France’s government protects AREVA from criticism: goodbye to freedom of speech
Adieu Free Speech in Nuclear France: Areva Rules 31 Mar 2014 miningawareness Almost two months ago, the French government condemned a French citizen-NGO for criticizing the almost completely French government owned nuclear company AREVA. (http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Areva)
How can a government sue its own citizen for raising a question of possible corruption? Shouldn’t the government provide
documents proving that there was no corruption instead?
Since when do citizens have no right to criticize their own government or question its actions? This shows that France has no free speech and is no democracy.
We find AREVA a very worrisome entity. It is a majority French government owned nuclear multinational, and by all appearances, the French government seems willing to put the weight of the French military, and now French courts, behind it. What is this other than a Nuclear Empire?
And, AREVA is more widely present throughout the world than realized. It has been present at Fukushima, having provided its MOX fuel, and operating a post-nuclear disaster water purification system, which apparently failed, and other projects. (1) It is involved in the WIPP nuclear waste dump (2), which has recently leaked radiation in the USA; it is involved in the Savannah River MOX plant, which ran over cost and is being moth-balled by the USA. AREVA mines for uranium in Africa, where, by all appearances, the French military is throwing its weight around to protect its mining interests. AREVA works closely with majority French government owned EDF, as well.
The outcome of the appeal in this case, appears yet to be announced. But, the fact that AREVA sued a French citizen, running a tiny NGO-blog site, for defamation, and that a judge ruled in AREVA’s favour, shows just how out of control AREVA and the French State really are. It is hence unsurprising that AREVA has almost two hundred entries in Wise Uranium’s “Hall of Infamy”:http://www.wise-uranium.org/uccoghi.html
Below is our translation of the February 7th statement by the NGO,Observatoire du nucléaire, dealing with this topic. (French original here:http://observ.nucleaire.free.fr/obs-fait-appel-don-areva.htm)
“Observatoire du nucléaire
Statement of 7 février 2014
Condemned at the demand of Areva,
l’Observatoire du nucléaire, appeals this judgement which
seriously endangers the right
to denounce the misdeeds of the nuclear lobby
Friday, 7 February 2014, despite damning evidence made public byl’Observatoire du nucléaire (see http://www.observatoire-du-nucleaire.org), the 17th Criminal Chamber of the Court of Paris saw fit to condemn (to several thousand euros in financial penalties, details shortly) for ‘defamation’ this association, at the urging of the radioactive multinational Areva.
t is edifying to remark that it is not only the justice system, but almost the entirety of French society, the main political parties, with the majority of the ‘big’ media, at the forefront, who conscientiously turn their eyes away, in order to profit from the plunder of Niger’s uranium. So, Areva was finally just executing this dirty work.
France is too happy to be able to fuel its nuclear reactors by grabbing Niger’s uranium at a derisory price: it’s probably hundreds of billions of euros, which should be reimbursed to Niger, especially if one takes into account the serious environmental damage (contamination, drying up of groundwater) and public health (multiple cancers, displacement of the local population, etc.)
The supposedly ‘environmentalist’ party EELV, through its two ministers, and by the complicit silence of its parliamentary groups, is directly the accomplice of Areva and of the nuclear lobby……..http://miningawareness.wordpress.com/2014/03/31/adieu-free-speech-in-nuclear-france-areva-rules/
Nuclear Industry decides who will be on Nuclear Regulatory Commission
Nuclear Safety Requires New NRC Commissioners: Author, Jeff McMahon, Forbes 6 April 14 Americans remain at higher risk for a radiological disaster as long as the Nuclear Regulatory Commission remains under the influence of the nuclear-power industry, an expert on nuclear safety and security said in Chicago Thursday.
nominated to be a commissioner to the NRC has to be pre-approved by the nuclear industry,” said Edwin Lyman, a physicist turned senior scientist for the Union of Concerned Scientists. “In order to get a more independent mindset, you’ve got to break that stranglehold.”Lyman’s comments arrived amid criticism of the NRC for doing too little to implement seismic safety upgrades recommended after the Fukushima disaster three years ago………
Lyman blames industry influence over the NRC. The only two recent commissioners not approved by industry—former chair Gregory Jazcko, who resigned under pressure in 2012, and current chair Allison M. Macfarlane—had to be paired with industry favorites, Lyman said, to win Congressional approval.
Jazcko was paired with Peter B. Lyons, Macfarlane with the renomination of Kristine L. Svinicki…….
Underlying the planning done by the industry and NRC, Lyman said, is a mindset.
“If the nuclear industry, regulators, and politicians don’t abandon that ‘it-can’t-happen-here’ mindset, we’re going to be in trouble here sooner or later,” he said.
Asked how you change a mindset, Lyman said, “You may not be able to change a mindset, you may have to change the people.”http://www.forbes.com/sites/jeffmcmahon/2014/04/06/nuclear-safety-in-u-s-requires-nrc-commissioners/
Inside stories on the continuing Fukushima nuclear crisis
Inside Sources: Fukushima crisis “actually far worse than anyone acknowledged… information withheld to prevent panic” – Professor: “Level of radiation was far worse than Navy officers anticipated” – US gov’t shredded documents for 4 days while drawing up plans to evacuate Japan — “Somebody was obviously very worried” http://enenews.com/inside-sources-fukushima-crisis-actually-worse-anyone-acknowledged-information-withheld-prevent-panic-professor-level-radiation-worse-navy-officers-anticipated-govt-shredded-documents-4-days-drawing?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+ENENe
Japan Times, Jeff Kingston of Temple Univ., Apr. 4, 2014: Kyle Cleveland, my colleague […] recently published a report […] a critical, but nuanced picture of a crisis that was closer to careening out of control than is generally acknowledged. […] Naval officers […] discovered the level of radiation was far worse than they anticipated. Radiation gauges on the [USS Reagan] measured levels of radiation at 100 nautical miles off the coast that were 30 times greater than normal. [Sailors report] significant health problems due to exposure to radiation […] Cleveland finds that there was considerable disagreement between various U.S. agencies about the severity of the risk […] Given that the U.S. government expanded the exclusionary zone in Fukushima to 80 km and developed contingency plans for a massive evacuation while shredding of documents continued for four days at the U.S. Embassy and military bases in Japan, somebody was obviously very worried. […] Some of his insider sources tell him that the crisis was actually far worse than anyone acknowledged at the time and that information was withheld to prevent a panic. Cleveland concludes that Japan’s nuclear reactors should not be restarted.
Professor Kyle Cleveland, Temple University Japan: “[The navy was] more risk averse than either the NRC (Nuclear Regulatory Commission) or State, and from day one was ringing alarms that were not entirely understood, not completely validated and not well received by the NRC and State. The navy was pushing the other federal agencies to take more aggressive actions because their radiation measurements were indicating dose rates that were more significant than what was implied by the abstract modeling […]”
Unidentified US Nuclear Expert: “Without a qualitatively different regulatory system, and in light of how Japan/Tepco responded to this crisis, Japan has not earned the right to have nuclear energy. No critically minded and informed person can evaluate this disaster and look at how Japan has responded in the aftermath and have any confidence that Japan will use nuclear energy safely. In the most seismically active country […] even if Japan had a robust regulatory structure and thoroughly integrated crisis protocols, nature conspires against the best-laid-plans of human institutions. And what Japan has is certainly not the best plan by any measure.”
Common Cause Failure – in Climate Change and in Nuclear Power
Fukushima Earth, Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, 4 April 14 DAWN STOVER Stover is a science writer based in the Pacific Northwest and is a contributing editor at theBulletin.
Sudden nuclear disasters of the kind that occurred at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station three years ago may not at first glance seem to have much in common with the slow-motion planetary destruction of global warming. The two phenomena, though, are alike—and not just because they are dangerous to humankind. They unfold in similar fashion, starting with a single event which then leads to and interacts with many others. Both are also easy to foresee—but unprofitable to avert. Continue reading
Safety requirements are making USA’s nuclear reactors even more expensive
Under Revised Quake Estimates, Dozens of Nuclear Reactors Face Costly Safety Analyses By MATTHEW L. WALD NYT, APRIL 5, 2014 WASHINGTON — Owners of at least two dozen nuclear reactors across the United States, including the operator of Indian Point 2, in Buchanan, N.Y., have told the Nuclear Regulatory Commission that they cannot show that their reactors would withstand the most severe earthquake that revised estimates say they might face, according to industry experts.
As a result, the reactors’ owners will be required to undertake extensive analyses of their structures and components. Those are generally sturdier than assumed in licensing documents, but owners of some plants may be forced to make physical changes, and are likely to spend about $5 million each just for the analysis…….
he Nuclear Regulatory Commission is presuming, for the time being at least, that plants built to the old standard do not present any immediate risk. But critics say that contradicts one of the recommendations made by a task force of commission senior staff members after the earthquake and tsunami in Japan three years ago, which caused three reactors to melt down at Fukushima Daiichi.
One recommendation was that the commission “re-evaluate and upgrade” the original design requirements.
Senator Edward Markey, Democrat of Massachusetts, a longtime critic of the commission, said in a statement: “The N.R.C. should be demanding implementation of seismic safety upgrades it called for following the Fukushima meltdowns, not merely more study of nuclear reactors that it knows are clearly at higher risk than was previously believed. What is needed is action to secure at-risk nuclear reactors, not merely more reports.”……..
Two industry experts said that across the central and eastern United States, plants at 24 sites reported that the new earthquake threat was larger than what they were designed to face. The commission has not released a total yet.
But Scott Burnell, a spokesman for the commission, said many reactors fell into that category, so many that there were not enough engineers to analyze them all simultaneously. The commission will group them in priority, he said…….http://www.nytimes.com/2014/04/06/nyregion/dozens-of-nuclear-reactors-must-prove-safety-under-revised-quake-estimates.html?hpw&rref=science&_r=0
Inadequate safeguards at New Mexico Nuclear Weapons Labs,
Audit Cites Deficiencies in New Mexico Labs, abc news, SANTA FE, N.M. April 7, 2014 (AP) A new federal audit has found Los Alamos and Sandia national laboratories failed to monitor nuclear weapons designs as well as the reliability of parts being used to build them, the Albuquerque Journal reported Sunday.
The U.S. Department of Energy Inspector General’s report states both sites could not consistently locate drawings for nuclear weapons and components in official repositories, according to the Journal (http://bit.ly/1lJ0E1C).
In the March 26 report, officials said they were concerned about incorrect parts being used for nuclear weapons.
Without safeguard and proper information, the National Nuclear Security Administration “loses confidence in its nuclear weapons stockpile,” officials said…….. http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/audit-cites-deficiencies-mexico-labs-23215616
Film exposes the cover-ups about uranium mining
YELLOW CAKE The Dirt Behind Uranium A film by Joachim Tschirner (2005 – 2010, 108 Min.)
Uranium mining, the first chain link of the nuclear energy production has always been out of the public eye. A web of propaganda, disinformation and outright lies covers its 65-year history.
The award-winning documentary “YELLOW CAKE The Dirt Behind Uranium” takes the viewers to the biggest active mines in Namibia, Australia and Canada while at the same time in Germany the film accompanies the most gigantic clean-up operation in the history of uranium mining……..http://www.yellowcake-derfilm.de/index.php?id=209
China is No.1 in renewable energy investment
U.S. Lags Behind China in Renewables Investments, Clean Technica, 6 April 14 By Bobby Magill Follow @bobbymagill Don’t let all those Texas wind farms and massive installations of solar panels in California fool you. The U.S. is not the world leader in clean energy investment.
China is.
China Is #1 In Renewable Energy Investment, US #2, Japan #3 (CHART) With record-breaking solar installations in the US, and solar actually coming in as the #2 source of new electricity capacity in 2013, you might think the US was the #1 market in the world for renewable energy investment. Of course, if you follow how much renewable energy China is installing… or if you just read the headline above, you know otherwise. Here are more details from Climate Central:
For the second year, an annual Pew Charitable Trusts report, “Who’s Winning the Clean Energy Race?”, shows that China is the world leader in clean energy investment, with $54 billion in investments in renewables in 2013, well above total U.S. investment of $36.7 billion. No other clean energy market in the world is operating at that scale,” Phyllis Cuttino, director of Pew’s clean energy program, said during a teleconference Thursday, referring to China.
The report was released just days after the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change released the second part to its fifth assessment report, which states unequivocally that people will have to adapt to a world in which human fossil fuel emissions have caused the climate to change, threating lives across the globe as temperatures and seas rise and extreme weather becomes more frequent. Developing renewable energy is seen as one of the primary ways to reduce humans’ impact on the climate.
The Pew report says China’s efforts to slash poverty, expand economic development and solve its air pollution problems have driven the country to invest heavily in clean energy…………
Zwindler said the solar and wind power industries worldwide are in a transition period as subsidies for renewables are scaled back, especially in Germany and Italy, but he is confident renewables will be able to compete in the future with few subsidies.
“It does not take place in all places at the same time,” he said. “If you’re in a sunny part of the world with high electricity prices, putting solar on your roof clearly can make more sense.” http://cleantechnica.com/2014/04/05/china-1-renewable-energy-investment-us-2-japan-3-chart/
Never mind Fukushima, Obama’s USA determined to sell nuclear reactors
Obama Administration Committed to U.S. Nuclear Energy Exports
OilPrice, Sun, 06 April 2014 Despite the March 2011 destruction by a tsunami of Tokyo Electric Power Co.’s six reactor Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power and its ongoing pollution problems, the nuclear energy in the U.S. has weathered the storm, so to speak.
The U.S. Department of Commerce estimates the international marketplace for civil nuclear technology at $500 to $740 billion over the next ten years……
Where nuclear power works well, in early days in technocratic States
Why nuclear power worked once in France and might work again in China http://johnquiggin.com/2014/04/04/why-nuclear-power-worked-once-in-france-and-might-work-again-in-china/ April 4th, 2014 John Quiggin That’s the question I looked at a while back in this piece in the National Interest, which I was too busy to post about at the time. TNI’s headline, which I didn’t pick, is the more definitive ‘China Can Make Nuclear Power Work‘. The key point is that, when France embarked on a crash program to implement nuclear energy in the early 1970s, all the right ingredients were in place: a centralised state in which a skilled technocratic elite could push projects through without much regard to public opinion, the ability to fix on a single standardised design, low real interest rates and preferential access to capital, and the ability to fix pricing structures that eliminated much of the risk in the enterprise.
Over time, these factors were eroded, with the result that as the program progressed, the cost per megawatt of French nuclear plants tripled in real terms. As the Flamanville fiasco has shown, whatever the secret of French success 40 years ago, it has been well and truly lost now. And the picture is equally bleak for nuclear power in other developed countries. New nuclear power is far more expensive than renewables, even after making every possible allowance for the costs of intermittency, the various subsidies available, and so on. That’s why, despite the vast range of different policy settings and market structures in developed countries, the construction of new nuclear plants has been abandoned almost everywhere.
But China today looks, in many respects, like France in the 1970s, a technocratic state-capitalist society with the capacity to decide on, and implement, large scale projects with little regard to anyone who might object. If nuclear power can be made to work anywhere, it’s probably in China.
Obviously, pro-nuclear commenters like Hermit and Will Boisvert are welcome to have their say on this one.
Clean renewable energy a remedy for global warming and pollution
Opinion: Moving to clean, renewable energy would mitigate both climate change, pollution New Jersey Journal, By Tony Giordano, 6 April 14In the recent report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), climate scientists state that growing evidence has caused them to raise the certainty of man-made climate change to 95 percent. Though some people cling stubbornly to any sliver of uncertainty about climate change, 95 percent certainty is quite high for a cautious, conservative institution like science……….
These warnings aren’t alarmist academic musings. The warnings are based on reams of data gathered over many years and analyzed by many of the world’s leading scientists, who describe the evidence for these warnings as “overwhelming” and they say the science is #8220;unequivocal.” Accordingly, they call for immediate remedial action by governments around the world.
Some remedial actions would address several of these threats at once. For example, moving to clean, renewable energy would mitigate both climate change and pollution. For this reason, many scientists have endorsed proposals for a carbon fee to reduce greenhouse gas emissions that pollute the air and water and cause climate change. This is one thing our government can and should do — now. Governments in a number of other countries are ahead of us on this.
Rather than despair over these foreboding threats, people can take a number of positive steps. History tells us that our government acts when masses of people demand action. In addition to reducing our personal footprint, the best thing we can do is demand immediate action from our elected representatives to address these dangers to all life on Earth.
Tony Giordano is an adjunct instructor at Brookdale Community College, a research consultant in social science and a volunteer member of Citizens’ Climate Lobby. http://www.nj.com/opinion/index.ssf/2014/04/opinion_humanity_depends_on_health_of_natural_world.html
Russian nuclear power plant is a worry to Finland
Finns have concerns over Russian nuclear power plant Helsinki Times, 6 April 14, The current Crimean crisis in Ukraine has resulted in Finns having second thoughts about the construction of a nuclear power plant with Russian technology.
Almost half of Finns are opposed to granting a nuclear power plant permit to Fennovoima, which is planning to order the reactor unit from the Russian energy giant Rosatom.
Growing concerns felt by Finns on the issue came out in a TNS Gallup survey commissioned by Helsingin Sanomat.
Only a third of the respondents said that Fennovoima’s application for permission to build a new nuclear power plant in Pyhäjoki should be accepted.
The respondents were told that Fennovoima has submitted a supplementary application as in the original application Rosatom was not given as the supplier of the reactor.
The survey revealed that Rosatom’s involvement is the factor that sparks negative reactions to the project among Finns……….http://www.helsinkitimes.fi/finland/finland-news/domestic/10080-finns-have-concerns-over-russian-nuclear-power-plant.html
Arclight’s message to Beyond Nuclear is blocked real time on Face Book
Arclight2011part2
6 April 2014
posted to nuclear-news.net
Whilst sending this link to Beyond Nuclear in the USA I was blocked..
The messaging service stopped after the link was sent. then as i started to post my thoughts, the message jammed and i could not see what i was writing. when I tried to post it up the message wouldnt send and my messaging list completely disappeared. I will include a screen shot of the message i was trying to send..
It did mention GCHQ and that is a term that is not allowed to be used by UK residents, Other terms are
Assange
Snowden
Nuclear test veterans
Busby
TEMPPORA
PRISM
TOR Browser
Freedom of speech
Human rights
Love
So I initially thought that it was an FB glitch. Then my daughter sent me a message but i could not answer it as my FB had been corrupted. Here is the screen shot for that.
As you can see by the bar on the right, the page is at the bottom but the boxes for response and the messaging section is missing.
And I cannot reply to my daughter either.
Why does GCHQ want to stop the message to beyond nuclear? It is 05,00 GMT and I am being watched real time? A great use of tax payers money and as the GCHQ operator is NOT keeping an eye on real terrorists and criminals we get things like this happening;
Murder of Lee Rigby
One of the assailants, filmed by a bystander said:
“The only reason we have killed this man today is because Muslims are dying daily by British soldiers. And this British soldier is one … By Allah, we swear by the almighty Allah we will never stop fighting you until you leave us alone. So what if we want to live by the Sharia in Muslim lands? Why does that mean you must follow us and chase us and call us extremists and kill us? … when you drop a bomb do you think it hits one person? Or rather your bomb wipes out a whole family? … Through [many passages in the] Koran we must fight them as they fight us … I apologise that women had to witness this today but in our lands women have to see the same. You people will never be safe. Remove your governments, they don’t care about you. You think David Cameron is gonna get caught in the street when we start busting our guns? Do you think politicians are going to die? No, it’s going to be the average guy, like you and your children. So get rid of them. Tell them to bring our troops back … leave our lands and you will live in peace.”
—Michael Adebolajo, excerpted from a Daily Telegraph transcript[34]
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