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Japan – no idea what to do with its nuclear trash now stored in France

any-fool-would-know

 

they should just stop making radioactive trash

Japan faces dilemma over 16 tonnes of plutonium stored in France http://www.timeslive.co.za/world/2015/06/18/Japan-faces-dilemma-over-16-tonnes-of-plutonium-stored-in-France Reuters | 18 June, 2015 

Still dealing with the huge clean up after the Fukushima crisis and debating its future use of atomic energy, Japan now faces another nuclear conundrum – what to do with 16 tonnes of its plutonium sitting in France after being reprocessed there. The question will be among the issues that come under the spotlight on Thursday and Friday as nuclear proliferation experts meet with legislators and government officials in Tokyo.

With its reactor fleet shut down in the wake of Fukushima, Japan is unable to take fuel made from the plutonium at the moment and could be forced to find other countries to use it.

The matter has taken on greater urgency as Areva, the French nuclear company that owns the La Hague reprocessing facility holding the plutonium in western Normandy, faces billions of dollars of losses.

“In this whole mess (at Areva) we have a huge amount of Japanese plutonium,” said Mycle Schneider, an independent energy consultant, adding Japan would need to resolve the problem sooner rather than later.

An Areva spokesman said the company had long-standing contracts with Japanese utilities to take nuclear fuel made from the plutonium. Frank von Hippel, one of the founders of the International Panel on Fissile Materials (IPFM), a group of arms-control and proliferation experts, will discuss Japan’s stock of plutonium in France when he meets with Japanese legislators, according to a draft of a presentation he will give that has been seen by Reuters.

The group argues the world’s growing inventory of plutonium from civilian use is a “clear and present danger” as it could be used in so-called dirty bombs. apanese government officials did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Reprocessing--NOSchneider, who is a contributor to a soon to be released IPFM report on plutonium separation in nuclear power programmes, said the alternative to taking back the plutonium would be to pay other countries to use it in their reactors.

He said that France would be one option, but that the cost would likely be high, especially as that country has its own stockpile to deplete. He did not give an exact cost.

“Giving its plutonium away and paying for it would expose the Japanese to the reality of plutonium as a liability rather than an asset,” said Schneider.

A precedent for that kind of deal could be set in Britain, where the government has offered to take ownership of 20 tonnes of Japanese plutonium stored at the Sellafield processing plant, according to the IPFM.

“This is a kind of win-win deal,” said Tatsujiro Suzuki, a former vice chairman of the Japan Atomic Energy Commission, who will join Von Hippel in meeting with legislators on Thursday.

“The British side would make money and the Japanese would lose less,” said Suzuki.

June 20, 2015 Posted by | France, Japan, wastes | 1 Comment

USA government anticipates rise in thyroid cancer, due to Fukushima radiation

thyroid-cancer-papillaryFlag-USAGovernment Emails Reveal Fukushima Radiation Could Cause Thyroid Cancer to Skyrocket in Americans By J. D. Heyes Global Research, June 19, 2015 Censored and heavily redacted emails [PDF] from U.S. government scientists and officials reveal that there were major concerns among American policymakers shortly after the devastating Fukushima nuclear power plant disaster in March 2011 that there would be widespread radiological contamination and spikes in thyroid cancer rates. Continue reading →

June 20, 2015 Posted by | health, secrets,lies and civil liberties, USA | Leave a comment

How the West brought about the Ukraine crisis, and what to do about it

highly-recommendedWhy the Ukraine Crisis Is the West’s Fault The Liberal Delusions That Provoked Putin MULTUM NON MULTA By John J. Mearsheimer , 19 June 15 According to the prevailing wisdom in the West, the Ukraine crisis can be blamed almost entirely on Russian aggression. Russian President Vladimir Putin, the argument goes, annexed Crimea out of a long-standing desire to resuscitate the Soviet empire, and he may eventually go after the rest of Ukraine, as well as other countries in eastern Europe. In this view, the ouster of Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych in February 2014 merely provided a pretext for Putin’s decision to order Russian forces to seize part of Ukraine.

But this account is wrong: the United States and its European allies share most of the responsibility for the crisis. The taproot of the trouble is NATO enlargement, the central element of a larger strategy to move Ukraine out of Russia’s orbit and integrate it into the West…………….
The West’s final tool for peeling Kiev away from Moscow has been its efforts to spread Western values and promote democracy in Ukraine and other post-Soviet states, a plan that often entails funding pro-Western individuals and organizations. Victoria Nuland, the U.S. assistant secretary of state for European and Eurasian affairs, estimated in December 2013 that the United States had invested more than $5 billion since 1991 to help Ukraine achieve “the future it deserves.” As part of that effort, the U.S. government has bankrolled the National Endowment for Democracy. The nonprofit foundation has funded more than 60 projects aimed at promoting civil society in Ukraine, and the NED’s president, Carl Gershman, has called that country “the biggest prize.” After Yanukovych won Ukraine’s presidential election in February 2010, the NED decided he was undermining its goals, and so it stepped up its efforts to support the opposition and strengthen the country’s democratic institutions……..
CREATING A CRISIS
Imagine the American outrage if China built an impressive military alliance and tried to include Canada and Mexico….

The West’s triple package of policies — NATO enlargement, EU expansion, and democracy promotion — added fuel to a fire waiting to ignite……….

There is a solution to the crisis in Ukraine, however — although it would require the West to think about the country in a fundamentally new way. The United States and its allies should abandon their plan to westernize Ukraine and instead aim to make it a neutral buffer between NATO and Russia, akin to Austria’s position during the Cold War. Western leaders should acknowledge that Ukraine matters so much to Putin that they cannot support an anti-Russian regime there. This would not mean that a future Ukrainian government would have to be pro-Russian or anti-NATO. On the contrary, the goal should be a sovereign Ukraine that falls in neither the Russian nor the Western camp.

To achieve this end, the United States and its allies should publicly rule out NATO’s expansion into both Georgia and Ukraine. The West should also help fashion an economic rescue plan for Ukraine funded jointly by the EU, the International Monetary Fund, Russia, and the United States — a proposal that Moscow should welcome, given its interest in having a prosperous and stable Ukraine on its western flank. And the West should considerably limit its social-engineering efforts inside Ukraine. It is time to put an end to Western support for another Orange Revolution. Nevertheless, U.S. and European leaders should encourage Ukraine to respect minority rights, especially the language rights of its Russian speakers.

Some may argue that changing policy toward Ukraine at this late date would seriously damage U.S. credibility around the world. There would undoubtedly be certain costs, but the costs of continuing a misguided strategy would be much greater. Furthermore, other countries are likely to respect a state that learns from its mistakes and ultimately devises a policy that deals effectively with the problem at hand. That option is clearly open to the United States…….

The United States and its European allies now face a choice on Ukraine. They can continue their current policy, which will exacerbate hostilities with Russia and devastate Ukraine in the process — a scenario in which everyone would come out a loser. Or they can switch gears and work to create a prosperous but neutral Ukraine, one that does not threaten Russia and allows the West to repair its relations with Moscow. With that approach, all sides would win. http://multumnonmulta.blogspot.com.au/

June 20, 2015 Posted by | history, politics international, Reference | Leave a comment

Investor-State Dispute Settlement (I.S.D.S.) provisions should be removed from the Trans Pacific Partnership

logo-anti-TPPInvestor-State Dispute Settlement (I.S.D.S.)-style provisions may once have made sense. But they’re now outdated and unnecessary. And including them in trade agreements undermines the broader case for free trade, by making it look like exactly what people fear—a system designed to put corporate interests above public ones.

Trade-Agreement Troubles, MULTUM NON MULTA BY JAMES SUROWIECKI, 19 June 15,  In 2012, Australia implemented tough anti-tobacco regulations, requiring that all cigarettes be sold in plain, logo-free brown packages dominated by health warnings. Philip Morris Asia filed suit, claiming that this violated its intellectual-property rights and would damage its investments. The company sued Australia in domestic court and lost. But it had another card to play. In 1993, Australia had signed a free-trade agreement with Hong Kong, where Philip Morris Asia is based. That agreement included provisions protecting foreign investors from unfair treatment. So the company sued under that deal, claiming that the new law violated the investor-protection provisions. It asked for the regulations to be discontinued, and for billions in compensation.

The case has yet to be decided, but the concerns it raises help explain President Obama’s embarrassing setback last week, when the House failed to give him fast-track authority over one of two big trade agreements that had been envisaged as a key part of his legacy. Both agreements—the Trans-Pacific Partnership, with eleven Asian and Pacific countries, and an agreement with Europe called the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership—include provisions very like the ones at the heart of Australia’s fight with Big Tobacco. Known as Investor-State Dispute Settlement (or I.S.D.S.) provisions, they typically allow foreign investors to sue governments when they feel they have not received “fair or equitable treatment,” and to have their cases heard not by a domestic court but by an international arbitration tribunal made up of three lawyers.

These provisions have been opposed by an unusual coalition of progressives and conservatives, who contend that they will let multinationals override government policy, and, as Senator Elizabeth Warren put it, “undermine U.S. sovereignty.”………. Continue reading →

June 20, 2015 Posted by | politics international, USA | Leave a comment

Marshall Islander Darlene Keju honoured for her fight for nuclear test victims

Book Don't Ever WhisperMarshall Islands advocate for nuclear test victims honoured in Taiwan Overseas Territories Review, 20 June 15 Pacific Scoop:Report – By Pacific Media Watch 
Nineteen years after her death from cancer, Marshall Islander Darlene Keju has been honored in Taiwan with the Global Love of Lives award from a Taipei non-profit foundation. The Chou Ta-Kuan Educational and Cultural Foundation is honoring 19 people from around the world in an annual ceremony launched 18 years ago following the death of the foundation’s namesake, a Taiwanese boy who died at 10 from cancer.
Keju exposed a United States cover up of nuclear test-caused health problems in her islands and later formed the internationally recognised non-profit group Youth to Youth in Health in the Marshall Islands.
She was represented in Taiwan by Marshall Islands Journal newspaper editor Giff Johnson, her husband of 14 years.
The Chou Ta-Kuan Foundation described Keju as “the Environmental Godmother” of the Marshall Islands who revealed the story of the 67 US nuclear weapons tests at Bikini and Enewetak to protect the safety and health of Marshall Islanders.
Darlene Keju’s life story, by her husband Giff Johnson. Giff Johnson published a biography of Keju in 2013 titled, Don’t Ever Whisper — Darlene Keju: Pacific Health Pioneer, Champion for Nuclear Survivors
Keju’s legacy
Keju is the only Pacific islander in the group that is being honored.
Radio Australia’s Richard Ewart spoke to Johnson about Keju’s legacy,
“It’s sad to say that the US nuclear test legacy continues to this day unresolved and that’s one of the reasons why her advocacy 30 years ago is still relevant now,” he said……..http://overseasreview.blogspot.com.au/

June 20, 2015 Posted by | OCEANIA, opposition to nuclear | Leave a comment

It’s wearing thin: the pretense that the uranium market is healthy

Uranium Energy Corporation: The Bad News Buried In The Recent Sale [excellent graphs and chart]  CNA Finance 19 Jun e15 Uranium mining company Uranium Energy Corp (UEC) is digging all the love it’s getting from the market right now. But after we mined into company documents, we couldn’t resist humming the cowboy song, “You Done Tore Out My Heart and Stomped That Sucker Flat.”

Uranium Energy looks ready to do just that to investors.

The company has not responded to TheStreetSweeper’s request for comment but investors may find other viewpoints here. Meanwhile, we’ve leaned on some ol’ country songs to help us croon out the risks.

doom and gloom

*”If The Jukebox Took Teardrops,” Or Market’s Feeling The Pain

While UEC stock is up, the company’s peers are all down. The reason the sector’s performance remains so terrible is because uranium spot prices of about $36 are at a five-year low,

So these factors indicate that UEC’s recent price performance is unsustainable because the fundamentals of the company (more on that below) and the sector have not improved. We expect the stock will collapse as it follows the path set by peers.

*UEC is “Busted”

UEC reports zero sales in the past seven quarters from its sole producer, the Palangana Mine. UEC and other uranium companies were hurt after the Fukushima nuclear disaster hit in March 2011. Public pressure mounted and the negative effects have lingered and lower oil and gas prices have made the situation worse as of late for uranium companies. During its spotty history, UEC generated “no revenues from the sale of U3O8 generated during Fiscal 2014 or prior to Fiscal 2012.”

No surprise, then, that UEC shareholders have endured a long history of horrid earnings:………http://cnafinance.com/uranium-energy-corporation-the-bad-news-buried-in-the-recent-sale/4088

June 20, 2015 Posted by | business and costs, Uranium | Leave a comment

Japan will now allow India to reprocess spent nuclear fuel from Japanese-made reactors

Japan eases fuel rules for India nuclear deal, Japan Times  KYODO, JUN 19, 2015 Japan has given in to India’s demand that it be allowed to reprocess spent nuclear fuel from Japanese-made reactors, negotiation sources said, marking a major shift in Japan’s stance against proliferation.

India, a nuclear power that conducted its first weapons test in 1974 using reprocessed plutonium, has not joined the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.

Japan has been seeking measures to guarantee India will not divert extracted plutonium — which could be used to build nuclear weapons — for military use, but no agreement has been reached on the issue, the sources said Thursday…..http://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2015/06/19/national/japan-eases-fuel-rules-for-india-nuclear-deal/#.VYSSFfmqpHw

June 20, 2015 Posted by | India, Japan, politics international, reprocessing | Leave a comment

Germany closes a nuclear power plant, moves ahead on renewable energy

logo-Energiewende‘Green superpower’ Germany plots the way to a low-carbon world by closing Grafenrheinfeld nuclear power plant, SMH,  June 20, 2015  Environment Editor, The Sydney Morning Herald

 Many countries face challenges in cutting greenhouse emissions but few set their bar as high as Germany. Germany will permanently close the Grafenrheinfeld nuclear power plant in the country’s south on Saturday, the latest in a phase-out that is scheduled to see the European powerhouse’s last nine fissile fuel plants closed by about 2022.

Leaving nuclear is not without its critics, especially among big utilities: Sweden’s Vattenfall is reportedly suing the German government for €4.7 billion ($6.9 billion) to compensate for its losses.

And yet, German policymakers seem determined to stick to an ambitious – and unilateral – goal of slashing greenhouse gas emissions by 40 per cent on 1990 levels, even if that means shutting near zero-carbon nuclear plants along the way. The cuts deepen to 55 per cent by 2030 and 80-95 per cent by 2050.

The country is also betting big that renewable energy mainly from wind, solar and hydro power will continue to surge beyond its current share of about 28 per cent of total supply…….

The dramatic plunge in renewable energy prices – with solar panels becoming about 20 per cent cheaper for every doubling of output – has undermined whatever business case existed for nuclear energy, Kraemer says.

“Solar is competitive with new coal and new nuclear [power plants], and even with old coal if you price the carbon emissions properly,” Kraemer says.  [Andreas Kraemer, founder and director emeritus of the Ecologic Institute, a Berlin-based think tank.]

Germans freely admit that overly generous feed-in tariffs paid to those supplying renewable energy to the grid meant the country paid billions of euros too much to install solar panels on the roofs of some 3.5 million homes and small businesses in a country not known for its bounteous sunshine. Sunshine hours in Berlin, a relatively northern city, peak at an average of eight hours a day in May-July, but drop to just one hour by December, according to a local tourist guide.

The levy now costs users 6.17 euro cents (9¢) per kilowatt-hour, boosting residents’ costs for power to about 26 euro cents/KW-hour. [By contrast, this correspondent pays about 31¢ in Sydney for 100 per cent renewable power.]

The subsidies underpin Germany’s Energiewende, or energy transition, a policy which is gaining international attention. The word is apparently the most commonly searched-for German word, eclipsing angst and blitzkrieg, according to one local supporter.

Renewable energy’s share of the country’s total electricity supply has almost quadrupled. Nuclear’s share has roughly halved over the same period from 27 per cent to about 14 per cent………http://www.smh.com.au/environment/climate-change/green-superpower-germany-plots-the-way-to-a-lowcarbon-world-by-closing-grafenrheinfeld-nuclear-power-plant-20150619-ghpbcf.html

June 20, 2015 Posted by | Germany, renewable | Leave a comment

Plunging uranium prices bring fall in UEC share price

graph-down-uraniumUranium Energy (UEC) Stock Declines on Falling Uranium Prices, Low Inventory, The Street,  By Tony Owusu 06/19/15 NEW YORK  –– Uranium Energy (UEC)shares are down 31.29% to $1.66 in morning trading on Friday, just two weeks after the company’s shares surged following its sale of 80,000 pounds of finished uranium for $3.08 million…..Other companies in the sector are also suffering as uranium spot prices have fallen to about $36, a five year low.

“So these factors indicate that UEC’s recent price performance is unsustainable because the fundamentals of the company (more on that below) and the sector have not improved. We expect the stock will collapse as it follows the path set by peers,” the news agency said. http://www.thestreet.com/story/13192929/1/uranium-energy-uec-stock-declines-on-falling-uranium-prices-low-inventory.html

June 20, 2015 Posted by | general | Leave a comment

Some renewable energy headlines

renewable_energySorry, I do not have time to seek out all the developments – so many – going on in renewable energy

Calculating your renewable energy potential? There’s an app for that GreenBiz-19 Jun e1q5 Businesses and individuals can make use of a free smartphone app to calculate the renewable energy generation potential of a given location.

Why investing in renewable energy is a must for Philippines
ABS CBN News Now on its 10th year, the forum highlighted the need for more investments in clean andrenewable energy, especially in the Association of …
The cars making the streets of Singapore green.
An electric taxi has taken to the streets of Singapore in a bid to make the already green city more eco-friendly — and it’s tailored to the tropics.
http://www.environmentalhealthnews.org/t/7758846716712517570

June 20, 2015 Posted by | renewable | Leave a comment

USA Department of Energy investigates radiation leaks, and exposure to workers at nuclear sites

DOE probes worker radiation exposure at test site By STEVE TETREAULT REVIEW-JOURNAL WASHINGTON BUREAU WASHINGTON, 19 June 15  — The Department of Energy has launched investigations into two incidents over the past year where workers at the Nevada National Security Site were exposed to potential contamination while conducting nuclear weapons activities.

The episodes took place on June 16, 2014, and Oct. 21, 2014, at the National Criticality Experiments Research Center, the laboratory where the government maintains a substantial stockpile of nuclear material used for research and training.

The department is looking into the circumstances surrounding “losses of contamination control of highly enriched uranium” at the lab, according to Steven Simonson, director of the DOE Office of Enforcement…….

The incidents that prompted the investigation were the latest disclosed missteps by Los Alamos and other outposts in the weapons complex that have come under close scrutiny within DOE and on Capitol Hill.

In May, the Energy Department proposed to fine the operator of the Los Alamos National Laboratory $247,500 after it lost track of classified material that was supposed to have been shipped to the Nevada National Security Site in 2007, but never arrived. The mistake was not detected until five years later.

The New Mexico laboratory also has been faulted in the 2014 release of radiation from the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant that contaminated nearly two dozen workers with low levels of radiation and forced the nuclear waste site to close.

Investigations uncovered violations at the laboratory in how transuranic waste destined for WIPP was packaged and managed……..http://www.reviewjournal.com/news/nevada/doe-probes-worker-radiation-exposure-test-site

June 20, 2015 Posted by | incidents, USA | Leave a comment

Peach Bottom Atomic Power Station radiation leak – source is found

Exelon locates source of radiation leak at Peach Bottom, YDR.com  Officials say the tritium posed no health risk By Brett Sholtis bsholtis@ydr.com @BrettSholtis on Twitter 06/19/2015 

Peach Bottom Atomic Power Station. On April 17, 2015, Exelon detected a level of tritium in excess of the EPA-recommended guidelines. Exelon has located the source of the leak and is taking steps to correct the problem. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission said the tritium poses no health or environmental risk. (FILE — YORK DAILY RECORD/SUNDAY NEWS)

Exelon Corporation has located the source of a water leak that led to elevated levels of tritium in a groundwater well at Peach Bottom Atomic Power Station. Peach Bottom spokeswoman Krista Connelly declined to specify the source of the leak, but confirmed that they have located it………

Paul Gunter, a director at public interest group Beyond Nuclear, said the tritium points to a larger problem of recurring leaks, which the industry doesn’t take seriously. “This is a one-off measurement in one well,” Gunter said. “It doesn’t say how much got out. This is what they detected at that one point.”….http://www.ydr.com/local/ci_28347377/exelon-locates-source-radiation-leak-at-peach-bottom

June 20, 2015 Posted by | incidents, USA | Leave a comment