…..The question surrounding Glencore’s role in unintentionally potentially helping arm a nuclear Iran comes as Obama ramps up pressure on Tehran to end its atomic weapons programme……
…..”We might expect this from a Russian or Chinese company, but the truth is that even those companies usually stay away from this sort of exposure.”…
….Last year the head of its food trading business said the worst drought to hit the US since the 1930s would be “good for Glencore” because it would lead to opportunities to exploit soaring prices. It has also attracted attention by selling more than £50m worth of wheat to the World Food Programme….
Glencore traded $659m worth of commodities, including aluminium oxide, with Iranian entities during 2012, the Guardian has learned. Photograph: Urs Flueeler/AP
One of Britain’s biggest companies has made millions of pounds selling goods to Iran, including to a state-owned firm that supplies the regime’s nuclear weapons programme.
Glencore, a commodity trading house run by the billionaire Ivan Glasenberg, traded $659m (£430m) of goods, including aluminium oxide, to Iran last year, the Guardian has established.
The company, which is one of the biggest businesses in the FTSE 100 and has a market value more than three times that of Marks & Spencer, has admitted that some of its aluminium oxide ended up in the hands of Iranian Aluminium Company (Iralco).
Trafigura, another commodity trading house, has also admitted to trading an unspecified aluminium oxide (also known as alumina) with Iralco in the past.
1) “…Their concept (or way of dealing with it) is to downplay the disaster as much as they can, trying to make the public to forget about the danger of the disaster, then start promoting nuclear when things have calmed down. But their concept was never been talked about in the main media….”
2. “…There isn’t any hope for any help from anywhere! We are treated as if we were homeless….”
3. IN English
4. The Minami Soma Mayer, Mr. Sato said, “…..Government’s official should have visited the Fukushima crippled plant and seen the scale of the disaster with their own eyes. (I think he means a few officials came to visit but it is always for a short time and they ignore what’s happening to Tepco workers and the general state of the emergency…) ….”
5. “….The Japanese government prioritize economy first and people’s lives second…”
6. In English
7.in English.
8. “….All sorts of Geiger counters from different countries arrived in Japan. However they were stopped at customs and never made available to the public….”
8. In English.
9. “….The government should listen to people suffering by the disaster. They should listen to the weaker positioned people in our society….”
10 “…The real victims here are children. They have done nothing wrong…” by Aileen Miyoko Smith
11. “….I don’t know how to be proud of myself being Japanese when we have been abandoned by the Japanese government….”
12. “….In reality we never know which area is really safe….”
13. “…What can save Japan and Fukushima children is only by international pressure…”
…..Readings taken in September and December 2012 showed levels of tritium at 850 Becquerels per litre (Bq/l). The Environment Agency investigation level is 100Bq/l……
…..He said the investigation will need to find out the rate of decay, which could be up to 120 years, and where the water will have dispersed to over that time.“…. Prof. John Large
By Amy Woodland
Thursday, April 18, 2013
A RADIOACTIVE substance has been found to be leaking out of Dungeness B power station – the recent filming location for singer Peter Andre.
Owner EDF Energy says there is no threat to staff or the public, but an independent nuclear expert has said he “would be concerned”.
Elevated levels of tritium, a radioactive form of hydrogen produced by nuclear fission, were found at three boreholes during routine testing of the groundwater around the site.
Just last month singer Peter Andre and his crew came to the tip of Dungeness to shoot footage with his Lamborghini at the boardwalk and the new lighthouse, for a new ITV series.
The Environment Agency and water authorities have now been informed and an investigation is under way at the power station.
Readings taken in September and December 2012 showed levels of tritium at 850 Becquerels per litre (Bq/l). The Environment Agency investigation level is 100Bq/l.
A spokesman for EDF Energy said: “Work is well under way to resolve this issue and the Environment Agency and Office for Nuclear Regulation site inspectors are being kept informed.
“The environmental impact is negligible and there is no risk to the public or our employees.
“Tritium levels in boreholes on the station boundary have been confirmed to be at background levels, and the local water company has confirmed the local water system is unaffected.”
But independent nuclear expert John Large said: “I would be concerned, they have clearly gone over their statutory limit – it’s eight times over the certified limit.”
…..The last one was plutonium241, which had radiation dose about 50 times as much as the total of the other three(PU238, PU239 & PU240)…..
….The underground tanks were meant to store low level of radioactive water after being filtered through ALPS. But they have been using them to store high level of radioactive water (including β (beta) emitting nuclide, Strontium and α (alpha)emitting nuclide, Plutonium)…..
Thursday, 18 April 2013
A MBS radio interview with Prof. Koide: the repeated leaking problems at Fukushima Crippled Plant. Additional report: Plutonium should be in the leakage! 汚染水問題に関する小出先生のコメント、報道するラジオより。 追加報告：プルトニウムも汚染水に混じっているはず！
The most recent report on the leakage problem said that about 22 liters of radioactive water had leaked from gaps between the pipes used to transfer it from underground water storage tank into an another tank, and that the level of radioactivity in the water was 290,000Bq/m3.
This is so high that the leakage is unsafe to approach. Prof. Koide commented that according to Japanese law, the safety level of radioactive water that can be discharged into the environment is 0.05Bq/m3, or 0./03Bq/m3 if it contains strontium, so it is easy to imagine how high 290,000Bq/m3 actually is!
Dousing it or injecting it with water is the only way of continuing to cool the molten fuel, and this requires 400tons of water every day. Prof. Koide also observed that the leaks will carry on for as long as Tepco keeps using water to cool the molten fuel, possibly for at least 40 more years, or as long as it takes to decommission the plant.
He also commented that although Tepco keeps making new tanks to combat the problem, this solution would not work for ever, and urged the company again to bring a tanker to store the water.
On top of the reported leakage problems, Prof. Koide reckons that there must have been many cracks in many different places in the trenches and pits and also in the concrete basements of the reactor and turbine buildings, which must have been damaged by the M9 earthquake in March 2011.
He has kept on advising right from the beginning that Tepco should have arranged to bring a tanker to store the contaminated water and should have built a huge underground dam to stop it leaking into the environment. However Tepco has never followed his advice, citing cost as one of the reasons.
——————————————
It looks like a never ending problem! One source said that these problems will mean a greater chance of TEPCO having to dump untreated contaminated water into the sea.
It looks like leaking has been always happening anyway, and it became an apparent problem as the tanks and the pipes started to leak.
The underground tanks were meant to store low level of radioactive water after being filtered through ALPS. But they have been using them to store high level of radioactive water (including the β (beta) emitting nuclide, Strontium and the α (alpha)emitting nuclide, Plutonium).
Tepco has been trying to get ALPS to work for some time but it’s still in its trial stage. ALPS is supposed to filter 62 radioactive nuclides.However Tepco seems not wanting to mention the α (alpha) emitting nuclide isotopes.
[Suspicion] Tepco stated they won’t analyze leaking water for the α emitting nuclide “by mistake” Posted by Mochizuki on April 15th, 2013
According to Mr. Koichi Oyama, a member of city council of Minami soma-city, Uranium fuel at Reactor 3 was consisting of 9% of Plutonium(MOX). He shows a list of ionizing radiations that were discharged from the crippled plant in the video below.(9m45s)
An interview with Mr. Koichi Oyama from Minamisoma (Oct.2011)
in the video at 9m45s Mr. Oyama shows four kinds of plutonium isotopes that were observed. But in press conference held by Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology on Sep.30th, 2011 just three of them were brought to light.
The last one was plutonium241, which had radiation dose about 50 times as much as the total of the other three(PU238, PU239 & PU240).
A Plutonium contamination map by MEXT published on 12/8/12.
On Page7-10, is a list of the report on sixty one different locations in Fukushima, Miyagi, Ibaragi and Tochigi prefectures spanning a radius of 80km of the crippled plant.
Extract…
[…Prefecture – city/town/village – 緯度 latitude – 経度 longitude – PU241(lower limit of detection)-…]
You can see that different lower limit of detection have been applied, therefore..
“No Detection” does not mean that there are no isotopes!On page11 only the places they detected more than the lower limit of detection level were marked.
…..”We are very pleased with the recent news from the Indonesian Government. These new developments are good progress and positive news for mineral extraction in the area. This will help us realize the full value of our Miwah gold project in Aceh with a NI 43-101 compliant resource of 3.1 million ounces of gold.” said Edward Rochette, CEO of East Asia Minerals…… (April 16, 2013 Miwah gold project closer to reclassification in Aceh, Indonesia)
The price of gold should be going up! why is it going down? Aceh? Gerald Celente of Trends Journal asking the question at the start of this video! Published 19 April 2013
CANADIAN MINING COMPANY ANNOUNCES INVOLVEMENT IN ACEH GOVERNMENT PLAN TO CLEAR OVER 1.2 MILLION HECTARES OF SUMATRA’S PROTECTED FORESTS AND RELATIONSHIP WITH FORMER INDONESIAN MINISTER NAMED AS CORRUPTION SUSPECT
East Asia Minerals admits key role in ‘illegal process’ and claims “good progress” in attempt to ‘reclassify’ over 1 million hectares of ‘protected forests.’ The mining company also claims to have hired Dr. Fadel Muhammad, a former senior Indonesian government official facing corruption charges, “to help them with these efforts.”
Aceh has world-renowned biodiversity, including critically endangered orangutans, rhinos, elephants and tigers. This change would also undermine its incalculable value as a major carbon sink.
BANDA ACEH, Indonesia – A Canadian mining company announced Tuesday that it expects the governor of Sumatra’s Aceh province to allow it and other extractive industries to destroy 1.2 million hectares of valuable and currently protected rainforest.
The company, East Asian Minerals, claims in a press release to be working closely with government officials and to have staff in Aceh lobbying to reclassify large tracts of the province from “protected forest” to “production forest.” The company’s website also states that it has hired a senior government official, former Golkar Deputy Chairman Fadel Muhammad “to help them with these efforts.”
“Their departure deprives the agency of the two officials who have spent the most time in the last two years talking with Iranians at senior levels,”
VIENNA — Diplomats say a top aide to the chief of the U.N. nuclear agency has unexpectedly resigned, suggesting tensions among the organization’s top leadership.
By Associated Press, Updated: Friday, April 19, 6:33 PM
The move comes at a critical time for the International Atomic Energy Agency. It is the outside world’s only window on Iran’s nuclear program, which some nations fear may be turned toward making weapons.
Two diplomats told The Associated Press Friday that Rafael Mariano Grossi, handed in his resignation this week to IAEA chief Yukiya Amano.
Grossi, of Argentina, was touted by some diplomats as a possible successor to Amano, who was re-elected for a second term earlier this year.
Both diplomats demanded anonymity because they are not authorized to discuss confidential IAEA information.
Iran says its nuclear activities are peaceful and denies interest in atomic arms.
U.N. nuclear watchdog team on Iran faces reshuffle
April 19 2013
VIENNA — Two senior U.N. nuclear watchdog officials who have been leading talks with Iran will leave this year, potentially robbing it of experience and expertise in dealing with Tehran over its disputed atomic program.
The management reshuffle coincides with apparent deadlock in the agency’s push since early last year to coax Iran into allowing its inspectors to restart a long-stalled investigation into suspected atomic bomb research by the Islamic Republic.
Western diplomats blame Iranian stonewalling for the failure to come to an agreement, a charge Tehran denies, and some say the U.N. agency may soon need to reconsider its tactics. A new round of talks could be held in May.
“I think that we were approaching a potential re-set anyway. It is clear that Iran has been able to stall the process,” a diplomat in Vienna said.
Rafael Grossi, assistant director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, has been named Argentina’s envoy to the Vienna-based IAEA, a job he is expected to start in the summer, a diplomatic source said on Friday.
The IAEA last month said a senior Finnish nuclear official, Tero Varjoranta, would succeed Herman Nackaerts when he retires in the autumn as chief nuclear inspector in charge of monitoring Iran’s atomic activities and other sensitive issues.
Nackaerts, a Belgian, and Grossi have headed the IAEA’s team of experts who have met nine times with Iranian envoys since early 2012 in an attempt – so far in vain – to secure access to sites, documents and officials in the country.
“Their departure deprives the agency of the two officials who have spent the most time in the last two years talking with Iranians at senior levels,” said Mark Fitzpatrick of the International Institute for Strategic Studies think tank.
Analysts and diplomats stressed, however, that it is IAEA Director General Yukiya Amano, who steered the agency into a tougher approach to Iran, who decides policy. He secured a second four-year term in March, signaling continuity.
“An administrative reshuffle by the agency below Amano will likely have little impact on the Iran talks,” said Mark Hibbs of the Carnegie Endowment think-tank.
The IAEA-Iran talks are separate from, but still closely linked to, broader diplomatic negotiations between Tehran and six world powers aimed at resolving the decade-old dispute peacefully and prevent a new Middle East war.
Emergency declared at U.S. nuclear plant after lightning strike — “Venting of Unit 1 primary containment” — ‘Normal’ radiation levels reported — NRC mobilizes response center http://enenews.com/emergency-declared…
Exelon Generation’s La Salle County Generating Station declared an Unusual Event at 3:11 p.m. today, after both units automatically shut down when power from the switchyard into the site was interrupted during a severe thunderstorm. […] Technical experts are working to restore power to the switchyard. […] LaSalle Generating Station is located about 75 miles southwest of Chicago […]
Three Mile Island: Public can hear safety-related report on Friday Print By David Wenner | dwenner@pennlive.com Follow on Twitter on April 18, 2013 at 10:37 AM, updated April 18, 2013 at 11:30 AM This year’s version of the drill, which is held every two years, included the scenario of a terrorist attack on Three Mile Island, located near Middletown. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission recently began requiring all U.S. Nuclear plants to plan for such attack. TMI is the first one to be formally drilled.
Friday’s meeting at the Hilton Garden Inn at 3943 TecPort Drive in Swatara Twp. will cover preliminary results of the drill. The final assessment will be contained in reports that will become public over several months. http://www.pennlive.com/midstate/inde…
GAO REPORT FINDS NRC DOES NOT UNDERSTAND,NOR DO ITS REGS ADEQUATELY CONSIDER, “SHADOW EVACUATION” PHENOMENON AT NUCLEAR REACTOR SITES But report misses another key issue: Americans will want to be protected from radiationinduced cancer and disease, not just acute effects The U.S. Government Accountability Office today released a report finding that the Nuclear Regulatory Commission does not adequately understand the “shadow evacuation” phenomenon at nuclear reactors, and that its emergency planning regulations do not adequately account for the strong likelihood that far more people would evacuate, from much further distances than NRC plans, in a real nuclear emergency http://www.nirs.org/reactorwatch/emer…
ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY [EPA-HQ-OAR-2007-0268; FRL-9707-2] Updates to Protective Action Guides Manual: Protective Action Guides (PAGs) and Planning Guidance for Radiological Incidents AGENCY: Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) http://cryptome.org/2013/04/epa-13-04…
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Since the assaults on Fallujah in 2004, the city has seen an astronomical rise in birth defects and abnormalities, including some too new to even have a proper medical name. VICE went back to Iraq to investigate
How the BBC’s John Simpson obscures the truth on depleted uranium
….When Rep. Ruppersberger reintroduced CISPA at the start of this congressional season, he evoked the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 to suggest that Congress can and will do whatever is necessary in the wake of another tragedy.
“We don’t do anything well after a significant emotional event,” said Ruppersberger. Should there be a cyberattack on America on par with 9/11, Congress “will get all the bills passed we want,” he said….
Published time: April 18, 2013 16:17
Edited time: April 18, 2013 18:07
The US House of Representatives has passed the controversial Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protect Act (CISPA).
Lawmakers in the House voted 288-to-127 Thursday afternoon to accept the bill. Next it will move to the Senate and could then end up on the desk of US President Barack Obama for him to potentially sign the bill into law. Earlier this week, though, senior White House advisers said they would recommend the president veto the bill.
Should CISPA earn the president’s autograph, private businesses will be encouraged to voluntarily share cyberthreat information with the US government. The authors of the bill say this is an effort to better combat the reportedly increasing attempts to harm America’s critical computer networks and pilfer the systems of private companies for intellectual property and other sensitive trade secrets.
One of the bill’s creators, Rep. Dutch Ruppersberger (D-Maryland), said during a round of debate on Wednesday that $400 billion worth of American trade secrets are being stolen by US companies every year. Passing CISPA, he said, would be a common sense solution to a threat that’s growing at an alarming rate.
“If your house is being robbed, you call 911 and the police department comes. That’s the same scenario we are looking at here,” he said.
Also testifying Wednesday, Rep. Alcee Hastings (D-Florida) said CISPA could be used to combat the 25 million cybercrime victims she claims are targeted every day. (but not activist victims? Arclight2011 )
Published time: April 18, 2013 00:34
Edited time: April 18, 2013 01:42
Syrian President Bashar Assad has cautioned in a TV interview that the West will pay a heavy price for allegedly helping Al Qaeda extremists in the country’s two-year uprising, adding that the government’s defeat is out of the question.
In the statement that was made on Wednesday to state channel Al Ikhbariya, Assad warned that “The West has paid heavily for funding Al-Qaeda in its early stages. Today it is doing the same in Syria, Libya and other places, and will pay a heavy price in the heart of Europe and the United States.”
He stressed that “from the first day, what is happening in Syria is dictated from abroad.”
Assad’s interview also comes within a week of jihadist extremists the Al Nusra Front swearing support to Al Qaeda’s commander Ayman al-Zawahiri, who’s idea it had been initially to turn Syria into an Islamic state.
The president continued to say that Syria was “facing a new war, a new method, with fighters, some of whom are Arabs, not Syrians,” and that the “army is not fighting a war to liberate Syrian territory, but a war on terror.”
While the president did say that progress was being made, he also pointed toward some “big powers, in particular the United States, that do not accept countries to be independent; they want them to be submissive.” Although the West has claimed on occasion not to be supporting Al Qaeda, Assad added that “everyone who carries weapons and attacks civilians is a terrorist, be they Al-Qaeda or not.”
The president went on to say that the defeat of his government would herald Syria’s downfall, and therefore he could and would not surrender. “The truth is there is a war and I repeat: no to surrender, no to submission”, he said.
“There is no option but victory. Otherwise it will be the end of Syria, and I don’t think that the Syrian people will accept such an option,” he added.
When questioned about his own future, he only said that the decision should be up to the people of Syria.
“The position (of president) has no value without popular backing. The people’s decision is what matters in the question of whether the president stays or goes”, which could mean the president’s intention to run for another term in next year’s elections.
…..At the forum, we heard information about new technologies for the processing of liquid radioactive waste that are one hundred to a thousand times more effective than current ones. If we begin developing them, the necessity of the barbaric process of injecting liquid radioactive waste into underground formations will fall away.
It is also necessary to conduct research on the possibility of liquidating the already created underground reservoirs of liquid radioactive waste. We need to understand the economic, technical and technological sides of the problem.”….
ST. PETERSBURG – The eighth international public forum “Atomic Energy, Society, Safety – 2013” wrapped up last week in Moscow, and, if during previous forums Russia’s state nuclear corporation Rosatom had the floor and reported on its successes, and NGOs gathered with grumbles, then at this forum the situation seemed to be changing – and actual problems are being discussed.
Alexander Nikitin addressing the roundtable discussion.
Nils Bøhmer/Bellona
Alexander Nikitin, chairman of the Environmental Rights Center (ERC) Bellona participated in the forum’s “Contemporary Practice and Perspectives for Handling Radioactive Waste in the Russian Federation,” and he here shares some of his impressions, as told to Lina Zernova, editor of ERC Bellona’s Ecopravo magazine:
Roundtable that overflowed the seminar
NIKITIN: During our preparations for the forum, Academic Alexei Yablokov and I decided it was very important to discuss the issue of radioactive waste handling. We are very concerned about the situation in Russia. A number of questions came up regarding the actions of the national operator for handling radioactive waste, which began its operations a few months ago.
Alexander Nikitin (left) and Alexei Yablokov during the Rosatom forum last week
Nils Bøhmer/Bellona
We invited speakers to the roundtable who could discuss this question professionally. We put together the agenda for the round table, identified speakers, worked hard to invite colleagues from NGOs, and arranged the discussion scenario.
The co-chair of the roundtable was Andrei Abramov, director of state policy for radioactive waste, spent nuclear fuel and the decommissioning of nuclear and radioactively dangerous installations. Other leaders also took part. For instance, Dmitry Polyakov, director of the National Operator for Handling Radioactive Waste, Liliya Kuryndina, the head of the section for radio-ecology and inspection of the Department of Government Policy of the Ministry of Natural Resources, and others.
This first posit has been proved false.. see below for update info..
This Picture is reportedly of the Boston bomber. In the picture a gentleman is seen first with a rucksack on and then later without the rucksack. The individual is then, soon after, seen walking to the train station.
The individual with the missing rucksack is seen with another individual in the light blue trainer style top.
This is just a heads up on a possible varification of who might be involved..
I am also suspicious of the recent Niacin attacks in the USA as the Syrian rebels were reported to have captured some laboratories and the site of a nuclear reactor attacked by the Isrealis.
Update
‘We are not the bombers!’ Track team immigrants wrongly accused of planting Boston marathon bombs
The FBI on Thursday released photos and video of two suspects in the deadly Boston Marathon bombings and asked for the public’s help in identifying the men. The agency’s website crashed within moments.
FBI Agent Richard DesLauriers said the images are from surveillance cameras near the explosion sites shortly before Monday’s blasts at the world’s most famous marathon. He said one suspect is believed to have planted the devices near the finish line.
The images came out hours after President Barack Obama promised a grieving city to hunt down whoever was responsible.
Authorities had warned not to expect the case to be cracked quickly as they looked through a vast response to their plea for photos and video from the blast scene.
The images show two young-looking men wearing baseball caps, wearing jackets and carrying backpacks along the race route and weaving through the crowd.
“I live about a thousand feet from it and it blew my screen door off and my back windows. There’s houses levelled that were right next to it. We’ve got people injured and possibly dead.”
AFP
April 18, 20134:32PM
A FERTILISER factory in Texas exploded in a massive fireball, killing as many as 60 to 70 people, local media reported, amid fears a second tank at the plant could also erupt in flames.
Dozens of homes were destroyed, more than 130 people were evacuated from a nearby nursing home, and at least 100 patients were admitted to hospitals following the massive blast at the plant in the town of West, outside Waco.
“It’s like a nuclear bomb went off,” West Mayor Tommy Muska told CNN.
There were conflicting reports about the death toll in the chaotic aftermath of the explosion in the southern US state, which witnesses said sent a huge fireball into the air.
The figure of up to 60-70 dead was initially reported by KWTX television, citing the director of West emergency services, George Smith.
Keith Hopkins, an administrator with Providence hospital in Waco, told AFP that emergency personnel in West had also given him the figure of 60 to 70 fatalities.
A spokesman for the Texas Department of Public Safety, D L Wilson, told reporters he could not “confirm or deny” the figure, saying: “We have confirmed fatalities. The number is not current yet. It could go up by the minute.”
Mr Muska said that he didn’t yet know how many people had been injured or killed. He said buildings in a five-block radius from the plant were severely damaged by the explosion.
Mr Muska said that volunteer firefighter had responded to a fire at the West Fertisliser plant about half an hour before the explosion. Muska says he’s a volunteer firefighter himself and his helmet was knocked off when the explosion tore through the plant.
Glenn A Robinson, the chief executive of Hillcrest Baptist Medical Center in Waco, said that his hospital had received 66 injured people for treatment, including 38 who were seriously hurt. He said two helicopters carrying more patients were on their way to the hospital.
The United States was already on edge in the wake of Monday’s deadly twin bombings in Boston, and a scare in Washington over mail apparently laced with the poison ricin sent to President Barack Obama and a US senator.
The huge blast also came just before the 20th anniversary on Friday of a deadly confrontation in Waco between federal authorities and heavily armed members of a religious group, the Branch Davidians.
The explosion at the West fertiliser plant occurred just before 8.00 pm (12.00pm AEST), Waco Assistant Fire Chief Don Yeager told AFP by phone.
The cause was not immediately known but he said it was an anhydrous ammonia explosion.
nuclear-news 