weapons and war « nuclear-news

Local authorities would be left to deal with catastrophic nuclear blast

VIDEO Nuclear blast victims would have to wait – USATODAY.com

Nuclear blast victims would have to wait , By Steve Sternberg, USA TODAY 14 April 2010. The White House has warned state and local governments not to expect a “significant federal response” at the scene of a terrorist nuclear attack for 24 to 72 hours after the blast, according to a planning guide. Continue reading →

April 14, 2010 Posted by Christina Macpherson | USA, weapons and war | antinuclear, nuclear, nuclear costs, nuclear weapons, radioactive | Leave a comment

Nuclear Security Summit failed to tackle nuclear disarmament

Obama’s Nuclear Summit: The Big Truth That’s Missing | Mother Jones, David Corn, 13 April 2010, “………there is an important connection the president neglected to mention. Nuclear security is not the path to nuclear disarmament. Nuclear disarmament is the path to nuclear security. The nuclear weapons complex depends on highly-enriched uranium. As long as there are nuclear weapons, there will be HEU. As long as there is HEU, there will be the possibility of HEU theft and smuggling. Continue reading →

April 14, 2010 Posted by Christina Macpherson | 2 WORLD, weapons and war | antinuclear, nuclear, nuclear secrecy, nuclear spin, nuclear technology, nuclear weapons | Leave a comment

Women, young people, more opposed to nuclear weapons

Public divided on eliminating all nuclear weapons . Washington (CNN) 12 April2010, – Americans are split on President Obama’s goal of eliminating all of the world’s nuclear weapons, according to a new CNN/Opinion Research Corporation poll released Monday. But the survey also indicates the public overwhelmingly agrees with the mission of the president’s nuclear summit this week to keep those weapons out of the hands of terrorists…..
“Fifty-eight percent of women favor the elimination of all nuclear weapons, but most men don’t share that view,” says Holland. “People under 50 also call for the elimination of all nuclear weapons, but people over 50 – who are more likely to remember the Cold War – think that the U.S. and a few other countries should retain their nuclear arms.” CNN Political Ticker: All politics, all the time Blog Archive – CNN Poll: Public divided on eliminating all nuclear weapons « – Blogs from CNN.com

April 13, 2010 Posted by Christina Macpherson | USA, weapons and war | antinuclear, nuclear, nuclear spin, nuclear weapons | Leave a comment

Nuclear weapons in Italy and other European countries

ITALIE HAS NUCLEAR WEAPONS. Argue with everyone, 12 April, 2010, Pentagon confirms Italie has nuclear weapons From a report by U.S. environmental association Natural Resources Defense Council [1], we had already learned that the United States store 90 nuclear bombs on two Italian bases: 50 in Aviano (Pordenone) and 40 in Ghedi Torre (Brescia). Continue reading →

April 12, 2010 Posted by Christina Macpherson | Italy, weapons and war | AUSTRALIA, nuclear weapons | Leave a comment

USA’s nuclear weapons New START and its dodgy arithmetic

New START and Nuclear Midnight, RealClearWorld, By Daniel McGroarty 8 April 2010, What accounts for the dampening of enthusiasm of pro-disarmament groups for New START? Call it a kind of fuzzy math: The White House has been careful to characterize the new warhead levels as 30 percent below the warhead limit of the 2002 Moscow Treaty. But both the U.S. and Russian arsenals are well below those limits now, having retired weapons without replacing them…..

Add to that a new rule for counting nuclear-capable strategic bombers: Under New START, each bomber counts as one warhead – regardless of how many nuclear weapons it can deliver. With U.S. and Russian bomber capacities varying from 6 to 20 nuclear warheads, that’s a quick way to cut the warhead count without scrapping any weapons…….As the Federation of American Scientists’ Hans Kristensen reports: “… The [New START] counting rule would ‘hide’ approximately 450 and 860 warheads, respectively, or 1,310 warheads. That’s more warheads than Britain, China, France, India, Israel, and Pakistan possess combined!” Expect to hear more about that from the world’s non-nuclear nations at next month’s Non-Proliferation Treaty conference……As the Atomic Scientists like to say, the clock is ticking.

RealClearWorld – New START and Nuclear Midnight

April 9, 2010 Posted by Christina Macpherson | USA, weapons and war | antinuclear, nuclear secrecy, nuclear spin, nuclear weapons | Leave a comment

Nuclear Weapons Proliferation is the biggest risk with Integral Fast Reactors

Why James Hansen is wrong on nuclear power | Links April 8, 2010 Hansen Nuclear Power ….. Renfrey’s article understates the WMD proliferation risks associated with integral fast reactors (IFRs). The plutonium/waste mixture from IFRs could be processed in a conventional reprocessing plant without too much trouble, especially since proliferators would take simple steps (reducing the irradiation time) to maximise the proportion of plutonium-239 and to reduce the difficulty and hazards of transporting and processing the material. Continue reading →

April 9, 2010 Posted by Christina Macpherson | 2 WORLD, weapons and war | antinuclear, depleted, nuclear, nuclear costs, nuclear secrecy, nuclear spin, nuclear technology, nuclear weapons, radiation, radioactive, reactors, uranium | Leave a comment

Israeli Prime Minister pulls out of nuclear summit

Netanyahu Said to Cancel U.S. Trip for Nuclear Summit By Calev Ben-David April 9 (Bloomberg) –– Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu canceled a planned visit to the U.S. next week to attend a nuclear summit, a government official said. Continue reading →

April 9, 2010 Posted by Christina Macpherson | Israel, weapons and war | antinuclear, nuclear secrecy, nuclear spin, nuclear weapons | Leave a comment

Nuclear Posture Review plans nuclear weapons for Air Force

Nuclear Upgrade for the Pentagon’s Gajillion-Dollar Fighter Wired.com Danger Room |By Nathan Hodge Email Author * April 7, 2010 As part of a newly unveiled Nuclear Posture Review, the Pentagon has made public plans to make its all-purpose stealth fighter capable of carrying nuclear weapons. According to the review, the Air Force wants to “retain a dual-capable fighter” that can drop both conventional and nuclear weapons as the F-16 Fighting Falcon is phased out and replaced by the F-35….. Continue reading →

April 8, 2010 Posted by Christina Macpherson | USA, weapons and war | antinuclear, nuclear costs, nuclear secrecy, nuclear spin, nuclear weapons | Leave a comment

Obama’s new nuclear weapons policy

White House to Unveil More Restrictive Nuke Policy CA-GOV TPMDC April 6, 2010The Obama administration is set to unveil a new policy on nuclear weapons, which narrow the circumstances under which the United States would use such weapons. The Associated Press reports: “The U.S. officials said the administration’s new policy would stop short of declaring that the United States would never be the first to launch a nuclear attack, as many arms control advocates had recommended. But it would describe the weapons’ purpose as ‘primarily’ or ‘fundamentally’ to deter or respond to a nuclear attack. The officials said the document would say it is a U.S. goal to move toward a policy in which the ‘sole purpose’ of nuclear weapons is to deter or respond to nuclear attack. That wording would all but rule out the use of such weapons to respond to an attack by conventional, biological or chemical weapons. Previous U.S. policy was more ambiguous.”

CA-GOV: April 2010 | TPMDC

April 7, 2010 Posted by Christina Macpherson | USA, weapons and war | antinuclear, nuclear, nuclear weapons | Leave a comment

Uranium enrichment hardware acquired by Iran

Report: Iran gets parts needed for uranium enrichment, Wall Street Journal says little-known Tehran firm linked to Islamic Republic’s nuclear program was able to acquired special hardware despite sanctions News agencies 04.03.10, Ynetnews The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and western intelligence agencies are probing how an Iranian firm linked to Tehran’s nuclear program acquired special uranium enrichment hardware, despite sanctions intended to keep such equipment out of Iran. Continue reading →

April 5, 2010 Posted by Christina Macpherson | Iran, weapons and war | antinuclear, enriched, nuclear, nuclear costs, nuclear secrecy, nuclear weapons, uranium | Leave a comment

Obama’s Nuclear Posture Review will ‘chip away’ need for nuclear weapons

Administration to Signal Shift Away From a Nuclear Future « The Washington Independent, by Spencer Ackerman, 2 April 2010, Set for release early next week, the Obama administration’s long-awaited statement on the future of the U.S. nuclear weapons stockpile won’t provide a roadmap for their elimination, according to administration officials. But it will chip away at the strategic justification for the stockpile and shift the country’s defense away from nuclear weapons, Continue reading →

April 3, 2010 Posted by Christina Macpherson | USA, weapons and war | antinuclear, nuclear, nuclear weapons | Leave a comment

Comprehenisve Test Ban Treaty not likley to be ratified

Obama no closer on nuclear test ban ratification, THE HUFFINGTON POST, Desmond Butler, 2 April 2010, Obama, whose Democratic Party enjoys a majority of 59 votes in the Senate, will need to win over enough Republican senators to reach the necessary two-thirds-majority vote for ratification. While there appears to be strong bipartisan support for the new START treaty, which could be ratified this year, the test ban treaty has been much more contentious.And it is likely to be more so after November, when Democrats are projected to lose seats. Continue reading →

April 3, 2010 Posted by Christina Macpherson | USA, weapons and war | antinuclear, nuclear, nuclear weapons | Leave a comment

Obama’s Nuclear Posture Review soon to be released

Nuclear Madness Month at the White House, The Atlantic, Mar 31 2010, Next week kicks off nuclear madness month at the White House — or, as one senior administration official resignedly describes it, “all nukes, all the time.” By mid-May, the world ought to know whether President Obama is really a deterrencer in a dove’s clothing. Continue reading →

April 2, 2010 Posted by Christina Macpherson | USA, weapons and war | antinuclear, nuclear secrecy, nuclear spin, nuclear technology, nuclear weapons | Leave a comment

Cancer and birth deformities in Serbia – depleted uranium’s deadly legacy

Permanent consequences “The half-life of uranium 238 is very long – 4.5 billion years,” reminds nuclear physicist Miroslav Simic, stating that “this way of throwing away nuclear waste on civilian, but also military targets, is not human as the consequences are permanent.”

Depleted Uranium, Dirty Bombs: NATO’s Deadly Gifts To Kosovo, Serbia Piotr Bein’s blog 29 March 2010, By Ljubica Vujadinovic, Belgrade: A leading Serbian expert in the field says NATO’s use of depleted uranium ammunition in it’s aggression against Serbia has caused an enormous increase in cancer rates and the number of newborns with genetic malformations. Continue reading →

March 29, 2010 Posted by Christina Macpherson | depleted uranium, EUROPE | antinuclear, depleted, nuclear costs, nuclear spin, nuclear technology, nuclear weapons, radiation, reactors, uranium, wastes | 2 Comments

Israel might use tactical nuclear weapons on Iran

Israel could use tactical nuclear weapons on Iran Israel Matzav, March 28, 2010, The Washington Post reports that a Washington think tank suggests that Israel could use tactical nuclear weapons in a strike against Iran. Despite the 65-year-old taboo against carrying out — or, for that matter, mooting — nuclear strikes, the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) says in a new report that “some believe that nuclear weapons are the only weapons that can destroy targets deep underground or in tunnels

Israel Matzav: Israel could use tactical nuclear weapons on Iran

March 29, 2010 Posted by Christina Macpherson | Israel, weapons and war | antinuclear, nuclear costs, nuclear secrecy, nuclear weapons | Leave a comment