Six nuclear waste tanks leaking radioactive water and sludge, at Hanford Nuclear Reservation
The entire city of Los Angeles could fit rather comfortably within Hanford’s borders in southeastern Washington, but the human and environmental consequences of Hanford have spread beyond those borders, across Washington and Oregon.
At The Hanford Nuclear Reservation, A Steady Drip Of Toxic Trouble by Eric Nusbaum The Daily Beast, Feb 24, 2013 Eric Nusbaum tours the largest environmental cleanup operation the United States government has ever undertaken.This month, the Department of Energy announced that a tank at the Hanford Nuclear Reservation in Washington State is leaking up to 300 gallons of radioactive waste a year. Then last week, Washington governor Jay Inslee corrected that figure: a total of six tanks are leaking. To people unfamiliar 
with Hanford, this might sound mildly apocalyptic. Nuclear sludge left over from Cold War plutonium production is drip drip dripping into American soil, infiltrating the groundwater, slowly making its way into our rivers. But to Washington residents and Hanford observers, the leak is just another in a long line of mild disasters at America’s most contaminated nuclear waste site, a radioactive drop in the already-polluted Columbia River.
The reactions by politicians to this news have come off like bad attempts at satire. Continue reading
At Hanford – 200 square miles of radioactively polluted groundwater
Millions of dollars and labor hours are being spent moving nuclear waste from bad tanks into good tanks. Then millions more will be spent on vitrification. But single-shell or double shell, peanut butter or glass, it will still be nuclear waste. There is no getting rid of it. There is only finding more convenient, less uncomfortable ways to deal. .
At The Hanford Nuclear Reservation, A Steady Drip Of Toxic Trouble by Eric Nusbaum Feb 24, 2013 Eric Nusbaum tours the largest environmental cleanup operation the United States government has ever undertaken. “……There are 200 square miles of contaminated groundwater under Hanford. Every day that water moves closer to the Columbia River. Not coincidentally, there are also 177 massive storage tanks on the site, each built to hold between 55,000 and more than 100,000 gallons of nuclear waste.
Our first stop was at one of these tanks, which, even in the middle distance, was ominous and metallic and looked sort of like a giant industrial-sized swimming pool. Continue reading
The messy history of the Hanford Reservation radioactive mess
.At The Hanford Nuclear Reservation, A Steady Drip Of Toxic Trouble by Eric Nusbaum Feb 24, 2013 Eric Nusbaum tours the largest environmental cleanup operation the United States government has ever undertaken.”,,,,,,,,Late in 2010, crews with the contractor Washington Closure Hanford were set to begin demolition on what had once been the most radioactive structure on the site: Building 324. Located less than half a mile from both the city of Richland and the Columbia River, Building 324 housed a pair of “hot cells,” which are three-story enclosures that scientists use to perform remotely-operated tests of highly unstable materials. One of those cells, B-Cell, was so radioactive in the 1990s that the Seattle Post-Intelligencer reported that “an unprotected person standing inside could have received a fatal dose in less than two seconds.” By 2010, the building’s worst radioactive material had been removed. But when Washington Closure Hanford tested the ground under the site, it found radiation levels significantly higher than surrounding soil, which itself was already contaminated. Needless to say, demolition on Building 324 has not resumed. The site is “currently being deactivated,” says the Hanford website.
There are similar stories to tell about buildings all over the site, messy stories about government bureaucracy and highly radioactive equipment and the troublesome permanence of nuclear waste. The process of producing plutonium at Hanford required the constant transport of highly unstable materials from one facility to another to another, which made containing the mess basically impossible. Continue reading
Financial realities lead to scrapping of costly Los Alamos expansion plan
U.S. NUCLEAR LAB READY TO SHELVE COSTLY FACILITY PLAN NextGov 22 Feb 13, The Los Alamos National Laboratory is proposing to shelve plans to build an expensive new plutonium research facility and instead permanently parcel out work to an array of smaller buildings, the institution’s director said on Thursday.
“I’m concerned that in the current fiscal crisis, it may no longer be practical to plan and build very large-scale nuclear facilities,” Charles McMillan, who heads the New Mexico research site, said at a three-day conference on nuclear deterrence in Arlington, Va. “A new path forward is needed.”
A study team at Los Alamos has suggested scrapping plans to construct a $6 billion Chemistry and Metallurgy Research Replacement plant in favor of replacing the nuclear facility’s intended functions with a more attainable constellation of structures, he said. Continue reading
Obama CAN make progress in negotiations with Iran, despite Congress
So, what can Mr. Obama do in order to maximize diplomacy’s chance of success despite structural congressional strictures? The answer is clear: Explore and exercise those foreign-policy options that cannot be easily hindered by Congress.
the president can also – without the hindrance of Congress – reactivate the United Nations’ dormant capacities and use them in favor of the upcoming negotiations.
Can Obama forge nuclear deal with Iran? http://www.alaskadispatch.com/article/can-obama-forge-nuclear-deal-iran Reza Nasri, The Christian Science Monitor
February 20, 2013
Pressuring Iran is no longer just a matter of tactical policy for Congress. It’s a deeply institutionalized ritual that every member is expected to partake in.
This is a sad reality that Tehran is fully aware of – one that Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran’s Supreme Leader, tacitly acknowledged last week after the Obama administration implemented new congressional sanctions: He said that Iran would not be negotiating with America simply “for the sake of negotiating.” Iran wants a negotiating partner that can actually deliver on a promise to normalize relations and reciprocate concessions with mutual concessions.
As Congress has made this implausible for now, bilateral talks between Tehran and Washington are not likely to take place any time soon. On the other hand, the United States and Iran will inevitably meet to negotiate the latter’s nuclear program in the context of the multilateral “P5+1” talks scheduled to take place in Kazakhstan on Feb. 26. Continue reading
New 3D mammography increases risks of breast cancer
New 3-D Mammography is Basically a CT Scan for Breasts
The procedures give women twice as much radiation as a standard mammogram
New 3D Mammography Significantly Increases Radiation Exposure, and Your Risk of Radiation-Induced Cancer Mercola.com February 19, 2013 By Dr. Mercola
Breast cancer is big business, and mammography is one of its primary profit centers. This is why the industry is fighting tooth and nail to keep it, by downplaying or outright ignoring its significant risks.
In the US, women are still urged to get an annual mammogram starting at the age of 40, completely ignoring the updated guidelines set forth by the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force in 2009.
Unfortunately, many women are completely unaware that the science simply does not back up the use of routine mammograms as a means to prevent breast cancer death.
As was revealed in a 2011 meta-analysis by the Cochrane Database of Systemic Reviews, mammography breast cancer screening led to 30 percent overdiagnosis and overtreatment, which equates to an absolute risk increase of 0.5 percent.
There’s also the risk of getting a false negative, meaning that a life-threatening cancer is missed. Continue reading
Huge financial risk for South Dakota with uranium mining
We are being asked to take a huge risk with our water and environment with a company of very dubious financial stability
This market has fallen to about $40 per pound and may go lower
We should not take this risk.
Uranium mine too great a risk for South Dakotahttp://www.mitchellrepublic.com/event/article/id/76549/group/homepage/Powertech (USA), Inc., a Canadian company with just 10 employees owned by a stock market hedge fund, is planning a massive uranium mining operation near Edgemont. Continue reading
Nuclear power on the wane, and cheap gas is hastening that decline
Another casualty of the shale gas boom: Nuclear power WP by Brad Plumer February 21, 2013 The last few years have seen all sorts of drastic upheavals in the U.S. energy sector. Cheap natural gas is dominating. Wind and solar are growing. Coal is dwindling.
Now we can add another trend to the list: Nuclear power is on the decline. Since 2010, the amount of electricity generated from America’s nuclear reactors has fallen about 3 percent, or 29 billion kilowatt-hours. That’s a sizable drop.
So why is nuclear on the wane? Part of the story here is that America’s fleet of reactors is aging, which means they need to be taken offline more frequently for repairs. The San Onofre plant near San Diego, for instance, has been out since January 2012.
But a huge part of the story here is competition from cheap shale gas. This month, Duke Energy decided to close its Crystal River nuclear plant in Tampa rather than pay $1.5 billion to repair a cracked dome. The reason? It was easier to build new natural-gas turbines to replace the lost electricity. Last fall, Dominion Power announced that it would close its Kewaunee reactor in Wisconsin for similar reasons.
And that’s just the start: One energy analyst told Bloomberg that at least four other U.S. reactors are now at risk of early retirement “due to new power market economics.” Not only that, but the gas boom is killing off future reactors, too: Back in 2011, NRG scrapped plans for two new nuclear units in Texas. The reason? Other sources were cheaper and easier, including gas and wind.
Florida State senators fed up with the delay in building nukes, as Duke Energy pockets resident’s money
State senators to utilities: Build nuclear power or risk loss of funding By Ivan Penn and Mary Ellen Klas, Tampa Bay Times/Herald Tallahassee Bureau February 21,2013 TALLAHASSEE – Fed up Tampa Bay area state senators want utilities to either start building nuclear power plants or lose a state law that allows them to charge customers for the plants in advance.
Duke Energy customers already are on the hook for $1.5 billion for a proposed plant in Levy County that the utility has delayed for almost a decade and still has not committed to build. The utility gets to pocket about $150 million of that money. Continue reading
Extreme weather – climate change is proving very costly for America
$188 Billion Price Tag: Extreme Weather From 2011 To 2012 The Energy Collective, By Daniel J. Weiss and Jackie Weidman The United States was subjected to many severe climate-related extreme weather over the past two years. In 2011 there were 14 extreme weather events — floods, drought, storms, and wildfires — that each caused at least $1 billion in damage. There were another 11 such disasters in 2012. Most of these extreme weather events reflect part of the unpaid bill from climate change — a tab that will only grow over time.
CAP recently documented the human and economic toll from these devastating events in our November 2012 report “Heavy Weather: How Climate Destruction Harms Middle- and Lower- Income Americans.” Since the release of that report, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, or NOAA, has updated its list of “billion-dollar”-damage weather events for 2012, bringing the two-year total to 25 incidents.
From 2011 to 2012 these 25 “billion-dollar damage” weather events in the United States are estimated to have caused up to $188 billion in total damage. [1] The two costliest events were the September 2012 drought — the worst drought in half a century, which baked nearly two-thirds of the continental United States — and superstorm Sandy, which battered the northeast coast in late October 2012. The four recently added disastrous weather events were severe tornadoes and thunderstorms. Here is an update of vital extreme weather event data after the addition of these four events: Continue reading
Obama close to nominating leaders for energy and climate change
Obama tipped to pick veterans to lead climate, energy push The Age, February 21, 2013 President Barack Obama is close to choosing two veteran Washington policymakers for top energy roles in his Cabinet who would continue many policies on clean energy and air-pollution curbs, according to people familiar with the decisions. Continue reading
Obama now has a chance to start cutting nuclear weapons
The search for a nuclear legacy Why Barack Obama may now be able to start cutting nuclear weapons The Economist, Feb
23rd 2013.……..Bruce Blair, co-founder of the Global Zero movement which campaigns for reducing and eventually eliminating nuclear weapons, believes that Mr Obama could set in train a process which would in time also lead to big cuts in the stockpiles of non-strategic and non-deployed nukes. Neither has any military usefulness, but nobody pretends getting there would be easy, particularly as tactical weapons remain more important to Russia—with its comparatively weak conventional forces—than to America.
But the prize for reducing stockpiles would be the chance to draw other nuclear states with much smaller arsenals, such as China, into a multilateral negotiation. That “holy grail”, as Mr Blair calls it, will not be reached, if ever, until well after Mr Obama has gone. But if he could claim to have started the quest, it might be just the legacy he yearns for. http://www.economist.com/news/united-states/21572195-why-barack-obama-may-now-be-able-start-cutting-nuclear-weapons-search-nuclear
Rebellion looming in Utah and Florida against customers paying upfront for nuclear reactors
Editors Rebel Against Ratepayer Financing For Nuclear Plants, Forbes, Jeff McMahon 20 Feb 13, This is a tale of two editorials today: one in Utah, lambasting a lawmaker for trying to sneak a price hike into energy bills to pay for a proposed nuclear plant, and one in Florida, demanding the repeal of just such a price hike, which has collected hundreds of millions from ratepayers for nuclear plants that may never be built…
.. In Utah, State Sen. Curt Bramble introduced SB199, a bill that allows utilities to bill customers in advance for “zero-carbon emissions generation” plants that produce up to 3,000 megawatts. The Salt Lake Tribune sees right through that language, saying the bill was “dropped in the hopper at the behest of developers who just won’t give up the foolish idea of building a nuclear power plant on Utah’s Green River.”
The bill proves that nuclear power is too risky and expensive for private capital markets, says the Tribune, so utilities that want to build plants and developers who want the electricity are trying to shuffle the cost onto ratepayers. The problem is that the billions needed for permitting and design could, as the Tribune puts it, “lead to a dry hole.”
And that’s just what seems to have occurred in Florida, where the editors of the Lakeland Ledger and Winterhaven News Chief want to repeal a 2006 law that allows utilities to bill customers in advance for proposed nuclear plants. Thanks to this law, Florida Gas & Light will collect $151 million this year, by the Ledger’s account, and Duke Energy will collect $143 million.
And the utilities are not obligated to return that money. “To the contrary, the fee translates into hundreds of millions in profits for the companies, regardless of what they do,” the Ledger contends. “Duke Energy is forecast to pocket $150 million, whether the Levy plants are built or not.”….. http://www.forbes.com/sites/jeffmcmahon/2013/02/20/editors-rebel-against-ratepayer-financing-for-nuclear-plants/
Washington’s Governor alarmed at major radioactive leak from Hanford
Editorial: Radioactive leak at Hanford may suggest “serious tank failure of such magnitude that even semisolid materials are now able to find a way out” http://enenews.com/editorial-radioactive-leak-hanford-suggest-serious-tank-failure-magnitude-semisolid-materials-able-find
Title: Editorial: A perfect radioactive storm
Source: Daily Astorian
Date: February 19, 2013
“Perfect radioactive storm” are not words any resident along the Columbia River ever wanted to hear coming from the lips of a top elected official about the Hanford Nuclear Reservation.
Yet this is how Washington Gov. Jay Inslee last week characterized news about a major leak of highly toxic sludge from a single-wall storage tank, at the very time the nation nears across-the-board funding cuts that could hobble any response.
[…] All the liquids that could be pumped from it were removed in 1995. That a serious new breach has developed suggests the possibility additional water is seeping into the tank, or there has been a serious tank failure of such magnitude that even semisolid materials are now able to find a way out. […]
It is time for Pacific Northwest leaders and citizens to express our concern about this matter in the strongest possible terms. […]
See also: Governor alarmed about leak at most contaminated nuclear site in U.S. — “You couldn’t find a more perfect radioactive storm” (VIDEO)
Obama shifting away from his previous pro nuclear stance
Obama’s Shifting Stance on Nuclear Energy?, Energy Collective, Joseph Koblich February 20, 2013 In his State of the Union address to the U.S. Congress in 2011, President Obama lauded nuclear power as an essential part of the non-carbon mix that he would champion while revamping our inefficient, high-carbon energy sector:
“Some folks want wind and solar. Others want nuclear, clean coal, and natural gas. To meet this goal, we will need them all…”
In 2012′s address, the president mentioned “renewable energy” and “jobs”, but didn’t explicitly mention or neglect nuclear power. This year, however, he listed a number of energy sources on which the energy future of the United States would rely. Wind, solar, natural gas, and oil all made the list again this year, but nuclear power was absent. In the same breath that the president touted natural gas, he even pointed out “…our emissions of the dangerous carbon pollution that threatens our planet have actually fallen.”….
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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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