Truckers exposed to high dose of radiation
(Canada) Truckers exposed to high dose of radiation during cross-country haul: report
Google News
By Steve Rennie (CP) – 4 August 09 OTTAWA — Two truckers were exposed to excessive doses of radiation last year while hauling a radioactive device across the country, newly released documents show.A preliminary investigation by Canada’s nuclear-safety watchdog found the drivers got more than their yearly limit of radiation on a six-day trip last December.The Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission learned of the problem when the shipment triggered a radiation alarm on arrival at an MDS Nordion office in Ottawa.
The Canadian Press: Truckers exposed to high dose of radiation during cross-country haul: report
Nuclear plant rapped over safety
Nuclear plant rapped over safety
The Local 3 Aug 09
The Forsmark nuclear plant, 130 kilometres north of Stockholm, received the criticism in an inspection report from the Swedish Radiation Safety Authority (SSM), local media say.The plant is criticised for not following up on the results of safety work and for not having routines governing how safety inspections should be carried out. The report also says that there is no clear description of the responsibilities of those who investigate incidents at the Forsmark.
The power station’s owners, Forsmarks Kraftfrupp AB, has been given until the end of the year to resolve the problems.
Forsmark has previously been the subject of safety concerns. It was criticised last year by SSM after it was revealed that an emergency cooling system vent had been shut for a year. Inspectors said the incident cast doubts about the safety culture at the plant.
The Forsmark nuclear plant, 130 kilometres north of Stockholm, received the criticism in an inspection report from the Swedish Radiation Safety Authority (SSM),
nuclear reactors not needed for Medical Isotopes
Race on in the Prairies to solve isotope shortage
Acsion Industries, University of Winnipeg say their cheap solution could be running in three years
The Globe and Mail 1 August 09
“…………………the smaller operation could be up and running inside three years, with little regulatory hassle, and for the bargain-basement price of $35-million……………………………I don’t think you’ll find another expression of interest that combines so clearly a health-care focus and a low cost. We’ll have to be taken seriously.”…………………..
the University of Winnipeg submission offers something completely different.
Under the proposal, researchers would shore up the country’s isotope stocks using a Manitoba-based particle accelerator rather than a nuclear reactor.
Unlike a reactor, a particle accelerator does not produce nuclear waste and would not be subject to the same stringent rules that make reactor construction a decade-long process.
“It’s a completely different technology,” said Jeff Martin, a University of Winnipeg physicist. “The regulatory process is much simpler, and for good reason. For instance, you can shut an accelerator off. With a reactor, that’s tricky.”
To carry out the proposal, the university has launched the Prairie Isotope Production Enterprise (PIPE), a not-for-profit partnership that includes Acsion, the province, the Winnipeg Regional Health Authority and other nuclear and radioisotope companies……………………..
While the Manitoba solution isn’t intended to solve international supply issues, the technology could be exported.
“Once you get it working here,” said Randy Kobes, associate dean of science at the university, “you can franchise it.”
Race on in the Prairies to solve isotope shortage – The Globe and Mail
Financial costs of U.S. nuclear weapons
The Costs of U.S. Nuclear Weapons
mil.news.sohu.com 29 July 09 “..……….This issue brief, based on the 1998 book Atomic Audit: The Costs and Consequences of U.S. Nuclear Weapons Since 1940, examines how and why key decisions were made, what factors influenced those decisions, and whether alternatives were considered. In so doing, it helps explain the process by which an arsenal consisting of just two primitive weapons in 1945 eventually grew to more than 32,000 highly sophisticated ones, what this process cost, and how the costs and consequences of the program were understood by policymakers at the time.
……………….The amount spent through 1996—$5.5 trillion—was 29 percent of all military spending from 1940 through 1996 ($18.7 trillion). This figure is significantly larger than any previous official or unofficial estimate of nuclear weapons expenditures, exceeding all other categories of government spending except non-nuclear national defense ($13.2 trillion) and social security ($7.9 trillion)…………………During this period, the United States spent on average nearly $98 billion a year developing and maintaining its nuclear arsenal.
It is very difficult to comprehend figures of this magnitude. To provide some perspective, consider the following:
$5.8 trillion divided equally among everyone living in the United States equals a bit more than $21,000 per person.
$5.8 trillion in one dollar bills stacked one atop another would stretch 459,361 miles (739,117 kilometers), to the Moon and nearly back…………….
The Health Costs of U.S. Nuclear Weapons
The Costs of U.S. Nuclear Weapons
mil.news.sohu.com 29 July 09……………….Environmental and Health Costs
“…………..one great irony of the Cold War is that although the United States produced nuclear weapons en masse to destroy the Soviet Union, and vice-versa, the principal victims of each country’s nuclear weapons were its own citizens.From the very beginning, nuclear officials dealt with the problem of nuclear waste by devising interim rather than long-term solutions…………………..
………millions of gallons of wastes leaked into the ground. Hanford officials insisted for years that it would take centuries for the waste to reach the groundwater underneath the site. In fact, it was only a matter of decades before their optimistic assumptions were proven wrong.
“…………………..A major reason why the United States today faces a “cleanup” bill of at least $300 billion is that problems such as the Hanford waste tanks were ignored in favor of maintaining or increasing production of nuclear weapons. Production was the first priority of the government. Making sure it was done in a manner that did not unnecessarily hurt people or destroy the environment was a distant second. Had the government thought through more carefully the consequences of unrestrained production of plutonium and highly-enriched uranium, many of the problems—and bills—we face today could have been avoided or substantially mitigated. It now appears that in a number of cases, no effective “cleanup” will be possible and highly-contaminated sites will simply have to be fenced off and monitored for generations………….…A number of the 600,000 people who worked in a nuclear weapons facility were exposed to unnecessarily high levels of radiation. Exposure to toxic chemicals was also high. At several facilities, no consistent records were kept of employee radiation exposures. At at least one, plant officials entered false readings into dosimetry logs. When workers fell ill and applied for worker’s compensation, the DOE spent millions of dollars on lawyer’s fees to avoid paying out even a single claim, out of fear that paying one claim would open the floodgates to lawsuits and increase calls for stricter health and safety measures, which would necessarily drive up costs and impede production of more weapons………………
……..Uranium miners, many of whom were Navajo, developed lung cancer after working in unvented mines without respirators or any sort of protective gear. Government officials were well aware of the dangers to the workers, but chose to ignore them to keep production high and the price of uranium low.
US Lawmakers Concerned about ‘Reset’ of US-Russia Relations
US Lawmakers Concerned about ‘Reset’ of US-Russia Relations
Voice of America
By Dan RobinsonCapitol Hill31 July 2009
“………………Questions about where the U.S.-Russia relationship is going are many, ranging from arms control, missile defense and nonproliferation and Iran’s nuclear program, to cooperation in counter-terrorism and U.S. concerns about human rights and media freedom in Russia.Among questions: How can the U.S. work with Russia to persuade Iran to end its uranium enrichment program?……………………………
Assistant Secretary Gordon told lawmakers that the Obama administration has told Russia that sales of sophisticated arms, including an anti-aircraft system, to Iran would be a real problem in bilateral ties.On Iran’s nuclear program, Gordon noted that Russia has agreed to a joint threat assessment on ballistic and nuclear issues to include an examination of Iranian efforts.
He said one of the objectives of a U.S government inter-agency team visiting Moscow is to share the U.S. analysis, and persuade Russia that pressure must be increased if Iran fails to respond positively and soon on the issue.
VOA News – US Lawmakers Concerned about ‘Reset’ of US-Russia Relations
Uranium weapons – Does anyone care?
Peter Eyre Middle East Consultant USA, July 29, 2009 (Pal Telegraph)- Our planet is truly a wonderful place but under the umbrella, that we call our atmosphere, lies a cocktail of uranium aerosols waiting to claim its next victim. Many countries donate to this contamination such as the US, UK, Israel, NATO member states, China and Russia etc
Why would the UN, WHO, US, UK, NATO and IDF allow this to happen and why do they continue manufacturing and using weapons containing uranium?…………………
A conference took place in Sweden: INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON ENVIRONMENTAL EFFECTS OF WAR – The examples of Agent Orange and Depleted Uranium – Stockholm • 23-24 April 2004 in which various experts gave speeches, two of those being Doug Rokke and Tedd Weyman.
Dr Douglas L. Rokke, Ph.D. Former Head of U.S. Army Radiological Laboratory and Former Director U.S. Army Depleted Uranium Project, U.S. Army major (retired), and former Assistant Professor of Environmental Science at Jacksonville State University, Florida, USA. During an interview with John Pilger, Doug gave a summary of his work experience: “Prior to the Gulf War, I was responsibility for the training and educating of all the medical professionals and combat soldiers on the effects of nuclear, biological, and chemical warfare. More importantly what type of medical care and treatment was required and what decontamination is needed for those that may be injured or wounded during the war”.
After the ground war he was tasked as a health physicist responsible for cleaning up the depleted uranium or uranium 238 contamination…………………………..- what we’re seeing now are respiratory problems, breathing problems, kidney problems, and cancers. We have individuals of our team that were actually known exposed and they have died of cancer. We have other individuals right now that have cancer. We have rashes, neurological problems. A lot of people – and again this is out of the whole complex toxic battlefield where DU contributes – lost fine motor function, individuals have neural psychology problems, short term memory losses. The uranium is a heavy metal poison and also a radiological poison, so we have to look at a conglomeration of potential health effects that then mix with other causes to create serious problems”…………….
The recent Iraqi field samples collected by UMRC were analysed by plasma mass spectrometer by Dr Axel Gerdes, Institute of Petrology and Geochemistry, JW Goethe University, Frankfurt. The human and environmental samples have been found to contain Depleted Uranium and abnormally high levels of the artificial transuranic isotope, 236U. The isotope composition of Depleted Uranium found in civilians as well as in surface soils and water courses shows the weapons used in Iraq were manufactured from two and perhaps three different metallurgical sources (stockpiles of uranium metals). The soil and water samples indicate DU was deployed in both mechanized battlefields and urban neighbourhoods where aerial bombing took place………………………
For almost 40 years we have all been let down a path of total deception by the US Government, US Department of Defense, US Military and the Nuclear Industry. This deception later extended to the US Institute of Medicine, UN (especially the UNEP), WHO, NATO and their respective Governments and many other institutions that all failed in their duty of care for our planet and its inhabitants…
..http://www.paltelegraph.com/world/world-news/1620-uranium-weapons-does-anyone-care-about-our-planet
Germany’s nuclear waste problem shows long term danger for waste storage
Salting it Away (and Other Problems with Nuclear Waste)
Miller McCune By: Michael Scott Moore | July 29, 2009
Germany’s vaunted salt mine solution for low-level nuclear waste has proven to be full of holes……………………….
Around 12,000 liters of groundwater leak into the mine every day. Some of it mixes with the radioactive waste. A few weeks ago, the Federal Office for Radiation Protection (BfS) finally admitted that some brine collected in Asse II had traces of tritium and caesium 137.
But last year the German public learned that the group in charge of maintaining Asse II at the time had known about the accumulation of suspect water since 2005…………………….The public outrage led German politicians to take the mine out of the Helmholtz Institute’s hands and place it under the BfS. But Asse II has also leaked groundwater since at least 1988 — meaning, at the very least, that decades of Cold War research conducted there failed to solve some of the most basic problems of nuclear storage……………….Along with 120,000-odd barrels of radioactive slop, according to a report last year, highly radioactive plutonium waste and even a few spent fuel rods were dumped in the mine………….
It’s hubris for a government to think it can safely store nuclear waste beyond the lifetime of the government itself. The trouble with Asse II has been a chastening example. Political promises, stern-sounding policies, and even scientific assessments from 1989 (which said the mine had no leaks) all proved to be as full of holes as the mine itself.
America’s Secret Chernobyl – Uranium Mining & Pollution in the Upper Midwest
RUDSSELL MEANS FREEDOM July 27, 2009
“………………In northwestern South Dakota, the Cave Hills area is managed by the US Forest Service. The area currently contains 89 abandoned open-pit uranium mines. Studies by the USFS show that one mine alone has 1,400 millirems per hour (mR/hr) of exposed radiation, a level of radiation that is 120,000 times higher than normal background of 100 millirems per year (mR/yr)! In the southwestern Black Hills, the US Forest Service reported on 29 abandoned open-pit uranium mines, one of which is about 1 square mile in size.
It is estimated that more than 1,000 open-pit uranium mines and prospects can be found in the four state region from a map developed by the US Forest Service. The water runoff from the creeks and rivers near these abandoned uranium mines eventually empties into the Missouri River which empties into the Mississippi River…………………
This Fact Sheet regarding past and planned uranium and coal mining in the Upper Midwest region should give cause for alarm to all thinking people in the United States. This is the area that has been called “the Bread Basket of the World.” For more than forty years, the people of South Dakota and beyond have been subjected to radioactive polluted dust and water runoff from the hundreds of abandoned open pit uranium mines, processing sites, underground nuclear power stations, and waste dumps.
There needs to be a concerted effort to determine the extent of the radioactive pollution in the environment, and the health damage that has been and is currently being inflicted upon the people of the United States.
America’s Secret Chernobyl – Uranium Mining & Pollution in the Upper Midwest : Russell Means Freedom
Greenpeace threatens E.ON with legal action over nuclear reactors
The Guardian, Terry Macalister, 26 july 09 Greenpeace is threatening to take legal action against E.ON and other nuclear power companies for rushing ahead with plans to build new reactors before they have got the proper consents.
The move has been triggered by reports that preparatory bore holes for new reactors will start to be drilled for E.ON on 3 August at Oldbury in Gloucestershire. EDF is said to be considering similar work.
A Greenpeace spokesman said its lawyers were reviewing a situation which made a mockery of a whole raft of hurdles that were meant to be overcome before the government starts official licensing in 2013.
The environmental campaigning group said there has not yet been a final national policy statement on nuclear, an official “justification” process for building more stations as needed by law, or an assessment of reactor designs by the Nuclear Installations Inspectorate (NII).
The green group has sent a letter to the government telling it to put a brake on E.ON…………………..
The moves come amid reports from Canada that the Ontario government has put its nuclear power plants on hold because the only bid from Atomic Energy of Canada, the only “compliant” one received, came in at more than three times more than the province expected to pay.
The first nuclear reactor built in Western Europe for three decades – in Finland – has also been attracting negative publicity with some politicians saying the cost overruns put a question mark over whether any further plants should be constructed.
Greenpeace threatens E.ON with legal action over nuclear reactors | Business | guardian.co.uk
Germany’s nuclear misadventures continue
PRESS TV 25 July 09
Technical problem at two more nuclear reactors in Germany have fuelled the anti-nuclear debate,…………………..The latest mishaps came less than three weeks after a fault at the Kruemmel reactor cuts power and water supplies to thousand of homes, breathing new life into the major campaign issue which has divided the country’s coalition government ahead of the September elections…..
…….a recent poll revealed more public opposition to atomic energy……………
…….Technical faults are not the only demons haunting the country’s nuclear issue.
Last week, a report by Germany’s Federal Office for Radiation Protection (BfS) questioned the safety of a controversial nuclear waste dump facility in Asse, rating the salt-mine storage facility as one of the most unreliable nuclear waste dumps in use after officials found radioactive water leak.
Uranium contamination haunts Navajo country
THE NEW YORK TIMES by Luis Hipolito on 07/26/2009
“………….The legacy wrought from decades of uranium mining is long and painful here on the expansive reservation. Over the years, Navajo miners extracted some four million tons of uranium ore from the ground, much of it used by the United States government to make weapons.
Many miners died from radiation-related illnesses, and some, unaware of harmful health effects, hauled contaminated rocks and tailings from local mines and mills to build homes for their families.
Now, those homes are being demolished and rebuilt under a new government program that seeks to identify what are very likely dozens of uranium-contaminated structures still standing on Navajo land and to temporarily relocate people living in them until the homes can be torn down and rebuilt.
Stephen B. Etsitty, executive director of the Navajo Nation Environmental Protection Agency, and other tribal officials have been grappling for years with the environmental fallout from uranium mining.
“There were a lot of things people weren’t told about the plight of Navajos and uranium mining,” Mr. Etsitty said. “These legacy issues are impacting generations. At some point people are saying, ‘It’s got to end’”.
Hiroshima: A Visual Record
The Asia Pacific Journal: Japan Focus 27 July 09 by elin o’Hara slavick
On August 6, 1945, the United States of America dropped an atomic bomb fueled by enriched uranium on the city of Hiroshima. 70,000 people died instantly. Another 70,000 died by the end of 1945 as a result of exposure to radiation and other related injuries. Scores of thousands would continue to die from the effects of the bomb over subsequent decades………………
……………There are 258,000 names of A-bomb victims registered under the cenotaph. Each year on August 6, new names are added. The Flame of Peace is not an eternal flame because it will only burn until nuclear weapons are abolished. Hiroshima has 20/20 vision—a vision of a nuclear weapons-free world 75 years after the A-bomb was dropped on Hiroshima. 2,000 cities outside of Japan participate in the annual conference of Mayors for Peace, an organization started in Hiroshima………………..
……… Parents who lost children, old parents, rush to see with slight hope if they can find a clue of their children. These parents are in their 80s and 90s now. Today there are over 30,000 nuclear weapons in this world. Hiroshima and Nagasaki are not past events. They are about today’s situation.”
Nuclear reactor shuts down after malfunction
Nuclear reactor shuts down after malfunction
The Local 24 Jul 09
One of Germany’s most modern nuclear power stations was shut down on Friday due to a technical fault, operator RWE said, less than three weeks after problems at another reactor hit the headlines.
The Emsland reactor in northwest Germany, which supplies around 3.5 million households, underwent an automatic shutdown at 3:00 am (0100 GMT), RWE said in a statement……………………In early July, the Krümmel reactor near Hamburg was shut down after problems – not long after it had been reopened following two years of repairs.This reignited the nuclear debate in Germany, which decided in 2000 under then chancellor Gerhard Schröder to mothball its 17 reactors by about 2020 amid strong public opposition to atomic energy.
Perry nuclear plant reduces power
Perry nuclear plant reduces power
WKSU , July 24, 2009
The Perry Nuclear power plant east of Cleveland has reduced power to 37-percent. The plant is operated by FirstEnergy. Company spokesman Todd Schneider says employees found a leak in the system that controls the turbine and reduced power to make repair
1 This Month
petition to oppose the rapid increase of space-military industry threatening Jeju Island and the region.
[Petition by April 19th (KST)] Stop the joint military-Hanwha Systems-Jeju Provincial Government Sea Launch!
World Nuclear Power. Reactors 1951-2026, 75 Years of Nuclear Power.
Interactive Map– https://dv.worldnuclearreport.org/
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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