New Nukes
Switzerland became the latest country to decide to phase out nuclear power last week, citing concerns over the accident at the Fukushima plant that was left stricken by a 9.0 magnitude earthquake and tsunami in March. The Swiss decision not to build any new nuclear stations three were in the pipeline follows similar announcements in Germany, Italy and further afield in Thailand and Malaysia, where governments have opted to freeze or forgo plans to build nuclear power stations.
Guardian 29th May 2011 more >>
Cumbria
The Cost of Nuclear – a free illustrated talk speakers: Marianne Birkby – Radiation Free Lakeland; David Riley – Friends of Chernobyl Children, South Lakes; 15th June 7pm -9pm, Victoria Hall, Grange over Sands
Radiation Free Lakeland 29th May 2011 more >>
Radhealth
A Letter from John Urquhart May 24th 2011: the Data Protection Act is used to shield inconvenient data from the public: for some time I have been particularly concerned about the impact of the Data Protection Act on the public’s right to know of health anomalies in their locality. As you may know, there was a request for childhood leukaemia figures in south west Scotland which was appealed by NHS Scotland and finally went up to Supreme Court level, where it was decided that full disclosure could not be allowed at ward level.
Radiation Free Lakeland 24th May 2011 more >>
Syria
Syria has offered to cooperate with a UN investigation into evidence that it tried to build a reactor that could have been used to make a nuclear weapon, it has been reported.
Guardian 29th May 2011 more >>
Express 30th May 2011 more >>
Iran
Last week brought new indications that the leaders of the Islamic Republic of Iran want to make a nuclear bomb. The disclosure was part of the newly released nine-page report by the UN nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). It stated that “Tehran has conducted work on a highly sophisticated nuclear triggering technology that experts said could be used for only one purpose: setting off a nuclear weapon”.
Guardian 29th May 2011 more >>
Germany
Dozens of environmental activists have climbed on top of Germany’s landmark Brandenburg Gate demanding a speedy end to the use of atomic energy. The Greenpeace activists on Sunday unfurled an 60-foot (18-meter) wide banner on top of the Berlin monument that read “Every day of nuclear power is one too many.”
Sacremento Bee 29th May 2011 more >>
Germany today announced plans to become the first major industrialised power to shut down all its nuclear plants in the wake of the disaster in Japan, with a phase-out due to be wrapped up by 2022. Germany has 17 nuclear reactors on its territory, eight of which are currently off the electricity grid. Seven of those offline are the country’s oldest nuclear reactors, which the federal government shut down for three months pending a safety probe after the Japanese atomic emergency at Fukushima that began in March. The eighth is the Kruemmel plant, in northern Germany, which has been mothballed for years because of technical problems. Roettgen said that none of the eight reactors offline would be reactivated.
RTE 30th May 2011 more >>
Guardian 30th May 2011 more >>
BBC 30th May 2011 more >>
Bloomberg 30th May 2011 more >>
Times 30th May 2011 more >>
Turkey
Turkish government’s rush to build dams, hydro and nuclear power plants angers villagers and environmental campaigners. The ruling AK party, expected to win a record third term in next month’s elections, is forcing through a series of gigantic public works projects that include three nuclear power plants despite Turkey being one of the most seismically active nations on earth.
Guardian 29th May 2011 more >>
Japan
While Tokyo Electric Power Co. plans to set up a water treatment facility in mid-June to decontaminate the thousands of tons of radioactive water being generated at the Fukushima No. 1 power plant, the utility must also find a safe place to store it before it leaks into the ground or finds its way to the sea.
Japan Times 29th May 2011 more >>
Ken Buesseler, a chemical oceonographer at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, said that new research of waters up to 19 miles (30 km) offshore from Fukushima show radioisotope levels that are 10 times higher than radioisotopes measured in the Baltic and Black Seas during Chernobyl. He said, When it comes to the oceans, the impact of Fukushima exceeds Chernobyl. One man who has been keeping track of the Fukushima nuclear disaster on a daily basis is Scott D. Portzline, Security Consultant for Three Mile Island Alert in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania says – I think most of Unit 3’s spent fuel rods were ejected upwards in what some people think was a prompt criticality, which would have been very similar to the prompt criticality that occurred at Chernobyl. What happened is that the fuel gets re-arranged geometrically into a configuration where fission criticality can occur very rapidly. In this case, a prompt criticality because of the water acting as a moderator and then you have an explosion of steam and gases with such power that it ejected these spent fuel fragments and pieces hundreds of feet into the air and up to a mile away.
Earthfiles 26th May 2011 more >>
Seventy percent of Japanese voters want Prime Minister Naoto Kan to be replaced but nearly half think he should stay and oversee the initial stage of dealing with the March 11 disaster and ensuing nuclear crisis, a newspaper survey showed Monday. The opinion poll adds to growing pressure on the unpopular premier, who is under fire of his handling of the world’s worst nuclear crisis in 25 years and is likely to face a no-confidence vote as early as this week.
STV 30th May 2011 more >>
Trident
THE running of Britains nuclear bomb base at Coulport on the Clyde is to be handed over to a consortium of multinational private firms led by the controversial US arms dealer, Lockheed Martin, the Sunday Herald can reveal. Defence ministers in Westminster have decided that the highly sensitive job of managing more than 200 Trident nuclear warheads, and arming the Royal Navys submarines with them, should be taken over by the group of companies within the next year. The decision has been condemned by the SNP, trades unionists and disarmament campaigners, who are demanding an urgent rethink. They describe it as a cost-saving, job-cutting kick in the teeth to the workforce that will put nuclear safety at risk. Up to 200 Coulport workers have been told that they will be seconded from the Ministry of Defence (MoD) to a newly formed private-sector consortium called ABL.
Sunday Herald 29th May 2011 more >>
Climate
Greenhouse gas emissions increased by a record amount last year, to the highest carbon output in history, putting hopes of holding global warming to safe levels all but out of reach, according to unpublished estimates from the International Energy Agency. The shock rise means the goal of preventing a temperature rise of more than 2 degrees Celsius which scientists say is the threshold for potentially “dangerous climate change” is likely to be just “a nice Utopia”, according to Fatih Birol, chief economist of the IEA. It also shows the most serious global recession for 80 years has had only a minimal effect on emissions, contrary to some predictions.
Guardian 29th May 2011 more >>
The record leap in global greenhouse gas emissions last year has thrown the spotlight on the world’s only concerted attempt to stem the tide of global warming the United Nations climate negotiations. Next week, governments will convene in Bonn, Germany, for the latest round of more than 20 years of tortuous talks, aimed at forging a binding international agreement on climate change which so far has eluded them.
Guardian 29th May 2011 more >>
Using the engine of the world economy, energy, to tackle the world’s poverty. It could be done by agreeing binding, global goals for cash and carbon: a top-down approach. But that would require unprecedented political leadership. Can the heating-up of the global economy thaw the diplomatic freeze at the UN talks and reignite the urgency needed?
Guardian 29th May 2011 more >>
An irreversible climate “tipping point” could occur within the next 20 years as a result of the release of huge quantities of organic carbon locked away as frozen plant matter in the vast permafrost region of the Arctic, scientists have found.
Independent 30th May 2011 more >>
Renewables
Letter from Chris Huhne: Simon Jenkins’s misguided missive (Bravo for nimbyism. What else will keep us from turbines and pylons?, 27 May) offers nothing new for Britain’s much-needed energy debate. Windfarms do have an important role to play in the UK’s energy mix as an abundant low-carbon alternative to fossil fuel generation. They not only cut our emissions, but they reduce Britain’s reliance on imports and enhance our energy security. We will also then need new electricity lines to connect these new sources of generation into the grid.
Guardian 30th May 2011 more >>
