AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
Posted: Thursday Jan 23, 2014
China’s military has released images of an intercontinental ballistic missile with enough range to reach the United States, as Beijing is involved in a series of rows threatening to embroil Washington.
A truck carries a Chinese Dongfeng 31 ICBM to a 2009 military parade rehearsal in Beijing. China is pursuing a capability to equip ICBMs with multiple nuclear warheads, a Chinese state-controlled newspaper said this week (AP Photo/Ng Han Guan).
The pictures of Chinese soldiers test-firing a Dongfeng-31 missile, which is said by experts to be able to carry nuclear warheads 8,000 kilometers (4,960 miles), appeared in the People’s Liberation Army Daily newspaper on Tuesday.
Further images showing soldiers dressed in protective suits, suggesting that the drill was simulating the launch of an armed warhead, were also posted on the sohu.com news portal, attributed to the newspaper.
Sohu.com said it was the first time that images of such an exercise had been released.
The images could not be found on the PLA Daily’s website when checked by AFP on Thursday.
China is embroiled in a series of territorial disputes with its neighbors in the South China Sea, and is locked in a row with Japan in the East China Sea over islands administered by Tokyo and claimed by Beijing.
The US has a security alliance with Japan and Vice President Joe Biden said last month that a strategic shift to Asia would continue.
New energy goals set out by the European Union for 2030 will allow Britain to meet emissions targets by building more nuclear power plants instead of wind farms and expand fracking operations, despite criticism by green campaigners.
The European Commission has proposed a new target for 2030 across the EU – to provide 27 percent of energy from renewable sources. Each country will decide for itself how to meet the target in order to limit rising energy costs. The commission decided not to introduce any laws on environmental damage during the extraction of shale gas by the potentially dangerous drilling process known as fracking.
On Wednesday, the EC stated that EU governments should cut their greenhouse gas emissions by 40 percent compared with 1990 levels. Current national targets aimed at boosting the share of renewable energy to 20 percent would not be renewed after 2020.
“What we are presenting today is both ambitious and affordable,” EC President Jose Manuel Barroso stated.
For Germany, France and Italy – which spoke in favor of the wind and solar power development – the new goals came as a disappointment, while Britain welcomed them. The UK will still have to provide 15 percent of its energy from renewable power by 2020, but after that benchmark there will be no target.
The new policy gives the UK government the long-awaited go-ahead to develop nuclear power and fracking as its key energy source. The less stringent rules allow Britain to use a mix of energy sources, including nuclear, to tackle emissions in a cost-effective way. “This is a really good package,” UK Energy Secretary Ed Davey said. “It looks very much in line with the things the coalition has been arguing for.”
The state Senate Resources Committee got an overview Wednesday of how Alaska is dealing with potential impacts of radiation from the 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster and tsunami in Japan.
Environmental Conservation commissioner Larry Hartig told committee members that his department is monitoring marine debris washing ashore in Southeast Alaska and the Prince William Sound.
“For now, we have a lot more debris than we used to have that came in from Japan, and Alaska got more than its share of it,” he said. “Most of it’s been just solid waste — it hasn’t been anything that’s what we would deem as hazardous waste.”
He said the DEC doesn’t have a separate program to keep an eye out for radiation in the debris. Since it flows here via California and Washington, he said federal programs in those states have it covered.
“They have been monitoring for radiation, and they’re not seeing any kind of levels of human concern,” he said. “So when we look at this, there hasn’t been a driving need in Alaska to try to institute a program, particularly where we’d be starting it from scratch.”
Committee members wanted reassurance that Alaska’s fish stocks weren’t at risk, either. Hartig said the programs in the Lower 48 (?? – arclight2011) are testing fish that swim between the Gulf of Alaska, the West Coast and Japan, and they’re sure the fish are safe to eat.
“It worries me, frankly, when you see speculation, because we sell our fish in the international market, and there’s people that would love to discourage Alaska fish,” he said. “We’ve got to be careful when we throw things out there that we have an industry that’s dependent on the reputation of our fish.”
He said they’re working with other groups in the state to reassure buyers that Alaskan fish aren’t contaminated.
Hartig’s presentation was part of a committee overview of all of DEC’s programs. It was the committee’s first meeting of the new legislative session.
Plume of airborne radioactive iodine arrival in the US correlates with increased rates of congenital hypothyroidism among the new born.
A new study finds congenital hypothyroidism in the US rising 28 % in the two and a half months after the arrival of the Fukushima fallout of radioactive iodine (I-131) [1]. Researchers and authors Joe Mangano and Janette Sherman from the Radiation and Public Health Project [2] have done a thorough job based on data from the US government
ExtractMangano and Sherman stress that the findings should be regarded as preliminary, and require confirmation and expansion, including long-term follow-up of infants and other children. CH is only one indicator for the health impacts of the Fukushima fallout. Other indicators of foetal/infant health include foetal deaths, premature births, low weight births, neonatal deaths, infant deaths and birth defects; and those should also be monitored. While any adverse impacts would be expected to affect first the most susceptible foetus and infant, changes in the health status of older children and adults may also occur.
Sure enough, thyroid cancer among the young has shot up in Fukushima, and scores of US sailors exposed while performing rescue work near Fukushima in March 2011 have been diagnosed with thyroid cancer, testicular cancer, leukaemia, and other illnesses…..
Nuclear power plants and their surrounding areas would be buried under volcanic ash, making it impossible to control nuclear reactors for long periods of time. Even if radioactive materials were to leak from the reactors, we would not be able to reach the facilities to do anything about it. It would put the very survival of the country at risk.
The risks of earthquakes and tsunami causing nuclear disasters have garnered much attention among experts and the public, but I feel a grave need to raise awareness on how much greater a risk a massive volcanic eruption poses on nuclear reactors in Japan.
Volcano experts surveyed for a Mainichi Shimbun article published last December said they were most concerned with the impact of a major volcanic eruption on Kyushu Electric Power Co.’s Sendai Nuclear Power Plant, located in Kagoshima Prefecture, followed by Hokkaido Electric Power Co.’s Tomari Nuclear Power Plant in Hokkaido.
Some 10 years ago, a volcanologist told me that pyroclastic sediment was commonly found in the surrounding areas of both Sendai and Tomari nuclear power stations. I was working at the Mainichi Shimbun’s Shimabara Local Bureau in Nagasaki Prefecture at the time, and had been learning about earthquakes and volcanoes through my coverage of the eruption of Mount Unzen-Fugendake that began in 1990.
Consisting of high-temperature substances such as lava and volcanic ash, pyroclastic flows spread at rapid speeds and are some of the most terrifying phenomena resulting from volcanic eruptions. In 1991, a Mainichi Shimbun photographer and 42 others were killed by pyroclastic currents from Mount Unzen-Fugendake.
In volcanology terms, however, the Mount Unzen-Fugendake eruptions are considered minor. Pyroclastic currents from a massive eruption would be beyond comparison.
Massive eruptions, which have occurred in Japan about once every 6,000 to 10,000 years, cause pyroclastic flows that can bury an area within several dozen to over 100 kilometers of the volcano, and create calderas measuring over 10 kilometers in diameter. Volcanic ash from a massive eruption can cover the entire Japanese archipelago, or even parts of the rest of the world.
The leaked secret draft of the TPP´s (Trans-Pacific Partnership) Environment Chapter, published today by WikiLeaks, underscores how multinational corporate interests rule the negotiating process of this important 12-nation treaty, representing more than 40 per cent of the world’s GDP and one-third of world trade.
On 13 November last year, WikiLeaks released the secret draft text of the Intellectual Property Rights Chapter, which showed how nations were forced to change laws and to prosecute in defence of the biggest corporate interests in the field of IP rights.
In sharp contrast, the Environment Chapter does not include enforcement mechanisms serving the defence of the environment; it is vague and weak, and adheres to the lowest common denominator of environmental interests.
The word “appropriate” is found in various forms in 43 places in the draft text, in such contexts as: “Where possible and appropriate, the Parties shall seek to complement and utilise their existing cooperation mechanisms and take into account relevant work of regional and international organizations.” The word “may” is also found 43 times in the 23-page draft.
In the draft Consolidated Text, governments are urged to “…make every effort to arrive at a mutually satisfactory resolution…”, “…by any technological means available agreed by the consulting Parties…”, “…on the basis of objectivity, reliability and sound judgment…”, “…provided that the disputed Parties so agree…”, “…take measures to prevent…”, “…shall make best efforts…”, “…exercise restraint in taking recourse…”, “…in recognition of the importance…”, “…each Party retains the right to make decisions…”, “…adopt or maintain appropriate measures…”.
A selection of other favourite words in the draft include: “enhance” (12), “consider” (12), “encourage” (11), “address” (10), “endeavour” (9) and “seek” (9).
The Environment Chapter clearly shows the intention to first and foremost protect trade, not the environment. The principle is spelled out in this draft that local environmental laws are not to obstruct trade or investment between the countries. Furthermore, there is great emphasis on the self-regulatory principle when it comes to environmental protection, and emphasis on “…flexible, voluntary mechanisms, such as voluntary auditing and reporting, market-based incentives, voluntary sharing of information and expertise and public-private partnership”. But even such measures should be designed in a manner that “…avoids the creation of unnecessary barriers to trade”.
The Consolidated Text of the Environment Chapter of the TPP Agreement was drafted by Canadian officials after bilateral consultations with other TPP Parties. It is dated November 24, 2013, the last day of the TPP Chief Negotiators’ summit in Salt Lake City, Utah. It outlines what the Chairs of the TPP Environment Working Group evaluate as a compromise of the Parties’ different positions across issues. In a separate four-page document the Chairs of the Environment Working Group outline the main obstacles to agreement between the negotiating countries.
It is noteworthy in the assessment by the Chairs that the US government is isolated in its interest in placing enforcing mechanisms into the treaty to protect the environment. Without access to the negotiating table, it is hard to assess if the US representatives fought for this principle with the same vigour as they did for policing and enforcement on behalf of intellectual property interests, as can be seen in the leaked IP Chapter.
The TPP negotiations have been shrouded in secrecy during the three years the treaty has been in the making. The United States, as the largest of the 12 economies party to the negotiations, had originally pushed for the closure of the agreement before the end of 2013. According to recent reports quoting Andrew Robb, the Australian trade minister, the negotiations are in the final stages and the treaty is “ready to be sealed”.
The Obama administration wants to fast-track the TPP treaty through the US Congress, preventing Congress from amending or discussing any part of it. A bill to this effect was released last Thursday, 9 January, by the leaders of the Congressional committees with jurisdiction over US free trade agreements.
With the WikiLeaks release of the drafts of two of the most controversial chapters of the TPP, the media has now an opportunity to critically dissect the issues with the public interest in mind.
The TPP negotiations have wider implications than for the 800 million people in the 12 negotiating countries because the US administration, the dominant Party at the table, has declared that the principles outlined in the TPP will be a benchmark in the equally secretive US-EU trade talks for the TTIP (Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership) initiated in January 2013.
Current TPP negotiation member states are the United States, Japan, Mexico, Canada, Australia, Malaysia, Chile, Singapore, Peru, Vietnam, New Zealand and Brunei.
Today, 15 January 2014, WikiLeaks released the secret draft text for the entire TPP (Trans-Pacific Partnership) Environment Chapter and the corresponding Chairs’ Report. The TPP transnational legal regime would cover 12 countries initially and encompass 40 per cent of global GDP and one-third of world trade. The Environment Chapter has long been sought by journalists and environmental groups. The released text dates from the Chief Negotiators’ summit in Salt Lake City, Utah, on 19-24 November 2013.
INTERVIEW: Beverly Findlay-Kaneko of Families for Safe Energy reports on the deeply human side of Fukushima following her recent trip back home. Learn how nuclear refugees cope with radiation and catch up with the heartbreaking story of former Fukushima resident Setsuko Kida, previously interviewed on Nuclear Hotseat #127.
The head of an independent news website who went on a reporting tour of Japan has advised the local media to embrace citizen-based reporting as a way of helping improve society. Amy Goodman is the executive director of Democracy Now!, a Web-based site that advocates citizen journalism and airs in over 1,000 countries worldwide.
Goodman went around the country and interviewed evacuees from the Fukushima region, who were forced to leave their homes after the nuclear meltdown at the Fukushima Daiichi plant in 2011. She also met with residents of Okinawa who have been protesting the huge U.S. military presence, the largest in the region, in their prefecture. She said there is a different kind of power that comes from reading about the personal experiences of those who are in the thick of the situation.
She shared her thoughts and experiences with the Foreign Correspondents’ Club of Japan in Tokyo on Monday. She talked to them about the philosophy of Democracy Now! which is to bring a different perspective on news events that are independent from news outlets that may be profit or politics driven. They focus on such topics like climate change, national security, secrecy, racial discrimination and other similar issues. They believe that because the “common people” are given a voice through citizen journalism, there is a greater possibility to get actual action and results.
She used the example of how the public outcry over safety issues in nuclear plants has kept all of the plants closed and reactors offline, despite the current administration’s plans to still push nuclear power. “Imagine the possibilities for the rest of the world if more voices were heard,” she said.
….However Tom Smith, an environment specialist who leads Public Citizen Texas, noted his concern about the location of a local aquifer that had once been mapped to run under the site. A more recent map showed that the aquifer ended before the site began, but Smith called into the credentials of this map, based on the fact that the chancellor for the Texas Tech University System was once a lobbyist for WCS….
This article was written by Oilprice.com — the leading provider of energy news in the world
Each year the U.S. spends an estimated $30 billion on nuclear waste disposal, yet due to the incredibly high barriers to entry into the market there are almost no companies that offer disposal services. Many organizations over the years have tried to establish low-level waste disposal sites, but only one site has actually opened, giving the controlling company, Waste Control Specialists (WCS) a monopoly of the market and allowing it to earn a substantial portion of the $30 billion.
Rodney Baltzer, president of WCS, explained to The New York Times that the company has dug a huge pit in Andrews Country, Texas, with others planned to be dug over the next few years, into which a base layer of nearly waterproof clay has been set. Then a layer of concrete was poured on top, reinforced with steel, and then three layers of plastic. The low-level nuclear waste is loaded into large concrete containers and then placed in the pit, which once full will be covered by a 40-foot thick cap of concrete, clay, and finally a special cap to prevent prairie dogs from burrowing into the area.
All this allows the waste to be buried for thousands of years in a safe manner, and WCS benefits by being able to sell the space inside from anywhere from $1,000 up to $10,000 per cubic foot.
The pit where the waste is stored.
Low-level nuclear waste is a term that includes contaminated tools, protective clothing, used-up filters for radioactive water, hospital and laboratory wastes, and also all debris (radioactive steel and concrete) from demolished nuclear power plants. Demand is expected to start to grow as more nuclear reactors around the country approach the end of their lives and demolition crews move in.
“The myth that nuclear power is clean and safe has collapsed,” Hosokawa told reporters in Tokyo today. “We don’t even have a place to store nuclear waste. Without that, restarting the plants would be a crime against future generations.”
The mothballing of the nation’s 48 reactors after the Fukushima accident in March 2011 forced Japan to step up fuel imports, widening the current account deficit and hampering efforts to contain the world’s biggest debt. A victory in Tokyo, which produces about a fifth of Japan’s economic output, would hand Hosokawa a platform to oppose Abe’s efforts to restart the plants.
Abe’s Support
“With Hosokawa running, it puts nuclear power back on the agenda in a way they can’t take off,” said Steven Reed, professor of political science at Chuo University in Tokyo. Abe’s coalition will suffer if the nuclear topic becomes a singular issue in the Tokyo race, he said. “They can’t win that one.”
Given this sticky issue between negotiators from both sides, no nuclear agreement is expected to be signed during Abe’s visit from January 25 to 27, sources said. Singh met Abe in Tokyo in May last year, and again in Brunei in October on the sidelines of East Asia summit.
However, sources said there will be a reference to the “progress” made during negotiations on the proposed nuclear deal. On civil nuclear cooperation, the two PMs had confirmed in May that the two countries would accelerate negotiations for the early conclusion of a bilateral agreement.
Written by Shubhajit Roy | New Delhi | January 23, 2014
During a recent trip to London, I spoke with Lady Barbara Judge, chairman emeritus of the UK Atomic Agency and an advisor to TEPCO on the Fukushima nuclear disaster in Japan. I asked her point-blank whether Japan was willing to bring any nuclear reactors back online in 2014.
Her answer was an unequivocal “Yes.” The Japanese have no choice, really, because the alternative—importing liquefied natural gas (LNG)—is far too expensive.
Japan is the world’s largest importer of LNG and has had to double its imports since the Fukushima incident. For that privilege, the country pays some of the highest rates on the planet—almost four times more than what we pay for natural gas in North America.
South Korea also shut down its nuclear plants post-Fukushima to do inspections and maintenance upgrades, and it, too, has had to import a lot of LNG. Both countries are looking to restart their nuclear reactors so they can stop paying a fortune to foreign energy suppliers. When these countries restart their reactors, they’ll also restart the uranium market, so we expect uranium prices to begin to shake loose of the doldrums this year.
Another driver will be throwing the switch at ConverDyn, the US uranium facility that is slated to start converting natural U3O8 to reactor-ready fuel in late 2014 or early 2015.
We currently hold two solid uranium companies in the portfolio—one is a US-based small-cap producer (one of the very few in America), the other is the lowest-risk way to play the uranium market that I know of. Both, we believe, will take off in 2014 on the renewed interest in uranium and the associated stocks.
According to the NDA, using fewer locations would reduce costs and impacts of the environment.
Somerset councilors have been asked to deny the plans to move the nuclear waste. A report from Bridgwater Mercury stated that opponents do not believe that additional nuclear waste should be transferred to the area.
The NDA published the proposal in November. Comments on the proposal can be made until Jan. 31.
Hinkley Point A plans to build additional storage for new intermediate level waste, the report said.
These cooperatives help the farmers by absorbing some of the safety test costs and also help market and store their produce that they are unable to sell immediately.
By Nicola Wong
Cooperatives are the backbone for Japan’s rural economy through their presence in agriculture, fisheries and even forestry. From rural to urban, farmer to consumer, and junior to elderly, cooperatives play a critical role throughout the Japanese economy. Since 1900, the Japan Agriculture Cooperative Group has been present in every village and nearly 100 percent of farm households join the cooperatives; every rural village has a co-op store and access to co-op financing and co-op insurance.
In the aftermath of the Fukushima nuclear disaster, government officials have plans to remove radioactive materials from farmlands and forests until no radioactive cesium is detected in agricultural, livestock and forestry products. As mentioned in an article by Hrabrin Bachev and Fusao Ito from the Institute of Agricultural Economics, “throughout Japan, there are fears of radioactive contamination leaking into the food system, which has caused consumers to reject products.”
The Japan agriculture cooperative group has had a critical role in combating the challenges with the present system of safety inspection and has teamed up with Fukushima University to rebuild consumer confidence in local produce. Together, they have collaborated to launch a Soil Screening Project, which tests the levels of contamination in several different agriculture areas. This has helped farmers keep an eye on the levels of radioactive contamination on their land and produce.
EXCLUSIVE by Rob Edwards / Electricity prices in Ukraine are expected to double to help pay for a series of safety upgrades to old Soviet nuclear power stations, according to a leaked report by the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD).
EBRD, a public sector bank investing in Eastern Europe and elsewhere on behalf of 64 countries and the European Union, last year announced a €300 million loan to the Ukrainian state nuclear power company, Energoatom. It is the largest nuclear safety loan the bank has made.
The loan is to help implement up to 87 improvements to each of the country’s 15 electricity-generating reactors, which were built in the 1970s and 1980s. The improvements, aimed at complying with today’s international safety standards, include new equipment, new controls and organisational overhauls.
Details, however, have been kept secret by the EBRD but a leaked copy reveals that major price increases are part of the package.
The 105-page report forecasts that the price of electricity in Ukraine will increase from 27.1 kopeks per kilowatt/hour in 2012 to 54.4 kopeks per kilowatt/hour in 2020. “Significant tariff increases will be required for Energoatom,” it says.
The bank expects the Ukrainian government’s electricity regulator, NERC, to insist on price increases to help pay for the loan. One of the loan’s conditions is that tariffs should be increased “to ensure cost recovery”.
The leaked report also reveals that the EBRD is expecting to make a profit of €30 million from the loan over the next six years. The loan was a “good and efficient use of the bank’s capital in Ukraine,” said the EBRD’s president, Sir Suma Chakrabarti.
Critics say that the price increases would hit hard-pressed consumers in Ukraine. “The tariff hike stipulated in the document is completely unacceptable for Ukrainian consumers, many of whom are struggling to pay bills at current prices,” said Iryna Holovko, Ukrainian energy campaigner with Bankwatch, a group that monitors financial institutions in Eastern Europe.
“Pushing such a hike is a huge if not impossible political bet for our authorities, particularly in times of turmoil as in Ukraine today. It’s really hard to imagine how the deal as depicted in this document can go through.”
Holovko also argued that the price increases exposed the myth that nuclear power was cheap. “They would make nuclear energy more expensive than renewables,” she said. “Why on earth would we bear the incalculable risks of nuclear energy then?”
The world’s worst nuclear accident took place in Ukraine on 26 April 1986, when a reactor at Chernobyl north of Kiev exploded and showed Europe with radioactivity. All reactors of a similar design have since been shut down in Ukraine, but the country is still heavily reliant on other nuclear stations.
Environmental groups criticise the EBRD for failing to invest in alternatives like renewables and energy efficiency. More wind and solar power “would make more sense and give better value for money than a continuing dependency on outdated nuclear technology,” said Jan Haverkamp of Greenpeace.
But Dmytro Naumenko from the Institute for Economic Research and Policy Consulting in Kiev disagreed. The projected price increases would not push the cost of nuclear power above renewables, he argued, and would make the EBRD loan profitable.
EBRD confirmed that the report was the basis for the decision to go ahead with the €300 million loan last February, but stressed that it was confidential. The bank denied, however, that the loan would force up electricity tariffs.
“The loan you are referring to has no requirement on tariffs,” said EBRD spokesman Axel Reiserer. “The figures you are quoting are taken from a hypothetical calculation model and in no way constitute a condition for the loan.”
Ukraine’s National Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) did not respond to a request to comment.
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