According to the NDA, using fewer locations would reduce costs and impacts of the environment.
Somerset councilors have been asked to deny the plans to move the nuclear waste. A report from Bridgwater Mercury stated that opponents do not believe that additional nuclear waste should be transferred to the area.
The NDA published the proposal in November. Comments on the proposal can be made until Jan. 31.
Hinkley Point A plans to build additional storage for new intermediate level waste, the report said.
These cooperatives help the farmers by absorbing some of the safety test costs and also help market and store their produce that they are unable to sell immediately.
By Nicola Wong
Cooperatives are the backbone for Japan’s rural economy through their presence in agriculture, fisheries and even forestry. From rural to urban, farmer to consumer, and junior to elderly, cooperatives play a critical role throughout the Japanese economy. Since 1900, the Japan Agriculture Cooperative Group has been present in every village and nearly 100 percent of farm households join the cooperatives; every rural village has a co-op store and access to co-op financing and co-op insurance.
In the aftermath of the Fukushima nuclear disaster, government officials have plans to remove radioactive materials from farmlands and forests until no radioactive cesium is detected in agricultural, livestock and forestry products. As mentioned in an article by Hrabrin Bachev and Fusao Ito from the Institute of Agricultural Economics, “throughout Japan, there are fears of radioactive contamination leaking into the food system, which has caused consumers to reject products.”
The Japan agriculture cooperative group has had a critical role in combating the challenges with the present system of safety inspection and has teamed up with Fukushima University to rebuild consumer confidence in local produce. Together, they have collaborated to launch a Soil Screening Project, which tests the levels of contamination in several different agriculture areas. This has helped farmers keep an eye on the levels of radioactive contamination on their land and produce.
Scientific American: Fukushima will have to be entombed in sarcophagus if melted fuel in ‘bad enough’ situation — Radiation Expert: I think they’re going to put a fence around reactors and just watch site forever (VIDEO) http://enenews.com/scientific-american-fukushima-will-be-entombed-sarcophagus-melted-fuel-bad-situation-radiation-expert-theyre-going-put-fence-ar
Scientific American, Jan. 2014: If the melted nuclear fuel [at Fukushima Daiichi] proves bad enough […] it will have to be entombed for a number of years rather than removed, because of radiation risk from what is essentially a cooled shell of ceramic armor surrounding a highly radioactive core that remains hot and is still undergoing radioactive decay. Bottom line: until Fukushima has a sarcophagus entombing it or all the nuclear fuel has been carted away expect periodic reports of steam for years to come.
TV: Nuclear workers “stripped naked, soaked in sweat… gasping for air” — “My teeth started breaking off” — “It’s as if they are the living dead” — “Democracy destroyed in areas where nuclear power exists” (VIDEO)
Documentary “Nuclear Ginza” – Part 2
Subject: TV: Nuclear workers “stripped naked, soaked in sweat… gasping for air” — “My teeth started breaking off” — “It’s as if they are the living dead” — “Democracy destroyed in areas where nuclear power exists” (VIDEO)
Bloomberg, Jan. 20, 2014: Highly radioactive water was detected inside the No. 3 reactor building at the Fukushima Dai-Ichi nuclear was detected inside the No. 3 reactor building at the Fukushima Dai-Ichi nuclear plant, Tepco said in yesterday’s statement. […] The latest leak threatens to undermine efforts by the company to distance itself from the March 2011 disaster […] Beta radiation levels of 24 million becquerels per liter were detected in the water from the first floor of the reactor building, the company said. The utility in December detected beta radiation levels of 57 million becquerels per liter in water beneath the same unit, [a Tepco spokesman] said. […] Ending radioactive water leaks along with groundwater and ocean contamination at the Fukushima plant may take more than five years, according to a report released by a government advisory body in December.
Asahi Shimbun,, Jan. 20, 2014: Radiation levels indicate the leak discovered within the stricken Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant involves water used to cool melted nuclear fuel, [TEPCO] said Jan. 19. “The leaked water is highly likely to have come from the water that was already used to cool fuel rods, and not from leaked rainwater or cooling water (on its way to the reactor),” a TEPCO official said. […] The water sample contained 2.4 million becquerels per liter of radioactive cesium, while the reading for substances emitting beta rays, including strontium, reached 24 million becquerels per liter. […]
NHK,, Jan. 19, 2014: [TEPCO] says water leaking in the number 3 reactor building is most likely to have come from the containment vessel […] temperature is approximately 20 degrees Celsius [like] the water at the bottom of the reactor. TEPCO officials suspect the water for cooling melted fuel in the containment vessel is leaking for some unknown reason. They say they will continue their investigation to understand the condition of the melted fuel, as well as that of the containment vessel in their effort to find out how and where the water is leaking. Watch NHK’s broadcast here
Nuclear power is set to disappoint, again: Kemp By John Kemp Jan 21 (Reuters)….“The authors of this letter (and other nuclear energy proponents) are on the wrong track,” the NRDC wrote in a withering response.
“Given its massive capital costs, technical complexity, and international security concerns, nuclear power is clearly not a practical alternative,” they added (“Response to an Open Letter on the Future of Nuclear Power”, Nov. 5, 2013).
The NRDC wants policymakers to focus on energy efficiency and renewables such as wind and solar, and not become distracted by dreams of cheap, plentiful and clean nuclear energy.
“The open letter suggests that it is the environmental community that is somehow holding back a nuclear power surge. Nothing could be further from the truth,” the NRDC complained.
“No one can or should close the door to the prospect of improved nuclear power technology. But in a world with constrained capital resources and an urgent need to find the lowest-cost ways to cut carbon pollution, nuclear power ranks far down the list of promising or likely solutions,” according to the council.
“A U.S. nuclear renaissance has failed to materialize, despite targeted federal subsidies, because of nuclear power’s high capital cost, long construction times, the lower demand for electricity due largely to improvements in energy efficiency, and competition from renewables,” the NRDC said…….http://in.reuters.com/article/2014/01/21/nuclear-power-climate-change-idINL5N0KV1V620140121
Achieving respect for human rights and transition to democracy is possible only in a peaceful framework, not through constantly threatening the regime for its survival
The Iran Nuclear Accord Is Good for Human Rights, The World Post Akbar Ganji, 21Jan 14 Iranian journalist and human rights activist Akbar Ganji is an Iranian journalist often referred to as Iran’s “pre-eminent political dissident” after spending 6 years in jail for his human rights activities.
The nuclear agreement between Iran and the P5+1 has provoked considerable debate. The proponents of diplomatic resolution of the standoff with Iran have praised the accord. Its opponents, such as Israel and Saudi Arabia, have harshly criticized it. As a former Iranian political prisoner who spent six years in the Islamic Republic’s jails and whose writings have been banned in Iran, I support the Geneva agreement. The question is, what is the goal of continuing the standoff with Iran, if not reaching an agreement with it?
If the goal is regime change in Iran, we must recall that 13 years of backbreaking sanctions did not topple Saddam Hussein’s regime in Iraq; the military invasion of 2003 did. The sanctions did kill at least half a million Iraqi children, and prompted the infamous statement by Madeleine Albright, President Bill Clinton’s secretary of state, that getting rid of Saddam Hussein was worth the huge cost in terms of human suffering in Iraq.
If the Iranian regime’s respect for human rights is made the necessary condition for a nuclear accord, there will be no agreement at all, because it will prove the claim by Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei that the real goal of the United State is regime change, and that the nuclear program and claims about Iran wanting to “wipe Israel off the map” are only excuses. So long as there is an external threat that endangers its survival, no regime will agree to reform itself and become democratic…….
Step-by-step nuclear accords, the lifting of economic sanctions and the improvement of the relations between Iran and Western powers will gradually remove the warlike and securitized environment from Iran, Continue reading →
Marshall Islands’ President Christopher Loeak says it’s not too late for climate action to save the Pacific http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-01-21/an-climate-change/5210462Is it too late to save low-lying Pacific nations from being lost forever because of rising sea levels?
The President of Marshall Islands, Christopher Loeak, doesn’t think so and he’s been on a relentless campaign to get the world to listen to his message.
He does concede time is running out, but has been encouraged by news that a number of nations recently announced they’d signed up to the Majuro Declarationto cut emissions. ”We were really happy that the United States agreed to join and also European Union and in the United States, Hawaii also has agreed to join,” he told Radio Australia.
Under proposed law, utilities could not charge for nuclear plants before they’re built The News Service of Florida, January 21, 2014A House Democrat on Tuesday filed a proposed constitutional amendment that would prevent utilities from charging customers for new power plants until the facilities start operating.
The proposal (HJR 693) by Rep. Dwight Dudley, D-St. Petersburg, comes after Florida Power & Light and Duke Energy Florida have used a controversial 2006 law to collect hundreds of millions of dollars from customers for nuclear projects.
Arctic warmth unprecedented in 44,000 years, reveals ancient moss Using radiocarbon dating, new research in Geophysical Research Letters has calculated the age of relic moss samples that have been exposed by modern Arctic warming. Results show that temperatures in the Arctic are warmer than during any sustained period since the mosses were originally buried. http://www.wiley.com/WileyCDA/PressRelease/pressReleaseId-110147.html
Perry nuclear power plant is leaking radioactive water, danger minimal Cleveland.com, 22 Jan 14 By John Funk, The Plain Dealer The Perry nuclear power plant is leaking tritium, a radioactive form of water with a half-life of more than 12 years.
COLUMN-Nuclear power is set to disappoint, again: Kemp By John Kemp Jan 21 (Reuters) – Nuclear power is the energy dream that refuses to die, despite serious accidents at Windscale (1957), Three Mile Island (1979), Chernobyl (1986) and Fukushima (2011).
Many of the arguments that were employed in favour of nuclear in the 1950s and 1960s as a solution to oil supplies running out are now being resurrected in favour of nuclear as a solution to climate change.
But the promise of safe, clean and reasonably priced nuclear power seems as far away now as it was 60 years ago. We are still waiting for the safe, cheap and reliable reactor designs that were promised in 1956…
EXCLUSIVE by Rob Edwards / Electricity prices in Ukraine are expected to double to help pay for a series of safety upgrades to old Soviet nuclear power stations, according to a leaked report by the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD).
EBRD, a public sector bank investing in Eastern Europe and elsewhere on behalf of 64 countries and the European Union, last year announced a €300 million loan to the Ukrainian state nuclear power company, Energoatom. It is the largest nuclear safety loan the bank has made.
The loan is to help implement up to 87 improvements to each of the country’s 15 electricity-generating reactors, which were built in the 1970s and 1980s. The improvements, aimed at complying with today’s international safety standards, include new equipment, new controls and organisational overhauls.
Details, however, have been kept secret by the EBRD but a leaked copy reveals that major price increases are part of the package.
The 105-page report forecasts that the price of electricity in Ukraine will increase from 27.1 kopeks per kilowatt/hour in 2012 to 54.4 kopeks per kilowatt/hour in 2020. “Significant tariff increases will be required for Energoatom,” it says.
The bank expects the Ukrainian government’s electricity regulator, NERC, to insist on price increases to help pay for the loan. One of the loan’s conditions is that tariffs should be increased “to ensure cost recovery”.
The leaked report also reveals that the EBRD is expecting to make a profit of €30 million from the loan over the next six years. The loan was a “good and efficient use of the bank’s capital in Ukraine,” said the EBRD’s president, Sir Suma Chakrabarti.
Critics say that the price increases would hit hard-pressed consumers in Ukraine. “The tariff hike stipulated in the document is completely unacceptable for Ukrainian consumers, many of whom are struggling to pay bills at current prices,” said Iryna Holovko, Ukrainian energy campaigner with Bankwatch, a group that monitors financial institutions in Eastern Europe.
“Pushing such a hike is a huge if not impossible political bet for our authorities, particularly in times of turmoil as in Ukraine today. It’s really hard to imagine how the deal as depicted in this document can go through.”
Holovko also argued that the price increases exposed the myth that nuclear power was cheap. “They would make nuclear energy more expensive than renewables,” she said. “Why on earth would we bear the incalculable risks of nuclear energy then?”
The world’s worst nuclear accident took place in Ukraine on 26 April 1986, when a reactor at Chernobyl north of Kiev exploded and showed Europe with radioactivity. All reactors of a similar design have since been shut down in Ukraine, but the country is still heavily reliant on other nuclear stations.
Environmental groups criticise the EBRD for failing to invest in alternatives like renewables and energy efficiency. More wind and solar power “would make more sense and give better value for money than a continuing dependency on outdated nuclear technology,” said Jan Haverkamp of Greenpeace.
But Dmytro Naumenko from the Institute for Economic Research and Policy Consulting in Kiev disagreed. The projected price increases would not push the cost of nuclear power above renewables, he argued, and would make the EBRD loan profitable.
EBRD confirmed that the report was the basis for the decision to go ahead with the €300 million loan last February, but stressed that it was confidential. The bank denied, however, that the loan would force up electricity tariffs.
“The loan you are referring to has no requirement on tariffs,” said EBRD spokesman Axel Reiserer. “The figures you are quoting are taken from a hypothetical calculation model and in no way constitute a condition for the loan.”
Ukraine’s National Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) did not respond to a request to comment.
For the second consecutive year in 2013, the Committee to Protect Journalists has announced Turkey as the world’s leading jailer of journalists, followed closely by Iran and China.
This message and the following letter is sent from Turkey by NKP.
NKP is a broad and all-embracing alliance of NGO’s and activists against nuclear power in Turkey. It represents the largest joint effort in the environmentalist movement in the country.
Attached letter has been written for DIET members, to enable them to discover the backdrop of
“Agreement between the Government of Japan and the Government of the Republic of Turkey for Co-operation in the Use of Nuclear Energy for Peaceful Purposes “
signed by Mr. Abe and Mr. Erdogan in Istanbul.
We – the citizens-firmly believe this agreement must be scrapped when it is brought to the attention of the Japanese Parliament for ratification.
We also believe, as the leaders of a country who are still in battle against the Fukushima disaster, Japanese MP’s will act sincerely and reject ratifiying this agreement.
It is crucial that our motives for opposing this agreement are well understood by you,hopefully this letter conveys our message well .
In May 2013, Turkey and Japan signed an agreement to construct a nuclear power plant in Sinop on Turkey’s western Black Sea coast. Mitsubushi Heavy Industries and the French Areva are supposed to be working on this project jointly. In 2010, Turkey signed a similar agreement with Russia to build the country’s first nuclear power plant in Akkuyu. Questionable “build-own-operate” model of Russia is unusual in nuclear industry and leaves many uncomfortable questions in mind about safety.
As Turkey moves toward these serious, potentially hazardous projects in a hurry, it fails to factor in the social, geological and environmental implications and seem unaware of potential lethal risks for millions of people living in the region as well as the vulnerable ecological communities in case something goes wrong just as it did in Fukushima recently and Chernobyl earlier. Turkey’s active fault lines in its political and economic structure, coupled with its inefficiencies in the areas of technology, regulations, infrastructure and shortage of qualified personnel pose a big threat to the efficient and safe execution of any such project. Turkey, just like Japan is in a seismically very active geography yet unlike Japan, she is quite unprepared for the risks of major earthquakes. Turkish safety culture is very different from Japan’s and risk management concepts are also perceived differently. This alone massively amplifies the risks of operating nuclear power plants in Turkey.
Our letter is calling the MPs representing Japanese people to scrap the intergovernmental nuclear agreement with Turkey that will soon be brought to the attention of DIET members for deliberation. The reasons behind this sincere call are detailed in the following paragraphs.
Turkey is deviating from practices of a modern democracy, as it becomes more and more authoritarian under the current government; people’s will on vital issues is dismissed. Evading ecologically sustainable energy options, the government has imposed obscure nuclear plans on the nation without any due debates either within its party program or in the parliament.
The method of promoting these nuclear agreements are very much in line with the rest of the un-democratic practices of the Justice and Development Party (AKP), which has been in power for a decade.
Majority of Turkish people are against nuclear power plants and nuclear weapons. “Global Citizen Reaction to the Fukushima Nuclear Plant Disaster”, a survey conducted by IPSOS in April 2011 documents the fact that 80% of Turks are against acquiring nuclear energy.
Yet, people and NGOs cannot find outlets for voicing their true concerns or objections on neither nuclear nor other similarly vital issue; democratic channels through which the citizens may promote change are blocked by the AKP regime.
For the second consecutive year in 2013, the Committee to Protect Journalists has announced Turkey as the world’s leading jailer of journalists, followed closely by Iran and China.
Sister Megan Rice, left, with co-defendant Michael Walli on Sept. 12, 2012, at the Catholic Worker in Washington, D.C. Rice’s wrists were in casts because of a fall during her release following the initial set of charges for the 2012 break-in at Y-12. (photo by Mary Finnerty)
The recommended sentence against Sister Megan Rice, the Catholic nun who at age 82 traversed a ridge in the middle of the night and, along with two co-activists, broke into the inner-most sanctum of the Y-12 nuclear weapons plant and vandalized federal property, is 70 to 87 months. Her sentencing is set for the morning of Jan. 28.
As have the other defendants in the internationally followed case, Rice — who turns 84 years old this month – is seeking a lighter-than-recommended sentence for her conviction on felony charges of sabotage and depredation of government property related to the July 28, 2012 break-in at Y-12.
In a motion filed Jan. 14, Rice’s attorney, Francis Lloyd, said the sentencing for the nun “differs greatly” from other cases that follow the federal sentencing guidelines that are based on the seriousness of the crime to promote respect for the law and to protect the public from further crimes by the defendant.
“The Defendant Megan Rice is 83 years old, and has served most of her life as a sister of the Society of the Holy Child Jesus, a Roman Catholic order,” the motion states.
“Her conduct in this case was motivated by her unshakeable conviction, based on her studied and devoted understanding of Christian principles of nonviolence, that nuclear weaponry is inescapably evil. Megan Rice has been open throughout this case about her affiliation with the Plowshares Movement. Like-minded individuals in this movement have engaged in similar expressive conduct in the past, and no doubt will do so in the future.”
Here’s an additional part of the argument for a lighter sentence: “As the evidence at trial showed, Megan Rice nd her co-defendants were completely nonviolent when they were arrested. They used the occasion to present symbolically their passion for nuclear disarmament.”
The motion said the seriousness of the act does not match up with the seriousness of the charge in which the three were charged and convicted. According to the defendant’s filing, the federal charges do not recognize the difference between spray-painted biblical references that nations “shall beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruninghooks” and tossing a Molotov cocktail.
“The conduct that led to the convictions in this case was, of course, mostly trespass and graffiti, and nothing to do with explosives,” the motion states.
It concluded: “The requirements of promotion of respect for the law and just punishment therefore do not require even the advisory Guidelines terms of imprisonment in Megan Rice’s case. This elderly individual, committed unreservedly to her moral convictions, and possessed of wisdom gain through long experience and contemplation, has already been behind bars for months. The world has seen the law upheld through her incarceration. Additional imprisonment, especially to the extent recommended by the advisory Guidelines calculation in her case, would exceed the mandate . . .”
Thousands of letters and postcards and petition signatures and messages have been submitted to the U.S. District Judge Amul R. Thapar, who has presided in the case and will conduct the sentencing later this month.
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