USA and Iran discuss new nuclear proposals
Iran open to new US proposals on Tehran’s uranium programme Guardian, 24 Sept 14 Plan that would disconnect enriching machines from feeds of uranium being discussed at talks between Iran and six major powers.
With Iran refusing US demands that it gut its uranium enrichment programme, the two sides are discussing a new proposal that would leave much of Tehran’s enriching machines in place but disconnected from feeds of uranium, diplomats told the Associated Press Saturday.
The talks have been stalled for months over Iran’s opposition to sharply reducing the size and output of centrifuges that can enrich uranium to levels needed for reactor fuel or weapons-grade material used in the core of nuclear warheads. Iran says its enrichment programme is only for peaceful purposes, but Washington fears it could be used to make a bomb.
Time is running out before a 24 November deadline and both sides are eager to break the impasse.
Ahead of the resumption of talks, on Friday, the New York Times reported that Washington was considering putting a new plan on the table that would focus on removing the piping connecting the centrifuges that enrich uranium, instead of demanding that Iran cut the number of centrifuge machines from 19,000 to no more than 1,500.
Two diplomats told the AP Tehran was initially non-committal at a bilateral meeting in August. But they say the proposal has now moved to being discussed at the talks Tehran is holding with the US and five other powers, and that the Islamic Republic is cautiously receptive.
Both diplomats demanded anonymity because their information is confidential…….http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/sep/20/iran-open-to-new-us-proposals-on-tehrans-uranium-programme
India-Australia nuclear trade will destabilise the Asia Pacific region
Australia and uranium: the pusher of the Pacifichttps://overland.org.au/2014/09/australian-and-uranium-the-pusher-of-the-pacific/ ByAdam Broinowski 19.Sep.14 “……… The new demand from India will include uranium mined from Ben Lomond near Mt Isa which is likely to be shipped from Townsville Port, and coal mined from the gargantuan Galilee Basin and shipped from Abbott Point, passing through the dredged Great Barrier Reef, or freighted by road to Darwin or Adelaide ports (which hold uranium licenses). The Australia-India uranium agreement supports this concerted and accelerated push.
In cementing a nuclear deal with India, the Abbott government has committed to selling uranium to a nation-state that barely conceals its intentions to expand its nuclear weapons arsenal and that rejects the NPT and Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT)………..
First, the Australia-India uranium trade agreement is unsafe. If Japan’s nuclear industry and government have proven unable to properly contain the potential for serious nuclear accidents at its domestic nuclear power plants, then India’s nuclear industry, which is much less reliable and possibly even more corrupt, poses even higher risks of mismanagement.
Internally, India is also unstable, as the government fights an embedded insurgency. It maintains a violently repressive approach to imposing nuclear installations and uranium operations (such as Gorakhpur, Koodankulam, Jaitapur, Jagudoga) upon vulnerable communities, and against the wishes of civil protesters, five of whom have been killed since 2010. While guaranteed only intermittent electricity supply, such communities are experiencing higher rates of disease, congenital malformations and early deaths. In Jagudoga, Jharkhand (19,500 people), those living near the central uranium mine operated by Uranium Corp. of India Ltd. (UCIL), have suffered disproportionately high health problems……….
Second, while Tony Abbott reiterated that ‘suitable safeguards’ were in place to ensure that Australian uranium would be used for ‘peaceful purposes’ and for ‘civilian use only’, such ambiguous terms create false impressions. Nuclear technologies are inherently dual-use (both for civil energy production and military use), and it is disingenuous to claim that a water-tight separation can be ensured. In fact, ten of India’s twenty nuclear facilities do not fall under International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) supervisional authority, and India only selectively recognises IAEA safeguards for specific foreign supplied reactors and facilities. With no mechanism to inspect this nuclear technology to ensure that the fuel is not diverted into nuclear weapons production, safety cannot be guaranteed.
Even if the diverted fuel was discovered, neither Australia nor the IAEA could force compliance. An influx of imported foreign uranium will simply make it easier for India to reserve some of its indigenous uranium for enrichment and/or reprocessing weapons-grade plutonium, or for some of Australia’s uranium to be ‘misallocated’ toward military facilities.
In effect, Tony Abbott’s policy to treat India as the exception undermines the IAEA standards within the disarmament regime, and breaches Australia’s obligations to the Rarotonga Treaty for the South Pacific Nuclear Free Zone.
Third, and perhaps most significant, the deal will upset the ‘balance’ between India-Pakistan and in the South Asian region so as to aggravate rivalries and intensify tensions between the two nations, as well as others such as China and Bangladesh………
While leaders such as Abe, Abbott and Modi downplay the reality confronting people affected by radiation exposures from the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, we should remember that this contamination came, in part, from Australian uranium.
The refusal of executive leaders to acknowledge the dangers of the uranium trade reflects the centrality of nuclear power to the US-led security regime that seeks to dominate non-compliant nations such as China or Russia………
Dr Adam Broinowski is an ARC postdoctoral research fellow at the College of Asia and the Pacific, the Australian National University.
$1 trillion USA to spend on nuclear weapons, despite Obama’s promises of disarmament
Anti-nuclear’ Obama plans to spend $1 trillion on nukes RT.com 23 Sep Despite campaigning on a platform that endorsed having “a nuclear-free world” in the not so distant future, United States President Barack Obama is overseeing an administration that’s aim has taken another path, the New York Times reported this week.
On Sunday, journalists William Broad and David Sanger wrote for the Times that a half-decade of “political deals and geopolitical crises” have thrown a wrench in the works of Pres. Obama’s pre-White House plans, as a result eviscerating his previously stated intentions of putting America’s — and ideally the world’s — nuclear programs on ice.
According to the Times report, an effort to ensure that the antiquated nuclear arsenal being held by the US remains secure has since expanded to the point that upwards of $1 trillion dollars is now expected to be spent on various realms of the project during the next three decades, the likes of which are likely to keep the trove of American nukes intact and do little to discourage other nations from doing differently.
“The original idea was that modest rebuilding of the nation’s crumbling nuclear complex would speed arms refurbishment, raising confidence in the arsenal’s reliability and paving the way for new treaties that would significantly cut the number of warheads,” the journalists wrote. “Instead, because of political deals and geopolitical crises, the Obama administration is engaging in extensive atomic rebuilding while getting only modest arms reductions in return.”……
Times report cites a recent study from the Washington, DC-based Government Accountability Office to show that the US is making more than just a minor investment with regards to America’s nukes. According to that report, 21 major upgrades to nuclear facilities have already been approved, yet in the five years since Obama took office, “the modernization push” to upgrade the nukes has been “poorly managed and financially unaccountable.”
“It estimated the total cost of the nuclear enterprise over the next three decades at roughly $900 billion to $1.1 trillion,” the journalists noted. “Policy makers, the [GAO] report said, ‘are only now beginning to appreciate the full scope of these procurement costs.’” http://rt.com/usa/189660-obama-trillion-nuclear-times/
USA and Russia co-operate in removing Polish high-enriched uranium
US says cooperates with Russia in removing Polish high-enriched uranium, Thomson Reuters Foundation Source: Reuters – By Fredrik Dahl VIENNA, Sept 22 (Reuters) – The United States said on Monday it had worked with Russia to help remove 50 kg of highly-enriched uranium from Poland as part of a global campaign to reduce the use of nuclear fuel that could also serve as material for bombs.
Washington and Moscow continue to cooperate on a case-by-case basis in areas of mutual nuclear security concern despite a current “substantial strain” in their relations, U.S. Secretary of Energy Ernest Moniz said………
The U.S.-based Arms Control Association, a research and advocacy group, last year said that HEU spent fuel from converted research reactors in Poland would be returned to Russia by the end of 2016.
In mid-2013, the United States and Russia used another IAEA meeting in Vienna to announce that they had helped ship out nearly 16 kg of HEU from Vietnam.
There are about 1,440 tonnes of HEU and 500 tonnes of plutonium stockpiled and in nuclear arms globally, the Nuclear Security Governance Experts Group (NSGEG), which lobbies for action to ensure that such material does not fall into the wrong hands, said last year.
Most of these stockpiles are under military guard but some for civilian uses is less stringently secured.
Analysts say that radical groups could theoretically build a crude but deadly nuclear weapon if they had the money, technical knowledge and materials needed but that merely obtaining sufficient material for an attack poses a formidable challenge.
A fairly simple-to-design bomb would require about 50-60 kg of HEU, the NSGEG said. More sophisticated devices would requires less material.
A message from U.S. President Barack Obama read by Moniz to the IAEA meeting in Vienna said the United States continued to work successfully with Russia to implement the new START treaty, “decreasing our deployed strategic warheads to the lowest levels in nearly 60 years”.
The pact that was agreed in 2010 caps deployed strategic nuclear warheads, those meant to travel long including intercontinental distances, in Russia and the United States at 1,550 each by 2018, down from the previous ceiling of 2,200. http://www.trust.org/item/20140922165343-gvnzt
Confusing hype about South Africa’s planned nuclear deal with Russia
More questions than answers on SA’s nuclear deal, Business Day, BY EVAN PICKWORTH, 23 SEPTEMBER 2014 ANALYSTS WERE ON TUESDAY LEFT WITH MORE QUESTIONS THAN ANSWERS ABOUT SA’S MUCH-HYPED NUCLEAR PARTNERSHIP AGREEMENT WITH RUSSIA, NOTABLY HOW MUCH IT WILL COST.
Russia has always been seen as the front-runner to win the tender and an announcement on Monday evening from Russia confirmed Rosatom State Atomic Energy Corporation had won the bid. But little detail about how it will be funded was forthcoming……..
Teneo Africa risk analyst Anne Fruhauf said. – “I am concerned that the deal seems to be going ahead without real discussion of the arguments made in the National Development Plan, which advocated for alternative energy sources such as natural gas before committing SA to a potentially very expensive nuclear build on the scale of 9,600MW.”
Ms Fruhauf said the “million dollar question” would be the financing details and equity ownership. The statement from Rosatom was unclear on financing details, and the Department of Energy had not returned calls asking for more clarity.
“How much of a financial liability will the nuclear deal become for SA? There are no details yet but it could be SA’s biggest public procurement programme to date. If finalised, the deal (is) likely (to) imply significant financial risks and implications for the electricity price path. The deal will almost certainly be scrutinised for irregularities and potential flouting of procurement processes,” said Ms Fruhauf……..
The agreement with Rosatom refers to up to eight units using Russian VVER reactors. A VVER reactor is Russia’s version of a pressurised water reactor. These will be the first nuclear power plants based on the Russian technology to be built on the African continent.
Estimates for the capital cost of 9.6GW of nuclear energy range from R400bn to R1-trillion‚ raising concern taxpayers will have to foot the bill‚ as government cannot afford it……… http://www.bdlive.co.za/business/2014/09/23/more-questions-than-answers-on-sas-nuclear-deal
Waste of time and money pursuing the false climate solution of nuclear power
Nuclear solutions to climate change are anything but, Aljazeera Americaby Gregg Levine @GreggJLevine 23 Sept 14 “……….Yes, nuclear plants generate waste. Highly radioactive waste. Mountains of it. The U.S. already has over 70,000 tons of spent nuclear fuel with no viable plan for permanent storage. Nevada’s Yucca Mountain was once supposed to take that payload, but after 20 years of trying to make it work, it was deemed unviable for a host of reasons. There is no permanent plan B.
The 1,500 new reactors would generate a Yucca Mountain-sized amount of waste every three to four years.
There is actually more, like the dangers of proliferation and the toxic pollution caused by related industries, and the increased chance or major accidents that come with such a vast increase in the number of reactors, but the bottom line is that nuclear power is neither greenhouse neutral nor quickly scalable; it is an edgy proposition in a warming environment, produces prodigious amounts of waste and, from start to finish, is actually now more expensive than a host of other options.
And therein lies the real rub. The time and money spent on nuclear could be much better spent on conservation programs, boosts in energy efficiency and the construction and development of truly renewable, genuinely low-carbon alternatives.
Those options would provide more jobs for less money and realize real energy production and greenhouse gas reductions far better and far faster than any kind of nuclear pipe dream.
And that presents a smarter, more sustainable and more attainable way toward the Paris 2015 goals and toward a better climate future. http://america.aljazeera.com/blogs/scrutineer/2014/9/23/nuclear-solutionstoclimatechangeareanythingbut.html
Poor outlook again for uranium market, with renewed glut
Uranium Rally Threatened by Surplus as Mine Strike Eases Bloomberg, By Ben Sharples September 23, 2014 The rally in uranium spurred by speculation of further sanctions against Russia is poised to unravel as a supply surplus builds with the end of a labor strike at the world’s biggest mine in Canada……
Market Glut
Cantor estimates a uranium market surplus of 13.2 million pounds in 2014 while Raymond James Ltd., a financial adviser, on Aug. 27 forecast an overhang of about 10 million…….
Paladin Energy Ltd. said it would close its Kayelekera operation in Malawi until uranium climbs above $70 a pound, while Russia’s Atomredmetzoloto shut the Honeymoon mine in Australia last year…….http://www.businessweek.com/news/2014-09-23/uranium-rally-threatened-by-surplus-as-mine-strike-eases
Global rallies for action on Climate Change
People’s Climate March: Hundreds of thousands march in rallies calling for action on climate change An international day of action on climate change brought hundreds of thousands of people onto the streets of New York City on Sunday, easily exceeding organisers’ hopes for the largest protest on the issue in history.http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-09-22/thousands-march-in-new-york-climate-change-protest/5759184
Organisers estimated that some 310,000 people, including United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, former US Vice President Al Gore, actor Leonardo DiCaprio and elected officials from the United States and abroad joined the People’s Climate March, ahead of Tuesday’s United Nations hosted summit in the city to discuss reducing carbon emissions that threaten the environment.
People joined more than 2,000 marches around the world demanding urgent action on climate change.
The march in New York came ahead of Tuesday’s United Nations-hosted summit in the city to discuss reducing carbon emissions that threaten the environment.
Organisers said some 550 busloads of people had arrived for the rally, which followed similar events in 166 countries including Australia, Britain, France, Afghanistan, Mexico and Bulgaria.
More than 10,000 people took to the streets in Melbourne, with many more in Australia’s other capital cities. A crowd including US senators Bernard Sanders of Vermont and Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island marched along the city’s Central Park, through midtown Manhattan to Times Square, where they stopped for a moment of silence.
Mr Moon, wearing a blue t-shirt that read “I’m for climate action” marched arm-in-arm with primatologist Jane Goodall and French ecology minister Segolene Royal.
“This is the planet where our subsequent generations will live,” Mr Moon told reporters.
“There is no Plan B, because we do not have Planet B.”
Mr DiCaprio marched towards the front of the group, with members of an Ecuadorean tribe who have fought a years-long legal battle with Chevron Corp over Amazon pollution.
“This is the most important issue of our time,” Mr DiCaprio said.
“I’m incredibly proud to be here.”
Organisers billed the event as the largest gathering focused on climate change since 2009, when tens of thousands gathered in Copenhagen in a sometime raucous demonstration that resulted in the detention of 2,000 protesters.
The march comes days after the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration reported that August 2014 was the warmest on record, 0.75 degrees Celsius above the 20th century global average of 15.6 degrees.
New York City mayor Bill de Blasio on Sunday unveiled a new plan for the city to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions by 80 per cent from 2005 levels by 2050.
All 3,000 major city-owned buildings would be retrofitted with energy-saving heating, cooling and light systems by then, he said, though meeting the commitment will also require significant investments by private landlords.
PETITION: More Nuclear Power is NOT the Answer to the Climate Crisis
More Nuclear Power is NOT the Answer to the Climate Crisis Petition published by Tom Hayden on Sep 04, 2014
2691 Signatures  |
Fukushima alone demonstrates the risks of nuclear meltdowns even in a society based on science and advanced technology. The one hundreds plants in our country are terrorist targets.
There are no solutions in sight to nuclear waste disposal. The timelines for bringing new nuclear plants online exceed the UN’s call for rapid decarbonization. The estimated costs are staggering.
Petition:
Radioactive pollution from Fukushima is becoming a wider problem
Japan Times: Fukushima plant plagued by problems as radioactive material bleeds into Pacific — Radiation level in groundwater now 25,000 times higher than when year began http://enenews.com/japan-times-fukushima-plant-plagued-problems-radioactive-material-bleeds-pacific-record-radiation-level-groundwater-25000-times-higher-when-year-began?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+ENENews+%28Energy+News%29
Japan Times, Sept 19, 2014: Tainted water problems still plague Fukushima, despite some positive signs — More than three years since [3/11] the Fukushima No. 1 power plant is still bleeding tons of toxic radioactive water into the Pacific Ocean… [It’s] developed into a wider problem that is stoking public concern… [Tepco] is still trying to find a way to deal with the plant’s utility trenches, which are filled with highly contaminated water. The trenches, which run beneath the plant, were built to house cables and pipes… installed to bring in seawater for cooling purposes… Leaving the tainted water in the trenches is risky. For instance, if another major quake hits and damages the trenches, the toxic water will escape and contaminate the groundwater. Tepco said the trenches… can’t be drained until the leaks from the buildings are plugged…
Asahi Shimbun, Sept 19, 2014: Local fishermen are crying foul over [TEPCO’s] latest plan to discharge processed contaminated water… into the ocean. TEPCO and the central government held the first explanatory briefing… Their explanation was apparently unconvincing. “I can’t believe anything TEPCO says,” one of the attendees said after the meeting… many members of local fisheries associations opposed the plan on the opening day of the briefing sessions… [Others] expressed concern over the plan’s safety. “If a critical problem should occur, (local fisheries) would be severely damaged,” [fisherman Yoshinori Sato] said. “They wouldn’t be able to recover.” Another member criticized the utility for burdening local fishermen with such proposals, asking, “How many times will we have to make a similar painful decision?”
While Japan’s media outlets are focused on the meetings between government/Tepco and the fishermen over the whether to allow ‘processed’ contaminated water releases, new Tepco data published September 18 reveals strontium-90 concentrations are at record levels in groundwater just 100 feet from the ocean. Gross beta has risen to 720 million becquerels per cubic meter (Bq/m³) — and according to Tepco’s most recent strontium-90 tests released September 10 (4 months after the samples were taken), strontium-90 comprises over 95% of the total gross beta at this location — resulting in a Sr-90 concentration of 695 million Bq/m³. At the start of 2014, 28,000 Bq/m³ of gross beta was detected in groundwater from the same well — now 8 months later, the levels are over 25,000 times greater.
The delusion that nuclear power is economically viable
Rio Tinto’s great big nuclear delusion Business Spectator MATTHEW WRIGHT 22 Sept 14, Rio Tinto’s energy chief, quoted in The Australian Financial Review article this month believes “there will be a return to nuclear” and that China will lead it, stating that a joint venture has “quietly developed” between China’s state nuclear technology company and the Toshiba Westinghouse Corporation”.
The problem is that that consortium hasn’t produced a third-generation nuclear reactor. In fact, nobody has and all the so-called Gen III-plus reactors under construction globally are behind schedule and over budget – including those in China.
Kenyon-Slaney is living in hope as Rio is invested so heavily in uranium – a mineral which peaked in 2005, well before Germany decided to exit nuclear and Japan idled their entire reactor fleet.
It would be comical if it wasn’t so serious, but Kenyon-Slaney’s nuclear industry just can’t put a foot right. Delays are mounting up in the west, and OECD countries and huge resources are being spent keeping old ageing reactors online. The expenditure that could be better directed is immense.
As a well-known supporter of serious action on climate change, including decarbonisation of all sectors, I have on numerous occasions written about nuclear energy. Following those articles, supporters of nuclear energy have often asked, if I’m serious about climate change, why would I oppose nuclear (a low emissions source of electricity)? In this column I’ll answer that question. But, first I’ll give an update on a few of the latest nuclear industry disaster stories from around the globe.
Japan
The Fukushima disaster clean-up bill will now exceed $112 billion*……….
Europe
Europe’s nuclear industry is struggling. Many reactors are currently off-line for much longer periods than scheduled, Germany and Switzerland are phasing out their reactors and most countries –including Spain, Austria, Sweden and Italy – won’t be building any reactors.
Areva, the world’s biggest builder of nuclear along with French utility EDF, can’t deliver on a new reactor project. Reactors under construction at Flamanville, France and Olkiluoto in Finland are years behind schedule and billions over budget. In the last couple of weeks, Areva has admitted that the Finnish project, originally planned to be online and delivering electricity in 2008, will now be delayed until late 2018. This is another way of saying 2019, 2020 or … never.
United States
All four nuclear reactors being constructed in the US are suffering costly delays. The reactors rated at 990MWe (2100MWe gross) under construction in Georgia and South Carolina were supposed to begin power generation in 2016. These four reactors are reported to cost $28 billion………
China
The central government had ambitious plans to build a significant amount of nuclear power plants, but since Fukushima their local Gen II designs being used on every project have been scrapped for future projects, and Gen III designs. These Gen IIIs have never been built anywhere, and are the only acceptable options for future projects. And here’s the problem: just like in France, Finland, Georgia and South Carolina, China’s projects aresignificantly over budget and behind schedule, adding millions of dollars of cost for every additional day without power generation. Back in 2010, China claimed that it would build 80GW of new nuclear by 2020, but the reality is it is likely to add just 20GW, around 75 per cent short of their target……. (*All figure are in Australian dollars. ) http://www.businessspectator.com.au/article/2014/9/22/energy-markets/rio-tintos-great-big-nuclear-delusion?utm_source=exact&utm_medium=email&utm_content=919754&utm_campaign=cs_daily&modapt=
Huge cancer numbers in Hanford nuclear facility’s downwind area
“Like a Science Fiction Movie”: Bizarre deaths after radiation exposure at US nuclear site — My whole family’s dead; Mom eaten up by tumors everywhere, could see them growing; Dad had masses suddenly erupt all over; Brother died at birth — Incredible number of colleagues killed by cancer, 2-3% alive (VIDEO) http://enenews.com/like-science-fiction-movie-very-bizarre-deaths-after-radiation-exposure-nuclear-site-family-dead-mom-eaten-tumors-everywhere-could-growing-stomach-dad-masses-suddenly-erupt-entire-body-incredibl?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+ENENews+%28Energy+News%29
KING 5 News, Sept. 17, 2014: Investigators expose a continuing pattern… If you work [at Hanford] and speak up about safety concerns, watch out. Chances are you’ll be met with harassment, intimidation, and the end of your career… Hanford’s tank farms [hold] the deadliest substances on Earth… Shelly Doss: “If you just ignore [the rules]… you risk contaminating the person… contaminating the environment… These were blatant violations”… Managers [said] she was to ignore that and 5 other major violations… “They were very angry because they’d been getting away with it.”… After 23 years… Shelly Doss was… fired… In the last year, they fired… 2 high-profile Hanford managers who blew the whistle. >> Watch video here
Trisha Pritikin, Hanford downwinder, interview by TalkingStickTV (emphasis added):
- Part I at 0:15 in — My brother… is one of the many infants who died shortly after birth in what is now known to be the Hanford downwind area.
- Part 2 at 12:30 in –My father died of thyroid cancer 3 years ago. He was [a nuclear safety engineer] at Hanford who believed that there was nothing wrong there… [I have severe thyroid disease and] my mother had thyroid disease. There’s no history of thyroid disease anywhere in our family… My whole family’s dead now… My mother died this March of rapidly metastatic malignant melanoma… just took over her body. It killed her in 6 weeks. I’m not saying this to evoke pity [but] to educate people.
- Part 3 at 1:00 in — The most logical reason I’ve heard for why this information on radiation… wasn’t shared with the public is liability. The government doesn’t want to deal with people’s health problems caused by the involuntary exposures.
- Part 4 at 1:30 in — [My dad] didn’t want to admit that he had thyroid problems, because he was a nuclear engineer and [said] nothing was wrong with Hanford… It erupted almost overnight into masses [and] went all over his body… Then he suddenly had 20 masses in his lungs. I thought, ‘This is like a science fiction movie,’ because it’smoving much faster than cancer ever moves… [He received] a letter from the Dept. of Energy… saying in response to his letter asking whether he had ever been a subject of human radiation experiment, yes he had been.
- Part 4 at 6:30 in — In March this happens again… [My mom’s] whole body is gettingeaten up by malignant melanoma. There are tumors everywhere, they are just growing all over. You could see them growing in her stomach, it was surreal. These two people died deaths which are very bizarre; you don’t see this in normal life. It’s like you take a science fiction movie — look at this person getting eaten up… If I simply state the facts, [the American Nuclear Society and DOE] accuse me of being emotional and over-involved… They say thyroid cancer’s a slow-moving disease and people don’t die.
- Part 5 at 1:00 in — Last Christmas my mother was still alive… I was going to Oak Ridge for a meeting and my mom said you could visit our old friends… she listed 6 couples… she just kept saying, ‘No, they’re dead. No that’s right, they died… Well, they’re all dead, I guess you don’t have to visit any of them.’ She didn’t think it remarkable that they’re all dead… There’s this incredible number of my parents’ colleagues who are dead from cancer… They just didn’t want to put 2 + 2 together and say, ‘Everybody’s dead from cancer, isn’t that weird?’ Yes, it is weird –and now you are both dead of cancer mom and dad… just the strangest, fast-moving cancers. If you could put all my parents friends together would be just 2% to 3% of them alive still, it is so amazing.
- Part 5 at 13:00 in — No [family] history of thyroid disease yet 4 of 4 members of my family developed [it]… There are lots of families with multiple incidence.
Japan’s new Industry Minister joins pro nuclear propaganda exercise
Japan Industry Minister attempts to convince public on nuclear power, Deccan Chronicle, AFP | September 21, 2014 Tokyo: Japan’s new Industry Minister Yuko Obuchi said on Sunday that the resource-poor nation should be realistic about its energy needs as the government tries to convince a sceptical public on the necessity of nuclear power.
More than three years after the disaster at Fukushima, where a tsunami sent reactors into meltdown, the Japanese public remains unconvinced of the safety of the technology.
The difficult task of winning them round has fallen to Obuchi, appointed the country’s first female minister of economy, trade and industry by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe….
……Japan’s nuclear watchdog earlier this month gave a green light to plans to restart two reactors, more than three years after the Fukushima disaster.
However, hurdles still remain, including getting the consent of local communities in a country still scarred by the catastrophe where all 48 viable reactors are offline.
Widespread anti-nuclear sentiment has simmered in Japan ever since the earthquake and tsunami in March 2011 caused meltdowns at Fukushima, sparking the worst atomic disaster since Chernobyl.
Tens of thousands of people were evacuated from their homes, many of whom have not been allowed to return, with scientists warning some areas might have to be abandoned forever. http://www.deccanchronicle.com/140921/world-neighbours/article/japan-industry-minister-attempts-convince-public-nuclear-power
Iran seeks to negotiate about combating ISIS and nuclear power
Iran seeks give and take on militants, nuclear program BY PARISA HAFEZI AND LOUIS CHARBONNEAU UNITED NATIONS Sun Sep 21, 2014 (Reuters) – Iran is ready to work with the United States and its allies to stop Islamic State militants, but would like to see more flexibility on Iran’s uranium enrichment program, senior Iranian officials told Reuters.
The comments from the officials, who asked not to be named, highlight how difficult it may be for the Western powers to keep the nuclear negotiations separate from other regional conflicts. Iran wields influence in the Syrian civil war and on the Iraqi government, which is fighting the advance of Islamic State fighters.
Iran has sent mixed signals about its willingness to cooperate on defeating Islamic State (IS), a hardline Sunni Islamist group that has seized large swaths of territory across Syria and Iraq and is blamed for a wave of sectarian violence, beheadings and massacres of civilians.
Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said recently that he vetoed a U.S. overture to the Islamic Republic to work together on defeating IS, but U.S. officials said there was no such offer. In public, both Washington and Tehran have ruled out cooperating militarily in tackling the IS threat.
But in private, Iranian officials have voiced a willingness to work with the United States on IS, though not necessarily on the battlefield. U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said on Friday that Iran has a role to play in defeating Islamic State, indicating the U.S. position may also be shifting………http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/09/21/us-iran-nuclear-exclusive-idUSKBN0HG03T20140921
Resolution in US Senate opposing Canadian nuclear waste dump plan for Lake Huron area
Senate resolution urges Obama administration to oppose Canadian nuclear waste near Lake Huron Star Tribune, : Associated Press September 21, 2014 TRAVERSE CITY, Mich. — U.S. Sen. Carl Levin has introduced a resolution urging the Obama administration to oppose a Canadian proposal to bury radioactive waste less than a mile from Lake Huron.
A federal panel in Canada is taking testimony on the plan to store low- and intermediate-level waste from nuclear power plants in rock chambers more than 2,000 feet below the surface.
Ontario Power Generation proposes storing low- and intermediate-level waste from nuclear power plants in rock chambers at a site in Kincardine, Ontario, about 140 miles north-northeast of Detroit. ………
According to the resolution, “more than 40 million people in Canada and the United States depend on the fresh water from the Great Lakes for drinking water” and “a spill of nuclear waste into the Great Lakes could have lasting and severely adverse environmental, health and economic impacts on the Great Lakes and the people that depend on them for their livelihood.”
The resolution, co-sponsored by Sens. Debbie Stabenow, D-Mich.; Mark Kirk, R-Ill.; and Tammy Baldwin, D-Wis., urges President Barack Obama and Secretary of State John Kerry “to take appropriate action to work with the Canadian government” to prevent building of a permanent nuclear waste repository within the Great Lakes Basin.
U.S. Rep. Dan Kildee, D-Flint., sponsored a similar measure in the House earlier this month.http://www.startribune.com/politics/national/275945461.html
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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