Archives de Catégorie: in English

par | avril 9, 2019 · 1:23

Russia Has Captured Two-Thirds of the International Nuclear Power Construction Market

Source : Russia Insider

https://russia-insider.com/en/russia-has-captured-two-thirds-international-nuclear-power-construction-market/ri26722?ct=t(Russia_Insider_Daily_Headlines11_21_2014)&mc_cid=7553ffb1d2&mc_eid=db7da584e6

Source originaire : Check Point Asia

https://www.checkpointasia.net/russia-has-captured-two-thirds-of-the-international-nuclear-power-construction-market/

 

Checkpoint Asia is an excellent new site which scours the media for the best Asia news with a geopolitical focus, plus 1st-class original journalism ranging from Russia to China to the Middle East. Smart, incisive, and free of globalist baloney, by a super-talented former deputy editor of ours of many years.

 

 

By Nazrin Mehdiyeva (Checkpoint Aia)

 

Russia’s Rosatom has secured more orders to build nuclear power plants abroad than all other companies in the world combined.

 

Gelnde_des_Kernkraftwerk_Isar_KKI

 

Rosatom is a strategic, vertically integrated and fully state-owned company,which manages the assets of the Russian nuclear industry at all stages of the nuclear fuel cycle. Rosatom is present in all segments of the civil nuclear market: from mining uranium deposits in Russia and abroad to producing nuclear fuel commodities through conversion and enrichment, and building reactors and power plants, often with bespoke technological solutions. The company coordinates the work of a large network of engineering, infrastructure and construction companies as well as research institutes and technology parks.

The president appoints Rosatom’s director general – in 2016, Putin appointed First Deputy Minister of Economic Development Alexei Likhachev to replace Sergei Kiriyenko, who was appointed First Deputy Chief of Staff of the Presidential Administration – and members of its supervisory board.

The company’s business strategy is developed based on the goals set by the state for the civilian branch of the Russian nuclear industry and approved by the government. One of Rosatom’s key goals in the current strategy is to increase its international market share and establish itself among the top three world leaders in every segment of the global nuclear market by 2030.

Indeed, since its creation in 2007 from the Russian Atomic Energy Ministry, the company has set itself on this path, consolidating its positions as a leading international player for nuclear technologies and generating substantial overseas revenue from nuclear power plant (NPP) construction, nuclear fuel fabrication and uranium enrichment.

As part of the industry reform, the company has benefitted from the “vertical integration”, which has enhanced Russia’s competitiveness in the global nuclear market by improving coordination in the activities of over 350 enterprises and organisations that comprise Rosatom, cutting costs and creating economies of scale. At the same time, the company’s close affiliation with the Russian state has offered distinct advantages that have propelled Rosatom’sglobal expansion.

Access to state funding has been a critical asset underpinning many of Rosatom’s projects and driving its rapid international growth. Estimates suggest that Rosatom underbids its Western competitors by between 20% and 50%, in large part thanks to government subsidies.

Consequently, it has successfully secured over 60% of recent global reactor sales and 67% of the world NPP construction market (in signed contracts and intergovernmental agreements).

The financial backing from the state has allowed Rosatom to offer large long-term loans to customers who under regular circumstances would not have been able to afford the high costs of NPP construction.

Not all has been plain sailing for Rosatom in its ambitious bid for rapid expansion. In South Africa, for instance, its plans were dealt a blow in 2017 after the High Court ruled to cancel a 2014 intergovernmental agreement to build eight nuclear reactors in the country. The agreement was deemed “unconstitutional and unlawful”; and in mid-2018, despite openings from Putin in a meeting with President Cyril Ramaphosa, South Africa proceeded to cancel all plans to add nuclear power by 2030. Nuclear power has been ruled out as too expensive and the government under Ramaphosa is now opting to generate additional electricity from natural gas, wind and other energy sources. Rosatomresponded quickly to such setbacks and the changing political environment, signing in January 2018 a hydro scheme in Mpumalanga, in what became its first energy contract in South Africa.

By the end of 2017, Rosatom’s 10-year portfolio of overseas orders amounted to $133.6 billion – more than the order books of all its Western competitors combined. The company expected to sign foreign contracts worth another $26 billion in 2018. In its global activities, Rosatom is focusing heavily on NPP construction: of the $133.6 billion portfolio of overseas orders, $97.6 billion are for power plant construction. Indeed, Rosatom has emerged as the undisputed market leader by the number of simultaneously implemented nuclear reactor construction projects: it is currently building (or has under contract) six reactors in Russia and 36 abroad.

Poster un commentaire

Classé dans Actualité, in English, Problématiques énergétiques, Uncategorized

par | septembre 7, 2015 · 11:29

What’s Really Going on at Fukushima ?

Source : Robert Hunziker in Counterpunch, 15 June, 2015.

Pour une traduction française de cet article cf.

http://netoyens.info/index.php/contrib/22/06/2015/que-se-passe-t-il-vraiment-a-fukushima-

 

Fukushima’s still radiating, self-perpetuating, immeasurable, and limitless, like a horrible incorrigible Doctor Who monster encounter in deep space.

Fukushima will likely go down in history as the biggest cover-up of the 21st Century. Governments and corporations are not leveling with citizens about the risks and dangers; similarly, truth itself, as an ethical standard, is at risk of going to shambles as the glue that holds together the trust and belief in society’s institutions. Ultimately, this is an example of how societies fail.

Tens of thousands of Fukushima residents remain in temporary housing more than four years after the horrific disaster of March 2011. Some areas on the outskirts of Fukushima have officially reopened to former residents, but many of those former residents are reluctant to return home because of widespread distrust of government claims that it is okay and safe.

Part of this reluctance has to do with radiation’s symptoms. It is insidious because it cannot be detected by human senses. People are not biologically equipped to feel its power, or see, or hear, touch or smell it (Caldicott). Not only that, it slowly accumulates over time in a dastardly fashion that serves to hide its effects until it is too late.

Chernobyl’s Destruction Mirrors Fukushima’s Future

As an example of how media fails to deal with disaster blowback, here are some Chernobyl facts that have not received enough widespread news coverage: Over one million (1,000,000) people have already died from Chernobyl’s fallout.

Additionally, the Rechitsa Orphanage in Belarus has been caring for a very large population of deathly sick and deformed children. Children are 10 to 20 times more sensitive to radiation than adults.

Zhuravichi Children’s Home is another institution, among many, for the Chernobyl-stricken: “The home is hidden deep in the countryside and, even today, the majority of people in Belarus are not aware of the existence of such institutions” (Source: Chernobyl Children’s Project-UK).

One million (1,000,000) is a lot of dead people. But, how many more will die? Approximately seven million (7,000,000) people in the Chernobyl vicinity were hit with one of the most potent exposures to radiation in the history of the Atomic Age.

The exclusion zone around Chernobyl is known as “Death Valley.” It has been increased from 30 to 70 square kilometres. No humans will ever be able to live in the zone again. It is a permanent “dead zone.”

Additionally, over 25,000 died and 70,000 disabled because of exposure to extremely dangerous levels of radiation in order to help contain Chernobyl. Twenty percent of those deaths were suicides, as the slow agonizing “death march of radiation exposure” was too much to endure.

Fukushima- The Real Story

In late 2014, Helen Caldicott, M.D. gave a speech about Fukushima at Seattle Town Hall (9/28/14). Pirate Television recorded her speech; here’s the link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4qX-YU4nq-g

Dr. Helen Caldicott is co-founder of Physicians for Social Responsibility, and she is author/editor of Crisis Without End: The Medical and Ecological Consequences of the Fukushima Nuclear Catastrophe, The New Press, September 2014. For over four decades Dr. Caldicott has been the embodiment of the anti-nuclear banner, and as such, many people around the world classify her as a “national treasure”. She’s truthful and honest and knowledgeable.

Fukushima is literally a time bomb in quiescence. Another powerful quake and all hell could break loose. Also, it is not even close to being under control. Rather, it is totally out of control. According to Dr. Caldicott, “It’s still possible that Tokyo may have to be evacuated, depending upon how things go.” Imagine that!

According to Japan Times as of March 11, 2015: “There have been quite a few accidents and problems at the Fukushima plant in the past year, and we need to face the reality that they are causing anxiety and anger among people in Fukushima, as explained by Shunichi Tanaka at the Nuclear Regulation Authority. Furthermore, Mr. Tanaka said, there are numerous risks that could cause various accidents and problems.”

Even more ominously, Seiichi Mizuno, a former member of Japan’s House of Councillors (Upper House of Parliament, 1995-2001) in March 2015 said: “The biggest problem is the melt-through of reactor cores… We have groundwater contamination… The idea that the contaminated water is somehow blocked in the harbor is especially absurd. It is leaking directly into the ocean. There’s evidence of more than 40 known hotspot areas where extremely contaminated water is flowing directly into the ocean… We face huge problems with no prospect of solution.” (Source: Nuclear Hotseat #194: Fukushima 4th Anniversary – Voices from Japan, March 10, 2015, http://www.nuclearhotseat.com/2468/)

At Fukushima, each reactor required one million gallons of water per minute for cooling, but when the tsunami hit, the backup diesel generators were drowned. Units 1, 2, and 3 had meltdowns within days. There were four hydrogen explosions. Thereafter, the melting cores burrowed into the container vessels, maybe into the earth.

According to Dr. Caldicott, “One hundred tons of terribly hot radioactive lava has already gone into the earth or somewhere within the container vessels, which are all cracked and broken.” Nobody really knows for sure where the hot radioactive lava resides. The scary unanswered question: Is it the China Syndrome?

Following the meltdown, the Japanese government did not inform people of the ambient levels of radiation that blew back onto the island. Unfortunately and mistakenly, people fled away from the reactors to the highest radiation levels on the island at the time.

As the disaster happened, enormous levels of radiation hit Tokyo. The highest radiation detected in the Tokyo Metro area was in Saitama with cesium radiation levels detected at 919,000 becquerel (Bq) per square meter, a level almost twice as high as Chernobyl’s “permanent dead zone evacuation limit of 500,000 Bq” (source: Radiation Defense Project). For that reason, Dr. Caldicott strongly advises against travel to Japan and recommends avoiding Japanese food.

Even so, post the Fukushima disaster, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton signed an agreement with Japan that the U.S. would continue importing Japanese foodstuff. Therefore, Dr. Caldicott suggests people not vote for Hillary Clinton. One reckless dangerous precedent is enough for her.

According to Arnie Gundersen, an energy advisor with 39 years of nuclear power engineering experience, as reported in The Canadian on August 15, 2011: “The US government has come up with a decision at the highest levels of the State Department, as well as other departments who made a decision to downplay Fukushima. In April, the month after the powerful tsunami and earthquake crippled Japan including its nuclear power plant, Hillary Clinton signed a pact with Japan that she agreed there is no problem with Japanese food supply and we will continue to buy them. So, we are not sampling food coming in from Japan.”

However, in stark contrast to the United States, in Europe Angela Merkel, PhD physics, University of Leipzig and current chancellor of Germany is shutting down all nuclear reactors because of Fukushima.

Maybe an advanced degree in physics makes the difference in how a leader approaches the nuclear power issue. It certainly looks that way when comparing/contrasting the two pantsuit-wearing leaders, Chancellor Merkel and former secretary of state Clinton.

After the Fukushima blow up, ambient levels of radiation in Washington State went up 40,000 times above normal, but according to Dr. Caldicott, the U.S. media does not cover the “ongoing Fukushima mess.” So, who would really know?

Dr. Caldicott ended her speech on Sept. 2014 by saying: “In Fukushima, it is not over. Everyday, four hundred tons of highly radioactive water pours into the Pacific and heads towards the U.S. Because the radiation accumulates in fish, we get that too. The U.S. government is not testing the water, not testing the fish, and not testing the ambient air. Also, people in Japan are eating radiation every day.”

Furthermore, according to Dr. Caldicott: “Rainwater washes over the nuclear cores into the Pacific. There is no way they can get to those cores, men die, robots get fried. Fukushima will never be solved. Meanwhile, people are still living in highly radioactive areas.”

Fukushima will never be solved because “men die” and “robots get fried.” By the sounds of it, Fukushima is a perpetual radiation meltdown scenario that literally sets on the edge of a bottomless doomsday pit, in waiting to be nudged over.

UN All-Clear Report

A UN (UNSCEAR) report on April 2, 2014 on health impacts of the Fukushima accident concluded that any radiation-induced effects would be too small to identify. People were well protected and received “low or very low” radiation doses. UNSCEAR gave an all-clear report.

Rebuttal of the UNSCEAR report by the German affiliate of the International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War d/d July 18, 2014 takes a defiant stance in opposition to the UN report, to wit: “The Fukushima nuclear disaster is far from over. Despite the declaration of ‘cold shutdown’ by the Japanese government in December 2011, the crippled reactors have not yet achieved a stable status and even UNSCEAR admits that emissions of radioisotopes are continuing unabated. 188 TEPCO is struggling with an enormous amount of contaminated water, which continues to leak into the surrounding soil and sea. Large quantities of contaminated cooling water are accumulating at the site. Failures in the makeshift cooling systems are occurring repeatedly. The discharge of radioactive waste will most likely continue for a long time.”

“Both the damaged nuclear reactors and the spent fuel ponds contain vast amounts of radioactivity and are highly vulnerable to further earthquakes, tsunamis, typhoons and human error. Catastrophic releases of radioactivity could occur at any time and eliminating this risk will take many decades… It is impossible at this point in time to come up with an exact prognosis of the effects that the Fukushima nuclear disaster will have on the population in Japan… the UNSCEAR report represents a systematic underestimation and conjures up an illusion of scientific certainty that obscures the true impact of the nuclear catastrophe on health and the environment.”

To read the full text of the rejoinder to the UN report, go to:https://japansafety.wordpress.com/tag/saitama/

Fukushima’s Radiation and the Future

Mari Yamaguchi, Associated Press (AP), June 12, 2015: “Four years after an earthquake and tsunami destroyed Japan’s Fukushima nuclear power plant, the road ahead remains riddled with unknowns… Experts have yet to pinpoint the exact location of the melted fuel inside the three reactors and study it, and still need to develop robots capable of working safely in such highly radioactive conditions. And then there’s the question of what to do with the waste… serious doubts about whether the cleanup can be completed within 40 years.”

“Although the Chernobyl accident was a terrible accident, it only involved one reactor. With Fukushima, we have the minimum [of] 3 reactors that are emitting dangerous radiation. The work involved to deal with this accident will take tens of years, hundreds of years,” Prof. Hiroaki Koide (retired), Kyoto University Research Reactor Institute, April 25, 2015. “It could be that some of the fuel could actually have gone through the floor of the containment vessel as well… What I’ve just described is very, very logical for anyone who understands nuclear engineering or nuclear energy,” which dreadfully spells-out: THE CHINA SYNDROME.

According to the Smithsonian, April 30, 2015: “Birds Are in a Tailspin Four Years After Fukushima: Bird species are in sharp decline, and it is getting worse over time… Where it’s much, much hotter, it’s dead silent. You’ll see one or two birds if you’re lucky.” Developmental abnormalities of birds include cataracts, tumors, and asymmetries. Birds are spotted with strange white patches on their feathers.

Maya Moore, a former NHK news anchor, authored a book about the disaster: The Rose Garden of Fukushima (Tankobon, 2014), about the roses of Mr. Katsuhide Okada. Today, the garden has perished: “It’s just poisoned wasteland. The last time Mr. Okada actually went back there, he found baby crows that could not fly, that were blind. Mutations have begun with animals, with birds.”

The Rose Garden of Fukushima features a collection of photos of an actual garden that existed in Fukushima, Japan. Boasting over 7500 bushes of roses and 50-thousand visitors a year, the Garden was rendered null and void in an instant due to the triple disaster — earthquake, tsunami, and meltdown.

The forward to Maya’s book was written by John Roos, former US Ambassador to Japan 2009-13: “The incredible tale of Katz Okada and his Fukushima rose garden was told here by Maya Moore… gives you a small window into what the people of Tohoku faced.”

Roos’ “small window” could very well serve as a metaphor for a huge black hole smack dab in the heart of civilization. Similarly, Fukushima is a veritable destruction machine that consumes everything in its path, and beyond, and its path is likely to grow. For certain, it is not going away.

Thus, TEPCO (Tokyo Electric Power Company) is deeply involved in an asymmetric battle against enormously powerful unleashed out-of-control forces of E=mc2.

Clearly, TEPCO has its back to the wall. Furthermore, it’s doubtful TEPCO will “break the back of the beast.” In fact, it may be an impossible task.

Maybe, just maybe, Greater Tokyo’s 38 million residents will eventually be evacuated. Who knows for sure?

Only Godzilla knows!

 

Robert Hunziker lives in Los Angeles and can be reached at roberthunziker@icloud.com

http://www.counterpunch.org/2015/06/15/whats-really-going-on-at-fukushima/

Poster un commentaire

Classé dans Catastrophes, in English

par | avril 17, 2014 · 11:45

Letter sent by Hellen Caldicott to Thomas Bach, President of the IOC

(The Helen Caldicott Foundation http://akiomatsumura.com)

January 23, 2014

 

Dear Mr Bach:

 

I write to you as a physician and pediatrician who is well-versed in the medical effects of atomic radiation and the radioactive pollutants that have been released into the environment from the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plants. (My CV can be found at helencaldicott.com)

I have a deep concern for the health and well-being of the athletes who have trained so hard and so long to be eligible to compete in the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo.

TEPCO has identified over 60 varieties of man-made radioactive pollutants from samples of contaminated water that are collected on a daily basis. Many of these pollutants — for example, radioactive varieties of caesium (Cs-137), strontium (Sr-90), and iodine (I-129) — did not exist in the natural environment before the advent of nuclear fission. Thus the natural background levels of such radioactive pollutants is zero, yet once released into the environment they will remain potentially dangerous for centuries.

This means that the athletes will be subjected to inhaling or ingesting radioactive dust emitting alpha, beta and/or gamma radiation, as well as being exposed to gamma radiation (like X rays) emanating from contamination in the soil and on the streets.

 

My concerns are listed below:

1. Parts of Tokyo itself are radioactively contaminated as a result of the fallout from the Fukushima Daiichi accident almost three years ago. Samples collected randomly from apartments, moss growing on roofs and soil from streets has been tested for various radioactive elements and has found to be very radioactive. References can be provided on request.

3. Much of the food sold in Tokyo is contaminated with radioactive pollutants, having been grown in the Fukushima prefecture at the encouragement of the Japanese government. (it is impossible to taste or smell radioactive elements in food, and monitoring every item to be consumed is not practical.)

4. Many of the fish caught on the east coast of Japan carry some burden of radioactive elements, indeed some are quite severely contaminated. This is an ongoing problem; for almost three years 300 to 400 tons of radioactively contaminated groundwater has been pouring into the Pacific Ocean every day from beneath the damaged reactors.

5. If the athletes eat radioactively contaminated food or drink radioactively contaminated tea or other liquids, some of them are likely years later to develop cancer or leukemia. The incubation time for these diseases is five to eighty years depending on the particular radionuclides and the affected organs.

6. The Japanese government is incinerating radioactive waste and some of the resulting radioactive ashes are being dumped into Tokyo Bay where the athletes are expected to row and exercise.

7. Another major worry is that between now and 2020, additional releases of radioactive pollutants could occur from the Fukushima Daiichi reactors. The buildings of Units 3 and 4 are severely damaged from the original earthquake and subsequent explosions; they could well collapse if they suffer another earthquake greater than 7 on the Richter scale. Should that happen, up to 10 times more radioactive cesium than was released at Chernobyl could be released into the air. Such an event could greatly exacerbate existing contamination problems in Tokyo and pose great dangers to the athletes.

8. At the Fukushima Daiichi site, there are more than 1000 huge hastily built metal tanks holding millions of gallons of extremely radioactive water, with an additional 400 tons being pumped out from the damaged reactors on a daily basis. Some of these tanks were put together by inexperienced workers and they are held together with corroding bolts, rubber sealants, plastic pipes and duct tape. Another large earthquake would likely

rupture many of these tanks thus releasing additional volumes of highly contaminated water into the Pacific Ocean just north of Tokyo.

It is for these reasons that I strongly recommend that you urge the International Olympic Committee to assemble an independent assessment team of biomedical experts, who have

no financial or other relationship with the nuclear power industry or its regulators, to carry out a diligent investigation of all relevant areas to determine the extent of radiogenic health concerns before the ambitious plans for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics are allowed to proceed too far. Furthermore it is imperative that the assessment team understand and report on the perilous current state of the reactors, their surrounding buildings, the subterranean groundwater flow problems, and the multitudinous storage tanks on the surface filled with millions of gallons of contaminated water.

 

Sincerely,

Helen Caldicott MBBS, FRACP

 

Poster un commentaire

Classé dans Actions et Politiques, in English

par | décembre 3, 2013 · 6:39

Open Letter from nine Nobel Peace Laureates

Choose Renewable Energy Over Nuclear Power: Nobel Peace Laureates to World Leaders

On the twenty-fifth anniversary of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster in Ukraine–and more than two months after the massive earthquake and tsunami that devastated Japan–we the undersigned Nobel Peace Laureates ask you to invest in a safer and more peaceful future by committing to renewable energy sources.  It is time to recognize that nuclear power is not a clean, safe or affordable source of energy.

We are deeply disturbed that the lives of people in Japan are being endangered by nuclear radiation in the air, in the water and in the food as a result of the breakdown at the Fukushima nuclear plant.  We firmly believe that if the world phases out its current use of nuclear power, future generations of people everywhere–and the Japanese people who have already suffered too much–will live in greater peace and security.

“Twenty-five years after Chernobyl, some people claim things are getting better.  I disagree,” says Mykola Isaiev, a Chernobyl liquidator (a person who helped clean up the site).  “Our children are sick from eating contaminated food and our economy is destroyed.”  Isaiev says he can relate to the liquidators now working in Japan.  Like him, they probably did not question much the safety of nuclear power.

Consider the words of a shopkeeper in Kesennuma, one of the towns that bore the full force of the tsunami along the northeast coast: “That radiation thing is extremely scary.  It is beyond a tsunami. A tsunami you can see. But this you cannot see.”

The sad reality is that the nuclear radiation crisis in Japan can happen again in other countries, as it already has in Chernobyl in the former Ukraine SSR (1986), Three Mile Island in the United States (1979) and Windscale/Sellafield in the United Kingdom (1957).  Nuclear accidents can and do result from natural disasters–such as earthquakes and tsunamis–and also from human error and negligence.   People around the globe also fear the possibility of terrorist attacks on nuclear power plants.

But radiation is not just a concern in a nuclear accident.  Each link in the nuclear fuel chain releases radiation, starting with drilling for uranium; it then continues for generations because nuclear waste includes plutonium that will remain toxic for thousands of years.  Despite years of research, countries with nuclear energy programs such as the United States have failed to solve the challenge of finding safe and secure storage for “spent” nuclear fuel.  Meanwhile, every day more spent fuel is being generated.

Nuclear power advocates must confront the fact that nuclear power programs provide the ingredients to build nuclear weapons.  Indeed, this is the underlying concern with regards to Iran’s nuclear program. While the nuclear industry prefers to ignore this huge threat in pursuing nuclear energy, it does not go away simply because it is downplayed or ignored.

We must also face the harsh economic truth of nuclear energy.  Nuclear power does not compete on the open market against other energy sources, because it cannot.  Nuclear power is an exorbitantly expensive energy option that is generally paid for by the taxpayer.  The nuclear industry has received extensive government subsidies–taxpayer money–for underwriting of construction, liability caps and insurance for clean up and health costs.   We can more responsibly invest this public money in new sources of energy.

There are presently over 400 nuclear power plants in the world–many, in places at high risk for natural disaster or political upheaval.  These plants provide less than 7% of the world’s total energy supply.  As world leaders, you can work together to replace this small amount of energy from other readily available, very safe and affordable sources of energy to move us towards a carbon-free and nuclear-free future.

We can’t stop natural disasters such as those that just occurred in Japan, but together we can make better choices about our energy sources.
We can phase out fossil fuels and nuclear power and invest in a clean energy revolution. It’s already underway. Globally in the last five years there has been more new energy coming from wind and solar power than from nuclear power plants.  Global revenue from solar, wind and other renewable energy sources surged 35% in 2010. Investing in these renewable energy sources will also create jobs.

Renewable energy sources are one of the powerful keys to a peaceful future. That’s why so many people around the world–especially young people–are not waiting for governments to make the switch, but are already taking steps in that direction on their own.

Committing to a low-carbon, nuclear-free future will enable countries to partner with and expand the growing and increasingly influential global citizen’s movement that rejects nuclear proliferation and supports renewable sources of energy.  We ask you to join them and create a powerful legacy that will protect and sustain not only future generations but also our planet itself.

Sincerely,
Betty Williams, Ireland (1976)
Mairead Maguire, Ireland (1976)
Rigoberta Menchu Tum, Guatemala (1992)
Jody Williams, USA (1997)
Shirin Ebadi, Iran (2003)
Wangari Maathai, Kenya (2004)
Archbishop Desmond Tutu, South Africa (1984)
Adolfo Perez Esquivel, Argentina (1980)
President Jose Ramos Horta, East Timor (1996)

April 26, 2011

–       See more at: http://nobelwomensinitiative.org/2011/04/no-to-nuclear-power/#sthash.ZKdDrnrW.dpuf

Poster un commentaire

Classé dans Actions et Politiques, Actualité, in English

par | novembre 8, 2013 · 6:35

The Origin and Purpose of the Geneva Appeal II.

In 1978, a group from the University of Geneva launched an Appeal to the elected officials of Europe as well as to the European Parliament with a view to finding an alternative to the Super-Phoenix breeder reactor at Creys-Malville (France) and to the plutonium era. This was the Geneva Appeal.

Thirty-five years later, a group of friends, aware of the ever greater – and insoluble – problems posed by the nuclear sector overall, are profoundly disturbed by the disinformation surrounding the seriously devastated and contaminated Japan. It would appear that this lack of information is being maintained in the hope that the world will rapidly forget this “incident” and thus allow the nuclear industry to continue to sell its reactors. It is a text intended as wake up call from the current general torpor and was thus drafted by persons both competent and reliable: it is the Geneva Appeal II.

Fate would have it that this citizen initiative should be launched in Geneva during the year that this city is celebrating the 150th anniversary of the invention of the Red Cross, the initiator of which was Henry Dunant, a Geneva citizen. While it was praiseworthy to tend the wounds caused by human folly, our duty is today to prevent this folly from causing a cascade of disasters.

 This text should be diffused widely by all receiving it to persons of their choice, especially through on-line networks, in order to provoke an awakening of conscience, processes and publications, in short, any actions that might incite our authorities to assume their responsibilities in the face of the ever increasing danger that this energy of mass destruction represents.

Although our means are modest, our ambition is on a scale with the danger we face, in spite of ourselves, because of everything nuclear. It is imperative that we abandon this energy in all haste, an energy that has already twice demonstrated the    incalculable damage it can cause.

For further information: Ivo.Rens@unige.ch

Poster un commentaire

Classé dans Actions et Politiques, Actualité, in English, Problématiques énergétiques

par | novembre 8, 2013 · 6:33

SECOND APPEAL from GENEVA to POLITICAL AUTHORITIES EVERYWHERE

End nuclear energy, NOW !

Only twenty-five years separate the nuclear disasters of Chernobyl and Fukushima.

And yet, we were assured that such accidents were virtually impossible! Our political authorities believed it, and so did we. It is in fact impossible to calculate the probability of such accidents, yet it was estimated that an accident might occur only once every 100,000 years. The deplorable fact remains that there have been two accidents in the last twenty-five years. Today, almost 400 nuclear power plants are in working order worldwide. The next disaster could happen anywhere any time.

The current state of these ageing plants can only further increase the risk of a further catastrophe.

The radioactive waste and by-products of these plants is terrifying: it is sufficient to kill every living person on the planet tens of thousand of times over. If no more than a minute proportion of it escaped into the environment it would already be a catastrophe. Never forget that whatever can happen, normally does happen sooner or later – Chernobyl and Fukushima are both ample proof. The only way of eliminating the risk is to stop the nuclear power plants, to store within them the waste they have produced, to extract the spent fuel and seal it in suitable containers, and to transform  the nuclear plants into mausoleums. These mausoleums will become monumental witnesses to future generations of the consequences and risks of using uncontrollable technologies.

Instead of trying to make us forget the disasters which have already occurred, States, international institutions and the centres of economic power must take the decision to give up nuclear power and move towards replacing it entirely with renewable energies. This is perfectly possible if one stopped trying to prevent the development of renewable energies.

We cannot continue to run the risk of a further murderous nuclear disaster which would leave huge areas uninhabitable for centuries, just because of a questionable need for electricity. Remember that the decision was taken to build nuclear plants, and then one thought about how to sell the electricity they produced. This led electricity companies to promote absurd energy practices like electric heating and indiscriminate public lighting.

Nuclear energy is not  renewable, and at some point it will inevitably have to be given up. Any delay simply increases the risk of the next disaster. After Fukushima, Japan stopped almost all its nuclear plants, which demonstrates that it can be done. The only responsible position, and the only way to limit the intractable problems we are leaving to future generations, is to give up nuclear energy now.

List of the first signatories

Pierre Lehmann, physicien nucléaire • Paul Bonny, citoyen genevois • Ivo Rens, Prof. honoraire de l’Université de Genève • Yves Lenoir, physicien ­­• Rémy Pagani, Maire de Genève • Michèle Rivasi, fondatrice de la CRIIRAD, députée européenne •Wladimir Tchertkoff, vice-prés. Enfants de Tchernobyl-Bélarus • Prof. Alexey V.Yablokov, Académie des sciences de Russie •Anne-Cécile Reimann, Prés. ContrAtom, Genève • Luc Recordon, député au Parlement suisse • Wataru Iwata, citoyen japonais •Prof. émérite Michel Fernex, Faculté de Médecine, Bâle (Suisse) • Roger Nordmann, député au Parlement suisse • Liliane Maury Pasquier, députée au Parlement suisse • Bruno Barillot, lauréat du Nuclear Free Future Award 2010, Polynésie française • Philippe Lebreton, Prof. honoraire, Université Lyon 1• Victor Ruffy, anc. président du Conseil national (Suisse) • Jean-Robert Yersin, député au Grand Conseil (VD) • Robert J. Parsons, journaliste • Isabelle Chevalley, députée au Parlement suisse • Luc Breton, anc. expert responsable en radioprotection, Institut Suisse de Recherche Expérimentale sur le Cancer, Epalinges • Yves Renaud, diplômé du CNAM de Paris • Jürg Buri, directeur Fondation Suisse de l’Energie, Zurich • Frédéric Radeff, Citoyen de Genève • François Lefort, Prof. HES, Député au Grand Conseil (GE) • Walter Wildi, Prof géologie. Université de Genève • Joel Jakubec, Pasteur de l’Eglise protestante de Genève • Danielle Martinet, Citoyenne de Genève • Ciril Mizrahi, ancien constituant (GE) • Manuel Tornare, Député au Parlement suisse, ancien Maire de Genève • Salima Moyard, Dépotée au Grand Conseil (GE) • Marc Oran, Député au Grand Conseil (VD) • Guillaume Mathelier, Maire d’Ambilly • Edouard Dommen, Ethicien • Micheline Calmy-Rey, anc. Présidente de la Confédération suisse • Renaud Gautier, Député au Grand Conseil (GE) • Pierre Mercier, Prof. Honoraire de l’Université de Lausanne.

Poster un commentaire

Classé dans Actions et Politiques, Actualité, in English