Next Big Future: Carnival of Nuclear Energy 125

Next Big Future: Carnival of Nuclear Energy 125.  Once again, Brian Wang has put together an excellent Carnival.

Uranium 233 as a resource for the future; Japan's new nuclear safety authority (is it good enough?); x-rays and science; the use of nuclear "waste" to promote safety and health; detailed post on potential San Onofre restart; public pro-nuclear activities in Tennessee, Quebec and Japan; new plants under construction...in Japan; and the closing of a library (the Nuclear Information Library)..also in Japan.

Come to the Carnival. You never know what you will find there!   But it is fun to take the trip!

Three Pro-Nuclear Events: Hearing, Marches and Rallies in Tennessee, Canada and Japan

The World Tour

Okay, I'm your friendly neighborhood pro-nuclear blogger, and this time I'm not writing about Vermont. Here we go on a world pro-nuclear tour! There were three pro-nuclear events, none in Vermont, and they don't get much attention in most of the media.

 But, before we get started:

Something You Can Do Right Now

It takes almost no time to vote Yes on the question: Should the World Increase Its Reliance on Nuclear Energy at this Wall Street Journal poll. Do it now!

And the tour begins in Tennessee. 

Tennessee MOX Hearing

Hearing room at the MOX meeting

ANS members and ANS student members testified at a hearing about MOX fuel in Tennessee.  The Tennessee valley hearings are noted for anti-nuclear "zombies."  These are people wearing torn clothes and fake blood, and they come to hearings and make about as much sense as real zombies would make...if there were real zombies.

At this hearing, ANS members were informed, articulate and visible.  Many wore blue ANS t-shirts, visible in the picture at the left.  At the hearing, nuclear and anti-nuclear people spoke politely, and some even chatted and exchanged information after the meeting.

The meeting was livetweeted using the hashtag #MOXChat.

Laura Scheele of ANS Nuclear Cafe wrote an excellent retrospective about the meeting.  The future of nuclear at #MOXChat at ANS Nuclear Cafe.

Oh yes, I suspect the zombies might have heard that the ANS members would be at the meeting, because....no zombies appeared.

Gentilly 2 Pro-Nuclear March in Quebec

Hydro-Quebec owns the Gentilly-2 nuclear plant, and Hydro-Quebec recently decided to shut the plant down.  The people in the area did not take this quietly.  This Sunday they marched in favor of keeping the power plant open.  You can see pictures of the march on this pro-Gentilly FB page, which has over 1000 "likes":

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Nous-appuyons-la-réfection-de-la-centrale-nucléaire-Gentilly-2/108833445800977

I am particularly fond of these pictures which I "borrowed" from the FB page.

One picture talks of the fate of  800 families, and two pictures are about the children  (Les Enfants) of Gentilly.

Les Enfants?  What is that about?  Well, there's a film about Gentilly which focused on birth defects, childhood cancer, and so forth, all supposedly caused by the plant.  The Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission wrote a one-pager about the falsehoods in the film. The one-pager is an excellent answer to many falsehoods about nuclear energy.

The young people in the parade and with their pictures on the poster are another answer to these falsehoods.

In the interview below, local officials speak of their support for the plant and the announcer says 1000 people are there for the march.

http://staging.fr.video.canoe.tv/video/1869420841001/#1869485339001

Pro-Nuclear in Japan

Well, this is NEVER going to get into the main media, I suspect.  But here's a 1000-person pro-nuclear rally in Japan, in front of the Prime Ministers house! It's only reported in somethng called The Liberty Web, but it happened all the same.

1000 people gather for a pro-nuclear power demonstration on Sept 25.  One of the spokesmen presented a statement to the cabinet, including these words:  “We have heard from the factory mangers that they have had to fire part-time workers, because the company took measures to save electricity. However, the victims of this policy could not speak up on account of the flooded denuclearization media coverage."

Not a demonstration, but a Japanese professor is battling the flood of mis-information in a letter and blog post. You can read Jun Takeda's post here.  Here's a quote:  Based on radioactivity dosage, the risk of Fukushima residents developing thyroid cancer is less than one person per 10 million per year. Since the population of Fukushima Prefecture is two million, thyroid cancer will not result from these low doses. Truly, people with only amateur knowledge of radioactivity need to stop paralyzing the citizens of Fukushima and the entire country with fear.

All Over the World

All over the world, people are standing up in public and supporting nuclear power.

The times they are changing, and it's about time.

123rd Carnival of Nuclear Energy Bloggers posted at Hiroshima Syndrome blog

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The 123rd Carnival of Nuclear Energy Bloggers is up at Hiroshima Syndrome.  Leslie Corrice has done a great job of putting the Carnival together!

Plus, Corrice has made my job of announcing the Carnival much easier.  I always try to put up a brief summary of the posts.  This week, Corrice has provided an excellent summary!  Here it is.

The Hiroshima Syndrome is proud to host this week’s Carnival of Nuclear Energy Bloggers, listing the reports posted by the internet’s most prominent nuclear bloggers during the past week. 

The Carnival of Nuclear Bloggers has existed for more than two years and is a mainstay of nuclear information for thousands of interested readers. Each listed blog is summarized and the URL link given, making it easy to find and read the full reports.  

This week’s topics include; Vermont Yankee continues to operate despite a legal challenge, several perspectives concerning the impact of Japan’s new energy policy on its nuclear plants, what politicians can learn about nuclear energy from experts, and how “all the above” may not be the best energy choice.

Cheerful News for a Beautiful Evening: Japan, Larry Smith of Entergy, and EPR Video from Areva

News from Japan: Japan Restarts Two Reactors

According to USA Today, Japan will almost certainly start two reactors this weekend.  The mayor of the local town signed off on the plan.  Read about the restart of the two Ohi reactors here.

Brattleboro Reformer article about Larry Smith, Vermont Yankee spokesman

Josh Stilts of the Brattleboro Reformer has a thoughtful, wonderful article about Larry Smith, Vermont Yankee spokesman. Smith is retiring at the end of this week. The article describes Smith's hungry early days and his later work to set up Feed the Thousands in Brattleboro. It also describes the stresses of being spokesman for Vermont Yankee. Smith had a stress-related stroke in 2007. As Entergy spokesman, he has been called "Larry the Liar of Louisiana" (and worse).  Smith regains perspective through his charitable work: serving meals or working at Feed the Thousands

This is a terrific article. It's much more complete than my recent blog post about Larry named as Man of the Year by the Brattleboro Chamber of Commerce. From this article, it is clear why Governor Shumlin said that Larry Smith has done more for those in need than anyone in this state.

Areva Advanced Reactor Video

Areva is building four EPRs around the world, in Finland, France and China.  I'm not glossing over the fact that the European builds are behind on budget and schedule. Still, these are the first Gen III's to be built.  Reactors with these types of safety feature will be part of the future of nuclear energy.

Areva just prepared a video about EPR safety features.  I think it is worth watching.