Seoul, Tokyo still at odds over 3/11 fish import ban
Geneva – Japan and South Korea held talks on Seoul’s import ban on Japanese fishery products in Geneva Wednesday under dispute settlement procedures of the World Trade Organization but failed to iron out their differences.
The two sides, however, agreed to continue the talks on Thursday.
The talks were arranged after Japan filed a complaint with the WTO on May 21 over the import ban.
After the meltdown of Tokyo Electric Power Co.’s Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant, caused by the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami, South Korea banned imports of some marine products from eight prefectures including Fukushima. In September 2013, the country expanded the ban to cover all seafood from the eight prefectures.
Japan took the matter to the world trade watchdog because South Korea did not agree to the Japanese argument that the ban lacked scientific evidence.
If the two sides remain at odds in Thursday’s talks and cannot reach an agreement by the July 20 deadline for the bilateral consultations, Japan will seek an adjudication by a dispute settlement panel.
Source : Japan Times
Shareholders pressure utilities to ditch nuclear power
Shareholders and politicians on Thursday urged the nation’s top utilities to exit nuclear power as the central government moves to restart reactors idled by public safety fears in the wake of the triple core meltdown in Fukushima Prefecture in 2011.
Despite a number of antinuclear proposals pushed at the shareholders’ meetings, however, officials from the utilities said this week they were eager to restart nuclear power plants as soon as possible after their businesses were staggered by the halt of all commercial nuclear reactors in the country after 3/11.
Nine utilities with nuclear plants, including the biggest, Tokyo Electric Power Co., which manages the meltdown-hit Fukushima No. 1 power station — held their general shareholders’ meetings at a time when a nuclear power plant in the southwest is preparing go back online this summer for the first time under tighter post-Fukushima safety requirements.
Japan, which relies heavily on imported energy, invested heavily in nuclear power for decades, making withdrawal from what some believe to be a cheaper, less-polluting power source a difficult proposition to swallow.
At Tepco’s meeting, Katsutaka Idogawa, former mayor of the town of Futaba — which has been rendered uninhabitable by radiation contamination — said pulling out of atomic power is “the only way for the company to survive.”
Tepco, as the utility is known, has “forced people who were living peacefully into a situation like hell . . . I propose that Tepco break away from nuclear power,” the mayor said. Futaba co-hosts the Fukushima No. 1 plant.
Officials from Kansai Electric Power Co., which held its shareholders meeting in Kobe for the first time in many years, faced a barrage of tough questions about nuclear power, its decision to raise prices, and its ¥148.3 billion net loss in fiscal 2014.
Kepco faced sharp criticism for hiking household rates 8.36 percent at the beginning of the month because, as it acknowledges, its 11 commercial reactors are still idle, forcing it to rely more on imported fossil fuels. That was a sore point Thursday with politicians representing cities that hold Kepco shares.
“It’s regrettable the rise in rates is putting strong pressure on people’s lifestyles. Kepco’s efforts at management efficiency are still lacking,” said Kobe Mayor Kizo Hisamoto. Kobe owns about 3 percent of Kepco’s stock.
Osaka Mayor Toru Hashimoto, one of the utility’s harshest critics, was not present Thursday but submitted a motion together with the city of Kyoto calling on Kepco to get out of nuclear power. The motion was voted down. Osaka owns about 9.4 percent of Kepco’s stock.
Kepco’s heavy losses and its plans to restart reactor Nos. 3 and 4 at the Takahama plant in Fukui Prefecture — despite a provisional injunction from the Fukui District Court in April — prompted calls from many shareholders for management, especially Chairman Shosuke Mori and President Makoto Yagi, to resign. But they and 14 other senior executives were re-elected.
“Nuclear power is part of the national energy policy, an important baseload. For reasons of energy security, economics, and reducing greenhouse gas emissions, we need to restart the reactors,” Yagi said at a news conference in Osaka on Thursday afternoon.
Shareholders expressed worries about how Kepco will adjust to the full deregulation of the electricity market next year, which is expected bring new, more flexible competition for electricity service at a time when the company is financially strapped.
In Fukuoka, shareholders at Kyushu Electric Power Co., which is looking to restart its Sendai nuclear plant in Kagoshima Prefecture in August, proposed that the president be dismissed, saying his stance of continuing nuclear power has hurt earnings.
But President Michiaki Uriu told the meeting that the utility “aims to restart nuclear reactors as soon as possible on the premise that securing safety is the priority.”
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe wants to reactivate reactors that meet safety regulations beefed-up by the new nuclear regulator that was set up after the Fukushima crisis. The majority of the public, however, remains opposed.
The government plans to make nuclear energy account for 20 percent to 22 percent of the country’s total electricity supply in 2030, compared with around 30 percent before.
Source : Japan Times
Student volunteers move in with elderly 3/11 refugees in Fukushima
FUKUSHIMA – University students in Fukushima Prefecture have begun providing elderly refugees from the nuclear disaster with a unique form of assistance just by living in the same temporary housing complex where they now live.
By staying close to the seniors and associating with them across generational lines, the young volunteers hope to revitalize their communities.
The aid project was proposed by the Fukushima University Disaster Volunteer Center, which has promoted volunteer visits to temporary housing in the radiation-tainted prefecture. It was adopted by the Reconstruction Agency as a state-subsidized “mental reconstruction” project.
The project involves a temporary housing complex in the Iizaka district in the city of Fukushima where 269 people from the town of Namie, in the exclusion zone near the meltdown-hit Fukushima No. 1 power plant, have taken shelter. About 60 percent of the residents are 60 or older.
Two students will live in the complex for three months, followed by another pair each new quarter, for an entire year. The students will meet the residents and gauge how they are getting by, shop on their behalf and support the activities of the residents’ association.
Last Sunday, about 10 students helped the first two move in, cleaning their dwelling and carrying in furniture.
“Instead of working too hard to fulfill the role of a volunteer, I aim to be accepted as a resident,” Shunichi Sato, a 22-year-old Fukushima University student who volunteered. “I’m looking forward to talking with people who I’ve had few chances to get to know.”
Source : Japan Times
http://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2015/06/25/national/student-volunteers-move-elderly-311-refugees-fukushima/#.VYvRf0b1CM9
Dismantling of Contaminated Water Tanks in Fukushima Daiichi
TEPCO explains how they will go about taking down the many bolt together tanks at the disaster site, to be replaced with welded tanks in what is becoming a crowded patch of land on the plant grounds.
Example drawing of the tank preparation process including an air filtration system
and the spraying of dust inhibitor s prior to disassembly
Interior of a drained tank with sprayer installed
Tank with plastic tarp roof
Partially disassembled tank portion
Tank before final sludge draining
Drained tank before removal
Building where tank sections will be cut down
Transport of tank sections for cutting
Band saws for cutting down tank sections
Inside saw system
HEPA dust system installed on the saw.
Tepco says the remaining scrap will be loaded into steel containers and will be stored on site.
Source: Tepco
139 Years After Custer’s Last Stand, Lakota Sioux Fight Foreign Uranium Miners in Custer County South Dakota
Even as Obama pretends to love the Lakota Sioux, he does nothing to protect them from foreign uranium miners.
Standing Rock Sioux Reservation, June 2014, by WH-Pete Souza
“Like a handful of battles in American history, the defeat of 12 companies of Seventh Cavalry by Lakota (Sioux), Cheyenne, and Arapaho warriors rose beyond its military significance to the level of myth.” http://www.nps.gov/libi/indian-memorial-at-the-little-bighorn.htm
American Indians learned that they cannot beat the superior force of the US military in the long run, and instead must use lawyers to fight for the land.
Charles Marion Russell – The Custer Fight (1903)
Image from “Crying Earth Rise Up! Environmental Justice & The Survival Of A People: Uranium Mining & the Oglala Lakota People”(Copy Left by Owe Aku, Bring Back the Way); color added.
Most people think that these abuses of the American Indians are past history. But, they are ongoing.[1] In the…
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June 25 Energy News
Opinion:
¶ “Why are the government’s energy forecasts so bad?” In 2009, the US DOE’s Energy Information Administration forecast that US wind power would grow modestly, reaching 44 GWof generating capacity in 2030. Just six years later, US wind capacity is already up to 66 GW. So what’s up with this? [Politico]
World:
¶ Data released by the UK’s Department of Energy and Climate Change show that Scotland’s wind farms generated record amounts of power in the first quarter of 2015. Statistics confirmed that Scotland hit record levels of green energy generation in 2014, with 49.8% of all electricity used coming from renewables. [reNews]
Wind projects such as the Farr wind farm in Scotland have contributed to generating record amounts of power (Siemens).
¶ It’s illegal to knowingly ignore the dangers of global warming, according to a Dutch court. The court ordered the government to cut…
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Are You A Belligerent Journalist of Unprivileged Persuasion?
The Pentagon has released an 1.176 page manual on what is OK to do to other people and how to rate them in “the do they deserve to live or not” game!
It turns out that as a journalist you don’t rate very high. That is if you dare to be belligerent of course. No fear if you are a good little boy/girl writing down what our dear leaders like to hear. Now you might think that means only US journalists like Glen Greenwald and his ilk are at risk but with the anti-bully law passing here in New Zealand I dare say were are in for a treat here too. And when they have dealt with the blogger journalists/educators/truth speakers and the Campbell’s and the ones who dare to speak up, the real belligerents, our dear leaders will rule supreme. Supremely belligerent, supremely arrogant, supremely cruel just like tyrants…
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Dow Chemical-Rockwell’s Plutonium Nuisance & Price Anderson – Rocky Flats
“During the Cold War, the Rocky Flats plant served as home to a nuclear weapons production facility. Located just sixteen miles from downtown Denver, the plant was operated first by Dow, then by Rockwell, under contracts with the federal government. But everything ground to a halt in 1989. That’s when FBI agents raided the plant and unearthed evidence of environmental crimes. It turns out plant workers had mishandled radioactive waste for years. Some had been poured into the ground and leached into nearby bodies of water. Some had been released into the air and filtered its way into the soil throughout the area. As news of all this emerged, the plant’s neighbors saw their property values plummet. And soon enough they followed the government’s criminal action with a civil suit of their own, citing both the federal Price-Anderson Act and state nuisance law as grounds for relief.” (Judge…
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June 24 Energy News
Science and Technology:
¶ Citing a commitment to the issue of sustainability in product design, SunPower has announced that its E-Series and X-Series solar panels, manufactured at the company’s facilities in France, are Cradle to Cradle Certified Silver (C2C). This is good news for buyers of these solar electricity products for several reasons. [CleanTechnica]
Image credit: SunPower.
¶ The impact of climate change is so great that it could undermine the last 50 years of gains in global health. That is the assessment of a new report from the Lancet Commission on Health and Climate, an independent, international and multi-disciplinary research group. Similar findings come from the US EPA. [Voice of America]
¶ A new technology to store excess energy generated by green energy sources could save Ontario up to $8 billion over a 20-year period, according to a study commissioned by NRStor and General Compression…
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Fast Tracking the “Comparative Advantage” of Low or No Wage Labor and Radioactive Food
Australia Forced Labour by Convicts, early 20th Century
While most Americans were pre-occupied with the Charleston, South Carolina massacre, the US House sneaked through Fast Track authorization by tacking it onto HR 2146 which dealt with pensions of federal law enforcement and firefighters. Most likely it will pass the Senate in the next day or two. Thus, the trade deals will simply have to be voted down in their entirety (which is probably the best thing anyway but requires a new, non-corrupt, Congress) “Amends Bill: H.R.2146 — Bipartisan Congressional Trade Priorities and Accountability Act of 2015 Sponsor: Sen. McConnell, Mitch [R-KY] (Submitted 06/18/2015, Proposed 06/18/2015) Cosponsors: 0 Latest Action: Amendment SA 2061 proposed by Senator McConnell to Amendment SA 2060. (06/18/2015)” https://www.congress.gov/114/bills/hr2146/BILLS-114hr2146eah.pdf https://www.congress.gov/amendment/114th-congress/senate-amendment/2061
And, of course, someone might get criticized for voting against: “the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to allow Federal law enforcement officers, firefighters, and…
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June 23 Energy News
Opinion:
¶ “Nine myths about new energy” – Starting with a myth about renewables put forward by the ‘pro-nuclear, pro-coal, anti-renewable’ advocates circa 2005: 1) “We could never integrate more than 5% intermittent renewables (they meant wind and solar) into an electricity grid.” (Just a little off the mark.) [Business Spectator]
World:
¶ A new facility has been designed to handle up to three million tonnes of wood pellets a year that will be shipped from North America to fuel the Drax power station in North Yorkshire. Graham Construction will work on a new rail loading facility and storage capacity for 100,000 tonnes at the Port of Liverpool. [The Construction Index]
Cooling towers at the Drax power station. Photo by StaraBlazkova. GNU Free Documentation License. Wikimedia Commons.
¶ In less than a week after the Indian central government broadened the canvas for solar power play, the…
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No Dose of Radiation is Safe for the Eyes: Any Dose Can Cause Cataracts, USNRC Comment Deadline Today 11.59 pm NY-DC (ET) One Minute to Midnight
Click to access EPA_SW_FS_EyeDamage_v7_508_RELEASE.PDF
Recent studies have suggested a “no-threshold” dose for cataracts from radiation exposure to the lens of the eyes among radiology and nuclear workers. Is this a surprise? It involves more dangerous ionizing radiation than UV rays, as can be seen on the diagram above. And, when was the last time you heard a medical or governmental recommendation to wear your UV protective sunglasses for only part of the time that you are in the sun? UV protection sunglasses have been recommended for several decades. And, initially they weren’t cheap. But, everyone was told to buy them and use them. No one said that you can expose your eyes for a few hours or years, and then put on the glasses (or hat. [1]) But, this is the same sort of “reasoning” used by the nuclear industry and the so-called protection agencies-organizations, when they pretend that there…
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June 22 Energy News
Science and Technology:
¶ A little-known startup energy storage company called UET just announced a major milestone for its latest flow battery project. The company’s CEO says, “The Uni.System’s levelized cost ($/total GWh delivered over 20 year life) is multiple times lower than the cost of lithium-ion systems such as Tesla.” [CleanTechnica]
World:
¶ A 34-turbine wind farm in Nova Scotia is now fully operational, making it the largest in the province. The South Canoe Wind Farm in the Municipality of the District Chester was several months behind the original schedule, but is expected to provide enough energy for about 32,000 homes. [TheChronicleHerald.ca]
Wind farm in Nova Scotia. Photo by Dennis Jarvis from Halifax, Canada. Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic license. Wikimedia Commons.
¶ Japan’s Mitsubishi Electric Corp has received an order from Kyushu Electric Power Co Inc to supply a 50-MW energy storage system for…
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