New uranium boom hits home as small Colorado town wages war on mine plans

By The Associated Press

NUNN, Colorado: Jean Hediger can stand at the edge of her organic wheat farm and look west to the Rockies, east toward this speck-in-the-road town and straight ahead into what she sees as her worst nightmare. A Canadian company's plans to establish a uranium mine just across the two-lane county road from Hediger's farm has triggered a bitter tug-of-war with residents of this fast-growing region about 70 miles (110 kilometers) north of Denver who fear the risk of contaminated water and other health problems.

"How do you farm organically next to a uranium mine?" Hediger asks. "It's pretty darned scary, isn't it?" Powertech Uranium Corp. Chief Executive Officer Richard Clement insists the firm's closed-system mining process, in which a solution of oxygen and sodium bicarbonate is injected to recover the uranium, is safe. "There's a lot of misinformation out there about nuclear, about uranium, about radiation, about the effects of mining," he said. "This is probably one of the most benign methods of mining that you're ever going to encounter."

Similar confrontations are occurring in the West, Nebraska and even Virginia as uranium companies try to meet a voracious global demand for new nuclear power plants and capitalize on rising prices — hovering around $90 (€61) per pound to $100 (€67) per pound, from a low of about $7 just five years ago. Uranium flourished in the 1950s, '60s and '70s for use in atomic weapons and then nuclear reactors. It was a heady time in the West as miners using Geiger counters staked out claims in areas with large uranium reserves such as Uravan, Colorado; Ticaboo, Utah; Grants, New Mexico and the Navajo Nation's lands in Arizona, New Mexico and Utah. The bottom fell out of the industry when the Cold War ended and uranium from weapons stockpiles flooded the marketplace. Its price plummeted from $40 a pound in the late 1970s to less than $10 a pound in the 1980s, according to the Colorado Geological Survey. The Three Mile Island reactor accident in 1979 and the 1986 Chernobyl disaster in Ukraine soured the public on the use of nuclear power.

Today, as more nations look to nuclear power as an alternative to coal and oil, the world's uranium supplies are dwindling. In the past two years, thousands of mining claims have been staked on federal lands in Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming. "Everything started picking up like crazy in '04 in those states," said Roger Haskins, a Bureau of Land Management specialist in mining law. Public awareness has risen again, too, as seen in the battle in northern Colorado.

Powertech, which is based in Vancouver, British Columbia, proposes a $20 million (€13.5 million) uranium mine west of Nunn. It is working to obtain operating permits and hopes to open the mine in 2009. Powertech has purchased uranium mineral rights on 5,760 acres (2,330 hectares) in Weld County for its operation. Across most of the West, residents who buy property own the surface rights — but most do not own the rights to minerals under their land, which can be sold or leased separately from public agencies and private firms and individuals. Powertech plans to use a process where the oxygen-and-baking soda solution will capture the uranium and carry it to the surface. The system is designed to keep water from escaping into the air. "You know how a water softener works? Well, it's exactly the same thing. It's a big water softener," Clement said. The uranium will be taken to another facility to be transformed into yellowcake, a refined uranium oxide used in the production of uranium fuel.

The mining process, called in-situ recovery, will be located away from potable water supplies, Clement said. One such mine has operated without incident in South Texas since 1974. Nunn, Colorado, is typical of rural America; just about everybody knows everybody else in this town of about 520 whose streets are carved from dirt. County roads ramble through wide open spaces of short-grass prairie that is home to burrowing owls, raptors and eagles. A former stop on the Denver Pacific railroad, Nunn has survived over the years on agriculture. Its center is a grain elevator, a cafe, a post office and a handful of businesses. A giant water tower boasts the phrase, "Watch Nunn Grow."

Five years ago, folks would gather at the grain elevator to chat about crop and cattle prices and catch up on the news. Since then, Greeley, Fort Collins and metropolitan Denver have reached into the fringes of the area, transforming it into a bedroom community. Farmers sold huge ranches to create 85-acre (34.5-hectare) ranchette lots for residents who wanted a rural lifestyle for raising their children, allowing them to participate in such time-honored clubs such as 4-H. Among the immigrants are Jay and Robin Davis, who moved into Nunn in February 2006, settling on an 80-acre (32.5-hectare) parcel. Davis researched oil, coal, natural gas and even diamonds to see whether any company could buy the mineral rights beneath his land. Finding few of those resources, he and Robin moved in and established a haven for children where they could learn about nature and sustainable living. They put up a clubhouse and offered riding lessons for neighborhood kids. They never once thought about uranium.

When they received a letter from Powertech informing them of the planned mine, the Davises thought it was a joke. "Our mineral rights are actually owned by Powertech," Robin Davis said. Hediger and her husband, Randy, bought their farm from Randy's father in 1988 and are the largest landowners around Nunn. They raise organic wheat and millet with the help of their 19-year-old son, Bryce, and hope to one day pass the land along to him. They didn't give uranium a thought either until they received the Powertech notice. "My family is threatened, just like my neighbor," Hediger said. Hediger and the Davises have joined hundreds of residents from Fort Collins to Greeley, packing town hall gatherings and city and county meetings to voice their opposition. A group called Coloradoans Against Resource Destruction has gathered 7,514 signatures on petitions seeking to stop the operation and posted small signs in the area that warn of the potential mine by using a familiar symbol for radiation. The opponents and the company also have taken their battle to the Internet. Powertech's Web site is called NunnGrow.com, which takes visitors to the company's home page where they can find details about the plan.

Opponents operate NunnGlow.com, which includes newspaper stories and editorials about the mine, updates on government action and risk studies on potential contamination. Colorado lawmakers are considering legislation to place restrictions on uranium mining and require mining companies to prove they will restore groundwater aquifers to pre-mining quality before they receive permits for in-situ operations. The bill also would require companies to show that technology exists to clean up any pollution that results from mining. Powertech, which has properties in Wyoming and South Dakota, has begun exploratory drilling on the site across from Hediger's farm to gather data for its application for an operating permit. It also will do air, weather, groundwater and engineering tests to submit to Colorado regulators.

Clement said the company will continue to communicate with residents in the area.

To be continue in other article...

(Jakarta, Rabu 27 February 2008)

Re-publish by Jacob Paradox from link (www.routers.com),(www.iht.com), (www.routers.com), (www.nytimes.com)

Get More Subject Information In Global Warming:

Acid rain, air pollution, al gore, alternative energy, alternative fuel, an inconvenient truth, Biofuel, Carbon dioxide, carbon dioxide emissions, carbon emissions, carbon footprint, carbon neutral, carbon offset, carbon offsets, clean air, climate, climate change, conservation, Emissions, energy, energy conservation, energy efficiency, environment, environmental, environmental issues, environmentalist, environmentally friendly, Global climate change, globalwarming, greenhouse, greenhouse effect, greenhouse gas, greenhouse gas emissions, greenhouse gases, Hybrid, Inconvenient truth, Kyoto protocol, kyoto treaty, Peak oil, pollution, pollution control, Recycle, recycling, renewable energy, Save gas, solar,,solar panels, Water pollution, wind power

Government study finds pesticides, other contaminants prevalent in West's national parks

By The Associated Press

BILLINGS, Mont.: Pesticides, heavy metals and other airborne contaminants are raining down on national parks across the West and Alaska, turning up at sometimes dangerously high levels in lakes, plants and fish. A sweeping, six-year federal study released Tuesday found evidence of 70 contaminants in 20 national parks and monuments — from Denali in Alaska and Glacier in Montana, to Big Bend in Texas and Yosemite in California. The findings revealed that some of the Earth's most pristine wilderness is still within reach of the toxic byproducts of the industrial age.

"Contaminants are everywhere. You can't get more remote than these northern parts of Alaska and the high Rockies," said Michael Kent, a fish researcher with Oregon State University who co-authored the study. The substances detected ranged from mercury produced by power plants and industrial chemicals such as PCBs to the banned insecticides dieldrin and DDT. Those can cause health problems in humans including nervous system damage, dampened immune system responses and lowered reproductive success. Contaminants that accumulated in fish exceeded human consumption thresholds at the eight parks that researchers focussed on most: Sequoia and Kings Canyon, Mount Rainier, Olympic, Glacier, Rocky Mountain, Gates of the Arctic and Denali national parks and Alaska's Noatak National Preserve.

Also, mercury levels at the eight parks and DDT levels at Glacier and Sequoia and Kings Canyon exceeded health thresholds for fish-eating wildlife. Kent said he found airborne contaminants are causing male fish to develop female organs in some parks. Much of the contamination is thought to have come from overseas — traveling global air currents from Europe and Asia. But researchers said they were surprised to find substantial contamination from the local use of legal pesticides, particularly in agricultural areas around Glacier, Rocky Mountain and Sequoia and Kings Canyon parks. University of Washington atmospheric researcher Daniel Jaffe said scientists previously thought banning substances like DDT and dieldrin would lessen the persistence of chemicals in the environment.

"We replaced them with pesticides with much shorter lifetimes in the environment," Jaffe said. "But in places like the Central Valley of California, we are applying many, many tons of these every year. ... We now know they can move substantial distances." A parks advocacy group called the federal report "a wake-up call" that should mobilize Congress to take a tougher stance on air pollution. "We can take steps to reduce mercury emissions from power plants, steps to reduce carbon dioxide emissions that cause global warming," said Will Hammerquist with the National Parks Conservation Association.

The $6 million study is known as the Western Airborne Contaminants Assessment Project. It is the most comprehensive to date on the distribution and concentration of contaminants outside developed areas, according to the project's scientific director, Dixon Landers with the Environmental Protection Agency. Contrary to the conventional wisdom that remoteness means less pollution, Landers said many of the parks — particularly those at higher elevations and in colder climates — actually are at higher risk. Mercury from power plants in China, for example, is borne across the Pacific in clouds that rise up when they hit West Coast mountains. That causes the mercury to drop out of the clouds attached to rain droplets or snowflakes, he said.

Release of the study, which was coordinated by the National Park Service, came after a delay of several months. A Park Service spokeswoman, Colleen Flanagan, said the delay was caused by the time needed to analyze the vast volumes of data collected, from 2002 to 2007. The study also included researchers from the U.S. Geological Survey and the U.S. Forest Service.

To be continue in other article...

(Jakarta, Rabu 27 February 2008)

Re-publish by Jacob Paradox from link (www.routers.com),(www.iht.com), (www.routers.com), (www.nytimes.com)

Get More Subject Information In Global Warming:

Acid rain, air pollution, al gore, alternative energy, alternative fuel, an inconvenient truth, Biofuel, Carbon dioxide, carbon dioxide emissions, carbon emissions, carbon footprint, carbon neutral, carbon offset, carbon offsets, clean air, climate, climate change, conservation, Emissions, energy, energy conservation, energy efficiency, environment, environmental, environmental issues, environmentalist, environmentally friendly, Global climate change, globalwarming, greenhouse, greenhouse effect, greenhouse gas, greenhouse gas emissions, greenhouse gases, Hybrid, Inconvenient truth, Kyoto protocol, kyoto treaty, Peak oil, pollution, pollution control, Recycle, recycling, renewable energy, Save gas, solar,,solar panels, Water pollution, wind power

Turkey delays inauguration of first nuclear plant tender

By The Associated Press

ISTANBUL, Turkey: Turkey on Thursday delayed the opening of a tender for the construction of the country's first nuclear power plant.

The energy ministry was waiting for a government audit agency to comment on the tender's technical details before potential bidders could be invited, state-run media said. Officials said earlier but it was not clear how long the delay would be. Turkey has recently experienced frequent cuts in its natural gas imports from Iran and Azerbaijan, on which it relies heavily for electricity production. Nuclear power is one of the best options Turkey has, Energy Minister Hilmi Guler has said. "We must use this technology while minimizing its risks," Guler said at a recent Istanbul conference.

Power plants fueled by natural gas produce nearly half of Turkey's total electricity output. NATO member Turkey imports a majority of its natural gas from Russia and Iran. Guler said nuclear power should answer 20 percent of Turkey's energy needs and decrease reliance on imported gas, thereby providing energy security. Alim Isik, a lawmaker on the parliamentary committee that prepared the law allowing a nuclear plant, said nuclear technology had potential but that Guler's vision was not realistic. Construction of nuclear plants take up to a decade, he said, making it difficult to have a high nuclear energy capacity in short term.

Turkey is working hard to be an energy conduit between the gas- and oil-rich Caspian region as well as the Middle East, and the energy-hungry West. Nabucco, a pipeline project that will stretch from Turkey to Austria, aims to carry natural gas from the Caspian and the Middle East to Central and Western Europe, reducing energy dependence on Russia. The pipeline will not be operational before 2013.

Recent reports say Turkey is opposed to a French gas company building the Nabucco pipeline mainly because of French opposition to Muslim-majority Turkey's bid for European Union membership. A French nuclear energy company, Areva, is reportedly interested in building the Turkish nuclear power plant.

But lawmaker Yilmaz Tankut, who was involved in the nuclear issue and is a member of a nationalist party, said the job should not be given to a company from a country with which Turkey has "outstanding problems." The Mediterranean port city of Mersin has been designated as the primary site for the nuclear plant. Another plot on the Black Sea coast, Inceburun in Sinop province, is planned for a second nuclear plant, state-run news agency Anatolia said. Hilal Atici, Mediterranean climate and energy campaigner of Greenpeace, said both sites were prone to earthquakes and that construction of nuclear plants was far too costly.

To be continue in other article...

(Jakarta, Rabu 27 February 2008)

Re-publish by Jacob Paradox from link (www.routers.com),(www.iht.com), (www.routers.com), (www.nytimes.com)

Get More Subject Information In Global Warming:

Acid rain, air pollution, al gore, alternative energy, alternative fuel, an inconvenient truth, Biofuel, Carbon dioxide, carbon dioxide emissions, carbon emissions, carbon footprint, carbon neutral, carbon offset, carbon offsets, clean air, climate, climate change, conservation, Emissions, energy, energy conservation, energy efficiency, environment, environmental, environmental issues, environmentalist, environmentally friendly, Global climate change, globalwarming, greenhouse, greenhouse effect, greenhouse gas, greenhouse gas emissions, greenhouse gases, Hybrid, Inconvenient truth, Kyoto protocol, kyoto treaty, Peak oil, pollution, pollution control, Recycle, recycling, renewable energy, Save gas, solar,,solar panels, Water pollution, wind power

Climate Change and Prevent contamination of environment

Climate Change and Prevent contamination of environment

(Global Warming Problem)

By Jacob Paradox

Case damage of environment day after day becoming concern. Even when area autonomy gone into effect, condition of environment in Indonesia exactly progressively worry of. See this condition, Ministry of Environment invite entire overall Local Government to share active in the effort preventing the happening of contamination of environment. One of the road able to be gone through by is emphatically uphold administration law. But that way he reminds that straightening of administration law do not like crime. According to him, punish this administration can be engineered. For that before happened contamination have to be planned by is any kind of which must be done or observed.

Isn't it administration become more important than straightening of criminal law in case contamination of environment. There is elementary difference between administration law and crime. If administration law can be applied by before there is occurence, or when there are indication the happening of contamination. Differing from criminal law which shall only be applied by after there is occurence. Despitefully, in straightening of administration law also still can be conducted by dicker, and also do step solving of him also all kinds of, un-found in criminal law.

To be continue in other article...

(Jakarta, Senin 25 February 2008)

Get More Subject Information In Global Warming:

Acid rain, air pollution, al gore, alternative energy, alternative fuel, an inconvenient truth, Biofuel, Carbon dioxide, carbon dioxide emissions, carbon emissions, carbon footprint, carbon neutral, carbon offset, carbon offsets, clean air, climate, climate change, conservation, Emissions, energy, energy conservation, energy efficiency, environment, environmental, environmental issues, environmentalist, environmentally friendly, Global climate change, globalwarming, greenhouse, greenhouse effect, greenhouse gas, greenhouse gas emissions, greenhouse gases, Hybrid, Inconvenient truth, Kyoto protocol, kyoto treaty, Peak oil, pollution, pollution control, Recycle, recycling, renewable energy, Save gas, solar,,solar panels, Water pollution, wind power