IPS: WIKILEAKS - Africa Offers Easy Uranium
PARIS, Dec 26, 2010 (IPS) - Wikileaks cables have revealed a disturbing development in the African uranium mining industry: abysmal safety and security standards in the mines, nuclear research centres, and border customs are enabling international companies to exploit the mines and smuggle dangerous radioactive material across continents. The Wikileaks cables reveal that U.S. diplomats posted in a number of African countries - the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Tanzania, Niger, and Burundi, among others - have had direct knowledge of the poor safety and security standards in these countries' uranium and nuclear facilities. The cables also highlight the involvement of European, Chinese, Indian, and South Korean companies in the illegal extraction and smuggling of uranium from Africa. Most European nuclear reactors use uranium imported from African countries. In one classified document, dated Sep. 8, 2006, the U.S. embassy in the DRC capital Kinshasa reported that several U.S. diplomats and security service personnel toured the Kinshasa Nuclear Research Centre (CREN-K) on Jul. 27 that year in order to assess the facility’s security needs. CREN-K houses the DRC’s two nuclear reactors. Neither reactor is currently functioning, but staff conduct nuclear-related research and teaching at the facility. Although inactive, CREN-K stores significant amounts of uranium and nuclear waste. This radioactive material includes 138 nuclear fuel rods, at least 15 kg of enriched and non-enriched uranium, and some 23 kg of nuclear waste.
Tehran Times: Iran plans to build more nuclear power plants: energy minister
TEHRAN – Energy Minister Majid Namju has said that Iran plans to build more nuclear power plants. “The administration specially supports investment in the expansion of nuclear power plants,” Namju said on Sunday. He also announced that Bushehr power plant will start feeding the national power grid within a few months, adding that the administration has several plans for construction of new nuclear power plants. On December 1, the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI) announced that the last phase of loading fuel into the core of the Bushehr nuclear power plant has been completed. AEOI Director Ali Akbar Salehi, who has also taken over as acting foreign minister, expressed hope that the plant would be connected to the national power grid by February 19, 2011.When Bushehr nuclear power plant is first connected to the national grid, the reactor will be producing 400 megawatts of electricity and within three months it will reach 100 percent of its capacity and produce 1000 megawatts of electricity which accounts for one-fortieth of the electricity output of the country.
Kuwait Times: Expert advises against entry to nuclear club
KUWAIT: Kuwait should not embark on constructing a nuclear energy plant but is highly recommended that it try safer options like the development of wind and solar energies, remarked an environment expert. Adnan Al-Shaheen, Chairman and Managing Director of Al-Dal Company for Environment Projects was reacting to the latest news on Kuwait's acquisition of about five percent stake in French nuclear reactor maker - Areva. The Kuwait Investment Authority (KIA) plans to invest 600 million euros and France will inject another 300 million euros in to the project. Al-Shaheen said that the wind and solar energy is a safer and guaranteed source of energy which has been on the table for long time. They are safer than nuclear energy. Why rush on nuclear energy where we can afford the wind and solar energies. They may be expensive but Kuwait can afford it; we have the money to spend and surely we can have it if desired," he said. Al-Shaheen explained that nuclear energy is an extreme choice, if there was no other alternative. He added their concerns lay on the reliability and maintenance of the controversial energy source, once a reactor is built. Kuwait's nuclear acquisition was viewed by many as a preliminary scheme to formally enter the so-called peaceful 'nuclear energy race' in the Middle East. In March 2009, Kuwait's Cabinet approved a draft project to set up a national nuclear energy commission and subsequently informed the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in Vienna about its intention to "join the club.
The Telegraph: Jaitapur - Study calls for nuke plant pause
Mumbai, Dec. 28: A social impact assessment report has slammed the 9900MW Jaitapur nuclear power park proposed in coastal Konkan, saying it would have a negative social and environmental impact on nearby villages. The 40-page report, compiled by a disaster management centre of the Tata Institute of Social Sciences, has analysed the social impact the project would have on seven villages where the Nuclear Power Corporation of India Ltd will acquire about 968 hectares. The project, to be built in collaboration with French company Areva, would have six 1650MW reactors which would be commissioned in a phased manner beginning 2018. TISS researchers used primary and secondary sources of information on nine parameters including livelihood, land, agriculture, horticulture, natural resources and health. The report said that contrary to the NPCIL claim that barren land would be used for the project, much of the land was being used for agriculture, horticulture and grazing purposes.
GrafWV.com: Radioactive Huntington
The ‘50s and ‘60s were not an assemblage of rocking and rolling “Happy Days” with “Laverne & Shirley” working at a brew factory singing, “Give us any chance we will make it… We’re going to make our dreams come true.” During that time the Cold War ensured so — the United States and Russia (and later Red China) all feared the other would launch a nuclear bomb that would set off World War III, which would have made much of the planet a radioactive shroud. These fears led to a cinematic culture that imagined futures where mutants, vampires and other zombies ruled the planet. A fall 2010 report cited a radioactive rabbit near the former Hanford nuclear facility in Washington, along with traces of radioactive mouse droppings. Anecdotal reports tell of a fish set for mounting that swam in Ohio exploding overnight at a taxidermist. And, if you dig deep enough in certain locations, you’ll find various colors and types of hazardous goo.
Courthouse News Service: Cancer Sufferers Blame Nuclear Industry
PITTSBURGH (CN) - Twenty-one people say they got cancers, some of them fatal, from air and water pollution and toxic waste dumped from a nuclear processing plant east of Pittsburgh. They claim that Babcock & Wilcox Power Generation Group, B&W Technical Services and Atlantic Richfield Co. have "never, in their entire history, operated in compliance with applicable state, local and federal laws." The plaintiffs live in and around Parks Township, in the Kiskiminetas Valley, about 30 miles northeast of Pittsburgh. In their federal complaint, they say radioactive pollutants, including lead, radium, plutonium and uranium, were released as close as 50 feet from homes, and then were drunk, inhaled or absorbed through the skin. The citizens' list of diseases includes thyroid cancer, breast cancer, lung cancer, non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, kidney cancer, myxofibrosarcoma, gastric cancer, macroglobulinemia, a gastrointestinal stromal tumor, chronic lymphatic leukemia, brain tumors, colorectal cancer, skin cancer, bladder cancer, metastatic cancer and gastric adenocarcinoma.