Nuclear-safety concerns linger at Westinghouse plant, The STate, 8 May 17 BY SAMMY FRETWELLsfretwell@thestate.comThe U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission will increase scrutiny of a Columbia atomic fuel factory after nearly a year of concerns about safety and the buildup of uranium at the 48-year-old plant.
Since finding an accumulation of uranium in an air pollution control device last summer, the NRC has cited one additional violation related to the same piece of equipment in the Westinghouse nuclear fuel plant off Bluff Road, federal records show.
In the most recent case, the company potentially allowed uranium to build up for 23 hours late in 2016 in the pollution control device. Westinghouse did not properly restart nozzles on the device, known as a scrubber, that keep processed water flowing, a Jan. 27 NRC violation notice says.
That finding, to be discussed Tuesday night at a meeting in Columbia, follows the discovery months earlier that enough uranium had built up in the scrubber to have caused a small burst of radiation. No explosion occurred, but the issue was significant enough for Westinghouse to shut down part of the plant for several months while it worked to make improvements. The closed portion of the plant has since been restarted.
As a result of problems at the plant, the NRC says it will conduct comprehensive performance reviews annually instead of every two years…….http://www.thestate.com/news/local/article149368179.html
May 10, 2017
Posted by Christina Macpherson |
safety, USA |
Leave a comment
A thermonuclear bomb slammed into a US farm in 1961 — and part of it is still missing https://www.businessinsider.com.au/nuclear-bomb-accident-goldsboro-nc-swamp-2017-5?r=US&IR=T, DAVE MOSHER MAY 8, 2017,
- In 1961, a US nuclear bomber broke up over North Carolina farmland, killing three of eight crew members.
- The accident dropped two powerful hydrogen bombs over the area, but they did not detonate.
- The military fully recovered one of the bombs.
- While the second bomb was mostly recovered, one of its nuclear cores is likely still buried in up to 200 feet of mud and dirt.
Disaster struck early in the morning of January 24, 1961, as eight servicemen in a nuclear bomber were patrolling the skies near Goldsboro, North Carolina.
They were an insurance policy against a surprise nuclear attack by Russia on the United States — a sobering threat at the time. The on-alert crew might survive the initial attack, the thinking went, to respond with two large nuclear weapons tucked into the belly of their B-52G Stratofortress jet.
Each Mark 39 thermonuclear bomb was about 12 feet long, weighed more than 6,200 pounds, and could detonate with the energy of 3.8 million tons of TNT. Such a blast could kill everyone and everything within a diameter of about 17 miles — roughly the area inside the Washington, DC, beltway.
But the jet aeroplane and three of its crew members never returned to base, and neither nor did a nuclear core from one of the bombs.
The plane broke up about 2,000 above the ground, nearly detonating one of the bombs in the process.
Had the weapon exploded, the blast would have packed about 250 times the explosive power of the bomb dropped on Hiroshima.
A major accident involving a nuclear weapon is called a “broken arrow,” and the US military has officially recognised 32 of them since 1950.
A mysterious fuel leak, which the crew found out as a refuelling plane approached, led to the broken arrow incident over North Carolina in 1961.
The leak quickly worsened, and the jet bomber “lost its tail, spun out of control, and, perhaps most important, lost control of its bomb bay doors before it lost two megaton nuclear bombs,” according to a two–part series about the accident by The Orange County Register newspaper. “The plane crashed nose-first into a tobacco field a few paces away from Big Daddy Road just outside Goldsboro, N.C., about 60 miles east of Raleigh.”
One bomb safely parachuted toward the ground and snagged on a tree. Crews quickly found it, inspected it, and moved it onto a truck.
However, the parachute of the other bomb failed, causing it to slam into a swampy, muddy field and break into pieces. It took crews about a week of digging to find the crumpled bomb and most of its parts.
The military studied the bombs and learned that six out of seven steps to blow up one of them had engaged, according to the Register. Only one trigger stopped a blast — and that switch was set to “ARM,” yet somehow failed to detonate the bomb.
It was only “by the slightest margin of chance, literally the failure of two wires to cross, a nuclear explosion was averted,” said Robert McNamara, the US secretary of defence at the time, according to a declassified 1963 memo.
“Had the device detonated, lethal fallout could have been deposited over Washington, Baltimore, Philadelphia and as far north as New York City — putting millions of lives at risk,” according to a 2013 story by Ed Pilkington in the Guardian. Here’s a Nukemap simulation of what might have been the blast radius and fallout zone of the Goldsboro incident: [on original]
The thermonuclear core no one recovered
Both bombs were a thermonuclear design. So instead of just one nuclear core, these weapons — the most powerful type on Earth — had two nuclear cores.
In the fleeting moments after the first core (called a primary) explodes, it releases a torrent of X-ray and other radiation. This radiation reflects off the inside of the bomb casing, which acts like a mirror to focus it on and set off the secondary core. The one-two punch compounds the efficiency and explosive power of a nuclear blast.
While the US military recovered the entire Goldsboro bomb that hung from a tree, the second bomb wasn’t fully recovered: Its secondary core was lost in the muck and the mire.
Reports suggest the secondary core burrowed more than 100 feet into the ground at the crash site — possibly up to 200 feet down.
The missing secondary is thought to be made mostly of uranium-238, which is common and not weapons-grade material (but can still be deadly inside a thermonuclear weapon), plus some highly enriched uranium-235 (HEU), which is a weapons-grade material and a key ingredient in traditional atomic bombs.
Business Insider contacted the Department of Defence (DoD) to learn about the current status of the site and the missing secondary, and a representative said neither the DoD, Department of Energy, or USAF has “any ongoing projects or activities with this site.”
The DoD representative would not say whether or not the secondary was still there. However, the representative forwarded some responses by Joel Dobson, a local author who penned the book “The Goldsboro Broken Arrow“.
“Nothing has changed [since 1961],” Dobson said, according to the DoD email. (Dobson did not return calls or emails from Business Insider.) “The area is not marked or fenced. It is being farmed. The DOD has been granted a 400 foot in diameter easement which, doesn’t allow building of any kind but farming is OK.”
When asked about the still-missing secondary, Michael O’Hanlon, a US defence strategy specialist with the Brookings Institution, said there should be little to worry about.
“Clearly, having a large part of a nuclear weapon on private land … is a bit unsettling. That said, I’m not suggesting anyone lose sleep over this,” O’Hanlon told Business Insider in an email.
“It would take a serious operation to get at it, requiring tunnelling equipment and a fairly obvious and visible approach to the site by some kind of road convoy, presumably,” O’Hanlon added. “Moreover, a secondary does NOT have a lot of HEU or plutonium … which makes it less dangerous because you can’t make a nuclear weapon out of it from scratch.”
But O’Hanlon at least hopes the DoD and others have thought through “the possibility of someone trying to steal it.”
“After all, digging and tunnelling equipment has continued to improve over the years — and there is apparently no secret about where this weapon is located,” O’Hanlon said. “On balance, I’d rather it not be there — but don’t consider it a major national security risk, either.”
May 8, 2017
Posted by Christina Macpherson |
history, incidents, USA |
Leave a comment
Nuclear plant worker ‘deliberately’ tried to hide error, officials say, NJ.com 3 May 17 LOWER ALLOWAYS CREEK TWP. — A worker “deliberately” attempted to fix an error he had made while conducting tests at a New Jersey nuclear reactor causing the plant to shut down 2 years ago, federal officials say.
The now-former employee’s action prompted the Hope Creek generating station to automatically shut down on Sept. 28, 2015. The worker later lied about what he did, officials said Wednesday.
The unidentified PSEG Nuclear technician “made an error while performing a surveillance test and deliberately attempted to correct the error rather than comply with the procedural guidance to stop and inform management,” the Nuclear Regulatory Commission said in a letter outlining its findings in the case on Wednesday……
When it conducted its own investigation of the unplanned shutdown, PSEG Nuclear discovered it was human error, not mechanical failure that caused the plant to trip off line, officials said……
The plant was shut down for four days.
PSEG, as the operator of Hope Creek, takes responsibility for the actions of the worker and did not contest the NRC’s finding…
The plant is one of three nuclear reactors operated by PSEG at its Artificial Island generating complex in Lower Alloways Creek in Salem County.
Hope Creek, along with the other two reactors there — Salem 1 and Salem 2 –comprise the second-largest nuclear complex in the United States.
Bill Gallo Jr. may be reached at bgallo@njadvancemedia.com. Follow Bill Gallo Jr. on Twitter @bgallojr. Find NJ.com on Facebook. http://www.nj.com/salem/index.ssf/2017/05/nuclear_plant_shut_down_after_worker_deliberately.html
May 5, 2017
Posted by Christina Macpherson |
incidents, USA |
Leave a comment
Close monitoring of the nuclear weapons convoys that regularly travel by road between the UK government’s Atomic Weapons Establishment in Berkshire and the Royal Naval Armaments Depot at Coulport on Loch Long suggests that 62 warheads were moved in 2016.
This compares to just 11 in 2015, 15 in 2014 and between six and eight in previous years. Critics suspect that the huge increase is because upgraded Mark 4A warheads were being fitted to Trident missiles carried by the nuclear submarine, HMS Vengeance.
The number of bombs on the move is likely to remain high in future years as the new warheads are installed on other Trident submarines, they say. On Wednesday 26 April 2017 a nuclear weapons convoy was filmed by a motorist driving through the countryside by the village of Croftamie near Loch Lomond – and the footage was published by the Scottish Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament.
The revelations have prompted alarm from the SNP and the Scottish Greens, who accuse the Ministry of Defence (MoD) of “chilling complacency” and risking a “catastrophic terrorist incident”. The MoD has refused to say whether, or why, it is moving more nuclear bombs.
The UK-wide group, Nukewatch, has been tracking the 20-vehicle nuclear weapons convoys for 30 years. It says it can tell from security and operational arrangements how many bombs they are carrying, and when dummy runs are made for training purposes.
The group has evidence that in 2016 six loaded convoys travelled from the Burghfield bomb factory in Berkshire to Coulport, with a further five going in the opposite direction. The convoys carried 34 refurbished warheads to Coulport, and sent 28 warheads down south for modernisation, it estimates.
The number of road convoys carrying nuclear weapons has more than doubled compared to previous years, Nukewatch says, while the number of dummy runs has dropped. It also suggests that the transport of warheads to be dismantled at Burghfield under international disarmament agreements has paused.
The sharp rise in bomb movements coincides with the planned introduction of upgraded Trident Mark 4A warheads, and HMS Vengeance returning to service after a three-year refit.
“The evidence suggests that not only are there a greater number of these deadly cargoes on the roads, but that the government is introducing modernised and even more lethal Trident warheads into service,” said Nukewatch’s Jane Tallents.
“While the rest of the world is meeting at the United Nations to draw up a multilateral treaty to ban nuclear weapons, the UK government is unilaterally and illegally modernising its weapons of mass destruction.”
The SNP’s Westminster defence spokesperson, Brendan O’Hara MP, said that the figures confirmed that nuclear weapons convoys were increasing. “The MoD has always shown chilling complacency on the transportation of nuclear convoys,” he told The Ferret.
“Trucks filled with nuclear material can be on the motorway or on main roads at any time of day or night without residents on the route ever knowing and that the frequency is increasing so rapidly is troubling.”
He condemned the secrecy that surrounds the nuclear convoys. “To pull the wool over people’s eyes about the awful practice of nuclear convoys travelling through our towns and cities so frequently is completely unacceptable.”
The Green MSP for Mid-Scotland and Fife, Mark Ruskell, has been receiving more reports of nuclear convoys passing through Stirling. “People are angry and are watching the roads with concern,” he said.
“Every extra warhead convoy is a massive security threat, increasing the risk of a catastrophic terrorist incident. The UK Government is trashing international agreements to reduce our nuclear warhead stockpiles and seems intent on re-arming its submarines for Armageddon.”
The MoD declined to comment on operational details. “The transportation of defence nuclear material is kept to the minimum required to support operational requirements,” said a spokesman.
May 3, 2017
Posted by Christina Macpherson |
safety, UK |
Leave a comment
U.S. lawmakers push Yucca nuclear dump facing transport crunch, Reuters, By Timothy Gardner | WASHINGTON, 29 Apr 17, Lawmakers in the U.S. House of Representatives on Wednesday debated resurrecting the stalled Yucca Mountain spent nuclear fuel dump in Nevada, a project critics say is hindered by the lack of an easy transport route.
Representative John Shimkus, an Illinois Republican, has proposed draft legislation to restart the licensing of Yucca Mountain. The government has already spent billions of dollars for initial construction of the project, which has been pending since Ronald Reagan was president.
Former President Barack Obama opposed Yucca and stopped its licensing process in 2010. But President Donald Trump’s proposed 2018 budget provides $120 million to restart licensing and for development of interim nuclear waste sites until Yucca can be completed.
More details about the Trump administration’s support of Yucca could come when a broader budget is released in May. Currently, spent nuclear fuel, which can be deadly if left unshielded, is stored at reactors across the country, first in cooling ponds and then in thick casks.
The Yucca site itself, about 100 miles (160 km) northwest of Las Vegas, faces a cumbersome and costly licensing process that could take years to complete and questions from critics about how long spent fuel can remain without radiation leaking into an aquifer.
Yucca supporters say there is little groundwater at the desert site and what is there is contained by barriers and does not flow to any river or drinking water supply.
An even trickier problem will be getting the spent fuel to Yucca Mountain safely by train and truck from nuclear reactors sites all across the country.
“Transportation is the Achilles heel of the Yucca Mountain repository site,” said Bob Halstead, the head of Nevada’s agency for nuclear projects.
One train route studied by the Department of Energy, known as Caliente, has been at least partially blocked by Obama’s 2015 designation of a national monument called Basin and Range.
Another route, known as Mina, is opposed by the Walker River tribe, which withdrew permission in 2007 for the government to ship waste through its reservation.
Many casino owners and gaming associations also oppose the transport of spent nuclear fuel near the city of Las Vegas, saying publicity about the shipments could harm property values and tourism…..
There are no nuclear power reactors in Nevada, and the state’s entire Congressional delegation, which includes members of both parties, opposes Yucca.
Representative Jacky Rosen, a Nevada Democrat, said a major accident would harm human health, cost hundreds of millions of dollars in cleanup costs, and damage the Las Vegas economy. “Do you honestly believe that shipping over 5,000 truck casks of high-level nuclear waste over a span of 50 years won’t result in at least one radiological accident?” Rosen said at the hearing…….http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-nuclearpower-yucca-idUSKBN17S08J
May 1, 2017
Posted by Christina Macpherson |
safety, USA |
Leave a comment
The final mission for Cassini, Enformable, 26 Apr 17, Karl Grossman Despite protests around the world, the Cassini space probe—containing more deadly plutonium than had ever been used on a space device—was launched 20 years ago. And this past weekend—on Earth Day—the probe and its plutonium were sent crashing into Saturn.
The $3.27 billion mission constituted a huge risk. Cassini with its 72.3 pounds of Plutonium-238 fuel was launched on a Titan IV rocket on October 17, 1997 despite several Titan IV rockets having earlier blown up on launch.
At a demonstration two weeks before in front of the fence surrounding the pad at Cape Canaveral from which Cassini was to be launched, Dr. Michio Kaku, professor of theoretical physics at the City University of New York, warned of widespread regional damage if this Titan IV lofting Cassini exploded on launch. Winds could carry the plutonium “into Disney World, University City, into the citrus industry and destroy the economy of central Florida,” he declared………
on an Earth “flyby” by Cassini , done on August 18, 1999, it wouldn’t have been a regional disaster but a global catastrophe if an accident happened.
Cassini didn’t have the propulsion power to get directly from Earth to its final destination of Saturn, so NASA figured on having it hurtle back to Earth in a “sling shot maneuver” or “flyby”—to use Earth’s gravity to increase its velocity so it could reach Saturn. The plutonium was only used to generate electricity—745 watts—to run the probe’s instruments. It had nothing to do with propulsion.
So NASA had Cassini come hurtling back at Earth at 42,300 miles per hour and skim over the Earth’s atmosphere at 727 miles high. If there were a rocket misfire or miscalculation and the probe made what NASA in its “Final Environmental Impact Statement for the Cassini Mission” called an “inadvertent reentry,” it could have fallen into Earth’s atmosphere, disintegrating, and releasing plutonium. Then, said NASA in its statement, “Approximately 7 to 8 billion world population at a time … could receive 99 percent or more of the radiation exposure.”
The worst accident involving space nuclear power occurred in 1964 when a satellite powered by a SNAP-9A plutonium system failed to achieve orbit and fell to Earth, breaking apart and releasing its 2.1 pounds of Plutonium-238 fuel, which dispersed all over the planet. According to the late Dr. John Gofman, professor of medical physics at the University of California at Berkeley, that accident contributed substantially to global lung cancer rates……….
the U.S. Department of Energy working with NASA has started up a new production facility at its Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee to produce Plutonium-238 for space use. Other DOE labs are also to participate.
Says Gagnon of the Maine-based Global Network: “Various DOE labs are rushing back into the plutonium processing business likely to make it possible for the nuclear industry to move their deadly product off-planet in order to ensure that the mining operations envisioned on asteroids, Mars, and the Moon will be fully nuclear-powered. Not only do the DOE labs have a long history of contaminating us on Earth but imagine a series of rocket launches with toxic plutonium on board that blow up from time to time at the Kennedy Space Center. They are playing with fire and the lives of us Earthlings. The space and the nuke guys are in bed together and that is a bad combination—surely terrible news for all of us.”
“The Global Network,” said Gagnon, “remains adamantly opposed to the use of nuclear power in space.” http://enformable.com/2017/04/the-final-mission-for-cassini/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Enformable+%28Enformable%29
April 28, 2017
Posted by Christina Macpherson |
- plutonium, safety, technology, USA |
Leave a comment
Gov’t Taking Away Handguns From Guards At Nuclear Power Plants, Daily Caller, ANDREW FOLLETT, Energy and Science Reporter , 27 Apr 17, Security guards at nuclear power plants will soon be prohibited from carrying handguns, according to a Wednesday statement by the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA).
TVA claims that a recent regulatory review concluded handguns were obsolete compared to other security measures protecting the power plants, but would not clarify what these new measures were citing security concerns. TVA seemingly intends to remove handguns from their security system by the end of the year.
TVA’s own security officers have gone on record strongly objecting to the change.
“Radiological release, that’s what they’re after. Terrorists are after to kill as many as they can in the quickest way.” Paul Tackett, a veteran nuclear security officer at TVA’s Watts Bar reactor, told a local news station. “They’re [TVA] talking about taking away our handguns. I mean, if we’re utilities at night, we have no way of protecting ourselves.”
A successful theft of uranium from a nuclear power plant could have catastrophic consequences. The sort of low-quality uranium and plutonium used in nuclear reactors could be used to make low-tech nuclear explosives often called “dirty bomb.”
“The safety and security of our facilities and host communities is and will always be our top priority,” a spokesperson for the Nuclear Energy Institute (NEI) told The Daily Caller News Foundation. “Our security officers employ powerful weapons such as automatic rifles and shotguns, meaning that phasing out sidearms does not reduce our solid commitment to safety and security.”
“Anything is possible to happen at anytime,” Tackett said. “It was just a few years ago when we had an officer shot at out here.”
A dirty bomb combines radioactive material with conventional explosives that could contaminate the local area with high radiation levels for long periods of time and cause mass panic, though it would be millions of times weaker than an actual nuclear device. The Islamic State (ISIS) has expressed interest in stealing this kind of radioactive material for a dirty bomb…….http://dailycaller.com/2017/04/26/govt-taking-away-handguns-from-guards-at-nuclear-power-plants/
April 28, 2017
Posted by Christina Macpherson |
safety, USA |
Leave a comment
Report: Japanese seeking out nuclear shelters, air purifiers over North Korean threat https://www.aol.com/article/news/2017/04/24/japanese-seeking-nuclear-shelters-air-purifiers-north-korea-threat/22053701 As North Korea ratchets up international tensions with missile tests and aggressive rhetoric, some residents of a neighboring country are reportedly taking actions to protect themselves in advance.
Reuters is reporting that “sales of nuclear shelters and radiation-blocking air purifiers have surged in Japan in recent weeks…”
One company, Oribe Seiki Seisakusho, appears to be doing particularly well, receiving eight orders for nuclear shelters in April and selling all 50 of its $5,000-a-piece, poison gas filtering air purifiers.
According to Newsweek, the buying activity may have been prompted, at least in part, by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s recent warning to other Japanese government officials that “there is a possibility that North Korea already has a capability to put sarin on warheads to strike the ground.”
Meanwhile, the Japan Times reported last month that Oga, a Japanese city in Akita Prefecture, conducted the country’s first evacuation drill “on the premise of a ballistic missile falling into Japanese waters off Akita, [and] was aimed at promptly relaying information while facilitating the swift and safe evacuation of residents.” The media outlet further notes that the drill included participation by an elementary school, among others.
In addition to these protective measures, Japan has been working with the U.S. and its neighbor South Korea to detect and possibly intercept approaching missiles.
April 26, 2017
Posted by Christina Macpherson |
Japan, safety, weapons and war |
Leave a comment
What is the Gotham Shield? Nuclear bomb drill in NJ this week, New jersey 101.5 By Dan Alexander April 24, 2017 NEW YORK — An emergency response drill that has caught the attention of conspiracy theorists begins in New Jersey on Monday night.
“Gotham Shield” is the name given to a multi-agency, real-time drill that starts Monday night and runs all week, involving a number of law enforcement and rescue agencies from New Jersey and the Northeast, according to NJ.com.
The “notional” drill will be based on the explosion of a nuclear device in West New York. A response center will be set up at MetLife Stadium on Tuesday, according to the report, in which rescue teams and equipment will be set up to respond to respond to casualties, but will not involve actual “actors” playing victims.
FEMA spokeswoman Lauren Lefebvre told NJ.com on Sunday the purpose of the exercise is “to expand the ability at local and national levels to coordinate in effect a large-scale response and recovery to an event like this.”
According to the website snopes.com, which researches internet rumors, the drill first became known to the public last week with on a number of websites which believed the plan was in response to heightened tensions with North Korea, and could actually lead to a real disaster………http://nj1015.com/what-is-the-gotham-shield-its-only-a-test/
April 26, 2017
Posted by Christina Macpherson |
safety, USA |
Leave a comment
This is a test – nuclear threat focus of exercise in Ottawa and Nova Scotia http://ottawacitizen.com/news/national/defence-watch/this-is-a-test-nuclear-threat-focus-of-exercise-in-ottawa-and-nova-scotia DAVID PUGLIESE, OTTAWA CITIZEN, 25 Apr 17, Canada and the U.S. are in the midst of conducting an exercise that tests the ability of both countries to respond to a nuclear threat.
Over the last week, hundreds of public servants across the government of Canada, including military and emergency response officials, have been participating in a series of exercises under that common scenario.
Exercise STAUNCH MAPLE 17 is a command post exercise representing the Canadian Forces’ support to this scenario.
It started on April 20 and will run until April 28. The exercise, based in Ottawa and Nova Scotia, trains “consequence management capabilities with a focus on staff processes and leadership,” according to the Department of National Defence.
STAUNCH MAPLE 17 is part of a series of bi-national, government exercises aimed at enhancing interagency protocols and communication in case of a significant threat to Canada.
STAUNCH MAPLE 17 brings together hundreds of public servants from several departments and agencies, including:
| · Public Safety· Health Canada
· Transport Canada
· Government Operations Centre
· Royal Canadian Mounted Police
· Natural Resources Canada
· Public Health Agency of Canada
· Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission
· Industry Science and Economic Development Canada |
· Defence Research and Development Canada· Canadian Border Services Agency
· Nova Scotia Emergency Management Office
· Halifax Regional Municipality
· Halifax Harbour Bridges
· Halifax Port Authority
· Halifax Regional Police |
Some participants in the exercise are involved in a concurrent exercise, PROMINENT HUNT 17-01. That exercises U.S. assistance to the Canadian government to support the investigation of the simulated nuclear threat. Participants from the U.S. and Canada will collect simulated evidentiary samples of debris at various locations in Nova Scotia.
Royal Canadian Air Force CH-146 Griffon helicopters, an RCMP ASTAR-350 helicopter, and American UH-60 Black Hawk helicopters will be conducting low-level aerial survey flights for that scenario.
April 26, 2017
Posted by Christina Macpherson |
Canada, safety, USA |
Leave a comment
Man guilty of bomb threats against nuclear plant in Florida | 19 April 2017 | A north Florida man has pleaded guilty to sending bomb threats to a nuclear power plant, a school and other government and private facilities. Acting U.S. Attorney W. Stephen Muldrow said in a news release that 25-year-old David Wayne Willmott Jr. pleaded guilty on Tuesday in federal court to three counts of making threats to use an explosive device. Federal prosecutors say Willmott emailed bomb threats in 2014 and 2015 to the nuclear plant as well as two courthouses, two airports and a sheriff’s office.
April 26, 2017
Posted by Christina Macpherson |
incidents, Legal, USA |
Leave a comment
Sec. John Kelly: Terrorism on US Planes Keeps Me ‘Awake at Night, http://www.newsmax.com/Politics/john-kelly-terrorism-us-planes-keeps-me-awake/2017/04/23/id/785878/, Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly said Sunday a terrorist plot against American planes “keeps me literally awake at night,” calling the threat “something that is very real.”
In an interview on CBS News’ “Face The Nation,” Kelly said a successful strike at a U.S. plane would kill “hundreds and hundreds of people in one fell swoop.” “The … thing that keeps me literally awake at night is the threat against aviation,” he said. “We know that would be the Super Bowl for the terrorists to knock down an air plane in flight, particularly if it was full of Americans.
“There are a number of plots that we’re watching very, very closely— very sophisticated, very threatening, and the number-one thing in my mind is to protect the American people,” he added, calling the “aviation threat… something that is very real.”
On the issue of North Korea’s threat to the nation, Kelly said “as long as they’re on the other side of the world without a missile and a nuclear weapon to deliver against the United States, they’re not much threat right now— except in the world of cyber. They’re pretty aggressive when they want to be in cyber,.”
“The instant they get a missile that can reach the United States, and they have a weaponized atomic device, nuclear device on it, we’re at grave risk as a nation,” he warned.
April 24, 2017
Posted by Christina Macpherson |
safety, USA |
Leave a comment
The greatest threat to the future of mankind? http://www.manilatimes.net/greatest-threat-future-mankind/323418/ BY JAIME J.YAMBAO ON APRIL 22, 2017 UNLESS rebuffed by the US Congress like it did with his repeal of Obamacare, President Trump’s proposal to boost the budget for nuclear weapons production could make him the greatest threat to the future of mankind. Not climate change. Not terrorism.
Already America’s 5,500 strategic nuclear weapons possess enough destructive power to destroy Planet Earth at least five times over; some experts estimate up to 50 times over.
The US and Russia own 95 percent of the world’s nuclear warheads, with Russia slightly ahead. But the two powers have been reducing their stockpiles under the US- Russia Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START). Obviously not a candidate for the Nobel Peace prize, Trump has announced his wish to renegotiate the new START and be at the top of the nuclear heap, not only numerically but also in lethalness.
Trump’s desire to be absolutely No. 1 could conceivably trigger a new nuclear arms race among the nuclear powers today. This could also encourage new aspirants for the exclusive nuclear circle as the race further accentuates the basic flaw of the Non-Proliferation Treaty: its discriminatory nature. The nuclear powers as of July1968, the time of signing of the NPT, are exempt from the ban the treaty imposes.
Sanctions have not prevented states from violating the NPT. India with an economy large enough to go autarkic considered the sanctions imposed on it after its nuclear tests “meaningless.” Sanctions against Pakistan were dropped as soon as its cooperation was deemed essential by the US in the latter’s Afghan wars. For all the sanctions slapped on it, North Korea has so far conducted nuclear and missile tests at relentlessly short intervals that the risk of a nuclear detonation being made either by the US or North Korea today is considered the highest since the Cold War.
Small wonder that the world has not been too happy and content with the NPT. In accordance with the decision of the majority last year, the UN General Assembly a few days ago launched a conference to negotiate a new legally binding treaty to prohibit nuclear weapons in line with previous treaties prohibiting chemical and biological weapons, landmines and cluster munitions.
Customary international law makes no mention of nuclear weapons because they are of a later invention. But as their immediate and longer term effects were demonstrated in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, nuclear weapons clearly fall under the weapons prohibited by customary international law—weapons which are of a nature to strike at military objectives and civilians without distinction.
It was the monitoring of the effects of the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki that showed how a single nuclear bomb detonated over a large city could kill millions of people, bring unimaginable suffering to survivors and their future generations, and cause catastrophic and long-term damage to the environment. The use of tens or hundreds of nuclear bombs would be cataclysmic, severely disrupting the global climate and causing widespread famine. The UN conference serves to negotiate a treaty that would for the first time explicitly and universally prohibit nuclear weapons. The ban would include the five permanent members of the Security Council.
For all its defects, the NPT by the number of countries subscribing to it manifests the desire of the vast majority of countries around the world (almost 200) to ban nuclear weapons. One hundred fifteen countries are also part of nuclear weapons-free zones which cover Southeast Asia, Central Asia, the South Pacific, Latin America and the Caribbean, and Africa. While a majority of UN members are participating in the conference. The United States and its allies have boycotted it, calling it an unrealistic exercise. One US ally, the Philippines is not in that boycott. Its own Constitution bans nuclear weapons.
Given Trump’s pledge to make America great again in nuclear weapons and given the ongoing efforts in the United Nations to negotiate a ban, it appears that the world is at a historic juncture. To ban or not to ban.
With the US boycotting the conference, one cannot be sanguine about what any resulting treaty can amount to. The colossal nuclear stockpile of the US will be outside the ban. Would a label or reputation as a rogue leader matter to Trump? Probably not. The United States anyway has a history of not ratifying landmark treaties and not learning any lesson from the disastrous consequences of its non-ratification.
Trump is one damn determined fellow. This is shown by the fact that to make a significant increase in his defense and nuclear weapons budget, he has to make drastic cuts in components of the federal budget that contribute significantly to national security. Trump is also one narrow-minded fool. Said a New York Times
“[T]he armed forces are a vital component of the national security tool kit, but so are diplomacy, economic engagement, and post-conflict reconstruction. The use of military force should always be a last resort, and the balanced application of other, less costly tools of national power helps prevent wars and crises from arising in the first place.”
The reason the US gave for the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, killing millions of civilians, was to stop the war and prevent further US military casualties.
The nuclear bomb has been associated to this day with caring for the lives of America’s soldiers. It has been noted that Trump counts on the customary popularity of defense with legislators to get his budget passed. Trump may get the additional more powerful nuclear bombs that he wants.
What makes people nervous about this prospect is that in the few weeks he has been in the White House, Trump has done little to dispel the notion engendered by the election campaign that his short-fuse temperament may willy-nilly unleash a nuclear cataclysm. His issuance of orders without much consultation with appropriate agencies, his all-bluster-and-wind assaults on mass and social media grounded on “alternative facts” are far from reassuring of a man close to the nuclear button.
It seems that under the protocol concerned, the US President, contrary to the popular imagery, does not actually press his finger on the button. He issues an order to a War Room in the Pentagon where officials are bound by law to execute the order. There is an anecdote related in the Internet of one such top brass fired for asking whether he should follow an order to release nuclear bombs coming from an insane President. The US President has the sole authority to use nuclear weapons. The Pentagon must simply obey his command. Theirs not to question why…
Jaime J. Yambao is a retired Ambassador of the Philippines
April 22, 2017
Posted by Christina Macpherson |
politics international, safety, USA |
Leave a comment
Climate Change is a global threat to international security, John Pratt 21 Apr 17, https://wordpress.com/read/feeds/17124327/posts/1428211610 Terrorist groups such as the Islamic State and Boko Haram have been dominating the headlines since 2013.
Both groups have gained international notoriety for their ruthless brutality and their rise is posing new challenges for national, regional and international security.
Such non-state armed groups (NSAG) are not a new phenomenon.
Today, however, we can observe an increasingly complex landscape of violent actors with a range of hybrid organisational structures, different agendas and different levels of engagement with society that set them apart from ‘traditional’ non-state actors and result in new patterns of violence.
At the same time, there has been increasing acknowledgement within the academic literature and among the policy community of the relationship between climate change and security.
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) underlined in its latest report from 2014 that human security will be progressively threatened as the climate changes.
Analysing its impacts on fragility, an independent report for the G7 Foreign Ministers concluded that climate change is a global threat to international security.
As the ultimate threat multiplier, it aggravates already fragile situations and may contribute to social upheaval and even violent con ict (Rüttinger et al. 2015). …….
Today the UN, the EU, the G7 and an increasing number of states have classified climate change as a threat to global and/or national security (American Security Project 2014; European Commission 2008; UN Security Council 2011).
However, the links between climate change, conflict and fragility are not simple and linear.
The increasing impacts of climate change do not automatically lead to more fragility and conflict.
Rather, climate change acts as a threat multiplier. It interacts and converges with other existing risks and pressures in a given context and can increase the likelihood of fragility or violent conflict.
States experiencing fragility or conflict are particularly affected, but seemingly stable states can also be overburdened by the combined pressures of climate change, population growth, urbanization, environmental degradation and rising socio-economic inequalities (Carius et al. 2008; WBGU 2007, CNA 2007, Rüttinger et al. 2015).
In 2015, the report “A New Climate for Peace” (Rüttinger et al. 2015), commissioned by the G7 Foreign Ministries, identified seven compound climate-fragility risks that pose a serious threat to the stability of states and societies.
Local resource competition: As the pressure on natural resources increases, competition can lead to instability and even violent conflict in the absence of effective dispute resolution.
Livelihood insecurity and migration: Climate change will increase the human insecurity of people who depend on natural resources for their livelihoods, which could push them to migrate or turn to more informal or illegal sources of income.
Extreme weather events and disasters will exacerbate fragility challenges and can increase people’s vulnerability and grievances, especially in conflict-affected situations.
Volatile food prices and provision: Climate change is highly likely to disrupt food production in many regions, increasing prices and market volatility, and heightening the risk of protests, rioting, and civil conflict.
Transboundary water management is frequently a source of tension; as demand grows and climate impacts affect availability and quality, competition over water use will likely increase the pressure on existing governance structures.
Sea-level rise and coastal degradation: Rising sea levels will threaten the viability of low-lying areas even before they are submerged, leading to social disruption, displacement, and migration, while disagreements over maritime boundaries and ocean resources may increase.
Unintended effects of climate policies: As climate change adaptation and mitigation policies are more broadly implemented, the risks of unintended negative effects – particularly in fragile contexts – will also increase.
“A New Climate for Peace” is an independent report commissioned by the G7 Member States.
The report was prepared by an independent consortium of leading research institutions, headed by adelphi, with International Alert, the Wilson Center, and the EU Institute for Security Studies, and was submitted to the G7 in April 2015.
Press link for more: Report
April 22, 2017
Posted by Christina Macpherson |
2 WORLD, climate change, safety |
Leave a comment
Citizens confront Nuclear Fuel Services regulator over environmental, public health concerns JESSICA FULLER 21 Apr 17 jfuller@johnsoncitypress.com ERWIN — A biennial safety performance review that concluded Erwin’s Nuclear Fuel Services is continuing to operate safely brought out concerned citizens who questioned the report’s conclusion.
The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission reviewed the report which spanned from Jan. 1, 2015, to Dec. 31, 2016, and included several enforcement issues in the presentation, including two instances of failure to treat mixed waste and failure to maintain records of maintenance and inspection testing of the facility’s fire protection systems.
The NRC ruled that NFS doesn’t need to improve any areas in its safety culture based on the two-year investigation period.
“An absence of areas needing improvement does not mean that performance in functional areas that we inspect does not have to be improved or enhanced,” NRC representative Charlie Stancil said. “Early detection with comprehensive corrective actions to address these performance issues are key to sustaining safe and secure operations and performance as we go forward.”……
After the presentations, the public was allowed to speak, and commenters had nothing but concern and distrust to hand to the board of NRC inspectors and company representatives. While some inquirers cited specific events listed in the violation reports for comment, others had other bones to pick with the NRC on issues such as public health and environmental safety. A recurring topic brought up by audience members was the discontinuation of an $8 million cancer study that was canceled in 2015.
Jonesborough citizen Linda Modica was questioned the representatives with documentation in her hands. She asked about the levels of plutonium that showed up in the reports, and NRS representative Kevin Ramey said those trace amounts have a dose limit set at 100 milligrams, which he went on to explain means is the limit that a person could ingest either by air or water for an entire year.
“I understand your concern that there’s stuff there you’d rather not be exposed to,” Ramey said. “The commission has made a decision that the regulations we have are protective of the public, and that’s something that we can’t change, that’s something only the commission can change.”
Modica, a two-time cancer survivor, said it is personal issue to her, and said that wasn’t good enough.
“We need the government to reduce the risk of cancer by eliminating these radioactive toxins that are being put in our air and water,” Modica said. “Those numbers need to be zero.”
Email Jessica Fuller at jfuller@johnsoncitypress.com. Follow Jessica on Twitter @fullerjf91. Like her on Facebook at www.facebook.com/jfullerJCP. http://www.johnsoncitypress.com/Business/2017/04/20/Citizens-confront.html?ci=stream&lp=1&p=
April 22, 2017
Posted by Christina Macpherson |
safety, USA |
Leave a comment
nuclear-news 