Pentagon contracted ship struck by pirates
Pirates Strike a US Ship Owned by a Pentagon Contractor, But is the Media Telling the Whole Story?
MEDIA CHANNEL By AlterNet.10 April 09 The Somali pirates who took control of the 17,000-ton “Maersk Alabama” cargo-ship in the early hours of Wednesday morning probably were unaware that the ship they were boarding belonged to a U.S. Department of Defense contractor with “top security clearance,” which does a half-billion dollars in annual business with the Pentagon, primarily the Navy……….
…………..The U.S. military says the Alabama was not operating on a DoD contract at the time and was said to be delivering food aid………………
……….Often, the reporting on pirates centers around the gangsterism of the pirates and the seemingly huge ransoms they demand…………
…………But this type of coverage of the pirates is similar to the false narrative about “tribalism” being the cause of all of Africa’s problems………..hardly the whole “pirate” story………………..
…………. Nuclear dumping has polluted the environment. “In 1991, the government of Somalia collapsed,” wrote Johann Hari in The Independent. “Its nine million people have been teetering on starvation ever since — and the ugliest forces in the Western world have seen this as a great opportunity to steal the country’s food supply and dump our nuclear waste in their seas.”
According to Hari:
As soon as the [Somali] government was gone, mysterious European ships started appearing off the coast of Somalia, dumping vast barrels into the ocean. The coastal population began to sicken. At first they suffered strange rashes, nausea and malformed babies. Then, after the 2005 tsunami, hundreds of the dumped and leaking barrels washed up on shore. People began to suffer from radiation sickness, and more than 300 died.
This is the context in which the “pirates” have emerged.
Oyster Creek’s waste stockpile just gets larger
Oyster Creek’s waste stockpile just gets larger pressof AtlanticCity.com By BEN LEACH 9 April 09 , Oyster Creek isn’t going anywhere, and neither is a stockpile of accumulated nuclear waste………………………………….While exact figures are not available for the amount at Oyster Creek, there are 2,180 metric tons of spent nuclear fuel in the state, according to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s 2008-2009 Information Digest………………………. the spent fuel at most nuclear plants across the country goes into storage on the site of the nuclear plant. Oyster Creek stores all of its spent fuel on-site……………………. At Oyster Creek, spent fuel rods must be kept in the on-site storage pool for at least 10 years, according to a Lacey Township ordinance. From there, the rods are typically moved to the “dry” method, which involves placing them in a concrete cask.
The structures – 10 feet wide, 15 feet tall and 20 feet long – are made from reinforced concrete. According to David Benson, a spokesman for Oyster Creek, there are 20 modules at the plant, 16 of which are full.
Each chamber weighs about 600 pounds, with almost two-thirds of that weight a result of the spent fuel itself.
Those modules are protected by security around the clock,…………………..
Paul Gunter, director of reactor oversight for Beyond Nuclear Inc., a national nuclear watchdog, said the storage casks remain in plain sight despite security measures.
“Some kind of passing vehicle could just stop and shoot any of these casks from Route 9,” Gunter said.
The protection of nuclear waste is more than just a local issue.
AFP: Iraq to create nuclear energy commission
Iraq to create nuclear energy commission7 hours ago Google News 10 April 09 BAGHDAD (AFP) — Iraq plans to create an atomic energy agency nearly three decades after Israeli bombers destroyed a reactor being built by the late dictator Saddam Hussein, the government spokesman said on Thursday.”The government has decided to create a national nuclear energy commission that will be responsible for controlling nuclear activities in the country and assuring they are in line with international regulations,” Ali al-Dabbagh said.”It will also deal with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAE) and other institutions, make suggestions on the peaceful use of atomic energy and be charged with disposing of nuclear waste,” he added.In 1976, Iraq and France signed an accord to build a nuclear reactor. Five years later, as the Iraq-Iran war raged and amid fears the nearly completed reactor might be loaded with nuclear fuel, it was bombed and heavily damaged by Israeli warplanes.There is still nuclear waste at that plant, 19 kilometres (12 miles) south of Baghdad, which must be disposed of.In February, Iraqi Electricity Minister Karim Wahid asked France to help the country build a new reactor.
Nuclear waste hearing ends in opposition to Taitung site
Nuclear waste hearing ends in opposition to Taitung site Taiwan News 9 April 09
A public hearing discussing the possibility of storing low-grade nuclear waste in a Taitung County village ended on a note of strong opposition yesterday after two protesters had been taken away by police.After years of controversy and protests, the government decided to select Nantien Village in the county’s Tajen Township as one of the possible disposal sites for low-radioactive waste from its three existing nuclear power stations…………………………..Participants in yesterday’s hearing voiced strong opposition to the Tajen site. The area was geologically unstable, making it unsuitable to provide a permanent home for the low-radioactive materials, geologist Chiang Kuo-chang said.The chairman of the county’s tourism association, Yang Wen-ta, said the issue was larger than just Tajen and concerned not only environmentalists and the local aboriginal population, but the whole of Taitung County.
Before the hearing got under way, an organic farmer carrying a banner with an anti-nuclear slogan was prevented entrance to the meeting and shown into a police vehicle. An environmental activist who came outside to ask about the situation was also forced into the car and taken to a police station, reports said. Both said they were kept at the precinct office for two hours.
Power originally stored its waste on Orchid Island, a remote island off southeast Taiwan mainly inhabited by aboriginals.
Nuclear waste hearing ends in opposition to Taitung site – Taiwan News Online
News Flash: Greed and Stupidity Can Coexist!
News Flash: Greed and Stupidity Can Co-exist THE HUFFINGTON POST Monica Youn 7 April 09 “…………………..A crucial function of government is to protect us from the consequences of the stupid decisions of other people – we should not have to worry that a nuclear power plant operator will decide that certain safety precautions simply aren’t profitable or necessary.
In the nuclear example, were the government to succumb to industry pressure and repeal certain safety regulations on nuclear plants, any resulting accident would be the result of policy as well as stupidity. In other economic sectors, regulations exist to prevent the profit-maximizing incentives of various industries from creating unacceptable levels of public risk………….
Halliburton is among defendants in nuclear waste lawsuit under CERCLA
Halliburton is among defendants in nuclear waste lawsuit under CERCLA Examiner.com Frank Taylor April 7
Halliburton Energy Services is one of the corporations from which the United States seeks to recover the response costs that it incurred due to releases and threatened releases of hazardous substances into the environment from facilities where radioactive materials were manufactured, repaired, reworked, stored, and processed for disposal. GE Healthcare Bio-Sciences Corp. and Pengo Industries, Inc., are among the other defendants in United States of America v. Halliburton Energy Services, Inc., (case number 4:07-cv-03795 in the United States District Court for the Southern District of Texas) The federal government, which filed the lawsuit in 2007, alleges that the defendants are liable under the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act of 1980, commonly known as CERCLA, for more than $26.7 million in unreimbursed response costs for the cleanup of sites in Houston, Webster, and Odessa. The State of Texas intervened in the case to recover the response costs that it had contributed to the federal government.
DTE seeks to downplay incident at Fermi II nuclear power plant
DTE seeks to downplay incident at Fermi 11 nuclear power plant By Eartha Jane Melzer 4/7/09 According to plant report, the water level in the reactor vessel fell to 162 inches during March 28 shutdown but Fermi spokesman says he doesn’t think that ‘necessarily indicates that there was any loss of water level at all. An incident involving a nuclear reactor going into “hot shutdown” at DTE Energy’s Fermi II power generation station in Monroe County late last month went largely unnoticed locally and is raising questions about what exactly happened at the plant. DTE officials have minimized the incident,…………………………
Michael Keegan, a nuclear power critic who lives near the Fermi II plant said that he learned of the incident through a notice on the NRC website.
Keegan, who is among the individuals trying to block the construction of an additional reactor at the Fermi complex, said that locals are “salivating” at the prospect of jobs in building the new plant. He said that he finds the lack of local media on the situation disturbing.
“It’s kind of peculiar,” he said. “You see [this incident] is picked up by Reuters and you can read about it in New York but you can’t read about it in your home town.”…………………..
Jim Riccio, a Greenpeace nuclear policy analyst said he is not surprised that a utility spokesman would try to play down a drop in reactor vessel water levels.
“He wants to make you believe that splitting atoms is something safe, but its not,” Riccio said. “The risk is that if the water levels go too low you uncover the core and you start to melt down, that is what happened at Three Mile Island,” referring to the 1979 partial core meltdown at the nuclear power station near Harrisburg, Pa.
Michigan Messenger » DTE seeks to downplay incident at Fermi II nuclear power plant
Mines and plants hit by low prices, high costs – Forbes.com
Thomson Reuters
FACTBOX-Mines and plants hit by low prices, high costs
04.07.09, 06:47 AM EDT – “……………….Uranium miner Denison Mines ( DNN – news – people ) will temporarily suspend production at its Sunday and Rim mines in the western United States and will likely shut its White Mesa mill in May……………
FACTBOX-Mines and plants hit by low prices, high costs – Forbes.com
A £1bn nuclear white elephant
A £1bn nuclear white elephant
THE INDEPENDENT 7 April 09 Call for public inquiry as Sellafield recycling plant is costing taxpayer millions every year A controversial nuclear recycling plant, approved by the Government despite warnings over its economic viability and reliance on unproven technology, has racked up costs of more than £1bn and is still not working properly.
Backers of the plant at Sellafield, which promised to turn toxic waste into a useable fuel that could be sold worldwide, had claimed the plant would make a profit of more than £200m in its lifetime, producing 120 tonnes of recycled fuel a year. But after an investigation by The Independent, the Government admitted technical problems and a dearth in orders has meant it has produced just 6.3 tonnes of fuel since opening in 2001.
With construction and commissioning costs of more than £600m, the facility, known as the Mox plant because of the mixed oxides (Mox) fuel it is designed to produce, has cost more than £1.2bn, confirming its status as the nuclear industry’s most embarrassing white elephant and one of the greatest failures in British industrial history, losing the taxpayer £90m a year. Green campaigners and opposition MPs are now calling for the plant to be closed immediately, and a minister who fought its construction at the time has called for a public inquiry into how the plant was ever given the go-ahead.
‘No’ to nuclear power
‘No’ to nuclear power
Author: David Kennell
People’s Weekly World Newspaper 7 April 09 – “…………………………….The inherent danger of a nuclear accident is recognized by the Price-Anderson Act, which forces taxpayers (not the company) to be responsible for any major accident. Even if no accidents occur, or if plutonium-239 (half-life of 24,110 years), created in fast neutron reactors, is not lost or stolen to make nuclear weapons, there is still no known procedure to eliminate the high-level radioactive waste.
More than 95 percent of the waste products are cesium-137 and strontium-90, which have half-lives (lose 50 percent) of about 30 years. They are not the problem. The “transuranics” (isotopes of uranium, curium-245 and plutonium) have half-lives of thousands of years. So far, the much touted “recycling” requires purification of the transuranics and is very inefficient and difficult and has only been accomplished on a small laboratory scale. The planet is accumulating these highly lethal products with no place to put them.
About half the U.S. nuclear waste is at Hanford, Wash., in nuclear “sludge” acquired from our nuclear weapons program. The other half is from our 103 nuclear power plants. The Hanford waste is beginning to leak into the Columbia River.
As an aside, the unknown cost of waste disposal by currently unknown means is never considered when calculating dollar costs.
But the real costs cannot be measured in dollars. We are saddling future generations, hoping that future technology can solve the problem that has not been solved during the last 60 or so years…………….
Using nuclear fission to boil water is not only absurd — it could be the greatest folly of all time.
Press freedom body slams Niger media ‘harassment’
Press freedom body slams Niger media ‘harassment’ NIAMEY (AFP) 4 April 09 — A press freedom organisation Friday condemned the government of the west African state of Niger for “harassing” Dounia, an independent broadcasting group.”The Dounia group is the victim of repeated harassment by the judicial authorities,” Reporters Sans Frontieres (Reporters Without Borders) said in a statement………………………..
The statement follows the arrest of Abibou Garba, director of the Dounia radio and television station, on charges of “disseminating false news” following a discussion of a recent visit to Niger by French President Nicolas Sarkozy.
“We urge the authorities to withdraw the charges against Garba,” RSF said.
Garba and Idi Abdou, a political activist in the Alternative Citizen Space organisation, were charged after a televised discussion on the Dounia channel about the mining of uranium in Niger by the French group Areva.
Costly Lepreau nuclear plant refit may extend into 2010
Costly Lepreau nuclear plant refit may extend into 2010: CBC News April 3, 2009 CBC News
NB Power says it can no longer predict exactly when the Point Lepreau nuclear power plant will be up and running again — and for every day it’s delayed it costs the province $670,000 to replace the electricity the plant would normally produce.The $1.4-billion project was supposed to be finished by this September, a date that was first pushed back to December and is now in danger of running into next year.
Gaëtan Thomas, NB Power’s vice-president nuclear, said Thursday that picking a completion date is no longer possible.
Nuclear-waste contract opposed
Nuclear-waste contract opposed Fairplay Daily News 02 Apr 2009
RUSSIAN environmental groups are urging rejection for a contract renewal to ship radioactive waste through St Petersburg’s port to a storage facility at Ust-Luga on the Gulf of Finland.Greenpeace told Fairplay that it had urged Russia’s government-owned nuclear fuel trading company Techsnabexport (Tenex) not to renew its contract to accept uranium hexafluoride …
Fiscal stimulus and the environment
Greenstanding
Apr 2nd 2009
From The Economist print editionGordon Brown’s New Deal will do little to advance renewable energy
Mr Brown’s green New Deal looks flimsy. On March 31st HSBC, a big bank, published a report ranking countries by how green their economic-stimulus packages were. The bank reckons that Britain is allocating just 7% of its fiscal stimulus to greenery, compared with 12% in America, 34% in China and a whopping 81% in South Korea (see chart). A separate report prepared for Greenpeace, a pressure group, by consultants at the New Economics Foundation (NEF) considers only genuinely new funding and arrives at a figure of just 0.6%, or £120m……………………….
………………….It has moved speedily to revive the nuclear-power industry, by contrast. From a position of cordial dislike in 2003, the government announced itself in favour of new nuclear plants in principle as early as 2006.More recently ministers have been positively prescriptive, suggesting how many plants might be built and where. A takeover of British Energy, which runs most existing nuclear plants, by EDF, keen to build more, took place last year. A new nuclear laboratory has been founded, schemes to train workers set up and the vexed issue of waste disposal re-examined.Nuclear-power stations take many years to build, so new ones will not help Britain meet its 2020 targets for curbing emissions. But the technology is well understood. Politicians may have calculated that a few nuclear-power stations will be easier to sell the public than thousands of wind turbines. And energy does not have to be renewable to be low-carbon.
Fiscal stimulus and the environment | Greenstanding | The Economist
Nuclear Power: ‘They only tell part of the truth’
Nuclear Power: ‘They only tell part of the truth’ VUE WEEKLY Community activists charge bias in government’s nuclear report by Jan Buterman April 2, 2009
Opponents of nuclear power in Alberta say a “balanced and objective” report prepared at the request of the provincial government to look at the “factual issues pertinent to the use of nuclear power to supply electricity in Alberta” relies on a select group of experts with ties to the nuclear industry and omits or glosses over key information.“In one word? Fraudulent,” charges Pat McNamara, a Grande Prairie carpenter and founding member of the grassroots group Nuclear Free Alberta, pointing to the lack of representation of heath or environmental experts on the panel which prepared the report. “The thing that’s wrong with it is that they only tell part of the truth,” McNamara says. While the report, which the province will use to guide public consultations on the issue starting in April, deliberately uses non-technical language throughout, McNamara says it fails to elaborate on key issues which Albertans need to understand if they are to make an informed decision on bringing nuclear power to the province. The issues are complex but not impossible to learn, argues McNamara……………
……………….Despite the report’s claim of focusing on factual issues, the section dealing with fuel disposal relies heavily on language describing work to be developed or still in research, with theoretical outcomes posed as “could be” and “likely.” At the end of the day—or in the case of nuclear power stations, the end of several human generations from now—nuclear power stations leave behind highly toxic waste that cannot be completely recovered or recycled and must be stockpiled well into the timeline of those future generations. As the waste materials decay, they remain toxic—some of the the breakdown products are even more radioactive than the original material.
Vue Weekly : Edmonton’s 100% Independent Weekly : Nuclear Power: ‘They only tell part of the truth’
1 This Month
26 April – Chernobyl: Inside the Meltdown airs on National Geographic on Sunday 26th April from 4pm
29 April – Nuclear Expert Webinar #1 – Radiation Impacts on Families with Mary Olson and Cindy Folkers
- 12:15 PM MT – 1:45 PM MT
- Location: Virtual – REGISTER TODAY
4 May -West Suburban Peace Coalition to discuss Iran war at May Educational Forum
Monday, May 4, 7:00 – 8:00 PM Central Standard Time
Title: : How Trump’s Narrative Tries to Shape the Reality of the War on Iran.
Contact Walt Zlotow, zlotow@hotmail.com 630 442 3045 for further information
14 May – online event From Bombs to Data Centres: the Face of Nuclear Colonialism
Pine Ridge Uranium is the real threat, not Tehran- Tell Burgum: Stop the Extraction.
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
To see nuclear-related stories in greater depth and intensity – go to https://nuclearinformation.wordpress.com
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