Researchers show that Syria’s supposed nuclear site is a textile factory
That secret nuclear facility in Syria? It’s a textile factory, researchers say in new report, Washington Post By Joby Warrick 4 Nov After a four-year search for hidden atomic facilities in Syria, U.N. officials appeared this week to have finally struck gold: News reports linked a large factory in eastern Syria to a suspected clandestine effort to spin uranium gas into fuel for nuclear bombs.
But after further probing by private researchers, Syria’s mystery plant is looking far less mysterious. A new reportconcludes that the facility and its thousands of fast-spinning machines were intended to make not uranium, but cloth — a very ordinary cotton-polyester.
“It is, and always has been, a textile factory,” said one of the researchers, Jeffrey Lewis, a nuclear policy expert at the Center for Nonproliferation Studies and publisher of the blog Arms Control Wonk…..
UN investigators suspect nuclear weapons site in Syria
Syria nuclear weapons site revealed by UN investigators, Guardian UK 1 Nov 11, IAEA identifies uranium enrichment plant design at Hasakah and finds correspondence with Pakistan atomic expert, sources claim
UN investigators have identified a previously unknown complex in Syria that bolsters suspicions the government in Damascus worked with Abdul Qadeer Khan, the father of Pakistan‘s atomic bomb, to acquire nuclear weapons technology. Read more »
Assassination of Syrian nuclear engineer
UN Security Council not taking action on allegations about Syria’s nukes
Security Council Agrees to Disagree About Syria Nuclear Program, IsraelNationalNews.15 July 11 The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) on Thursday brought its allegations of covert atomic work by Syria before the UN Security Council, but the 15-nation body took no immediate action, Reuters reported. Last September, IAEA said that Syria had refused to allow UN inspectors to visitDair Alzour, the nuclear facility that was meant to produce plutonium and which was bombed by the Israeli Air Force while still under construction in 2007.
The IAEA’s report expressed concern that should Syria continue to stonewall the investigation, “some of the necessary information may deteriorate or be lost entirely.”In June, the IAEA’s board of governors voted to report Syria to the Security Council over its behavior.
Reuters reported that during Thursday’s closed-door briefing by Neville Whiting, head of the IAEA safeguards department dealing with Syria and Iran, it was made clear that Syria had a secretnuclear plant.But despite this, Syria’s close allies Russia and China queried whether the Council should be involved, as the Syrian complex no longer exists…..http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/145741
UN reports on Syria’s nuclear program
U.N. Nuclear Watchdog Presses Case Against Syria, NYT, By DAN BILEFSKY June 9, 2011 UNITED NATIONS — The United Nations nuclear watchdog voted Thursday to report Syria to the Security Council, citing Syria’s construction of a covert nuclear reactor and its failure to cooperate with investigators, diplomats said……Citing a lack of confidence that Syria’s nuclear program is for peaceful purposes and pointing to a history of concealment by Damascus, the I.A.E.A. resolution says that the destroyed Dair Alzour site was “very likely a nuclear reactor and should have been declared by Syria.”
The 15-member Security Council has the power to rebuke Syria by urging it to cooperate with the I.A.E.A. and imposing sanctions against the country, as it has done in the case ofIran’s nuclear program. But Russia and China, two veto-wielding members of the Security Council, voted against the resolution, underlining international divisions over how to approach Damascus and signaling that punitive measures against the Syrian government were unlikely.
Syria has said the Dair Alzour site was a non-nuclear facility and has denied having a secret nuclear program. It has urged the I.A.E.A. to focus on Israel and allegations about its own covert nuclear activities…..http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/10/world/middleeast/10nations.html
Syria pledges to cooperate with UN on matters nuclear
Syria says it will cooperate on nuclear probe but US pushes for UN referral The Washington Post 29 May 11, NEW YORK — In a major turnaround, Syria is pledging full cooperation with U.N. attempts to probe strong evidence that it secretly built a reactor that could have been used to make nuclear arms, according to a confidential document shared with The Associated Press on Sunday.
If Syria fulfills its promise, the move would end three years of stonewalling by Damascus of the International Atomic Energy. Since 2008, the agency has tried in vain to follow up on strong evidence that a target bombed in 2007 by Israeli warplanes was a nearly built nuclear reactor that would have produced plutonium once active……AP Exclusive: Syria says it will cooperate on nuclear probe but US pushes for UN referral – The Washington Post
IAEA concerned about nuclear developments in Iran and Syria
AUDIO Nuclear Watchdog Details Concerns In Iran, Syria : NPR, 26 May 11, The International Atomic Energy Agency has released troubling new reports on the nuclear activities of Iran and Syria.The Iran report indicates the production of enriched uranium there is increasing and raises more questions about Iran’s possible research into the military applications of nuclear technology. Read more »
IAEA confirms that Syria did have a secret nuclear facility
“The facility that was … destroyed by Israel was a nuclear reactor under construction,”
Bombed Syrian plant ‘was nuclear facility site’ says energy agency, News Scotsman, 29 April 2011, By George Jahn and Khaled Yacoub Oweis, THE head of the International Atomic Energy Agency has said for the first time that a target destroyed by Israeli warplanes in the Syrian desert in 2007 was the covert site of a future nuclear reactor, countering assertions by Syria that it had no atomic secrets. Read more »
Inspection of Syria’s nuclear sites by IAEA
Syria agrees to IAEA inspection of nuclear site, Google hosted news, (AFP) – 3 March 11, VIENNA — Syria has agreed to a vist by inspectors from the Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency to a nuclear site for the first time since June 2008, diplomats said Wednesday.The site, at Homs in the west of the country, is known to the IAEA and is not thought to be suspect.”Syria has agreed to the principle of a visit,” said a source close to the IAEA. It is due to take place on April 1 though the details remain to be determined.The agreement follows numerous requests and growing impatience on the part of the agency with Damascus’s refusals.The visit will not take in a posible uranium enrichment facility at Al Kibar, which was bombed by Israeli warplanes in 2007, the source said….. AFP: Syria agrees to IAEA inspection of nuclear site
Syria might have had a nuclear power project in the past
Suspected Nuclear Facility Sighted in Syria, NTI: Global Security Newswire, Feb. 24, 2011 A site near the Syrian capital of Damascus has gained attention among Western intelligence services as a possible one-time host to undisclosed atomic activities in the Middle Eastern nation, Reuters reported. Read more »
Wikileaks reveals bombing of Syrian nuclear reactor by Israel
Israel bombed Syria nuclear reactor: cable – IOL, 28 Dec 10, Israel destroyed a secret Syrian nuclear reactor in September 2007, according to a US diplomatic cable cited Friday in the Israeli Yediot Ahronoth daily.The cable, which the Israeli paper said it had obtained ahead of its publication by WikiLeaks, was written on April 25, 2008, by then Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and stated that “on September 6 2007, Israel destroyed the nuclear reactor built by Syria secretly, apparently with North Korea’s help.”Yediot said the cable provided the first official confirmation of the attack…..Israel bombed Syria nuclear reactor: cable – World – IOL | Breaking News | South Africa News | World News | Sport | Business | Entertainment | IOL.co.za
Syria looking good for renewable energy export project
“Syria’s position is quite strategic, being a bridge between North Africa and Europe. Putting it on Desertec map among 19 countries is the first step for achieving the project,”
Renewable Initiative Puts Syria on Solar and Wind Energy Map, Global Arab Network, 24 Oct 10, Syria (Damascus) – North Africa and Eastern Mediterranean regions, including Syria, are considered as world-best places to be used as farms to produce electricity out of sunrays or wind energy in desert areas. Read more »
USA wants UN inspections for Syria’s possible nuclear sites
IAEA should look at mandatory Syria inspection: U.S. By Adrian Croft, LONDON Aug 3, 2010 LONDON (Reuters) – The U.S. envoy to the U.N.’s nuclear watchdog said on Tuesday it should consider pressing for a mandatory special inspection in Syria to resolve allegations of covert atomic activity.A confidential International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) report, obtained by Reuters in May, said Syria had revealed some details of past nuclear experiments to U.N. inspectors. But it was still blocking access to a desert site where secret atomic activity may have taken place.
U.S. intelligence reports said the desert site, bombed to rubble by Israel in 2007, had been a North Korean-designed nuclear reactor under construction, geared for atomic bomb fuel.
Syria allowed the IAEA to inspect the site, known as either al-Kibar or Dair Alzour, in June 2008 but has not allowed the agency to revisit it since then…….The IAEA lacks legal means to get Syria to open up because the country’s basic safeguards treaty covers only its one declared atomic facility, an old research reactor IAEA should look at mandatory Syria inspection: U.S. | Reuters
Syria’s past nuclear experiments revealed
IAEA report: Syria reveals past nuclear experiments, Earth Times News, 31 May Vienna – Syria has revealed details about past nuclear experiments to the International Atomic Energy Agency, the IAEA said Monday in a document that otherwise reported no cooperation from the Middle Eastern country.Syria’s lack of transparency has so far prevented the Vienna-based IAEA from fully investigating a site that Israel bombed in 2007 on suspicion it was a secret nuclear reactor being built with North Korean help.In the course of the probe, Syrian officials admitted between March and May that experiments to convert and irradiate uranium chemicals were carried out in 2004.”They failed to report those,” a senior diplomat familiar with the IAEA’s work in Syria said.But he explained that it was too early to say whether these experiments were really purely small scientific projects, as Syria claims, or whether additional work was done…IAEA report: Syria reveals past nuclear experiments | Earth Times News
Russia to help Syria develop nuclear technology
Russia hints at Syrian nuclear plant aid, Scotsman.com News, 12 May 2010, RUSSIA may help build a nuclear power plant in Syria, president Dmitry Medvedev said yesterday, a step that could upset the West due to unresolved allegations Damascus tried to construct a potential nuclear weapons facility in secret.In 2007, Israel destroyed what Washington said was a nascent nuclear reactor in Syria and a UN investigation to determine what the target was has stalled due to a lack of co-operation from Syria.On the first Russian state visit to Syria since 1917, Mr Medvedev said: “Co-operation on atomic energy could get a second wind.” Russia hints at Syrian nuclear plant aid – Scotsman.com News
1 THIS MONTH
Uranium mining in Namibia http://namibian.me/group/canwin2?commentId=4103091%3AComment%3A47391&xg_source=msg_com_group
Nuclear industry is moribund, despite 2 new reactors licensed in USA http://www.abc.net.au/pm/content/2012/s3428147.htm
http://www.abc.net.au/pm/content/2012/s3413882.htm Is the world facing a groundwater crisis?
of the week http://climaterealityproject.org/thin-ice/
and another WEBSITE : - New England Coalition on Nuclear Pollution http://www.necnp.org/
EVENT
February 18 Hindsdale, Chicago American Association of University Women - nuclear disaster preparedness H.OB.aauw.reservations@gmail.com.
March 2012 is “March Against Nuclear Madness” and Beyond Nuclear has created a new March Against Nuclear Madness Facebook page.
March 8th & 9th – Cape Town, South Africa - The Global Conference: Nuclear Power For Africa? http://koebergalert.org/npfree/
May 31 USA - Portland, Maine, Bonnie Raitt benefit concert for New England Coalition on Nuclear Pollution
Nuclear power and water – theme for February 2012
FUKUSHIMA NUCLEAR PLANT and WATER – present state
That nuclear core is in direct contact with tons of water. And that containment, while not leaking down, is leaking out the sides. That contaminated water is going into every other building on site. And there is literally thousands and thousands of tons of water in other buildings. That water contains radioactive cesium, radioactive strontium, and it also contains nuclear fuel. There will be uranium in that water and plutonium in that water as well. We know for sure that that water is leaking into the ground water and into the Pacific Ocean. So while it is important to know that we are not going to release the nuclear core directly into the center of the earth, the problem is not over. And as a matter of fact, the problem will last for tens, perhaps even as long as 30 years because this contaminated water is in the basements of all the buildings on site. And not only does it contain cesium (that hangs around for 300 years), strontium (hangs around for 300 years), but it also contains plutonium and uranium and they have half lives of tens of thousands of years.
So the problem is, what do we do with all that water that is contaminated? It is already leaking into the groundwater. It is already leaking into the ocean. TEPCO is frantically catching it and putting it into tanks. But just today, TEPCO announced that they are running out of tank space on site, and eventually they are going to have to release those tanks into the Pacific Ocean. Now they will try to clean up some of the isotopes like cesium. But they have been unable to capture all the strontium. Strontium is a bone seeker that causes leukemia… http://fairewinds.com/content/fukushima-could-it-have-china-syndrome
NUCLEAR REACTORS - WATER USE : Per megawatt existing nuclear power stations use and consume more water than power stations using other fuel sources. Depending on the cooling technology utilised, the water requirements for a nuclear power station can vary between 20 to 83 per cent more than for other power stations.”- Dep of Parliamentary Services research note, 4 December 2006, no. 12, 2006–07, ISSN 1449-8456 Water consumption figures:
Nuclear: 2.3 L/ kWh
Solar (PV): 0.110 L/ kWh
Wind: 0.004 L/ kWh
(American Wind Energy Association estimate & US DOE)
A typical 1000-megawatt pressurized-water reactor (with a cooling tower) takes in 20,000 gallons of river, lake or ocean water per minute for cooling, circulates it through a 50-mile maze of pipes, returns 5,000 gallons per minute to the same body of water, and releases the remainder to the atmosphere as vapor. A 1000-megawatt reactor without a cooling tower takes in even more water–as much as one-half million gallons per minute. The discharge water is contaminated with radioactive elements in amounts that are not precisely known or knowable, but are biologically active.
Some radioactive fission gases, stripped from the reactor cooling water, are contained in decay tanks for days before being released into the atmosphere through filtered rooftop vents. Some gases leak into the power plant buildings’ interiors and are released during periodic “purges” and “ventings.” These airborne gases contaminate not only the air, but also soil and water. http://www.nirs.org/factsheets/routineradioactivereleases.htm
NUCLEAR REACTORS -IONISING RADIATION to GROUNDWATER In USA the nuclear industry has contaminated groundwater with radioactive tritium at nuclear power plant sites all across the country. Nuclear plants that have admitted leaking tritium into the groundwater include:
- Braidwood, Byron, Dresden and Quad Cities in Illinois;
- Indian Point and Fitzpatrick in New York;
- Yankee Rowe and Pilgrim in Massachusetts;
- Three Mile Island and Peach Bottom in Pennsylvania;
- Callaway in Missouri
- Catawba in South Carolina
- Oyster Creek in New Jersey
- Hatch in Georgia
- Palo Verde In Arizona
- Perry in Ohio
- Palisades in Michigan
- Point Beach in Wisconsin
- Salem in Delaware
- San Onofre in California
- Seabrook in New Hampshire
- Shearon Harris in North Carolina
- Watts Bar in Tennessee
- Wolf Creek in Kansas
- Connecticut Yankee in Connecticut
- Vermont Yankee in Vermont
URANIUM MINING – OPEN CUT or UNDERGROUND It is very difficult to find figures on the amounts of water used. All mining is water intensive, but uranium mining is the greatest guzzler Water is extensively used to suppress airborne dust levels, to try to reduce the radioactive clouds that would otherwise emanate constantly from the uranium tailings.IN SITU LEACHING – Uranium Mining Process in-situ leaching uses a hydrogen peroxide mixture to strip the uranium from the rock, which kills tissue and destroys cells in human and animal life. The addition of oxygen and sodium bicarbonate called oxygenates causes uranium and other radioactive substances and trace metals to be liberated from the rock into the groundwater.
.. judges have too often taken the stance that they are judges who know nothing of the mining industry and accept the data of corporations, claiming the corporations are in the know.
..the water taken from the extremely pristine Westwater Canyon Aquifer near Crownpoint for uranium mining and used for flushing out chemicals would not be replaced in our lifetimes.
It takes hundreds, perhaps thousands of years, to transform aquifer water back into a drinkable condition. Virginia Against Uranium Mining: Scientists Back Navajos’ Uranium Mining Fight: Tribe fears contamination of drinking water
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