bananas
bananas's JournalExpert pans OPG’s environmental impact statement
Source: Kincardine News
Ontario Power Generation was forced to defend its plan to store low- to intermediate-level nuclear waste deep beneath the ground beside Lake Huron after a key expert questioned the “credibility” and “reliability” of the methods used to write the project’s environmental impact statement (EIS).
Dr. Peter Duinker, an expert in environmental impact assessment, appeared before the independent joint review panel tasked with considering the proposed deep geologic repository (DGR), Thursday, Sept. 3, 2013.
The panel asked Duinker to assess the methods OPG used to identify significant and cumulative effects the project will have on the environment.
Duinker said there were “significant flaws of approach and method” and the work was “not credible,” the methods used “not defensible” and the conclusions “not reliable.”
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Read more: http://www.shorelinebeacon.com/2013/10/03/expert-pans-opgs-environmental-impact-statement
Government shutdown: Nuclear Regulatory Commission meetings on San Onofre postponed
Source: KPCC
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has postponed two California meetings on nuclear waste storage proposals related to the closure of the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station due to the federal government shutdown.
While its website proclaims "NRC Remains Open For Business" on the home page, the agency is postponing public meetings around the country due to the "anticipated lack of federal funding" resulting from the government shutdown.
Two public meetings next week in San Luis Obispo (Monday) and Carlsbad (Wednesday) fell victim to the shutdown. The meetings were meant to present the findings and receive public comments on NRC's proposed rules and environmental study on the long-term storage of spent nuclear fuel.
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The agency said more scheduled meetings in October and November might also be affected if the shutdown continues. The status of these meetings will be updated on the agency's Public Meetings Schedule on the NRC website.
Read more: http://www.scpr.org/news/2013/10/04/39653/the-government-shutdown-nuclear-regulatory-commiss/
Iranians chant "Death to America" despite president's chat with Obama
Source: Associated Press
Iranians chanted "Death to America" and burned the U.S. flag after weekly prayers in Tehran on Friday despite their new president's outreach to the West and promises of moderation and easing of tensions with the outside world.
The chants, customary after Friday services in the Iranian capital, reflect the challenges facing President Hassan Rouhani as he tries to build on the groundbreaking exchanges with Washington that included a telephone chat last week with President Barack Obama - a gesture aimed at ending three decades of estrangement between the two countries.
Rouhani's overtures have been hailed by both Iranian reformists and the country's conservative clerical leadership.
But a wide array of Iranian hard-liners opposes any improved contact with the Unites States. Diplomatic relations between the two were cut after the 1979 Islamic Revolution and the storming of the U.S. Embassy in Tehran, when militants held 52 Americans hostage for 444 days.
During prayers Friday in Tehran, the master-of-ceremonies led the crowd into chants of "Death to America" at least twice from the podium.
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Read more: http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-202_162-57606151/iranians-chant-death-to-america-despite-presidents-chat-with-obama/
Japanese Nuclear Agency Scolds Fukushima Plant’s Operator
Source: New York Times
In an unusually public scolding, Japan’s nuclear watchdog agency criticized the operator of the crippled Fukushima nuclear plant on Friday for making mistakes that allowed radioactive water to leak into the Pacific Ocean, and ordered it to quickly fix the problems.
The agency, the Nuclear Regulation Authority, summoned the president of the operator, the Tokyo Electric Power Company, to explain the accidents and spills that have plagued the cleanup of the Fukushima Daiichi plant since it suffered a triple meltdown two years ago. The most recent mishap came earlier this week, when the company, known as Tepco, said workers had spilled 114 gallons of contaminated water while trying to fill an already overflowing tank. It said some of the water might have run into the ocean.
In a public hearing, an official at the regulatory agency, Katsuhiko Ikeda, dressed down Tepco’s president, saying the problems raised serious questions about the company’s ability to operate its other nuclear plants, like the huge Kashiwazaki-Kariwa facility, which Tepco wants to restart.
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Such blunt and direct criticism is rare in confrontation-averse Japan.
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Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/05/world/asia/fukushima-nuclear-plant-in-japan.html?_r=0
Three Y-12 protesters denied new trial, face sentencing in January
Source: Associated Press
A judge has denied a new trial for a nun and two other protesters who broke into a nuclear weapons plant in Tennessee.
The Knoxville News Sentinel reports that U.S. District Judge Amul R. Thapar also ruled this week against a motion to acquit the three.
The defendants — Sister Megan Rice and protesters Michael Walli and Greg Boertje-Obed — were convicted in May of sabotaging the plant and damaging federal property last year at the Y-12 National Security Complex in Oak Ridge. They are scheduled to be sentenced Jan. 28 in Knoxville and face up to 30 years in prison. They remain in federal custody.
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Numerous letters have been sent to Thapar asking for leniency when the three are sentenced and objecting to the government’s labeling of pacifists as terrorists.
Read more: http://www.tennessean.com/viewart/20131004/NEWS21/310040153/Three-Y-12-protesters-denied-new-trial-face-sentencing-January
NBC reality TV show to send winner to space with Virgin Galactic
Source: Reuters
After a decade of casting around for a space-themed show, reality TV producer Mark Burnett has finally found a way to launch his dream.
On Thursday, Burnett, creator of "Survivor" and "The Voice" unveiled a partnership with Virgin Galactic, a U.S. offshoot of Richard Branson's London-based Virgin Group, for a TV series that will send someone to space.
"For the past 10 years I have relentlessly pursued my dream of using a TV show to give an everyday person the chance to experience the black sky of space and look down upon mother Earth," Burnett said in a statement.
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The series, called "Space Race," will feature contenders in an unscripted elimination competition. The winner will get a ticket to ride on SpaceShipTwo. Details of the show's format, or when it will air, have not been released.
As part of the deal, Virgin Galactic will give the production team "unprecedented access" to SpaceShipTwo's base at Spaceport American in New Mexico, series backer NBC said in a news release.
Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/10/03/entertainment-us-space-tv-virgin-idUSBRE99210Q20131003
Mother of sex change Belgian: 'I don't care about his euthanasia death'
Mother of sex change Belgian: 'I don't care about his euthanasia death'
The mother of a Belgian who chose to die after a botched sex change operation has said "her death does not bother me" in a tragic case that has revived debate over euthanasia in Belgium.
Nathan Verhelst was euthaniused on the grounds of "unbearable psychological suffering"
By Bruno Waterfield, Brussels
10:28AM BST 02 Oct 2013
On Monday, Nathan, born Nancy, Verhelst, 44, was killed by lethal injection after requesting euthanasia on the grounds of "unbearable psychological suffering" because surgery to turn her into a man had resulted in "a monster".
Today, his unnamed mother confirmed Mr Verhelst's comments, made in an interview just before his death, that he had been an unwanted child and admitted she had not yet read his letter to her explaining why he asked to die.
"When I saw 'Nancy' for the first time, my dream was shattered. She was so ugly. I had a phantom birth. Her death does not bother me," she told Het Laatste Nieuws newspaper.
"I will definitely read it but it will be full of lies. For me, this chapter is closed. Her death does not bother me. I feel no sorrow, no doubt or remorse. We never had a bond."
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Belgian killed by euthanasia after a botched sex change operation
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"I was the girl that nobody wanted," Mr Verhelst told Het Laatste Nieuws newspaper in the hours before her death.
"While my brothers were celebrated, I got a storage room above the garage as a bedroom. 'If only you had been a boy', my mother complained. I was tolerated, nothing more."
Mr Verhelst had hormone therapy in 2009, followed by a mastectomy and surgery to construct a penis in 2012. But "none of these operations worked as desired".
"I was ready to celebrate my new birth," he told the newspaper. "But when I looked in the mirror, I was disgusted with myself. My new breasts did not match my expectations and my new penis had symptoms of rejection. I do not want to be... a monster. "
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This is so sad.
I'm in shock at the mother's comments.
Los Alamos management of waste facility faulted
Source: Associated Press
A project to replace an aging and degrading radioactive waste treatment facility at Los Alamos National Laboratory is 11 years behind schedule and its price tag has nearly tripled because of ineffective management, according to a government audit released Wednesday.
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The audit is the latest in a series of government reports to detail cost overruns and delays by projects overseen by the NNSA, prompting Congress to appoint a task force that is studying a potential overhaul of the DOE-run agency.
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"The planning and design reversals, confusion, and incompetence documented in this report boggle the mind and exceed what seems possible," said Greg Mello, executive director of the watchdog Los Alamos Study Group. "It's like a Laurel and Hardy movie, starring Bechtel-led (Los Alamos National Security) and NNSA. It happens again and again, on almost all projects."
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Mello, however, called for resignations and steep fines, noting the same contractors are to blame for problems and overruns on other key projects at Los Alamos, including the security system at its most sensitive area.
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Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/los-alamos-management-waste-facility-170550664.html
Big solar now competing with wind energy on costs
Big solar now competing with wind energy on costs
By Giles Parkinson on 30 September 2013
The cost of large-scale solar projects has fallen by one third in the last five years and big solar now competes with wind energy in the solar-rich south-west of the United States, according to new research.
The study by the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory entitled “Utility-Scale Solar 2012: An Empirical Analysis of Project Cost, Performance, and Pricing Trends in the United States” – says the cost of solar is still falling and contracts for some solar projects are being struck as low as $50/MWh (including a 30 per cent federal tax credit).
The LBNL study is the first detailed investigation on the costs of “big solar”. The US has more than 4,000MW of utility-scale solar (any installation more than 2MW) and has been building them since the 1980s. The US has more “big solar” than rooftop solar, in contrast with Australia, where nearly all solar capacity has been built on rooftops.
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Another interesting observation from LBNL is that most of the contracts written in recent years do not escalate in nominal dollars over the life of the contract. This means that in real dollar terms, the pricing of the contract actually declines.
This means that towards the end of their contracts, the solar plants (including PV, CSP and CPV) contracted in 2013 will on average will be delivering electricity at less than $40/MWh. This is likely to be considerably less than fossil fuel plants at the same time, given the expected cost of fuels and any environmental regulations.
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