Nuclear-waste dumping site also poisonous
Nuclear-waste dumping site also poisonous
BERLIN, April 16 (UPI) — A leaking nuclear-waste storage site in Germany is also contaminated with several toxic substances.
The problematic site in the Asse mountain range in northern Germany has been abused for several years by companies eager to get rid of toxic substances, including mercury, lead alloy and arsenic, German news magazine Stern reports………………………
Asse was meant to be a place for temporary storage and research but was instead used by companies for careless dumping of waste never intended to see the light of day again.
The cleanup of Asse is estimated to cost at least $2.5 billion.
Volunteers protest nuclear power use
Volunteers protest nuclear power use Thu, April 16, 2009
The London Free Press (Ontario) By NATASHA MARAR, SPECIAL TO SUN MEDIAcheckCookie();
Greenpeace members wore masks of a character from The Simpsons TV show in a protest yesterday in London against nuclear power.
The demonstration was held in front of the Hilton hotel, where public hearings into the province’s proposed Green Energy Act were taking place.
Protesters wore plastic masks depicting Simpsons character Mr. Burns, a nuclear plant owner.
“Our main problem with the act is that it’s a lot of greenwashing,” Greenpeace volunteer David Major said.
“It’s presented as a green energy act, but it focuses a lot on nuclear.”
London Free Press – Local News- Volunteers protest nuclear power use
Nuke security lacking
Nuke security lacking – The Great Beyond by April 16, 2009 Another day, another security lapse at one of the Department of Energy’s nuclear weapons labs.The Government Accountability Office is reporting yet again that there are security lapses in the complex, this time at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California, near San Francisco.LLNL is one of three DOE national labs that designs, handles and stores nuclear weapons. It also maintains stores of plutonium and enriched uranium.Investigators found 13 specific deficiencies in the security force employed to counteract a terrorist attack……………….
UK Government Obsession With Nuclear Power Costly for the Country
UK Government Obsession With Nuclear Power Costly for the Country Earth Times 15 Apr 2009 “……………………….- The problematic history of nuclear power in the United Kingdom (UK) suggests that a stronger focus on sustainable energy alternatives is a better and more cost-effective option. This is a conclusion of a report released today by The Centre for International Governance Innovation (CIGI). The British Nuclear Industry: Status and Prospects provides a detailed analysis of the current state of the nuclear power industry in the UK, including its energy strategy and the government’s plans for possible new nuclear capacity. While the political momentum in support of nuclear options continues to grow, the study’s findings show that the government’s strategy is once again thwarting technologies that might prove cheaper and more reliable…………………….notes the author, “The option of building a new series of nuclear power stations is controversial and highly contested,” citing several reports that show there is no need to build new nuclear stations in the UK. The reports argue that a combination of renewable energy, greater energy efficiencies and other technologies can fill the gap as the old nuclear plants become redundant.
UK Government Obsession With Nuclear Power Costly for the Country
Minister provokes nuclear war over Scotland’s energy future
Minister provokes nuclear war over Scotland’s energy future scotsman.com 16 April 2009By Jenny Haworth THE UK government was accused last night of trying to frustrate Scotland’s push for renewable energy by bullying the SNP into accepting new nuclear power stations……………………………..The SNP administration has consistently ruled out any new nuclear power stations in Scotland after the closure of the existing two plants – Hunterston and Torness in East Lothian. Instead, it intends to focus on renewables…………………….Mr Mather was quick to emphasise yesterday that he was focusing on renewable sources of energy rather than nuclear power.
“Scotland simply doesn’t want or need dangerous and unnecessary new nuclear power stations, with soaring decommissioning costs and the unresolved problem of storage of radioactive waste that burdens future generations for thousands of years,” he said.
“Every pound invested in new nuclear power in other parts of the UK is a pound less on developing renewable and clean energy technology.”
He added that the SNP administration was focusing on developing Scotland’s “real strengths” – harnessing the country’s vast renewable energy potential.
“With around a quarter of Europe’s wave and tidal energy potential, as well as massive wind power opportunities, there are fantastic economic and employment opportunities, and the Scottish Government recently announced plans to create 16,000 green energy-related jobs in Scotland over the next decade,” Mr Mather said.
“Renewable technologies, including wind, water, biomass, wave and tidal, backed up by clean thermal base-load, can meet our energy needs many times over.”
Minister provokes nuclear war over Scotland’s energy future – Scotsman.com News
Irish environmental groups criticise British nuclear plant proposal
Irish environmental groups criticise British nuclear plant proposal IRISHTIMES.COM MARY FITZGERALD, April 16, 2009
PLANS BY the British government to press ahead with a new generation of nuclear power stations, including two proposed sites near Sellafield, have been criticised by Irish environmental groups and anti-nuclear campaigners……………………….
Dr David Hutchinson Edgar, chairman of the Irish Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND), said the plans were a cause for concern. “These concerns are heightened by the fact that five of the sites are on or near the Irish Sea coast, and three are in Cumbria, where Sellafield’s poor record on safety and discharges into the Irish Sea are well-known,” he said.
“In the event of either an accident at a nuclear site, or a deliberate terrorist attack, Ireland . . . could not escape the impact of the fallout . . . Billions invested in prolonging the use of nuclear power could well yield better long-term results through investment in genuinely sustainable and renewable energy sources, such as wind, wave, hydro and biomass.”
WMICentral – Payments available to those exposed to radiation
Payments available to those exposed to radiation wmicentral.com 14 April 09 Congress passed the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act providing for compassionate payments to individuals who contracted certain cancers and other serious diseases as a result of their exposure to radiation released during above-ground nuclear weapons tests or as a result of their exposure to radiation during employment in underground uranium mines…………………………. Northern Arizona RESEP (Radiation Exposure Screening and Education Program) through North Country HealthCare is set up to provide education to the public concerning the effects of nuclear radiation due to nuclear fallout or nuclear materials such as uranium…………………………..For those who lived in the following counties: Coconino, Yavapai, Apache, Navajo, Gila and Mohave (north of the Grand Canyon) between 1951-1958 and July 1962, employed as a uranium worker beginning Jan. 1, 1942, ending Dec. 31, 1971 or worked as an on-site participant may qualify for federal compensation from $50,000 to $100,000. If you fit any areas listed above, you may have been exposed to radiation and should be screened for cancer and other serious problems that can develop years after exposure.
The RESEP program provides a no cost medical screenings and/or guidance in applying for federal compensation; one may also file on behalf deceased relative who may have been affected.
Learn more by visiting the following Web sites:
* North County HealthCare RESEP Program – http://www.northcountrychc.org/services/outreach/resep.asp
* Department of Justice RESEP Program – http://www.usdoj.gov/civil/torts/const/reca/index.htm
* HRSA (Health Resources and Services Administration) RESEP –http://www.ruralhealth.hrsa.gov/radiationexposure/
For additional information, contact Tobi Flanagan at (928) 522-2466 and Cornelia Todecozy at (928) 774-6299.
WMICentral – Payments available to those exposed to radiation
Pirates, Bankers, Libertarians
Getting a Grip Pirates, Bankers, Libertarians ARTVOICE by Michael I. Niman 16 April 09 – “………………..Somalia, a country that hasn’t had an operating central government since 1991, is a libertarian Republican’s wet dream, where entrepreneurs can grow their businesses unfettered by laws and regulations. Out of this brave new old world of unbridled capitalism, 21st-century Blackbeards have emerged, shoeless gangstas doing it Somali style on the high seas,…………………….There’s a reason why the Maersk Alabama was the first American ship seized by pirates in two centuries. Ninety percent of internationally traded goods are transported on approximately 50,000 freighters and tankers, but putting aside domestic and Great Lakes shipping, only about 200 of these ships are registered to the United States and staffed by Americans. Today’s ships are registered under “flags of convenience,” exempting their multinational corporate owners from taxes and environmental and labor regulation……………
………………..When Somalia’s government fell in 1991, making Somalia a free-market free-for-all, it opened the door for all sorts of exploitation on the lawless coast……………………..a new type of European pirate followed in their wake—this time using the Somali coast as a toxic and radioactive waste dump. The Independent quotes the United Nations envoy to Somalia as reporting not only that “Somebody is dumping nuclear waste here,” but “there is also lead, and heavy metals such as cadmium and mercury” showing up in Somalia’s coastal waters. In 2005, more than 300 coastal residents died from radiation sickness after leaking barrels of radioactive waste started washing ashore. Much of the toxic waste found on the Somali coast is traceable to European hospitals and industrial facilities.
Toxic waste, including nuclear, behind Somali piracy
Toxic waste behind Somali piracy
Axis of Logic By Najad Abdullahi
Al Jazeera
Monday, Apr 13, 2009 Somali pirates have accused European firms of dumping toxic waste off the Somali coast and are demanding an $8m ransom for the return of a Ukranian ship they captured, saying the money will go towards cleaning up the waste.
The ransom demand is a means of “reacting to the toxic waste that has been continually dumped on the shores of our country for nearly 20 years”, Januna Ali Jama, a spokesman for the pirates, based in the semi-autonomous region of Puntland, said.
“The Somali coastline has been destroyed, and we believe this money is nothing compared to the devastation that we have seen on the seas.”
The pirates are holding the MV Faina, a Ukrainian ship carrying tanks and military hardware, off Somalia’s northern coast………………
………….Ahmedou Ould-Abdallah, the UN envoy for Somalia confirmed to Al Jazeera the world body has “reliable information” that European and Asian companies are dumping toxic waste, including nuclear waste, off the Somali coastline……………
………Mustafa Tolba, the former UNEP executive director, told Al Jazeera that he discovered the firms were set up as fictitious companies by larger industrial firms to dispose of hazardous waste.
“At the time, it felt like we were dealing with the Mafia, or some sort of organised crime group, possibly working with these industrial firms,” he said. “It was very shady, and quite underground, and I would agree with Ould-Abdallah’s claims that it is still going on… Unfortunately the war has not allowed environmental groups to investigate this fully.”
The Italian mafia controls an estimated 30 per cent of Italy’s waste disposal companies, including those that deal with toxic waste……………
………………Mohammed Gure, chairman of the Somalia Concern Group, said that the social and environmental consequences will be felt for decades.
“The Somali coastline used to sustain hundreds of thousands of people, as a source of food and livelihoods. Now much of it is almost destroyed, primarily at the hands of these so-called ministers that have sold their nation to fill their own pockets.”
Ould-Abdallah said piracy will not prevent waste dumping. “The intentions of these pirates are not concerned with protecting their environment,” he said. “What is ultimately needed is a functioning, effective government that will get its act together and take control of its affairs.”
Nuclear plant data falsified
N-plant pipe data falsified
The Yomiuri Shimbun 14 April 09 Hitachi Ltd. and Hitachi-GE Nuclear Energy Ltd. announced Monday that they had found falsified data in the inspection records of components they manufactured for use in nuclear power plants.
The falsified data related to the welding of pipes to moisture separator reheaters manufactured by the companies for use in the No. 5 reactor of Chubu Electric Power Co.’s Hamaoka nuclear power plant in Omaezaki, Shizuoka Prefecture, and the No. 3 reactor of Chugoku Electric Power Co.’s Shimane nuclear power plant, which is under construction, in Matsue. .
Fire breaks out at Nuclear plant
Fire breaks out at N-plant
NIIGATA–A fire broke out Saturday night at the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear power plant operated by Tokyo Electric Power Co. in Kashiwazaki and Kariwamura, Niigata Prefecture, scorching the motor of an air conditioner. No radiation leaks or injuries were reported.
According to TEPCO, the fire broke out at about 10:25 p.m. at a storage space. Wiring connected to the motor burned out, and its steel cover was scorched.
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Though the machine has been in use since May 1992, its wiring was not periodically inspected.
The nuclear plant was struck by the Niigata Prefecture Chuetsu Offshore Earthquake in July 2007, and all its seven reactors were shut down. Since the earthquake, there have been nine fires at the plant, including the latest one.
………………….Kashiwazaki Mayor Hiroshi Aida on Monday summoned Akio Takahashi, the head of the power plant, to a meeting at which he demanded that the plant come up with preventive measures. Aida told Takahashi that he was concerned about the fact that a fire had broken out at a time when concerned municipalities are considering whether to approve the restart of the No. 7 reactor.
Pro nukes would prefer nicer name for depleted uranium’s risk
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Nuclear Test Downwinders
RECA, clinic help Nuclear Test Downwinders
“…………………..From 1951 to 1958 and for the month of July 1962, an estimated 22,000 people living in Southern Utah, northern Arizona and southeastern Nevada received a large amount of fallout from above-ground nuclear testing conducted at the Nevada Test Site.
These Downwinders, as they have come to be known, show abnormally high rates of malignant and non-malignant thyroid disease and leukemia and over the last decade have shown a higher then expected incidence of lymphoma, breast and thyroid cancers, according to the Utah Cancer Registry……………
Superfund priority cleanup site. The UC: America’s Most Ecocidal “Green” University
Superfund priority cleanup site. The UC: America’s Most Ecocidal “Green” University,
Part II by WIll & Darwin Sunday Apr 12th, 2009
“……………………………………………The military exists in a constant state of mobilization and preparation for warfare, a process that increasingly involves experimentation with toxic pollutants, dumping of hazardous wastes, and militarization of previously thriving ecosystems. The US military is responsible for over one-third of the US’ toxic waste, more than that generated by the top five pollution corporations housed in the US combined. The pollutants it has introduced into the total environment – with consequences that remain relatively unknown and unpredictable — have included pesticides and defoliants like Agent Orange, solvents, petroleum, perchlorate (a component of rocket fuel), lead, mercury, and of course depleted uranium. Within the U.S., one out of every ten Americans lives within ten miles of a military site that has been listed as a Superfund priority cleanup site.
………………………………..It is here that we come to another particularly important point: Most humans targeted by military production’s “Universal Soldier” — pollution — are working class and impoverished people of color and, even more disproportionately, indigenous people. Thus, the military’s environmental wreckage is out of sight, out of mind for the most privileged of our planet, such as the vast majority of mainstream US environmental activists, especially students and graduates of elite universities…………
……….The primary source of environmental degradation in Iraq, however, is of course depleted uranium — a bi-product of the same radioactive processes that have created the vast “national sacrifice areas” and “clans of one-breasted women” in the United States, Russia, and elsewhere.
Somalian pirates and radioactive wastes
Why We Don’t Condemn Our Pirates
by K’naan THE HUFFINGTON POST 12 April 09 “………………… in Somalia, the answer is: it’s complicated. The news media these days has been covering piracy in the Somali coast with such
lop-sided journalism, that it’s lucky they’re not on a ship themselves………
….Here is why we Somalis find ourselves slightly shy of condemning our pirates. Somalia has been without any form of a functioning government since 1991………….
…………. a more sinister, a more patronizing practice was being put in motion. A Swiss firm called Achair Parterns, and an Italian waste company called Achair Parterns, made a deal with Ali Mahdi, that they were to dump containers of waste material in Somali waters. These European companies were said to be paying Warlords about $3 a ton, whereas to properly dispose of waste in Europe costs about $1000 a ton.
In 2004, after a tsunami washed ashore several leaking containers, thousand of locals in the Puntland region of Somalia started to complain of severe and previously unreported ailments, such as abdominal bleeding, skin melting off and a lot of immediate cancer-like symptoms. Nick Nuttall, a spokesman for the United Nations Environmental Program, says that the containers had many different kinds of waste, including “Uranium, radioactive waste,……..
….The UN envoy for Somalia, Ahmedou Ould-Abdallah, says that the practice still continues to this day. ……….
……..our pirates were the only deterrent we had from an externally imposed environmental disaster. No one can say for sure that some of the ships they are now holding for ransom were not involved in illegal activity in our waters. The truth is, if you ask any Somali, if getting rid of the pirates only means the continuous rape of our coast by unmonitored Western Vessels, and the producing of a new cancerous generation, we would all fly our pirate flags high……….
………..We do not want the EU and NATO serving as a shield for these nuclear waste-dumping hoodlums. It seems to me that this new modern crisis is truly a question of justice, but also a question of whose justice.
As is apparent these days, one man’s pirate is another man’s coast guard.
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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