tagged w/ DU
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............The Afghan activist also warned that as long as the earth exists the Afghan people will be dying from the disaster because uranium 238 has a half-life of 4.5 billion years.........
An Afghan activist has revealed that the United States is still using horrific depleted uranium ammunitions in Afghanistan, Press TV reports.
"These weapons are still used. In fact, a US aircraft called A-10 warthog, normally, even if it doesn't use a uranium projectile in the machine gun, every third projectile is a uranium projectile and that's the working horse of the US army in Afghanistan. They use it left and right," Dr. Mohammad Daud Miraki said in an interview with Press TV.
"Apache helicopters and Bradley vehicles also utilize these projectiles in these weapons," he added.
The activist also noted that 62.7 percent of the population of Afghanistan has been targeted by the dangerous radioactive ammunitions.
Miraki explained that a group of researchers collected urine samples of people in Afghanistan and found uranium isotopes in the urine, which was about 300 percent to 2000 percent higher than normal level.
He further said that a lot of people in Afghanistan were identified with various bizarre diseases in different Pashtun-dominated villages.
The diseases were skin lesions, sudden deaths, spontaneous abortions among females, as well as deformities and multiple cancers.
The author also said the United States used depleted uranium weapons that is against international and US laws.
Meanwhile, Miraki criticized US officials and Afghan President Hamid Karzai for not investigating the crimes committed by the US administration.
"We forwarded [our] reports to the US three years ago to the State Department and from US officials we have gotten only lip service unfortunately. But the Afghan government equally, since it has no control, it's an installed regime," he said.
The Afghan activist also warned that as long as the earth exists the Afghan people will be dying from the disaster because uranium 238 has a half-life of 4.5 billion years.
"If you look at Afghanistan as well as in Iraq as well as in Yugoslavia you find that wherever these weapons were used you find graveyards of people dying from cancer and other unusual diseases," Miraki concluded.
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/224165.html............The Afghan activist also warned that as long as the earth exists the... 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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The nuclear accident at the Fukushima Daichii power plant will have consequences for the future of nuclear power in Japan and elsewhere. To get a better idea of the world's current tally of nuclear reactors, I've created a map of the world's nuclear power plants and reactors using Google Earth – the maps are based on a database kindly supplied to me by staff at the International Atomic Energy Agency's (IAEA) Power Reactor Information System (PRIS) database, so it's reliable, and up-to-date.The nuclear accident at the Fukushima Daichii power plant will have consequences for... 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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Central Finding
The overarching finding of this study is that a zero-CO2 U.S. economy can
be achieved within the next thirty to fifty years without the use of nuclear
power and without acquiring carbon credits from other countries. In other
words, actual physical emissions of CO2 from the energy sector can be
eliminated with technologies that are now available or foreseeable. This
can be done at reasonable cost while creating a much more secure
energy supply than at present. Net U.S. oil imports can be eliminated in
about 25 years. All three insecurities – severe climate disruption, oil supply
and price insecurity, and nuclear proliferation via commercial nuclear
energy – will thereby be addressed. In addition, there will be large
ancillary health benefits from the elimination of most regional and local air
pollution, such as high ozone and particulate levels in cities, which is due
to fossil fuel combustion.
http://www.ieer.org/carbonfree/covercfnf.jpgCentral Finding
The overarching finding of this study is that a zero-CO2 U.S.... 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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DU: Depleted uranium, a unique waste that will become more and more radioactive until, roughly, the year 1002009. The acronym also gives sound guidance for where depleted uranium should be buried: deep underground.
But a lack of deep, underground storage space and a growing need to find permanent storage for 1.4 million tons of DU is "clearly driving" federal regulators to erroneously steer the materials to shallow burial sites like EnergySolutions' low-level radioactive waste disposal facility in Utah.
That's the contention of Kansas State University Geologist Charles G. Oviatt and a pair of Brigham Young University scientists, geologist Steve Nelson and climatologist Summer Rupper. In a letter to the NRC, which is gathering input in the early stages of a three-year review of DU disposal issues, they cite a "programmatic failure" by the agency to properly plan for deep disposal of depleted uranium.
The trio are experts on Utah's Great Salt Lake, which, every couple of millenniums, rises high enough to submerge EnergySolutions' landfill in Tooele County. When that occurs, the DU could wash away and eventually be deposited throughout the Great Salt Lake Basin, causing a "massive environmental catastrophe," according to Johnson, a past chairman of the Utah Radiation Control Board.
(more at link)
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Yet tens of thousands of tons of depleted uranium has been rained on Kosovo, Afghanistan and Iraq, with the Pentagon declaring that it is perfectly safe - and you can be sure that tens of thousands more tons will be used in a like manner. Way to get rid of horrendously poisonous waste, dumping it on millions of innocent children, women and men (and as many future generations as there will be in those countries before DU has killed off the whole population, fauna and flora) on the other side of the world - DU has a half-life of 4.5 BILLION years.DU: Depleted uranium, a unique waste that will become more and more radioactive until,... more
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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
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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
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The political world is in a moment of transformation with many unprecedented developments rapidly coming together amidst widespread calls for deep, systemic change.
Amory Lovins on:
1. Climate
2. Oil dependence
3. Nuclear proliferationThe political world is in a moment of transformation with many unprecedented... more
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Democracy Now! July 16, 2008
There’s one issue that President Bush and presidential hopefuls John McCain and Barack Obama all agree on: expanding the use of nuclear power. We speak with Amory Lovins, the co-founder, chairman and chief scientist of Rocky Mountain Institute in Colorado, who has been described as “one of the Western world’s most influential energy thinkers.”Democracy Now! July 16, 2008
There’s one issue that President Bush and... more
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In the wake of the first Gulf War, the American Press was enamored with military technology in a way that they never had been before, trumpeting the ability of the modern Roman Legions to put a single bomb through a single window anywhere in the world, or of a soldier to see through the chaos of night combat. Part of the rush of positive media was reserved for the 21st century silver bullet, depleted uranium. It was harder than steel, we were all told, and could cut through enemy armor like it was mere paper. What we didn’t know, was that it would bring rise to a death toll higher than the atomic bombs used at the end of World War II.
The Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombs killed approximately 250,000 people at the end of the second world war; a grim statistic that’s been accepted to be relatively accurate. DU shells, however, are estimated to have claimed 500,000 lives in between 1990 and 2000, not through the force of their violence, but by inhalation and the cancers they’ve caused.
There were 200 tons of the stuff dumped into the Saudi and Iraqi deserts in the first Gulf Warl; a number that has only increased in light of the 2003 invasion. Fortunately, the need for depleted uranium shells has fallen as the current conflict has shifted from a force-on-force conflict to counterinsurgency. However, the toxic armaments are still carried and used, representing a serious threat to the Iraqi population and U.S. veterans of the conflict. So how significant can we expect the fallout from this conflict to be?
Since the first Gulf War, the rate of birth defects and childhood cancer in Iraq has increased sevenfold. In addition, more than 35 percent (251,000) of U.S. Gulf War veterans are dead or on permanent medical disability, compared to the 400 or so that were killed in conflict.In the wake of the first Gulf War, the American Press was enamored with military... more
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US soldiers are returning from Iraq to die of "mysterious" ailments.
During the current Iraq War the U.S. use of radioactive DU weapons increased from 375 tons used in 1991 to 2200 tons. Geiger counter readings at sites in downtown Baghdad record radiation levels 1,000 and 2,000 times higher than background radiation. The Pentagon has bombed, occupied, tortured and contaminated Iraq. Millions of Iraqis are affected. Over one million U.S. soldiers have rotated into Iraq. Today, half of the 697,000 U.S. Gulf War troops from the 1991 war have reported serious medical problems and a significant increase in birth defects among their newborn children.
The effects on the Iraqi population are far greater. Many other countries and U.S. communities near DU weapons plants, testing facilities, bases and arsenals have also been exposed to this radioactive material which has a half-life of 4.4 billions yearsUS soldiers are returning from Iraq to die of "mysterious" ailments.... more
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Some proposals to improve the way nuclear power plants look.
At the moment, they all look like nothing more than concrete boxes -- hasn't anyone ever thought of changing the shape of the box a little?
Some proposals to improve the way nuclear power plants look.
At the moment, they... more
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How 6,700 Tons of Radioactive Sand from Kuwait Ended Up in Idaho
By Penny Coleman, AlterNet
Posted on September 17, 2008, Printed on September 17, 2008
http://www.alternet.org/story/98950/
On April 26, 2008, the BBC Alabama arrived in Longview, Wash., carrying 6,700 tons of Kuwaiti sand. The sand had become contaminated with depleted uranium when U.S. military vehicles and munitions caught fire at Doha Army base in Kuwait during the 1991 Gulf War. The depleted uranium was being repatriated. The sand was a gift of the Kuwaiti government.
So was the cost of repatriation. Neither government will discuss just how much the tab was.
The Longview Daily News reported that Mike Wilcox, vice president of the International Longshoremen's and Warehousemen's Union Local 21, initially had been "concerned about the safety of longshoremen and the entire community when he heard a shipment of depleted uranium was coming into Longview."
But the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission determined that the sand contained "unimportant quantities" of radioactive material, and officials from the Department of Health would be available to test radiation levels -- just in case any of the sand spilled.
At the last minute, the Army notified port authorities that tests had revealed that the sand was also contaminated with lead -- in fact, four times more lead than the EPA's limit for hazardous materials. Transshipment was delayed for a few days awaiting a green light from the EPA.
Wilcox told the Daily News that he hoped the delivery would be a one-time thing.
Over the next month, longshoremen loaded 160 containers onto railcars bound for an Idaho-based waste disposal site owned by a company called American Ecology. When the sand arrived at the Idaho site, the company did its own tests and, as Chad Hyslop, project director for American Ecology, told the Daily News, "found no hazardous levels of lead."
Doug Rokke, who quit his job directing the cleanup of radioactive battlefields for the Army, contacted American Ecology and discovered "that they had absolutely no knowledge of U.S. Army Regulation 700-48, U.S. Army PAM 700-48, U.S. Army Technical Bulletin 9-1300-278, and all of the medical orders dealing with depleted uranium contamination, environmental remediation procedures, safety and medical care."
Hazardous materials storage has become a lucrative and growing business, especially since Donald Rumsfeld began implementing his plans for a sleek new "global cavalry" capable of swift and lethal response from strategically placed "frontier stockades" to punish bad guys whenever and wherever they have been bad. According to the Pentagon's annual "Base Structure Report," which itemizes its foreign and domestic military real estate, the Department of Defense currently operates more than 800 such bases around the world; 5,311 if you count the ones in American territories and on the U.S. mainland; probably well over 6,000 if you count the ones, like Doha in Kuwait, that for some reason didn't make the list. (Similarly omitted are all U.S. bases in Iraq, Afghanistan, Israel, Kyrgyzstan, Qatar and Uzbekistan.)
How 6,700 Tons of Radioactive Sand from Kuwait Ended Up in Idaho
By Penny Coleman,... more
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Senator John McCain said Wednesday that he wanted 45 new nuclear reactors built in the United States by 2030, a course he called “as difficult as it is necessary.”
Currently there are 104 reactors in the country supplying some 20 percent of electricity consumed. No new nuclear power plant has been built in the United States since the 1970s.
He said his ultimate goal was 100 new nuclear plants.
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McCain, wrong on nuclear power, wrong for the country.
OBAMA FOR PRESIDENT (Obama, won't you consider returning that money to the nuclear power industry?)Senator John McCain said Wednesday that he wanted 45 new nuclear reactors built in the... more
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The use of depleted uranium (DU) munitions by the U.S. military may lead to a death toll far higher than that from the nuclear bombs dropped at the end of World War II. DU is a waste product of uranium enrichment, containing approximately one-third the radioactive isotopes of naturally occurring uranium. Because of its high density, it is used in armor- or tank-piercing ammunition. It has been fired by the U.S. and British militaries in the two Iraq wars and in Afghanistan, as well as by NATO forces in Kosovo and the Israeli military in Lebanon and Palestine.
Inhaled or ingested DU particles are highly toxic, and DU has been classified as an illegal weapon of mass destruction by the United Nations
The use of depleted uranium (DU) munitions by the U.S. military may lead to a death... more
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As Nuclear Waste Languishes, Expense to U.S. Rises
WASHINGTON — Forgotten but not gone, the waste from more than 100 nuclear reactors that the federal government was supposed to start accepting for burial 10 years ago is still at the reactor sites, at least 20 years behind schedule. But it is making itself felt in the federal budget.
Each reactor typically creates about 20 tons of waste a year, which is approximately two new casks, at roughly $1 million each. If a repository or interim site opened, clearing the backlog would take decades, experts say. At present, waste is in temporary storage at 122 sites in 39 states.
"Accelerating Hanford Cleanup"
http://www.archive.org/details/acc300
The first two minutes of "Accelerating Hanford Cleanup" are eye opening and the amount of radioactive waste and work needed there is staggering.
NO NEW NUKES.
As Nuclear Waste Languishes, Expense to U.S. Rises
WASHINGTON — Forgotten... more
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