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Toxic waste, including nuclear, behind Somali piracy

secret-agentToxic waste behind Somali piracy

Axis of Logic By Najad Abdullahi

Al Jazeera

Monday, Apr 13, 2009 Somali pirates have accused European firms of dumping toxic waste off the Somali coast and are demanding an $8m ransom for the return of a Ukranian ship they captured, saying the money will go towards cleaning up the waste.

The ransom demand is a means of “reacting to the toxic waste that has been  continually dumped on the shores of our country for nearly 20 years”, Januna Ali Jama, a spokesman for the pirates, based in the semi-autonomous region of Puntland, said.

“The Somali coastline has been destroyed, and we believe this money is nothing compared to the devastation that we have seen on the seas.”
The pirates are holding the MV Faina, a Ukrainian ship carrying tanks and military hardware, off Somalia’s northern coast………………

………….Ahmedou Ould-Abdallah, the UN envoy for Somalia confirmed to Al Jazeera the world  body has “reliable information” that European and Asian companies are dumping toxic  waste, including nuclear waste, off the Somali coastline……………

………Mustafa Tolba, the former UNEP executive director, told Al Jazeera that he discovered the firms were set up as fictitious companies by larger industrial firms to dispose of hazardous waste.
“At the time, it felt like we were dealing with the Mafia, or some sort of organised  crime group, possibly working with these industrial firms,” he said. “It was very shady, and quite underground, and I would agree with Ould-Abdallah’s  claims that it is still going on… Unfortunately the war has not allowed  environmental groups to investigate this fully.”

The Italian mafia controls an estimated 30 per cent of Italy’s waste disposal  companies, including those that deal with toxic waste……………

………………Mohammed Gure, chairman of the Somalia Concern Group, said that the social and  environmental consequences will be felt for decades.

“The Somali coastline used to sustain hundreds of thousands of people, as a source of  food and livelihoods. Now much of it is almost destroyed, primarily at the hands of  these so-called ministers that have sold their nation to fill their own pockets.”

Ould-Abdallah said piracy will not prevent waste dumping. “The intentions of these pirates are not concerned with protecting their  environment,” he said. “What is ultimately needed is a functioning, effective government that will get its act together and take control of its affairs.”

http://axisoflogic.com/artman/publish/Article_55437.shtml

April 14, 2009 Posted by | secrets,lies and civil liberties, Somalia | , , , , | 1 Comment

Nuclear plant data falsified

N-plant pipe data falsified

The Yomiuri Shimbun 14 April 09 Hitachi Ltd. and Hitachi-GE Nuclear Energy Ltd. announced Monday that they had found falsified data in the inspection records of components they manufactured for use in nuclear power plants.

The falsified data related to the welding of pipes to moisture separator reheaters manufactured by the companies for use in the No. 5 reactor of Chubu Electric Power Co.’s Hamaoka nuclear power plant in Omaezaki, Shizuoka Prefecture, and the No. 3 reactor of Chugoku Electric Power Co.’s Shimane nuclear power plant, which is under construction, in Matsue. .

http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/dy/national/20090414TDY02310.htm

April 14, 2009 Posted by | Japan, secrets,lies and civil liberties | , , , | Leave a comment

Fire breaks out at Nuclear plant

Fire breaks out at N-plant

NIIGATA–A fire broke out Saturday night at the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear power plant operated by Tokyo Electric Power Co. in Kashiwazaki and Kariwamura, Niigata Prefecture, scorching the motor of an air conditioner. No radiation leaks or injuries were reported.

According to TEPCO, the fire broke out at about 10:25 p.m. at a storage space. Wiring connected to the motor burned out, and its steel cover was scorched.

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Though the machine has been in use since May 1992, its wiring was not periodically inspected.

The nuclear plant was struck by the Niigata Prefecture Chuetsu Offshore Earthquake in July 2007, and all its seven reactors were shut down. Since the earthquake, there have been nine fires at the plant, including the latest one.

………………….Kashiwazaki Mayor Hiroshi Aida on Monday summoned Akio Takahashi, the head of the power plant, to a meeting at which he demanded that the plant come up with preventive measures. Aida told Takahashi that he was concerned about the fact that a fire had broken out at a time when concerned municipalities are considering whether to approve the restart of the No. 7 reactor.

http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/dy/national/20090414TDY02310.htm

April 14, 2009 Posted by | Japan, safety | , , , | Leave a comment

Pro nukes would prefer nicer name for depleted uranium’s risk

NRC balks at calling depleted uranium higher-risk

The Salt Lake Tribune By Brock Vergakis

The Associated Press

Updated: 04/13/2009 02:49:10 PM MDT

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission says classifying large amounts of depleted uranium as a hotter type of low-level radioactive waste without further study would not provide additional protections to public health, safety or the environment.

The NRC’s comments come in an April 9 letter to Reps. Jim Matheson, D-Utah, and Edward Markey, D-Mass. The congressmen have questioned the NRC’s March decision to regulate large quantities of depleted uranium as the least hazardous kind of low-level radioactive waste, known as Class A waste.

Depleted uranium is different from other waste because it becomes more radioactive over time.

The NRC decision could result in more than 1 million tons of depleted uranium being disposed of in Clive, Utah and Andrews County, Texas. Matheson and Markey have called the ruling an “arbitrary and capricious mischaracterization” of the waste.

http://www.sltrib.com/ci_12132714

April 14, 2009 Posted by | spinbuster, USA | , , , | Leave a comment

Nuclear Test Downwinders

RECA, clinic help Nuclear Test Downwinders

The spectrum.com BY PATRICE ST. GERMAIN April 10, 2009

“…………………..From 1951 to 1958 and for the month of July 1962, an estimated 22,000 people living in Southern Utah, northern Arizona and southeastern Nevada received a large amount of fallout from above-ground nuclear testing conducted at the Nevada Test Site.

These Downwinders, as they have come to be known, show abnormally high rates of malignant and non-malignant thyroid disease and leukemia and over the last decade have shown a higher then expected incidence of lymphoma, breast and thyroid cancers, according to the Utah Cancer Registry……………

April 14, 2009 Posted by | USA, weapons and war | , , , | Leave a comment

Superfund priority cleanup site. The UC: America’s Most Ecocidal “Green” University

Superfund priority cleanup site. The UC: America’s Most Ecocidal “Green” University,

Part II by WIll & Darwin Sunday Apr 12th, 2009

“……………………………………………The military exists in a constant state of mobilization and preparation for warfare, a process that increasingly involves experimentation with toxic pollutants, dumping of hazardous wastes, and militarization of previously thriving ecosystems. The US military is responsible for over one-third of the US’ toxic waste, more than that generated by the top five pollution corporations housed in the US combined. The pollutants it has introduced into the total environment – with consequences that remain relatively unknown and unpredictable — have included pesticides and defoliants like Agent Orange, solvents, petroleum, perchlorate (a component of rocket fuel), lead, mercury, and of course depleted uranium. Within the U.S., one out of every ten Americans lives within ten miles of a military site that has been listed as a Superfund priority cleanup site.

………………………………..It is here that we come to another particularly important point: Most humans targeted by military production’s “Universal Soldier” — pollution — are working class and impoverished people of color and, even more disproportionately, indigenous people. Thus, the military’s environmental wreckage is out of sight, out of mind for the most privileged of our planet, such as the vast majority of mainstream US environmental activists, especially students and graduates of elite universities…………

……….The primary source of environmental degradation in Iraq, however, is of course depleted uranium — a bi-product of the same radioactive processes that have created the vast “national sacrifice areas” and “clans of one-breasted women” in the United States, Russia, and elsewhere.

http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2009/04/12/18588092.php

April 14, 2009 Posted by | USA, weapons and war | , , , | Leave a comment