A sea of underground water polluted by years of nuclear tests now covers a vast tract of Nevada.A sea of underground water polluted by years of nuclear tests now covers a vast tract... more
“Everything about it would be bad,” says Mark Hammergren, an astronomer at Adler Planetarium in Chicago, beginning with your attempt to scoop it up. Despite the fact that white dwarfs are fairly common throughout the universe, the nearest is 8.6 light-years away. Let’s assume, though, that you’ve spent 8.6 years in your light-speed car and that the radiation and heat emanating from the star didn’t kill you on your approach. White dwarfs are extremely dense stars, and their surface gravity is about 100,000 times as strong as Earth’s. “You’d have to get your sample—which would be very hard to carve out—without falling onto the star and getting flattened into a plasma,” Hammergren says. “And even then, the high pressure would cause the hydrogen atoms in your body to fuse into helium.”
(This type of reaction, by the way, is what triggers a hydrogen bomb.)
Then you’d have to worry about confinement. Freeing the sample from its superdense, high-pressure home and bringing it to Earth’s relatively low-pressure environment would cause it to expand explosively without proper containment. But if it didn’t blow up in your face—or vaporize your face, since the stuff’s temperature ranges between 10,000˚ and 100,000˚F—and you somehow got it to your kitchen table, you’d be hard-pressed to feed yourself: A single teaspoon would weigh in excess of five tons. “You’d pop it into your mouth and it would fall unimpeded through your body, carve a channel through your gut, come out through your nether regions, and burrow a hole toward the center of the Earth,” Hammergren says. “The good news is that it’s not quite dense enough to have a strong enough gravitational field to rip you apart from the inside out.”
It probably wouldn’t be worth the trouble anyway, Hammergren laments. White dwarfs are mostly helium or carbon, so your teaspoonful would taste like a whiff of flavorless helium gas or a lick of coal. But if you’re desperate for a taste of star, you don’t really need to travel 8.6 light-years—your fridge is full of the stuff. Most of the elements that make up our bodies and everything around us were formed in the cores of stars and then belched out into the universe over billions of years. Basically everything you eat was once part of a star. Might we recommend some star fruit?
If tonight the Tg1 (italian state-owned main evening tv news program) opened its evening edition with the save the premier law, calling it so. If it said that the law to shorten the statute of limitation for all but the most serious crimes and those of immigrants is unconstitutional, racist and in fact an amnesty for bribers, polluters, crooks and many others such criminals? If the Tg1 would speak for the first time in its history of all the trials in which Berlusconi stands accused? http://www.inaltreparole.net/en/journalism/tguno131109.htmlIf tonight the Tg1 (italian state-owned main evening tv news program) opened its... more
"Anything that hops, burrows, buzzes, crawls or grazes near a nuclear weapons plant may be capable of setting off a Geiger counter. And at the Hanford nuclear reservation, one of the dirtiest of them all, its droppings alone might be enough to trigger alarms.
A government contractor at Hanford, in south-central Washington State, just spent a week mapping radioactive rabbit feces with detectors mounted on a helicopter flying 50 feet over the desert scrub. An onboard computer used GPS technology to record each location so workers could return later to scoop up the droppings for disposal as low-level radioactive waste. ""Anything that hops, burrows, buzzes, crawls or grazes near a nuclear weapons plant... more
There are things that you hardly see on television. Not only the hyper-censored Italian television, which responds only to the logic of political affiliation, with very few exceptions, but in televisions around the world, because there are truths that displease too many people. So it happens that some beautiful and very interesting documentaries have a notoriety far lower than they'd deserve.There are things that you hardly see on television. Not only the hyper-censored... more
Many ministers of the Berlusconi government do everything to be bad, up to the point of insulting the opposition. It's a typical sign of the states that are sliding towards dictatorship to see people with institutional responsibilities that seek to intimidate and threaten half the country, the half that didn't voted them. It's also a typical sign of guilty conscience. These ministers know that their policies are weak, and try to deflect attention with verbal violence.Many ministers of the Berlusconi government do everything to be bad, up to the point... more
Unfortunately in a country like Italy where every day is an emergency it's difficult for every news to get the space adequate to their importance. Add to that the tendency to censor the bad news in tv stations and many newspapers. These days we read, but not enough, of toxic waste sunk at sea by N'drangheta (the local mafia) off the coast of Calabria, and even used to build schools. And many more toxic and radioactive waste have been sunk over the years off the African coast.Unfortunately in a country like Italy where every day is an emergency it's difficult... more
International Eco-Mafia and an Ecological Catastrophe
By MICHAEL LEONARDI
Now being overshadowed by the deaths of 6 Italian soldiers in the growingly unpopular war in Afghanistan, another deadly and sinister Tragedy is brewing. In the beckoning blue waters of the Mediterranean Sea that surround the Italian Peninsula and its islands, and which laps at the coasts of 22 countries in Africa, Europe, the Middle East and Asia, a hidden legacy of the Sea being used as a disposal site for radioactive and other toxic wastes for over 20 years is beginning to come to light. What some inside the halls of government are calling an international catastrophe, runs the risk of being swept under the table once again by an Italian Government that has been colluding and embroiled in this ecological and public health disaster from its beginnings.
Dozens of ships, reportedly carrying cargos of what could be thousands of barrels of radioactive and toxic wastes have been intentionally sunk off the shores of Italy, Spain, Greece and as far away as Africa and Asia, by the International Ecomafia led by Calabria’s ‘Ndrangheta organized crime syndicate. This has taken place for over twenty years and insiders in the Italian government and secret service have been involved in covering it up. The first of these ships to be found, thought to be called the Cunsky, has been photographed by a robot off the coast of Cetraro, a medium sized town on the Tyrrheinan coast of Calabria. Cancerous tumors and thyroid problems are highly prevalent here and a growing epidemic all along the coasts of the Mediterranean Sea. Certraro is a town known for its port by tourists all over the world. Fish caught by the hundreds of fishemen that make their livelihoods there are eaten throughout Italy and sold on the International market.
The setting for this story is putting the spotlight on the south of Italy and the regions of Calabria in the toe of the boot, Basilicata above Calabria, Puglia in the heel, but also Greece and Spain with repercussions for the entire Mediterranean basin. The facts of this unfolding disaster have been documented by Greenpeace and Italy’s leading environmental organization Legambiente dating back to the late 90’s. Greenpeace has worked to trace the trail of large Cargo Ships that have disappeared from international circulation. Between 32 and 41 such ships are thought to have been sunk in international waters between Italy, Greece and Spain, but mostly along the Italian coastlines. Then, in 2005, a mafia “pentito” (one who repents) named Franceso Fonti testified of his involvement in the sinking of three specific ships called the Cunsky, off Cetraro, the Yvonne A off the coast of Maratea in Basilicata, and the Voriais Sporadais, said to be off the coast of Metaponto in Basilicata on the Ionian Sea. All are international tourist destinations with large fishing industries.
Last week a robot was sent down into the depths 11 kilometers off the coast of Cetraro. There, the robot shot photos of the ship thought to be the Cunsky, confirming the story of the ‘Ndrangheta “pentito” and striking a chord of alarm throughout Italy and the world. In the photos drums like those used to transport and store radioactive and toxic wastes can be distinguished.
Reports of up to 41 boats have now surfaced in the international media. It is hoped that many of the barrels are still intact, but no one knows for sure and it is still unclear what they contain. Traces of Mercury and Cesnium 137 have recently been found near the town of Amantea in Calabria further south of Cetraro by about 50 kilometers. Cesnium 137 is a radioactive byproduct of fission reactions that is highly soluble in water and highly toxic, with a half-life of 30 years. This contamination is believed to have come from another ship called the Jolly Rosso that beached along the Calabrian shore in 1990. The cargo of the Jolly Rosso was illegally dumped near Amantea on a hill along the Oliva River. cont'd:International Eco-Mafia and an Ecological Catastrophe
By MICHAEL LEONARDI
Now... more
The Italian government, completely ignoring the will of the people who voted for the abandonment of nuclear power in the 1987 referendum and the continuing opposition to the project of a majority of Italians, unveiled plans to build new nuclear plants in cooperation with France. The sites of course will be militarized and therefore will be difficult if not impossible, to protest.The Italian government, completely ignoring the will of the people who voted for the... more
Looking for an update the latest is we will be taking waste from New York.
We are RIGHT & We are RED and sure enough we are going straight to hell in a hand basket.
Always working to find humor in even the sick and twisted, there is a great picture of a three eyed fish that must be coming with the deal.A must read from the Texas Observer...
Good to Glow by Forrest Wilder
Looking... more
Russia is planning a fleet of floating and submersible nuclear power stations to exploit Arctic oil and gas reserves, causing widespread alarm among environmentalists.
A prototype floating nuclear power station being constructed at the SevMash shipyard in Severodvinsk is due to be completed next year. Agreement to build a further four was reached between the Russian state nuclear corporation, Rosatom, and the northern Siberian republic of Yakutiya in February.
The 70-megawatt plants, each of which would consist of two reactors on board giant steel platforms, would provide power to Gazprom, the oil firm which is also Russia's biggest company. It would allow Gazprom to power drills needed to exploit some of the remotest oil and gas fields in the world in the Barents and Kara seas. The self-propelled vessels would store their own waste and fuel and would need to be serviced only once every 12 to 14 years.
In addition, designers are known to have developed submarine nuclear-powered drilling rigs that could allow eight wells to be drilled at a time.
Bellona, a leading Scandinavian environmental watchdog group, yesterday condemned the idea of using nuclear power to open the Arctic to oil, gas and mineral production.
"It is highly risky. The risk of a nuclear accident on a floating power plant is increased. The plants' potential impact on the fragile Arctic environment through emissions of radioactivity and heat remains a major concern. If there is an accident, it would be impossible to handle," said Igor Kudrik, a spokesman.
Environmentalists also fear that if additional radioactive waste is produced, it will be dumped into the sea. Russia has a long record of polluting the Arctic with radioactive waste. Countries including Britain have had to offer Russia billions of dollars to decommission more than 160 nuclear submarines, but at least 12 nuclear reactors are known to have been dumped, along with more than 5,000 containers of solid and liquid nuclear waste, on the northern coast and on the island of Novaya Zemlya.
The US Geological Survey believes the Arctic holds up to 25% of the world's undiscovered oil and gas reserves, leading some experts to call the region the next Saudi Arabia. But sea ice, strong winds and temperatures that can dip to below -50C have made them technologically impossible to exploit.
Russia, Norway, Denmark, Canada and the US have all claimed large areas of the Arctic in the past five years. Russian scientists used a mini-submarine to plant a flag below the North Pole in 2007 and have claimed that a nearby underwater ridge is part of its continental shelf.Russia is planning a fleet of floating and submersible nuclear power stations to... more
Here's a troubling plan—the ironically named US company EnergySolutions is seeking approval to import 20,000 tons of radioactive waste from Italy. The waste would be processed in Tennessee, then shipped on over to Utah, where it would be buried in the desert. Given that Yucca Mountain is such a controversial issue, it's surprising that this plan—which the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission says it won't halt—isn't more hotly debated. Can this caravan of nuclear waste be stopped?Here's a troubling plan—the ironically named US company EnergySolutions is seeking... more
The Los Angeles Times arts blog CULTURE MONSTER reported that President Barack Obama had cut funding for Nevada's Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository, in turn, preventing the rail network to transport waste past artist Michael Heizer's "City" in the Nevada desert.
Heizer, a contemporary artist, has eschewed the museum and gallery setting for art in favor of large-scale sculpture and earthworks, and has been at work constructing "City" in a remote stretch of desert for nearly 40 years. Los Angeles Times blogger Christopher Knight writes that the reclusive artist planned to bulldoze his "City" project if radioactive waste was railed near his site, but that this appears unlikely now.
Michael Heizer's "City" project is inspired by early visits to Mayan temples at Chichen Itza, Mexico.
Pictured: Michael Heizer, "45º, 90º, 180º" (from City), 1972–present. Image courtesy of grammarpolice.net.The Los Angeles Times arts blog CULTURE MONSTER reported that President Barack Obama... more
Remember the feds' controversial plan to store all of the country's spent nuclear fuel deep inside Yucca Mountain in the Nevada desert some 100 miles (160 kilometers) northwest of Las Vegas? Well it looks like that proposed resting place for the country's nuclear waste has apparently been, well, laid to rest.
When President Obama unveiled his budget last month, he essentially eliminated funding to prepare the site as the nation's nuke graveyard. The scant funds still to be allotted, according to the Las Vegas Sun, will just be enough to allow the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) – the body responsible for managing civilian nuke power – to hold planned hearings on licensing the facility’s construction.
Even if the NRC gives the green light to Yucca, the dual opposition of President Obama and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) likely spell doom for the site. “What happens once we say 'yes' or 'no' is out of our hands,” NRC spokesperson Eliot Brenner told the New York Times. A spokesperson for Energy Secretary Steven Chu recently erased any lingering doubts about the site's future, recently telling Science that her boss has made clear that “Nuclear waste storage at Yucca Mountain is not an option, period.”Remember the feds' controversial plan to store all of the country's spent nuclear fuel... more
The threat of global warming has given a boost to the nuclear industry in many countries as one way to provide electricity without increasing carbon emissions. But what to do with the nuclear waste, especially the most toxic form - spent nuclear fuel.The threat of global warming has given a boost to the nuclear industry in many... more
WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama is taking the first step toward blocking a nuclear waste dump at Nevada's Yucca Mountain by slashing money for the program in his first budget, according to congressional sources.
"The Yucca Mountain program will be scaled back to those costs necessary to answer inquiries from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission while the administration devises a new strategy toward nuclear-waste disposal," the Energy Department will say as part of the budget document, said the sources, who asked not to be identified because the document had not been made public.WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama is taking the first step toward blocking a... more
Sunken reactors:
1. Techeniya Fjord: 2 reactors without spent fuel dumped in 35-40 metres of water in 1988
2. Tsivolko Fjord: 3 reactors without spent fuel from the nuclear powered icebreaker Lenin. 60% of the fuel elements from the reactors packed in a container and dumped at the same location
3. Kara Sea: 6 reactors containing Uranium, together with 10 empty reactors and 11,000 radioactive waste containers
4. Stepovogo Fjord: K-27 submarine fitted with two experimental liquid metal cooled reactors dumped at depth of 50m in 1981
5. Abrosimov Fjord: 3 reactors with spent fuel, 3 without dumped in 20m of water in 1965 and 1966
Other sites:
Zapanaya Litsa: 21,860 spent fuel assemblies, Vidyaevo: spent nuclear fuel in 17 laid-up submarines, Severomorsk: spent nuclear fuel in 2 laid-up battle cruisers, Gremikha: 767 spent fuel assemblies; 6 liquid metal cooled reactor cores, spent nuclear fuel in 19 laid-up submarines, Severodvinsk: Approx. 588 spent fuel assemblies stored
A task far more grater than going to war or even the moon.
Clean up the oceans nuclear trash before it's too late Mr. President Obama.
wiki has a partial list
Naval nuclear accidents
[edit] United States
* USS Thresher (SSN-593) (sank, 129 killed)
* USS Scorpion (SSN-589) (sank, 99 killed)
Both sank for reasons unrelated to their reactor plants and still lie on the Atlantic sea floor.
[edit] Russian or Soviet
* Komsomolets K-278 (sank, 42 killed)
* Kursk K-141 (sank recently, 118 killed)
* K-8 (loss of coolant) (sank, 42 killed)
* K-11 (refueling criticality)
* K-19 (loss of coolant)
* K-27 (scuttled)
* K-116 (reactor accident)
* K-122 (reactor accident)
* K-123 (loss of coolant)
* K-140 (power excursion)
* K-159 (radioactive discharge) (sank recently, 9 killed)
* K-192 (loss of coolant)
* K-219 (sank after collision, 4 killed)
* K-222 (uncontrolled startup)
* K-314 (refueling criticality, 10 killed)
* K-320 (uncontrolled startup)
* K-429 (sank twice, 16 killed)
* K-431 (reactor accident)
* The Soviet icebreaker Lenin is also rumored to have had a nuclear accident.
While not all of these were reactor accidents, they have a major impact on nuclear marine propulsion and the global politics because they happened to nuclear vessels. Many of these accidents resulted in the sinking of the boat containing nuclear weapons on board, which remain there to this day.[3]
See also: List of military nuclear accidentsSunken reactors:
1. Techeniya Fjord: 2 reactors without spent fuel dumped in 35-40... more
Nuclear Energy Debate
Patrick Moore from the Clean and Safe Energy Coalition says Nuclear Energy it is safe and the Public got all wrong in relation to the technology.
You know, I have been wondering what double talk we are getting from Washington Dc on this socalled "green" stimulus package. Nuclear and clean coal are not "green" nor will they be economically viable regardless of the fact that they are both dangerous for the environment. I knew we couldn't get a stimulus bill (which is actually just another bailout bill in the making ) through without the same interests rearing their greedy heads.You know, I have been wondering what double talk we are getting from Washington Dc on... more
On April 26, 1986, a reactor at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in the Ukrainian city of Pripyat exploded and began spewing radioactive smoke and gas. Firemen discovered that no amount of water could extinguish the blaze. More than 40,000 residents in the immediate area were exposed to fallout 100 times greater than that from the two atomic bombs dropped on Japan. But the most serious nuclear accident in history had only begun.
Based on top-secret government documents that came to light only in the Nineties, during the collapse of the Soviet Union, THE BATTLE OF CHERNOBYL reveals a systematic cover-up of the true scope of the disaster, including the possibility of a secondary explosion of the still-smoldering magma, whose radioactive clouds would have rendered Europe uninhabitable. The government effort to prevent such a catastrophe lasted for more than seven months and sacrificed the lives of thousands of soldiers, miners and other workers.
THE BATTLE OF CHERNOBYL dramatically chronicles the series of harrowing efforts to stop the nuclear chain reaction and prevent a second explosion, to "liquidate" the radioactivity, and to seal off the ruined reactor under a mammoth "sarcophagus." These nerve-racking events are recounted through newly available films, videos and photos taken in and around the plant, computer animation, and interviews with participants and eyewitnesses, many of whom were exposed to radiation, including government and military leaders, scientists, workers, journalists, doctors, and Pripyat refugees.
The consequences of this catastrophe continue today, with thousands of disabled survivors suffering from the "Chernobyl syndrome" of radiation-related illnesses, and the urgent need to replace the hastily-constructed and now crumbling sarcophagus over the still-contaminated reactor. As this remarkable film makes clear, THE BATTLE OF CHERNOBYL is far from over.On April 26, 1986, a reactor at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in the Ukrainian... more
