Group items tagged

CAMPAIGNERS from Norway descended on Westminster to demand Sellafield be closed down amid fears an accident at the site would cause devastation across the globe. 0508874 CAMPAIGN: Campaigners from Norway protest against Sellafield at Westminster The group claimed the quality of the radioactive waste is poor and they fear there will be an accident at the site. Frank Storelv, from Oslo, said 90 per cent of wind blows from the south west and if there was an explosion or accident at Sellafield, one or two days later the radioactive waste would be carried to the west coast of Norway.

CAMPAIGNERS from Norway descended on Westminster to demand Sellafield be closed down amid fears an accident at the site would cause devastation across the globe. 0508874 CAMPAIGN: Campaigners from Norway protest against Sellafield at Westminster The group claimed the quality of the radioactive waste is poor and they fear there will be an accident at the site. Frank Storelv, from Oslo, said 90 per cent of wind blows from the south west and if there was an explosion or accident at Sellafield, one or two days later the radioactive waste would be carried to the west coast of Norway.

Norway may be planning on becoming Europe's battery, but based on what Reuters is saying about a new proposal from Greenpeace it won't just be Norway which supplies Europe with electricity, it will be the North Sea. The head of renewable energy for the European Commission, Hans Van Steen, has called the proposal "ambitious but realistic". 118 Wind Farms + €20 Billion Electric Grid There may be no actual plan in place, but the Greenpeace proposal goes like this: Build 118 offshore wind farms by 2030 in the North Sea off the coasts of Britain, France, Germany, Belgium, the Netherlands, Denmark and Norway. Connect the 68 gigawatts of power these windfarms would produce to the mainland through a grid of power cables on the sea bed, the construction of which could cost €20 billion ($29 billion).

Environment Minister Erik Solheim has promised that Norway will get the World's strictest regulations for the handling of radioactive waste, and that the danger level will be lowered from 10 to 0.5 Becquerel. On Tuesday it was revealed that Norway does not have a complete overview of where waste from the oil industry ends up, waste that is regarded as radioactive and dangerous in many countries. Up to now such waste has been burned at a plant in Gulen, in the Sogn og Fjordane county. The authorities have now circulated for comments a proposal for new and stricter limits for what is to be regarded as radioactive and dangerous waste, with the limits lowered from 10 to 0.5 Becquerel.

The new Norwegian radiation monitoring system includes 11 locations in northern Norway and Svalbard. Radiation-levels are updated every hour and easily available for everyone on the Radnett web. Radnett includes all monitoring stations in Norway and was recently made public accessible via web by the Norwegian Radiation Protection Authorities. There are two monitoring stations close to Russian territory, one in Vardø and one at the Svanhovd Environmental Centre in the Pasvik Valley. You can click in and check the latest updated radiation levels. Also, it is possible to see historical data's and trends for radiation during a certain time-period.

Last December, 141 states supported a General Assembly resolution requesting that the United Nation's agencies - the WHO, IAEA and UNEP - update their positions on the potential threat to human health and the environment posed by the use of uranium weapons. Of these, it seems to be that of the WHO which will prove the most influential. 17 November 2009 - Doug Weir and Gretel Munroe This was the second NAM resolution on uranium weapons in recent years and it garnered more support than its 2007 predecessor. Abstentions were down as Finland, Norway and Iceland voted in favour while France, Israel, the United States and the United Kingdom were left more isolated than ever. Following the vote, the UK justified its position by stating that all the research that has ever needed to be undertaken into the potential health impact of uranium weapons has been completed and that we can now therefore ignore the subject.

Last December, 141 states supported a General Assembly resolution requesting that the United Nation's agencies - the WHO, IAEA and UNEP - update their positions on the potential threat to human health and the environment posed by the use of uranium weapons. Of these, it seems to be that of the WHO which will prove the most influential. 17 November 2009 - Doug Weir and Gretel Munroe This was the second NAM resolution on uranium weapons in recent years and it garnered more support than its 2007 predecessor. Abstentions were down as Finland, Norway and Iceland voted in favour while France, Israel, the United States and the United Kingdom were left more isolated than ever. Following the vote, the UK justified its position by stating that all the research that has ever needed to be undertaken into the potential health impact of uranium weapons has been completed and that we can now therefore ignore the subject.

"Documents smuggled out of Myanmar by an army defector indicate its military regime is trying to develop nuclear weapons and long-range missiles, and North Korea is probably assisting the program, an expatriate media group said Friday. The Norway-based Democratic Voice of Burma said the defector had been involved in the nuclear program and smuggled out extensive files and photographs describing experiments with uranium and specialized equipment needed to build a nuclear reactor and develop enrichment capabilities. But the group concluded in a report that Myanmar is still far from producing a nuclear weapon."

Norway's sovereign wealth fund said on Wednesday it has filed a suit in a U.S. court to prevent Constellation Energy (CEG.N) from convening a shareholders meeting due to vote on a takeover by MidAmerican. Norway's fund owns 4.8 percent in Constellation, whose value it said was undervalued by the offer by MidAmerican Energy, a unit of Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway Inc (BRKa.N). Since MidAmerican's move was proposed and backed by Constellation's board, French power company Electricite de France (EDF.PA) made an offer for Constellation assets "that values it substantially higher" than MidAmerican's offer, the Norwegian oil fund said.

Russia is well underway to improve the situation in the Andreeva Bay, an official from Rosatom confirmed in a seminar yesterday. Sweden, Norway and the UK pledge continued support to the clean-up of the site, one of the world's biggest and worst protected storages for spent nuclear fuel. However, the most important question still remains to be solved: how to remove thousands of tons of spent nuclear fuel assemblies, the Bellona Foundation underlines. This week, the environmental organisation organised a seminar on the issue in Murmansk. Spent nuclear fuel and radioactive waste storage facilities at Andreyeva Bay were hastily built during the Soviet era. They were meant to be used on a temporary basis to house nuclear materials, which are still being stored there at enormous risk to the environment and local community. The facilities store more than 20,000 spent nuclear fuel assemblies, Bellona.org reports.

Professor Emeritus John C. Ringle ("U.S. would benefit from nuclear power, "Opinion, Aug. 21) asserts, "France, Great Britain, Japan and Russia derive great benefit from reprocessing, " and concludes, "We [The US] should be doing the same." Advertisement I write from London, England. I cannot speak for France, Japan or Russia, but can enlighten your readers that the chemical separation of plutonium from uranium and fission products in irradiated nuclear fuel through the process called nuclear reprocessing has not proved a great benefit to Britain. It has resulted in significant radiological pollution of the Irish Sea, angering our neighbors, Ireland, for several decades, as well as Nordic neighbors, Norway, concerned over radiological pollution of their pristine fishing waters.

By Michele Boyd and Arjun Makhijani A Fact Sheet Produced by Physicians for Social Responsibility and the Institute for Energy and Environmental Research Thorium "fuel" has been proposed as an alternative to uranium fuel in nuclear reactors. There are not "thorium reactors," but rather proposals to use thorium as a "fuel" in different types of reactors, including existing light-water reactors and various fast breeder reactor designs. Thorium, which refers to thorium-232, is a radioactive metal that is about three times more abundant than uranium in the natural environment. Some of the largest reserves are found in Idaho in the U.S. Large known deposits are in Australia, India, and Norway. The primary U.S. company dvocating for thorium fuel is Thorium Power (www.thoriumpower.com). Unlike the claims made or implied by thorium proponents, however, thorium doesn't solve the proliferation, waste, safety, or cost problems of nuclear power, and it still faces major technical hurdles for commercialization.

"Are highly radioactive materials from western EU countries going to be deposited in Poland? asks POLSKA THE TIMES. Nuclear power plants from EU countries want to dump their radioactive waste in Centeral East European countries, including Poland. A project of such an initiative is underway at the European Repository Development Organization and is reportedly supported by the European Commission. Negotiation as to the exact dumping place are to begin in May and should take an estimated 2 years. Reportedly, building one dumping site for nuclear materials is economical. A community which accepts nuclear waste on their territory can count on subsidies from the European Union, not to mention the work places that will be created in the area, claim enthusiasts of the project in the newspaper. We already have silver, now it's time for gold! This headline is from RZECZPOSPOLITA which praises Polish cross country ski champion Justyna Kowalczyk for the second place she took in the Individual Sprint Classics at the Vancouver Winter Olympics. Kowalczyk lost only to Marit Bjoergen from Norway. "

"European NATO allies are to urge President Barack Obama to remove all remaining US nuclear weapons from European soil, as domestic pressure grows to rid its soil of outdated Cold War-era aerial bombs. Belgium, Germany, Luxembourg, The Netherlands and Norway will call "in the coming weeks" for more than 200 American warheads, mostly stocked in Italy and Turkey, to be taken back, a spokesman for Prime Minister Yves Leterme told AFP. A joint proposal by the five NATO members will demand "that nuclear arms on European soil belonging to other NATO member states are removed," Dominique Dehaene said."

"Political attacks and pressure from governmental structures against Russian environmental organizations has significantly increased during the last months, according to a report issued by Friends of the Earth Norway. - We are seriously worried over the latest development. The environment in the north is facing increased pressure with climate changes and more resource exploitation. Therefore it is essential to have a strong Russian environmental movement able to influence the politics and development in Russia's northern regions, says Yngvild Lorentzen, head of International project department in Norges Naturvernforbund, the Norwegian branch of Friends of the Earth. The Norwegian organization has actively cooperated with several Russian environmental NGOs since the establishment of the Barents cooperation in the early 90ties. - We don't need an environmental movement that are kept silent in important issues, says Lorentzen to BarentsObserver."

"Radioactive waste from Norway's Halden and Kjeller research reactors could be sent to Russia, according to a report ordered by the Norwegian government's Ministry of Trade and Industry in what Bellona is calling an "unacceptable" move. Waste from the two research reactors are in need of new temporary storage and the and the Trade and Industry Ministry has appointed a technical committee to examine the possibilities. The Committee, in its report, has suggested, among other things, sending the waste to Russia's Mayak Chemical Combine, the country's long ailing central reprocessing facility in the southern Urals. "It would be totally irresponsible to send the Norwegian nuclear waste to Mayak in Russia," Nils Bøhmer, Bellona's nuclear physicist and director said bluntly. "

"Two British nuclear submarines went to sea with a potentially disastrous safety problem that left both vessels at risk of a catastrophic accident, the Guardian can reveal. Safety valves designed to release pressure from steam generators in an emergency were completely sealed off when the nuclear hunter killers Turbulent and Tireless left port, a leaked memo discloses. The problem went undetected on HMS Turbulent for more than two years, during which time the vessel was on operations around the Atlantic, and visited Bergen in Norway, the Portuguese capital, Lisbon, and Faslane naval base near Glasgow."

Aftenposten has revealed that Norwegian fisheries minister Helga Pedersen admitted knowing that the Russian submarine wreck Murmansk likely contained radioactive chemicals, despite earlier claims to the contrary. She denies charges that she lied about her knowledge, even when shown a letter she received in 2005 warning her about the dangers.

The famous ecological Bellona Foundation, whose expert atomic physician Andrei Ozharovsky was arrested in Belarus, sent an official request to Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov asking that his office look into the arrest of the Russian citizen. The request, published on the NGO's website says a representative of Russia's consular mission to Belarus hasn't met with Andrei Ozharovsky yet. Bellona notes that Ozharovsky was arrested for his intent to distribute at the hearing copies of a report entitled "Critical Notes on the State Environmental Impact Study of the Belarusian Nuclear Power Plant," which he had co-authored. Arrested Ozharovsky has not been given access to a lawyer.

The famous ecological Bellona Foundation, whose expert atomic physician Andrei Ozharovsky was arrested in Belarus, sent an official request to Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov asking that his office look into the arrest of the Russian citizen. The request, published on the NGO's website says a representative of Russia's consular mission to Belarus hasn't met with Andrei Ozharovsky yet. Bellona notes that Ozharovsky was arrested for his intent to distribute at the hearing copies of a report entitled "Critical Notes on the State Environmental Impact Study of the Belarusian Nuclear Power Plant," which he had co-authored. Arrested Ozharovsky has not been given access to a lawyer.