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$60,000 fine for anti nuclear nun, but length of prison term not yet decided

OakRidge-activistsNun to pay for damaging nuclear plant  http://www.stuff.co.nz/world/americas/9661333/Nun-to-pay-for-damaging-nuclear-plantA US judge has ordered a nun and two other Catholic peace activists to pay nearly US$60,000 for damaging the primary US storehouse for bomb-grade uranium, but they will have to wait to find out if they are going to prison.

The three were convicted of sabotage last year after they broke into the nuclear weapons plant in Oak Ridge, Tennessee.

The sentencing hearing for Sister Megan Rice, Michael Walli and Greg Boertje-Obed has been delayed after the federal courthouse in Knoxville shut down because of snow.

The government has recommended sentences of about six to nine years in prison each. The restitution covers damage incurred at the plant when the three cut through fences and painted slogans on the outside wall of the uranium processing plant. The protesters also splattered blood and hammered on the wall.

January 29, 2014 Posted by | Uncategorized | 1 Comment

Spread of radioactive particles from old nuclear sites

text ionisingHow Tumbleweeds Spread Radiation From Old Nuclear Sites Gizmodo, 29 Jan 14“……shows just how persistent the damn weed is. A note on terminology here: “tumbleweed” can refer to any number of plants that break free of their roots and tumble around spreading their seeds, but the most common one is the Russian thistle, also known by its scientific name Salsola tragus.

During the early 1960s, after aboveground nuclear testing finally ceased at the Nevada Test Site, the first thing said to grow back was Russian thistle.Radioactive Salsola has come tumbling out of the old Hanford Nuclear Reservation in Washington, where plutonium was manufactured during the Cold War. I half expect to hear someday that Russian thistle has been found on the moon.

The Hanford site in Washington state, which is the most contaminated nuclear site in the U.S., has recently encountered trouble with leaking waste tanks. What intrigues me is that the containment problems at Hanford have also long been compounded by what one internal presentation calls “biological vectors,” aka tumbleweeds but also fruit flies, mud dauber wasps, pigeons, swallows, mice, and rabbits, species on the loose potentially spreading radiation beyond the site. Hanford even has a whole Biological Control program to deal with these vectors. http://gizmodo.com/how-tumbleweeds-spread-radiation-from-old-nuclear-sites-1508617887

January 29, 2014 Posted by | Uncategorized | Leave a comment

USA some Republicans embracing renewable energy: trouble in the camp?

renewable-republicanFissures in G.O.P. as Some Conservatives Embrace Renewable Energy NYT, By JAN. 25, 2014  SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. — In conservative politics, solar power is often dismissed as an affectation, part of a liberal agenda to funnel money to “solar cronies” of the Obama administration and further the “global warming hoax.”

So one would not expect to see Barry Goldwater Jr., the very picture of modern conservatism and son of the 1964 Republican nominee for president, arguing passionately on behalf of solar energy customers. But there he was last fall, very publicly opposing a push by Arizona’s biggest utility to charge as much as $100 a month to people who put solar panels on their roofs…….
Similar conflicts are going on in California and Colorado, with many more to come. And as the issue pops up, conservatives are even joining forces with environmental groups. In Georgia, a Tea Party activist and the Sierra Club formed a “Green Tea Coalition.”
As a result, solar power is fast becoming one of the fracture lines dividing the conservative movement’s corporate and libertarian sides. ….
Utilities are working off of a business plan that’s 100 years old,” he said in an interview, “kind of like the typewriter and the bookstore.” On the website for his campaign, Tell Utilities Solar Won’t Be Killed, Mr. Goldwater, a former congressman, says, “Republicans want the freedom to make the best choice.”
He says conservatives are the original environmentalists, especially in the West. “They came out here and fell in love with the land,” he said, and added that his father used to tell him, “There’s more decency in one pine tree than you’ll find in most people.”….

He and others consider the utilities to be regulated monopolies whose rates are set by bureaucrats — the opposite of a free-market economy. In Georgia, Debbie Dooley, the national coordinator for Tea Party Patriots and a co-founder of the Green Tea Coalition, said the fact that some conservatives denounced the favorable treatment that solar power got from the federal government was immaterial.

“They neglect to mention billions of dollars that the fossil-fuel industries have received,” she said. “They cherry-pick their principles.”……

In Hawaii, where high electricity costs have led to enormous private investment in rooftop solar panels, State Representative Cynthia Thielen, a Republican, in cooperation with the local Sierra Club chapter, has been battling Hawaiian Electric over policies that she says discourage adoption of solar power. Like other utilities, Hawaiian Electric has argued that the boon in solar has put a strain on the grid and could even cause safety problems……http://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/26/us/politics/fissures-in-gop-as-some-conservatives-embrace-renewable-energy.html

January 29, 2014 Posted by | Uncategorized | Leave a comment

EPA walking away from Florida radiation cleanup – lowering radiation safety standards?

EPA ABANDONS MAJOR RADIATION CLEANUP IN FLORIDA, DESPITE CANCER CONCERNS NextGov, By Douglas P. Guarino Global Security Newswire  29 Jan 14 The Environmental Protection Agency is walking away after a decades-long battle with Florida politicians and industry officials over cleaning up phosphate-mining waste in an area that could expose more than 100,000 residents to cancer-causing radiation levels.

Under a decision quietly finalized two weeks ago, the federal agency will leave it to state officials to decide the fate of the sites in and around Lakeland, an approximately 10-square-mile residential area midway between Orlando and Tampa………The decision not to enforce the usual federal rules could have far-reaching implications for how the United States deals with future radioactive contamination anywhere across the country — regardless of whether it is caused by conventional industrial activities or illicit radiological weapons, critics say…….Under Superfund law, the federal agency is authorized to remediate contaminated sites that pose a threat to public health and the environment.

Internal documents released under the Freedom of Information Act in recent years show, however, that the federal agency’s lack of action was the result of state and industry opposition, and that EPA officials did in fact believe the sites could pose a serious public health threat.

“It’s probably the worst site EPA could clean up from a public health standpoint, when you consider the number of potential cancers and the size of the affected population,” Continue reading →

January 29, 2014 Posted by | Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Coal industry losing dominance: renewables the way of the future

he driver of coal’s declining role in electricity and the growth in renewable energy — particularly solar — is economics. As costs continue to fall, we’ll see more growth for renewable energy and you can make money off the trend

Renewable Energy Is Winning the Battle Versus Fossil FuelsMotley Fool, Travis Hoium, 28 Jan 14, The days of coal’s dominance is over and now renewable energy is the fuel of the future. The trajectory of falling costs for solar and growing installations will amaze you.

Energy in the 21st century is already turning out to be very different from energy in the 20th century. Coal plants that used to provide most of the country’s electricity are being shut down by the hundreds and renewable energy is becoming more cost efficient and prevalent by the day.

The trends are heavily in favor of renewable energy, and solar energy in particular is taking the U.S. and the world by storm.

Renewable energy becoming a big player
Since 2007, electricity generation from coal has fallen 24.9% from 2.02 billion MW-hrs to 1.51 billion MW-hrs in 2012. Meanwhile, over the same time frame wind grew 309% to 140.8 million MW-hrs and solar grew 607% to 4.3 million MW-hrs. That doesn’t include distributed solar on residential rooftops or any installations from 2013, which was a record year for solar, installing about 4.4 GW in the U.S………

The solar industry is where there’s high potential because solar power has the potential to provide enough electricity for the entire country and costs are still falling rapidly. You can see below that utility scale projects are less than half of what they cost in 2010 and residential projects are about one-third cheaper. If we go back even further, the cost of a solar panel 35 years ago was more than $100 per watt and today you can get one for around $0.65 per watt, a cost reduction of more than 99%.

To put today’s costs into perspective, a solar power plant will generate optimal energy about 20%-25% of the time, meaning that each watt will produce about 1.75-2.19 kW-hrs of electricity each year. A utility scale project with a 10% return on investment would create electricity for 9.3 to 11.7 cents per kW-hr without subsidy. That compares to an average price of 9.6 cents per watt overall in the U.S.

The driver of coal’s declining role in electricity and the growth in renewable energy — particularly solar — is economics. As costs continue to fall, we’ll see more growth for renewable energy and you can make money off the trend………http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2014/01/28/renewable-energy-is-winning-the-battle-versus-foss.aspx

January 29, 2014 Posted by | Uncategorized | Leave a comment

How low can the uranium price go?

Spot uranium price eases to about $35.60/lb Washington (Platts)–28 Jan 2014 The uranium spot price is around $35.60 a pound U3O8, about 15 cents lower than last Tuesday, as buyers showed resistance to rising offer prices that followed the mid-month announcement that an institutional buyer was poised to purchase a substantial amount of material, market sources said in interviews…..The spot price has declined since it crested at just over $36/lb on January 20, according to market sources.

“The excitement of [UPC] buying up to 1 million lb has worn off a bit,” one market source said. “[T]his led to less optimism on the price and more resistance [by buyers] to higher offer prices, so the spot price weakened a bit,” he said.

“People tried to raise [sell] offers to see if buyers would bite, but they didn’t and the price came down towards $35.50″ a lb, a second market source said in an interview……. http://www.platts.com/latest-news/electric-power/washington/spot-uranium-price-eases-to-about-3560lb-21138271

January 29, 2014 Posted by | Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Thorium nuclear reactors never developed because they are not economically viable

Thorium fuel not viable, Prof Glen Lawrence http://www.thesundaily.my/news/942473 28 January 2014 I REFER to “Use thorium to cut power cost” (Press Digest, Jan 27). There was no mention of the fact that to use thorium as a fuel to generate electricity requires a nuclear reactor.

Thorium does not undergo fission like uranium or plutonium, but would have to be used in combination with fissionable materials such as uranium and plutonium to produce a fissionable form of uranium that could then be used as a fuel.

Although thorium is abundant in the earth,  the technology for using thorium to produce nuclear fuel has not been developed because it is not economically viable.

In addition, the nuclear waste generated would also have to be disposed, just like all nuclear waste should be, but countries like the United States have been putting off disposal since the beginning of nuclear power generation and now have thousands of tons of highly radioactive waste sitting at each reactor site.

Nuclear power has never been cost effective and would not exist anywhere without huge government subsidies.

January 29, 2014 Posted by | Uncategorized | Leave a comment

“Several dozen” USA nuclear missile offices cheated on safety tests

Number of US nuclear ‘cheats’ doubles – officials The number of US airmen embroiled in a nuclear cheating scandal has doubled to several dozen, officials speaking on condition of anonymity say. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/25936781 28 Jan 14

Thirty-four US Air Force officers in charge of launching nuclear missiles were suspended earlier this month.
They are accused of cheating in monthly proficiency tests.
The US Air Force said some staff had texted answers to the routine tests to others, while others had known about the cheating but failed to report it.

The ranks included captains.
The allegations emerged during investigations into alleged drug use by personnel at other bases. t was not immediately clear whether the additional 30 or so airmen implicated were alleged to have participated in the cheating or were involved in an indirect way.An Air Force spokeswoman said earlier this moth that the entire team at Malmstrom Air Force Base in Montana in charge of overseeing missile launches would be re-tested.

Defence Secretary Chuck Hagel ordered a high-level review of the US nuclearforces last week, saying he was “deeply concerned” about morale and discipline among nuclear officers – but insisted that US nuclear arms were safe.

January 29, 2014 Posted by | Uncategorized | Leave a comment