Obama’s nuclear push to India – hypocrisy!
The president should not be prescribing medicine that he would not take himself. The United States has not installed any new nuclear plants for more than 30 years. There would be massive public protests if any were even proposed — anywhere in the country.
Instead of trying to chain India to the past with technologies such as nuclear, he should help the country leapfrog into the future with clean energy. This will benefit not only India, but also the world.
Why Obama should stop pushing nuclear energy on India, WP, By Vivek Wadhwa February 2 The White House is claiming victory for a breakthrough in the impasse with India over nuclear energy. Indian laws have held suppliers, designers and builders of nuclear plants liable in case of an accident and this made U.S. companies fearful of doing business there. During his recent trip, President Obama persuaded India’s government to create an insurance pool to compensate victims of a potential disaster and to cap the liabilities of companies supplying the technology.
This is hardly a victory for the United States or for India. It no longer makes sense for any country to install a technology that can create a catastrophe such as Chernobyl or Fukushima — especially when far better alternatives are available. Technologies such as solar and wind are advancing so rapidly that by the time the first new nuclear reactors are installed in India, they will be less costly than nuclear energy. Most importantly, the alternative technologies are cleaner and safer.
Take solar energy Continue reading
Wild weather causes Spain to shut down nuclear reactor
Spain shuts down nuclear reactor after blackout A Spanish nuclear power plant was shut down following an electricity failure, local media reported late on Tuesday. Strong winds reportedly caused the blackout in the northeast of the country.
Operations at the Vandellos II 1,000-megawatt nuclear power station, located in Catalonia, Spain, were brought to a halt on Tuesday afternoon, Europapress.es reported, citing Nuclear Association Asco-Vandellos II and the Nuclear Safety Council (CSN)…….http://rt.com/news/229067-spain-nuclear-reactor-shutdown/
Renewable energy costs soon to drop by 40% – IRENA report
Renewable energy costs to drop 40 percent in next two years, Inhabitat, by Charley Cameron, 02/02/15 A new report released by the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) has exceptionally good news for the future of renewable energy. Costs are set to drop by almost 40 percent in the next two years, with solar PV leading the pack in cost decreases, and “biomass for power, hydropower, geothermal and onshore wind… all now provid[ing] electricity competitively compared to fossil fuel-fired power generation.”……..http://inhabitat.com/renewable-energy-costs-to-drop-40-percent-in-next-two-years/
Not enough federal money to clean-up USA’s Piketon uranium plant , in Ohio
Lawmakers: 2016 budget for uranium plant cleanup falls short By HOPE YEN, Associated Press, Times Union Tuesday, February 3, 2015 WASHINGTON (AP) — The Obama administration’s budget request for the decontamination and decommissioning of a Cold War-era uranium plant in southern Ohio is drawing concern from lawmakers who say it may not be enough to stave off layoffs and complete the redevelopment.
President Barack Obama is seeking a total of $227 million for the former Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant in Piketon, Ohio, about $48.6 million less than what Congress provided in fiscal year 2015……..http://www.timesunion.com/news/article/Lawmakers-Obama-s-budget-for-Piketon-cleanup-6059325.php
Total elimination of nuclear weapons – protestors demand, outside White House
Protesters rally outside White House, demanding ‘total elimination’ of nuclear weapons http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/local/wp/2015/01/31/protesters-rally-outside-white-house-demanding-total-elimination-of-nuclear-weapons/ By DeNeen L. Brown January 31 About 100 demonstrators, holding signs that said, “No $1 Trillion Nuclear Arsenal,” rallied outside the White House Saturday, calling on President Obama to halt plans to invest billions of dollars to expand and rebuild the country’s nuclear arsenal.
“The Obama administration is putting us on a path to spend one trillion dollars, overhauling our nuclear arsenal over the next three decades,” said John-Michael Donahue, a spokesman for Global Zero, an international movement demanding the elimination of all nuclear weapons. “President Obama should abandon his $1 trillion nuclear arsenal and get back on track to seek the peace and security of a world without nuclear weapons, Global Zero.”
Matt Brown, co-founder of Global Zero, told the crowd that Obama had once called nuclear weapons “the most dangerous legacy of the Cold War.”
Brown said the president had instead “slowed reductions” in the country’s nuclear arsenal.
“Now, he is preparing to launch a massive upgrade to the arsenal that will cost $1 trillion over the next three decades,” Brown said. “That will lock us, our children and probably our grandchildren into a nuclear weapons future. He’s come a long way from seeking ‘the peace and security of a world without nuclear weapons.’ We can’t let that happen.”
Joe Hill, an internationally known artist who specializes in three dimensional pavement art, created a four-story missile design for the protest.
“Nuclear weapons present a grave humanitarian threat,” Hill said in a statement. “When I was growing up in the ‘80s, these weapons were at the forefront of everyone’s mind and fiercely debated. But though the danger has grown, the scrutiny has faded. We seem to have accepted these barbaric weapons as a fact of life, a necessary evil. I feel this is a subject that urgently needs to be discussed anew.”
Saturday’s rally kicked off the “No $1 Trillion Nuclear Arsenal” national tour, which has planned stops in Raleigh, Atlanta, Nashville and San Francisco.
Continuing melting of Fukushima nuclear fuel
Japan Gov’t Expert: Nuclear fuel continued melting long after injecting sea water into Fukushima reactors — Extended release time caused ‘massive’ radioactive fallout — Reactor heat ‘surged’ when coolant was added — Officials admit just 3% of coolant water pumped in to cool the molten core (VIDEO)
David Krieger calls for a true American commitment to nuclear disarmament
Where’s America’s commitment to seek a world without nuclear weapons? http://thehill.com/blogs/congress-blog/foreign-policy/231191-wheres-americas-commitment-to-seek-a-world-without-nuclear By David Krieger January 30, 2015, Nuclear weapons do not make Americans safer. Rather, they threaten us all with their uncontrollable and unforgiving power. They are weapons of mass annihilation, indiscriminate in nature, threatening combatants and civilians alike. They kill and maim. They cause unnecessary suffering. They are immoral and their use would violate the humanitarian laws of warfare. No country should be allowed to possess weaponry that is capable of destroying civilization and ending most life on the planet, including the human species.Nuclear weapons and human fallibility are a most dangerous mix. As long as nuclear weapons exist in the world, civilization and the human species are threatened. Nuclear deterrence is not foolproof, and time is not our friend. We must approach this task with the urgency it demands. We must confront nuclear weapons and those countries that possess and rely upon them with what Martin Luther King, Jr. called “the fierce urgency of now.”
There are still more than 16,000 nuclear weapons in the world, most in the arsenals of the United States and Russia. However, seven other countries also possess these annihilators. These countries are: the UK, France, China, Israel, India, Pakistan and North Korea. Even one of these weapons can destroy a city, a few can destroy a country, and an exchange of 100 of them between India and Pakistan on the other side’s cities could trigger a nuclear famine resulting in the deaths of some two billion people globally. A larger nuclear exchange between the US and Russia could return the planet to an ice age, resulting in nearly universal death.
What is needed today is for the countries of the world to engage in negotiations in good faith to end the nuclear arms race and to achieve total nuclear disarmament. That is what is required of us and the other countries of the world under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and customary international law. Unfortunately, rather than negotiating in good faith for these ends, the nuclear-armed countries are engaged in expensive programs to modernize their nuclear arsenals.
The goal of negotiations should be a universal agreement for all the nuclear-armed countries to give up their nuclear arsenals in a phased, verifiable, irreversible and transparent manner. It will require the participation of all countries, but some country will need to lead in convening these negotiations. That country should be the United States of America, given its background in developing, using and testing nuclear weapons. But, if history is a guide, that won’t happen until the people of the United States demand it of their government.
The country that has stepped up to take a leadership role in calling on the nuclear-armed nations to fulfill their obligations for nuclear disarmament is a small, courageous Pacific Island state, the Republic of the Marshall Islands. It is suing the nine nuclear-armed nations to require them to do what they are obligated to do under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and customary international law; that is, to negotiate in good faith to end the nuclear arms race and for nuclear disarmament.
The Nuclear Zero initiative of the Marshall Islands falls in this 70th anniversary year of the first use of nuclear weapons by the United States. Enough people have already suffered from nuclear weapons – those in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, those in the Marshall Islands, the Nevada Test Site, Semipalatinsk, Lop Nor and other nuclear weapon test sites around the world. It is time for humanity to take charge of its own destiny. In the Nuclear Age, ridding the world of nuclear weapons is an imperative. Our common future depends upon our shared success.
Of course, the perspective expressed above is my own. It is tragic, though, that such a perspective did not make it into the President’s 2015 State of the Union Message to the Congress and People of the United States. It was an opportunity to teach and lead that was missed by the President. Why, we might ask, is he engaged in modernizing the US nuclear arsenal, a trillion dollar project, instead of negotiating for the elimination of nuclear weapons? After all, in Prague in 2009, the president expressed boldly, “America’s commitment to seek the peace and security of a world without nuclear weapons.” What has happened to that commitment?
Krieger is president of the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation (www.wagingpeace.org). He is the author of ZERO: The Case for Nuclear Weapons Abolition.
Real war could result from USA’s pushing Russia into a new Cold War
Gorbachev: US dragging Russia into new Cold War, which might grow into armed conflict Rt.c om January 29, 2015 Mikhail Gorbachev has accused the US of dragging Russia into a new Cold War. The former Soviet president fears the chill in relations could eventually spur an armed conflict.
“Plainly speaking, the US has already dragged us into a new Cold War, trying to openly implement its idea of triumphalism,” Gorbachev said in an interview with Interfax.
The former USSR leader, whose name is associated with the end of the Cold War between the Soviet Union and the United States, is worried about the possible consequences.
“What’s next? Unfortunately, I cannot be sure that the Cold War will not bring about a ‘hot’ one. I’m afraid they might take the risk,” he said.
READ MORE: ‘America needs a Perestroika’ – Gorbachev to RT
Gorbachev’s criticism of Washington comes as the West is pondering new sanctions against Russia, blaming it for the ongoing military conflict in eastern Ukraine, and alleging Moscow is sending troops to the restive areas. Russia has denied the allegations.
“All we hear from the US and the EU now is sanctions against Russia,” Gorbachev said. “Are they completely out of their minds? The US has been totally ‘lost in the jungle’ and is dragging us there as well.”
READ MORE: NATO expansion in E. Europe ‘destroys EU security order’ – Gorbachev………http://rt.com/news/227423-us-russia-cold-war/
Inquiry into Litvinenko’s radiation-caused death, but no inquiry into radiation deaths of nuclear veterans
Imagine if Alexander Litvinenko’s death was ignored like our nuclear veterans, Mirror, 28 Jan 15 After eight years Crown Prosecution Service has finally led to a public inquiry into the Russian’s death – Britain’s nuclear test veterans have waited 63 years so far.When Alexander Litvinenko was poisoned with a radioactive cup of tea, it provoked an outcry. Within six weeks of his death the Metropolitan Police announced the name of their main suspect, a Russian. Within six months the Crown Prosecution Service issued charges and the Foreign Office made a formal extradition request to the Russian authorities.
After eight years it has finally led to a public inquiry ordered by Prime Minister David Cameron and has already heard the killing was ordered by the Kremlin itself.
Can you imagine what it would be like if no-one had investigated, no charges brought and no inquiry held?
Imagine – a government responsible for the death by radiation poisoning of a man, and never held to account.
It would be a stain upon our nation if we allowed it, and a denial of the rule of law.
Now imagine a government potentially responsible for the death by radiation poisoning of thousands of men.Imagine that government could also be responsible for the grief of thousands of mothers who miscarried fetuses warped beyond recognition by that radiation.
Imagine that government’s actions may have created thousands more living children, disabled by chronic pain, rare genetic conditions and unusual deformities.
Would you expect a public inquiry into that? Would you hope for a criminal investigation, scientific explanation, or at the very least a ‘sorry’?Then you would hope in vain, just as Britain’s nuclear test veterans and families have hoped for 63 years so far……… And it is a stain upon our nation that it continues.
Litvinenko was a man in the employ of our security services, working on our behalf to expose the criminality of Vladimir Putin.He was killed by a high dose of Polonium-210, a rare radioactive metal added to his tea.
It cannot pass through skin, but drink a cup of the stuff and it causes chaos, made worse by the fact that it cannot get out again.It’s called ingested radiation, and was used to kill him while presenting very little risk to those wielding it………://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/imagine-alexander-litvinenkos-death-ignored-5059060
Australia keen to sell uranium to India – easier now with no tracking to prevent its use for nuclear weapons
India will share the Indo-US formula on resolving the nuclear liability issue with France to resolve the issue of liability with the latter as well, sources said — this has come in the way of nuclear commerce with Areva, the French nuclear supplier.
With Australia, the sources said, India will share the template of its administrative arrangements with Canada — and now the US — so that uranium from Australia can be supplied without further delay. India signed an uranium supply agreement with Australia last September, when Prime Minister Tony Abbott visited the country.
……….The US is said to be no longer insisting on tracking these supplies, required under its rules to ensure it is not being used for military purposes. -……http://indianexpress.com/article/india/india-others/india-looks-to-use-us-formula-to-convince-france-and-australia/
Renewable Energy Is the Future – says Robert Redford
Robert Redford: Fossil Fuels Need to Stay in the Ground, Renewable Energy Is the Future (VIDEO) http://ecowatch.com/2015/01/29/robert-redford-on-democracy-now/ Stefanie Spear Democracy Now!’s Amy Goodman sat down today with Robert Redford, the Oscar-winning director, actor and longtime environmentalist, at the Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah.
In the interview, Goodman jumps right in by asking Redford, founder of Sundance Film Festival, about last week’s vote where half of the Senate refuses to formally acknowledge the existence of man-made climate change.
“I think the deniers of climate change are probably the people who are afraid of change. They don’t want to see change,” Redford tells Goodman. “Too many in Congress are pushing us back into the 1950s.”
Goodman also asks Redford, a long-time opponent of the Keystone XL, about the attempt by the new Republican majority in Congress to approve construction of the controversial pipeline. “I had a lot of experience with oil,” he says, noting that he once worked in the oil fields. “I think it should stay in the ground. We’re so close to polluting the planet beyond anything sustainable.”
Is the USA-India nuclear deal really a “breakthrough”?
Differing interpretations emerge in New Delhi and Washington over ‘breakthrough’ nuclear deal By Dipanjan Roy Chaudhury, ET Bureau | 28 Jan, 2015 NEW DELHI: US President Barack Obama departed after three-days of intense negotiations and getting a taste of famed Indian hospitality in what was termed as a landmark visit in which logjam over operationalisation of civil nuclear deal was removed, though different readings have emerged over the contours of the understanding.
The apparent breakthrough was in narrowing differences on the liability issue. But there are different interpretations in Delhi and Washington. While Indian officials led by the Foreign Secretary said the way has been cleared for nuclear commerce and that US have agreed to lift its insistence on flagging or tracking the nuclear material supplied to India, US nuclear suppliers said they were still reading the fine print in the liability law……..http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/articleshow/46035540.cms?utm_source=contentofinterest&utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=cppst
After wave of power closures, RWE will close Gundremmingen B nuclear reactor in 2017
Rival E.ON is to shut its Grafenrheinfeld reactor between March and May, more than seven months before its previous closure date of end-2015.
It cited as reasons for the move unsatisfactory returns due to weak wholesale power prices and a fuel element tax which utilities are fighting in court. (Reporting by Vera Eckert, Christoph Steitz, Tom Kaeckenhoff; Editing by Maria Sheahan) http://af.reuters.com/article/energyOilNews/idAFL6N0V643S20150127
Film-maker inspired by mother’s anti-nuclear stance
Mom’s anti-nuclear stance inspires film Documentary maker travels the world to get the big picture, Japan Times, BY KEIJI HIRANO KYODO JAN 27, 2015 In the days of uncertainty immediately following the March 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster, documentary filmmaker Masako Sakata turned to a book written by her late mother, an anti-nuclear campaigner, to try to make sense of what was happening. (registered readers only) http://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2015/01/27/national/moms-anti-nuclear-stance-inspires-film/#.VMf3O9KUcnk
Renewable energy market growing in India – India seeking support from USA
India to push renewable energy drive during Obama visit BY VALERIE VOLCOVICI AND ADITYA KALRA (REUTERS) 23 Jan 15 -India will look to the United States for more private sector partnerships and technology to support a drive to expand its use of clean energy, as Washington looks to secure political support for a global climate change deal in 2015…….
The U.S.-India talks will focus on supporting Indian efforts to electrify the country by boosting emissions-free energy and building manufacturing capabilities for solar and wind energy, said two officials familiar with the matter and several climate experts.
India needs $200 billion of investment in renewables by 2022 – half of it from abroad – to raise its solar power capacity by 33 times to 100 gigawatts and its wind power capacity to 60 GW.
U.S.-based First Solar and SunEdison Inc are among the renewable energy companies already active in India, but the market is growing rapidly…….http://in.reuters.com/article/2015/01/22/india-usa-climatechange-idINKBN0KV0SA20150122
1 This Month
Chernobyl: The Lost Tapes – A good documentary on Chernobyl on SBS available On Demand for the next 3 weeks– https://www.sbs.com.au/ondemand/tv-program/chernobyl-the-lost-tapes/2352741955560
of the week–London Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament
Tell the Ukrainian Government to Drop Prosecution of Peace Activist Yurii Sheliazhenko
To see nuclear-related stories in greater depth and intensity – go to https://nuclearinformation.wordpress.com
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