nuclear-news

Britain loses almost 450 drones in Iraq & Afghanistan

Nearly 450 British assassination drones have crashed, broken down, or been lost in Iraq and Afghanistan over the last five years, the British Ministry of Defence (MoD) has disclosed.

Wed Feb 13, 2013 3:29PM GMT

PressTV

The figure highlights the UK military’s huge reliance on technology, and particularly its deployment of unmanned aircrafts that on one hand minimizes risks to frontline troops and on the other, maximizes threats to civilian population of the target country.

The disclosure by the MoD raised concerns among campaigners about the reliability of using drones, as they say the smaller drones, which are more prone to crashes, are similar to those already being flown in UK airspace.

Chris Cole from watchdog website Drone Wars UK said: “The drone industry constantly talks up the supposed economic benefits of unmanned drones, but it is the civil liberties and safety implications that need real attention.”

“Without a significant improvement in reliability and safety, legislators should remain extremely skeptical about plans to open UK airspace to drones”, added Chris Cole.

Britain has spent more than £2 billion over the last five years, developing its unethical assassination drones, according to British media reports.

The deployment of such drones by the U.S. and its allies has led to killings of at least hundreds of innocent civilians, including many women and children, in the Middle East and South Asian regions.

MOS/MOL/HE

http://www.presstv.ir/detail/2013/02/13/288790/drones/

February 13, 2013 Posted by arclight2011 | Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Israeli govt gagged media over suicide in custody of Australian secret ‘Prisoner X’

Censorship “becomes a pathetic attempt to turn back the clock to a time before WikiLeaks, Facebook and Twitter, and before bloggers who don’t give two hoots about the censor,” he said.

Published: 13 February, 2013,

Israeli media and officials are outraged over a new government censorship order preventing media from writing about a report on an Australian man who worked for Mossad, and was secretly detained for months until he committed suicide in 2010.

­The Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) shed new light on the top-secret case about a man previously known only as ‘Prisoner X.’ It was reported that the man was 34-year old Australian-born Ben Zygier from Melbourne, who was recruited by Israel’s secret service Mossad.  

After ABC’s broke the news, the Israeli Prime Minister’s Office summoned the Editors Committee, consisting of all of the editors and owners of major Israeli media outlets, for an emergency meeting with security officials to ask them not to report on the story – effective implementing a nationwide publishing ban.  

The ban was justified over fears that publishing further details on the case would be “very embarrassing to a certain government agency,” Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported. After the meeting, the mention of ABC’s report disappeared from all Israeli news media.

Such strict censorship is very unusual for Israel, the Reuters report explained – typically, when the media is censored for security reasons, Israeli outlets are still allowed to cite the news from foreign sources.

The details of the meeting were kept secret, prompting Israeli lawmakers to demand the release of information on it. The editors’ decision not to publish anything about ‘Prisoner X’ has led many in Israel to speak out against the media’s cooperation with the government’s ban……

More here

http://rt.com/news/israel-censorship-prisoner-x-088/?fb_action_ids=10151740311259937&fb_action_types=og.recommends&fb_source=aggregation&fb_aggregation_id=288381481237582

February 13, 2013 Posted by arclight2011 | Uncategorized | Leave a comment

2 more children were diagnosed to have thyroid cancer -Fukushima

Iori Mochizuki

http://fukushima-diary.com/2013/02/2-more-under-18s-diagnosed-as-thyroid-cancer-7-more-suspected-to-have-cancer-in-fukushima-from-before-311/

Posted by Mochizuki on February 13th, 2013

From the thyroid test of Fukushima prefectural government, 2 more children were diagnosed to have thyroid cancer. They were under 18 years old in 311.

So far, 3 children were diagnosed to have thyroid cancer.

Additionally, 7 more children are suspected to have thyroid cancer.
Fukushima medical university commented thyroid cancer takes 4~5 to come out from the research of Chernobyl. The cancers found this time have been growing since before 311, which is not from Fukushima accident.

They were denying the similarity between Chernobyl and Fukushima so they don’t have to compare, but having found 3 thyroid cancer cases, they started picking up the research data of Chernobyl, which contradicts themselves.

The government does not even conduct thyroid test for the children in Metropolitan area. It is not known how many of the children to have thyroid problems.

When 311 happened, iodine tablets were not distributed to most of the children in Japan, however, the packages of iodine tables were found in government’s offsite center. They evacuated themselves on 3/15/2011 for the explosion of reactor3. [URL 1]

Related article..3/19/2011 Yamashita, “It’s not serious enough to take iodine tablets” [URL 2]

Thanks to → http://kiikochan.blog136.fc2.com/blog-entry-2773.html

Spotlight on the covered truth. Fukushima Diary’s genuinely supported by donation like wikipedia. Thank you for considering donating!

今でも毎時1千万Bq漏れている福島原発。
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福島に関する世界初のシンクタンクを目指します。
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Please think about giving a donation to Fulushima Diary on the link provided.. This has been an important site for independent Japanese translated information and deserves our support [Arclight2011]

February 13, 2013 Posted by arclight2011 | Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Terrorism and nuclear proliferation -Nils Bohner

“Another variant of nuclear terrorism terrorist acts against nuclear facilities, such as a nuclear plant. In December 1999, for example, a conventional explosive charge discovered and disarmed by a uranium plant in Japan. Chechen groups have also threatened to blow up nuclear power plants, including in Lithuania in 1994.”

 

‘Since 1995, the IAEA has updated a database of reported incidents and theft of materials that can be used in a nuclear weapon. Reporting to this database is voluntary from today 113 countries. For the period 1993 to 2011, report the total of 2,164 inquiries, of which 399 of these were related to criminal incidents. Annual average for this period were, respectively, 114 and 21 inquiries. For 2011, it reported a total of 147 incidents in which 20 were related to criminal activity. There is therefore no evidence that the interest for illegally obtaining nuclear material has decreased in recent years.”

Nils Bohmer, 13/02-2013

Bellona

Translated from Norwegian

In this article, I will discuss the challenges associated with today’s development of core technologies and knowledge, especially linked to a nascent nuclear arms race in the Middle East and the possibility of nuclear terrorism.

Probably  the Hungarian physicist Leo Szilard thought little about the consequences of his ideas about a nuclear chain reaction would be when he got them while he waited to cross the street in Budapest in 1933. The development of nuclear weapons in the 1940s led to a technology on one hand can produce energy in large amounts, but in extreme situations can lead to the extinction of all life on earth.

The development of nuclear technology was initially driven by efforts to acquire nuclear weapons for military use. President Dwight D. Eisenhower’s speech on “Atoms for Peace”, which he held in the UN General Assembly on 8 December 1953, opened up a large-scale use of this technology in the civil context. USA launched its own program, “Atoms for Peace”, which would promote the use of civil nuclear power in the U.S. and other countries. Among other things, the first nuclear reactors for Iran and Pakistan built under this U.S. program in the 1950 – and 1960’s.

In 1957 created the UN International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). This organ has two purposes: To promote the development of civilian use of nuclear technology, and as far as possible prevent nuclear technology being misused military:

“The Agency Shall seek two Accelerate and enlarge the contribution of atomic energy to Peace, Health and Prosperity throughout the world. It Shall ensure, so far as it is comfortable, that assistance provided by it or at its request or under its supervision or control is not used in such a way as two further any military purpose. ” IAEA Statutes, Article 2

During the 1960’s there was built a number of civilian nuclear reactors for energy production. Essentially there were nuclear weapons states, the U.S., Britain, France, China and the Soviet Union that was responsible for this construction. However, other countries such as Norway and Sweden began to take interest in this new technology. Norway was the first country outside the nuclear powers got a nuclear reactor, t Halden reactor was put into operation in 1959. In addition to developing civilian nuclear power, Sweden had no plans to develop nuclear weapons until well into the 1960’s.

The modern nuclear arms race

Non-Proliferation Treaty of Nuclear Weapons entered into force in 1970. It defines the countries that had conducted a nuclear test before 1 January 1967 that nuclear weapons states, ie countries that are allowed to have nuclear weapons. These countries are the U.S., Britain, France, the Soviet Union and China. Non-nuclear weapon states undertake not to manufacture nuclear weapons, and also to allow the control of the IAEA to prevent that to happen.

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February 13, 2013 Posted by arclight2011 | Uncategorized | Leave a comment

REMEMBER FUKUSHIMA​ – Events in London upcoming with some international events

*** Saturday 9 March ***​

​

12noon – MARCH from Hyde Park Corner to the Houses of Parliament

2.30pm – RALLY opposite the Houses of Parliament

*** Monday 11 March ***​

​

5.30-6.30pm -​ CANDLE-LIT VIGIL outside Embassy of Japan, Piccadilly
7.30-9.30pm – PUBLIC MEETING in House of Commons, Committee Room 8​

We hope you’ll join us for speeches from experts as well as Fukushima evacuees and Japanese and UK activists on the current situation in Japan and the implications for the UK and its nuclear programme.

​
Chair: Jeremy Corbyn MP, vice-chair Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament​

Confirmed speakers:​

​John Large, independent nuclear safety engineer, Large and Associates Ltd
Dr Paul Dorfman, Nuclear Consulting Group, Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust nuclear policy research fellow and senior researcher at University of Warwick
Prof Stephen Thomas, energy policy researcher, University of Greenwich
Kate Hudson, General Secretary, Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament
Geoff Read, Fukushima evacuee
Satsuki Goto, Japanese Against Nuclear (UK)
Taka Honda, World Network for Saving Children from Radiation
Camilla Berens – Kick Nuclear and Stop New Nuclear alliance​

​​

11 March is the actual date of the tsunami and the start of the nuclear disaster.

Please click on link for MAP and more details.

http://www.fukushima2013.com/

February 13, 2013 Posted by arclight2011 | Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Finland -Olkiluoto 3’s new-generation reactor hits more delays, casting an ill light on its viability

Charles Digges, 12/02-2013

http://www.bellona.org/articles/articles_2013/Olkiluoto_more_delays

The troubled Olkiluoto 3 nuclear plant in Finland “is preparing for the possibility” that it will not start operating before 2016, the power utility behind the plant said Monday, adding another delay to a project that is already four years overdue.

The announcement sheds a dim light on the practicality and expense of the first-of-its kind new-generation European Pressurized reactor, which has been touted as a revolution in nuclear power production.  

“This is yet another blow to the supposed nuclear renaissance,” said Bellona General Manager and nuclear physicist Nils Bøhmer. “Costly delays and millions of euro in price overruns are completely impractical, especially when compared to pursuing cheaper renewable and alternative energy sources.”

Teollisuuden Voima, (TVO), the Finnish utility for which the EPR is being built, said recent progress reports received from the plant supplier, the Areva-Siemens consortium, suggest that earlier forecasts of a 2014 start were unlikely to be met.

The delay is just one of a series of setbacks over the past years.

In May 2005, when work started on the reactor – which is currently slated to cost about €2.5 billion – its completion was scheduled for 2009. TVO announced in December 2011 that it anticipated the 1600 MWe plant to begin commercial operation in August 2014, some five years later than originally planned.

In July 2012, the company declared that the plant unit “will not be ready for regular electricity production in 2014.”

Noting that Areva-Siemens are constructing the 1600 MWe plant under a fixed-price turnkey contract and are therefore responsible for the time schedule of the project, it requested the supplier provide an updated schedule and completion date, World Nuclear News reported.

The giant facility, which is under construction on an island in the Baltic Sea, is forecasted to be large enough to supply 10 percent of Finland’s electricity needs.

Tit for tat statements from TVO and Areva Siemens

TVO’s senior vice president of the Olkiluoto 3 project, Jouni Silvennoinen, said in a statement Monday, “We have not yet received an adequate schedule update.”

Silvennoinen added that failure to gain timely regulatory approval for the reactor’s digital instrumentation and control equipment has also delayed the start of operations.

According to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the so-called “I&C equipment” is “the nervous system” of a nuclear facility, providing operators with a way to monitor operations and respond to developments.

Cost overruns remain unknown

Silvennoinen declined to comment to news agencies on what the final cost of the plant was likely to be or how much it was now over budget, given the chain of delays.

TVO said it had asked the consortium “to update the overall schedule and provide a new confirmation for the completion date,” adding that although it “is not pleased with the situation and repeated challenges with the project scheduling,” work is proceeding at the unit.

TVO further stated that it continues to provide support to the Areva-Siemens consortium “to complete the project as soon as possible.”

Areva-Siemens and TVO at loggerheads in arbitration

The battle between TVO and Areva-Siemens –who will bear responsibility for cost overruns, is in arbitration at the International Chamber of Commerce, Reuters reported.  

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February 13, 2013 Posted by arclight2011 | Uncategorized | Leave a comment

COMMENT: Hitachi should expect no state backing from Japan for reactor project in Lithuania

Ozharovsky, 01/02-2013 – Translated by Maria Kaminskaya

Bellona.org

http://www.bellona.org/articles/articles_2013/hitachi_still_seeks_backing

MOSCOW – Officials with Japan’s Ministry of Finance and the Japan Bank for International Cooperation (JBIC) deny rumors of offering Hitachi financial backing for a nuclear reactor in Lithuania’s Visaginas – a project that, absent of any signed contract or concession agreement with Lithuania, is not a candidate for consideration for state support. Following the October referendum in Lithuania, when a majority voted against any new nuclear power plant (NPP) in the country, the issue is effectively moot, but Hitachi and Lithuania’s nuclear proponents will not acknowledge defeat, instead continuing to lobby the costly and dangerous project. Andrei

Exporting reactors – exporting dangerous technologies

The question of whether Japan’s government was willing to provide financial backing to nuclear reactor export projects – in particular, the support it supposedly intended to offer to Hitachi’s participation in building an ABWR reactor in Lithuania – was one among several on the agenda of a series of meetings that Japanese NGOs held in Tokyo with officials from the JBIC and Japan’s Ministry of Finance in mid-December. 

Japanese non-governmental organizations were concerned about the very possibility that Tokyo might consider extending state support to nuclear reactor projects launched in other countries at a time when the heavily nuclear-dependent Japan was making its difficult steps toward a nuclear phase-out – a tentative change of course prompted by the Fukushima tragedy of March 2011.  

Bellona’s expert Andrei Ozharovsky participated in the Tokyo meetings on an invitation from the Japanese NGOs.

Bellona’s Andrei Ozharovsky and Aileen Mioko Smith from Japan’s Green Action during a meeting at the Japanese Ministry of Finance in Tokyo on December 17, 2012

On behalf of Lithuanian environmentalists, Ozharovsky informed the Japanese officials overseeing energy projects that 62.68% of Lithuanians who had taken part in the October 14 advisory referendum had voted against the construction of a new nuclear power plant in Visaginas, a town where the old Ignalina Nuclear Power Plant is currently under decommissioning.

Lithuania shut down Ignalina’s two Soviet-built RBMK-1500 reactors in 2004 and 2009 to comply with the European Union’s requirements for the country’s ascension to the union. Building a replacement plant in Visaginas, an idea that was discussed in talks with a number of reactor manufacturers and led to initial agreements with Hitachi as a strategic investor for an advanced boiling water reactor there, has faced strong public resistance, eventually resulting in last year’s referendum.

After the vote last October – held alongside parliamentary elections – when the majority of Lithuania’s citizens expressed their decision against a new Visaginas plant, the new prime minister, Algirdas Butkevicius, stated that his government intended to honor the people’s wishes and have the project ruled null and void.

But, because of a protracted process of forming a new coalition government, as of the end of last year, a governmental decision that would set in stone the referendum’s result had not yet been made. This technical delay allowed the proponents of exporting a Fukushima-type reactor to Lithuania to present the situation as if the Visaginas project was still alive and well. Reports appeared in the media that the Japanese government intended to support Hitachi’s ABWR project in Visaginas via an export credit provided by the Japan Bank for International Cooperation. In mid-December, however, Japanese officials confirmed during meetings in Tokyo that this information was wrong.

Japan’s finance ministry denies Lithuanian reactor support rumors

Confirmation of the absence of any negotiations or agreements with Hitachi on the Japanese government’s providing a credit line or any other financial backing to the Visaginas project came from Shigeo Shimizu, Director of the Development Institutions Division of the International Bureau of the Japanese Ministry of Finance.

“Export is important to us, but first, all the issues have to be solved, all procedures completed,” said Shimizu.

By Japanese law, a company seeking state financial support for an export project is to file an application with the Japan Bank for International Cooperation, which, provided that the project meets the relevant financing criteria, further refers the application to the Ministry of Finance, where the final decision on the project is taken. Neither of the steps were made in the case of the Visaginas project.

A Japanese activist at a picket against nuclear export to Lithuania in front of Hitachi’s headquarters in Tokyo, December 18, 2012.

Фото: Андрей Ожаровский.

“The Ministry of Finance of Japan has not received an application for support for Hitachi’s project in Lithuania from the Japan Bank for International Cooperation, which is why the Ministry of Finance of Japan has not made and is not making an evaluation of the possibility of state support for this project. As far as we know, Hitachi does not have a contract to build the NPP in Lithuania, thus, there is no issue to discuss,” said Masaki Kawano, Deputy Director of the Development Policy Division of the International Bureau of the Ministry of Finance.

“Export of nuclear reactors is the worst type of export of contamination, waste, and dangers. The Ministry of Japan must clearly state that no support will be extended to nuclear export,” said Eri Watanabe, coordinator of the Nuclear and Energy Program of Friends of the Earth Japan, during the meeting.

The meeting between Japanese NGOs and representatives of the finance ministry was held in Tokyo on December 17, 2012. About an hour was taken with the discussion of the issue of nuclear technologies export. 

‘Rumors coming from Hitachi people’

“We can finance an export contract, but as we know, neither the contract nor the concession [agreement] have been signed. No talks have been initiated with our bank, and the project evaluation process has not started,” said Yutaka Inaba, Deputy Director General at the JBIC and Director of the bank’s Division 1 Nuclear and Renewable Energy Finance Department. “So far, these are all rumors coming from Hitachi people. We are aware of the decision made during the referendum in Lithuania. We respect Lithuania’s decision. But we are waiting for information on the final decision from the Government of Lithuania.”

The Japan Bank for International Cooperation said last December it was not involved in any negotiations nor evaluation of the Visaginas NPP project regarding possible financial backing as an export project.

http://www.jbic.go.jp

JBIC officials responsible for making decisions on extending credit lines to export projects met with Japanese NGOs on December 18. They confirmed that they were receiving information from Hitachi via unofficial channels and that Hitachi was treating the results of the Lithuanian referendum as non-binding.

Hitachi keeps up pressure

“After Lithuania’s citizens at the referendum did not support the idea of building a new NPP, the Japanese embassy in Lithuania is making great efforts to arrange a meeting between representatives of the strategic investor into the new NPP project in Lithuania – the Japanese company Hitachi – and Lithuania’s new government,” read a December 18, 2012 story from the Baltic news site DELFI.lt (in Russian).

“I can confirm that the Japanese embassy is in fact applying efforts to having such a meeting take place,” the DELFI report quoted Irena Siauliene, leader of the ruling Social Democratic party’s faction in the Lithuanian parliament, the Seimas, as saying.

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February 13, 2013 Posted by arclight2011 | Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Obama signs executive order on cyber security – The end of blogging?

The Stingray is the digital equivalent of the pre-revolutionary British soldier. It allows police to point a cell phone signal into all the houses in a particular neighborhood, searching for one target while sucking up everyone else’s location along with it. With one search the police could potentially invade countless private residences at once.

Published: 13 February, 2013

RT

Barack Obama has signed an executive order on cybersecurity following rumors that he would do so. In his State of the Union address he cited “growing threat from cyber-attacks” as the reason he used his executive power against the will of lawmakers.

­America must face the rapidly growing threat from cyber-attacks, President Obama told the nation in his address.

“We know hackers steal people’s identities and infiltrate private e-mail. We know foreign countries and companies swipe our corporate secrets. Now our enemies are also seeking the ability to sabotage our power grid, our financial institutions, and our air traffic control systems.”

Years from now Americans cannot look back and wonder “why we did nothing in the face of real threats to our security and our economy,” Obama said.

The order directs government officials to come up with standards to reduce cyber security risks within the next 240 days and encourage companies to adopt the new framework. It however has no legal power to force companies to adopt the framework of cybersecurity best practices.

The framework will be technology-neutral and aimed at addressing security gaps in the computer networks of crucial parts of the country’s infrastructure – the electric grid, water plants and transportation networks.

Obama urged Congress to follow his lead and pass legislation giving Washington “a greater capacity to secure networks and deter attacks.”

­The order is seen as a direct response to Congress’ refusal to pass the Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act (CISPA) last year in light of serious privacy concerns.

This week, following a series of cyber espionage and hacking attacks on US facilities, the same version of CISPA that was turned down last August is expected to be reintroduced before the US House.

http://rt.com/usa/news/obama-signs-cyber-security-order-042/

US plays policeman of the world: Former US Senator

Tue Feb 12, 2013

Press TV

“All you have got to do is just to travel around the world and you realize the amount of hatred that Americans are incurring as a result of wantonly feeling that we’re the policeman of the world and we can go kill, subjugate and intimidate anybody in the world,” said former US Senator Mike Gravel.

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February 13, 2013 Posted by arclight2011 | Uncategorized | Leave a comment