Iowa pro nuclear Bill scrapes in by just one Senate vote
Iowa Senate panel passes nuclear power bill, Des Moines Register, Mar. 14, 2012 A bill that could lead to nuclear power expansion in Iowa passed by one vote in a Senate committee Tuesday, and opponents said there would be election consequences for legislators who supported it.
A spokesman for seniors group AARP, one of the most aggressive foes of the bill, told The Des Moines Register that the organization would soon unveil a voter education program complete with a website to highlight how each lawmaker voted on the issue. Continue reading
Kids get a sanitised tour of Hanford nuclear plant
The Stories Kids Touring Hanford’s Nuclear Plant Won’t Get to Hear, Seattle Weekly, By Johnathon Fitzpatrick ., Mar. 13 2012 Washington’s Hanford nuclear facility is home to the world’s worst radioactive dump site. This year for the first time ever, the Department of Energy is allowing school kids to tour the world’s original production-scale nuclear reactor, but there are plenty of secrets which the tour guide probably won’t mention.
Last fall, we published a cover story that looked at the boondoggle that is the massive cleanup of the nuclear dump site, with a follow up on what an environmental crisis at Hanford would look like. Then, last month, we published another cover story about whistleblowers crying foul over the institutional problems within Hanford management . Given all that coverage, here are some facts about Hanford you likely won’t hear on the tour: Continue reading
Indigenous opposition to uranium mining in Grand Canyon
Grand Canyon Uranium Mining Ban Defended By Havasupai Tribe, Conservation Coalition ENews Park Forest, , 13 MARCH 2012 Denver, CO– Arizona’s Havasupai Tribe joined conservation groups joined in filing legal papers on Monday to defend the U.S. Department of the Interior’s 20-year ban on new uranium mining claims across 1 million acres of public lands adjacent to the Grand Canyon. Uranium pollution already plagues the Grand Canyon and surrounding area. Proposals for new mining have prompted protests, litigation and proposed legislation. (Neil Jacklin) Continue reading
Health problems secondary to radiation therapy
New Report: Cancer and CVD After Radiation Therapy Medscape , Nick Mulcahy March 13, 2012 — Second cancers and cardiovascular disease (CVD) after radiotherapy are being experienced by “an ever-growing number of cancer survivors,” according to the authors of a national report published in the March 7 issue of the Journal of the National Cancer Institute. Continue reading
New computer spy malaware targets U.S. military computers
New malware preys on Iran nuclear weapons tension, msnbc, 13 March 12, Researchers: China-based hackers goal is to corrupt US military computers Chinese cybercriminals have crafted a sophisticated, robust malware attack that exploits growing political tension and fear over Iran’s alleged covert nuclear weapons program to infect PCs.
The goal of the hackers is to corrupt the computers of U.S. military employees, according to researchers from the security firm Bitdefender , who detected the malware.
Calling it “the perfect firebomb,” the China-borne malware embeds itself in an email with an attached Microsoft Word document titled “Iran’s Oil and Nuclear Situation.doc.” The document, Bitdefender explained, contains an Adobe Shockwave Flash applet that attempts to get the recipients to load a fake YouTube video. While the rigged video (an .mp4 file) loads, the malware exploits an Adobe Flash flaw that sneaks an executable file into the initial Word document.
If it sounds complicated, that’s the point, Bitdefender’s Bogdan Botezatu said. “The operation is covert: the MP4 file triggering the exploit is streamed from the Web, which means the PC will be exploited by the time an anti-virus would generally scan a file,” he wrote. “Further, the malicious file delivered inside the doc file (us.exe) has multiple
layers of obfuscation to dodge detection.”
Once the malware is implanted on a victim’s computer, it communicates with a command-and-control server in China. Carefully crafted exploits aimed at military targets are nothing new; a November congressional report outlined state-sponsored cybercrime missions carried out by Chinese and Russian criminals against U.S. government agencies……
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/46722543/ns/technology_and_science-security/#.T2EiZ8WPX_M
Dangerous fire at Fort Calhoun nuclear plant
NRC: Nebraska nuclear plant fire was serious threat, Boston Globe, By Josh Funk | ASSOCIATED PRESS MARCH 13, 2012, OMAHA – A fire that briefly knocked out the cooling system for used fuel at an idled Nebraska nuclear plant last June represented a serious safety threat, federal regulators said Monday. Continue reading
Compensation for uranium workers afflicted by radiation
some of the workers who were exposed to radiation in those eight years would pay the price
decades later….
the Energy Employees Occupational Illness Compensation Program has paid $7.8 billion in medical bills and compensation to 151,095 individuals.
Radiation workers sought by program May be compensated if Cold War-era job involved uranium Dan Stockman | The Journal Gazette, March 11, 2012 FORT WAYNE – The work lasted only eight years, but the effects scarred a generation for decades. Continue reading
Iowa residents might have to take the financial risks of planned nuclear power plant
opens the door for MidAmerican to charge customers rather than fund a significant portion of a project with their own capital.
“It shifts the risk from the shareholder to the ratepayer,”
Lawmakers question if nuclear bill helps customers, The Gazette, 11 March 12, DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Iowa lawmakers could take action this week on a bill allowing MidAmerican Energy to seek permission from regulators to move forward with a nuclear power plant, but some are still questioning if the measure would hurt customers.
The measure would allow MidAmerican to ask the Iowa Utilities Board for a rate increase from the company’s customers to fund the cost of permitting, licensing, and building a plant. Costs for such a project have been estimated at $2 billion. Continue reading
USA must not let Israel push it into attacking Iran
1. There is no hard evidence that Iran is building a bomb…..
2. Bombing Iran would probably be illegal….
3. America doesn’t need another war. ….
4. Bombing Iran could destroy the citizens’ rampant pro-America feelings. ….
5. Diplomacy, not military action, is still the best option….
5 Reasons the U.S. Should Not Bomb Iran, Sorry, Israel. Americans aren’t ready for another war. The Philly Post, Christopher Moraff, 8 Mar 12, Less than a year after publicly lecturing Barack Obama on the subject of Palestinian statehood, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was back in Washington over the weekend, determined to convince the American president and congressional lawmakers that a preemptive military strike offers the last, best hope for stopping the Iranian regime from acquiring a nuclear weapon.
Bibi’s full-court press included a speech before the powerful American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) where—to the sound of rattling sabers—he drew parallels to the Holocaust and insisted: “I will never let my people live in the shadow of annihilation.”
Pro-Israel groups, meanwhile, are using the debate over what to do about Iran’s nuclear program to delegitimize President Obama while waging a smear campaign against critics of a preemptive strike.
They’re joined by three of the four Republican candidates for president, who interrupted their Super Tuesday campaigning just long enough to engage in a bit of politicized fear-mongering. Mitt Romney took the cake with his ludicrous assessment that, “If Barack Obama gets re-elected, Iran will have a nuclear weapon.”…
Cover-up of nuclear collusion between USA and Japan at Fukushima
Prime Minister Naoto Kan has yet to disclose the truth behind his more disturbing decisions: first, the absence of stenographers and voice recordings at his emergency Cabinet meetings;
The high-level cover-up and lab analysis of cesium-isotope ratios indicate the Japanese nuclear establishment was illegally involved in the reprocessing of weapons-grade uranium at Fukushima No. 1 and probably two other civilian nuclear plants in northern Japan.
The collaboration between Washington and Tokyo in a covert 
nuclear-weapons program was a violation of international law
The World is Powerless Against Fukushima Fallout, Hyphen Submitted by New America Media, March 8, 2012 by Yoichi Shimatsu “……..Public at Risk From Official Silence At the molecular level inside a biological cell, gamma-ray bombardment rewrites the genetic code contained in the chromosomes, scrambling the elegant poetry of life into gibberish.
Since leukemia, cancers and birth defects can be falsely attributed to other disorders, the governments of North America, Europe and Asia along with international agencies can be counted on to remain silent or mount campaigns of misdiagnosis to protect their nuclear power and weapons programs, along with their food and travel industries. Bureaucrats, at heart and out of self-interest, are cowards. Continue reading
With or without tax credits, renewable energy is set to grow
renewable energy production will more than double by 2035 even without federal tax credits.
Renewable Energy Industry Poised for Growth Regardless of Tax Credits Market Watch, , NEW YORK, NY, Mar 08, 2012 –– Clean energy stocks have struggled considerably over the last month as concerns about a loss of subsidies and tax credits have led to growth concerns. The PowerShares Wilderhill Clean Energy Portfolio (PBW) is down more than 13 percent over the last month.
Despite the downswing, a recent report from the Energy Information Agency argues that renewable energy production is poised for growth regardless of tax credits. Continue reading
77% of Americans want government loans for renewable energy, not nuclear
More than three out of four Americans (77 percent) would support “a shift of federal loan-guarantee support for energy away from nuclear reactors” in favor of wind and solar power.
Survey: Americans Not Warming Up to Nuclear Power One Year After Fukushima, Market Watch, WASHINGTON, March 7, 2012 Contrary to Industry Predictions, Reactor Disaster Seen As Having a”Lasting Chill” on Perceptions;
It’s Not All Fukushima: 3 in 5 Americans Less Supportive Due to Woes of U.S. Nuclear Industry in Last Year. Continue reading
Santa Susanna’ s radiation pollution from 1959 nuclear accident
Santa Susanna pollution data raises more questions about long term radiation than it answers, 89.3 KPCC, March 6, 2012 | By Molly Peterson I did a short story today about the former Santa Susanna Field Laboratory site, where Rocketdyne and others once had operations, and where in 1959 a nuclear accident released far more radioactive material than Three Mile Island. I don’t just hang out on the EPA’s website, or at the gates of that property. Instead, I heard about the data release from State Senator Julia Brownley’s release yesterday :
“This confirms what we were worried about,” said Assemblywoman Julia Brownley, D-Oak Park, a long-time leader in the fight for a complete and thorough cleanup of this former Rocketdyne rocket engine testing laboratory. “This begins to answer critical questions about what’s still up there, where, how much, and how bad?”
Brownley’s release asserts that the new samples collected are up to 1000 times higher than the “radiation trigger levels” approved by state and federal officials in 2010, when state officials reached agreements deemed, at the time, “historic,” with NASA and the Department of Energy for cleanups. Continue reading
Radiation therapy – necessary, but can cause secondary cancers
Younger patients are especially susceptible to the effects of radiation, and the three cancers that have been most strongly associated with radiation are breast cancer, thyroid cancer and bone marrow cancers, including leukemia
Clinicians say the benefits of radiation treatment for many types of cancer far outweigh the potential risks of experiencing serious adverse effects years later, and say radiation is now a lot safer than it once was. …. “We try to use radiation as sparingly as possible, but unfortunately, it is frequently part of the cure in a lot of cancers and it’s absolutely necessary,”
Radiation Therapy Linked to Secondary Cancers KBOI News, 7 March 12, (NEW YORK) — While the number of cancer survivors has tripled since the 1970s and continues to grow, the cost of that survival for many has been the development of secondary cancers and cardiovascular disease related to radiation treatment, according to an upcoming report by a scientific committee. Continue reading
Virginia – hasty uranium regulations, behind closed doors
Activists urge caution on regulations for uranium mining, Virgnia Politics, 03/07/2012, By Anita Kumar As Gov. Bob McDonnell’s administration begins developing regulations for uranium mining, some activists are expressing concerns about the process.
In a letter to the administration, representatives of the Piedmont Environmental Council, Virginia League of Conservation Voters and Sierra Club say they worry that the regulations, which are supposed to be written over the next year, will be done too quickly, behind closed doors and with little input from the public.
Another group of business leaders from Southside Virginia called for additional data instead before the regulations are developed. In January, McDonnell (R) recommended that the state further study the impact of excavating a site in Southside Virginia that contains the nation’s largest known uranium deposit before lifting a mining ban.
He created a multi-agency group — comprised of staff from the Virginia Department of Health, the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality and Virginia Department of Mines, Minerals and Energy — to study the site and draft regulations for a possible new mining industry in Virginia. The group will accept public comments during four open meetings and on a new Web site ….. Environmental groups — worried that a uranium mine in Virginia’s relatively rainy climate could contaminate natural resources, cause illness and have long-term effects on plants and animals — are disappointed that McDonnell wants to begin preparing regulations….. http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/virginia-politics/post/activists-urge-caution-on-regulations-for-uranium-mining/2012/03/07/gIQAwJpYxR_blog.html
1 This Month
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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