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November 21, 2013
Whistleblower at Hanford nuclear vitrification plant says retaliation continues
http://www.tri-cityherald.com/2013/11/18/2684778/whistleblower-at-vit-plant-says.html
Whistleblower at vit plant says retaliation continues
By Annette Cary, Tri-City Herald, November 18, 2013
A key official at the Hanford vitrification plant has filed a second legal complaint, saying she continues to suffer retaliation and harassment since filing a whistleblower complaint two years ago.
Donna Busche, the manager of environmental and nuclear safety at the vitrification plant, filed the new complaint with the Department of Labor, naming URS Energy and Construction and Bechtel National as respondents.
Bechtel and URS strongly denied Busche's accusations Monday.
Busche is employed by URS, the primary subcontractor of Bechtel, which holds the Department of Energy contract to build and commission the vitrification plant. "Busche's job is to raise technical and safety issues," including issues that could lead to an unplanned nuclear reaction, according to the second complaint.
<snip>
Whistleblower at vit plant says retaliation continues
By Annette Cary, Tri-City Herald, November 18, 2013
A key official at the Hanford vitrification plant has filed a second legal complaint, saying she continues to suffer retaliation and harassment since filing a whistleblower complaint two years ago.
Donna Busche, the manager of environmental and nuclear safety at the vitrification plant, filed the new complaint with the Department of Labor, naming URS Energy and Construction and Bechtel National as respondents.
Bechtel and URS strongly denied Busche's accusations Monday.
Busche is employed by URS, the primary subcontractor of Bechtel, which holds the Department of Energy contract to build and commission the vitrification plant. "Busche's job is to raise technical and safety issues," including issues that could lead to an unplanned nuclear reaction, according to the second complaint.
<snip>
November 21, 2013
NRC Strips Whistleblower Protection
http://vimeo.com/78821820NRC Strips Whistleblower Protection
from Fairewinds Energy Education Thursday, November 7, 2013
In sworn testimony in Monroe, Michigan, the NRC admitted that it has stripped whistleblower protection from the licensing of new nuclear power plants. By flip-flopping on what it means to be an applicant, the whistleblowers who are truly looking to protect the public health and safety are having their lives and livelihoods jeopardized. Fairewinds Chief Engineer Arnie Gundersen discusses what this means as utilities look for short cuts and cheaper ways to build new nukes.
from Fairewinds Energy Education Thursday, November 7, 2013
In sworn testimony in Monroe, Michigan, the NRC admitted that it has stripped whistleblower protection from the licensing of new nuclear power plants. By flip-flopping on what it means to be an applicant, the whistleblowers who are truly looking to protect the public health and safety are having their lives and livelihoods jeopardized. Fairewinds Chief Engineer Arnie Gundersen discusses what this means as utilities look for short cuts and cheaper ways to build new nukes.
November 20, 2013
Taleb is the author of The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable
Friends, let us build a list of historical cases of "scientistic sucker problems"
https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=10151830273883375&id=13012333374
Nassim Nicholas Taleb · November 9 at 7:50am ·
Friends, let us build a list of historical cases of "scientistic sucker problems" (similar to, say, transfat, thalidomide) that satisfy the following:
A - DENIAL OF COMPLEXITY: Something foreign to the human body or nature-as-a-complex-system was introduced (in the sense of not being part of the long term history of the process),
B - Benefits (though small) were visible and trumpeted,
C - MISTAKING ABSENCE OF EVIDENCE FOR EVIDENCE OF ABSENCE: "Scientific" *evidence of absence* of harm was presented. (Consider tobacco).
D - SCIENTISM: Arguments against skeptics were presented a la Michael Shermer as being "against science".
E - MORAL HAZARD: consider tobacco's lobbying to show safety on "scientific" grounds.
These cases of small visible benefits and large hidden harm (particularly delayed) are prime cases of fragility (thick left tail, thin right tail).
The aim is to integrate these human sucker problems into the general *precautionary principle*. In the complex domain, one cannot predict adverse consequences beyond small steps, hence the idea of countering history (Bar Yam).
Please do not stray from the topic, which is to build a historical list, in the physical/health (not socioeconomic) domain. This is not a debate: rather a catalogue.
Nassim Nicholas Taleb · November 9 at 7:50am ·
Friends, let us build a list of historical cases of "scientistic sucker problems" (similar to, say, transfat, thalidomide) that satisfy the following:
A - DENIAL OF COMPLEXITY: Something foreign to the human body or nature-as-a-complex-system was introduced (in the sense of not being part of the long term history of the process),
B - Benefits (though small) were visible and trumpeted,
C - MISTAKING ABSENCE OF EVIDENCE FOR EVIDENCE OF ABSENCE: "Scientific" *evidence of absence* of harm was presented. (Consider tobacco).
D - SCIENTISM: Arguments against skeptics were presented a la Michael Shermer as being "against science".
E - MORAL HAZARD: consider tobacco's lobbying to show safety on "scientific" grounds.
These cases of small visible benefits and large hidden harm (particularly delayed) are prime cases of fragility (thick left tail, thin right tail).
The aim is to integrate these human sucker problems into the general *precautionary principle*. In the complex domain, one cannot predict adverse consequences beyond small steps, hence the idea of countering history (Bar Yam).
Please do not stray from the topic, which is to build a historical list, in the physical/health (not socioeconomic) domain. This is not a debate: rather a catalogue.
Taleb is the author of The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable
November 20, 2013
Can the NSA really crack modern encryption? A talk with the father of public-key cryptography, Marti
http://www.viddler.com/v/aab85cf2Reacting to Spying Revelations
Uploaded on Oct 31, 2013
Can the NSA really crack modern encryption? A talk with the father of public-key cryptography, Martin Hellman.
Uploaded on Oct 31, 2013
Can the NSA really crack modern encryption? A talk with the father of public-key cryptography, Martin Hellman.
November 20, 2013
Japan’s Elections: In Unconstitutional State But Not Unconstitutional
Source: Wall Street Journal
On Wednesday, Japan’s highest court ruled that the landslide election victory last December that swept Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to power was “in a state of unconstitutionality.”
The ruling was in response to a suit brought by legal activists who claimed that the disparity between the number of votes it took to elect a lawmaker in the most populous and least inhabited districts goes against the right to equality enshrined in the nation’s constitution.
The Supreme Court said that the 2.43 vote weight disparity in December, “like the last election was grossly unfair,” according to local media.
But here’s the catch: being in a “state” of unconstitutionality is just one of various shades of constitutionality that the courts have devised to measure the gravity of the offense. There’s also “unconstitutional but valid”-—a more severe ruling that still falls short of nullification before the final “unconstitutional and invalid.” Japan’s Supreme Court has never nullified an election outcome for violating the “one person, one vote” principal.
<snip>
Read more: http://blogs.wsj.com/japanrealtime/2013/11/20/japans-elections-in-unconstitutional-state-but-not-unconstitutional/?mod=WSJBlog
November 20, 2013
Killing ISS: A Stupid Idea That Might Just Happen
http://nasawatch.com/archives/2013/11/killing-iss-a-s-1.html
Killing ISS: A Stupid Idea That Might Just Happen
By Keith Cowing on November 19, 2013 12:14 AM. 38 Comments
Keith's note: NASA cannot fully develop and operate SLS - and extend ISS beyond 2020. There is simply not enough money to do both. But viable commercial alternatives and architectures abound. Watch as JSC squares off against MSFC and KSC and their respective congressional delegations. Meanwhile Russia is talking about a post-ISS world and China wants to create their own ISS - including the whole "international" bit. NASA took a generation and $80-100 billion to create ISS only to throw it away before it achieves its fullest potential? Crazy you say? We walked away from Apollo. NASA, Congress, and the White House are creatures of habit.
Killing ISS: A Stupid Idea That Might Just Happen
By Keith Cowing on November 19, 2013 12:14 AM. 38 Comments
- Options for Reducing the Deficit: 2014 to 2023 Office: Eliminate Human Space Exploration Programs, CBO
"This option would terminate NASA's human space exploration and space operations programs, except for those necessary to meet space communications needs (such as communication with the Hubble Space Telescope). The agency's science and aeronautics programs and robotic space missions would continue. Eliminating those human space programs would save $73 billion between 2015 and 2023, the Congressional Budget Office estimates." - China Unveils Space Station Research Plans, Space News
"China is positioning itself to provide orbital laboratory space, experiment racks and facilities to scientists worldwide following the completion of the U.S.-led international space station program. "China Space Station (CSS) will operate in orbit from 2022 to 2032. This period will provide much more opportunities to scientists in China and all of the world after the international space station," Gu Yidong, president of the China Society of Space Research, said at the American Society for Gravitational and Space Research conference here Nov. 3 - 8."
Keith's note: NASA cannot fully develop and operate SLS - and extend ISS beyond 2020. There is simply not enough money to do both. But viable commercial alternatives and architectures abound. Watch as JSC squares off against MSFC and KSC and their respective congressional delegations. Meanwhile Russia is talking about a post-ISS world and China wants to create their own ISS - including the whole "international" bit. NASA took a generation and $80-100 billion to create ISS only to throw it away before it achieves its fullest potential? Crazy you say? We walked away from Apollo. NASA, Congress, and the White House are creatures of habit.
- NASA Will Face Solomon's Choice in 2014, earlier post
"Given that the funds are simply not going to be available to keep the ISS alive and functioning and to fully construct and operate the SLS/Orion system, something has to give. Are we going to have to kill one to insure the other's survival? That is the choice that that is presenting itself - a clear recipe for disaster as far as NASA's human space flight plans are concerned."
November 20, 2013
Privatize the profits, socialize the risks.
By limiting liability, they are asking for a nuclear Bhopal.
India says domestic plant operators can limit global nuclear suppliers' liability
http://articles.economictimes.indiatimes.com/2013-11-19/news/44242443_1_indian-nuclear-liability-law-canada-india-business-council-montek-singh-ahluwalia
India says domestic plant operators can limit global nuclear suppliers' liability
Vikas Dhoot, ET Bureau Nov 19, 2013, 04.00AM IST
TORONTO: To allay global nuclear suppliers' fears about India's nuclear liability laws that have deterred potential investors, the country is now telling the world's nuclear industry that the domestic plant operator can limit the amount as well as duration of the liability that accrues to foreign suppliers. Planning Commission deputy chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia, a close associate of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, conveyed this interpretation of the 2010 nuclear liability law in a meeting with Canada's industry leaders late last month.
The Congress-led United Progressive Alliance had worked overtime in its first innings to secure a new nuclear cooperation regime after decades of global isolation, but it has been unable to jumpstart its massive nuclear power agenda as vendors from around the world have stopped in their tracks over what they have labelled as unviable liability laws.
Ahluwalia worked closely with Singh in negotiating the tricky terrains of economic diplomacy around the Indo-US nuclear deal. His clarifications to global nuclear vendors could, therefore, be seen as the government's last-gasp attempt to get some traction for nuclear energy. Singh has held a high-level dialogue with his counterparts in Russia and the US, where the liability law's implications have figured prominently.
<snip>
India says domestic plant operators can limit global nuclear suppliers' liability
Vikas Dhoot, ET Bureau Nov 19, 2013, 04.00AM IST
TORONTO: To allay global nuclear suppliers' fears about India's nuclear liability laws that have deterred potential investors, the country is now telling the world's nuclear industry that the domestic plant operator can limit the amount as well as duration of the liability that accrues to foreign suppliers. Planning Commission deputy chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia, a close associate of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, conveyed this interpretation of the 2010 nuclear liability law in a meeting with Canada's industry leaders late last month.
The Congress-led United Progressive Alliance had worked overtime in its first innings to secure a new nuclear cooperation regime after decades of global isolation, but it has been unable to jumpstart its massive nuclear power agenda as vendors from around the world have stopped in their tracks over what they have labelled as unviable liability laws.
Ahluwalia worked closely with Singh in negotiating the tricky terrains of economic diplomacy around the Indo-US nuclear deal. His clarifications to global nuclear vendors could, therefore, be seen as the government's last-gasp attempt to get some traction for nuclear energy. Singh has held a high-level dialogue with his counterparts in Russia and the US, where the liability law's implications have figured prominently.
<snip>
Privatize the profits, socialize the risks.
By limiting liability, they are asking for a nuclear Bhopal.
November 20, 2013
No volunteers?
Abe will have to force his own version of Reagan's "Screw Nevada" bill.
Government changes tack on finding disposal site for radioactive waste
Source: Asahi Shimbun
The government plans to abandon its ineffective policy of waiting for municipalities to volunteer to host a final disposal site for high-level radioactive waste, an industry ministry panel said Nov. 20.
According to the plan, the government will instead try to accelerate the selection process by listing candidate disposal sites for the waste generated from the reprocessing of spent nuclear fuel and considering support measures for potential host communities.
The Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry is considering publishing a map as early as next year showing more than 100 locations that are at least scientifically suitable for hosting the disposal site, according to sources. The requirements include the absence of active fault lines and volcanic activity.
“The government must take a leading role in setting up a framework to form a consensus among residents and in formulating measures to support areas (that host the facility),” said Hiroya Masuda, a former internal affairs minister who serves as chairman of the Advisory Committee for Natural Resources and Energy’s radioactive waste working group.
<snip>
Read more: http://ajw.asahi.com/article/0311disaster/fukushima/AJ201311200060
No volunteers?
Abe will have to force his own version of Reagan's "Screw Nevada" bill.
November 20, 2013
License Application for New-Build at US Comanche Peak Site Suspended
http://www.worldnuclearreport.org/License-Application-for-New-Build.html
License Application for New-Build at US Comanche Peak Site Suspended
Wednesday 20 November 2013
It was reported 8 November 2013 that Luminant Generation Company LLC (Luminant) had suspended its application with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) for a combined operating and construction license for two 1700 MW Advanced Pressurized Water Reactors (APWR) at the Comanche Peak site in Texas. The decision followed an announcement by the APWR vendor, Mitsubishi Nuclear Energy Systems (MNES), to focus its efforts on existing services in the United States; and that of its parent company, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Ltd. (MHI), to concentrate its efforts on the restart of nuclear reactors in Japan. MNES stated it was committed to securing design certification for the APWR, but on an “extended schedule.”
Initiated in 2007, and following several delays, the NRC was planning to issue a rule making on design certification of the APWR in February 2016. No details are available as to when this will now be completed. There has been sustained opposition to the Comanche Peak APWR project over the past five years, including challenges to Luminants Combined Operating Licensing (COL) NRC application, which was scheduled for November 2011.
The APWR has been under development since 1980 but with no construction actually initiated. Plans for two APWR’s at Tsuruga in Japan are on hold following the March 2011 Fukushima Daiichi accident, compounded by confirmation in May 2013 by the Nuclear Regulatory Authority (NRA) that an active seismic fault runs through the site.
Following its original application for a construction and operating license in 2008, multiple challenges have arisen to the Comanche Peak twin reactor project. Luminant failed to secure U.S. Department of Energy Loan Guarantees for the two reactors in 2009; wholesale electricity prices have halved in Texas; and Luminant’s parent company, Energy Future Holdings, is close to bankruptcy with debts of 42 billion dollars.
License Application for New-Build at US Comanche Peak Site Suspended
Wednesday 20 November 2013
It was reported 8 November 2013 that Luminant Generation Company LLC (Luminant) had suspended its application with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) for a combined operating and construction license for two 1700 MW Advanced Pressurized Water Reactors (APWR) at the Comanche Peak site in Texas. The decision followed an announcement by the APWR vendor, Mitsubishi Nuclear Energy Systems (MNES), to focus its efforts on existing services in the United States; and that of its parent company, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Ltd. (MHI), to concentrate its efforts on the restart of nuclear reactors in Japan. MNES stated it was committed to securing design certification for the APWR, but on an “extended schedule.”
Initiated in 2007, and following several delays, the NRC was planning to issue a rule making on design certification of the APWR in February 2016. No details are available as to when this will now be completed. There has been sustained opposition to the Comanche Peak APWR project over the past five years, including challenges to Luminants Combined Operating Licensing (COL) NRC application, which was scheduled for November 2011.
The APWR has been under development since 1980 but with no construction actually initiated. Plans for two APWR’s at Tsuruga in Japan are on hold following the March 2011 Fukushima Daiichi accident, compounded by confirmation in May 2013 by the Nuclear Regulatory Authority (NRA) that an active seismic fault runs through the site.
Following its original application for a construction and operating license in 2008, multiple challenges have arisen to the Comanche Peak twin reactor project. Luminant failed to secure U.S. Department of Energy Loan Guarantees for the two reactors in 2009; wholesale electricity prices have halved in Texas; and Luminant’s parent company, Energy Future Holdings, is close to bankruptcy with debts of 42 billion dollars.
November 20, 2013
Transcript at http://www.truth-out.org/opinion/item/20116-chernobyl-was-transparent-compared-to-fukushima-harvey-wasserman-on-the-ongoing-crisis
Laura Flanders Show: Harvey Wasserman: Risky Operation at Fukushima Demands World Action
Published on Nov 19, 2013
Laura Flanders' show streams at GRITtv.org This week, the operator of Japan's crippled Fukushima nuclear plant began the process to remove 400 tons of highly irradiated spent fuel, Nuclear researcher Harvey Wasserman talks about the risks involved and need for world intervention.
Laura Flanders' show streams at GRITtv.org This week, the operator of Japan's crippled Fukushima nuclear plant began the process to remove 400 tons of highly irradiated spent fuel, Nuclear researcher Harvey Wasserman talks about the risks involved and need for world intervention.
Transcript at http://www.truth-out.org/opinion/item/20116-chernobyl-was-transparent-compared-to-fukushima-harvey-wasserman-on-the-ongoing-crisis
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