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Radioactive wastes are produced at all stages of the nuclear fuel cycle

The NUCLEAR INDUSTRY and the GLOBAL NUCLEAR WASTE PROBLEM – our theme for June 2010

June 6, 2010 Posted by Christina Macpherson | Christina's notes | antinuclear, nuclear, nuclear costs, nuclear secrecy, nuclear spin, nuclear technology, nuclear wastes, radiation, radioactive | Leave a comment

Nuclear bomb to solve oil spill crisis – a crazy idea, says USA

Nuclear Option on Gulf Oil Spill? No Way, U.S. Says, NYTimes.com, By WILLIAM J. BROAD : June 2, 2010 The chatter began weeks ago as armchair engineers brainstormed for ways to stop the torrent of oil spilling into the Gulf of Mexico: What about nuking the well?…. Stephanie Mueller, a spokeswoman for the Energy Department, said that neither Energy Secretary, Steven Chu nor anyone else was thinking about a nuclear blast under the gulf. The nuclear option was not — and never had been — on the table, federal officials said. “It’s crazy,” one senior official said.

Government and private nuclear experts agreed that using a nuclear bomb would be not only risky technically, with unknown and possibly disastrous consequences from radiation, but also unwise geopolitically — it would violate arms treaties that the United States has signed and championed over the decades and do so at a time when President Obama is pushing for global nuclear disarmament.Nuclear Option on Gulf Oil Spill? No Way, U.S. Says – NYTimes.com

June 6, 2010 Posted by Christina Macpherson | safety, USA | antinuclear, nuclear, nuclear costs, nuclear spin, nuclear technology, nuclear weapons, radiation, radioactive | Leave a comment

Thousands of tons of nuclear wastes in above ground casks

– Atomic Waste Gets ‘Temporary’ Home, WSJ.com, JUNE 1, 2010 By REBECCA SMITH “……Power companies are likely to rely on casks even more in coming years. About 80% of reactor sites in the U.S. intend to move used fuel to casks because their storage pools are filling up.

So far, more than 800 casks have been filled and they sit tucked away behind fences on reactor sites. They hold 14,000 metric tons of waste, an amount that is steadily growing. There is an additional 49,000 metric tons being held in spent-fuel pools, used fuel’s first stop after it leaves reactors. Each year, another 2,000 metric tons of nuclear reactor waste is created. Continue reading →

June 3, 2010 Posted by Christina Macpherson | USA, wastes | antinuclear, nuclear, nuclear costs, nuclear renaissance, nuclear secrecy, nuclear spin, nuclear technology, nuclear wastes, radioactive, reactors | Leave a comment

Nuclear Non-Proliferation not solved, nor is Nuclear Waste

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As the May Nuclear Non Proliferation conference ends, the nuclear industry and President Obama continue to use this story as a selling point for the “peaceful” nuclear industry. And for June, perhaps the critical issue is – how to convince the world that nuclear wastes are OK, that this problem is solved, – when it’s not!

Other selling points are emerging now – perhaps a sign of the desperation of the industry?

There’s a push to use a nuclear bomb as a cure for the oil spill – based on Russian experience – for goodness’ sake! Who in their right mind would trust the Russian history of things nuclear?

Then there’s the push for little reactors, thorium reactors, instead of uranium-fuelled reactors. Anything to look as though the nuclear industry is forging on. But it’s not – except for nuclear weapons.

Meanwhile, despite all the propaganda, and lack of real government incentives, renewable energy technologies are forging on.

June 1, 2010 Posted by Christina Macpherson | Christina's notes | antinuclear, disarmament, nuclear, nuclear costs, nuclear renaissance, nuclear spin, nuclear technology, nuclear wastes, nuclear weapons, reactors, renewable energy, renewables | 8 Comments

The nuclear industry in decline

Ockham’s Razor – 30 May 2010 – Nuclear energy: a panacea for climate change?

Nuclear energy: a panacea for climate change?. ABC Radio National, Ockham’s Razor, Dr Adam Lucas – 30 May 2010 “………..What is the status of nuclear energy in the world at the moment? And do the arguments of its proponents stand up to scrutiny? Continue reading →

June 1, 2010 Posted by Christina Macpherson | 2 WORLD, business and costs | antinuclear, nuclear, nuclear costs, nuclear renaissance, nuclear spin, nuclear technology, radiation, radioactive, reactors | Leave a comment

Leaking and lying – time for Vermont Nuclear Plant to close

Nuclear Power Plant Leaking AGAIN AGAIN – IndyPosted, by Maggie Romuld May 31, 2010 The Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant could close in March 2012 when its current license expires. While that might not be good news for some, it seems fair for a plant that has been plagued with problems for years, and leaked once again over the weekend. And, perhaps more importantly, when you consider that radioactive tritium was found in an underground pipe and plant officials “acknowledged they had misled state regulators and lawmakers regarding whether the plant had underground pipes that carried radioactive substances.”

Nuclear Power Plant Leaking AGAIN – IndyPosted

June 1, 2010 Posted by Christina Macpherson | general | antinuclear, nuclear, nuclear costs, nuclear secrecy, nuclear technology, radiation, reactor, reactors | 1 Comment

The nuclear industry promoted under the banner of non-proliferation

Statement by the President on the Non-Proliferation Treaty Review Conference, Politics News, usgov, 31 May 2010 The NPT must be at the center of our global efforts to stop the spread of nuclear weapons around the world, while pursuing the ultimate goal of a world without them.This agreement includes balanced and practical steps that will advance non-proliferation, nuclear disarmament, and peaceful uses of nuclear energy, which are critical pillars of the global non-proliferation regime. ..

Statement by the President on the Non-Proliferation Treaty Review Conference

June 1, 2010 Posted by Christina Macpherson | general | antinuclear, nuclear, nuclear spin, nuclear technology, nuclear weapons, peace | Leave a comment

California to demand recording of medical radiation doses

Calif. could require recording of radiation doses , San Francisco Chronicle May 28, 2010 California would create safeguards to protect patients from being exposed to excess radiation under a bill approved by the state Senate. Continue reading →

June 1, 2010 Posted by Christina Macpherson | health, USA | antinuclear, nuclear, nuclear technology, radioactive | Leave a comment

Nuclear wastes, like diamonds, are forever

THE NUCLEAR INDUSTRY AND RADIOACTIVE WASTES – our theme for June 2010. “The question whether one generation of men has a right to bind another, seems never to have been started either on this or our side of the water. Yet it is a question of such consequences as not only to merit decision, but place also, among the fundamental principles of every government.” – Thomas Jefferson, September 6, 1789

Half-life is the period of time it takes for a radioisotope atom to degrade to a state having half of its original intensity

As you can see the continued production, use, and dumping of such waste materials as depleted uranium and plutonium, into the world’s air, land, and water leaves a permanent problem for our children, grandchildren. great-grand-children ….

May 30, 2010 Posted by Christina Macpherson | Christina's notes | antinuclear, depleted, nuclear, nuclear costs, nuclear renaissance, nuclear secrecy, nuclear spin, nuclear technology, nuclear weapons, plutonium, radioactive, reprocessing, uranium, wastes, water | Leave a comment

U.S. politicians wake up to nuclear scam, postpone “Emergency Bill” bonus for nukes

HOUSE APPROPRIATIONS COMMITTEE POSTPONES CONSIDERATION OF EMERGENCY BILL, $9 BILLION IN NEW REACTOR LOANS, Nuclear Information and Resource Centre, 28 May 2010, About 3 pm yesterday, the House Appropriations Committee suddenly postponed its scheduled 5 pm meeting to consider the emergency supplemental funding bill, which right now includes a provision that would allow $9 Billion in new taxpayer loans for nuclear reactor construction.

The meeting has not yet been rescheduled, but will take place after the Memorial Day recess; most likely the week of June 14.

Many Appropriations Committee members apparently didn’t even realize the nuclear loans are in this bill. And because of the way they are described–as $90 million for nuclear and $90 million for renewables under the byzantine Congressional budgeting procedures–some members may not have understood that translates into $9 Billion in taxpayer loans for new reactors.

May 29, 2010 Posted by Christina Macpherson | politics, USA | antinuclear, nuclear, nuclear costs, nuclear renaissance, nuclear secrecy, nuclear spin, nuclear technology, uranium | Leave a comment

AREVA’s uranium enrichment plant a danger to Idaho’s groundwater

Areva uranium enrichment plant in Idaho would threaten aquifer, Beyond Nuclear, 28 May 2010, The $2 billion in federal loan guarantees just awarded to Areva by the U.S. Department of Energy for a new uranium enrichment plant in Idaho, will produce depleted uranium (half-life of 4.5 billion years) and will threaten the Snake River Aquifer, say leaders of the Snake River Alliance.

Areva plans to build a new uranium enrichment plant “on the upstream end of the Snake River Aquifer a few miles east of the Idaho National Laboratory,” stated the Alliance in a press release. “INL’s nuclear activities have already contaminated the aquifer and have left substantial radioactive waste behind. Addressing these environmental challenges has already cost billions of taxpayer dollars and will continue for decades”. Continue reading →

May 29, 2010 Posted by Christina Macpherson | USA, water | antinuclear, AREVA, depleted, nuclear, nuclear costs, nuclear secrecy, nuclear technology, nuclear wastes, radiation, radioactive, uranium | Leave a comment

Israel denying its history of nuclear deal with apartheid South Africa

Israel defiant amid nuke controversy, Tribune uk,“……..Israel has struggled to dismiss documentary evidence that it tried to sell nuclear weapons to the white South African régime in the 1970s by Bernard PurcellFriday, May 28th, 2010 Israel this week defended itself against what appears to be the first, long-awaited documentary proof of the widely-held belief that it offered nuclear warheads to the apartheid regime of South Africa in 1975.The indignant denial by President Shimon Peres, through his spokeswoman, came within days of the re-imprisonment of nuclear scientist Mordechai Vanunu on charges of breaching state security. Continue reading →

May 29, 2010 Posted by Christina Macpherson | Israel, politics international | antinuclear, nuclear, nuclear secrecy, nuclear spin, nuclear technology, nuclear weapons | Leave a comment

How the world’s savings are used to promote the nuclear industry

Who gives the nuclear industry the billions of dollars and euros of our money to build new reactors, block renewable energy, contaminate the environment and create highly dangerous waste that will be with the human race for hundred of thousands of years to come? The banks do. This is the secret the www.nuclearbanks.org website will tell you.

Nuclear banks? No thanks! | Greenpeace International, by jmckeati – May 26, 2010 , Today sees the launch of the http://www.nuclearbanks.org website, a joint venture between BankTrack, Greenpeace International, Urgewald (Germany), Les Amis de la Terre (France), Antiatom Szene (Austria), WISE (the Netherlands) and CRBM (Italy).Banks around the world love to boast about their investments in green technologies and renewable energy. What they don’t like to boast about is their involvement with the dirty and dangerous business of nuclear power. Continue reading →

May 27, 2010 Posted by Christina Macpherson | 2 WORLD, spinbuster | antinuclear, nuclear, nuclear costs, nuclear renaissance, nuclear spin, nuclear technology, reactors, uranium | Leave a comment

Core aim of U.S. Climate Bill is to promote nuclear energy

Nuclear Energy Has a Friend in Heads of Obama’s BP Oil Disaster Commission, by kgosztola May 25, 2010“……..Public Citizen reports the current climate legislation is a “nuclear energy-promoting, oil drilling-championing, coal mining-boosting” piece of legislation “with a weak carbon pricing mechanism thrown in.” The public interest groups warns against the nuclear power incentives currently in the climate change bill: Continue reading →

May 26, 2010 Posted by Christina Macpherson | climate change, USA | antinuclear, climate change, global warming, nuclear, nuclear renaissance, nuclear spin, nuclear technology, radioactive, reactors, uranium | Leave a comment

Tony Blair joins nuclear promoting, supposedly “green” firm

Khosla Ventures is an investment group that says it specialises in environmentally-friendly technologies, including solar, wind and – ahem – nuclear energy start-ups..

Blair goes from “greenwash” to landing green job New Statesman, by Jason Stamper – 25 May 2010 Former PM lands green energy advisory role. The decision by Silicon Valley-based Khosla Ventures to hire Tony Blair as strategy adviser on green energy will surprise some environmental campaigners. Continue reading →

May 26, 2010 Posted by Christina Macpherson | general | antinuclear, nuclear, nuclear secrecy, nuclear spin, nuclear technology, solar, uranium, wind | Leave a comment