nuclear « nuclear-news

USA Dept of Energy wants to offload weapons plutonium onto commercial reactors

The Department of Energy is looking for ways to dispose of plutonium from nuclear weapons….Ed Lyman, senior staff scientist with the Union of Concerned Scientists, said the mixed-oxide fuel is “too dirty, dangerous and expensive.”

TVA hears public worries over Ala. plant plutonium – BusinessWeek, 4 Aug 2010, TANNER, Ala. A public hearing on the Tennessee Valley Authority possibly using reprocessed weapons plutonium to power some reactors in north Alabama and Tennessee attracted about 70 people, many with questions about safety. Continue reading →

August 5, 2010 Posted by Christina Macpherson | technology, USA | AUSTRALIA, nuclear, nuclear costs, nuclear wastes, nuclear weapons, plutonium, reactors, reprocessing | Leave a comment

Public anxiety over plan to use plutonium fuel in Browns Ferry reactors

The plutonium in MOX also makes fuel rods less stable, Lyman said. That increases the chance of a reactor meltdown. Not only is such a meltdown more likely, he said, but the use of plutonium would increase the number of fatalities by about 25 percent compared to a meltdown involving conventional fuel rods.

(USA) Crowd expresses concern over plutonium proposal, The Times Daily | Florence, AL, By Eric Fleischauer Decatur Daily, August 4, 2010 . A frustrated crowd of about 60 people confronted TVA and Energy Department officials at a public hearing Tuesday, and few expressed comfort with a proposal to use plutonium in Browns Ferry reactors. Continue reading →

August 5, 2010 Posted by Christina Macpherson | technology, USA | antinuclear, nuclear, nuclear wastes, plutonium, radiation, radioactive, reactors | Leave a comment

lingering radioactivity affects worker

The site south of Buffalo housed a nuclear fuel reprocessing operation from 1966 to 1972. Uranium and plutonium were extracted from spent fuel. Cleanup has been ongoing since the 1980s.

NY nuke site worker had slight radiation exposure – BusinessWeek, WEST VALLEY, N.Y., 4 Aug 2010, A worker at a New York nuclear cleanup site had to be decontaminated after moisture seeped through her protective clothing while she was cleaning a floor, exposing her to a slight amount of radiation. Continue reading →

August 5, 2010 Posted by Christina Macpherson | safety, USA | antinuclear, nuclear, plutonium, radiation, radioactive, reprocessing, uranium | Leave a comment

Inadequate screening of nuclear workers

The NRC is still deciding whether to give the plant final approval.

NRC to begin inspection at Ga. nuclear work site – BusinessWeek, 5 Aug 2010, Federal regulators will start an inspection after workers were improperly screened at the construction site of a proposed nuclear power plant in eastern Georgia. Continue reading →

August 5, 2010 Posted by Christina Macpherson | general | antinuclear, nuclear, nuclear secrecy, reactors | Leave a comment

Fire at UK nuclear weapons factory

Residents evacuated after fire at UK’s main nuclear weapons factory, Telegraph UK, 4 Aug 2010, Residents located near Britain’s main nuclear weapons factory were forced to evacuate after a fire broke out in one of the plant’s buildings. By Andrew Hough An investigation has been launched into what sparked the blaze at the Atomic Weapons Establishment in Aldermaston, Berks, which maintains the warheads for the UK’s Trident nuclear deterrent…….
Both Thames Valley Police and the Royal Berkshire Fire and Rescue Service declined to comment.

In December ministers sold off the Government’s last remaining one-third ownership to a Californian engineering company.

Residents evacuated after fire breaks out at UK’s nuclear weapons factory – Telegraph

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

Nuclear disarmament movement revving up

The nuclear disarmament movement has taken on new momentum, especially in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the only two cities to ever suffer a nuclear attack.

Ban, Okada confirm effort to eradicate nukes,The Japan Times Online, Aug. 4, 2010, By MASAMI ITOS U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki Moon confirmed Tuesday with Foreign Minister Katsuya Okada that Japan and the world body will aim for the abolition of nuclear weapons…… Continue reading →

August 5, 2010 Posted by Christina Macpherson | general | antinuclear, disarmament, nuclear, nuclear weapons | Leave a comment

France’s dubious dream of global nuclear power empire

France’s recent nuclear record is so ragged, it may struggle to win orders whatever the ownership structure. A new generation nuclear-power station being build by French state-owned reactor maker Areva in Finland is years behind schedule and nearly 80% over budget. A new EDF plant in France using the same Areva technology is also behind schedule……

France’s Tricky Nuclear Fusion, – WSJ.com, Matthew Curtin, AUGUST 3, 2010 “…..President Nicolas Sarkozy wants to create a French nuclear powerhouse. France believes 250 nuclear power stations will be built worldwide over the next 20 years, requiring total investment of $1 trillion or more. But dominating this market may be harder than Mr. Sarkozy thinks. Continue reading →

August 4, 2010 Posted by Christina Macpherson | business and costs, France | antinuclear, AREVA, nuclear, nuclear costs, reactors | Leave a comment

Israel a wild card on possible strike on Iran’s nuclear sites

Israel more likely to strike Iran than U.S., analysts say, Washington Examiner, By: Sara A. Carter, August 3, 2010While the U.S. military has developed a first-strike plan to take out Iranian nuclear facilities, the political and security consequences of taking that step make it an unlikely option, analysts said.
But the wild card in the deck remains Israel, and there is a growing sense among experts that the Jewish state make act first, and explain later, if the threat of a nuclear strike from Tehran continues to grow……..

Israel more likely to strike Iran than U.S., analysts say | Washington Examiner

August 4, 2010 Posted by Christina Macpherson | general | antinuclear, nuclear, nuclear weapons | Leave a comment

USA wants UN inspections for Syria’s possible nuclear sites

IAEA should look at mandatory Syria inspection: U.S. By Adrian Croft, LONDON Aug 3, 2010 LONDON (Reuters) – The U.S. envoy to the U.N.’s nuclear watchdog said on Tuesday it should consider pressing for a mandatory special inspection in Syria to resolve allegations of covert atomic activity.A confidential International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) report, obtained by Reuters in May, said Syria had revealed some details of past nuclear experiments to U.N. inspectors. But it was still blocking access to a desert site where secret atomic activity may have taken place.

U.S. intelligence reports said the desert site, bombed to rubble by Israel in 2007, had been a North Korean-designed nuclear reactor under construction, geared for atomic bomb fuel.

Syria allowed the IAEA to inspect the site, known as either al-Kibar or Dair Alzour, in June 2008 but has not allowed the agency to revisit it since then…….The IAEA lacks legal means to get Syria to open up because the country’s basic safeguards treaty covers only its one declared atomic facility, an old research reactor IAEA should look at mandatory Syria inspection: U.S. | Reuters

August 4, 2010 Posted by Christina Macpherson | Syria, weapons and war | nuclear, nuclear costs, nuclear weapons | Leave a comment

France shows the way to nuclear financial meltdown

Last week, AREVA posted a massive operating loss of 485 million euros for the first half of 2010…..Electricite de France (EDF) finds itself in a similar predicament. In the first half of 2010, the company saw its profits slashed by almost half.

France leads the way in the nuclear debacle Greenpeace International, by jmckeati – August 2, 2010 If you want to know why the so-called nuclear ‘renaissance’ is never going to happen, you need only look at the news that’s been coming out of France in the last few days. Continue reading →

August 3, 2010 Posted by Christina Macpherson | business and costs, France | antinuclear, AREVA, EDF, France, nuclear, nuclear costs, nuclear secrecy, nuclear technology, reactors, uranium | Leave a comment

Lingering legacy of Hiroshima’s atomic bombing

“I wanted to pass on the fact that the atomic bombing does not end only with the sufferings of the generation of people who were directly exposed.”

Hibakusha writes to his dead child, BY HAJIMU TAKEDA THE ASAHI SHIMBUN, 3 Aug 2010, An 81-year-old survivor of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima has written a letter addressed to his stillborn daughter, expressing his anguish at the possibility that his exposure to radiation was responsible for her fate. Continue reading →

August 3, 2010 Posted by Christina Macpherson | general | antinuclear, nuclear, nuclear weapons, radiation, radioactive | Leave a comment

Radioactive isotopes could be used to make a ‘dirty’ bomb

since cesium can be stolen from a hospital and thus can be more easily acquired than, say, uranium or plutonium, it wouldn’t be a stretch to imagine a terrorist group acquiring enough cesium to construct a barrage of low-explosive, highly radioactive bombs and blanketing a major city with them.

The Real Deal With Cesium,THE HUFFINGTON POST, Rizwan Ladha, 2 Aug 2010, The idea has been floated for a long time of using cesium in a radioactive “dirty bomb,” which wouldn’t have the same explosive power as a uranium or plutonium nuclear bomb but would contaminate land, water supplies and living organisms, including people. Continue reading →

August 3, 2010 Posted by Christina Macpherson | 2 WORLD, weapons and war | antinuclear, nuclear, plutonium, radiation, radioactive | 1 Comment

Boars in Europe – radioactive from Chernobyl nuclear fallout

Because it is illegal to sell contaminated boar meat, Berlin has to compensate hunters who have harvested the radioactive boars that contain high levels of caesium-137. Caesium-137 is an unstable chemical that is water soluble (mushrooms are very absorbent) and toxic in small amounts.

Chernobyl fallout making some German boars radioactive National Post, Jodi lai, August 2, 2010 “Nearly 25 years after the Chernobyl explosion, Europe still sees signs of radiation. Now it’s even in their wild boars…………Wild boars are particularly susceptible to radiation because they eat mushrooms and truffles, which are very efficient at absorbing radioactivity. Continue reading →

August 3, 2010 Posted by Christina Macpherson | environment, EUROPE | antinuclear, nuclear, nuclear secrecy, nuclear weapons, radiation, radioactive | Leave a comment

USA to allow South Korea to reprocess nuclear fuel?

Washington has so far been reluctant to permit it since the process results in the production of weapons-grade plutonium.

Korea, U.S. to Discuss Nuclear Fuel Reprocessing This Fall, The Chosun Ilbo, 3 Aug 2010, Korea and the United States have agreed to start talks about the revision of a bilateral atomic energy agreement this fall, it emerged on Monday. Seoul is keen to reprocess its own spent fuel rods, which it is barred from doing under the agreement, Continue reading →

August 3, 2010 Posted by Christina Macpherson | South Korea, technology | antinuclear, nuclear, nuclear costs, nuclear technology, reactors, recycling, reprocessing, uranium | Leave a comment

Burma and North Korea working together on nuclear program?

“We continue to be concerned by the reports that Burma may be seeking assistance from North Korea with regard to a nuclear program,” Clinton said.

North Korean FM visits Myanmar amid nuke concerns, Google hosted news, (AP) – 1 Aug 2010, YANGON, Myanmar — North Korea’s foreign minister visited Myanmar on Thursday for high-level talks that come on the heels of a U.S. warning against any cooperation between the two nations on nuclear technology…… Continue reading →

August 3, 2010 Posted by Christina Macpherson | Burma, politics international | antinuclear, nuclear, nuclear costs, nuclear secrecy, nuclear technology, nuclear wastes, nuclear weapons | 1 Comment