Karl Grossman is a professor of journalism at the State University of New York/College at Old Westbury who has specialized in investigative reporting for 45 years. He is the host of the TV program “Enviro Close-Up,” the writer and prese…
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The World Nuclear Industry Status Report 2015 (WNISR) has been released on 15 July 2015 in London, U.K., at the House of Commons at 10h00 local time. The event was hosted by Member of Parliament Paul Flynn and chaired by Walt Patterson, Associate Fellow of Chatham House (Royal Institute of International Affairs). Convening lead author Mycle Schneider, lead author Antony Froggatt and contributing author Steve Thomas presented the key findings of the report. Additional contributing authors of the report include Tadahiro Katsuta of Meiji University in Tokyo (Fukushima Status Report) and Jonathon Porritt, Founder Director of the Forum for the Future and former Chair of the UK Sustainability Development Commission (Foreword). Download the full report, free, here: http://www.worldnuclearreport.org/-2015-.html. A key finding of the report is that solar, wind and other forms of renewable energy besides hydro-electric dams now supply more electricity than nuclear in Japan, China, India and five other major economies accounting for about half the world’s population. While nuclear power generation increased only 2.2% globally in 2014, solar power shot ahead, increasing by 38%. Writes Jonathon Porritt, co-founder and trustee of the Forum for the Future, in a foreword to the report: “The impressively resilient hopes that many people still have of a global nuclear renaissance are being trumped by a real‐time revolution in efficiency‐plus‐renewables‐plus‐storage, delivering more and more solutions on the ground every year.”
Diablo Boys Cartoon by Mark Bryan – ArtOfMarkBryan.comIn a post entitled NRC: ‘Diablo Canyon among ‘most embrittled plants in the U.S.,’ Mary Beth Brangan and James Heddle have posted an article at NoNukesCA.net applying the les…
Continue readingIt is with great sadness that the Beyond Nuclear family learned today of the passing of Marilyn Strong. Marilyn, who with her husband Steve Strong, ran Solar Design Associates in Harvard, MA, died unexpectedly on June 23, 2015. Marilyn and …
Continue readingThis undated photo provided by Triple Aught Foundation shows part of an artwork by Michael Heizer called “City” near Garden Valley, Nev. Mammoth bones, the prehistoric rock carvings and more than a million acres of wilderness will be pr…
Continue readingEntergy Nuclear’s Palisades atomic reactor is located on the Lake Michigan shore in Covert, MI.Rosa Lin at Nuclear Intelligence Weekly (NIW) has written an article entitled “United States: The Palisades Embrittlement Battle” (reproduced here with permi…
Continue readingvia Telegraph.co.uk / July 8th, 2015 / The government announces September 5 as the date 7,401 residents of Naraha town in Fukushima prefecture can return home for the first time since the 2011 nuclear disaster. More than 7,000 residents from a Fukushima town completely evacuated following the 2011 nuclear crisis will be able to return home permanently from September, the Japanese government has announced. The 7,401 residents of Naraha will … Continue reading →
Continue readingvia sputniknews.com / July 8, 2015 / Russian experts will begin in early 2016 construction of a demo water treatment plant to decontaminate dangerous radioactive isotopes in Japan’s Fukushima nuclear power plant, Atomproekt, the company in charge of the project said Wednesday. Atomproekt, part of Russia’s nuclear product and service provider Rosatom Corporation, has forwarded working construction documents on a demo tritium treatment plant to Rosatom and subsidiary RosRAO, the company said in a … Continue reading →
Continue readingby Robert Hunziker / ukprogressive.co.uk / July 8, 2015 / Because of Japan’s unconscionable open-ended new secrecy law, it is very likely journalism in the nation has turned tail, scared of its own shadow. Nevertheless, glimmers of what has happened, of what is happening, do surface when brave people come forward. On May 22nd 2015 Hiromichi Ugaya, a photojournalist who is well-informed, insightful, and engaging, was interviewed about what he … Continue reading →
Continue readingOur friends at Green Action Japan have asked us to urge our supporters to consider signing a Change.Org petition demanding that the Japanese government and Tokyo Electric Power Company cease and desist from discharging hazardous radioactivity from …
Continue readingEntergy Nuclear’s Palisades atomic reactor, on the Lake Michigan shore in Covert, MIDave Lochbaum, Director of the Nuclear Safety Project at Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS), has penned another of his “Fisson Stories,” entitled “Palisades 50,” yet a…
Continue readingEnvironmental coalition members from the Crabshell Alliance, Sierra Club Nuclear-Free Campaign, NIRS, PSR, NEIS, and Public Citizen “just say NO!” at the NRC HQ nuke waste con game GEIS public comment meeting on 11/14/13 in Rockville, …
Continue readingvia Gizmodo.com / June 30, 2015 / When the 2011 earthquake in Japan damaged the Fukushima nuclear power plant, teams scrambled to find a robot that could go where humans couldn’t. In many ways those robots failed, and ever since, there has been a focus on creating robots that can get the job done. Enter Toshiba’s “Scorpion” robot, which will make its way inside the power plant this August. The … Continue reading →
Continue readingA coalition of states (Connecticut, New York, and Vermont), along with the Prairie Island Indian Community, and an alliance of nine environmental groups (Beyond Nuclear, Blue Ridge Environmental Defense League, Missouri Coalition for the Environment, N…
Continue readingvia Japan Times / June 30, 2015 / Tokyo Electric Power Co. on Tuesday was again held responsible for a suicide linked to the 2011 nuclear crisis and ordered to pay damages. The Fukushima District Court ordered TEPCO to pay ¥27 million to the family of 67-year-old Kiichi Isozaki, who committed suicide in July 2011 after being forced out of his home near the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant and … Continue reading →
Continue readingBy Kunio Kobinata / the-japan-news.com / June 29, 2015 / In the wake of the crisis at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant, much remains unknown about the long-term health effects of the radioactive substances released. Seeking answers, Tohoku University Prof. Manabu Fukumoto has been examining the blood and other factors of slaughtered cattle and wild animals caught by hunters mainly within a 20-kilometer radius of the plant. Over … Continue reading →
Continue readingby J.R Rardon / campbellrivermirror.com / June 30, 2015 / A transponder that spent more than three years floating in the Pacific Ocean before washing up on Vancouver Island has become the subject of a wide-ranging scavenger hunt after mysteriously winding up in Campbell River last week. The transponder, part of a group of 12 dropped in the ocean near Fukushima, Japan in January of 2012, was meant to give … Continue reading →
Continue readingOPG’s radioactive waste dump would be located about 3/4ths of a mile from the waters of Lake Huron, unless we stop it!Check out Beyond Nuclear’s action alert on things you can do to help stop Ontario Power Generation’s proposed radioactive waste dump…
Continue readingfrom The Asahi Shimbun / June 24, 2015 / In a show of “confidence”, the nation’s top three banks and other financial organizations who have been funding embattled Tokyo Electric Power Co. have agreed to extend 280 billion yen ($2.26 billion) in loans to the utility for the fiscal year. [emphasis added] The entities concluded that TEPCO, the operator of the crippled Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant, has been … Continue reading →
Continue readingvia Eco Watch / June 22, 2015 / Japan officially unveiled today its 7 megawatt (MW) wind turbine, the world’s largest offshore turbine to date. It is slated to be operational by September. The Fukushima Wind Project, located about 12 miles off the coast of Fukushima, installed a 2 MW wind turbine in November 2013. The turbines are part of a pilot project led by Marubeni Co. and funded by the Japanese government with research … Continue reading →
Continue readingvia South China Morning Post / June 21, 2015 / A Japanese farm ministry official met a senior Chinese official in charge of food inspection on Friday to request the easing of restrictions on food imports introduced after the Fukushima nuclear disaster in 2011, sources said. A director general at the Japanese Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries used the meeting in Beijing to stress the safety of Japanese food, … Continue reading →
Continue readingThom Hartmann, host of “The Big Picture”Thom Hartmann, host of “The Big Picture” (photo, left) interviewed Beyond Nuclear’s Kevin Kamps regarding a revelation that Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) knew, two and a half years before a 45-foot tall ts…
Continue readingNRC file photo of Entergy Nuclear’s Palisades atomic reactor, located on the Lake Michigan shoreline in Covert, MIA U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) Atomic Safety and Licensing Board Panel (ASLBP) has granted an evidentiary hearing on the mer…
Continue readingIt is with great sadness that we say farewell and pay tribute to Leo Drey, husband of our longtime board member, Kay Drey. Leo passed away on May 26 at the age of 98. He was beautifully, and appropriately, dubbed “The Lorax of the Ozarks” in an obituar…
Continue readingvia RT.com / June 15, 2015 / Some 7,000 people in Japan’s Tochigi prefecture have sought $297 million in compensation over the Fukushima nuclear disaster. They are also demanding a decontamination fund, health checks, and an apology from the plant’s operator. The residents’ lead lawyer, Koji Otani, said it is “irrational” for his clients to be treated differently than Fukushima residents, as the same amount of radiation was detected in … Continue reading →
Continue readingvia Enformable.com / June 19, 2015 / Tokyo Electric, the operator of the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, has released a document during a lawsuit brought by over 40 shareholders which reveals the utilities acknowledgment that tsunami defenses at the plant were not adequate. The internal document from 2008 noted that TEPCO executives had agreed that it would be “indispensable” to further build up coastal defenses for the plant … Continue reading →
Continue readingA groundwater monitoring well at the Peach Bottom nuclear power plant in Pennsylvania that tested positive in April 2015 for significant levels of tritium contamination is just the latest example of a decades-long pattern of leaking nuclear reactors an…
Continue readingvia world-nuclear-news.net / June 9, 2015 / The IAEA’s 35-strong board generally meets five times per year to examine and make recommendations to the agency’s General Conference, held every September, on the IAEA’s accounts, program and budget. It also considers applications for membership. Amano described the Fukushima report as “an authoritative, factual and balanced assessment of what happened at Fukushima Daiichi”. The result of an extensive international effort involving some … Continue reading →
Continue readingvia Japan Times / June 15, 2015 / Education ministry data released earlier this month showed that only 84.9 percent of public elementary and junior high school buildings in Fukushima Prefecture had been quake-proofed as of April 1, 10.7 points below the national average. Of the 2,053 buildings, 310 still need renovation and 67 are likely to collapse if a quake measuring upper 6 or higher on the Japanese seismic … Continue reading →
Continue readingvia Japan Times / June 10, 2015 / The government and Tokyo Electric Power Co. are planning to push back the start of removing spent fuel at the wrecked Fukushima No. 1 nuclear complex by two to three years from the current schedule, according to government sources. Under an envisioned revised road map for decommissioning reactors 1 to 4 at the plant, which was ravaged by the March 2011 earthquake … Continue reading →
Continue readingvia Zero Hedge / June 9th, 2015 / In a stunning report by The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Director General Yukiya Amano fingers Japanese over-confidence and complacency among the main reasons why the country was unprepared to the Fukushima Daiichi disaster of 2011. As Sputnik News reports, Amano exclaimed “there was a widespread belief in Japan that Japanese nuclear power plants are very safe and there would never be … Continue reading →
Continue readingvia world-nuclear-news.org / June 4, 2015 / Japan expects to start the retrieval of fuel debris from the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant in 2021, the executive director of the Nuclear Damage Compensation and Decommissioning Facilitation Corporation (NDF) said yesterday. Three of the plant’s six reactors suffered core meltdowns in the March 2011 accident, leaving melted nuclear fuel debris on the floor of their containment vessels. NDF was established in September … Continue reading →
Continue readingvia news.yahoo.com / June 1, 2015 / Japan’s Kyushu Electric Power said on Tuesday it has delayed the restart of its Sendai nuclear plant in southwestern Japan, the first to be brought back into service under new rules introduced after the 2011 Fukushima disaster. The delay to mid-August from the previous target of late July follows a warning by Japan’s nuclear regulator in April that the utility’s schedule for a … Continue reading →
Continue reading“Burning Money” image by Gene Case and Avenging Angels.Beyond Nuclear is working with allies across the country to resist multi-billion dollar subsidies, at ratepayer expense, being sought by nuclear utility lobbyists in order to prop up dirty, dange…
Continue readingExelon Nuclear (IL, and the Mid-Atlantic)
Exelon, the single biggest nuclear power utility in the U.S., with around two dozen atomic reactors in its fleet, suffered a defeat on May 31st at midnight: the State of Illinois Legislature recessed till autum…
A diagram describing pressurized thermal shock in a nuclear reactor. Credit: Japan Atomic Energy Agency. Japan’s worst embrittled RPV, at Genkai 1, has been permanently closed in the aftermath of Fukushima.Citing the risks of reactor pressure vessel (R…
Continue readingby Akira Hino / CNIC.jp / June 2, 2015 / 1. Current State of Fukushima Prefecture Four years have passed since the earthquake and nuclear accident, but almost no progress has been made toward Fukushima Prefecture’s recovery. In particular, the recovery of the Futaba area and its vicinity has just gotten underway. The reason for this delay in recovery has been radioactive contamination resulting from the nuclear accident. The radioactive … Continue reading →
Continue readingby Toshikazu Fujiwara / CNIC.jp / June 2, 2015 / The Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station accident released radioactive substances across a wide area of the environment. Currently, not only decontamination operations but also people’s everyday lives generate wastes that include high concentrations of radioactive substances. The Japanese government terms radioactive wastes from 8,000 to 100,000 becquerel per kilogram (Bq/kg) designated wastes. They are today stored temporarily at various locations, … Continue reading →
Continue readingvia NDTV.com / May 31, 2015 / Seismologists today warned Japan to stay vigilant for the next “Big One” after a powerful 7.8-magnitude earthquake hit off the coast of the quake-prone nation, injuring a dozen people. Buildings swayed for around a minute in Tokyo and its vicinity Saturday night as the quake struck at a remote spot in the Pacific Ocean around 874 kilometres (542 miles) south of the capital, … Continue reading →
Continue readingU.S. Sen. Mark Kirk (R-IL)U.S. Senator Mark Kirk (Republican-Illinois, photo left) has issued a press release, and the text of a letter he sent to President Obama, calling for administration action to protect the Great Lakes against Ontario Power Gener…
Continue readingvia Natural Society / May 28, 2015 / It is being reported that tainted food from Fukushima, Ibaraki, Gumma, and Chiba is making its way into local supermarkets in Taiwan due to the irresponsibility of mislabeling. What’s more, these food products were banned in Taiwan since March of 2011. The first question is: Why are food products from the concerned Japanese prefectures surrounding Fukushima mislabelled? The second question is: Why is … Continue reading →
Continue readingvia reuters.com / May 29, 2015 / Japan’s ruling coalition will recommend lifting evacuation orders for most people forced from their homes by the Fukushima nuclear disaster within two years in a bid to speed up reconstruction, a draft proposal shows. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s party and its governing partner will also press local governments in the disaster zone to shoulder more of the reconstruction spending now being borne by … Continue reading →
Continue readingvia tcetoday.com / May 29, 2015 / The Sendai nuclear power plant (pictured) has been given final regulatory approval to restart its reactors and moved one step closer to being the first in Japan to come online since the 2011 Fukushima disaster. Plant operator Kyushu Electric Power Company first made its application to the Japanese Nuclear Regulation Authority (NRA) in mid-2013. It has finally gained the regulator’s third and final … Continue reading →
Continue readingAs reported by Jason Plautz in National Journal, “Two early voting states are on opposite ends of the Yucca Mountain divide.” South Carolina — the third presidential primary after Iowa’s caucus and New Hampshire’s primary — stores a large amoun…
Continue readingvia Reuters / May 20, 2015 / Japan’s nuclear regulator signed off on the basic safety of a reactor at a third nuclear plant on Wednesday, as the country inches toward rebooting its atomic industry more than four years after the 2011 Fukushima disaster. The decision will be a boost for operator Shikoku Electric Power Co, which relied on its sole Ikata nuclear power station (pictured) in southwestern Japan for … Continue reading →
Continue readingvia RT.com / May 21, 2015 / The latest report by Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) has shed more light on the 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster, revealing a failure in one of the reactors’ pressure relief systems. The new report looks into data discovered by a robot that ventured into the Fukushima Daiichi Reactor-2 building (pictured) in October. It measured radiation levels at various places and studied the conditions of … Continue reading →
Continue readingvia Reuters / May 21, 2015 / Japan launched a trade complaint at the World Trade Organization on Thursday to challenge South Korea’s import bans and additional testing requirements for Japanese food after the 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster. South Korea expressed regret at Japan’s action and said its ban on some Japanese seafood (pictured) was necessary and reflected safety concerns. Japan says several measures taken by South Korea violate the … Continue reading →
Continue readingby Hiromi Kumai / Asahi Shimbun / May 23, 2015 / Inspections of containers holding contaminated water at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant found that at least 10 percent have leaks, which could trigger a hydrogen explosion. Tokyo Electric Power Co., the plant’s operator, reported its findings at a meeting with a study group from the Nuclear Regulation Authority on May 22. It said no radioactive water was … Continue reading →
Continue readingMichael J. Keegan (right) receives Judith Johnsrud Unsung Hero Award from Beyond Nuclear’s Kevin Kamps. Photo by Glenn Carroll of Nukewatch South.On May 18, the Alliance for Nuclear Accountability (ANA) and Beyond Nuclear named Michael J. Keegan of Mon…
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