nuclear « nuclear-news

Move to help nuclear workers exposed to radiation

John thought he was manufacturing laundry detergents during his 23 years at Blockson. He wore only a paper mask while handling tanks that, unknown to him, were filled with uranium and radium to be used in the production of nuclear weapons.

Workers exposed to radiation may soon benefit from fund, The Washington Post, By Gerry SmithSunday, August 8, 2010; CHICAGO — Four years ago, then-U.S. Sen. Barack Obama called them “veterans of the Cold War” and pledged to help them receive compensation.But today, many former workers at Blockson Chemical in Joliet, Ill., and their survivors still have not been paid from a fund created in 2000 to make amends for exposing workers to high levels of radiation without telling them or providing adequate protection. Continue reading →

August 9, 2010 Posted by Christina Macpherson | Legal, USA | antinuclear, nuclear, nuclear costs, nuclear secrecy, nuclear wastes, nuclear weapons, radiation, radioactive | Leave a comment

Russia’s wildfires threaten radioactive areas from Chernobyl

“Emergencies Minister Sergei Shoigu said heat from fires in the Bryansk region, which already has nuclear contamination from the Chernobyl disaster more than 20 years ago, could release harmful radioactive particles into the atmosphere.

Nuclear Concerns as Russian Wildfires Spread Near Chernobyl, The Atlantic Wire, By Max Fisher, August 06, 2010 The hundreds of wildfires still spreading through Russia are beginning to approach areas affected by the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear meltdown. Continue reading →

August 9, 2010 Posted by Christina Macpherson | Russia, safety | antinuclear, Chernobly, Chernobyl, nuclear, nuclear weapons, radiation, reactors | Leave a comment

Long term cancer, brain damage, risks from overdose of radiation scanning

the radiation overdoses were larger and more common than previously known–involving about 400 patients at eight hospitals, including six in California. And experts believe that patients may face long-term risks of cancer and brain damage.

Brain Scan Radiation Overdoses More Widespread Than Previously Known, FAIR WARNING, By Elise Craig, August 2, 2010 Within the last few years, some patients across the country who underwent sophisticated brain scans to determine if they had suffered strokes began to experience odd symptoms, including a stripe of baldness running around the backs of their heads, memory loss and confusion.

Eventually, doctors discovered that the problem stemmed from accidental radiation overdoses from the analytical procedure itself, known as a CT brain perfusion scan.An investigation by The New York Times, however, has found that the radiation overdoses were larger and more common than previously known–involving about 400 patients at eight hospitals, including six in California. And experts believe that patients may face long-term risks of cancer and brain damage.

Brain Scan Radiation Overdoses More Widespread Than Previously Known | FairWar

August 7, 2010 Posted by Christina Macpherson | health, USA | antinuclear, nuclear, radiation, radioactive | Leave a comment

Russian efforts to save nuclear weapons plant from wildfires

Russian troops have dug a eight kilometre long canal to keep wildfires away from a nuclear arms site. Radio New Zealand News, 2010 : 08 : 08 Forest and peat fires in Russia, caused by a heatwave, have killed at least 52 people and destroyed thousands of homes.Smoke from the wildfires has blanketed the capital, Moscow, forcing people to wear surgical masks to filter out the smog.

A Russian radio station says army troops have excavated a canal around the Sarov nuclear arms facility, 350km east of Moscow, which is ringed by forest……..Radio New Zealand News : Stories : 2010 : 08 : 08 : Russian troops dig canal to protect nuclear site

August 7, 2010 Posted by Christina Macpherson | Russia, safety | antinuclear, nuclear, nuclear costs, plutonium, radiation, radioactive | Leave a comment

Hiroshima atomic bomb survivors bear witness today

It was a black rain with big drops……

This It How It Feels To Be Under A Nuclear Attack | Gizmodo Australia, By Akiko Takakura and others on August 6, 2010 “………..Since Hiroshima was completely enveloped in flames, we felt terribly hot and could not breathe well at all. After a while, a whirlpool of fire approached us from the south. It was like a big tornado of fire spreading over the full width of the street. Whenever the fire touched, wherever the fire touched, it burned. It burned my ear and leg, I didn’t realise that I had burned myself at that moment, but I noticed it later….

The whirlpool of fire that was covering the entire street approached us from Ote-machi. So everyone just tried so hard to keep away from the fire. It was just like a living hell. After a while, it began to rain. The fire and the smoke made us so thirsty and there was nothing to drink, no water, and the smoke even disturbed our eyes. As it began to rain, people opened their mouths and turned their faces towards the sky and try to drink the rain, but it wasn’t easy to catch the rain drops in our mouths. It was a black rain with big drops……

This It How It Feels To Be Under A Nuclear Attack | Gizmodo Australia

August 7, 2010 Posted by Christina Macpherson | Japan, weapons and war | antinuclear, nuclear, nuclear weapons | Leave a comment

“Peaceful’ nuclear power inextricably linked with nuclear weapons

nuclear power is tightly linked with nuclear weapons, and contrary to current groupthink, its technology is neither “clean” nor “safe.” Thus, proposals to eliminate nuclear weapons while expanding nuclear power plants are a contradictory and doomed strategy for renewable, clean energy production and international security………

August 6 and 9: Perils and Possibilities, t r u t h o u t, 06 August 2010 by: H. Patricia Hynes and Jeff Napolitano, August is a month of memorial and actions for a nuclear free-world. August 6th and August 9th mark the 65th anniversary of the U.S. dropping atomic bombs on the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, which many believe was an unnecessary act for Japan’s surrender and one which killed hundreds of thousands of Japanese civilians. It also launched the perilous era of nuclear weapons and power plants. Continue reading →

August 7, 2010 Posted by Christina Macpherson | 2 WORLD, spinbuster | antinuclear, nuclear, nuclear technology, nuclear weapons | Leave a comment

Cancers will increase as young Hiroshima victims live on

Those exposed to A-bomb radiation in early adolescence or at a younger age have shown a higher rate of cancer than those exposed to the radiation as adults. Most of the survivors living now were adolescents or younger at the time of the blast. Many more cancer patients are expected to emerge — probably 70,000 to 80,000 new cases by 2040………

Disease and regret weigh on atomic-bomb survivors By NANAO KAMADA, M.D., chief director of the Hiroshima Atomic-bomb Survivors Relief Foundation. The Japan Times Aug. 6, 2010 “……Among the survivors, various types of malignant tumors developed over time because of their exposure to atomic radiation. The occurrence of leukemia started to increase three years after the bombing, thyroid gland cancer eight years after, breast and lung cancer 10 years after, and stomach and colon cancers 15 years after. Continue reading →

August 7, 2010 Posted by Christina Macpherson | health, Japan | antinuclear, cancer, nuclear, nuclear weapons, radiation, radioactive | Leave a comment

China accuses USA of double standards in nuclear deal with Vietnam

…The US is used to employing double standards when dealing with different countries … as a global power that has promoted denuclearization, it has challenged its own reputation and disturbed the preset international order,

China shaken by US move to sign nuclear deal with Vietnam The Times of India, 6 Aug 2010, BEIJING: China, which has recently dominated the security situation in North Asia, appeared shaken by a surprise move by the US administration to begin negotiations for a civilian nuclear deal with Vietnam…. Continue reading →

August 7, 2010 Posted by Christina Macpherson | politics international, USA | antinuclear, enriched, nuclear, uranium | Leave a comment

Today 130,000 Hiroshima like bombings are possible

Today we live in a world with over 23,000 nuclear bombs wired to destroy life many times over. These weapons have the combined firepower of over 130,000 Hiroshimas.

Scope of nuclear war today is unfathomable, Joplin Independent: Hastings 2010-08-06 16: by Robert Dodge, M.D.Sixty five years ago this week, the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki were destroyed in a flash. Continue reading →

August 7, 2010 Posted by Christina Macpherson | general | antinuclear, nuclear, nuclear weapons | Leave a comment

Utah to suffer again the fallout from nuclear weapons testing?

there simply is no military requirement for new nuclear weapons capabilities that might require the resumption of U.S. nuclear testing.

Nuclear Weapons Testing is Back on the Table in Utah, Blog for Iowa, Editor’s Note, 6 Aug 2010, Nuclear weapons testing is back on the election agenda in Utah, the reddest of red states, home of many “downwinders” who suffered cancer from the fallout of our previous regime of nuclear weapons testing in Nevada. Continue reading →

August 7, 2010 Posted by Christina Macpherson | USA, weapons and war | antinuclear, cancer, nuclear, nuclear weapons, radiation, radioactive | 1 Comment

Nuclear weapons do not make a country safer

Most European countries do not have nuclear weapons, and nor does Canada, Australia or New Zealand. Are these therefore in greater danger? On the contrary, the London bombings of 7th July 2005 were attacks on a country with nuclear weapons, while the attacks of 11th September 2001 were against the country with by far the largest nuclear arsenal in the world…..

The English Church is, actually, against the replacement of Trident | CatholicHerald.co.uk David Lindsay, 6 August 2010, ” ……….Like radiological, chemical and biological weapons, nuclear weapons are morally repugnant simply in themselves. They offer not the slightest defence against a range of loosely knit, if at all connected, terrorist organisations pursuing a range of loosely knit, if at all connected, aims in relation to a range of countries while actually governing no state. Continue reading →

August 6, 2010 Posted by Christina Macpherson | general | antinuclear, nuclear, nuclear costs, nuclear weapons | Leave a comment

Plea for disarmament – Japan’s children speak

VIDEO MillionPleas A reminder of the real significance of today: 65 years since Hiroshima August 6, 2010 , by Croakey Today is an important day. Thanks to the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons for reminding us of the day’s significance.
The first pleas come from Japanese children at the Hiroshima Peace Park together with one of the survivors of the original nuclear attack. Join them at http://www.millionpleas.com.” MillionPleas

A reminder of the real significance of today: 65 years since Hiroshima – Croakey

August 6, 2010 Posted by Christina Macpherson | general | antinuclear, nuclear, nuclear weapons, radioactive | Leave a comment

University of California designs technologies for nuclear holocaust

should the University of California be managing laboratories that design the latest technologies for nuclear holocaust?

Higher Learning: How to Blow Up the World, THE HUFFINGTON POST, Norman Solomon:, 6 August 2010, On my way to the Los Alamos National Laboratory a few years ago, I found it listed in a New Mexico phone book–under “University of California.”

Since the early 1940s, UC has managed the nation’s top laboratories for designing nuclear bombs. Today, California’s public university system is still immersed in the nuclear weapons business. Continue reading →

August 6, 2010 Posted by Christina Macpherson | Religion and ethics, USA | antinuclear, nuclear, nuclear costs, nuclear secrecy, nuclear technology, nuclear weapons | Leave a comment

Wildfire danger to Russia’s top secret nuclear facility

Russian Wildfire Threatens Nuclear Facility, Voice of America, James Brooke | Moscow, 5 Aug 2010, As record hot temperatures reaching 35 degrees Celsius continue to bake Russia, wildfires threaten the nation’s nuclear-weapons laboratory and other military facilities. A thick haze of wood smoke blankets Moscow……
Eight firefighting planes and 20 trucks are helping to keep flames out of Sarov, the location of the country’s top-secret nuclear research facility and a city closed to foreigners……..

Russian Wildfire Threatens Nuclear Facility | Europe | English

August 5, 2010 Posted by Christina Macpherson | Russia, safety | antinuclear, nuclear, nuclear secrecy, nuclear technology, radiation, radioactive, reactor | Leave a comment

Medical scanners’radiation overdoses, but Toshiba still wants nuclear taxpayer funds

the overdoses were larger and more widespread than previously known, with patients reporting serious health problems. They face long-term risks of cancer and brain damage…..Given the information emerging about Toshiba’s safety record, is that [funding] a risk U.S. taxpayers want to take?

Company seeking nuclear subsidies under investigation for radiation overdoses to stroke patients, FACING SOUTH, By Sue Sturgis August 4, 2010 The U.S. Senate could vote as soon as next month on a proposal to give $9 billion in taxpayer-backed loan guarantees to companies planning to build new nuclear reactors — and one of the companies seeking the aid for a project in Texas is currently under federal investigation for its role in the radiation overdoses of patients who received CT scans on its equipment. Continue reading →

August 5, 2010 Posted by Christina Macpherson | safety, USA | antinuclear, nuclear, nuclear costs, radiation, radioactive, reactors | Leave a comment