Analysis of media coverage of Three Mile Island, Chernobyl, and Fukushima
Three Mile Island, Chernobyl, and Fukushima: An analysis of traditional and new media coverage of nuclear accidents and radiation, Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists Sharon M. Friedman Sharon M. Friedman is a professor in the Department of Journalism and Communication and Director of the Science and Environmental Writing Program at Lehigh University in Bethlehem,…
USA Senator Markey scathing about NRC decision to stop Cancer Risk Pilot Study
Senator Markey Statement on NRC Decision to End Cancer Risk Pilot Study http://www.markey.senate.gov/news/press-releases/senator-markey-statement-on-nrc-decision-to-end-cancer-risk-pilot-study September 8, 2015
Washington (September 8, 2015) – Statement from Senator Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.), a member of the Environment and Public Works Committee, on the announcement this morning from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) that it is ending the pilot study of cancer risks in populations near U.S. nuclear power facilities being conducted by the National Academy of Sciences.
“We need a thorough, accurate accounting of the health risks associated with living near nuclear facilities so residents can know if there are any adverse health impacts associated with living close to nuclear reactors. But the NRC has decided to take a ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ approach to this public health concern by ceasing work on what could be a life-saving cancer risk research study. The NRC blames budgetary constraints for ending the study, but what price do residents pay for living near operating nuclear facilities? We should know that answer, and the NRC should prioritize the resources to continue and complete this study.”
In 2013, Senator Markey praised NRC’s decision to start the study, having originally called on the NRC in 2009 to perform the independent research.
UN says a global nuclear test ban is an urgent necessity
Global nuclear-test ban urgently needed for safer, more secure world – UN officials, United Nations, 10 September 2015 – Top United Nations officials today highlighted the existential threat posed by nuclear testing, and called for all States that have not yet done so to sign and ratify the international treaty that seeks to achieve a ban on such testing.
Addressing a meeting to mark the International Day against Nuclear Tests, observed annually on 29 August, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon noted the devastation caused by nuclear testing.
“I have witnessed the lasting societal, environmental and economic damage nuclear tests have caused,” he told the gathering. “Since the first test in New Mexico 70 years ago, the world has endured over 2,000 nuclear tests. Those tests devastated pristine environments and local populations around the world.
“Many have never recovered from the legacies of nuclear testing – including poisoned groundwater, cancer, birth defects and radioactive fallout,” Mr. Ban continued. “Today let us also send a strong signal that the international community stands united to take action that will lead us to a safer and more secure world – a world free of nuclear weapons.”
The Secretary-General said that the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT), which was adopted in 1996, was an essential building block for achieving this goal as a legally-binding, verifiable means by which to constrain the quantitative and qualitative development of nuclear weapons.
Stressing that the Treaty must enter into force in order to be truly effective, Mr. Ban called on all remaining States to sign and ratify the instrument, including China, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, Egypt, India, Iran, Israel, Pakistan, and the United States.
The importance of the CTBT was also highlighted by the President of the General Assembly, Sam Kutesa, who underscored the need for a world free of nuclear testing……. http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=51843#.VfHx1tKqpHw
Nuclear power just isn’t the answer to climate change
http://www.gazettetimes.com/news/opinion/as-i-see-it/as-i-see-it-nuclear-power-isn-t-the-answer/article_e1344eb7-11a0-584c-ae40-5b3135957709.html September 09, 2015 DEBRA HIGBEE-SUDYKA
However, there are real concerns about the resurgence of nuclear power, and how this energy source will impact the environment and our economy. We need a comprehensive clean energy policy that supports the most efficient, economical and environmentally safe energy sources. These sources must not only reduce greenhouse gases but also do so in the cleanest, fastest, and safest way possible.
The Sierra Club does not see how new nuclear power, including small modular reactors, meets the criteria necessary for a safe and secure energy future. We wish to call attention to some of the reasons why Sierra Club believes nuclear is the wrong choice:
• Nuclear energy does not address climate change: Building a fleet of new reactors will take decades, not nearly fast enough to address climate change. And nuclear energy is not carbon-free, especially if you factor into the equation of the construction of the plant, the sourcing of uranium, the transportation and ultimately the long-term storage of its waste. Climate change and energy independence can be achieved much cheaper and faster through efficiency measures as well as readily available clean renewable resources.
• It’s too expensive for consumers and taxpayers: Nuclear power is not just expensive; it is becoming the most cost-prohibitive energy source. The estimated costs of new nuclear power plants have tripled since 2000. Cost comparisons show that building a new fleet of nuclear power plants (especially small modular reactors, which lack economies of scale) will far exceed the costs of other, better energy options.
The Congressional Budget Office estimates the likelihood of default for loans made to nuclear reactor developers to be “well above 50 percent.” The signal coming from the market place is clear: the nuclear industry, even after high levels of cradle-to-grave subsidies, handouts, and incentives provided by the federal government, is too expensive and risky. Overall, electricity produced by new reactors would cost two to three times more than renewable energy and efficiency measures.
• Nuclear power is not “homegrown”: Virtually every part of the nuclear chain is dependent on foreign corporations, governments, or nationalized companies. In 2013, more than 83 percent of the uranium used for U.S. nuclear power plants was imported from other countries. The United States’ high-priced uranium resources, subject to world uranium price volatility, mean that our dependence on foreign uranium is not likely to change significantly in the future.
Nuclear power is an ineffective and risky choice for addressing the global challenge of climate change. The Sierra Club believes in options that will not only be cheaper, cleaner and faster to bring on-line, but also will create more jobs, stimulate our economy, be truly homegrown and will not contribute to the risk of terrorism or require centuries of waste management.
Debra Higbee-Sudyka, of Corvallis is a Conservation Committee member of the Oregon Chapter of the Sierra Club and is active with the Sierra Club Nuclear Free Campaign.
Reflections of a #nuclear engineer
Peter Smith, 5 Sept 15 Fighting the nuclear industry can feel like trying to stop the tide! But know that nuclear are on the run and are becoming desperate because they can see, at least those not in a total delusional state, that the Renewables Revolution is the death nail for them.
Nuclear power plants are truly amazing places to work in, particularly to an engineer. A very diverse range of technical disciplines, some of it at one time working on the frontiers of technology, then there are chemical and reactor scientists, a very interesting mix. But none of this makes it right.
I believe most educated supporters of nuclear are either in a state of denial or deluded or both. Having worked in the power industry for for 40 years with 30 in the nuclear industry it’s a big step turning my back on nuclear and fossil power, because all my technical expertise is based on large steam turbines most of which is irrelevent in a decentralised, distributed Renewables energy world. But if that’s the way to go and it it, then you have to learn to adapt and change, and I have.
New nuclear power plants – a distraction from real climate action – Naomi Klein
Naomi Klein will be appearing at the Festival of Dangerous Ideas on Saturday, September 5. The talk will also be streamed live online.
Naomi Klein says building new nuclear power plants ‘doesn’t make sense’ http://www.news.com.au/technology/environment/naomi-klein-says-building-
new-nuclear-power-plants-doesnt-make-sense/story-fnjwvztl-1227512110264 SEPTEMBER 04, 2015 BUILDING new nuclear power plants to create a carbon-free world “doesn’t make sense” and just serves as a distraction from the risks, Canadian author Naomi Klein says.
The activist and author of This Changes Everything, was asked what she thought about the possibility of building a nuclear 
power plant in South Australia, which a Royal Commission in the state is currently considering.
Backers of nuclear power often spruik it as an alternative to renewables because it does not produce greenhouse gases, unlike coal-fired power stations.
But Klein said building new nuclear plants did not make any sense to her.
“What’s exciting about this renewables revolution spreading around the world, is that it shows us that we can power our economies without the enormous risk that we have come to accept,” she told media on Thursday.
- These risks are sometimes called “sacrifice zones” and this is actually a phrase that was used in government policy documents in the United States, Klein said.“Fossil fuels have always required those sacrifice zones,” she said, and these huge risks were often borne by certain groups of people, who were overwhelmingly the most vulnerable people in society.”
She said these included indigenous and the poorest people who were the ones who had their lands mined and dealt with the health impacts.
“Nuclear carries those same risks and that same logic … so no, I don’t think that’s the solution,” Klein said.
She said the latest research showed renewables could power 100 per cent of the world’s economies.
“We can do it without those huge risks and costs associated with nuclear so why wouldn’t we?” she said.
- While there was still debate over the timing of when renewables should be introduced, and whether existing nuclear power plants should be taken offline first, Klein said it didn’t make sense to her to build new nuclear facilities.“People are constantly holding this promise of next generation nuclear which supposedly doesn’t have the risk of our current generation nuclear but at this point it’s notional, that’s not what’s being constructed and I think in large part that serves as a distraction from the risk associated with actual nuclear power.”
In her book, Klein argues there is a conflict between what the planet needs in order to continue supporting human life, and what the current economic system needs to thrive, which is short term growth and “putting profits above all else”.
“Our economic system and our planetary system are now at war,” she writes. RELATED: Naomi Klein says she hopes Tony Abbott is still paying attention “The International Energy Agency warns that if we do not get our emissions under control by a rather terrifying 2017, our fossil fuel economy will ‘lock in’ extremely dangerous warming.”
In her book she said people needed to start speaking about climate change in terms of “right and wrong”, not of pragmatism and cost-benefits. But contrary to some people’s views, Klein said it was possible to have a stronger, fairer, more stable economy, and still act on climate change.
“Every time he (Prime Minister Tony Abbott) tells Australians that they need to choose between the economy and climate action, that is a lie,” she said. “The latest studies show we would create six to eight times more jobs if we invested in those sectors than if we invest the same amount of money in the extractive sectors (like mining).
“The problem we’ve had is only those extractive jobs have all too often been the only jobs on the table.”
Klein said Germany was already getting 30 per cent of its daily electricity from renewables. On sunny days renewables can make up to 80 per cent.
“They’ve created … 400,000 jobs in this transition, they’ve also deepened their democracy because they have taken back control of their energy grids in hundreds of cities and towns in Germany and are able to keep the profits of energy generation and use them to pay for services,” she said.
“So this is not just about flipping the switch from one energy model to another, it’s also about changing our economy to make it fairer.
“It is true that some of the most powerful actors in our current economic system … stand to lose a lot.” Naomi Klein will be appearing at the Festival of Dangerous Ideas on Saturday, September 5. The talk will also be streamed live online.
Significant setback to Japan’s #nuclear revival
The Japanese Government’s plans to revive its nuclear power plants have taken a significant blow according to Reuters.
The news outlet reports that of the 42 still operable reactors in the country, just 7 are likely to return to service in the next few years, down from 14 that had been planned 12 months earlier. According to Reuters the halving in reactors planned for restart in the next few years is due to legal challenges and concerns about their ability to meet stricter safety standards imposed after the Fukishima nuclear plant explosion.
Russia spying on Czech Republic’s nuclear installations
Czech counter-intelligence agency: Russian spies are focusing on Czech nuclear energy sector http://www.foxnews.com/world/2015/09/04/czech-counter-intelligence-agency-russian-spies-are-focusing-on-czech-nuclear/ PRAGUE – The Czech Republic’s counter-intelligence agency says the number of Russian spies remains high and they are particularly interested in the country’s nuclear program.
The agency, also known as BIS, says in its annual report published Friday: “Russia does not consider a fight over the Czech nuclear energy sector a lost battle.”
BIS says the Russian spies focus on a recently approved government plan to build at least one more reactor at the Temelin nuclear plant and another at the Dukovany plant. They also target anyone whose task is to make this plan reality, it says. Kremlin is also trying to take control over the Russian community’s organizations here, BIS charges, and is building a spy network in Europe, similar to what the Soviet Union did before World War II.
Security gaps persist in Nuclear Weapons Complex That Couldn’t Keep Out 82-Year-Old Nun
Nuclear Weapons Complex That Couldn’t Keep Out 82-Year-Old Nun Is Still Unsafe, Mother Jones, 3 Sept 15 Audit shows security gaps persist in a $50 million security system at the Y-12 nuclear complex that stores enough fissile material for 10,000 nuclear bombs. By Patrick Malone and Center for Public Integrity Thu Sep. 3, 2015 A good security system would seem essential for the federal repository holding virtually all of the nation’s highly enriched uranium, a key ingredient of nuclear weapons, just outside Knoxville,Tenn.
But the high-tech system installed at a cost of roughly $50 million over the past decade at the Department of Energy’s Y-12 complex is still riddled with flaws that impede its operation, according to a newly released report by the department’s top auditor. Moreover, no one knows how much the government will have to spend to fix it or when that task might be accomplished, the report says.
Flaws in the site’s security system first came into national view in July 2012, when an 82-year-old nun and two other anti-nuclear activists cut through fences and walked through a field of motion detectors to deface the exterior of Y-12’s Highly Enriched Uranium Materials Facility, which holds enough explosives to make 10,000 nuclear bombs. Subsequent investigations concluded that those monitoring the few critical sensors that were operating that day had been trained to ignore them by persistent false alarms, including many triggered by wildlife.
But not much has changed since that break-in, according to the report by Inspector General Gregory H. Friedman, even though the department spent more than a million dollars in 2012 to get a consultant’s advice about how to make the system work better, and then millions more completing the installation of high-tech sensors in 2013. The report says that the so-called Argus security system, which was developed by DOE’s Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and named optimistically after the fabled 100-eyed monster of Greek mythology, “did not fully meet the site’s security needs” and was not installed the way it was designed to be used. It’s still prone to frequent false alarms and falls short of the Energy Department’s requirements…….. http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2015/09/audit-shows-security-gaps-persist-nuclear-weapons-complex
Climate-denying politicians ‘not fit to lead’ – President Obama
President Barack Obama attacks climate change denying politicians as not being fit to lead, ABC Radio Will Ockenden reported this story on Tuesday, September 1, 2015 ELEANOR HALL: The president of the United States has issued a warning to other world leaders about the need to act urgently to reduce carbon emissions.
Barack Obama says climate change is happening faster than efforts to fix it and that any world leader unwilling to take the problem seriously is “not fit to lead”. The US president says, while there should be debate on the best way to address climate change, the science on global warming is settled and the time to act is now.
Will Ockenden reports.
WILL OCKENDEN: President Barack Obama says the world has reached a fork in the road on climate change.
One route is to continue on, without doing anything.
BARACK OBAMA: There’s not going to be a nation on this Earth that’s not impacted negatively. People will suffer. Economies will suffer. Entire nations will find themselves under severe, severe problems; more drought, more floods, rising sea levels, greater migration, more refugees, more scarcity, more conflict.
WILL OCKENDEN: The other, a global agreement to cut emissions.
BARACK OBAMA: The other path is to embrace the human ingenuity that can do something about it. The time to heed the critics and the cynics and the deniers is past. The time to plead ignorance is surely past.
Those who want to ignore the science, they are increasingly alone; they’re on their own shrinking island.
WILL OCKENDEN: President Obama’s comments were addressed at the opening of the GLACIER conference in Anchorage, Alaska.
GLACIER stands for Global Leadership in the Arctic: Cooperation, Innovation, Engagement and Resilience.
The comments come ahead of a key meeting, the United Nations Climate Change Conference, which is scheduled to be held in Paris in December…..http://www.abc.net.au/worldtoday/content/2015/s4303846.htm
Australian uranium company Paladin suspends uneconomic project in Labrador
Aurora Energy suspending uranium exploration in Labrador, CBC News Company cites low prices for decision to mothball Labrador operation CBC News Sep 01, 2015 Aurora Energy has announced it is suspending uranium exploration in Labrador and is blaming lower commodity prices for the decision.
Ches Andersen, Aurora’s vice-president of Labrador affairs, said since there’s no mining underway, the parent company will mothball the Labrador operation…..
Aurora is a member of the Paladin Energy Ltd. Group of Companies, based in Australia.
Lifting of moratoriumThe issue of uranium mining in Labrador has been a divisive one.The Nunatsiavut government narrowly passed a controversial bill to put a moratorium on exploration in place in April 2008.
The decision to lift the moratorium was made unanimously late in 2011….http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/newfoundland-labrador/aurora-energy-suspending-uranium-exploration-in-labrador-1.3209939
Military Industrial Complex responsible for huge greenhouse gas emissions
Change the Military-Industrial Complex, not the Climate, America’s Program By Alfredo Acedo | 31 / August / 2015 This year, the governments of the world will meet in Paris for the 21st United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP21). Their goal will be to try to come to a binding universal agreement to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. They will negotiate a new protocol—the Paris Protocol—this time obligatory for all nations. And just like in the debates leading up to it, during the meetings of COP21, two incompatible positions will be represented:
To keep doing business with the climate crisis, without substantially reducing emissions nor questioning the dominant economic and social model, at the risk of changing the climate dangerously and irreversibly past the border of the oft-cited 2 degrees Celsius…or to change the system.
The first position will be dominant at the COP21, represented by the governments aligned with Washington and corporations. The second will be defended by social movements and civil organizations around the world, through massive demonstrations and representatives who will attend the alternative space of the People’s Summit, also in Paris. The People’s Summit will be surrounded by the geopolitical-military interests of the United States that revolve around oil..
The United States government, after historically staying on the sidelines of the international agreements to reduce emissions, now intends to lead the process. But President Obama’s Clean Power Plan, the recent US domestic policy proposal regarding climate change that was announced as “the biggest step yet to combat climate change” leading up to the Paris Summit, has proved to be the mountain in labor: a mouse that will try to limit carbon emissions from coal power plants (truly anachronistic beasts), by 32 percent in comparison with 2005, over the next 15 years.[1] A government that makes such ineffectual efforts domestically will offer only ineffectual leadership to the international effort to stop climate change.
If the new standards for energy production put forward in President Obama’s Clean Power Plan (which have unleashed the hysteria of the Republican right), many plants will be forced to close. However, these plants should have closed years ago; by virtue of not being subject to regulation, they have been able to contaminate with impunity and have continued operating for double their life expectancy.
Beyond nice-sounding phrases (“we are the first generation to feel the impact of climate change, and the last generation that can do something about it”), the Plan’s diagnostic element, which corresponds to scientific consensus, does little more than underline the huge gap between the seriousness of the issue, which Obama admits, and the insufficient measures that the Plan contains. It does not look at the contaminating industry as a whole, and it does not take back the administration’s actions that led to fracking and gave a green light to Shell for Arctic drilling.
The Pentagon and Petroleum
Obama used a meeting with the Pentagon to argue that climate change presents national security risks, but he would never even consider including the armed forces in his emissions reduction plan.
The military-industrial complex that holds power in the world is the principle levee holding back the currents that are trying to limit and eventually do away with our civilization’s addiction to fossil fuels.
What is the institution that consumes the most petroleum in the world? The Yankee army.[2] Who guarantees the continued hegemony of the global system led by oil companies (and others)? The Yankee army.
This is why the transition to clean and renewable energy sources is so difficult. …….
There is no time to wait for renewable energy to achieve the density that the military industrial complex requires. The change needs to take place in the short term—in the current decade, let’s say—and this means reducing not only emissions but also energy consumption itself, and radically transforming our transportation systems, production and consumption.
Background Changes
The climate crisis obligates us to make deep changes in the development model, the capitalist system and in civilization itself. In order to avoid the worst climate effects, it is urgent that we abandon the logic of infinite growth (unviable in a finite world), that we reduce consumption of energy and that we accelerate the transition to clean and renewable sources.
But it is also necessary to do away with poverty. Close to one billion people in the planet go to sleep every day near the limits of survival. If there is something that characterizes the global capitalist world—in addition to planetary militarization—it is the enormous gap between rich and poor, which has grown tremendously in the last 30 years. Militarism and poverty are two sides of the same coin. It is estimated that with close to 5% of current military spending, extreme poverty could be eradicated.[6]
A new model of development, one that would correct the deviations that have brought humanity to a dead end, should be based on economic solidarity, food sovereignty and Good Living. The economy should produce wellbeing for all without destroying the environment. The society would create harmony to the extent that all benefits would have an equal impact, without exploiting workers, discriminating against women, or violating social rights and individual guarantees.
This crisis demands that we put a stop to free-market globalization and simultaneously end militarism, two very expensive elements of the current dominant system. http://www.cipamericas.org/archives/16005
Governor urges Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station to act on safety
Baker Urges Plymouth Nuclear Plant Owners To Correct Safety Problems September 3, 2015
By WBUR NEWSROOM Gov. Charlie Baker is urging the operators of the Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station to take action after federal inspectors announced they would be increasing oversight of the plant due to safety violations.
In a letter Thursday to Entergy Nuclear Operations, Baker expressed concern that the company hadn’t taken action to address the causes of several unplanned shutdowns at the Plymouth plant dating back to 2013.
He urged Entergy to “perform an appropriate root cause analysis of the shutdowns and to complete all necessary repairs and corrective actions.”……..http://www.wbur.org/2015/09/03/baker-pilgrim-nuclear
USA Senate votes rising in support of Iran nuclear deal
Vote tally supporting Iran nuclear deal rises to 31 in Senate , CBS News 30 Aug 15 WASHINGTON — Oregon’s Democratic Sen. Jeff Merkley on Sunday became the 31st senator to announce support for the Iran nuclear deal, as momentum builds behind the agreement the Obama administration and other world powers negotiated with Tehran.
Merkley’s backing puts supporters within reach of the 34 votes required to uphold a presidential veto of a congressional resolution disapproving the agreement, which curbs Iran’s nuclear program in exchange for billions of dollars in sanctions relief.
Ameren begins moving nuclear waste to central Missouri site
August 30, 2015 by Alisa Nelson Ameren has started moving spent fuel into its new dry cask storage facility in Callaway County that will hold a portion of that fuel. Shannon Abel with Ameren said the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission is also involved in the move to ensure the process is done safely……http://www.missourinet.com/2015/08/30/ameren-begins-moving-nuclear-waste-to-central-missouri-site/
1 This Month
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