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Snowden reveals how USA spied on Climate Change Summit negotiators

Snowden Docs: U.S. Spied on Negotiators At 2009 Climate Summit, HUFFINGTON POST,: 01/29/2014 WASHINGTON –– The National Security Agency monitored the communications of other governments ahead of and during the 2009 United Nations climate negotiations in Copenhagen, Denmark, according to the latest document from whistleblower Edward Snowden.

The document, with portions marked “top secret,” indicates that the NSA was monitoring the communications of other countries aheadof the conference, and intended to continue doing so throughout the meeting. Posted on an internal NSA website on Dec. 7, 2009, the first day of the Copenhagen summit, it states that “analysts here at NSA, as well as our Second Party partners, will continue to provide policymakers with unique, timely, and valuable insights into key countries’ preparations and goals for the conference, as well as the deliberations within countries on climate change policies and negotiation strategies.”

“Second Party partners” refers to the intelligence agencies of the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand, with which the U.S. has an intelligence-sharing relationship. “While the outcome of the Copenhagen Climate Change Conference remains uncertain, signals intelligence will undoubtedly play a significant role in keeping our negotiators as well informed as possible throughout the 2-week event,” the document says.

The Huffington Post published the documents Wednesday night in coordination with the Danish daily newspaper Information, which worked with American journalist Laura Poitras…….. Continue reading →

January 30, 2014 Posted by | Uncategorized | 1 Comment

US congress report on sailors damaged by Fukushima radiation

NAVY Sailor Reveals Gruesome Radiation Injuries Number of sick U.S. military first responders doubles — Around 250 victims of Fukushima radiation exposure contact attorney — Congress: Reports are ‘disconcerting’ (VIDEO) http://enenews.com/number-of-sick-u-s-first-responders-doubles-around-250-victims-of-fukushima-radiation-exposure-contact-attorney-congress-reports-are-disconcerting-video

Stars & Stripes,  Jan. 27, 2014: Congress has instructed the Defense Department to launch an inquiry into potential health impacts on Navy first-responders from Japan’s March 2011 earthquake, tsunami and nuclear disaster. […] While the instruction is not law, Defense Department officials said that they were taking the request seriously. […] These individuals claim to be suffering from exposure-related ailments such as unexplained cancers, excessive bleeding, thyroid issues and ailments including loss of muscle power, migraines and vision problems. […] The suit was filed in federal court in San Diego in December 2012 seeking damages and funds to cover medical expenses. The original eight complainants were on the USS Ronald Reagan, but the suit has since expanded to include those who served aboard the USS Essex and USS Germantown as well as attached Marines. […] some claim they were pressured into signing forms confirming they had been given iodine pills when none had been provided.

NAVY Sailor Reveals Gruesome Radiation Injuries


Congressional Record Jan. 15, 2014: Recent reports of sailors who have developed cancer and other health conditions linked to radiation exposure after serving on the USS Ronald Reagan during Operation Tomodachi, which provided humanitarian assistance following the earthquake and subsequent tsunami in Japan in March 2011, are disconcerting. […] The Secretary of the Navy is directed to take all necessary steps to ensure that any health effects resulting from this humanitarian mission are fully addressed. The agreement includes $200,000,000 for the peer-reviewed medical research program, $100,000,000 for the joint warfighter medical research program, and $25,000,000 for the peer-reviewed cancer research program. A portion of these funds should be utilized, if necessary, to carry out additional research on the health effects of radiation exposure. Paul C. Garner, attorney representing military personnel who served in Operation Tomodachi, , Jan. 27, 2014: Here’s where it’s going. We’re refilling before Feb. 6 […] we had 51 victims, we expect double that figure – of record. We’ve been contacted by probably 250 victims […] There’s a latency period, but we have filed on behalf of all who participated in Operation Tomodachi, to preserve their rights so that they can file a claim in the future when something arises. With Steve, we know it’s happening, with several others, unfortunately it’s the same scenario, or beyond — Constantly bleeding from your butt, or from gynecological? And you’re a young person, at 21 you lose one of your testicles? We’re going to push this forward. As you mentioned congress is going to get a report back from the undersecretary in charge of this by April 15, but we’re not waiting for them because where have they been?   More from Garner’s interview here

January 30, 2014 Posted by | Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Tepco to commence building ice wall between Fukushima reactor 2 and underground trench

Author-Fukushima-diaryTepco to start installing frozen water wall between reactor 2 and underground trench next week http://fukushima-diary.com/2014/01/tepco-to-start-installing-frozen-water-wall-between-reactor2-and-underground-trench-next-week/  by Mochizuki on January 29th,Following up this article.. Highly contaminated water possibly leaking from reactor2 building to underground trench [URL] Tepco is going to start drilling to install the frozen water walls between reactor2 and underground trench next week. Highly contaminated retained water is assumed to be moving between reactor2 turbine building and underground trench, which may lead to the direct leakage of coolant water to the sea. They plan to complete installing frozen water packers into the holes by the end of March, and start pumping up retained water from underground trench this May.

TEPCO to create frozen walls to stop water leaks (01/28/2014) update

In seawater monitoring commission of NRA (Nuclear Regulation Authority) held of 1/27/2014, Tepco stated the installation operation is about 1 week behind because of the retained highly contaminated water.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X7WhWYLdNNc

January 30, 2014 Posted by | Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Control over the Internet could now pass to a wealthy few

exclamation-Web providers like Verizon and Vodafone are lobbying hard for an Internet for the rich. And without a massive response from citizens, they could win, and put our whole community’s work at risk. Most of our Internet is located in the US and the EU so this affects us all. We don’t have any time to lose

The richest 1% could now control what we all see on the Internet forever. http://www.avaaz.org/en/internet_apocalypse_loc/?bqFCVab&v=34951  It’s the apocalypse of the internet as we know it, and will erase the democratic promise of an information highway for everyone the founders of the world wide web imagined.

Together, Avaaz has built on that vision, using the web to fight corruption, save lives, and bring people-powered aid to countries in crisis. But the US and the EU are on the verge of giving the richest corporations the right to show content fast, while paywalling or slowing down everything else. Avaaz’s ability to show the world citizen journalist footage from Syria, or run campaigns to save our planet is under threat!

Decisions on both sides of the Atlantic are being made now. But tech innovators, free speech advocates and the best web companies are fighting back. If millions of us join them now we can create the largest call for a democratic and free Internet ever. Sign up now and tell everyone. Continue reading →

January 30, 2014 Posted by | Uncategorized | Leave a comment

United States Radiation Exposure Compensation Act provides compensation for those afflicted by radiation

text-radiationCompensation may be available for those exposed to radiation, Journal Times,  Racine County Veterans Service Office  29 Jan 14 Over the past two years the United States Department of Justice has processed has processed thousands of Radiation Exposure Compensation Act claims from individuals filing under the Onsite Participant provisions of RECA. Many of those claims were filed by individuals serving in Japan after the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

The United States Radiation Exposure Compensation Act is a federal statute providing for the monetary compensation of people, including atomic veterans, who contracted cancer and a number of other specified diseases as a direct result of their exposure to atmospheric nuclear testing undertaken by the United States during the Cold War, or their exposure to high levels of radon while doing uranium. The 1990 act provided the following remunerations: Continue reading →

January 30, 2014 Posted by | Uncategorized | 1 Comment

“Dr Strangelove” – the film nuclear story that still matters today

‘Dr. Strangelove’ at 50: Why Stanley Kubrick’s Nuclear Satire Still Matters moviefone, January 29th, 2014  by Gary Susman  The ultimate punchline to the nuclear satire of “Dr. Strangelove”? As absurd as Stanley Kubrick’s imaginative black comedy about World War III seemed when it opened 50 years ago this week (on January 29, 1964), it all turned out to be true.

Everything in the movie that the Pentagon said couldn’t happen in real life — from Air Force officers launching nuclear strikes without Presidential approval, to the USSR being ready to respond with an automated doomsday system of its own — actually could have happened. The safeguards really were as flimsy as Kubrick and his screenwriters imagined them to be. (Which begs the question: How safe are we now from a nuclear apocalypse?)…….
scenes like the opening shot of a bomber refueling that looks like two planes copulating in mid-air – played up the Freudian nature of nuclear defense policy. Behind every missile standoff is a contest of manliness between East and West — and maybe some sexual performance anxiety, too, as Gen. Ripper (Sterling Hayden) suggests in his famous speech about “precious bodily fluids.” When Major Kong (Slim Pickens) rides that missile between his legs to glory at the film’s climax, the metaphor becomes impossible t omiss……….
the character was based on a number of people behind the Cold War nuclear strategy of mutually assured destruction: rocket scientist Wernher von Braun (who had worked for the Nazis before coming to America), strategist Herman Kahn, Manhattan Project mathematician John von Neumann, and hydrogen bomb designer Edward Teller. But when Kissinger gained prominence a few years later as President Nixon’s Secretary of State, “Dr. Strangelove” had provided us with the language necessary to describe and understand him…….The movie continued to reverberate through the culture in ways both obvious (the catchphrase “precious bodily fluids,” the joke, “Gentlemen, you can’t fight in here! This is the War Room!”) and obscure……..http://news.moviefone.com/2014/01/29/dr-strangelove-50-stanley-kubrick/

January 30, 2014 Posted by | Uncategorized | Leave a comment

As USA- Korea plan war games,North Korea threatens nuclear attack

North Korea threatens nuclear war in run-up to US-South Korea war games  North Korea has ratcheted up its rhetoric against its southern neighbour and the States in the run up to Foal Eagle, an annual war game between the US and South Korea By Associated Press, Seoul, South Korea 29 Jan 2014 North Korea is threatening nuclear war in the run up to scheduled, soon-to-start, joint military maneuvers between the US and South Korea.….http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/northkorea/10604956/North-Korea-threatens-nuclear-war-in-run-up-to-US-South-Korea-war-games.html

January 30, 2014 Posted by | Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Iran’s uranium mine inspected by UN officers

Nuke inspectors visit Iran uranium mine for 1st time in years CBS News,  DUBAI/VIENNA REUTERS January 29, 2014, — U.N. nuclear inspectors visited an Iranian uranium mine for the first time in nearly a decade on Wednesday, Iranian media reported, as Tehran gradually opens up its disputed nuclear program to greater international scrutiny.
 A three-member team from the International Atomic Energy Agency went to the Gchine mine near the southern Gulf port city of Bandar Abbas, a spokesman for Iran’s atomic energy organization said. The IAEA was last there in 2005.

 They “are now conducting their inspection,” Behrouz Kamalvandi was quoted as saying on the website of Press TV, Iran’s English-language state television……..Allowing the U.N. nuclear agency — which is investigating suspicions that Iran may have carried out atomic bomb research — to go to Gchine was among six concrete steps Iran agreed to under a Nov. 11 cooperation agreement with the IAEA.

The IAEA-Iran deal is separate from a Nov. 24 breakthrough accord between Iran and six world powers to curb Iran’s nuclear program in return for a limited easing of sanctions that have battered its economy. That agreement took effect on Jan. 20.

Both accords signaled a rapid improvement in Iran’s troubled ties with the outside world, made possible by the June election of a relative moderate, Hassan Rouhani, as president on a platform of ending Tehran’s international isolation…….http://www.cbsnews.com/news/iran-uranium-mine-visited-by-united-nations-nuclear-inspectors-for-first-time-since-2005/

January 30, 2014 Posted by | Uncategorized | Leave a comment

USA’s history of nuclear fracking

U.S. Experimented With Nuclear Fracking,  Forbes, Jeff McMahon, 29 Jan 14 “…….By 1974, approximately 82 million dollars had been invested in the nuclear gas stimulation technology program …. It was estimated that even after 25 years of gas production of all the natural gas deemed recoverable, that only 15 to 40 percent of the investment could be recovered. At the same time, alternative, non-nuclear technologies were being developed, such as hydrofracturing. Consequently, under the pressure of economic and environmental concerns, the Plowshare Program was discontinued at the end of FY 1975.

The three sites—the Gasbuggy site in New Mexico and the Rulison and Rio Blanco sites in Colorado—remain under the watch of DOE’s Office of Legacy Management.

When DOE cleaned up the Gasbuggy site in 2004, it used the well just  as Jon Abel suggested it might: “liquid radioactive waste was injected into the cavity formed by the nuclear explosion; solid radioactive waste was removed to the Nevada Test Site,” according to a DOE fact sheet (pdf).

When Rio Blanco was cleaned up, radioactive materials were injected into the earth using one of the test wells.DOE and EPA officials conduct regular tests to determine whether  radioactive liquids are migrating from these sites into adjacent groundwater. So far, they say, no leaks. http://www.forbes.com/sites/jeffmcmahon/2014/01/29/u-s-experimented-with-nuclear-fracking/

January 30, 2014 Posted by | Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Southern’s Georgia Power pushing for a $8.3 billion US govt loan guarantee

nukes-hungrySouthern Co working to finalize $8 bln nuclear loan guarantee Jan 29 (Reuters) – Southern Co Chairman Tom Fanning said on Wednesday that the company is working with the U.S. Energy Department to finalize an $8.3 billion loan guarantee for its two-reactor expansion at the Vogtle nuclear plant in Georgia, the first new reactors to be built in three decades.

Southern’s Georgia Power unit is leading a utility consortium that is building two 1,100-megawatt Westinghouse AP1000 reactors at a projected cost exceeding $14 billion…….

Federal loan guarantees had been viewed as critical to the once-predicted revival of U.S. nuclear construction due to the regulatory risk and high cost of nuclear construction.

Now, only a few new reactors are expected to be built due to lower natural gas prices, anemic growth in electricity demand and the lack of restrictions on emissions of carbon dioxide.

The only new U.S. reactors under construction are being built by the Georgia Power consortium and SCANA Corp, which is building two reactors in South Carolina.

The Vogtle loan guarantee, announced in 2010, was expected to be finalized in 2012, but negotiations bogged down over terms and costs and were complicated by DOE requirements added after the much-publicized bankruptcy in 2011 of solar panel maker Solyndra which had received loan guarantees…..http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/01/29/utilities-nuclear-southern-idUSL2N0L31V320140129

January 30, 2014 Posted by | Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Malaysia’s solar powered airport

19MW SunEdison Solar Project In Malaysia Operational Kuala Lumpur International Airport, Malaysia’s flagship airport and gateway to the East, has received a photovoltaic makeover. Solar industry giant SunEdison announced the official launch of a 19 MW solar energy installation that will save the airport 2.1 million RM (AU $715,000) each year in energy costs…..http://www.energymatters.com.au/index.php?main_page=news_article&article_id=4148

January 30, 2014 Posted by | Uncategorized | Leave a comment

India’s Green Power Market Development Group (GPMDG) launched

GPMDG launched to promote renewable energy among corporates THE HINDU, NEW DELHI, January 29, 2014 In a key step towards promoting renewable energy among corporate India, the Green Power Market Development Group (GPMDG) was launched on a nationwide basis in New Delhi on Wednesday.

The GPMDG initiative seeks to create a demand for renewable energy among corporate and help companies in meeting their renewable energy purchase obligations and also make them sustainable in the long term.

The GPMDG – India is a joint initiative of Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) and World Resources Institute (WRI) and supported by Shakti Sustainable Energy Foundation……http://www.thehindu.com/business/Industry/gpmdg-launched-to-promote-renewable-energy-among-corporates/article5630541.ece

January 30, 2014 Posted by | Uncategorized | 1 Comment

Information on Areva, Cameco, uranium deals sought by Saskatchewan magazine

Sask. magazine sues to get information on uranium deal with village CTV News,The Canadian Press January 29, 2014 A Saskatchewan magazine is hoping the courts can accomplish what the province’s privacy commissioner has not been able to do. Editors from Briarpatch Magazine have been trying to get documents from the northern Village of Pinehouse on agreements it has with uranium mining companies Areva and Cameco.

Pinehouse Mayor Mike Natomagan is named as the defendant on the statement of claim filed Tuesday in Court of Queen’s Bench in Regina.

The non-profit magazine filed a freedom of information request in April 2013, and Saskatchewan privacy commissioner Gary Dickson recommended that Natomagan provide the requested material.

The statement of claim asks for the financial statements of Pinehouse Business North, a subsidiary corporation of the village; documents that show the distribution of year-end surpluses or losses to Pinehouse from its subsidiary; and copies of correspondence between the uranium companies and the subsidiary regarding payments to the village. http://saskatoon.ctvnews.ca/sask-magazine-sues-to-get-information-on-uranium-deal-with-village-1.1660884#ixzz2rtnEE5AN

January 30, 2014 Posted by | Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Kentucky Senate ‘s Bill to lift moratorium on construction of nuclear plants

Senators Debate Lifting Decades Old Ky. Nuclear Moratorium By , 29  14 A Senate bill aimed at exploring the feasibility of nuclear power in the Bluegrass sparked debate in committee Wednesday.For thirty years, the General Assembly has had a moratorium on any nuclear plant construction without a plan for permanent waste disposal. The Senate Committee on Natural Resources and Energy has now passed a bill that would lift the moratorium and, proponents argue, allow energy companies to investigate the potential benefits of nuclear power.

Tom Fitzgerald with the Kentucky Resources Council says all of the nuclear plants operating the U.S. are currently housing their waste on site and no permanent solution has been identified. He cautions against moving ahead without a plan.

“The issue is do we lift the moratorium and send a signal to the electric power industry that you don’t need to worry about waste disposal, or do we wait until there is a strategy in place to manage these very problematic wastes before we give the green light to new nuclear construction,” Fitzgerald argues…….http://wuky.org/post/senators-debate-lifting-decades-old-ky-nuclear-moratorium

January 30, 2014 Posted by | Uncategorized | Leave a comment

S.Korea to spend $7 billion on new nuclear plants, while 4 plants remain offline

Four of S.Korea’s 23 nuclear reactors remain off; two to be built  BY MEEYOUNG CHO SEOUL Wed Jan 29, 2014Jan 29 (Reuters) – Four of South Korea’s 23 nuclear reactors remained offline as the 1,000 megawatt Hanul No.5 reactor was automatically shut early on Wednesday due to a technical glitch.

Asia’s fourth-largest economy later in the day approved a $7 billion project to build two nuclear plants – Shin Kori No.5 and No.6 – as planned……http://in.reuters.com/article/2014/01/29/nuclear-korea-idINL3N0L32FJ20140129

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