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Buying support for uranium mining

“In Virginia, there are grave concerns about the industry’s ability to manage all of that radioactive and toxic waste,” said Cale Jaffe, a senior attorney at the Southern Environmental Law Center…

Va. company picking up tab for uranium-mining tour, Boston.com, RICHMOND, Va.—A company that wants to mine uranium in Virginia is flying state legislators, local officials and residents to Canada to visit uranium mining and milling operations. By Steve Szkotak, Associated Press / September 7, 2011  

The trip is one of several sponsored by Virginia Uranium Inc. as it lobbies to end a 1982 moratorium on uranium mining so it can tap a 119-million-pound deposit in Southside Virginia. The uranium deposit is believed to be the largest in the U.S. and one of the largest in the world. Continue reading →

September 8, 2011 Posted by | business and costs, USA | Leave a comment

TVA’s Browns Ferry nuclear reactors has safety issues

TVA’s Browns Ferry reactor needs ‘highest level of attention,’ NRC says, September 07, 2011,  ByBudd McLaughlin, The Huntsville Times,  HUNTSVILLE, Alabama –– The Unit 1 reactor at Browns Ferry Nuclear Plant is among two reactors in the country that require the “highest level of attention” from regulators, according to a U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission assessment.

The agency said Tuesday it’s giving Browns Ferry supplemental inspection because of a problem that was discovered with a valve on a cooling system last fall. The increased oversight will include reviews of a number of issues at the Tennessee Valley Authority-operated plant, including its safety culture.

Omaha (Neb.) Public Power’s Fort Calhoun reactor is the other among 104 U.S. reactors, that needs additional inspections to ensure that safety concerns are met, the NRC said in a statement…..

September 8, 2011 Posted by | safety, USA | Leave a comment

Sea level rise threatens nuclear reactors

Although two new reactors at Turkey Point are being built at a higher elevation, Florida Power & Light has requested to keep the two current nukes running until 2035. Given that Hurricane Andrew almost inundated them in 1992, what will happen as oceans continue to rise?

“The standards will be 85 years old by then, and that’s a problem,” says Arnie Gundersen, a Vermont-based nuclear engineer and consultant. “If tidal waves knock out the water pumps” — as they did at the Fukushima reactor in Japan earlier this year — “you can have a meltdown.”…..

Global warming could put Turkey Point nuclear reactors under water, Miami New Times By Michael E. Miller , Sep 8 2011 Warning: Global warming is a fact, and the results are already visible. Hurricanes are getting stronger; droughts and floods are more frequent. In South Florida, waters rose roughly six inches between 1930 and 1981. That might not sound like much, but it’s just the tip of a rapidly melting iceberg. “We are the most vulnerable metropolitan area in the world when it comes to sea-level rise,” University of Miami professor Harold Wanless says. Continue reading →

September 8, 2011 Posted by | climate change, USA | Leave a comment

America’s Koch brothers and Climate Change disinformation

‘Inside the Koch Brothers 2011 Summer Seminar    The Brad Blog,By Brad Friedman on 9/6/2011“……I’ve been working in the background, for a number of weeks, on an exclusive series concerning the billionaire Koch Brothers, the co-owners of the nation’s second largest private corporation, the oil and chemical conglomerate Koch Industries. They are also massive funders behind much of the Rightwing political disinformation machine. The articles, as I can now reveal, cover audio I’ve obtained as recorded from inside their super-secret, super-confidential, invitation-only Summer Seminar held in late June at the tony Ritz-Carlton Beaver Creek Resort near Vail, CO

Among this year’s attendees, in addition to hundreds of corporate baron billionaires and millionaires, were GOP public officials such as current Republican Presidential front-runner Gov. Rick Perry (R-TX), Gov. Bob McDonnell (R-VA) and Gov. Rick Scott (R-FL).

It appears the brothers went to extraordinary measures, particularly on the first night of the event, to assure that none of the uninvited would ever know what went on inside or even who the first night’s keynote speaker actually was.

Nonetheless, a few of their closely guarded secrets are about to spill out.

The first of my two articles in the series is finally published at Mother Jones today.

Part 1 focuses on the opening and closing remarks, as heard on tape, by billionaire brother Charles as he raises still more undisclosed political money and rallies his troops in advance of the 2012 Presidential election — or “the mother of all wars” as he’s heard describing it. On the first night, Charles welcomes his “great partners” to the event, alludes to President Obama as “Saddam Hussein” and proceeds to list — by name — those “partners” who have donated more than a million dollars to the Koch Foundation political causes over the past year. So much for the post-Citizens United“anonymity” that Koch exec Kevin Gentry, the emcee for both evening’s dinners, informs patrons they can “help protect.”

The full audio and text transcript of Charles’ opening and closing remarks are posted here.

In tomorrow’s report, we’ll reveal the identity of that headliner and detail his stem-winder of a keynote! But for now…

• Part 1 of my exclusive report at Mother Jones…
• Complete audio & transcripts of Charles Koch’s opening & closing remarks…
• Transcript excerpts from Judge Andrew Napolitano’s closing night speech…

http://www.bradblog.com/?p=8728

September 7, 2011 Posted by | ENERGY, politics, USA | Leave a comment

Virginia Uranium pays politicians for trip to Canada

Local, state lawmakers flying to Canada as part of lobbying push for uranium mining, Washington Post, 6 Sept 11, By , About 15 local and state lawmakers are flying to Canada this month on all-expenses paid trips as part of an on-going lobbying effort by a company pushing lawmakers to lift a moratorium on uranium mining in the state.

Virginia Uranium invited state legislators and local elected officials from Southside Virginia to visit an active mine in Canada as it looks to mine what is thought to be the largest deposit of uranium in the United States, in south central Virginia.

Larry Campbell, a member of the Danville City Council, said he had planned to go on the two-day trip, but that he changed his mind when some of his constituents told him they thought he was being “bought off.”

Virginia Uranium already sent Sen. Frank W. Wagner (R-Virginia Beach) to Saskatchewan, Canada, this year. The trip is similar to the one about a dozen legislators took this summer to France that came under heavy criticism across the state.

The trips are permissible under Virginia law and must be reported to the state as gifts next year…..

Virginia Uranium hopes to persuade the General Assembly to repeal the nearly three-decade ban on mining at its regular session in January by convincing lawmakers that mining can be done safely. … http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/virginia-politics/post/2011/09/06/gIQAr37P7J_blog.html

September 7, 2011 Posted by | secrets,lies and civil liberties, Uranium, USA | Leave a comment

How USA’s Department of Energy carefully doesn’t investigate health near nuclear sites

Science can send people to the moon, clone sheep, and genetically engineer tomatoes, but it can’t yet determine if the toxic mix of substances released from the nation’s nuclear weapons production sites made anyone around them sick. 

The Isolation of Victims to control the Survey Outcomes – Will they cook the books at Fukushima?, Paul Langley’s Nuclear History Blog,  A PROTOTYPE FOR CONTROLLING THE HEALTH STATISTICS. 6 Sept 11

The Tennessean Special Report – An Investigation into illnesses around US Nuclear Weapons Sites. DOE Survey and programs frustrate the sick. 2006. Energy Department officials say they have tried to help the ill near the nation’s nuclear weapons and research facilities. But some of those attempts have frustrated and infuriated the ill they’re intended to help. Continue reading →

September 6, 2011 Posted by | secrets,lies and civil liberties, USA | Leave a comment

A start to addressing the scandal of Navajo radiation contamination from uranium mining

The cleanup at the Skyline Mine represents not only a reduced risk of exposure for Begay and her family, but marks the first significant remediation of a mine on the country’s largest American Indian reservation where such sites number in the hundreds.

Tests have found gamma radiation activity greater than two times the background level at 80 locations on the site. In the traditional Navajo home where Begay once lived with two of her sons, the radiation levels were up to 100 times the acceptable level. The two sons have died — one of lung cancer and the other from a tumor.

Navajo woman helps prompt uranium mine cleanup, Houston Chronicle, FELICIA FONSECA,   September 5, 2011 MONUMENT VALLEY, Utah (AP) — The stretch of high desert on the Arizona-Utah border gives way to towering rock formations that resemble huge mittens, chimney spires and castles. But to the west of Monument Valley lies a reminder of what has been blamed for much heartache and tragedy in Elsie Mae Begay‘s family: A mesa stained with a gray streak where uranium was mined decades ago. Continue reading →

September 6, 2011 Posted by | indigenous issues, USA, women | Leave a comment

Nuclear company Exelon sued over child’s brain cancer

The demand came about after the parents of a girl sued Exelon claiming their daughter developed brain cancer as a result of living close to the nuclear plant,  Dresden Generating Station in northern Illinois.

Judge Orders Exelon to Divulge Radiation Data in Child Brain Cancer Lawsuit, AllGov – News, -Noel Brinkerhoff, David Wallechinsky, September 03, 2011, Energy company Exelon has been ordered by a federal judge to turn over data regarding radiation leakage from one of its power plants. Continue reading →

September 5, 2011 Posted by | Legal, USA | 1 Comment

Renewable energy a a sound investment for USA

“We will need subsidies for a little while, but not for the indefinite future and we do expect that renewables will, whether it’s going to be competitive 10 years or 20 years from now, it’s going to be on that time scale,” Chu said. “And it will certainly be far less than the amount we needed for other traditional energies, like oil and gas.”….

Congress should see potential in renewable energy and invest in it Las Vegas Sun, , Sept. 4, 2011 Under President Barack Obama’s administration, the federal government has taken a more aggressive stance on developing renewable energy. It has been met with resistance by the fossil fuel industry and its supporters in Congress.

They have groused about the cost of subsidies and tax breaks for renewable energy projects (never mind the billions of dollars a year in handouts the oil industry gets). Continue reading →

September 5, 2011 Posted by | politics, USA | Leave a comment

Nuclear power company Exelon in court over child’s cancer

Plant Must Disclose Data to Fight Cancer Lawsuit, Courthouse News serBy JACK BOUBOUSHIAN CHICAGO (CN), 3 Sept 11 – The parents of a girl who developed brain cancer can access over a decade of data on an Exelon power plant they claim discharged harmful radiation, a federal judge ruled, but the energy giant can withhold certain other information.
Joseph and Cynthia Sauer say their daughter, Sarah, was diagnosed with a medulloblastoma, a highly malignant brain tumor, roughly three years after the family moved to Grundy County, where Exelon operates the Dresden Generating Station and Unitech Services Group has a nuclear facility.
They claim that radioactive discharges from the plants traveled through the groundwater, causing Sarah’s cancer……..
Courthouse News Service

September 5, 2011 Posted by | Legal, USA | Leave a comment

USA Conservative White Males and Climate Change Denial

Cool dudes: The denial of climate change among conservative white males in the United States, Science Direct Aaron M. McCright  and Riley E. Dunlap  Lyman Briggs College, Department of Sociology, Environmental Science and Policy Program, Michigan State University. Department of Sociology, Oklahoma State University

Abstract  

We examine whether conservative white males are more likely than are other adults in the U.S. general public to endorse climate change denial. We draw theoretical and analytical guidance from the identity-protective cognition thesis explaining the white male effect and from recent political psychology scholarship documenting the heightened system-justification tendencies of political conservatives. We utilize public opinion data from ten Gallup surveys from 2001 to 2010, focusing specifically on five indicators of climate change denial. We find that conservative white males are significantly more likely than are other Americans to endorse denialist views on all five items, and that these differences are even greater for those conservative white males who self-report understanding global warming very well. Furthermore, the results of our multivariate logistic regression models reveal that the conservative white male effect remains significant when controlling for the direct effects of political ideology, race, and gender as well as the effects of nine control variables. We thus conclude that the unique views of conservative white males contribute significantly to the high level of climate change denial in the United States.

Highlights

► Conservative white males are more likely than other Americans to report climate change denial. ► Conservative white males who self-report understanding global warming very well are even more likely. ► Climate change denial is an example of identity-protective cognition. ► System-justifying tendencies lead to climate change denial. ► Climate change denial increased from 2001 to 2010……

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S095937801100104X

September 3, 2011 Posted by | climate change, USA | Leave a comment

Rick Perry’s intervention in Texas nuclear waste issue

 

 

billionaire Harold Simmons and his company Waste Control Specialists LLC, which stood to gain millions of dollars from accepting out-of-state shipments. Simmons had donated over $1 million to Perry’s gubernatorial campaigns…. The news of Perry’s intervention in the nuclear-waste issue comes as the governor is climbing the polls in the fight to take on President Barack Obama as the Republican candidate in the U.S. presidential election next year…….

Perry sought to sideline nuclear waste site critic (Reuters),1 Sept 11,  – Texas governor Rick Perry tried to sideline a state commissioner who opposed expanding the scope of a nuclear-waste landfill owned by one of the governor’s biggest political donors, Reuters has learned. Continue reading →

September 2, 2011 Posted by | politics, USA | Leave a comment

Rick Perry a dangerous presidential candidate for USA

a primary caveat of the fiery brand of evangelism he practices, which holds that only Christ, not the law, the government or the collective efforts of passionate and determined individuals, can save the world from utter destruction

Why Rick Perry must never, ever be president,the Philly Post, A CNN/Opinion Research Corporation national poll released on Monday found that Rick Perry now leads the pack among GOP presidential hopefuls, with more than one in four Republican voters saying they would cast a ballot for the longtime Texas governor…… Continue reading →

September 2, 2011 Posted by | politics, USA | Leave a comment

New Apostolic Reformation and Perry for USA President?

what makes the New Apostolic Reformation movement so potent is its growing fascination with infiltrating politics and government. The new prophets and apostles believe Christians—certain Christians—are destined to not just take “dominion” over government, but stealthily climb to the commanding heights of what they term the “Seven Mountains” of society, including the media and the arts and entertainment world.…In Rick Perry, they may have found their vessel. And the interest appears to be mutual

AUDIO  Rick Perry’s Army of God – The Texas Observer    Rick Perry’s Army of God – The Texas Observer, Rick Perry’s Army of GodA little-known movement of radical Christians and self-proclaimed prophets wants to infiltrate government, and Rick Perry might be their man.by Forrest Wilder, August 03, 2011 “…….The pastors told Perry of God’s grand plan for Texas. A chain of powerful prophecies had proclaimed that Texas was “The Prophet State,” anointed by God to lead the United States into revival and Godly government. And the governor would have a special role…… Continue reading →

September 2, 2011 Posted by | Religion and ethics, Resources -audiovicual, USA | 1 Comment

Huge concrete containers of nuclear waste shifted during earthquake

“This indicates that reactors that have these dry casks in these earthquake-prone areas, they’re going to have to do more to protect them from ground motion,”

Quake shifted nuclear storage containers at Virginia plant – The Washington Post, By Brian Vastag,   September 1 Last week’s central Virginia earthquake jolted huge concrete containers holding spent nuclear fuel at the North Anna power plant in Louisa County, Continue reading →

September 2, 2011 Posted by | safety, USA | 1 Comment

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