2016 September 05 « nuclear-news

Anti nuclear groups beg Niigata Governor Hirohiko Izumida to run for re-election

Groups fear no nuclear debate in Niigata governor’s race http://www.asahi.com/ajw/articles/AJ201609040026.html By YUKO MATSUURA/ Staff Writer September 4, 2016 NIIGATA–Anti-nuclear groups are pleading with Niigata Governor Hirohiko Izumida to rescind his decision not to run for re-election, seeing him as the “last bastion” to block the restart of the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear power plant.

The groups fear that the absence of Izumida in the Oct. 16 Niigata gubernatorial election, whose official campaigning starts on Sept. 29, will cause a dearth in debate among candidates on the safety of the multiple-reactor nuclear plant operated by Tokyo Electric Power Co. in the prefecture.

“Governor (Izumida) is not aware of his value,” said Kunio Ueno, 66, secretary-general of the organizing committee for a gathering of anti-nuclear groups held in Kashiwazaki on Sept. 3.

Eighteen groups, based in and outside Niigata Prefecture, set up the organizing committee for the gathering and demanded the decommissioning of reactors at the plant.

“We will not allow candidates in the gubernatorial election to conceal a point of contention,” their declaration read. “We will make the issue of the nuclear power plant the biggest point of contention.”

Outside the site of the gathering, several citizens groups collected signatures to ask Izumida to run in the election.

On Aug. 30, Izumida, 53, who is in his third term as Niigata governor, announced he will not seek re-election, citing a report in a local newspaper that was not related to the nuclear issue.

The Nuclear Regulation Authority is currently conducting screenings toward the restart of reactors at the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear power plant.

But Izumida has insisted that the causes of the 2011 disaster at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant, also operated by TEPCO, must be verified before reactor operations can resume in his prefecture. As of now, only Tamio Mori, 67, mayor of Nagaoka in Niigata Prefecture, has announced he will run in the governor’s race.

On the issue of whether to restart the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear plant, Mori has only said, “I will strictly examine it based on protecting the security and safety of people in the prefecture.”

About 1,300 people took part in the Sept. 3 gathering.

Sayaka Sakazume, 32, of Niigata city, said: “It will be a problem for me if there are no candidates I can vote for based on my thoughts against the reactor restarts. I want a political situation in which we can choose a candidate.”

September 5, 2016 Posted by Christina Macpherson | Japan, opposition to nuclear, politics | Leave a comment

Water guzzling nuclear power not a good idea for Pueblo County, Colorado

No to nuclear power, http://www.chieftain.com/opinion/5111644-120/nuclear-power-pueblo-operations, Paul D. Conatore, 4 Sept 16 An opinion published in The Pueblo Chieftain touted nuclear power as “safe, reliant, and clean,” and proclaimed “Pueblo would be an ideal location for a new nuclear power plant.”

To believe it, nuclear power would eliminate high greenhouse gas emissions and high costs associated with providing reliable energy to Colorado consumers; create technological innovation jobs and opportunities; and reinstate uranium mining in Colorado. We shouldn’t be fooled.

A veiled attempt to resurrect a failed proposal for an NPP in Pueblo, the opinion is ill-founded and ill-considered in its assertions and omissions.

Absent are the discussions of major problems in uranium mining, milling and enrichment; fuel fabrication operations; nuclear reactor operations; radioactive waste operations that result in radioactive and chemical pollution and contamination of air, water and earth; and adverse public health and environmental impacts.

Consider this also: Nuclear power is the most water-guzzling of energy sources, but no connection is drawn between limited water resources in Pueblo County and the water requirements of an NPP built here.

Nuclear power plants consume tens of millions to a few billion gallons of water each day, depending on the type and number of reactors. They have an insatiable thirst for cooling water.

Intense competition for water among agricultural, environmental, industrial and municipal consumers already exists. Introducing nuclear power consumption would only exacerbate the situation.

Anyone honestly advocating protection of the Arkansas River water resource would be well advised to look deeply into the facts before backing a plant in Pueblo.

September 5, 2016 Posted by Christina Macpherson | general | Leave a comment

China ratifies Paris climate agreement

China has ratified Paris climate agreement, state media says, ABC News 3 Sep 16 China has ratified the Paris agreement on climate change, according to state media, a key move by the world’s biggest polluter that brings the deal a major step closer to coming into force.

The National People’s Congress legislature voted to adopt “the proposal to review and ratify the Paris Agreement”, the official Xinhua news agency said.

The Paris pact calls for capping global warming at well below two degrees Celsius, and 1.5C if possible, compared with pre-industrial levels.

China is responsible for about 25 per cent of global carbon emissions, with the US in second place on about 15 per cent, making their efforts crucial in the fight against warming.

The Paris deal will come into force 30 days after at least 55 countries, accounting for 55 per cent of global greenhouse gas emissions, have ratified it……..http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-09-03/china-ratifies-paris-climate-agreement3a-xinhua/7811778?section=environment

September 5, 2016 Posted by Christina Macpherson | China, climate change | Leave a comment

Indigenous people battle against uranium mining in Grand Canyon watershed

Grand Canyon tribe fears for its future amid battle against uranium mining Conservationists and other campaigners are urging President Obama to designate 1.7 million acres of the Canyon watershed a national monument before he leaves office, Independent Tim Walker Arizona @timwalker 30 August 2016 “…….First mined for copper at the turn of the 20th Century, the Orphan Mine became a source of uranium to supply the nuclear arms race in the 1950s. It was closed in 1969, but not before contaminating the water in nearby Horn Creek with enough uranium that passing hikers are warned not to drink it. The US National Park Service has already spent millions on a clean-up effort that is still in its early stages. “It proves not everything you dig up can be covered again,” says Kaska, a member of the Havasupai tribe.

The Havasupai, whose name means “people of the blue-green water”, have lived in the Canyon for at least 800 years. The tribe, who today number fewer than 700, rely for their income on the tourists – some 20,000 per year – who visit their reservation to see its strikingly beautiful blue-green waterfalls. But now they fear their lives and livelihoods could be endangered by another uranium mine being drilled nearby.

Canyon Mine sits far from the tourist attractions of the Grand Canyon, six miles to the south in a quiet, 15-acre patch of the Kaibab National Forest. But it is close to Red Butte, a Havasupai sacred site – and, more perilously, it threatens to affect the tribe’s water. The aquifer under the mine flows into Havasupai Springs, their sole water source…

Now, the Havasupai, the Navajo and the Grand Canyon Trust are all part of a coalition of tribes, conservationists and other campaigners hoping to persuade President Obama to create a national monument that would permanently protect the Grand Canyon watershed from any further uranium mining.

Since taking office, Obama has created or enlarged 26 national monuments, protecting almost 550 million acres of federal land and water – at least twice as much as any of his predecessors. Last week, under the US Antiquities Act, he created the largest protected area on Earth, expanding a national marine monument around Hawaii to 582,578 square miles……..http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/grand-canyon-tribe-uranium-mining-obama-national-monument-a7215776.html

September 5, 2016 Posted by Christina Macpherson | indigenous issues, opposition to nuclear, Uranium | Leave a comment

Evacuation drill held near Ikata nuclear plant

Local residents take part in evacuation drill held near Ikata nuclear plant http://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2016/09/04/national/local-residents-take-part-evacuation-drill-held-near-ikata-nuclear-plant/#.V8yIJlt97Gg IKATA, EHIME PREF. – The Ehime Prefectural Government on Sunday held an evacuation exercise around Shikoku Electric Power Co.’s Ikata nuclear power plant, the first of its kind since the Aug. 12 restart of the No. 3 reactor at the plant.

Some 400 residents in the town of Ikata joined the exercise to check how to get to Misaki Port from their homes under the scenario a serious accident had happened.

Led by local police cars, participants began appearing at a temporary meeting place near the port some 20 minutes after they started evacuation by sharing rides.

From the meeting place, where candies were delivered as iodine pills by nurses, they rode on buses to the port as instructed by local authorities. All attendees arrived at the port, where maritime evacuation begins, about 50 minutes after the start of the drill.

As the nuclear plant is located at the base of Cape Sada, evacuation operations on both land and marine routes are under consideration. Last November, an exercise was held to take evacuees by ship to Oita Prefecture on the other side of the Seto Inland Sea.

A resident who joined Sunday’s drill said that if there were a landslide caused by heavy rain, it would be difficult to come to the port.

September 5, 2016 Posted by Christina Macpherson | Japan, safety | Leave a comment

Russia continues its frantic nuclear marketing – to Jordan this time

Russia expects feasibility study for Jordan in early 2017, WNN 02 September 2016

A
feasibility study on the construction of nuclear power plants in Jordan is to be prepared in the first half of next year, Sergey Kirienko,
director general of the Russian state nuclear corporation Rosatom said today. Kirienko spoke to reporters at the second Eastern Economic Forum that opened today in the Russian city Vladivostock…….http://tinyurl.com/hh5mgty

September 5, 2016 Posted by Christina Macpherson | Jordan, marketing, Russia | Leave a comment

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