In the wake of Fukushima the U.S. government and the NRC make no significant changes in aid of safety, instead weakening existing regulations and stonewalling attempts at enforcement and attempts to make safety more robust.

JEFF DONN, AP National Writer l Orlando Sentinal  16 May 2012

Without fanfare, the nation's nuclear power regulators have overhauled community emergency planning for the first time in more than three decades, requiring fewer exercises for major accidents and recommending that fewer people be evacuated right away.

Nuclear watchdogs voiced surprise and dismay over the quietly adopted revamp — the first since the program began after Three Mile Island in 1979. Several said they were unaware of the changes until now, though they took effect in December.

Read article

Fairewinds l 15 May, 2012

Arnie Gundersen, Chief Engineer of Fairewinds, demonstrates what has happened inside the replacement steam generators at the site of the San Onofre nuclear generating station in San Diego, California. Arnie shows that steam generator tube vibrations have caused extensive damage due to design changes between the original and replacement generator tubes.

Associated Material

For the independence of WHO

«The World Health Organisation (WHO) is failing in its duty to protect those populations who are victims of radioactive contamination.»

8 - APRIL - 2012

IndependentWHO is organising a «  Scientific and Citizen Forum on Radioprotection : from Chernobyl to Fukushima » on May 12th 2012 in Geneva.

The real health consequences of Chernobyl, and of all nuclear activities, have been covered up. The World Health Organisation, the international health authority, is subordinate to the nuclear lobby and has abdicated all responsibility in matters of radiation and health.

With the Fukushima catastrophe, it is ever more urgent for citizens and independent scientists to assume responsibility together for research and information in this critical area of public health.

The Forum, which will take place in Geneva, will bring together independent scientists, citizens groups and health professionals, from the Chernobyl region, Fukushima and elsewhere in the world, in order to share information and initiate citizen action aimed at ensuring radioprotection for the world’s people.

There will be events on all three days of the forum :

- A Press Conference, on Friday 11th May, between 10 and 12 o’clock, at the Club suisse de la presse ;

- The Forum, Saturday 12th May, at the Ecumenical Centre, 150 route de Ferney.

- A round table discussion between speakers and the public, Sunday morning, 13 th May, at La Maison des associations.

http://independentwho.org/en/2012/04/08/forum-on-radioprotection/

ClimateProgress.org l  Joe Romm    April 6, 2011

‘Forgetting by doing’? Real escalation in reactor investment costs

Drawing on largely unknown public records, the paper reveals for the first time both absolute as well as yearly and specific reactor costs and their evolution over time. Its most significant finding is that even this most successful nuclear scale-up was characterized by a substantial escalation of real-term construction costs.

Fig. 13.  Average and min/max reactor construction costs per year of completion date for US and France versus cumulative capacity completed

We’ve known for a while that the cost of new nuclear power plants in this county have been soaring (see Nuclear power: The price is not right and Exclusive analysis: The staggering cost of new nuclear power).

Read full text at ClimateProgress.org

GLOBAL HUNGER STRIKE

IN SOLIDARITY WITH

CONCERNED CITIZENS AND PEACE ACTIVISTS AGAINST

THE DANGERS OF THE KOODANKULAM NUCLEAR POWER PLANT

On May 1^st, peace activists in south India embark on an indefinite hunger strike. Despite official promises, their demands about the legality and safety of the Koodankulam Nuclear Power Plant have not been met.

This is a peaceful struggle to the death.

The Indian government has announced that the first reactor at Koodankulamwill go critical in May/June.

More than 55,000 people have been falsely charged including for sedition.

This is a travesty of democracy.

Organise, protest, contact media, human and environmental rights organisations, social networks, politicians, locally and globally including Prime Minister Manmohan Singh (http://pmindia.nic.in/feedback.php) and Chief Minister Jayalalitha (Chief Secretarycs@tn.gov.in, cmcell@tn.gov.in)

The Helen Caldicott Foundation: Disproportionate Harm, Initial Talking Points

There has been a lot of discussion about the spent fuel at Fukushima, especially now - about the reactor #4 spent fuel pool. The harm this could cause should it collapse is incalculable. But, the truth is we are getting sick and dying from radiation exposure already, and it is happening in disproportionate numbers. We need to keep referencing that this is happening now in Japan, and everywhere around the world. We are asking for your help in making this widely known. Please join us!

Disproportionate Harm: Women and Children are more Vulnerable.

This year the Helen Caldicott Foundation in partnership with NIRS, and all other groups who want to join us (national and international), will embark on the start of a major education to action campaign on the effects of radiation exposure on the health of all people. But, its particular focus will be the disproportionate risk radiation exposure poses to women and children. Buried in the literature to date is the fact that men are more resistant to radiation. The safety standards, which time has shown protect no one, were designed at the time of the Manhattan Project to protect young, healthy, western, men. Presumably, military men expected to accept a certain degree of risk in exchange for protecting their country.

Insufficient as it is, even the National Academy of Sciences BEIR V11 Report, widely accepted as the industry standard, clearly states:

1. There is no safe dose of ionizing radiation. Any exposure can trigger cancer.
2. Although the reasons are not yet clearly understood, women and children are 
significantly more vulnerable.
3. Women are 40-60% more likely to get cancer than men, given the same exposure. 
They are about 50% (half again) more likely to acquire a fatal cancer from this exposure. This means that for every two men who die of radiation related cancer, three women will die given a similar exposure.

Children between the ages of 0-5 are more vulnerable than all adults, both men and women. But what is almost never discussed, also from the BEIR V11 Report, is that in this age group little girls are twice as vulnerable as boys. This means that for every boy, there will be two girls who will acquire a fatal or non-fatal cancer...

No matter what your feelings about nuclear may be, or your political party, some common sense needs to be applied to the discussion of the US nuclear future. Nuclear power is ruinously expensive, not even including the cost of cleaning up "operations as usual." Should a major accident happen in the US- almost the entire cost would be born by the taxpayer. The ways of disguising the limited liability, and complete socialization of the nuclear industry, are many. But, you don't have to dig too far to find that no-one can afford it.

Bernie Sanders and Ryan Alexander l Reader Supported News   13 April, 2012

he US is facing a $15 trillion national debt, and there is no shortage of opinions about how to move toward deficit reduction in the federal budget. One topic you will not hear discussed very often on Capitol Hill is the idea of ending one of the oldest American welfare programmes – the extraordinary amount of corporate welfare going to the nuclear energy industry.

Many in Congress talk of getting "big government off the back of private industry". Here's an industry we'd like to get off the backs of the taxpayers.

As, respectively, a senator who is the longest-serving independent in Congress and the president of an independent and non-partisan budget watchdog organisation, we do not necessarily agree on everything when it comes to energy and budget policy in the US. But one thing we strongly agree on is the need to end wasteful subsidies that prop up the nuclear industry. After 60 years, this industry should not require continued and massive corporate welfare. It is time for the nuclear power industry to stand on its own two feet.

Read full text and help keep independant media outlets like Reader Supported News in operation

Published on Apr 12, 2012 by canarycoalition

Nobel Peace Prize nominee Dr. Helen Caldicott speaks to why the nuclear age is the single greatest threat to the world's health, namely the profound medical , environmental, political and moral consequences of perpeturating nuclear weapons, power and waste.