nuclear-news

The News That Matters about the Nuclear Industry Fukushima Chernobyl Mayak Three Mile Island Atomic Testing Radiation Isotope

Lucrative business for America’s weapons and drones makers

War business booming: Pentagon orders $531 million worth of drones, TECHNOLOGY, JULY 20, 2012  Business booming for Pentagon’s war on terror contractors As Americans slide further down the rough path of service cuts, unprecedented surveillance and other related human rights abuses, the Pentagon has had defense spending spree this week, $24.5 billion over five days on defense contracts including $531 million worth of drones, a situation requiring more from lawmakers, Congressman Michael McCaul toldHomeland Security.

“General Atomics, the people behind the wildly successful Predator and Reaper drones, just scored two huge contracts this week,” reportsBusiness Insider Military & Defense on Friday.

“One contract is $411 million for Gray Eagle systems, a derivative of the Predator drone. The second contract is for $120.6 million and will buy MQ-9 Reaper spares for the Air Force. They’ll also get ground support systems and spares.”

Business Insider says, “America … enjoy your latest purchases.”

This week, the 2013 Defense Appropriations bill passed in Congress with 326 “Yea” and 90 “Nay.”

DHS drones to dominate U.S. skies in two and a half years Plans exist to allow the widespread use of unmanned aircraft, or drones, in civilian airspace,violating numerous human rights that prompted experts and members of the U.S. Congress told a House committee this week that lawmakers must do more to protect privacy and reduce the likelihood of sabotage….

In May, a young Pakistani filmmaker of the award-winning movie about drones, The Other Side,was denied entry into the United States to receive his prestigious award at the National Film Festival for Talented Youth in Seattle. His film follows a child whose entire family was killed by a drone.  http://www.examiner.com/article/war-business-booming-pentagon-orders-531-million-worth-of-drones

August 4, 2012 Posted by | USA, weapons and war | Leave a comment

Australia rejects proposal to base a US nuclear aircraft carrier group near Perth , The Independent, KATHY MARKS    03 AUGUST 2012 Australia, which tries to tread a fine line between supporting its closest ally, the US, and not upsetting China, its biggest trading partner, yesterday rejected a proposal to base a US nuclear aircraft carrier group near Perth,saying it did not want American bases in the country.

The idea was raised in a Pentagon-commissioned report by the influential Washington-based Centre for Strategic and International Studies, which suggested relocating a carrier and its support fleet from the US east coast to HMAS Stirling, an Australian naval base south of Perth, as part of a new strategic focus on Asia. Continue reading →

August 4, 2012 Posted by | AUSTRALIA, weapons and war | 2 Comments

Nuclear study unveiled ( Why did The Age remove this story from the Internet?)
The Australian government finally declassifies its most secret study of the potential impact on Australia of a nuclear war between the US and the former Soviet Union.
http://www.theage.com.au/opinion/political-news/nuclear-study-unveiled-20120803-23l9y.html

Nuclear study unveiled  http://www.centralwesterndaily.com.au/story/169021/nuclear-study-unveiled/?cs=8  By Philip Dorling Aug. 4, 2012 More than three decades after it was written, the Australian government last week finally declassified its most secret study of the potential impact on Australia of a nuclear war between the US and the former Soviet Union.

Australia’s peak intelligence agency largely dismissed any danger to Australia from global radioactive fall-out or stratospheric distribution of smoke from burning cities.

In the top secret intelligence assessment released by the National Archives of Australia, the Office of National Assessments also questioned whether Australian cities would be targets for Soviet missiles, suggesting the US’ southern hemisphere ally would be a ”low priority” in a global nuclear exchange. But it acknowledged that direct attacks were a possibility.

August 4, 2012 Posted by | AUSTRALIA, weapons and war | Leave a comment

?TV program “NEWSROOM” reveals truth about Fukushima event?

New Episode of HBO’s ‘Newsroom’ Centered on Fukushima Cover-up: “It’s a lot worse than they’re telling you” — Level 5 vs Level 7 is “the difference between life and gruesome death”  August 3rd, 2012   By ENENews   Title: The Newsroom
Source:  Salon.com
Author: Willa Paskin
Date: July 31, 2012
Sunday’s episode was set during the meltdown of the Fukushima nuclear reactor. Sloan — who, like Munn, speaks fluent Japanese — learned from a spokesperson of the nuclear plant, off the record, that the problems with the reactor would likely be upgraded from a Three Mile Island-size disaster to a Chernobyl-size one. Filling in for an anchor on one of the prime-time news shows, Sloan, all fired up by a pep talk from Will McAvoy, manhandled and bullied her two guests, the spokesperson and his translator, repeatedly correcting the translator’s translations, eventually breaking into Japanese herself, and finally revealing the information she had gotten off the record without any on-air confirmation that this was actually true. Continue reading →

August 4, 2012 Posted by | Fukushima 2012, media | Leave a comment

Plan to “fix” Fukushima site may cause more problems

US nuclear experts were concerned over Japan’s plan to ‘goop’ Fukushima Daiichi with ‘Fix It’ — “Can form a glue-like material (peanut butter!) and may cause more problems” http://enenews.com/us-nuclear-experts-were-concerned-over-japans-plan-to-goop-fukushima-daiichi-with-fix-it-can-form-a-glue-like-material-peanut-butter-and-may-cause-more-problems  August 2nd, 2012   By   Title: April 5th, 2011 – Japan Plans to “Goop” the Site With a Material Called “Fix It” – As a Way to Fix Ground and Building Loose Contamination Source: Enformable Date: August 2, 2012 Japan Team and Consortium 3:00 am Phone Call (RST log 2040) INPO Bob Ryan EPRI Steve Modine Japan Team

Japan plans to “Goop” the site with a material called “Fix It” it is purported to be used as a way to fix ground and building loose contamination. TEPCO Japan is planning to perform this action in the future. RST has some preliminary product information and has passed this to the
Consortium.

RST and Consortium 11:00 am Phone Call

INPO:

Organic compounds like the one suggested by the Japanese when exposed to radiation. can form a glue-like material (peanut butter!) and may cause more problems
water is the best solution for now

???: Any other compound available?

TEPCO is planning a test before using their compound – INPO’s concern is that it will take time for radiations effects (-few days?)

INPO: Concern with this method are (1) impact on heat transfer in the spent fuel pool, and (2) effect on the remote devices

August 4, 2012 Posted by | Fukushima 2012 | Leave a comment

3 New Interviews Featuring Nuclear Expert Arnie Gundersen http://enenews.com/3-new-interviews-featuring-nuclear-expert-arnie-gundersen   August 2nd, 2012  By  

Listen: Nuclear Power: Everything But The Kitchen Sink
Source: All Things Political with host Steve Leal (KJLL Tuscon, AZ)…. Continue reading →

August 4, 2012 Posted by | Resources -audiovicual | Leave a comment

Appeals court puts off ruling on Yucca Mountain as nuclear dump WP, By Associated Press, August 3 WASHINGTON — An appeals court has put off deciding whether to force the government to act on a license for a proposed nuclear waste dump in Nevada.

A U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia panel won’t rule before year’s end on whether the Nuclear Regulatory Commission must act on a license for the Yucca Mountain site.The dump’s supporters argue NRC broke the law last fall by letting the Obama administration move to close the site. The NRC cited “budgetary limitations” imposed
by Congress in approving the shutdown.

The court on Friday ordered updates by Dec. 14 about congressional action on the commission’s budget for 2013….. http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/appeals-court-puts-off-ruling-on-yucca-mountain-as-nuclear-dump/2012/08/03/bc0b6348-dd85-11e1-8ad1-909913931f71_story.html

August 4, 2012 Posted by | general | Leave a comment

Radiation more destructive to electronics than thought, Electronics News, 3 August, 2012 RESEARCH published in the Journal of Applied Physics indicate that radiation causes at least ten times more structural damage to electronic materials than previously thought.

The study used a new characterisation method which uses a combination of lasers and acoustic waves, allowing scientists to look through solid materials and pinpoint the size and location of defect buried at the atomic level.

The method is important due to the ever-shrinking sizes of microelectronic devices. Transistors which are millions of atoms in size have a greater margin of error before they fail, but transistors which only have a few thousand atoms could fail as the result of a
single atomic defect….. The physicists found that a sample of gallium arsenide semiconductor which had been irradiated had structural damage spread over 1000 atoms due to an embedded neon atom – damage which is more extensive than previously found by other means.

August 4, 2012 Posted by | technology | Leave a comment

    Next Entries »