Nuclear power the vital issue in Japan’s leadership race
Nuclear power key topic in Japan leader race, Google News, 27 Aug 11 TOKYO (AP) — Japan’s former Foreign Minister Seiji Maehara who is vying to become Japan’s next prime minister says the country should stop building nuclear power plants.Maehara appeared to take the clearest stand against nuclear power at a news conference Saturday where five ruling party members aiming to replace Prime Minister Naoto Kan outlined their policy goals.
Another top contender for the job is Economy Minister Banri Kaieda. He says he plans to decommission aging nuclear plants found to have problems during stress tests.
Atomic energy is a key topic in Japan following the tsunami-spawned nuclear accident in March. The ruling Democratic party will vote Monday to select a new party chief, who will become prime minister — Japan’s sixth in five years….. http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5iNKIALDMeliTg7GD1i-HfddhNCLQ?docId=446239253def4a87bfa780998048a5de
Japan’s government dumps radiation cleanup responsibility onto local municipalities
Local leaders steamed at government’s ‘buck-passing’ radiation decontamination plan Mainichi Daily News, 26 Aug 11 Local leaders in areas contaminated by the disaster at the Fukushima No. 1 Nuclear Power Plant are angry and disappointed at the central government’s decontamination plan, which dumps much of the responsibility for the clean-up on municipalities. Continue reading
U.S. Republicans gunning for NRC chief Gregory Jaczko,
Republicans seek new probe of NRC chairman Jaczko, Forbes, By MATTHEW DALY , 08.25.11 WASHINGTON –– Four Republican senators are asking the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s inspector general to investigate the agency’s chairman for what they say is a continued pattern of withholding information from colleagues and acting unilaterally on the commission’s behalf.
Lawmakers from both parties have criticized NRC Chairman Gregory Jaczko, asserting that he has an overly secretive and controlling style. The GOP lawmakers say the latest example stems from Jaczko’s declaration in March that Japan’s nuclear crisis constituted an emergency in the United States.
GOP Sens. James Inhofe of Oklahoma, John Barrasso of Wyoming, Jeff Sessions of Alabama and David Vitter of Louisiana said it is not clear that Jaczko had authority to make such a declaration, which grants him additional powers, since the crisis occurred on foreign soil. ….
An agency spokesman said Thursday that Jaczko acted within his authority, citing congressional testimony by the commission’s top lawyer. Steve Burns, the NRC’s general counsel, told a Senate committee Aug. 2 that Jaczko’s actions “were consistent with the powers that he has under the statute.”
While there was no specific event at a U.S. nuclear plant, the Japanese crisis presented an overall “threat environment” to U.S. sites, Burns told the Senate Environment Committee.
Jaczko, testifying at the same hearing, said he had informally rescinded the order, adding that no formal report was necessary because he had kept commissioners informed of his actions all along…http://www.forbes.com/feeds/ap/2011/08/25/general-us-nuclear-chief-japan_8643195.html
Science and Climate Change action under attack from Republican presidential candidates
Rick Perry denounces the concept of man-made global warming as “one contrived phony mess that is falling apart under its own weight”..
..poll found that 98 per cent of scientists accepted the idea [of globalwarming]…..
GOP presidential hopefuls rush to deny climate change The Australian, Catherine Philp, Washington August 23, 2011 “…..In the past week, the Environmental Protection Agency has become the new target for Republican hopefuls, with conservative candidates scrambling to outdo each other over how quickly they would abolish it. The attacks have exposed a sharp split in the field between those who accept the scientific basis of climate change and those who do not.
Michele Bachmann, the Tea Party insurgent, said that on the first day of her presidency, “the EPA will have the doors locked and lights turned off”. Continue reading
Nuclear power plans scrapped by government, West Bengal, India
West Bengal government rules out Haripur nuclear project, THE HINDU 18 Aug 11 The West Bengal government has ruled out the nuclear power plant at Haripur in the State’s Purba Medinipur district.Replying to questions in the Assembly here on Wednesday, State Power Minister Manish Gupta said the government had decided to scrap the proposal. The government had no plans for the present to set up nuclear plants elsewhere in the State….
Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has been maintaining that Haripur is not the proper place for a nuclear power plant as it was a densely populated area and fishermen in the region would be affected.
When in the Opposition, Ms. Banerjee had vowed that her party would scrap the project if it came to power……http://www.thehindu.com/news/states/other-states/article2366598.ece
US Dept of Energy told – “No new uranium mining. Clean up the old”
Opponents not only want the DOE to reject new uranium mining in the area, they also want past contamination cleaned up.
DOE gets an earful on uranium mine leasing program near Telluride, Montrose, Colorado Independent, By David O. Williams | 08.17.11 Depends where you were last week when the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) took feedback on its uranium mine leasing program in southwest Colorado. In some places like Telluride, according to media reports, the feds met with stiff resistance…..
Church group will lobby General Assembly to keep ban on uranium mining
Group will lobby General Assembly against uranium mining, WSJ By Anita Kumar, 17 Aug 11, Officials at the Virginia Interfaith Center for Public Policy say they will be mobilizing activists across the state to lobby the General Assembly to continue a moratorium on uranium mining in the state.
Trieste Lockwood, director of the group’s power and light program, said that mining could harm drinking water, residents’ health and the economy by damaging agricultural, tourism and fishing industries if there is an accident….
“The financial gain of one corporation is really simply not worth the longterm risks to so many people,” Lockwood said.
Cost of nuclear test refugees from Micronesia, the Marshall Islands, and Palau
Hawaii demanding assistance from the federal government, ETN News, Aug 14, 2011, The cost of providing Hawaii government services to Pacific island migrants has more than tripled over the last eight years, according to a state report completed this week.
Retired cook Calvin Nelson says that when he came to Hawaii from Kwajalein, after the United States had seized his home for a new missile range, he was told, “everything will be covered.” Him and thousands of other Micronesian immigrants need the kidney dialysis that kept him alive.
State government expenses to pay for services to migrants from Micronesia, the Marshall Islands, and Palau rose to US$115 million last year from US$32 million in 2002, the report said……..
Micronesia, the Marshall Islands, and Palau are beneficiaries of the Compact of Free Association. After the US used the Pacific islands for nuclear weapons testing from 1946 to 1958, it agreed in the 1986 pact to provide financial assistance and migration rights in exchange for the right to use defense sites.
People from the areas included in the compact suffer from higher rates of cancer and kidney disease, which come with expensive treatments such as chemotherapy and dialysis.
The federal government provides the state with only US$11 million each year to help the state cover the costs of the US treaty….http://www.eturbonews.com/24598/hawaii-demanding-assistance-federal-government
Japan about to approve Renewable Energy Law
Japan Set to Pass Law on Renewable Energy, WSJ By MITSURU OBE 12 Aug 11, TOKYO—Japan’s parliament is set to approve a landmark bill on renewable energy that was championed by Prime Minister Naoto Kan as a way to reduce the nation’s dependence on nuclear power, and which would break the monopoly of the 10 major utilities. Continue reading
Japan’s nuclear regulator to be less cosy with nuclear industry?
Japan takes nuclear safety away from trade ministry, NPR by BILL CHAPPELL 11 AUG 11, Japan is removing its nuclear regulatory agency from the control of its trade ministry, dissolving a relationship that was criticized in the wake of the Fukushima nuclear plant disaster. The new nuclear safety agency will be under the environmental agency, Kyodo News reports.
The move, coming exactly five month after a powerful earthquake and tsunami set off a nuclear crisis in Japan, may help ease criticisms that regulators are too cozy with pro-nuclear interests….http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2011/08/11/139537870/japan-takes-nuclear-safety-agency-away-from-trade-ministry
Japan replaces 3 pro nuclear officials with 3 more pro nuclear officials
“The three successors are people who will not promote reforms nor override objections from the energy industry,”
Kaieda picks bureaucrats from pro-nuclear faction to lead METI, Asahi.com. 6 Aug 11, Banri Kaieda’s “reborn” industry ministry is looking quite similar to highly criticized one that was heavily armed to thwart the energy reforms pushed by Prime Minister Naoto Kan.
The industry minister on Aug. 4 decided on the replacements for three leading ministry officials who will be dismissed over the series of accidents at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant and the manipulation of public opinion at state-sponsored symposiums on nuclear energy. Continue reading
Japan seeking new, independent, nuclear safety authority
Japan Nuclear Agency May Fall Under New Authority, WSJ, By TOKO SEKIGUCHI, 6 Aug 11, TOKYO—Japan’s minister in charge of nuclear safety said Friday that the country’s planned nuclear safety agency may come under the jurisdiction of a different government department from its predecessors, in a move to accelerate its separation from an industry ministry mired in scandals. Continue reading
Isle of Man wants full closedown of Sellafield nuclear plant
Closure of nuclear plant is welcomed, Isle of man Examiner, 4 August 2011 GREEN campaigners and the island’s Environment Minister have welcomed news that a part of the reprocessing operation at Sellafield nuclear plant is to close…
Japan was the only customer for the MOX plant,
Environment Minister John Shimmin welcomed the news but pointed out the MOX plant was only a small part of the operation at Sellafield. The Manx government’s long-held policy is to call for the full closure of all operations at Sellafield. Continue reading
USA’s Price Anderson Act – a scam to prop up nuclear industry
Musicians United for Safe Energy Launch Mega-Concert in San Francisco This Sunday, Huffington Post, Joan Brunwasser, 6 Aug 11, “……Price-Anderson was passed because the administration wanted to build commercial reactors as a happy face for the nuclear weapons industry. But no utility company or builder would take on the liability. So the industry asked for the liability shield until the reactors were safe enough to attract private insurers. That was more than a half-century ago. The current deal stretches it out until at least 2020. It’s a terrible and unique scam. We can “just say no” except for the billions in funny money certain dark forces have invested in this failed technology. At this point, a free market in energy, with no subsidies for ANY technology, would bring us a green-powered Solartopian planet very quickly, and King CONG — coal, oil, nukes and gas — would fade away very quickly. All the dirty energies are totally reliant on ripping of the tax/rate-payer, as well as destroying the planet…..”http://www.huffingtonpost.com/joan-brunwasser/musicians-united-for-safe_b_919042.html
Ontario political party promising energy efficiency, ending funds for nuclear power
NDP Look Past Nuclear In Energy Plan. Radio 1010 Newstalk By: Katie Franzios · 8/3/2011 The Ontario NDP plan on laying down $980 million over four years for retrofit programs, if elected.
She says they won’t be spending any extra money to provide these programs but will use the money set aside for Darlington nuclear projects. Horwath says they would be put on hold if elected, so the NDP could review them…
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Say No to NASA’s Reckless Nuclear Reactor on the Moon
Say No to NASA’s Reckless Nuclear Reactor on the Moon
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