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Thom Hartman on study showing radiation contamination spreading around Fukushima – Video

Video on link

https://www.freespeech.org/video/thom-hartmann-news-dec-3-2013

Typhoons are spreading the nuclear fallout from Fukushima.  Recent storms that brought high winds and heavy rains have pushed more radiation out to sea, and spread soil containing dangerous levels of cesium.  A joint study by Tsukuba University and France’s Climate and Environmental Science Laboratory found that typhoons washed away contaminated soil and deposited it in rivers and stream.  Those waterways then transported radiation into the ocean.  Although scientists have conducted various studies on Fukushima since the 2011 tsunami, this is the first study to consider how strong weather events effect the spread of radiation.  The results of this study underline the ongoing problems at the Fukushima nuclear power plant, and the overall danger of nuclear energy.  There is no way to completely contain the fallout from this ongoing disaster.  The only way to prevent more disasters is to eliminate nuclear power.  No nukes!

December 4, 2013 Posted by | Uncategorized | 1 Comment

Nuclear role in Ontario power system shrinks

….Refurbishing the Pickering A nuclear station was supposed to cost $1.3 billion; it ended up costing $2.6 billion to refit only two of the four reactors.

And privately operated Bruce Power ended up spending $4.8 billion refitting reactors at the Bruce A station after a starting estimate of $2.75 billion….

By: Business reporter, Published on Tue Dec 03 2013
http://www.thestar.com/business/2013/12/03/nuclear_role_in_ontario_power_system_shrinks.html

The figures in Ontario’s just-released energy plan show a dramatic drop in the province’s dependence on nuclear power.

But energy minister Bob Chiarelli insists that the province isn’t backing away from the technology, which has traditionally supplied half the province’s power, or more.

“We’re are 100 per cent committed to nuclear as being our baseload,” Chiarelli told a meeting of the Empire Club and the Ontario Energy Association on Tuesday.

Baseload is the minimum amount of power that’s required 24 hours a day.

At the same time, the province’s updated energy plan, released Monday, shows that while nuclear reactors will supply 59 per cent of the province’s power in 2013, the share will drop to 42 per cent by 2025.

Since Ontario’s electricity consumption is likely to be flat over the next decade that would mean a considerable drop in nuclear output for the province.

Most of that comes from the planned shutdown of the Pickering nuclear station in 2020. But the plan warns the shutdown could come even earlier, if warranted.

 

Moreover, it casts new uncertainty on plans to refurbish 10 reactors at the Bruce and Darlington stations, which have reached middle age and require extensive work if they are to continue operating.

The plan calls for work to start in 2016 on one unit at Darlington and one unit at Bruce.

But the plan warns that refurbishing all the reactors is not guaranteed.

“Appropriate off-ramps will be implemented should operators be unable to deliver the projects on schedule and within the established project budget,” the plan warns.

Speaking to reporters Tuesday, Chiarelli expanded on the theme.

“We’re moving forward very cautiously,” he said.

“If they are not on or under budget, or on or under time, then there will be reconsideration of going forward with new refurbishments.”

“It’s going to be cautious, it’s going to be businesslike,” he said. “We’re not taking the next steps unless we are on budget and on time with the current step.”

Chiarelli wouldn’t estimate a total cost, saying the project will spread over 15 years. He said the process will shift the maximum risk possible onto the shoulders of the contractors.

Ontario has also indefinitely shelved plans for Ontario Power Generation to build two new reactors at Darlington.

Despite the warning flags littering the energy plan, Chiarelli insisted that nuclear power enjoys wide support.

“Ontarians like nuclear, and they like the fact that we’re going to stay with nuclear as our baseload,” he said.

Nuclear projects in Ontario have tended to go over budget.

Construction of the Darlington station ran up huge costs that prompted the restructuring of Ontario Hydro.

The Darlington costs are a major component of the debt retirement charge of 0.7 cents a kilowatt hour that Ontarians continue to pay on their hydro bills, but other nuclear projects have also run into trouble.

Refurbishing the Pickering A nuclear station was supposed to cost $1.3 billion; it ended up costing $2.6 billion to refit only two of the four reactors.

And privately operated Bruce Power ended up spending $4.8 billion refitting reactors at the Bruce A station after a starting estimate of $2.75 billion.

December 4, 2013 Posted by | Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Nuclear waste pipe removed from Hollywood star Helena Bonham Carter’s property

 

3 December 2013

WORKMEN are removing a pipe into the Thames for radioactive waste from the garden of Hollywood star Helena Bonham Carter.

The four-mile-long underground pipe had been discharging treated water from the Atomic Energy Research Establishment at Harwell into the river since the 1940s until March this year.

For the past few weeks workmen have been removing the section through the garden of the £2.9m home of actress Helena Bonham Carter and partner Tim Burton, which backs on to the Thames in Sutton Courtenay.

The pipe runs through her garden for a length of around 100 metres.

Research Sites Restoration Ltd, which is carrying out the work on behalf of the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority, says it only expects to find “very low levels of radioactivity” in the scale and silt which have built up in the pipe.

It is using airborne radiation detectors to make sure the pipe does not release contamination.

Michael Jenkins, chairman of Sutton Courtenay parish council, said: “Some people are more concerned about the risks than others, that is certainly true.

“I do understand those people who are concerned, and there have been one or two occasions when the pipe has leaked but it was dealt with at the time.”

 

More here…

http://www.oxfordmail.co.uk/news/yourtown/didcot/10850369.Nuclear_waste_pipe_removed_from_Hollywood_star_Helena_Bonham_Carter_s_property/

 

December 4, 2013 Posted by | Uncategorized | 2 Comments

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