Just in case you thought the radioactive contamination found close to uranium mines was peculiar only to Niger…

…Brazil’s Brazilian Nuclear Industries (INB) has just been fined $1 million for covering up a leak of radioactive liquid at its uranium mine at Caetité.

This is the same Caetité where last year Greenpeace found drinking water to be contaminated with high levels of uranium.

A year later and it seems things have not changed. Brazil’s ‘Institute of Water Management and Climate (INGA) and the Department of Health (Sesab) notified the municipal authorities of Caetité, Lagoa Real and Livramento de Nossa Senhora’ to stop the consumption of water from six wells and springs after ‘the presence of alpha and beta radioactivity’ was detected. A report on the source of the contamination is due in three weeks.

(More information is available in Portuguese at Greenpeace Brazil)

Posted by Justin at 5:27 PM | Permalink

Today's big stories from the nuclear industry:

Guardian: US nuclear industry tries to hijack Obama's climate change bill
’America's nuclear industry and its supporters in Congress have moved to hijack Barack Obama's agenda for greening the economy by producing a rival plan to build 100 new reactors in 20 years, and staking a claim for the money to come from a proposed clean energy development bank. Republicans in the House of Representatives produced a spoiler version of the Democrats' climate change bill this week, calling for a doubling of the number of nuclear reactors in the US by 2030. The 152-page Republican bill contains just one reference to climate change, and proposes easing controls for new nuclear plants. In the Senate, Republican leaders, including the former presidential candidate John McCain, also called this week for loan guarantees for building new reactors to rise from $18.5bn (£11.2bn) to $38bn. Other Republicans have called on the administration to underwrite the $122bn start-up costs of 19 nuclear reactors, whose applications are now under review by the department of energy. If Republican efforts in Congress for a nuclear energy bill and a clean energy bank fail, the US nuclear renaissance is likely to be restricted to new reactors already being built. Jim Riccio, Greenpeace nuclear analyst, said: "The renaissance is on hold or maybe dead on arrival."

Continue reading "Nuclear News: US nuclear industry tries to hijack Obama's climate change bill" »

Posted by Justin at 5:55 PM | Permalink