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China’s nuclear programme is fraught with problems

questionflag-ChinaMixed Fortunes for Nuclear Power NYT, DEC. 7, 2015 In July 2013, hundreds of people took to the streets in the southern Chinese city of Jiangmen to protest the proposed construction of a uranium processing plant in the region.

The $6 billion plant would have supplied fuel for the country’s rapidly expanding nuclear power industry. But the plan was dropped in the face of public opposition, the first case of its kind in China, said Keith Florig, a risk-management researcher at the University of Florida’s Warrington College of Business.

The protest, and its fallout, are important events in a country that has 22 nuclear power reactors under construction and more planned, as well as a growing international business selling nuclear energy technology to countries including Argentina, Britain and Pakistan. Mr. Florig said that this “rate of development hasn’t happened since the late 1960s and early 1970s in the U.S. and Soviet Union.”

At the same time, Mr. Florig characterized China as being underprepared for dealing with the public opinion issues that have plagued nuclear energy in developed countries.

He said that about 15 years ago he had interviewed Chinese energy officials to find out what they knew about nuclear energy development in the West. He found that they were uniformly focused on the technical challenges of controlling nuclear fission and using the heat it produced to boil water, create steam and power electric turbines. No one seemed to be aware of the social, political and economic challenges….

December 9, 2015 Posted by | China, politics | Leave a comment

We must reject nuclear power and its philosophy of endless consumption

 For humanity, there is no nuclear future, Daily Campus, 8 Dec 15 By Christopher Sacco Edward Abbey, the environmentalist-writer, said in a 1982 PBS interview, that society “seem[s] to really believe that growth is a good in itself and more growth the better, so I doubt if this expansion will be curtailed until something very unpleasant happens.”

consumer-world-nuke

Abbey, who died in 1989, did not witness the full impact of climate change, and so he never understood how prophetically he predicted mankind’s inability to manage the consequences of the Hydrocarbon Age.

While our pale blue dot has, to this point, handled our desire for growth, climate change has presented itself as the tragic result of this insatiable appetite. The need to adopt a carbon-neutral energy source is clear; yet, for this one problem, there exist millions of proposed solutions……..

nuclear power is fully deserving of skepticism—especially in the wake of disasters.

While Thiel opines that the lack of direct casualties absolves nuclear power, such is a painfully ignorant claim. In Japan, there are still, according to the Guardian, 120,000 refugees who cannot return to irradiated homes. Further, the Guardian cited a Fukushima Prefecture survey, in which “67.5 percent of households said they had relatives who were showing signs of physical or psychological distress.” While Thiel focuses on favorable statistics, arguing “nobody in Japan died from radiation,” the reality is far more damning.

Granted, the overwhelming majority of the world’s 438 nuclear reactors have not experienced catastrophe. However, given the rise in storm systems, sea levels, and other unknown consequences of climate change, should we be investing in a power source which, when working perfectly is ideal, but when malfunctioning, threatens the life of those in the vicinity?……

Growth has left our pale blue dot graying and drowning, as glaciers recede and oil wells continue to suck every last drop of black gold from the Earth’s cavernous depths. In the coming years, we must commit ourselves to developing renewable energy, lest we capitulate in the face of enormous odds we face. Moving to nuclear power is not the right direction for humanity. Though Thiel refers to nuclear power as clean, it is hard to call a power source which leaves radioactive waste truly clean.

We should not shift from one proven, dangerous, and volatile energy source for another source with even an infinitesimal potential for disaster. In order to move forward to a better energy future, void of markets for fuel sources (whether fossil fuels or nuclear fuels); void of geopolitical struggle; lacking tangible threats to humanity and ecology; and truly sustainable, we must move past both fossil fuels and nuclear power, and on to the bright future advances in technology will use to supply the world with truly clean energy.http://dailycampus.com/stories/2015/12/8/column-for-humanity-there-is-no-nuclear-future

December 9, 2015 Posted by | general | Leave a comment

Vietnam postpones construction of Russian -funded nuclear plant

Russian-BearVietnam delays first nuclear power plant until 2020 Thanh Nien NewsNINH THUAN – Tuesday, December 08, 2015 Vietnam will delay the construction of its first nuclear power plant until 2020 to further assess the project’s environmental effects, an official has said.

Hoang Anh Tuan, chief of the Ministry of Science and Technology’s Nuclear Atomic Energy Department, made the announcement during a conference last week, news website VnExpress reported.
He said relevant agencies were still assessing the environmental effects of the Ninh Thuan 1 Nuclear Power Plant, with the help of experts from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).
Vietnam originally planned to start working on the plant in 2014 with technical assistance from Russia’s state nuclear firm Rosatom. The country also picked a Japanese consortium to develop a second nuclear power plant, also in the province.

The estimated cost of the project is US$8-10 billion, with funding set to come from Russia…….http://www.thanhniennews.com/tech/vietnam-delays-first-nuclear-power-plant-until-2020-55653.html

December 9, 2015 Posted by | politics, Vietnam | Leave a comment

Uranium Energy posts loss of $5.1 million in first quarter

BY THE ASSOCIATED PRESS DECEMBER 8, 2015 VANCOUVER – VANCOUVER, British Columbia (AP) _ Uranium Energy Corp. (UEC) on Tuesday reported a loss of $5.1 million in its fiscal first quarter.http://www.theprovince.com/business/uranium+energy+posts+loss+million+first+quarter/11574576/story.html?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter

December 9, 2015 Posted by | general | Leave a comment

California’s drought brings uranium contamination to drinking water

water-radiationFear at the tap: Uranium contaminates water in the West  Yahoo News, By ELLEN KNICKMEYER and SCOTT SMITH, 7 Dec 15  “…. Uranium, the stuff of nuclear fuel for power plants and atom bombs, increasingly is showing in drinking water systems in major farming regions of the U.S. West — a natural though unexpected byproduct of irrigation, drought, and the overpumping of natural underground water reserves.

An Associated Press investigation in California’s central farm valleys — along with the U.S. Central Plains, among the areas most affected — found authorities are doing little to inform the public at large of the risk.

That includes the one out of four families on private wells in this farm valley who, unknowingly, are drinking dangerous amounts of uranium. Government authorities say long-term exposure to uranium can damage kidneys and raise cancer risks, and scientists say it can have other harmful effects.

In this swath of farmland, roughly 250 miles long and encompassing cities, up to one in 10 public water systems have raw drinking water with uranium levels that exceed safety standards, the U.S. Geological Survey has found.

More broadly, nearly 2 million people in California’s Central Valley and the U.S. Midwest live within a half-mile of groundwater containing uranium over the health limits, University of Nebraska researchers said in a study in September.

Entities ranging from state agencies to tiny rural schools are scrambling to deal with hundreds of tainted public wells……

he uranium gleaned from local water systems is handled like the nuclear material it is — taken away by workers in masks, gloves and other protective garments, said Ron Dollar, a vice president at Water Remediation Technology, a Colorado-based firm. It is then processed into nuclear fuel for power plants, Dollar said.

Before treatment, Westport’s water tests up to four times state and federal limits. After treatment, it’s safe for the children, teachers and staff to drink…….http://news.yahoo.com/fear-tap-uranium-contaminates-water-west-051313046.html

December 9, 2015 Posted by | environment, USA | Leave a comment

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