USA’s missile shield program was a lemon – Wikileaks
A 2007 briefing by General Patrick O’Reilly, director of the US Missile Defence Agency, disclosed that the radar system would be unable to detect long-range missiles in the launch phase because it could only see in a straight line, not over the horizon.
WikiLeaks cables: planned US missile shield blind to nuclear weapons, Telegraph UK, US plans for a missile defence system on Czech soil ran into trouble when defence chiefs realised the proposed radar was blind to nuclear missiles, leaked diplomatic cables show By Heidi Blake 03 Feb 2011 Continue reading
Synchrotron for medical isotopes – no need for nuclear reactor
The NRC says the new method doesn’t pose any security or nuclear proliferation concerns because, unlike a nuclear reactor, it requires no weapons-grade uranium.
Sask. synchrotron to make medical isotopes, CBC News -, 24 Jan 2011, Researchers at the University of Saskatchewan are looking at using the synchrotron to develop medical isotopes without a nuclear reactor. Continue reading
Electric car industry racing ahead in China
Consumers are also benefiting from — and thus helping to support and maintain — China’s commitment to the EV revolution. The government is giving 120,000 yuan (AU$18,276) to each EV consumer. Such strong support from both the public and private sectors should lead to increasingly affordable EVs….Such developments are the rumblings of a formidable domestic market, good news for China’s already-healthy economic appetite.
Don’t put the brake on electric vehicles in Oz, January 24, 2011 Crikey Alice Body The wheels aren’t just turning on the electric vehicle (EV); the whole industry is accelerating thanks to a major new initiative by the Chinese government. Continue reading
France’s AREVA has dangerous plan for undersea nuclear plant at Cherbourg
ecological associations have wasted no time in highlighting the dangers. According to Greenpeace, nothing has been finalised on a technical level or in terms of safety.
Cold water thrown on the plan for cold fusion
Cold fusion is, if not outright impossible, then certainly highly implausible…..
No, Italian scientists have not discovered cold fusion, 24 jan 2011, Two physicists recently announced they had figured out the secrets of cold fusion, which is a low energy nuclear reaction that, if it exists, could solve the world’s energy problems. But to call their story fishy is a massive understatement. Continue reading
Stuxnet slowing Iran’s nukes, but it’s a mixed blessing
If Stuxnet was responsible for slowing Iran’s nuclear development, then it accomplished over a period of a few months what the United States and its allies have failed to do in years of talks, threats and sanctions. It also achieved that goal without a shot being fired, buying more time for negotiators to try to persuade Iran to stop its bomb-making efforts.
Will the cyber worm turn?, latimes.com, 23 Jan 2011, Stuxnet reportedly set back Iran’s nuclear program. That’s the good news. But what about threat to us?The tale of the Stuxnet worm is one of those seemingly good-news stories that grows more worrisome over time. Continue reading
Understanding how Stuxnet computer worm was used to sabotage nuclear facility
In summary, the Stuxnet payload is a highly sophisticated, precise sabateur, that only a team of advanced programmers could have created, with access to expensive and restricted equipment.
How Stuxnet works: what the forensic evidence reveals, Telegraph, 21 Jan 2011. British security researcher Tom Parker has found evidence of two different clandestine teams of software developers at work inside the Stuxnet code. Here we detail what he found:…….. Continue reading
Nuclear fuel reprocessing will leave tax-payer to pay $trillions for waste disposal
President Carter’s Executive Order banned nuclear fuel reprocessing in the 1970’s. Congress recently – and quietly – passed legislation at the behest of the nuclear industry and utilities that appears to circumvent that decision……Interestingly, by U.S. law, once nuclear waste is removed from the property of the utilities, it then becomes the problem of the federal government and tax payers, and no longer a liability for utilities and corporate shareholders…..Somewhere between two to four trillion in U.S. tax dollars has gone to the nuclear experiment, in all its forms over the decades, but now we face very real fiscal constraints.
A blue-ribbon, “nuclear” bus ride Mountain Xpress, Ned Ryan Doyle, 21 Jan 2011 “.………It’s no secret that temporary storage facilities for high level nuclear waste at our nation’s nuclear plants are at, or beyond, design capacity. Continue reading
Nuclear reactors under the sea planned by France
DCNS is 25 percent owned by military technology company Thales SA. France’s DCNS Plans Underwater Nuclear Plant, Echos Says – Bloomberg
Hard to convince public and regulators that mini nuclear reactors will be safe
there are still many obstacles in the path of the development of small reactors, of which the most difficult to overcome may be securing regulatory approval....
Mini nuclear: very small reactors will need huge sales effort, FT, By Ed Crooks January 14 2011 “…the hunt is on for a workable small reactor technology that uses the same fuel as most nuclear power plants today. Continue reading
Jaitapur nuclear plant – another Enron type disaster
The question that needs to be asked is: Why does India want to go in for a completely unproven reactor design, which has been plagued with problems right from the start and where critical safety issues regarding the control system still remains unresolved? And at what cost?…..The problem is that this indeed a very expensive face saving exercise –
Jaitapur: Repeating Enron Once Again, People’s Democracy, Prabir Purkayastha 9 Jan 2011, ANY TIME an expensive power project agreement is pushed on to the country, the argument is put forward that as we are short of energy; we should welcome power from any source. This was what was done during the ruinous Enron project and what is being pushed now for the Jaitapur project. The victim in both cases are the people of Maharashtra, who earlier paid for expensive power from Enron and who will have to pay again a very high cost for power from the proposed Jaitapur plant. Continue reading
Rare Earths carry radioactive hazards for workers
REE deposits are usually found in the same vicinity as major lodes of uranium, radium and other radioactive ores.
Rare Earths: China’s not-so-secret secret weapon, Toronto Sun, By alan.parker January 5, 2011“…………The environment concerns were very real. Mining and refining rare earth elements is a dirty, dangerous business Continue reading
Warren Buffett’s nuclear fuel bank won’t stop nuclear weapons spread
Can Warren Buffett stop the spread of nuclear weapons , TIME By Michael Crowley Jan. 04, 2011
“………..”The existence of the fuel bank won’t deter Iran from continuing with its enrichment program,” says Mark Hibbs, a nuclear-energy expert with the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. “Iran spent billions of dollars on this investment and took considerable political risks to make it happen. Because of that enrichment program, Iran sits at the table with the world’s powers. By the same logic, the fuel bank on its own merits won’t deter other countries — such as Argentina, Brazil, Canada, South Africa, South Korea and Turkey — from giving up the option of enriching uranium sometime in the future. Developing countries are suspicious that the fuel bank is a tool designed by a handful of advanced nuclear countries to discourage the rest from developing nuclear technology themselves.” ……
China opting for expensive nuclear reprocessing technology
The commercial reprocessing of plutonium was halted in the United States decades ago by President Jimmy Carter because of concerns about nuclear proliferation. President George W. Bush proposed a resumption, but the National Research Council found it to be not economically justifiable. President Obama scrapped the Bush proposal.
China Ready to Reprocess Nuclear Fuel, NYTimes.com, By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS: January 3, 2011 * BEIJING — Chinese scientists have mastered the technology for reprocessing fuel from nuclear power plants,……..Reprocessing nuclear fuel costs significantly more than using the fuel once and storing it as waste. It also raises potential questions, because extracted plutonium can be used to make nuclear weapons, Continue reading
1,000 of Iran’s uranium plant centrifuges knocked out by Stuxnet worm?
1 This Month
26 September – International Day for the Total Elimination of Nuclear Weapons
PLEASE OPPOSE HR 8255 AND S.3639 – bills would accelerate satellite deployment, with no environmental review or safeguards – https://ncstd5li.quorum.us/campaign/169331/
To see nuclear-related stories in greater depth and intensity – go to https://nuclearinformation.wordpress.com
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