Skip to main content

Home/ Open Intelligence / Energy/ Group items tagged politics

Rss Feed Group items tagged

Filter: All | Bookmarks | Topics Simple Middle
D'coda Dcoda

Fumbling gov't faces huge challenges in 2012 [27Dec11] [ - 0 views

mdn.mainichi.jp/...20111226p2a00m0na002000c.html

shared by D'coda Dcoda on 27 Dec 11 - No Cached
  • Hiroaki Koide, an assistant professor at the Kyoto University Research Reactor Institute (KURRI), is someone who has made one of the strongest impressions on me among the experts I've spoken to about the ongoing Fukushima nuclear disaster. The public's views toward Koide have changed by the minute. He went from first being considered a nuclear "maverick" to a "pioneer" and finally to "one polemicist from the anti-nuclear camp." His ever-changing reputation has been symbolic of Japan's wavering between the promotion of nuclear energy and independence from it.
  • Last week, a government insider I've known for years wondered aloud whether they couldn't "drag someone like Koide" into the process of drawing up the government's new energy policy.
  • When I asked Koide about this, however, he responded: "I'm completely disillusioned with politics. No matter what committees are set up, nothing's going to change while politics continues to be carried out the way it is now. I won't accept a position from the government. When it comes to one-on-one public debates, however, I'm willing to go anywhere to participate."
  • ...7 more annotations...
  • Many of the experts who have been involved in the government's related committees since before the outbreak of the nuclear crisis on March 11 are pro-nuclear energy advocates. The inclusion of some anti-nuclear experts in discussions since March has created a bit of a stir, but they're still vastly outnumbered. Talks remain under the tight control of bureaucrats from the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) and the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT), as well as staff dispatched from utility companies. The lineup is so skewed to nuclear energy promotion that it even gets a government insider anxious to get "someone like Koide" involved.
  • The government is now reviewing its energy policy in terms of a management overhaul at the stricken plant's operator, Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO), and comprehensive reform of the electric power system. It is beginning to look like TEPCO will be nationalized to ensure stable power supply, with the government obtaining at least two-thirds of TEPCO's shares. A final decision about the utility will be reached before account settlements for the fiscal year ending next March are made.
  • The government may be able to come up with options, but it won't be able to reach a decisio
  • Winning the public over is the biggest obstacle that lies ahead for the government.
  • So what would happen if the debate over energy policy fails to pick up steam, and things proceed with the "nuclear village," a pro-nuclear collection of politicians, bureaucrats, academics and utilities, firmly in charge? A bureaucratic source offered the following vision: "Dependence on nuclear energy for our power supply can stay at (pre-March 11 levels of) 30 percent. This would still be lower than our original goal of achieving 50-percent dependence, so it would count as a 'reduction in nuclear dependence.' It would be acceptable to abandon the Monju fast-breeder project, but nuclear fuel reprocessing plants should be preserved. We would process MOX fuel from plutonium extracted from spent fuel, and export it at the same level as Britain and France."
  • This scheme is a pipe dream. Nuclear power plants across the country are being stopped for regular inspections, with no clear prospects of them being restarted.
  • No one believes the government's recent announcement that "the crisis has been brought under control." This widespread mistrust is not something that one-sided rhetoric from government or business leaders can dispel.
D'coda Dcoda

The Associated Press: Can Web-savvy activist moms change Japan? [30Dec11] - 0 views

www.google.com/...M5gZaMGGsjFihpegvWsfhnQ_VN8-Aw

shared by D'coda Dcoda on 03 Jan 12 - No Cached
  • Japan's nuclear crisis has turned Mizuho Nakayama into one of a small but growing number of Internet-savvy activist moms.Worried about her 2-year-old son and distrustful of government and TV reports that seemed to play down radiation risks, she scoured the Web for information and started connecting with other mothers through Twitter and Facebook, many using social media for the first time.
  • The 41-year-old mother joined a parents group — one of dozens that have sprung up since the crisis — that petitioned local officials in June to test lunches at schools and day care centers for radiation and avoid using products from around the troubled nuclear plant.
  • It's the first time for anyone in our group to be involved in this type of activism," said Nakayama, who now carries a Geiger counter with her wherever she goes.Public dismay with the government's response to this year's triple disaster — earthquake, tsunami and nuclear meltdown — is driving some Japanese to become more politically engaged, helped by social and alternative media. While still fledgling, it's the kind of grass-roots activism that some say Japan needs to shake up a political system that has allowed the country's problems to fester for years.
D'coda Dcoda

Nuclear waste requires a cradle-to-grave strategy, study finds [27Aug11] - 0 views

solarenergyblog.australiainformationonline.com/rave-strategy-study-finds.html

shared by D'coda Dcoda on 28 Aug 11 - No Cached
  • ScienceDaily (July 3, 2010) — after Fukushima, it is now imperative to redefine what makes a successful nuclear energy–from the cradle to the grave. If the management of nuclear waste is not considered by the authority, the public in many countries reject nuclear energy as an option, according to a survey appearing in the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists, published by SAGE.
  • According to Allison Macfarlane, Associate Professor of environmental science and policy at George Mason University and a member of the Blue Ribbon for nuclear future of America, resulting in storage for nuclear waste, which is still a last-minute decision to a number of countries outside of Japan. It is surprisingly common for reactor sites for overburdened with spent nuclear fuel without any clear plan. In South Korea, for example, saving to four nuclear power stations in the nation is filled, leading to a crisis within the storage potential of the next decade.
  • United Arab Emirates broke the ground for the first of four nuclear reactors on 14 March 2011, but has not set the precedence of storage. Hans Blix, former head of the International Atomic energy Agency and current President of the UAE’S International Advisory Council, noted: “it is still an open question of a draft final disposal and greater attention should be spent on deciding what to do.”
  • ...5 more annotations...
  • Some very low level nuclear waste can go into landfill-type settings. But low level waste consists of low concentrations of long-lived radionuclides and higher concentrations of these short-lived must remain sequestered for a few hundred years in subsurface engineering facilities. Medium-and high-level wastes require placing hundreds of meters below the ground for hundreds of thousands of years in order to ensure public safety. Intermediate waste containing high concentrations of long-lived radionuclides, as high-level waste, including spent fuel reprocessing and fuel waste. Because they are extremely radioactive high level waste that emits heat. There is no repository for high level nuclear waste disposal wherever in the world.
  • All types of energy production, money is on the front end of the process and of waste management in the back end. Macfarlane argues, however, that a failure to plan for the disposal of waste can cause the most profitable front end of a company to collapse.
  • Nuclear fuel discharged from a light water reactor after about four to six years in the kernel. This should be cool, because the fuel is radioactively and thermally very hot to discharge, in a pool. Actively cooled with borated water circulated, spent fuel pools are approximately 40 feet (12 meters) deep. Water not only removes heat, but also helps to absorb neutrons and stop a chain reaction. In some countries, including the United States, metal shelves in spent fuel pools hold four times the originally planned amount of fuel. The plans to reprocess fuel have failed for both economic and political reasons. This means that today is more fuel pools from reactor cores, and the fuel endangers big radiation in the event of an accident-loss of coolant, as happened in Fukushima.
  • Japan’s Fukushima Daiichi plant spent fuel has seven pools, one at each reactor and large shared swimming pool, dry storage of spent fuel on site. Initially, Japan had planned a brief period of storage of spent fuel in the reactor before reprocessing, but Japan’s reprocessing facility has suffered long delays (scheduled to open in 2007, the installation is not yet ready). This caused the spent fuel to build the reactor factory sites.
  • Countries should include additional spent fuel storage nuclear projects from the beginning, and not the creation of ad hoc solutions, after spent nuclear fuel has already begun to build. Storage location is a technical issue, but also a social and political.
D'coda Dcoda

Bulgaria: WikiLeaks Cable: Russia's Atomstroyexport's International Nuclear Energy Cont... - 0 views

www.novinite.com/view_news.php

shared by D'coda Dcoda on 28 Aug 11 - No Cached
  • The following cable by John Beyrle, US Ambassador to Russia who was the US Ambassador to Bulgaria before going to Moscow, dated April 3, 2009, was released Thursday by WikiLeaks and their Bulgarian partner Bivol.bg.
  • Subject: Russia's Atomstroyexport Cannot Fulfill Existing International Nuclear Energy Contracts, But Seeks New OnesOrigin Embassy Moscow (Russia)Cable time Fri, 3 Apr 2009 04:02 UTCClassification UNCLASSIFIED//FOR OFFICIAL USE ONLYSource http://wikileaks.org/cable/2009/04/09MOSCOW851.htmlRelease timeWed, 24 Aug 2011 01:00 UTC -->History First published on Wed, 24 Aug 2011 03:21 UTC
  • UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 MOSCOW 000851 SENSITIVE SIPDIS E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: KNNP [Nuclear Non-Proliferation] BTIO [Trade and Investment Opportunities] ETRD [Foreign Trade] ETTC [Trade and Technology Controls] ENRG [Energy and Power] TRGY [Energy Technology] PREL [External Political Relations] ECON [Economic Conditions] RS [Russia; Wrangel Islands]
  • ...3 more annotations...
  • VZCZCXRO8369 RR RUEHBC RUEHDBU RUEHDE RUEHDIR RUEHKUK RUEHLN RUEHPOD RUEHSK RUEHVK RUEHYG DE RUEHMO #0851/01 0930402 ZNR UUUUU ZZH R 030402Z APR 09 FM AMEMBASSY MOSCOW TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 2715 INFO RUEHSF/AMEMBASSY SOFIA 0616 RUEHKV/AMEMBASSY KYIV 0335 RUEHSK/AMEMBASSY MINSK RUEHCV/AMEMBASSY CARACAS 0286 RUEHTRO/AMEMBASSY TRIPOLI RUEHUM/AMEMBASSY ULAANBAATAR 0304 RUCNCIS/CIS COLLECTIVE RUEHXD/MOSCOW POLITICAL COLLECTIVE RUEHII/VIENNA IAEA POSTS COLLECTIVE RUCNIRA/IRAN COLLECTIVE RHMFIUU/DEPT OF ENERGY WASHINGTON DC RUEANFA/NRC WASHDC RUEHLN/AMCONSUL ST PETERSBURG 5295 RUEHVK/AMCONSUL VLADIVOSTOK 3181 RUEHYG/AMCONSUL YEKATERINBURG 3534
  • SUBJECT: RUSSIA'S ATOMSTROYEXPORT CANNOT FULFILL EXISTING INTERNATIONAL NUCLEAR ENERGY CONTRACTS, BUT SEEKS NEW ONES REF A: ANKARA 111, REF B: 08 YEREVAN 1049, REF C: 08 MOSCOW 908 MOSCOW 00000851 001.2 OF 003
  • ¶1. (SBU) Summary: Russian policymakers are relying on Russia's competitive advantage in civilian nuclear power to help it diversify its natural resources-based economy. Atomstroyexport, Russia's international nuclear power plant constructor is diligently pursuing construction contracts for 11 new nuclear reactors in India, Iran, Bulgaria, and Ukraine. It is in active discussions on another six reactors (two in China and a Build-Own-Operate plant with four reactors in Turkey). At least four other countries have stated their interest in having Russian-design reactors as their entry into the nuclear power arena. However, the crunch on credit, insufficient machine-building infrastructure, and a paucity of trained specialists make it unlikely that Atomstroyexport will be able to realize all of these plans soon. End Summary.
D'coda Dcoda

US Nuclear Regulatory Commission: It's All About Politics? [16Aug11] - 0 views

ex-skf.blogspot.com/...regulatory-commission-its.html

shared by D'coda Dcoda on 17 Aug 11 - No Cached
  • If Japan's Madarame's Nuclear Safety Commission is "all about money", the US counterpart, Nuclear Regulatory Commission, seems all about political infighting. It's Chairman Jaczko (Democratic appointee) vs Commissioner Svinicki (Republican appointee), with a former chairman fanning the infighting.
  • From Politico (8/16/2011): NRC infighting goes nuclear By DARIUS DIXON | 8/16/11 4:20 PM EDT It's war at the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. NRC Chairman Gregory Jaczko regularly faces the sharp end of Republican spears for his work to shut down the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository, but his biggest clash appears not to be with Capitol Hill but with fellow NRC Commissioner Kristine Svinicki.
  • Jaczko, a Democrat and former aide to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, and Svinicki, a Republican, have sparred over everything from serious issues including safety reviews and agency budgets to minor items like foreign travel requests.
  • ...4 more annotations...
  • The tension between Jaczko and Svinicki is so thick that the two haven’t addressed one another in months, sources tell POLITICO. “There’s been a history of punches and counterpunches,” David Lochbaum, director of the Union of Concerned Scientists’s Nuclear Safety Project and a longtime observer of the NRC, said of Jaczko and Svinicki. “I don’t know who started it but at some point it doesn’t matter. It takes two to fight.”
  • ... Dale Klein, a former NRC chairman, said he believed the report presented a tamer version of accounts than what was collected by investigators. Klein described Jaczko’s behavior as “ruling by intimidation” and by cornering his colleagues on agency issues through the media. When it came to Jaczko’s interactions with Svinicki, he said, “While I was there, he would oftentimes yell at her.”
  • Before retiring from the NRC, Klein said he gave Jaczko a warning. "I had told him early on, several times, that the title is chairman — not dictator," Klein said. The latest skirmish came last month after Jaczko went to the National Press Club to announce his plan to have the NRC review recommendations of a special Fukushima task force in 90 days. One problem: The chairman went forward with the proposal without convincing his fellow commissioners to support it, and his announcement was widely seen as a maneuver aimed at painting his colleagues into a corner. (Jaczko told the other commissioners about his plan, but there was little to no negotiation.)
  • Three commissioners — Svinicki, William Magwood and William Ostendorff — quickly moved to block the 90-day timetable. For his part, Jaczko struck back last week, writing a memo saying his colleagues have a "preoccupation with process at the expense of nuclear safety policy." Jaczko’s 90-day proposal was “the classic example of what not to do,” Klein said. “What’s magic about 90 days? "That’s not the way that you’re going to build a consensus..." (The article continues.)Consensus? In nuclear safety? Then Japan's NSC and NISA should be lauded for their exemplary consensus building over the decades.
D'coda Dcoda

Japan, Vietnam Move Ahead On Nuclear Reactor Plans, Despite Fukushima [28Sep11] - 0 views

www.foxbusiness.com/...eactor-plans-despite-fukushima

shared by D'coda Dcoda on 28 Sep 11 - No Cached
  • In Japan's most aggressive move to promote exports of nuclear technology since the Fukushima Daiichi accident in March, a Tokyo-based utility consortium signed a deal with Vietnam on Wednesday to conduct a feasibility study for two new reactors. The agreement comes as a lifeline to Japan's nuclear industry, which harbors ambitions of expanding abroad, even as its future is in doubt at home. Amid a post-disaster reassessment of energy policy, the government has vowed to reduce dependence on nuclear power for domestic electricity generation. But it has continued to push nuclear technology in overseas markets.
  • For Vietnam, where rapid economic growth has increased demand for electricity, the contract with Japan Atomic Power Co. offers a way to diversify its energy mix beyond two Russian nuclear reactors currently under construction. The Vietnamese government said last year it plans 13 nuclear reactors at eight separate plants with a combined capacity of 15,000 megawatts by 2030. "This important milestone ... shows Vietnam's determination to develop nuclear power plants, especially in the face of global economic difficulties and after the incident at Japan's Fukushima plant," Vietnamese Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade Hoang Quoc Vuong said at the signing ceremony in Hanoi. He said he expects nuclear power to account for 7% of Vietnam's installed generation capacity by 2030.
  • Lessons from the Fukushima disaster will be taken into account in the Vietnamese project, according to officials from Japan Atomic Power, a consortium of Japan's nine nuclear utilities, including Fukushima Daiichi plant operator Tokyo Electric Power Co. (9501.TO). "We pledge to work hard to ensure the nuclear power development of Vietnam," said Japan Atomic Power President Yasuo Hamada. Vietnamese officials said Japan will build advanced boiling water reactors (ABWR), a type of technology used by Hitachi Ltd. (6501.TO) and Toshiba Corp. (6502.TO). But Japan Atomic Power officials in Tokyo said no decision had been made on the type or contractor for construction and operation.
  • ...1 more annotation...
  • On Thursday, a larger consortium of 13 Japanese companies, including the nine electric utilities, along with Hitachi and Toshiba, plan to sign another memorandum with Vietnam Electricity to start talks on reactor bids. That Tokyo-based entity, the International Nuclear Energy Development of Japan Co., was set up last year under the trade ministry to promote reactor exports. The Japanese government is expected to foot most of the bill for the plant through development aid and export promotion programs run by state-owned Japan Bank for International Cooperation and Nippon Export and Investment Insurance. It made a down payment on that by underwriting the entire Y2 billion ($26 million) cost of the 18-month feasibility study.
D'coda Dcoda

The True Cost of Nuclear Energy | Greenpeace Africa [04Aug11] - 0 views

www.greenpeace.org/...he-True-Cost-of-Nuclear-Energy

shared by D'coda Dcoda on 27 Sep 11 - No Cached
  • In our new report “True Cost of Nuclear Power in South Africa”, presented to the Department of Energy today, we expose the significant social and economic impacts of the country’s nuclear program in the past, and highlight the benefits of a nuclear-free future. At the same time we also made a submission to the Environmental Impact Assessment on the proposed Nuclear-1 power station to the DoE.
  • Greenpeace urges the Minister of Energy to reconsider the role of nuclear energy in South Africa and put a moratorium on any new nuclear reactors at least until the safety implications of the Fukushima nuclear disaster in Japan have been fully evaluated. Rather than investing in dangerous energy technologies, our country should opt for clean energy options. The True Cost of Nuclear report outlines South Africa’s costly nuclear history, its failure to learn from past mistakes, and how the country could leave dirty and dangerous energy behind by investing in renewables. To achieve a nuclear-free South Africa, whilst still reducing the country’s dependency on coal, the electricity sector needs to be the pioneer of renewable energy utilisation. According to our Advanced Energy [R]evolution, 49% of electricity can be produced from renewable sources by 2030, increasing to 94% by 2050. “Nuclear energy is a dangerous distraction from the clean energy development needed to prevent catastrophic climate change. Nuclear power simply delivers too little, too late, and at too high a price for the environment,” said Kumi Naidoo, Executive Director of Greenpeace International.
  • As host of the international climate negotiations COP17 in Durban this year, South Africa should play a leading role both in terms of its domestic energy choices, and by debunking false energy solutions to catastrophic climate change, such as nuclear. Greenpeace Africa is calling for decisive action and the political leadership required to secure the brighter future South Africans deserve. A future that is free of the threats posed by nuclear energy. “We need an Energy [R]evolution driven by the creation of green jobs. With the political will and South Africa’s abundance of renewable energy resources, the country could and should become a renewable energy leader in Africa,” said Ferrial Adam, Greenpeace Africa campaigner.
D'coda Dcoda

Reactor reaction: 5 countries joining Japan in rethinking nuclear energy [13Jul11] - 0 views

blog.foreignpolicy.com/...n_in_rethinking_nuclear_energy

shared by D'coda Dcoda on 17 Jul 11 - No Cached
  • (check out this ebook from Foreign Policy on Japan's post-Fukushima future). Anti-nuclear sentiment has grown ever since -- making it a major political issue.
  • There are legitimate questions, nevertheless, about whether Japan could actually shift away from nuclear power. Japan is incredibly dependent on nuclear energy -- the country's 54 nuclear reactors account for 30 percent of its electricity; pre-earthquake estimates noted that the share to grow to 40 percent by 2017 and 50 percent by 2030. The prime minister today offered few details on how he'll transition away from nuclear reliance.   Japan joins a list of nuclear countries that have grown increasingly skittish about the controversial energy source since the disaster in March.
  • The country plans to make up the difference by cutting energy usage by 10 percent, it said, with more energy efficient appliances and buildings and to increase the use of wind energy.
  • ...7 more annotations...
  • Germany announced plans in late May to close all the country's nuclear power plants by 2022 -- making it the largest industrialized nation to do so. Nuclear power supplies 23 percent of its energy grid. Since the Japan disaster it has permanently shuttered eight plants (including the seven oldest in the country). That leaves nine plants to go -- six of which, the government announced, will close up by 2021.
  • Switzerland No neutrality here -- the government announced in May it too was taking a side against nuclear technology, in response to Japan's disaster. Nuclear energy accounts for roughly 40 percent of Switzerland's energy supply. Its five nuclear reactors won't fully be phased out, experts estimate, until 2040. The move is popular with the Swiss citizens -- 20,000 of whom demonstrated against the technology before the government's decision
  • Italy Last month, Silvio Berlusconi's plans to return Italy to the nuclear club were dashed by a referendum that found 90 percent of Italians rejected the technology.
  • As a result the embattled prime minister said, "We shall probably have to say goodbye to nuclear [energy]." He noted that the government will instead shift its energies to developing renewable energy sources. Berlusconi had been trying to reconstitute an industry that was already abandoned once before -- back in 1987. Currently there are no nuclear plants, but the prime minister hoped to get nuclear power to account for a quarter of the country's energy needs and planned to begin building new plants by as early as 2013.
  • Mexico Despite the fact that nuclear energy only accounts for less than 5 percent of the market in Mexico, which has only one plant, a recent worldwide survey found that Mexico was one of the most anti-nuclear countries in the world, with about 80 percent of its population opposing the power source. That doesn't bode well for future nuclear development.
  • Mexico is one of only three Latin American nations that uses nuclear power. And last year the country delayed a decision until at least 2012 on whether to go ahead with plans to build 10 more plants, according to the country's energy minister. President Felipe Calderon has said he'd push to make sure "clean energy" accounts for at least 35 percent of the country's energy needs.
  • France Let's be clear, France is unlikely to ditch nuclear power completely anytime soon. A longtime champion of the technology, it accounts for 75 percent of the country's energy needs. But there are indications political leaders are falling out of love -- ever so slightly -- with the power source. On Friday, July 8 the government launched a study of energy technologies that included one potential scenario of completely doing away with nuclear power by 2040. It's the first time the government has ever even mentioned the possibility. A more likely result of the study will be cutting the nuclear share of the market. Indeed, France has increased its investment in wind energy lately. The government is likely responding to growing public pressure to do away with nuclear energy. A recent BBC survey found 57 percent of French respondents opposed the technology.
D'coda Dcoda

If Indian Point Nuclear Closes, Plenty of Profits (for natural gas suppliers) [13Jul11] - 0 views

atomicinsights.com/...for-natural-gas-suppliers.html

shared by D'coda Dcoda on 14 Jul 11 - No Cached
  • D'coda Dcoda on 14 Jul 11
     
    (Diigo won't highlight this correctly, putting it in description!) "Matt Wald of the New York Times has finally figured out why there is such a strong push from well connected political types to close the Indian Point Nuclear Power Station. Unfortunately, he and his editor have chosen to put that answer at the very bottom of his recent article titled If Indian Point Closes, Plenty of Challenges . When the demand for natural gas increases, the balance between supply and demand shifts in favor of the sellers, so price inexorably increases. Here is the closing paragraph of that article. It should raise alarm bells for anyone who is a power purchaser instead of a power seller. That description applies to the vast majority of us; part of the challenge is that it only costs each of us a little while concentrating the spoils in the hands of a few victors. Closing the Indian Point reactors would, however, hardly be gloom and doom for everyone. Any company that runs a generator in downstate New York ends up selling its output at a higher price, and would share in the $1.4 billion a year that Con Edison says its customers will pay if the nuclear plant closes."
Dan R.D.

Oral history records 'lessons learned' in Yucca Mountain fight [24Oct11] - 0 views

www.lvrj.com/...-mountain-fight-132426948.html

history nuclear politics waste storage lessons

shared by Dan R.D. on 25 Oct 11 - No Cached
  • The Yucca project, which would have transported more than 70,000 tons of high level nuclear waste for storage and eventual burial in the mountain 100 miles northwest of Las Vegas, prompted more than 20 years of legal and political battles between the state and the Department of Energy. President Barack Obama canceled the effort after he took office.
  • Meanwhile, Clark County is preparing to release a hundred-page report on its experience with Yucca Mountain, according to county emergency manager Irene Navis. A 46-minute video segment of the report can been seen online at www.youtube.com/ watch?v=omMIEQl7p5U. Navis said county leaders wanted to memorialize studies of how the nuclear waste project would affect Southern Nevada, and the strategies they formed to inform the public about it. The road map, of sorts, is intended to guide local officials if the Yucca program or something like it resurfaces. "Because we don't know if we are going to have to address it again, we wanted to leave something behind for future program managers who may have to deal with oversight of a Yucca Mountain-like program in the future," Navis said.
D'coda Dcoda

BBC News - Belgium plans to phase out nuclear power [31Oct11] - 0 views

www.bbc.co.uk/...world-europe-15521865

phase-out

shared by D'coda Dcoda on 01 Nov 11 - No Cached
  • Belgium's main political parties have agreed on a plan to shut down the country's two nuclear power stations, but they have not yet set a firm date. A new coalition government is being set up and the nuclear shutdown will be on its agenda, officials say. If alternative energy sources are found to fill the gap then the three oldest reactors will be shut down in 2015. Germany is the biggest industrial power to renounce nuclear energy since Japan's Fukushima disaster in March.
  • Belgium has seven reactors at two nuclear power stations, at Doel in the north and Tihange in the south. They are operated by Electrabel, which is part of GDF-Suez. The agreement reached on Sunday night confirms a decision taken in 2003, which was shelved during Belgium's political deadlock following the last government's collapse in April 2010. Belgium will need to replace 5,860 megawatts of power if it is to go ahead with the nuclear phase-out.
D'coda Dcoda

Nuclear information warfare | The Japan Times Online [11Oct12] - 0 views

www.japantimes.co.jp/...rc20121011a2.html

information warfare japan nuclear

shared by D'coda Dcoda on 14 Oct 12 - No Cached
  • Shaun O'Dwyer's Sept. 26 article, "Nuclear crisis lowers curtain on Japan's Confucian politics," is a highly recommended history lesson on how Confucianism helped to create a nation of overly trusting and obedient citizens in Japan. It offers an important understanding of how a nation that is naturally and culturally conservative could be led down the wrong road of nuclear power and take wild chances on tsunamis and earthquakes. Had it not been for the dependence on state benevolence, perhaps the population would have put up greater resistance at the start of the ill-fated "Atoms for Peace" project begun in the 1960s.
D'coda Dcoda

St. Louis Landfill Fire [13May13] - 0 views

www.rollingstone.com/...st-louis-is-burning-20130510

nuclear waste usa

shared by D'coda Dcoda on 14 May 13 - No Cached
  • D'coda Dcoda on 14 May 13
     
    Underground landfill near tons of nuclear waste is burning raising serious health and safety concerns...
D'coda Dcoda

Revealed: £2bn cost of failed Sellafield plant - 0 views

www.independent.co.uk/...-sellafield-plant-8650779.html

Sellafield nuclear energy

shared by D'coda Dcoda on 10 Jun 13 - No Cached
  • D'coda Dcoda on 10 Jun 13
     
    An internal report revealing the full extent of the failure of the SellafieldMixed-Oxide (MOX) plant concluded that the facility was "not fit for purpose" and its performance over a decade was "very poor". The report is embarrassing for the Government which is proposing to build a new MOX plant at Sellafield to deal with Britain's civil plutonium stockpile - the biggest in the world.
D'coda Dcoda

Tokyo Professor: We are facing a nuclear winter in Japan [31May12] - 0 views

enenews.com/g-fire-live-long-enough-winter

shared by D'coda Dcoda on 01 Jun 12 - No Cached
  • We realize now that the government and the power executives think we are not intelligent enough to understand the technical jargon about nuclear power. Of course, we were not familiar with those esoteric terms when the disaster struck. But we do understand we are facing a nuclear winter on this beautiful archipelago, placed on the Ring of Fire, and may not live long enough even to see such a winter
  • Since bombs fell on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan has cultivated a religion that condemns nuclear arms. Along the way, however, Japan metamorphosed into a strange creature that felt immune to things nuclear. Few Japanese left the country within the first weeks after the Fukushima meltdown. We can remain calm even in the midst of a horrible reality. Meanwhile, the falsehood of safe, cheap, and forever clean energy is swept away like the receding sea
  • Toshio Nishi is a research fellow at the Hoover Institution. From 1991 to the present, Nishi has been a distinguished guest professor at Reitaku University in Chiba, Japan, and from 2004 a graduate school professor at Nihon University in Tokyo. [...] From 1985 to 1991, Nishi was a foreign correspondent for NHK Journal, a radio program of Japan’s largest media system. [...] Nishi has been one of the most sought-after speakers on Japan’s national speaking circuit. He has been a member of the board of regents of Executive Forum of Japan since 2000. From 1997 to 1999, Nishi was a commentator for TV Tokyo. Nishi is chairman of the editorial board and a monthly columnist for Kokkai News (a news magazine on politics), Japan’s oldest monthly magazine
D'coda Dcoda

India's nuclear regulation must improve [24Aug12] - 0 views

www.world-nuclear-news.org/tion_must_improve_2408121.html

india nuclear regulation

shared by D'coda Dcoda on 24 Aug 12 - No Cached
  • A parliamentary report on nuclear safety regulation in India has pointed out serious organisational flaws and numerous failings relative to international norms. The report submitted to parliament by the Comptroller and Auditor General of India concerns the Atomic Energy Regulatory Board (AERB), which reports to the policy-setting Atomic Energy Commission.
  • The most fundamental issue highlighted by the report was the unsatisfactory legal status and authority of the AERB. Despite India's international commitments, awareness of best practice and internal expert recommendations, the report said, "the legal status of AERB continued to be that of an authority subordinate to the central government, with powers delegated to it by the latter." A basic tenet of nuclear power regulation - as recommended by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and implemented in most countries - is that the safety regulator must be independent of industry and government. It can then make autonomous decisions based purely on ensuring the proper level of care for public safety in a legal policy framework - but absent from either political or commercial interference. 
D'coda Dcoda

: Is Thorium the Energy Panacea We Have Been Waiting For? [29Nov11] - 0 views

www.enn.com/...43630

shared by D'coda Dcoda on 12 Dec 11 - No Cached
  • conversations have been popping up about thorium in recent years and how it can be a game-changer in the energy industry. Thorium has incredible potential as an ultra-safe, clean, and cheap nuclear energy source which can power the world for millennia.
  • Thorium is found naturally in rocks in the form of thorium-232, and has a half-life of about 14 billion years. Estimates by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) show it is about three times more common in the Earth's crust than uranium. It can be obtained through various methods, most commonly through the extraction from monazite sands. Known reserves of thorium are not well-known due to lack of exploratory research. The US Geological Service estimates that the USA, Australia, and India hold the largest reserves. India is believed to have the lion's share of thorium deposits. In the United States, Idaho contains a large vein deposit. The world has an estimated total of 4.4 million tons
  • A newly created organization known as the Weinberg Foundation has taken up the cause of promoting thorium energy. The foundation was named after Dr. Alvin Weinberg, a nuclear energy researcher in the 1960s who laid out the vision of safe and abundant thorium power. He pioneered the Molten Salt Reactor using thorium in its liquid fuel form at the US Oak Ridge National Laboratory. This reactor had an inherently safer design and dramatically reduced the amount of atomic waste in comparison to typical nuclear reactors. Unfortunately, the thorium reactor program was not fully pursued due to political and military reasons.
  • ...3 more annotations...
  • Thorium reactors offer absolutely zero possibility of a meltdown because it cannot sustain a nuclear chain reaction without priming; fission would stop by default.- Thorium reactions do not create weapons-grade by-products.- Waste from a thorium reactive stays radioactive for only a few hundred years rather than tens of thousands of years.- Pure thorium from the ground does not require enrichment, as opposed to uranium.
  • there are projects underway in the United States, China, India, and elsewhere. Germany and India already have existing commercial power stations powered by thorium. India has a goal of meeting 30 percent of its energy needs from thorium by the year 2050. In the US, a reactor project is ongoing in Odessa Texas and should be operational by 2015.
  • For more information: http://www.the-weinberg-foundation.org/index.php
D'coda Dcoda

Fukushima Update: Why We Should (Still) Be Worried [20Jan12] - 0 views

www.businessinsider.com/should-still-be-worried-2012-1

shared by D'coda Dcoda on 22 Jan 12 - No Cached
  • you would think the Japanese government would be doing everything in its power to contain the disaster. You would be wrong—dead wrong.
  • nstead of collecting, isolating, and guarding the millions of tons of radioactive rubble that resulted from the chain reaction of the 9.0 earthquake, the subsequent 45- to 50-foot wall of water that swamped the plant and disabled the cooling systems for the reactors, and the ensuing meltdowns, Japanese Environment Minister Goshi Hosono says that the entire country must share Fukushima’s plight by accepting debris from the disaster.
  • an estimated 20 million tons of wreckage on the land, much of which—now ten months after the start of the disaster—is festering in stinking piles throughout the stricken region. (Up to 20 million more tons of rubble from the disaster—estimated to cover an area approximately the size of California—is also circulating in the Pacific.)
  • ...9 more annotations...
  • the sheer amount of radioactive rubble is proving difficult to process. The municipal government of Kashiwa, in Chiba Prefecture to the west and south of Tokyo, recently shut down one of its main incinerators, because it can’t store any more than the 200 metric tons of radioactive ash it already has that is too contaminated to bury in a landfill.
  • According to the California-based Fukushima Fallout Awareness Network (FFAN), burning Fukushima’s radioactive rubble is the worst possible way to deal with the problem. That’s because incinerating it releases much more radioactivity into the air, not only magnifying the contamination all over Japan but also sending it up into the jet stream. Once in the jet stream, the radioactive particles travel across the Northern Hemisphere, coming back down to earth with rain, snow, or other precipitation.
  • Radiation used to be a word that evoked serious concern in a lot of people. However, the nuclear industry and its supporters have done a masterful job in allaying public fears about it. They do this in significant part by relying on outdated and highly questionable data collected on Japanese atom bomb survivors, while at the same time ignoring and dismissing inconvenient but much more relevant evidence that shows the actual harmful effects of radiation exposure from nuclear accidents. Author Gayle Greene explains this well in a recent article here. In their attempt to win the public over to their viewpoint, nuclear proponents even trot out the dubious theory of radiation hormesis, which says that low doses of radiation are actually good for you, because they stimulate an immune response. Well, so does something that causes an allergic reaction. But I digress…
  • “Plutonium is biologically and chemically attracted to bone as is the naturally occurring radioactive chemical radium. However, plutonium clumps on the surface of bone, delivering a concentrated dose of alpha radiation to surrounding cells, whereas radium diffuses homogeneously in bone and thus has a lesser localized cell damage effect. This makes plutonium, because of the concentration, much more biologically toxic than a comparable amount of radium.”
  • different radioisotopes give off different kinds of radiation—alpha, beta, gamma, X ray, or neutron emissions—all of which behave differently. Alpha emitters, such as plutonium and radon, are intensely ionizing but don’t penetrate very far and generally can’t get through the dead layers of cells covering skin. But when they are inhaled from the air or ingested from radiation-contaminated food or water, they emit high-energy particles that can do serious damage to the cells of sensitive internal soft tissues and organs. The lighter, faster-moving beta particles can penetrate far more deeply than alpha particles, though sheets of metal and heavy clothing can block them. Beta particles are also very dangerous when inhaled or ingested. Strontium-90 and tritium, a radioactive form of hydrogen, are both beta emitters. Gamma radiation is a form of electromagnetic energy like X rays, and it passes through clothing and skin straight into the body. A one-inch shield of either lead or iron, or eight inches of concrete are needed to stop gamma rays, examples of which include cobalt-60 and cesium-137—one of the radionuclides of most concern in the Fukushima fallout
  • The behavior of radioisotopes out in the environment also varies depending on what they encounter. They can combine with one another or with stable chemicals to form molecules that may or may not dissolve in water. They can combine with solids, liquids, or gases at ordinary temperature and pressure. They may be able to enter into biochemical reactions, or they may be biologically inert.
  • In her book No Immediate Danger: Prognosis for a Radioactive Earth, Bertell notes that if they enter the body either through air, food, water, or an open wound, “They may remain near the place of entry into the body or travel in the bloodstream or lymph fluid. They can be incorporated into the tissue or bone. They may remain in the body for minutes or hours or a lifetime.”
  • radioactive elements, also known as radioisotopes or radionuclides, are unstable atoms. They seek stability by giving off particles and energy—ionizing radiation—until the radioisotope becomes stable. This process occurs within the nucleus of the radioisotope, and the shedding of these particles and energy is commonly referred to as ‘‘nuclear disintegration.’’ Nuclear radiation expert Rosalie Bertell describes the release of energy in each disintegration as ‘‘an explosion on the microscopic level.” This process is known as the “decay chain,” and during their decay, most radioactive elements morph into yet other radioactive elements on their journey to becoming lighter, stable atoms at the end of the chain. Some of the morphed-into elements are much more dangerous than the original radioisotope, and the decay chain can take a very long time. This is the reason that radioactive contamination can last so long
  • the EPA was so confident that Fukushima fallout would not be a problem for U.S. citizens that it stopped its specific monitoring of fallout from Fukushima less than two months after the meltdowns began. But neglecting to monitor the fallout will not make it go away. In fact, another enormous problem with radioactive contamination is that it bioaccumulates in the environment, which means it concentrates as it moves up the food chain.
D'coda Dcoda

Japan's Government-Industrial Complex to Create Small "Japan" in Southern India [14Jan12] - 0 views

ex-skf.blogspot.com/...ent-industrial-complex-to.html

shared by D'coda Dcoda on 16 Jan 12 - No Cached
  • The news was there on Yomiuri Shinbun on January 5, 2012, but little noticed until someone picked it up and spread on Twitter overnight.The Japanese government in close collaboration with the big businesses in Japan is to build a city in southern India that will house 50,000 people, with "Japanese-quality" infrastructure including seaside resort, industrial park, hospital, shopping mall, and golf course (of course).
  • Many on Twitter are speculating that this is part of the plan by the Japan's political and business elites to abandon ship (Japan), and part of the reason for the Noda administration's insistence on the tax hike despite the incipient recession.While there is a great need for money within Japan to actually rebuild tsunami-devastated areas (not the bogus "decon" projects), the Noda administration has been busy distributing money in Asia. The Bank of Japan has opened multi-billion dollar currency swap lines with India ($15 billion) and South Korea ($70 billion).
‹ Previous 21 - 40 of 104 Next › Last »
Showing 20▼ items per page