USA Nuclear submarines a dangerous presence for Garden Island, Western Australia
Greens Senator Scott Ludlam said the Australian Defence Force posture review – an inquiry into Australian defence bases – was off-target with the suggestion that US nuclear submarines should be serviced at Garden Island. “The risks of routinely floating nuclear reactors in and out of Cockburn Sound shouldn’t be underestimated,” he said. “WA police and emergency services personnel are completely under-resourced to cope with even a minor reactor leak.”
Senator Ludlum said offering infrastructure to nuclear submarines from other countries would damage Australia’s standing due to worldwide efforts towards nuclear disarmament…..
Mr Gray said “The recommendations refer to providing facilities for US nuclear-powered submarines and other vessels.
“Preliminary recommendations of the Australian Defence Force posture review are for Defence to develop options to provide improved facilities for US Navy nuclear-powered submarines.
The review’s final report will be submitted to the Government at the end of this month. The Defence white paper is due to be released in the first quarter of 2014. http://www.inmycommunity.com.au/news-and-views/local-news/Conflict-over-idea-for/7616382/
USA government had to admit that radiation killed many nuclear workers
This article appeared today – and I thought – “Well, what’s the use of this- it is 12 years old? Out of date news, and so forth” And then I thought -“ Well, what’s happened to nuclear workers since then?” Has it miraculously become a healthy job? Or is it that no-one is now doing research into the health of nuclear workers? And if not, why not? And if research is being done into the health of nuclear workers, what are the results? Is it all just too scary to publish?
Richard D. Miller, a policy analyst with the union, said the change was remarkable because the Energy Department and its predecessor, the Atomic Energy Commission, had ”spared no resources in seeking to defeat claims” by employees who said they had been made sick by radiation or chemicals.
higher-than-expected rates of leukemia, cancer of the lung and bladder, vision difficulties and chronic fatigue syndrome, among other health problems.
AFTER DECADES OF DENIAL (as per normal for nuke industry) . http://nuclearhistory.wordpress.com/2012/03/17/after-decades-of-denial-as-per-normal-for-nuke-industry/#comment-5284 …. Paul Langley’s Nuclear History Blog, 17 March 12, New York Times : US Govt Concedes Plutonium Workers Suffered Illness, Death http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9C05E2DE1E3CF93AA15752C0A9669C8B63&pagewanted=all
U.S. ACKNOWLEDGES RADIATION KILLED WEAPONS WORKERS , By MATTHEW L. WALD Published: January 29, 2000 WASHINGTON, Jan. 28— After decades of denials, the government is conceding that since the dawn of the atomic age, workers making nuclear weapons have been exposed to radiation and chemicals that have produced cancer and early death.
The new finding — that the exposure led to higher-than-normal rates of a wide range of cancers among workers at 14 nuclear weapons plants — raises the prospect of compensation to them. Although officials cautioned that any decision on that was a long way off, they said a package could amount to tens of millions of dollars for a group that might well include hundreds of families.
The new conclusion comes from the government’s most comprehensive review of studies of worker health and related raw health data. The review accepts the conclusion of many of those studies, some done under contract for the government, that workers were made sick by their exposure. Continue reading
USA’s dangerous nuclear cooling ponds – is it only a matter of time?
U.S. pools are generally more densely packed than in Japan. Vermont Yankee’s pool contains two to three times the amount of spent fuel as Fukushima Daiichi’s Reactor 4
Alvarez estimated a meltdown of spent fuel in the Indian Point pool, which has three times the radioactivity of four Fukushima spent fuel pools, would kill 5,600 people, do $461 billion in damage and render a large area uninhabitable.
The U.S. has 65,000 metric tons of nuclear waste, which we leave to our children in perpetuity…don’t make more nuclear waste until we safely dispose of what we have made.
No more Fukushimas: US plants still face risks, BY GWEN L. DUBOIS, The Baltimore Sun, 14 March 12, “…..Our nuclear plants are no better designed than those in Japan. Twenty-three are Mark 1 boiling water reactors, identical to Fukushima Daiichi reactors 1-5. This includes Peach
Bottom, 36 miles from Baltimore in York County, Pa.; and Vermont Yankee, notorious for pipes leaking radioactive tritium, which was relicensed for 20 years on March 10, 2011, over the objection of Vermonters.
Nor are our plants immune from natural or manmade disasters. Nearly half of the 104 reactors in the U.S. are near major fault lines. In August, a 5.8 earthquake 11 miles from Virginia’s North Anna nuclear power plant, which is 70 miles from Washington D.C., rattled nerves in Baltimore and far beyond. The quake caused twice the amount of ground movement for which North Anna was designed. Continue reading
1 This month
of the week – Disrupting War & Militarism in Oceania. Active solidarity. Radical practice.
Antinuclear 