Hibakusha is the Japanese term for people who were exposed to radiation from the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
Australia- Environmental protection Agency reveals where ‘low level’ nuclear waste is stored in Adelaide suburbs
- The Advertiser
- February 25, 2014
SOME of Adelaide’s most prominent residential suburbs are home to radioactive waste and storage, the Environment Protection Authority has revealed.
Other than the CBD, the Adelaide Hills with 39 sites has the most number of small storages which include low and intermediate low-level radioactive waste.
The details are revealed in documents released under the Freedom of Information Act, even though this has previously been denied by the EPA.
An EPA spokeswoman said most of the sources were being stored or used in machines that required radiation, but could not say home many were waste.
READ MORE: Radiactive waste stored near homes
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“The majority would be unsealed radioactive substances used in premises such as nuclear medicine departments and sealed radioactive sources in plant and equipment used in mining, industrial, medical and scientific applications,’’ she said.
“The majority of sealed radioactive sources and unsealed radioactive substances in premises within SA are currently being used or stored.
“Any waste would be very low level to intermediate low level waste.’’
Other Adelaide suburbs which have sites include; Thebarton 27 sites, Bedford Park 26, Mawson Lakes 23, Osborne 21, Urrbrae 19, Norwood 17, Keswick 14, Woodville 13, Black Forest 10, Wingfield 11, North Adelaide 7, Glenside 7, Export park 5, Gillman 5, Bellevue Heights 3, Cheltenham 3, Glenelg 3, two each as Camden Park, Edwardstown, Elizabeth, Ashford, Kent Town, Regency Park, and one each at Evanston Park, Blackwood, Burton, Gepps Cross, Golden Grove and Noarlunga.
In total the EPA lists 928 sites, mostly at mine sites in remove locations.
Report: Radiation Still Present in USA Former Naval Nuclear Arms Site
By Global Security Newswire Staff
February 25, 2014
The secrecy behind an ex-Navy nuclear arms training program in California likely contributed to the faulty environmental cleanup of the site, says a new report.
The man-made landform Treasure Island was used for nearly 50 years as a base for training military personnel in nuclear war tactics. A number of radioactive materials were used there including plutonium, radium and cesium 137. However, when the Navy decommissioned the San Francisco-area site in the 1990s and began restoring it for eventual civilian use, a significant amount of radioactive waste remained behind, unknown to some of the San Franciscans who moved into new townhouses on the island, according to a Tuesday expose by the Center for Investigative Reporting.
The Navy was aware that radioactive materials at the Treasure Island Naval Station were not always properly handled, according to the report. However, because the service did not go public with the installation’s nuclear weapons background, the environmental remediation personnel and other workers tasked with preparing the base for civilian use could have accidentally disseminated poisonous substances around Treasure Island, the report concludes.
In 2007, Robert McLean was assigned by New World Environmental — a Navy contractor — to carry out an initial study of the presence of radiation on the island. A report ordered by the Navy the year before had indicated there was a low probability that any notable radioactive sources would be found so McLean said he was not expecting much when he began his survey.
But that was not the case.
“We picked up readings from inside the truck, without even getting out of the vehicle,” he said.
“We found radiation, contaminated materials, in playgrounds and in areas that had previously been playgrounds,” McLean said. “We found it in front yards. We found it underneath sidewalks and along the roadways.”
Japan drafts revision of arms exports ban -source
By Nobuhiro Kubo
http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/02/24/japan-defence-idUSL3N0LT02V20140224
Feb 23 (Reuters) –
Japan has drafted new guidelines that would reverse a decades-old ban on weapons exports, a source with knowledge of the matter said on Sunday, a move that could further strain ties with neighbours China and South Korea.
Tokyo has been reviewing the self-imposed ban under Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s new security strategy, aimed at bolstering the self-reliance of the military.
Serving as prime minister for a rare second time and enjoying solid public approval, Abe says Japan needs a stronger military to cope with what he calls an increasingly threatening security environment, with a more militarily assertive China and unpredictable North Korea.
The proposed revision could draw criticism from China and South Korea, where resentment over Japan’s wartime aggression still runs deep. Beijing and Seoul also have long-running territorial disputes with Tokyo over different sets of islets.
Japan drew up the “three principles” on arms exports in 1967, banning sales to countries with communist governments or those involved in international conflicts or subject to United Nations sanctions.
But the rules over time became tantamount to a blanket ban on exports – with some exceptions – and on the development and production of weapons with countries other than the United States.
Under the new guidelines, arms exports would be approved upon “rigorous review” if they were to serve peaceful missions or if joint development of a weapon was deemed to enhance national security, the source told Reuters.
Japan to continue its nuclear fuel recycling policy
Japan unveiled its first draft energy policy since the Fukushima meltdowns three years ago
Japan has tons of spent fuel and a stockpile of extracted plutonium, causing international concerns about nuclear proliferation. Officials have said the most realistic way to consume and reduce the plutonium is to restart the reactors to burn it.
February 25, 2014
Japan unveiled its first draft energy policy since the Fukushima meltdowns three years ago, saying nuclear power remains an important source of electricity for the country.
The draft presented Tuesday to the Cabinet for approval expected in March, said Japan’s nuclear energy dependency will be reduced as much as possible, but that reactors meeting new safety standards set after the 2011 nuclear crisis should be restarted.
Japan has 48 commercial reactors, but all are offline until and unless they pass the new safety requirements.
The draft of the Basic Energy Plan said that a mix of nuclear, renewables and fossil fuel will be the most reliable and stable source of electricity to meet Japan’s energy needs. It did not specify the exact mix, citing uncertain factors such as the number of reactor restarts and the pace of renewable energy development.
Moderator says no to Concerned Neighbors of Pilgrim’s town meeting
Efforts to put restrictions on the storage of spent nuclear fuel at Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station have suffered a setback.
Heather Lightner of Concerned Neighbors of Pilgrim told the Nuclear Matters Committee that Town Moderator Steve Triffletti told her he wouldn’t allow their article calling on Entergy to speed up the transfer of spent fuel at the plant from the pool inside the building into dry storage outside it. According to Lightner, Triffletti told her the town didn’t have the authority to take that action. She added that the moderator has a policy against non-binding articles like the ones her group proposed.
“We vigorously disagree with the decision,” attorney Meg Sheehan of EcoLaw said. According to her, Triffletti based his decision on the legal opinion of Kopleman and Paige attorney Elizabeth Lane, who holds that the Nuclear Regulatory Commission has sole jurisdiction over atomic energy regulations. The NRC, Sheehan said, is only responsible for the safety of the plant. The town, she said, can regulate other matters there. Town meeting “should have the power to voice an opinion,” she said.
Lightner told the board her group had withdrawn article 32, which would have restricted the storage of spent nuclear fuel at Pilgrim to what was created there.
The Advisory and Finance Committee, and the Board of Selectmen, had supported both articles.
Sheehan said that Concerned Neighbors of Pilgrim is considering its options. Both articles are on the agenda for Tuesday’s selectmen’s meeting and Wednesday’s finance committee meeting. In an e-mail, Lightner said she plans on making a statement before the selectmen.
Nuclear power in Poland will only be possible “if the funds are available”
Nuclear Power in Poland
Power to the People
http://newzar.wordpress.com/2014/02/26/nuclear-power-in-poland/
26 February 2014
Preparations to build a nuclear power station in Poland may cost as much as PLN 2 billion. It is still unknown where the money will come from. The Polish Nuclear Power Programme (PPEJ) has finally been accepted by the government which officially confirms that Poland wants to build a nuclear power station. The decision mean a huge investment in the energy sector. The Nuclear Power Station 1 (EJ1) project, which is controlled by the state-owned Polish Energy Group (PGE), was given the green light to spend PLN 1.3 billion. That is the preliminary cost of giving so-called integrated permission to an external company. The funds are needed for choosing the appropriate technology, equipment and fuel supplier and deciding who will finance the most expensive construction project in history of Poland. Before any of this can happen, EJ1 will need to spend at least a PLN 250,000 assessing the environmental effects of the project and where it will be built (most probably in the vicinity of Żywiec). Considering other expenses, such as the purchase of 640 hectares of land and high corporate costs (some of which are being checked by the public prosecutor’s office), PLN 2 billion will be spent before any construction actually gets under way. Everyone involved (all of Poland’s largest electrical energy companies are participating) still cannot be sure that another ‘Żarnowiec’ will not happen again. Construction of a nuclear station in Żarnowiec came to an abrupt stop following the catastrophe in Chernobyl and a lack of money. Several weeks ago Prime Minister Donald Tusk intimated on Twitter that shale gas is the priority, coal is a must and nuclear power will only be possible if the funds are available.
opinie.newsweek.pl
Fukushima students visit Marshall Islands
http://www.houseofjapan.com/local/fukushima-students-visit-marshall-islands
Wednesday, 26 February 2014
Four university students from Japan are undertaking a weeklong tour of the Marshall Islands to share their experience about the nuclear disaster in Fukushima and learn about the Marshallese struggle in the aftermath of U.S. nuclear testing there 60 years ago.
“I try to establish this kind of connection among global hibakusha. Marshallese people are also hibakusha, being exposed to radiation from the U.S. nuclear testing,” said Seiichiro Takemine, a professor at Meisei University in Tokyo, who organized the trip for the university students.
Read more here
Guns-on-campus bill could endanger ISU’s nuclear research program
Idaho State University could lose its license to conduct nuclear research from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission if a bill to allow concealed weapons on college campuses becomes law, Gov. Butch Otter said Friday, according to the AP and the Idaho State Journal. Otter, in a meeting with about 30 ISU College Republicans, said ISU President Arthur Vailas told him Thursday that the commission has a zero-tolerance policy regarding weapons at licensed nuclear research facilities, putting the school’s nuclear research efforts at risk if the bill becomes law. “I had never heard that before,” Otter said.
Legislation to allow concealed guns on Idaho’s public college and university campuses passed the Senate 25-10 last week, over the objections of all of Idaho’s public colleges and its state Board of Education; the House State Affairs Committee is scheduled to hold a hearing on the bill on Thursday. Otter, who had previously said he supported the bill, said, “I think there’s going to be some additional consideration given,” and declined to say whether he would sign or veto the bill should it arrive on his desk. The measure, SB 1254, is scheduled for a House committee hearing on Thursday. Click below for a full report from the AP and State Journal.
Guns on campus could end nuke research at ISU
POCATELLO, Idaho (AP) — Idaho State University could lose its license to conduct nuclear research from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission if a bill to allow concealed weapons on college campuses becomes law, Idaho Gov. C.L. “Butch” Otter said.
The Idaho State Journal reported (http://bit.ly/1e3nJrk) that Otter made the comments Friday to about 30 people attending a meeting with ISU’s College Republicans.
Otter said ISU President Arthur Vailas told him Thursday that the commission has a zero-tolerance policy regarding weapons at licensed nuclear research facilities, putting the school’s nuclear research efforts at risk if the bill becomes law.
“I had never heard that before,” Otter said.
A bill allowing concealed weapons on Idaho’s college campuses passed the Senate 25-10 Tuesday. The House State Affairs Committee is scheduled to hold a hearing on the bill on Thursday.
Support Mari Takenouchi and Radiation Protection – The first “casualty” of Japans new war on freedom?
Office of the Prosecutor, Iwaki Branch, Fukushima Japan:
Support Mari Takenouchi and Radiation Protection
“Perhaps because everyone believes people telling them on television that everything is fine, they don’t seem so worried,” 281 Antinuke told Reuters.“I hope by leaving my art I can remind people that we’re not safe at all … and that they will do something to protect themselves.”
“We don’t know what will happen in the future, whether children will get cancer or leukemia,” he said. “So I want to keep making noise and making a fuss.”
“The nuclear accident allowed us to realize that Japan had hidden a lot of things,” he said. “I want to make images that express doubts about what’s going on in politics – like a label that says ‘This is happening, pay attention’!” http://www.dailykos.com/story/2013/11/30/1259294/-Masked-Artist-Forces-Japanese-to-Think-About-Fukushima
Why this is important!!
Mari is facing charges stemming from speaking out on radiation in Japan and advocacy for families relocating children out of the areas contaminated by radioactivity from the damaged Fukushima Daiichi reactor site, operated by TEPCO. Radioactivity continues to leave that site. It is well established that while lower levels of exposure to radioactivity lowers risk, the greatest hazard from radiation comes when children are exposed, raising the risk of cancer manifold over their entire lives.
The group ETHOS in Japan supports the decision by some to stay and live in contaminated areas. Sadly, some of these families feel they have no choice due to economics and other factors. Certainly young children have no choice. ETHOS advocates monitoring radioactivity, but well established science supports Mari’s views that there is no safe dose of radiation and that children need to be protected. We support open discussion, access to information and free choice. We ask the Prosecutor to agree that writing and speaking about these issues are not a crime.
Please Stand With Mari as she stands for precaution, protection and the rights of children to a healthy future. THANK YOU.
Nuclear lobby keeps promoting, but the Fukushima catastrophe continues
nuke promoters are oblivious to the dangers, so the rest of us need to keep in mind, Fukushima is an ongoing disaster still looking for a solution almost three years later, and the land in that area will never be the same.
Fukushima: The Nuclear Disaster That Keeps On Giving http://www.tucsonweekly.com/TheRange/archives/2014/02/23/fukushima-the-nuclear-disaster-that-keeps-on-giving The tsunami and meltdown at Japan’s Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant happened way back in March, 2011, going on three years now. Old news, right? Meltdowns happen. BY DAVID SAFIER ON SUN, FEB 23, 2014
Actually, not such old news. Another 100 tons of radioactive water leaked last Wednesday, just one of an ongoing series of mini-disasters occurring regularly at the damaged nuclear plant which is currently being held together by duct tape, baling wire and chewing gum — or techniques similarly temporary and unreliable.
It’s not the first spill, there have been many, but this water is more contaminated than usual.
[T]he water was about 3.8 million times as contaminated with strontium 90 as the maximum allowed under Japan’s safety standards for drinking water. It also showed levels much more radioactive than a worrisome groundwater reading that Tepco announced earlier this month. That reading — five million becquerels of strontium 90 per liter — which was detected at a location closer to the ocean than the latest spill, prompted criticism of Tepco because the company waited five months to report it publicly.
The reason for the spills is that groundwater keeps seeping into the reactor buildings, and the only choices available to Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO) are to let it run into the Pacific or store it in huge above-ground water tanks.
So far, Tepco said, about 340,000 tons of water have accumulated in the tanks, enough to fill more than 135 Olympic-size swimming pools. A ton of water is equivalent to about 240 gallons.
Fox News reported that “plant workers attached a garbage bag to contain the leakage.” The “Fox News reported” attribution makes me a tad skeptical, but hey, it’s not The Onion, and it’s not the worst Fukushima fix I’ve read about.
I posted regularly about Fukushima when I was at Blog for Arizona. In 2013 alone, I wrote about cooling systems being knocked out because a rat got into the switchboard (the wire nets installed to keep the rats away caused another power outage), TEPCO finally admitting that radioactive water was leaking into the sea on a regular basis (they’re planning to create an underground ice wall to contain the water — seriously), 300 tons of water leaking from a storage tank (if you stand a foot away from the leaking water for an hour, you’ll receive 5 times the maximum yearly radiation dose for nuclear workers), and one of the last leaks of 2013dousing six workers with radioactive water (because the workers took out the wrong pipe — Oops!)
The local connection to all this is, gubernatorial hopeful “Atomic Al” Melvin (more often known as Cap’n Al) wants to put nuclear plants all over bone-dry Arizona, even though those things need lots of water — more than lots when there’s an accident. Al and other nuke promoters are oblivious to the dangers, so the rest of us need to keep in mind, Fukushima is an ongoing disaster still looking for a solution almost three years later, and the land in that area will never be the same.
French nuclear company AREVA has ripped Niger off bigtime
French Uranium Miner Owes More to Niger, Activists Sayhttp://www.voanews.com/content/activists-say-uranium-miner-owes-more-to-niger/1857929.html Jennifer Lazuta February 24, 2014 DAKAR, SENEGAL — Niger and the French uranium firm Areva remain locked in negotiations over how to divide revenues. Activists and non-governmental organizations have gotten involved and say Niger deserves a greater share of the profits.
The government of Niger is negotiating a new mining contract with the French state-owned mining company Areva.
Activists say that for decades Areva has been operating in Niger without paying its fair share of taxes or revenue profits.
Activists say that for decades Areva has been operating in Niger without paying its fair share of taxes or revenue profits.
“Uranium is a big industry in Niger,” said Ibrahima Aidara, the economic governance program manager for the Open Society Initiative of West Africa. “Some people say it is the fourth largest producer of uranium. But unfortunately, Niger is not benefiting much because they are not getting good revenue, and the damage on [society] and the environment is also very huge.”
Niger is one of the poorest countries in the world. According to the World Bank, nearly 60 percent of Nigeriens currently live below the national poverty line.
This is despite a study by the Extraction Industry Transparency Initiative that showed that Areva mined more than $4.8 billion worth of uranium from Niger in 2010. Continue reading
While nuclear waste problem gets worse, US govt funds new nuclear reactors!
it’s crazy to be starting new nukes when the unsolved nuclear waste problem just gets bigger and worse
Two New Nuclear Reactors in the Works, While Alarms Sound over High Radiation Levels at Waste Site http://www.allgov.com/news/controversies/two-new-nuclear-reactors-in-the-works-while-alarms-sound-over-high-radiation-levels-at-waste-site-140224?news=852515, –Steve Straehley Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz traveled to Georgia on February 20 to issue loan guarantees to construct the first two nuclear reactors to be built in the United States in nearly 30 years. But just days before, in New Mexico, there was an incident that threw into question the ability to deal with the nuclear waste being generated by existing reactors. Continue reading
Japan and France get together to market nukes to Africa
Japan, France finance chiefs eye greater nuclear cooperation http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/kyodo-news-international/140224/japan-france-finance-chiefs-eye-greater-nuclear-cooper Kyodo News International February 24, 2014 Finance Minister Taro Aso and his French counterpart Pierre Moscovici shared at a meeting in Tokyo on Monday the need to strengthen cooperation in civil nuclear power and in expanding business into Africa, Japanese officials said.
In the talks, Moscovici said France hopes to strengthen cooperative relations with Japan in nuclear power given that a joint venture between Japan’s Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd. and France’s Areva SA is pursuing the project to build a nuclear power plant in Turkey.
Also on expanding business into Africa, Moscovici said France hopes to work with Japan, noting that his country has some experience in the continent, according to the officials.
Aso showed his willingness, saying that they are both “good proposals,” the officials said.
Moscovici later met with Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. The Japanese leader expressed hope that Japan and France will strengthen relations in various areas, the officials said.
The French minister expressed confidence about the 18-nation eurozone meeting the goal of boosting collective gross domestic product by more than 2 percentage points over the next five years, which was set forth in a communique released after Group of 20 finance chiefs met in Sydney over the weekend.
Mexico meeting of 146 nations working to eliminate nuclear weapons
The World Turns Against Nuclear Weapons Peter G. Cohen The Smirking Chimp, February 21, 2014 A new kind of world meeting has just ended (2-13-14) in Nayarit, Mexico. It was unusual because 146 weapons-free nations, from all over the world, attended and discussed ways to eliminate the nuclear weapons now held by the Nuclear Nine, who ignored the meeting.
This worldwide movement is concerned with the recent information on the effects of any nuclear detonations that would be distributed around the world. The fireball from a typical U.S. weapon is so hot that it will ignite an area of from 30 to 40 square miles around the planned target. The heat from this giant firestorm will lift a huge amount of soot into the high atmosphere where it will drift around the world. Such a huge black cloud will blot out the sun and cause a nuclear winter by blocking the sunlight from reaching food crops.
Additional effects will include a wide dispersal of ionizing radiation that interferes with normal development in women and children, weakens the protection of the ozone layer, and destroys the phytoplankton of the sea, which supports most ocean life
The world is now realizing that the uncontrollable and long-lasting effects of nuclear weapons on civilians and all life, including domesticated animals amd plant ecosystems, make any use of these weapons an intolerable crime against humanity.
“The Mexico conference is the latest stop in a process that has changed the way nuclear weapons are discussed at the international level…..http://www.smirkingchimp.com/thread/peter-g-cohen/54358/the-world-turns-against-nuclear-weapons
AUDIO World Bank and UN funding across the Pacific
AUDIO: Renewable energy funding across the Pacific http://www.radioaustralia.net.au/international/radio/program/pacific-beat/renewable-energy-funding-across-the-pacific/1270348 25 February 2014, One million dollars of extra funding has been allocated to boost renewable energy projects across the Pacific.
The Pacific Renewable Energy Project is being promoted by the Secretariat of the Pacific Regional Environment Programme (SPREP) and, with additional support from the UNDP and World Bank, is providing practical assistance to Pacific Island nations to meet their renewable energy targets.
Presenter: Richard Ewart
Speaker: Sill’a Ualesi Kilepoa, Project Manager, Pacific Renewable Energy Project, SPREP
1 This Month
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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