Planetsave

This is the second part of a podcast with Robert Loux, Executive Director of the Agency for Nuclear Projects in Nevada.

If you missed the first installment, it’s available at: Yucca Mountain: The Nevada Case Podcast, Part One .

In this segment, Loux discusses the Department of Energy’s regulatory process, falsehoods and other manipulation of reports. He also talks about Yucca Mountains unsuitability, even for a short term, as a nuclear repository. Loux mentions how air and water pass freely through the mountain, the earthquake faults beneath the storage area, and even the possible threat of young volcanoes in the future.

Our third portion will address transportation issues, and the faltering support for the project both in the government and in scientific circles. DOE officials recently annouced layoffs at the facility, citing budget cuts by Congress.

Now, here’s Bob Loux, stating again, how Nevada became the “poster child” for long-term nuclear waste disposal.

Here is a link to the State of Nevada Agency for Nuclear Projects.

Here is a link to the Government Accounting Office, dealing with information on the DOE and it’s handling of nuclear issues.

I’ve been going on for some time now about the nuclear industry, the possibility of more nuclear power stations going online, and especially what to do with radioactive waste that’s been piling up for 50 years.

The answer to the waste situation was supposed to have been Yucca Mountain, a remote natural structure some 100 miles northwest of Las Vegas, Nevada. Since it’s inception nearly 25 years ago, Nevadans have fought creation of a long-term storage facility in their back yard.

I wanted to know more about Nevada’s opposition to the Yucca Mountain project, so I picked up the phone and talked with Robert Loux, Executive Director of the Agency for Nuclear Projects in Nevada. He’s been going head-to-head with the DOE and other agencies for a long time, and has some interesting things to say about the project and the DOE.

Read the rest of this entry »

Amid increased activity signaling a possible resurgence of interest in nuclear power facilities, comes word from Nevada that isn’t at all surprising.

Ward Sproat, shown in the Las Vegas Review-Journal photo at the left, is director of the Department of Energy’s Office of Civilian Radioactive Waste Management, and announced Tuesday that Yucca Mountain in Nevada is still a long way from receiving any spent nuclear fuel. Sproat told Nevada’s Legislative Committee on High-Level Nuclear Waste, that lack of funding will result in significant worker layoffs at the facility. He is quoted as saying, “They’re going to come in waves”.

Podcast, if you’d rather listen:

Read the rest of this entry »

A long time ago, I heard, or read, that the human animal is the only creature on earth that’s content with living in it’s own waste. The analogy being that most animals choose to leave their waste products somewhere outside their nests. Our nest is this beautiful, blue marble, maybe the only one of its kind, and we’ve treated it with careless disrespect.

I’ve created a podcast from this material. If you’d rather listen, the link is here:

Looking at the current mess we have with nuclear waste, landscapes scarred with huge open-pit mines and tons of unprotected waste from those operations, greenhouse gasses and pollution of our waters, to name a few, I think the old saying is correct. Read the rest of this entry »

BMO Financial Group strategist Donald Coxe warns that the current credit crunch and soaring oil prices will pale in comparison to a looming shortage of food.

Again, I’ve included a podcast, just in case you’d rather listen:

Investors are being warned, a global food catastrophe is emerging, a dire prediction he dropped on the Empire Club’s 14th annual investment outlook meeting in Toronto.

Coxe blames heavy demand from the biofuels industry, and the growing middle classes of countries such as India and China. To keep up with the demand, he says food output needs to be expanded dramatically. Read the rest of this entry »

Sound familiar? Well, if you’ve been following my rant on nuclear power you’ll remember my first podcast on the subject concerning a paper written by researcher Jesse Ausubel, Nuclear Energy is Clean; Renewables Damage the Ecology , condemning renewables and praising nuclear energy.

Before continuing, once again I’ve produced a podcast on this subject, so if you don’t have time to read, tune in here:

Now, 86 year old Dr. James Lovelock, pictured at the left, has written a book, The Revenge of Gaia (Penguin Books 2006), where he makes no bones about it - nuclear energy can save humanity, and “there is no sensible alternative to nuclear power if we are to sustain humanity,” a quote taken from the pages of the World Nuclear Association’s web pages. Read the rest of this entry »

I have two concerns for the year 2008, the first is the proliferation of uranium mining and nuclear power stations, and the second is that George Bush and Dick Cheney will be in office for the entire year.

Before going on, I’ve made a podcast of this article, and if you’d rather listen, the link is here.

It’s difficult to say which one of the two options above concerns me most, but the Bush/Cheney administration, in its own way, is about as scary as nuclear proliferation. Their environmental record may well go down in history as one of the worst ever, and there’s still plenty of time to make it even worse. Read the rest of this entry »

It’s true, lemons often turn into lemonade. It happened to me, and I gotta tell the story.

Our lawmakers have agreed to increase funding to guarantee up to 80% of loans for nuclear expansion. 17 companies are reportedly planning construct up to 30 new nuclear power stations.

I decided to dedicate my first official Planetsave podcast to the nuclear industry and the threats to our safety that come with it. Several links are mentioned in the podcast, and they are listed below.

Before we start, let me call your attention to some photos taken by the Department of Energy. They show open air storage vessels containing high-level radioactive material.

The image above is one of the three cylinder storage yards in America. You will find more pictures of rusted, leaking and patched cylinders in the Department of Energy link.

So, let’s continue…

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The links I mentioned are below.

Department of Energy
The Tennessean
Sierra Club
Sierra Club Marilyn Berlin Snell