9/14/2013 Japan to switch off nuclear power, may be some time before it's on again

Source: Reuters
Date: Sat Sep 14, 2013 7:17pm EDT
by:  Osamu Tsukimori

Fukushima prefecture panel examines leaking radioactive water tank (C in back) at Fukushima Daiichi, photo released Septermber 13, 2013  Credit: Reuters/Kyodo

(Reuters) - Japan is set to be nuclear power-free, for just the third time in more than four decades, and with no firm date for re-starting an energy source that has provided about 30 percent of electricity to the world's third-largest economy.

...
Read full article here.

Editor's Note: Map of Ohi Nuclear Power Plant appears below.

2/19/2013 The nuclear reactor in your basement

Source: PhysOrg
Date: February 19, 2013
by: Bob Silberg

How would you like to replace your water heater with a nuclear reactor? That's what Joseph Zawodny, a senior scientist at NASA's Langley Research Center, hopes to help bring about. It would tap the enormous power of the atom to provide hot water for your bath, warm air for your furnace system, and more than enough electricity to run your house and, of course, your electric car.

If your thoughts have raced to Fukushima or Three Mile Island or Chernobyl, let me reassure you. Zawodny is not suggesting that you put that kind of reactor in your house. What he has in mind is a generator that employs a process called Low-Energy Nuclear Reactions. (The same process is sometimes called Lattice Energy Nuclear Reactions. We'll just call it LENR.) So what is LENR and how might it one day fill all your energy needs without risk of blowing up, melting down, or irradiating the neighbors?
...
Read the rest here.

1/10/2013 Cernavoda reactor shutdown again after failure of logic relay control system

Source: Enformable
Date: 1/10/2012

Cernavodă Nuclear Power Plant

 One of the two operational nuclear power reactors of Cernavoda nuclear power plant, the only nuclear power plant in Romania, was automatically shutdown Wednesday night by emergency system, according to Nuclearelectrica who operates the facility.  The cause of the shutdown has not been determined yet.
“Unit Two shut down on Wednesday evening, reasons unknown,” said Dumitru Dina, head of Nuclearelectrica, but did admit that some problems were found in the cooling system for the electrical generators.  The utility also indicated some disturbances were caused by failure of the logic relay control system.   A similar incident occurred in November 2012.
Source: Pravda
Source: EVZ

8/17/2012 Radiation Danger Covered Up Ever Since Nuclear Weapons Invented

Source: Washington's Blog
Date: 8/17/2012

Government Has Been Covering up Radiation Danger for 67 Years

The U.S. and other governments have been covering up nuclear meltdowns for fifty years to protect the nuclear power industry.
It turns out that the U.S. tried to cover up the destructive nature of radiation produced by nuclear weapons 67 years ago. As Democracy Now reports:

The army was well aware in 1943 of the enormous potential for radiation dangers to civilians and military personnel as a result of the use of radioactive weapons ….
[The New York Times] was essentially putting out the official government narrative [regarding the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki], which is that atomic radiation is not harmful, is not a major byproduct of the nuclear weapons program. You know, it’s only the blast that has essentially a very short impact. The reason that this has importance is that for really a half century, this narrative became the government’s response to all protests against nuclear power, the nuclear weapons programs of the 1950s and 1960s and the Cold War. So, [The New York Times] essentially set the table that the government was to occupy for the next half century as they disputed any attempt to rein in, you know, the rapid acceleration of nuclear weapons and power programs.

Nothing has changed. Governments worldwide continue to this day to cover up the amount – and health effects – of radiation released by military and energy facilities.
And the same considerations which drove the cover up in 1945 are still driving it. The archaic uranium reactor designs developed more than 40 years ago are good for making bombs.

6/20/2012 Trouble brewing at the San Onofre nuclear power plant in CA

Source: TheBigPictureRT
Date: Jun 20, 2012

Video Description
Paul Gunter, Beyond Nuclear joins Thom Hartmann. All is not well at the San Onofre Nuclear Power Plant in California - where federal investigators have found major designs flaws in the plant. Just what kind of risk do these designs flaws pose - and could we be looking at a future nuclear disaster on the West Coast? And are our fish getting more and more radioactive? Should you bring a geiger counter to the restaurant or supermarket yet?

Editor's Note: Map of San Onofre Nuclear Generated Station below.

View Live Ustream Radiation Detectors in a larger map

Interactive Nuclear Map

Source: Al Jazeera
Date: ???
Click map to visit Interactive Nuclear Map

6/1/2012 Japan’s Nuclear Industry: The CIA Link

Source: Japan Realtime
Date: June 1, 2012, 10:18 AM JST
by: Eleanor Warnock

Bloomberg News

In the 15 months since the crisis at Fukushima Daiichi, Japan’s relationship with nuclear power has changed dramatically.

Once the world’s third-largest producer of nuclear energy, the country faces the prospect of electricity shortages this summer as all 50 of its plants remain offline. Restarting reactors — a step the government says is necessary to support the economy — is proving to be politically tricky as a skeptical public questions the safety of atomic energy.

Rewind almost 60 years and the government had a similar problem: how to persuade the public to support its ambition to become a nuclear nation only nine years after the U.S. dropped atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki?
...
Read full article here

5/26/2012 IAEA finds high grade Uranium in Iran

Source: CNTV, PressTV, NHK World
Date: 5/26/2012


Reports from three news agencies for objectivity. The recent Reuters article I found from Drudge Report did seem to have a somewhat alarmist tone to it. The article is titled "Iran has enough uranium for 5 bombs: expert".

Plutonium to make nuclear bombs is extracted from reprocessing nuclear waste from commerical Uranium fission reactors

Source: RT: The Big Picture: Conversations with Great Minds
by: Thom Hartman


This interview with Stephanie Cooke, author of In Mortal Hands: A Cautionary History of the Nuclear Age and editor of Nuclear Intelligence Weekly is especially informative.  One reason for the push for commercial nuclear power is that Plutonium is the by-product of the nuclear fuel cycle.  Waste from Uranium fission reactors is reprocessed to chemically extract Plutonium, which is used to make nuclear bombs.

3/14/2012 America Is Letting China Steal Our Valuable Nuclear Innovations

Source: Washington's Blog
Date: 3/14/2012

The U.S. Is Letting China Steal Its Nuclear Innovations … 

Just Like Xerox Let Apple and Microsoft Steal Its Valuable Breakthroughs Microsoft and Apple grew rich by using Xerox’s innovation.

Xerox’s research arm (called Xerox Parc) invented the “graphical user interface” used by all modern computers.

Bill Gates famously admitted to Steve Jobs that both Microsoft and Apple had ripped of Xerox’s GUI. Xerox could have made a fortune on its innovation. But it didn’t realize what it had … and failed to capitalize on its breakthroughs (Xerox tried to sue to protect its invention … but years too late, and the lawsuit was thrown out because Xerox had missed the deadline for suing).

The same dynamic is playing out in the nuclear industry. Specifically, the U.S. created a safer, more efficient form of nuclear energy running on thorium. But – like Xerox Parc – America isn’t doing anything with its innovation, and China is running off with prize.
...
Read the rest here

1/17/2012 (Video) Frontline: Nuclear Aftershock

Source: PBS Frontline
Date: 1/17/2012

FRONTLINE travels to three continents to explore the debate about nuclear power: Is it safe? What are the alternatives? And could a Fukushima-style disaster happen in the U.S.?

Watch Nuclear Aftershocks on PBS. See more from FRONTLINE.

Further reading from PBS Frontline:

1. January 17, 2012, 11:37 pm Map: U.S. Nuclear Power Plants
2. January 17, 2012, 9:29 pm Did Fukushima Quash the Global “Nuclear Renaissance”?
3. January 17, 2012, 11:56 am How Much Electricity Does My State Generate From Nuclear?

1/10/2012 Leon Panetta admits Iran is not developing a nuclear weapon

Source: Activist Post
Date: 1/10/2012
by: Madison Ruppert


Astoundingly, United States Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta openly admitted on national television that Iran is not, in fact, developing nuclear weapons, yet still justified the Western assault on their nuclear program.


On the CBS show “Face the Nation” Panetta stated, in no uncertain terms, that Iran is not trying to develop a nuclear weapon, making one wonder why the United States and the United Nations feel justified in pressuring Iran.
...
Read the rest here

12/23/2011 “Nuclear Can Be Safe Or It Can Be Cheap … But It Can’t Be Both”

Source: Washington's Blog
Date: 12/23/2011

Nuclear Power Is Unsafe Because the Operators are Pinching Pennies and Cutting Corners

Nuclear engineer Arnie Gundersen was said in a recent interview that nuclear power can be made safe, but not at a competitive price:

[Interviewer] With air transport, it’s incredibly safe. Could nuclear power ever reach that level of safety?
[Gundersen] I have a friend who says that nuclear can be safe or it can be cheap, but it can’t be both.
***
It boils down to money. If you want to make nuclear safe, it gets to the point where it’s so costly you don’t want to build the power plant anyway … especially now with plummeting renewable costs.
So can you make a nuclear reactor safe? Yes. Can it also at the same time compete with renewables, which are, of course, higher [priced] than natural gas? And the answer is no.
Wall Street is demanding federal loan guarantees for this and of course we already subsidized Price-Anderson insurance. So Wall Street won’t spend the money to build it, and won’t insure it.

12/7/2011 Bill Gates-backed company in discussions with China to develop new generation nuclear reactor

Source: Associated Press via Washington Post
Date: 12/7/2011 9:53 AM

BEIJING — Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates confirmed Wednesday he is in discussions with China to jointly develop a new and safer kind of nuclear reactor.

“The idea is to be very low cost, very safe and generate very little waste,” said the billionaire during a talk at China’s Ministry of Science and Technology.

Gates said he had largely funded a Washington state-based company, TerraPower, that is developing a Generation IV nuclear reactor that can run on depleted uranium. TerraPower says it has discussed its plans with India, Russia and other countries with nuclear energy programs.
...
Read full article here

11/6/2011 IAEA report to detail efforts by Iran to develop a nuclear weapon

Source: CNN
Date: 11/6/2011
By Elise Labott



Washington (CNN) -- The upcoming report by the International Atomic Energy Agency will make the most detailed charges to date that Iran's nuclear program is geared toward weapons development and military use, several Western diplomats briefed on the report told CNN.
...

Read full article here

9/30/2011 Obama Administration Banking On Next-Generation Nukes

Source: Forbes
Date: 9/30/2011
by: Jeff McMahon  

The Fukushima nuclear disaster has done nothing to deter the Department of Energy from its pursuit of next generation and small modular nuclear reactors, according to the DOE’s First Quadrennial Technology Review, released Wednesday.
...
Read full article here

(Video) Dial M. for "Meltdown"

Source: Fairewinds Associates
Date: 8/12/2011
by: Brian Rich


After seeing the destruction in Japan from the Earthquake and Tsunami. Then Fukushima Nuclear Facility melted down before my very eyes on television. I knew something was not right. My research and investigations were met with dead ends, false readings/answers, and lies. I decided to create this video to make sure the history of Commercial Nuclear power was documented and presented to a younger generation. I found most of the public was turned off by the complex nature of Nuclear Physics, even if what they didn't know was going to kill them and their loved ones.

Meeting Arnold Gundersen and his wife Maggie only opened my eyes to the dangers our country and civilization face because of decisions made decades ago and the lies created to further the nuclear agenda. Their constant truthful testimony against the nuclear industry and their shortcuts and obfuscating, should be a real awakening to the public at large. Creative inspiration came from the GOOD Nuclear Weapons video. Enjoy!

8/9/2011 Fairewinds Report for Southern Alliance for Clean Energy on TVA Bellefonte Plant

Source: Fairewinds Associates
Date: 8/9/2011
by: Arnie Gundersen

Today the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy and Fairewinds Associates issued a report to the Board of Directors of the Tennessee Valley Authority regarding numerous concerns with the Bellefonte Unit 1 nuclear project. First designed with slide rules back in 1968, Bellefonte Unit 1 is America's oldest nuclear power plant that has yet to generate any electricity. TVA began construction in 1974, mothballed the plant in 1988, and cannibalized the plant for scrap metal between 2006 and 2008. Alarmingly, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission recently allowed construction of Bellefonte Unit 1 by TVA to start again with its 1968 design and its 40-year old weakened foundation and containment. In the video and in its report, Fairewinds identifies seven areas of substantial risk for TVA if it continues to construct this aged facility.

Reports mentioned by Arnie Gundersen regarding Bellefonte Nuclear Generating Station are archived at Southern Alliance for Clean Energy:
1. 08/09/2011 - SACE Bellefonte Gundersen Rpt
2. 08/09/2011 - Bellefonte Rpt Attachments
Map:

View Live Ustream Radiation Detectors in a larger map

7/23/2011 Nuclear Power 101: Fairewinds examines the fundamental advantages and disadvantages of splitting atoms to boil water.

Source: Fairewinds Associates
Date: 7/23/2011 University of Vermont, 7/31/2011 upload date


 Included in this presentation and PowerPoint is a discussion of how nuclear power plants work, how to cool a reactor during an accident, the effect of hot particles when inhaled, and concerns involving the long-term storage of nuclear waste. This presentation took place at the Nuclear Power Conference held at the University of Vermont July 23, 2011.

7/26/2011 SPECIAL REPORT-Fukushima long ranked Japan's most hazardous nuclear plant

Source: Reuters
Date: Tue Jul 26, 2011 5:28pm EDT
Japan Nuclear Radiation