The Huge cost of nuclear power is holding up the development of renewable energy

Jan 14, 2012  - http://www.thenational.ae/thenationalconversation/industry-insights/energy/europes-reliance-on-nuclear-energy-a-costly-obstacle-to-green-power

A decision by France to spend billions of euros making its vast network of ageing reactors safe is once again making environmentalists question the future of nuclear energy.
"This is more evidence that nuclear energy is commercially, as well as environmentally, unviable in the long term. We have always opposed nuclear energy on grounds of cost as well as safety. That nuclear energy is far costlier than alternative energy is something we have always argued," Graham Thompson, a spokesman for the environmental lobby group Greenpeace, says.

French nuclear authority ASN has warned that France and its nuclear energy supplier EDF will have to find roughly €10 billion (Dh46.74bn) to ensure the nation's vast spider's web of 58 nuclear reactors spread across the country are made safe.
France, which relies on nuclear energy for almost 80 per cent of its power, is having to comply with an international raising of nuclear-power-generation safety standards after last year's nuclear reactor disaster in Fukushima, Japan. There is concern that many of France's reactors, about 34 of which are coming up to 30 years old, will require increasingly expensive maintenance in the future.
Although none of the French reactors need be shut down immediately, they require a huge investment if they are to be made safe in the event of a natural shock on the scale of Fukushima. But French Prime Minister François Fillon has promised to ensure that nuclear operators will conform to all of the safety requests made by ASN. Given voter concern over the dangers of nuclear energy, the French government can do little but enforce new safety regulations and other governments across the world will also need to follow suit.
The rising cost of nuclear energy versus the falling cost of power sources such as the wind and the sun is also set to be a primary focus of the World Future Energy Summit (WFES) 2012 being held in Abu Dhabi next week.
France's €10bn bill acts as a stark warning to those countries now debating whether to opt for traditional or sustainable sources of power. Nuclear energy's reputation as a cheap, clean source of electricity has become increasingly tarnished. There is mounting evidence that, as a long-term source of sustainable energy, nuclear power is neither cheap nor clean. The possibility of radioactive fallout from a faulty reactor and mounting safety costs appear to far outweigh any benefits formerly associated with nuclear energy.
Developing economies, in particular, are in a prime position to avoid the sustainable energy problems facing the more developed world. As well as sidestepping a potential nuclear nightmare, they can also leapfrog power-generation solutions that are reliant on fossil fuels.
Africa, for example, currently has a relatively clean slate as far as power generation is concerned. According to the United Nations (UN), over 600 million Africans do not have access to electronic power and roughly 70 per cent of the population of sub-Saharan lives without access to clean and safe energy for their basic needs. Globally, there are still around 1.4bn with no access to electricity. Nearly half of humanity, over 2.5bn people, still relies on wood, charcoal and animal waste to cook and heat their homes.
The fact that regions such as Africa and Middle Eastern countries such as Egypt are looking at the long-term benefits of sustainable energy is good news for green investors. The developing world has already committed billions of dollars to renewable energy projects.
Investment in renewable energy in Africa alone grew from US$750m (Dh2,755) in 2004 to $3.6bn in 2011, according to Nigeria's Bank of Industry. This contrasts with a far slower global rate for renewable energy adoption; worldwide investment in renewable energy is estimated to have grown from $33bn in 2004 to $211bn in 2011. International business consultancy Frost & Sullivan believes that investment in renewable investment in Africa is now set to grow to $57bn by 2020.
Europe's sustainable energy woes are also having a directly beneficial effect on regions such as the Middle East and North Africa (Mena). Germany's post-Fukushima acceleration of its planned phase-out of nuclear power generation gave a boost to German-led project Investec, which aims to provide 15 per cent of Europe's electricity by 2050. Destertec hopes to develop a network of wind and solar power generation facilities stretching across the entire Mena region to feed Europe's ever-hungry power needs. The cost of the vast Destertec project has been roughly estimated at €400bn. The first phase of Desertec is now scheduled to  start this year with the development of 500MW solar farm close to the desert city of Quarzazate in south central Morocco.
Throughout 2012, Europe's clean-energy challenges are now set to have a beneficial effect not only to developing countries but also to the long-term value of green investments in renewable energy.
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SOUTH ASIANS AGAINST NUKES (SAAN):
An informal information platform for activists and scholars concerned
about the dangers of Nuclearisation in South Asia
http://s-asians-against-nukes.org/
SAAN Mailing List:
To subscribe send a blank message to: saan_-subscribe@yahoogroups.com


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Greenpeace activists break into French nuclear plant

By Michael Mainville (AFP) – 7 hours ago  -

http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5hEG-eAesK3O7F_R8Em1pMcLcTfAg?docId=CNG.272dde88c249b04657842be1af789a26.6d1

PARIS — Activists from environmental group Greenpeace managed to sneak into a nuclear power plant near Paris on Monday in a move they said highlighted the dangers posed by France's reliance on atomic energy.

Police confirmed the intrusion and said activists had tried to break into two other nuclear sites in the south of France.

French energy giant EDF, which runs the nuclear plants that France relies on for 75 percent of its energy, sought to play down the incident, saying the activists at the plant near Paris had been detected but a decision made not to immediately intercept them.

EDF said activists had unfurled banners at two other sites but did not specify whether they had managed to enter the nuclear plants.

In a statement, Greenpeace said some members had entered the nuclear site at Nogent-sur-Seine, 95 kilometres (60 miles) southeast of Paris, to "spread the message that there is no such thing as safe nuclear power."

"A group of militants managed to climb on to the dome of one of the reactors, where they unfurled a banner saying 'Safe Nuclear Power Doesn't Exist'," said Greenpeace spokesman Axel Renaudin.

"The aim is to show the vulnerability of French nuclear installations, and how easy it is to get to the heart of a reactor," said Sophia Majnoni, a Greenpeace nuclear expert.

EDF insisted it had been aware of the intrusion from the start.

The activists "were immediately detected by the security system and were permanently followed on the site, without a decision being made to make use of force," the company said in a statement.

It said seven to nine people had been "calmly apprehended" by the French gendarmerie, a branch of the armed forces that protects nuclear sites.

Ladders and banners were also found near a nuclear power station in Blaye in southwestern France and at a nuclear research centre in Cadarache in the southeast, the gendarmerie told AFP.

EDF said banners had also been deployed at nuclear power plants in Chinon in central France and at Blayais in southwestern France, but "immediately removed." The company did not say whether activists had managed to enter those sites.

Henri Guaino, an advisor to President Nicolas Sarkozy, said the activists' move was "irresponsible" but raised questions about security at nuclear plants.

"It was irresponsible on their part," he told BFMTV. "But this does make one think about the security of access to nuclear power plants. Conclusions must be drawn from this."

The incident comes as some in France have begun to question the country's long-held support for nuclear energy.

France, the world's most nuclear-dependent country, operates 58 reactors and has been a leading international proponent of atomic energy.

But the country's reliance on nuclear energy has been increasingly called into question since the Fukushima disaster in Japan, which prompted Germany to announce plans to shut all of its reactors by the end of 2022.

Ahead of a presidential election next year, Socialist candidate Francois Hollande has agreed a deal with the country's Greens to push to reduce France's reliance on nuclear energy to 50 percent by shutting down 24 nuclear reactors by 2025.

EDF and Greenpeace have a long history of confrontation, and last month a French court fined the company 1.5 million euros ($2 million) after it hired a private security firm to hack the computer of the group's former head of campaigns in France.

Greenpeace's action came as UN climate talks entered their second week in South Africa.

Near the Durban conference site six Greenpeace campaigners were arrested as they tried to hang a banner reading "Listen to the People, not the Polluters" at a hotel where a "Global Business Day," hosted by business organisations, was taking place.

URGENT! Stop the Burning of Fukushima Daiichi's Radioactive Rubble

We MUST Protect Children and Future Generations Worldwide!


FACT 1 : Radioactive debris is ready to be shipped all over Japan.

FACT 2 :1,000 tons of contaminated rubble will be brought to Tokyo by train at the end of October, 2011. It will be BURNED and DUMPED into TOKYO BAY.

We are writing this letter in support of a network of thousands of mothers across Japan who fear the devastation resulting from the tsunami on March 11th and the grossly negligent government policies since its occurrence. We believe the government's negligence will have more adverse consequences than the already catastrophic impact of the tsunami and resulting radiation exposure. An almost certain rise in cancer rates for millions of people is the best case scenario from the continued leakage from Fukushima Daiichi reactors No. 1, 2, 3, and 4. It is our intention to limit the exposure of human beings to this risk to the greatest extend possible.

Statement of Purpose. It is the belief of the undersigned that the dangerous radioactive rubble at Fukushima Power Plants and the other areas around must be left at the site of the disaster. Efforts must be focused on ending the ongoing fires at the plant, and people should be evacuated from the immediate area in accordance with radiation levels set before March 11th. All recent Japanese Government policy changes to increase allowable radiation levels must be overturned to pre-disaster levels.

Today Japanese government is systematically spreading radioactive material, publicly hosting events to eat food from Fukushima as a patriotic act, raising radiation safe standard for food and rubble alike. For example in Japan today food reading 499 bq/kg can be legally distributed in the market without any label for consumers. Similarly has twice raised allowable levels of radiation for rubble which they will now ship across the country to be burned and dumped into the ocean at locations including Tokyo Bay. This negligent behavior must be stopped or an already devastating event will turn into an historic environmental disaster with international reach. The Japanese Environmental Ministry estimates 23.82 million tons of rubble resulted from the March disaster in the coastal areas of Iwate, Miyagi and Fukushima prefectures. This rubble is one of many obstacles that Japanese are facing, because they must remove the rubble in order to rebuild their lives. If the rubble piled up everywhere were not a big enough problem for the government, there is the added fact that much of this rubble contains radioactive material from the nuclear spill.

Tokyo’s local government officially accepted 1,000 tons of rubble from Iwate, they will transport the debris on trains and burn it and use the ashes as landfill in Tokyo Bay starting at the end of October, 2011. Iwate Prefectural government estimates indicate that the rubble contains 133 bq/kg of radioactive material. This would have been illegal before March but the Japanese Government changed the safety level for rubble from 100 bq/kg to 8000 bq/kg in July, 2011, then again to 10,000 bq/kg in October. Tokyo officials announced that they will accept 500,000 tons of rubble in total.

In the same Iwate prefecture, On August 12th, 2011, 1130 bq/kg readings were detected on firewood (on surface bark) , and the Kyoto local authority who was going to burn it for a popular religious event decided not to do so because of the contamination.

It is difficult to accurately speculate about the consequences of these government actions, but no one can argue that a huge environmental gamble is being waged.

The problem is not restricted to the Tokyo area, which is geographically near the impacted areas. The governor of Tokyo stated that he hopes this would encourage other local authorities to accept rubble. The Minister of the Environment, Mr. Hosono, said in a September 4, 2011 press conference that "it is the consideration of the national government [or as Japan as the nation] to share the pain of Fukushima with everyone [or everywhere] in Japan," reiterating his intention to create a final processing facility outside Fukushima Prefecture for debris and dirt from near the nuclear accident to be burned. If many other local governments in Japan decide to follow Tokyo’s lead it will cause areas where are not yet directly impacted by the radioactive spill to contaminate their local soil and water.

We are asking you to please discourage the Japanese government from spreading, burning and dumping rubble from contaminated areas. It should be left on site and people should be evacuated from those areas according to the standards in place before March 11th. It is the opinion of the undersigned that, if allowed to proceed, we will witness an historic error conducted by the Japanese government that will negatively impact human lives for hundreds of years. The alternative is that we act immediately to prevent this unnecessary outcome, and history will remember this only as the time that Fukushima Daiichi region was rendered uninhabitable rather than a worse, if uncertain, alternative.

Initiator : One World No Nukes [NY,USA] --http://www.oneworldnonukes.org/

Endorsers : Bianca Jagger [UK] Helen Caldicott Foundation [AUSTRALIA] Todos Somos Japon [NY,USA] SHUT TOMARI [Hokkaido, JAPAN] Save Fukushima Children [Hokkaido, JAPAN] OKATON [Osaka, JAPAN] KansaiFuture [Osaka, JAPAN] SHINENTAI [Osaka, JAPAN] RadiationTruth.org [NY, USA] Team Coco [Fukushima, JAPAN] C.A.N. Coalition Against Nukes [USA] Protection of Children from Radiation Daito Network [Osaka, JAPAN] Green Action [Kyoto, Japan] Rete Nazionale Antinucleare [ITALY] Abolition 2000 NY Metro [NY, USA] DiaNuke.org [INDIA] Rock The Reactors [CT, USA] Nuclear Information and Resource Service [Washington DC,USA] Shut Down Indian Point Now! [NY, USA] Street Corner Resources [Harlem NY, USA] Beyond Nuclear [MD, USA] Ecological Options Network [CA, USA] Joanna Macy, PhD [CA, USA] Time's Up! Environmental Organization [NY, USA]



Go Here To Sign Online: http://tinyurl.com/5wc73fl

MANAGING RADIOACTIVE WASTES SAFELY HALLOWEEN SPECIAL

The Scariest Halloween Story is the one where the nasties appear as respectable types who say "Don't Worry Everything is OK!" The viewer has a hunch that there will be an inevitable doom laden slide to a scary
ending.

With nice timing for the scary Halloween season the Managing Radioactive Wastes Safely Partnership have produced a draft consultation document which will be used to continue promoting the "steps towards geological disposal" of high level nuclear wastes in Cumbria's leaky geology.

The document which will be discussed in Egremont this thursday says:

"We wanted to be 'confident in the integrity of the BGS (British Geological Society) screening work/report'.

Our initial opinions are:

BGS study. We are confident in the integrity of the BGS screening report because it has been endorsed by two independent reviewers and there is no significant criticism of the study's integrity from elsewhere".

http://www.westcumbriamrws.org.uk/meetings_more.asp?news_id=30

Really? "No significant Criticism" ?

What about the significant criticism from:

The Nirex Inspector
http://www.nuclearwasteadvisory.co.uk/news-and-events/news/nirex-inquiry-inspector-attacks-nda/

Members of the original Committee on Radioactive Waste Management
http://www.nuclearwasteadvisory.co.uk/news-and-events/news/letter-from-corwm-members-on-new-build-waste/

Dr Helen Wallace- author of the Rock Solid? Scientific review
http://northern-indymedia.org/articles/1052

Dr Rachel Western - former employee of Nirex- researcher for Cumbrian

Friends of the Earth groups
http://northern-indymedia.org/articles/943

Professor David Smythe - former employee of Nirex
http://www.davidsmythe.org/nuclear/nuclear.htm

Tim Farron MP

http://mariannewildart.wordpress.com/2011/10/11/great-pyramids-spoil-heaps-in-cumbria/



There are many more significant criticisms!


http://101-uses-for-a-nuclear-power-station.blogspot.com/2011/10/mrws-halloween-special.html

The good news is that unlike the viewer or reader of a scary Halloween

story, Cumbria has the wherewithal to stop the slide into the unfathomable

void.

The film "3 miles to Gorakhpur" is about an anti nuclear protest in Haryana, India

The Hindu   NEW DELHI, October 21, 2011

Gorakhpur Village's protest against nuclear power plant 3 Mile away
Staff Reporter

Protesting against the proposed nuclear power plant at Gorakhpur village in Haryana, a group people associated with the struggle on Thursday gathered at the Indian Social Institute in Lodhi Road for the screening of a film 3 Mile to Gorakhpur and a discussion on the issue.

“A majority of villagers of Gorakhpur are opposed to the proposed nuclear power plant because it will come up in a densely populated area with over 20,000 people. The Government is planning to acquire 1,305 acres here and about 185 acres in the adjoining Badopala village. People in these villages and nearby areas are afraid of any possible nuclear radiation or related accidents,” said Bharat Jan Vigyan Jatha national convenor Soumya Dutta who has been associated with the protest.

The Nuclear Power Corporation of India Ltd, which had proposed the building of the plant, had sent notices to the villagers last year informing them about land acquisition. Opposing this move, lead by Kisan Sangharsh Samiti, farmers from the villages of Gorakhpur, Badopala and nearby villages are participating in a sit-in dharna which started on August 17 last year shortly after the land acquisition notices were sent.

Highlighting the issue

“While the villagers are not ready to give in, the Government too has to understand that this is a very fertile land that they are planning to take over. They will also be using the only water source for the plant that will eat into the villagers' water source which is used for drinking and irrigation,” added Mr. Dutta.

“The villagers have been protesting against the plant for the past fifteen months. Most women here are very attached to their land. Most of them say that the money the men will get will be spent and the families will suffer. Most say that they will not sell their land. The idea of bringing the film and discussion to Delhi is to highlight the issue and generate more public discussion,” said Mr. Dutta.
SOUTH ASIANS AGAINST NUKES (SAAN):

An informal information platform for activists and scholars concerned about the dangers of Nuclearisation in South Asia

http://s-asians-against-nukes.org/

Radiation leak from Pakistani nuclear power plant

Pakistan Peace Coalition expresses concern over leakage incident at KANUPP; demands shutting down of nuclear power plants in Pakistan

KARACHI, Oct. 20 [2011]: Pakistan Peace Coalition (PPC) has expressed serious concern over the leakage of heavy water from a feeder pipe of the reactor at Karachi Nuclear Power Plant (KANUPP) and asked the government to get rid of this nuclear power plant, which is actually non productive, but posing great threat to human lives and also to the coastal environment of Karachi.

In a statement issued here Thursday, PPC General Secretary B. M. Kutty said the government has not provided any details for the release of radiation as a result of this accident. As reported in the newspapers, the Director General KANUPP Javed Iqbal declined to give any details when contacted, saying the situation was reported to the head office in Islamabad and they could not comment on it.

The safety of the current nuclear installations remain a serious concern because there is very little information on security measures adopted to protect the population from any potential risk in case of mishap at any of the country's nuclear plants. Nuclear facilities in Pakistan are precariously located, particularly the KANUPP that is stationed alongside the coast. An earlier letter written by civil society organisations to the Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission to demand a copy of the Karachi Emergency Relief Plan, in case of a nuclear disaster, met with no response. Concerns have also been raised against the authorities, practice of dumping uranium waste near the mines in Dera Ghazi Khan. According to reports the incidence of leukemia is higher in the region. Kutty pointed out that a similar incident of the leakage of heavy water had also taken place some 20 years ago at KANUPP, but the government did not provide any details at that time. It is the right of public to know the factual position of release of radiation and extent of the threat to human health.

The recent incident at the KANUPP is a cause of grave concern as PPC had already feared the happening of such incidents at the nuclear plant. The radiation leaks at the two nuclear power stations, Fukushima-Daiichi and Fukushima-Daini in Japan following a powerful 9.0 magnitude earthquake off the Pacific coast in last March had put the population of Japan at great risk, and should have proved to be an eye-opener to our authorities. The PCC demanded the government to put a stop to the ongoing nuclear programmes, while any plans of expanding the countryâ?Ts current nuclear power generation capacity must be immediately called off. The nuclear contribution to the current Pakistani total electricity supply is very limited, while the hazards it poses far outweigh its utility. According to the recent estimates, nuclear capacity represents merely 2.4 percent of the total installed capacity of 19,252 MWe in Pakistan, but the cost to the people and the country in the return would be quite high. Kutty demanded the government to provide exact information of the radiation release to the public and no further work be allowed on this age-old, almost obsolete, plant.

Anti nuclear protest in France

1000s urge end to nuclear activities in France


Sun Oct 16, 2011 8:52AM GMT -http://presstv.com/detail/204854.html

Thousands of activists have staged demonstrations in seven cities across France, calling for an end to all forms of nuclear activity in the country.

Some 25,000 activists from 900 French anti-nuclear groups took part in the Saturday rallies, which were organized by Sortir du nucléaire (Nuclear phase-out) federation.

The demonstrators called on the government to halt all its military and civilian nuclear activities, and criticized Paris for continuing its nuclear policy while France's neighboring countries have already announced plans to scrap their nuclear facilities, AFP reported.

The protesters particularly called for the closure of Bugey nuclear plant in eastern France, which they say is susceptible to high risks of earthquake and flood.

They also held a minute of silence in honor of the victims of Fukushima nuclear disaster in eastern Japan, and urged the French government to take lessons from Japan's tragedy and turn to renewable energies.

Since a 9.0-magnitude earthquake and a devastating tsunami on March 11, the Daiichi Fukushima nuclear plant in Japan has been leaking radiation into the air, soil.

The quake triggered a nuclear crisis by knocking out power to cooling systems at the nuclear power plant on Japan's northeast coast.
(Le Monde - 15 octobre 2011)

Plusieurs milliers de manifestants ont défilé contre le nucléaire en France‎

http://tinyurl.com/685jgyx