#Fukushima #UNSCEAR Radiation #debunk – Dr. Alex Rosen, #IPPNW REDUX – Nuclear Hotseat 375
This Week’s Featured Interview:
- Dr. Alex Rosen is a German pediatrician and Vice President of International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War in Germany. We spoke originally in July of 2014, just after the United Nations UNSCEAR report was released.
LINK to Full IPPNW report in English, Critical Analysis of the UNSCEAR Report “Levels and effects of radiation exposure due to the nuclear accident after the 2011 Great East-Japan Earthquake and tsunami”
Numnutz of the Week (for Outstanding Nuclear Boneheadedness):
A practice run dropping a nuclear bomb from a B-2 stealth bomber? What are they practicing FOR?
Activist Links:
Olympics and Paralympics Warning:
This Week’s Featured Interview:
- Dr. Alex Rosen is a German pediatrician and Vice President of International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War in Germany. We spoke originally in July of 2014, just after the United Nations UNSCEAR report was released.
LINK to Full IPPNW report in English, Critical Analysis of the UNSCEAR Report “Levels and effects of radiation exposure due to the nuclear accident after the 2011 Great East-Japan Earthquake and tsunami”
Numnutz of the Week (for Outstanding Nuclear Boneheadedness):
A practice run dropping a nuclear bomb from a B-2 stealth bomber? What are they practicing FOR?
Activist Links:
Olympics and Paralympics Warning:
Radiation map of Tokyo area, computed in accordance with Chernobyl radiation standards.
Red indicates areas w/right to immigrate and cities under contamination surveillance.
Is attending the Olympics really worth the exposure?
- Indigenous and women filmmakers – and others – encouraged to submit your films to the International Uranium Film Festival for the 2018 screenings in Window Rock, NM and the US Southwest.
- Bob Alvarez article for Union of Concerned Scientists: Under siege: Safety in the nuclear weapons complex
- Nuclear Safety Board Slams Energy Department Plan to Weaken Oversight by Rebecca Moss
Radiation map of Tokyo area, computed in accordance with Chernobyl radiation standards.
Red indicates areas w/right to immigrate and cities under contamination surveillance.
Is attending the Olympics really worth the exposure?
- Indigenous and women filmmakers – and others – encouraged to submit your films to the International Uranium Film Festival for the 2018 screenings in Window Rock, NM and the US Southwest.
- Bob Alvarez article for Union of Concerned Scientists: Under siege: Safety in the nuclear weapons complex
- Nuclear Safety Board Slams Energy Department Plan to Weaken Oversight by Rebecca Moss
CLICK HERE FOR PODCAST FULL INTERVIEW AND MORE HERE; http://nuclearhotseat.com/2018/09/05/united-nations-fukushima-radiation-lies-dr-alex-rosen-ippnw-nh-375/#prettyPhoto
#Fukushima – An unresolved life #ONHCR #InternalDisplacement @NRC_Norway
Repost According to Ms. Sonoda, the Government of Japan does not recognise those uprooted by the Fukushima accident as internally displaced persons, although 20 years ago the Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement acknowledged human-made disasters. Further, they have not been allowed to participate in the Government’s decisions that affect them.
“We don’t want to return with children and stay in radioactive and contaminated areas. We can’t see radiation, we can’t smell radiation,” Ms. Sonoda says. “We really need the Government to check the children’s health. They only scanned for thyroid cancer but no other health checks were made. We don’t know how [radiation] will affect children in the future.”
“Many people also struggle financially so we need basic housing support to stay evacuate,” she adds.
Over 40 million people around the world are currently internally displaced because of conflict and violence in the world, and an average of 25 million people is displaced each year due to natural disasters. Millions of other displacements are not systematically captured including those caused by land grabs, slow-onset disasters such as drought, and criminal violence…..
Image source; http://www.internal-displacement.org/globalreport2016/
Ms. Sonoda was living in Fukushima, Japan, with her husband and their child in a beautiful natural environment and with a strong local community. The day of the nuclear disaster, 11 March 2011, they felt an enormous earthquake and unrelenting aftershocks. They later saw the explosion of reactor one, live on television.
“It was a massive shock. We began preparing in case we needed to move quickly and two days later reactor three exploded,” she recalls. “We decided to evacuate because we knew reactor three used mops fuel which contains plutonium. It was a nightmare. Suddenly the nuclear disaster destroyed our lives in Fukushima.”
With the Mayor and the local school, Ms. Sonoda tried to arrange the evacuation of children but she says the local Government stopped them. Because of the damage caused by the earthquake, roads were blocked; the provision of food and fuel started to…
View original post 665 more words
To 8th September – nuclear and climate news
Japan acknowledges that prolonged exposure to ‘low level’ ionising radiation caused the cancer death of a Fukushima nuclear worker, and compensation will be paid to his family. This is the first time that the Japanese Health, Labour and Welfare Ministry have ruled on a radiation-caused death.
This will no doubt upset the nuclear lobby, who like to say that only high level radiation is harmful. It’s like the tobacco companies suggesting that only smoking 100 cigarettes a day would cause lung cancer – a few a day would be harmless, or actually good for you.
In fact, worker deaths from low level radiation have been reported many times, notably in the USA research by McClatchy News, which recorded 33,480.
Nuclear power: molten salt reactors and sodium-cooled fast reactors make the radioactive waste problem WORSE.
Nuclear reactors shutting down faster than ones are being built.
Climate change talks – in Bangkok – which sinking below rising sea
Rising CO2 levels could push ‘hundreds of millions’ into malnutrition by 2050.
JAPAN.
- Hokkaido’s Tomari NPP using emergency generators after powerful M6.7 earthquake. Japan nuclear plant’s power restored after quake triggers Hokkaido blackout.
- Fukushima episode of Netflix’s Dark Tourist sparks offence in Japan. Fukushima government considers action over Dark Tourist episode.
- Japan holds public hearings on what to do with growing amounts of radioactive water from the ruined Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant.
- Mainstream media carefully avoids mentioning the typhoon danger to Japan’s nuclear power stations and waste dumps.
- Nuclear reprocessing has little future in Japan, as utilities end funding.
UK. A report on Sellafield highlights the likely nuclear damage to Ireland. Spinning’O-Wind Turbine captures wind from any direction.
RUSSIA. Russia’s nuclear wastes, and the clean-up of Andreeva Bay .
USA.
- If Democrats take over Congress in November, there’ll be cuts to USA’s nuclear weapons spending. USA and Russia – in 20th Century -devised hideously elaborate ways of blowing each other up. A National Campaign Emerges to Prevent Nuclear War.
- Duke Energy rules out any new nuclear plants in its long range plans. Companies Orano – formerly AREVA, and Holtec aim for private-public partnerships on USA’s nuclear wastes. The economic pain of nuclear power station closures.
- Tropical storms pose danger to America’s nuclear power stations.
NORTH and SOUTH KOREA. Third summit this year between Moon Jae-in and Kim Jong-un.
GERMANY. New highs for solar power generation in Germany, as extreme heat shut nuclear and coal plants.
AUSTRIA. Austria continues its legal action crusade against nuclear power in Europe.
‘Key insights’ from the 2018 World Nuclear Industry Status Report
The World Nuclear Industry Status Report 2018 As always there is much of interest in the latest edition of the WorldNM865.4747 The 2018 edition of the World Nuclear Industry Status Report has just been released. Here are the ‘key insights’ from the report:
China Still Dominates Developments
• Nuclear power generation in the world increased by 1% in 2017 due to an 18% increase in China.
• Global nuclear power generation excluding China declined for the third year in a row.
• Four reactors started up in 2017 of which three were in China and one in Pakistan (built by a Chinese company).
• Five units started up in the first half of 2018, of which three were in China ‒ including the world’s first EPR and AP1000 ‒ and two in Russia.
• Five construction starts in the world in 2017.
• No start of construction of any commercial reactors in China since December 2016.
• The number of units under construction globally declined for the fifth year in a row, from 68 reactors at the end of 2013 to 50 by mid-2018, of which 16 are in China.
Operational Status and Construction Delays
• The nuclear share of global electricity generation remained roughly stable over the past five years with a long-term declining trend, from 17.5% in 1996 to 10.3% in 2017.
• Seven years after the Fukushima events, Japan had restarted five units by the end of 2017 ‒ generating still only 3.6% of the power in the country in 2017 ‒ and nine by mid-2018.
• As of mid-2018, 32 reactors ‒ including 26 in Japan ‒ are in Long-Term Outage (LTO).
• At least 33 of the 50 units under construction are behind schedule, mostly by several years. China is no exception, at least half of 16 units under construction are delayed. Of the 33 delayed construction projects, 15 have reported increased delays over the past year.
Only a quarter of the 16 units scheduled for startup in 2017 were actually connected to the grid.
• New-build plans have been cancelled including in Jordan, Malaysia and the U.S. or postponed such as in Argentina, Indonesia, Kazakhstan.
Decommissioning Status Report
• As of mid-2018, 115 units are undergoing decommissioning ‒ 70% of the 173 permanently shut-down reactors in the world.
• Only 19 units have been fully decommissioned: 13 in the U.S., five in Germany, and one in Japan. Of these, only 10 have been returned to greenfield sites.
Interdependencies Between Civil and Military
Infrastructures
• Nuclear weapon states remain the main proponents of nuclear power programs. A first look into the question whether military interests serve as one of the drivers for plant-life extension and new-build.
Renewables Accelerate Take-Over
• Globally, wind power output grew by 17% in 2017, solar by 35%, nuclear by 1%. Non-hydro renewables generate over 3,000 TWh more power than a decade ago, while nuclear produces less.
• Auctions resulted in record low prices for onshore wind (<US$20/MWh) offshore wind (<US$45/MWh) and solar (<US$25/MWh). This compares with the “strike price” for the Hinkley Point C Project in the U.K. (US$120/MWh).
• Nine of the 31 nuclear countries ‒ Brazil, China, Germany, India, Japan, Mexico, Netherlands, Spain and United Kingdom (U.K.) ‒ generated more electricity in 2017 from non-hydro renewables than from nuclear power.
Mycle Schneider, Antony Froggatt et al., Sept 2018,
‘The World Nuclear Industry Status Report 2018’, www.
worldnuclearreport.org/Nuclear-Power-Strategic-Asset- Liability-or-Increasingly-Irrelevant.html
Pro nuclear lobbyist Michael Shellenberger enthuses for nuclear weapons. Has he lost the plot?
In 2015, Nuclear Monitor published a detailed critique of the many ways nuclear industry insiders and lobbyists trivialize and deny the connections between nuclear power (and the broader nuclear fuel cycle) and nuclear weapons proliferation.
Since then, the arguments have been turned upside down with prominent industry insiders and lobbyists openly acknowledging power-weapons connections. This remarkable about-turn has clear origins in the crisis facing nuclear power and the perceived need to secure increased subsidies to prevent reactors closing and to build new ones. Continue reading
Climate change takes its toll on nuclear reactors that can’t cope with the heat
Weatherwatch: nuclear power plants feel the heat, During this summer’s heatwave, nuclear reactors in five European countries had to be shut down or put on reduced power, https://www.theguardian.com/news/2018/sep/07/weatherwatch-nuclear-power-plants-feel-the-heat Guardian, Paul Brown, 8 Sep 2018 An argument of the nuclear lobby is that renewables, particularly wind and solar, are unreliable because of changing weather. Only nuclear power can guarantee to keep the lights on or the air conditioners running.
This weekend – marches for climate action in many countries
Hundreds of thousands expected to join global climate marches this weekend, Protests against politicians’ failure to tackle the environmental crisis will take place in more than 90 countries, Guardian, Matthew Taylor Environment correspondent, 7 Sep 2018 Hundreds of thousand of people in more than 90 countries are expected to take part in demonstrations this weekend to protest about the failure of politicians to tackle the global environmental crisis.Organisers say more than 800 events – from marches to street theatre, acts of civil disobedience to mini festivals – will take place in towns and cities amid growing frustration at the lack of meaningful political action over the emerging climate breakdown.
Nick Bryer from campaign group 350.org which is organising the event said: “Politicians are failing. They are still protecting the interests of the fossil fuel companies over the interests of people, despite mounting evidence of the devastation these companies and this system is causing the planet.”…….
In the UK there are events organised in cities from London to Wigan, Bradford to Durham.
Jane Thewlis, from Fossil Free West Yorkshire, is organising an event in Bradford……….
One of the biggest protests is expected in Paris where up to 100,000 people are expected. Events in other European cities including Copenhagen, Brussels and Lisbon are also expected to attract tens of thousands of protesters.
The events come ahead of the Global Climate Action Summit that starts in San Fransisco next week and will see politicians and city leaders from around the world gather to discuss the climate crisis.https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/sep/07/hundreds-of-thousands-expected-to-join-global-climate-marches-this-weekend
Deplorable conditions of Japan’s ‘informal’ nuclear workers: Fukushima, radiation and leukaemia
Sworn to secrecy, after a superficial safety education drill, they are sent into highly contaminated, hot and wet labyrinthine areas.
the state also raised nuclear workers’ limits from no more than 50 mSv per year (mSv/y) and 100 mSv/5 years to 250 mSv/y to deal with emergency conditions, and determined that there would be no follow-up health treatment for those exposed to doses below 50 mSv/y, while TEPCO decided to not record radiation levels below 2 mSv/y in the misplaced justification that the effects 
would be negligible.
poor monitoring and record-keeping has meant that many former nuclear workers who develop leukaemia and other illnesses have been denied government compensation
Informal Labour, Local Citizens and the Tokyo Electric Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Crisis: Chapter Author(s): Adam Broinowski Book Title: New Worlds from Below [many footnotes and references on original] Sept 18
Nuclear workers are important as sentinels for a broader epidemic of radiation related diseases that may affect the general population. We live with contradictions everyday
Introduction The ongoing disaster at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power station (FDNPS), operated by Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO), since 11 March 2011 can be recognised as part of a global phenomenon that has been in development over some time. This disaster occurred within a social and political shift that began in the mid-1970s and that became more acute in the early 1990s in Japan with the downturn of economic growth and greater deregulation and financialisation in the global economy. After 40 years of corporate fealty in return for lifetime contracts guaranteed by corporate unions, as tariff protections were lifted further and the workforce was increasingly casualised, those most acutely affected by a weakening welfare regime were irregular day labourers, or what we might call ‘informal labour’.
During this period, many day labourers evacuated rented rooms (doya どや) and left the various yoseba (urban day labour market よせば, or lit. ‘meeting place’) to take up communal tent living in parks and on riverbanks, where they were increasingly victimised. With independent unions having long been rendered powerless, growing numbers of unemployed, unskilled and precarious youths (freeters フリーター) alongside older, vulnerable and homeless day labourers (these groups together comprising roughly 38 per cent of the workforce in 2015)3 found themselves not only lacking insurance or industrial protection but also in many cases basic living needs. With increasing deindustrialisation and capital flight, regular public outbursts of frustration and anger from these groups have manifested since the Osaka riots of 1992.
In this chapter, first I outline the conditions of irregular workers at nuclear power plants and the excess burden they have borne with the rise of nuclear labour in Japan since the 1970s. I then turn to post-3.11 conditions experienced by residents in radiation-contaminated areas. Contextualising these conditions within the genealogy of radiodosimetry standards, I seek to show, through personal interviews and localised responses, how those who are regularly exposed to radiation from Fukushima Daiichi are now confronting problems similar to those faced by informal nuclear labour for decades in Japan. This analysis shows how, after 40 years or more of environmental movements as discussed in Chapter Four, the struggle continues to find viable solutions to the systemic production of the intertwined problems of environmental crises and labour exploitation, and suggests how potential alternative directions for affected populations may lie in their mutual combination.
Conditions for Informal Labour Employed in Nuclear Power Stations Continue reading
Congress must curb Trump’s power to start a nuclear war. He is not a well man
President Trump is not well. Congress must curb his power to start a nuclear war. The fate of the earth depends on it The Inquirer, Will BunchWithin seconds after someone at the New York Times hit the “send” button about 4 p.m. on Wednesday, an op-ed by a supposed senior official in the Trump administration — the identity known to less than a handful of Times editors — instantly became the lodestar, to borrow a suddenly popular word, of those hoping to end Donald Trump’s presidency before Jan. 20, 2021.
The most depressing thing about the anonymous op-ed from this high-level Trump insider was not its assertions that the “amorality” of America’s 45th president is a threat to the nation’s welfare, or that the commander-in-chief is fundamentally antidemocratic, or that The Donald’s leadership style is “impetuous, adversarial, petty and ineffective.” Nor is it the less-than-“cold comfort” (to steal another hot phrase) that there’s some sort of “resistance” within the White House, claiming it’s somehow saving America from the absolute worst of Trump.
No, the most depressing thing is that a majority of Americans already knew most, if not all, of these things about the short-fingered vulgarian currently ensconced in 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue from the day he descended from Trump Tower in June 2015 to launch his hate-laden, xenophobic campaign. And the people elected him anyway. And that now that he’s here, President Trump seems impossible to remove. ……
Even if the overall tone of the Woodward book and the Times’ op-ed is to confirm what we already instinctively knew about Trump’s unfitness for office and the massive dysfunction that stems from that, the post-Labor Day bombshells still raised enough questions for four or five different potential columns. There’s the fun but wildly overrated parlor game of speculating who wrote the anonymous diatribe (cough, cough, director of intelligence Dan Coats? … maybe, although he denies it) to questioning whether the Times should have granted anonymity (yes … although other journalists disagree) to whether going semi-public with the view from inside the White House “resistance” was an act of courage … or cowardice (more on that in a minute).
For example:
— Just one month into his presidency, according to Woodward’s Fear, Trump ordered the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Joseph Dunford, to begin drawing up plans for a preemptive military strike against nuclear-armed North Korea — a request that “rattled” the Marine Corps veteran. The fact that, for the time being, Trump has chosen to get along with — if not venerate — North Korean strongman Kim Jong Un is indeed cold comfort, especially as we gain more insight into the dangerous, flip-flopping mind of the American president. Military experts say a war of the type that Trump coveted would kill 20,000 South Koreans a day — and that’s before it went nuclear.
— An emotional reaction to a disturbing event — an April 2017 lethal chemical attack traced to the Syrian government — provoked a Trump command that was both troubling and potentially illegal. The president called in the secretary of defense, James Mattis, and issued an order to assassinate the Syrian dictator, Bashar al-Assad. “Let’s f–ing kill him! Let’s go in. Let’s kill the f–ing lot of them,” Trump said, according to Woodward. The book says the Trump cabinet member assured the commander-in-chief that he’d take care of it, even as he told a top aide he’d do no such thing. Instead, America bombed a Syrian airfield,killing an unknown number of soldiers and civilians. There seems to be little discussion of how any of this might affect the tinderbox that is the Middle East.
— With surprisingly little fanfare, the Trump administration continues to actively weigh a military invasion of Venezuela, where the socialist government of Nicolás Maduro has been imploding, with a sometimes violent crisis bringing economic despair and a growing number of refugees. As with other proposed military interventions, the main proponent of this highly dubious course of action is the president himself — with top advisers continually trying to convince the commander-in-chief that a U.S. invasion would not only destabilize South America but turn much of the region against us. At one point last year, Trump reportedly raised his enthusiasm for an invariably bloody incursion with four top leaders from the region, adding, “My staff told me not to say this.”
Beyond that, the Founding Fathers vested the power to declare war with Congress — a sound idea that’s been completely lost in our post-World War II national security state, even after efforts to rein in the president’s war powers after the debacle in Vietnam. Some of that stems from the arrival of the nuclear age — the realization that snap decisions about a war that would kill millions of people might have just a 5- or 10-minute window. But in the last 20 months, the fear that America’s “nuclear football” travels with a president that even his close advisers now say is both mentally and morally unfit — and that there’s currently nothing to prevent Donald Trump from initiating a nuclear war — has grown palpable.
“Under existing laws, the president of the United States can start a nuclear war – without provocation, without consultation and without warning,” Massachusetts Democratic Sen. Ed Markey told a hearing last year. “It boggles the mind.” It’s even more mind-boggling the more we know about the ugly state of mind of the current president. Markey and Capitol Hill lawmakers introduced landmark legislation that would prevent any U.S. president — not just Trump but those who come after him — from launching a nuclear first strike without a declaration of war by Congress. Not surprising, their bill has so far gone nowhere in a do-nothing Congress dominated by Trump allies. And while there are legitimate questions about how such a law would work in practice (hopefully the world never finds out), the measure would provide a sound legal basis for military leaders to refuse an unlawful and irrational order.
Nuclear enthusiasts not impressed with Michael Shellenberger’s “incoherent” support for nuclear weapons
Nuclear lobbyist Michael Shellenberger, learns to love the bomb, goes down a rabbit hole, NUCLEAR MONITOR , 7 Sept 18 Author: Jim Green ‒ Nuclear Monitor editor and national nuclear campaigner with Friends of the Earth Australia, NM865.4744 [original has many footnotes and references]Call to USA’s military to save the nuclear power industry
Senators from both parties look to the military to save nuclear power https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/policy/energy/senators-from-both-parties-look-to-the-military-to-save-nuclear-powerm by John Siciliano, September 06, 2018 A bipartisan bill introduced in the Senate on Thursday would leverage the buying power of the U.S. military to help along the struggling nuclear energy industry, if the Pentagon is OK with paying above market rates.
“Our bipartisan bill will help rejuvenate the U.S. nuclear industry by providing the tools, resources, and partnerships necessary to drive innovation in advanced reactors,” said Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, chairwoman of the Energy and Natural Resources Committee and a sponsor of the legislation.
The bipartisan legislation, called the Nuclear Energy Leadership Act, would establish at least one power purchase agreement with the Defense Department, or another federal agency, by Dec. 31, 2023, to buy electricity from a commercial nuclear reactor.
Joining Murkowski on the bill are Democratic Sens. Cory Booker of New Jersey, Richard Durbin of Illinois, Joe Manchin of West Virginia, Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island, and Chris Coons of Delaware. Republicans James Risch and Mike Crapo of Idaho and Shelley Moore Capito of West Virginia also cosponsored the bill.
Since the Defense Department is the largest consumer of energy in the federal government, its role would seem paramount in implementing the legislation once passed.
But the cost for the nuclear-powered electricity would be higher than the market rate, as the bill is focused on driving ahead advanced and “first-of-a-kind” technology, according to the bill.
“An agreement to purchase power … may be at a rate that is higher than the average market rate,” reads the bill.
The bill would also extend the maximum length of federal power purchase agreement from 10 to 40 years, according to a summary of the bill issued by the Nuclear Energy Institute.
The industry group explains that the length of the agreement is important for new reactors, which need the extra revenue from longer agreements to pay for the initial capital costs. The current 10-year agreements used in energy contract with federal facilities are not sufficient.
The industry group says the longer federal agreement could also help the existing fleet of reactors, which are currently not being “adequately compensated for their carbon-free electricity, by establishing longer term, guaranteed revenue streams.”
“This legislation sends an unmistakable signal that the U.S. intends to re-commit itself as a global leader in clean, advanced nuclear technology,” said Maria Korsnick, the nuclear group’s president. “Next generation nuclear technology is being aggressively pursued globally, and in order for the American nuclear industry to compete with state-owned or state-sponsored developers in rival nations — especially China and Russia — we must have significant collaboration between the federal government, our national labs, and private industry in order to accelerate innovation.”
Myanmar President U Win Myint Urges Parliament to Back Nuclear Weapon Ban Treaty
President Urges Parliament to Back Nuclear Weapon Ban Treaty The Irrawaddy, NAN LWIN 7 September 2018
YANGON—Myanmar President U Win Myint is seeking lawmakers’ approval to sign the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, with a final decision to be made next week in the Union Parliament.
Union Minister for International Cooperation U Kyaw Tin explained Myanmar’s stand on the abolition of nuclear weapons and the details of the president’s proposal to sign the prohibition treaty to lawmakers on Thursday in the Union Parliament.
“The government supports nuclear disarmament,” U Kyaw Tin said. He said the Myanmar government believed nuclear disarmament is the only way to prevent the spread of nuclear weapons, and the use of such weapons, whether intentional or accidental.
According to the Signature and Ratification terms of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, members need to follow a comprehensive set of prohibitions on participating in any nuclear weapon activities such as undertakings not to develop, test, produce, acquire, possess, stockpile, use or threaten to use nuclear weapons. The treaty also prohibits the deployment of nuclear weapons on national territory and the provision of assistance to any state in the conduct of prohibited activities.
Myanmar became a non-nuclear weapon state party to the Treaty on the Nonproliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) in 1992, and signed the Southeast Asia Nuclear Weapon-Free Zone Treaty in 1995, committing not to develop nuclear weapons. The country also signed the Comprehensive Safeguards Agreement and a Small Quantities Protocol with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in 1995………..
A total of 60 countries have signed the treaty and 14 have agreed to sign, including ASEAN members Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia and Vietnam.
Union Parliament Speaker U T Khun Myat said a final decision would be made on Sept. 14. He said if lawmakers want to discuss the issue in Parliament, they have until Monday evening to propose their names. https://www.irrawaddy.com/news/burma/president-urges-parliament-back-nuclear-weapon-ban-treaty.html
South Africa not planning for nuclear power, as renewable energy costs go down
Instead, he says the country’s energy demands have decreased.
Briefing Parliament’s energy committee on Tuesday, Radebe also pointed out that the cost of renewable energy technology has also come down.
According to the draft IRP, nuclear energy will only account for about 4% of the country’s energy mix by 2030.
This means no nuclear build programme is being envisaged.
Radebe says there are some misunderstandings about the decision taken on nuclear energy.
“It is not in the plan together with a number of other technologies for the period ending 2030 due to lower demand and lower cost of other technologies.”
MPs say they are relieved a new nuclear project has been scrapped for now, because it is not only unaffordable but would open the door to corruption.
(Edited by Thapelo Lekabe)
Solar power industry gives opportunity for retraining coal workers for good alternative employment
An alternative to propping up coal power plants: Retrain workers for solar, The Conversation,Joshua M. Pearce, Professor of Materials Science and Engineering, and Electrical and Computer Engineering, Michigan Technological University, August 23, 2018The Trump administration announced new pollution rules for coal-fired power plants designed to keep existing coal power plants operating more and save American coal mining jobs.
Profitability for U.S. coal power plants has plummeted, and one major coal company after another has filed for bankruptcy, including the world’s largest private-sector coal company, Peabody Energy.
The main reason coal is in decline is less expensive natural gas and renewable energy like solar. Coal employment has dropped so low there are fewer than 53,000 coal miners in total in the U.S. (for comparison, the failing retailer J.C. Penny has about twice as many workers).
The EPA estimates the new rules will cause about 1,400 more premature deaths a year from coal-related air pollution by 2030. The Trump administration could avoid the premature American deaths from coal pollution – which amount to about 52,000 per year in total – and still help the coal miners themselves by retraining them for a more profitable industry, such as the solar industry.
A study I co-authored analyzed the question of retraining current coal workers for employment in the solar industry. We found that this transition is feasible in most cases and would even result in better pay for nearly all of the current coal workers.
How to make the jump?
What is left of the coal mining industry represents a unique demographic compared to the rest of America. It is white (96.4 percent); male (96.2 percent); aging, with an average age of 43.8 years old; and relatively uneducated, with 76.7 percent having earned only a high school degree or equivalent. Many are highly skilled, however, with the largest sector of jobs being equipment operators at 27 percent. Many of these skills can be transferred directly into the solar industry.
In the study, we evaluated the skill sets of current coal workers and tabulated salaries. For each type of coal position, we determined the closest equivalent solar position and tried to match current coal salaries. We then quantified the time and investment required to retrain each worker.
Our results show there is a wide variety of employment opportunities in solar – the industry overall already employs more than five times more people than in coal mining, at over 250,000 by one industry group estimate. We also found the annual pay is generally better at all levels of education, even with the lowest-skilled jobs. For example, janitors in the coal industry could increase their salaries by 7 percent by becoming low-skilled mechanical assemblers in the solar industry.
Overall, we found that after retraining, technical workers (the vast majority) would make more money in the solar industry than they do in coal. Also note this study was about careers and was done before an uptick in the practice of hiring temporary coal workers. The only downside on salaries we found are that managers and particularly executives would make less in solar than coal. This represents only about 3.2 percent of coal workers that are professional administrators.
Retraining needs
How would coal workers make this transition? There are over 40 types of solar jobs which the DOE has mapped out. They range from entry-level jobs, such as installers, to more advanced positions in engineering and technical design. Most coal workers could not simply walk into a solar job; they would need some retraining. But certain positions require less training…………https://theconversation.com/an-alternative-to-propping-up-coal-power-plants-retrain-workers-for-solar-101961
Luxembourg supports Austria against Hinkley Point C in European Court challenge.
Luxembourg supports Austria against Hinkley Point C in European Court
challenge, RTL 6th Sept 2018
http://www.rtl.lu/letzebuerg/1234030.html
1 This Month.
Nuclear Power? -Never again
(Switzerland –https://www.greenpeace.ch/de/handeln/atomkraft-nie-wieder/+)
PETITION – Close Down the Monticello Nuclear Reactor on the Mississippi River!
Now until to February 10, 2026 Radioactive waste storage in France: the debate is finally open! How to participate?
of the week. STAND – Severnside Together Against Nuclear Development . THE TRUE FACTS ABOUT NUCLEAR POWER
Why it is: Unaffordable – Dangerous – Unnecessary – Bad For The Environment
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