Hillary’s Trapped by Bill’s Big Web of Donors
Hillary’s Trapped by Bill’s Big Web of Donors: Bloomberg 16 Jan 09 Margaret Carlson – “……………….Clinton will do as well as recent secretaries, maybe better,……………………It’s her husband who’s the problem. Has there ever been a bigger spousal conflict of interest than former President Bill Clinton collecting large sums from donors foreign and domestic, many of whom have a stake in cozying up to a global duopoly?………………….. he still can accept money from foreign business executives as long as he names them annually……………………………what about the Indian politician Amar Singh, who gave money and then lobbied Mrs. Clinton on behalf of a nuclear- cooperation agreement, according to the Times. She told him she didn’t object, the Times said. ……………………….
Or Frank Giustra, the Canadian businessman who donated millions to Clinton’s foundation and lends the former president his plane.
Giustra delivered Clinton to a midnight banquet for Kazakhstan’s authoritarian President Nursultan Nazarbayev along with Clinton’s support for Nazarbayev to head an election- monitoring organization. Soon after, Giustra was awarded rights to three state-controlled uranium mines, turning him into one of the world’s largest producers. Clinton’s foundation has a right to half of any of Giustra’s future minerals earnings.
It doesn’t take a cynic to wonder if Secretary Clinton is in an impossible situation.
Russia to complete Iran’s Bushehr nuclear power plant in 2009_
Russia to complete Iran’s Bushehr nuclear power plant in 2009 TEHRAN, China View Jan. 14 (Xinhua) — Iran’s ambassador to Russia Mahmoud Reza Sajjadi said that Russia would complete Iran’s Bushehr nuclear power plant this year, the semi-official Fars news agency reported on Wednesday……………………..The main problem with the plant, that of the fuel supply, had been solved and the doubts whether the plant would start operation had already been removed, he said, adding that “Russians are trying to accelerate the process and hundreds of Iranian engineers who have been trained in Russia are replacing Russian experts.”
Russia to complete Iran’s Bushehr nuclear power plant in 2009_English_Xinhua
US: Republicans want to be sure that Chu is pro-nuclear
Chu Quizzed Mostly on Nuclear Issues During Hearing for Energy Post
By Kent GarberUS News January 13, 2009One could be forgiven for thinking that Steven Chu, President-elect Barack Obama’s choice to head the Department of Energy, was being evaluated for a somewhat different role—that of, say, chief nuclear officer—during his Senate confirmation hearing this morning.
Though Chu, a Nobel Prize-winning physicist, received questions on a variety of energy-related topics, his examiners on the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee seemed to be most interested in talking about nuclear policy.
In particular, Chu was pressed about his positions on building new nuclear plants, recycling nuclear waste, and supporting increased spending—to the tune of tens of billions of dollars—on incentives for the industry and for expediting nuclear-related programs that have gotten bogged down in Washington or have gone unfunded in recent years………………………..
To a question from Sessions about Chu’s commitment to jump-starting the construction of new nuclear power plants, Chu said, “Yes, I am.”
He also expressed support for accelerating a so far poorly executed $18.5 billion government loan program designed to help finance the first batch of new power plants and vowed to move quickly to create a long-term plan for safely disposing of nuclear waste. “We have to do it concurrently with the start-up of the industry,” Chu said, attempting to allay concerns that the Obama administration might try to stall the industry until the waste problem is adequately resolved………………………….
……..As part of that plan for nuclear waste, Chu said he is open to reprocessing—reusing spent nuclear fuel in a reactor
Chu Quizzed Mostly on Nuclear Issues During Hearing for Energy Post – US News and World Report
Tags: nuclear, antinuclear, radioactive, uranium
EU warns Slovakia of legal steps over nuclear plant
EU warns Slovakia of legal steps over nuclear plant
BRUSSELS, Jan 13 (Reuters) – The European Commission renewed pressure on Slovakia on Tuesday not to reopen the Bohunice nuclear power plant, saying the move would prompt legal action from the European Union’s executive arm.
EU warns Slovakia of legal steps over nuclear plant | Markets | Reuters
Tags: nuclear, antinuclear, radioactive, uranium
Critics oppose Georgia Power’s nuclear plan
Critics oppose Georgia Power’s nuclear plan
pbaonline Charles Edwards
WABE: Critics oppose Georgia Power’s nuclear plan (2009-01-12)
Uranium Mining foes dominate hearing
Mining foes dominate hearing
The News Record 9 Jan 09 All sides in Southside Virginia’s raging uranium debate had a chance Tuesday night to weigh in on a pending scientific study of uranium mining, but they were also cautioned that a decision on the fate of the Coles Hill project in Pittsylvania County is a long ways off……………The meeting at Chatham High School was held to gather citizen input on a scientific study of uranium mining that the Coal and Energy Commission will oversee……………………The capacity crowd was dominated by opponents of uranium mining at the Coles Hill site near Chatham, which is believed to contain one of the largest deposits of uranium in the nation.
More than sixty residents spoke to the subcommittee, mostly living in Chatham, Danville, Halifax and Mecklenburg counties, along with several residents of the Smith Mountain Lake community. Also addressing the committee members were several employees of Virginia Uranium Company.
Many speakers said they were concerned with health problems emanating from radioactive tailings left behind from the mining; others worried about the quality of downstream water and air quality…………………………….Gregg Vickrey, chairman of the Chatham/Pittsylvania County chapter of SCC, asked members how they could convince citizens that the study would be unbiased in light of the political contributions they have received from Virginia Uranium. “There’s been no referendum on this — only a request from a private for-profit corporation,” said Vickery. “Who are you representing, the people who you are elected to represent or the interests of a corporation that has contributed to your campaigns?”
Said Shireen Parsons, an organizer with the Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund, which is advising SCC: “It is we, the people, who decide. This is a travesty and mockery of democracy.”
Tags: nuclear, antinuclear, uranium, radioactive
Rudd Government dumping election commitments – On Line Opinion – 23/12/2008
Rudd government dumping election commitments
ONLINE Opinion by Jim Green 23 DEc 08 With a Senate Committee report last Thursday calling for the repeal of draconian laws allowing the imposition of a radioactive waste dump in the absence of any consultation with or consent from Aboriginal Traditional Owners, it is time for resources and energy minister Martin Ferguson to come clean on his plans for managing this contentious issue.Labor voted against the Commonwealth Radioactive Waste Management Act in 2005-06 with senior Labor MPs describing it as “extreme”, “arrogant”, “draconian”, “sorry”, “sordid”, and “profoundly shameful”.
At its 2007 national conference, the ALP voted unanimously to repeal the legislation.
More than a year later and Martin Ferguson has not budged while Prime Minister Kevin Rudd – for all his boasting about keeping election promises – has conspicuously failed to ensure that this commitment is kept.
The Labor Government will most likely repeal the Radioactive Waste Management Act in the new year but the controversy over radioactive waste management will continue. The waste in question ranges from the relatively innocuous – such as lightly-contaminated lab-coats – to the far more hazardous and long-lived wastes arising from the reprocessing of spent nuclear fuel rods from reactors at Lucas Heights.If the Labor Government intends to pursue the Howard government’s plan to establish a dump in the Northern Territory, it will need to override NT laws – and thereby break its pre-election pledge to respect state/territory laws which outlaw the imposition of radioactive waste dumps.
Four sites in the NT are under consideration. None of the four sites were short-listed when a national site selection study was undertaken in the 1990s, informed by scientific, environmental and social criteria.
The NT sites were short-listed under the Howard government simply because the NT was seen as a soft political target. Thus Labor’s commitment to handle the issue in a scientific manner will go out the window if the NT sites are pursued.
Early in the new year, Mr Ferguson is expected to wave around a consultant’s report purporting to demonstrate that his favoured site is ideal for a radioactive dump – just as his predecessor, Senator Peter McGauran, paraded a consultant’s report in 2002 purporting to demonstrate that a site immediately adjacent to a missile and rocket testing range in South Australia was the safest place in the nation for a radioactive waste dump. Controversy forced the Howard government to abandon that location, then to abandon the SA dump plan altogether, and Mr McGauran was demoted to a junior ministry for his heavy-handed and clumsy mismanagement of the issue.
Labor’s election commitment to handle the issue transparently went out the window long ago. In April, Mr Ferguson refused to provide substantive answers to questions on his radioactive waste plans, simply asserting that all matters raised were “under consideration”. The secrecy was such that even a question about what specific matters were under consideration was also said to be under consideration!
Mr Ferguson is likely to try to impose a radioactive waste dump in an area in the Muckaty Land Trust, 120km north of Tennant Creek. This site was nominated by the Northern Land Council despite vocal opposition from a number of Traditional Owners whose country will be affected by the proposal.
Rudd Government dumping election commitments – On Line Opinion – 23/12/2008
Tags: nuclear, antinuclear, radioactive, uranium
Will Obama press Israel to allow nuclear inspection of Dimona reactor? – Haaretz – Israel News
Will Obama press Israel to allow nuclear inspection of Dimona reactor?
By Aluf Benn, Haaretz Correspondent “…………………..The new president and his choice for secretary of state, New York Senator Hillary Clinton, intend to revive international arms-control efforts, which have been on hold during the eight years of President George W. Bush’s administration. Continue reading
Nevada prepares for nuclear waste battle – Environment- msnbc.com
Nevada prepares for nuclear waste battle
msnbc Associated Press Dec. 19, 2003 Yucca Mountain lawsuits will be heard in court Nevada’s legal team will tell a federal appeals court that the government is trying to store nuclear waste at Yucca Mountain even though it does not meet the original legal requirements for a dump, lawyers said Thursday.The hearing Jan. 14 before a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit will cover six lawsuits that the state filed against the federal government between 2000 and 2002, and that have been consolidated……………..the courts might represent the state’s best chance of keeping out 77,000 tons of the nation’s most radioactive waste, lawyers said ………They contend the Environmental Protection Agency and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission failed to comply with the law in developing licensing rules and standards for the project………………….Congress and Bush approved sending nuclear waste to Yucca Mountain last year
Nevada prepares for nuclear waste battle – Environment- msnbc.com
Tags: nuclear, antinuclear, radioactive, uranium
The Associated Press: Court raises hopes of Hanford radiation plaintiffs
Court raises hopes of Hanford radiation plaintiffs
SPOKANE, Wash. (AP) 17 Dec 08 — A U.S. Supreme Court decision Monday raised hopes that as many as 2,000 plaintiffs could be compensated for health problems they blame on radiation from a Washington state nuclear site instrumental in the Manhattan Project and the Cold War.The court issued a one-line denial of an appeal by contractors who worked at the Hanford nuclear reservation. The contractors — E.I. Du Pont De Nemours & Co., General Electric Co. and UNC Nuclear Industries Inc. — were challenging a lower-court ruling last spring that sided largely with the plaintiffs.
The people exposed to radiation lived in eastern Washington, eastern Oregon and Idaho, downwind of Hanford, as the U.S. government was developing atomic bombs in the 1940s.
The government did not disclose until 1986 that radiation had been released at the site, and since then the “downwinders” have sought compensation for thyroid cancer and other conditions they believe were caused by the exposure………………………Last spring, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld monetary awards for two “bellwether” plaintiffs, rejected the contractors’ claim of immunity from lawsuits because they were working for the government, and ruled that the deadline for individuals pursuing claims hadn’t expired.
The Associated Press: Court raises hopes of Hanford radiation plaintiffs
Tags: nuclear, antinuclear, radioactive, uranium
Obama Faces Hungry Nuclear Industry
ENERGY-US: Obama Faces Hungry Nuclear Industry
By Matthew Cardinale
ATLANTA, Georgia, Dec 15 (IPS) – As Democratic President-elect Barack Obama prepares to take office in a few weeks, he faces a hungry nuclear industry that wants to be included in his energy plan.At least 31 new plants have been proposed throughout the United States, according to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s (NRC) website. Twenty-six of these are already going through the NRC’s environmental impact review and site approval process………………………………“Nuclear power represents more than 70 percent of our non-carbon generated electricity. It is unlikely that we can meet our aggressive climate goals if we eliminate nuclear power as an option,” Obama and Vice President-elect Joe Biden wrote in their energy plan.
“However, before an expansion of nuclear power is considered, key issues must be addressed including: security of nuclear fuel and waste, waste storage, and proliferation.”
This assumes that nuclear fuel and waste storage are the only problems with nuclear power, however.
As previously reported by IPS, nuclear power also uses vast amounts of water and releases low levels of radioactive pollution, which one study has correlated with increased cancer rates in Burke County, Georgia.
“One thing I haven’t seen them point to, which is the real sticker on this, is the problem of economics. The nuclear executives that want to build don’t want to use their own money. You see them hat in hand here in Washington [seeking] loan guarantees. I can’t see Congress doing that given we’re in the hole financially,” Jim Riccio, a nuclear policy analyst for Greenpeace, told IPS.
The Green Party of the United States said in a statement that it “rejects President-elect Barack Obama’s reckless support for new nuclear power plants, as such an agenda poses unacceptable health and environmental risks and would be fiscally irresponsible in the extreme.” .
Washington’s lawsuit over Hanford cleanup is timely and measured response to delays
Washington’s lawsuit over Hanford cleanup is timely and measured response to delays
The Seattle Times
Dr. Chu’s Nuclear Prescription
Dr. Chu’s Nuclear Prescription
counter[punch By KARL GROSSMAN December 15, 2008
The reaction from safe-energy advocates is mixed to the proposed appointment of Steven Chu as U.S. energy secretary by President-Elect Barak Obama.Mixed is a charitable response to the prospects of Chu being in charge of the U.S. Department of Energy.Although he has a keen interest in energy efficiency and solar power and other clean forms of renewable energy, Chu is a staunch advocate of nuclear power…………………..“The fear of radiation shouldn’t even enter into this,” he said in comparing nuclear and coal. “Coal is very, very bad.”
Chu, a physicist, repeated a claim of nuclear proponents that coal plants produce more radioactivity than nuclear plants—a contention based on coal containing trace amounts of uranium and thorium. But the claim—and Chu—ignore the huge amount of radioactive products created by fission or atom-splitting in nuclear plants, the gaseous ones routinely released, and the many tons that are left, classified as nuclear waste and needing to be isolated, some virtually forever. The claim—and Chu—also ignore the potential of a catastrophic nuclear plant accident discharging much or all of these lethal radioactive fission products into the environment as occurred in the Chernobyl nuclear plant accident, a potential for which there is no comparison with coal………………………Chu shows an understanding of the proliferation problem of nuclear power—that all nuclear plants produce the plutonium from which atomic weapons are made—and reprocessing or separating out parts of nuclear waste allows plutonium to become readily available. But he then repeats the claim of nuclear proponents that “we’ve got to recycle the waste.”…………………..Paul Gunter, director of the Reactor Oversight Project of Beyond Nuclear, asks whether Chu “can afford to squander his commitment to renewables by pouring all these resources down the nuclear rat hole. You can’t have both worlds—particularly in the economic depression we’re sliding into. We’re at a crossroads and we have to make definitive choices.” Gunter says it’s “time to leave 20th century mistakes” such as nuclear power “behind and commit to renewables.”
Bloomberg.com: Europe
Normandy Dairy Towns Challenge EDF on Nuclear Reactor (Update1)
By Tara Patel
Dec. 10 (Bloomberg) — The lush green hills overlooking the dairy farms of Le Chefresne in Normandy have become a battleground in France’s efforts to boost power production.
In a corner of France known for Camembert cheese and apples, state-controlled Electricite de France SA plans to build 200 foot-tall steel pylons with high-voltage cables to carry electricity from a nuclear plant. The proposal would add to the 400,000 volts that pylons already carry from two existing reactors…………………….“The public inquiry is a charade,” said Laura Hameaux, of the environmental pressure group Greenpeace France, who is advising the communities. “There is a total absence of democracy regarding the power lines.”
Tags: nuclear, antinnuclear, radioactive, uranium
Activists to appeal nuke waste storage approval
Activists to appeal nuke waste storage approval
SF Gate December 5, 2008 An activist group has decided to appeal federal regulators’ approval of a radioactive waste storage plan at the Diablo Canyon nuclear power plant near San Luis Obispo.Mothers for Peace suffered a setback in October when the Nuclear Regulatory Commission rejected their argument that there hadn’t been sufficient study of whether planned storage casks for used nuclear fuel rods could survive a terrorist attack at the PG&E plant.
A spokeswoman for the group said Friday that Mothers for Peace will appeal the ruling to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
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23-25 October – on Zoom – World BEYOND War’s annual global conferenc
Shut down the radiation-damaged Heysham nuclear reactors now
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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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