GoUpstate.com: SC anti-nuke activist [and ex Greenpeace nuclear campaigner] Tom Clements runs for US Senate
‘COLUMBIA — In his quest to replace South Carolina Republican Jim DeMint in the U.S. Senate, anti-nuclear activist and Green Party candidate Tom Clements says he hopes to pick up support from Democrats wary of backing their own nominee: Alvin Greene. "I have general knowledge of a lot of issues, and I don't believe the Democratic candidate does," said Clements, 59. Clements has spent his life fighting for environmental issues. A graduate of Emory University and the University of Georgia, Clements has worked for the Peace Corps, Greenpeace and the now-defunct Nuclear Control Institute. He has now joined Friends of the Earth, where he serves as a watchdog on reprocessing and environmental cleanup activities at South Carolina's former nuclear weapons plant, the Savannah River Site. Nominated by South Carolina's Green Party in May, Clements was officially in the U.S. Senate race before he says the state's Democratic Party "imploded" when voters nominated Greene, a 33-year-old unemployed military veteran who had done no campaigning or fundraising prior to the primary. The day after Green's victory June 8, The Associated Press was first to report that Greene had been arrested in November on a felony obscenity charge for allegedly showing Internet pornography to a female University of South Carolina student. Greene was indicted by a grand jury last month. No hearings have been scheduled.
The Local: Gas could threaten nuclear waste depot in Gorleben
‘The former geological surveyor for the controversial nuclear waste depot Gorleben warned Wednesday that there could be dangerous gas deposits lurking beneath the old salt dome caverns. “It is totally incomprehensible to me that despite all of these deficiencies Gorleben is still being examined for its suitability as a storage facility, and not any alternative sites,” geologist Klaus Duphorn said. According to Duphorn, there would have to be no gas above a depth of 1,500 metres in the salt dome, but this could “hardly” be confirmed, he said. East German files from 1969, when the communist regime drilled into the salt dome just over the border from Gorleben in Lower Saxony, show that there was a deadly accident involving a gas explosion some five kilometres from where the nuclear waste is located. That incident proves that there are two geological layers under the mine that hold natural gas, Duphorn said.’
Bloomsberg: Eletrobras May Get $1.5 Billion Financing From French Banks
http://www.businessweek.com/news/2010-09-15/eletrobras-may-get-1-5-billion-financing-from-french-banks.html
‘Sept. 15 (Bloomberg) -- Centrais Eletricas Brasileiras SA, Latin America’s largest utility, may get $1.5 billion of loans from French banks, Chief Executive Officer Jose Antonio Muniz Lopes said. “French banks are interested in financing us,” Muniz said yesterday in an interview in Montreal. French banks may offer loans because Eletrobras, as the Rio de Janeiro-based utility is known, plans to buy nuclear-power equipment from Paris-based Areva SA for its Angra 3 project in Brazil, he said.’
Bloomberg: Australia Greens Want Mining Tax Raised, Uranium Added in Gillard Hurdle
‘The Australian Greens Party wants Prime Minister Julia Gillard to increase a proposed levy on coal and iron ore profits and expand it to include uranium, underscoring the pressure on her two-day old minority government. “We will be talking with the Treasurer about the setting of that tax,” Brown said in a phone interview from Hobart. “We’ll continue to bring forward legislation that is going to challenge both the big parties.” The Greens Party won a record 12 percent of the national vote at last month’s national elections, giving them nine seats in the upper house Senate and one in the lower house. Gillard’s Labor Party must placate the Greens to pass legislation and do so without alienating three independent lawmakers who also helped her secure a parliamentary majority. “They’ll have to approach this as carefully as they possibly can because of the different agendas,” Nick Economou, a political scientist at Melbourne-based Monash University, said by phone. “Everybody dresses up their interest as the national interest -- it’s a devil of a thing to try to work through, but that’s the reality for the government.” The Labor Party lost its majority at the Aug. 21 election and was forced to woo independents to prevent rival Tony Abbott and his Liberal-National coalition from taking office. To win the support of the Greens Party’s sole member in the lower house, Adam Bandt, Gillard pledged to hold weekly meetings on the Greens agenda.’
MarketWatch: Brighton Energy Commences Uranium Exploration in Niger
‘OTTAWA, ONTARIO, Sep 15, 2010 (MARKETWIRE via COMTEX) -- Orezone Gold Corporation is pleased to announce that its subsidiary, Brighton Energy Limited ("Brighton"), has received 20 to 27 month extensions for its five uranium exploration permits in the Republic of Niger, West Africa. Utilizing its own treasury, Brighton has commenced a $3M exploration program that will include airborne geophysical surveys followed by ground verification and drilling of the higher priority targets identified along the major mineralized trends. Drilling is expected to commence by November. Orezone is also pleased to announce that it has concluded a transaction to increase its equity ownership in Brighton to 66.6% (see release June 23, 2010). Brighton, through its Niger subsidiary, has title to 4,000 km2 of well located and prospective ground within the Tim MersoI sedimentary Basin. The permits host key geological structures and favorable rocks that are known to host or control the mineralization at producing uranium mines in the basin. This region currently ranks as the sixth largest uranium producer in the world and is expected to become the second largest by 2013 with additional production from Areva and China Nuclear. Even with the increased production profile the area remains largely underexplored.’
Jimmy Carter: North Korea Wants to Make a Deal
‘DURING my recent travels to North Korea and China, I received clear, strong signals that Pyongyang wants to restart negotiations on a comprehensive peace treaty with the United States and South Korea and on the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula. The components of such an agreement have been fairly constant over the past 16 years, first confirmed in 1994 by the United States and Kim Il-sung, then the North Korean leader, and repeated by a multilateral agreement negotiated in September 2005. The basic provisions hold that North Korea’s old graphite-moderated nuclear energy reactor, which can easily produce weapons-grade plutonium, and all related facilities and products should be disabled under inspection by the International Atomic Energy Agency; that while the reactor is shut down, the United States should provide fuel oil or electric power to North Korea until new power plants are built; that the United States should provide assurances against the threat of nuclear attack or other military actions against North Korea; that the United States and North Korea should move toward the normalization of political and economic relations and a peace treaty covering the peninsula; that better relations should be pursued by North Korea, South Korea and Japan; and that all parties should strengthen their economic cooperation on energy, trade and investment.’