Nuclear power: unsafe, unreliable, expensive, and brings unsolved toxic waste problem
Nuclear energy is unsafe and unreliable. And we still don’t know what to do with nuclear waste, LA Times, Roger Johnson, San Clemente, 14 Sept 17
After endless promises that nuclear waste could be stored safely, we now learn that there is no place to safely store tens of thousands of tons of uranium and plutonium for hundreds of thousands of years. (“There’s no great answer for nuclear waste, but almost anything is better than perching it on the Pacific,” editorial, Sept. 11)
The current industry “solution” is to store it unsafely where it was generated (near major metropolitan areas like Los Angeles and San Diego) or to get political revenge and force it on Nevada (a state that produces no nuclear waste and continues to suffer from 928 atom bomb tests).
Did anyone notice that two of Florida’s nuclear power plants quickly shut down before the hurricane? Or that South Carolina has abandoned construction of two new plants after wasting $8 billion on them? How about the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Stationbeing closed following a generator failure and radiation accident?
The public is finally realizing that nuclear energy is environmentally unfriendly, very expensive, completely unreliable and very dangerous. Add to that the current dilemma: There still is nowhere to store the toxic waste [the plants] generate. http://www.latimes.com/opinion/readersreact/la-ol-le-nuclear-waste-san-onofre-20170914-story.html
Residents protest as South Korea deploys missile defense system THAAD
Dwayne Harmon10 September 2017, Newburgh Gazette President Moon Jae-in, meanwhile, pressed his case on the diplomatic front, holding separate meetings in Russia with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and Russian President Vladimir Putin. South Korea’s Unification Minister Cho Myoung-gyon said on Friday the country is exploring all ways to prevent the North from developing the technology to mount nuclear warheads on missiles, Efe news reported. “Military action would certainly be an option”. U.S. President Donald Trump has said that all options are on the table when it comes to dealing with the rogue state, and although he would prefer not to use military action, it would be a “sad day” for North Korea if he did. A US-presented draft resolution calls for an oil embargo on North Korea, an assets freeze on Kim, a ban on textiles and an end to payments of North Korean guest workers. A tactical nuclear weapon, which is created to be used against battlefield targets, generally travels across short ranges and carries a low-yield warhead. Putin said North Koreans would “eat grass” rather than give into outside pressure to disarm, and has called for talks to resolve the crisis. Moon’s government has been forced to harden its stance against the North after the communist state conducted several missile tests and a nuclear blast in recent weeks. However, sanctions have so far done little to stop North Korea boosting its nuclear and missile capacity as it faces off with Trump. …….http://newburghgazette.com/2017/09/10/residents-protest-as-south-korea-deploys-missile-defense/
Thorium prognosis
Dr. Sitakanta Mishra , from an article in Indrastra, 3 Sept 17
A Prognosis Despite the promising future of thorium-based nuclear systems, critics point to several inherent drawbacks. First, though uranium is in short-supply, the post-Fukushima uranium market is not very competitive. Uranium is still available or supplied in plenty by many countries, especially in India after the Indo-US nuclear deal. Secondly, thorium-based programs have been discarded by many countries as they are expensive and time-consuming.
Skeptics believe that “the likelihood of a rapid expansion of nuclear power” in India is “very dim” The goal post of the three-stage program (and PFBR) has been shifted several times, and the final shape of the planned AHWR300-LEU is definitely far away; in the worst case, it may not fructify at all. Since the thorium utilization in FBR is a long way off, the AHWR was designed to give a quick start for the technological developments of thorium cycle.
SCANA’s and Santee Cooper’s nuclear debacle: sordid scandal of long-term political corruption
Nuke scandal reveals bedrock corruption, Lancaster News South Carolina , By Sunday, September 10, 2017 The current scandal of SCANA’s (S.C. Electric and Gas parent company) and Santee Cooper’s nuclear debacle is arguably the biggest scandal in our state’s history in the last 100 years.
It involves over $9 billion in wasted money that millions of South Carolinians are being asked to pay and the wholesale corruption of our State House that enables it all to happen.
It is a sordid scandal of long-term political corruption, short-term corporate incompetence (or worse) and the total denial of responsibility by all who are at fault……http://www.thelancasternews.com/content/column-nuke-scandal-reveals-bedrock-corruption
Climate change did not cause hurricanes, but made them more destructive
Independent 7th Sept 2017, Hurricane Irma, like Hurricane Harvey, was not caused by climate change.
But the horrifying destruction it has sent across the Atlantic might have
been. Scientists say that asking whether global warming was the reason for
the extreme weather is the wrong question. Instead, we should be focusing
on how global warming has helped turn the hurricanes into even more
destructive forces than they ever would have been before.
http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/irma-climate-change-what-cause-hurricane-global-warming-caribbean-florida-a7933721.html
Houston flooding disaster makes it essential for media to face up to climate change
The Houston flooding disaster demands that we talk about climate change, Post Gazette, SCILLA WAHRHAFTIG, 5 Sept 17, Why are media not talking about climate change and how it is impacting the disaster in Houston? ….Houston with its oil refineries is especially vulnerable to disasters like the one that has just occurred. When they shut down the oil refineries, tons of toxic chemicals were released into the air. Almost no one is talking about the environmental hazards on the people of Houston.
Failure to talk about the environmental hazards of climate change means that we will continue to make the mistakes of the past and not engage in long-term planning. We can expect that occurrences such as Katrina, Houston and Fukushima will be part of our lives. We have a president and an administration who are denying climate change, which is already having an impact on our work toward natural alternatives to oil and gas. We need media that are willing to write about climate change and the realities of the environmental catastrophes the world and the United States are experiencing. http://www.post-gazette.com/opinion/letters/2017/09/05/The-Houston-flooding-disaster-demands-that-we-talk-about-climate-change/stories/201709050032
A Canadian expert’s view: ‘We are not well prepared for climate change’
It was an interesting week for such a panel to be announced.
Houston, of course, is under water. On a smaller scale, thousands of residents in and around Windsor, Ont., were flooded by record rainfall, the second time the area has dealt with historic flooding in the past 12 months. Meanwhile, wildfires in northern Manitoba prompted evacuations from several communities.
The degree to which any single disaster can be linked to climate change will perhaps always be debatable, but these are the sorts of events we have been told to expect: stronger storms, floods and fires.
- Climate change likely helped fuel Harvey’s strength
- Windsor mayor seeks disaster relief funding after flooding
But then this week only adds to the worrisome tally. Recent years in Canada have been marked by such events as flooding in Calgary and Toronto, and forest fires in Alberta and British Columbia.
“It’s becoming increasingly obvious that climate change is here and the negative impacts associated with the manifestation of extreme weather are significant,” Feltmate says, “and we now need to be working to counter those negative impacts.”
Countering those impacts will require public resources, individual action and political will.
The problem of climate change effectively has to be approached from two directions.
The first is mitigation: reducing the carbon emissions being released into the atmosphere in order to limit further warming and, hopefully, avoid the most catastrophic consequences.
The second is adaptation: preparing communities and individuals to deal with the already unavoidable consequences of climate change, given the amount of carbon we’ve pumped into the atmosphere.
It is the first approach that is most often discussed. It is the second that Feltmate and his fellow panelists are being asked to study.
Threat of flood and fire
Feltmate considers flooding the primary concern.
Storms are capable of dumping enough water in a short enough period of time to overwhelm city sewer systems. As cities have grown, fields and forests have been paved over, leaving water fewer places to go. Urban infrastructure is aging. And homeowners have developed their basements into living space, increasing the cost of damages.
Insurers have been paying out for the consequences. The fire in Fort McMurray, Alta., last year cost a record $3.7 billion. According to the Insurance Bureau of Canada, spring flooding around Ottawa cost $223 million in insured damages……http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/climate-change-adaptation-expert-panel-analysis-wherry-1.4271699
Will the BBC give “equal time” to Australia’s climate denialist zealot, former PM Tony Abbott?
Tony Abbott to lecture leading climate-change sceptic think tank, http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/nation/tony-abbott-to-lecture-leading-climatechange-sceptic-think-tank/news-story/ce897ce09992d942256245dd08edf0fd, GRAHAM LLOYD, 1 Sept 17, Former prime minister Tony Abbott will give the annual lecture to one of the world’s leading climate change sceptic think tanks, the Global Warming Policy Foundation in London.
The title of Mr Abbott’s address will be “Daring to doubt”.
The invitation-only lecture will be held at the Institution of Mechanical Engineers in Birdcage Walk, London, on October 9. Mr Abbott will follow John Howard who addressed the foundation’s lecture in 2013 with a speech “One religion is enough”.
The foundation is chaired by former Thatcher government treasurer Lord Nigel Lawson.
The foundation is one of the world’s most active groups promoting debate about the state of climate change science.
It republishes articles and material both supportive and against the mainstream science view and commissions research on climate change-related issues.
The foundation is funded by private donations and does not accept gifts from energy companies or anyone with a significant interest in an energy company.
Mr Abbott’s spokeswoman said the trip would be privately funded by the foundation
Nuclear power is a menace to human survival
Nuclear power poses a threat to the planet, http://buffalonews.com/2017/09/01/letter-nuclear-power-poses-a-threat-to-the-planet/ David Gaeddert, September 2, 2017 Nice try on the nuclear energy idea. (“Nuclear plants are safe, essential to state energy,” Aug. 31 Everybody’s Column.) As many times as I have had to head down the road and look for another job, I feel very little need to subsidize hopelessly money-losing enterprises.
All operating nuclear plants release a certain amount of radioactivity as a part of normal operation. Children living within 5 kilometers of operating nuclear plants have more leukemia than children living farther away. This is beyond doubt. Other public health indicators are worse closer to operating nuclear plants. Again, beyond doubt.
Nuclear power produces spent fuel and other radioactive waste that will be dangerous for thousands of years. No one has real solutions. The Yucca Mountain repository sounded like a good idea, but there are geological problems with this project. That is why it is not full up and we are looking for the next idea.
Fermi-1 (“We Almost Lost Detroit”), Three Mile Island, Chernobyl and Fukushima are the big ones we know about. There were reports of people and animals having health problems after the Three Mile Island meltdown. Actual public health science confirmed real problems.
Fukushima Prefecture has problems with wild pigs – they have picked up enough radioactivity from eating contaminated plants that they are not fit for human consumption, and disposing of their carcasses is a problem. One could go on and on.
Nuclear energy and associated leaks, radwaste, meltdowns and whatever else may be more of a menace to human survival on this planet than climate change and ocean acidification.
Growing risk of a nuclear war caused by just one small slip-up
He also said Australia would be wise to make ourselves less of a target to an angry North Korea.
Speaking privately to the Associated Press, officials in Washington echo the warning that Mr Trump’s now former chief strategist Steve Bannon made in his last media interview before losing his job earlier this month: it is too late for a pre-emptive strike.
There’s no military solution, forget it,” Mr Bannon told the American Prospect in an August 16 interview.
“Until somebody solves the part of the equation that shows me ten million people in Seoul don’t die in the first 30 minutes from conventional weapons, I don’t know what you’re talking about, there’s no military solution here, they got us.”
North Korea nuclear war: Why chances of conflict are higher than ever A FORMER ambassador to South Korea reveals how war could start in North Korea. And all it will take is one tiny slip up. up. news.com.au 31 Aug 17 Debra Killalea @DebKillalea THE risk of conflict breaking out on the Korean Peninsula has never been greater as the margin for error shrinks.
That’s the damning assessment by a former Australian ambassador to South Korea who warned the world was running out of options for dealing with Kim Jong-un.
Speaking to news.com.au, former senior Australian diplomat Mack Williams said the Peninsula has faced crisis points before, including in the 1990s.
He warned this time was different, citing North Korea’s weapons stockpile and an unpredictable US leader as reasons the game has changed.
The ambassador to South Korea from 1994-1998 said the difference between now and then was that the North had upped the ante.
“North Korea has developed missiles and its nuclear technology is capable of causing damage.
“Its arsenal is also more difficult to take out.”
Mr Williams, who has a long career in Asian diplomacy, said while no one wanted war, the world had to accept it could happen, and all it would take was one simple error.
“What ante is left in this game?” he said.
“What can (US President Donald) Trump do? He could try and take out North Korea’s rockets but imagine if one hits China or even Russia.”………
“One wrong mistake would be apocalyptic for Japan,” he said.
“Now there are some who believe antimissile capabilities offer some protection.
“But there’s not enough defence against his (Kim’s) missiles.”
He said Tokyo appeared to have played the right card by not attempting to fire at the North Korean missile.
Mr Williams said if Japan shot it down, Kim could retaliate and if it missed then the country would be humiliated.
“On this occasion I believe they did the right thing by not doing anything.”
Writing in IT news, reviews, and analysis site, Ars Technica, writer Sean Gallagher writes the US and Japan took the best course of action.
Missing could have far-reaching political implications and potentially suggest that anti-ballistic missile systems are incapable of protection, he writes.
…… RISK GROWS
Mr Williams said regardless of how conflict broke out, whether it was a misfire or a deliberate act, Seoul would suffer first.
“Hundreds of thousands would be killed in just minutes,” he said.
“No matter how it starts and whether it’s Guam or Japan that’s the target, Seoul will be the first casualty.
“North Korea has a greater array of rockets across the border and America would need hundreds of smart bombs and boots on the ground.
“There would be no way to stop the military bombardment on Seoul.”
Mr Williams said while South Koreans were generally stoic many were becoming increasingly concerned given the DPRK’s missile build up.
“This isn’t South Korea of the 1950s, it’s a modern developed country and the moral obligation to protect them is huge.
“Otherwise all the sacrifices of the Korean War would be for nothing.”
Mr Williams said while the US would ultimately win any conflict and North Korea would be annihilated, the human cost would be huge.
Beijing doesn’t want to see North Korea collapse or a nuclear fight or fallout on its border.
“All hell would break loose,” he said.
He also said Australia would be wise to make ourselves less of a target to an angry North Korea.
‘THEY GOT US’
The US president’s language suggests he’s rethinking any military options that might allow him to knock out North Korea’s small but growing nuclear arsenal and ballistic missile range.
Speaking privately to the Associated Press, officials in Washington echo the warning that Mr Trump’s now former chief strategist Steve Bannon made in his last media interview before losing his job earlier this month: it is too late for a pre-emptive strike.
There’s no military solution, forget it,” Mr Bannon told the American Prospect in an August 16 interview.
“Until somebody solves the part of the equation that shows me ten million people in Seoul don’t die in the first 30 minutes from conventional weapons, I don’t know what you’re talking about, there’s no military solution here, they got us.”
Santee Cooper chief executive Lonnie Carter resigns, following nuclear financial fiasco
Santee Cooper CEO retires amid SC nuclear fiasco, The State, BY AVERY G. WILKS, awilks@thestate.com, AUGUST 25, 2017 Santee Cooper chief executive Lonnie Carter Friday became the first executive to step down amid a political firestorm after the construction of two nuclear reactors in Fairfield County was abandoned……
A spokeswoman said details of Carter’s retirement pay package would not be available until early next week. Carter’s $527,187-a-year salary in 2016 was the highest of any state employee not involved in athletics……..http://www.thestate.com/news/politics-government/article169317737.html
Deviations in manufacturing documentation of nuclear components now revealed – AREVA
French utility EDF has given information to nuclear regulator ASN about previously unknown deviations in manufacturing documentation of nuclear components made by Areva-owned foundry Creusot Forge, an ASN spokeswoman said.
Confirming a report in Platts, the spokeswoman told Reuters that no further information was available about the nature of these deviations. Platts reported on Wednesday that a new batch of files that the ASN has received from EDF on nuclear parts manufactured by Creusot Forge “reveal deviations that were not known”.
https://www.reuters.com/article/edf-creusot-idUSL8N1L94M7
President Trump could all too easily unleash armageddon
‘Thursday briefing: ‘Freaked out yet?’ Fears of Trump nuclear tantrum https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/aug/24/thursday-briefing-freaked-out-yet-fears-of-trump-nuclear-tantrumPretty damn scary’ that he carries around missile codes …
James Clapper says president could all too easily unleash armageddon
Hello – it’s Warren Murray keeping you in the loop this morning.
Donald Trump’s access to nuclear codes is “pretty damn scary”, the former US intelligence chief James Clapper has said after the president’s “disturbing” speech in Arizona.
by Warren Murray Concern at Trump’s temperament is fuelling efforts in Congress to prevent him carrying out a nuclear first strike without lawmakers’ approval. “Freaked out yet?”, asked congressman Ted Lieu, one of the bill’s sponsors, after Trump trashed his enemies and practically the entire media in front of a cheering crowd. Clapper reacted to the speech by questioning the US president’s “fitness to be in this office”. The seven-year director of national intelligence used North Korea to illustrate his fears. “[If] in a fit of pique he decides to do something about Kim Jong-un, there’s actually very little to stop him. The whole system is built to ensure rapid response if necessary. So there’s very little in the way of controls over exercising a nuclear option, which is pretty damn scary.”
With Trump in charge of America – there is little hope for humanity
What hope is there for humanity? The answer must be: none, Canberra Times, Julian Cribb, 25 Aug 17, The day foreseen by US journalist HL Mencken when the White House is ‘adorned by a downright moron’ seems, on the face of the accumulating evidence, to have dawned. Regrettably this person has his finger on a certain button.
Why Americans are not more alarmed about this can only be attributed to the very poor level of scientific literacy in what is, to all intents and purposes, the world’s foremost scientific society. How Americans can be so great at science yet, in aggregate, understand so little about it, is a question for the Ages. Unfortunately, the Ages will probably not have the leisure to debate it.
The missing bit of information is that a nuclear war, even a small one, could eliminate most of civilisation, Americans (even those with well-stocked fallout shelters) included.
It is still an obscure historical detail that all-out nuclear Armageddon between the USSR and USA was avoided, in the 1980s, by some rather brave scientists sticking out their necks to warn Reagan and Gorbachev that their calculations had revealed that “a nuclear war cannot be won and should never be fought”, as Reagan summarised it in his Address to the Nation (1984).
These scientists had worked out that – regardless of fireball, blast and radiation – the amount of dust and smoke thrown into the atmosphere by the unleashing of multiple nuclear warheads would chill the planet by several degrees for several years, causing massive crop-killing frosts which would destroy the food supply for just about everyone worldwide.
But, to be brutally frank, how many of the countries are run by someone who is completely sane, and doesn’t suffer from some wild, obsessional hatred for some other branch of humanity?
Thus, the real problem emerges. There are, and will be, innumerable idiots with their finger on a button potent enough to destroy all or most of the 7.5 billion human inhabitants of Earth. The conjunction between nuclear firepower and mental incapacity is unavoidable.
Trump alone, we are told, commands the potential first-strike launch of 900 nuclear weapons – 9-18 times enough to eliminate civilisation. Then he has another 6000 nukes in varying states of readiness to support his initial misjudgement. So the Donald, if he has a bad night’s viewing, can – in theory at least – take out human civilisation 50 times over…
The New York Times recently published a mocking article contrasting Trump with the mad Roman Emperor Caligula, unfavourably to Trump. But Caligula, whatever his bloodlust, never wielded the power to eliminate civilisation, not even his own. Americans, in their naivety, have awarded that power to their present chief…..
like Americans, a third of the world’s countries simply do not grasp the remorseless scientific logic of human extinction. Their education, imagination or simple common sense, does not encompass it. They have no intuition of what global famine, societal disintegration, mass cannibalism and infanticide might look like. So, they block out the issue.
This, alack, does not abolish it.
Only wisdom can do that.
Ban all nukes, their materials and technology. Ban them now. Ban them everywhere. Ban them forever.
Julian Cribb is an Australian science writer and author of Surviving the 21st Century (Springer 2017) http://www.canberratimes.com.au/comment/what-hope-is-there-for-humanity-the-answer-must-be-none-20170822-gy1b1i.html
How 139 countries could be powered by 100 percent wind, water, and solar energy by 2050
The latest roadmap to a 100% renewable energy future from Stanford’s Mark Z. Jacobson and 26 colleagues is the most specific global vision yet, outlining infrastructure changes that 139 countries can make to be entirely powered by wind, water, and sunlight by 2050 after electrification of all energy sectors.
https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2017-08/cp-h1c081717.php
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