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 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.


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.