The philosophy of science denial within the nuclear lobby
the cancers near the nuclear sites are caused by internal exposures, to Plutonium, Uranium, Tritium, 
Strontium-90, Caesium-137, Iodine-131, Carbon-14, particles and huge amounts of radioactive noble gases Krypton-85 and Argon-41. There are more nasty isotopes but that will do.And internal exposures can deliver doses to the cell and to the DNA which are far above the small doses that the hormesis people are citing. They are talking about low external doses around external natural background, up to 10 mSv.
Nuclear radiation, Kierkegaard, and the philosophy of denial, The Ecologist, Chris Busby 8th January 2016 As the evidence of the extreme harm to health inflicted by nuclear radiation mounts, the denialists are resorting to ever greater extremes, writes Chris Busby. On the one hand, advancing the absurd claim that ionising radition is not merely harmless, but health-enhancing. On the other, closing down the experiment that would have provided the strongest evidence yet………
Kierkegaard said of belief that it becomes stronger the more impossible and threatened it is. And this seems to be rapidly coming true in the case of nuclear energy. The torture imposed on logic, reason and observational data by the advocates of nuclear power has now reached the level of clinical psychosis.
A psychosis is a thought disorder in which reality testing is grossly impaired. There is so much evidence that nuclear power kills, causes cancer, mutates populations, reduces fertility and kills babies that only a mad person would continue with the belief that it is a good thing and should be pursued no matter what the cost in money and death.
And as they move to even greater levels of psychotic delusion they present two new survival strategies which make it brilliantly clear that the proponents of nuclear are off their heads.
First the recent move to petition the US nuclear regulators to accept the idea that small amounts of radiation are actually good for you (Yes!); we should all be forced to be irradiated like food, maybe at birth in the equivalent of a mass vaccination. In you go, Jimmy: BZZZZZ, there you are, that didn’t hurt did it?
And the second, as I wrote about recently, is to cancel the US nation-wide study of cancer near nuclear plants.
Are these two moves related? You bet! If the National Academy of Sciences Cancer Study found that people are dying because of the ‘low doses’ received from the emissions, then obviously low doses of radiation can’t be good for you. We are back to the Dark Ages. Continue reading
Hope for nuclear disarmament – the Marshall Islands legal case
Say hello to the Marshall Islands, the tiny, heroic island nation in Micronesia, with a population just over 70,000. This former U.S. territory, which still bears the terrible scars of 67 above-ground nuclear blasts between 1946 and 1958, when this country used it as an expendable nuclear test site, has engaged the United States — and, indeed, all nine nations that possess nuclear weapons — in lawsuits demanding that they comply with the 1968 Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and begin the process of negotiating global nuclear disarmament.
Taking on the Nuclear Goliath http://www.counterpunch.org/2016/01/08/taking-on-the-nuclear-goliath/ by ROBERT KOEHLER
“Just as we stood for freedom in the 20th century, we must stand together for the right of people everywhere to live free from fear in the 21st century. And . . . as the only nuclear power to have used a nuclear weapon, the United States has a moral responsibility to act. We cannot succeed in this endeavor alone, but we can lead it, we can start it.
“So today, I state clearly and with conviction America’s commitment to seek the peace and security of a world without nuclear weapons.”
Uh…
These words, the core of President Obama’s first major foreign policy speech, delivered in Prague in April 2009, now resonate with nothing so much as toxic irony — these pretty words, these words of false hope, which disappeared into Washington’s military-industrial consensus and failed to materialize into action or policy.
James Carroll, writing at Mother Jones in 2013, describes what happened in the wake of this extraordinary policy declaration:
“In order to get the votes of Senate Republicans to ratify the START treaty, Obama made what turned out to be a devil’s bargain. He agreed to lay the groundwork for a vast ‘modernization’ of the US nuclear arsenal, which, in the name of updating an aged system, is already morphing into a full-blown reinvention of the arms cache at an estimated future cost of more than a trillion dollars. In the process, the Navy wants, and may get 12 new strategic submarines; the Air Force wants, and may get a new long-range strike bomber force. Bombers and submarines would, of course, both be outfitted with next-generation missiles, and we’d be off to the races. The arms races.”
And the cause of global nuclear disarmament, once a dream with geopolitical cred, may wind up entombed in eternal apathy. Continue reading
Nuclear weapons now more likely to be used, with Pentagon’s new B61-12 bomb
it also poses the contrary reality of an increased probability that nuclear weapons will actually be launched.
This concept of greater usability entirely forgoes the core assumption of deterrence theory, which asserts that credible nuclear deterrents are always present but never utilized.
The Pentagon’s New Nuclear Gravity Bomb, Global Risk Insights by Ian Armstrong , January 8, 2016 Despite its advertisement as a low-yield, lower-risk alternative to existing missile models, the recently tested B61-12 nuclear gravity bomb presents several risks that may in fact elevate the threat of nuclear use and encourage proliferation.
Late last year, the United States successfully completed testing of the newest addition to its nuclear arsenal — the B61-12 nuclear gravity bomb. Part of a $355 billion effort to modernize its increasingly outdated nuclear capability, the U.S. has developed the B61-12 to the tune of over $10.4 billion as the most adaptable, precise nuclear gravity missile on the planet.
Successful testing of the missile has now created a clear pathway for production engineering to begin in 2016, and with that, the United States is now poised to acquire 480 bombs total by the 2020-2024 period.
Washington argues that the development of an enhanced B61 gravity bomb is an important facet of the broader nuclear modernization efforts required to protect itself and its Western allies from threats like Russia and Iran. Other countries, especially non-nuclear states, underscore the hypocrisy of a nuclear modernization effort given President Obama’s stated commitment towards disarmament and nonproliferation…….
Lower Nuclear Yield, Higher Nuclear Probability
Yet, in contradictory fashion, the same unique technical qualities that make the B61-12 a more accurate, secure, and effective U.S. nuclear deterrent also conjure implied risks with the potential to negate any positive impacts.
By significantly increasing accuracy and eroding the barriers to use previously presented by unintended casualties, the B61-12 does indeed increase the deterrent capability of the United States — but it also poses the contrary reality of an increased probability that nuclear weapons will actually be launched.
This concept of greater usability entirely forgoes the core assumption of deterrence theory, which asserts that credible nuclear deterrents are always present but never utilized. In short, B61-12s will broaden the range of circumstances that U.S. military strategists might reasonably consider employing nuclear weapons, a move which in turn would naturally create an immediate possibility of escalation towards full-fledged nuclear war.
In addition, the sheer expense and symbolism of creating a highly modernized, highly precise nuclear weapon like the B61-12 challenges the notions of nonproliferation and disarmament.
Washington’s pursuit of the B61-12 simultaneously legitimizes Russian vertical proliferation while potentially intimidating Beijing into accelerated arsenal growth. It also assures unofficial nuclear powers like Pakistan, India, and Israel that acquisition of low-yield nuclear weapons is an acceptable alternative to procuring high-yield strategic missiles……….http://globalriskinsights.com/2016/01/the-pentagons-new-nuclear-gravity-bomb/
Japan’s nuclear safety watchdog not happy with safety of dry spent fuel casks at Fukushima
NRA announced the dry cask for spent fuel of Fukushima plant might be overly vulnerable http://fukushima-diary.com/2015/12/nra-announced-the-dry-cask-for-spent-fuel-of-fukushima-plant-might-be-overly-vulnerable/ by Mochizuki , December 8, 2015 On 12/4/2015, NRA (Nuclear Regulation Authority) announced that the dry cask to store the spent fuel assemblies can be excessively vulnerable.
In order to stock the fuel assemblies of SFP 4 (Spent Fuel Pool of Reactor 4) in the common pool, Tepco transferred the fuel assemblies from the common pool to the dry cask.
By the end of October 2014, Tepco had stocked 28 dry casks to contain 1,412 fuel assemblies. They were planning to transfer additional 1,600 fuel assemblies to more 23 dry casks. NRA reports that only 11 casks of this issued type are in actual use in Fukushima plant.
According to NRA, there is a possibility that an internal part of dry cask doesn’t have enough strength. It was designed based on the standard of the Japan Society of Mechanical Engineers, however the standard was abolished this October, just before this scandal became public, because it did not have enough basis and overrated the strength.
https://www.nsr.go.jp/data/000131890.pdf
https://www.nsr.go.jp/disclosure/committee/roanshin_kakunen/00000003.html
Nuclear Power History – theme for January 2016
Lies and violence were the origin of nuclear power. First of all, in 1942, the work of Dr Charles Pecher, who sought to relieve cancer pain, using radiation -was taken over by the Manhattan Project. The plan now was to devise a radiological weapon that would kill people, but leave property intact. This plan was then changed, in favour of the more dramatic atomic explosions – which were hastily used in Hiroshima and Nagasaki just in time, as the war was ending, with Japan ready to surrender.
The nuclear scientists, for various motives, (in some cases, guilt) now decided to produce the “peaceful atom”. USA helped 127 Nazi rocket scientists, led by Wernher Von Braun, to move to America, to develop nuclear energy, which would be “too cheap to meter”.
Nuclear energy wasn’t really cheap at all, and required huge government subsidy, and a law to make sure that the tax-payer would pay up for any serious accident, (the Price Anderson Act). USA firms helped other governments to get this “peaceful energy” – and soon all of these countries had nuclear weapons. That was the main reason they wanted it.
The lies, the cover-ups, the expense, the escalating weaponry, continue to this day. Now the nuclear lobby is engaged in a lying campaign that depicts renewable energy as “not feasible”, and depicts ionising radiation as “good for you’ at low doses. It dismisses the radioactive waste problem – ” a solution will be found” (USA’s Waste Confidence Rule). In UK the latest lie is that super nuclear reactors are ready – to “eat up” the radioactive waste.
Indian officials unwilling to answer questions about nuclear emergency guidelines
Officials pass the buck on RTI queries on NDMA guidelines http://m.thehindu.com/news/cities/chennai/officials-pass-the-buck-on-rti-queries-on-ndma-guidelines/article8079555.ece
G. Sundarrajan of Poovulagin Nanbargal, an environmental forum had sought to know whether the NDMA Guidelines on Nuclear and Radiological Emergencies released in 2009 had been implemented in the district.
He also sought information on the infrastructure such as hospitals identified to treat radiological emergencies as per the guidelines.
The Public Information Officer (PIO) in Tirunelveli Collectorate, in his reply to the applicant, stated that the request was being forwarded to his counterpart in Kudankulam Nuclear Power Plant, as the latter was the officer concerned for the details sought for.
The Public Information Officer at Kudankulam Nuclear Power Plant of NPCIL on December 29 replied contending it was the District Management Authority, which was the authority concerned and returned the queries to the PIO of Tirunelveli Collectorate.
Mr. Sundarrajan said, “The Supreme Court was, in 2013, informed that all precautionary measures were taken and now they are denying information on the details of the implementation. This is anti-constitutional, anti-people and illegal. They cannot deny or point at each other when asked for information.”
Tirunelveli District Collector M. Karunakaran told The Hindu , “The applicant has not sent the queries to the right person, i.e., the DRDA, which deals with the information and the PIO in Collectorate would not have the information. If information is sought from the right person, it would have been provided.” When contacted by The Hindu , an NPCIL official said, on condition of anonymity, “There has been some misunderstanding among officials in some departments of the district administration on this issue. We complied with the implementation of the guidelines on our part.”
Info sought under RTI Act whether suggestions
on nuclear emergencies were implemented
EDF struggling to raise money to fund UK’s new Hinkley Point reactors.
EDF considers selling €3bn stake in UK nuclear business to help fund reactors
French energy firm may reduce stake in eight existing nuclear reactors it owns to raise money for Hinkley Point C project, Guardian, Terry Macalister, 8 Jan 16, EDF is considering the sale of a €3bn (£2.2bn) stake in its British nuclear business in a bid to raise cash for new Hinkley Point reactors.
Possible buyers would be state-owned Chinese companies, who are already committed partners on the £18bn Somerset project.
EDF could unveil details of a sell-off plan on 16 February, when it is scheduled to release annual financial figures and is expected to give a final investment decision on building Britain’s first new reactors for 20 years.
The French daily, Les Echos, reported on Thursday that EDF may reduce its stake in the eight existing nuclear reactors it owns from 80% to 51% by bringing in a new investor as part of a wider €6bn disposal programme. Industry sources told the Guardian that the possible sell off was only one of a number of different options that were under consideration as the group looked at financing Hinkley Point C and other projects.
They said it was still likely EDF would give the go ahead to Hinkley next month even though it did not have all the financing in place. The project is estimated to cost £18bn, according to EDF, though the European Union has warned it could go as high as £24bn.
Centrica, the owner of British Gas, already has a 20% holding but has made clear in the past that itdoes not want a larger commitment to nuclear, and declined to participate in the Hinkley newbuild scheme………
EDF struggled to interest anyone else in the Hinkley scheme, which many in the City have deemed over-expensive, so the Chinese would seem first in line to buy into the rest of the EDF nuclear business if it comes up for grabs……..
Environmentalists opposed to EDF’s new building plans in Britain believe the company may yet be forced to abandon Hinkley Point C because of a European legal challenge against the state aid promised by the UK. http://www.theguardian.com/business/2016/jan/07/edf-selling-3bn-stake-uk-nuclear-business-reactors-hinkley-point-c
The Anthropocene – have we started a new geological age – with carbon emissions and nuclear radiation?
With fossil fuels and nuclear tests, humans may have started a new geological age http://qz.com/589665/with-fossil-fuels-and-nuclear-tests-humans-may-have-started-a-new-geological-age/ Aamna Mohdin@aamnamohdin A geological epoch is a time period that leaves a distinctive mark in sediments and rocks that can be seen millions of years later. And now, it seems humans have left their mark on the Earth.
There’s also the ubiquitous spread of a number of new materials such as plastic and concrete to consider. But the “most widespread and globally synchronous anthropogenic signal is the fallout from nuclear weapons testing,” researchers noted in the paper. “Thermonuclear weapons tests generated a clear global signal from 1952 to 1980, the so-called ‘bomb spike’.”
The study is by no means the final say on the matter. The International Commission on Stratigraphy (ICS) has debated the issue for many years, and it’s ultimately up to them to accept the start of the Anthropocene as a geological epoch.
Nuclear war danger now becoming greater than during the Cold War
In a new study, the arms control advocacy group Global Zero analysed 146 such incidents over the past 21 months, classing two of them as high risk. It deemed 33 provocative in that they “stray from the norm of routine incidents, resulting in more aggressive or confrontational interaction that can quickly escalate to higher-risk incidents or even conflict”.
Perry said: “In the cold war, we and Russia were in the process of dismantling nuclear weapons … Today, in contrast, both the Russia and the US are beginning a complete rebuilding of the cold war nuclear arsenals.”
Nuclear weapons risk greater than in cold war, says ex-Pentagon chief
William Perry lists a series of factors that he says mean the chance of a ‘calamity’ is higher today than in the 1970s and 80s, Guardian, Julian Borger, 8 Jan 16, The risks of a nuclear catastrophe – in a regional war, terrorist attack, by accident or miscalculation – is greater than it was during the cold war and rising, a former US defence secretary has said.
William Perry, who served at the Pentagon from 1994 to 1997, made his comments a few hours before North Korea’s nuclear test on Wednesday, and listed Pyongyang’s aggressive atomic weapons programme as one of the global risk factors.
He also said progress made after the fall of the Soviet Union to reduce the chance of a nuclear exchange between the US and Russia was now unravelling.
“The probability of a nuclear calamity is higher today, I believe, that it was during the cold war,” Perry said. “A new danger has been rising in the past three years and that is the possibility there might be a nuclear exchange between the United States and Russia … brought about by a substantial miscalculation, a false alarm.”…… Continue reading
Estimating Airborne Radionuclides from the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant Site
Post-Accident Sporadic Releases of Airborne Radionuclides from the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant Site , Environmental Science and Technology
| Steinhauser, G., Niisoe, T., Harada, K. H., Shozugawa, K., Schneider, S., Synal, H. A., Walther, C., Christl, M., Nanba, K.,Ishikawa, H., Koizumi, A. | |||
|
Journal Items, |
Injecting dogs with plutonium – to prove what?
Nuclear radiation, Kierkegaard, and the philosophy of denial, The Ecologist, Chris Busby 8th January 2016 “……….Injecting dogs with plutonium – to prove what?
Some years ago I was up against one of these hormesis geezers, a certain Dr Otto Raabe, in a court case in America. He was the expert for the defence. Raabe was in charge of the Beagle dog studies in New Mexico.
They injected these poor creatures with Plutonium, Radium or Strontium-90 and watched them develop bone cancer and leukemia. The doses were enormous, the number of dogs was small (cost). The whole place was contaminated with Plutonium, the particles hanging in the air like fairy dust. The burial site for the dogs is so radioactive it is fenced off as a US superfund site for decontamination.
Raabe’s thing was that he had mathematically converted beagle dogs into humans: you should just see his amazing three dimensional graphs (these guys love all that stuff). Well you can probably find them somewhere on the internet.
The best thing was that in one of his papers he discussed how difficult it was to do these beagle studies. He wrote that 12 (yes 12) of his control dogs (no injections of Plutonium) had unfortunately died of lung cancer and had to be removed from the analysis. What!!?
I checked out the rates of lung cancer in dogs (you can find everything on the web) and that was the end of Raabe. Low dose, you see. Fairy dust………..http://www.theecologist.org/essays/2986384/nuclear_radiation_kierkegaard_and_the_philosophy_of_denial.html
January 8 Energy News
Opinion:
¶ Will we ever see a White Christmas again? • Climate change is like Santa Claus – not everyone believes. Nevertheless, last month wasn’t just the wettest and warmest December on record in the UK, it was the wettest of any month since records began in 1910. Experts say the trend could now be the norm. [Plymouth Herald]
Will we ever see a White Christmas again?
World:
¶ India is likely to have an operational solar power capacity of close to 20 GW by March 2017 if projects under the states’ and central solar power policies go ahead as planned. The solar energy capacity is expected increase four-fold from the current 5 GW during the next fiscal year, which ends in March 2017. [CleanTechnica]
¶ UK Energy secretary Amber Rudd has admitted new policies will have to be put in place during this Parliament if…
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Xenon 133 peaks detected in Takasaki Station
While speaking of the atomic testing in North Korea, CTBTO has inadvertently disclosed information on Fukushima.
One slide shows Xenon 133 peaks in Takasaki Station. Or xenon 133 is a fission product. The corium of Fukushima seems to know criticality phases in 2014 and 2015 (detection beyond normal = red triangles)
Which also explain why traces of Iodine-131 have been repeatedly found at various locations in Japan every year since 2011. Iodine-131 being a very short life radionuclide, it should not be present anymore after March 2011.
The highest peaks of xenon 133 were in May, June July 2015, corresponding to the Iodine-131 detections in sewage sludge in May 2015
Source: Fukushima Diary
http://fukushima-diary.com/2015/07/significant-level-of-i-131-detected-from-dry-sludge-of-fukushima-sewage-plant-after-rain-in-may/
Source : CTBO
Click to access Briefing_PrepCom_7_Jan_2016.pdf
Credits to Pierre Fetet & Paolo Scampa for these informations.
Nuclear news – the coming year
As an Australian, this one is hard for me – so many countries, so many issues.
CHINA We are always being told that China is the big player, and will set off the wonderful new version of the “nuclear renaissance .” That remains to be seen. Safety issues, Renewable energy successes, Public opposition – it’s not all roses for the global nuke lobby.
CLIMATE CHANGE. Nagging facts persist about nuclear lobby’s claim to fix climate change. A lot of people are realising that the Breakthrough Energy Coalition, the Breakthrough Institute and The Third Way are front groups for the nuclear lobby. Their propaganda will continue, but might not be effective.
IONISING RADIATION. Nuclear propaganda about this is a scary development. USA is still a leader in opinion about nuclear issues, despite its own failing industry. It would make life so much easier for the nuclear industry if radiation safeguards could be relaxed – if we all found out that ionising radiation is OK after all. heck! there’s “hormesis” – telling us that radiation is good for us! he lobby’s grip on the Nuclear Regulation Authority, the EPA, The Department of Energy – is a worry.
FUKUSHIMA. Off the agenda for the mainstream media, but still in crisis, as even PM Shinzo Abe has recently admitted.
UK. The saga of the Hinkley C Nuclear Project drags on – ever more expensive, ever more dodgy.
POLITICS UK. Labor leader Jeremy Corbyn throws a spanner in the discussion on rebuilding and actually using the Trident nuclear weapons system. USA – Bernie Sanders is making anti nuclear weapons noises. Even Hillary Clinton airs doubts on this. Then there’s Donald Trump etc – it doesn’t bear thinking what might happen if that lot got in.
I know that there’s more – India’s nuclear ambitions, North Korea’s inflammatory statements – it’s all too much.
On the positive side – RENEWABLE ENERGY grows apace. The Paris Climate Agreement showed a global good will to act.
1.This Month
above – Nagasaki child victim
Harry Truman and the nuclear bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Frank Jackson, 9 Aug 20 Whether the bombing of Hiroshima or the entry of the Soviet Union into the war was the crucial event in causing the Japanese surrender can never be conclusively settled (Hiroshima at 75: bitter row persists over US decision to drop the bomb, 5 August). However, very little is said about the motives for the second bomb, on Nagasaki three days later. Few argued that it was necessary to reinforce the message of Hiroshima. Rather, the military and scientific imperative was to test a different bomb design – “Fat Man”, an implosion type using plutonium, as opposed to the uranium of Hiroshima’s “Little Boy”. To my mind that, destroying a mainly civilian city for such reasons, makes it even more of a war crime, if that is possible, than the bombing of Hiroshim.a
Frank Jackson
Former co-chair, World Disarmament Campaign https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/aug/07/harry-truman-and-the-nuclear-bombs-dropped-on-hiroshima-and-nagasaki
“Shinda Onnanoko” (“Dead Girl”), by Nâzim Hikmet, translated into Japanese by Nobuyuki Nakamoto
I come and stand at every door
But no one hears my silent tread.
I knock and yet remain unseen
For I am dead, for I am dead.
I’m only seven, although I died
In Hiroshima long ago.
I’m seven now as I was then.
When children die, they do not grow.
My hair was scorched by swirling flame.
My eyes grew dim; my eyes grew blind.
Death came and turned my bones to dust
And that was scattered by the wind.
I need no fruit, I need no rice.
I need no sweets, nor even bread.
I ask for nothing for myself
For I am dead, for I am dead.
All that I ask is that for peace
You fight today, you fight today
So that the children of the world
May live and grow and laugh and play.
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