nuclear spin « nuclear-news

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

Future is a gamble for uranium companies

Companies Bet on Rise in Demand for Uranium, By MATTHEW L. WALD NYTimes.com June 18, 2010 WASHINGTON — Uranium enrichment, the market that the Noble Group has entered with its purchase of USEC stock, is a globalized business fraught with uncertainty.
Besides rapidly changing technology and questions about how many new reactors will be built, the market can be affected by vagaries like future arms control agreements……….. Continue reading →

June 22, 2010 Posted by Christina Macpherson | business and costs, USA | antinuclear, enriched, nuclear costs, nuclear spin, 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

New Zealand’s anti-nuclear legislation threatened by shipping decision

NZ’s Proud Nuclear Free History Threatened By Uranium Shipment Voxy.co.nz, 21 June, 2010

Uranium, a radioactive material, should never pass through New Zealand’s nuclear free seas let alone come into port, the Green Party said today. Continue reading →

June 21, 2010 Posted by Christina Macpherson | New Zealand, politics | antinuclear, nuclear spin | 1 Comment

Concern over nuclear workers’ exposure to radiation

Radiation tests ordered at nuclear plant By DON PEAT, Toronto Sun June 19, 2010 Bruce Power will be testing more of its employees for alpha radiation.An internal memo obtained by the Sun was sent to employees at the power station Friday advising them that tests done last year on those closest to the low-level radiation contamination show they may have received a dose. Continue reading →

June 21, 2010 Posted by Christina Macpherson | Canada, health | antinuclear, nuclear, nuclear spin, nuclear wastes, radiation, radioactive | Leave a comment

Global Nuclear Energy Partnership revived under a new name

Global Nuclear Energy Partnership Steering Group Members Approve Transformation to the International Framework for Nuclear Energy Cooperation Department of Energy – U.S. Department of Energy , 18 June 2010,
The Global Nuclear Energy Partnership Steering Group met in Accra, Ghana on June 16-17, 2010 and approved unanimously several transformative changes to reflect global developments that have occurred since the Partnership was established in 2007. The transformation includes a new name – the International Framework for Nuclear Energy Cooperation — and the establishment of a new Statement of Mission. Continue reading →

June 19, 2010 Posted by Christina Macpherson | politics international, USA | antinuclear, nuclear, nuclear costs, nuclear renaissance, nuclear spin, nuclear technology, nuclear wastes, radioactive, reactors, uranium | Leave a 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

British govt axes nuclear industry loan – a blow to the industry

The announcement is a blow both to the company and the nuclear sector

UK Axes GBP80 Mln Sheffield Nuclear Industry Loan – WSJ.comBy Selina Williams Of DOW JONES NEWSWIRES LONDON (Dow Jones) 17 June 2010, –The U.K. government Thursday axed an GBP80 million loan to Sheffield Forgemasters International Ltd. for equipment to make the large forgings for nuclear power stations as part of broader spending cuts. Continue reading →

June 18, 2010 Posted by Christina Macpherson | business and costs, UK | antinuclear, EDF, nuclear, nuclear costs, nuclear spin, nuclear technology, reactors | Leave a comment