Warning to Taiwan on its special danger from nuclear power
Taiwan has one of the highest densities of nuclear power plants in the world
the population density in northern Taiwan is so high that it would be very difficult to evacuate people if a nuclear accident were to occur at the Fourth Nuclear Power Plant in Gongliao District (貢寮), New Taipei City (新北市).
“The evacuation efficiency in northern Taiwan is virtually zero,”
Scientist warns of dangers of Taiwan nuclear mishap Taipei Times 21 Oct 12, By Lee I-chia A Japanese nuclear scientist and researcher says that if a nuclear accident occurred at one of northern Taiwan’s nuclear power plants, about 30,000 people would die within a short period of time and up to 7 million people could develop cancer from exposure to the nuclear radiation. Continue reading
Cesium above new limit in Miyagi beef http://www.japantimes.co.jp/text/nn20121019a2.html Jiji SENDAI — Radioactive cesium levels above the government’s new limit have been found in beef from Miyagi Prefecture, the prefectural government said.
Meat from a cow shipped by a farmer in Tome was found to contain more than 150 becquerels of radioactive cesium per kilogram, the Miyagi Prefectural Government said Wednesday.
The stricter limit of 150 becquerels for beef and rice took effect Oct. 1. The previous limit was 500 becquerels per kilogram.
It is the first time beef with radioactive cesium levels above the tightened limit has been found.
The cow was shipped to a slaughterhouse in the Shibaura district in Tokyo and a radioactivity check on the meat was conducted Tuesday, the prefecture said. The meat was discarded, officials said.
The prefecture is investigating, suspecting that rice straw eaten by the cow was contaminated by fallout from the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant disaster.Miyagi Prefecture told the farmer not to ship any more cows until the investigation is completed, and asked nearby ranchers to suspend shipments voluntarily.
Singapore minister: Nuclear technology ‘not yet suitable’ Asahi Shimbun October 17, 2012
By DAISUKE FURUTA/ Correspondent SINGAPORE–Tiny Singapore will not introduce nuclear power in the foreseeable future, a Cabinet minister said.
India and Australia both lying about nuclear weapons proliferation
The opening up of nuclear trade with India — first by the US in 2008 and most recently by Australia — has broader implications. It fundamentally changes the proliferation equation for other countries.
The most dangerous lie peddled by industry and by the Australian and Indian governments is that India has a strong track record of nuclear non-proliferation.
The Gillard government has no intention of seriously addressing any of the proliferation, safety, security and regulatory problems, nor does it care about the repression and murder of peaceful citizen protesters in India.
India’s Abysmal Nuclear Record, By Jim Green, New Matilda, 18/10/12 http://newmatilda.com/2012/10/18/indias-abysmal-nuclear-track-record
While the media focuses on Julia Gillard’s stumbles, India’s clunker of a nuclear industry stays unexamined. But hey, what’s a bit of nuclear proliferation between friends? Jim Green from Friends of the Earth on the South Asian nuclear arms race
According to Gemma Bailey, writing in the Australian Financial Review, Prime Minister Gillard has a cunning plan. She will ensure that Australia’s uranium supply treaty with India contains strict conditions on the safe use of the nuclear fuel. The plan, we’re told, “is intended to neutralise opponents who highlight that India has not signed the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.”
If only that were true. Here’s Gillard’s real plan: trot out tired old lines about strict conditions and hope that journalists will regurgitate them without question. For the most part, it works. …. At stake is the nuclear arms race in South Asia and broader, global nuclear proliferation concerns. As Ron Walker, a retired Australian diplomat and former Chair of the Board of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), said last year: “I am horrified that the media have not explained the enormity of this proposal.”
India is at least as culpable as its neighbours in fanning the nuclear arms race in South Asia. Continue reading
Bahrain backs away from nuclear energy
“The price of nuclear energy is going up and at the same time the price of renewable energy is going down.”
“It makes more sense to move towards solar or wind energy,”
Bahrain postpones nuclear energy plans http://www.tradearabia.com/news/OGN_224008.html Manama,18 Oct 12 Bahrain has postponed its plans to adopt nuclear energy as a source of power by 2017, according to sources familiar with the matter. Continue reading
Australia’s hypocrisy in planning uranium exports to India
If we really want to assist Indian communities who currently lack access to electricity – and we should – it would be far more effective to prioritise exporting Australian expertise in regional renewable energy systems.
the admission this week from India’s own auditor that the country’s nuclear industry is “dangerously unsafe, disorganised and, in many cases, completely unregulated” – only compounds concerns.
When Australian uranium leaves our waters it effectively disappears from the radar. This is a profound concern for a fuel that can power either nuclear reactors or nuclear weapons. High-level Indian officials have stated that they need to source uranium from overseas in order to free up their own uranium for military purposes
No smooth passage to India for Australian uranium http://www.abc.net.au/environment/articles/2012/10/18/3612800.htm DAVE SWEENEY, ABC 18 OCT 2012 PRIME MINISTER JULIA GILLARD is in India this week and amid the staged handshakes and solemn exchanges of signed papers. The uranium sales plan is being heavily promoted. But there is growing concern both here and in India about the implications of the move and the fast-tracking of nuclear-armed India into the global atomic club.
No doubt Julia Gillard will be employing the age-old tactic of highlighting a problem that no reasonable person could ignore and then seeking to ‘own’ the solution. Proponents of the sales deal point to the estimated 200 million Indians who do not have reliable access to electricity as a rationale for the sales deal. But to link Australian yellowcake with lights and cookers in remote Indian villages is to draw a very long bow. Continue reading
Australian exports of uranium to India not likely to happen for years
India’s much trumpeted nuclear reactor construction binge has fizzled out… in the next five years we should not expect any shipments from Australia.
The India-US nuclear deal had one aspect of tacit proliferation built into its structure – the horizontal proliferation of knowledge from the civilian to the military
As a result while all kinds of water-tight restrictions were placed on the transfer of materials and power, none was placed on the movement of scientists. This of course was well known, the point was to acquire French reprocessing technology – ostensibly for civilian purposes but then to duplicate the same to improve India’s reportedly dismal weapons material reprocessing.
The scary state of Indian reactors, their safety and security has long been whispered about – but was blown apart by the CAG’s indictment a few months back.
Julia’s Nuclear Tango – Analysis http://www.eurasiareview.com/18102012-julias-nuclear-tango-analysis/
IPCS October 18, 2012 By Abhijit Iyer‐Mitra As expected, nuclear negotiations took centre stage during Australian
Prime Minister Julia Gillard’s visit to Delhi. Much talk of cultural links owing to the English language, cricket, a Westminster style parliament was bandied about. While Australia insists on a multifaceted engagement to build deep interdependencies, India sees only its one point agenda in all of this and has held ties hostage to the supply of Uranium. While opinions in Delhi seem optimistic many factors point to need for a hard reality check. Continue reading
Farce of Australia’s uranium deal, and award to Indian cricketer
Cricketism has brought India closer to Australia and nuclear grey deals brought them still closer and the announcement by a silly Australian PM to offer the nation’s prestigious awards to foreigners, especially in cricketism exercises. India needs Australian uranium for nuclear terror purposes
Mutual exchange of honorary degrees and awards are very common, like street robberies, in international politics for the promotion of trade in arms and nukes stuff.
Russians supply India nuclear stuff and Australians offer awards.
Why should the Indian regime of corporates and mafias kill people in Kudankulam?
India’s Archons bribes Australia for awards — Cricketism, The Canadian 18 OCTOBER 2012 BY DR. ABDUL RUFF ” …….Madam Gillard arrived in India after a surprise trip to Afghanistan had meetings with business leaders and their protector Singh in Delhi. Indian nuclear mafia abroad is doing well.
Australia’s ruling centre-left Labor party voted to overturn its ban on uranium sales to India last year after a long debate about nuclear weapons and reactor safety following Japan’s atomic crisis. Continue reading
India’s Supreme Court examines waiver of nuclear civil liability pact with Russia
Centre justifies waiver of nuclear civil liability pact with Russia THE HINDU, 19 Oct 12 J. VENKATESAN The Centre on Thursday justified in the Supreme Court waiver of the nuclear liability agreement with Russia for the Kudankulam plant in Tamil Nadu and said it was a policy decision taken at a time when no other country came forward to sustain India’s nuclear capabilities.
Making this submission before a Bench of Justices K.S. Radhakrishnan and Dipak Misra, Solicitor General Rohinton Nariman denied the allegation of Prashant Bhushan, counsel for petitioners, that the Government had signed the agreement to appease Russia…..
http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/centre-justifies-waiver-of-nuclear-civil-liability-pact-with-russia/article4010279.ece?homepage=true
Australian Prime Minister unwise to support India’s dodgy nuclear power program
India is pursuing an unreliable technology. The DAE’s plans involve constructing hundreds of fast breeder reactors.
there are reasons to be worried about the risk of severe accidents at Indian nuclear facilities.
there are ongoing protests at all new sites selected for nuclear plants. The protracted and intense protests over commissioning of the Koodankulam reactors in Tamil Nadu is just the most spectacular of these.
India’s nuclear power failures warn against uranium exports, The Conversation, MV Ramana 16 October 2012, Selling Australian uranium is reportedly at the top of Prime Minister Julia Gillard’s priorities as she travels to India this week. Before she decides to do that, there are three facts she may want to consider. Continue reading
Nuclear power UNsafety in India
India questions its own nuclear industry, SMH, October 15, 2012 ”…….India’s comptroller and auditor-general, Vinod Rai, has found the body that oversees nuclear safety in India, the Atomic Energy Regulatory Board, is ineffective, mired in bureaucracy and negligent in monitoring safety.
Sixty per cent of regulatory inspection reports for operating nuclear power plants in India were either delayed – up to 153 days late – or not undertaken at all. For power plants under construction, the number of regulatory inspections delayed or not done was 66 per cent.
Smaller radiation facilities operate throughout the country with no licences and no oversight at all. In many cases there are no rules for nuclear operators to follow. Despite an order from the government in 1983, the board has still not developed an overarching nuclear and radiation safety policy for India.
And even when laws do exist and are broken, the existing legislation gives the board almost no punitive power. In some cases, the fines for nuclear safety transgressions are as low as 500 rupees – less than $10.
India has had nuclear scares already. In 2010, a gamma irradiation machine containing Cobalt-60 was sold off by Delhi University for scrap. Pulled apart, it unleashed a massive dose of radiation, killing one person and putting another six in hospital.
The Indian government has legislation before parliament to replace the board with a new body, the proposed Nuclear Safety Regulatory Authority.
But Prabir Purkayastha from the Delhi Science Forum said: ”It is a very weak piece of legislation, that makes the regulator subservient to a group of ministers. It is a weakening of the current regulation.” http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/political-news/india-questions-its-own-nuclear-industry-20121014-27l0a.html#ixzz29Zt1gRpm
China’s nuclear power program slows down, as safety problems recognised
China Nuclear Report Acknowledges Safety Concerns, WSJ, By BRIAN SPEGELE And WAYNE MA 16 Oct 12, BEIJING — A report by China’s Ministry of Environmental Protection
acknowledged safety concerns in China’s fleet of nuclear reactors, including potential complications from the sheer variety of reactors in operation…. Continue reading
Fukushima’s 50 heroes fear discrimination and bullying
The Economist: “Something strange was afoot” during Prime Minister’s visit to plant — Fukushima 50 muzzled http://enenews.com/economist-strange-afoot-during-prime-ministers-visit-plant-fukushima-50-muzzled Title: Japan’s nuclear disaster: Meet the Fukushima 50? No, you can’t
Source: The Economist Author: Banyan Date: Oct 8, 2012
It has taken the Japanese government more than 18 months to pay tribute to a group of brave men, once known as the “Fukushima 50”, who risked their lives to prevent meltdowns at the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant from spiralling out of control.
But when the prime minister, Yoshihiko Noda, belatedly offered official thanks to them on October 7th something strange was afoot: six of the eight men he addressed had their backs to the television cameras, refused to be photographed and did not introduce themselves by name, not even to Mr Noda
The reason: officials from the government and from Tokyo Electric Power (Tepco) quietly admitted that the men wanted to keep their identities secret because they were scared of stigmatisation for being involved in the disaster, such as might lead to the bullying of their children and grandchildren. But Tepco is also muzzling them, presumably for fear that what they say will further discredit the now nationalised company. When I asked if I could at least hand my business card to them to see if they wanted to tell their side of the story, an irate Tepco spokesman answered bluntly: “Impossible.”
…Yet even after Mr Noda’s visit, the men do not get the recognition they deserve. Kyodo, a news agency, relegates any mention of them to the bottom of a boring story about decontamination.
North Korea claims it can strike USA with nuclear missiles
North Korea says missiles can strike US Radio Australia 9 October 2012, North Korea says it possesses “strategic rocket forces” capable of striking the US mainland. The statement comes in response to a new US-South Korean deal to extend the range of the South’s missile systems. Continue reading
Thailand’s anxiety over Cambodia’s nuclear power plans
Army chief expresses worry over Cambodia nuclear plan http://www.bangkokpost.com/news/local/316243/army-chief-expresses-worry-over-cambodia-nuclear-plan 10/10/2012 Army chief Prayuth Chan-ocha has expressed concern over Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen’s plan to build a nuclear power plant in Cambodia’s Koh Kong province adjacent to Thailand’s Trat province. Continue reading
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