Following the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant disaster in 2011 many concerned citizens—particularly mothers—were unconvinced by the Japanese government’s assurances that the country’s food supply was safe. They took matters into their own hands, collecting their own scientific data that revealed radiation-contaminated food. In Radiation Brain Moms and Citizen Scientists Aya Hirata Kimura shows how, instead of being praised for their concern about their communities’ health and safety, they faced stiff social sanctions, which dismissed their results by attributing them to the work of irrational and rumor-spreading women who lacked scientific knowledge. These citizen scientists were unsuccessful at gaining political traction, as they were constrained by neoliberal and traditional gender ideologies that dictated how private citizens—especially women—should act. By highlighting the challenges these citizen scientists faced, Kimura provides insights into the complicated relationship between science, foodways, gender, and politics in post-Fukushima Japan and beyond.
About The Author(s)
Aya Hirata Kimura is Associate Professor of Women’s Studies at the University of Hawai’i at Manoa and the author of Hidden Hunger: Gender and Politics of Smarter Foods.
“At the European level, to our knowledge, no instructions have been given to mobilize the networks of measurements and analytical laboratories; no official information has been released; no warning has addressed to European nationals traveling or residing in regions potentially at risk.” CRIIRAD
“All lessons must be learned from these dysfunctions both at European and international level so that opacity and indifference do not preside over the management of the next nuclear disaster.”
The rapid notification system for nuclear accidents set up after the Chernobyl disaster is in total failure. We still do not know which facility is causing the contamination. We do not know how many workers, how many inhabitants, how many children were exposed to radiation; how many were contaminated; what doses of radiation they were able to receive … But all is well, since in Europe ruthenium levels 106 remained very low!
The World Health Organization (WHO) continues to be silent: no warning, no warning, no request investigation was launched by the WHO Office for Europe, whose expertise extends from Greenland to Siberia, including the States singled out by official simulations, including the Russian Federation.
In blue the area is under the WHO Office for Europe. The International Atomic Energy Agency turns away the eye and attention: no position taken despite its responsibilities under the International Convention on Early Notification of Nuclear Accidents! No call for investigation. On the contrary: the publication of a document “for authorities’ use only” which focuses on the absence of any risk in Europe, deliberately obscuring the situation in the rejection! And what about the tables of results produced in the appendix? Clearly erroneous data and other which contradict the simulations of the IRSN without anyone worrying! Can not check anything because the results of analyzes, yet paid by the taxpayers of the countries concerned, are not free to access!
CRIIRAD challenges the World Health Organization Read the mail of 17/11/2017 CRIIRAD wrote this day to Mrs JAKAD, Director of the WHO European Office, to ask for explanations of the total silence of this body in a file likely to pose significant health problems. according to the IRSN rating of 9/11/2017, experts from several countries agree on the importance of radioactive release 1. He would have/may require:
1 / the implementation of protective measures such as confinement or evacuation in a radius of 5 km around the site of emission and
2 / the control of the contamination of the food up to 40 km of distance.
Recall that the authorities have set particularly high dose levels for triggering these emergency measures. If official estimates are correct, areas requiring protective measures extend well beyond these perimeters. How has WHO been able to remain silent and can it remain so today? Why did not she alerted to the need to act very quickly in case of atmospheric contamination? Why did not she explain that exposure levels in the discharge zone have nothing to do with what can be measured at 1,000 or 2,000 km from distance? Why has it not reminded the States likely to be at the origin of the rejection that everything must be put in to identify the facility in question and limit exposures? Does not its constitution stipulate that governments have responsibility for the health of their peoples? 1 According to IRSN calculations, the ruthenium 106 release would be between 100 and 300 TBq. This radionuclide is necessarily in equilibrium with its short-lived descendant Rhodium 106, also radioactive, and could be accompanied by ruthenium 103 (radio- nuclide detected at very low levels in Sweden). The absence of any other radionuclide remains to be demonstrated, in particular (but not only) in the rejection sector.
We can only note, once again, the total erasure of this agency when the nuclear power is in cause. One can only wonder again about the consequences of the agreement which binds WHO to the IAEA, forces it to to deal with the statutory mission of the latter, which is to ensure the development of civilian nuclear energy. It was necessary to intervene without delay because the exposures are major in the first days and the first weeks but there is still time to act. CRIIRAD calls on WHO to make every effort to determine what is happened and to provide the victims with all the help they need.
CRIIRAD challenges the International Atomic Energy Agency Read the mail of 17/11/2017 CRIIRAD is surprised by the absence of any public position taken by the IAEA while the provisions of the Convention on Early Notification of a Nuclear Accident 2 are clearly violated. She asked that the IAEA carry out, or cause to be carried out, all the investigations necessary to identify the origin of the contamination.
CRIIRAD also denounces the content of the documents that the IAEA has written“for the exclusive use of the authorities”: the “Status of Measurements of Ru-106 in Europe” press release and its technical annex presenting the measures transmitted to the IAEA until 13/10/2017. The IAEA totally obscures the question of the origin of the contamination and the risks incurred on the spot!
Moreover, the agency’s assessments of the situation in Europe leave no room for no worry: according to her, the implementation of protective measures would be justified only after one dose 100 mSv in 7 days! Gold:
1 / the value of 100 mSv corresponds to the upper limit of the range of 20 to 100 mSv recommended by the ICRP, and chosen by the European Union, for the management of nuclear accidents;
2 / the application of values above 20 mSv would only be justified in the event of a major nuclear accident in Europe. For the impact of a long-range accident, populations must demand that the level of radiological risk exceeds that defined for normal situations, which is already high enough, ie 1 mSv / year. In addition, the 11 pages of results published in the appendix contain clearly erroneous statements. For some results, there is confusion between the date of air sampling and the date of publication of the results. By elsewhere, the table shows that contamination reached Budapest on 25 September at the latest. But there is more 2,500 km between central Hungary and the area that the IRSN simulation designates with the strongest probability (60 to 80%) as the source of the release. It is highly unlikely that the contamination could cross such a distance in 24 hours. A delay of 3 or 4 days would be more logical but it puts in question the modelizations who place the date of rejection in the last week of September. The IAEA must also specify the arguments on which it relies to remove the runway from a powered satellite by a source of ruthenium 106. The official models are based on the assumption that this origin is excluded on the basis of IAEA declarations but no supporting text has been published.
Europe: carelessness, cowardice or concealment? At the European level, to our knowledge, no instructions have been given to mobilize the networks of measurements and analytical laboratories; no official information has been released; no warning has addressed to European nationals traveling or residing in regions potentially at risk. Can we imagine that no investigation has been launched, despite the means available, to go back to source of contamination, at least to validate or invalidate certain assumptions?
Can we believe that embassies have not been solicited? That no sample was taken? Is it possible that measurements were made of aircraft that flew over suspicious installations such as those Mayak?
That could have been done 30 years ago, for Chernobyl, and even earlier for the control of fallout nuclear tests! Are European states guilty of inaction? Did they prefer not to know? Or do they hold this information they prefer to keep secret?
Most media were satisfied with reassuring information on the situation in Europe, which unfortunately in their silence. All lessons must be learned from these dysfunctions both at European and international level so that opacity and indifference do not preside over the management of the next nuclear disaster. 2 Read the text of the Convention, which entered into force in October 1986; see the list of signatory states as of March 3, 2017
After many months of waiting to hear if Mordechai Vanunu will be released from captivity (He is under house arrest still after many years of incarceration), we find the courts in Israel have once again denied him the right to be with his wife in Norway.
Response from Human Rights organisations is non existent as is the response from the worlds media.
Israel: Mordechai Vanunu sentence clear violation of human rights
“Nov’ 6 2017. in the Israel supreme court they come back repeating the same BS, they did not review any thing, they didn’t change any thing. They repeat the same mantra to their supreme court judges and blaming me for not following their stupid, barbaric order after 32 years.
I am not yet free to leave this country, to go to join my wife in Oslo. They love to see me suffering here. But they must end this case, soon or later. The ISRAEL ATOMIC SECRETS has gone for ever. This is Irreversible, for ever, NO MATTER WHAT THEY ARE DOING TO ME. Freedom must come.!,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,Nov’ 14. The court decided to reject my appeal ;no justice in israel.”
Some recent reports mentioning Mordechai Vanunu;
“Israel is believed to be the sole possessor of a nuclear arsenal in the Middle East with more than 200 undeclared nuclear warheads.
Tel Aviv has rejected global calls to join the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) and does not allow international inspectors to observe its controversial nuclear program.
The clandestine nuclear activities were uncovered when whistle-blower Mordechai Vanunu, originally a technician at the Dimona nuclear facility, handed overwhelming evidence of Israel’s nuclear program to Britain’s Sunday Times in 1986.
It is believed that the nuclear site is home to Israel’s nuclear weapons. “
The global population is predicted to rise to 10 billion by 2050, and the majority of those people will live in cities. Given that cities already account for 75% of the world’s energy use and 76% of carbon dioxide emissions, there’s a growing focus on how urban planning and design can reduce emissions and help humanity to adapt to the impacts of climate change.
Representatives of the world’s global powers have gathered in Bonn to attend the 23rd Conference of the Parties to the UN Convention on Climate Change – more pithily known as COP 23.
Working together to affect large-scale change has been the key message of the conference. There has been a groundswell of urban innovation on show, largely driven by the mayors and governors of cities and regions, as well as industry leaders and universities interested in promoting opportunities for greener growth.
These bodies have formed alliances and networks to develop ideas and strategies around smart mobility, renewable energy, living infrastructure and sustainable urban design. This has been the good news story of COP 23. The conference has given nation states a unique opportunity to work more closely with cities, to plan for climate change.
So, in my role as an urban and regional planner (in practice and academia) I spent some time in Bonn finding out about the exciting ways that cities are leading the fight against climate change.
1. Low-carbon precincts
One aim is for current and future cities to be powered by 100% renewable electricity. This can be achieved with a combination of renewable energy sources such as wind, solar or hydro, with battery storage and microgrids integrating with national grids as needed.
Cities will have integrated transport systems with electric-powered light rail and personal vehicles, while promoting active travel such as walking and cycling. Designing for integrated green precincts will bring greater benefits for local communities than one green building at a time. For example, community recycling and solar programs are more feasible on a larger precinct scale.
Of course, there are challenges to overcome. Finding appropriate locations for renewable energy farms that are also acceptable to the local people requires careful consideration of design guidelines and community engagement in the decision-making process.
The ICLEI 100% Renewable Cities Network is a prime example of the work being done to achieve this, by connecting cities to share knowledge and support each other. The network includes cities such as Canberra, the Australian capital, which is on track to achieve its target of 100% renewable electricity by 2020.
2. Living infrastructure
Cities across the world are increasingly incorporating living infrastructure, to deliver social, environmental and economic services to urban communities. This is done by integrating trees, shrubs, grass and open spaces (green infrastructure); rainscapes and waterways (blue infrastructure); and soils, surface and man-made structures (grey infrastructure) into the fabric of the city.
In China’s “sponge cities”, rooftop gardens help to capture storm water and regulate the temperature of the building. Copenhagen’s cloudburst plan rethinks the way water flows through the city by installing channels above and beneath the surface to prevent flooding. And water sensitive urban design is being put to use in drier cities, to make efficient use of everything from rainwater to waste water.
Living infrastructure also offers nature-based solutions for coastal cities under increasing threat from rising sea levels and more extreme coastal storms. For instance, replanting mangroves and coastal vegetation provides softer barriers between land and sea, while restoring natural waterways by removing dams and man-made canal systems can reduce the urban heat island effect and mitigate its negative impacts on human health.
3. Urban networks
Urban networks make use of digital connectivity and the internet of things to help cities far and wide work toward global goals: think everything from integrated green transport systems, to big data for improving resource efficiency, to innovative platforms for exchanging knowledge and practices between cities, towns and villages.
Organisations such as the C40, ICLEI and the Global Covenant of Mayors are already helping to coordinate action between city leaders – and at COP 23 the Climate Summit of Local and Regional Leaders adopted the Bonn Fiji Commitment to deliver the Paris Agreement at all levels. Built environment professionals from around the world are also joining the groundswell of urban action, launching the Planners for Climate Actiongroup this week at COP 23.
Sustainable solutions such as these need green financing mechanisms and support from national governments if they are to deliver real outcomes on the ground. At COP 23, the World Bank unveiled a new programme designed to provide cities with a vehicle to raise necessary funding and investment, in partnership with private enterprise.
In one of the conference’s key finance sessions, the former leader of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, Christiana Figueres, stressed that green finance will be the key to urban change, with a current industry target of $US1 trillion, and more in green bonds by 2020.
While a few states may choose to ignore international agreements, this groundswell of collaborative action across businesses, governments and communities is sending a strong message that national governments would be wise to heed. Embracing and investing in urban transformation that improves the health of people and the planet is clearly a winning strategy.
We should dismantle our nuclear stash, not expand it, WHYY, By Aaron Kase, November 17, 2017
There is no better time than today to re-evaluate our country’s nuclear stance toward the rest of the world. Tensions with Russia are rising. China grows ever more powerful. And North Korea claims it has the capacity to reach the United States with a nuclear weapon, and it is willing to use it.
In that context, the United States is considering a large-scale weapon modernization program, upgrading the bombs and their delivery systems over the next several decades. Some reporting even suggests that the president has called for a tenfold increase of our arsenal. Although the proposition doesn’t have serious policy ramifications, it does represent a mindset that more is better when it comes to nuclear weapons.
Our nuclear deterrent force, one might think, is more important than ever, including the collection of 400 intercontinental ballistic missile — or ICBM — silos scattered throughout the country, ready to launch death and destruction at a moment’s notice. Conventional wisdom holds that all three legs of the triad — ICBMs, bombers and submarines — are necessary to prevent our adversaries from launching an attack on American soil. However, it’s increasingly clear that there’s no need to update the ICBM force at all, and, in fact, we would be better off dismantling the missiles that we currently have.
“Deterrence is so widely baked into American consciousness that it’s not even questioned,” says Ryan Snyder, a visiting research fellow at the Arms Control Association. “We have all these weapons to deter attacks on us.”
But, he points out, there’s no deterrence objective that ICBMs accomplish that our fleet of submarines and bombers can’t handle just as well. In the macabre scenario that we decided it necessary to launch a strike on another country, there is more than enough firepower on the subs and planes to target any plausible sites in Russia, China, North Korea, and Iran combined, with more weapons left over. No rational actor would strike the U.S. first under those conditions, and, if we aren’t dealing with rational actors, there’s no reason the ICBMs would stop them…..
a key problem with the ICBM force — the silos are just sitting there, on our homeland, and would be the first targets if Russia launched an attack to try to limit our retaliatory capabilities. Therefore if we suspect missiles are on their way toward American soil, we have to launch our own within half an hour or risk their destruction. That makes the system and, by extension, the world, critically vulnerable to a computer glitch or false alarm. It’s happened before.
By the same token, if Russia or another country even suspects we are preparing a first strike from our missile silos, it’s plausible they could launch their own to pre-empt it, detonating nuclear explosions across the country. That’s not an appealing scenario, to put it mildly.
To reduce the odds of any of these events, the best tack is to limit the number of nuclear weapons in the world, whether they are controlled by the U.S. government or others. And if the nation wants to take a realistic stance on nonproliferation, consider how little credibility we have to convince other countries not to develop weapons without making efforts to reduce the number and volatility of our own stash. “You don’t get to simply go around the world and say we have nuclear weapons and you don’t get to have them,” Snyder says. “I don’t think that’s a sustainable plan.”
Instead, we’re more likely to incite another arms race if we keep pouring money into our weapons, leading to a world with more nukes, not less. “We have to have a strategy that works toward trying to get rid of this kind of stuff,” Snyder continues. “That strategy is probably impossible without the United States making a unilateral reduction.”
On a less visceral level, the expense is another consideration. The plan to update our arsenal is estimated by various sources to cost between $1 trillion and $1.46 trillion, and that’s before we get into the inevitable delays and overruns. Up to $140 billion of that is geared toward new ICBMs, money that could be far better spent on other defense or domestic needs.
Finally, amid the discussions of technical capabilities and dollars and cents, don’t lose sight of the human component, taking into account the millions and millions of people who would be incinerated in the event of an all-out war, not to mention the very real possibility of rendering the planet uninhabitable to human life. Any action we can take to reduce those odds is the only rational way to go. What difference does it make if Russia has a few hundred more weapons than we do if everyone ends up dead anyway? https://whyy.org/articles/dismantle-nuclear-stash-not-expand/
Probe Finds Ongoing Radioactive Leaks at Illinois Nuclear Plants VOA News, 17 Nov 17, Radioactive waste continues to pour from Exelon’s Illinois nuclear power plants more than a decade after the discovery of chronic leaks led to national outrage, a $1.2 million government settlement and a company vow to guard against future accidents, an investigation by a government watchdog group found.
Since 2007, there have been at least 35 reported leaks, spills or other accidental releases in Illinois of water contaminated with radioactive tritium, a byproduct of nuclear power production and a carcinogen at high levels, a Better Government Association review of federal and state records shows.
No fines were issued for the accidents, all of which were self-reported by the company.
The most recent leak of 35,000 gallons (132,000 liters) occurred over two weeks in May and June at Exelon’s Braidwood plant, southwest of Chicago. The same facility was the focus of a community panic in the mid-2000s after a series of accidents stirred debate over the safety of aging nuclear plants.
A 2014 incident at Exelon’s Dresden facility in Grundy County involved the release of about 500,000 gallons (1,900,000 liters) of highly radioactive water. Contamination was later found in the plant’s sewer lines and miles away in the Morris, Illinois, sewage treatment plant.
Another leak was discovered in 2007 at the Quad Cities plant in Cordova. It took eight months to plug and led to groundwater radiation readings up to 375 times of that allowed under federal safe drinking water standards.
Exelon had threatened to close the Quad Cities plant, but relented last year after Gov. Bruce Rauner signed bailout legislation authorizing big rate hikes……..
David Lochbaum, an analyst with the nonprofit Union of Concerned Scientists, says “Leaks aren’t supposed to happen. Workers and the public could be harmed. There is a hazard there.”
Among the 61 nuclear power plants operating in the U.S., more than half have reactors that are at or near the end of their originally expected lifespans — including the Dresden and Quad Cities plants.
Faulty Areva fuel rods sent to nuclear reactors, Swiss plant closed
* Areva sent faulty fuel roads to several nuclear plants
* Says no danger, declines to identify which reactors
* Swiss Leibstadt closed, no comment on EDF reactors
By Geert De Clercq and John Revill PARIS/ZURICH, Nov 17 (Reuters) – French nuclear group Areva delivered defective fuel rods for nuclear reactors but said on Friday that there was no safety risk. Swiss media, however, reported that a Swiss nuclear plant was closed due to problems with the rods.
Areva said in a statement that following the discovery of a leaking fuel rod at its Paimboeuf, France, zirconium-tube manufacturing plant, tests had showed that some fuel rods which should have been rejected were delivered to utilities companies.
Fuel rods which already have been loaded in reactors can continue operating without impairing plant safety and none of the affected rods have caused leaks, Areva said.
An Areva spokesman said that utilities operating the faulty tubes had been informed but declined say to which companies were involved, citing “industrial confidentiality”.
He declined to say whether French utility EDF, Areva’s main customer, had received faulty rods. EDF has had to close several reactors in the past two years due to manufacturing problems at Areva foundry Creusot Forge.
Swiss broadcaster SRF reported that the Leibstadt nuclear plant in northern Switzerland has been closed till the end of the year because of faulty Areva fuel rods.
A spokeswoman for the Leibstadt plant confirmed that a supplier had informed the utility that there was a problem with 16 new fuel rods, but declined to identify the supplier.
She added that the supplier later also said that six fuel rods which had already been installed were also faulty. The rods – which hold the uranium pellets that generate heat in the reactor core – had been installed in the last three-four years.
“The rods that were already installed had not caused any problems but we removed them as a precaution. There was no safety issue,” she said.
The Swiss Federal Nuclear Safety Inspectorate has been informed and that the plant – which had been set to reopen Nov. 7 following maintenance – will remain closed till end December.
Pope Francis rebukes ‘perverse’ climate change deniers over rejection of science behind global warming
Pontiff encourages policymakers to accelerate their efforts to curb greenhouse gas emissions at Bonn summit Independent, Nicole Winfield, 17 Nov 17,Pope Francis has rebuked those who deny the science behind global warming and urged negotiators at climate talks in Germany to avoid falling prey to such “perverse attitudes” and instead accelerate efforts to curb greenhouse gas emissions.
Francis issued a message to the Bonn meeting, which is working to implement the 2015 Paris accord aimed at capping global emissions.
In it, Francis called climate change “one of the most worrisome phenomena that humanity is facing.” He urged negotiators to take action free of special interests and political or economic pressures, and to instead engage in an honest dialogue about the future of the planet. ……. In his message, the Argentine pope denounced that efforts to combat climate change are often frustrated by those who deny the science behind it or are indifferent to it, those who are resigned to it or think it can be solved by technical solutions, which he termed “inadequate.” “We must avoid falling into these four perverse attitudes, which certainly don’t help honest research and sincere, productive dialogue,” he said. http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/pope-france-climate-change-deniers-perverse-global-warming-greenhouse-gas-emissions-bonn-germany-a8060746.html
¶ “What the UN Climate Summit is teaching us about environmental action” • This year’s UN Climate Summit is almost over. Clear leaders have emerged, and the US is not one of them. Syria has agreed to sign the Paris agreement on climate change. The US is alone in refusing to make a voluntary climate change commitment. [GlobalComment.com]
Glacier (Photo: derwiki | Pixabay)
COP23:
¶ World leaders took center stage at the COP23 climate change conference in Bonn this week to promise dramatic new actions aimed at reducing global climate emissions. They also used the occasion to castigate the United States and Donald Trump for being entirely out of step with the rest of the world community on this issue. [CleanTechnica]
¶ India has announced some good news for COP23. Just a few years ago, India relied almost exclusively on coal to fuel its rapid…
Associated Press Augusta Chronicle, 17 Nov 17 WASHINGTON — Congress on Thursday sent President Donald Trump a sweeping defense policy bill authorizing a $700 billion budget for the military, including $340 million for MOX at Savannah River Site. The defense authorization bill for 2018 sailed through the Senate by voice vote. The House had approved the measure earlier this week.
Public Watchdogs Files Lawsuit to Stop Burial of Spent Nuclear Waste at SONGS San Clemente Times, By Staff, November 16, 2017 By Eric Heinz
An organization that scrutinizes government activity is making a last effort to prevent the storage of spent nuclear fuel rods at San Onofre.
Public Watchdogs, a nonprofit organization based in La Mesa, filed a lawsuit in federal court on Wednesday against the United States government, the Department of Defense and Secretary James Mattis, as well as Southern California Edison, the operators of San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station (SONGS), and San Diego Gas and Electric to prevent the storage of more than 3.6 million pounds of radioactive fuel rods.
The lawsuit claims that under Public Law 88-82, a declaration from 1963 that allows the secretary of the Navy to authorize a permit for the nuclear power plant, storage of the spent nuclear waste was not authorized in the law.
The Navy owns the land where SONGS and Camp Pendleton are established.
Public Watchdogs is seeking an injunction that would find the “storage of spent nuclear fuel at SONGS is not authorized by, and is outside the scope of the authority granted to the Federal Defendants under, Public Law 88-82,” as well as “an order or judgment enjoining Federal Defendants from authorizing SCE and SDGE from storing spent nuclear fuel at SONGS and further enjoining SCE and SDGE from storing spent fuel at SONGS……. http://www.sanclementetimes.com/public-watchdogs-files-lawsuit-stop-burial-spent-nuclear-waste-songs/
Strong demand is set to give a huge boost to renewable energy growth in sub-Saharan Africa over the next five years, driving cumulative capacity up more than 70 percent, a senior international energy official said Wednesday. From Ethiopia to South Africa, millions of people are getting access to electricity for the first time as the […]
Unfortunately, with human-caused climate change, these kinds of devastating events have become far more frequent. With the Earth warming by around 1.1 to 1.2 C above pre-industrial averages, there are now four times as many instances of extreme weather than there were as recently as the 1970s.
There are now 400 extreme weather events every year, four times as many as in 1970 pic.twitter.com/XU1JyOIehe
What this means is that anywhere around the world now, the hammer of severe weather and related damages is four times more likely to fall than in the past. That the tempo of such events is now greatly increased. All thanks to continued fossil fuel burning, atmospheric CO2 levels that will average around 407 ppm over the coming months, the heat that these greenhouse gasses are continuing to add to the Earth’s climate system, and…
Renewable energy is a hot topic in Europe at the moment. Billions are being invested, and expectations are sky high. So, in this scenario, what expectations should we have for Norwegian hydropower? This was the back-drop for the discussion HydroCen lead at a work shop in Brussels during the NTNU alumni conference this month. At […]
Feinstein seeks contact with FBI informant in Russia nuclear bribery case, The Hill
BY JOHN SOLOMON – 11/16/17Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) has sought access to an undercover informant who helped the FBI chronicle bribery, kickbacks and money laundering inside Moscow’s nuclear industry as part of an Obama-era Russia corruption case.
Heather Sawyer, the general counsel for Feinstein — the top Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee — sent an email this week to the lawyer for the former FBI informant, William Campbell, seeking to be included in conversations involving the committee.
Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), the chairman of the committee, secured an agreement with the Justice Department to allow Campbell to talk to Congress about the evidence he gathered for the FBI from 2009 to 2014 when he worked as a consultant for Tenex, a subsidiary of Russia’s state-owned commercial nuclear arm Rosatom.
Campbell’s work led to the indictments of three major players, including Tenex official Vadim Mikerin, a key Russian nuclear figure inside the United States who was sentenced to 48 months in prison in December 2015.
Grassley wants to know what the FBI did with the evidence it first gathered in 2009 that Mikerin and others inside the Russian nuclear industry were engaged in illegal activity.
The GOP chairman also wants to know whether the Obama administration was alerted to the illegal activity before it approved the sale of U.S. uranium assets to Rosatom and made other favorable decisions worth billions of dollars to Russia’s nuclear industry………
nuclear-news 