A US defense report has called for contingency planning to neutralize a vast Chinese tunnel network with both “conventional and nuclear forces.” James Corbett told RT the “Underground Great Wall” scare is being used to mask US nuclear ambitions.
Orders for the Commander of the US Strategic Command (STRATCOM) to submit a report on means of nullifying China’s underground tunnel network were outlined in the new National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) signed by President Barack Obama on January 2.
The NDAA-directed report will further seek to identify knowledge gaps regarding China’s nuclear weapons programs, a request which was likely spurred by a controversial 2011 study out of Georgetown University entitled “Strategic Implications of China’s Underground Great Wall.”
The researchers claimed that China’s Second Artillery Corps, a secretive branch of the country’s military tasked with protecting and deploying its ballistic missiles and nuclear warheads, had dug some 3,000 miles of tunnels which currently housed up to 3,000 nuclear warheads – ten times US intelligence estimates.
The report drew a firestorm of criticism via its unconventional Internet-based research methods, which relied on Google Earth, blogs, military journals and even a fictional television program about Chinese artillery soldiers, to reach its conclusions.
But the questionable conclusions of the Georgetown report and Washington’s drive to more properly assess China’s military capability, are more reflective of Washington’s own ‘nuclear strategy’ than Beijing’s ambitions, James Corbett, editor of the Japanese-based Corbett Report news website, argues.
RT: The U.S. government is operating on the assumption that there are three thousand kilometers worth of tunnels crisscrossing China. Is that something you’d find believable?
At 2:37 PM on January 14, a cooperative company worker who had finished work fell in the parking lot in front of Units 5-6 Service Building as his foot got stuck in the snow when he was trying to get into his car. Since a bone fracture on the left brachial region was suspected as a result of medical examination at Units 5-6 medical room, an ambulance was called at 3:04 PM on the same day. The injured worker was transported to Tomioka Fire Department by our emergency vehicle and then transferred onto an ambulance to be transported to Fukushima Accident Hospital. It was confirmed that no radioactive material was attached on his body.
“…In November 2011 it signed a deal with Russian state-owned nuclear agency Rosatom to build a nuclear plant in the northwestern town of Rooppur which will have two 1,000 megawatt reactors at a cost of up to $2 billion each….”
Bangladesh
Tuesday, January 15, 2013
DHAKA: Bangladesh’s Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina will sign defence and nuclear energy deals worth $1.5 billion during a three-day visit to Russia which begins on Monday, the government announced. Hasina flew out the Bangladeshi capital Dhaka on Monday at the head of a 54-member delegation to Moscow where she is expected to hold talks with President Vladimir Putin at his Kremlin offices on Tuesday.
Cartoon courtesy of theepochtimes.com
Foreign Minister Dipu Moni told reporters a total of nine accords would be signed during the trip, including a $500 million credit agreement to help fund construction of Bangladesh’s first nuclear power plant.
Moni also said Bangladesh would use Russian government credit to enable it to buy a range of defence equipment. “The amount of the defence purchase deals that are going to be signed is one billion dollars,” she told reporters in comments broadcast on Bangladeshi television.
“…At the time of the 1992 bombing of the Israeli Embassy, Argentina was engaged in
discussions about training Iranian scientists at Argentina’s nuclear facility, and, through 1993, it delivered promised shipments of low-enriched uranium for Iran’s nuclear program….”
ABU DHABI – The UAE and Argentina signed on Monday an agreement to cooperate in the field of peaceful nuclear energy during a visit by President Cristina Kirchner, the state news agency WAM reported. The memorandum of understanding was signed by Emirati Foreign Minister Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed al-Nahayan and his Argentine counterpart Hector Timerman, WAM said. Kirchner and UAE President Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed al-Nahayan attended the signing ceremony after discussions on bilateral cooperation between their countries, WAM said. The UAE announced in mid-July that it would begin building two of four nuclear power plants in partnership with a SKorean consortium, as part of plans to produce power from 2017.
Despite being a major oil exporter, the UAE has opted for nuclear, seeing it as a proven, environmentally promising and commercially competitive source of electricity, upon which it relies to produce all of its drinking water via desalination.
With the four plants scheduled to be operating by 2020, the UAE hopes that nuclear energy can provide up to a quarter of its electricity needs, which are forecast to soar to 40 gigawatts from 15.5 currently.
“…Prosecutors have arrested 22 people as they investigate alleged widespread corruption surrounding Korea Hydro and Nuclear Power’s (KHNP’s) procurement processes…”
“….Christian and Buddhist clergy, as well as laypersons, told the 87 conferees from Asia, Europe and North America of their struggle to support families and communities, to cope with the disaster themselves and to challenge the official disaster response. Conference participants resolved to initiate discussions in faith communities about “civilian and military uses of nuclear energy”, and to develop plans of action “including lifestyle changes”…”
The everyday effects of radiation borne by survivors of the 2011 Fukushima disaster in Japan add up today to an involuntary experiment with public health, community life and environmental affairs.
An ecumenical conference, called to listen to local residents, found that last year’s chain reaction of earthquake, tsunami and nuclear calamity has generated a “live” human tragedy, across a province, with no end in sight.
The Geiger counters that priests and parishioners pull out of their pockets like cellphones made the local anxieties and fears real for their visitors. “I cannot tell my children that there will be something good if they live,” one mother told a Buddhist priest. “A middle-aged man committed suicide in the temporary housing. Tomorrow it might be me.” The priest, Rev. Daiki Nakashita, told her story to the Inter-Religious Conference on Nuclear Issues organized by the National Christian Council in Japan in December 2012.
“The figure is surprising when we check the radiation around the house,” another woman told Nakashita. “My husband wants to have children, but I think we cannot raise children in Fukushima anymore.” The science in play is not fiction. Children are growing up forbidden to play outdoors, young women worry that no one will want to marry them, a mother tests her rice harvest to see if she can share it with her children, families are paying off loans on radioactive homes they will never use. These are the kind of stories heard every day at a parish radiation information centre in Aizu Wakamatsu, Japan.
The center is one of many signs that citizens are not receiving full and reliable information about risks to their health. They blame government and power companyofficials, starting with the haphazard evacuation plans that exposed many to radiation when the disaster began.
Tohoku HELP, an ecumenical project which includes the United Church of Christ in Japan, runs food radiation measurement centres in disaster-stricken communities. Besides testing food and farm produce, the project also measures radiation levels in breast milk and urine, a service not readily available to many residents. Counsellors and chaplains are available to assist the people who come in for testing.
“We cannot get correct information about exposure to radiation…but, if we say so, then we are the ones criticized by others who want to believe that Fukushima is safe,” one survivor said. “The most serious issues are divorce, suicide, domestic violence and violence in general. Radiation damaged not only our bodies, but also the relationships in our families and communities,” said another survivor.
The conference concluded that “there is no safe use of nuclear power, no safe level of exposure to radiation, and no compatibility between nuclear power, life and peace.” Speakers noted that the official fumbling is reminiscent of other nuclear disasters, like Chernobyl, and that the health risks and the stigma suffered by survivors are reminders of Hiroshima.
“…Masahiro Saito, a chicken farmer who has seen a 20 percent loss in his turnover, feels less unlucky than his cereal and vegetable-growing neighbours, some of whom have had to pack up for good.
“At the peak of the radiation in March 2011, I recorded 5 becquerels of radioactive caesium per kilogramme on my chickens,” said Saito — well below the government limit.
Like most of his counterparts, he has raised his animals on American corn, which explains why he and other farmers have suffered less than others in the region….”
by Staff Writers
Tokyo (AFP) Jan 14, 2013
Seed Daily
Mayumi Kurasawa’s seaweed company saw seven of its factories swept away by Japan’s 2011 tsunami. Nearly two years later, sales continueto be eroded by consumer fears over nuclear contamination.
“Our seaweed is checked every day, and I guarantee you that it’s safe,” she told AFP during a recent visit to Tokyo to promote the company she works for, Kawashu. “But we are selling two-thirds less than before Fukushima.”
Like many farmers in the Tohoku region in northeast Japan, Kurasawa is struggling to sell her produce to a wary population that remains unconvinced by reassurances of food safety.
The problem is the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant in the region’s south, where reactors went into meltdown after cooling systems were swamped by the March 11, 2011 tsunami.
The reactors spewed radioactive contamination into the atmosphere, forcing the evacuation of tens of thousands of people.
Despite the Kawashu company’s production sites being 300 kilometres (185 miles) away from the nuclear plant, in Iwate Prefecture, it is struggling to sell its “wakame” seaweed.
“Many clients prefer produce from South Korea or from China over us. They think it’s safer,” said Kurasawa.
Previously lauded for their quality, Tohuku products from wasabi, mushrooms, fruit and cereals to salmon and sake (rice wine) are now regarded with suspicion by many Japanese customers as a consequence of Fukushima.
Sales for Tohoku’s products have dropped 60 to 70 percent on average against pre-accident levels.
“… the drone assassination campaign is a perfectly good example, I mean it’s just a global assassination campaign.”…”
“…In what should come as no surprise to anyone following the unconscionable chronicle of the never-ending drone war, there is no word as to the identity of either the targets or the victims. The New American
“The number of ‘high-level’ militants killed as a percentage of total casualties is extremely low — estimated at just 2% [of deaths]”, according to a Stanford/NYU report….”
MIT professor and activist Noam Chomsky slammed U.S. President Barack Obama for using aerial drones to kill suspected terrorists.
In a video published by Al Jazeera English on Saturday, Chomsky said that a black activist had recounted a story in which a group of African American women visited the president following his inauguration in 2009. After the meeting, the disappointed women told the black activist, “this man has no moral center.”
“I think they’re right,” Chomsky said. “If you look at his policies, I think that is what they reveal. Just some nice rhetoric here and there. If you look at the actual policies, they’re pretty shocking. The drone assassination campaign is a perfectly good example. I mean, that’s just a global assassination campaign.”
Critics of the use of drone strikes against suspected terrorists in Pakistan and Yemen worry the practice violates international law and kills civilians.
The well-known leftist activist also downplayed Obama’s efforts to block Israel settlements into Palestinian territory. Though the Obama administration has repeatedly criticized Israel’ssettlement activity, they had not imposed any actual penalties, unlike previous presidents, Chomsky said.
“In fact, Obama is actually the first president who hasn’t really imposed restrictions on Israel,” he added. Raw Story
“the U.S. nuclear sector is going to focus largely on its progress as a nuclear technology exporter.”
The article points to interest in India and China in more nuclear technology, which will likely be a focal point of the industry.
January 14, 2013 12:10 am
By Ivan Penn / Tampa Bay Times
New nuclear power plants don’t have much of a near-term future in the United States.
Who says?
The nuclear construction industry.
An article in an industry publication last week noted that low natural gas prices and the sputtering economy reduce the need for new nuclear plants. It said four new reactors — two in Georgia and two in South Carolina — are likely to be the only ones the nation will see for the rest of this decade, possibly longer.
“Four new reactors will be added to the grid, but a fifth could be pushing it,” said K. Steiner-Dicks, a journalist reporting for the nuclear plant construction industry publication Nuclear Energy Insider.
The free market is also frowning on nuclear power.
Dominion Power announced last year that it would close its 556-megawatt Kewaunee nuclear plant in Wisconsin because it was no longer economically viable.
Platts, a global energy provider, reported last week that several other nuclear plants face early shutdown because of economics, including Entergy’s 838-megawatt James A. FitzPatrick plant in New York, and its 605-megawatt Vermont Yankee plant.
Even with the shifting landscape in the power industry, millions of Floridians in the areas served by Duke Energy (parent company of Progress Energy Florida) and Florida Power & Light continue to pay in advance for new nuclear plants that critics believe will never be built.
Chernobyl 2012 II: the kindergarten of копачи (kopachi) (deja vu)
Published on Oct 3, 20125.41 mins
копачи was a small village near Chernobyl. it was entirely torn down as it was heavily contaminated… only the kindergarten – which was too solid to tear down quickly – remained…
Chernobyl 2012 II: Pripyat harbor and wildlife in the zone of chernobyl (deja vu)
Published on Oct 11, 2012
6.12 mins
At first glimpse, everything seems abandoned and dead – except for the trees and plants… but nature is reclaiming the zone, and the animals are just hidden – but they are there! we’ll take a look at a few of them…
Sandy Hook’s real bond to Columbine, Big Pharma’s horrific studies laid bare for the first time and a peek into the village of eternity.
Seek truth from facts with psych med victims, the man who unearthed the industry’s deadly find, Irving Kirsch, US government whistleblower Allen Jones, the world’s top happiness Professor Andrew Oswald, and Tracey Lawson, author of A Year in the Village of Eternity. And Micheal Moore.
For some unknown reason, NHK decided to air a documentary on iodine-131 dispersion in the days right after the start of the Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant accident in March 2011. In it, there was a simulation map created by researchers who carefully pieced together information without the government funding. It was a map of estimated thyroid dose equivalent exposure of I-131 for 5-year-olds.
The highest exposure is shown at above 200 millisieverts (thyroid dose equivalent for 5-year-olds).
This is the first map I’ve ever seen that has been made by the Japanese, plotting the thyroid dose.
What’s interesting is why the dispersion of iodine-131 is still an estimate and simulation. As NHK tells it, the government ministry in charge of measuring radiation, Ministry of Education, actively intervened and prohibited the officials or researchers from doing the actual measurement of radioactive iodine in the air from March 14 to March 17, 2011.
WHY? Because the explosion of the Reactor 3 building at Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant would endanger the officials doing the measurement outdoors. The officials dutifully followed the order. They chose not to collect probably the most critical data of the accident, and they didn’t bother to tell the residents either, who were out and about with no information.
That’s if you can believe NHK.
I wonder why they created the above map as dose equivalent for 5-year-olds, instead of 1-year-olds, like France’s IRSN did. My guess is that the numbers would then be too high for viewers’ comfort.
NHK’s documentary (in Japanese) can be still seen here (part 1) and here (part 2), until NHK notices and takes them down.
[…] The recent situation in Soma city*..a child had acute leukemia, a man in 30s died, 5 people died of acute leukemia last year. This kind of information is concealed
*As of 2011, the city has an estimated population of 36,891 […] Sōma is about 45 kilometres (28 miles) north of Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant –Wikipedia
[…] In his turn lawyer Toshio Yanagihara spoke about the “Fukushima Collective Evacuation Trial.” Through this class action suit on behalf of 14 children, the plaintiffs hope to force the authorities to recognize the legal right of hundreds of thousands of children to be evacuated from the contaminated areas. The fact that children are obliged to eat contaminated food and breathe radioactive air is a violation of the rights of the child. The press is gagged or gives false information provided by the government, which is a violation of the right to freedom of expression and information. […]
“…Aaron’s death is not simply a personal tragedy. It is the product of a criminal justice system rife with intimidation and prosecutorial overreach. Decisions made by officials in the Massachusetts U.S. Attorney’s office and at MIT contributed to his death. The US Attorney’s office pursued an exceptionally harsh array of charges, carrying potentially over 30 years in prison, to punish an alleged crime that had no victims. Meanwhile, unlike JSTOR, MIT refused to stand up for Aaron and its own community’s most cherished principles…”
Photo by Jacob Applebaum
Aaron Swartz /u/Aaronsw (1986 – 2013)
We at reddit were saddened by the news of Aaron’s passing. Here is a statement from his family. Our thoughts and deepest condolences are with his family and loved ones.
If you feel so moved, join us in donating to Demand Progress or GiveWell in Aaron’s memory so that his work for civil liberties, civil rights, and government reform can continue.
Official Statement from the family and partner of Aaron SwartzOur beloved brother, son, friend, and partner Aaron Swartz hanged himself on Friday in his Brooklyn apartment. We are in shock, and have not yet come to terms with his passing.Aaron’s insatiable curiosity, creativity, and brilliance; his reflexive empathy and capacity for selfless, boundless love; his refusal to accept injustice as inevitable—these gifts made the world, and our lives, far brighter. We’re grateful for our time with him, to those who loved him and stood with him, and to all of those who continue his work for a better world.
Aaron’s commitment to social justice was profound, and defined his life. He was instrumental to the defeat of an Internet censorship bill; he fought for a more democratic, open, and accountable political system; and he helped to create, build, and preserve a dizzying range of scholarly projects that extended the scope and accessibility of human knowledge. He used his prodigious skills as a programmer and technologist not to enrich himself but to make the Internet and the world a fairer, better place. His deeply humane writing touched minds and hearts across generations and continents. He earned the friendship of thousands and the respect and support of millions more.
Aaron’s death is not simply a personal tragedy. It is the product of a criminal justice system rife with intimidation and prosecutorial overreach. Decisions made by officials in the Massachusetts U.S. Attorney’s office and at MIT contributed to his death. The US Attorney’s office pursued an exceptionally harsh array of charges, carrying potentially over 30 years in prison, to punish an alleged crime that had no victims. Meanwhile, unlike JSTOR, MIT refused to stand up for Aaron and its own community’s most cherished principles.
Today, we grieve for the extraordinary and irreplaceable man that we have lost.
_____
Aaron is survived by his parents Robert and Susan Swartz, his younger brothers Noah and Ben, and his partner Taren Stinebrickner-Kauffman.
Aaron’s funeral will be held on Tuesday, January 15 at Central Avenue Synagogue, 874 Central Avenue, Highland Park, Illinois 60035. Further details, including the specific time, will be posted at http://rememberaaronsw.com, along with announcements aboutmemorial services to be held in other cities in coming weeks.
Remembrances of Aaron, as well as donations in his memory, can be submitted at http://rememberaaronsw.com
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First they came for the Socialists, and I did not speak out–
Because I was not a Socialist.
Then they came for the Trade Unionists, and I did not speak out– Because I was not a Trade Unionist.
Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out– Because I was not a Jew.
Then they came for me–and there was no one left to speak for me.
Martin Niemöller (1892-1984)
Legal firm Ashurst threatening Australian nuclear/uranium critic
Among other things, the Ashurst letter accused the anti-nuclear campaigner of imputing that Mr Walker was ‘’insensitive’’.
In any case, these kinds of threats to muzzle free speech are on the rise. At a time when the mainstream media is under pressure from falling revenues, lawyers are threatening and shutting down websites around the country at an alarming clip.
“…Paladin chief executive John Borshoff said he was unaware of the
letter. “I’m not aware about a 75-year old lady,” said Borshoff, “All
I know is that these NGOs (Non-Government Organisations) and they are
absolutely maligning us, and we sent them legal letters”….”
Posted on January 11, 2013 at 7:07 pm by Associated Press
ALBANY, N.Y. — As Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s administration nears completion of regulations that could lift a 4 1/2-year-old ban on shale gas drilling in New York, opposition groups have ramped up efforts to persuade the governor to say no to fracking.
Environmental, health and community groups opposed to shale gas drilling and hydraulic fracturing, or “fracking,” say they collected more than 200,000 comments during an intense 30-day effort featuring online coaching and comment-writing workshops at churches, community centers, food co-ops, coffee shops and holiday house parties from New York City to Buffalo. They gave cases of comments to regulators on Friday, the last day to comment on proposed drilling rules.
Adding star power to the opposition were Yoko Ono and her son, Sean Lennon, who urged Cuomo to reject fracking.
Industry representatives were also delivering comments to the Department of Environmental Conservation, arguing that the proposed rules are so strict they’ll effectively prevent drilling in New York’s part of the Marcellus Shale formation.
DEC must read and respond to the comments. The agency received 66,000 comments during a four-month comment period on the earlier version of the regulations and the 1,500-page environmental impact study, and took most of 2012 to read, categorize and respond to them.
DEC has a deadline of the end of February to finalize the regulations. Otherwise it has to draft new regulations and hold additional hearings, potentially adding months onto the process.
“…These individual developments are troubling. But they cannot be understood in isolation from the larger multipolar system of major powers that is forming. To a great extent, this is a nuclear multipolar system: possessing nuclear weapons contributes to a country’s global status as a major power…”
January 13, 2013
The Nation – Pakistan
PAUL BRACKEN – North Korea’s launch of a long-range missile in mid-December was followed by a flurry of global condemnation that was almost comical in its predictability and impotence. But the launch underscored a larger reality that can no longer be ignored: the world has entered a second nuclear age. The atomic bomb has returned for a second act, a post-Cold War encore. This larger pattern needs to be understood if it is to be managed.
The contours of the second nuclear age are still taking shape. But the next few years will be especially perilous, because newness itself creates dangers as rules and red lines are redefined. This took at least ten years in the first nuclear age, and this time may be no different.
In the Middle East, South Asia, and East Asia, old rivalries now unfold in a nuclear context. This has already changed military postures across the Middle East. Part of the Israeli nuclear arsenal is being shifted to sea, with atomic warheads on diesel submarines, to prevent their being targeted in a surprise attack. Israel also is launching a new generation of satellites to provide early warning of other countries’ preparations for missile strikes. If Iran’s mobile missiles disperse, Israel wants to know about it immediately.
Thus, the old problem of Arab-Israeli peace is now seen in the new context of an Iranian nuclear threat. The two problems are linked. How would Israel respond to rocket attacks from Gaza, Lebanon, or Egypt if it simultaneously faced the threat of nuclear attack by Iran? What would the United States and Israel do if Iran carried its threat to the point of evacuating its cities, or placing missiles in its own cities to ensure that any attack on them would cause massive collateral damage?
Pakistan has doubled the size of its nuclear arsenal in the last five years. Its armed forces are set to field new tactical nuclear weapons – short-range battlefield weapons. India has deployed a nuclear triad – bombers, missiles, and submarines – and in 2012 tested an intercontinental ballistic missile, giving it the ability to hit Beijing and Shanghai. India almost certainly has a multiple warhead (known as a MIRV), in development, and has also launched satellites to aid its targeting of Pakistan’s forces. In East Asia, North Korea has gone nuclear and is set to add a whole new class of uranium bombs to its arsenal. It has rehearsed quick missile salvos, showing that it could launch attacks on South Korea and Japan before any counter-strike could be landed.
“the U.S. nuclear sector is going to focus largely on its progress as a nuclear technology exporter.”
nuclear-news 