USA Nuclear Regulatory Commission accused of lying on safety
“Key elements of what the NRC chief told Congress were ‘a baldfaced lie.'”…The NRC, America’s nuclear watchdog, is essentially captive to the profit-driven industry it’s charged to regulate.
America’s Nuclear Nightmare: ‘A Dozen Fukushima’s Waiting to Happen’, Rolling Stone, By JULIAN BROOKES, 27 April 11, Shortly after an earthquake and tsunami struck Japan, in March, triggering the worst nuclear disaster since Chernobyl, America’s leading nuclear regulator trekked up to Capitol Hill to assure jumpy lawmkers that, no way, it couldn’t happen here. Continue reading
Warren Buffett sees the nuclear industry as dead
Mr. Buffett asserted to CNBC that nuclear facility construction in the U.S. will be “dead for a long, long time.”….“It would be unconscionable for Mr. Buffett’s company to swindle Iowans into investing in a project that he himself has apparently written off…
Watchdog Group Charges Buffett With Swinding Iowans Over New Nuclear Reactor, eNews Park Forest, 27 April OMAHA, Neb – As shareholders began arriving for Berkshire Hathaway’s annual meeting, Friends of the Earth placed an advertisement in the Omaha World-Herald challenging Warren Buffett to halt an attempt by one of his companies to force Iowa ratepayers to invest in a new nuclear reactor. Continue reading
USA worries over aging nuclear reactors
Of those granted extensions, more than half received permission to produce more electricity. And some, according to anti-nuclear groups, operate with less government oversight than decades before.
Anti-nuclear groups say the trend does not pose an immediate threat, but they question the wisdom of pumping more power from an aging fleet of reactors.
U.S. nuclear strategy worries scientists…More than half the nation’s reactors, including Virginia’s four, received license extensions, Daily Press, By Cory Nealon 26 April Continue reading
Decentralised renewable energy – the way of the future
small and medium scale solar power has the potential to become the Internet of distributed electricity generation – a network resilient to a single point of failure; whether caused by natural disasters or attack by hostile parties.
Centralised Vs. Decentralised Solar Power Renewable Energy News, by Energy Matters, 28 April11, As the U.S. begins a major push to become the leading player in the global solar revolution, the topic of sprawling solar farms built away from communities vs. small and medium scale solar arrays utilising rooftops and smaller parcels of already developed or degraded land is becoming an increasingly important issue. Continue reading
Majority of Americans expect eventual USA nuclear crisis
Poll: Most Americans think a nuclear accident is likely here, Miami Herald, BY DAVID LIGHTMAN, 27 April 11, MCCLATCHY NEWSPAPERS, WASHINGTON — Most Americans fear that the United States someday could face the kind of nuclear emergency that’s plagued Japan in recent weeks, according to a new McClatchy Newspapers-Marist poll.
“There’s clearly a good deal of concern, and there’s division about whether we’re suited to handle this,” said Lee Miringoff, the director of the Marist Institute for Public Opinion in New York, which conducted the survey.
“Nuclear power is very controversial,” he noted.
The McClatchy-Marist survey found that a solid majority of Americans – 57 percent – think that a nuclear crisis is probable here; 41 percent thought such a crisis was likely, while another 16 percent said it was very likely.
Far fewer think it’s not going to happen: 31 percent said it wasn’t very likely, while 9 percent said it wasn’t likely at all…….Overall, the poll’s findings “are directed by attitude, not demographics. They cut across the traditional political demarcations. This is not a Democratic or Republican issue,” Miringoff said.
http://www.miamiherald.com/2011/04/26/2186643/poll-most-americans-think-a-nuclear.html#ixzz1KkwV1IxD
The power of community decentralised renewable energy
Reach Clean Energy Goals Faster and Cheaper With Community Power, Renewable Energy World, By John Farrell , 25 April 2011 Reaching our renewable energy goals can be met cost-effectively, more quickly, and with greater economics benefits if Californians focus on decentralized renewable energy.
That’s the powerful conclusion in the recently released report, Community Power: Decentralized Renewable Energy in California, and the lessons are applicable in every state across America. These lessons are attracting attention, as large-scale desert solar projects and new transmission lines meet stiff resistance from an increasingly broad-based opposition. The cost-competitiveness of renewable energy is not news to anyone familiar with the industry, but Weinrub shows that for the most prominent decentralized renewable energy source – solar power – decentralized production from photovoltaics (PV) has better economics than centralized solar thermal power plants. His research is reinforced by data from the California Solar Initiative that shows that large majority of
decentralized solar PV’s economies of scale are captured by projects as small as 10 kilowatts. Research from the Institute for Local Self-Reliance shows that wind economies of scale are similarly limited for larger wind projects.
Weinrub also shows that California has plenty of decentralized renewable energy potential – with rooftop solar alone – to meet its ambitious renewable energy target (33% by 2020). As he notes, the actual potential far exceeds the necessary amount required to meet the state standard:…. http://www.renewableenergyworld.com/rea/blog/post/2011/04/reach-clean-energy-goals-faster-and-cheaper-with-community-power
San Onofre Nuclear Plant sits on earthquake area
How safe is San Onofre? Los Angeles Times,25 April 11, Edison and federal regulators must stop the continuing deterioration of the safety culture at the nuclear power plant. By Najmedin Meshkati, April 26, 2011, The San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station sits on a beach in a seismically active area of Southern California, just three miles south of San Clemente. Continue reading
Scepticism about the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission
Time to phase out nuclear power plants, Newbury Port News, BRUCE SKUD, 25 April 11, Japan’s nuclear crisis — amidst an earthquake and tsunami — has reignited the public’s concerns about living within a 10-mile radius of Seabrook nuclear power plant and about the safety of nuclear power generally. But the Seabrook operators, the nuclear industry, and the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission continue to whistle past the graveyard. Continue reading
Pueblo County Commission says NO to nuclear power proposal
Pueblo County Commission rejects land proposal for nuclear power plant, By Mark Jaffe, The Denver Post, 25 April 11, PUEBLO — The plan to build a nuclear power plant on the outskirts of this industrial city was rejected by the Pueblo County Commission due to “a significant lack of material information.”
The proposal by prominent, local attorney Don Banner would have taken 24,000 acres and turned it into a planned unit development area for energy development.
The 3-0 vote brought cheers and applause from the audience of about 100 people.
“This decision should send a message to nuclear everywhere,” said Ross Vincent, chairman of the Sierra Club Sangre de Cristo Group.
Banner sought rezoning, planned unit designation and a guarantee those land-use changes could not be rescinded……. Commissioner Jeff Chostner, a Republican said the demands the plant would make on the region’s limited water supply was the main reason for opposing the plan….Commissioner Anthony Nunez, a Democrat, also expressed concerns about nuclear wastes building up at the site since the federal government has yet to come up with a long-term storage plan.
“Before we get into this business we want to ask some questions so we don’t get into trouble later,” Nunez said……http://www.denverpost.com/breakingnews/ci_17925855
Depleted Uranium and veterans’ Gulf War Syndrome
In 1999 doctors from the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas presented the results of brain scans performed on victims of the [Gulf War] syndrome showing depleted brain cells in three areas of their brains.
Nuclear War in the Mideast , Subversify, By karlsie, April 22, 2011 “………Depleted uranium weapons were liberally used during the Persian Gulf War, during the bombings by NATO and the United Nations over the Serbian Republic of Bosnia in September 1995, against Yugoslavia in spring of 1999; in this century, during the attack on Afghanistan and then further in Iraq in 2003.
Their effects have been largely minimized by the deploying governments and the media, but the effects have long-ranging and devastating consequences…… Continue reading
University of Chicago Doubts Future of Nuclear Power in U.S.
Safer Nuclear Reactors Impeded By Marketplace, Expert Says, Forbes, by Jeff McMahon, Apr. 22 2011 University of Chicago Panel Doubts Future of Nuclear Power in U.S.
Safer nuclear reactors have been available for years, but the energy market prefers less expensive conventional designs, a nuclear energy expert from Argonne National Laboratory said Thursday.……http://blogs.forbes.com/jeffmcmahon/2011/04/22/safer-nuclear-reactors-impeded-by-marketplace-expert-says/
Nuclear reactor shut down takes 10 years, and wastes remain
Ill. congressmen worried over nuclear waste, ABC 7 News, Michelle Gallardo April23, 2011 (ZION, Ill.) (WLS) — U.S. Sen. Mark Kirk and some Republican congressmen toured the Zion nuclear power plant Saturday — it is shut down and slowly being dismantled. The big concern there revolves around what’s being done with more than 1,000 tons of radioactive waste.
It will take 10 years before the now-shuttered Zion nuclear power plant is completely decommissioned. By the time all is said and done, all that will remain of the 38-year-old plant is a 10-acre lot where the reactor’s spent fuel rods will be stored…..http://abclocal.go.com/wls/story?section=news/local&id=8090578
Wind power in Texas – faster and cheaper than nuclear
rapid growth in the alternative energy field is rapidly chipping away at nuclear power, helped along by new grid and energy storage technologies. This triple threat is undermining the foundational reason for investing in nuclear power, which is (or should be) to get the most abundant and reliable energy bang for the buck.
Wind Power beats Nuclear Power in Texas, Clean Technica, Tina Casey, 21 April 11, Texas has more wind power than it can use, and that partly explains why NRG Energy, Inc. has backed out of a plan to build two new nuclear reactors in the state. To be clear, the stated motivation for the decision was the nuclear disaster resulting from last month’s earthquake and tsunami in Japan, which among other things has affected the regulatory landscape here in the U.S. Continue reading
US Nuclear Regulators as US Nuclear Marketing Men
the cables — from 2006 to early 2010 — show that the NRC’s role in promoting its regulatory model around the world can easily turn it into an advocate for U.S. nuclear technology, whether its officials realize it or not…..
U.S. nuclear regulator a policeman or salesman? (Reuters), 18 April 11, – The Nuclear Regulatory Commission exists to police, not promote, the domestic nuclear industry — but diplomatic cables show that it is sometimes used as a sales tool to help push American technology to foreign governments. Continue reading
Nuclear Energy Institute writes the rules for Nuclear Regulatory Commission
allowing the NEI to play such a large role means the industry can shape much of what nuclear companies are required to do…….. NRC’s precursor agency, the Atomic Energy Commission, was disbanded after Congress concluded it had become too concerned with promoting nuclear power instead of regulating safety…..over the years, NRC has become more accommodating to the industry.
U.S. Nuclear Regulator Lets Industry Help With the Fine Print by John Sullivan, Special to ProPublica April 13, 2011, “…….Large parts of the guides, issued by NRC, incorporate or endorse material written by the industry’s trade group, the Nuclear Energy Institute[6]. 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
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