nuclear-news

Belarusian President signs off on building Ostrovets nuke plant against public demands that construction get canceled

….via proof that has been obtained that shows the official Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) for the project of Belarusian NPP has been “conducted improperly, understating data on the possible impact of Ostrovets NPP on public health and the environment in case of a severe accident.”…..

http://www.bellona.org/articles/articles_2013/president_signs_off_on_ostrovets

Bellona, 19/11-2013 – Translated by Maria Kaminskaya

MINSK—As the Belarusian government made its official announcement of the “start of construction” of Ostrovets Nuclear Power Plant, representatives of the Belarusian public fired back with open addresses demanding that the construction license for the plant’s Unit 1 be revoked and the very decision to build the station voided.

On November 5 – days after Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko signed his decree “On the Construction of the Belarusian Nuclear Power Plant” – members of the country’s NGOs, initiative groups, and parties sent out open addresses protesting the plant’s construction.

In an address sent to the Department for Nuclear and Radiation Safety (Gosatomnadzor) of the Belarusian Ministry of Emergency Situations, Belarusian NGOs urged the agency to revoke the construction license issued for the reactor of the future plant’s Unit 1 and cancel the decision to build the plant.

The following day, the political council of one of the oldest democratic parties in Belarus, the United Civil Party (UCP), published a statement with a number of demands, including “immediate suspension of construction” of the plant and developing a “state program of nuclear-free development of the country through the use of energy-efficient technologies and renewable energy sources.”

Lukashenko signs Belarusian nuclear plant construction decree 

Decree No. 499, “On the Construction of the Belarusian Nuclear Power Plant,” was inked by President Lukashenko on November 2, the Belarusian news agency BELTA reported (in Russian).

This decision, the news report said, was taken in accordance with Article 4 of the law of the Republic of Belarus “On the Use of Atomic Energy” and allows the general contractor on the project to start construction of the plant.

Item 1 of the decree (in Russian) orders to [e]xecute in 2013 to 2020 the construction of the Belarusian Nuclear Power Plant […] on a plot of land in Ostrovets District of Grodno Region […].”

Belarusian (or Ostrovets) Nuclear Power Plant (NPP) is a two-unit station with reactors of the Russian series VVER-1200 and a total capacity of 2.4 gigawatts, being built to a Russian project. The general contractor is Atomstroiexport, the export wing of the Russian State Atomic Energy Corporation Rosatom.

Several days later, BELTA cited (in Russian) Belarusian Deputy Energy Minister Mikhail Mikhadyuk as saying that the signing of Decree No. 499 gives a green light to starting building the main structures of the future plant.

Public spells out factors aggravating Ostrovets plant’s risks

Representatives of the Belarusian public demanded that Gosatomnadzor recall its construction license for the Ostrovets station’s Unit 1 and cancel the decision to build the plant based on factors that “impact the increase of the hazard level of Ostrovets NPP.”

This was stated in the open address (in Russian) sent out on November 5 and signed by the Belarusian Green Party, the ecological non-governmental organization Ecodom, the steering committee of the movement Scientists for a Nuclear-Free Belarus!, the organizing committee for the creation of the Belarusian Christian Party, the Belarusian Social-Democratic Party (Gramada), the public campaign Ostrovets NPP is a Crime!, the Belarusian Autocephalous Orthodox Church, and other organizations.

The request addressed to Gosatomnadzor, the statement says, is based on Article 15 of the Belarusian Law “On the Use of Atomic Energy”, which states, in part: “The decision to build a nuclear installation and (or) storage site must be cancelled, and their construction stopped, in the event that factors are brought to light that entail a decrease in the safety levels of these sites, contamination of the environment, or other adverse circumstances.”

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November 21, 2013 Posted by arclight2011part2 | Uncategorized | Leave a comment

92-year-old journalist motivated to write again by Fukushima crisis 92歳のジャーナリスト福島事故がきっかけで、本の執筆に励む

http://fukushimaappeal.blogspot.co.uk/2013/11/92-year-old-journalist-motivated-to.html

Posted by Mia

19 November 2013

(Source) http://mainichi.jp/english/english/features/news/20131116p2a00m0na006000c.html

In the 160-centimeter-tall, 36-kilogram frame of 92-year-old Kikujiro Fukushima burns a journalistic passion.

Image source ; http://www.japanfocus.org/-yuki-tanaka/3623
I first visited Fukushima at his house in Yanai, Yamaguchi Prefecture, in the summer of 2007. At the time, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who was serving his first term, was touting his “beautiful country” slogan. That same summer, the defense minister resigned after implying that the atomic bombing of Japan was inevitable.
I remember Fukushima angrily saying at the time that if those in power imposed their self-righteous values on the people, Japan would return to a path of mistakes.
Since then, every time I have met Fukushima, his words have made me think.
“If you hide in safety in the name of impartiality of the press, you will not learn the truth,” he once said to me. On another occasion he told me, “If you don’t go to the site of an event and face the people involved, you can’t take any pictures, or write an article that will touch people.”
Fukushima previously worked as a photographer, but he traded in his camera for the written word, and went on to release three books on postwar Japan. Eventually he retired from the world of journalism, but that was before the disasters of March 2011 reignited his journalistic desire. Worried that “the mistakes of Hiroshima would be repeated,” he headed to Fukushima Prefecture accompanied by younger photographers.
In the disaster-hit prefecture, the same kinds of tragedies that had plagued the Hiroshima victims he talked to had resurfaced: farmers robbed of the land passed down from their ancestors, people worried about the effects of radiation on their children and grandchildren and the discrimination that could arise.
Now the fall of 2013 has arrived, and a second Abe administration, this time proposing the creation of a “strong country,” has been born. Lies and cover-ups about the Fukushima nuclear disaster have come to light, and a push to restart the country’s idled nuclear reactors continues.
When I visited Fukushima’s home again, I found him sitting at his desk.
“Both this word processor and I are nearing the end of our lives. I always start out with a prayer that it will run properly,” he said.
“What’s most important is to not ignore things that are troublesome or inconvenient, to think for yourself, and to start from where you can,” he told me. He added that he wanted to protest against the pro-nuclear stance.
“I want to live a little longer and write a book linking Fukushima and Hiroshima,” he said. “There are still things I have left to write.” (By Shinya Hagio, City News Department)

Related articles

• Japan mayor offers Fukushima kids home in his town (bigstory.ap.org)

November 21, 2013 Posted by arclight2011part2 | Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Russian-US Megatons to Megawatts – “Parting is such sweet sorrow”

Charles Digges, 20/11-2013

http://www.bellona.org/articles/articles_2013/megatons_megadone

Russia started last week to draw the curtains on a 20-year-old nuclear non-proliferation program as it began to package its last batch of low-enriched uranium (LEU) to the United States under the long-standing “Megatons to Megawatts” program to convert Soviet-made nuclear weapons into conventional reactor fuel. 

An official from Russia state nuclear corporation Rosatom told RIA Novosti that 160 metric tons of low-enriched uranium had been loaded in 10 containers onto a ship that will deliver the cargo to the US port of Baltimore.

The Megatons to Megawatts program was signed in February 1993 and expires this year.

“This ends what has been an extremely important non-proliferation program between the United States and Russia,” said Nils Bøhmer, Bellona’s general director and nuclear physicist. “It has helped prevent the manufacture of countless weapons of mass destruction and left the world a safer place – both Russia and the US are to be congratulated.”

Russia poised for uranium rush in US?

Russia has earned $17 billion in revenue converting 500 metric tons of high-enriched uranium – the equivalent of 20,000 nuclear warheads – from dismantled nuclear weapons into low-enriched uranium to be used for fuel in US commercial reactors.

But it now expects to earn more.

Russia has often complained that it is unfairly making less than market value for the LEU it provided to the US under the nonproliferation program – and took the matter to court in 2008.

That year, a US federal court found in favor of Russia being able to sell uranium to the US outside the parameters of the Megaton’s to Megawatts agreement by striking down high tariffs levied on Russia LEU, and allowed some imports to circumvent the program.

But this year looks set to be a boom year in uranium sales to the US with the Megatons to Megawatts limits officially out of the way, according to industry predictions.

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November 21, 2013 Posted by arclight2011part2 | Uncategorized | 1 Comment

Alex Jones interviews Chris Busby – Fukushima worst case scenario with dose estimates

begins at 2hrs 33 mins approx

18 November 2013

Chris Busby comments to Alex Jones on various forms of contamination from nuclear sources, including a Fukushima worst case scenario (he provides dose estimates), Fallujah, Pacific Tuna, Corruption of the Science community by big money interests and much more in this 40 minute interview . He makes the comment that if you live near a nuclear plant in the USA, that  you should “run away”.

November 21, 2013 Posted by arclight2011part2 | Uncategorized | Leave a comment