Waste Transportation - Opposition grows to unprecedented shipments of liquid high-level radioactive waste. An infrared photo of a high-level radioactive waste rail shipment.
The high temperature of such shipments, however, is the least of our worries. A severe accident, or attack, involving such a shipment could breach the container, leading to disastrous releases of hazardous radioactivity. This is true for solid irradiated fuel shipments, but all the more so for unprecedented, unanalyzed liquid HLRW truck transports.Grassroots opposition is mounting against a proposal to conduct the unprecedented transportation of liquid high-level radioactive wastes (HLRWs) from Chalk River, Ontario, Canada to Savannah River Site, South Carolina, U.S.A. Although some 2,500 to 3,000 shipments of irradiated nuclear fuel in solid form have occurred in the U.S. since the 1940s, never before has liquid HLRW been shipped. The risks of a disastrous environmental release due to a severe accident would be even higher for liquid shipments than for solid shipments. Dr.
Court imposes heavy fine on nuclear waste handling plant in UK. Middle East Star Friday 14th June, 2013 • Carlisle Crown Court heard Friday how several bags containing low-level radioactive material were wrongly and unlawfully sent from Sellafield to be disposed of in a landfill • Judge Peter Hughes fined sellafield 700,000 pounds plus 76,000 pounds court costs.
Nuclearfreefuture. Freeze our Fukushimas - Urgent Action on unreliable Mark I and Mark II containments: Request Commissioners to support the installation of filtered vents. Chairwoman Allison M.
Macfarlane Commissioner Kristine L. Senators Release Discussion Draft of Comprehensive Nuclear Waste Legislation - Featured Items - Newsroom - U.S. Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources. Washington, D.C. – Today, a bipartisan group of four senior U.S. senators released a discussion draft of comprehensive nuclear waste management legislation, aimed at re-energizing the efforts to reach a long-term solution to our country’s highly radioactive nuclear waste.
Senators Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., and Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn. – the leaders of the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Energy and Water Development – and Energy and Natural Resources Committee Chairman Ron Wyden, D-Ore., and Ranking Member Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, collaborated on the proposal, which builds on work by the Blue Ribbon Commission on America’s Nuclear Future.
The members are seeking comment on the discussion draft and a number of policy and technical questions from experts and stakeholders, including utilities, conservation groups, Blue Ribbon Commission members and others, by May 24. NUCLEAR POWER - Entergy Watch: FitzPatrick, Indian Point, Palisades, Pilgrim, Vermont Yankee.
Entergy Nuclear's dirty dozen atomic reactors FitzPatrick As Reuters reports, the U.S.
Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) has increased oversight and inspections at Entergy's upstate New York reactor (a Fukushima Daiichi twin, GE Mark I), after degrading its safety status: "At FitzPatrick, the NRC is concerned about the number of unplanned power changes per 7,000 hours of operation, the agency said.
Hanford, Washington. New nuclear power plants provide clean energy. INDEPENDENT online. Part 2 How great is the risk?
Will your children live out their natural life? Behind Nuclear Breach, a Nun’s Bold Fervor. Plymouth coalition formed to improve safety of storing nuclear waste. Plymouth officials have embarked on an effort to unite communities with nuclear reactors across the country into a coalition that will fight for safer storage of nuclear waste at their plants.
Selectwoman Belinda Brewster, who has spent a year planning last week’s creation of the Coalition of Nuclear Communities, said the group will focus on safe handling of spent fuel, and would not get caught up in the broader debate over nuclear energy. “We’re not going out as pro-nuke or anti-nuke,” Brewster said. Fukushima Nuclear Disaster Report: Plant Operators Tokyo Electric And Government Still Stumbling. TOKYO -- The operator of Japan's crippled nuclear power plant is still stumbling in its handling of the disaster 16 months later, by dragging its feet in investigations and trying to understate the true damage at the complex, investigators said Monday.
The report by a government-appointed panel is among several that have faulted Tokyo Electric Power Co. and the government for doing too little to protect the Fukushima Dai-ichi plant from the earthquake and tsunami that hit it in March 2011, and for mishandling the response when the damage set off three reactor meltdowns in the world's worst nuclear accident since Chernobyl. The investigators said the utility has yet to address problems within its own culture that contributed to its failings in the crisis, including employees "not fully trained to think for themselves.
" "We still don't perceive much enthusiasm in the accident investigation from" the company, the report said. Nuclear Japan Uranium Energy Radiation Gov 100 Safety Fukushima Usa Koodankulam Cesium Better Run. Mainichi: Gov’t tells university researchers to stop radiation tests on Fukushima residents — “Testing people stirs uneasiness, so we would like you to stop it”
Under The 'Nuclear Shadow' Of Colorado's Rocky Flats. This is FRESH AIR.
I'm Terry Gross. Our guest, Kristen Iversen, spent years in Europe looking for things to write about before realizing that the biggest story she'd ever cover was in her own backyard, or more accurately the one she'd grown up in. Iversen spent her childhood in Colorado, near the Rocky Flats Nuclear Weapons Factory, playing in fields and swimming in lakes and streams it now appears were contaminated with plutonium. Later as a single mother, Iversen worked at the plant and knew little of its environmental and health risks until she saw a feature on "Nightline. " Iversen's new book is in part a memoir about her troubled family life and also an investigation into the decades-long environmental scandal involving nuclear contamination in and around Rocky Flats.
Kristen Iversen is director of the MFA program in creative writing at the University of Memphis and editor-in-chief of the literary journal The Pinch. Kristen Iversen, welcome to FRESH AIR. FALLOUT FORECAST & ALERT FOR UK 6.22.2012. Fallout Guide for Canada...week of June 25, 2012. Fallout Guide for Europe...week of June 25, 2012. Vivian Norris: Interview with Akira Tokuhiro, Nuclear Engineer: Fukushima and the Mass Media. "Only the mass media can put the kind of pressure on TEPCO and the Japanese government to bring about major change.
This will cost at least 10 billion dollars if not 20-30 billion to clean up. It will take at least 10 years if not 20 and roughly 10,000 people working on the cleanup. The nuclear business is global. This needs an international effort to clean up Fukushima. " -- Nuclear Engineer Akira Tokuhiro In an email today, Japanese born, U.S. There are only a handful of Japanese nuclear engineers working and teaching in the U.S. The numbers are disturbingly higher than we have been lead to believe, the number of homes in the villages which are contaminated, the rice paddies, the fact that the "official" six to nine month cleanup is virtually impossible, no matter how much they do accomplish... all of this is what has being kept off the front pages of the mass media. Why consider nuclear energy for Utah - Moab Sun News: Opinion. I am the vice president for business development at Blue Castle Holdings, the Utah company proposing the development of a nuclear generating station near Green River.
This paper has graciously provided the opportunity for me to explain why I am involved in this process. In 2004, Gov. Leavitt appointed me to be one of Utah’s representatives to the Grand Canyon Visibility Transport Commission, which was a multistate entity formed to find ways to improve the deteriorating visibility in the extended Grand Canyon region. Monthly, for almost four years, representatives of local governments, states, Indian tribes, public utilities, transportation and mining companies from Utah, Arizona and New Mexico met to find ways to preserve the tremendous scenic vistas in the Grand Canyon and nearby national and state parks, including those in the Moab area. Blue Castle Nuclear Project Says NRC License for Georgia Reactors Shows Predictability and New Jobs.
IAEA, Iran begin new nuke talks - From the Wires. Finland’s brilliant plan for dealing with nuclear waste: pulling a Keyser Söze. N.Korea Comes Closer to Triggering Nuclear Arms Race. The U.S. House Armed Services Committee on Thursday adopted an amendment that urges the Obama administration to redeploy tactical nuclear weapons on the Korean Peninsula. The amendment to the defense authorization bill, passed by a vote of 32-26, supports "steps to…redeploy tactical nuclear weapons to the Western Pacific region. " A tactical nuclear weapon is a small warhead with a 10-20 kiloton explosive yield that can be mounted on artillery shells or short-range missiles to be used on a battlefield, as opposed to strategic nuclear weapons that are designed to annihilate huge populations.
The U.S. 94 Organizations Urge Senate to Reject Possible Renomination of Kristine Svinicki to NRC. WASHINGTON - April 30 - Ninety-four national, regional and local organizations and small businesses today urged the Senate Environment Committee to reject the possible re-nomination of Kristine Svinicki to a second term at the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
In a letter sent to Senate Environment Committee Chair Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) and Ranking Member James Inhofe (R-Okla.), the groups said that “…during her first term as an NRC Commissioner, Ms. Svinicki uniformly voted for nuclear industry interests at the expense of public health and safety.” For example, the letter noted that Ms. Regulatory Meltdown Goes Nuclear: Will Attacks on NRC's Jaczko Kill Post-Fukushima Upgrades? NRC Chmn. Jaczko testified Wednesday before the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform. If you like politics as blood sport, this is great stuff. On the other hand, if you worry about people, their lives, their health, how their money is spent and how their government protects their lives, their health and how their money is spent, well, then, this sucks.
If you had been waiting for the three-month follow-up to the Senate Environment and Public Works committee hearing on the Fukushima Near-Term Task Force recommendations–the one Sen. Obama Sides with GOP Against Reid in Battle over Nuclear Regulator. Important Reminder: This Sunday, April 22, at 5 PM EDT/2 PM PDT, I will be hosting Firedoglake’s book salon. This week’s book is The Doomsday Machine: The High Price of Nuclear Energy, the World’s Most Dangerous Fuel, and we will have authors Martin Cohen and Andrew McKillop online answering questions. There is much to discuss about the history of nuclear mythmaking in this book, please join us. In a move that could be seen as election-year expedience, a friendly nod to the nuclear industry, or a sign of a coming battle with Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV), the Obama administration announced Thursday that it would nominate Kristine Svinicki for a second term on the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
Reid had gone public just a day earlier with his objections to Commissioner Svinicki getting another five-year appointment when her tenure expires at the end of June. Obama makes NRC nomination over Reid opposition. WASHINGTON (AP) President Barack Obama nominated Kristine L. Fukushima Reactor 4 Release Would Doom Western USA - Technorati Green. Elder loses court fight over outback mining plan. Updated Fri 20 Apr 2012, 6:57pm AEST The Federal Court has dismissed an application by an Aboriginal elder to overturn a proposed expansion of the Olympic Dam uranium and copper mine in outback South Australia. Kevin Buzzacott challenged the Federal Government's approval for the expansion, which was granted last year.
He argued environmental risks from the planned expansion of underground mining to an open pit operation had not been properly considered. But Justice Anthony Besanko dismissed the application. Mine owner BHP Billiton is seeking court costs from Mr Buzzacott. Fulfill the vision: Protect Grand Canyon. To the editor: Memorializing the “Non-Catastrophic” Fukushima nuclear disaster. On April 23, 2012, the editorial board of the Washington Post proclaimed that the Fukushima nuclear disaster in Japan was “non-catastrophic.” Yucca Mountain May Get Second Life. Letters: Nuclear energy and Darrell Issa. The Worst Yet to Come? Why Nuclear Experts Are Calling Fukushima a Ticking Time-Bomb. Jaczko: No Schedule for SONGS Restart. NRC sends inspectors to Progress NC Harris reactor. Politicians urge the NRC to further prolong its review of the Pilgrim nuclear reactor’s license.
Talk of restart at San Onofre 'clearly premature' Disaster Prevention and Nuclear Safety Network for Nuclear Environment/ English Top Page. Radiation Network.
Fukushima hot particles By Marco kaltofen. The Fukushima nuclear accident dispersed airborne dusts that are contaminated with radioactive particles. When inhaled or ingested, these particles can have negative effects on human health that are different from those caused by exposure to external or uniform radiation fields. A field sampling effort was undertaken to characterize the form and concentration of radionuclides in the air and in environmental media which can accumulate fallout.
Samples included settled dusts, surface wipes, used filter masks, used air filters, dusty footwear, and surface soils. Particles were collected from used motor vehicle air filters and standard 0.45 micron membrane air filters. Question for BRAWM team about "Americium" Fairewinds Energy Education. Fig Tree - Marco Kaltofen, WPI researcher aids nuclear clean up.
Head Researcher: Boulder, Colorado a “hot spot” for Fukushima fallout — None of their other US or Canadian samples came close to Boulder’s contamination, except Portland which was even higher. Radiation from Japanese nuclear plant found in Colorado: Health dept. says no need to panic. San Francisco Bay View - National Black Newspaper of the Year.
US reduces expenses by using depleted uranium in wars. Top Japanese Officials endorse new nuclear safety standards created in less than one week. Radioactive Water Leaks from Japan’s Fukushima Plant. Nitrogen injection at Fukushima Daiichi stopped for third time in last month. Radioactive Seawater Impact Map (update: March 2012) Fukushima Reactor 4: Life On Planet Earth in the Balance. Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Plant Weekly Review. Tepco’s Cheapskate Tactics Put World at Risk. Cesium contamination in Japan found over 300km from Fukushima Daiichi. Fukushima, again - In The Aggregate – Arizona's political blogs. Are Fish Affected by Radioactive Kelp Off Our Coast? - Belmont Shore-Naples, CA Patch. Fukushima Radiation: Still a Threat? <h1>Dr Rima Recommends<br />Natural Solutions for a Weaponized World…</h1> Japan Fukushima Disaster: Nuclear Reactor Still Has Fatally High Radiation Levels, Little Water.
Experts: Radiation at Fukushima Plant Far Worse Than Thought. Fukushima Radiation Moving Steadily Across Pacific. Open warfare: four NRC commissioners versus Chairman Jaczko. The Truth About the US Postal Service. Repeat Performance: NRC approves COL for V.C. Summer. Eyeballing 104 Nuclear Reactors at 63 Power Plants. Clean Energy Insight - Moving Energy Forward » Blog Archive » An Inside View: US Federal Government Approves Yet Another Nuclear Energy Plant for Construction.
As Fukushima Worsens, US Approves New Nukes.
Energy Fuels Gets More Time On Colorado Mill Payments. Nuclear Engineer Arnie Gundersen: Fukushima Meltdown Could Result in 1 Million Cases of Cancer.