Questions on safety, and silencing of critics – HUMBOLDT BAY POWER PLANT
PG&E, former employee to hold talks on nuclear power plant By The Times-Standard http://www.times-standard.com/events/20150815/pge-former-employee-to-hold-talks-on-nuclear-power-plant 08/15/15, TWO TALKS AND PRESENTATIONS WILL BE HELD ON WEDNESDAY REGARDING THE NUCLEAR PROGRAM AT THE PACIFIC GAS AND ELECTRIC COMPANY’S HUMBOLDT BAY POWER PLANT, THOUGH THEIR TONES WILL LIKELY BE MUCH DIFFERENT.
PG&E is set to hold a public open house at the Wharfinger Building in Eureka on Wednesday afternoon to discuss the ongoing decommissioning of the plant’s nuclear power facility known as Unit 3………
Earlier on Wednesday at the Arcata City Library, former Eureka resident and former plant nuclear control technician Bob Rowen is set to hold a lecture and Q&A session to discuss the allegations he has raised about the plant’s operations and government oversight.
Having already written a book on the topic, “My Humboldt Diary: A True Story of Betrayal of the Public Trust,” Rowen claims PG&E and government agencies — like the now defunct Atomic Energy Commission — made decisions or intentionally ignored incidents of radioactive exposure to both power plant employees and members of the surrounding communities.
After bringing his allegations forward, Rowen claims he and other employees were fired in 1970 as retaliation with subsequent police investigations, attempts to smear his character and even death threats occurring in the aftermath.
The Atomic Energy Commission investigated Rowen’s claims, but found that PG&E had not committed any major safety violations relating to radiation exposure in its investigation.
Will Houston can be reached at 707-441-0504.
Nuclear Waste Administration Act a poor solution to USA’s radioactive trash dilemma
Nuclear Industry, Not Government, Should Handle Nuclear Waste Issue, The Daily Signal, Katie Tubb / August 16, 2015 By law, the Department of Energy is supposed to collect spent nuclear fuel and deposit it at Nevada’s Yucca Mountain. Nuclear power customers in 33 states have paid billions of dollars into a federal fund to finance this service. Yet the DOE has never collected a single ounce of spent fuel. Indeed, the Yucca Mountain facility still isn’t open for business.
Federal courts have ruled that the DOE is in partial breach of contract for not handling the waste—and that’s costing taxpayers, too. The federal government has already paid out $4.5 billion in legal settlements and could be liable for as much as another $50 billion (the “low” estimate is still $22 billion). Meanwhile, the spent fuel continues to pile up—growing by some 2,000 metric tons per year—awaiting safe disposal.
There’s no denying that this is a huge problem. Which is why senators from both sides of the aisle are working together to find a solution. Republican Sens. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Lamar Alexander of Tennessee, and Democratic Sens. Maria Cantwell of Washington and Dianne Feinstein of California, have a hammered out a proposal to relieve DOE of its nuclear waste management responsibilities.
Unfortunately, they would transfer that responsibility to a new federal bureaucracy: the Nuclear Waste Administration. The intention—to rebuild trust between the federal government and both the American people and nuclear power industry—is good. But to shift responsibility from one federal agency to another is about as promising as moving loose change from one holey pocket to another.
The senators’ Nuclear Waste Administration Act fails on another front as well. The legislation could delay a permanent solution to nuclear waste management for at least another 30 years. Instead, the bill would authorize construction of one or two interim storage facilities. This represents no progress whatsoever. When the Energy Department never showed up to collect waste, nuclear power plants began storing waste safely in de facto interim storage facilities……..
The Nuclear Waste Administration Act really fixes only one problem: It would stop the lawsuits against the DOE for failing to collect waste from nuclear power plants. That’s assuming, of course, that the new agency actually picks up the waste…….
(?temporary) rejoicing in nuclear camp, over Sendai reactor restart
Japan’s nuclear restart is psychological boost, says Cameco CEO Gitzel, Star Phoenix,BY CHRISTOPHER DONVILLE, BLOOMBERG AUGUST 11, 2015 VANCOUVER — The first restart of a Japanese nuclear reactor since the 2011 Fukushima disaster will be “psychologically” important to the atomic industry, the world’s second-largest uranium producer said………http://www.thestarphoenix.com/technology/Japan+nuclear+restart+psychological+boost+says+Cameco+Gitzel/11282314/story.html
Struggling nuclear industry battles on, but it’s a losing battle
Contrast the nuclear power industry’s troubles with the bright prospects for renewables and energy efficiency, and it’s clear that our future lies not with the unstable nuclear industry but with the rapidly growing clean energy sector.
Nuclear power is a losing proposition BY MICHAEL BRUNE, ANNIE LEONARD AND ERICH PICA http://www.miamiherald.com/opinion/op-ed/article30434562.htmlfoe.org 12 Aug 15 Americans know the clean energy economy is here and they are embracing it. More than seven out of 10 of us want more emphasis on wind and solar energy, while only about a third favor more nuclear energy, according to the latest research from the Gallup poling organization. Gallup also found that support for nuclear power dropped by 11 percentage points in the United States in the last five years.
Meanwhile, the struggling nuclear industry is trying to pitch its product as a viable low-carbon alternative to clean energy, rather than the dangerous and expensive choice that it is.
As potential climate solutions go, though, nuclear power is a losing proposition that is only getting worse. Developing clean, affordable renewable energy sources and tapping our vast energy efficiency “reserves” is a much smarter bet for America’s future.
As things now stand, the nuclear power industry is facing dark days. All five nuclear reactors now under construction in the United States are behind schedule and billions of dollars over budget — a situation that is not unique to our nation. In fact, 75 percent of reactors currently under construction worldwide are delayed and over budget. Continue reading
Outcry as Sendai nuclear station is restarted
Sendai nuclear plant restarts amid outcry, Financial Times 11 Aug
“…….Naoto Kan, the prime minister who led Japan during the 2011 tsunami and nuclear disaster, described the restart as a “huge mistake” by an industry in decline. “Nuclear power generation is a technology of the 20th century,” he said on Tuesday. “As a source of energy, it is inferior from the long-term point of view.”
Mr Kan was on Tuesday joined outside the Sendai plant, 1,000km from Tokyo on Japan’s southernmost island of Kyushu, by hundreds of protesters, chanting in anger as the reactor was restarted.
As a source of energy, it is inferior from the long-term point of view– Naoto Kan, former prime minister
In Australia – gender difference on attitudes to climate change, and nuclear power
More men back nuclear, women like solar: climate change gender divide found, The Age, August 10, 2015 Nicole Hasham Environment and immigration correspondent If the climate change debate wasn’t polarised enough, another divide has opened up: the attitudes of men versus those of women.
Climate Institute research published on Monday confirms Australian men are more likely than women to believe climate change is not happening, and to prefer nuclear and coal as energy sources. Women, meanwhile, are more inclined than men to support wind and solar power, and take the view backed by the vast majority of the world’s scientists – that climate change is real.
Ian Dunlop, a former international oil, gas and coal industry executive who is now a director of not-for-profit think tank Australia21, said gender differences were a “fundamental issue” holding back climate action.
“The male incumbency in the business and political world have not been prepared to engage with that discussion,” he said, deriding a dominant culture of “macho short-termism”. “I think women on the other hand are actually more conscious of the … world we are heading into and [that] we need to start doing something about it.”………
The United Nations has previously said women in poor nations bear the disproportionate burden of climate change, but are largely overlooked in the debate about how to address effects such as rising seas, droughts and extreme weather.
The founder of 1 million women, Natalie Isaacs, whose organisation encourages women to act on climate change through the way they live, said protecting future generations “is a hot button issue for women”. She said women made 85 per cent of consumer decisions that affect a household’s carbon footprint.
Mr Dunlop, former chairman of the Australian Coal Association and former chief executive of the Australian Institute of Company Directors, said women were more likely than men to see climate change as an “existential issue”. “The male approach to this thing is [often] saying it is all nonsense, it’s all just alarmism,” he said.
It has been argued that advocates for climate action should frame their message around defending the status quo, to encourage more men to confront the problem. http://www.theage.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/men-back-nuclear-women-like-solar-climate-change-gender-divide-found-20150809-giv5vk.html#ixzz3iZgnCE00
Ban nuclear weapons – call from Pope Francis on Nagasaki remembrance day
Pope Francis Calls for Nuclear Weapons Ban VOA News August 09, 2015 Pope Francis called for a global ban on nuclear weapons Sunday as Japan marked the 70th anniversary of the U.S. dropping an atomic bomb on Nagasaki days before the end of World War Two.
The pontiff said the memories of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in early August 1945 remain as a call for nuclear disarmament.”After so long that tragic event still causes horror and repulsion,” the pope said in Rome.
“It became the symbol of the boundless destructive power of man, when the achievements of science and technology are put to wrong use. It remains a permanent warning for humanity to reject war forever and to ban nuclear weapons and every weapon of mass destruction,” Francis said.
The pope said he wishes there would be “one voice” that says, “no to war, no to violence, yes to dialogue, yes to peace. With war we always lose.”
Nagasaki ceremony
Bells tolled and tens of thousands of people in Japan observed a minute’s silence Sunday to mark the Nagasaki attack that killed 74,000 people. It came three days after a similar observance to remember the attack on Hiroshima that claimed an estimated 140,000 lives…….http://www.voanews.com/content/pope-francis-calls-for-nuclear-weapons-ban/2909357.html
Stage and screen star Maxine Peake joins campaign for nuclear disarmament
Actress Maxine Peake joins nuclear campaigners to mark the 70th anniversary of Hiroshima and Nagasaki attacks, Manchester Evening News 9 AUGUST 2015 BY DEAN KIRBY
The star of stage and screen joined supporters of nuclear disarmament in calling for an end to the Trident nuclear submarine programme at a gathering in Heaton Park Actress Maxine Peake joined peace campaigners in marking the 70th anniversary of the atom bomb attacks on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
The star of stage and screen joined supporters of nuclear disarmament in calling for an end to the Trident nuclear submarine programme at a gathering in Heaton Park.
The event on Sunday – the anniversary of the bombing of Nagasaki – was organised by Prestwich and Whitefield CND.
Those who gathered observed a minute’s silence to remember those who died and renewed their commitment to campaigning for peace and disarmament…….http://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/greater-manchester-news/actress-maxine-peake-joins-nuclear-9822548
Death of worker at Fukushima nuclear station – from head injury
Worker at wrecked Japan nuclear plant dies from head injury, AP The Big Story, By MARI YAMAGUCHI Aug. 8, 2015 TOKYO (AP) — A worker at Japan’s wrecked nuclear power plant died after the hatch at the back of a truck closed on his head Saturday, the latest mishap at a complex still struggling with the cleanup from the 2011 Fukushima disaster.
The operator of the Fukushima Dai-ichi plant said the 52-year-old man was rushed to a nearby hospital but was pronounced dead soon after……..
The decades-long decommissioning of the plant, which was wrecked in the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami that devastated northeastern Japan, involves thousands of workers.
The number of accidents last year, including injuries and sickness, doubled to 64 from a year earlier. Saturday’s death, the second this year, occurred weeks after the government and TEPCO announced plans to slow down projects to improve safety. In January, a worker died after accidentally falling from atop a storage tank.
The two men involved in Saturday’s incident were assigned to the truck used at the site where a frozen underground wall is being installed near highly contaminated reactor buildings, a project aimed at curbing a contaminated water problem hampering the decommissioning of the plant. http://bigstory.ap.org/article/6c411d81dfc340639f9d8b6d15d6787b/worker-wrecked-japan-nuclear-plant-dies-head-injury
The essence of the Iran nuclear deal
Breaking Down The Iran Nuclear Deal: Here’s What You Need To Know http://www.refinery29.com/2015/08/91972/iran-nuclear-deal-basics-obama-speech ELIZABETH KIEFERIt’s been a busy week in Washington, between the fight for women’s healthcare and ramping up to the first GOP debate. In the midst of it all, discussions about the Obama administration’s Iran Nuclear Deal have continued to unfold. Wednesday, the president gave a speech addressing critics of the controversial agreement.
“The choice we face is ultimately between diplomacy and some form of war,” he said. “Maybe not tomorrow, maybe not three months from now, but soon.” He also asked the audience of 200 at American University how this nation can justify going to war without first taking a stab at a diplomatic deal.
It’s a good question. There is no simple answer. The basic facts of the deal are these: The U.S. wants to curb Iran’s access to uranium and plutonium — decreasing the country’s supply by 98% over time — so that eventually, it would take an entire year to produce enough material for a nuclear weapon. In return, the U.S. would make its own concessions, including sanctions relief.
Democrats are coming around. Today, Kirsten Gillibrand announced her support and clarified her reasoning in a lengthy post on Medium. Since 2010, the New York senator has pushed for sanctions against Iran and checks on its spiraling nuclear program. “The Iranian regime with a nuclear weapon posed — then and now — an existential threat to the State of Israel and dangerously threatens our own national security interests,” she wrote. “Bottom line: Iran possessing a nuclear weapon would be a game-changing event that cannot and will not be allowed. That was true then — and it remains true today.”
The president has admitted that that an Iran Nuclear Deal has the potential to monetarily benefit terrorist groups. He has admitted that it’s an imperfect plan. But what he has also said — and what other politicians who favor the deal, including Gillibrand, have acknowledged — is that, right now, it’s the best we have.
Dead dolphins near Fukushima show sign of radiation poisoning
Japanese scientists find signs of radiation poisoning in 17 dead dolphins near Fukushima, by David Gutierrez The Watcher on August 06, 2015 Seventeen dolphins found mysteriously beached near the site of the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant may have died from radiation-induced heart damage, a scientific analysis has suggested…….
White lungs a sign of radiation poisoning?
In April 2015, scientists from Japan’s National Science Museum conducted autopsies on the beached dolphins. They found that nearly all of them had lungs that were entirely white, indicating a condition known as ischemia – that is, loss of blood to the organs. The animals’ internal organs showed no signs of infection or any other disease.
“I have never seen such a state,” the chief researcher said.
While the researchers did not draw the connection themselves, ischemia is a well known symptom of radiation poisoning. In particular, studies have shown that small doses of radiation over time can produce ischemic heart disease (IHD). Higher rates of IHD have been observed among workers at the Mayak nuclear facility in Russia, with a higher risk among those exposed to greater levels of gamma radiation. Increases in IHD rates were also observed among emergency workers who responded to the 1986 Chernobyl disaster, as well as among residents exposed to radioactive fallout from the disaster. In the latter case, rates of IHD had increased by two to four times by 1988………
Some Pacific nations are certainly taking the possibility seriously. In 2011, nineteen Pacific states launched a study into the possible impacts of radioactive releases from Fukushima on the Asia-Pacific region specifically and the Pacific Ocean more generally.
The United States did not participate in the study. http://thewatchers.adorraeli.com/2015/08/06/japanese-scientists-find-signs-of-radiation-poisoning-in-17-dead-dolphins-near-fukushima/
Labor leader candidate Jeremy Corbyn sets out plans for UK nuclear disarmament
Corbyn to set out plans for UK nuclear disarmament 70 years after Hiroshima Frances Perraudin http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/aug/06/jeremy-corbyn-plans-uk-nuclear-disarmament-70-years-hiroshima Labour leadership candidate Jeremy Corbyn says that real security for a country is providing well for its citizens in terms of housing, education and employment
Labour leadership hopeful will vow to scrap Britain’s Trident programme at CND event marking anniversary of 1945 bombing of Japanese city
Labour leadership hopeful Jeremy Corbyn will use the 70th anniversary of the dropping of the atom bomb on the Japanese city of Hiroshima to set out his plan for nuclear disarmament in the UK.
Speaking at a Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament commemorative event in London on Thursday, Corbyn will say that if he were prime minster he would not replace the Trident nuclear weapons system and would transition away from nuclear weapons entirely.
In a document entitled Plan for Defence Diversification, Corbyn sets out a strategy to protect the jobs and skills of those who work on Trident, and in the defence sector more widely, by investing in “socially productive” hi-tech industry and infrastructure projects.
“We are making the case for a defence diversification agency because we have a moral duty, and strategic defence and international commitments, to make Britain and the world a safer place,” the document reads.
“As a signatory to the nuclear non-proliferation treaty, Britain should therefore give a lead in discharging its obligations by not seeking a replacement for Trident, as we are committed to accelerate concrete progress towards nuclear disarmament.
“Senior military figures have described our existing nuclear weapons as ‘militarily useless’ and our possession of them encourages other countries to seek a similar arsenal while undermining the efforts being made to advance the cause of international nuclear disarmament.”
In 2016, parliament is expected to vote on the £100bn renewal of the Trident programme, a set of four submarines armed with Trident II D-5 ballistic missiles, which are able to deliver thermonuclear warheads.
Corbyn, MP for Islington North since 1983, attends the CND commemorative event in Tavistock Square garden in central London every year.
Also attending the event is the Green party’s Lady Jones, who will say: “It is amazing that we haven’t learned more from the nuclear bombing of Japan, that nuclear weapons are indiscriminate, their impact incalculable and their cost insupportable.
“Britain should accept that such weapons are impossible to use with any guarantee of safety and we should scrap plans for renewing the Trident nuclear defence system, freeing up £100bn to spend on our national wellbeing.”
Mankind’s most dangerous bluff – nuclear weapons
Nuclear peace: Mankind’s most dangerous bluff?, Economic Times By AFP |”………as the atomic generation gives way to one that did not grow up building fallout shelters, some experts say nuclear weapons are no longer the ultimate guarantor of global peace. Growing instability around the world – the renewed rift between Russia and the West, simmering tensions between nuclear-armed India and Pakistan, a drive by China to modernise its nuclear forces and an ever-more bellicose North Korea – have undermined efforts to reduce the global stockpile of nuclear weapons and keep doomsday at bay.
Nuclear weapons are seen in Moscow as “ultimate proof that Russia is a great power” despite its struggling economy and poor international image, said Pavel Baev, a Russian military expert at the Peace Research Institute Oslo.
Bruno Tertrais, an expert at the Paris-based Foundation for Strategic Research, said the fear of mutual devastation still made “large-scale military conflict between Russia and NATO unthinkable”.
Nine nations – the United States, Russia, Britain, France, China, India, Pakistan, Israel and North Korea – possess some 16,300 nuclear weapons between them, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute.
If there were another attack like those in Mumbai in 2008 when Pakistan-based terrorists went on a four-day killing spree in the city, India’s government “may not turn the other cheek”, he said. http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/articleshow/48381293.cms?utm_source=contentofinterest&utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=cppst
Japan’s nuclear bombing survivors speak out against nuclear power
Nuclear Bomb Survivors Speak Out Against Nuclear Power in Japan FUKUSHIMA CITY, Japan (Reuters) 5 Aug 15 – When Atsushi Hoshino set out to revive a group representing atomic bomb survivors in the rural northeast Japanese prefecture of Fukushima 30 years ago, one topic was taboo—criticizing the nuclear power industry upon which many relied for jobs.
That changed dramatically after March 11, 2011, when a massive tsunami devastated the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant, triggering meltdowns, spewing radiation and forcing tens of thousands of residents to flee their homes.
“Until then …I felt somewhat uncomfortable about nuclear power, but not enough to oppose it. Rather, I was in a situation where it wasn’t possible to oppose it,” Hoshino, 87, told Reuters at his home in Fukushima City, about 60 km (37 miles) from the wrecked Fukushima Daiichi plant, the country’s first commercial nuclear plant when it went online in 1971.
Now, Hoshino, a survivor of the Aug. 6, 1945, U.S. atomic bombing of Hiroshima, is among the majority of Japanese who oppose Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s plan to reboot reactors taken offline after the Fukushima disaster. Kyushu Electric Power Co’s Sendai plant in southwestern Japan is expected to resume operations on Aug. 10, the first to do so in nearly two years.
“I think that since the risk of nuclear power and the fact that human beings cannot control it has become clear, none of the reactors should be restarted,” Hoshino said…..
STARK MEMORIES
Seventy years after the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings, the experiences of the elderly survivors remain seared in their memories……..http://www.newsweek.com/nuclear-bomb-survivors-speak-out-against-nuclear-power-japan-359550
Video: Hiroshima survivors fight nuclear industry in Brazil
Hiroshima survivors fight nuclear industry in Brazil – video http://www.theguardian.com/environment/video/2015/aug/04/hiroshima-japan-atomic-bomb-survivors-nuclear-brazil-video Maria Zuppello and Richard Sprenger, theguardian.com
Wednesday 5 August Seventy years after the US dropped atomic bombs on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, 15,000 miles away in Brazil, a group of bomb survivors known as hibakusha campaigns against the use of nuclear energy. Brazil has nuclear energy capabilities – but the hibakusha argue that there is no practical way of disposing of radioactive waste
• Archive footage courtesy of Hibakusha Brazil for Peace and the Association of Caesium-137 Victims
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