nuclear-news

The Age

Nuclear watchdog feels the heat over Russia deal
The Age

• William Birnbauer
• October 5, 2008

  AUSTRALIA’S nuclear safeguard agency has been accused of incompetence and providing false evidence to MPs who were assessing the merits of a proposed $1 billion uranium export deal with Russia.

  Protest groups, which have been critical of the Australian Safeguards and Non-Proliferation Office (ASNO) for many years, celebrated recently when the joint parliamentary committee on treaties recommended against proceeding with the Russian deal.

  The committee’s majority report rebuffed most of ASNO’s arguments in favour of a nuclear agreement, citing serious doubts about the checks and balances on Russia’s nuclear facilities……………………………..The committee also rejected ASNO’s assurances that safeguards would prevent Australian uranium from being used in nuclear weapons. “The committee considers it is important to recognise that the material and capacity to produce nuclear power intrinsically involves the capacity to produce fissile material usable for nuclear weapons,” it said.

Nuclear watchdog feels the heat over Russia deal | theage.com.au

Tags: Nuclear, antinuclear, radiation, uranium

October 6, 2008 Posted by Christina Macpherson | weapons and war | Leave a comment

Rudd’s nuclear-free agenda (October 5, 2008)

Australian Jewish News NEWs (october 5, 2008)Rudd’s nuclear-free agendaNAOMI LEVINPRIME Minister Kevin Rudd has used his trip to the United Nations to promote the Australian Government’s effort in preventing the spread of nuclear weapons.While Rudd referred to Iran only once in his speech to the UN General Assembly, he used the trip to take concrete steps towards setting up the International Commission on Nuclear Non-Proliferation and Disarmament, naming the 15 commissioners.“We remain concerned that states, such as Iran and North Korea, continue to defy the international community and fail to comply with demands for a full declaration and accounting of their nuclear programs,” Rudd told the General Assembly.“As a middle power and as a long-standing member of the NPT [Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty], Australia is committed to working with other nations towards the goal of the eventual abolition of nuclear weapons,” he said.

Rudd’s nuclear-free agenda (October 5, 2008)

Tags: Nuclear, antinuclear, radiation, uranium

October 6, 2008 Posted by Christina Macpherson | weapons and war | Leave a comment

Pakistan demands rights to nuclear power after India deal is sealed – Telegraph

Pakistan demands rights to nuclear power after India deal is sealedPakistan has demanded access to international nuclear technology to power its energy-starved economy after a landmark agreement between India and America gained Congressional approval.

Telegraph.co.uk by Damien McElroy and Rahul Bedi in New Dehli
02 Oct 2008

By testing nuclear weapons in defiance of non-proliferation treaties, the sub-continental neighbours were atomic pariahs until India struck a safeguard agreement with the international community. In a move predicted by critics of the deal, Pakistan is now demanding its own exemptions.

“Now Pakistan also has the right to demand a civilian nuclear agreement with America,” Pakistan’s Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani told reporters. “We want there to be no discrimination. Pakistan will also strive for a nuclear deal and we think they will have to accommodate us.”

The US-India pact enables nuclear-related exports from the West to a market forecast to exceed £15 billion by 2025. France has already emerged as a leading beneficiary after signing a separate agreement that paves the way for it to sell advanced electricity reactors to India. Once it relaxes its ban on exports to India, Australia is expected to emerge as a leading supplier of uranium to the country.

Pakistan demands rights to nuclear power after India deal is sealed – Telegraph

Tags: nuclear, antinuclear, radioactive, uranium

October 4, 2008 Posted by Christina Macpherson | weapons and war | Leave a comment

SCMP.com – the online edition of South China Morning Post, Hong Kong’s premier English-language newspaper

India’s nuclear deal sets a worrying example South China Morning Post

Oct 03, 2008

India’s landmark nuclear deal with the United States ostensibly authorises trade in fuel and technology for civilian use only. But as a country that has tested nuclear weapons and never signed the Non-Proliferation Treaty, there is a danger it will enable India to develop further its nuclear programme, civilian or otherwise. US President George W. Bush’s administration has been an advocate of the deal since 2005, but the two houses of Congress have only come around to sanctioning it now, mainly because of proliferation concerns. India has already signed a similar agreement with France. …

SCMP.com – the online edition of South China Morning Post, Hong Kong’s premier English-language newspaper

Tags: nuclear, antinuclear, radioactive, uranium

October 4, 2008 Posted by Christina Macpherson | weapons and war | Leave a comment

The Associated Press: IAEA chief: Nuclear states set example for others

IAEA chief: Nuclear states set example for others
By GEORGE JAHN –  1 Oct 08 VIENNA, Austria (AP) — The chief U.N. atomic inspector suggested Tuesday that nuclear weapons states bore some blame for other countries seeking such arms, because they are modernizing arsenals rather than scrapping them.Mohamed ElBaradei, the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, spoke on the sidelines of a 145-nation IAEA meeting that has focused partly on proliferation concerns exemplified by North Korea and Iran.

North Korea, which set off a test nuclear blast two years ago, has frozen its disarmament efforts and is moving toward resupplying its plutonium producing reprocessing plant. Iran has defied U.N. Security Council demands that it stop uranium enrichment while stonewalling an IAEA probe into allegations it worked on a nuclear weapons program in the past.

The U.S. France and Britain — three nuclear weapons states that have ratified the Nonproliferation Treaty — are particularly critical of Iran. Although ElBaradei focused on “all” nuclear weapons states, his comments appeared to be a particular challenge to those three to set an example.

“How can I go with a straight face to the non-nuclear-weapon states and tell them nuclear weapons are no good for you, while the weapon states continue to modernize and to say ‘we absolutely need nuclear weapons,'” ElBaradei said.

The Associated Press: IAEA chief: Nuclear states set example for others

Tags: nuclear, antinuclear, uranium, radioactive

October 1, 2008 Posted by Christina Macpherson | weapons and war | Leave a comment

Atomic vet recalls 1946 bomb tests _ and aftermath

it was 1946 and the war was over. Instead of going to war, Beatty went to the Marshall Islands. There he met up with an adversary that was neither Japanese nor German but would hound him for life — radiation.

He was part of Operation Crossroads, the U.S. military’s first postwar experiment with nuclear weapons. The fourth and fifth atomic detonations in history, test shots Able and Baker, took place at Bikini Atoll in the summer of 1946.

Now 80 years old, the Clinton resident remembers it well.

All told, 42,000 people participated in Operation Crossroads, with about 37,000 of them Navy personnel.

…………………

The stated purpose of Operation Crossroads was to test the effects of nuclear weapons on Navy warships and equipment and material. Beatty and others believe an unstated goal was to test the effects on military personnel. In order to keep their funding, defense agencies had an interest in making it all look manageable.

More than 90 ships were assembled in the target area around Bikini Lagoon, fully armed and equipped, just as they would be at time of war. The biggest of the target ships was the Saratoga.

Not everything went according to plan with Able. The B-29 pilot and crew missed their target by 1,500-2,000 feet.

Some of the target ships that figured to be sunk actually survived and were deemed not too hot for habitation. Beatty and other crew members reboarded the Saratoga within hours of the Able test and — after putting out several small fires on the flight deck — assumed their normal duties…………………………….Truth is, Beatty doesn’t know how much radiation he received at Bikini or thereafter. Nobody does. That’s because he never received or wore any kind of radiation measurement device during Operation Crossroads………………………….

Beatty honored his military commitment. He honored the oath of secrecy he took before participating in the atomic exercises.

He didn’t even tell his family until 50 years after the fact.

What bothers him, now that restrictions have been lifted, is the perceived lack of honesty in dealing with the radiation exposures. His exposure has been estimated and revised upward, but he calls it “just a guess.”

Atomic vet recalls 1946 bomb tests _ and aftermath

Tags: nuclear, antinuclear, uranium, radioactive

October 1, 2008 Posted by Christina Macpherson | weapons and war | Leave a comment

RSS: We Have the Money, If Only We Didn`t Waste It on the Defense Budget

We Have the Money, If Only We Didn`t Waste It on the Defense Budget
On Wednesday, September 24th, right in the middle of the fight over billions of taxpayer dollars slated to bail out Wall Street, the House of Representatives passed a $612 billion defense authorization bill for 2009 without a murmur of public protest or any meaningful press comment at all.
by Chalmers Johnson

There has been much moaning, air-sucking, and outrage about the $700 billion that the U.S. government is thinking of throwing away on rich New York bankers who have been ripping us off for the past few years and then letting greed drive their businesses into a variety of ditches. In fact, we dole out similar amounts of money every year in the form of payoffs to the armed services, the military-industrial complex, and powerful senators and representatives allied with the Pentagon.
On Wednesday, September 24th, right in the middle of the fight over billions of taxpayer dollars slated to bail out Wall Street, the House of Representatives passed a $612 billion defense authorization bill for 2009 without a murmur of public protest or any meaningful press comment at all. (The New York Times gave the matter only three short paragraphs buried in a story about another appropriations measure.)
The defense bill includes $68.6 billion to pursue the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, which is only a down-payment on the full yearly cost of these wars. (The rest will be raised through future supplementary bills.) It also included a 3.9% pay raise for military personnel, and $5 billion in pork-barrel projects not even requested by the administration or the secretary of defense

RSS: We Have the Money, If Only We Didn`t Waste It on the Defense Budget

September 30, 2008 Posted by Christina Macpherson | weapons and war | Leave a comment

Asia Times Online :: Middle East News, Iraq, Iran current affairs

The next peace and false bells on Iran
Asia Times By Kaveh L Afrasiabi Sept 08 As the November United States presidential elections draw near, the issue of the stalemate in United States-Iran relations looms large, given the continuing Iran nuclear standoff, the stated commitment of both presidential hopefuls, Senator John McCain and Senator Barack Obama, to disallow Iran from “going nuclear”, and the spin by some pundits in the US and Europe that American voters should cast their votes for the candidate who can best handle the “unavoidable war with Iran”…………………………argument that Iran is two or more years away from getting its first bomb is deeply flawed. It is like saying that Japan or Brazil are six months or so away from building a nuclear bomb, simply because they have the fissile material and technological capability. W……………………………………………..the next chapter in US-Iran relations need not be written in blood and much good can come about by focusing on “the next peace” instead of the next war, even though peace is not half as appealing as war to some in the US corporate media…………………while there are no straight answers to the host of tough issues that bedevil US-Iran relations, but the necessity of avoiding another ruinous war in the troubled Middle East warrants a dramatic shifting of attention to “the next peace”.

This can be done by exploring areas of (potential) agreement and shared interests and telescoping those to the fundamental question of how to recast US policy toward Iran in such a way that will replace the existing hostilities with sustainable peace. T

Asia Times Online :: Middle East News, Iraq, Iran current affairs

Tags: nuclear, antinuclear, uranium, radioactive

September 30, 2008 Posted by Christina Macpherson | weapons and war | Leave a comment

The Associated Press: New nuclear commission set to meet in Sydney

New nuclear commission set to meet in Sydney
By ROD McGUIRK 27/9/08 CANBERRA, Australia (AP) — India and Pakistan will attend an international nuclear disarmament conference for the first time in Sydney next month, Australia’s government said Friday, even though the nuclear-armed foes have consistently shunned a nonproliferation treaty.The 15-member International Commission on Nuclear Nonproliferation and Disarmament will meet Oct. 19-21 to “shape a global consensus” on improving the 28-year-old Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty before it is reviewed in 2010, the government said in a statement.”The commission’s two-year mandate is to reinvigorate the global debate on the need to prevent the further spread of nuclear weapons and for nuclear disarmament,” Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd was quoted as saying……………………

The 190-nation nonproliferation treaty was established to prevent the spread of nuclear weapons and technology and to further the goal of nuclear disarmament. It is reviewed every five years.

Under the treaty, only countries that tested nuclear weapons before 1967 are allowed to remain nuclear powers. India and Pakistan would have to disarm if they were to join.

The Associated Press: New nuclear commission set to meet in Sydney

Tags: nuclear, antinuclear, uranium, radioactive

September 30, 2008 Posted by Christina Macpherson | weapons and war | Leave a comment

Your Industry News – Fission power for lunar living

Fission power for lunar livingMonday,
Your Industry News   Sep 15, 2008NASA engineers are actively investigating nuclear fission as a possible source of energy for a lunar outpost and the agency has signed contracts for the first stages of the development of a demonstration system.The US space agency is currently working with international partners towards the goal of returning people to the Moon and establishing a permanent lunar outpost by 2020………………………….Such a system uses the fission of uranium in a reactor to generate heat that is then converted into electricity,

Your Industry News – Fission power for lunar living

Tags: nuclear, antinuclear, uranium, radioactive

September 16, 2008 Posted by Christina Macpherson | weapons and war | Leave a comment

Procurement: Russia Stiffs The Grunts And Boosts The Nukes

Russia Stiffs The Grunts And Boosts The Nukes
STRATEGY PAGE September 14, 2008: Russia is increasing its defense spending 26 percent next year, to $50 billion. Some of the increased money will go to new radios and intelligence collection and analysis systems (sensors and computers), but most of it will go to upgrading strategic nuclear weapons. This includes more Topol ICBMs and Borei class SSBNs (and a version of the Topol used by this submarine) and upgrades to the Tu-160 heavy bomber. This puts Russia in the top five of defense spenders (along with the U.S., China, Britain and France).

Procurement: Russia Stiffs The Grunts And Boosts The Nukes

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September 15, 2008 Posted by Christina Macpherson | weapons and war | Leave a comment

Voyage for peace and a nuclear free world : Arts & Entertainment : Home

Voyage for peace and a nuclear free world
THE HANKYOREH 9 Sept 08″…………………..101 Hibakusha, survivors of the atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, from Japan, Korea, Brazil, Canada and Australia who will travel aboard the Peace Boat to 20 countries to share their experiences, promote peace and raise awareness about the dangers of nuclear weapons.

Peace Boat is an international NGO based in Japan founded in 1983 to “promote peace and sustainability through the organization of peace voyages onboard a large passenger ship.” This is its 63rd voyage.

Voyage for peace and a nuclear free world : Arts & Entertainment : Home

Tags: nuclear.antinuclear, radiation, uranium

September 9, 2008 Posted by Christina Macpherson | weapons and war | Leave a comment