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Uranium spills into two French rivers
French officials barred residents in three towns from using two rivers in southern France after waste containing uranium leaked into the waterways.
The accident happened at the Tricastin nuclear site at Bollene, about 25 miles from Avignon, the BBC reported. Residents along the Gaffiere and Lauzon rivers were banned from fishing, using water from wells, swimming in the rivers or using river water for crops.
The unenriched uranium was toxic but the French nuclear safety agency said the risk to humans was slight.
Uranium concentrations in the Gaffiere River initially were about 1,000 times higher than normal but were falling, spokeswoman Evangelia Petit said.
About 7,925 gallons of solution containing the uranium spilled from an overflowing reservoir at the site into the ground and the rivers, the British broadcaster said.
Abandon Nuclear Power, an anti-nuclear group, said it thought authorities were downplaying the danger posed by the waste.
It is impossible that such a spill, containing uranium, does not have important consequences for the environment and for health, the group said in a statement.
About 80 percent of France's electricity is from nuclear power. French officials barred residents in three towns from using two rivers in southern France after waste containing uranium leaked into t... more -
Radiation Exposure: 24 Hour Cell Phone Use = 1600 Chest X-Rays! - ALEEKA.COM
Got wireless? Just call it "X-ray"
No sane parent would submit his child to 1600 chest X-rays over a 24 hour period. Yet a mere 24 hours of wireless phone radiation can inflict the same damage to a child’s tissues as 1600 chest X-rays. This is the crux of studies completed by 12 groups of researchers from seven European countries who collaborated in the REFLEX study project to gauge the effects of wireless radiation on human health. REFLEX scientists have released the comet assay slides (22) pictured above.
The U.S. government allowed wireless phones to be put on the market in the 1980s with absolutely no safety testing. Today, REFLEX research demonstrates that Wi-phones blasting high-frequency microwaves are basically personal X-ray devices. This shocking reality gives rise to the term "Generation X-ray." Consumers aren’t permitted to buy household X-ray machines. Yet comparably lethal wireless devices are handed out to grade school kids for heavy and indiscriminate use, with virtually no hazard warnings and no medical supervision.
Tissue damage from wireless microwave radiation is known to be as cumulative as that from ionizing X-radiation. If we divide the tissue damage of 1600 chest X-rays by 24 cell phone hours, we could make the following postulations about Generation X-ray:
• For each minute a child presses a microwave phone to his head, he may suffer radiation damage equivalent to approximately 1.1 chest X-rays.
• For each hour a child uses a transmitting wireless phone or wireless laptop to communicate, watch videos/TV or play games, he may be exposing his developing brain, eye and gut tissues to radiation damage equivalent to 66.6 chest X-rays.
Ionizing X-radiation, like that used for chest X-rays and other medical procedures, is on carcinogen "List One," compiled by the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC). IARC is an intergovernmental agency forming part of the World Health Organization. IARC ranks X-radiation on par with gamma radiation, plutonium, dioxin and benzene, all known to induce cancer in both animals and humans. There is no "safe" dose determined for any substance or exposure on IARC’s List One.
It’s sobering that microwave radiation, blasting from an entire generation’s wireless phones, inflicts the same kind of DNA damage as ionizing radiation on IARC’s carcinogen List One. What REFLEX studies prove is how quickly that devastating damage takes place. Got wireless? Just call it "X-ray" ... more -
How much radiation does your phone emit?
"The technology news site CNET has compiled two interesting lists showing which cellphones give off the most and the least radiation.
In publishing the information, CNET editors note the data aren’t meant to imply that cellphone radiation poses a risk, nor is it meant to say that the phones are safe. As I recently reported in my Well column last week, the data on cellphone safety is mixed, although a few recent international studies have suggested a link with three types of brain tumors. The Food and Drug Administration also says there’s not enough information to determine conclusively whether cellphones are safe or unsafe."
links:
ten highest-radiation cell phones: http://reviews.cnet.com/4520-6602_7-5020357-1.html?tag=...
Ten lowest-radiation cell phones: http://reviews.cnet.com/4520-6602_7-5020356-1.html?tag=...
"The technology news site CNET has compiled two interesting lists showing which cellphones give off the most and the least radiation. ... more -
Senator Ted Kennedy Having Surgery for Tumor
Kennedy Having Surgery for Tumor
By PAM BELLUCK - NY Times
BOSTON, June 2 — Sen. Edward M. Kennedy was to have surgery for his malignant brain tumor on Monday morning at Duke University Medical Center, his office said.
Mr. Kennedy, 76, who was diagnosed two weeks ago with a malignant glioma in the upper left portion of his brain, was to undergo an operation that was to begin at around 9 a.m. and last roughly six hours. He was to be operated on by Dr. Allan Friedman, chief of the division of neurosurgery in the surgical department at Duke in Durham, N.C.
Mr. Kennedy’s office issued a statement at around 6:30 a.m. on Monday saying that he expects to remain in the hospital at Duke for about a week and then return to Massachusetts, where he will undergo chemotherapy and radiation at Massachusetts General Hospital, where his tumor was diagnosed after he suffered a seizure at his home on Cape Cod.
Mr. Kennedy said in the statement that he and his wife Vicki, “along with my outstanding team of doctors at Massachusetts General Hospital, have consulted with experts from around the country and have decided that the best course of action for my brain tumor is targeted surgery followed by chemotherapy and radiation.”
He said that, “after completing treatment, I look forward to returning to the United States Senate and to doing everything I can to help elect Barack Obama as our next president.”
It was not clear from the statement how long his course of chemotherapy and radiation treatment would take. Kennedy Having Surgery for Tumor By PAM BELLUCK - NY Times ... more -
Senator Kennedy to battle brain tumour
Kennedy has a glioma and will require chemotherapy and radiation therapy, neurologist Dr. Lee Schwamm of Massachusetts General Hospital, and Dr. Larry Ronan, a primary physician there, said in a statement. Kennedy has a glioma and will require chemotherapy and radiation therapy, neurologist Dr. Lee Schwamm of Massachusetts General Hospita... more
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Nuclear power is no solution to the climate crisis: exposing the myths
The nuclear industry is hoping that concern over climate change will result in support for nuclear power. However, even solely on the grounds of economic criteria it offers poor value for money in displacing fossil fuel plant. Further, with its high cost, long construction time, high environmental risk and problems resulting from waste management, it is clear that nuclear power does not offer a viable solution to climate change. Rather a mixture of energy efficiency and renewable energy offers a quicker, more realistic and sustainable approach to reducing CO2 emissions.
The nuclear industry is hoping that concern over climate change will result in support for nuclear power. However, even solely on the ... more -
Radioactive colonization and the University of California in New Mexico
Follow link to UC Nuclear Free:
The human cost in New Mexico of nuclear weapons development and the nuclear power industry.
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from TouchArt.net and OneEarthBlog.blogspot.com Follow link to UC Nuclear Free: The human cost in New Mexico of nuclear weapons development and the nuclear power industry. ... more -
Is nuclear energy a clean solution for global warming?
Nuclear power: a cure for cheap electricity without greenhouse gases? Institute for Policy Studies: reports - NO
"By Nuclear Policy
Author(s): Robert Alvarez
The Global Nuclear Partnership (GNEP) is a major element of the Bush Administration’s energy policy. Its principal goal is to expand the world-wide growth of nuclear energy as a means of reducing greenhouse gas emissions and fostering economic development. Under Bush's plan, the United States and its nuclear partners would sell power reactors to developing nations who agree not to pursue technologies that would aid nuclear weapons production, notably reprocessing and uranium enrichment.
To sweeten the deal, the United States would take highly radioactive spent fuel rods to a recycling center in this country. The foreign reactor wastes, along with spent fuel from the U.S. reactor fleet, would be reprocessed to reduce the amount that would go deep underground. Nuclear explosive materials, such as plutonium, would also also be separated and converted to less troublesome isotopes in a new generation reactors operated in the United States.
However, our investigation found that:
* GNEP is a rushed, ill-conceived, poorly supported and technically and economically risky expansion and redirection of the nuclear industry. None of the technologies and processes proposed for GNEP current exist in commercially viable applications and only a few have been demonstrated in large, engineering scale projects.
* Even if its unproven technologies are shown to be viable, GNEP also has the potential to inhibit the adoption of more reasonable solutions to global climate change by diverting resources into an unproven and, most likely, a prohibitively expensive nuclear option.
* GNEP also would increase the danger of nuclear proliferation and the potential for weapons grade materials falling into the hands of hostile or unstable nations and terrorist groups.
* GNEP will likely worsen the radioactive waste disposal problem and would also make the United States the dumping ground for nuclear wastes from the other participating nations...."
Follow the link to read the pdf of the full report.
Photo of U.S. Nuclear Power Plant Towers by Andre Jenny
Montpelier Vermont, USA
http://www.andrejenny.com/
Andre Jenny wrote, "Nuclear power plant cooling towers, in Limerick, Pennsylvania.
Steam rising from the cooling towers at Philadelphia Electric Company Nuclear Power generating station in Limerick in the State of Pennsylvania.
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from your friends at TouchArt.net and OneEarthBlog.blogspot.com in New Mexico where our backyard has been designated a nuclear energy sacrifice area, even though there is already too much natural as well as military and corporate produced radiation. Nuclear power: a cure for cheap electricity without greenhouse gases? Institute for Policy Studies: reports - NO ... more -
Southwest Research and Information Center - Web Links
MISSION: Southwest Research and Information Center is a multi-cultural organization working to promote the health of people and communities, protect natural resources, ensure citizen participation, and secure environmental and social justice now and for future generations.
Go to source for direct links to -
Voices from the Earth: Current Issue
SRIC Friends
In the News
Web Links to SRIC FRIENDS
Environment General
* Friends of the Earth
*High Country News
* New Mexico Environmental Law Center
* Petition for a Sustainable Energy Future
* Safe Energy Analyst
Uranium
*WISE Uranium Project
* Sustainable Energy and Anti-Uranium Service (SEA-US)
Nuclear Waste
*Alliance for Nuclear Accountability (ANA)
*Nuclear Information and Resource Service
* Citizen Alert
* Concerned Citizens for Nuclear Safety (CCNS)
* Government Accountability Project (GAP)
* Heart of America
* Institute for Energy & Environmental Research (IEER)
* Los Alamos Study Group
* National Environmental Coalition of Native Americans
* Nuclear Control Institute
* Nuclear Watch of New Mexico
* Oak Ridge Environmental Peace Alliance
* Peace Action
* Physicians for Social Responsibility (PSR)
* Rocky Mountain Peace and Justice Center
* Shundahai Network
* Snake River Alliance
* Tri-Valley CAREs (Communities Against a Radioactive Environment)
* Western States Legal Foundation
* Don't Blow It!
* Center for Defense Information
* WasteLink internet site directory
Mining
*Partizansk web links
*Mineral Policy Center
*Pacific Environment and Resources Center (PERC)
*WISE Uranium Project
* The Natural Resources Canada, Minerals and Metals Sector
* ENVIROMINE
* National Mining Association
* Mineral Policy Institute
* Amigos Bravos
* USGS Mineral Resource Surveys Program
* Friends of the Earth
* Sustainable Energy and Anti-Uranium Service (SEA-US)
Renewable Energy Related Groups
* Green Energy New Mexico
* New Mexico Solar Energy Association
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Brought to you by your friends at TouchArt.net and OneEarthBlog.blogspot.com in New Mexico where radiation from Los Alamos National Atomic Labs is still not cleaned up.
Call and write your congresspeople and ask why they are letting this happen to our nation.
http://www.congress.org/congressorg/directory/congdir.t... MISSION: Southwest Research and Information Center is a multi-cultural organization working to promote the health of people and commun... more -
Navajo Nation President Kelsey Begaye Opposed Uranium Mining in 2002
"Swayed by "your grave concerns about uranium mining operations" in the Eastern Navajo Agency in northwestern New Mexico, Navajo Nation President Kelsey Begaye and Vice President Dr. Taylor McKenzie have told community leaders that they now oppose uranium in situ leach (ISL) mining "located in or near populated areas" and conducted in "potable or potentially potable groundwater or surface water sources."
from Voices from the Earth, vol. 3, no. 3 Fall 2002
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Brought to you by your friends at TouchArt.net and OneEarthBlog.blogspot.com in New Mexico
where every day is Earth Day and the cost of life, health, and damage to air, water and earth make uranium mining too costly.
Photo by Charleen Touchette, "Sage at the Hogan", c.1985 in Navajo Nation.
"Swayed by "your grave concerns about uranium mining operations" in the Eastern Navajo Agency in northwestern New Mexico, Navajo Natio... more -
Eastern Navajo Dine Against Uranium Mining Took Their Message to the U.N. in 2004
Voices from the Earth, vol. 5, no. 3 Fall 2004
Mitchell Capitan and
Eastern Navajo Diné Against Uranium Mining
Take Their Message to the International Stage
Click the link below to hear Mitchell Capitan
http://home.maryknoll.org/index.php?module=MKArticles&a...
For nearly 10 years, Mitchell Capitan and his wife Rita have been at the forefront of grass-roots resistance to industry and government efforts to commence new uranium mining in the Navajo communities of Crownpoint and Church Rock in northwestern New Mexico...."
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From your friends at TouchArt.net and OneEarthBlog.blogspot.com because our children and grandchildren live in New Mexico where the air, water, and earth already have too much radiation.
Photo, "Wash in Canyon de Chelly" by Charleen Touchette Voices from the Earth, vol. 5, no. 3 Fall 2004 Mitchell Capitan and Eastern Navajo Diné Against Uranium Mining ... more -
Bombplex Transformation Overview
On January 11, 2008, the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), the semi-autonomous nuclear weapons agency within the Department of Energy (DOE), a proposal named "Complex Transformation."
This document lays out the agency’s vision for the future of US nuclear weapons production, research, and testing complex. It is fundamentally about securing the future of nuclear weapons production and research by revamping infrastructure and adding capabilities across the complex.
If allowed to move forward, this new Bombplex will design new nuclear weapons and resume industrial-scale bomb production. This vision, “Complex Transformation”, was formerly known as “Complex 2030”.
Click the link to learn how you can comment to Congress and more.
More nuclear weapons are not the answer.
The sun is the only nuclear reactor we need.
There is a good reason it is so far away.
Write your senators and tell them not to endanger New Mexicans with this complex.
It's time every day is earth day. On January 11, 2008, the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), the semi-autonomous nuclear weapons agency within the Depart... more -
YouTube - Fair Shake _ Uranium Mining Moratorium
Call to Canadians to stop uranium mining in Ottawa and throughout Canada.
Americans in the U.S. also must oppose the poisoning of earth, water, and air from uranium mining.
This is a crucial environmental justice issue and a people of color and class issue, since uranium mines, toxic waste dumps, nuclear and dirty coal power plants are located disproportionately on Indian reservations and in poor communities which are overwhelmingly comprised of people of color.
But radiation knows no national or racial boundaries. Cancer crosses state lines and country borders and affects all races and economic groups.
We need to unite on this issue because we share one earth and have to stop poisoning our home.
From TouchArt.net and OneEarthBlog where it's always Earth Day.
Call to Canadians to stop uranium mining in Ottawa and throughout Canada. ... more -
Nuclear Energy Lobby In U.S. Using Climate Change for Profit
After a hiatus of nearly three decades, nuclear energy is booming. Seventeen power companies in the U.S. are making plans to build more than 30 nuclear plants.
One important factor in the resurgence: new federal and state laws that help utilities pay for nuclear plants that, if completed, would be among the most expensive projects ever built in the country.
One state where nuclear power is making a comeback is Florida. At a meeting last week in Tallahassee, Florida's Public Service Commission voted to approve the state's first new nuclear plants in decades.
Commission member Nathan Skop hailed the decision. "Simply put, nuclear power is a strategic investment for the state of Florida and our national security—to reduce our dependence on foreign oil and to protect our environment," he said.
After a hiatus of nearly three decades, nuclear energy is booming. Seventeen power companies in the U.S. are making plans to build mor... more -
Mobile phones are 'more dangerous than smoking'
A top brain cancer expert has warned that radiation from mobile phones is causing a huge increase in brain tumours. He says that the mobile-phone related health problems could kill far more people than smoking or asbestos and he's calling on the industry to reduce radiation exposure. He based his claims on growing evidence that using a mobile phone handsets "for 10 years or more can double the risk of brain cancer".
While some studies have claimed that there is no risk, this report explains that many cancers take more than a decade to form, accounting for the seemingly few people who were effected by radiation.
A top brain cancer expert has warned that radiation from mobile phones is causing a huge increase in brain tumours. He says that the m... more -
Nuclear Donating Big To Obama and Clinton
And yet, we are to believe they are candidates of change? That they care about the environment? Nuclear energy is not "green." It is an antiquated dangerous form of energy that has seen its day. It is only because of the rise of concern over the climate crisis that certain lobbies have been trying to push it into the green column in order to make a profit from it. And Obama and Clinton are helping them in their quest to do so at the expense of this planet. Subsidies to the nuclear industry could be used to bring innovative and truly visionary alternate energies to the fore that would reduce our dependence on oil in much cleaner and safer ways. This is very discouraging to see and tells me that Obama, who talks about change in his glossy abstract speeches means only changing the person living at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. It doesn't mean changing the way business is done. Any candidate who truly believes in addressing climate change and in fighting terrorism is not for nuclear power, period. It is bad enough that Republicans push for nuclear energy and antiquated methods proven to be unproductive in progressing us towards the future. I expected better from Democrats, or at least, those who call themselves Democrats. And yet, we are to believe they are candidates of change? That they care about the environment? Nuclear energy is not "green." It is a... more
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Obama's NUCLEAR Family
Since 2003, executives and employees of Exelon, which is based in Illinois, have contributed at least $227,000 to Mr. Obama’s campaigns for the United States Senate and for president. Two top Exelon officials, Frank M. Clark, executive vice president, and John W. Rogers Jr., a director, are among his largest fund-raisers.
Another Obama donor, John W. Rowe, chairman of Exelon, is also chairman of the Nuclear Energy Institute, the nuclear power industry’s lobbying group, based in Washington. Exelon’s support for Mr. Obama far exceeds its support for any other presidential candidate.
In addition, Mr. Obama’s chief political strategist, David Axelrod, has worked as a consultant to Exelon. A spokeswoman for Exelon said Mr. Axelrod’s company had helped an Exelon subsidiary, Commonwealth Edison, with communications strategy periodically since 2002, but had no involvement in the leak controversy or other nuclear issues.
http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2007/04/09/399/
So ironic, since Obama wants to eliminate nuclear weapons, so he says.
I miss John Edwards and Dennis Kucinich. Am I over reacting to this news, or are we screwed? Since 2003, executives and employees of Exelon, which is based in Illinois, have contributed at least $227,000 to Mr. Obama’s campaign... more -
Nuclear Britain
Private energy companies in Britain have been given the go-ahead to invest in new nuclear reactors, which could make the UK one of the world's leading nuclear energy users. This has environmental campaigners in a fury over what they see is a "dangerous and foolhardy decision."
Ben Ayliffe, senior nuclear campaigner at Greenpeace, said "Nuclear is yesterday's technology," he said. "We can tackle climate change and energy problems by using renewables and energy efficiency."
I must say I agree with Ayliffe and the environmentalists. I don't understand how a government can ignore the massive amounts of lethal radioactive waste that comes from producing nuclear energy on account of such small benefit. I'm no nuclear scientist, or government official, or environmentalist. But I do live here, and I do have enough common sense to say that the costs greatly outweigh the benefits of restoring the nuclear energy industry here and that it shouldn't happen. What's wrong with wind power??? Private energy companies in Britain have been given the go-ahead to invest in new nuclear reactors, which could make the UK one of the... more -
Chernobyl Heart: An Academy Award winning film by Maryann De Leo
In Belarus, the country most seriously contaminated by the April 29, 1986 Chernobyl accident, the terrible effects of radiation are seen in the high levels of cancer, birth defects, and heart conditions suffered by the region's children. In Belarus, the country most seriously contaminated by the April 29, 1986 Chernobyl accident, the terrible effects of radiation are se... more
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Cookie cutter reactors running into Hurdles!
WASHINGTON, Dec. 4 - For the first time in three decades, companies are getting ready to build nuclear reactors in the United States. They intend to do so under streamlined procedures meant to avoid the long delays and cost overruns that crippled the industry last time around.
But with early jockeying under way to win government approval for this new generation of plants, ominous signs are emerging that the plans may not go smoothly.
And if the industry succeeds in winning approval for as many new reactors as it wants, 31 and counting, the capacity of nuclear suppliers is likely to be strained. By most estimates, they can fabricate enough parts for only three or four reactors a year, and the United States will be competing with other countries that want to build nuclear plants.
Some of the most important parts can be cast only by a single foundry, Japan Steel Works. "The global supply chain is going to be the pacing item," Mr. Wallace said. WASHINGTON, Dec. 4 - For the first time in three decades, companies are getting ready to build nuclear reactors in the United States. ... more
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Radiation
