Homer Simpson would be proud: Nuclear regulators crack firewalls to access porn
…Investigators later learned that a co-worker filched that employee’s login credentials to search for porn using terms such as “busty women.”…
Read more: http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2013/nov/20/nuclear-regulators-bypass-federal-firewalls-find-w/?1#ixzz2lKHtefrE
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Read more: http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2013/nov/20/nuclear-regulators-bypass-federal-firewalls-find-w/?1#ixzz2lKHe7IVL
It’s become tougher to surf porn on government computers after scandals, but some workers at the Nuclear Regulatory Commission managed to find ways to bypass detection software and firewalls to get the illicit content, records show.
One contract employee watched, in his words, two “porn type” Netflix movies during “downtime” on his 12-hour shift at the commission’s office of information services, according to case records reviewed by The Washington Times.
Another employee repeatedly used the photo-sharing site Flickr to search for pornography while at the office.
And for years, a resident inspector at the agency scoured eBay looking for pornographic images.
The case memos don’t suggest as pervasive of a problem as the porn-surfing scandal that embroiled the Securities and Exchange Commission a few years ago. But the records indicate that the problem hasn’t been eliminated, either.
Joseph McMillian, assistant inspector general for investigations, said agents hadn’t been tipped off to any broader problems when they opened the investigation.
“It wasn’t anything specific; it was just being proactive,” he said.
From May 2011 to September 2012, agents with the inspector general’s cybercrimes unit opened seven cases involving computer misuse, records show. Among the examples cited in a case memo, all involved pornography.
In one investigation, agents approached an employee about 100 explicit images and videos traced to his computer. The employee denied looking at the material, and what might have seemed like an excuse turned out to be true.
CNN Doubles Down on Pro-Nuclear Bias – Answers Petitions, Critics, with More Slanted Commentary
…The film’s other billionaire funder, Microsoft founder Paul Allen, is an investor in “advanced nuclear technologies,” according to the website of his venture capital firm, Vulcan Inc…
Global Research, November 21, 2013
NRDC’s Dale Bryk provides the only voice of skepticism on CNN’s nuclear roundtable following the network’s airing of pro-nuke documentary Pandora’s Promise.
CNN aired the pro-nuclear power filmPandora’s Promise on November 7. The film was little more than propaganda (FAIR Action Alert, 10/25/13), brooking virtually no dissent from the views of the film’s seven principal “stars”–one-time anti-nuclear environmentalists who now say the planet can only be saved from the ravages of fossil fuels by a rapid, large-scale investment in new, supposedly fail-safe “fast reactors.”
In advance of the airing, FAIR and RootsAction presented CNN with a petition signed by over 27,000 activists, demanding the news network present a more balanced discussion of the issue. How did CNN respond? By compounding the bias with a post-show roundtable,Nuclear Power: The Fallout From Fear, that featured a panel just as slanted as its title.
Moderated by CNN‘s Anderson Cooper, the panel was stacked three to one in favor of the film’s premise. Dale Bryk of the Natural Resources Defense Council, the lone anti-nuclear voice, was outnumbered by the film’s director, Robert Stone, climate scientist James Hansen and former nuclear plant operator Michael Friedlander. During the panel, Bryk had her remarks ridiculed as “silly” by Hansen and “delusional” by Stone, with no objection from Cooper, who seemed at times to play the role of a fourth pro-nuclear panelist. At one point he confronted Bryk on the role of renewables by parroting the film’s line that “alternative solutions like solar, wind…will never be a real solution.”
At another point, Cooper asked the filmmaker a leading question that suggested nuclear power has been remarkably safe: “Can you point to how many people have died from–I mean, Three Mile Island, nobody died. Emergency procedures there worked, correct?”
Cooper’s language could have come straight from any number of past corporate media whitewashings of nuclear power dangers. For instance, NBC‘s 1993 broadcast What Happened? (3/16/93) concluded that “the system worked” at Three Mile Island–that aside from some “communications” issues, people near the Pennsylvania plant were happily living their lives years after the 1979 partial meltdown there (Extra!, 7/1/93).
Three Mile Island had resulted in only a “a minor release” of radiation, agreed Stone, adding that, in the US, “not a single death has occurred from commercial nuclear power in the entire 50-year history.”
Later, Stone said of the Fukushima accident: “Nobody has died, nobody has gotten sick, and according to the best science in the World Health Organization, nobody ever will.” What WHO (2/28/13) actually says is that “the estimated risk for specific cancers in certain subsets of the population in Fukushima Prefecture has increased,” and that one-third of the emergency workers at the plant have an increased cancer risk.
When FAIR asked epidemiologist Steven Wing of the University of North Carolina’s School of Public Health to comment on Stone’s claims, he acknowledged that no deaths had resulted immediately from acute radiation poisoning at Three Mile Island or Fukushima, but that longer-term cancers caused by radiation were a different story:
TV: Mentally disabled are working at Fukushima Daiichi, says journalist — Many men forced to go to plant — Homeless treated like ‘disposable people’ (VIDEO)
Published: November 21st, 2013 at 5:42 pm ET
By ENENews
RT News, Nov. 20, 2013: Homeless men employed cleaning up the stricken Fukushima nuclear plant, including those brought in by Japan’s yakuza gangsters, were not aware of the health risks they were taking and say their bosses treated them like “disposable people.” […] While some workers voluntarily agreed to take jobs on the nuclear clean-up project, many others simply didn’t have a choice […] many of the workers were brought into the nuclear plant by Japan’s organized crime syndicates, the yakuza. […] Although a special task force to keep organized crime out of the nuclear clean-up project has been set up, investigators say they need first-hand reports from those forced to work by the yakuza […]
Anonymous former Fukushima worker: We were given no insurance for health risks, no radiation meters even. We were treated like nothing, like disposable people — promised things, and then kicked us out when we received a large radiation dose.
Tomohiko Suzuki, journalist who worked at Fukushima plant: The government called Tepco to take urgent action, Tepco relayed it to subcontractors — and they, eventually, as they had a shortage of available workers, called the Yakuza for help. […] They were given very general information about radiation and most were not even given radiation meters. They could have exposed themselves to large doses without even knowing it. Even the so-called Fukushima 50 […] at least three of them were enrolled by the yakuza.
Aleksey Yaroshevsky, RT: There are 25% more openings for jobs at Fukushima plant than applicants, according to government data. Gaps filled, says Suzuki, by the homeless, the desperately unemployed and even those with mental disabilities.
10,000 protesters against tough new official secrets law in Japan 秘密保護法案反対集会デモ、1万人集まる
Posted by Mia
No Way Back: The Japanese Government Tells People to Go Home Despite Radiation Alarm 日本政府は放射能の危険さを無視して、避難者を立ち入り禁止にすべき地域に帰還させようとしている。
France does not need Mali’s uranium despite all conspiracy stories to the contrary
…One more variation on the story that is almost not worth mentioning is the idea that France is fighting in Mali to protect its supply lines to Niger, where Areva currently produces about 3,200 tonnes of uranium every year. Since it would be shipped in the form of yellowcake (U3O8) and not uranium, France needs to move about 4,000 tonnes of material from Niger each year….
…Full containers contain about 19 tonnes of U3O8 concentrate. Shipping 4,000 tonnes would thus require about 210 containers each year. That is not much more than one truck every 2 days….
Pro-nuclear advocate with small nuclear plant operating and design experience. Former submarine Engineer Officer. Founder, Adams Atomic Engines, Inc. Host and producer, The Atomic Show Podcast. Resume available here
· January 24, 2013
There is a meme circulating on web claiming that France’s intervention in Mali can be traced to a desire to capture the country’s uranium resources. That idea is complete and utter rubbish that can only be believed by people who have done no math and no research to recognize whether such a theory can be supported by facts and logic.
There is a certain set of facts that would lead gullible people to believe the theory that the conflict in Mali has something to do with uranium. It is true that France obtains roughly 80% of its electricity supply from the output of 59 nuclear reactors. It is also true that reactors operate by fissioning uranium. It is also true that nations, especially former colonial powers like France, have a long history of engaging in war over resources. In fact, the notion that resource conflicts underly many of society’s deadliest conflicts is one of the concepts that motivates me to do what I do every day.
However, a curious person who is willing to do a little research and math needs more information before jumping to conclusions about France’s motivations for intervening in Mali. Here is a set of relevant questions that are not hard to answer; those answers determine if the theory holds any water.
- How much uranium does Mali have?
- How much uranium does France need?
- How much would it cost France to buy the material? (Stated another way, how much is Mali’s uranium worth on the open market?)
- Is there an adequate supply of uranium from other sources?
- How much will intervention cost in the short term?
The World Nuclear Association has two relevant web pages, one titled Supply of Uranium and one titled World Uranium Mining. Mali does not appear on either page, indicating that it has neither world leading uranium resources, nor any substantial uranium production.
Digging a little deeper into the sources claiming that uranium is the key to understanding the motives for the Mali conflict, I found a site published by a firm called Consultancy Africa Intelligence that has a page about Mali’s mining industry and natural resources. Buried in the discussion about gold and diamonds, I found the following statement:
Several companies in Mali are currently carrying out uranium exploration in the Falea and Gao regions, where the uranium potential is estimated to be 5,200 tonnes.
Going back to those pages from the World Nuclear Association, I found that the world’s uranium mining industry produced 54,000 tonnes of uranium in 2011 and that the world’s known recoverable resources were 5.3 million tonnes as of the end of 2011. Next to those numbers, a speculative, “potential” resource of 5,200 tonnes is trivial.
President John F Kennedy speech on peace June 10 1963
Commencement Address at American University, June 10, 1963 http://www.jfklibrary.org/Asset-Viewer/BWC7I4C9QUmLG9J6I8oy8w.aspx
Melted nuclear cores eating their way through concrete foundations at Fukushima
AP: Melted Fukushima fuel is 12 inches from entering ground after eating through concrete, says simulation — Study: Molten core suspected of eroding through concrete foundation — Gov’t Expert: We just can’t be sure until actually seeing inside http://enenews.com/study-fukushima-molten-fuel-suspected-of-melting-containment-shell-then-eroding-through-concrete-foundation-ap-fukushima-melted-fuel-12-inches-from-entering-ground-after-eating-through-concrete
Associated Press,, Nov. 19, 2013: […] the real challenge: removing melted or partially melted fuel from the three reactors that had meltdowns, and figuring out how to treat and store it so it won’t heat up and start a nuclear reaction again. “This is an unprecedented task that nobody in the world has achieved. We still face challenges that must be overcome,” said Hajimu Yamana, a Kyoto University nuclear engineer who heads a government-affiliated agency that is overseeing technological research and development for the cleanup. […] Computer simulations show the melted fuel in Unit 1, whose core damage was the most extensive, has breached the bottom of the primary containment vessel and even partially eaten into its concrete foundation, coming within about 30 centimeters (one foot) of leaking into the ground. “We just can’t be sure until we actually see the inside of the reactors,” Yamana said.
Atomic Energy‘ Volume 114 Issue 3, July 2013 (Emphasis Added): [If there’s no safety system to cool Fukushima melted fuel from Units 1-3], the accident developed rapidly: the second safety barrier (fuel element cladding) failed 2 hours after the initial event, the third one (reactor vessel) at 13 hours, and the fourth one 7 days after the easing of the dry box of the containment shell melted and through erosion of the concrete foundation occurred. These data were transmitted to the operational headquarters of Rosatom and the crisis center at the IBRAE RAN in order to estimate the possibility that the population of our country in the regions bordering with Japan would be exposed to radiation. […] According to the computed picture. in all power units of the Fukushima-I NPP flooding with water stopped the downward flow of melt, but because energy continued to be released in the melt it was necessary to feed water into the reactors continually.It is known that the operation of the active safety systems, with whose help the core could be cooled reliably in a closed cycle, could not be restored for another several weeks.
It’s probably too late, but Fukushima nuclear plant should have a concrete cover
Fukushima Reactor Designer: I doubt plant can be decommissioned, perhaps enclose it in cement — Nuclear Professor: Solution is to pour concrete all over, but now it’s too late (VIDEO) http://enenews.com/fukushima-reactor-designer-i-doubt-plant-can-be-decommissioned-perhaps-enclose-it-in-cement-nuclear-professor-solution-is-to-pour-concrete-all-over-but-now-its-too-late-video
Associated Press,, Nov. 19, 2013: “I doubt if Fukushima Dai-ichi’s full decommissioning is possible. Its contamination is so widespread,” said Masashi Goto, a nuclear engineer who designed the Unit 3 reactor and now teaches at Meiji University in Tokyo. “We should not rush the process, because it means more exposure to workers. Instead, we should wait and perhaps even keep it in a cement enclosure.” […] “If you just put concrete over this, groundwater still will be flowing and things like that, and you have an uncontrolled situation,” [Tepco adviser Lake] Barrett said. “I just don’t see that as a plausible option.”
Arirang’s ‘Prime Talk’,, August 30, 2013 (at 2:30 in): I think they have to be really opening up their minds. If it comes to nuclear disaster, it’s an international one. It never was a national one because nuclear disasters truly going over and beyond and above the borders. Think about the atmosphere, hydrosphere, oceans. But they realized this a little too late. Probably they were the last one on the planet to realize this is situation. […] The solution again [is] concrete. Just think about Chernobyl, they just poured concrete all over. Sarcophagus, that’s the solution. And they should have done it a couple years ago, they actually lost the opportunity, because by now the soils are all too much contaminated.
One court win for nuclear power doesn’t solve the unsolvable radioactive trash problem
they must just stop making this radioactive trash
Nuclear Power’s $750 Million Reprieve Doesn’t End Dilemma, Bloomberg, By Brian Wingfield & Andrew Zajac – Nov 20, 2013 Nuclear power plant operators won a significant victory yesterday when a federal appeals court said the U.S. should stop collecting $750 million a year for a spent-fuel repository it has never built.
Left unsettled is an issue that has vexed the industry and political leaders for decades: where to dispose of 70,000 metric tons of atomic waste now in temporary storage at power plants across the country. “There’s nothing in this opinion that’s going to move a single fuel rod a single foot from where it’s sitting now,” Peter Bradford, a former Nuclear Regulatory Commission member and professor at Vermont Law School, said in a phone interview.
The U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington ruled that the Energy Department must take steps to suspend collection of the nuclear-waste fee from utilities because the government has provided no alternative to a canceled project at Yucca Mountain in Nevada, for which the funds are collected.
Exelon Corp. (EXC), the largest nuclear-power operator in the U.S., would benefit most from the decision, ……
The ruling directs the department to ask Congress to change the fee to zero until it complies with the Nuclear Waste Policy Act, which established Yucca Mountain as the nation’s nuclear-waste repository, or until lawmakers enact an alternate plan to store spent fuel. It is now managed by reactor owners at about 75 operating and closed reactors throughout the U.S.
Government Incentive
Industry specialists said the decision may provide some incentive for the government to address lingering waste-storage options…….http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-11-20/nuclear-power-s-750-million-reprieve-doesn-t-end-dilemma.html
Unlike UK, Sweden will not subsidise new nuclear power
Sweden rejects British model for new nuclear plant deals http://au.news.yahoo.com/world/a/19936540/sweden-rejects-british-model-for-new-nuclear-plant-deals/ November 21, 2013, By Michel Rose PARIS (Reuters) – Sweden, reviving its nuclear power, will not follow Britain’s example of offering state guarantees to fund the construction of new plants, its energy minister said on Wednesday. Last month, Britain signed a deal with France’s EDF to build a new nuclear plant, becoming the first European country to guarantee a company a feed-in tariff for an atomic energy project. Sweden’s biggest power group Vattenfall has touted Britain’s price guarantee system to help companies commit to build new nuclear power plants in a market with low power prices.
“We won’t address any direct or indirect subsidies for new nuclear power production in Sweden, which means that we will not introduce any feed-in tariff for nuclear,” Swedish Energy Minister Anna-Karin Hatt told reporters in Paris. Continue reading
Another uranium company stops operations, with poor market prospects
Company slows uranium mining in northern Arizona, Yahoo 7 Finance 21 Nov 13,Uranium mining company to temporarily halt operations in northern Arizona amid low ore prices. FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. (AP) — The only two uranium mines operating in Arizona and an associated mill in southern Utah are set to cease operations temporarily as prices for the ore decline.
Energy Fuels Resources Inc. said uranium at its Arizona One Mine in the north part of the state will be depleted in early 2014, and the nearby Pinenut Mine and the White Mesa Mill in Blanding, Utah, will be placed on standby next year.
The move comes after the company stopped short of extracting uranium at another mine south of the Grand Canyon near Tusayan and as per-pound prices for uranium on the spot market dip to a five-year low, in the mid-$30s. The company plans to maintain the sites so that they can begin operating if the uranium market improves……..
Environmentalists are looking to the U.S. Forest Service and the U.S. Bureau of Land Management to ensure that the company doesn’t leave anything behind that would harm wildlife or the landscape.
“It’s a good thing on the one hand, but there’s a systemic problem in the regulations by the land management agencies that allow these mines to blink on and off at will without any review or revision in their plans of operation,” said Roger Clark of the Grand Canyon Trust. http://au.finance.yahoo.com/news/company-slows-uranium-mining-northern-153826141.html
BP’s Trolls Send Death Threats to Online Critics | Interview with Dahr Jamail
Published on 20 Nov 2013
Abby Martin speaks with investigative journalist Dahr Jamail, who has uncovered BP’s online scheme to silence critics of their Gulf of Mexico clean-up, with methods such as bribery and death threats.
Renewable energy now a mainstream power source to tackle climate change
Tackling the Climate Crisis With the Reality of Renewable Energy, Susan Casey Lefkowitz HUFFINGTON POST 11/21/2013 Climate change is being felt in rising world temperatures and sea levels, as well as in high-cost weather events. It can feel so disempowering to be overpowered by the weather. Yet when we look around the world, the potential for clean energy that is the solution to fighting climate change is very real. That’s empowering. That’s a strong message for our leaders as the climate talks in Warsaw conclude.
Take renewable energy as an example. Renewable energy has become a mainstream, major power source and not just an aspiration for the future. Renewable energy is gaining traction from the U.S. to Chile and from India to China. But it needs elimination of cost, policy and trade barriers to make the next leap forward. That is what we should be asking for as we demand clean power.
We can rightly demand rapid acceleration of clean power from our governments and we can help make it happen ourselves. We know that we cannot credibly fight climate change and still allow global fossil fuel subsidies to continue at roughly six times the amount of incentives for renewable energy. Having the reality of clean energy within our grasp, helps make it crystal clear that we cannot let predictions that fossil fuels will continue to be king in the market come true. What we can and must do, is to invest in what we know will make a difference: stop our dependence on fossil fuels, make our economy more energy efficient and get power from the wind, sun and other renewable resources that never run out.
It comes down to our energy choices. Dependence on fossil fuels makes no sense in a world of changing climate. We can’t have an “all of the above” policy that includes expansion of fossil fuels and still fights climate change. We can’t subsidize fossil fuels and still fight climate change. In a time of a changing climate, demanding clean power makes sense.
In October, the World Energy Council and Bloomberg New Energy Finance came out with a new report demonstrating that renewables, especially mature renewable technologies such as wind and solar, are cost competitive with fossil fuels. The report found that the global share of generation output from renewable technologies is expected to continue to rise. Wind and solar are the most dominant renewables in the market and their costs are expected to continue to decrease to make them increasingly competitive.
We are finding the same in our work with partners around the world………
Clean energy doesn’t have to be a niche market that governments help out while still subsidizing and supporting coal, oil and gas. We can make the switch with a serious change in our incentives, policies, and political will to accelerate the place of renewable energy in our economies. We have a lot of good examples of how well it is already working. Internationally and at home, we need stronger political commitments to demand clean power and fight climate change by moving away from fossil fuels and embracing clean energy. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/susan-caseylefkowitz/tackling-the-climate-crisis_b_4309405.html
1.This Month
British High Court Grants WikiLeaks Founder Julian Assange the Right to Appeal U.S. Extradition
21 May Webinar. Protect Our Waterways. No Nuclear Waste.
7 pm Tuesday May 21 https://www.protectourwaterways.org/webinars
24 May. The Vow from Hiroshima film is coming on PBS, this month https://www.thevowfromhiroshima.com/
3 June – FILM. SOS – The San Onofre Syndrome: Nuclear Power’s Legacy
6-7 July A summit and a rally in Washington D.C. https://nonatoyespeace.org/
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