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Japan's third-biggest power producer, revised its earnings outlook and predicted a record loss after scrapping two reactors that are more than 30 years old. The company is expecting a net loss of 78 billion yen ($869.5 million) for the year ending March 31 compared with profit of 22 billion yen it forecast in October, it said in a statement released in Tokyo today. The utility will book a charge of 155 billion yen for mothballing the No. 1 and No. 2 units at the company's Hamaoka plant in central Japan.

ONE of the government advisers on the selection of sites for new nuclear reactors has branded Sellafield as "a poor location for a modern nuclear power station". In an extract from his book Nukenomics: The commercialisation of Britain's nuclear industry, Ian Jackson, writes: "For example, despite its substantial nuclear workforce, the remote Sellafield complex in North West England is a poor location for a modern nuclear power station because its electricity transmission infrastructure cannot carry the energy output of a large nuclear station. Securing planning permissions from Cumbria County Council and capital investment from the National Grid for major transmission upgrade stretching across the Lake District are key logistical and economic barriers at Sellafield."

Recently the Anglo-American establishment has made new diplomatic efforts to establish closer relations with India. The Global corporations have already invested hundreds of billions of dollars in that country that is famous for low labor wages. Meanwhile, the US has begun to distance itself from Pakistan its long time Jihadist partner, drug circulator, and number one terrorist recruiter. Ironically, after Musharraf the previous president of Pakistan who was forced to resign his post, retired to his lavish villa with a large bank account, and revenues from his book that was published by the giant US publisher and CIA outfit Simon & Shuster, the troubles in Pakistan have increasingly skyrocketed to a point of explosion.

On Dec. 18, 1950, President Truman approved establishment of a facility on the Las Vegas-Tonopah Bombing and Gunnery Range in Nye County. At first the site encompassed 350 square miles. Subsequent expansions led to its present size of 1,375 square miles. Dina Titus suggests in her book, "Bombs in the Backyard: Atomic Testing and American Politics," that the Nye County location was selected for several reasons: It was the largest of the proposed sites; it was under the jurisdiction of the federal government, meaning less conflict with local governments; it was supported by Nevada's powerful Sen. Pat McCarran; it was a sparsely populated area, with the nearest residents 25 miles away; and it had low rainfall and predictable winds.

One of the people advising the Government on the best places to site new nuclear reactors has branded Sellafield a "poor location". In an extract to his book Nukenomics: The commercialisation of Britain's nuclear industry, Ian Jackson, who helped write the siting report for the Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform/Department of Trade and Industry gives his views. He writes that: "Despite its substantial nuclear workforce, the remote Sellafield complex in north west England is a poor location for a modern nuclear power station because its electricity transmission infrastructure cannot carry the energy output of a large nuclear station.

`It looks as though all Africa might be gone in a week or so ... It seems to go quite quickly at the end, so far as we can ascertain. It's a bit difficult, because when more than half the people in a place are dead, the communications usually go out, and then you don't quite know what's happening." So says a character in "On the Beach," Nevil Shute's 1957 novel in which, following a nuclear war, every person on Earth is dead or dying. Preposterous? Dr. Helen Caldicott does not think so. She read the book as a girl growing up in Melbourne, Australia. Unlike many of us, she had the good sense to be frightened by the story, finding it all too plausible.

The Trade & Environment Database (TED) is a collection of categorical case studies that began with a focus on solely environmental issues, but did not include the economic consequences of other social policy choices, such as culture, rights, or other issues. TED cases include 28 categories that include both coded and reporting, organized into 6 clusters of information with extensive search and knowledge capabilities. There are around 700 TED cases studies. Please search the TED databases, read more about our research, see about the TED book, participate in Mandala events, and get involved (internships and distance learning). Click here to see the NEW Geographic Indications and International Trade (GIANT) project

The lurid London murder of former Russian secret agent Alexander Litvinenko with polonium-210 looks set to equal the tale of Jack the Ripper as a generator of inconclusive theories that open the way for ever more books. ``The Terminal Spy'' by Alan S. Cowell of the New York Times is the latest installment.

Bloomberg suggests, and Joe Romm reiterates, that McCain's plan to build 45 nuclear reactors by 2030 might cost the taxpayers almost a third of a trillion dollars, or $ 315 billion. Now that's not much these days, considering what is being racked up for the Iraq war and the Fannie Mae debacle, but to paraphrase Everett Dirkson, a trillion here, a trillion there, pretty soon you're talking about real money. And it would be nice if it could be done, but as Bloomberg and TreeHugger noted earlier, the only company in the world that can make the reactor vessels is already booked up to 2015. As we also noted in an earlier post, perhaps there is more energy to be made by fixing what we have, by eliminating waste, by increasing efficiency. Perhaps we don't have to Drill, drill drill! as some suggest, or Invent, Invent, Invent! as Tom Friedman calls for. Perhaps all we really have to do is Insulate, Insulate, Insulate!

A review of environmental skepticism literature from the past 30 years has found that the vast majority of skeptics, often identified as independent, are directly linked to politically oriented, conservative think tanks. The study, published in this month's issue of Environmental Politics, analyzed books written between 1972 and 2005 that deny the authenticity of environmental problems. The researchers found that more than 92 percent of the skeptical authors were in some way affiliated to conservative think tanks - non-profit research and advocacy organizations that promote core conservative ideals.

At some point, you or someone you know will benefit from a little-known radioactive isotope with a name that sounds like something out of a Spider-Man comic book -- technetium-99m. Doctors rely on it to diagnose conditions such as heart disease and bone cancer.

John W. Gofman, Ph.D., M.D., is one of America's most prominent critics of nuclear power. He's performed extensive research on the hazards of radiation . . . given testimony in any number of trials related to atomic power . . . lectured and participated in debates all across the country. . . and written several books on the relationship between nuclear energy and public health.

As I've said before on this forum and perhaps elsewhere, I'm a fan of David Michaels -- particularly because of his work as an asst. secretary at DOE during the Clinton administration. I've seen a bunch of folks serve as political appointees at the Dept. of Energy over the past 25-plus years. David Michaels was one of the best, and he made a difference during his three years (I think that's right) at DOE.

At last - a voice that cuts through the propaganda and puts all the pieces of our nation's energy puzzle together in plain English while providing practical, common-sense answers. S. David Freeman, the energy guru known as the "Green Cowboy," has written the first must-read book that tells the American people the truth about this country's dependence on foreign oil, dirty coal and dangerous nuclear power - what he calls the "Three Poisons."

WASHINGTON, June 4 (UPI) -- A new book confirms what has to be one of the more unusual exchanges of nuclear information outside of outright spying and helps explain how Pakistani nuclear weapons knowledge made its way to North Korea. In late 1993 Benazir Bhutto, then prime minister of Pakistan, carried critical nuclear data on CDs in her overcoat to Pyongyang in 1993 and brought back North Korea's missile information, according to a new political biography, "Goodbye Shahzadi" -- Goodbye Princess -- by respected India-born British journalist Shyam Bhatia.

Ontario's decision to build new nuclear reactors to maintain the province's generating capacity as it turns away from coal-fired plants carries long-term risks and will have consumers digging deeper into their pocket books to cover inevitable cost overruns, a Niagara opposition MPP warns. "It has inherent dangers, it has long-term risk in terms of disposing of spent fuel and also it's very, very expensive electricity," says Welland NDP MPP Peter Kormos. "The cost overruns are huge, inevitably, and that means the consumer will be paying and paying and paying more and more and more."

In 1989 Mabel Mitchell published a little book called Gloria. It tells of one woman's struggle with nuclear fallout. We have been given permission to pass this story along. Many of you knew her or know of her. Many of you are related to her, went to school with her, laughed and cried with her. Gloria Leavitt Gregerson was born in Bunkerville in 1941. In 1983, her body lay in a chapel in Bunkerville after a five-year battle with acute myelogenous leukemia. That was the last of many battles with disease she waged.

Over Vermont's 230 years several strange political movements persisted long enough to enter the history books. Among them, anti-Masonry, the anti-Catholic and anti-immigrant Know Nothing movement, and the Prohibition crusade all fizzled after initial successes. The most notable fringe movement still alive today is the crusade against nuclear energy. It is, naturally, focused on Vermont's lone nuclear reactor, Vermont Yankee, that went on line in 1972.

The next time Islamist terrorists attack us it could be with a nuclear weapon. By saying that, am I "fear mongering"? If so, I'm in good company. Graham Allison is a Harvard professor who served with distinction in the Defense Department under both Presidents Reagan and Clinton. He wrote a book in 2004 arguing that "on the current course, nuclear terrorism is inevitable."