Special Delivery! Greenpeace demonstrators deliver 5 tonnes of coal, two containers of nuclear waste to European leaders in Paris
Greenpeace demonstrators dumped coal on the doorstep of French President Francois Hollande Wednesday morning, February 19, 2013. (Photo: Greenpeace)Greenpeace activists delivered a truckload of nuclear waste and five tonnes of coal to the home of French President François Hollande at daybreak Wednesday, hours before German Chancellor Angela Merkel was set to arrive at the site.
Unfurling a banner that read “Energy Transition in Europe, here and now!” the activists were calling on the two leaders to abandon their current use of “dangerous” energy sources, such as coal and nuclear, and to commit to a “real energy transition.”
“France and Germany talk the talk on the switch to a renewable energy future, but now they must show that they will walk the walk,” said Sébastien Blavier, Greenpeace France nuclear campaigner, in a press statement following the action. “The only way to achieve the energy transition that Europe needs is to set a binding 45% renewable energy target for 2030.”
According to the Associated Press, at 6:30 AM, the protesters drove a truck carrying the coal as well as two containers of nuclear waste water up to the presidential palace and proceeded to dump the coal onto the palace grounds. Activists said that although the waste water contained tritium with “above-normal levels of radioactivity, it was not a threat to cleanup crews or police as long as it wasn’t spilled.”
Paris police arrested 12 of the protesters.
Despite both countries’ pledge to an energy transition, the protesters say that their continued reliance on these energy sources undermines their climate ambitions.
NTDTV posted a video of the action online:
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 License.
In secret, Japan may be developing nuclear weapons
Report: Japan Secretly Developing Nuclear Weapons Tokyo begins arms build-up in response to East China Sea tension Paul Joseph Watson Prison Planet.com February 18, 2014 Asia Weekly, a Hong Kong-based news outlet, is reporting that Japan is secretly developing a nuclear weapons program in response to increasing hostilities with China over the East China Sea dispute.
According to the report, paraphrased by the Want China Times, “With the capability to build at least 2,000 nuclear warheads, Japan has recently demanded the United States return 300 kilograms of plutonium. A Japanese military analyst told Yazhou Zhoukan that Washington has paid close attention to the potential development of nuclear weapons in Japan.”
Asia Weekly, known as Yazhou Zhoukan, is a popular Chinese-language platform with a 20 year publishing history.
The article notes that Mitsubishi, Hitachi and Toshiba all possess expertise in the area of nuclear energy and along with 200 other small companies could all be called upon to kickstart a nuclear weapons program. Japan already has over 40 tonnes of plutonium in its possession.
Influential voices like Major General Yoshiaki Yano of the Japan Ground Self-Defense Force are also calling on Tokyo to adjust its nuclear policy.
The story arrives hot on the heels of reports that China is extremely concerned about Japan’s initial resistance at handing back weapons-grade plutonium to the United States which was bought back in the 1960′s for research purposes but has the potential to be turned into 50 nuclear bombs.
Earlier this year, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe announced that within the next six years Japan would revise its pacifist constitution, which limits its military activities to self-defense……….http://www.prisonplanet.com/report-japan-secretly-developing-nuclear-weapons.html
USA tax-payers to fork out $6.5 billion for Vogtle nuclear power plant
Nation’s first new nuclear plant expected to secure $6.5 billion in federal loan guarantees By MATTHEW DALY, Dallas News, The Associated Press 18 February 2014 WASHINGTON — The Energy Department is poised to approve $6.5 billion in federal loan guarantees for the first nuclear power plants built from scratch in this country in more than three decades. Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz was expected to announce final approval of the deal at a speech on Wednesday, a day before he visits the $14 billion Vogtle nuclear plant now under construction in eastern Georgia.
Three government officials familiar with the deal confirmed its details Tuesday. They asked not to be identified because the deal has not been made public.
Atlanta-based Southern Co. is building the plant with several partners about 30 miles southeast of Augusta, Ga. The project is widely considered a major test of whether the industry can build nuclear plants without the endemic delays and cost overruns that plagued earlier rounds of building in the 1970s. Vogtle was originally estimated to cost around $14 billion, but government monitors have warned the final cost is likely to be higher……..
Owners of at least four nuclear reactors have shuttered plants in recent months or announced plans to do so, including California’s troubled San Onofre nuclear plant. Utilities have decided it is cheaper to close plants rather than spend big money fixing them and risk the uncertainty of safety reviews……..http://www.dallasnews.com/business/energy/20140218-nation-s-first-new-nuclear-plant-expected-to-secure-6.5-billion-in-federal-loan-guarantees.ece
Concerns about North Korea – possibility of radiological weaponry
The one possibility that has been largely overlooked is that this nuke-themed accessory might have been North Korea’s way of conveying the possibility of its use of radiological dispersal devices, better known as “dirty bombs.”………..http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2014/02/17/cheap_and_dirty_bombs
Renewable energy transforming education in 1000s of India’s schools
Thousands of schools across the country are shifting towards renewable energy. Leading this emerging trend is Kerala, where the state government has been actively promoting both solar and bio-mass energy.
There are 4,000 government-run schools in the state’s urban areas.
Indian schools switch over to solar power Source: Thomson Reuters Foundation – Mon, 17 Feb 2014 Author: Stella Paul ANANTHAGIRI HILLS, India – Tenth grade exams are a couple of months off, and Gennu Labudu, a science teacher at Penakota village school in southern India’s Andhra Pradesh state, is expecting his class to do exceptionally well this time. Thanks to a solar photovoltaic (PV) mini-plant that produces and stores solar electricity in the school, Labudu’s students can now study even at night.
In the neighbouring village school in Zenabadu, a solar-powered motor pumps water day and night. It makes eight-year old pupil Laxmi Perikala very happy. The boarder can drink a glass of water whenever she wants, unlike in her village where she has to fetch it from a pond 40 steps below. “It is very difficult. Every time, I carried a pitcher, my neck would hurt,” she said………
Zenabadu and Penakota are two of the 59 schools in the region run by the Integrated Tribal Development Agency (ITDA), a government body that works for tribal welfare. The ITDA is providing each school with a 1 kilowatt (kW) solar PV kit as a back-up power system, and a solar-run water pump.
According to Venkata Murthy, state coordinator at The Energy Research Institute (TERI), which is ITDA’s implementing partner on the solar scheme, installation has been completed in 20 schools and the rest will be done in two years’ time. The full project cost of 1.4 million rupees (around $2 million) is being funded by the central government.
“Each of these schools usually needs about 6 to 7 kW. So the solar power here is to be used only when there is a failure in grid-power supply,” Murthy said. That happens most days, especially in the evenings.
EMERGING TREND
The ITDA initiative is not an isolated one. Thousands of schools across the country are shifting towards renewable energy. Leading this emerging trend is Kerala, where the state government has been actively promoting both solar and bio-mass energy.
There are 4,000 government-run schools in the state’s urban areas. Under a scheme called the Kerala Sustainable Urban Development Project, which promotes renewable energy within urban planning, each school will benefit from 1 kW solar panels and a biogas plant. The scheme was launched in January, and several schools have already received their equipment………http://www.trust.org/item/20140217103035-wml93/?source=hptop
Radiation alarm at New Mexico nuclear disposal plant
CNN: Alarm due to radiation spike brings ’1st-of-its-kind’ response at US nuclear site — Inspections cancelled, no one able to enter facility due to ‘high radiation’ levels — Reuters: Plans got called off over ‘safety thing’ — Gov’t: ‘Pretty sure’ we know where leak is — Local TV calls it ‘emergency’ (VIDEO) http://enenews.com/cnn-alarm-from-radiation-spike-leads-to-first-of-its-kind-response-at-u-s-nuclear-site-no-one-able-to-enter-facility-to-check-where-high-radiation-levels-are-coming-from-reuters-inspect
CNN, Feb. 17,, 2014: Radiation alarm at New Mexico nuclear disposal plant […] a first-of-its-kind response at a nuclear disposal facility outside of Carlsbad, New Mexico, an Energy Department spokesman told CNN. An air monitor at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant detected the spike in an isolated area half a mile below the ground. The incident prompted an immediate shutoff of filtered air from the facility into the environment […] “This is the first time we had to close off air filtered by the facility to the outside,” Energy Department spokesman Gregory Sahd told CNN. Investigators from the Department of Energy expect test results this week […] Officials believe there is no danger to the community […] the area officials believe was affected has been closed off. “We’re pretty sure we know where it’s at.”
Reuters, Feb. 16, , 2014: [The alarm indicated] unsafe concentrations of radiation […] DOE officials said appeared to be the first such mishap since the facility opened in 1999. […] the source of the high radiation readings had yet to be determined, and a plan to send inspection teams below ground to investigate was put on hold as a precaution. […] “They will not go in today. It’s a safety thing more than anything. We’re waiting until we get other assessments done before we authorize re-entry,” DOE spokesman Bill Mackie said. […] Just a few dozen essential personnel, including security officers, remained at the site over the weekend. […] “We’re in shutdown mode,” Mackie said.
AFP, Feb. 17, 2014: Investigators have not yet identified the source of the radiation […] Earlier this month, an underground blaze prompted the evacuation of a different part of the site […]
The Mirror, Feb. 16, 2014: Worrying: A possible radiation leak has taken place at a underground military nuclear waste site — Officials in the US say unusually high levels of radioactive particles were found at the site in New Mexico […] It was not yet clear what caused the air-monitoring system to indicate that radioactive particles were present at unsafe levels. […]
Russia’s insecure stockpile of nuclear weapons material
Moscow’s struggle to protect nuclear material |
US intelligence reports renew fears over Russia’s weapons stockpile security.Aljazeera, Frank Bass Last updated: 18 Feb 2014 Washington DC – More than two decades after the collapse of the Soviet Union, the planet’s largest stockpile of nuclear weapons materials remains insecure, according to a series of US intelligence reports obtained by Al Jazeera’s Investigative Unit.
In the wake of the Soviet collapse into 15 independent states, hundreds and perhaps thousands of grammes of nuclear material – including highly enriched uranium used in atomic bombs – were spirited away from Russia’s nuclear heartland. “We assess that undetected smuggling of weapons-usable nuclear material has occurred, but we do not know the total amount of material that has been diverted or stolen since the dissolution of the Soviet Union,” the US Director of National Intelligence (DNI) said in a 2011 report, the latest unclassified document released by the intelligence community.”Russia’s vast stockpile of nuclear material, scattered across multiple facilities, continues to present an attractive theft target,” US officials wrote in their report. “Security of this material has improved since the fall of the Soviet Union, but we lack information on the extent of recent thefts, and vulnerabilities remain. Probable Russian-origin weapons-usable nuclear material has continued to circulate on the black market.” “We judge it highly unlikely that Russian authorities have been able to recover all of the stolen material.”……
In January, a Nuclear Threat Initiative report found Russia’s control of materials was in the bottom third of nuclear states, and its overall score remained unchanged from 2012. The report said Russia has the second-highest risk factors of any nuclear state, ahead of only Pakistan. Those risk factors include political instability, ineffective governance, pervasive corruption, and the presence of groups determined to obtain nuclear materials……….. View the reports below: http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/features/2014/02/moscow-struggle-protect-nuclear-material-201421710591960385.html
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America’s history of planning for radiological warfare
Plan for all 50 USA States to have a renewable energy future
Stanford scientist to unveilhttp://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2014-02/su-sst021314.php Stanford Professor Mark Jacobson and his colleagues recently developed detailed plans to transform the energy infrastructure of New York, California and Washington states from fossil fuels to 100 percent renewable resources by 2050. On Feb. 15, Jacobson presented a new roadmap to renewable energy for all 50 states at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) in Chicago.
The online interactive roadmap is tailored to maximize the resource potential of each state. Hovering a cursor over California, for example, reveals that the Golden State can meet virtually all of its power demands (transportation, electricity, heating, etc.) in 2050 by switching to a clean technology portfolio that is 55 percent solar, 35 percent wind (on- and offshore), 5 percent geothermal and 4 percent hydroelectric.
“The new roadmap is designed to provide each state a first step toward a renewable future,” said Jacobson, a professor of civil and environmental engineering at Stanford. “It provides all of the basic information, such as how many wind turbines and solar panels would be needed to power each state, how much land area would be required, what would be the cost and cost savings, how many jobs would be created, how much pollution-related mortality and global-warming emissions would be avoided.”
The 50-state roadmap will be launched this week on the website of The Solutions Project, a national outreach effort led by Jacobson, actor Mark Ruffalo (co-star of The Avengers), film director Josh Fox and others to raise public awareness about switching to clean energy produced entirely by wind, water and sunlight. Also on Feb. 15, Solutions Project member Leilani Munter, a professional racecar driver, will publicize the 50-state plan at a Daytona National Speedway racing event in Daytona, Fla., in which she will be participating.
“Global warming, air pollution and energy insecurity are three of the most significant problems facing the world today, said Jacobson, a senior fellow at the Stanford Woods Institute for the Environment and Precourt Institute for Energy. “Unfortunately, scientific results are often glossed over. The Solutions Project was born with the vision of combining science with business, policy, and public outreach through social media and cultural leaders – often artists and entertainers who can get the information out – to study and simultaneously address these global challenges.”
The world needs an agreement to ban radiological weapons
In an unequal relationship, nuclear giant AREVA will keep on ripping off Niger
Vive la Françafrique! Who Benefits from Niger’s Uranium?, Think Africa Press France needs Niger’s uranium, while Niger needs French assistance. But the relationship is and always has been unequal.
Niger is reportedly demanding that the royalties Areva’s mines pay increase from 5.5% to 12%, bringing them closer to the 13% Areva pays in Canada and the 18.5% paid in Kazakhstan. However the French-owned company, which has posted losses in recent years, insists that such a change would not make their operations worthwhile.
The result of the deadlocked talks could prove highly significant for Niger, but this is not the first time the West African nation has found itself in this position. In fact, the current negotiations are merely the latest chapter in a long history of France-Niger relations, and unfortunately for Niger, a look back at previous chapters of the story doesn’t offer too much hope for a positive outcome in the one being played out today…….
The Franco-African pact coloniale made sure that African financial decisions were made with French interests at heart and that post-colonial Francophone markets were reserved for French companies and traders. And of all the resources available to France, uranium was of arguably the greatest importance − it not only offered economic value, but political and military value, and reified France’s status as a global force ………
Fast-forwarding to the current day, the structures and means of coercion in France’s relations with Niger continue, albeit altered through generational changes in personnel, new economic realities, and a shift from a Cold War to a War on Terror geopolitical discourse. Both President François Hollande and his predecessor Nicolas Sarkozy have made lofty statements about ending La Françafrique in recent years, but France’s military presence and continuing economic hold in its former colonies suggest an ongoing and unequal relationship…….
When it comes to France’s relationship with Africa then, it seems the adage that plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose rings true − including when it comes to its ongoing negotiations over Nigerien uranium prices……
despite Niger’s vast uranium reserves − over which France has an effective monopoly − the country has remained poor………Areva’s power in Niger is also exemplified by recent court battles over the safety of the mines. ……
Recently, an Al Jazeera documentary and investigation by Greenpeace has further raised concerns about the health effects around the mines in Arlit. Greenpeace claims that radiation around the mines is 100 times the World Health Organsation’s safety levels, while the NGO along with important and extremely active local civil society groups maintain that water used in the towns surrounding the mines has been contaminated, mine vents pump radioactive radon into the air, and tonnes of nuclear waste has been left around the area. The Al Jazeera documentary even showed Areva-employed doctors saying that radiation had been responsible for a local’s death. How Areva responds and whether it will be held accountable, however, remains to be seen.
Ultimately, many of the dynamics at play in the 60s and 70s are still prominent today as a Nigerien president pushes for a better deal of uranium prices once again, France continues to dominate the country’s mining industry, the region remains somewhat unstable, and the French military maintains its heavy presence……..http://thinkafricapress.com/niger/vive-la-francafrique-nuclear-colonialism-uranium-areva
Anonymous U.S. Gov’t Nuclear Expert: Fukushima radiation levels were “astronomical… nothing containing release of radioactivity, it’s an unmitigated, unshielded number” — Monitor detected 100,000 Sv/hr
Published: February 18th, 2014 at 4:11 pm ET
By ENENews
The Asia-Pacific Journal, Feb. 17, 2014: A U.S. government nuclear expert who was directly involved in the U.S. government’s radiation assessment of this situation said: “At 100 meters away it (the helicopter) was reading 4 sieverts per hour. That is an astronomical number and it told me, what that number means to me, a trained person, is there is no water on the reactor cores and they are just melting down, there is nothing containing the release of 
radioactivity. It is an unmitigated, unshielded number.” –Confidential communication, Sept. 17, 2012
Email from Defense Threat Reduction Agency on March 17, 2011 (pdf): “Please take note of the new ‘Containment monitor reading’ on slide 10.”
Slide 10
- Continuous Release – Steam released for decay heat removal […]
- >> NFAC [Nuclear Forensics Analysis Center] Reactor Accident
- >> >> Containment monitor reading: 10,000,000 R/hr [100,00 Sv/hr] (unconfirmed), tried to replicate the reported high radiation levels at site gate and computed and reported 375 R/hr [3.75 Sv/hr] from helicopter at 100 meters above spent fuel pools.
Using the inverse square law formula a dose rate of 3.75 Sw/hr at 100 meters, means from 0.5 meters away the dose rate equals 150,000 Sv/hr, very close to the 100,000 Sv/hr reported.
See also: NHK: 3.75 sieverts per hour was detected above Reactor 3 by helicopter
Three big lies in the nuclear advertising film “Pandora’s Promise”
3 Myths From Pro-Nuclear Film ‘Pandora’s Promise, Eco News, 16 Feb 
14,,’”…….Pandora’s Promise 
… propagated three common myths about nuclear power: it suggested the environmental movement’s “scare tactics” are what has inhibited nuclear power, claimed nuclear power is cheaper than renewables and downplayed complications from nuclear waste.This led to a generally one-sided story, which has led to criticism from many reviewers.
Here’s how the film Pandora’s Promise propagated nuclear power myths:
1.Claimed Nuclear Energy Is Cheaper Than Renewable Energy…….
2. Blamed Environmentalists For Preventing Nuclear Deployment.……the lack of nuclear expansion in the U.S. comes down to a simple case of economics. …..As the libertarian Cato Institute’s Jerry Taylor explained that there’s “zero evidence” that environmental opposition is preventing new nuclear power plants, a myth that he said has been purported by nuclear advocates who “like to dodge the cost estimates.”
3. Whitewashed The Issue Of Nuclear Waste……..The U.S. has accumulated more than 70,000 metric tons of spent nuclear fuel, and continues to accumulate 2,200 tons per year, yet CNN’s documentary made light of this waste—Lynas claimed that nuclear waste is “not an environmental issue.”….http://ecowatch.com/2013/11/08/3-claims-pro-nuclear-film-pandoras-promise/
Nuclear power – less efficient, more expensive than energy effiiciency
Fact is, there are trillions of dollars of highly profitable energy efficiency measures available that are currently not being pursued, according to McKinsey & Company. Energy efficiency is the cheapest form of new energy –
Nuclear power is also capital intensive and job poor. By contrast, energy efficiency is more labour-intensive – and efficiency creates jobs in every community.
Renaissance reconsidered, Corporate Knights, 13 February, 2014 Why build nuclear when we can meet growing demand less expensively through energy efficiency by Jim Harris, ”……..The fall of nuclear power has been driven in part by the estimated cost of nuclear catastrophe. The Japanese Center for Economic Research, for example, has estimated that the cost of dealing with the Fukushima disaster alone will exceed $250 billion. Governments are also beginning to understand the magnitude of decommissioning costs. In the U.K., the cost of the Sellafield nuclear plant’s decommissioning has skyrocketed to $122 billion, all borne by taxpayers……
No insurance company will insure nuclear power without government guarantees, and no business will run nuclear plants without a government assuming the liability, construction cost overruns and decommissioning costs.
At the same time, nuclear costs are rising sharply while the price of renewable energy has dropped significantly, and continues to do so. In 2013, new installations of renewable energy in the United States are on pace for the first time to exceed new capacity of new fossil fuel plants (coal and gas fired) and nuclear combined.
Solar power, in particular, is enjoying cost reductions typically associated with computers and smart phones. In the early 1980s, telephone giant AT&T estimated the number of cellphone subscribers in the United States by the year 2000 would be 900,000. The actual number was 107 million: AT&T was off by a factor of 120 times. The discrepancy was driven by three powerful trends:…….
the cost of solar power is dropping dramatically.
Why build or refurbish expensive nuclear power plants when by the time they are ready to operate we may have reduced demand for power?
The potential for energy efficiency is huge. Take LED lighting. Its price performance is improving 200-fold per decade, putting it on track to be the dominant form of new lighting worldwide by 2020. Lighting accounts for 24 per cent of North American electricity consumption and 18 per cent worldwide. And LED lights use 80 per cent less electricity than traditional light bulbs. According to the U.S. Department of Energy, adopting LEDs will save Americans the energy equivalent of 334 million barrels of oil a year.
Fact is, there are trillions of dollars of highly profitable energy efficiency measures available that are currently not being pursued, according to McKinsey & Company. Energy efficiency is the cheapest form of new energy – because every kilowatt-hour of power I save in my home or business due to energy efficiency is a kilowatt-hour made available to someone else on the grid……..
Nuclear power is also capital intensive and job poor. By contrast, energy efficiency is more labour-intensive – and efficiency creates jobs in every community. As well, efficiency has the added benefit of insulating homeowners and businesses from rising energy prices. http://corporateknights.com/article/renaissance-reconsidered
Slow progress in France and USA’s marketing of nuclear power to India
Delay in nuclear-deal with Japan may hit progress on atomic plants ET By PTI | 16 Feb, 2014 NEW DELHI: Progress on atomic plants being built here by France and the US can be hampered by the delay in India’s nuclear deal with Japan where key components of these plants are manufactured and India now wants these countries to push Japan to conclude the agreement at the earliest. ……
Similarly, the US is also proposing to construct a nuclear plant in Mithi Virdi in Gujarat and will require components from Japan-based companies.
……As the nuclear deal with Japan and India could not be signed during Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s recent visit to Delhi last month, sources point out that this could have an impact on the progress of two upcoming nuclear power plant projects in India. http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/articleshow/30526219.cms?utm_source=contentofinterest&utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=cppst
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