Difference between revisions of "Radiation Bulletin:Week History"

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''Read the latest summary of the ''Radiation Bulletin''! The 'Weekly News' ticker will be continuously published on the [[Nuclear Heritage Network|main page]] ...''
 
''Read the latest summary of the ''Radiation Bulletin''! The 'Weekly News' ticker will be continuously published on the [[Nuclear Heritage Network|main page]] ...''
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''2010 we provided this news service already for several months on our website. Unfortunately we had to interrupt it when the author couldn't continue to write the weekly news summaries and only provided the news links without comments. Now these summaries are available again. You can check these former [[EnergyStories:Week History|weekly news archive]] provided on the Nuclear Heritage Network's website.''
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<div style="background-color:#EEE8AA; border-color:#FFA54F; border-width:medium; border-style:solid; text-align:justify; padding-top:5px; padding-left:20px; padding-right:20px">{{Radiation Bulletin}}</div>
 
<div style="background-color:#EEE8AA; border-color:#FFA54F; border-width:medium; border-style:solid; text-align:justify; padding-top:5px; padding-left:20px; padding-right:20px">{{Radiation Bulletin}}</div>
 
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== About the Radiation Bulletin ==
 
== About the Radiation Bulletin ==
 
These stories are provided by the [http://www.energy-net.org Abalone Alliance Clearinghouse], which is part of the [http://www.energy-net.org/blog/category/radbull/rb-cal/www.nuclearfreecal.org/nfcnet/ Nuclear Free California Network], week by week. They publish them in several anti-nuclear networks and on [http://www.energy-net.org/blog/category/radbull/rb-cal/ their website]. Here is their own description of the service:
 
These stories are provided by the [http://www.energy-net.org Abalone Alliance Clearinghouse], which is part of the [http://www.energy-net.org/blog/category/radbull/rb-cal/www.nuclearfreecal.org/nfcnet/ Nuclear Free California Network], week by week. They publish them in several anti-nuclear networks and on [http://www.energy-net.org/blog/category/radbull/rb-cal/ their website]. Here is their own description of the service:
  
:<cite>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.</cite>
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:<cite>The Energy Net has been online since 1988 when we were given permission to take over the name from the folks that started the original Energy-Net back in the early 1980′s.</cite>
  
:<cite>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.</cite>
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:<cite>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.</cite>
  
:<cite>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 [http://www.energy-net.org/01NUKE/NUKE-1.HTM these resources] about the Alliance.</cite>
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:<cite>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 anti-nuclear movement that ran between 1977 and 1985. Please check out these resources about the Alliance.</cite>
  
:<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.
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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 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/01NUKE/radbull/radbull.HTM June 20th 2010]</small></small></span><br/>
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<span class="plainlinks"><small><small>[http://www.energy-net.org/blog/2013/08/05/radiation-bulletin-july-29th-aug-4th-2013/ July 29th – Aug. 4th 2013]</small></small></span><br/>The Nuclear Industry has suffered a serious setback worldwide this last week. The biggest blow came with news out of South Korea that has put that country’s entire nuclear fleet into question over a growing scandal of forged documents on a large number of safety related parts. In Japan there was a scandal that TEPCo intentionally withheld knowledge of the massive tritium leak (up to 40 trillion becquerels in the last two years). The government and TEPCo continue to withhold money from the public that had to flee from Fukushima. The Queen of England got hit with a scandal over a secret speech in case of a nuclear attack. Plans to build a reactor in Turkey took a turn for the worst, and will likely be postponed for an additional three years. While legislators in Taiwan had fist fights over the continued scam to hold a rigged public poll over a new reactor’s construction. And we thought we have a PR problem. There was a 4 part series on nuclear waste out of Australia by one of that country’s biggest nuclear spin doctors. To the north, Canada has withdrawn a set of controversial plans to transport n-waste.
Another week of fairly busy activity. Internationally, Greenpeace was quite active with protests in Sweden, a new report out of the UK on government give-aways and calls to cancel India's liabilty legislation that would allow US companies to walk away from nuclear accident. Japan released a safety report that left at least one reactor closed afterwards. UK's new government as promised will not give government loans to the private sector, canceling an 80 million pound loan in mid air. In a very intresting story out of Greece, we have a poster animal, in fact, one of the most endangered in the world being threatened by uranium! Besides the protest in Sweden, there were also two more in the UK and India. There was an international GNEP conference held in Africa. Also on a lighter side, WISE and LAKA are doing a global anti-nuclear poster book and are looking for submissions.
 
 
 
On the US front, the DOE finalized its loan for the new Vogtle reactors in Georgia. The NRC was fairly busy holdings a number of hearings around the country as well as releasing a DEIS on a North Carolina enrichment facility by General Electric-Hitachi.
 
 
 
 
 
<span class="plainlinks"><small><small>[http://www.energy-net.org/01NUKE/radbull/radbull.HTM June 7th - 13th 2010]</small></small></span><br/>
 
Here's the latest Radiation Bulletin! The changes this week include an extended library index for people wanting to do research on back stories as well as a new division of several of the main subject areas into international and national groupings so that people can sort through content faster. Any ideas are accepted about how the bulletin looks or what other changes might be appropriate. I can't promise the moon but will consider any good ideas.
 
 
 
In general the rad-waste issue continues to draw a lot of attention around the world. A floating waste reprocessing facility in Russia has sunk that includes high level liquid wastes. A report out of Canada blasts contamination of water there, there was also a story about Israel using Palestinian areas as a dumping ground. There are also a number of waste stories across the U.S. as well with the recent national conference on waste in Chicago, more anger over the NRC's push to downblend wastes so that they can be dumped in Utah, hearings in Texas for a dump there as well plans to expand ORNL's waste dump in Tennessee.
 
 
 
Probably the hottest issue internationally continues to be India's Congress Party attempting to push through legislation that reduces accident liability for U.S. countries, with a number of Bhopal victims and the Gulf oil spill in the news, opposition to the waver is quite strong. I'm keeping the summary short as the new design makes it possible for readers to get a fast overview of what's up. I'm still having health problems so won't be using this arena to comment for now, putting most attention on just design and cleanup of the newsletter. Enjoy!
 
 
 
 
 
<span class="plainlinks"><small><small>[http://www.energy-net.org/01NUKE/radbull/RB60710.HTM May 31st - June 6th 2010]</small></small></span><br/>
 
Here's the latest version of the all new Radiation Bulletin. If you haven't gotten a chance to take a look at it please do! The new design allows readers to get a quick view of all the news stories, but with a click on the green/blue bars, summaries quickly open up if a story needs a closer look. The full story can still be seen by clicking on the title/URL as well that will open that story. The New design is faster to edit and cleanup as well.
 
 
 
I'm going to let the index speak for itself in terms of being able to summarize the latest news. I'm considering shifting to focusing on a couple of issues like this last week's U.S. Supreme Court nuclear waste decision in North Carolina or the major policy dispute in the UK that has emerged over the new Tory government's nuclear policy, or a story on how US citizen's have been getting rather dramatic increases of radioactive exposure in the last few years! Or, better yet, how about the idea of having a guest opinion from folks? I hope you like the new version! Any comments are welcome!
 
 
 
 
 
<span class="plainlinks"><small><small>[http://www.energy-net.org/blog/?p=942 May 17th – 23rd 2010]</small></small></span><br/>
 
In this issue I’m going to cut back on the summary style I’ve been using lately as some people have confused it with being the newsletter, not knowing that they need to click on the highlighted link at the top to actually see the real newsletter rather than just a summary.  I’ve once again decided to do some programming design experimentation with javascript to see if I can build the newsletter in a way that would only show the news summary if clicked on so that the overall newsletter appears as its own index.  If I succeed, there may be more than a few changes coming design wise.
 
 
 
There is a whole lot of  the good, the bad and the ugly this time.  The top story for me was a very important tidbit of news that a UK study on nuclear costs mentions.  The country of Belorussian, which suffered the brunt of the Chernobyl disaster, has spent at least $250 billion dealing with the radiation fallout since the accident. In our country that only thinks of money rather than life, unless its for rhetorical purposes, maybe we should put more focus on the economic impacts of the disaster! [:(]
 
 
 
This was one hell of a major news week.  A hint at some of the stories?
 
 
 
OK, The right wing Swedish government agreed to back off its plan to build new nukes and a Canadian study on reactor leaks by the Sierra Club.  Protests, mini-nukes, bad news for the Navajo, good news in Colorado, Russia investing a billion into uranium mining in Namibia, films on Plamegate the UK nuclear showdown and nuclear Chuisms!
 
 
 
Don’t skip this one folks it was a very busy week!
 
 
 
 
 
<span class="plainlinks"><small><small>[http://www.energy-net.org/blog/?p=940 May 10th – 16th 2010]</small></small></span><br/>
 
What nuked up week its been. On the personal front I had to help a friend into the hospital who was dying. He had no family and has spent the last several years in a small space I provided for him. Before that, he was living on the streets. A product of America’s ongoing hatred of blacks and poor people.
 
 
 
The UN’s twice a decade NPT conference continues to be the most important news story hitting anywhere as the conference of some 118 nations is now actively pushing to get a formal time line in place to end the use of nuclear weapons worldwide!  The world’s nuclear nations including the US are opposed for some reason or other.  As part of the campaign a new scandal has erupted over a secret GAO report that was quashed over the US government’s giving Israel a very large quantity of HEU to make nuclear weapons.
 
 
 
On the international front the big story of the week was the ouster of the Labour Party in the UK by voters.  No single party gained a clear majority so the Tories were forced to create a coalition government with the Liberal Democrats who had promised to stop nuclear power if put into power. As soon as they took power this past week the Lib Dem leadership reversed their promise to stop the UK nuke program which angered the party’s rank and file.  It is now towing the Tory line that new reactors will be okayed but there will be no government subsidies for them.  This will play havoc with EDF’s nuclear operations that warned the Brown Labour government that there would be no new reactors unless there was substantial government subsidies coming.  The real pudding will come in the Parliament as it no party truly has the power to vote the funds needed, so it may very well be that another major pro-nuke push is now dead in the water!
 
 
 
Voting in Germany also threatened the conservatives agenda of extending that country’s nuclear program.  A few days after the vote Merkel insiders claimed that they have developed a plan to bypass the government in allowing its aging reactors to bypass the country’s previous plan to shut them down, and this coming on one of the largest every anti-nuclear protests anywhere!
 
 
 
Greenpeace found 6 radioactive hot spots in Delhi, while Congress Party has taken a very low key approach to its desperate push to indemnify US corporations from possible nuclear accidents. South Korea working out a new deal to buy uranium from Australia while Japan continues to quietly push the global nuclear agenda. Toshiba which owns GE’s nuclear operations announced plans to open up major fabrication facilities in India while investments out of Tokyo were formalized to help fund the previously struggling South Texas reactor construction project in the USA.
 
 
 
Russia is in the news with its announcement to help Syria build a nuclear power facility, which enraged the US!
 
 
 
The Wall Street Journal had a pre-story coverage on a major new report that is due out of France this coming week over that country’s nuclear flat tire. Here we have the country that was planning on leading the world into a nuclear renaissance now seriously in trouble on all fronts as its hopes to build reactors continues to fall on its face with the latest disaster being the UK elections, not to mention the previous week where the US company (Dominion) it bought controlling interest over has decided to use a Mitsubishi reactor design!  With Russia having a very mixed time over getting reactor construction contracts (Turkey just said yes, but a big no came out of Eastern Europe last week) as Asian companies out of South Korea and Japan appear to be gaining favor with cheaper product.  China announced this last week that it would need $146 billion to carry out the world’s most aggressive nuclear development agenda.  The country of Malaysia said no to development the previous week as Kenya and other countries across Africa have been seeking reactors, but are unlikely to get global financing.
 
 
 
In the USA, the horrific pro-nuclear give-away legislation by Kerry Lieberman was announced, attempting to gain from the recent Gulf Oil spill. Many environmental groups like the Sierra Club and the NRDC have signed onto this dreadful bill that secretly has set up an energy bank that would allow nuclear power to potentially gain unlimited government funding for not just the 12 nukes national media outlets like Reuters have mentioned by hundreds.
 
 
 
Just as disgusting is Obama’s clever backdoor request for $180 billion to rebuild the nuclear weapons infrastructure in the country. Again, we have Rupert Murdock’s control over Reuter’s being caught openly lying about this with their own spin stating that Obama is only requesting $80 billion for DOE.
 
 
 
Last but not least, there continues to be a growing number of safety related news stories just too many to detail.  Being in California, I will mention the Diablo Canyon story as its local. PG&E the reactor’s owner has been given over a decade to come up with a solution to new regulations put in place by the state ending its ability to dump water directly back into the ocean at a tune of 2 billion gallons a day that is used to cool the two reactors.  The local community has also put up stiff opposition to the IOU’s push to prematurely relicense the reactors calling for new seismic investigations.
 
 
 
There is also was also an interesting interview of the Texas billionaire who has been behind the construction of the country’s first nuclear waste dump in decades. He falsely uses the same kind of claims we’ve seen for years about how people’s health in the country are being effected because 36 US states currently don’t have a place to dump wastes (wrong). Furthermore, the national NPR media has started promoting the story that the Waste Isolation Pilot Project in New Mexico has become a major candidate for the storage of spent fuel rods.
 
 
 
Note that most of the news this time is located in the policy and nuclear weapons section of the news!
 
 
 
 
 
<span class="plainlinks"><small><small>[http://www.energy-net.org/blog/?p=936 May 3rd – 9th 2010]</small></small></span><br/>
 
What will the oil spill spin doctors do? In this oped, I will once again suggest, as I’ve been doing for years that there are no issues left to win in this world except the battle against the corporate media propaganda machine.  The US nuclear industry recently hyped a new poll done by Gallup claiming that support for nuclear power has never been higher having reached 62%, according to questions they asked 1,000 randomly selected citizens. At the same time not a single major print media outlet other than the Los Angeles Times covered what just a few years ago was a regular media event on the anniversaries of Three Mile Island and Chernobyl.  Whether its Fox News, CNN, ABC, CBS,  NBC, or the New York Times opponents to nuclear energy can point to the media’s promotion of the issue by any  number of tactics.  Probably the very worst of these framing tactics has to do with dummying down the American public (the 8 second soundbyte) which obtains its news mostly from nationally syndicated TV news services.  As anyone who follows the issue as this news service has been doing for the last 15 years, the real issue couldn’t be stranger from the glib niceties of infotainment news.  Only when the serious events come home to roost is there a moment when the squirming tactics of the greedy finally ever seem to make it into the story. Probably the best example of the media’s wonderful role came with an article on the recent release that as many as one million people have died from Chernobyl. The numbers are so different from the official numbers that have been pushed by the IAEA and the media that even alternative media sources have been frightened away from the covering the books numbers.
 
 
 
This probably isn’t the right moment to go into much detail, but having spent a couple of weeks combing through news stories that have never made it out of Europe about the impacts to the 600,000 workers who were forced to clean up Chernobyl without proper protective gear, not to mention the fact that large numbers of people were never removed from contaminated regions, it comes as little surprise to myself.  The country of Cuba put out a completely ignored news story earlier this year that they have treated over 25,000 children for leukemia from the Ukraine and Bylorussia, just one of dozens of countries that have been treating the sick.  Simply because the pro-nuclear IAEA can claim and get global coverage that only 50 people died in claims that are now over 20 years old, we can see most clearly how the dangers from radiation can be manipulated. When will a single organization with resources and awareness take on the very serious problem caused by known manipulation of Chernobyl’s health effects put together the investigative story of how Russia concocted the now globally accepted scam that people who were impacted are suffering from some kind of neurosis rather than radiation sickness?
 
 
 
To make matters even more insane, a recent new study suggesting that the U.S. needs to be more concerned about environmental sources of cancer was publicly attacked by the National Cancer Society which  claimed that only 6% of all cancers are caused by the environment, then quickly turning around and claiming that cancer levels could be reduced by 30% if cigarette smoking was stopped!
 
 
 
In this issue, there is more than a touch of bad news.  The nuclear weapons issue continues to be the biggest story in the media with the International NPT conference at the United Nations.  Some 25,000 people marched last week in New York City in support of ending nuclear weapons.  Mostly a no-story hit as the media plays along with the Obama change spin. In a major sub-story Obama has opened a new strategic front with Russia restarting the country’s nuclear power technology exchange program after it was stopped under Bush during the Georgia-Russia affair.  The restart of the exchange this time has a carrot attached — getting Russia to push its ally Iran to move towards some kind of nuclear fuel back down.In an excellent editorial on the NPT conference one Indian newspaper (Financial Express) brought out the horrific history of Russia dumping of nuclear submarines into the ocean a story not even acknowledged by most of the west’s media.
 
 
 
The deadly sodium cooled Monju breeder reactor in Japan was restarted last week 14 years after the reactor suffered a deadly coolant fire.  Malaysia decided against development of nuclear energy while more pressure is being put on South Africa to push for nuclear energy.  Greenpeace released a new video on the state of Areva’s Niger uranium mining operations. An Australian whistleblower at that country’s only nuclear facility made a touch of news. Another reactor in Eastern Europe was forced to stop construction due to lack of funding as the country refused to accept a $2 billion loan from Russia. Reports of Russia negotiating nuclear deals with Vietnam and Turkey hit the news.
 
 
 
In the U.S. the state of Minnesota passed legislation to remove is moratorium on nuclear development, following Iowa’s similar move the week before.  The state of New Jersey took serious steps against a year old tritium leak at the Oyster Creek reactor.  Senator Hatch from Utah is looking into the contamination payment history of RECA, with new legislation being promoted by liberals to expand downwinder coverage to 7 states (what about us victims beyond!). A very detailed article by ProPublica came out on the health effects of DOE workers.  Areva may have lost another deal this time in what must be the most surprising place out of the USA with the recent partnership of EDF and Dominion in Maryland moving to select a Japanese reactor design from Mitsubishi!  In another important story Florida’s Progress Energy came out with new estimates for their two reactors, upping the estimate from $17 to $22.5 billion with an operational coming after 2021.
 
 
 
Kerry is spinning his nuked up climate legislation next week.  I’ve put a couple of stories in on the BP oil spill, but then how hard is it to dance an issue to death in the biggest me first culture in the world?
 
 
 
  
<span class="plainlinks"><small><small>[http://www.energy-net.org/blog/?p=934 April 26th – May 2nd 2010]</small></small></span><br/>
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The French nuclear giant, EDF is withdrawing from the US nuclear market. But then the big news of the week would be that Duke Power had withdrawn plans to construct the $24 billion Levy Country reactors in Florida (they aren’t giving up totally on future facilities however). There were major hearings in Washington over new legislation on how to deal with spent nuclear fuel, even though republicans continue to push for Yucca Mountain. Last but not least, was an astonishing story about how two East Coast AG’s plan on getting involved in the NRC’s attempt to throw out their own ASLB decision over San Onofre. And yeah, a lot of industry spinning going on in an attempt to stop the growing hemorrhaging that as mentioned last week could soon lead to over a dozen other reactors being closed down.
It would seem that Chernobyl has become a global embarrassment to the media these days! Only the Los Angeles Times cared to cover the 24th anniversary or the more delicate release by the New York Academy of Science’s exhaustive investigation of thousands of reports that were brought together, suggesting that over one million people have lost their lives due to Chernobyl. One of Chernobyl’s operators says it best, the world hasn’t learned a thing from the disaster or there would be a very different kind of discourse going on today. The US Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) for example is going ahead with a new cancer study around the country’s reactors. Just as a recent hearing before the National Academy of Sciences Nuclear Safety Review Board (NSRB) that is now chaired by the former Chairman of the NRC Richard Meserve demonstrates, we can expect the entire hierarchy of the nuclear radiation protection establishment to click into gear with another generation of self serving reports.
 
  
To the news… The top story around the world other than Obama’s nuclear weapons shell game continues (with one interesting addition with the US now in talks with Egypt over its call to make the middle east a nuclear free zone (and how do they plan on dealing with Israel?) to come out of India with the death of one of the 8 people who were contaminated when attempting to recycle medical equipment. The investigation into the incident has traced the equipment to Delhi University, which has in turn opened up a whole new can of safety concerns.  Allegations have spread that more radioactive parts of the equipment are still missing, that the rad lab had a major incident earlier this year that was covered up as well as claims that up to 20 kilos of radioactive materials were secretly buried on campus. Victims of this still unfolding recycling tragedy are in a battle with health officials to get proper treatment as well as determine where the rest of the deadly materials are.  The contamination incident has put a spotlight on India’s attempt to pass legislation that would reduce indemnification of nuclear companies as well as dramatic dangers of increasing the use of nuclear materials in poorer regions of the world.
 
  
Japan has given the go ahead to restart their Monju sodium cooled breeder reactor that suffered a major fire in 1995 and forced to shut down. Russia has cut a deal with the Ukraine to merge the two country’s nuclear reactor operations.  The Ukraine, once the bread basket of the former Soviet empire has been struggling since independence with energy problems as well as the continued fallout from Chernobyl.  Much of Europe continues to have serious concerns about Russia growing influence over energy issues like nuclear and natural gas.  With its recent START treaty with Obama the country continues to play a global role in uranium fuel production issues.  One of the major issues to keep an eye on will be around the IAEA’s version of Bush’s Global Nuclear Energy Partnership (GNEP). The IAEA recently initiated plans to set up a global fuel bank centered around Kazakhstan which recently became the world’s largest producer of uranium ore.  The former Soviet Satellite and 9th largest country in the world suffered greatly from uranium mining operations during the Soviet era.  With the prosecution of a Clinton associate around the illegal purchase of uranium mines by a Canadian uranium mining billionaire, we have a wonderful example of the media’s version of radioactive teflon.
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<span class="plainlinks"><small><small>[http://www.energy-net.org/blog/2013/07/28/radiation-bulletin-july-22nd-28th-2013/ July 22nd - 28th 2013]</small></small></span><br/>TEPCo has apologized for hiding the scale of the leaks, not wanting to frighten the public? Dang! Hey, and we are all still waiting for the government to fine them for what? Hey, they at least finished the sarcophogus for unit 4. Tritium levels with one of the leaks are through the ceiling, as there are growing fears the new regulatory agency will buckle under the immense pressure being pushed by nuclear village. Another story that’s been getting a bit of coverage is the sheer number of corrupt companies involved in the cleanup at Fukushima.
  
In the U.S. the big news hit when South Carolina’s Lindsey Graham pulled out of Kerry’s climate legislation that would have given the nuclear industry a blank check to build a hundred nuclear reactors.  Kerry is hoping to bring Graham back in after during the congress’s immigration cycle. The DOE also claims that it needs an additional $13 billion in loan guarantees, and there are now legislative discussions taking place to sneak the money in.  The NRC has slipped its decision date on Yucca Mountain back to the end of June(they probably don’t want their decision to coincide with a national n-waste conference by opponents). Areva has signed an (Nuclear) energy Park MOU with a local California utility, and the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy won a battle in court over Vogtle while FOE lost one just to the north in North Carolina. There was bad news as Iowa passed legislation that initiated plans to start looking for a reactor site in that state, while the push for more nukes continued with and Early Site Permit being posted for Victoria Texas.  Legislation in Colorado appears to be the latest round in monitoring the push for new uranium mining especially around the restart of the controversial Canon uranium mill.
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Elsewhere, Austria has announced plans to not buy any nuclear power for its grid, while the Bulgarian Supreme Court stopped the construction of a n-waste dump. The leaked EU plan to let individual states to subsidize nuclear reactor development will likely continue to create controversy across Europe. In hushed up story, the US turned over just 650 pages of just declassified documents about 49 secret weapons tests equal to over 3,000 Hiroshima bombs (see 7-24 Fallout Secrecy story).
  
The push to expand coverage to former downwinders continues to get support that could include protectorates like Guam and an additional number of states. Sadly, as suggested by one commentator, radiation doesn’t abide by state borders and has effected citizens far beyond Nevada where the country used to conduct its above ground nuclear tests. The push to close Vermont Yankee continues to unfold with new scandals as it has come out that the NRC even knew of underground tritium pipes, and didn’t tell state investigators.The drum beat over Yucca continues mostly out of South Carolina and Washington, where cleanup continues to push ahead.
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In the US, there continues to be a continuing dual over the growing number of articles suggesting the downturn of the nuclear industry, vs. industry proponents. Meanwhile SoCal Edison pulled the fuel from Unit 2 and announced that it would cost $13 billion to permanently shutter the reactors. And on a difficult turn of events the state of Nevada has pulled its weekend wire services which will take a while to deal with.
  
There are other important stories like Russia’s growing energy plans in Europe or the big offshore wind decision in the North East US, so its a must peek news week.
 
  
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<span class="plainlinks"><small><small>[http://www.energy-net.org/blog/2013/07/22/radiation-bulletin-july-16th-21st-2013/ July 16th - 21st 2013]</small></small></span><br/>An interesting news week. In Japan, the big news is the latest with LDP and Abe's pro-nuke party taking control of both houses. And of course, the LDP was the only pro-nuke party as well. Naoto Kan has filed a slander suit against Abe. The Fukushima leak was downplayed by Tepco and most of the press. Kudamkulam is still on hold, Greenpeace broke into a nuke just as the EU announced millions of Euros of nuclear bribes, which pissed off Germany.
  
<span class="plainlinks"><small><small>[http://www.energy-net.org/blog/?p=929 April 19th – 25th 2010]</small></small></span><br/>
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Peter Bradford & Mark Cooper's report listing a dozen potential reactors that are on the edge made news in reactor communities across the country. While the NRC listed TVA's Browns Ferry unit as the worst in the country. Fourteen activists were arrested for doing civil-disobedience at the Pilgrim facility. Southern blamed activists for the $1 billion cost overruns at Vogtle, while Southern Cal Edison sued Mitsubishi for constructing faulty steam generators...
No Nukes and happy Earth Day! I’m going to start out here with an editorial comment.  The international corporate run media has a global agenda to promote and frame the push to build nuclear reactors worldwide. Just days before the US economic collapse Bush’s Energy Secretary was in Austria at an IAEA planning conference where he said that the US would help finance the construction of nuclear reactors around the world.  We can be assured that government agencies like the US State Department, US AID, and others are still actively behind this push. As part of the push it was very prominent that literally no major media outlet anywhere in the world has written a single article leading up to the 24th anniversary of Chernobyl. Taking a peak at early stories on the 26th only shows a few in Eastern Europe and [http://www.ens-newswire.com/ens/apr2010/2010-04-26-01.html the most important by ENS on the release of a major new report that nearly one million people have died to date as a result of the 1986 disaster]. At a time when the world is being pushed to dramatically increase the number of nuclear reactors around the world, there is no more important example why poor or even wealthy nations should ever consider building large reactors ever again. The disaster played a central role in the collapse of the Soviet Union, as well as costing more money than the entire output of that country’s nuclear energy was worth (WSJ 1990). A single accident anywhere in the world at a nuclear power facility, especially an old one that is carrying a large inventory of radiation could spread radiation around the world, effecting human health.  These giant facilities that require immense amounts of water (as much as a billion gallons of coolant a day) are situated on coastal areas that could soon be under water due to the horrific failure of humanity to deal with climate change.  Western countries, with the US leading the way have long been energy abusers, failing to recognize that modern lifestyles are unsustainable. [http://www.c-spanvideo.org/program/291273-1 I urge you to watch a presentation by Jeremy Rifkin on distributed energy and the kind of dramatic changes we need to truly make in this world!]
 
  
A touch of good late breaking news. The plan to introduce US legislation to finance a dozen or more new reactors has been delayed for now. In a clear legislative victory, the Wisconsin(USA) legislators also blocked attempts to remove that state’s nuclear moratorium. Attempts to pass new legislation to compensate downwinders suffering from the nuclear weapons testing in the past has stalled.
 
  
Internationally, opponents of nuclear in Germany formed a 75 mile long chain of people taking a stand against nuclear energy, while Finland announced new delays at olkileuto, two new reactors and funding for 800 windmills. This comes on the heals of a national poll that showed that most the public were opposed to further nuclear development. The serious contamination of at least 8 people in India form contaminated scrap metal has put a new twist on pressures to let US companies avoid insurance. Australia has a rad waste battle on its hands, has refused to build reactors but just decided to sell uranium to Russia. Obama’s nuclear weapons spin split Europe over the US  demand to keep theater weapons deployed. Note the US press failed to even mention the fact that some of the last survivors of the US attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki staged public calls to end all nuclear weapons production as well as the international [http://www.globalzero.org/ Global Zero campaign].
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<span class="plainlinks"><small><small>[http://www.energy-net.org/blog/2013/07/15/radiation-bulletin-july-8th-14th-2013/ July 8th-14th 2013]</small></small></span><br/>An up and down week indeed. The bad first, the last hurdle for Kudamkulam was swept away, with the reactor going hot on the 14th. Japan is approaching another set of elections. Opposition to nuclear continues to be strong. The radiation leak at Fukushima is now jumped 100% in the last week. Two more restart requests were submitted, now up to 10 units, while it is estimated that it will take up to a year to process the requests. A bit more speculation about the former head of unit one took place. Greenpeace broke into a reactor in France while a rare protest in China leads to the cancellation of uranium processing facility. A new 2013 World Nuclear status report has been released.
  
A US group’s (Beyond Nuclear) report on tritium leaks was released documenting the state of leaks in the country. The US Department of Energy (DOE) promoted a new agenda of using a very large amount of economic recovery act monies during 2011 to do in one year what would have taken 7 years of work to clean up nuclear contamination. If the proposal goes ahead, this would be a positive, but still incredibly small cleanup step when considering the fact that current estimates place the full costs to reverse cleanup at between $270-330 Billion. DOE also announced its new schedule for the cleanup of n-waste at Hanford Washington which is the most contaminated nuclear site in the US.  It also released its final plan for the cleanup of the country’s failed attempt at spent fuel reprocessing at West Valley New York.  Their plan is a huge let down considering last years report that suggested there could be dramatic costs ($30 billion) to the regions major lake unless fully cleaned up. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission announced plans that it would make its decision on Yucca Mountain’s closure should go ahead for June 1st.
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The Tea Party continues to push for the reopening of Yucca Mountain. A good mix of local anti-nuke stories also came out. Check em out.
  
There are other stories you might want to take a look at, many of which concern the nuclear fuel cycle issue. But I’m ending this issue as I began it with another commentary. This past week the US Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) broadcast a two hour special commemorating the original Earth Day and its history.  This program which promoted one of this country’s most prominent former Eco-Libertarians Stewart Brand who has been actively pushing for a new generation of nuclear energy. The documentary was a huge letdown because it ended at the point where the environmental movement in this country was at a crossroads.  The program failed to mention the internal split of the movement where the large ecology non-profits all moved their offices to Washington DC while the more radical segment of the movement, like people opposed to nuclear energy or Earth First! movement were all but censored out of existence.  The documentary was followed by a corporate “green wash” led by Duke Power’s CEO one of the biggest users of nuclear and coal.  It is a sad day when PBS becomes the leading promoter of the corporate Green propaganda strategy.  The program could be a better example of just how messed up this country is today and why.
 
  
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<span class="plainlinks"><small><small>[http://www.energy-net.org/blog/2013/07/08/radiation-bulletin-july-1st-7th-2013/ July 1st-7th 2013]</small></small></span><br/>Goodness, There were more major stories out of Japan this week than most of the world gets in months! Probably the biggest news was the fact that sometime in September, Japan will once again be without a single nuclear power station. While TEPCo also announced plans to open up another facility, but was forced to also delay those plans as well! Then the story that cesium reaching the highest they've been since the main days of the disaster. New Fires, a secret pluthermal deal with the US, another rat problem and Helen Caldicott's symposium rounded the top news. Taiwan's nuclear scam referendum continues to spark opposition. A couple of German journalists were in arrested in India, a radiation release secret was exposed, while an activist wrote a piece saying that the nuclear push in India is about to collapse. A floating windmill arrives in Japan while the biggest offshore wind system of it kind went online in the UK. Revelations that French atmospheric tests were substantially higher than previously acknowledged came out. A lot of interesting political upheaval in Europe took place, including stories out of Chernobyl, while to our border to the north the proposed waste dump continues to stir controversy.
  
<span class="plainlinks"><small><small>[http://www.energy-net.org/blog/?p=925 April 5th -18th 2010]</small></small></span><br/>
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Vogtle got its DOE loan extension. New reactors in the Northwest were proposed! A scandal with the Texas dump hit, while editorials are starting to mount about the new HLW legislation grow with the plans including a new agency to manage the process as well as an intermediate storage plan. The sequestration budget cuts is effecting all kinds of DOE funding, especially cleanup. A wrongful death suit was file at Arkansas one, where a worker died earlier this year. An interesting story on the costs of cleaning up the N-weapons mess, for example six years ago the estimate stood between $270-330 billion... Waste issues will grow across the country, with locals in South Carolina coming together to make plans to bring waste there. While an excellent story points out that there are over 3,500 n-weapons still awaiting dismantlement while 2/3rds of DOE's budget still goes for weapons and is as high as it ever was, not to mention a $136,000 fine at Hanford for its contractor and the continued leaks going on there. Last, its still a fact that Southern Californians are paying for San Onofre, as well as surviving the huge heat wave that hit the state with temperatures as high as 129 degrees.
This is a two week addition of the news. Sorry, but I’ve had a rather severe medical emergency that put me in the Emergency Room at the local hospital twice. I’m doing a bit better after treatment for a rather severe urinary infection.
 
  
The biggest news was Obama’s global summit in Washington DC. There were many sub-stories taking place like Russia’s agreement to shut down its last operating plutonium production reactor or the push to secure HEU. One of the stories that missed the front pages on purpose was Israel’s nuclear weapons activity as well as a global movement to go far beyond the Obama spin (blather).  The real question of course is all about how Obama framed this issue and the global jump to claim to be concerned about loose nukes and Iran, vs. nuclear expansion! The bulk of the stories on this are in the weapons and policy sections.
 
  
One of the major stories to hit was in India where at least 7 people were sent to hospital after being contaminated by a cobalt-60 radiation source that ended up in metal recycling operations.
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<span class="plainlinks"><small><small>[http://www.energy-net.org/blog/2013/06/30/radiation-bulletin-nuclear-news-june-24th-30th-2013/ June 24th-30th 2013]</small></small></span><br/>Japan's LDP is the only party in the country that supports any nuclear option! Only a few scandals, like Tepco refusing to pay people for mental distress, signs of serious underground contaminants hitting the ocean. The good news at Koodamkulam, there's no underground volcano, and its still not online!
  
The nuclear waste issue is clearly taking over the lead issue as it should as more and more problems continue to bang into the nuclear clean theme. Internationally, there are currently waste battles in the UK, Germany, Sweden, Australia, the US, Russia, France, Spain, Italy and very likely many more places where the out of site out of mind agenda are in place.
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I usually attempt to do a sampling of the news, but this time wanted to put a bit of attention on California since there has been a bit of good news. One down and 400 plus more to go. At the CEC's recent [http://www.energy.ca.gov/2013_energypolicy/documents/index.html#06192013 IEPR workshop] newly discovered documents by A4NR shows that the NRC coached the local utility PG&E on how to overturn its own resident inspector back in 2010. Diablo Canyon clearly isn't capable of withstanding the highest seismic standards it supposed to be built for.
  
Greenpeace carried out two different protests in the last week against Russia and France. The industry is attempting to promote the claim that Sweden has found a “Democratic” model for to getting community support for taking the most deadly wastes. However, anyone in their right mind will know that what they’ve done has found a pro-nuclear community that have been offered lots of bribes to accept the wastes. This carrot stick approach has been used over and over again in the US, with small or indigenous communities. There is clear indication that the underground repository model being pushed in Sweden and recently blocked in the US is now losing its footing as an appropriate solution for the world’s most deadly wastes. On sight storage will continue to be the only option available in the US while country’s like France continue to push the idea of reprocessing. Another option that has gained scientific support is the concept of putting the waste far deeper into the earth using super deep bore holes that would deposit the waste far below any water table.
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And just as this news starts to creep out, PG&E over a year ahead of the next round of seismic studies scheduled to be completed has already started a major campaign around the region promoting its local-centric economic benefits, even announcing its plan to relicense the reactors over a decade before its current license comes due. The battle is on, we've caught both PG&E and NRC in a very very bad position. They, and the state will be throwing everything it can to keep Diablo from following San Onofre. Another worry is the growing backlash that is being tossed up in the regional media around San Onofre. There are a lot of upset workers and pro-nuke types. A lot of help will be needed to counter the revenge, with SCE announcing another 700 rank and file nuke workers being laid off in the last couple of days. Hopefully nothing stupid is going to happen.
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<center>[http://www.energy-net.org/blog/2013/06/30/radiation-bulletin-nuclear-news-june-24th-30th-2013/ Nuclear News] | [http://www.energy-net.org/blog/2013/06/30/radiation-bulletin-fuel-cycledoe-june-24th-30th-2013/ Fuel Cycle/DOE] | [http://www.energy-net.org/blog/2013/06/30/radiation-bulletin-government-docs-june-24th-30th-2013/ Government Docs] | [http://www.energy-net.org/blog/2013/06/30/radiation-bulletin-fukushima-news-june-24th-30th-2013/ Fukushima News]</center>
  
The global nuclear push continues to be given a “get out of jail” card with how the media refuses to look seriously at the radioactive waste issue when presenting the nuclear option.  They’ve bought the idea that the fuel cycle that was originally set up to make bombs and power can be ignored, and in turn continue to buy claims that the only waste stream that is of concern is negligible in size.  Yet, in the US, where the government acknowledges that it faces at least a $270 billion cleanup bill doesn’t want the public to make the link or dare be told that it not continue to push more nuclear development until it proves that it has a way to clean up the mess it already has.
 
  
There is now a legal battle between with state’s like Washington and South Carolina attempting to keep open the Yucca Mountain repository. These two state represent the locations of where this country’s largest nuclear wastes are currently stockpiled that want it relocated to Nevada (see below for more on South Carolina’s attempt to dump wastes on Utah).
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<span class="plainlinks"><small><small>[http://www.energy-net.org June 10th 2013]</small></small></span><br/>Sorry,
  
The newsletter has regularly been following the attempt by DOE’s Savannah River facility in South Carolina to dump thousands of tons of Depleted Uranium (DU) at Energy Solution’s low level waste dump in Utah. The state’s regulatory body changed its regulatory position, ordering Energy Solutions to monitor the DU for ten thousand years.  As a result of the Utah’s block on the waste the DOE also started investigating the idea of sending the waste to the new Texas WCS dump which is technically only supposed to be available for wastes from Texas and Vermont. But then WCS and the state has attempted to open the dump to wastes from across the country.  Go here for the alert. The DOE has backed off sending the DU waste to Texas for now until it figures out a permanent solution.
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But the energy-net blog has been attacked, and badly damaged.
There was other news indeed, so as always be sure to scan through…
 
  
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This weeks bulletins have been completed, but am taking it a bit slow.
  
<span class="plainlinks"><small><small>[http://www.energy-net.org/blog/?p=920 Mar 29th – Apr 4th 2010]</small></small></span><br/>
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There was a lot of major news this week with San Onofre being closed as well as plans not to build any new reactors in Iowa.
A bit of a slowdown compared to last week.  Just a few breaking stories with most news about ongoing events that have already seen the light of day. I wanted to follow up the scary breaking story last week about the possibility of some kind of Asian release. It does look like the incident was caused by a faulty monitor as other monitoring stations had no activity.  There were two Chernobyl pieces including a short one out of Cuba about how they have now treated 25,000 victims of the 1986 meltdown.
 
  
Of particular concern to me comes out of Australia where a small number of aboriginal people have offered to become a host for a nuclear waste dump.  A similar tribe (Goshutes) in the state of Utah in the U.S. had also acted in a similar way a number of years ago but were stopped by the Utah and the Department of Interior.  They have since announced plans to push a legal challenge.
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I will post as soon as the site is back online.
  
Probably the biggest story to hit came between the IAEA and Russia that announced their global fuel bank deal(the son of GNEP – Bush’s Global Nuclear energy Partnership).  Lots of nuclear weapons stories have been breaking on contamination-compensation issues, blow back from START and The scandalous secret deal between Japan and the U.S. that openly lied to the Japanese people about nuclear weapons transiting through their country.
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<center>[http://www.energy-net.org http://www.energy-net.org]</center>
  
There were two protests in Europe, one in Belgium where hundreds were arrested a weapons protest and the other in the UK on the power issue. Japan came out with its official pro-nuclear agenda calling for the construction of 8 new reactors. A reactor being planned in India got delayed.
 
  
In the U.S. the biggest story was out of the state of New York where the government refused to give the Indian Point facility a discharge permit for its cooling system. Similar stories out of California and New Jersey have been out, while the pro-nuclear strategists in Arizona are now calling on all waste water producers to sell their water to the Palo Verde complex.
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<span class="plainlinks"><small><small>[http://www.energy-net.org/blog/2013/06/02/radiation-bulletin-nuclear-news-may-27th-june-2nd-2013/ May 27th - June 2nd 2013]</small></small></span><br/>A lot of interesting news over the last week. Just a week after the large protest in Taiwan the country experienced a 6.3 quake killing two people. Japan's Prime Minister continues to escalate the push to reopen most of the country's reactors, and with all radioactive areas of the country outside of Futaba now lifted as no go zones. The UN opened its new PR facility, as well as making announcements that nobody will be hurt from the radiation. Meanwhile 60,000 had another protest, TEPCo asked for more compensation money, they are considering freezing the contaminated water, as well as having talks with India about involvement in new nuke construction there. In a first out of Russia, has started its own renewable energy program - just a few decades behind the rest of the world. Poland's push for constructing a nuke ran into a bit of trouble over a scandal with their nuke head. A story out of Austria about how animals there are still contaminated from the Chernobyl disaster, while other stories about how safe radiation continue to be a regular part of the Science Daily rag. Also an interesting report that the world's major nuclear weapons users have all been breaking international treaties in the push for a new generation of weapons. An interesting story out of Mexico on that country's aging nuke while there were a number of stories on the growing concern about dump N-waste on the north shore of Lake Superior.
  
Radiation safety issues around workers is always a story somewhere in the country. Imagine if there was some kind of real investigation into the tragedy of Soviet era workers ever to surface without the reporters getting killed first!  A report about spikes in cancer in South Carolina was released as well as the government seeking to find college kids to help and find native americans who were contaminated.
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Here in the US, Senator Boxer called on a criminal investigation of the owner of San Onofre, while the NRC has set up closed meetings with state reps and a handful of activists - very possibly an illegal breach of California's Brown Act, clearly with the goal of promoting their agenda of ignoring their own ASLB decision calling for adjudication of the ongoing Steam Generator controversy. Massachusetts is questioning the current onsite storage agenda of n-waste, Rep. Markey has introduced legislation banning the recycling of radioactive scrap metal, and reports out of New York on the strategies of Entergy to keep its Indian Point operating. Up and down stories of reactors were numerous from Fort Calhoun to reactors in N Carolina. One of the regular stories that continues to spread is the clear death of the nuclear renaissance as the price of Natural Gas is now nearly 3x cheaper than nuclear power. More wind construction continues with major production starting in Maine. Last, is a story out of Wheeling PA about how the local city doesn't appear to care or want to enforce its own regulations over plans to recycle radioactive water from a Fracking facility there...
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<center>[http://www.energy-net.org/blog/2013/06/02/radiation-bulletin-nuclear-news-may-27th-june-2nd-2013/ Nuclear News] | [http://www.energy-net.org/blog/2013/06/02/radiation-bulletin-fuel-cycledoe-may-27th-june-2nd-2013/ Fuel Cycle/DOE] | [http://www.energy-net.org/blog/2013/06/02/radiation-bulletin-government-docs-may-27th-june-2nd-2013/ Government Docs] | [http://www.energy-net.org/blog/2013/06/02/radiation-bulletin-fukushima-news-may-27th-june-2nd-2013/ Fukushima News]</center>
  
The most active news stories come out of the fuel cycle issue as the state of Texas has taken up a proposal from WCS to become the nation’s Low level waste home.  There is a superb story about of Utah by Judy Fahay on that state’s ongoing waste battles. Indiana passed waste transportation legislation while the ongoing battle over spent fuel is all over the place as it has been now for weeks. Activists have announced details for a national convention and forum on nuclear waste for June 4-5-6 in Chicago.
 
  
There was a number of stories around uranium mining of interest as well! Last but not least, Its pretty clear that Obama is going to pull out all the stops in a last ditch attempt to pass his draconian nuclear laden energy bill as he tossed morsels to the right on offshore oil drilling and then to environmentalists with his gas mileage ploy. His gas mileage ploy was plain despicable, because what he did was literally nothing more than what the congress did nearly two years ago, as if we aren’t supposed to remember. He could have actually created several levels of efficiency standards, or even better yet, just as he’s taken such a horrific tactic with education and his race to the top, he could have offered an incentive for the car industry to the company that puts the first car on the market that gets over 100 MPG!
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<span class="plainlinks"><small><small>[http://www.energy-net.org/blog/2013/05/26/radiation-bulletin-nuclear-news-may-20th-26th-2013/ May 20th -- 26th 2013]</small></small></span><br/>Another busy week newswise. Nuclear stories have gone psychotic, but what's new! With the radiation release that contaminated 30 workers, to legal battles, or the sudden death of a Ibaraki man from radiation and high levels of cesium in the Pacific, Not to mention an 8.3 quake off the coast of Korea - not news - 30,000 people protesting the rigged nuclear referendum being pushed by the ruling party in Taiwan. The media in Europe continues to pounce on Germany's renewable energy program - its the economics etc. Much of the news was out of the USA. Incidents continue to take out more reactors, not to mention the formal release of plans to shutdown the gaseous diffusion facility at Paducah. Texas passed a law letting them take in hot wastes, and yeah, a beam me out of here movie done at San Onofre. And oh yeah, MIT closed down its fusion program! A couple of protest with 10 arrested at Pilgrim. The state of Michigan is looking into the Ontario's dump plan on Lake Superior, and New Mexico announces plans to build a massive uranium mine.
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<center>[http://www.energy-net.org/blog/2013/05/26/radiation-bulletin-nuclear-news-may-20th-26th-2013/ Nuclear News] | [http://www.energy-net.org/blog/2013/05/26/radiation-bulletin-fuel-cycledoe-may-20th-26th-2013/ Fuel Cycle/DOE] | [http://www.energy-net.org/blog/2013/05/26/radiation-bulletin-government-docs-may-20th-26th-2013/ Government Docs] | [http://www.energy-net.org/blog/2013/05/26/radiation-bulletin-fukushima-news-may-20th-26th-2013/ Fukushima News]</center>
  
  
<span class="plainlinks"><small><small>[http://www.energy-net.org/blog/?p=917 March 22nd – 28th 2010]</small></small></span><br/>
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<span class="plainlinks"><small><small>[http://www.energy-net.org/blog/2013/05/19/radiation-bulletin-nuclear-news-may-13th-19th-2013/ May 13th - 19th 2013]</small></small></span><br/>The saga continues... A very busy news week. Nearly twice as much as the previous week. For years, I've been keeping an eye on Russia's nuclear agenda, as mentioned last week, President Putin announced on the anniversary their plans to go ahead with more reactors. They've been circulating this agenda around the world, with a new focus - South Africa. Yep, they are now behind that country's growing push to reverse the strong anti-nuclear trend.
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.
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Elsewhere, following a nasty 6.0 quake in NE Japan, an announcement came out that one of the country's prize nukes is indeed sitting on top of an active quake, and will likely require that it be stopped, as was also the announcement that Monju would not be opening any time soon. For folks not watching this ugly Breeder, it had a horrible fire in the mid 90's, was shut down but on the verge of reopening just as Fukushima hit. Nuclear hot zones in India, Taiwan and even a bit of an awakening of activists in Turkey where Japan recently announced plans to build a new nuke! Hey what a wonderful reference! Oh, they also just announced a loosening of restrictions on access to Futaba, one of the most contaminated towns. And we thought the last administration was bad... And there's a story of more vets joining in on the Fukushima lawsuit. It was also revealed that a ship in the port of Hamburg Germany caught fire on May 1st. It was carrying 9 tons of uranium hexafluoried and explosives - imagine that! Explosives and a volatile nuclear material on the same ship! The Greens caught wind of the censored story and released it! There's video too! And of course then there's the February near miss in Canada at Chalk River that got tamped down as well. It would seem keeping the lid on serious incidents is going to be an important hobby of the US and international media, of course we know who and what they are defending these days, as could be seen by the psychotic responses we've been seeing by the current administration, from all okays at controversial facilities across the country with the most blatant being NRC likely refusal to heed its own ASLB's decision that public hearings should be held at San Onofre. MOX, more uranium mines... and promo's popping up all over the place from europe to good old Sam all spouting that the vampire will never die. Probably not at this point, but the rest of us probably will thanks to these nuts... So more than a few unknown stories worth looking to, I'd say.
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<center>[http://www.energy-net.org/blog/2013/05/19/radiation-bulletin-nuclear-news-may-13th-19th-2013/ Nuclear News] | [http://www.energy-net.org/blog/2013/05/19/radiation-bulletin-fuel-cycledoe-may-13th-19th-2013/ Fuel Cycle/DOE] | [http://www.energy-net.org/blog/2013/05/19/radiation-bulletin-government-docs-may-13th-19th-2013/ Government Docs] | [http://www.energy-net.org/blog/2013/05/19/radiation-bulletin-fukushima-news-may-13th-19th-2013/ Fukushima News]</center>
  
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.
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<span class="plainlinks"><small><small>[http://www.energy-net.org/blog/2013/04/21/radiation-bulletin-nuclear-news-april-15th-21st-2013/ April 15th - 21st]</small></small></span><br/>This coming week will be the 27th anniversary of Chernobyl. It would be nice to see a bit of coverage... A couple of protests around the world from Vermont, the UK, and Taiwan where there was an attempt by the KMT to sleeze a scam initiative through, but was blocked by protestors Yeah! Bad valves were found at Kudankulam, while a swam of quakes in recent weeks continues in Japan. A shipment of MOX fuel from France was protested by Greenpeace as it left the country for Japan, while a judge refused a call to shut down Oi.
  
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.
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In the US, Kewaunee is due to be shut forever on May 7th. Reid appoints Jackzo to a weapons panel, while Moniz won appointment to DOE 21-1, dang they couldn't have done better if they'd tried to appoint Eddie Teller in abstention. Another security breach took place with gunfire at Watts Bar while lightning struck another facility. Quite a few fuel cycle stories, with another tritium leak at Pilgrim, a number of cleanup stories around the country. UCS did a nice piece on the [http://www.flickr.com/photos/nrcgov NRC online photo library at flickr]. And of course a lot of other stories...
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<center>[http://www.energy-net.org/blog/2013/04/21/radiation-bulletin-nuclear-news-april-15th-21st-2013/ Nuclear News] | [http://www.energy-net.org/blog/2013/04/21/radiation-bulletin-fuel-cycledoe-april-15th-21st-2013/ Fuel Cycle/DOE] | [http://www.energy-net.org/blog/2013/04/21/radiation-bulletin-government-docs-april-15th-21st-2013/ Government Docs] | [http://www.energy-net.org/blog/2013/04/21/radiation-bulletin-fukushima-news-april-15th-21st-2013/ Fukushima News]</center>
  
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.
+
<span class="plainlinks"><small><small>[http://www.energy-net.org/blog/2013/04/07/radiation-bulletin-nuclear-news-april-1st-7th-2013/ April 1st – 7th 2013]</small></small></span><br/>A slow news week. Protests in India, Europe and USA. Fukushima had a couple of problems while TEPCo formally took the blame for the meltdowns. Imagine that happening here! Again, I'm only able to send a single link, so this is just to the site, where the 4 different bulletins are posted.
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<center>[http://www.energy-net.org/blog/2013/04/07/radiation-bulletin-nuclear-news-april-1st-7th-2013/ Nuclear News] | [http://www.energy-net.org/blog/2013/04/07/radiation-bulletin-fuel-cycledoe-april-1st-7th-2013/ Fuel Cycle/DOE] | [http://www.energy-net.org/blog/2013/04/07/radiation-bulletin-government-docs-april-1st-6th-2013/ Government Docs] | [http://www.energy-net.org/blog/2013/04/07/radiation-bulletin-fukushima-news-april-1st-7th-2013/ Fukushima News]</center>
  
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.
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<span class="plainlinks"><small><small>[http://www.energy-net.org/blog/2013/03/31/radiation-bulletin-nuclear-news-mar-25th-31st-2013/ Mar 25th – 31st 2013]</small></small></span><br/>Geez, a tough news week. It took the Chinese news agency to report the death of a worker at an Arkansas nuke, while new media disclosures in Japan take a turn into "DARK MONEY". While there were two court decisions (Vermont Yankee & Switzerland - bad) - The UK going ahead with more nukes - Japan's leadership calling for a rapid restart -  while, of course everybody finally seems to be catching on to the incredibly insane - freakout situation with North Korea making full scale nuclear threats... Something to do with the US holding war games off their coast that includes stealth B2 bombers. Let's see the last time we pulled this off, people died.
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<center>[http://www.energy-net.org/blog/2013/03/31/radiation-bulletin-nuclear-news-mar-25th-31st-2013/ Nuclear News] | [http://www.energy-net.org/blog/2013/03/31/radiation-bulletin-fuel-cycledoe-mar-25th-31st-2013/ Fuel Cycle/DOE] | [http://www.energy-net.org/blog/2013/03/31/radiation-bulletin-government-docs-mar-25th-31st-2013/ Government Docs] | [http://www.energy-net.org/blog/2013/03/31/radiation-bulletin-fukushima-news-mar-25th-31st-2013/ Fukushima News]</center>
  
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 reversedA 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 inIn 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!
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<span class="plainlinks"><small><small>[http://www.energy-net.org/blog/2013/03/24/radiation-bulletin-nuclear-news-mar-11th-24th-2013/ Mar 11th – 24th 2013]</small></small></span><br/>
 +
Sorry about no news last week, but the wire was out of commission.  Gave me a bit of a chance to have Sunday Evening without the usual routineWell, at least until I had to make it up tonight.  And my what a major news cycle it was, starting with the 2nd anniversary of Fukushima,  an avalanche of news across the planet.  Let's  just say if you have a moment make sure to scan through the main news as well as the Fukushima section, as I'm not going to do a serious review of so much newsAT&T continues to block sending of news.  So this will be a notice just to go to the main blog where the latest 4 segments are posted.
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<center>[http://www.energy-net.org/blog/2013/03/24/radiation-bulletin-nuclear-news-mar-11th-24th-2013/ Nuclear News] | [http://www.energy-net.org/blog/2013/03/24/radiation-bulletin-fuel-cycledoe-mar-11th-24th-2013/ Fuel Cycle/DOE] | [http://www.energy-net.org/blog/2013/03/24/radiation-bulletin-government-docs-mar-11th-24th-2013/ Government Docs] | [http://www.energy-net.org/blog/2013/03/24/radiation-bulletin-fukushima-news-mar-11th-24th-2013/ Fukushima News]</center>
  
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.
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<span class="plainlinks"><small><small>[http://www.energy-net.org/blog/2013/03/11/radiation-bulletin-nuclear-news-mar-3rd-10th-2013/ Mar 3rd - 10th 2013]</small></small></span><br/>
 +
It's the 2nd anniversary of the Fukushima disaster (Japan Time) and there's been a spurt of news coverage, reviews. There's a good amount of other news, but this is late, and an experiment to try to get this posted.
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<center>[http://www.energy-net.org/blog/2013/03/11/radiation-bulletin-nuclear-news-mar-3rd-10th-2013/ Nuclear News] | [http://www.energy-net.org/blog/2013/03/11/radiation-bulletin-fuel-cycledoe-mar-3rd-10th-2013/ Fuel Cycle/DOE] | [http://www.energy-net.org/blog/2013/03/11/radiation-bulletin-government-docs-mar-3rd-9th-2013/ Government Docs] | [http://www.energy-net.org/blog/2013/03/11/radiation-bulletin-fukushima-news-mar-3rd-10th-2013/ Fukushima News]</center>
  
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!
 
  
 +
<span class="plainlinks"><small><small>[http://www.energy-net.org/blog/2013/03/03/radiation-bulletin-nuclear-news-feb-25th-mar-3rd-2013/ Feb 25th - Mar 3rd 2013]</small></small></span><br/>
 +
Commentaries are on vacation this week as I'm busy with a slideshow. However, there were a few notables events, with Taiwan going ahead with a referendum on whether or not to let a new reactor go ahead, the Belene reactor was shut down by the Bulgarian government and its likely any nukes in Japan will be started this year. The Bulletin of Atomic Scientists did a whole series on nuclear power, and much more from Pilgrim to San Onofre.
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<center>[http://www.energy-net.org/blog/2013/03/03/radiation-bulletin-nuclear-news-feb-25th-mar-3rd-2013/ Nuclear News] | [http://www.energy-net.org/blog/2013/03/03/radiation-bulletin-fuel-cycledoe-feb-25th-mar-3rd-2013/ Fuel Cycle/DOE] | [http://www.energy-net.org/blog/2013/03/03/radiation-bulletin-government-docs-feb-25th-mar-3rd-2013/ Government Docs] | [http://www.energy-net.org/blog/2013/03/03/radiation-bulletin-fukushima-news-feb-25th-mar-3rd-2013/ Fukushima News]</center>
  
<span class="plainlinks"><small><small>[http://www.energy-net.org/blog/?p=913 March 15th – 21st 2010]</small></small></span><br/>
 
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 ousterNew 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.
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<span class="plainlinks"><small><small>[http://www.energy-net.org/blog/2013/02/24/radiation-bulletin-nuclear-news-feb-18th-24th-2013/ Feb 18th - 24th 2013]</small></small></span><br/>
 +
I'm a bit late todayAs well, there wasn't a large volume of news.
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<center>[http://www.energy-net.org/blog/2013/02/24/radiation-bulletin-nuclear-news-feb-18th-24th-2013/ Nuclear News] | [http://www.energy-net.org/blog/2013/02/24/radiation-bulletin-fuel-cycledoe-feb-18th-24th-2013/ Fuel Cycle/DOE] | [http://www.energy-net.org/blog/2013/02/24/radiation-bulletin-government-docs-feb-18th-24th-2013/ Government Docs] | [http://www.energy-net.org/blog/2013/02/24/radiation-bulletin-fukushima-news-feb-18th-24th-2013/ Fukushima News]</center>
  
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.
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<span class="plainlinks"><small><small>[http://www.energy-net.org/blog/2013/02/17/radiation-bulletin-nuclear-news-feb-11th-17th-2013/ Feb 11th - 17th 2013]</small></small></span><br/>
 +
Friday Eve, I was outside enjoying the very summer like evening when the largest meteor I've ever seen flew directly overhead and then out into the Pacific in SF. Probably wasn't more than me and my friend who saw it as most urban people seldom look up anymore because of all the light pollutions. A bit of a shock though considering the largest meteor of the 21st century had hit earlier in the week near Chelyabinsk, one of the most contaminated places on the earth, while not that too far away Chernobyl lost part of its roof due to a heavy snowstorm. The rhetoric in the UK continues to be hotter than a reactor core after Cumbria refused to be the country's hlw repository. If Turkey goes ahead with a reactor, its now estimated to cost $25 billion. There are now two separate movements opposing reactors in India, Kudamkulam and Vellakovil in Tamil Nadu with around 200 residents of launching a fast-unto-death campaign. The biggest international story, of course, was N. Korea's nuclear weapons test, that has the international press abuzz. In Japan, the counter revolution grows as more stories hit on why Japan must have nukes, not to mention the promotion of a wacko story that nobody - yup - nobody has been hurt by Fukushima!  This at the same time, when another outlet was reporting two more cases of Thyroid cancer in youngsters!
  
 +
In the US, we had the shocking news in California that Southern California Edison and the NRC knew about the flaws of San Onofre's new steam generators before they were installed. This was followed by SCE giving free CostCo cards to its employees who were shipped in enmasse, now a standard strategy at the NRC hearings, not to mention holding the meeting at the same time as the state of the union address. The issues was not part of the agenda, but that didn't keep more than a few people from bringing it up. Then, as usual, so many other issues, like a new tank leak in Hanford of HLW liquid wastes, Obama's un-nuclearlike behavior, riling the weapons community, Pilgrim multiple trips in the middle of the big east coast storm, Vermont Yankee's owner is under the gun with state hearings, and I don't know how many others, from MOX budget issues, new rules for the new HLW, Wyden's DC waste legislation and a number of well stories... Enjoy.
 +
<center>[http://www.energy-net.org/blog/2013/02/17/radiation-bulletin-nuclear-news-feb-11th-17th-2013/ Nuclear News] | [http://www.energy-net.org/blog/2013/02/17/radiation-bulletin-fuel-cycledoe-feb-11th-17th-2013/ Fuel Cycle/DOE] | [http://www.energy-net.org/blog/2013/02/17/radiation-bulletin-government-docs-feb-11th-16th-2013/ Government Docs] | [http://www.energy-net.org/blog/2013/02/17/radiation-bulletin-fukushima-news-feb-11th-17th-2013/ Fukushima News]</center>
  
<span class="plainlinks"><small><small>[http://www.energy-net.org/blog/?p=911 March 8th-14th 2010]</small></small></span><br/>
 
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 [http://www.energy-net.org/blog/?p=907 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 [http://nuclearstreet.com/blogs/nuclear_power_news/archive/2010/03/15/areva-international-conference-on-access-to-civil-nuclear-energy-report-and-prospects-03151.aspx 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.
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<span class="plainlinks"><small><small>[http://www.energy-net.org/blog/2013/02/10/radiation-bulletin-nuclear-news-feb-4th-10th-2013/ Feb. 4th - 10th 2013]</small></small></span><br/>
 +
The UK nuclear snafu continues to reverberate big time as nukesters are pulling out all the stops to try and save their baby. Even China is now being brought back in as the option to build reactors! Pictures and scandals in Japan and uranium in Africa... Same old..
  
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.  [http://www.world-nuclear.org/info/inf17.html 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.
+
Speaking of same old, the cold weather and noreaster proof that climate change is bogus.. not..  A lot of stories about the industry getting a nuclear cold, or maybe a depression. Vermont, Pilgrim and especially the news about San Onofre were all over the local papers, which means very little national news other than Yucca part...zzz.
  
There were two new protests in Europe last week, one in the UK and the other over rad-waste headed for Russia.
+
<center>[http://www.energy-net.org/blog/2013/02/10/radiation-bulletin-nuclear-news-feb-4th-10th-2013/ Nuclear News] | [http://www.energy-net.org/blog/2013/02/10/radiation-bulletin-fuel-cycledoe-feb-4th-10th-2013/ Fuel Cycle/DOE] | [http://www.energy-net.org/blog/2013/02/10/radiation-bulletin-government-docs-feb-4th-9th-2013/ Government Docs] | [http://www.energy-net.org/blog/2013/02/10/radiation-bulletin-fukushima-news-feb-4th-10th-2013/ Fukushima News]</center>
  
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!
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<span class="plainlinks"><small><small>[http://www.energy-net.org/blog/2012/12/30/radiation-bulletin-nuclear-news-dec-24th-30th-2012/ Dec. 24th - 30th 2012]</small></small></span><br/>
 +
Seasons Greetings.<br/>
 +
Not a large number of major stories in the last week, but there were a lot of news both out of Japan and on the fuel cycle front.<br/>
 +
See also the overview in [http://www.energy-net.org/blog/2012/12/30/top-nuclear-stories-for-2012/ Top Nuclear Stories for 2012].
 +
<center>[http://www.energy-net.org/blog/2012/12/30/radiation-bulletin-nuclear-news-dec-24th-30th-2012/ Nuclear News] | [http://www.energy-net.org/blog/2012/12/30/radiation-bulletin-fuel-cycledoe-dec-24th-30th-2012/ Fuel Cycle/DOE] | [http://www.energy-net.org/blog/2012/12/30/radiation-bulletin-government-docs-dec-24th-30th-2012/ Government Docs] | [http://www.energy-net.org/blog/2012/12/30/radiation-bulletin-fukushima-news-dec-24th-30th-2012/ Fukushima News]</center>
  
  
<span class="plainlinks"><small><small>[http://www.energy-net.org/blog/?p=902 March 1st - 7th 2010]</small></small></span><br/>
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<span class="plainlinks"><small><small>[http://www.energy-net.org/blog/2012/12/16/radiation-bulletin-nuclear-news-dec-10th-16th-2012/ Dec. 10th – 16th 2012]</small></small></span><br/>
Nuclear quagmire!!! The last week of news continues to escalateIts taken several hours more than usual to put this newsletter togetherObama’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 plansThe volume of news continues to grow and in a whole lot of unexpected directions.
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As predicted in recent poles, the LDP, which was ousted barely 3 years ago after ruling Japan since the end of WW II won control over the government with Noda's Democratic Party was badly beatenOf course, it was the LDP that played the central role in promoting nuclear power will likely reopen all reactors by spring, having gained a super majorityShortly after a major sea action off of Kudankulam, the government put off opening the reactors until next year. Routine attacks on Germany's move towards solar continues to be regularly attacked in the European pressA fun story out of Europe, Don't worry about the truck carrying nuclear waste by a passenger train!!!
  
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…
+
Back in the good old USA there were quite a few stories.  The Indian Pt hearings ended, while important stories from Browns Ferry, Vermont Yankee, Oyster Creek hit. Not to mention opposition to ending a ban on uranium mining got a new and important allie, while Exelon has called for its employees to lobby for the end of wind energy support. An interesting article on DC lobbying strategies on energy hit.
  
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.
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<center>[http://www.energy-net.org/blog/2012/12/16/radiation-bulletin-nuclear-news-dec-10th-16th-2012/ Nuclear News] | [http://www.energy-net.org/blog/2012/12/16/radiation-bulletin-fuel-cycledoe-dec-10th-16th-2012/ Fuel Cycle/DOE] | [http://www.energy-net.org/blog/2012/12/16/radiation-bulletin-government-docs-dec-10th-15th-2012/ Government Docs] | [http://www.energy-net.org/blog/2012/12/16/radiation-bulletin-fukushima-news-dec-10th-16th-2012/ Fukushima News]</center>
  
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!
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<span class="plainlinks"><small><small>[http://www.energy-net.org/blog/2012/12/09/radiation-bulletin-nuclear-news-dec-3rd-9th-2012/ Dec. 3rd - 9th 2012]</small></small></span><br/>
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There should be major news tomorrow about the direct action battle over Kudamkulam. Election coverage in Japan is heading the news, with polls showing the conservatives likely winning at this point. There was more than a bit of frayed nerves in as a result of the 7.3 quake at the same location as the 9.0 on 311. France took another major policy hit as a major Italian utility pulled out of nuclear development partnerships, while Obama and Russia are talking about weapons treaty discussions again.  In the US hearings started for both San Onofre (ASLB).
  
Almost too much for anyone to even wrap their heads around this timeTriage is a tough to do!
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The final report for uranium mining in Virginia was released.  The report did not make any major findings either way, but mining proponents claimed it was a victory for them, and their push to remove the 30 year moratorium.  The state was unable to determine the economic costs of mining because it could not find an unbiased contractor.  14,000 signatures were submitted by opponents, that also claimed that the more people learn the more people will oppose uranium miningThere were a few videos and a bit of coverage on the national conference in Chicago, a fair amount of fuel cycle/DOE news as well.
  
  
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[[Category: News]]
 
[[Category: News]]
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[[Category: Legal Issues]]
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Latest revision as of 11:23, 28 December 2015

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Read the latest summary of the Radiation Bulletin! The 'Weekly News' ticker will be continuously published on the main page ...

2010 we provided this news service already for several months on our website. Unfortunately we had to interrupt it when the author couldn't continue to write the weekly news summaries and only provided the news links without comments. Now these summaries are available again. You can check these former weekly news archive provided on the Nuclear Heritage Network's website.


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Aug. 19th – 25th 2013
News out of Japan continues to be the top nuclear story on the planet, however the number of articles pushing for Yucca Mountain has gone through the ceiling in the U.S. Press. The Fukushima story has a lot of subthemes, including growing concerns from nearby countries as S. Korea regulators found radiation Japanese fish destined for their market, with a similar story on contaminated Tuna offshore of California. Lots of subtle manipulation in the coverage, for example, UPI claims that Japan has raised the severity of the leak to level "1" while its actually been raised to level 3. Another story published how students had just gotten 150,000 anti-nuclear signatures, while the next day the number jumped to 1 million. Tepco has claimed that its stopped the leak on the main tank, while another says there are leaks in other units.

Germany spoke out this last week about EU attempts to mess with their plans to continue with a nuclear phaseout. There wasn’t a lot of news around the world other than the n-waste dump on Lake Huron on the US border with Canada that continues to heat up.

Again, as mentioned there’s now been a howling by conservative papers across the country about how Obama broke the law and can’t be allowed to get away with it on his order to stop Yucca Mountain. Senator Reid continues to call Yucca dead. Speaking of leaks, a fairly serious leak happened at Hanford. There was literally no coverage of an NRC hearing on n-waste and spent fuel issues however. In a fairly serious turn of events, the Nation published a new story supporting nuclear power, relying on the recent pro-nuclear push out of the NY Times to rationalize the story, even quoting Pandora’s Promise! They at least put a link to their recent debate with Mark Hertzgaard however. Joe Mangano released a new report on the health impacts around the Palisades reactor. And of course there was one a media frenzy this weekend about an African found with enriched uranium in his shoes at JFK that will be making the terrorist rounds. Note that I pulled all the Yucca stories out of the top stories section and put them in the Fuel Cycle tab if you want to dig through them. Its kind of clear that there needs to be a bit of a response to this huge pro-Yucca spin.

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The Radiation Bulletin is published by the Abalone Alliance Clearinghouse


About the Radiation Bulletin

These stories are provided by the Abalone Alliance Clearinghouse, which is part of the Nuclear Free California Network, week by week. They publish them in several anti-nuclear networks and on their website. Here is their own description of the service:

The Energy Net has been online since 1988 when we were given 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 anti-nuclear 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.


July 29th – Aug. 4th 2013
The Nuclear Industry has suffered a serious setback worldwide this last week. The biggest blow came with news out of South Korea that has put that country’s entire nuclear fleet into question over a growing scandal of forged documents on a large number of safety related parts. In Japan there was a scandal that TEPCo intentionally withheld knowledge of the massive tritium leak (up to 40 trillion becquerels in the last two years). The government and TEPCo continue to withhold money from the public that had to flee from Fukushima. The Queen of England got hit with a scandal over a secret speech in case of a nuclear attack. Plans to build a reactor in Turkey took a turn for the worst, and will likely be postponed for an additional three years. While legislators in Taiwan had fist fights over the continued scam to hold a rigged public poll over a new reactor’s construction. And we thought we have a PR problem. There was a 4 part series on nuclear waste out of Australia by one of that country’s biggest nuclear spin doctors. To the north, Canada has withdrawn a set of controversial plans to transport n-waste.

The French nuclear giant, EDF is withdrawing from the US nuclear market. But then the big news of the week would be that Duke Power had withdrawn plans to construct the $24 billion Levy Country reactors in Florida (they aren’t giving up totally on future facilities however). There were major hearings in Washington over new legislation on how to deal with spent nuclear fuel, even though republicans continue to push for Yucca Mountain. Last but not least, was an astonishing story about how two East Coast AG’s plan on getting involved in the NRC’s attempt to throw out their own ASLB decision over San Onofre. And yeah, a lot of industry spinning going on in an attempt to stop the growing hemorrhaging that as mentioned last week could soon lead to over a dozen other reactors being closed down.


July 22nd - 28th 2013
TEPCo has apologized for hiding the scale of the leaks, not wanting to frighten the public? Dang! Hey, and we are all still waiting for the government to fine them for what? Hey, they at least finished the sarcophogus for unit 4. Tritium levels with one of the leaks are through the ceiling, as there are growing fears the new regulatory agency will buckle under the immense pressure being pushed by nuclear village. Another story that’s been getting a bit of coverage is the sheer number of corrupt companies involved in the cleanup at Fukushima.

Elsewhere, Austria has announced plans to not buy any nuclear power for its grid, while the Bulgarian Supreme Court stopped the construction of a n-waste dump. The leaked EU plan to let individual states to subsidize nuclear reactor development will likely continue to create controversy across Europe. In hushed up story, the US turned over just 650 pages of just declassified documents about 49 secret weapons tests equal to over 3,000 Hiroshima bombs (see 7-24 Fallout Secrecy story).

In the US, there continues to be a continuing dual over the growing number of articles suggesting the downturn of the nuclear industry, vs. industry proponents. Meanwhile SoCal Edison pulled the fuel from Unit 2 and announced that it would cost $13 billion to permanently shutter the reactors. And on a difficult turn of events the state of Nevada has pulled its weekend wire services which will take a while to deal with.


July 16th - 21st 2013
An interesting news week. In Japan, the big news is the latest with LDP and Abe's pro-nuke party taking control of both houses. And of course, the LDP was the only pro-nuke party as well. Naoto Kan has filed a slander suit against Abe. The Fukushima leak was downplayed by Tepco and most of the press. Kudamkulam is still on hold, Greenpeace broke into a nuke just as the EU announced millions of Euros of nuclear bribes, which pissed off Germany.

Peter Bradford & Mark Cooper's report listing a dozen potential reactors that are on the edge made news in reactor communities across the country. While the NRC listed TVA's Browns Ferry unit as the worst in the country. Fourteen activists were arrested for doing civil-disobedience at the Pilgrim facility. Southern blamed activists for the $1 billion cost overruns at Vogtle, while Southern Cal Edison sued Mitsubishi for constructing faulty steam generators...


July 8th-14th 2013
An up and down week indeed. The bad first, the last hurdle for Kudamkulam was swept away, with the reactor going hot on the 14th. Japan is approaching another set of elections. Opposition to nuclear continues to be strong. The radiation leak at Fukushima is now jumped 100% in the last week. Two more restart requests were submitted, now up to 10 units, while it is estimated that it will take up to a year to process the requests. A bit more speculation about the former head of unit one took place. Greenpeace broke into a reactor in France while a rare protest in China leads to the cancellation of uranium processing facility. A new 2013 World Nuclear status report has been released.

The Tea Party continues to push for the reopening of Yucca Mountain. A good mix of local anti-nuke stories also came out. Check em out.


July 1st-7th 2013
Goodness, There were more major stories out of Japan this week than most of the world gets in months! Probably the biggest news was the fact that sometime in September, Japan will once again be without a single nuclear power station. While TEPCo also announced plans to open up another facility, but was forced to also delay those plans as well! Then the story that cesium reaching the highest they've been since the main days of the disaster. New Fires, a secret pluthermal deal with the US, another rat problem and Helen Caldicott's symposium rounded the top news. Taiwan's nuclear scam referendum continues to spark opposition. A couple of German journalists were in arrested in India, a radiation release secret was exposed, while an activist wrote a piece saying that the nuclear push in India is about to collapse. A floating windmill arrives in Japan while the biggest offshore wind system of it kind went online in the UK. Revelations that French atmospheric tests were substantially higher than previously acknowledged came out. A lot of interesting political upheaval in Europe took place, including stories out of Chernobyl, while to our border to the north the proposed waste dump continues to stir controversy.

Vogtle got its DOE loan extension. New reactors in the Northwest were proposed! A scandal with the Texas dump hit, while editorials are starting to mount about the new HLW legislation grow with the plans including a new agency to manage the process as well as an intermediate storage plan. The sequestration budget cuts is effecting all kinds of DOE funding, especially cleanup. A wrongful death suit was file at Arkansas one, where a worker died earlier this year. An interesting story on the costs of cleaning up the N-weapons mess, for example six years ago the estimate stood between $270-330 billion... Waste issues will grow across the country, with locals in South Carolina coming together to make plans to bring waste there. While an excellent story points out that there are over 3,500 n-weapons still awaiting dismantlement while 2/3rds of DOE's budget still goes for weapons and is as high as it ever was, not to mention a $136,000 fine at Hanford for its contractor and the continued leaks going on there. Last, its still a fact that Southern Californians are paying for San Onofre, as well as surviving the huge heat wave that hit the state with temperatures as high as 129 degrees.


June 24th-30th 2013
Japan's LDP is the only party in the country that supports any nuclear option! Only a few scandals, like Tepco refusing to pay people for mental distress, signs of serious underground contaminants hitting the ocean. The good news at Koodamkulam, there's no underground volcano, and its still not online!

I usually attempt to do a sampling of the news, but this time wanted to put a bit of attention on California since there has been a bit of good news. One down and 400 plus more to go. At the CEC's recent IEPR workshop newly discovered documents by A4NR shows that the NRC coached the local utility PG&E on how to overturn its own resident inspector back in 2010. Diablo Canyon clearly isn't capable of withstanding the highest seismic standards it supposed to be built for.

And just as this news starts to creep out, PG&E over a year ahead of the next round of seismic studies scheduled to be completed has already started a major campaign around the region promoting its local-centric economic benefits, even announcing its plan to relicense the reactors over a decade before its current license comes due. The battle is on, we've caught both PG&E and NRC in a very very bad position. They, and the state will be throwing everything it can to keep Diablo from following San Onofre. Another worry is the growing backlash that is being tossed up in the regional media around San Onofre. There are a lot of upset workers and pro-nuke types. A lot of help will be needed to counter the revenge, with SCE announcing another 700 rank and file nuke workers being laid off in the last couple of days. Hopefully nothing stupid is going to happen.

Nuclear News | Fuel Cycle/DOE | Government Docs | Fukushima News


June 10th 2013
Sorry,

But the energy-net blog has been attacked, and badly damaged.

This weeks bulletins have been completed, but am taking it a bit slow.

There was a lot of major news this week with San Onofre being closed as well as plans not to build any new reactors in Iowa.

I will post as soon as the site is back online.

r

http://www.energy-net.org


May 27th - June 2nd 2013
A lot of interesting news over the last week. Just a week after the large protest in Taiwan the country experienced a 6.3 quake killing two people. Japan's Prime Minister continues to escalate the push to reopen most of the country's reactors, and with all radioactive areas of the country outside of Futaba now lifted as no go zones. The UN opened its new PR facility, as well as making announcements that nobody will be hurt from the radiation. Meanwhile 60,000 had another protest, TEPCo asked for more compensation money, they are considering freezing the contaminated water, as well as having talks with India about involvement in new nuke construction there. In a first out of Russia, has started its own renewable energy program - just a few decades behind the rest of the world. Poland's push for constructing a nuke ran into a bit of trouble over a scandal with their nuke head. A story out of Austria about how animals there are still contaminated from the Chernobyl disaster, while other stories about how safe radiation continue to be a regular part of the Science Daily rag. Also an interesting report that the world's major nuclear weapons users have all been breaking international treaties in the push for a new generation of weapons. An interesting story out of Mexico on that country's aging nuke while there were a number of stories on the growing concern about dump N-waste on the north shore of Lake Superior.

Here in the US, Senator Boxer called on a criminal investigation of the owner of San Onofre, while the NRC has set up closed meetings with state reps and a handful of activists - very possibly an illegal breach of California's Brown Act, clearly with the goal of promoting their agenda of ignoring their own ASLB decision calling for adjudication of the ongoing Steam Generator controversy. Massachusetts is questioning the current onsite storage agenda of n-waste, Rep. Markey has introduced legislation banning the recycling of radioactive scrap metal, and reports out of New York on the strategies of Entergy to keep its Indian Point operating. Up and down stories of reactors were numerous from Fort Calhoun to reactors in N Carolina. One of the regular stories that continues to spread is the clear death of the nuclear renaissance as the price of Natural Gas is now nearly 3x cheaper than nuclear power. More wind construction continues with major production starting in Maine. Last, is a story out of Wheeling PA about how the local city doesn't appear to care or want to enforce its own regulations over plans to recycle radioactive water from a Fracking facility there...

Nuclear News | Fuel Cycle/DOE | Government Docs | Fukushima News


May 20th -- 26th 2013
Another busy week newswise. Nuclear stories have gone psychotic, but what's new! With the radiation release that contaminated 30 workers, to legal battles, or the sudden death of a Ibaraki man from radiation and high levels of cesium in the Pacific, Not to mention an 8.3 quake off the coast of Korea - not news - 30,000 people protesting the rigged nuclear referendum being pushed by the ruling party in Taiwan. The media in Europe continues to pounce on Germany's renewable energy program - its the economics etc. Much of the news was out of the USA. Incidents continue to take out more reactors, not to mention the formal release of plans to shutdown the gaseous diffusion facility at Paducah. Texas passed a law letting them take in hot wastes, and yeah, a beam me out of here movie done at San Onofre. And oh yeah, MIT closed down its fusion program! A couple of protest with 10 arrested at Pilgrim. The state of Michigan is looking into the Ontario's dump plan on Lake Superior, and New Mexico announces plans to build a massive uranium mine.

Nuclear News | Fuel Cycle/DOE | Government Docs | Fukushima News


May 13th - 19th 2013
The saga continues... A very busy news week. Nearly twice as much as the previous week. For years, I've been keeping an eye on Russia's nuclear agenda, as mentioned last week, President Putin announced on the anniversary their plans to go ahead with more reactors. They've been circulating this agenda around the world, with a new focus - South Africa. Yep, they are now behind that country's growing push to reverse the strong anti-nuclear trend.

Elsewhere, following a nasty 6.0 quake in NE Japan, an announcement came out that one of the country's prize nukes is indeed sitting on top of an active quake, and will likely require that it be stopped, as was also the announcement that Monju would not be opening any time soon. For folks not watching this ugly Breeder, it had a horrible fire in the mid 90's, was shut down but on the verge of reopening just as Fukushima hit. Nuclear hot zones in India, Taiwan and even a bit of an awakening of activists in Turkey where Japan recently announced plans to build a new nuke! Hey what a wonderful reference! Oh, they also just announced a loosening of restrictions on access to Futaba, one of the most contaminated towns. And we thought the last administration was bad... And there's a story of more vets joining in on the Fukushima lawsuit. It was also revealed that a ship in the port of Hamburg Germany caught fire on May 1st. It was carrying 9 tons of uranium hexafluoried and explosives - imagine that! Explosives and a volatile nuclear material on the same ship! The Greens caught wind of the censored story and released it! There's video too! And of course then there's the February near miss in Canada at Chalk River that got tamped down as well. It would seem keeping the lid on serious incidents is going to be an important hobby of the US and international media, of course we know who and what they are defending these days, as could be seen by the psychotic responses we've been seeing by the current administration, from all okays at controversial facilities across the country with the most blatant being NRC likely refusal to heed its own ASLB's decision that public hearings should be held at San Onofre. MOX, more uranium mines... and promo's popping up all over the place from europe to good old Sam all spouting that the vampire will never die. Probably not at this point, but the rest of us probably will thanks to these nuts... So more than a few unknown stories worth looking to, I'd say.

Nuclear News | Fuel Cycle/DOE | Government Docs | Fukushima News


April 15th - 21st
This coming week will be the 27th anniversary of Chernobyl. It would be nice to see a bit of coverage... A couple of protests around the world from Vermont, the UK, and Taiwan where there was an attempt by the KMT to sleeze a scam initiative through, but was blocked by protestors Yeah! Bad valves were found at Kudankulam, while a swam of quakes in recent weeks continues in Japan. A shipment of MOX fuel from France was protested by Greenpeace as it left the country for Japan, while a judge refused a call to shut down Oi.

In the US, Kewaunee is due to be shut forever on May 7th. Reid appoints Jackzo to a weapons panel, while Moniz won appointment to DOE 21-1, dang they couldn't have done better if they'd tried to appoint Eddie Teller in abstention. Another security breach took place with gunfire at Watts Bar while lightning struck another facility. Quite a few fuel cycle stories, with another tritium leak at Pilgrim, a number of cleanup stories around the country. UCS did a nice piece on the NRC online photo library at flickr. And of course a lot of other stories...

Nuclear News | Fuel Cycle/DOE | Government Docs | Fukushima News


April 1st – 7th 2013
A slow news week. Protests in India, Europe and USA. Fukushima had a couple of problems while TEPCo formally took the blame for the meltdowns. Imagine that happening here! Again, I'm only able to send a single link, so this is just to the site, where the 4 different bulletins are posted.

Nuclear News | Fuel Cycle/DOE | Government Docs | Fukushima News


Mar 25th – 31st 2013
Geez, a tough news week. It took the Chinese news agency to report the death of a worker at an Arkansas nuke, while new media disclosures in Japan take a turn into "DARK MONEY". While there were two court decisions (Vermont Yankee & Switzerland - bad) - The UK going ahead with more nukes - Japan's leadership calling for a rapid restart - while, of course everybody finally seems to be catching on to the incredibly insane - freakout situation with North Korea making full scale nuclear threats... Something to do with the US holding war games off their coast that includes stealth B2 bombers. Let's see the last time we pulled this off, people died.

Nuclear News | Fuel Cycle/DOE | Government Docs | Fukushima News


Mar 11th – 24th 2013
Sorry about no news last week, but the wire was out of commission. Gave me a bit of a chance to have Sunday Evening without the usual routine. Well, at least until I had to make it up tonight. And my what a major news cycle it was, starting with the 2nd anniversary of Fukushima, an avalanche of news across the planet. Let's just say if you have a moment make sure to scan through the main news as well as the Fukushima section, as I'm not going to do a serious review of so much news. AT&T continues to block sending of news. So this will be a notice just to go to the main blog where the latest 4 segments are posted.

Nuclear News | Fuel Cycle/DOE | Government Docs | Fukushima News


Mar 3rd - 10th 2013
It's the 2nd anniversary of the Fukushima disaster (Japan Time) and there's been a spurt of news coverage, reviews. There's a good amount of other news, but this is late, and an experiment to try to get this posted.

Nuclear News | Fuel Cycle/DOE | Government Docs | Fukushima News


Feb 25th - Mar 3rd 2013
Commentaries are on vacation this week as I'm busy with a slideshow. However, there were a few notables events, with Taiwan going ahead with a referendum on whether or not to let a new reactor go ahead, the Belene reactor was shut down by the Bulgarian government and its likely any nukes in Japan will be started this year. The Bulletin of Atomic Scientists did a whole series on nuclear power, and much more from Pilgrim to San Onofre.

Nuclear News | Fuel Cycle/DOE | Government Docs | Fukushima News


Feb 18th - 24th 2013
I'm a bit late today. As well, there wasn't a large volume of news.

Nuclear News | Fuel Cycle/DOE | Government Docs | Fukushima News


Feb 11th - 17th 2013
Friday Eve, I was outside enjoying the very summer like evening when the largest meteor I've ever seen flew directly overhead and then out into the Pacific in SF. Probably wasn't more than me and my friend who saw it as most urban people seldom look up anymore because of all the light pollutions. A bit of a shock though considering the largest meteor of the 21st century had hit earlier in the week near Chelyabinsk, one of the most contaminated places on the earth, while not that too far away Chernobyl lost part of its roof due to a heavy snowstorm. The rhetoric in the UK continues to be hotter than a reactor core after Cumbria refused to be the country's hlw repository. If Turkey goes ahead with a reactor, its now estimated to cost $25 billion. There are now two separate movements opposing reactors in India, Kudamkulam and Vellakovil in Tamil Nadu with around 200 residents of launching a fast-unto-death campaign. The biggest international story, of course, was N. Korea's nuclear weapons test, that has the international press abuzz. In Japan, the counter revolution grows as more stories hit on why Japan must have nukes, not to mention the promotion of a wacko story that nobody - yup - nobody has been hurt by Fukushima! This at the same time, when another outlet was reporting two more cases of Thyroid cancer in youngsters!

In the US, we had the shocking news in California that Southern California Edison and the NRC knew about the flaws of San Onofre's new steam generators before they were installed. This was followed by SCE giving free CostCo cards to its employees who were shipped in enmasse, now a standard strategy at the NRC hearings, not to mention holding the meeting at the same time as the state of the union address. The issues was not part of the agenda, but that didn't keep more than a few people from bringing it up. Then, as usual, so many other issues, like a new tank leak in Hanford of HLW liquid wastes, Obama's un-nuclearlike behavior, riling the weapons community, Pilgrim multiple trips in the middle of the big east coast storm, Vermont Yankee's owner is under the gun with state hearings, and I don't know how many others, from MOX budget issues, new rules for the new HLW, Wyden's DC waste legislation and a number of well stories... Enjoy.

Nuclear News | Fuel Cycle/DOE | Government Docs | Fukushima News


Feb. 4th - 10th 2013
The UK nuclear snafu continues to reverberate big time as nukesters are pulling out all the stops to try and save their baby. Even China is now being brought back in as the option to build reactors! Pictures and scandals in Japan and uranium in Africa... Same old..

Speaking of same old, the cold weather and noreaster proof that climate change is bogus.. not.. A lot of stories about the industry getting a nuclear cold, or maybe a depression. Vermont, Pilgrim and especially the news about San Onofre were all over the local papers, which means very little national news other than Yucca part...zzz.

Nuclear News | Fuel Cycle/DOE | Government Docs | Fukushima News


Dec. 24th - 30th 2012
Seasons Greetings.
Not a large number of major stories in the last week, but there were a lot of news both out of Japan and on the fuel cycle front.
See also the overview in Top Nuclear Stories for 2012.

Nuclear News | Fuel Cycle/DOE | Government Docs | Fukushima News


Dec. 10th – 16th 2012
As predicted in recent poles, the LDP, which was ousted barely 3 years ago after ruling Japan since the end of WW II won control over the government with Noda's Democratic Party was badly beaten. Of course, it was the LDP that played the central role in promoting nuclear power will likely reopen all reactors by spring, having gained a super majority. Shortly after a major sea action off of Kudankulam, the government put off opening the reactors until next year. Routine attacks on Germany's move towards solar continues to be regularly attacked in the European press. A fun story out of Europe, Don't worry about the truck carrying nuclear waste by a passenger train!!!

Back in the good old USA there were quite a few stories. The Indian Pt hearings ended, while important stories from Browns Ferry, Vermont Yankee, Oyster Creek hit. Not to mention opposition to ending a ban on uranium mining got a new and important allie, while Exelon has called for its employees to lobby for the end of wind energy support. An interesting article on DC lobbying strategies on energy hit.

Nuclear News | Fuel Cycle/DOE | Government Docs | Fukushima News


Dec. 3rd - 9th 2012
There should be major news tomorrow about the direct action battle over Kudamkulam. Election coverage in Japan is heading the news, with polls showing the conservatives likely winning at this point. There was more than a bit of frayed nerves in as a result of the 7.3 quake at the same location as the 9.0 on 311. France took another major policy hit as a major Italian utility pulled out of nuclear development partnerships, while Obama and Russia are talking about weapons treaty discussions again. In the US hearings started for both San Onofre (ASLB).

The final report for uranium mining in Virginia was released. The report did not make any major findings either way, but mining proponents claimed it was a victory for them, and their push to remove the 30 year moratorium. The state was unable to determine the economic costs of mining because it could not find an unbiased contractor. 14,000 signatures were submitted by opponents, that also claimed that the more people learn the more people will oppose uranium mining. There were a few videos and a bit of coverage on the national conference in Chicago, a fair amount of fuel cycle/DOE news as well.