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Protecting Whistleblowers – Free Mordechi Vanunu and others!

Protecting Whistleblowers

Tuesday 17 June 2014, 7:00 PM

This event is organised by Amnesty International’s International Secretariat.

Governments often fail to protect whistleblowers and instead subject them to various forms of retaliation, including prosecution, for disclosing information governments wrongly want to keep secret. This includes information about human rights violations.

A panel of speakers with first-hand knowledge of these issues will talk about the experience of whistleblowers who face retaliation for their actions. They will explore how whistleblowers can be protected, and by extension protect the public’s right to information. This includes implementing measures such as those laid out in the Global Principles on National Security and the Right to Information (“Tshwane Principles”). These principles, which gained the support of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, provide critical guidance for ensuring that the public’s ‘right to know’ is protected.

Chaired by Michael Garcia Bochenek, senior director of international law and policy at Amnesty International.

The panel:

Frank La Rue has been the UN Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of the right to freedom of opinion and expression since 2008. He has worked extensively on a range of freedom of opinion and expression issues, including the links between the right to access to information and the right to truth. La Rue participated in the development of the Tshwane Principles. He has worked on human rights for over 30 years and is the founder of the Center for Legal Action for Human Rights (CALDH) in Washington DC and Guatemala. He also brought the first genocide case against the military dictatorship in Guatemala and has previously served as a presidential commissioner for human rights in Guatemala, as a human rights adviser to the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Guatemala, as president of the governing board of the Centro-American Institute of Social Democracy Studies and as a consultant to the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights.

Mordechai Vanunu is a former nuclear technician at Israel’s nuclear plant near Dimona. He spent 18 years in prison in Israel, 11 of which in solitary confinement, for revealing details of the country’s nuclear arsenal to the British newspaper, The Sunday Times, in 1986. He was abducted by Israeli secret service (Mossad) agents in Italy in 1986 and secretly taken to Israel. Ten years after serving his sentence, he continues to live under severe restrictions which prevent him from leaving Israel, and ban him from entering a consulate or embassy or coming with 500 meters of international borders, border passages, harbours or airports; and require him to seek permission before contacting foreign nationals. His current restrictions are due for renewal in May 2014. In 2010 Vanunu was awarded the Carl von Ossietzky Medal awarded by the International League for Human Rights (ILHR) to individuals or groups for their defence of human rights and in the spirit of Carl von Ossietzky’s work for human rights and peace. His restrictions prevented him from receiving the prize in Germany.

Peter Hounam is a British investigative journalist who has worked for The Sunday Times, The Mirror, the London Evening Standard, and the BBC, and has also published several books including The Woman from Mossad: The Story of Mordechai Vanunu and the Israeli Nuclear Program. Hounam interviewed Mordechai Vanunu in Australia in 1986 and, with other members of The Sunday Times Insight Team, investigated his story of the inside workings of Israel’s Dimona nuclear plant. The story was published that September but beforehand Vanunu was abducted by Israeli secret service (Mossad). On behalf of The Sunday Times and the BBC, Hounam went to Israel for Vanunu‘s release from his 18-year prison sentence in April 2004. He was arrested the following May by plainclothes officers of the Israel security agency, Shin Bet, while working on a documentary about Vanunu, allegedly for nuclear ‘spying’. The Jerusalem district court imposed a gag order preventing further details of the arrest being disclosed but after international protests he was released without charge the next day, though 10 years later he is still banned from returning to Israel.

Kathleen McClellan works for the US Government Accountability Project (GAP) as National Security and Human Rights deputy director. GAP is a leading whistleblower protection and advocacy organisation, which advocates for cases including Edward Snowden. McClellan supports national security and intelligence community whistleblowers, with a focus on the issues of torture, surveillance, excessive secrecy and political discrimination. She has represented whistleblowers from the National Security Agency (NSA), Central Intelligence Agency, Federal Bureau of Investigation, Department of Defense and Department of Homeland Security, representing their interests in forums that include the Offices of Inspectors General, the Merit System Protection Board (MSPB), the Office of Special Counsel and federal court. Working with National Security and Human Rights Director Jesselyn Radack, she has represented NSA whistleblower Thomas Drake and CIA whistleblower John Kiriakou.

Nancy Hollander is lead counsel for Chelsea Manning on appeal. She is an internationally recognised criminal defence lawyer in the US firm of Freedman Boyd Hollander Goldberg Urias and Ward P.A. as well as being an associate tenant with Doughty Street Chambers in London. Her work is largely devoted to representing individuals and organisations accused of crimes, including those involving national security issues. She has also been counsel in numerous civil cases, forfeitures and administrative hearings, and has argued and won a case involving religious freedom in the United States Supreme Court. Hollander served as a consultant to the defence in a high profile terrorism case in Ireland, assisted counsel in other international cases and represents two prisoners at Guantanamo Bay Naval Base. She has qualified as a lead counsel for the Special Tribunal for Lebanon and for the list of counsel for the International Criminal Court. She has written extensively on these and other criminal law topics.

Lieutenant Colonel the Reverend Nicholas Mercer was admitted as a solicitor in 1990, and commissioned into the Army Legal Service in 1991, serving in Northern Ireland, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Cyprus and Germany. Later, as the former legal advisor to the UK army in Iraq, he revealed information about the UK’s complicity in the abuse of detainees in Iraq which he described as “institutional”. He made recommendations to the UK authorities to ensure the protection of detainees from torture and other ill-treatment to which, as he later said, no response or action was taken. He was named Liberty Human Rights Lawyer of the Year 2011.

Read more:
http://www.amnesty.org/en/news/israel-lift-ludicrous-restrictions-whistleblower-vanunu-decade-after-release-2014-04-16
http://www.amnesty.org/en/for-media/press-releases/usa-must-not-hunt-down-whistleblower-edward-snowden-2013-06-24
http://www.amnesty.org/en/appeals-for-action/chelseamanning
http://www.amnesty.org/en/library/asset/MDE15/057/2004/en/490abaa8-d5cb-11dd-bb24-1fb85fe8fa05/mde150572004en.html

May 29, 2014 Posted by arclight2011part2 | Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Number of children in Japan falls to new low

“So, some children want to study in uncontaminated areas although their parents are against it. One junior high school girl said she would want to bear children when grown up, so she felt that she should leave Fukushima as soon as possible.“  from ; https://nuclear-news.net/2014/05/29/the-hidden-truth-about-fukushima-children-families-and-nuclear-workers-suffer-in-silence/

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-05-05/an-number-of-children-in-japan-falls-to-new-low/5429520

Updated May 05, 2014 12:32:16

The Japanese government says the number of children in Japan has fallen to a new low as the country celebrates Children’s Day.

There were an estimated 16.33 million children aged under 15 as of April 1, down 160,000 from a year earlier, according to Japan’s internal affairs and communications ministry.

It was the 33rd straight annual decline and the lowest level since records began in 1950, the ministry said.

The ministry said children accounted for just 12.8 per cent of the population.

In contrast, the ratio of people aged 65 or older was at a record high of 25.6 per cent.

Of major countries with a population of at least 40 million, Japan had the lowest ratio of children to the total population – compared with 19.5 per cent for the United States and 16.4 per cent for China.

The proportion of people aged 65 or over is forecast to reach nearly 40 per cent of Japan’s population in 2060, the government said.

AFP

May 29, 2014 Posted by arclight2011part2 | Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Putin tells St. Petersburg economic forum that Russia to pursue same old nuclear and fossil fuel energy projects

Published on May 27, 2014 by Anna Kireeva
http://bellona.org/news/renewable-energy/2014-05-putin-tells-st-petersburg-economic-forum-russia-pursue-old-nuclear-fossil-fuel-energy-projects
ST. PETERSBURG – Russian authorities will continue to rely on a bright atomic future for the country as well as environmental and technical leadership in drilling the Arctic shelf, as Moscow continues to turn its back on the worldwide boom in the renewable energy sector and place its bets on nuclear power and fossil fuels.

At last week’s International Economic Forum in St. Petersburg, President Vladimir Putin met with the highest echelons of foreign and domestic business associations participating in the global economic summit and told them of Russia’s energy strategies.

Renewable Energy

Putin, in his role as president and former prime minister, has always held a skeptical view of renewable energy. He has consistently ignored progress of technologies in this sphere successfully demonstrated by other countries, and turned a blind eye to the rise of renewables in the energy mix of other countries.

In 2010, he announced that, “the only alternative to fossil fuels for today is nuclear energy. Other alternatives are merely monkeyshines.”

In 2013, Putin poked fun at wind energy, saying: “Here are wind powered electric stations. You know how loud they are and how they shake the ground around them. They produce such an effect that the worms jump out of the ground, to say nothing of the moles.”

Now, Putin has “begun to think” about the alternative that have already been deployed in the majority of the world’s countries: “Of course, we are now already thinking on perspective energy sources – on renewables, on hydropower, on solar, and are also working on in this direction. Our companies are earmarking funding on this, they have the support of the government in this work,” Putin announced at the summit.

However, as soon as he dispensed with that lip-service, he slipped into the following rhapsody extolling the virtues of fossil fuels: “At the same time […] everyone understands that energy consumption will be growing in the next 30 years, while the structure of primary sources of energy will not change. Therefore, we will focus on the production of hydrocarbons and the development of nuclear generation,” he said, according to the official transcript of his remarks.

Bellona adviser Larisa Bronder said that it is apparent Russia will continue places its bets on developing hydrocarbon production and nuclear energy. Government subsidization of traditional energy and the lack of a legislative base and norms for alternative energy are a significant hurdle to their development in Russia.

“For many years running, the portion of renewable energy in Russia has consisted of less than one percent,” said Bronder. “The lack of any kind of renewable growth doesn’t support that it will be at 4.5 percent of the energy balance.”

Nuclear Energy

Putin said with evident disappointment that nuclear accounts for only 16 percent of Russia’s energy mix.

Continue reading →

May 29, 2014 Posted by arclight2011part2 | Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Bellona Murmansk roundtable takes on region’s most pressing environmental issues

Published on May 28, 2014 by Anna Kireeva

Charles Digges translated and contributed to this article

Bellona Murmansk roundtable takes on region’s most pressing environmental issues

MURMANSK – Legislative and executive representatives acknowledge the important role of environmental organizations in solving environmental issues, specifically industrial pollution. Ecologists, though, remain frustrated by the disinterest of industry to invest in the environmental sphere, and say their involvement should be a two way street.

Bellona yesterday arranged a roundtable discussion in Murmansk for non-profit organizations operating in the Barents Region to swap experience working toward solutions over industrial waste and cooperation with polluters, legislative and other government authorities and environmental monitoring agencies.

“By initiating an open discussion on such pressing problems for the whole Barents region, we were confident that the interest of many NGOs and monitoring agencies would be piqued,” said Larisa Bronder, an adviser on pollution issues with Bellona’s Oslo office who was in attendance in Murmansk.

Conference participants were surprised by the level of enthusiasm shown by the regional divisions of the Russian Ministry of Natural Resources and the Environment, and the Murmansk Parliament’s Environmental Committee to addressing these long-thorny issues. Less surprisingly, the Federal Service for Natural Resource Usage, or Rosprirodnadzor, again turned a cold shoulder on entering a dialogue with environmentalists.

Role of environmental organizations cannot be overestimated

Nataliya Leschinskaya, head of the Murmansk Parliament’s environmental committee – whose mandate includes liaising with local environmental groups – NGO and public involvement involvement in deciding environmental issues is critical.

“The role of non-governmental organizations in the decision of environmental problems is very important,” she told the round table. “I know first hand that solving ecological issues can only be done in consultation with the public. And I would like to thank all environmental organizations with whom we try to pursue effective cooperation in solving the regions problems.” She added that the environmental movement is particularly strong in Murmansk.

She enumerated numerous projects the regional parliament is discussing with environmentalists, among them safe oil transport, nuclear and radiation safety, development of Murmansk’s transport infrastructure, creation of the Khibin National Park, and others.

Renata Khardikova, a representative of Murmansk’s Regional Ministry of Natural Resources, cooperation between authorities and NGOs is an important tool in addressing environmental problems.

Environmentalists say official efforts fall short

That said the environmentalists themselves aired a laundry list of hurdles to their meaningful cooperation with authorities and environmental monitoring agencies.

According to Viktor Petrov, acting director of the Kola Center for the Defense of Nature (in Russian), there are no reciprocating mechanisms for cooperation with NGOs.

“There are no legal acts or administrative means for advancing the position of the public and NGOs to authorities,” Petrov said. “This can only be accomplished by personal ties: personally going to a concrete parliamentarian, to a bureaucrat at the Ministry, and explaining, for instance, our disagreement with this or that decision.”

Russia’s biggest federal agency ignores environmentalists

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May 29, 2014 Posted by arclight2011part2 | Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Radioactive Waste Hazard: Radiation leak discovered in Jersey City, NJ

h/t https://tlarremore.wordpress.com/2014/05/28/radioactive-waste-hazard-radiation-leak-discovered-in-jersey-city-nj/

May 29, 2014 Posted by arclight2011part2 | Uncategorized | Leave a comment

The Hidden Truth about Fukushima- Children, families and nuclear workers suffer in silence!

This might have been an guarantor with an imaginary address. This is the dark side of the construction and nuclear industries, not just post-nuclear accident, that those without families, especially elderlies, are given harsh work.

[…]

Their concern is not so much if it’s safe or not, but it should not be a scientific issue but an ethical issue to use children as a way of appealing for safety. However, currently, about 70% of the municipalities within Fukushima Prefecture use Fukushima produce to children in school lunches as a way of appealing for safety

[..]

It says 27.6 μSv/h. He asked me then if all the students had evacuated. I said they were in class as we spoke. He said the radiation level qualified for immediate mandatory evacuation in Belarus. He told me that he thought Japan was a wealthy country but that he was apparently wrong

[…]

• Needless to say, he insisted on evacuating children immediately after the Fukushima accident. However, evacuation never happened. So he started this project with the Fukushima residents who evacuated to Matsumoto City.

[…]

So, some children want to study in uncontaminated areas although their parents are against it. One junior high school girl said she would want to bear children when grown up, so she felt that she should leave Fukushima as soon as possible.

[…]

Also, the plan is underway to return evacuees to contaminated areas as the government and researchers say it’s safe. This is the reality of a “wealthy” country, Japan, which is considered a free, democratic and wonderful country. But it’s really our own responsibilities that we are in this situation. I am always thinking about how things can be changed.

http://fukushimavoice-eng2.blogspot.co.uk/2014/05/mako-oshidori-in-dusseldorf-hidden.html

Full article on link

posted on 28 May 2014

Video in Japanese only, full transcript in English follows;

Moderator: Good evening everyone. My name is Mariko. Welcome to a lecture by Mako Oshidori. As we all know, the Japanese people experienced the Great East Japan earthquake and tsunami on March 11, 2011. A huge earthquake, followed by tsunami and the nuclear accident, has become an unprecedented disaster for the Japanese as well as the rest of the world. Moreover, this accident is not only out of control but continues to be in critical state.
As you may be aware, the issue of anti-nuclear power plant ranks third in the interest of Metropolitan Tokyo residents. This was revealed in the degree of interest survey of various public opinion polls during the recent Tokyo gubernatorial election. The number one issue was declining birthrate. It could be said that the interest in this type of issue is suppressed due to the media control. This is a situation where the voices from disaster-stricken Fukushima do not reach Tokyo residents.

However, today, we have invited Mako Oshidori to come and share with us her direct knowledge of what is happening in Fukushima. It is a rare opportunity that this type of information is directly disseminated in foreign countries, so this is going to be a valuable lecture. Mako Oshidori is a representative of Free Press Corporation in Japan. Is that right?

Mako: I am the director, not a representative.

This organization was originally created after the earthquake. The media is controlled as I just mentioned. This alliance was created for the purpose of conveying accurate, fresh information without media control.

Mako: Actually, it was created shortly before the earthquake. It was sort of coincidental.

Before the Fukushima accident, Mako Oshidori was performing Manzai, a two-person comedy act, as part of the pair, Oshidori Mako and Ken, for belonging to Yoshimoto Kogyo. However, after the nuclear accident, she began to voice her opinions about anti-nuclear power plant issues, which kept her from getting work. Instead, she became more known as a journalist, especially for her sharp questions which would drive TEPCO officials into a corner. Mako is of course a journalist, but she also visits Fukushima Prefecture to gather voices of local people and interview TEPCO workers to gather information. Now I will give the microphone to Mako Oshidori. I hope this evening will bring an informative and contemplative time together.

My name is Mako Oshidori.  I am sorry I speak in Japanese

I am very thankful I can meet you today and have an opportunity to talk here. I am glad to be here. I am very grateful to the Protestant church and the IPPNW or International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War for inviting me to Germany. I would like to make a minor correction in the introduction given a moment ago. I was invited to talk to you, but I am actually not active in the anti-nuclear power plant movement. What I do is conduct investigations. There are numerous issues in Japan that I investigate, from the nuclear accident to other medical issues such as Minamata disease and Asbestosis.

However, doctors and scientists attending the IPPNW conference, which ended yesterday, shared how they end up being labeled as anti-nuclear activists even though they don’t consider themselves to be as such, when they research and publicize facts inconvenient for promotion of nuclear power. There is a tremendous amount of pressure exerted when researching and writing up facts the nuclear lobby doesn’t like. If you continue without giving in, despite such pressure, people eventually think you are an anti-nuclear power plant activist. Of course, it is my belief that we don’t need nuclear power plants on Planet Earth.

There is one thing that really surprised me here in Europe. It’s the fact that people here think Japan is a very democratic and free country. I am actually a journalist with the highest attendance rate at the TEPCO press conference. It seems inconvenient to them when I write various facts in articles, and a variety of pressure has been placed on me. There was a magazine I used to contribute an article to. An electric power company group would pressure the editor to place three pro-nuclear articles each time one of my articles was posted. As a result, my article ended up not being posted in the magazine. Also, there was a television show being planned where I would talk about the TEPCO accident, but sponsors gave an instruction not to have me use any words such as nuclear power and nuclear power plants. I ended up not going on the show.

In 2011 and 2012, pressure was placed on me by TEPCO. However, in 2013 when the Japanese central government decided to begin to restart nuclear power plants, the government placed a watch on me. In July 2013, a new House of Councilors was elected and both Upper and Lower House ended up with the Liberal Democratic Party as the ruling party. This administration then held a secret meeting by secretly gathering specialists and researchers in the field of nuclear power. The meeting was convened in order to collect ideas about how to decommission Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, and a piece of paper was distributed with a list of names. The current Japanese government told the researchers not to approach anybody on the list. The list included people with power in the opposition parties, such as the former prime minister Naoto Kan and the politician Ishiro Ozawa, and I was told that my name, Mako Oshidori, was listed alongside these names. A researcher who was given the list and told not to approach anybody on it was friendly with me and told me the list included my name.

Soon after that a mysterious man began to follow me. This man appeared to be a member of Public Security Intelligence Agency in the Cabinet Office, which investigates various things. One of my hobbies is taking a candid shot, and I will show you the successful candid shot of this man. 

Just as you see here, there was a time period when someone would always be near me, trying to eavesdrop on my conversation with people. As I am a professional entertainer, whoever I am talking to would ask me if the person was my manager. I would say that the person must be one of my groupies, as I have never met the person. Sometimes I would go to Fukushima Prefecture to interview different mothers. We would have meals together and talk somewhere, and when the mothers are leaving the premise to go home, an agent from the Public Security Intelligence Agency would take a photo of each mother and make a note of the license plate number of each car. Afraid of having their photos taken or the license plate numbers recorded, some Fukushima mothers would refused to be interviewed, or they would even refuse to have their stories published. An ex-agent who is knowledgeable about the work of the Public Security Intelligence Agency said that when you are visibly followed, that was meant to intimidate you. If there was one person visible, then there would be ten more. I think that is analogous to cockroaches. So, when you do a little serious investigation about the nuclear accident, you are under various pressure and it makes it more difficult to interview people. There are actually other journalists from major newspapers and television stations, other than me, who have done a lot of investigation about the nuclear accident, but the information doesn’t readily come out. That’s because the pressure is placed on them not to release the information. What I am going to tell you now might surprise you, but the Japanese people are just as surprised when I tell them the same information as it’s something they have never heard of, read in the newspaper, or seen on TV.

Next, I would like to talk about the nuclear power plant workers. This man used to work for TEPCO as a nurse at a medical clinic inside FDNPP. I interviewed him when he quit his job at TEPCO in 2013. 

Continue reading →

May 29, 2014 Posted by arclight2011part2 | Uncategorized | 4 Comments

CSRP Symposium 2013 on Fukushima related health effects and legal responses

http://csrp.jp/

What We Do

Since March 2011, we have been committed to minimizing damage and radiation exposure resulting from Tepco’s Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant disaster in our individual positions. Victims, children and citizens, who are concerned about radioactive contamination, demand the establishment of better radiation protection measures and radioactivity control measures. To satisfy these demands, we need to scientifically examine the health effects of radiation, a major part of which is unknown. The purpose of the Citizen–Scientist International Symposium on Radiation Protection, is to provide citizen scientists from within and outside of Japan with an opportunity of discussing health effects from radiation and prevention measures, thus contributing to the establishment of an extensive international network for radiation protection. We would appreciate your cooperation.

CSRPの活動紹介

私たちは2011年3月以降、東京電力福島第一原発事故による被害と被ばくの最小化に取り組んできました。放射線防護、放射能対策の確立を求めるた めには、とらえどころのない放射線による健康影響を科学的に究明していかなければなりません。市民と科学者が、専門的知見を社会のなかで最善の形で生かし ていけるよう、国際的にも連帯しながらネットワークを維持発展させていくことは今後ますます重要になってきます。私たちの活動は、東京電力福島原発事故の 対処において様々な取り組みをしている市民・団体・科学者が一同に会して情報シェアとフィードバック・意見交換をし、その可能性を長期にわたって最大限に 探っていくものです。

May 28, 2014 Posted by arclight2011part2 | Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Japans Homeless exploited by Yakusa and dodgy contractors – International companies ignore this – Petition

“….An increasing proportion of the 3,000 contract laborers at Fukushima are poorly trained, with little technical expertise or knowledge of radiation. They earn about $150 a day, less than what a regular construction job pays. Few are given insurance coverage. Many are destitute, recruited by ruthless labor brokers, some with ties to the mob. And the laborers are tossed out once they are exposed to the legal radiation limit. Critics point to the poor quality of the laborers for the series of large leaks of contaminated water.

Tokyo Electric Power Company, known as Tepco, responsible for decommissioning the plant, hires contractors, which, in turn, hire subcontractors. The contract laborers stand at the bottom of this multilayered pyramid of subcontracting, and they are exposed, on average, to twice the amount of radiation compared with Tepco employees, as reported recently in The Times. Tepco says it is not in a position to comment on the employment practices of the contractors, and the company seems unaware of what is happening on the ground. There are more than 1,000 firms at work at Fukushima…..”   http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/22/opinion/fukushimas-shameful-cleanup.html?_r=0

AFP Photo / Richard A. Brooks

Private labor contractors in Japan are “recruiting” homeless men and men to work in the disaster area of the destroyed Fukushima nuclear power plant, taking advantage of their desperation to pay them less than minimum wage and with no proof that their health is being protected.

In a devil’s bargain between organized crime bosses and the nation’s top construction firms, laborers are exploited by these contractors as they take in state funds for the cleanup, giving them miniscule cuts for the dangerous untrained work and then subtracting more for food and lodging.

We call on the government of Japan to investigate this shady practice, ensuring these workers are properly protected from the radiation and being well-compensated for the dangerous work. Don’t let these companies keep preying on the homeless to expose them to radiation — write the Japanese government now!

PETITION TO JAPANESE GOVERNMENT: Protect your country’s homeless from being exploited and exposed to dangerous radiation levels. Investigate construction companies to make sure they’re paying a fair wage and training and protecting their workers.

Click here to sign — it just takes a second.

Thanks,
— The folks at Watchdog.net

P.S. If the other links aren’t working for you, please go here to sign: http://act.watchdog.net/petitions/4158?n=72339185.GVL80d

Corporate greed turns a blind eye to the crimes!

“…..Immediately following the Fukushima Dai-ichi accident, the United States—through the Department of Energy, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, and other agencies—began supporting the Government of Japan and TEPCO in response efforts, decommissioning, and cleanup activities. We are committed to providing support as long as it is necessary. At Fukushima Dai-ichi, I saw examples of the assistance we provided, as well as the continuing partnerships between TEPCO, U.S. Government agencies, U.S. national laboratories, and U.S. companies…..” https://nuclear-news.net/2014/05/14/ambassador-caroline-kennedy-statement-on-visit-to-the-fukushima-daiichi-nuclear-power-plant/

“..British engineers Amec, Babcock International, and Atkins are believed to be circling nuclear
decommissioning work estimated to be worth at least $5bn (£3.2bn) in Japan as a result of the Fukushima disaster….”  […] “…US-owned Energy Solutions will also be interested.
“This is a huge opportunity,” claimed the source. “Japan should start
making some real progress on decommissioning now.”….”   http://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/news/uk-firms-to-bid-for-japans-nuclear-cleanup-8458524.html

“….Veolia Environnement SA (VIE), which treated radioactive water from Japan’s nuclear meltdown at Fukushima, plans to use the experience to move into decontamination and power plant dismantling.

The water utility and the nuclear research group known as CEA plan to earn as much as 400 million euros ($534 million) in revenue within about four years by cleaning radioactive sites and taking apart installations, they said today….”   http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-01-15/veolia-draws-upon-fukushima-to-move-into-nuclear-dismantling-1-.html

“…On June 7, 2013, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and French President François Hollande agreed on and released a joint statement to promote comprehensive cooperation in the field of nuclear power. In step with this, Japan Nuclear Fuel Limited (JNFL) and Areva released a Joint Statement on the Future of Nuclear Fuel Recycling….”  http://www.cnic.jp/english/newsletter/nit155/nit155articles/08_nw155.html

 

 

 

May 28, 2014 Posted by arclight2011part2 | Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Germany’s spy agency ‘in bed’ with US – Snowden on Berlin’s inhospitality

http://rt.com/news/161824-germany-spy-us-snowden/

May 27, 2014

NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden says he has more revelations about Washington’s spying on German citizens, but Berlin is reluctant to invite him to testify because Germany has used the exact same surveillance methods as the US, Stern magazine reported.

The former NSA contractor – wanted by the US for disclosing its surveillance program – told the German magazine that he had been “personally involved with information stemming from Germany” and that the “constitutional rights of every citizen in Germany were infringed” during the process.

Snowden said he had used systems able to intercept large amounts of data, adding: “I’d be surprised if German lawmakers learnt nothing new if I laid out all the information.”

The rights activist suggested that the only reason Merkel’s government does not want him to testify is because Germany’s foreign intelligence agency, the BND, used the same methods of mass surveillance.

“The BND is with the Americans in bed,” he told Stern.

So far it is unclear whether Snowden will be invited to Germany to provide new details for the investigation. Merkel’s government has rejected quizzing him in person, citing diplomatic reasons. The chancellor’s Christian Democratic Union party believes a personal invitation would put a strain on US-German relations. But despite the pressure from the government, the majority of German lawmakers on a committee investigating the spying decided earlier this month that they wanted to hear the leaker in person.

In response to the interview published in the German magazine on Tuesday, the chairman of the parliamentary committee, conservative lawmaker Patrick Sensburg, questioned Snowden’s competence in the matter.

“According to the information we have Edward Snowden was never especially involved with the mass spying of German citizens in Germany,” he said, as quoted by Reuters. “If he doesn’t deliver proof in terms of original documents soon, he could lose all credibility with the committee.”

Germany’s center-left Social Democrats (SPD), the second major political party after CDU, took a neutral stance, saying that it is open to questioning Snowden in Germany or Russia, while German opposition members involved in the investigation believe that Snowden is a key witness and should testify in person.

Since Snowden leaked sensitive US information last year, he has been charged with theft of government property, unauthorized communication of national defense information, and willful communication of classified intelligence to an unauthorized person.

May 28, 2014 Posted by arclight2011part2 | Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Nuclear Hotseat #153: Special Encore: WHO/IAEA Unholy Alliance

http://www.nuclearhotseat.com/Blog/

THIS IS A SPECIAL ENCORE PRESENTATION of Nuclear Hotseat, the first of two on the unholy alliance between the World Health Organization and the pro-nuclear International Atomic Energy Agency.   

 Alison Katz, today’s interviewee, is a sociologist and psychologist who worked inside the WHO for 18 years.   Now a leader within Independent WHO, which she will explain, Alison dissects the history, politics and manipulations of the United Nations agency we’re supposed to trust to safeguard the world’s health – especially in nuclear matters. This is a Nuclear Hotseat exclusive.

DOWNLOAD HERE:

http://lhalevy.audioacrobat.com/download/4fe934f5-3bd4-0155-d229-6b32ad5e462e.mp3

NEXT WEEK:  Joseph Mangano, Director of Radiation and Public Health Project (radiation.org), will go over the flawed epidemiology used by the WHO in its analysis of Chernobyl’s impact, based on the work of the late Dr. Rosalie Bertel. 

more here;

http://independentwho.org/en/

May 28, 2014 Posted by arclight2011part2 | Uncategorized | Leave a comment

EDF Nuclear Costs Seen Jumping With Investments in Safety

Spending on measures ordered by France’s atomic regulator following the Fukushima meltdown in Japan three years ago will cost about 11 billion euros between this year and 2025, the auditor said. Efforts to align safety at existing reactors with new generation models will cost another 1.6 billion euros a year over the same period.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-05-27/edf-nuclear-costs-seen-jumping-with-investments-in-safety.html

By Tara Patel May 27, 2014

Electricite de France SA’s costs to produce atomic power are spiraling upward as investment needed to keep aging reactors safe over the next two decades could reach 90 billion euros ($123 billion), the state auditor said.

“Production costs from the existing fleet are heading higher over the medium-term,” France’s Cour des Comptes said in a report to parliament published today. They already increased 21 percent over the past three years.

The authority called for a “rapid” decision on how long EDF reactors should operate to allow the Paris-based utility to plan future spending, which it said is expected to rise “significantly” through 2017 and cost more than anticipated.

The report marks an era when the state-controlled operator of 58 nuclear reactors has reached a crossroads. The government is preparing to unveil an energy law in the coming weeks that could lower France’s future reliance on atomic power. President Francois Hollande has pledged to reduce nuclear output to 50 percent of the country’s total power by 2025 from around three-quarters, the highest proportion in the world.

Lawmakers asked the auditor to make EDF’s power production costs public so they may be compared with other energies like renewables, which France wants to increase.

The costs to produce electricity rose to 59.8 euros a megawatt-hour in 2013 from 49.6 euros a megawatt hour in 2010, a period when spending on the utility’s 58 atomic generators rose 118 percent, according to the report.

Dismantling Costs

The higher power production costs were driven by increased operating costs at EDF as well as provisions for future dismantling of atomic installations and waste treatment, the auditor said.

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May 28, 2014 Posted by arclight2011part2 | Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Modi govt may go slow on nuclear energy expansion, focus on wind, solar

An industry expert from KPMG, who did not want to be identified, said that before the new government takes any decision on nuclear power, it will first have to tackle issues of supply chain, safety and acceptance from locals.

“Wind, solar and hydro, on the other hand, are safe and tried models of clean energy. Though countries like Russia, Canada, the US, France and Japan are keen on investing in the country’s nuclear energy growth story, the government, which is looking at FDI in power sector, will not take hasty decisions.

http://www.firstbiz.com/economy/modi-govt-may-go-slow-on-nuclear-energy-expansion-focus-on-wind-solar-pwc-86030.htm

Mumbai: The new government may put on the back-burner a plan to install 20 gigawatts of nuclear power capacity in the country by 2020 and instead focus on wind and solar to achieve energy security, says PwC.

“Nuclear projects are not likely to be on the radar of the Modi government, at least for the next two years. It will first focus on increasing coal production, allocation and pricing, apart from clearing the balance sheets of distribution companies,” PwC executive director energy utilities Sambitosh Mohapatra said.

Rather than nuclear, the Modi government may focus on increasing wind and solar power capacity, especially when these models worked successfully in Gujarat, Mohapatra said.

The power, coal, and new and renewable energy portfolios in the Modi Cabinet are held by Piyush Goyal, who is from Maharashtra, where BJP ally Shiv Sena was opposing the 9,900 MW Jaitapur nuclear project.

Former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had set a target of installing 20 GW of nuclear power capacity by 2020 and 63 GW by 2032.

In its election manifesto, the BJP promised to take steps to maximise the potential of oil, gas, hydel power, ocean, wind, coal and nuclear sources. The party said it considers energy efficiency and conservation crucial to energy security.

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May 28, 2014 Posted by arclight2011part2 | Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Rolls Royce Rolls the dice on dodgy Turkish nuclear reactors!

Patrick Regis, Rolls-Royce Regional Director, Turkey and Central Asia said: “We are delighted to enter into this important agreement. Working closely with Istanbul Technical University, Rolls-Royce can support the Ministry for Energy and Natural Resources in its plans for a programme of civil nuclear power.

Image source ; http://www.allvoices.com/cartoons/c/102545558-corruption-in-turkey

 

By K. Steiner-Dicks on May 8, 2014

http://analysis.nuclearenergyinsider.com/supply-chain/rolls-royce-puts-more-capital-nuclear-activities

Rolls Royce will focus on growing its civil nuclear power activities and dispose of other assets after agreeing to sell the majority of its energy unit to Siemens, it has been reported.

According to a report by the Wall Street Journal, Rolls Royce may also sell residual activities in fuel cells and smaller power stations that Siemens does not want, Rolls-Royce’s Chief Financial Officer Mark Morris said.

The company has signed an agreement to sell its Energy gas turbine and compressor business to Siemens for a £785m cash consideration.

The business being sold supplies aero-derivative gas turbines, compressor systems and related services to customers in the Oil and Gas and Power Generation sectors.

On completion of the transaction, Rolls-Royce will receive a further £200m for a 25 year licensing agreement, granting Siemens access to relevant Rolls-Royce aero-derivative technology for use in the 4 to 85 megawatt power output gas turbine range.

Siemens’ Energy sector has around 83,500 employees and in 2013 contributed revenue of €26.6bn and underlying profit of €1.9bn.

John Rishton, Rolls-Royce, CEO, said: “This agreement will give the Energy business greater opportunities as part of a much larger energy company and allows Rolls-Royce to concentrate on the areas of business where we can add most value.”

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May 28, 2014 Posted by arclight2011part2 | Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Canada – Where have all the medical isotopes gone?

There is a sadness among scientists and doctors as they watch this era of once ground-breaking science quietly come to an end.

“Getting out of it I think is a mistake,” says Dr. Laurin. “It will mean a loss of Canadian know-how and expertise. Very good science will be lost, business and jobs are going to go elsewhere or be lost altogether, so I personally think it’s a mistake.

“I may be biased because I’m a physician and I need what’s being made at Chalk River for patient care. But if you look at it from a Canadian point of view, I think it’s a loss for the entire community, not just Ontario, but all of Canada.”

http://www.cbc.ca/news/health/the-made-in-canada-isotope-shortage-facing-medical-scans-1.2652667

Kelly Crowe

May 26, 2014

Albert Mann winced as he sat upright on the scanner bed to talk to me. A large camera had just processed an image of his body, reading the gamma rays radiating from his bones.

I asked him what he had to do to prepare for this test. “What did I have to do? Get cancer,” he said.

Down the hall, seven other camera rooms were buzzing with patients having similar scans. At this hospital in Brampton, Ont., the machines run six days a week.

Across Canada, about 20,000 patients undergo nuclear imaging procedures every week and the field of nuclear medicine is growing around the world.

But almost all of it rests on an increasingly fragile supply of radioactive isotopes, a short-lived medical product made mostly by small research reactors, and a looming shortage has specialists worried.

“I don’t want to sound alarmist,” said Dr. Norman Laurin, president of the Canadian Association of Nuclear Medicine. “But it’s going to have medical consequences. There are people who are going to be denied care, or have a different kind of care that might not be the best for them.”

These patients probably won’t know there’s a problem until their test is cancelled, or they have to wait months for a diagnosis. But if they ask enough questions they’ll find out the shortage of medical isotopes is largely a made-in-Canada problem.

Going out of business

Most Canadians don’t realize it, but this country has been an international leader, the world’s largest single supplier of medical isotopes used in nuclear imaging, for more than 50 years.

But all of that is about to end. Buried deep in the federal budget bill, now winding its way toward approval, is something called the Nordion and Theratronics Divestiture Authorization Act.

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May 28, 2014 Posted by arclight2011part2 | Uncategorized | 3 Comments

Nuclear regulator the ONR accused of ‘indefensible’ conflict of interest

Britain’s nuclear watchdog faces what shocked industry insiders are calling “unbelievable” conflicts of interest, The Independent can reveal.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/news/exclusive-nuclear-regulator-the-onr-accused-of-indefensible-conflict-of-interest-9437012.html[/

Tuesday 27 May 2014

The Office for Nuclear Regulation (ONR) is receiving technical advice from several of the very companies that it is supposed to be monitoring, including the US engineering conglomerate Jacobs and the Ftse 100 stalwart Amec. This has led to accusations that the advice cannot be viewed as independent.

ONR inspects nuclear sites across the country, including the Atomic Weapons Establishment (AWE) in Berkshire and Hinkley Point civil energy reactors in Somerset. It recently issued formal cautions to two workers on Cumbria’s Sellafield, one of the world’s most complicated decommissioning sites, for an incident that could have exposed themselves or their colleagues to heightened levels of radiation.

But there are fears that ONR’s efforts to oversee these hazardous sites could be compromised by contracts it has dished out for technical support in its assessment work.

In early April ONR handed Jacobs a five-year deal to help the watchdog in areas like assessing external hazards and decontamination in relation to its work on existing nuclear sites and future reactor designs. Amec gives advice on complicated issues such as reactor chemistry and radiation protection, while the consultancy Arup and building firm Sir Robert McAlpine help on civil engineering issues.

All have extensive nuclear interests in the UK. Jacobs is part of the consortium that owns AWE, which builds and maintains the UK’s nuclear defence deterrent, Trident.  Amec is in the consortium looking after the clean-up of Sellafield. Both of these huge firms are supporting Horizon Nuclear Power with engineering expertise on proposed plants at Wylfa on the Isle of Anglesey and Oldbury in south Gloucestershire. Arup worked for the operator RWE Npower on assessing potential sites for new nuclear power stations in Cumbria.  Sir Robert McAlpine built 13 of Britain’s nuclear plants, such as Sizewell B in Suffolk.

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May 27, 2014 Posted by arclight2011part2 | Uncategorized | 1 Comment