American Legislative Exchange Council, Americans for Prosperity – Koch tools against renewable energy
powerful forces fueling LePage and his allies’ efforts to weaken Maine’s RPS: Charles and David Koch, billionaire industrialists from Kansas and owners of the second largest private company in the U.S. with revenues estimated at $100 billion a year.
powerful forces fueling LePage and his allies’ efforts to weaken Maine’s RPS: Charles and David Koch, billionaire industrialists from Kansas and owners of the second largest private company in the U.S. with revenues estimated at $100 billion a year.
The billionaire force behind GOP attempts to dismantle Maine’s renewable energy standards http://bangordailynews.com/2013/06/04/opinion/the-billionaire-force-behind-gop-attempts-to-dismantle-maines-renewable-energy-standards/ By Phil Bartlett, June 04, 2013, Put into effect nearly 15 years ago with bipartisan support, Maine’s Renewable Portfolio Standard has created thousands of jobs, cut down on harmful pollution and helped to keep more of Mainers’ energy dollars in the state. Requiring 30 percent of the state’s energy providers’ electricity sales to come from renewables such as wind, solar, biomass, geothermal and hydroelectric power, it has also led to tremendous investment by renewable energy companies that are paying more than $17 million annually in property taxes and employing more than 2,500 Mainers.
Simply put, the Renewable Portfolio Standard is working — for everyday Mainers and businesses alike. In light of our struggling economy, programs such as the RPS should be celebrated and protected. So what could possibly have motivated Gov. Paul LePage to devote an entire weekly radio address to attacking the program? And why are some elected officials pushing legislation that would dismantle it? Continue reading
Radioactive seawater travels towards USA from Fukushima
Are North Americans Already Succumbing to Radiation From Japan? http://www.complex.com/city-guide/2013/06/are-north-americans-already-succumbing-to-radiation-from-japan
BY JULIAN KIMBLE | JUN 5, 2013 We don’t mean to alarm anyone, but there’s reportedly been an increase in radiation levels in food and water thanks to the Japanese earthquake and tsunami that struck in 2011. In addition, children being born with thyroid issues has also been tied to radiation while both the U.S. and Canada are allowing more of specific toxic substances in food being imported from Japan.
The image above shows radiation on the move from the Fukushima nuclear plant following the horrible events of 2011. That was captured in March 2012, meaning it’s probably covered even more ground over the past year and change.
According to World Truth TV, milk samples taken from across the U.S. show that radiation levels are 2000 percent above the EPA maximums. Milk is also used to represent the entire food supply. Furthermore, the Food and Drug Administration and Environmental Deception Protection Agency have responded by raising the “acceptable levels” of radioactive materials that are found in foods.
So apparently water, dairy products, produce, seafood, and meat are all at risk. Great, just great. Remember that when you go grocery shopping this weekend. [via Jeromie Williams]
America did more nuclear weapons tests than all other countries put together
America Leads the World in Nuclear Tests The Diplomat By Zachary Keck June 6, 2013 The United States has conducted more nuclear weapon tests than the rest of the world combined, according to a new analysis published on Real Clear Science.
Real Clear Science compiled a list counting the number of tests each country that is known have conducted nuclear tests has carried out since the dawn of the nuclear era.
The United States leads the pack with 1,032 nuclear weapons tests, with Russia (including the Soviet Union) coming in at a distant second with 715 tests. France has conducted the third most with 198 tests, while China and the United Kingdom have both carried out 45 of them.
After that the numbers drop off even more substantially with India having carried out three confirmed tests and six claimed ones, North Korea’s three tests since 2009, and Pakistan having carried out two confirmed tests and six claimed ones, according to Real Clear Science. Although not included on the list, Israel is widely believed to have carried out a covert nuclear test off the coast of South Africa in 1979, which was captured by the U.S. Vela satellite.
Counting Israel’s test and India and Pakistan’s confirmed tests, the world excluding U.S. has carried out 1,012 tests. If India and Pakistan’s non-confirmed tests are included, that number rises to 1,019.
Thus the U.S. has carried out either twenty or thirteen more nuclear tests than the rest of the world combined, according to the Real Clear Science data….. http://thediplomat.com/flashpoints-blog/2013/06/06/america-leads-the-world-in-nuclear-tests/
Oak Ridge uranium processing facility costs running out of control?
Frank Munger: Alexander keeping eye on Uranium Processing Facility costs Knox News, By Frank Munger June 5, 2013 U.S. Sen. Lamar Alexander has been a big supporter of the Uranium Processing Facility and no doubt still is, but Tennessee’s senior senator sounded a warning last week that he wouldn’t put up with out-of-control costs — even for an Oak Ridge project that he considers essential.
“I’ve pretty well had it with these big Energy Department projects
that start out costing a billion dollars and end up costing $6
billion,” Alexander said in an interview. “We can’t afford that. And
we can use the money much more wisely, either to reduce the debt or to
pay for energy research.”
There are reports that the UPF is on the verge of going over the top
end of its estimated cost range — currently set at $4.2 billion to
$6.5 billion. The senator is the ranking Republican on the Senate
Appropriations’ energy and water subcommittee, which plays a pivotal
role in funding the Department of Energy and its sub-unit, the
National Nuclear Security Administration.
I asked him if there was a price tag too high.
“Well, we’ll have to decide that,” he said. “One thing I want to make
sure is we don’t start constructing the facility until we have a
design. And then I want it to be more like the big Spallation Neuron
Source which we built a few years ago that (ORNL Director) Thom Mason
was in charge of. Once we knew the design and we knew the cost, even
though the number was big ($1.4 billion), they stayed on time and on
budget.”
When pressed about a cost ceiling for UPF, Alexander wouldn’t go
there….. http://www.knoxnews.com/news/2013/jun/05/frank-munger-alexander-keeping-eye-on-uranium/
MidAmerican saves consumers money – going for wind energy, rejects nuclear
Berkshire Hathaway’s MidAmerican to hold off on new Iowa nuclear plants Fox Business News, by Scott DiSavino and Joe Silha 4 June 13 Berkshire Hathaway Inc’s MidAmerican Energy Co has decided against building any new nuclear reactors in Iowa in the near future because of regulatory hurdles.
“It is premature, given the uncertainty of carbon regulation and the extensive regulatory review for new nuclear reactor designs, to immediately pursue any additional site work on a future generation option, including a nuclear facility,” the company said in a statement on Tuesday.
Many utilities have put plans for costly new nuclear reactors on hold due to cheap natural gas prices, the much lower cost to build gas-fired generators, and the lack of federal restrictions on carbon emissions……
MidAmerican’s news came after the company completed a study on nuclear feasibility and reported the results to Iowa regulators on Monday. The utility, the state’s largest, had been collecting a half-percent charge from customers there to study the feasibility of building new reactors.
MidAmerican asked the Iowa Utilities Board to approve a plan that allows the company to refund $8.8 million of the funds collected from its customers in the state and to stop collecting the half-percent charge for the assessment, effective July 1, three months earlier than planned.
The refund and elimination of the half-percent charge for the nuclear assessment will result in a slight decrease in Iowa customers’ bill amounts starting this summer, MidAmerican said…..
Based on the assessment’s results, MidAmerican said it would not buy any land in Iowa at this time to develop a nuclear facility. The land options in Fremont County will expire, and the company said it would not pursue an extension on its land options in Muscatine County……
Separately, MidAmerican said its recently announced plan to build additional wind generation would help keep customers’ costs down. If approved by state regulators, the wind expansion will reduce customer rates by $10 million a year by 2017, starting with a $3.3 million decrease in 2015.
MidAmerican provides electric service to 734,000 customers and natural gas service to 714,000 in Iowa, Illinois, Nebraska and South Dakota. http://www.foxbusiness.com/news/2013/06/04/berkshire-hathaway-midamerican-to-hold-off-on-new-iowa-nuclear-plants/#ixzz2VNJIDWb0
Hanford’s radioactive waste tanks producing unknown radionuclides
Official: Leaking tanks at U.S. nuclear site produce altogether new elements — “They’re just their own reactors… generating their own little world in there” http://enenews.com/official-leaking-tanks-nuclear-site-produce-altogether-new-elements-theyre-reactors-generating-little-world
Title: Will Hanford ever be cleaned up?
Source: The Associated Press
Author: SHANNON DININNY
Date: June 2, 2013
[…] The deadline for treating all of the waste at the Hanford nuclear reservation was once 2028. Now it’s 2047 […]
Technical problems, mismanagement and repeated delays have plagued the interminable cleanup of the 586-square-mile site, prolonging an effort that has cost taxpayers $36 billion to date and is estimated will cost $115 billion more. […]
One problem is knowing exactly what is in each tank. A database listing the contents of each is only a best guess, relying on historical information about the site and waste samples that are very limited, said Cheryl Whalen of the state Department of Ecology. […]
Whalen also said some elements that are in very small quantities, but could be very hazardous, aren’t even recorded. In addition, some of the radionuclides inside produce altogether new elements under the right conditions.
“The tanks create their own chemical environment. Between the heat and the radionuclides and the chemicals that are already in there, they’re just their own nuclear reactors,” Whalen said. “They’re generating their own little world in there.” […]
See also: TV: Leaking Strontium-90 is “boiling the material around it” at U.S. nuclear site — Eating through tank liners (VIDEO)
EPA Dramatically Weakens Radiation Protection
Fukushima Radiation Risk Media Deception, Lynda Lovon 3 June 13 ………“The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is publishing in the Federal Register today controversial new Protective Action Guides (PAGs) for responding to radioactive releases. EPA says it solicits public comment but is nonetheless making the PAGs immediately effective.
How Tom Toles sees the way for astronauts to Mars, radiation and all
Oh that radiation thing http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/tom-toles/post/oh-that-radiation-thing/2013/05/31/9d2e044a-ca19-11e2-9f1a-1a7cdee20287_blog.html By Tom Toles E-mail the writer
Among the zillion ways that outer space is not like in the movies is lethal radiation. Other ways? Distances, travel speeds, costs, lack of anything but punishing, lifeless voids, and no economically harvestable anything. But let’s pause to reflect again, or possibly for the first time, about thatlethal radiation thingy.
Why we persist in a grade-school-level discussion about human space travel confounds me. Maybe it’s because we spent all our space education funds sending astronauts to grade schools, to tell them that there was a good career in human space travel, which there wasn’t and never will be. The ‘humans have always explored’ theme is true, but the main thing that is left unexplored is that theme itself. Yes, humans have always explored, and what it’s been about is finding things and places that are of value and doing it in a way that makes sense. You don’t walk into an erupting volcano just because people like to explore.
We have all the information we need already about habitation suitability in our solar system (slim to none), and we have all the information we need about its value aside from cheap thrills (none). We have the technology to robotically do everything humans can do in space at a tiny fraction of the cost. It’s still exploration!
Okay, the story cited here does say that in a trip to Mars, barring a big solar event, the amount of radiation received might “not be lethal” as long as you get lucky and beat the odds of your measurably increased cancer risk from a years-long adventure in a bath of ‘galactic cosmic rays.’ The good news? A Mars trip might not be “impossible!” “The space agencies could decide that the importance of a Mars mission would justify the waving of the the [safe] radiation exposure limit.” Woot. WHAT importance, again?
South Korea and USA planning nuclear pyroprocessing
Meanwhile, South Korea and the U.S. are set to sign a pact that will allow the two nations to step up their joint research on pyroprocessing technology, said a senior official at Seoul’s foreign ministry.
If adopted, the pact would enable the International Atomic Energy Agency to guarantee the safety of pyroprocessing technology.
Good news: ionising radiation type scanners removed from airports across USA
Full-body scanners at airports replaced with less-revealing, low radiation machines http://abclocal.go.com/wls/story?section=news/local&id=9125985 June 03, 2013 — Airports across the U.S. have removed the full-body scanners that used x-rays to create what looks like nude images of passengers.
The remaining 250 machines were removed about two weeks before the June 1st deadline set by Congress.Some critics said they were too revealing, while others expressed health concerns over radiation exposure.
Passengers still have to undergo full-body scans. However, the scanners now use radio waves that produce a less-detailed image.
Harm from radiation, among families of nuclear workers
Some Atomic Energy Workers Passed Effects of Radiation and Chemical Exposure to their Spouses and Children Huntington News, June 3, 2013 – BY TONY E. RUTHERFORD, NEWS EDITOR “……“Big Jim” took a job working around radioactive elements in 1954 at the Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant (PGDP) in Piketon, Ohio. Workers told his daughter how they kept their lunches warm by laying them on uranium yellow cakes and poked fun of individuals who put around their clothing before painting. They wore radiation exposure badges, but by “doing his job” Jim later developed four cancers.
“My dad talked about the A plant, but he never told us what it was,” Joan Fearing (Big Jim’s daughter) said. “Mom washed his work clothes.” She passed away from a rare form of cancer too. “When my mother was dying, she still did not tell us what it was.”
The Cold War ended the arms race. Nuclear weapons were replaced with atoms for peace at electrical power plants. However, the atomic legacy appears passed to the 21st Century. Continue reading
Travesty of justice – Bradley Manning on trial
The United States should be in the dock, not Bradley Manning, The Independent, Owen Jones, 2 June 2013 The whistleblower has allowed us to scrutinise the hidden realities of US power “…..Today, American hero stands in the dock, damned for a relatively tiny ray of light he shone on the darker recesses of this elite. Over three years ago, US soldier Bradley Manning – even now just 25 years old – leaked 250,000 US diplomatic cables and half a million army reports. There has never been a bigger leak of classified material in the history of the United States.
His punishment has already been severe. According to Juan Méndez, the UN special rapporteur on torture, he has faced cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment. For months, he was deprived of human contact. He was stripped of his clothes, left without privacy, and forced to sleep without any darkness. In 2011, P J Crowley was forced to resign as the US state department’s official spokesman after slamming Manning’s treatment as “ridiculous and counterproductive and stupid”. Continue reading
The fight to save Grand Canyon from uranium radioactive contamination
Tribes, Enviros Fight Uranium Mining Near Grand Canyon KPBS, June 3, 2013 By Laurel Morales “……environmentalists and Indian tribes oppose mining near the canyon. On a recent sunny day EcoFlight pilot Gary Kraft steered the six-seat Cessna onto the tarmac of the Grand Canyon Airport and gracefully took off. He flew a group over the Grand Canyon to check out mines from above.
“As Gary brings the plane around we’ll get a little better look at the site,” said Grand Canyon Trust’s Roger Clark who served as our guide.
He has been fighting uranium mining companies for many years. Last year he scored a victory. The Obama Administration put a ban on any new mining claims on federal land surrounding the park. In the 1980s and 1990s a dozen mines pocked the landscape surrounding the park. All but a few have been cleaned up and reseeded. But a handful of older claims are still being mined. Continue reading
USA’s Hanford nuclear radioactive wasteland
In all, since that very first leak in the 1950s, at least 69 tanks are known to have excreted more than 1 million gallons of waste – and possibly far more – into the soil.
Nuclear dump an environmental wasteland 3 New NZ, By Shannon Dininny, 3 June 13, A stainless steel tank the size of a basketball court lies buried in the sandy soil of southeastern Washington state, an aging remnant of US efforts to win World War II. The tank holds enough radioactive waste to fill an Olympic-sized swimming pool. And it is leaking.
For 42 years, tank AY-102 has stored some of the deadliest material at one of the most environmentally contaminated places in the country: the Hanford Nuclear Reservation. Continue reading
How USA built a forest in order to atomic bomb it
How Do We Know Nuclear Bombs Blow Down Forests? Because we built a forest in Nevada and blew it down. Slate, By Ann Finkbeiner May 31, 2013, “……. Once the United States had built the first atomic bomb in 1945, it then improved it by building the first hydrogen bomb in 1952. It then began working on building more portable bombs, and since the Soviet Union had done the same, the United States also wondered about the bombs’ effects. So in the early 1950s, the government set up models of all the things that bombs could blow up—houses, bridges, cars, pigs, sheep—and exploded bombs near them. The government did this for at least a decade and didn’t stop until it and the rest of the world banned above-ground testing. The tests, many of them at the Nevada Test Site, were called “shots,” and they had names.
The shot called Encore was on May 8, 1953, and among the many effects it tested was what a nuclear bomb would do to a forest. The Nevada Test Site wasn’t replete with forests, so the U.S. Forest Service brought 145 ponderosa pines from a nearby canyon and cemented them into holes lined up in tidy rows in an area called Frenchman Flat, 6,500 feet from ground zero. Then the Department of Defense air-dropped a 27-kiloton bomb that exploded 2,423 feet above the model forest. The heat set fire to the forest, then the blast wave blew down the trees and put out some fires and started others.Here’s the video.
I’m not sure what I make of this. Certainly in the 1950s nobody was controlling nuclear weapons; they were alive, reproducing, and roaming the world. So knowing precisely what damage they cause might help mitigate that damage. And certainly I’m not going to think about the more distant and longer-term effects of those shots, more than 200 of them above ground, except to say that as a 10-year old girl in Illinois, even I wasn’t safe.
I do know I’m impressed by the amount of directed effort, the thoroughness of thought that went into cutting down 145 ponderosa pines, trucking them out of the canyon, digging holes, filling them with concrete, sticking the trees into them, dropping the bomb, and beginning the measurements. And though the United Nations belatedly began negotiating a ban on above-ground tests in 1955, the Limited Test Ban Treaty didn’t get signed until 1963. That was the limited treaty; the comprehensive one banning all tests everywhere took another 40-plus years, and even now the United States hasn’t ratified it.* I’m most impressed by the contrast between the pointed determination of the test shots and the infinite dithering about the (yes, infinitely more complicated) test bans. I might suspect that human nature and its governments have a dark side.
Add this little public service booklet, illustrated with the drawing above and written by the Atomic Energy Commission to the people of Nevada:
“You are in a very real sense active participants in the Nation’s atomic test program. … Some of you have been inconvenienced by our test operations. At times some of you have been exposed to potential risk from flash, blast, or fall-out. You have accepted the inconvenience or the risk without fuss, without alarm, and without panic. Your cooperation has helped achieve an unusual record of safety.”
1 This Month
23-25 October – on Zoom – World BEYOND War’s annual global conferenc
Shut down the radiation-damaged Heysham nuclear reactors now
To see nuclear-related stories in greater depth and intensity – go to https://nuclearinformation.wordpress.com
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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