USA « nuclear-news

Conspiracy theory on 9/11 and depleted uranium tipped missile

VIDEO, 9/11 CONSPIRACY: Did the Global Hawk drones use Uranium? | Branding The World, Mar 26th, 2010 With no evidence of a Boeing 757 hitting the Pentagon available to the public, some 9/11 researchers claim a DU tipped missile, launched by a weaponized UAV, like the Global Hawk, struck the Pentagon. Continue reading →

March 27, 2010 Posted by Christina Macpherson | secrets,lies and civil liberties, USA | antinuclear, nuclear, nuclear secrecy, radioactive, uranium | Leave a comment

Natural gas in reality much cheaper than nuclear energy

Cheaper natural gas makes it hard to build nukes The Dallas Morning News, Elizabeth Souder, 25 March 20201, Natural gas at $3 per million British thermal units is simply too cheap for a power company to consider building a nuclear power plant, according to Energy Future Holdings chief executive John Young.What do the two have to do with each other? Everything.In Texas, as in many places, natural gas markets set the price of electricity. The higher natural gas goes, the more money power generators get for their product…..the higher natural gas prices rise, the fatter the profit margins for nukes.

March 26, 2010 Posted by Christina Macpherson | business and costs, USA | antinuclear, nuclear costs | Leave a comment

Earthquakes predicted for San Onofre nuclear plant area

Nuclear plant is a disaster in waiting Ricardo Nicol, The Orange County Register 24 March 2010, According to the Uniform Building Code, which establishes standards for the construction of safe buildings in the U.S., the San Onofre nuclear plant is located in the world’s highest seismic risk zone (Zone 4). The San Onofre nuclear plant area is riddled with land and offshore earthquake faults, many of them discovered after the structural design and construction of the existing reactors.

According to many seismologists, the probability of a major earthquake in the California coastal zone in the foreseeable future is a near certainty. Continue reading →

March 26, 2010 Posted by Christina Macpherson | climate change, safety, USA | antinuclear, nuclear secrecy, nuclear weapons, radiation, radioactive, reactor | Leave a comment

Revival of U.S. nuclear industry in doubt due to waste problem

Waste issue hurting U.S. nuclear revival-panel Lack of plan for waste seen hurting nuclear development Commission told to move beyond Yucca Mountain site Some lawmakers oppose plan to shut down Yucca By Ayesha Rascoe, WASHINGTON, March 25 (Reuters) – The lack of a permanent home for the nation’s radioactive waste is dampening prospects for a resurgence of the U.S. nuclear industry, federal commissioners said at their first public hearing on the subject. Continue reading →

March 26, 2010 Posted by Christina Macpherson | business and costs, USA | antinuclear, nuclear, nuclear costs, nuclear renaissance, nuclear spin, nuclear wastes, radiation, radioactive, uranium | Leave a comment

Nuclear “spinoff” company rejected – ‘financially shaky’

NY regulators reject Entergy nuclear spinoff Google News, By GEORGE M. WALSH (AP) –26 March 2010, ALBANY, N.Y. — New York utility regulators on Thursday rejected Entergy Corp.’s plan to spin off its six nuclear power stations into a separate company.The state Public Service Commission acted after its staff determined the deal wasn’t in the public interest, primarily because the resulting company — Enexus Energy Corp. — could be financially shaky….

The Associated Press: NY regulators reject Entergy nuclear spinoff

March 26, 2010 Posted by Christina Macpherson | business and costs, USA | antinuclear, nuclear, nuclear costs, nuclear renaissance, nuclear spin | Leave a comment

Nuclear foolishness: Bill Gates and his sci-fi reactors

these outlandish designs are extremely unlikely to be produced commercially and offer only another nuclear distraction from the far more urgent problem presented by climate change.

More sci-fi reactors Nuclear Reaction – 26 March 2010, It certainly seems a week for crazy nuclear inventions. Yesterday we had Bill Gates and his sci-fi reactor……The realities of the baseload myth and decentralized energy production seem to have finally occurred to nuclear boffins and they’re trying to catch up with the rest of us.

Unfortunately, just because you make a nuclear reactor smaller it doesn’t mean they don’t have the same problems as their larger cousins. Sometimes the problems are even worse. Continue reading →

March 26, 2010 Posted by Christina Macpherson | climate change, USA | antinuclear, nuclear, nuclear costs, nuclear spin, nuclear technology, nuclear wastes, nuclear weapons, renewable energy | Leave a comment

Tons of nuclear waste – $billions of cost to taxpayers

Nuclear Waste Piles Up, and It’s Costing Taxpayers Billions, 24 March 2010by: Mark Clayton | The Christian Science Monitor The Bush administration agreed to store nuclear waste from 21 new reactors. But the federal government still can’t meet its commitment to find permanent storage. Continue reading →

March 26, 2010 Posted by Christina Macpherson | business and costs, USA | antinuclear, nuclear, nuclear costs, nuclear secrecy, nuclear spin, nuclear wastes, radiation, uranium | Leave a comment

Now U.S. taxpayer funds not only nuclear loans, but even the loans application!

Energy Department investing $45M for technology for southern Ohio uranium enrichment project, The Washinton Examiner, Associated Press03/24/10 EDTPIKETON, OHIO — The Department of Energy will invest $45 million in ongoing development and demonstration of centrifuge technology for a uranium-enrichment plant in southern Ohio.The department said Tuesday that it will provide the funding by taking title to depleted uranium from USEC Inc. The Bethesda, Md.-based company can then use the $45 million it set aside for uranium disposal. USEC also will provide $45 million in matching funds.

USEC says the demonstration and development work is needed to show progress to gain a $2 billion federal loan guarantee. The company says the guarantee is crucial to obtaining private financing to complete its American Centrifuge project in Piketon.The Energy Department last year delayed its final review of USEC’s loan guarantee application.Piketon is about 65 miles south of Columbus.

Energy Department investing $45M for technology for southern Ohio uranium enrichment project | Washington Examiner

March 25, 2010 Posted by Christina Macpherson | politics, USA | antinuclear, nuclear, nuclear costs, nuclear secrecy, nuclear spin, reactors, uranium | Leave a comment

U.S. taxpayer funding not only nuclear loans, but also uranium enrichment

U.S. funding new uranium enrichment effort BETHESDA, Md., March 24 (UPI) –– The U.S. Department of Energy reached a cost-sharing agreement with uranium giant USEC Inc. to fund the development of uranium enrichment technology. U.S. enrichment company and the Department of Energy agreed on a joint $90 million cost sharing agreement to fund advanced centrifuge research at USEC’s American Centrifuge enrichment plant in Piketon, Ohio…..The Department of Energy under the agreement takes care of the disposal of depleted uranium.

U.S. funding new uranium enrichment effort – UPI.com

March 25, 2010 Posted by Christina Macpherson | business and costs, USA | antinuclear, depleted, nuclear, nuclear costs, nuclear secrecy, nuclear wastes, radioactive, uranium | Leave a comment

Who guards the nuclear weapons lab guardians?

…the Government Accountability Office’s (GAO) analysis which concluded that DOE needs more independent federal oversight, not less.

Mar 24, 2010The Problem with Providing Nuclear Weapons Labs with Relief from Federal Oversight, The Project On Government Oversight (POGO) Blog, Peter Stockton and Ingrid Drake, 25 March 2010, George Lobsenz’s article in yesterday’s issue of The Energy Daily correctly pointed out that the Department of Energy’s decision to provide the contractors who run the nuclear weapons labs with major relief from federal oversight was done “Without any prior public review or comment.” Continue reading →

March 25, 2010 Posted by Christina Macpherson | safety, USA | cancer, nuclear, nuclear costs, nuclear secrecy, nuclear spin, nuclear weapons | Leave a comment

Some U.S. States with nuclear wastes want Yucca dump

House members: Block Energy Dept. from abandoning Yucca nuke waste plan, The Hill, By Ben Geman – 03/24/2010 A bipartisan group of House members whose states contain nuclear waste left over from Cold War weapons production hope to block the Energy Department from walking away from the proposed Yucca Mountain waste dump in Nevada. Continue reading →

March 25, 2010 Posted by Christina Macpherson | USA, wastes | antinuclear, nuclear, nuclear costs, nuclear wastes, nuclear weapons, plutonium, radiation, radioactive | Leave a comment

American Indian tribes may develop renewable energy

Report: Tribes key in renewable energy development, Google News, By FELICIA FONSECA (AP) – 24 March 2010, FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. — American Indian tribes have huge potential to develop renewable energy resources on their lands but first must overcome a number of challenges, namely financial, according to a report released Tuesday. Continue reading →

March 25, 2010 Posted by Christina Macpherson | indigenous issues, USA | indigenous, renewable energy, renewables, solar | Leave a comment

1000 tons of marine life killed yearly by nuclear plant

Oyster Creek nuclear plant kills 1,000 tons of sea life a year, agency says APP.com EnviroGuy,March 22, 2010 By Todd B. Bates The Oyster Creek nuclear power plant in Lacey has killed 80 million pounds of aquatic organisms in the past 40 years, a federal agency says. In a March 15 letter to a state Department of Environmental Protection official, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service repeated its support for cooling towers to be built at the plant. In 2005, the service also concluded that closed-loop cooling (cooling towers) is the best technology available at Oyster Creek, according to the letter.

A draft DEP permit calls for cooling towers, but Oyster Creek officials have said they aren’t necessary and they’ll close the plant if required to build them.

Oyster Creek nuclear plant kills 1,000 tons of sea life a year, agency says | EnviroGuy

March 23, 2010 Posted by Christina Macpherson | environment, USA | antinuclear, nuclear, nuclear wastes | Leave a comment

Even the NRC states that uranium waste is radioactive for 1000 years!

The design must provide “reasonable assurance of control of radiological hazards to be effective for 1,000 years, to the extent reasonably achievable, and, in any case, for at least 200 years,” according to the NRC.

Risk assessment a complex task – Experts described the top threat from uranium mining, and regulators cited thorough efforts, League of Individuals for the Environment, Inc, By Duncan Adams, 23 March 2010, One thousand years.If uranium mining and milling of ore happens someday near Chatham, Va., Virginia Uranium or another company involved could be required by Nuclear Regulatory Commission regulations to design a disposal system that can safely impound mining wastes for a millennium. Continue reading →

March 23, 2010 Posted by Christina Macpherson | safety, USA | antinuclear, nuclear, nuclear spin, nuclear wastes, radiation, radioactive, uranium | Leave a comment

Nuclear ‘renaissance’ threatened by the wastes ‘elephant in the room’

[U.S. government is ] naming an expert panel to find solutions for the waste. The nuclear industry argues it is ready to move ahead regardless of the panel’s deliberations….

ANALYSIS – Toxic waste weighs on revival of nuclear industry Reuters, Mar 17, 2010 By Ayesha Rascoe WASHINGTON Reviving the U.S. nuclear industry could get hung up on the political minefield of how to handle the security, legal and environmental risks posed by a growing mountain of radioactive waste. Continue reading →

March 21, 2010 Posted by Christina Macpherson | USA, wastes | antinuclear, nuclear, nuclear costs, nuclear renaissance, nuclear secrecy, nuclear wastes, radioactive, reactors | Leave a comment