Why go nuclear – better and cheaper options exist
Why are Eskom and the departments of energy and public enterprises so grimly determined to generate electricity by the most expensive and complicated of all options -- atomic power stations and their high-level radioactive waste depositaries?

There are two bombshell facts for taxpayers and neighbouring residents. The first is that the PBMR generates more than 10 times the volume of radioactive waste than any other known type of atomic reactor. The second fact never aired by PBMR promoters is that its defects include the radioactive gas by-products of nuclear fusion, such as a radioactive isotope of xenon, seeping and percolating through their famous pebbles and escaping into the coolant. [m&g] [there is an alternative; the california option]

Organic food study slammed by Soil Association A food fight has broken out over the health benefits — or lack thereof — of organic produce. The UK Food Standards Agency released a report saying that organic food did nothing to improve health or offer any more nutritional benefits than non-organic food [the times] (could this be a smear campaign? – drill down a bit and our interpretation is that there were only 10 studies on which they could base their data, and for livestock there were only 5).

What is the point of the findings of a review that says it could not find enough evidence to base them upon? Why did it (the study) not look at pesticides, a known health issue for consumers of organic products? [theecologist]

The FSA study also ignored the 15 relevant studies that have come out since their February 2008 cut off date that could have changed the outcome of the report. [organicconsumers.org]

Civil society should be directly involved in determining SA's energy future A workshop held this week in Cape Town highlighted the fragmentation and confusion around energy planning in South Africa. Participants raised concern about the exclusion of citizens in decision-making that will determine the country’s economic pathway for the next two to three decades. They noted that renewable energy technology was proven to be cost-competitive against coal and to be cheaper than nuclear, however, power utility Eskom’s new build projects focused almost entirely on coal and nuclear, with marginal attention to wind and solar. [engineeringnews]

'Secret' GM crop trials start again in Britain Genetically modified crops are being grown in Britain for the first time in 12 months after controversial trials were resumed without alerting the public, a newspaper reported Monday. [citizen]