nuclear secrecy « nuclear-news

Ionising radiation at Niagara Falls – long buried secret of nuclear wastes

The nuclear age is littered with tragedies of unnecessary contamination of unsuspecting populations because of the pretense by government and the nuclear industry that the very real hazard of low levels of internal exposure is no hazard at all.

Radiation Alert: Niagara Falls , The Palestine Telegraph, June 21, By Paul Zimmerman and Louis Ricciuti, “………..Witnessing all this sunshine activity around you, you remain innocently oblivious to the underlying reality being played out before your eyes on this summer day, 2010, in downtown Niagara Falls, New York. In truth, the scene is shrouded by a pall, both invisible and macabre. For you see, what is being excavated besides decayed roadway are dirty little secrets long buried. The dirt and dust taking flight upon the wind is laced with radioactive waste!……….. Continue reading →

June 22, 2010 Posted by Christina Macpherson | secrets,lies and civil liberties, USA | antinuclear, cancer, nuclear, nuclear secrecy, nuclear spin, nuclear weapons, radiation, radioactive, reactors, uranium | Leave a comment

Push to prevent uranium shipments through New Zealand ports

Trans-shipment of nuclear ore appeared to contravene the principles of the Nuclear Free Zone, Disarmament and Arms Control Act 1987, which bans nuclear weapons and nuclear-powered ships from New Zealand waters.

Moves to stop uranium shipment Herald Sun: AAP * June 21, 2010 NEW Zealand politicians say they are looking for ways to update anti-nuclear legislation in a bid to block uranium shipments from South Australia passing through New Zealand ports. Continue reading →

June 22, 2010 Posted by Christina Macpherson | New Zealand, politics international | antinuclear, AUSTRALIA, nuclear secrecy, uranium | Leave a comment

AREVA supplying parts to attempt to re-start damaged nuclear reactor

FirstEnergy to place lid on Davis-Besse nuclear power plant cleveland.com, June 21, 2010, “………Davis-Besse has been shut down since Feb. 28 for extensive work to repair cracks in the lid that sprouted unexpectedly in critical components. Such cracks can allow radioactive coolant into the reactor’s containment building — or worse.

Federal rules require an immediate shutdown if leaks are detected.The cracks are similar to fissures that opened up in the late 1990s in parts of Davis-Besse’s original lid and led to a pineapple-sized corrosion hole in that lid before it was discovered in 2004 Continue reading →

June 22, 2010 Posted by Christina Macpherson | business and costs, USA | antinuclear, AREVA, nuclear, nuclear costs, nuclear secrecy, nuclear spin, nuclear technology, nuclear wastes, radioactive, reactor, reactors, uranium | Leave a comment

Truth emerging on health ill effects of low levels of ionising radiation

Radiation Alert: Niagara Falls , The Palestine Telegraph, June 21, – By Paul Zimmerman and Louis Ricciuti, “…….In the last half century, numerous incidents have testified to the hazard to health from low levels of internal emitters, radionuclides absorbed from nuclear pollution in the environment which undergo radioactive decay while sequestered within the human body’s interior. In many cases, injury was incurred from levels of exposure significantly below what the radiation protection agencies consider the threshold for radiation-induced illness. Continue reading →

June 22, 2010 Posted by Christina Macpherson | 2 WORLD, health | antinuclear, cancer, nuclear secrecy, nuclear spin, nuclear weapons, radiation, radioactive, uranium | Leave a comment

The Bunker mentality – U.S. nuclear weapons plans

The Obama administration is making generous concessions to the nuclear industry presumably, as alluded to above, to win votes from Republicans….ways to keep the “nuclear-industrial complex” humming along,

Seed of Destruction: Nuclear ‘Pits’, Foreign Policy In Focus , By Russ Wellen, June 21, 2010 “……The nuclear-weapons industry adopted the word “pit” for the weapon’s core, which is power-packed with the varieties of uranium or plutonium isotopes capable of a warp-speed chain reaction. Yes, it’s a seed for the a chain reaction. ……the pit instead serves as a cache for .. a seed of destruction……

A project for their production is pivotal to the Obama administration’s plans for nuclear modernization. In a Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists piece titled Bunker mentality: Is NNSA digging itself into a hole at Los Alamos?, Greg Mello writes that “as part of the New START ratification package, the administration projects $16 billion in new warhead spending over this decade.” Continue reading →

June 22, 2010 Posted by Christina Macpherson | USA, weapons and war | antinuclear, nuclear, nuclear costs, nuclear secrecy, nuclear spin, nuclear weapons, radiation, reactors | Leave a comment

As nuclear waste mass accumulates, so does the COST of it

There is no national disposal spot for the spent fuel, and for 32 states, no place to send their low-level wastes. Around the country, the inventory of low-level wastes with no place to go is growing by about 10,000 cubic feet a year……...as much as $1,625 per cubic foot of waste. Even with waste reduction technologies, the amount of waste per year amounts to thousands of cubic feet…………

Nuclear Dumps Argue Over Diluting Waste for Burial – NYTimes.com, By MATTHEW L. WALD June 17, 2010 Even low-level radioactive waste is a growing problem, with few licensed repositories to dispose of it. The problem dates from the early 1980s, when Congress said that the federal government would take care of high-level waste, like spent fuel from nuclear power plants, but that the states would have to find sites for low-level material, Continue reading →

June 21, 2010 Posted by Christina Macpherson | business and costs, USA | antinuclear, nuclear, nuclear costs, nuclear secrecy, nuclear spin, nuclear wastes, radioactive, reactors | Leave a comment

U.S. Senators trying to greenwash nuclear power

The nuclear power industry has skillfully and successfully painted itself green — an environmentally benign answer to reducing carbon emissions. The industry and many in Washington want us to believe that a new generation of nuclear reactors will solve the problems of climate change and allow us to live happily ever after. That’s a costly fairy tale.

US climate proposal a nuclear bailout By Richard Clapp Shanghai Daily, 2010-6-19 THE long-awaited climate proposal crafted by US Senators John Kerry and Joseph Lieberman has finally landed on Capitol Hill. The proposal, though, is a massive nuclear bailout under the guise of an energy overhaul. Continue reading →

June 21, 2010 Posted by Christina Macpherson | climate change, USA | antinuclear, climate change, global warming, nuclear, nuclear costs, nuclear secrecy, nuclear spin, nuclear wastes, radioactive, reactors, uranium | Leave a comment

Terrorist danger in enriched uranium storage

VIDEO
Nuke Facility Raid An Inside Job? – 60 Minutes – CBS News Eyewitness Talks To 60 Minutes About Brazen Assault On South African Nuclear Facility CBS) This story was first published on Nov. 28, 2008. It was updated on June 15, 2010.

When President Obama invited 47 world leaders to Washington for a nuclear security summit in April, the assault on Pelindaba was exactly the kind of scenario they were working to prevent. Continue reading →

June 21, 2010 Posted by Christina Macpherson | safety, South Africa | antinuclear, nuclear, nuclear costs, nuclear secrecy, nuclear spin, radiation | Leave a comment

Harsh conditions forced by Israel on nuclear whistleblower

Israeli nuclear whistleblower returned to solitary confinement 21 June 2010, Amnesty International has accused the Israeli authorities of subjecting jailed nuclear whistleblower Mordechai Vanunu to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment by holding him in solitary confinement.The 56-year-old, who spent 18 years in prison for revealing details of the country’s nuclear arsenal to a UK newspaper in 1986, was sent back to jail for three months on 23 May on charges of contact with a foreign national, and almost immediately placed in solitary confinement. Continue reading →

June 21, 2010 Posted by Christina Macpherson | Israel, secrets,lies and civil liberties | antinuclear, nuclear, nuclear secrecy, nuclear spin, nuclear weapons | 1 Comment

Many a slip between Sweden’s nuclear cup and the lip

The Riksdag voted in favor of renewing nuclear power—…..by the near-divided vote of 174-172. The left-leaning opposition party has vowed to reverse the legislation if it gains power in September’s general election….Even if the overturn of the ban stands, political will alone does not new nuclear power plants make–as neighboring Finland can attest.

Sweden Goes Nuclear (maybe) TIME, by Eben Harrell , June 18, 2010, The Riksdag, Sweden’s parliament, voted on June 17 to overturn a three-decades old ban on new nuclear reactors in what many see as a test-case for the long-predicted “nuclear renaissance ” in Europe.The legislation annuls a a referendum in 1980 in which Sweden’s population voted against renewing or replacing the country’s fleet of 12 power plants…….

But yesterday’s vote is no simple victory for nuclear supporters. Continue reading →

June 19, 2010 Posted by Christina Macpherson | politics, Sweden | antinuclear, nuclear, nuclear costs, nuclear renaissance, nuclear secrecy, nuclear spin, nuclear wastes, uranium | Leave a comment

Tax-payers liable if nuclear reactor plan goes belly up

It’s Official – Taxpayers Take On Nuclear Risk, CleanEnergy Footprints, 18 June 2010, Today the utility giant Southern Company agreed to the terms of its portion of the $8.3 billion conditional loan guarantee awarded by the Obama Administration back in February for the proposed two new reactors it wants to build along with its utility partners at Plant Vogtle in Georgia. So now U.S. taxpayers are officially on the hook if the project goes belly up. Continue reading →

June 19, 2010 Posted by Christina Macpherson | business and costs, USA | antinuclear, energy efficiency, nuclear costs, nuclear renaissance, nuclear secrecy, nuclear spin, reactors, uranium | Leave a comment

Is Obama’s call for “clean” energy in fact a push for nuclear power?

Obama’s Gulf oil catastrophe Oval Office call for “clean energy” tacit push for taxpayer-backed atomic power expansion, Beyond Nuclear, 18 June 2010, ?Although President Barack Obama did not say the words “nuclear power” in his first ever Oval Office address to the nation on June 15th, his call for an accelerated “transition to clean energy” in response to the worst environmental catastrophe in U.S. history — the worsening oil catastrophe in the Gulf of Mexico — represents a tacit push for the expansion of atomic energy.

Such a nuclear relapse would only take place by transferring the financial risks and even direct costs (not to mention the radiological risks) squarely on the backs of taxpayers. Obama’s speech only adds to concerns this his choice of pro-nuclear co-chairs to head his oil catastrophe investigative panel could serve as a cynical pretext for advancing the dirty, dangerous, and expensive atomic reactors and associated facilities. Continue reading →

June 18, 2010 Posted by Christina Macpherson | politics, USA | antinuclear, nuclear, nuclear costs, nuclear secrecy, nuclear spin, nuclear wastes, nuclear weapons, radioactive, reactors, uranium | Leave a comment

Just like oil, nuclear ‘safety reviews’ rubber-stamped industry analyses

the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) Office of Inspector General reported in 2006 that NRC staff “safety reviews” of atomic reactor 20 year license extension applications were regularly “cut and pasted” directly from nuclear utility analyses, sometimes verbatim. NRC has thus far rubberstamped approval for every single one of the over 50 license extension requests it has recieved, with many more awaiting approval.

House hearing ion Gulf catastrophe should serve as a warning on reactor risks, Beyond Nuclear 18 June 2010, The grilling of BP and other oil company executives at a June 15, 2010 U.S. House of Representatives Energy and Environment Subcommittee hearing on the BP Gulf of Mexico oil catastrophe should serve as a warning that very similar risks exist in the nuclear power industry, albeit radiological rather than petrol. Continue reading →

June 18, 2010 Posted by Christina Macpherson | safety, USA | antinuclear, nuclear, nuclear costs, nuclear secrecy, nuclear spin, nuclear wastes, radioactive, reactors, uranium | Leave a comment

Taxpayer would cop major cost of UK nuclear wastes

The real costs of nuclear power ,The Guardian, Darren Johnson , 17 June 2010, Paul Spence says the nuclear industry expects to pay the full cost of decommissioning a new generation of nuclear power stations (Response, 15 June). But his words about “our full share of waste management and disposal costs” were carefully chosen. The consultation document reveals that EDF considers their full share of these costs to be around 20% of the total. As our report Nuclear Power? No Point! highlighted last year, nuclear is only responsible for 4% of the energy consumed in the UK. More energy can be saved by energy conservation measures in homes and businesses. Focusing on the nuclear industry takes resources away from building new renewable capacity, which, given sufficient political will, could provide more than enough electricity for the UK.

Letters: The real costs of nuclear power | Environment | The Guardian

June 18, 2010 Posted by Christina Macpherson | politics, UK | antinuclear, nuclear, nuclear costs, nuclear secrecy, nuclear spin, nuclear wastes, radiation, radioactive, uranium | Leave a comment

Australian union’s stand on danger of nuclear industry is echoed in UK

“We will be urging unions in the UK to join in the stand opposing nuclear- rather than joining the industry’s Compensation Scheme for Radiation Linked Diseases which has thousands of applicants and has paid out millions of pounds – with the caveat that you don’t talk about it,”

Radiation Free Lakeland backs Aussie unions’ nuclear stance , GETNOTICEDONLINE Uk 14 June 2010 Radiation Free Lakeland is supporting Australian unions who have banned members from working in the nuclear industry.Largely unreported in the British press, the Victorian branch of the ETU has given its full support to the Queensland and the Northern Territories branches’ decision to ban members from working in uranium mines, nuclear power plants or any part of the nuclear fuel cycle. Continue reading →

June 18, 2010 Posted by Christina Macpherson | health, UK | antinuclear, AUSTRALIA, cancer, nuclear, nuclear secrecy, nuclear spin, radiation, radioactive, reactors, uranium | Leave a comment