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Uranium lobbyists spent 100s of $1000s for Virginia mining: doesn’t make it safe

Proponents of mining, who spent more than $150,000 lobbying the General Assembly this year, understandably want a quick decision in their favor, most likely in the 2013 session. But with many serious and unanswered questions, no regulatory staff in the executive branch, no regulations and guidelines and strong opposition from across the political spectrum, we believe extreme caution is called for. In a matter such as this, there isn’t the luxury of a “do-over.”

Uranium Mining: Let’s Be Cautious   The News & Advance   August 09, 2012 Down the road in Pittsylvania County, just off U.S. 29 near Chatham, is Coles Hill Farm, which has been in Walter Coles’ family for more than 200 years.

It’s also ground zero in what is shaping up to be a monumental battle over whether Virginia’s almost-30-year-old moratorium on mining uranium, for beneath the rolling hills and pastures of Coles Hill Farm lies one of the nation’s largest deposits of the ore.

The General Assembly first imposed the moratorium in 1982 when Marline Uranium Corp. expressed interest in mining the deposit. Environmental and safety concerns were foremost in the minds of legislators who supported the moratorium. Continue reading →

August 10, 2012 Posted by | general | Leave a comment

Fukushima student addresses Nagasaki peace meet

http://www3.nhk.or.jp/daily/english/20120808_28.html Aug. 8, 2012   A high school girl from Fukushima Prefecture has spoken at a peace gathering in Nagasaki about the situation in her community after the nuclear accident last year.

Sakura Takano from Minamisoma City near the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant is visiting Nagasaki to attend a memorial ceremony on Thursday — the 67th anniversary of the atomic bombing of the city.
She has been appointed a “High School Peace Ambassador” — the first from Fukushima — and will deliver a petition against nuclear weapons to the United Nations.
At the peace meeting of high school students from across the country on Wednesday, Takano said the nuclear accident is continuing and that the affected areas are being devastated. She added that people are still living in temporary housing about a year and a half after the accident.

Takano said she wants everyone to learn about the situation in Fukushima and to help reconstruction efforts in the area. After the meeting, Takano stood in front of Nagasaki Station to collect signatures for a petition calling for the elimination of nuclear weapons and the realization of world peace.

She will visit the UN European headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland, with other high school ambassadors to deliver the petition later this month.

 

August 10, 2012 Posted by | general | Leave a comment

India- Russian deal on nuclear power plant seriously delayed

India’s nuclear fix Deccan Chronicle August 8, 2012 By Inder Malhotra How things change! In 2008 when the Indo-US nuclear deal was signed and sealed — and was followed by the “clean waiver” to this country by the 45-nation Vienna-based Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) from all its restrictive guidelines — there were great expectations here of a speedy spurt in the installation of nuclear reactors with foreign collaboration and
investment.

Four years later the picture is far less rosy. Indeed, it is no exaggeration to say that the much-needed expansion of India’s nuclear power industry could be gravely delayed, if not
disrupted……….

…There is little time, therefore, for the Manmohan Singh government to decide on a thorny issue. The Russians insist that KK-3 and KK-4 are also spawned by the 1988 deal, like the
first two plants, and are, therefore, exempt from the liability law….

August 8, 2012 Posted by | general | Leave a comment

UNR program helps those exposed to radiation testing in 1950s and 1960s,

UNR program helps those exposed to radiation testing in 1950s and
1960s, Foxreno.com RENO — Personnel from the Nevada Radiation Exposure Screening and Education Program (RESEP) will offer free medical screenings on Saturday, August 25, 2012 at University of Nevada, Reno in the Brigham Building.
Nevadans who lived near or worked at the Nevada Test Site during the
period of atmospheric nuclear testing (1951 – 1963) may be eligible to
participate. Screenings are by appointment only.
The Nevada RESEP Program offers Nevadans exposed to radiation no cost
medical screenings. This screening program also provides education on
cancer and illnesses related to exposure to nuclear radiation.
In addition, the Nevada RESEP program assists individuals in applying
for compensation through the federal Radiation Exposure Compensation
Act. Under this act, eligible Nevadans who have had cancer or other
radiogenic illnesses may receive up to $75,000 in compensation.
The University of Nevada School of Medicine is the only institution to
offer free cancer screening clinics to Nevada residents exposed to
radiation from above ground nuclear testing and is able to do so
because of a Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA)
grant, now in its seventh year. Under the direction of Thomas J. Hunt,
M.D., associate professor at the School of Medicine, screening and
diagnostic services facilitating early detection of cancers and other
health hazards associated with radiation are offered at the Family
Medicine Center in Las Vegas and at clinics periodically held in
various locations throughout Nevada….
http://www.foxreno.com/news/news/local/unr-program-helps-those-exposed-radiation-testing-/nQB6f/

August 8, 2012 Posted by | general | Leave a comment

Ratepayers stuck with nuclear plant charges

Ratepayers stuck with nuclear plant charges, Tampa Bay Times, August 7, 2012  Imagine adding a garage to a house that is about to collapse. Or installing a new radio in a rusted Chevy that’s up on blocks. Or buying bigger stoves for a closed restaurant that may never reopen. That is how ludicrous it is for Progress Energy Florida to proceed with plans to spend more than $200 million to upgrade the broken Crystal River nuclear plant that may never generate electricity again. Who is going to stop this waste of ratepayers’
money? Continue reading →

August 8, 2012 Posted by | general | Leave a comment

Guards replaced after Tennessee nuclear security breach By Mark Hosenball
WASHINGTON  Aug 6, 2012   (Reuters) – The Energy Department said on Monday it was replacing guards and supervisors on duty 10 days ago when three peace activists, including an 82 year-old nun, breached perimeter fences at the principal U.S. facility for storing weapons-grade enriched uranium….. The U.S. government both processes and stores enriched uranium at the Y-12 complex, which a senior official had previously touted as “the Fort Knox of uranium.”….

The building was designed
and built after the September 11, 2001 Al Qaeda attacks with special
features to withstand possible attacks by militants.

In a video which the NNSA posted on YouTube in 2010, Jason Hatfield,
billed as the “operations manager”, said: “This facility has been
called the Fort Knox of uranium. Our mission is to provide safe,
secure and efficient storage for highly-enriched uranium.”….
http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/08/06/us-usa-nuclear-security-idUSBRE8751AM20120806

August 8, 2012 Posted by | general | Leave a comment

Continuing safety concerns about USA’s X ray airport scanners

X-Ray Scans at Airports Leave Lingering Worries NYT,  By RONI CARYN RABIN , 6 Aug 12, Even before she was pregnant, Yolanda Marin-Czachor tried to avoid the full-body X-ray  scanners that security officers use to screen airport passengers. Now she’s adamant about it: She’ll take a radiation-free pat-down instead any day.  THE CONSUMERAdvice on money and health.

“I had two miscarriages  before thispregnancy ,” Ms. Marin-Czachor, a 34-year-old mother and teacher from Green Bay, Wis., recalled, “and one of the first things my doctor said was: ‘Do not go through one of those machines. There have not been any long-term studies. I would prefer you stay away from it.’ ”

There are 244 full-body “backscatter” X-ray scanners in use at 36 airports in the United States. They operate almost nonstop, according to the Transportation Security Administration. Other airports use millimeter wave scanners, which look like glass telephone booths and do not use radiation, or metal detectors…..

 some experts are less sanguine, and questions persist about the safety of using X-ray machines on such a large scale. A recent study reported thatradiation from the machines can reach organs through the skin . In another report, researchers estimated that one billion X-ray backscatter scans per year would lead to perhaps 100 radiation-induced cancers  in the future. The European Union has banned body scanners that use radiation ; it is against the law in several European countries to X-ray people without a medical reason.

The machines move a narrowly focused beam of high-intensity radiation very quickly across the body, and David Brenner, director of the Center for Radiological Research at Columbia University Medical Center, says he worries about mechanical malfunctions that could cause the beam to stop in one place for even a few seconds, resulting in greater radiation exposure.

For security reasons, much about how the machines work has been kept secret…… John Sedat, emeritus professor of biochemistry and biophysics at the University of California, San Francisco, believes that the effective dose could be 45 times as high as the T.S.A. has estimated, equivalent to about 10 percent of a single chest X-ray……. The machines, though, have had mechanical problems. A recent T.S.A. report said that between May 2010 and May 2011, there were 3,778 service calls concerning mechanical problems in backscatter X-ray machines . Radiation safety surveys were conducted after only 2 percent of the calls.

Those at greatest risk, however, may be T.S.A. employees and others who work in the terminals and go through security daily. A 2004 National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health study of T.S.A. baggage screeners urged the agency to have employees wear film badges to monitor ongoing exposure systemically , as many hospital and lab employees do, and to label machines more prominently. The agency has not done so.  http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/08/06/x-ray-scans-at-airports-leave-lingering-worries/

August 8, 2012 Posted by | general | Leave a comment

NFS Receives 25-Year License Renewal
http://www.greenevillesun.com/Local_News/article/NFS-Receives-25-Year-License-Renewal-id-320606 12-08-03   BY KEN LITTLE

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) Thursday renewed the operating
license of Nuclear Fuel Services Inc. (NFS) in Erwin for an additional
25 years.

The action prompted a positive reaction from NFS officials and an
angry response from longtime critics of the Unicoi County operation.

NFS has been operating on a 10-year license that expired on July 31, 2009.

The approval “means that the (NRC) has concluded that no safety or
environmental issues preclude renewal of the plant’s license,” NFS
spokeswoman Lauri Turpin said in a news release.

August 8, 2012 Posted by | general | Leave a comment

A “regional” nuclear war would have global unmanageable effects

The Red Cross has determined that if nuclear weapons were used today, any attempts at responding or coping with the humanitarian needs of survivors would be utterly overwhelmed.  These new climate and health studies demonstrate that a limited, regional nuclear war would have global health and humanitarian consequences on a scale never seen before

A treaty banning nuclear weapons is urgent, necessary and achievable, and negotiations on such a treaty should begin. Now.

Preventing another Hiroshima, By Rebecca Johnson, ICAN 6 August 2012 “…….recent studies demonstrate that a regional nuclear war would cause global famine, jeopardising over a billion people.
The new “nuclear winter” studies update the 1980s research , examining the use of 100 Hiroshima-sized nuclear weapons on urban centres in India and Pakistan. This limited regional scenario (0.04 percent of the explosive power in today’s arsenals) recognises the fallibility of deterrence and that suspicious neighbours could reproduce the risk factors that led to the Cuban Missile Crisis, including miscalculation, miscommunication, military escalation and, potentially, rogue commanders.  Growing cyberwarfare capacities in
many countries add an extra dimension of volatile danger to an explosive mix. Continue reading →

August 6, 2012 Posted by | general | Leave a comment

5 US states await Japanese debris on coast (some of it radioactive)

US braces for Fukushima debris http://www.abc.net.au/news/2012-08-05/an-fukushima-debris-alert/4178438  August 05, 2012   Groups from Japan and the United States are planning for the expected arrival of an estimated 40,000 tonnes of tsunami debris along North America’s Pacific coast.

Five states are expecting the debris to arrive between October 2012 and February next year. Continue reading →

August 6, 2012 Posted by | general | Leave a comment

Petition to permanently shut down San Onofre nuclear plant

Click HERE to automatically sign the petition.

LETTER TO COMMUNITY: Sign petition to close down San Onofre nuclear plant  http://sdgln.com/commentary/2012/08/03/commentary-sign-petition-close-down-san-onofre-nuclear-plant 
JORDAN KRUEGER – CAMPAIGN MANAGER, CREDO ACTION FROM WORKING ASSETS 
August 3rd, 2012 Eight million people in California will soon be endangered by America’s most dangerous nuclear power plant if Southern California Edison power company has its way.

The San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station (SONGS), which sits on the beach between Los Angeles and San Diego, was shut down temporarily in January after it was found to be leaking radioactive steam. But incredibly, Southern California Edison — the primary electricity provider for over 14 million people in Southern California — is now trying to bring the dangerous nuclear energy plant back online.

This plant is unsafe, but it’s also totally unnecessary. Even without the San Onofre nuclear plant, there’s enough power generating capacity in Southern California to keep the lights on even on the hottest days of the year. We need to shut this plant down permanently, and force Southern California Edison to stop delaying implementation of clean, safe renewable energy generating systems. Continue reading →

August 4, 2012 Posted by | general | 1 Comment

Southern California Edison getting jittery about media coverage of San Onofre Nuclear Plant

Leaked Email: Nuclear operator warns against leaking documents, specifically mentions Fairewinds Associates http://enenews.com/leaked-email-nuclear-operator-warns-against-leaking-documents-specifically-mentions-fairewinds-associates August 3rd, 2012 By ENENews  Title: Shhh… don’t tell! Source: Fairewinds Energy Education Author: Patrick’s Blog
Fairewinds Associates was sent a leaked Southern California Edison email informing San Onofre employees it is against company policy to leak documents to Fairewinds.
Subject: Fw: CLARIFICATION REGARDING RECENT NEWS COVERAGE OF OUR PLANT STATUS
To: All SONGS Employees and Contractors
Yesterday, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) posted additional data on its website regarding our steam generator tubes for Units 2 and 3. This has generated an additional news cycle regarding our plant’s status. Continue reading →

August 4, 2012 Posted by | general | Leave a comment

Dangerous 81 year old anti nuclear nun on the loose again!

Judge releases nun who broke into U.S. nuclear bomb facility By Preston Peeden  and by Mary Wisniewski; KNOXVILLE, Tennessee  Aug 3, 2012   (Reuters) – A U.S. magistrate judge on Friday ordered the release pending trial of an 82-year-old nun and another anti-nuclear activist charged with breaching security fences at one of the most sensitive U.S. nuclear facilities, in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, where weapons-grade
uranium is kept.

The security failure was an embarrassment for the National Nuclear Security Administration, or NNSA, the Energy Department branch that operates U.S. nuclear weapons plants, and for the international security firm G4S, which owns WSI Oak Ridge, the contractor responsible for protecting the facility….

. At a hearing in Knoxville, Tennessee on Friday, assistant U.S. Attorney Melissa Kirby
argued that all three should remain in custody. “This is a crime of violence,” Kirby said. Continue reading →

August 4, 2012 Posted by | general | 1 Comment

Famous Japanese photographer motivated by Japan’s lies about Hiroshima and Fukushima

Photographer: After seeing conditions in Fukushima, it feels like Hiroshima is happening again -Japan Times http://enenews.com/photographer-after-seeing-conditions-in-fukushima-it-feels-like-hiroshima-is-happening-again-japan-times     By ENENews  Title: Hasegawa gets the perfect portrait Source: The Japan Times Online By MARK SCHILLING Date: Aug. 3, 2012
Making a documentary on a crusading 90-year-old photojournalist who is famously fearless and uncompromising is not for the timid. Saburo Hasegawa, who has been directing television documentaries on a range of social issues since the 1990s, was initially afraid that his subject, Kikujiro Fukushima, might be as formidable as his body of work: 250,000 photographs taken over the course of six decades…..

What has not mellowed, however, is Fukushima’s distrust of Japanese officialdom, whose evasions, falsehoods and coverups have served, says Hasegawa, as his prime motivating force over the decades. “What are all these photographs about?’ I asked him. His answer was, ‘Japan’s lies.’ “ Continue reading →

August 4, 2012 Posted by | general | Leave a comment

Radioactive tea voluntarily surrendered to Hong Kong authorities — 196 Bq/kg of cesium, almost double Japan’s limit http://enenews.com/radioactive-tea-voluntarily-surrendered-to-hong-kong-authorities-196-bqkg-of-cesium-almost-double-japans-limit August 2nd, 2012 By 

Tea bag Nuclear Event Daily Update
Hong Kong
August 2, 2012 Continue reading →

August 4, 2012 Posted by | general | Leave a comment

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