Push is on for full cleanup of NY nuclear site
Push is on for full cleanup of NY nuclear site
newsday.com By CAROLYN THOMPSON | Associated Press Writer May 29, 2009 BUFFALO, N.Y. – With a little more than a week left to be heard in the decades-old debate over how to clean up a western New York nuclear site, supporters of complete decontamination say anything less would jeopardize the health of the Great Lakes and its vital freshwater.State and federal energy officials in November recommended a two-phase plan that would have them spend $1 billion to remove contaminated buildings and soil from the West Valley site over the next several years, while deferring for up to 30 years the larger question of whether to leave some radioactive waste forever buried…………..………Environmentalists and others say removing all traces of high- and low-level waste is the only way, given the erosion-prone geology, to ensure that it will not eventually seep into nearby creeks, make its way into Lakes Erie and Ontario and contaminate drinking water supplies.
“Common sense dictates we make a decision now to protect the Great Lakes and protect the water,” Diane D’Arrigo of the Nuclear Information & Resource Service said Friday…………………….
………U.S. Reps. Brian Higgins and Eric Massa, both New York Democrats, support a full cleanup and said they would ask Energy Secretary Steven Chu for a 90-day extension of the public comment period that began in November.
Among others weighing in to support a full cleanup have been the Presbytery of Western New York, which passed a resolution citing its “Christian commitment to caring for creation,” Catholic Charities and the Western New York Council on Occupational Safety & Health.
Push is on for full cleanup of NY nuclear site — Newsday.com
Kyrgyzstan: Radioactive Legacy Vexes Bishkek
Friday, May 29, 2009EURASIANET.org KYRGYZSTAN: RADIOACTIVE LEGACY VEXES BISHKEK David Trilling 5/27/09 – “…………………..In March 2008, officials from Kyrgyzstan’s Emergencies Ministry began moving radioactive uranium waste from Soviet-era dumps — located in poorly fortified ravines and along riverbeds downstream — into the hills just above his home. “It gives us headaches; our eyes itch,” Toko says as he gestures across the road. Now he grows his fruits and vegetables in water potentially contaminated by the radioactive materials.
A few kilometers downstream from Toko’s house there are even more lethal radioactive deposits — known as tailings. They line the river and surround the former industrial town of Mailuu Suu, now home to acres of derelict factory buildings. Not too long ago, the area was a desirable place to live. ………………………….as much as 10,000 tons of yellowcake (U3O8), a refined form of uranium that can be used either to produce nuclear energy or atomic weapons, was produced in Mailuu Suu for Soviet weapons programs. The first Soviet atomic weapon was made from uranium mined at Mailuu Suu, say officials at Kyrgyzstan’s National Academy of Science. Communist central planners tended to care about results, not the potential consequences of their decisions. Thus little thought was given to the disposal of radioactive waste. Approximately 2 million cubic meters of uranium tailings were buried in the area, according to Kyrgyz government statistics. It is the largest such site in the country. In addition to the 23 tailings dumps, workers sprinkled almost a million cubic meters of uranium waste rock atop 13 dumps nearby, on land still exposed to the rain and annual mudslides.
Many of the tailing sites and waste rock dumps are now poorly marked. Sheep graze on them. Water drains through the radioactive material and downstream into Uzbekistan and the Syr Darya, which winds its way through Central Asia’s most densely populated areas.
Mailuu Suu residents complain of goiter, anemia, cancer and early death. Radiation in some areas is 30 times normal levels. Former Mailuu Suu mayor Bumairam Mamaseitova, currently an MP in Bishkek with the opposition Communist Party, says rates of cancer in Mailuu Suu are the highest in Kyrgyzstan. “All of the diseases are related to those uranium tailings in the area.” For her, it is a personal issue. “This issue of uranium tailings worries me a lot because my father died when he was only 52 years old. He used to work in the uranium mines. I was born and have lived in Mailuu Suu. Most of my relatives died in their 50s.”
Dumps there are thought to be the most dangerous in Kyrgyzstan, due to the valley’s higher-than-avera
EurasiaNet Civil Society – Kyrgyzstan: Radioactive Legacy Vexes Bishkek
Tribes protest nuclear waste plan
Tribes protest nuclear waste plan By Loa Iok-sin
STAFF REPORTER
TAIPEI TIMES May 24, 2009 Led by a royal descendant of an ancient line of Aboriginal Paiwan kings, residents and environmentalists yesterday staged a parade in Daren Township (達仁), Taitung County, to protest Taiwan Power Co’s (Taipower) plan to build a storage facility for nuclear waste there………………Opposed to the plan, more than 100 Paiwan and Puyuma Aborigines and environmentalists rallied outside a local elementary school yesterday morning, where they were blessed by Paiwan elders in a traditional ritual before they departed. The demonstrators then carried a cross on a two-hour march to the site selected for the facility.After arriving at the site, the demonstrators erected the cross and made a smoke signal to inform their ancestral spirits of their determination to defend their ancestral homeland………………………..“This region has long been a traditional domain of the Tacupul Kingdom, and it’s the job of all descendants of Tacupul to defend it,” said Sauljaljuy Ruvaniyaw, a member of the Ruvaniyaw family — the royal family of the Tacupul Kingdom that ruled in Daren and its neighboring areas hundreds of years ago………………….The rally and the march are only the beginning of the mobilization against the nuclear waste dumping ground, Ruvaniyaw said.
Herbert, Utah Leaders Urge Stop to Nuclear Waste Arrival
Herbert, Utah Leaders Urge Stop to Nuclear Waste Arrival
Fox13now David Wells Senior Web Producer
May 18, 2009 SALT LAKE CITY – A federal judge has removed a major roadlock for EnergySolutions in its quest to to import Italian nuclear waste. U.S. District Judge Ted Stewart has ruled that a compact of several states doesn’t have the authority to ban foreign imports. Many Utahns, including Gov. Jon Huntsman, Jr. and Lt. Gov. Gary Herbert, have spoken out against the company’s plan to bring 1,600 tons of Italian nuclear waste to its facility in Utah’s west desert.
Utah Representatives Jason Chaffetz (R) and Jim Matheson (D) are co-sponsors of a national bill that could block imports of nuclear waste. FOX 13’s Katy Carlyle has more. http://www.fox13now.com/news/kstu-judge-compact-of-states-cant-block-foreign,0,7394556.story
Soviet-Era Uranium Waste Sites Now Threaten Central Asia
Soviet-Era Uranium Waste Sites Now Threaten Central Asia Georgian Daily 19 may Paul goble Storage sites for uranium tailings that were built in Soviet times in Tajikistan are now leaking radiation into the surrounding atmosphere and ground water supplies, undermining the health and well-being of the people of a republic and a broader region that lack the resources to clean up a problem that it did nothing to create………………………..
The impact of the release of radioactive materials on the health of the population is already clear. Not only are the numbers of people suffering from cancer increasing, but the age of onset of cancers is falling, with many local people showing signs of cancer when they are only 15 or 16 years old, something almost unheard of earlier.
Moreover, medical officials from Dushanbe say that the overall health statistics for the areas around the uranium tailings sites are chilling: The number of stillborn children has increased as have the number of newborns with congenital defects. Some 85 percent of women in the region suffer from anemia, as do more than 64 percent of newborns…………………………..he amount of radioactive leavings is enormous, more than 450 million tons.
As a result, Ferghana.ru concludes sadly, the prospects are not good. “The elites have left the area forever because they know that the supplies of uranium are practically exhausted and that sooner or later all the factories and combines involved with the production of nuclear fuel will stop.”
In the end, the news service suggests, the local population will stand alon, facing “only the ruins of nuclear processing and mountains of ecological problems.”
georgiandaily.com – Soviet-Era Uranium Waste Sites Now Threaten Central Asia
Lawsuit targets risks of nuclear waste
Lawuit targets risks of nuclear waste Coakley seeks debate on Pilgrim license renewal The Boston Globe By Robert Knox 17 may 09 State Attorney General Martha Coakley is asking a federal court to force nuclear energy regulators to consider risks to public safety caused by storing nuclear waste at the Pilgrim nuclear power plant before deciding whether to extend the facility’s license for 20 years.
Coakley joined with officials from New York and Connecticut to file suit in a federal appeals court in New York. The lawsuit asks the court to force the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to open debate on license extensions for plants such as Pilgrim to the potential threat posed by terrorists and accidents to used nuclear fuel stored inside the plants.
“The risk of a spent-fuel pool catching on fire by accident or due to intentional sabotage is neither remote nor speculative,” the lawsuit, filed May 6, states.
Village’s fury over radioactive waste plan
Village’s fury over radioactive waste plan
Whitehaven News By Andrew Clarke
13 May 2009
CONTROVERSIAL proposals to bury radioactive waste in Keekle have met with opposition from councillors. French-owned company Sita UK plans to drill 24 exploratory boreholes at Keekle Head to see if the area is suitable for disposing of very low-level radioactive waste.
However, councillors from Frizington, which neighbours the potential site, have voiced their concerns.
“We have had enough rubbish dumped on us,” said parish council chairman Peter Connolly.
“We unanimously agree that we don’t want the proliferation of any waste, in particular low-level nuclear waste.”
Coun Tim Knowles gave Cumbria County Council’s view to the parish council meeting, held on Monday.
“The council is strongly against the dispersal of nuclear waste that I believe these boreholes relate to
Nuclear waste in N.B. unacceptable
Nuclear waste in N.B. unacceptable
Times and Transcript Friday May 8th, 2009 Premier Shawn Graham, Energy Minister Jack Keir and every other politician of whatever stripe in New Brunswick need to be told and to clearly understand that New Brunswickers do not want and will not accept a national nuclear waste dump in this province no matter how deep underground, how many jobs it creates or how many glib assurances are given about its safety………………
……..There is no reason why the province should “take one for Canada” on this issue. The province is simply an unsuitable location. It is geographically small, well populated and though not without environmental issues, still relatively environmentally healthy. To leave the door open to nuclear waste flies in the face of the premier’s own “green” policies and initiatives.
Bureaucratic talk of “process”is misleading. It can be the best process in the world, but it will make no difference if the outcome is unacceptable. This is a time-honoured way to try to keep people quiet or co-opt them and move things along until it is too late for the public to stop a project. There is no reason for New Brunswick to play along.
These efforts also highlight the increasingly clear fact that nuclear power (and our premier is working hard towards a second reactor even though the first continues to be costly, its refit is well behind schedule and it will cause power rates to rise again) is not a cost effective energy answer. The underground waste dump is expected to cost from $16-24 billion just to build. That massive amount must be included in any calculation on the costs of nuclear power. And expect the cost to rise substantially by the time any decision is made.
New Brunswickers have correctly and overwhelmingly rejected uranium mines, even if the government hasn’t. They will reject a national nuclear waste dump too.
timestranscript.com – Nuclear waste in N.B. unacceptable – Breaking News, New Brunswick, Canada
International dialogue on nuclear waste management held in Stockholm
International dialogue on nuclear waste management held in Stockholm People’s Daily Online By Xuefei Chen People’s Daily Online correspondent in Stockholm.
7 May 09 “……………………. Panelists from 8 countries including those from China, the US, Germany and France came to attend the discussions…………………..According to SKB, there is currently 120 thousand tones of high-level nuclear waste in the world. This quantity is increasing at a rate of 7200 tons per year. The largest amounts are in the US: around 50 thousand tons. Europe has about 35 thousand tons while Asia has an equal amount……………………..So far no country has a complete system in place yet for the final disposal of spent nuclear fuel or other high-level waste..
Project to move 15 million tons of radioactive waste begins
http://www.nctimes.com/articles/2009/05/02/business/z6edbd99928ffa519882575a6006f16a6.txt
Project to move 15 million tons of radioactive waste begins KSLTV 4 May 09 “…………………..They’re finally moving 16 million tons of radioactive dirt away from the town of Moab.
The radioactive dirt is going into big boxes, the boxes onto rail cars: a project that will cost about $1 billion. “You cannot put a price on the image and reputation of the state,” said Gov. Jon Huntsman. “The fact that 50 years ago, during the height of the Cold War, the decision was to make this dump 3 miles out of town, nobody would have thought twice about it. And today, it seems absolutely ludicrous that ever would have been done.”
Moab has been trying to get rid of it almost ever since the uranium mill that produced it shut down 25 years ago. “It’s sitting in the flood plain of the Colorado River and draining into the river,” explained Bill Hedden, executive director of Grand County Trust.
Questions with nuclear plant
Questions with nuclear plant
Mountain Home News Diana Hooley April 29, 2009 – “The promoters for the proposed nuclear power plant have used the promise of jobs and money to strike an emotional chord in a down economy.But who are these people really and can they deliver the goods or are they just salesmen preying on people’s needs?……………………..Idaho and Elmore County land is being auctioned off potentially to out of state utility companies for the energy needs of out of state localities like Las Vegas and Los Angeles area.
Why would Elmore County ever be willing to give up control over its land and water to this group of developers? For the promise of jobs — not the assurance — just the promise………………………
With all the excitement about jobs and money, forgotten is the possibility that though the economy will fluctuate and the job market will get better, the nuclear waste will be stored on site in perpetuity.
This toxic waste will be something the children of Elmore County citizens, and their children, will have to live with for a long time.
Storing waste on that piece of property is a terrible risk. The soil and rock are porous and the ground slopes directly to the river. Any leak of toxic materials will run off.
1,250 tonnes of depleted uranium railed through densely populated Germany – to France?
1,250 tonnes of depleted uranium railed through densely populated Germany – to France?
Sydney Indymedia April 29th, 2009 By Diet Simon, adapting Cecile Lecomte’s report A 25-car train half a kilometre long has just carried 1,250 tonnes of depleted uranium through the most densely populated region of Germany – destination unknown, presumably France.
The train left Germany’s only uranium enrichment plant at Gronau (52° 12′, 160 km south of Hamburg) in the night from 27 to 28 April.Usually trains from the German-Dutch-British-owned enrichment plant close to the city of Münster and the Dutch border have taken depleted uranium to Rotterdam for shipment to Russia, where it’s been dumped in the open air.
The Urenco company is extremely secretive about the transports. This time journalists were told by federal police that the train headed for Duisburg and on to France.That would have taken the dangerous cargo through the densely populated Ruhr and Rhineland areas – if the police information is correct…………….
…….The train from Gronau was held up by two hours because a female French activist who lives in Germany, 27-year-old Cécile Lecomte, had abseiled over the tracks from a road overpass. She and other climbers have made such a name for themselves in disrupting nuclear transports that police now always have climbing specialists along on the trains to take the protesters down……….
………….”The aim is to reveal the secret atomic transports from the Gronau uranium enrichment plant and to draw people’s attention to the policy of Urenco,” she writes. ………………………..“Radioactivity knows no borders. What kind of an end to atomic power is it if Gronau is expanded, thereby supporting the construction of new nuclear plants – such as the EPR in Flamanville, France – by supplying the product to power stations all over the globe.
“The waste is carted right across Europe in secret transports. That is no solution to the nuclear waste problem. On the contrary, the population is exposed to ever more dangers, the environment is polluted ever more…..”………………….’
Radioactive waste cleanup has hardly begun
Radioactive waste cleanup has hardly begun
Mother Nature Network 21 April 09 “……………………..This 586-square foot relic is the Hanford site—a retired plutonium production complex that the Department of Energy (DOE) considers to be “the world’s largest environmental cleanup project.” Some 525 million gallons of radioactive waste were generated by Hanford between 1944 and 1988, according to a Government Accountability Office report, and at least 56 million gallons of the stuff remains on site in leaky tanks. Already a million gallons of it has seeped into the ground and contaminated the Columbia River. Meanwhile, the DOE is stalling on the clean up and trying to wiggle out of its 2018 commitment for completion. “They’re trying to avoid the option of having to build storage tanks, which are very expensive, but the cost of a catastrophic tank failure is incalculable,” says Robert Alvarez, senior scholar for the Institute for Policy Studies…………………………………Disturbingly, Hanford isn’t a lone case. America’s fear of Communism, its doctrine of Mutually Assured Destruction, and its subsequent nuclear weapons buildup over a 45-year span left behind a nationwide toxic waste legacy: 1.7 trillion gallons of contaminated groundwater, 40 million cubic meters of tainted soil and debris, more than 2,000 tons of radioactive spent nuclear fuel, more than 160,000 cubic meters of radioactive and hazardous waste, and more than 100 million gallons of liquid, high-level radioactive waste, according to Max S. Power, author of America’s Nuclear Wastelands: Politics, Accountability, and Cleanup.
“The nuclear arms race left us with 16 major and 100 minor sites all around the country that need to be cleaned up,” says Power.“Our ‘nuclear wastelands’ are a multi-generational legacy.” Sites across the US include Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico, Argonne National Laboratory in Chicago, and the Brookhaven National Laboratory on Long Island in New York, to name a few.
Radioactive waste cleanup has hardly begun | MNN – Mother Nature Network
Resolve nuclear waste site first
Resolve nuclear waste site first post-Bulletin Jay Youmans 20 April 09
It makes no sense to lift the legal moratorium or build new nuclear power plants in Minnesota until the nuclear industry finds a solution for the radioactive waste produced at nuclear plants.
It makes no sense to pass the costs of electrical production and use on to future generations by leaving them nuclear waste that has to be stored and is dangerous for longer than recorded human history.
How can we justify passing this cost and legacy onto our children?
……………………..Yucca is located in an active earthquake zone with more than 30 known faults in the area (a 5.6 earthquake in 1992 did $100 million damage to the site). Since 1976, there have been 621 seismic events of magnitude greater than 2.5 within a 50-mile radius of Yucca Mountain. Today there is more civilian and military nuclear waste than the Yucca depository’s 70,000 metric ton capacity.
A new Yucca Mountain in New Mexico?
A new Yucca Mountain in New Mexico?By Lisa Mascaro Las Vegas Sun April 21, 2009 ·
WASHINGTON — Is a salt formation in New Mexico the new Yucca Mountain?
A trade industry publication reports today that discussions are underway to promote an existing facility in New Mexico as an alternative to storing the nation’s spent nuclear fuel in the desert north of Las Vegas..
The Obama administration has promised to “scale back” funds for the Yucca Mountain project, and the president has vowed it will not open as a waste dump. A report last week indicated the fiscal 2010 funding cut would be severe……………………………
“Nuclear industry officials and policymakers are quietly mounting support for constructing a permanent nuclear waste repository inside a large New Mexico salt formation already used for permanent storage of low-level transuranic waste,” Energy Washington Week reports.
The publication reports former Republican Sen. Pete Domenici of New Mexico, a longtime leader in nuclear issues, recently mentioned the idea……………………Transporting the nation’s civilian nuclear waste to WIPP has its own legislative obstacles. Current law now restricts what can be dumped there and would need to be altered.
A new Yucca Mountain in New Mexico? – Politics: The Early Line – Las Vegas Sun
1 This Month
No Nuclear in Cwm Llynfi! Stop the nuclear power station near Maesteg.
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