Article: Here’s what it would take for the US to run on 100% renewable energy

“It is technically and economically feasible to run the US economy entirely on renewable energy, and to do so by 2050. That is the conclusion of a study last year in the journal Energy & Environmental Science, authored by Stanford scholar Mark Z. Jacobson and nine colleagues.

Jacobson is well-known for his ambitious and controversial work on renewable energy. In 2011 he published, with Mark A. Delucchi, a two-part paper (one, two) on “providing all global energy with wind, water, and solar power.” In 2013 he published a feasibility study on moving New York state entirely to renewables, and in 2014 he created a road map for California to do the same.”

(Full article here)

Article: Hibakusha: Paving the way toward the abolishment of nuclear weapons

“Speaking on March 26 in the city of Putrajaya, which lies on the outskirts of Kuala Lumpur, the Malaysian capital, 87-year-old Sumiteru Taniguchi spoke about his experience in Nagasaki as a hibakusha — atomic bomb survivor — to a group of about 300 people, including high school students, who had assembled for a symposium.

A non-governmental organizations (NGOs) working in the area of peace education in Malaysia had organized the symposium, to which Taniguchi had been invited by former Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad.

The Malay Peninsula is the area where the former Imperial Japanese Army launched a surprise land attack on Dec. 8, 1941 — thereby commencing its Southern Operations.”

(Full article here)

Article: Nuclear Power: Totally Unqualified to Combat Climate Change

“My colleagues and I at the World Business Academy have followed climate activism for many years and its on-going campaign to restrain the coal and oil industries. Research, congressional testimony, and activism by numerous climatologists to address climate change has brought this very real global threat into the public consciousness and set the stage to develop a strategy for preserving human civilization as we know it. A December 2013 study, “Assessing ‘Dangerous Climate Change’: Required Reduction of Carbon Emissions to Protect Young People, Future Generations and Nature,” has further articulated a higher, more urgent imperative for immediate climate remediation.”

(Full article here)

Nuclear Power cannot compete in the needed time frame with Renewables. Poor business sense!

 

Article: No Nukes News: Chernobyl – 30 years later

“Chernobyl is a word we would all like to erase from our memory. But more than seven million of our fellow human beings do not have the luxury of forgetting. They are still suffering, every day, as a result of what happened…The exact number of victims can never be known.” – former UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan

(Full article here)

30 years and it is still and always will be a sacrifice zone. NO MORE.

Article: Update: 500 jobs cut as Cameco closes Rabbit Lake mine until the uranium market recovers

“Cameco Corp. plans to close its Rabbit Lake uranium mine in northern Saskatchewan, resulting in the loss of about 500 jobs.

“The uranium market has been low for five years now — over five years,” Tim Gitzel, the Saskatoon-based mining company’s president and CEO, told reporters at an evening news conference in Saskatoon.

“The price of uranium five years ago was about $72 (U.S.) a pound. This afternoon it was $26 (U.S.)”

The uranium market has been depressed since the 2011 Fukushima Daiichi disaster resulted in the shutdown of more than 50 Japanese reactors. Gitzel said global oversupply led Cameco to conclude that it can meet its production commitments with its “tier one” assets, meaning the McArthur River and Cigar Lake mines.

“There still seems to be a large inventory of uranium around (and) available, keeping the price down. Until that clears, we’re going to have to just buckle down here, and that’s what we’re doing today.””

(Full article here)

This is why northern communities need to look beyond the resource industries and develop a locally sustainable economy more in line with the Dene and Cree values. Being tied to a boom and bust resource-based economy is of no use to us and only leaves us with contamination and no-go zones.

Article: Chernobyl and Fukushima: lessons not learned

“Around 8,000 km and 25 years separate the catastrophic Chernobyl and Fukushima nuclear disasters. There are clear differences between the Ukraine and Japan-based catastrophes, but what are some of the more subtle distinctions? And how were they similar?

Both power stations opened in the 1970s; Fukushima in 1971 and Chernobyl six years later. The Japanese plant was, then, operating for 40 years before the disaster and the Ukrainian just nine. At the time of each disaster, six reactors were running at Fukushima and four at Chernobyl.

Different causes?
At a first glance, the incidents appear to have different causes. The Chernobyl reactor explosion on April 26, 1986, was the result of an experiment carried out by plant personnel. The Fukushima meltdown, meanwhile, was triggered by an earthquake and subsequent tsunami on March 11, 2011.

However, construction mistakes and negligence have since been cited as being behind both catastrophes.”

(Full article here)

Article: Leak worsens in massive Hanford tank holding nuclear waste

“A leak in a massive nuclear waste storage tank at the Hanford Site has expanded significantly, KING 5 learned this weekend.

After leak detector alarms sounded early Sunday morning, crews at Hanford lowered a camera into the two-foot-wide space between the tank’s inner and outer walls. They discovered 8.4 inches of radioactive and chemically toxic waste has seeped into the annulus.

The U.S. Department of Energy released a statement Monday calling the leak an “anticipated” outcome of an ongoing effort to empty the tank in question. The Washington state Department of Ecology said, “There is no indication of waste leaking into the environment or risk to the public at this time.””

(Full article here)

Another leaking nuclear waste storage facility that is creating serious havoc. Too often the nuclear industry is caught not really having a clue what to do about their “mistakes”.

Article: Asahi WebRonza (Japan): After the Paris-Agreement: Corporate Meltdown in the Nuclear Industry

The SaskParty Government of Saskatchewan just better give their heads a shake. Instead of going full out mining uranium which will leave a radiotoxic legacy for the northern people to bear, drop it and do the sensible things to ensure we actually have a future.

“The international nuclear industry had great hopes in the 21st Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. The COP21 labelled Paris event in December 2015 was thought to boost the profile as low-carbon technology of an industry in great difficulty. It did not happen. Only a few months later, some of the largest nuclear companies in the world are facing a meltdown on the stock market.”

(Full article here)

Article: Why nuclear power will never supply the world’s energy needs

“…global power consumption today is about 15 terawatts (TW). Currently, the global nuclear power supply capacity is only 375 gigawatts (GW). In order to examine the large-scale limits of nuclear power, Abbott estimates that to supply 15 TW with nuclear only, we would need about 15,000 nuclear reactors. In hisanalysis, Abbott explores the consequences of building, operating, and decommissioning 15,000 reactors on the Earth, looking at factors such as the amount of land required, radioactive waste, accident rate, risk of proliferation into weapons, uranium abundance and extraction, and the exotic metals used to build the reactors themselves.”

(Full article here)

pdf format Prayer Paddle4

Please feel free to print/distribute the above poster, as well as the pamphlet below.