Indigenous Protestors Against Guatemala Energy Company massacred -UK Government profits!
Unión FENOSA was acquired by UK-based Actis Capital LLP, a private equity firm, when it bought a majority stake in the company in May 2011 from its Spanish owners. Actis then renamed the company Energuate, stating that it “looks forward to building upon the work of FENOSA and delivering a world class service to customers while operating to the highest environmental, safety, and governance standards.”
Actis itself has roots in the Commonwealth Development Corporation (CDC), a UK government entity that was created in 1948 to invest in developing economies, following the retreat of the British empire from many of its colonies. The Actis private equity arm was set up by CDC in 2004 with UK government money.It was fully privatized in May 2012 by Andrew Mitchell, the UK Secretary of State in charge of international development at the time. (The sale netted the taxpayer £8.37 million or $13.4 million plus as much as £62 million in future profits)
Indigenous Protestors Against Guatemala Energy Company Targeted
November 10th, 2012
Six demonstrators were killed and dozens injured when the Guatemalan military fired into a group of indigenous Maya-K’iche’ gathered on the Inter-American highway to protest rising electricity charges from Energuate, a major national power company owned by a privateequity firm created by the UK government.
The demonstrators, who had gathered on the highway some 170 kilometers west of Guatemala City, were from Totonicapán, one of Guatemala’s most impoverished departments (provinces). Malnutrition is widespread and the price of electricity is prohibitively expensive in the region. The World Bank estimates 75 percent of Guatemalans live in poverty with 58 percent of the population living in extreme poverty.
New York: Fire triggers shutdown at Entergy nuke plant for second time in a week
AP
12 November 2012
SCRIBA, N.Y. — Entergy Corp.’s FitzPatrick nuclear power plant on Lake Ontario in New York has shut down for the second time in a week. The shutdown early Sunday was triggered by a fire in the plant’s main transformer.
Entergy Nuclear says the fire broke out around 5:45 a.m. and was extinguished at 6:30. The company says there was no release of radiation and no danger to employees or the public. It was reported as an “unusual event,” the lowest of four event classifications by the Nuclear regulatory Commission.
FitzPatrick shut down on Nov. 4 when its turbine stopped during routine testing. It returned to operation after personnel replaced an electrical relay.
The plant is in Oswego County about 30 miles northwest of Syracuse, N.Y.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/49789702/ns/business-oil_and_energy/#.UKEjheRWx8E
Australia -Labor, coalition reject nuclear submarines
“The Americans opened the door some months ago and for financial and strategic reasons we should at least examine the option.”
November 12, 2012
AAP
Both Labor and the coalition have ruled out nuclear-powered submarines as replacements for Australia’s ageing Collins subs, indicating the issue is dead in the water for now.
Opposition defence spokesman David Johnston has rejected suggestions by some of his colleagues that Australia consider the nuclear option.
“Nuclear submarines are not coalition policy and they are not on the table for us to be examining,” he told ABC radio on Monday.
Australia did not have the capacity to build and operate its own nuclear reactors and would have to rely on allies, including the United States or United Kingdom.
“We are in no position to make assumptions that we would have access to such technology,” Senator Johnston said.
UK government criticized over nuke program -“In breach of the Non-Proliferation Treaty”
Alleged American contractor torture victims can’t sue Rumsfeld: Court -Wider implications
Press TV
Sat Nov 10, 2012
A federal appeals court has ruled that two American contractors who were imprisoned and tortured by the U.S. military in Iraq cannot proceed with a lawsuit against former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld.
The Associated Press reports that the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Chicago ruled 8-3 that Donald Vance and Nathan Ertel cannot proceed with their lawsuit against Rumsfeld. Vance and Ertel, both Americans, were private contractors for Shield Security Group, an Iraqi firm that was illegally selling weapons that ended up in the hands of militant groups and death squads.
Vance and Ertel then turned whistleblower, becoming FBI informants as the case against Shield Group was built. But things went terribly wrong and the two men found themselves detained and imprisoned in Camp Cropper, a U.S. military prison near Baghdad airport. They were held there and interrogated by officials from multiple U.S. agencies for weeks.
The two Americans allege that they were tortured while in U.S. custody. They say they were subjected to extreme temperatures, solitary confinement, slammed into walls, deprived of sleep and bombarded with ear-splitting heavy metal music. digitaljournal.com
U.S. not competent to be reelected to UN Human Rights Council: Iran
Mehmanparast stated, “The United States, by the admission of many international organizations, is itself one of the violators of human rights on its territory and beyond its borders and is not competent to be a member of the United Nations Human Rights Council.”The U.S. candidacy has been announced while the UN Human Rights Council only allows those countries that have a transparent and positive human rights record to be elected as members, he added.
Sunday 11 November 2012
Tehran Times
TEHRAN – Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast said on Saturday that the United States is not competent enough to be reelected as a member of the United Nations Human Rights Council.
India’s first nuclear submarine will miss December deadline start -reactor broken?
“At the moment, the N-submarine has 125 K-15 short range ballistic missiles with a one-tonne nuclear warhead, which can hit the target at a distance of 700 km. Eventually they will be replaced by 3500 km range submarine launched ballistic missiles, which are currently under development.”
SOURCE: DHNS
The INS Arihant, India’s first nuclear-powered submarine, will not go for its much-awaited sea trial by December—the deadline set by the Navy.The 80 Mwe nuclear reactor on-board the submarine is yet to be functional more than three years after the submarine was launched in water. The reactor is yet to produce the energy required to propel the 6000-tonne submarine.
The non-functioning of the Arihant nuclear reactor has more to do with the completion of a large number of other systems and components inside the submarine vessel rather than any problem with the nuclear reactor.
“At the earliest, Arihant can go for sea-trial only in 2013,” sources in the department of atomic energy told Deccan Herald.
Former Navy Chief Admiral Nirmal Verma had stated that the Arihant will be on sea patrol by December 31, 2012.
Asked to comment on whether the Navy still stood by that deadline, a defence ministry official declined to make any comment on Saturday.
USA -Local nuclear power station neighbors to be studied for cancer risk
“Westerly and Charlestown would easily fall within the danger zone based on prior studies as well as the actual experience at the Fukushima nuclear disaster caused by Japan’s earthquake and tsunami. However, only the communities adjacent to the power plants will be studied.”“Concentric circles show relative risk and identify areas where residents have little or no time to close windows or evacuate…circular vulnerability zones are entirely hypothetical.”
Fukushima Fire Festival – remembering the victims of the tragedy
Now we in Japan have a fire festival in Fukushima. Yes THAT place! This photo is from our news. Enjoy the sparkles!pic.twitter.com/0wBknsvQ
Japan Today
NOV. 11, 2012
Giant torches blaze away at the Taimatsu Akashi festival in Sukagawa City, Fukushima Prefecture, on Saturday night. Taimatsu Akashi is one of Japan’s three big fire festivals. It began in 1589, and is held to mourn and express gratitude to those lost in the battle brought to the town by feudal lord Masamune Date. Following the Great East Japan Earthquake in March last year, the festival now remembers those lost on that day as well.
http://www.japantoday.com/category/picture-of-the-day/view/fukushima-fire-festival
New! Dr Helen Caldicott – Fukushima Nuclear Disaster -Slams Australian Government for supporting Uranium mining (Video)
Published on Nov 10, 2012 by David Condon
Dr Helen Caldicott talks about the Fukushima Nuclear Disaster and Australia’s role in the worldwide nuclear scenario.
Dr Helen Caldicott is the founder of Nuclear Free Planet. Author and public speaker about the dangers associated with nuclear power from mining to generating electricity.
Video link here
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HWFPFapmo5o
And Helen Caldicotts link to nuclear Free Planet website
Fukushima has turned Australians off nukes
November 11, 2012 – 1:10PM
AAP
The Fukushima disaster has set back Australia’s willingness to embrace nuclear power, physicist Ziggy Switkowski says.
Dr Switkowski, who in 2006 chaired a commonwealth government inquiry that recommended Australia start using nuclear energy, said on Sunday that Australians were now less likely than they were then to accept nuclear energy due to problems at reactors.
Referring to Japan’s March 2011 tsunami and nuclear disaster, Dr Switkowski said the momentum in favour of nuclear power had been steadily building but had been set back several years.
Korean nuclear worries take southward turn -Caught out by nuclear industry whistleblower
Nevertheless, public anxiety and criticism has spread rapidly, and is understandable. The Fukushima nuclear accident in Japan is a scary recent memory. Additionally, the violations came to light only as a result of an inside tip, not through official inspections and protocols.
The China Post
Updated Sunday, November 11,
Once again, the Korean Peninsula is the focus of concern about nuclear developments. This time, however, attention is directed at South Korea’s nuclear power program, not North Korea’s primitive but alarming nuclear weapon development efforts.
The government of the Republic of Korea has shut down several nuclear reactors after safety certificates for some of their parts were found to be forged. Officials have been quick to minimize any potential danger resulting from the situation. The parts involved were fuses and switches, not components more directly engaged with radioactive material.
Nevertheless, public anxiety and criticism has spread rapidly, and is understandable. The Fukushima nuclear accident in Japan is a scary recent memory. Additionally, the violations came to light only as a result of an inside tip, not through official inspections and protocols.
Moreover, South Korea has given high priority to developing a global nuclear export industry. Several years ago, Korean firms won a $20 billion contract to build four nuclear reactors in the United Arab Emirates.
Diplomats say US-backed Mideast nuclear talks called off over Arab-Israeli rifts
By GEORGE JAHN
Associated Press
Nov 10, 2:32 PM EST
VIENNA (AP) — Diplomats say proposed high-level talks between Israel and its Muslim neighbors on a Mideast free of weapons of mass destruction have been called off.
The diplomats said the U.S., one of the organizers, would likely make a formal announcement soon, stating that with tensions in the region high, “the time was not opportune” for such a gathering.
The meeting, to be held in Helsinki by year’s end, was on shaky ground since it was agreed to in 2010 by the 189 member nations of the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty.
The decision to scrap it cast doubt on the significance of the NPT conference and its attempts every five years to advance nonproliferation.
The diplomats demanded anonymity Saturday because they were not authorized to divulge the cancellation ahead of the formal announcement.
USA -The Navy has rejected an undersea expedition to site of the 1968 shipwreck.-But it will go ahead anyway!
U.S. Navy Rear Adm. Barry Bruner warned Boyne against undertaking any unauthorized dive of the wreck, citing the “Sunken Military Craft Act” law. “That law allows the Department of the Navy to make the determination on whether or not a requested dive might potentially disturb, remove or injure a sunken military craft,” U.S. Navy Cmdr. Brenda Malone says.
In May, an expedition team led by former U.S. naval officer Paul Boyne proposed to the U.S. Navy Heritage and History Command in Washington that it would send an undersea robot to resolve unanswered questions about the tragedy. After a summer of contentious correspondence, the Navy office denied the permit citing the lack of an archaeological plan for the investigation
(In response to USA TODAY inquiries made in June, Malone said the nuclear torpedoes and reactor that went down with the submarine are “monitored,” but she could not discuss further details.) The Navy has tested the water around the submarine for radioactive releases, at least as recently as 1998.
Boyne says the expedition team still plans a “recreational” investigation of the wreck, which rests in international waters at a location the U.S. Navy considers “secret,” according to Malone. “The absence of a permit for cultural preservation and archeological matters on lands of the U.S. does not affect this recreational dive in the middle of very international waters,” Boyne replied to the Navy in a letter sent Thursday.
Dan Vergano, USA TODAY
11:04AM EST November 10. 2012 –
The saga of the USS Scorpion continues as a submarine veterans group calls for a new investigation of the unexplained accidentthat sank the U.S. nuclear attack sub more than 40 years ago.
The Scorpion went down May 22, 1968, killing 99 men and foundering 11,220 feet underwater in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. The sub carried two nuclear torpedoes and a nuclear reactor.
A Navy Court of Inquiry found that year that “the cause of the loss cannot be definitively ascertained,” leaving the sub’s demise a matter of controversy for decades. Last month, the U.S. Navy denied a proposal by marine disaster experts to investigate the shipwreck, triggering the latest call for finally determining what sank the USS Scorpion.
“One can hope that the Navy will listen to us,” says Thomas Conlon of the U.S. Submarine Veterans, a 13,800-member organization of former submarine servicemembers dedicated to memorializing lost submariners. The organization sent a letter Nov. 5 to the secretary of the Navy, Ray Mabus, with the “request that the United States Navy officially reopen the investigation of USS Scorpion (SSN 589).”
In May, an expedition team led by former U.S. naval officer Paul Boyne proposed to the U.S. Navy Heritage and History Command in Washington that it would send an undersea robot to resolve unanswered questions about the tragedy. After a summer of contentious correspondence, the Navy office denied the permit citing the lack of an archaeological plan for the investigation.
In a follow-up letter sent last week,
Air Force ships Calif. radioactive waste to Idaho landfill
In letters to the health department, the Air Force contended that the McClellan soil was “technologically enhanced naturally occurring radioactive materials,” a term the federal EPA normally uses for residues from energy production and mining with trace radioactive elements – all of which fit Buttonwillow’s permit.
California regulators, however, accused the Air Force of massaging the truth.
According to the federal Environmental Protection Agency, if significant radium is inhaled or ingested, it can increase the risk of diseases such as lymphoma, bone cancer and leukemia. While the concentrations in the McClellan soil are low, they are above limits the federal government has set to protect human health.
Stephen Woods, chief of the California Department of Public Health’s Division of Food, Drug and Radiation Safety, argued in a Nov. 4, 2011, letter that the dirt should be sent to “a licensed low-level radioactive waste disposal facility.” The Idaho facility where the soil is now going does not meet that criteria. Neither do any California waste disposal facilities.
“Hazardous waste landfills in low-income communities of color in California aren’t the right places for” nuclear waste, said Caroline Farrell, executive director of the Center on Race, Poverty & the Environment
November 9, 2012 | Katharine Mieszkowski and Matt Smith
After California regulators refused to allow the U.S. Air Force to label residue from radioactive aircraft instruments as “naturally occurring” – declaring it unsuitable for a Bakersfield-area dump – the military turned to Idaho with the same story.
There, military officials met with success. The Air Force is now sending radioactive waste from Sacramento County’s McClellan Air Force Base to a Grand View, Idaho, hazardous waste landfill.
This solution involved a bit of legal semantics rejected in California despite 10 months of Air Force lobbying: The military claimed radium dust left over from glow-in-the-dark aircraft instruments actually was naturally occurring, putting it the same relatively lax regulatory category as mine tailings, according to government memos obtained by California Watch through a public records request.
Larry Morgan, a health physicist with the California Department of Public Health, disagreed with that characterization. Radioactive paint does not “meet the definition” of naturally occurring waste, he wrote in a September 2011 memo.
The Idaho facility’s permit allows it to accept materials defined as natural without notifying state regulators, leaving the state’s hazardous waste manager in the dark.
“I’m not familiar with this particular waste stream. I intend to find out now that you’ve contacted me,” Robert Bullock, hazardous waste permits manager for the Idaho Department of Environmental Quality, said during an October interview.
The redefinition of the waste as natural might not even have been necessary, given Idaho’s different standards for waste containing trace amounts of radium.
1 This Month
26 April – Chernobyl: Inside the Meltdown airs on National Geographic on Sunday 26th April from 4pm
29 April – Nuclear Expert Webinar #1 – Radiation Impacts on Families with Mary Olson and Cindy Folkers
- 12:15 PM MT – 1:45 PM MT
- Location: Virtual – REGISTER TODAY
4 May -West Suburban Peace Coalition to discuss Iran war at May Educational Forum
Monday, May 4, 7:00 – 8:00 PM Central Standard Time
Title: : How Trump’s Narrative Tries to Shape the Reality of the War on Iran.
Contact Walt Zlotow, zlotow@hotmail.com 630 442 3045 for further information
14 May – online event From Bombs to Data Centres: the Face of Nuclear Colonialism
Pine Ridge Uranium is the real threat, not Tehran- Tell Burgum: Stop the Extraction.
Chernobyl: The Lost Tapes – A good documentary on Chernobyl on SBS available On Demand for the next 3 weeks– https://www.sbs.com.au/ondemand/tv-program/chernobyl-the-lost-tapes/2352741955560
To see nuclear-related stories in greater depth and intensity – go to https://nuclearinformation.wordpress.com
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