Deep Green: Atomic renaissance interrupted | Greenpeace UK
Deep Green: Atomic Renaissance interrupted Greenpeace UK Rex Weyler 3 December 2008.
The nuclear industry has hitched a ride on the climate change bandwagon, proclaiming that nuclear power will solve the world’s global warming and energy problems in one sweeping “nuclear renaissance.”
As you might expect, there’s a catch. Nuclear energy faces escalating capital costs, a radioactive waste backlog, security and insurance gaps, nuclear weapons proliferation, and expensive reactor decommissioning that will magnify the waste problem. The contention that nuclear energy is “carbon free” and therefore a global warming solution, fails to account for the nuclear fuel cycle – mining, milling, enriching, and transporting uranium; forging steel for pressurised vessels; building massive, complex plants; and handling, shipping, reprocessing, and storing waste – requiring substantial fossil fuel supplies. Nuclear fuel processing also employs halogenated compounds that both erode the ozone and simultaneously produce more global warming impact per volume than carbon dioxide………………..
A dollar invested in nuclear power increases global warming because it consumes scarce resources required by real solutions.
Nuclear economics.………… A full accounting of nuclear power remains obscured by billions in public subsidy and still-uncertain costs of processing waste and decommissioning plants. Nevertheless, Amory Lovins and Imran Sheikh calculate a kilowatt-hour of electricity from a new nuclear power plant averages about 14 cents compared to a wind farm at 7 cents. Even this calculation does not account for capital financing, security, waste disposal, insurance, or public health impacts. No nuclear plant is insured, even with public guarantees, to the full cost of a Chernobyl scale accident, which becomes an unbudgeted liability on the public’s balance sheet.
Nuclear power plants have a dismal safety record, featuring thousands of private, public, and military accidents up to the present day……..
………… Of 36 current nuclear construction projects, 14 remain stalled and most of the surviving projects are state-owned in Russia, China, and India. There is no business case for nuclear power except to socialise costs, privatise profits, and leave the garbage for future generations. In the US alone, 104 “private” nuclear power projects have received over $130 billion in taxpayer subsidies, over $1 billion per reactor. Billions more will be needed to solve the nuclear waste backlog……………………………….Waiting for waste solutions
Nuclear waste remains the untamed demon of nuclear power. After 40 years of research, not a single kilogram of high-level spent-fuel waste has been stored in a permanent repository. Deadly, radioactive plutonium has a half-life of 24,000 years. Some fuel has been reprocessed, itself a polluting industry, but three-quarters of the waste ever produced remains in temporary storage in 50 countries……………
Chainsaws and butter
The assertion that nuclear power will solve, or even help, the global warming challenge is a hoax. Nuclear power is a carbon hog compared to wind, solar, geothermal, and hydropower. Purely on economics, nuclear power fails. The waste backlog, risk of accident or sabotage, and weapons proliferation are added burdens on society.
Human society must now face the inevitable decline in energy use. The oil era was a one-off energy bonanza and there exists no credible alternative that will replace the sheer volume of oil energy. The most important source of clean power in the world is conservation, at zero cost and zero carbon emissions.
The next most effective new power sources include efficiencies such as cogeneration, recovering waste heat that is now sent up smokestacks. Finally, we can build capacity with renewables – wind, solar, hydro, and geothermal – built to appropriate local scale, while creating more jobs and better return on investment than nuclear power plants.
The secret yet to be realised by industrial civilisation is that we can improve real quality of life with less energy and less commodity throughput. We can achieve a richer life without mining the planet to death and strapping future generations with our toxic garbage.
Flashpoint as Calman tests SNP nuclear veto – Scotsman.com News
Flashpoint as Calman tests SNP nuclear veto
SCOTLAND could lose its veto over a new generation of nuclear power stations, it emerged last night following a major report into the devolution settlement.The Calman Commission – set up to look into the powers of the Scottish Parliament – warned yesterday of “friction” between London and Holyrood over nuclear power and said the issue had to be resolved.
Its report did not come up with a conclusion, but suggested that the issue had to be sorted out without disrupting the UK supply network – a statement which the Nationalists interpreted as a clear threat to Scotland’s veto………………………..Energy policy is reserved to Westminster and, as the UK government has a pro-nuclear policy, it should be able to press ahead with new nuclear stations in Scotland.
However, the Scottish Government has the final say over any major electricity generating stations through planning legislation which gives it an effective veto over any new nuclear stations.
This ability to block any new stations has angered UK ministers, who believe they should be able to site new nuclear stations in Scotland.
nt as Calman tests SNP nuclear veto – Scotsman.com News
High Court Hears Argument On Power Plants : NPR
High Court Hears Argument On Power Plants
npr by Nina TotenbergAll Things Considered, December 2, 2008 · Utilities want the Supreme Court to reinstate a Bush administration regulation that was overturned by lower courts. The regulation allowed utilities to consider the cost of the cleanest technology and not install it if fails a cost-benefit analysis.
The U.S. Supreme Court hears an important environmental case Tuesday, testing whether utilities must use the best technology available to minimize harm to the nation’s waterways. At issue is the physical impact on fish and the financial impact on companies.
The nation’s 550 power plants use water — lots of water in some instances — that comes from lakes and rivers. Each day, more than 214 billion gallons of water is sucked into power plants across the country. That’s tens of trillions of gallons each year.
The water cools the steam used in the electric generating process. And all the fish and aquatic organisms in the water are killed in the process…………………………
For more than a quarter-century, industry has tried to put a cost-benefit overlay on environmental regulations.
In the past, that effort has often come a cropper in the courts. Now, with the Supreme Court’s new conservative composition, industry thinks it has a good shot at winning — and winning in a way that will affect all environmental regulations.
Tags: nuclear, antinuclear, radioactive, uranium
Poznan, Poland. Nuclear Energy must not be an option in Climate change talks :: PEJ News :: Stories, Features, Opinion and Analysis :: Peace, Earth & Justice News
Poznan, Poland. Nuclear Energy must not be an option in Climate change talks
PEJ News – Joan Russow -26 Nov From 1-12 December, the United Nations Climate Change Conference, COP 14, will be held in Poznań, Poland . The nuclear industry is lobbying states to include carbon trading credits for nuclear energy. The flawed campaign of the nuclear industry must end, and citizens must call for environmentally safe and sound renewable energy………..
…..…….the nuclear industry is trying again–at the upcoming climate negotiations in Poznan, Poland, the industry is again seeking to become eligible for lucrative carbon trading credits. And again, NIRS, WISE and the world’s environmental and clean energy movements are gearing up to stop them.YOU CAN HELP!…………………………………Nuclear energy’s ‘contribution’ to fighting climate change would come too late (long after 2020), with huge costs (US$ 10 trillion) and would create a myriad of other serious hazards related to accidents, waste and proliferation. These large costs and negative impacts make nuclear energy an obstacle to the necessary development of effective, clean and affordable energy sources – both in developing and industrialised countries.
Activities related to nuclear power must not be allowed to become eligible for the Kyoto Protocol’s flexible mechanisms in order to avoid:Undermining climate protection by wasting time and taking resources away from more effective and clean solutions;Dumping this expensive and unsafe technology on developing countries who would be landed with the associated economic and environmental impacts (accumulation of massive financial debts, increased dependency on foreign fuel and technologies, increased risk from reactor accidents and contamination); andDecreasing global security as volumes of nuclear waste with no safe methods of disposal increase massively and both nuclear materials and technologies are spread. Nuclear power is not only expensive and slow to develop, it would provide only a marginal contribution to carbon mitigation
Tags: nuclear, antinuclear, radiation, uranium
Activists demand nuclear plant closed | Greenpeace International
Activists demand nuclear plant closed 20 November 2008
Activists worked quickly to set up camp inside a shipping container at the main entrance of the plant. Meanwhile, another group of activists chained themselves to the nuclear plant’s main gate with banners reading: Garoña, cierre ya (Garoña, immediately closing).
Nuclear? No thanks!
Earlier this year, the PSOE (Spanish socialist party) committed to the “gradual replacement of the nuclear energy in Spain for secure, clean and less expensive energies, closing nuclear power plants (…) promoting energy saving, energy efficiency and renewable energies, as well as distributed generation and local transport and distribution frameworks.” We are calling on the Spanish government to fulfill its promise to the people of Spain and start phasing out nuclear power immediately. …………………………
Nuclear free Spain
There is no economic, energy, environmental or social warrant for the Spanish government to break its commitment to close Garoña and phase out nuclear energy in Spain completely. Garoña’s small contribution to energy production is more than compensated by the annual increase of renewable electricity in Spain. The plant has serious and dangerous cracks and corrosion problems and the government has already agreed to an end to this dangerous and insufficient form of energy.
Activists demand nuclear plant closed | Greenpeace International
Tags: nuclear, antinuclear, uranium, radioactive
LiveDaily Interview: Graham Nash >> Tour dates and concert ticket info >> LiveDaily
LiveDaily Interview: Graham Nash
November 3, 2008 – Graham Nash: “The nuclear snake is raising its head once again. Thirty years ago, we took a stand against nuclear power, making people aware of: the dangers of nuclear power; the people who mined radioactive substances who were dying of lung cancer; the transportation of nuclear waste; the fragility of nuclear waste; all the things that may have not been covered up but certainly haven’t been covered enough in the media. This country is 230 years old and we’re trying to control nuclear waste that will be around for thousands of years. It’s just insanity.
So, we started to bring awareness to the problem, and we’ve been fighting ever since. And recently, Jackson Browne, Bonnie Raitt and I found out about a sentence in an energy bill that would make taxpayers fund this industry no Wall Street firm will ever invest in, and will never insure. The only way they can exist is if they have public money to do it. So we launched nukefree.org, we got an Internet campaign going, and we got about 130,000 signatures to present to Congress to get that clause out of the energy bill. Then it just comes back again as a clause in a global warming bill. They want to rip off the public for billions and billions of dollars…………………….Here’s what’s going on: John McCain wants to build 45 new nuclear power plants. And when asked recently about what he would do with the nuclear waste his answer was “let’s put it in a third world country.” [Washington Post, May 28, 2008 from Reno, NV: McCain: “I can push for some place internationally where we can ship nuclear waste and have it stored.”]
LiveDaily Interview: Graham Nash >> Tour dates and concert ticket info >> LiveDaily
Tags: nuclear, antinuclear, radioactive, uranium
German anti-nuclear waste newswire now active : Indybay
German anti-nuclear waste newswire now active
indybay.org by Diet SimonSaturday Nov 1st, 2008 Anti-nuclear activists in Germany are gearing up for another transport of highly active nuclear waste to run through France and Germany from 7 to 9 November for dumping at the north German village of Gorleben. About 20,000 police will be deployed to guard the consignment against thousands of demonstrators. At http://www.castor.de/ticker/index_en.html is a newswire run by the protest movement. It already has some run-up stories on it.
German anti-nuclear waste newswire now active : Indybay
Tags: nuclear, antinuclear, radioactive, uranium
ISSUE IN-DEPTH: NUCLEAR POWER: Nuclear power bad on so many levels | ajc.com
NUCLEAR POWER: Nuclear power bad on so many levels
For the Journal-Constitution
Sunday, November 02, 2008
After 60 years and many billions of dollars in government subsidies, nuclear power should finally have to prove itself on its own merits —- which evidently it cannot do in a free market.
Not only are taxpayers and citizens shouldering an unfair burden of the costs of nuclear power, but, even with these subsidies, as consumers we will be forced to cover the rising costs of nuclear plant construction.
These costs have consistently been well above even the high price tag quoted at the start of the project. Overruns of 50 percent or more will be paid by energy consumers, as utility rates are raised ever higher to protect guaranteed profits for investors………………………….
Added to these unfair economic burdens on American taxpayers and consumers are the significant risks of moving and storing nuclear materials, made even more threatening by the prospects of terrorism.
Following six decades of attempting to find a “safe” and dependable way of storing radioactive waste from nuclear plants, experts still have no solution. These materials will remain a major public health threat for thousands of years. The more such materials we use, transport and store, the greater that threat becomes…………………Due to water demands for cooling, extravagant federal subsidies for new nuclear plants would worsen problems in our rivers and intensify disputes over water supply. Fish habitat and recreational amenities would also suffer, while funds taken from taxpayers and consumers paid for this wasteful energy choice……………………………Ultimately, the costs of wind power would be far lower than those of conventional sources that face rising fuel prices and diminishing supplies. Recent analysis by Amory B. Lovins (“The Nuclear Illusion” ) found that, including expenses for facilities, infrastructure and operations, power produced from wind costs half as much as nuclear. Notably, the enormous costs of storing radioactive waste and decommissioning old plants were not even included in this comparison.
ISSUE IN-DEPTH: NUCLEAR POWER: Nuclear power bad on so many levels | ajc.com
Tags: nuclear, antinuclear, radioactive, uranium
Why Sarah Palin is wrong about fruit flies – Times Online
Why Sarah Palin is wrong about fruit fliesHer flippant comment about science reveals a great misunderstanding
TimesOnline November 1, 2008 “…………..Taxpayers’ money, she pointed out, was being wasted on “things like fruit fly research”…………………It is her broader disdain for research into fruit flies, though, that is most worrying. For this is a discipline that has delivered some of the most important advances yet made in genetics and biology, and that continues to offer insights of great promise……………………..In the 1920s, Hermann Muller used flies to demonstrate that radiation can induce genetic mutations. In the 1980s, fruit flies allowed Janni Nüsslein-Volhard and Eric Wieschaus to show that a common set of “master genes” govern embryonic development across many species, including humans. And the insects have yielded important clues to the workings of the brain and nervous system………………………..Fundamental biological research, of which fruit fly work is a mainstay, is essential to the science that brings forth new medical understanding.
Why Sarah Palin is wrong about fruit flies – Times Online
Tags: nuclear, antinuclear, radioactive, uranium
Libya: We signed nuke deal with Russia | International | Jerusalem Post
Libya: We signed nuke deal with Russia
Jerusalem Post 3 Nov 08 “……………………..Tripoli announced that it had signed a deal with Moscow to cooperate on nuclear civilian projects, but Russia has not confirmed the nuclear accord.
Talks reportedly focused on oil, gas and arms purchases.
Libya: We signed nuke deal with Russia | International | Jerusalem Post
Tags: nuclear, antinuclear, radioactive, uranium
TheChadronNews.com – Chadron, Nebraska’s News Leader » Chadron » Headlines
Regional groups unite to oppose uranium mining
The Chadron Record 28 oct 08By GEORGE LEDBETTER, Record Editor October 28, 2008
Environmental activists from a four-state area met near Chadron last weekend to discuss their objections to the rapid expansion of uranium mining in the region, and to plan strategies to advance their cause.
The meeting, hosted by the Western Nebraska Resources Council (WNRC), was held in Chadron because of its proximity to the Crow Butte Resources in-situ leach (ISL) uranium mine, which is already in the process of permitting one major expansion and has two more in planning stages.
Participanting groups included the Powder River Basin Resource Council, from Wyoming, ACTion for the Environment from South Dakota’s Black Hills, the Black Hills chapter of the Sierra Club, Defenders of the Black Hills, Owe Aku/Bring Back the Way, a Lakota cultural group, and Coloradoans Against Resource Destruction.
“We want the uranium industry to know that we stand together on this issue. Whether in a rural setting or a populated area, uranium mining causes radioactive contamination,” said Tom Cook of WNRC, reading a jointly prepared statement. “Past uranium sites continue to contaminate the air, land and water:………………A regional approach to stopping further uranium mining makes sense because of the shared issues, said Shirley Fredrick of the Sierra Club. “Everyone at this event has similar concerns, starting with the need to keep our water clean and protect millions of gallons for future use. Our local economies, our health and our ways of life depend on this,” she said.
TheChadronNews.com – Chadron, Nebraska’s News Leader » Chadron » Headlines
Tags: nuclear, antinuclear, radioactive, uranium
Bush’s nuclear deal with India: bigger consequences to consider | The Japan Times Online
Bush’s nuclear deal with India: bigger consequences to considerThe Japan Times Oct. 29, 2008 By BRAD GLOSSERMAN and BATES GILL HONOLULU/STOCKHOLM —”…………………Is the deal a meaningful compromise that protects India’s national security interests and the integrity of the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty (NPT) or does it give Delhi too much and undermine the NPT?………………..Unfortunately, potentially far greater consequences garner far less attention. In particular, little has been said about how this deal is seen in other countries,………………….Washington’s decision to come to terms with Delhi offers hope to other governments considering nuclear weapons that they too may receive special status…………………Will a democratic and nuclear-armed (but U.S. friendly) Pakistan, Iran or (your favorite future strategic partner) also get a pass?………………Japanese officials and strategists also worry that the U.S.-India agreement could clear the way for a nuclear-armed Korean Peninsula.
Bush’s nuclear deal with India: bigger consequences to consider | The Japan Times Online
Tags: nuclear, antinuclear, radioactive, uranium
African civil society hits back at uranium mining
African civil society hits back at uranium mining
http://www.namibian,com BRIGITTE WEIDLICHAFRICAN October 28, 2008 communities are gathering to take up the fight against international companies which are mining uranium on their land and their own governments, as they are driven off their land, suffer exposure to radiation and toxic waste at mining sites, a seminar on uranium mining was informed.
“We have formed a civil society organisation and took the Australian mining company Paladin to court,” Reinford Mwangobe of Citizens for Justice (CFJ) told the seminar, organised by Earthlife Namibia and the Labour Resource and Research Institute (LaRRi)……………………..Mwangobe said 12 Australian companies would start mining uranium in Malawi soon, with Paladin starting in January 2009.
Malawi had no laws in place for handling and transporting radioactive materials, Mwangobe added.
“Rural people who had lived for decades on their ancestral land were kicked off and only paid US$70 as compensation.
The locals have no benefits from mining, only some government officials and Paladin,” he stated.
“The best way to act against such companies was to take the case to their own countries and alert shareholders who did not want bad publicity and their share prices drop.”
A representative from Tanzania, Anthony Lyamunda, said 20 international companies were lined up for uranium mining in his country.
His people recently started the civil society Foundation for Environmental Management and Campaign Against Poverty (Femapo) to help 450 000 rural people living in 786 villages in the areas were uranium mining was taking place or planned.
African civil society hits back at uranium mining
Tags: nuclear, antinuclear, radioactive, uranium
Green government on the way in Canberra: senator | theage.com.au
Green government on the way in Canberra: senator
The Age * Adam Morton * October 28, 2008AUSTRALIA is in sight of a major political realignment that will see the Greens form government in Australia, the party’s climate change spokeswoman says.In a speech to the Sydney Institute last night, Christine Milne said there was a “real prospect” the Greens could broaden its support base as the community embraced the need for a “green new deal”……………………….”No less than a change to the economic system is needed, and the current financial crisis is the opportunity to do it……………………………A large part of emissions trading revenue should be spent on improving energy efficiency, extending the electricity grid to renewable energy “hot spots” such as geothermal sites in the South Australian desert, and on public transport, she said.
Quoting the UN environment program and Deutsche Bank, she said a green new deal sought to rebuild the economy based on four pillars: renewable energy, energy efficiency, clean transport and ecosystem protection.
Green government on the way in Canberra: senator | theage.com.au
Tags: politics
LocalNews8.com Idaho Falls, Pocatello – Weather, News, Sports – Western states want foreign waste loophole shut
Western states want foreign waste loophole shutAssociated Press – October 23, 2008 ETSALT LAKE CITY (AP) – Utah and seven other western states want a radioactive waste compact in the southeast to help change a regulation that allows foreign nuclear waste to be disposed in Utah.The Northwest Interstate Compact on Low-level Radioactive Waste is asking 1 of its southeastern counterparts to join forces so EnergySolutions Inc. can’t relabel foreign waste as domestic waste once it undergoes processing in Tennessee.The compact has banned the Salt Lake City-based company from accepting foreign waste at its dump in the western Utah desert.
EnergySolutions contends the compact has no authority over the dump.
A federal court is expected to rule next fall on the matter.
Tags: nuclear, antinuclear, radioactive, uranium
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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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