Intelligence agencies believe ISIS has developed ways to plant explosives in laptops and mobile phones
ISIS ‘can plant bombs in laptops and mobile phones that will get through airport screening undetected’ http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/world-news/isis-can-plant-bombs-laptops-10146339Experts fears terrorists made a breakthrough after obtaining airport screening equipment to experiment and there are fears they will use the techniques at US and European airports, BY TOM PARR, 2 APR 2017
Intelligence agencies believe ISIS has developed ways to plant explosives in laptops and mobile phones that can evade airport security screening methods.
The warning by security services has led to Britain’s airports and nuclear power stations being instructed to tighten their defences against terrorist attacks.
Now there are concerns that terrorists will use the techniques to bypass screening devices at European and US airports.
Some experts fears terrorists made a breakthrough after obtaining airport screening equipment to allow them to experiment. FBI experts have tested how the explosives can be hidden inside laptop battery compartments in a way that allows a computer still to be turned on.
Manny Gomez, a former FBI special agent, said: “We had the shoe bomber, cartridge attempt, now this is the next level. We need to be several steps ahead of them.”
Last year al-Shabaab , the Islamist terror group based in Somalia, d etonated a bomb on a flight from the capital Mogadishu to neighbouring Djibouti .
The explosives were hidden in a part of a laptop where bomb-makers had removed a DVD drive. The bomber was blown out of the window but the plane survived.
Cancer deaths linked to nuclear power plants in Salem County
Study claims cancer deaths up since startup of Salem nuclear plants, By LOWER ALLOWAYS CREEK TWP. — A new study claims cancer death rates in Salem County have risen higher than the state average since the startup of three nuclear power plants there.
“Something like this that affects so many people is worth further study,” said Joseph J. Mangano, executive director of the Ocean City-based Radiation and Public Health Project.
“Current death rates in Salem County exceed the state rates for both genders, all age groups, all races and ethnic groups and all major types of cancer,” the study says.
Mangano, in the self-authored study, says that cancer death rates in Salem County have risen from about 5 percent below the state average in the 1983-1986 period to 20 percent above the average in the 2011-2014 period. He also says that non-cancer death rates have risen from about 2 percent above the state average in 1983-1986 to more than 23 percent above in the 2011-2004 period.
According to Mangano’s research, the incidences of cancer went from 1 percent below the state average in 1998-2001 to more an 9 percent above the average in 2011-2014.
The three nuclear reactors operated by PSEG Nuclear at Artificial Island in Lower Alloways Creek Township — Salem 1, Salem and Hope Creek — comprise the second-largest nuclear generating station in the U.S. in terms of power output.
Salem 1 began producing electricity in 1976, Salem 2 in 1980 and Hope Creek in 1986.
“We are not advocating for the shutdown of nuclear power plants,” Mangano said. “There well may be other factors that account for this cancer rise … a combination of factors.”
The region is also home to refineries, chemical plants and Superfund sites……..
Mangano says one of his major concerns are what he says are releases from nuclear plants.
“We are concerned that nuclear plant emissions may be contributing to the increase (on the cancer and death rates),” Mangano said. “We believe strongly that the focus should be placed on the new cancer risk factors and one of them that should be studies is the emissions from the Salem/Hope Creek plants.”……http://www.nj.com/salem/index.ssf/2017/04/study_says_cancer_deaths_up_since_salem_nuclear_pl.html
Giant renewable energy storage battery – a transformation for a coal mine
Germany Converts Coal Mine into Giant Battery to Store Renewable Energy for off-Hours EnviroNews World News on April 2, 2017 North Rhein Westphalia, Germany — The Prosper-Haniel hard coal mine, slated to be shut down in 2018 when government subsidies run out, is being repurposed to become a giant battery for excess power created by renewable energy sources. Located in North Rhein Westphalia, the coal mine’s conversion will allow Germany to store 200 MW of electricity for use during times when solar and wind are unavailable or unable to meet energy needs.
The storage is formed by a reservoir of water above the mine. The water can be released into the system when it is needed. As gravity pulls the water into the coal mine below, the water turns a turbine creating electricity. The water is then pumped back to the reservoir. This can be done when power prices are lower or when renewable energy sources are making more energy than people are using, as they did in Germany on May 12, 2016. This isn’t the first pumped hydroelectric storage station; however, it is the first one to use a coal mine for its lower reservoir.
According to Governor Hannelore Kraft, the miners of Bottrop will remain employed during the conversion process. Thus the plan addresses two concerns about which most opponents are vocal when it comes to energy sources like solar and wind. It creates a storage system, and it keeps people employed…….http://www.environews.tv/world-news/germany-converts-coal-mine-giant-battery-store-renewable-energy-off-hours/
Monsanto’s slag dumping: hazardous chemicals and rdaioactive wastes
Monsanto’s Superfund Secret https://www.dissentmagazine.org/online_articles/monsanto-roundup-production-superfund-sites-radioactive Bart Elmore April 1, 2017 The world’s most widely used herbicide, Roundup, has faced intense scrutiny in recent weeks, since documents surfaced revealing a close relationship between Monsanto, the creator of Roundup, and EPA officials tasked with regulating herbicide use in the United States. One email exchange included a Monsanto executive boasting that an EPA official had told him he “should get a medal” if he could “kill” an agency investigation into the herbicide.
This news was troubling, considering the fact that the World Health Organization recently declared Roundup’s active ingredient “probably carcinogenic to humans.” The 2015 WHO announcement raised major alarms because roughly 89 percent of American corn and over 90 percent of all soybeans produced in the United States—millions of tons of which are exported every year to dozens of countries around the world—are genetically engineered to be herbicide resistant, Roundup Ready being a preferred variety. These findings gave new scientific fodder to many GMO opponents who have long alleged that the world’s food supply is awash in dangerous chemicals.
But while new emails raise serious questions about the safety of consuming food contaminated with Roundup, historical documents reveal troubling issues further upstream. I obtained files from the EPA via a Freedom of Information Act request that tell the story of Roundup’s origins at a Superfund hazardous waste site. These documents show that there are disturbing environmental and human health concerns at the beginning, not just at the end, of Roundup’s lifecycle.
Monsanto’s weedkiller comes from beneath the soil. The active ingredient in Roundup is glyphosate, which is ultimately derived from elemental phosphorous extracted from phosphate rock buried below ground. Monsanto gets its phosphate from mines in Southeast Idaho near the town of Soda Springs, a small community of about 3,000 people. The company has been operating there since the 1950s.
I went to visit last summer, and what I found was startling. I stood just beyond a barbed-wire fence at about nine o’clock at night and watched as trucks dumped molten red heaps of radioactive refuse over the edge of what is fast becoming a mountain of waste. This dumping happened about every fifteen minutes, lighting up the night sky. Horses grazed in a field just a few dozen yards away, glowing in the radiating rays coming from the lava-like sludge. Rows of barley, for Budweiser beer, waved in the distance.
When phosphate ore is refined into elemental phosphorous, it leaves a radioactive by-product known as slag. Monsanto’s elemental phosphorous facility, situated just a few miles from its phosphate mines, produces prodigious quantities of slag that contains elevated concentrations of radioactive material. For years, this slag was actually sold to the town of Soda Springs and nearby Pocatello, and people built their homes and roadways out it. In the 1980s, however, the EPA conducted a radiological survey of the community and warned that citizens might be at risk from elevated gamma ray exposure. The study concluded that if business continued as usual in Soda Springs, within four decades “the probability of contracting cancer due to exposure from elemental phosphorous slag” would “be about one chance in 2,500 in Pocatello and one chance in 700 in Soda Springs.”
The EPA, facing serious pressure from Monsanto and community members who feared what this study might mean for property values, later agreed to submit the report for review, and ultimately recommended the initiation of new studies. In the meantime, the mayor of Soda Springs worked with the city council to ban the further sale of slag in the community.
I spoke with a radiological scientist who studied the slag issue in the area for many years, and he assured me that homeowners in Southeast Idaho are exposed to only small levels of gamma radiation that should not be harmful—currently the EPA’s official position.
Nevertheless, a website created by the Phosphorous Slag Technical Work Group—a coalition that includes Monsanto, EPA officials, local public health agents, and other mining concerns—offers advice to Idahoans, including the helpful tip that if dangerous contamination is found, homeowners might consider “spending less time in the basement.”
Monsanto’s Soda Springs plant is currently an active Superfund site, having achieved that toxic waste site designation in 1990. Harmful onsite pollutants include cadmium, selenium, and radioactive radium all of which can cause serious health problems in humans in high concentrations.
In 2013, over two decades after EPA declared Monsanto’s Soda Springs plant a Superfund site, the EPA explained that pollution problems continued to plague the facility: “The remedy for the Monsanto site is currently not protective because concentrations” of “contaminants of concern” continued to leach into groundwater. In a five-year review of the site, the EPA found that some harmful chemicals were increasing in plumes migrating from the plant. The agency offered a disheartening conclusion: “Monitoring trends indicate that the groundwater performance standards will not be met in the foreseeable future.” This was the last five-year review of the site to date. Currently, the EPA’s website for the facility reports that groundwater contamination is “not under control” even as elemental phosphorous production continues.
In the past, Monsanto has also had elevated levels of mercury emissions at the plant. Citing an EPA study, Keith Riddler of the Associated Press reported that in 2006 “about 684 pounds of mercury was emitted in [Idaho], 659 of that from Monsanto Co.’s Soda Springs phosphate processing plant in eastern Idaho.” In 2015, the company reported mercury compound emissions topping 875 pounds. For context, the third- and fourth-largest emitters of mercury compounds among power plants in the United States—which the Obama administration targeted for serious mercury emissions reductions under the Clean Power Plan—put out 823 pounds and 782 pounds respectively in 2013.
Toxic chemicals are not confined to Monsanto’s processing facility. In 2003, the EPA began Superfund remediation assessments at three closed Monsanto mine sites nearby—Ballard, Henry, and Enoch Valley—due in large part to selenium contamination in mining debris.
According to the U.S. Government Accountability Office, since 1996, “an estimated 600 head of livestock (including horses, cattle, and sheep) have died after ingesting plants or surface water containing high concentrations of selenium.” Some of these incidents took place at mine sites owned by other phosphate companies in the area, such as FMC, but Monsanto mines have contributed to this casualty count over the years.
Radioactive waste piles, groundwater pollution, mercury emissions, and poisoned livestock: these are just some of the supply-side costs of producing Roundup, an herbicide that Monsanto dubs the lynchpin of its “environmentally responsible weed control program.”
The prospects for resolution of these problems are bleak. President Trump’s EPA administrator, Scott Pruitt, is an avowed adversary of the agency he now heads, and he has given clear signs that he intends to annul regulations designed to curb polluting practices. If the EPA’s relationship with corporations like Monsanto was already cozy, it is likely only to become more so. In other words, Monsanto is not likely to face renewed federal pressure to clean up its act anytime soon.
As Monsanto looks to seal a multibillion-dollar merger with German rival Bayer, its power to spread Roundup around the world is due to expand in the years ahead. And if the past is any indication, Monsanto’s message to the world will be one of agricultural salvation through biotechnology. But communities that are the target of these corporate promises should take heed. The sustainable future Monsanto hawks remains tied to a toxic Superfund past that is not even past.
Bart Elmore is an assistant professor of environmental history at the Ohio State University and a Carnegie Fellow at New America.
Indian nuclear power plant to use drones for surveillance
Nuclear plant to have eye in the sky http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/news/science/nuclear-plant-to-have-eye-in-the-sky/article9612475.ece MUMBAI, APRIL 2: Situated in vast areas and away from human settlement, the surveillance of nuclear power plants have been a challenge for paramilitary force CISF, which is tasked with the security of such installations.
Now, the Nuclear Power Corporation of India (NPCIL) plans to deploy drones for the purpose at the Madras Atomic Power Station (MAPS) near Kalpakkam in Tamil Nadu.
While MAPS would be the first such facility in the country to use drones for general surveillance and intrusion detection, they were famously deployed by Japanese engineers at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant after the nuclear accident of 2011.
The Kalpakkam plant, located 70 km from Chennai, is also in the vicinity of other sensitive installations of the Department of Atomic Energy (DAE) such as the Indira Gandhi Centre for Atomic Research, the Fast Breeder Reactor Project, the BARC-run nuclear desalination demonstration plant and Kalpakkam fuel reprocessing plant.
Sources close to the development said tenders are likely to be floated by the NPCIL for procuring the drones and their control systems this fiscal. The use of drones will also require clearances from the Atomic Energy Regulatory Board (AERB), the regulator for all atomic energy institutions in the country.
Both aerial and ground level drones are capable of large-scale territorial surveillance. They are fitted with video cameras and other sensors that allow continuous surveillance of facilities.
Sources said the cameras mounted on the drones could be programmed to scan for certain topographical features on the ground and if there is a mismatch between the programmed image and the live feed from drones, alarms would go off.
Lt Gen DS Hooda (Retd), who served as Chief of Northern Army Command, told BusinessLine that the Army had been using drones on the India-Pakistan border and in Kashmir region. Drones allow the forces to get a bird’s eye view of the terrain and identify intruders hiding in tall structures. Drones would prove to useful in securing large installations, he said.
The Fires of History Yet Rage — Climate Change and the Authoritarian Assault on Liberal Democracy
GR: Robert Scribbler writes about history and the forces prompting a downward spiral of modern civilization. He is writing about the greed and politics that I believe will lead to a collapse that is far greater than the regional falls over the past thousands of years. In western India, the Middle East, and north Africa, local societies destroyed their forests, soils, and water and then they faded away. The danger we are in now is not regional, it is global.
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Reactors from Russia are Unsafe and Unreliable, Says Russian Environmentalist
“The Russian nuclear giant, Atomstroyexport, has been clearly unwilling to abide by the Indian liability law which has a clause on suppliers liability in case of an accident. What does it say on their claims of safety?“(From the interview with Vladimir Slivyak by Dianuke). Atomsroyexport is majority owned by Rosatom, and minority owned by Gazprombank Group. All are Russian State owned. The US, Japan, Romania, Morocco, Argentina and the UAE have also agreed to protect suppliers from being sued through the “Convention on Supplementary Compensation for Nuclear Damage.” (See: http://state.gov/md5951.htm) There continue to be suppliers, even after construction (e.g. nuclear fuel).
From Dianuke.org:
“JAN 9 2015
Reactors from Russia are unsafe and unreliable, India shouldn’t buy them: Russian environmentalist Vladimir Slivyak
DiaNuke.org interviewed the eminent environmentalist Vladimir Slivyak whose group EcoDefense has been facing repression in Russia for exposing the lack of nuclear safety and…
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Stop Koodankulam Nuclear Reactor Expansion: Modi-Putin Nuclear Tango
Photo: Koodankulam Nuclear Power Protest, PMANE, Dianuke.org
Via Dianuke.org:
“Stop the Koodankulam NPP Expansion Now!: PMANE’s Statement on Modi-Putin Nuclear Tango OCTOBER 15, 2016
People’s Movement Against Nuclear Energy (PMANE)
National Alliance of Anti-nuclear Movements (NAAM)
Press Release | October 14, 2016
It has just been announced that the Indian Prime Minister Mr. Narendra Modi and the Russian President Mr. Valdimir Putin will do the “Base Concreting Work” for the Koodankulam nuclear power plant units 3 and 4 at 1:05 pm on October 15, 2016, Saturday through video-conferencing. It may be remembered that these two leaders dedicated the first unit to the nation a few months back through video conferencing. But the same first reactor is going to be shut down again in December this year for two months for re-fuelling. It must be noted that the same unit was shut down for seven months for re-fuelling earlier this…
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South Africa – Zuma’s Late Night Cabinet Reshuffle: Putin-Rosatom Nuclear Coup?
“One plausible reason for the aggressive push for an expanded nuclear fleet is a political union between Russian President Vladimir Putin and South African President Jacob Zuma, who is whispered to be at the core of the nuclear drive. The evidence that the odds are focused at Russia’s favor in the bidding process is overwhelming; with the Intergovernmental Framework Agreement with Russia being concluded first and in far more detail than the other agreements.” (Excerpt from Dominique Doyle of EarthLife Africa in https://safeenergy.org/2015/08/17/south-africas-russian-nuclear-dream-boat )
Rosatom is a State Corporation and thus is subordinate to the Russian President, rather than the government.
Link: https://youtu.be/QrjnbK9daLI
From Greenpeace Africa:
“Greenpeace reacts to Zuma’s late night cabinet reshuffle
Press release – March 31, 2017
31 March 2017, Johannesburg: Reacting to the late night cabinet reshuffle undertaken by President Zuma, Greenpeace Africa had the following to say:
“Greenpeace Africa…
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Russia: Web Censor Crackdown Ahead of April 2nd Anti-Corruption Protests
From Ad Vox-Global Voices:
“Russian Web Censor Cracks Down Ahead of Next Anti-Corruption Protests, by Isaac Webb, Posted 31 March 2017 12:34 GMT
Russia’s prosecutor general requested on Friday that Roskomnadzor, the state agency responsible for censoring media, block websites it said are inciting public disorder by inviting people to join a rally scheduled be held in central Moscow on Sunday.
In a written request, Deputy Prosecutor General Viktor Grin asked Roskomnadzor to block five websites “calling for participation in mass (public) events on April 2, 2017 on Red Square in Moscow and in all other major cities of the Russian Federation.”
The request comes in the wake of the largest opposition demonstrations held in Russia since 2011-12, when protesters rallied against the results of the allegedly fraudulent 2011 parliamentary elections and President Vladimir Putin’s decision to run for a third term in 2012. Sixty thousand people gathered in cities across Russia last Sunday to protest state…
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April 2 Energy News
Opinion:
¶ Trump is on the losing side of history on coal, climate change • Trump’s executive order does not fundamentally change the economics of power production. The natural gas boom, fueled by fracking, is a huge factor. But renewable power has surged. There for every job in US coal mines, there are almost 10 in renewable-energy. [Corpus Christi Caller-Times]
250-ton coal truck (Photo: Matthew Brown, AP)
¶ Why business is greener than Trump • Since Trump’s election, nearly 900 companies and investors have signed an open letter, “Business Backs Low Carbon,” calling on the administration not to withdraw the US from the Paris agreement. These companies believe that failure to build a low-carbon economy would hurt America’s prosperity. [Gulf Times]
Science and Technology:
¶ A team of researchers from Kaneko, a company operating in Japan, has recently announced breaking the efficiency record of solar panels…
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No April Fools’ Joke: Russia-Trump-Tillerson-NATO
Senator Merkley to now US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson:
On March 22nd, Congresswoman Kaptur remarked: “Mr. Speaker, years from now, history books could well describe entrapment of a United States President by a foreign adversary. Allow me to update my colleagues on the Trump administration’s foreign policy. Recently, the State Department avoided committing Secretary Rex Tillerson to a NATO meeting next month with our tried and true allies in Europe. Yet, the administration has no problem flying Secretary Tillerson to Moscow to meet with Putin in April. This is no April Fools’ joke. Since when is the Kremlin more important than our NATO partners? Never.” Tillerson finally went, but, according to Reuters, Friday, 31 March, “during his brief stop in Brussels“, Tillerson failed to “hold one-on-one meetings with countries, which is customary during such gatherings.“
Part of Greenpeace graphic. See entire graphic at…
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Toothless! Lapdog! Nukiller! Regulators Rubberstamp Moorside Plan
If you believe this rhetoric from the industry and their government “regulator” lapdogs then you believe that black is white, that habitats can be replaced, that Nukiller is safe, that Cumbrians are immune from radiation linked diseases.
Read this and weep, and then get active, organise and RESIST!!
“In 2011 the Environment Agency published its decision document setting out its detailed assessment of environmental aspects of the UK AP1000 nuclear power station design. It used the comments and issues raised in the 2010 consultation to help inform its decisions. Since December 2011, the Environment Agency has been assessing the further information Westinghouse provided. The environmental regulators have now issued a full SoDA. This supplement to the 2011 decision document explains developments since 2011 and why they have issued a SoDA. The regulators conclude that the environmental aspects of the design would meet the high standards they expect, and have decided…
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Politics, Nature-Conservation, and Pipelines
Abandoning Fossil Fuels for Nature Conservation
GR: Fossil fuels are harmful during their extraction, delivery, refinement, and use. Alternative energy sources are available that are safer and offer tangible benefits for people. More employment opportunity is an example. It is imperative for the survival of nature, wildlife, and humanity that we close the door on the fossil-fuel industry and its disastrous impact. The first step is replacing all the kleptocrats who serve in our governments with progressive politicians able to resist the financial incentives for destroying the Earth. To do this with a balanced integration of human and nature concerns, we must form an alliance of progressive political parties and nature-conservation organizations.
Though the political alliance is the primary strategy, we can have some influence over our kleptocrats by showing them the strength of our numbers. Here’s a petition to Canadian Prime Minister Trudeau that focuses on the delivery part…
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April 1 Energy News
Opinion:
¶ While Trump promotes coal, other countries are turning to cheap sun power • Last year when the Chilean government invited utility companies to bid on public contracts. The auction was dominated by solar producer offering to supply electricity at about half the cost of coal-fired plants. It wasn’t because of a government subsidy. [Prince George Citizen]
Concentrating solar power in Chile
(Tamara Merino for The Washington Post)
¶ Toshiba debacle highlights huge risks in nuclear power business • The high-profile bankruptcy of Toshiba’s US nuclear subsidiary is graphic evidence of the gargantuan risk involved in the business. Westinghouse filed for bankruptcy under the weight of huge cost overruns at four nuclear reactors it has been building in the US. [Asahi Shimbun]
World:
¶ The top court in India has gone ahead and banned the sale of vehicles running on Euro III standards (and older)…
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1 This Month
Tell the Ukrainian Government to Drop Prosecution of Peace Activist Yurii Sheliazhenko
Petition to revoke the licensing of the Near Surface Nuclear Disposal Facility (NSDF) at Chalk River. https://www.ourcommons.ca/petitions/en/Petition/Details?Petition=e-7247
of the week – STOP SMALL MODULAR REACTORS IN CANADA
To see nuclear-related stories in greater depth and intensity – go to https://nuclearinformation.wordpress.com
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