NukeNews No. 12 - ENGLISH

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*     NukeNews #12 - Anti-Nuclear Information Service      *
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0.  Preface
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Although the last issue was released just a month ago due to a great
delay in the NukeNews, we already gathered a number of news for this
12th edition of the Nuclear Heritage Network's multilingual newsletter
system. However, it is a short one this time...

A very interesting report explains why the German anti-nuclear
movement decided not to take the chance of delegating two
representatives to the German "Final Disposal Commission". There is
also criticism on WWF's cooperation with the Russian atomic giant
Rosatom as well as information on the search for a final repository
for nuclear waste near St. Petersburg and official data on the
severe radioactive contamination in the area of the Beloyarsk NPP
In two articles, we learn about the plans for a new reactor at the
Slovenian Krško NPP and the struggle against these reactor plans.

Have a good anti-nuclear winter, and send us your updates for the
spring edition until 30th of March!


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Outline of the current NukeNews issue #12
----------------------------------------------------------------------
0.  Preface
1.  Report: Anti-Nuke actions in Berlin and Büchel
2.  Fennovoima shrinking
3.  Hinkley Point: Commission opens in-depth investigation into UK
    measures supporting nuclear energy
4.  Walkatjurra Walkabout – Walking for Country
5.  Radioactive Grave One Kilometer From The Baltic Sea And 40 km From
    St. Petersburg
6.  Concrete - it depends on what you make of it!
7.  Germany: Two empty seats - environmental movement does not take
    part at repository commission
8.  Rosatom practises greenwashing - with the help of "environmental"
    organisations (RNEI) and WWF Russia
9.  Big announcements of new reactor in Slovenia, prolonging of
    life-time of old reactor and safety issues
10. The Preparations for Construction of a Second NPP Reactor in
    Slovenia in Difficulty
11. Exhibition: The history of harassment of the no nukes movement
    Part 2
12. Rosatom recognizes high levels of pollution in the Beloyarsk NPP
    area
13. Film project Nuclear Lies - successful crowd funding
14. Further language versions of the NukeNews newsletter
15. Upcoming events
16. About NukeNews


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1.  Report: Anti-Nuke actions in Berlin and Büchel
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Commemorating the tragedy of Hiroshima and Nagasaki - Some of you
might have seen the flyer by "I CAN" or "Atomwaffen frei jetzt", I
don't know if you, the reader, even supported the action or even went
to Büchel to block a gate at the airport near the Mosel river... I
hope many of you took time to think about what happened on the 6th and
the 9th of August 1945 and maybe about the danger we still face today.
I did, as I went to Berlin on the 2nd of the month already. I planned
to fast there among the initiators and participants as I did in Paris
2012.

Read the complete story:
http://www.nuclear-heritage.net/index.php/Report:_Anti-Nuke_actions_in_Berlin_and_B%C3%BCchel


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2.  Fennovoima shrinking
----------------------------------------------------------------------
The Fennovoima nuclear plant project is in trouble, as 15 more
shareholders leave. Some left completely, some partially. But the
surprise to all was a few big industrial shareholders. Today, the
situation is: only 50,28% of the shares are owned by Finnish owners.
The rest is for sale.

After E.On's pullout, Fennovoima changed the reactor supplier: Rosatom
is offering a 1,200 MW reactor. This is 25% smaller than the original plan
(1,600 MW). Rosatom plans to buy the shares originally owned by E.On,
this is 34%. Since E.On's departure in 2012, there are now additional
16% shares for sale, but no buyers yet.

Read the complete story:
http://www.nuclear-heritage.net/index.php/Fennovoima_shrinking


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3.  Hinkley Point: Commission opens in-depth investigation into UK
    measures supporting nuclear energy
----------------------------------------------------------------------
The European Commission has opened an in-depth investigation to
examine whether UK plans to subsidise the construction and operation
of a new nuclear power plant at Hinkley Point in Somerset are in line
with EU state aid rules. In particular, the Commission has doubts that
the project suffers from a genuine market failure. The opening of an
in-depth inquiry gives interested third parties an opportunity to
comment on the measure.

Read the full media release:
http://europa.eu/rapid/press-release_IP-13-1277_en.htm?locale=en
 

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4.  Walkatjurra Walkabout – Walking for Country
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Walkatjurra Walkabout is a celebration of Wangkatja country, a
testament to the strength of the community who have fought to stop
uranium mining at Yeelirrie for over forty years, and a chance to come
together to continue share our commitment to a sustainable future
without nuclear. It is a chance to reconnect with the land, and to
revive the tradition of walking for country. The Walkatjurra Walkabout
is drug and alcohol free.

The Walkatjurra Walkabout is set for the 23rd April to 26th May 2014,
and we would love for you to join us. "Walking for country is to
reconnect people with land and culture. The Walkatjurra Walkabout is a
pilgrimage across Wangkatja country in the spirit of our ancestors so
together, we as present custodians, can protect our land and our
culture for future generations... We invite all people, from all
places, to come together to walk with us, to send a clear message that
we want the environment here, and our sacred places left alone."
(Kado Muir, Traditional Owner, Yeelirrie)

The 2013 Walkatjurra Walkabout was a huge success and continues to
grow and strengthen the connections between protecting Country and
stopping uranium mining. After 5 years of a pro-uranium State
Government, WA remains uranium mining free. Lets keep the pressure on
and the uranium untouched - Wanti Uranium! Leave it in the Ground!

More information:
http://walkingforcountry.us4.list-manage1.com/track/click?u=50a102f587619317ca5451762&id=18853bdc20&e=bcdd27812a


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5.  Radioactive Grave One Kilometer From The Baltic Sea And 40 km From
    St. Petersburg
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On Friday, December 27 at 3 PM, in the administration building
of Sosnovy Bor, public hearings on the preliminary EIA materials on
"Point of disposal of radioactive waste" (PDRW) were held. Burial
is proposed in clay at a depth of 50 m, between two water
horizons. It is approximately 3 km from the residential area (village
Rakopezhi ), 1 km from the Baltic Sea and 5 km from the pine forest.

A discussion on this project has been on-going for more than two
years. Independent experts, nuclear scientists, representatives of
public organizations of Sosnovy Bor, as well as the Legislative
Assembly of St. Petersburg and Leningrad region, representing the
Communist Party, Just Russia, Yabloko party, has come out with harsh
criticism of the project.

Read the complete story:
http://www.nuclear-heritage.net/index.php/Radioactive_Grave_In_One_Kilometer_From_The_Baltic_Sea_And_40_km_From_St._Petersburg


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6.  Concrete - it depends on what you make of it!
----------------------------------------------------------------------
The trial against four people, who blockaded the last castor transport
to Gorleben (D) in November 2011 and stopped the transport for 15
hours has been set. Instead of paying a fine of 1,100 EUR each, the
court suggested everyone donate 250 EUR to the union "Children of
Chernobyl". A hearing did not occur. The four activists fiXed
themselves beneath the railways in a construction of chains that
connected their arms into a big block of concrete.

http://blockcastor.wordpress.com/


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7.  Germany: Two empty seats - environmental movement does not take
    part at repository commission
----------------------------------------------------------------------
German environmental organizations and anti-nuclear initiatives have
decided not to participate in the commission of experts to search for
a repository. The process for the search for a repository is
non-transparent and seems set to focus on Gorleben, where already 1.8
billion EUR have been invested and infrastructure has been set up:
interim storage, spent fuel, pilot conditioning plant and police
barracks in the district town are available. There was no broad social
debate on the procedure and the criteria for the task of nuclear waste
storage before the adoption of the law. The concentration of the
repository search to highly radioactive waste restricts the view to
only about five percent of the damage caused by the nuclear power
plants waste. Furthermore, the financing of the search process through
a public fund, fed by the operators of nuclear power plants, is not
guaranteed. The site selection law allows expropriations and minimizes
currently existing legal sources of verification. Finally, the federal
states would be deprived of power, and with the Federal Office for
nuclear waste disposal a new super-agency will have far-reaching
powers.

http://www.neues-deutschland.de/artikel/918909.zwei-stuehle-bleiben-vorerst-leer.html


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8.  Rosatom practises greenwashing - with the help of "environmental"
    organisations (RNEI) and WWF Russia
----------------------------------------------------------------------
The nuclear Mafia in Russia is getting support from environmental
organisations. This is "Russisch-Deutsches Büro für Umweltinformation"
(RNEI), branch of "Deutsch-Russischer Austausch". And this is Russian
WWF. Both offered some awards for a competition for best environmental
article/report among reporters of radio, TV and newspapers, declared
by Rosatom, the federal agency for nuclear energy in Russia.

http://www.kerstinrudek.de/rosatom-praktiziert-greenwashing


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9.  Big announcements of new reactor in Slovenia, prolonging of
    life-time of old reactor and safety issues
----------------------------------------------------------------------
2013 ended with a strong statement of the owner of Krško NPP, GEN
Energija, that a second block will be constructed in 15 years in
Krško. This statement has no legal basis, as the decision to build an
additional block in Krško has officially not been made so far.
Moreover, Slovenia clearly does not need an additional block, as the 
energy scenarios prepared for a new energy program in 2011 show that  
Slovenia can export electricity with no additional nuclear 
facilities. Apart from that, the planned site for construction in  
Krško is seismically risky. In 2013 Slovenia received a report on
seismic risks of Krško site from French IRSN, which warns that the
site has significant seismic risks. In order to discuss the report
with IRSN experts and highlight the need for public participation in  
nuclear debates, Focus organised an international conference (links
to the presentations are available at  
http://focus.si/index.php?node=25&id=1373).

Greenpeace Slovenia and Focus also sent several open letters to the
Slovenian Nuclear Safety Authority in relation to the damaged fuel  
rods in the existing reactor in Krško and raised attention of the  
Slovenian and Croatian media for the issue. While fixing the problems
with the reactor, the operator is in a process of obtaining a permit
to prolong the life-time of the reactor by 50% (by 2043, instead of
2023). So far, no open public debate has been held on the issue in
Slovenia.


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10. The Preparations for Construction of a Second NPP Reactor in
    Slovenia in Difficulty
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Though the majority of the Slovenian population have for many years
rejected the idea of construction of a second NPP reactor in Krško, a
previous national government founded a semi-private electric company
in public ownership GEN to promote and organize such a project and to
extend the life time of the first reactor for an additional twenty
years. Without a decision of the parliament the GEN started research
and administrative preparations and authorized the French institute
IRSN to conduct seismic studies about the reactor site.

But the IRSN's opinion on this matter is not favorable as expected by
the GEN. Acknowledging the fact that the feasibility of designing a
reactor against fault surface displacement is questionable, and
consistent with IAEA and NRC recommendations, IRSN believes that GEN
should consider revising its strategy for the Krško II project and
further examine the possibility of searching for an alternative site.

It is unlikely that a new NPP  could be built anywhere else in
Slovenia in light of past public opinion pools. Now the GEN has
excluded the IRSN from further participation on the research of the
site, trying to find another institute that would be willing to
confirm that the existing site is appropriate.

Leo Šešerko


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11. Exhibition: The history of harassment of the no nukes movement
    Part 2
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This is the second exhibition about the history of harassment of the
no-nukes movement. There were 1,200 visitors for the first exhibition
held in August 2013. The purpose of this exhibition is to study the
history of harassment to avoid repeating them again. Lately, there
have been cyber-attacks against no-nukes movement websites. This
exhibition in Sinjuku public gallery in Tokyo will include a session
about how to deal with new technologies.

18.1.2014 13:00-18:00
19.1.2014 10:00-16:00

http://www.cnic.jp/5527


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12. Rosatom recognizes high levels of pollution in the Beloyarsk NPP
    area
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In context of the Environment Impact Assessment (EIA) process for the
construction of a 5th reactor at Beloyarsk NPP close to Yekaterinburg,
a BN-1200 Fast Breeder reactor, files disclosed Rosatom's knowledge of
high radioactive contamination in the area: annual 90,000-100,000 tons
of radioactive discharges into water, including cesium-137, enter the
biological cycle in the river, fish, soil and water. The report states
that the cesium-137 concentration in certain well water is more than
ten times higher than the so-called "level of intervention" by the
Russian "Radiation Safety Standards" (NRB-99), and the activities of
cesium-137, strontium-90 and cobalt-60 in other wells are close to the
levels of intervention.

Learn more:
http://www.bellona.ru/articles_ru/articles_2013/plutonium-v-bolote


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13. Film project Nuclear Lies - successful crowd funding
----------------------------------------------------------------------
The young film maker Praved Krishnapilla from the South of India, a
region which is directly affected by the NPP in Koodankulam, is
working on a 60-minutes film to portray the shameful methods and lies
of the nuclear lobby in his country and around the world. Within only
a few weeks and a lot of committed work by different - mainly Austrian
- activists (Praved has been living in Vienna since 1999), it seems
clear that the necessary money (more than 20.000 €) for this project
has been successfully collected. Very helpful in that process was the
internet platform http://www.startnext.de/en/nuclear-lies. Initial 
support for this project came also from the grand dame of the Austrian 
Green Movement Feda Meissner-Blau.

More about the film: http://vimeo.com/75948886


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14. Further language versions of the NukeNews newsletter
----------------------------------------------------------------------
As in newsletter #11 already mentioned, the Czech-Austrian NGO
"Sonne+Freiheit" plans a mini camp probably in the second half of
August 2014 in the South of the Czech Republic with the aim of further
improving the work with and around the NukeNews newsletter. Anybody
interested in joining, please contact by the end of March 2014:
"b.riepl at eduhi.at"

It is probable that with the help of the Upper Austrian regional
government - beginning with 2014 - there will also be versions of the
NukeNews in Slovene, Croat and Polish.


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15. Upcoming events
----------------------------------------------------------------------
(just an extract, tell us your events for the next newsletter)
more events: http://upcoming.nuclear-heritage.net

Please feel free to send us your local and international events for
this website and the NukeNews!


24/10/13-23/03/14: exhibition "Langzeit und Endlager" at Museum zu
                   Allerheiligen, Klosterstr. 16, in Schaffhausen (CH)
2014:              Nuclear Waste Transport to Ahaus - current status:
                   "postponed" (D)
01/02/14 at 11 AM: regional conference "AKW Grohnde abschalten" at
                   Gemeindehaus in Salzgitter-Bleckenstedt (D)
06/02/14-07/02/14: Long-term Performance of Engineered Barrier Systems
                   (PEBS) at BGR in Hannover (D)
08/02/14 at 11 AM: nuclear waste conference at Volkshochschule,
                   Wilhelmshöher Allee 19-21, in Kassel (D)
09/02/14 at 11 AM: federal anti-nuclear conference for global
                   networking at Volkshochschule, Wilhelmshöher Allee
                   19-21, in Kassel (D)
10/02/14-12/02/14: International Uranium Film Festival in Washington
                   DC (USA)
03/03/14 at 10 AM: Waste Management (WM) 2014 Conference in Phoenix
                   (USA)
08/03/14:          Fukushima related actions in the Dreyeckland
                   region (CH, D, F)
08/03/14:          Fukushima rally in Jülich (D)
09/03/14 at 2 PM:  human chain Fessenheim at vallée du Rhône (F)
09/03/14 at 2 PM:  Fukushima disaster remembrance: international
                   brigde actions in the Upper Rhine area (D)
18/03/2014:        Easter march to the uranium enrichment facility in
                   Gronau (D)
08/04/14-10/04/14: Symposium on Recycling of metals arising from
                   operation and decommissioning of nuclear facilities
                   at the Studsvik site outside Nyköping (S)
23/04/14-26/05/14: Walkatjurra Walkabout - Walking for Country 2014;
                   pilgrimage across Wangkatja country (AUS) 
26/04/14:          ecological festival "Für eine Zukunft nach
                   Tschernobyl und Fukushima" (D)
29/04/14:          European Anti Nuclear Forum in Prague (CZ)
03/05/14-08/05/14: Atomforum of the German nuclear industry in
                   Frankfurt/Main (D)
11/05/14-15/05/14: European Nuclear Conference in Marseille (F)
summer 2014:       Walk For A Nuclear Free Future from Miami, FL to
                   the Y-12 Nuclear Facility Oakridge, TN 2014 (USA)
04/08/14-08/08/14: Nuclear Heritage Network gathering near Kiel (D)
09/08/14-16/08/14: International Anti-nuclear Camp near Kiel (D)
20/08/14-24/08/14: Anti-nuclear mini camp near Kaplice (CZ)
22/08/14-24/08/14: solar festival in Peckwitz (D)
21/09/14-25/09/14: Uranium Mining and Hydrogeology 2014 International
                   Conference in Freiberg (D)
2014:              Probably Castor transport of high level radioactive
                   waste from Sellafield (UK) and of intermediate
                   level radioactive waste from La Hague (F) to
                   Gorleben (D) and protests
01/09/15-30/11/15: (estimated) main hearing on the Environmental Court
                   on SKB's application to build KBS3 final nuclear
                   waste repository at District Court in Nacka (S)


http://www.allerheiligen.ch/images/PDF/Langzeit%20und%20Endlager_Flyer.pdf
http://www.nuclear-heritage.net/index.php/Nuclear_Waste_Transport_to_Ahaus
http://ag-schacht-konrad.de/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=769&Itemid=189
http://www.pebs-eu.de/PEBS/EN/Pebs-Final-Conference/PEBS_final_conference_node_en.html;jsessionid=EF1A95844F8E4E013BCB14F2A5E66F59.1_cid284#link4
http://ag-schacht-konrad.de/index.php?option=com_content&task=blogcategory&id=66&Itemid=278
http://www.kerstinrudek.de/bundesweite-anti-atom-konferenz-f%C3%BCr-globale-vernetzung/
http://www.uraniumfilmfestival.org/
http://www.nonuclear.se/en/kalender/phoenix20140302-06
http://wp.chainehumaine.eu/
http://www.nonuclear.se/en/kalender/20140408-10studsvik
http://www.nuclear-heritage.net/index.php/Walkatjurra_Walkabout_%E2%80%93_Walking_for_Country_2014
http://www.nuclear-heritage.net/index.php/European_Anti_Nuclear_Forum_2014
http://www.euronuclear.org/events/enc/enc2014/index.htm
http://www.nuclear-heritage.net/index.php/Walk_For_A_Nuclear_Free_Future_2011-2015/Miami-Y12_Nuclear_Facility_Oakridge
http://www.nuclear-heritage.net/index.php/Nuclear_Heritage_Network_gathering_2014
http://www.nuclear-heritage.net/index.php/International_Anti-nuclear_Camp_near_Kiel
http://www.nuclear-heritage.net/index.php/Anti-nuclear_mini_camp_in_the_Czech_Republic
http://ag-schacht-konrad.de/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=769&Itemid=189
http://tu-freiberg.de/umh-vii-2014
http://www.greenkids.de/europas-atomerbe/index.php/Gorleben_Castor_Resistance_in_Germany_2014
http://www.nonuclear.se/en/kalender/kbshuvudforhandling2012


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16. About NukeNews
----------------------------------------------------------------------
The NukeNews are a multilingual newsletter system of the Nuclear
Heritage Network and are supposed to reflect the activities, topics
and struggles of anti-nuclear activists connected through this
international community. The messages are written and translated by
activists, additionally to their usual anti-nuclear activities. No
one is paid for that work, as we want to provide resources like this
information system to the anti-nuclear struggle as independent as
possible. The newsletter aims to inform and update as well activists
as the interested audience.

Your contributions to the next issue of the NukeNews are welcome.
Send them via email to "news AT NukeNews.nuclear-heritage.net". It
should be brief information in English of not more than one paragraph,
including a concise headline and an optional link to a webpage
providing more information. Deadline for the 13th issue of the
NukeNews will be 30th of March, 2014.

Spread the word and learn more about the NukeNews:
http://NukeNews.Nuclear-Heritage.NET