Tough challenge: nuclear cleanup of 1976 ‘Atomic Man’ Hanford disaster site
Nuclear site home to the 1976 ‘Atomic Man’ disaster that exposed worker to ‘500 times’ the occupational standard of radiation to be demolished Daily Mail, 4 July 14
- Harold McCluskey was working at the Hanford Nuclear Reservation when a chemical reaction caused a glass glove box to explode.
- He was exposed to the highest dose of radiation from the chemical element americium ever recorded — 500 times the occupational standard
- It took more than a year for doctors to remove enough radioactive material from his body to make it safe for him to be around other people
- The DOE hopes to have the facility ready for demolition by summer 2016
By DAILY MAIL REPORTER and AP
“……….Hanford contains the nation’s greatest collection of nuclear waste, and for more than two decades has been engaged in the dangerous work of cleaning up that waste. The space now dubbed the McCluskey Room is located inside the closed Plutonium Finishing Plant and is scheduled for cleanup this summer.
‘It’s been largely closed up since the accident,’ Geoff Tyree, a spokesman for the U.S. Department of Energy in Richland, said Wednesday. ‘It was restricted for the potential for airborne radiation contamination.’
Since 2008, the Department of Energy and contractor CH2M HILL Plateau Remediation Company have been preparing the plant for demolition.
‘About two-thirds of the Plutonium Finishing Plant is deactivated — cleaned out and ready for demolition,’ said Jon Peschong, an assistant DOE manager in Richland. ‘Cleaning out the McCluskey Room will be a major step forward.’
When specially trained and equipped workers enter the room this summer, they will encounter airborne radioactivity, surface contamination, confined spaces and poor ventilation, the DOE said.
They will be wearing abrasion-resistant suits that protect them from surface contamination and chemicals. A dual-purpose air system will provide cool air for breathing and cool air throughout the suit for worker comfort, allowing them to work for longer periods of time. The suits are pressurized, to prevent workers from coming into contact with airborne contaminants.
The McCluskey Room ‘is going to be the toughest work ahead of us as we finish cleaning the plant and getting it ready for demolition by the end of September 2016,’ Tyree said. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2678623/Department-Energy-plans-demolition-nuclear-site-home-1976-Atomic-Man-disaster-exposed-worker-500-times-occupational-sta
All too close to USA Nuclear Waste project – very strong earthquake
‘Very strong’ quake hits New Mexico border — Seismic data spikes at WIPP nuke site — Emergency declared at nearest nuclear plant — “Larger magnitude event could still occur” — TV: “Sounded like a train derailed” — “Very rare… Still trying to figure out what caused it… no known fault lines in area” (VIDEOS) http://enenews.com/very-strong-quake-hits-near-new-mexico-border-seismic-data-spikes-near-wipp-site-emergency-decalred-at-nearest-nuclear-plant-larger-magnitude-event-could-still-occur-tv-sounded?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=e
USGS, June 29, 2014: M5.2 – 50km NW of Lordsburg, NM 04:59:33 UTC (Max CDI (maximum reported intensity) = VII, Very Strong)
Fox 10, June 29, 2014: “Thought we heard a train coming… it sounded like a train might have derailed… [Scared] is an understatement, we were shaking.” -Sherry Huggins, near New Mexico/AZ border
KOLD-TV Tuscon, June 29, 2014: “A very rare occurrence… even the lights were moving around [in our Tuscon studio]”
Fox 10, June 29, 2014: “A lot of people were like what’s going on?… Looks like a bomb went off.” -Steve Krafft, reporter
NRC, June 30, 2014: PALO VERDE (nuclear plant near Phoenix, AZ) […] Emergency Class: UNUSUAL EVENT […] EMERGENCY DECLARED […] “The following event description is based on information currently available. If through subsequent reviews of this event, additional information is identified that is pertinent to this event or alters the information being provided at this time, a follow-up notification will be made […] Initial walkdowns of plant equipment and review of plant parameters have found no unusual conditions or damage to plant equipment. No abnormalities caused by the seismic event were observed. […] Initial analysis of the Seismic Monitoring Instrumentation System indicated a seismic event, below the magnitude of the 0.10g spectra Operating Basis Earthquake (OBE) and the 0.20g spectra Safe Shutdown Earthquake (SSE). […] Notified DHS, FEMA […] Emergency classification termination was declared […]
KOLD-TV Tuscon, June 29, 2014: “They are still trying to figure out what caused the quake because there is no known fault line in the area… It’s very common to see aftershocks, especially after a strong earthquake like what we saw… So where is this all coming from?… It’s probably occurring along a fault that we don’t know anything about… Maybe there is a new fault… and they’re going to be able to hopefully identify that fault… it’s not coming from any of the known faults.”
KRQE, June 29, 2014: “The southern half of New Mexico got a Saturday shake-up.”
Copper Area News, June 30, 2014: It is likely that small magnitude aftershocks will continue in the Duncan area for days or weeks. Most will probably go unfelt. A larger magnitude event could still occur. In the event of severe ground shaking, residents are advised to “Drop, Cover and Hold on”.
Safety and secrecy concerns about China owning and managing Britains nuclear reactors
CHINA NIGHTMARE http://tomburke.co.uk/2014/07/03/china-nightmare/ July 3, 2014 by tomburke The prospect of the Chinese becoming owners, managers and even constructors of nuclear power stations in Britain has caused anxiety in some unexpected places. Both the right and the left, united in their determination to press ahead with more nuclear, have raised objections. Carefully wrapped in a blanket of security rhetoric, their argument boils down to an Augustinian ‘Bring me nuclear, but not by them’.
Meanwhile, a truly substantial reason why we should worry about Chinese involvement in the nuclear industry is yet to be noticed by anyone but the French Nuclear Safety Authority. They have just complained publicly about the lack of communication with their Chinese counterparts. Explaining this to the French Parliament they pointed out that ‘one of the difficulties in our relations is that the Chinese safety authorities lack means. They are overwhelmed.’
This led one of the French regulators to worry that ‘It’s not always easy to know what is happening at the Taishan site.’ (where Areva are constructing a reactor of the same type as they want to build in Britain). Another French inspector reported seeing big machinery such as steam generators and pumps not being maintained at ‘an adequate level.’
So why does this matter to us? We have very good safety regulators with an impressive track record of managing nuclear facilities well. We should worry about it because the Chinese are currently building only 28 reactors at the same time. This is the fastest rate of reactor build anywhere ever. Even so, they intend to double this build rate before the end of this decade. This is likely to make ‘overwhelmed’ seem like an understatement.
The importance of a rigorous regulatory regime has long been understood by the nuclear industry to be essential to retaining public confidence. ‘ An accident anywhere is an accident everywhere.’ has long been a mantra of industry leaders. Among the many contributors to the seriousness of the accident at Fukushima were failings in the nuclear regulatory culture.
Britain’s nuclear reactor programmes may have been a regulatory success but they have been an economic failure. A former head of the then nationalised electricity industry told Parliament that the AGR programme was ‘the worst civil engineering disaster in British history’. But this had one huge, if unlooked for advantage. No-one else had reactors like them. This meant that when the accidents at Three Mile Island, Chernobyl and Fukushima happened we were well placed to argue that it couldn’t happen here.
If we go ahead with the reactor at Hinkley this comfortable position will no longer be defensible. Hinkley will be a pressurised water reactor (PWR) just like most of the reactors in operation around the world and all those the Chinese are building. If the already stretched Chinese nuclear regulators prove unable to prevent a nuclear accident in China it will have direct repercussions here.
This compounds the gamble that the British government is taking with Hinkley. Not only are we selling 35 years of index linked tax receipts to the French government in return for electricity at twice the price we are currently paying for it but we are also placing the security of our future electricity supply into the hands of China’s ‘overwhelmed’ nuclear regulators.
If they fail to prevent an accident at a PWR in China it is very unlikely that the people of Somerset, or the rest of the country for that matter, will consent to one continuing to operate in Britain.
Britain’s $170 billion Trident nuclear missile program totally dependent on USA
UK’s nuclear deterrent fully depends on US, cross-party commission finds Rt.com July 01, 2014 Britain’s $170 billion Trident nuclear missile program has won the support of an independent cross-party commission, but found to be totally dependent on US
Britain’s $170 billion Trident nuclear missile program has won the support of an independent cross-party commission tasked with identifying the value of the UK’s deterrent, due for renewal in 2016. This comes despite the commission’s acknowledgement of Britain’s total dependence on US systems.
The commission’s findings come as a blow to anti-nuclear campaigners, who are calling for the program to be drastically scaled back or the total disarmament of the UK’s nuclear-armed submarine fleet, arguing the money spent on an extremely costly system could be better spent on social needs and jobs at a time of austerity throughout the UK.
The Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND) estimate that the £100 billion required to renew Trident could employ 150,000 nurses, build 1.5 million homes or 30,000 new primary schools in the country………
The report notes that Britain’s deterrent is “a hostage to American goodwill.”
It adds: “If the United States were to withdraw their cooperation completely, the UK nuclear capability would probably have a life expectancy measured in months rather than years”.
“The UK is dependent on the United States for many component parts of the guidance and re-entry vehicle, and for the Trident ballistic missile system itself.”………..
It is lamentable that three years of hard work has not moved on the debate around Britain’s weapons of mass destruction,” said Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND) general secretary Kate Hudson, reacting to the commission’s findings.
“The Trident Commission should have listened to the majority of the British people who oppose Trident replacement – and the overwhelming majority internationally who want to see a world free of these monstrous and outdated weapons. Instead the Commission has produced a rehash of Cold War thinking which fails to acknowledge that the world has moved on.”
“The Government’s own National Security Strategy downgraded the likelihood of a state-on-state nuclear attack: prioritizing terrorism, climate change and cyber warfare. To suggest that the UK should spend £100bn on a weapons system which we could never use and which doesn’t meet the threats we face is mindboggling.”
Scottish CND also criticized the Trident Commission for supporting Britain’s continued possession of nuclear weapons, based in Scotland, suggesting the report makes September’s independence referendum more pertinent.
John Ainslie, Coordinator of Scottish CND, said: “Malcolm Rifkind, Des Browne and Menzies Campbell are stuck in the past. The future is in the hands of the people of Scotland. We can vote Yes and kick out these indiscriminate weapons of mass destruction.” http://rt.com/uk/169688-trident-deterrent-dependent-on-us/
World’s Largest Floating Solar Power Project planned for India
India Plans World’s Largest Floating Solar Power Project (50 MW) After canal-top solar power projects, India is planning to install the world’s largest floating solar power project.Clean Technica, 4 July 14
India’s leading hydro power generator National Hydro Power Corporation (NHPC) is planning to set up a 50 MW solar photovoltaic project over the water bodies in the southern state of Kerala. Renewable Energy College will provide assistance to the company for implementing the project…….http://cleantechnica.com/2014/07/02/india-plans-worlds-largest-floating-solar-power-project-50-mw/
Impressive growth in renewable energy jobs
Jobs in Renewable Energy Expand in Turbulent Process http://www.investorideas.com/news/2014/renewable-energy/07031.asp New analysis examines global trends in employment in the renewable energy sector
Ideas get bigger when you share them… Washington, D.C. – July 3, 2014 (Investorideas.com renewable energy stocks newswire) There may now be as many as 6.5 million direct and indirect jobs in renewable energy, according to updated data from theInternational
Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA). Earlier assessments had put the global estimate at 2.3 million jobs in 2008 (United Nations Environment Programme) and at 5 million jobs in 2012 (International Labour Organization). Although these estimates suggest a strong expansion in employment in renewable energy, the figures also represent successive efforts to broaden data collection across countries and sectors, write Worldwatch Senior Researcher Michael Renner and IRENA’s Rabia Ferroukhi, Arslan Khalid, and Alvaro Lopez-Peña in the Worldwatch Institute’s latest Vital Signs Online trend (www.worldwatch.org).
The overall upward trend in renewable energy jobs has been accompanied by considerable turmoil in some industries. Nowhere are the upheavals more noticeable than in the solar photovoltaic (PV) sector, where intensified competition, massive overcapacities, and tumbling prices have caused a high degree of turbulence in the last two to three years, but they have also triggered a boom in installations. Global PV employment is thought to have expanded from 1.4 million jobs in 2012 to as many as 2.3 million in 2013.
Solar PV has bypassed biofuels (ethanol and biodiesel) as the top renewable energy job generator. Most of the 1.45 million biofuels jobs are found in the growing and harvesting of feedstock such as sugar cane, corn, or palm oil. This involves physically demanding manual work, and workers often contend with oppressive workplace conditions. Processing of the feedstock into fuels offers far fewer jobs, but the ones created are higher skilled and they pay better.
Employment in the next-largest renewables sector, wind power, is estimated to run to some 834,000 jobs. Uncertainty about the future direction of policies in several countries weakened job creation in this field in 2013, leading to a sharp drop in new installations in the United States and to weak markets in large parts of Europe and in India. In contrast, developments in China and Canada were more positive.
Countries that are home to half of the world’s population-China, members of the European Union, Brazil, the United States, and India-account for the bulk of renewable energy employment: 5.8 million direct and indirect (supply chain) jobs out of 6.5 million worldwide.
Better information is necessary for a range of countries to generate a more complete and accurate renewable energy employment picture. Attention is also needed on the question of whether development of renewable energy leads to job loss elsewhere, including in the conventional energy industries.
All in all, available information suggests that renewable energy has grown to become a significant source of jobs. Rising labor productivity notwithstanding, the job numbers are likely to grow in coming decades as the world’s energy system shifts toward low-carbon sources.
Country Highlights from the Report:
- China is the largest employer in the renewable energy sector. The latest estimates by the country’s National Renewable Energy Center suggest almost 1.6 million jobs in the solar PV industry in 2013. Other major sources of renewables employment provide close to 1 million jobs.
- European Union member states had more than 1.2 million renewable energy jobs in 2012. Even though Germany suffered some job losses in 2013, the country remains the dominant renewable energy employer in Europe, with about 371,000 jobs. Spain’s renewables sector has been hit hard by economic crisis and a series of adverse government policy changes. The country suffered a net loss of 23,700 jobs between 2008 and 2012, or 17 percent.
- In Brazil, renewable energy is largely synonymous with sugarcane-based ethanol. A factor of rising importance is the growing mechanization of sugarcane harvesting, which has brought the number of direct jobs down from 460,000 in 2006 to 331,000 in 2012, even as ethanol processing jobs increased.
- In the United States, the number of wind and ethanol jobs has fluctuated, but solar employment has been rising fast. In the wind sector, the stop-and-go nature of the U.S. Production Tax Credit has affected employment, with the 92 percent drop in new wind installations during 2013 resulting in a decline from 80,700 jobs in 2012 to 50,500 jobs in 2013. U.S. ethanol employment fell in 2012 because of rising feedstock prices, reduced yields due to drought, and lower demand, although conditions improved and employment stabilized in 2013. Solar employment was close to 143,000 jobs in 2013, a gain of 20 percent.
- In most other countries, the number of renewable energy jobs is still limited, and often there is simply no reliable information at all.
For more information and to obtain a complimentary copy of “Jobs in Renewable Energy Expand in Turbulent Process,” please contact Gaelle Gourmelon at ggourmelon@worldwatch.org.
About the Worldwatch Institute:
India’s nuclear deal with USA, Russia and France is a very bad one
India – now nuclear and environmental dissent is a crime Ecologist, Kumar Sundaram 4th July 2014 “…….Nuclear power is the new must-have India made advance promises for reactor purchases from France’s Areva, Russia’s Atomsroy export and US giants like Westinghouse and GE in exchange for these countries’ support for an exemption for India at the Nuclear Suppliers’ Group (NSG) in 2008.
India was thus permitted to engage in international nuclear commerce despite its status as a nuclear weapons state outside the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.
It is under the pressure of the commitment to the international nuclear lobby that the Indian government has been bulldozing everything that stands in their way:
- undermining and diluting safety norms,
- pushing through environmental clearances at gun-point,,
- neglecting the adverse economics of these projects,
- crushing grassroots democratic dissent, and
- trying to exempt the nuclear suppliers from liability in the event of any accident….http://www.theecologist.org/News/news_analysis/2460076/india_now_nuclear_and_environmental_dissent_is_a_crime.htm
Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) has doubts about India becoming a member
Nuclear export group divided over ties with India – diplomats Yahoo 7 news July 2, 2014, By Fredrik Dahl VIENNA (Reuters) – An influential global body that controls atomic exports is divided over establishing closer ties with India, meaning the nuclear-armed Asian power may have to wait a while longer before joining.
Diplomatic sources said different opinions were voiced in a debate on relations with India – a non-signatory to the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) – at an annual meeting of the 48-nation Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) last week in Buenos Aires.
The United States, Britain and other members have argued in favour of India joining the trade body, established in 1975 to ensure that civilian nuclear trade is not diverted for military aims……the country would be the only member of the suppliers’ group that has not signed up to the NPT, a 189-nation treaty set up four decades ago to prevent states from acquiring nuclear weapons.
This has caused some NSG states to raise doubts about India joining their club, which plays a pivotal role in countering nuclear threats and proliferation. Some also argue that it could erode the credibility of the NPT, a cornerstone of global nuclear disarmament efforts……..https://au.news.yahoo.com/world/a/24372928/nuclear-export-group-divided-over-ties-with-india-diplomats/
Iran reduces its planned nuclear enrichment program
Iran eases demands for nuclear capacity at Vienna talks: Western diplomats BY LOUIS CHARBONNEAU AND PARISA HAFEZI VIENNA Thu Jul 3, 2014 (Reuters) – Iran has reduced demands for the size of its future nuclear enrichment program in talks with world powers although Western governments are urging Tehran to compromise further, Western diplomats close to the negotiations said on Thursday.
The diplomats, who spoke to Reuters at the start of a two-week round of negotiations between Iran and the United States, Britain, France, Germany, Russia and China, said that despite some movement from Tehran it would not be easy to clinch a deal by their self-imposed deadline for a deal of July 20.
Tehran’s shift relates to the main sticking point in the talks – the number of uranium enrichment centrifuges Iran will maintain if a deal is reached to curb its nuclear program in exchange for a gradual end of sanctions. Ending the decade-long dispute over Iran’s nuclear ambitions is seen as instrumental to defusing tension and averting a new Middle East war.
“Iran has reduced the number of centrifuges it wants but the number is still unacceptably high,” a Western diplomat told Reuters on condition of anonymity and without further detail……….
Other disputes include the duration of any nuclear deal, the timetable for ending the sanctions, and the fate of a research reactor that could yield significant quantities of plutonium, an alternative fuel for nuclear weapons.
The current round of talks in the Austrian capital will run until at least July 15. (Additional reporting by Fredrik Dahl in Vienna and Mehrdad Balali in Dubai; Editing byMark Heinrich) http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/07/03/us-iran-nuclear-exclusive-idUSKBN0F810H20140703
Israel Defense Force claims their Twitter account was hacked
‘Nuclear leak’ tweet by Israel Defense Force: Claims Twitter account hacked Belfast Telegraph, BY JOHN MULGREW – 03 JULY 2014 The Israel Defense Force has said a tweet warning of a ‘nuclear leak’ following a rocket attack was false – claiming their Twitter account had been hacked.The official IDF Twitter account posted the following message on Thursday night: ‘#WARNING Possible nuclear leak in the region after 2 rockets hit Dimona nuclear facility’
As expected, the post went viral on Twitter.
But it was soon deleted from the account.
The IDF then posted a tweet, claiming there had been a security breach and apologised…….http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/world-news/nuclear-leak-tweet-by-israel-defense-force-claims-twitter-account-hacked-30405776.html
2014 Europe Renewable Energy Policy Handbook now out
Europe Renewable Energy Policy Handbook 2014 http://www.whatech.com/members-news/reports-industrial/23293-europe-renewable-energy-policy-handbook-2014 WhatTech Channel: Reports Industrial, 04 July by Salil Modak The report presents an in-depth analysis of the renewable energy policies across the major countries in Europe namely the Germany, France, Italy, the UK, Spain, Austria, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Sweden and Turkey. Europe Renewable Energy Policy Handbook 2014 is a new market research publication announced by Reportstack. It is the latest policy report, the industry analysis specialists that offer comprehensive information on major policies governing renewable energy market in the region.
The report presents an in-depth analysis of the renewable energy policies across the major countries in Europe namely the Germany, France, Italy, the UK, Spain, Austria, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Sweden and Turkey. The report provides the current and future renewable energy targets and plans along with the present policy framework, giving a fair idea of overall growth potential of their renewable energy industry.
The report also provides major technology specific policies and incentives provided in each of these countries. The report also provides insights to major policy initiatives for the market development of renewable energy sources such as wind, solar, geothermal, biopower and biofuels.
The report is built using data and information sourced from industry associations, government websites and statutory bodies. The information is also sourced through other secondary research sources such as industry and trade magazines.
Scottish Bid Imperils UK Nuclear Force
The Scottish government says it seeks “the speediest safe removal” of the weapons “within the first term” of an independent Scottish parliament, which will serve until 2020.
“The most likely option would be submarine basing at Devonport [in southwest England] and a new warhead/missile storage facility in [nearby] Falmouth,” said Chalmers, an opponent of independence. “But the latter, in particular, would take some considerable time—no one knows how long—to build.”
The resulting financial burden could imperil the UK’s status as a nuclear power, said Frances Burwell, director of transatlantic relations at the Atlantic Council in Washington.
https://www.armscontrol.org/act/2014_0708/News/Scottish-Bid-Imperils-UK-Nuclear-Force
The future of the United Kingdom’s nuclear arsenal is in the hands of 4.1 million Scottish voters who go to the polls Sept. 18 to decide whether to end the country’s 307-year union with England and become an independent country.
If the ballot proposal is approved, the ruling pro-independence Scottish National Party (SNP) has pledged to evict the UK fleet of four nuclear-armed submarines from the naval base at Faslane on Scotland’s west coast by 2020. Having no comparable submarine base, the UK government would then face expensive choices about how to maintain its exclusively sea-based nuclear force.
“It would be an enormous exercise to reproduce the facilities elsewhere,” the UK Ministry of Defence said in an October 2013 analysis of Scottish independence. “It would cost billions of pounds and take many years.”
Although issues of jobs and social welfare programs have dominated the referendum debate, the nuclear defense issue has energized anti-nuclear activists and alarmed UK leaders. Prime Minister David Cameron has taken a strong public stance against Scottish independence, as have his predecessors Gordon Brown, Tony Blair, and John Major.
Policy advisors call for Ghana nuclear energy programme to secure economic future really bloody quickly!
Researchers and Energy policy advisors are strongly proposing a speed up of Ghana’s nuclear energy programme as the surest option to Ghana’s economic development, according to Ghana Web.
The country’s energy deficit could be decreased with the addition of nuclear energy, policy advisors expressed. Nuclear power plants could also eliminate the difficulties being faced by both industrial and domestic users and stabilize energy prices.
Increasing demand for electricity power supply is a result of population increases and industrial expansions, both of which are calls for accelerated measures to venture into nuclear power to ensure sustainable economic growth, said the news report.
The news article also cited Dr Robert B. M. Sogbadji, Head of Nuclear, Energy Efficiency and Conservation and Alternate Energy at the Ministry of Energy and Petroleum as one of the discussants at a seminar organised by Ghana Atomic Energy Commission (GAEC) under the auspices of the Ministry of Environment, Science, Technology and Innovation (MEST).
Sogbadji in his discussion aimed to dispel fears associated with nuclear energy production, saying the GAEC has a sound safety record, and nuclear security would strictly be observed as usual, as the commission has had the experience of managing its current nuclear energy reactor over the years and effectively utilizing it for medical, agricultural, industrial and other uses over the years.
India – now nuclear and environmental dissent is a crime
Kumar Sundaram
4th July 2014
We are fearful that this is a kind of witch-hunt with longer term implications to repress all kinds of popular struggles
In modern India any form of dissent from the neoliberal corporate model of development is being criminalised, writes Kumar Sundaram. Opponents of nuclear power, coal mines, GMOs, giant dams, are all under attack as enemies of the state and a threat to economic growth.
In the same week that France decided to lower its appetite for nuclear energy and increase its reliance on renewable sources, the Indian home ministry started hounding Greenpeace for its role in “stalling India’s development” by opposing nuclear power and genetically modified organisms.
A crackdown on other anti-nuclear networks like the Coalition for Nuclear Disarmament and Peace (CNDP) and the People’s Movement Against Nuclear Energy (PMANE) is being widely anticipated.
The crackdown followed a confidential report by India’s premier internal intelligence agency, the Intelligence Bureau, titled ‘Concerning efforts by select foreign funded NGOs to ‘take down’ Indian development projects‘.
Stirring up a media frenzy
The 21-page report named a number of prominent anti-nuclear activists like Praful Bidwai, Achin Vanaik, Admiral Ramdas, and Surendra Gadekar as well as a number of organisations. Activists have raised questions about how the report made its way to the media before reaching the ministries and the Prime Minister’s office.
S. P. Udayakumar, a leading activist against the Kudankulam nuclear power plant in the South Indian state of Tamil Nadu, has taken the Indian government to court, highlighting the serious threat to his life posed by the media frenzy over the report. He fears for his life, stating in a recent interview:
“I am a threat to nuclear energy. I am a threat to the global nuclear industry. The governments of India, Russia, France and America are all together now.
“We are a threat to all of them. Their business interests are hurt. They are going to dump their outdated technology on the hapless people of India. We point out their faults and so we are being targeted.
It’s all rubbish – but the danger is very real
“Unfortunately some people in this country believe these stories. That is the irony of it. This is becoming a threat to my life and to the security of my family. When they name me like this. When they call me – an Indian – a security threat for whatever reasons, it sends a wrong message to the wrong people.
“When I walk on the streets someone may say here goes a traitor and attack me. I might get killed. My school has been attacked twice. You know my people were attacked inside the Tirunelveli collector’s office in full view of the public.
“If something happens to me the Intelligence Bureau and the Government of India are responsible. By maligning me and putting my life at risk.”
Anti-nuclear activists organised a press conference in Delhi in late June calling the Intelligence Bureau report unacceptable “scare-mongering”on the part of the government to malign local agitations and to further repress them. Achin Vanaik, an academic and leading anti-nuclear voice, said:
“We are concerned that the ground is being prepared, by whom we cannot say, to oppose and discredit a whole range of popular movements by targeting NGOs that are providing support to such struggles and resistances. We are fearful that this is a kind of witch-hunt with longer term implications to repress all kinds of popular struggles.”
Criminalising dissent
Orix considering 2 coal and woody biomass power plants in Japans Fukushima and Fukuoka prefectures
Jul 3, 2014
Orix Corp. (8591), a Tokyo-based finance and leasing company, may build two power stations in Japan to expand its capacity as a power retailer.
The plants — with 110 megawatts of capacity each — may be set up in Fukuoka and Fukushima prefectures and would use coal and woody biomass as fuel, Tamaki Shibata, a company spokeswoman, said by phone today.
The company will spend 50 billion yen ($491 million) on the two plants, the Sankei newspaper reported today. Providing a cost estimate at this time is premature, Shibata said.
Orix registered as a power retailer in 2009 and has been selling electricity to users with contracts of 50 kilowatts and above, according to Shibata. The company is planning to expand to homes and small stores once Japan’s retail power market is completely liberalized as early as 2016, the Sankei reported.
Orix is considering the move, though no decision has been made, Shibata said.
Arclight2011 notes that;
The alternative technology that they large Japanese corporations have for wind farms in Fukushima prefecture hopes to create 7 megawatts capacity, compared to the coal and wood burning 110 megawatt power plants. The construction of this wind turbine is in the initial phase and an update is here;
http://www.fukushima-forward.jp/english/news_release/news140611.html
Alternatively, German installed 1143 megawatts of wind capacity in 6 months in 2013 ;
http://www.offshorewind.biz/2013/08/28/germany-installs-1143-mw-of-wind-power-in-1st-half-of-2013/
Hmm?
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