Article: IRS targets uranium producer Cameco as CRA tax dispute intensifies

“The U.S. Internal Revenue Service is demanding back taxes from Cameco Corp., adding to the miner’s ever-growing tax woes ahead of a crucial trial expected next year.

The IRS believes the revenue reported by Cameco’s Swiss subsidiary, Cameco Europe Ltd., is inadequate and that a portion should be taxed back in the U.S. at a much higher level. The claim is similar to the one made by the Canada Revenue
xAgency (CRA), which is trying to shift Cameco Europe’s revenue to Canada and apply a debilitating collection of back taxes and penalties.”

(Full article here)

 

Article: Germany to make nuclear power operators pay for nuclear waste repository

“This week, German Environment Minister Peter Altmaier was interviewed by N24 television, when he said that German nuclear power operators will be forced to bear the estimated $2.6 billion dollar costs of dealing with the nuclear waste they created.  “The cost of dealing with nuclear waste will be borne by those who produced it,” Altmaier said.

Germany has already spent more than $1.3 billion dollars of taxpayer money at the Gorleben site since the 1980s, where it once studied the benefits and risks of long term storage.  Altmaier said that he had pledged no further nuclear waste will be transported to Gorleben “while the search goes on,” and that Germany “will do everything to ensure that no German nuclear transport goes outside the country.””

(Full article here)

Article: Once Upon a Mine: The Legacy of Uranium on the Navajo Nation

“Decades of uranium mining have dotted the landscape across the Navajo Nation with piles of contaminated mine waste. The EPA has mapped 521 abandoned uranium mines on the reservation, ranging from small holes dug by a single prospector into the side of a mesa to large commercial mining operations.1 The Navajo people did not have a word for “radioactivity” when mining outfits looking for vanadium2 and uranium3 began moving onto their land in the 1940s, and they did not understand that radiation could be dangerous. They were not told that the men who worked in the mines were breathing carcinogenic radon gas and showering in radioactive water, nor that the women washing their husbands’ work clothes could spread radionuclides to the rest of the family’s laundry.”

(Full article here)

In Saskatchewan where physicians have been advocating for a base-line health study for decades without success we are facing the same soaring increases in cancer and non-HIV AIDS, like lupus. Both the government and the uranium industry have known of the health impacts since the 50’s yet, they continue to increase uranium production at an increasingly heavy cost to aboriginal people.

They studied the miners who they used to get the uranium but they refuse to study the local populations who are also getting sick and dying claiming that the populations are too small to get any definitive result. How can that be true if the number of miners studied was an even smaller number?

Article: 12 Nuclear Realities Whose Names Must Not Be Spoken

“It ended, with no apparent sense of irony, on April Fools’ Day.  Obama’s much-heralded ‘Nuclear Security Summit’ came to a close on April 1^st in Washington, D.C., having drawn representatives from about 50 countries…minus Russia, which declined to attend citing a “shortage of mutual cooperation” and the exclusion of some of its allies from the invitation list.

Compared to the lofty vision outlined in Obama’s famous 2009 Prague speech of a ‘world without nuclear weapons,’ the POTUS conference marked a sad measure of how far short of his stated intentions his actual accomplishments have fallen.”

(Full article here)

Article: Unable To Compete On Price, Nuclear Power On The Decline In The U.S.

“Renewable energy and new technologies that are making low-carbon power more reliable are growing rapidly in the U.S. Renewables are so cheap in some parts of the country that they’re undercutting the price of older sources of electricity such as nuclear power.

The impact has been significant on the nuclear industry, and a growing number of unprofitable reactors are shutting down.

When the first nuclear power plants went online 60 years ago, nuclear energy seemed like the next big thing.”

(Full article here)

The nuclear waste is piling up and there is no proven fail-safe way to deal with it.
Nuclear Power Plants are aging and all machines deconstruct over time and use and the only thing protecting surrounding populations is the distribution of KI pills?

Article: Officials are looking for a new home for 2.6 million highly radioactive fuel rods from nuclear plants

“Tonnes and tonnes of them — enough to fill seven hockey rinks to the half-boards with all of Canada’s spent nuclear fuel,radioactive for hundreds of thousands of years.

For those already worried about plans to bury Ontario’s low- and intermediate-level nuclear waste in Southwestern Ontario, at the bottom of a shaft deeper than the CN Tower is tall, all those spent fuel rods loom as an issue several magnitudes greater: where, or whether, to bury them all.

Borehole drilling may start as early as next year at three rural communities near Lake Huron that have asked to be part of the process.

Six northern Ontario communities are also on the shortlist for further study.

Like it or not, the fuel rods aren’t going away — and their number is growing at a rate of 90,00 bundles a year.”

(Full article here)

Since they started the search for a deep geologic repository in 2011 the amount of spent radioactive fuel produced has increased by an entire hockey rink. The intention of the nuclear industry to keep producing it without a proven fail safe solution to the waste is highly irresponsible to all generations current and future.

Article: 10 Devastating Radiation Accidents They Never Tell You About

“On December 23, 1960, SL-1 was shut down for maintenance. It was scheduled to resume operation on January 4. Three men, John Byrnes, Richard McKinley, and Richard Legg, were responsible for preparing the reactor the night before. They arrived at around 4:00 PM.

Alarms went off at the laboratory’s firehouse at 9:01 PM. Firefighters arrived with radiation detectors and found nothing amiss. The control room looked perfectly normal, though none of the three men were there. When the firefighters began to approach the stairs leading to the silo, however, their detectors indicated dangerous amounts of radiation.”

(Full article here)

What many of these have in common is a blatant disregard for the health of the public and a mandate of secrecy to ensure that the nuclear industry could not be held accountable. This pattern continues to this day in all aspects of the nuclear fuel chain.

The Passionate Eye did a fairly good summary of events at Fukushima for the fifth anniversary of the event. “Answers” would not be forthcoming because the Japanese bureaucracy – and the rest of world as well – remain in complete denial. Chernobyl has proven to be effectively forever – Fukushima, on the ocean where its contaminates can be more readily spread has the potential to affect much more of the globe. – Dr. Dale Dewar

This situation at Fukushima has not been resolved and has all but vanished from the news. I agree with this idea that leaders of the world must come together to avoid more catastrophe. As a supplier of uranium to Japan, Saskatchewan is connected to this unfolding nightmare. Both Brad Wall and Cam Broten support nuclear technology. They need to step up and urge Canada to take some responsibility to help. – Stephanie Sydiaha

https://secure.avaaz.org/…/We_demand_that_every_single_na…/…

Article: The nuclear snake oil salesmen now pitching Small Reactors as “green”

“Small-scale nuclear plants being pitched as new green, Albuquerque Journal, December 20th, 2015“……….State leaders aren’t necessarily rushing to embrace the vision in a place where all but one nuclear plant have been mothballed and where old-guard nuclear safety advocates warn that so-called advanced nuclear technologies are an attempt to put shiny earrings on the same old pig.”

(Full article here)

Article: #NuclearIsDirty

“NIRS is launching a new campaign today, called #NuclearIsDirty. Over the next twelve weeks, we will be rolling it out through a series of online events, publications, and social media forums. #NuclearIsDirty is a forum to inform the public of the real environmental impacts of nuclear power, from the mining of uranium and production of reactor fuel, all the way through to the long-term storage and management of radioactive waste.

The rollout series will follow the story of that nuclear fuel chain, combining technical information with testimony from real people whose communities are affected. As you know from our commentary and advocacy in the pages of GreenWorld, NIRS is committed to a nuclear-free, carbon-free world, and strong action on global warming and climate justice. We believe the transition to 100% renewable energy is not just possible, it is necessary.”

(Full article here)