11 Years after the Nuclear Accident, Tomioka Town, Fukushima: A “Reconstruction Base” in a Place Where No One Can Live — Fukushima 311 Watchdogs
February 7, 2022On January 26, restrictions on entry were lifted in a part of the difficult-to-return area designated in Tomioka Town, Fukushima Prefecture, following the accident at TEPCO’s Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant. The town and the government aim to lift the evacuation order for the reconstruction center in the spring of 2023. The town […]
11 Years after the Nuclear Accident, Tomioka Town, Fukushima: A “Reconstruction Base” in a Place Where No One Can Live — Fukushima 311 Watchdogs
NATO operationalizes space as its fifth battleground — Anti-bellum
NATOAllied Command TransformationFebruary 8, 2022 NATO’s New Space Policy Launches Activity for Allied Command Transformation NATO’s new space policy is a crucial step towards implementing space as an operational domain….Allied Command Transformation is prepared to contribute to this new effort. NATO is not new to space. The relationship began in 1966 and continues today. The […]
NATO operationalizes space as its fifth battleground — Anti-bellum
Anticipating events: Germany, Estonia provide military field hospital to Ukraine — Anti-bellum
ERR NewsFebruary 9, 2022 Estonia, Germany hand Ukraine ‘keys’ to new military field hospital Symbolic keys to a new €5.3 million field hospital were handed to Ukraine by Estonia and Germany on Monday. The medical facility was funded and donated by the two NATO allies. Germany funded the purchase of the field hospital, while the […]
Anticipating events: Germany, Estonia provide military field hospital to Ukraine — Anti-bellum
Environmental Working Group (EWG) urges Biden to reject ‘outrageous’ call for more nuclear power subsidies in clean energy agenda
“Nuclear power is truly an example of privatizing profits and socializing risks.”
EWG urges Biden to reject electric utility executives’ call for more nuclear power subsidies in clean energy agenda. https://www.ewg.org/news-insights/news-release/2022/02/ewg-urges-biden-reject-electric-utility-executives-call-more WASHINGTON – President Joe Biden is meeting today with top executives from several investor-owned electric utilities who want Congress to approve vital clean energy tax credits as part of Biden’s Build Back Better agenda. But they are also seeking new federal subsidies for existing nuclear power plants that the Environmental Working Group is urging the president to oppose.“Nuclear power is truly an example of privatizing profits and socializing risks.”
The Build Back Better plan is a broad infrastructure proposal and includes some important tax credits that the utilities support. They would help expand utility-scale solar projects and boost sales of electric vehicles, crucial steps in fighting the climate emergency.
But the call for wasting more federal tax dollars propping up uneconomic and dangerous nuclear power plants too is an outrageous request, noted EWG.
“Nuclear power is a relic of the electricity sector, and a dangerous and extremely expensive one that has cost taxpayers billions of dollars,” said EWG President Ken Cook. “The federal government must stop throwing away money propping up the nuclear industry and instead make critical investments to expand safe, clean renewable energy.”
“President Biden and congressional leaders can and should unravel the federal government’s long history of pouring scarce resources into this failed industry and its legacy of radioactive waste and the enormous threat it poses to the public,” said Cook.
Nuclear power has never been financially viable and never will be, so new subsidies make no sense. It has the distinction of a permanent negative learning curve – costs always rise and never decline – despite 60 years of taxpayer-funded research and development, construction risks dumped onto ratepayers to lure private financing, a series of bailouts worth tens of billions to the industry, and billions wasted on upgrades to keep aging power plants running that could have been much more wisely spent replacing them.
“It is time to systematically replace nuclear power with modern clean energy technology and to stop burdening ratepayers and taxpayers with this financial albatross,” said Cook. “Nuclear power is truly an example of privatizing profits and socializing risks.”
In its 2021“None of the Above” series calling out dirty and dangerous power sources that should quickly be replaced by clean, safe and renewable energy, such as solar and wind, EWG likened nuclear power to “nothing more than a public works project with no prospects for the future that has failed financially while generating huge amounts of radioactive waste, with no viable method of disposal, that will linger for thousands of years.”
The Environmental Working Group is a nonprofit, non-partisan organization that empowers people to live healthier lives in a healthier environment. Through research, advocacy and unique education tools, EWG drives consumer choice and civic action. Visit www.ewg.org for more information.
Ahead of regulatory approval the US Dept of Energy wants Govt to grant $4 billion for Small Nuclear Reactors development
Bloomberg Business Week, 7 Feb 22, –………………………… Congress has ordered the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to replace a rules framework that dates to the 1950s. The new guidelines aren’t expected until at least 2025……… To prove the safety of designs, for instance, the commission demands data from similar plants, but none of the smaller installations have been built in the U.S., so there’s no performance history.
……….. the U.S. Department of Energy has gotten ahead of the NRC. The department is asking Congress for as much as $4 billion over seven years for advanced reactor development.
Beneficiaries include TerraPower, a startup founded by Bill Gates that’s working on a project in Wyoming; X-energy, which is planning a high-temperature, gas-cooled reactor in Washington state; and Kairos Power, which aims to build a 35-megawatt salt-cooled test reactor in Tennessee and applied for a construction license last September.
…………… these plants face staunch opposition. Environmental groups say that small reactors—some have a capacity of only 1.5MW, about 0.1% the size of a traditional plant—still produce enough radioactive material to present a contamination risk. And building more plants, even small ones, will add to the pile of toxic waste that no one can figure out what do with. “To the extent that there will be efforts to weaken the regulatory envelope, we will aggressively push back,” says Geoff Fettus, an attorney with the Natural Resources Defense Council.
Globally, more than 70 small modular reactors, with a total capacity of about 12 gigawatts, have been proposed or are under development in at least five countries, according to the International Atomic Energy Agency. The only one that’s been built is a floating reactor in the Russian town of Pevek, on the Arctic Sea, where it’s used to power mining operations. Gregory Jaczko, who served as NRC chair from 2009 to 2012, says the lack of movement on such plants around the world suggests we would be wrong to count on them as a way out of the climate crisis. “They’re just not ready,” he says. “And by the time they could be ready, they’re not going to be useful.”
Inquiry finds some medical and dental practices non-compliant with radiation rules
Seven medical practices non-compliant with radiation rules, Hiqa finds
Three dental practices among those criticised by watchdog in latest inspection report
Irish Times, 10 Feb 22, Tim O’Brien Seven out of 12 medical practices – including three dental practices – inspected by Hiqa have been found to be in breach of regulations concerning the control of exposure to ionising radiation.
Medical exposure to ionising radiation is when radiation is used as part of diagnosis such as an X-ray or CT scan, for medical research purposes or in the use of radiotherapy as part of cancer treatment.
It also includes radiation received by carers and comforters while attending to a patient. Inspectors from the Health Information and Quality Authority found evidence of non-compliance with controls in Bantry General Hospital; the Mater Private in Cork; Meridian Dental Clinic Clarehall, Dublin; River Lee Dental; Rowe Creavin Medical Practice in Waterford, Touchstone Dentistry in Dublin and University Hospital Kerry………………………… https://www.irishtimes.com/news/health/seven-medical-practices-non-compliant-with-radiation-rules-hiqa-finds-1.4798107
Population decline isn’t happening fast enough to save planet
| Population decline isn’t happening fast enough to save planetPaul CollinsBy 2050 we will consume three earths per year. Degradation of land and the oceans, biodiversity loss and global warming are the direct results. |
February 9 Energy News — geoharvey
Opinion: ¶ “What Is Nord Stream 2 And Can Biden Kill It?” • President Joe Biden said that natural gas will not flow through Russia’s Nord Stream 2 pipeline to Germany if Moscow orders an invasion of Ukraine. It is a $11 billion undersea pipeline between Russia and Germany. Russia could use it as a […]
February 9 Energy News — geoharvey
Antinuclear 