2013 August 21 « nuclear-news

Rapid City Council votes for water security, and against uranium mining

Council passes resolution opposing uranium mining, Rapid city Journal, 21 Aug 13 The Rapid City Council passed a resolution late Monday night opposing a uranium mining operation near Edgemont, saying it “poses an unacceptable risk” to the city’s primary water supply.

The 9-1 vote came after council member Steve Laurenti sought to continue the discussion until state hearings for mining and water rights permits for Powertech concluded.

“I will tell you that this issue ranks in the top handful of issues that have generated public concern,” Mayor Sam Kooiker said. “This has really gotten peoples’ interest and there is a lot of concern in the community, and I believe that people have the right to ask questions about this issue.” Kooiker encouraged Laurenti to join the rest of the council in its decision to oppose the mine.

However, Laurenti stood firm with his vote against the resolution, maintaining that more information was needed before he could take a stand against the operation.

“The problem I have, from a logical standpoint, is to oppose something or even to have grave concern, grave meaning that I have a fear for my life,” Laurenti said. “I don’t fear for my life over this issue at this point.”…… The mine would draw up to 9,000 gallons of water per minute from the Inyan Kara and Madison aquifers. The Madison Aquifer supplied Rapid City with 60 percent of its water resources in 2012, according to city officials. http://rapidcityjournal.com/news/council-passes-resolution-opposing-uranium-mining/article_2253d74c-8890-58cc-9688-4bea869afbe9.html

August 21, 2013 Posted by Christina Macpherson | opposition to nuclear, politics, Uranium, USA | Leave a comment

UK press under government pressure

Conspiracy to commit journalism Jay Rosen’s Press Think, Aug.20

“If sunlight coalitions are to succeed, they won’t succeed by outwitting surveillance. Not better technology, but greater legitimacy is their edge.”

The mood toughened just over a month ago, when I received a phone call from the centre of government telling me: “You’ve had your fun. Now we want the stuff back.” There followed further meetings with shadowy Whitehall figures. The demand was the same: hand the Snowden material back or destroy it. I explained that we could not research and report on this subject if we complied with this request. The man from Whitehall looked mystified. “You’ve had your debate. There’s no need to write any more.” —Alan Rusbridger, editor of The Guardian

That’s the government telling the editor of a national newspaper: Time’s up, no more of that journalism stuff! We’ll decide when there’s been enough debate. Stop now or we’ll make you stop. Rusbridger’s response: We will continue our careful reporting of the Snowden material. “We just won’t do it from London.” (The Guardian has a U.S. operation based in New York.) FromReuters:

The Guardian’s decision to publicize the government threat – and the newspaper’s assertion that it can continue reporting on the Snowden revelations from outside of Britain – appears to be the latest step in an escalating battle between the news media and governments over reporting of secret surveillance programs.

This battle is global. Just as the surveillance state is an international actor — not one government, but many working together — and just as the surveillance net stretches worldwide because the communications network does too, the struggle to report on the secret system’s overreach is global, as well. It’s the collect-it-all coalition against an expanded Fourth Estate, worldwide……. http://pressthink.org/2013/08/conspiracy-to-commit-journalism/

August 21, 2013 Posted by Christina Macpherson | 2 WORLD, civil liberties, media, UK | Leave a comment

Radio broadcast: Fukushima catastrophe worse than Chernobyl?

AUDIO: Fukushima may eclipse Chernobyl as the worst nuclear disaster in history

http://voicerussia.com/2013_08_19/Fukushima-may-eclipse-Chernobyl-as-the-worst-nuclear-disaster-in-history-8491/

Radio: Fukushima may be eclipsing Chernobyl as worst nuclear disaster in history… It’s like a time bomb — They really need to seal off underground (AUDIO) http://enenews.com/radio-fukushima-may-be-eclipsing-chernobyl-as-greatest-nuclear-disaster-in-history-its-like-a-time-bomb-they-really-need-to-seal-off-undergrround-radiation-levels-are-going-up-and
Title: Fukushima may eclipse Chernobyl as the worst nuclear disaster in history
Source: VOR Radio
Author: Kate Zickel
Date: Aug 19, 2013
Kate Zickel, Senior Producer: […] Fukushima may be eclipsing Chernobyl as the greatest nuclear disaster in history. Public sentiment appears to be against the continuing reliance on nuclear power in Japan, but the government has been slow to move in that direction. […]

Aileen Mioko Smith, Director of Green Action: […] You remember in Chernobyl they placed a sarcophagus on top and below of concrete, all over the plant, so that radiation wouldn’t get out. Well imagine with Fukushima, it is underground, there are leaks happening underground. They really need to seal off underground, but they haven’t done it, and so there are leaks into the ocean. […] There’s still so much groundwater underneath, and we’ve been addressing the fact that it’s finally going to get to the contamination, and it has. So right now, there’s — above ground — a hole in the reactor, a hole in the containment, and trying to cool it, but still it leaks. They are pumping up the water there, but underground is this radiation spreading. The levels going into the ocean — about 300 tons of contaminated water is going in right now — is nearly as high levels as right after the Fukushima accident. But the concern is that the levels are going up and underground the contamination seems to be spreading. We don’t know what the sources are; it’s like a time bomb. […] Full broadcast here

August 21, 2013 Posted by Christina Macpherson | Resources -audiovicual | Leave a comment

The global nuclear experiment threatens our children and grandchildren

Nuclear Experimentation: Year 68. Oped News By Ethan Indigo Smith, 20 Aug 13 “………All the most powerful nations in the world cannot help one of the most powerful nations in the world because they are only powerful because of their ability to wage war. It is interesting and important to know how the language of the Fukushima disaster was controlled, it was constantly referred to as the worst nuclear experiment (most don’t the word experiment for it is too accurate and language in reference to nuclear experimentation is moderately or extremely euphemistic) disaster “since Chernobyl.’ Anyone who took ten minutes to research Fukushima knew that it was the worst nuclear disaster ever eclipsing the Chernobyl disaster.

Nuclear experimentation has destroyed whole regions of the planet and altered the entire planet. Next on the watch list of nuclear tragedies is the unfolding disaster in Hanford, Washington. Deadly materials are currently leaking from storage tanks and could ignite sometime between now and the next few millennia.

Nuclear experimentation is the supreme catastrophe, the very real unleashed a Pandora of mythical and equally fiery proportions. And if we do not change our mind state, our apathetic culture of separation, of bucket list celebration we will continue to kill ourselves. However we can’t see it, we can’t even quantify it totally and as much as we do understand its dangers, it is all an experiment, we really don’t understand it completely. And yet it is amazing how we all act like we understand Earth Mother and nuclear experimentation, the same way we do weather cycles, when really we have no idea.

When many talk of climate change caused by global pollution in the netherworld oligarchy people use reference points that are limited. One cannot understand Earth Mother’s cycles by referencing your life experience for at best one has limited information to base one’s understandings on. Many people who claim to understand global environmental climate change are ignorant of their ignorance. The same goes for nuclear experimentation it is entirely too complicated to understand completely. However the most important thing for people to consider, the most powerful information that might begin to get people to wake up and stand up for doing something about the institutions of their creation nuking the world is that their precious children are doomed, their very biological lineage is threatened by nuclear experimentation, that radioactive elements cause permanent mutations, biological deformity and infertility in offspring and death.http://www.opednews.com/articles/Nuclear-Experimentation-Y-by-Ethan-Indigo-Smith-130820-379.html

August 21, 2013 Posted by Christina Macpherson | Religion and ethics | Leave a comment

Save Great Lakes meeting fills Detroit hall

Capacity crowd attends ‘Save the Great Lakes from Nuclear Waste’ town hall meeting Macomb Daily By GINA JOSEPH
Gina.joseph@macombdaily.com; @ginaljoseph, 08/20/13 The tide opposing a proposed Canadian underground nuclear waste repository on the shore of Lake Huron appears to be rising.
“I was very happy with the turnout but given the magnitude of the potential risk I wish hundreds more would have been here,” said State Rep. Sarah Roberts (D-St. Clair Shores) referring to the crowd attending last night’s ‘Save the Great Lakes from Nuclear Waste’ public forum at Wayne State University in Detroit. “Tonight demonstrated to me that there are many concerned citizens who care about our Great Lakes, our public health, our drinking water and the potential danger of the proposed underground repository.”

Ontario Power Generation wants the Canadian federal government to approve its plan to bury low and intermediate level radioactive nuclear waste under the Bruce Nuclear Power Plant, located on the shore of Lake Huron in the municipality of Kincardine.

Kincardine is less than three hours from the Blue Water Bridge in Port Huron and north of Grand Bend, Ont. Roberts, who introduced a resolution urging Congress to oppose the underground nuclear waste dump, co-hosted the public forum on the proposed nuclear waste dump along with State. Sen. Hoon-Yung Hopgood (D-Taylor), who introduced a similar resolution that was unanimously passed by the Michigan Senate.

If the license is approved by the federal government, Ontario Power Generation will construct a deep geologic repository (DGR), consisting of burial caverns carved out of limestone and shale rock formations, less than a mile inland from the shore of Lake Huron and about 440 yards below the Great Lakes basin…… http://www.macombdaily.com/article/20130820/NEWS03/130829994/capacity-crowd-attends-save-the-great-lakes-from-nuclear-waste-town-hall-meeting

August 21, 2013 Posted by Christina Macpherson | opposition to nuclear, USA | Leave a comment

Down, down again, goes the uranium market

Uranium sags once more 9 news Finance. 20 Aug 13 “…..Once again the floor was pulled out from under the spot market, and prices have responded accordingly. Some 800,000lbs of U3O8 equivalent did change hands in several transactions over the course of last week, but prices trended lower with each trade now that the sellers are on the hop once more. TradeTech’s weekly spot price indicator has fallen US75c to US$35.00/lb.

These fluctuations in the spot price are having their effect on the term market. A number of utilities are looking to enter the term market for supply contracts, TradeTech reports, but none appears in a great hurry while price movements are unclear. No term transactions were reported last week….http://finance.ninemsn.com.au/newscolumnists/greg/8709269/uranium-sags-once-more

August 21, 2013 Posted by Christina Macpherson | business and costs, Uranium | Leave a comment

Israel is the stumbling block to a nuclear weapons free Middle East

Israel, Arab Nations Differ on Mideast Nuclear-free Zone: U.N. Official Yahoo News, Global Security Newswire Staff 20 Aug 13, Efforts by the International Atomic Energy Agency to help persuade Israel and Arab nations to agree on a path toward a Middle East free of nuclear arms and other weapons of mass destruction have been unsuccessful thus far, according to a new report by agency head Yukiya Amano’s office, Reutersreported on Tuesday.

Interchanges have revealed that there still is a “fundamental difference of views” between Arab nations and Israel, but Amano will continue trying to bridge the diverging perspectives, according to his team.

IAEA member nations last year tasked Amano with meeting with officials from the region to discuss bringing all atomic programs under agency safeguards. Israel is thought to be the area’s sole nuclear-weapons nation, but it by policy does not confirm or deny its arsenal and is not a member of the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty…… http://news.yahoo.com/israel-arab-nations-differ-mideast-nuclear-free-zone-110205580.html

August 21, 2013 Posted by Christina Macpherson | Israel, politics international, weapons and war | Leave a comment

Fukushima nuclear plant springs yet another radioactive leak

New Leak Reported At Japan’s Fukushima Nuclear Plant http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2013/08/20/213804646/new-leak-reported-at-japan-s-fukushima-nuclear-plant by GEOFF BRUMFIEL Operatorsare reporting a fresh leak of contaminated water from the grounds of the ruined Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant on Japan’s coast.In 2011, a tsunami sparked meltdowns at the plant, and authorities have had to pump in water ever since to keep the melted nuclear fuel cool. After passing through the reactors, the contaminated water is decontaminated and put into storage until it can be recirculated through the reactor cores.

But it keeps leaking out. In April, it seeped from a reservoir. And a few weeks ago, the Japanese government warned that the plant itself was leaking around 80,000 gallons of contaminated ground water every day into the Pacific Ocean.

This time, the Tokyo Electric Power Company says an additional 80,000 gallons of contaminated water have spewed from a metal holding tank.

NHK, Japan’s national broadcaster, reports says it’s the largest such leak at Fukushima since 2011. It adds that “Japan’s Nuclear Regulation Authority has assessed the problem as a level 1 incident, the 2nd-lowest on an 8-point international scale.” The Fukushima accident as a whole has already been reported to international authorities as a level 7, or “major accident.”

The industry publication World Nuclear News says the leak was first spotted Monday morning local time, and that workers are removing earth around the tanks in an effort to prevent the contaminated water from pouring into the Pacific Ocean. The utility is also pumping the remaining water from the leaking tank into other tanks nearby.

To try and stop the worst of the Fukushima leaks, TEPCO is looking into building an underground wall of frozen earth around the plant.

August 21, 2013 Posted by Christina Macpherson | Fukushima 2013 | Leave a comment

Nuclear power unpopular with utilities investors

The Motley Fool By Justin Loiseau, August 20, 2013“…….One of the biggest blows to nuclear came in June when Edison International (NYSE: EIX ) announced the early retirement of two California nuclear units. The impetus for the exit came from a generator leak that had kept the plants off-line since January 2012. Not only did the decision cost Edison more than $300 million in post-tax damages, it also put 1,100 workers out of a job.

Given high costs and a risky regulatory environment, the utility probably made the right choice at the time. But if the NRC’s latest Entergy approval is any evidence, regulators may be more willing to let up a little to avoid another Edison exit.

But for utilities that haven’t yet made their nuclear investments, some are opting out before it’s too late. Duke Energy (NYSE: DUK ) had previously planned to build a massive $24.7 billion Florida plant, but announced earlier this month that it would be backing off its original idea. The utility cited delays by the NRC in issuing new licenses, as well as state-level legislative changes. Duke will be looking increasingly toward natural gas to fuel its future, but will keep nuclear plans on the back burner in case opportunities arise…..”

August 21, 2013 Posted by Christina Macpherson | general | Leave a comment

And again – uranium price goes down

Uranium spot price falters after rumored deal falls through: sources Washington (Platts)–20Aug 2013 An early-August rally in the uranium spot price ended after the market learned that a potential deal with an investment fund for up to 1 million pounds of U308 will not close anytime soon, if at all, price publishers and market sources said. Since the, the price has steadily weakened.

Price publishers TradeTech and Ux Consulting both lowered their weekly uranium spot price by 75 cents/lb to $35/lb, Friday and Monday, respectively.
“While it was never guaranteed that the buyer would purchase, the possibility that up to 1 million pounds of supply could be removed from the near-term market had served to create some upward price pressure,” TradeTech said in its weekly report Friday. “Now that it is clear the purchase will not go forward, at least for the time being, seller optimism has waned.”…….

August 21, 2013 Posted by Christina Macpherson | general | Leave a comment

Wind turbines getting quieter, cleaner, and cheaper

Quieter Wind Turbines = More Power http://www.energymatters.com.au/index.php?main_page=news_article&article_id=3898 20 Aug 13 GE has been conducting research into new low-noise wind turbine blade design. It’s not about addressing infrasound – which has already been shown not to be an issue in areas surrounding wind farms – it’s all about producing more power.

“There’s no question, aerodynamic noise is a key constraint in wind turbine blade design today”, says Mark Jonkhof, Wind Technology Platform Leader at GE Global Research.

“By using high-performance computing (HPC) to advance current engineering models that are used to predict blade noise, we can build quieter rotors with greater blade tip velocity that produce more power. This not only means lower energy costs for consumers, but also a significant reduction in greenhouse gas emissions.”

Aerodynamic noise refers to the “swooshing” sound created as the leading edge of a turbine blade moves through the air. GE predicts that a mere one decibel drop in this sound would lead to an annual two percent increase in power per turbine. With an estimated 240 gigawatts of wind power to come online globally over the next five years, GE says this would be the equivalent of 5 gigawatts of added wind energy capacity.

The company currently uses wind tunnel technology to test the noise levels of its wind turbines, as well as on-site acoustic tests at wind farms; but new computer modelling has advanced these techniques.

The GE team partnered with Sandia National Laboratories in New Mexico, spending three months running high-fidelity Large Eddy Simulations (LES) on a single wind blade section with the lab’s Red Mesa supercomputer. The LES system and resulting analysis provided fresh insight about airflow over wind turbines and will play a key role in building the next generation of quiet turbine blades.

“Having access to Sandia’s supercomputer was invaluable in our ability to conduct these experiments and make discoveries that will bolster wind power’s potential. Access and availability to HPC resources offers a critical advantage to companies trying to compete in a global environment.”

August 21, 2013 Posted by Christina Macpherson | renewable | Leave a comment

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