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The News That Matters about the Nuclear Industry Fukushima Chernobyl Mayak Three Mile Island Atomic Testing Radiation Isotope

Even the nuclear industry itself knows that its future is dodgy

SMi’s 3rd Annual Financing Nuclear Power Conference Will Connect Experts And Executives  Nuclear Street, – By April Murelio 8 March 2010,”….. -According to the World Business Academy the availability and cost of financing for new nuclear plants will depend on:

• The level and certainty of government subsidies and incentives•

*The comparative cost and performance of renewable energy sources•

The timing of capital markets’ recovery from the credit crisis•

Estimated construction costs• The structure of the target electricity market (competitive market v. more traditional, regulated cost-of-service market)

• Assessments of plants’ lifetime capacity and performance

• Resolution of the long-term waste storage problem

• Public opinion about nuclear power…

March 8, 2010 Posted by | 2 WORLD, business and costs | , , , , , , | 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 | 1 | , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

US Dept of Energy close to awarding loan guarantee to French nuclear power company

Chu: DOE close to award of $2B loan guarantee to Areva, by Dan Yurman , 03/04/2010 The $2 billion measure would aid financing of the Eagle Rock Enrichment Facility in IdahoDow Jones reports Mar 5 U.S. Energy Secretary Steven Chu said that his department is “closing in” on a final decision for a loan guarantee for Areva’s nuclear project in Idaho.In testimony before a Senate appropriations committee Mar 5, Chu was asked why the nuclear loan guarantee is taking so long to award and said: “We’re closing in on that.”Sen. Bob Bennett (R., Utah) said due diligence on the Eagle Rock uranium enrichment project was completed in October.

Chu: DOE close to award of $2B loan guarantee to Areva

March 5, 2010 Posted by | politics international, USA | , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Russia’s grandiose nuclear in space plans

Russia toys with exotic nuclear space projects 02-27-2010
Source: RIA Novosti
Russia is pondering new applications for yet-to-be-built nuclear-powered spacecraft, including military satellites, nuclear power plants, and space tugs, Energia space corporation said Wednesday. Continue reading

March 3, 2010 Posted by | Russia | , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Local community’s political win against nuclear corporation

The NRC has never said no to the nuclear industry, and I feel that the NRC is corrupt and is in collusion with the industry, allowing aging nuclear power plants numerous license amendments and exemptions from safety testing over the years……

People Power Trumps Corporate Power:R.I.P Vermont Yankee Nuclear Power Plant, Counter Currents, Kathleen Krevetski Interviewed By Carolyn Baker 01 March, 2010 “…..”Last week’s vote against the relicensing of the Vermont Yankee Nuclear Power plant near Brattleboro is considered historic because it has allowed the voices of Vermont people to be heard through their elected leaders who voted against allowing Vermont Yankee to continue past its expected lifetime of 2012. Continue reading

March 2, 2010 Posted by | politics, USA | , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Radiation safety standards decided on by nuclear industry

providing the oversight on themselves–policing their own industry just like the banking and financial industry did before their massive taxpayer bailout.

People Power Trumps Corporate Power:R.I.P Vermont Yankee Nuclear Power Plant, Counter Currents, Kathleen Krevetski Interviewed By Carolyn Baker01 March, 2010 “…. Kathleen Krevetski – “In the United States, the NRC’s technical and safety regulations governing nuclear power plants are developed by the private nuclear industry using voluntary consensus standards. Continue reading

March 2, 2010 Posted by | secrets,lies and civil liberties, USA | , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Rise in breast cancer linked to nuclear radiation

susceptibility to radiation-induced cancer, with women facing a risk about 50 percent higher than men while the risk for children is several times higher.

People Power Trumps Corporate Power:R.I.P Vermont Yankee Nuclear Power Plant, Counter Currents, Kathleen Krevetski Interviewed By Carolyn Baker01 March, 2010 “….Kathleen Krevetski …..As a registered nurse and after many years of working in the medical profession, I am acutely aware of the health and environmental dangers that make people sick. Myself a breast cancer survivor, I have watched over the years as the incidence of breast cancer continues to increase with nobody asking the right questions. One out of 13 women got breast cancer when I was first diagnosed in 1984. Today the incidence is one woman out of eight. What is that about?

Continue reading

March 2, 2010 Posted by | health, USA | , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Not even money, but WATER might kill off the nuclear power industry

Water could the be issue that sinks this project, or it could be numerous other funding and safety issues related to nuclear power.

Water Issues Derailing Nuclear Power in Utah  SpeakEasy by Tara Lohan ,  February 26, 2010 Nuclear power has been a hot topic these past few weeks with Vermont’s leaking reactor, Georgia’s plans for new ones (thanks to Obama), and the press’s blind approval of all things nuclear. ….

While there are lots of reasons that nuclear power is a bad idea, residents in Utah are particularly concerned about water. Waldholz writes: Continue reading

February 27, 2010 Posted by | environment, USA, water | , , , , , , | Leave a comment

President Obama has let the nuclear industry be caught in its own trap

Though the President’s critics on the left do not recognize a strategic move in the loan guarantees to new nuclear, there is very likely method in what seems madness. The nuclear industry proved in the 1970s and 1980s, to those who were paying attention, that it is not viable.

New Nuclear to be Hoist on its own Petard, RENEWABLE ENERGY WORLD, February 23, 2010…the phrase hoist with one’s own petard…means ‘to be harmed by one’s own plan to harm someone else’ or ‘to fall into one’s own trap’…” (Wikipedia)Announcements from the Obama administration of new financial support for the nuclear industry were met by declarations that the long-anticipated nuclear renaissance is finally at hand but the reality is quite different. Continue reading

February 24, 2010 Posted by | politics, USA | , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Vermont nuclear plant might herald the end of nuclear industry’s resuscitation

Obama’s nuclear vision suffers setback as Vermont plant faces shutdown Vermont would be the first state to close a nuclear reactor after 38-year-old Yankee’s history of leaking cancer-causing tritium guardian.co.uk 23 February 2010
Barack Obama’s new dream of a nuclear renaissance faces a major reality check tomorrow when the state of Vermont is expected to shut down an ageing nuclear reactor with a history of leaks. Continue reading

February 24, 2010 Posted by | politics, USA | , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Alec Baldwin on the truth about nuclear reactors

The Truth About Nuclear Power in Utility Reactors THE HUFFINGTON POST, Alec Baldwin: February 22, 2010 “………The reactor operations at Brookhaven were reported to have released billions of gallons of tritiated water into the headwaters of the Peconic River during the period of its operations from 1965 to 1996……… Continue reading

February 23, 2010 Posted by | spinbuster, USA | , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Nuclear workers afraid to speak out on safety issues

Workers at San Onofre nuclear plant fear retaliation for reporting problems, memo says | L.A. NOW | Los Angeles Times 19 Feb 2010 –Shelby Grad Workers at the San Onofre nuclear power plant fear retaliation if they report problems at the facility operated by Southern California Edison, according to an internal memo released by an Orange County environmental group.The memo, written by a plant engineer, said 25 workers who reported problems at the plant said they feared retaliation from management after they made complaints…..

San Onofre has been the subject of several investigations by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission over the last few years for various safety issues

Workers at San Onofre nuclear plant fear retaliation for reporting problems, memo says | L.A. NOW | Los Angeles Times

February 20, 2010 Posted by | secrets,lies and civil liberties, USA | , , , , , | Leave a comment

Public insurance essential for nuclear industry to survive

The Other Nuclear Power Subsidy – A Liability Cap, ThePopTort 19 Feb 2010 “…. loan guarantees aren’t the only potential subsidy from which this industry benefits.  Since the 1950s, when it passed the Price Anderson Act, Congress put a cap on the liability of the nuclear industry in the event of a major accident.  So if there’s anything like, say, the Chernobyl disaster (the 1986 accident in the Ukraine where the containment structure couldn’t hold an explosion causing lethal radiation to spill out killing thousands, harming hundreds of thousands and rendering hundreds of square miles uninhabitable), the industry won’t be responsible beyond a relatively small amount. Taxpayers will.

In other words, if the nuclear power industry were fully responsible for the health and safety risks of these plants, the industry wouldn’t exist……. Continue reading

February 20, 2010 Posted by | business and costs, USA | , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Nuclear plants are not safe from terrorist attack

Nuclear sites vulnerable to break-ins The Boston Globe By James Carroll February 15, 2010 +THE GREAT myth about nuclear weapons is that they can be held securely. It was not true in the past, and, as was shockingly demonstrated in Belgium last week, it is not true now………. Continue reading

February 15, 2010 Posted by | 2 WORLD, safety | , , , , , | Leave a comment

Damn Yankee’s Nuclear Power Plant!

by virtue of a long-standing agreement with Entergy, the Vermont Legislature can deny Yankee’s request for a 20-year extension…Indeed, a desperate national industry now pushing for massive federal subsidies to build new reactors may not survive a flood of elderly clunkers being forced to close by the weight of their own contamination…

Vermont’s radioactive nightmare FDL The Seminal Harvey Wasserman
February 10, 2010

Like a decayed flotilla of rickety steamers, at least 27 of America’s 104 aging atomic reactors are known to be leaking radioactive tritium, which is linked to cancer if inhaled or ingested through the throat or skin.

The fallout has been fiercest at Vermont Yankee, where a flood of cover-ups has infuriated and terrified near neighbors who say the reactor was never meant to operate more than 30 years, and must now shut. Continue reading

February 12, 2010 Posted by | politics, USA | , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment