Indiaâs government has placed a Nuclear Liability Bill in the Winter Session of the Parliament. The bill, going against various Supreme Court judgments, aims to put a cap on the liability amount that private companies will have to pay towards damages in the case of a leak or accident.
The bill [...]
Today's big stories from the nuclear industry:
Moscow Will Fund Bulgarian Power Plant
âMoscow is prepared to fund most of the construction of a 4 billion euro ($6 billion) nuclear power plant at Belene in Bulgaria, Energy Minister Sergei Shmatko said Friday, as Russia [...]
Unfortunately Sebastian, the Little Mermaidâs singing crab companion, couldnât join her in Copenhagen this week. Weâre not sure sheâd like to meet the shellfish in [...]
When it comes to the people making promises on behalf of nuclear power, can any of them be taken at their word? When it comes to Ed Miliband, the UKâs environment minister, weâre not so sure.
Speaking in Parliament last month, Miliband saidâ¦
â¦we are not going to provide public subsidy [...]
Today's big stories from the nuclear industry:
U.S. envoy: No commitment by N. Korea on future talks
âSEOUL -- President Obama's envoy to North Korea said Thursday that his journey to Pyongyang produced no commitment that the North would return to international talks aimed [...]
The likes of French nuclear giant AREVA and its supporters are trying to push the nuclear ârenaissanceâ onto the agenda at the Copenhagen climate change conference, like some kind of radioactive Trojan Horse. Meanwhile, the reality on the ground for this so-called resurgence of nuclear power continues to be [...]
Today's big stories from the nuclear industry:
India's 11 Nuclear Power Units Short of Local Uranium
âNEW DELHI -- Eleven of India's 17 nuclear power reactors are operating below optimum capacity due to a lack of sufficient supplies of indigenous uranium, the science and [...]
Nokia's CEO Olli Kallasvuo: time to take action on climate change?
Photo by dottavi on Flickr.
Eureka! In what appears to be a slowly evolving trend (on a petri dish), yet another ICT CEO has come out with a statement on the climate crisis!
The prominent British environmentalist Jonathon Porritt asks some hard questions following the death of the highly influential environmentalist, writer and philosopher, Edward Goldsmithâ¦
Without Teddy, who is going to rub peopleâs noses in the continuing scandal of nuclear waste mismanagement, and remind people that this government promised time after [...]
Today's big stories from the nuclear industry:
Italy Greens leak sensitive nuclear site list
âROME, Dec 8 (Reuters) - Italy's Green Party leaked on Tuesday the names of potential nuclear power sites it claims Enel has identified â information that could spark strong local [...]
So, letâs talk about the UKâs Trident nuclear weapons system. Can you aim it Osama bin Laden? Can you use it against suicide bombers? Is it an effective deterrent against the builders of Improvised Explosive Devices? Can you fight the effects of climate change with [...]
Dell CEO Michael Dell has a climate concern moment.
Photo by Joi on Flickr.
As the time and opportunity for bold pre-Copenhagen gestures finally wound down last week with the summit opening Monday, Dell came out of the smog with a last minute show of [...]
So, in July 2007, there were these two contractors working at the Sellafield nuclear plant in North West England. They were drilling through a concrete floor in a nuclear waste storage facility that was being converted into offices.
They were wearing protective masks and suits, and had equipment to monitor radiation [...]
Today's big stories from the nuclear industry:
Security breach at Tarapur Atomic Station
âMUMBAI/THANE: In what appears to be a breach of security, two contractual workers attempted to steal computer parts from the Tarapur Atomic Power Station (TAPS), one of the oldest and strategic [...]
The nuclear industry likes to make a big song and dance about reprocessing nuclear waste (or ârecycling spent fuelâ as theyâre currently greenwashing it).
Did you know, for instance that France has sent 33,000 tonnes of nuclear waste to Russia for reprocessing since 2006? How much of that has come [...]
Today's big stories from the nuclear industry:
India, Russia to ink 'aggressive' n-deal
âAs Prime Minister Manmohan Singh stepped out on Sunday noon to a Moscow freezing at minus five degrees, diplomatic circles on both sides have been warming up to what they believe [...]
Contamination of normal plants by GE (genetically engineered) plants is something weâve been shouting about for years at Greenpeace. In 2006 we released a report that showed that the âaccidentalâ release of GE rice by Bayer into the US rice supply led to global [...]
Yesterday, the BBC World Service's Africa in Focus radio programme featured Greenpeace's findings of radioactive contamination on the streets of the villages close to AREVA's uranium mines in Niger. You can listen to it hereâ¦
AREVA have been uncharacteristically silent on this matter. As the radio presenter says at [...]
Photo by uCrave.com.
Microsoft replied to our twitter petition today - more than 230 twitterers with more than 110,000 followers, retweeted our message. Our near crazed fantasies about Steve Ballmer morphing into a climate change hero have been met with a some response. Microsoft has [...]
Here's Captain Wei Jiafu, the head of Chinese shipping giant COSCO, suggesting that nuclear reactors be used to power container vesselsâ¦
`â¦they are already onboard submarines, why not cargo ships?'One word, Captain Wei: Pirates.
Today's big stories from the nuclear industry:
Double blow dents confidence in £40bn nuclear programme
`Contractors are facing uncertainty about the Government's £40 billion nuclear programme after blows to both the decommissioning and new build programmes this week. The body in charge of decommissioning [...]
Congratulatations to René Ngongo, who receives the Right Livelihood Award (otherwise known as the "Alternative Nobel Prize") in Stockholm this evening. While we all hope we'd be ready to put our personal freedoms on the line for something we really believe in - like averting dramatic climate change -' [...]
Radio France Internationale have featured Greenpeaceâs findings of radioactive contamination on the streets of Nigerâs uranium mining villages. You can hear an interview with Greenpeace International nuclear campaigner Rianne Teule who was part of the team that found the contamination.
A survey conducted by the Ipsos MORI polling organisation for the UK Nuclear Industry Association has found that 67 per cent of people it polled agreed with the statementâ¦
Britain needs a mix of energy sources to ensure a reliable supply of electricity, including nuclear power and renewable sources [...]
Today's big stories from the nuclear industry:
House OKs bill to ban imported radioactive waste
âWASHINGTON - The House on Wednesday passed a bill banning the importation of radioactive waste for disposal in the United States. The move was prompted by a Salt Lake [...]
So a guy puts radioactive tritium in the water cooler at India's Kaiga nuclear power plant, poisoning 50 of his work colleagues. It turns out that this isn't the first time something like this has happened. Back in 1990 someone put heavy water containing radioactive isotopes in a' [...]
Today's big stories from the nuclear industry:
French reactor shut down following loss of cooling
âPARIS â One of four reactors at the Cruas nuclear power station in southern France was shut down late on Tuesday following a lapse in the cooling system, France's' [...]
Why is Microsoft - one the world's biggest corporations - having such a struggle pulling up its pants on climate change policy?
UPDATE 1: Microsoft responds, goes to Copenhagen.
UPDATE 2: Dell's op-ed in Forbes (Sponsored by Microsoft?) sets the bar for IT leader advocacy on Copenhagen
Over 55 workers at the Kaiga Generation Station in Karnataka were exposed to an excessive radiation dosage when they drank from a water cooler. How did it happen? The water had been mixed with tritium which is a radioactive form of hydrogen, used in research, fusion reactors and neutron generators. [...]
Today's big stories from the nuclear industry:
Democrats Change Tune on Nuclear Energy
âDuring the 2008 presidential campaign, it was Sen. John McCain, not then Sen. Barack Obama, who touted nuclear power. Obama, for the most part, was noncommittal on the subject. But in [...]
Just in case you thought the radioactive contamination found close to uranium mines was peculiar only to Nigerâ¦
This is the same Caetité where [...]
Today's big stories from the nuclear industry:
Indian radioactive leak was deliberate, says government
âA radiation leak at a nuclear power station in the southern Indian state of Karnataka was caused deliberately, the Indian government said at the weekend. The leak at the Kaiga [...]
You know the story: winter comes, you start to sneeze, your tissue supply is running low and as it's Sunday evening, there's only one small 24 hours shop open in a three kilometer radius.
It happened to me last night, and as I arrived in the small shop, desperate to [...]
Reports from the Reuters news agency that China, the world's largest producer and consumer of rice, has issued a biosafety certificate for a locally-developed strain of genetically-modified rice that would pave the for large-scale production in 2 to 3 years, are a cause for grave concern..
However, [...]
Today's big stories from the nuclear industry:
Mohamed ElBaradei tells Atomic Energy Agency he has hit âdead endâ with Iran
âThe head of the International Atomic Energy Agency said yesterday that he had reached a âdead endâ in his investigation into Iranâs alleged nuclear [...]
This is part of a series. Previously weâve covered koalas and grizzly and black bears.
In Australiaâs outback, camels were so thirsty - they have invaded a town seeking water.
Record-breaking drought drove the thirsty creatures to trample fences, smash water tanks, and terrorize locals, the [...]
Greenpeace has found high radiation contamination levels in the streets of Akokan where children play. What is even more disturbing is that this just year AREVA claimed that those same streets were safe.
It began in 2003 when radioactive contamination was found in towns close to Nigerâs uranium mines by [...]
Today's big stories from the nuclear industry:
Accident casts fresh doubt on nuclear safety
âOn Nov. 21, there was a radiation leak at Three Mile Island nuclear power plant near Harrisburg, Pa., less than 100 miles north of Baltimore up I-83. One hundred and [...]
Hereâs a story you wonât have heard before about how Europe nearly saw a nuclear meltdown in 2001. Why wonât you have heard it before? Because it was covered up by the Dutch authoritiesâ¦
On a winter night in December 2001 [...]
Today's big stories from the nuclear industry:
Cuts loom over UK's nuclear clean-up budget
âThe Government is sharpening the axe for Britain's £4 billion nuclear clean-up budget and drawing up plans for big spending cuts at contaminated sites including Sellafield and Dounreay, The Times [...]
Today's big stories from the nuclear industry:
A Nuclear Reactor Shows Its Age
âAlmost every plan for limiting carbon dioxide output includes keeping old nuclear plants running. But as those plants age, they turn up new problems. The latest is at a plant owned [...]
Many a marriage and many a romance have blossomed aboard our ships, but I think this is a first.
Po Paul, a deckhand onboard the Arctic Sunrise, just proposed to his girlfriend via a banner placed on deck and transmitted via the ships' webcam. She said yes immediately.
They're building a time capsule, and your message to the future could be in it. Very cool project.
The time capsule will be sealed in Copenhagen, during the climate summit. Part of the idea is to get delegates thinking about which future they're creating. Part of [...]
Itâs going to be a nuclear ârenaissanceâ, theyâve told us. A dormant (or dying) and discredited nuclear industry was going to spring back to life, provide cheap, safe, reliable and clean electricity, and save us from catastrophic climate change. But thenâ¦
Turkeyâs government announced over the weekend that [...]
Today's big stories from the nuclear industry:
Britain poised to lose jobs as £10bn nuclear power plant contract goes to US
âThousands of jobs that were to have been created in Britain to build the next generation of nuclear power plants could be heading [...]
An independent expert commissioned by Greenpeace has found the two nuclear reactors currently being built in Finland and France have serious safety flaws in their design. Dr. Helmut Hirsch, Scientific Consultant for Nuclear Safety says the design of AREVAâs much heralded third-generation EPR [...]
Today's big stories from the nuclear industry:
Peak Uranium? Our nuclear future might be shorter than we thought
âWeâve all heard of Peak Oil (even if thereâs some doubt about whether weâve heard the truth over when itâs going to actually kick in), but [...]
It's no secret that big polluting companies are going all out to try and destroy the chance of the US congress passing meaningful global warming legislation with significant emissions reduction targets. On big loop hole is the option of "offsetting" reductions abroad. The flawed nature of large scale carbon [...]
âNuclear power is a dangerous distraction to real solutions.â
Kumi Naidoo, Executive Director, Greenpeace International
âHave a French nuclear industry that works. That means that we have to rethink the whole industry.â
Henri Proglio, the incoming boss of EDF
âFor a nuclear power station to be built at Kirksanton, the [...]
Why should we trust the nuclear industry when it doesnât trust itself? Thatâs the underlining question of a Greenpeace report released this week.
The Harper government has tabled the Nuclear Liability and Compensation Act in Parliament. The bill would, if passed, artificially cap the liability of a nuclear operator for accidents [...]
Today's big stories from the nuclear industry:
New Greenpeace Chief Calls for Sustainable, Nuclear-Free Power Supply
âKumi Naidoo was appointed executive director of the environmental campaign group Greenpeace International this month after two decades leading civil society groups in Africa and internationally. Mr. Naidoo, 44, who is from South Africa, [...]
The Happy Ranger carrying both steam generators - for AREVA's disaster-prone OL3 EPR nuclear reactor at Olkiluoto in Finland - and eight Greenpeace activists arrived at their destination this afternoon. After the formalities of Finnish immigration, our heroes are now enjoying well deserved baths, hot dinners and celebrations. [...]
Today's big stories from the nuclear industry:
Nuclear power: less effective than energy efficiency and renewable energy?
âIf the U.S. wants to help stop global warming, nuclear power is not the way to go, according to a new report released today. The Environment California [...]
French nuclear giant AREVA is upset by the six Greenpeace activists who boarded the transport ship Happy Ranger in the Fehmarn Belt strait between Denmark and Germany. The ship is taking massive steam generators to the construction site of AREVAâs beleaguered OL3 EPR nuclear reactor in Olkiluoto, [...]
Today's big stories from the nuclear industry:
India puts nuclear plants on alert
âNEW DELHI, Nov 16 (Reuters) - India has put its nuclear power plants under alert and tightened security around them after intelligence about possible attacks, a report said on Monday. The [...]
When I was woken up for my watch at 4 am, I had a liter of water in my sleeping bag.
Read Lauri's latest blog post from from the deck of the Happy Ranger...
[...]Greenpeace Finland nuclear campaigner Lauri Myllyvirta is blogging from the deck of the Happy Ranger which Lauri and five colleagues boarded today as the ship transports steam generators to the construction site of AREVA's EPR nuclear reactor at Olkiluoto, Finland.
[...]
A few days ago the cargo ship The Happy Ranger left France carrying steam generators intended for the nuclear European Pressurised Reactor under construction in Olkiluoto, Finland. As the ship made its way from France to Finland, activists from the Arctic Sunrise boarded the cargo ship and are currently [...]
Who said speaking out against nuclear power couldnât be fun? Last week Greenpeace Mediterranean asked the Turkish public, âare you ready to live with nuclear?â by holding a highly visual performance from Abarjazz Avandgard Music Group in Istanbul. It was the first of many activities to [...]
Today's big stories from the nuclear industry:
Nevada's hidden ocean of radiation
âA sea of ancient water tainted by the Cold War is creeping deep under the volcanic peaks, dry lake beds and pinyon pine forests covering a vast tract of Nevada. Over 41 [...]
Kumi Naidoo, the new Executive Director of Greenpeace International, writes:
In several African languages we have the proverb âI am, because you areâ. This means that your sense of being a human being is determined by the relationships you have with other people. This proverb has informed not only my [...]
We talk all the time about the terrible economics of nuclear power. Every aspect of them is, without exception, terrible:
⢠We see very little prospect of construction costs falling and every likelihood of them rising further.
⢠We calculate that a new nuclear station will require â¬65/MWh (?8.5/MWh) in real terms year [...]
Duke Energy Abandons Plutonium Fuel (MOX) Testing Program in South Carolina Reactor
Friends of the Earth has learned that Duke Energy has taken a decisive step which signals its complete withdrawal from the Department of Energy's controversial program to test the potential use of surplus military plutonium as fuel for [...]
There are days when you simply run out of words. How to continue to describe the ongoing construction of the flagship OL3 EPR reactor at Olkiluoto, Finland? Weâve done âdisastrousâ, âincompetentâ and âfarceâ. Add to those âmassively over-budgetâ and âhugely behind scheduleâ.
Weâre at a loss to describe [...]
Today's big stories from the nuclear industry:
Nuclear power industry may benefit from climate change levy exemption
Government is considering fresh tax breaks for Britain's nuclear power industry that could smooth the way for the construction of a new generation of UK reactors, [...]
Claudia Misch writes:
I have the privilege to be the assistant to Gerd Leipold, who this week steps down as Executive Director and Chief Troublemaker at Greenpeace International.
While nobody is surprised that Greenpeace's leader is an activist --Gerd has been arrested in Germany and the Pacific and [...]
Every time you think the thingâs been laid to rest, up to gets again, moaning once more and trudging along to who knows where, half terrifying and half pathetic.
No, weâre not talking about some zombie from a bad horror movie. Yet again itâs Turkeyâs bid [...]
Today's big stories from the nuclear industry:
The economic downside to nuclear energy
âWhether you think nuclear power is "clean" or not there are other considerations to be addressed before anyone starts building new nuclear reactors. Will new nuclear reactors and subsequent nuclear energy [...]
Last month, Sasha informed us about the alarming state of the grizzly and black bears as their main food, salmon, are diminishing.
This week, another type of bear is threatened by climate change â the koala bear.
AFP reports that the cute cuddly creatures [...]
From Wired:
The worms, found in a gray whale skeleton off the coast of California, prompted scientists to designate them as representatives of an entirely new genus, dubbed Osedax. They belonged to a taxonomic family of marine worms that lack mouths and anuses, and rely entirely on bacteria to absorb [...]
Amchitka is the rock concert that launched Greenpeace. It's also the concert that launched a ship: the Phyllis McCormack, which sailed out into the first Greenpeace action protesting US nuclear testing in the Aleutian Islands.
Two weeks ago we posted this gentle call-to-action on our Eric Schmidt webpage in the Cool IT ranking of top IT executives:
GetSatisfaction is a website where people leave feedback for companies - questions, problems, praise even. 21 Google employees are registered with the [...]Itâs a while since weâve hear from our old friend Tricastin but sheâs never really very far from our thoughts or the headlines.
Franceâs nuclear power facility had a very busy time last year. There was a leak of 30,000 litres of a uranium solution that prevented nearby residents using [...]
Today's big stories from the nuclear industry:
Seven of Britain's new nuclear plants will be on Irish Sea coast
âFears have been raised about the health and environmental risks to Ireland after the British Government gave the green light for the construction of 10 [...]
On the Greenpeace ship Esperanza, in the heart of the Pacific ocean, we have witnessed one of the titanic struggles of our age, an issue that can divide communities and and often times dare not be spoken.
I am of course talking vegemite or marmite?
If we can resolve the politics of [...]
This is a follow up to Brian's post, "They said we were crazy",
The New York Times has an editorial today calling on the Senate to pass a strong chemical security bill:
The requirements are reasonable, vital and long overdue. If terrorists were to attack a chemical plant near [...]Work for the nuclear industry? It seems your private life is no longer privateâ¦
Thousands of staff at UK nuclear power stations have been told to spy on the private lives of workmates and inform on colleagues who might be âvulnerableâ to blackmail or bribery by terrorists intent on getting [...]
When I am having a bad day on the frontiers of the solar revolution, I try to imagine being the chief finance officer of British Energy, who will probably be having a much worse day, and indeed, vocational, life. He or she is supposed to raise multiple billions for a [...]
Today's big stories from the nuclear industry:
Britain's nuclear strategy threatens destruction of Kalahari
âNamibian environmentalists warn expansion of uranium mining could devastate spectacular natural landscape. The hidden cost of Britain's new generation of nuclear power could be the destruction of the Kalahari desert [...]
You most probably have heard of them once or twice before. They appear here and there, suddenly out of nowhere. They are loud, they are convincing and they are very persistent in their messaging - Climate skeptics!
A recent poll conducted by the Pew Research Center, found that only [...]
When I was 9 years old the neighbor wanted to extend the side of his house but the trees there were in the way. These were beautiful, gigantic Populus and I loved them so much. When the wind blew through the leaves it made the most [...]
Yesterday, we saw nuclear reactor builders AREVA citing a study that said ânuclear power has the smallest land-use footprint of all forms of energy generationâ.
The thing is, thereâs actually quite a bit of disagreement on the matter. The study âEnergy Sprawl or Energy Efficiency: Climate Policy Impacts [...]
Today's big stories from the nuclear industry:
ANALYSIS-German nuclear policy skirts a taboo
âFRANKFURT, Nov 5 (Reuters) - Germany's nuclear power policy of keeping old reactors open longer to bridge the gap to greener energy may also leave the door open to eventually break [...]
In 2007, Aussie musician Missy Higgins and her band toured the US in a Prius, participated in Live Earth and helped PETA campaign against animal abuse. That same year, KT Tunstall also jumped on the green bandwagon, touring in a biodiesel-fuelled bus [...]
Weâre once again grateful to lumbering French nuclear ogre AREVAâs North American blog for a quite spectacular piece of greenwash, the title of which is...
The Nature Conservancy: Nuclear Power has a Small Footprint
Now, when it comes to environmental issues, whatâs the kind of footprint that springs to mind? It [...]
Today's big stories from the nuclear industry:
French nuclear export drive tainted by safety fears
âPARIS - Safety fears and threats of winter power cuts have taken some of the shine off France's world-beating nuclear industry, the country's main source of power and a [...]
How realistic is this video? Well, people do bring their kids to protests. (And why not? It can be a nice day out for a bit of a walk. Get away from the game console and learn a bit about free speech.) Reminds me of the kids in this [...]
Looks like the shockingly poor economics of nuclear energy may have killed two more two more reactor projects, this time in the USâ¦
Entergy Corp Chief Executive J. Wayne Leonard said on Tuesday that the company is unlikely to pursue construction of new nuclear plant in its Southeastern U.S. utility [...]
Today's big stories from the nuclear industry:
Australia's Future Power Sources Won't Include Nuclear - PM
âCANBERRA -(Dow Jones)- The future sources for Australia's power needs include coal, natural gas and a range of renewables rather than nuclear, Prime Minister Kevin Rudd said Wednesday.' [...]
Mike is back on dry land after the Defending Our Pacific tour wrapped up in the Cook Islands last month. At the end of the tour, an âopen boatâ was held, where a couple hundred locals and tourists got the chance to tour the Esperanza.
Below, [...]
As weâve discussed before, there are two questions asked about building a nuclear reactor â âHow much will it cost?â and âWhen will it be operational?â- to which there is only one, honest reply: âIâll tell you when itâs finished.â
This week, however, lumbering French nuclear ogre AREVA added a third [...]
Today's big stories from the nuclear industry:
Niger Leader rewrites rules to keep power
âThe cause of democracy in Africa could have done without this latest affront. Barely six months after giving the French president an undertaking that he would leave power at the [...]
In a major victory for Greenpeace, chemical giant Clorox announced yesterday that they are phasing out the use and transport of Chlorine gas in the US.
One of our Greenpeace elders, Bob Hunter, once said that the thing about demanding big change is that it looks impossible when [...]
While weâre on the subject of Franceâs nuclear antics, how about this: President Sarkozy is about to designate Mururoa, an atoll in French Polynesia and the site of more than 180 nuclear weapons tests between 1966 and 1996, as a site of âremembrance and territorial prideâ.
As a Greenpeace report [...]
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