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If we are serious about curbing climate change, what would actually help? More people in cities, lots of nuclear power stations and lashings of GM crops, urges Stewart Brand. Unless green activists embrace the benefits of all three, they are not part of the solution, but part of the problem. This prescription, from the founder of that quintessential 1960s publication the Whole Earth Catalog, comes as a surprise. And his eclectically informative new book makes the most of it. I care about the Earth, and especially about the fate of humanity, says Brand. I have changed my mind about how to exercise that care, and so should you.

If we are serious about curbing climate change, what would actually help? More people in cities, lots of nuclear power stations and lashings of GM crops, urges Stewart Brand. Unless green activists embrace the benefits of all three, they are not part of the solution, but part of the problem. This prescription, from the founder of that quintessential 1960s publication the Whole Earth Catalog, comes as a surprise. And his eclectically informative new book makes the most of it. I care about the Earth, and especially about the fate of humanity, says Brand. I have changed my mind about how to exercise that care, and so should you.

Some books are written to be read, others to be put in a cannon and blasted at the seat of power. Two such blasts have just crossed my desk, from academics on either side of the Atlantic. Both are on the same subject, the consequence of the irrational fear of radiation.

Some books are written to be read, others to be put in a cannon and blasted at the seat of power. Two such blasts have just crossed my desk, from academics on either side of the Atlantic. Both are on the same subject, the consequence of the irrational fear of radiation.

High-level radioactive vitrified waste will arrive in Japan from Britain around March, Japan's four major electric power companies said Wednesday. A total of 28 units of nuclear waste that was packed into solidified glass in Britain will be transferred to the Rokkasho nuclear facility in Aomori Prefecture where it will be stored for 30 to 50 years, and then be buried at a final disposal site.

High-level radioactive vitrified waste will arrive in Japan from Britain around March, Japan's four major electric power companies said Wednesday. A total of 28 units of nuclear waste that was packed into solidified glass in Britain will be transferred to the Rokkasho nuclear facility in Aomori Prefecture where it will be stored for 30 to 50 years, and then be buried at a final disposal site.

"THE Rudd Government has refused to help Australian veterans who are suing the British Government over radiation exposure during atomic bomb tests in the 1950s and 60s. A group of survivors and their families are joining a class action after 800 British nuclear veterans were granted permission to sue their own Ministry of Defence."

"French Prime Minister Francois Fillon has summoned the heads of state-controlled groups EDF (EDF.PA) and Areva (CEPFi.PA) on Wednesday and will likely call on the chief executives to stop sniping at each other in public. Henri Proglio and Anne Lauvergeon have been at odds with each other since Proglio, who took over EDF in November, called the creation of nuclear fuel, reactors and waste recycling group Areva by Lauvergeon in 2001 "probably an error". Strategy disagreements between the two outspoken executives turned to public hostility in recent days after Areva suspended deliveries of nuclear fuel to and the collection of waste from EDF after the expiry on Dec. 31 of a deadline to renew a contract."

"There is no doubt that there has been a large increase in thyroid cancer incidence due to Chernobyl. I helped to bring this to public attention in 1992; we later showed that most cases have occurred among those who were young children at the time of exposure to high levels of fallout. This increase, initially seen in children is now occurring in young adults. Your special report on radiation (11 January), using World Health Organisation figures, comments that "only a few children have died of cancers since the accident". Apart from the tragedy of any child's death, measuring the impact only by mortality ignores the morbidity. Thyroid cancer generally has a very high cure rate, but thousands of thyroid operations have been carried out, some followed by multiple treatments and other consequences. The effects on the rest of Europe, largely exposed to low-dose radiation, are much less certain. The widely varying assessments of the numbers of deaths attributable to Chernobyl illustrate the need for a definitive unbiased long-term assessment of the overall consequences of the accident, as well as the need to maintain a sense of perspective."

"The French nuclear industry is in turmoil as uranium supplies have dried up and the treatment of spent fuel has been blocked amid an increasingly bitter row between the heads of its two main state operators. EDF, the electricity group that runs 58 reactors in France, said that Areva, the nuclear energy group, had stopped uranium deliveries on January 4 and was refusing to take away spent fuel for reprocessing. ''The transport of combustibles isn't working at the moment,'' Anne Lauvergeon, the chairwoman of Areva, said. As a result, used fuel is remaining at EDF sites instead of being reprocessed at La Hague treatment plant in northern France."

"State-controlled nuclear reactor maker Areva is considering producing cheaper nuclear reactors after its flagship EPR reactor lost out to a lower-cost South-Korean rival in a $20 billion tender in Abu Dhabi last month, the Financial Times reported on Friday. Top Areva management last week launched a review of its product range "to determine whether Areva should reintroduce the simpler second-generation CPR 1,000 reactors, which it stoppped building 20 years ago, for client countries that are new to nuclear power", the paper said."

"A blighted site is handed back to the people displaced by British bombs FROM the air, Maralinga looks much like the rest of Australia's outback: vast, red and empty. Up close, there are differences. Its long, quiet airstrip recalls a time when this was an unlikely epicentre of the cold war. Parrots and wedge-tailed eagles cruise above a desert still littered with radioactive plutonium and other fragments of atomic weapons that Britain exploded more than 50 years ago. Newspix Staking claim on a humble plot of Hiroshima Once teeming with nuclear scientists and British and Australian servicemen, Maralinga fell into eerie silence when the tests ended, in the early 1960s. Then just before Christmas 2009, it returned to life."

"Environmentalists are opposing the shipment of highly radioactive waste from Britain to Japan, arguing it is "potentially dangerous" and "wholly unnecessary." Activists are concerned that an accident could cause significant environmental damage or that terrorists could hijack the toxic cargo. But officials say transporting the material is safe and they are following all the necessary guidelines set down by national and international regulators."

"Shortage of fuel squeezes exploration programme NASA's future solar system exploration programme could be threatened by a shortage of plutonium-238, New Scientist reports. Many of the agency's spacecraft rely on the nuclear fuel, but the US no longer produces the stuff, and despite previous estimates that the lack of plutonium-238 wouldn't bite until 2020, NASA is "already tightening its belt"."

"A meeting between feuding officials of NRG Energy (NRG.N: Quote, Profile, Research) and the San Antonio municipal electric utility ended abruptly on Monday with no resolution on the future of a $10 billion proposed expansion of Texas' largest nuclear facility. An NRG spokesman said later that the parties will meet again on Tuesday. San Antonio Mayor Julian Castro last week invited the partners to negotiate a settlement to avoid a lengthy court battle scheduled later in January between NRG, its nuclear development arm and CPS Energy which is backing off a plan to invest in two new 1,350-megawatt reactors due to rising cost projections."

"Exiled Russian oligarch Boris Berezovsky won £150,000 ($220,000, 165,000 euros) in libel damages on Wednesday over a claim he was linked to the murder of ex-spy Alexander Litvinenko. A judge in London said there was "no evidence" that Berezovsky -- a fierce critic of Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin -- was behind the poisoning by radiation of Litvinenko in 2006. "I can say unequivocally that there is no evidence before me that Mr. Berezovsky had any part in the murder of Mr. Litvinenko," said judge David Eady, handing down his ruling at the High Court. "Nor, for that matter, do I see any basis for reasonable grounds to suspect him of it," he added."

"A government study on the future of France's nuclear sector will not call for state-owned Areva to be broken up, according to Le Figaro newspaper. The report will instead call for the government to take on a more active role in co-ordinating and leading the French nuclear sector, especially on projects abroad. It would also create a so-called high authority or strategic committee for the sector, reporting to the prime minister and then directly to the President, according to the paper."

"A new type of nuclear reactor that could permanently "destroy" atomic waste is being developed by French scientists, according to the chief executive of Areva, the world's largest nuclear energy company. Anne Lauvergeon told The Times that the French group was developing a technology to burn up actinides - highly radioactive uranium isotopes that are the waste products of nuclear fission inside a reactor. The technology could be critical in winning greater global public support for nuclear energy and cutting emissions of carbon dioxide. "

"As a 21-year-old, Ric Johnstone drove 150 miles daily across the scorching vastness of the Australian outback to work. A motor mechanic in the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF), he spent 1956 servicing military vehicles in the Great Victorian Desert. He lived with 300 other men in a tent town, eating dinners of bullied beef with the occasional vegetable. Johnstone described his first six months as similar to being a prisoner in a chain gang: "There was no church, no women, no entertainment, nothing.""

"The stage is set for the signing in Prague of the first arms control treaty of the Obama era. It is the initial step on the road to the US President's declared goal of a world without nuclear weapons, which he vibrantly described in the Czech capital a year ago. But now that the applause has died down after the US and Russia reached agreement on capping their deployed long-range nuclear weapons in the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (Start) follow-on pact, the treaty's limits have become apparent. The Obama administration says that it will curb the deployment of strategic weapons by one-third, leaving each side with 1,550 operational warheads, but that number is still enough to destroy the planet several times over. "

"This week Barack Obama and Dmitry Medvedev will sign a new strategic arms reduction treaty. Since the US and Russia own 95% of the world's nuclear weapons, the signing of this treaty is the most significant step towards nuclear arms reduction since the original document was signed in 1991. Despite this advance, the nuclear non-proliferation treaty is under increasing pressure. Nuclear disarmament and non-proliferation are firmly back at the top of the political agenda and their importance at this time cannot be overestimated. Every country has a responsibility to contribute towards disarmament efforts, strengthening the non-proliferation regime and ensuring our nuclear security. At the same time, we also face the spread of nuclear technology as growing numbers of states harness the use of civil nuclear power for their increasing energy demands. States that can enrich uranium and reprocess spent fuel can more readily acquire the capability to create a nuclear weapon, so a truly international and non-discriminatory regulatory system is urgently needed to govern these technologies."

"For more than half a century the futuristic dome of Dounreay nuclear power station has stood as one of the most iconic - and intimidating - coastal landmarks in Scotland. Now, despite last-ditch rescue attempts, it seems the imposing and eye-catching structure is doomed to be removed from the Caithness landscape forever. Although Dounreay is now defunct and set to be decommissioned, a public consultation over the future of the monumental structure has come up with a series of strange suggestions designed to save the building."

"With the end of the nuclear security summit in Washington, it is time to do an audit of President Obama's nuclear weapons agenda set out in Prague a year ago."