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USA. Watchdog and Advocacy Coalition Report Warns of Systemic Attacks on Science 

Government Accountability Project USA      https://www.whistleblower.org/blog/034224-urgent-action-requested-sign-petition-below   Watchdog and Advocacy Coalition Report Warns of Systemic Attacks on Science  The Report Exposes Chronic Interference With Federal Science and Public Health and Safety Measures Under the Trump Administration and Makes Critical Recommendations to Congress 

A report released today by a coalition of prominent watchdog and advocacy groups – including Government Accountability Project – chronicles a litany of recent attacks on federal science and scientists by Trump administration officials intent on undermining the critical regulatory role government plays in safeguarding public health and safety. The report, “Protecting Science at Federal Agencies: How Congress Can Help,” arose out of mounting concerns that some of our elected officials are chronically crippling key science programs, and ignoring, suppressing, censoring, and distorting scientific information in order to weaken regulatory functions that serve to protect human health and the environment but disadvantage certain industry interests. Government Accountability Project was the lead contributor to the chapter on whistleblowing and scientific integrity, as well as a contributor to the chapter on reduced communications. The report concludes that widespread, politically-motivated interference in sound science causes unsound policy decisions, and Congress must act swiftly and decisively to reverse this dangerous trend to get the nation back on course.

The new report walks through countless troubling examples of deliberate efforts by Trump administration agency heads and political appointees to dismantle federal science programs, discredit scientific data, disconnect scientific fact from decision-making, and destroy public trust in government. Many current high-level political appointees lack adequate experience and credentials for the positions they are assigned to manage and often bring with them serious conflicts of interest. Meanwhile, Congress has been lax, even negligent, in carrying out its oversight responsibilities. This must change.

The watchdog and public interest groups who authored this report share a strong concern that we are witnessing an epidemic of intentional ignorance and scientific blind spots at the highest levels of government, at a time when all Americans face escalating threats to our health and wellbeing – such as a broken health care system and runaway climate change. Collectively we put forth a set of thoughtful recommendations for the incoming 116th Congress to consider that include specific legislative proposals as well as a call for greatly improved oversight to hold government officials accountable to the public they serve.

The U.S. government invests well over $100 billion a year on scientific research and technology development, and federal agencies have traditionally relied heavily on scientific findings to support complex regulatory and policy decisions. Now, science itself is under attack: this administration is systematically dismantling a host of science advisory committees and hampering them from providing scientific information and guidance to federal regulatory program managers. Blatant disregard of fact-based evidence – even wholesale rejection of facts themselves – fostered by the Trump White House place all of us at greater risk by exposing us to toxic chemicals, polluting our air and water, eroding and blocking access to adequate health care, compromising national security, and raising the risk of exposure to dangerous climate change impacts.

Climate Science & Policy Watch, a flagship program of Government Accountability Project, is especially troubled by the enormous disparity between the alarm bells rung in the most recent Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report, and the tepid U.S. response. As President Trump promotes a coal industry come-back and calls for fewer regulatory checks on rampant oil and gas extraction – thereby ramping up carbon emissions when we most need to be making significant cuts – we face the increasingly imminent threat of runaway climate change and its dangerous impacts. Global climate disruption is happening now, as evidenced by western-wildfires-turned-raging-infernos sweeping across California incinerating entire towns and communities; more hazardous hurricanes and unprecedented rainfall and flooding; storm surges and sea level rise inundating coastal areas. Our Environment, Energy, and Climate Change team members are increasingly troubled by the hundreds of regulatory rollbacks of environmental protection provisions across the federal government and the corruption in key agencies such as the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the Department of Interior (DOI), and the National Park Service (NPS). The EPA, FEMA, and NPS have all removed references to climate change on their respective websites. One EPA official has even taken it upon himself to weed out grant proposals with the words “climate change” from those eligible for funding. ………..

 

Contributors to and supporters of the report include:

  • Climate Science Legal Defense Fund
  • Defenders of Wildlife
  • Democracy Forward
  • Environmental Integrity Project
  • Environmental Protection Network
  • Government Accountability Project
  • Greenpeace
  • Jacobs Institute of Women’s Health
  • National Center for Health Research
  • National Federation of Federal Employees
  • National LGBTQ Task Force
  • National Partnership for Women & Families
  • National Women’s Health Network
  • Power to Decide
  • Project on Government Oversight
  • Union of Concerned Scientists       https://www.whistleblower.org/blog/092315-watchdog-and-advocacy-coalition-report-warns-systemic-attacks-science

 

November 17, 2018 Posted by | secrets,lies and civil liberties, USA | Leave a comment

U.S. Appeals Court upholds order for Federal Government to remove plutonium from South Carolina

U.S. government ordered to remove deadly nuclear substance from South Carolina, BY EMILY BOHATCH  ebohatch@thestate.com, October 26, 2018

South Carolina officials celebrated a victory Friday after a U.S. court ruled the federal government must remove a metric ton of plutonium from the state, according to a statement from the S.C. Attorney General’s Office.

The U.S. Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals upheld an earlier ruling ordering the U.S. Department of Energy to remove the element from the Palmetto State by the beginning of 2020, according to the statement. …..https://www.thestate.com/news/politics-government/article220680625.html

November 17, 2018 Posted by | - plutonium, Legal, USA | Leave a comment

Media reports of nuclear fusion are a good example of fake news.

Derek Abbott shared a link. Nuclear Fuel Cycle Watch South Australia, November 15 

Media reports of nuclear fusion are a good example of fake news. They never say that it involves irreversibly transmuting lithium and that we would rapidly reach economic limits of lithium supply in 100 years…so it is a ridiculous “solution”. Also they never say that the neutron emission is even higher than in nuclear fission, and so the fusion reactor itself would need to be decommissioned and buried as it is irradiated with neutrons. The catch is that fusion reactors use massive amounts of precious niobium that would all become buried and non-recyclable. We need niobium for many industries from surgical tools through to aircraft engines.https://www.facebook.com/groups/1021186047913052/

November 17, 2018 Posted by | 2 WORLD, technology | Leave a comment

UK nuclear regulator completes 2nd stage of assessing Chinese nuclear reactor for Bradwell, in Essex

Reuters 15th Nov 2018 , The first Chinese-designed atomic reactor for use in Britain moved a step
closer to fruition on Thursday as the UK nuclear regulator said it had
completed the second stage of its assessment of the technology. General
Nuclear Services, an industrial partnership between China General Nuclear
Power Corp (CGN) IPO-CGNP.HK and French utility EDF, hopes to use the
design at a nuclear plant planned to be built at Bradwell in Essex, eastern
England.
https://uk.reuters.com/article/nuclearpower-britain-china/update-2-china-designed-uk-nuclear-reactor-plan-clears-second-assessment-stage-idUKL8N1XQ4A1

November 17, 2018 Posted by | politics, safety, UK | Leave a comment

President of French Polynesia admits that leaders lied, over 3 decades, about dangerous radioactivity from French nuclear tests

French Polynesian president acknowledges nuclear test lies https://www.princegeorgecitizen.com/french-polynesian-president-acknowledges-nuclear-test-lies-1.23500250, Thomas Adamson / The Associated Press, NOVEMBER 16, 2018 PARIS —French Polynesian President Edouard Fritch has said the leaders of the French collectivity of islands in the South Pacific lied to the population for three decades over the dangers of nuclear testing.

From 1960 to 1996, France carried out 193 nuclear tests in French Polynesia. The images, such as a mushroom cloud over the Mururoa atoll, provoked international protests.

“I’m not surprised that I’ve been called a liar for 30 years. We lied to this population that the tests were clean. We lied,” Fritch told officials in the local assembly Thursday in footage broadcast by Tahiti Nui Television.

France’s overseas ministry declined to comment when contacted by the AP Friday.

Bowing to decades of pressure, in 2010 the French government offered millions of euros in compensation for the government’s 201 nuclear tests in the South Pacific and Algeria. But the process is painstaking and many have still not received compensation.

Bruno Barrillot, a whistleblower investigating the impact of the Polynesian nuclear testing who died last year, raised awareness on the disproportionate rates of thyroid cancer and leukemia to hit Polynesia’s 280,000 residents.

In 2016, then-President Francois Hollande acknowledged during a visit that nuclear weapons tests carried out in French territories in the South Pacific did have consequences for the environment and residents’ health.

But Hollande spoke also about the testing in positive terms as he praised the region’s contribution to France’s position as one of the world’s nine nuclear powers.

The presidential visit came three years after French media reported declassified defence ministry papers exposing South Pacific nuclear tests from the 1960s and 1970s as being far more toxic than previously acknowledged.

At the time, the media reported that the whole of French Polynesia had been hit by levels of plutonium in the aftermath of the testing.

Tahiti, its most populous island that was romanticized in the paintings of Paul Gauguin, was exposed to 500 times the maximum accepted levels of radiation. The fallout extended as far as the popular tourist island of Bora Bora.

November 17, 2018 Posted by | environment, OCEANIA, weapons and war | Leave a comment

As UK’s Moorside nuclear project collapses. local Councils and cites develop renewable energy

NFLA 15th Nov 2018 As the Moorside project collapses, NFLA advocate the future is renewable
and decentralised energy as Councils pledge zero-carbon by the 2030s. This
past week have seen a number of important announcements in UK energy and
low carbon policy which, in the view of Nuclear Free Local Authorities
(NFLA), show that the direction of travel is firmly in favour of developing
renewables over new nuclear power.
In this project, ambitious targets by Councils to seek to develop ‘zero-carbon’ towns and cities show part of
that way forward.
Following its board meeting last Thursday, Toshiba
announced that the many millions of pounds it had spent in developing a new
nuclear plant at Moorside, close to the existing Sellafield plant, had
ended in failure. This is partially due to the huge financial losses
incurred through its Westinghouse subsidiary. It has also been unable (to
date) to find an alternative buyer for the site, after extensive talks with
the South Korean utility Kepco have floundered.
While these difficult
issues beset the nuclear sector, NFLA is delighted to see ambitious targets
have been set this week by City Councils like Manchester and Bristol as
part of the wider effort to create ‘zero-carbon cities’. After taking
advice from the Tyndall Centre, Manchester City Council has moved its
target from 2050 to 2038 to seek to become a zero carbon city. Bristol,
which has established one of the first Council-owned energy companies in
the country, is being even more ambitious by calling for a 2030 target in
order to be zero carbon.
http://www.nuclearpolicy.info/news/moorside-project-collapses-nfla-advocate-future-renewable-decentralised-energy/

November 17, 2018 Posted by | general | Leave a comment

France gives Tahiti site for nuclear memorial

 https://www.radionz.co.nz/international/pacific-news/376007/france-gives-tahiti-site-for-nuclear-memorial 15 November 2018  The French National Assembly has voted to give French Polynesia a building in Papeete for a memorial site of the French nuclear weapons tests. The decision means that the site of the former command complex of the French Navy in Papeete will be made available for this new centre.

The public accounts minister Gerald Darmanin said this reflected a wish by the French Polynesian people to remember the tests.

France carried out 193 tests between 1966 and 1996.

The site is being given at no cost to French Polynesia provided it will build a memorial within five years.

Otherwise the site will revert to French ownership.

November 17, 2018 Posted by | OCEANIA, weapons and war | Leave a comment

Wylfa nuclear power project may require an embarrassing state-aid plea to the EU Commission.

Dave Toke’s Blog 14th Nov 2018 , Clark’s plan to underwrite losses on Wylfa nuclear project will likely lead
to an embarrassing state-aid plea to the EU Commission.

Now that it seems, short of an extended ‘no-deal’ Brexit scenario, the UK will remain within
EU state-aid rules for a long time to come, Greg Clark will have to oversee
an embarrassing state aid case in support of his proposals to underwrite
the (almost certain) losses from building the Hitachi-led Wylfa nuclear
power plant.

I have already discussed how the taxpayer (and/or electricity
consumer) is exposed to almost certain multi-billion losses as a result of
the plan that Clark is touting here and in Japan. The last time that the UK
applied for what amounted to an exemption from EU state aid rules for
nuclear power was in late 2013 when Ed Davey led the plea for the Hinkley C
deal. The state aid was granted in October 2014 after the Commission ruled
that the Hinkley C deal was a reasonable way to avoid ‘market failure’.

Any application for state aid for Wylfa would be a tougher challenge. Indeed
the very proposal whereby the state will take at least a half equity share
in the project and take responsibility for cost overruns is an action that
in itself creates market failure if curbing carbon emissions is the
objective!

The Government’s cover story in 2013 was that support for
Hinkley C was on the same level available for renewable energy since
renewable energy schemes were also being offered CfDs (as well as very
extensive loan guarantees that most renewable energy schemes could not get
from the Government of course). The European Commission seemed to buy into
this line stating ‘The aid would not have a negative impact on other
low-carbon sources, given that they are also supported by the UK, and there
is no discrimination against renewable technologies’
https://realfeed-intariffs.blogspot.com/2018/11/clarks-plan-to-underwrite-losses-on.html

November 17, 2018 Posted by | politics international, UK | Leave a comment

UK: Reactor 3 at Hunterston B remains offline, due to cracks in the graphite core

ONR 13th Nov 2018 , Reactor 3 at Hunterston B remains offline, after being shut down since a
routine inspection into cracks in its graphite core, in March. Cracking of
the graphite bricks in Advanced Gas-cooled Reactors such as Hunterston B is
expected as the reactors age.
However, the number of cracks found during
the inspection of Reactor 3 has led to the licensee, EDF Nuclear Generation
Limited, carrying out further inspections of the core. Reactor 4 at
Hunterston B was taken offline in October for an inspection of its graphite
core.
EDF Energy has submitted a safety case for Reactor 4 and is preparing
one for Reactor 3. The safety cases will be assessed by us to determine
whether the reactors are safe to return to service. Neither reactor may
restart without our consent, which will be given only if it is safe to do
so.    http://news.onr.org.uk/2018/11/hunterston-b-outages/

November 17, 2018 Posted by | safety, UK | Leave a comment

The city of Bristol is taking action on the ‘climate emergency’

Guardian 14th Nov 2018 Bristol has declared a “climate emergency”, with the council
unanimously backing a commitment to be carbon neutral by 2030 in an effort
to avoid catastrophic climate breakdown.
The motion put forward by Green
party councillor Carla Denyer and passed on Tuesday means the city has the
most ambitious emissions targets of the UK’s core cities group – with
radical policy implications in the coming years.
The move was triggered by
a UN report last month which said the world has just 12 years left to avoid
catastrophic climate breakdown. Denyer said: “This is a fantastic day for
Bristol and I’m delighted the council will be bringing forward its target
for making the city carbon neutral by 2030. She said the UN report made it
clear that “time to preserve Earth as we know it is running out”.
The target is much more radical than the UK government’s national target of
an 80% reduction in emissions by 2050 and comes amid growing concern about
interlinked ecological crisis, from climate breakdown to extinction. Denyer
said that the Bristol declaration could see a focus on renewable
electricity, carbon neutral buildings, congestion charges and investment in
clean transport infrastructure.
It could also have far-reaching
implications for big-ticket projects like the proposed expansion of Bristol
airport. The move was inspired by US cities such as Berkeley and Hoboken,
and the global C40 cities which have all set ambitious emissions targets.
Jonathan Bartley, the co-leader of the Green party, said Bristol’s
decision – which won cross-party support on the council – had set “a
gold standard on climate action”. “With the UN warning we have just 12
years to limit climate catastrophe this is the common-sense policymaking we
need to face the future.”
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2018/nov/14/bristol-plans-to-become-carbon-neutral-by-2030

November 17, 2018 Posted by | climate change, UK | Leave a comment

High court rejects bid to shut down Shikoku Electric reactor

 https://japantoday.com/category/national/High-court-rejects-bid-to-shut-down-Shikoku-Electric-reactor, Nov. 16  TOKYO

A high court in western Japan on Thursday rejected a lawsuit to shut down Shikoku Electric Power Co’s only operable nuclear reactor.

The Takamatsu High Court denied a legal bid by residents of Ehime prefecture to shut down the No. 3 reactor at the Ikata nuclear plant, the company said in a statement.

The 890-megawatt reactor was restarted on Oct 27 and is currently running at full capacity.

The restart followed a Hiroshima High Court in late September that lifted a 2017 injunction blocking operations at the reactor.

November 17, 2018 Posted by | - Fukushima 2011, Legal | Leave a comment

Commercial nuclear reprocessing ends at Sellafield site 

BBC 14 November 2018   Reprocessing of spent nuclear fuel from around the world has ended at Sellafield.

The last batch of waste has gone through its Thermal Oxide Reprocessing Plant (Thorp), which opened in 1994.

It has generated an estimated £9bn by extracting new nuclear fuel from 9,000 tonnes of used rods from 30 customers in countries as far afield as Japan.

Thorp will operate until the 2070s as a storehouse for spent fuel as the site around it in Cumbria is cleaned up.

Sellafield Ltd said there would be no redundancies as a result of the closure, with all employees in roles no longer required offered alternative jobs in the business.

The decision to wind it down was taken in 2012, as a result of the majority of its customers opting to store rather than reprocess their fuel…….https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-cumbria-46206495

November 17, 2018 Posted by | reprocessing, UK | Leave a comment

Rock Fall in underground nuclear waste facility in southern New Mexico

Managers Report Rock Fall at Underground Nuclear Waste Dump https://www.usnews.com/news/best-states/new-mexico/articles/2018-11-15/managers-report-rock-fall-at-underground-nuclear-waste-dump

Managers at the federal government’s nuclear waste repository in southern New Mexico have reported a rock fall in an area of the underground facility that is off-limits to employees. CARLSBAD, N.M. (AP) — Managers at the federal government’s nuclear waste repository in southern New Mexico have reported a rock fall in an area of the underground facility that is off-limits to employees.

The U.S. Energy Department says the fall happened Wednesday evening. Workers heard a loud thud while doing inspections underground so they left the area and all work was stopped.

Officials said there were no injuries.

Rock falls are not uncommon in areas where crews have been unable to perform regular maintenance to shore up the walls and ceilings of the salt caverns that have been excavated for disposal of radioactive waste.

This week’s rock fall happened in a disposal room that does not contain any waste. A team is planning an inspection before operations resume at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant.

November 17, 2018 Posted by | incidents, USA | Leave a comment

Army Corps of Engineers to resume clean-up of n uclear site at Parks Township.

Army Corps of Engineers: $500 million Parks Township nuclear waste removal project is a ‘go’, TRIB LIVE, 

MARY ANN THOMAS  | Wednesday, Nov. 14, 2018, The Army Corps of Engineers released test results and announced to residents Wednesday it is ready to resume the $500 million cleanup of the nuclear waste dump in Parks Township.

The 44-acre dump, officially known as the Shallow Land Disposal Area, is off Route 66 near Kiskimere Street. It was owned in the 1960s by the Nuclear Materials and Equipment Corp. (NUMEC) which had plants in Apollo and Parks Township that produced nuclear fuels for Navy submarines, power plants and other government programs.

About 80 people attended the public meeting Wednesday at the Parks Township volunteer fire hall.

It featured a review of the project, which stalled seven years ago amid environmental test results.

The recent slowdown was an almost 18-month delay over a contract bid protest from the four bidders that didn’t win the $350 million contract to excavate the nuclear waste dump.

But the Army Corps reviewed the bids and recently lifted a stop-order on the federal contract that had been awarded to Jacobs Field Services to clean up the nuclear waste dump. …….

the recent groundwater tests show that beryllium, a metal used by the nuclear plants and buried on site found its way into the underground coal mines, which lie beneath the site.

The catacomb of mines has been a longtime concern as a pathway for the dump site’s contamination. https://triblive.com/local/valleynewsdispatch/14294779-74/army-corps-of-engineers-says-500-million-parks-twp-nuclear-waste-removal

November 17, 2018 Posted by | USA, wastes | Leave a comment

North Korea tests new ‘ultramodern tactical weapon’ amid stalled nuclear diplomacy

It didn’t appear to be a test of a nuclear device or a long-range missile with the potential to target the U.S. NBC News,  Nov. 16, 2018, By Associated Press

SEOUL, South Korea — North Korean leader Kim Jong Un observed the successful test of an unspecified “newly developed ultramodern tactical weapon,” state media reported Friday.

It didn’t appear to be a test of a nuclear device or a long-range missile with the potential to target the U.S. A string of such tests last year had many fearing war before the North turned to engagement and diplomacy.

Still, any mention of weapons testing could influence the direction of stalled diplomatic efforts spearheaded by Washington and aimed at ridding the North of its nuclear weapons.

The North hasn’t publicly tested any weapons since November 2017, but in recent days Pyongyang reportedly expressed anger at U.S.-led international sanctions and ongoing small-scale military drills between South Korea and the United States.

Earlier this month, North Korea’s Foreign Ministry warned it could bring back its policy of bolstering its nuclear arsenal if it doesn’t receive sanctions relief.

Diplomacy has stalled since a summit between Kim and President Donald Trump in June, with Washington pushing for more action on nuclear disarmament and the North insisting that the U.S. first approve a peace declaration formally ending the Korean War and lift sanctions.

On Thursday, Vice President Mike Pence told NBC News the U.S. will not require North Korea to provide a complete list of its nuclear weapons and missile sites before Trump and Kim meet for a second time………

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/north-korea-tests-new-weapon-amid-stalled-nuclear-diplomacy-n937066

November 17, 2018 Posted by | North Korea, weapons and war | Leave a comment

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