Wednesday, November 30, 2016

#NuclearHotseat 284: CHERNOBYL EXCLUSIVE / Fukushima / EPA’s Gina McCarthy’s “Protective” Action Guides for radioactivity in water


Nuclear Hotseat #284: CHERNOBYL EXCLUSIVE!
New Arch Not “the End;” It’s the Beginning –
On-The-Ground Report w/Lucas Hixon


Up Close and Personal w/Chernobyl: nuclear researcher Lucas Hixon on his work at site in Ukraine, possible problems, need for ongoing monitoring – will spring rains soften underlying marsh, compromise the structure? Will the international community continue to support the decommissioning work or will they forget? And what has Chernobyl taught us about Fukushima? Details you won’t get on mainstream media! Plus EPA’s Gina McCarthy’s “Protective” Action Guides for radioactivity in water get her in the ultimate hot water: Numnutz of the Week – again!
LISTEN NOW > Nuclear Hotseat #284: CHERNOBYL EXCLUSIVE! – New Arch Not “the End;” It’s the Beginning – On-The-Ground Report w/Lucas Hixon

Tuesday, November 29, 2016

NUCLEAR ENERGY IS DIRTY ENERGY (and does not fit into a “clean energy standard”) – Briefing Paper [PDF]




The nuclear power industry spent more than $650 million on lobbying, campaign contributions and advertising from 2000-2010 in its persistent effort to achieve a nuclear “renaissance.”1

Now that the nuclear “renaissance” has sputtered, with only 5 of some 35 reactor proposals currently being pursued, the industry is turning its attention— and money--toward preventing the shutdown of many aging reactors unable to compete economical- ly with wind and solar power.

One of the industry’s primary goals has been to convince federal and state legislators, regulatory officials, and the media that nuclear power is some- how “clean” energy, because nuclear reactors emit little carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. But this disregards the alphabet soup of other cancer- causing pollutants spewed into our air and water by nuclear facilities. Unfortunately, lobbying cam- paigns backed by so much money often attain some success.

Thus, there are increasing calls from nuclear indus- try backers, inside and outside of government, to include nuclear power in Renewable Energy Stand- ards (or new “Clean Energy Standards”) intended to boost use of clean renewables, or to permit nuclear to trade emissions credits in regional cap-and-trade emissions programs. This is occurring at both the federal and state levels to encourage use of nuclear power (and for some proponents, coal and natural gas as well) to the detriment of genuinely clean and affordable technologies like wind, solar, energy efficiency and others.2

This trend is likely to accelerate as states prepare plans to implement the Environmental Protection Agency’s carbon reduction rules over the next two years.

Proposals to include nuclear power as part of a Clean or Renewable Energy Standard suffer from three fundamental misconceptions: 1) that carbon dioxide is the only pollutant that matters when de- fining “clean energy;” 2) that because radiation is invisible and odorless, it is not a toxic pollutant; 3) that nuclear power is carbon-free. None of these is true.

Only one of the many technologies that can produce electricity is capable of a catastrophic accident that can kill tens or even hundreds of thousands of peo- ple, presents a security threat of unprecedented pro- portions because of this vulnerability, and creates a lethal byproduct that will be toxic for hundreds of thousands of years: nuclear power. To call nuclear power “clean” is an affront to science and common sense...


more: Briefing Paper: NUCLEAR ENERGY IS DIRTY ENERGY (and does not fit into a “clean energy standard”) [PDF] | NIRS


Sunday, November 27, 2016

Pilgrim’s Progress: Inside the American Nuclear-Waste Crisis - The New Yorker



On a mild September day in 2012, Paul Rifkin asked a friend with a helicopter to help him perform an experiment. Rifkin, a retired restaurateur turned amateur photographer, wanted to capture aerial images of Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station, which sits on the shores of Cape Cod Bay, a quick drive from his home. He had taken an interest in the facility a year and a half earlier, after an earthquake and tsunami in Fukushima, Japan, caused a series of explosions and meltdowns in three coastal reactors—all nearly identical in design to the one at Pilgrim. Rifkin had recently joined the Cape Downwinders, a group of local residents concerned about the plant’s safety, and hoped to test assertions by a Pilgrim manager that the airspace above the plant was secure. The flyover photos he snapped that day suggested it wasn’t, but they also showed something else. On the site, near the reactor building, Entergy, the facility’s owner, had broken ground on a twelve-thousand-square-foot concrete pad. Rifkin and his fellow-activists would later learn that it was intended as storage space for the plant’s accumulating radioactive waste…

more: Pilgrim’s Progress: Inside the American Nuclear-Waste Crisis - The New Yorker

photo: "When Cape Cod’s Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station closes, in 2019, it will still be home to some eight hundred tons of spent fuel." COURTESY PAUL RIFKIN

Thursday, November 17, 2016

update on my medical situation


Robert Cherwink’s Daily • #RCDaily #ECO | #RCDaily #ECO ::: WEEKLY edition
The #OcNukeDaily • #OccupyNuclear | The #OcNuke Weekly • #OccupyNuclear


UPDATE 17 NOVEMBER: a quick update on my medical situation: i met with my surgeon yesterday, and he wants to try a course of injections for my neck rather than perform surgery at this point. the muscle spasms in my neck and shoulders have literally pulled my shoulder out of place so that i have been having some serious difficulty with my right arm; also, we have discovered that there are 4 bad disks instead of only 3 – hopefully this therapy will work and no surgery need!  




Wednesday, November 16, 2016

Nuclear Power Is Not "Green Energy": It Is a Fount of Atomic Waste

By Arnie Gundersen

Starting in 1971, I became a card-carrying member of the "nuclear priesthood." I began as a licensed nuclear reactor operator and progressed through the industry to become a senior vice president. I believed, with religious fervor, that by helping to build and operate atomic power reactors, I would be creating power that was "too cheap to meter." The historic 1973 gasoline shortages and long lines of cars queued at the pumps made it clear to me and hundreds of other nuclear engineers that nuclear power was the only solution to the "energy shortage." In the 1970s and '80s, solving this apparent energy shortage was our only mantra. At that time, there was no scientific data connecting fossil fuels to climate change.
In 1953, President Eisenhower initiated his "Atoms for Peace" program as a means to transform the atom from a scourge into a benefit for mankind and created grand illusions of at least 1,000 US atomic plants by the year 2005. However, well before the 1979 disaster at Three Mile Island, nuclear construction costs were skyrocketing and construction schedules were constantly slipping. The overzealous goal of 1,000 US atomic power reactors dwindled to about 110 finally completed reactors, while more than 120 others that had been on the drawing boards were canceled before producing a single watt of power.
By 1985, Eisenhower's dream of reclaiming the power of the atom for peaceful purposes had unraveled and had become a nightmare. Electric rates continued to skyrocket and ratepayers were left picking up the pieces from Atoms for Peace.
Of the more than 230 attempts to construct atomic power reactors in the United States during the 20th century, only 99 reactors are still operating. Globally, a total of 438 atomic power reactors were still operating in 2015, according to the World Nuclear Association.
During the 20th century, the lights stayed on and the prediction of a dire energy shortage never materialized. Nuclear power's claims that it would be an economic nirvana "too cheap to meter" collapsed as well. Entering the 21st century, renewables began to appear more feasible, so the atomic power industry latched on to NASA's James Hansen's 1988 prognosis of the global buildup in CO2 resulting in global climate change as a new justification for existence. Armed with this new marketing ploy, nuclear power lobbyists flooded Capitol Hill looking for financing to fund the 21st century "nuclear renaissance."
Does the nuclear industry's latest claim that it is the world's salvation from increasing levels of CO2 hold up under scrutiny? No. The evidence clearly shows that building new nuclear power plants will make global warming worse...
more: Nuclear Power Is Not "Green Energy": It Is a Fount of Atomic Waste



Tuesday, November 15, 2016

Environmental Protection Agency's New Emergency Plan for Drinking Water Concerns Many | NBC Bay Area [VIDEO]


The EPA's Plan for drinking water concerns many, however, it may take effect within weeks



It happened with devastating speed in Fukushima, Japan.

It’s happening slowly all over the United States: radioactive waste is seeping into the soil and groundwater.





As she paces the fence at Lawrence Livermore Labs near her home, Marylia Kelley shakes her head about a new Environmental Protection Agency proposal that could affect communities like hers if a future radioactive release were to occur. It’s called a Protective Action Guide, or PAG. If formally adopted, it would set new, much higher levels on radioactive materials to be allowed in drinking water supplies following any kind of “radiological” accident or spill for an undetermined “intermediate” period of time...

more: Environmental Protection Agency's New Emergency Plan for Drinking Water Concerns Many | NBC Bay Area


Wednesday, November 9, 2016

11/11 SF Japan Consulate Speak-out-Evacuate The Families and Children of Fukushima and Stop The Cover-up | No Nukes Action Committee



Friday November 11, 2016 3:00 PM
275 Battery St./California St.
San Francisco
On November 11, 2016 there will be a speak out at the Japanese consulate to call for the immediate evacuation of the children and families of Fukushima. The Abe government which now runs TEPCO continues to cover-up the dangers of radiation and is also still attempting to restart Japan’s nuclear power plants. The Abe government has told the people of Japan and the world that the Fukushima crisis has been overcome and there is nothing to worry about despite the fact that radioactive material continues to contaminate the area and the Pacifica ocean.
The Japanese people are growing increasingly angry at the lies and also the massive costs of containing the crisis and the tens of thousands of bags of contaminated waste as well as the thousands of tanks of contaminated water.
Even NHK has been running programs about the unbridled costs of the 7,000 workers which are still employed at the plant to keep it “under control”
The people of Japan need to know that American people stand with them in defending the people of Fukushima and also opposing any restarting of the nuclear plants.
Speak Out and Rally initiated by
No Nukes Action Committee
https://nonukesaction.wordpress.com/
– related articles –
Radioactive contaminant levels can’t be read at 31 Fukushima temp waste sites
http://mainichi.jp/english/articles/20161024/p2a/00m/0na/017000c
October 24, 2016 (Mainichi Japan)
Japan Abe’s Lies and Cover-up -Car wash septic tanks emerge as radiation threat in Fukushima “companies that install the septic tanks know about the radiation problem, they couldn’t go public about it for fear of losing customers.”
Car wash septic tanks emerge as radiation threat in Fukushima
http://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2016/11/06/national/car-wash-septic-tanks-emerge-radiation-threat-fukushima/#.WCAqrxS_K-Q
KYODO  NOV 6, 2016
written by NNA member Steve Zeltzer


11/11 SF Japan Consulate Speak-out-Evacuate The Families and Children of Fukushima and Stop The Cover-up | No Nukes Action Committee

Saturday, November 5, 2016

CO2 Smoke Screen: New Nukes Make Global Warming Worse Presentation — Nuclear Energy Education



CO2 Smoke Screen: New Nukes Make Global Warming Worse had its debut presentation at the 2016 World Social Forum at the University of Quebec at Montreal (UQAM). Invited to present both a keynote speech and during workshops, Fairewinds’ Chief Engineer Arnie Gundersen and Program Administrator Caroline Aronson attended the Montreal Forum and made presentations at UQAM and McGill University, where Mr. Gundersen shared a condensed version of the “CO2 Smoke Screen” keynote and addressed the issue of radiation releases from Fukushima into the Pacific Ocean.

CO2 Smoke Screen: New Nukes Make Global Warming Worse Presentation — Nuclear Energy Education

Fairewinds Energy Education on Vimeo

 Fairewinds Energy Education


Tuesday, November 1, 2016

11.6 Nuclear #Disarmament and the #SFBayArea: Free Sunday Talk w/ Q & A




How can Bay Area residents support global nuclear disarmament? Is there a local disarmament movement? Tri-Valley CAREs Staff Attorney, Scott Yundt, will speak about the opportunities and challenges for local people who are concerned about the dangers of nuclear weapons in our world. Come and learn about the environmental cost shared by the communities within a 50 mile radius of the lab and how you can get involved where you live.

Nuclear Disarmament and the Bay Area: Free Sunday Talk followed by Q & A Tickets, Sun, Nov 6, 2016 at 1:30 PM | Eventbrite