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USA had nuclear weapons on Okinawa- declassified information, but everyone knew anyway

“Fact of” Nuclear Weapons on Okinawa Declassified http://fas.org/blogs/secrecy/2016/02/okinawa-nuclear/ Feb.19, 2016 The Department of Defense revealed this week that “The fact that U.S. nuclear weapons were deployed on Okinawa prior to Okinawa’s reversion to Japan on May 15, 1972” has been declassified.

While this is indeed news concerning classification policy, it does not represent new information about Okinawa.

According to an existing Wikipedia entry, “Between 1954 and 1972, 19 different types of nuclear weapons were deployed in Okinawa, but with fewer than around 1,000 warheads at any one time” (citing research by Robert S. Norris, William M. Arkin and William Burr that was published in 1999 in the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists). As often seems to be the case, declassification here followed disclosure, not the other way around.

If there is any revelation in the new DoD announcement, it is that this half-century-old historical information was still considered classified until now. As such, it has been an ongoing obstacle to the public release of records concerning the history of Okinawa and US-Japan relations.

Because this information had been classified as “Formerly Restricted Data” under the Atomic Energy Act rather than by executive order, its declassification required the concurrence of the Department of Defense, the Department of Energy, and (in this case) the Department of State. Any one of those agencies had the power to veto the decision to declassify, or to stymie it by simply refusing to participate.

Instead, the information was declassified as a result of a new procedure adopted by the Obama Administration to coordinate the review of nuclear weapons-related historical material that is no longer sensitive but that has remained classified under the Atomic Energy Act by default. The new procedure had been recommended by a 2012 report from the Public Interest Declassification Board, and was adopted by the White House-led Classification Reform Committee.

Also newly declassified and affirmed this week was “The fact that prior to the reversion of Okinawa to Japan that the U.S. Government conducted internal discussion, and discussions with Japanese government officials regarding the possible re-introduction of nuclear weapons onto Okinawa in the event of an emergency or crisis situation.”

Such individual declassification actions could go on indefinitely, since there are innumerable other “facts” whose continued classification cannot reasonably be justified by current circumstances. A more systemic effort to recalibrate national security classification policy government-wide is to be performed over the coming year

Update: The National Security Archive posted the first officially declassified document on nuclear weapons in Okinawa, which was released in response to its request. See Nuclear Weapons on Okinawa Declassified, February 19, 201

February 20, 2016 Posted by | OCEANIA, secrets,lies and civil liberties, weapons and war | Leave a comment

Tennessee Valley Authority considers selling its unfinished Bellefonte Nuclear Plant

Unfinished TVA nuclear plant may hit the selling block  Ty West Managing editor Birmingham Business Journal, 19 Feb 16  An unfinished nuclear power plant in northeast Alabama could soon hit the open market.The Tennessee Valley Authority is considering a sale of its unfinished Bellefonte Nuclear Plant, which is located on a 1,600-acre site near Hollywood on the Tennessee River. Work on the plant started in 1974, but it was never completed or used as a nuclear plant.TVA said the site could be used for commercial, industrial or residential developments, but could also be used as a nuclear plant………http://www.bizjournals.com/nashville/blog/2016/02/unfinished-alabama-nuclear-plant-may-hit-the.html

February 20, 2016 Posted by | business and costs, USA | Leave a comment

Push to not just postpone nuclear waste burial near Great Lakes, but to stop it altogether

Critics want feds to kill nuclear-waste bunker after time extension sought http://www.metronews.ca/news/canada/2016/02/19/critics-want-feds-to-kill-nuclear-waste-bunker-after-time-extension-sought.html By: Colin Perkel The Canadian Press Published on

TORONTO — Groups opposed to the burial of nuclear waste near Lake Huron are calling on the federal government to kill a proposal for an underground storage bunker rather than ask for more information on the project.

In a statement Friday, one group said the environmental credibility of the new Liberal government under Justin Trudeau is at stake.

“It is unfortunate that the government is not listening to what the people and Great Lakes communities are telling them: to reject this plan,” said Beverly Fernandez with Stop the Great Lakes Nuclear Dump.

“No matter what process is followed, burying and abandoning radioactive nuclear waste in the Great Lakes Basin will always be a bad idea.”

The statement comes after the federal government said it needs more information before deciding whether to approve plans to build a giant underground storage bunker for nuclear waste near the Lake Huron shoreline.

That means a decision on the project, decried by scores of communities around or near the Great Lakes, will be delayed well beyond what had been a March 1 deadline.

A notice posted by the Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency says Environment Minister Catherine McKenna wants more details and further environmental studies for the proposed deep geologic repository near Kincardine, Ont.

A review panel last May had given the go-ahead, but a decision rests with the McKenna.

“The minister has requested that the proponent, Ontario Power Generation, provide additional information on three aspects of the environmental assessment: alternate locations for the project, cumulative environmental effects of the project, and an updated list of mitigation commitments for each identified adverse effect,” the notice reads.

“The minister’s request for information from the proponent has paused the timeline for an environmental assessment decision to be issued.”

A decision had been expected in September, but the former Conservative government extended the deadline to March 1 to allow for last fall’s federal election.

McKenna has now given the utility until April 18 to provide the environmental assessment agency with a schedule for fulfilling the information request. When she might make a decision is still to be determined.

Ontario Power Generation proposes to construct and operate the underground facility for the long-term management of radioactive waste at the Bruce nuclear site.

The proposal calls for hundreds of thousands of cubic metres of so-called low- and intermediate-level nuclear waste to be buried 680 metres underground in the bedrock.

Proponents argue the rock is geologically stable and would provide a hermetic seal to prevent any radioactivity reaching the lake about 1.2 kilometres away for tens of thousands of years.

However, almost 200 communities and environmental groups have argued that such a facility, despite OPG’s arguments, would be too risky given the proximity to Lake Huron. Any contamination, they say, could threaten drinking water for millions of people.

February 20, 2016 Posted by | Canada, politics, wastes | Leave a comment

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