Centennial uranium project not likely to go ahead
Powertech USA President Richard Clement said earlier this year that the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant disaster in Japan shook the uranium market enough to give Powertech pause when considering the future of the Centennial Project.
Powertech writes off millions after uranium mine land deal collapses, Coloradoan.com. 11 Aug 11, Powertech Uranium Corp. has written off $2.3 million it lost when a Centennial Project land deal with two Northern Colorado landowners fell through in June. Continue reading
USA’s radioactive nuclear waste piles up, with no plan in sight
dispose of the waste, which remains radioactive for hundreds if not thousands of years. But legal fights, transportation concerns and a prevailing not-in-my-backyard mentality have blocked solutions.In fact, no federal money is available anyway. The Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday that since the Balanced Budget and Emergency Deficit Control Act of 1985, Congress and successive administrations have funneled a $25 billion disposal fund into the government’s general coffers.
Because Washington failed to start taking spent fuel as promised beginning in 1998, utilities are suing it to cover their additional storage costs, the Journal reported. Legal fees are $16.2 billion and counting.
After spending billions to dig a dry-cask storage facility in the Nevada desert, Washington has, for now, scrapped that plan. Last month, the Blue Ribbon Commission on America’s Nuclear Future declared that the U.S. nuclear-waste disposal program has “all but broken down.” …
19 legal challenges against relicensing of nuclear reactors
The contentions filed with the NRC address reactors at nuclear facilities nationwide, including 11 plants in the South: the Tennessee Valley Authority’s Watts Bar plant in Rhea County, Tenn. and its Bellefonte plant in Hollywood, Ala.; SCE&G’s Summer plant near Jenkinsville, S.C.; NRG’s South Texas plant near Bay City; Luminant’s Comanche Peak plant southwest of Dallas; Southern Co./Georgia Power’s Vogtle plant in Burke County, Ga.; FP&L’s Turkey Point plant south of Miami; Progress Energy’s Levy County plant in Florida and its Shearon Harris plant in Wake County, N.C.; Dominion’s North Anna plant in Louisa County, Va.; and Duke Energy’s Lee plant in Cherokee County, S.C
Concerns grow over risk of U.S. nuclear projects post-Fukushima, Facing South, By Sue Sturgis on August 11, 2011 The disaster at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant in Japan is still unfolding five months later, with multiple meltdowns and significant radiation releases contaminating communities and farms downwind from the facility. Some nuclear experts are calling it “the biggest industrial catastrophe in the history of mankind.”
The Fukushima accident is also raising questions about the U.S. nuclear industry’s current plans to build new reactors and re-license old ones.
Today, environmental and public-interest advocacy groups filed 19 legal challenges that ask the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission to put the brakes on reactor licensing until it fully incorporates into its regulatory process the lessons learned from Fukushima. Continue reading
U.S. taxpayers to pay nuclear build costs, and nuclear waste costs
Nuclear Power Boosts Bills and Piles On Radioactive Waste, Florida PSC to consider more rate hikes for nuke projects at FPL and Progress Energy, Kenric Ward, Sunshine State News, August 10, 2011 For an energy source once touted as too cheap to meter, nuclear power bills sure are piling up. U.S. taxpayers are on the hook for a growing, multibillion-dollar tab to dispose of tons of radioactive waste and Florida’s two biggest utilities are seeking another round of rate increases to help pay for new reactors. Continue reading
Soothing propaganda promotes uranium mining in Virginia
Uranium Safe to Eat With a Spoon!, OpEd News.com by David Swanson, 11 Aug 11, Carefully ignoring Fukushima, Los Alamos, Vermont, and Nebraska, a comforting new announcement informs us that “nuclear energy is safe.” A series of soothing television ads and videostells us that mining uranium in Virginia would produce jobs and protect us from scary foreigners.
Virginia newspapers carried an article from theAssociated Press this week that did not pretend to be anything but one-sided, reporting on the agenda of corporations that would profit from mining uranium while including no other views or any verified facts. The Washington Post did the very same thing. These articles are essentially press releases that have been tweaked. The online versions even include the videos.
We can expect even less actual news reporting than that (yes, less than nothing) to come through our televisions. But these ads hyping uranium mining as a job solution will be aired. And the television networks will consequently view the mining corporations as customers not to be needlessly offended or inconvenienced……
Thousands of years of danger, to provide what the uranium mining companies claim might be 65 years of uranium use. That seems like the kind of deal only a U.S. president could consider a bargain. Let’s hope Virginia still has more life left in it than Washington. http://www.opednews.com/articles/Uranium-Safe-to-Eat-With-a-by-David-Swanson-110809-895.html
USA Dept of Energy grants money to spin Nuclear as climate change solution
The goal is for the United States to use the nuclear industry to cut carbon emissions and create new green energy jobs……
DOE awards $1.09M grant to CSU nuclear energy project, coloradoan.com 10 Aug 11, A Colorado State University statistics professor’s nuclear energy modeling project has been awarded a $1.09 million federal grant, part of a program aimed at developing nuclear energy technology at universities across the country. Continue reading
USA govt report – renewable energy outstrips nuclear
Renewable Energy Consumption Passes Nuclear, Earth Techling, by Steve Duda, August 9th, 2011 Renewable energy consumption in the United States recently exceeded current and historical consumption levels for nuclear energy, a government study reports.
According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, during the first quarter of this year a combination of nuclear outages related to plants shutting down for refueling and the start of the high water season for hydropower generation caused the shift in consumption. Seasonal variations in renewable energy, said the EIA, ”are dominated by the annual cycle of water availability for hydroelectric power production. Hydropower constitutes a significant yet highly variable portion of total renewable energy consumption, accounting for 31% of renewable energyconsumption in 2010.”
Joining this is a multi-year upward trend in renewable consumption driven by increasing consumption of biofuels and wind capacity additions. In the context of this study, renewable energy consumption is defined beyond electric power generation from hydro, wind, solar, and geothermalsources. Sources including biofuels for transportation (such as ethanol and biodiesel) and biomass (such as wood and wood wastes) for space heating and industrial steam production as well as for electric power generation are counted as renewable resources……http://www.earthtechling.com/2011/08/renewable-energy-consumption-passes-nuclear/
Nuclear Regulatory Commission more interested in its processes than in public safety
“the current commission’s preoccupation with process at the expense of nuclear safety policy.”
U.S. nuclear regulator tied up by process: chairman– By Roberta Rampton, WASHINGTON Aug 10, 2011 (Reuters) – The chairman of the U.S. nuclear regulator said his own commission is hamstrung by an inefficient, “flawed voting system” which distracts from its job of ensuring safety at the country’s power plants. Continue reading
USA to cut social welfare, health, but increase spending on nuclear weapons
Some say Social Security and Medicare are under the gun, yet nobody’s talking about the $185 Billion increase to “modernize” America’s Nuclear arsenal and delivery systems…..
President ‘Nuclear Free World’ Obama and the Tea Party have resurrected policies that led to America’s First Great Depression.
The FY 2012 budget for the National Nuclear Security Administration includes 7.6 billion for nuclear weapons research and production.
66 Years of Nuclear Insanity and Real Change will do US good, Eileen Fleming Salem-News.com (CLERMONT, Fla.) 8 August 11, – This August 6th and 9th mark the 66th anniversaries of the most brutal acts of terrorism upon innocent people; America’s atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
It has been spun ad’nauseum those actions “saved thousands of American lives” but the Pentagon and White House knew that Japan was ready to surrender and all they wanted was to “save face” and retain their emperor.
But the Manhattan Project was the steamroller for the Industrial Military Complex Continue reading
USA to spend $185 billion on nuclear weapons
How to Save a Quarter of a Trillion Dollars, HUFFINGTON POST, Lawrence Wittner, 8 Aug 11 In the midst of the current stampede to slash federal spending, Congress might want to take a look at two unnecessary (and dangerous) “national security” programs that, if cut, would save the United States over a quarter of a trillion dollars over the next decade.
The first of these is the Obama administration’s plan to spend at least $185 billion in the next ten years to “modernize” the U.S. government’s nuclear weapons arsenal. At present, the U.S. government possesses approximately 8,500 nuclear warheads, and it is hard to imagine that this country would be safer from attack if it built more nuclear weapons or “improved” those it already possesses. Indeed, President Barack Obama has declared — both on the 2008 campaign trail and as President – that he is committed to building a world without nuclear weapons. This seems like a perfectly sensible position — one favored by most nations and, as polls show, most people (including most people in the United States). Therefore, the administration should be working on securing further disarmament agreements — not on upgrading the U.S. nuclear arsenal in preparation for future nuclear confrontations and nuclear wars…….
by scrapping plans for nuclear weapons “modernization” and for national missile defense — programs that are both useless and provocative — the United States would save $271 billion (well over a quarter of a trillion dollars) in the next ten years. Whether used to balance the budget or to fund programs for jobs, healthcare, education, and the environment, this money would go a long way toward resolving some of the nation’s current problems.– …http://www.huffingtonpost.com/lawrence-wittner/budget-cuts-nuclear-missile_b_921157.html
Solar energy becoming cheaper than coal
it’s too bad our elected leaders see no value in spurring the next generation of energy technology rather than preserving tax cuts for oil and coal companies that are making record profits
5 breakthroughs that will make solar power cheaper than coal, Mother Nature Network, Karl Burkart, 8 Aug 11 Solar technology charges forward despite Washington’s backward march. Continue reading
Climate Change Increases Nuclear Danger
In the coming months, you’re going to hear presidential candidates talk about climate change. You probably won’t hear them say much about nuclear safety. But the two are inextricably linked. A warmer climate leads to more severe storms, which increases the chances of a Japan-style nuclear meltdown…..Either we need to get out of the nuclear energy business or reduce our greenhouse gas emissions — or both.-
Climate change, nuclear power risks linked, Sun Sentinel August 05, 2011|By Anthony Orlando
The Japanese tsunami was a freak occurrence. Once in a thousand years. It can’t happen to our nuclear power plants.
But freak occurrences are happening more often nowadays. Continue reading
Radioactive leakage causes shutdown of nuclear plant
Nine Mile Point nuclear plant shuts down, WSJ 8 Aug 11, SCRIBA, N.Y. — Officials at Constellation Energy are investigating a leakage in a containment structure that caused the shutdown of the Nine Mile Point Unit 2 reactor on Lake Ontario over the weekend.
The Oswego Palladium-Times reports that the reactor remained shut down Sunday after a “higher-than-normal leakage” was discovered inside the facility’s drywell (http://bit.ly/qVJmf3 ). The incident was classified as an “unusual event,” the lowest level of nuclear power plant emergencies.
Constellation Energy Nuclear Group spokeswoman Jill Lyon said the drywell is the containment structure surrounding the reactor vessel and associated piping. She said the reactor will remain shut down until the necessary repairs and post maintenance testing are finished.
Neil Sheehan of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission said it appears the source of the leakage is a valve on a recirculation pump…http://online.wsj.com/article/AP9933d2a7fcba4ef0b37c9e1384b212de.html
$196 million in advance for nukes that might never be built!
FPL to ask customers to pay $196 million to plan nukes, Sun Sentinel By Julie PatelAugust 8, 2011 Florida Power & Light wants to charge customers $196 million next year for costs to plan nuclear projects that may not be built…. FPL has proposed expanding four existing reactors and building two new ones. The proposed expansions still require approvals from federal and state agencies.
“I think it’s the paying in advance that I resent without something concrete in the making,” said Emily Doucette, a retiree in Pompano Beach…..
Critics plan to raise several key issues:
Cost-overruns. FPL should not have abandoned getting bids “with price-assured contracts” and other traditional construction practices meant to control costs for construction work related to the proposed expansions of four existing reactors, according to the Office of Public Counsel, the state’s advocate for utility customers. FPL implemented this “fast-tracked” approach to meet it goals for completion but the consumer advocate’s office argues that the move is leading to “rapidly increasing estimates of the cost to complete the…the projects” and they may end up costing more than FPL’s alternative plan, not to do them.
Transparency. The consumer advocate’s office also recommends that the PSC fine FPL a penalty for allegedly violating a rule that requires utilities to report estimated nuclear planning costs if they want to charge customers for them.
An investigator hired by FPL found last year that the utility provided “inaccurate and incomplete” information to regulators about the growing costs of its nuclear expansions. The consumer advocate’s office examined the issue itself and found that FPL’s cost estimates increased by $444 million in the months before it testified on costs but it did not report the changes….
Uncertainty. Both FPL and Progress Energy Florida are allegedly violating a rule that requires utilities that want to charge customers for nuclear planning costs to have a clear intent to build them, according to the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy. Last year, both utilities announced “delaying major capital expenditures” to build new reactors last year – and instead, said they would focus on the getting the required licenses – because of the uncertainty involved, SACE wrote to the PSC.
The Florida Industrial Power Users Group, a group that represents consumers that are businesses, said utilities should prove the projects are the most reasonable and cost-effective way to serve customers…..http://weblogs.sun-sentinel.com/business/realestate/housekeys/blog/2011/08/fpl_to_ask_customers_to_pay_19.html
The lies that produced the atomic bombing of hiroshima
Truman referred in his diary to “the telegram from Jap Emperor asking for peace.”………The United States Strategic Bombing Survey concluded that, “… certainly prior to 31 December, 1945, and in all probability prior to 1 November, 1945, Japan would have surrendered even if the atomic bombs had not been dropped
Truman Lied, Hundreds of Thousands Died, The Real News. David Swanson, 6 Aug 11, On August 6, 1945, President Harry S Truman announced: “Sixteen hours ago an American airplane dropped one bomb on Hiroshima, an important Japanese Army base. That bomb had more power than 20,000 tons of T.N.T. It had more than two thousand times the blast power of the British ‘Grand Slam’ which is the largest bomb ever yet used in the history of warfare.”
When Truman lied to America that Hiroshima was a military base rather than a city full of civilians, people no doubt wanted to believe him. Continue reading
1 This Month
Shut down the radiation-damaged Heysham nuclear reactors now
To see nuclear-related stories in greater depth and intensity – go to https://nuclearinformation.wordpress.com
Say No to NASA’s Reckless Nuclear Reactor on the Moon
Say No to NASA’s Reckless Nuclear Reactor on the Moon
-
Archives
- October 2026 (302)
- September 2026 (339)
- August 2026 (330)
- July 2026 (355)
- June 2026 (287)
- May 2026 (306)
- April 2026 (356)
- March 2026 (251)
- February 2026 (267)
- January 2026 (308)
- December 2025 (358)
- November 2025 (359)
-
Categories
- 1
- 1 NUCLEAR ISSUES
- business and costs
- climate change
- culture and arts
- ENERGY
- environment
- health
- history
- indigenous issues
- Legal
- marketing of nuclear
- media
- opposition to nuclear
- PERSONAL STORIES
- politics
- politics international
- Religion and ethics
- safety
- secrets,lies and civil liberties
- spinbuster
- technology
- Uranium
- wastes
- weapons and war
- Women
- 2 WORLD
- ACTION
- AFRICA
- Atrocities
- AUSTRALIA
- Christina's notes
- Christina's themes
- culture and arts
- Events
- Fuk 2022
- Fuk 2023
- Fukushima 2017
- Fukushima 2018
- fukushima 2019
- Fukushima 2020
- Fukushima 2021
- general
- global warming
- Humour (God we need it)
- Nuclear
- RARE EARTHS
- Reference
- resources – print
- Resources -audiovicual
- Weekly Newsletter
- World
- World Nuclear
- YouTube
-
RSS
Entries RSS
Comments RSS
