radioactive « nuclear-news

Nuclear power company settles lawsuit over radiation leaks

Exelon to pay $1 million to settle lawsuits Breaking Business News, March 11, 2010 By Michael Hawthorne | Exelon agreed today to pay more than $1 million to settle lawsuits filed by Atty. Gen. Lisa Madigan after the company allowed radioactive tritium to leak outside three of its nuclear plants.The settlement involves leaks of tritium-contaminated water that seeped into the ground around the company’s Braidwood, Byron and Dresden plants. The penalties include $628,000 in fines and $538,000 to fund environmental projects in Will, Ogle and Grundy counties.

Exelon to pay $1 million to settle lawsuits – Chicago Breaking Business

March 12, 2010 Posted by Christina Macpherson | Legal, USA | antinuclear, nuclear, nuclear costs, radiation, radioactive, reactor, reactors | Leave a comment

France taking a moral posture on its nuclear sales pitch

French PM: EPR Reactor Is World’s Safest In Its Class – WSJ.com, By Adam Mitchell Of DOW JONES NEWSWIRES PARIS (Dow Jones) 10 March 2010, –France’s flagship EPR-type nuclear reactor is the world’s safest in its class and the French nuclear-safety arrangements are the most complete in the world, French Prime Minister Francois Fillon said Tuesday.Fillon’s speech to a nuclear conference contrasts with recent allegations by an anti-nuclear group, Sortir du Nucleaire, which cast aspersions on the EPR-type reactor’s safety….
The prime minister also said that France ….. has a “responsibility” to promote civil nuclear technology around the world.

UPDATE: French PM: EPR Reactor Is World’s Safest In Its Class – WSJ.com

March 10, 2010 Posted by Christina Macpherson | France, spinbuster | antinuclear, AREVA, EDF, France, nuclear, nuclear costs, nuclear secrecy, nuclear spin, radiation, radioactive, reactor | Leave a comment

President Obama the nuclear industry’s Golden Boy

Obama’s Nuclear Dreams: Resurrecting a Noxious Industry, He may soon be called the nuclear industry’s Golden Child. t r u t h o u t |, 10 March 2010, No president in the Obama’s Nuclear Dreams: Resurrecting a Noxious Industrylast three decades has put more taxpayer dollars behind atom power than Barack Obama. And there may be good reason why the president is salivating over the prospect of building new nuclear power plants around the country. … Continue reading →

March 10, 2010 Posted by Christina Macpherson | politics, USA | antinuclear, nuclear, nuclear secrecy, nuclear spin, nuclear weapons, radioactive, reactor | Leave a comment

AREVA warns on nuclear industry safety shortcuts

No “two-track” nuclear industry, warns Areva | Business News, 9 March 2010, The CEO of nuclear reactor builder Areva has warned against cutting corners on nuclear reactor projects at an international nuclear conferenceBy Chris Farnell
The conference took place at the headquarters of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).

Speaking to the conference, Areva Chief Executive, Anne Lauvergeon, said: “We cannot see a two-track nuclear industry develop, with a low-cost one for some and high standards for others.”….

United States Deputy Secretary of Energy, Daniel Poneman, who also attended the OECD conference, said there could be no compromise on safety at nuclear plants.

“We still must focus on security. A nuclear accident anywhere is a nuclear accident everywhere,” he said.

No “two-track” nuclear industry, warns Areva | Business News | Energy Digital

March 10, 2010 Posted by Christina Macpherson | France, safety | antinuclear, AREVA, France, nuclear, nuclear costs, nuclear spin, radiation, radioactive, reactor | Leave a comment

Revealed: Japan’s secret nuclear arms deals with USA

Japan ‘lied’ on secret US nuclear deal Peter Alford, Tokyo correspondent , The Australian March 10, 2010 JAPANESE governments lied to their people for more than 30 years about a “tacit” secret agreement allowing nuclear-armed US vessels to use their ports, a special Foreign Ministry panel reported yesterday. Continue reading →

March 10, 2010 Posted by Christina Macpherson | Japan, secrets,lies and civil liberties | antinuclear, nuclear, nuclear costs, nuclear spin, radiation, radioactive | Leave a comment

Is Obama administration blind to the financial risks of nuclear power?

Obama’s Nuclear Blind Spot , Mother Jones , By Kate Sheppard 9 March 2010 Is the administration ignoring the potential financial fallout of its plans for a nuclear expansion?The Obama administration has embarked on a high-stakes gamble: devoting billions of dollars to an expansion of nuclear power in the hope of winning Republican votes for a climate bill. But in its eagerness to drum up bipartisan support for one of the hardest sells on Obama’s policy agenda, is the administration turning a blind eye to the financial risk? Continue reading →

March 9, 2010 Posted by Christina Macpherson | politics, USA | antinuclear, nuclear, nuclear costs, nuclear spin, radiation, radioactive, reactor, reactors | Leave a comment

Radiation tests on monkeys might be stopped

“Since there is currently no realistic timetable for deep space travel, there is simply no ethical justification for putting these monkeys through these inhumane and possibly fatal experiments at this time,” the lawmakers concluded.

NASA monkey radiation experiment facing animal-cruelty accusations THE HILL, By Tony Romm – 03/08/10 NASA’s Brookhaven National Laboratory is coming under intense scrutiny this week following complaints that its forthcoming $1.75 million radiation experiment on monkeys violates a score of animal-rights laws. Continue reading →

March 9, 2010 Posted by Christina Macpherson | Religion and ethics, USA | cancer, nuclear, radiation, radioactive | Leave a comment

Move in U.S. Congress to question nuclear reactor licensing

A “catastrophic accident” poses a greater safety risk than “many orders of magnitude more severe than any other type of power plant,” …There is also a financial risk,

House Democrat asks GAO to investigate nuclear licensing process, The Hill, By Jim Snyder – 03/08/10 Rep. Edward Markey (D-Mass.) is asking the Government Accountability Office to review the permitting process for nuclear plants as others in his party appear poised to offer lucrative incentives to revive the industry.

Among his questions is whether the Nuclear Regulatory Commission has adequately weighed the risks earthquakes and severe weather may pose to nuclear power plants. Continue reading →

March 9, 2010 Posted by Christina Macpherson | politics, USA | antinuclear, nuclear, nuclear costs, nuclear spin, radiation, radioactive, reactor, reactors | Leave a comment

New research points to cancers caused by unnecessary medical radiation

CT scan safety: Concerns mount , Chicago Tribune 9 March 2010,

Does early detection really save lives?

“As physicians find new ways to use diagnostic imaging to discover and deal with disease, concern is growing about Americans’ increased exposure to potentially cancer-causing radiation. Annual radiation doses from medical imaging have soared sevenfold since the early 1980s, according to a report last year from the National Council on Radiation Protection and Measurements.

Meanwhile, as many as 14,500 people a year may end up dying of radiation-induced cancers caused by CT scans, new research suggests.”–Judith Graham, Chicago Tribune.

Read her whole story: Concerns mount over radiation associatead with CT scans

Julie’s Health Club: CT scan safety: Concerns mount

March 9, 2010 Posted by Christina Macpherson | health, USA | antinuclear, nuclear, nuclear spin, radiation, radioactive | Leave a comment

They STILL don’t know what to do with nuclear waste!

Future of spent nuclear fuel, The Energy Collective, by Dan Yurman, 03/06/2010
A blue ribbon commission will hold its first meeting March 25-26 in Washington, DC

A panel of nuclear energy experts appointed by the federal government will take up the issue of what to do with 60,000 metric tons of spent nuclear fuel. Continue reading →

March 8, 2010 Posted by Christina Macpherson | USA, wastes | antinuclear, nuclear, nuclear costs, nuclear weapons, radiation, radioactive | Leave a comment

The very secret costs of nuclear power

Hidden Costs of the nuclear industry – Secrecy about Nuclear Costs
The secrecy surrounding nuclear industry costs has two main aspects:
1. Nuclear power is intrinsically connected to nuclear weapons, and the costs of these are kept very much hidden by all states.
2.In States where the government runs the nuclear industry, the true costs are well hidden. (Spare a thought for the USA – warts and all, the USA, in trying to run a privatised nuclear industry, does allow public flow of information about THE MONEY.) – The true costs of nuclear power – our theme for March 2010

March 7, 2010 Posted by Christina Macpherson | 1 | antinuclear, France, nuclear, nuclear costs, nuclear renaissance, nuclear secrecy, nuclear spin, radiation, radioactive, reactor, wastes | Leave a comment

Court orders Exxon Mobil to pay up for radiation contamination

The claims are among thousands pending against Exxon and other oil companies over allegations that they put employees and residents near pipe-cleaning operations at risk from radiation- related diseases, particularly cancer.

Exxon Must Pay $1.2 Million for Workers’ Radiation (Update2) – BusinessWeek, )March 05, 2010,By Bob Van Voris and Leslie Snadowsky, March 5 (Bloomberg) — Exxon Mobil Corp., the largest U.S. energy company, must pay $1.2 million to 16 Louisiana workers who claimed they were exposed to dangerous levels of radiation when they were cleaning used oil drilling pipes, a jury said. Continue reading →

March 5, 2010 Posted by Christina Macpherson | Legal, USA | antinuclear, nuclear, radiation, radioactive | Leave a comment

Groundwater threatened by uranium mining

“It’s a huge potential for contamination of groundwater.”

Uranium Mining In The Black Hills – Debra White Plume’s Response to ‘Clean Nuclear’ Republic of Lakotah, March 3, 2010 The planned uranium mine site in the southern Black Hills can impact four aquifers. Powertech, Inc. USA plans to begin uranium extraction in 2011 and operate for 15 years in the permit area of 10,580 acres located in Dewey and Burdock Counties, north of Edgemont, SD. Continue reading →

March 5, 2010 Posted by Christina Macpherson | Canada, environment, water | antinuclear, nuclear, nuclear costs, radiation, radioactive | 1 Comment

Depleted uranium in Utah violates laws

Politics Up Close: HEAL Utah on Depleted Uranium Study | KCPW03.05.2010 by Jeff Robinson, Governor Gary Herbert has struck a deal to keep additional depleted uranium out of the state for now. But thousands of drums of it are already here, some buried, some about to be buried in the west desert at EnergySolutions facility. But a new report commissioned by the Healthy Environment Alliance of Utah says this violates federal and state law on low-level waste disposal. We’re joined by Executive Director Vanessa Pierce and Dr. Arjun Makhijani with the Institute for Environmental and Energy Research.

Politics Up Close: HEAL Utah on Depleted Uranium Study | KCPW

March 5, 2010 Posted by Christina Macpherson | 1 | antinuclear, depleted, nuclear, nuclear wastes, radiation, radioactive, uranium | Leave a comment

New uranium mine in Canada to avoid federal environmental assessment

Nunavut uranium proposal won’t undergo federal review, CBC News, 5 March 2010, A uranium mine being proposed in Nunavut will not be subject to a federal environmental assessment, but instead be reviewed by a territorial regulator. Continue reading →

March 5, 2010 Posted by Christina Macpherson | Canada, environment | antinuclear, nuclear, radiation, radioactive, uranium | Leave a comment