Opposition to the chosen ATC site in the Castilla La Mancha region grew after questions arose about its geological suitability, with regional president Emiliano García-Page praising the minister on Monday for “ending the nightmare of the nuclear cemetery”…. (subscribers only) https://www.endseurope.com/article/1673270/spain-scraps-controversial-nuclear-waste-facility
Norways Nuclear Naughtiness – Censored Secrets and Haldens Hurtful History
Norway, having no experience in nuclear waste turned to the French nuclear company Orano and the Swedish company Studsvik,. Not the best idea in the world as these companies eyed an opportunity for profit and maybe, just maybe a few kilos of moldy farm salmon as well. But we will never know because of the Letter D (The only letter to be transparently offered to the FOI request by these 2 brave and intrepid sleuths).
5 February 2020
Out of respect to the Author of the article under unfair use I had to change the copy to fair use as requested. More changes may happen as the days, weeks and years go on depending on how fair use I am allowed. Takk!
“One of the documents TU has received “partial access” in. In addition to the email’s metadata, we can glimpse what might be the letter “d” in the upper left corner on page 4 of the document. (Illustration: Ole Petter Pedersen)”
The Norwegian nuclear reactor that recently shut down is estimated to cost some 20 billion Kroner. A lack of transparency overshadows the whole project against the recommendations of the IAEA`s report on the Failings of the Fukushima nuclear disaster.
On the January 29, Martiniussen…
View original post 608 more words
Climate emergency plans must have a ‘no new nuclear’ clause
The nuclear and fossil fuel industry are mutually intertwined.
“There is no such thing as a zero or near-zero-emission nuclear power plant”
the mean value is about 66 grams of carbon dioxide for every kWh produced by nuclear power. This compares to about 9g for wind, 32g for solar and 443 for gas.
“This puts nuclear as the third highest carbon emitter after coal-fired plants and natural gas….
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No new nuclear https://theecologist.org/2020/feb/06/no-new-nuclear Radiation Free Lakeland, 6th February 2020
Campaigners demand a ‘no new nuclear’ clause in climate emergency planning. Climate activists across the world are uniting to protect the planet from continuing fossil fuel use. There is much talk of a green industrial revolution and a Green New Deal. This sounds good, but what does it mean?
Kevin Frea, co-chair of the Climate Emergency Network and deputy leader of Lancaster City Council has worked hard to sign local councils up declaring a climate emergency. He said: “This movement is being led by every political group and is involving local people in planning the actions needed to cut carbon.” But there’s an important thing missing here. Last September members of Radiation Free Lakeland lobbied Lancaster City Council asking the council to include a No New Nuclear clause in their climate emergency planning. Continue reading |
Arctic ice melt is changing ocean currents
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Arctic ice melt is changing ocean currents https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/02/200207095705.htm
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Spain scraps controversial nuclear waste facility
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Spain scraps controversial nuclear waste facility, Richard Weyndling
06 Feb 2020 Nuclear waste management in Spain faces upheaval after ecological transition minister Teresa Ribera this weekend recognised that plans for a centralised temporary storage facility (ATC) have “not been well-managed” and will “not easily be revived under any circumstance”.
“We will responsibly seek solutions for nuclear waste and open a serious and sensible debate. We have to decide whether we need one, two or three sites and if we have to look at regional solutions,” she told El País newspaper.
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Polynesian MP calls on France for “vast project” to withdraw radioactive waste in Mururoa
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Polynesia: MP Moetai Brotherson asks Macron for a “vast project” to withdraw radioactive waste in Mururoa, 8 Feb 2020 https://la1ere.francetvinfo.fr/polynesie-depute-moetai-brotherson-demande-macron-vaste-projet-retrait-dechets-radioactifs-mururoa-798235.html [machine translate] The deputy of Polynesia Moetai Brotherson asked in a letter to Emmanuel Macron, who will be in April in the Polynesian archipelago, that he undertakes on “a vast project of withdrawal and reprocessing of all radioactive waste and residues from the Moruroa nuclear tests “.
From 1966 to 1996, the Mururoa and Fangataufa atolls were the scene of 193 nuclear tests , which had effects on the health and the environment of the populations. The head of state is expected to visit Polynesia in mid-April, when two summits are being held, “France-Oceania” and “One Planet Summit”.
” Mr. President, rather than ostrich, the French Republic would be honored to commit today to an ambitious and vast project to withdraw and reprocess all radioactive waste and residues from the tests Moruroa nuclear “, explains the deputy attached to the communist group in the Assembly and representative of Tavini Huiraatira, Polynesian separatist party, in a letter which AFP had a copy on Friday. Threats of collapse
He recalls that nuclear tests, ” especially in their underground part, generated a quantity of radioactive waste and residues “. ” Today, a significant proportion of this waste is stored in wells several hundreds of meters deep drilled in the coral ring of Moruroa, or worse, at the bottom of its lagoon, in particular at a place called ‘Colette bench ‘ “.
But ” cracks in the base of the atoll “, “induced by underground tests in particular “, threaten ” collapse part of the atoll. It appears that both the containment wells, as the Colette bank are precisely in the endangered area “,
“Dramatic message”For the Polynesian deputy, not to commit to the depollution of the site ” would be to send a dramatic message to the Polynesians, to the Peoples of the Pacific, but also to the People of France, in particular to his youth who wants to see (…) real strong actions in favor of the environment “. Moetai Brotherson underlines that ” the biggest investment made by the State in French Polynesia in recent years is the TELSITE geomechanical surveillance project of Moruroa. The billions invested still come to underline the reality of this collapse, real sword of Damocles, for the Polynesians first, for the Pacific region then, for the reputation of the French Republic finally
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Canada’s Nuclear Waste Management Organization (NWMO) courts indigenous communities
Indigenous communities courted as nuclear industry looks for place to put used fuel, February 7, 2020 by Christopher Read Christopher Read APTN InvestigatesIn what’s referred to as “Canada’s Plan,” the Nuclear Waste Management Organization (NWMO) is looking for a place to bury 4.8 million bundles of used nuclear fuel.
More specifically, the NWMO, which is a consortium of Canadian nuclear industry players created by an act of parliament, is looking for a community willing to allow used nuclear fuel to be placed in what’s called a deep geological repository – or DGR.
Currently the NWMO is engaging with Ignace, Ontario a small community 250 km northwest of Thunder Bay, as well as the municipality of South Bruce, on Lake Huron northwest of Toronto.
Indigenous communities in both those areas are being courted and having the DGR concept pitched to them by the NWMO.
Indigenous engagement is a major focus at the NWMO.
It has put out an eight-part video series on reconciliation, and it also employs Bob Watts as their vice president of Indigenous Relations.
Watts is a long time major player in Indigenous politics who has held high-level positions with the Assembly of First Nations and the federal government………
Fundamentally, a DGR needs to protect radioactive waste from water, because water could potentially bring the deadly radioactive material back into contact with our environment. …….
not everyone is sold on the safety case made by the NWMO.
Gordon Edwards is president of the Canadian Coalition for Nuclear Responsibility and is likely the nuclear industry’s best known critic in Canada.
Edwards isn’t impressed with the NWMO’s multiple barrier system.
“You can put barrier after barrier after barrier, that doesn’t mean that you have a safe system,” he said. ”The same multiple barrier philosophy is used in nuclear reactors. They say the fuel is inside metal tubes, which are called zirconium, that’s another barrier, it’s called the sheath. And those are inside pressure tubes, which is another barrier. And then that’s inside a calandria, which is another barrier. And that’s inside the reactor building, which is another barrier. Consequently, there cannot be a nuclear accident.
“Well, we’ve seen what happened with that philosophy. Chernobyl exploded and the whole area around Chernobyl is still uninhabitable and will be for at least another hundred years. Fukushima, we’ve had three reactors melting down on the same weekend and those multiple barriers were all in place.”
Edwards said the notion that we can build something to last hundreds of thousands of years, the length of time used nuclear fuel will potentially remain dangerously radioactive – is folly.
“You have to realize that the pyramids of Egypt are only 5,000 years old,” said Edwards. “Go and look at them there. They’re really deteriorated a great deal. So the half-life of plutonium is 24,000 years. The Great Lakes didn’t even exist 24,000 years ago. So we’re talking about periods of time that dwarf the span of human history.”
Edwards said he believes taking a wait-and-see approach is better than putting the used fuel in a DGR.
“We can afford to wait another century or two and see if we can come up with a genuine solution,” he said. “If we can’t come up with a genuine solution, we can continue to look after it. We can continue to transmit the information. We can continue to repackage it periodically into better and better packages, which is going to make sure. And if there is leakage that occurs, failure of containment – we can spring into action right away and fix it and not let it get out of hand. That’s a much better approach.
“This is called rolling stewardship.”………
The NWMO said it hopes to have identified a willing host community for a deep geological repository by 2023.
Nuclear Courtship, Part 2 airs next week, and will be accompanied with a web story which will examine the mood of some of the communities engaging with the nuclear industry.cread@aptn.ca https://aptnnews.ca/2020/02/07/indigenous-communities-courted-as-nuclear-industry-looks-for-place-to-put-used-fuel/
Corpses of UK’s nuclear submarines still unburied after 25 years
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Nuclear vessels still languish at Fife dockyard 25 years after pledge against submarine graveyard, by Cheryl Peebles The Courier.co.uk
February 7 2020,Seven of the vessels, which contain radioactive material, have languished for decades at the Fife dock awaiting dismantling by the Ministry of Defence.
They include HMS Dreadnought, the UK’s first nuclear-powered submarine which was retired from service in 1980. It was during a visit to Rosyth in January 1995 that the then defence procurement minister Roger Freeman made the statement. The milestone prompted a repeated demand from Dunfermline and West Fife MP Douglas Chapman for action to deal with the vessels. Mr Chapman said: “It is astonishing that 25 years after Roger Freeman made that statement we are still waiting for the UK government to clear up these submarines that were decommissioned in the 1980s. “I have pressured the government for years to have some sort of joined-up thinking to remove these. “It is not only costing the taxpayer millions every year to keep them but also taking up valuable dock space that Babcock could be utilising for more economically productive activities.”…… https://www.thecourier.co.uk/fp/news/local/fife/1123498/nuclear-vessels-still-languish-at-fife-dockyard-25-years-after-pledge-against-submarine-graveyard/ |
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Aging nuclear plants: increased danger as U.S.utilities want their lives extended to 80 years
Our aging nuclear plants Utilities nationwide are seeking permission to extend the life of reactors built in the 1970s to the 2050s. GoErie.com , By Ari Natter /Bloomberg, Feb 9, 2020
Bonnie Rippingille looked out at the wisps of steam curling from the Turkey Point Nuclear Power Plant across Biscayne Bay with a sense of dread. In December federal regulators approved Florida Power & Light Co.’s request to let the facility’s twin nuclear reactions remain in operation for another 20 years beyond the end of their current licenses. By that point they’ll be 80, making them the oldest reactors in operation anywhere in the world.
“That’s too old,” said Rippingille, a lawyer and retired Miami-Dade County judge. “They weren’t designed for this purpose.”
With backing from the Trump administration, utilities nationwide are preparing to follow suit, seeking permission to extend the life of reactors built in the 1970s to the 2050s as they run up against the end of their 60-year licenses.
“We are talking about running machines that were designed in the 1960s, constructed in the 1970s and have been operating under the most extreme radioactive and thermal conditions imaginable,” said Damon Moglen, an official with the environmental group Friends of the Earth. “There is no other country in the world that is thinking about operating reactors in the 60 to 80-year time frame.”
Indeed, the move comes as other nations shift away from atomic power over safety concerns, despite its appeal as a carbon-free [ whaaat?] alternative to coal and other fossil fuels. Japan, which used to get more than a quarter of its electricity from nuclear power, shut down all its plants in 2011 after a tsunami caused a nuclear meltdown at three reactors in Fukushima. Only a handful have restarted while others that can’t meet stringent new standards are slated to close permanently. Germany decided that year to shutter its entire fleet by 2022 and is now having trouble meeting its ambitious climate goals.
By contrast, the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission is poised to decide this year on requests by subsidiaries of Exelon Corp. to extend the life of two nuclear reactors at its Peach Bottom Atomic Power Station in Pennsylvania and Dominion Energy Inc. to extend the life of two nuclear reactors at a power plant in Surry, Virginia.
Dominion has notified the commission it intends to ask permission to extend the life of two more reactors north of Richmond, Virginia. Duke Energy Corp. has said it plans to seek license extensions for its entire fleet of 11 nuclear reactors, starting with three in Seneca, South Carolina……
The nuclear industry has been buffeted by a wave of early reactor retirements in the face of competition from cheap natural gas and subsidized renewable power. Constructing a new nuclear plant – the only one being built in the U.S. is years behind schedule and over budget – can cost billions of dollars. Retrofitting an existing one is more likely to be in the hundreds of millions of dollars range. ……
Opponents such as Edward Lyman, a nuclear energy expert with the Union of Concerned Scientists, argue that older plants contain “structures that can’t be replaced or repaired,” including the garage-sized steel reactor vessels that contain tons of nuclear fuel and can grow brittle after years of being bombarded by radioactive neutrons. “They just get older and older,” he said. If the vessel gets brittle, it becomes vulnerable to cracking or even catastrophic failure.
Other concerns surround the durability of components such as concrete and electric cables, but an advisory board to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, the independent government agency that gave Turkey Point the green light to operate into the 2050s, said those risks could be managed safely.
The commission’s decision doesn’t sit well with Philip Stoddard, mayor of South Miami, a city of 13,000 on about 18 miles away from the Turkey Point plant. He keeps a store of potassium iodide, used to prevent thyroid cancer, large enough to provide for every child in his city should the need arise.
“You’ve got hurricanes, you’ve got storm surge, you’ve got increasing risks of hurricanes and storm surge,” said Stoddard, 62. All of this not only increases the likelihood of a nuclear disaster, it also complicates a potential evacuation, which could put even more lives at risk…….
“They are going to be flooded,” Cox said. “If we are relicensing a major utility we need to be preparing for the impacts of sea level rise.”…….. https://www.goerie.com/business/20200209/our-aging-nuclear-plants
Natural Resources Defense Council: It’s Time to Pursue a Genuine Solution for Nuclear Waste
 NRDC: It’s Time to Pursue a Genuine Solution for Nuclear Waste
February 07, 2020 WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump bowed to reality as he said his administration would end its attempts to force nuclear waste into the unsafe Yucca Mountain site in Nevada.
Following is a statement by Geoff Fettus, senior attorney in the Nuclear Program at the Natural Resources Defense Council: “With this change of direction by the Trump administration, decades of unfortunate attempts to shove nuclear waste down Yucca Mountain officially come to an end. Congress must now move in a new direction, one based on sound science, the consent of the state and local citizens, and compliance with all environmental laws.” Please see this analysis for more information on this issue: https://www.nrdc.org/experts/geoffrey-h-fettus/final-resting-place-nuclear-waste The National Resources Defense Council (NRDC) is an international nonprofit environmental organization with more than 3 million members and online activists. Since 1970, our lawyers, scientists, and other environmental specialists have worked to protect the world’s natural resources, public health, and the environment. NRDC has offices in New York City, Washington, D.C., Los Angeles, San Francisco, Chicago, Bozeman, MT, and Beijing. Visit us at NRDC.org and follow us on Twitter @NRDC. |
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Presidential nuclear decision by Twitter: Trump confuses about policy on Yucca for waste dump
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Trump tweets reversal of push for Nevada nuclear waste dump, MyNorthWest, FEBRUARY 6, 2020 LAS VEGAS (AP) — PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP ON THURSDAY APPEARED TO REVERSE HIS POSITION ON A PROPOSAL TO CREATE A NATIONAL NUCLEAR WASTE DUMP AT YUCCA MOUNTAIN IN NEVADA AFTER HIS ADMINISTRATION TRIED FOR SEVERAL YEARS TO REVIVE THE MOTHBALLED PROJECT. “Nevada, I hear you on Yucca Mountain and my Administration will RESPECT you!” Trump said in a tweet. “Congress and previous Administrations have long failed to find lasting solutions – my Administration is committed to exploring innovative approaches – I’m confident we can get it done! Adam Laxalt, Trump’s Republican re-election campaign chief in Nevada, said he believed the president was expressing support for opponents of the project, which was first proposed in the 1980s to entomb 77,000 tons (70,000 metric tons) of the nation’s most highly radioactive spent nuclear fuel in tunnels under an ancient volcanic ridge northwest of Las Vegas. Laxalt, a former state attorney general, fought federal efforts to resume work at the site using a wide range of objections revolving around safety, security and science. Yucca Mountain was among topics he said he discussed with the president last weekend at Trump International Golf Club in West Palm Beach, Florida. Laxalt on Thursday tweeted thanks to Trump, saying, “We are so fortunate that you listened to us.” “I know others have been speaking with him about Yucca Mountain,” Laxalt told The Associated Press. “We don’t support it. It’s not good for the state.” Trump administration officials and Nevada’s congressional delegation did not immediately have details to share about the president’s new position. The U.S. Department of Energy referred questions about the president’s tweet to the White House. The White House referred questions to the Office of Management and Budget, which did not immediately respond. State officials have argued that seismic activity and nearby Air Force testing would make the site about 100 miles (161 kilometers) from Las Vegas unsuitable to safely store radioactive material from elsewhere in the U.S. Nevada is a political swing state that Trump lost in 2016. His re-election campaign is targeting Nevada in 2020 as a battleground state it hopes to capture. As a presidential candidate, Trump was ambiguous about the Yucca Mountain project. Once he took office, his administration included requests for money to revive federal licensing for the project in his budget proposals, though Nevada’s congressional delegation successfully fought to keep the funding out of the budget…….. https://mynorthwest.com/1705762/trump-backs-away-from-push-for-nevada-nuclear-waste-dump/? |
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French President Emmanuel Macron seeks leading role in post-Brexit EU nuclear strategy
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Macron seeks leading role in post-Brexit EU nuclear strategy, Defense News, By: Thomas Adamson, The Associated Press PARIS (AP) 8 Feb 20,— French President Emmanuel Macron on Friday advocated a more coordinated European Union defense strategy in which France, the bloc’s only post-Brexit nuclear power, and its arsenal would hold a central role.
Addressing military officers graduating in Paris, Macron set out his country’s nuclear strategy in a bid to show leadership one week after nuclear-armed Britain officially exited the EU. PARIS (AP) — French President Emmanuel Macron on Friday advocated a more coordinated European Union defense strategy in which France, the bloc’s only post-Brexit nuclear power, and its arsenal would hold a central role. Addressing military officers graduating in Paris, Macron set out his country’s nuclear strategy in a bid to show leadership one week after nuclear-armed Britain officially exited the EU……. https://www.defensenews.com/smr/nuclear-arsenal/2020/02/07/macron-seeks-leading-role-in-post-brexit-eu-nuclear-strategy/ |
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1 This Month.
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
1 November – STOP THE NUCLEAR NIGHTMARE – Glasgow
PETITION. Tell the Nobel Committee: The Peace Prize belongs to Gaza’s journalists, not María Corina Machado!
PETITION- Say No to Nuclear Financing – World Bank and ADB, Why Turn Away from the Right Path?
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