USA’s failed plutonium plant and the USA insider deals with AREVA
But the good news for Areva is the tax paid contract is still bringing in the big bucks with no 
end in sight.
the waste from these processes all add to the huge amount of waste already stored in leaking tanks at SRS.
Abraham, like so many others in Washington, sells his influence…. And Abraham does not sell influence only in the United States. He sells himself to the entire world.
When is enough, enough? How much money do former government officials have to make before they go home and give back to their communities rather than take money to influence their friends in Washington?
Spencer Abraham Cashes In, DC Bureau, By Joseph Trento, February 2nd, 2012 In January 30 was former U.S. Secretary of Energy Spencer Abraham’s last day as the non-executive chairman of Areva Enterprises Inc, the French atomic power firm’s American operation. This marked the end of a very lucrative arrangement for both Abraham and the French government own nuclear company – mostly at U.S. taxpayers’ expense.
It all began in the 1990s when the United States’ response to disposing of 34 metric tons of plutonium from shuttered nuclear weapons programs was a proposed mixed oxide (MOX) fuel fabrication facility at the Savannah River Site (SRS) near Aiken, South Carolina. When Abraham became Energy Secretary in 2001, Areva was a key contractor for the MOX plant. According to his DOE calendars, among his first trips were to France to visit their nuclear officials and operations. Abraham maintained a close relationship with the then head of Areva, Anne Lauvergeon. In turn, not long after he left the Energy Department, Abraham cashed in and went to work for Areva and “Atomic Annie,” as she was known. In 2007, DOE broke ground on the MOX plant.
Today, the DOE’s MOX fuel plant is still under construction. It has cost billions of dollars, is over budget and behind schedule. But Spencer Abraham will never be held responsible for the cost overruns and delays. In fact, he has been handsomely rewarded.
Despite spending billions of dollars on the MOX plant, DOE has yet to line up a single customer even with massive government subsidies being offered to buy the fuel. No utility will touch it. Continue reading
Shroud of secrecy around USA’s nuclear loan guarantee program
Vogtle Loan Guarantee Update: Nuclear Power Secrecy Continues Clean Energy Footprints, February 2nd, 2012 Sara Barczak ›After nearly two years of stonewalling by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy (SACE) continues to press ahead with our Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) litigation so that U.S. taxpayers can learn the full extent of the risks to which they are exposed in the massive commitment of $8.33 billion in conditional federal loan guarantees to Southern Company and their utility partners for two proposed new nuclear reactors at 
Plant Vogtle in Georgia.
Of particular concern: the amount of taxpayer-backed obligations for the proposed Vogtle reactors is more than a dozen times greater than the failed Solyndra loan guarantee, which has received extensive Congressional scrutiny including an audit report of the troubled Department of Energy loan guarantee program that was recently delivered to the Obama Administration. Given the higher price tag and troubled history of nuclear reactor construction, the Vogtle project poses a much greater risk to taxpayers if default occurs. Find our February press release here. Continue reading
Little regulation of increasing non-medical use of radiation
Customs and the New York Police Department have deployed unmarked X-ray vans that can drive to a location and look inside vehicles for drugs and explosives.
The FDA has little authority to regulate the use of electronic products emitting radiation. Because security scanners are not classified as medical devices, the agency doesn’t approve them for safety before sale.
the scanners fall under voluntary guidelines set by a nonprofit group made up largely of
manufacturers and agencies that wanted to use the X-ray machines.
Drive-by X-rays: Security screeners expanding radiation use Michael Grabell, Tucson Sentinel, ProPublica, 2 Feb 12, U.S. law enforcement agencies are exposing people to radiation in more settings and in increasing doses to screen for explosives, weapons and
drugs.
In addition to the controversial airport body scanners, which are now deployed for routine screening, various X-ray devices have proliferated at the border, in prisons and on the streets of New York.
Not only have the machines become more widespread, but some of themexpose people to higher doses of radiation. And agencies have pushed the boundaries of acceptable use by X-raying people covertly, according to government documents and interviews. Continue reading
Problem of nuclear regulator in bed with nuclear industry
Nuclear regulatory reform must weed out entrenched interests, Mainichi Daily News, 2 Feb 12, Bills relating to a shift in the nation’s nuclear power policy were approved by the Cabinet on Jan. 31. In addition to the establishment of a new nuclear regulatory agency under the Environment Ministry, the government is aiming to legislate the lifespan of nuclear reactors, and require plant operators to outline specific measures against severe nuclear accidents.
Significant harm has been done by allowing the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency (NISA), an administrative body tasked to regulate nuclear power safety, to exist under the umbrella of the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI), a major promoter of nuclear power.
Divorcing nuclear regulation from nuclear promotion and centralizing regulatory duties into one agency stands to reason.Changing the agency’s name from the originally proposed “nuclear power safety agency” to “nuclear power regulatory agency” is likewise pertinent, considering the new agency’s nature. Continue reading
Records not kept by 5 Japanese nuclear disaster committees
Five Japan committees keep no disaster records Terra Daily Tokyo (AFP) Jan 27, 2012 Five government teams dealing with Japan’s tsunami and nuclear catastrophes kept no detailed records, an official said Friday, adding to a growing picture of chaos in Tokyo’s disaster response…
Now the government has admitted having no minutes from a further four emergency committees, Continue reading
USA’s Nuclear Regulatory Commission – faithful servant of the nuclear industry
Nuclear Power is Clean — as Long as you Ignore ‘Safety’!, Ace Hoffman Salem-News.com, 27 Jan 12,”……On March 10, 2011, the day before Fukushima, the NRC revealed to the media that Vermont Yankee, a poorly-designed old reactor in America, would be granted a license extension in a few days. After an earthquake and tsunami in Japan the next day, a slew of nearly identical reactors began melting down and exploding before our eyes.
Did the NRC change their minds and delay their decision? NO! Did they want to find out if what went wrong in Japan was applicable to Vermont? NO! The NRC does not lack in hubris, or in skill in manipulating the media to its advantage. Every accident — even Fukushima — is an “opportunity to learn,” and so in their macabre way of thinking, every accident, no matter how severe, can be considered a GOOD thing!
Five politically-appointed commissioners make all the “big” decisions at the NRC, and so just three commissioners constitute a majority. There are about 320 million citizens in America, so in a sense, these three people — who are not elected — control the fate of more than one hundred million Americans each. That’s what we call “democracy”?
And it gets worse: They have very finely-crafted laws to protect their power, such that over the past half century, thousands of local, state, and federal judges, as well as commissioners and other officials at all levels, have all deferred to the NRC, and thus, to these three individuals, whose identities change over time, but whose basic philosophy — “keep the nuclear industry running, ignore the dangers” — remains the same.
In addition to being lobbied constantly, politicians (who pick the commissioners) are given huge campaign contributions by the nuclear industry — hundreds of millions of dollars every decade. Often, campaign contributions are given to BOTH candidates in a close election, so regardless of who wins, the winner is beholden to the nuclear industry.
In Vermont recently, a Federal judge threw out the state’s attempt to get Vermont Yankee Nuclear Power Plant shut down permanently after 40 years of constant leaks, piling waste, and random outages, because the judge was convinced the “real” reason Vermonters want the plant shut down is safety concerns — regardless of the OTHER legal rationalities brought forth by the state’s attorneys, such as: A prior agreement by the utility to shut the plant down if requested by the state; Lies
told repeatedly by the utility to the state’s citizens, and: Overpriced electricity the utility was offering the state.
But sooner or later, it always comes down to “safety”. And as long as the NRC says the plants are safe, everyone else says they’re safe too. http://www.salem-news.com/articles/january262012/nuclear-power-ah.php
In Japan’s towns, nuclear money silences criticism
“After having received money related to the nuclear power plant like a form of drugs, this region’s capability to nurture its economy independently and actively has declined
Japanese town’s dependence on nuclear plant hushes criticism, By Yoko Kubota, OHI, Japan Jan 26, 2012 (Reuters) – Japan’s nuclear disaster has eroded trust in utilities and shown residents of the rural, mountainous region of Fukui the risk of radiation, but a dependence on atomic plants for jobs and funds means speaking out against them is taboo. Continue reading
Film exposes “regulatory capture” of USA’s NRC by the nuclear industry
Sundance Diary: “The Atomic States of America” Turns the Lens on Nuclear Power ONEARTH, BY BRUCE BARCOTT January 26, 2012 “……. The Atomic States of America, a film based partly upon her memoir, Welcome to Shirley.
McMasters’ book chronicled her childhood growing up in a blue-collar Long Island town next to the Brookhaven National Lab, one of the federal government’s leading nuclear research stations. In the 1990s, news broke (thanks to citizen activists and a local newspaper reporter) that Brookhaven’s three reactors regularly leaked deadly nuclear materials into the local water supply.
McMasters didn’t realize what was going on until college, when a roommate asked her, “Why are you always going home to all these funerals? What’s going on there?” The answer: Cancer, cancer, and more cancer.
Atomic States directors Sheena Joyce and Don Argott, who made the documentary Rock School in 2005, expand on McMasters’ material, looking at other nuclear power plant-adjacent communities and their chillingly similar experiences with radioactive leaks.
“At one of the documentary filmmakers forums over the weekend, we talked about this recurring theme of regulatory capture,” McMasters told me. “Again and again, we’re seeing the corporations that are supposed to be regulated take over the regulatory agency through money and politics.”
Conflict of interest? Just where does the climate denialists’ money come from?
Bid to out the money behind the voice against climate change, SMH Graham Readfearn January 27, 2012 – A British journalist’s court bid to unmask the financial backers of a group of climate change sceptics is being used to raise questions about how think-tanks are funded in Australia and whether they deserve tax exemptions.
The UK’s Charity Commission, which regulates charities in the UK, is being asked to release a document that would show the start-up funders of the Global Warming Policy Foundation, chaired by former UK chancellor Lord Nigel Lawson.
Launched in November 2009, the foundation has consistently challenged the mainstream scientific view that human emissions of greenhouse gases represent a significant risk to the planet and societies.
Later today, freelance journalist Brendan Montague will appeal to the UK’s Information Rights Tribunal for the release of a bank statement provided to the Charity Commission by Lord Lawson, which Mr Montague believes will identify the source of a $50,000 seed donation.
The case has raised the issue of how think-tanks engaged in public policy debates are funded and whether potential conflicts of interest should be declared. None are required by law to publicly disclose their funders. Continue reading
USA’s Nuclear Regulatory Commission is beholden to the nuclear industry
Ninety percent of the NRC’s funding comes from the industry they regulate.
How can you make a container for something that can destroy its container? But the NRC doesn’t see that as insurmountable, even though it is.
The NRC is beholden to no one but the nuclear industry they regulate. Their motto — protecting people and the environment — is criminally hollow.
Nuclear Power is Clean — as Long as you Ignore ‘Safety’!, Ace Hoffman Salem-News.com, 27 Jan 12, Every American nuclear power plant could be closed down if Americans turned off extra lights and became energy efficient. (CARLSBAD,Calif.) – In the United States, radiation-related “safety” decisions regarding commercial nuclear power plants are handled very
undemocratically.
They are considered to be strictly the purview of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. State and federal courts, public utilities commissions, state energy commissions, water boards, air
boards, EPA, DOE, and everyone else whose regulatory authority touches on nuclear power will insist that you cannot talk to them about “safety.” You must go to the NRC. Continue reading
No records kept of Japan’s nuclear disaster crisis response!
“Perhaps there were some goings on that the participants did not feel comfortable being made public,”
Japan Task Force Kept No Records Of Nuclear Crisis Response, Planet Ark, 25-Jan-12, JAPAN by Yoko Kubota and Shinichi Saoshiro Japan’s energy minister admitted on Tuesday that no records were kept of top level discussions in the critical early days on how to respond to the world’s worst nuclear disaster in 25 years. Continue reading
Japanese govt’s secrecy on nuclear disaster report
Japan kept silent on worst nuclear crisis, Herald Sun, Tokyo From: AP January 26, 2012 THE Japanese government’s worst-case scenario at the height of the nuclear crisis last year warned that tens of millions of people, including Tokyo residents, might need to leave their homes, according to a report.
But fearing widespread panic, officials kept the report secret. The recent emergence of the 15-page internal document may add to complaints in Japan that the government withheld too much information about the world’s worst nuclear accident since Chernobyl. It also casts doubt about whether the government was sufficiently prepared to cope with what could have been an evacuation of unprecedented scale.
The report was submitted to then-Prime Minister Naoto Kan and his top advisers on March 25, two weeks after the earthquake and tsunami devastated the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant, causing three reactors to melt down and generating hydrogen explosions that blew away protective structures…..
After Mr Kan received the report, he and other Japanese officials publicly insisted that there was no need to prepare for wider-scale evacuations.
The government continues to refuse to make the document public. The AP obtained it overnight through a government source, who insisted on anonymity because the document was still categorised as internal……. http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/breaking-news/japan-kept-silent-on-worst-nuclear-crisis/story-e6frf7jx-1226253974563
Canada’s government kept mum about Fukushima radiation fallout
he’s asking questions about rain which fell on Calgary shortly after the nuclear disaster last March, containing radioactive iodine well above the Health Canada guidelines for drinking water.
“There are certain people who might be concerned — for instance, a pregnant woman,”
Fukushima fallout hit home Nuclear critic says Health Canada should have issued warning on radioactive raindrops BY MICHAEL PLATT ,CALGARY SUN, 22 Jan 12, There’s no need to panic — probably.
But not knowing whether to shrug or cower over radioactive iodine falling on Calgary as a result of a meltdown in Japan last year has Canada’s top nuclear critic wondering why.
“There’s no need to be concerned, but what you should be concerned about is why the authorities are so quick to dismiss it,” says Dr. Gordon Edwards. Continue reading
Betrayal of Japanese people in government silence on radiation
With no information coming from Tokyo, mayor Tamotsu Baba decided to lead the people of his community further north away from the plant. He did not know it at the time, but that was the very direction the plumes of radiation were also blowing.
For the 20,000 people of Namie – they have lost their homes and many fear for the health of their children.
A system that was designed to protect and warn them has clearly failed.
Japan ‘betrayed citizens’ over radiation danger, ABC News AM By North Asia correspondent Mark Willacy January 20, 2012 Japan has been accused of betraying its own people by giving the American military information about the spread of radiation from Fukushima more than a week before it told the Japanese public.
The mayor of a Japanese community abandoned because of its proximity to the Fukushima nuclear plant has told AM the government’s actions are akin to murder.
An official from Japan’s science ministry, which was in charge of mapping the spread of radiation, has acknowledged to AM that perhaps the public should have been told about the dangers at the same time the US military was informed.
In the hours after the meltdowns at Fukushima, unseen plumes of radiation began to roll over the Japanese landscape. Just a few kilometres from the oozing remains of the nuclear plant the people of Namie village gathered to evacuate. Continue reading
Canadian authorities keep mum about radiation in rainwater
Radioactive iodine in rainwater: Public was in the dark By ALEX ROSLIN, The Montreal Gazette January 14, 2012 After the Fukushima nuclear accident, Canadian health officials assured a nervous public that virtually no radioactive fallout had drifted to Canada. Continue reading
1 This Month
26 September – International Day for the Total Elimination of Nuclear Weapons
PLEASE OPPOSE HR 8255 AND S.3639 – bills would accelerate satellite deployment, with no environmental review or safeguards – https://ncstd5li.quorum.us/campaign/169331/
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