The Nuclear Begging Bowl
The Nuclear Begging Bowl JO ABBESS June 7th, 2009 “……………..In the United States they call this process a “bailout”, making it sound like a worthy rescue of a valued affiliate. In the United Kingdom, it’s called “public support”. It all amounts to the same thing : tax revenue from the public thrown at the private corporations……………
………………….it is unlikely that EdF will be able to persuade investors to put their money behind New Nuclear without some kind of pledge from the UK Government on a price guarantee for the electricity that will eventually (with luck) be generated.
And yet, at present, it is highly unlikely that such a pledge could be extracted, what with the whole Government in turmoil, and with international negotiations on Climate Change set to be turbulent and impactful on Energy provision (in December 2009 in Copenhagen).
Recycled radiation shows up at home | The Journal Gazette, Fort Wayne, Ind.
Recycled radiation shows up at homeLow levels revealed in consumer goods
journalgazette.net 7 june 09 Isaac Wolf
Scripps Howard News Service
Thousands of everyday products and materials containing radioactive metals are surfacing across the United States and around the world.
Cheese graters, reclining chairs, women’s handbags and tableware manufactured with contaminated metals have been identified, some after having been in circulation for as long as a decade. So have fencing wire and fence posts, shovel blades, elevator buttons and steel used in construction………………………One of the most conservative estimates comes from the U.S. Government Accountability Office, which put the number of radioactively contaminated metal objects unaccounted for in the United States in 2005 at 500,000. Others suggest the amount is far higher. The most recent NRC estimate – made a decade ago – is 20 million pounds of contaminated waste.
Recycled radiation shows up at home | The Journal Gazette, Fort Wayne, Ind.
Atomic tests ruling is ‘too late’
Atomic tests ruling is ‘too late’ BBC News 6 June 09
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
‘The question now is not whether nuclear energy is clean, but is it sustainable to provide power?’
‘The question now is not whether nuclear energy is clean, but is it sustainable to provide power?’ indian express.com by Neha Sinha Jun 06, 2009 – “FRANZJOSEF SCHAUFHAUSEN, Deputy Director General of the German Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety, s………………………..Germany is trying to phase out nuclear energy and we don’t support nuclear energy becoming CDM projects. We have scientific studies on the table showing that it is possible to have a future without nuclear energy. We had a very long discussion in Germany on nuclear energy.
The question now is not whether nuclear energy is clean, but is it sustainable to provide power? The position of the German government is that nuclear energy is too risky. At the moment in Europe, we don’t have the possibility to store the very dangerous nuclear waste which is produced from nuclear energy. Also uranium is limited. We have to construct an energy future working with energy efficiency and renewable energy.
‘The question now is not whether nuclear energy is clean, but is it sustainable to provide power?’
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
Nuclear power consultation process blasted by Northern Alberta residents
Nuclear power consultation process blasted by Northern Alberta residents By Hanneke Brooymans, edmontonjournal.com une 5, 2009 EDMONTON — Citizens who gathered in Edmonton Friday to participate in a provincial government consultation on nuclear power blasted the process for being secretive and rushed………………………….
Citizens who don’t want nuclear power plants in Alberta say the entire consultation process on the issue has been biased, beginning with the expert report released earlier this year.
They also found the five weeks given to the public to fill out a survey workbook was too short.
Albertans were given 75 days to offer their thoughts on new licence plates and 60 days on parks consultations, said Mark Sandilands, a member of a southern Alberta environmental group called Greensence.
The group is pushing for the provincial government to also run a public consultation process on renewable energy options.
Nuclear power consultation process blasted by Northern Alberta residents
Anti-nuclear opinions dominate uranium forum in Regina
Anti-nuclear opinions dominate uranium forum in Regina By Angela Hall, Leader-PostJune 5, 2009 REGINA — More than 400 people gathered in Regina to weigh in on the province’s nuclear options, with many in the crowd firmly opposed to the idea of building a reactor………………
During the open microphone portion of the meeting Thursday night, Regina resident Ron Bocking asked those opposed to nuclear power to raise their hand — which prompted most of the crowd to cheer and put up their arm.
“I’m strongly opposed to nuclear energy for three main reasons,” said Bocking, calling it economically unfeasible, dangerous due to the waste that has to be isolated from the environment and unnecessary. “There’s many other forms of energy.”………………………
Others called for a bigger focus on renewable energy options.
“Why isn’t there a public meeting of this size talking about solar and wind?” asked one man.
Areva Offers India Stakes in African Mines, Jain Says
Areva Offers India Stakes in African Mines, Jain Says
By Archana Chaudhary
June 5 (Bloomberg) — Areva SA, the world’s biggest maker of atomic reactors, has offered India stakes in African uranium mines to ensure supplies for fuel-starved plants, the head of the nation’s monopoly nuclear generator said.
State-run Nuclear Power Corp. of India is considering investing in as many as four mines, including projects in South Africa and Nigeria, Chairman Shreyans Kumar Jain said in an interview in Mumbai. Patricia Marie, a spokeswoman for Areva in Paris, confirmed “strategic talks” with partners to develop some mines and declined to comment on specific proposals.
India would gain resources for its atomic expansion after Australia, with the world’s largest known uranium reserves, refused to sell to countries that haven’t signed the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. Areva is building the first large- capacity reactor project in the South Asian nation, which plans a 14-fold increase in nuclear generation by 2030………………………Areva, which is building the first large-capacity atomic project in India with overseas equipment, will also supply uranium to run the reactors for 60 years, Chief Executive Officer Anne Lauvergeon said in February after signing a preliminary sales agreement………………………..
The two companies are waiting for France’s parliament to approve an inter-governmental agreement before raising 3 billion euros ($4.25 billion) for the project, he said.
A final accord may be signed next year after obtaining French parliamentary and regulatory approvals, Jain said.
Areva Offers India Stakes in African Mines, Jain Says (Update1) – Bloomberg.com
Is nuclear a green fuel? « Voices from Ghana
Is nuclear a green fuel?June 1, 2009 · Voices From Ghana “…………….some forecasters predict an uptick in nuclear power.
Yet, for nuclear energy to contribute to a significant degree to greenhouse gas abatement, the rate of construction would need to vastly accelerate. Offsetting even 10 percent of global carbon emissions by 2050 would be an immense undertaking, requiring some 2,200 new plants, or more than one per week in the coming decades.
The nuclear power option faces a set of vexing problems that should temper enthusiasm for an expansion of this scale.
Safety and CostAlthough no plant design can be risk-free, new research has brought claims of a new generation of nuclear reactors with advanced safety features. However, they have yet to be tested at full scale, and all reactors on order now use conventional technology. Moreover, nuclear power plants are now considered plausible targets for terrorist attacks. Whether caused by accident or malice, a sudden dispersal of radioactivity would have severe community impact, perhaps exacerbated by inadequate evacuation plans. If such an event triggered a renewal of anti-nuclear sentiment in the general public and led to demands for a nuclear moratorium, the resilience and sustainability of the energy system would be greatly compromised.
The full economic costs of nuclear energy are difficult to determine. A comprehensive accounting would include accident insurance, safety assurance, decommissioning, and radioactive waste disposal — costs that are often buried in generous public subsidies for the nuclear industry or shifted to future generations. As the experience in the U.S. with the first wave of nuclear plants indicated, projected costs will soar as the full costs of the nuclear-fuel cycle are reflected in the price of electricity. Of course, high costs might not be a key issue if nuclear power were the only option for climate mitigation. It is not.some forecasters predict an uptick in nuclear power.
Yet, for nuclear energy to contribute to a significant degree to greenhouse gas abatement, the rate of construction would need to vastly accelerate. Offsetting even 10 percent of global carbon emissions by 2050 would be an immense undertaking, requiring some 2,200 new plants, or more than one per week in the coming decades.
The nuclear power option faces a set of vexing problems that should temper enthusiasm for an expansion of this scale.
Safety and CostAlthough no plant design can be risk-free, new research has brought claims of a new generation of nuclear reactors with advanced safety features. However, they have yet to be tested at full scale, and all reactors on order now use conventional technology. Moreover, nuclear power plants are now considered plausible targets for terrorist attacks. Whether caused by accident or malice, a sudden dispersal of radioactivity would have severe community impact, perhaps exacerbated by inadequate evacuation plans. If such an event triggered a renewal of anti-nuclear sentiment in the general public and led to demands for a nuclear moratorium, the resilience and sustainability of the energy system would be greatly compromised.
The full economic costs of nuclear energy are difficult to determine. A comprehensive accounting would include accident insurance, safety assurance, decommissioning, and radioactive waste disposal — costs that are often buried in generous public subsidies for the nuclear industry or shifted to future generations. As the experience in the U.S. with the first wave of nuclear plants indicated, projected costs will soar as the full costs of the nuclear-fuel cycle are reflected in the price of electricity. Of course, high costs might not be a key issue if nuclear power were the only option for climate mitigation. It is not.
Proliferation and Security
Nuclear power cannot be de-coupled from nuclear weapons. Two paths lead from a nuclear energy program to weapons-grade material; one involves uranium and the other plutonium.
Nuclear Power Deflects Us From the Path to Sustainability……………….With its long-term legacy of heightened risks and toxic burden, nuclear power violates a fundamental principle of sustainability: passing on a resilient world to future generations. At the least, a world laced with nuclear power plants and crisscrossed with commerce of fissionable materials would require a strong international regime of security and control, a world more consonant with an authoritarian Fortress World scenario than a Great Transition.
AREVA and the nuclear illusion
Areva’s difficulties and the nuclear illusion
The View From Brittany June 3 2009Areva is no ordinary company. It is the nuclear arm of the French state, in charge with the building and the supplying of French nuclear plants. Even though it is technically a corporation, it is owned by the Commissariat à l’Énergie Atomique, a public agency whose director is appointed by the French President who has occasionally sold nuclear plants on its behalf.
Areva, supposedly the “jewel” of the French industry is in real troubles. Even though it sells more than ever, its benefits have plummeted and it has been forced to cancel a mining project in Canada. According to the “Réseau Sortir du Nucléaire”, Areva needs 3 billions euros, mostly because of the costly failure the Olkiluoto EPR has proven to be. The Finnish third generation nuclear plant, which should have been put online this year has been delayed due to technical difficulties and costs are sky-rocketing – 5.4 billions instead of the original 3 billions. Moreover, South Africa has recently cancelled the building of 12 nuclear plants while the “sells” announced by the French presidency (4 plants in Italy and 2 in India) remain virtual – nobody know how they are going to be funded.
Areva is presently clamouring for public funds. It will probably get them, no matter how loud we, and others, protest. France, trapped as it is by its own nuclear strategy, simply cannot afford to lose the control of its uranium supply.
That is hardly the whole story, however. What this affair highlight is how problematic is nuclear power at the eve of catabolic collapse. A nuclear plant is very costly and takes a long time to build. Besides, it is of absolutely no use as long as it is not completed. The end result is that to launch a nuclear program you have to immobilize a lot of capital – human, natural and financial – without any hope of anything looking like a return of investment for quite a long time……………………Areva’s difficulties pose, however, another, often overlooked question : what will nuclear plants will become after the nuclear industry fails. In a number of countries, it may happen sooner than one thinks……………….And then what ?
Dismantling a nuclear plant and disposing of the wastes are very costly operation. Will the impoverished societies of forty years from now be able to afford them ? One can seriously doubt it. In fact, in a situation of worsening energy and capital shortage, one can expect them to operate their ageing nuclear plants to very end – the way the Ukrainian government did with Chernobyl – then let them decay away.
The result, needless to say, won’t be good for the neighbourhood,……………. This, by the way, can have interesting geopolitical consequences in countries such as France which are littered with nuclear plants.
The activists who, in the late seventies, have made sure no nuclear plant would ever be built in Brittany may have won their far descendants more than what they thought.
http://theviewfrombrittany.blogspot.com/2009/06/arevas-difficulties-and-nuclear.html
Obama Acknowledges Iran’s Right to Nuclear Energy
Obama Acknowledges Iran’s Right to Nuclear Energy
NTI, June 3, 2009 U.S. President Barack Obama yesterday expressed support for Iran’s civilian nuclear power ambitions while calling on the Middle Eastern state to abandon activities that could contribute to nuclear weapons development, the Associated Press reported (see GSN, June 2)…………
……….. Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad yesterday pledged to continue defying the international community’s attempts at coercion if he is re-elected to office June 12, Agence France-Presse reported.
“If I get elected, I will go to the U.N. and tell the nations there who dare to threaten Iran … hold your hands up,” the first-term president said.
“Due to your resistance, Iran is now a nuclear nation” with “space” capabilities, he added (see GSN, April 15).
The U.N. Security Council has imposed three sets of sanctions on Iran over its disputed nuclear activities. The body’s five permanent members and Germany hope to negotiate a permanent halt to Iran’s enrichment program in return for civilian nuclear energy assistance and other benefits (Siavosh Ghazi, Agence France-Presse/Google News, June 2).
http://www.globalsecuritynewswire.org/gsn/nw_20090603_5010.php
Israel gives mixed signals on any attack on Iran
Israel gives mixed signals on any attack on Iran
Wed Jun 3, 2009 By Conor Sweeney
MOSCOW (Reuters) – Israel issued contradictory signals on Wednesday on whether it might bomb Iran, with its foreign minister saying there were no such plans and the defense minister saying all options were on the table.
Israel, widely believed to be the Middle East’s only nuclear power, has repeatedly described Iran’s uranium enrichment as a threat to its existence.
“I have been asked by Saudi journalists about when Israel plans to bomb Iran. We are not planning to bomb Iran,” far-right Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman said during a visit to Russia.
“We do not have a need” to carry out attacks on Iran, Lieberman told reporters in Russian when asked about a possible strike against Iran. “Israel is a strong country and we can defend ourselves.”
Israel has in the past said all options were on the table in preventing Tehran from building atomic weapons, and this was repeated later by Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak, who refused to rule out a military strike on Iran.
……………………………..Lieberman, who grew up in the Soviet Union, said if Iran gained nuclear bombs it would trigger an arms race in the Middle East region.
“This is not an Israeli problem,” he said. “This is a threat to the entire world order and entire world community. So we do not want this global problem to be solved (only) by our hands.” http://www.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idUSTRE55239U20090603
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.
‘Embarrassing’ mistake puts US nuclear list online
‘Embarrassing’ mistake puts US nuclear list online
By H. JOSEF HEBERT – 47 minutes ago
Google News WASHINGTON (AP) — The government’s inadvertent and red-faced Internet posting of a 266-page list of U.S. nuclear sites provided a one-step guide for anyone wanting details about such sensitive information. Obama administration officials said Wednesday the document contained no classified material about nuclear weapons. They contended the locations and other details already were available from public sources……………
…………The information, compiled for international nuclear inspectors, is a compilation of hundreds of civilian nuclear sites, along with maps and details of the facilities. The material includes sites for uranium storage, nuclear fuel fabrication plants and nuclear research facilities http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5hCsPqjzeLAVBSZ0nrjjDm7Ywu-sAD98JJTCO1
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
-
Archives
- April 2026 (181)
- March 2026 (251)
- February 2026 (268)
- January 2026 (308)
- December 2025 (358)
- November 2025 (359)
- October 2025 (376)
- September 2025 (257)
- August 2025 (319)
- July 2025 (230)
- June 2025 (348)
- May 2025 (261)
-
Categories
- 1
- 1 NUCLEAR ISSUES
- business and costs
- climate change
- culture and arts
- ENERGY
- environment
- health
- history
- indigenous issues
- Legal
- marketing of nuclear
- media
- opposition to nuclear
- PERSONAL STORIES
- politics
- politics international
- Religion and ethics
- safety
- secrets,lies and civil liberties
- spinbuster
- technology
- Uranium
- wastes
- weapons and war
- Women
- 2 WORLD
- ACTION
- AFRICA
- Atrocities
- AUSTRALIA
- Christina's notes
- Christina's themes
- culture and arts
- Events
- Fuk 2022
- Fuk 2023
- Fukushima 2017
- Fukushima 2018
- fukushima 2019
- Fukushima 2020
- Fukushima 2021
- general
- global warming
- Humour (God we need it)
- Nuclear
- RARE EARTHS
- Reference
- resources – print
- Resources -audiovicual
- Weekly Newsletter
- World
- World Nuclear
- YouTube
-
RSS
Entries RSS
Comments RSS
nuclear-news 