Nuclear In Space — The NETS Meeting, Forbes 28 Feb 19 James Conca The NETS meeting is wrapping up today at the 
Pacific Northwest National Laboratory in Richland, Washington. The Nuclear And Emerging Technologies For Space is an annual gathering of people from NASA, National Laboratories, industry, and academia to discuss space nuclear power and propulsion as well as new and emerging technologies that make further space exploration possible…….
The space market, now about $400 billion/year, is set to grow to between
$1 trillion and $4 trillion per year by 2040). Last year, the market for electricity in the United States was only $400 billion. So the economic push is great to evolve these systems. Jeff Bezos (Blue Origin) and Elon Musk (SpaceX)
started their companies with the mission of enabling millions of people to live and work in space. SpaceX launch vehicles have dropped the cost of spaceflight by a factor of 15, and
that should continue to drop by another factor of 5. …….
March 4, 2019
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technology, USA |
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 Nuclear explosions: Preserving images of terrifying, swift power, CBS News 3333 Mar 19, The force of nuclear weapons has to be seen to be believed. Now, thanks to a project headed by Gregg Spriggs at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California, the public can see the destructive power of atomic blasts as never before.Starting in 1945 the United States conducted 210 above-ground nuclear tests, all of them documented on film, from as many angles as possible.
That ended in 1963 when, for the good of the planet, the U.S. and the Soviet Union agreed to stop testing in the atmosphere.
Unlike most of us, Spriggs understands the physics that produces these spectacular images – fireballs that can spread two miles across, and reach temperatures of 10 to 15 million degrees kelvin. At the outer edge of the fireball is a shockwave; what the fireball doesn’t vaporize, the shockwave crushes.
“When it starts off, it’s moving at Mach 100, a hundred times the speed of sound,” Spriggs said, showing correspondent David Martin footage of one test’s shockwave.
And then there is the mushroom-shaped cloud, which climbs into the sky, spewing radiation. “That’s directly tied to the nuclear fallout which is very, very sensitive to the cloud height,” he said.
Using a computer to measure the cloud from one blast, Spriggs discovered the original calculations made 50 years ago were off by a full mile. “Instead of 35,000 feet, it was something like 40,000 feet, and it was because of the way they measured it,” Spriggs said.
That made him wonder if calculations from all the other blasts were wrong as well. It was more than just academic curiosity; those calculations are used to predict the performance (what Spriggs called the yield) of today’s nuclear weapons. “If you measure the shockwave radius and you’re off by one percent, you will be off by five percent in the yield,” he said.
So, Spriggs set out to re-analyze and then release to the public the estimated 9,000 rolls of unclassified film that had been shot. He found most of them in the archives at Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico, birthplace of the atom bomb. ………
What do you hope the public gets out of watching this?”
“I hope they appreciate just how horrific these weapons are,” Spriggs replied. “This is something that can kill millions of people in the blink of an eye.”
Spriggs is one of the few nuclear weapons designers old enough to have actually witnessed a nuclear explosion – a high-altitude nighttime blast over the Pacific……..https://www.cbsnews.com/news/nuclear-explosions-lawrence-livermore-national-laboratory-film-preservation/
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March 4, 2019
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USA, weapons and war |
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Kim Kardashian West demands Trump, Newsom, lead cleanup of Santa Susana Field Lab
Her tweet has sparked hope among nearby residents that the government will act more quickly to clean up the old Cold War site. https://www.dailybulletin.com/2019/03/01/kim-kardashian-west-demands-trump-newsom-lead-clean-up-of-santa-susana-field-lab/ By OLGA GRIGORYANTS | ogrigoryants@scng.com | Los Angeles Daily News March 1, 2019
Celebrity Kim Kardashian West is calling on President Donald Trump and other government leaders to lead a cleanup of the contaminated Santa Susana Field Laboratory in the hills above San Fernando and Simi valleys, sparking enthusiasm among residents who have long demanded the action.
Kardashian, who lives in nearby Hidden Hills, demanded via Twitter Wednesday that Trump, Gov. Gavin Newsom and U.S. Energy Secretary Rick Perry help push for the clean up the former nuclear and rocket engine testing site near many Valley schools and homes.
“(The California Department of Toxic and Substance Control, or DTSC, the federal Department of Energy and NASA) promised to clean up contaminated Santa Susana Field Lab by 2017, but the job hasn’t even begun!” Kardashian West shared with nearly 60 million followers. “Time to reform DTSC, and for (the federal agency) to keep its promises.”
March 4, 2019
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environment, USA |
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‘Reset’ on nation’s nuclear waste policy includes Yucca Mountain By Gary Martin / Las Vegas Review-Journal
February 27, 2019 WASHINGTON — A panel of scientists are urging a “reset” of the nation’s stalled nuclear waste management system and recommendations to manage and store the material that include using Yucca Mountain as a potential repository.
The proposals were included in a 126-page report, “Reset of America’s Nuclear Waste Management,” that addresses the buildup of highly radioactive waste from commercial power plants and military programs stranded at 75 sites around the country.
Scientists involved with the report were on Capitol Hill on Wednesday to discuss a way forward, or a reset of current management and policy to address the lack of safe storage for the waste.
The report, released in January, includes development of a consensus-based siting process, but one that would still include Yucca Mountain as a candidate.
The inclusion of the site located 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas would continue the travesty of the 1987 decision by Congress that singled out “Yucca Mountain as the only site to be considered for development of a national nuclear waste repository,” said Steve Frishman, a technical consultant to the state of Nevada.
He noted that state, local and tribal leaders, as well as business groups and environmentalists in Nevada, are staunchly opposed to permanent waste storage in Nevada, and claim that the site is unsafe despite Department of Energy studies and recommendations.
Opposition to Yucca Mountain has led to an impasse on storing nuclear waste.
“The site for the proposed Yucca Mountain repository was formally selected in 2002,” the reported noted. “Today, the fate of that site is in political limbo.”
The report further noted that there is “no clear path forward” to manage nuclear waste produced by commercial power plants.
The report compiled by scientists at Stanford University and George Washington University recommends taking the management of nuclear waste storage away from the DOE and creating either a new single-purpose nuclear waste management organization, or a non-profit corporation owned by the nuclear utility industry to handle the waste.
Many of the topics covered in the reset report were also covered, with differing emphasis, by the Blue Ribbon Commission on America’s Nuclear Future in 2012, Frishman said. The commission did not consider Yucca Mountain as a potential repository.
The report comes as Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., plans a push in the Senate to resolve the three-decade impasse that has left nuclear waste piled up at generating plants across the country……..
Former Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., told the Review-Journal in an interview this month that Yucca Mountain would never be developed because of the astronomical cost to complete the facility. He suggested utility companies place the waste in dry casks and bury them on site. …..
President Donald Trump has proposed restarting the licensing process in his past two budget proposals to Congress. The House also passed a law to streamline the procedure, but all attempts died in the Senate, which stripped out funding in spending bills and never took up the House bill.
If the licensing process restarts, Nevada has filed 218 “contentions,” or objections that would have to be settled before a construction permit is issued.
Experts testified before the House in 2016 that that process could take three to five years.
Meanwhile, two private groups have filed applications with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission for permits to build interim storage facilities in New Mexico and Texas.
Alexander said he favors developing interim storage sites while a strategy on permanent storage can be settled. He told his subcommittee last year that he views Yucca Mountain as part of the solution. https://www.reviewjournal.com/local/local-nevada/reset-on-nations-nuclear-waste-policy-includes-yucca-mountain-1606813/
Contact Gary Martin at gmartin@reviewjournal.com or 202-662-7390. Follow @garymartindc on Twitter.
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March 2, 2019
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politics, USA, wastes |
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The Saturday Paper, Jonathan Pearlman 2 Mar 19, Vietnam: In Hanoi this week, Donald Trump and Kim Jong-un met for a second summit to address North Korea’s nuclear program. Trump revels in the theatrics of these summits, apparently overlooking that he is lending stature to a despot who holds power through mass enslavement, torture, imprisonment and murder.
“[You are] a great leader,” Trump told Kim after their dinner on Wednesday at the Metropole Hotel. “I think you will have a tremendous future with your country.”
Before the formal talks began on Thursday, journalists covering the event were advised of the expected outcome: there would be an “agreement signing ceremony” at the Metropole at 3.50pm.
By Thursday afternoon, the ceremony had been cancelled as the realities of trying to resolve this decades-old conflict overcame Trump’s apparent belief that a deal would flow from a “wonderful dialogue”.
The success of a potential deal will depend on detail, and on Kim’s predilections, not Trump’s jubilant tweets. This became clear in Hanoi, as the talks faltered over Kim’s demands that international sanctions should be entirely lifted.
“It wasn’t a good thing to sign anything,” Trump said. “Sometimes you have to walk.”
The Trump–Kim encounters, reminiscent of the great Soviet–American summits, are designed to be spectacles, yet the Hanoi meeting was quickly overshadowed by events in Washington……..https://www.thesaturdaypaper.com.au/world/north-america/2019/03/02/making-nuclear-summits-great-again/15514452007564
March 2, 2019
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politics international, USA |
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Levin, Amash say Saudi Arabia must not be allowed to build a nuclear bomb https://www.freep.com/story/news/local/michigan/2019/03/01/saudi-arabia-nukes-andy-levin/3017833002/
“We cannot allow a civilian nuclear deal with Saudi Arabia to create a pathway to a nuclear bomb, period,” Levin said. “Recent events, including the horrific murder of Jamal Khashoggi, have made it all the more clear why we must insist on the highest possible nonproliferation standard.”
The House resolution mirrors one already introduced in the Senate by Sen. Jeff Merkley, D-Ore. Khashoggi, a Washington Post columnist, was murdered inside the Saudi consulate in Istanbul last year.
In February, the House Committee on Oversight and Reform released a report indicating that Trump administration officials had pushed for a plan to build nuclear power plants in Saudi Arabia despite concerns that doing so could violate federal law.
The committee report suggested some people involved in the effort were interested in financial gain.
The transfer of nuclear technology is typically approved through a closely regulated process and a nuclear cooperation agreement signed off on by Congress.
Levin, who is a member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said that if such a deal is developed, it must include rules that prohibit Saudi Arabia from enriching uranium or separating plutonium or any other activities that could result in weapons-grade material.
March 2, 2019
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A resolution offering support to Utah cities considering nuclear energy is headed to the governor. Environmentalists oppose it. The Salt Lake Tribune, By Taylor Stevens, 1 Mar 19,
A bill that would offer support to Utah cities participating in a project to add nuclear energy to their power portfolios received final passage in the House on Wednesday.
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March 2, 2019
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 A resolution offering support to Utah cities considering nuclear energy is headed to the governor. Environmentalists oppose it. The Salt Lake Tribune, By Taylor Stevens, 1 Mar 19,
A bill that would offer support to Utah cities participating in a project to add nuclear energy to their power portfolios received final passage in the House on Wednesday.
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March 2, 2019
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https://www.counton2.com/news/local-news/berkeley-county-news/santee-cooper-continues-search-for-new-owner-after-failed-nuclear-project/1820291050 MONCKS CORNER, SC – A special legislative committee is looking into what to do with state-owned utility, Santee Cooper.
The company is in billions of dollars in debt because of the failed nuclear reactor project in Fairfield County.
The State newspaper reports that this week the committee authorized co-chairmen State Senator Paul Campbell of Charleston and State Representative Murrell Smith of Sumter to hire an outside consultant.
That hire will eventually evaluate bids to buy Santee Cooper and negotiate with those potential buyers.
March 2, 2019
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business and costs, politics, USA |
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Department of Energy moves forward with controversial test reactor, Science, By Adrian ChoFeb. 28, 2019 ,The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) announced today that it will go forward with plans to build a controversial new nuclear reactor that some critics have called a boondoggle. If all goes as planned, the Versatile Test Reactor (VTR) will be built at DOE’s Idaho National Laboratory (INL) near Idaho Falls and will generate copious high-energy neutrons to test new material and technologies for nuclear reactors. That would fill a key gap in the United States’s nuclear capabilities, proponents say. However, some critics have argued that the project is just an excuse to build a reactor of the general type that can generate more fuel than it consumes by “breeding” plutonium…….
The VTR—also known as the Versatile Fast Neutron Source—would be the first reactor DOE has built since the 1970s. It would differ in one key respect from the typical commercial power reactors. Power reactors use a uranium fuel that contains just a few percent of the fissile isotope uranium-235 and is made to be used once and discarded. In contrast, the VTR would use a fuel richer in uranium-235 that would generate more high-energy neutrons as it “burned.” Those neutrons could be used to test how new materials and components age within the core of a conventional nuclear reactor, a key factor in reactor design.
In principle, such a “fast reactor” could also convert nonfissile uranium-238 to plutonium-239, which could be extracted by reprocessing the fuel……https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2019/02/department-energy-moves-forward-controversial-test-reactor
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March 2, 2019
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reprocessing, USA |
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It wasn’t enough radiation to be alarming, but it could be a sign of an ongoing problem The Verge By Rachel Becker Feb 26, 2019, 1A crematorium in Arizona became contaminated with radiation when workers cremated a man who had received radiation treatments for cancer right before he died, a new study reports. The findings highlight a potential safety gap for crematory workers, who might not know what’s in the body they’re cremating.
In this case, the radiation in the crematorium wasn’t significant enough to be worrying for the crematory worker’s health, according to a study published today in the Journal of the American Medical Association. But the study also found clues that exposure to radioactive compounds from medical treatments may be an ongoing safety risk for crematory workers……..
It’s not an easy problem to fix. Manufacturers provide detailed instructions for handling the drug with patients who are alive, but not for ones that have died, Yu says. “It presents a unique safety challenge.” Detecting radioactive materials is more complicated than running a Geiger counter over the body. And there aren’t any federal regulations for what to do with a radiation-treated body, Yu says, so the laws change from state to state. ……https://www.theverge.com/2019/2/26/18241402/radiation-crematorium-arizona-radiopharmaceuticals-cancer-body-lutetium
March 2, 2019
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employment, radiation, USA |
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White House bans four journalists from covering Trump-Kim dinner, SMH, By Philip Rucker
and Josh Dawsey
February 28, 2019 Hanoi, The White House abruptly banned four US journalists from covering President Donald Trump’s dinner on Wednesday with North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un after some of them shouted questions at the leaders during their earlier meetings.Reporters from the Associated Press, Bloomberg News, the Los Angeles Times and Reuters were excluded from covering the dinner because of what White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said were “sensitivities over shouted questions in the previous sprays”. Among the questions asked of Trump was one about the congressional testimony of his former lawyer, Michael Cohen.
The White House’s move to restrict press access was an extraordinary act of retaliation by the US government, which historically has upheld the rights of journalists while a president travels overseas. It was especially remarkable because it came during Trump’s meeting with the leader of a totalitarian state that does not have a free press.
Trump’s exchanges with Kim were being covered by the standard 13-member travelling White House press pool, but ahead of the dinner Sanders sought to exclude all reporters from the pool and permit only the photographers and television crew, citing “sensitivities over shouted questions in the previous sprays”.
After loud pushback, including from photojournalists who protested, Sanders allowed a single reporter in the pool for the dinner: Vivian Salama of the Wall Street Journal, who was serving as the print pooler and did not ask a question at the dinner. In addition, at least two members of the North Korean media contingent, a photographer and cameraman, were seen covering the dinner.
Reporters for the three wire services, as well as a second print pooler, were excluded. They included two journalists who had asked Trump questions in the earlier appearances: Jonathan Lemire of the AP and Jeff Mason of Reuters. Also excluded were Justin Sink of Bloomberg and Eli Stokols of the Los Angeles Times………..
Lauren Easton, a spokeswoman for the AP, said in a statement: “The Associated Press decries such efforts by the White House to restrict access to the president. It is critically important that any president uphold American press freedom standards, not only at home but especially while abroad.” .
…… Trump has long complained about reporters asking him questions at photo opportunities, especially when he is in the presence of foreign leaders, which aides have said he views as disrespectful and lacking in decorum. The White House occasionally has punished reporters for their questioning, including CNN’s Jim Acosta and Kaitlan Collins……https://www.smh.com.au/world/asia/white-house-bans-four-journalists-from-covering-trump-kim-dinner-20190228-p510qg.html
February 27, 2019
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Korean War could be declared over at Trump-Kim summit, says South Korea There’s an upbeat tone that a formal declaration ending the Korean War could be made at the Hanoi summit this week. SBS News 25 Feb 19, Hopes that US President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un will formally declare an end to the 1950-53 Korean War at the Hanoi summit rose Monday, after South Korea said the two leaders could reach an agreement.
The devastating conflict between communist North Korea, backed by China, and the capitalist South, aided by the United States, ended with an armistice rather than a peace treaty, leaving Pyongyang and Washington still technically at war.
“I believe that the possibility is there,” the South’s presidential Blue House spokesman Kim Eui-kyeom told reporters about a formal declaration.
“There is no way of knowing what kind of declaration it might be, but I believe the US and North Korea may reach an agreement.”
President Moon Jae-in said in October “it was only a matter of time” before Washington and Pyongyang declared an end to the war.
The US has also struck an upbeat tone. Stephen Biegun, the US special envoy for North Korea, said earlier this month that Trump was “ready to end this war”, fuelling speculation that the formal end of the conflict may be near.
Kim, the leader of North Korea, is due to meet the US president in the Vietnamese capital on Wednesday and Thursday, where it is hoped the pair will make progress in talks on denuclearisation, and a possible peace treaty……..
President Trump says he would be happy as long as North Korea maintains its pause on weapons testing, and he is in no rush to strike a nuclear deal with Kim Jong-un. …..https://www.sbs.com.au/news/korean-war-could-be-declared-over-at-trump-kim-summit-says-south-korea
February 25, 2019
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After Putin’s warning, Russian TV lists nuclear targets in U.S. Andrew Osborn, MOSCOW (Reuters) 25 Feb 19, – Russian state television has listed U.S. military facilities that Moscow would target in the event of a nuclear strike, and said that a hypersonic missile Russia is developing would be able to hit them in less than five minutes.
The targets included the Pentagon and the presidential retreat in Camp David, Maryland.
The report, unusual even by the sometimes bellicose standards of Russian state TV, was broadcast on Sunday evening, days after President Vladimir Putin said Moscow was militarily ready for a “Cuban Missile”-style crisis if the United States wanted one.
With tensions rising over Russian fears that the United States might deploy intermediate-range nuclear missiles in Europe as a Cold War-era arms-control treaty unravels, Putin has said Russia would be forced to respond by placing hypersonic nuclear missiles on submarines near U.S. waters.
……..The targets, which Kiselyov described as U.S. presidential or military command centers, also included Fort Ritchie, a military training center in Maryland closed in 1998, McClellan, a U.S. Air Force base in California closed in 2001, and Jim Creek, a naval communications base in Washington state.
Kiselyov, who is close to the Kremlin, said the “Tsirkon” (‘Zircon’) hypersonic missile that Russia is developing could hit the targets in less than five minutes if launched from Russian submarines.
Hypersonic flight is generally taken to mean traveling through the atmosphere at more than five times the speed of sound……. https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-nuclear-russia/after-putins-warning-russian-tv-lists-nuclear-targets-in-us-idUSKCN1QE1DM
February 25, 2019
Posted by Christina Macpherson |
politics international, Russia, USA, weapons and war |
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Nukes Are No Answer To Climate Crisis RALPH NADER RADIO HOUR https://ralphnaderradiohour.com/nukes-are-no-answer-to-climate-crisis/?fbclid=IwAR1WWrHrMbT0bflR2p7fJDw89KeS_qb1fMSRcAX6ESDXanFL6A2hDNbM8To
by Skro35 at February 16, 2019 Ralph spends the entire hour with physicist and former Chairman of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Dr. Gregory Jaczko, talking about his book “Confessions of a Rogue Nuclear Regulator.”
Dr. Gregory Jaczko served as Chairman of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission from 2009-2012, and as a commissioner from 2005-2009. As Chairman, he played a lead role in the American government’s response to the Fukushima nuclear accident in Japan. Dr. Jaczko is now an adjunct professor at Princeton University and Georgetown University, and an entrepreneur with a clean energy development company. He is the author of Confessions of a Rogue Nuclear Regulator.
“There are a lot of people running around, talking about how nuclear is the only way we’re going to solve climate change. And it just reminds me of these predictions back in the ‘60s of how we were going to have an entire country powered by nuclear power. A generation has forgotten those promises, and now they’re latching onto nuclear as some kind of solution to climate change. That, to me, is a real mistake.” Dr. Gregory Jaczko, former Chairman of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and author of “Confessions of a Rogue Nuclear Regulator”
February 25, 2019
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climate change, Resources -audiovicual, USA |
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nuclear-news 