Stop the Hogs!

[Oscar]

NUKE NEWS: July 23, 2010

1. Eldorado Town – The Port Hope Play
2. ACTION ALERT: Stop the shipment of dangerous nuclear waste/Edwards’ Letter
3. Potential threat - Set sail on radioactive waste
4. Questions about shipment of Steam Generators based on Official EA-related documents
5. The 65th Anniversary of the Nuclear Age
6. Cameco plant exceeds level
7. LETTER: Haynes: No nuclear renaissance
8. LETTER: Mckeown: Don't get so worked up
9. Demands for Release of Nuclear Whistleblower as Israel Holds Vanunu in Solitary Confinement
10. A Game of Atomic Poker
11. We Are In the Midst of the Second Nuclear Age: How Do We End It?
12. No Nukes News - July 20, 2010
13. Conservation still low priority in Ontario
14. Beyond Nuclear Bulletin – July 23, 2010
15. Nuclear power plant in Illinois prepares for teardown
16. Western Savagery Ready to Unleash Nuclear War on the World Based on Lies
17. Ruling could flood polluters with lawsuits, observers say
18. Book review: Afghanistan and Canada
19. WATCH: Security: What is it? (by WILPF International)
20. 1 Trillion Spent on War Since 2001
21. Healthy thinking could guide environment, too
22. SASKATCHEWAN'S EXTREME WEATHER: THE ELEPHANT IN THE ROOM BY Jim Harding

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1. Eldorado Town – The Port Hope Play

Eldorado Town: the wonders and terrors of the nascent nuclear age

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/arts/theatre/
eldorado-town-the-wonders-and-terrors-of-the-nascent-nuclear-age/article1645047/

Eldorado Town – The Port Hope Play continues at the Winslow Farm
in Millbrook, Ont., until July 24.

Eldorado Town – The Port Hope Play
Written by Charles Hayter
Directed by Robert Winslow
Starring Scott Maudsley, Tim Walker, Justin Hiscox, Mark Hiscox, Beau Dixon,
Marie Jones and Caitlin Driscoll
At the 4th Line Theatre in Millbrook, Ont.
The 4th Line Theatre, about two hours northeast of Toronto, mounts original plays anchored in the Durham County/Kawartha Lakes region. The actual theatre is a farm – a barnyard, to be precise – near Millbrook, Ont. And while the subject matter may be local, the interest is always universal.
Eldorado Town – The Port Hope Play,by Charles Hayter, is a case in point. Hayter traces the history of both radium and uranium, from the discovery of the radioactive ore pitchblende in 1930 at Great Bear Lake in the Northwest Territories to the present day.
The focus of his play is the Eldorado extraction plant in Port Hope, Ont., which has been a mixed blessing to the town: It provided jobs during the Depression and the Second World War, but it also brought death. Hayter is also a physician with a specialty in radiation oncology, so he is keenly aware of both the beneficial and destructive powers of radium and uranium.
In truth, Eldorado Town is more a docudrama than narrative play. All 4th Line productions have an epic sweep involving large casts and shifts of scene – like armies marching through history.
The main character is real-life Frenchman and Eldorado chief chemist Marcel Pochon, played with passion by Scott Maudsley. Pochon had actually worked with Marie Curie, who won a Nobel Prize for the discovery of radium. Hayter centres the plot on Pochon’s family and the McGinnises, a Port Hope family. This is his emotional heart.

MORE:
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/arts/theatre/
eldorado-town-the-wonders-and-terrors-of-the-nascent-nuclear-age/article1645047/

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2. ACTION ALERT: Stop the shipment of dangerous nuclear waste

TELL THE CANADIAN NUCLEAR SAFETY COMMISSION NOT TO RISK THE HEALTH OF CANADIAN COMMUNITIES

Sierra Club Canada has learned Bruce Power plans to ship 16 radioactive steam generators out of Owen Sound, ON. The radioactive generators from a faulty reactor are slated to travel via the Great Lakes and St. Lawrence River to a recycling facility in Sweden.
Click here to learn about the problems with the plan and demand that the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission (CNSC) put it on hold:

http://org2.democracyinaction.org/o/5654/p/dia/action/public/
?action_KEY=3737

The shipment of radioactive waste presents a risk to public safety and the environment through the emission of gamma radiation and the possible release of radioactive contaminants. First, the 16 hundred-tonne generators will be loaded onto massive trailers and driven from Tiverton to Owen Sound. Each generator contains miles of contaminated tubing, and will be driven straight through communities like Saugeen Shores, Port Elgin, Southampton, Chippawa Hill and Allenford. When the radioactive waste arrives at Owen Sound it will then be shipped past cities like Toronto and Montreal where millions more Canadians live. Worse, if Bruce Power's unprecedented proposal is approved by the CNSC, more shipments could follow this dangerous path in the future.
Bruce Power is rushing ahead with its proposal while serious questions remain unanswered about the procedure. For example, why is the waste being shipped to Sweden when, according to the original environmental assessment, it was to be stored on-site?
(Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cX1KJNKL3vA)
Sierra Club Canada is calling for a stay in shipping until a full environmental impact assessment is conducted and all questions are answered.
Bruce Power's application to ship the steam generators is currently before the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission (CNSC). The time to stop it is now. Please take a moment to submit a letter to the CNSC.

You can find a draft here:
http://org2.democracyinaction.org/o/5654/p/dia/action/public/
?action_KEY=3737

This nuclear campaign is part of Sierra Club Canada's ongoing effort to empower people to protect, restore and enjoy a healthy and safe planet. Please consider supporting us with a donation today:
https://secure.sierraclub.ca/en/civicrm/contribute/
transact?reset=1&id=20
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EDWARDS: Letter to the Editor: For publication.
----- Original Message -----
From: Gordon Edwards
To: Gordon Edwards
Sent: Wednesday, July 21, 2010 10:52 AM
Subject: Shipment of Radioactive Steam Generators Through the Great Lakes
This letter has been sent today to a small number of newspapers: Toronto Star, Toronto Sun, Globe and Mail, Ottawa Citizen, Montreal Gazette, Hamilton Spectator...
Feel free to forward it on my behalf to any papers in your area that might be interested in publishing it, but delete this message before sending it on.

Gordon Edwards.
- - - - - -
Bruce Power wants to send 32 corroded, radioactive steam generators through the Great Lakes, along the St. Lawrence River, and across the Atlantic Ocean to Sweden.
Up to 90 percent of the 3500 tons of radiation-laced steel will be sold as scrap metal for unrestricted use, which means that small amounts of man-made radioactive poisons from the Bruce reactors (e.g. plutonium, strontium-90, cesium-137, and cobalt-60) will end up in such everyday items as pots and pans, forks and spoons, zippers and safety pins.
Yet during the Environmental Assessment Document of December 2005, Bruce Power promised that “the old steam generators … will be transferred to the Western Waste Management Facility. Transfer to the WWMF will occur entirely within the Bruce Power site and not require the use of public roads." (Volume 1, page 3-31)
Moreover, in its Presentation to the Joint Council of the Saugeen Ojibway Nations, in April 2005 (which is part of the Environmental Assessment package of documents) Bruce Power stated: “scrap metals which are proven not to be radioactive are recycled. However much of the waste, and particularly low and intermediate level waste containing radioactivity, cannot be recycled for safety and environmental reasons. This waste is transferred to OPG's Western Waste Management Facility where it is processed to reduce its volume prior to being placed in storage." (page 4)
The Governments of Ontario and Canada ought to prohibit these shipments because the transport of radioactive debris through our precious waterways should not be condoned, and the dissemination of radioactive waste into consumer goods should not be countenanced. Bruce Power should be held to the promises it made during the Environmental Assessment – its steam generators should be stored on site as radioactive waste and its radioactive waste should not be disseminated into consumer goods.
Gordon Edwards, Ph.D., President,
Canadian Coalition for Nuclear Responsibility.
53 Dufferin Road, Hampstead QC, H3X 2X8
(514) 489 2665 (home)
(514) 839 7214 (cell)

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3. Potential threat - Set sail on radioactive waste

http://www.windsorstar.com/opinion/Potential+threat/3294379/
story.html?cid=megadrop_story

The Windsor Star, Mon Jul 19 2010, Page: A6, Editorial/Opinion
Industry and regulatory agencies insist there's no cause for public alarm about a plan to ship 1,760 tonnes of radiation-laced steel through Lake Ontario.
The precedent-setting project, which requires approval from the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission, would see 16 radioactive steam generators, each the size of a school bus, shipped out of the Bruce Nuclear Generating Station on Lake Huron to Sweden, where 90 per cent of the metals inside the generators are to be recycled.
Though the shipment would travel through Canada and the United States, the commission, which generally holds public consultations before granting licences, has appointed one person -- the director of the commission's Transport Licensing and Strategic Support Division -- to determine whether the shipment, due to set sail in September, will proceed.
So far there's been no opportunity for people to voice their opposition, although millions of Canadian and U.S. residents live along the Great Lakes basin, which serves as their source of drinking water.
This lack of consultation and transparency has environmental groups and politicians on both sides of the border justifiably worried.

MORE: http://www.windsorstar.com/opinion/Potential+threat/3294379/
story.html?cid=megadrop_story

====================

4. Questions about shipment of Steam Generators based on Official EA-related documents

----- Original Message -----
From: Gordon Edwards
Sent: Monday, July 19, 2010 7:10 PM
Subject: Questions about shipment of Steam Generators based on Official EA-related documents

For your information:

A number of questions have arisen about Bruce Power's plan to ship 16 radioactive waste steam generators arising from the Bruce A refurbishment project from Owen Sound to Sweden.
It appears that this plan contravenes previous undertakings and commitments made by Bruce Power and accepted by the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission (CNSC) as part of theEnvironmental Assessment process for the refurbishment of the Bruce A nuclear reactors.

MORE:
http://forum.stopthehogs.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?p=1785#1785

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5. The 65th Anniversary of the Nuclear Age

QUOTE: “Humanity is still playing with the fire of omnicide - the death of all. We are still waiting for the leaders who will take us beyond this overarching threat to our common future. Instead of continuing to wait, we must ourselves become these leaders.”

= = = = = =

The 65th Anniversary of the Nuclear Age

http://www.commondreams.org/view/2010/07/16

by David Krieger Published on Friday, July 16, 2010 by CommonDreams.org
July 16, 1945 marked the beginning of the Nuclear Age. On that day, the United States conducted the first explosive test of an atomic device. The test was code-named Trinity and took place at the Alamogordo Test Range in New Mexico's Jornada del Muerto Desert. The bomb itself was code-named "The Gadget."
The Trinity test used a plutonium implosion device, the same type of weapon that would be used on the city of Nagasaki just three and a half weeks later. It had the explosive force of 20 kilotons of TNT.
The names associated with the test deserve reflection. "The Gadget," something so simple and innocuous, was exploded in a desert whose name in Spanish means "Journey of Death." Plutonium, the explosive force in the bomb, was named for Pluto, the Roman god of the underworld. The isotope of plutonium that was used in the bomb, plutonium-239, is one of the most deadly radioactive materials on the planet. It existed only in minute quantities on Earth before the US began creating it for use in its bombs by the fissioning of uranium-238.

MORE: http://www.commondreams.org/view/2010/07/16

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6. Cameco plant exceeds level

http://www.thestarphoenix.com/Cameco+plant+exceeds+level/
3290528/story.html

July 17, 2010
Cameco Corp.'s uranium dioxide (UO2) plant in Port Hope, Ont., exceeded an action level for uranium emissions one day last month, the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission (CNSC) reported this week.
On June 30, Cameco shut down its plant to determine the potential sources of increased uranium emissions, the CNSC said. On July 12, the Saskatoon-based company submitted its report on uranium emissions from the plant's main stack to the regulatory body.
The CNSC, based on its review of Cameco's report, has determined on June 29 the plant's emission rate reached 7.21 grams of uranium emissions per hour (gU/h) -- above the facility's action level of seven gU/h. However, the rate remained below the licensed limit of 150 gU/h.
- - - SNIP - - - -
The uranium emissions from the plant last month did not pose a risk to the health and safety of workers, the public and the environment, the CNSC says.
© Copyright (c) The StarPhoenix

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7. LETTER: Haynes: No nuclear renaissance

http://www.thestarphoenix.com/opinion/letters/nuclear+renaissance/
3294978/story.html

July 19, 2010
Words have precise meanings. The French word "renaissance" is made up of two parts -- "re" to repeat and "naissance" birth.
It achieved wide use in the medieval times to describe Western Europe's rediscovery of Greek and Roman art, literature and architecture.
Note the word involves three stages, a time of greatness, followed by a loss and then a revival. In no way can the word be used to describe things nuclear.
Thanks to the diligence by the media, there never has been an initial time of nuclear greatness. Instead, we have an easy to remember list of disasters and dangers: Hiroshima, Nagasaki, Bikini atoll, Nevada desert, Chernobyl, Three Mile Island, Sellafield-Windscale, and Chalk River.
To these can be added the stockpiling of ballistic nuclear missiles basic to the Cold War rivalry, uncontrolled sale of uranium from nuclear weaponry after the collapse of the Soviet communist state, the use of cancer-causing depleted uranium in ammunition by armed forces including Canada's, and public protests alerting the world that no known safe way exists to store highly toxic nuclear waste.
More recently, experts express fear that countries such as Iran, Israel, North Korea, Pakistan and India have yet to agree to control of their nuclear stockpiles.
Tony Haynes
Saskatoon
© Copyright (c) The StarPhoenix

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8. LETTER: Mckeown: Don't get so worked up

http://www.thestarphoenix.com/news/todays-paper/worked/3280672/
story.html

Re: India nukes deal unwise (SP, July 10). Ann Coxworth made strong points about Stephen Harper's thoughtless decision to export uranium to deregulated reactors in India.
But let's consider the boom we're seeing in India before we get our panties in a bunch about "nuclear war." Can Coxworth hear me, all the way back there in 1957?
India's retail market today is four times bigger than that of our biggest trading partner, the United States. We need to think in the here and now.
Let's enjoy the income from uranium exports until India's regional disparity has dissipated, and then enjoy even more income when that country's standard of living has increased.
And when people start getting cancer from deregulated removal procedures for nuclear waste, more jobs will be created to supply the demand of cancer treatment.
Plus, by that point, Indians will be able to afford those treatments because they will be making more money from their new jobs.
Non-renewables have brought the Earth this far, so let the good times roll.
Zach Mckeown
Saskatoon
© Copyright (c) The StarPhoenix

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9. Demands for Release of Nuclear Whistleblower as Israel Holds Vanunu in Solitary Confinement

http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2010/07/19

by Billy Briggs Published on Monday, July 19, 2010 by the Herald Scotland
There were demands last night for the release from prison of the man known as the Israeli nuclear whistleblower after it emerged he was being held in solitary confinement in the same section of prison as some of Israel's most notorious criminals.
Mordechai Vanunu, who spent 18 years in jail for revealing details of Israel's nuclear arsenal in 1986, was sent back to prison for three months in May after being found guilty of unauthorised meetings with foreign nationals. Vanunu, who became a cause celebre for human rights activists around the world and was elected rector of the University of Glasgow in absentia, is being held in Ayalon Prison in central Israel.
Amnesty International is calling for Vanunu's immediate release and his brother, Meir, contacted the Sunday Herald to express fears over Vanunu's wellbeing after being the first person to visit him in seven weeks.

MORE: http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2010/07/19

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10. A Game of Atomic Poker

http://www.spiegel.de/international/europe/
0,1518,707760,00.html#ref=nlint

Britain's Nuclear Renaissance in Doubt under New Government
By Carsten Volkery 07/21/2010
Britain's previous government had visions of a nuclear renaissance for the country. But the new energy minister in London is an atomic energy opponent and utility companies, including two based in Germany, fear he may derail their plans.
Volker Beckers in an electric company man, through and through. For the past 17 years, he has worked for the German energy giant RWE. For the past seven, he has been in Swindon, England, where as the head of the RWE British subsidiary npower, he has been pushing for a renaissance in nuclear power on the island. The company is planning two new nuclear power plants in a joint venture with its German rival E.on. The Germans have already purchased the property at two locations in Wales, and they have invested millions.
Chris Huhne, however, is more likely to be labelled an opponent of atomic power. He is on record as saying that nuclear technology leads to a "dead end." His party, the Liberal Democrats, have been fighting with the same fervor against nuclear reactors over the years as Germany's Green Party has.
The two men could hardly be any different from each other, but they have been meeting a lot in recent days. For the past two months, Huhne has served as minister for energy and climate change in Prime Minister David Cameron's coalition government pairing his conservatives with the LibDems. As such, Huhne is responsible for Britain's nuclear energy policy. For Beckers and his colleagues at the "Big Six," the other major energy utilities in Britain, Huhne's appointment is nothing short of a political catastrophe.
Prior to May elections, the triumphal march of nuclear power in the United Kingdom had seemed unstoppable. The business-friendly Labour government had helped along plans to build a new generation of nuclear power plants, and the conservatives had seemed set on pursuing a similar agenda. The first newly built British plant in more than two decades was supposed to go online by 2017. No one took the naysayers from the Liberal Democrats seriously; but now a LibDem is at the helm of the ministry in charge of atomic energy policy.

MORE: http://www.spiegel.de/international/europe/
0,1518,707760,00.html#ref=nlint

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11. We Are In the Midst of the Second Nuclear Age: How Do We End It?

http://www.alternet.org/story/147598/
we_are_in_the_midst_of_the_second_nuclear_age%3A_how_do_we_end_it

New documentary 'Countdown to Zero' explores just how much danger we are in.

July 22, 2010

It's been a long time since Hiroshima and Nagasaki, yet the horrors of the mushroom cloud still burn starkly in our collective memory. The threat of nuclear war may seem distant; a terrible prospect rendered impossible by the lessons of World War II, but the truth is that nuclear weapons still define much of the global geopolitical landscape.
Currently, nine nations possess nuclear capabilities and other states and entities are rushing to join that powerful club. In light of this Second Nuclear Age and the possibility for nuclear terrorism, Participant Media has released a moving, important film titled Countdown to Zero -- both a play on the launch countdown and a call for a world with precisely zero nuclear weapons.
I recently caught up with Lucy Walker, the film's director, to discuss what it means to live in a world with over 8,000 active nuclear warheads, increasingly easy methods for transporting and producing such weapons, and the chance for human error -- be it total accident or complete misjudgment.

MORE:
http://www.alternet.org/story/147598/
we_are_in_the_midst_of_the_second_nuclear_age%3A_how_do_we_end_it
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It’s Time to Start Worrying Again

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/18/movies/18nuclear.html?_r=1

New York Times review of a major motion picture being released this month in U.S. theaters that seeks to do for nuclear weapons what "An Inconvenient Truth" did for global warming.
- - - - -
DEMAND ZERO

http://www.takepart.com/countdowntozero

Drs. Ira Helfand and Jennifer Leaning, both long-time PSR/IPPNW members, provide the medical testimony in the film "Countdown to Zero"

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12. No Nukes News - July 20, 2010
Pass this onto a friend! - a
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Free postcards to Harper and Ignatieff
Can you help distribute our nuke leaflets in your community, at special events or door-to-door? http://ontariosgreenfuture.ca/CostlyNukes_12_09.pdf
If so, send me your address and I’ll mail them to you pronto. They’re free! Help us get the word out to Harper and Iggy that Canadians do NOT support new nuke investments in ON or any other province.
Thanks! -angela@cleanairalliance.org
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Canada courts calamity with India nuclear deal - Selling Candus in South Asia only heightens local arms race. By Paul McKay … Obviously, Prime Minister Stephen Harper missed this memo. And the one reminding him that, in 1974, India extracted plutonium from an earlier "peaceful" Canadian reactor to make its first atomic bomb. And the memo confirming that India has refused to sign the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. And the one reminding him that India's bitter arch-rival, Pakistan, also used "peaceful" Candu technolgy to produce plutonium for its own growing nuclear arsenal.
Both India and Pakistan now use reactors, based on the unique Candu design, to make plutonium and tritium for their hydrogen bombs. All Candu reactor models produce plutonium.
Both countries know how to extract plutonium from waste fuel, and distil tritium gas. Both have refused to sign the NPT or global bomb test protocols. Both adamantly assert a sovereign right to perfect, test and stockpile an unrestricted number of missile-capable nuclear weapons.
This is commerce without any conscience.

http://www.straightgoods.ca/2010/
ViewArticle.cfm?Ref=679&Cookies=yes
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Gordon Edwards on Radio Canada International re: Chalk River isotope production
Gordon Edwards was recently interviewed on Radio Canada International about the restart of the NRU reactor. The interview touches on safety, tritium emissions, the Maple fiasco, and nuclear proliferation questions in relation to the continued use of weapons-grade uranium to produce medical isotopes, even though other alternatives exist.

Listen to it here: http://ccnr.org/GE_RCI_2010.mp3
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Great Lakes, nuclear Highway?

http://www.waterkeeper.ca/
Potential threat - Set sail on radioactive waste
Industry and regulatory agencies insist there's no cause for public alarm about a plan to ship 1,760 tonnes of radiation-laced steel through Lake Ontario.
http://www.windsorstar.com/opinion/Potential+threat/3294379/
story.html?cid=megadrop_story

Critics slam proposal to ship nuclear waste through Lake OntarioThe Bruce Nuclear Generating Station plans to ship 1,760 tonnes of radiation-laced steel through Lake Ontario — a precedent-setting project that has officials worried on both sides of the Canada-U.S. border.
Traditionally, Canada’s nuclear waste is stored in warehouses and underground repositories. Though recycling such materials is done in parts of Europe, the practice is controversial because the metals cannot be traced once they enter the market.
Once the radioactive waste is boarded onto the ship, Bruce Power says it assumes no responsibility for the safety or integrity of the generators or for any possible cleanup in the event of an accident during transport.

http://www.thestar.com/news/ontario/article/
834724--critics-slam-proposal-to-ship-nuclear-waste-through-lake-ontario

Radioactive cargo worries mayor
An application for a licence to ship the steam generators is now before the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission, due to the cargo's size and level of radioactivity. If approved, it would be the first time a licence has been issued to ship nuclear waste across the Great Lakes.
"The danger is that accidents do happen," Gordon Edwards said. "There's lots of radioactive junk inside those steam generators. In fact, Bruce Power doesn't even know the complete inventory of the radioactive material inside because it's impossible to measure from the outside and no one wants to go inside because it's too dangerous.
"If this material were to somehow find a pathway out into the environment, through either a puncture or a crack or just to corrosion, then you have this material leaking into the Great Lakes."
http://www.owensoundsuntimes.com/ArticleDisplay.aspx?e=2665733

Please take a moment to sign the resolution opposing Bruce Power's plan to ship radioactive generators across the Great Lakes to Sweden.
http://org2.democracyinaction.org/o/5502/p/dia/action/public/
?action_KEY=3670

And while you’re at it, let the CNSC (Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission) know what you think about Bruce Power's plan to ship radioactive generators across the Great Lakes to Sweden. Comments, and questions, can be sent to:
Attention: Mr. Marc Drolet Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission
Email: info@cnsc-ccsn.gc.ca
Tel: 613 947 0442 or toll free 1-800-668- 5284

If you’re anywhere near Owen Sound, please attend the City Council meeting and public Open Houses.

Mayor Ruth Lovell Stanners of Owen Sound, Ontario, from which harbor the old Bruce "A" radioactive steam generators from units 1 and 2 are proposed to be shipped to Sweden, has invited the CNSC (the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission) to a special session at Owen Sound, Monday, July 26th to answer questions from the Council. The public can attend and no notice needs to be given.
Bruce Power is also holding open houses on the proposed shipment of the radioactive steam generators.
- Tuesday, July 27, 5 – 10 p.m., Owen Sound, Bruce Grey Health Unit Building
- Wednesday, July 28, 5 – 10 p.m., Southampton, Bruce County Museum
- Thursday, July 29, 1 – 4 p.m., Bruce Power Visitors' Centre
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Threatening World Order: US and Israel Quietly Announce Plans to Reconstitute Their Nuclear Stockpiles
The world looks like it's about to become a more dangerous place. A recent report from Israel's newspaper Haaretz finds that the United States is moving forward with plans to strengthen Israel's nuclear weapons stockpile
US and Israeli officials maintain that Iran is enriching uranium under the auspices of a civilian nuclear program, while secretly using its uranium stockpile to develop nuclear weapons. Those who make such claims are at a loss to explain why the International Atomic Energy Agency - in addition to the US National Intelligence Estimate - found no evidence of nuclear weapons development in Iran, despite countless inspections by international observers. Those claiming that Iran is a threat are also unable to explain why inspectors are unable to uncover any evidence that Iran is producing highly-enriched uranium (of a quality suitable to develop a nuclear weapon), but instead only produces low-enriched uranium suitable for use in nuclear power plants.

http://www.truth-out.org/
threatening-world-order-us-and-israel-quietly-announce-plans-reconstitute-their-nuclear-stockpiles61
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Canada: the Saudi Arabia of the North
Canada's road to becoming a petro-state is lined with lies, greed, and pollution.
Canada now suffers from an advanced state of “petromania,” a condition of rank moral dishonesty compounded by visions of oily grandeur.
http://www.themarknews.com/articles/1818-canada-the-saudi-arabia-of-
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Hydro-Québec should look to Ontario to help it turn a profit
Hydro-Québec is heading for lower profits and higher electricity rates unless it invests significantly in energy efficiency incentive programs and enters into a power-exchange deal with Ontario.
"By more closely coordinating the two province's power systems, Hydro-Québec's need to build new high-cost hydroelectric generating capacity to meet its winter peak demands will be reduced," according to the report produced jointly by Montreal-based Equiterre and Toronto-based Ontario Clean Air Alliance. "Similarly, Ontario's need to build new high-cost natural gas-fired power plants to provide peak power on hot summer days will also be reduced.

http://www.montrealgazette.com/technology/
Sharing+power+profitable+sustainable/3288425/story.html
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A cloud rolls over solar plan
But this “issue” isn’t about price as much as consistency. If the FIT and microFIT programs were designed to assure investors by offering stability of policy and price, then this sudden price adjustment clearly undermines that objective.
http://www.thestar.com/article/
836499--hamilton-a-cloud-rolls-over-ontario-solar-plan

Renege on solar power angers farmers, investors
The province's decision to reduce the rate it will pay for small, ground-mounted solar-power projects has proven to be highly disruptive. Thousands of would-be producers -- many of them farmers and rural residents -- have been forced to scrap their plans in response to the change. This has created repercussions for suppliers of solar infrastructure and financial institutions that have arranged financing.

http://www.simcoereformer.ca/
ArticleDisplay.aspx?archive=true&e=2676403
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Hello Ontario Farmers and Those interested in the microFIT program:
On Thur. July 22, from 7 - 9:30 pm, Ontario Solar Network (OSN) will host an open town hall meeting at the Hilton Garden Inn in Vaughan, ON to discuss the Ontario Power Authority's (OPA) proposed price changes for microFIT projects. Free to the general public, this event will feature leaders in Ontario's solar industry and Ben Chin, VP Communications of the OPA.
For more information please visit this webpage, and for registration visit this webpage.
http://www.ontariosolarnetwork.com/
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Benefits of wind energy go well beyond cleaner air
One of the many strengths of wind energy is its diversity, notwithstanding its tremendous positive environmental attributes. Wind energy projects can be built at a variety of scales by a variety of proponents. Many First Nation communities and local organizations are now planning wind energy projects of their own. People across Ontario are considering a range of small wind energy systems that can be used to power a cottage, farm, or small commercial operation.
There are a growing number of communities across Canada benefitting from new local investment, job creation and tax revenue all associated with wind energy development.
http://www.saultstar.com/ArticleDisplay.aspx?e=2664401
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Mark your calendars for the first annual WINDFEST 2010
Toronto's Only Harbourfront Kite Festival!
Saturday October 2nd, Woodbine Beach
Join hundreds of kite flyers, expert kite-flying demonstrations and workshops on kite making, clean energy and conservation as well as activities just for kids! WindFest is a chance to celebrate autumn, wind power, and the breathtaking art of kite flying, on Toronto's largest beach! For sponsorship opportunities go to:
http://www.windfest.to/
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The Changing Face of Environmentalism - Beyond Gang Green
The evolution of environmentalism over the past fifty years has been spurred by any number of competing internal tensions: between national and grassroots, apolitical and partisan, international and domestic, lobbying strategies and direct action tactics.
Yet the environmental movement, by and large, has always been the most existential of social movements, willing to shift tactics on the fly, use what works and discard what doesn’t. “In our business, you’ve got to be fast on your feet,” said Brower, who died in November 2000. “When industry wins, they win forever. The most we can usually hope for is a stay of execution. It means we’ve got to stay eternally vigilant, be very creative and be willing to take risks.”
http://www.counterpunch.org/stclair07092010.html
Note: A long but excellent article which includes some history of the anti-nuclear movement. -a
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Oil, the Future and the Gulf
Wed. July 28, 6:45 pm, Toronto City Hall, Committee Room 3.
The Gulf of Mexico disaster is a calamity and could be a "game changer". On the one hand the Gulf fisheries and wetlands and coast line for thousands of kilometres are being degraded, even destroyed. In addition to the insult and injury to life this represents this also represents the destruction of a major food source and a great deal of employment. On the other side of the equation 25% of U.S. oil comes from the Gulf. This represents a major energy source as well as a great deal of corporate profits and employment. How will U.S. decision makers square this circle?
Part 1: Post Carbon Toronto's Randy Park will give a quick review of peak oil and relate the importance of energy to some real life examples. Drawing on his work as a professional speaker, author, and foresight facilitator he will also discuss why most people have a hard time understanding and accepting energy decline.
Part 2: Post Carbon Toronto's Jeff Berg will give an update on the Gulf of Mexico tragedy, and the many reports over the last two years confirming both peak oil's reality as well as its imminence.
RSVP to this Meetup: http://www.meetup.com/PostCarbonTorontoMeetup/calendar/14041770/
----------------------------------------------------------------

Angela Bischoff, Outreach Director
Ontario Clean Air Alliance
Tel: 416 926 1907 x 246
625 Church Street, #402, Toronto, ON M4Y 2G1
angela@cleanairalliance.org
www.ontariosgreenfuture.ca
www.cleanairalliance.org
Our Facebook Group
Sign Our Petition
No Nukes News
Health Power

==========================

13. Conservation still low priority in Ontario

http://www.crewzone.ca/news_event.cfm?eventID=446

As of December 2009, for every dollar that the Ontario Power Authority (OPA) has spent on energy conservation, it has contracted for $44 of new electricity supply.
Yet the OPA's payments to large industrial consumers to save a kilowatt-hour (kWh) are as much as 89% lower than the cost of producing a kWh from a new nuclear reactor, making investing in efficiency a terrific bargain for Ontario.
Conservation is the cleanest form of energy generation. It makes our industries more efficient and reduces energy bills for homeowners.
For more information, please download our up-dated fact sheet:
Conservation vs. Electricity Supply: A summary of the Ontario Power Authority's procurement efforts.
Please email Ontario's Energy Minister Brad Duguid and ask him to tell the OPA to make investments in energy efficiency a top priority (and please cc me).
Thank you for making the time to push for conservation!
Angela Bischoff, Outreach Director
Ontario Clean Air Alliance
402-625 Church St, Toronto M4Y 2G1
Phone: 416-926-1907 ext. 246
angela@cleanairalliance.org
Clean Air Alliance
Ontario’s Green Future
No Nukes News
Health Power
P.S. Can you help us distribute our leaflets in your community? They’re free! They include postcards to Harper and Ignatieff to oppose tax-payer subsidies for new nuclear reactors in Ontario. Order them from me: angela@cleanairalliance.org Thanks!

The Ontario Clean Air Alliance is a diverse, multi-stakeholder coalition of approximately 90 organizations including cities, health associations, environmental and public interest groups, corporations, public utilities, unions, faith communities and individuals, representing more than six million Ontarians. OCAA’s short term goal is to achieve the complete phase out of Ontario’s four coal-fired power plants by the end of 2010. Our long term goal is to achieve a 100% renewable electricity grid by 2027.

========================

14. Beyond Nuclear Bulletin – July 23, 2010

http://us1.campaign-archive1.com/
?u=18a3f9977c3625b53cf911e2f&id=908edf1989&e=e2926d556c

Kerry-Lieberman bill averted for now: “energy-only bill” nuclear threats persist in U.S. Senate
Democratic Party leaders have indefinitely postponed the Kerry-Lieberman “American Power Act” climate-energy bill, due to lock-step Republican opposition to carbon cap “energy taxation,” but nuclear power subsidies must still be vigilantly guarded against in other legislation.
Read more.
http://www.beyondnuclear.org/home/2010/7/23/
kerry-lieberman-bill-averted-for-now-but-energy-only-bill-nu.html

Methane Gas Levels in the Gulf Continue to Raise Coastal Nuke Concerns
Potential risks exists to coastal nuclear power plant operations as a result of the oil spill, due to submerged contamination and entrained explosive gases. The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission has not yet responded to an inquiry from Beyond Nuclear and two other safe energy organizations regarding these risks.
Read More
http://www.beyondnuclear.org/
nuclear-reactors-whatsnew/2010/7/22/methane-gas-levels-in-the-gulf-continue-to-raise-coastal-nuk.html

Government authority finally recognizes increased tritium risk
The French Nuclear Safety Authority (ASN) recognizes in a recent white paper that the risks of tritium could be underestimated because it can bind to DNA. In light of this possibility, the ASN wants new investigation into hereditary effects from tritium exposure, better monitoring and more restriction of tritium releases from nuclear facilities.
Read More
http://www.beyondnuclear.org/tritium/2010/7/16/
government-nuclear-authority-admits-tritium-health-risks-cou.html

YUCCA UPDATE

Attempt to fund Yucca dump rebuffed

Sen. Patty Murray’s effort to appropriate $200 million to the Yucca Mountain, Nevada repository for high-level radioactive waste, despite President Obama, Energy Secretary Chu, and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid’s opposition to the plant, was voted down by every other Democrat on the Senate Appropriations Committee, as well as one Republican.

Read more: http://www.beyondnuclear.org/home/2010/7/23/
attempt-to-fund-yucca-dump-rebuffed.html

Beyond Nuclear
6930 Carroll Avenue #400
Takoma Park, MD 20912

========================

15. Nuclear power plant in Illinois prepares for teardown

http://www.chicagobreakingnews.com/2010/06/
zion-nuclear-plant-powers-up-for-teardown.html

Jul 17, 2010 - Richmond Times-Dispatch By Jeff Long Chicago Tribune
About 40 miles north of Chicago, along the shore of Lake Michigan, gun-toting guards still prowl the grounds of the Zion Nuclear Power Station. Inside, engineers still staff the control room, checking radiation levels throughout the plant.
But their numbers are far fewer than before 1998, when the two reactors went permanently dark.
"A lot of people are surprised, because they think they're going to find tumbleweeds and the place just falling apart," plant manager Ron Schuster said.
Schuster stood in the shadow of the 10-story building, its outer wall made of reinforced concrete 3 feet thick, that houses one of the dormant reactors. Workers venture inside only about twice a month now, for inspections and maintenance.
But it's about to get a lot more hectic. Exelon Nuclear faces a November deadline to transfer its Nuclear Regulatory Commission license to a Utah company called EnergySolutions, which will then begin the seven-year task of dismantling the plant piece by piece.
Though the timetable hasn't been set, more than about 500,000 cubic feet of material will be moved, including concrete walls, pipes, wiring, machinery, even desks and chairs. Much of it is contaminated with low-level radiation. Enough to fill roughly 80 rail cars, it will be transported to EnergySolutions' site 80 miles west of Salt Lake City.

MORE: http://www.chicagobreakingnews.com/2010/06/
zion-nuclear-plant-powers-up-for-teardown.html

=======================

16. Western Savagery Ready to Unleash Nuclear War on the World Based on Lies

http://english.pravda.ru/opinion/columnists/
114159-western_savagery_ready_to_unlea-0

07.07.2010 Source: Pravda.Ru
The history of endless US savagery reads like a horror story. Of course there was Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Just a little preview of things to come when a monster gets its hands on weapons of mass destruction.
When they first started feeling their oats after the Warsaw Pact was disbanded, there was the savage, murderous attack on Yugoslavia for a pack of lies. Damage done to Yugoslavia was estimated to be USD 30 billion. In the 78 days of the attacks, 540 buildings were destroyed, 58 bridges and 30,000 homes.
There were 146 air raid alarms which combined lasted for 774 hours, for an average of 9 hours and 55 minutes a day. The insatiable lunatics were flying over 650 sorties every night. Talk about savagery and overkill, lack of civilization and absolute terrorism, not to mention the war crime of collective punishment of Yugoslav civilians who were expected to rise up against their leadership because they had been sufficiently terrorized.
Is this the way a respectable nation behaves, a nation who expects everyone else on the face of the Earth to be a carbon copy of themselves?

MORE: http://english.pravda.ru/opinion/columnists/
114159-western_savagery_ready_to_unlea-0

====================

17. Ruling could flood polluters with lawsuits, observers say

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/industry-news/
the-law-page/ruling-could-flood-polluters-with-lawsuits-observers-say/article1646534/

Mining giant to appeal groundbreaking $36-million award for residents of Port Colborne, Ont.
Jeff Gray Law Reporter
Globe and Mail Update Published on Tuesday, Jul. 20, 2010 6:09PM EDT Last updated on Tuesday, Jul. 20, 2010 6:12PM EDT
In 1991, pregnant with her first child, Ellen Smith and her husband bought a house on Rodney Street in Port Colborne, Ont., a stone’s throw from the smokestacks of the Inco plant, where nickel was refined for the better part of the 20th century. The aptly named Nickel Street runs through her working-class neighbourhood.
It wasn’t until a decade after she moved in that she learned of recent tests showing that her property, and others in the city of 18,000, were contaminated with high levels of nickel, in her case far in excess of government guidelines.
Neighbours were talking about rashes, asthmatic kids, and family histories of cancer. Ms. Smith threw herself into the battle, attending a never-ending series of community meetings and becoming the main plaintiff in a hard-fought class-action lawsuit against Inco.
Another decade later, an Ontario Superior Court judge has made a landmark ruling, ordering Inco, now owned by Brazilian mining giant Vale (VALE-N26.490.050.19%) to pay almost everyone who owns a home Port Colborne a total of $36-million for the effects of nickel contamination on their property values. If upheld, Ms. Smith could receive $23,400, while others farther from the plant would get less. Vale is appealing the decision.
“It’s been a long nine years,” said Ms. Smith, 42, now the mother of two teenagers. “… I started this, and I’m going to finish it.”
A spokesman for Vale, Cory McPhee, said in an e-mail that the company believes it has “solid grounds” for its appeal of the ruling: “The decision concerns us and no doubt concerns others in industry and the broader business community who may face similar situations here in Ontario and elsewhere in Canada.”
Some legal observers say the ruling, if it stands, could mean many more lawsuits against polluters across Canada, making possible what are known in the United States as “toxic torts” – David-and-Goliath-style class actions reminiscent of the fights dramatized by John Travolta in A Civil Action or Julia Roberts in Erin Brockovich.

MORE: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/industry-news/the-law-page/ruling-could-flood-polluters-with-lawsuits-observers-say/article1646534/

========================

18. Book review: Afghanistan and Canada

http://www.ceasefire.ca/
?p=5129&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+ceasefire%2FycPl+%28Ceasefire.ca%29&utm_content=FaceBook

Posted: 19 Jul 2010 12:30 AM PDT
Columbia Journal reviews Afghanistan and Canada, edited by Steven Staples and Lucia Kowaluk (Tom Sandborn, “Review: Afghanistan and Canada,” Columbia Journal, July 2010): This collection of essays on Canada’s misbegotten “mission” in the blood soaked mountains and plains of Afghanistan is, although subject to the inevitable unevenness of tone and effectiveness that go with a mixed [...]

================

19. WATCH: Security: What is it? (by WILPF International)

http://www.ceasefire.ca/
?p=5124&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+ceasefire%2FycPl+%28Ceasefire.ca%29

Posted: 18 Jul 2010 12:48 PM PDT

=======================

20. 1 Trillion Spent on War Since 2001

http://blogs.alternet.org/speakeasy/2010/07/21/
1-trillion-spent-on-war-since-2001/

This post first appeared on Balloon Juice.
War is expensive:
The United States has spent more than $1 trillion on wars since the September 11, 2001, terror attacks, a recently released Congressional report says.Adjusting for inflation, the outlays for conflicts in Afghanistan, Iraq and elsewhere around the world make the “war on terrorism” second only to World War II.
The report “Cost of Major U.S. Wars” by the Congressional Research Service attempts to compare war costs over a more than 230-year period—from the American Revolution to the current day—noting the difficulties associated with such a task.
Since the the 9/11 terror attacks, the United States has spent an estimated $1.15 trillion. World War II cost $4.1 trillion when converted to current dollars, although the tab in the 1940s was $296 billion.
That’s just what we’ve spent on the military. The other costs- taking care of wounded, the PTSD we will be dealing with for decades, and other things are not factored in. And, as the excellent Washington Post piece this week is pointing out in painful detail but seemingly everyone is ignoring, we aren’t going to stop funding the War on Terror any time soon.
Better cut social security soon so we can afford to invade Iran.

MORE: http://blogs.alternet.org/speakeasy/2010/07/21/
1-trillion-spent-on-war-since-2001/

=====================

21. Healthy thinking could guide environment, too

http://www.thestarphoenix.com/health/
Healthy+thinking+could+guide+environment/3298556/story.html

BY PAUL HANLEY, THE STAR PHOENIX JULY 20, 2010
There are many parallels between human health and environmental health.
Human health, for example, is determined to a large extent by choices we each make about how to live our lives; the same goes for the health of the environment.
"Leaning how to facilitate behavioural change is the frontier of medicine," according to Dr. Hal Gunn, who delivered the third annual Wade and Betty-Anne Heggie Lectureship in Integrative Medicine in Saskatoon in June. Dr. Gunn is co-founder and CEO of InspireHealth, an integrative healing centre for cancer patients and their families, located in Vancouver.
According to Gunn, behaviour has more impact on our health than anything else. While genetics is important, there is nothing much we can do to alter our genetic makeup. What we can do is adopt the diet, activity and attitudes that help us to be as healthy as possible. The trouble is people often won't make the changes they know are good for them. Why not? And what can health professionals do to facilitate change?
A very good example involves the use of vitamin D. There is now substantial evidence that supplementation with vitamin D (at 2,000 IU per day) would prevent approximately 58,000 new cases of breast cancer and 49,000 new cases of colorectal cancer each year in North America and three-fourths of deaths from these diseases.

MORE: http://www.thestarphoenix.com/health/
Healthy+thinking+could+guide+environment/3298556/story.html

=====================

22. SASKATCHEWAN'S EXTREME WEATHER: THE ELEPHANT IN THE ROOM BY Jim Harding

http://forum.stopthehogs.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?p=1783#1783

Saskatchewan Sustainability Published in United Newspapers of Saskatchewan July 16, 2010
It’s been quite a spring and summer so far. Due to near steady rain, only 55 percent of the farmland was seeded by May’s end. Even by June’s end, after the extended seeding deadline for crop insurance, it was only 70 percent, which left ten million acres unseeded. Extreme moisture will reduce germination and maturation of some crops, further reducing crop yield. By early July, two million seeded acres were also under water, and the input costs for these fields will add further to the cost-price squeeze of farmers.
One -third of Saskatchewan’s normally-cultivated land under water is unprecedented, but this was also an early warning. Powerful thunderstorms brought more heavy rains, more hail and more dangerous winds. We’ve had tunnel clouds and a few tornadoes and what are called “straight-line” or “plow- winds” which come from micro-bursts – downward rushes of wind from thunder clouds which can be as strong as from tornadoes. According to Environment Canada we’ve had the wettest spring and one of the warmest springs, 2.6 degrees C above “the normal”, since regional records were kept in 1948. And we’ve had a record of extreme weather events, and there may be more to come.

MORE:
http://forum.stopthehogs.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?p=1783#1783

[Oscar]

NUKE NEWS – July 27, 2010

1. EDWARDS: Facts Obscured re: CNSC, BPEA and Shipment of Radioactive Waste?
2. We urgently need transparency over depleted uranium use
3. 6 Reasons Nuclear Energy Advocate Stewart Brand Is Wrong
4. WikiLeaks Bombshell - Afghan War
5. Report suggests changes to rules of engagement could cause increased insurgent attacks
6. New nuclear treaty faces opposition in U.S. Senate
7. Israel’s Insane War on Iran Must Be Prevented
8. Canada among top-10 nations for renewable-energy investment

======================

1. EDWARDS: Facts Obscured re: CNSC, BPEA and Shipment of Radioactive Waste?

http://forum.stopthehogs.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?p=1791#1791

From: Gordon Edwards
Sent: Monday, July 26, 2010 3:33 AM
Subject: Shipment of radioactive steam generators?

Re: Bruce Power's plans to ship radioactive steam generators through the Great Lakes and across the Atlantic Ocean to Sweden.

To whom it may concern:

Bruce Power spokesmen are obscuring the fact that in all of the Environmental Assessment documents cited on their own web site, (http://www.brucepower.com/pagecontentU12.aspx?navuid=3041) the old steam generators (which have become corroded and radioactively contaminated through use) are clearly described as radioactive waste which will not be shipped off-site, but will be transported along on-site roads to the Western Waste Management Facility for perpetual storage as radwaste.
I have taken the trouble to document these facts through specific references to the Environmental Assessment documents in question -- please see the attached 4-page pdf file.

Bruce Power spokesmen are also obscuring the fact that the exact inventory of radioactive material inside the old steam generators is unknown, and that some of this material can be easily released into the environment in the form of radioactive gases or fine radioactive dusts, and that some of these releasable materials have half-lives measured in centuries or millennia.
Bruce Power should not be allowed to go against the plans which were examined and approved during the environmental assessment process. If there is to be a new environmental assessment process to examine these new plans for the old steam generators, namely to ship them through the Great Lakes and across the ocean to Sweden, where up to 90 percent of the metal will be released as scrap metal for unrestricted use, then it is imperative that the environmental assessment include ALL of the environmental impacts, including the entire transportation route and the Studsvik operation in Sweden which has been contributing radioactive pollution to the Baltic Sea through its "laundering" operations on behalf of the nuclear industry.
Gordon Edwards, Ph.D., President,
Canadian Coalition for Nuclear Responsibility

- - - - - -

Verbatim Quotations from Official Environmental Assessment Documents About Old Steam Generators from Bruce A Nuclear Reactors

The initials CNSC and BPEA will refer to the following documents respectively.
Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission Screening Report on Environmental Assessment of the Bruce A Refurbishment March 2006

Available at
http://www.brucepower.com/uc/GetDocument.aspx?docid=2226

Bruce Power Environmental Assessment Study Report, Bruce A Refurbishment – Volume 1: Main Report December 2005
Available at
http://www.brucepower.com/uc/GetDocument.aspx?docid=2199

Point #1: Old steam generators are a form of radioactive waste.

CNSC Page 24
Both phases of the Project will produce radioactive waste. For the purposes of the assessment, “low level waste (LLW)“ consists of industrial items that have become slightly contaminated with radioactivity and are of no further use, but also include the steam generators, feeder pipes and insulation wastes.
BPEA Page 3-31
As noted, refurbishment activities are expected to generate LLW [low level waste]
and ILW [intermediate level waste] including pressure tubes and calandria tubes, the old steam generators and miscellaneous components.
BPEA Page 3-29
The steam generator replacement will generate LLW [low level waste] and ILW [intermediate level waste], including the steam generators themselves….
CNSC Page 101
Issue: At what point during the refurbishment will the steam generators be removed?
Response: The steam generators will be removed about halfway through the refurbishment activities. These are considered low level waste.

Point #2: Old steam generators are to be stored on-site at WWMF.

NOTE: The exact same wording appears in both of the documents cited above….
BPEA Page 3-17 CNSC Page 25
[box 2 in middle column] [box 2 in right column]
The steam generators will be processed and prepared to meet OPG’s requirements for acceptance at the WWMF.
BPEA Page 3-17 CNSC Page 25
[box 4 in middle column] [box 4 in right column]
The steam generators will be sealed and transferred to the WWMF….
BPEA Pages 3-28 & 3-29
Following removal, the steam generators will be temporarily stored on-site, prepared to ensure that they meet OPG’s requirements for acceptance at the WWMF,
lifted onto transporters with a temporary gantry system and then transferred to the OPG’s WWMF.…

BPEA page 3-30
Waste Handling: This includes preparation of removed steam generators for transportation . . . loading of old steam generators onto multi-wheeled
transporters; and transportation of steam generators to OPG’s WWMF. There will be 16 old steam generators in total from Units 1 and 2 refurbishment and another 16 from Units 3 and 4 refurbishment. These will be transported and stored at the WWMF following removal….

Point #3: Old steam generators are potential sources of exposure.

From CNSC Page 31
Radiological Malfunctions and Accidents, which are events that involve radioactive components (i.e. processing, handling and storing nuclear wastes; removal and preparation of steam generators for transportation) and the potential for release of radioactivity.

BPEA Page 3-37
Accident Scenario: A transportation-related accident during the transfer of . . . the old steam generators between Bruce A and the WWMF may occur leading to a radiological contamination that could reach on-site workers and members of the public…. Materials present as a gas or as very fine powders are more likely to escape….
BPEA Page 3-38
Screening of Postulated Radiological Malfunctions and Accidents
Steam generators will not be moved over sensitive buildings/equipment. Activities will not be carried out during inclement weather (i.e. gusty wind conditions)….
Although the steam generator is a potential source for release of some
radioactivity due to a seal rupture, several factors limit the amount of radioactivity that would be released. Since there will be no volume reduction step, the majority of radioactivity will remain in a tightly sealed adherent film, which is spread out over the internal surfaces. Therefore, the size of the steam generator will limit the amount of radioactivity that would be released if a seal fails.
CNSC Page 101
Issue: How will you minimize the amount of contamination released to the
environment when the steam generators are removed?
Response: … the removal of steam generators will be completely segregated from the ongoing operations…..
BPEA Page 3-18 CNSC Page 25
[box 3 in middle column] [box 6 in right column]
Based on the screening of possible conventional malfunction and accident scenarios, it was determined that two events are credible, namely a steam generator drop and a refurbishment waste container drop, both during loading/uploading operations…. Other postulated potential accidents are found to have very limited potential to result in
radiological consequences…. [from CNSC page 32 : containers “are designed to survive a 4 metre drop with minimal loss of contents”]
[from CNSC page 65 : these are the ONLY two malfunctions or accident scenarios “involving nuclear materials” that are credible during the refurbishment phase}

Point #4: Old steam generators cannot be recycled.

BPEA Page 3-17
Non-radioactive wastes will be re-used or recycled to the degree possible…. The steam generators will be sealed and transferred to the WWMF.
BPEA Page 4-55
Radioactive wastes from Bruce A are transferred to WWMF….. All nonradioactive, non-hazardous solid waste is transported to the on-site conventional waste landfill for disposal or off-site for recycling, processing and/or disposal at facilities licensed to handle such materials.
CNSC Page 75
Some of the waste is directly recyclable; however, the largest waste quantities are associated with the pressure-tube/calandria-tube replacement and steam generator replacement, since the replaced components cannot be recycled and must be disposed of at the WWMF….
Statement: July 25 2010

I have examined the above-cited documents by searching for each and every occurrence of the phrase “steam generator.
Nowhere in these documents is there the slightest indication that the old steam generators will ever be transported off-site. On the contrary, both Bruce Power and the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission repeatedly state that the old steam generators are a form of radioactive waste, which will be transported to the Western Waste Management Facility, on-site.
Nowhere in these documents is there the slightest indication that the contaminated metal of the old steam generators will be considered suitable for recycling as scrap metal intended for unrestricted use.

Gordon Edwards, Ph.D., President,
Canadian Coalition for Nuclear Responsibility

==============================

2. We urgently need transparency over depleted uranium use

[Comment: Hughes: all the while, Saskatchewan is increasing uranium mining operations!!! Elaine Hughes, Archerwill, SK]

Saskatchewan - the 'Saudi of Arabia' of Uranium! – Premier Wall
Speech in Calgary on January 21, 2008 – Page 7

http://www.gov.sk.ca/adx/aspx/
adxGetMedia.aspx?mediaId=414&PN=Shared

= = = = = = =

We urgently need transparency over depleted uranium use

http://www.bandepleteduranium.org/en/a/337.html

Humanitarian concern over health problems in Fallujah have renewed calls for full disclosure from depleted uranium users.
26 July 2010 - ICBUW
Recent research and a tide of media coverage are indicating that something is very wrong in the Iraqi city of Fallujah. The rates of certain cancers and birth malformations seem to be far higher than those of other countries in the region. Such is the level of concern, that the World Health Organisation is currently undertaking research in the city, elsewhere experts are trying to gauge whether environmental factors may be responsible. One such risk factor could be the possible use of uranium weapons in the US Marine-led assault on Fallujah in 2004.
Marines dismount from Bradley vehicles during attack on Fallujah.
Unfortunately, one major obstacle is standing in the way of these assessments - the refusal by the US to release data on exactly where the weapons have been used and in what quantities.
At present, states that use uranium weapons do not have to disclose quantitative or geographical data about their use - no where, no how much, nothing. There are no norms governing the recording of data and nothing to say that it should be transferred between states. Indeed states are currently under no obligation to assist either each other - or the United Nations' agencies for that matter - in identifying, marking, assessing, monitoring or clearing sites contaminated by uranium weapons. This is completely unacceptable.
That exposure to uranium weapons has the potential to cause ill health is generally accepted. The main question remaining is how that risk is influenced by military, geographical, social and other factors. More research is urgently needed into civilian populations living in contaminated areas and right now the single biggest obstacle researchers face continues to be the lack of transparency from users.
Transparency was identified as a priority by the UK Royal Society's Depleted Uranium Working Group as far back as 2003: "The coalition needs to make clear where and how much depleted uranium was used in the recent conflict in Iraq. We need this information to identify civilians and soldiers who should be monitored for depleted uranium exposure and to begin a clean-up of the environment," said Prof. Brian Spratt in 2003.
What steps have been taken since then to release this data? In Iraq, we know that at least 440,000kg of DU was used by the US and UK in 1991 and 2003. Of this, just 1.9 tonnes is accounted for after the British cooperated with the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) in a 2007 study in Iraq. However this data from the UK has never been released into the public domain. In Bosnia, it took six years for NATO to confirm that it had used depleted uranium in its interventions in 1994 and 1995. In the case of Serbia and Kosovo, it took two direct interventions by the then UN Secretary General Kofi Annan on behalf of UNEP to persuade NATO to release its data.
Given that the main factor in reducing the risk to civilians following the use of uranium weapons is the swift identification and marking of contaminated sites, the current situation seems particularly perverse.
ICBUW has approached the US State Department and Department of Defence requesting the full disclosure of data about all contaminated sites in Iraq.
If it is possible for the UK to disclose where it has used uranium weapons then there is no reason why the same should not go for the US. However, if the example of our request to reveal whether uranium were used in Fallujah is anything to go by - nine months and counting - we may be waiting some time; just as the people of Iraq have been.
There are also long-standing questions over the use of depleted uranium in other conflicts. For example, Russia and the US may have both used it in Afghanistan while the US is alleged to have used it during interventions in Somalia in the 1990s.
If states are unwilling to voluntarily release data on the use of uranium weapons, it is beholden on the international community to agree to take whatever steps necessary to develop binding rules governing what happens to these weapons once they are fired.
ICBUW is calling for a resolution on this issue at the UN First Committee this autumn. We hope that states that have pushed for transparency in other areas of arms control such as the Netherlands, and those that have cooperated with UNEP on the issue of uranium weapons, such as the UK, will lend their support because without transparency, civilians will continue to be exposed to the harmful residue of these weapons.

Notes:

WATCH: Fallujah children's 'genetic damage' ***CAUTION - disturbing images
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-10721562
21 July 2010 Last updated at 17:50 ET
Cancer, leukaemia and infant mortality are all increasing in the Iraqi town of Fallujah, which saw fierce fighting between US forces and Sunni insurgents, a new survey says.
Still one of the most dangerous places in Iraq, doctors have been reporting a large number of birth defects since the 2004 offensive. John Simpson reports.

= = = = = =

Toxic legacy of US assault on Fallujah 'worse than Hiroshima'

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/
toxic-legacy-of-us-assault-on-fallujah-worse-than-hiroshima-2034065.html

The shocking rates of infant mortality and cancer in Iraqi city raise new questions about battle By Patrick Cockburn Saturday, 24 July 2010
Dramatic increases in infant mortality, cancer and leukaemia in the Iraqi city of Fallujah, which was bombarded by US Marines in 2004, exceed those reported by survivors of the atomic bombs that were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945, according to a new study.
Iraqi doctors in Fallujah have complained since 2005 of being overwhelmed by the number of babies with serious birth defects, ranging from a girl born with two heads to paralysis of the lower limbs. They said they were also seeing far more cancers than they did before the battle for Fallujah between US troops and insurgents.
Their claims have been supported by a survey showing a four-fold increase in all cancers and a 12-fold increase in childhood cancer in under-14s. Infant mortality in the city is more than four times higher than in neighbouring Jordan and eight times higher than in Kuwait.

MORE:
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/
toxic-legacy-of-us-assault-on-fallujah-worse-than-hiroshima-2034065.html

= = = = = = =

Cancer, Infant Mortality and Birth Sex-Ratio in Fallujah, Iraq 2005–2009

http://www.nonuclear.se/files/busby-et-al-fallujah-iraq2005-2009.pdf

Chris Busby 1,*, Malak Hamdan 2 and Entesar Ariabi 3

Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2010, 7, 2828-2837; doi:10.3390/ijerph7072828

International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health ISSN 1660-4601

Abstract: There have been anecdotal reports of increases in birth defects and cancer in Fallujah, Iraq blamed on the use of novel weapons (possibly including depleted uranium) in heavy fighting which occurred in that town between US led forces and local elements in 2004. In Jan/Feb 2010 the authors organised a team of researchers who visited 711 houses in Fallujah, Iraq and obtained responses to a questionnaire in Arabic on cancer, birth defects and infant mortality. The total population in the resulting sample was 4,843 persons with and overall response rate was better than 60%. Relative Risks for cancer were age-standardised and compared to rates in the Middle East Cancer Registry (MECC, Garbiah Egypt) for 1999 and rates in Jordan 1996–2001. Between Jan 2005 and the survey end date there were 62 cases of cancer malignancy reported

MORE:
http://www.nonuclear.se/files/busby-et-al-fallujah-iraq2005-2009.pdf

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Additional Info:

Current Issues - Depleted Uranium Weapons in the Balkans
(last updated 22 Apr 2008)
http://www.wise-uranium.org/dissbk.html

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Depleted Uranium Weapons: Lessons from the 1991 Gulf War
http://www.wise-uranium.org/dhap992.html
By Dan Fahey
The 1991 Persian Gulf War included an array of the twentieth century's most frightening and devastating weapons. Nuclear, chemical, and biological weapons were all poised for use, each with the ability to cause massive casualties among friend and foe alike. When hostilities subsided in March, 1991, the world breathed a collective sigh of relief that weapons of mass destruction had not been used. Or had they?
During the Gulf War, American and British forces introduced armor-piercing ammunition made of depleted uranium, a radioactive and toxic waste. By war's end, more than 290,000 kilograms (640,000 pounds) of depleted uranium contaminated equipment and the soil on the battlefields of Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, and southern Iraq.[1] Though investigations are ongoing and additional research is needed, it now appears that some veterans and civilians exposed to depleted uranium contamination are suffering health problems including kidney damage and cancers.

MORE: http://www.wise-uranium.org/dhap992.html

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Depleted Uranium: A Post-War Disaster For Environment And Health
http://www.laka.org/docu/boeken/pdf/1-01-2-12-12.pdf
Laka Foundation May 1999
In the course of the preparations for the Hague Appeal for Peace '99 conference, Laka decided to make a brochure about the use of depleted uranium in conventional weaponry and its consequences. The idea was born because of the short time reserved during the session for the presentation of all details about depleted uranium (DU). Although the word "depleted uranium" may suggest no harmful impact from radiation, this brochure will clarify the real radiotoxic (and chemotoxic) properties of DU.
Laka asked several "insiders" to take part in the completion of the brochure. Thanks to their efforts, we have been able to present well-documented articles for activists, scientists, scholars and students to share with them valuable information about the hazardous impact of DU contamination and its consequences on human health and the environment. Taking notice of the growing military use of DU, we must consider not only the increased threats of radioactive battlefields but also the whole dirty cycle in the uranium industry connected with the DU technology and its impact on health and the environment in the surroundings of test areas and in the uranium industry itself.
This brochure was completed thanks to Felicity Arbuthnot, Rosalie Bertell, Ray Bristow, Peter Diehl, Dan Fahey, Daniel Robicheau, Campaign against DU (CADU) and the Military Toxics Project. The contents of all the contributions are under the responsibility of the authors.

Full Report: http://www.laka.org/docu/boeken/pdf/1-01-2-12-12.pdf

=========================

3. 6 Reasons Nuclear Energy Advocate Stewart Brand Is Wrong

http://www.alternet.org/story/147632/

By Harvey Wasserman, AlterNet
Posted on July 25, 2010, Printed on July 26, 2010
Stewart Brand has become a poster boy for a "nuclear renaissance" that has just suffered a quiet but stunning defeat. Despite $645 million spent in lobbying over the past decade, the reactor industry has thus far failed to gouge out major new taxpayer funding for new commercial reactors.
In an exceedingly complex series of twists and turns, no legislation now pending in Congress contains firm commitments to the tens of billions reactor builders have been demanding. They could still come by the end of the session. But the radioactive cake walk many expected the industry to take through the budget process has thus far failed to happen.
The full story is excruciatingly complicated. But the core reasons are simple: atomic power can't compete, and makes global warming worse.
In support of this failed 20th Century technology, the industry has enlisted a 20th Century retro-hero, Stewart Brand. Back in the 1960s Brand published the Whole Earth Catalog. Four decades later, that cachet has brought him media access for his advocacy of corporate technologies like genetically modified foods and geo-engineering.....and, of course, nuclear energy.

MORE: http://www.alternet.org/story/147632/

=========================

4. WIKILEAKS Bombshell – Afghan

US condemns massive leak of Afghan war files

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/world/us/
US-condemns-massive-leak-of-Afghan-war-files/articleshow/6219843.cms

A whistleblower leaked tens of thousands of secret military files on the Afghan war Monday, documenting the deaths of innocent civilians and how Pakistan's spy agency secretly supports the Taliban.
The leaks prompted a furious reaction from the White House, saying they put the lives of soldiers at risk, but the man behind the revelations said the controversy vindicated the decision to break cover.
In all, some 92,000 documents dating back to 2004 were released by the whistleblowers' website Wikileaks to the New York Times, Britain's Guardian newspaper and Germany's Der Spiegel news weekly.

MORE:
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/world/us/
US-condemns-massive-leak-of-Afghan-war-files/articleshow/6219843.cms

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WikiLeaks Bombshell Docs Paint Afghan War as Utter Disaster -- Will We Finally Stop Throwing Money and Lives at This Catastrophe?

http://www.alternet.org/story/147636/

By Ray McGovern, Consortium News Posted on July 26, 2010, Printed on July 27, 2010The brutality and fecklessness of the U.S.-led war in Afghanistan have been laid bare in an indisputable way just days before the House of Representatives is scheduled to vote on whether to throw $33.5 billion more into the Afghan quagmire, when that money is badly needed at home.On Sunday, the Web site Wikileaks posted 75,000 reports written mostly by U.S. forces in Afghanistan during a six-year period from January 2004 to December 2009. The authenticity of the material -- published under the title “Afghan War Diaries” -- is not in doubt.The New York Times, which received an embargoed version of the documents from Wikileaks, devoted six pages of its Monday editions to several articles on the disclosures, which reveal how the Afghan War slid into its current morass while the Bush administration concentrated U.S. military efforts on Iraq.Wikileaks also gave advanced copies to the British newspaper, The Guardian, and the German newsmagazine, Der Spiegel, thus guaranteeing that the U.S. Fawning Corporate Media could not ignore these classified cables the way it did five years ago with the “Downing Street Memo,” a leaked British document which described how intelligence was "fixed" around President George W. Bush’s determination to invade Iraq.The Washington Post also led its Monday editions with a lengthy article about the Wikileaks’ disclosure of the Afghan War reports.Still, it remains to be seen whether the new evidence of a foundering war in Afghanistan will lead to a public groundswell of opposition to expending more billions of dollars there when the money is so critically needed to help people to keep their jobs, their homes and their personal dignity in the United States.But there may be new hope that the House of Representatives will find the collective courage to deny further funding for feckless bloodshed in Afghanistan that seems more designed to protect political flanks in Washington than the military perimeters of U.S. bases over there.

MORE: http://www.alternet.org/story/147636/

======================

5. Report suggests changes to rules of engagement could cause increased insurgent attacks

http://www.ceasefire.ca/
?p=5134&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+ceasefire%2FycPl+%28Ceasefire.ca%29

Posted: 27 Jul 2010 12:30 AM PDT
A recent study by the National Bureau of Economic Research finds “strong evidence” that “local exposure to ISAF generated civilian casualties drives increased insurgent violence over the long-run.” (Luke N. Condra, Joseph H. Felter, Radha K. Iyengar & Jacob N. Shapiro, The Effect of Civilian Casualties in Afghanistan and Iraq, NBER Working Paper No. 16152, [...]

=========================

6. New nuclear treaty faces opposition in U.S. Senate

http://www.ceasefire.ca/
?p=5139&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+ceasefire%2FycPl+%28Ceasefire.ca%29

Posted: 26 Jul 2010 10:26 AM PDT
U.S. President Barack Obama’s recent nuclear reductions treaty with Russia is facing opposition from Republican Senators. The New START treaty, which replaces a Cold War era counterpart treaty, must receive the assent of the U.S. Senate (and, in Russia, the Russian Duma) before it can be ratified and enter into force. But Republicans in the Senate [...]

=====================

7. Israel’s Insane War on Iran Must Be Prevented

www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=20278

By Muriel Mirak-Weissbach Global Research, July 26, 2010
Israel’s attack on a humanitarian aid ship headed for Gaza may prove to be the greatest strategic error the government has ever made. Like the Soweto riots in South Africa in 1976, or Bloody Sunday – the American civil rights march on March 7, 1965, in Selma, Alabama, where police opened fire and killed civilians – the Mavi Marmora affair crossed a red line. It has triggered an international wave of condemnation, expressing a shift in attitude toward Israel. The hope is that this international outrage, flanked by growing anti-government dissent inside the country, will provoke an identity crisis among the elite and people of Israel, shake up the political kaleidoscope and allow for a viable pro-peace force to emerge. Unless this occurs, new Israeli aggression, including against Iran, will remain high on their immediate agenda.

The details of the May 31 events are well known, documented by passengers on the Mavi Marmora headed for Gaza. Among the most dramatic was the eye-witness account of Ken O’Keefe on BBC’s Hard Talk show, who effectively dismantled attempts by his interviewer to legitimize the Israeli position (that the passengers were armed terrorists etc.), and established that the Israeli military opened fire immediately after boarding the ship, killing 9 in cold blood.(1) German doctor Matthias Jochheim, a member of the IPPNW on board, has delivered his own low-key, sober version, confirming the same facts.(2)
Israel’s violent action was the proverbial straw that broke the camel’s back; even the wobbly-kneed German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle had to denounce it and lend his voice to an international chorus demanding that the illegal three-year Gaza blockade be lifted. Those actions which did follow, like Egypt’s reopening the Rafah border crossing and Israel’s cosmetic redefinition of what could or could not enter Gaza, led to at least a formal, partial relaxation of the blockade, albeit at the cost of nine innocent lives.
Israel’s immediate reactions are most clinically interesting. First, the Mossad sent films around the world via Internet purportedly showing passengers assaulting those Israeli troops who had descended onto the ship in international waters (to conduct a passport check, perhaps?). Then came the announcement that the list of permitted goods into Gaza would be replaced by a list of forbidden items. (President Shimon Peres was quick to add cement to the ban.) No sooner had the Israeli government committed a diplomatic faux pas by refusing entry into Gaza to German Development Aid Minister Dirk Niebel than Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman magnanimously invited several European colleagues to visit the Strip.(3) After rejecting numerous calls for an independent international investigation, Israel declared it would set up its own probe, but then Yaakov Tirkel, appointed head of the inquiry, threatened to resign unless he were granted more powers to subpoena witnesses. This gesture may very well have been a piece of cheap theatre; but, no matter: the point is that the Israeli leadership stood exposed as confused, stumbling, and in total disarray, one day engaging in clinical denial, and the next, tossing tidbits of concessions in hopes of placating its critics.
With its deadly act of piracy, Israel lost the mandate from heaven that its establishment, and many international actors, formerly believed it to hold. Although Israeli troops were not shooting their own people, the act was comparable to Soweto and Bloody Sunday for its political impact. The Israeli elite miscalculated utterly, and no mad scramble to control the damage will undo the deed or erase its consequences. Like the South African apartheid regime of the time, and segregation in the U.S., Israel’s 60-plus-year-old policy of discrimination, oppression, and ethnic cleansing of Palestinians is finally being acknowledged worldwide as a moral obscenity that can no longer be tolerated. Israel’s Ambassador to the U.N., Gabriela Shalev lamented the fact that her country’s standing in the world has sunk to new depths. “Our situation in recent months,” she told Army Radio on July 11, “can be compared to the 1970s, when Zionism was being called racism.”(4) Indeed.
Bull’s-Eye: Iran
Contrary to the mantra repeated in the international press, Israel’s assault on the Mavi Marmora was not aimed against Hamas. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu admitted as much himself, when he declared he would “not allow the establishment of an Iranian port in Gaza.”

MORE: www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=20278

====================

8. Canada among top-10 nations for renewable-energy investment

http://www.thestarphoenix.com/technology/
Canada+among+nations+renewable+energy+investment/3307949/story.html

Canada remains among the top 10 most attractive countries for renewable-energy infrastructure investment, according to a report released Wednesday by Ernst and Young.
Canada hung on to ninth spot in the 27-country survey despite the planned termination of Ottawa's ecoenergy tax-credit program and cuts by Ontario to the rates it pays solar energy producers, said Stephen Lewis, leader of the accounting firm's renewable energy practice.

MORE: http://www.thestarphoenix.com/technology/
Canada+among+nations+renewable+energy+investment/3307949/story.html

[Oscar]

NUKE NEWS: July 29, 2010

1. Nuke plan to ship waste on our lakes (See WATER! WATER! WATER! Compilation below! Ed.)
2. Cameco's Latest: The Millenium Project
3. No Nukes News - July 27, 2010
4. COMMENT: Rempel: USA deceitful march of folly -- and the Canadian folly of "follow the leader" (distributed with permission. Ed.)
5. COMMENT: Rempel: …begs the question for us in Canada – “…. Run amok since 9/11”
6. DOCUMENTARY: SUPERPOWER: The Truth Can Be Hidden
7. A less proud country
8. WATER! WATER! WATER!
9. Q: When is a lake not a lake?
10. Waterkeeper.ca Weekly: July 29th, 2010
11. Plankton, crucial to the planet for food and oxygen, in deep trouble; global warming blamed

=========

1. Nuke plan to ship waste on our lakes (See WATER! WATER! WATER! Compilation below! Ed.)

http://www.torontosun.com/comment/columnists/2010/07/28/
14858291.html

The Ontario government has a responsibility to protect our drinking water
by Andrea Horwath, Guest Columnist, Toronto Sun, July 28, 2010
Bruce Power’s plan to transport school-bus sized radioactive steam generators overland from its nuclear plant near Kincardine to Owen Sound, and then by ship through the Great Lakes to Sweden for recycling is a very troubling one.
Forty-million people rely on the Great Lakes for drinking water. But starting this fall, Bruce Power wants to transport 32 of these 100-tonne vessels, each containing 5,000 radioactively-contaminated tubes, through Lake Huron, Lake Erie and Lake Ontario.
The plan to ship radioactive steam generators through our waterways comes as a big, nasty surprise. After all, Bruce Power promised in its 2005 Environmental Impact Statement they would not even transport the steam generators on public roads — which they will have to do to get them to Owen Sound.
Recycling the metal from the steam generators in Sweden will also lead to radioactive materials finding their way into scrap metal for unrestricted commercial use — something that is not allowed in North America.
Bruce Power says the risks of a shipping accident are minimal — but it doesn’t mention two similar-sized turbines were accidentally dropped into Saint John, N.B.’s harbour in 2008 (luckily, they were not radioactive).
They also don’t mention two vessels have gone aground so far this summer — one in the St. Lawrence Seaway and another in the Thousand Islands area — along the route to be taken by the ships carrying the generators.
More than 50 non-governmental organizations, along with Ontario mayors and two Michigan State Representatives, have publicly opposed Bruce Power’s plan.
But Dalton McGuinty’s government has been noticeably silent.

MORE: http://www.torontosun.com/comment/columnists/2010/07/28/
14858291.html
- - - - - -
Andrea Horwath is leader of Ontario’s New Democratic Party
_______________________________________________
Energy-vision mailing list
Energy-vision@list.web.net
http://list.web.net/lists/listinfo/energy-vision

========================

2. Cameco's Latest: The Millenium Project

http://www.environment.gov.sk.ca/2009-070ProjectProposal

Map of Cameco’s proposed new access road: See Section 2, Figure 2.3-1

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Cameco seeks approval for new underground uranium mine

Saskatchewan Environmental Society Newsletter - July/August 2010 Issue, Pg. 4
By Ann Coxworth, Research Advisor

Guidelines have been published for the preparation of an Environmental Impact Statement for a proposed new uranium mine in northern Saskatchewan. Approval is required from both Saskatchewan’s Ministry of Environment and the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission.
The Millennium Project, managed by Cameco, is a proposed underground uranium mine that would be located about 600 km north of Saskatoon in a relatively undisturbed area of boreal forest. The area is in the Wheeler River Upland Landscape Area of the Athabasca Plain Ecoregion and is currently used for hunting and trapping. The nearest community is Wollaston Lake, which is about 155 km away. The Millennium mine would be roughly half way between McArthur River and Key Lake, some 21 km from the existing haul road that links these two facilities.
Indications are that the deposit contains 46.8 million pounds of U3O8 at an average grade of 4.53% uranium, at depths between 615 and 730 metres below surface. The proposed mine would produce 150,000 to 200,000 tonnes of ore annually for six to seven years.
No mill or associated waste management facilities would be constructed at the site. Workers would be housed in camp facilities at the Key Lake operation during construction and operation. Ore and mineralized waste rock would be transported by road for processing or storage to a licensed mill, likely at the Key Lake operation, which is about 36 km southwest of the Millennium site.

The main components included in the scope of the project for environmental assessment purposes include:

• construction of a 21-km access road linking the Millennium site to the Key Lake- McArthur River haul road (this involves numerous stream crossings);

• development and operation of the underground mine and temporary surface facilities; and

• permanent storage of waste rock from mine development on the surface."

Nearby Slush Lake would provide water supply for the mine operation, while treated effluent would be discharged to Moon Lake, part of the Wheeler River system. Once mining is complete, Cameco says, the Millennium mine would be fully decommissioned to secure and reclaim the site. All surface structures would be salvaged or demolished and buried underground.
Remaining clean waste rock piles would be contoured and revegetated to blend with the natural topography. It is expected that the access road and power line would also be removed as part of decommissioning. Subject to regulatory approval, construction of the Millennium Access Road would begin in 2012, followed by shaft sinking and surface and underground development from 2013 to 2017.
For more information see www.se.gov.sk.ca (click on Programs and Services/Environmental Assessment).

======================

3. No Nukes News - July 27, 2010

Pass this onto a friend! - a

“There is not a little bit of cancer or a little bit of malnutrition or a little bit of death or a little bit of social injustice or a little bit of torture. It does not help us in any way if we begin accepting lower and safer levels of, for example, radioactivity or lower and safer levels of ... lead or dioxin. We must speak out clearly, loudly and courageously, if we know that there are no safe levels.” – the late Petra Kelly, founder of the Green Party.
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Radioactive shipment raises alarm
A number of questions have arisen about Bruce Power's plan to ship 16 radioactive waste steam generators from the Bruce A refurbishment through Owen Sound to Sweden.
http://www.thewhig.com/ArticleDisplay.aspx?e=2684522
Stop the shipment of dangerous nuclear waste
ACTION ALERT: Tell the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission not to risk the health of Canadian communities

Sierra Club:

http://org2.democracyinaction.org/o/5654/p/dia/action/public/
?action_KEY=3737

ACTION ALERT: Voice your concern regarding Bruce Power's plan to ship radioactive steam generators across the Great Lakes

CELA (Canadian Environmental Law Association): http://www.cela.ca/newsevents/action-alert/
action-alert-voice-your-concern-canadian-nuclear-safety-commission-cnsc-rega

Prohibit Shipments of Radioactive Generators
Up to 90% of the 3,500 tons of radiation-laced steel will be sold as scrap metal for unrestricted use, which means that small amounts of man-made radioactive poisons from the Bruce reactors (e. g., plutonium, strontium-90, cesium-137, and cobalt-60) will end up in such everyday items as pots and pans, forks and spoons, zippers and safety pins.
The Governments of Ontario and Canada ought to prohibit these shipments because the transport of radioactive debris through our precious waterways should not be condoned, and the dissemination of radioactive waste into consumer goods should not be countenanced.
http://www.theobserver.ca/ArticleDisplay.aspx?e=2681996
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Nuclear Power? 8 Questions Need to Be Answered
Rising greenhouse gases. Climate change. Rising energy costs. Declining fossil fuel reserves. Now the BP disaster. With the arguments against fossil fuels continuing to pile up it’s no wonder people have latched onto nuclear power as an attractive solution. Here are eight questions that we should answer before, not after, we head down the nuclear path:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/brendan-smith/
nuclear-power-8-questions_b_624874.html
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Conservation still low priority in Ontario
As of December 2009, for every dollar that the Ontario Power Authority (OPA) has spent on energy conservation, it has contracted for $44 of new electricity supply. Yet the OPA's payments to large industrial consumers to save a kilowatt-hour (kWh) are as much as 89% lower than the cost of producing a kWh from a new nuclear reactor, making investing in efficiency a terrific bargain for Ontario.
Conservation is the cleanest form of energy generation. It makes our industries more efficient and reduces energy bills for homeowners.
For more information, please download our up-dated fact sheet: Conservation vs. Electricity Supply: A summary of the Ontario Power Authority's procurement efforts.

Please email Ontario's Energy Minister Brad Duguid and ask him to tell the OPA to make investments in energy efficiency a top priority (and please cc me). Thank you for making the time to push for conservation!
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Ontario's solar sector being harmed by uncertainty around microFIT, warns Environmental Commissioner of Ontario
The Ontario Power Authority (OPA) must fully disclose the financial assumptions it used to justify the price cut to Ontario's renewable energy feed-in tariff ("microFIT") program, says Gord Miller, the Environmental Commissioner of Ontario. "People will lose confidence in Ontario's commitment to green energy," he warned. "We need the full financial details used to justify this price cut."
http://huffstrategy.com/MediaManager/release/
Environmental-Commissioner-of-Ontario/31-12-69/Ontarios-solar-sector-being-harmed-by-uncertainty-around-microFIT/1966.html
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Vast majority of Ontarians support wind energy in their community
A new Ipsos Reid poll commissioned by the Canadian Wind Energy Association (CanWEA) finds that nine in 10 Ontario residents support the production of wind energy in their region of the province for its economic and environmental benefits. The level of support remains high even when respondents were asked if a wind project’s location is within their own community.
http://www.canwea.ca/media/release/release_e.php?newsId=84
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Ontario workers are doing a sun salutation over new solar jobs in Toronto and London
Canasia Power Corp announced Tuesday that they would establish a solar module manufacturing facility in London, Ontario. The facility would initially have a 50MW annual capacity, employing roughly 100 people, but as capacity grows to 200MW, it will employ over 500 people. SunEdison and Samco Machinery Ltd, a struggling Scarborough auto parts manufacturer, also announced yesterday that they would be retooling an Ontario factory to produce equipment for solar power projects in Ontario.
http://environmentaldefencecanada.blogspot.com/2010/07/
ontario-workers-are-doing-sun.html
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Climate Change – Here We Come
The first six months of 2010 were the warmest on record, according to the National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration.
http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/sotc/?report=global&year=2010&month=6
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Registration is now open for: Climate Change Summit 2010
Aug. 13 – 15, at Hart House, U of T
Three days of climate science and solutions -- no sugar coating. With Bill McKibbon, Andrew Weaver, Elizabeth May and more. Presented by U of T Greens and Toronto-Danforth Federal Green Party. It is a non-partisan event open to everyone.
http://ccc-2010.ca/
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Countdown to Zero - Documentary probes a new generation of nuclear dangers
Dr. Strangelove isn’t dead, he’s just moved to a city near you, says “Countdown to Zero,” a film that means to put a new generation of anti-nuclear campaigners back on the peace path their grandparents pioneered as Cold War protesters.
http://www.thestar.com/news/world/article/
839693--documentary-probes-a-new-generation-of-nuclear-dangers

Disarmament for Some - Co-opting the Anti-Nuclear Movement
Countdown to Zero is one component of a larger and coherent foundation campaign to stoke up public fears about nuclear weapons for the purpose of extending a near-monopoly on nuclear weapons, and legitimating a more aggressive foreign policy aimed at regime change in Iran and elsewhere. The consensus behind those who funded and produced the film has little to do with disarmament, and a lot to do with stabilizing the American empire.
http://www.counterpunch.org/graham07222010.html
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US War Crimes: Cancer Rate in Fallujah Worse than Hiroshima
The Iraqi city of Fallujah continues to suffer the ghastly consequences of a US military onslaught in late 2004. According to the authors of a new study, “Cancer, Infant Mortality and Birth Sex-Ratio in Fallujah, Iraq 2005–2009,” the people of Fallujah are experiencing higher rates of cancer, leukemia, infant mortality, and sexual mutations than those recorded among survivors in Hiroshima and Nagasaki in the years after those Japanese cities were incinerated by US atomic bomb strikes in 1945.

The US military uses depleted uranium, also known as spent nuclear fuel, in armor-piercing shells and bullets because it is twice as dense as lead. Once these shells hit their target, however, as much as 40 percent of the uranium is released in the form of tiny particles in the area of the explosion. It can remain there for years, easily entering the human bloodstream, where it lodges itself in lymph glands and attacks the DNA produced in the sperm and eggs of affected adults, causing, in turn, serious birth defects in the next generation.

In a study of 711 houses and 4,843 individuals carried out in January and February 2010, authors Chris Busby, Malak Hamdan, Entesar Ariabi and a team of researchers found that the cancer rate had increased fourfold since before the US attack five years ago, and that the forms of cancer in Fallujah are similar to those found among the Hiroshima and Nagasaki atomic bomb survivors, who were exposed to intense fallout radiation.

In Fallujah the rate of leukemia is 38 times higher, the childhood cancer rate is 12 times higher, and breast cancer is 10 times more common than in populations in Egypt, Jordan, and Kuwait. Heightened levels of adult lymphoma and brain tumors were also reported. At 80 deaths out of every 1,000 births, the infant mortality rate in Fallujah is more than five times higher than in Egypt and Jordan, and eight times higher than in Kuwait.

Strikingly, after 2005 the proportion of girls born in Fallujah has increased sharply. In normal populations, 1050 boys are born for every 1000 girls. But among those born in Fallujah in the four years after the US assault, the ratio was reduced to 860 boys for every 1000 female births. This alteration is similar to gender ratios found in Hiroshima after the US atomic attack of 1945.

The most likely reason for the change in the sex ratio, according to the researchers, is the impact of a major mutagenic event—likely the use of depleted uranium in US weapons.

“In September 2009, Fallujah General Hospital had 170 newborn babies, 24 percent of whom were dead within the first seven days, a staggering 75 percent of the dead babies were classified as deformed...

www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=20241
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Free-be’s
Get some FREE leaflets to distribute to your friends and neighbours. They contain postcards addressed to Harper and Ignatieff telling them you don’t want your federal tax dollars spent on new nukes for Ontario. Nuclear power is so last century – bring on the renewable energy age!
Order them from me: angela@cleanairalliance.org
Thanks for your help getting the word out all across Canada…
----------------------------------------------------------------

Angela Bischoff, Outreach Director
Ontario Clean Air Alliance
Tel: 416 926 1907 x 246
625 Church Street, #402, Toronto, ON M4Y 2G1
angela@cleanairalliance.org
www.ontariosgreenfuture.ca
www.cleanairalliance.org
Our Facebook Group
Sign Our Petition
No Nukes News
Health Power

===================

4. COMMENT: Rempel: USA deceitful march of folly -- and the Canadian folly of "follow the leader" (distributed with permission. Ed.)

From: Jacob Rempel
To: (Every Liberal and NDP Member of Parliament, H of C. plus Gilles Duceppe.)
Sent: Monday, July 26, 2010 10:45 PM

Subject: USA deceitful march of folly -- and the Canadian folly of "follow the leader"

Ray McGovern | Afghan War Leaks Expose Costly, Deceitful March of Folly
http://act.commondreams.org/go/1600?akid=123.153550.UtLGnb&t=18

Dear Opposition Members of Parliament, House of Commons --
It's an imperial USA war regime's deceitful march of folly, and a Canadian folly of "follow the leader" -- with slogans like "support our NATO allies, support our troops, support democracy", etc.
However, we all know it's all about oil as it has been for about a hundred years, at least since 1909, when the Anglo-Persian Oil Company (now British Petroleum) got a head start in Persia and the Ottoman Empire, with France, Germany, Italy, Russia, and then the USA joining the Great Game which the American former Secretary of State Brzezinski now calls the Grand Chessboard, on which Canada plays as the USA's versatile Knight, now positioned in Kandahar and in Helmand province of Afghanistan.
It was a mistake to support the British Empire then, and it's a mistake now to follow the USA drive for hegemony, even buying new USA fighter planes for billions of dollars to prepare Canada to support their oil wars who knows where in 2020.
(I am quite aware that wealthy Canadian interests have large investments in war industries and American international corporations. Such involvement can, nay must also switch to peaceful, sustainable, socially responsible industry in peaceful countries.)
Now is the time for Canada to switch sides, to make new peaceful alliance with countries like Bolivia, Ecuador, Venezuela, Cuba and a reformed United Nations, more effective for peace and environmental leadership.
Also join with all the world's peace and environmental protection social movements. At stake is the well being of the whole earth and all its people. Such a new alliance can lead the world into more rational sane sustainable development. The USA, UK, and NATO allies are unhelpful, to understate reality.
All earth is at risk of permanent imperial wars among the great powers, plus an industrial commercial consumer race among the new great powers, a race to take us all down to hell.
We need social well being without massive new growth in consumption of natural resources. Cuba is a better model than the USA or China or India or even the EU with respect to sustainable economics and more universal equity, less absolute poverty.

---Jacob Rempel, Vancouver.

- - - - - -

Afghan leak: Wikileaks Julian Assange tells all

http://therealnews.com/t2/
index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=31&Itemid=74&jumival=5424

Channel 4 News speaks exclusively to founder of Wikileaks Julian Assange
about the Afghan war logs
- - - - -

Secret files: Wikileaks reveals 'unseen war'

http://therealnews.com/t2/
index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=31&Itemid=74&jumival=5423

Major security breach reveals alleged "execution squads", an apparent plot to kill the Afghan president

- - - - - --

Ray McGovern | Afghan War Leaks Expose Costly, Deceitful March of Folly
http://act.commondreams.org/go/1600?akid=123.153550.UtLGnb&t=18

Marjorie Cohn | John McCain on Iraq: 'We Already Won That One'
http://act.commondreams.org/go/1601?akid=123.153550.UtLGnb&t=20

Glenn Greenwald | The WikiLeaks Afghanistan Leak
http://act.commondreams.org/go/1602?akid=123.153550.UtLGnb&t=22

Philippe Sands | iWkileaks: A New Journal of the Disasters in Afghanistan
http://act.commondreams.org/go/1603?akid=123.153550.UtLGnb&t=24

Tom Engelhardt | The Opposites Game: All the Strangeness of Our American World in One Article
http://act.commondreams.org/go/1604?akid=123.153550.UtLGnb&t=26

GOLDMAN 'TOO BIG TO PROSECUTE'
http://therealnews.com/t2/
index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=31&Itemid=74&jumival=5423

Bill Black: SEC fine against Goldman is no deterrence, it will all happen
again July 17, 2010

===================

5. COMMENT: Rempel: …begs the question for us in Canada – “…. Run amok since 9/11”

From: Jacob Rempel
Sent: Thursday, July 29, 2010 12:30 AM
Subject: The USA Government Has Run Amok Since 9/11

The USA Government Has Run Amok Since 9/11 By Sheldon Richman
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article26038.htm

July 28, 2010 "fff" - July 27, 2010 - - Those who understand ... suspected that the U.S. response to the 9/11 attacks had little to do with the security ... and much to do with power and money. ... “The top-secret world the government created in response to the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, has become so large, so unwieldy and so secretive that no one knows ...."

Memo to MPs:---

This is written by Americans for Americans, but it begs the question for us in Canada --"Why should the governments of Canada and NATO also run amok into the Afghanistan/Iraq quagmire of massively violent aggression, war and occupation, becoming implicated by close cooperation with the USA regime in the same offences against millions of innocent refugees, and more than a million men, women and children killed in Iraq and Afghanistan. And all of it based on propaganda deception, but rather on disguised corporate and USA regime motives relating to control of foreign oil resources. Now Canada is buying F35s to again support "allies" like future USA regimes in more war for foreign resources, who knows where in Asia, Africa, and maybe in Colombia and Venezuela. Canadian government policy priorities are wrong. Treaties and trade agreements are not good legal, ethical or moral excuses for wrongful war.

---Jacob Rempel, Vancouver.

Post Script: Evo Morales in Bolivia, and all the "third world" countries had policy priorities right after the Copenhagen debacle, and Fidel Castro, fifty year vetean of world politics, identified the right policy priorities for all countries for this century, this era of world environmental crisis.
"... Our country, Cuba, is one of the 150 Third World countries which will be among the first, albeit not the only ones, destined to endure the incredible consequences if humanity does not develop quite rapidly a clear and certain conscience of the reality and the result of climate change provoked by man; that is, if such change is not timely prevented....
"Our media have described the effects of climate change while the increasingly intensive hurricanes, the droughts and other natural calamities have equally contributed to the education of our people on the issue. Likewise, a peculiar event, the battle on climate change that took place in the Copenhagen Summit, has helped to build awareness about the imminent danger. This is not one distant risk awaiting the 22nd century, but one for the 21st; neither is it only for the second half of the latter but for the next decades when we would start suffering its terrible consequences ...." http://www.countercurrents.org/castro060110.htm

Government Has Run Amok Since 9/11 By Sheldon Richman
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article26038.htm
July 28, 2010 "fff"

====================

6. DOCUMENTARY: SUPERPOWER: The Truth Can Be Hidden

- a documentary film by Barbara-Anne Steegmuller

"The only thing new in the world is the history you don't know." -Harry S. Truman

View the SUPERPOWER Trailer
http://tv.globalresearch.ca/content/
award-winning-movie-superpower-trailer

SUPERPOWER: The not-to-be-missed documentary
Available from Global Research
www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=20333
Global Research, August 6, 2010

SUPERPOWER is a comprehensive film that asks tough questions and goes behind the scenes of America’s national security apparatus and military actions. Far from a conspiracy film about the dangers of government secrets and regime change, this well-balanced film straddles the philosophical divide and allows viewers to understand the US quest for global dominance through economic and military strategy that is exposed through review of historical events, personal interviews, and analysis of US foreign policy.
Featuring interviews with Michel Chossudovsky, Bill Blum, Chalmers Johnson and Noam Chomsky and many others.

Synopsis

SUPERPOWER: Far from a conspiracy film about the dangers of government secrets and regime change, this well-balanced film straddles the philosophical divide and allows viewers to understand the US quest for global dominance through economic and military strategy that is exposed through review of historical events, personal interviews, and analysis of US foreign policy.
The heart of SUPERPOWER lies in the analysis produced from a re-examination of history through a series of interviews with historians, documentarians, and academians such as Bill Blum, Chalmers Johnson, Michel Chossudovsky, and Noam Chomsky, and others with expertise in this subject such as the Executive Producer of The Unit, Command Sergeant (Ret.) Eric Haney; former Chief Economist for the US Department of Labor, Morgan Reynolds; three-time Nobel Peace Prize nominee, Kathy Kelly; and Lt. Col. (Ret) Karen Kwiatkowski. Examining key moments in America's history elicits a more consistent and plausible set of motives for US foreign policy actions guided by global expansion and military dominance, rather than the hyperbolic calls for democracy and totalitarian regime change that we have become so accustomed to hearing.
Should citizens trust that their government will keep them safe, a government that keeps secrets, and lies, in the name of national security? Does the simple act of withholding information lead to a world of eroding civil liberties and corruption? Superpower presents a view of US foreign policy, which lies in stark contrast to that depicted by corporate media, popular pundits, and US heads of state. With the fall of the Soviet Union, the US has emerged as the preeminent superpower of the world. SUPERPOWERillustrates how the United States has chosen to leverage that position to pursue a grand strategy which will ensure itself unilateral world domination through absolute economic and military superiority. It shows a consistent pattern of government deception.
The United States emerged from World War II with its industrial base still intact and the only nation with the atomic bomb. It was without question the most powerful country on earth. What was done with this unprecedented power, the effects it's had on our Republic and the rest of the world is the story of SUPERPOWER.

More info: www.superpowerthemovie.com or view the IMDB entry

Have you picked up your copy of this award-winning documentary?

SUPERPOWER IS AVAILABLE TO ORDER FROM GLOBAL RESEARCH
ORDER NOW! Special Offer of $22.00 plus s&h
Click here to go to our Online Store
http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=section&sectionName=store

================================

7. A less proud country

QUOTE: “No PM should be held strictly accountable for every utterance before taking office. But this exchange suggests an instinct to control and suppress, and that is precisely, 18 years on, what the Harper government is being accused of.”- Susan Crean, Calgary, 1992

- - - - -

A less proud country

http://www.ottawacitizen.com/news/less+proud+country/3330366/
story.html#ixzz0uzHn95oZ

Apathetic Canadians have allowed their government to trample freedoms -- but opposition is mounting
By Lawrence Scanlan, [Ottawa] Citizen Special July 28, 2010
There's been a sea change, a darkening of the political climate in this country. The first instinct is to discount such troubling thoughts. So perhaps the view of someone born elsewhere, but long on our shores, is more to be trusted. Ursula Franklin, the celebrated physicist, pacifist, author and Companion of the Order of Canada, recently spoke to CBC Radio's The Current. She had survived a Nazi death camp and come to Canada hoping for better. Now 88, Franklin is "profoundly worried about the absence and erosion of democracy in Canada." Democracy, I heard her say on the radio, is a slow and messy process. When Franklin sees cabinet ministers holding press conferences to discuss legislation not yet debated in the House of Commons, she sees that process being skirted. And when she hears the prime minister saying he does not "trust" the Opposition, she sees contempt for democracy itself. "Who wants to live in a country," Franklin asked, "where those who don't think like you are deemed untrustworthy?"

A German reporter here to cover the G20 summit likened Toronto's walls to the Berlin Wall and Checkpoint Charlie. I was just in Berlin and the checkpoint these days comprises a few sandbags and two "soldiers" in Second World War American uniforms posing for tourists' cameras. Walls fall in one place, rise up in another. But surely not here?

The annual gathering of the Writers' Union of Canada took place in Ottawa in June, with many former chairs on hand to offer memories of their time in office. Susan Crean remembered encountering a young, blue-eyed politico at a constitutional conference in Calgary in 1992. When the man learned that she had co-authored a certain book about American domination of Canadian and Quebec politicians, the man responded: "You should not have been allowed to write that book." The man: Stephen Harper. Crean never forgot his words, but especially the word 'allowed'. The room full of writers in Ottawa issued a gasp. Crean later elaborated on the encounter. "Harper spoke to me first and asked if I had written 'that book.' I asked which one, and he mentioned Two Nations, which I wrote with Quebec activist/sociologist and well known independentiste Marcel Rioux. ... Harper was clearly still angry about having had to read it at university. In his view, I took it, the book was treasonous. I was so shaken by his words, and his open hostility, that I immediately left the dining room." No PM should be held strictly accountable for every utterance before taking office. But this exchange suggests an instinct to control and suppress, and that is precisely, 18 years on, what the Harper government is being accused of.

MORE:
http://www.ottawacitizen.com/news/less+proud+country/3330366/
story.html#ixzz0uzHn95oZ

======================

8. WATER! WATER! WATER!

TODAY IS THE UNITED NATIONS SESSION ON THE RIGHT TO WATER

http://www.canadians.org/

WATCH FOR UPDATES!
Resolution passes overwhelmingly. 124 yes, 42 abstentions, 0 no!
UPDATE
11:15 am EST - We have just received word that the United Nations General Assembly has voted to recognize the right to water and sanitation. The resolution passed overwhelmingly. The unofficial vote count was 124 yes, 42 abstentions, 0 no.
Council of Canadians chairperson Maude Barlow, Blue Planet Project organizer Anil Naidoo, and national water campaigner Meera Karunananthan were at the General Assembly session this morning for the historic vote.

For Links to the following, see www.canadians.org/

MEDIA: Council of Canadians celebrates UN General Assembly recognition of human right to water, The Council of Canadians, July 28, 2010

NEWS: UN declares water, sanitation as human rights, Montreal Gazette, July 28, 2010

SPEECH: “The Human Right to Water and Sanitation” Intervention of the Permanent Representative of the Plurinational State of Bolivia, Ambassador Pablo Solon, July 28, 2010

BLOG: General Assembly recognizes access to clean water and sanitation is a human right

BLOG: UN declares water, sanitation as human rights

BLOG: WIN! United Nations passes right to water resolution

More to come: http://www.canadians.org/

= = = = = = = = =

9. Q: When is a lake not a lake?

A: When the Canadian Government says it should be a dump for mine waste.
Lakes across Canada are being destroyed by mining waste. Lakes that would normally be protected as fish habitat by the Fisheries Act are now being redefined as “tailings impoundment areas” according to a 2002 “schedule” added to the Metal Mining Effluent Regulations of the Act. Once added to Schedule 2, healthy freshwater lakes lose all protection and become dump sites for mining waste. Mining companies have the go-ahead to dump their tailings into perfectly healthy bodies of water, such as Sandy Pond in Newfoundland, Fish Lake in British Columbia, and Bamoos Lake in Ontario. Twelve pristine water bodies are currently slated for destruction under this law.
Vancouver-based Taseko Mines Ltd is proposing to drain Teztan Biny (Fish Lake) in B.C. in order to stockpile solid waste and use Fish Creek and Little Fish Lake as tailings impoundment areas for a gold-copper mining project called Prosperity Mine. Read more about Teztan Biny, recent public hearings and find out what you can do to help save this lake here.
Click here for Environment Canada’s list of 12 lakes proposed for destruction.
http://www.canadians.org/water/issues/TIAs/lakeslist.html
Mining Projects in Canada for Which Companies have Proposed the Use of Healthy Natural Water Bodies for Mine Waste Disposal

MORE: http://www.canadians.org/water/issues/TIAs/index.html
- - - -
Adapted from Environment Canada (2007) by Mining Watch Canada

=====================

10. Waterkeeper.ca Weekly: July 29th, 2010
www.waterkeeper.ca

Yes, we do need to take this tone (Oshawa)

“You don’t need to take that tone, ma’am.”
So said one Transport Canada staffer to one Lake Ontario Waterkeeper staffer over the telephone late last week.
We had contacted the federal government asking for a copy of the new agreement between Transport Canada and the City of Oshawa. It spells out the future of the Oshawa Harbour and – we hope – settles decades of dispute over who will clean up contaminated lands and who will restore public access to Lake Ontario.
The Government of Canada hosted a public event to announce the deal on July 16 … only trouble was, they forgot to share the deal with the public. Day after day we, the media, Oshawa-residents and community organizations kept requesting copies of the agreement. Then, finally, late Tuesday night it was posted on the City’s website.
We want to share our thoughts on the agreement with you. And the media. And our friends and family from Oshawa. We want to, but we can’t right now.
For one thing, the late-release of the documents means we haven’t had time to actually read and analyze the fine print. For another, we think it’s more important to first explain to you, to Transport Canada, and to everyone who wonders …
Yes, we do need to take this tone.
We need to be firm when a harbour sits, polluted and off-limits, with no restoration or law enforcement action for years on end. The gaping hole in the waterfront landfill carved by the Harbour Commission in 1976 has been leaking contaminants into the harbour for thirty-four years. We have known about the pollution problems there for at least twenty-seven years. The Commission promised action in 2002. To date, not a single significant remedial step has been taken.
We need to be firm when one of our cities loses its public marina. Boaters were kicked out in 2002. For eight years, Oshawa has been the only major city on the Great Lakes where the public cannot put a boat in the water.
We need to be firm when, after all of this, the federal government makes plans for industrial development that are completely inconsistent with local dreams and environmental protection. The rail spur was approved over local objections. The ethanol plant (still a major concern, by the way) was promoted by Government of Canada programs. Meanwhile, everyone who lives, works, and plays around the Oshawa Harbour fought for a different, mixed use, environmentally positive future.
We need to be firm when the federal government hires a highly respected mediator to propose a solution – then tosses aside his advice when it does not promote Port Authorities, federal control, or total industrialization.
We need to be firm when a city takes the Government of Canada to court, just to get its attention. The City of Oshawa had to resort to legal action and negotiations, just to force a settlement that begins to show respect for local interests, plans, and dreams. (If you have forgotten just how unresponsive the federal Harbour Commission has been, recall that its CEO told the press in 2002, “We’re going to do what we want with the marina for whatever are our reasons.”)
We need to be firm when the federal government demands all negotiations and plans remain behind closed doors. Legitimate decision-making is messy and time-consuming and no one can control the message or the outcome. That may be something that stakeholders dislike intensely, but it is actually how government is supposed to work.
We need to be firm when any level of government does not release source documents. With all due respect, we will not just “trust you”. We are hard workers, and we like to read every line of original source material we can get our hands on before we make up our minds about whether a project is good or bad for the water. We also strongly prefer it when the media is allowed to do its job – to report, with a healthy dose of skepticism – based on facts and not just press releases.
It is our duty as educators and as citizens to make recommendations when accepted procedures are not followed. When decisions could be better-informed. When groups of people are being asked to give up rights and privileges to accommodate others. If, after a decision is made transparently, all the facts are presented for the public to make up its own mind (i.e., without spin, thank you very much), real action is taken to correct environmental problems, and respect for public knowledge is shown … If, after all of that, you still object to our “tone”, then we most sincerely apologize.
Until then, we will continue to be firm. Because we truly care what happens to the Oshawa Harbour and its people.

Recent News (Links are at: www.waterkeeper.ca )

Yes, we do need to take this tone (Oshawa)
Nuclear regulators promise safe shipping – St. Catharines Standard – Ontario, CA
Water hazards resurface – The Whig Standard – Ontario, CA
durhamregion.com | Warm temperatures increasing bacteria levels at Durham beaches
Local fish make for tasty, economical eating | The Times Leader, Wilkes-Barre, PA
Oshawa harbour deal available online July 28
Lafarge Canada Inc. applies for a certificate of approval for a waste disposal site – EPA s. 27
Update of brownfield soil and ground water standards
Dead ducks haunt oilsands’ reputation
Details of top secret Oshawa waterfront deal to go public in July
Warmer waters: Good for swimmers, not so much for fish
Oshawa wins ‘Harbour Divestiture 6/49′
Coalition petitions MOE to stop landfill
Senator expresses concern about shipments of radioactive nuclear waste
Radioactive shipment raises alarm
Youth council to use grant to improve beach in Hastings
Committee makes plans to overhaul Moira Lake beach
Port Hope seeks relaxed sediment testing from province
Dredging funds would be welcomed by local boaters, marinas
A front-row seat to evolution at your local stream
Stand-up paddleboards gain popularity in Toronto
Pickering council move on Big Pipe lawsuit stinks: protesters
Pickering residents protest growing stink over sewer expansion
Bruce Power tries to ease fears
Stakeholders react to Oshawa waterfront deal
Presqu’ile, a hidden alternative to the crowded Sandbanks
7 Beach Revelations to Share With Your Friends and Family This Summer
Potential threat
durhamregion.com | That’s no oil rig
Ruling could flood polluters with lawsuits, observers say – The Globe and Mail

Waterkeeper.ca Weekly:
Waterkeeper.ca Weekly reflects the meaning and force of environmental justice on Lake Ontario. To contact the editor, please e-mail news@waterkeeper.ca. Lake Ontario Waterkeeper is a charitable organization, no. 86262 2750 RR0001, and a proud member of Waterkeeper Alliance. Please consider making a donation to support our work.

======================

11. Plankton, crucial to the planet for food and oxygen, in deep trouble; global warming blamed

http://www.thestar.com/article/
841619--plankton-crucial-to-the-planet-for-food-and-oxygen-in-deep-trouble-global-warming-blamed

By: Seth Borenstein, The Associated Press 28/07/2010 1:20 PM

WASHINGTON - Despite their tiny size, plant plankton found in the world's oceans are crucial to much of life on Earth. They are the foundation of the bountiful marine food web, produce half the world's oxygen and suck up harmful carbon dioxide.
They also are declining sharply.
Worldwide phytoplankton levels are down 40 per cent since the 1950s, according to a study published Wednesday in the journal Nature. The probable cause is global warming, which makes it hard for the plant plankton to get vital nutrients, researchers say.
The numbers are both staggering and disturbing, say the Canadian scientists who did the study and a top U.S. government scientist.
"It's concerning because phytoplankton is the basic currency for everything going on in the ocean," said Dalhousie University biology professor Boris Worm, a study co-author. "It's almost like a recession ... that has been going on for decades."
Half a million datapoints dating to 1899 show that plant plankton levels in almost all the world's oceans started to drop in the 1950s. The biggest changes are in the Arctic, southern and equatorial Atlantic and equatorial Pacific oceans. Only the Indian Ocean is not showing a decline. The study's authors said it is too early to say that plant plankton is on the verge of vanishing.

MORE:
http://www.thestar.com/article/
841619--plankton-crucial-to-the-planet-for-food-and-oxygen-in-deep-trouble-global-warming-blamed

[Oscar]

NUKE NEWS: August 2, 2010

1. TWO EVENTS to commemorate Atomic Bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki
2. POEM: We Lament the Loss by Don Kossick
3. Douglas Roche Named Honorary Citizen of Hiroshima
4. Chalk River reactor restart pushed back
5. Nuclear waste dump opposed by Traditional Elders
6. Don’t Be Fooled: Nuclear Power Kills
7. ActNow! Don't React Later!
8. DND computers used to remove criticism of F-35s from Wikipedia
9. Tory government misplaces Canadian Arctic
10. Hawks versus doves
11. Global cluster bomb ban takes effect August 1st
12. 'Fear factor' in nuke report: Norris
13. Nuclear Energy Loses Cost Advantage
14. Here at the Crossover, Solar Beats Nuclear
15. Renewable Energy at the Tipping Point
16. Enviros fend off nuke money grabs – for now
17. SEN HUTCHISON THREATENS NEW ATTEMPT TO GIVE $9 BILLION IN NEW NUKE LOANS AS TOP PROJECTS TEETER TOWARD COLLAPSE
18. New Colonialism: Pentagon Carves Africa Into Military Zones
19. Preparing for World War III, Targeting Iran Part I: Global Warfare
20. Russia, Afghanistan and Star Wars.
21. The Other Tragedy By Fidel Castro
22. Earth warming evidence clear
23. Atmospheric Geoengineering: Weather Manipulation, Contrails and Chemtrails

==================

1. TWO EVENTS to commemorate Atomic Bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki

1) No more nuclear war: Hiroshima and Nagasaki commemoration – Saskatoon – Aug. 6 & 9

Around the world, August 6th and 9th mark the days of the 1945 atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Every year, people around the world come together to remember.

We say never again.

Join us . . . .

Friday August 6, 2010 - 7:00 pm – Saskatoon
Rotary Peace Pole Park
Saskatchewan Crescent between Traffic Bridge and the Senator Sid Buckwold Bridge

In the event of rain:
St. David’s-Trinity United Church
3318 Merritt Street, Montgomery Place

Sponsored by
Saskatoon Peace Coalition
Project Ploughshares
Seniors Against Nuclear Arms

For more information, call 384-4134 or email mj.crawford@sasktel.net

http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#!/event.php?eid=134504779921946
--
Keep up to date on peace news and events with the Saskatoon Peace Coalition Blog www.saskatoonpeace.tk

= = = = = =

2) MAKING PEACE VIGIL August 5 2010 - Regina

Bearing witness to our society’s involvement in violence and injustice

Committing ourselves to creative action for change

EVERY THURSDAY until PEACE breaks out

FROM 12:00 noon to 12:30 pm
ON SCARTH STREET AT 11TH AVENUE, Regina

EVERYONE IS WELCOME

The vigil takes a stand on a range of issues, including:

- The deployment of Canada’s military in Afghanistan
- Canadian Pension Plan investments in corporations making weapons
- Saskatchewan’s involvement in the uranium industry
- The suspension of human and civil rights in the name of national security
- The Canadian government’s failure to honour treaties signed with First Nations
- Social inequity in housing and employment in Regina
- Racism in Canada and elsewhere
- Violence against women in Canada and world wide
- The lack of a national early learning and child care system
- The unequal distribution of wealth both in Canada and world wide
- Canadian Pension Plan investments in the tar sands industry
- War against the earth systems that give us life

For further information please contact

Florence Stratton at 522-2310 or florence.stratton@uregina.ca

Catherine Verrall at 569-7699 or cfverrall@yahoo.ca

On the web: http://makingpeace.wordpress.com

REMEMBERING HIROSHIMA 65 YEARS AFTER

On August 6, 1945, the United States dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima, a city of 350,000. The bomb instantly killed a third of the population, most of them civilians. Another third would be dead by the year’s end, as a result of injuries or radiation poisoning. It was the single most brutal act of violence in human history.

CANADA AND THE NUCLEAR WEAPONS INDUSTRY

Canada has never produced an atomic bomb itself, despite having the technical ability to do so. However, Canada’s nuclear record is not innocent. Indeed, Canada has been very much involved in the nuclear arms industry from the beginning.

1942–1969: TRADING ATOMS

Canada started trading atoms in 1942 when it joined the US nuclear bomb effort known as the Manhattan Project, providing scientific skill and uranium to US weapons laboratories.

Canada was the primary source of the uranium used in making the bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945. The uranium came from Port Radium, North West Territories.

Between 1945 and 1969, Canada was the main supplier of uranium for the Cold War atomic arsenals of the US and Britain. According to one estimate, Saskatchewan uranium alone was used to produce 27,000 American nuclear weapons.

In 1970, Canada signed the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. Officially, Canada now exports uranium exclusively for the generation of electricity. However, much of that uranium, whether exported raw or as fuel in a nuclear reactor, ends up being used in the manufacture of nuclear weapons.

1970–2010: REACTOR EXPORTS AND ATOMIC BOMBS

In 1974, India used a Canadian nuclear reactor to produce plutonium for its first atomic bomb. The reactor, a forerunner of the CANDU reactor, was a gift to India from Canada. India now has between 40 and 95 nuclear weapons.

India’s nuclear success set off a nuclear arms race with Pakistan. In 1998, Pakistan was able to detonate its first atomic explosion also using plutonium from a Canadian nuclear reactor. The on-going tension between India and Pakistan poses one of the greatest risks of nuclear war in the world today.

Canada has already sold CANDU nuclear reactors to Argentina, China, India, Pakistan, Romania, and South Korea. CANDU produces larger volumes of plutonium than other commercial reactors. Every CANDU reactor sold is heavily subsidized by the Canadian taxpayer.

1990-2010: RAW URANIUM EXPORTS AND WMDs

Canada exports 7.3 million kilograms of uranium annually, all of it coming from Saskatchewan and the majority of it going to the US.

This uranium is the initial source of much, if not all, of the depleted uranium currently being used by the US military for the production of depleted uranium weaponry, bullets and rockets coated with depleted uranium, making them dense enough to penetrate tank armour and concrete underground bunkers.

On impact, depleted uranium bursts into flame, releasing tiny radiation particles that contaminate all living things and the environment with deadly radiation with a half-life of 4.5 billion years.

A form of low-level nuclear warfare, depleted uranium weapons are classified as weapons of mass destruction under international law. Their demonstrated public health effects include cancer, immune system failings, kidney damage, infertility, and birth defects.

The US has used depleted uranium weaponry in Afghanistan, Bosnia, Iraq, and Kosovo.

The only way to stop the manufacture and use of nuclear weapons is to stop the trade in uranium. Without uranium there can be no nuclear weapons.

THE ELM DANCE: HEALING THE WORLD
With us at the vigil today are the Singers of the Sacred Web.
We invite you to join in the Elm Dance.
The Elm Dance took form in Germany in the 1980s, and in the 1990s moved eastward to areas poisoned by the Chernobyl disaster, the worst nuclear power plant accident in history. There, and especially in Novozybkov, the most contaminated of inhabited cities, the dance became an expression of the will to live. This simple beautiful dance has now spread around the planet as people gather to work together for the healing of our world.

===================

2. POEM: We Lament the Loss by Don Kossick

We lament your loss,
Yes, you went there – energetic – purposeful – carrying your nation's pride,
You came back – without an arm, a leg or your life.
Little value was put on what you lost – 250,000 for the arm or the leg,
And for your life a ride down the highway of heroes,
Accompanied by the deep sorrow of your family and friends.
What about us who saw you go and come back,
Where did we as a nation confront this war with no end,
Where you were led by our leaders to the hard death ground of Afghanistan,
Where inflated generals told us that your suffering was worth it.
Where were we as a nation accountable and responsible,
To see beyond the false words of pride and patriotism,
And what we have done to the people of Afghanistan,
And to you the common soldier,
We lament our loss.

by Don Kossick, Saskatoon
July, 2010

=======================

3. Douglas Roche Named Honorary Citizen of Hiroshima
Calls for Start on Legal Ban of Nuclear Weapons

http://www.gsinstitute.org/mpi/archives/07_30_10.html

A posting on the web site of the Middle Powers Initiative: Building Bridges between governments to support the elimination of nuclear weapons

Hon. Douglas Roche, O.C., former Canadian Ambassador for Disarmament and Chairman Emeritus of the Middle Powers Initiative (MPI), was named a Special Honorary Citizen of Hiroshima at an international conference in Hiroshima July 28-29 for his work in founding MPI.
The conference, held a few days before the historic visit to Hiroshima of UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, issued an appeal to governments, which have already called for a comprehensive legal process toward the elimination of nuclear weapons, to convene a special conference in 2011 “to facilitate the start of negotiations on a nuclear weapons convention.”
Referring to Senator Roche’s several previous lectures in Hiroshima and the founding of MPI, Mayor Tadatoshi Akiba said, “Such activities as these have made him very influential in raising awareness of peace among the people of Hiroshima.” He added that Senator Roche’s support of Mayors for Peace, [ http://www.mayorsforpeace.org/ ]
now numbering more than 4,000 cities around the world, had enabled the organization to gain international trust. “Mr. Roche’s contribution to Hiroshima, a city that has experience atomic bombing, is truly remarkable.”
In his acceptance remarks, [ http://www.gsinstitute.org/mpi/pubs/07_10_Roche_Hiroshima.pdf ] Senator Roche said: “Fellow citizens of Hiroshima: I rejoice to be with you. I share your grieves and anxieties, your joys and hopes.
I will carry the name Hiroshima with me wherever I go. Like you, I stand for the total elimination of nuclear weapons. I will fight for this goal as long as I live.
Long live Hiroshima!”
MORE: http://www.gsinstitute.org/mpi/archives/07_30_10.html

====================

4. Chalk River reactor restart pushed back

http://www.thestarphoenix.com/health/
Chalk+River+reactor+restart+pushed+back/3340551/story.html

POSTMEDIA NEWS JULY 30, 2010
The restart of a nuclear reactor that produced one-third of the world's supply of medical isotopes is now expected in August, Atomic Energy of Canada Limited said.
Earlier this month Canada's nuclear safety commission authorized the restart of the half-century old National Research Universal reactor in Chalk River, Ont., -- 185 kilometres northwest of Ottawa.
The reactor was expected to begin working again on July 31, after being shut down last year after a containment vessel began leaking radioactive heavy water.
But AECL says that during the reloading of reactor fuel officials determined some reactor instrumentation was not responding as expected.

================

5. Nuclear waste dump opposed by Traditional Elders

http://www.treatyrepublic.net/content/
nuclear-waste-dump-opposed-traditional-elders

"I will not let go of the waste dump coming into the land, and I will talk, and I will talk on behalf of my elders and my people, who have fought very hard to get their land back." Traditional landowner Dianne Stokes
Edwina Scott AAP Sydney Morning Herald July 26, 2010
Aboriginal landowners have protested in Resources Minister Martin Ferguson's electorate to oppose the establishment of Australia's first radioactive waste dump on their land.
The traditional owners have launched a legal challenge against the federal government and the Northern Land Council over plans for the nuclear waste dump at Muckaty station, near Tennant Creek in the Northern Territory.
Elders from Muckaty on Monday travelled to the seat of Batman in Melbourne's north, calling for the waste dump to be stopped.
Mark Lane Jangala, a senior traditional owner of Muckaty, claims he and senior elders from four other traditional owner groups were not adequately consulted before the station was nominated as a possible dump site.
Traditional landowners have been promised about $12 million in government compensation if the waste dump goes ahead.
The Ngapa clan have volunteered a four-square-kilometre area to be considered for the facility, which is expected to require one-square-kilometre of land.
Elder Doris Kelly says a waste dump would destroy her people's culture.
"It's very cultural and spiritual land," she told reporters.
"We need our land to be safe and in one piece."
Lawyer Martin Hyde says only one interested landowner group was consulted over the proposed dump.

MORE: http://www.treatyrepublic.net/content/
nuclear-waste-dump-opposed-traditional-elders

- - - - -

Traditional owners take nuke dump fight to court

http://www.treatyrepublic.net/content/
nuclear-waste-dump-opposed-traditional-elders

Mon Jul 26, 2010
A group of Indigenous landowners from the Northern Territory is taking Federal Court action in Melbourne against a proposed nuclear waste dump.
The Federal Government wants to build the dump on land at Muckaty Station, north of Tennant Creek.
But traditional owners say there has been a lack of community consultation.
High-profile barrister Julian Burnside will represent the group in the case.
A protest has been held this morning in the electorate of federal Energy and Resources Minister Martin Ferguson in Melbourne's north.
Traditional landowner Dianne Stokes says the community is determined the dump will not proceed.
"I will not let go of the waste dump coming into the land, and I will talk, and I will talk on behalf of my elders and my people, who have fought very hard to get their land back," she said.
"That's why I'm standing here in front of everyone to talk to, and tell them here about how I feel about my ancestors, and my country, and my spiritual land."
The court case has been adjourned for a directions hearing in Melbourne in October

=======================

6. Don’t Be Fooled: Nuclear Power Kills

http://www.commondreams.org/view/2010/07/29-0

by John LaForge Published on Thursday, July 29, 2010 by CommonDreams.org
Two of the nuclear industry's talking points these days are that "nuclear power hasn't killed anyone" and that "no one died at Three Mile Island."
The 1986 Chernobyl catastrophe puts the lie to such bull, but the deliberate denial of thousands of other deaths is also part of the industry's effort. For younger people who have no experience or recall of reactor explosions and meltdowns, steam bursts or radioactive waste spills, pro-nuclear propaganda has convinced many of them that radiation is merely medicinal or dental and must be harmless. On the contrary, there is no safe dose of radiation, and any exposure no matter how little increases the risk of cancer and other diseases.
A quick look at the record of some of the deadliest radiation accidents counters efforts by the Nuclear Energy Institute, and some in Congress, to whitewash their poisoned nuclear power and win another $32 billion in taxpayer giveaways for building new reactors. What follows is a sampling -- a completely footnoted version of the list is available from Nukewatch [1]. [http://www.nukewatch.com/ ]
- - - - -
MORE: http://www.commondreams.org/view/2010/07/29-0

==========================

7. ActNow! Don't React Later!

We cannot afford to wait for a nuclear accident as bad – or worse – than the oil disaster in the Gulf. That’s why we have launched our new ActNow! campaign. Please call the White House (202-456-1111) and Congress (202-224-3121) and ask our leaders to: Block all funding for new nuclear facilities and uranium mines! Phase out existing reactors! Conduct a full investigation of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission! And please sign our online petition that will be delivered to the White House and every House and Senate office on September 7
Sign here
http://www.beyondnuclear.org/actnow/?SSLoginOk=true

=====================

8. DND computers used to remove criticism of F-35s from Wikipedia

http://www.ceasefire.ca/
?p=5199&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+ceasefire%2FycPl+%28Ceasefire.ca%29

Posted: 31 Jul 2010 12:30 AM PDT
The Department of National Defence has confirmed that its computers were used to alter the Wikipedia entry regarding the F-35 fighter and the Conservative government’s decision to purchase 65 of them. Reportedly, the edits included “the removal of information critical of the government’s plan to buy the jets and the addition of insulting comments aimed [...]

===================

9. Tory government misplaces Canadian Arctic

http://www.ceasefire.ca/
?p=5225&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+ceasefire%2FycPl+%28Ceasefire.ca%29

Posted: 30 Jul 2010 05:08 PM PDT
In an effort to bolster its claims that Canada needs the F-35 to defend Canadian sovereignty in the North, the Conservative Party is pointing to the recent intercept of two Russian Bear aircraft “over the Arctic” by Canadian CF-18s as evidence of the need for new fighters, claiming that the intercept puts Liberal leader Michael [...]

======================

10. Hawks versus doves

http://www.ceasefire.ca/
?p=5144&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+ceasefire%2FycPl+%28Ceasefire.ca%29

Posted: 30 Jul 2010 01:35 PM PDT
Last weekend’s National Post published a letter from Senator Pamela D. Wallin questioning the independence and expertise of three critics of the Department of National Defence’s purchase of F-35 fighter jets on the basis that all of them have ties to the Rideau Institute. Dismissing the Rideau Institute as an organization that “routinely criticizes Canada’s military spending”, Senator [...]

==========================

11. Global cluster bomb ban takes effect August 1st

http://www.ceasefire.ca/
?p=5182&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+ceasefire%2FycPl+%28Ceasefire.ca%29

Posted: 01 Aug 2010 12:30 AM PDT
A global treaty that bans the use of cluster bombs, a weapon containing multiple – often hundreds – of small explosive submunitions or bomblets, will take effect today, August 1st, when the treaty, signed by 107 countries, becomes legally binding. Steve Goose, who is the co-chair of the Cluster Munition Coalition, comments that, “Nations that [...]

======================

12. 'Fear factor' in nuke report: Norris

http://www.thestarphoenix.com/technology/
Fear+factor+nuke+report+Norris/3336167/story.html

Says gov't remains open-minded about right model for nuclear power generation
By James Wood, The StarPhoenix July 29, 2010
While a new study says nuclear power would be too costly for Saskatchewan, the Saskatchewan Party government believes it may yet be an affordable and attractive option for the province.
The government itself cited cost as one of the major factors when it closed the door on nuclear power for the next decade last December.
But SaskPower Minister Rob Norris dismissed a Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives report released this week that found nuclear power would be the most expensive option for Saskatchewan.
The CCPA report, written by Heath Packman, a staffer in the former NDP government, cited various studies to conclude that nuclear power would triple consumers' power bills without substantially decreasing greenhouse gas emissions.
But Norris said there was "fear factor" involved in the report and accused it of being written with "a conclusion in mind."
"Certainly we remain open-minded about the nuclear option for energy in Saskatchewan," he said in an interview Wednesday.
Though the government itself raised concerns about cost in relation to a proposal from Bruce Power to build two 1,000 megawatt reactors in the province, there are "evolving business models" around nuclear energy, he said.
He cited the development of small reactor technology, which is not currently viable for power production.

MORE: http://www.thestarphoenix.com/technology/
Fear+factor+nuke+report+Norris/3336167/story.html

=======================

13. Nuclear Energy Loses Cost Advantage

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/27/business/global/
27iht-renuke.html?_r=1&src=busln

by Diana S. Powers July 26, 2010
PARIS — Solar photovoltaic systems have long been painted as a clean way to generate electricity, but expensive compared with other alternatives to oil, like nuclear power. No longer. In a “historic crossover,” the costs of solar photovoltaic systems have declined to the point where they are lower than the rising projected costs of new nuclear plants, according to a paper published this month.
“Solar photovoltaics have joined the ranks of lower-cost alternatives to new nuclear plants,” John O. Blackburn, a professor of economics at Duke University, in North Carolina, and Sam Cunningham, a graduate student, wrote in the paper, “Solar and Nuclear Costs — The Historic Crossover.”
This crossover occurred at 16 cents per kilowatt hour, they said.
While solar power costs have been declining, the costs of nuclear power have been rising inexorably over the past eight years, said Mark Cooper, senior fellow for economic analysis at Vermont Law School’s Institute for Energy and Environment.
Estimates of construction costs — about $3 billion per reactor in 2002 — have been regularly revised upward to an average of about $10 billion per reactor, and the estimates are likely to keep rising, said Mr. Cooper, an analyst specializing in tracking nuclear power costs.
Identifying the real costs of competing energy technologies is complicated by the wide range of subsidies and tax breaks involved. As a result, U.S. taxpayers and utility users could end up spending hundreds of billions, even trillions of dollars more than necessary to achieve an ample low-carbon energy supply, if legislative proposals before the U.S. Congress lead to adoption of an ambitious nuclear development program, Mr. Cooper said in a report last November.

MORE: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/27/business/global/
27iht-renuke.html?_r=1&src=busln

==========================

14. Here at the Crossover, Solar Beats Nuclear

http://www.renewableenergyworld.com/rea/blog/post/2010/07/
here-at-the-crossover-solar-beats-nuclear

July 30, 2010
16 cents per kilowatt-hour. It doesn’t sound very profound, but its impact could be as big as 9-11 or 1776 or E=MC2.
The rap against solar is that it is too expensive, right? Wrong. And the big deal about nuclear is that it is so cheap, right? Wrong. In this case, 2 wrongs make a right.
According to Solar and Nuclear Costs – The Historic Crossover; Solar Energy is Now the Better Buy, from John O. Blackburn, a Duke University professor of economics, solar photovoltaic (PV) energy-generated electricity now costs around 14-to-19 cents per kilowatt-hour (kW-hr) and nuclear plants in the planning stages will not be able to sell their electricity at less than 14-to-18 cents per kW-hr. That makes NOW the “crossover point” at which solar achieves price parity with nuclear and it makes "16 cents per kW-hr" the numeric formulation heralding the arrival of what visionary Hazel Henderson called The Age of Light.
Nuclear power cost expert Mark Cooper, a senior fellow for economic analysis at Vermont Law School’s Institute for Energy and Environment, says the cost of a nuclear power plant went from ~$3 billion per reactor (average) in 2002 to ~$10 billion per reactor (average) in 2010. (Costs are, of course, somewhat variable by region.) (See THE TOO, TOO COSTLY CASE OF NUCLEAR POWER)
Opponents of solar PV often say it is only competitive because of subsidies. But a report in 2000 – when nuclear plants were only enormously expensive and not prohibitively expensive – found that ~$151 billion in federal subsidies went to the wind, solar and nuclear industries and 96.3% of it went to nuclear.
With the price of nuclear energy-generated electricity steadily rising and the price of solar PV-generated electricity steadily coming down, the Blackburn study predicts the cost of solar PV will be price-competitive WITHOUT subsidies by 2020.

MORE: http://www.renewableenergyworld.com/rea/blog/post/2010/07/
here-at-the-crossover-solar-beats-nuclear

=========================

15. Renewable Energy at the Tipping Point

http://www.worldwatch.org/node/6482

Renewable energy is breaking into the mainstream, buoyed by hundreds of new government energy policies, accelerating private investment, and myriad technology advances. That is the story told by a new report that Worldwatch co-authored: the Renewables Global Status Report 2010. Produced by the REN21 network of governments, NGOs, and industry associations, the report suggests that renewable energy is a booming new economic sector that has powered its way through a deep global recession, emerging stronger than ever.

Read: Renewable Energy at the Tipping Point by Christopher Flavin
http://www.worldwatch.org/node/6482

Download: Renewables Global Status Report 2010 by Janet Sawin and Eric Martinot
http://www.worldwatch.org/node/6481

===================

16. Enviros fend off nuke money grabs – for now

While the nuclear power industry has tried to secure massive subsidies and even safety regulation rollbacks this entire congressional session, they have largely failed, a victory deserving celebration – and continued vigilance. Call your U.S. Senators and Representative at (202) 224-3121 to urge they block any more attempted money grabs. Request a meeting with them during the August congressional recess.

Read More
http://www.beyondnuclear.org/home/2010/7/30/
enviros-fend-off-nuke-money-grabs-for-now.html

=====================

17. SEN HUTCHISON THREATENS NEW ATTEMPT TO GIVE $9 BILLION IN NEW NUKE LOANS AS TOP PROJECTS TEETER TOWARD COLLAPSE
YOUR ACTIONS NOW CAN STOP THEM AGAIN!

http://org2.democracyinaction.org/o/5502/p/dia/action/public/
?action_KEY=3831

July 30, 2010

One thing you can say about the nuclear power industry: they just don't give up when it comes to trying to get their hands on taxpayer money!
Less than 10 days ago, the Senate rejected a House-passed emergency supplemental funding bill that included $9 Billion in new loans for nuclear reactor construction. Now, Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison R-Texas) is trying to attach that $9 Billion to any bill that might get through the Senate. She offered it to a bill to assist small businesses (never mind that no nuclear utility qualifies as a small business), but Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid refused to let this amendment (and dozens of others) take up valuable Senate floor time.

Now we have growing concern that Sen. Hutchison, or another of the nuclear industry's supporters, may try to attach it to Senator Reid's modest energy bill, which is expected to be considered on the floor of the Senate next week and which currently contains no support for nuclear power. Please write your Senators here and tell them to oppose adding any nuclear subsidies to this energy bill--or any other bill.

But if you want more background, read on:

There are two projects high on the Department of Energy's "short list" for nuclear loans: UniStar Nuclear's Calvert Cliffs-3 in Maryland and NRG's South Texas two-unit reactor proposal. Both are in serious trouble.

On Wednesday, one UniStar partner, Maryland's Constellation Energy, said it needs a loan guarantee by the end of summer or it might end the project; while the other partner, Electricite de France, yesterday took a $1 Billion+ write-off of its investment in UniStar and Constellation. These developments come on top of growing concern among both U.S. and French nuclear regulators over serious safety deficiencies in the Areva EPR reactor design chosen for the project.

NRG's South Texas project has been in trouble for many months. Its main partner, the City of San Antonio, essentially dropped out of the project. Only partially taking up their planned investment is a group that is primarily the Japanese company Toshiba. NRG also has warned it needs a loan guarantee quickly or it will give up.

The Department of Energy is under intense pressure to approve at least one of these projects. But which one? It--and the nuclear industry's backers in Congress, would prefer that both be approved. Right now, the Department of Energy has $10 Billion to give out in nuclear loans--not nearly enough to support both of these projects. But $9 Billion more of your taxpayer dollars would do the trick.

Why U.S. taxpayers should support giant foreign corporations (Electricite de France is the world's largest electric utility, for example), especially ones that already have written off their investments in these projects or will simply drop out if the taxpayers don't pick up their tab now, is beyond us. Neither project even has a license to build a new reactor, and neither will have one for at least two more years. Make no mistake: these nuclear loans are taxpayer bailouts for nuclear power projects that cannot and will not succeed on their own. Not because companies like Electricite de France and Toshiba can't afford to build nuclear reactors, but because they don't want to use their own money to do so. They want us to take their risks.

Please write your Senators now and tell them to oppose any more nuclear loans.
And please send your friends, relatives and colleagues to this link so they can express their opinions too: http://org2.democracyinaction.org/o/5502/p/dia/action/public/
?action_KEY=3831

And please help us pay the costs of this ongoing campaign here. We're starting to see real progress; help us keep it up!

Thanks for all you do,

Michael Mariotte
Executive Director
Nuclear Information and Resource Service
nirsnet@nirs.org
www.nirs.org

=====================

18. New Colonialism: Pentagon Carves Africa Into Military Zones by Rick Rozoff

(See 2 related articles below. Ed.)

QUOTE: “The U.S. is not dragging almost every nation in Africa into its military network because of altruism or concerns for the security of the continent's people. AFRICOM's function is that of every predatory military power: The threat and use of armed violence to gain economic and geopolitical advantages.”

New Colonialism: Pentagon Carves Africa Into Military Zones

http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=19007

Global Research, May 5, 2010 Stop NATO
Last year the commander of U.S. Africa Command (AFRICOM), General William Ward, said the Pentagon had military partnerships with 35 of the continent's 53 nations, "representing U.S. relationships that span the continent." [1]
That number has increased in the interim.
As the first overseas regional military command set up by Washington in this century, the first since the end of the Cold War, and the first in 25 years, the activation of AFRICOM, initially under the wing of U.S. European Command on October 1, 2007, then as an independent entity a year later, emphasizes the geostrategic importance of Africa in U.S. international military, political and economic planning.
Africa Command's area of responsibility includes more nations - 53, all African states except Egypt, which remains in U.S. Central Command, and the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (Western Sahara), which is a member of the African Union but which the U.S. and its NATO allies recognize as part of Morocco, which conquered it in 1975 - than any of the Pentagon's other Unified Combatant Commands: European Command, Central Command, Pacific Command, Southern Command and Northern Command (founded in 2002).
The U.S. is alone in maintaining regional multi-service military commands in all parts of the world, a process initiated after World War Two as America pursued its self-appointed 20th century manifest destiny as history's first worldwide military superpower.
- - - - SNIP - - - -
A report by the Stars and Stripes on May 2 disclosed that "At a remote military base in the jungle city of Kisangani, an elite team of U.S. troops is attempting to retrain a battalion of Congolese infantrymen."
The feature laid emphasis on the humanitarian facet of the operation as reports on AFRICOM activities generally do, but also contained these excerpts:
"There are economic and strategic incentives to bringing more security to the Congo, which is rich in natural resources such as cobalt, a key component in the manufacturing of cell phones and other electronics. The country contains 80 percent of the world's cobalt reserves....An April 2009 report to Congress by the National Defense Stockpile Center made clear that ensuring access to mineral markets around the world is of vital interest to national security." [37]
The U.S. is not dragging almost every nation in Africa into its military network because of altruism or concerns for the security of the continent's people. AFRICOM's function is that of every predatory military power: The threat and use of armed violence to gain economic and geopolitical advantages.

= = = = = =

US, NATO Allies Prepare New Invasion Of Somalia
By Rick Rozoff

QUOTE: “Several critics have likened Africom to a Trojan horse, using the cover of humanitarian aid to pursue America's real strategic interests." [21]
EASBRIG is expected to grow to several thousand troops from as many as 14 nations. One of the main missions of AFRICOM is create, train and deploy regional military forces to further U.S. and general Western objectives in Africa, the world's second most populous continent. Somalia is the first test case.”

US, NATO Allies Prepare New Invasion Of Somalia

By Rick Rozoff

www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=20365

Global Research, July 30, 2010 Stop NATO
The 15th biennial African Union summit in Kampala, Uganda ended on July 27 with mixed results regarding support for U.S. and Western European plans to escalate foreign military intervention in nearby Somalia.
The 35 heads of state present at the three-day meeting were reported to have authorized the deployment of 2,000 more African troops to back up the beleaguered Western-backed Transitional Federal Government (TFG) in Mogadishu and to bring the full complement of forces doing so to 8,000, but the new contingent will probably consist solely of troops from Uganda and Burundi, which supply the approximately 6,000 already serving with the African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM). Reports of another 2,000 reinforcements from Djibouti and Guinea are problematic and their deployment remains to be seen, not that pressure will not be exerted on those two nations and others from outside the continent.
AMISOM is the successor to the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) Peace Support Mission in Somalia (IGASOM) set up in 2005 by the six-member group which includes Djibouti, Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia, Sudan and Uganda and which also was to have provided 8,000 troops for deployment to Somalia. The 53 members of the African Union except for Uganda and Burundi have been loath to commit military units to intervene in fighting in Somalia, whether against the Islamic Courts Union five years ago or against al-Shabaab insurgents currently.
In late 2006 U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice met with Ugandan Foreign Minister Sam Kutesa to plan the earlier IGASOM operation and in January of 2007 Uganda pledged its first troops which, along with those included in a reported offer by Nigeria, were to total 8,000.
Three and a half years later, there are only 6,000 foreign troops in Somalia (now under AMISOM, the only difference being the acronym now employed) and all of those from Uganda and Burundi, both nations U.S. military clients and surrogates.
The African Union (AU) initially approved AMISOM on January 19, 2007 and granted it a six-month mandate. In July of 2010 the real prime movers behind the mission, the U.S. and its NATO allies in the European Union, are pushing for an escalation of armed intervention in Somalia with more Western-trained Ugandan troops conducting open combat operations: Changing the mandate from, to use the terms employed to mask military aggression, peacekeeping to peace enforcement.
- - - - SNIP - - - -
According to the Christian Science Monitor, "Money for logistical support is coming from the United States, which has reportedly already pumped millions of dollars into similar smaller training programs run by local militaries in Uganda and Djibouti over the past 18 months.
"The EU program to train an army to fight for Somalia's beleaguered transitional government involves 150 instructors from 14 EU countries at a cost of $6 million."
The featured cited above also provided the following background information:
"Since 2004, the US has poured huge resources into initiatives such as Easbrig [Eastern Africa Standby Brigade], using private contractors and military advisers to train almost 60,000 African soldiers such as...Rwandans....Africom has also trained Congolese special forces to operate in the country's mineral-rich forests and reformed virtually the entire Liberian national army. Easbrig is an example of what Secretary of State Hillary Clinton calls 'smart power' - a mixture of military might and nation-building that bears a resemblance to Rumsfeld's concept of the 'long war'....Several critics have likened Africom to a Trojan horse, using the cover of humanitarian aid to pursue America's real strategic interests." [21]
EASBRIG is expected to grow to several thousand troops from as many as 14 nations.
One of the main missions of AFRICOM is create, train and deploy regional military forces to further U.S. and general Western objectives in Africa, the world's second most populous continent. Somalia is the first test case.

= = = = = =

USES FOR COBALT ( …follow the money – connect the dots! Ed.)

QUOTE: “Cobalt is considered a strategic metal by the US government. A strategic material is a commodity whose lack of availability during a national emergency would seriously affect the economic, industrial, and defensive capability of the US.”

http://www.idahocobalt.com/s/CobaltUses.asp

Introduction:

Many readers of this section of our website will be surprised to learn the countless ways this metal is essential to our daily lives - from cobalt's applications in health, communications and common household items to travel and national defense. The relationship of this essential metal to our daily lives is simple - modern society without cobalt cannot function!

Cobalt is considered a strategic metal by the US government. A strategic material is a commodity whose lack of availability during a national emergency would seriously affect the economic, industrial, and defensive capability of the US. The US is almost completely import dependent for its supplies of cobalt, and imports about 20% of world production. There is no current domestic primary production of cobalt, and except for a small amount of secondary material, the US must rely on foreign sources for all of its supply. The largest known deposit of cobalt in the US is near Salmon, Idaho.

Most of the cobalt consumed in the world originates from copper production in the West African countries of Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and Zambia, and from nickel production in Russia, China, Canada, Cuba and Australia. A significant amount of world production comes from DRC, Zambia and Russia where free markets are an unknown or recent experience. The other producer is Cuba, where a trade embargo exists with the United States.

Some of the Many Applications of Cobalt:

Super alloys -

Cobalt is an essential alloying element in high temperature super alloys used for casting airfoils and structural parts in jet turbine engines. Cobalt-base alloys have good oxidation resistance, a relative high tolerance for thermal fatigue, and are readily repairable. Typically a high by-pass, turbofan jet engine (40,000 lb. thrust class) requires 110 to 132 pounds of cobalt in the finished engine.

Re-usable energy storage systems -

All rechargeable batteries have this fact in common: cobalt improves the properties of the batteries or is an essential part of the system whether they are nickel cadmium, nickel metal hydride or lithium ion systems. With hybrid electric vehicles gaining strong support from manufacturers and consumers, the use of cobalt in the rechargeable sector alone could lead to deficits in supply.

Substitution for cobalt in jet engine castings will probably not occur and cannot be considered as a meaningful solution to the cobalt supply problem. Future cobalt displacement will be due to technical developments, like ceramic matrix composites and titanium aluminides.

Wear resistant alloys -

"The hard facing industry". These are the Stellite alloys still widely used to prolong the life of cast components, welding wires, rods and electrodes, and hard facing powders. These various alloys are used in the construction, automotive, oil drilling, petrochemical, and aerospace, food, pharmaceutical, power generation, glass, and plastic and rubber industries.

MORE: http://www.idahocobalt.com/s/CobaltUses.asp

=====================

19. Preparing for World War III, Targeting Iran Part I: Global Warfare

www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=20403

By Michel Chossudovsky
Global Research, August 1, 2010
Humanity is at a dangerous crossroads. War preparations to attack Iran are in "an advanced state of readiness". Hi tech weapons systems including nuclear warheads are fully deployed.
This military adventure has been on the Pentagon's drawing board since the mid-1990s. First Iraq, then Iran according to a declassified 1995 US Central Command document.
Escalation is part of the military agenda. While Iran, is the next target together with Syria and Lebanon, this strategic military deployment also threatens North Korea, China and Russia.
Since 2005, the US and its allies, including America's NATO partners and Israel, have been involved in the extensive deployment and stockpiling of advanced weapons systems. The air defense systems of the US, NATO member countries and Israel are fully integrated.
This is a coordinated endeavor of the Pentagon, NATO, Israel's Defense Force (IDF), with the active military involvement of several non-NATO partner countries including the frontline Arab states (members of NATO's Mediterranean Dialogue and the Istanbul Cooperation Initiative), Saudi Arabia, Japan, South Korea, India, Indonesia, Singapore, Australia, among others. (NATO consists of 28 NATO member states Another 21 countries are members of the Euro-Atlantic Partnership Council (EAPC), The Mediterranean Dialogue and the Istanbul Cooperation Initiative include ten Arab countries plus Israel.)

MORE: www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=20403

======================

20. Russia, Afghanistan and Star Wars.

www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=20364

By Eric Walberg Global Research, July 30, 2010
Russia's accommodation of the US and NATO continues apace, with new support of the Afghan war and even missile defence, notes Eric Walberg 　 The Atlantists are on the ascendant these days in Moscow. Russian President Dmitri Medvedev's hamburger lunch with United States President Barack Obama during his visit to Silicon Valley last month apparently left a pleasant taste in his mouth. Now relations with NATO are on the mend, as Russia plans to send 27 Mi-17 helicopters to Afghanistan, NATO Military Committee Chairman Giampaolo di Paola said after a meeting with Chief of Staff of the Russian Armed Forces Nikolai Makarov last Friday. Rosoboronexport has even offered to throw in the first three helicopters for free.
Makarov went further, telling di Paola that Russia was now ready to work with NATO "to pool efforts to find solutions to contemporary challenges and threats to international security". Di Paola welcomed the Russian general's offer, assuring him that NATO views Moscow as a "strong strategic partner, not as a threat or an enemy". He spoke vaguely about new members having to "meet NATO standards", avoiding the U(kraine) and G(eorgia) words during their press conference. Russian and NATO experts will draft a joint action plan for 2011 within the next few months, he said.
Russian NATO Ambassadoor Dmitri Rogozin recently boasted that "Russian helicopters will ideally fit Afghan conditions: they are easy to operate, reliable, efficient and known by Afghan pilots." He offered to train Afghan pilots in addition to the Afghan police Russia is now helping train. Makarov even offered "consultancy in military and combat training based on our Afghan experience, including our mistakes". The deal is estimated at $300m though Rogozin hinted that a discount beyond the three free copters was possible and that Russia could kick in another 19 in 2012. So, if I understand this correctly, Russia's Afghan communist allies from the days of Soviet occupation are now going to man the same old Russian helicopters to kill yet more Afghan patriots, the only difference being the language the occupiers speak and their capitalist pedigree.
Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko is also feeling the chilly wind of Russia-US detente these days. The Russian state-owned NTV, watched by millions of Belorussians, broadcast a scathing two-part documentary "The Belarusian Godfather" last week as the Kremlin was hosting leading Belarusian opposition figures, in a campaign to unseat their troublesome ally in the presidential elections next February. The Russian ire peaked last month over unpaid gas bills, disagreements over the proposed new customs union with Kazakhstan, and Lukashenko's refusal to recognise South Ossetia and Abkhazia, as it, like Russia, seeks to curry favour in Brussels. Upping the ante, a sympathetic interview with Russian nemesis Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili was broadcast on Belarusian TV and Lukashenko is currently hosting deposed Kyrgyz president Kurmanbek Bakiyev. Bakiyev's overthrow was approved if not abetted by Moscow, and the comparison of Lukashenko and Bakiyev in "The Godfather-II" is a stark warning to Lukashenko that his days are numbered.
What accounts for this sudden effusion of East-West friendship, after years of complaining about NATO encirclement and missile bases in Poland?

MORE: www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=20364

=========================

21. The Other Tragedy By Fidel Castro

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article25977.htm

July 21, 2010 "Periodico" -- In the meeting I had with the economists of CIEM (World Economy Research Center) on Tuesday, July 13, I talked to them about an excellent documentary film by the French director Yann Arthus-Bertrand which includes statements by the most farsighted and well informed international personalities about another terrible danger threatening the human species that is cropping up right before our eyes: the destruction of the environment.
The documentary clearly and categorically asserts as follows:
“In the great adventure of life on Earth, each species has a role to play; each species has its place. None of them is either useless or harmful; they all balance one another. And it is right there when you, Homo sapiens, the intelligent human, come into history. You are the beneficiary of the fabulous legacy of 4 billion years provided by the Earth. You are only 200 000 years old, but you have already changed the face of the world.”
“The invention of agriculture changed our history. This happened less than 10 000 years ago”.

MORE: http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article25977.htm

========================

22. Earth warming evidence clear

http://www.thestarphoenix.com/technology/
Earth+warming+evidence+clear/3340484/story.html

THE STARPHOENIX JULY 30, 2010
There may still be some scientists who quibble about the causes, and some contrarians who don't accept the science.
However, the latest report compiled by 300 scientists from 48 countries shows the evidence is unequivocal and incontrovertible that the Earth is warming.
And the warming is advancing at a rapid pace. Ten indicators that range from sea levels to the ratios of water vapour to air, to the surface temperature of the oceans to their heat content to air temperatures over the seas and land to declines in snow cover, glaciers and sea ice, all point to this past decade being the warmest on record.
The report, put out by the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, is not based on speculation and doesn't even refer to cause. It simply states what scientists from around the world have observed.
We can dedicate our efforts to curb emissions, focus on adjusting to the changes or a combination of the two, but we can't continue to ignore the evidence.
The debate must end over whether nuclear, renewables, geothermal or conservation can uniquely solve our problems, or whether cap-and-trade, carbon tax or regulation is necessary. Besides clearly indicating the rising temperature, this report makes one other thing clear: We are all in this together.
© Copyright (c) The StarPhoenix
___________________

Global warming signs unmistakable: report (graphic attached)

http://www.cbc.ca/world/story/2010/07/29/
climate-change-study-noaa.html

A new report by 300 scientists has flagged the past decade as the hottest on record and compiled 10 "unmistakable" indicators that the world is getting warmer.
But the scientists mostly stayed away from discussions about the cause.
The 2009 State of the Climate report released Wednesday by the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration combines data on temperatures, humidity, sea levels, sea ice, glaciers and spring snow cover going back to 1940 or 1850, depending on the type of data.
"When we follow decade-to-decade trends using multiple data sets and independent analyses from around the world, we see clear and unmistakable signs of a warming world," said Peter Stott, one of the report's 300 contributors, in a statement.
Stott is head of Climate Monitoring and Attribution for the Met Office Hadley Centre in the U.K., one 160 research groups in 48 countries, including Canada, that contributed to the report. CBC News was unable to reach any of the Canadian co-authors.
The report, published annually in the Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society since 1990, does not include climate model projections.
Individual chapters of the report mention that human emissions of carbon dioxide have been linked to climate change. They also describe some changes, such as the increase in heat in the ocean, as consistent with our understanding of how humans are likely contributing to climate change.
However, the report does not give an overall statement about the cause of the warming or what should be done about it.
Many previous large compilations of data by large groups of scientists such as the United National Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, have said human activities such as the burning of fossil fuels are "very likely" the cause of climate change and have pushed policy makers to act.
Meanwhile, opponents of agreements and policies to reduce carbon emissions, including a handful of scientists, have argued there could be a natural cause for global warming.
Among them is Ian Clark, a geography professor at the University of Ottawa who researches Arctic permafrost. He thinks the reason the climate report doesn't deal much with the cause of global warming is because "nobody really knows the cause."

MORE: http://www.cbc.ca/world/story/2010/07/29/
climate-change-study-noaa.html

=====================

23. Atmospheric Geoengineering: Weather Manipulation, Contrails and Chemtrails

A Review of the "Case Orange" report

www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=20369

By Rady Ananda Global Research, July 30, 2010
At an international symposium held in Ghent, Belgium May 28-30, 2010, scientists asserted that “manipulation of climate through modification of Cirrus clouds is neither a hoax nor a conspiracy theory.” It is “fully operational” with a solid sixty-year history. Though “hostile” environmental modification was banned by UN Convention in 1978, its “friendly” use today is being hailed as the new savior to climate change and to water and food shortages. The military-industrial complex stands poised to capitalize on controlling the world’s weather.
“In recent years there has been a decline in the support for weather modification research, and a tendency to move directly into operational projects.” ~World Meteorological Organization, 2007
The only conspiracy surrounding geoengineering is that most governments and industry refuse to publicly admit what anyone with eyes can see. Peer-reviewed research is available to anyone willing and able to maneuver the labyrinth of scientific journals. So, while there is some disclosure on the topic, full public explanation is lacking. A brief list of confirmed cloud seeding events is produced at bottom, starting in 1915.
Going under a variety of names – atmospheric geoengineering, weather modification, solar radiation management, chemical buffering, cloud seeding, weather force multiplication – toxic aerial spraying is popularly known as chemtrails. However, this is merely one technique employed to modify weather. The practice of environmental modification is vast and well funded.
Hosted by the Belfort Group, which has been working for the last seven years to raise public awareness of toxic aerial spraying, the Symposium included chemtrail awareness groups from Greece, Germany, Holland, France and the U.S. Belfort published five videos covering only May 29,[1] when filmmaker Michael Murphy (Environmental Deception and What in the world are they spraying)[2] and aerospace engineer Dr. Coen Vermeeren [3] gave the most dramatic presentations.
Dr Vermeeren, of the Delft University of Technology, presented [4] a 300-page scientific report entitled, “CASE ORANGE: Contrail Science, Its Impact on Climate and Weather Manipulation Programs Conducted by the United States and Its Allies.” [5]

Case Orange notes it was prepared for the Belfort Group by a team of scientists but presented anonymously. It was sent to embassies, news organizations and interested groups around the world “to force public debate.”

The report spends some time on HAARP, the High Frequency Active Auroral Research Program, [6] which is a military endeavor focused on ionospheric, electromagnetic, and global electrostatic field manipulation, and on other exotic weapon systems that manipulate the environment. While related, they go beyond this discussion of chemtrails.

In the interest of brevity, the health and environmental implications of cloud seeding is not discussed in any depth herein. Case Orange does go into it, as did most of the speakers at the Belfort Symposium. Cursory research reveals a debate among researchers as to chemtrail toxicity, but whether that’s a 50-50 or 99-1 argument is unknown.

Contrails Are Chemtrails

MORE : www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=20369

- - - - - - -

WATCH: Annihilation - CHEMTRAILS - The Silent Killer
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UviQUVPU_Kc

- - - - - -

More on HAARP:
http://forum.stopthehogs.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=909

[Oscar]

NUKE NEWS: August 6, 2010

1. Hiroshima Day - August 6, 2010 (several articles)
2. A special plea from the ICAN project (to abolish nuclear weapons)
3. Forest fires burn near Sask. uranium mines
4. Full cost of nuclear unknown – Dr. Dewar
5. WATCH: Trailer: Countdown to Zero - the Movie
6. Inside the Steam Generators: Why does Bruce Power want to send them to Sweden?
7. A Quarter Century after Chernobyl - Radioactive Boar on the Rise in Germany
8. U.S. Wary of South Korea’s Plan to Reuse Nuclear Fuel
9. WATCH: All the nuclear myths debunked in 30-minutes by Kevin Kamps of Beyond Nuclear
10. Beyond Nuclear Bulletin – August 6, 2010
11. CONGRESS TO TAKE SUMMER BREAK WITHOUT ACTION ON ENERGY BILLS
12. "You Need to Know What's Really Going On": WikiLeaks Founder Julian Assange on the Fight for the Truth
13. Why We're Bound to Fail in Afghanistan: What Happened When I Spent 2 Weeks at a U.S. Military Base
14. Why the U.S. Won't Cut Ties with Israel, No Matter How Extreme Its Government Gets
15. There's Still Hope for the World

=======================

1. HIROSHIMA DAY – August 6, 2010 (several articles)

Hiroshima Day in Winnipeg: August 6, 2010

WINNIPEG, August 3, 2010 – On Aug. 6, the 1945 nuclear bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki will be marked with a Lantern Ceremony at Memorial Park in Winnipeg. The keynote address will be given by MP Bill Siksay (Burnaby-Douglas) on a private members bill (C-447) now before Parliament for the establishment of a Department of Peace.
Date: Friday, August 6, 2010
Place: Memorial Park (by the fountain, York Avenue and Memorial Boulevard)
Time: Lantern making begins at 7:30 p.m.; speakers begin at 8:30 p.m.; lanterns will be launched at 9:15 p.m.
Speakers Lineup:
Welcome: to be announced
Letter of Greeting from Mayor Sam Katz: Glenn Michalchuk, Peace Alliance Winnipeg
Reading of the Mayor of Hiroshima’s Speech 2010: Lesley Hughes
For a Department of Peace: Bill Siksay, MP (Burnaby/Douglas)
Reading of “The story of Sadako”: Terumi Kuwada, President of the National Association of Japanese Canadians
The Significance of the Lantern Ceremony: Terumi Kuwada, President of the National Association of Japanese Canadians
The annual commemoration of the Hiroshima/Nagasaki bombings is part of a world wide observance held to promote nuclear disarmament and world peace. In Winnipeg, the event is sponsored by the Manitoba Japanese Canadian Citizens Association, Peace Alliance Winnipeg, and Project Peacemakers.
Media Contact: For more information, or to arrange interviews, call Paul Graham at (204) 998-1162.
Background
In August, 1945, after 6 months of firebombing attacks on 67 Japanese cities, US President Harry Truman ordered the atomic bombing of Hiroshima (August 6) and Nagasaki (August 9). The death toll was enormous – 140,000 in Hiroshima and 80,000 in Nagasaki by the end of 1945. Many more thousands died over the months and years to come from injuries and illnesses caused by radiation poisoning.
For many years, Winnipeggers have commemorated these tragedies and reaffirmed our commitment to peace and freedom from nuclear terror. We symbolize our commitment with a Lantern Ceremony.
The Lantern Ceremony is part of an ancient Buddhist Ceremony (O-Bon), that commemorates the lives of deceased loved ones. For many years around the world, this ceremony has been used on Hiroshima Peace Day to remember and embrace the memory of people who died because of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. During these ceremonies, participants are invited to design a lantern that represents their thoughts and feelings regarding personal losses, global concerns of peace, nuclear disarmament and any other issues relevant to keeping our planet safe.
Video of last year's Lantern Ceremony in Winnipeg: http://www.peacealliancewinnipeg.ca/2009/08/winnipeg-lanterns-for-peace-2009/
Sadako and a Thousand Paper Cranes
In addition to lanterns we will be making origami peace cranes to commemorate the story of “Sadako and a Thousand Paper Cranes.”
Sadako Sasaki, a young girl of 10 years old, became sick with leukemia from the effects of the atomic bomb in post war Japan. She believed in an ancient tale that if you made 1000 paper cranes, you would be granted a wish. She wished for good health.
She died before she completed making the cranes and her classmates completed the task for her.
Each year, thousands of paper cranes from all over the world adorn the statue of Sadako in the Hiroshima Peace Park in Hiroshima, Japan.
Bill C-447 – An Act to establish the Department of Peace
Bill Siksay, MP (Burnaby-Douglas) is the mover of Bill C-447 - An Act to Establish a Department of Peace. Seconded by Jim Karygiannis, MP (Scarborough-Agincourt ), the bill passed First Reading in the House of Commons, Sept. 30, 2009. Mr. Siksay will speak about this bill at the Lantern Ceremony.
You can read the full Bill in English and French, here: Bill C-447
The mandate envisioned for the Minister of Peace is to reinvigorate Canada’s role as a peacekeeper and peacebuilder as follows:
Develop early detection and rapid response processes to deal with emerging conflicts and establish systemic responses to post-conflict demobilization, reconciliation and reconstruction
Lead internationally to abolish nuclear, biological, chemical weapons, to reduce conventional weapon arsenals and to ban the weaponization of space
Implement the UN Declaration and Programme of Action on a Culture of Peace (1999) to safeguard human rights and enhance the security of persons and their communities
Implement UN Resolution 1325 on the key role played by women in the wide spectrum of peacebuilding work
Establish a Civilian Peace Service that, with other training organizations, will recruit, train and accredit peace professionals and volunteers to work at home and abroad, as an alternative to armed intervention.
Address issues of violence in Canada by promoting nonviolent approaches that encourage community involvement and responsibility such as Restorative Justice, Nonviolent Communication (NVC) and Alternate Dispute Resolution (ADR)
Support the development of peace education at all levels including post-secondary peace and conflict studies
Promote the transition from a war-based to a peace-based economy.
More information of Bill C-447: http://www.departmentofpeace.ca/

- - - - - -

Today is Hiroshima Day

Sixty-five years ago today, August 6, the United States dropped an atomic bomb on the Japanese city of Hiroshima. The blast killed 80,000 people immediately, and injured 70,000 more. Tens of thousands of others died in the years that followed from the effects of radiation.
Three days later, a second nuclear bomb was dropped on Nagasaki, killing an additional 60,000 people.
And Canada helped the United States do it.
Ceasefire.ca is part of the global movement to abolish nuclear weapons. I hope that you will join the other 22,000 supporters of Ceasefire.ca who are taking action, today, to move the world closer to nuclear abolition.
Sign your letter to Prime Minister Harper and other party leaders, and join more than 1000 other Canadians.
Watch this clip from the impressive new movie on nuclear dangers, Countdown to Zero. Then help get it screened in your town.
Consider participating in an event in your community. (If you are hosting an event, please post your event time and location on Ceasefire.ca.)
Then, help Ceasefire.ca grow to reach more Canadians:
Forward this email to friends and urge them to sign their letter.
Like us on Facebook
Follow me on Twitter
Sign up for email updates from Ceasefire.ca

In peace,
Steven Staples, Ceasefire.ca
P.S. As a special “thank you” to our supporters, you can claim a free 3-month guest subscription to Straight Goods online news magazine. Receive access to more than 10,000 articles by Canada's leading progressive writers.
Get Ceasefire.ca blog posts delivered to your email

- - - - - - - -

August 6 is Hiroshima Day

http://www.ceasefire.ca/
?p=5246&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+ceasefire%2FycPl+%28Ceasefire.ca%29

Posted: 05 Aug 2010 01:17 PM PDT
Sixty-five years ago, the United States dropped an atomic bomb on the Japanese city of Hiroshima. The blast killed 80,000 people immediately, and injured 70,000 more. Tens of thousands of others died in the years that followed from the effects of radiation. Three days later, a second nuclear bomb was dropped on Nagasaki, killing an additional [...]

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65 years after bombing, U.S. to make first appearance at Hiroshima memorial

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/world/asia-pacific/
65-years-after-bombing-us-to-make-first-appearance-at-hiroshima-memorial/article1662648/

Eric Talmadge
Hiroshima — The Associated Press Published on Thursday, Aug. 05, 2010 9:25AM EDT Last updated on Thursday, Aug. 05, 2010 5:53PM EDT
The site of the world's first atomic attack swarmed with tens of thousands of people Thursday as Hiroshima prepared for a memorial that will for the first time have representatives from the United States and other major nuclear powers.
Washington's decision to attend the 65th anniversary event on Friday has been welcomed by Japan's government, but has generated complex feelings among some Japanese who see the bombing as unjustified and want the United States to apologize.
“Americans think that the bombing was reasonable because it speeded up the end of the war. They try to see it in a positive way,” Naomi Sawa, a 69-year-old former teacher, said after paying her respects to the dead. “But we were devastated.”
MORE:
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/world/asia-pacific/
65-years-after-bombing-us-to-make-first-appearance-at-hiroshima-memorial/article1662648/

====================

2. A special plea from the ICAN project (to abolish nuclear weapons)
From: Gordon Edwards
Sent: Thursday, August 05, 2010 11:44 PM
Subject: A special plea from the ICAN project (to abolish nuclear weapons)

Dear Friends,
Here’s a message from Dimity Hawkins at the ICAN campaign (I Can Abolish Nuclear Weapons) to support a new initiative to gather a million pleas to free the world of nuclear weapons.
Please take action and spread the word. I have posted the campaign website to my facebook site and will find out how to upload a video to make this the world’s longest video letter by writing to info@icanw.org (See below!)
Peace, Alice
Alice Slater
Nuclear Age Peace Foundation, NY 446 E. 86 St.
New York, NY 10028
212-744-2005
646-238-9000(cell)
aslater@rcn.com
www.wagingpeace.org
www.abolition2000.org
---------------------------------------------------------------
We may now care for each Earthian individual at a sustainable billionaire's level of affluence while living exclusively on less than 1 percent of our planet's daily energy income from our cosmically designed nuclear reactor, the Sun, optimally located 92 million safe miles away from us.
Buckminster Fuller
---------------------------------------------------------------
From: Dimity Hawkins [mailto:dimity@icanw.org]
Sent: Friday, August 06, 2010 12:27 AM
Subject: MillionPleas live today! Please support it through your networks
Importance: High
Dear Disarming friends around the world!
The new ICAN MillionPleas initiative is now officially launched! It was timed to commemorate the 65th anniversary of the bombing of Hiroshima today.
This new initiative aims to gather one million pleas from people all over the globe calling on the leaders of nine nations to finally retire the bomb. There are a few easy things you can ask your members and supporters to do to support this:

Visit millionpleas.com to:
View the film: Million Pleas features a special promotion filmed in Hiroshima of school children and Hibakusha (atomic bomb survivors) saying “please” rid the world of nukes. It appears in both English-only versions and Japanese/English versions.
See the Pleas: You can then view the videos and messages from over 440 other people already sending their plea for a world free of nuclear weapons (in the first day up)!!
Add your own plea: We ask people to voice their support for nuclear disarmament by uploading their personal plea at www.millionpleas.com <http://www.millionpleas.com through a short YouTube video, Facebook or Twitter! If you don’t have access to these technologies but can send an email, there is that option too!
Share this with their friends: then we ask people to share this message with their friends and family, helping to create the worlds longest video letter
Its simple to participate – just say please!
We would appreciate all the support you can generate for this simple and inspiring campaign. The more ‘pleas’ we get the more we will be able to show the nuclear weapons states that this is a serious issue!
Jody Williams has loaned her personal support to MillionPleas – see her statement (along with Archbishop Desmond Tutu + Malcolm Fraser) attached!
What you can do:
Please record and upload a plea to the site! Get your colleagues and family to do the same. If you have a webcam its easy – but if you need help contact us at info@icanw.org
Please circulate to your networks, e-bulletins, newsletters, websites, etc! Let me know if I can help providing additional materials etc.
Please let me know if you have been able to do any of these things – and THANK YOU for your support!!
Best, Dimity
Dimity Hawkins
Campaign Director/Executive Officer
ICAN Australia
Note: Dimity works Mondays, Wednesdays and Thursdays

International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear weapons (ICAN)
ph: +61 (0)3 9347 4795
f: +61 (0)3 9347 4995
m: 0422 612 702
e: dimity@icanw.org
w: www.icanw.org
skype: Dimity_iCAN

MillionPleas Campaign Launch statements draft4august2010.docx._

=================

3. Forest fires burn near Sask. uranium mines

http://www.thestarphoenix.com/news/
Forest+fires+burn+near+Sask+uranium+mines/3361062/story.html

THE STAR PHOENIX AUGUST 5, 2010
The Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission (CNSC) is monitoring a forest fire burning less than two kilometres from uranium milling and mining operations in northern Saskatchewan.
A large forest fire called the Park fire is burning in the Rabbit Lake and West Collins Bay area. It spans about 1,000 hectares.
The fires are in the area of Cameco Corp.'s Rabbit Lake and Areva Resources Inc.'s McClean Lake operations.
"Neither mine is in any immediate threat at this time," said Kim Connors, director of forest fire operations at the Provincial Fire
Centre.
Crews have done preventative work with heavy equipment to protect the mines. There are also about a dozen firefighters monitoring the fire, said Connors.
A CNSC press release said while there is no safety risk, Cameco and Areva are taking precautionary steps according to their emergency response plans, which includes close communication and collaboration with the provincial fire response teams.
"We would take action if it got close to the mine," said Connors.
MORE:
http://www.thestarphoenix.com/news/
Forest+fires+burn+near+Sask+uranium+mines/3361062/story.html

====================

4. Full cost of nuclear unknown – Dr. Dewar

http://www.thestarphoenix.com/technology/Full+cost+nuclear+unknown/
3361077/story.html

The Star Phoenix August 5, 2010
In her viewpoint, Balanced view on nuclear cost, benefit needed (SP, July 30), Denise Carpenter, president and CEO of the Canadian Nuclear Association, mentions "levellized cost," which claims to factor in all costs over the life of a facility including decommissioning.
It's an interesting statement, given that no nuclear reactor has ever been successfully decommissioned. Even preliminary assessments put the numbers extremely high.
One of the few nuclear "clean up" operations, the Hanford nuclear weapons site in Washington State, has been mopping up since the mid-1980s, with no reasonable end in sight.
Bruce Power, one of the members of the CNA, never has delivered a reactor within budget -- not even close -- and cannot seem to come up with repair cost estimates that aren't continually overrun.
Other unmentioned expenses include security of the facility and waste products, plus the insurance costs borne by the public.
I would love to hear that nuclear power could fulfil my youthful dream of cheap, efficient, waste-free energy, with no negative effects upon human health. At the present, I think that's a fairytale.
Until the waste problem is solved, we should not be making more of it.
Until baseline health studies are performed, so that we can measure and track the effects of increased background radiation upon the health of the people of Saskatchewan, nuclear power can wait.
Dr. Dale Dewar
Executive director
Saskatoon Physicians for Global Survival
© Copyright (c) The StarPhoenix

======================

5. WATCH: Trailer: Countdown to Zero - the Movie

http://www.ceasefire.ca/
?p=5234&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+ceasefire%2FycPl+%28Ceasefire.ca%29


Posted: 04 Aug 2010 09:31 PM PDT
Countdown to Zero reveals the truth behind an issue on which human survival itself hangs - the very real possibility of nuclear disaster. From the producers of An Inconvenient Truth, Countdown is a chilling wake up call about the urgency of the nuclear threat.

====================

6. Inside the Steam Generators: Why does Bruce Power want to send them to Sweden?

From: "Gordon Edwards" <ccnr@web.ca>
Sent: Friday, August 06, 2010 12:21 AM
Background:
Bruce Power plans to ship 16 radioactive steam generators through the Great Lakes and the Saint Lawrence River, and across the Atlantic Ocean to Sweden, where 90 percent of the 1600 tonnes of radioactively contaminated metal will be melted down and sold as scrap for unrestricted use. In this way, some of the radioactivity will be dispersed into
the air (atmospheric emissions), some will be dispersed into the Baltic Sea (liquid effluents), and some will be incorporated into consumer products of all kinds -- razor blades, hair dryers, paper clips, you name it. The remaining 10 percent will be shipped back to Bruce Power for storage as radioactive waste.
These attachments (one is below/the other is a graphic. Ed.) are designed to give you some idea of what the steam generators are, and how much radioactive contamination they contain. Print them out back-to-back.

Two questions are paramount:

(1) Should radioactive debris from decrepit nuclear reactors be allowed on the Great Lakes and the Saint Lawrence River? The steam generator shipments will be the first of many....

(2) Should radioactive contaminants from nuclear power plants be allowed to be disseminated into consumer goods? Does anyone actually want plutonium- contaminated metal?

The Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission says these shipments pose no risk to anyone and it is therefore poised to grant a licence authorizing them. Due to public concern, CNSC has now agreed to hold a one-day hearing on September 29 in Ottawa --
actually, they tacked the steam generator transport issue onto the agenda of another meeting already scheduled for the same day.
Anyone can write to the CNSC with their comments at , but since this is primarily a political issue, be sure to send a copy of your comments to the Premier of Ontario, Dalton McGuinty, to the Prime Minister of Canada, Stephen Harper, and to your local media.
Tell them not to allow these shipments. Tell them to make Bruce Power abide by its promises (in a 2005 Environmental Assessment) to keep the steam generators on site as radioactive waste which must be stored as such in perpetuity.
Gordon Edwards.
- - - - - -
Radioactive contaminants in decommissioned nuclear steam generators

http://www.nwmo.ca/uploads_managed/MediaFiles/
539_ReferenceLowandIntermediateWasteInventoryfortheDGR.pdf (p. 50)

Here is a partial list of radioactive contaminants inside a used steam generator from one of the Bruce reactors. The amount of radioactivity is expressed in becquerels per cubic metre; one becquerel corresponds to one radioactive disintegration every second. (Source: OPG)

For Scientists/Engineers For Citizens/ Decision Makers
Symbol Half-Life Amount Name Half-Life Amount
Ag 108 1.3E+02 2.3E+02 Silver-108 130 y 230
Am-241 4.3E+02 5.9E+07 Americium-241 430 y 59 000 000
Am-243 7.4E+03 3.8E+04 Americium-243 7 400 y 38 000
C-14 5.7E+03 7.6E+07 Carbon-14 5 700 y 76 000 000
Cl-36 3.0E+05 1.4E+04 Chlorine-36 300 000 y 14 000
Cm-244 1.8E+01 1.4E+07 Curium-244 18 y 14 000 000
Co-60 5.3E+00 1.2E+09 Cobalt-60 5.3 y 1 200 000 000
Cs-134 2.1E+00 1.9E+06 Cesium-134 2.1 y 1 900 000
Cs-135 2.3E+06 2.2E+01 Cesium-135 2 300 000 y 22
Cs-137 3.0E+01 2.2E+07 Cesium-137 30 y 22 000 000
Eu-152 1.3E+01 1.8E+06 Europium-152 13 y 1 800 000
Eu-154 8.8E+00 1.6E+07 Europium-154 8.8 y 16 000 000
Eu-155 5.0E+00 3.0E+07 Europium-156 5 y 30 000 000
Fe-55 2.7E+00 5.8E+09 Iron-55 2.7 y 5 800 000 000
I-129 1.6E+07 6.3E+00 Iodine-129 16 000 000 y 6.3
Nb-94 2.0E+04 2.9E+05 Niobium-94 20 000 y 290 000
Ni-59 7.5E+04 2.0E+05 Nickel-59 75 000 y 200 000
Ni-63 9.6E+01 2.9E+07 Nickel-63 96 y 29 000 000
Np-237 2.1E+06 1.8E+03 Neptunium-237 2 100 000 y 1 800
Pu-238 8.8E+01 1.0E+07 Plutonium-238 88 y 10 000 000
Pu-239 2.4E+04 1.2E+07 Plutonium-239 24 000 y 12 000 000
Pu-240 6.5E+03 1.7E+07 Plutonium-240 6 500 y 17 000 000
Pu-241 1.4E+01 5.5E+08 Plutonium-241 14 y 550 000 000
Pu-242 3.8E+05 1.7E+04 Plutonium-242 380 000 y 17 000
Ru-106 1.0E+00 8.4E+08 Ruthenium-106 1 y 840 000 000
Sb-125 2.8E+00 2.1E+07 Antimony-125 2.8 y 21 000 000
Se-79 1.1E+06 7.6E+01 Selenium-79 1 100 000 y 76
Sm-151 1 9E+01 7.6E+01 Samarium-151 19 y 76
Sn-126 2.1E+05 1.2E+02 Tin-126 210 000 y 120
Sr-90 2.9E+01 1.8E+07 Strontium-90 29 y 18 000 000
Tc-99 2.1E+05 2.8E+03 Technetium-99 210 000 y 2 800
U-234 2.5E+05 1.9E+04 Uranium-234 250 000 y 19 000
U-235 7.0E+08 3.2E+02 Uranium-235 700 000 000 y 320
U-236 2.3E+07 3.6E+03 Uranium-236 23 000 000 y 24 000
U-238 4.5E+09 2.4E+04 Uranium-238 4 500 000 000 y 24 000
Zr-93 1.5E+06 3.8E+02 Zirconium-93 1 500 000 y 380
TOTALS
Long half-lives only 8.7E+09 (long-lived) 8 700 000 000
Including short half-lives 1.6E+10 (all radionuclides) 16 000 000 000
According to this OPG document (last 2 lines), in each cubic metre there are over eight BILLION radioactive disintegrations taking place every second. Each disintegration releases an alpha ray, a beta ray, or a gamma ray; so there are more than eight billion of these rays emitted every second. That’s more than 28 trillion rays per hour – over 245 quintillion (245 000 000 000 000 000) rays per year!
As one striking example: there are five plutonium isotopes found in the steam generators. In each cubic metre there are about 580 million alpha rays given off each second just from these plutonium isotopes alone. One thousand years in the future, if the steam generators were just stored on-site as radioactive waste for that entire period, these plutonium isotopes would still be giving off about 30 million alpha particles per second, per cubic metre.
Gordon Edwards, Ph.D.
[NWMO = Nuclear Waste Management Organization; OPG = Ontario Power Generation]

==========================

7. A Quarter Century after Chernobyl - Radioactive Boar on the Rise in Germany

http://www.spiegel.de/international/zeitgeist/0,1518,709345,00.html

By Charles Hawley 07/30/2010
It's no secret that Germany has a wild boar problem. Stories of marauding pigs hit the headlines with startling regularity: Ten days ago, a wild boar attacked a wheelchair-bound man in a park in Berlin; in early July, a pack of almost two dozen of the animals repeatedly marched into the eastern German town of Eisenach, frightening residents and keeping police busy; and on Friday morning, a German highway was closed for hours after 10 wild boar broke through a fence and waltzed onto the road.
Even worse, though, almost a quarter century after the Chernobyl nuclear meltdown in Ukraine, a good chunk of Germany's wild boar population remains slightly radioactive -- and the phenomenon has been costing the German government an increasing amount of money in recent years.
According to the Environment Ministry in Berlin, almost €425,000 ($555,000) was paid out to hunters in 2009 in compensation for wild boar meat that was too contaminated by radiation to be sold for consumption. That total is more than four times higher than compensation payments made in 2007.

MORE: http://www.spiegel.de/international/zeitgeist/0,1518,709345,00.html

===================

8. U.S. Wary of South Korea’s Plan to Reuse Nuclear Fuel

From: Gordon Edwards
Sent: Tuesday, August 03, 2010 11:33 PM
Subject: U.S. Wary of South Korea’s Plan to Reuse Nuclear Fuel
Background
Every nuclear reactor fueled with uranium produces plutonium as a byproduct, and "all plutonium is good plutonium" when it comes to making atomic bombs or more sophisticated nuclear weapons. (See http://ccnr.org/plute_sandia.html)
The process of extracting plutonium from irradiated nuclear fuel is called "reprocessing". (Nuclear proponents now refer to it as "recycling", but in fact less than one percent of the irradiated fuel is plutonium, and the high level radioactive waste left behind remains an unsolved problem. The term "recycling" is therefore quite misleading.)
Once extracted, plutonium can be used to make atomic bombs at all levels of technical sophistication. Plutonium can also be used to fabricate fuel for nuclear reactors, but if that fuel is stolen, the plutonium can be easily recovered as a nuclear-weapons-usable material by any well-equipped criminal or terrorist organization.
Any country that has stockpiles of separated plutonium can quickly put together an arsenal of atomic bombs or more sophisticated nuclear weapons with little chance of detection and little time for diplomacy or sanctions to work.
Gordon Edwards.
================================

U.S. Wary of South Korea’s Plan to Reuse Nuclear Fuel

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/14/world/asia/14seoul.html

By CHOE SANG-HUN, New York Times, July 13, 2010
SEOUL, South Korea — Overshadowed by the continuing tension over North Korea’s nuclear program,

[http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/international/
countriesandterritories/northkorea/nuclear_program/index.html?inline=nyt-classifier]
another nuclear dispute is emerging on the Korean Peninsula — this one between the United States and South Korea.

[http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/international/
countriesandterritories/southkorea/index.html?inline=nyt-geo]

South Korea, which has no oil reserves, derives 40 percent of its electricity [http://www.khnp.co.kr/index_en.jsp] from nuclear reactors and is running out of space to store the highly radioactive spent nuclear fuel.
So the South Korean government wants to reprocess the used material — both to provide fuel for its next generation of fast-breeder reactors and to reduce its stored waste.
But South Korea is prohibited from such activities under a 1974 agreement with the United States. The plutonium that results from reprocessing spent fuel can power nuclear reactors — which South Korea insists is its only goal — but can also be used to make atomic bombs, as North Korea has done.
Washington wants to rein in the spread of reprocessing and enrichment as it grapples with North Korea and Iran over their nuclear programs. It retains some suspicions about South Korea, which briefly pursued nuclear weapons
[http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/science/topics/atomic_weapons/
index.html?inline=nyt-classifier]
in the 1970s and experimented with reprocessing later. Allowing South Korea to reprocess or enrich the fuel, the United States fears, would set a precedent for other nations and give North Korea a pretext not to abandon its nuclear weapons program.
“The Americans say no to recycling, but don’t offer an alternative,” said Lee Un-chul, a nuclear scientist at Seoul National University. “They think we might change our minds and build nuclear weapons, depending on the situation with North Korea. In short, they don’t trust us. This is frustrating. We have to fight.”
That tug of war begins later this year when the two allies start renegotiating their nuclear treaty, which expires in 2014. South Korea is the site of the next nuclear security summit meeting, in 2012.
MORE: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/14/world/asia/14seoul.html

=====================

9. WATCH: All the nuclear myths debunked in 30-minutes by Kevin Kamps of Beyond Nuclear

http://www.blip.tv/file/3946822

In this compelling new 30-minute television interview, Kevin Kamps of Beyond Nuclear explodes the myths now being promulgated by those promoting nuclear power. He tells of the insoluble problems of nuclear waste, how nuclear power plants routinely emit radioactive poisons, how catastrophic accidents can happen, how nuclear power plants are pre-deployed weapons of mass destruction for terrorists, and the enormously high costs of nuclear power. He exposes the falsehood that the French nuclear program has been a success and that nuclear power does not contribute to global warming.
Feel free to post to facebook, circulate to other lists, colleagues and friends.
--
Linda Gunter is a founder of Beyond Nuclear and serves as its media and development director. She also specializes in researching nuclear France and in the nuclear power-nuclear weapons connection. She can be reached at 301.270.2209 ext. 2 or 301.455.5655. Beyond Nuclear is a 501(c)(3) non profit at 6930 Carroll Avenue, Suite 400, Takoma Park, MD 20912. www.beyondnuclear.org.Linda Gunter is a founder of Beyond Nuclear and serves as its media and development director. She also specializes in researching nuclear France and in the nuclear power-nuclear weapons connection. She can be reached at 301.270.2209 ext. 2 or 301.455.5655. Beyond Nuclear is a 501(c)(3) non profit at 6930 Carroll Avenue, Suite 400, Takoma Park, MD 20912. www.beyondnuclear.org.

===================

10. Beyond Nuclear Bulletin – August 6, 2010

http://us1.campaign-archive.com/
?u=18a3f9977c3625b53cf911e2f&id=7f99ef152b&e=e2926d556c

TOP STORIES

ActNow! Don't React Later!

http://www.beyondnuclear.org/actnow/?SSLoginOk=true

We cannot afford to wait for a nuclear accident as bad – or worse – than the oil disaster in the Gulf. That’s why we have launched our new ActNow! campaign. Please call the White House (202-456-1111) and Congress (202-224-3121) and ask our leaders to: Block all funding for new nuclear facilities and uranium mines! Phase out existing reactors! Conduct a full investigation of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission! And please sign our online petition that will be delivered to the White House and every House and Senate office on September 7
Sign here http://www.beyondnuclear.org/actnow/?SSLoginOk=true

-----

Further signs that the Nuclear Retreat is upon us

http://www.beyondnuclear.org/the-nuclear-retreat/

Hot on the heels of safety trouble at Areva – the French nuclear company slated to promote its EPR reactor in the U.S. – comes news of further nuclear retreats. EDF is suffering financial woes –including a 47% plummet in net income and putting its plans for a third reactor at Calvert Cliffs, MD in jeopardy – while the South Texas Project which was supposed to get two new reactors, has also put on the brakes.
Read More

-------

Solar power cheaper than nuclear for North Carolina

http://www.beyondnuclear.org/
climate-change-whats-new/2010/7/16/solar-power-cheaper-than-nuclear-for-north-carolina.html

SustainableBusiness.com says a new report written by a former chancellor and economics chair of Duke University, claims that solar electricity will be cheaper than, and online before, new nuclear power.
Read More

====================

11. CONGRESS TO TAKE SUMMER BREAK WITHOUT ACTION ON ENERGY BILLS
NO NEW NUKE LOAN MONEY ENACTED SO FAR THIS YEAR! MEANWHILE, THE NUCLEAR "RENAISSANCE" STARTS TO CRUMBLE....

August 5, 2010

Dear Friends,

First the good news from Washington, then the good news from elsewhere.

The Senate will go on its summer break tomorrow without taking action on an energy bill. Actually, it's absolutely pathetic that a bill to place unlimited corporate liability on offshore drilling operations and make some modest energy efficiency improvements can't pass the Senate in about an hour, but that's the way it is.

At least there was no opportunity for nuclear power's backers to try to add more taxpayer money for new reactor construction.

Note: the House will come back briefly from its recess (which started this week) to approve a Senate-passed bill to save the jobs of hundreds of thousands of teachers, police and firefighters; it's not expected that the House will take up any other business.

Back in February, President Obama asked Congress for a $36 Billion increase in nuclear construction loans. So far, Congress has provided exactly Zero. Thanks to all of you for helping make that happen.

We're not out of the woods yet, of course. The House Appropriations Committee has approved $25 billion, the Senate Appropriations Commitee has approved $10 billion. And some Senators are still looking for ways to increase that number. But nothing will happen before September and we'll keep you posted.

In the meantime, your elected officials are now back home; many are running for re-election and conducting public events. The best thing you can do is attend town hall meetings, campaign rallies and the like and ask them directly if they think taxpayers should bail out the nuclear power industry. Keep the issue alive!

Meanwhile, the nuclear "renaissance" is crumbling....

There have been some stunning developments in the past two weeks: the over-hyped nuclear "renaissance" is simply falling apart.

The two leading candidates for the next nuclear loan, Calvert Cliffs and South Texas, have both slashed their modest spending on these projects and increasingly neither one looks viable for the entire list of reasons that always have plagued the nuclear industry: safety, cost, waste, etc.

I wrote a long piece today on DailyKos about this, focusing on Calvert Cliffs. You can read it (and comment on it) here. We also put out a press release, which you can find here.

Hope you enjoy those; hope you have a great August. We'll keep you informed of any new developments and, of course, if you can help us pay for this continuing (and winning!) campaign, please make your tax-deductible donation here. We can't do it without you.

Thanks for all you do,

Michael Mariotte
Executive Director
Nuclear Information and Resource Service
nirsnet@nirs.org
www.nirs.org
Click here to unsubscribe from NIRS e-mail list

===================

12. "You Need to Know What's Really Going On": WikiLeaks Founder Julian Assange on the Fight for the Truth

http://www.alternet.org/story/147734/
%22you_need_to_know_what%27s_really_going_on%22%3A_wikileaks_founder_julian_assange_on_the_fight_for_the_truth

Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty / By Ron Synovitz and Christopher Schwartz
Assange: "In order to make any just decision you need to know and understand what abuses or plans for abuses are occurring."
August 4, 2010
Julian Assange, the founder of the whistle-blower website WikiLeaks, says his work is based on the "ancient vision" of uncovering the truth. And he says sources would rather turn over their information to him than to traditional news outlets because he can protect them better. Assange spoke with Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty's Ron Synovitz and Christopher Schwartz on July 27 by phone from London.
What is your response to those in Pakistan who doubt the veracity of WikiLeaks' "Afghan War Diary?" In particular, Hamid Gul, the former chief of Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) agency, has said he thinks the reports are fabrications.

MORE:
http://www.alternet.org/story/147734/
%22you_need_to_know_what%27s_really_going_on%22%3A_wikileaks_founder_julian_assange_on_the_fight_for_the_truth

====================

13. Why We're Bound to Fail in Afghanistan: What Happened When I Spent 2 Weeks at a U.S. Military Base

http://www.alternet.org/story/147696/
why_we%27re_bound_to_fail_in_afghanistan%3A_what_happened_when_i_spent_2_weeks_at_a_u.s._military_base

Based on my experience at a Forward Operating Base, it's clear enough that the hearts-and-minds part of COIN is already dead in the water.
August 4, 2010 | Tomdispatch.com / By Ann Jones
In the eight years I’ve reported on Afghanistan, I’ve “embedded” regularly with Afghan civilians, especially women. Recently, however, with American troops “surging” and journalists getting into the swing of the military’s counterinsurgency “strategy” (better known by its acronym, COIN), I decided to get with the program as well. Last June, I filed a request to embed with the U.S. Army.
Polite emails from Army public affairs specialists ask journalists to provide evidence of medical insurance, a requirement I took as an admission that war is not a healthy pursuit. I already knew that, of course -- from the civilian side. Plus I’d read a lot of articles and books by male colleagues who had risked their necks with American troops in Iraq and Afghanistan. What struck me about their work was this: even when they described screw-ups coming down from the top brass, those reporters still managed to make the soldierly enterprise sound pretty consistently heroic. I wondered what they might be leaving out.

MORE:
http://www.alternet.org/story/147696/
why_we%27re_bound_to_fail_in_afghanistan%3A_what_happened_when_i_spent_2_weeks_at_a_u.s._military_base

====================

14. Why the U.S. Won't Cut Ties with Israel, No Matter How Extreme Its Government Gets

http://www.alternet.org/story/147733/
why_the_u.s._won%27t_cut_ties_with_israel%2C_no_matter_how_extreme_its_government_gets

A thick web of military-strategic ties is at the heart of the US-Israeli relationship.
August 4, 2010 | AlterNet / By Phyllis Bennis
Rumors are floating around about why Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak was in Washington – again – last week when Israel’s official top diplomat, Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman, is nowhere to be seen. This was Barak’s seventh visit to DC; Lieberman has been here exactly once.
So what’s up with that? Why isn’t Israel’s most important envoy playing the key diplomatic role with Israel’s most important diplomatic sponsor? One reason is that Lieberman is an embarrassment to many, even here in Washington’s Israel-can-do-no-wrong political culture. His party, Yisrael Beiteinu (Israel Is Our Home) is so far right that Kadimah -- the party of the 1982 “Butcher of Beirut” Ariel Sharon and Tzipi Livni who helped orchestrate the assault on Gaza -- and the extremist settlement-backing Likud party of Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, look centrist and center-right by comparison.
Lieberman’s gang goes way beyond normal Israeli extremism, calling not just for unconstrained settlement expansion, but various versions of “transfer” – the preferred Israeli euphemism for ethnic cleansing. That means the expulsion of Palestinians from Israel, including some who are Israeli citizens, starting with those who refuse to sign an oath of loyalty to Zionism. In May 2004, Lieberman announced that 90 percent of Israel’s Palestinian citizens, who amount to 20 percent of the population, would “have to find a new Arab entity” to live in because “they have no place here. They can take their bundles and get lost.” He called for executing Arab members of the Knesset who speak to Hamas, or who call for commemoration of the nakba, the Palestinian expulsion and dispossession from what would become Israel in 1947-48. Back in 1998 Lieberman urged Israel to bomb Egypt’s giant Aswan Dam, a move that would have flooded pretty much all of Egypt and drowned most of Egypt’s 80 million people. And in 2003, as transport minister, Lieberman called for Palestinian prisoners in Israeli prisons to be drowned in the Dead Sea – and offered buses to take them there.

MORE:
http://www.alternet.org/story/147733/
why_the_u.s._won%27t_cut_ties_with_israel%2C_no_matter_how_extreme_its_government_gets

======================

15. There's Still Hope for the World

www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=20409

Fidel Praises Global Research By Fidel Castro Ruz
Global Research, August 1, 2010 Cuba Debate
For 57 years, two generations of Cubans, the one that came before us and our own, which led both from January 1 to today, have fought against the most powerful empire humanity has ever known.
I do not harbor the slightest fear of seeming to exaggerate; I say this with modesty, even embarrassment. It hurt to see how hundreds of millions of young people in the world were not even able to learn how to read and write, or are semi-illiterate, or do not have jobs, and are ignorant of everything related to the inalienable rights of human beings.
A colossal crime is being committed against thousands of millions of adolescents and young people of both sexes, whose wonderful intelligence is manipulated by the mass media, and in fact, many of them, especially males, are turned into soldiers to die in unjust, genocidal wars carried out all over the planet.
The economic system that has prevailed is incompatible with the interests of humanity. It must end and it will end.
The new generations of young Cubans will make their message be heard, the one born from their country's experiences; they will fulfill a sacred duty imposed by the era in which it befell them to live. They will do so with humility, and brandishing the truth, without any stupid beliefs in racial or national superiority of any kind.
I have asked myself many times, why do our children and adolescents have to die?
Why do our young people have to die? Why does all this intelligence, where so many virtues could be implanted and cultivated, have to disappear?
Why do their parents have to die in fratricidal wars?

MORE: www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=20409

= = = = = = =

QUOTE: “You are only 200 000 years old, but you have already changed the face of the world.” “The invention of agriculture changed our history. This happened less than 10 000 years ago”.

The Other Tragedy

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article25977.htm

By Fidel Castro
July 21, 2010 "Periodico" -- In the meeting I had with the economists of CIEM (World Economy Research Center) on Tuesday, July 13, I talked to them about an excellent documentary film by the French director Yann Arthus-Bertrand which includes statements by the most farsighted and well informed international personalities about another terrible danger threatening the human species that is cropping up right before our eyes: the destruction of the environment.
The documentary clearly and categorically asserts as follows:
“In the great adventure of life on Earth, each species has a role to play; each species has its place. None of them is either useless or harmful; they all balance one another. And it is right there when you, Homo sapiens, the intelligent human, come into history. You are the beneficiary of the fabulous legacy of 4 billion years provided by the Earth. You are only 200 000 years old, but you have already changed the face of the world.”
“The invention of agriculture changed our history. This happened less than 10 000 years ago”.
“Agriculture was our first great revolution. It produced the first surpluses and gave rise to cities and civilizations. The memories of the thousands of years spent looking for food faded away. Having turned grains into the yeast of life, we multiplied their varieties and learned to adapt them to our soils and climates. We are like any other species on Earth. Our main daily concern is feeding ourselves. When soils are less than generous and water becomes scarce we are capable of making incredible efforts to get enough from the earth in order to continue living.”

MORE: http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article25977.htm

Fidel Castro Ruz
July 18, 2010 - 4:28 p.m.

[Oscar]

NUKE NEWS: August 8, 2010

1. CNSC PUBLIC HEARING: Transport steam generators through Great Lakes - Sept. 29, 2010 (Background & Critique – Dr. Edwards)
2. N.B. nuclear plant another year behind schedule
3. No Nukes News - August 4, 2010
4. Why World War II ended with Mushroom Clouds
5. Nuke U: How the University of California Is Helping to Blow Up the World
6. Global Military Agenda: U.S. Expands Asian NATO To Contain And Confront China
7. New strategy ideas in U.S. peace movement
8. The US Isn't Leaving Iraq, It's Rebranding the Occupation
9. How Many Iraqis Did We "Liberate" from Life on Earth? (See TABLES. Ed.)
10. Wildfires Could Spread to Region irradiated by Chernobyl Disaster
11. Endless Wars for Endless Profits: My reflections on the 5th Anniversary of Camp Casey by Cindy Sheehan (Video below. Ed.)

==============

1. CNSC PUBLIC HEARING: Transport steam generators through Great Lakes - Sept. 29, 2010 (Background & Critique – Dr. Edwards)

http://www.nuclearsafety.gc.ca/eng/commission/intervention/index.cfm

July 29, 2010

Ref. 2010-H-09
The Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission (CNSC) will hold a one-day public hearing to consider the application by Bruce Power Inc. (Bruce Power) for a transport licence for the shipment of 16 steam generators by ship through the Great Lakes and St. Lawrence Seaway to Sweden for recycling in the fall of 2010, from Bruce Power’s site located in Kincardine, Ontario.
Hearing: September 29, 2010
Place: CNSC Public Hearing Room, 14th floor, 280 Slater Street, Ottawa, Ontario
Time: as set by the agenda published prior to the hearing date
The public hearing will be webcasted live on the Internet via the CNSC Web site and archived for a period of 90 days.
The CNSC received a transport licence application from Bruce Power on April 1, 2010. The company proposes to transport 16 steam generators to Sweden for recycling. Since receipt of the application, Bruce Power’s proposal has been the subject of formal technical reviews by CNSC staff. No recommendation for the issuance of a transport licence will be made unless the Commission is convinced that the shipment will be completed safely, without risk to the health, safety or security of Canadians and the environment.
A low risk licence application like this one would normally be decided by a Designated Officer (DO). CNSC staff has concluded that there is no safety significance issues associated with the proposed shipment. However, in light of the public concern and the value to ensuring both a proper understanding of the scope of the undertaking and the presentation of accurate information relating to the health, safety and risk, the DO has asked that the Commission review the application at a one-day public hearing. The application has been added to a previously scheduled Commission hearing day on September 29, 2010. The public is invited to comment on Bruce Power’s application.

Requests to intervene must be filed with the Secretary of the Commission by September 13, 2010 directly on line at http://www.nuclearsafety.gc.ca/eng/commission/intervention/index.cfm or at the address below.

The request must include the following information, as per the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission Rules of Procedure:

A written submission of the comments to be presented to the Commission;

A statement setting out whether the requester wishes to intervene by way of written submission only or by way of written submission and oral presentation; and

Name, address and telephone number of the requester.
Personal information, such as address and telephone numbers, is essential for linking the submission to its author. Please submit your personal information on a separate page if you wish to ensure its confidentiality.

It should be noted that all submissions are available to the public upon request to the Secretariat.
Bruce Power’s submissions and CNSC’s staff recommendations to be considered at the Hearing will be available after August 20, 2010. These documents are not available on-line and must be requested through the Secretariat at the address below. Agendas, hearing transcripts and information on the hearing process are available at the CNSC Web site: nuclearsafety.gc.ca.
c/o Louise Levert, Secretariat
Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission
280 Slater St., P.O. Box 1046
Ottawa, Ontario K1P 5S9
Tel.: 613-996-9063 or 1-800-668-5284
Fax: 613-995-5086
---------------------

BACKGROUND: Inside the Steam Generators: Why does Bruce Power want to send them to Sweden?

From: "Gordon Edwards" <ccnr@web.ca>
Sent: Friday, August 06, 2010 12:21 AM
Background:
Bruce Power plans to ship 16 radioactive steam generators through the Great Lakes and the Saint Lawrence River, and across the Atlantic Ocean to Sweden, where 90 percent of the 1600 tonnes of radioactively contaminated metal will be melted down and sold as scrap for unrestricted use. In this way, some of the radioactivity will be dispersed into the air (atmospheric emissions), some will be dispersed into the Baltic Sea (liquid effluents), and some will be incorporated into consumer products of all kinds -- razor blades, hair dryers, paper clips, you name it. The remaining 10 percent will be shipped back to Bruce Power for storage as radioactive waste.

SEE: Radioactive contaminants in decommissioned nuclear steam generators
http://www.nwmo.ca/uploads_managed/MediaFiles/
539_ReferenceLowandIntermediateWasteInventoryfortheDGR.pdf (p. 50)

Two questions are paramount:

(1) Should radioactive debris from decrepit nuclear reactors be allowed on the Great Lakes and the Saint Lawrence River? The steam generator shipments will be the first of many....
(2) Should radioactive contaminants from nuclear power plants be allowed to be disseminated into consumer goods? Does anyone actually want plutonium- contaminated metal?
The Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission says these shipments pose no risk to anyone and it is therefore poised to grant a licence authorizing them. Due to public concern, CNSC has now agreed to hold a one-day hearing on September 29 in Ottawa -- actually, they tacked the steam generator transport issue onto the agenda of another meeting already scheduled for the same day.
Anyone can write to the CNSC with their comments at, but since this is primarily a political issue, be sure to send a copy of your comments to the Premier of Ontario, Dalton McGuinty, to the Prime Minister of Canada, Stephen Harper, and to your local media.
Tell them not to allow these shipments. Tell them to make Bruce Power abide by its promises (in a 2005 Environmental Assessment) to keep the steam generators on site as radioactive waste which must be stored as such in perpetuity.
Gordon Edwards.

= = = = = = = =

A Critique of CNSC re. Radioactive Steam Generators

http://ccnr.org/CNSC_Critique.pdf

From: Gordon Edwards
Sent: Saturday, August 07, 2010 5:10 PM
Subject: A Critique of CNSC re. Radioactive Steam Generators
On Monday, June 26, 2010, the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission gave a very reassuring presentation to the Owen Sound City Council regarding the transport of 16 radioactive nuclear steam generators weighing a total of over 1600 tonnes,
According to Bruce Power's current plans, these bulky radioactive waste materials will be trucked overland from the Bruce Nuclear Complex (on Lake Huron) to Owen Sound (on Georgian Bay), and then shipped through the Great Lakes, the Saint Lawrence River, and the Atlantic Ocean, to Sweden.
In Sweden, about 90 percent of the radioactively contaminated metal in the steam generators would be melted down and sold as scrap metal for unrestricted use in consumer goods, without being labelled as having some degree of radioactive contamination in them.

I have written a critique of the CNSC presentation, which can be accessed here at:
http://ccnr.org/CNSC_Critique.pdf

This critique is by no means complete, but it is a start.
Gordon Edwards

==============================

2. N.B. nuclear plant another year behind schedule

http://www.cbc.ca/canada/new-brunswick/story/2010/08/06/
lepreau-behind-schedule.html

CBC News, Friday, August 6, 2010
Atomic Energy of Canada Ltd. has informed the New Brunswick government and NB Power that the $1.4-billion refurbishment project of the Point Lepreau Nuclear Generating Station is another year behind schedule.
Gaëtan Thomas, president and chief executive officer of NB Power, confirmed the further delay on Friday.
"Needless to say, we are very disappointed to have this latest delay in the completion of Phase 2 of the Point Lepreau refurbishment confirmed by AECL," Thomas said.
"This will push the project completion date back at least a year and possibly longer."
Under the original plan, the Point Lepreau reactor refurbishment was supposed to be finished on Sept. 30, 2009, but AECL, the federal Crown agency, ran into delays.
Until Friday, the most recent timeline said the reactor would be finished this October and ready to operate next February.
The New Brunswick government is now asking Ottawa to agree to mediation on the cost overruns.

MORE:
http://www.cbc.ca/canada/new-brunswick/story/2010/08/06/
lepreau-behind-schedule.html

======================

3. No Nukes News - August 4, 2010

Solartopia, he says, "is the wonderful, positive way of approaching the problem" of a polluted planet. "Don't just say `don't, don't, don't.' Say `DO! DO! DO!'"
"Wind power, solar power," Pete says. "This is the most exciting time in the world to be living.... There has never been such an exciting time." - Pete Seeger, American folk musician

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Ontario: quarrels over green energy value
Now, prominent fiscal conservatives are complaining that recent green energy contracts are poised to ignite steep power price hikes, and are an affront to market pricing principles. This belies a deep disdain for the actual facts, and a woeful lack of fiscal literacy.
In fact, the most enduring value of the landmark feed-in-tariff (FIT) model Ontario has adopted is that it will finally impel the province toward realistic (ie accurate) pricing, ignite electricity sector innovation which has been stultified for decades, and replace a command-and-control edifice which acted against both the economic and ecological interests of the province.
http://www.straightgoods.ca/2010/
ViewArticle.cfm?Ref=687&Cookies=yes
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New report disputes the economic case for nuclear power in Saskatchewan

HIGHLIGHTS
- Nuclear power could triple the electricity rate for Sask. consumers.
- Nuclear power causes little to no reduction in greenhouse gas emissions.
- Nuclear power has the highest capital costs compared to other forms of energy.
- The export market for surplus power has been greatly exaggerated.

http://www.policyalternatives.ca/newsroom/news-releases/
new-report-disputes-economic-case-nuclear-power-saskatchewan
--------------------------------------------------------------

Feds to pay extra refit costs
In letter to prime minister, Premier Shawn Graham says he's pleased province won't be on hook for unforeseen costs
http://telegraphjournal.canadaeast.com/actualites/article/1150839

Note: Great, taxpayers across the country will be paying for New
Brunswick’s ill-thought-out foray into nuclear refurbishment. – a
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Nuke plan to ship waste on our lakes – The Ontario government has a responsibility to protect our drinking water
by Andrea Horwath, NDP Leader, Ontario
http://www.torontosun.com/comment/columnists/2010/07/28/
14858291.html
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Chernobyl zone shows decline in biodiversity
The largest wildlife census of its kind conducted in Chernobyl has revealed that mammals are declining in the exclusion zone surrounding the nuclear power plant.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-10819027
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Floating Chernobyls
Russia has embarked on a scheme to building floating nuclear power plants to be moored off its coasts—especially off northern and eastern Russia—and sold to nations around the world.
http://www.counterpunch.org/grossman07272010.html
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U.S. Wary of South Korea’s Plan to Reuse Nuclear Fuel
Overshadowed by the continuing tension over North Korea’s nuclear program, another nuclear dispute is emerging on the Korean Peninsula — this one between the United States and South Korea. South Korea, which has no oil reserves, derives 40 percent of its electricity from nuclear reactors and is running out of space to store the highly radioactive spent nuclear fuel.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/14/world/asia/14seoul.html


Background: Every nuclear reactor fueled with uranium produces plutonium as a byproduct, and "all plutonium is good plutonium" when it comes to making atomic bombs or more sophisticated nuclear weapons. (See http://ccnr.org/plute_sandia.html)
The process of extracting plutonium from irradiated nuclear fuel is called "reprocessing". (Nuclear proponents now refer to it as "recycling", but in fact less than one percent of the irradiated fuel is plutonium, and the high level radioactive waste left behind remains an unsolved problem. The term "recycling" is therefore quite misleading.)
Once extracted, plutonium can be used to make atomic bombs at all levels of technical sophistication. Plutonium can also be used to fabricate fuel for nuclear reactors, but if that fuel is stolen the plutonium can be easily recovered as a nuclear-weapons-usable material by any well-equipped criminal or terrorist organization.
Any country that has stockpiles of separated plutonium can quickly put together an arsenal of atomic bombs or more sophisticated nuclear weapons with little chance of detectionand little time for diplomacy or sanctions to work.- Gordon Edwards.
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Nuclear Power: Dirty, Dangerous and Expensive
In this 45 min. program, Kevin Kamps of Beyond Nuclear explodes the myths now being promulgated by those promoting nuclear power. He tells of the insoluble problems of nuclear waste, how nuclear power plants routinely emit radioactive poisons, how catastrophic accidents can happen, how nuclear power plants are pre-deployed weapons of mass destruction for terrorists, and the enormously high costs of nuclear power. He exposes the falsehood that the French nuclear program has been a success and that nuclear power does not contribute to global warming.
View it here: http://www.blip.tv/file/3946822
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Study: Solar power is cheaper than nuclear
The Holy Grail of the solar industry — reaching grid parity — may no longer be a distant dream. Solar may have already reached that point, at least when compared to nuclear power, according to a new study by two researchers at Duke University.
It’s no secret that the cost of producing photovoltaic cells (PV) has been dropping for years. A PV system today costs just 50 percent of what it did in 1998. Breakthroughs in technology and manufacturing combined with an increase in demand and production have caused the price of solar power to decline steadily. At the same time, estimated costs for building new nuclear power plants have ballooned.
http://theenergycollective.com/oshadavidson/40559/
study-solar-power-cheaper-nuclear
----------------------------------------------------------------

Nuclear Energy Loses Cost Advantage
New York Times – Solar photovoltaic systems have long been painted as a clean way to generate electricity, but expensive compared with other alternatives to oil, like nuclear power. No longer. In a “historic crossover,” the costs of solar photovoltaic systems have declined to the point where they are lower than the rising projected costs of new nuclear plants
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/27/business/global/27iht-renuke.html
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It's a cloudy day for solar investors
Landowners feel blindsided after OPA wants to cut 80.2 cents a kilowatt hour first proposed
http://www.thestar.com/business/article/
842030--no-ray-of-sunshine-for-solar-power-investors

Green firms see red over Ontario rule changes for power producers
Province accused of creating instability by cutting rate for input to electricity grid
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/
green-firms-see-red-over-ontario-rule-changes-for-power-producers/article1659943/
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A dark ideology is driving those who deny climate change
People who claim that climate science is a conspiracy or the work of charlatans are talking rubbish
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/aug/01/
climate-change-robin-mckie
----------------------------------------------------------------

Climate Change Summit 2010
Aug. 13 – 15, at Hart House, U of T
Three days of climate science and solutions -- no sugar coating.
With Bill McKibbon, Andrew Weaver, Elizabeth May and more

Presented by U of T Greens and Toronto-Danforth Federal Green Party. It is a non-partisan event open to everyone.
For more info and to register: http://ccc-2010.ca/
----------------------------------------------------------------

Countdown to Zero
In Toronto it’s playing at the Cumberland Theatre (near Bloor and Bay)
http://www.toronto.com/documentary/movie/648313

Documentary probes a new generation of nuclear dangers
Dr. Strangelove isn’t dead, he’s just moved to a city near you, says “Countdown to Zero,” a film that means to put a new generation of anti-nuclear campaigners back on the peace path their grandparents pioneered as Cold War protesters.

http://www.thestar.com/news/world/article/
839693--documentary-probes-a-new-generation-of-nuclear-dangers

Disarmament for Some - Co-opting the Anti-Nuclear Movement
Countdown to Zero is one component of a larger and coherent foundation campaign to stoke up public fears about nuclear weapons for the purpose of extending a near-monopoly on nuclear weapons, and legitimating a more aggressive foreign policy aimed at regime change in Iran and elsewhere. The consensus behind those who funded and produced the film has little to do with disarmament, and a lot to do with stabilizing the American empire.
http://www.counterpunch.org/graham07222010.html
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The Ninth of August
On the 9th of August, 1945, an all-Christian B-29 bomber crew took off from Tinian Island in the South Pacific, with the blessings of its Catholic and Protestant chaplains. In the plane’s hold was the second of the only two nuclear bombs to ever be used against human targets in wartime. The primary target, Kokura, Japan, was clouded over, so the plane, named Bock’s Car, headed for the secondary target, Nagasaki.
Every summer, to call the Christian community to repent and to return to the truth that violence is not the way of Christ, Father McCarthy leads a fast from solid foods for 40 days, breaking it on August 9. It is suggested that fellow peacemakers remember all the victims of past August Ninths in their prayers on the upcoming 60th anniversary commemoration. It is hoped that conscientious Christians consider a day-long fast in remembrance of the hundreds of millions of war dead, the hundreds of millions of physically and psychologically traumatized survivors of war violence, and the billions of spiritually dead victims, both soldier-perpetrators and their civilian victims, innocents who continue to suffer from the starvation, homelessness, poverty, sickness and hopelessness that follows every war.
http://www.lewrockwell.com/orig5/kohls6.html
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Message for Hiroshima Day 2010
We must choose: nuclear weapons or a human future. The choice should not be difficult. Humanity should shout out with a single voice that we choose a world free of the overarching nuclear threat, a world free of nuclear weapons.
http://www.wagingpeace.org/articles/db_article.php?article_id=123
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Annual Hiroshima Day Peace Commemoration & Reflecting Light Lantern Ceremony
65 Years -Time to Retire the Bomb!
August 6, 2010 marks 65 years since the dropping of the atomic bomb on Hiroshima. Join the Hiroshima Day Coalition in Toronto to commemorate it.
Friday, August 6th
5:30 PM – Origami Paper Crane & Lantern Making
6:30 PM – Peace Commemorations Begin
8:45 PM – Reflective Light Lantern Ceremony
Toronto Peace Garden, Nathan Phillips Square, 100 Queen Street West (corner Queen and Bay)
Performances include: 3-time Juno Nominated Artist, Tom Barlow, The Raging Grannies, young violinist Evelyn Liu, 40 member SGI Youth Choir, Flautist Scott Kusano, Yakuodo Japanese Drummers
Keynotes include: Joe Ohori, Hiroshima atomic bombing survivor, Hon. Bob Rae, Liberal Party Foreign Affairs Critic, Murray Thomson, Pearson Peace Medal recipient, Dr. Adele Buckley, Pugwash Canada on Arctic Nuclear Weapons Free-Zone, High School Student Sophie Feltes on abolishing nuclear weapons, University Global Zero students on importance of civil participation, With MC Phyllis Creighton, Veterans Against Nuclear Arms and Science for Peace

PLUS: Hiroshima, Nagasaki Exhibit & Survivors Artwork
August 4 to 6th, Toronto City Hall, Rotunda. Daily.

All events are free and open to the public: http://www.hiroshimadaycoalition.ca/
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Pete Seeger Speaks and Sings for Solartopia!
At age 91, Pete is American folk activism's truest bard. It's no accident that Pete's new CD is Tomorrow's Children and that his new music video is for Solartopia! a holistic, socially just, post-corporate vision of a green-powered Earth.
Solartopia, he says, "is the wonderful, positive way of approaching the problem" of a polluted planet. "Don't just say `don't, don't, don't.' Say `DO! DO! DO!'"
"Wind power, solar power," Pete says. "This is the most exciting time in the world to be living.... There has never been such an exciting time."

Watch Pete’s 4 minute video Solartopia here: http://www.solartopia.org/

Read the article here:
http://www.commondreams.org/view/2010/08/02-1
----------------------------------------------------------------

Angela Bischoff, Outreach Director
Ontario Clean Air Alliance
Tel: 416 926 1907 x 246
625 Church Street, #402, Toronto, ON M4Y 2G1
angela@cleanairalliance.org
www.ontariosgreenfuture.ca
www.cleanairalliance.org
Our Facebook Group
Sign Our Petition
No Nukes News
Health Power

===================

4. Why World War II ended with Mushroom Clouds

65 years ago, August 6 and 9, 1945: Hiroshima and Nagasaki

http://www.globalresearch.ca/
index.php?context=va&aid=20478

by Jacques R. Pauwels August 6, 2010

"On Monday, August 6, 1945, at 8:15 AM, the nuclear bomb 'Little Boy"
was dropped on Hiroshima by an American B-29 bomber, the Enola Gay, directly killing an estimated 80,000 people. By the end of the year, injury and radiation brought total casualties to 90,000-140,000."[1]
"On August 9, 1945, Nagasaki was the target of the world's second atomic bomb attack at 11:02 a.m., when the north of the city was destroyed and an estimated 40,000 people were killed by the bomb nicknamed 'Fat Man.' The death toll from the atomic bombing totalled 73,884, as well as another 74,909 injured, and another several hundred thousand diseased and dying due to fallout and other illness caused by radiation."[2]

MORE: http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=20478

======================

5. Nuke U: How the University of California Is Helping to Blow Up the World

http://www.commondreams.org/view/2010/08/06-2

by Norman Solomon Published on Friday, August 6, 2010 by The Bohemian (California)
On my way to the Los Alamos National Laboratory a few years ago, I found it listed in a New Mexico phone book—under "University of California."
Since the early 1940s, UC has managed the nation's top laboratories for designing nuclear bombs. Today, California's public university system is still immersed in the nuclear weapons business.
Sixty-five years after the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki on Aug. 6 and 9, 1945, the University of California imprimatur is an air freshener for the stench of preparations for global annihilation. Nuclear war planners have been pleased to exploit UC's vast technical expertise and its image of high-minded academic purpose.
During most of WWII, scientists labored in strict secrecy at the isolated Los Alamos lab in the New Mexico desert, making possible the first nuclear weaponry. After the atomic bombings of Japan, UC continued to manage Los Alamos. And in 1952, when the government opened a second nuclear bomb generator, the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory east of San Francisco, UC won the prize to manage operations there, too.
A few years into the 21st century, security scandals caused a shakeup. UC lost its exclusive management slots at Los Alamos and Livermore, but retained major roles at both laboratories.
In mid-2006, the Los Alamos lab went under a new management structure, widened to also include Bechtel and a couple of other private firms. A year later, a similar team, likewise including UC and Bechtel, won a deal to jointly manage Livermore.
At Los Alamos, I learned that the new management team was, legally speaking, an LLC, a limited liability corporation. I'm still trying to wrap my mind around the concept of "limited liability" for managers of a laboratory that designs nuclear weapons.
Weird, huh? But not any stranger than having the state of California's top system of higher education devoted to R&D for designing better ways to blow up the planet.
Yes, those laboratories do some nifty ecological research and other laudable things. But nuclear weapons remain central to the labs' mission. And, lofty rhetoric aside, the federal government is pouring billions more dollars into the continuous high-tech pursuit of nuclear weapons "modernization."
- - - -
Norman Solomon is national co-chair of the Healthcare Not Warfare campaign and the author of many books, including 'War Made Easy: How Presidents and Pundits Keep Spinning Us to Death.' He lives in Marin County.
MORE: http://www.commondreams.org/view/2010/08/06-2

==================

6. Global Military Agenda: U.S. Expands Asian NATO To Contain And Confront China

QUOTE: “Clinton reiterated in no equivocal terms that the U.S. recognizes no "spheres of influence" by any other nation anywhere in the world, including ones by Russia and China on their borders and in their immediate neighborhoods [3], and that Washington reserves the exclusive right to intervene in regional conflicts around the world and to "internationalize" them when and how it sees fit.”- - - - -

Global Military Agenda: U.S. Expands Asian NATO To Contain And Confront China

www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=20517

By Rick Rozoff Global Research, August 7, 2010
Stop NATO http://rickrozoff.wordpress.com/
The U.S. ended the four-day Invincible Spirit joint military exercise with South Korea on July 28, which consisted of 20 warships and submarines, 200 aircraft and 8,000 troops "in the sea, shore and the skies" [1] of South Korea and in the Sea of Japan near the coasts of North Korea and Russia.
On the same day the Taiwan News ran a feature entitled "China reports: the US means to set up another NATO in Asia," which cited Chinese news media, scholars and analysts warning that "The US is establishing another 'NATO' in Asia to contain China as evidenced in the ongoing high-profile naval exercise with South Korea and a perceived intrusion in South China Sea affairs. [T]hese moves including explicit intervention in Asian affairs underline the US's schemes to challenge China over its growing presence in this area...."
Chinese scholar Shih Yongming is paraphrased as asserting that "The US is capitalizing on the contradictions among East Asian countries to form a front against China," in reference to U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton proposing "to include the controversy over the issues of South China Sea into the mechanism of international laws and [speaking] explicitly about US stakes in the disputed sea's areas," [2] an allusion to her comments at the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Regional Forum in Hanoi on July 23.
Clinton's signal that Washington would rally Southeast Asian nations engaged in disputes with China over claims to the Paracel and Spratly Islands in the South China Sea occurred at the end of a six-day tour of Asia - Pakistan, Afghanistan, South Korea and Vietnam - which followed by two weeks visits to Ukraine, Poland, Azerbaijan, Armenia and Georgia on Russia's western and southern flanks.
During her trips last month to nine nations from the Baltic Sea to the South China Sea, especially during her stays in Georgia and Vietnam, Clinton reiterated in no equivocal terms that the U.S. recognizes no "spheres of influence" by any other nation anywhere in the world, including ones by Russia and China on their borders and in their immediate neighborhoods [3], and that Washington reserves the exclusive right to intervene in regional conflicts around the world and to "internationalize" them when and how it sees fit.
Two days after Clinton left Vietnam the nearly 100,000-ton USS George Washington nuclear-powered supercarrier moved into the Sea of Japan for large-scale war games which also included the first deployment of U.S. F-22 Raptor fifth generation stealth warplanes to Korea. According to a local news source, "Two F-22s known as the best fighter aircraft in the world were shown combat-ready at Osan Air Base in Gyeonggi Province on [July 26].
"Saying the Raptor is the most lethal fighter, the US Air Force pointed out the jet's stealth design which prevents it from being detected by enemy radars.
MORE: www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=20517

=====================

7. New strategy ideas in U.S. peace movement

http://www.ceasefire.ca/?p=5185

Posted: 07 Aug 2010 12:30 AM PDT
Peace activists from around the United States gathered in Albany, NY in July to discuss a new comprehensive strategy for peace activism in the U.S. “The plan includes a new focus and some promising proposals for building a coalition that includes the labor movement, civil rights groups, students, and other sectors of the activist world [...]

========================

8. The US Isn't Leaving Iraq, It's Rebranding the Occupation

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cifamerica/2010/aug/04/
us-iraq-rebranding-occupation

Thursday, August 5, 2010 by The Guardian/UK
Obama says withdrawal is on schedule, but renaming or outsourcing combat troops won't give Iraqis back their country
For most people in Britain and the US, Iraq is already history. Afghanistan has long since taken the lion's share of media attention, as the death toll of Nato troops rises inexorably. Controversy about Iraq is now almost entirely focused on the original decision to invade: what's happening there in 2010 barely registers.
That will have been reinforced by Barack Obama's declaration this week that US combat troops are to be withdrawn from Iraq at the end of the month "as promised and on schedule". For much of the British and American press, this was the real thing: headlines hailed the "end" of the war and reported "US troops to leave Iraq".

MORE:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cifamerica/2010/aug/04/
us-iraq-rebranding-occupation

===========================

9. How Many Iraqis Did We "Liberate" from Life on Earth? (See TABLES. Ed.)

http://www.commondreams.org/view/2010/08/07-0
by Robert Naiman Saturday, August 7, 2010
Is there a man or woman in America today who is willing to stand at noon in the public square and claim that demands to bomb, invade, and occupy other people's countries have anything to do with human liberation?
If such people can be found, let them answer a few simple questions about the U.S. invasion and occupation of Iraq.
How many Iraqis did we "liberate" from the companionship of their loved ones?
How many Iraqis did we "liberate" from dwelling in the houses and towns and the country of their birth?
How many Iraqis did we "liberate" from life on Earth?
If any American who claims to believe that indefinite continuation of the war in Afghanistan -- or a US/Israeli military attack on Iran – is justified by humanitarian concerns cannot give a fact-based and intellectually coherent answer to the question of how many Iraqis have lost their lives as a result of the U.S. invasion and occupation of Iraq, do not that person's claims for "humanitarian" war, bombing, and occupation deserve zero credence?
To state that we cannot know how many have died is outrageously false. It is vacuously true that we cannot know exactly how many have died. But in the diverse fields of human inquiry and endeavor, there are many large numbers that are important which we cannot know exactly. If understanding the magnitude of a number is important, we do not throw up our hands and say, "we can never know." Imagine a reference book that said, "we don't know how many humans are alive on Earth today, because no one has counted them all."
If we want to understand the magnitude of a large number that we cannot count, we estimate it.
(See Tables. Ed.)

MORE: http://www.commondreams.org/view/2010/08/07-0

========================

10. Wildfires Could Spread to Region irradiated by Chernobyl Disaster

http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2010/08/06-1

by Russia Today Published on Friday, August 6, 2010 by Russia Today
Emergencies Ministry warns of nuclear threat
The Russian Emergencies Minister is warning of possible radiation risks, as wildfires approach closer to the area affected by the Chernobyl nuclear disaster.
The main fear is that the fires, which are moving further south of Moscow toward the Bryansk region, could disturb and spread the contamination buried in the ground after the Chernobyl nuclear accident.
"Several laboratories are closely monitoring the situation in the Bryansk region - the territory which was contaminated following the Chernobyl nuclear disaster," Emergencies minister Sergey Shoigu said. "If fires erupt there, there is a risk that radionuclide can be released into the air with other combustible gases, and more areas could become contaminated."
MORE: http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2010/08/06-1

======================

11. Endless Wars for Endless Profits: My reflections on the 5th Anniversary of Camp Casey by Cindy Sheehan (Video below. Ed.)

http://dandelionsalad.wordpress.com/2010/08/06/
endless-wars-for-endless-profits-my-reflections-on-the-5th-anniversary-of-camp-casey-by-cindy-sheehan/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+DandelionSalad+%28Dandelion+Salad%29

Posted: 06 Aug 2010 06:49 PM PDT
by Cindy Sheehan Featured Writer Dandelion Salad Cindy Sheehan’s Soapbox Blog Cindy Sheehan’s Soapbox
Before my son, Casey, was killed in Iraq on April 04, 2004, I was a mother of four, worried about all my children—but especially the one who was going to be deployed to Iraq—sometimes working as many as [...]

MORE:
http://dandelionsalad.wordpress.com/2010/08/06/
endless-wars-for-endless-profits-my-reflections-on-the-5th-anniversary-of-camp-casey-by-cindy-sheehan/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+DandelionSalad+%28Dandelion+Salad%29

- - - - - - -

WATCH: Dorli Rainey: I’m upset with our government, too (28 mins.)

http://dandelionsalad.wordpress.com/2010/08/07/
dorli-rainey-im-upset-with-our-government-too/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+DandelionSalad+%28Dandelion+Salad%29

Posted: 06 Aug 2010 11:47 PM PDT
http://dandelionsalad.wordpress.com/ talkingsticktv | August 05, 2010
Interview with Dorli Rainey a longtime Seattle activist.
See What the Tea Party has in common with the rest of us By Nikki Alexander
Endless Wars for Endless Profits: My reflections on the 5th Anniversary of Camp Casey by Cindy Sheehan Bamiyan Buddha Peace Light [...]

[Oscar]

NUKE NEWS: August 12, 2010

1. Hiroshima Peace Declaration 2010 - By Tadatoshi Akiba, Mayor, The City of Hiroshima, August 6, 2010
2. The Lies Of Hiroshima Are The Lies Of Today by John Pilger
3. WATCH: Nagasaki 65 Years Later: A Look Back at the Censored Dispatches of Pulitzer Prize-Winning Journalist George Weller
4. Press Censorship: How the Truth Was Hidden About Nagasaki 65 Years Ago
5. LISTEN: EDWARDS - FEARS OF RADIOACTIVE SMOKE FROM RUSSIAN WILDFIRES
6. Analysts say refit was bad decision - Point Lepreau, New Brunswick
7. Replace nuclear plant with green power, coalition urges
8. BP's Insidious Coverup and Propaganda Campaign: Out of Sight, Out of Mind (with reference to #9. Ed.)
9. The big lie
10. France digs deep for nuclear waste
11. Spent Fuel From Former Maine Nuclear Power Plant Still Stirs Controversy
12. Inuit win injunction on seismic testing
13. Balanced view shows true cost of nuke option
14. Sask. north among poorest regions
15. Ceasefire.ca launches first advertising campaign
16. New UN Report: Afghan Civilian Deaths on the Rise
17. How the Military Destroys the Lives of Soldiers Who Try to Tell the Truth
18. 5 Passages from the WikiLeaks "Afghan Diary" That Bring the Bizarre, Tragic Reality of War to Life
19. Hidden Intelligence Operation Behind the Wikileaks Release of "Secret" Documents?
20. The War on Iraq : Five US Presidents, Five British Prime Ministers, Thirty Years of Duplicity, and Counting....
21. WATCH: Will humans go extinct in 100 years?
22. No Nukes News - August 11, 2010

======================

1. Hiroshima Peace Declaration 2010 - By Tadatoshi Akiba, Mayor, The City of Hiroshima, August 6, 2010

http://www.peacealliancewinnipeg.ca/2010/08/
hiroshima-peace-declaration-2010/

By Tadatoshi Akiba, Mayor, The City of Hiroshima, August 6, 2010
In the company of hibakusha who, on this day 65 years ago, were hurled, without understanding why, into a “hell” beyond their most terrifying nightmares and yet somehow managed to survive; together with the many souls that fell victim to unwarranted death, we greet this August sixth with re-energized determination that, “No one else should ever have to suffer such horror.”
MORE:
http://www.peacealliancewinnipeg.ca/2010/08/
hiroshima-peace-declaration-2010/

======================

2. The Lies Of Hiroshima Are The Lies Of Today by John Pilger

http://dandelionsalad.wordpress.com/2010/08/09/
the-lies-of-hiroshima-are-the-lies-of-today-by-john-pilger/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+DandelionSalad+%28Dandelion+Salad%29

Posted: 08 Aug 2010 10:07 PM PDT
http://dandelionsalad.wordpress.com/ by John Pilger
Global Research, August 8, 2010 johnpilger.com
On the anniversary of the dropping of the atomic bomb on Hiroshima on August 6, 1945, John Pilger describes the ‘progression of lies’ from the dust of that detonated city, to the wars of today – and the threatened attack on Iran. When I first [...]

=======================

3. WATCH: Nagasaki 65 Years Later: A Look Back at the Censored Dispatches of Pulitzer Prize-Winning Journalist George Weller

http://www.democracynow.org/2010/8/9/nagasaki_65_years_later_a_look

Today, we remember the US bombing of Nagasaki through the story of Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist George Weller, the first reporter to enter Nagasaki, defying General MacArthur’s ban on the press in southern Japan. Weller worked for the Chicago Daily News and hired a rowboat to get himself to Nagasaki. He wrote a 25,000-word report on the horrors that he encountered. When he submitted his story to the military censors, MacArthur personally ordered that the story be killed, and the manuscript was never returned. Weller later summarized his experience with the government censors, saying, "They won." [includes rush transcript]

========================

4. Press Censorship: How the Truth Was Hidden About Nagasaki 65 Years Ago

http://www.commondreams.org/view/2010/08/09-1

by Greg Mitchell Published on Monday, August 9, 2010 by The Nation
Nagasaki, which lost over 70,000 civilians (and a few military personnel) to a new weapon 65 years ago today, has always been The Forgotten A-Bomb City. No one ever wrote a bestselling book called Nagasaki, or made a film titled Nagasaki, Mon Amour. Yet in some ways, Nagasaki is the modern A-bomb city. For one thing, when the plutonium bomb exploded above Nagasaki it made the uranium-type bomb dropped on Hiroshima obsolete. In fact, if it had not exploded off-target the death toll in the city would have easily topped the Hiroshima total.
Hiroshima has always drawn the vast majority of press, public and historical interest, even though many who support the first atomic bombing have expressed severe misgivings about number two because of the failure of United States to give the Japanese at least a few more days to consider surrender after the first blast (and the Soviets' declaration of war). Kurt Vonnegut, Jr., once said in an interview that the "nastiest act by this country, after human slavery, was the bombing of Nagasaki."
But Nagasaki was "forgotten" from the very start, thanks to a blatant act of press censorship.
MORE: http://www.commondreams.org/view/2010/08/09-1

===========================

5. LISTEN: EDWARDS - FEARS OF RADIOACTIVE SMOKE FROM RUSSIAN WILDFIRES

http://www.rcinet.ca/english/column/the-link-s-top-stories/
fears-of-radioactive-smoke-from-russian-wildfires/

by RCI-The Link 09 august 2010, 00h00
The fires that have been destroying vast swaths of Russian forest in recent weeks have raised concerns that they may also be releasing radioactivity that had been stored in the vegetation since the Chernobyl nuclear disaster of 1986. We talk to Dr Gordon Edwards, the president of the Canadian Coalition for Nuclear Responsibility.
Websites:
- www.ccnr.org
- www.fact-index.com/l/li/list_of_nuclear_accidents.html

= = = = = = = = =

Russia Battles to Defend Nuclear Sites From Fires

http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2010/08/10-1

Published on Tuesday, August 10, 2010 by Agence France-Presse
MOSCOW - Russia fought a deadly battle Tuesday to prevent wildfires from engulfing key nuclear sites as alarm mounted over the impact on health of a toxic smoke cloud shrouded over Moscow.
Two soldiers were killed by blazing trees as they worked to put out a fire dangerously close to Russia's main nuclear research center, while workers were also mobilized to fight blazes near a nuclear reprocessing plant.
MORE: http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2010/08/10-1

===================

6. Analysts say refit was bad decision Point Lepreau, New Brunswick

http://telegraphjournal.canadaeast.com/front/article/1169587

BRETT BUNDALE, Telegraph Journal, Tuesday August 10th, 2010
FREDERICTON - An energy analyst says it's becoming increasingly clear that the refurbishment of the Point Lepreau nuclear reactor was a "devastating decision" for the province.
Delays in the refurbishment of the Point Lepreau generating station are likely to leave the plant offline until at least sometime in 2012.
Toby Couture says the ongoing delays and ballooning costs of the refit show that the risks were "systematically underestimated at every step of the process."
"In hindsight this was a foolhardy and devastating decision for the province," he said Monday. "It would have been far better to cut our losses."
Energy Minister Jack Keir announced last week that the refurbishment has been delayed by at least another year, a setback that puts the refit 2½ years behind schedule and pushes cost overruns to nearly $1 billion.
Keir has called for mediation with the federal government to settle the question of who should pay for the extra costs.
The province has argued that Ottawa should foot the bill for cost overruns because it had "contracted for success" with Atomic Energy Canada Ltd., a federal Crown corporation and the general contractor of the plant's overhaul.
"It's a catchy phrase," Couture said. "But it was well understood that this was a very risky project."
Shawn-Patrick Stensil, a nuclear specialist with Greenpeace, agrees the province was aware of the refit's uncertainties before the project began.

MORE: http://telegraphjournal.canadaeast.com/front/article/1169587

============================

7. Replace nuclear plant with green power, coalition urges

http://www.thestar.com/business/article/
845709--replace-nuclear-plant-with-green-power-coalition-urges

Replacing Pickering plant far too costly, environmentalists say
John Spears, Toronto Star, Page B1, Tue Aug 10 2010
Ontario would save money by replacing the aging Pickering nuclear station with electricity from renewable sources, says a coalition of environmental groups.
The "renewable is doable" coalition, which includes Greenpeace, the Pembina Institute and the World Wildlife Fund, are to release a report Tuesday calling for Ontario to boost its targets for renewable energy.
The report is available at (www.renewableisdoable.com»)
"Ontario cannot afford to stay on the nuclear path," the report argues, citing the $26 billion that was quoted by suppliers in 2009 for two new nuclear reactors in Ontario, to replace the aging Pickering station.

MORE: http://www.thestar.com/business/article/
845709--replace-nuclear-plant-with-green-power-coalition-urges

====================

8. BP's Insidious Coverup and Propaganda Campaign: Out of Sight, Out of Mind (with reference to #9. Ed.)

: www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=20543

By Dahr Jamail Dahr Jamail's Dispatch - 2010-07-08
Global Research, August 9, 2010
Since BP announced that CEO Tony Hayward would receive a multi-million dollar golden parachute and be replaced by Bob Dudley, we have witnessed an incredibly broad, and powerful, propaganda campaign. A campaign that peaked this week with the US government, clearly acting in BP’s best interests, itself announcing, via outlets willing to allow themselves to be used to transfer the propaganda, like the New York Times, this message: “The government is expected to announce on Wednesday that three-quarters of the oil from the Deepwater Horizon leak has already evaporated, dispersed, been captured or otherwise eliminated — and that much of the rest is so diluted that it does not seem to pose much additional risk of harm.”
[ http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/04/science/earth/
04oil.html?_r=2&hp ]

The Times was accommodating enough to lead the story with a nice photo of a fishing boat motoring across clean water with several birds in the foreground.
This message was disseminated far and wide, via other mainstream media outlets like the AP and Reuters, effectively announcing to the masses that despite the Gulf of Mexico suffering the largest marine oil disaster in US history, most of the oil was simply “gone.”
Thus, it’s only what is on the surface that counts. If you can’t see it, there is not a problem.
This kind of government cover-up is nothing new, of course.
“It is well known that after the Chernobyl accident, the Soviet government immediately did everything possible to conceal the fact of the accident and its consequences for the population and the environment: it issued “top secret” instructions to classify all data on the accident, especially as regards the health of the affected population,” journalist Alla Yaroshinskaya has written. (See #9 below. Ed.)
[ http://www.eurozine.com/articles/2006-04-21-yaroshinskaya-en.html ]

MORE : www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=20543

======================

9. The big lie

http://www.eurozine.com/articles/2006-04-21-yaroshinskaya-en.html

The secret Chernobyl documents Alla Yaroshinskaya

In 1990, journalist Alla Yaroshinskaya came across secret documents about the Chernobyl catastrophe that revealed a massive cover-up operation and a calculated policy of disinformation. The state and party leadership had knowingly played down the extent of the contamination and offered a sanitized version to the outside world. In 1991, five years after the accident, a series of laws was adopted to protect the victims of radiation; now, scientists have begun to find serious flaws in these too. As recent studies show, the human and environmental damage shows no sign of abating.
- - - - -
Published 2006-04-21
Original in Russian
Translation by Vera Rich
First published in Index on Censorship 2/2006: "The Hidden Histories of Chernobyl" (forthcoming)
Contributed by Index on Censorship
© Alla Yaroshinskaya/Index on Censorship
© Eurozine

- - - - - - - -
Despite the changes brought about by Mikhail Gorbachev's vaunted perestroika and glasnost, the catastrophe at Chernobyl remained a classic Soviet cover-up, one that survived the collapse of the USSR in 1991. The number of people radically affected by the explosion was kept secret and the result was far greater mortality and suffering. Only in recent years have researchers and scientists begun to uncover the full truth of Chernobyl.

Related Articles:

Eurozine News Item
Remembering Chernobyl in 2006
http://www.eurozine.com/articles/2006-04-21-newsitem-en.html

Guillaume Grandazzi
Commemorating the Chernobyl disaster: Remembering the future
http://www.eurozine.com/articles/2006-04-21-grandazzi-en.html

Alla Yaroshinskaya
The big lie. The secret Chernobyl documents
http://www.eurozine.com/articles/2006-04-21-yaroshinskaya-en.html

Christine Daum, Igor Kostin
"The vodka was supposed to cleanse our thyroid glands". Igor Kostin on his Chernobyl photos
http://www.eurozine.com/articles/2006-04-21-kostin-en.html

Dzianis Ramaniuk
Rites, rituals, and cemeteries
http://www.eurozine.com/articles/2006-04-21-ramaniuk-en.html

Anatol Klashchuk
Children of Chernobyl
http://www.eurozine.com/articles/2006-04-21-klashchuk-en.html

Editorial: Osteuropa 4/2006
Chernobyl: Legacy and obligations
http://www.eurozine.com/articles/2006-04-07-osteuropaed-en.html

=======================

10. France digs deep for nuclear waste

http://www.nature.com/news/2010/100810/full/466804a.html

Geological storage of long-lived radioactive material is moving closer to reality in Europe
Declan Butler, Nature 466, 804-805, Aug. 10 2010
"It'll be about 8 minutes before we reach the 490-metre lab level," shouts an official, barely audible above the roar of machinery, as we slam shut the heavy doors of the small lift and trundle slowly towards the depths of the Earth.
Here, half a kilometre beneath rolling wheat fields outside the small town of Bure in northeast France, the country is preparing to dispose of its radioactive waste. In a €1-billion (US$1.3 billion) underground laboratory, the French National Radioactive Waste Management Agency (ANDRA) is testing the soundness of the rock and the technologies to contain the waste. ANDRA scientists are convinced that the rock formations can safely house highly radioactive waste, and plan an industrial-scale facility that would open deep below a 30-square-kilometre site nearby in 2025. It would be among the world's first geological repositories for high- and medium-level long-lived nuclear waste — and the largest.
The warren of tunnels under Bure is at the vanguard of several parallel efforts across Europe to come up with a permanent home for the long-lived waste that is accumulating at temporary storage sites. Projects that started decades ago are finally coming to fruition. Finland and Sweden plan to open deep geological repositories in about 2020–2025, whereas Germany hopes to open its own long-term repository in 2035. Several smaller European countries have banded together to form a European Repository Development Organisation to work on the concept of a shared facility.
By contrast, development of the United States' only proposed long-term repository, at Nevada's Yucca Mountain site, has stalled again and looks set to be abandoned after two decades of work and more than $10 billion in investment (see Nature 458, 1086–1087; 2009). The Obama administration wants to scrap the Yucca Mountain site, and has created a commission to explore alternatives. One of the main problems is that the selection of Yucca Mountain by the US Congress in 1987 was, from the outset, a political rather than a scientific choice. "There are far better geological sites in the US than Yucca Mountain," says Patrick Landais, a geologist and scientific director of ANDRA, as we tour the lab in hard hats and fluorescent overalls. Like many experts, he questions Yucca's geological suitability: "When I went to the top of Yucca Mountain and saw the volcanoes below, that worried me."

MORE: http://www.nature.com/news/2010/100810/full/466804a.html

=======================

11. Spent Fuel From Former Maine Nuclear Power Plant Still Stirs Controversy

http://www.mpbn.net/Home/tabid/36/ctl/ViewItem/mid/3478/ItemId/
13158/Default.aspx

08/10/2010 05:26 PM ET Reported By: Keith Shortall
The Maine Yankee Nuclear Power plant has been closed for 13 years, but its spent nuclear fuel rods remain on site in the midcoast town of Wiscasset, stored in casks that are likely to be there for at least the next 20 years. The question of what to do with the nation's growing stockpile of high level radioactive waste is now in the hands of a special commission.
A subcommitee of that panel, focussed on storage and transporation of spent fuel, was in Wiscasset today, to hold a public hearing on the problem. Critics of Maine Yankee, and nuclear power in general, are skeptical about the government's committment to finding a safe, and sensible strategy for dealing with the problem.
Its called the Blue Ribbon Commission On America's Nuclear Future. It was created by the Obama Admistration, which last year pulled the plug on the proposed Yucca Mountain high level waste storage plan, and vowed to pursue a new strategy. The Blue Ribbon Commission's charge: to develop a safe, long term solution for the management of used nuclear fuel, and radioactive waste. A four member subcomittee of the panel, focussed on Transporation and Storage came to Wiscasset to hear from state and local officials, and from the general public, about what should happen to the 550 metric tons of high level waste now stored in casks on site. Early in the hearing, Commissioner Susan Eisenhower questioned Maine Yankee's Chief Nuclear Officer Wayne Norton about the company's plans for securing the fuel at the site
"In your testimony you say that you can continue to assjure the safety and security of this facility for a temporary period of time," said Eisenhower. "Tthe question is how long and at what cost? We take very seiously our responsiblity to safely and securely gaurd the fuel until the government performs its obligations."

MORE: http://www.mpbn.net/Home/tabid/36/ctl/ViewItem/mid/3478/ItemId/
13158/Default.aspx

============================

12. Inuit win injunction on seismic testing

http://www.cbc.ca/canada/story/2010/08/08/
nunavut-lancaster-injunction.html

Judge grants block, citing potential for 'irreparable harm'
Last Updated: Sunday, August 8, 2010 | 6:13 PM ET CBC News
An Inuit group in Nunavut has been granted an injunction to stop seismic testing in Lancaster Sound, near the eastern entrance to the Northwest Passage.
In a decision handed down Sunday, Judge Susan Cooper issued an order to stop Natural Resources Canada from carrying out seismic tests aimed at mapping the area for potential oil and gas resources.
Residents from five communities in the area — Resolute Bay, Arctic Bay, Grise Fiord, Clyde River and Pond Inlet — were largely opposed to the plan to send sound blasts through the water, saying the sound could adversely affect whales, polar bears and other marine life in Lancaster Sound and change migration patterns.
The Nunavut government and the federal government had argued against an injunction, the latter citing a consultant's report that said the testing would have little or no impact on marine mammals.
But Judge Cooper noted "some aspects of the report … cause concern."
She said the fact that the report contains protocols to mitigate the impact of seismic activity on marine wildlife "supports the conclusion that there are impacts," she wrote.
"I am satisfied that Inuit in the five affected communities will suffer irreparable harm if an injunction is not granted," she ruled in granting the injunction.
The Inuit group that sought the injunction said it welcomed the ruling and said it was "unfortunate" that Inuit needed to go to court to have their voices heard. The group had maintained that public hearings in May and June did not amount to the "meaningful consultations" required.
"I look forward to the day when the advice of Inuit and their representative organizations is sought prior to seeking project approval," said Okalik Eegeesiak of the Qikiqtani Inuit Association.

MORE:
http://www.cbc.ca/canada/story/2010/08/08/
nunavut-lancaster-injunction.html

==========================

13. Balanced view shows true cost of nuke option

http://www2.canada.com/saskatoonstarphoenix/news/forum/
story.html?id=edfb87f4-e190-4253-815f-a131f1590020

Mark Bigland-Pritchard, Special to The StarPhoenix
Published: Friday, August 06, 2010
Following is the viewpoint of the writer, an energy and green building consultant, and lead technical researcher for Green Energy Project Saskatchewan.
- - -
I was amused to see Denise Carpenter of the Canadian Nuclear Association calling for "a more balanced account of the costs and benefits of nuclear power" (SP, July 30), especially when -- predictably -- she uses as authority for her greenhouse gas claims a consciously incomplete lifecycle analysis report paid for by her own lobby group.
Then, disregarding numerous recent Wall Street and independent economic assessments which show high and rapidly escalating costs for nuclear power, she cherry-picks reports from 2003 and 2004, neither of them based on real-life data.
While she brags about the growth of the nuclear industry in China, Carpenter conveniently forgets to mention its dependence on substantial government subsidies (no doubt given with military purposes in mind).
She also omits to note that installed windpower in that country has been doubling every year since 2005. It overtook nuclear capacity last year, and shows every sign of continuing to grow at a similar rate for several years.
If Carpenter wants a balanced account, she needs to provide a bit more balance herself.
The reality is that nuclear power is not -- and probably never has been -- cost-effective, that the mine-to-repository greenhouse gas emissions are higher than the nuclear industry is prepared to admit, and that modern renewable energy technologies easily beat nuclear on both counts, as well as on toxic emissions, health implications, waste issues, nuclear weapons proliferation, and job creation potential.

MORE:
http://www2.canada.com/saskatoonstarphoenix/news/forum/
story.html?id=edfb87f4-e190-4253-815f-a131f1590020

==========================

14. Sask. north among poorest regions

http://www.thestarphoenix.com/business/
Sask+north+among+poorest+regions/3346328/story.html

By Cassandra Kyle, The StarPhoenix July 31, 2010
Northern Saskatchewan was named one of the five poorest regions in the country in a new study released this week.
With an annual median income -- the mid-point of income distribution – of $13,600, the area, which includes La Ronge, was ranked by the Conference Board of Canada's Centre for the North as the second-poorest region in the country, behind only northeast Manitoba with a median income of $9,822.
While all five of Canada's poorest regions are in the north, so are three of the country's wealthiest regions, the study shows.
Northern Alberta, centring around Fort McMurray, the Fort Smith region of the Northwest Territories, including Yellowknife, and Northern British Columbia in the Fort Nelson area placed first, second and third, respectively, in the Conference Board's list of Canada's top five wealthiest regions. The areas have median incomes of $42,806, $37,325 and $35,521.
La Ronge mayor Thomas Sierzycki said Friday he's not surprised to see northern Saskatchewan on the agency's list of Canada's poorest regions.
"Definitely it's a negative image," he said in a telephone interview from the community of 3,500 people.

MORE:
http://www.thestarphoenix.com/business/
Sask+north+among+poorest+regions/3346328/story.html

=========================

15. Ceasefire.ca launches first advertising campaign

http://www.ceasefire.ca/
?p=5284&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+ceasefire%2FycPl+%28Ceasefire.ca%29

Posted: 11 Aug 2010 06:54 AM PDT
After overwhelming response from our members, Ceasefire.ca published the first of a series of ads asking Prime Minister Harper to call off the planned U.S. and NATO offensive against the city of Kandahar, which risks many more civilian casualties.
- - - -
The first ad appears in the influential Embassy magazine, which boasts a 60,000 readership, especially in foreign and defence policy communities. A second ad will appear in the Hill Times next week, targeting broader Ottawa political circles.

http://www.ceasefire.ca/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/
embassy_august-11-2010_ad_campaign.pdf

===========================

16. New UN Report: Afghan Civilian Deaths on the Rise

http://www.mercurynews.com/politics-government/
ci_15753236?nclick_check=1

Posted: 10 Aug 2010 07:27 PM PDT
According to a new UN report, the number of civilian casualties for the first six months of 2010 was 1,271 deaths, up from 1,013 deaths that occurred in the first six months of 2009. (A recent Afghan human rights agency report put the total civilians killed between January and July at 1,325). The percentage of [...]

=====================

17. How the Military Destroys the Lives of Soldiers Who Try to Tell the Truth

http://www.alternet.org/story/147778/
how_the_military_destroys_the_lives_of_soldiers_who_try_to_tell_the_truth

Bradley Manning is not the first military whistleblower to have his life ruined. The military is infamous for trying to silence soldiers who speak out against the war.READ MORE Justine Sharrock / AlterNet

=========================

18. 5 Passages from the WikiLeaks "Afghan Diary" That Bring the Bizarre, Tragic Reality of War to Life

From accounts of prison life to tales of drug smuggling, the Wikileaks memos bring the Afghan war home.READ MORE
Alexander Zaitchik / AlterNet
http://www.alternet.org/story/147755/
5_passages_from_the_wikileaks_%22afghan_diary%22_that_bring_the_bizarre%2C_tragic_reality_of_war_to_life

===========================

19. Hidden Intelligence Operation Behind the Wikileaks Release of "Secret" Documents?

www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=20580

By F. William Engdahl Global Research, August 11, 2010
Since the dramatic release of a US military film of a US airborne shooting of unarmed journalists in Iraq, Wiki-Leaks has gained global notoreity and credibility as a daring website that releases sensitive material to the public from whistleblowers within various governments. Their latest “coup” involved alleged leak of thousands of pages of supposedly sensitive documents regarding US informers within the Taliban in Afghanistan and their ties to senior people linked to Pakistan’s ISI military intelligence. The evidence suggests however that far from an honest leak, it is a calculated disinformation to the gain of the US and perhaps Israeli and Indian intelligence and a coverup of the US and Western role in drug trafficking out of Afghanistan.
Since the posting of the Afghan documents some days ago the Obama White House has given the leaks credibility by claiming further leaks pose a threat to US national security. Yet details of the papers reveals little that is sensitive. The one figure most prominently mentioned, General (Retired) Hamid Gul, former head of the Pakistani military intelligence agency, ISI, is the man who during the 1980’s coordinated the CIA-financed Mujahideen guerilla war in Afghanistan against the Soviet regime there. In the latest Wikileaks documents, Gul is accused of regularly meeting Al Qaeda and Taliban leading people and orchestrating suicide attacks on NATO forces in Afghanistan.
The leaked documents also claim that Osama bin Laden, who was reported dead three years ago by the late Pakistan candidate Benazir Bhutto on BBC, was still alive, conveniently keeping the myth alove for the Obama Administration War on Terror at a point when most Americans had forgotten the original reason the Bush Administration allegedly invaded Afghanistan to pursue the Saudi Bin Laden for the 9/11 attacks.

MORE: www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=20580

==========================

20. The War on Iraq : Five US Presidents, Five British Prime Ministers, Thirty Years of Duplicity, and Counting....

www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=20510

By Felicity Arbuthnot Global Research, August 6, 2010
"Out of the mirror they stare,
Imperialism's face
And the international wrong." (W.H. Auden, 1907-1973, writing in 1939.)
Twenty years ago this August, with a green light from America, Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait. He had walked in to possibly the biggest trap in modern history, unleashing Iraq's two decade decimation, untold suffering, illegal bombings, return of diseases previously eradicated and what can also only be described as UN-sponsored infanticide.
The reason for the Kuwait invasion, has been air brushed out of the fact books by Britain and America, and been presented as the irrational and dangerous act of a belligerent tyrant who was a threat to his neighbours. He had, they pointed out piously, attacked, then fought an eight year war with Iran, and exactly two years to the month, after the 20th August 1988 ceasefire, invaded Kuwait, on 2nd August 1990.
It was, of course, not quite that simple. After the US engineered the fall of the democratic government of Mossadegh, in Iran, resultant from his nationalizing the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company (now BP) in 1953. After two years of economically ravaging sanctions, The US installed Shah Reza Pahvlavi (whose savage state police, SAVAK, were trained by General Norman Schwartzkopf, Snr., father of General "Storming" Norman Schwartzopf of the 1991 Gulf war, who famously declared at the time of the ceasefire: "... no one left to kill .." ) Under the Shah, oil arrangements satisfactory to the United States were, of course, restored

MORE: www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=20510

========================

21. WATCH: Will humans go extinct in 100 years?

http://www.smartplanet.com/technology/blog/science-scope/
will-humans-go-extinct-in-100-years/2565/

By Boonsri Dickinson | Jun 23, 2010
The Australian scientist, who eradicated small pox, thinks so. Frank Fenner, a professor at the Australian National University, knows a thing or two about extinction. He wiped out the variola virus, the cause of small pox, after all!
Now the 95-year-old, Fenner is preoccupied with human extinction. In an exclusive interview with The Australian, Fenner gave a sobering interview in his Canberra suburb home:

MORE: http://www.smartplanet.com/technology/blog/science-scope/
will-humans-go-extinct-in-100-years/2565/

=========================

22. No Nukes News - August 11, 2010

----------------------------------------------------------------

Anti-Nuke Leaflets Galore
Can you help us distribute our leaflets in your community? They’re free and appropriate for distro anywhere in Canada. They include postcards to Harper and Ignatieff to oppose federal tax-payer subsidies for new nuclear reactors in Ontario. Order them from me: Angela@cleanairalliance.org.
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Green energy upgrade protects Ontarians from rising nuclear costs
Choosing to scale up green energy to replace the retiring Pickering nuclear station is more affordable for Ontarians than buying expensive replacement reactors, says a report released today by Renewable is Doable, an alliance of organizations including the Pembina Institute, the Canadian Environmental Law Association and Greenpeace. Last summer, Ontario suspended its purchase of two new replacement reactors when their cost reportedly topped $26 billion - $20 billion more than expected in 2007.
The report, Green Energy Plan 2.0, shows that a mix of green energy technologies and conservation acquired through the government’s Green Energy Act would be 12 to 48 per cent cheaper than buying new reactors to replace the aging Pickering nuclear station, which is set to close in 2020 due to high maintenance costs.
http://www.renewableisdoable.com/
Replace nuclear plant with green power, coalition urges
http://www.thestar.com/business/article/
845709--replace-nuclear-plant-with-green-power-coalition-urges
----------------------------------------------------------------

Nuclear: Cost overruns at Point Lepreau will approach $1B as work held up for at least another year
New Brunswick: The refurbishment of the Point Lepreau nuclear station has been delayed by at least another year, a setback that puts the refit 2½ years behind schedule and pushes cost overruns to nearly $1 billion.
http://telegraphjournal.canadaeast.com/front/article/1166644
Analysts say refit was bad decision
Toby Couture says the ongoing delays and ballooning costs of the refit show that the risks were "systematically underestimated at every step of the process." "In hindsight this was a foolhardy and devastating decision for the province," he said Monday. "It would have been far better to cut our losses."
http://telegraphjournal.canadaeast.com/front/article/1169587
----------------------------------------------------------------

Action Alert
Bruce Power plans to ship 16 radioactive steam generators through the Great Lakes and the Saint Lawrence River, and across the Atlantic Ocean to Sweden, where 90 percent of the 1600 tonnes of radioactively contaminated metal will be melted down and sold as scrap for unrestricted use. In this way, some of the radioactivity will be dispersed into the air (atmospheric emissions), some will be dispersed into the Baltic Sea (liquid effluents), and some will be incorporated into consumer products of all kinds – razor blades, hair dryers, paper clips, you name it. The remaining 10 percent will be shipped back to Bruce Power for storage as radioactive waste.
Two questions are paramount:
(1) Should radioactive debris from decrepit nuclear reactors be allowed on the Great Lakes and the Saint Lawrence River? These steam generator shipments will be the first of many.
(2) Should radioactive contaminants from nuclear power plants be allowed to be disseminated into consumer goods? Does anyone actually want plutonium-contaminated metal?
The Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission says these shipments pose no risk to anyone and it is therefore poised to grant a license authorizing them. Due to public concern, CNSC has now agreed to hold a one-day hearing on September 29 in Ottawa -- actually, they tacked the steam generator transport issue onto the agenda of another meeting already scheduled for the same day.
Anyone can write to the CNSC with their comments, but since this is primarily a political issue, be sure to send a copy of your comments to the Premier of Ontario, Dalton McGuinty, to the Prime Minister of Canada, Stephen Harper, and to your local media.
Tell them not to allow these shipments. Tell them to make Bruce Power abide by its promises (in a 2005 Environmental Assessment) to keep the steam generators on site as radioactive waste which must be stored as such in perpetuity.
- Gordon Edwards, Canadian Coalition for Nuclear Responsibility
---

Note from Angela: for more back ground info and to sign a petition to oppose these radioactive waste shipments go to:
http://org2.democracyinaction.org/o/5654/p/dia/action/public/
?action_KEY=3737

http://www.cela.ca/newsevents/action-alert/
action-alert-voice-your-concern-canadian-nuclear-safety-commission-cnsc-rega
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The Nuclear Retreat
We coined the term, "Nuclear Retreat" here at Beyond Nuclear to counter the nuclear industry's preposterous "nuclear renaissance" propaganda campaign. You've probably seen "Nuclear Retreat" picked up elsewhere and no wonder - the alleged nuclear revival so far looks more like a lot of running away. On this page we will keep tabs on every latest nuclear retreat as more and more proposed new nuclear programs are canceled.
http://www.beyondnuclear.org/the-nuclear-retreat/
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Solar and wind factories in ON
Samsung, in partnership with Pattern Energy, has proposed a 260-megawatt wind energy project in Chatham-Kent. The entire project would involve $500 million in investments from Samsung, and take anywhere from one year to 18 months to construct.
"Typically wind farms have worked really well with farmers because it only takes up one to 1.5 per cent of the land area, the rest of the land can still be farmed," said Lee.
In addition to the wind energy project, Lee said Samsung, in partnership with Korea Electric Power Corporation (Kepco), has plans to build four factories in Ontario for the manufacturing of wind towers, blades, solar panels and inverters. The factories will be built in five 500-megawatt stages. Commercial operation should be in place at the end of 2012 and Lee said the company hoped to have 2,500 megawatt of green energy in operation by the end of 2016 or beginning of 2017.
Currently, most of the components required to create and support wind or solar energy in Ontario must be imported. These four factories would enable Ontario to enter into the wind and solar photovoltaic (PV) export market as well as create over 900 direct and 1,600 indirect jobs

http://www.chathamdailynews.ca/
ArticleDisplay.aspx?e=2689360&auth=Trevor%20Terfloth

Canadian Solar Inc. Announcing the Selection of Guelph to Host its Solar Module Manufacturing Facility in Ontario, Canada

http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/
canadian-solar-inc-announcing-the-selection-of-guelph-to-host-its-solar-module-manufacturing-facility-in-ontario-canada-100420524.html

Wind turbine factory to create 300 jobs
http://www.thestar.com/business/article/
846221--wind-turbine-factory-to-create-300-jobs
----------------------------------------------------------------

Renewable Progress: Can the Grid Go Green?
Catch Jeremy Rifken on Steve Paiken’s The Agenda during the entire week of Aug. 9-13
On TVO at 8 p.m.
(broadcast throughout Ontario, but I believe all the programs will be available on tvo.org/theagenda

AUGUST 9-13

MONDAY
Jeremy Rifkin: The Origins of Progress The evolution of progress, from its infancy in the dark ages to the enlightenment.
The Debate: The Myths of Digital Literacy As Facebook, Twitter and the internet change how we communicate, how does that affect literacy?

TUESDAY
Jeremy Rifkin: Technological Progress From the industrial revolution to today, how has our perception of progress changed? And at what cost?
The Debate: Green Auto Lies Green machines. Good for the environment? Or simply fueling demand? Is the greening of North America's auto sector for real?

WEDNESDAY
Jeremy Rifkin: Renewable Progress How our changing relationship with the environment is bringing our empathic nature to the forefront.
The Debate: Can the Grid Go Green? Are environmentalists right? Can Ontario meet its future energy needs without building big new power plants?

THURSDAY
Jeremy Rifkin: Redefining Progress How do we define progress? Is one person's version of progress the same as another's?
The Debate: Robotics Revolution How will robotics change us and our lives? Will AI driven robots put us on an accelerated evolutionary path? Why would we want a more heavily robotized society? Do we have a choice in the matter?

FRIDAY
Jeremy Rifkin: The Empathic Civilization The Empathic Civilization author Jeremy Rifkin will explain how society needs to shift in order to embrace its empathic nature.
The Debate: Time for Open Government? The value of transparency in government. Will open government lead to better government?
----------------------------------------------------------------

Wind’s PR problem
Toronto Star Editorial
The results of the poll, released in July, showed that nearly 9 in 10 Ontarians either “somewhat support” or “strongly support” the production of wind energy. This comes as little surprise given it is clean and renewable. However, the results in southwestern Ontario – where the majority of wind turbines are currently clustered – should be given special attention. While there was still significant support, there was markedly less support in this region than everywhere else in Ontario.
Ontario’s Chief Medical Officer Dr. Arlene King was unequivocal in her report earlier this year stating: “There isn’t any direct causal link between wind turbine noise and adverse health effects.” Still, this has had little effect on those who oppose wind turbines on health grounds and this poll suggests they may be having an effect on the perceptions of wind energy, in southwestern Ontario, at least.
It is particularly timely, then, that the Canadian Association of Physicians for the Environment and the Registered Nurses’ Association of Ontario have joined forces to help dispel the health fears being generated by a small but vocal group of wind critics. The doctors and nurses have begun meeting with MPPs and others to ensure it is known that the medical community at large supports wind as a safe form of energy, unlike coal-fired plants, which can directly be attributed to respiratory illnesses and deaths.
http://www.thestar.com/opinion/editorials/article/
842902--wind-s-pr-problem
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THE RIDE FOR RENEWABLES
On Tuesday, August 24th, Greenpeace Canada is organizing THE RIDE FOR RENEWABLES, a 45km bike trip from the Pickering Nuclear Station to the Darlington Nuclear Station.
THE RIDE RENEWABLES will send the message to Dalton McGuinty's Liberals that when Pickering Nuclear Station shuts down, Ontarians demand a green energy replacement, not more reactors at the Darlington Station. No more dirty, dangerous, and expensive nukes; Ontario demands a Green Energy Revolution.
Find out more and register for the bus ride out to Pickering:

http://www.facebook.com/?sk=nf#!/
event.php?eid=124793684233089
Or contact: steve.cornwell@greenpeace.org
----------------------------------------------------------------

Angela Bischoff, Outreach Director
Ontario Clean Air Alliance
Tel: 416 926 1907 x 246
625 Church Street, #402
Toronto, ON M4Y 2G1
angela@cleanairalliance.org
www.ontariosgreenfuture.ca
www.cleanairalliance.org
Our Facebook Group
Sign Our Petition
No Nukes News
Health Power

[Oscar]

NUKE NEWS: August 16, 2010

1. (SK) Northern Metis Interested In Nuclear Waste Site
2. Uranium 2010 Conference, Saskatoon Aug 15 – 18
3. HARDING: PROPOSED URANIUM MINE WOULDN’T GET GO-AHEAD IN SOUTH
4. Plan to Ship Bruce Power's 16 Steam Generators Has Been Delayed
5. Cameco scales back its sales strategy
6. Colorado tightens uranium mining rules (several articles. Ed.)
7. Nuclear submarine safety bungle put 59,000 people at risk
8. Russia admits fires burned on Chernobyl-hit land (Photos/Video)
9. Towards a World War III Scenario? The Role of Israel in Triggering an Attack on Iran - - - Part II - The Military Road Map
10. Targeting Iran: Is the US Administration Planning a Nuclear Holocaust?
11. Why the Deadly Attack on the Freedom Flotilla Was the Breakthrough That Made the World See Israel's Cruelty in Gaza
12. Parents of Two Soldiers Who Took Their Own Lives Still Waiting for a Letter from Obama
13. The CIA's Shocking Experiments on Children Exposed -- Drugging, Electroshocks and Brainwashing
14. Errant Climate May Be Sign of Breakdown, Scientists Say
15. LETTER: BRAY: PAST TIME FOR ACTION ON CLIMATE CHANGE - August 10, 2010
16. WikiLeaks says it won't be threatened by the Pentagon
17. ARTICLE: BRADY: CANADA'S WATER IS VULNERABLE
18. Ceasefire.ca ad campaign continues in the Hill Times

==================

1. (SK) Northern Metis Interested In Nuclear Waste Site/Letter

http://www.mbcradio.com/news/news/
news_item2.asp?NewsID=8965

Thursday, August 12, 2010 at 15:00
Local leaders in Pinehouse are exploring the idea of hosting a nuclear waste storage site.
Metis Nation - Saskatchewan area director Louis Gardiner was part of a delegation from the community that met with Nuclear Waste Management Organization officials in Toronto earlier this week.
Gardiner says the region he represents -- Northern Region III -- has told the federal agency it is interested in the potential of a nuclear waste storage site established in its area.
However, Gardiner says leaders have to get the green light from area residents before going any further.
NWMO spokesman Jamie Robertson says while the discussion with the Pinehouse delegation was promising, but the community has not made a decision yet on whether it will apply for consideration.
Robertson says his agency is in discussions with a few Saskatchewan communities, but only a community in Ontario has officially filed a formal expression of interest.
The NWMO is looking for a site 100 hectare in size with certain geographic criteria.
The facility will cost between $16 billion and $24 billion to build -- money set aside by the companies that are generating the nuclear waste.
Pinehouse officials are reserving comment.

==================

2. Uranium 2010 Conference, Saskatoon Aug 15 – 18

http://www.metsoc.org/u2010/

Welcome to u2010
Join Us at Uranium 2010, in Saskatoon in August 2010
Saskatoon is the host city for the 3rd International Conference on Uranium organized by the Hydrometallurgy Section of the Metallurgical Society of the Canadian Institute of Mining, Metallurgy and Petroleum (CIM). The 2nd International Conference on Uranium Processing and Mining was also held in Saskatoon in 2000. On the occasion of the 40th Annual Hydrometallurgy Conference, the Hydrometallurgy Section continues its tradition of holding a major international conference on Uranium in Saskatoon.
Saskatoon is the home of Cameco Corporation and AREVA Resources Canada, two of the world's largest uranium producers. Other mining companies, such as Potash Corporation, Shore Gold, Denison Mines and Claude Resources, also have their head offices or regional offices in Saskatoon. The Canadian Saskatoon Light Source Synchrotron, the largest science project in Canada, is located on the campus of the University of Saskatchewan in Saskatoon.
On behalf of the organizing committee, we invite you to come to Saskatoon to discover and explore the latest science and technology in uranium mining, milling, refining, conversion, enrichment and the nuclear energy generation. The Uranium 2010 conference will also feature an invigorating and informative short course, an industrial tour to the largest and richest uranium mining and processing operations in the world and a variety of entertaining social and cultural activities.
Mark your meeting calendar for August 15-18, 2010. This will be a truly outstanding conference. We look forward to seeing you there!
= = = = =
DELEGATE LIST:
http://www.metsoc.org/u2010/PDFs/U2010%20Delegate%20List.pdf

SPONSORS:
http://www.metsoc.org/u2010/ci_sponsors.asp

==================

3. HARDING: PROPOSED URANIUM MINE WOULDN’T GET GO-AHEAD IN SOUTH

http://forum.stopthehogs.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?p=1818#1818

BY Jim Harding Published in the United Newspapers of Saskatchewan August 13, 2010 Saskatchewan Sustainability
The uranium mining going on in the north since the 1950s, first to fuel U.S. nuclear weapons and then nuclear power plants, has made northern Saskatchewan one of the world’s largest uranium tailings dumps. Meanwhile, Cameco is preparing its Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) to get approval for yet another huge mine, which they call the Millennium Project. This mine would be 150 km from Wollaston Lake, an area already inundated with radioactive tailings from past mines. The 1993 federal-provincial environment review was so concerned about the cumulative impact of these mines that they recommended that Areva’s proposed Midwest mine not go ahead and that its McClean Lake mine be postponed.
The proposed Millennium mine would be half way between Cameco’s operating McArthur River mine, the largest in the world, and the uranium-depleted Key Lake mine north on the Pinehouse road which still operates a processing mill and tailings dump. The proposed new mine site is 500 km north of Saskatoon. If it was close to Saskatoon where Cameco has its head office, or to Regina where the pro-uranium government resides, or to southern cities like Swift Current or Yorkton, it would not receive approval.
Some are calling this huge double standard "environmental racism". However, unless both northerners and southerners organize to oppose this mine, Cameco likely hasn’t much to worry about. Even when an environmental review recommended against a uranium mine going ahead, such as in 1993, the mining lobby got its way. And so the Midwest and McClean Lake mines opened regardless of concerns about cumulative effects. The Saskatchewan Party’s move towards environmental de-regulation and corporate self-regulation will favour fast-tracking this new profitable mining project. And the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission (CNSC) is already so compromised by its mishandling of radioactive contamination at Port Hope and Chalk River, Ontario that it can’t be counted on as a neutral and objective regulator. Neither Saskatchewan’s Ministry of the Environment or the CNSC would dare say “no” to Cameco’s new mine, even though it is not, in any sense, about creating a sustainable economy in the north

MORE:
http://forum.stopthehogs.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?p=1818#1818

======================

4. Plan to Ship Bruce Power's 16 Steam Generators Has Been Delayed

http://nuclearstreet.com/blogs/nuclear_power_news/archive/
2010/08/05/
public-hearing-delays-planned-nuclear-shipment-080503.aspx

August 5, 2010
A plan to ship 16 aging radioactive steam generators across Ontario's Great Lakes has been delayed so a public hearing can take place. - Edited By Tom Lamar -
Bruce Power sought approval from the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission last April to ship the decommissioned generators from its nuclear generating station near Kincardine, Ont., to Sweden for recycling. Studsvik, in Sweden, is the only company worldwide with the capacity to recycle 90 per cent of the 100-tonne steel generators.
Bruce Power, the country's first private nuclear-power generator, initially wanted to begin the shipment in early September over a three-week period.
But last week, the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission (CNSC) announced that it will hold a public hearing before any approval can be given. The regulatory body is currently going through the technical aspects of the application.
If approved, it will be the first time a shipment of this type has travelled across the Great Lakes. The generators would be shipped through the Great Lakes and St. Lawrence Seaway and then across the Atlantic Ocean.
The generators are part of the Bruce A nuclear reactor, which is currently undergoing a $5.25-billion refurbishment. The same reactor, located on the banks of Lake Huron, was blamed for an accidental radioactive release last November.
Opponents of the plan argue that the school-bus sized generators are too dangerous to ship across waterways that millions of people in Canada and the U.S. rely on for drinking water. Some worry that it will also open up the lakes as a main thoroughfare for other nuclear shipments.
To date, nearly 2,500 people and 50 organizations worldwide have signed an online petition asking the CNSC to block the plans.
Bruce Power said a number of contingency plans are in place and that low levels of nuclear waste are sealed and contained in each generator, creating little possibility for a leak to occur.
The public hearing will be held on Sept. 29 at the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission headquarters in Ottawa.
Published Aug 05 2010, 08:15 AM by Nuclear Street News Team
Filed under: transportation, Sweden, Canada, Bruce Power, Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission,radioactive, steam generators, studsvik, nuclear shipment, barge

=====================

5. Cameco scales back its sales strategy

From: Gordon Edwards
Sent: Saturday, August 14, 2010 11:49 PM
Subject: Cameco slashes uranium sales strategy: "...a little bit puzzling," said Orest Wowkodaw

Background:

Uranium exploration is spurred by speculation about the future demand for uranium. In June 2007, uranium "spot" prices peaked at about $140 per pound. But the much-publicized "nuclear renaissance" which led to this sudden jump in price has not materialized, as new reactors are not being built at a pace that would justify a vastly increased demand for uranium. Hence the "spot" price of uranium is now less than a third of the peak value.
Nuclear optimism keeps the price from falling further, but unless a breakthrough in reactor construction occurs soon, the price of uranium cannot be sustained at its current levels.
Gordon Edwards.
- - - - - -

Cameco scales back its sales strategy

http://www.financialpost.com/news/
Cameco+scales+back+sales+strategy/3396989/
story.html#ixzz0weJatvnh

By PETER KOVEN, Postmedia News; Financial Post August 14, 2010
The uranium spot market continues to be a near-dead zone. With that being the case, Cameco Corp. is pulling back on its sales strategy.
Yesterday, the Saskatoon based uranium giant slashed its uranium sales guidance for 2010 to 30 million pounds from as much as 33 million pounds, and cut its uranium revenue forecast as well.
It blamed customer deferrals and a sluggish spot market, in which prices are low and demand continues to be extremely weak.
The spot market has been poor for one reason: Western utilities have all the uranium they need right now, so buying is completely discretionary.
The spot market is just a small fraction of the overall uranium market, but such producers as Cameco use it to sell (and occasionally buy) extra material. For now, the company has decided to reduce spot sales until the market improves.
"Our view is that the (spot) market will be more favourable in the future than it is today," George Assie, Cameco's head of marketing and business development, said on a conference call discussing the company's second-quarter results. "So why increase sales in this period?"

MORE: http://www.financialpost.com/news/
Cameco+scales+back+sales+strategy/3396989/
story.html#ixzz0weJatvnh

====================

6. Colorado tightens uranium mining rules (several articles. Ed.)

QUOTE: “Canada-based Powertech fought clean water protections as it tries to move forward with a highly controversial Centennial project in Weld County, in the vicinity of more than one hundred active groundwater wells.
“Despite Powertech’s best efforts to cut-out the public and avoid environmental protections, clean water won the day,” said Jackie Adolph, outreach chair of CARD.”
- - - - - - -

Victory for water and public accountability on mining

http://www.environmentcolorado.org/news-releases/preservation/
stop-toxic-pollution-news/
victory-for-water-and-public-accountability-on-mining

Colorado mining board votes unanimously to protect health, environment from uranium and hardrock mining impacts
For immediate release: August 12, 2010 Contact: Matt Garrington, (720) 206-4348
Denver – Today, the Colorado Mined Land Reclamation Board voted unanimously, 7 to 0, in favor of clean water protections and an open public process regarding mine prospecting decisions.
Jeff Parsons, attorney with the Western Mining Action Project, represented Coloradoans Against Resource Destruction (CARD), Environment Colorado, and others during the rulemaking process before the state mining board.
“We’re pleased with the Board’s decision today in passing rules that protect groundwater and ensure public involvement in uranium mining decisions,” said Parsons.
The decision caps events that started more than two years ago when Environment Colorado and CARD teamed up with support from Parsons to pass some of the nation’s toughest uranium laws as well as mine prospecting legislation. Today’s decision by the board was the final enactment of new protections into Colorado law.
Garrington lauded the closure of the Cotter uranium loophole, an obscure provision in state law where Cotter attempted to avoid environmental regulation at multiple sites, including the Schwartzwalder uranium mine in Jefferson County which was polluting Ralston Reservoir, a drinking water supply for Denver Water and the City of Arvada.
“The state mining board took decisive action to protect our water and land from uranium pollution,” said Matt Garrington, program advocate of Environment Colorado. “Today is a triumph for our land and water.”

MORE:
http://www.environmentcolorado.org/news-releases/preservation/
stop-toxic-pollution-news/
victory-for-water-and-public-accountability-on-mining

= = = = = =

QUOTE: “Today's tightened approach "doesn't affect us at all," said Power tech president Dick Clement.
"We recognize that those rules are stringent," he said. "The restoration standards are extremely high, higher than standards in other states. But if that's what the state wants to have, then we can achieve those things."”
- - - - - -

New Colorado mining rules aimed at protecting groundwater

http://www.denverpost.com/ci_15763565

By Bruce Finley The Denver Post
POSTED: 08/13/2010 01:00:00 AM MDT
Colorado mining regulators on Thursday set new rules aimed at protecting groundwater against damage from some uranium mining.
The rules approved by the Colorado Mined Land Reclamation Board require companies to test groundwater at mining sites before prospecting.
Regulators can use test data to ensure companies don't leave groundwater degraded.
The rules also require companies hunting for minerals to disclose more information about when and how mining would be done. And communities affected by mining now have greater rights to appeal state decisions.
"We've established an appropriate level of oversight" and also "pulled back some of the veil that has led to concern about these activities," said Mike King, director of the Colorado Department of Natural Resources.
"I don't think we are hostile to mining at all," King said. "What we are expecting is that mining activity that takes place in this state is done under controls that protect our environment."
State laws signed by Gov. Bill Ritter in 2008 were designed in part to prepare Colorado for renewed interest in its large uranium deposits.
Uranium-mining companies have been developing a mining process that injects chemicals and water to leach uranium from underground rock.

MORE: http://www.denverpost.com/ci_15763565

= = = = =

QUOTE: “Powertech USA President Richard Clement said in an Aug. 6 letter to state mining officials that the rules would be “fatal” to any in situ uranium mining in Colorado. “
- - - - -

Board OKs oversight of in situ mining

http://www.coloradoan.com/article/20100813/NEWS01/8130338

Rules require 'baseline' water quality tests and allow appeals
BY BOBBY MAGILL BobbyMagill@coloradoan.com
Residents who worry about uranium mining near their land in Northern Colorado will now be able to appeal to the state if a mining company is allowed to prospect in the area.
The Colorado Mined Land Reclamation Board on Thursday put its final stamp of approval on a set of rules that will govern how British Columbia-based Powertech Uranium Corp. will be allowed to mine using an in situ leaching process and provide the public with a way to appeal state decisions on uranium prospecting.
"It's been what we've been effectively fighting for, for over three years now," said Jay Davis, whose property is adjacent to the Centennial Project uranium mining site northeast of Fort Collins in Weld County.
Powertech proposes to mine for uranium at the Centennial Project using in situ leaching. The company will inject a baking soda-like solution into the ground to dissolve the uranium, then pump it to the surface for processing.

MORE:
http://www.coloradoan.com/article/20100813/NEWS01/8130338

= = = = = = =

King said the rules take effect Sept. 15.

Additional Facts On the Internet

http://mining.state.co.us/Rulemaking.htm

= = = = = = = =

State board unanimously adopts uranium mining reforms

http://coloradoindependent.com/59659/
state-board-unanimously-adopts-uranium-mining-reforms

By DAVID O. WILLIAMS 8/13/10 11:36 AM
Colorado’s Mined Land Reclamation Board (MLRB) Thursday established new rules to protect Colorado’s groundwater during in-situ uranium mining, drawing quick and effusive praise from members of the state’s conservation community who have been working on uranium mining issues for years.
The MLRB also voted unanimously to revise existing rules regarding the disclosure of additional information during prospecting activities and to update hard rock mining fees.
“These rules will protect our groundwater resources by requiring baseline characterization and grant much greater transparency to the impacted communities regarding the proposed mining activities,” MLRB board member Mike King, the executive director of the Department of Natural Resources, said in a release. “DRMS [Division of Reclamation, Mining and Safety] did a remarkable job in framing the issues, incorporating public concerns and developing a truly balanced set of regulations.”
According to a press release from the state, “the rule making implements a trio of laws passed during the 2008 legislative session that were driven in part by concerns over the potential impact on groundwater from in-situ uranium mining, a developing technology that uses chemical solutions to leach uranium from underground rock formations.”

MORE: http://coloradoindependent.com/59659/
state-board-unanimously-adopts-uranium-mining-reforms

= = = = = =

Colo. agency approves new rules for uranium mining

http://www.businessweek.com/ap/financialnews/D9HIL5H80.htm

DENVER The Associated Press August 13, 2010, 10:12AM ET
State officials have approved new rules intended to protect Colorado's groundwater during a type of uranium mining that extracts the mineral by injecting a solution underground.
The requirements approved Thursday by the Mined Land Reclamation Board include detailed environmental protection plans for uranium mines and maintaining existing groundwater quality or at state standards.
Mine applications must include detailed information on the pre-mining water quality. Public input will be allowed.
The rules carry out three laws passed by the Legislature in 2008 out of concern about in-situ, or "in place," mining, which injects a solution underground to dissolve and extract the mineral.
An in-situ uranium mine has been proposed about 70 miles north of Denver.

= = = = = =

QUOTE: “In an Aug. 6 filing to the reclamation board, Powertech said requiring pre-prospecting groundwater studies "economically and technically impracticable at best -- impossible at worst" because the prospecting has to happen in order to study the groundwater."This results in an obvious Catch 22 which would be fatal to any serious potential in-situ recovery project," said the filing by Powertech President Richard Clement and attorney John Fognani with Denver's Fognani & Faught PLLC.”

- - - - - - -

Colorado tightens uranium mining rules

http://denver.bizjournals.com/denver/stories/2010/08/09/
daily68.html

Thursday, August 12, 2010, 7:10pm MDT | Modified: Friday, August 13, 2010, 8:52am
Denver Business Journal - by Cathy Proctor
The Colorado Mined Land Reclamation Board on Thursday tightened rules for mining operations in the state, including a requirement that a Canadian uranium miner Powertech Uranium Corp. had said will be a "fatal" blow to uranium mining in northern Colorado.
The board ruled 7-0 in favor of the new rules.
The new rules require uranium companies planning an "in-situ leach" operation -- a process that injects chemicals to leach the uranium from the ground without resorting to strip mining -- to protect groundwater.
Powertech proposed using such an in-situ mining technique on its Centennial project in Weld County, believed to hold 12.8 million pounds of uranium.
The new rules also requires applicants for in-situ uranium mining to get information on groundwater quality prior to prospecting for uranium.
In an Aug. 6 filing to the reclamation board, Powertech said requiring pre-prospecting groundwater studies "economically and technically impracticable at best -- impossible at worst" because the prospecting has to happen in order to study the groundwater.
"This results in an obvious Catch 22 which would be fatal to any serious potential in-situ recovery project," said the filing by Powertech President Richard Clement and attorney John Fognani with Denver's Fognani & Faught PLLC.
Representatives of Powertech could not be reached after the board issued its rules Thursday.

MORE: http://denver.bizjournals.com/denver/stories/2010/08/09/daily68.html

====================

7. Nuclear submarine safety bungle put 59,000 people at risk

http://www.heraldscotland.com/news/transport-environment/
nuclear-submarine-safety-bungle-put-59-000-people-at-risk-1.1043426

Rob Edwards, Environment Editor 25 Jul 2010
Britain’s troubled £4 billion programme to build a fleet of new nuclear-powered submarines has been hit by a safety bungle that may have left thousands of people in danger. Emergency plans for responding to an accidental leak of radioactivity from a submarine under construction at Barrow-in-Furness in Cumbria have been condemned as inadequate by the government’s safety watchdog. As a result, BAE Systems, the company that is building the new Astute class of submarines destined for the Faslane naval base on the Clyde, has been ordered to rerun an emergency exercise. This could cause further delays to the submarine building programme, critics say.....
An emergency exercise, codenamed Indigo, took place at BAE Systems’ Barrow shipyard on July 13. Involving more than a dozen agencies, it was meant to test arrangements for dealing with a radioactive leak from a submarine reactor.
But the exercise revealed so many problems with safety procedures that nuclear inspectors from the government’s Health & Safety Executive (HSE) judged that it had failed to meet their standards. Another exercise now has to be conducted within the next six months.
Experts pointed out that this left the 59,000 people who lived in Barrow at risk should an accident occur now.
It would be wrong to assume that everything will be “alright on the night”, said independent nuclear consultant, John Large. He added: “Allowing BAE Systems a second chance to improve its emergency cover seems to disregard the time required for preparing and proving this.
“That’s six months or more during which the local community will remain uncertain about the radiological consequences should a serious incident occur at the Barrow yard.”....

MORE:
http://www.heraldscotland.com/news/transport-environment/
nuclear-submarine-safety-bungle-put-59-000-people-at-risk-1.1043426

=====================

8. Russia admits fires burned on Chernobyl-hit land (Photos/Video)

http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/afp_world/
view/1074737/1/.html

Posted: 12 August 2010 0451 hrs
MOSCOW: Russia on Wednesday admitted wildfires hit swathes of land contaminated by the Chernobyl disaster, raising fears that buried radioactive particles could be released into the air, as a new wildfire broke out near a nuclear facility.
The new wildfire caused by lightning flamed up near a major nuclear research centre in the Russian town of Sarov, causing the plant's management to ask firefighters and troops to reverse their withdrawal.
Russia had begun withdrawing hundreds of firefighters and soldiers sent to douse the fires around Sarov, a town 500 kilometres east of Moscow which houses the country's main nuclear research facility and is still closed to foreigners.
"The centre's director Valentin Kostioukov has asked the emergency situations ministry urgently to suspend the withdrawal of troops from Sarov and send in heavy equipment as reinforcements," it said.
Smog from the wildfires that shrouded Moscow for days triggering a public health crisis finally dissipated as the authorities claimed the total area on fire in Russia had halved over the last 24 hours.
But concerns mounted over the environment in the Bryansk region bordering Ukraine and Belarus, whose soil is still contaminated by the 1986 Chernobyl disaster, as the authorities acknowledged the area had been hit by the fires.
The Roslesozashchita state forest watchdog said in a statement on its website that according to data from August 6, in the Bryansk region alone 28 fires covering an area of 269 hectares (665 acres) were recorded on the radioactive lands.
"The situation is complicated but stable and under control," said the state-run Forestry Management Office for the Bryansk region.
Some officials had previously denied the existence of any fires in the region.
"There are maps of the (nuclear) contamination, there are maps of the fires. Anyone can put the two together. Why deny this information?" a Roslesozashchita official told the Interfax news agency.

MORE: http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/afp_world/
view/1074737/1/.html

=======================

9. Towards a World War III Scenario? The Role of Israel in Triggering an Attack on Iran - - - Part II The Military Road Map

www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=20584

By Michel ChossudovskyGlobal Research, August 13, 2010
- - - - -
Preparing for World War III, Targeting Iran - Part I: Global Warfare
http://globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=20403
- - - - -
The stockpiling and deployment of advanced weapons systems directed against Iran started in the immediate wake of the 2003 bombing and invasion of Iraq. From the outset, these war plans were led by the US, in liaison with NATO and Israel.
Following the 2003 invasion of Iraq, the Bush administration identified Iran and Syria as the next stage of “the road map to war”. US military sources intimated that an aerial attack on Iran could involve a large scale deployment comparable to the US "shock and awe" bombing raids on Iraq in March 2003:
"American air strikes on Iran would vastly exceed the scope of the 1981 Israeli attack on the Osiraq nuclear center in Iraq, and would more resemble the opening days of the 2003 air campaign against Iraq.
(See Globalsecurity )
[ http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/ops/iran-strikes.htm ]
"Theater Iran Near Term"
Code named by US military planners as TIRANNT, "Theater Iran Near Term", simulations of an attack on Iran were initiated in May 2003 "when modelers and intelligence specialists pulled together the data needed for theater-level (meaning large-scale) scenario analysis for Iran." ( (William Arkin, Washington Post, 16 April 2006).
The scenarios identified several thousand targets inside Iran as part of a "Shock and Awe" Blitzkrieg:

MORE: www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=20584

========================

10. Targeting Iran: Is the US Administration Planning a Nuclear Holocaust?

www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=20536

By Michel Chossudovsky
Global Research, August 9, 2010
Global Research - 2006-02-22
The US and its allies are preparing to launch a nuclear war directed against Iran with devastating consequences.
This military adventure in the real sense of the word threatens the future of humanity.
While one can conceptualize the loss of life and destruction resulting from present-day wars including Iraq and Afghanistan, it is impossible to fully comprehend the devastation which might result from a Third World War, using "new technologies" and advanced weapons, until it occurs and becomes a reality.
The international community has endorsed nuclear war in the name of World Peace. "Making the World safer" is the justification for launching a military operation which could potentially result in a nuclear holocaust.
But nuclear holocausts are not front page news! In the words of Mordechai Vanunu,
The Israeli government is preparing to use nuclear weapons in its next war with the Islamic world. Here where I live, people often talk of the Holocaust. But each and every nuclear bomb is a Holocaust in itself. It can kill, devastate cities, destroy entire peoples. (See interview with Mordechai Vanunu, December 2005).

MORE: www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=20536

=================================

11. Why the Deadly Attack on the Freedom Flotilla Was the Breakthrough That Made the World See Israel's Cruelty in Gaza

http://www.alternet.org/story/147823/
why_the_deadly_attack_on_the_freedom_flotilla_was_the_
breakthrough_that_made_the_world_see_israel%27s_cruelty_in_gaza

This excerpt from the new book, "Midnight on the Mavi Marmara," explains how the world is now forced to reconsider what Zionism has actually built in the Middle East. READ MORE
Adam Horowitz, Philip Weiss / O/R Books

=====================

12. Parents of Two Soldiers Who Took Their Own Lives Still Waiting for a Letter from Obama

http://www.alternet.org/story/147792/
parents_of_two_soldiers_who_took_their_own_lives_still_
waiting_for_a_letter_from_obama

A new US Army report finds the rate of suicide by soldiers in the Army has risen above the civilian rate for the first time since Vietnam. READ MORE
By Amy Goodman / Democracy Now!

=========================

13. The CIA's Shocking Experiments on Children Exposed -- Drugging, Electroshocks and Brainwashing

http://www.alternet.org/story/147834/
the_cia%27s_shocking_experiments_on_children_
exposed_--_drugging%2C_electroshocks_and_brainwashing

A look back at America's most shameful period of human experimentation. READ MORE
By H.P. Albarelli Jr., Jeffrey S. Kaye / TruthOut.org

=========================

14. Errant Climate May Be Sign of Breakdown, Scientists Say

http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2010/08/13-2

Heat waves, fires, and floods fit their predictions
by Charles J. Hanley Published on Friday, August 13, 2010 by Associated Press
NEW YORK — Floods, fires, melting ice, and feverish heat — from smoke-choked Moscow to water-soaked Iowa and the High Arctic, the planet seems to be having a midsummer breakdown. It is not just a portent of things to come, scientists say, but a sign of troubling climate change already under way.
The weather-related cataclysms of July and August fit patterns predicted by climate scientists, the Geneva-based World Meteorological Organization says, although those scientists always shy from tying individual disasters directly to global warming.
The specialists see an urgent need for better ways to forecast extreme events like Russia’s heat wave and wildfires and the record deluge devastating Pakistan. They will discuss such tools in meetings this month and next in Europe and America, under UN, US, and British government sponsorship.
“There is no time to waste,’’ because societies must be equipped to deal with global warming, says British government climatologist Peter Stott.
He said modelers of climate systems are eager to develop supercomputer modeling that would enable more detailed linking of cause and effect as a warming world shifts jet streams and other atmospheric currents. Those changes can wreak havoc on the weather.
The UN’s network of climate scientists, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, has long predicted that rising global temperatures would produce more frequent and intense heat waves and more intense rainfalls.
In its latest assessment, in 2007, the Nobel Prize-winning panel went beyond that. It said these trends “have already been observed,’’ in an increase in heat waves since 1950, for example.
Still, climatologists generally refrain from blaming warming for this drought or that flood, since so many other factors also affect the day’s weather.

MORE: http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2010/08/13-2

==========================

15. LETTER: BRAY: PAST TIME FOR ACTION ON CLIMATE CHANGE - August 10, 2010

Sent to Saskatchewan weeklies
Extreme weather events are regularly occurring locally and globally. Provincially, 100 communities are disaster areas with at least $100 million in damages due to flooding and extreme weather. Northern Saskatchewan has had the opposite extreme, with 1,285,000 hectares of forest burned so far in 2010. The 10 year average is 361,000 hectares. Our provincial politicians seem not to be able to even mention climate change caused by greenhouse gases. Wake up call needed.
Globally, extreme weather events are becoming the norm. Russia is having its worst drought ever recorded, with huge forest fires. Asia is beset with major flooding. According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the planet has just come through the warmest decade, the warmest 12 months, and the warmest April, May, June on record. Nine nations have set their all time temperature records this year- Russia 111 degrees F., Sudan 121, Saudi Arabia and Iraq 126, and Pakistan just under 130. The increased global temperatures cause more humidity, with the atmosphere about 5% more moist than it was 40 years ago.
All this ever increasing carbon dioxide we produce is causing other problems. It is causing the oceans to be more acidic as well as warmer. Phytoplankton in the oceans have declined about 40% since 1950 and continue declining at about 1% a year. So what, some may ask. Phytoplankton produce about half of the oxygen- kind of handy for our breathing. They ultimately support all of our fisheries. They account for about half of the organic matter on earth. They are important to our survival. That’s what.
A recent National Academy of Sciences report should be a wake up call - I hope. It states that emissions of carbon dioxide from the burning of fossil fuels have ushered in a new epoch where human activities will largely determine the evolution of Earth’s climate. Because carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is long lived, it can effectively lock the Earth and future generations into a range of impacts, some of which can be very severe. Therefore, emission reduction choices made today matter in determining impacts experienced not just over the next few decades, but in the coming centuries and millennia. Depending on emission rates, carbon dioxide concentrations could double or nearly triple from todays level by the end of the century, greatly amplifying future human impacts on climate.
Many people know that we can and must reduce our emissions now. Others have been made sceptical by the well funded deniers campaigns. Not enough is happening. Why is this? If only carbon dioxide was not a colourless, odourless, tasteless gas- it is out of sight, smell and taste- no problem. This accounts for our mythology of the clear, blue, unpolluted prairie skies- no problem here, right? Wrong- we are one of the highest per capita greenhouse gas emitters anywhere. Add in the human ego and the belief we can find a technological fix for anything if we really have to. Many of us live in an urban environment, surrounded by man made objects and the work-consume lifestyle. We lose our connection with how the Earth operates. Add in the fear of " losing our way of life- our economy would be ruined." The fact is our economy will take a severe blow if we do nothing to reduce emissions. The solutions are there to make a transition to truly sustainable society- just waiting for the personal and political will. We can also live healthier, happier and more securely.
We can reduce our personal greenhouse gas emissions by putting some thought into our actions. We can educate ourselves. We can join groups that are pushing for positive change. www.350.org is a global effort that has local contacts. Thousands of people are needed at rallies to pressure governments- join in- the whole family.
The ultimate question is will humans be smart enough to save themselves or will greed and apathy prevail? Let’s get a few more miles out of the human race.

Mike Bray, Indian Head, SK

======================

16. WikiLeaks says it won't be threatened by the Pentagon

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/world/americas/
wikileaks-says-it-wont-be-threatened-by-the-pentagon/
article1673104/

Keith Moore
Stockholm — The Associated Press Published on Saturday, Aug. 14, 2010 9:53AM EDTLast updated on Saturday, Aug. 14, 2010 9:55AM EDT

WikiLeaks will publish its remaining 15,000 Afghan war documents within a month, despite warnings from the U.S. government, the organization's founder said Saturday.
The Pentagon has said that secret information will be even more damaging to security and risk more lives than WikiLeaks' initial release of some 76,000 war documents.
“This organization will not be threatened by the Pentagon or any other group,” Julian Assange told reporters in Stockholm. “We proceed cautiously and safely with this material.”
In an interview with The Associated Press, he said that if U.S. defense officials want to be seen as promoting democracy then they “must protect what the United States' founders considered to be their central value, which is freedom of the press.”
“For the Pentagon to be making threatening demands for censorship of a press organization is a cause for concern, not just for the press but for the Pentagon itself,” the Australian added.

MORE:
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/world/americas/
wikileaks-says-it-wont-be-threatened-by-the-pentagon/
article1673104/

============================

17. ARTICLE: Brady: CANADA'S WATER IS VULNERABLE

http://issuu.com/knowabout/docs/greenzine_summer_2010

Greenzine Summer 2010, Page 8

Canadian water is so abundant. It's the natural resource we shall have forever, unlike so many other natural resources under dire threat. Well, think again, as you examine the following examples:

1. The Great lakes - St. Lawrence River Basin Compact was signed in 2005 by Ontario, Quebec and eight US states. It is an attempt to prevent water diversions from the Great Lakes, but it actually only impedes diversions. It does not apply to bottled water and other products in containers of 20 L or less. Special, conditional rights have been granted to communities straddling the Great Lakes, particularly for the Chicago area, thus permitting out-of-basin transfers. It makes the International Joint Commission irrelevant and weakens the ability of the Canadian government to protect this basin.
2. Alberta is experimenting with an open market for the sale and purchase of water licenses. This would allow license holders to sell water transfers and allow access to water resources to corporations able to pay and divert water to where they require it.
3. Council of Canadians policy is to prevent bulk water exports. Note the cross-border diversions in 1. Also, there have been attempts during the last decade to pump and export huge volumes of water from Lake Superior and a Newfoundland glacier lake, Lake Gisborne, to foreign markets.
These two developments were halted because of public outcry and the perceived cost of the projects. As recently as last October the Montreal Economic Institute has proposed a plan for $20 billion in annual bulk water sales from Quebec and Ontario to US.
4. The responsibility to protect water, apparently, does not apply to metal mining companies. Lakes and rivers can be reclassified as ``Tailing Impoundment Areas TIAs)`` to allow toxic dumping. A copper-gold mining project at Fish Lake, B.C. may be approved to include the draining of the lake in order to stockpile waste rock. A similar project is about to occur at Sandy Pond, Newfoundland, causing the initiation of a legal challenge to such TIAs. Last week the Council of Canadians, Mining Watch, the Newfoundland and Labrador Natural History Society, Sierra Club Atlantic, and scientists and activists in Newfoundland have legally challenged ``Schedule Two``, a regulatory loophole in the Fisheries Act, an Act designed to make it illegal to harm fish-bearing waters.
Also, federal Liberal water critic, Francis Scarpaleggia intends to introduce legislation in the fall to close that loophole.
5. Canada doesn`t have a BP offshore drilling disaster yet, but in Alberta the huge Tar Sands projects have led to several large tailings of toxic water wastes, leaching anywhere they can. There has been severe damage to Lake Athabaska and to the health of First Nations in the Fort Chipewyan area. Even without all the toxic by-products, it takes huge amounts of water to extract the crude oil to the surface, 3 - 5 litres to extract one litre of oil.
Canada needs a national water policy to protect all Canadian water resources.

Roy Brady, chairperson, Peterborough and Kawarthas chapter, Council of Canadians

=====================

18. Ceasefire.ca ad campaign continues in the Hill Times

http://www.ceasefire.ca/?p=5297

Posted: 15 Aug 2010 02:39 PM PDT
The Ceasefire.ca ad campaign continued this week, targeting political circles in Ottawa by running a second ad in the Hill Times. The ad calls on Prime Minister Harper to "Call off the attack on Kandahar," an Afghanistan military offensive expected at the end of the summer…..

[Oscar]

NUKE NEWS: August 19, 2010

1. Coalition Calls for the Halt of Radioactive Steam Generator Shipment
2. Radioactive Waste Gradually Disseminated into Everyday Items
3. Small nuclear reactors could work in Saskatchewan, says Sask. Party's Bill Boyd
4. Cameco sets its sights on India
5. WATCH: BATTLE FOR KANDAHAR IS ON - Real News Network
6. COMMENT: REMPEL: Killing the unborn with radiation -- unintended consequences of aggressive wars?
7. U.S.-China Conflict: From War Of Words To Talk Of War - Part I
8. The Environmental Movement in Alberta
9. SIGN PETITION: Declaration of Voters' Rights – Please Pass On!
10. How big brands can help save biodiversity
11. LISTEN: CHALK RIVER RE-STARTS ISOTOPE PRODUCTION
12. No Nukes News - August 18, 2010

===============

1. Coalition Calls for the Halt of Radioactive Steam Generator Shipment

http://enviromich.blogspot.com/2010/08/
em-coalition-calls-for-halt-of.html

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Media Release August 18, 2010
OTTAWA, ON & BUFFALO, NY – In a letter to U.S., Canadian, and Indigenous leaders last week, Great Lakes United called for a halt to the planned shipment of 1700 metric tonnes of radioactive waste through the Great Lakes and the Saint Lawrence River later this year.
This fall, Bruce Power plans to ship 16 radioactive steam generators from Owen Sound, Ontario to a Studsvik facility in Sweden. Each generator weighs 110 metric tonnes and contains over 50 trillion becquerels of long-lived man-made radioactive materials, including five isotopes of plutonium. In Sweden, Studsvik plans to melt up to 90 percent of the radiation-laced metal and sell it as 'clean' scrap intended for unrestricted use.
"We don't want to see consignments of radioactive waste from old nuclear reactors crossing the Great Lakes without prior notification to municipalities and proper community consultation," said Derek Stack, Executive Director of Great Lakes United. "These shipments will establish a dangerous precedent."
Over 60 NGOs have signed a petition opposing the shipments. Last week Great Lakes United sent a copy of the petition along with a letter to leaders on both sides of the border asking them to use their authority to stop these shipments.
"In a 2005 Environmental Impact Assessment, Bruce Power said these steam generators were radioactive waste and would be stored permanently on-site, so there is already an alternative plan which has been approved; the shipments are completely unnecessary," said Gordon Edwards, Ph.D., President of the Canadian Coalition for Nuclear Responsibility.
In Canada, Great Lakes United’s letter was sent to the Prime Minister of Canada, the Premiers of Ontario and Quebec, and officials of the Chiefs of Ontario. In the United States , the letter went to President Obama and Secretary of State Clinton, the Secretaries of the Environmental Protection Agency and Department of Transportation, and officials of the National Congress of American Indians. The letter was also sent to the chairs of the International Joint Commission.
Kay Cumbow with Michigan-based Citizens for Alternative to Chemical Contamination said, "We have to act now to safeguard our precious waterways for future generations."
Bowing to public pressure, the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission recently agreed to a one-day public hearing in Ottawa on September 29 on this issue. Intervenors may give oral or written submissions; they must notify the CNSC of their intentions by September 13. Below is a link to register.

Register for the public hearing:
http://www.nuclearsafety.gc.ca/eng/commission/pdf/
2010-09-29-Notice-2010-H-09-BrucePower-SteamGenerators-Edocs3588493-e.pdf

Background:
www.glu.org/en/campaigns/energy/nuclear/steam-generators

Contacts:
Derek Stack
Great Lakes United
613-797-9532
drstack@glu.org

Gordon Edwards
Canadian Coalition for Nuclear Responsibility
514-839-7214
ccnr@web.ca

Kay Cumbow
Citizens for Alternative to Chemical Contamination
810-346-4513
KCumbow@greatlakes.net

Michael Keegan
Coalition for a Nuclear Free Great Lakes
734-770-1441
mkeeganj@comcast.net

= = = = = =

Aboriginal coalition joins anti-shipping protest

http://www.lfpress.com/news/london/2010/07/27/14847431.html

POWER: International chorus pipes up against moving radioactive nuclear generators through the Great Lakes and the St. Lawrence River
By CHIP MARTIN, The London Free Press, Aug 19 2010
Aboriginal voices have joined the growing international chorus opposing plans to ship radioactive nuclear generators along the Great Lakes.
The Ontario Coalition of Aboriginal People, representing 7,000 status, non-status Indians and Metis, opposes the plan by Bruce Power and is demanding consultation and accommodation from the provincial and federal governments.
“This is a big concern for all Canadians,” Brad Maggrah, president of the organization, said Tuesday.
Despite appealing to Premier Dalton McGuinty, his Environment Ministry and Prime Minister Stephen Harper, “we haven’t heard anything,” he said.
Bruce Power is looking for a licence from the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission to truck 16 decommissioned generators the size of school buses to Owen Sound harbour. They would be loaded onto vessels that would travel through the Great Lakes and St. Lawrence River to a recycling facility in Sweden.
The plan is to ship the 100-tonne steam generators that have low-level radioactivity during a three-week period in September.

MORE:
http://www.lfpress.com/news/london/2010/07/27/14847431.html

= = = = = =

Nuclear regulator accused of prejudice

http://www.owensoundsuntimes.com/ArticleDisplay.aspx?e=2718855

By Denis Langlois, Owen Sound Sun Times, Wed. Aug. 18 2010
A high-profile environmental group says Canada's nuclear regulator has "prejudiced" its public hearing by already concluding that Bruce Power's plan to ship steam generators through the Great Lakes doesn't pose a significant safety risk.
Derek Stack, executive director of the Canadian-American group Great Lakes United, said the low-level radioactive waste shipments should be halted until the plan is subjected to full community consultation.
"They're basically circumventing the regulatory framework for the shipment of nuclear waste," he said in an interview.
Great Lakes United, a 25-year-old coalition of 150 environmental groups, has written a letter to American, Canadian and Aboriginal leaders, asking them to "use their authority to stop these shipments."
The leaders include United States President Barack Obama, Prime Minister Stephen Harper, Premier Dalton McGuinty and Quebec Premier Jean Charest. Letters were also sent to the Chiefs of Ontario office and the National Congress of American Indians.
More than 60 non-governmental organizations have signed a petition to oppose the shipments.
Bruce Power has submitted an application to the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission for a transport licence to ship 16 decommissioned, 100-tonne steam generators out of the Owen Sound Harbour and to a recycling facility across the Atlantic Ocean in Sweden.
In response to public demand, the CNSC has scheduled a public hearing on the plan for Sept. 29 in Ottawa.
In a statement, issued in late July, the agency said CNSC staff have concluded there are "no safety significant issues" associated with the proposed shipment.
"However, in light of the public concern and the value to ensuring both a proper understanding of the scope of the undertaking and the presentation of accurate
information relating to the health, safety and risk, the DO (designated officer) has asked hat the commission review the application at a one-day public hearing," the statement says.
Opponents of Bruce Power's plan are calling on the province to conduct a full environmental assessment on the proposed shipments.
Canadian Coalition for Nuclear Responsibility president Gordon Edwards, for one, said the CNSC public hearing is nothing more than "window dressing" to pacify the public.

MORE:
http://www.owensoundsuntimes.com/ArticleDisplay.aspx?e=2718855

===================

2. Radioactive Waste Gradually Disseminated into Everyday Items

From: Gordon Edwards
Sent: Monday, August 16, 2010 9:47 AM
Subject: Radioactive Waste Gradually Disseminated into Everyday Items

Background:
During the early decades of the nuclear age, people were told (and are still being told) that all nuclear waste will undergo "disposal" -- a word with no scientific definition, for humans have never successfully "disposed" of anything.
But in recent years, the nuclear industry has significantly altered its previous doctrine. The new buzz-word is "recycling". Theindustry, it seems, wants some of the "good vibes" associated with Environmentalism's "3 Rs" -- Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle.
But recycling is a deceptive word to use, for the nuclear industry wants to gradually disseminate brand new highly dangerous waste materials -- radioactive species which never existed before -- into general circulation, as invisible contaminants.
These wastes, previously intended for permanent storage, are now intended to be shipped across lakes, oceans, and continents so that the companies who created them can lower their storage costs. They want to reduce the volume of waste by spreading it around, and "decontaminating" it as they go.
But decontaminating is by no means perfect. Radioactivity has to go somewhere -- into the air, into the water, into the soil . . . and increasingly, into ordinary items of commerce.
Thus everyone on earth will soon be receiving their own personal allotment of radioactive plutonium, cesium-137, cobalt-60, iron-55, nickel-63, and many other radioactive waste materials in their household purchases -- a gift from the nuclear industry.
The following text deals with a radioactive metal "recycling" facility in Northern England (Cumbria) that was licensed in February 2008 against the wishes of many local inhabitants.
The plant is operated by Studsvik of Sweden.
Bruce Power's current plan to ship 16 radioactive steam generators, each the size of a school bus, through the Great Lakes, along the St. Lawrence River, and across the Atlantic Ocean to Sweden, is for the express purpose of having Studsvik make 90 percent of the contaminated metal available for "unrestricted use".

Gordon Edwards.
President, CCNR
Canadian Coalition for Nuclear Responsibility
www.ccnr.org

= = = = = =

Appeal to Nuclear Installations Inspectorate over Studsvik Lillyhall site

QUOTES: “To call the process 'recycling' is disingenuous and most people understand that the radioactivity is merely redistributed over a wider area on the one hand and concentrated on the other."
“At an international conference in Stockholm in 2007 'Coping with Nuclear Waste' Studsvik’s 'solution' to the 'recycling of nuclear waste' was universally criticized with the resolution from conference delegates – all experts in their fields."
“We call on the nuclear industry to keep radioactive waste materials isolated from humans and from the biosphere, and keep it out of commerce – so that it does not end up in our water, or in toys, cars, buildings, roads, zippers, tableware, etc."
“We call on Studsvik (Sweden) and Ecomet-S (Russia) to halt all nuclear melting and mixing of radioactive metals for release into the open metal market.”

= = = = = =

Appeal to Nuclear Installations Inspectorate over Studsvik Lillyhall site

http://www.getnoticedonline.co.uk/news/general-news/
appeal-to-inspector-over-studsvik-lillyhall-site.html

Friday, 05 June 2009
Radiation Free Lakeland has appealed to the Nuclear Installations Inspectorate not to grant final consent to Studsvik UK for their Lillyhall site.

Radiation Free Lakeland can be found here:

http://web.mac.com/mariannebirkby1/iWeb/
Radiation%20Free%20Lakeland/
Radiation%20Free%20Lakeland%20.html

A letter has gone to Mike Weightman, Director and HM Chief Inspector, Nuclear Safety Directorate and HM Nuclear Installations Inspectorate.
RFL say they understood that the Nuclear Installations Inspectorate will be requested to give final consent for the receipt of contaminated metals onto the Lillyhall site – the first of its kind in Europe.
The latter says: “The plant, which will create only 30 jobs at the most, was first granted a Nuclear Site License by the UK Health & Safety Executive in 2008.
“The final consent to contaminate the Lillyhall site will be detrimental to yet another part of Cumbria previously clear of the nuclear industry and an area which has a growing diversity of businesses.
“The diversity of businesses has however already been affected by the presence of Studsvik despite a vigorous PR campaign by the company involving Cumbria Wildlife Trust and Red Squirrels.
“To call the process 'recycling' is disingenuous and most people understand that the radioactivity is merely redistributed over a wider area on the one hand and concentrated on the other.
“This concern was reflected in the vocal but ignored opposition from local residents, businesses and councillors.
“The rush to be seen to be ‘decommissioning’ in order to pave the way for new build has resulted in an undemocratic process that has carried Studsvik along this far.
“At an international conference in Stockholm in 2007 'Coping with Nuclear Waste' Studsvik’s 'solution' to the 'recycling of nuclear waste' was universally criticized with the resolution from conference delegates – all experts in their fields.
“We call on the nuclear industry to keep radioactive waste materials isolated from humans and from the biosphere, and keep it out of commerce – so that it does not end up in our water, or in toys, cars, buildings, roads, zippers, tableware, etc.
“We call on Studsvik (Sweden) and Ecomet-S (Russia) to halt all nuclear melting and mixing of radioactive metals for release into the open metal market.”
“Studviks own literature boasts:
'Studsvik has sold 15000 tonnes to the free release scrap metal market worldwide'.
http://www.studsvik.se/files/product/Studsvik-UK-MRF.pdf
“This is not acceptable to the rest of Europe and should not be acceptable here in Cumbria. Radiation Free Lakeland urges the Nuclear Installations Inspectorate not to grant final consent for the contamination of this site.”
Studsvik UK say the site will process materials and waste contaminated with low levels of radioactivity, which will be brought to the site in specially designed transport containers of similar appearance to normal industrial shipping containers.
Their website explains that typically, around two or three containers will be transported to and from the site each week....

MORE: http://www.getnoticedonline.co.uk/news/general-news/
appeal-to-inspector-over-studsvik-lillyhall-site.html

=====================

3. Small nuclear reactors could work in Saskatchewan, says Sask. Party's Bill Boyd

http://www.thestarphoenix.com/technology/
Small+nuclear+reactors+could+work+
Saskatchewan+Sask+Party+Bill+Boyd/3405014/story.html

BY CASSANDRA KYLE, THE STAR PHOENIX AUGUST 16, 2010 3:18 PM
The province reiterated its position Monday that it hasn’t closed the door to the nuclear energy option for Saskatchewan.
While large reactors may not be the best fit, said Energy and Resources Minister Bill Boyd, small-reactor technology could work well in Saskatchewan — the world’s second-largest producer of uranium.
“If there are export opportunities or emerging demand for electricity in the future, then we’ll have to re-evaluate that, or perhaps look at small nuclear technology that can bring nuclear technology on in small increments,” he said.
Speaking after a presentation at the Uranium 2010 conference — an international conference discussing the element — Boyd said he would like to see the province embrace nuclear energy technology. However, he added, the economics and demand base for a large reactor aren’t yet at the level required to build in Saskatchewan.
“I’m pro-nuclear — make no bones about it — but it has to make economic sense,” Boyd said.
Small reactor technology is still about 10 years away from being commercialized, said Jerry Grandey, CEO of Cameco Corp. Another decade or so, he added, would be required before any small reactor technology could be implemented in the province.
“To me, the 150- or 300-megawatt smaller reactors make eminent sense,” Grandey said.
“The issue for that is, can they be competitive with fossil fuels that are finally forced to capture their emissions and stop polluting the atmosphere?”

- - - - SNIP - - - -

“There’s no doubt there’s overwhelming public support in this province for uranium mining value-added — including the generation of nuclear power,” said Grandey.
“But you can’t ignore economic realities. You can’t ignore population base.”
ckyle@sp.canwest.com
© Copyright (c) The StarPhoenix

===================

4. Cameco sets its sights on India

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/globe-investor/
cameco-sets-its-sights-on-india/article1671749/

Miner hopes to land uranium supply deals as part of aggressive push into Asia
Brenda Bouw Mining Reporter
Vancouver - From Saturday's Globe and Mail
Published on Friday, Aug. 13, 2010 9:07AM EDT
Last updated on Friday, Aug. 13, 2010 6:29PM EDT
Uranium giant Cameco (CCO-T25.86-0.16-0.61%) is looking to India as its next big customer as part of an aggressive push into Asia, where nuclear energy is poised to become a major source of electricity.
After recently securing long-term supply deals with China, Cameco chief executive officer Jerry Grandey said the company has its sights on agreements with major Indian companies - deals he hopes to land soon.
"The commitment of these countries and others to building nuclear energy capacity is the biggest growth opportunity for suppliers of nuclear fuel in more than 30 years," Mr. Grandey said during a conference call Friday.
Saskatchewan-based Cameco is pursuing the deals after Ottawa and India recently signed a nuclear co-operation agreement in late June, allowing for the export of nuclear technology, equipment and uranium.
Deals with India are now possible after the Nuclear Suppliers Group lifted a 34-year ban on nuclear co-operation with the country a couple years ago. The Nuclear Suppliers Group is made up of 46 countries, including Canada, that control the export and retransfer of uranium. The group was formed in 1974 in response to India's nuclear test that year.
India intends to build dozens of nuclear reactors to meet a target of generating 25 per cent of its electricity from nuclear power by 2050.

MORE:
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/globe-investor/
cameco-sets-its-sights-on-india/article1671749/

======================

5. WATCH: BATTLE FOR KANDAHAR IS ON - Real News Network

http://www.ceasefire.ca/
?p=5304&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=
Feed%3A+ceasefire%2FycPl+%28Ceasefire.ca%29

Posted: 16 Aug 2010 01:37 PM PDT
In Afghanistan, the battle for Kandahar is on. That's receiving strangely little attention in the American media—quite low-key if you compare it to other major American campaigns in Afghanistan. Joining us from England, from Essex, is Muhammad Junaid, who's a research scholar studying the Pashtun nation. Thanks for joining us, Junaid.

======================

6. COMMENT: REMPEL: Killing the unborn with radiation -- unintended consequences of aggressive wars?

Killing the unborn in Iraq -- (and Bosnia, Kosovo, and Afghanistan?)
Video Report: Reports of Iraqi child deformities and cancer 'linked to US weapons" --Stories are now emerging of increased deformities in the country's new babies as well as a dramatic rise in the number of children with cancer.
http://www.sbs.com.au/news/article/1328172/Iraqi-child-cancer-

MY COMMENT: The same stories also come from US bombing areas in former Yugoslavia.

US weapons use radioactive "non-depleted uranium" obtained from Saskatchewan nuclear industry, sold to USA munitions industry for US aggressive wars and Canadian profit.
This alone should give us pause, pause to consider ending all military alliance with the USA, and uranium sales to them or any other country. There is no way to stop proliferation and radiation other than to stop mining and using uranium. Only government can stop these radiation atrocities.
Private industry will not stop it.

Jacob Rempel, Vancouver

=======================

7. U.S.-China Conflict: From War Of Words To Talk Of War - Part I

www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=20629

By Rick Rozoff
Global Research, August 15, 2010
Stop NATO
Relations between the U.S. and China have been steadily deteriorating since the beginning of the year when Washington confirmed the completion of a $6.4 billion arms deal with Taiwan and China suspended military-to-military ties with the U.S. in response.
In January the Chinese Defense Ministry announced the cessation of military exchanges between the two countries and the Foreign Ministry warned of enforcing sanctions against American companies involved with weapons sales to Taiwan.
The Washington Post reported afterward that during a two-day Strategic and Economic Dialogue in Beijing this May attended by approximately 65 U.S. officials, Rear Admiral Guan Youfei of the People's Liberation Army accused Washington of "plotting to encircle China with strategic alliances" and said arms deals with Taiwan "prove that the United States views China as an enemy." [1]

MORE: www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=20629

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8. The Environmental Movement in Alberta

http://canadafreepress.com/index.php/article/26551

By Online Friday, August 13, 2010 William Walter Kay, Ecofascism.com
The environmental movement arose not in Alberta nor is it centered there. Albertan environmentalism is a colonial outpost with minimal local support.
Environmentalism is the confluence of several global forces. Firstly, there is the effort by metropoles to undermine hinterland development. From Europe’s perspective, most of the Earth is hinterland. The main North American metropole is the US Northeast. In Canada, the Toronto-Ottawa-Montreal corridor suppresses the West and North. Secondly, environmentalism is a campaign by regions poorly endowed with oil and coal to pry humanity away from these economical energy sources. Perpetrating this campaign are the metropoles (Europe, US Northeast, and central Canada). The main victim is the North American Midwest, Alberta in particular. Thirdly, environmentalism is the arch-conservative landed interest’s asphyxiation of economic liberalism, especially its smothering of open markets in land.
Alberta is inhospitable terrain for environmentalism. Alberta’s exports read like an environmentalist’s hit list. Alberta is not just oil country but home to the controversial oilsands: one of the world’s largest hydrocarbon reserves. Alberta also possesses some of the planet’s largest deposits of coal and natural gas .
[ http://canadafreepress.com/index.php/article/ ]

Other important sectors of Alberta’s economy are industrial forestry, feedlot beef, and irrigated agriculture. Whereas Germany and Britain have a combined population of 144 million on a combined land base of 600,631 sq km; Alberta has a land base 661,190 sq km and a population of 3.6 million. Several large rivers flow through Alberta and 90% of this water is unused. Over half the province is forest and lake. Two-thirds of Alberta’s land base is government-owned and has never been permanently inhabited by anyone. There is room to grow.
Nevertheless, Alberta is occupied by an environmentalist army. Many features of the environmental movement in Alberta are not unique. In Alberta, as elsewhere, the movement deploys a capillary system of small activist groups commanded by professional non-government organizations. As elsewhere, a veneer of grassroots volunteerism cloaks a movement reliant on paid staff funded by large foundations and big businesses. As everywhere, a key role is played by activist university professors and a lead role is played by the landed interest. As everywhere, the environmental movement in Alberta is embedded into the state; it appropriates state resources and influences state policy.
(Editor’s Note: Due to the indepth work done, each chapter will be printed in a separate linked post.)

TABLE OF CONTENTS (See website for all Links. Ed.)

Alberta’s Environmental Non-Governmental Organizations (ENGOs)—Part I
Philanthropic Foundations and Albertan Environmentalism—Part II
In Land They Trust—Part III
Major Corporations and Alberta’s Environmentalism
Environmentalism in Alberta’s Universities
Environmentalism in Federal Government Operations in Alberta
The Environmental Movement inside the Government of Alberta
Conclusion

============

9. SIGN PETITION: Declaration of Voters' Rights – Please Pass On!

http://www.fairvote.ca/en/civicrm/profile/create?gid=7&reset=1

We the undersigned Canadian citizens demand the following basic democratic rights:

· to cast an equal and effective vote and to be represented fairly in Parliament, regardless of political belief or place of residence.
· to be governed by a fairly elected Parliament where the share of seats held by each political party closely reflects the popular vote.
· to live under legitimate laws approved by a majority of elected Parliamentarians representing a majority of voters.

The current winner-take-all voting system is absolutely inconsistent with these fundamental democratic rights. As a result, Canada is faced with a spiralling democratic deficit. The need for reform is urgent. We need a Parliament that represents the political and social diversity of Canada.
We demand that the House of Commons immediately undertake a public consultation to amend the Canada Elections Act to incorporate these vital democratic rights. The House, after this consultation, should quickly implement a suitable form of proportional representation.

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10. WATCH: How big brands can help save biodiversity

http://www.ted.com/talks/
jason_clay_how_big_brands_can_save_biodiversity.html

Convince just 100 key companies to go sustainable, and WWF's Jason Clay says global markets will shift to protect the planet our consumption has already outgrown. Hear how his extraordinary roundtables are getting big brand rivals to agree on green practices first -- before their products duke it out on store shelves.
About Jason Clay
Jason Clay is a WWF vice-president who works with big corporations to transform the global markets they operate in, so we can produce more with less land, less water and less pollution. Full bio and more links
http://www.ted.com/speakers/jason_clay.html

=====================

11. LISTEN: CHALK RIVER RE-STARTS ISOTOPE PRODUCTION

http://www.rcinet.ca/english/column/the-link-s-top-stories/
chalk-river-re-starts-isotope-production/

by RCI-The Link 18 august 2010, 00h00
A new supply of the medical isotopes needed to diagnose and treat millions of patients around the world will soon be available. The source is the Chalk River nuclear reactor plant in Ontario which went back into operation this week after a 15-mointh shutdown. Marc Montgomery talks to Dr. Jean-Luc Urbain, president of the Canadian Association of Nuclear Medicine, who explains the importance of this development.

Website: www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2659114/

Listen:
http://www.rcinet.ca/english/column/the-link-s-top-stories/
chalk-river-re-starts-isotope-production/

============================

12. No Nukes News - August 18, 2010

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Still no news on new reactors for Darlington
The Province continues to "actively and aggressively" lean on the federal government to get to a point where a deal can be made to build new reactors at Darlington, says Energy Minister Brad Duguid.
http://www.newsdurhamregion.com/business/article/160091

Please help us put the pressure on the feds to NOT support Ontario’s bid for federal subsidies for 2 new reactors!

Distribute these leaflets in your community – they’re free and appropriate for distro anywhere in Canada.
They include postcards to Harper and Ignatieff to oppose federal tax-payer subsidies for new nuclear reactors in Ontario.
Order them from me – thanks in advance!
- Angela@cleanairalliance.org.

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Coalition Calls for the Halt of Radioactive Steam Generator Shipment
In a letter to U.S., Canadian, and Indigenous leaders last week, Great Lakes United called for a halt to the planned shipment of 1700 metric tonnes of radioactive waste through the Great Lakes and the Saint Lawrence River later this year.

Register for the public hearing:
http://www.nuclearsafety.gc.ca/eng/commission/pdf/
2010-09-29-Notice-2010-H-09-BrucePower-SteamGenerators-Edocs3588493-e.pdf

Background:

www.glu.org/en/campaigns/energy/nuclear/steam-generators
ACTION ALERT: Voice your concern to the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission (CNSC) regarding Bruce Power's plan to ship radioactive steam generators across the Great Lakes

http://www.cela.ca/newsevents/action-alert/
action-alert-voice-your-concern-canadian-nuclear-safety-commission-cnsc-rega

Sign the petition here to Stop Shipment of Radioactive Components through Great Lakes:

http://org2.democracyinaction.org/o/5502/p/dia/action/public/
?action_KEY=3670

Background:

During the early decades of the nuclear age, people were told (and are still being told) that all nuclear waste will undergo "disposal" -- a word with no scientific definition, for humans have never successfully "disposed" of anything.

But in recent years, the nuclear industry has significantly altered its previous doctrine. The new buzz-word is "recycling". The industry, it seems, wants some of the "good vibes" associated with Environmentalism's "3 Rs" -- Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle.

But recycling is a deceptive word to use, for the nuclear industry wants to gradually disseminate brand new highly dangerous waste materials -- radioactive species which never existed before -- into general circulation, as invisible contaminants.

These wastes, previously intended for permanent storage, are now intended to be shipped across lakes, oceans, and continents so that the companies who created them can lower their storage costs. They want to reduce the volume of waste by spreading it around, and "decontaminating" it as they go.

But decontaminating is by no means perfect. Radioactivity has to go somewhere -- into the air, into the water, into the soil . . . and increasingly, into ordinary items of commerce.

Thus everyone on earth will soon be receiving their own personal allotment of radioactive plutonium, cesium-137, cobalt-60, iron-55, nickel-63, and many other radioactive waste materials in their household purchases -- a gift from the nuclear industry.

The following text deals with a radioactive metal "recycling" facility in Northern England (Cumbria) that was licensed in February 2008 against the wishes of many local inhabitants.

The plant is operated by Studsvik of Sweden.

Bruce Power's current plan to ship 16 radioactive steam generators, each the size of a school bus, through the Great Lakes, along the St. Lawrence River, and across the Atlantic Ocean to Sweden, is for the express purpose of having Studsvik, there, make 90 percent of the contaminated metal available for "unrestricted use".

Gordon Edwards.
www.ccnr.org

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Hydro hike looms with break to industry
Homeowners could be zapped with an extra $48 in annual hydro costs after Premier Dalton McGuinty’s cabinet quietly approved a break on electricity rates for huge industrial users, the Star has learned.
The move extends time-of-use pricing now in effect for homeowners — allowing them to use electricity cheaper at off-peak times, such as nights and weekends — to major firms like Ford, Vale Inco, and Imperial Oil.
It will give big power-consuming sectors an incentive to conserve energy, cut their costs and, the government hopes, keep manufacturing, mining and refining jobs in Ontario.
“Shifting usage to off-peak times helps to reduce costs to the system benefitting all users, because it avoids additional costs incurred by building new generation (power stations),” said one government official.

http://www.thestar.com/news/ontario/article/
848684--hydro-hike-looms-with-break-to-industry

Letter to the Editor:

Premier McGuinty’s decision to raise peak and lower off-peak electricity rates for residential and industrial consumers makes sense for two reasons.

First, higher peak hour electricity prices, by encouraging energy efficiency and load shifting, will help speed up the phase-out of our dirty coal-fired power plants. Speeding up the coal phase-out will prevent up to 550,000 asthma attacks and significantly reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

Second, higher peak hour prices will reduce the need for new high-cost gas-fired peaker plants (e.g., the proposed Pristine power plant in King Township) by providing a strong incentive to reduce peak hour electricity use.

We need to pay the true costs of the energy we consume and stop kidding ourselves about the real costs of burning coal and meeting summer spikes in electricity demand.

- Jack Gibbons, Chair, Ontario Clean Air Alliance
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Greenpeace projection at Pickering nuclear site shows cracks in McGuinty’s energy plans
Green power more affordable than replacing Pickering with new nuclear
Greenpeace activists projected an enormous crack onto the dome of the aging Pickering nuclear station last night to demand the McGuinty government replace the aging reactors with green energy instead of expensive new reactors as planned.
(Photos here: gallery.greenpeace.ca )
Using a high powered projector, Greenpeace activists projected the messages, “Nuclear: A Dangerous Waste of Time, A Dangerous Waste of Money,” and “Green Energy: Less Risky, More Affordable” onto the 50 meter reactor dome to highlight how massive amounts of time and money have been wasted preparing to replace Pickering with new reactors at the Darlington site 60km east of Toronto.

http://www.greenpeace.org/canada/en/recent/
Greenpeace-projection-at-Pickering-nuclear-site-shows-cracks-in-McGuintys-energy-plans/
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Terra Ventures ends Quebec uranium project
A junior exploration company is reportedly shutting down its uranium exploration site near Sept-Îles, Que., after protests from local groups.
The possibility of a uranium mine angered many groups in Sept-Îles, a coastal community where more than 30 area doctors threatened to quit their jobs if the project went ahead. The town also adopted a motion asking for a moratorium on the operation.

Canada is the largest producer of uranium, which is used in nuclear power plants. There are currently no active uranium mines in Quebec.

http://www.cbc.ca/money/story/2010/08/13/
sept-iles-terra-ventures-project.html#ixzz0wXOWUbTR

Angela’s Note: Wow – protest works!

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Videos and Petition
Catch these 2 excellent videos on the Beyond Nuclear website. The first includes a petition to oppose all funding for new nuclear facilities and uranium mines, and to phase out all existing reactors. Canadians are welcome to sign.
http://www.beyondnuclear.org/

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Living the worry-free life in China’s ‘Atomic City’ Sheep’s teeth may turn black and fall out, but residents accept official assurances of safety

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/world/asia-pacific/
living-the-worry-free-life-in-chinas-atomic-city/article1672870/

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Cameco scales back its sales strategy
The uranium spot market continues to be a near-dead zone.

http://www.financialpost.com/news/
Cameco+scales+back+sales+strategy/3396989/
story.html#ixzz0weJatvnh

Background: Uranium exploration is spurred by speculation about the future demand for uranium. In June 2007, uranium "spot" prices peaked at about $140 per pound. But the much-publicized "nuclear renaissance" which led to this sudden jump in price has not materialized, as new reactors are not being built at a pace that would justify a vastly increased demand for uranium. Hence the "spot" price of uranium is now less than a third of the peak value. Nuclear optimism keeps the price from falling further, but unless a breakthrough in reactor construction occurs soon, the price of uranium cannot be sustained at its current levels. - Gordon Edwards.
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King coal’s Ontario declineIt's great that we're using much less coal. A policy of gas first whenever technically possible would be even better. It might not lower the dirty fuel's contribution all the way to 1 per cent, but anything to hasten its demise would be welcome.

http://www.thestar.com/news/sciencetech/environment/article/
847373--gorrie-king-coal-s-ontario-decline

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Quebec Hydro puts AECL plan on ice
Hydro-Quebec is pushing back the revamp of its Gentilly-2 nuclear station amid the uncertainty plaguing Atomic Energy of Canada Ltd.
http://www.canada.com/technology/
Quebec+Hydro+puts+AECL+plan/3406890/story.html
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The reality of nuclear energy is inconsistent with dreams of a renaissance
Nuclear energy is not on the rise – the hard facts point to a continuing, slow phase-out around the world
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/cif-green/2010/aug/16/
nuclear-energy-renaissance
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Ontario Government Gives Green Light to Solar Power Projects

Stakeholders congratulate government for protecting Ontario solar program
http://www.greenenergyact.ca/
Page.asp?PageID=376&ContentID=1437&SiteNodeID=215&BL_ExpandID=
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Solar plant in Guelph could employ 500
Canadian Solar's revenue has climbed from $3 million in 2002 to $600 million in 2009, said Qu. The company has seven manufacturing facilities and employs roughly 8,000 worldwide. The Guelph plant will be one of the largest producers of solar modules in North America.
The "landmark Green Energy Act is boosting investment in renewable energy projects and increasing conservation, creating green jobs and economic growth in Ontario," Qu said.

http://news.therecord.com/Business/article/760538
http://www.thestar.com/business/article/
846743--guelph-gets-new-solar-panel-plant

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Turning the grid into an info highway
In the near future, utilities and consumers across Canada will access a Web portal to share information about everything to do with energy -- from the state of system loads to power outages to billing. Already, some individuals and businesses are helping to supply their utility with renewable energies and generating a new stream of income for themselves in the process. This is possible because provinces and power generators across Canada are moving forward with smart electricity networks to conserve power, supply new demand and address global warming.
Ontario in particular has gotten out in front of the smart grid movement in Canada. It has had to. The Ontario government has set an aggressive target to cut 6,300 megawatts of peak demand by 2025. This is equal to taking one in five users off the electricity supply grid. To do that, it is promoting a smart electricity network and will be replacing 80% of its current generating systems over the next 20 years.
The goal is to create a power grid that will allow homeowners and businesses to generate power on site and feed excess power back into the grid using superconductive transmission lines and smart switching and relay systems.
Perhaps the most important benefit of a smart grid is its ability to reduce the energy consumption in the network and the cost of running essential systems

http://www.nationalpost.com/
todays-paper/Turning+grid+into+info+highway/3406919/story.html

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Renewable is Doable, an alliance including Greenpeace, the Canadian Environmental Law Association and the Pembina Institute, released a report last week showing how it’s cheaper to replace Pickering Nuclear station with green energy then to refurbish it.

Read the report here: http://www.greenpeace.org/canada/en/recent/green-energy-plan/
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Stop Darlington: Ride For Renewables!
Tuesday, August 24th – ride from Pickering to Darlington nuclear reactors
Premier McGuinty wants to nuke Ontario’s green future. He wants to spend $26 billion to build new, dangerous and untested reactors at Darlington to replace the aging Pickering reactors, which are set to shut down in 2020.
Spending billions on new nuclear reactors will lock Ontario into a nuclear future and limit the growth of green energy. Premier McGuinty should instead use affordable green energy to replace Pickering.

On August 24th, please join us on the Ride for Renewables. Green energy advocates will ride from the Pickering nuclear station to Darlington to tell Premier McGuinty to go green – not nuclear.

Cyclists will gather at the windmill (Beachfront Park) at the Pickering nuclear station at 11am. We’ll then ride the waterfront trail to the Darlington nuclear station (approximately 45 km from Pickering).

Please RSVP to: steve.cornwell@greenpeace.org.
Those who RSVP can meet at Greenpeace’s office at 9:30 am to take a bus to Pickering. The Go-Train can also get you to Pickering.

Or see our Facebook page:
http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=124793684233089&ref=ts

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Human Health and the Biological Effects of Tritium in Drinking Water
International Scientific Symposium

McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario
August 26 and 27, 2010
Prudent Policy through Science – Addressing the ODWAC New Recommendation
Registration and Information:
Contact: Karen Carter - kcarter@mcmaster.ca
Registration - $100 per person, students free
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Angela Bischoff
Outreach Director
Ontario Clean Air Alliance
Tel: 416 926 1907 x 246
625 Church Street, #402
Toronto, ON M4Y 2G1
angela@cleanairalliance.org
www.ontariosgreenfuture.ca
www.cleanairalliance.org
Our Facebook Group
Sign Our Petition
No Nukes News
Health Power

[Oscar]

NUKE NEWS: August 27, 2010

1. CBC Announces "Champions of Change" Celebrating Incredible Canadian Volunteers
2. RCEN 2010 CONFERENCE: Conserving Biodiversity Pays
3. PEACE - ANNOUNCING OUR 2010 CONFERENCE!
4. Dead fish: What Canadians could learn from the US about cooling water
5. Climate change is bad for nuclear power, industry needs a shrinking cap on carbon to survive
6. Mining opponents camp at Que. national assembly
7. SCRAP GENTILLY 2! Demonstration in Quebec City: Day 3
8. A 'Bizarre Situation' as Nuclear Operators Threaten Shutdown
9. WATCH: The Myth of Nuclear Deterrence
10. CONFERENCE: Sacred Land, Poisoned Peoples - 26. August 2010 University of Basel, Switzerland
11. In Superman’s Hometown, a Labor Dispute Over Health
12. Lukashenka reveals that Russia may not build nuclear power plant in Belarus
13. Egypt to build first 'nuclear plant'
14. BEYOND NUCLEAR NEWS – August 26, 2010
15. LETTER: Kurtenbach: Military Documents - August 20, 2010
16. COMMENT: REMPEL: Of Kryptonite and Uranium
17. How the Pakistan Floods Could Change the War in Afghanistan
18. Canadians still want out of Afghanistan
19. Ex-Pakistani spy chief says Afghanistan war cannot be won
20. Why the Wars can't be Won
21. (Saskatchewan) SHORE GOLD STAR-ORION SOUTH DIAMOND MINE PROJECT (near Fort a la Corne, SK)/Commentary
22. GREENPEACE Canada August 2010
23. VICTORY: Vedanta Mine Plan on Sacred Tribal Mountain Halted by Indian Government

=================

1. CBC Announces "Champions of Change" Celebrating Incredible Canadian Volunteers

http://www.cbc.ca/change/

Do you know a volunteer who is making a difference in your community? CBC News and Outpost Magazine are looking for Canadian volunteers who are changing the world. Nominate an outstanding volunteer in your community and their charity could be a winner too - $130, 000 in prize money funded by Manulife Financial will be donated to the finalists charities. Mark Kelley, of CBC News Network's Connect with Mark Kelley, is leading the search for our country's top 10 volunteers. Help celebrate Canada’s most passionate volunteers, and inspire a whole new generation to rise to the challenge.

To nominate someone in your organization please go to http://www.cbc.ca/change/.

To see some examples of inspiring volunteers go to http://www.cbc.ca/change/video.html

==================

2. RCEN 2010 CONFERENCE: Conserving Biodiversity Pays

Sept. 17-19, Montreal REGISTER TODAY!!

http://us1.campaign-archive.com/
?u=e873a49b0f734d2e0b87b7fb8&id=c243a68aba&e=de5b94c2c0

End-of-Summer Blues?
Recharge your batteries this September in Montreal
The 2010 RCEN Conference on the Environment is the place to meet Canada's most passionate environmentalists in a relaxed, friendly atmosphere.
Make lasting connections, share your experiences and join the discussion on biodiversity and the values of ecosystem services. Register online today
Friday,