nuclear-news

The News That Matters about the Nuclear Industry Fukushima Chernobyl Mayak Three Mile Island Atomic Testing Radiation Isotope

Dangers in Utah nuclear project – hot water, water shortage,

thermal water pollution is itself a very big problem……

The proposed Blue Castle Project will also face water-quality challenges

In hot water: The “other” global warming, BULLETIN OF THE ATOMIC SCIENTISTS, BY DAWN STOVER | 15 FEBRUARY 2012 On January 20, a state engineer with the Utah Division of Water Rights approved two applications that would allow Blue Castle Holdings to take a total of 53,600 acre-feet of water from the Green River annually for a proposed nuclear power plant. That’s more than 17 billion gallons a year, enough for a city of 100,000 households.

The Blue Castle Project would be the first new nuclear power plant to go online in the American West since the late 1980s. So you might think it would be a model of modern water-conservation technologies. But you’d be wrong. Continue reading →

February 16, 2012 Posted by | USA, water | Leave a comment

Appeal against Utah nuclear reactor being granted water rights

Enviro Groups Challenge Nuke Plant Water Rights, City Weekly, by Sarah Kramer, 16 Feb 12,   The path to a commercial nuclear reactor in Utah has met an unexpected roadblock in the form of an appeal of State Engineer Kent Jones’ Jan. 20 decision granting water rights to Blue Castle Holdings for the project.-

The appeal, announced Feb. 9, was filed by environmental-advocacy and nuclear-watchdog group HEAL Utah along with over 20 other groups. The decision to file a request for reconsideration was the direct result of another blow to theBlue Castle Project: The revelation that LeadDog Capital, LLC, the hedge fund that had offered to put up $30 million to fund the project, is under investigation by the Securities and Exchange Commission for falsely inflating the company’s assets and concealing from investors potential conflicts of interest. A second request was also filed by Moab-based environmental groups..

… The State Engineer cannot approve water-rights applications for speculative projects. …. The requests for reconsideration also challenge the State Engineer’s assertions that the Green River’s flow is able to support the diversion of 53,600 acre-feet for the Blue Castle Project, and call into question Blue Castle’s ability to bring the plant to fruition with no prior experience in the nuclear-energy industry. http://www.cityweekly.net/utah/blog-9594-7120-enviro-groups-challenge-nuke-plant-water-rights.html

February 16, 2012 Posted by | USA, water | Leave a comment

Where to put Japan’s 22 metric tons of perhaps radioactive debris?

Radiation concerns keep municipalities from helping with disaster-area debris, Mainichi Daily News, 14 Feb 12,  Concerns about radiation are preventing the massive amount of debris left in areas hit by the March 2011 tsunami from being sent to other areas for processing…..

According to the Ministry of the Environment, 22.52 metric tons of debris remained in the three prefectures of Iwate, Miyagi and Fukushima as of Jan. 31. The national government hopes to have debris from Iwate and Miyagi processed in other municipalities, as the amount
is 11 to 19 times the regular amount of waste generated in each of the prefectures in one year…. http://mdn.mainichi.jp/mdnnews/news/20120213p2a00m0na017000c.html

February 14, 2012 Posted by | environment, Japan | 1 Comment

Radioactive leakage to water, in normal operations of nuclear reactors

RADIOACTIVE “DRINKING WATER” for million american people… While US licenses first nuclear reactors since 1978. by RNA International   February 11, 2012 – Press Conference, Red Wing, Minnesota  My name is Christina Mills. I am a staff scientist and policy analyst with the Institute for Energy and Environmental Research (IEER) which provides policymakers, journalists, and the public with understandable and accurate scientific and technical information on energy and environmental issues.

 IEER’s aim is to bring scientific excellence to public policy issues in order to promote the democratization of science and a safer, healthier environment.

As the report “Too Close to Home” discusses, nuclear power plants pose a threat to the drinking water of millions of Americans. Unfortunately many Americans have been and continue to be exposed to radioactive drinking water as the result of routine operations at the country’s nuclear reactor fleet. Continue reading →

February 11, 2012 Posted by | USA, water | Leave a comment

Radiation induced mutations in insects

Mousseau et al confirms Cornelia Hesse-Honegge, Paul Langley’s Nuclear History Blog, 10 Feb 12,    http://www.wissenskunst.ch/en/biographie.htm have a look at the illustrations. quote: Biography Cornelia Hesse-Honegger, scientific illustrator and science artist, was born in 1944 in Zurich, Switzerland. For 25 years she worked as a scientific illustrator for the scientific department of the Natural History Museum at the University of Zurich. Since 1969 she has collected and painted leaf bugs, Heteroptera. Her watercolors are exhibited internationally at museums and galleries. Her work is an interface between art and science; it plays witness to a beautiful but endangered nature.

Since the catastrophe of Chernobyl in 1986, she has collected, studied and painted morphologically disturbed insects, which she finds in the fallout areas of Chernobyl as well as near nuclear installations.  http://nuclearhistory.wordpress.com/2012/02/09/mousseau-et-al-confirms-cornelia-hesse-honegger/

February 10, 2012 Posted by | environment, EUROPE | Leave a comment

13.5 tons of water hourly in effort to cool Fukushima nuclear reactor No. 2

Boric acid to prevent recriticality, Japan Times,8 Feb 12,  Reactor No. 2 heats up, gets more water Kyodo Workers at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant increased the amount of water injected into reactor 2 on Tuesday to the highest level since the plant achieved cold shutdown in December as concerns grew over rising temperatures at the bottom of the pressure vessel….

Tepco said it increased the amount of injected water, some of which contained boric acid, at 4:24 a.m. Tuesday. Reactor 2 is now being cooled with 13.5 tons of water per hour, up from 10.5 tons. The boric acid is being used to prevent a sustained nuclear chain reaction, or recriticality.

Nuclear disaster minister Goshi Hosono told reporters that Tepco is
making every effort to lower the temperature…. http://www.japantimes.co.jp/text/nn20120207x1.html

February 8, 2012 Posted by | Japan, safety, water | Leave a comment

Uranium company’s bribes to law-makers can backfire

Lawmaker: Trip to France dissuaded him on uranium mining, Pilot Online.com. 7 Feb 12, “……..The bulk of the largesse directed at Cosgrove was the $12,449 spent by Virginia Uranium, the company lobbying to establish a uranium mine in Pittsylvania County. The
company sent Cosgrove and several other lawmakers to visit a mine site in France.The purpose of the trip, Cosgrove said, was to reassure the Virginia legislators that uranium could be mined safely with no chance of contaminating Lake Gaston, a major source of Hampton Roads’ drinking water that lies downstream from the proposed mine site.

But the trip persuaded him of the exact opposite, Cosgrove said. “They never showed us beyond any doubt that there couldn’t be some catastrophic effect on our drinking water,” he said. As a result, “I came back thinking that uranium mining is probably not in the best
interest of Hampton Roads.”… http://hamptonroads.com/2012/02/lawmaker-trip-france-dissuaded-him-uranium-mining

February 8, 2012 Posted by | USA, water | Leave a comment

Polynesia’s radioactive pollution from France’s nuclear bomb tests

France’s upper chamber approved a motion that provides for Mururoa and Fangataufa, currently under the control of the defence ministry, to be restored to the Polynesian public domain, though the bill stands little chance of becoming law. “We realise that they are the two largest nuclear dumps in an ocean environment. But in Oceania you cannot separate human beings from their ecosystem,” says the author of the bill, Senator Richard Tuheiva. “Restitution [of the atolls] is a way of soothing the psychological wounds [caused by the nuclear era].”

about 5kg of plutonium is trapped in the sediment at the bottom of the Mururoa and Fangataufa lagoons, ……. There is no question of them returning to “normal” use.

 

France urged to clean up deadly waste from its nuclear tests in Polynesia, Guardian UK,  7 Feb 2012, 193 nuclear tests carried out on the Mururoa and Fangataufa atolls between 1966 and 1996 have left a dangerous legacy. Continue reading →

February 8, 2012 Posted by | - plutonium, environment, OCEANIA | Leave a comment

In amongst spent nuclear fuel rods – a weirdness, perhaps a mutant spider’s web

Could Spider-Man become a reality? Bizarre white cobweb found on nuclear waste that could have come from a ‘mutant’ spider Daily Mail, By TED THORNHILL  6th February 2012 Scientists are investigating a bizarre white cobweb found on nuclear waste – amid fears it could have been made by a ‘mutant’ spider. Continue reading →

February 7, 2012 Posted by | environment, USA | Leave a comment

Spain wants USA to clean up plutonium pollution B-52 bomber accident

two of the bombs that hit the ground detonated, spreading seven pounds of plutonium over a 200 hectares (490 acres). 

US and Spain discuss cleanup of nuclear radiation, PhysOrg.com, February 5, 2012 The United States is offering technical assistance to Spain to clean up land contaminated by radiation from undetonated nuclear bombs that accidentally fell on the area in 1966, Continue reading →

February 7, 2012 Posted by | environment, history, incidents, Spain | Leave a comment

Birds and radiation fallout

not sure of the reliability of this one

Bird life badly hit by nuclear fallout in Japan The Irish Times –  February 3, 2012, DAVID McNEILL in Tokyo RESEARCHERS WORKING in the irradiated zone around the disabled Fukushima nuclear plant say bird populations there have begun to dwindle, in what may be a chilling harbinger of the impact of radioactive fallout on local life. Continue reading →

February 3, 2012 Posted by | environment, Japan | Leave a comment

USA govt does not want monitoring of radiation near Savannah River Nuclear Site

U.S. Department of Energy won’t help Georgia monitor radiation near Savannah River Nuclear Site The Augusta Chronicle By Rob Pavey Feb. 2, 2012 The U.S. Department of Energy will not honor its 2010 offer to help Georgia’s Environmental Protection Division restore a program to monitor radiation levels in Georgia counties near Savannah River Site…..

The intent of the monitoring, which includes analysis of water, soil, vegetation and air, is to determine off-site effects from SRS – and to provide independent data to compare with
extensive sampling already conducted by DOE on both sides of the Savannah River.

Anti-nuclear activists who lobbied for the restoration of the Georgia program said the Department of Energy’s about-face is disturbing. “The DOE’s obstruction to environmental monitoring in Georgia is a gross example of environmental injustice,” said Bobbie Paul, the
director of Georgia Women’s Action for New Directions. “Radiation does
not acknowledge state boundaries.” In 2010, then DOE Assistant Secretary Ines Triay pledged that monitoring would be restored to Georgia with a five-year contract independent of any restrictions from SRS.
“The money was never sent and in July 2011, DOE reported they would only fund $300,000 annually, less than half of what the program received annually when the its funding was cut in 2003,” Paul said. “Now, the offer is off the table.”
Giusti said SRS has a half century of experience at monitoring programs, which will remain intact to protect health and the environment. http://chronicle.augusta.com/news/government/2012-02-02/us-department-energy-wont-help-monitor-georgia-radiation-near-savannah?v=1328205850

February 3, 2012 Posted by | environment, USA | Leave a comment

Radioactive drinking water risk for 11 million people

New York nuclear plant threatens drinking water for 11M people, (philstar.com)   February 01, 2012 NEW YORK –– The drinking water for more than 11.3 million people could be at risk of radioactive contamination from a leak or accident at the Indian Point Nuclear Plant, located in Buchanan, New York, said a new study released on Tuesday.

According to the report by Environment New York, the state environmental advocacy organization, the drinking water intakes for 11.3 million people in New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut are within 50 miles of Indian Point — the distance the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission uses to measure risk to food and water supplies.

The report also showed that the Indian Point Nuclear Plant threatens drinking water supplies for more than twice as many people compared to any other nuclear facility in the United States.

Environment New York is urging the state to deny the plant relicensing and to move toward a future with no nuclear power and use clean, renewable energy such as wind and solar power. The Indian Point Nuclear Plant, which is 80-minute ride from New York City, has a long history of leaks and accidental releases of radioactive material. One of its nuclear reactors was recently shut down to repair a pump, which was leaking radioactive coolant.  http://www.philstar.com/Article.aspx?articleId=773362&publicationSubCategoryId=200

February 2, 2012 Posted by | USA, water | Leave a comment

Radioactivity poses risk in Japan’s tsunami debris

 citizens say they are worried about radioactivity or even say that we should refuse to import this debris. “They worry about their children, they are afraid that radiation levels are too high.”

Radiation experts agree that children are at greatest risk from cancers and genetic defects because they are still growing, are more prone to thyroid cancers, and because they will have more time to develop health defects…..

Radiation fears slow tsunami clear-up, News 24, 1 Feb 12,    Tokyo – Giant piles of debris from Japan’s earthquake and tsunami scar the country’s once picturesque northeast coast – and the clear-up is hamstrung by fears the rubbish may be contaminated by radiation. Continue reading →

February 1, 2012 Posted by | environment, Japan | Leave a comment

Area on endangered list, due to possibility of uranium mining

Uranium puts Southside on endangered list  GoDanRiver.com  January 27, 2012 Southside landed on the Southern Environmental Law Center’s fourth annual Top 10 Endangered Places in the Southeast list because of proposed uranium mining and pressure to lift Virginia’s uranium moratorium.

Many of the areas on SELC’s top 10 list are endangered by pressure to undercut environmental protections and to lower the hurdles for potentially destructive projects, …..

January 28, 2012 Posted by | environment, Uranium, USA | Leave a comment

« Previous Entries     Next Entries »