Carnival of Nuclear Energy 190

1. Atomic Insights – Why is the Green Schools Alliance censoring discussion about nuclear energy

The leaders of an organization called theGreen Schools Alliance (GSA) have decided to reject the suggestions of parents who wanted to include a showing and discussion of Pandora’s Promise in the program of a planned conference on Green Business. According to my sources those leaders told the conference organizers that GSA cannot be affiliated with a film that promotes nuclear energy because it is committed to not taking positions on such controversial subjects.

People who have decided to apply the silent treatment to a technological tool have taken a position to oppose the use of that tool. Without information, no one would be able to make an intelligent decision based on facts and analysis.

2. The Atomic Show #211 – Happy Nuke Year 2014

The Atomic Show had a lively discussion about the change in the conversation about nuclear energy stimulated by the release of Pandora’s Promise, the impact of the court decision telling the NRC to restart its review of the Yucca Mountain license application, the uncertainty regarding the effect of a court’s decision about the continued collection of waste fees by the DOE, and the change in attitude within the nuclear industry about the importance of continuous communications stimulated by the permanent shut down of four formerly operating nuclear plants and the decision to stop refueling one more nuclear plant in 2014.

3. NewsOk – Radiation mutation concepts are largely Hollywood and Science Fiction. Dr. Robert Bruce Hayes shows how the evidence tends to suggest that if radiation mutation occurs in humans, then it requires doses in excess of lethal exposures to explain the lack of seeing it in people when it has been observed in mice (with mice only showing reduced sterility being passed on to successive generations as a radiological mutation).

The probability for any person to get cancer who is generally healthy and not already subject to normal exposure to strong carcinogens (like smoking) is approximately 40% for all cancers combined. This means that around two out of every five of us have had, do have or will have cancer at some point in our lives. It is not a small probability that you will have some form of cancer at some point in your life as a matter of assumed random statistical probability.

Due to modern science, almost two thirds of those being diagnosed with a cancer end up living at least five years on average after medical diagnosis and follow up because many types of cancer now have very effective treatments, some more effective than others.

Large doses of radiation are clearly dangerous but even then, these have never been found to cause genetic mutations in humans, far more likely is death or birth defects when they occur in pregnant women.

If genetic mutation could occur in humans, the evidence supports the hypothesis that this may require doses larger than those already required to be fatal so the subject is rather moot. This certainly does not detract from the entertainment value of using gamma radiation to initiate fun superhuman powers with which to make an action packed movie or TV show.

4. Forbes James Conca – DNA Evidence Sentences Nuclear Waste To Billion-Year Prison Term

250 million-year-old DNA has been recovered intact from a nuclear waste disposal site in New Mexico and provides ample evidence that the waste will be imprisoned for life, but likely prison time will top a billion years. Safe storage of waste has geological and DNA evidence that rock can hold radioactive material for a billion years.

5. Hiroshima Syndrome – Pacific Beaches not at-Risk from Fukushima (12/31/13)

The Internet is virtually awash with scare stories concerning Fukushima radiation along the Pacific coastline. The posts are rife with misconception, exaggeration and (sometimes) outright fabrication. There is one solid reason why none of them are worth the fonts in their postings. To put it simply, the evidence being used is grossly deceiving.

6. Hiroshima Syndrome – US Navy Sailor’s Claims of Fukushima Health Effects Might Be Misdirected (1/3/14)

In August, 2012, a group of US Navy sailors from The USS Ronald Reagan filed a lawsuit against Tokyo Electric Company and Japan’s government. On November 26, a San Diego judge dismissed the suit because there was not enough evidence to determine if Tepco and Japan’s government had committed fraud. Could it be possible that most, if not all of the sailors claiming radiation-based issues have actually suffered vegetative dystonia?

7. Nuke Power Talk – The past year was full of events both good and bad for the nuclear industry. Gail Marcus reflects on some of the highs and lows of 2013, both in the US and abroad, and looks ahead at what the trends may mean for 2014.

8. Nextbigfuture – 2014 could be the year of the fast neutron reactor with both the Russian Beloyarsk 800 MWe reactor completing and the Indian Prototype 470 MWe reactor completing.

Commissioning is about to start at Russia’s forthcoming fast reactor, Beloyarsk 4. After a lengthy construction period, engineers are preparing for criticality in April 2014. India will follow its prototype with more fast neutron reactors, China has bought and is building two of the Russian 800 MWe reactors and Russia has funded a 1200 MWe fast reactor.

16 regular reactors are going through the regulatory and political process to restart in Japan.

9. Nextbigfuture – the business as usual everyday slaughter from coal and fossil fuel energy continues while the world continues to underutilize nuclear power because of vastly exaggerated fears.

10. Nextbigfuture – the small Lawrenceville Plasma Physics dense plasma fusion project could radically change the world of energy, space and technology if it is successful. Why not put a few million into the potential of a 20 times lower energy cost and easy interplanetary space capability. It is worth it to try to make a civilization transforming capability.

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