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Channel NewsAsia - Doctors link uranium contamination to disabled Punjab children - channelnewsasia.com
Sun, 07/25/2010 - 23:50"Traces of uranium have been found in a large number of autistic children in India's northern state of Punjab.
The metal, used for generating nuclear energy and to make nuclear bombs, is thought to be the reason behind their autism.
Five-and-a-half-year-old Dashamveer Singh was born premature. It was one of the reasons behind his slow mental development.
He is being treated at Baba Farid Centre For Special Children.
"A normal kid would be active. He would start sitting up by six months of age and start reacting. My child did no such thing. After one year, he could neither sit nor stand. So, we sought treatment for him at the centre," said Satvinder Kaur, mother of Dashamvee.
There are many children at the centre with similar symptoms - most of them are from a small town in India's northern state of Punjab. " Annotated link http://www.diigo.com/bookmark/http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/southasia/view/1070058/1/.html
Categories: Nuke News
Ex-UN nuclear inspector says IAEA unworkable
Sun, 07/25/2010 - 23:48"David Kay, former UN chief inspector of the International Atomic Energy Association (IAEA), contrasts expectations with results on Iraq and Iran.
As sanctions on Iran rise, so does Iranian rhetoric. Sanctions aim to force Iran to submit to inspections. However, Mr. Kay finds inspection largely ineffective. Inspection cannot prevent a country from developing nuclear weapons, especially if the country is big, determined, and capable, like Iran.
Inspectors would need access to all resources with which Iran could develop nuclear weapons and delivery methods. Iran would have to fully declare its nuclear components, uranium enrichment, plutonium activities, and missile testing, production, and deployment. Iran does not cooperate, it obstructs."
Categories: Nuke News
Atomic waste is wasting taxpayer dollars | lancastereaglegazette.com | Lancaster Eagle Gazette
Sun, 07/25/2010 - 23:47"Thirty years ago, the Atomic Safety and Licensing Board selected Yucca Mountain, Nevada, as the nation's only permanent storage site for the radioactive waste from our nuclear power plants. Work proceeded during this period to secure walls and ceilings from possible earthquakes, paving interior roads and installing more extensive infrastructure. All of this added up to expenditures of $10 billion.
This past March, the U.S. Energy Department notified the board they intended to abandon the Yucca site because it was "too small."
This must be government at its worst.
An Energy Department spokeswoman said that the president was establishing a blue-ribbon commission to find a "safe, long term solution" within 18 months."
Categories: Nuke News
We must fight the nuclear waste dump in West Tenn. | jacksonsun.com | The Jackson Sun
Sun, 07/25/2010 - 23:45"One of my happiest memories as a young boy was going duck hunting with Dad. On the way to the hunt, even in the dark, by the moonlight you could see the beauty of the West Tennessee countryside. We would drive by small communities and through towns where business owners soon would be getting ready for a day of commerce.
If you had told me then that the day would come that an outside company and nameless, faceless federal bureaucrats would threaten that beauty and our communities by trying to make West Tennessee a nuclear waste dump I would have thought you were crazy.
Today, that nightmare is on the verge of reality as plans are being laid to move hundreds of jobs from Milan, Tenn., to Middletown, Iowa, and to convert the Milan facility to the demilitarization and storage of depleted uranium."
Categories: Nuke News
Government pulls plug on PBMR - Times LIVE
Sun, 07/25/2010 - 23:44"R9bn taxpayer-funded nuclear energy plan finally grinds to halt
The government has pulled the plug on its ambitious nuclear energy programme after pumping more than R9-billion into it over more than 11 years.
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The Pebble Bed Modular Reactor Company (PBMR), which was established in 1999 to build small nuclear power reactors, faces imminent closure.
In a letter dated July 5, Public Enterprises Minister Barbara Hogan told the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM): "The minister of finance has clearly stated that there will be no further funding for the company, and I would like to reiterate that this position has not changed. "
Categories: Nuke News
USA and France Help Poland Go Nuclear
Sun, 07/25/2010 - 23:42"Backed by the U.S. and France, Poland is set to tread the nuclear path and hopes to start generating atomic power by 2021. Presently, coal accounts for over 93 percent of the eastern European country's electricity, demand for which is expected to double by 2025.
A four-stage plan announced by Hanna Trojanowska, the government's Plenipotentiary for Nuclear Energy, envisages appropriate legislation by the end of 2010
Categories: Nuke News
KPMG says nuclear power 'won't happen' - Telegraph
Sun, 07/25/2010 - 23:41"Britain's new generation of nuclear power stations will not be built if the Government refuses them any more support, a KPMG report will say this week.
The study, commissioned by RWE npower, says it is still uneconomic for utility companies to invest billions of pounds in nuclear power.
The Government has offered to impose a minimum price on carbon permits – which would raise the cost of fossil fuel generation and make low-carbon nuclear more attractive. It has made a promise not to offer any direct subsidies.
KPMG's report will say a carbon "floor price" is not enough for the big utilities to commit large capital investments to the nuclear sector.
It will suggest that the Government ought to introduce a variable premium tariff for all low-carbon technologies – from nuclear to renewables – to make sure enough new power generation is built before Britain starts to run short on capacity in the second half of this decade. "
Categories: Nuke News
Nuclear waste coming this way - Brockville Recorder and Times - Ontario, CA
Sun, 07/25/2010 - 23:40The 1000 Islands could be at risk when radioactive nuclear waste is shipped through the region in September, says Senator Bob Runciman.
In an interview Friday, Runciman said radioactive metal from the Bruce Nuclear Generating Station will be transported on aging ships on a river that this year has very low water levels.
The shipment could be especially dangerous in the narrow passages of the 1000 Islands region west of Brockville, he added.
"My main concern is essentially that we have had two groundings (of ships) in the past two weeks, one in our area and one in the Quebec area, and the lake fleet is an aging fleet, with an average age of 40," the senator explained.
"Both of the breakdowns in the last couple of weeks have been attributed to mechanical failure."
He also said St. Lawrence River water levels remain low, which creates a greater danger when the 1,800 tonnes of nuclear material from radioactive steam generators is transported through the "
Categories: Nuke News
Niigata marks '07 killer temblor | The Japan Times Online
Sun, 07/25/2010 - 23:30"A memorial service was held Friday in Kashiwazaki, Niigata Prefecture, to mark the third anniversary of a deadly earthquake that killed 15 people and injured more than 2,300 others in and around the prefecture.
At the ceremony jointly hosted by the prefecture, the city of Niigata and the village of Kariwa, local residents and relatives of the dead observed a moment of silence at 10:13 a.m., the time when the earthquake struck.
In the magnitude 6.8 temblor that originated off the coast, a total of 2,346 people in Niigata, Nagano and Toyama prefectures were injured, some seriously. The quake damaged about 44,000 houses, including 1,331 that were completely destroyed.
A total of 3,044 people were forced to live in temporary housing, but all had returned home by last September."
Categories: Nuke News
Riverkeeper petitions to intervene in Indian Point water quality permit proceeding
Sun, 07/25/2010 - 23:29"Riverkeeper has petitioned the state Department of Environmental Conservation urging the agency to uphold its decision not to grant certification to Entergy on the grounds that its Indian Point nuclear power plant does not meet state water quality standards.
Entergy needs that certification as part of its application to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to renew the plant’s licenses for another 20 years.
Riverkeeper’s petition supports DEC’s decision that continued operation of the power plant would violate state clean water standards and continued use of the once-through cooling system would lead to ongoing harmful impacts to the Hudson River’s ecology and aquatic species, said staff attorney Deborah Brancato."
Categories: Nuke News
ID badges no longer needed in once-secret city - CharlotteObserver.com
Sun, 07/25/2010 - 23:28"Bill Wilcox is not eating his sandwich. Bow-tied and bespectacled, he's the most dapper man in the room. Waiters come and go, the tinkle of iced teas being refilled adding a musicality to the lunchtime noise at the Flatwater Grill perched at the edge of Melton Lake. Wilcox, 87, squints down at the chicken salad on white toast, but what swims before his eyes is a city of mud, a city erected almost overnight. A secret city.
In the summer of 1939, Albert Einstein penned a letter to President Franklin D. Roosevelt. It was crucial, he said, to be the first to make use of a new discovery: If you bombard uranium with particles, the nucleus splits and creates a huge amount of energy. Einstein and his fellow physicists were persuasive. Things got going fast."
Categories: Nuke News
DOE responds to push for exposure info | Frank Munger's Atomic City Underground | knoxnews.com
Sun, 07/25/2010 - 23:26"Terrie Barrie of ANWAG (Alliance of Nuclear Worker Advocacy Groups) passes along a letter from Glenn Podonsky of the Dept. of Energy, responding to Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Washington, on issues pertaining to GAO's recommended reforms of the sick nuclear workers compensation program, and some follow-up info.
Here is a link to the letter that responds to the senator's June 25 correspondence.
Cantwell, and fellow U.S. Sen. Patty Murray, subsequently announced that a new online database had been made available for worker at Hanford and other sites to help them get exposure information needed for compensation claims."
Categories: Nuke News
Bechtel Jacobs nailed on safety, security violations
Sun, 07/25/2010 - 23:25"The Dept. of Energy announced late today that it had issued a series of safety and security violations against Bechtel Jacobs Co., DOE's cleanup manager in Oak Ridge since 1998.
The security violations pertain to a 2007 incident in which Roy Lynn Oakley was arrested and later convicted of stealing and attempting to sell classified equipment from the uranium-enrichment operation at K-25. BJC was fined $562,500 for the security violations associated with those events. Even though DOE said it was unlikely any sensitive information or materials ended up in foreign hands, the agency said it was levying the fine "to help prevent future breaches of security.""
Categories: Nuke News
The real contamination of New Mexico | NMPolitics.net – Get the real story
Sun, 07/25/2010 - 23:23"Opponents of the New Mexico oil industry would have you believe that life in New Mexico hangs by a thread due to the potential disasters tied to oil exploration, development and production. Further, they insist that state government must intensify the rules on drilling or the water, air and land of New Mexico will be ruined for generations. Not true.
There was a time when New Mexico was very contaminated, and it has taken decades for that terrible pollution to abate. Many New Mexicans were sickened by this pollution and the human damage remains to this day. This pollution was not by oil
Categories: Nuke News
BBC News - Uranium revival sparks New Mexico land battle
Sun, 07/25/2010 - 23:22"Thousands of feet under a hot patch of sand and brush is buried a deposit of uranium so rich it could revive a hardscrabble New Mexico town pocked with vacant lots and shuttered buildings.
The mining industry and those residents of the area who are eager for an influx of jobs see the plateau around Mount Taylor near the town of Grants in the northwest corner of New Mexico as an irresistible opportunity for economic gain.
"It's what we need, it's what's going to fuel the future," said Star Gonzales, director of the Grants chamber of commerce. "They will be good paying jobs."" Annotated link http://www.diigo.com/bookmark/http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-10405582
Categories: Nuke News
Hanford landfill work halted for probe - Business | Tri-City Herald : Mid-Columbia news
Sun, 07/25/2010 - 23:20"Disposal has been halted as a precaution at Hanford's landfill for low-level radioactive and chemical waste until more is known about a load disposed there Tuesday afternoon.
Workers reported an unpleasant sulfurlike smell and seeing possibly dust or smoke rising from waste being disposed of in the Environmental Restoration Disposal Facility, said Todd Nelson, spokesman for Washington Closure Hanford.
The load had come from cleanup work in a part of B Reactor that's not accessible to the public.
The Department of Energy asked that some housekeeping work be done in the historic reactor to get it in top shape as limited tours are offered and the National Park Service considers possible plans for a Manhattan Project National Historical Park."
Categories: Nuke News
AFP: 'Abducted' Iranian denies being nuclear scientist
Sun, 07/25/2010 - 23:17"An Iranian who claimed he was "abducted" by US spies last year denied upon his arrival in Tehran Thursday that he was a nuclear scientist, but said he was questioned by Israelis during his captivity.
Shahram Amiri, who vanished from Saudi Arabia in June 2009 while on a pilgrimage, arrived in Tehran on Thursday after surfacing in Iran's Interest Section in Washington two days ago.
Immediately after his arrival he told reporters that he was just a "simple researcher", refuting earlier claims by Iranian officials that he was a nuclear scientist.
"I had nothing to do with Natanz and Fordo sites," Amiri said referring to Iran's two uranium enrichment plants."
Categories: Nuke News
Israel's nuclear program implicated in U.S. investigation - Haaretz Daily Newspaper | Israel News
Sun, 07/25/2010 - 23:05"Israel's nuclear program has been implicated in an investigation conducted in the United States by the Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS), according to a report published on Wednesday by the researchers of the Institute for Science and International Security (ISIS).
Dimona nuclear power plant
The nuclear power plant in Dimona.
Photo by: Archive
The investigation began in spring 2010 when the BIS charged Pelogy, a U.S. based company and its Belgian affiliate, with violating U.S. export administration regulations by attempting to export controlled goods to Israel, India, China and South Africa. " Annotated link http://www.diigo.com/bookmark/http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/israel-s-nuclear-program-implicated-in-u-s-investigation-1.302006
Categories: Nuke News
Most of Russians against nuclear disarmament - poll | Defense | RIA Novosti
Sun, 07/25/2010 - 23:03"The majority of Russians (60 percent) are against further nuclear disarmament, with numbers in favor dropping significantly since the end of the Soviet era, the Russia Public Opinion Research Center (VTsIOM) said on Thursday.
Half of Russians believe the country needs nuclear weapons to assure its security in case of war, according to VTsIOM's latest survey. A quarter said nuclear weapons should be preserved to demonstrate Russia's political power, with only 4 percent saying the stockpile is needed to counter U.S. military potential."
Categories: Nuke News
Nuclear plan to be reviewed again, industry shocked | Reuters
Sun, 07/25/2010 - 23:02"The coalition government will reconsider the nation's nuclear power plans, it said Thursday, surprising the nuclear industry, but added targets for first power generation by 2018 remain intact.
The nuclear plan issued by the previous Labour government was widely consulted on by the Department of Energy and Climate Change, but the new coalition government says it wants to look at it again in the autumn to see if it is sustainable.
"We have decided to take a further look at the Appraisal of Sustainability of our draft Energy Policy Statements to make sure that they are fit for purpose," Energy Minister Charles Hendry said in a statement Thursday."
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