Court ruling on uranium company’s insurance policies
Court rules in uranium mine cleanup dispute http://www.vcstar.com/news/2012/aug/23/court-rules-in-uranium-mine-cleanup-dispute/#ixzz24VeeQu7N
– vcstar.com The Associated Press VCStar.com August 23, 2012 SANTA FE, N.M. (AP) – The state Supreme Court has ruled a uranium company’s insurance policies may cover costs of cleaning up contamination at a former mine in northwestern New Mexico.
The ruling on Thursday sends the dispute back to a district court to
determine what insurers must pay for, if any, involving a cleanup by
United Nuclear Corp. at the Northeast Church Rock mine near Gallup.
The site is adjacent to the Navajo Nation.
The court decision hinged on an insurance provision excluding coverage
for pollution damages unless the discharges were “sudden and
accidental.” The court concluded the term “sudden” meant unexpected
rather than happening over a short period of time. An insurance
company had contended its policies provided no liability coverage
because environmental damage at the mine happened over many years.
Legal action against relicensing Seabrook nuclear power plant
Beyond Nuclear et. al. take NRC to federal court in Seabrook relicensing: Wind power vs. nuclear power Beyond Nuclear 23 Aug 12, Three environmental groups (Beyond Nuclear, Seacoast Anti-Pollution League and the New Hampshire Chapter of the Sierra Club) have taken the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit (Boston, MA) in a legal challenge to NextEra Corporation’s application to extend the operating license of New Hampshire’s Seabrook nuclear generating station application from 2030 to 2050.
The citizen groups want the court to remedy this injury by ordering NRC to re-admit the groups back into Seabrook hearing process to review the wind energy alternative to the relicensing of the nuclear power station for 2030 to 2050. Oral arguments by the parties in the case are likely to be heard in the Boston federal court by early 2013…. http://www.beyondnuclear.org/nuclear-reactors-whatsnew/2012/8/22/beyond-nuclear-et-al-take-nrc-to-federal-court-in-seabrook-r.html
International Court of Justice may hear case for Julian Assange’s refuge in Ecuador
Assange looks to international court THE AGE August 18, 2012, Karen Kissane, EuropeWIKILEAKS founder Julian Assange will appeal to the International Court of Justice if Britain prevents him from going to Ecuador, according to a senior Spanish human rights lawyer. Baltasar Garzon, who is working on Assange’s defence, told Spanish newspaper El Pais that Britain was legally required to allow Assange to leave once he had diplomatic asylum.
“What the United Kingdom must do is apply the diplomatic obligations of the refugee convention and let him leave, giving him safe conduct,” he said. “Otherwise, he will go to the International Court of Justice.” Continue reading
Madras High Court highly critical of India’s Atomic Energy Regulatory Board
Court frowns on ministers over Kudankulam launch date Court says ministers respects only Supreme Court IANS August 16, 2012 Chennai: With the protest against Kudankulam nuclear power plant entering its second year, the Madras High Court hearing two petitions against the project Thursday came down on union ministers, the Atomic Energy Regulatory Board (AERB) and the Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board (TNPCB). Continue reading
Legal action against Israel, USA, UK over murders of Iranian nuclear scientists
Families of Iran’s murdered nuclear scientists sue Israel, US and Britain Judiciary asked to pursue complaint through international bodies in attempt to bring killers of five scientists to justice Associated Press in Tehran guardian.co.uk, 15 August 2012 The families of murdered Iranian nuclear scientists have filed a lawsuit against Israel, the US and the UK, accusing them of involvement in assassination.
Rahim Ahmadi Roshan, whose son, Mostafa Ahmadi Roshan, a chemistry expert and director of the Natanz uranium enrichment facility,was killed in a bomb attack in January, told a press conference in Tehran that the families had asked Iran’s judiciary to pursue their complaint through international bodies and bring those behind the killings to justice.
“We’ve filed an indictment against the Zionist regime and the arrogant powers,” Roshan said. The judiciary “is to pursue this case with the relevant international bodies”, he added….. http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/aug/15/iran-murdered-nuclear-scientists?newsfeed=true
Nuclear reactor licensing in USA – an uncertain future
An Uncertain Phase for Nuclear Power Licenses NYT By MATTHEW L. WALD , August 9, 2012, In a rare action, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission has acceded to a petition filed by anti-nuclear groups that it halt some licensing activities until the agency can sort out its troubled policy on nuclear waste….
.. The crux of the waste issue is that for years, the commission has licensed reactors on the assumption that the federal government would eventually establish a disposal system for spent fuel. An official policy known as the “waste confidence decision” stated, in typical commission lingo, that there was “reasonable assurance” that a burial place would eventually be available and that the fuel could in the meantime be stored in spent fuel pools or on site in dry casks without significant environmental risks.
But in June the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia ruled that in reaching this conclusion, the commission did not comply with the National Environmental Policy Act, a law that mandates that environmental impact studies be issued before such a finding is reached.
The commission is now pondering whether it can fix the problem by issuing a broad generic statement about the safety of storage in pools and dry casks or whether it will have to do a reactor-by-reactor review. Continue reading
Tougher charges against elderly Catholic anti nuclear nun: could face 10 years in prison
New charges filed in nuclear weapons plant breach The Sacfamento Bee, By ERIK SCHELZIG Associated Press, Aug. 9, 2012 – NASHVILLE, Tenn. — A federal grand jury toughened the charges against three anti-war protesters who authorities say cut their way through three security fences and spray-painted slogans on the walls of a nuclear weapons plant in Tennessee.
An indictment released Thursday in Knoxville charges an 82-year-old Roman Catholic nun with Sisters of the Holy Child Jesus, a gardener and a housepainter with “depredation”
of the Y-12 National Security Complex in Oak Ridge. The charge carries a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison. Continue reading
According to prosecution, 82 year old anti nuclear nun is “violent”, “a danger to community”
Prosecutor Kirby……asserting that their action was a “crime of violence.” Kirby got worked up enough to hiss, “Their description of nonviolence is not right. They are willing to die for what they believe. That’s violence.”
Unarmed Octogenarian Nun Called ‘Danger to Community’ by Prosecutors Nuclear Security Unmasked by JOHN LaFORGE, AUGUST 08, 2012 “……. something our nuclear war mafia hates as much as vampires hate daylight — is that the gravity of the Y-12 shut-down, along with the government’s wish to keep the interveners behind bars, moved prosecutors to up the charges. The three were at first charged only with federal trespass.
On Aug. 3, prosecutors added a felony count — “willful and malicious destruction or injury to a structure, conveyance, personal or real property” or its attempt — which carries a max of 5 years in prison, 3 years’ probation, and/or a $250,000 fine. Continue reading
Kudankulam nuclear power plant – Russians want to avoid liability
India’s Kudankulam Nuclear Power Plant – Caveat Emptor Oil Price.com, By John Daly, 07 August 2012 As India’s nationwide power outage last week showed, the country needs new energy resources – fast.
And New Delhi sees nuclear power as a shortcut to alleviating its energy shortages, adding to its six current nuclear power plants (NPPs) containing 20 reactors which generate 4,780 megawatts, an additional seven reactors are expected to generate an additional 5,300 megawatts.
The poster child for this expansion is the $2.5 billion, Kudankulam NPP in Tamil Nadu state, containing six 1,200 megawatt and two 1,000 megawatt reactors.
Despite sustained civil protests during its construction, Nuclear Power Corporation of India Limited (NPCIL) Chairman and Managing Director K.C. Purohit told the media, “Our inspection (of the reactor pressure vessel) is almost complete,” he said from Mumbai. “We will submit our observations and reports to a committee of the Atomic Energy Regulatory Board (AERB) and load the fuel based on its decision,” adding that “the day is not far off” for the nuclear fuel rod assemblies to be loaded into the reactor pressure vessel beginning in mid-August. But this sunny picture has recently been somewhat clouded by the increasing skepticism of Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, who is now querying the Department of Atomic Energy about liability and who will pay if there is a mishap at the Kudankulam NPP. It doesn’t help nuclear proponents that Prime Minister Singh is also India’s Minister for Atomic Energy.
Needless to say, everyone involved with the Kudankulam NPP has been furiously backpedaling from the issue of liability….. All of this loose talk about liability has officials at Atomstroieksport, the Russian Federation’s nuclear power equipment and service export monopoly, increasingly worried. Its not like business is booming – in 2011 the company’s net losses doubled from their 2010 rate to $469 million. So, hardly surprisingly, Russian Atomstroieksport officials, who also built Iran’s controversial Bushehr NPP, have their fingers crossed that the Indian government will not saddle them with liability for the Kudankulam NPP, which could cause yet more oceans of red ink to wash across their books…… http://oilprice.com/Alternative-Energy/Nuclear-Power/Indias-Kudankulam-Nuclear-Power-Plant-Caveat-Emptor.html
At last France accepts liability for cancers in nuclear test victims
Under the provisions of the bill the new compensation scheme will apply to former soldiers and civilians that developed cancers and other illnesses after exposure to radiation from nuclear tests carried out in Algeria and French Polynesia.
Parliament approves compensation bill for nuclear test victims The French parliament voted Tuesday to pay compensation to victims of nuclear tests France carried out in Algeria and French Polynesia over the course of more than three decades. By FRANCE 24 17 July 12
The French parliament on Tuesday approved a compromise bill offering compensation to the victims of nuclear tests carried out by France between 1960 and 1996, overturning decades of official failure to accept general liability for health problems suffered by those present at or near the test sites. Continue reading
Delhi High Court considers radiation poisoning of university researcher
“Strontium 90 is a toxic radioactive substance having a half life of about 28 years, a beta rays emitter and is one of the most hazardous products … Which if enters the human body, it accumulates within the bone marrow and over a period of time would cause certain type of cancers/tumors of the bone and of the blood cell….
they mixed the “hazardous and radioactive Strontium in a liquid form in cups of tea which the petitioner used to consume without knowing that those were contaminated.”
Researcher Affected by Radiation: Centre’s Reply Sought http://news.outlookindia.com/items.aspx?artid=769120 PTI | NEW DELHI | JUL 17, 2012 The Delhi High Court today sought the Centre’s response to a plea by a researcher in a Haryana university accusing his guide and other staffers of making him drink tea, laced with radioactive element Strontium 90. Continue reading
Injustice of USA cases against Julian Assange and Bradley Manning
Public opinion can make a great difference in determining that such a prosecution not take place. Such a situation as not very different from what eventually happened in the case of David Hicks.
Think of the different amount of attention given by the Australian Government to Assange’s case, compared to that given to the case of the Australian woman solicitor in Libya by Bob Carr, our Foreign Minister.
It can’t be that Assange has a bad reputation. He is the recipient of many awards testifying as to his courage and excellence as a journalist and about him generally.
A Support Assange & WikiLeaks Coalition Statement by Mr Kep Enderby QC JULY 15, 2012 BY KELLIE TRANTER ” ….There is something terribly wrong going on in both the Assange and Manning cases, and we are being told very little about it.
Sweden’s sex laws are unrealistically repressive, the most repressive in the world! That was made clear in the recent ABC interview with Phillip Adams and in the recent book by Oscar Swartz “A History of Sex in Sweden”.
Bradley Manning has been in custody for long periods of solitary confinement on the ground that he might injure himself, despite psychiatric opinion to the contrary and despite public protest that it amounts to pre-trial punishment without being brought to trial. He was arrested more than 2 years ago.
America still uses the ancient archaic old English medieval grand jury system of determining whether a criminal trial should take place to determine whether a person has committed a serious crime or not, with all its scope for the manipulated injustice. During the hearing the target of grand jury, the person perhaps to be an accused,
cannot put on a defence.
In America, in Virginia, a federal grand jury has already commenced investigating WikiLeaks – which means Julian Assange – to determine whether an indictment should be served on him. Eminent commentators are claiming that the evidence is mounting that the WikiLeaks case is part of a much broader campaign by the Obama Administration to crack down on all leakers. Continue reading
Legal action – no confidence in USA’s nuclear Waste Confidence Rule
Beyond Nuclear files Nuke Waste Con Game contentions against 4 atomic reactors 12 July 12, Beyond Nuclear has filed intervention contentions against a total of four atomic reactors (proposed new reactors at Grand Gulf Unit 3, MS and Fermi Unit 3, MIseeking construction and operating licenses, as well as degraded old reactors at Grand Gulf Unit 1, MSand Davis-Besse Unit 1, OH seeking 20 year license extensions) based on a recent U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit ruling gutting the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s (NRC) “Nuclear Waste Confidence Decision.”
That confidence game has been used against states, environmental groups, and concerned citizens for decades, blocking them from challening the generation of high-level radioactive waste in atomc reactor licensing proceedings, as the NRC has flippantly expressed “confidence” that storage on-site was safe for decades or even centuries, and that a geologic repository for permanently disposing of irradiated nuclear fuel was just over the horizon — despite mounting evidence to the contrary. Continue reading
90 cancer victims bring lawsuit against nuclear power plant operators
Patricia Ameno, a plaintiff in a previous round of litigation, told Post-Gazette reporter Rich Lord that, due to health problems, “A lot of people have lost not only their entire savings but their homes.”
Families have been torn apart by illnesses and deaths, she said.
Radioactive: Revelations on nuclear plants sound a warning 
http://www.post-gazette.com/stories/opinion/editorials/radioactive-revelations-on-nuclear-plants-sound-a-warning-633299/#ixzz20deylWXd July 3, 2012 Pittsburgh Post-Gazette Like a dark family secret long suspected but never confirmed, the shock of discovery is all the more lurid for coming into the light years later. So it is with the news of radioactive material released into the air — at levels higher than any seen in the nation — at closed nuclear fuels plants in Armstrong County.
Incredulity feeds the first reaction: Surely this could not have happened. But apparently it did, according to good authority. That would be Joseph P. Ring, a Harvard University radiation safety officer who teaches at Harvard and the University of Massachusetts. He
wrote a 37-page report that was filed Tuesday as part of federal lawsuits brought against plant operators Babcock & Wilcox Co. and Atlantic Richfield Co. by about 90 cancer victims. Continue reading
Charges on conspiracy to sell uranium to Iran
Iranian Charged With Illegal Nuclear Shipments Via China Bloomberg, By Emily Grannis – Jul 13 An Iranian and a Chinese resident were charged with conspiring to sell uranium and cobalt to Iran, and successfully shipping lathes and alloy wire, using a Chinese company to evade U.S. export controls…..
Today’s indictment follows charges filed in federal court in Manhattan yesterday against another Iranian national accused of illegally exporting $390,000 worth of industrial parts to Dubai and sending them on to Iran. The case is U.S. v. Khaki, 12-cr-00061, U.S. District Court, District of Columbia (Washington).
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-07-13/iranian-charged-with-illegal-nuclear-shipments-via-china.html
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