In the section below this, we outline the history of sececy in the nuclear industry. All the evidence available today shows that this secrecy is now even greater. Two big lies are now being sold to the public:
1. that nuclear power is the solution to global warming.
2. that the nuclear energy industry has no connection with nuclear weapons.

There are, of course, many other lies - such as that the nuclear industry is safe, economic, non-polluting, provides much employment and so on. How is it that we believe this fraud? Well, it is encouraged by Western governments caught up in the nuclear arms race, and beholden to their corporate backers.

For years, governments and mainstream media denied global warming, under the powerful influence of the fossil fuel corporations. The USA led with "Front groups" posing as scientific bodies pushing anti-environmental views - e.g The American Council on Science and Health, US Global Climate Information Project., Global Climate Coalition , The Alliance for Sensible Environmental Reform, TheCoalition for a Reasonable Environment, and Consumer Alert. Uninformed citizens were attracted into "astroturf" bodies - such as the Wise Use Movement coailition of US groups with an agenda to oppose environmentalism. Anti-environment 'think tanks' were set up, with political influence - e,g Heritage Foundation, Cato Institute: their methods - casting doubt on the urgency of environmental problems - preventing government action. - pushing "free market" solutions. Extensive public relations exercises ensured corporate influence, with conservative writers, talk shows, shaping the news. A handful of scientists, funded by corporations had the role of confusing the public over global warming - Patrick Michaels, Dr Richard Lindzen, Dr Robert B. Valling, Dr Sallie Baliunas Dr S Fred Singer. (Lindzen - a consultant to fossil fuel industry - paid $2,500 a day).

Now - with the so-called "nuclear renaissance" - Western countries, desperately try to sell nuclear technology to China, India, etc, while at home they struggle unsuccessfully to get investment for the industry. France, with its government-owned nuclear energy, and Russia, continue to conceal the real costs, and the succession of nuclear incidents which have beset their nuclear power systems. - Christina Macpherson

History of secrecy in the nuclear industry

Passages below in inverted commas are quoted from Making the Connections Reaching Critical Will - fact sheet, WOMEN'S INTERNATIONAL LEAGUE FOR PEACE AND FREEDOM

1942. The Manhattan Project began nuclear weapons research and development laboratory at Los Alamos in New Mexico. There was no reference on a map, no post office, no publicity. Here International scientists developed the bombs that destroyed Hiroshima and Nagasaki..

1943 Two 'secret cities'were built for uranium isolation at Oak Ridge in Tennessee and for plutonium production at Hanford in Washington State. Worker were under strict rule not to mention the work going on in the plants. Local rural communities were moved out of the area.

1953. President Eisenhower announced plans for the "peaceful atom" - so began the development of various industries intended to use atomic power for non-military purposes.

"Secrecy was continued through the practice of 'compartmentalization', whereby the knowledge of different aspects of nuclear weapons production was divided and separated. This system continues today under the Department of Energy. Huge numbers of classified documents are kept in US government vaults."

"In the UK, the government is able to legally guard information relating to nuclear weapons and power production under its Official Secrets Act."

"Restricted access to information has powerful public and ecological impacts. Because of governmental and corporate secrecy, as well as a management culture which discourages proper documentation, information about the health and environmental effects of nuclear weapons and nuclear power production is not easily obtainable.

In China, for instance, no specific official information is available about the health and environmental effects of nuclear technology. In Russia, data are often incomplete, reports rarely detail research methodologies, and many analyses are questionable."

"Compartmentalization and secrecy are also implicated in a general lack of knowledge about the hazards of nuclear processes. Recent events would suggest that knowledge of 'the whole system' is lacking both on the level of the labor force and even in the elite fraternity of nuclear scientists. Still today in nuclear weapons labs, the military production network, and in nuclear power stations across the globe, many workers either are not given the entire picture of nuclear processes, or due to security clearances, are not privy to the overall mission of a particular project that they might be actively engaged in."

"Meanwhile in the UK, workers have been accused by the UK Nuclear Installations Inspectorate of routinely falsifying safety checks for plutonium/MOX fuel that has been sent to Germany, Switzerland and most recently Japan."

"Although in the US, UK and elsewhere, grade school and high school students are often given industry-sponsored tours of their local nuclear weapons and power facilities, there is no part of a national curriculum, on either a secondary or university level, that prepares young people for the hazards and consequences of growing up in the nuclear age."

"Secrets and lies, half-truths about present day practices, ambiguous definitions of new nuclear processes: all these contribute to keeping the public ill-informed and, therefore, ill-equipped to challenge the nuclear status quo."

CHERNOBYL DISASTER IS OFFICIALLY OVER Eurasia Daily By David Marples April 25, 2008

" ". ....................two Belarusian scientists have firmly reiterated the official government position that irradiated territories no longer pose a problem for inhabitants; on the contrary, the key task is now to overcome "radiophobia" among the local population, which is hindering the full re-cultivation of land. …………

…………………..These comments merit reflection. About one-fifth of Belarusian territory was contaminated by radioactive cesium and strontium in the 1986 disaster. These have half-lives of up to 30 years. In addition, about 85 percent of the republic was subjected to the fallout of radioactive iodine, which resulted in alarming levels of thyroid cancer among those under the age of five at the time of the accident.

Altogether in the first two decades after Chernobyl, this illness was diagnosed in more than 12,000 patients in Belarus. About 1.8 million people, including more than 400,000 children, live in the affected regions and require regular medical check-ups

Today in Belarus, people are not dying from radioactive fallout, but land remains contaminated and medical problems persist ........................"

Nuclear power belongs in the past
Greenpeace 25 April 2008 - "It is now the 22 anniversary of Chernobyl explosion, the largest civil nuclear disaster ever. Serious contamination spread over 150 000 square kilometres in Byelorussia, Ukraine and Russia. Radioactive clouds deposited radiation thousands of kilometres away. Hundreds of thousands people had to be evacuated, and millions more were left to live in areas that were dangerous to their health and lives. Scientific studies have shown that the full consequences of the Chernobyl disaster could top a quarter of a million cancer cases and nearly 100,000 fatal cancers. However the nuclear industry is now attempting to exploit fading memories of the disaster. It's attempting to revive its dangerous business. But, even 22 years after Chernobyl the very same mixture of incompetence, political and economic pressure, cover-ups and arrogance that lead to Chernobyl continues.
Dangerous situations such as uncontrolled nuclear reactions, near reactor melt down or failure of crucial safety systems, have happened in the last ten years in Japan, US, UK, Sweden, Bulgaria and elsewhere.

Dangerous situations such as uncontrolled nuclear reactions, near reactor melt down or failure of crucial safety systems, have happened in the last ten years in Japan, US, UK, Sweden, Bulgaria and elsewhere.

France's new flagship of the nuclear industry is already a fiasco in Finland. After less then three years of construction, it is two years behind schedule, 1.5 billion Euro over budget and plagued by serious safety issues in its concrete base, reactor vessel, piping and protective containment.

A second EPR construction started last December in France with assurances it would be a model project. But, the list of problems inspectors have discovered after just three months of construction is damning:.....................................

The nuclear industry remains mired in accidents, lies, cover-ups and incompetence. Today's 'renaissance' reactors are threatening to become tomorrow's Chernobyls..................................".

22 years after Chernobyl, the nuclear industry remains mired in accidents, cover-ups and incompetence WebWire April 25, 2008 Amsterdam, International -" On the eve of the 22nd Chernobyl anniversary the nuclear industry has been rocked by revelations of cover-ups following a major nuclear accident in Spain and ongoing embarrassment over costly delays and deficiencies related to the construction of reactors in France and Finland intended to be flagships of a 'nuclear renaissance'.

Greenpeace revealed, on 5 April 2008, that an accident at the Spanish nuclear power plant Asco-I had caused significant radioactive contamination of public areas outside of the plant. The plant's operator Endesa/Iberdrola had kept this secret for four months. …………………..Both the leak and subsequent contamination, caused by a series of unexplained errors made by the plant's operators, together with cover-up attempts by plant management and State authorities, remind us that the lessons of Chernobyl have still not been learnt. Greenpeace is calling on the European Commission to launch an urgent investigation into the accident. [1]

Meanwhile in France, after only three months of construction of the Flamanville 3 nuclear plant, inspectors from France's official nuclear safety agency, ASN, have uncovered a string of problems with the 'European Pressurised Reactor' (EPR), which the French nuclear company Areva is promoting as its cheaper, safer and more reliable 'flagship' design.

................................................…Flamanville 3 is Areva's second attempt to build an EPR project. The first, Olkiluoto-3, in Finland, is, after some two and a half years, already running two years behind schedule. It is over budget and plagued by serious safety issues.
……."The nuclear industry remains mired in accidents, lies, cover-ups and incompetence. Today's 'renaissance' reactors are threatening to become tomorrow's Chernobyls" warned Jan Beránek, Greenpeace International Nuclear Campaigner...".

Citizens group prevails in FOIA fight with nuclear agency First Amendment By The Associated Press 4 April 08 ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. - "A federal judge has ruled in favor of an activist group in its battle to obtain documents on nuclear waste sites, monitoring and 10-year plans for future activities at Sandia National Laboratories.

"In light of the kafkaesque review process adopted by defendant (the National Nuclear Security Administration), it is not surprising that the delay in this case stretched many months beyond the statutorily prescribed time frame" under the Freedom of Information Act, U.S. District Judge Robert Brack of Las Cruces wrote in his March 31 decision.
Citizen Action sued in August 2006 under FOIA to compel the NNSA and the Department of Energy to release the records...............

............"This decision should send a strong message to NNSA's management that NNSA can no longer use delay to create secrecy" about lab operations,saidDave McCoy, director of Citizen Action.

NRC takes 32 years to respond to petition on radiation Boston.com By Dave Gram Associated Press Writer / April 1, 2008 MONTPELIER, Vt.- "For the nuclear watchdog group New England Coalition, getting the federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission to pay attention to its concerns can be a slow and frustrating process. But this may be a new record.

The NRC has just replied to a petition from the coalition about safety and radiation exposure -- more than 32 years after it was filed in 1975.

The battle began during construction of the Vermont Yankee nuclear plant, which opened in 1972. The coalition had been urging the federal regulators to consider, as part of their environmental review of the plant, the full effects of nuclear power -- from mining uranium to burying radioactive waste.

After two federal court decisions favoring nuclear critics, the NRC developed a table detailing its estimates for radiation exposures from various parts of the nuclear "fuel cycle," including mining and processing uranium fuel.
The coalition filed a petition on Nov. 19, 1975 saying the commission's table "'seriously underestimates' the impact on human safety and health by disregarding the long-term effects of certain long-lived radionuclides," especially radon-222 released from uranium mining and milling waste, an NRC document said

............................The NRC formally denied the coalition's petition March 11 and issued a notice about the denial in the Federal Register of March 20............................................".

The Not-So-Peaceful Atom
Bob Rowen accidentally took on corporate nuclear power in the 1970s. Four decades later he remembers what it was like to be Humboldt County's most infamous whistleblower.
The Journal 21 March 08 By Japhet Week - "On a summer day in 1969, Bob Rowen, a nuclear control technician at the Humboldt Bay nuclear power plant, realized that for his employer, Pacific Gas and Electric, the bottom line was everything - it was even more important than the community's safety.It wasn't the first time Rowen, a burly former Marine, had witnessed safety violations at the plant, but it was the first time he had the gumption to record the violation in a logbook, which would eventually be reviewed by the nuclear industry's then government watchdog the Atomic Energy Commission (AEC).
As for PG&E management, they were getting pretty fed up. Rowen was proving to be a real pain in the ass…………

…………………the decontamination process could go on non-stop. But even that wasn't enough - the cask was still "crapped up." In some places it gave readings of 4,000 to 6,000 disintegrations per minute per 100 square centimeters (more than twice the federal limit). At the seal, it read 20,000 per minute. ………………Rowen's supervisor, Gail Allen, came up with a solution. He took samples from the cask using a very light touch and recorded measurements just outside the federal limit. Then he told Rowen to sign the release papers. Shortly after doing so, Rowen recorded the incident in the plant's radiation control log: "G. Allen asked Rowen to sign the release papers for the spent fuel shipping cask stating that the contamination level of the cask to be less than 2,200 disintegrations per minute, when in fact, they were greater than 2,600 disintegrations per minute ..." ………

…………..He didn't realize it at the time, but by recording the shipping cask incident in the plant's logbook, he had signed away a promising career in the nuclear industry and set off a chain of events that would end with his discharge from the company in 1970. In the eyes of his supervisors, Rowen would later reflect, his safety consciousness was tantamount to industrial sabotage. The local police would be called in to investigate him, and he and his so-called co-conspirators would be branded dissidents..................................

.............One of the many safety violations Rowen noticed and would later report to the AEC, was the practice of feeding test rabbits - meant to graze on the grass just outside of the power plant - store-bought pellets so as to water down measurements of radionuclides coming from the facility.....................................

.…………………..At South Bay Elementary School, located just a quarter mile downwind from the plant, there was a dosimeter for measuring radioactivity. Dosimeters were located at sites all across the region, but the elementary school site - site 14 - consistently showed the worst contamination. PG&E's solution was to take the dosimeter down permanently....................

..............…………….An Unemployment Insurance Appeals Board found that Rowen's "extreme safety consciousness" was the real reason he was fired. And later, the Humboldt County Grand Jury commended him for his "continued and determined effort in bringing this situation to the attention of the public." Nonetheless, PG&E continued to refer to him in press releases as a "disgruntled former employee," and they've never apologized for their conduct. ....................

...............Manetas Mike Manetas, an anti-nuclear activist and former lecturer on energy issues at Humboldt State University warns that there is a nation-wide nuclear renaissance underway, and the zeitgeist could quickly change back to what it was when Rowen first started working at the Humboldt Bay nuclear power plant. That was a time when the nuclear industry was anxious to prove that their energy prices could compete with those of fossil fuel plants, and they had few qualms about silencing their naysayers...".

No-nuke age all over again? Mail & Guardian online 17 March 08 - "It isn't just Chernobyl we need to worry about: Consider the truth behind the nuclear industry There is uranium mining, uranium tailings, the enrichment process, the fabrication and production of weapons and Atomic Bombs, waste containment and transportation, the lifespan of radioactive waste substances, and cosider too, who benefits.
Nuclear energy is about as safe, sustainable and "efficient" as Ariel Sharon near a Palestinian. God help us, but it's chaos in the making, a complete ethnic cleansing of the "other" - and in this case the other would be all of life itself - more specifically humans - who, according to pop science, have been roaming our planet for about 100 000 years.
Which is precisely the minimum period of time required for radioactive waste to become inert........... ......................

Now according to French law, radioactive substances are divided into two core groups: the first is radioactive materials, which can be used as fuel and the second as radioactive waste that cannot be used at a later date.

Again, French law states that radioactive waste, the components (hull, pipes, fittings etc used during the enrichment process etc) cannot be stored in France beyond a certain date - ie: it can be contained via facilities and packagings specifically formulated for the toxicity of the substances, but it cannot be kept indefinitely.

The waste is dumped back into the country of origin - ie: the country from which it was mined..........................South Africa ..............accepts and is paid to receive radioactive substances, pesticides and other toxins, not as 'dumped' goods, but in order to 'neutralize' the waste. We unfortunately have no neutralization capabilities nor does any country when it comes to radioactive waste ..............................

Valli Moosa, the ex-minister of environmental affairs and tourism and the chairperson of Eskom (which coincidentally operates the only nuclear plant in Africa) stated that nuclear energy was "the base of the 21st eco-economy".

Moosa is also the President of the world's largest NGO environmental organization - the World Conservation Union (IUCN) that works in parallel and concert with many governmental bodies, the UN, the AU, variegated 'green' movements and the intelligence, military, economic and development agencies, multinationals and businesses.

Is there no conflict of interest when the same person who heads Eskom also heads the largest NGO environmental organisation on the planet? It's coincidentally timed with the discoveries that SA houses the worlds third largest uranium reserves, allied with the worlds largest nuclear agents - ie, France, again tied to Eskom, who has declared unequivocally that the recent energy shortages has forced SA to move towards nuclear..................................The National Nuclear Regulators (NNR), established in 1999, under the mantle of the National Nuclear Act admitted that it was 'completely overwhelmed and understaffed' , that there were 'at least fifty three contaminated sites in SA'............................................".

Money Is the Real Green Power:
The hoax of eco-friendly nuclear energy FAIR February 2008 By Karl Grossman

Nuclear advocates in government and the nuclear industry are engaged in a massive, heavily financed drive to revive atomic power in the United States-with most of the mainstream media either not questioning or actually assisting in the promotion. .........................the dirty secret is that nuclear power makes a substantial contribution to global warming. Nuclear power is actually a chain of highly energy-intensive industrial processes. These include uranium mining, conversion, enrichment and fabrication of nuclear fuel; construction and deconstruction of the massive nuclear facility structures; and the disposition of high-level nuclear waste.

Greens for hire In "The Greening of Nuclear Power," the Times, like other mainstream media touting a nuclear restart, also spoke of environmentalists changing their stance on nuclear power.

'Two new leaders have emerged ' to encourage the building of new nuclear reactors," according to the editorial. They happen to be Christine Todd Whitman, George W. Bush's first Environmental Protection Agency administrator, and Patrick Moore, 'a co-founder of Greenpeace' The Times heralded this as 'the latest sign that nuclear power is getting a more welcome reception from some environmentalists.'

However, 'both Whitman and Moore . . . are being paid to do so by the Nuclear Energy Institute' noted the Center for Media and Democracy's Diane Farsetta (PRWatch.org, 3/14/07)..........."

US-Russia nuclear deal

Russia's nuclear Czar - Sergei Kiriyenko (dashes around the world, doing a lot of quiet deals)

.....Asia Times By M K Bhadrakumar Feb 9, 2008 -"................Last Friday ...the director of Rosatom, Russia's federal agency for nuclear power, Sergei Kiriyenko, urgently flew to Washington on a one-day 'working visit'.

Russia's nuclear czar was rushing to formalize a deal between Russia and the United States that Moscow has been keenly seeking for the past several years. ..

.......In Washington, Kiriyenko and US Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez signed a trade agreement allowing Russia to incrementally boost enriched uranium exports to the US. The deal allows the sale of Russian enriched uranium directly to US utilities

. ………………………………….Last Friday's deal underscores US support of the Russian move to create an international cartel for nuclear fuel ........." (A cartel is a formal agreement among firms. Cartel members may agree on such matters as price fixing, The aim of such collusion is to increase individual member's profits by reducing competition. Competition laws forbid cartels.)

- This cartel looks like part of George W. Bush's much touted (but now much discredited) Global Nuclear Energy Partnership cartel?

Sergei Kiriyenko has continued to negotiate secret deals with BHPBilliton - Christina Macpherson

Not Another Disaster Tourist by Walton Burns
tol Czech Republic 24 January 2008 LEGACY OF DEVASTATION
An MEP fights to bring dignity to the victims of nuclear testing in the Kazakh region of Semipalatinsk.
"Struan Stevenson may be from Scotland, but he is passionate about a region more than 4,700 kilometers from his highland home.

Stevenson, a member of the European Parliament, wants to bring Semipalatinsk, Kazakhstan, to the world's attention at a time when few people know about the misfortunes that have occurred at the Soviet nuclear testing site. Even in Kazakhstan, 'it has been a sharp learning curve, particularly for young people living in Almaty, to discover the truth about Semey,' Stevenson said, using the common Kazakh name for the region.
Over the past seven years, Stevenson has visited the 18,000 square-kilometer Semipalatinsk testing site annually. The 607 atomic weapons exploded in the vast zone in northeastern Kazakhstan leaked unknown amounts of radiation into the air, soil, and water. People who lived nearby were considered "guinea pigs" by the Soviets, who wanted to know how the weapons would affect humans.

An estimated 1.5 million people, including many still residing in the region, have experienced adverse physical and mental health effects - conditions blamed on radiation leaks. But their problems aren't confined to Semipalatinsk. 'The people are moving, and their radiation diseases are moving with them,' said Kamila Magzieva, a research scientist and Stevenson's partner in projects devoted to Semipalatinsk. '[Local] problems at the former test site, tomorrow can [become a] worldwide problem.'

In addition to raising and donating money for the victims, Stevenson recently wrote Crying Forever, a book that chronicles his experiences in Semipalatinsk as well as the lives of the Kazakhs who have suffered there. Released in English in 2006 and in Russian the following year, the book will be translated into Kazakh this year. .............................

Stevenson writes in Crying Forever that he was 'both horrified and fascinated' by the legacy of 'how the Soviets had treated the local population' The site began operating in 1949. Scientists reportedly would wait until the wind was blowing toward villages before setting off bombs. In 1953, 42 men were selected from the village of Karaul and sent to witness an atomic explosion. Only one of them is alive, and he has stomach cancer....................................the rate of birth defects in the surrounding region remains three times higher than the rate throughout Kazakhstan. The incidence of cancer is five times higher............................................................".

If the world embraces nuclear energy, where will the deadly waste go? PRInside.com 18 Jan 08 BEAUMONT-HAGUE, France (AP) - " Thousands of canisters of highly radioactive waste from the world's most nuclear-energized nation lie, silent and deadly, beneath this jutting tip of Normandy. Above ground, cows graze and Atlantic waves crash into heather-covered hills.
The spent fuel, vitrified into blocks of black glass that will remain dangerous for thousands of years, is in "interim storage." Like nearly all the world's nuclear waste, it is still waiting for the long-term disposal solution that has eluded scientists and governments in the six decades since the atomic era began.
...................................Few people have been talking about the "back end," industry-speak for the hundreds of thousands of tons of waste that nuclear plants produce each year, and the lucrative, secretive business of storing it away..................

Greenpeace questions state-run Areva's safety figures, and accuses the government of playing down accidents and soil and water contamination. A group called Meres en Colere, or Angry Mothers, was formed in the region after a 1997 study showed higher than usual local rates of child leukemia, a malady linked to radiation exposure.
Now the 'pros' are on a new mission to dispel ......... suspicion, saying nuclear power is less dangerous to humans and the Earth than cccccoal or oil.....................................

no country has built a deep geological repository. Governments meet protests each time one is proposed. In the United States, the Yucca Mountain waste site in Nevada was commissioned in 1982 and is still awaiting a license...........................

Greenpeace and Norwegian environmental group Bellona say European nations have for years been illegally shipping radioactive waste to Russia and leaving it there..........................................Schneider says scientists are "creating work for themselves" by researching methods that may never be commercially feasible or do much to solve the long-term waste quandary.....................................................".

French nuclear waste being stored in the U.S.?
CleanTech December 5, 2007
"A prominent researcher shared a nuclear secret today that he said not even everyone in the U.S. Department of Energy knows.
Is the U.S., in fact, storing a large amount of nuclear waste produced by France's nuclear reactors?

That was the suggestion in a keynote today at the ThinkEquity ThinkGreen conference in San Francisco by Dr. Yogi Goswami, former President of the International Solar Energy Society, and prolific author and University of Florida professor.

'One small bit of information that most people don't know, even in our Department of Energy: a large majority of the nuclear waste from France is actually shipped to the U.S.,' Goswami said.
'"It's stored in South Carolina. That's because when initially the French started building nuclear reactors, the U.S. was suspicious of the French, and said 'hey, you don't need to keep that nuclear waste over there, we'll store it for you.'
'So there's a contractual relationship that all of that waste comes to the U.S. and is stored in the Savannah River Laboratory, which is the U.S. Department of Energy lab for nuclear waste,' he said............................................"

Cheney Pursuing Nuclear Ambitions of His Own
Scoop 6 November 2007,
by Jason Leopold - "While Dick Cheney has been talking tough over the years about Iran's alleged nuclear activities, the vice president has been quietly pursuing nuclear ambitions of his own. For more than two years, Cheney and a relatively unknown administration official, Deputy Energy Secretary Clay Sell, have been regularly visiting the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) to ensure agency officials rewrite regulatory policies and bypass public hearings in order to streamline the licensing process for energy companies that have filed applications to build new nuclear power reactors, as well as applications for new nuclear facilities that are expected to be filed by other companies in the months ahead, longtime NRC officials said. …………

……………….The energy corporations Cheney and Sell have been personally lobbying the NRC on behalf of this year have advised the vice president and his staff on energy policy in a way that would boost their companies' profit margins. These corporations have also donated millions of dollars to President Bush's and Cheney's past presidential campaigns. ………………

……………….At a time when public awareness surrounding renewable energy resources, the devastating effects of global warming and the importance of conservation is at an all-time high, the Bush administration has steered tens of billions in taxpayer dollars toward revamping the dormant nuclear power industry, touting it as the only proven technology to combat climate change. Behind the scenes, Cheney and Sell have worked in tandem with the Nuclear Energy Institute (NEI).................

.........Cheney and Sell's behind-the-scenes efforts have been a boon for the nuclear energy industry - and to Westinghouse Electric, a nuclear reactor designer whose AP1000 reactor unit was certified by the Department of Energy. The company stands to earn tens of billions of dollars in profit through the sale of just a few of its nuclear reactor units. Cheney has said publicly he wants to see dozens scattered across the US. ………

………….NRG Chief Executive David Crane told investors recently that massive federal tax incentives and federal loan guarantees included in the Energy Policy Act of 2005 was the deciding factor in steering the company toward the $6 billion nuclear project.........................'The whole reason we started down this path was the benefits written into the [Energy Policy Act] of 2005,' Crane said…………………………..The federal loan program automatically requires taxpayers to cover any defaults on the loans. In a February report to Congress, the Government Accountability Office said failure to properly account for default risks in the loan program was one factor that 'could result in substantial financial costs to the taxpayer.'

A 2003 Congressional Budget Office (CBO) report said the risk of utilities defaulting on loans for new nuclear plants is 'very high - well above 50 percent.'………………

…………Perhaps the thorniest issue neither Cheney, Sell, Bodman nor the nuclear energy industry has yet to address is how it plans to dispose of nuclear waste.............................'In over 50 years of operating experience, the nuclear industry still has not managed to solve the problems of safety, security, and disposal of highly dangerous radioactive waste,'said Jon Block, nuclear energy and climate change project manager for the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS).

'Until that happens, we're much better off investing in safer, cleaner energy sources such as renewable wind, geothermal, tidal, and solar projects'.................................."

Extent of Windscale contamination was covered up New Scientist Rob Edwards 5 Oct 07 - "At the time it was the world's worst nuclear accident. Now, 50 years after the fire at Windscale in Cumbria, UK, on 10 and 11 October 1957, it has emerged that the resulting radioactive cloud spread contamination over large parts of Europe, much further than previously admitted.

The fire raged in the bomb-making reactor for 17 hours, dumping contamination over a large swathe of England. Across the north-west of the country radioactive milk was poured away for several weeks. Researchers in the UK and Norway have now shown that radioactivity was blown east over Belgium, the Netherlands and Germany, and north over Scandinavia

'The plume extended further east than accepted in previous assessments,' concludes a study funded by the British nuclear industry (Atmospheric Environment). Monitoring measurements from the Norwegian Defence Research Establishment show that fallout 'extended farther north over Norway than originally considered'............................................."

Nuclear Info Kept From Congress and the Public slashdot kdawson August 21 "On March 6, 2006 an accident occurred at Nuclear Fuel Services in Erwin, Tennessee. According to reports, almost 9 gallons of highly enriched uranium in solution spilled and nearly went into a chain reaction. Before the accident in 2004, the NRC and The Office of Naval Reactors had changed the terms of the company's license so that any correspondence with Nuclear Fuel Services would be marked 'official use only.' From the article: 'While reviewing the commission's public Web page in 2004, the Department of Energy's Office of Naval Reactors found what it considered protected information about Nuclear Fuel Service's work for the Navy.

The commission responded by sealing every document related to Nuclear Fuel Services and BWX Technologies in Lynchburg, Va., the only two companies licensed by the agency to manufacture, possess and store highly enriched uranium.' The result was that the public and Congress were both left in the dark for 13 months regarding this accident and other issues at the facility."

(Electric Power Research Institute).EPRI - Exposing the Nuclear/Electricity Industry Dark tower of Secrets OpEdNews.com Sherwood Martinelli 8 August 07 EPRI SECRETS-Nuclear Industry Failing Infrastructure, CRM and Wrongful License Renewals - With the score Nuclear Licensees 48, host communities 0, it seemed obvious that the fix was in and the NRC (Nuclear Regulatory Commission) was intent on bringing forth a Nuclear Renaissance by rubber stamping the License Renewal Applications of every aging, fatigued nuclear reactor in America, against the wishes of the 67 host communities who had agreed to host said reactors for a period of only 40 years

The nuclear industry, NRC/DOE and NEI all needed a way to keep aging and other problems out of the public eye, needed a way to investigate known safety issues, while keeping grassroots environmentalists, opposing attorneys, and even state and local governments from getting their hands on damning documents, documents that would support the oppositions contentions......

Imagine if you will, a impenetrable black tower of Electrical Industry learning and dark sinister secrets, it's reams of reports and studies off limits to all but the chosen few and the minions that serve them. Those allowed access paying handsomely (rumor has it the fee is $2 million a year) for unfettered corporate access.

Imagine a dark tower of learning so well connected that the DOE funds research meant to protect NRC licensees interest, the studies and reports generated paid for by tax payer dollars, then secreted away, labeled proprietary and security sensitive and not eligible for export. Such an organization exists, and is known as EPRI (Electric Power Research Institute).

the NRC has full and complete access to these documents which outline failures, and presumably has read them, yet time and again the NRC has refused to order even one full and complete ISA (Independent Safety Assessment) of said steam pipe systems at a nuclear reactor. Leaking Butt Welds, thinning walls, and bacteria problems are not the exception in the nuclear industry, but instead the norm,....................

.........We have the power and ability to open the doors to the Dark Tower that is the EPRI library, we can force them to give the public access to the documents paid for fully or partially with tax dollars...............

..Dangerous, aging reactors are being wrongfully relicensed in the name of a Nuclear Renaissance. The documents that prove just how unsafe they are have been hidden behind the corporate veil of EPRI, and we must pierce their veil, gain access to the documents that prove our contentions."

16 Dirty Secrets About Nuclear Power- Counter Punch 27 June 07 By RUSSELL D. HOFFMAN"1) This is a very long article - so, just a few points have been selected here: -

1. Isn't France almost entirely dependent on nuclear power?

And one more point: AREVA, France's nuke power company, is even more secretive than our nuke mega-corporations, and their nukes have had serious problems ...

But more to the point, COULD they have gone with renewables and still achieved their electricity goals (and their rates would now be vastly cheaper)? Certainly!

3. Nukes are getting safer all the time, aren't they? - Actually, they are getting LESS safe The old nuke power plants are rusting, becoming more and more embrittled, and parts that have lasted for 30+ years (and were designed to last only 20) are failing left and right.. The companies all have a "replace on failure" policy for most components, since it would be impossible to guess what's going to break next. And as for future possible generations of new reactors, they have their own problems INCLUDING unexpectedly rapid embrittlement of the cladding for the radioactive fuel pellets, which could lead to the very catastrophic failures they CLAIM can't happen. AND the new reactors are no better protected from terrorism than the old ones -- a fact of life, but then, so are TSUNAMIS and they are IGNORED, as well (yes, some coastal reactors have sea walls, but they are pitifully small).

4) Can't nuclear power solve the problem of Global Warming? No. First of all, nuclear power doesn't produce MUCH of our energy mix.....The "20%" figure you might often hear is the percentage of ELECTRICITY nuclear produces, but electricity is a relatively small portion of our total energy usage.Second of all, the global warming problem is (finally) considered IMMINENT. But no workable plan for building new nuclear power plants can possibly contribute more than a small percentage of the needed energy

. The plants are too big, the lead time too long, the difficulties of siting them away from population centers and then running high-power lines, all doom the technology even if numerous OTHER important reasons are IGNORED! Third, and most damaging, is that when you take into account: Caring for the nuclear waste afterwards; Caring for cancer victims; The energy needed to mine the uranium; The energy needed to clean up after an accident; All the other costs; Nuclear simply doesn't produce ANY net energy for the country! Not one watt!

8) Doesn't the nuclear industry protect humans from all its radioactive waste? NO THEY DON'T! Tritium, for instance, is routinely released from ALL operating nuclear power plants. Some kinds of nuke plants release 20 times (or more) more than other types. Is it ALL okay? Not at all. Tritium standards are absurdly lax.

10) Don't some people say that a little radiation might actually be GOOD for you? NO level of radiation is beneficial and all medical radiation is given after a supposedly careful cost-benefit analysis has been done for the patient.

14) Why does the industry keep going, if it's SO bad?The nuclear industry relies on lies and obfuscations to hide its true effect on humanity from curious or prying eyes. ANYONE who begins to understand the truth is immediately labeled an "activist" even if they base every comment they ever make on scientific principles which the pro-nukers cannot and WILL NOT ANSWER. People who are labeled "activists" are soon kicked out of their jobs, so that they can no longer be considered experts who are current in the field. They are ridiculed, and destroyed financially.

The "debate" over nuclear power -- the one a democratic people SHOULD have had -- NEVER HAPPENED..............What keeps the industry going is government contracts, government subsidies, government insurance, and tax breaks. The government feeds BILLIONS into the industry, financing the '"research and development'" of new reactor designs, and the training the commercial reactor operators through the military reactor program. Research reactor institutes are often controlled jointly by the industry and by the government. It's self-perpetuating.

But the biggest break the industry gets is, of course, the fact that if you or your children or loved ones get cancer or leukemia, it COULD be due to anything, NO MATTER HOW CLOSE you live to a reactor, and no matter how many people around you SEEM to be dying as well. To make matters worse, after a meltdown, most people with reactor-caused illnesses will never be paid a red cent by any insurance company, the reactor owners or operators, or any local, state or federal entity.

Check your homeowner's insurance policy if you have one. Reactor accidents are specifically excluded! And you need look no further than the nuclear industry's under-funded, federally-mandated minimalist insurance policy known as The Price-Anderson Act to KNOW that no citizen will be paid their due if they survive after an accident. You'll get fractions of a penny on the dollar if you live to collect anything at all. You'll be called stupid for living so close to a reactor, or paranoid for thinking that accident "X" miles away caused YOUR cancer. "X" could be a little as 11 miles or less!.................................................."

Don't buy the nuclear sales pitch - Aspen Daily News Roger Herried - 22 June 07 "...............Moore is not a founder or co-founder of Greenpeace. ...................... Moore and his behavior in the late 1970s wreaked havoc on Greenpeace. Moore has had nothing to do with environmental issues for over 15 years. He's been using the last 15 years to promote the logging industry and other polluters.

The idea that the nuclear industry would hold up such a flagrant example is astounding. One of the real founders of Greenpeace called him a Judas! For anyone with their eyes open, short sales pieces by paid industry spokespeople that have millions of federal pork to spend promoting a plan to get billions more from us, please, if there was ever a time not to trust someone, it is the nuclear industry, during George 'let's make a deal on Iraq's oil' Bush's administration.

In Feb 1984, Forbes magazine called the nuclear industry the largest financial disaster in U.S. history. The big picture on nuclear power includes the ugly truth that nuclear power and weapons are linked at the hip, and enjoys second to none subsidies that go back over 50 yearsYou wouldn't know it unless you live in Nevada, that the plan to dump high level waste at Yucca Mountain is facing opposition from both parties there. You wouldn't know it that when Bush promised not to let Yucca Mountain go ahead unless there was good science that proved its safety. With that promise George Bush won the 2000 election and Nevada's electoral votes were enough to make the difference in who would be president...................

.The nuclear industry wants you to allow the federal government to subsidize private companies to build a new generation of experimental reactors. What will the real cost be? Once they get a hook on your wallet, we all know what a blank check is! The first time around they said it was gonna be too cheap to meter. In 1966, California's Diablo Canyon was estimated to cost just over $350 million to build two reactors. Twenty years later the construction costs totaled $5.8 billion, with an additional $7 billion in financing costs. The utility got every penny of those costs from the government and ratepayers, plus a profit. The result? California's rates nearly doubled over a six-year period................................" . .