financially by giving them more regular and full examination and evacuating them into safer area.
Fukushima Health Management Survey Team announced that 12 children under 18 years old developed thyroid cancer and 15 children with suspected to develop it. (So far 174,000 out of 360,000 children were examined.)
Fukushima Medical University denies the relation to the effect of the Fukushima fallout, saying that it was 4 to 5 years in the case of the Chernobyl disaster when thyroid cancer was developed.
Dr. Bandazhevsky has been warning the effect of the Fukushima fallout since he visited Japan last year.Mr. Kouta Kinoshita, one of popular blog on Fukushima disaster sent his recent thyroid news as follows:
“12 children developed thyroid cancer and 15 children with suspected cancer”So far about 170,000 children were examined.It means 1.6 in 10,000 after 2 years if you include suspected children.
I believe normally 1or 2 in 1million children develop thyroid cancer which means about 160 times more than normal were found in Fukushima.”
According to Mr. Kinoshita, he was shocked to hear the news and asked him to pass this information to all the other Japanese people.
“In 1991 5 years after the Chernobyl disaster, ratio of children developed thyroid cancer was 11.3 in 100,000, girls among them were 16.8 in 100,000 in Gomel district in Belarus.”
Mr. Kinoshita left his comment in his blog, saying:
“According to Dr. Bandazhevsky’s reply, I think the ratio of the children developing thyroid cancer in Chernobyl in 5 years is similar to the one in Fukushima in 2 years: If I apply it to Fukushima case, it is 1.1 in 10,000, 1.7 girls in 10,000.
The number of children developing cancer will increase as the time passes on, therefore there would be more serious consequences in Fukushima than in Chernobyl in the future.”
Dr.Akira Sugenoya, Matsutomo Mayor in Nagano prefecture since 2004, had worked with Chernobyl children at in the Cancer center in Gomel district in Belarus.
Dr. Akira Sugenoya’s comment on Thyroid examination
We should not conclude on the result of thyroid examination as nothing to do with Fukushima fallout.Normally 1 to 2 in 1 million children develop thyroid cancer.However in Chernobyl, 4 children developed thyroid cancer in the following year.Also we should be well aware that cancer spread into lung in one in six cases in Chernobyl.Nuclear disaster is a national crisis.We haven’t learned a lesson from the Chernobyl disaster and been neglecting the danger of Nuclear energy.The Japanese Government should support the Fukushima disaster victims financially by giving them more regular and full examination and evacuating them into safer area.
In this remarkable conversation, Sibel Edmonds reflects on Russ Tice’s recent revelations to Boiling Frogs Post and The Corbett Report that the NSA has wiretapped top government officials for years. Edmonds discusses from her own experience how the FBI collects dirt on Congressman and public officials for use as political leverage. We also talk about how this scandal proves that there is no “official channel” for whistleblowers to follow when they want to expose wrondoing because the system is being controlled from behind the scenes by the criminals in the national security establishment.
i am having a problem posting video links, [arclight2011part2]
The video speaks for itself!
I have some arrangements to do over the next week but will be documenting my moves and decisions as i go along.. but will have little access for uploads.. so please be patient..
many thanks for all your supportive comments and personal messages..
I will try to post still on http://www.nuclear-news.net as i go along (with pics) for quicker updates
I am gutted having to give all my stuff away and move from the UK but i have struggled over the past 6 months to counter the moves against me and have now run out of chess board.. but i will return to the UK… somehow!
peace
TEPCO struggles to get the public on it`s side as radioactive levels keep coming to light as still being high and leaks from the plant keep happening.
Contamination
Reference: http://english.kyodonews.jp/news/2013…
nuclear-news 