bananas
bananas's JournalSouth Korea issues Japan fish ban amid nuclear fears
Source: Associated Press
South Korea announced today that it was banning all fish imports from along Japan's northeastern coast because of what officials called growing public worry over radioactive water leaking into the Pacific Ocean near the crippled Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant.
Fisheries in Fukushima prefecture are closed, and fish caught in nearby prefectures are sold on the market only after tests have shown them to be safe for consumption.
However, South Korea's ban applies a total of eight prefectures with a combined coastline of more than 430 miles, regardless of whether the fish pass safety standards or not.
The South Korean government made the move because of insufficient information from Tokyo about what steps will be taken to address the leakage of contaminated water from the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant, according to a statement by the Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries.
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Read more: http://www.timesdispatch.com/news/national-world/south-korea-issues-japan-fish-ban-amid-nuclear-fears/article_52b10c4e-16ce-11e3-9dce-0019bb30f31a.html
Good move, the Japanese government can't be trusted,
especially since TEPCO lied to get conservative anti-science pro-nukes elected:
Mon Jul 22, 2013,
Tepco now admits radioactive water entering the sea at Fukushima No. 1
Source: AFP-JIJI
Fisheries exec shocked by utility's flip-flop on groundwater's flow
Fukushima nuclear plant operator Tepco on Monday admitted for the first time that radioactive groundwater is flowing into the sea, fueling fears that marine life is being poisoned.
The admission came a day after voters handed the largely pro-nuclear Liberal Democratic Party of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe — and ally New Komeito — a handsome majority in the Upper House.
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Don't be fooled by the name - the "Liberal Democratic Party" is right-wing:
The Liberal Democratic Party of Japan (自由民主党 Jiyū-Minshutō?), frequently abbreviated to LDP, Jimintō (自民党?) or Lib Dems, is a conservative[11] political party in Japan.
See also:
Reuters Special Report - The deeper agenda behind "Abenomics"
http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1014&pid=491979
Why Japan’s Right Turn Could Be Trouble for the U.S.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1014&pid=338583
NASA's Europa Mission Concept Rejects ASRGs
NASA's Europa Mission Concept Rejects ASRGs
Untested technology is too risky
Posted by Casey Dreier
2013/09/05 06:41 CDT
Topics: ESA Budget, Plutonium-238, Europa
The Europa Clipper team has rejected the use of the Advanced Stirling Radioisotope Generator (ASRG), NASA's next-generation plutonium power source, due to reliability issues within the the extreme Jovian radiation environment.
ASRGs use Plutonium-238 as a heat source to drive a stirling engine which generates electricity. ASRGs can provide the same amount of electricity as NASA's workhorse Multi-Mission Radioisotope Thermoelectric Generators (MMRTG), but using only a quarter of the plutonium.
A dwindling supply of plutonium has led NASA to invest heavily in ASRG technology over the past ten years. The promised efficiency gains would extend the utility of the existing plutonium supply and reduce the amount the Department of Energy would need to create every year, saving NASA millions of dollars.
But the ASRG program has faced constant reliability issues throughout its development. Unlike the MMRTG, which has no moving parts and can last for decades, the ASRG must maintain a smooth motion of a piston throughout the lifetime of a deep-space mission. A planned long-duration mock mission of the ASRG was canceled this summer due to budget cuts related to the sequester.
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The team behind Europa Clipper mission concept is now exploring regular MMRTGs and large solar panels to power the spacecraft.
Since MMRTGs are expensive and would eat up most of the remaining U.S. supply of Plutonium, solar panels are looking increasingly likely. According to Goldstein, solar panels represent the cheapest option for the mission. Preliminary analysis suggests they would have the same surface area as NASA's Juno mission to Jupiter (9m x 2m) and provide about 150W of continuous energy while exposed to the Sun. A battery would be required for the times when the Clipper spacecraft would pass into Jupiter's shadow.
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Nuclear Power’s Renaissance in Reverse - by Mycle Schneider and Antony Froggatt
Nuclear Power’s Renaissance in Reverse
Mycle Schneider, Antony Froggatt
05 September 2013
PARIS – Last June, Yukiya Amano, the director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), declared that “nuclear power will make a significant and growing contribution to sustainable development in the coming decades.” But, as this year’s World Nuclear Industry Status Report highlights, recent trends paint a very different picture.
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The nuclear-energy industry’s decline began decades ago. But, since the March 2011 triple-meltdown at Japan’s Fukushima Daiichi plant, the pace of the decline has accelerated significantly. Indeed, in 2012, annual nuclear generation worldwide dropped by an unprecedented 7%, exceeding the previous year’s record-breaking drop of 4% and bringing total annual nuclear-power generation to 12% below its historic maximum, achieved in 2006.
Although Japan accounts for three-quarters of this decline, with only two of the 50 units that are officially in operation in Japan actually producing power, 16 other countries, including the world’s top five nuclear generators, also decreased their output. As a result, nuclear power’s share of global electricity generation dropped to around 10% in 2012, compared to its 1993 peak of 17%. Only the Czech Republic reached its historic maximum nuclear share last year.
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By contrast, new renewable technologies are gaining traction, illustrating a fundamental shift in international energy policy and investment strategies. Last year, China, Germany, Japan, and India generated more power from renewables than from nuclear for the first time. In China and India, wind alone outpaced nuclear.
Since 2000, global onshore wind-power generation has averaged 27% annual growth, while the growth rate for solar photovoltaics has been a staggering 42%. Last year, an additional 45 GW of wind and 32 GW of solar were installed worldwide, compared to a net addition of 1.2 GW of nuclear.
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The IAEA’s optimistic rhetoric cannot obscure fundamental arithmetic: skyrocketing maintenance expenses and, in many cases, post-Fukushima upgrade costs, together with the impossibility of building competitive new capacity without massive government subsidies, are devastating the nuclear industry. As the economist Mark Cooper has put it, nuclear power is actually undergoing a “renaissance in reverse.”
FEMA'S use of term 'federal family' for government expands under Obama
FEMA'S use of term 'federal family' for government expands under Obama
Updated: Sept. 1, 2011 | Posted: Aug. 31, 2011
By George Bennett
Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
Don’t think of it as the federal government but as your “federal family.”
In a Category 4 torrent of official communications during the approach and aftermath of Hurricane Irene, the Federal Emergency Management Agency has repeatedly used the phrase “federal family” when describing the Obama administration’s response to the storm.
The Obama administration didn’t invent the phrase but has taken it to new heights.
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“Family” can evoke favorable thoughts of motherhood and security. But it can also conjure images of Big Brother and organized crime.
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Houck doubts all the “family” references will give the public a warm and fuzzy view of FEMA and the federal government.
“That one is so blatantly obvious that I think people’s rhetorical radar is going to go off,” Houck says.
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Down syndrome reversed in newborn mice with single injection
Source: Australia Broadcasting Corporation
US researchers have found a way to reverse Down syndrome in newborn lab mice by injecting an experimental compound that causes the brain to grow normally.
The study, published in the Science Translational Medicine journal, offers no direct link to a treatment for humans but scientists are hopeful it may offer a path towards future breakthroughs.
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"We were able to completely normalise growth of the cerebellum through adulthood with that single injection."
The injection also led to unexpected benefits in learning and memory, normally handled by a different part of the brain known as the hippocampus.
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Read more: http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-09-05/downs-syndrome-reversed-in-newborn-mice/4936412
West to hold back from targeting Iran at U.N. nuclear meeting
Source: Reuters
World powers will refrain from raising pressure on Iran at a U.N. nuclear meeting next week to give its new moderate president time to show he is serious about moves to reduce tensions over its atomic activity, Western diplomats say.
But they stressed that concrete progress is needed soon in the dispute: talks on September 27 between Iran and U.N. nuclear inspectors will be scrutinized for any sign that the new Iranian government will be more transparent and less confrontational as President Hassan Rouhani has pledged.
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During Ahmadinejad's eight-year tenure, the board passed six resolutions rebuking Iran over its nuclear defiance and evasions of IAEA scrutiny, demanding a suspension of enrichment and full cooperation with IAEA inspectors, and clearing the way to successive batches of United Nations sanctions since 2006.
"There has definitely been a change in tone from the Iranian government which we recognize and welcome," a Western envoy said, speaking ahead of next week's governing board meeting.
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Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/09/05/us-iran-nuclear-iaea-idUSBRE9840IL20130905
"No sound strategic energy planning would prioritize nuclear energy in a country like Iran"
- The Federation of American Scientists and the Carnegie Endowment for Peace, Iran’s Nuclear Odyssey: Costs and Risks
"The most important environmental liability of nuclear fission is neither the routine nor accidental emissions of radioactivity, but the deliberate misuse of nuclear facilities and materials for acts of terrorism and war."
- John Holdren, Assessing Environmental Risks of Energy
Female Thyroid Cancer, Ages 15 -24, 1975 – 2008, Japan. all data available, Official Estimates
Female Thyroid Cancer, Ages 15 -24, 1975 – 2008, Japan. all data available, Official Estimates
Source: http://ganjoho.jp/pro/statistics/en/table_download.html National estimates of cancer incidence based on cancer registries in Japan (1975-2008)
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end quotes.
I conclude the information provided by Dr Yamashita regarding the latency of childhood and young adult thyroid cancer is 1. Incorrect 2. Differs from Dr Yamashita’s stated conclusions published in 2007.
Further, the impact of Chernobyl in regard to Thyroid cancer in Japan from 1986 on, peaking in 1992, is fairly clear. I submit that the impact of the Fukushima Diiachi Nuclear Disaster on disease rates in Japan will be massively larger than the effect of Chernobyl fallout.
This will also be true for countries other than Japan.
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No accessible data can be found which describes disease rates in Japan from the late 2000s to the present time.
The primary data collected and released describing disease within areas in Japan since 2011 was collected under the supervision of Dr Yamashita until the very recent past.
It is a tragedy of modern medical record keeping that the best Japan can do is provide official estimates of the cancer for the period. It is extremely tragic that the people of Japan and the people of the world cannot see the trend of disease prior to the establishment of nuclear industry in Japan. However, for female thyroid cancer, the start point in 1975 was low. The end point of the date range provided, 2008, was higher, in all cases except for some very young age ranges. Of the childhood data provided, the most responsive appears to be the 15-19 years age range.
It is important for ordinary people in Japan and elsewhere to know that the data, as such exists, may be downloaded and studied form the link given above, ie download the data from
http://ganjoho.jp/pro/statistics/en/table_download.html National estimates of cancer incidence based on cancer registries in Japan (1975-2008)
TEPCO locates groundwater inflow into reactor turbine building for first time
Source: Asahi Shimbun
The location of an underground water leak into a reactor turbine building of the crippled Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant has been spotted for the first time since the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami, plant operator Tokyo Electric Power Co. said.
TEPCO said Sept. 4 it confirmed groundwater is flowing into the first basement of the No. 1 reactor turbine building from the junction of the building and outside piping.
To locate underground water influx, TEPCO drilled a hole on the first floor of the No. 1 turbine building and lowered a video camera into the part connecting outlet pipes with the building. TEPCO said the video camera recorded images and sound of underground water flowing into the building basement.
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It has been said that groundwater is coming from junctions of the buildings and outside piping, as well as other areas.
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Read more: http://ajw.asahi.com/article/0311disaster/fukushima/AJ201309050051
Way Up In Northern Maine: Drone Peace Walk on October 10 - 19
Monday, September 02, 2013
WAY UP IN NORTHERN MAINE
I left Bath at 6:30 am this morning with Jeanne from Portsmouth, NH to make the five hour drive to Limestone, Maine. We've come way up to what Mainers call "the County", Aroostook County, the biggest county in the state. It's potato farming territory and the place where many politicians in our state want to put a "weaponized drone test area".
As we approached our destination in Limestone just after noon we saw a couple Amish with horse and buggies along US Hwy 1A.
Limestone is where we will start our Maine Drone Peace Walk on October 10. I've come up here, being driven by volunteer Jeanne, to begin mapping the walk route. We drove from Limestone to Caribou where we met with a person from a local church to seek a place for walkers to sleep the first night of the walk.
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In the morning we head south to continue mapping the rest of the walk. The walk will wind its way through many towns and end at the state capital in Augusta on October 18 where we will hold a ceremony in the Hall of Flags at 3:00 pm that day. On October 19 walkers will head to Bath for a 10:00 am protest at BIW when the first Zumwalt class "stealth" destroyer will be "christened".
The walk will be led by Buddhist monks and nuns from the Nipponzan Myohoji order. Long-time peace activist Kathy Kelly will join the walk for the last few days and others from various states will walk along with many from Maine. See more details about the walk here.
NRC announces dates, locations, and times for dozen public meetings on Nuclear Waste Con from Oct. 1
Source: Beyond Nuclear
To see the full listing of U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) public comment meetings on its court-ordered Nuclear Waste Confidence Draft Generic Environmental Impact Statement (GEIS), please click this link.
Read more: http://www.beyondnuclear.org/home/2013/9/4/nrc-announces-dates-locations-and-times-for-dozen-public-mee.html
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