Nuclear Regulatory Commission should not be run by nuclear lobbyists
NRC Needs Nuclear Power Regulators, Not Promoters – The Project On Government Oversight (POGO) , Ingrid Drake and Peter Stockton. Feb 08, 2010 It’s not often that POGO lobbies to defeat a presidential nominee. However, we have felt called to speak out as loud as we can in opposition to President Obama’s nomination of William Magwood for the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) on the grounds that he does not have the independence from the nuclear power industry to regulate it, nor the security oversight background. Along with two other of the President’s nominees to the NRC, Mr. Magwood will come before the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee for a confirmation hearing tomorrow…………
As we have outlined in a previous blog post, POGO believes Mr. Magwood’s dozens of years promoting nuclear power make him unqualified to be a regulator of the industry.
There is also evidence that Mr. Magwood will not effectively address the security threats that are a major issue facing the NRC.
NRC Needs Nuclear Power Regulators, Not Promoters – The Project On Government Oversight (POGO) Blog
Misleading headlines on nuclear power plants
This week’s Economist/YouGov poll
SOME highlights from this week’s Economist/YouGov poll 5 Feb 2010
“Nearly half of Americans (47%) think nuclear power plants are safe.”
Now that could more logically be headed “More than half of Americans do not think that nuclear power plants are safe”
Nuclear renaissance not likely, despite Obama’s support
This unending stream of technical, financial and political downfalls could doom the “reactor renaissance” to history’s radioactive dump heap. “
Harvey Wasserman: Obama’s New Nuclear War THE HUFFINGTON POST 2 Feb 2010 Amidst utter chaos in the atomic reactor industry, Team Obama is poised to vastly expand a bitterly contested loan guarantee program that may cost far more than expected, both financially and politically.The long-stalled, much-hyped “Renaissance” in atomic power has failed to find private financing. New construction projects are opposed for financial reasons by fiscal conservatives such as the Heritage Foundation and National Taxpayers Union, and by a national grassroots safe energy campaign that has already beaten such loan guarantees three times. Continue reading
Now the nuclear lobby is using schools to spin its propaganda
NJ utility uses center to promote nuclear power Business Week By GEOFF MULVIHILL The Associated Press January 25, 2010″…….
New Jersey’s largest utility opened its new $2 million Energy & Environmental Resource Center, education Monday as the company prepares to apply to put a fourth nuclear reactor on Artificial Island in Lower Alloways Township, a few miles away in this marshy, remote corner of New Jersey along the Delaware Bay. Continue reading
“Astro-turfing”: how PAID nuclear power supporters swamp the media
Left unmentioned in these settings is that the Nuclear Energy Institute paid a public relations company to create CASEnergy, an example of the so-called “Astroturfing” techniques that many industries have adopted to give the appearance of grass-roots support.
Lobbying, global warming portend nuclear comeback
McClatchy By Judy Pasternak | Investigative Reporting Workshop January 24, 2010
“….PLAYING THE INFLUENCE GAME In many ways, the nuclear power industry’s efforts to win support are a textbook case of how the influence game is played in Washington. Besides the money spent on lobbying and campaign contributions, the industry, led by the Nuclear Energy Institute, has created a network of allies who give speeches, quote one another approvingly and showcase one another on their Web sites. The effect is an echo chamber of support for nuclear power. Continue reading
UK’s Nuclear Policy is a farce, especially re waste disposal
The document concludes: In short, the Government’s conclusion “…that effective arrangements will exist to manage and dispose of the waste that will be produced from new nuclear power stations” is not supported by the evidence. The Nuclear National Policy Statement is, therefore, not “fit for purpose”.
Stop oldbury: Response to Consultation on Nuclear National Policy Statement, Philip Booth 23 Jan 2010 “…..Reactor designs being discussed lead to additional concerns For example the French ‘European Pressurised Reactor’ proposed will use intensive ‘high burn-up fuel’ increasing the risk of high quantities of radiation in a serious accident. This fuel is so hot and radioactive it will also need to be stored on site for 160 years, long after the power company has ceased generating electricity, creating an additional local hazard. Continue reading
IAEA spruiking nukes to Aranb Nationa
IAEA Holds Nuclear Forum for Arab Nations NTI, Jan. 20, 2010 The International Atomic Energy Agency has organized a conference this week in Jordan on nuclear issues for Arab nations with an interest in atomic energy, the Jordan Times reported (see GSN, Dec. 10, 2009)……………. Continue reading
France having a “Nuclear De Naissance”, not “Renaissance”
What’s the opposite of a renaissance, do you think? Nuclear Reaction 15 Jan 2010 De naissance, perhaps. We ask because in France, the supposed cradle of the rebirth of the nuclear renaissance, things seem to be sliding backwards rather than striding forwards.
According to the grid operator RTE, electricity generation from the country’s 58 nuclear reactors fell by 6.8% in 2009, marking a ten year low point. This shortfall meant France was a net importer of electricity for 57 days.
President Nicholas Sarkozyâ’s nuclear bandwagon is said to be leading the world. Just where it’s leading us however is more difficult to say. It seems to be travelling in the general direction away from a bright future of clean and secure energy supplies
Nuclear Reaction – A Greenpeace blog about nuclear power: More Atomic Tales: Uranium with juice at… « Your Green Ability
Patrick Moore etc paid to sprinkle nuclear “fairy dust”
the selling points that the nuclear industry – and its allies in Congress – are promoting to sprinkle eco-friendly fairy dust around the grim nuclear industry that Wall Street and private investors won’t touch:.
Meltdown, USA: Nuclear Drive Trumps Safety Risks and High Cost 06 January 2010 by: Art Levine, t r u t h o u t | News Analysis “……..despite all these problems, a seemingly benign solution for global warming – nuclear energy – has boundless, if simplistic, appeal, even if it could take years to build and threatens public health and safety, while undermining with billions devoted to nuclear bailouts genuine renewable energy. Continue reading
Successful anti-uranium protest rubbished by mining interests
“the doctor thing usually wears a bit thin” “This is strictly a fear campaign. The doctors probably have cottages near the site and don’t want to be bothered.”
Canadian uranium news for December 2009 Idaho Samizdat nuke notes 29 Dec 09 ” ………….…protest by 23 area physicians who threatened to leave the area. They said a drilling exploration project being operated by Terra Ventures (CVE:TAS) at Lake Kachiwiss 13 km from the town of Sept-lles was a threat to drinking water supplies.
The site is 900 km northwest of Montreal.Marc Fafard, a spokesman for the uranium protest group, said his organization feels a national referendum on uranium mining is the only way to get attention to their issues. Getting one on the ballot he said means “the government will no longer be able to ignore us.”Fafard has been active for some time in his cause to stop uranium exploration in Quebec. Continue reading
Nuclear power being rejected from grassroots
A Quiet but HUGE No Nukes Triumph, by Harvey Wasserman 24 Dec 09
In the wake of Copenhagen, an unheralded but hard-fought No Nukes victory has moved us closer to a green-powered Earth.
It has happened in upstate New York, where the Unistar Nuclear Energy front group asked the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to delay its application to build a reactor at Oswego, near Syracuse. Meanwhile, in Texas, the San Antonio city council’s deliberations over building two new reactors has disintegrated into recriminations, resignations and firings over a multi-billion-dollar price jump in projected cost estimates, a furor that could doom reactor construction there as well. Continue reading
Nuclear reactors that look good, but don’t really work
Nuclear reactor cutaway diagrams companion Nuclear Reaction Justin on December 21, 2009 Thanks to the Boing Boing website, we’ve found these very cool cutaway diagrams of nuclear reactors. They’ve been executed with love and care, and point to a future that was supposed to promise unlimited, clean and safe electricity.
Unfortunately, the diagrams lack the individual reactor designs’ histories. So, here is the handy cut-out-and-keep Nuclear Reaction nuclear reactor cutaway diagrams companion……. Continue reading
France’s nuclear agency gets euro-billions and a changed nam
France puts into future nuclear World Nuclear News 15 December 2009 ...Next-generation nuclear is to receive a billion-euro boost thanks to a French investment program. Meanwhile the country’s main nuclear research body has been re-branded. Initial details of a spending plan worth €35 billion ($51 billion) were announced by President Nicolas Sarkozy yesterday………
…..the organisation is from now on to be known as the Commission of Atomic Energy and Alternative Energy – for which French officials have decided to use the same initials, CEA.
AREVA falsifies the facts on nuclear power
For Copenhagen, AREVA makes the false nuclear case Beyond Nuclear 12 Dec 09 In anticipation of the Copenhagen climate conference which began this week, Areva CEO, Anne Lauvergeon, stated during a French radio interview that nuclear power “does not release CO2″ and that it “produces very little waste.”
These remarks were immediately condemned by the leading independent French radiological laboratory -CRIIRAD -who demanded that Lauvergeon take immediate steps to clean up the company’s contaminated African uranium mine sites in Gabon and Niger.
CRIIRAD also reminded Lauvergeon that (1) nuclear releases significant amounts of greenhouse gases, (2) that every stage of the nuclear fuel chain produces large quantities of radioactive wastes for which no safe storage solution has been found and (3) Areva has left populations to live on land or in dwellings contaminated by its activities.
Any decisions made at Copenhagen should not be based on erroneous information emanating from the nuclear industry, CRIIRAD said. From uranium extraction to enrichment, reprocessing and contamination of water supplies, Areva’s nuclear activities leave a virtually permanent trail of highly radioactive waste. The CRIIRAD press release is available in French and contains details of the radioactive contamination caused by Areva’s activities in France and overseas. And see also an article in English from Agence France Presse about Areva’s radioactive contamination in Gabon.
December 11, 2009 Posted by Christina MacPherson | 1 | antinuclear, climate change, global warming, nuclear, radioactive | No Comments Yet | Edit
India’s nuclear plants will be very slow in coming
India-defers-npower-target-by.15 years to 2035
Natalie Obiko Pearson / Bloomberg 10 Dec 09
Mumbai: India has deferred by 15 years its target to build 40,000MW of nuclear power capacity amid policy delays, an official at a state-owned utility said. Continue reading
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