The governor of the Kagoshima prefecture in Japan, in approving the restart of the two Sendai reactors, has failed to understand the lessons of the Fukushima nuclear disaster and is ignoring science, safety and public opinion, Green Action stated today…
Continue readingvia japantimes.com / November 5, 2014 / Taiwan will conduct radiation checks on some types of container cargo arriving from Japan, the island’s legislature said on Wednesday. The body’s Finance Committee ruled that waste materials such as plastic, scrap metal and paper must be checked with radiation meters upon arrival at the island’s four seaports: Keelung, Taipei, Taichung and Kaohsiung. Jao Ping, director general of the Customs Administration agency, told … Continue reading →
Continue readingfrom NHK World / November 5, 2014 / Workers have finished removing highly radioactive spent nuclear fuel from one of the reactor buildings at the crippled Fukushima Daiichi plant. The No.4 reactor had no nuclear fuel when the plant was hit by a massive quake and tsunami in March 2011. But there were more than 1,500 units of spent and unused fuel in the pool in the reactor building. The … Continue reading →
Continue readingvia Asahi Shimbun / November 3, 2014 / The main components of the government’s nuclear fuel recycling project have all been sidelined. But the program was already in a state of collapse even before the March 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster led to a shift in Japan’s energy policy. After the meltdowns at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant, the Democratic Party of Japan-led government considered reviewing the recycling program. However, … Continue reading →
Continue readingvia simplyinfo.org / November 4, 2014 / Drone footage taken of the Unit 3 refueling floor.
Continue readingvia japantimes.com / November 4, 2014 / The Lower House on Tuesday approved a bill for the construction of temporary storage facilities for radioactive waste on land near the crippled Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant. The bill is expected to be enacted during the current extraordinary session of the Diet following debate in the Upper House. The bill calls on the government to ensure the safety of the facilities and … Continue reading →
Continue readingvia world-nuclear-news.org / November 4, 2014 / Japan’s Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) has awarded US-based waste management specialist Kurion a JPY 1 billion ($10 million) grant to demonstrate technology to remove tritium from contaminated water for possible deployment at Fukushima. Kurion’s technology is one of three selected by METI in August to go forward to the demonstration phase, alongside offerings from GE Hitachi Nuclear Energy Canada and … Continue reading →
Continue readingvia ISRN.fr / A video explaining in simple terms how the Fukushima nuclear crisis unfolded on March 11, 2011. Video created in 2012.
Continue readingBy Taiga Uranaka and Antoni Slodkowski / trust.org / October 31, 2014 / Thirty billion dollars in funding for roads, bridges and thousands of new homes in areas devastated by the tsunami in Japan three and a half years ago is still languishing unspent in the bank. That means Keiko Abe is heading into a fourth winter of sub-zero temperatures in a cramped, temporary dwelling that is succumbing to the … Continue reading →
Continue readingvia Japan Times / October 30, 2014 / In the first-ever delay in the plans to dismantle reactor 1 at Tokyo Electric Power Co.’s stricken Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant, the government and the utility have agreed to postpone the removal of fuel rods from the spent-fuel pool by two years from the initial plans, NHK reported Thursday. The date of extracting the meltedfuel rods from the reactor core, … Continue reading →
Continue readingBy Nassrine Azimi / Asia-Pacific Journal / October 29, 2014 / The first paragraph in the first volume of A History of Japan, by the scholarly British diplomat Sir George Sansom, is a detailed description of the islands’ geology. Writing in 1958 of the country he so loved, with its “mighty volcanic convulsions”, Sir George depicts the physical drama of peaks soaring two miles above and plunging five miles below … Continue reading →
Continue readingvia japantimes.com / October 29, 2014 / Radioactive soil currently stored at schools in Fukushima Prefecture is not supposed to be transferred to radioactive waste storage facilities planned to be built near the crippled Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant, Jiji Press learned Tuesday. This is because decontamination at schools was carried out before a special law on radioactive contamination took effect in January 2012 and thus the Environment Ministry … Continue reading →
Continue readingBy Robert Myles / allvoices.com / October 28, 2014 / A violent gust of wind, Tuesday, indirectly caused a further problem in the shape of a major hole in the cover protecting number one reactor at the stricken Fukushima Nuclear Plant in Japan, according to Fukushima operator, the Tokyo Electric Power. The incident occurred as a result of strong winds when a crane was in motion. A hole about 30 … Continue reading →
Continue readingBy Justin McCurry / theguardian.com / October 28, 2014 / Japan has moved closer to a return to nuclear power, more than three years after the Fukushima disaster, after a town in the country’s south-west voted to approve two reactors coming back online. Nineteen of 26 assembly members in Satsumasendai, located 600 miles south-west of Tokyo, voted in favour of restarting the Sendai nuclear power plant. Four voted against and … Continue reading →
Continue readingI’d like to thank the NRC for hearing our comments today. I’am happy to see many friends here today that will speak for the safety of CA.I must say, I no longer believe that SCE is considering doing the state of the art decommissioning that they promis…
Continue readingNRC HQ, Rockville, MD. One White Flint is pictured. Two White Flint is to the right, outside the frame.The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) Atomic Safety and Licensing Board Panel (ASLB) overseeing FirstEnergy Nuclear Operating Company’s (F…
Continue readingSticker designed by Yuko Tonohira of S.A.N.S., as is the Nov. 16th event flier
URANIUM? LEAVE IT IN THE GROUND!-A Film Screening & Discussion About Uranium Mining-
Sunday November 167:00PM-9:00PM@ Busboys & Poets (5th & K)1025 5th St. NW W…
via theguardian.com / October 24, 2014 / Japan’s government is reeling from its third scandal in a week after the trade minister, who oversees nuclear energy, faced questions over his shares in the company that runs the wrecked Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant. Yoichi Miyazawa (pictured) had already faced embarrassment on Thursday when it was revealed that members of his staff had claimed expenses for a visit to a bondage … Continue reading →
Continue readingvia Japan Times / October 25, 2014 / Prosecutors have delayed for three months a decision on whether to charge three former executives of Tokyo Electric Power Co. for their handling of the 2011 Fukushima disaster, an official with a panel that requested the indictments said Friday. The Tokyo District Prosecutor’s Office had been re-investigating the case after an independent judicial panel of citizens ruled in July that three former … Continue reading →
Continue readingNRC Chairman Allison Macfarlane just announced her resignationBeyond Nuclear has issued the following statement regarding NRC Chairman Allison Macfarlane’s announced resignation, just a year and a half into her current five-year term:
“Chairman Macfarl…
The Nuclear Free Future Award 2014 hosted in Munich goes to five outstanding individuals dedicated to preserve the planet and future generations from nuclear madness. Since 1998, the central message of the foundation is “Leave the uranium …
Continue readingEcoWatch has featured Beyond Nuclear’s Radioactive Waste Watchdog, Kevin Kamps, on Thom Hartmann’s “The Big Picture” t.v. show, speaking about Woods Hole’s Dr. Ken Buesseler’s detection of Fukushima radioactive contamination in the open ocean off the w…
Continue readingby Victoria Craw & Nick Whigham / news.com.au / October 21, 2014 ONCE pristine rice paddies overgrown into forests. Wild animals roaming the streets of eerie towns with an uncertain future. That’s the scene described by Australian teacher Jessica Hellamy who recently had the chance to see inside the 20km exclusion zone created after the nuclear meltdown at the Fukushima Dai’ichi powerplant in 2011. “Time had stopped. In the main … Continue reading →
Continue readingPolitical cartoon by Jim Day of the Las Vegas Review Journal (be sure to count the toes!)Despite hoots and hollers from nuclear industry lobbyists and their friends in Congress, the publication of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s Yucca Mounta…
Continue readingChiyo Nohara1, Wataru Taira1, Atsuki Hiyama1, Akira Tanahara2, Toshihiro Takatsuji3 and Joji M Otaki1* * Corresponding author: Joji M Otaki otaki@sci.u-ryukyu.ac.jp Author Affiliations 1 BCPH Unit of Molecular Physiology, Department of Chemistry, Biology and Marine Science, University of the Ryukyus, Okinawa 903-0213, Japan 2 Instrumental Research Center, University of the Ryukyus, Okinawa 903-0213, Japan 3 Graduate School of Fisheries Science and Environmental Studies, Nagasaki University, Nagasaki 852-8521, Japan For all … Continue reading →
Continue readingMedia outlets publish cookie-cutter op-eds under different by-lines with the same false information
TAKOMA PARK, MD, October 9, 2014 — Over the past three weeks, news outlets around the country have published op-eds and letters to the editor with iden…
Sticker designed by Yuko Tonohira of S.A.N.S., as is the Nov. 16th event flier
URANIUM? LEAVE IT IN THE GROUND!-A Film Screening & Discussion About Uranium Mining-
Sunday November 167:00PM-9:00PM@ Busboys & Poets (5th & K)1025 5th St. NW W…
This announcement was circulated by Mary Olson of NIRS:
Please come to our Second Nuclear Free Campaign Summit and Strategy Session
This event is for activists working for a Nuclear-Free Future! Here are the event details:
WHO: Sierra Club Nuclear…
It could be described the precedent for a new age of “robber barons.” The European Commission announced that it has approved United Kingdom public subsidies to support the French government utility EDF to construct two European Pressu…
Continue readingAs referenced on our Just the Facts page, a series of articles using in some cases identical, and often near-identical, message points have appeared in publications across the country. Clearly pulled from a nuclear industry handout, we’re calling them …
Continue readingAn article in the MIT Technology Review, asserted that a new, improved reactor fuel (pictured) might be able to off-set the obvious expense of nuclear energy which is also too slow to address climate change. The author’s lead — “slowing climate change…
Continue readingAtomic reactors and their electrical transmission lines are inextricably interlinked, yet NRC staff has failed to undertake a NEPA review of the proposed new Fermi 3 transmission line corridor’s environmental impacts.The environmental coalition interve…
Continue readingby Jun Hongo / Wall Street Journal / October 2, 2014 / The proportion of consumers saying they hesitate to buy food products from Fukushima prefecture because of radiation fears reached 20%, up from 15% in February, according to a twice-yearly survey by the Consumer Affairs Agency released this week. The percentage was the highest since February 2013, when the agency began issuing reports on how misinformation and harmful rumors … Continue reading →
Continue readingvia Japan Today / October 2, 2014 / The government on Wednesday lifted its evacuation advisory for part of the town of Kawauchi which lies within 20 kilometers of the stricken Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant. Environment Ministry officials said that radiation cleanup has concluded in the eastern part of the town, NTV reported. Prior to the March 11, 2011 nuclear disaster, Kawauchi’s population was 3,000. The Environment Ministry has … Continue reading →
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For years my wife and I put off that Solar Array for our roof. We’d checked into it several times, but the cost always seemed too great to pull the trigger. Then 3/11/11 brought massive destruction and unthinkable death and suffering for the people of Japan. It was a wakeup call to me, seeing the Fukushima Daiichi plant in a state of complete disarray. The earthquake and tsunami left them completely crippled and unable to stop hydrogen explosions in the containment, and unprecidented, three separate reactor core meltdowns. I immediately started looking for how I could learn more about our local nuclear plant. I found people who had been actively concerned about the safety of nuclear power for more than 35 years. As I attended activism rallies and NRC meetings, there were a few voices who seemed to be a little off message at first. That message was, “If you live in Southern California, and you don’t have solar on your rooftop, then you are part of the problem. You need to get solar!” As that sunk in over the next few months, I also was reflecting on the fact that shutting down our unsafe plant would create a new void in our local grid. After all, one seemingly strong argument Southern California Edison kept making was, “Like it or not, you need our nuclear plant to keep your lights on.” So 14 months after the Japanese disaster and following the surprise SCRAMming of San Onofre, an act that would eventually become a permanent shutdown, we switched on our 36 panel, 11.5 kW system for the first time.
How did we make the numbers work? We’re lucky to be pretty well off, but very few of us have $35-$70,000 set aside for ecological feel good renovations. The truth is, in addition to San Onofre activists encouraging us, there was a solar wave hitting our coast. Our electric bill had been rising alarmingly for years, now accentuated with 4th tier penalty rates. Having a koi pond and a swimming pool meant no amount of cutting back on air conditioning on our inland home in Fallbrook was putting a dent in our excessive $400/month bill. The economy is still pretty weak, and an entire generation of children is asking the question, “What’s an interest rate on a savings account?” I saw the immense rebates being offered that assured a 30% return on our investment, via a federal solar credit, plus $2500 from California. Viewed from that perspective, solar was a great initial investment and also one we knew would keep paying us back. Top it off with the knowledge that we’re now part of the climate change solution, rather than continuing to be part of the problem, and the EcoShaming that a few folks planted in my mind was now a blessing in disguise. We withdrew a big portion of our rainy day money and took the plunge.
In two and a half years, we’ve generated 44 MegaWatt hours, an average of around 48kWh per day. Last year, we replaced our original pool pump with a high efficiency variable speed run four times as long at 1/4 the flow rate, resulting in ~75% electric savings on that electric pig. With that electricity freed up, and because we overbuilt our system as much as we could, we hope to buy an electric vehicle soon, and really start helping to solve climate change, and a whole host of other problems oil dependance has caused. Notice we put the solar first and the EV car next, making sure that we don’t increase electricity demand from power companies who seem unable to ride the solar wave thus far. Their loss. It’s my dream that rooftop solar is adopted by every homeowner and every business nationwide. Power companies will still be needed to maintain the grid. They will also need to build and operate hydraulic pump storage to meet our nighttime power needs, including charging electric vehicles. If you research it a little, you’ll see that pump-storage hydro is now excess power is stored for later usage the world over, even at Helms east of Fresno (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_pumped-storage_hydroelectric_power_stations). I hope our personal story might help encourage you, or someone you know, to ride the solar wave, perhaps with a productive bit of EcoShaming. Now about that Diablo Canyon…
By Karl Aldinger
Fallbrook, CA
Aging Nuke Plants On Fault Lines In Tsunami Hazard Zones = Fukushimas… Any Questions?
PLEASE Turn off a light for Fukushima USA / San Onofre
PLEASE Turn off a light for Fukushima USA / San Onofre
Harvey Wasserman, author of “Solartopia”Beyond Nuclear’s Cindy Folkers and Kevin Kamps, along with David Kraft of Nuclear Energy Information Service in Chicago, appeared on Harvey Wasserman’s (photo, left) “Green Power and Wellness” radio program on Se…
Continue readingChris Williams speaking at Nuclear-Free, Carbon-Free Contingent of the People’s Climate March in New York City on Sept. 21stChris Williams (photo, left), the chairman of the board of directors of Nuclear Information and Resource Service (NIRS), and a…
Continue readingDiane CurranAs reported by a coalition press release, 17 groups engaged in interventions against 23 old and new reactors have filed new contentions with U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) Atomic Safety and Licensing Board (ASLB) panels. The conte…
Continue readingOntario Power Generation proposes to bury “low” and “intermediate” level radioactive wastes from 20 reactors across the province at its Bruce Nuclear Generating Station on the Lake Huron shore. The Great Lakes comprise 95% of North America’s surface fr…
Continue readingReports Reuters: “Japan will not restart closed-down nuclear plants “unless safety is restored 100 percent,” Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said on Monday.” But what will this really mean and how will 100% safety be guaranteed, a virtually impossible standa…
Continue readingBetween 300,000 and 400,000 people marched in New York City on September 21 in the largest climate rally in history. The Peoples Climate March included a contingent that specifically drew attention to why nuclear power cannot address climate change. Th…
Continue readingBeyond Nuclear’s Kevin Kamps (wearing yellow “Nuclear Power? No Thanks! flag) and PSR national board member Alfred Meyer. Photo by Harvey Wasserman.Beyond Nuclear’s Radioactive Waste Watchdog, Kevin Kamps, took part in the Nuclear-Free, Carbon-Free Con…
Continue readingNRC file photo of Fermi 2Beyond Nuclear, Citizens Environment Alliance of Southwestern Ontario, and Don’t Waste Michigan, in coalition opposing Detroit Edison’s application for a 20-year license extension at Fermi 2 on the Lake Erie shore in southeast …
Continue readingAs reported by the Associated Press, on the very day that the Canadian federal Environmental Assessment Joint Review Panel hearings ended, a U.S. Senate resolution was introduced in opposition to the proposed Ontario Power Generation Great Lakes shor…
Continue readingWorld leaders are coming to New York City next week for a UN summit on the climate crisis. UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon is urging governments to support an ambitious global agreement to dramatically reduce global warming pollution.
With …
Writing this week in The Ecologist, Ralph Nader points out that “nuclear power exists for one reason only — government support.
Read the full article.
Here is an excerpt:
“So if you go to work at the NEI and you read about the absence of any permanent…
The UN is looking to include nuclear energy as part of its Sustainable Development Goals. Jeffrey Sachs, who leads the science panel for UN Secretary General, Ban Ki Moon, has presented a report this month to the General Assembly of the UN, whic…
By Eiji Noyori and Hiroyuki Oyama / the-japan-times.com / September 11, 2014 / Three and a half years after the outbreak of the crisis at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant, efforts to contain water contaminated with radioactive substances at the plant are at a crossroads. Resolving the radioactive water issue is the first hurdle toward decommissioning the plant. However, despite the time that has passed since the beginning … Continue reading →
Continue readingvia theguardian.com / September 10, 2014 / Japan’s nuclear watchdog has given the green light for two reactors to restart but the operator still has to persuade local communities they are safe. Widespread anti-nuclear sentiment has simmered in Japan ever since an earthquake and tsunami in March 2011 caused meltdowns at the Fukushima power plant, sparking the worst atomic disaster since Chernobyl. The country’s nuclear reactors were switched off after … Continue reading →
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