The sleuths called for a special unit of NDRF from Kolkata and the unit reached Borkula village by Monday evening. The sources added that the sleuths of Army Red Horn Division on Sunday followed both the youth, Jatin Das and Apurba Das along with the Chevrolet car from Guwahati and reached Nagaon. Later the suspected materials were recovered from the household.
How America tested radiation on its citizens, during the Cold War.
Cold War radiation testing in U.S. widespread, author claims https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2017/10/02/world/cold-war-radiation-testing-u-s-widespread-author-claims/#.WdRk7I-CzGgST. LOUIS – Three members of Congress are demanding answers after a St. Louis scholar’s new book revealed details of how the U.S. government sprayed, injected and fed radiation and other dangerous materials to countless people in secret Cold War-era testing.
The health ramifications of the tests are unknown. Lisa Martino-Taylor, an associate professor of sociology at St. Louis Community College who wrote “Behind the Fog: How the U.S. Cold War Radiological Weapons Program Exposed Innocent Americans,” acknowledged that tracing diseases like cancer to specific causes is difficult.
But three congressmen who represent areas where testing occurred — Democrats William Lacy Clay of Missouri, Brad Sherman of California and Jim Cooper of Tennessee — said they were outraged by the revelations.
Martino-Taylor used Freedom of Information Act requests to obtain previously unreleased documents, including army records. She also reviewed already public records and published articles. In an interview, she said she found that a small group of researchers, aided by leading academic institutions, worked to develop radiological weapons and later “combination weapons” using radioactive materials along with chemical or biological weapons.
Her book, published in August, was a follow-up to her 2012 dissertation that found the government conducted secret testing of zinc cadmium sulfide in a poor area of St. Louis in the 1950s and 1960s. The book focuses on the mid-1940s to the mid-1960s.
An army spokeswoman declined comment, but Martino-Taylor’s 2012 report on testing in St. Louis was troubling enough to spur an army investigation. The investigation found no evidence that the St. Louis testing posed a health threat.
Martino-Taylor said the offensive radiological weapons program was a top priority for the government. Unknowing people at places across the U.S. as well as parts of England and Canada were subjected to potentially deadly material through open-air spraying, ingestion and injection, Martino-Taylor said.
“They targeted the most vulnerable in society in most cases,” Martino-Taylor said. “They targeted children. They targeted pregnant women in Nashville. People who were ill in hospitals. They targeted wards of the state. And they targeted minority populations.”
The tests in Nashville in the late 1940s involved giving 820 poor and pregnant white women a mixture during their first pre-natal visit that included radioactive iron, Martino-Taylor said. The women were chosen without their knowledge. Blood tests were performed to determine how much radioactive iron had been absorbed by the mother, and the babies’ blood was tested at birth. Similar tests were performed in Chicago and San Francisco, Martino-Taylor said.
Cooper’s office plans to seek more information from the Army Legislative Liaison, said spokesman Chris Carroll.
“We are asking for details on the Pentagon’s role, along with any cooperation by research institutions and other organizations,” Carroll said. “These revelations are shocking, disturbing and painful.”
In California, investigators created a radiation field inside a building at North Hollywood High School during a weekend in the fall of 1961, Martino-Taylor said. Similar testing was performed at the University of California, Los Angeles and at a Los Angeles Police Department building.
Sherman said he wants a survey of people who graduated from the school around the time of the testing to see if there was a higher incidence of illness, including cancer. He also said he will seek more information from the Department of Energy.
“What an incredibly stupid, reckless thing to do,” said Sherman, whose district includes North Hollywood High School.
Among those who recall the testing is Mary Helen Brindell, 73. She was playing baseball in a St. Louis street in the mid-1950s when a squadron of green planes flew so low overhead that she could see the face of the lead pilot. Suddenly, the children were covered in a fine powdery substance that stuck to skin moistened by summer sweat.
Brindell has suffered from breast, thyroid, skin and uterine cancers. Her sister died of a rare form of esophageal cancer.
“I just want an explanation from the government,” Brindell said. “Why would you do that to people?”
Clay said he was angered that Americans were used as “guinea pigs” for research.
“I join with my colleagues to demand the whole truth about this testing and I will reach out to my Missouri Delegation friends on the House Armed Services Committee for their help as well,” Clay said in a statement.
St. Louis leaders were told at the time that the government was testing a smoke screen that could shield the city from aerial observation in case of Soviet attack. Evidence now shows radioactive material, not just zinc cadmium sulfide, was part of that spraying, Martino-Taylor said.
Doris Spates, 62, was born in 1955 on the 11th floor of the Pruitt-Igoe low-income high-rise where the army sprayed material from the roof. Her father died suddenly three months after her birth. Four of her 11 siblings died from cancer at relatively young ages. She survived cervical cancer and suffers from skin and breathing problems.
“It makes me angry,” Spates said. “It is wrong to do something like that to people who don’t have any knowledge of it.”
According to Martino-Taylor, other testing in Chicago; Berkeley, California; Rochester, New York; and Oak Ridge, Tennessee, involved injecting people with plutonium-239.
She said her book shines a light on the team of mostly young scientists tasked with developing radiological weapons. They worked in a closed world with virtually no input from anyone “who could say, ‘This isn’t right,’ or put some sort of moral compass on it,” she said.
She hopes her book prompts more people to investigate.
“We haven’t gotten any answers so far,” Martino-Taylor said. “I think there’s a lot more to find out.”
Chinese govt owned company refuses to share with UK the security arrangements for nuclear power plant
Chinese firm behind Essex nuclear plant refuses to reveal security information, Guardian, Adam Vaughan, 2 Oct 17 , State-owned company refused disclosure of security arrangements for Chinese plant the Bradwell nuclear station could be modelled on. The Chinese state-owned company planning a nuclear power station in Essex refused to share the security arrangements for a Chinese nuclear plant with the British authorities, it has been revealed.
Inspectors from the UK nuclear regulator visited the China General Nuclear Power Corporation (CGN) in Shenzhen earlier this year, as part of the four-year approval process for the reactor the company wants to build at Bradwell.
A green light from the Office for Nuclear Regulation (ONR) would be a huge boost for China’s aspirations for exporting nuclear technology and Bradwell would be the first Chinese reactor to be built in a developed country.
Overall the ONR welcomed the “high level of expertise and commitment” shown by the Chinese, according to a report of the visit on 13-16 March, released to the Guardian under freedom of information rules.
However, CGN said it could not share material about security measures to protect its nuclear plant in Fangchenggang, China, which Bradwell could be modelled on.
“With regard to the sharing of information, such as the security plans for FCG [Fangchenggang] Unit 3, CGN stated that these were protected documents under Chinese regulations,” the UK authorities wrote, in a glimpse of UK nuclear regulation rubbing up against Chinese state secrecy.
But the ONR insisted that it was commonplace for foreign nuclear companies not to share sensitive documents around national security during the UK nuclear approval process, known as the Generic Design Assessment (GDA). It added that it was the arrangements for Bradwell that were relevant, not Fangchenggang………
CGN put up a third of £18bn cost towards EDF’s project to build French-designed reactors at Hinkley Point C in Somerset, in return for developing its own plant at Bradwell in Essex. The Bradwell B project is two thirds owned by CGN and one third EDF.
The government paused approval for Hinkley for several months last year, because of concerns over China’s stake. CGN is becoming an increasing central player in Britain’s atomic plans, having recently confirmed it is considering buying Toshiba’s troubled NuGen project to build a nuclear power station in Cumbria. https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2017/oct/01/chinese-firm-behind-essex-nuclear-plant-refuses-to-reveal-security-information
Israel is ‘reviewing’ travel restrictions on nuclear whistleblower Mordechai Vanunu
Israel ‘reviewing’ nuclear spy Vanunu’s travel restrictions, Foreign Ministry to determine appropriate restrictions for Dimona secret-spiller who wants to join his wife in Norway, October 1, 2017 The Foreign Ministry said on Sunday it’s reviewing the travel ban imposed on Israeli nuclear secret-spiller Mordechai Vanunu after Norway granted him permission to immigrate so he can be united with his wife.
“Israel will continue to review updates of the situation in order to determine appropriate restrictions in accordance with security dangers posed by Vanunu,” a statement said.
Vanunu’s wife, Kristin Joachimsen, told Norway’s TV2 channel Friday the couple requested family reunification after they wed in May 2015. Norway’s Directorate of Immigration confirmed permission had been granted.
Vanunu served 18 years in prison for leaking details and pictures of an alleged Israeli nuclear weapons program to a British newspaper. He sought asylum in Norway after his 2004 release……..
Israel is the Middle East’s sole if undeclared nuclear power, refusing to confirm or deny that it has such weapons.
Israel has refused to sign the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty or to allow international surveillance of its Dimona plant in the Negev desert in southern Israel. https://www.timesofisrael.com/israel-reviewing-nuclear-spy-vanunus-travel-restrictions/
UK woodland site to be taken over by £16 billion Sizewell C nuclear power station, despite earlier promises
Ipswich Star 30th Sept 2017, A former nuclear power station employee has accused EDF Energy of being
“disingenuous” over plans to use off-site land to relocate Sizewell B
buildings in the way of the C plant.
Terry Hodgson, a former district and
county councillor for Leiston, worked at Sizewell A for 32 years until he
retired in 2007 and now represents the Suffolk Association of Local
Councils on the Sizewell Stakeholder Group (SSG). He told the latest SSG
meeting that assurances had originally been given that certain areas near
the nuclear site would not be used for development. “Now we are told they
are to be used. This is disingenuous to the local community,” he said.
Under plans being considered, part of a woodland planted to commemorate the
coronation of George V will be bulldozed to make way for the relocation of
some of the Sizewell B power station buildings. The existing buildings,
including a visitors’ centre and training centre, are in the way of plans
for a £16billion Sizewell C nuclear power station.
http://www.ipswichstar.co.uk/news/edf-accused-over-moves-to-fell-woodland-next-to-sizewell-b-1-5216389
NUCLEAR LIES – theme for October 2017
The nuclear industry’s history of lies goes right back to its beginnings in the early 1940s.
I would say the that lying is the worst thing about the nuclear industry – and that’s saying plenty!
Of the current lies – it’s hard to pick which lie matters most.
Lately the nuclear lobby is touting the lie that “new nuclear” is essential for peace and nuclear non proliferation. That’s a beauty, isn’t it?
The truth is that the nuclear weapons industry needs the “peaceful” new nuclear industry – in which to grow its expertise for the nuclear killing factories – the $trillion dollars nuclear weapons makers. (Which is why governments are lending an ear to the otherwise completely futile “Generation IV” nuclear reactor lobbyists)
Suspected theft of uranium: arrests of 3 people in Indian village
3 nabbed with 35 kg suspected uranium http://sentinelassam.com/story/news/14/3-nabbed-with-35-kg-suspected-uranium/2017-09-26/1/321357, BY OUR STAFF REPORTER, September 26, 2017
NAGAON (HAIBORGAON), Sept 25: Sensation prevailed in Nagaon as well as in the State on Monday morning soon after sleuths of Army Red Horn Division along with Nagaon Police seized a large quantity of suspected materials related to IED or bomb from a household at Dakhinpat Borkula village under Nagaon Sadar Police station and also apprehended three persons, including a woman.
Interestingly, the weight of the seized suspected materials is around 35 kg. According to sources, the nabbed persons have been identified as Jatin Bora of Baksa, Apurba Das of Tihu in Nalbari district and Mamoni Kour of Borkula village. The suspected materials were hidden inside a big hole behind her house. Army as well as police later seized a Chevrolet car bearing registration number AS 01BZ 4775 from their possession.
The sources further added that the materials although earlier suspected as bomb-related materials, were later suspected to be uranium. But till filing of this report it had not been confirmed.
Pictures show the tragedy of Russian villages contaminated by 1957 nuclear explosion
‘Left To Die As Guinea Pigs’: Tatar Village Struggles On, 60 Years After Nuclear Catastrophe https://www.rferl.org/a/russia-nuclear-mayak/28755780.html, September 28, 2017 An explosion at a Soviet nuclear plant 1,400 kilometers east of Moscow remains the world’s third-largest nuclear disaster, after Chernobyl and Fukushima. At the time, in 1957, it was the worst ever. Sixty years on, nearby Tatar villagers are still struggling for official recognition of their plight. (RFE/RL’s Tatar-Bashkir Service) TEXTS BELOW DESCRIBE EACH OF THE EXCELLENT PICTURES ON THE ORIGINAL
The sign says “Danger Zone.” An explosion on September 29, 1957, contaminated an area of 23,000 square kilometers and exposed more than 270,000 people to significant levels of radiation.
The village of Karabolka is 30 kilometers from the Mayak nuclear plant, where the explosion occurred. For decades afterwards, it did not appear on maps, only reappearing 20 years ago. But life there continued.
Gulshara Ismagilova has lived in Karabolka all her life. She is campaigning for official recognition for the suffering of the villagers. Rates of cancer and genetic abnormalities here are significantly higher than the national average. “We are all handicapped here,” she says.
These are Ismagilova’s relatives who have died over the last 60 years. It includes an aunt, her mother, and her brother, who all died of cancer. Ismagilova herself has liver cancer.
In 1957, the village had about 4,000 residents; in 2010, just 423. The village had two distinct parts: a mostly Tatar part, which was not evacuated, and a mostly Russian part, which was. Some locals say they were used in an experiment on the effects of radiation.
The village has eight cemeteries. Seven of them are a resting place for residents who died of cancer. Children here are often born with cancer and die before reaching adulthood.
Only Muslims are buried here. Following their beliefs, some relatives prevent autopsies being performed. This can prevent some deaths being classified as cancer-related.
A pile of coffins at the ready. Families usually bury their dead by noon of the day following their death. “People don’t know what to eat and how to survive,” Ismagilova says. “They have been left here to die as guinea pigs.”
This house has a pile of firewood outside. In the 1990s, local people were warned that wood stored radiation and should not be used for burning. But the village was not connected to a gas supply until 2016.
A water pump outside a house. “The authorities prohibited drinking water from local wells but couldn’t arrange supplies of clean water. A couple of months later, they took samples and said the local water was good enough to drink,” says Ismagilova.
A Greenpeace report 10 years ago said the Mayak site was “one of the most radioactive places on Earth.” It added that thousands of people in surrounding towns and villages still lived on contaminated land
As French anti nuclear activists organise protests, police carry out violent raids
The French state intensifies its crackdown on anti-nuclear groups https://litbyimagination.blogspot.com.au/2017/09/sept-2017-french-state-intensifies-its.html Possible Slow Fuse,
Many people have bought the argument that nuclear energy is carbon-free, even though it isn’t, and they have accepted the promise from the nuclear industry that there will be no more nuclear catastrophes because all the “lessons have been learned” and nothing of the kind will ever, ever happen again. They say that after every nuclear mistake big or small. The public also accepts without too much inquiry that nuclear reactors could exist in this world alongside a hypothetical abolition of nuclear weapons. Enough people seem persuaded of these arguments, so a passive acceptance of nuclear energy is the norm in most countries that still depend on it.
The issue that ought to be the real deal-breaker is none of the above-mentioned objections, even though they are each, individually, sufficient to make any nation reject nuclear energy. The most serious problem with nuclear energy is that no one, since the time when nuclear power plants were first switched on, has found a way to dispose of irradiated uranium and plutonium, commonly known as “nuclear waste.”
The public has been told that it can be safely buried as soon as nuclear reactor operators find a suitable geological disposal site and a “willing host community” to take it. So far both of these conditions have not been met. Willing host communities are extremely hard to produce, and reluctant host communities have exposed the fact that no proposed disposal site can be guaranteed to be safely sealed off from the ecosystem for the thousands of years into the future.
Over the last five years I have followed the opposition that has arisen to France’s plan to bury its nuclear waste in an enormous facility in northeastern France near the town of Bure. The articles I translated previously can be found at the links at the end of this article. The translation that follows this introduction describes what is happening to opponents in September 2017 as their movement has grown and their lawsuits and legal challenges have been rejected. The state has finally decided to crack down. When a group of people decide to stand up and protect future generations, this is the thanks they get.
Events in France illustrate the serious flaws in our civilization’s approach to energy policy. Any solution that imposes destruction on a local people cannot be called the product of a democratic process. One can say that this is a majority decision, or the nation requires this sacrifice, but any such abuse of a minority is incompatible with democracy because anyone, and thus everyone, becomes susceptible to such tyranny in different times and circumstances.
Some nations are aware of this dilemma so they are content to delay indefinitely the quest for a final resting place for irradiated fuel rods. They hope to someday find the appropriate host community, but it doesn’t matter if they never succeed. As long as they talk of having this intent and pretend a solution is possible, they can continue operating their reactors. France, on the other hand, seems to have been foolish enough to take the idea of building a permanent disposal site seriously. They proceeded to build it over the objections of citizens and in spite of evidence that it would jeopardize future generations.
On Wednesday September 20, police raided several locations in Bure (Meuse region) and surrounding areas inhabited by opponents of the nuclear waste disposal project. For many of them, this operation seems to be “the main focus of police pressure that has become widespread and permanent.” Gatherings of support are being organized throughout France.
La maison de résistance in Bure, the place where opponents of CIGEO meet and organize, was raided for the first time on September 20 at about 06:15.
Bought in 2005 by French and Germn antinuclear activists from belonging to Bure Zone Libre (BZL), this old farm today welcomes activists of many kinds on a regular and permanent basis. “Raiding la maison de resistance is very symbolic. They are getting serious now,” remarks Joel, a resident of Mandres and opponent of the nuclear waste repository. Over almost ten hours, officers went through everything in the building, and seized numerous objects. Joel explained, “They didn’t have enough boxes to seal everything up properly, so they had to have more brought to them. They came with a moving truck, ready to empty the house.”
It was about 6:20 in the morning when officers started their raids at the maison de resistance, in Bure, the grounds of the station at Lumeville, and a residence in Commercy. They also went to an apartment in Mandres-en-Barrois, near Verdun. These places are occupied by people opposed to the burial of nuclear waste in Bure. Managed by ANDRA (l’Agence Nationale pour la gestion des Déchets RAdioactifs), this project was baptized as CIGEO (Centre Industriel de stockage GEologique)
The forces of public order justified their entry into the maison de resistance with a warrant from a commission of inquiry formed to investigate an attack on the hotel-restaurant of the ANDRA laboratory last June.
According to the website MVC.Camp maintained by the activists on the site, “There were forty officers, and they made their entry violently. Equipped with a crowbar, they broke the door and, it seems, some car windows.”
At the train station, about fifteen officers were present, accompanied by a prosecutor and drug-sniffing dogs. They came in with a warrant from the commission allowing a search for drugs. In Commercy, they also arrived about 6:00 and seized a computer, a hard drive and a portable phone. During this time, roadblocks were put up at Ribeaucourt and at Mandres.
“The people here are exhausted and afraid”
According to the prosecutor in Bar-le-Duc, Olivier Glady, interviewed by AFP (Agence France Presse), officers seized helmets, gas masks and fireworks, 140 grams of “packaged” cannabis resin, ten cannabis plants, as well as data and phones. They were pursuing three different investigations:
- The one ordered by the commission of inquiry mentioned above.
- Another investigation was launched after confrontations that occurred at a protest on August 15, according to Mr. Glady.
- Some raids were related to “infractions of drug laws,” he added.
For the organization Sortir du Nuléaire, “this raid comes after many months of permanent police harassment in the villages around Bure, with constant patrols by police cars and helicopters, and roadblocks where both protesters and farmers have to show identification.”
In a press release, the group denounced “these unacceptable methods and the escalation in this strategy of tension. It is shameful that the State chooses targeting of opponents rather than abandoning this dangerous project that imposes a danger on future generations.” The group is calling for protests throughout the country (see list below.)
A resident of Mandres, an opponent of the CIGEO project, told Reporterre, “It’s the first time we’ve seen an operation of this scale in Bure.” For him, it’s the main focus of a police pressure that is now diffuse and permanent. “Officers patrol daily in the streets and villages, filming and harassing, controlling everything in a pervasive manner. They are raising the tension in order to discourage people, making people afraid, and pushing them to the margins, but all they’re doing is motivating people to mobilize more.”
Michel Labat, another resident of Mandres told Reporterre he was revolted. “It’s incredible. So many police everywhere. Today there is no more opposition. As soon as we do something, they call in the police. Then they insult and harass us regularly. They have no respect. People here are exhausted and afraid.”
For Jean-Francois Bodenreider, a physiotherapist, a resident of Bonnet, and president of the group Habitants Vigilants de Gondrecourt said, “These raids are a way of destabilizing the struggle, a way of focusing on other things. While we are pointing out the dangers of CIGEO, they are conducting disciplinary operations, portraying opponents as druggies and criminals. This makes people stop talking about the real problems. They don’t know what to say or do to defend le nucléaire, so they talk about something else.
“They are pushing us to our limits to make us do something irreparable”
On September 17, this physiotherapist who established himself in Gondrecourt twenty-five years ago, experienced another of many provocations by police. He was in his yard when a black 4×4 stopped in front of his house. Mr. Bodenreider said, “I approached and the passenger in the front took out his phone to take some photos. He told me he was looking for houses to buy in the area. I asked him to leave because our house is not for sale, then his tone changed. Suddenly, one of the passengers shouted, ‘Go! He has a hammer!’” Mr. Bodenreider’s son, Leonard, a medical student, was in the garage gathering supplies for a camping trip. “Out of fear for his father, and in anger” he threw a rubber hammer toward the vehicle. Then the family was shocked to see the passengers in the 4×4 identify themselves as police officers. They handcuffed Leonard and took him away. The spouses of father and son went to the police station in Gondrecourt and waited patiently until they were finally listened to as witnesses. Mr. Bodenreider recounted, “The officers were talking about attempted manslaughter charges, but some local officers who knew us were there and they defused the situation, and they finally got our son released that evening.”
Leonard will have to appear in court on charges of destruction of property because the hammer slightly struck the vehicle.
“After the incident, I told myself that if I reacted like that it was because I was irritated,” said the physiotherapist. I don’t live under daily pressure, not like the residents of Mandres who are patrolled eight times a day. But this pressure exerted by police patrols affects all of us.” He describes himself as “moderate” in the struggle, but he is sure of one thing: “They are pushing us so that we’ll do something irreparable.”
“Once you are identified as an opponent, you are presumed to be guilty”
Joel, an opponent of the CIGEO project, recently relived the experience of his house arrest during the COP21 summit: “At 6 AM, ten officers came to the door of the friend I was staying with in Commercy. They went through everything for the next hour. One of them had a Taser gun. They left with papers, my computer, and my phone. As a bonus question, the forces of public order asked before leaving, “Do you have anything else to declare regarding Bure?”
As in the other locations that were raided, one of which was Joel’s apartment in Mandres, officers indicated that they were investigating the attack on the hotel-restaurant of the ANDRA laboratory. One catch: Joel was on vacation in Greece at the time. He adds indignantly, “Once you are identified as an opponent, in my case since the COP21, you’re a target and presumed guilty.”
For Joel, this is all proof that the operations this Wednesday were not aimed solely at finding who is responsible for the acts committed this summer. He observes, “They are creating permanent tension in order to break people.”
List of protest events being organized by Sortir du Nucleaire this Wednesday:
Paris à 18h, appel à rassemblement au marché aux fleurs, métro Cité, à 18h. En solidarité également avec les camarades en procès de la voiture brûlée.
devant la Préfecture de Bar-le-Duc à 17h30
Nantes, rdv 18h à Commerce dans le cadre du Front social.
Grenoble, 17h30, au pied de la tour Perret, parc Paul Mistral, par le comité local de soutien contre les GPII.
Nancy place Stanislas à 18h.
Angers, 18h, devant la Préfecture d’Angers.
Épinal, 18h, devant la Préfecture.
Colmar, 18h, devant la Préfecture, Champ-de-Mars.
Dijon, 18h, devant la Préfecture. Événement ici.
Rassemblement en cours d’organisation en Alsace, on vous tient au courant dès que possible.
Rassemblement en cours d’organisation à Reims, idem.
Une conférence de presse commune du mouvement de résistance se tiendra jeudi 21 septembre à 11h à la Maison de résistance à la poubelle nucléaire, à Bure.
More articles about Bure, CIGEO and French nuclear history:
Nuclear Waste Project Hungry for Land
French court: NGOs have no right to challenge nuclear “public authorities”
France’s Bure Nuclear Waste Site on Trial
The Inconvenience of a Geothermic Energy Source Under France’s Nuke Waste Dump
Superphénix (some history of the French anti-nuclear movement) Very valuable information for the anglophone world. We are constantly being told of how popular and successful is the nuclear industry in France. This is a timely counter to the pro nuclear English language propaganda
Huge secret nuclear power deal – Kushner, Bannon, Flynn with Middle East
Kushner, Bannon, Flynn Pushed Huge Nuclear Power Deal In Middle East For Profit, In Secret https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2017/9/16/1699095/-Kushner-Bannon-Flynn-Pushed-Huge-Nuclear-Power-Deal-In-Middle-East-For-Profit-In-Secret, t’s no wonder that Mike Flynn asked the House and the Senate for immunity and has refused to voluntarily testify before the Senate twice, the last time being Tuesday. On Wednesday Democrats in the House Foreign Affairs and Oversight Committee reported that Flynn failed to disclose that he worked for oil companies and had attended a meeting on their behalf promoting a U.S.-Russian Saudi financed program to build nuclear reactors in the Arab world. This took place in 2015 and it is one of the meetings that Mike Flynn failed to disclose on his security clearance application.USA’s ex-national security adviser was doing secret nuclear deal with Russia and Middle East nations
MIKE FLYNN’S NUCLEAR SIDE-HUSTLE GETS EVEN SHADIER
Two weeks before the inauguration, Flynn reportedly met the king of Jordan while pushing a deal to build nuclear reactors . . . in Jordan. Vanity Fair , BY BESS LEVIN SEPTEMBER 15, 2017 Remember Mike Flynn? The ex-national security adviser who was forced to resign after he forgot to mention some conversations he’d had with Russian ambassador Sergey Kislyak? Whose unfair persecution at the hands of James Comey was allegedly one of the reasons Donald Trump fired his own F.B.I. director? Who received $600,000 in a lobbying deal from a Turkish man with business ties to Russia, and who subsequently BLOCKED A PLAN TO ATTACK ISIS that the Turkish government opposed, all without ever registering a foreign agent or disclosing his lobbying deals? He’s back in the news today, and if you were hoping it was for something fun like Flynn announcing that he is joining the next season of Dancing with the Stars, you will be disappointed.
BuzzFeed News reports that two weeks before Donald Trump was inaugurated, Flynn and soon-to-be White House advisers Steve Bannon and Jared Kusher had a secret morning meeting with Jordan’s King Abdullah II, during the same period in which Flynn was pushing “a multibillion-dollar deal to build nuclear reactors in Jordan and other Middle East nations.” (Like 100 other foreign contacts he initially failed to disclose, Kushner’s initial security clearance form failed to mention this particular meeting.) According to BuzzFeed, topics discussed included “Israeli-Palestinian relations, intelligence sharing between America and Jordan on Syria, ISIS,” and a nuclear project called the Marshal Plan, a $200 billion project which initially involved U.S. companies building reactors in Jordan and other Middle East nations, with security handled by a Russian state-owned firm called Rosoboron, which, incidentally, is currently facing the possibility of U.S. sanctions.
People close to the three Trump advisers say that the nuclear deal was not discussed. But a federal official with access to a document created by a law enforcement agency about the meeting said that the nuclear proposal, known as the Marshall Plan, was one of the topics the group talked about.
According to Politico, Flynn was paid at least $25,000 in his capacity as a consultant on the plan by one of the American companies involved. According to the Wall Street Journal, Flynn’s disclosure forms “indicate that [his] year-and-a-half work on the project ended in December 2016, but Mr. Flynn in fact remained involved in the project once he joined the Trump administration in January, discussing the plan and directing his National Security Council staff to meet with the companies involved, the former staffers said.” (Flynn’s lawyer declined to comment to the Journal, as did the White House.)
If this all sounds like the type of thing that’s going to keep you up at night, you’re not alone. “Any proposal to introduce dozens of nuclear reactors to the Middle East, particularly Saudi Arabia, raises many proliferation red flags,” the Arms Control Association’s Daryl Kimball told BuzzFeed. “The Saudis do not need nuclear power and them gaining access could lead to dangerous consequences down the road.” Giving a country nuclear energy capacity, as the Marshall Plan would, “is like giving a country a nuclear weapons starter kit,” the nonprofit Center for Arms Control and Non-Proliferation’s Alexandra Bell said…..https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2017/09/mike-flynns-nuclear-side-hustle-gets-even-shadier
Nuclear power industry at last admitting its connection to nuclear weapons
Energy Collective 13th September 2017, The nuclear power industry, under pressure economically, is arguing that it
deserves government support because it is essential for “national
security”, notes Jim Green, editor of the Nuclear Monitor newsletter.
Green explains why he finds this argument disingenuous and unconvincing.
The nuclear power industry has long maintained that it has no connection
whatsoever to nuclear weapons proliferation. This argument was always based
on lies and half-truths.
Ironically, the nuclear industry is now admitting they were not telling the whole truth. Its proponents are arguing it
deserves public support precisely because it is essential for national
security reasons! Some of them are adding a peculiar twist to their
argument: they are saying that a strong nuclear power sector needs to be
maintained in western countries so that they can maintain a capability to
constrain the proliferation of nuclear weapons.
http://www.theenergycollective.com/jim-green/2412709/nuclear-power-weapons-national-security
Owners of South Carolina nuclear plant tried to hide negative report on the project
Attorney: Utilities meant to hide report on nuclear project, abc news, BY SEANNA ADCOX, ASSOCIATED PRESS, COLUMBIA, S.C. — Sep 15, 2017
For at least two years before a South Carolina nuclear power construction project was abandoned, its owners had a report that they intended to keep secret showing the reactors couldn’t be completed as planned, an attorney for a legislative panel investigating the debacle said Friday.
“The report is very, very troubling,” said Scott Elliott, hired by the House for the hearings. “It was designed to never see the light of day.”
State-owned Santee Cooper and South Carolina Electric & Gas hired Bechtel Corp. in 2015 to assess construction on two new reactors at V.C. Summer Nuclear Station north of Columbia. The utilities were briefed on the findings later that year, though the official report is dated February 2016.
Essentially, the report says “this wasn’t going to work. … If things don’t change dramatically, you’ll never finish these projects,” Elliott said. Its findings included a lack of proper oversight by SCE&G, the majority owner.
SCE&G should have disclosed the report’s existence as it successfully sought approval in 2015 and 2016 to spend more on the project. Instead, executives told state regulators they were confident in the presented completion dates, said Elliott, also an attorney for South Carolina Energy Users Committee, a coalition of large industries that need a lot of energy.
Legislators accused SCE&G executives of intentionally hiding the report from regulators and lawmakers, withholding information that could have resulted in “no” votes.
…..The utilities abandoned the project July 31 after jointly spending nearly $10 billion, leaving nearly 6,000 people jobless. A 2007 state law allows SCE&G to recoup its debt from customers if state regulators determine money was spent prudently.
Legislators who are seeking ways to fix the law want to stop that. Customers have already paid more than $2 billion on interest costs through a series of rate hikes since 2009. The project accounts for 18 percent of SCE&G customers’ electric bills.
Elliott said the Bechtel report puts into question every decision made by the utilities over at least the last two years.
……The Bechtel report’s existence became public as executives testified at a legislative hearing last month. Lawmakers threatened to subpoena it if the utilities refused to provide it. Gov. Henry McMaster released it to reporters earlier this month, over SCANA’s written objections, after receiving a copy from Santee Cooper…….http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/legislators-review-secret-report-nuclear-project-49869620
As national security adviser, did Michael Flynn secretly promote a U.S.-Russian project to build dozens of nuclear reactors in the Middle East?
AOL 13th Sept 2017, Democratic lawmakers are probing whether retired U.S. General Michael Flynn
secretly promoted a U.S.-Russian project to build dozens of nuclear
reactors in the Middle East after becoming President Donald Trump’s first
national security adviser.
Representatives Elijah Cummings and Eliot Engel
made the disclosure in a letter they sent on Tuesday to Flynn’s lawyer and
executives of firms that developed the reactor scheme and for which Flynn’s
now-defunct consulting company worked.
https://www.aol.com/article/news/2017/09/13/dems-investigating-whether-flynn-promoted-nuclear-reactor-project-as-trumps-national-security-adviser/23207327/
Secret troubles at Summer nuclear plant for months, now revealed in emails
New emails reveal behind-the-scenes battle over Summer nuke, http://www.utilitydive.com/news/new-emails-reveal-behind-the-scenes-battle-over-summer-nuke/504529/ Robert Walton
Dive Brief:
- New emails obtained by the Charleston Post & Courier show a deteriorating relationship between the owners of the V.C. Summer nuclear plant in South Carolina and lead contractor Westinghouse Electric in the months leading up to the abandonment of an expansion plan for the facility.
- The emails build on past messages that indicate officials at Santee Cooper and South Carolina Electric & Gas Co. were aware of financial and construction difficulties at the plant as early as last summer, but kept the knowledge out of the public eye and continued to push for its completion.
- The new emails demonstrate that plant owners communicated directly with Toshiba, parent company of Westinghouse, about problems at the plant. In one, the CEO of SCANA wrote to Toshiba’s chief executive, saying “we have no doubt that we have been the victim of financial malfeasance by [Westinghouse] and Toshiba.”
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Dive Insight:
The Post & Courier’s diligent coverage of the V.C. Summer fallout continues to raise questions about what the plant owners knew of project problems and when they knew it.
As early as last summer, both SCANA CEO Kevin Marsh and Santee Cooper CEO Lonnie Carter made it clear they suspected Westinghouse and Toshiba were unable to pull off the project — and told the companies that in no uncertain terms.
“Deceit and non-transparency” — words not often tossed around by electric utilities — was how Carter put it in one email. In an October 2016 note to Marsh, he said Santee Cooper had hired bankruptcy lawyers in June to “help us think through Toshiba/Westinghouse insolvency scenarios.”
The upshot is that the South Carolina utilities appear to have suspected to project was in trouble, but didn’t inform regulators or other officials. The utilities abandoned the project in July after spending more than $14 billion to construct two new reactors.
The new emails come in the wake of an audit of the project recently released at the demand of South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster (R). Prepared by contractor Bechtel in February 2016, the report outlines numerous problems at the plant, including flawed engineering documents, low morale at the work site, frequent construction changes, high turnover and generally slow progress.
- The report was completed in early 2016 — months before SCE&G informed regulators that its share of the development costs had risen more than $800 million, and about a year and a half before the utilities agreed to scrap the project.
The emails also show SCE&G and Santee Cooper were already considering in June of last year that Westinghouse might fall into bankruptcy. The company went bankrupt in March of this year.
Originally proposed in 2007, the two-reactor expansion of the Summer plant was supposed to be completed by 2017 and 2018, respectively. Issues with Westinghouse’s reactor design led to delays, cost overruns and ultimately the company’s failure.
When the project was scrapped, officials said costs to complete could reach over $25 billion.
31 out of 32 South Carolina lawmakers received money from the utility and owners of failed V.C. Summer nuclear project
SCANA has given money to nearly all South Carolina lawmakers probing the failed nuclear project, Post and Courier, By Thad Moore tmoore@postandcourier.com, Sep 2, 2017 All but one of the 32 lawmakers investigating the demise of the V.C. Summer nuclear project have taken campaign contributions from the utility responsible for building it, highlighting the extent of the power industry’s lobbying efforts in Columbia.
The overwhelming majority have received funds from SCANA Corp., parent company to S.C. Electric & Gas Co., its subsidiaries and political action committees within the last two years, according to a Post and Courier review of campaign finance records. They include 14 who took contributions this year as uncertainties surrounding the construction project mounted.
Those lawmakers, who sit on twin House and Senate committees formed last month, are now tasked with probing what went wrong with the project, which cost $9 billion before construction was halted in July. They’re also responsible for forming ideas on how to limit the financial fallout and create safeguards that prevent another energy failure like it.
The lone lawmaker who didn’t receive contributions was Republican Kevin Hardee of Loris, which is outside of SCE&G’s service territory.
SCANA doesn’t cut big checks — it typically gives individual legislators $500 to $1,000, the maximum for a single election cycle — but critics say the steady dribble of contributions helped build warm relationships under the Statehouse dome.
The Cayce-based utility has also given tens of thousands of dollars to legislative caucus groups, and it spends around $200,000 a year to lobby the General Assembly, with a crew of eight lobbyists to monitor legislation and advance its message.
“They make them because they’re basically trying to gain access,” said Frank Knapp, president and chief executive of the S.C. Small Business Chamber of Commerce, which has called for a ban on utility contributions. “They’re just not after good government. They’re looking for some return on their investment.”
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