Safety issues cloud nuclear renaissance Developing nations' track record gives cause for concern San Francisco Chronucle George Jahn, Associated PressGeorge Jahn, Associated Press January 20, 2008 - "....................................some countries hopping on the nuclear bandwagon have abysmal industrial safety records and corrupt ways that give many pause for thought...................

...........Of the more than 100 nuclear reactors now being built, planned or on order, about half are in China, India and other developing nations. Argentina, Brazil and South Africa plan to expand existing programs; and Vietnam, Thailand, Egypt and Turkey are among the countries considering building their first reactors...............

...............The concerns are hardly limited to developing countries. Japan's nuclear power industry has yet to recover from revelations five years ago of dozens of cases of false reporting on the inspections of nuclear reactor cracks.

The Swedish operators of a German reactor came under fire last summer for delays in informing the public about a fire at the plant. And a potentially disastrous partial breakdown of a Bulgarian nuclear plant's emergency shutdown mechanism in 2006 went unreported for two months until whistle-blowers made it public.

Nuclear transparency will be an even greater problem for countries such as China that have tight government controls on information.

Those who mistrust the current nuclear revival are still haunted by the 1986 meltdown of the Chernobyl reactor and the Soviet Union's attempts to hide the full extent of the catastrophe. Further back in the collective memory is the partial meltdown at Three Mile Island in Pennsylvania in 1979...............

..........worries persist that bad habits of the past could reflect on nuclear operational safety.
In China, for instance, thousands die annually in the world's most dangerous coal mines and thousands more in fires, explosions and other accidents often blamed on insufficient safety equipment and workers ignoring safety rules.
Chinese state media on Saturday reported that nearly 3,800 people died in mine accidents last year. While that is about 20 percent less than in 2006, it still leaves China's mines the world's deadliest..................................

Countries with nuclear power are obligated to report all incidents to the IAEA. But the study said most Asian governments vastly underreport industrial accidents to the U.N.'s International Labor Organization - fewer than 1 percent in China's case

Separately, China and India shared 70th place in the 2006 Corruption Perceptions Index, published by the Transparency International think tank that ranked 163 nations, with the least corrupt first and the most last. Vietnam occupied the 111th spot, and Indonesia - which, like Hanoi, wants to build a nuclear reactor - came in 130th...................................

....Hans-Holger Rogner, head of the IAEA's planning and economic studies section, says he is 'suspicious when people say the next (reactor) generation will be safer than the one we have'................."

The ruling Labour party's policy on uranium sales will not affect Australia's relationship with India as well as ongoing efforts to further enhance it, Foreign Minister Stephen Smith said.

'India is aware of the government's policy to supply uranium only to countries which are members of the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT),' Smith told. 'Australia's relationship with India and further progress in that relationship does not depend on uranium sales,' he said........................

............the ruling labour government last week stated that it had no intention of changing its policy of only selling uranium to countries which are party to the NPT.

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A campaign threat to the nuclear power industry
ASK THIS | Nieman warchdog Questions the press should ask By Joseph Davis January 18, 2008
If a Democrat wins the presidency-and if campaign promises count-it may be time to write the obituary for Nevada's Yucca Mountain nuclear waste site. What happens then to the renewed call for nuclear power in the U.S.? -

"The top three Democratic presidential candidates, Clinton, Obama, and Edwards tussled before the Jan. 19 Nevada caucus over which was more opposed to the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository. The fuss has importance as more than just campaign mud-wrestling

. It may be a sign that it is finally time to write an obituary for the Yucca Mountain plan - and a sign that the industry-ballyhooed "renaissance" of commercial nuclear electric power in the U.S. is headed for trouble - or for a train-wreck......................Whichever Democrat is nominated, Vegas oddsmakers might well favor that person to win the White House in November, and he or she would presumably be expected to live up to the campaign rhetoric by killing Yucca Mountain..

The cloud over Yucca Mountain's future is much darker than that...........................................Yucca was born of politics, not science, back in 1987, when Congress told scientists they could pick any site they thought best - as long as it was Yucca Mountain. Nevada never agreed. Some 20 years later, after billions of dollars of study, the Energy Department is not much closer to making an air-tight scientific case....................................This year, politics may be the project's final undoing......"

But for this soldier, the mother of all battles is taking place stateside, not in the distant sands of Iraq where powerful sandstorms blow around all manner of filth and toxins, as Mendenhall experienced directly.

Mendenhall and his wife, Linda, strongly suspect that a significant cause is depleted uranium exposure in the Iraq war. The same culprit is suspected in the cancer deaths of young soldiers in their 20s, as reported by AFP last year. …………………………………………………Depleted uranium, or DU, first was widely used as a weapons component by U.S. forces in the First Gulf War. It's an ultra-dense metallic substance that's used defensively in armor, and is extensively used as a super-hard penetrating agent on the tip of explosive rounds to easily demolish armored vehicles and other hardened targets. Its detonation by U.S. forces, however, exposes combatants on both sides as well as civilians to radioactive fragments and aerosols, among other types of toxic fallout. It is dangerous and must be handled according to strict guidelines.

When widely used, it can contaminate soil and water, and can be ingested by unprotected troops and other people via the skin, through the lungs, open wounds etc. ………………

……………….they don't know what else to do-other than keep fighting. This is no longer the so-called 'war on terror,' which was sparked by the 9-11-01 attacks. Instead, the war is here, against the very establishment for which the soldiers enlisted to fight.......................".