nuclear-news

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

Taipower poisons island with nuclear wastes, and islanders’ minds with money

“Taipower contaminates our island with nuclear waste and it also contaminates our minds with money,”  “They are trying to make us think that we cannot live without nuclear waste.”…

a lot of Taos depend on Taipower for jobs and are afraid of losing their jobs if they tell people what they really think.

Lanyu’s residents grudgingly accept nuclear storage Taipei Times, By Loa Iok-sin 19 March 12,  The Tao Aborigines of Lanyu (蘭嶼) — also known as Orchid Island — are once again taking to the streets to voice their opposition to a nuclear storage facility on their island, calling for its immediate removal.

While it may appear that the removal of nuclear waste is the only thing the Taos want, the
real situation is much more complicated, as Taiwan Power Co (Taipower) is exerting considerable effort on the resource-scarce island to minimize opposition. Continue reading →

March 20, 2012 Posted by | secrets,lies and civil liberties, Taiwan, wastes | Leave a comment

New evidence raises questions about the murder of anti nuclear campaigner

A high-profile campaigner against nuclear weapons, she had been due to present evidence to the public inquiry into the proposed Sizewell B nuclear reactor in East Anglia. 

“The victim was consumed with anxiety that something was going to happen to her. A look at why that might be involves the evidence she was about to give to the Sizewell inquiry.”

Hilda Murrell murder: call to examine ‘MI5 link’ to murder of nuclear activist Michael Mansfield QC wants to know what intelligence services knew about killing of anti-nuclear activist Hilda Murrell in 1984 Mark Townsend, Guardian UK, The Observer ,   18 March 2012 Campaigner Hilda Murrell, 78, who was murdered in March 1984, had been due to give evidence at the public inquiry into the Sizewell B nuclear reactor.

One of Britain’s leading human rights lawyers has demanded a fresh police inquiry to establish what the British intelligence services knew about the murder of a prominent anti-nuclear campaigner. Continue reading →

March 20, 2012 Posted by | secrets,lies and civil liberties, UK | 1 Comment

Thousands of police surround India’s anti nuclear protestors

Indian Police Arrest 10 at Nuclear Power Plant Protest IDINTHAKARAI, Tamil Nadu, India, March 19, 2012 (ENS) – Thousands of police today surrounded thousands of anti-nuclear protestors demonstrating against the Kudankulam Nuclear Power Plant in Idinthakarai.

Ten people have been arrested, including three protest leaders, Continue reading →

March 20, 2012 Posted by | civil liberties, India | 2 Comments

China’s secretive nuclear industry – more dangerous than Japan’s?

China’s nuclear power plant review: ‘problems in 14 areas’ found Christina Science Monitor, Should we be concerned? 18 March 12, A nuclear official said in passing this weekend that problems in 14 areas need to be resolved. In the wake of Fukushima, a shade more transparency would be welcome. By Peter Ford, “…. a press conference held on Saturday on the sidelines of the annual National People’s Congress meeting, at which a top nuclear-industry insider spoke:

Referring to a safety review of China’s nuclear power plants conducted in the wake of the Fukushima nuclear power plant meltdown in Japan last year, he mentioned, in passing, that “problems in 14 areas have been found and need to be resolved.” Some of them will take up to three years to fix, he added.

That was all that Wang Binghua, chairman of the State Nuclear Power Technology Corp., said on the subject, and none of the journalists present pressed him further, according to an official transcript of his remarks. So all we, and the Chinese public, know is that among China’s 14 working nuclear reactors there are 14 “problems.” What they might be, where, how serious they are, and what can be done to rectify them remains secret…..

Mr. Wang said he expected that the current freeze on the examination and approval of new nuclear plants – in effect since Fukushima – would end this year. He promised that “the Chinese government will not approve any new nuclear project that does not contain necessary emergency measures before the problems identified in the review have been solved.”

But since nobody outside China’s nuclear industry knows what the problems are, nobody can know whether they have been solved or not. Suddenly, even Japan’s dangerously shadowy nuclear industry begins to look almost transparent…. http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Global-News/2012/0312/China-s-nuclear-power-plant-review-problems-in-14-areas-found

March 20, 2012 Posted by | China, secrets,lies and civil liberties | Leave a comment

Deomocracy teeters in India, as government cracks down on anti nuclear protest

India government responds bluntly to anti-nuclear push In response to villagers’ concerns about the Kudankulam nuclear plant project, Indian officials have deported a sympathizer and cracked down on charities they accuse of aiding anti-nuclear efforts. By Mark Magnier, Los Angeles Times March 18, 2012 Continue reading →

March 20, 2012 Posted by | civil liberties, India | Leave a comment

Bullying of whistleblowers at Australia’s nuclear reactor

In their statement to Comcare’s investigator, Mr Howe and Mr Bourke said that while they had been reinstated, they were still being harassed.
The case follows that of David Reid, a former staff-elected health and safety officer who was suspended in June 2009 and sacked last June. He had also raised concerns about contamination in the ARI.

Lucas Heights nuclear reactor bullying exposed, BY: LEIGH DAYTON,  The Australian March 16, 2012   ADMINISTRATORS at Australia’s only nuclear reactor facility used findings of an inaccurate, biased and partially fabricated in-house report as the pretext to suspend – and recommend the dismissal of – two employees who raised health and safety concerns over the mishandling of radioactive materials. Continue reading →

March 16, 2012 Posted by | AUSTRALIA, civil liberties | Leave a comment

New computer spy malaware targets U.S. military computers

New malware preys on Iran nuclear weapons tension, msnbc, 13 March 12, Researchers: China-based hackers goal is to corrupt US military computers Chinese cybercriminals have crafted a sophisticated, robust malware attack that exploits growing political tension and fear over Iran’s alleged covert nuclear weapons program to infect PCs.

The goal of the hackers is to corrupt the computers of U.S. military employees, according to researchers from the security firm Bitdefender , who detected the malware.
Calling it “the perfect firebomb,” the China-borne malware embeds itself in an email with an attached Microsoft Word document titled “Iran’s Oil and Nuclear Situation.doc.” The document, Bitdefender explained, contains an Adobe Shockwave Flash applet that attempts to get the recipients to load a fake YouTube video. While the rigged video (an .mp4 file) loads, the malware exploits an Adobe Flash flaw that sneaks an executable file into the initial Word document.
If it sounds complicated, that’s the point, Bitdefender’s Bogdan Botezatu said. “The operation is covert: the MP4 file triggering the exploit is streamed from the Web, which means the PC will be exploited by the time an anti-virus would generally scan a file,” he wrote. “Further, the malicious file delivered inside the doc file (us.exe) has multiple
layers of obfuscation to dodge detection.”
Once the malware is implanted on a victim’s computer, it communicates with a command-and-control server in China. Carefully crafted exploits aimed at military targets are nothing new; a November congressional report outlined state-sponsored cybercrime missions   carried out by Chinese and Russian criminals against U.S. government agencies……
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/46722543/ns/technology_and_science-security/#.T2EiZ8WPX_M

March 14, 2012 Posted by | China, Reference, secrets,lies and civil liberties, technology, USA | Leave a comment

India’s democracy shrinking, as government tries to stifle anti nuclear voices

India Cancels Visa for Japanese Anti-Nuclear Activist, Voice of America, Kurt Achin | New Delhi, 10 March 12,  India’s government has revoked the visa of a Japanese anti-nuclear activist who was scheduled to visit during the one-year anniversary of the Fukushima disaster.

Nuclear energy opponents say the move fits a pattern of seeking to stifle criticism of India’s rapid push toward nuclear power…. Activists like Raina say the visa cancellation reflects a “shrinking democratic space” when it comes to discussing nuclear power in India. Continue reading →

March 10, 2012 Posted by | civil liberties, India | Leave a comment

Evacuation plans last year, as Fukushima crisis occurred

Mr McLean revealed that Australia and other nations began compiling elaborate evacuation plans amid growing concern and uncertainly as the Fukushima plant began to explode.

The former ambassador confirmed Australia had evacuation plans in place but voiced the uncomfortable truth that, in reality, greater Tokyo (population 35 million) would have been almost impossible to evacuate.

Ex-ambassador frustrated by post-tsunami silence BY: RICK WALLACE, TOKYO CORRESPONDENT   The Australian March 10, 2012 AUSTRALIA’S former ambassador to Japan has told of his frustrations with the Japanese government for keeping its close partners in the dark about the extent of the damage to the Fukushima nuclear plant at the height of the crisis almost one year ago. Continue reading →

March 10, 2012 Posted by | AUSTRALIA, Japan, secrets,lies and civil liberties | Leave a comment

Cover-up of nuclear collusion between USA and Japan at Fukushima

Prime Minister Naoto Kan has yet to disclose the truth behind his more disturbing decisions: first, the absence of stenographers and voice recordings at his emergency Cabinet meetings;

The high-level cover-up and lab analysis of cesium-isotope ratios indicate the Japanese nuclear establishment was illegally involved in the reprocessing of weapons-grade uranium at Fukushima No. 1 and probably two other civilian nuclear plants in northern Japan.

The collaboration between Washington and Tokyo in a covert nuclear-weapons program was a violation of international law

The World is Powerless Against Fukushima Fallout, Hyphen Submitted by New America Media, March 8, 2012 by Yoichi Shimatsu “……..Public at Risk From Official Silence At the molecular level inside a biological cell, gamma-ray bombardment rewrites the genetic code contained in the chromosomes, scrambling the elegant poetry of life into gibberish.

Since leukemia, cancers and birth defects can be falsely attributed to other disorders, the governments of North America, Europe and Asia along with international agencies can be counted on to remain silent or mount campaigns of misdiagnosis to protect their nuclear power and weapons programs, along with their food and travel industries. Bureaucrats, at heart and out of self-interest, are cowards. Continue reading →

March 9, 2012 Posted by | Japan, Reference, secrets,lies and civil liberties, USA | Leave a comment

India’s democracy disappearing under nuclear lobby pressure?

‘The fact that the government is going to the extent of cancelling legitimately granted visas clearly shows that they don’t want people from Japan to come to India and share their experience’ said Karuna Raina of the green group. Kobayashi helped save children from
radiation as part of a network of local mothers……

Scared India denies visa to nuclear activist and Fukushima disaster survivor Mail Online India, By DINESH C SHARMA, 7th March 2012 ‘We are a democracy, we are not like China’. Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh professed while making his ‘foreign hand behind nuclear protests’ remark recently.
However, actions of his government show that India is behaving much like China when it comes to muzzling dissent. The latest example of the government’s intolerant behaviour is denying a survivor of Fukushima disaster from visiting nuclear protest hotspots in India on the eve of the first anniversary of the Japanese nuclear accident on March 11. Continue reading →

March 8, 2012 Posted by | civil liberties, India | Leave a comment

Misunderstanding, wrong translation of Ahmadinejad’s supposed words “Israel must be wiped off the map”

from Wikileaks: Translation controversy Many news sources repeated the Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting statement by Ahmadinejad that “Israel must be wiped off the map”,[5][6] an English idiom which means to “cause a place to stop existing”,[7] or to “obliterate totally”,[8] or “destroy completely”.[9]

Ahmadinejad’s phrase was “بايد از صفحه روزگار محو شود” according to the text published on the President’s Office’s website.[10]

The translation presented by the official Islamic Republic News Agency has been challenged by Arash Norouzi, who says the statement “wiped off the map” was never made and that Ahmadinejad did not refer to the nation or land mass of Israel, but to the “regime occupying Jerusalem”. Norouzi translated the original Persian to English, with the result, “the Imam said this regime occupying Jerusalem must vanish from the page of time.”[11] Juan Cole, a University of Michigan Professor of Modern Middle East and South Asian History, agrees that Ahmadinejad’s statement should be translated as, “the Imam said that this regime occupying Jerusalem (een rezhim-e eshghalgar-e qods) must [vanish from] the page of time (bayad az safheh-ye ruzgar mahv shavad).[12] According to Cole, “Ahmadinejad did not say he was going to ‘wipe Israel off the map’ because no such idiom exists in Persian.” Instead, “he did say he hoped its regime, i.e., a Jewish-Zionist state occupying Jerusalem, would collapse.”[13] The Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI) translated the phrase similarly, as “this regime” must be “eliminated from the pages of history.”[14]

Iranian government sources denied that Ahmadinejad issued any sort of threat. On 20 February 2006, Iran’s foreign minister Manouchehr Mottaki told a news conference: “How is it possible to remove a country from the map? He is talking about the regime. We do not recognize legally this regime.”[15][16][17]

March 8, 2012 Posted by | history, Iran, Reference, secrets,lies and civil liberties | Leave a comment

Conflict of interest in India’s nuclear regulation

 In India, all Indian nuclear plants are in the public sector and so are the agencies that exercise regulatory functions and promotional responsibilities. In this situation, conflict of interest between regulation and promotion is inevitable.

How Fukushima is relevant to Kudankulam, THE HINDU, T. N. SRINIVASAN, T. S. GOPI RETHINARAJ, SURYA SETHI, 8 March 12, “……REGULATORY INDEPENDENCE The Fukushima accident highlighted the need for the independence of regulators from plant operators. The Atomic Energy Regulatory Board (AERB) has long been criticised for being subservient to DAE, the promoting organisation for nuclear power.

After Fukushima, the establishment of a truly independent regulator has been promised.
Currently, institutional deficiencies are structurally inbuilt and hard to eliminate. If they remain, the credibility and autonomy of the regulator cannot be ensured. Historically, nuclear policymaking in India was not transparent and involved only a handful of people in the
government. Continue reading →

March 8, 2012 Posted by | India, secrets,lies and civil liberties | Leave a comment

Malaysia’s weaker environmental laws led Australian company to set up rare earths plant there

ANAWA and EDO strongly believed that Lynas had chosen to move its operations to Malaysia because of the heavy metals and radioactive waste involved in the processing. “We believe Lynas picked Malaysia to save money and enable it to operate under less stringent laws,” 
“The biggest concerns about the processing are the storage and waste management issues which are made more difficult in Gebeng which we understand to be wetlands.”

“There is no way it could operate the way it is in Malaysia over here,” he said. “Australia’s laws are much more stringent.”

Aussie NGO: Gebeng not part of Lynas’ blueprint, Free Malaysia Today News, Stephanie Sta Maria | March 6, 2012  Anti Nuclear Alliance of Western Australia (ANAWA) claims that Lynas’ massive changes to its plan has resulted in its plant being built in Gebeng where laws are looser and labour is cheaper.  PETALING JAYA: The Anti-Nuclear Alliance of Western Australia (ANAWA) has revealed that Lynas Corporation Ltd was supposed to build its plant in Western Australia and not Malaysia. Continue reading →

March 7, 2012 Posted by | AUSTRALIA, Malaysia, secrets,lies and civil liberties | Leave a comment

Japan’s March 11 radiation forecast was too scary to be released

Ministry hid data on fallout from public,SPEEDI forecast judged too chilling to be released: internal memo, Japan Times, 5 March 12, Kyodo Former science minister Yoshiaki Takaki and other top ministry officials decided to withhold radiation forecast data from the public four days after the March 11 disasters triggered the nuclear crisis, an internal document shows.

Takaki, lawmakers serving as top ministry officials and senior bureaucrats decided March 15 to withhold data about the predicted spread of radioactivity, including an assumption that all radioactive material would be discharged from the crippled reactors’ cores at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant.

The prediction of the spread of radioactive substances, compiled through the System for Prediction of Environmental Emergency Dose Information (SPEEDI), “could by no means be released to the public,” the document, dated March 19, shows….. http://www.japantimes.co.jp/text/nn20120304a1.html

March 6, 2012 Posted by | Japan, secrets,lies and civil liberties | Leave a comment

« Previous Entries     Next Entries »