“An amendment attached to the legislation by Grassley would also reintroduce a measure to extend federal wiretapping authorities to specifically include investigations related to a nuclear incident.”
( A tool to use against activists ? )
Sept. 27, 2012
By Diane Barnes
Global Security Newswire
WASHINGTON – A congressional attempt to bring the United States into line with two nuclear security agreements appeared to stall late last week as a Republican senator sought changes to a compliance bill cleared this summer by the House of Representatives.
The proposed updates might prove unacceptable to House lawmakers, preventing approval of the legislation before the current Congress adjourns in January. Meanwhile, a secret GOP hold has prevented the House-approved language from advancing through the Senate, according to a key Democratic lawmaker in that chamber.
The amended version of the bill — put forward on Friday by Senate Judiciary Committee Ranking Member Charles Grassley (R-Iowa) — would eliminate several alterations House lawmakers made to an earlier Obama administration draft of the legislation. Among other changes, the senator would reinstate language to the House proposal that might allow for the execution of a person convicted of an “act of nuclear terrorism” if it results in death, according to Beth Levine, Grassley’s Judiciary panel spokeswoman.
“The death penalty is something that Senator Grassley and many others thought necessary,” said Levine, who declined to elaborate on the identities or political leanings of others in support of its inclusion in the bill.
SOUNDBITE (English) Ban Ki-moon, United Nations Secretary-General:
“There is a direct link between ending nuclear testing and eradicating nuclear weapons. The cessation of nuclear tests will constrain the development of nuclear weapons. Today, I repeat my call to those eight States to ratify the CTBT. To countries that remain outside of this Treaty, I say: you are failing to live up to your responsibility as a member of the international community.”
Stressing that the entry into force of the United Nations-backed treaty banning nuclear tests would be a milestone in advancing the cause of nuclear disarmament, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon today (27 September) renewed his call on those States that have not yet signed on to do so without delay. UNTV
The CTBT is the only treaty to ban all nuclear tests, everywhere and by everyone. The treaty also has a unique global alarm system to detect nuclear explosions. Out of a total listed number of 195 States, 183 have so far signed the treaty and 157 have ratified it.
Mr. Ban specifically called on those eight States whose ratification is required for the treaty to enter into force – also known as the Annex 2 States – to ratify the CTBT. They are
China, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, Egypt, India, Indonesia, Iran, Israel, Pakistan and the United States.
NOTE: The radionuclides available for research do not include Strontium 90, Plutonium nor Uranium for example. The list of available radionucldes are here;
The International Atomic Energy Agency on 7 September 2012 launched a database of radiation measurements collected in Japan following last year’s accident at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station of Tokyo ElectricPower Company (TEPCO). The Fukushima Monitoring Database – available to all IAEA member states and the public – provides radiation measurements collected both near and far from the power plant since the Fukushima Daiichi accident began on 11 March 2011.
Prepared by the IAEA’s Incident and Emergency Centre (IEC), the database enables analysts to both search and download such data as dose rate measurements and environmental samples including leaves, water, and soil. The information was collected as part of the IAEA’s role in implementing theConvention on Early Notification of a Nuclear Accident, under which Japan has been providing the IEC with information about the Fukushima Daiichi accident. Following the accident, the IEC regularly summarized this information in itsStatus Updates to Member States and the public, and now the database provides Member States and the public with access to the data that was previously summarized. The IEC will continue to update the database with additional radiation monitoring information it has received from Japan.
“This new database consolidates a large amount of radiological monitoring information into a useful, effective tool for studying the effects of the Fukushima accident,” said Denis Flory, IAEA Deputy Director General for Nuclear Safety and Security. “I’m grateful for the strong support from the Japanese Government to make available this invaluable resource to scientists and the public around the world.”
— By Greg Webb, IAEA Division of Public Information
BULLETIN RELEASED: 27/09/12 2:19PM GMT :: 1 hour ago NEWS WIRE: RUSSIA ENERGY NEWS »
UKRAINE-RUSSIA-FUEL-FACTORY KYIV. Sept 27 (Interfax) – Ukraine will start building a nuclear fuel factory in October, Alexander Ivanov, chief representative of Russian nuclear fuel corporation TVEL in Ukraine, …
In mid 2012 it announced that the 11 oldest 1000 MWe reactors are to have 20-year life extensions by 2030.
Ukraine’s best-known nuclear power plant was Chernobyl (Chornobyl in Ukrainian). This had the only RBMK type reactors in the country. Unit 4 was destroyed in the 1986 accident, unit 2 was shut down after a turbine hall fire in 1991, unit 1 was closed in 1997 and unit 3 closed at the end of 2000 due to international pressure.
Radioactive soil from Ukraine ‘returned’ to IAEA by Greenpeace
Press release – April 24, 2006
Radioactive soil from a public area outside the exclusion zone at the site of the Chernobyl disaster – so contaminated it must be classified as radioactive waste under European law – was delivered today to headquarters of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) by Greenpeace activists.
“People harvest wood, mushrooms and berries from those forests, notknowing that they are subjecting their health to serious radiationrisk. The samples are 10-25 times more radioactive than the limits setby the European Commission for defining a substance as radioactivewaste” said Ivan Blokov, Greenpeace nuclear campaigner.
“There are many places in the world we can drill, and the Arctic is not a place we want to be,” de Vives was quoted by Aftenbladet newspaper as saying. “Therefore, we are not on drilling off Greenland, for example.”
French Total oil’s Chief Executive Christophe de Margerie said drilling in the Arctic may be too risky to the environment in what may be the first time a major oil company has publicly raised doubts about offshore oil exploration in the region, according to a report by the Financial Times on Wednesday
De Margerie told the newspaper the chances of an oil spill are too high.
“Oil on Greenland would be a disaster,” he said in the interview. “A leak would do too much damage to the image of the company.”
Bellona President Frederic Hauge said that he is “very happy with Total’s clear stance on this issue” and that, “I am proud to work with them.”
“Total is far more open with information, even in crisis situations,” said Hauge. “It is enough for both economy and environment to be behind such a statement and a decision.”
The announcment is not altogether surprising given remarks made by Patrice de Vives, Total’s Vice President of Northern European operations at last month’s Offshore Northern Shores (ONS) oil conference in Stavanger, Norway.
“There are many places in the world we can drill, and the Arctic is not a place we want to be,” de Vives was quoted by Aftenbladet newspaper as saying. “Therefore, we are not on drilling off Greenland, for example.”
I notice that no methodology nor sample rate is given? and no Strontium 90 nor cesium comparing readings to clarify the Fukushima contamination as opposed to seperating earlier weapons testing data?
according to this very limited report Tepco did 3 tests with 3 samples and managed to say this
there is a possibility that the higher densities…..
Maybe a more thorough check of the whole area and retesting old sites to ascertain contamination movement or accumulation. plutonium is hard to find and Tepco are hardly trying to find it, obviously.
Wales Green Party will not u-turn on nuclear power
27 SEPTEMBER 2012
‘”..This is where the Greens are different from all other political parties. We have the courage of our convictions, and when we say no to nuclear, we mean it!..”
No U turn for Wales Green Party!
The leader of Plaid Cymru has done a U turn on nuclear power. When questioned by the BBC she indicated that her party would not interfere with any move to build a bigger nuclear power station on Anglesey.
Pippa Bartolotti, Leader of the Greens in Wales said: ‘Just a few months ago Leanne Wood was proud to say that she was against nuclear, and that Plaid was against nuclear, and on this basis she was elected. It is very sad to see how easily a person can change their views when there are a few votes in it.’
HMRC boss Dave Hartnett is the man responsible for cutting dodgy deals with Vodafone, Goldman Sachs and other large corporations that have cost the taxpayer billions in lost revenue.
When we discovered that he was making his retirement speech at an elite tax avoidance conference, we couldn’t resist popping in. We donned our best Goldman Sachs and Vodafone costumes, bought some flowers and knocked up a fake award. This is what happened.
Ousted defence minister Nick Harvey claims military and Whitehall backing for cheaper alternatives
“If you can just break yourself out of that frankly almost lunatic mindset for a second, all sorts of alternatives start to look possible, indeed credible.”
The Guardian, Wednesday 26 September 2012 20.30 BST
[…]
The government’s review of the future of the Trident submarine nuclear missile system is likely to suggest a significant downgrading of the UK’s nuclear deterrent, including the possibility of locking the warheads “in a cupboard” for delayed launch only after several weeks of mounting international tension.
The revelation was made by Sir Nick Harvey, the Liberal Democrat who was the defence minister leading the review until the government reshuffle this month. The MP for North Devon said he believed the policy could get support in Whitehall and from senior military figures and Labour.
Harvey said past policy on Trident had been dictated by the 1980s view that the only deterrent to a nuclear attack from the then Soviet Union was the belief that the UK could “flatten Moscow” in retaliation. This led to the UK building Trident and having at least one armed submarine at sea every hour of every day since.
Speaking in detail about the Trident review for the first time since he was sacked as minister, Harvey said: “If you can just break yourself out of that frankly almost lunatic mindset for a second, all sorts of alternatives start to look possible, indeed credible.”
[…]
Harvey’s response was that creating jobs in Barrow should be the last consideration. “The idea that you should produce weapons of mass destruction in order to keep 1,500 jobs going in the Barrow shipyard is palpably ludicrous. We could give them all a couple of million quid and send them to the Bahamas for the rest of their lives , and the world would be a much better place, and we would have saved a lot of money,” he said.
On Tuesday, GE-Hitachi Global Laser Enrichment LLC, a partnership between General Electric Co. (NYSE: GE) and Hitachi Ltd. (TYO: 6501), received approval from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) to build a laser enrichment facility.
The partnership is a subset of GE Hitachi Nuclear Energy, a company that makes nuclear reactor components. The new facility will be built at its headquarters in Wilmington, North Carolina.
The company received the technology for the facility from Silex Systems (ASX: SLX), an Australian company focused on research and development for uranium enrichment. The technology, which uses lasers to enrich uranium, had to undergo several years of regulation review before it was approved.
“Receiving our NRC license is a tremendous accomplishment and strong testament to everyone involved in this project,” said Chris Monetta, president and CEO of Global Laser Enrichment. “The technology we’ve developed could be one of the keys to the nation’s long-term energy security. At a minimum, it could provide a steady supply of uranium enriched right here in the U.S. to the country’s nuclear reactors. These reactors provide approximately 20 percent of the nation’s electricity today and will continue to be an important part of the energy mix for decades to come.”
The laser technology is cheaper than many options, and it will bring a flow of enriched uranium right to the U.S. The facility will be able to produce 6 million single work units (SWU) annually, enough to power 42 reactors.
The set of links below are designed to show how the powerful corporations mitigate bad news and show a story line in front of the truth. A simple human rights report that shakes the corporations to their knees. Bp covering up a lack of workers rights concerning Kazahkstan.
BP is also trying to sell shares in a Multibillion dollar deal to clear the last of the gulf compensation payment to the USA
To begin with, below are links to a 95 year old blogger that has been annoying Royal Dutch Shell
FROM A HAPLESS SHELL OFFICIAL:
John and Alfred Donovan well known in UK / Hague. They perceive Shell played them and so have made it their mission to embarrass, belittle and criticize Shell, which they do quite well. Their website, royaldutchsellplc.com is an excellent source of group news and comment and I recommend it far above what our own group internal comms puts out.
After Mishaps, Shell Dials Back Arctic Oil-Drilling Plans
Sep 17th, 2012 by John Donovan.
Christopher Helman, Forbes Staff: 9/17/2012
[…]
But this is a disappointment for Shell, which has spent $5 billion so far on its dream of drilling the Alaskan arctic and had earlier hoped to complete five Alaska wells this year in both the Chukchi and Beaufort seas. Drilling of the Beaufort wells have not yet been approved, and the window of opportunity there closes by Halloween.
Today’s announcement was triggered by damage to a piece of equipment called a containment dome that would be lowered to the seabed to trap oil in the unlikely case of a blowout. The damage occurred during a test of what Shell says would be the first-ever containment system deployed in Arctic waters. “It is clear that some days will be required to repair and fully assess dome readiness,” said Shell in a statement this morning.
and here is a warning to prospective whistleblowers!
[…]
WARNING TO SHELL EMPLOYEES: Shell Global Affairs Security “CAS”) is spying on Shell employees globally trying to trace who is visiting, posting, or leaking information to this website from Shell premises. Threats, including death threats, have allegedly been made against conscience driven Shell whistleblowers supplying us with information. The worlds biggest leak of employee details as part of a claimed corporate revolution by 116 Shell employees, suggest the espionage operation, threats and draconian litigation have not been entirely successful in cutting off the supply of information to this website.
[…]
On the main home page
Of course Royal Dutch Shell are in a lot of places such as Kazahkstan
By Nariman Gizitdinov on August 30, 2012
[…]
Exxon Mobil Corp. (XOM) and Royal Dutch Shell Plc (RDSA) are seeking bigger stakes in the Kashagan oil field and operating control before starting to expand the $46 billion project, according to two people with knowledge of the matter.
Stop New Nuclear
Press Release 17 September 2012 MASS TRESPASS PLANNED AT HINKLEY POINT NUCLEAR POWER STATION – 8 October
Protesters from all over the UK are gearing up for a mass trespass at the site
earmarked for the first of a new generation of nuclear power stations. Hundreds are
planning to converge at a weekend protest camp before scaling the fence round land
being cleared for the controversial Hinkley C power plant in Somerset.
The Stop New Nuclear Alliance expects many people to be arrested. “The
government is refusing to acknowledge that its ‘new nuclear’ strategy is dangerous
and expensive so we are being forced to raise our game,” said spokesperson Nancy
Birch.
AREVA, a global leader in nuclear energy and Atkins, one of the world’s leading engineering and design consultancies, have formed a joint venture to compete for projects in the UK nuclear fuel management and decommissioning sector.
The AREVA-ATKINS Partnership UK is expected to bid for significant contracts at Tier 2 level* in the UK nuclear engineering sector.
[…]
AREVA is the world leader in the back end of the nuclear fuel cycle with expertise in all back-end operations. Back-end activities include used-fuel recycling, decommissioning, waste management and transport solutions for each stage of the cycle. AREVA is part of Nuclear Management Partners in the United Kingdom which manages Sellafield.
Atkins is one of the world’s leading engineering and design consultancies with around 9,000 of its 17,500 people based in the UK. Its international nuclear consultancy has been working at Sellafield, Magnox and former UKAEA sites for around 25 years.
The AREVA-ATKINS Partnership UK will have its headquarters in Warrington, in North West England.
“The time the children spend here is desperately needed to boost their immune system which was badly affected by radiation,” said Ms Keogh.
“The difference it makes to their health is amazing.
“We also keep in contact with them throughout the year, and have someone working for us in Belarus.”
[…]
From Kazahkstan Today
11:45 26.09.2012
“North Kazakhstan Oblast is viewed as a northern gateway of the country. The regional economy is perfect for developing cooperation in agriculture as far as we are an agricultural region of the country. Every year the oblast provides 30% of Kazakhstan’s croppage. We are interested in close cooperation with Belarusian partners in what regards agriculture,” BelTA quotes Nelli Kukushkina.
By Stephanie Manley
nuclear-news 