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Nuclear Regulatory Commission's Japan Task Force Makes Its Report

Fri, 2011-07-15 18:58 — Kathy Gilbeaux

by Mike Campbell - earthtimes.org - July 13, 2011

San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station - San Clemente, California - Image: © iofoto

On 11th March 2011, northeast Japan was struck by a magnitude 9 earthquake and an ensuing tsunami. The Fukushima nuclear power plant was directly in the path of the tsunami and was also at the epicentre of some aftershocks. The US Nuclear Regulatory Commission established a Japan Task Force which was charged with identifying lessons that the USA should learn from the Fukushima incident.

The task force was led by Charles Miller and it came up with a set of twelve recommendations aimed at improving safety at US nuclear power plants (NPP) and re-evaluating the level of public health protection required to meet needs in the 21st century.

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Disaster Preparedness To Be Incorporated Into UK Development Programs, DFID Report Says

Sat, 2011-06-25 10:52 — Kathy Gilbeaux

submitted by Mary Suzanne Kivlighan

Kaiser Daily Global Health Policy Report - June 16, 2011

"Preparing a country for disaster will become a core part of the UK government's development programmes around the world to ensure a faster and more efficient response to major disasters," the Department of International Development (DFID) said on Wednesday in an official response (.pdf) to Lord Paddy Ashdown's independent review of humanitarian disasters that was issued in March, the Guardian reports.

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U.N./Brookings Meeting: Good Practices for Humanitarian Response in Complex Security Environments

Sat, 2011-06-18 09:32 — mdmcdonald

To Stay and Deliver: Good Practice for Humanitarians in Complex Security Environments Tuesday, June 21, 2011, 9:00 am - 10:30 am The Brookings Institution, Falk Auditorium, 1775 Massachusetts Ave, NW, Washington, DC Humanitarian assistance providers have always acknowledged the risks inherent to their line of work, yet recent statistics demonstrate that this is a particularly hazardous time to be an aid worker. Within the past decade, casualty rates have tripled, reaching above 100 deaths per year. Since 2005, hundreds of major attacks have been reported on aid workers in Afghanistan, Sudan, Somalia and other countries, prompting aid agencies to limit their presence in areas where assistance may be most needed. In response to the growing tension between maintaining humanitarian access and ensuring humanitarians' safety, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) has documented strategies and practices for upholding effective operations in high security risk contexts. On June 21, the Brookings-LSE Project on Internal Displacement will host the launch of the OCHA- commissioned study, "To Stay and Deliver: Good Practice for Humanitarians in Complex Security Environments," with a discussion exploring risk management strategies to protect humanitarian operations and personnel.

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Special Report: After Japan, Where's the Next Nuclear Weak Link?

Thu, 2011-06-09 10:54 — Kathy Gilbeaux

Reuters - June 9, 2011

Imagine a country where corruption is rampant, infrastructure is very poor, or the quality of security is in question. Now what if that country built a nuclear power plant?

It may sound alarming but that is what could happen in many developing countries which are either building nuclear power plants or considering doing so - a prospect that raises serious questions after Japan's experience handling a nuclear crisis.

A trove of U.S. diplomatic cables obtained by WikiLeaks and provided to Reuters by a third party provide colorful and sometimes scary commentary on the conditions in developing nations with nuclear power aspirations.

In a cable from the U.S. embassy in Hanoi in February 2007, concerns are raised about storing radioactive waste in Vietnam, which has very ambitious plans to build nuclear power plants. Le Dinh Tien, the vice minister of science and technology, is quoted as saying the country's track record of handling such waste was "not so good" and its inventory of radioactive materials "not adequate."

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Bill McGuire: 'A global databank could warn of natural disasters'

Fri, 2011-05-27 05:18 — mdmcdonald

If world governments could turn to a central information source on natural disasters, many lives could be saved through better preparedness

 

 

Devastating natural disasters have killed close to a million people and caused billions of pounds of damage in the past few years. Despite its sophisticated technology, humanity remains hugely vulnerable to earthquakes, hurricanes, volcanic eruptions and other calamities. The danger is only likely to increase, say geologists and weather experts. Earth's swelling numbers are forcing more and more people to live in geological and meteorological danger zones. As a result, death tolls are destined to rise.

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