Talk of intervention in Syria – prelude to nuclear war with Russia?
No one seriously expects a nuclear war among the major powers, but we prepare for it anyway, and we pay the price in our budget, our strategic thought, and our diplomacy. While we wring our hands about whether we can handle Syria—which is remarkable given how much time we spend contemplating a far larger war in the Pacific with a near-peer like China—we continue to pour money and deep thinking into preparing for the coming nuclear war, the conflict we escaped during the Cold War but still plan for as if all of our tomorrows are yesterday.
The Coming Nuclear War with…the Soviet Union?, The National Interest, Tom Nichols August 25, 2013″………Calls for intervention against Syria, particularly in the United States, are met with grim warnings about the difficulties and complications of intervening against a third-string Middle Eastern power. Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Martin Dempsey, for example, reportedly confronted Secretary of State John Kerry over striking Syrian air bases. Dempsey told Kerry such an effort would require some seven hundred sorties, and then, according to a report last June, “threw a series of brushback pitches at Kerry, demanding to know just exactly what the post-strike plan would be and pointing out that the State Department didn’t fully grasp the complexity of such an operation.”
One reason these missions might be too difficult is that the United States is still spending too much time, money and intellectual energy preparing to fight a far more important conflict with a far deadlier enemy: global nuclear war with the Soviet Union. We may not be able to suppress the air defenses of a weakened dictatorship in the middle of a massive civil war, but we’re certainly more than prepared to take on the old USSR.
Well, maybe it’s not a plan to fight the Soviet Union, exactly, but the U.S. defense budget and the overall approach to the defense of the United States from foreign nuclear attack still seems rooted somewhere in the 1980s, a relic from the time of Rubik’s Cubes, Rick Springfield, and Ronald Wilson Reagan…….. Continue reading
Nuclear power as cure for climate change: no good without waste disposal
The situation highlights a major flaw in the president’s plan for relying on nuclear power as part of the effort to combat climate change. It’s not a real plan when it doesn’t make provisions for safe disposal. Existing and decommissioned plants have been storing their spent fuel on-site, either in pools or encased in concrete casks. It’s an unacceptable situation. The casks, which will be used to store waste at the defunct San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station, can withstand even strong earthquakes, but their lifetime is measured in decades, while the waste will be dangerous for hundreds of thousands of years.
In other words, nuclear policy requires farsighted thinking. California law wisely prohibits the construction of new nuclear plants until a safe method has been devised for permanently disposing of waste. A mature federal energy policy would do the same.
Nuclear waste can’t wait http://www.latimes.com/opinion/editorials/la-ed-yucca-mountain-nuclear-waste-disposal-20130825,0,3109839.story President Obama’s plan for relying on nuclear power as part of the effort to combat climate change is incomplete without a disposal provision. By The Times editorial board August 25, 2013
In the 1957 Isaac Asimov short story “Silly Asses,”Earthlings are added to a galactic book of planetary races that have reached maturity — defined as those that have developed nuclear capability. But then the keeper of the book learns that atomic tests are being conducted on Earth and crosses the planet off the list. Asimov was writing during the A-bomb years, before the construction of nuclear power plants. How unacceptable would it seem to the fictional keeper of the book that we have been building and operating these reactors for decades without a place to store the waste? Continue reading
Nuclear power headed for obsolescence?
Nuclear may become obsolete warns US solar energy chief The UK risks missing out on the benefits of solar power by focusing on sources such as nuclear, according to the Scottish entrepreneur behind one of America’s fastest growing retail solar panel companies. The Telegraph, By Louise Armitstead 25 Aug 2013
“Given the proven cost curve in solar, that nuclear plant could be obsolete before it’s even switched on. Politicians must be careful not to lock Britons into 20th century energy prices.”…..http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/energy/10265065/Nuclear-may-become-obsolete-warns-US-solar-energy-chief.html
Japan’s PM Abe losing credibility as Fukushima radiation crisis deepens
Abe’s Nuclear Imperative Starts at Fukushima Bloomberg, 25 Aug 13, Like the hundreds of tons of radioactive water now streaming daily into the Pacific Ocean off the Japanese coast, the bad news from Tokyo Electric Power Co.’s (9501) stricken Fukushima Dai-Ichi plant just keeps coming. Stanching the flow and getting the Fukushima cleanup on track are critical not only to health and safety, but also to the future of nuclear energy in Japan and elsewhere, and to the credibility of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s government…….
obfuscations have come on top of widely reported incidents — a mysterious cloud of steam rising from one of the crippled reactors, a 29-hour power failure to a cooling pool — that suggest Tepco can’t handle the decommissioning and cleanup. Last week, company executives broke from form and wisely admitted that they will need outside help to solve the complex problem of groundwater runoff flowing from the mountains to the sea under the foundations of the plant.
On Aug. 7, Abe opened the door to that help when he pledged that “we will not leave this to Tepco, but put together a government strategy.” Given Tepco’s hapless record, this would be an auspicious moment to put that strategy in place and increase government control over the company. Despite providing 1 trillion yen ($12.5 billion) and obtaining 50.1 percent of Tepco voting rights in 2012, the government has left company decisions to management. In taking on Tepco’s liabilities, it has treated the company as “too big to fail,” creating a moral hazard for other nuclear operators. As disruptive and expensive as it may be, nationalization may be the only way to ensure a thorough cleanup, one that doesn’t put the return to profitability ahead of public safety.
In the meantime, Japan needs to aggressively solicit outside expertise — the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, for instance, has yet to receive a formal request for assistance — to solve Fukushima’s groundwater problem. And Japan’s nuclear power authority would do well to devote less of its limited resources to recertifying reactors for restarts and more to monitoring the Fukushima cleanup and ensuring that the public is kept reliably informed……
Fukushima’s corrosive impact on support for nuclear energy, a climate-friendly part of the energy mix, extends beyond Japan’s shores to some of its would-be nuclear customers….. http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-08-25/abe-s-nuclear-imperative-starts-at-fukushima.html
Dispelling nuclear lobby’s myths about “background radiation”
Fukushima: Think Low Level Radiation Is Harmless? Think Again… UKIAH BLOG In Around the web on August 25, 2013Time to combat radiation threat From WASHINGTON’S BLOG
“………Nuclear apologists pretend that we get a higher exposure from background radiation (when we fly, for example) or x-rays then we get from nuclear accidents.
In fact, there was exactly zero background radioactive cesium or iodine before above-ground nuclear testing and nuclear accidents started.
Wikipedia provides some details on the distribution of cesium-137 due to human activities:
Small amounts of caesium-134 and caesium-137 were released into the environment during nearly all nuclear weapon tests and some nuclear accidents, most notably the Chernobyl disaster.
***
Caesium-137 is unique in that it is totally anthropogenic. Unlike most other radioisotopes, caesium-137 is not produced from its non-radioactive isotope, but from uranium. It did not occur in nature before nuclear weapons testing began. By observing the characteristic gamma rays emitted by this isotope, it is possible to determine whether the contents of a given sealed container were made before or after the advent of atomic bomb explosions. This procedure has been used by researchers to check the authenticity of certain rare wines, most notably the purported “Jefferson bottles”.
As the EPA notes:
Cesium-133 is the only naturally occurring isotope and is non-radioactive; all other isotopes, including cesium-137, are produced by human activity.
Similarly, iodine-131 is not a naturally occurring isotope. As the Encyclopedia Britannicanotes:
The only naturally occurring isotope of iodine is stable iodine-127. An exceptionally useful radioactive isotope is iodine-131…
(Fukushima has spewed much more radioactive cesium and iodine than Chernobyl. The amount of radioactive cesium released by Fukushima was some 20-30 times higher than initially admitted. Japanese experts say that Fukushima is currently releasing up to 93 billion becquerels of radioactive cesium into the ocean each day. And the cesium levels hitting the west coast of North America will keep increasing for several years. Fukushima is spewing more and more radiation into the environment, and the amount of radioactive fuel at Fukushima dwarfs Chernobyl.)
As such, the concept of “background radiation” is largely a misnomer. Most of the radiation we encounter today – especially the most dangerous types – did not even exist in nature before we started tinkering with nuclear weapons and reactors. In a sense, we are all guinea pigs.
Japan confident about Olympic games bid, despite nuclear crisis
Nuclear leak no threat to Tokyo’s 2020 Olympic bid, CBC News, 23 Aug 13, Tokyo Governor Naoki Inose maintains there is “absolute safety” A leak of highly radioactive water at the crippled Fukushima nuclear power plant will not affect Tokyo’s bid to host the 2020 Olympics, Tokyo Governor Naoki Inose said Friday….”Regarding food and water in Tokyo, there is absolute safety and the data is available,” Inose said. “As far as hosting the Games, the situation in Fukushima will not affect Tokyo.”
Tokyo, Istanbul and Madrid are bidding to host the 2020 Olympics.
The IOC will select the host city by secret ballot on Sept. 7 in Buenos Aires, Argentina……http://www.cbc.ca/sports/olympics/story/2013/08/23/sp-ioc-olympics-2020-olympic-summer-games-tokyo.html
Challenge to renewal of uranium exploration license in Slovakia
European Uranium’s Kuriskova License Renewal Challenged Daily Finance, by Business Wire via The Motley Fool Aug 22nd 2013 VANCOUVER, British Columbia – European Uranium Resources Ltd. (TSX-V:EUU) (OTCQX:EUUNF) (FWB:TGPN) reports that following an appeal from anti-uranium mining activists in Slovakia, the General Prosecutor of Slovakia has challenged the renewal of the exploration license on which the Kuriskova uranium deposit is located (the “Kuriskova Licence”). The Kuriskova License was renewed by the Geology Division of the Ministry of Environment (the “Ministry”) until April 19, 2015. The Ministry originally refused to consider the appeal but has now agreed to review its decision to renew the licence.
The issue being reviewed is whether the renewal was simply a renewal of the existing Kuriskova License, which can be done by the Ministry without public comment, or whether it was a modified or new license, in which case renewal would require input and approval from local municipalities and the Regional Government as stakeholders….. http://www.dailyfinance.com/2013/08/22/european-uraniums-kuriskova-license-renewal-challe/
Fukushima’s truth – too dire to be told?
Japan to issue gravest Fukushima nuclear warning in two years Toronto Sun, , AUGUST 21, 2013 03 TOKYO Comment They’re not even scratching the surface. Radioactive water has been leaking at the rate of 300 tonnes per day for two years now.
There are still more than 1,300 spent fuel rods on site, that have to be submerged in water in order to stay cool. They are still pumping millions of gallons of seawater onto these rods to keep them from going into meltdown. The more water they pump, the more radioactive water needs to be stored on site, and can (and does as we see now) end up leaking back into the ocean.
Some estimates (by nuclear professionals) claim it will take over 40 years to decommission these reactors, and even after that the site will still be uninhabitable.
The Nuclear ratings agencies aren’t telling us the truth because if we knew how dire it really was heads would roll. http://www.torontosun.com/2013/08/21/japan-to-issue-gravest-fukushima-nuclear-warning-in-two-years
Fukushima, Japan Money over mankind, Fukushima vs Chernobyl
Japanese gamble Armageddon in Last Ditch Fukushima Effort, Whiteout Press, August 20, 2013. “……….As if the situation in Japan wasn’t terrifying enough, RT News and nuclear fallout expert Christina Consolo expose a couple additional horrifying revelations regarding the Fukushima meltdowns, subsequent clean-up, and the desperate plan to stop Armageddon. She begins by describing the response by TEPCO and Japanese authorities as “temporary fixes”. The account describes some of the measures taken as the equivalent of duct tape and band-aids.
Consolo warns that cost-cutting and profits will also play an ominous part, “Cost always seems to be an enormous factor in what gets implemented and what doesn’t.” Comparing Fukushima to Chernobyl, the researcher points out that the Chernobyl meltdown involved a single reactor that had no spent fuel rods stored at the facility.
Each of the Fukushima reactors is also four-times the size of the Chernobyl reactor. And whereas no spent fuel rods were stored at Chernobyl, the Fukushima plants house six roof-top storage pools, two of which are structurally damaged from the earthquake and resulting explosions, fire and saltwater corrosion.
Illustrating the problem with cost-driven safety decisions, the report explains that on-site cooling pools used to be only for temporary storage of spent fuel rods and as a temporary option to help in their transfer to permanent facilities. But as documented by various sources, nuclear power plants around the world now store their own spent rods using unsafe methods to avoid the costs associated with their transfer and permanent storage in a safe environment.
Summing up where mankind is right now in the fight to save humanity from global devastation, the report leaves readers with this final warning, ‘We have three 100-ton melted fuel blobs underground, but where exactly they are located, no one knows. Whatever barriers TEPCO has put in place so far have failed. Efforts to decontaminate radioactive water have failed. Robots have failed. Camera equipment and temperature gauges…failed. Decontamination of surrounding cities has failed. If and when the corium reaches the Tokyo aquifer, serious and expedient discussions will have to take place about evacuating 40 million people.’
For more information, visit RT News. http://www.whiteoutpress.com/articles/q32013/japanese-gamble-armageddon-in-last-ditch-fukushima-effort/
Nuclear power unpopular with utilities investors
The Motley Fool By Justin Loiseau, August 20, 2013“…….One of the biggest blows to nuclear came in June when Edison International (NYSE: EIX ) announced the early retirement of two California nuclear units. The impetus for the exit came from a generator leak that had kept the plants off-line since January 2012. Not only did the decision cost Edison more than $300 million in post-tax damages, it also put 1,100 workers out of a job.
Given high costs and a risky regulatory environment, the utility probably made the right choice at the time. But if the NRC’s latest Entergy approval is any evidence, regulators may be more willing to let up a little to avoid another Edison exit.
But for utilities that haven’t yet made their nuclear investments, some are opting out before it’s too late. Duke Energy (NYSE: DUK ) had previously planned to build a massive $24.7 billion Florida plant, but announced earlier this month that it would be backing off its original idea. The utility cited delays by the NRC in issuing new licenses, as well as state-level legislative changes. Duke will be looking increasingly toward natural gas to fuel its future, but will keep nuclear plans on the back burner in case opportunities arise…..”
And again – uranium price goes down
Uranium spot price falters after rumored deal falls through: sources Washington (Platts)–20Aug 2013 An early-August rally in the uranium spot price ended after the market learned that a potential deal with an investment fund for up to 1 million pounds of U308 will not close anytime soon, if at all, price publishers and market sources said. Since the, the price has steadily weakened.
Price publishers TradeTech and Ux Consulting both lowered their weekly uranium spot price by 75 cents/lb to $35/lb, Friday and Monday, respectively.
“While it was never guaranteed that the buyer would purchase, the possibility that up to 1 million pounds of supply could be removed from the near-term market had served to create some upward price pressure,” TradeTech said in its weekly report Friday. “Now that it is clear the purchase will not go forward, at least for the time being, seller optimism has waned.”…….
Fukushima – a clean -up for all eternity?
http://rt.com/op-edge/tepco-fukushima-sea-water-reactor-194/
Young Japanese fear a bleak future in a radioactive nation
Student Letter in Japan Times: Fukushima crisis seems alarmingly worse recently — Cynical disregard for human life — Risking a bleak future for this radiation-contaminated nation http://enenews.com/student-article-japan-times-fukushima-crisis-gotten-alarmingly-worse-cynical-disregard-human-life-risking-bleak-future-radiation
Title: Clean up Fukushima or else
Source: Japan Times
Author: Marise Shikawa, Ohmiya Sr. High School (Koshigaya, Saitama)
Date: Aug 17, 2013
Two months since The Japan Times’ June 11 editorial “Cease promoting nuclear power,” things seem to have gotten alarmingly worse. […]
Most disquieting is the cynical disregard for human life and dignity, as exemplified by the scant attention paid to the victims of the Fukushima nuclear crisis, that seems to continue unabated.
Some 150,000 Fukushima residents are left for homeless, and many others live in fear of exposure to radiation released by the crippled nuclear power plant. The power plant, meanwhile, is said to be releasing up to 300 tons of radioactive water each day into the Pacific Ocean, a valuable common asset for mankind. […]
We of the young generation run the risk of facing a bleak future on a radiation-contaminated island nation.
See also: Japan kids ingesting pieces of Fukushima fuel rods? Expert: Mystery black substance “very likely contains concentrated unburned nuclear fuel” (VIDEO)
When a nuclear attack does occur, there will be no winners
if the attack does occur, escalating to nuclear weapons will worsen the scale of military devastation even for the side initiating nuclear strikes.
As long as anyone has nuclear weapons, others will want them; as long as nuclear weapons exist, they will be used again some day by design, accident, miscalculation or rogue launch; any nuclear exchange anywhere would have catastrophic consequences for the whole world.
Global threat of nuclear deterrence JAPAN TIMES, BY RAMESH THAKUR AUG 18, 2013 BEIJING – Nuclear weapons are uniquely destructive and hence uniquely threatening to all our security. There is a compelling need to challenge and overcome the reigning complacency on the nuclear risks and dangers, and to sensitize policy communities to the urgency and gravity of the nuclear threats and the availability of nonnuclear alternatives as anchors of national and international security orders.
The transformation of anti-nuclear movements into coalitions of change requires a shift from street protest to engagement with politics and policy.
A nuclear catastrophe could destroy us anytime. Because we have learned to live with nuclear weapons for 68 years, we have become desensitized to the gravity and immediacy of the threat.
The tyranny of complacency could yet exact a fearful price if we sleepwalk our way into a nuclear Armageddon. It really is long past time to lift the shroud of the mushroom cloud from the international body politic………..
Against nuclear-armed rivals, they cannot be used for defense. The mutual vulnerability of such rivals to second-strike retaliatory capability is so robust for the foreseeable future that any escalation through the nuclear threshold really would amount to mutual national suicide. Their only purpose and role is mutual deterrence.
However, here too national security strategists face a fundamental and unresolvable paradox. In order to deter a conventional attack by a more powerful nuclear adversary, each nuclear-armed state must convince its stronger opponent of the ability and will to use nuclear weapons if attacked.
But if the attack does occur, escalating to nuclear weapons will worsen the scale of military devastation even for the side initiating nuclear strikes.
Because the stronger party believes this, the existence of nuclear weapons may add an extra element or two of caution, but does not guarantee complete and indefinite immunity for the weaker party…….Almost half a century after the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty was signed, the world is still perched precariously on the edge of the nuclear precipice.
As long as anyone has nuclear weapons, others will want them; as long as nuclear weapons exist, they will be used again some day by design, accident, miscalculation or rogue launch; any nuclear exchange anywhere would have catastrophic consequences for the whole world.
We need authoritative road maps to walk us back from the nuclear cliff to the relative safety of a less heavily nuclearized, and eventually a denuclearized, world. http://www.japantimes.co.jp/opinion/2013/08/18/commentary/global-threat-of-nuclear-deterrence/#.UhJ2P9Jwo6I
Another opinion on the pro nuclear film “Pandora’s Promise”
A Nuclear Submariner Challenges a Pro-Nuclear Film NYT, By ANDREW C. REVKIN, 16 Aug 13 Russell Long San francisco The National Renewable Energy Lab’s study isn’t wishful thinking — it is based on sound science and is backed up by a Blue Ribbon advisory board from many of the U.S.’s top institutions including MIT.
The biggest problem is that utilities around the nation fight like the devil to prevent intrusion onto their turf by renewable providers. One of their methods has been to craft regulatory prohibitions, with the help of state elected officials, against energy entering their states from other areas (especially “green electrons”). Thus, the balkanization of the grid is at it’s core a turf battle to protect corporate profits.
Pandora’s Promise sets up straw man arguments and then knocks them over, but it is all smoke and mirrors. There should be no doubt that the U.S. could wean itself off of nuclear and fossil fuels if obstructionist utilities and politicians would simply get out of the way. http://dotearth.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/08/16/a-nuclear-submariner-challenges-a-pro-nuclear-film/?
1 This Month
petition to oppose the rapid increase of space-military industry threatening Jeju Island and the region.
[Petition by April 19th (KST)] Stop the joint military-Hanwha Systems-Jeju Provincial Government Sea Launch!
World Nuclear Power. Reactors 1951-2026, 75 Years of Nuclear Power.
Interactive Map– https://dv.worldnuclearreport.org/
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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