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Nuclear salesmen a jump ahead of the public and politicians

Christina Macpherson's websites & blogs

19 April 2010, Now, AREVA and others have convinced the world’s political leaders that their gee-whiz (though only planned, and untested), nuclear systems to re-use old nuclear fuel, are the answer to nuclear terrorism

How many ordinary people understand the words in nuclear technology?

How easily are we ordinary mortals told that it’s all too complex for us to understand. We should trust “the nuclear experts”, – who, by the way, would be out of a job if this expensive way of boiling water (nuclear technology), were to be abandoned.

Re-using dirty, dangerous old radioactive stuff produces even more dangerous radioactive stuff, which terrorists would, of course, like to get their hands on.

AREVA and the rest of them can call it Recycling, Reprocessing, Fast Breeder, Integral Fast Reactor – any fancy term to confuse us, They’re still just trying to sell us still similar expensive ways to boil liquids

Safest would be to shut down the nuclear industry, clean up as best we can, and call it quits for this 70 year old failed energy experiment

April 19, 2010 Posted by Christina Macpherson | Christina's notes | antinuclear, AREVA, enriched, fast breeder, nuclear, nuclear costs, nuclear spin, nuclear technology, nuclear wastes, radioactive, reactors, recycling, reprocessing, uranium | Leave a comment

Taxpayer will be left with costs of nuclear decommissioning and wastes

The taxpayer will be left to pick up the bills. The very nature of private companies is that they make a profit when they can … but when they can’t they can be wound up, leaving others to pick up the pieces….

Nuclear fall out, Syniadau , 17 April 2010, “……The major issue is not the cost of building the stations (although that is of course an issue, although it would be one for the companies concerned) but the cost of cleaning up the waste they produce and of decommissioning the site when it has come to the end of its productive life. These costs are much, much greater than the cost of construction.

In principle, the government’s idea is that the power companies would set aside money each year so as to pay the costs of decommissioning and clean up. The fundamental flaw in that approach is that a private company can either go bust or refuse to honour its contract commitments at any time, in much the same way as happened when National Express walked away from the East Coast rail franchise last year. The taxpayer will be left to pick up the bills. The very nature of private companies is that they make a profit when they can … but when they can’t they can be wound up, leaving others to pick up the pieces….
Syniadau :: The Blog: Nuclear fall out

April 19, 2010 Posted by Christina Macpherson | business and costs, UK | antinuclear, decommissioning, nuclear, nuclear costs, nuclear renaissance, nuclear wastes, radiation, radioactive, reactors, recycling, reprocessing, uranium | Leave a comment

The Integral Fast Reactor – no more than a a Nuclear Pipe Dream

Nuclear power: no solution to climate change, Green Left , quoting Mark Diesendorf, 17 April 2010“……….The integral fast reactor [which promises to use existing stockpiles of nuclear waste to make carbon-free energy,] doesn’t exist — it is the archetypal ink-moderated paper reactor. It’s true that a tiny physical version of this concept, called Experimental Breeder Reactor-2, once operated in the US. But experimental energy technologies are just that — experiments, designed to test a concept. Continue reading →

April 19, 2010 Posted by Christina Macpherson | 2 WORLD, technology | antinuclear, fast breeder, nuclear, nuclear costs, nuclear secrecy, nuclear spin, nuclear technology, nuclear wastes, nuclear weapons, plutonium, reactors, recycling, reprocessing, uranium | Leave a comment

Video: depleted uranium’s effects in the Balkans

VIDEO
A Most Persistent War Crime: Depleted Uranium and the Balkans Eleven Years After The Balkans Bombings:Depleted Uranium in NATO Bombs Remains Deadly by Ljubica Vujadinovic, 18 Aprol 2010, A leading Serbian expert in the field says the NATO’s use of depleted uranium ammunition in it’s aggression on Serbia has caused enormous increase in cancer rates and number of newborn with malformations. Continue reading →

April 19, 2010 Posted by Christina Macpherson | depleted uranium, EUROPE | antinuclear, depleted, nuclear, nuclear costs, nuclear secrecy, nuclear spin, nuclear wastes, nuclear weapons, radiation, reactors, uranium | Leave a comment

Wales finding ways to resist UK nuclear power plants

Nuclear fall out, Syniadau , 17 April 2010, “…….we have three parties in the Assembly who are opposed to nuclear power in Wales, about two-thirds of voters altogether. Yet if you vote for Labour you will get what their leaders in Westminster want in order to meet England’s energy needs … for even Labour acknowledge that Wales can produce twice the electricity we need from renewables. Continue reading →

April 19, 2010 Posted by Christina Macpherson | politics, UK | antinuclear, nuclear, nuclear costs, nuclear spin, nuclear technology, nuclear wastes, reactors, renewable energy, renewables | Leave a comment

France’s nuclear commercial empire spreading to Kuwait

Kuwait, France ink nuclear deal, AMEinfo.com Kuwait: 18 April 2010, Kuwait has signed agreements with France to develop nuclear energy for peaceful purposes, Reuters has reported. The agreements centre on developing nuclear energy to provide electricity and water desalination, the two countries said in a joint statement. Kuwait, France ink nuclear deal | Energy, Oil and Gas | AMEinfo.com

April 19, 2010 Posted by Christina Macpherson | business and costs, MIDDLE EAST | antinuclear, AREVA, France, nuclear costs, nuclear spin, peaceful | Leave a comment

UK should not spend 120 billion pounds on Trident nuclear missiles, says Nick Clegg

Nick Clegg 18 April 2010, “Why is it that I find myself as the only leader of a political party asking the obvious question of whether we, as a country, should be spending 120 billion pounds over the next 20 years on the like for like replacement of the Cold War Trident Missile System? I think there is no case for a nuclear deterrent. I certainly think there is no case for the like for like replacement for that system. I believe one of the reasons there is a deafening silence on that issue is because that missile system is cemented by a sense of indebtedness to our American friends.”

April 19, 2010 Posted by Christina Macpherson | politics, UK | antinuclear, nuclear costs, nuclear spin, nuclear weapons | Leave a comment

Nuclear power just too slow to help address climate change

Nuclear power is a particularly slow technology to grow. It is neither a short-term nor medium-term solution to the climate crisis.

Nuclear power: no solution to climate change, Green Left , quoting Mark Diesendorf, 17 April 2010 “……Nuclear power stations, whether conventional plant or hypothetical integral fast reactors, are inherently slow to build, because they are gigantic construction projects.
On the other hand, most renewable energy systems are fast to build, because their components can be manufactured in factories. Continue reading →

April 19, 2010 Posted by Christina Macpherson | AUSTRALIA, climate change | antinuclear, AUSTRALIA, climate change, nuclear costs, nuclear technology, renewable energy, renewables | Leave a comment

Nuclear industry jumps on the Nuclear Security bandwagon

The big pitch to get “nuclear security” (now there’s another oxymoron) is being taken up by the nuclear lobby, with fervour. Let’s get new gee-whiz reactors that can use the old nuclear weapons fuel!

The world still ends up with even more toxic waste from these reactors. And the transport of the enriched uranium and plutonium? Still plenty of scope there for somebody to get hold of it and make a bomb. Even a “dirty bomb” will do. – our theme for April – Nuclear Power and Peace

April 17, 2010 Posted by Christina Macpherson | Christina's notes | antinuclear, nuclear, nuclear costs, nuclear renaissance, nuclear technology, nuclear weapons, radioactive | Leave a comment

New York city start for the anti-nuclear renaissance

It’s also the anti-nuclear movement’s opportunity to excite the American people with a vision of what a world free of nuclear weapons looks like and how to get from here to there..

The New Anti-Nuclear Movement, THE HUFFINGTON POST, Frida Berrigan:, 16 April 2010, “………NPT FocusAt the end of April, people will be coming to New York City from all over the world to participate in and monitor the UN Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) Review Conference. They will gather at the “For a Nuclear Free, Peaceful, Just and Sustainable World” conference at Riverside Church in Manhattan on April 30 and May 1. Continue reading →

April 17, 2010 Posted by Christina Macpherson | politics international, USA | antinuclear, energy efficiency, nuclear, nuclear costs, nuclear renaissance, nuclear weapons, renewable energy, renewables, solar, uranium, wind | Leave a comment

USA’s Nuclear Regulatory Commission ‘in bed with nuclear industry’

Over the years, it has become apparent that the NRC is clearlyIN-BED with the nuclear industry in the push to certify the old nuclear plants for an additional 20-years of operation. The NRC is clearly engaged in a great nuclear experiment with public health and safety hanging in the balance

NRC Wants to Dig Another $10-Billion Dollar Hole in the Ground for Nuclear Waste | Before It’s News , 17 April 2010, “………..The NRC along with the nuclear industry are desperately seeking a quick solution to this dilemma because the government continues to authorize licenses for the construction of more nuclear power plants in the USA. Continue reading →

April 17, 2010 Posted by Christina Macpherson | secrets,lies and civil liberties, USA | antinuclear, nuclear, nuclear costs, nuclear renaissance, nuclear secrecy, nuclear spin, nuclear technology, radiation, radioactive, reactors, renewable energy, renewables, solar, uranium, wind | Leave a comment

Areva and other uranium miners confronted by Niger’s new government

Niger government says will scrap mine deals if no benefit Apr 16, 2010 By Abdoulaye Massalatchi NIAMEY (Reuters) – Niger’s military rulers will examine the country’s mining contracts and invalidate those that do not benefit Niger, it said on Friday.Several contracts, including those with French nuclear energy group Areva and China National Petroleum Corp., were signed under President Mamadou Tandja, who was overthrown by soldiers in the northwest African nation in February.”If a signed convention in the extractive industry is not advantageous for our country, there is no question of accepting it,” said government spokesman Mahaman Laouali Dan Dah.The military group has made anti-corruption a cornerstone of its appeal in the country, one of the world’s poorest despite its uranium mines and oil deposits….

Earlier this month, the government sacked 20 top officials working for state-owned companies, including those involved in representing the country’s uranium and oil interests.

Niger government says will scrap mine deals if no benefit | Top News | Reuters

April 17, 2010 Posted by Christina Macpherson | Niger, politics | antinuclear, AREVA, indigenous, nuclear, nuclear costs, nuclear wastes, radioactive, reactors, uranium | Leave a comment

Recycling nuclear fuel, dangerous and dirty

Christina Macpherson's websites & blogs

by Christina Macpherson 15 April 2010, It all sounded so good – removing stockpiles of Highly Enriched Uranium (HEU) and plutonium from international sites, and using them to provide fuel for nuclear reactors in USA and Russia.

And one part is good. This program would end the dirty, dangerous, uranium mining industry.

However, nobody’s talked about :

1. the dangers of transporting this stuff, – risk of accident, as in the movement of HEU from Chile, theft, terrorist attack

2. what to do with the final resulting highly radioactive waste from this process of recycling . It all still ends up with even more toxic, dangerous nuclear wastes. Still a risk of theft. still a target for terrorists, still extremely long-lasting wastes, and no-one has found a way to safely dispose of nuclear wastes.

April 15, 2010 Posted by Christina Macpherson | Christina's notes, spinbuster | antinuclear, enriched, fast breeder, nuclear, nuclear costs, nuclear renaissance, nuclear spin, nuclear weapons, radiation, radioactive, reactors, uranium | Leave a comment

Nuclear Summit kept quiet about dangers of recycling nuclear fuel

Recycling fuel should end: Evans, Sydney Morning Herald, April 15, 2010, WASHINGTON: A former Australian foreign minister, Gareth Evans, was at the centre of a dispute over reactor suppliers recycling nuclear fuel even as US officials sought to skirt the issue during a summit in Washington organised by the President, Barack Obama.

Mr Evans is co-chairman of the Australian government’s international non-proliferation and disarmament commission. On Monday, at a conference of experts which is being held in parallel with Mr Obama’s nuclear security summit, he called for an end to fuel recycling.Mr Evans and a former US ambassador-at-large, Robert Gallucci, said recycling created stockpiles of dangerous materials ripe for theft………
The issue was not among those central to the Obama summit. Administration officials said last week they had deliberately avoided some of the more contentious issues that would not have won support from all participants. Gareth Evans

April 15, 2010 Posted by Christina Macpherson | 2 WORLD, secrets,lies and civil liberties | antinuclear, AUSTRALIA, enriched, fast breeder, nuclear, nuclear costs, nuclear secrecy, nuclear spin, nuclear technology, nuclear wastes, nuclear weapons, plutonium, radiation, radioactive, reactors, uranium | Leave a comment

Earthquake danger for transporting Highly Enriched Uranium (HEU)

Quake rattles Chilean-U.S. uranium move , SANTIAGO, Chile, April 14 (UPI) — A Chilean-U.S. nuclear waste disposal arrangement was nearly derailed, with dangerous consequences for North and South America, when a magnitude-8.8 earthquake struck Chile Feb. 27, interfering with deliveries of radioactive waste to U.S. processing plants. Continue reading →