Difference between revisions of "EnergyStories:Week History"

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:<cite>This blog ''(containing the weekly news, the editor)'' was setup on April 3rd 2007 in response to the growing push to develop nuclear power by the Bush Administration and the nuclear power industry. The blog has initially been setup as a vehicle for publishing the best nuclear news in the world. Go [http://www.energy-net.org/N-LET/EN/0FEED/TODAY.XML HERE] to see the full RSS Feed from where these stories are coming from. As oldtimers start checking back in and get over the huge PR push by the media on nuclear, there will be a growing need to organize a response.
 
:<cite>This blog ''(containing the weekly news, the editor)'' was setup on April 3rd 2007 in response to the growing push to develop nuclear power by the Bush Administration and the nuclear power industry. The blog has initially been setup as a vehicle for publishing the best nuclear news in the world. Go [http://www.energy-net.org/N-LET/EN/0FEED/TODAY.XML HERE] to see the full RSS Feed from where these stories are coming from. As oldtimers start checking back in and get over the huge PR push by the media on nuclear, there will be a growing need to organize a response.
 
</cite>
 
</cite>
 +
 +
 +
<span class="plainlinks"><small><small>[http://www.energy-net.org/blog/?p=917 March 22nd – 28th 2010]</small></small></span><br/>
 +
Just way over the top!  Talk about getting buried… This is late coming out due to all of the major stories that hit last week.
 +
 +
Before I get started with start, we have one story of particular interest, the possibility of some kind of major nuclear release.
 +
 +
Completely off the radar of the media is a story by NOAA that a cloud of dust that came across the Pacific from Asia set off Las Vegas radiation monitors this last week set off my own Chernobyl PTSD.  Is the story real? Should anyone who cares be more than a bit concerned about this?  Check the story.  Its this kind of stealth non-news event that represents the kind of nightmare that will come someday if we don’t wake up a culture that doesn’t want to weight the impacts of having nukes across the world in the hands of poor nations.
 +
 +
Okay, Let’s Start with Start. Talk about the Wizard of Oz and behind the curtain manipulation.  There is far more here than meets the eye. The story was clearly a cover for all of the dirty tactics (other DOE news) that will miss most people’s radar screens. A 25% reduction in the amount of nuclear weapons means that the two nuclear super nuts can now only wipe out the planet 4 times or so.  The real story of course (behind the curtain) is DOE’s push to dramatically increase funding for new weapons designs, while NATO continues with a push to build a weapons shield in Europe.  Jimmy Carter, for the 2nd time has come to Korea and called the U.S. tactics to thumbscrew North Korea as excessive.
 +
 +
Bush, err Obama signed a presidential order to hand over the growing 123 Trade debacle over to Hillary and the State Department.  As a result of India’s parliment refusing to waive nuclear accident insurance for US nuclear vendors Russia and France which federally insure their government operations are set to take all of the contracts leaving GE-Westinghouse out of the very market that we opened up!  A new report of Chernobyl shows increased birth defects in children in contaminated areas.  Germany’s Merkel continues with its attempt to reverse the 2022 closure date of the nuclear industry. A new Finish poll shows that 9 out of 10 Finns would rather have wind power than nukes.  A new UK scandal of the Brown Administration attempting to sneak in funding for nukes, even though the country was promised that none would come forward, hits as MP’s are now claiming that the sale of their nuclear infrastructure to France and U.S. companies (yes folks the U.S. also bought into British Energy) was a disaster.
 +
 +
The real blockbusters are happening in the U.S.  this time.  Just as the DOE/Obama Blue Ribbon Commission took center stage IEER released their FOIA findings of how the Bush Administration in last days ensnared the country in over 20 spent fuel contracts that will cost taxpayers billions of dollars.  The latest Obama rope bender comes from Exelon’s plans start pushing Victoria in Texas with a request for an Early Site Permit, while the NRC gave Domminion’s North Anna project an okay on its EIS.  New York State said no to Entergy’s plan to spin off a new nuclear company. While in Vermont the NRC has picked a former Entergy employee to be the agency’s inspector. At the same time as Entergy (for the 4th time or so) has claimed to have found and stopped the major tritium leak the company is attempting to close access to the records about the leak to the public in legal maneuvers.  Davis-Besse has found 14 cracks out 69 reactor core nozzles.
 +
 +
On the legislative front, the nuclear door was reopened in Minnesota on a stealth amendment for solar funding.  While Kentucky’s moratorium bill died.Legislation to reduce out of state rad-waste in Tennessee appears to be winning.
 +
 +
POGO came out with a story on how the DOE is pushing to deregulate safety oversight of its private contractors! Just as Chu while visiting ORNL’s newly opened HEU storage shack jumped across the river and offered more money for USEC’s enrichment facility. And what mysterious US agency has offered South Africa $10 million to keep them from closing down their failed PBMR program?  Stay tuned for when the real culprit (Hillary or Chu) stands up.
 +
 +
Do I dare mention Chu’s Yuchy Blue Ribbon Commission stocked full of nuclear advocates held their first tea party?  Get ready for the very worst possible results from these Mad Hatters that will make more than cat smiles glow in the dark.
 +
 +
Then of course we have the GAO report that says that it is taking at least 3 years for DOE workers to get money out of the DOL’s EEOICPA program.
 +
 +
The Goshute MRS nightmare has raised its head again with the tiny tribe filing a lawsuit claiming that the Dept. of Interior’s decision to stop the program was illegal and should be reversed.  A court decision to allow HRI to go ahead with ISL uranium mining on Dine(Navajo) lands is an outrage that is still just starting to sink in.  In Canada doctors in Alberta have restarted their campaign to block uranium mining the International Energy Agency has come out with a claim that nuclear is the cheapest power source of the future, other than in Australia where coal will be!
 +
 +
Activists hung a giant banner in front of government offices that said “Turn off Nuclear Power and not just for one hour” as part of an International conference of activists in Europe.
 +
 +
Last but not least in a NY Times article (sorry I didn’t post) the democratic party leadership is now ready to sell its Climate change legislation for nuclear porridge as dems are now looking to Kerry and Lieberman to find the magic nuclear bullet of nuke loans that will open the republicans up to energy bill.
 +
 +
There are quite a few stories not mentioned due to the sheer volume, so this is a must review! Its all here in this weeks version of the news. Read and weep, shout, but don’t for a second stop fighting!
  
  

Revision as of 22:40, 5 April 2010

Rbull.jpg

Read the latest summary of the Weekly Top 100 Energy Stories! It's continuously contiunued using the "Weekly News" ticker on the main page...

About the Weekly News Stories

These stories are provided by abalone AT energy-net.org[1] week by week. They publish them in several anti-nuclear networks and on their blog. Here is their own description of the service:

The Energy Net has been online since 1988 when I was given the permission to take over the name from the folks that started the original Energy Net back in the early 1980’s.
The original Energy Net was a network of activists across California who were organizing community based renewable energy programs, starting with making homes more energy efficient. This popular project was in competition against PG&E’s version of how to reduce electricity demand. The project died when PG&E and NRDC was able to push their own version of how to do energy efficiency programs within “the captured” California Public Utilities Commission.
In 1988 The Energy Net first went online as a member of the global network of Bulletin Board Services (BBS) called Fidonet. It stayed a local BBS system until 1994 when we switched to its current location on the world wide web. The formation of this blog is hopefully the next jump in the evolution in online communications… The Energy Net has been the archival home of the Abalone Alliance, the California statewide antinuclear movement that ran between 1977 and 1985. Please check out these resources about the Alliance.
This blog (containing the weekly news, the editor) was setup on April 3rd 2007 in response to the growing push to develop nuclear power by the Bush Administration and the nuclear power industry. The blog has initially been setup as a vehicle for publishing the best nuclear news in the world. Go HERE to see the full RSS Feed from where these stories are coming from. As oldtimers start checking back in and get over the huge PR push by the media on nuclear, there will be a growing need to organize a response.


March 22nd – 28th 2010
Just way over the top! Talk about getting buried… This is late coming out due to all of the major stories that hit last week.

Before I get started with start, we have one story of particular interest, the possibility of some kind of major nuclear release.

Completely off the radar of the media is a story by NOAA that a cloud of dust that came across the Pacific from Asia set off Las Vegas radiation monitors this last week set off my own Chernobyl PTSD. Is the story real? Should anyone who cares be more than a bit concerned about this? Check the story. Its this kind of stealth non-news event that represents the kind of nightmare that will come someday if we don’t wake up a culture that doesn’t want to weight the impacts of having nukes across the world in the hands of poor nations.

Okay, Let’s Start with Start. Talk about the Wizard of Oz and behind the curtain manipulation. There is far more here than meets the eye. The story was clearly a cover for all of the dirty tactics (other DOE news) that will miss most people’s radar screens. A 25% reduction in the amount of nuclear weapons means that the two nuclear super nuts can now only wipe out the planet 4 times or so. The real story of course (behind the curtain) is DOE’s push to dramatically increase funding for new weapons designs, while NATO continues with a push to build a weapons shield in Europe. Jimmy Carter, for the 2nd time has come to Korea and called the U.S. tactics to thumbscrew North Korea as excessive.

Bush, err Obama signed a presidential order to hand over the growing 123 Trade debacle over to Hillary and the State Department. As a result of India’s parliment refusing to waive nuclear accident insurance for US nuclear vendors Russia and France which federally insure their government operations are set to take all of the contracts leaving GE-Westinghouse out of the very market that we opened up! A new report of Chernobyl shows increased birth defects in children in contaminated areas. Germany’s Merkel continues with its attempt to reverse the 2022 closure date of the nuclear industry. A new Finish poll shows that 9 out of 10 Finns would rather have wind power than nukes. A new UK scandal of the Brown Administration attempting to sneak in funding for nukes, even though the country was promised that none would come forward, hits as MP’s are now claiming that the sale of their nuclear infrastructure to France and U.S. companies (yes folks the U.S. also bought into British Energy) was a disaster.

The real blockbusters are happening in the U.S. this time. Just as the DOE/Obama Blue Ribbon Commission took center stage IEER released their FOIA findings of how the Bush Administration in last days ensnared the country in over 20 spent fuel contracts that will cost taxpayers billions of dollars. The latest Obama rope bender comes from Exelon’s plans start pushing Victoria in Texas with a request for an Early Site Permit, while the NRC gave Domminion’s North Anna project an okay on its EIS. New York State said no to Entergy’s plan to spin off a new nuclear company. While in Vermont the NRC has picked a former Entergy employee to be the agency’s inspector. At the same time as Entergy (for the 4th time or so) has claimed to have found and stopped the major tritium leak the company is attempting to close access to the records about the leak to the public in legal maneuvers. Davis-Besse has found 14 cracks out 69 reactor core nozzles.

On the legislative front, the nuclear door was reopened in Minnesota on a stealth amendment for solar funding. While Kentucky’s moratorium bill died.Legislation to reduce out of state rad-waste in Tennessee appears to be winning.

POGO came out with a story on how the DOE is pushing to deregulate safety oversight of its private contractors! Just as Chu while visiting ORNL’s newly opened HEU storage shack jumped across the river and offered more money for USEC’s enrichment facility. And what mysterious US agency has offered South Africa $10 million to keep them from closing down their failed PBMR program? Stay tuned for when the real culprit (Hillary or Chu) stands up.

Do I dare mention Chu’s Yuchy Blue Ribbon Commission stocked full of nuclear advocates held their first tea party? Get ready for the very worst possible results from these Mad Hatters that will make more than cat smiles glow in the dark.

Then of course we have the GAO report that says that it is taking at least 3 years for DOE workers to get money out of the DOL’s EEOICPA program.

The Goshute MRS nightmare has raised its head again with the tiny tribe filing a lawsuit claiming that the Dept. of Interior’s decision to stop the program was illegal and should be reversed. A court decision to allow HRI to go ahead with ISL uranium mining on Dine(Navajo) lands is an outrage that is still just starting to sink in. In Canada doctors in Alberta have restarted their campaign to block uranium mining the International Energy Agency has come out with a claim that nuclear is the cheapest power source of the future, other than in Australia where coal will be!

Activists hung a giant banner in front of government offices that said “Turn off Nuclear Power and not just for one hour” as part of an International conference of activists in Europe.

Last but not least in a NY Times article (sorry I didn’t post) the democratic party leadership is now ready to sell its Climate change legislation for nuclear porridge as dems are now looking to Kerry and Lieberman to find the magic nuclear bullet of nuke loans that will open the republicans up to energy bill.

There are quite a few stories not mentioned due to the sheer volume, so this is a must review! Its all here in this weeks version of the news. Read and weep, shout, but don’t for a second stop fighting!


March 15th – 21st 2010
Its always appropriate to point out just how hard it is to put a stake through the heart of a vampire. A few more stories to piss them off this time around. Portugal and Indonesia came out against development of nuclear while attempts to indemnify western companies from accident damages ran into opposition in India. The nuclear waste issue around the world hit the news with attempts in Germany to push ahead with Gorleben. A new dump in UK was blocked, while legislation in Russia enraged environmentalists. The UK situation is now coming to a head as coming elections may lead to a complete standoff with no party being able to have the power to advance any nuclear development. It looks like Hillary Clinton is behind the push construct nuclear reactors in of all places Chile! With her husband being caught up in the Kazakhstan uranium scandal wouldn’t be just like Bill to call for a nuke in Haiti too! There continues to be a buzz about the dramatic increase in cancers in Iraq, the story I’m posting this week has a gruesome picture of deformed children. Considering its the 7th anniversary of the Iraqi Invasion there’s even a followup story on the infamous missing Niger uranium story that helped launch the war. Westinghouse is considering investing money in a reactor

The battle grounds in the US continue in many directions. Yucca’s closure appears to be a rallying cry for the nuclear industry and republicans with the call now for the facility to be reopened with Obama ouster. New York’s AG has come out against relicensing Indian Point, while more the cooling tower battle in New Jersey is in a deadlock.TVA has postponed making a decision about finishing construction on its Bellefonte facility in the state of Alabama. A businessWeek article said that slow nationwide energy demand will play a major role in slowing down nuclear development as reactors planned for 2017 will not likely go online until 2020.

TN’s Alexander started pushing his trillion dollar nuclear funding bill, the Alliance for Nuclear Accountability released a nuclear weapons report card for the Obama Admin, the Illinois Senate passed a bill that would remove a nuclear moratorium, there is uranium legislation in Colorado and several other western states. Exelon settled on over $1 million from Tritium leaks at its facilities in Illinois, while tritium at the Vermont Yankee appears to be heading towards the nearby river. A number of commentaries this week of interest include several focused on Vermont by Harvey Wasserman and Helen Caldicott.

There is still a large number of pro-nuclear commentaries across the country, but the news continues to cool off.


March 8th-14th 2010
What a relief! Obama’s nuclear swine flu outbreak has finally started to slow a bit. Its clearly not over with however, has France’s President can attest to as he was sacking the head of Areva, calling for rich nations to finance nukes for poor countries, and decrying cheap reactors. Nuclaire Sortir, a coalition of over 800 anti-nuclear groups released secret EDF documents disclosing serious safety concerns about the new EPR reactor design. Probably the most outlandish claim promoted at the nuclear love-fest was that the world will build 450 new nuclear reactors by the year 2030! That’s like doubling all the reactors current in existence that they built in the last 60 years. With hundreds of dignitaries showing up from all over the world, its of interest that across the Channel calls to investigate the nuclear industry’s roll in promoting climate change has come out! Let me know when the oil industry starts funding the anti-nuclear movement as a way to stop the nuclear industry! :)

There is indeed a whole lot of nuclear grumbling going on around the world. Most of it is, just grumbling… With it now officially public in Japan, peace activists from Hiroshima and Nagasaki are letting it be known that the government’s public claims of disallowing nuclear weapons into the country, while secretly doing otherwise goes far beyond disrespect. The news has also strained relations with the U.S. that never wanted the news that they have been forcing Japan’s government into allowing nuclear weapons to routinely enter Japan. Hey, I was on a ship that had nukes on board when it docked in Japan in 1973. For folks not watching, it was very likely a major incident last year where a U.S. nuclear powered sub was caught leaking nuclear fuel at several Japanese ports that played a major role in finally outing this 50 year old scandal, not to mention the ousting of the Liberals who had run the country for the entire time.

Elsewhere, the battle to build new nukes around the world continues. Of all the craziest claims made was that even with the 8.8 quake in Chile, nuclear proponents have come back with claims that such an incident shouldn’t get in the way of building reactors! Russia appears to be on the inside track on getting contracts with India, while South Korea has supplanted Russia in Turkey’s nuclear push. A major nuclear promoter connected to B Clinton was sentenced to 14 years, the NIMBY effect appears to be raising its head in South Africa with plans to build a nuke near one of the more posh coastal resort areas. The industry claims that there are currently 49 reactors under construction and 230 proposed worldwide. Here’s the link to the WNA’s list of reactors. If you take a look, you will see that China, Russia, India and South Korea are leading areas where reactors are being built. Also of interest, is the fact that only India appears to have any regular news coverage, let alone opposition.

There were two new protests in Europe last week, one in the UK and the other over rad-waste headed for Russia.

In the usa, one of the biggest stories to hit was about a suspected terrorist who was picked up in Yemen who had worked at at a number of reactors. Concerns about how nukeworker.com might represent future security problems come to mind. A very extensive report on the historic contamination in PA includes extensive documentation. There was an important public event in Virgnia last week on uranium mining, while a federal judge ordered the go-ahead for uranium mining on Navajo lands, at the same time another agency started hiring people to help find radiation victims. The DOL put out its EEOICPA 2009 annual report. Vermont activists are calling for the closure of Vermont Yankee right now, especially until they stop all the leaks. Every week for the last month there are reports that they have found the leak, and then the next week we hear stories like robot stuck in sludge etc.

It looks like there will be a national conference on nuclear waste in Chicago on June 5-6 put on by groups concerned about the national state of affairs. Don’t stop here! Make sure to browse, as there are a lot of important stories, as well as Alexander’s pitch in a major DC blog!


March 1st - 7th 2010
Nuclear quagmire!!! The last week of news continues to escalate. Its taken several hours more than usual to put this newsletter together. Obama’s change wasn’t what a whole lot of us were expecting. So the fallout continues to escalate worldwide as both Russia and Canada have announced new economic investment plans. The volume of news continues to grow and in a whole lot of unexpected directions.

Let’s start with Mordechai Vanunu, official refusal to accept a Nobel Peace prize. Follow that up with Nuclaire Sortir release of documents that threatens to blow the lid off of EDF/Areva’s EPR reactor design. The U.S. flip-flop on letting Pakistan into their version of the new nuclear club. The Paris nuclear conference. Sweden’s concern about the safety of their new repository geology, a new earthquake faultline near PI’s heated debate over Bataan. How dare I even mention the fact that Chile was in the middle of promoting the development of reactors just as the largest earthquake to hit the planet in a very long time hit! New opposition to the UK’s nuclear push emerged in the form of a biography by the former head of BFNL. Then there was the astounding news out of Palestine about how the U.S. lost three armed nuclear weapons during the Gulf war and continues to hide the story from the world. I’m not even gonna get into news out of Japan… Poland get’s financial support to start construction of reactors. South Africa, which recently abandoned its PBMR reactor project is now pushing new reactors down the throats of a pristine coastal community. Its not every week that so many major issues hit around the world! And oh my favorite in the bunch, There been a tripling of cancers near the community of Fallujah Iraq, and the media is starting to actually cover the story a bit that broke months ago. But wait…

The DOE finally filed for the formal closure of Yucca Mountain! That was followed days later with Washington state dems screaming where’s the science at Chu! I can imagine how Steve was laughing backstage after failing to present Nevada’s version of the science vs. DOE’s. A lot of interesting news out of Georgia. NPR did an excellent tech talk show with Lester Brown on Friday. It seems at least a couple of people finally got some of the Yucca story right. Washington was given $55 million by a federal court over the Yucca closure. But the idea of drilling super deep bore holes and dropping spent fuel down kind of sounds like a new way to seed volcanic activity to me… We are now seeing pro-nuclear conspiracy stories out there that there are, nor ever has been any danger of nuclear waste(I had to post it). Then over to one of the other favorite dumping grounds of the nuclear industry, Utah. The first of 16 million tons of the Moab tailings pile has been moved away from the Colorado River. A report by HEAL and IEER point to the likelyhood that Energy Solutions may have taken in wastes that were not allowed at their Clive facility. Thus, we are watching the fifth major Utah battle to be won in the last decade to happen there, as the DU waste dumping issue is now red hot. Speaking of Energy Solutions, they are having a bit of a hard time these days as a serious fire at their Tennessee facility finally made the news.

Then we have the death of a DOE worker at Hanford (not radiation), new plans to help workers get help, a push to force cooling towers at Oyster Creek, NJ, while California is considering blocking all seawater cooling for nukes or any other facility. Vermont’s IOU’s Entergy continues to make all kinds of bribes in its attempts to spin off a new nuclear company in New York, as a poll shows that 70% of Vermont responders don’t like the nuke anymore. Nationally a poll shows the public worried about waste, with numbers showing a drop in support. Attempts to reverse Minnesota’s nuclear moratorium died in committee. And oh, my has there been an explosion of op-ed pieces from P-Moore and more.

I can’t sumarize everything that happened, but one article jumped out at me and that was a story out of DOE’s Oak Ridge blog about how they are working on ways to streamline the NRC’s license process. What the hell!

Almost too much for anyone to even wrap their heads around this time. Triage is a tough to do!


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