Millions affected by nuclear tests in Kazakhstan?
Soviet nuclear tests leave Kazakh fallout
BBC News 7 Sept 09
Decades of Soviet nuclear testing on the steppes of Kazakhstan have been blamed for an alarming number of health problems suffered by residents in the area. Continue reading
(Photos) Trucking nuclear weapons and wastes around USA
Trucks Carrying Nuclear Weapons Around the Counttry Revealed (Photos)
Huffington Post 09- 3-09
The idea of nuclear weapons being carted around in our highways, cities and neighborhoods doesn’t really put one’s mind at ease. However, the government has been transporting seriously dangerous stuff like enriched uranium and plutonium secretly without public warning.Friends of the Earth through the Freedom of Information Act has forced the Department Of Energy to release color photos of the trucks used to transport weapons. According to FOE, these are the first of such pictures that have been released in many years……………..
“The trucks carrying nuclear weapons and dangerous materials such as plutonium pass through cities and neighborhoods all the time and the public should be aware of what they look like. Release of these photos will help inform the public about secretive shipments of dangerous nuclear material that are taking place in plain view.” – Tom Clements, Southeastern Nuclear Campaign Coordinator with Friends of the Earth
Trucks Carrying Nuclear Weapons Around The Country Revealed (PHOTOS)
Regulatory decay allows more radioactive leaks from aging USA nuclear power plants
Beyond Nuclear Bulletin, 4 Sept 09 More radioactive leaks from reactors like Dresden, Oyster Creek, Vermont Yankee and Indian Point are calling attention to a largely ignored Nuclear Regulatory Commission document dating back to 1979 when the agency first asked operators to periodically inspect pipes and tanks to prevent uncontrolled leaks.
Reactor operators are not inspecting the miles of buried and corroding pipes and tanks. NRC is instead allowing reactors a “leak first fix later” approach rather than use preventive inspections to maintain integrity of these radioactive waste management systems through preventive inspections. In addition to frequent intentional radioactive releases, these accidental and unmonitored spills and leaks onsite are contaminating water resources away from the reactors, jeopardizing public health.
The October 19, 1979 NRC technical circular entitled “Prevention of Unplanned Releases of Radioactivity” advises the nuclear industry to periodically inspect buried pipes specifically using hydrostatic testing equipment and procedures with the focus on the “prevention” of uncontrolled and unmonitored radioactive release pathways.
Reactors are getting older and more decrepit. Twenty-year license extensions are breezing through NRC approval without regard for the environmental cost and impacts from these uninspected and deteriorating systems. How has protecting water by preventing uncontrolled and unmonitored radioactive releases become less important to NRC as the nuclear power plants degrade?
No public scrutiny for Florida nuclear waste storage
Florida Power and Light’s “dark” business
“…………..As storage of nuclear waste continues to pose concern across the country, an FPL land use change at Turkey Point raises questions about potential safety and environmental risks
Poder 360 By Siobhan Morrissey Sept 09“…………….Plans for the dry cask storage facility have sparked controversy because the project has not been aired at public hearings. Instead, the project was moved along quickly and quietly, with the state Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) granting certification on May 18, roughly six weeks after receiving FPL’s application and without an opportunity for public input. Without fanfare, the approval slipped the notice of interested parties such as the Sierra Club, the Tropical Audubon Society and Clean Water Action. Miami-Dade County officials and environmentalists maintain the utility company and the regulatory agency did an end run to avoid public scrutiny……………
Currently, FPL places the spent nuclear fuel onsite in wet storage structures that resemble cavernous, stainless-steel-lined swimming pools. But it’s getting crowded in the pools, so the utility is resorting to dry cask storage.
“They’re simply running out of room in the spent fuel pools for the current two [reactor] units,” says Roger Hannah, a spokesman for the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. “You never want to get below a certain point [of capacity]. You have to start several years in advance.”…………………
But how did FPL manage to avoid a public discussion of the environmental concerns? FPL presented the proposed dry storage facility as an amendment to an existing certificate that DEP issued last October when the utility sought permission to ramp up its power output. In the industry, this is commonly known as “uprating.” FPL plans to begin increasing its power output at Turkey Point by 14 percent as early as 2011.
It’s a problem nuclear power plants across the country face,
India: nuclear deal will cause problems
A Different Perspective on the U.S.-India Nuclear Deal
MONTHLY REVIEW Peter Custers Sept 09
The U.S.-India nuclear deal was initiated through a framework agreement signed by India’s Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and U.S. President Bush in July 2005.India, at the instigation of Washington, agreed to separate its civilian and military nuclear production facilities, and place all civilian production facilities under the inspection regime of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), in return for U.S. economic, technological, and military cooperation. The nuclear deal, which took three years to complete, is officially aimed at promoting India’s access to uranium and to civilian nuclear technology, through enlarged importation of both………….
……From its very start, the U.S.-India nuclear deal has generated huge controversies, both in India and internationally. The intent here is to lay bare the implications of the deal for the creation of waste,……………
fears that the controversial deal will enhance the danger of a nuclear conflagration in South Asia appear to be well grounded, even if we leave aside all other interrelated objections that have been raised……………..
the side effects in terms of generation of nuclear waste are so ponderous that, from this perspective too, implementation of the deal needs to be preempted…………….
the U.S.-India nuclear deal is bound to result in huge quantities of extremely dangerous waste that cannot be sold on the market, but needs to be put aside, at great risk to humans and to our natural environment……………….
A Different Perspective on the U.S.-India Nuclear Deal – Monthly Review
Nuclear sites fear they’ll get USA nuclear waste dump
Nuclear sites fear they’re the alternative to Yucca Mountain
Kansas city.com By LES BLUMENTHAL McClatchy Newspapers 1 Sept 09
It is among the nastiest substances on earth: more than 14,000 tons of highly radioactive waste left over from the building of the nation’s nuclear weapons arsenal……………….Local leaders and lawmakers from the sites where the waste is now stored, however, are increasingly concerned the Energy Department will leave it in place, even though that might violate legally binding cleanup agreements.
There’s no backup plan for dealing with the waste. A promised commission to study the issue has yet to be appointed.
“We don’t want to become a long-term repository without even having a discussion,” said Gary Petersen of the Tri-City Industrial Development Council, near Hanford, Wash. “All of this waste is supposed to be going to Yucca. Without Yucca, everyone in the weapons complex has a problem.”
Jared Fuhriman, the mayor of Idaho Falls, the largest city near the Idaho National Laboratory, agreed.
“We are all concerned,” Fuhriman said. “Where are we going to store the waste we have?”
If Yucca is closed, a search for a new site for a national repository likely would start with the 31 states on the original list of potential locations. In addition to Hanford and the Idaho National Laboratory, the states with possible sites include Texas, Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Mississippi and Pennsylvania……………..
The biggest concern has been the liquid waste, stored in aging and occasionally leaking underground tanks. Current plans call for the waste to be vitrified, or solidified into glass-like logs, and shipped to Yucca Mountain. The logs would be encapsulated in two-foot diameter, 14.5-foot-long stainless steel containers that would weigh about four tons each. The waste treatment plant would generate about 480 glass logs a year and somewhere between 10,000 and 15,000 by the time the last of the waste is processed.
Nuclear sites fear they’re the alternative to Yucca Mountain – Kansas City Star
US states fearful of becoming host to nuclear waste
S.C. among states fearing they’re the alternative to Nevada nuke site
Herald OnLine By Les Blumenthal– McClatchy Newspapers 30 August 09WASHINGTON — It is among the nastiest substances on earth: more than 14,000 tons of highly radioactive waste left over from the building of the nation’s nuclear weapons arsenal.As the Obama administration and Senate leaders move to scuttle a proposed repository for the waste in Nevada, the Hanford nuclear reservation in Washington state — along with federal facilities in Idaho and South Carolina — could become the de facto dump sites for years to come…………………….
Local leaders and lawmakers from the sites where the waste is now stored, however, are increasingly concerned that the Energy Department will leave it in place, even though that might violate legally binding cleanup agreements.
There’s no backup plan for dealing with the waste. A promised commission to study the issue has yet to be appointed.
S.C. among states fearing they’re the alternative to Nevada nuke site | The Herald – Rock Hill, SC
USA desperately needing solution to nuclear waste problem
Wanted: A Nuclear Waste Solution to Replace Yucca Mountain
About.com By Larry West 30 August 09
“…………………Here is the problem:
1. There is a lot of radioactive nuclear waste temporarily stored at sites all over the country.
2. Leaving nuclear waste in place and transporting it to some central and supposedly secure location both pose public safety and national security risks.
3. Nuclear waste can remain toxic, and potentially lethal, for 100,000 years or more (roughly equivalent to the length of time between the emergence of modern Homo sapiens and today), and no one knows whether we can safely store radioactive waste for that long.
4. America is not going to stop producing nuclear energy and nuclear weapons; both are considered far too important to our national security.
5. Nobody wants the waste, making nuclear-waste disposal one of the most controversial NIMBY (Not In My Back Yard) issues in history.There are already about 63,000 tons of used radioactive fuel at 104 operating U.S. nuclear power plants; it is currently stored either underwater or in so-called “dry storage.” Waste from nuclear weapons production, dating back to World War II, is an even bigger problem. It is currently stored at 16 federal sites in 13 states, although most of it is at Hanford in Washington state, the Idaho National Laboratory and Savannah River in South Carolina.Quoting from the McClatchy article:“At Hanford alone, there are 53 million gallons of highly radioactive liquid waste, 2,100 metric tons of spent nuclear fuel and nearly 2,000 capsules containing radioactive cesium and strontium.
Nuclear waste court case- a national test case
Appeal begins in high-profile fight over hot waste Court battle
Two more regions to weigh in on EnergySolutions case
By Judy Fahys The Salt Lake Tribune 08/28/2009
Utah’s court fight over who controls the flow of radioactive waste is turning into a national test case, as the state and its allies formally launched their appeal on Thursday and waste agencies representing eight more states prepared to join the fray. Continue reading
Kazakhstan: Lingering effects of nuclear tests
60 Years After First Soviet Nuclear Test, Legacy Of Misery Lives On In Kazakhstan
Radio Free Europe, August 28, 2009By“First Lightning,” a 22-kiloton nuclear bomb, exploded at 7 a.m. local time on August 29, 1949, at the Semipalatinsk testing site in northern Kazakhstan. Thousands of cases of birth defects, cancer, and neurological illnesses have since been reported in the Semipalatinsk region. Livestock living within range of the site also suffer from deformities and other defects. Continue reading
Decommissioning aging nuclear reactors
nixing nukes
The Wire by Matt Kanner Friday, 28 August 2009
Russian activists discuss nuclear plant decommissioning in Portsmouth
Few people are as familiar with the inherent complications of shutting down nuclear power plants as Oleg Bodrov. In 2002, the Russian nuclear engineer-physicist was attacked while walking home from his office. He suffered a serious head injury and spent weeks in the hospital.Bodrov believes the attack was motivated by his activism against a Russian plant that was re-smelting radioactive metal. Continue reading
Malaysia: where would we put nuclear waste?
Where do we store nuclear waste?
The Sun2 Surf , Malaysia 27 August 09
THE sun has been the main energy source for all life on the planet for billions of years. In Malaysia, we are blessed with sunlight. Yet, our government is pushing for nuclear energy as if it is a safe energy alternative to save our planet from the perils of climate change.
The government seems to be brushing aside the hazards related to nuclear power plants, as if they were issues that didn’t exist or could easily be remedied in the near future………………….
From what I have seen, there is no detailed information available to the public on Malaysia’s nuclear plans. Where will the reactors be located? What type of reactors will be used? Who will be selling us the uranium to run the reactors? How much will it all cost and who will pay for it?
What about the waste generated from the proposed nuclear power plants? Where and how will Malaysia dispose its nuclear waste which remains radioactive for thousands of years…………….
….we do know that nuclear energy will produce highly radioactive waste, even if it is in small amounts, every day a nuclear plant is running. We do know that this highly radioactive waste must be disposed of somewhere on our finite planet. We do know that we have no technology to make this waste safe.
And as more countries build nuclear power plants, more of this waste is dumped into our Earth, the planet that sustains our lives.
It is unforgivable that we, as governments and responsible adults, knowingly create such dangerous waste, so that we can have “modern conveniences” today, without a concern for tomorrow.
We are already leaving our children with our legacy of global warming, and choking pollution. And now we wish to leave this massive mess of nuclear waste and closed reactor sites to our grandchildren, leaving them with the burden of trying to figure out how to solve the problem that we ourselves had no idea how to solve.
The search for a nuclear graveyard
The search for a nuclear graveyard
The Globe and Mail 26 August 09
40,000 metric tonnes of radioactive waste is stored at sites across Canada. Anna Mehler Paperny reports on the hunt for a permanent solution
Wanted: Friendly, open-minded community in need of jobs and a whack of infrastructure cash. Must be willing to play host to nuclear waste, perhaps until the end of time.More than six decades after joining the nuclear club, Canada is home to 22 nuclear reactors, 18 of them in operation, producing about 15 per cent of the country’s electricity. Canada also has 40,000 metric tonnes of radioactive waste – and counting.
For years, the issue of how to best dispose of this waste has plagued policy-makers, scientists and citizens. Suggestions have included shooting it into outer space or exporting it to the South Pole.
Now, Canada is preparing to get rid of its nuclear detritus once and for all – by burying it. Continue reading
‘Dirty timebomb’ ticking in Russian nuclear dump threatens Europe
Dirty timebomb’ ticking in Russian nuclear dump threatens Europe
Belfast Telegraph By Rachel Shields 25 August 0920,000 discarded uranium fuel rods stored in the Arctic Circle are corroding. The possible result? Detonation of a massive radioactive bomb experts say could rival the 1986 Chernobyl disaster.
A decaying Russian nuclear dump inside the Arctic Circle is threatening to catch fire or explode, turning it into a “dirty bomb” that could impact the whole of northern Europe, including the British Isles.
Experts are warning that sea water and intense cold are corroding a storage facility at Andreeva Bay, on the Kola Peninsula near Murmansk. It contains more than 20,000 discarded fuel rods from nuclear submarines and some nuclear-powered icebreakers. A Norwegian environmental group, Bellona, says it has obtained a copy of a secret report by the Russian nuclear agency, Rosatom, which speaks of an “uncontrolled nuclear reaction”.
John Large, an independent British nuclear consultant who has visited the site, told The Independent on Sunday: “The nuclear rods are fixed to the roof and encased in metal to keep them apart and prevent any reactions from occurring. However, sea water has eroded them at their base, and they are falling to the floor of the tanks, where inches of saltwater have collected.
“This water will begin to corrode the rods, a reaction that releases hydrogen, a gas that is highly explosive and could be ignited by any spark. When another rod falls to the floor and generates such a spark, an enormous explosion could occur, scattering radioactive material for hundreds of kilometres.”
Mr Large, who was decorated by Russia’s President Vladimir Putin for his role in the salvage operation that retrieved nuclear material from the Kursk submarine in 2000, added: “This wouldn’t be a thermonuclear or atomic explosion, as in a bomb, but the outcome is just as bad. Remember Chernobyl? If you had the right weather conditions and wind pattern, this would mean a radioactive cloud drifting over the UK.”
The three storage tanks contain more than 32 tons of radioactive material. But the Kola Peninsula is littered with relics of Soviet nuclear facilities, housing more than 100 tons of nuclear waste – the largest concentration in the world.
Experts predict that a major explosion at Andreeva Bay could destroy all life in a 32-mile radius, including Murmansk and a sliver of Norway, whose border is only 28 miles away. But a much wider area of Norway, north-west Russia and Finland would be rendered uninhabitable for at least 20 years, and huge quantities of radioactive material would be dumped into the Barents Sea……………………
Another Chernobyl-type meltdown, this time in the Arctic, could have much more far-reaching effects. The worst case would be widespread fallout caused by rain in a densely populated area, causing untold social and economic disruption beyond the threat to life.
Russia’s nuclear legacy
Bowermaster’s Adventures — Russia’s nuclear legacy
Gadling.comby Jon Bowermaster
Aug 24th 2009
Just around the corner from Petropavlovsk, ten miles by land or sea, located across Avachinskaya Bay on a small peninsula called Krasheninnikova sits Russia’s largest nuclear submarine base. It is off limits to outsiders and a shell of what it was during the Soviet Union’s heyday. Today – judging by a simple Google map search – there are just a half-dozen active nuclear subs sitting at its docks. Worrying to those who pay attention to such things are the shadows on the far edge of the docks on the same map, indicating somewhere between a dozen and twenty subs piled up next to each other. They are said to be at varying degrees of decommissioning………………….
The operation of nuclear-powered submarines generates considerable amounts of nuclear waste. Liquid and solid radioactive wastes need to be removed from submarines and stored. In addition, periodically the submarine needs to be refueled, thus spent fuel needs to be removed from the submarine and also stored. Decommissioning a nuclear submarine generates these streams of waste and in addition, the refueled reactor compartment must be dealt with…………………This is from a U.S. State Department report: “In Russia every step of the process is facing problems. The support complex which was already in poor shape and accident-prone during Soviet times has been particularly burdened in the last few years. Shore-side waste sites are full of low-level radioactive waste and spent fuel. Shipments of the spent fuel for reprocessing have been delayed due to lack of funds and equipment. The service ships, which unload the spent fuel from submarines, are also full and in poor shape (and some have suffered accidents).
The shipyards where the work is done are facing financial shortages, power blackouts and strikes. There are no final land-based storage sites for decommissioned reactor compartments removed from submarines, so they are being stored afloat in bays near naval bases. Finally, contamination is widespread at waste storage sites in the North and Far East due to accidents. Lower-level contamination is thought to plague virtually every support facility for the fleet. In addition, accidents on submarines have lead to contamination of the surrounding area.
Bowermaster’s Adventures — Russia’s nuclear legacy | Gadling.com
1 This Month
petition to oppose the rapid increase of space-military industry threatening Jeju Island and the region.
[Petition by April 19th (KST)] Stop the joint military-Hanwha Systems-Jeju Provincial Government Sea Launch!
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
of the week–London Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament
Tell the Ukrainian Government to Drop Prosecution of Peace Activist Yurii Sheliazhenko
To see nuclear-related stories in greater depth and intensity – go to https://nuclearinformation.wordpress.com
-
Archives
- April 2026 (194)
- March 2026 (251)
- February 2026 (268)
- January 2026 (308)
- December 2025 (358)
- November 2025 (359)
- October 2025 (376)
- September 2025 (257)
- August 2025 (319)
- July 2025 (230)
- June 2025 (348)
- May 2025 (261)
-
Categories
- 1
- 1 NUCLEAR ISSUES
- business and costs
- climate change
- culture and arts
- ENERGY
- environment
- health
- history
- indigenous issues
- Legal
- marketing of nuclear
- media
- opposition to nuclear
- PERSONAL STORIES
- politics
- politics international
- Religion and ethics
- safety
- secrets,lies and civil liberties
- spinbuster
- technology
- Uranium
- wastes
- weapons and war
- Women
- 2 WORLD
- ACTION
- AFRICA
- Atrocities
- AUSTRALIA
- Christina's notes
- Christina's themes
- culture and arts
- Events
- Fuk 2022
- Fuk 2023
- Fukushima 2017
- Fukushima 2018
- fukushima 2019
- Fukushima 2020
- Fukushima 2021
- general
- global warming
- Humour (God we need it)
- Nuclear
- RARE EARTHS
- Reference
- resources – print
- Resources -audiovicual
- Weekly Newsletter
- World
- World Nuclear
- YouTube
-
RSS
Entries RSS
Comments RSS
nuclear-news 