What lovely optimism – nuclear powered spacecraft for USA, Russia
Russia, U.S. to cooperate on nuclear-powered spacecrafts MOSCOW, April 4 (Xinhua) –– The Russian Federal Space Agency ( Roscosmos) and the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) have agreed to cooperate in developing nuclear engines for spacecrafts, local media reported on Monday.Citing Roscosmos’ head Anatoly Perminov in Kazakh Baikonur space center, reports said Russia has initiated to jointly build nuclear-powered engines with NASA by 2019 and use these engines for flights to Mars.
Such an engine will make the flight to Mars 20 times faster, Perminov said, adding that the meeting between he and his NASA counterpart Charles Bolden was scheduled on April 1
Only AREVA to benefit from dangerous plutonium reprocessing plant?
A mixed-oxide, or MOX, plutonium reprocessing plant that is being built in South Carolina has become “an expensive effort that enriches contractors, led by the French government-owned company Areva,”
US anti-nuclear activists slam reprocessing plan, Google news, (AFP) – 5 April 11, WASHINGTON — US anti-nuclear groups Monday condemned a project to build a plant where plutonium from weapons would be reprocessed into fuel for nuclear power plants, saying the plan was costly, dangerous and would benefit mainly the French group, Areva.
A mixed-oxide, or MOX, plutonium reprocessing plant that is being built in South Carolina has become “an expensive effort that enriches contractors, led by the French government-owned company Areva,” Tom Clements of Friends of the Earth said at the launch of a report by an anti-nuclear alliance.”In my opinion, it is primarily because of Areva’s influence inside the Department of Energy that the US is pursuing a plutonium fuel program and it’s because of Areva’s influence that there’s a push for the US to also reprocess commercial spent fuel to remove plutonium, like France does,” he said…….
The plant, on the Department of Energy’s Savannah River site, is roughly one-third finished and three times over budget, with a price tag so far of $4.9 billion dollars, Clements maintained.
But even as the nuclear disaster in Japan highlights the dangers of MOX fuel — which the ANA report says was used in one of the reactors at Japan’s crippled Fukushima power plant — the US government is failing to rethink construction of the South Carolina facility, Clements told reporters.
“As plutonium leaks from the damaged reactors in Japan, the US Department of Energy (DoE) continues planning for the use of dangerous mixed-oxide fuel in US nuclear reactors of the same design as the Fukushima reactors in Japan,” Clements said.
MOX fuel pellets “make reactors harder to control and, in the case of a severe accident, the radiation plutonium releases will be worse than uranium fuel,” said Clements……
Anti-nuclear activists would prefer encasing the plutonium left over from dismantled US nuclear weapons in glass, and then storing it as high-level waste.
That method, called vitrification, is “cheaper, quicker and safer” than converting plutonium into MOX fuel, says the report released Monday by ANA, a network of three dozen organizations…..
AFP: US anti-nuclear activists slam reprocessing plan
New damage at Progress Energy’s nuclear plant in Florida
Progress Fla. nuclear restart delayed indefinitely | Reuters, 5 April 11, – New damage discovered last month at Progress Energy Inc’s troubled Crystal River nuclear plant in Florida will keep the unit shut indefinitely, the company told state and federal regulators on Monday……
Indications of a new gap in the containment building wall found in March forced Progress to suspend work to tighten the tendons, one of the the final tasks needed to before testing to end an 18-month outage.
The plant shut in September 2009 and its restart has now been delayed four times.….Progress Fla. nuclear restart delayed indefinitely | Reuters
Investigation of cooling system flaw at Browns Ferry nuclear plant
Nuclear regulators probe fault at Alabama reactor | Reuters Apr 4, 2011 Browns Ferry plant has same design as Japan’s Fukushima* Regulators issue apparent violation order over failure By Matthew BiggATLANTA, Tennessee Valley Authority officials met nuclear regulators on Monday to explain the failure last year of a key valve used to operate a reactor cooling system at a nuclear plant in Alabama.
Word of the malfunction, which occurred last October at the Browns Ferry plant in northern Alabama, comes amid public demand for reassurance over the safety of U.S. nuclear reactors after an earthquake and tsunami last month caused a crisis at Japan’s Fukushima nuclear plant.
Browns Ferry and the crippled Fukushima plant both have Mark 1 boiling water reactors made by General Electric ……Nuclear regulators probe fault at Alabama reactor | Energy & Oil | Reuters
Nuclear Regulatory Commission relicensed Vermont Yankee nuclear plant, despite safety problems
Safety of Vt. nuclear plant cables questioned, Google News, (AP) – 5 April 11, MONTPELIER, Vt. (AP) — Documents show the Nuclear Regulatory Commission gave the Vermont Yankee nuclear plant a new license last month knowing that electrical cables to key safety systems had been submerged in water for long periods of time.A nuclear watchdog group, the New England Coalition, says the issue has new urgency since the nuclear disaster in Japan was caused by tsunami flooding that knocked cooling systems out of service at the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant.NRC documents show the agency has been concerned about submerged electrical cables at U.S. nuclear plants for years…… The Associated Press: Safety of Vt. nuclear plant cables questioned
People power can once again stop the nuclear industry
Society’s energy “needs” (“wants” being the more operative word) exist on one side of the scales, and society’s concern for preventing the fouling of the only nest we have is on the other. It is up to us, the people, to educate ourselves and ensure rational protections. If we leave it to the money people, the profiteers — well, we’ve seen what Wall Street’s greed can do to our economy. Short-sighted greed and arrogance will also wreck our living planet, if left to run free……..The energy-consuming public will continue to hear from industry promoters and the scientists and engineers whose work is funded by them that the latest designs are foolproof
Right back on the nuclear fool cycle Stay informed about nuclear dangers because the lessons are always lost on politicians and the industry By Vip Short The Register-Guard 4 Aprl 11 Ah, lesson learned — until repeated. Here we are again at the next climactic moment of what may someday be called the nuclear fool cycle. While President Obama has recently renewed his call for more nuclear power plants, The Register-Guard wisely points to the many inherent and unsolved dangers in a March 15 editorial, “Nuclear failure in Japan.” Continue reading
Will the Nuclear Regulatory Commission relicense dangerous Pilgrim Nuclear Plant?
the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) considers the Pilgrim plant the second most dangerous of America’s 104 ancient reactors…..Pilgrim has been cited for violations numerous times by the NRC, but usually just gets a slap on the wrist…….The NRC has relicensed over 50 old nuclear plants, and turned none down. So is Pilgrim’s application just a pro forma exercise
The Plymoushima Nuclear Plant, Cape Cod Today, Richard C. Bartlett, 3 April 11, The Pilgrim Nuclear Generating Station in Plymouth will be up for license renewal next year, 40 years after its 1972 start-up. It’s the same GE Mark I design as two of the Fukushima Dai-ichi nukes we have been reading about for nearly a month. Japan is far more vulnerable to earthquakes than we are, but Chernobyl and Three Mile Island remind us disasters are not dependent on shifting tectonic plates. Continue reading
The taxpayers’ bill for nuclear wastes continues to rise
Regional plants have a bleak history of underestimating plant decommissioning costs by hundreds of millions, sometimes loading those unanticipated costs onto taxpayers and ratepayers far into the future……
“If a nuclear renaissance were to take place — if it were not just a figment or wishful thinking — we would need another Yucca Mountain every few years,”….”Independent analysis suggests that new nuclear power is more expensive than nearly every other energy source, including solar, wind, biomass and geothermal energy,” …… “Given that reality, I cannot understand why we would continue to pour massive taxpayer subsidies into nuclear power.”.
Taxpayers, utility ratepayers face mounting nuclear bills, Maggie Mulvihill, Shay Totten and Matt Porter, New England Center for Investigative Reporting, April 2, 2011Over three decades, New England’s electricity consumers and nuclear plant owners have poured close to $1 billion into a federal nuclear-waste storage fund, holding up their end of a 1982 deal with the federal government to finance the permanent storage of thousands of tons of spent fuel from the region’s reactors. Continue reading
New York protest for closure of Indian Point Nuclear plant
NYC protest over Indian Point Nuclear Plant | 7online.com, 3 April 11 UNION SQUARE (WABC) –– In a show of solidarity with the victims in Japan, dozens of people rallied on Saturday in Union Square.In the wake of the problems with Japan’s nuclear power plants, anti-nuclear protestors are calling for the closure of the Indian Point Nuclear Power Plant here. New York City is just 24 miles downwind of Indian Point and in the event of a nuclear accident protestors say it is impossible to evacuate 10 million people. The demonstrators believe nuclear power is inherently unsafe and should be replaced with renewable sources of energy.
NYC protest over Indian Point Nuclear Plant | 7online.com
Investors and power generators turning to non nuclear energy sources
Meanwhile, power generators are turning elsewhere to meet the nation’s growing energy needs.
According to the Energy Information Administration, the U.S. added 23,144 megawatts of non-nuclear power generating capacity in 2009, the equivalent of about 23 atomic reactors.
Nuclear industry’s other big hurdle: finance NRG put brakes on new plant; industry aims at loan guarantees By Steve Gelsi, MarketWatch, 1 April 11, “……..with the cost of a plant reaching $6 billion or more, and its income stream years away, the payoff for investors is not terribly appealing, Dobson said. Safety concerns and regulatory scrutiny resulting from the Fukushima accident merely add to a murky financing mix, he said. Continue reading
Nuked up Republicans lying about Yucca Mountains as safe nuke waste dump
Berkley calls on ‘nuked-up’ Republicans to cease Yucca Mountain probe The Hill By Pete Kasperowicz – 04/01/11 Rep. Shelley Berkley (D-Nev.) on Friday called on House Republicans to stop their investigation into an Obama administration decision to abandon Nevada’s Yucca Mountain as a planned storage site for nuclear waste.
Speaking on the House floor, Berkley said the GOP investigation is a “political stunt” aimed at turning Nevada into a “nuclear garbage dump.”
“Those pushing this review are lying about the dump’s safety,” Berkley said. “They know Yucca Mountain is smack in the middle of an earthquake zone. There’s volcanic activity. There’s groundwater issues. Have we learned nothing abbot what’s happening now in Japan?”
Berkley added that the investigation is being prompted by the nuclear industry, and is being aided by its “nuked-up buddies” in Congress….. Berkley calls on ‘nuked-up’ Republicans to cease Yucca Mountain probe – The Hill’s E2-Wire
Money, not Fukushima, is nuclear industry’s biggest hurdle
Nuclear industry’s other big hurdle: finance NRG put brakes on new plant; industry aims at loan guarantees By Steve Gelsi, MarketWatch, 1 April 11,
NEW YORK — While public outrage over radiation seeping from Japan’s damaged Fukushima Daiichi power plant is a huge setback for proponents of nuclear power, securing financing for new reactors poses perhaps an even bigger challenge in the United States….. Continue reading
Nuclear energy not safe for USA, but fine to export to ‘developing’ countries
For the United States, nuclear power has become an export industry….“Most of the action that one can really care about, frankly, is in the developing world,”
Nuclear Industry Thrives in the U.S., but for Export – NYTimes.com By MATTHEW L. WALD March 30, 2011 THE American nuclear renaissance is going strong, even if hardly any nuclear reactors are being built in the United States.
Japan’s continuing nuclear calamity has heightened concerns about the future of nuclear power and its safety, Continue reading
USA’s nuclear wastes continue to pile up, mainly in cooling ponds
There is about 70,000 tons of spent fuel stored at reactor sites around the country. Three-quarters of the material sits in cooling pools.
While Nuclear Waste Piles up in U.S., Billions in Fund to Handle It Sit Unused, ProPublica, by Joaquin SapienProPublica, March 30, 2011 “……In 1982, Congress passed the Nuclear Waste Policy Act, and the federal government effectively struck a deal with the nuclear industry: Reactor operators and their customers would pay a tax on the waste they produced, and the government would use the money to create a safe place to store it for generations. Continue reading
Brockovich’s push for mapping disease clusters
Christina Macpherson's websites & blogs
This could embarrass nuclear and uranium industries big-time!
Erin Brockovich Pushes For Disease Cluster Law – Planet Ark, 30 March 11, Erin Brockovich, a U.S. consumer health advocate whose life story was the basis for an Academy Award-winning film, urged senators Tuesday to pass a law to document disease clusters in the United States.A disease cluster is an unusual number of health events, such as reports of cancer, grouped together in a time and location, according to the Centers for Disease Control.Brockovich, who came to prominence investigating the prevalence of cancer cases in Hinkley, California, said she has become an informal reporting agency for those who worry that something in their immediate environment is a health hazard.”Thousands of Americans contact me every month asking for help and telling me about unexplained diseases in their neighborhood or on their streets,” Brockovich told the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee….
A study by the Natural Resources Defense Council and the National Disease Clusters Alliance reported 42 disease clusters in 13 U.S. states, showing incidence of numerous types of cancer, birth defects and other chronic illnesses….
World Environment News – Erin Brockovich Pushes For Disease Cluster Law – Planet Ark
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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