United States government engineers sent to help with the crisis in Japan are warning that the troubled nuclear plant there is facing a wide array of fresh threats that could persist indefinitely, and that in some cases are expected to increase as a result of the very measures being taken to keep the plant stable, according to a confidential assessment prepared by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
A
global library of information and links
about nuclear power, nuclear weapons,
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Details? Do I hear you saying you want more @!#*&%%! details? Here is a 77-page technical
report Web Site Editor's comment: How 'cheap' is nuclear power if its waste poisons the water and sickens untold future generations? How 'safe' do nuclear weapons keep us, if our continual reliance on them teaches every ambitious politician on planet Earth that nuclear weapons are the path to real political power? |
MIT issues new report on
Geothermal power (Jan 2007)
NEW PROPOSALS TO REVIVE THE NUCLEAR
POWER INDUSTRY
How many Yucca Mountains will we need to handle giant
new quantities
of long-term deadly waste? Recycling spent power
plant fuel will create
unmanageable quantities of nuclear weapons material.
How much will it
cost to keep this material out of the hands of
terrorists?
Cheap electricity, anyone?
Alternative
Energy Sources:
Australia Pioneers Energy from Hot
Rocks
more on Hot Rock Energy
Nuclear Power: No Solution to
Climate Change 
A 2005 Study by the Nuclear Information and Resource
Service and
the World Information Servioce on Energy
President Dwight D. Eisenhower's
farewell address
in which he warns about the growing
"military-industrial complex."
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Letter to the Editor of the
L.A. Times UNANSWERED
QUESTIONS ABOUT NUCLEAR POWER COSTS |
The Nuclear Guardianship Library -- An archive of articles
from many perspectives on the long-term, responsible
care of nuclear materials.
The Growing Nuclear Danger by Steven Weinberg, winner of the Nobel Prize in Physics. A careful evaluation of current nuclear dangers from a July, 2002, issue of The New York Review of Books.
A Renunciation of Nuclear Weapons One Citizen at a Time Documents in support of United States citizens' renunciation of nuclear weapons use on their behalf.
May, 2003, editorial from the Los Angeles Times against nuclear weapons
The SAFE ENERGY HANDBOOK (large file! takes a minute to load) -- addresses dangers of nuclear industry and presents overview of safe energy technologies already available. (This is an HTML version of a handbook published by Plutonium Free Future.) Click here to order printed copies of handbook, and/or t-shirts and prints.
The
Safe Energy Handbook is also available online in:
Francaise:
Manuel de l'energie sans danger
Español: Manual de
Seguridad Energetica
Japanese (HTML 3.2)
Slovak
A Background Briefing on Radioactive Pollution -- A 26-page review of problems associated with radioactive pollution from nuclear power, weapons and waste -- by Wendy Oser and Molly Young Brown, M.Div.
Citizen Action Guide USA for the Abolition 2000 campaign to outlaw nuclear weapons -- A resource kit for people in the United States who want to campaign against nuclear weapons. Contains statements, petitions, resolutions for schools, cities and counties, and informative articles and declarations concerning the dangers of nuclear weapons and the pressing need to build a world-wide agreement to outlaw them.
Paths beyond violence: The Citizen's Coalition to Reaffirm and Extend the Geneva Conventions -- In a world overwhelmed by violence, the Geneva Conventions represent one of the few examples of long term cooperation to limit the violence of war. With the recent introduction of Depleted Uranium bullets and anti-tank projectiles, the violence of war now includes the radioactive poisoning of civilians, which has take place in Bosnia and is taking place today in Iraq. You are invited to join this noble effort, which began in the 1860s by reaching out to many kings and princes, and today needs to include all citizens of all countries.
Paths beyond violence: A World Without Armies -- A growing number of nations are interested in demilitarization. Costa Rica provides a model for this, having abolished its armed forces in 1949 and maintaining the highest living standard in Central and South America. We work with people in Costa Rica and endeavor to spread their exemplary practice of having no army to other parts of the world.
Guest Essays, News Stories, Book Announcements:
2009: COGENERATION as an alternative to more nuclear power plants. Smart energy production (cogeneration, Combined Heat and Power, CHP) can allow us to get lots more benefit from the same cubic foot of natural gas. In a cogeneration power plant, oil or natural gas is burned in a boiler to make steam that turns a turbine to generate electricity. The steam is then piped through adjacent buildings to heat them in the winter (or cool them in the summer, through the magic of air conditioning engineering), greatly lowering the overall utility cost for the school or business, and reducing the total greenhouse gas emissions as well. For examples of recent cogeneration projects, please visit the Goss Engineering web site and read the following book.
Sustainable On-Site CHP Systems:Design, Construction and Operations
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Plan, design, construct, and operate a sustainable on-site CHP (combined heat and power) facility using the detailed information in this practical guide. Sustainable On-Site CHP Systems reveals how to substantially increase the energy efficiency in commercial, industrial, institutional, and residential buildings using waste heat and thermal energy from power generation equipment for cooling, heating, and humidity control. In-depth case studies illustrate real-world applications of CHP systems. |
Editors:
Milton Meckler, M.ASCE, F.ASME, P.E., is president of Design Build Systems (DBS), a company specializing in commercial, industrial, and institutional MEP design and construction. He was one of four Global Award Finalists for McGraw-Hill’s Platts Energy Lifetime Achievement Award.
Lucas Hyman, P.E., LEED AP, a professional mechanical engineer with more than 25 years’ experience, is president of Goss Engineering, Inc., a firm specializing in district energy systems.
Buy this book from online bookstores around the world
[Full disclosure:
Lucas Hyman, PE, president of Goss Engineering
and one of the leading cogeneration engineers
working in the field today, is the nephew of Dennis
Rivers, the editor of this web site and a web
programmer for Goss Engineering.]
Nuclear Spoons: Hot metal may find its way to your dinner table. By Anne-Marie Cusac in The Progressive October 1998.
"...the DOE has come up with an ingenious plan to dispose of its troublesome tons of [radioactive] nickel, copper, steel, and aluminum. It wants to let scrap companies collect the metal, try to take the radioactivity out, and sell the metal to foundries, which would in turn sell it to manufacturers who could use it for everyday household products: pots, pans, forks, spoons, even your eyeglasses." (Web editor's note: Bad publicity such as this article helped get this program suspended by the DOE in July, 2000. But the problem of radioactive materials migrating into civilian prodicts is not over.)
Hope From Ashes: Why Remember Hiroshima and Nagasaki? by Dennis Rivers, 2006. "Every August 6th people around the world gather to mark the deaths and injuries of the inhabitants of the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. And once again we join them, gathering in this memorial garden, surrounded by folded paper cranes, and struggling to find an appropriate response to one of the world's great catastrophes."
Cause and Effect: An American
Reflects on 9-11
By
Dennis Rivers, Editor, nonukes web site --
September 11, 2004
News Clips of Enduring Interest:
>>> Dangerous development: The U.S. Senate is moving toward authorizing the development of new nuclear weapons...
July 14, 2000: We Are Taking a Detour From Deterrence, an article in the L.A. Times by retired Rear Admiral Eugene J. Carroll Jr., Vice President of the Center for Defense Information in Washington.
>>> One objection to nuclear power is that it
requires superhuman levels of honesty, consistency and
reliability from a vast network of just plain human
beings. The story below reports the latest
trouble at Sellafield, England, site of the
disasterous 1957 Windscale nuclear fire...
Feb. 22, 2000: UK Nuclear Fuel Scandal Widens (from the Environment News Service)
>>> For many years, advocates of nuclear energy have argued that nuclear energy and nuclear weapons are two separate issues. In fact, the two have always been intertwined behind the scenes. The story below documents the explicit linking of U.S. nuclear power plant to the production of tritium for nuclear weapons. The big question is: how many other countries will convert their nuclear power plants to atom bomb factories?...
Dec. 12, 1999: U.S. Civilian Reactors to Produce Nuclear Weapons Material
(from the Environment News Service)
>>>
March, 2000: Improvements
in local infant health observed after nuclear power
reactor closings...
Abstract of journal article: Between 1987 and 1998, operations ceased at 12 U.S. nuclear power reactors. One of these, Rancho Seco, is located in a densely populated area. After the reactor closed in 1989, significant decreases in mortality (all causes and from congenital anomalies) and cancer incidence were observed for fetuses, infants, and small children. These trends contrast with a worsening of infant health status after the plant opened in 1974. The data suggest that a relationship between nuclear emissions and adverse health effects exists, especially since fetuses and newborns are most sensitive to radiation. Because Rancho Seco released low levels of radionuclides into the local environment, the issue of health effects of prolonged, low-dose radiation exposure is raised. The matter becomes increasingly important as operators of several dozen aging U.S. reactors must soon decide whether to extend their operating licenses.
From: Environmental Epidemiology and Toxicology (2000) 2, 32-36.
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A = USA military budget for 2007: Approximately 700 billion dollars B = Population of planet earth
in June 2007: Disturbing arithmetic:
Thought Questions:
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Some
things to think about:
Links to major sources of anti-nuclear
information:
Los Alamos Study Group advocates -- Nuclear Disarmament -- Environmental Protection -- Social Justice -- Economic Sustainability. Opposes the emerging new arms race that is being cloaked in the language of "stockpile maintenance."
Tri-Valley CAREs -- Communities Against a Radioactive Environment is located near the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, which has been designing nuclear warheads, and leaking radioactive material into the neighborhood, for many decades.
Rocky Mountain Institute Library of articles on nuclear energy and alternative energy paths.
Nuclear Information & Resource Service (Washington, DC). NIRS is an information and networking center for citizens and environmental organizations concerned about nuclear power, radioactive waste, radiation, and sustainable energy issues.
Greenpeace(Amsterdam) presents the latest information on campaigns around the world to limit the spread of nuclear contamination.
Earth Island Institute (San Francisco, Calif.) reports on world-wide ecology issues (including nuclear waste and power).
Nuclear Age Peace Foundation (Santa Barbara, Calif.) features articles and position papers on nuclear weapons control and nuclear waste disposal.
A longer list of links to web sites with information about nuclear and safe energy issues.
This web site is sponsored by the nonukes.org consortium of peace, ecology and educational groups, including...
The Nuclear Guardianship Project,
Plutonium Free Future,
A World Without Armies
www.TurnTowardLife.org
www.LiberationTheology.org
www.NewConversations.net
Thank you for
visiting the www.nonukes.org
web site.