The militants had hoped to transform low-grade radioactive Thorium 232 (Th-232) into deadly Uranium 233 (U-233). When combined with powerful home-made explosive triacetone triperoxide (TATP), the concoction can create a “nuclear bomb”, according to an instruction manual used by the militants and reviewed by Reuters.
IS supporters in Malaysia may build bombs with radioactive materials, Today online 02 JANUARY, 2018, KUALA LUMPUR— Fears are growing that fighters from the Islamic State (IS) group, including their sympathisers in Malaysia, may attempt to build bombs using radioactive materials.
This concern is especially real as the Malaysian police have recorded no less than 20 cases involving radioactive and nuclear materials which have “gone missing” over recent years.While some may have been retrieved, the whereabouts of many others remain unknown.
Perturbed by the combination of “missing radioactive goods and IS”, sources in security agencies said it was crucial for the counter-terrorism division to aggressively trace the missing radioactive materials.Normally, these cases will be investigated by the police’s Criminal Investigation Department. However, it should not be treated as a usual case of theft,” the sources said.
“There is a need to trace who the perpetrators are, their background, contacts and find out their motives. These are all vital information that must be cross-checked to ensure that these dangerous materials do not fall into the wrong hands.”
The sources also warned that terrorists might make use of radioactive and nuclear materials which had not been categorised as “controlled items”.
“There are two groups of radioactive and nuclear materials: those which are controlled and monitored by the authorities, and the others that we cannot control as they are stolen or improperly disposed off.”
Concerns about security threats in South-east Asia intensified when Indonesian security forces recently foiled an attempt by militants to detonate a dirty bomb.A dirty bomb is a conventional bomb that contains radioactive material.
The plot was foiled when police raided homes and arrested five suspects in Bandung, West Java in August last year. After the raids, police spoke of a plan to explode a “chemical” bomb but provided no other details.
The militants had hoped to transform low-grade radioactive Thorium 232 (Th-232) into deadly Uranium 233 (U-233). When combined with powerful home-made explosive triacetone triperoxide (TATP), the concoction can create a “nuclear bomb”, according to an instruction manual used by the militants and reviewed by Reuters.
Malaysia has been on high alert since gunmen linked to the IS launched multiple attacks in Jakarta in January 2016 and has arrested hundreds of people over the past few years for suspected links to militant groups, and has arrested hundreds of people over the past few years for suspected links to militant groups.
Malaysia’s Atomic Energy Licensing Board (AELB) director-general Hamrah Mohd Ali cautioned the authorities against underestimating terrorists’ knowledge and capabilities in utilising radioactive and nuclear materials to produce dirty bombs.
The department says that Tank AY-102 has widespread damage and should not be repaired.
The Tri-City Herald reports that this is the oldest of the double-walled underground tanks at Hanford. The Energy Department in 2012 revealed that waste from the inner shell of the tank was slowly leaking into the space between its inner and outer shells. No waste is known to have breached the outer shell to reach the environment.
The decision means that Hanford will have 27 newer double-walled tanks to hold waste emptied from 149 leak-prone single-walled tanks.
The waste is left from World War II and Cold War production of plutonium for the nation’s nuclear weapons program.
Nuclear subsidy a poorly considered handout, My Central Jersey, Mauricio Gutierrez, president and chief executive officer, NRG Energy, Princeton Jan. 2, 2018 “…..The nuclear subsidy bill (S3560) currently before the Legislature creates only one winner — nuclear plant owners — and many losers, including millions of business and residential electricity customers. By giving a blatant handout to PSE&G and Exelon to prop up three of their aging nuclear facilities, this legislation amounts to a $300-$400 million energy tax on millions of electricity customers across New Jersey every year. It will increase the cost of electricity and take hard-earned taxpayer dollars out of the pockets of average citizens, only to put it in the coffers of two multi-billion dollar corporations. And it won’t create a single job or additional investment in New Jersey along the way.
This legislation is also unnecessary. PSE&G and Exelon have already revealed that these nuclear plants are profitable today. There’s no emergency, and nothing needs to be done right now.
The State of Connecticut just went through a similar situation. Their legislature defeated a similar nuclear subsidy in 2016 and 2017, and instead decided to responsibly study the issue. With one simple study, Connecticut learned that the facts just didn’t support what the nuclear plant owner had told the state’s legislature — as well as the press, the local chambers of commerce, and even their own employees. The subsidy was completely unnecessary.
At the very least, our Legislature should take the time to conduct an independent study on the profitability of these nuclear plants.
https://www.teenvogue.com/story/nuclear-test-ban-treaty This is how you can join. by Sarah Bidgood and Susan le Jeune d’Allegeerschecque In this op-ed, Susan le Jeune d’Allegeershecque, British High Commissioner to Canada, and Sarah Bidgood, Senior Research Associate at the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies, explain how young people are getting involved with the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty Organization to stop nuclear testing.
The atomic age dawned more than 70 years ago, but there is no sense in which the nuclear weapons debate is yesterday’s news. From North Korea’s nuclear program to the ground-breaking Iran Deal, the nuclear arms issue is at the heart of the biggest threats facing the planet and the ways in which governments respond. Anyone under 26 was born after the end of the Cold War, but our youth has inherited the 15,000 nuclear warheads which are its most concrete legacy. And unlike the 70s and 80s, when nuclear policy drove one of the biggest protest movements of the time, it might seem that the opportunities to exert influence today are limited.
The Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty Organization (CTBTO) provides a way for the next generation to make their voices heard. The group is the guardian of a 1996 agreement of the same name that bans all nuclear testing. Because of the role that testing plays in the development and improvement of nuclear weapons, the treaty is crucial to limiting their spread. It has not yet entered into force because it has not been ratified by eight countries, including the United States. This means that even though the treaty is already supported by a global monitoring system of more than 300 facilities that can detect nuclear explosions anywhere in the world, the door remains open for countries that have not ratified it to test without legal consequences (as we have seen in North Korea).
In 2016, CTBTO Executive Secretary Dr. Lassina Zerbo launched an initiative to raise awareness about the treaty among the next generation and support for its entry into force. Today, the CTBTO Youth Group is open to all students and recent graduates with an interest in peace and security. From just nine members, the group has grown to more than 300, an international cohort from a wide range of backgrounds and experience levels. Its members are involved in an impressive spread of activities from research and analysis to grassroots advocacy, projects they carry out themselves with support from the CTBTO. Because of the diversity of the group, the projects vary based on members’s interests and the audiences they hope to reach. For graduate students specializing in nonproliferation at the Middelbury Institute of International Studies in Monterey, California, the youth group is a platform for their research on the treaty. Their projects have included analyzing the test ban treaty’s importance to the Treaty on the Nonproliferation of Nuclear Weapons, and presenting their findings at the United Nations in Vienna, Austria. For others, like teachers and students at Dr. Olga Mohan High School in Los Angeles, California, youth group activities are part of a larger effort to achieve a nuclear weapons free world. They joined the group after learning about Treaty at the Center for Nonproliferation Studies’ Critical Issues Forum, and they recently hosted a full-day Youth Disarmament Conference that highlighted the test ban treaty’s contributions to this goal.
Because social media is already a big part of their personal and professional lives, youth group members use it extensively. Their tweets, blogs and posts bring attention to the treaty and the need for ratification. Through hundreds of online interventions, they have introduced their networks to the treaty and explained why it should enter into force. They use these same tools to engage with an ever-younger political class to drive support for ratification. The extraordinary reach the of the youth group through social media demonstrates how much the treaty resonates with their generation once its benefits are understood. This groundswell of support has brought new energy to the debate on the test ban treaty, including for long-time experts who have not seen much progress on the treaty in years.
In many ways, however, it is personal — not virtual — relationships that are at the core of the youth group’s success. Members from India and Pakistan, nuclear rivals that have yet to ratify the treaty, work closely to understand arguments for and against the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty in their two countries. The same holds true for members from Israel, Egypt, and Iran, countries whose security interests place them in frequent conflict. The CTBTO provides a forum for these interactions by giving youth group members the chance to attend international events related to the treaty. These face-to-face meetings help build the trust, understanding and friendships at the heart of successful multilateral diplomacy.
Nearly two years after Dr. Zerbo’s big idea, the CTBTO Youth Group has firmly established itself at the heart of the renewed debate on nuclear issues. It allows a new generation of activists to challenge the status quo by asking tough questions that move the nuclear debate forward. At a time when the risk of a nuclear exchange seems greater than ever, teens and young adults must have a say in the future of these weapons. Activities like the youth group make them a constituency that is more and more difficult to ignore.
If you or someone you know would be interested in joining the CTBTO Youth Group, click here.
In a decision released Friday, the Ontario Energy Board orders the province’s largest electricity generator to cut “excessive” costs associated with pensions and benefits from its nuclear business’ administration, operations and maintenance budget by $100 million a year until 2021.
The decision comes after OPG, in May 2016, asked for $16.8 billion from the board for a period between 2017 and 2021 — a request that would ultimately lead to an increase in rates. OPG says the request is intended to, in part, help offset the cost of a major nuclear refurbishment project at the Darlington Nuclear Station and the continued operation of the Pickering Nuclear Station past 2020.
The OEB’s decision approves a request for $4.8 billion in costs related to the Darlington refurbishments and $292 million in fees associated with Pickering and says rate increase associated with the request will be retroactively effective from June 1, 2017.
While the final impact will be determined in early 2018, OPG estimated that its application would cost the average ratepayer an additional 65 cents a month over the five-year-period.
The decommissioning process at the site, which closed in December 2015, has been hit by delays following problems with machinery.
About half of the fuel has been removed from the plant and work to remove fuel was expected to be completed by the end of 2018.
Operator Magnox has now said it will not be completed until November 2019. The site’s two reactors held 49,000 fuel elements which have to be cleared as part of the decommissioning process.
But the work has been delayed because the 50-year-old machine used to remove them needed new parts.
Wylfa is the last of Magnox’s 12 UK power stations to be switched off and, across the firm’s sites, the cost of the process has almost doubled to an estimated £6bn.
It will take more than 100 years for the site to be fully cleared.
Horizon wants to build a replacement nuclear plant, Wylfa Newydd, next to the site, which would operate for 60 years and generate electricity for around five million homes.
But the proposals have to overcome planning and cost hurdles – the “strike price” for the electricity generated – before the plant can get the go ahead.
Kenya’s nuclear quest: A case of extreme optimism? As the country moves towards the reality of nuclear energy by 2027, questions on expertise and safety concerns abound. Daily Nation, 2 Jan 17“………While the government brags that over 60 per cent of the country’s population has access to power, unreliable power supply and frequent power outages steal the thunder from this achievement, pushing the government into overdrive to boost power production.One of the strategies is to put up a nuclear energy plant by 2027, in a fervent push to lower the country’s energy deficit and electricity tariffs.
The project will cost a staggering Sh2 trillion begging the question of whether it will lower energy tariffs and still remain afloat.
Sceptics also argue that a sunshine-rich country such as Kenya should never think of going the risky route of nuclear energy……
While government officials strongly defend the nuclear project, questions abound about how a country whose major cities – Nairobi, Kisumu, and Mombasa – have failed to handle minor fire disasters and basic household waste will effectively deal with toxic wastes, which are the by-product of nuclear power generation.
In Nairobi for instance, where every individual generates about two kilogrammes of waste every day, garbage is littered all over, with roads becoming impassable when it rains. Moreover, some hospitals and clinics carelessly dispose their medical waste in landfills ran by cartels, yet the government insists it can handle nuclear waste.
One of the critics of nuclear power generation is North Horr Member of Parliament Chachu Gaya, who says that the government should explore safer sources of energy such as solar and wind energy, and only consider nuclear as an energy source of last resort……
Opponents are also worried about health hazards, safety and radioactive waste management, with questions about the country’s preparedness to deal with radioactive waste and accidental leaks which advanced economies like Japan have grappled with.
“Kenya only rides on optimism in its quest to generate nuclear power, but lacks human capital or infrastructure to roll out the technology,” says Oyath, adding that Kenya’s poor waste management strategies and pitiable response to disasters are considerable grounds to dismiss the project……..http://www.nation.co.ke/health/Ready-for-nuclear/3476990-4248378-l09oc2/index.html
No Inspections At Construction Sites Without Strong Proof Of Radioactive Readings: Mosti, Malaysian Digest, 02 January 2018 , KUALA LUMPUR:Inspections at construction sites will not be carried out until there is strong proof of elevated readings on radioactivity content in building materials……..
Nuclear and radiation experts yesterday had cautioned the public over potential hazards posed by naturally-occurring radioactive elements in construction materials.
Commonly found in materials naturally sourced from earth, uranium and thorium are Naturally Occurring Radioactive Materials (NORM) often found in bricks, cement blocks, granite, marble or glazed tiles used in the construction of homes.
The two elements (uranium and thorium) undergo a natural decaying process to form other harmful elements and emit several types of radiation, particularly alpha, beta or gamma rays.
Atomic Energy Licensing Board (AELB) director-general Hamrah Mohd Ali previously said a statement that excessive exposure to these rays could damage human tissue and cells, and cause health issues or death.
He said apart from the dangers of being exposed to lethal radiation, uranium and thorium also produced radon and thoron, which are also lethal gases……
While this number was much lower than the previous year, one incident was above the lowest level on the INES scale, for the first time since 2015.
The International Nuclear Events Scale (INES) has seven levels, Level 1 being the lowest.
In 2016 there were 15 nuclear incidents in Belgium, all on Level 1. While there were fewer incidents this year, one of these was on Level 2.
That incident took place in July, during the transport of poorly packaged radioactive material that had been sent on passenger flights from Cairo to Brussels via Zurich. Many passengers, including one Belgian, were potentially exposed to radiation above the prescribed limit, but without any significant consequences for their health.
One of the Level 1 incidents was at the Doel plant where a deterioration of the concrete was observed in October.
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