- Nevada nuclear waste dump site may be unstable, study finds.
Reuters Environment News
By Michael Kahn
WASHINGTON - Scientists may have underestimated the likelihood of earthquakes and volcanic activity near the proposed storage facility for the United States' nuclear waste, researchers said on Thursday.
Writing in the journal Science, a team of geologists said they found the earth's crust at Yucca Mountain in Nevada was moving at a higher rate than had previously been thought. This stretching could cause an increase in the magnitude and frequency of earthquakes in the region.
"It means at the present time we haven't thought through the seismic and volcanic activities because it might be more than we thought," said Brian Wernicke, a professor at the California Institute of Technology who led the study.
Scientists have studied the area's geological history for years in an attempt to determine how stable the region will be during the 10,000 to 100,000 years it will take for the radioactive waste to decay.
Jim Davis, a researcher at the Harvard-Smithsonian Institute, said the rate at which the earth moves is connected to the frequency of episodic activity, such as volcanic eruptions and earthquakes.
"If the continuous rate is higher, then you would expect the episodic rate to be higher," Davis said in a telephone interview.
To determine how quickly the earth was expanding at Yucca Mountain, the scientists placed metal rods in bedrock and used satellites to photograph movement over a six-year period.
The results, which also included data from the U.S Geological Survey, indicated the rate of expansion at Yucca Mountain was about three to four times the average in the region.
It was also about one-fourth that of the highest rate in the United States, which is along the San Andreas Fault in the western United States.
Scientists had believed the rate of expansion at Yucca Mountain was less than 1 percent of the San Andreas Fault.
"It's rather larger than what we had expected," Wernicke said.
However, Kevin Crowley, director of the nonprofit Board on Radioactive Waste Management, cautioned that data might not be enough to predict seismic activity in the future.
"The short-term rates are not necessarily long-term rates," he said.
But he added that the higher rates of expansion weren't unreasonable figures and that further research might be necessary. "It may suggest calculations done to predict rates and magnitudes of earthquakes may have to be re-evaluated."
Wernicke emphasized that while the findings were from a preliminary study, this did not mean they should be dismissed.
"Work needs to be done to verify our results," Wernicke said. "At a minimum it's something that needs to be looked at more closely. They could be a red flag that we are missing something important in a hazards analysis."
- Pacific Gas & Electric Services offering Green Power Options.
Reuters Environment News
SAN FRANCISCO - PG&E Energy Services, an unregulated unit of PG&E Corp , announced Monday the launch of a new line of environmentally-friendly electricity supply options.
The company said it will offer three different options of renewable power: 100 percent, 50 percent and 20 percent power from solar, wind, geothermal, biomass and small hydro sources, with the remainder of the 50 percent and 20 percent mixes coming from hydropower.
None of products include any power from coal, oil or other fossil fuel, nuclear, wood waste from old growth forests, tire-burning, or solid municipal waste sources, PG&E said.
"Research indicates that in California, there is a significant level of consumer interest in clean energy," said Eileen Arbues, senior vice president of marketing at PG&E Energy Services.
The products will be available for all residential customers now served by California's major investor-owned utilities starting April 1, when the state launches open competition between retail power suppliers.
The PG&E marketing effort echoes similar plans offered by companies including Enron Corp's energy services unit and Edison International's power marketing subsidiary.
- Protesters arrested at Australian uranium mine site.
Reuters Environment News
SYDNEY - Two protesters who chained themselves to a drilling rig in the Australian outback as part of a protest against a planned A$12 billion (US$8.0 billion) uranium mine were arrested on Tuesday.
"It was pretty uncomfortable and hot chained to that bloody thing but the Mirrar (Aboriginal) people will find it much worse if this mine goes ahead," said Alan Gray, a plumber from the southern state of Victoria.
About 80 environmentalists and Aborigines on Tuesday began digging in for a lengthy protest aimed at blocking the development of the new Jabiluka uranium mine, due to be run by Energy Resources of Australia (ERA).
A campsite capable of accommodating up to 500 people was being constructed near the proposed mine in the Kakadu national park in the Northern Territory, said Jane Weepers of the Environmental Centre for the Northern Territory.
"We've got a large communal kitchen area with centralised cooking facilities, water tanks and proper pit toilets and a communications and legal aid centre," Weepers told Reuters.
"Basically the protest involves putting bodies in front of where they are trying to get to," she said.
"This blockade will not allow the mine to proceed," said Jacqui Katona of the Gundjehmi Aboriginal Corporation, acting on behalf of local Aboriginal landowners in the area.
Protesters on Tuesday also staged a colourful rally outside the gates of ERA's Ranger uranium mine.
A spokesman for North Ltd, Energy Resources' parent company, said the company was aware of the planned protest, although final approval for the mine was awaiting the completion of discussions with the Aboriginal Northern Land Council.
ERA's right to build the Jabiluka mine was upheld in February in the Australian federal court. ERA hopes to start groundwork at the mine by June with production around 2001.
The mine, expected to generate more than A$12 billion in revenue over a 28-year life, would help push Australia toward becoming the world's leading uranium producer.
In October the Australian government removed 13 years of limits on new uranium mine developments in Australia despite protests from environmentalists.
Jabiluka is regarded by geologists as one of the world's richest known uranium deposits with estimated reserves of about 90,400 tonnes of uranium oxide.
Australia holds about 30 percent of the world's known uranium deposits but less than 10 percent of the world market. Jabiluka and the Ranger mine would together produce about 6,000 tonnes of uranium a year, or about nine percent of world demand.
- Energy Australia plans to double its solar power.
Reuters Environment News
MELBOURNE - New South Wales power distributor energyAustralia plans to double the generation capacity at its new 200 kilowatt solar power station, the company said on Monday.
Speaking at the opening of the A$2 million Singleton solar power farm in the Upper Hunter Valley, New South Wales energy minister Bob Debus said state-owned energyAustralia had applied to build stage two of the project.
The company hopes to have the next stage running within a few months, as long as the development plan is approved by the local council.
"We have a demand at the moment. We'd be looking to get that up as quickly as possible," said an energyAustralia spokesman, Phil Neat.
The solar power farm is part of the company's Pure Energy scheme, which offers customers the chance to support the development of clean energy sources, including wind power and landfill-based power.
Under the programme, customers can pay a small premium to ensure that 25, 50, 75 or 100 percent of their electricity comes from renewable sources.
"We seem to be finding that more and more people are going for 100 percent," said Neat.
Hundred percent clean energy adds about A$1.80 a week extra to a typical household electricity bill.
The scheme has attracted about 6,000 households, which is a small but rapidly growing fraction of energyAustralia's 1.1 million customers. Neat said there was also increasing interest in the product from business customers.
"It might seem small. But it's one of the strongest uptakes in the world to a zero emission product," he said.
The company already has a 600 kilowatt wind turbine and is considering more wind and biomass projects.
- Bulgaria needs $3.3 million to fight uranium contamination.
Worldwatch Institute
SOFIA - Bulgaria needs up to six billion levs ($3.3 million) for the next six years to eliminate the environmental hazards of its closed uranium mines and plants, an energy committee official said on Monday.
Konstantin Nedyalkov said the closure of uranium mining and concentrates production, which started in 1992, had cost the country 3.5 billion levs ($1.9 million) so far.
Bulgaria's cabinet on Monday adopted a decree dealing with the liquidation of the consequences of uranium mining and concentrates production and appointed a state-owned company, Ekoinzhenering, to carry out environmental projects.
Ekoinzhenering will carry out programmes for the re-cultivation of the highly polluted regions and monitor potential contamination of drinking water.
Nedyalkov said the cost of the projects would be met from international financial aid. The committee is currently negotiating an eight million Ecu aid and another one of 1.5 million Ecu.
He did not say who would provide the funds.
A special council of will exercise constant control on project investments.
Until 1990, Bulgaria, which supplied uranium for the first Soviet atomic bomb, exported all its uranium production to the former Soviet Union for processing, in return for fuel rods for its Kozloduy nuclear power plant. ((Sofia newsroom +359-2 981 4145 sofia.newsroom@reuters.com)).
- Germans debate nuclear energy after high level waste shipment.
Reuters Environment News
AHAUS, Germany - A shipment of nuclear waste ended its controversial journey across Germany, reaching a depot near the Dutch border, but a new debate over nuclear energy was only beginning on Saturday.
Chancellor Helmut Kohl's conservative government demanded that anti-nuclear activists who tried to disrupt the shipment across Germany on Friday by violent means be prosecuted and forced to pay for damages caused.
Chancellery Minister Friedrich Bohl told Cologne's Express daily that public prosecutors should redouble their efforts to track down demonstrators who cause property damage. He blasted the environmental Greens for supporting the activists.
"Local prosecutors have to go after the militant nuclear opponents with more energy," Bohl said. "There is no way that taxpayers can be stuck with the bill for this."
It was not yet know how much damage was caused. But a similar incident in 1997 cost taxpayers more than 111 million marks, including 98 million to pay for the 30,000 police officers needed to escort the shipment.
Germans were divided over the issue of nuclear transports after watching television images of helmet-clad riot police and demonstrators clashing on Friday along the 400-km (250-mile) route from southern Germany to the depot in Ahaus north of Cologne.
It took the muscle of about 30,000 police more than 17 hours to escort the six steel containers with 60 tons of spent fuel rods to Ahaus, where police used water cannon to disperse protesters who threw bottles and shot flares at police.
There were tens of thousands of demonstrators along the route. Several suffered injuries in scuffles with police.
"The main goal of the demonstrators has already long been accomplished - Germany is no longer building nuclear power plants," said Thomas Bellut in an editorial for ZDF public television broadcasting network.
"Even if Germany stopped using nuclear power tomorrow, it wouldn't end the problem of nuclear waste. These demonstrations are unsatisfying...they are not bringing our society a single millimetre forward."
A policeman guarding the track in southern Germany was accidentally killed by another train.
Germany, as the home of the environmental movement and "green politics" in Europe, has a long tradition of opposition to nuclear power.
"You can't stop the nuclear transport and we're not going to be able to shut down the storage dump, but everyone here wants to raise political pressure to end to nuclear energy," said Juergen Quante, 49, a Catholic priest who was demonstrating.
The police measures against activists with a record of sabotaging trains had all the hallmarks of similar moves last year that became Germany's biggest security operation since World War Two.
"It is pure nonsense if 30,000 police are needed for something like this," said Marion von Haaren in an editorial for the ARD public broadcasting network.
But the conservative daily Die Welt said that authorities should do more to clamp down on the demonstrators.
"It would be desirable if the justice authorities would do more to secure law and order," the conservative daily said in an editorial. "Only then will a state based on law an order have survived the test of the anti-nuclear activists."
- German anti-nuclear activists air their anger at mammoth rally.
Reuters Environment News
MUENSTER, Germany - Thousands of anti-nuclear activists packed the northern German town of Muenster on Saturday to vent their frustration at a shipment of nuclear waste to a nearby storage dump.
Organisers said 12,000 demonstrators were in Muenster to express their outrage at authorities who rushed a convoy of spent fuel rods to the market town of Ahaus near the Dutch border at least two days earlier than planned.
Police said the number of protesters was closer to 7,500.
"We want to smile, not radiate," read one of the dozens of banners carried by the protesters.
"Protect us and not nuclear energy," read another.
The controversial shipment to the Ahaus dump revived a long-running debate in Germany about nuclear energy and took on a political dimension ahead of the federal election in September.
Conservatives were taking a hardline stance on the costly shipments while opposition Social Democrats (SPD) were raising doubts about their merit, calling for alternative solutions.
Chancellor Helmut Kohl's conservative government demanded that activists who tried to disrupt the shipment by violent means be prosecuted and forced to pay for damage.
Chancellery Minister Friedrich Bohl told Cologne's Express daily that public prosecutors should redouble efforts to track down demonstrators who cause property damage. He blasted the environmental Greens for supporting the activists.
"Local prosecutors have to go after the militant nuclear opponents with more energy," Bohl said. "There is no way that taxpayers can be stuck with the bill for this."
Franz-Josef Kniola, an SPD leader from the state of North Rhine-Westphalia, said he doubted the cross-country nuclear transports would take place if the SPD defeats Kohl's Christian Democrats in September.
"With a change in governments in the fall there will be a different policy on energy and these sorts of shipments won't happen anymore," Kniola told a news conference.
"The most efficient solution would be to leave the waste containers in the power plants where they come from."
Michael Vesper, a state leader from the environmental Greens, criticised Kohl's government for forcing through the nuclear waste shipment to Ahaus over the objections of the public and the North Rhine-Westphalia government.
"The nuclear transports are tearing society apart," Albrecht Bregenzer, an SPD leader in the state of Baden-Wuerttemberg, said in a statement on behalf of the party.
"They are moreover a senseless waste of taxpayer money," he added. "It is irresponsible to provoke the public into acts of violence to score political points in an election year."
The chairman of the German police officers' union, Hermann Lutz, said officers feared violence because the demonstrators were frustrated that the transport moved earlier than scheduled.
Many protesters had hoped to take part in rallies this weekend to try to slow, if not stop, the shipment.
But the 60 tonnes of highly radioactive waste had already arrived at Ahaus, north of Cologne, late on Friday after a 17-hour journey from southern Germany.
Authorities had been vague about the timing of the delivery, saying only that they wanted to have the operation completed by Wednesday.
It was not yet known how much it cost to transport the nuclear waste to Ahaus this week.
A similar incident in 1997 cost taxpayers more than 111 million marks ($60.6 million), including 98 million marks to pay for the 30,000 police officers needed to escort the shipment.
Kniola, interior minister of North Rhine-Westphalia, said the speedy delivery this year meant the costs would be about two-thirds less than last year.
But he said there would be an investigation into reports of aggressive tactics used by some police officers from Berlin and eastern Germany.
Television reports showed helmet-clad riot police and demonstrators clashing along the 400-km (250-mile) route.
It took the muscle of about 30,000 police to escort the six steel containers to Ahaus, where police used water cannon to disperse protesters who threw bottles and shot flares at police.
There were tens of thousands of demonstrators along the route and several suffered injuries in scuffles with police. A policeman guarding the track in southern Germany was accidentally killed by another train.
"The nuclear transports are senseless, expensive and have to be stopped," the Braunschweiger Zeitung daily wrote. "The state would not be capitulating but rather taking a pragmatic response to the challenge. We need another solution."
But the Die Welt newspaper said authorities should do more to clamp down on the demonstrators.
"It would be desirable if the justice authorities would do more to secure law and order," the conservative daily said in an editorial. "Only then will a state based on law an order have survived the test of the anti-nuclear activists."
Germany relies on nuclear power for nearly a third of its energy.
($ = 1.831 German Marks).