In Mali – a war for grabbing resources – especially uranium
Uranium: encouraging signs and exploration in full swing. Exploration is currently being carried out by several companies with clear indications of deposits of uranium in Mali. Uranium potential is located in the Falea area which covers 150 km² of the Falea- North Guinea basin, a Neoproterozoic sedimentary basin marked by significant radiometric anomalies. Uranium potential in Falea is thought to be 5000 tonnes. The Kidal Project, in the north eastern part of Mali, with an area of 19,930 km2, the project covers a large crystalline geological province known as L’Adrar Des Iforas. Uranium potential in the Samit deposit, Gao region alone is thought to be 200 tonnes.
The War on Mali What You Should Know: An Eldorado of Uranium, Gold, Petroleum, Strategic Minerals SPY GhanaBy 4thmedia.org R. Teichman, News Beacon Ireland, 17 Jan 13
The French government has stated that: …… We have one goal. To ensure that when we leave, when we end our intervention, Mali is safe, has legitimate authorities, an electoral process and there are no more terrorists threatening its territory.” [1]
So this is the official narrative of France and those who support it. And of course this is what is widely reported by the mainstrem media.
France is supported by other NATO members. US Defense Secretary Leon Panetta confirmed that the US was providing intelligence to French forces in Mali. [2] Canada, Belgium, Denmark and Germany have also publicly backed the French incursion, pledging logistical support in the crackdown on the rebels. [3]
If we are to believe this narrative we are misled again about the real reasons. A look at Mali’s natural resources reveals what this is really about. Continue reading
Taos and Santa Fe need cleanup of Los Alamos, not nuclear weapons
a comprehensive cleanup of Area G, the Lab’s biggest
radioactive dump, could create hundreds of high paying jobs while
permanently protecting the environment. The cities and counties of
Taos and Santa Fe should be pushing the New Mexico Environment
Department (NMED) to require comprehensive cleanup, and they should
insist on that now
Taos should back LANL cleanup, not nuclear weapons
http://www.taosnews.com/opinion/article_f8ef67d6-60d5-11e2-abf3-001a4bcf887a.html
17 Jan 13,
Just under two-thirds of Los Alamos Lab’s annual $2.3 billion budget
is for core nuclear weapons programs, and all remaining LANL programs
support them through excessive overhead and internal lab taxes.
Nevertheless, the city and county of Taos have joined a “Regional
Coalition of LANL Communities” funded by the Department of Energy and
the Los Alamos County government (which is enriched by gross receipts
taxes on Lab operations).
The original purpose of the Regional Coalition was to have local
governments lobby Congress in support of the Lab’s cleanup budget, but
this has already been compromised into supporting LANL’s budget in
general.
The city and county of Taos should be clear and insistent
that it is cleanup they support, and not nuclear weapons programs! Continue reading
It’s the uranium, stupid! France’s war in Mali
Although Niger has been France’s primary uranium trading partner in the region, investors are currently estimating 5,200 tonnes of untapped uranium sources in Mali, making the requirements of a favourable government and a suppressed civil society all the more urgent.
The curbs on civil liberties in the West which the so-called War on Terror forces upon citizens is part of the same struggle that activists in West Africa are fighting against uranium mining corporations
Blood for Uranium: France’s Mali intervention has little to do with terrorism http://ceasefiremagazine.co.uk/blood-uranium-frances-mali-intervention-terrorism/ Adam Elliott-Cooper looks at the geo-strategic and economic interests shaping the current French intervention in Mali. 17 Jan 13, France opened 2013 with a series of airstrikes on Northern Mali to prevent “the establishment of a terrorist state”. At the time of writing, 11 civilians (including two children) have been killed, and according to the UN, an estimated 30,000 have been displaced. The morbid irony of the France’s leaders bombing people in order to prevent a “terrorist state” appears to be lost on them, but this may be due to their eyes being on something far more important – Mali’s economy. (Picture: Activists in Niger protesting uranium mining company AREVA) Continue reading
Unknown (but rocketing?) cost of Tennessee’s new nuclear weapons project
We still don’t know how much Tennessee uranium building will cost https://mail.google.com/mail/ca/u/0/#inbox/13c4a4790af40902 By John Fleck / Journal Staff Writer , Jan 17, 2013 The latest from Frank Munger at Knoxnews is that we still don’t know how much the Uranium Processing Facility, the big Tennessee nuclear weapons project, will cost. UPF was the competitor to the Los Alamos plutonium laboratory. The multi-billion dollar uranium building got the nod for funding a year ago, while the multi-billion dollar plutonium building was deferred indefinitely.
But how many multi billions will UPF cost? As Frank reports, we’re still stuck with old numbers, with a redesign underway and no new numbers to take their place:
The overall cost of the Uranium Processing Facility is still estimated at between $4.2 billion and $6.5 billion, a cost range that’s been in effect for the past couple of years.
Wyatt, the public affairs manager in the NNSA’s Production Office, declined to give a date for providing a specific cost estimate on the high-profile project.
War in Mali – to preserve France’s control of uranium resources?
French mining company Areva, had lost its almost complete exclusive right to Niger’s uranium. This could easily explain why France could not afford to lose Mali as well.
On Monday, French foreign minister Laurent Fabius said… Key interests were at stake for us, for Africa, for Europe, so we had to act quickly,” said Fabius. Could one of the key interests mentioned by Mr. Fabius be uranium?
Uranium is indeed France’s key energy resource… , the country is heavily dependent on uranium..
Mali: France’s Neo-Colonial War for Uranium? News Junke Post, By Gilbert Mercier 15 Jan 13 In late December 2012, the United Nations Security Council approved the dispatch of an “African-led intervention force” to Mali’s to help the army reconquer the north of the country from Tuareg separatists and their allied Islamist militants. But in recent days, it is not the African-led troops who have been operating in Mali. Instead, troops from former colonial power France have been unilaterally deployed to fight the rebellion in the north….
Recipe for a failed state Continue reading
UK secretly to exploit Australian outback again, testing killer drones
Drones have become a mainstay of warfare but are shrouded in secrecy. The US, ramping up its drone program under President Barack Obama, has used them against “kill list” targets in place such as Pakistan, Yemen and Somalia.
Britain’s Taranis tests Australia appealed because it contains a lot of wide open spaces with next to no electromagnetic signals. He believed the tests would take place around Woomera in South Australia…..
It is estimated about 3000 people have been killed in US drone strikes, including hundreds of civilians
$190 million drone coming to Australia, The Age Asher Moses, January 16, 2013 An unmanned British stealth drone that can fly faster than the speed of sound and go undetected by radar will soon have its first test flight in Australia.
The £125 million ($190 million) Taranis, named after the Celtic god of thunder, can attack targets across continents, automatically dodge missiles and other efforts to bring it down and independently identify targets. It can refuel in mid-air and carry weapons including laser guided bombs and missiles.
Designed to avoid having to put human lives at risk (?) Continue reading
Obama to act on gun control, USA States acting already
Obama recruits children to push gun bans Will act on own, prod Congress, Washington Times, 16 Jan 13, Acting just a month after the Connecticut school shootings, President Obama will unveil a sweeping package of gun controls Wednesday and will challenge Congress to ban high-capacity magazines and military-style semi-automatic rifles involved in recent shooting rampages.
Mr. Obama, who will make his announcement surrounded by children who wrote letters to him about gun violence, is expected to propose some moves he can take on his own. He also will demand that Congress break a decades-long refusal and enact the first new controls on firearms and ammunition since the early 1990s.
States are acting already. Continue reading
Dispelling the myths that nuclear weapons are necessary or even useful
On the uselessness of nuclear weapons Scientific American By Ashutosh Jogalekar | January 13, 2013 Two foundational beliefs have colored our views of nuclear weapons since the end of World War 2; one, that they were essential or at least very significant for ending the war, and two, that they have been and will continue to be linchpins of deterrence. These beliefs have, in one way or another, guided all our thinking about these mythic creations. Ward Wilson who is at the Monterey Institute of International Studies 
wants to demolish these and other myths about nukes in a new book titled “5 Myths about Nuclear Weapons“, and I have seen few volumes which deliver their message so effectively in such few words. Below are Wilson’s thoughts about the two dominant nuclear myths interspersed with a few of my own.
“Nuclear weapons were paramount in ending World War 2″.
This is where it all begins. Continue reading
Nuclear wastes problem: let’s not forget MILITARY nuclear wastes
Come January, Another Try on Nuclear Waste, By MATTHEW L. WALD, NYT, December 18, 2012, “……..As for the search for a permanent burial site, Mr. Wyden said the government should be looking for volunteers but that the site would have to be technically suitable. He also said he would like to explore separating the military wastes from the civilian wastes, and perhaps sending them to the Waste Isolation Pilot Project, which is in a salt deposit near Carlsbad, N.M. The repository is now used for plutonium-contaminated materials but not high-level waste.
The military wastes have been dear to Mr. Wyden’s heart for 30 years: many of them are in leaking tanks at the Hanford nuclear reservation in Washington, across the Columbia River from his home state, Oregon. But those wastes would have to be solidified before they could be buried, and the Energy Department has had great difficulty doing that.
Senator Jeff Bingaman of New Mexico, a Democrat who is head of the committee until the end of the lame duck session, has already introduced a bill to reform the process of picking a site, but action is unlikely this year. The lame duck session has failed so far to deal with its central task, a budget and tax compromise. http://green.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/12/18/come-january-another-try-on-nuclear-waste/?smid=fb-share
A new strategy is needed, as Asian and Middle Eastern countries join the nuclear weapons club
the most urgent problem stems from the breakdown of major countries’
one-time nuclear monopoly and the empowerment of smaller countries
like North Korea, Pakistan, Israel, and, quite possibly, Iran. A new
set of rules for diplomacy, military strategy, and arms control is
needed to stabilise this emerging nuclear order. Pretending that it
does not exist is not a strategy.
The second nuclear age BY PAUL BRACKEN, JANUARY 11 2013 BD
Live“……The contours of the second nuclear age are still taking
shape. But the next few years will be especially perilous, because
newness itself creates dangers as rules and red lines are redefined.
This took at least ten years in the first nuclear age, and this time
may be no different.
In the Middle East, South Asia, and East Asia, old rivalries now
unfold in a nuclear context. This has already changed military
postures across the Middle East. Continue reading
The risks of “accidental” nuclear war between USA and Russia
Analyzing and reducing the risks of inadvertent nuclear war between the United States and Russia. Insititute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies
Seth Baum, 10 Jan 13 “…..Background: Inadvertent Nuclear War
Inadvertent nuclear war as defined in this paper occurs when one nation mistakenly concludes that it is under attack and launches nuclear weapons in 
what it believes to be a counterattack. A US-Russia nuclear war would be a major global catastrophe since these countries still possess thousands of nuclear weapons. Despite the end of the Cold War, the risk remains. This paper develops a detailed mathematical “fault tree” model to analyze the ongoing risk of inadvertent US-Russia nuclear war. Continue reading
South Africa – a voice for nuclear weapons sanity
Exiting the nuclear club
http://amanpour.blogs.cnn.com/2013/01/09/exiting-the-nuclear-club/ The
world believes that Iran, despite its denials, is trying to join the
handful of nations around the world that possess nuclear weapons.
Over the past two decades, that list of countries has been growing,
with nations like Pakistan and India publicly acknowledging their
nuclear weapons.
There has been just one exception.
Just as Nelson Mandela was emerging from prison over 20 years ago to
lead South Africa out of the wilderness of racial hatred, his country
was in the midst of another change that could be a model for the rest
of the world.
By 1991, the Rainbow Nation had become the only country to dismantle
and destroy its own nuclear arsenal. That decision, along with the end
of apartheid, helped restore South Africa’s international legitimacy.
It also made the country a leading voice for nuclear sanity.
Today, South Africa’s weapons-grade uranium left over from the
apartheid era is being turned into medical isotopes that can detect
cancer and other diseases.
Swords into plowshares.
France short of money – but can find enough for nuclear weapons
France affirms nuclear arms despite military cuts Miami Herald, BY
JAMEY KEATEN 9 Jan 13,
ASSOCIATED PRESS
OLIVET, France –– France’s president says the country will maintain
its costly nuclear arsenal despite looming military budget cuts,
saying the weapons are essential for national defense.
President Francois Hollande said Wednesday that global security
threats have made nuclear weapons essential for France, which is the
only country in continental Europe to have them…….
http://www.miamiherald.com/2013/01/09/3174407/france-affirms-nuclear-arms-despite.html#storylink=cpy
France’s nuclear energy inextricably entwined with nuclear weaponry
as civilian and military nuclear programs
have been intertwined for decades, cutting financing for civilian
nuclear research projects would increase the cost of maintaining the
nuclear arsena
A French nuclear exit? e! Science News, January 7, 2013 France has
been held up, worldwide, as the forerunner in using nuclear fission to
produce electricity. However, a third of the nation’s nuclear reactors
will need replacing in the next decade, and public opinion has shifted
toward reducing reliance on nuclear power. In a special issue of the
Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, published by SAGE four articles
explore whether France has the means or desire to unplug from nuclear
power. Continue reading
Trident nuclear weapons dangerous for English city – but NOT for Scottish?
Angus Robertson, SNP Defence Spokesman, said: “Ironically the UK
government is content to dump Trident nuclear weapons near Scotland’s
biggest city, but is unwilling to station them on the south coast of
England, for safety reasons. That speaks volumes for Westminster’s
attitude to Scotland.
Scottish Independence: MoD says Trident nuclear weapons not safe
enough to be stored at English base
http://www.scotsman.com/news/politics/top-stories/scottish-independence-mod-says-trident-nuclear-weapons-not-safe-enough-to-be-stored-at-english-base-1-2721194
by SCOTT McCARTNEY
6 January 2013
THE Ministry of Defence has said that Britain’s Trident nuclear
weapons could not be removed from Scotland to England as they are not
safe enough for Devonport.
• Faslane in Scotland currently home to UK’s nuclear deterrent.
• MoD believes 11,000 people in Plymouth would be at risk from accident.
• Ministry rules out moving weapons out of Scotland.
According to reports, the MoD says that Devonport does not have the
safety clearance to house the trident nuclear weapons and there are
currently no plans to chance that, despite the Scottish Government
saying it would remove nuclear weapons from Scotland as soon as
possible in the event of independence. Continue reading
1 This Month
23-25 October – on Zoom – World BEYOND War’s annual global conferenc
Shut down the radiation-damaged Heysham nuclear reactors now
To see nuclear-related stories in greater depth and intensity – go to https://nuclearinformation.wordpress.com
Say No to NASA’s Reckless Nuclear Reactor on the Moon
Say No to NASA’s Reckless Nuclear Reactor on the Moon
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