nuclear-news

The News That Matters about the Nuclear Industry Fukushima Chernobyl Mayak Three Mile Island Atomic Testing Radiation Isotope

Wrap up of the week’s nuclear news

Christina Macpherson's websites & blogs

India is the critical place. Is the world aware of India’s crushing repression of Koodankulam anti nuclear protests? Protest leaders are now committed to fast until death, as thousands of police confront the peaceful gathering of rural people, church leaders, academics in the anti nuclear gathering .  Meanwhile, India develops a family of nuclear capable missiles, leasing a Russian  nuclear submarine to add to its 2 existing nuclear subs.

Nuclear industry slowdown: Czech Republic and Bulgaria now probably abandoning their too expensive nuclear projects.   South Koreans are becoming unsure of nuclear safety, despite government reassurances.  Switzerland court orders shutdown of  Mühleberg nuclear power station.

UK – 102 top business leaders urge Prime Minister to back renewable energy. Globally renewable energy taking off in a big way – China is the leader.  Also in UK, a move to investigate the 1984 mysterious murder of an anti nuclear campaigner who was about to give evidence on the Sizewell nuclear site.

Taiwan  The Tao Aborigines of Lanyu are caught up in a poisonous bargain, as livelihoods and basic services depend now on their hosting a nuclear waste dump. This is what could happen to Australia’s Aborigines. China: concerns over the secrecy and safety of China’s nuclear power, as govt admits to 14 ‘problem areas’

March 21, 2012 Posted by | Christina's notes | Leave a comment

Summary of nuclear news this week

Christina Macpherson's websites & blogs

Fukushima Day: Worldwide – rallies against nuclear power, commemorations of the Fukushima disaster. Many revelations of the seriousness of the Fukushima nuclear disaster, and the cover-ups, as well as more news on the dire state of the global nuclear industry.

Ageing nuclear reactors: United Nations preparing huge report on  nuclear safety, with concerns about the world’s aging reactors.

Iran: Israeli sabre-rattling about Iran, as Obama tries to tone down the fervour for an attack on Iran. 6 world powers to resume nuclear talks with Iran.

India Indian government becoming more tense about anti nuclear public feeling – banning visa of a Fukushima survivor who had been invited to India, and continuing its moves against non government organisations that oppose nuclear power.

Switzerland: court orders closure of  Mühleberg nuclear plant, critics want  Beznau nuclear plant closed, too.

Marshall Islanders want compensation for cancers caused by USA atomic bomb testing in 1950s

Malaysia’s saga of Lynas rare earths plant drags on. Lynas might want to return its radioactive wastes to Australia.

March 14, 2012 Posted by | Christina's notes | Leave a comment

Democratic rights eroding in India, as paranoia rises about anti nuclear activists

It’s a gloomy look for democratic freedoms, civil liberties in India.  Seems as if the India government is bent on obliging the USA, Russia, France.  Those unfortunate nuclear powers, unable to sell their dirty and dangerous nuclear reactors to their own populations, are trying to make a fast few billion bucks out of selling them to India.

Never mind the Indian public – what’s the well-being a few hundred thousand fisher folk, and plain village agricultural people matter, compared to the well-being of multinational nuclear corporations and their political lackeys?  So – the Indian establishment is gettig very anxious
to crack down on dissenting opinions.

Keep anti-nuclear project activists under check: Vasan   The Hindu, 11 March 12 Union Minister for Shipping G.K. Vasan has called upon the State government to keep the anti-Kudankulam nuclear power project activists under check….

March 12, 2012 Posted by | Christina's notes | Leave a comment

Nuclear news to March 6th

Christina Macpherson's websites & blogs

Iran.  Israel steps up move to attack Ira, while Obama points out the disadvantages. Ultimately, Obama’s agreeing that military action is one option.

Fukushima.  As the anniversary of the nuclear accident approaches, many revelations about both the initial story, and the present state, of the Fukushima disaster.  A pretty damning report on the Japanese government’s hadndling of the accident, and on the secrecy and cover-ups.    The present uncertain state of the reactors, and the perils for the low-paid workforce still grappling to contain the plant and its radiation . Equally uncertain, the masses of radioactive material to be cleared,but where to? TEPCO shareholders take legal action against TEPCO executives.  Japan tightens radiation limits for foods.

UK closes its oldest reactor – huge indeterminate costs to bury it.  Dilemmas over cost and politics of new reactors. Protestors campaign at Hinkley nuclear site.

Indian government getting lots of flack for its attack on non government organisations that oppose nuclear power, and anti nuclear Koodankulam protests continue, with several religions joining the protest.

International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN)  “outs” the global financial firms that fund the nuclear weapons industry.

Pakistan test fires a nuclear capable missile.

March 6, 2012 Posted by | Christina's notes | Leave a comment

Wrap up of the week’s nuclear news

Christina Macpherson's websites & blogs

Fukushima – the saga cntinues.  New high radiation readings found in reactor No.3.  The reality of chronic continuing radiation for the Fukushimaprefecture., as the  human, social and economic costs weigh on the evacuated population. Japan struggles with the problem of its nuclear wastes, and not only the ones from Fukushima, with no solution in sight. The dream of nuclear reprocessing has turned into an economic nightmare.

India cracks down on the anti nuclear movement, freezing the funds of non government organisations that are critical of the nuclear industry, and deporting a German tourist because he is anti- nuclear.  Now it seems, “anti-nuclear” must mean “anti-India”.  But it’s OK to be an American, Russian, or French pro nuclear executive visiting.

USA – safety of nuclear plants debated, and the chairman of the NRC getting a bad name in the industry – for putting safety ahead of the nuclear industry’s needs.

Malaysia:  The world, especially South East Asia watches, as the first entry of things nuclear is attempted by the Australian rare earths company, Lynas. If Lynas can get its project going, with no plan for disposing of the radioactive wastes, well, nuclear companies will be ready to follow suit.   But Lynas is not the only Ugly Australian company abroad. Paladin uranium’s bad record in Africa is just one amongst the sad reality of white Western  miners exploiting African people and environment.

Worldwide: renewable energy keeps growing, whether  subsidised or not, and even the International Energy Agency is noticing this.

February 29, 2012 Posted by | Christina's notes | Leave a comment

The week’s nuke news

 

Christina Macpherson's websites & blogs

Medical Nuclear reactor not needed to produce top medical isotope .  New breast cancers, in certain circumstances promoted by radiation treatment for breast cancer.

Canada refuses asylum to Japanese nuclear refugee

Thorium nuclear reactors not all they’re cracked up to be, especially, uneconomic.

USA. Vermont Attorney General appeals court, in move to retain Vermont’s power to shut down  a nuclear reactor. In Georgia, USA Energy Secretary Steven Chu on a mission to sell nuclear power to the public, as USA approves $14 billion expansion of Vogtle nuclear plant. Meanwhile Vogtle’s nuclear waste continues to pile up. Obama putting the brakes on nuclear loan guarantee program.

UK and French leaders get together, to bolster France’s flagging nuclear export industry, by promoting French nukes in Britain. Protestors occupy Hinkley nuclear site.

France – all sorts of spy stuff and dodgy doings going on with AREVA nuclear corporation and its treatment of its former CEO Anne Lauvergeon

Russia to get new nuclear submarines, thanks to money from oil billionaires.

February 21, 2012 Posted by | Christina's notes | Leave a comment

The week’s nuclear news in brief

Christina Macpherson's websites & blogs

Nuclear “decommissioning”  United Nations Environment Programme’s (UNEP) is   concerned about the global unsolved problem of dealing with dying and dead nuclear reactors

Japan – Fukushima  nuclear reactor heating up again.  Anti nuclear protests by thousands, in Japan.  Japanese nuclear companies are happy, as they are getting lucrative contracts to do radiation cleanup work.

Poland: a refrendum in Baltic Sea resort Mielno results in 94% rejection of nuclear power plant.

USA:  NRC approves 2 new nuclear reactors, and within  aweek, it’s expected that an $8.3 billion tax-payer funded loan guarantee will be provided for them. Not everyone in Washington is happy about this.

Britain:  Sellafield  nuclear reprocessing project in trouble, especially financial.

Russia:  government deception over the true danger of athe fire on a nuclear submarine. Medical science showing that exposure to ionising radiation to male  foetuses increases the risk of cancer of the testicles.

France – Government is  to  pressing on with expensive safety upgrades of existing nuclear reactors, because that’s cheaper than new ones. Nuclear power becoming an election issue in France.

February 14, 2012 Posted by | Christina's notes | Leave a comment

Wrap up of week’s nuclear news to Feb 8th

Christina Macpherson's websites & blogs

In the USA  – where the greatest number of nuclear reactors are sited, nuclear secrecy is becoming an ever greater concern. The Department of Energy resists any disclosure of the costs to tax-payers of commitments in the loans guarantees proposed for the controversial Vogtle nuclear project,  and resists any monitoring of the radiation hazard at Savannah River nuclear site. Revelations of the cosy insider arrangements between  former U.S. Secretary of Energy Spencer Abraham and French nuclear corporation AREVA, concerning that same failed nuclear project.  The Nuclear Regulatory Commission getting more worried about earthquakes and floods.

The Iran nuclear question bubbles on. And Iran gets an earthquake rather near to its nuclear reactor.

In Asia – anti-nuclear public opinion rises. The nuclear lobby watches anxiously the Malaysian public opposition to Lynas rare earths company and its plans regarding radioactive wastes.

Russia to privatise its nuclear corporation, Rosatom. Safety anxieties in Russia, following a fire at its Moscow nuclear institute.

February 7, 2012 Posted by | Christina's notes | Leave a comment

Highlights of the week’s nuclear news

Christina Macpherson's websites & blogs

International:  Drama continues as USA and Israeli hawks want war with Iran, while other opinions advise the difficult path of diplomacy.

More revelations of the secrecy and ineptitude of Japanese government following the Fukushima nuclear crisis.

USA’s “Blue Ribbon Panel on Nuclear Future” comes out with its Final Report  – with no solution to nuclear wastes, but no suggestion of stopping producing them!

USA’s Nuclear Regulatory Commission gets anxious about a new report on earthquake possibilities near nuclear power plants.

France in somewhat of a financial pickle over its nuclear reactors – can’t afford new ones, can’t afford to shut down existing ones, can’t afford to upgrade their safety – but forced to do the latter, by the European Union’s new safety rules.

February 1, 2012 Posted by | Christina's notes | Leave a comment

Wrap up of the week’s nuclear news

Christina Macpherson's websites & blogs

Iran.  Fears of a USA/Israeli attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities escalate in the context of the USA’s Republican Party’s contest for presidential candidacy. Fears that Iran will cut off oil routes and plunge USA (?and the world) into an economic recession.

Climate change. USA’s National Center for Science Education starts a timely new campaign to defend climate education in schools.  Report on the world’s warming atmosphere. The chance that Europe will experience colder weather, due to huge pool of fresh  water in Arctic ocean.
Japan’s nuclear crisis is far from over. Revelations that the government kept vital information from the public, on radioactive plumes, while informing the USA military. Inadequate monitoring of radiation fallout, especially regarding the Pacific Ocean. Much debate, and Japanese media subservient to nuclear industry and government. TEPCO to be effectively nationalised to save it from bankruptcy.
UK government panic as Scotland moves for independence. That would mean a super-expensive move of Trident nuclear base from Scotland to England.
Lots of issues in USA’s nuclear industry. Federal court rules in favour of nuclear company against State of Vermont – but it’s early days in this legal battle. Public opposition hardening against uranium mining in Virginia.
France’s government debating a Bill to return two Pacific atomic bomb test island to the indigenous people.

January 24, 2012 Posted by | Christina's notes | Leave a comment

Wrap up of the week’s nuclear news

Christina Macpherson's websites & blogs

 The Fukushima Nuclear Accident Independent Investigation Commission (NAIIC) held its first public hearing.  It will probe whether the earthquake first damaged the nuclear reactors. Media output from Japan might be constrained,as media operates therei n the subservient “press club”.
Revelations that Japan supplied radiation data to USA military 9 days before alerting Japanese public.
A Hanford nuclear safety manager blows the whistle on plutonium and other safety dangers at the nuclear waste facility.
 India revealed to have done deals with Pakistani nuclear smuggler, A.Q. Khan.
Against a background of tensions over Iran’s nuclear development, a poll finds that most Israelis want Middle East to be a nuclear free zone, want transparency about Israel’s nukes, and to avoid war with Iran.
France worried about the soaring costs of nuclear safety measures.

January 18, 2012 Posted by | Christina's notes | Leave a comment

Misguided and unjust murders of Iran’s nuclear scientists

Christina Macpherson's websites & blogs

After World War 2, Simon Weisenthal and other Jewish and non-Jewish Nazi hunters went to enormous trouble not only to track down Nazi criminals, but also to ensure that they had a fair trial.  Those Nazis who were executed first had a proper judicial process, with evidence, witnesses and defense counsel.

How justice is now failing! Are we expected to believe that it is OK for the Israeli government to assassinate Iranian civilians, for Israel’s political reasons. How the “Jewish State” has abandoned true Jewish principles!

Over recent times, the world has seen the killing of Osama Bin Laden, and the very horrible killing of Gaddafi.  Not a public complaint about the lack of fair process, the lack of evidence even, in the bin Laden killing.   I’m not saying that these were good people.

But where is justice, in these arbitrary murders?    And what is the purpose of murdering Iranian scientists?  Is it inflame the Muslim world with hatred for the West, and so bring about nuclear war?

January 12, 2012 Posted by | Christina's notes | Leave a comment

Wrap up of the week’s nuclear news

In a week when we are concentrating on the topic of Nuclear Lies, up comes a film that really sets out the history of nuclear lies, with extraordinary archival footage.  A IS FOR ATOM  -a film not to be missed. http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/adamcurtis/2011/03/a_is_for_atom.html 

Christina Macpherson's websites & blogs

India’s nuclear power stalemate continues, with the People’s Movement Against Nuclear Energy (PMANE) showing their determination to stop the Koodankulam nuclear project, and the Jaitapur one. As the Russian engineers leave Koodankulam, India’s nuclear corporation turns to Russia to borrow money for that project.  And to France, to borrow money to buy France’s nuclear reactors.

A more dangerous stalemate and standoff, as the West threatens more sanctions on Iran, and Iran threatens  to stop the flow of oil through the Strait of Hormuz. Israel to close its vulnerable Dimona nuclear reactor, in fear of (?preparation for) war with Iran.

January 10, 2012 Posted by | Christina's notes | Leave a comment

America’s faith based doctrine on nuclear waste disposal

Christina Macpherson's websites & blogs

The United States of America has a touching religiosity – quite heartwarming, in this cynical age.

So it is not surprising that the USA is the one country in the world that has expressed its religious faith in nuclear power in a government regulation – the Waste Confidence Rule

The  Waste Confidence Rule contains a “predictive” safety “finding” that simply stipulates spent reactor fuel can be disposed of safely at some unspecified time in the future, whenever it becomes “necessary” to dispose of it.

Warms the cockles of your heart, don’t it?

January 6, 2012 Posted by | Christina's notes | 1 Comment

Wrap-up of nuclear news 2011

  • Christina Macpherson's websites & blogs

    The year started with  a renewed push by the nuclear lobby, for a “nuclear renaissance”.  But already costs and safety problems were slowing this ambition. The “poster boys” for nuclear power Olkiluoto and Flamanville reactors became increasingly costly, and fraught with safety problems, and still not built.

  • No nuclear plants built in USA since the 1970s. Worldwide 16 new ones were under construction in 2010, but only 2 in 2011. Meanwhile 13 closed, and many of the existing 433 reactors are nearing their use-by date. Global nuclear energy generation fell in 2011, due to increasing costs, weaker electricity demand, and falling costs of gas.
  • In March the Fukushima nuclear catastrophe had a sudden impact on the nuclear industry.   As  a continuing human, environmental, and economic disaster, it continues to accelerate the decline of the nuclear industry.
  • USA, France, Russia, and South Korea continued a frantic competition to sell nuclear power to developing countries, seeing they meet strong opposition to selling them to their own people, (except for South Korea)
  • The worldwide nuclear waste problem escalates, yet even in desperate straights because of this, USA and others are happy to continue producing this toxic stuff !
  • Nuclear weapons problems continue, with a little progress towards nuclear disarmament. At the end of the year, the world is at  a nuclear standoff between the Western world and Iran.
  • The global nuclear lobby is resuming its push to market its product as clean, healthy, cheap etc. It continues to tout “new nuclear” – “Generation 4 reactors, and also Thorium reactors – desperate side issues to promote the industry even as it fails. Christina Macpherson, 3 Jan 2012

January 3, 2012 Posted by | Christina's notes | Leave a comment

« Previous Entries     Next Entries »