広島の高校生、核廃絶署名届ける＝「被爆者の思い未来に」と中満次長－国連 via AFP

Posted on 2019/05/01 by yukimiyamotodepaul

【5月1日 時事通信社】核兵器廃絶に向けた署名活動を行っている広島県内の高校の生徒8人が30日、米ニューヨークの国連本部で中満泉軍縮担当上級代表（事務次長）と懇談し、昨年4月からの1年間に集まった12万9筆の署名の目録を提出した。

(略）

署名には、生徒が街頭で集めたものや、全国の中学・高校から送られてきたものが含まれる。懇談には、広島市の松井一実、長崎市の田上富久両市長も出席した。

女子生徒の一人は懇談で、被爆者が高齢化し、「生の声を聞ける時間が少なくなってきている。署名活動のほかに何ができるか考えていきたい」と語った。中満氏は「皆さん自身が、世界をどのように安全にしていくかを考えてほしい」と呼び掛けた。(c)時事通信社

全文は広島の高校生、核廃絶署名届ける＝「被爆者の思い未来に」と中満次長－国連

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How scientists traced a uranium cube to Nazi Germany’s nuclear reactor program via Science News

Posted on 2019/05/01 by yukimiyamotodepaul

A radioactive relic from World War II wound up in the hands of physicist Timothy Koeth

BY  EMILY CONOVER

The mysterious cube arrived in the summer of 2013. Physicist Timothy Koeth had agreed to go to a parking lot for an unspecified delivery. Inside a blue cloth sack, swathed in paper towels, he found a small chunk of uranium.

It was about 5 centimeters across, with “a white piece of paper wrapped around it, like a ransom note on a stone,” Koeth says. On the paper was a message: “Taken from the reactor that Hitler tried to build. Gift of Ninninger.”

Koeth, a collector of nuclear memorabilia, was enthralled. “I just immediately knew what this thing was,” he says. During World War II, German scientists had attempted to build a nuclear reactor, until their uranium cubes — more than 600 of them — were confiscated by Allied forces and shipped to the United States.

Koeth, of the University of Maryland in College Park, thought his cube could be from that cache but wanted to confirm the hunch. In the process, he and University of Maryland graduate student Miriam Hiebert came to a striking conclusion, reported May 1 in Physics Today: Contrary to conventional wisdom, Germans scientists could have created a nuclear reactor during the war, but competition between teams stymied the effort.

[…]

Koeth eventually plans to loan his cube to a museum. For now, it’s ensconced in a custom-built, handheld display case, and is the jewel of Koeth’s collection of nuclear artifacts. Those other items include graphite from that first reactor at the University of Chicago, greenish glass from sand fused by an atomic bomb test and uranium-infused glassware known as Vaseline glass that glows green under ultraviolet light.
“I’m humbled” by the cube, Koeth says. Uranium fuels nuclear power, which could help free humanity from fossil fuel dependence, he says. But the element can also be used in devastating weapons. Nuclear physics “has the ability to save us and to totally destroy us. And that little cube represents all of that.”

The pair still want to chase down the remaining cubes from Heisenberg’s reactor attempt. They know the whereabouts of 10 others, including one at the Smithsonian Institution based in Washington, D.C., and another at Harvard University. Others are probably scattered around the United States. “They could be in people’s basements all over the country,” Hiebert says. Perhaps to some, it’s just “ ‘that weird cube that my dad had in his office,’ ” she says.

Read more at How scientists traced a uranium cube to Nazi Germany’s nuclear reactor program

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【寄稿】核抑止力という狂気＝ゴルバチョフ氏 via The Wall Street Journal

Posted on 2019/05/01 by yukimiyamotodepaul

私がサッチャー氏の説得を試みてから数十年、核の危険は深刻になる一方だ

By Mikhail Gorbachev
2019 年 5 月 1 日 15:26 JST

――筆者のミハイル・ゴルバチョフ氏は旧ソビエト連邦の元大統領
＊＊＊
　「抑止力は間違いによる核使用や核を使ったテロから世界を守ることはできない」。ジョージ・シュルツ元米国務長官、ウィリアム・ペリー元米国防長官、サム・ナン元米上院議員は先ごろ、こう書いた。「米国、ロシア両政府間で持続的かつ意味のある対話がなければ、そうした事態が起きる可能性はさら高まる」とも書いている。米ロ間の戦略的な関与が緊急に必要であるという点について私も彼らと同じ意見だ。さらに私は、核抑止力が世界を守るのではなく、世界を恒常的な危険にさらし続けると確信している。
　この問題についてマーガレット・サッチャー元英首相との激しい議論を思い出す。われわれは多くのことを議論し、共通の立場を見いだしたことも少なくなかった。しかしこの問題については、サッチャー氏は最後まで譲らず、核兵器のおかげで第三次世界大戦を阻止できたと言い張った。

(略）

核兵器が世界を戦争から救うことができると信じる人達は1962年のキューバ危機を思い出すべきだ。ソ連による核兵器の設置をめぐる対立が世界を戦争の寸前にまで追いやった。最近公表された文書を読むと、世界がどれほど運命の一線に近づいたかが分かる。このとき世界を救ったのは核兵器ではない。ジョン・F・ケネディとニキータ・フルシチョフという当時の米国とソ連の指導者が正気に返ったことで世界は救われたのだ。2人は当時も、それ以降もじっくり考えたことだろう。核兵器についての2人の認識は大きく変わった。

それだけではない。両氏は大気圏内、宇宙空間、水中における核実験を終わらせることで合意に達し、その結果、質的な軍拡競争のペースを遅らせると共に、核爆発で生じる人を死に至らしめる物質から大気を守った。

その後、核軍縮を継続的に前進させる機会は失われ、軍産複合体が良識に勝利した。それからずっとあとの1980年代の終わりになってようやく、米国とソ連は核軍拡競争を止めることができた。米国とロシアは今、非常に危険な岐路に立っている。両国は立ち止まって考えなければならない。冷戦を生き抜いた賢者らが意見を表明した。次は両国の指導者らが行動を起こす番だ。

全文は【寄稿】核抑止力という狂気＝ゴルバチョフ氏

当サイト既出関連記事：The Madness of Nuclear Deterrence via the Wall Street Journal

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‘Fukushima 50’ to Star Ken Watanabe and Koichi Sato via Variety

Posted on 2019/05/01 by yukimiyamotodepaul

By PATRICK FRATER

Japan’s Koichi Sato (“Terminal,” “Whiteout,” and “Unforgiven”) and Ken Watanabe(“Inception,” “Letters from Iwo Jima,” “Godzilla,” “The Last Samurai”) star in “Fukushima 50,” a forthcoming film recounting the events of the East Japan earthquake, tsunami, and nuclear meltdown of 2011. The survival action drama is directed by Wakamatsu Setsuro (“The Unbroken,” “Whiteout”).

Based on the book “On the Brink: The Inside Story of Fukushima Daiichi,” by Ryusho Kadota, the film’s narrative follows 50 workers who risked their lives by staying at the plant, in order to prevent total destruction of the overheating atomic reactors and minimise devastation. The adapted screenplay was written by Yoichi Maekawa, writer of “Gunji Kanbei,” “Shuhei Nozaki,” and “The Auditor.” Salo plays a power station supervisor, Watanabe plays a site superintendant.

Backed by the Kadokawa Corporation, the film shot in Japan from November 2018 to April. It is due for release in 2020.

Continue reading at ‘Fukushima 50’ to Star Ken Watanabe and Koichi Sato

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テレビ各局の“平成事件振り返り”から「福島原発事故」が消えた！ 広告漬けと政権忖度で原発事故をなかったことにvia Litera

Posted on 2019/04/30 by nfield


「平成」の終わりまであと数時間。この1、2カ月テレビ各局はこぞって「平成振り返り」特番を放送してきた。しかし、そのなかで、気になったことがある。どの番組を見ても、あの福島原発事故のことがほとんど出てこないのだ。

　たとえば、4月6日に放送された『池上彰のニュース そうだったのか！　3時間スペシャル』（テレビ朝日）。その内容は「平成30年大ニュース」と題し、平成の時代に起こった事件や出来事を「昭和」と比較し分析するというもので、ゆとり教育や消費税導入、テロの激増、そして「日本を大きく変えた自然災害」として西日本豪雨、雲仙・普賢岳などともに東日本大震災にも触れられていた。ところが、その震災についても「SNSが普及」「LINEに既読機能が」といった災害対策がメインで、多くの国民に甚大かつ深刻な被害を与えた福島原発事故についてはクローズアップしなかった。

フジテレビが3月31日に放送した『報道スクープ映像 昭和・平成の衝撃事件！大追跡SP』も同様で、昭和のロス疑惑まで取り上げているのに、原発事故にフォーカスすることはなかった。

　NHKでも同じ現象が起きている。『NHKスペシャル』ではこの間、「平成史スクープドキュメント」と銘打った回顧シリーズを放送していたが、「大リーガーNOMO」「山一証券破綻」「小選挙区制導入」「安室奈美恵」などがテーマで、原発事故は結局、テーマにならなかった。

　情報番組やワイドショーも、この間、レギュラー枠の中で平成ふりかえり企画を放送したが、やはり原発事故をクローズアップした番組は皆無。

　とくに、唖然としたのがきょう、平成最後の日の『情報ライブ ミヤネ屋』（読売テレビ系）だ。「年表で振り返る30年間」として平成の事件を振り返り、小泉政権の誕生、高橋尚子のシドニー金メダル、ライブドア事件などはたっぷり映像で放送したのだが、2011年になると、「災害の多かった平成、なかでも東日本大震災、いまだに復興道半ば」という短いコメントとともに、津波で押し流された町の写真パネルが一瞬、映されただけで、すぐに「それから2012年、東京オリンピック開催決定、スカイツリー開業、えーそんな前になんの？」と、宮根がおちゃらけトークで別の話題に移してしまった。

　そのあと、天皇・皇后の東日本大震災被災地慰問の映像が流れて、再び震災の話題になるのだが、ここでも不可解なことが起きる。「被災による避難者数」というフリップが映され、林アナが「およそ4万8000人の方が避難している、そのうちおよそ4万人は福島県の方」と解説したのだが、そのあと、原発のゲの字も口にせず、その「4万人の福島県の避難者」の原因についてネグってしまったのだ。

「この間、原発事故のことをきちんと取り上げていたのは『報ステ』やTBS、それも報道局が作った番組くらいじゃないですか。他の民放も、NHKも明らかに原発事故を避けていた」（民放関係者）

[…]

全文

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Spain to Shut Down Nuclear Plants And Push Forward Clean Energy Plan via South EU Summit

Posted on 2019/04/30 by nfield

Amid a Europe-wide debate over the future of nuclear power in a renewable energy future, Spain has rolled out a schedule to close its seven nuclear power plants. This move comes as the government proposes an ambitious clean energy plan to shift away from fossil fuels completely by 2050.

Spain’s main electricity providers have reached a deal to close the Almaraz nuclear power plant in western Spain, in line with the Spanish government’s plans to shut down all seven of the country’s nuclear plants by 2035. Almaraz, the country’s oldest nuclear plant, is jointly owned by Iberdrola, Endesa, and Naturgy, who last week agreed to invest a combined 400 million euros – and up to 600 million if necessary – to operate the plant until its two reactors are closed in 2027 and 2028. The plan also guaranteed employment at the plant for the next 20 to 25 years, through the end of operations, and the long process of safely shutting down and decommissioning the facility.

The deal to close the Almaraz plan is paving the way for further negotiations about the closure of Spain’s other nuclear plants. For example, Iberdrola and Endesa, who together own the Vandellos II nuclear plant in Catalonia, have applied to the Ecological Transition Ministry for a ten-year extension of the plant’s operations, a prerequisite to reaching an agreement to finance the plant until it is closed.

Nuclear power currently provides close to 20% of the country’s electricity, but the Spanish government hopes to shift away from this energy source by 2035. Next slated to close, in 2029, is Endesa’s Asco I reactor in Tarragona, followed by Iberdrola’s Cofrentes reactor in Valencia the next year. Asco II and Vandellos plants, jointly owned by these two companies, will respectively close in 2033 and 2034. Last to close in 2035 will be the Trillo plant, where Endesa, Iberdrola, and Naturgy all own shares.

[…]

14 EU states produce nuclear power; in France, Belgium, Slovakia, and Hungary, nuclear energy makes up the majority of electricity production. Italy, in contrast, phased out its nuclear plants in 1990, while Portugal and Greece opted out of this power source. Safety and environmental concerns, reinforced by meltdowns such as Chornobyl in 1986, and the 2011 Fukushima disaster, have convinced many Europeans that nuclear power’s risks outweigh its benefits. […]

Nuclear energy does not fit neatly into either side of the energy debate. In Belgium, for instance, nuclear power is being phased out to mitigate safety risks and environmental hazards – only to be replaced by gas-fired plants. France, on the other hand, continues to build more nuclear plants to decrease fossil fuel consumption. Each EU member state decides its own nuclear policy, leading to international tensions over national policy. For example, nuclear-free Luxembourg plans to vote to allow its citizens to sue Belgian nuclear producers, in the event of a cross-border accident. Spain plans to dump the nuclear waste from the Almaraz plant at a site 100 km from the Portuguese border, near the Tegus River that flows through Lisbon. The Portuguese government has registered complaints with the EU, alleging that Spain did not take into account the cross-border impact when approving the plan. Aside from “stress tests” assessing the safety of plants across Europe, the EU has not spelled out clear directives on nuclear power, and so the debate among member states will continue.

[…]

Read more.

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Egypt presses ahead with nuclear power via Al-Monitor

Posted on 2019/04/30 by nfield

By Rasha Mahmoud

Egypt’s Nuclear and Radiological Regulatory Authority (ENRRA) has approved the site of al-Dabaa in the first step of the licensing process required to build a nuclear station. The ENRRA oversees nuclear activities in Egypt to ensure the safety and security of people, property and the environment from the risk of radiation.

The nuclear power station at al-Dabaa will be built by Egypt’s Nuclear Power Plants Authority (NPPA), which is affiliated with the Ministry of Electricity and Renewable Energy, in cooperation with a Russian contractor.

NPPA head Amjad al-Wakeel told Al-Monitor that the ENRRA license means that al-Dabaa site meets Egyptian and International Atomic Energy Agency standards. […]

In 2008, Russia and Egypt signed an agreement of cooperation on the peaceful use of nuclear power. In 2015, the two countries signed another agreement to build a nuclear station at al-Dabaa and in December 2017, they signed a deal to begin work on the site.

The project will be completed in eight stages, with the four reactors constructed by early 2020. All eight stages are scheduled to be completed by 2025. The project’s first stage is projected to cost $10 billion, and the overall project will cost $25 billion. A Russian loan will cover 85% of the project cost, and the Egyptian government will cover the rest. According to the head of the Nuclear Power Plants Authority, Mohammed Khayat, the interest on the loan after settlement is estimated at $5 billion, but that could increase if the Egyptian pound drops against the dollar.

[…] Egypt’s aspiration to build a nuclear power station dates to the 1950s, during the days of President Gamal Abdel Nasser, and the Russians were strongly supportive of the idea. Moscow cooperated with Cairo to establish the first nuclear reactor for research and training in Inshas northeast of Cairo in 1961. Other nuclear projects were proposed during Nasser’s days and then during Mohammad Anwar al-Sadat’s rule in cooperation with the United States until the early 1980s, but none came to fruition.

Read more.

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Israel’s Nuclear Power Plant Is Back on the Table via the algemeiner

Posted on 2019/04/30 by nfield

Israel is reviving an old plan to build at least one nuclear power plant in the country. The Israeli Ministry of Energy has recently approached the Ministry of Finance with a request to approve the contracting of international radiation protection expert Jean Koch, according to several people familiar with the matter who spoke to Calcalist on condition of anonymity. The request defined the project as one of strategic value to Israel.

Plans for the construction of a nuclear power plant in Israel have been on and off the table for over 25 years. In 2017, Minister of Energy Yuval Steinitz conducted a survey to gauge public opinion regarding the possibility of building one in an urban area. Seventy percent of responders were not in favor of living near a nuclear power plant, but were generally supportive of the idea of one being built in Israel.

Previous plans delegated the construction of a nuclear power plant to the Israel Electric Corporation (IEC), the largest supplier of electrical power in Israel. Planned to be set up in Israel’s southern Negev area, the plant was to have an output of 1,300 megawatts. However, a November legal reform determined that the IEC will no longer have a monopoly on power generation in Israel, meaning if a plant is greenlit the contract will go to a private entity.

[…]

Today, 70 percent of Israel’s electricity originates from natural gas fields in the Mediterranean Sea. Government plans are to bring that number up to 80 percent and supplement the rest by renewable energy sources. A nuclear plant will diversify electricity sources in the country, reduce the need for gas-based power plants, and enable Israel to export more gas.

[…]

Read more.

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As Nuclear Waste Piles Up, Private Companies Pitch New Ways To Store It via WBEZ 91.5

Posted on 2019/04/30 by yukimiyamotodepaul

JEFF BRADY

Congress is once again debating how to dispose of the country’s growing inventory of nuclear waste. Wyoming Republican Senator John Barrasso is proposing legislationthat would jump start licensing hearings for the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste storage site in Nevada. The Trump administration also is asking Congress for money to resume work on that decades old project.

But that may not end local opposition or a longstanding political stalemate. And in the meantime, nuclear plants are running out of room to store spent fuel.

[…]

Running out of room
The Peach Bottom Atomic Power Station in South Central Pennsylvania illustrates the problem. It’s one of 80 sites, across dozens of states, where nearly 80,000 metric tons of waste from power plants is stored where it was generated, at taxpayer expense.

Spent fuel removed from the Peach Bottom reactor is first stored in racks in a big pool. It’s surrounded by a bright yellow plastic barrier and signs that read Caution: Radiation Area.

[…]

The spent fuel stays here for seven to 10 years while it cools.

Once it’s safe to remove the spent fuel from the pool, it’s stored outside in white, metal casks that look like big hot water heaters. They are lined up on a concrete base, behind razor wire and against a hillside near the power plant.

[…]

“When the opportunity comes for these to be sent somewhere else than these will double as a shipping container as well,” he says.

Private companies propose their own storage plans

As the waste piles up, private companies are stepping in with their own solutions for the nation’s radioactive spent fuel. One is proposing a temporary storage site in New Mexico, and another is seeking a license for a site in Texas.

[…]

“Institutions go away,” says Edwin Lyman, acting director of the Nuclear Safety Project at the Union of Concerned Scientists. “There’s no guarantee the owner will still be around for the duration of time when that waste remains dangerous, which is tens of hundreds of thousands of years.”

Read more at As Nuclear Waste Piles Up, Private Companies Pitch New Ways To Store It

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The Madness of Nuclear Deterrence via the Wall Street Journal

Posted on 2019/04/30 by yukimiyamotodepaul

The dangers have only become more acute in the decades since I tried to convince Thatcher.

By Mikhail Gorbachev

‘Deterrence cannot protect the world from a nuclear blunder or nuclear terrorism,” George Shultz, William Perry and Sam Nunn recently wrote. “Both become more likely when there is no sustained, meaningful dialogue between Washington and Moscow.” I agree with them about the urgent need for strategic engagement between the U.S. and Russia. I am also convinced that nuclear deterrence, instead of protecting the world, is keeping it in constant jeopardy.

[…]

Yet nuclear weapons are like a rifle hanging on the wall in a play written and staged by a person unknown. We do not know the playwright’s intent. Nuclear weapons could go off because of a technical failure, human error or computer error. The last alarms me the most. Computer systems are now used everywhere. And how many times have computers and electronics failed—in aviation, in industry, in various control systems?

[…]

Those who believe nuclear weapons can save the world from war should recall the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis. A dispute over the placement of Soviet nuclear weapons put the world on the brink of war. Recently published documents show how close the world came to the fateful line. It was not nuclear weapons that saved the world, but the sobering up of the two countries’ leaders, John F. Kennedy and Nikita Khrushchev. I am sure they thought long and hard, then and afterward, and their perception of nuclear weapons changed a great deal. 

What’s more, they reached agreement on ending nuclear tests in the atmosphere, in outer space and under water, thus slowing the qualitative weapons race as well as protecting the air from the deadly products of nuclear explosions.

The opportunity to continue progress in nuclear arms control was then squandered. The military-industrial complex won out over common sense. Only much later, toward the end of the 1980s, were we able to stop the arms race. Today, the U.S. and Russia are at a perilous crossroads. They must stop and think. The veterans of the Cold War have spoken. It is now up to our nations’ leaders to act.

Read more at The Madness of Nuclear Deterrence

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