nuclear-news

Solar ”EDGE” in India !

urvishdave March 18, 2012  As you all might be aware that during these days a lot of activities have been going around across our Solar Industry in India & to list a few of them are Solar projects to come in Rajasthan under Rajasthan Solar Policy, New projects about 200 MW in Madhya Pradesh, Draft Solar Policy of U.P. & especially the news / speculations of soon to  be announced solar policy for phase III in Gujarat etc….

September 4, 2012 Posted by Christina Macpherson | general | Leave a comment

San Diego needs renewable energy, not San Onofre nuclear plant

Spend Money on Renewable Energy Options Instead of Nuclear Energy  http://www.voiceofsandiego.org/opinion/article_95aa636e-f6dc-11e1-9b88-0019bb2963f4.html  by Ace Hoffman 5 Sept 12

San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station has been offline since Jan. 31, 2012. The root cause was human error — trusting computer output, to be specific. The problem appears to be difficult, if not impossible, to repair. Costs for replacing the broken parts and buying replacement fuel will run into the hundreds of millions of dollars if San Onofre proceeds with that plan — but instead, the money could be used to support renewable energy options that become part of a lasting green-energy solution.

What can be done? Lots! Solar rooftops, solar parking lots, solar everything. Wind turbines, stored energy, even wave and tide energy systems are all available — as are skilled workers to build these things. The equivalent of San Onofre’s energy output has been added to the SoCal power grid many times in the past; once more with green energy replacement would be a big step towards making San Diego a truly great place to live.

September 4, 2012 Posted by Christina Macpherson | general | Leave a comment

Petition to Chief Justice of India to stop Koodankulam Nuclear Plant

Stop Kudankulam Nuclear Plant! Help Save The Indian Ocean!  Indian Voice
   Petitioning: Chief Justice of India.
Petitioner: Ignatius Fernando started on September 4, 2012

We, ardent lovers of humanity and marine life, request the Chief
Justice of India to persuade the Govt. of India to keep the Indian
Ocean free of nuclear discharges, and convert the Koodankulam Nuclear
Plant into an alternative source of energy. Let us present a safer
world for our generations to follow.

The Indian and Russian authorities have been adamantly going ahead
with the project without respect for the apprehensions of the local
villagers.

Nuclear waste from Koodankulam is to be discharged into the Indian
Ocean and the local villagers have been engaged in peaceful protests
like hunger-strike. The Indian Government has to be persuaded to
convert this facility into an alternative source of energy.

Everyone agrees that nuclear waste will remain radioactive forever in
the Ocean…. http://www.indianvoice.org/stop-kudankulam-nuclear-plant-help-save-petition.html

September 4, 2012 Posted by Christina Macpherson | general | Leave a comment

VIDEO – Arnie Gundersen lecture in Japan

Gundersen in Japan: Lawmakers told me they don’t believe Tepco or NISA
— Crowd laughs out loud when Tepco responds to Unit 4 comments (VIDEO)
http://enenews.com/gundersen-japan-lawmakers-told-dont-believe-tepco-nisa-crowd-laughs-loud-when-tepco-responds-unit-4-comments-video
September 3rd, 2012   By ENENews  Arnie Gundersen Lecture in Japan
Presented by Green Action Japan
September 3, 2012
Question: I’m curious about the Diet’s reaction to your comment about
the Unit 4 fuel pool. Have you seen any indication that the gov’t
would be willing to accept outside help?

Gundersen: There were about 10 parliamentarians in the meeting…
afterward the parliamentarians contacted me, no they did not believe
NISA or Tepco. And the remainder of the crowd laughed out loud when
Tepco responded. I have seen no interest on the part of Tepco or NISA
about getting other experts involved in the process…

I asked Tepco if they considered using lighter casks…

They said this was the best they could do…

September 4, 2012 Posted by Christina Macpherson | general | Leave a comment

A Q Khan not to be trusted

Nuclear Politics NYT, By CAROL GIACOMO, 4 Sept 12 In Pakistan’s history, Abdul Qadeer Khan holds a unique place as the father of the country’s nuclear weapons program. Now at the age of 76, he’s mulling another vocation – political candidate, in elections expected next year.

There are many reasons why this would be bad for Pakistan, which has wasted millions of dollars over the years on its nuclear program when the need for improving the economy, creating jobs, establishing a better school system and building infrastructure is so great. There is also the not-so-insignificant matter of fighting the Pakistani Taliban that is trying to destroy the state.

Mr. Khan brought disgrace upon himself in 2004 when he confessed to having sold nuclear secrets to Iran, North Korea and Libya. Pakistan’s president at the time was Gen. Pervez Musharraf who pardoned Mr. Khan but placed him under house arrest. The government relaxed the restrictions in 2009 but his movement remains somewhat limited.
Nevertheless, he is still revered by many Pakistanis and could have some electoral appeal. He recently founded the Movement for the Protection of Pakistan…

… The bottom line is that Mr. Khan was quite content to provide some of the world’s most repressive regimes with the capability to blow up its neighbors and anybody else. Pakistan’s needs a vibrant, competitive political system that will produce a new generation of enlightened selfless leaders who will commit to building a functioning democratic state that will serve all its citizens. Mr. Khan is not that person.
http://takingnote.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/09/04/nuclear-politics/

September 4, 2012 Posted by Christina Macpherson | general | Leave a comment

Hurricane Isaac no problem to solar powered wave glider

Solar Powered Wave Glider Survives Hurricane Isaac by Energy Matters, Sept 2 A Wave Glider located in the Gulf of Mexico is alive and well after staring down Hurricane Isaac. Manufactured by California company Liquid Robotics, the Wave Glider is an unmanned marine vehicle (UMV) made up of a buoyant platform and a submerged glider with wing-shaped panels that convert the motion of waves into forward thrust.  The Wave Glider’s navigation, control, and communications systems are powered by two solar panels; which also power sensor payloads.
G2, a Wave Glider collecting ocean chemistry data in the Gulf, was in the process of scooting out of Isaac’s projected path when the hurricane changed direction and bore down on the robot.

G2 continued operating in sustained winds of 40 knots (74 kmh), with gusts up to 74 knots (137 km/h) and in the process delivered new insights into the hurricane via its sensors measuring water temperature, wind speeds, barometric pressure and air temperature….  http://www.energymatters.com.au/index.php?main_page=news_article&article_id=3363

September 3, 2012 Posted by Christina Macpherson | general | Leave a comment

Dependence on fossil fuels leads us toward a hostile climate

Paul Fieber: Dependence on fossil fuels not the answer http://host.madison.com/news/opinion/mailbag/paul-fieber-dependence-on-fossil-fuels-not-the-answer/article_a1fd743e-f3c7-11e1-b413-0019bb2963f4.html#ixzz25R89T9rx
2 Sept 12, Should America make reducing oil imports a top goal and work hard to achieve it?
I don’t think oil independence is the answer. A switch to domestic sources trashes our environment but doesn’t reduce carbon emissions.
With 5 percent of the world’s people, the United States is already spewing about 20 percent of the world’s carbon dioxide.

We must listen to established climate scientists who agree that our current path leads to an incredibly hostile and deadly planet, with a likely temperature increase of 11 degrees F through this century.

Our top goals should be energy efficiency, conservation and ending barriers to broad use of proven solar and wind technologies. We should leave most of the fossil fuel in the ground.

To help support sustainable energy goals, we can recapture and reinvest the billions in subsidies flowing to the global fossil fuel industry. In the United States alone, between 2005 and 2010, five major oil companies pocketed $4 billion a year in tax subsidies. This is outrageous.

But there’s good news, too. European nations such as Denmark and Germany use renewable energy for much of their electricity. According to the New York Times, San Francisco aims to be 100 percent renewable by 2020. These and other worldwide efforts led Canadian activist and author Naomi Klein to say the world seems to have reached “a no kidding around moment.” Let’s do it!

September 3, 2012 Posted by Christina Macpherson | general | Leave a comment

Aging activists defending the planet against aging nuclear plants

Civil disobedience BY KENNETTE BENEDICT | 9 AUGUST 2012″……….I was struck by the image of three white-haired activists from a movement that began in the early 1980s at the height of the Cold War. Some might find it odd that an 82-year-old nun and her companions — aged 63 and 57 — are protesting nuclear weapons. In a way, though, the weapons themselves are just as odd these days. They are aging, too. But, unlike the protesters, nuclear weapons are no longer relevant, and they need to be quietly laid to rest. Instead of creating new materials to renovate old warheads, it is time to let them go gently into that good night. In other words, it is time for nuclear weapons to retire and, in time, to be buried.

And who better to bury them than those who grew up with them? Aging baby-boomers are also Cold War babies. We remember civil defense drills in school, the tense days of the Cuban Missile Crisis, nuclear bomb shelters, and the fear of a nuclear war from which no one could hide. We still have memories that stir horror and a sense of helplessness.

Before we too go gently into that good night, perhaps Cold War boomers should make sure nuclear weapons go with us to the grave. For those of us in our 60s and 70s, still active and with time on our hands, the abolition of nuclear weapons is a worthy goal. We claim to have ended the Vietnam War with our protests and our marches. Perhaps we have one last act of social justice in us. Perhaps we could bring about the end of nuclear weapons and remove the prospect of nuclear war for our children and grandchildren. http://www.thebulletin.org/web-edition/columnists/kennette-benedict/civil-disobedience

September 3, 2012 Posted by Christina Macpherson | general | Leave a comment

Analysts report on Non-Aligned summit in Iran

UN nuclear report wrongfoots Iran summit: analysts Google News 1 Sept 12, By Marc Burleigh (AFP) 1 Sept 12,  TEHRAN — Iran’s hopes of boosting its international prestige by hosting a Non-Aligned summit this week were tripped up by a critical new UN nuclear watchdog report, analysts said.

The event, however, “enabled Iran to show it still has friends and trade partners despite international efforts to isolate it,” one analyst, Dina Esfandiary of Britain’s International Institute for Strategic Studies, told AFP.

Iranian officials and state media had hailed the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) summit on Thursday and Friday, with its 120 member states, as a diplomatic coup over the United States and its Western allies which have imposed economic sanctions and been leaning on other nations to treat Iran as a pariah.

Smack in the middle of it though, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) released its latest report on Iran that recorded an increase in the number of uranium enrichment centrifuges.

And it said a clean-up at a suspect military base in Parchin had “hampered” IAEA inspectors’ ability to determine whether explosives tests for warheads had taken place.

That paired with UN chief Ban Ki-moon in Tehran telling summit delegates and Iranian leaders that they had to comply with IAEA and UN resolutions, or else Iran faced being excluded from the international community and even risked war from Israel or the United States……. http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5hKRKsJf37BgV-AiY8yb-kuadC2og?docId=CNG.b86ceb10fe79b0a989936925ba7b5be2.701

September 1, 2012 Posted by Christina Macpherson | general | Leave a comment

Memorial to the nuclear workers whose job caused their deaths

Memorial to nuclear workers taking shape The Associated Press, Aug. 31, 2012  PADUCAH, Ky. — A memorial to nuclear industry workers during the Cold War  is beginning to take shape in Paducah….  Nearly 81,000 nuclear industry workers became ill after working in hazardous environments between the end of World War II  and the collapse of the former Soviet Union.     http://www.sacbee.com/2012/08/31/4775563/memorial-to-nuclear-workers-taking.html#storylink=cpy

September 1, 2012 Posted by Christina Macpherson | general | Leave a comment

Nuclear power plants and weapons sites eminently suitable for terrorists

Rent-a-cops Guarding Nuclear Weapons http://lifeboat.com/blog/2012/08/rent-a-cops-guarding-nuclear-weapons by Gary Michael Church  We spend hundreds of billions of dollars, a truly mind boggling amount of money, on defense.
Yet we guard the most dangerous material on Earth with faulty electronic devices and poorly trained private security guards.

Do we imagine that other nuclear nations are doing a better job than we are? Do we, as citizens of the U.S., realize what would happen if terrorist bombs began destroying our cities?

“Thomas D’Agostino, the administrator of the National Nuclear Security Administration, the Energy Department branch responsible for U.S. nuclear weapons, said changes were underway after the incident.”

I am surprised he still has his job. If a natural disaster can cause a catastrophe like Fukushima, what could be accomplished intentionally? Nuclear power plants, with their
pools of spent fuel rods, are prime targets for nuclear terrorism.
Destroying a Nuclear power plant with a nuclear weapon would give you two for the price of one. Pick the right day with the wind strong and headed inland and thousands of square miles become uninhabitable.

Several major cities are sited downwind of nuclear power plants.

September 1, 2012 Posted by Christina Macpherson | general | Leave a comment

Gregory Jaczko in Japan urging safety in nuclear matters

Former NRC Chairman Jaczko travels to Japan and urges transparency of nuclear regulators http://enformable.com/2012/08/former-nrc-chairman-jaczko-travels-to-japan-and-urges-transparency-of-nuclear-regulators/  Former United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission Chairman Gregory Jaczko traveled to Japan this week, meeting Fukushima residents and stressing the importance of open dialogue and full information disclosure from the new nuclear safety agency which will be established in Japan after the March 11th nuclear disaster.

While speaking to Fukushima residents, Jaczko  stated that nuclear power plants should not be operated if the safety laws cannot guarantee that a major accident requiring large-scale evacuations will not occur. Jaczko was also understanding of the recent protests after the restart of the Ohi nuclear reactors, adding that he feels that dialogue is important between the conflicting sides.

During he tenure as the NRC Chairman, Jaczko often pointed out that only through openness could the regulating agency best protect the environment and public safety.

On February 9, 2012 Jaczko cast the lone dissenting vote on plans to build the first new nuclear power plant in more than 30 years when the NRC voted 4-1 to allow Atlanta-based Southern Co to build and operate two new nuclear power reactors at its existing Vogtle nuclear power plant in Georgia. He cited safety concerns stemming from Japan’s 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster, saying “I cannot support issuing this license as if Fukushima never happened”.

September 1, 2012 Posted by Christina Macpherson | general | Leave a comment

“Flagship of nuclear renaissance” – Calvert Cliffs 3 reactor is denied a license

VICTORY! NRC LICENSING BOARD SUPPORTS NIRS–DENIES LICENSE FOR ELECTRICITE DE FRANCE’S CALVERT CLIFFS-3 REACTOR! August 30, 2012 Great news today! The NRC Atomic Safety and Licensing Board (ASLB) hearing the Calvert Cliffs-3 licensing proceeding agreed with NIRS and DENIED a construction/operating license for that reactor.

This is the culmination of a five-year battle that started in 2007 when Calvert Cliffs-3 became the first new reactor application in some 30 years–the flagship of the “nuclear renaissance.”

Since then, NIRS has fought this project–which is on our doorstep–at every possible venue. Continue reading →

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

Call to rural Americans – ask about your candidate’s renewable energy policies

Letter — Renewable energy key http://www.iowafarmertoday.com/news/opinion/letter-renewable-energy-key/article_0d4342c0-f2d6-11e1-817c-0019bb2963f4.html  Virginia Wolking Center for Rural Affairs Lyons, Neb. August 30, 2012  As Election Day rapidly approaches, elected officials and candidates for public office are criss-crossing rural America eagerly seeking votes.And, that creates an opportunity for those of us who live in America’s small towns and rural areas to ask candidates about their views on renewable energy and other crucial rural issues.

Ask them what their vision is for renewable-energy development. Ask if they will work to increase energy efficiency and accelerate renewable-energy development, both of which will create new green jobs in rural areas. Ask them what they will do to ensure energy decisions reflect the will of your community and ensure everyone’s voice is heard.

A community-based approach to energy development is our best chance to develop domestic, home-grown and localized resources. Ask them to support tax credits that drive renewable energy development. Inquire whether they will fund local loan or grant programs to promote small-scale renewable energy use by farms, businesses and homeowners.

Ask them to commit to increasing funding for renewable-energy research. Land grant institutions, USDA research stations, and Department of Energy national laboratories play a critical role. State and federal funding for these programs is at risk. It’s clear renewable energy holds great economic potential for our rural communities.

But, we need bold leadership from our elected officials to help tell the story of the value of renewable energy and your voice is crucial in making that happen.

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

Anti nuclear rallies in Tokyo last Friday, and Sunday

Hundreds join anti-nuclear rally in Tokyo Bangkok Post, : 27/08/2012  AMOnline news: Asia Hundreds of anti-nuclear demonstrators marched in Tokyo Sunday, calling for Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda to abandon the country’s atomic energy programme following last year’s Fukushima accident. Continue reading →

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