A potential nuclear mess
A potential nuclear mess LAS VEGAS SUN 19 June 09 Many companies are not setting aside enough money for closing of nuclear plants The companies that own most of the nation’s aging nuclear reactors are not putting aside an adequate amount of money to properly close them when the time comes, an Associated Press review of financial records found……………………..
Instead of planning for closure, plant owners are delaying the inevitable, with the help of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. The NRC has given 19 plants permission to mothball their reactors for as many as 60 years before closing them. The commission has also granted 20-year license extensions for 54 reactors, more than half of the nation’s plants, which could mean closure would come in 80 years.
The hope, apparently, is that the plant owners will be able to afford closure several decades down the road, and that is dangerous. The plants could become a safety and security risk if the owners don’t have the money to properly maintain and close them. Nuclear power critics wonder whether the companies that plan to mothball their plants will even be around in 60 years.
“Our concern is that they’ll just walk away from it,” said Jim Riccio of Greenpeace. “It’s like a sitting time bomb. The notion that you can just walk away from these sites and everything will be hunky-dory is just not true.”
Supporters of nuclear power like to portray it as a clean, environmentally friendly source of power, but that is not true. Nuclear power has created tremendous environmental and health hazards and the contamination the plants have created will be around, in some cases, for tens of thousands of years. These issues must be adequately addressed, yet the NRC appears to be letting the nuclear plant operators push off the problems to the next generation.
SC jobseekers line up to clean nuke waste
SC jobseekers line up to clean nuke waste google News By MEG KINNARD 19 June 09 “…………………..The jobs, most of them cleaning up the nuclear waste, are only temporary, funded through September 2011 as part of the federal stimulus package…………………….The new employees will be hired by the end of this summer and will focus on closing down several unused facilities, cleaning up about 600 acres of contaminated soil and disposing of or storing about waste created by processing spent nuclear fuel. Workers will also be tasked with closing several old reactors and evaporating millions of gallons of contaminated water.
A holy terror
A holy terror Catholic archbishops speak out against nuclear reactors VICTORIA HANDYSIDES METRO NEWS 18 June 09 EDMONTON Toxic waste, terrorist threats and depleted natural resources could be part of Alberta’s future if nuclear reactors are erected in the province, a reality of which citizens are largely unaware, Alberta’s Catholic archbishops said yesterday. Continue reading
Ottawa to spend $6M seeking medical isotope alternatives
Approval for alternative types of medical isotopes such as thallium for cardiac scans and sodium fluoride for bone scans has also been been sped up, Aglukkaq said.”Although the next month is going to be challenging with Petten down as well, I believe that the increasing use of those two alternatives really does give us a significant step up in coping with the need to help our patients,” said Dr. Sandy McEwan, the federal government’s new special adviser on medical isotopes.Also on Tuesday, Ontario’s Health Ministry announced it will pay $1.4 million in one-time funding to produce sodium fluoride as an alternative diagnostic procedure for about 2,000 cancer patients.
Is depleted uranium too hot for Utah site?
Is depleted uranium too hot for Utah site?
Environment » State Radiation Control Board has decided to look further into the question.
06/10/2009 03
Utah‘s Radiation Control Board will dig deeper into the long-term risks of depleted uranium before it decides whether the unusual form of low-level radioactive waste warrants a moratorium. ………………………..”First of all, I believe the public should be protected and the environment should be protected,” said board vice chair Elizabeth Goryunova, suggesting that the board had a responsibility to consider the need for a moratorium despite hassles that might be involved in imposing one. “That’s absolutely a must.”…………………………
10 heroes who nailed Ministry of Defence lies over atomic blasts
10 heroes who nailed Ministry of Defence lies over atomic blasts Mirror.co.uk 7/06/2009 These are the 10 heroes whose evidence finally nailed the lies of the Ministry of Defence. Their cases were selected as examples that could be tested to see if a full trial of the facts was possible. All were sent to the Pacific to watch the atomic blasts in the 1950s. Four have died of cancer and another of a combination of illnesses. The survivors are all crippled by horrific medical conditions……………………
10 heroes who nailes Ministry of Defence lies over atomic blasts – mirror.co.uk
Atomic tests ruling is ‘too late’
An atomic test veteran from Manchester said a ruling by the High Court to give ex-servicemen the right to sue the British government has come too late.
Peter Gilbody, 70, of Withington, was involved in clearing up nuclear bomb debris in Australia in 1958. He has since been diagnosed with skin cancer.
About 1,000 servicemen blame their ill health on Britain’s involvement in nuclear tests in the South Pacific……………………..
He said: “I used to bury radioactive material… I had a mate who washed down our vehicles and planes and he got it terrible.
“Widows have lost husbands very early in life, children have got leukaemia.
“Compensation is a bit late now, it won’t do me any good now will it?”
In January the MoD tried to halt compensation claims, arguing that they had been made far too late to go ahead.
Many atomic veterans are terminally ill and since the original hearing seven claimants have died.
BBC NEWS | UK | England | Merseyside | Atomic tests ruling is ‘too late’
Court says nuclear test soldiers can sue Britain
Court says nuclear test soldiers can sue Britain
June 06, 2009
THE British High Court has concluded thousands of Australian service men and their families were treated as nuclear ‘guinea pigs’, giving them the right to sue the British Government.
The bombshell decision found the British Ministry of Defence did have a case to answer that it unfairly exposed servicemen from Australia, Britain, New Zealand and Fiji to atomic fallout during the series of tests in South Australia, Western Australia and off the eastern coast on atolls in the Pacific during the 1950s.
The sensational ruling was greeted with cheers from many veterans in Room 73 of the London Royal Courts of Justice where for five years 1000 of them have fought to prove they and their families had suffered because of radioactive exposure.
The case paves the way for millions of dollars in compensation to now be offered to the servicemen exposed on land, air and sea who were directed into mushroom clouds to test the effects of the weaponry on the human body.
The Australian Federal Government had stalled for years on whether to pay compensation, citing it was awaiting for a ruling to be made by the British High Court since the tests were done by the British Government.
AdelaideNow… Court says nuclear test soldiers can sue Britain
Rogue Radiation
Rogue Radiation abc2news.com 6 June 09 ABC2News investigates how with a lack of federal oversight, there is no way to know the scope of the problem.
Giant piles of scrap metal get melted down to form the types of products you buy everyday, but a lengthy Scripps Howard News Service investigation found that not all those products come out shiny and new. ………………….Neal Shapiro is the owner of Cambridge Iron and Metal in Baltimore.
The concern in the scrap metal business is the recycling of metals with low level radiation.Our investigation found that in some cases, contaminated metals like medical equipment and old industrial or aeronautical gauges make their way through some scrap yards and smelters without detection.
The end results are new products; radioactive products.
Our investigation found recycled radioactive metal was used to make cheese graters, parts of lazy boy chairs and years ago, the poles of some fast food tables. …………………………..And the equipment to detect is no bargain either, truck scales costs upwards of 50 thousand dollars. It is a financial burden yards like Shaprio’s responsibly take on, but we found that there is no federal oversight or standard requiring scrap yards to test their metals.
Rogue Radiation – Baltimore News, Weather, Breaking News | WMAR-TV
Texas has highest number of radioactive metal incidents
Texas has highest number of radioactive metal incidents
06/03/2009 By ISAAC WOLF, Scripps Howard News Service
For more than a month in the summer of 2006, a metal recycler in Longview, Texas, produced half a million pounds of radioactive material, state and federal documents show.
When LeTourneau Inc. workers melted Cesium-137 — a radioactive material commonly released in nuclear accidents — the dust containing the radioactive isotope contaminated the workers, along with sections of the facility, according to a July 2006 U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission report…………………..Other radioactive meltings in the Lone Star State include a May 1992 incident when El Paso metal recycler Border Steel melted Cesium-137 into a batch of iron, according to a barebones NRC report that provided no more details. In September 1993, Chaparral Steel in Midlothian also melted Cesium-137, according to a December 2007 Texas Department of State Health Services report.
Radioactive material has also been stolen in Texas. In 1996, at a Houston storage facility, someone swiped industrial X-ray devices containing the isotopes Cobalt-60 and Iridium-192. One of the devices was dropped near a scrap yard, where its protective shield was dislodged.
Scrap workers were exposed to dangerously high levels of radioactivity when they recovered the device, according to research by radiation experts James Yusko, of the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection, and Joel Lubenau, who formerly worked for the NRC. Through reports, articles and personal correspondences, the two have unofficially tracked radioactive melting incidents in the United States and around the world.
Radiation contamination by Depleted Uranium
Concerns regarding radiation contamination by the use of Depleted Uranium (DU) weaponry in the Balkans, Kuwait, Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan and Eastern Mediterranean Countries. The Palestine Telegraph By Peter Eyre 1 June 09 The majority of high tech weapons today contain Depleted Uranium and or other Heavy Metals. Some are coated in DU and others have both DU and Heavy Metal in their warheads. DU is also used to act as a counterweight…………………………..
The European Parliament has expressed grave concerns on the use of such weapons as follows:
having regard to UN General Assembly resolution of 5 December 2007, highlighting serious health concerns about the use of depleted uranium weapons, having regard to Rule 108(5) of its Rules of Procedure,
A. whereas (depleted) uranium has been widely used in modern warfare, both as ammunition against hardened targets in rural and urban environments and as hardened armoured protection against missile and artillery attacks,
B. whereas, ever since its use by the allied forces in the first war against Iraq, there have been serious concerns about the radiological and chemical toxicity of the fine uranium particles produced when such weapons impact on hard targets; whereas concerns have also been expressed about the contamination of soil and groundwater by expended rounds that have missed their targets and their implications for civilian populations,
C. whereas, despite the fact that scientific research has so far been unable to find conclusive evidence of harm, there are numerous testimonies as to the harmful and often deadly effects on both military personnel and civilians,
D. whereas the last few years have seen great advances in terms of understanding the environmental and health hazards posed by depleted uranium, ………………
………………………..All of my research experts state it is radiation alpha particles from uranium atoms that causes the problem, and this type of contamination can be measured very precisely. It is the alpha particle that once inside your body runs rife and the rate and type of “Cancer” is subject to if it was inhaled or ingested. The latter is caused mainly in areas where DU dust has spread in the atmosphere and returned to earth in precipitation.
What is ‘low-level’ waste, and is it good* for you?
The nuclear-power lobby
San Antonio Current by Greg Harman 27 May 09
…………………………..What is ‘low-level’ waste, and is it good* for you?
So-called “low-level” radioactive waste is basically everything except the nuclear fuel, weapons waste, or uranium mill tailings from mining.
While “high-level” radioactive waste includes irradiated fuel, “low-level” waste includes everything from shoe covers, rags, and mops to irradiated nuke plant components and piping, control rods from reactor cores, and the poison curtains that soak up neutrons from reactor-core water.
Critics claims the term “low-level” is misleading, since these wastes can emit anywhere from one or two curies per cubic meter all the way to up to 5,000 curies per cubic meter.
Ultimately, entire nuclear power plants will be dismantled and buried as “low-level” nuclear waste.
Carcasses of animals “treated” with radioactive elements in pharmaceutical or medical research also need to be disposed of as low-level waste.
And scientific, medical, and some research waste also fall into this category. Most medical wastes decay within days or weeks, while wastes from nuclear power plants can remain deadly for hundreds, thousands, or even hundreds of thousands of years.
Sources: U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Nuclear Information Resource Service, Ohio State University
*Not on your irradiated life.
France to pay (well, a bit) for nuclear health problems
France to pay for nuclear health problems
Euro News 28 May 09 People who have suffered health problems arising from France’s past nuclear tests are in line for compensation. It is the first time the government will vote on such a measure after decades of campaigning by pressure groups. France’s Defence Minister Herve Morin said the compensation system would reflect similar ones in Britain and the United States
Paris is setting aside some 10 million euros initially but victims groups say the money needs to be offered to more people exposed to radiation.
Patrice Bouveret, from support group, Truth and Justice, said: “the government is talking about a few hundred victims, whereas several thousand people have health problems which can’t be explained by genetics or smoking but by their presence during France’s atomic tests.”
Around 150,000 people were on site for the hundreds of nuclear tests France carried out in the South Pacific and the Sahara until 1996.
http://www.euronews.net/2009/05/27/france-to-pay-for-nuclear-health-problems/
Doctors urged to use diagnostic alternatives to reactor-produced isotopes
Doctors urged to use diagnostic alternatives to reactor-produced isotopesLaura Eggertson CMAJ Laura Eggertson 26 May 09 The Canadian affiliate of International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War is urging doctors to use diagnostic alternatives to procedures that require reactor-based ionizing radiation, because of links between the way medical isotopes are produced and the nuclear weapons industry…………………….. Edwards, a professor at Vanier College in Montréal, Quebec, and consultant on nuclear issues, says that makes the uranium a potential target for terrorists in search of material to build a nuclear bomb. “Now I know that most doctors don’t think there’s a connection between medical isotopes and bombs, but unfortunately there is,” Edwards, who is also president of the Canadian Coalition for Nuclear Responsibility, told CMAJ. The connection is that molybdenum-99 is broken down into technetium-99m, that is used in about 1.5 million nuclear medicine procedures in Canada annually, Edwards earlier said to about 40 physicians at St. Paul’s University in Ottawa, Ont.
Tritium leaks at Oyster Creek not easily contained
Tritium leaks at Oyster Creek not easily contained APP.com By PETER HIBBARD • May 12, 2009The recent reports of tritium being found in monitoring wells at the Oyster Creek nuclear plant in Lacey are deeply disturbing. Once a contaminant gets into the aquifer, it is nearly impossible to remove it. Water in the aquifer moves slowly, but it moves……….
…………..Oyster Creek is the oldest nuclear plant of its type in the nation. It has one of the highest leak rates in the country. Project Tooth Fairy measured Strontium 90 in children by examining baby teeth, and estimated the leakage has been going on for many years. Growing teeth can be checked for age of exposure, like rings on a tree.
Tritium leaks at Oyster Creek not easily contained | APP.com | Asbury Park Press
1 This Month
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
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