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USA’s Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s real role is to PROMOTE nuclear power

Nuclear Rubberstamp Commission HUFFINGTON POST,  Karl Grossman, 05/30/2012“…  The resignation last week of the chairman of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission is another demonstration of the bankrupt basis of the NRC. Gregory Jaczko repeatedly called for the NRC to apply “lessons learned” from the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant disaster in Japan. And, for that, the nuclear industry — quite successfully — went after him fiercely.

The New York Times, in an editorial over the weekend , said that President Obama’s choice to replace Jaczko, Allison Macfarlane, “will need to be as independent and aggressive as Dr. Jaczko.”

That misses the institutional point.

The NRC was created in 1974 when Congress abolished the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission after deciding that the AEC’s dual missions of promoting and at the same time regulating nuclear power were deemed a conflict of interest. The AEC was replaced by the NRC, which was to regulate nuclear power, and a Department of Energy was later formed to advocate for it.

However, the same extreme pro-nuclear culture of the AEC continued on at the NRC. It has partnered with the DOE in promoting nuclear power.

Indeed, neither the AEC, in its more than 25 years, nor the NRC, in its nearly 30 years, ever denied an application for a construction or operating license for a nuclear power plant anywhere, anytime in the United States.

The NRC is a rubberstamp for the nuclear industry. “NRC stands for Nuclear Rubberstamp Commission,” says Kevin Kamps of the organization Beyond Nuclear. And it isn’t that Jaczko opposed nuclear power. “Greg is not anti-nuclear, but he’s pro-nuclear in a smart and considered way,” says Christopher Paine , director of the nuclear program at the Natural Resources Defense Council. Continue reading →

June 1, 2012 Posted by | Reference, safety, spinbuster, USA | Leave a comment

Counteracting the pro nuclear spin that “ionising radiation is OK”

Low dose ionising radiation IS harmful to health http://www.independentaustralia.net/2012/life/health/low-dose-ionising-radiation-is-harmful-to-health/  Independent Australia, Noel Wauchope, 21 May 12, A landmark study on Hiroshima survivors comprehensively disproves nuclear lobby spin about ionising radiation being safe at low doses.  This week, a new report about low dose ionising radiation was published — one that should put a spanner in the works of the nuclear lobby. It is called ‘Studies of the Mortality of Atomic Bomb Survivors, Report 14, 1950–2003: An Overview of Cancer and Noncancer Diseases’.

First of all, let me explain why this report is so important and so timely.

It’s now just over a year since the tragic Fukushima disaster. So the nuclear lobby thinks that it’s time to restart the nuclear renaissance, and to get people to stop worrying about ionising radiation.

To this end, the industry, and particularly the U.S. Department of Energy, and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission have projects under way.

In particular, there are two important projects going on —seemingly unrelated ones. But they are, as a matter of fact, closely related.  Both aim to dampen the public concern about ionising radiation — indeed, to promote acceptance of “low level radiation”:

One sets out to downgrade nuclear emergency procedures. The other aims at discrediting the scientifically accepted model on the cancer risk of low level radiation — known as the Linear No Threshold model (LNT), which states that there is no level below which ionising radiation is not harmful, with risk increasing with each added unit of radiation……..

Project 2 – discrediting the radiation risk model

The U.S. Department of energy funds research projects worldwide that promote the theories of “radiation hormesis” and “adaptive radiation”.

Radiation hormesis holds that, at a low level, radiation is not only harmless, but actually good for human health.

Adaptive radiation holds that people exposed to low level radiation, over time, become resistant to its cancer-causing effects.

It’s easy to see how well this fits in with a relaxing of the rules for safety around nuclear facilities, and a public complacency about the nuclear meltdowns at Fukushima, Chernobyl and Three Mile Island…… Continue reading →

May 21, 2012 Posted by | 2 WORLD, spinbuster | Leave a comment

India’s atomic energy chief says fears about nuclear radiation are “irrational”

Priority is to remove irrational fears about radiation: Ratan Kumar Sinha Interview with Chairman, Atomic Energy Commission Business Standard, Sanjay Jog / Mumbai May 10, 2012, Ratan Kumar Sinha, who was director of Bhabha Atomic Research Centre, took over as chairman of Atomic Energy Commission and secretary of Department of Atomic Energy (DAE) last week.

His appointment comes at a time when India’s nuclear sector is facing challenges. Sinha, in an interview with Sanjay Jog, speaks on a number of issues. Edited excerpts:
What are your priorities?


The first is to remove an irrational fear of radiation in the public mind….. We would educate the public and try to remove the unwarranted fear of radiation associated with nuclear plants.

May 10, 2012 Posted by | India, spinbuster | Leave a comment

Heartland Institute’s heartfelt attack on climate science

The chimerical construction of an ideologically-driven topsy-turvy reality by Heartland and its Australian equivalent, the IPA, is neither new nor surprising.

As the evidence for climate change continues to pile up, and as the frequency of severe weather events continues to sky-rocket, we can therefore be fairly certain that climate denial will take ever more scurrilous forms.

Are Heartland billboards the beginning of the end for climate denial? The Conversation, Stephan Lewandowsky 7 May 2012, The inversion of reality and morality has been a long-standing attribute of the climate “debate,” which reached a new watershed low a few days ago with the latest travesty from the Heartland Institute, a Chicago “think” tank.

Heartland posted on its website that “the people who still believe in man-made global warming are mostly on the radical fringe of society. This is why the most prominent advocates of global warming aren’t scientists. They are murderers, tyrants, and madmen.” Continue reading →

May 10, 2012 Posted by | climate change, spinbuster, USA | Leave a comment

Despite the facts, nuclear lobby preaches success

“Nuclear Renaissance” Back on Track   WDM Group PR Network, Business Review Australia NEW YORK, NY–(Marketwire – May 3, 2012) – Last year the Fukushima disaster in Japan started a downward spiral for companies in the Uranium Industry. Approximately one year later the industry looks to be finally recovering….. ”Fukushima put a speed bump on the road to the nuclear renaissance,” Ganpat Mani, president of Converdyn, said at a nuclear industry summit. “It’s not going to delay the programs around the world.”

May 5, 2012 Posted by | 2 WORLD, spinbuster | Leave a comment

Sneaking a nuclear waste dump in, under another name

 Opponents believe that attempts to ‘spin’ a potential Lakeland nuclear waste dump as ‘West Cumbrian’ is an irresponsible strategy of deception that glibly condemns both Cumbria and the Lake District as a whole to inevitable environmental catastrophe…

Nuclear waste – tarnishing the Lake District ‘brand’? Virtual Lancaster, 26 APRIL 2012  The Lake District National Park Authority (LDNPA) has issued a consultation response  that indicates that its sole concern about having a dump for high-level nuclear waste built under the Lake District is bad publicity to the Lakeland ‘brand’. Continue reading →

April 27, 2012 Posted by | spinbuster, UK | 1 Comment

Pro nuclear governments’ dishonest efforts to prop up the ailing nuclear industry

At this critical moment of a fading nuclear power industry, pro-nuclear governments of France, the UK, Poland, and the Czech Republic seem to have embarked upon a mission to save the future of nuclear energy. According to a leaked letter to the European Commission, they have voiced their wish that nuclear energy should be on par with young renewable energy technologies, thus making their struggling nuclear projects eligible to receive EU subsidies.

Where is the Positive Image of Nuclear Energy Coming From?, Clean Technica, 16 April 12, Despite the problems and disasters of the past and present, nuclear power is still being praised for being a cheap, abundant, and clean form of energy production by many politicians. Of course, it’s also “safe” and without any kind of “waste management problems” (due to future developments that would make energy out of dangerous nuclear waste), but those slogans are a little harder to sell today, so the focus is usually on “clean” and “cheap”. Continue reading →

April 18, 2012 Posted by | EUROPE, spinbuster | Leave a comment

Enormous costs of the global fraud that is nuclear power

The world has since lost over $1,000 billion in subsidies, cash losses, abandoned projects and other damage from nuclear power. Decontaminating Fukushima alone is estimated to cost $623 billion, not counting treatment costs for thousands of likely cancers.

The end of the nuclear illusion,   The Daily Star, Praful Bidwai, 20 March 12A year after the Fukushima nuclear catastrophe began in Japan, the world has a historic chance to end one of the biggest-ever frauds played on the public to promote a patently unsafe, accident-prone, expensive and centralised form of energy generation based upon
splitting the atom to boil water and spin a turbine. Candidly, that’s what nuclear power generation is all about. Continue reading →

March 20, 2012 Posted by | 2 WORLD, business and costs, spinbuster | 1 Comment

Kids get a sanitised tour of Hanford nuclear plant

The Stories Kids Touring Hanford’s Nuclear Plant Won’t Get to Hear, Seattle Weekly, By Johnathon Fitzpatrick ., Mar. 13 2012  Washington’s Hanford nuclear facility is home to the world’s worst radioactive dump site. This year for the first time ever, the Department of Energy is allowing school kids to tour the world’s original production-scale nuclear reactor, but there are plenty of secrets which the tour guide probably won’t mention.

Last fall, we published a cover story that looked at the boondoggle that is the massive cleanup  of the nuclear dump site, with a follow up on what an environmental crisis at Hanford would look like. Then, last month, we published another cover story about whistleblowers crying foul over the institutional problems within Hanford management . Given all that coverage, here are some facts about Hanford you likely won’t hear on the tour: Continue reading →

March 14, 2012 Posted by | spinbuster, USA | Leave a comment

Legal action against Taipower nuclear company for deceiving public

“Taiwan cannot afford a single nuclear disaster,”…Japan is about 10 times the size of Taiwan. If a radioactive leak occurs in Taiwan, people would have nowhere to escape,

Taipower misleading public: activists, Taipei Times, 14 March 12, ATOMIC ANGST:Environmentalists said Taipower wasted taxpayers’ money promoting nuclear power and falsely claimed Taiwan would face power shortages without it By Lee I-chia  

Taiwan Power Co (Taipower) released misleading information to the media and public that power rationing would have to be implemented if nuclear power plants were shut down,
environmentalists said yesterday. Saying the misinformation was a bid by the company to ensure the continuation of its nuclear projects, environmental groups said they would file a lawsuit against the state-run company for “document forgery.” Continue reading →

March 14, 2012 Posted by | spinbuster, Taiwan | Leave a comment

“State of the Art Reactor Consequence Analysis” (SOARCA) downplays nuclear accident impacts

NRC should immediately withdraw its absurd SOARCA report, and get about the business of protecting public health, safety, and the environment — its mandate — rather than doing the nuclear power industry’s bidding by downplaying risks as at Peach Bottom 2 and 3

“Demonic” reality of Fukushima, versus absurdity of NRC Beyond Nuclear 2 Mar 12, I”……..On March 13, 2011, even as Fukushima Daiichi’s reactors were melting down and exploding, and its storage pools at risk of boiling or draining dry and the high-level radioactive waste catching fire, the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) provided false assurance to the U.S. public and news media, that no harmful levels of radioactive fallout would reach U.S. territories. However, at the very same time, we now know, NRC was itself worried about potentially hazardous levels of radioactive Iodine-131 reaching Alaska.

Just last week, NRC held public meetings about its newly unveiled, so-called “State of the Art Reactor Consequence Analysis” (SOARCA). One meeting took place near the Peach Bottom nuclear power plant in Pennsylvania, not far from Philadelphia or Washington D.C., where two General Electric Boiling Water Reactors of the Mark I design (GE BWR Mark I) operate. Paul Gunter, Beyond Nuclear’s Reactor Oversight Project Director, attended and testified. Continue reading →

March 3, 2012 Posted by | spinbuster, USA | Leave a comment

Dick Smith calls the bluff on new nuclear technology scheme

“I predict that Mr Rossi will delay and delay in producing machines or in getting a proper scientific test done, while behind the scenes more and more people will be investing. “

Dick Smith: “Rossi E-CAT … too fantastic to be true” Forbes, Mark Gibbs, 24 Feb 12, Recently Australian entrepreneur Dick Smith offerred Andrea Rossi $1,000,000 if he could prove that Rossi’s Energy Catalyzer (E-Cat) cold fusion (or Low Energy Nuclear Reaction) system actually works as claimed. Rossi immediately turned down the challenge. Continue reading →

February 25, 2012 Posted by | spinbuster | Leave a comment

Confusing schoolchildren with anti science, climate denialism

Don’t cloud young minds http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg21328533.600-dont-cloud-young-minds.html New Scientist, 22 February 2012 THERE is a strong sense of déjà vu about what is emerging over leaked emails from the Heartland Institute. The US libertarian think tank, which argues that global warming is not primarily caused by humans, intends to develop teaching material that would cast doubt on the scientific consensus on climate change. Its approach is sadly reminiscent of fogging tactics employed by the tobacco industry and creationists

 Children should be taught honestly what we know about climate change, as well as what we don’t know and where the uncertainties lie. Yet a plan outlined in documents allegedly from Heartland would build a curriculum around statements such as “whether humans are changing the climate is a major scientific controversy” (see “Climate sceptics may find fertile ground in US schools“). This is to create controversy where none exists.

There simply is no credible scientific alternative to the theory that humans are warming the atmosphere. In 2010, a survey of 1372 climate scientists found that 97 per cent of those who publish most frequently in the field were in no doubt. They agreed with the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change that human activity had caused most of Earth’s warming over the second half of the 20th century. By comparison with these scientists, the climate expertise of the small group of contrarians was substantially lower (Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1003187107). Continue reading →

February 24, 2012 Posted by | spinbuster, USA | Leave a comment

Confronting the dodgy science of “radiation hormesis” and “adaptive response”

Christina Macpherson's websites & blogs

Look – I know that this one is “heavy going” for those of us who are not crash hot on science.

I don’t usually publish items that are so scientifically challenging.  But the thing is –  we’re all gonna have to get a bit more informed scientifically.

Why?  Because, along with the Climate Denialists, and the Creation Scientists, – we’re now facing the “Radiation Denialists”.

These guys, fronting for the nuclear industry, have now come up with two dodgy “scientific” slogans – “radiation hormesis” and “adaptive response”.   Sound good – don’t they?   But they are both no more than a bodgy attempt to con us all into thinking that low level ionising radiation is not harmful, is even good for you.  They want the current radiation standards changed – for the benefit of the nuclear industry.

The new web page – below – will counter their scientific bullshit.   It is my hope that not only the great unwashed are reading this page, and aspiring to become better informed, but also scientists, who need to become aware of the radiation “spin” now going on.  All need to be aware of this new con. – Christina Macpherson


RADIATION HORMESIS AND ADAPTIVE RESPONSE Radiation Hormesis and Adaptive Response – Definitions. by nuclearhistory , 16 Feb 2011,   “……. Adaptive response andhormesis are often mentioned to minimize the risk of radiation or sometimes to deny any adverse outcome below a dose threshold…

We may wonder why the proponents of the hormesis model acknowledge a radiation threshold value for harmful effects, but reject it for beneficial effects…..

The Linear No Threshold hypothesis should remain so far the basic guide line for the radioprotection authorities. It appears clearly that the ALARA (As Low As Reasonably Achievable) principle, which is currently the basis of radiation protection policies, should be followed as long as no relevant scientific facts provide other insights. …..
Belgian Nuclear Research Centre http://www.sckcen.be/

The European Radiation Research Society, contact person Dr. Louis de Saint-Georges, secretary-treasurer. The European Radiation Research Society (formerly the European Society of Radiation Biology) is an Europeannon profit organisation founded in 1959 with the aim of promoting radiation research  http://www.errs.eu/….
http://hormesishistory.wordpress.com/2012/02/15/radiation-hormesis-and-adaptive-response-definitions/

February 16, 2012 Posted by | 2 WORLD, spinbuster | Leave a comment

Astroturf in Australia – fake citizen action by fossil fuel lobby

Faked “citizen action” was the brainchild of PR heavyweight Burson Marsteller, whose leaked email “Doubt is our Product” laid bare the ruse behind tobacco’s denial campaign during the tobacco wars.

The same ruse has been used for the last decade by the mining industry to create doubt about global warming….

 a cynical campaign run by ideological advocates Americans for Prosperity, funded by “free marketeer” mining billionaires — the Koch Brothers.

Deception is our product Independent Australia 9 Feb 2012,   Environment editor Sandi Keane exposes the shadowy world of PR, where astroturfing and propaganda is used to coerce the public into sacrificing their own interests for those of big corporations.

Deceiving the public these days is a lucrative industry. Experienced PR practitioners now coerce you through astroturfing and other socially engineered forms of brainwashing to sacrifice your interests for those of their clients – especially those with the biggest war chest – the fossil fuel industry…. Continue reading →

February 9, 2012 Posted by | AUSTRALIA, spinbuster | 1 Comment

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