AREVA to sell its U.S. nuclear radiation measurement business
Areva puts U.S. nuclear radiation business Canberra up for sale PARIS, JUNE 29 French state-owned nuclear group Areva has begun the sale process for the planned disposal of its U.S. nuclear radiation measurement business Canberra, it said in a statement on Monday.
The sale of Canberra is part of a revamp of loss-making Areva, with utility EDF poised to buy its nuclear reactor business. (Reporting by Michel Rose; Editing by David Goodman) http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/06/29/areva-canberra-idUSL5N0ZF0H220150629
Radiation effects on Fukushima’s birds are getting worse
Mousseau said the reason comes down to the long-term impact of the radiation. “It takes multiple generations for the effects of mutations to be expressed in natural populations,” he said
Near site of Fukushima disaster, birds still in peril, By MICHAEL CASEY CBS NEWS April 16, 2015, Four years after the Fukushima disaster, birds are becoming a rarity around the damaged nuclear site.A study in the Journal of Ornithology found that half the populations of 57 bird species had suffered declines. Studying birds over three years at 400 sites, University of South Carolina biologist Tim Mousseau and his colleagues found that the numbers continue to decline over time – even as the radiation threat drops.
“There are dramatic reductions in the number of birds that should be there based on the overall patterns,” Mousseau told CBS News. “In terms of barn swallows in Fukushima, there had been hundreds if not thousands in many of these towns where we were working. Now we are seeing a few dozen of them left. It’s just an enormous decline.”
In addition to barn swallows, the great reed warbler, Japanese bush warbler and the meadow bunting have been the hardest hit………
Mousseau also has been among researchers leading a project that compares the environmental impact of Fukushima to that of Chernobyl, the scene in 1986 of the worst accident at a nuclear plant. As the director of the Chernobyl + Fukushima Research Initiative, he looked at the impact of birds in both places.
In a second paper in the Journal of Ornithology this month, Mousseau and his longtime collaborator Anders Moller of the French National Centre for Scientific Research found that migratory birds appear to fare worse around Chernobyl than year-round residents. The opposite is true in Fukushima…….
Around Fukushima, Mousseau predicts the worst may not be over.
“The relationship between radiation and numbers started off negative the first summer, but the strength of the relationship has actually increased each year,” Mousseau says. “So now we see this really striking drop-off in numbers of birds as well as numbers of species of birds. So both the biodiversity and the abundance are showing dramatic impacts in these areas with higher radiation levels, even as the levels are declining.”
Mousseau said the reason comes down to the long-term impact of the radiation.
“It takes multiple generations for the effects of mutations to be expressed in natural populations,” he said, referring to effects such as shorter life spans and reduced fertility. “At some point, there will be a balance of the negative effects of mutations and immigration of fresh, new birds. We just don’t know enough to say when a balance will be reached.” http://www.cbsnews.com/news/fukushima-disaster-taking-a-toll-on-birds/
Court orders TEPCO to pay over suicide linked to nuclear evacuation
Tepco ordered to pay over suicide linked to nuclear evacuation, Japan Times, FUKUSHIMA 30 June 15 – Tokyo Electric Power Co. on Tuesday was again held responsible for a suicide linked to the 2011 nuclear crisis and ordered to pay damages.
The Fukushima District Court ordered Tepco to pay ¥27 million to the family of 67-year-old Kiichi Isozaki, who committed suicide in July 2011 after being forced out of his home near the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant and fell into depression.
It is the second time that a court has determined there was a link between the nuclear disaster and a suicide, and ordered the utility to pay damages.
In the latest ruling, presiding Judge Naoyuki Shiomi said the severe experiences Isozaki had gone through made him depressed and led to his suicide. But Shiomi said the disaster had a “60 percent” impact on the man’s decision to take his own life, given that he had diabetes, which may also have played a role.
Isozaki’s wife, Eiko, 66, and two other relatives had sought ¥87 million.
“The ruling aside, I really want Tepco to apologize,” Eiko Isozaki said after the decision.
Tepco issued a statement saying it will “thoroughly examine the ruling and handle the case sincerely.”………
Last August, the same district court ordered the utility to pay ¥49 million in damages to the family of a 58-year-old woman who burned herself to death after she was forced to evacuate from her home in a Fukushima town contaminated by the nuclear disaster.
Although more than four years have passed since the powerful earthquake and tsunami of March 11, 2011, triggered the country’s worst nuclear crisis, suicides linked to the event continue as more than 100,000 people remain evacuated in and around Fukushima.
Sixty-nine suicides in Fukushima Prefecture committed by the end of May have been deemed linked to the earthquake-tsunami or nuclear disasters, according to the Cabinet Office. http://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2015/06/30/national/crime-legal/tepco-ordered-pay-suicide-linked-nuclear-evacuation/#.VZMNYBuqpHx
Continuing cover-up of the seriousness of the Fukushima and Chernobyl nuclear catastrophes
Fukushima Not Even Close To Being Under Control Oil Price, By ZeroHedge , 28 June 2015 Fukushima’s still radiating, self-perpetuating, immeasurable, and limitless, like a horrible incorrigible Doctor Who monster encounter in deep space.
Fukushima will likely go down in history as the biggest cover-up of the 21st Century. Governments and corporations are not leveling with citizens about the risks and dangers; similarly, truth itself, as an ethical standard, is at risk of going to shambles as the glue that holds together the trust and belief in society’s institutions. Ultimately, this is an example of how societies fail.
Tens of thousands of Fukushima residents remain in temporary housing more than four years after the horrific disaster of March 2011. Some areas on the outskirts of Fukushima have officially reopened to former residents, but many of those former residents are reluctant to return home because of widespread distrust of government claims that it is okay and safe.
Part of this reluctance has to do with radiation’s symptoms. It is insidious because it cannot be detected by human senses. People are not biologically equipped to feel its power, or see, or hear, touch or smell it (Caldicott). Not only that, it slowly accumulates over time in a dastardly fashion that serves to hide its effects until it is too late.
Chernobyl’s Destruction Mirrors Fukushima’s Future As an example of how media fails to deal with disaster blowback, here are some Chernobyl facts that have not received enough widespread news coverage: Over one million (1,000,000) people have already died from Chernobyl’s fallout.
Additionally, the Rechitsa Orphanage in Belarus has been caring for a very large population of deathly sick and deformed children. Children are 10 to 20 times more sensitive to radiation than adults.
Zhuravichi Children’s Home is another institution, among many, for the Chernobyl-stricken: “The home is hidden deep in the countryside and, even today, the majority of people in Belarus are not aware of the existence of such institutions” (Source: Chernobyl Children’s Project-UK).
One million (1,000,000) is a lot of dead people. But, how many more will die? Approximately seven million (7,000,000) people in the Chernobyl vicinity were hit with one of the most potent exposures to radiation in the history of the Atomic Age.
The exclusion zone around Chernobyl is known as “Death Valley.” It has been increased from 30 to 70 square kilometres. No humans will ever be able to live in the zone again. It is a permanent “dead zone.”
Additionally, over 25,000 died and 70,000 disabled because of exposure to extremely dangerous levels of radiation in order to help contain Chernobyl. Twenty percent of those deaths were suicides, as the slow agonizing “death march of radiation exposure” was too much to endure……http://oilprice.com/Latest-Energy-News/World-News/Fukushima-Not-Even-Close-To-Being-Under-Control.html
Radiation legacy of atomic bomb research
LAST SECRET OF THE ATOM BOMB, Who What Why, 30 June 15 In August 2005, the New York Police Department, with the Department of Energy, conducted an anti-terrorism radiation flyover survey. The survey was intended to provide a baseline of radiological activity, in order to catch a suspicious construction of a dirty bomb.
They didn’t find a dirty bomb—but there was plenty of radiological activity. Surveyors found 80 radioactive locations in the city—one of them being Great Kills Park in Staten Island, one of the city’s five boroughs. The Park is a popular place near a suburban enclave inhabited by cops, firefighters and other unsuspecting residents. The Park, more than 500 acres of woods surrounding softball and soccer fields and a marina, was constructed from garbage dumped in the bay between 1944 and 1946. Unregulated and illegal dumping has a long history in New York City.
Children Are Especially Vulnerable Continue reading
Renewable energy goes ahead – Brazil, USA, India, Ethiopia
Brazil announces massive reforestation and renewable energy plan …The Guardian, 30 June 15 Brazil will need to double its production of clean energy. … Brazil also plans to expand renewable energy sources other than hydropower to …
Reuters-30 June 15
Washington Times-7 hours ago
US states shoot high with renewable energy targets Business Spectator 29 June 15 Hawaii’s previous RPS required 40% renewable energy by the end of 2030. The new policy, H.B. 623, includes interim requirements of 30% by …
Utility Dive-30 June 15
The Australian Financial Review-
The wind blows hard over Adama, a range of rocky hills in Ethiopia’s highlands that provide the perfect location for one of the continent’s largest wind farms.
http://thepeninsulaqatar.com/business/international-business/346509/ethiopia-harnesses-wind-power &http://www.dailyclimate.org/t/-952389322928303858
No to nuclear for Nigeria – already hit by the health toll from uranium mining
NGO warns FG That Setting up a nuclear power plant in Nigeria would be suicidal, FunGrade, 29 June 15
Mr Nnimmo Bassey, the Director, Health of Mother Earth Foundation (HOMEF), said setting up a nuclear plant in Nigeria would be suicidal given the high level of operational challenges it would face. Bassey said this in Abuja while presenting a paper titled: “Risks and deaths as workers generate wealth’’ organised by HOMEF’s Sustainability Academy on Health and the Extractive Sector Workers. The News Agency of Nigeria reports that the programme was sponsored by the UNDP and the Federal Ministry of Environment in collaboration with HOMEF. He said that the setting up of a nuclear plant was suicidal because of the high technical and environmental demand associated with handling radioactive materials. “Uranium and nuclear power plants are inseparable. ”
Nigeria has found it difficult to run simple hydroelectric and thermal power plants. “It would be suicidal to install nuclear power plants here,’’ Bassey said. The director said the proposal to site such a facility in Akwa Ibom would not be advisable because of the serious environmental implication. “And to think of locating one in Akwa Ibom State is nothing but adding insult to injury in an already highly polluted Niger Delta. “It will also be a time bomb set against the workers,’’ he said. Bassey said that the sustainability academy was aimed at highlighting the fact that workers and communities were at the frontlines of exposure to toxic chemicals that often result in fatalities. The director further said that more than 2.3 million workers worldwide had been exposed to work-related diseases or accidents annually. He said that more than one million extractive industries workers die annually of toxic chemical across the globe.
Balloon Shuts Down Indian Point Nuclear Plant
Nuclear Shutdown News – June 2015: Balloon Shuts Down Troubled Indian Point Plant, San Diago Free Press JUNE 30, 2015 BY AT LARGE By Michael Steinberg / Black Rain Press
Nuclear Shutdown News chronicles the continuing decline of the US nuclear industry, and the efforts of those who are working to bring about a nuclear free future. As US nukes increasingly approach or surpass their 40 year lives, they are becoming more qnd more dangerous and outdated. They need to be shut down and replaced with renewable energy sources—now!
1. Balloon Shuts Down Indian Point Plant
On June 16 the New York state The Journal News reported, “a balloon tangled in electrical wires led to a sequence of events resulting in the shutdown of the Indian Point nuclear plant,” which is located 35 miles up the Hudson River from New York City.
The Journal News reported that plant operators asked workers to “open an electrical circuit so they could remove a large Mylar balloon caught in wires south of the plant.”
But soon thereafter another circuit breaker also opened, “resulting in automatic shutdown of Indian Point reactor 3.”
As reported in last month’s Nuclear Shutdown News, that same reactor shut down in May after a fire and explosion. That accident resulted in the dumping of large amounts of water, firefighting foam and oil into the Hudson River.
In recent years New York state has been trying to get Indian Point owner Entergy to permanently shut it down because of increasingly unsafe conditions and its proximity to New York City. Source: The Journal News
2. The Homer Simpson Rules:Pacific Gas & Electric fails to load spent fuel at Diablo Canyon properly…….
3. South Korea’s oldest nuke may shut down…….
4. Delays at Fukushima Extended On June 10 Fukushimaupdate.com reported that removal of spent nuclear fuel from the multiple meltdown Fukushima nuclear plant has once again been pushed back.
Fukushima Updaste cited The Japan Times in reporting that the Japanese government and Fukushima owner TEPCO are now planning to delay removing the nuclear fuel from melted down reactor #1 “for up to three years.”
Actually they have to find it first!
In addition, Fukushima Update reported that removal of spent fuel from the reactor 3 spent fuel pool has been pushed back two more years. And removal of spent fuel from the pools for rectors 1 and 2 has beeb dekayed until Fiscal year 2020. The government says the complete decommissioning of Fukushima will take “30-40 years>”
The site also reported that the government is now saying that “the current plan has placed too much burden on workers at the nuclear complex.” Sources: Fukushimaupdate.com., Japan Times http://sandiegofreepress.org/2015/06/nuclear-shutdown-news-june-2015-balloon-shuts-down-troubled-indian-point-plant/
Deadlin efor Iran nuclear deal is extended to July 7
Iran nuclear talks: Major powers agree to extend deadline for historic deal to July 7 ABC News 1 July 15
Iran and six major powers have given themselves until July 7 to clinch a historic nuclear deal as a midnight deadline approached in marathon talks with no breakthrough in sight.
Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov, who joined the talks in Vienna on Tuesday, said he believed that, after almost two years of trying, a deal ending the 13-year standoff was “within reach”
The talks are “progressing in a positive direction”, Mr Lavrov told Russian television after meeting US secretary of state John Kerry.
“There remain questions, mostly regarding procedural issues rather than technical.
“We have all reason to believe that results are within reach.”……. http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-07-01/iran-nuclear-talks-deadline-extended-to-july-7/6585422
Pope gathering Catholics’ strength in campaign against global warming
Paul Vallely: The Pope’s ecological vow.
Pope Francis knows that if the consciences of ordinary Catholics can be pricked, they may begin to adjust their life choices – and that could create pressure for political action. Climate change skeptics may well find that in Francis they have met their most formidable opponent.
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/29/opinion/the-popes-ecological-vow.html?_r=1 & http://www.dailyclimate.org/t/-6225208999493232620
Climate change demonstrators march to the Vatican in inter-religious support of Pope Francis’ stance
Several thousand demonstrators from various faiths marched through Rome to the Vatican to demand action on climate change in light of Pope Francis’ recent call to action.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-06-29/climate-change-demonstrators-demand-action-in-vatican-rally/6580730
Class action against Uranium Energy Corp. (NYSE:UEC) and certain officers of the company
Pomerantz LLP announced that it has filed a class action lawsuit against Uranium Energy Corp. (NYSE:UEC) and certain officers of the company. This follows an announcement on June 19 that the law firm was investigating claims on behalf of UEC investors.
As quoted in the press release:
The class action, filed in United States District Court, Southern District of Texas, and docketed under 15-cv-01862, is on behalf of a class consisting of all persons or entities who purchased Uranium Energy securities between October 14, 2014 and June 17, 2015 inclusive (the “Class Period”). This class action seeks to recover damages against Defendants for alleged violations of the federal securities laws under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 (the “Exchange Act”).
If you are a shareholder who purchased Uranium Energy securities during the Class Period, you have until August 28, 2015 to ask the Court to appoint you as Lead Plaintiff for the class. A copy of the Complaint can be obtained at www.pomerantzlaw.com. To discuss this action, contact Robert S. Willoughby at rswilloughby@pomlaw.com or888.476.6529 (or 888.4-POMLAW), toll free, ext. 9980. Those who inquire by e-mail are encouraged to include their mailing address, telephone number, and number of shares purchased.
The Complaint alleges throughout the Class Period, defendants made materially false and misleading statements regarding the Company’s business, operational and compliance policies. Specifically, defendants made false and/or misleading statements and/or failed to disclose that: (1) Uranium Energy stock achieved an unsustainable valuation by using paid stock promoters, yet failed to disclose the use of such promoters in its regulatory filings pursuant to Section 17(b) of the Securities Act of 1933; and (2) as a result of the foregoing, Uranium Energy’s public statements were materially false and misleading at all relevant times.
Walter Pincus on the astronomic costs of USA’s nuclear warheads
It seems the Pentagon can never have enough deployed nuclear warheads WP By Walter Pincus Reporter June 29 Rhetoric about nuclear weapons is heating up between Washington and Moscow, but there is no need to reinstate the foolish and wasteful arms race that dominated the Cold War period.
For one reason, the security challenges have changed. Having 1,500 or more deployed U.S. nuclear warheads on land- or sea-based intercontinental ballistic missiles, or strategic aircraft with nuclear bombs or missiles, will not help a U.S. president defeat terrorists or deal with proxy wars somewhere in the world — or even protect American assets in the new confrontational arenas of space and cyberspace.
There also are the astronomical costs for modernizing not just the current triad of delivery systems — the strategic submarines, bombers and land-based ICBMs — but also continuing the life-extension programs for the nuclear stockpile and upgrading the nuclear weapons-building complex itself.
Deputy Defense Secretary Robert Work told the House Armed Services Committee on Thursday that the cost for all that modernization would average $18 billion a year from 2021 through 2035 — or $252 billion over that 14-year period…………..
I am not saying nuclear weapons are useless. I am suggesting the United States doesn’t need a nuclear force large enough to survive a decapitating first strike because there is no such threat — the idea of a Soviet first strike was a myth, but nonetheless it led to the Cold War nuclear arms race. Let’s not do it again. https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/it-seems-the-pentagon-can-never-have-enough-deployed-nuclear-warheads/2015/06/29/3defafbe-1c3e-11e5-93b7-5eddc056ad8a_s
Russia trying to sell nuclear reactors to Europe, but financing them is a snag
Rosatom says it offers reliable nuclear supplies to Europe June 30, 2015 Russian nuclear giant Rosatom offers its European partners reliable and efficient solutions in the field of nuclear power plant construction, as well as modernization and output, said the head of Rosatom France, Andrey Rozhdestvin.
“We are already successfully implementing the construction of nuclear power plants in Finland, Hungary and Turkey,” Rozhdestvin said at the 10th European Atomic Energy Conference that took place in Brussels.
“We are participating in the modernization of Kozloduy NPP together with French EDF; we have extensive experience and unique competence of the backend,” he added…… The main challenge the nuclear power industry is currently facing is finding optimal financing options for nuclear power plant construction, experts said. http://rt.com/business/270814-rosatom-europe-nuclear-projects/
New WikiLeaks Documents Reveal NSA Spied On Top French Companies
by Jeffrey Phillips | Jun 30, 2015 “……in addition to eavesdropping French Economy Ministers François Baroin and Pierre Moscovici between 2004 and 2012, the NSA gathered as much data as possible on big French companies. In particular, the agency wanted to know more about the companies that signed expensive export contracts for industrial goods, such as nuclear power plants, planes, high speed trains, etc……..
1 This Month
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
of the week–London Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament
Tell the Ukrainian Government to Drop Prosecution of Peace Activist Yurii Sheliazhenko
To see nuclear-related stories in greater depth and intensity – go to https://nuclearinformation.wordpress.com
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