来年１月の唐津市長選への出馬を表明している市議の志佐治徳（はるのり）氏（６９）＝厳木町＝が２８日、市役所で政策を発表した。玄海原発は再稼働を許さずに廃炉を求める考えで、慎重姿勢の近隣市長らと連携し、「県知事に再稼働を認めないように申し入れる」と訴えた。
不正・腐敗を許さない市政を目指す市民団体「唐津しゃんとする会」とともに政策をまとめた。市が発注・契約する案件をチェックする第三者委員会の設置や、政治倫理審査会が辞職勧告などができるように罰則規定を設ける政治倫理条例の改正などを主張する。
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President-elect Donald J. Trump’s Twitter post last week that the United States must “greatly strengthen and expand its nuclear capability” provoked confusion and anxiety that intensified the next day when he added, in a television interview, “Let it be an arms race. We will outmatch them at every pass and outlast them all.”
Largely unspoken in the tumult, but running just below the surface, was a deep uncertainty about the future of a cornerstone of America’s nuclear policy: its program to safeguard the nation’s atomic stockpile.
A central mission of the nation’s weapons laboratories is to ensure that the country’s nuclear weapons still work if needed. To do that, the government has long relied on a program that avoids the need for underground testing, instead using data from supercomputers and laboratory experiments and inspecting the warheads.
But some nuclear analysts say that the Trump administration is likely to face decisions that could upend the bomb program, leading to a resumption of testing and perhaps a new global arms race if they are mishandled. Adding to the concern is Mr. Trump’s choice of a politician with no expertise in nuclear or technical matters, former Gov. Rick Perry of Texas, to lead the Energy Department, which runs the nation’s nuclear-weapons labs and the safeguards program.
[…]
Since 1998, when India and Pakistan conducted nuclear tests, provoking global condemnation, only North Korea is known to have undertaken tests. Some experts fear that if the United States began testing again, it would risk a new arms race by opening the door to testing for many other countries that want to improve or develop nuclear arsenals.
For that reason, testing would face opposition on many fronts. “It would be unbelievably stupid of us to start testing again,” said Burton Richter, a physics Nobel laureate and emeritus professor at Stanford who has advised presidential administrations since the 1970s.
Absent testing, the arsenal today is something like a 1967 Chevy that sits for decades without being driven, said Thomas Karako, a senior fellow in the international security program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington. “You have to have the confidence that if you have to crank the engine, it will turn on,” Mr. Karako said.
[…]
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ST. LOUIS – St. Louis, MO. Veterans For Peace, a national organization made up of military veterans and military family members, released an apology to the people of Japan for U.S. usage of nuclear weapons. This apology is in conjunction with a call to President Obama to also apologize to Prime Minister Shinzo Abe during his upcoming visit to Pearl Harbor.
Veterans For Peace expresses our deepest condolences to all those who were killed and maimed, and to their families. We apologize to the Hibakusha, the survivors of the nuclear bombings, and we thank them for their courageous, continuing witness.
We apologize to all the Japanese people and to all the people of the world. This hugely atrocious crime against humanity should never have happened. As military veterans who have come to see the tragic futility of war, we promise that we will continue working for peace and disarmament. We want to see nuclear disarmament in our lifetime.
As the first sitting U.S. president to visit Hiroshima, Veterans For Peace recognizes the historic significance of President Obama’s May visit to the Hiroshima Peace Park in Japan. It is an important though small step towards healing. As military veterans who have trained for and/or fought in wars, we know that any step, even small ones, make a difference in efforts to reduce violence and death. However, we continue to be dismayed at the lack of accountability that the U.S. has taken towards unleashing the most devastating attack the world has ever seen. The U.S. remains the only country in the world that has used nuclear weapons, of which the side effects are still being felt today, seventy years later.
So while we commend the steps President Obama has taken to bring attention to the immoral bombing of Japan and the horror of nuclear weapons as only a president can, we know that the foundation for any true friendship is one of trust and accountability. Veterans For Peace calls on President Obama to publicly apologize for the use of nuclear weapons on Hiroshima and Nagasaki and to take responsibility for the horrific outcomes those bombs had on Japan.
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経営再建中の東芝は二十七日、米国の原発事業を巡り最大で数千億円規模の損失が生じる可能性があると発表した。米原発事業で巨額損失を計上するのは二年連続。東芝は不正会計問題に伴う巨額の赤字計上で財務基盤が弱っており、資本増強を含めた経営の抜本的な見直しを迫られそうだ。
損失が発生するのは、子会社の米原発メーカー、ウェスチングハウス・エレクトリック（ＷＨ）が昨年十二月に買収した米原発建設会社「ＣＢ＆Ｉストーン・アンド・ウェブスター（Ｓ＆Ｗ）」。米国で建設中の原発四基のコストが想定より膨らんだことが影響した。東芝は損失額の確定を急ぎ、二〇一六年四～十二月期連結決算に反映させる。
[…]
また東芝の原子力事業がつまずいた。二〇一六年三月期に二千五百億円規模の損失を計上したばかりだが、再び巨額損失が確実に。不正会計問題からの再建の柱として原発を掲げる経営陣の見通しの甘さがあらわになった形だ。
「当時はリスクを上回るメリットがあると判断した」。綱川智社長は記者会見で、損失が発生する見込みとなった米原発建設会社「ＣＢ＆Ｉストーン・アンド・ウェブスター（Ｓ＆Ｗ）」の買収を決断した理由について釈明に追われた。
だが、ふたを開けてみると、Ｓ＆Ｗの原発建設で想定以上にコストが膨らむことが判明した。原発担当の畠沢守執行役は「東日本大震災以降、世界的に安全を最優先にモノをつくるようになったことが影響しなかったとはいえない」と説明。コストが増えた要因の詳細は精査中だが、安全対策にかかる費用が当初の計画よりかさんだとみられる。
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県内のみこしの担ぎ手１５団体約千人で構成する「新潟江戸神輿（みこし）連合」は２７日、東京電力福島第１原発事故による福島県からの避難者らでつくるＮＰＯ法人「スマイルサポート新潟」に活動資金として１３万６千円を寄付した。…
東京電力福島第１原発事故に伴う健康影響を調べる県民健康調査検討委員会は２７日、福島市で会合を開き、原発事故と甲状腺がんとの因果関係を科学的に検証する第三者機関の設置を県に提案した。県の井出孝利保健福祉部長は「専門家がいる学会や国際機関を含め、どのような場を設ければいいか国とも相談しながら検討していきたい」と述べ、設置に向けた検討に入る方針を示した
[…]
検討委の評価部会は昨年３月、甲状腺がんについて「放射線の影響は考えにくい」との中間報告をまとめている。しかし識者からは、中間報告を肯定、否定する両論があり、第三者機関で新たな評価を得たい考えがあるとみられる。
星座長は検討委や評価部会でも継続して検証を進めるとした上で「第三者としての意見をいただき、それをベースにまた考えたい」と述べた。
一方、県に対しては甲状腺検査の手法を巡って規模縮小を含めた見直しや拡充を求める両論の要望が出ている。検討委は前回会合から検査の在り方について議論を始めており、第三者機関の評価が議論にも影響する可能性がある。
もっと読む。
福島県は２７日、東京電力福島第一原発事故時に１８歳以下だった約３８万人に対する甲状腺検査で、７～９月に新たに１０人ががんと診断され、計１４５人になったと発表した。県の検討委員会は「これまでのところ被曝（ひばく）の影響は考えにくい」との立場を変えていない。
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９月末現在、がんかがんの疑いがあるとされたのは、６月末時点から９人増の計１８４人。うち１１６人は１巡目で、６８人は２巡目で見つかり、３巡目ではまだ報告されていない。１巡目では１０２人が手術を受け１０１人ががんと確定、１人は良性腫瘍（しゅよう）だった。２巡目では手術を受けた４４人でがんが確定した。６月の発表では、事故当時５歳だった１人ががんと診断されたが、新たにがんと診断された１０人に５歳以下はいなかった。
県の検討委員会は、被曝の影響が考えにくい理由として、チェルノブイリ原発事故に比べ福島県民の被曝線量が少ないとみられることや、がんが多発した５歳以下にほとんど発生していないことを挙げている。
県では３カ月おきに最新の検査結果を発表している。（奥村輝）
もっと読む。
◇ 甲状腺検査を巡っては手術が不要ながんを見つけ、心身に負担をかける「過剰診断」との指摘があり、県に対し規模縮小を求める要望も寄せられている。福島市で同日開かれた検討委の会合で、星北斗座長（同県医師会副会長）は「科学的議論は独立して行われるべきだ」と述べ、甲状腺がんについて科学的な知見を集める第三者的な組織の設置を県に求めた。【曽根田和久】福島第１原発事故 甲状腺がん、新たに１０人 県民健康調査via毎日新聞
◇ 福島の小児甲状腺がん疑い含め１８３人〜２巡目で６８人viaOurPlanetTV
THANE: Around 9 kg of radioactive uranium, a banned material, has been seized from two persons in Thane, a top police officer said today. Laboratory tests have confirmed that the seized material is depleted uranium, which is a radioactive poisonous heavy metal. According to preliminary investigations, it was brought from abroad and was intended for sale to some unknown parties in Thane.
“We have confirmed that the substance seized is depleted uranium. It is radioactive and extremely dangerous. Depleted Uranium is used in weapons and armaments all over the world,” Thane Police Commissioner Parambir Singh said after the unexpected haul.
Senior police officer Ravindra Doiphode and his team recently received information that the radioactive material was about to change hands in the city. They laid a trap at a location on the desolate Ghodbunder Road, connecting Mumbai and Thane.
As expected, two persons arrived at Ghodbunder Road near a hotel on motorcycles carrying dark blue pouches, a box and other material – both were arrested.
The police recovered 8.9 kg of uranium – it was identified by laboratory tests.
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(Archives edition Looking back on the dodgy Ukrainian nuclear energy industry a possible source of HEU for Jihadists in our latest report
By Yoichi Shimatsu
Exclusvie to Rense
1-5-15)
Clashes over energy in Ukraine between the West and Russia could prompt another Chernobyl-type accident or a catastrophe on the order of a Fukushima that will complete the nuclear devastation of the Northern Hemisphere. As news media fixate on conflicts over pipelines that supply Europe with Russian gas, another energy war is erupting over control of Ukraine’s nuclear-power industry, which generates half that nation’s electricity.
Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenuk’s campaign for “energy independence” from Russian-sourced natural gas and nuclear fuel is not a study in cost control, economic security or even national sovereignty. His corporate-giveaway policies are actually a concession to Western energy interests in return for their influence over the EU, which can provide loans to avert an imminent default on Kiev’s debt to the IMF and World Bank. With an annual budget shortfall of $15 billion and a currency collapse, Ukraine is staggering under external sovereign debt estimated at between $140 and $200 billion.
The IMF and World Bank have halted further transfers of loan tranches to Kiev, which is now unable to make payments on its gas imports from Russia. Kiev policymakers are therefore desperately looking to expand their nuclear industry. Unfortunately two recent accidents at its largest nuclear-power plant highlight the serious risks to a nation still grappling with the long-term effects of the 1986 Chernobyl meltdown.
Boom and Bust
In stark contrast with eco-conscious capitals across Europe, Kiev is unable to resist foreign demands to adopt the Texan model of boom-and-bust energy extraction. Chevron and Shell have launched fracking projects to tap shale-oil deposits across Ukraine, but exploration and revenues have been delayed by the fierce fighting in the Donetsk region.
Ukraine also possesses one of Europe’s few exploitable uranium reserves in its Kirovograd and Dnipropetrovsk regions, now being targeted by the French nuclear giant AREVA in cooperation with local partner VostGOK.
An ongoing series of nuclear-fuel deals between Toshiba-Westinghouse and Ukraine energy monopoly Energoatom is aimed at severing Kiev’s reliance on Russian technology and Kazakh uranium. The competition to supply the global market for MOX (mixed oxides of uranium and plutonium) is pitting a consortium of Westinghouse, AREVA and their US suppliers against their Moscow-based rival Rusatom and nuclear-engineering firm TVE.
Beset by losses of orders from Japan, the AREVA MOX fabrication plant in France is facing a new and strong challenge from the Rusatom pellet facility in Krasnoyarsk, western Siberia, which has replaced the aging Mayak fuel plant.
To reduce stockpiles of plutonium-laced spent fuel rods stored inside power plants, the global nuclear industry is pushing to introduce advanced prototypes of fast-breeder reactors, which burn a variety of nuclear fuels including plutonium. Rusatom is producing MOX pellets for a next-generation fast-breeder to start operation this year at Beloyarskaya. The Russian design is the chief rival for next-generation breeder reactors being developed by the French ASTRID program in the Rhone region and the Hitachi-GE Horizon project along Britain’s Irish Sea coast.
In this global race to revive the fortunes of the nuclear industry, Chernobyl and the ongoing Fukushima cataclysm spewing radioactive waste into the jet stream over Europe have all but been forgotten.
Salvaging Savannah River
The powerful explosion of MOX fuel rods at Reactor 3 in Fukushima nearly four years ago prompted Britain to close its Sellafield MOX fuel-rod production facility and convinced the Department of Energy to suspend construction on the US mixed-oxide project in Savannah River, South Carolina. These setbacks for the US-UK nuclear industry left the AREVA’s Mercoule facility in the southern French region of Languedoc-Roussillon as the only MOX producer in the West.
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長岡市の磯田達伸市長は２２日の記者会見で、原子炉等規制法が原則４０年と定めている原発の運転期間について、「４０年と決められているものは４０年でやればいい」と述べ、期間延長に対して慎重な考えを示した。
[…]
磯田市長は「４０年を変えるというのであれば、客観的根拠が何なのかをきちんと聞かせてもらい、疑問があればただす」と述べた。
また、東電福島第１原発事故で福島県から新潟市に家族と避難している男子児童が、担任教諭から名前に「菌（キン）」と付けて呼ばれ学校を休んでいる問題で、磯田市長は「人間として恥ずかしいことだと教員やわれわれも考えないといけない。市教育委員会にもこうした問題が起きないよう言っていく」と話した。
もっと読む。
A nuclear power plant in Byron, Illinois. Taken by photographer Joseph Pobereskin (http://pobereskin.com).
