Dr Birol also highlighted recent changes in siting regulations and reductions in the support mechanisms for renewable energy which have created uncertainty, and have had negative implications for investor confidence. “The future of renewable energy in Poland looks uncertain”
Poland’s new energy strategy should put the country on a pathway towards a cleaner energy system while strengthening energy security, the International Energy Agency said in its latest review of the country’s energy policies. The forthcoming energy strategy is likely to prioritise long-term energy security, placing a strong emphasis on reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and air pollution, increasing energy efficiency and decarbonising the transport system.
The new energy strategy will require significant investments to reduce the share of carbon-intensive power plants and increase the share of low-carbon energy, including nuclear energy and renewables, said Dr Fatih Birol, the IEA’s Executive Director, at the launch in Warsaw of Energy Policies of IEA Countries: Poland 2016 Review.
Dr Birol also noted that Poland is investing in nuclear energy capacity in order to strengthen its energy independence, security of supply and reduce GHG emissions. The IEA review highlights the need to develop a skilled workforce and the mechanisms for financing the construction and operation of the new nuclear power plants as soon as possible.
The review notes that according to the government coal will remain the cornerstone of the energy system of Poland for the long term. The mining sector is a major source of employment and policies affecting the sector have a large social and regional impact. Dr Birol said that the new energy strategy must determine the long-term role of coal in the economy.
Coal combustion remains the largest source of greenhouse gas emissions and local air pollution in Poland. Many of its coal-fired power plants are old and inefficient: the replacement of these plants by plants with the newest technology represents an economic challenge for the sector, but at the same time offers an opportunity to reduce GHG emissions, air pollution and the carbon footprint from power generation. Coal use in household heating, together with waste burning, is a major source of local air pollution and “the government must ensure that less-well-off households are provided with the means to switch to cleaner solutions, such as natural gas or district heating where available,” said Dr Birol.
Poland’s energy efficiency policies have been strengthened by the adoption of measures such as the white certificate scheme, and have incentivised industry to increase energy savings. These measures represent a solid starting point, but the government needs to broaden the scheme while at the same time developing and implementing new measures targeted at the buildings sector. In the electricity sector, Poland must step up investment in new generation and strengthen interconnections with neighbouring countries if the country is to satisfy future demand for electricity.
Dr Birol also highlighted recent changes in siting regulations and reductions in the support mechanisms for renewable energy which have created uncertainty, and have had negative implications for investor confidence. “The future of renewable energy in Poland looks uncertain” Dr Birol added. On the other hand, Dr Birol welcomed the country’s decision to pursue nuclear energy as a means to reduce emissions and strengthen energy security while highlighting the importance of making the correct technology and partner choice in a timely manner.
(Reuters) – A plan to remove spent nuclear fuel from Tokyo Electric Power Co Holdings Inc’s Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant hit by the March 2011 tsunami has been postponed again due to delays in preparation, the Nikkei business daily reported on Thursday.
Removal of the spent fuel from the No. 3 reactor was originally scheduled in the first half of fiscal 2015, and later revised to fiscal 2017 due to high levels of radioactivity around the facilities, the Japanese business daily reported.
The timeline has been changed again as it was taking longer than expected to decontaminate buildings and clean up debris, the news agency reported.
The report comes a few months after the Japanese government said in October the cost of cleaning up the Fukushima plant may rise to several billion dollars a year, adding that it would look into a possible separation of the nuclear business from the utility.
(Reporting by Krishna V Kurup in Bengaluru; Editing by Shounak Dasgupta)
Many former workers of the Idaho National Laboratory get healthcare form Nuclear Care Partners in Idaho Falls. Scott Brockway who has MS type symptoms from his exposure to contaminants from the site shares his story.
Conner Board is the Morning Anchor/Producer/Reporter at the NBC affiliate KPVI News 6 in Pocatello/Idaho Falls, Idaho
The power supply system yesterday flashed an “orange” alert due to a breakdown at the Ma-anshan Nuclear Power Plant in Ma-anshan (馬鞍山) in Pingtung County’s Hengchun Township (恆春), state-run utility Taiwan Power Co (Taipower) said.
A malfunction of a cooling water pump at the plant’s first reactor at 6:26am caused the reactor to shut down, Taipower said. The electricity supply was consequently limited to a maximum of 28.62 gigawatts (GW), with consumption expected to hit a high of 27.35GW, triggering an orange alert, Taipower said. Taipower uses a five-color system to indicate the status of power reserves and the stability of the nation’s power supply.
“Green” indicates an operating reserve of more than 10 percent of total supply, “yellow” signals a reserve of between 6 percent and 10 percent and orange represents a reserve of less than 6 percent. A “red” alert flashes when reserve capacity falls below 900,000 kilowatts (kW) and a “black” light indicates that reserve capacity has fallen under 500,000kW, the point at which Taipower prepares for power rationing.
The plant is repairing the pump, and Taipower notified the Atomic Energy Council and the county government about the situation, the company said. The firm said it has suspended all unnecessary tests on other nuclear power plant units to focus on measures to ensure sufficient power supply.
The Atomic Energy Council yesterday gave permission to Taiwan Power Co (Taipower) to reactivate the second reactor at the Ma-anshan Nuclear Power Plant in Pingtung County after halting its operation for two months due to a faulty screw bolt.
The reactor underwent a regular overhaul from Nov. 9 to Dec. 1, but the discovery of a faulty anchor bolt in the reactor lid prevented the reactor from resuming operations.
The bolt was removed and replaced on Dec. 25 and the council approved Taipower’s reactivation plan on Sunday after an inspection, the council said, adding that there are no safety implications or risks of radiation leaks.
The screw bolt was one of 58 on the reactor lid, and abrasion and dust accumulated on the screw threads caused the bolt to become stuck, Taipower said.
The incident was the first in Taiwan, although multiple cases have been reported in other nations and Taipower asked international companies to help resolve the problem.
The reactor is yet to go through a series of tests before it can start generating power, Taipower spokesperson Lin Te-fu (林德福) said, adding that the reactor could be back online today at the earliest.
The reactivation of the reactor would see five of the six reactors at the nation’s three functioning nuclear plants running, the exception being the first reactor at Jinshan Nuclear Power Plant in New Taipei City’s Shihmen District (石門), which has been offline since December 2014 pending a probe into a loose handle on a fuel rod cask.
Taiwan Power Co (Taipower, 台電) yesterday confirmed that two mechanical problems at the Ma-anshan Nuclear Power Plant in Pingtung County were uncovered during the annual overhaul of the plant’s No. 2 reactor last month.
A control rod driver had become crooked, and a screw bolt on the steam generator had fractured, the company said, adding that they were the first such incidents in Taiwan.
News of the problems came weeks after Taipower reported workers had had problems recovering an addition to an anchor bolt from the reactor lid during the 35-day-long maintenance project, officials said.
Taipower spokesperson Lin Te-fu (林德福) said the control rod’s drive mechanism consists of 52 drivers and controls the fission rate of the nuclear fuel rods. Only one driver had become deformed, and it was replaced, Lin said.
However, such deformation could lead to the misplacement of a control rod when it is inserted into the central core of the reactor, Lin said.
A screw bolt on the steam generator was fractured as it was being removed, and the bolt has also been replaced, he said.
Employees of Westinghouse Electric, which built the reactor, were able to recover the stuck screw bolt used to secure the reactor’s cover lid, he said.
The stuck bolt was the focus of a heated question-and-answer session at the legislature earlier this month, with lawmakers criticizing Taipower for failing to immediately report the incident to the Atomic Energy Council and the Pingtung County Government.
The bolt was recovered through an intrusive method whereby it was cut and hollowed, and holes drilled into the reactor wall to crank out the bolt, but the holes would be repaired and a new bolt sleeve would be installed, Lin said.
Green Citizens’ Action Alliance deputy secretary-general Hung Shen-han (洪申翰) said the government is running out of time to come up with alternatives to its reliance on nuclear power.
“The nation’s three operating nuclear plants are at the end of their service life, and it is when safety risk is highest. The government must review alternative energy options so that it can decommission the plants before their 40-year lifespan ends, or at least not extend their lifespans.”
The deactivation of reactor No. 2 at Ma-anshan for maintenance marked a period where half of the nation’s six operating reactors were off-line.
The two reactors of the Jinshan Nuclear Power Plant in New Taipei City’s Shimen District (石門) have been deactivated for annual maintenance since December last year. However, one is scheduled to be reactivated on Jan. 3.
“…..In Taiwan, the six reactors in the three active nuclear power plants will reach their 40-year operation limit by May 2025. The No 1 reactor in the Jinshan plant will reach this deadline in December 2018. The amendment ruled out any extension to operations at all nuclear reactors, and they must be closed by 2025.
Changes to the law will also see the state-run Taiwan Power Company (Taipower) privatized within six to nine years, with its operations split between electricity generation and distribution.
Taipower currently controls power generation, transmission and distribution (grid), and power sales, but the changes will now allow new players to enter the market eliminating the monopoly that has existed for six decades. Renewable energy such as solar and wind power will be given priority to go on the grid.
The move is the government’s attempt to promote renewable energy, aiming to increase the current share of 2% to 20% of the island’s total energy generation by 2025…..”
Arclights Note; The IPCC report says the UK will suffer severe drought in the coming decades and that water will be needed for drinking and food production. Fracking is also an issue. The UK`s groundwater will not suffice for long and water will have to be imported from Norway and Ireland but those resources are being bought up by corporations for bottled water etc .. That is why there is no mention imo “Climate change is projected to reduce the amount of water in the environment that can be sustainably withdrawn whilst increasing the demand for irrigation during the driest months. At the same time the growing population will create additional demands on already stretched resources in some parts of the country. Even low population growth and modest climate change scenarios suggest severe water supply deficits.”
No mention of the dire report with the available pics from the IPCC report?? The IPCC timeline says within 30 years to get really serious with drought already a factor now.. A bit sloppy not to access the report instead of relying on vague assumptions from the UK climate report. The IPCC used out of date data anyway and issues with global dimming from airplanes were seriously underestimated (that data from 1992 and doesnt include increased contrails from civil and military aircraft) meaning that the drought is likely to be worse or if the level of contrails continue that flooding and large storms would be worse.. The IPCC needs serious updating Arclight2011 aka Shaun
In its second consultation for the EDF’s planned Sizewell C nuclear power station there’s a strange omission, writes Peter Lux: that the plant would use 1,600 m3 of mains water a day, adding to stresses on important local wetlands like RSPB’s Minsmere reserve. The omission is not just strange – it’s also illegal and could make the entire exercise invalid.
The fact that EDF have completely ignored the question of mains water use despite it being queried by respondents in the first consultation and as early as 2010 shows that EDF have a complete lack of respect for the consultation process and local people.
One 23rd November EDF launched its Second Consultation Document over its proposed Sizewell C nuclear power station on the Suffolk coast.
But here’s a funny thing. The 321-page document makes no mention at all about the use of mains water.
When I asked a Sizewell ‘expert’ during the Stage 2 Consultation roadshow, he was unaware that Sizewell C would require 1,600 m3 of mains water per day, and thought that I was asking about water that would be used to make tea and flush the toilets.
When I explained how much water would be required, he suggested that it was not EDF’s problem as they would just buy the water from the water company and let them work out where it is to come from.
That answer was wrong: EDF has an obligation under the government’s national policy statement for energy to submit an an environmental statement which includes details of how much water in intends to abstract and what impact this will have on existing water resources:
“5.15.3. The ES should in particular describe …existing water resources affected by the proposed project and the impacts of the proposed project on water resources, noting any relevant existing abstraction rates, proposed new abstraction rates and proposed changes to abstraction rates (including any impact on or use of mains supplies and reference to Catchment Abstraction Management Strategies)” [1]
“The anticipated levels of water use and a suitable potable water source for the development must be identified to ensure there is adequate capacity and that this can be achieved in a sustainable manner that will not have an adverse effect upon river flows or wetland sites.” [2]
Twenty percent of Sizewell’s local water resource for the power plant
Sizewell B currently uses around 800 m3 of mains water a day, which is 7% of of the total demand of the local catchment area, which includes a number of important wetlands among them RSPB’s iconic Minsmere nature reserve. [3]
The twin-reactors of Sizewell C would require at least 1,600 m3 of mains water per day in order to cool various parts of the plant including the primary and secondary circuits of the reactor, which means approximately 20% of the water from the local catchment area would be taken by the power plant.
The East Suffolk Catchment Abstraction Management Strategies (CAMS) covers an area of 1,364 km2 and includes Felixstowe, Ipswich, Woodbridge, Wickham Market, Stowmarket, Saxmundham, Halesworth, Southwold and Kessingland. [4]
Households in Suffolk are being asked to conserve water because it is recognised that this is one of the driest regions in the country and there is little scope for abstracting more water from local water sources. [4]
The committee on climate change report ‘UK Climate Change Risk Assessment 2017‘ [5] cites “Flooding and coastal change risks to communities, businesses and infrastructure” as the biggest threat that comes with climate change the top six risks also includes “Risk of shortages in the public water supply, and for agriculture, energy generation and industry.”
The report goes on to say: “Climate change is projected to reduce the amount of water in the environment that can be sustainably withdrawn whilst increasing the demand for irrigation during the driest months. At the same time the growing population will create additional demands on already stretched resources in some parts of the country. Even low population growth and modest climate change scenarios suggest severe water supply deficits.” [6]
A shocking disrespect for process and local people
The impact that Sizewell C will have on the mains water supply was recognised and flagged up during the Stage 1 Consultation by individuals and in the response from Leiston Town Council:
“9.5 There are serious issues concerning Leiston-cum-Sizewell Town Council regarding potable water. It is unclear from the information provided what the actual intake of water associated with Sizewell C is going to be, and how much will be needed for the reactors. Leiston-cum-Sizewell Town Council has been informed that, with the intake of Sizewell B, the potable water situation in the area is currently only just in balance.” [7]
The fact that EDF have completely ignored the question of mains water use despite it being queried by respondents in the first consultation and as early as 2010 [3] shows that EDF have a complete lack of respect for the consultation process and local people.
Furthermore they have an irresponsible blasé attitude to where the water will come from over the next 60 years.
Christmas: a good time to hide a consultation
The Stage 2 Consultation for the proposed Sizewell C nuclear power station runs from 23rd November 2016 until 3rd February 2017 [8]. As with the Stage 1 consultation this runs over the Christmas / New Year period.
In effect this significantly cuts the consultation period due to the disruption caused by the extended holiday period.
The probability of the 72 day consultation period starting by chance before 25 December is 72/365 which is a about 20%. The probability of this happening twice by chance is 20% x 20% which is about 4%.
Well we could just be unlucky.
As indicated above I am currently looking at local water resources. Interestingly we also received an email from Northumbrian Water Group (NWG) on the 6th December about their consultation which ran from the 6th December 2016 until 6th January 2017 [9]. Again this runs over the holiday period.
Initially I searched for Essex and Suffolk Water which I now know is part of NWG. While I was looking I found another consultation, this time by Essex County Council which runs from 16th December 2016 until 31st January 2017. [10]
It is impossible to draw any firm conclusions but this does make me suspicious that some consultations are being deliberately run over the Christmas holiday period.
Private Eye [11] claim that the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy release 51 energy documents on Christmas Eve. Again this could just be a coincidence but it does make you wonder …
Royal Navy whistleblower William McNeilly leaked details about a number of serious test fire issues aboard Britain’s Trident nuclear submarine fleet a whole year before the June 2016 misfire that sent a missile careening towards the US.
McNeilly published a dossier highlighting a range of safety and security failures aboard Trident submarines in May 2015 – more than a year before the latest mishap
The Royal Navy submariner was detained and quietly discharged in June of that year. Senior officers even sought to discredit McNeilly’s claims by portraying him as an ill-informed junior sailor.
Speaking exclusively to RT on Tuesday, McNeilly said he now feels vindicated.
“I warned about this exact event over a year before it happened. I was in the MCC / Missile Control Center during the end of patrol tests in early 2015 and I witnessed with my own eyes the Trident system fail its simulated missile launch tests.”
McNeilly claims to have seen Trident “fail 3 out of 3 WP 186 Missile Compensating Tests” first-hand. He also says a “Battle Readiness Test (BRT) was not even attempted due to seawater in the hydraulic system.”
The whistleblower’s comments come a day after the British government faced questions over a misfire incident that occurred in June of 2016, just weeks before a crucial Parliamentary vote on Trident’s renewal. The US government apparently requested that news of the defective missile be kept secret to prevent mutual embarrassment.
Citing his extensive technical training as a submarine weapons engineer, McNeilly said it was his job “to learn about missile tests, conduct missile tests, pass tests on missile tests, be in the Missile Control Center during missile tests…”
“I had missile tests signed off in my task book. They wouldn’t have been signed off in my task book if I didn’t know anything about them, and clearly I was proven to be right.
“The government attempted to cover up the failed missile test and they covered up all the other information in my Trident report.”
Trident dossier
In his 18-page dossier, released to WikiLeaks in May of 2015, McNeilly offered anecdotal evidence of potentially catastrophic failures that took place during a series of end-of-patrol “shakedown” tests, designed to see whether the weapons system “could have performed a successful launch.”
It was during one such end-of-patrol test that the June 2016 misfire took place.
According to McNeilly, the routine tests are vital to determining “if we really were providing the UK’s strategic nuclear deterrent.”
The test McNeilly witnessed was “carried out 3 times and it failed, 3 times.”
“Basically the test showed that the missile compensation system wouldn’t have compensated for the changes in weight of the submarine during missile launches. Which means the missiles would’ve been launched on an unstable platform, if they decided to launch.”
Other readiness exercises carried out at the end of the patrol also went wrong, claims McNeilly.
“Another test was the Battle Readiness Test (BRT), which proves that the muzzle hatches could’ve opened whilst on patrol,” said McNeilly, explaining that “the BRT was cancelled due to the main hydraulic system containing mostly seawater instead of actual hydraulic oil.”
McNeilly has accused the British government of “endangering the public and spending billions upon billions of taxpayers’ money for a system so broken it can’t even do the tests that prove it works.”
The Arctic Frontiers forum in Tromsø. (Photo: Alberto Grohovaz / Arctic Frontiers 2017)
TROMSØ, Norway – Prime minsters and foreign ministers of Nordic countries are convening in this city to balance economic interests and environmental harm in the Arctic at talks that began Monday.
But Norwegian environmentalists are apprehensive that big money projects in the region frequently derail political statements of ecological good faith.
Climate change, melting ice and nearly monthly new record high temperatures are hardly the stuff of science fiction, but a daunting reality. The message of leaders of many countries bordering on the Arctic has been focused on balancing economic development with environmental priorities.
Norwegian Prime Minister Erna Solberg said climate change is happening too fast and Arctic countries should make decisions that would be damaging to the Arctic environment.
“Today, the world is looking to the oceans and their potential for development of shipping routes, bio-resources, and energy,” Solberg told the gathering. “In order to feed the growing population of the planet, we need a healthy and productive ocean in which there is a balance between consumers and preservation of ocean resources.”
As the ocean is Norway’s breadbasket, the Solberg administration this year is presenting its strategy for handling water zones.
“The aim of the strategy is in using existing experience and technology in working on the Arctic shelf and the transition to environmental and more effective technology,” she said. She added that climate change should force the switch to a fuller embrace of green innovation to balance the search for Arctic resources.
“Unify shipping traffic, energy, the fishing industry and aquatic health is possible. The balance must be maintained,” said Solberg.
Margot Walhström, Sweden’s foreign minister, supported Solberg’s statement and said the Arctic is now the at the epicenter of the global climate crisis.
“Being an Arctic country isn’t only advantageous because of the possibility of exploiting the rich resources of the region,” said Walhström. “It’s also the huge obligation to find a balance between economic growth and environmental sustainability. We have to improve life in the Arctic region not only for ourselves but for future generations.”
She said a special focus should be devoted to issues of ocean development. Temperature rises are threatening the worldwide marine system.
Many of the leaders appearing at the conference said in one way or another that the region’s countries have an obligation to leave behind a sustainable and developing Arctic to future generations.
But Nature and Youth (Nature I Ungdom) Norway’s biggest youth environmental movement, took a measured response to politicians’ assertions, and said economic development routinely comes before environmental stewardship.
“Over many years, not one month in the year passes without setting new temperature records,” said the group’s Ingrid Skjoldvær. “We understand that you have to pay for any development. It what we are paying now proportional? I represent the generation that will have to live with climate change.”
Skjoldvær said politicians are making decisions that don’t take the environment into account, and that will directly affect the future. She said oil exploration in the Arctic was unreasonably ramping up.
“What kind of development to you want for your children?” she asked the gathered leaders. “On what foundation do you want to build future societies, on a foundation of limited or renewable resources?”
She said that parliamentary elections in Norway were coming up in four years but that the decisions today’s politicians were making “would last far longer than their terms of office.”
“Future generations will have to deal with the consequences of these decisions,” she said.
In answer to recent parliamentary questions from Clare Daly TD the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade gave some sparse details of the foreign military traffic that passes through Ireland. Any of these that are engaged in war-related activities are of course is in breach of Irish neutrality.
The main piece of information obtained from the Minister were that in 2016 there were 645 requests for military landings at Shannon. 592 – thats 92% – were from the US. We don’t know exactly how many of them were refused permission, but we do know from our own monitoring records that most of them landed.
The other important information received is that there are quite a few foreign military landings at other Irish airports – 101 of them in 2016 to be exact.
Requests for Military Landings at Shannon Airport
During 2016, there were 645 requests for landings by military aircraft at Shannon Airport. These were from 11 different countries. The details are set out in the table below:
The Minister’s accompanied his response with the usual very unlikely claim that “arrangements under which permission is granted for foreign military aircraft to land at Irish airports are governed by strict conditions. These include stipulations that the aircraft must be unarmed, carry no arms, ammunition or explosives and must not engage in intelligence gathering, and that the flights in question must not form part of military exercises or operations.”
Requests for Military Landings at Other Irish Airports
During 2016, there were 101 requests for landings by military aircraft at airports other than Shannon Airport from 17 countries. Almost all of these are NATO countries.
The details are set out in the table below:
The Minister also said that iaddition to the above requests, his Department also received one military aircraft landing request from the British Embassy in connection with a VIP visit at Donegal Four Masters GAA grounds during May 2016.
And of course he said again that arrangements under which permission is granted for foreign military aircraft to land at Irish airports are governed by strict conditions etc. etc.
Has anyone EVER inspected one of the military aircraft to see if those conditions are complied with?
IDAHO FALLS, Idaho (AP) — The director of the Idaho National Laboratory says it’s problematic whether a small quantity of spent nuclear fuel needed for research will be allowed into Idaho this spring.
The lab renegotiated a research agreement to allow the shipment to be received later this year, Mark Peters told the Post Register (http://bit.ly/2j1eP2W).
However, the continued failure of a treatment facility to process 900,000 gallons of high-level nuclear waste stored at the 890-square-mile U.S. Department of Energy site in eastern Idaho has caused the federal agency to violate a 1995 agreement with Idaho.
Idaho Attorney General Lawrence Wasden as a result is refusing to allow research quantities of spent nuclear fuel into Idaho until the facility, called the Integrated Waste Treatment Unit, is operating.
“We still have the need to bring in small quantities,” Peters said. “And the official position of the attorney general is, until IWTU is running hot, he will not allow that to happen. So this is problematic. Very problematic.”
A previous research shipment has instead been sent to Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee. Peters said his lab could potentially lose the next shipment as well.
“If IWTU goes beyond (spring), then we need to continue to rethink,” Peters said.
The shipment from the Byron Nuclear Generating Station in Illinois was originally scheduled for last June.
Late last month, the Department of Energy said a small-scale version of a key component of the waste treatment facility was being sent to Colorado to better understand why the treatment facility isn’t operating as planned.
The continued failure to get the treatment facility operating is a blow to the federal agency’s desire to bring in the research shipments of spent commercial nuclear fuel to the lab in Idaho, one of 17 Department of Energy labs in the nation and the primary lab for nuclear research.
Work on the spent fuel, if it gets to Idaho, is expected to bring in millions of dollars to the area.
New Delhi, January 4: the impregnable fortress on the occasion of the Republic Day in New Delhi l President from becoming prime minister, foreign dignitaries, including the countries that are protected, to begin preparations for the Republic Day Parade l Army during the attack of any sort is not so, for final l warn army
Republic Day in Delhi Police has trained l Air Force aerial attacks of any kind, so that the police can handle initially, he has been training for l On the other hand, a special force for the first time can be seen in the Republic Day parade chemical hamalarodhaka l for any kind of chemical attack If the order is given up, it will be prepared for the disaster due to the force of the l mokabilakari force (NDRF) A team with more than 90 people CBRN- day stay at l
Sources, CBRN- the advanced technology of the members have more than one weapon, one of which l l hajamata weapon to prevent any kind of chemical attack is very active in the device l
Rehearsal is on the streets of Delhi ..
In addition, the venue will be in charge of the Delhi Police and the Central Security Force patrol at least 50 thousand people will be monitored by aerial drones l l l Alongside includes CCTV camera surveillance
The above threat was highlighted by these articles;
We reported recently on the mostly censored story on Jihadists acquiring Highly Enriched Fissionable Uranium which was discovered by the Indian police. The reporting of this find was played down and the term “Depleted Uranium” was used instead of Highly Enriched Uranium (HEU) as the purity of the reported Uranium and high cost revealed. The full article with sources can be found here;
Whilst some traction on this story happened in India it was not reported by any western or Russian outlets. In fact I did a short video showing that the story was being heavily managed here;
Instead we got a huge increase in other nuclear stories because President Trump did a “nuclear tweet” (The timing was suspicious if I were a PR guy btw) . Talk about an over reaction to a non story by the media around the world.The reality of this Indian report was overlooked and the actual fact that Jihadists have been able to access over 4 million dollars worth (9KG) of the fissionable HEU, means that they are now able to make a small nuclear device cheaply with low tech means with the billions from oil revenues from the Syrian and Iraq conflicts under the noses of the USA and Russia, we might assume they have bought more than just a measly 4 million dollars worth perhaps?
Highly Enriched Uranium, a Dangerous Substance that Should Be Eliminated
“….Furthermore, it is more difficult to detect by technical means. Therefore, in comparison to plutonium, HEU is much easier to divert, smuggle and hide. Moreover, a crude nuclear explosive made of HEU can be constructed in a much simpler way than one made using
plutonium. For these reasons, HEU is the material most wanted by terrorists. A few tens of kilograms are sufficient for one explosive, but the quantities existing in the world add up to hundreds of tons…..” https://www.hsfk.de/fileadmin/HSFK/hsfk_downloads/prif124.pdf
Instead of the IAEA and associated nuclear watchdogs stepping in to stop the sale and movement of HEU and similar products we see nuclear deals are just being struck for billions of dollars to ship this material around the world without finding out who and where this black market nuclear material is being sold.
One such deal has been realised between Rosatom and TEPCO that are possibly two of the most nontransparent companies facing financial problems since the Fukushima 2011 nuclear disaster and the resulting economic collapse in nuclear investments.
The fact that this important story is being ignored should worry us all as it means we are not on our guard for a planned attack.
There are 2 main scenarios with terrorists being obviously able to get a hold of this with the huge financial resources at their disposal as they would likely have paid for more than just 9 Kg as the material was so cheap (as reported by the Indian police). It is likely they could have bought hundreds of kilos of the material at a discount rate with no problem. So is this the only HEU they have?
Scenarios;
1/ They could make small detonating devices with a low kiloton yields. This would mean some planning but they would likely try to get the materials in place and then launch a multiple attack. They would likely find it difficult to make a second such attack, by then, preparations for monitoring for radioactive materials could be put in place and transporting materials would be hard. It would be better to begin looking for these materials now.
2/ they could grind up the metal and feed it into a food processing plant (such as baby milk powder etc) and this would likely result in hundreds of thousands of casualties but would not be discovered for possibly many years. Such an attack could be prolonged and cause great damage before it was discovered.
So what can we do about it? If the authorities and Media ignore the story and hope it goes away then, nothing could be done. As this material can be easily transported and distributed to many cities (they used 2 motorcycles to transport it and were stopped on the road to or from Mumbai) and if this is a large coordinated strategy then other packets are on route as we speak.
Solutions;
1/ The cat is out of the bag and there is no return so we should start to monitor for the movement of these materials across borders and into large cities.
2/ The security services should concentrate their resources on these terrorist networks instead of civil society activists etc.
3/ The wars should stop and we should be trying to win hearts and minds instead of dropping bombs so as to get better intelligence than the cyber warriors can or have supplied (cyber warriors have obviously already failed to stop them getting this material and many reports including testimony from Edward Snowden have proven).
4/ All nuclear waste of both high and intermediate levels needs to be secured worldwide and the failed institutions such as the IAEA need massive reforming and better transparency.
5/ we need to stop making more of this material and need to close the existing nuclear power plants down and create a safer and more sustainable energy network.
6/ The major powers need to stop playing games with politics and start working together as they quietly do in the financial and nuclear sectors.
Another voice has joined the chorus of those pleading with newly inaugurated President Trump to exercise restraint when it comes to use of nuclear weapons by the United States — this time from a Japanese city that has seen firsthand the devastating effects of an atomic bomb.
Tadatoshi Akiba, the former mayor of Hiroshima, wrote a letter to Trump just before his inauguration, urging him to make “wise and peaceable” decisions regarding nuclear weapons.
If anything, some of Akiba’s former constituents would know.
On Aug. 6, 1945, U.S. forces dropped an atomic bomb, code-named “Little Boy,” on Hiroshima, a large city on the southwestern coast of Japan’s Honshu island. Three days later, the United States dropped another atomic bomb, “Fat Man,” on Nagasaki, about 260 miles away.
The combined blasts killed as many as 200,000 people and leveled both cities.
The “hibakusha,” or survivors of the atomic bombings, would later describe witnessing white-hot fire consuming those who were not killed instantly. The intensity of the bomb caused some survivors’ skin to peel off and almost all to arrive at makeshift emergency clinics with an agonizing thirst. One survivor recalled the smell of grilled dried squid permeating a treatment room — in reality that of burned human flesh.
Japan surrendered on Aug. 15, 1945, and World War II would end less than a month later. It remains the only time in history a nuclear weapon has been unleashed in war.
“Since the nuclear issue is delicate and complicated, you may find the perspectives of those from one of the nuclear issue’s hot spots useful as you formulate the policy applicable to this area,” wrote Akiba, who was mayor of Hiroshima from 1999 to 2011 and has long been an advocate for eliminating nuclear weapons.
In his letter, dated Jan. 10, Akiba extended an invitation for Trump to visit Japan so he can speak to hibakusha in Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Acknowledging Trump is “a busy person,” Akiba also suggested inviting survivors living in the United States to meet him, because “their struggles are worth listening to.”
“They can tell you in English their heart-wrenching experiences and a message that would produce hope in the future,” Akiba wrote. “I would recommend that you take the initiative to meet with them because I believe that the encounter would most likely change your view about war and the meaning of survival.”
The United States must greatly strengthen and expand its nuclear capability until such time as the world comes to its senses regarding nukes
Trump’s tweet — and comments he reportedly made the following day to MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” co-host Mika Brzezinski — sparked fears of a renewed arms race between the two countries.
Officials in Japan have been paying attention. Two days after Trump was elected, the current mayors of Hiroshima and Nagasaki extended invitations to the president-elect to visit, the Japan Times reported.
In a statement, Nagasaki Mayor Tomihisa Taue said he wanted Trump to “see with his own eyes, listen with his own ears and feel with his heart what happened under the mushroom cloud,” according to the newspaper.
In recent decades, the Japanese government has recorded stories of the hibakusha and placed many of them online, translated into different languages, to educate those around the world about the consequences of nuclear weapons use.
“I felt the city of Hiroshima had disappeared all of a sudden,” said Akihiro Takahashi, a 14-year-old at the time in line for school, whose testimony was recorded by researchers in the late 1980s. “Then I looked at myself and found my clothes had turned into rags due to the heat. I was probably burned at the back of the head, on my back, on both arms and both legs. My skin was peeling and hanging like this.”
. . . So many had, in an instant, lost those dearest to them. Eiko Taoka, then 21 years old, was carrying her 1-year-old infant son in her arms aboard a streetcar. He didn’t survive the day. “I think fragments of glass had pierced his head,” she recounts. “His face was a mess because of the blood flowing from his head. But he looked at my face and smiled. His smile has remained glued in my memory.”
In May, President Barack Obama became the first sitting American president to visit Hiroshima and acknowledge the suffering of those who were bombed. There, he greeted and hugged survivors of the blast and called for the pursuit of a world without nuclear weapons.
“The world was forever changed here,” Obama said as the Genbaku Dome, or A-Bomb Dome, loomed in the distance. “But today, the children of this city will go through their day in peace. What a precious thing that is. It is worth protecting, and then extending to every child. That is the future we can choose, a future in which Hiroshima and Nagasaki are known not for the dawn of atomic warfare but as the start of our own moral awakening.”
LONDON (Reuters) – The nuclear industry is “gradually” recovering from its post-Fukushima slump, but excess capacity keeps uranium prices at record lows, forcing mining companies to mothball mines, slice costs and cut debt as they struggle to survive.
India under Rajiv Gandhi made preparations in 1985 to test a hydrogen bomb in response to Pakistan’s nuclear programmes, recently released US documents showed. Concerned about the possibility of a nuclear arms race in South Asia, the Ronald Reagan administration wanted to send an emissary to mediate between the two neighbours and help ease tensions. About 930,000 declassified documents, running into more than 12 million pages and recently posted online by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), provide interesting insights into India’s nuclear weapons capabilities during the 1980s and Delhi’s increasing concerns over Pakistan’s nuclear programme at the time. In one of the documents, the world’s premier intelligence agency said it faced difficulties in gathering details of Delhi’s nuclear programme as Indian security was “extremely tight”.
The spy agency said the hydrogen bomb that the government of Rajiv Gandhi was preparing to explode was much stronger than the one tested 11years earlier, when his mother Indira was the Prime Minister. India at the time was also far ahead than Pakistan on nuclear technology, it noted. While Rajiv Gandhi was initially hesitant to pursue his mother’s plan to push the nuclear programme, his mind changed when he got reports in early 1985 that Pakistan was making progress with nuclear weapons, according to the CIA. On May 4, 1985, he stated that Pakistan’s persistent efforts to join the nuclear club had compelled India to review its nuclear policy. The agency said the H-bomb was created by a team of 36 scientists at the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre near Mumbai. The CIA also claimed that India was stockpiling plutonium for nuclear arsenal. “
A rapid series of Pakistani tests would compel New Delhi to develop nuclear weapons and touch off a nuclear arms race between the two,” assessed a CIA document. But, according to CIA assessment, fear of international political and economic reprisals would deter India from conducting an attack on Pakistan’s nuclear facilities. “China and not Pakistan is perceived as a long-term threat to the Indian security,” it noted.
On sending an emissary, a document said while India was not warm to the idea, it nonetheless was not against giving the person an audience. The agency had suggested that the emissary should meet Rajiv Gandhi but refrained from predicting an outcome. On the other hand, Islamabad would welcome a US representative, according to the spy agency.
At the time, Pakistan was seen as a key ally of the US in South Asia, and India as a friend of the Soviet Union. The Rajiv Gandhi government didn’t go ahead with the testing. It was in 1998 under Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee that India again conducted nuclear tests. Pakistan followed with its own testing. The CIA documents, posted online on January 17, were declassified after the mandatory 25 years.
Law360, New York (January 23, 2017, 6:13 PM EST) — The House of Representatives on Monday pushed through a series of changes to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, in bills meant to change how courts treat FERC decisions and give more flexibility to new nuclear plants.
The two bills, passed by a voice vote, are meant to help consumers in the existing power industry and to help the development of new nuclear reactor technologies. The Fair Rates Act would expand the reviewability of FERC rate change decisions and the Advanced Nuclear Technology Development Act of 2017 would direct the U.S. Department and of Energy and the NRC to come up with a plan to allow for regulatory approvals of more advanced technology in nuclear reactors.
Rep. Joe Kennedy, D-Mass., the prime sponsor of the Fair Rates Act, said that the legislation would avoid the situation that power consumers in the Northeast faced. Following a rate auction, FERC deadlocked on approving the results, and they went into place automatically but consumers could not challenge them without a final FERC decision.
“With no official decision from the agency, there was no decision to appeal, leaving my constituents completely voiceless,” Kennedy said.
The bill would prevent situations in which consumers are forced to pay higher rates without the opportunity to appeal the decision either through the agency or through the courts, Kennedy said.
“Although this situation may sound completely isolated to New England, there’s not a corner of this country that’s immune from the unpredictability of the American energy market and the resulting burden they are forced to bear as a result,” Kennedy said.
Kennedy’s bill alters Section 205 of the Federal Power Act, designating that if a rate approval becomes final through action of law, it should be treated as a final agency action for purposes of agency and court appeals.
The court case that spurred the passage of the law came from Public Citizen and the state of Connecticut, which argued to overturn the approval of regional grid operator ISO New England Inc.’s 2014 auction — through which power generators offered their resource capacity for future power needs — by default.
However, in October, the D.C. Circuit ruled that it cannot review the approval of the auction without a final decision by the agency; the 2-2 deadlock kept the state and public consumers out of the courtroom.
Rep. Buddy Carter, R-Ga., said that one of the other bills the House passed on Monday, the Advanced Nuclear Technology Development Act of 2017, would help bring more advanced nuclear reactor designs to market more quickly. The language mandates that the Energy Department and the NRC enter into a memorandum of agreement to “knock down those walls to innovation and provide an opportunity to develop advanced nuclear reactor designs.”
The bill specifically includes advances on existing light-water reactor technologies that are intended to be more efficient and generate less waste as well as nuclear fusion reactors — which have not yet been built on an economically feasible scale. According to press reports, research institutions in both the United States and abroad have continued work on scaling up the power and sustainability of such reactors.
The bill would require a uniform, predictable plan for approval of more advanced reactors, which is meant to be based on mathematical models of their behavior.
Rep. Diane Degette, D-Colo., said that the changes to the NRC would be “a commonsense way for the federal government to safely advance the goals of the advanced nuclear power industry” and pave the way for lowering America’s overall carbon emissions.
Journalist Mark Ames gives crucial context to Putin’s rise to power & explains how post-Soviet Russia went from colony of the US Empire to “enemy number one” on The Empire Files: http://bit.ly/2klyJGX
The Arctic Frontiers forum in Tromsø. (Photo: Alberto Grohovaz / Arctic Frontiers 2017) 
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