nuclear-news

This week in nuclear news

Christina Macpherson’s websites & blogs

Fukushima is even in the mainstream news, as Prime Minister Abe acknowledges the radioactive water crisis there.  Japan’s new nuclear regulator is not pulling punches, stating that it is an emergency situation.  Radioactive water has been leaking out for 2 years, with the amount reaching 300 tonnes a day. Water accumulating below the nuclear reactors is causing the ground to sink. There’s  a very real risk of the buildings collapsing.  This would be especially dire in the case of reactor no 4, which has an elevated pool of radioactive spent fuel rods.

Hiroshima and Nagasaki Days being recognised around the world, with calls for a Nuclear Weapons Convention – a process to ban nuclear weapons, as similar processes have closed down chemical and biological weapons, and land mines.   An international poll conducted in 26 countries found that 78 percent of people support a treaty that would outlaw and eliminate nuclear weapons. Similarly, 151 of 195 UN member nations have a stated policy supporting a ban on nuclear weapons.

• USA. The Pentagon’s plan for AirSea Battle  entails a pre-emptve attack on China.  This new posture  is quietly being adopted without public awareness.
• The decline in nuclear power is gathering pace.  EDF, the world’s largest nuclear company announced that it now abandons nuclear power projects in USA, and will focus on renewable energy.
• Global warming is taking its toll on nuclear reactors, with Entergy’s Cape Cod Bay’s Pilgrim nuclear plant forced to cut back due to excess heat.
• The Attorneys General of New York and Vermont have joined the fight against California’s San Onofre nuclear power plant in an effort to stop federal regulators from erasing all record of a judicial ruling that the public has a right to intervene before major amendments are granted to an operating license.  An important battle – it means upholding the Supreme Court’s power, rather than having the Nuclear Regulatory Commission overriding it.

South Korea’s nuclear industry is in somewhat of a turmoil, with continuing revelations of corruption, falsification of safety documents.

UK. The supposedly anti nuclear Liberal Democrats are on the verge of selling out, to join the Tories in a pro nuclear policy, as both parties try to organise a subsidy for new nuclear, but one that doesn’t look like a subsidy.

August 8, 2013 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | Christina's notes