Click image for larger view

On October 2nd - which is Gandhi’s birthday and India’s most famous national holiday - activists held a rally in Delhi against nuclear power. The situation was pretty bizarre for the government as on September 29th the Prime Minister decided to celebrate the centenary of the birth of Homi J. Bhabha, the father of India's nuclear program. Three days later the government went into selective amnesia and forgot Gandhi’s ideas on the nuclear issue.

Nuclear energy is presented as the foremost solution for the nation’s lack of energy security, military security and overall national security. All this in a country where hundreds of millions of people do not have food security, water security, sanitation security, and other basic needs for life and human dignity.

The Indian government has signed nuclear agreements with a number of countries such as the United States, France, Russia, Kazakhstan, Namibia, Mongolia and so forth. India is now projected to generate an additional 25,000 MW of nuclear power by 2020 with American plants in Gujarat and Andhra Pradesh, Areva plants in Maharashtra, and Russian reactors in Tamil Nadu. But it’s not for the first time that India has come out with such projections. Let’s put this in perspective. In 1984, the Department of Atomic Energy (DAE) had a dream of generating 10,000 MW of electricity by the year 2000. Never mind that Homi J. Bhabha had dreamt of 20,000 MW by 1987.

It’s 2009 and India still produces only somewhat more than 4000MW.

Click image for larger view

Gandhi Jayanti was a perfect day for organizing this rally and reminding the government about the incoherence of its policies and targets. Unfortunately, government acknowledgment is hard to come by. As Gandhi himself said: ‘They are ready to garland my photos, but never ready to follow my advice.’

(This is a guest post by Orsi Kralik, nuclear campaign blogger for Greenpeace India)

Posted by Justin at 5:16 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

What is the link between coal power and nuclear power?

I mean - apart from the fact that they are both dirty sources of energy proceeding from fossil fuels that exist in limited amounts on the planet.

And also apart from the fact they are both a threat to the environment; the first one because of the amounts of CO2 it releases into the atmosphere, the second one because of all the dangerous substances released at the surface of the planet - both throughout the nuclear fuel chain and the ever-lasting radioactive waste it leaves behind.

Oh yes, and apart from the fact that both the coal and the nukes industry are committed to undermining all attempts to switch to renewable, clean, eco-friendly energy anytime soon.

No? No other ideas?

Continue reading "Coal and Uranium: Dangerous Liaisons" »

Posted by Aslihan at 7:25 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Weird and whacky news from the nuclear industry continues to pour in, thicker and faster than George Bush on a skateboard. Let’s take look and see what’s been happening recently…

The Scottish National Party is calling for an investigation after it was revealed that there have been 165 leaks and fires at the UK’s nuclear plants over the last eight years.

A hundred and sixty-five leaks and fires? We don’t know about you but that gives us the mental image of the UK nuclear industry as a burning garden sprinkler. Spraying in all directions while on fire. Impossible and paradoxical, you say? It’s the nuclear industry we’re talking about here - it’s their job to attempt the impossible and paradoxical. They call nuclear power clean and safe for starters.

Elsewhere, Gwyneth Cravens, author of ‘Power To Save The World: The Truth About Nuclear Energy’ has been telling us just how convenient it is to store nuclear waste…

The world’s entire annual inventory could fit in one large townhouse.

Excuse our ignorance, but who in their right mind would want to store nuclear waste in a large town house? Even if you hid the stuff in the attic and the basement, in cupboards and under the bed, we doubt a townhouse could hold it all safely. Yes, if you were an idiot and piled the world’s entire annual inventory of nuclear waste into a big pile you probably could shovel it all into a townhouse. But it would be very, very wrong. There are lots of very good reasons why nuclear waste storage facilities are huge. For one thing, nuclear waste needs lots of space between the storage casks to allow the heat produced to escape. You don’t get townhouse architects to design these babies. We also liked this part…

Nuclear waste recycling, done abroad, drastically reduces volume, radioactivity, and the need for long-term disposal.

‘Done abroad’? Nice. She means it’s someone else’s problem. Out of sight, out of mind. In America it’s called ‘passing the buck’.

Meanwhile, the construction of the state-of-art fast breeder reactor being built in India is running as one would expect. It’s 40 per cent over budget, a year late and the taxpayer is paying the bill. Fast breeder reactors are supposed to herald a change in the way nuclear power works. It seems however, the more things change in the nuclear industry, the more things stay the same.

Have a great weekend!

Posted by Justin at 2:01 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Today's big stories from the nuclear industry:

St Petersburg Times: Captain Lus, a Russian vessel with radioactive cargo holed in collision
’The Captain Lus, a Russian vessel that regularly delivers radioactive cargo to St. Petersburg from abroad for subsequent reprocessing in Siberia, has collided with The Sundstraum, a Norwegian tanker, that was carrying chemicals. The Russian ship was en route from St. Petersburg to the French port of Le Havre. According to the preliminary investigation into the incident, the vessels share responsibility for causing the collision. Rashid Alimov, head of the St. Petersburg branch of the international environmental organization Bellona, told The St. Petersburg Times that The Captain Lus, which was holed in the collision, was carrying 9 containers of urainum ore concentrate on board. The cargo totalled 182 tons in weight, but no radioactive leaks were registered.’

Continue reading "Nuclear News: Russian vessel with radioactive cargo holed in collision" »

Posted by Justin at 11:40 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Today's big stories from the nuclear industry:

Whitehaven News: 'Rogue' radioactive material to be sent to France
’This is the batch of eight Mox fuel assemblies made at Sellafield and later found to be "falsified" in its specification data after being shipped out to customers in Japan. The faked pellets scandal led to loss of business confidence in BNFL and for a time Japan refused to strike any further deals with Sellafield. The fuel, a mixture of plutonium and uranium, was sent back to Sellafield - seven years ago. Now, after several years "evaluating the best options", agreement has been reached with the government that the "rogue" fuel batch, along with a another eight, will be shipped to France for treatment - but not until 2014/15.’

Continue reading "Nuclear News: 'Rogue' Sellafield radioactive material to be sent to France" »

Posted by Justin at 5:01 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Today's big stories from the nuclear industry:

China View: IAEA discovers traces of uranium in Syria
’CAIRO, June 6 (Xinhua) -- The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said on Friday that it has found traces of processed uranium in a second site in Syrian capital Damascus, Pan-Arab Al-Arabiya TV reported on Saturday. The IAEA is investigating a U.S. intelligence report which claimed that a secret DPRK-designed nuclear reactor that Syria has almost completed for the production of plutonium.’

Continue reading "Nuclear News: IAEA discovers traces of uranium in Syria" »

Posted by Justin at 2:04 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)