Massive anti-nuclear rally in Tokyo - time for Noda to listen

Around 170,000 filled a square in Japan's capital, Tokyo on Monday, protesting Prime Minister Noda's decision to re-start two reactors in Japan and calling for an end to the use of nuclear energy. Protesters have been gathering every Friday outside the prime minister's residence to protest his continued support of nuclear power in the wake of the devastating Fukushima Daiichi triple meltdown catastrophe. The 4th reactor at the site, which did not melt down, remains in perilous condition. "To stay silent in the wake of Fukushima is inhuman," the Oscar-winning musicianRyuichi Sakamoto told the crowd. 

Environmental coalition bolsters case against Davis-Besse's cracked concrete containment

An NRC inspector investigates cracks in Davis-Besse's shield building shortly after they were first admitted last OctoberThe environmental coalition battling against the 20 year license extension proposed at the problem-plagued Davis-Besse atomic reactor near Toledo, Ohio has filed a supplement to its cracked concrete containment contention. FirstEnergy Nuclear Operating Company first admitted its concrete shield building, an integral part of its radiological containment, was cracked in October 2011. This most recent filing cites FENOC's own May 16, 2012 revised root cause analysis report to highlight multiple forms of cracking and other degradation across the shield building, rather than the nuclear utility's preference to exclusively focus on sub-surface laminar cracking at the outer steel reinforcement layer. FENOC blames those cracks on the Blizzard of 1978, and the fact that the shield building, the most safety significant concrete structure on site, was never weather sealed, even though its own dome, and other less safety significant concrete buildings, were sealed. The coalition has revealed that FENOC's revised root cause analysis report admits for the first time in 36 years that cracking was observed on the shield building dome in August 1976, nearly a year and a half before the Blizzard of 1978. The intervening groups, including Beyond Nuclear, Citizens Environment Alliance of Southwestern Ontario, Don't Waste Michigan, and the Green Party of Ohio, is represented by Toledo attorney Terry Lodge.

Update on July 17, 2012 by admin

U.S. Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-OH)U.S. Representative Dennis Kucinich (D-OH, photo at left) has written an op-ed, published at Huffington Post, entitled "If You Lived Downwind from this Power Plant, Would You Be Concerned?" about the problem-plagued Davis-Besse atomic reactor upwind of his congressional district in northern Ohio. In it, he cites Beyond Nuclear's cracked concrete containment contention against Davis-Besse's proposed 20 year license extension, as well as his own request to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) that FENOC's downplaying of the cracking's significance to its own investors be investigated for improperly misrepresenting the facts.

Nuclear Restart Generates Power, Protest in Japan

...Building on their Friday night momentum, protestors on Monday staged their largest rally yet, with tens of thousands of people congregating at Yoyogi Park, and then marching in three groups through the capital.

This rare display of public discontent by the Japanese, bringing together citizens from all walks of life, shows no signs of waning...

..."Never in my 39 years of my life have I ever tried to voice my views out loud like this," said Hitoshi Iwata, a Tokyo office worker who took to the streets after learning of the event through social media. "I expected the Fukushima case would turn society away from nuclear power," he said. "But when things started to move on the contrary, the sense of disappointment was so strong I felt a compelling need to voice my protest." National Geographic

And this, from Tokyo Reuters:

Nuclear issue puts increasing pressure on Japan government

Japan's government came under fire on Tuesday over its handling of public hearings on nuclear energy policy, threatening to dent already sagging support for the ruling party ahead of an election many expect to be this year.

The latest furor follows Monday's massive rally in Tokyo against nuclear power in the wake of the Fukushima disaster, an issue now so contentious that lawmakers and analysts say it could trump taxes as the focus of lower house elections, which must be held by September 2013 but could come sooner.

Karl Grossman: "The Nuclear Cult" & "Fukushima and the Nuclear Pushers"

Karl Grossman (photo, left) has recently published two articles at Counterpunch. The first, published on June 18th, was entitled "The Nuclear Cult: Zealots of the Atom." On July 12th, he published "Fukushima and the Nuclear Pushers: 'A Disaster Made in Japan'". Karl is a professor of journalism at the State University of New York/College of New York, and is the author of the book, The Wrong Stuff: The Space’s Program’s Nuclear Threat to Our Planet. Karl is an associate of the media watch group Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting (FAIR). He is a contributor to Hopeless: Barack Obama and the Politics of Illusion. Karl also serves on the board of directors of Beyond Nuclear.

Beyond Nuclear files Nuke Waste Con Game contentions against 4 atomic reactors

The Obama administration's wise decision to cancel the proposed Yucca Mtn. high-level rad. waste dump exposed NRC's Nuclear Waste Confidence Decision for the illusion of a solution that it was. This photo by Gabriela Bulisova shows Yucca framed by a Western Shoshone Indian ceremonial sweat lodge. Yucca is sacred to the Western Shoshone.Beyond Nuclear has filed intervention contentions against a total of four atomic reactors (proposed new reactors at Grand Gulf Unit 3, MS and Fermi Unit 3, MI seeking construction and operating licenses, as well as degraded old reactors at Grand Gulf Unit 1, MS and Davis-Besse Unit 1, OH seeking 20 year license extensions) based on a recent U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit ruling gutting the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission's (NRC) "Nuclear Waste Confidence Decision."

That confidence game has been used against states, environmental groups, and concerned citizens for decades, blocking them from challening the generation of high-level radioactive waste in atomc reactor licensing proceedings, as the NRC has flippantly expressed "confidence" that storage on-site was safe for decades or even centuries, and that a geologic repository for permanently disposing of irradiated nuclear fuel was just over the horizon -- despite mounting evidence to the contrary.

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