If we could see the world with a particularly illuminating set of spectacles, one of its most prominent features at the moment would be a giant carbon bubble, whose bursting someday will make the housing bubble of 2007 look like a lark. As yet — as we shall see — it’s unfortunately largely invisible to us.

In compensation, though, we have some truly beautiful images made possible by new technology. Last month, for instance, NASA updated the most iconic photograph in our civilization’s gallery: “Blue Marble,” originally taken from Apollo 17 in 1972. The spectacular new high-def image shows a picture of the Americas on January 4th, a good day for snapping photos because there weren’t many clouds.

It was also a good day because of the striking way it could demonstrate to us just how much the planet has changed in 40 years. As Jeff Masters, the web’s most widely read meteorologist, explains, “The U.S. and Canada are virtually snow-free and cloud-free, which is extremely rare for a January day. The lack of snow in the mountains of the Western U.S. is particularly unusual. I doubt one could find a January day this cloud-free with so little snow on the ground throughout the entire satellite record, going back to the early 1960s.”

Full Story Here: The Great Carbon Bubble: Why the Fossil Fuel Industry Fights So Hard | Common Dreams.

The Wall Street Journal reported on January 19th that the Obama Administration was pushing heavily to get the 50 state attorneys general to agree to a settlement with five major banks in the “robo-signing” scandal. The scandal involves employees signing names not their own, under titles they did not really have, attesting to the veracity of documents they had not really reviewed. Evidence reveals that it was an industry-wide practice, dating back to the late 1990s; and it may have clouded the titles of millions of homes. If the settlement is agreed to, it will let Wall Street bankers off the hook for crimes that would land the rest of us in jail – fraud, forgery, securities violations and tax evasion.

To the President’s credit, however, he seems to have shifted his position on the settlement, in response to protests before his State of the Union address.  In his speech on January 24th, he did not mention the settlement but announced instead that he would be creating a mortgage crisis unit to investigate wrongdoing related to real estate lending. Of course, only the future will reveal if this investigative unit will be given the necessary authority or mandate when it comes to criminal prosecutions.

The Deeper Question Is Why 

Investigation is needed into not just whether massive robo-signing occurred but why it was being done.  The alleged justification—that the bankers were so busy that they cut corners—hardly seems credible given the extent of the practice.

Full Story Here: The Shadow Banking System: A Web of Financial Fraud | Common Dreams.

According to leaked data from the European Commission obtained by EuroActiv, greenhouse gas emissions from some biofuels are higher than those from fossil fuels, when Indirect Land Usage Change (ILUC) is factored in.

EuroActiv reports:

ILUC happens when forests and wetlands are cleared to compensate for lands taken to grow biofuels elsewhere.

One recent report predicted that all of Malaysia’s tropical peatswamp forests would be destroyed by the end of the decade because of ILUC – with alarming consequences for greenhouse gas emissions – unless the expansion of palm oil production was halted.

To measure the climate impact of fuels, Brussels favours assigning default values based on a calculation of their full lifecycle emissions, hence the debate over ILUC factors and biofuels.

Full Story Here: Dirty Biofuels: Leaked Data Shows Some Worse Than Fossil Fuels | Common Dreams.

There remains no viable solution for either the management or certainly the “disposal” of nuclear waste. Yet, the one recommendation that will not be contained in the DOE report is to stop making any more of it. While a child would never be allowed to continue piling up toys in his or her room indefinitely, failing to tidy up the mess, the nuclear industry continues to be permitted to manufacture some of the world’s most toxic detritus without a cleanup plan.

A sneak peak last July at the Commission’s draft report confirms that no new miracles are to be unveiled this month. Its preferred “solution” appears to be “centralized interim” storage, an allegedly temporary but potentially permanent parking lot dumpsite for highly radioactive waste that, based on past practices, will likely be targeted for an Indian reservation or a poor community of color. “Centralized interim” storage sites for the country’s irradiated reactor fuel rods could easily become permanent if no suitable geological repository site is found. It will mean transporting the waste from reactors predominantly located east of the Mississippi to a likely more remote, western location. And these wastes would then have to be moved again, transported past potentially 50 million homes, en route to a “permanent” dump site or for reprocessing.

Full Story Here: The Radioactive Waste Crisis » Counterpunch: Tells the Facts, Names the Names.

Thousands of demonstrators hit the streets of Yokohama, Japan on Saturday afternoon calling for an end to nuclear energy in Japan after the Fukushima March 11, 2011 disaster that sparked the planet’s worst atomic crisis since Chernobyl. The protest began a 2-day conference committed to fostering global momentum against atomic power.

They marched in the port city southwest of Tokyo chanting in chorus: “We don’t need nuclear power. Give back our hometown. Protect our children.”

The Japan Times reports:

YOKOHAMA — A two-day antinuclear conference kicked off Saturday in Yokohama with the aim of sharing lessons from the Fukushima crisis and fostering global momentum against atomic power.

Full Story Here: Fukushima Fallout: Thousands Protest Against Nuclear Power in Japan | Common Dreams.

That mainstream media have been powerful advocates for nuclear power comes as no surprise. “The media are saturated with a skilled, intensive, and effective advocacy campaign by the nuclear industry, resulting in disinformation” and “wholly counterfactual accounts…widely believed by otherwise sensible people,” states the 2010-2011 World Nuclear Industry Status Report by Worldwatch Institute. What is less well understood is the nature of the “evidence” that gives the nuclear industry its mandate, Cold War science which, with its reassurances about low-dose radiation risk, is being used to quiet alarms about Fukushima and to stonewall new evidence that would call a halt to the industry.

Consider these damage control pieces from major media:

Full Story Here: Science with a Skew: The Nuclear Power Industry After Chernobyl and Fukushima | Truthout.

Japan says it will soon require atomic reactors to be shut down after 40 years of use to improve safety following the nuclear crisis set off by last year’s tsunami.

Concern about aging reactors has been growing because the three units at the Fukushima Dai-ichi plant in northeastern Japan that went into meltdown following the tsunami in March were built starting in 1967. Among other reactors at least 40 years old are those at the Tsuruga and Mihama plants in central Japan, which were built starting in 1970.

Many more of the 54 reactors in Japan will reach the 40-year mark in the near future, though some were built only a few years ago.

Full Story Here: Japan Nuclear Plants To Be Shut Down After 40 Years.

After the Durban talks last month, climate realists must face the reality that “shared sacrifice,” however necessary eventually, has proven a catastrophically bad starting point for global collaboration. Nations have already spent decades debating who was going to give up how much first in exchange for what. So we need to seek opportunities — arenas where there are advantages, not penalties, for those who first take action — both to achieve first-round emission reductions and to build trust and cooperation.

One of the major opportunities lies in providing energy access for the more than 1.2 billion people who don’t have electricity, most of whom, in business-as-usual scenarios, still won’t have it in 2030. These are the poorest people on the planet. Ironically, the world’s poorest can best afford the most sophisticated lighting — off-grid combinations of solar panels, power electronics, and LED lights. And this creates an opportunity for which the economics are compelling, the moral urgency profound, the development benefits enormous, and the potential leverage game changing.

Full Story Here: Solar Power Off the Grid: Energy Access for World’s Poor by Carl Pope: Yale Environment 360.

The year 2012 has opened with news that Fukushima’s radioactive cloud may already have killed some 14,000 Americans, according to a major study just published in the International Journal of Health Services.

Some 100 million tons of tsunami trash—much of it radiated by Fukushima fallout—has begun contaminating the beaches of our west coast.

Germany and Japan, the world’s third and fourth largest economies, along with numerous others countries, have definitively turned away from the “Peaceful Atom.” ["Fukushima," writes Wasserman, "has taught us that as long as reactors operate, the apocalyptic clock is ticking." ] “Fukushima,” writes Wasserman, “has taught us that as long as reactors operate, the apocalyptic clock is ticking.”

Full Story Here: 2012 Is the Year to Finally Bury Nuke Power | Common Dreams.

In reference to the German government’s decision to phase out nuclear power soon after the meltdown at the Fukushima Daiichi plant, Johannes Teyssen, CEO of E.ON, one of Germany’s leading electricity providers and power plant operators, warned the public that the industry’s balance sheet would be affected by “extraordinary costs caused by (these) market shifts and regulations.”

Data tabulated by the Free University of Berlin suggests that each of the eight nuclear power plants, had they remained in operation, would have generated a net income of one million euros per day for E.ON and other providers.

Full Story Here: Collateral Damage From Fukushima Hits Europe | Common Dreams.

 The nuclear power industry has been resurrected over the past decade by a lobbying campaign that has left many people believing it to be a clean, green, emission-free alternative to fossil fuels. These beliefs pose an extraordinary threat to global public health and encourage a major financial drain on national economies and taxpayers. The commitment to nuclear power as an environmentally safe energy source has also stifled the mass development of alternative technologies that are far cheaper, safer and almost emission free — the future for global energy.

When the Fukushima Daiichi reactors suffered meltdowns in March, literally in the backyard of an unsuspecting public, the stark reality that the risks of nuclear power far outweigh any benefits should have become clear to the world. As the old quip states, “Nuclear power is one hell of a way to boil water.”

Instead, the nuclear industry has used the disaster to increase its already extensive lobbying efforts. A few nations vowed to phase out nuclear energy after the disaster. But many others have remained steadfast in their commitment. That has left millions of innocent people unaware that they — all of us — may face a medical catastrophe beyond all proportions in the wake of Fukushima and through the continued widespread use of nuclear energy.

Full Story Here: After Fukushima – Enough Is Enough – NYTimes.com.

“Best Case” scenario predicts fewer deaths from U.S. meltdown

Here in the U.S., the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) declared in a July report that a reactor meltdown in this country would result in far fewer deaths than it earlier estimated. Using new computer studies and engineering analyses updated projection is based on the supposition that a core meltdown would disperse only 1 or 2 percent of its ferociously radioactive cesium-137 and -134. Earlier projections estimated that a meltdown here would spew up to 60 percent of the core’s cesium.

The NRC now estimates that one person in every 4,348 living within 10 miles would be expected to develop a “latent cancer” as a result of radiation exposure following a meltdown, compared with one in 167 in previous estimates.

Full Story Here: Fukushima Backlash: Radiation Lobby Sees Upside to Reactor Disasters | Common Dreams.

For decades the story of technology has been dominated, in the popular mind and to a large extent in reality, by computing and the things you can do with it. Moore’s Law — in which the price of computing power falls roughly 50 percent every 18 months — has powered an ever-expanding range of applications, from faxes to Facebook.

Our mastery of the material world, on the other hand, has advanced much more slowly. The sources of energy, the way we move stuff around, are much the same as they were a generation ago.

But that may be about to change. We are, or at least we should be, on the cusp of an energy transformation, driven by the rapidly falling cost of solar power. That’s right, solar power.

Full Story Here: Here Comes Solar Energy – NYTimes.com.

Signs of a possible nuclear fission have been detected at Japan’s damaged Fukushima power plant raising fears of further radiation leaks.

Full Story Here: Japan: signs of possible nuclear fission at Fukushima plant – Telegraph.

Orange County Sheriff’s officials say that there was an incident at the plant at approximately 3:10 p.m. Tuesday, prompting an alert.

Southern California Edison tells CBS 2 that the incident is “an ammonia leak that is being contained.” The leak occurred in a steam system used to drive the station’s turbines, SCE said. The leak is not nuclear.

No radiation is currently escaping from the power plant, Lt. Roland Chacon said. The Orange County Emergency Operations Center has been activated.

Full Story Here: Emergency Reported At San Onofre Nuclear Power Plant « CBS Los Angeles.

Americans are driving less and less. Here is what that means for the future of our oil dependence.

As the debate unfolds about whether to build a 1,711-mile pipeline to carry crude oil from the tar sands in Canada to refineries in Texas, the focus is on the oil spills and carbon emissions that inevitably come with it. But we need to ask a more fundamental question. Do we really need that oil?

The United States currently consumes more gasoline than the next 16 countries combined. Yes, you read that right. Among them are China, Japan, Russia, Germany, and Brazil. (See data.)

But now this is changing. Not only is the affluence that sustained this extravagant gasoline consumption eroding, but the automobile-centered lifestyle that was considered part of the American birthright is fading as well. U.S. gasoline use has dropped 5 percent in four years.

Four key developments are set to further reduce U.S. gasoline use: a shrinking car fleet, a decline in the miles driven per car, dramatic mandated future gains in new car fuel efficiency, and the shift from gasoline to electricity to power our cars.

Full Story Here: Four Reasons We Need Less Gas | Environment | AlterNet.

When a computer attack hobbled Iran’s unfinished nuclear power plant last year, it was assumed to be a military-grade strike, the handiwork of elite hacking professionals with nation-state backing.

Yet for all its science fiction sophistication, key elements have now been replicated in laboratory settings by security experts with little time, money or specialized skill. It is an alarming development that shows how technical advances are eroding the barrier that has long prevented computer assaults from leaping from the digital to the physical world.

The techniques demonstrated in recent months highlight the danger to operators of power plants, water systems and other critical infrastructure around the world.

Full Story Here: Weaknesses In Power Systems Spark Fear Of Science Fiction-Style Hack Sabotage.

Thanks go to Mr. Gundersen

Thank You for watching Keep safe blessings

New source for Fukushima Updates

Full Story Here: Arnie Gundersen Post Fukushima USA Nuclear Reactors to NRC 22.10.2011 – YouTube.

What is the future of nuclear power, and have the nuclear priesthood been defrocked? Find out in this week’s GRTV Feature Interview.

Full Story Here: Fukushima and the Fall of the Nuclear Priesthood – Arnie Gundersen on GRTV 10/20/11 – YouTube.

Shale is rocking the U.S. energy industry to its core.

WSJ’s Ryan Dezember discusses the changing shape of oil and natural gas exploration in the U.S. brought on shale and the process known as fracking. AP Photo/The Shreveport Times, Jim Hudelson

The technique of cracking open shale rock to release oil and natural gas has spurred hundreds of billions of dollars worth of deals, including Monday’s $4.4 billion proposed purchase of Brigham Exploration Co. by Norway’s Statoil ASA. And it has delivered enormous profits and revenues to those in its midst, including Halliburton Co., which reported a record $6.5 billion in third quarter revenue.

Full Story Here: It’s Official: ‘Age of Shale’ Has Arrived | Common Dreams.

Amtrak officials announced yesterday that “Amtrak trains carried more than 30 million passengers in the past 12 months, the most in one year since the passenger railroad was created four decades ago.” Ridership is up 5 percent over a year ago, and ticket revenue is up 8 percent.

“Amtrak is fulfilling its national mission and is part of the solution to meet America’s growing transportation and energy needs,” said Joseph Boardman, Amtrak’s CEO. However, Republicans in Congress are ready to take Amtrak out at the knees:

A House appropriations subcommittee passed a bill [in September] that provides Amtrak with $227 million for operations in 2012, down from $563 million in each of the past two years. Amtrak also would get $899 million for capital expenditures, down $25 million.

Full Story Here: Amtrak Ridership Hits Record High, As GOP Proposes Cutting Its Funding By 60 Percent | ThinkProgress.

Even as Japan plans to phase out nuclear power as too risky for domestic use, the government is supporting a new push by Japanese industry to sell nuclear power technology to other countries

Japanese industrial conglomerates, with the cooperation of the government in Tokyo, are renewing their pursuit of multibillion-dollar projects, particularly in smaller energy-hungry countries like Vietnam and Turkey. The effort comes despite criticism within Japan by environmental groups and opposition politicians.

It may seem a stretch for Japan to acclaim its nuclear technology overseas while struggling at home to contain the nuclear meltdowns that displaced more than 100,000 people. But Japan argues that its latest technology includes safeguards not present at the decades-old reactors at the stricken Fukushima Daiichi plant, which continues to leak radiation.

Full Story Here: Japan Courts the Money in Nuclear Reactors, Selling Them Abroad – NYTimes.com.

None of these failures has threatened the public. But the diesel generators serve the crucial function of supplying electricity to cooling systems that prevent a nuclear plant’s hot, radioactive fuel from overheating, melting and potentially releasing radiation into the environment. That worst-case scenario happened this year when the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant in Japan lost all backup power for its cooling systems after an earthquake and tsunami.

Three diesel generators failed after tornadoes ripped across Alabama and knocked out electric lines serving the Tennessee Valley Authority’s Browns Ferry nuclear plant in April. Two failed because of mechanical problems and one was unavailable because of planned maintenance.

Full Story Here: 4 generator failures hit US nuclear plants.

Tokyo Electric Power Co (TEPCO) was unable to identify the gas but nonetheless said it was unlikely there would be an explosion in the reactor.

The company has been injecting nitrogen into the reactor so that the level of oxygen inside becomes low enough to prevent blasts.

But a TEPCO spokesman said workers at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant measured a 100-percent flammable gas in a pipe connected to the power station’s reactor number one.

Full Story Here: AFP: Flammable gas detected in Fukushima pipe.

The President of the German Siemens, Peter Löscher, Technology Consortium has announced in a statement carried Sunday by the weekly Der Spiegel the total abandonment of the nuclear business by his group.

“This chapter is closed to us,” says Löscher, whose company has been involved for decades in the construction of power stations and nuclear installations around the world.

The decision, says the head of Siemens, is “the answer” your company “to the clear positioning of the society and politics in Germany for the abandonment of nuclear energy” after the catastrophe of Fukushima, in Japan.

Löscher considers critical the decision before the summer by the Bundestag adopted the nuclear switch in Germany for the 2022 and go until then closing all nuclear plants in this country.

No more atomic power plants be built

Full Story Here: Siemens announces the abandonment of the nuclear business.

Sunday marks the six-month anniversary of the Fukushima nuclear reactor crisis.

In anticipation of that milestone, three leading U.S. experts held a news conference Friday to outline both what is now known in the wake of the Fukushima and where things stand for the nuclear power industry in the United States.

The overwhelming opinion of the panel, which included Peter Bradford, former member of the United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Edwin Lyman, Ph.D., senior scientist, Global Security Program, Union of Concerned Scientists and Dr. Andrew Kanter, national board president-elect, Physicians for Social Responsibility, was that major lessons from the Japanese nuclear disaster are in danger of going unheeded.

The experts outlined eight concerns and lessons from this crisis that should guide decisions regarding the future of nuclear power in the U.S.:

Full Story Here: Nuclear Experts Say U.S. Learned Nothing From Fukushima | Care2 Causes.

Fukushima just gets worse

Radioactive material released into the sea in the Fukushima nuclear power plant crisis is more than triple the amount estimated by plant operator Tokyo Electric Power Co, Japanese researchers say.

Japan’s biggest utility estimated around 4,720 trillion becquerels of cesium-137 and iodine-131 was released into the Pacific Ocean between March 21 and April 30, but researchers at the Japan Atomic Energy Agency (JAEA) put the amount 15,000 trillion becquerels, or terabecquerels.

Government regulations ban shipment of foodstuff containing over 500 becquerels of radioactive material per kg.

Takuya Kobayashi, a researcher at the agency, said on Friday the difference in figures was probably because his team measured airborne radioactive material that fell into the ocean in addition to material from contaminated water that leaked from the plant.

Full Story Here: Sea Radiation from Fukushima Seen Triple Tepco Estimate | Common Dreams.

A stunning new study by the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) concludes:

In summary, our results show that the substitution of gas for coal as an energy source results in increased rather than decreased global warming for many decades….

The fact that natural gas is a bridge fuel to nowhere was first shown by the International Energy Agency in its big June report on gas — see IEA’s “Golden Age of Gas Scenario” Leads to More Than 6°F Warming and Out-of-Control Climate Change.  That study — which had both coal and oil consumption peaking in 2020 — made abundantly clear that if we want to avoid catastrophic warming, we need to start getting off of all fossil fuels.

But what NCAR’s new study adds is more detailed modeling of all contributors to climate change from fossil fuel combustion — positive and negative.  The study is here [they just eliminated the subscription requirement], the news release is here. It’s by senior research associate Tom Wigley, one of the country’s leading experts on climate modeling.

Full Story Here: Natural Gas Bombshell: Switching From Coal to Gas Increases Warming for Decades, Has Minimal Benefit Even in 2100 | ThinkProgress.

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, in a letter to the Omaha Public Power District released Tuesday, faulted Fort Calhoun Nuclear Station for the performance of its safety systems — those needed to prevent potential problems from becoming potentially catastrophic.

The U.S. has 104 licensed nuclear reactors, and Fort Calhoun is now in a category with one other plant that in laymen’s terms could be considered a letter grade of “D.” No plants have an “F,” which requires a plant be shut down.

Fort Calhoun already was under heightened supervision as the Fukushima disaster unfolded in Japan because it was one of three reactors at the time being closely monitored by American regulators.

This move is a step below where the OPPD plant was then.

Officials with the utility say they realize they have issues to address.

Gary Gates, president and chief executive officer, and David Bannister, chief nuclear officer, said they are committed to getting Fort Calhoun back to a higher grade and are confident in the utility’s ability to do so.

Full Story Here: Feds: Nuke plant among two worst – Omaha.com.

Full Story Here: National Clean Energy Summit – live streaming video powered by Livestream.

With four times as many oil rigs pumping domestic oil today than eight years ago and declining domestic demand, the United States is awash in oil. In fact, the U.S. exports more oil than it imports, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration – and has done so for nearly two decades.

The country’s oil industry is primarily interested in who will pay the most on the global marketplace. They call that “energy security” when it suits, but in reality it is “oil company security” through maximizing profits, say energy experts like Steve Kretzman of Oil Change International, an NGO that researches the links between oil, gas and coal companies and governments.

The only reason U.S. citizens may be forced to endure a risky, Canadian-owned oil pipeline called Keystone XL is so oil companies with billion-dollar profits can get the dirty oil from Canada’s tar sands down to the Gulf of Mexico to export to Europe, Latin America or Asia, according to a new report by Oil Change International released Wednesday.

Full Story Here: U.S. Awash in Oil and Lies, Report Charges | Common Dreams.

This is the second week of protests, led by Bill McKibben, in front of the White House demanding that President Barack Obama reject a proposed 1700 mile pipeline transporting the dirtiest oil from Alberta, Canada through fragile ecologies down to the Gulf Coast refineries. One thousand people will be arrested there from all fifty states before their demonstration is over. The vast majority voted for Obama and they are plenty angry with his brittleness on environmental issues in general.

Following the large BP discharge in the Gulf of Mexico, Obama gave the OK to expand drilling over 20 million acres in the Gulf and soon probably in the Arctic Ocean. He delayed clean air rules over at EPA. Following the worsening Fukishima nuclear disaster last March in Japan, he reaffirmed his support for more taxpayer guaranteed nuclear plants in the U.S. adding his Administration’s hopes to learn from the mistakes there.

Full Story Here: Sun and Sanity | Common Dreams.

Calvert Cliffs, a Southern Maryland nuclear power plant, automatically went offline overnight. An “unusual event” status remained in effect Sunday morning.

Full Story Here: Nuclear Plant Under ‘Unusual Event’ – Baltimore News Story – WBAL Baltimore.

In a second area of concern, Fairewinds disagrees the NRC’s latest report claiming that all Fukushima spent fuel pools had no problems following the earthquake. In a new revelation, the NRC claims that the plutonium found more than 1 mile offsite actually came from inside the nuclear reactors. If such a statement were true, it indicates that the nuclear power plant containments failed and were breached with debris landing far from the power plants themselves. Such a failure of the containment system certainly necessitates a complete review of all US reactor containment design and industry assurances that containments will hold in radioactivity in the event of a nuclear accident. The evidence Fairewinds reviewed to date continues to support its April analysis that the detonation in the Unit 3 Spent Fuel pool was the cause of plutonium found off site.

more….

Full Story Here: Updates on Fukushima Fairewinds Associates – Arnie Gundersen – August 21, 2011 – YouTube.

U.S. nuclear officials said that the North Anna Power Station, which has two nuclear reactors, had lost offsite power and was using diesel generators to maintain cooling operations after an 5.9 earthquake hit the region.

The North Anna plant, which was near the epicenter of Tuesday’s quake, is reportedly located on a fault line.

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission rates the plant as the seventh most likely to receive core damage from a quake. But they say the chances of that are only 1 in 22,727.

Full Story Here: Quake sensors removed around Virginia nuke plant due to budget cuts | The Raw Story.

The disaster at the Fukushima power plant in Japan highlighted an important danger inherent in nuclear power plants, as the devastating earthquake there threatened the surrounding area with the spread of radiation.

Now, multiple news outlets are reporting possible incidents at nuclear power plants across the east coast following the surprising earthquake this afternoon.

The North Anna Power Station near Richmond, Virginia lost offsite power and is now using diesel generators:

A nuclear power plant in central Virginia has lost offsite power in the wake of a 5.8 earthquake centered northwest of Richmond, Va., U.S. nuclear officials said. [...] The North Anna Power Station, which has two nuclear reactors, is now using four diesel generators to maintain cooling operations. The plant automatically shut down in the wake of the earthquake.

In York, Pensylvannia, two nuclear power plants have been placed on low-level alert:

Full Story Here: East Coast Earthquake Knocks Power Out At Virginia Nuke Plant, Others On Alert | ThinkProgress.

Though the situation at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant is far from resolved, life in northern Japan has mostly returned to its former tranquillity. You wouldn’t know what happened, until you go too close to the shoreline or feel an aftershock.

The aftermath of the disasters of 11 March is still with us every day, but the importance of wa, social harmony, has reasserted itself. The West knows that Japan is a society governed on the principle of consensus, but misunderstands that as meaning there must be universal agreement on every decision, and how it is implemented. Wa in this case means that dissent, when it happens, takes place within strict boundaries of social propriety. Dissent is articulated as part of a social drama with acts previously agreed on (1). This tacit agreement holds. Haruki Murakami often writes of the student demonstrations of the 1960s in Tokyo, and says their disturbance of wa was minimal, symbolic and impotent.

We can understand the muted popular response to the recent disasters. The government’s initial response was openly criticised, as it was after the Kobe earthquake in the 1990s (Japan’s last major natural disaster, though not as big as 11 March). This created resentment in northern Japan, and led to losses in recent prefectural elections. Prime minister Naoto Kan now faces anger even within his own ruling Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ), though he survived a vote of no confidence. But only for the moment: members of the Japanese Diet thought it too drastic for Kan to go now, although he had already signalled his intention to step down in favour of “a younger generation”. The crisis at Fukushima Daiichi is just his stay of execution.

Full Story Here: Rónán MacDubhghaill: Japan’s Silent Anger.

It is one of the mysteries of Japan’s ongoing nuclear crisis: How much damage did the March 11 earthquake do to the Fukushima Daiichi reactors before the tsunami hit? The stakes are high: If the quake structurally compromised the plant and the safety of its nuclear fuel, then every other similar reactor in Japan will have to be reviewed and possibly shut down. With virtually all of Japan’s 54 reactors either offline (35) or scheduled for shutdown by next April, the issue of structural safety looms over the decision to restart every one in the months and years after.

The key question for operator Tokyo Electric Power Co (TEPCO) and its regulators to answer is this: How much damage was inflicted on the Daiichi plant before the first tsunami reached the plant roughly 40 minutes after the earthquake? TEPCO and the Japanese government are hardly reliable adjudicators in this controversy. “There has been no meltdown,” top government spokesman Edano Yukio famously repeated in the days after March 11. “It was an unforeseeable disaster,” Tepco’s then President Shimizu Masataka improbably said later. As we now know, meltdown was already occurring even as Edano spoke. And far from being unforeseeable, the disaster had been repeatedly forewarned.

Full Story Here: David McNeill / Jake Adelstein: TEPCO’s Darkest Secret.

Since January 1st, Wisconsin has seen a series of assaults against utility-scale projects and smaller renewable systems serving both residences and businesses. These include the following actions:

The Legislature suspended PSC 128, the statewide rule developed by the Public Service Commission last year in response to a law passed by the Legislature in 2009 ordering the agency to establish uniform standards for permitting wind energy systems. Since the March 1 suspension vote, wind development in Wisconsin has slowed to a standstill.

The Legislature adopted SB 81, a bill that RENEW Wisconsin describes as the “Outsource Renewable Energy to Canada Act.” SB 81 allows Wisconsin utilities to meet their renewable energy requirements beginning in 2015 with electricity generated from large hydro power plants in other states and Canada. By allowing Wisconsin utilities to become even more dependent on energy imports than they are today, SB 81 turns Wisconsin’s Renewable Energy Standard on its head. Importing large-scale hydro power exports the very dollars that could have been used to harness Wisconsin’s renewable energy resources.

We Energies, the state’s largest electric utility, abruptly decided in May to walk away from an agreement with RENEW to dedicate $60 million over a 10-year period in support of renewable energy development in its territory. The decision came in the sixth year of this program. We Energies plans to reallocate the unspent dollars (totaling about $27 million) to general operations.

Full Story Here: Wisconsin’s Widening War on Renewable Energy : Greenenergycafe.com.

Reducing America’s debt will require a combination of spending cuts and tax increases. And a majority of Americans agree: According to a new ABC News/Washington Post Poll, 62% of Americans believe that reducing the deficit cannot be solved with a one-policy strategy.

The poll also shows that reducing tax incentives for the legacy oil and gas industries is one of the top-five most popular options for helping reduce the deficit, with 59% of Americans saying they supported the option. Eliminating certain tax subsidies for the mature oil and gas industries could bring in about $45 billion over the next ten years. By comparison, the top five oil companies brought in over $76 billion in profits in 2010 alone.

Full Story Here: Poll: 59% Of Americans Support Repealing Fossil-Energy Subsidies To Reduce Deficit | ThinkProgress.

Caltech researchers say the power output of wind-farms can be increased by an order of magnitude – at least tenfold – simply by optimizing the placement of vertical wind turbines on a given plot of land. Details of the experimental wind-farm, located in northern Los Angeles County, appear in the Journal of Renewable and Sustainable Energy.

The experimental wind-farm houses two-dozen 1.2-meter-wide vertical-axis wind turbines (VAWTs). Vertical turbines that have rotors and look like eggbeaters sticking out of the ground. Each turbine is 10 meters tall.

Caltech’s John Dabiri, who leads the research, said that despite improvements in the design of conventional propeller-type wind turbines, wind-farms remain inefficient. In such farms, the individual turbines have to be spaced far apart so they don’t interfere aerodynamically with neighboring turbines, with the result that “much of the wind energy that enters a wind-farm is never tapped,” says Dabiri.

Full Story Here: Experimental wind-farm produces tenfold power increase.

The plan, drawn up by Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshito Sengoku, would force Tokyo Electric sell its power distribution business and bring its nuclear power operations under state control, leaving the company with power generation operations using thermal and hydraulic power plants.

It would leave Tokyo Electric, better known as Tepco, with only 1.6 trillion yen ($19.85 billion) in power business assets compared with 7 trillion yen at present, the Mainichi daily said, citing informed sources.

The proposal has been kept under wraps as the government focuses on a taxpayer bailout for the utility to soothe market worries.

Full Story Here: Japan officials draw up Tepco breakup plan: report | The Raw Story.

Earthquakes, tsunamis, floods, fire — these and other disasters will inevitably occur. Add nuclear power with its potential to release massive amounts of deadly radioactive poisons when impacted by such a disaster, and it is clear that atomic energy is incompatible with the real world.

There’s no perfection in human beings or in technology. Accidents will happen. And there will always be natural disasters -­- we can’t eliminate them. But we can –­ and must — eliminate atomic energy.

Full Story Here: Atomic Energy: Unsafe in the Real World | Common Dreams.

In an economic study published on the company’s official blog, Google researchers assumed several key breakthroughs would be made in solar, wind and biomass energy, then drew their models outwards through 2050.

Comparing their results to models based on “business as usual” in the carbon-generating energy economy, Google found that delaying public policies to encourage green tech by just four more years could result in the loss of up to $3.2 trillion in GDP and the failure to realize as many as 1.4 million new jobs.

Full Story Here: Google predicts U.S. will miss up to $3.2 trillion in GDP growth if green tech isn’t encouraged | The Raw Story.

Shareholders of Tepco, as the utility is known, voted to continue with nuclear power yesterday at the company’s first annual meeting since the crisis at its Fukushima Dai-Ichi nuclear plant wiped off about $36 billion from the utility’s market value. Shareholders of Chubu Electric Power Co. and Kyushu Electric Power Co. also backed continuing with the status quo at their own meetings.

The votes at the utilities, which accounted for 54 percent of Japan’s installed nuclear capacity before the March 11 earthquake and tsunami caused meltdowns at Fukushima, show how reliant Japan is on atomic energy even as opposition grows.

Full Story Here: Tepco, Chubu Rally Around Nuclear Future – Bloomberg.

Rep. Bruce Braley (D-IA) has introduced a piece of legislation that would require fuel pumps to inform consumers where the gas they are putting in their vehicles is coming from.

The country-of-origin labeling requirements on fuel are supported by Ret. U.S. Gen. Wesley Clark.

“I believe if people go to the gas pump and realize, okay, just spent 42 dollars filling up and 12 dollars is going to Venezuela, 14 dollars of that is going to Nigeria, then suddenly the connection will be made and people will be asking ‘why can’t we find substitutes at home?’” he was quoted by Radio Iowa as saying “why can’t we have more effective exploration and production, and synthetic oil in the United States.”

Full Story Here: Iowa Lawmaker Introduces Bill Requiring Country-of-Origin Labeling on Fuel | Economy In Crisis.

A berm holding back floodwater at a Nebraska nuclear power plant has collapsed.

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission says the 2,000-foot berm at the Fort Calhoun Nuclear Station collapsed about 1:30 a.m. Sunday.

There is no danger. The plant has been shut down since early April for refueling, and the commission says there’s no water inside.

Also, the Missouri River isn’t expected to rise past the flood level the plant was designed to handle.

Full Story Here: Fort Calhoun Nuclear Station: Flood Berm Collapses At Nebraska Nuke Plant.

–On the Bonus Show Not safe for work song from Netroots Nation, woman cooked alive by bikini, Louis grandmother rant, John McCain blames immigrants for wildfires.

The David Pakman Show is an internationally syndicated talk radio and television program hosted by David Pakman

Radioactive tritium has leaked from three-quarters of U.S. commercial nuclear power sites, often into groundwater from corroded, buried piping, an Associated Press investigation shows.

The number and severity of the leaks has been escalating, even as federal regulators extend the licenses of more and more reactors across the nation.

Tritium, which is a radioactive form of hydrogen, has leaked from at least 48 of 65 sites, according to U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission records reviewed as part of the AP’s yearlong examination of safety issues at aging nuclear power plants. Leaks from at least 37 of those facilities contained concentrations exceeding the federal drinking water standard — sometimes at hundreds of times the limit.

Full Story Here: Tritium Leaks Found at Many Nuke Sites | Common Dreams.

The report by the Government Accountability Office was released by two congressmen Tuesday in response to an Associated Press investigation that shows three-quarters of America’s 65 nuclear plant sites have leaked radioactive tritium, sometimes into groundwater.

Separately, two senators asked the GAO, the auditing and watchdog arm of Congress, to investigate the findings of the ongoing AP series Aging Nukes, which concludes that the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission and the nuclear power industry have worked closely to keep old reactors operating within safety standards by weakening them, or not enforcing the rules.

Full Story Here: The Associated Press: GAO: leaks at aging nuke sites difficult to detect.

While nuclear regulators in the United States don’t have their Japanese counterparts’ explicit dual mission of both regulating the industry and promoting nuclear energy, an investigation by The Associated Press published Monday shows that in several critical ways, the two countries’ regulatory agencies may not be so different.

Officials at the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission repeatedly weakened safety standards or decided not to enforce them in order to keep aging nuclear reactors in compliance, according to the AP:

Full Story Here: The Washington Current: U.S. Nuclear Regulator Faces Fresh Scrutiny for Bending Safety Standards.

In some ways, Carole Means’ teenage years on a farm in southeastern Wash­ing­ton state in the 1950s sound so wholesome, almost idyllic. She ate homegrown fruit and vegetables, fish from the nearby Columbia River, and drank milk from the family cows that grazed along its banks.

The farm commanded a view across the river of the Hanford Nuclear Reservation, the world’s first full-scale plutonium reactor. Hanford produced most of the material for the U.S. arsenal of nuclear bombs, including the one dropped on Nagasaki, Japan, in 1945. For local residents, the plant was a source of pride — their unique contribution to winning World War II — and of jobs, employing 50,000 people at its peak.

It was also catastrophically toxic. Starting in 1944, the plant silently released huge amounts of radiation into the air, water and soil — sometimes intentionally, the government now admits.

Full Story Here: In Hanford saga, no resolution in sight.

details how the Fukushima nuclear disaster was worsened by lack of an emergency plan. Workers were left to their own desperate measures to try to stop the radioactive core from melting– their heroic efforts thwarted by omissions and errors of management…

TOKYO — A new report says Japan’s tsunami-ravaged nuclear plant was so unprepared for the disaster that workers had to bring protective gear and an emergency manual from distant buildings and borrow equipment from a contractor.

The report, released Saturday by plant operator Tokyo Electric Power Co., is based on interviews of workers and plant data. It portrays chaos amid the desperate and ultimately unsuccessful battle to protect the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant from meltdown, and shows that workers struggled with unfamiliar equipment and fear of radiation exposure.

Full Story Here: Workers Dark and Stranded at Fukushima | Kmareka.com.

Pushing ahead with ambitious nuclear plans, the Tennessee Valley Authority signed a letter of intent to become the nation’s first electricity provider to build small modular reactors.

Spokesmen for the nation’s largest public utility and Babcock & Wilcox Nuclear Energy subsidiary Generation mPower in Charlotte, N.C., said Friday that the letter signed in late May outlines plans for building up to six of the mini reactors at TVA’s vacant Clinch River site west of Knoxville in East Tennessee.

TVA spokesman Terry Johnson said the utility is pursuing possible development of a single small reactor to start operating by 2020. He said they would be built in pairs. Johnson said the small reactors each could supply enough power to support about 70,000 homes, about one-tenth of a large reactor.

The cost and who will pay it are not known.

Full Story Here: Mini Nuclear Reactors: TVA Signs Letter Of Intent To Build First In U.S..

OPS: There aren’t words to describe how stupid, dangerous and suicidal this is. If this doesn’t prove to you that Obama is in the pockets of the Reich nothing will.

A Solar Game Changer

On Friday, Secretary of Energy Stephen Chu announced a “game changing” development in solar energy. A company called 1366 Technologies, headquartered in Lexington, Mass., has developed a silicon solar wafer that would cut the cost of solar cell manufacturing by an estimated 50 percent.

The wafer technology was developed with the support of a pilot innovation investment program housed under the Department of Energy, known as the Advanced Research Projects Agency – Energy (ARPA-E). According to director Arun Majumdar, “ARPA-E is looking for high risk ideas that, if successful, can be high impact. Those that don’t exist today.”

Unlike traditional wafers–which are sliced from a large block, resulting in considerable losses of material (up to 50 percent)–these new wafers are individually cast to specific measurements, a more efficient model of production.

Full Story Here: Department Of Energy Makes $150M Bet On Solar Tech.

“On June 6, 2011, the Fort Calhoun pressurized water nuclear reactor 20 miles north of Omaha, Nebraska entered emergency status due to imminent flooding from the Missouri River. A day later, there was an electrical fire requiring plant evacuation.

Then, on June 8th, NRC event reports confirmed the fire resulted in the loss of cooling for the reactor’s spent fuel pool. The discussion includes specific details of the technical failures at Fort Calhoun, the risks of coolant loss at overcrowded “spent” fuel pools, and the national hazards of nuclear facilities along the Missouri and Mississippi Rivers, and other water sites during the current period of floods and climate change.”

I may or may not post the other parts to this, as it was exceedingly strenuous on my comp for some reason, I guess because of all the overlays and whatnot I added. Incase I don’t post the rest, here is the link to watch it on youtube:

(full 40 minutes) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XHZdub3n0mI

download the audio podcast here:
http://www.radio4all.net/index.php/program/52367

Arnie Gundersen’s Updates on Fukushima: http://www.fairewinds.com

KETV News’ Piece on the Nuclear Plant: http://www.ketv.com/news/27392766/detail.html

Part 2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2sTmzUzruu8
Part3: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lva5N9VpAgw

The global nuclear industry and its allies in government are making a desperate effort to cover up the consequences of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster. “The big lie flies high,” comments Kevin Kamps of the organization Beyond Nuclear.

Not only is this nuclear establishment seeking to make it look like the Fukushima catastrophe has not happened­going so far as to claim that there will be “no health effects” as a result of it­but it is moving forward on a “nuclear renaissance,” its scheme to build more nuclear plants.

4.24 エネルギーシフトパレードin渋谷／Energy Shift Parade in Shibuya

Indeed, next week in Washington, a two-day “Special Summit on New Nuclear Energy” will be held involving major manufacturers of nuclear power plants including General Electric, the manufacturer of the Fukushima plants­and U.S. government officials.

Full Story Here: The Big Fukushima Lie Flies High | Common Dreams.

This may be the moment history has turned definitively against atomic energy.

To be sure: we are still required to fight hard to bury reactor loan guarantees in the United States. There are parallel struggles in China, Indian, England, France and South Korea.

The great fear is that until every single reactor on this planet is shut, none of us is really safe from another radioactive horror show.

Full Story Here: Are We on the Brink of Burying Nuke Power Forever? | Common Dreams.

Scientific experts believe Japan’s nuclear disaster to be far worse than governments are revealing to the public.

“Fukushima is the biggest industrial catastrophe in the history of mankind,” Arnold Gundersen, a former nuclear industry senior vice president, told Al Jazeera.

Japan’s 9.0 earthquake on March 11 caused a massive tsunami that crippled the cooling systems at the Tokyo Electric Power Company’s (TEPCO) nuclear plant in Fukushima, Japan. It also lead to hydrogen explosions and reactor meltdowns that forced evacuations of those living within a 20km radius of the plant.

Gundersen, a licensed reactor operator with 39 years of nuclear power engineering experience, managing and coordinating projects at 70 nuclear power plants around the US, says the Fukushima nuclear plant likely has more exposed reactor cores than commonly believed.

Full Story Here: Fukushima: It’s Much Worse Than You Think | Common Dreams.

Already on guard from the rising waters of the adjacent Missouri River, the Fort Calhoun nuclear plant declared an alert Tuesday following an electrical fire that briefly disrupted spent-fuel cooling.

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission reported that the plant, operated by the Omaha Public Power District, declared the alert about 10 minutes after a fire was detected in a switchgear room at 9:30 a.m. Automated fire suppression systems extinguished it within an hour, with the alert ending soon after.

During that time, though, pumps for the plant’s spent-fuel cooling system stopped working. The Associated Press quoted plant and NRC officials as saying one pump was returned to service within one or two hours, and a second pump returned to service Wednesday. Backup safety systems were not needed, according to the NRC. And while spent fuel can heat the water surrounding it to dangerous temperatures over the course of several days, federal officials quoted by AP said temperatures in the tank did not exceed 83 degrees.

Full Story Here: NRC Monitors Second Event at Neb. Nuclear Plant Following Fire, Disruption of Spent-Fuel Cooling – Nuclear Power Industry News – Nuclear Power Industry News – Nuclear Street – Nuclear Power Portal.

Make no mistake – given the trillions of dollars invested over the last five decades in nuclear energy, the industry and its lobbyists will not go down without a fight, promoting new, “safe” reactor designs, etc. etc. etc.

But the Fukushima debacle has finally bared the industry’s darkest secret, it inability to manage its nuclear waste. The six reactor TEPCO Daichi Fukushima stored all its waste onsite, and the spent fuel rods and their lack of cooling have been a major contributor to the high radiation levels observed around the facility. Worse for nuclear power proponents has been the reluctant admission by TECPO that three of the complex’s six reactors apparently did in fact suffer a meltdown.

So, what’s next?

Full Story Here: Why Japan Will Turn to Solar Energy Following Fukushima | Oil Price.com.

The radiation reading, which was taken when Tokyo Electric Power Co. sent a robot into the No. 1 reactor building on Friday, is believed to be the largest detected in the air at the plant so far.

On Friday, Tepco found that steam was spewing from the reactor floor. Nationally televised news Saturday showed blurry video of steady smoke curling up from an opening in the floor.

Tepco said it took the reading near the floor at the southeast corner of the building, under which runs a pipe emitting steam. No damage to the pipe was found, the utility said.

Full Story Here: No. 1 plant’s air radiation highest measured so far | The Japan Times Online.

Tepco said workers at the site saw an oil slick floating on the sea at 8 a.m. Tuesday near the intakes of units 5 and 6.

The oil slick is believed to be 200 to 300 meters long.

The total amount of oil that has leaked is still unknown, and the utility plans to set up a boom to prevent the slick from spreading.

Full Story Here: Stricken Fukushima nuke plant leaking oil | The Japan Times Online.

Angela Merkel’s government has decided to phase out nuclear power by 2022, in a reversal of its previous policy. German commentators are split over the wisdom of the decision, with one newspaper comparing the move to the fall of the Berlin Wall and another saying it will harm future generations.

“This is nothing more and nothing less than a revolution in energy supply,” said Chancellor Angela Merkel. It was September 2010, and she was referring to her government’s newly minted energy strategy. That plan included extending the operating lives of Germany’s 17 nuclear plants, which had been scheduled to go offline by 2021. All of this had been intended to help Germany meet its ambitious goals for reducing climate-killing CO2 emissions.

But on Monday, less than nine months later, the German government announced a new energy plan that could also be fairly described as a revolution — even if it represents a 180-degree reversal of the administration’s previous policy.

In marathon talks that went into the early hours of Monday, the government hammered out the details of its plans to phase out nuclear power. The new strategy foresees all Germany’s reactors going offline by 2021 if possible and 2022 at the latest. Eight plants which are currently temporarily offline will be shut down immediately. The phaseout will be accompanied by a massive increase in the use of renewable energy, and the government intends to pass a law making it easier to construct the new energy infrastructure that will be needed.

Full Story Here: The World from Berlin: Nuclear Phaseout Is an ‘Historic Moment’ – SPIEGEL ONLINE – News – International.

Chancellor Angela Merkel said the decision, hammered out by her centre-right coalition overnight, marked the start of a “fundamental” rethink of energy policy in the world’s number four economy.

“We want the electricity of the future to be safer and at the same time reliable and affordable,” Merkel told reporters as she accepted the findings of an expert commission on nuclear power she appointed in March in response to the crisis at Japan’s Fukushima plant.

Full Story Here: Germany to scrap nuclear power by 2022 | The Raw Story.

Japan’s crippled Fukushima nuclear plant is not fully prepared for heavy rain and winds of a typhoon heading towards the country, officials admit.

Tokyo Electric Power (Tepco), which runs the plant, said some reactor buildings were uncovered, prompting fears the storm may carry radioactive material into the air and sea.

Typhoon Songda is expected to hit mainland Japan as early as Monday.

Fukushima was heavily damaged by the deadly 11 March quake and tsunami.

‘Inappropriate measures’

“We have made utmost efforts, but we have not completed covering the damaged reactor buildings,” a Tepco official said on Saturday.

Full Story Here: BBC News – Fukushima nuclear plant in Japan ‘unready for typhoon’.

The gas, helium-3, is a byproduct of the nuclear weapons program, but as the number of nuclear weapons has declined, so has the supply of the gas. Yet, as the supply was shrinking, the government was investing more than $200 million to develop detection technology that required helium-3.

As a result, government scientists and contractors are now racing to find or develop a new detection technology.

Full Story Here: U.S. Runs Short of Gas Used in Detecting Nuclear Material – NYTimes.com.

The system to cool the nuclear reactor and fuel pool has stopped at the No. 5 unit of the crippled Fukushima Daiichi power plant in northeastern Japan, plant operator Tokyo Electric Power said Sunday.

A Tokyo Electric official said the operator had started work to repair the cooling facility and hoped to restore the system within several hours.

Full Story Here: Fukushima’s No. 5 Nuclear Reactor Cooling Facility Stops.

Suspicions that Fukushima No. 1 Nuclear Power Plant operator Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO) is hiding information were heightened on May 27 with revelations that its president was not where TEPCO had said he was on the day of the Great East Japan Earthquake.

TEPCO had claimed that on March 11 its President Masataka Shimizu was on a trip to meet with Kansai-area business leaders. The Mainichi discovered, however, that Shimizu was in fact sightseeing in Nara — a discrepancy that TEPCO now refuses to discuss.

According to sources close to the matter and the Nara Prefectural Government, Shimizu, his wife and secretary checked into a hotel in the ancient capital on March 10 for a two-night stay. The trio had planned to go watch a traditional event at Todaiji temple the next day.

Full Story Here: Doubts deepen over TEPCO truthfulness after president’s sightseeing trip uncovered – The Mainichi Daily News.

More than 100,000 demonstrators took to the streets in 20 cities across Germany on Saturday to call for a rapid end to nuclear power, even as a government-sponsored national commission is expected to recommend that Berlin abolish nuclear energy within a decade.

The Ethics Commission is set to announce the results of its final report on Germany’s energy future, calling for nuclear power to be phased out by 2021.

Chancellor Angela Merkel had tasked the commission with forging a national consensus on how to replace nuclear power with renewable energy in the aftermath of the Fukushima nuclear catastrophe in Japan last March.

Full Story Here: Massive nationwide protests call for an immediate end to nuclear energy | Germany | Deutsche Welle | 28.05.2011.

Inspections triggered by Japan’s nuclear crisis found that some emergency equipment and storage sites at the Wolf Creek nuclear plant in southeastern Kansas might not survive a tornado.

Specifically, plant operators and federal inspectors said Wolf Creek did not secure equipment and vehicles needed to fight fires, retrieve fuel for emergency generators and resupply water to keep nuclear fuel cool as it’s being moved.

Full Story Here: ‘Tornado Alley’ reactor not fully twister-proof | The Tennessean | tennessean.com.

The utility known as Tepco has been pumping cooling water into the three reactors that melted down after the March 11 earthquake and tsunami. By May 18, almost 100,000 tons of radioactive water had leaked into basements and other areas of the Fukushima Dai-Ichi plant. The volume of radiated water may double by the end of December and will cost 42 billion yen ($518 million) to decontaminate, according to Tepco’s estimates.

“Contaminated water is increasing and this is a massive problem,” Tetsuo Iguchi, a specialist in isotope analysis and radiation detection at Nagoya University, said by phone. “They need to find a place to store the contaminated water and they need to guarantee it won’t go into the soil.”

Full Story Here: Tepco Failed to Disclose Scale of Fukushima Radiation Leaks, Academics Say – Bloomberg.

Philanthropist and CNN founder Ted Turner has turned his sights to renewable energy — and he had some fighting words for the wind industry at the kickoff to its annual convention on Monday.

Turbine manufacturers and clean energy utilities can’t sit idly by while the coal industry touts its “clean coal” plan and oil companies flood the airwaves, Turner said. He noted that he had “nightmares” caused by clean coal advertisements.

Wind energy companies, which created a quarter of the nation’s new electricity capacity last year, need to fight back, Turner said.

“Let’s go out and kick their asses. That’s what they need, a good ass-kicking,” Turner told the group assembled for the American Wind Energy Association’s conference. He was speaking in an unscripted conversation with the group’s CEO, Denise Bode.

Full Story Here: Ted Turner Says Coal, Oil Industries Need ‘A Good A** Kicking’.

Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) said new readings on water gauges indicated that the fuel had dropped to the bottom of the containment vessels of units two and three, matching its earlier assessment of unit one.

In all three reactors, relatively low temperatures indicated that the fuel was now mostly covered by water that has been pumped into the vessels, meaning there was no immediate threat of an uncontrolled full meltdown.

Full Story Here: Japan’s TEPCO admits further nuclear reactor meltdowns | The Raw Story.

Certainly, what he’s learned about the hubris and underhand dealings of the U.S. nuclear power industry offers some valuable lessons for Japan. But the most important thing he says he’s come to realize is that the participation of public-interest lawyers and the media is critical to ensure that energy providers prioritize safety. And that applies just as much to Japan as the United States, he insists, even though Japan is a far less litigious society in which citizens shy away from challenging government and big business.

In the following recent interview with The Japan Times, Twomey shares some insights and experiences from his years helping farmers to challenge the U.S. nuclear power industry — and win.

Full Story Here: U.S. court victories show how to get rid of nuclear plants | The Japan Times Online.

In the wake of the March 11th earthquake and tsunami, nuclear safety is expected to be featured at the meeting on May 26th and 27th.

On his first trip abroad since the disaster, Kan plans to explain Japan’s response to the nuclear crisis and its new energy policy, dubbed as the Sunrise Program. It is aimed at adding renewable energy to the country’s core energy sources.

Full Story Here: NHK WORLD English.

Lawmakers push bill backing project

Minisize nuclear reactors that power individual neighborhoods — and can be situated near them — could be designed by Westinghouse and licensed within 10 years if legislation introduced by two Pennsylvania congressmen Friday becomes part of an upcoming national energy bill.

Reps. Jason Altmire, D-McCandless, and Tim Murphy, R-Upper St. Clair, joined Westinghouse executives in the company’s Cranberry headquarters for the announcement. It’s part of the politicians’ first move in making Western Pennsylvania a major player in whatever energy legislation moves through Congress later this year.

The lawmakers see an opportunity for companies in Pittsburgh — the “energy capital of the world,” according to Mr. Murphy.

Full Story Here: Minireactor in works at Westinghouse.

OPS: Doubling Down on INSANITY

Analysts suggested that the agency, which usually does not comment on oil producers’ policies, was signaling a shift in stance to become more confrontational toward the main producers over their failure to increase the flow of oil to world markets.

The call for added production also appears to be a move by the agency, which represents 28 developed economies, to distance itself from the period under its departing chief, Nobuo Tanaka. It was seen by many as too accommodating to Saudi Arabia, and too content to accept the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries’ narrative of blaming speculation, rather than market fundamentals, for high prices

Full Story Here: International Energy Agency Calls for Rise in Oil Output – NYTimes.com.

Emergency vents failed to prevent hydrogen explosions at Japan’s Fukushima reactors and put the safety of U.S. nuclear plants in question, experts warn.

Documents released by the Tokyo Electric Power Co. this week show the panic that struck the utility when the March 11 earthquake and tsunami hit, The New York Times reports.

The venting system, built by General Electric, used the same power source as the rest of the plant, backup generators in basements that were vulnerable to tsunamis. The earthquake also may have damaged the valves, Tepco said.

Full Story Here: Fukushima a warning for U.S. plants – UPI.com.

Radiation said leaking from holes in bottom of container vessel..

The Tokyo Electric Power Co. (Tepco), which operates the troubled Fukushima nuclear plant, on Thursday admitted that a nuclear meltdown occurred at the plant.

With the nuclear meltdown, Tepco said the nuclear fuel rods in the reactor are completely exposed, as large amounts of radiation is being released. The water level at the plant’s No. 1 reactor was much lower than thought – as much as 5 meters (16.4 feet) below the nuclear rods – and clearly not high enough to cover the nuclear fuel.

According to reports, several holes were found at the bottom of the nuclear reactor’s pressure vessel, where the melted nuclear fuel now threatens to leak out of.

On a daily basis, Tepco injects almost 200 tons of water into the pressure vessel, but it is highly likely that the water has been constantly leaking from the vessel and containment chamber, eventually flowing under the reactor building.

Full Story Here: The BRAD BLOG : TEPCO Admits Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Reactor Unit 1 ‘In State of Meltdown’, Fuel Rods Exposed.

OPS: “…a meltdown occured….”  BS! The meltdown IS OCCURING! it’s no where near past tense

The new re­port by the Uni­ted Na­tions In­ter­government­al Panel on Climate Chan­ge (IPCC), in­volv­ing more than 120 scient­ists, econom­ists, and tech­nology special­ists, pro­vides that long-overdue as­sess­ment. It adopts a glob­al per­spec­tive and re­con­ciles de­veloped and de­velop­ing co­unt­ries’ in­terests, while weigh­ing the broad­er economic, en­viron­ment­al, and soci­al is­sues at stake.

The sum­ma­ry, sig­ned by re­presen­tatives of the more than 190 co­unt­ries meet­ing this week in the Uni­ted Arab Em­irates, con­cludes that re­new­able en­er­gy is an in­creasing­ly pract­ical and high­ly pro­mis­ing opt­ion. Costs are fall­ing – and are li­ke­ly to fall even furth­er as in­nova­tion ac­celerates and glob­al en­er­gy de­mand con­tinues to rise.

Full Story Here: The Renewable Future | Truthout.

Substantial damage to the fuel cores at two additional reactors of Japan’s Fukushima Daiichi nuclear complex has taken place, operator Tokyo Electric Power Co. said Sunday, further complicating the already daunting task of bringing them to a safe shutdown while avoiding the release of high levels of radioactivity. The revelation followed an acknowledgment on Thursday that a similar meltdown of the core took place at unit No. 1.

Workers also found that the No. 1 unit’s reactor building is flooded in the basement, reinforcing the suspicion that the containment vessel is damaged and leaking highly radioactive water.

The revelations are likely to force an overhaul of the six- to nine-month blueprint for bringing the reactors to a safe shutdown stage and end the release of radioactive materials. The original plan, announced in mid-April, was due to be revised May 17.

Full Story Here: Two Other Nuclear Reactors Suffer Serious Damage – WSJ.com.

Within hours of the devastating earthquake and tsunami that killed tens of thousands along the eastern coast of Japan on March 11, 2011, the world learned of another casualty of the disaster: the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant.

The Fukushima crisis brought nuclear power safety issues into the spotlight in a way unknown since the Chernobyl disaster in 1986. The press and public needed clear, accurate explanations of what was going on in Japan and how it might affect the rest of the world. In the weeks following the disaster, UCS experts responded to this need by sharing their analysis of the crisis with the media, policymakers, fellow scientists and the public through a variety of channels:

Full Story Here: Nuclear Crisis in Japan | Union of Concerned Scientists.

Nuclear plants produce radioactive waste, some of which is deadly for thousands of years. A commission set up by the Department of Energy will be offering recommendations, and a close reading of the following article suggests that temporary storage is the most likely outcome…

The quest for a national repository for spent fuel has been a festering issue for decades but gained higher visibility after a March 11 earthquake and tsunami hit the Fukushima nuclear plant in Japan. The disaster not only damaged reactors but led to the loss of cooling water in at least one pool of spent radioactive fuel, raising the risk of the release of radioactive materials.

At nuclear plants in the United States, pools of spent fuel are far more heavily loaded. The National Academy of Sciences warned in a study in 2005 that the presence of vast stores of radioactive fuel could make the plants an attractive target for terrorists.

Full Story Here: A Problem for the Future | Kmareka.com.

The disclosure by Tokyo Electric Power Co (TEPCO) is the latest indication that the disaster was worse than previously disclosed, making it more difficult to stabilize the plant.

The discovery of the leak provides new insight into the sequence of events that triggered a partial meltdown of the uranium fuel in the No. 1 reactor at Fukushima after the plant was struck by a massive earthquake and tsunami on March 11, officials said.

The battle to bring Fukushima under control has been complicated by repeated leaks of radioactive water, threatening both the Pacific Ocean and nearby groundwater.

Full Story Here: Fukushima reactor has a hole, leading to leakage | Reuters.

Full Story Here: NHK Reports Fukushima Reactor 1 Is Melting Down | zero hedge.

UN’s climate change science body says renewables supply, particularly solar power, can meet global demand

Renewable energy could account for almost 80% of the world’s energy supply within four decades – but only if governments pursue the policies needed to promote green power, according to a landmark report published on Monday.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the body of the world’s leading climate scientists convened by the United Nations, said that if the full range of renewable technologies were deployed, the world could keep greenhouse gas concentrations to less than 450 parts per million, the level scientists have predicted will be the limit of safety beyond which climate change becomes catastrophic and irreversible.

Investing in renewables to the extent needed would cost only about 1% of global GDP annually, said Rajendra Pachauri, chairman of the IPCC.

Full Story Here: Renewable energy can power the world, says landmark IPCC study | Environment | guardian.co.uk.

A single document from 1992 might well shed some light on how that process came to be.

It’s worth noting that the NRC’s staff has roughly doubled over the last decade, to some 4,000 employees today. Many have been hired to handle a wave of applications from nuclear power plant operators seeking permission to operate for 20 years beyond the 40 years granted by their original licenses.

A number of those original licenses will be expiring in the next 10 years.

Full Story Here: Nuclear Regulatory Commission Changed Nuclear Relicensing Rules.

More than a decade later, the mixed oxide fuel (MOX) plant is running into mounting troubles, including long delays, soaring costs and the lack of utilities committed to use the new fuel in their reactors.

But there’s another aspect of the story that has received little attention. Two of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s safety reviewers for the project say the NRC has taken shortcuts on safety to avoid delaying the construction. Work on the facility was allowed to begin, they say, before some of the most essential questions were fully answered. They have been particularly concerned about the danger of chemical explosions, the adequacy of the ventilation and radioactive waste disposal systems and the way the plutonium will be tracked as it is processed.

Full Story Here: The Washington Current: Safety Reviewers Raise Questions About Construction of New Nuclear Fuel Plant.

A top Japanese official says Japan will maintain atomic power as part of its energy policy despite the country’s ongoing nuclear crisis.

Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshito Sengoku said Sunday that Japan will “stick to nuclear power as a national energy policy.” He made the comment on a talk show on public broadcaster NHK.

Full Story Here: Japan Nuclear Crisis: Government Official Says Country Will Not Abandon Nuclear Power.

OPS:  Suicidal.  We’ll, Banzi kids

The American people are up in arms, rightly so, about the ever-increasing cost of gasoline in this country. In these tough economic times most people find themselves worrying more about how they will make it to the next fill-up.

According to CNNMoney.com, the price of gas nationwide now stands above $4 per gallon. Americans should not expect that to change any time in the near future.

In light of these facts we could all benefit from a bit of perspective. Oil prices are now well above $100 per barrel worldwide. Gasoline prices are now well above $4.00 per gallon here in the United States. However, both gas and oil are still very “cheap” when compared to any other commodity on this planet.

Oil is quite literally the most important resource on the planet. It has been the deciding factor in international military and diplomatic policy making for more than 100 years. The First World War was decided by oil. The Second World War was fought for oil. Most of the jockeying between the U.S. and the USSR during the Cold War was centered on gaining access to oil-rich partners.

Full Story Here: The Real Cost of Gasoline | Economy In Crisis.

Eager to prove that Republicans don’t want to end oil subsidies despite public GOP opposition, House Democrats plan to force a vote Thursday on a measure that would block a major tax break for the five largest oil companies.

As Republicans call for major cuts to domestic spending, Democrats are pushing for tax code changes that would allow the government to bring in more money, particularly from high-profit industries Democrats say do not pay their fair share. President Barack Obama and key Democrats have called for an end to some oil and gas subsidies, arguing gas prices are high enough to sustain industry investment in the United States.

John Hofmeister, the former president of Shell Oil, said in February that major oil companies do not need government help given the high price of gas.

Full Story Here: Dems To Force Vote On Oil Subsidies.

Full Story Here: 25 Years After Chernobyl – A Bigger Threat Now From Japan? | YouGov US Opinion Center.

By HARVEY WASSERMAN

“There’s never been a death because of radiation … in a civilian nuclear power plant. … In Texas, if there’s any kind of a serious earthquake or natural disaster, I want to be in the control room at Comanche Peak [Nuclear Power Plant] because that is the absolute safest place to be.”

—Texas Congressman Joe Barton, April 6, 2011

In the wake of the apocalyptic nightmare at Fukushima, the multi-trillion-dollar global nuclear power industry is looking over the abyss at a long-overdue extinction.

But the issue is far from decided. Japan’s horrifying catastrophe has sent the industry’s spin machine into overdrive. Hell-bent on minimizing the dangers of this unprecedented disaster, we’ve been shown the script of what reactor-backers are willing to say and do to save themselves.

It is not a pretty picture. It focuses on the assertion that there are safe doses of radiation, and that atomic energy has harmed few, if any. Three Mile Island “hurt no one.” There were few casualties at Chernobyl. And Fukushima’s long-term damage will be minimal.

Full Story Here: Harvey Wasserman: The Peaceful Atom and Other Nuclear Fairy Tales.

On Monday, a group of 232 individual stockholders of Tohoku Electric Power Company submitted the documents needed for their proposal to scrap its nuclear power plants.

The proposal is expected to be put to a vote in an annual shareholders’ meeting at the end of next month.

Tohoku Electric Power has 2 nuclear power plants in Japan’s northeastern region, one in Higashidori Village in Aomori Prefecture and another in Onagawa Town in Miyagi Prefecture.

The group is also calling for the company to end its investment in spent nuclear

Full Story Here: NHK WORLD English.