New USA defence secretary Hagel supports reduction in nuclear arms
Hagel supports nuclear weapons reduction , Ahramonline, Chuck Hagel,
nominated to be President Obama’s next defence secretary, supports
‘Global Zero’ movement on nuclear disarmament Bassem Aly , 6 Feb 2013
Former Republican senator Chuck Hagel will likely be the first
American defence secretary, if approved, to back the so-called “Global
Zero” movement that supports reducing the number of US nuclear
weapons.
Global Zero members believe that stopping the spread of nuclear
weapons, securing all nuclear materials and eliminating all nuclear
weapons is the only way to end the nuclear threat, including
proliferation and nuclear “terrorism.”
The movement, joined by almost 300 world leaders and more than 400,000
citizens worldwide, was launched in Paris in December 2008.
Hagel had previously co-authored with other public figures the 2012
Global Zero U.S. Nuclear Policy Commission Report that outlined a
step-by-step plan to eliminate nuclear weapons, involving bilateral
negotiations with Russia to be followed by other key countries…..
http://english.ahram.org.eg/NewsContent/2/9/64167/World/International/Hagel-supports-nuclear-weapons-reduction-.aspx
Nuclear waste area has suspicious cluster of cancers and birth defects
Cancer cluster map of St. Louis http://www.ksdk.com/news/article/358520/3/Cancer-map-may-show-enormous-St-Louis-cluster–
TV: “Staggering number of cancers, illnesses, and birth defects” linked to nuclear waste? Over 700 cases found in only four square miles — “There’s something very wrong” (VIDEO) http://enenews.com/tv-staggering-number-cancers-illnesses-birth-defects-linked-nuclear-waste-700-cases-found-only-4-sq-miles-video
February 1st, 2013
Title: Cancer cluster map of St. Louis
Source: KSDK
Author: Leisa Zigman
Date: Feb 1, 2013
h/t Anonymous tip
Transcript Excerpts
Anchor: There are radioactive secrets beneath the banks and waters of a north St. Louis County creek that may be linked to a staggering number of cancers, illnesses and birth defects. In four square miles, there are three reported cases of conjoined twins and cancer rates that one data expert says is statistically impossible. […]
Source: KSDK (See .pdf: Illnesses Linked to Manhattan Project Waste CHART)
Janell Wright, class of ’88 McCluer North High School, Accountant and former auditor: “There’s something very wrong.” […]
Leisa Zigman, Reporter: At first she found 30 cases. Within two months, she had data on 200 cases. Now, her maps have more than 700 cases in four square miles […]
Wright: “The children usually came down with brain cancer in the first 15 years of life, in addition, leukemia. In my peer group’s children, there were several children who had to have their thyroid removed before they were 10-years-old.”
Zigman: In the 1940s, Mallinckrodt Chemical Works in downtown St. Louis purified thousands of tons of uranium to make the first atomic bombs. […] 21 acres of airport land became a dumping site where a toxic mixture of uranium, thorium, and radium sat uncovered or in barrels. In the 60s, government documents noted contents from the rusting barrels were seeping into nearby Coldwater Creek. And by the 90s, the government confirmed unsafe levels of radioactive materials in the water. […]
Watch the video here
Anti – uranium protestors stop train
ANTI-NUCLEAR PROTESTERS STOP TRAIN NEAR URANIUM PLANT Waste Management
World, 4 Feb 13, A group of anti-nuclear protesters affiliated with
the Idle No More movement stopped a train in the Davenport area on
Sunday after their demonstration against a nearby uranium facility
migrated onto CP Rail tracks.
“The plan is to shut it down, and do whatever it takes to shut it
down,” said organizer Zach Ruiter, standing beside the tracks with an
Idle No More flag and a placard hanging from his neck that read: “Just
say no to radioactive waste.”
The GE-Hitachi plant on Lansdowne St. near Dupont St. caused an uproar
in November when the surrounding community learned the facility in
their midst had been processing uranium dioxide powder into pellets
since 1965…….
http://www.waste-management-world.com/news/2013/02/04/anti-nuclear-protesters-stop-train-near-uranium-plant.html
USA Defense Department closes medical registry of Fukushima radiation affected servicemen and women
The decision to cease updating the registry means there will be no way to determine if patterns of health problems emerge among the members of the Marines, Army, Air Force, Corps of Engineers, and Navy stationed at 63 installations in Japan with their families. In addition, it leaves thousands of sailors and Marines in the USS Ronald Reagan Carrier Strike Group 7 on their own when it comes to determining if any of them are developing problems caused by radiation exposure.
Just In: Over 150 U.S. service members say Fukushima radiation has triggered medical issues — Now Defense Department abandons medical registry, leaving them on own http://enenews.com/150-service-members-fukushima-radiation-triggered-medical-issues
February 1st, 2013
Title: Fukushima Rescue Mission Lasting Legacy: Radioactive Contamination of Americans http://enenews.com/150-service-members-fukushima-radiation-triggered-medical-issues
Source: New Jersey Newsroom
Author: ROGER WITHERSPOON
Date: January 31 2013
The Department of Defense has decided to walk away from an unprecedented medical registry of nearly 70,000 American service members, civilian workers, and their families caught in the radioactive clouds blowing from the destroyed nuclear power plants at Fukushima Daiichi in Japan. Continue reading
USA’s Blue Ribbon Commission has no idea what to do with 70,000 tons of nuclear waste
The Blue Ribbon Commission on America’s Nuclear Future reported that “no currently available or reasonably foreseeable reactor and fuel cycle technology developments — including advances in reprocessing and recycling technologies — have the potential to fundamentally alter the waste management challenges the nation confronts over at least the next several decades, if not longer.”
Report: US will have to bury 70,000 tons of nuclear waste. http://dailycaller.com/2013/02/01/report-u-s-will-have-to-bury-70000-tons-of-nuclear-waste/ A report by a government research lab found that the U.S. will have to bury nearly 70,000 tons of nuclear waste after the Obama administration cut funding for the Yucca Mountain repository in 2011, reports the Moscow-based news service RT.
A 2012 report by the Oak Ridge National Laboratory, which does research for the Department of Energy, said that “about 68,450 [metric tons] or about 98 percent of the total current inventory by mass, can proceed to permanent disposal without the need to ensure retrievability for reuse or research purposes. The report also found that the rest of the nuclear waste can be used for research on fuel reprocessing and storage.
The Oak Ridge report also notes that the stock of spent nuclear fuel being held at 79 temporary locations in 34 US states “is massive, diverse, dispersed, and increasing.” Continue reading
Uranium industry is being killed off by cold, hard, economics
For now, at least, uranium is dead. Its killer was cold, hard economics.
Virginia Uranium’s Strangely Short Half-Life, Bacon’s Rebellion, February 1, 2013 by Peter Galuszka “…….Back in 2007, uranium prices were about $140 a pound. That touched off a renewed effort to mine the Coles Hill Farm tract in Pittsylvania County, one of the country’s largest uranium deposits.
As both sides of the argument poured money into lobbyists’ pockets, something happened that was beyond their control. Uranium prices set by global demand started dropping. By 2010, they had plummeted to about $70 a pound because of the global economic slowdown. After the Fukushima nuclear disaster in Japan in March 2011, they fell to the mid-$40-a-pound level, where they are now.
What that means for uranium mining in Virginia can be explained with simple arithmetic. According to Brett Arends of the Wall Street Journal, “The industry needs prices to be at $75 to $80 a pound for future mine production to be profitable.” In other words, for Virginia Uranium’s project to work, prices would likely need to rebound by about $30 a pound. I have noted this in a previous blog.
The bad news for uranium continues. Continue reading
Republican senators’ ignorant and disrespectful treatment of defense nominee Chuck Hagel
Zero Tolerance for Nuclear Weapons, HUFFINGTON POST, William Hartung, Director, Arms and Security Project, Center for International Policy, 1 Feb 13, There were many low moments in yesterday’s disrespectful, intolerant inquisition of secretary of defense nominee Chuck Hagel by key Republican senators, but some of the most troubling involved the dismissive, ill-informed tone they took towards serious proposals for reducing global nuclear arsenals.
The criticisms centered around Hagel’s support for Global Zero, an organization whose goal is to set in motion a process that will lead to a world free of nuclear weapons. The goal itself should be uncontroversial. Presidents of diverse political leanings, from John F. Kennedy to Ronald Reagan to Barack Obama, as well as a majority of former U.S. secretaries of defense and secretaries of state have endorsed it. What has too often been missing is a road map for getting there.
In a May 2012 commission report with the decidedly non-threatening title “Modernizing U.S. Nuclear Strategy, Force Structure and Posture,” Global Zero made a series of suggestions on how to responsibly reduce U.S. and Russian nuclear arsenals on the road towards nuclear disarmament. Continue reading
The rise and fall of Virginia Uranium
Virginia Uranium’s Strangely Short Half-Life, Bacon’s Rebellion, February 1, 2013 by Peter Galuszka After years building up to a critical mass, Virginia’s uranium controversy never quite reached fission. State Sen. John Watkins, a Republican and uranium backer from Powhatan, pulled the plug on his pro-mining bill Thursday as it faced certain death at a Senate committee. There are a couple of other legislative efforts out there, but it probably safe to say that the state’s now 31-year-old ban on mining uranium stays….
Virginia Uranium, which wants to develop the 119 million pound deposit near Chatham, had given thousands of dollars in donations, trips and gifts to many legislators. Anti-mining advocates, including the cities of Norfolk and Virginia Beach who feared for their drinking water sources, hired their own advocacy muscle. Ordinary folks down in the gently rolling hills of Pittsylvania County organized a strikingly tightly-disciplined and effective anti-mining campaign.
At the end of the day, however, the real reason uranium failed lurks behind the scenes far from the polished floors of the State Capitol.
The fact is that the dynamics of energy pricing are undergoing a huge change in this country. A flood of natural gas, some from controversial “fracking” drilling methods, is making other forms of electricity generation, notably nuclear, financially less attractive. http://www.baconsrebellion.com/2013/02/the-unusually-short-half-life-of-virginia-uranium.html
USA’s energy use down, renewable energy production up
Renewable energy sources are being built quickly while renewable energy production costs are plummeting. The total installed renewable capacity has more than doubled in the five years between 2008 and 2012. The cost of electricity generated by average large solar power plants has fallen from 31 cents per kilowatt-hour in 2009 to 14 cents per kilowatt-hour in 2012 (excluding the effect of tax credits and other incentives, which would bring those costs down even lower). Over the same period, the cost of power from a typical large wind farm has decreased from 9 cents per kilowatt-hour in 2009 to 8 cents per kilowatt-hour.
Big switch under way in US energy use: report, SMH, February 1, 2013
The US is consuming energy considerably more efficiently and with lower emissions than just five years ago thanks to a slew of modern technologies that are changing decades-old patterns, research firm Bloomberg New Energy Finance and industry group the Business Council for Sustainable Energy find in a new report.
The Sustainable Energy in America 2013 Factbook portrays a dynamic and rapidly changing US energy landscape. Natural gas and renewables have gained market share largely at the expense of conventional resources. Energy efficiency is also making a major impact, and as a result energy demand has fallen steeply.
From 2007 to 2012, natural gas rose to 27.2 per cent of total energy consumption (including electricity, heat, and transportation) from 23.4 per cent, while renewables including wind, solar, biomass and hydropower have jumped to 9.4 per cent from 6.4 per cent. Meanwhile, during the same period, coal declined to 18.1 per cent from 22.5 per cent and oil fell to 36.7 per cent from 39.3 per cent. The winner of all this is US emissions. From 2007 to 2012, US energy-related CO2 emissions declined 13 per cent.
Nuclear company Exelon under-reported decommissioning costs
Exelon Probed on Nuclear Funding Shortfall, Bloomberg, By Julie Johnsson – Feb 1, 2013 Exelon Corp. (EXC), the largest U.S. nuclear operator, “deliberately” under-reported for four years the amount of money needed to retire its reactors, the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission said.
Exelon, based in Chicago, faces “escalated enforcement action” for the financial reporting errors that may total as much $140,000 for each day of the violation, Scott Burnell, a spokesman for the regulatory agency, said in a phone interview today. The agency asked Exelon to explain the errors for the years 2005-2007 and 2009 in a Jan. 31 letter.
The investigation is “very unusual” and may be the first related to contributions to a federal nuclear decommissioning trust fund, Anneliese Simmons, a financial analyst with the commission’s Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation, said in a phone interview. The shortfall totaled $1 billion in 2009. The company is now in compliance, Simmons said….. http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-02-01/exelon-probed-on-nuclear-funding-shortfall-u-s-says.html
$35 million awarded to Sacramento utility over nuclear waste
Sacramento utility gets $35M in nuclear waste case, SF Gate, February 1, 2013 SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — A federal court has awarded nearly $35 million to the Sacramento Municipal Utility District because of the federal government’s failure to build a permanent home to store nuclear waste.
The utility filed had filed suit in the U.S. Court of Federal Claims, seeking to recover $80 million in payments it was required to make from 1992 to 2009 to eventually house nuclear waste from the closed Rancho Seco plant near Sacramento.
Since Rancho Seco closed in 1989, the utility has been storing the spent fuel because Congress never opened its planned facility at Nevada’s Yucca Mountain….. similar lawsuits have been filed across the country…….
Abandonment of Virginia uranium mining proposal
“This is not just environmentalists,” Jaffe said. “This is small business owners in Southside, it’s farmers, it’s parents of small children, it’s community leaders, it’s physicians — all these disparate voices coming together.”
Environmentalists were joined in their opposition by local grass-root organizers, Virginia’s largest farm lobby, the state’s medical society, municipal and church groups, the NAACP and others
Uranium mining proposal abandoned in Virginia Bloomberg, By Steve Szkotak on January 31, 2013 RICHMOND, Va. (AP)— A proposal to mine uranium in Virginia was abruptly abandoned Thursday in the Legislature, and supporters scrambled to appeal directly to the governor to salvage what would be the first full-scale mining operation of the radioactive ore on the East Coast.
Unable to deliver the votes in the General Assembly, Sen. John Watkins withdrew his legislation to establish state regulations for uranium mining in Southside Virginia, a rural area along the North Carolina state line and home to the largest known deposit of the radioactive ore in the U.S.
Watkins instead asked fellow Republican Gov. Bob McDonnell to use his administrative powers to have state agencies draw up the rules. McDonnell has not taken a position on the divisive issue and his spokesman J. Tucker Martin said the governor was reviewing the request.
Meanwhile, opponents of uranium mining, many of whom had traveled to Richmond for a hearing on the legislation, cheered when Watkins announced his decision.
“This is a resounding — a resounding — victory,” said Cale Jaffe of the Southern Environmental Law Center.
He credited broad opposition to the proposal, which was pitched by the mining company as a job creator in a hard-hit section of the state.
“This is not just environmentalists,” Jaffe said. “This is small business owners in Southside, it’s farmers, it’s parents of small children, it’s community leaders, it’s physicians — all these disparate voices coming together.”……. Continue reading
Urgent need for USA to adopt a new strategy with Iran, as Nixon did with China
The U.S. needs a completely different approach to Iran By Flynt and Hillary Leveret Reuters, JANUARY 31, 2013 As Washington and its great power partners prepare for more nuclear negotiations with Iran, the Obama administration and policy elites across the political spectrum talk as if America is basically in control of the situation. Sanctions, we are told, are inflicting ever-rising hardship on Iran’s economy. Either Tehran will surrender to U.S. demands that it stop enriching uranium or, at some point, the American military will destroy Iranian nuclear installations.
This is a dangerous delusion, grounded in persistent American illusions about Middle Eastern reality. Because of failed wars-cum-occupations in Iraq and Afghanistan; a war on terror that has turned Muslim societies ever more firmly against U.S. policy; and de facto support for open-ended Israeli occupation of Arab populations, America’s position in the region is in free fall.
Increasingly mobilized publics will not tolerate continuation of such policies. If, in this climate, the United States launches another war to disarm yet another Middle Eastern country of weapons of mass destruction it does not have, the blowback against American interests will be disastrous. Nonetheless, that is where our current strategy – negotiating on terms that could not possibly interest Iran while escalating covert operations, cyber-attacks, and economic warfare against it – leads. Continue reading
Deafening silence of the mainstream media about Fukushima
Journalism Professor: Goebbels would smile in his grave to see how nuclear establishment handled disaster — Lots around world will die from Fukushima contamination (AUDIO) http://enenews.com/journalism-professor-goebbels-would-smile-in-his-grave-to-see-how-nuclear-establishment-handled-fukushima-disaster-audio
January 30th, 2013
Update Here: Jiji: Japan plummets in press freedom list — “Almost zero respect for access to information related to Fukushima… Should sound an alarm” -Group
Title: Nuclear Hotseat #85: Journalist Karl Grossman Reveals 40+ Years of Nuke Media Manipulation
Source: Nuclear Hotseat
Date: Jan 29, 2013
Karl Grossman, , Professor of journalism at the State University of New York College at Old Westbury: What we’re undergoing now is a huge coverup […]
There’s nothing. When was the last time you read or heard or saw, regarding mainstream media, any information about Fukushima?
Lots of people are going to end up dead, not just in Japan, but all over the world because of the radioactivity released, continuing to be released […]
The media have been basically silent. I mean Joseph Goebbels, the Nazi propaganda minister, would smile in his grave to see how the nuclear establishment has handled, quite successfully, the Fukushima disaster.
Loan guarantee for Vogtle new nuclear plant – a dangerous waste of tax-payers’ money?
groups that oppose the construction of the Vogtle reactors are arguing that the proposed loan guarantee for the project is “Solyndra-like,” a reference to the scandal over a solar panel manufacturer in California that went bankrupt in 2011 after receiving a $535 million federal guarantee.
the Vogtle project is more than a year behind schedule, they noted. And the owners and the contractor are enmeshed in a $900 million dispute on costs
Nuclear Opponents Invoke Solyndra NYT, By MATTHEW L. WALD, 31 Jan 13, Are new nuclear power plants a good bet for taxpayers? Congress evidently thought so in 2005, when it set aside $17.5 billion in loan guarantees to help restart nuclear construction in this country after a three-decade drought.
The theory at the time was that nuclear power was essential to maintaining diversity in the nation’s electric power system and to cutting carbon dioxide emissions by reducing reliance on fossil fuels. The program was signed into law by President George W. Bush, and President Obama later proposed expanding that program to more than $50 billion.
Eight years later, no actual loans have been made, and opponents of one nuclear project in Georgia are now arguing that none should be, because the risk of default is too high. Continue reading
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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
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