tagged w/ Nuclear Weapons
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Iran's need for uranium to treat its cancer patients with radiation provides a diplomatic opening in its nuclear program. Russ Wellen at the Foreign Policy in Focus blog Focal Points.Iran's need for uranium to treat its cancer patients with radiation provides a... more
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By DANA LIEBELSON
Dr. Strangelove fans had an exciting news cycle last week, with the release of two new reports that focus on the bomb (and tangentially, one on nuclear energy oversight.) First, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) concluded the U.S. has no reliable way to track uranium and plutonium shipped to more than two dozen countries. Then Bloomberg reported that the U.S. Air Force is overstating the number of nuclear arsenals in service. Finally, the Nuclear Regulatory Committee (NRC) released a report asking for immediate reevaluation of the risks posed by earthquakes and floods to reactors. So put on your cowboy hat, here’s a closer look at these reports.
The U.S. has shipped 17,500 kilograms of highly enriched uranium and separated plutonium—material
that could potentially be used for weapons—to 27 countries with which it has peaceful nuclear cooperation agreements. According to the GAO report, the U.S. can only verify the location of about 1,160 kilograms of this material. Call me crazy, but it seems like a bad idea to track nuclear weapons material like Halloween candy.
The GAO report also reveals that the agencies (NRC, Department of State and the Department of Energy) responsible for visiting countries holding the highest proliferation risk quantities of U.S. nuclear material have not done so. In fact, of the 55 visits made between 1994 and 2010, countries only met international security guidelines about half the time.
“This could be a major violation of America’s international treaty obligations” wrote Adam Weinstein, Mother Jones’ national security reporter.
Bloomberg reported on Thursday that the Air Force claims that it has 555 ‘Minuteman IIIs,’ which are land-based intercontinental nuclear missiles. However, according to congressional investigators and Air Force documents, 105 of these missiles are disassembled. Several officials pointed to this discrepancy as evidence of a lack of accountability.
Senator Tom Carper (D-Delaware) told Bloomberg, “If the Air Force accounting and inventory systems can't accurately count the number of intercontinental ballistic missiles in its possession, it's fair to question whether the Air Force and other military services can count other, more common and more numerous assets.”
The NRC also released a report last week requesting immediate reviews of seismic and flooding risks at 104 nuclear reactors throughout the country. This report comes about in response to the catastrophic Japan earthquake—and also last month’s East coast quake, which knocked over a couple chairs.
According to the report, knowledge of seismic hazards in the U.S. has evolved to the point where it’s time to reevaluate the designs of existing nuclear power reactors to ensure safety standards are met. Additionally, some plants still rely on “temporary flood mitigation measures”—like sandbagging.
The NRC recommends that their recommendations for regulatory actions be initiated “without delay.” Whether this will actually happen remains to be seen: as POGO’s executive director, Danielle Brian wrote recently: “regulators have been knowingly giving a pass to nuclear operators on 'seismic qualification' - i.e. earthquake preparedness - for years.”
Perhaps these kinds of reports would fly with Dr. Strangelove after all—he did say, “the whole point of the Doomsday Machine is lost if you keep it a secret.” Hopefully he was also referring to nuclear transparency—in war and energy.
Dana Liebelson is POGO's Beth Daley Impact Fellow.By DANA LIEBELSON
Dr. Strangelove fans had an exciting news cycle last week, with... more
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Eliminating nuclear weapons is the democratic wish of the world’s people. Yet no nuclear-armed country currently appears to be preparing for a future without these terrifying devicesEliminating nuclear weapons is the democratic wish of the world’s people. Yet no... more
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So let me get this straight. The US gives Israel $3 billion per year for no apparent reason, plus free weapons, loan guarantees and God knows what else, totalling to about $30 billion per year, and in return, we get sent their nuclear waste. OK.
The Dimona reactor is where Israel's undeclared, nuclear weapons of mass distruction are stored. Dimona has not been inspected by the IAEA.
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Israel has returned hundred of kilograms of nuclear waste from its nuclear reactor in Nahal Sorek to the U.S., the head of Israel's Nuclear Energy Commission Dr Shaul Horev revealed on Monday.
Speaking at the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) ministerial conference on nuclear safety in Vienna, Horev did not specify the exact amount of waste that had been returned, but according to estimates, Israel has sent back at least hundreds of kilograms' of 93% enriched uranium, which was used to power the Sorek reactor.
The operation took place after Israel's Nuclear Energy Commission and the U.S. Department of Energy signed an agreement for the return of the nuclear waste over a year and a half ago. After the agreement was signed, an American ship collected nuclear waste from both Israel and Turkey.
The Sorek research reactor is a small five megawatt facility that was donated to Israel by the U.S. within the framework of former president David Eisenhower's "Atoms for Peace" program. Israel also received 93% enriched uranium to fuel the reactor. The reactor has remained under IAEA supervision for years.So let me get this straight. The US gives Israel $3 billion per year for no apparent... more
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Earthquake concerns not only also exist for U.S. nuclear energy plants, but for nuclear-weapons facilities too. Imagine if a plant that produces a nuclear weapon's pit, in which the chain reaction occurs, were rocked by an earthquake?Earthquake concerns not only also exist for U.S. nuclear energy plants, but for... more
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Earthquake concerns not only also exist for U.S. nuclear energy plants, but for nuclear-weapons facilities too. Imagine if a plant that produces a nuclear weapon's pit, in which the chain reaction occurs, were rocked by an earthquake?Earthquake concerns not only also exist for U.S. nuclear energy plants, but for... more
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Imagine disarmament and nonproliferation talks in which states with more nuclear weapons make other states pay a price for having fewer. Russ Wellen at Scholars & Rogues.Imagine disarmament and nonproliferation talks in which states with more nuclear... more
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Like the Fukushima reactors, U.S. nuclear labs lie on faults. Russ Wellen at Scholars & Rogues.Like the Fukushima reactors, U.S. nuclear labs lie on faults. Russ Wellen at Scholars... more
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President Obama Sits Down For One-On-One With Action 7 News.
Congress is looking for ways to cut the federal budget and House Republicans have showed interest in slashing nuclear weapons spending. The move could affect the 20,000 employees at New Mexico’s two research labs.
Obama said Japan’s hardships are a reminder that the work at these facilities should not be scaled back.
“One of the things that 'it' reminds us of is that the safety and the constant monitoring and oversight that we're providing to our nuclear facilities here in the United States has to be maintained,” Obama said.
The president said the money is there.
“We have a budget for it. I've already instructed our Nuclear Regulatory Agency to make sure that we take lessons learned from what's happened in Japan and that we are constantly upgrading how we approach our nuclear safety in our country,” Obama said.
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So while Obama wants to increase funding for new nuclear warhead development to record levels, the republicans want the increases to be slightly scaled back!?
I don't think Obama is drawing the right conclusions from the disaster in Japan. An additional plutonium factory to increase our "safety" is ridiculous.
Interesting when asked by her co-anchor how she was able to get the exclusive interview with Obama, KOAT's Royale Da responded, in part:
"KOAT reaches a very specific Southwest audience , and it appears.... that that is an audience the president has an interest in speaking directly to."
So in other words KOAT (and others) act as propaganda outlets for the nuclear weapons labs and associated corporate interests?
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-TECgnIce-aM/TYdmbaXoSmI/AAAAAAAADvQ/3gWrMAoTgCg/s1600/image006.jpgPresident Obama Sits Down For One-On-One With Action 7 News.
Congress is looking... more
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“Depleted uranium tipped missiles fit the description of a dirty bomb in every way… I would say that it is the perfect weapon for killing lots of people.” ~ Marion Falk, chemical physicist (retd), Lawrence Livermore Lab, California, USA
In the first 24 hours of the Libyan attack, US B-2s dropped forty-five 2,000-pound bombs. These massive bombs, along with the Cruise missiles launched from British and French planes and ships, all contained depleted uranium (DU) warheads.
DU is the waste product from the process of enriching uranium ore. It is used in nuclear weapons and reactors. Because it is a very heavy substance, 1.7 times denser than lead, it is highly valued by the military for its ability to punch through armored vehicles and buildings. When a weapon made with a DU tip strikes a solid object like the side of a tank, it goes straight through it, then erupts in a burning cloud of vapor. The vapor settles as dust, which is not only poisonous, but also radioactive.
http://www.houseofpaine.org/bonziebean/blog/?p=420“Depleted uranium tipped missiles fit the description of a dirty bomb in every... more
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How the “Peaceful Atom” Became a Serial Killer
http://mjcdn.motherjones.com/preset_12/nuclear.jpg
The nuclear myth melts down.
— By Chip Ward (Mother Jones)
Thu Mar. 24, 2011 1:36 PM PDT
This story first appeared on the TomDispatch website.
PART ONE…
When nuclear reactors blow, the first thing that melts down is the truth. Just as in the Chernobyl catastrophe almost 25 years ago when Soviet authorities denied the extent of radiation and downplayed the dire situation that was spiraling out of control, Japanese authorities spent the first week of the Fukushima crisis issuing conflicting and confusing reports. We were told that radiation levels were up, then down, then up, but nobody aside from those Japanese bureaucrats could verify the levels and few trusted their accuracy. The situation is under control, they told us, but workers are being evacuated. There is no danger of contamination, but stay inside and seal your doors.
The First Atomic Snow Job
The bureaucratization of horror into bland and reassuring pronouncements was to be expected, especially from an industry where misinformation is the rule. Although you might suppose that the nuclear industry's outstanding characteristic would be its expertise, since it's loaded with junior Einsteins who grasp the math and physics required to master the most awesomely sophisticated technology humans have ever created, think again. Based on the record, it's most outstanding characteristic is a fundamental dishonesty. I learned that the hard way as a grassroots activist organizing opposition to a scheme hatched by a consortium of nuclear utilities to park thousands of tons of highly radioactive fuel rods, like the ones now burning at Fukushima, in my Utah backyard.
Here's what I took away from that experience: the nuclear industry is a snake-oil culture of habitual misrepresentation, pervasive wishful thinking, deep denial, and occasional outright deception. For more than 50 years, it has habitually lied about risks and costs while covering up every violation and failure it could. Whether or not its proponents and spokespeople are dishonest or merely deluded can be debated, but the outcome—dangerous misinformation and the meltdown of honest civic discourse—remains the same, as we once again see at Fukushima.
Established at the dawn of the nuclear age, the pattern of dissemblance had become a well-worn rut long before the Japanese reactors spun out of control. In the early 1950s, the disciples of nuclear power, or the "peaceful atom" as it was then called, insisted that nuclear power would soon become so cheap and efficient that it would be offered to consumers for free. Visionaries that they were, they suggested that cities would be constructed with building materials impregnated with uranium so that snow removal would be unnecessary. Atomic bombs, they urged, should be used to carve out new coastal harbors for ships. In low doses, they swore, radiation was actually beneficial to one's health.
Such notions and outright fantasies, as well as propaganda for a new industry and a new way of war—even if laughable today—had tragic results back then. Thousands of American GIs, for instance, were marched into ground zero just after above-ground nuclear tests had been set off to observe their responses to what military planners assumed would be the atomic battlefield of the future. Ignorance, it turns out, is not bliss, and thousands of those soldiers later became ill. Many died young.
Unwary civilians who lived downwind of America's western testing grounds were also exposed to nuclear fallout and they, too, suffered horribly from a variety of cancers and other illnesses. Uranium miners exposed to radiation in the tunnels where they wrestled from the earth the raw materials for the nuclear age also became ill and died too soon, as did workers processing that uranium into weapons and fuel. Many of those miners were poor Navajos from my backyard in Utah where a new uranium boom, part of the so-called nuclear renaissance, was—before Fukushima—set to take shape.
CONTINUED…How the “Peaceful Atom” Became a Serial Killer... more
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As with Iraq, U.S. and Israel extrapolating shreds of evidence against Iran into a casus belli. Gareth Porter's investigation excerpted from the journal Middle East Policy.As with Iraq, U.S. and Israel extrapolating shreds of evidence against Iran into a... more
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A weekly radio program with Dr. Helen Caldicott.
Helen Mary Caldicott (born 7 August 1938) is an Australian physician, author, and anti-nuclear advocate who has founded several associations dedicated to opposing the use of depleted uranium munitions, nuclear weapons, nuclear weapons proliferation, war and military action in general. She hosts a weekly radio program, If You Love This Planet
http://ifyoulovethisplanet.org/
http://www.csaolympia.org/images/vision_globe.jpgA weekly radio program with Dr. Helen Caldicott.
Helen Mary Caldicott (born 7... more
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Even a regional nuclear war could spark "unprecedented" global cooling and reduce rainfall for years, according to U.S. government computer models.
Widespread famine and disease would likely follow, experts speculate.
During the Cold War a nuclear exchange between superpowers—such as the one feared for years between the United States and the former Soviet Union—was predicted to cause a "nuclear winter."
In that scenario hundreds of nuclear explosions spark huge fires, whose smoke, dust, and ash blot out the sun for weeks amid a backdrop of dangerous radiation levels. Much of humanity eventually dies of starvation and disease.
Today, with the United States the only standing superpower, nuclear winter is little more than a nightmare. But nuclear war remains a very real threat—for instance, between developing-world nuclear powers, such as India and Pakistan.
To see what climate effects such a regional nuclear conflict might have, scientists from NASA and other institutions modeled a war involving a hundred Hiroshima-level bombs, each packing the equivalent of 15,000 tons of TNT—just 0.03 percent of the world's current nuclear arsenal. (See a National Geographic magazine feature on weapons of mass destruction.)
The researchers predicted the resulting fires would kick up roughly five million metric tons of black carbon into the upper part of the troposphere, the lowest layer of the Earth's atmosphere.
In NASA climate models, this carbon then absorbed solar heat and, like a hot-air balloon, quickly lofted even higher, where the soot would take much longer to clear from the sky.
(Related: "'Nuclear Archaeologists' Find World War II Plutonium.")
Reversing Global Warming?
The global cooling caused by these high carbon clouds wouldn't be as catastrophic as a superpower-versus-superpower nuclear winter, but "the effects would still be regarded as leading to unprecedented climate change," research physical scientist Luke Oman said during a press briefing Friday at a meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in Washington, D.C.
Earth is currently in a long-term warming trend. After a regional nuclear war, though, average global temperatures would drop by 2.25 degrees F (1.25 degrees C) for two to three years afterward, the models suggest.
At the extreme, the tropics, Europe, Asia, and Alaska would cool by 5.4 to 7.2 degrees F (3 to 4 degrees C), according to the models. Parts of the Arctic and Antarctic would actually warm a bit, due to shifted wind and ocean-circulation patterns, the researchers said.
After ten years, average global temperatures would still be 0.9 degree F (0.5 degree C) lower than before the nuclear war, the models predict.
Years Without Summer
For a time Earth would likely be a colder, hungrier planet.
"Our results suggest that agriculture could be severely impacted, especially in areas that are susceptible to late-spring and early-fall frosts," said Oman, of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland.
"Examples similar to the crop failures and famines experienced following the Mount Tambora eruption in 1815 could be widespread and last several years," he added. That Indonesian volcano ushered in "the year without summer," a time of famines and unrest. (See pictures of the Mount Tambora eruption.)
All these changes would also alter circulation patterns in the tropical atmosphere, reducing precipitation by 10 percent globally for one to four years, the scientists said. Even after seven years, global average precipitation would be 5 percent lower than it was before the conflict, according to the model.
In addition, researcher Michael Mills, of the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Colorado, found large decreases in the protective ozone layer, leading to much more ultraviolet radiation reaching Earth's surface and harming the environment and people.
"The main message from our work," NASA's Oman said, "would be that even a regional nuclear conflict would have global consequences."
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2011/02/110223-nuclear-war-winter-global-warming-environment-science-climate-change/Even a regional nuclear war could spark "unprecedented" global cooling and... more
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House funding bill cuts $1 billion from nuclear security and nonproliferation | Foreign Policy
The House GOP funding bill currently under debate would slash over $1 billion from the government agencies that work to keep nuclear weapons out of the hands of rogue states and terrorists — money that Senate Republicans fought to increase only last fall during the debate over the New START treaty with Russia.House funding bill cuts $1 billion from nuclear security and nonproliferation |... more
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