80 year licenses for USA’s old nuclear reactors?
AUDIO “You won’t believe this”: US nuclear regulator meets to discuss 80-year licenses for old reactors -Expert ) http://enenews.com/you-wont-believe-this-us-nuclear-regulator-meets-to-discuss-80-year-licenses-for-old-reactors-not-just-rolling-the-dice-youre-practically-committing-suicide-expert-video
October 18th, 2012 Title: Interview with David Freeman
Source: IF YOU LOVE THIS PLANET with Dr. Helen Caldicott
Date: Oct. 12, 2012
h/t MsMilkytheclown
David Freeman, a senior advisor with Friends of the Earth’s nuclear campaign […] was appointed chairman of the Tennessee Valley Authority by President Jimmy Carter in 1977, where he stopped the construction of eight large nuclear power plants and pioneered a massive energy conservation program. Subsequently, Freeman served for two decades as general manager of several large public power agencies including the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, the New York Power Authority and the Sacramento Municipal Utility District. He is a renowned expert on clean energy, efficiency and the risks of nuclear power.
David Freeman, former chairman of the Tennessee Valley Authority: And now guess what? The Nuclear Regulatory Commission last Thursday, guess what they met on? You won’t believe this… The subject of the meeting was 80-year licenses for old nuclear power plants […] If you have a plant operating for 80 years [next to an earthquake fault] you’re not just rolling the dice, you’re practically committing suicide […] everyone living within a 50 mile radius is a guinea pig.
USA sends nuclear powered aircraft carrier through South China Sea
US nuclear-powered aircraft carrier cruise through disputed seas
http://www.straitstimes.com/breaking-news/se-asia/story/us-nuclear-powered-aircraft-carrier-cruise-through-disputed-seas-2012102 on a cruise through the South China Sea, projecting its power in waters that are fast becoming a focal point of its strategic rivalry with Beijing.
The USS George Washington’s mission could raise hackles in China, which is locked in disputes with Vietnam, the Philippines and other governments over ownership of islands in the region.
The United States is building economic and military alliances with the smaller nations, which are grateful for American support as a hedge against China’s growing economic and naval power.
On Friday, China held naval exercises in the East China Sea, where it is engaged in a dispute with US ally Japan over the ownership of other islands.
Power line linked to nuclear plant upgrade would cost at least $193 million Journal Sentinel 18 Oct 12 A high-voltage power line in Sheboygan, Manitowoc and possibly Calumet counties will cost $193 million to $262 million, depending on the route selected.
American Transmission Co. this week filed an application with state regulators to build the line, which is needed to help accommodate the increased power output from the Point Beach Nuclear Plant…. http://www.jsonline.com/blogs/business/174789691.html
US marines try to deal with dangers of ionising radiation
Marines learn how to detect invisible threat during course DVIDS 18 Oct 12 CAMP LEJEUNE, N.C. – Deadly radiation kills if it goes undetected, so it falls upon specially trained Marines to alert units of the unseen danger.
More than 30 Marines from various units within the 2nd Marine Logistics Group learned how to counter radiation by using the AN/PDR-77 during the Monitor Survey Reconnaissance Course here, from Oct. 15 to 18.
“Every unit is responsible for having a select number of Marines who are certified with this equipment,” said Sgt. Steven D. Potts, a chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear defense specialist with Combat Logistics Regiment 27, 2nd MLG.
It could possibly save the lives of many servicemembers, he added.
CBRN defense specialists trained the Marines to use the AN/PDR-77, a small, box-shaped sensor that detects alpha, beta, gamma and X-ray radiation.
“This [course] provides a tool for the commanding officer if we ever face a CBRN attack,” said Sgt. Jason L. Stacy, a CBRN defense specialist with CLR-27, 2nd MLG. “These reconnaissance teams can find the extent of the contamination or radiation, what type of chemical is present or how much radiation is present, and we can use the area or find a clean route through or around it.” http://www.dvidshub.net/news/96383/marines-learn-detect-invisible-threat-during-course#.UIG0yW_A9dM#ixzz29mIcEJOX
In a grid connected solar power system, a solar inverter converts the DC electricity generated by solar panels into AC electricity suitable for use by home appliances and for exporting to the mains grid. Continue reading
MIchigan -Calls for temporary ‘hardened on-site storage’ of nuclear waste
“Users pay as taxpayers, too – for dry storage,” AP said. “Utilities that have run out of storage space in pools successfully sued the federal government for breach of contract, because it failed to keep to the 1998 deadline to establish long-term storage. By law, the money for dry casks cannot come from the nuclear waste fund, and must come from the federal budget.”
“We can’t keep generating more and more of this waste,” said Jackson, “It’s not socially responsible.”
Published: Monday, October 15, 2012
By Jim Bloch, Voice Reporter
They oppose reprocessing spent nuclear fuel rods. They are critical of current methods of storing high level nuclear waste in cooling pools and dry casks.What do they propose to do with the more than 68,000 tons of spent fuel in the U.S. as of 2009, according to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, which is growing by 2,000-2,400 tons per year?
The short answer is hardened on-site storage of used fuel rods.
Eternal danger
The problem with high level nuclear waste is that it remains dangerously radioactive for hundreds of thousands, sometimes millions of years.
“Spent nuclear fuel is about 95 percent uranium,” said a 2011 AP report. “About 1 percent are other heavy elements such as curium, americium and plutonium-239, best known as fuel for nuclear weapons. Each has an extremely long half-life” – the time it takes to lose half its radioactivity – “(and) some take hundreds of thousands of years to lose all of their radioactive potency. The rest, about 4 percent, is a cocktail of byproducts of fission that break down over much shorter time periods, such as cesium-137 and strontium-90, which break down completely in about 300 years.”
Indian Point nuclear power plant – many want it shut down
Nuclear Power Debate Heats Up in NYCs Backyard: Relicensing Controversy Intensifies AOL Energy By Jared Anderson October 16, 2012 The battle lines have been drawn for years, but the fight over nuclear power’s risks and benefits reached a new stage in New York this week where issues including public safety, reliability, the environment and ratepayer costs are being disputed. Continue reading
Hearings drag on about Indian Point nuclear waste dump
Indian Point Hearings: It’s Down the Rabbit Hole Entergy Watches as Boron Degrades, Counter Punch by JOHN RAYMOND, 8 Oct 12 Will New York State have any more success in shutting down Entergy’s Indian Point nuclear waste dump on the Hudson River than Vermont has had, so far, in its battle to close Entergy’s Yankee plant that befouls the landmark Connecticut River?
Don’t bet on it. But stay tuned.
Recall that Yankee was relicensed last year without a hitch despite: a long and continuing history of radioactive leaks, shutdowns, and slipshod maintenance that caused, most stunningly, the collapse of a cooling tower in 2007; a perjury investigation by the state Attorney General triggered after Entergy officers lied to state authorities that Yankee had no underground pipes that carried radioactive water (it does), and, last but hardly least, the Vermont Senate’s celebrated vote in 2010 to shut the plant down.
The five commissioners on the Nuclear Regulatory Commission would hear none of it. Their unanimous vote to extend the 40-year-old plant’s license for another 20 years came less than two weeks after the nuclear catastrophe in Japan raised new fears in the U.S. where 23 reactors, including Yankee, operate with same flawed GE design (identified and covered up by federal nuclear regulators beginning in the early 1970s) that failed in the triple meltdown at the Fukushima plant and released over four times the amount of cesium-137 than was released in the 1986 Chernobyl disaster. Continue reading
The nuclear fusion dream – ever elusive
Fusion: Maybe Less Than 30 Years, But This Year Unlikely Bill Chameides Dean, Duke University’s Nicholas School of the Environment, August 2012 No ignition at the U.S. National Ignition Facility , home to the world’s largest laser….. Scientists have been thinking about how to bring this game changer into the energy game for decades. (See fusion/fission timeline .) As far back as 1946, two British scientists — Sir George Paget Thomson and Moses Blackman — filed the first patent for a fusion power plant .
But there have been a couple of hold-ups . To get a fusion reaction started, you need to slam the hydrogen atoms together really, really hard and that requires a lot of energy. (In a hydrogen bomb, the fusion reaction gets ignited by an atomic bomb, using fission. Not exactly the preferred method for your local fusion power plant.)
Even trickier is controlling the fusion reaction. It’s one thing to make a fusion bomb, it’s a lot harder to get the reaction going and keep it under control in a way that the amount of energy extracted is larger than that expended to initiate and manage the reaction.
Over the almost 70-year pursuit of the fusionary holy grail, it’s been fairly common for scientists working on the problem to say that they’re about 30 years away from achieving a power plant based on fusion. (See here and here .) The problem has been that while time has marched on, the 30-year horizon has remained fixed. Suffice to say it has proven to be a very tough problem…. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/bill-chameides/fusion-maybe-less-than-30_b_1949573.html
Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s sham review of San Onofre nuclear plant
Activists Say Feds Conducting Sham Nuke Review
http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/nrc-damaged-calif-nuke-plant-face-long-review-17427917#.UHXEcS7A9dM By MICHAEL R. BLOOD Associated Press LOS ANGELES October 9, 2012 Environmentalists accused federal regulators Tuesday of conducting a bogus review of a proposal to restart the damaged San Onofre nuclear power plant on the California coast.
Just days after Southern California Edison asked the Nuclear Regulatory Commission for permission to repair and start the Unit 2 reactor, then run it at reduced power, the agency is facing pressure from groups critical of the nuclear power industry to initiate a
review that could take months or even years to complete.
The NRC is “denying the public any meaningful voice” in the review to restart the plant, which has been shuttered since January, Friends of the Earth, the Natural Resources Defense Council and the Committee to Bridge the Gap said in a joint statement. Continue reading
Legal action against owners of Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station
Activists plan to sue Mass. nuclear plant owner Boston.com AP / October 9, 2012 PLYMOUTH, Mass. (AP) — Massachusetts activists have announced plans to
sue the owners of the Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station for what they say is the continuous pollution of Cape Cod Bay over the last 16 years. Continue reading
$660 billion for USA’s nuclear arsenal
“Our estimate includes costs to maintain and modernize our existing nuclear arsenal, pay for missile defense programs, support the environmental and health costs associated with past and current nuclear weapons programs, and continue nuclear threat reduction programs.”
America’s nuclear tab nearing $660 billion, new report says http://e-ring.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2012/10/08/america s_nuclear_tab_nearing_660_billion_new_report_says By Kevin Baron –The cost of American’s nuclear arsenal is projected to reach as much as $661 billion over the next decade, a new report claims.
The report, released Oct. 7 by Ploughshares Fund, a group that advocates nuclear disarmament, says its estimate ranges from $620 billion, if defense spending stays below inflation, to as high as $661 billion if defense spending keeps pace with inflation.
A closer look at those numbers, though, shows that nuclear costing is more art than science, given factors like the secretive nature of the field, unknowable future costs in fuel or aircraft, and the budgetary whims of Congress. Continue reading
California Health Department not happy with Treasure Island’s radiation status
The Navy has yet to explain the significance of a 1965 report that described how “radioactive and poisonous wastes had been buried west of the abandoned landing strip in a future construction area.”
Navy’s Treasure Island Radiation Report Found Wanting NBC Bay Area 8 Oct 12 The Navy’s report is part of the process of turning the military land over to the city of San Francisco, which has approved construction of 8,000 homes there. By Matt Smith | Monday, Oct 8, 2012 Recent U.S. Navy explanations for widespread readings of radioactivity on the former Treasure Island Naval Station don’t adequately explore the possibility that the base might have been dusted for years with radioactive ash, soaked with radioactive sewage and contaminated by radioactive garbage, California health regulators said today. Continue reading
Seabrook nuclear relicensing could be stalled by Federal legislation
“Allowing the NRC to give a 60-year-long clean bill of health to reactors that are in their nuclear adolescence, especially one with documented safety issues such as Seabrook, is like allowing a doctor to assure a 20-year-old smoker they will never get lung cancer,”
Bill could delay Seabrook nuclear plant relicensing Seacoastonline By Shir Haberman October 08, 2012 SEABROOK — The approval of a 20-year extension of the Seabrook Station nuclear power plant’s operating license could be delayed until 2020 if a bill proposed by two Democratic federal legislators from Massachusetts is approved by Congress.
HR 6554 filed by Reps. Edward Markey and John Tierney would prohibit the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission from granting a license extension to any current nuclear plant licensee that applies for it more than 10 years prior to the expiration of its current license.
Seabrook Station has already petitioned the NRC for a 20-year extension of its operating license, which will not expire until 2030. Continue reading
Halifax County Chamber opposes uranium mining in Southern Virginia
Chamber adopts anti-uranium resolution Halifax County Chamber of Commerce Board of Directors has gone on record adamantly opposing uranium mining in the commonwealth. Gazette Virginian 7 Oct 12, 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
Say No to NASA’s Reckless Nuclear Reactor on the Moon
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