Nuclear power generation In India has more than doubled in the last six years while the capacity utilization of nuclear reactors in country has increased from about 50 percent to 83 percent, the government said adding that it was the result of the fruition of international cooperation in the field of nuclear energy. newindianexpress.com

Mayors of six Illinois communities are warning of potential economic consequences if three nuclear power plants close in their areas. power-eng.com

A southeastern Pennsylvania nuclear power reactor unexpectedly shut down Monday night, and the owner was trying to find out why. lehighvalleylive.com

Electricite de France said it would delay a decision, which had been expected in March, on when it would proceed with construction of a new nuclear power reactor at the Hinkley Point facility in Somerset, England. nuclearstreet.com

         I have blogged a lot about the March 11, 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster. I have also posted hundreds of links to articles about the situation at Fukushima as well as the social, political, economic and public health repercussions. There is widespread evidence of illegal activity and corruption at Fukushima as well as the agencies of the Japanese government that are supposed to regulate nuclear power plants. The government has passed harsh laws against citizens who reveal information about the nuclear disaster that contradicts the official government position. Despite overwhelming rejection of nuclear power by the majority of the Japanese people, Prime Minister Abe forges ahead with his plan to restart the idled nuclear reactors and to export nuclear technology.

       In October of 2014, a lawsuit pertaining to the Fukushima disaster and its aftermath was filed in Japan. Lawyers filing the lawsuit are representing one thousand four hundred and fifteen plaintiffs including thirty eight people who resided in Fukushima and three hundred and fifty seven people who live outside of Japan. Named in the suit are the Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO), Toshiba, Hitachi and General Electric (GE). GE manufactured the reactors for Fukushima. Toshiba, Hitachi and General Electric were the companies that manufactured the tanks that were developed to hold radioactive liquids. The lawsuit holds the defendants responsible for the Fukushima disaster and all the damage that it caused.

       In the past, manufactures and operators have been granted immunity from liability for accidents. Governments have granted this immunity because no insurance company in the world would offer insurance against nuclear accidents when the nuclear age began. This lawsuit is an major attempt to overturn this international policy.

      The Japanese government and TEPCO have been accused of hiding information about the Fukushima disaster and the damage it caused so that the public would not know about the irresponsibility of the Japanese nuclear industry. TEPCO repeatedly lied about the amount of radiation that was and still is being released. TEPCO lied about having enough manpower to deal with the Fukushima cleanup when labor subcontractors said that there was a shortage of manpower. Inaccurate information has hampered cleanup efforts in Japan and discouraged the international aid that many experts say will be required to deal with the aftermath of the Fukushima disaster.

      Prior to this lawsuit, GE which designed and built the Mark I Boiling Water Reactors that melted down at Fukushima, has not been held accountable for the Fukushima disaster. Critics of GE claim that the corporation escaped accountability because it had  close ties to the Obama administration in the U.S. These reactors have been criticized since the early 1970s because they are particularly vulnerable to the build-up of hydrogen gas which can result in explosions and rupture of the containment vessel. There are currently twenty of the GE Mark I nuclear reactors operating in the U.S. that pose a serious threat to the ecosystem and public health. Another accident involving a Mark I reactor is virtually inevitable.

GE Mark I Boiling Water Reactor Diagram:

 

New video appears to show molten corium that melted out of Fukushima reactor. enenews.com

An exiled Iranian opposition group Tuesday accused Tehran of running a “secret” uranium enrichment site close to Tehran, which it said violated ongoing talks with global powers on a nuclear deal. news.yahoo.com

France’s nuclear group Areva said Monday its provisional net losses in 2014 widened to $5.6 billion after it was forced to absorb costs linked to project delays. news.yahoo.com

France’s energy minister said yesterday that an overhaul of the country’s state-controlled nuclear energy industry was imminent, after Areva said in a preliminary statement that it expected a 2014 net loss of about $5.6 billion compared with a loss of €500 million a year earlier. nucnet.org
 

         Most naturally occurring uranium is U-238 which is mildly radioactive. When the tiny amount of highly-radioactive U-235 in uranium ore is extracted and concentrated to make uranium fuel and nuclear weapons, the U-238 that is left in the processed ore is called “depleted uranium.” It is very dense and makes excellent projectiles for use in munitions. Cynics said that it was a way for weapons makers to turn a radioactive waste product into a useful material for making conventional munitions.

         During the Iraq War, it is estimated that the U.S. used between one and two metric tons of DU in munitions exploded in Iraq. These munitions left huge amounts of DU dust and fragments of contaminated metal scattered over cities, battlefields and the country side of Iraq. Critics have claimed that the low-level radioactivity of DU causes serious human health problems like cancer and birth defects. Others have rejected this claim and said that DU has not caused any health problems in Iraq. There have been numerous reports from Iraq about an increase in cancers and birth defects following the Iraq war. These findings have been vigorously challenged by other researchers. The debate rages on over claims of widespread radiation damage to human health in Iraq.

         The World Health Organization has conducted studies on the aftermath of U.S. use of DU during bombings and battles in Iraq during the 2003 war. The WHO report on cancers and birth defects was supposed to be released in November of 2012. It is now over two years later and apparently the officials at WHO are indefinitely delaying the release of the report. In response to calls for release of the study, WHO says that the report is “classified” and that the conclusions need to be verified by a “team of independent scientists.” Critics of WHO says that the organization is protecting the U.S. government and military from being held accountable for the horrible impact of DU on the people of Iraq.

        Mozhgan Savabieasfahani worked on a peer-reviewed study of the DU impact on the health of Iraqis. She said “Thirty-five million Iraqis wake up every morning to a living nightmare of childhood cancers, adult cancers and birth defects. Familial cancers, cluster cancers and multiple cancers in the same individual have become frequent in Iraq. Why, then, does the WHO refuse to release its study?” She also said that release of the WHO report “will enable researchers to collaborate, ask the most relevant questions and spearhead research to remedy this health emergency.”

        In an article in the Guardian newspaper, John Pilger reports that Hans von Sponeck, the former assistant secretary general of the United Nations, recently said that “The US government sought to prevent WHO from surveying areas in southern Iraq where DU had been used and caused serious health and environmental dangers.”

        The last time that I talked about DU on this blog, a reader attacked me viciously, saying that I didn’t know anything about DU and that DU was perfectly safe. He was ex-military or maybe not so “ex.” The U.S. government and military would be open to legal action if it could be proven that DU seriously damaged the health of many Iraqi civilians and that the U.S. government was aware of the dangers of DU before the war. Calls for more research should be accompanied by calls for the release of the WHO DU report.

Leaks reveal that Mossad is less alarmed by nuclear Iran than the Israeli Prime Minister. timesofisrael.com

Efforts to use secret front companies by Iran to beat western-imposed sanctions have raised concerns within South African Security Agency (SSA), according to leaked spy cables obtained by Al Jazeera. new24.com

Iran is threatening to walk away from nuclear talks with the US and other world powers, Iranian media reported on Monday, as the second day of high-level negotiations kick off in Switzerland. breakingisraelnews.com

The University of Massachusetts Amherst announced last week that it was revising its approach to admissions and will no longer bar Iranian students from admission to nuclear science and engineering programs. tabletmag.com

 

Multiple Alarms Set Off at Fukushima Plant; New leak of highly radioactive material detected.  enenews.com

 Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Sunday that the coming month will be “critical” for preventing a nuclear deal with Iran. nydailynews.com

A special inspection is underway after damage to a nuclear reactor under construction in South Carolina, federal regulators said Monday. foxbusiness.com

The Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board until 2013 had few written policies and procedures for its staff. fiercegovernment.com