Japanse celebrate shut-down of last nuclear power plant

Thousands March as Japan Shuts off Nuclear Power

By YURI KAGEYAMA AP Business Writer

TOKYO May 5, 2012 (AP)

Thousands of Japanese marched to celebrate the switching off of the last of their nation’s 50 nuclear reactors Saturday, waving banners shaped as giant fish that have become a potent anti-nuclear symbol.

Japan was without electricity from nuclear power for the first time in four decades when the reactor at Tomari nuclear plant on the northern island of Hokkaido went offline for mandatory routine maintenance.

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Ed Asner–The insanity of Florida’s proposed nuclear plant

This video featuring Ed Asner makes some powerful arguments against the proposed new nuclear power plant in Florida.

One need not argue the pros and cons of nuclear power. If we take away government subsidies and guarantees, the free market will kill nuclear power automatically.

Federal government arrogates more power to its corporate clients

Federal Judge Strips Vermont of Power to Terminate Nuke: State Government Diddles but Vermonters Take Matters into Own Hands

Fri, 02/10/2012 – 18:24

by Dan DeWalt

Entergy Nuclear of Louisiana, which operates the Vermont Yankee (VY) nuclear reactor in Vernon Vermont has launched an attack on the state of Vermont with the help of the federal courts.

Vermont state law gives the state the power to decide whether to allow further operation of the reactor past March 21, 2012 (the expiration date for VY). When Entergy bought VY, they agreed to this law and swore that they would not try to abrogate it. This was an outright lie on Entergy’s part, and they sued the state as soon as it was decided that further operation of this crumbling, leaking and led-by-liars reactor would NOT be in the interests of the state and they were not given permission to continue operation past March 21.

Federal Judge J. Garvan Murtha, an George W. Bush appointee to the federal bench in 2002, gave Entergy all that they wanted and denied Vermont the right to legislate on this matter. The judge misconstrued testimony and completely ignored the case presented by the state to show that the Vermont legislature acted within the purview allowed by federal law. In his decision he cites quotes referring to safety that are either unattributed or taken out of context, having been expressed outside of the actual process of crafting the legislation. Some quotes cited even fail to distinguish between legislators and advocates who were speaking in committee hearings.

This ruling goes hand in glove with current Federal policies that enrich the 1% and keep power firmly in the hands of America’s largest corporations. It affirms that corporate profits trump the interests of the citizenry. And it’s based on the laughable notion that only the Federal government can be trusted to keep us safe from radiological accidents caused by corporate malfeasance and profit-driven lax practices.

Entergy’s aging Vermont Yankee nuke plant has been plagued with accidents including this 2005 fire and a cooling tower collapse

The executives of Entergy have lied under oath repeatedly to the Vermont legislature. Reactor officials testified that there were no pipes in the ground underneath the plant, but that falsehood was exposed when the source of tritium leaks at the reactor in 2011 were found to be coming from a network of underground pipes located precisely where they claimed there were none.

Entergy repeatedly warned that VT would lose a reliable energy provider if VY went off line, but VT utilities have chosen to buy future power elsewhere and not one watt of VY power will be purchased by any Vermonter. Entergy tried to bribe the legislature (in Louisiana talk, they called it a gift offer) and have run roughshod over every aspect of the state’s self governance, relying on their tight association with the NRC, which abets rather than regulates the industry, to ensure that their reprehensible actions are allowed to occur unchecked.

The state of Vermont is fighting back, considering all possible moves that can be made to rein in this corporate behemoth, but Federal law and the courts are limiting the State’s possible responses. It is an outrage that a federal judge would ignore a lengthy and well documented trail of lies and deception on the part of a powerful corporation, and choose instead to basically accuse the Vermont legislature of lying about its intent when passing the legislation. He chose to accept Entergy’s lawyers’ claim that the legislature was trying to address radiological safety issues, which are exclusively under federal jurisdiction, and he rejected the legislature’s defense that they were responsibly considering issues of environmental safety and economic benefit to the the state.

In the past, when the federal government passed heinous legislation that flew in the face of decency and common sense, such as the fugitive slave act, Vermont took appropriate and defiant action. The legislature responded to that abomination with the swift passage of a habeas corpus bill that effectively prevented a fugitive slave from being returned. President Millard Fillmore threatened to call out the U.S, army to enforce the law, but Vermont didn’t flinch, and his threat came to naught.

Direct defiance (or nullification) of the federal government edicts by states was somewhat common in the pre-civil war days. Today, the legislature feels more timid about direct defiance, thinking that the legal appeals process is the only avenue that they can realistically utilize.

But Vermont citizens are seeing it otherwise. Thoroughly fed up by the brutish greed and callous disregard shown to them by Entergy, they are organizing to take direct action against the corporation, both in Vermont and elsewhere in the country. Citizens in VT, NH, MA and NY will be targeting Entergy corporate headquarters and other installations from March 22 onward.

Luckily for them, Entergy is further alienating the citizenry by attempting to leverage their district court victory into a scorched earth devastation of the state, demanding no further accountability to the state’s Public Service Board, denying the state’s request to access radiated water wells on the reactor site for further testing, demanding that Connecticut River water quality and temperature permits be nullified and that the state pay over four million dollars to the corporation to pay for their high priced lawyers during the trial.

This brazen, relentless and vicious assault is irritating Vermonters of all stripes and it seems that Entergy will soon feel their wrath. While the corporation may feel secure with the federal court (so far) protecting them from the civilly obedient legislature and governor, it remains to be seen if they will be able to withstand the storm of protest that is brewing over the horizon.

Dan DeWalt is an activist and journalist based in New Fane, VT. He wrote this article exclusively for ThisCantBeHappening!

Lessons from Fukushima still not learned?

This message came from Russell Lowes, a contact in Tucson who has considerable knowledge and expertise in nuclear power.

Remembering 3/11; six months after the Fukushima nuclear disaster

Posted by: Russell Lowes, Sun Sep 11, 2011 11:56 am (PDT)

Today is the 6-month point since Fukushima Daiichi started to melt down, becoming the largest nuclear disaster in history, surpassing Chernobyl in radioactive emissions.

Good and not-so-good news have been streaming in since then. On the positive side, Germany, one of the world’s largest economies, keeps on track with its renewed goal of phasing out its reactors. They are actively replacing them with wind and solar power, and improvements in energy savings through increased efficiency. Their solar energy has now surpassed their hydro/dam energy output.

(See http://www.renewableenergyworld.com/rea/news/article/2011/09/germany-sets-new-renewable-energy-record-in-2011)

China is ramping up its wind and solar commitment to replace some of its coal and nuclear plants. (See http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/08/31/idUS414014174720110831)

Many other countries are re-thinking their energy options. Portugal has reached about 50% renewable energy in about a decade of judicious commitment so far. This investment will be one of the actions that will bring Portugal out of its economic slump.

Amidst this, our U.S. President and much of our political infrastructure, has become more entrenched in the U.S. commitment to nuclear energy. For every dollar the U.S. puts into this failed outdated technology, we will only get 4 kilowatt-hours of electricity (kWhe). This misspent dollar, if invested wisely instead, will yield about 7 kWhe of wind power or 33 (!) kWhe of energy savings through efficiency improvements. Energy saved negates the need to produce energy.

President Obama and many of our Congressmen/women also are promoting use of coal and natural gas fracturing (fracking) energy. The costs of these options are also much higher than a wise blend of renewable energy and energy efficiency improvements.

The article below is on engaging the lessons to be learned from the Fukushima Daiichi. These three outstanding citizens are pointing out how America is NOT yet learning from the tragedy in Japan.

Say yes to renewables and energy savings through efficiency,

No nukes, no coal, no fracking, no kidding,

Russell

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REMEMBERING “3/11”: SIX MONTHS AFTER THE FUKUSHIMA REACTOR DISASTER, KEY LESSONS APPEAR TO BE GOING UNLEARNED

Trio of Experts Outline Eight Key Concerns: Ongoing Health Woes in Japan, Unaddressed Design Flaws and Inadequate U.S. Regulatory Response Seen As Troubling.

WASHINGTON, D.C., September 8, 2011

http://www.psr.org/nuclear-bailout/remembering-311-six.pdf

Regulatory, scientific and health experts agree: The “3/11” Fukushima reactor disaster is still ongoing six month later … and some major lessons are in danger of going unheeded.

Sunday marks the six-month anniversary of the Fukushima nuclear reactor crisis. In anticipation of that milestone, three leading U.S. experts held a news conference today to outline both what is now known in the wake of the and where things stand for the nuclear power industry in the United States.

The news event speakers were:

— Peter Bradford, former member of the United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission, former chair of the New York and Maine utility regulatory commissions, and currently adjunct professor at Vermont Law School on “Nuclear Power and Public Policy”;

— Edwin Lyman, Ph.D., senior scientist, Global Security Program, Union of Concerned Scientists; and

— Dr. Andrew Kanter, national board president elect (2012), Physicians for Social Responsibility, and director of Medical Informatics/Health Info Services, Millennium Villages Project, Earth Institute, Columbia University.

The following eight concerns and lessons were among those outlined by the speakers:

1. The U.S. regulatory response since Fukushima has been inadequate. “Six months after Fukushima, it seems clear that the U.S. is not going to undertake the type of fundamental, no-holds-barred look at its nuclear regulatory practices that followed the much less serious accident at Three Mile Island some 30 years ago.” – Peter Bradford

2. America should avoid post-9/11 mistakes in tightening reactor safety standards. “In responding to Fukushima by issuing orders, the NRC should not make the same mistakes as it did following 9/11, when industry stonewalling delayed implementation of critical security measures for many years. Even today, some post 9/11 security upgrades have not been completed at numerous plants … The worldwide response to the Three Mile Island accident was clearly inadequate to prevent even worse events from occurring. The U.S. must respond to Fukushima in a much more comprehensive way or it may soon face an accident even worse than Fukushima.” – Edwin Lyman

3. Overall Japanese health dangers are getting short shrift. “The last six months have shown a continued pattern of secrecy, cover-up, and minimization …. (The) news media and some so-called authorities have repeated the false information that doses under 100 mSv (millisieverts) have no health effects. All radiation doses have some effect, particularly when large populations are exposed. The Japanese government’s decision to increase the maximum allowed dose for citizens of Fukushima (including children) from 1 mSv per year to 20 mSv, the equivalent of 200 chest x-rays or the maximum many countries allow for nuclear workers … is unacceptable and remains in place despite vehement public and international pressure.” — Dr. Andrew Kanter

4. In particular, the impact on the health of Japanese children is being glossed over. “Children are at least three-to-four times more susceptible to radiation than are adults. There are about 350,000 children under 18 in Fukushima Prefecture. If each of these children were exposed to the 20 mSv maximum over two consecutive years, the National Academy of Sciences BEIR VII report would predict 2,500 additional cancer deaths… The upshot is that there is no safe dose of radiation and exposing non-consenting people, especially children, to these increased health risks is medically unacceptable. The Japanese government is not adequately monitoring radiation contamination of soil, food, water, and air and is not providing the parents with sufficient information to protect their children.” — Dr. Andrew Kanter

5. The U.S. was warned of Fukushima-style problems but failed to act … and is still failing to do so. “U.S. reactors have some of the shortcomings of the Fukushima plants. Furthermore, citizen groups and scientists had tried to call one of these – spent fuel pool vulnerability — to Nuclear Regulatory Commission attention during the last decade. The NRC dismissed these efforts, with one commissioner even ordering the staff to do a review designed to discredit the concerns. The NRC reviews of Fukushima to date are all well and good, but the Commission and the Congress need to face up to the deeper lessons of Fukushima as well. When mishaps occur at nuclear power plants, the NRC requires a “root cause analysis” that gets at the underlying causes as well as the immediate technical problems. Without a root cause analysis of its own failure to heed the now validated warnings about spent fuel pools, the NRC may patch the technical problems revealed by Fukushima, but it won’t fix the underlying shortcomings that allow defects to persist until catastrophic events rather than regulatory vigilance force the nuclear industry and the public to face up to them.” – Peter Bradford

6. Emergency planning zones in the U.S. must be expanded. “The NRC Task Force report got some things right but others wrong. In contrast to the Task Force conclusions, we believe that emergency planning zones should be expanded, certain hydrogen control measures should be immediately enforced and spent fuel transfer to dry casks should be accelerated. Also, the safety margins of new reactors need to be reassessed.” — Edwin Lyman

7. The recent East Coast earthquake should spur more NRC safety analysis. “The earthquake near the North Anna nuclear plant, which reportedly exceeded the plant’s seismic design basis, reinforces the urgency of the NRC Fukushima task force’s recommendation that all plants immediately be reviewed for their vulnerability to seismic and flooding hazards based on the best available information today.” – Edwin Lyman

8. Fukushima is turning out to be much worse than Chernobyl. “Although the Chernobyl reactor explosion was devastating, scattering the majority of its nuclear core across a wide swath of Europe, the Fukushima accident involved three reactors, which underwent meltdowns (or melt-throughs) and four spent-fuel pools that suffered damage. It will take years to measure the total release of radioactive materials into the environment from Fukushima, but we already know that that the immediate releases are now estimated as being twice as high as originally admitted. Some authoritative sources, using releases of radioactive Xenon as a marker, show that the amount of Fukushima Daiichi radioactive fuel that has been damaged/released could be several times that of the Chernobyl release. Another estimate has the equivalent of 168 Hiroshima bomb’s worth of Cesium have been released onto Japan.” – Dr. Andrew Kanter

MEDIA CONTACT: Ailis Aaron Wolf, +1 (703) 276-3265 or aawolf@hastingsgroup.com.

EDITOR’S NOTE: A streaming audio replay of a related news event will be available on the Web at http://www.nuclearbailout.org as of 3 p.m. EDT/2000 GMT on September 8, 2011.

Japan scraps plans for new nuclear plants

Harvey Wasserman proposes the U.S. follow Japan’s lead in scrapping plans for new nukes.  Here’s an excerpt:

[Japanese Prime Minister] Kan’s decision to shut Hamaoka and then to cancel future nukes came as a shock. Widely criticized for weakness in the wake of Fukushima, he has now redefined Japan’s energy future.

Read the full article here.

Stephen Colbert-The Word on Energy Policy

Seriously funny. Watch it here.

Toxic chemicals used to disperse oil in the Gulf amidst secrecy

In his newsletter of July 13, Ian Crane reports on the effects of the toxic chemicals being used to disperse the Gulf of Mexico oil leak. He says:

The dispersants causing greatest concern are COREXIT 9500 and the even more toxic COREXIT 9527A. Corexit 9527 is stated by its manufacturer to be potentially harmful to red blood cells, the kidneys and the liver. The chemical 2-butoxyethanol, found in Corexit 9527, was identified as having caused lasting health problems in workers involved in the cleanup of the Exxon Valdez oil spill. According to the Alaska Community Action on Toxics, the use of Corexit during the Exxon Valdez oil spill caused people “respiratory, nervous system, liver, kidney and blood disorders”. Like 9527, 9500 can cause hemolysis (rupture of blood cells) and may also cause internal bleeding.

He also reports on the attempted cover-up, saying:

Despite researchers, reporters and news crews being threatened with felony charges if they should persist in taking photographs or filming the oil-soaked wildlife and shoreline, and being threatened with immediate arrest and jail if they report on clean-up workers being hospitalised with respiratory difficulties; word is filtering out. The vast majority of US-based vacationers are already cancelling any plans to head towards the affected states of Louisiana, Alabama, Mississippi and Florida in the coming months. BP has already paid out almost $40 million  in compensation to small businesses in these states and is expecting to receive further claims in the coming months.

So, what can we do about it?

About the spill itself, the options of individuals and communities are very limited, but we CAN do something about our need and demand for gasoline and petroleum-based products like plastics, pesticides, herbicides, etc. Last night we hosted in Tucson a presentation by David Blume, author of the book, Alcohol Can Be a Gas!, who described the many benefits of small-scale local alcohol fuel production. This approach has the potential to solve virtually all the problems associated with our petroleum addiction. That’s a bold statement, but David is able to back it up with hard facts and an amazing knowledge of permaculture, history and the politics of technology. -t.h.g.

Keeping tabs on the Gulf oil spill

This Google map site provides everything from spill forecasts to video links:

http://mw1.google.com/mw-earth-vectordb/disaster/gulf_oil_spill/gulf_oil_map.html

More on cold fusion

Here is a very well done documentary that recounts the cold fusions controversy and presents new evidence from leading scientists: Cold Fusion.

Cold fusion no longer a closed book

Is cold fusion real? Twenty years ago it was dismissed as “junk science,” now it’s back in the news as credible scientists study it and the U.S. government funds new research. Watch this report from the CBS program, 60 Minutes.