UK scientists aim to get the public to be confident about nuclear waste disposal
Researchers grapple with UK’s nuclear legacy http://phys.org/news/2014-01-grapple-uk-nuclear-legacy.html#jCp 9 Jan 14 The University of Leeds will lead a consortium of 10 universities in a national research programme looking at ways of dealing with Britain’s nuclear waste. The £8 million project, funded by the Engineering & Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC), will start in February and bring together the nuclear industry, the Government’s nuclear advisors and the country’s leading academic researchers.
More than 40 doctoral and post-doctoral researchers will work over the next four years on issues including how best to handle different types of spent fuels, packaging and storing waste, and dealing with nuclear sludges in ponds and silos at nuclear power stations.
Professor Simon Biggs, Director of the University of Leeds’ Institute of Particle Science and Engineering, who will lead the University consortium, said: “The project is primarily focused on developing new technologies and providing confidence in the safe storage and disposal of legacy waste. The UK is a technology leader in this field and the core aim of this project is to maintain and further develop that skill base.”
ed.note UK might have to copy the USA’s rule
He added: “This will be a truly interdisciplinary effort. We have civil engineers, chemists, chemical engineers, robotics experts, radiochemists, mechanical engineers and material engineers all working together on thirty different projects.”
The National Nuclear Laboratory (NNL), Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA) and Sellafield Limited will be partners in the project, alongside the Universities of Leeds, Birmingham, Bristol, Imperial, Lancaster, Loughborough, Manchester, Sheffield, Strathclyde and UCL.
Much of the UK’s legacy waste is kept at the Sellafield site in Cumbria.
Sellafield Limited’s Research Alliance Manager Neil Smart said: “Today, Sellafield faces a challenge where there is no blueprint; emptying and demolishing some of the most difficult and complex nuclear buildings in the world – the decommissioning of historic reactors, reprocessing facilities and associated legacy ponds and silos.
“This massive challenge is however an opportunity to demonstrate that Sellafield is still at the forefront of the UK’s nuclear industry and we are delighted that the EPSRC is supporting appropriate academic research that will contribute to the scientific and technical underpinning of our mission. We look forward to engaging in these projects and benefiting from the outcomes, not only in terms of the science and technology but also the skilled people developed through these projects with the potential to enhance our workforce long into the future.”
Atomic pork politics : USA locked into foolish expense on nuclear weapons
Nuclear Death, Warmed Over, HUFFINGTON POST, Jon Wolfsthal Deputy Director, James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies 01/08/2014 “……….The Nuclear Song Remains the 
Same The cold war is over is long gone, but the nuclear triad remains……..Atomic Pork Politics Elected officials are the ones pushing these expensive and unnecessary programs. The six senators from states where long-range missiles are deployed — Wyoming, Montana and North Dakota — are all pushing for the U.S. to build a new long-range missile. Congressional representatives from Georgia, Connecticut and Washington, where submarines are built and deployed — guess what — all support a new submarine. Same with the new bomber. They all want to ensure their slice of the nuclear pie stays the same, even without someone to point the weapons at.
Yet it appears no elected officials are aware that the full cost of replacing the nuclear arsenal will cost this much money. The Bomber will cost upwards of $100 Billion, not including the bombs and cruise missiles to go with it. The Submarine about as much, the missiles could cost even more. And the nuclear weapons that go on top — build and maintained in California, New Mexico, South Carolina and Nevada, will cost over 350 Billion over 30 years. U.S. budgets are prepared annually and the defense department only provides formal budget projections five years out. Yet these systems take 30 years to build and deploy. The situation is similar to the balloon mortgages that almost sank the U.S. economy, where it looks like we can afford the house but in year ten the monthly payments skyrocket.
For those who support maintaining a large nuclear arsenal, the fact that this number is not known or understood in Congress or the White House is a major danger……..http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jon-wolfsthal/nuclear-death-warmed-over_b_4560521.html
Advice to cardiologists to reduce radiation exposure
Cardiologists urged to reduce inappropriate radiation exposure, Medical Press 8 Jan 14 Cardiologists are being urged to reduce patient radiation exposure in a European Society of Cardiology (ESC) position paper which outlines doses and risks of common cardiology examinations for the first time. The paper is published today in the European Heart Journal.
Lead author, Dr Eugenio Picano, FESC, said: “Cardiologists today, are the true contemporary radiologists. Cardiology accounts for 40% of patient radiology exposure and equals more than 50 chest X-rays per person per year.”
He added: “Unfortunately, radiation risks are not widely known to all cardiologistsand patients and this creates a potential for unwanted damage that will appear as cancers, decades down the line. We need the entire cardiology community to be proactive in minimising the radiological friendly fire in our imaging labs.”
The paper lists doses and risks of the most common cardiology examinations for the first time. Computed tomography (CT), percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI), cardiac electrophysiology and nuclear cardiology deliver a dose equivalent to 750 chest X-rays (with wide variation from 100 to 2,000 chest X-rays) per procedure. These procedures are performed daily in all cardiology in- and out-patient departments, usually more than one procedure per admission. They are used for all forms of cardiac disease, from congenital to heart failure, but more intensively and frequently for ischemic heart disease.
PCI for dilation of coronary artery stenosis totals almost 1 million procedures per year in Europe. The additional lifetime risk of fatal and non-fatal cancer for one PCI ranges from 1 in 1000, to 1 in 100 for a healthy 50 year old man. Risks are 1.38 times higher in women and 4 times higher in children. Children’s higher risk is because their cells divide more quickly and they have more years in which to develop cancer.
Dr Picano said: “Even in the best centres, and even when the income of doctors is not related to number of examinations performed, 30 to 50% of examinations are totally or partially inappropriate according to specialty recommendations. When examinations are appropriate, the dose is often not systematically audited and therefore not optimised, with values which are 2 to 10 times higher than the reference, expected dose.”
The paper aims to reduce the unacceptably high rate of inappropriate examinations and reduce excessive doses in appropriate examinations. Dr Picano said: “In these hard economic times, 50% of the costly and risky advanced imaging examinations we do are for inappropriate indications. Politicians’ top priority should be to audit and cut down on useless and dangerous examinations.”…….http://medicalxpress.com/news/2014-01-cardiologists-urged-inappropriate-exposure.html
Turkey gets its demand to enrich uranium into its nuclear agreement with Japan
Ankara ‘adds’ uranium clause in nuclear deal with Tokyo, Hurriyet Daily News, 9 Jan 14 ISTANBUL/TOKYO Ankara demanded allowance for uranium enrichment and plutonium extraction in a nuclear export deal inked with Tokyo, a Japanese daily quoted as a Japanese Foreign Ministry official as saying.
A clause, which was added in the nuclear agreement signed by the two nations, upon Turkey’s demand prompted concerns over a possible proliferation of nuclear weapons.
The clause at issue allows Turkey to enrich uranium and extract plutonium, potentially creating nuclear material for weapons, Japanese daily Asahi Shimbun reported on Jan. 8…..http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/nuclear-deal-with-turkey-stirs-concerns-in-japan.aspx?pageID=238&nID=60729&NewsCatID=34
USA poll shows concern about climate change, favouring green energy
Poll: Green power should replace nuclear,U-T San Diego By Morgan Lee9 A.M.JAN 8 A majority of utility customers in San Diego and Orange counties say climate change considerations should weigh in replacing power from the recently retired San Onofre nuclear plant, according to a survey released Wednesday by the Sierra Club.
The survey conducted by Raleigh, N.C.-based Public Policy Polling found 51 percent of utility customers believe the “potential impact on climate disruption” should be a major consideration in replacing San Onofre. An additional 25 percent said climate issues should be a minor consideration, 19 percent said climate should not be a consideration at all and 5 percent were not sure. …..http://www.utsandiego.com/news/2014/jan/08/survey-hightlights-green-energy/
Nuclear weapons now accessible to fewer countries
Number of Nuclear Capable Countries Drops, VOA January 08, 2014 The number of countries possessing the makings for a nuclear weapon has dropped by almost one-quarter during the past two years, according to a study by the U.S. based Nuclear Threat Initiative. But the study released Wednesday says there are “dangerous weak links” in nuclear materials security that could be exploited by terrorist groups.
The Nuclear Threat Initiative says Mexico, Sweden, Ukraine, Vietnam, Austria, the Czech Republic and Hungary have removed all or most of the weapons-usable nuclear materials from their territory since 2012. It says there are 25 countries with at least one kilogram of weapons-usable nuclear materials, down from 32 countries in 2012……http://www.voanews.com/content/number-of-nuclear-capable-countries-drops/1825957.html
UKIP go nuclear
I can’t help myself – my comment on the post below is going to have to appear here at the top
– Christina Macpherson
YOUR correspondent Mike Rath asks if UKIP is pro-nuclear, and whether he can expect a nuclear power station in Devon (Is UKIP keen on nuclear? Journal, December 19).
The answer is that UKIP favours proven, grown-up energy technologies like nuclear, coal and gas, rather than ineffective playground technologies like solar and wind ( and this? https://nuclear-news.net/2013/05/03/an-aluminium-fuel-cell-why-is-uk-government-blocking-it/ )
I daresay Mr Rath wants the lights to come on when he flicks the switch. So we need power stations, and they have to go somewhere. I daresay most people would prefer a single power plant to a thousand wind turbines.
And the curious thing is that people who live near nuclear power stations seem much more positive about them than those who don’t. Nearby residents see the benefits in terms of jobs and prosperity.
UKIP currently has no policy on where new nuclear capacity should be sited. The Government seems to favour putting new nuclear on the same sites as existing plants, and this seems a reasonable approach.
ROGER HELMER MEP,
UKIP Spokesman on Energy.
South Korea extends reactor shutdown after 2 workers drown in drain
Jan 9 (Reuters) – South Korea’s nuclear operator said on Thursday it had been told to extend the shutdown of a nuclear reactor to improve safety after two workers drowned this week when the water level in a drain rose.
http://uk.reuters.com/article/2014/01/09/nuclear-korea-idUKL3N0KJ0NU20140109
Korea Hydro & Nuclear Power Co Ltd was ordered by a local labour office to keep the plant closed until it had strengthened safety for workers after the deaths on Monday.
The 1,000-megawatt Hanbit No. 5 reactor had already closed for scheduled maintenance due to run from Dec. 12 to Jan. 19.
South Korea has been under pressure to ensure stable power supply due to a nuclear safety scandal which led to shutdowns of some nuclear reactors in a country where about a third of its electricity comes from nuclear power.
Ahead of peak winter demand this month, the nuclear regulator last week approved the restart of three reactors shut since last May to replace cables supplied with fake safety certificates.
Asia’s fourth-largest economy has 23 nuclear power plants. Of the 23, three are offline including the Hanbit No. 5.
A second is awaiting an extension of its licence after its 30-year lifespan expired in November 2012 and another is shut for scheduled maintenance extended to mid-January to repair cracks found on the reactor head. (Reporting By Jane Chung; Editing by Ed Davies)
Nuclear Hotseat #133 – Debunking Radioactive beaches Sean Bonner of Safecast – No Cesium!
Petition asking for leniency in the sentencing of peaceful anti-nuclear weapons protesters 84-year-old Sister Megan Rice – a Buddhist nun, Michael Walli and Gregory Boertje-Obed for their non-violent yet deeply embarrassing (to the government) protest at the Oak Ridge Site: http://act.rootsaction.org/p/dia/action3/common/public/?action_KEY=9007
http://www.nuclearhotseat.com/blog/
DOWNLOAD HERE:
http://lhalevy.audioacrobat.com/download/4ce1e3ca-cf08-a2d1-0e96-4cee50141e3c.mp3
INTERVIEWS: The holiday season saw rumors flying about Fukushima, radiation and elevated dangers in the U.S. Wildly exaggerated claims got picked up by mainstream media and had people panicking. Nuclear Hotseat gets to the root of the problems with Sean Bonner, one of the founders of Safecast. He talks about how a radiation reading can be misinterpreted in and directly addresses the Internet video claiming Fukushima radiation had risen to life-threatening levels at a California beach. Here’s a link to the report referenced in the interview: http://blog.safecast.org/2014/01/radiation-on-california-beaches/
Then Mimi German of RadCast talks about the psychology of the anti-nuclear echo chamber and what we need to do to stay centered, grounded and accurate in interpreting radiation numbers.
Image by 281_Antinuke
Image by 281
NUMNUTZ OF THE WEEK: Japan’s Monju nuclear breeder reactor picks up computer virus in control room. Oy!
PLUS:
Fukushima prefectural government and Fukushima Medical University sign secrecy pact with International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA);
TEPCO restructures so it can still make money while continuing to fumble the Fukushima Daiichi clean-up;
Plutonium dump with levels 1,000 times normal found in Pacific Ocean 50 miles west of San Francisco;
Russia banned shipments of more than 130 radioactive cars from Japan in 2013;
Ireland’s government and citizens now able to sue the UK over nuclear contamination, damages.
LINKS:
Arnie Gundersen‘s report debunking rumors of new meltdown at Fukushima Unit 3: http://fairewinds.org/demystifying/fukushima-daiichi-unit-3-going-explode
Petition asking for leniency in the sentencing of peaceful anti-nuclear weapons protesters 84-year-old Sister Megan Rice – a Buddhist nun, Michael Walli and Gregory Boertje-Obed for their non-violent yet deeply embarrassing (to the government) protest at the Oak Ridge Site: http://act.rootsaction.org/p/dia/action3/common/public/?action_KEY=9007
Buesseler, K.O. 2014. – Fukushima and Ocean Radioactivity. Oceanography
…The Fukushima disaster provides a critical tool for the ocean science community to study fundamental physical, chemical, and biological processes in the Pacific Basin for as long as we can detect traces of the suite of long-lived radionuclides that originated there. It should serve as a call for ocean scientists to turn their attention to all aspects of this event, which continues to unfold and to present a plethora of new challenges, opportunities, and questions….
EARLY ONLINE RELEASE
Posted January 5, 2014
THE FUKUSHIMA DISASTER PROVIDES
A CRITICAL TOOL FOR THE OCEAN SCIENCE
COMMUNITY TO STUDY FUNDAMENTAL PHYSICAL,
CHEMICAL, AND BIOLOGICAL PROCESSES IN
THE PACIFIC BASIN FOR AS LONG AS WE CAN
DETECT TRACES OF THE SUITE OF LONG-LIVED
RADIONUCLIDES THAT ORIGINATED THERE.
THE FACT THAT WE LIVE IN A RADIOACTIVE
WORLD AND THAT THE WORLD OCEAN ALREADY
CONTAINS A WIDE RANGE OF NATURAL AND
ANTHROPOGENIC RADIONUCLIDES IN NO
WAY DIMINISHES THE SCALE AND NATURE
OF EVENTS AT FUKUSHIMA .
Abstract
[…]
In Japan, seafood consumption rates are higher (57 kg yr –1), but even using the legal limit of 100 Bq kg –1 Cs in fish results in a dose of 75 μSv or more than 10 times lower than the international dose limit of 1 mSv yr –1 set for members of the public. At a Cs level of 100 Bq kg –1, the dose from 210Po is almost 20 times greater. As such, none of these potential doses from Cs would be expected to result in observable increases in cancer rates in the populations of Japan or the United States (Fisher et al., 2013).
Clearly, it is important to keep monitoring Cs in fish off Japan, espe- cially in bottom-feeding fish, but also in freshwater fish (which are higher in radioactive Cs due to lower stable Cs in fresh waters).
Nuclear lobby likes the spread of confusing messages about Fukushima and nuclear radiation
Christina Macpherson’s websites & blogs
Confusion is the word. The nuclear lobby is surely very pleased with extremist statements about Fukushima radiation, and supposed explosions, that have been publicised on some alternative media sites.
While governments, corporations and mainstream media praise nuclear power, and omit the bad news, the alternative media tries, and at times fails, to supply the truth. Those of us who run news websites have to be vigilant in doing our best to check stories. In this, the mainstream media has the advantage of employing “fact checkers”.
Let’s not forget. Fukushima nuclear radiation is still dangerous, is still being emitted, and the wrecked reactors are still perilous. And, let’s not forget the very real problems of safety and radioactive wastes.
The American Corporate State and the Death of Democracy
The Last Gasp of American Democracy Common Dreams, by Chris Hedges, 8 Jan 14
This is our last gasp as a democracy. The state’s wholesale intrusion into our lives and obliteration of privacy are now facts. And the challenge to us—one of the final ones, I suspect—is to rise up in outrage and halt this seizure of our rights to liberty and free expression. If we do not do so we will see ourselves become a nation of captives.
The public debates about the government’s measures to prevent terrorism, the character assassination of Edward Snowden and his supporters, the assurances by the powerful that no one is abusing the massive collection and and storage of our electronic communications miss the point. Any state that has the capacity to monitor all its citizenry, any state that has the ability to snuff out factual public debate through control of information, any state that has the tools to instantly shut down all dissent is totalitarian. Our corporate state may not use this power today. But it will use it if it feels threatened by a population made restive by its corruption, ineptitude and mounting repression. The moment a popular movement arises—and one will arise—that truly confronts our corporate masters, our venal system of total surveillance will be thrust into overdrive…….
The object of efficient totalitarian states, as George Orwell understood, is to create a climate in which people do not think of rebelling, a climate in which government killing and torture are used against only a handful of unmanageable renegades. The totalitarian state achieves this control, Arendt wrote, by systematically crushing human spontaneity, and by extension human freedom. It ceaselessly peddles fear to keep a population traumatized and immobilized. It turns the courts, along with legislative bodies, into mechanisms to legalize the crimes of state.
The corporate state, in our case, has used the law to quietly abolish the Fourth and Fifth amendments of the Constitution, which were established to protect us from unwarranted intrusion by the government into our private lives.
The loss of judicial and political representation and protection, part of the corporate coup d’état, means that we have no voice and no legal protection from the abuses of power. The recent ruling supporting the National Security Agency’s spying, handed down by U.S. District Judge William H. Pauley III, is part of a very long and shameful list of judicial decisions that have repeatedly sacrificed our most cherished constitutional rights on the altar of national security since the attacks of 9/11. The courts and legislative bodies of the corporate state now routinely invert our most basic rights to justify corporate pillage and repression. They declare that massive and secret campaign donations—a form of legalized bribery—are protected speech under the First Amendment.
They define corporate lobbying—under which corporations lavish funds on elected officials and write our legislation—as the people’s right to petition the government. And we can, according to new laws and legislation, be tortured or assassinated or locked up indefinitely by the military, be denied due process and be spied upon without warrants
Obsequious courtiers posing as journalists dutifully sanctify state power and amplify its falsehoods—MSNBC does this as slavishly as Fox News—while also filling our heads with the inanity of celebrity gossip and trivia. Our culture wars, which allow politicians and pundits to hyperventilate over nonsubstantive issues, mask a political system that has ceased to function……..http://www.commondreams.org/view/2014/01/06-1
Sins of omission in mainstream media’s praise of nuclear power
Major Media Sing Nuclear Praises Washington Spectator, January 7, 2014 | by Joe Mangano The nuclear power industry is having its roughest time since reactors were first conceived in the 1950s. Health risks are at the core of the problem……Closer to home, things are not going well. U.S. reactors are aging and leaking more often as they reach the end of their operating lives…..Chief executives of utilities, faced with high costs of maintaining old reactors and skidding stock prices, say they’re considering more closings.
But recent major media stories make one think that all is rosy………
But in addition to what big media is reporting, an equally disturbing trend is what it is omitting—especially at Fukushima, including:
-The ongoing story about the perilous attempt to move rods at containing high-level nuclear waste
-Last week’s study by Fukushima Medical University which documented 26 actual and 33 suspected thyroid cancer cases in local children since 2011 (one or two is normal), and that a staggering 56 percent of the children have pre-cancerous thyroid nodules or cysts
-A November 2 story by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation announcing University of Alaska-Fairbanks scientists’ discovery of rising radiation levels in Alaskan waters from Japanese fallout—which they estimated will match the high levels at the apex of above-ground atomic bomb testing in the 1960s
Major media coverage has ignored or made deceptive claims on nuclear health and safety issues………..
The fault lies with a media that fall short of standards of good journalism so integral to a free society. Along with Fukushima and other meltdowns, a growing number of scientific studies link routine emissions from aging, leaking reactors to high local cancer rates. This “dirty laundry” terrifies leaders of the powerful nuclear industry. Fearing this information will speed the demise of their product, they encourage the all-too-obliging media to say anything to stop the current slide.http://washingtonspectator.org/index.php/Media/major-media-sing-nuclear-praises.html#.Us2hYdJDt9U
US Republican politician suggests blowing up Iran’s nuclear sites
Gohmert: Let’s Blow All Iran Nuclear Sites Up BY: Washington Free Beacon Staff January 7, 2014 Rep. Louie Gohmert (R.,Texas) suggested that the United States should destroy all Iranian nuclear sites if it refuses to open its nuclear facilities to the IAEA and U.S. inspectors.
Gohmert, speaking in an interview with FoxNews.com, said, “[Iran has] to open [nuclear facilities] up to the IAEA and to U.S. inspectors and we’ve got to make sure you’ve gotten rid of everything. Otherwise, let’s blow them all up, all the sites up, until we’re satisfied we’ve eliminated them as a threat.”…..http://freebeacon.com/gohmert-lets-blow-all-iran-nuclear-sites-up/
Beaver Valley Nuclear Power Station shutdown – due to extremely cold weather?
Cold possible cause of Pa. nuke reactor shutdown, Seattle.Pi , January 7, 2014 PITTSBURGH (AP) — A frigid arctic air mass that brought record low temperatures to Pennsylvania, closing schools, courts and even some ski slopes is also being investigated as the possible cause of a nuclear reactor shutdown.
The dense mass of ultra-cold air began moving into the state on Monday afternoon, which is when one of two reactors shut down at FirstEnergy Corp.‘s Beaver Valley Nuclear Power Station in Shippingport, about 25 miles northwest of Pittsburgh……http://www.seattlepi.com/news/article/Sub-zero-temps-close-schools-offices-in-W-Pa-5119683.php
1 This Month
26 April – Chernobyl: Inside the Meltdown airs on National Geographic on Sunday 26th April from 4pm
29 April – Nuclear Expert Webinar #1 – Radiation Impacts on Families with Mary Olson and Cindy Folkers
- 12:15 PM MT – 1:45 PM MT
- Location: Virtual – REGISTER TODAY
4 May -West Suburban Peace Coalition to discuss Iran war at May Educational Forum
Monday, May 4, 7:00 – 8:00 PM Central Standard Time
Title: : How Trump’s Narrative Tries to Shape the Reality of the War on Iran.
Contact Walt Zlotow, zlotow@hotmail.com 630 442 3045 for further information
14 May – online event From Bombs to Data Centres: the Face of Nuclear Colonialism
Pine Ridge Uranium is the real threat, not Tehran- Tell Burgum: Stop the Extraction.
Chernobyl: The Lost Tapes – A good documentary on Chernobyl on SBS available On Demand for the next 3 weeks– https://www.sbs.com.au/ondemand/tv-program/chernobyl-the-lost-tapes/2352741955560
To see nuclear-related stories in greater depth and intensity – go to https://nuclearinformation.wordpress.com
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