nuclear-news

Nuclear disarmament the only safe course in militarised world

Over Iraq, George W. Bush and his bush lawyers tried to develop a
doctrine of ”pre-emptive self defence”, namely the right of the US
to invade any nation that might one day have the weapons to threaten
the US – but this doctrine has no place in international law.

we are entering a new era of nuclear proliferation so
dangerous that we may soon be nostalgic for the Cold War.

Whether children will live in a world without nukes depends on whether
the international community can be made sufficiently fearful of a
nuclear war to reach an agreement on gradual but complete disarmament.
If there is a silver lining in the mushroom cloud hypothetically
hovering over the Middle East, it is that the prospect of merciless
Mullahs with fingers on nuclear triggers will frighten the world
sufficiently to produce and enforce a law to ban the bomb.

Explosive state of a nuke world order SMH,December 30, 2012  Geoffrey Robertson
With the potential for harm growing, it is time to ban the bomb. The
first war of 2013 – Israel’s attack on Iran – is threatened for
”spring or early summer”, the time by which the Israeli Prime
Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, who is likely to be re-elected next
month, believes that the Mullahs will be ”nuclear weapons capable”.The White House may prevail upon him to postpone until Mahmoud

Ahmadinejad is replaced in June, but his successor as president will
just be another proxy for the international criminal who really rules
Iran – its Supreme Leader, Ali Khamenei.
The US President, Barack Obama, has promised that a US-led coalition
will prevent Iran from obtaining the bomb, and when a US president
talks of ”coalition” he generally means Britain and Australia.

Will next year see the West drift into another bloody Middle East
engagement? Continue reading →

December 31, 2012 Posted by Christina Macpherson | general | Leave a comment

New chief of the National Nuclear Security Administration – close ties with DOE

Acting Administrator of the National Nuclear Security Administration:
Who Is Neile Miller? AllGov, December 30, 2012 Neile L. Miller, who has
been the principal deputy administrator for the National Nuclear
Security Administration (NNSA) since August 2010, will become acting
administrator on January 18, 2013, upon the retirement of current
director Thomas P. D’Agostino. NNSA is a semi-autonomous agency within
the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) responsible for overseeing the
nation’s nuclear weapons complex….. Miller and her husband, nuclear
scientist Dr. Werner Lutze, have two sons, Max and Daniel.
http://www.allgov.com/news/appointments-and-resignations/acting-administrator-of-the-national-nuclear-security-administration-who-is-neile-miller-121230?news=846613

December 31, 2012 Posted by Christina Macpherson | general | Leave a comment

Anxiety over rail transport of Dounreay’s nuclear spent fuel

Savings put ahead of nuclear safety, Tor Justad
http://www.heraldscotland.com/comment/letters/savings-put-ahead-of-nuclear-safety.19779977, 30 Dec 12,
The report referring to a large increase in radioactive discharges
once again raises concerns about what is actually happening at
Dounreay (Alarm at plans for huge increase in radioactive discharges
from Dounreay, News, December 23).

It appears saving money is being put ahead of safety.

It has been regularly reported that the Nuclear Decommissioning
Authority (NDA) wishes to close Dounreay as quickly as possible. One
result is the current controversial transport of 44 tonnes of highly
radioactive spent fuel 400 miles by rail, from Dounreay to Sellafield.

The NDA has asserted that savings of millions of pounds can be made by
this transport when they previously indicated that the spent fuel
could be safely stored at Dounreay.What should be concerning to
Highland Council and Sepa (the Scottish Environment Protection Agency)
is that these reported “savings” could be putting the lives of tens of
thousands of people at risk from accident or terrorist attack linked
to this rail transport, or from any increase in discharges around
Dounreay, which are already unacceptably high. I trust that Highland
Council and Sepa will act sooner rather than later to reassure the
public and to take action before it is too late.

December 31, 2012 Posted by Christina Macpherson | general | Leave a comment

Maui increasing its electricity supply from wind energy

New wind farm boosts Maui renewable energy Star Advertiser, By Andrew Gomes , Dec 28, 2012 

Maui is now generating more electricity from the wind after a second major wind farm went into operation.

December 29, 2012 Posted by Christina Macpherson | general | Leave a comment

USA’s hypocrisy about nuclear disarmament and Iran

A breakthrough with Iran will be feather in the cap of President
Obama’s second term. But taking positive steps toward global nuclear
disarmament will be the crown jewel of his legacy.

The United States’ Nuclear Hypocrisy, HUFFINGTON POST,  Ahmad Sadri,
27 Dec 12 President Obama’s return to the discourse of nuclear
disarmament earned him the Nobel Peace Prize for 2009. Earlier that
year the recently elected President of the United States went to
Prague and sounded a clarion call for a ban on all nuclear testing and
a new treaty to end the production of fissile materials intended for
nuclear weapons.

Four years have passed and the Prague promise seems to
have been forgotten. In reaction to a U.S. nuclear test on December 5,
the Japan Council Against Atomic and Hydrogen Bombs addressed
President Obama with these words: “Your administration seeks
non-proliferation of nuclear weapons. But your position of urging
others to renounce nuclear weapons, while continuing your own nuclear
tests, does not stand to reason.”…. Continue reading →

December 28, 2012 Posted by Christina Macpherson | general | Leave a comment

Japan’s new government deliberately vague on ending nuclear power

LDP governments since the 1960s have promoted nuclear power generation
under the myth that it is safe. 

 if nuclear power generation resumes, radioactive waste storage facilities at nuclear power plants will be full in several years. In addition, the technology to safely store high-level radioactive waste on a permanent basis does not exist…… The LDP should not assume that its victory in the Dec. 16 election means that people have given carte blanche to its nuclear power policy.

LDP’s vague nuclear energy policy,http://www.japantimes.co.jp/text/ed20121226a1.html Japan Times editorial, 27 Dec 12
In their policy agreement, the Liberal Democratic Party and its
coalition partner Komeito have failed to declare that they will aim to
eventually end nuclear power generation in Japan. They have agreed
only to gradually decrease Japan’s reliance on it, without indicating
the year in which all of Japan’s nuclear power plants should stop
operating.
Komeito’s campaign pledge for the Dec. 16 Lower House election had
said that the party will endeavor to achieve “zero nuclear power” as
soon as possible.

The agreement shows that because public opinion on ending nuclear
power generation is so strong that the LDP-Komeito coalition cannot
ignore the call. But it is so vague that the coalition could be said
to be trying to postpone ending nuclear power generation indefinitely. Continue reading →

December 27, 2012 Posted by Christina Macpherson | general | Leave a comment

USA’s anti-missile system in Europe creating greater enemies

Nuclear Shield: What Is USA Afraid Of?
Market Leader, 25 December More and more experts forecast that Russia and China will eventually unite against the USA. If the USA keeps deploying its anti-missile systems in Europe, it may get a union of its most powerful adversaries. Continue reading →

December 26, 2012 Posted by Christina Macpherson | general | 1 Comment

Now we are in a second, more dangerous, nuclear weapons age

Living dangerously in a second nuclear age
Constitution Daily, 25 DEc 12, 
By Paul Bracken
Many academic conferences and government panels have been convened
this year to recall the 50th anniversary of the Cuban missile crisis
of 1962.  This was the most dangerous crisis of the Cold War, and it’s
surely worth studying for this reason.But the Cuban Missile Crisis
gets too much attention. Focusing on any single crisis distorts the
central problem of the Cold War for the United States. The Cold War
was a long-term competition, stretching over five decades……
Presidents Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford, and Jimmy Carter built their
foreign policies around détente. But in the 1980s this was followed by
the Ronald Reagan build-up, nuclear threats by both sides, accidents
like the shooting down of Korean Airliner 007, and serious nuclear
mishaps inside the Soviet command and control system.

Today we are in a second nuclear age. Continue reading →

December 26, 2012 Posted by Christina Macpherson | general | Leave a comment

High level nuclear waste will not be stored in Utah

Plan to store high-level nuclear waste in UT dead
Seattle Pi December 23, 2012
SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — Top elected officials in Utah are hailing the
official death of a plan to store the nation’s high-level nuclear
waste in Tooele County.

U.S. Sen. Orrin Hatch, a vocal opponent of the plan, told The Salt
Lake Tribune (http://bit.ly/TcRfSO ) he’s grateful that a consortium
of utility companies has abandoned the effort once and for all.

Private Fuel Storage has asked the Nuclear Regulatory Agency to end
its license for a 100-acre area for radioactive waste containers on
the Skull Valley Goshute Reservation…….
http://www.seattlepi.com/news/science/article/Plan-to-store-high-level-nuclear-waste-in-UT-dead-4142213.php#ixzz2FzvdA2sE
www.nuclear-news.net

December 24, 2012 Posted by Christina Macpherson | general | Leave a comment

What future for USA’s nuclear weapons complex?

Whither the nuclear weapons complex
ABQ Journal By John Fleck , Dec 23, 2012

In addition to its effort to force continued work on a new plutonium
lab building at Los Alamos, which I wrote about last week, the FY2013
congressional defense authorization bill has some potentially
far-reaching language regarding future governance of the US nuclear
weapons complex. The language, sponsored by Sen. Tom Udall, D-NM and
others, would create an advisory panel to review the question of how
the federal government should go about managing its unwieldy nuclear
weapons complex, which includes Sandia and Los Alamos labs here in New
Mexico.

In the latest Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, former Department of
Energy official Bob Alvarez looks at one widely discussed option:
ending the historical approach of having the weapons program managed
by a civilian agency (the DOE) and moving it under Pentagon
control:…… http://www.abqjournal.com/main/2012/12/23/blogs/nm-science/whither-the-nuclear-weapons-complex.html

December 24, 2012 Posted by Christina Macpherson | general | Leave a comment

Are we now at the tipping point of the consumer society?

Time up on consumer society: Southern Courier, Steve Tighe 17 DEC 12   AT what point will our time-starved society release its vice-like grip on materialistic values and place quality of life above the pursuit of visible economic achievement?

According to futurist Steve Tighe we are now at the tipping point of a post-materialistic society. Tighe told the Randwick Business and Economic Leadership Forum, held at Little Bay’s Prince Henry Centre on Wednesday, that there was a grinding movement away from the consumption of material possessions.

“We have been a high consumption society for 30 years but the new norm emerging is a fundamental shift in the aspirational value people place on possessions,” he said….. A key driver of change is the loss of personal time which Tighe described as the greatest unmet need of our society in 2012, with people now working on average six hours more than 10 years ago. “People are spending too much time at work and too much time is spent getting there,” he said. http://southern-courier.whereilive.com.au/news/story/time-up-on-consumer-society-steve-tighe/

December 22, 2012 Posted by Christina Macpherson | general | Leave a comment

Watts Bar Nuclear Plant official abruptly leaves the job

Official in charge of Watts Bar Nuclear leaves TVA employment
Times Free Press,  by Pam Sohn 20 Dec 12, The TVA vice president in
charge of Watts Bar Nuclear Plant abruptly left the employment of TVA
today, but TVA officials will not say why.

“Timothy Cleary will serve as acting site vice president for Watts Bar
Nuclear Plant, effective immediately. Cleary replaces Don Grissette.”
said TVA spokesman Ray Golden on Thursday.

Golden said TVA will not elaborate on Grissette’s departure.

The news comes on the same day that TVA is announcing Watts Bar worker
incentives if the behind-schedule, over-budget new reactor there can
be made operational by the end of the 2015……
http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2012/dec/20/official-charge-watts-bar-nuclear-leaves-tva-emplo/

December 22, 2012 Posted by Christina Macpherson | general | Leave a comment

Petition to USA’s Nuclear Regulatory Commission, on nuclear wastes

 We’ve prepared the brief petition with four key points–including consideration of a permanent end to radioactive waste generation. And you can also add your own comments to this petition. We will get the petition in to the NRC on January 2nd.  Everyone can participate in this action….. Petition at http://org2.democracyinaction.org/o/5502/p/dia/action/public/?action_KEY=12372

Sign on to four principles on radioactive waste, including no more generation http://org2.democracyinaction.org/o/5502/p/dia/action/public/?action_KEY=12372 December 18, 2012 Earlier this year, a federal court threw out the fundamental underpinning of the NRC’s radioactive waste policy–the agency’s Waste Confidence rule.

In a nutshell, that rule stated that the NRC had confidence that highly radioactive irradiated fuel from nuclear reactors would be stored and managed safely forever. That confidence
gave the NRC the ability to license and re-license nuclear reactors.

The court ruled that the NRC had no basis to make that assertion.

Continue reading →

December 19, 2012 Posted by Christina Macpherson | general | Leave a comment

Japanese election result is no guarantee of nuclear power restart

“People who voted for the LDP are supporting their economic-stimulus measures, not nuclear power policy,”

“Even for the LDP it will be difficult to gain support from residents living near nuclear stations for restarting them, as the tragedy in Fukushima is not over,”  

Nuclear Stock Rally in Japan Ignores Public Opposition, Bloomberg News By Yuriy Humber, Anna Kitanaka and Aya Takada  December 17, 2012 Japanese power-company stocks that rallied after the pro-nuclear energy Liberal Democratic Party was elected may struggle to sustain gains because of public opposition to restarting atomic plants……

“Just because politicians say they want to restart reactors doesn’t mean they will actually be able to do it,” said Ayako Sera, a market strategist at Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Bank Ltd. in Tokyo, which has about $400 billion in assets. ….

Any plans to restart reactors will need approval from the Nuclear Regulation Authority, which is investigating six atomic plants on concern they were built on active fault lines. Japanese law states reactors cannot be built on active faults, indicating the plants may need to be decommissioned.

“Proving safety is going to be really hard,” Sera said. Continue reading →

December 18, 2012 Posted by Christina Macpherson | general | Leave a comment

Nuclear weapons may they rust in peace

 Deterrence is infinitely more obsolete on the basis that using nuclear weapons makes a military victory virtually impossible; they lead only to omnicide.

Something new and vital is germinating from our long winter of death-induced fear….
non-governmental organizations around the world are working for common values: Non-violent political structures, environmental sanity, gender equality, and universal human rights.

Someday soon this collective affirmation that we are one human family will thoroughly dissolve the perceived need for nuclear weapons. May they rust in peace.

Are We Dead? Nuclear Policy and the Zombie Apocalypse http://www.huntingtonnews.net/51649, December 15, 2012   BY WINSLOW MYERS “….. Why? Computer models suggest that the detonation of a remarkably small number of nuclear weapons from today’s arsenals—doesn’t matter whose—would raise enough toxic soot and ash into the atmosphere to shut down world agriculture for a decade.  In effect, such a detonation would be a death sentence for us all. All.

No less a pitiless realist than Henry Kissinger has stated that he tried to make foreign policy with these weapons and found it impossible. Henry Kissinger now works for abolition.

Even a “limited” nuclear war risks planetary annihilation. A one-sided nuclear attack risks a similar fate. If India and Pakistan get into a nuclear war and use their combined 210 nuclear bombs, we are all dead. If Israel uses a few too many of its weapons, we are dead.

Deterrence is already obsolete, in the sense that it will do nothing to stop a determined extremist from smuggling a nuclear weapon to ground zero of a target. Deterrence is infinitely more obsolete on the basis that using nuclear weapons makes a military victory virtually impossible; they lead only to omnicide.

So, why is the United States planning to waste up to $352 billion (!) in the next decade to renew its nuclear weapons program? Continue reading →

December 17, 2012 Posted by Christina Macpherson | general | Leave a comment