Tag: nuclear industry

Latest From The Pen Of Philippe Leroux: ‘X-Rays and Nuclear Fumbles’ (via The Crisis Jones Report)

On By southwerkIn business ethics

What level of x-ray exposure is safe? Over the last roughly one hundred years, the amount of such radiation considered dangerous has been changed repeatedly and always downward. This article is critical of the nuclear industry and its reaction to an x-ray exposure at one of the facilities.

Now, there is some evidence that there is no safe level. I have included a brief quote from Wikipedia evidencing that point of view. If you are interested in the medical safety of x-rays, I found a wonderful site put up by the University of Oklahoma which I link to here.

From Wikipedia – Diagnostic X-rays (primarily from CT scans due to the large dose used) increase the risk of developmental problems and cancer in those exposed.[28][29][30] X rays are classified as a carcinogen by both the World Health Organization’s International Agency for Research on Cancer and the U.S. government.[26][31] It is estimated that 0.4% of current cancers in the United States are due to computed tomography (CT scans) performed in the past and that this may increase to as high as 1.5-2% with 2007 rates of CT usage.[32]

I’m very fond of the web site Crisis Jones Report and suggest that you favorite it.

James Pilant

Latest From The Pen Of Philippe Leroux: 'X-Rays and Nuclear Fumbles' By: Philippe Leroux For: The Crisis Jones Report – July 11, 2011 X-rays happen to be considered a carcinogen by the World Health Organization and the illegitimate U.S. government. The International Atomic Energy Agency considers X-rays generally harmless. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission echoes the same what doesn’t kill you now must be safe sentiment. Given the eugenicist mindset of the WHO and Rome on the Potomac, one tends to believe them whe … Read More

via The Crisis Jones Report

Rio Tinto shareholders not convinced on nuclear future (via Antinuclear)

On By southwerkIn business ethics

A nuclear future is inevitable? I don’t think so.

Apparently the actual owners are not so sure it’s a great idea.

The cost of a nuclear plant is staggering and other kinds are cheaper, sometimes  a lot cheaper.

James Pilant

Tom Albanese, Rio’s chiefexecutive, said uranium from the Ranger mine had been exported to Japan, although commercial confidence prevented him from confirming whether it was being used at Fukushima… ”Even before the Fukushima disaster, investors and insurers in the US, for example, could not be coaxed to back nuclear power.” – Scott Ludlam A nuclear Australia is inevitable: Rio chairman, Sydney Morning Herald, Courtney Trenwith, May 6, 2011,  A … Read More

via Antinuclear

The True Battle of Chernobyl Uncensored (92 min) (via Picasso Dreams)

On By southwerkIn business ethics1 Comment

This documentary is chilling look at the Chernobyl disaster with all the benefits of hindsight. I was familiar with the original coverage – this is way beyond this. Fron just a serious nuclear incident in the popular press, this documentary shows you a cataclysm that Gorbachav explains was one of the causes of the collapse of the Soviet Union.

Please watch it!

James Pilant

You can get this video at –

Fukushima update for today 4/20/11 (MsMilkytheclown)

On By southwerkIn business ethics

This is a very good summary of the situation as of today. This is, however, a “gotcha” video where they veer off into obscenity laden rants. There is no problem – just click out a little after three minutes into the video.

James Pilant

US power company abandons reactor construction (via hisatomijapan)

On By southwerkIn business ethics

I am utterly astonished. I can’t figure this one out. The government is in the industry’s pocket. The American press really isn’t interested. The American public is opposed but if you have lived here any length of time, you know how little public opinion means. So, a utility is giving up builing a plant with loan guarantees from the federal government and indemnification if there were a crisis or future meltdown? I don’t get it.

Did some official in the company decided to exercise some judgment? Did somebody grow a backbone? Or did someone take out a calculator and figure out how much the building costs would increase if all the cures for the safety problems at the Fukushima plant were incorporated into the new plant’s design?

James Pilant

Fukushima Gov. Slams TEPCO, Govt for ‘Betrayal’ (via TheResistance)

On By southwerkIn business ethics2 Comments

Betrayed.

Exactly right. The people of Fukushima were told those plants were perfectly safe. They were told they were the way to economic success. They were told that the power plants would bring prosperity and jobs for decades.

And what they got was a nuclear dead zone. Most will never be able to return to their homes.

They were lied to. If the nuclear industry were honest and stopped telling us how many chest x-rays their latest disaster was equivalent to, we might have an idea of how much nuclear power we want to use and where. But they are not. They are wretched lying propagandists, readily assisted by hack writers beguiled by the opportunity of turning the nuclear industry’s talking points into quick gotcha articles to persecute the tree huggers.

It gets old after a while. You get tired of seeing the same old talking points over and over again while new radiation plagues the earth.

James Pilant

InfoWars The Yomiuri Shimbun April 10, 2011 Fukushima Gov. Yuhei Sato has expressed anger at the central government and Tokyo Electric Power Co., saying both “betrayed” the people of Fukushima Prefecture with repeated assurances about the safety of nuclear power plants. “We feel we were betrayed [by the central government and TEPCO,” Sato said during an interview with The Yomiuri Shimbun on Thursday, nearly a month after the March 11 earthquake a … Read More

via TheResistance

Fukushima Cleanup: 30 Years, $12 Billion (via Mostly Tech)

On By southwerkIn business ethics

How much alternative energy can you buy with 12 billion dollars over thirty years?

James Pilant

Fukushima Cleanup: 30 Years, $12 Billion “Damaged reactors at the crippled Fukushima Dai-Ichi nuclear plant may take three decades to decommission and cost operator Tokyo Electric Power Co. more than 1 trillion yen ($12 billion), engineers and analysts said. Four of the plant’s six reactors became useless when sea water was used to cool them after the March 11 earthquake and tsunami knocked out generators running its cooling systems. The reactors need to be decommissioned, Tepco Chairma … Read More

via Mostly Tech

Poll: Few confident US ready for nuclear emergency (AP) (via US General News)

On By southwerkIn business ethics

Most of America’s nuclear preparedness is based on obscene accumulations of pro nuclear propaganda and assurances that nothing bad can happen. That’s not enough.

There is simply too much profit, too many billions of dollars of influence and power to make any individual looking at the situation comfortable with the pronouncements of government and industry.

It is always the same.

We are told –
1. It can’t happen.
2. The situation is not serious.
3. Nothing like this has every happened before.
4. Radiation is not that big a deal – (at this point there must be discussion of chest x-rays)
5. The situation is under control.
6. The problem here is not the situation which is under control but the panicked response of a population not properly informed about the minimal danger of radiation.
7. That reactor was an obsolescent design.
8. Our new reactors have solved these problems.
9. Nuclear power is necessary. We cannot produce enough electricity without it.
10. Critics of nuclear power are alarmists, misinformed, treehuggers, radicals, rabble rousers, anti-industry, anti-corporate activists, etc.
11. What do you want us to do? Go back to living in the stone age!!

If you want to add some more, please do.

James Pilant

WASHINGTON – Most Americans doubt the U.S. government is prepared to respond to a nuclear emergency like the one in Japan, a new Associated Press-GfK poll shows. But it also shows few Americans believe such an emergency would occur. Nevertheless, the disaster has turned more Americans against new nuclear power plants. The poll found that 60 percent of Americans oppose building more nuclear power plants. That’s up from 48 percent who opposed it in … Read More

via US General News

NUCLEAR CRISIS – U.S. HEALTH CARE UNPREPARED (via INFOQUANDO)

On By southwerkIn business ethics

I thought I was going to read a brief analysis of American shortcomings in regard to nuclear disaster preparedness. What I got was a lengthy detailed report dealing with the problem from many different angles.

I recommend the post.

James Pilant

NUCLEAR CRISIS - U.S. HEALTH CARE UNPREPARED U.S. Health Care System Unprepared for Major Nuclear Emergency A Los Angeles police officer in a hazard suit keeps watch in a “hazardous material hot area” after the explosion of a “dirty bomb” during a simulated attack at a Port of Los Angeles dock on Aug. 5, 2004. (David McNew/Getty Images) by Sheri Fink, Special to ProPublica U.S. officials say the nation’s health system is ill-prepared to cope with a catastrophic release of radiation, despite … Read More

via INFOQUANDO

IEMA Finds Trace Amounts of Radiation in Metro-East (via CBS St. Louis)

On By southwerkIn business ethics

This is alarming. Still it is within currently recognized standards of safety.

James Pilant

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (KMOX) – Trace amounts of radioactive iodine has been found in air, grass, milk and rainwater samples in the Metro-East. The Illinois Emergency Management Agency said Friday the radiation found in Madison, Clinton and Bond Counties in Illinois is from the Fukushima nuclear power plants in Japan. However the agency stresses that these findings are still far below established limits and present no health hazard to citizens in Illi … Read More

via CBS St. Louis