UK government and its crazy economics of a plutonium Mox nuclear plant
“This is crazynomics – the reality is that the nuclear fairytale is a nuclear nightmare. Having announced the closure of a Mox plant because it was colossally inefficient and because there was no market for its service, the government now wants to build another one that will fast become a hugely expensive white elephant.
Mox plant U-turn by coalition stuns anti-nuclear campaigners, Guardian UK, Terry Macalister, 2 Dec 11 Having closed down a massively loss-making mixed-oxide fuel
reprocessing plant at Sellafield, the government amazes Greenpeace by proposing to build a new one
The government has astonished the anti-nuclear lobby by outlining plans to spend £3bn of public money building a new mixed-oxide fuel (Mox) plant – months after announcing the closure of a similar facility that lost taxpayers hundreds of millions of pounds….. Continue reading
Japan trying out a giant washing machine for radioactive cleanup
Japan looks to giant washer to clean Fukushima debris, MY sinchew.com,TOKYO, December 2, 2011 (AFP) – Japan is looking to launder tsunami debris in a giant washing machine to get rid of radiation from the Fukushima nuclear accident, a researcher said Friday.
In a scheme they hope will result in finally being able to dispose of contaminated waste left by the waves that crushed towns on the country’s northeast coast, a cleaning plant will be built near the Fukushima Daiichi power station. Shredded waste — including the remains of houses and cars destroyed by the tsunami — will be put inside a huge water-filled drum where steel attachments will scrub away radioactive particles, the researcher told AFP.
The plan is a joint scheme between Tokyo-based construction company Toda Corp. and the Japan Atomic Energy Agency…..Government planners have said radiation-contaminated debris could be stored in a facility in Fukushima prefecture for at least 30 years until its final destination is determined. http://www.mysinchew.com/node/67283
Taiwan’s nuclear waste dilemma
Activists challenge government on nuclear waste management policy, Taiwan News, Central News Agency, Taipei, By Hsu Chih-wei and Elizabeth Hsu Nov. 28 (CNA) Environmental groups charged Monday that Taiwan’s government has not resolved how to deal with nuclear waste and proposed suspending operations at the country’s three nuclearpower plants until the issue was dealt with.
The environmentalists made the appeal at an environmental assessment meeting held by the
Cabinet-level Environmental Protection Administration (EPA) on the government’s radioactive waste management policy. During the meeting, officials from the Atomic Energy Council (AEC), the country’s top nuclear regulatory body, presented a report on its proposed approach to dealing with nuclear waste that will become official policy ifapproved by the EPA assessment committee. One of the plan’s centerpieces was to have nuclear waste recycled overseas beforeshipping it back to Taiwan for permanent storage.
But environmental activists, including Green Citizens’ Action Alliance Deputy Secretary-General Hung Shen-han, were not convinced the solution was viable and advocated shutting down Taiwan’s three nuclear power plants until the issue was clearly addressed. Hung contended that one way or another, radioactive waste had to be stored either at home or abroad, and no foreign country has so far been willing to lease Taiwan land for storage of the waste. He acknowledged that radioactive waste could be recycled overseas but said the leftover material was still unstable and would still have to be stored in Taiwan, which he saw as a bad option.
Hung compared nuclear waste to a ticking time-bomb that threatened the life and
property of Taiwan’s people because of the unstable geographic nature of the island, which is prone to earthquakes. …. The government has selected Wuchiu in Kinmen and Daren in Taitung to serve as permanent storage sites for the waste, but it has encountered strong opposition from people in the two townships. http://www.taiwannews.com.tw/etn/news_content.php?id=1771961
World’s nuclear waste problem becoming ever more urgent
A New Urgency to the Problem of Storing Nuclear Waste, NYT By KATE GALBRAITH, November 27, 2011 AUSTIN, TEXAS — The nuclear disaster in Fukushima, Japan, earlier this year caused many countries to rethink their appetite for nuclear power. It is also, in subtler ways, altering the fraught discussion of what to do with nuclear plants’ wastes.
A prime example is Germany, which decided to shut down all its nuclear power plants by 2022 after the partial reactor meltdowns at Fukushima. That decision is making it easier for Germans to have a calm and focused discussion about a permanent disposal site for the plants’
wastes, analysts say.
Previously, opponents of nuclear power worried that backing a permanent solution for the wastes would make it easier for nuclear power plants to continue to exist, according to Michael Sailer, the chief executive at the Öko-Institut in Berlin, a research and consulting group focused on sustainability.
Anti-nuclear politicians, he said, felt that if they came out in favor of a permanent disposal site, “they support pro-nuclear people because they solve the waste problem.”….
Germany is now moving forward on the waste issue. Continue reading
Nuclear power for space research (another ploy to keep nuclear industry alive?)
Nuclear or Solar, Where Does the Future of Space Exploration Lie? Oil Price.com , James Burgess, 24 November 2011 “………The major problem that NASA faces when pursuing this form of technology is that, as Dr. John M. Logsdon, a space expert at George Washington University, said “It’s really only possible with plutonium-238 to do what it’s intending to do,” and the United States stopped making Plutonium-238 in the 1980’s. Since then they have bought it from Russia, but now they no longer make it either. A 2009 report by the National Academy of Sciences called for restarting production, but this has not been done, mostly for cost reasons….
Therefore, solar cells have always been used where possible. Steven W. Squyres, a professor of astronomy at Cornell who is the chief scientist behind the Opportunity and Spirit rovers, said: “You always use solar when you can; it’s simpler, cheaper, just easier to do. You only use nuclear when you have to.’’ This thought was obviously prevalent when NASA launched their Jupiter-bound, Juno space shuttle, as that too relies upon solar cells….”
http://oilprice.com/Energy/Energy-General/Nuclear-or-Solar-Where-Does-the-Future-of-Space-Exploration-Lie.html
Nuclear waste train meets strong protest in France
Nuclear waste train spurs protests in France, Nov 23 (Reuters) – French anti-nuclear activists scuffled with police in Normandy on Wednesday as they tried to hold up a train transporting radioactive waste processed by nuclear producer Areva to a storage site in Germany.
Several hundred protesters tried to occupy the train tracks near the town of Valognes in northwestern France before being repelled by police in riot gear. Police said they had detained five people. Before the train eventually departed around mid-afternoon, the activists played a cat-and-mouse game with police officers, who launched canisters of tear gas to disperse them before charging the crowd with batons.
“This movement is about the indignation of people who are aware of the dangers of nuclear power and who reject politics geared only toward the profit of certain businesses,” said a 60-year-old activist, who did not want to give his name……
The train carried 11 tubular containers of highly radioactive nuclear waste processed by Areva at its treatment plant at La Hague, northwest France. The treated waste, which originates from German nuclear plants, was en route to the nuclear waste facility of Gorleben in northeastern Germany for storage. Wednesday’s train marked the last of 12 shipments of treated nuclear waste sent in recent years from France to Gorleben. An expired contract between the two countries is not expected to be renewed. http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/11/23/france-nuclear-protests-idUSL5E7MN30R20111123
France grapples with the eternal unsolved problem of nuclear wastes
A pyramid to warn of a French nuclear waste site?, By Muriel Boselli, PARIS | Tue Nov 8, 2011 (Reuters) – How can mankind signal to future generations thousands of years from now that hazardous radioactive waste is buried deep underground in eastern France — by building a giant pyramid, a museum or a site for art projects or by employing geology? Continue reading
UK government hypocrisy when it comes to nuclear waste dumping
Localism loses out in High Court decision, PS Public Service.co UK 03 November 2011 Campaigners from the village of Kings Cliffe near Peterborough have lost their High Court battle to overturn a decision by Communities and Local Government Secretary Eric Pickles to let radioactive waste be dumped at the nearby East Northants Resource Management Facility.
The case was seen as an example of how the government may speak of encouraging localism in one breath but in the next force communities to accept decisions that they have opposed through democratic means.
The Kings Cliffe Wastewatchers had protested at Pickles overturning local planning decisions on the low-level waste, allowing it to be dumped between now and August 2013. There were also fears that the waste disposal company Augean could go ahead with its plans to expand the site’s operation for hazardous and nuclear wastes until 2026.
Before the verdict, spokesperson Louise Bowen-West said: “We feel the [Pickles] decision is unlawful and must be stopped in order to set a precedent. I get the impression that the government thinks that because we’re a tiny community they can stamp all over us. But we plan to fight this all the way. Whatever the verdict in the case we will battle on to make sure this is stopped.”
The campaigners’ defence lawyer had said this was a “classic case of the developer obtaining, through this permission, a foot in the door for the extended landfill”. He added that the Pickles decision was unlawful and should be overturned.
UK judge rules in favour of nuclear waste dump, rejects local opposition
Kings Cliffe campaigners lose nuclear waste legal battle, The Peterborough Evening Telegraph., By Ken McErlain 3 November 2011 A decision to dump low-level nuclear waste by a village near Peterborough was upheld today
More than 50 people from Kings Cliffe travelled to the High Court in London hoping to overturn a Government decision to allow Augean to dump radioactive waste at its East Northants Resource Management Facility, in Stamford Road, King’s Cliffe.
But Deputy Judge Stewart QC upheld the decision to allow Augean to use half of the site for dumping waste up until August 2013. The judge also refused to give the campaigners permission to appeal.
Villagers had voiced fears about the environmental impact of the decision and were concerned that Augean would look to expand the site’s operation for hazardous and nuclear wastes until 2026 by using the other half of the site. Campaigners against the plans, who raised £30,000 to mount the legal challenge, said they are now considering their next move.
Campaigner Clare Langan, who travelled to London for the hearing, said: “We were very upset and disappointed to hear the verdict.“We will be meeting with our barristers in the coming weeks to see what options are available to us.”… http://www.peterboroughtoday.co.uk/news/et-business/business-news/kings_cliffe_campaigners_lose_nuclear_waste_legal_battle_1_3212591
UK Ministry of Defence doesn’t know what to do with outdated nuclear test site
Nuclear reactor test site may close, Google News, (UKPA) –3 Nov 11 A nuclear submarine reactor test site could be decommissioned after 2015, the Ministry of Defence has said. The Vulcan Naval Reactor Test Establishment (NRTE) site at Dounreay, in Caithness, has historically been used for the development of new reactor core designs.
However, the MoD said confidence in the technology and computational modelling meant “prototyping activities” were no longer needed. It is now considering what will become of the site after the current series of reactor core prototype tests are completed in 2015. Possibilities include decommissioning it or putting it into “care and maintenance”.
In a statement, the MoD said: “Options for the future of the site are currently being assessed; these range from placing the prototype facilities into care and maintenance while retaining the site’s strategic capabilities, to decommissioning the site and returning it to Nuclear Decommissioning Authority ownership…. http://www.google.com/hostednews/ukpress/article/ALeqM5gIZLQQYe2lNLK4dKWPBN-LFRWCVQ?docId=N0428681320269334933A
Not In My Backyard! – nuclear waste disposal problem in Japan
Nuclear Cleanup Faces ‘NIMBY’ Challenge, WSJ By Yumiko Ono, 31 Oct 11, In handling the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear crisis, Japan has gotten help from American scientists and imported American robots. Now comes a popular American phrase: NIMBY….Japan is trying to get around the NIMBY problem by planning to move the contaminated waste from one place to another. The government has asked each municipality to store its own contaminated waste for now until it comes up with an “interim” storage facility. In the meantime, it will debate the more sensitive issue of where to store the waste permanently. Continue reading
Endless radioactive cleanup problems – Chernobyl, Hanford, Fukushima
Government guidelines provide scant detail about the $14-billion-plus effort. A new cleanup law doesn’t take effect until January. Cities across Fukushima prefecture are scraping contaminated topsoil off school grounds and parks, but Tokyo hasn’t yet decided where to store the tainted material. Frustrated residents of some towns have planted sunflowers in a fruitless effort to suck radioactive cesium out of the farmland. Continue reading
Taiwan presidential candidate promises a nuclear free Taiwan
The DPP presidential candidate, who is on a two-day campaign trip to Hualien and Taitung, also reiterated her initiative to achieve a “nuclear-free homeland” by 2025.
Tsai apologizes for nuclear waste woes, Taipei Times By Chris Wang / Staff Reporter, in TAITUNG COUNTY 1 Nov 11 LOCAL SOLUTION:If elected, Tsai pledged to improve infrastructure on Orchid Island and let residents reach their own consensus on how to handle the waste there
Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Chairperson Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday apologized to residents of Orchid Island (蘭嶼) over the government’s “outrageous” decision in 1982 to store nuclear waste on the island, Continue reading
New nuclear weapons complex makes a mockery of USA’s nuclear disarmament posture
“The warhead cores of these “plants,” would be “the successors to the bombs used on Nagasaki. They’d each have a yield that’s 50 times greater than the bomb used there in World War II.”Despite President Obama’s campaign rhetoric of a world without nuclear weapons, despite the recent catastrophe at Japan’s Fukushima complex, and despite the new START nuclear arms control treaty between the U.S. and Russia last February, it seems the desire among our leaders for nuclear power and nuclear weaponry remains as strong today as it was at the height of the Cold War. What’s just as disturbing, though, is the disregard our government shows for any input from its citizenry — pro or con. Continue reading
The danger of dismantling nuclear submarines in a city
It is the magnitude of the consequences of a nuclear accident that make it unacceptable to locate such a facility in the middle of a city of 250,000 people….
Devonport is not immune from accidents. There have been nine radioactive leaks since 1997. The impact of a significant accident in the dockyard would be devastating. It would not remain confined behind its walls but would affect a much wider area.
Should N-subs be dismantled in city? Plymouth Herald, October 28, 2011 ONE of the most controversial proposals to affect Plymouth in generations is set to be thrust firmly into the public domain from today.
The Ministry of Defence has today begun a 16-week consultation exercise exploring the options for dismantling decommissioned nuclear-powered submarines. The consultation aims to find a permanent home for The Submarine Dismantling Project (SDP) – either in Plymouth, or Scotland. Continue reading
1 This Month
23-25 October – on Zoom – World BEYOND War’s annual global conferenc
Shut down the radiation-damaged Heysham nuclear reactors now
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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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