Questions with nuclear plant
Questions with nuclear plant
Mountain Home News Diana Hooley April 29, 2009 – “The promoters for the proposed nuclear power plant have used the promise of jobs and money to strike an emotional chord in a down economy.But who are these people really and can they deliver the goods or are they just salesmen preying on people’s needs?……………………..Idaho and Elmore County land is being auctioned off potentially to out of state utility companies for the energy needs of out of state localities like Las Vegas and Los Angeles area.
Why would Elmore County ever be willing to give up control over its land and water to this group of developers? For the promise of jobs — not the assurance — just the promise………………………
With all the excitement about jobs and money, forgotten is the possibility that though the economy will fluctuate and the job market will get better, the nuclear waste will be stored on site in perpetuity.
This toxic waste will be something the children of Elmore County citizens, and their children, will have to live with for a long time.
Storing waste on that piece of property is a terrible risk. The soil and rock are porous and the ground slopes directly to the river. Any leak of toxic materials will run off.
A nuclear weapons free world is now possible
A nuclear weapons free world is now possible On Line Opinion by Bill Williams 28 April 9
Not such a crazy proposition really. The detonation of a small, “primitive” uranium fission weapon, concealed in a shipping container in one of Australia’s harbour cities, for instance, would obliterate the CBD, causing up to a quarter of a million fatalities and an enormous radiotoxic legacy. Meanwhile, the explosion of even a small portion of the currently available 26,500 nuclear weapons would mean global catastrophe.
New evidence from climate and vulcanology specialists suggest a “nuclear winter” could result from the detonation of less than 100 smallish nukes (i.e. Hiroshima-size) on large urban centres. Think Krakatoa meets Hiroshima and multiply accordingly. All this is well within the arsenal capacities of Russia, America, China, Israel, India, Pakistan, France and the UK.
How could such scenarios fade from the public consciousness? And what could an informed, concerned public do about it? There is an urgent need to call for a credible, universal treaty to abolish nuclear weapons.
A draft for such a treaty already exists: the “Model Nuclear Weapons Convention” (NWC) was prepared by an international consortium of legal and technical specialists, and was released and circulated by the United Nations (UN) in 1997. It was revised and published in 2007 as a key project of the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear weapons (ICAN). The document, Securing our Survival, lauded by UN Secretary General, Ban Ki-moon and available at www.icanw.org – sets out in detail the essential steps to abolition…………………..Clearly, we will have to push the politicians if they are to instruct the diplomats to negotiate and implement a convention. Otherwise they’ll muddle on for decades, shuffling up the “incremental steps”, plastering over cracks in the disarmament edifice, wavering in the shadow of annihilation.
A nuclear weapons free world is now possible – On Line Opinion – 28/4/2009
1,250 tonnes of depleted uranium railed through densely populated Germany – to France?
1,250 tonnes of depleted uranium railed through densely populated Germany – to France?
Sydney Indymedia April 29th, 2009 By Diet Simon, adapting Cecile Lecomte’s report A 25-car train half a kilometre long has just carried 1,250 tonnes of depleted uranium through the most densely populated region of Germany – destination unknown, presumably France.
The train left Germany’s only uranium enrichment plant at Gronau (52° 12′, 160 km south of Hamburg) in the night from 27 to 28 April.Usually trains from the German-Dutch-British-owned enrichment plant close to the city of Münster and the Dutch border have taken depleted uranium to Rotterdam for shipment to Russia, where it’s been dumped in the open air.
The Urenco company is extremely secretive about the transports. This time journalists were told by federal police that the train headed for Duisburg and on to France.That would have taken the dangerous cargo through the densely populated Ruhr and Rhineland areas – if the police information is correct…………….
…….The train from Gronau was held up by two hours because a female French activist who lives in Germany, 27-year-old Cécile Lecomte, had abseiled over the tracks from a road overpass. She and other climbers have made such a name for themselves in disrupting nuclear transports that police now always have climbing specialists along on the trains to take the protesters down……….
………….”The aim is to reveal the secret atomic transports from the Gronau uranium enrichment plant and to draw people’s attention to the policy of Urenco,” she writes. ………………………..“Radioactivity knows no borders. What kind of an end to atomic power is it if Gronau is expanded, thereby supporting the construction of new nuclear plants – such as the EPR in Flamanville, France – by supplying the product to power stations all over the globe.
“The waste is carted right across Europe in secret transports. That is no solution to the nuclear waste problem. On the contrary, the population is exposed to ever more dangers, the environment is polluted ever more…..”………………….’
Native Americans: Power for the persecuted
Native Americans: Power for the persecuted DIAMONDBACKONLINE Matt DernogaIs- 4/28/09 “……………Native American reservations contain large quantities of natural resources, including energy. There is little to no access or control over as to how they are used – 65 percent of North America’s uranium lies on these reservations, as is 80 percent of all the uranium mining and 100 percent of all the uranium processing in the country.
The result has been high rates of cancer, respiratory ailments, miscarriages and birth defects. The water and soil are loaded with lead, radium, thorium and other toxins. People who work in the mines rarely receive clothing, protection, medical evaluation or compensation. There is almost no wealth to show for this exploitation, and our tax dollars subsidize it daily through our funding of uneconomical nuclear power…………….
………..The reservations on the Great Plains have a windpower potential that tops 300 gigawatts, half our annual electric generation. Everyone wins with a clean energy economy, but I can’t think of a group in this country who would benefit more than Native Americans.
This would explain why I’ve been seeing and hearing a lot more of groups like the Indigenous Environmental Network. A good climate bill, a green energy bill and a new electric grid only benefit indigenous people if they are involved in the legislative process. We can’t abuse their renewable resources like we’ve abused their traditional resources. They need to be a partner, not a tool. The less we understand about their culture and history, the harder this will be.
The period of “Chernobyl’s decay” /ДЕНЬ/
The period of “Chernobyl’s decay”U kraine will be exposed to residual radiation for hundreds of years. What can be done today? day.kiev.ua By Oleksandra SHEPEL 28 April 09
Twenty-three years have passed since The Day of April 26 divided human fates into “before” and “after” the disaster at the Chornobyl Nuclear Power Plant. Until this day it is the world’s worst anthropogenic catastrophe unmatched for its environmental impact.
For Ukraine Chornobyl is an everyday reality and a host of global-scale problems. Unfortunately, the problems caused by the catastrophe are as acute today as they were 23 years ago. Can one get used to devastated villages and abandoned fertile land?………………………..
Radioisotopes of iodine, which were present in the air in the largest quantities, were the most dangerous for people. Therefore, Ukrainians who were outside under the radioactive clouds in the last days of April and early May picked up plenty of this isotope. Their thyroid glands accumulating this substance, received the largest dose of irradiation of all the parts of body, and suffered worst. As a result, several years after the Chornobyl disaster, doctors registered a spike in thyroid cancer among children.
Some experts assert that the life of radioactive iodine is short, so it cannot be affecting our health today. In fact, radioactive iodine does not disappear within eight days, as some write, but plants itself in the thyroid of its victims and stays there for 80 days.
Back in 1978 the children’s doctor Helen Caldicott warned humanity that the silence of doctors about the consequences of nuclear technologies and radiation would lead to an increase in cancer and hereditary diseases. In 1982 Ukraine published data of foreign authors proving the dangerous influence of radiation on the health of pregnant women and children, specifically mentioning children with inborn defects born of irradiated parents.
Before the Chornobyl catastrophe, in 1985, academician Valeri Legasov argued that the residual radioactivity after nuclear plant explosions increases with time because of accumulation of long-lived radionuclides. Alice Stuart, an expert on the effects of low levels of radiation, studied the state of health of the employees of the Hanford military plant, and victims of nuclear bombing in Japanese cities, and proved that small doses of radiation over a longer period of time are more of a carcinogenic threat than a one-time equivalent.
Are the restless experts of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) aware of this?………………………………….plutonium-241 will “leave the arena” in a century — it will be replaced by more mobile “long-lived” americium-241. Experts are afraid that this isotope, able to percolate into the ground, will contaminate the subsoil waters and will spread from the worst contaminated zone to clean territories over several thousands of years.
Espionage and the ‘Nuclear Renaissance’
Espionage and the ‘Nuclear Renaissance’ The New York Times April 28, 2009,By James Kanter Accusations of spying and corporate hacking are swirling in Europe’s nuclear industry. – “………………
French judges last month opened an investigation into allegations that the power company’s executives may have been involved in espionage — including breaking into computer systems at Greenpeace offices.
Another dimension to the affair could involve Britain, where Greenpeace is concerned that spying activities also took place.
E.D.F. has suspended two staff members from their duties while the French inquiry continues………………………….The allegations of espionage are important for the future of nuclear power because they do little to help generate trust in major operators like E.D.F., which are seeking to rebuild an industry plagued by giant cost overruns and the legacies of nuclear accidents at Three Mile Island and Chernobyl.
Espionage and the ‘Nuclear Renaissance’ – Green Inc. Blog – NYTimes.com
Fears over safety after nuclear waste leaks into Clyde revealed
News Scotsman.com 28 April 2009
By David Maddox
CONCERNS have been raised about safety at Faslane after it was revealed nuclear waste has leaked into the Clyde.
The Scottish Environmental Protection Agency (Sepa) has said that if Faslane was a civilian installation it would consider closing it down.
The worst breaches included leaks of radioactive coolants from nuclear subs in 2004, 2007 and 2008, according to documents acquired under freedom of information requests by Channel 4………. http://news.scotsman.com/scotland/Fears-over-safety-after-nuclear.5210867.jp
Israel stands ready to bomb Iran’s nuclear sites
Israel stands ready to bomb Iran’s nuclear sites
TimesOnLine The Israeli military is preparing itself to launch a massive aerial assault on Iran’s nuclear facilities within days of being given the go-ahead by its new government…………………. An Israeli attack on Iran would entail flying over Jordanian and Iraqi airspace, where US forces have a strong presence.
Ephraim Kam, the deputy director of the Institute for National Security Studies, said it was unlikely that the Americans would approve an attack.
“The American defence establishment is unsure that the operation will be successful. And the results of the operation would only delay Iran’s programme by two to four years,” he said.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/middle_east/article6115903.ece
Anger at plans for nuclear power station to replace wind farm
Anger at plans for nuclear power station to replace wind farm
The Guardian Terry Macalister 28 April 2009 • Threatened site is one of the most efficient
• Proposed atomic plant backed by government One of the oldest and most efficient wind farms in Britain is to be dismantled and replaced by a nuclear power station under plans drawn up by the German-owned power group RWE.
The site at Kirksanton in Cumbria – home to the Haverigg turbines – has just been approved by the government for potential atomic newbuild in a move that has infuriated the wind power industry.
Colin Palmer, founder of the Windcluster company, which owns part of the Haverigg wind farm, said he was horrified that such a plan could be considered at a time when Britain risks missing its green energy targets and after reassurance from ministers that nuclear and renewables were not incompatible.
…………………….. The British Wind Energy Association said the enormous speed with which nuclear plants appeared to be moving through the planning process – responsible for part of the anger around Haverigg – compared dramatically with all the problems being faced by dozens of windfarms. “We need a level playing field for all types of generation when it comes to planning regulation and government support,” said the association. http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/apr/28/haverigg-turbines-nuclear-power-plant
Radiation from 1960s nuclear tests are still hurting my family – Times Online
Radiation from 1960s nuclear tests are still hurting my family THE TIMES April 27 2009 The Government is to hold an inquiry that may finally lead to compensation for British servicemen exposed to radiation during nuclear testing in the 1950s and 60s. ……………………………………………………
Within a few years many of the men had developed cancers and the rate of miscarriages among their partners grew to alarming levels. Evidence is now growing of damage having been caused to their DNA, damage which may have resulted in gene mutations that caused illnesses and congenital deformities among their children.
In research conducted by the independent environmental consultants Green Audit in 2007, the rate of congenital deformities among nuclear test veterans’ children was almost ten times higher than that of an average control group. Among veterans’ partners, the rate of miscarriage was three times the average……………………
“These men have been treated extremely shabbily,” says Gibson. “Successive governments have been dodging their responsibilities while families have been suffering. The MoD’s denial of a link between nuclear tests and ill health looks increasingly shaky now that children and grandchildren of veterans are experiencing congenital disease and early death.” Gibson and Baron’s efforts led to last week’s announcement of Government-backed research.
Only a small number of people have seen the mushroom cloud from an atomic explosion close up. Most of them are dead. Those who survive endure not only their own awful ailments but must, in many cases, wince and weep while their children and now grandchildren suffer before their eyes.
Radiation from 1960s nuclear tests are still hurting my family – Times Online
Riot policemen against participants of “Chernobyl Way” in Minsk (Photo, video) – Charter’97 :: News from Belarus – Belarusian News – Republic of Belarus – Minsk
Riot policemen against participants of “Chernobyl Way” in Minsk
Charter 97 27 April 09 The spot near the Academy of Sciences was a sanctioned assembly point for participants. At the noon about a thousand and a half protesters gathered there. Protesters raised white-red-white flags, unfurled streamers “We oppose nuclear power station construction in Belarus”, “No to new Chernobyl”, “Return us our welfare benefits”, “No to chemical Chernobyl”, “No to toxic chemicals plant near Minsk”, “We are against nuclear reactor”. Dozens of white-red-white flags and flags of the European Union were fluttering………………..
………….an associate of the Academy of Sciences Ivan Nikitchanka called upon the regime not to hush up the aftermaths of the Chernobyl catastrophe at the state level, to return welfare benefits to people affected by the disaster and cleanup veterans, and not to construct the atomic power station in Belarus…………….
…………Viktar Ivashkevich called upon demonstrators remain unprovoked by secret services: “You see that authorities have sent riot policemen against a peaceful rally,” he addressed the participants. “I call upon you not to be drawn and walk along the official route Surhanau- Khmelnitski- Karastayanava- the Chernobyl Chapel.”
Nuclear issues can’t be ignored
Nuclear issues can’t be ignored
Times Argus Robert Lincoln April 26, 2009 A recent opinion perpetuated the myth about nuclear waste reprocessing. Few countries in Europe and Asia have such programs because these have been financially and environmentally catastrophic.
The Bush administration began the new push for a Global Nuclear Energy Partnership. In 1979, a United States naval nuclear engineer and future President Jimmy Carter ended this dangerous program.
Reprocessing spent nuclear fuel was supposed to be one alternative to lots and lots of mining forever and forever. The biggest experiment in reprocessing was at Sellafield in Britain. In 2005, after decades of contamination and leaks and general spewing of horrible matter into the ocean, air, and land around the reprocessing plant, Sellafield was shut down because a bigger-than-usual leak of fuel dissolved in nitric acid — some tens of thousands of gallons-was discovered. It contained enough plutonium to make about 20 nuclear bombs.
A nuclear dump site just six miles from the famous Champagne vineyards in France is leaking radioactive waste into the groundwater. According to the French nuclear safety authority, the “wall of a storage cell fissured” while concrete was being added to a recent layer of nuclear waste. It showed levels of radioactivity leaking from another dump site run by the same company in Normandy — at up to 90 times above European safety limits. That waste has seeped into underground water used by farmers, with contamination spreading into the countryside and threatening dairy production. The Champagne site will receive a total of 4,000 terabequerels of tritium — more than three times the amount of tritium waste as the dumpsite in Normandy………..………….Reprocessing will not solve our country’s nuclear waste problem because it will make more waste streams that must be managed and cannot eliminate the need for a geologic repository. The United States has not cleaned up the mess from past reprocessing. The only private commercial reprocessing facility in the United States, West Valley in New York, resulted in radioactive waste that is still threatening the Great Lakes watershed more than 30 years later and will cost $5.2 billion to clean up.
U.S. taxpayers are also on the hook for more than $100 billion to clean up the reprocessing waste at the U.S. nuclear weapons sites that reprocessed to get plutonium for nuclear weapons, as well as reprocessed naval fuel. Let’s all think about our children for once.
Rutland
Chernobyl fallout continues | The Courier-Mail
Chernobyl fallout continues
April 26, 2009 12:00am
THE charity flights arrive at London’s Gatwick Airport twice a week. On board are sick, disadvantaged or dying children from areas affected by the Chernobyl disaster.
More than two decades after the world’s worst nuclear accident, thousands of youngsters are still being brought to the UK each year.
Born up to 15 years after the event, they spend a month recuperating with volunteer families from the Chernobyl Children Life Line………………
………….for charity founder Victor Mizzi, who personally greets almost every flight, there is no question that Chernobyl is an ongoing tragedy.
“The situation is just as bad now with cancer and leukemia as it was in 1986,” claims Mizzi, who has brought more than 46,000 children from affected areas to Britain…………………………
More than 340,000 people were evacuated from the surrounding area over the following years, never to return to their contaminated homes.
Today, the area around Chernobyl remains a wasteland, with habitation banned in a 30km “zone of alienation”.
In the abandoned city of Prypiat, once bustling with a population of 50,000, decaying shells of buildings are all that is left…………
………….Greenpeace, for one, has estimated more than 90,000 people will die from cancer and that other illnesses will send the toll soaring into the hundreds of thousands.
85,000 radioactive baby teeth
85,000 radioactive baby teeth. Now that we have your attention…
Forgotten about for 50 years, an odd stash yields clues about above-ground nuclear tests and cancertHE sTAR.COM Apr 26, 2009 “…………………The fallout came from hundreds of above-ground nuclear tests in America and other parts of the world. The radioactive isotope Strontium-90, one of the by-products of the bombs, spread into the atmosphere, fell onto the land, was ingested by dairy cows and passed into the milk supply. Strontium-90, like calcium, was concentrated in children’s teeth in detectable amounts.
In 1958 scientists in St. Louis began a campaign to collect baby teeth to study the link between above-ground testing and human exposure. The undisputed link between the tests and a radioactive element in baby teeth provided much of the impetus for the 1963 Test Ban Treaty, which outlawed above-ground nuclear weapons-testing.
The rediscovery of the 85,000 samples, about a quarter of the total collected, has spurred a new effort to study the link between early childhood exposure and health problems in later life.
There is already evidence that 1950s children in St. Louis grew into adults with a higher-than-average rate of cancer. Now researchers at the Radiation and Public Health Project, based in Brooklyn, are attempting to find more than 6,000 of the teeth donors to track their health problems or, in some cases, their premature deaths.
The link between radioactive fallout and subsequent health problems is an international issue.
Earthlife ridicules nuclear power generation plans
Earthlife ridicules nuclear power generation plans
Namibia Economist 24 April 2009 11:34Propagators of the myth that nuclear power being safe, clean and climate friendly are misleading Namibians, according to Bertchen Kohrs of Earthlife Namibia.Few people are properly informed about the real dangers of the nuclear industry, she added.Earthlife Namibia has repeated its concern over the possibility that government might opt for nuclear power generation in Namibia.Kohrs said instead of opting for a nuclear power plant or coal-fired plant, the country could play a leading role in the development of renewable energy in Africa.“This kind of clean energy production would put Namibia on the world map attracting energy experts and tourists alike. Namibia would receive carbon credits when opting for carbon-free power generation. This money could be used to subsidize power from renewable sources,” said Kohrs.
She also pointed out that Namibia does not have specialists who can run a nuclear power plant and that the country will make itself dependent on foreign experts, whereas there are people who are capable of maintaining a solar or wind power plant.
Another disadvantage such a nuclear power plant would pose for Namibia is the high level of waste as there is no solution for safe storage……………….………Earthlife and the Labour Research and Resource Institute (LaRRI) are working together on an ongoing awareness campaign, which aims to inform the public of the dangers of a nuclear power plant.
As part of this campaign, Earthlife produced a booklet “Uranium – Blessing or Curse” informing about general issues regarding the uranium industry, while LARRI published a booklet ‘Uranium Mining in Namibia: The mystery behind ‘low level radiation’, which focuses on the impacts of uranium on mine workers’ health
1 This Month
26 April – Chernobyl: Inside the Meltdown airs on National Geographic on Sunday 26th April from 4pm
29 April – Nuclear Expert Webinar #1 – Radiation Impacts on Families with Mary Olson and Cindy Folkers
- 12:15 PM MT – 1:45 PM MT
- Location: Virtual – REGISTER TODAY
4 May -West Suburban Peace Coalition to discuss Iran war at May Educational Forum
Monday, May 4, 7:00 – 8:00 PM Central Standard Time
Title: : How Trump’s Narrative Tries to Shape the Reality of the War on Iran.
Contact Walt Zlotow, zlotow@hotmail.com 630 442 3045 for further information
14 May – online event From Bombs to Data Centres: the Face of Nuclear Colonialism
Pine Ridge Uranium is the real threat, not Tehran- Tell Burgum: Stop the Extraction.
Chernobyl: The Lost Tapes – A good documentary on Chernobyl on SBS available On Demand for the next 3 weeks– https://www.sbs.com.au/ondemand/tv-program/chernobyl-the-lost-tapes/2352741955560
To see nuclear-related stories in greater depth and intensity – go to https://nuclearinformation.wordpress.com
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