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“Dr Strangelove” – the 50th anniversary of this iconic nuclear film

THE HALF-CENTURY ANNIVERSARY OF “DR. STRANGELOVE” New Yorker, BY DAVID DENBY 14 May 14 “Mein Führer, I can walk!” screams Dr. Strangelove (Peter Sellers), the ex-Nazi nuclear scientist, rising from his wheelchair to salute the American President at the climax of “Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb.” Stanley Kubrick’s satirical masterpiece is now a half century old (Film Forum will be playing a new 35-mm. print starting this Friday), and it remains as outrageously prankish, juvenile, and derisive as ever. Which, given the subject of nuclear annihilation, is exactly right. The movie is an apocalyptic sick joke: the demented general Jack Ripper (Sterling Hayden), who thinks the Commies are using fluoridation to destroy his bodily fluids (he withholds his essence from women), dispatches a group of B-52s loaded with H-bombs to destroy Soviet targets. President Merkin Muffley (Sellers again) tries to recall them; he even helps the Soviet Union to destroy some of the planes. But, after all sorts of misadventures, one B-52 gets through, setting off a Soviet-built Doomsday Machine—chained nuclear explosions assembled in a stunningly beautiful montage, accompanied by Vera-Ellen singing the tender ballad “We’ll Meet Again (Don’t Know Where, Don’t Know When).”……….

We all knew (perhaps a little vaguely) that Wernher von Braun, an actual Nazi who created the V-2 rocket that terrorized London at the end of the war, had become a leading American rocket scientist. Some of us wondered which was worse, his opportunism or America’s. The satirical songwriter Tom Lehrer, tinkling at the piano, devoted a piece to von Braun, with the following lyric: “Vonce der rockets are up / Who cares vhere dey come down / That’s not my department / Says Wernher von Braun.” The German émigré scientist was a prime source of Sellers’s Strangelove ….…..

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September 3, 2024 Posted by | media, USA | Leave a comment

An arms embargo on Israel is not a radical idea — it’s the law

In July, the International Court of Justice (ICJ), the highest global court, ruled that Israel’s occupation of the West Bank, East Jerusalem, and Gaza was illegal. The Court held that the regime of segregation that the Palestinian people live under—complete with separate roads, rationed access to water, and a separate legal system based on military law—amounts to apartheid. The Court ordered Israel to withdraw its settlers from the occupied Palestinian territory, pay reparations, and respect the Palestinian right to self-determination.

Halting military aid to Israel is the bare minimum the U.S. can do to stop the Gaza genocide. An arms embargo is not only supported by 80% of Democratic Party voters, it is demanded by international and U.S. law.

By Yoana Tchoukleva  August 31, 2024,  https://mondoweiss.net/2024/08/an-arms-embargo-on-israel-is-not-a-radical-idea-its-the-law/

As Israel launches its largest military assault in the West Bank in twenty years, I cannot stop thinking about the people I met in the occupied territory. I think of the mother in Jenin who was on the phone with her two sons seconds before their house was burned in an Israeli raid. I think of the wife of a man who was being held in an Israeli prison without charge or trial asking me, “Is there anything you can do? My husband is dying.” I think of the farmer who gifted me a melon even though he could barely put food on his own table and I was there only for a short period of time, traveling and volunteering with Faz3a, an international protective presence organization. 

While all eyes have been on Gaza, Palestinians in the West Bank are undergoing what many call a “slow genocide”. Every day, Israeli settlers attack Palestinian families to push them off their private land. They destroy water wellsburn houses, and assault families. Palestinians who remain on their land risk arrest. In the last 10 months, 9,000 Palestinians from the West Bank have been arrested and detained without charge or trial, many experiencing torture

In July, the International Court of Justice (ICJ), the highest global court, ruled that Israel’s occupation of the West Bank, East Jerusalem, and Gaza was illegal. The Court held that the regime of segregation that the Palestinian people live under—complete with separate roads, rationed access to water, and a separate legal system based on military law—amounts to apartheid. The Court ordered Israel to withdraw its settlers from the occupied Palestinian territory, pay reparations, and respect the Palestinian right to self-determination. 

A day later, American friends of mine were violently attacked by settlers in the West Bank. They were accompanying Palestinian farmers to their olive groves when settlers from the nearby Esh Kodesh settlement descended and beat them with metal pipes. This month, another unarmed American volunteer with the international protective presence organization Faz3a was shot in the leg by the Israeli army. The U.S. State Department has remained largely silent.

As the Democratic Party vies for votes, many have demanded the U.S. impose an arms embargo on Israel as a way to signal to Prime Minister Netanyahu that he cannot continue to violate international law with impunity. What few people know is that an arms embargo is not only what 60% of Americans and nearly 80% of Democratic voters want — it is, in fact, already required by law. 

U.S. federal law is clear—countries that receive U.S. military funding must meet human rights standards or risk losing their funding. 

The Foreign Assistance Act holds that no assistance can be provided to a country “which engages in a consistent pattern of gross violations of internationally recognized human rights.” The Leahy Law prohibits the provision of weapons “to any unit […] of a foreign country if the Secretary of State has credible information that such unit has committed a gross violation of human rights.” 

Gross violations include “torture, cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment, prolonged detention without charges and trial, […] and another flagrant denial of the right to life or liberty”, all acts Israel is found to have committed by the ICJUnited Nations and even Israel’s own human rights experts and courts

Our U.S. laws, therefore, demand that we pause military funding to Israel until it remedies its human rights record by agreeing to a permanent ceasefire in Gaza and complying with the ICJ order to end the occupation of Palestinian territories. 

Such a pause—or an “arms embargo”—is not without precedent. In 2021, the U.S. withheld $225 million in funding from Egypt and paused the sale of offensive weapons to Saudi Arabia due to these countries’ human rights violations. So why is the U.S. enforcing its laws selectively? 

On February 8, President Biden signed National Security Memorandum 20 which at least gave a nod to our federal laws. The Memorandum required the Secretary of State to obtain “credible and reliable written assurances” from foreign recipients of military aid that they are using U.S. weapons in compliance with international law. Those that fail to provide such assurances, or make claims not backed evidence, should have their aid paused. 

In March, the State Department admitted there were “credible reports of alleged human rights abuses by Israeli security forces, including arbitrary or unlawful killings, enforced disappearance, torture, and serious abuses in conflict.” Still, the Department rubber-stamped Israeli government’s “assurances” and the White House continued to approve billions of dollars in weapons transfers despite recognized violations of international law. 

According to a recent Israeli Defense Ministry report, the U.S. has sent over 50,000 tons of arms and military equipment to Israel since October 7, an average of 2 arms shipments per day.

All of this would crush me if it weren’t for my Palestinian friends who taught me what unwavering faith and commitment to life look like. 

So I ask you, Vice President Harris—if you were elected President, will you “take care” that the laws of the United States “be faithfully executed,” as required by our Constitution? Will you consistently uphold federal laws that ban funding foreign governments that commit human rights violations, regardless of how powerful those governments or their lobbies are? Will you honor your commitment at the Democratic National Convention “to end this war such that Israel is secure, the hostages are released, the suffering in Gaza ends and the Palestinian people can realize their right to safety, dignity, freedom and self-determination?” 

Doing so requires that we walk our walk, not just talk our talk. It requires that we change policy, not just express concerns. Pausing military funding to Israel is the bare minimum needed to stop the bombing of innocent people and to remind ourselves that we are, after all, a nation of laws.

September 3, 2024 Posted by | Legal, USA, weapons and war | Leave a comment

A Return to Form: Expediting US Arms to Israel 

 Dr Binoy Kampmark, 1 Sept 24,  https://theaimn.com/a-return-to-form-expediting-us-arms-to-israel/

Despite much grandstanding in the Biden administration about halting specific arms shipments to Israel over feigned concerns about how they might be used (inflicting death is the expected form), US military supplies have been restored with barely a murmur. In a report in Haaretz on August 29, a rush of weapons to Israel has been noticed since the end of July.

August proved to be the second busiest month for US arms deliveries to Israel’s Nevatim Airbase since the October 2023 attacks by Hamas. This has taken place alongside an increased concentration of US forces in the region since Israel’s assassinations of Hezbollah commander Fuad Shukr and Hamas political chief Ismail Haniyeh at the end of last month. Two aircraft carriers, a guided missile submarine, and deployments of advanced F-22 stealth aircraft in Qatar, have featured in a show intended to deter Tehran from any retaliatory strikes.

After examining open-source aviation data from the end of July, Haaretz concluded that the issue of delayed shipments of US weapons had “been solved.” Dozens of flights by US military transport planes, along with civilian and military Israeli cargo planes, mostly from Qatar and the Dover Air Force Base in Delaware, had been noted. Demands by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in his July 24 speech to Congress that US military aid be “dramatically” expedited to “end the war in Gaza and help prevent a broader war in the Middle East,” had been heeded.

On August 26, Israel received its 500th aerial shipment of weapons and military supplies from the United States since the latest war’s commencement. The 500 flights have also been supplemented by 107 sea shipments, altogether facilitating the transfer of 50,000 tons of military equipmentin an initiativebetween the US military, Israel’s Defence Ministry’s Directorate of Production and Procurement and Mission to the United States, the IDF’s planning Directorate and the Israeli Air Force.

During the same month, the Democratic National Convention, which saw no debate about the candidature of Kamala Harris as its choice for presidential candidate, had tepidly promised some agitation on continued arms to Israel. Ahead of the event, the Uncommitted movement’s 30 delegates, picked by voters alarmed by US support for Israel’s war machine in Gaza, were hoping to convince the 4,000 pledged delegates Harris had captured to add an arms embargo to its campaign in order to induce a ceasefire.

petition by the group sought two outcomes: the adding of language to both the party and campaign platform “that unequivocally supports a permanent ceasefire in Gaza and a cessation of supplying weapons for Israel’s assault and occupation against Palestinians.”

These wishes proved much too salty for the apparatchiks and party managers. The Democratic Party’s 2024 national platform ironically enough begins with an effusive “land acknowledgment” to “the ancestors and descendants of Tribal Nations” but plays it safe regarding an ally very much the product of territorial seizure, violence and occupation. Despite mutterings in the party room about a split between moderate and progressive members on Israel’s conduct of the war, the topic of a ceasefire never made it to the committee hearings when the document was drafted.

In firmly insisting on continued US support for Israel in its war against Hamas, much is made in the platform about US efforts to forge a way that will see a release of the hostages, “a durable ceasefire”, the easing of “humanitarian suffering in Gaza” and the “possible normalization between Israel and key Arab states, together with meaningful progress and a political horizon for the Palestinian people.” The language is instructive: the Palestinians are objects of pitiful charity, at the mercy of Israel, the US, and various Arab states. Like toddlers, they are to be managed, steered, guided, their political choices forever mediated through the wishes of other powers.

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With Israel remaining Washington’s paramount ally in the Middle East, that process of steering and managing the unruly Palestinians has been, thus far, lethal. During her first interview given after the convention (she has an aversion to them), Harris scotched any suggestions on going wobbly on Israel. “I’m unequivocal and unwavering in my commitment to Israel’s defence and its ability to defend itself, and that’s not going to change,” she told CNN’s Dana Bush. In what has become a standard refrain, Harris lamented that “far too many innocent Palestinians have been killed” while acknowledging Israel’s right to self-defence.

When asked whether she would alter President Biden’s policy on furnishing military assistance to Israel, “No” came the reply. “We have to get a deal done. The war must end, and we must get a deal that is about getting the hostages out. I’ve met with the families of the American hostages. Let’s get the hostages out. Let’s get the ceasefire done.”

This middle-management lingo says much about Harris’s worldview; in wishing to “get the ceasefire done”, she is encouraging a range of factors that will make sure nothing of the sort will be achieved. The Netanyahu formula has worked its usual black magic. Hence, the lack of an arms embargo, and the continued, generous supply to the IDF from their largest military benefactor.

September 2, 2024 Posted by | USA, weapons and war | Leave a comment

Ukrainian defense chief visits Pentagon

“Ukraine has been given carte blanche for operations in Russian regions. “

 https://www.rt.com/news/603337-ukraine-defense-minister-meets-austin/ 1 Sept 24

Politico reported earlier that Rustem Umerov would try to persuade the US to lift its restrictions on long-range strikes against Russia

Ukrainian Defense Minister Rustem Umerov has met with US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin to discuss additional military aid. The visit came amid renewed requests by Kiev for Washington to lift its restrictions on the use of US-supplied weapons for long-range strikes deep inside Russia.

Earlier this week, Politico claimed, citing anonymous sources, that Umerov and Vladimir Zelensky’s chief of staff Andrey Yermak would attempt to persuade their American backers to change their minds.

On Friday, the Pentagon’s Deputy Press Secretary Sabrina Singh announced that “Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin III held bilateral talks with Ukrainian Minister of Defense Rustem Umerov today regarding Ukraine’s ongoing operations [and] security assistance priorities.”

The latter include air defense systems, artillery and armored vehicles needed to help Ukraine “build additional combat power.”

Another topic high on the officials’ agenda was the upcoming meeting of the Ukraine Defense Contact Group on September 6. The gathering will see more than 50 of the countries which support Kiev congregate in Ramstein, Germany to deliberate over plans for more military supplies for Ukraine, in order to cover both its immediate and long-term needs.

Austin pledged to “continue to build on the strategic partnership between” the US and Ukraine, Singh concluded.

On Tuesday, Pentagon spokesman Major-General Patrick Ryder clarified that Washington’s “policy has not changed,” meaning that Ukraine is allowed to use US-supplied weapons to defend against cross-border attacks, but not for “deep strikes” into what the US recognizes as Russian territory.

Meanwhile, White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby told reporters on Monday that Washington “will keep the conversations with the Ukrainians going [on the issue], but we are going to keep them private.”

That same day, Zelensky insisted that “there should be no restrictions on the range of weapons for Ukraine.”

Commenting on Kirby’s statement on Friday, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova claimed that it indicated that “Ukraine has been given carte blanche for operations in Russian regions.”

“The administration of [US President] Joe Biden is obviously getting ready to make new concessions to Zelensky and give him a free hand to use virtually any type of American weapons, including [for attacks] deep into Russian territory,” the diplomat alleged, as quoted by RIA Novosti.

Her remarks echoed those made on Tuesday by Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, who insisted that the “West does not want to avoid escalation.”

The minister warned that Kiev’s backers would be “playing with fire” if they were to allow Ukraine to use their weapons to conduct long-range strikes deep inside Russia.

September 2, 2024 Posted by | Ukraine, USA, weapons and war | Leave a comment

How the U.S. Enabled Netanyahu to Sabotage a Gaza Ceasefire

Drop Site, Jeremy Scahill, Sep 01, 2024

After the bodies of six more Israeli hostages of Hamas were found in the Gaza Strip, pressure in Israel is mounting on the government to secure a ceasefire deal and free the remaining hostages and soldiers taken captive on October 7. The announcement Sunday that the captives, including a dual citizen of the U.S., were discovered in a tunnel in Rafah has further fueled the rage toward Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, particularly from the families of those held in Gaza. They have accused the prime minister of sabotaging deals to free their loved ones, saying “their blood is on his hands.”

Senior Israeli officials, most prominently the defense minister, have joined the public demands for Netanyahu to stop obstructing ceasefire negotiations, while Hamas has said they will not participate in any process until the U.S. convinces Israel to accept a negotiating framework Hamas agreed to in early July. Both Hamas and the families of Israeli captives still held in Gaza have stated that Netanyahu bears responsibility for continuing the war and preventing the exchange of prisoners.

The White House clearly hopes the events of the past 24 hours alter the current course. After being briefed on Saturday evening on the hostages found in Rafah, President Joe Biden, who is vacationing in Delaware, said, “I think we’re on the verge of having an agreement,” adding, “We think we can close the deal, they’ve all said they agree on the principles.”

By Sunday afternoon, street protests were staged throughout parts of Israel and the mayor of Tel Aviv announced a municipal strike for Monday. “[W]e will allow all employees to go out and support the families’ struggle,” he wrote on Twitter/X.

Following a meeting Sunday with an association of family members of Israeli captives, the head of the Histadrut labor federation, Israel’s largest trade union, announced a general strike. If that action extends beyond a symbolic strike of one or two days, it could cascade into a formidable crisis for Netanyahu. “Netanyahu abandoned the hostages. This is now a fact,” the family association said in a statement. “We call on the public to prepare. We will bring the country to a halt. The abandonment is over.”

Vice President Kamala Harris released a statement endorsing Israel’s version of events on the captives discovered in Rafah and echoed Netanyahu’s pledge to eliminate Hamas. ……………………………..

Hamas has not yet offered a detailed response to Israel’s accusation that Hamas fighters murdered the six captives, but blamed Israel for their deaths. 

……………………………..as U.S. negotiators have worked to placate Netanyahu, the Israeli leader has waged a relentless two-month campaign aimed at thwarting a deal and Hamas has denounced the process and asserted that the U.S. framework it agreed to in early July should be respected.

………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………. A Hamas official involved with the ceasefire negotiations told Drop Site News that the vice president and other U.S. officials have deliberately misled the public about the process out of concerns that the Gaza war will hurt the Democrats’ chances of victory in November.

“Kamala Harris is now obsessed with how to defeat Trump, how to win the election, and she knows that the genocide in Gaza and these massacres are a crucial element in the campaign,” said Basem Naim, a member of Hamas’s political bureau. “She wants to create a delusional image that there is something in process, which is not right.”

In an interview, Naim said that while the U.S.—for political purposes—wants to achieve a temporary truce that facilitates the release of Israelis held captive in Gaza and allows aid to reach the besieged Strip, it has given no indication it would insist on Israel ending its war against the Palestinians of Gaza.

“They are looking for a ceasefire, but they are not for ending the war permanently,” Naim said………………………………..

Establishing a Framework

In May, Biden laid out what he characterized as “a roadmap to an enduring ceasefire and the release of all hostages” that had been proposed by Israel itself. “This is truly a decisive moment. Israel has made their proposal,” Biden said on May 31. “Hamas says it wants a ceasefire. This deal is an opportunity to prove whether they really mean it. Hamas needs to take the deal.” 

On June 10, the UN Security Council approved a resolution affirming the framework. On July 2, Hamas announced that it had agreed to restart ceasefire talks based on the framework. “We are ready for negotiations that achieve a cessation of aggression and a complete withdrawal from the Gaza Strip,” said senior negotiator Khalil Al-Hayya, a deputy of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar. “We are ready for genuine negotiations if Netanyahu adheres to the principles outlined by President Biden.”

…………………..Drop Site News has reviewed internal documents from the negotiations showing that on July 2 Hamas formally informed international mediators that it had accepted the framework, which Hamas says it was told had been amended by the U.S. and approved by Israel on June 24. This amendment removed language Hamas had previously insisted on that called for negotiations no later than 14 days into the first phase of a deal on the “necessary arrangements for the return of a sustainable calm (permanent ceasefire),” according to a draft seen by Drop Site News. Hamas believed this compromise was strong evidence of their desire to reach a deal.

………………………………..Netanyahu’s “Coup” Against His Own Ceasefire Proposal

Since early July, Netanyahu has intensified Israel’s attacks in Gaza, repeatedly added new terms to the framework, and assassinated Ismail Haniyeh, Hamas’s political leader and its lead negotiator, in Tehran. Among the new demands put forward by Netanyahu is the right to continue occupying the Philadelphi corridor along the border with Egypt, to maintain control of the Rafah border crossing and to position Israeli troops in central Gaza along the Netzarim axis where IDF forces would establish checkpoints to search Palestinians seeking to return to their homes in northern Gaza. 

……………………………………………………………………..Rather than insisting on upholding what Biden said was Israel’s own proposal in May, the U.S. has appeased Netanyahu’s efforts to allow an indefinite presence of Israeli forces in Gaza and an open-ended campaign of military attacks.

………………………………………………………….more https://www.dropsitenews.com/p/netanyahu-sabotage-ceasefire-hamas?utm_source=post-email-title&publication_id=2510348&post_id=148340330&utm_campaign=email-post-title&isFreemail=true&r=cqey&triedRedirect=true&utm_medium=email

September 2, 2024 Posted by | Israel, secrets,lies and civil liberties, USA | Leave a comment

Biden’s ‘new’ nuclear strategy and the super-fuse that sets it off.

Although any technically accurate assessment of the physical consequences of the large-scale use of nuclear weapons instantly shows that “winning” a nuclear war has no meaning, the United States has strenuously emphasized the development of nuclear weapons technologies that could only make sense if their intended purpose is for fighting and winning nuclear wars.

The super-fuze is exactly that kind of technology.

The military is already upgrading warheads capable of fighting a war with both China and Russia simultaneously

Theodore Postol, Aug 29, 2024,  Responsible Statecraft,

The New York Timesreported last week that President Biden has approved a secret nuclear strategy refocusing on Chinese and Russian nuclear forces.

According to the paper, the new nuclear guidance “reorients America’s deterrent strategy” to meet “the need to deter Russia, the PRC (China) and North Korea simultaneously.”

However, Biden’s approval of this strategy is no more than a tacit acknowledgment of a two-decade-long U.S. technical program that has been more than just a “slight modernization” of weapons components, but a dramatic step towards the capability to fight and win nuclear wars with both China and Russia. In other words, there is nothing really “new” here at all, save the very public nature of the strategy’s acknowledgement.

In the face of all of this, Chinese and Russian leaders will have no choice but to implement countermeasures that further increase the already dangerously high readiness of their nuclear forces. This includes intensified worst-case planning that will increase the chances of nuclear responses to false warnings of attack.

The technical source of this vast improvement in U.S. nuclear firepower is a relatively new super fuse or “super fuze” that is already being fitted onto all U.S. strategic ballistic missiles. This fuse more than doubles the ability of the Trident II Submarine Launched Ballistic Missiles (SLBMs) carrying W-76 100kt warheads to destroy Chinese and Russian nuclear-tipped Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles (ICBMs) in hardened silos.

The currently (not fully loaded) U.S. Trident Submarine force carries about 890 W-76 100kt and 400 W-88 475kt warheads. The 400 W-88 warheads have been outfitted with the super-fuze and were originally supposed to have the combination of accuracy and yield to destroy Russian silo-based ICBMs before they are launched. But there are not enough W-88s to attack both Russian and Chinese silo-based ICBMs before they can be launched.

So, with the fuse upgrade of W-76s, the W-88 warheads are no longer needed for this job. Numerous upgraded W-76 warheads can instead be used for planned missions against silo-based missiles in Russia and China.

Although 890 W-76s are currently on Trident II submarines, the U.S. has 1600 in total, making the W-76 the most numerous warhead in the American arsenal today. In the eventuality that arms control limitations no longer constrain the size of U.S. nuclear forces, these warheads could readily be added to and carried by the already available at-sea Trident II ballistic missiles, each of which can carry up to 12 W-76 warheads.

With such an “uploading,” there would still be more than enough remaining Trident II ballistic missiles on submarines to carry all of the 400 available 475kt W-88 “heavy” warheads as well.

But let’s talk more about the secret super-fuze or Burst Height Compensating Fuse.

Figure 1 [above on original] illustrates how the super-fuze drastically increases the “killing power” of a ballistic missile delivered warhead…………………………………………………………………………..

The super-fuze achieves its fantastic increase in killing efficiency by measuring its altitude at a chosen time while it is still outside the atmosphere but relatively close to its target. …………………………………………………………………………….

The military implications of this “technically sweet” added capability to U.S. ballistic missile warheads has major implications for the war-fighting capabilities of the United States.

Although any technically accurate assessment of the physical consequences of the large-scale use of nuclear weapons instantly shows that “winning” a nuclear war has no meaning, the United States has strenuously emphasized the development of nuclear weapons technologies that could only make sense if their intended purpose is for fighting and winning nuclear wars.

The super-fuze is exactly that kind of technology.

………………………………….Couching the development and deployment of these kinds of preemptive strike technologies in misleading terms like “enhancing deterrence,” does not fool the military and political leadership of Russia and China. It instead leaves them no choice but to consider ways of deterring a dangerous U.S. preemption-oriented nuclear-weaponized nation that is constantly striving for better ways to “disarm” large parts of their nuclear forces.

It is no accident that Russian President Vladimir Putin himself approved the development and revealed the existence of the ultimate doomsday weapon — the Poseidon robot submarine, which can carry a 100Mt warhead into the harbors of U.S., European, and east Asian cities — capable of destroying urban areas to ranges beyond 50 miles (80 km) from its underwater detonation point.

The deployment of the Poseidon system by Russia serves as a warning to those who think they can fight and win nuclear wars by preemptively destroying significant parts of China and Russia’s nuclear retaliation forces. No matter how successful a planned preemptive nuclear attack might look like on paper, the reality of a nuclear war initiated with the delusional belief it could be won will be global destruction so great in scale that the very end of human civilization cannot be ruled out.

This is the real bequest of Biden’s new nuclear strategy and the super-fuze.  https://responsiblestatecraft.org/biden-nuclear-strategy/

September 1, 2024 Posted by | Reference, USA, weapons and war | Leave a comment

‘No,’ Kamala Harris Says to Withholding Arms From Israel

“Harris is saying she will reject 77% of Democrats, 61% of Americans, international law, domestic U.S. law, and basic humanity to continue the flow of weapons to Israel while it stands accused of genocide,” said one analyst.

Common Dreams. Jake Johnson, Aug 30, 2024

Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris said in a CNN interview that aired late Thursday that, if elected in November, she would not change the Biden administration’s policy of steadfast military support for Israel, rejecting widespread calls for an arms embargo to help bring about an end to the devastating assault on Gaza.

“I’m unequivocal and unwavering in my commitment to Israel’s defense and its ability to defend itself, and that’s not gonna change,” said Harris, recounting the horrors of the Hamas-led October 7 attack. “Israel had a right, has a right to defend itself.”

Acknowledging that “far too many innocent Palestinians have been killed,” the vice president responded “no” when CNN‘s Dana Bash asked whether a Harris administration would implement a “change in policy in terms of arms” and withhold even “some” weapons shipments to Israel………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….

“Poll after poll after poll tells us that a majority of Americans and even more key Democratic constituencies want the US to stop giving arms to Israel that it’s using to kill and displace Palestinian families,” Lieberman added. “Not sending bombs to Israel is politically expedient and—quite obviously!—the morally correct thing to do for anyone reading the daily headlines of Israeli massacres being done with U.S. weapons.”

Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris said in a CNN interview that aired late Thursday that, if elected in November, she would not change the Biden administration’s policy of steadfast military support for Israel, rejecting widespread calls for an arms embargo to help bring about an end to the devastating assault on Gaza.

“I’m unequivocal and unwavering in my commitment to Israel’s defense and its ability to defend itself, and that’s not gonna change,” said Harris, recounting the horrors of the Hamas-led October 7 attack. “Israel had a right, has a right to defend itself.”

Acknowledging that “far too many innocent Palestinians have been killed,” the vice president responded “no” when CNN‘s Dana Bash asked whether a Harris administration would implement a “change in policy in terms of arms” and withhold even “some” weapons shipments to Israel.

Watch:

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The CNN appearance marked Harris’ first major television interview since becoming the Democratic nominee, a change at the top of the party’s 2024 ticket that Palestinian rights advocates hoped would open the door to a fundamental shift away from the Biden administration’s Gaza policy—which has been to arm Israel to the teeth while tepidly pressuring the country’s far-right government to protect civilians and agree to a cease-fire deal.

“The vice president’s statement was morally indefensible and politically shortsighted as the lack of American consequences for Netanyahu’s horrific assault on Palestinian civilians in Gaza has emboldened Israel to now invade the West Bank,” Layla Elabed and Abbas Alawieh, co-founders of the Uncommitted National Movement, said in a statement Friday. “Vice President Harris must turn the page from one of the most glaring foreign policy failures of our time by aligning with the American majority that opposes sending weapons to Israel’s assault on Gaza.”

Despite Bash’s characterization of calls for an arms embargo against Israel as a demand from the “progressive left,” survey data has shown that a majority of U.S. voters oppose sending weapons to Israel as it commits appalling war crimes in Gaza and the West Bank. Since October, the U.S. has sent Israel over 50,000 tons of weaponry.

“Harris is saying she will reject 77% of Democrats, 61% of Americans, international law, domestic U.S. law, and basic humanity to continue the flow of weapons to Israel while it stands accused of genocide,” Middle East scholar Assal Rad said late Thursday, citing the results of a recent CBS News/YouGov poll.

separate poll commissioned by the IMEU Policy Project suggested that voters in key U.S. battleground states would be more likely to vote for a Democratic nominee who pledged to withhold weapons from Israel.

The CNN interview aired as Israel continued its multi-day assault on the West Bank, a deadly military campaign that the head of the United Nations and others warned could become an extension of the nearly 11-month war on Gaza, during which Israel has killed more than 40,600 people, displaced 90% of the enclave’s population, and sparked famine across the territory.

On Thursday, Israel’s military killed five Palestinians in an airstrike on a vehicle convoy of the Washington, D.C.-based American Near East Refugee Aid (ANERA) agency. It is a violation of U.S. law to provide weaponry to a country obstructing the delivery of American humanitarian aid.

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The attack on the ANERA convoy came a day after Israeli forces opened fire on a World Food Program vehicle, forcing the U.N. agency to suspend employee movement in Gaza.

Harris’ refusal to express openness to an arms embargo against a military that has repeatedly targeted aid and healthcare workers, journalists, and other civilians sparked immediate backlash from Palestinian rights advocates, including at least one member of Congress.

Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.), the only Palestinian American in the U.S. Congress, said Harris’ answer signaled that “war crimes and genocide will continue.”

Yonah Lieberman, co-founder of IfNotNowcalled the Democratic nominee’s answer on Gaza “terrible” and “out of touch with voters, especially those in key battleground states who Harris needs to feel motivated to go to the polls.”

“Poll after poll after poll tells us that a majority of Americans and even more key Democratic constituencies want the US to stop giving arms to Israel that it’s using to kill and displace Palestinian families,” Lieberman added. “Not sending bombs to Israel is politically expedient and—quite obviously!—the morally correct thing to do for anyone reading the daily headlines of Israeli massacres being done with U.S. weapons.”

In an op-ed for Common Dreams on Friday, RootsAction national director Norman Solomon warned that “time is running out for Kamala Harris to distance herself from U.S. policies that enable Israel to continue with mass murder and genocide in Gaza.”

“Polling shows that a pivot toward moral decency would improve her chances of defeating Donald Trump,” Solomon wrote. “But during her CNN interview Thursday night, Harris remained in lockstep with President Biden’s unconditional arming of Israel.”  https://www.commondreams.org/news/kamala-harris-arms-embargo

September 1, 2024 Posted by | politics, USA | Leave a comment

Last Energy nabs $40M to realize vision of super-small nuclear reactors

 https://www.canarymedia.com/articles/nuclear/last-energy-nabs-40m-to-realize-vision-of-super-small-nuclear-reactors

These investors are joining the wave in public and private financing of nuclear energy that has swelled to $14 billion so far this year — double last year’s total, according to Axios. Investment in new fission technologies, such as microreactors, has increased tenfold from 2023.

The startup wants to mass-manufacture 20MW nuclear reactors that can be built and shipped within 24 months. It’s looking to get its first reactor online in Europe.

By Eric Wesoff, 29 August 2024

A startup looking to build really small nuclear reactors just announced a big new funding round.

Last Energy, a Washington, D.C.–based next-generation nuclear company, announced that it closed a $40 million Series B funding round, a move that will add more financial and human capital to the reinvigorated nuclear sector.

The startup aims to eventually deploy thousands of its modular microreactors, though to date it has not brought any online. The first reactor might appear in Europe as soon as 2026, assuming Last Energy manages to meet its extremely aggressive construction, financial, and regulatory timelines — not a common occurrence in the nuclear industry. Venture capital heavyweight Gigafund led the round, which closed early this year but was revealed only today. The startup has raised a total of $64 million since its 2019 founding.

Last Energy is part of a cohort of companies betting that small, replicable, and mass-produced reactors will overcome the economic challenges associated with building emissions-free baseload nuclear power — and restore the moribund U.S. nuclear industry to its former glory. But the microreactor dream has yet to be realized; few of these small modular reactors (SMRs) have been built worldwide. None have been completed in the U.S., though one design from long-in-the-tooth startup NuScale Power has gotten regulatory approval.

The 20-megawatt size of Last Energy’s microreactor stands in stark contrast to that of a conventional nuclear reactor like the recently commissioned Vogtle units in Georgia, which each generate about 1,100 megawatts. A Last Energy microreactor, the size of about 75 shipping containers, might power a small factory, while a Vogtle unit can power a city.

Instead of the cathedral-style stick-built construction of modern large reactors, SMRs and microreactors are meant to be manufactured at scale in factories, transported to the site, and assembled on location. Rather than develop an advanced reactor design with exotic fuels — an approach taken by other SMR hopefuls, including the Bill Gates–backed TerraPower — Last Energy chose to scale down the well-established light-water reactor technology that powers America’s 94 existing nuclear reactors.

“We came to the conclusion that using the existing, off-the-shelf technology was the way to scale,” CEO Bret Kugelmass said in a 2022 interview with Canary Media. ​“We don’t innovate at all when it comes to the nuclear process or components — we do systems integration and business-model innovation.”

The startup claims that its microreactor is designed to be fabricated, transported, and built within 24 months, and is the right size to serve industrial clients. Under its business model, Last Energy aims to build, own, and operate its power plant at the customer’s site, avoiding the yearslong wait times to plug a new generation project into the power grid.

Like an independent power producer, Last Energy doesn’t sell power plants; instead, it sells electricity to customers through long-term power-purchase contracts.

“Data centers and heavy industry are trying to grapple with a very complex set of energy challenges, and Last Energy has seen them realize that micro-nuclear is the only capable solution,” said Kugelmass, who claims in today’s press release that the startup has inked commercial agreements for 80 units — with 39 of those units destined to serve power-hungry data center customers.

Last Energy isn’t the only microreactor company attracting venture funding. There are several other examples from this month alone: Aalo Atomics raised $27 million from 50YValor Equity PartnersHarpoon Ventures, Crosscut, SNR, Alumni Ventures, Preston Werner, Earth Venture, Garage Capital, Wayfinder, Jeff Dean, and Nucleation Capital to scale up a 85-kilowatt design from the U.S. Department of Energy’s MARVEL program. While Deep Fission, a startup aiming to bury arrays of microreactors 1 mile underground, just raised $4 million led by 8VC, a venture firm founded by Joe Lonsdale.

These investors are joining the wave in public and private financing of nuclear energy that has swelled to $14 billion so far this year — double last year’s total, according to Axios. Investment in new fission technologies, such as microreactors, has increased tenfold from 2023.

Investors happen to be backing startups in a heavily subsidized market. Tens of billions of dollars from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, the U.S. DOE’s Loan Programs Office, and the Inflation Reduction Act support the development of a non-Russian supply of enriched uranium; the IRA also introduced a ridiculously generous $15-per-megawatt-hour production tax credit, meant to keep today’s existing nuclear fleet competitive with gas and renewables, as well as a similarly charitable investment tax credit to incentivize new plant construction.

The flood of funding comes as nuclear power enjoys the most public support it has had in years. Nuclear now has a favorable public opinion, with the majority of Americans supporting atomic energy and its record of safety and performance. And nuclear energy is one of the few topics that Democrat and Republican politicians have been able to agree on in recent memory.

For its part, Last Energy is not banking on the U.S. to lead the charge; it’s targeting industrial customers in Poland, Romania, and the U.K. for its initial sites, in the hopes that it will find a more favorable regulatory and financial environment.

Ryan McEntush of investment firm a16z suggests in an essay that ​“the success of nuclear power is much more about project management, financing, and policy than it is cutting-edge engineering or safety.”

That’s Last Energy’s philosophy too — and it’s going to need more money and more years to prove it’s the right one. 

September 1, 2024 Posted by | marketing, Small Modular Nuclear Reactors, USA | Leave a comment

The US presidential candidates are not confronting the nuclear threat that haunts the world

Bulletin, By Robert Jay Lifton | August 29, 2024

The candidates in the coming election in the United States have said little, certainly nothing coherently, about nuclear weapons. Yet those weapons continue to haunt us, even as they move in and out of our conscious awareness.

We are reminded of this disconnect by the recent revelation of a shift in the American strategy of “nuclear deterrence” to give greater emphasis to China because of evidence of its rapid build-up of the weapons.1 That strategy change suggests China has been granted the dubious status of player in the game of bringing an end to humanity.

This “nuclear end,” as we came to call it in the antinuclear movement, was oddly treated in the recent Musk interview of Trump. Trump spoke vaguely of “nuclear warming,” though he has constantly dismissed the danger of climate change. Musk referred to the relatively rapid rebuilding of Nagasaki as a thriving city, failing to recognize that reconstruction was possible only because of the existence of an outside world to bring the necessary energy and know-how for such rebuilding. The use of contemporary nuclear weapons would allow for no such outside world. And the statement also ignores the residual pain and nuclear fear brought on by the atomic bombing of that city.2

And in her Democratic National Convention acceptance speech, Kamala Harris committed herself to a military that “always has the strongest, most lethal fighting force in the world.”3 We do not know whether she had nuclear weapons in mind.

What are the nuclear truths that are still rarely taken into account?

Nuclear weapons represent a revolution in the human capacity for destructiveness. Whether it begins with battlefield use of relatively small nuclear weapons or with larger ones, a nuclear war is likely to bring about a “nuclear winter”—the blocking of the sun’s rays by soot and other debris blown into the stratosphere—bringing about the lowering of Earth’s temperature to an extent that agriculture and human life could no longer be sustained. There is also more recent research suggesting that even a “limited” nuclear war could bring about worldwide starvation, affecting hundreds of thousands or even millions of people.

From this standpoint, Robert Oppenheimer’s brilliant success in guiding his fellow scientists at Los Alamos to the creation of nuclear weapons was his also tragedy. He could never decide whether to go along with the society’s rendering him a hero or to insist on his guilt, as he did when he told President Harry Truman, “I have blood on my hands.”

The larger US society has the same conflict. It is unable to decide whether the weapons are crucial to keeping the peace and even keeping the world going—the US addition to what I call nuclearism—or whether their very existence, not just their use but their stockpiling, is what threatens our future. The latter idea is central to the treaty put forward by the United Nations banning the “use, possession, testing, and transfer of nuclear weapons under international law.”4 Recently 150 medical journals, including The New England Journal of MedicineJournal of the American Medical AssociationLancet, and the British Medical Journal made a joint call for the elimination of nuclear weapons with an editorial statement: “The nuclear arms states must eliminate their nuclear arsenals before they eliminate us.”5

That reasonable advocacy of nuclear abolition could not of course abolish our capacity to rebuild the weapons. But such re-creation would be highly demanding, and abolition would make the world a much safer place even if the possibility of building new nuclear weapons existed………………………………………………………………………………..more https://thebulletin.org/2024/08/the-us-presidential-candidates-are-not-confronting-the-nuclear-threat-that-haunts-the-world/?utm_source=Newsletter&utm_medium=Email&utm_campaign=ThursdayNewsletter08292024&utm_content=NuclearRisk_LiftonNuclear_082024

September 1, 2024 Posted by | politics, USA | Leave a comment

US Rushes Weapons Shipments To Israel

According to flight data, there’s been a spike in US arms deliveries to Israel since the end of July

by Dave DeCamp August 29, 2024, https://news.antiwar.com/2024/08/29/us-rushes-weapons-shipments-to-israel/

The US has been rushing weapons shipments to Israel since the end of July, Haaretz reported on Thursday, citing open-sourced aviation data.

The report said that the spike in arms shipments made August the second busiest month at Israel’s Nevatim Airbase for US deliveries since Israel’s genocidal war in Gaza began back in October 2023 following the Hamas attack on southern Israel.

Dozens of US military transport flights, as well as Israeli civilian and military and cargo planes, have landed at the base, mainly traveling from Qatar and the Dover Air Force Base in Delaware.

The Haaretz report appeared to attribute the rush in arms shipments to US preparations for a potential Iranian attack. The US has deployed additional fighter jets and warships to the region and is vowing to defend Israel from Iran’s response to the Israeli assassination of Hamas’s political chief, Ismail Haniyeh, on Iranian territory. Following a major exchange of fire between Israel and Hezbollah on Sunday, the US is still expecting a reprisal attack from Iran.

Besides helping Israel prepare for a potential attack from Iran, the US weapons shipments also help fuel the slaughter in Gaza and Israel’s operations in the West Bank, which significantly escalated on Wednesday. Israeli forces launched their largest attack on the Israeli-occupied West Bank since the Second Intifada in the early 2000s.

The rush in arms shipments also shows strong support for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who has been working to prevent a ceasefire deal with Hamas, and shows President Biden and Vice President Harris are not serious about ending the slaughter in Gaza.

The Israeli Defense Ministry said on Monday that the US had delivered over 50,000 tons of weapons and other military equipment since October 7. The ministry said the US support was “crucial for sustaining the IDF’s operational capabilities during the ongoing war.”

August 31, 2024 Posted by | Israel, USA, weapons and war | 1 Comment

Popular US park as radioactive as Chernobyl, says expert: ‘I’ve never seen anything quite like it’ 

By Matthew Phelan For Dailymail.Com and Associated Press, 29 August 2024

A scenic hiking trail has been discovered to be dangerously contaminated with radiation.

New tests have discovered that Acid Canyon — a popular hiking and biking trail near the birthplace of the atomic bomb, Los Alamos, New Mexico — is still radioactive today at level’s akin to the site of the Soviet Union’s Chernobyl nuclear disaster.

The shocking contamination data, collected in an effort led by biochemist Michael Ketterer, has galvanized public calls for posting official warnings across the trail…………………………………………………………………………………………….. more https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-13788759/Popular-hiking-trail-radioactive-Chernobyl-nuclear.html?fbclid=IwY2xjawE99R1leHRuA2FlbQIxMQABHVP-28QfZ-nxj8mjOk5A9fM4TyF-EOzzzKA2-rHdbbAFhrQEr4LY-M8GsA_aem_XVLP4cUbyyPBXNd03zrK4g

August 31, 2024 Posted by | environment, USA | Leave a comment

Atomic Tragedy? Plutonium Levels Near US Nuclear Site In Los Alamos Similar To Chernobyl – New Study.

 https://www.eurasiantimes.com/plutonium-levels-at-los-alamos-comparab/28 Aug 24

Los Alamos, the birthplace of the American atomic bomb under the Manhattan Project led by Robert Oppenheimer, is now facing a troubling revelation. According to a recent study by Northern Arizona University, plutonium levels in the area are alarmingly high, comparable to those found at the Chernobyl nuclear disaster site. 

The Guardian reported that “extreme concentrations” of plutonium were detected in soil, plants, and water around Los Alamos, a location in New Mexico that was once the center of the US nuclear weapons development. 

These findings were part of a study led by scientist Michael Ketterer, who noted that the levels of this radioactive material were “among the highest” ever found in a publicly accessible area in the US.

His research indicates that these levels are similar to those observed in Chornobyl, Ukraine, the site of the catastrophic nuclear spill during the Soviet era. 

Ketterer expressed shock at the discovery, stating, “This is one of the most shocking things I’ve ever stumbled across in my life.” He highlighted that these radioactive isotopes are “hiding in plain sight,” posing a significant environmental risk. 

Historically, from the 1940s until 1963, the Los Alamos National Laboratory disposed of radioactive waste into a nearby canyon, which eventually earned the nickname Acid Canyon due to its severe contamination. 

The Atomic Energy Commission and the U.S. Department of Energy later initiated a massive remediation effort costing at least $2 billion, which was said to bring the area into compliance with federal cleanup standards by the 1980s. 

The land was subsequently released to Los Alamos County, which developed it into a popular dirt trail for bikers, hikers, and runners. 

Despite the high levels of plutonium detected, Ketterer said that the immediate danger to trail users is low. However, he cautioned that the environmental risks remain significant. 

Plutonium contamination can potentially infiltrate water supplies, ultimately flowing into the Rio Grande, and may enter the food chain through plants. Additionally, in the event of a wildfire, plutonium could be dispersed widely as ash. 

Public health advocates are also urging the government to post signage warning visitors about the contamination, which would allow them to make informed decisions about using the trail.  

Department oF Energy Downplays Risks

Tina Cordova of the Tularosa Basin Downwinders Consortium said that the findings serve as a stark reminder of New Mexico’s long-term radioactive challenges. 

She pointed out that the persistent presence of plutonium, which has a 24,000-year half-life, underscores a “terrible legacy” left by the Trinity bomb, which was notably inefficient and left behind a substantial amount of unfissioned plutonium.

However, the Department of Energy, in response to concerns, said that the detected plutonium levels at Los Alamos are “very low and well within the safe exposure range.”

Similarly, the US Department of Energy’s Environmental Management Los Alamos Field Office maintains that the concerns raised by Ketterer and Nuclear Watch align with data that has been publicly accessible for years and asserts that the canyon remains safe for unrestricted use. 

The Department references a 2018 study that estimates that individuals who frequent the canyon are exposed to less than 0.1 milligrams of radiation annually.

This level is notably lower compared to the average yearly radiation dose of 620 millirems from all sources, as reported by the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission. 

This study indicates that the radiation exposure in the canyon is well below the broader average, highlighting the relatively low risk for those using the area for recreational purposes.

However, Ketterer and his colleague Jay Coghlan, director of Nuclear Watch, caution that while the immediate health risks may be minimal, there are ongoing issues regarding the downstream migration of plutonium, its absorption by plants, and the potential spread of contaminated ash from wildfires. 

Ketterer described the situation as one that cannot be entirely resolved, likening attempts to clean the area to trying to remove salt from a shag carpet. 

He stressed the importance of transparency, suggesting that informing residents and visitors about the contamination is crucial, even if the problem itself cannot be fully rectified.

Meanwhile, the study’s release comes amid the Department of Defense’s announcement to increase plutonium pit production at Los Alamos, a key component in nuclear weapons. 

Concurrently, a defense bill recently approved by the US Senate provides expanded funding for those affected by government-related radioactive waste, but it notably excludes the Los Alamos area, a decision that has sparked outrage among local health advocates. 

August 30, 2024 Posted by | - plutonium, USA | 1 Comment

Israel Says US Has Delivered 50,000 Tons of Military Aid Since Start of Gaza Slaughter

The Biden administration has continued to deliver weapons

by Dave DeCamp August 26, 2024 https://news.antiwar.com/2024/08/26/israel-says-us-has-delivered-50000-tons-of-military-aid-since-start-of-gaza-slaughter/

The Israeli Defense Ministry said Monday that the US has delivered over 50,000 tons of weapons and other military equipment since the start of Israel’s genocidal campaign in Gaza, demonstrating the Biden administration’s staunch support for the slaughter.

Since October 7, 107 ships and 500 transport planes have brought US military aid shipments to Israel. The Israeli Defense Ministry said the deliveries have included “armored vehicles, munitions, ammunition, personal protection gear, and medical equipment.”

The ministry added that the US support was “crucial for sustaining the IDF’s operational capabilities during the ongoing war.”

Back in April, President Biden signed a bill into law that included $17 billion in additional military aid for Israel on top of the $3.8 billion the country receives each year. The State Department recently approved a series of major arms deals for Israel worth $20 billion, including a new fleet of F-15 fighter jets.

Besides the military aid, the Biden administration has also provided intelligence for operations in Gaza and political support at the UN. The administration has also helped Israel by portraying Hamas as the obstacle to a hostage and ceasefire deal, even as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been working to sabotage the chances of an agreement.

Over the past 10 months, the US-backed Israeli assault on Gaza has killed at least 40,435 people, including over 16,000 children, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry’s latest numbers. The ministry’s figures are considered a low estimate since it doesn’t include the estimated 10,000 people who are missing and presumed dead under the rubble. Many more could have died from indirect causes as Israel has shattered Gaza’s infrastructure.

August 30, 2024 Posted by | Israel, USA, weapons and war | Leave a comment

People Harmed by Radiation Exposure Can Forget About Any Federal Compensation

Speaker Mike Johnson killed a proposal to provide benefits to victims of America’s nuclear program.

Mother Jones Katherine Hapgood, August 21, 2024

This story is a partnership with the Center for Public Integritya nonprofit investigative reporting news organization.

It wasn’t a difficult choice for Linda Evers, after graduating high school in 1976, to take a job crushing dirt for the Kerr McGee uranium mill, just north of her hometown Grants, New Mexico. Most gigs in town paid $1.75 an hour. This one offered $9 an hour.

She spent seven years working in New Mexico’s uranium mines and mills, driving a truck and loading the ore crusher for much of the late 1970s and early ’80s, including through her pregnancies with each of her children. “When I told them I was pregnant,” Evers, now 66, recalled, “they told me it was okay, I could work until my belly wouldn’t let me reach the conveyor belts anymore.”

Both children were born with health defects—her son with a muscle wrapped around the bottom of his stomach and her daughter without hips. Today, Evers herself suffers from scarring lungs, a degenerative bone and joint disease, and multiple skin rashes. All of which doctors have attributed to radiation exposure.

“We never learned about uranium exposure or any of that,” said Evers, who recalled safety training that consisted primarily of standard first aid such as treating burns and broken bones. Only decades later Evers learned of the health risks she’d incurred. “They were killing us. And they knew they were killing us.”

American workers have labored in uranium mines since the early 1900s, with the majority of mining occurring from the 1950s through the end of the Cold War, when tens of thousands of workers produced hundreds of millions of pounds of uranium. The government has since acknowledged that, despite being at least partially aware of the health risks, decades of miners like Evers were allowed to labor in dangerous conditions.

“Anything that got in the way of producing more nuclear weapons, testing more nuclear weapons, anything that made that more expensive was to be avoided if at all possible,” said Stephen Schwartz, senior fellow at the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists.

In 1990, Congress passed the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act, creating a process by which some of those harmed as a result of the expansion of the US nuclear program could receive financial and medical benefits. “The bill in a small way will make up for the mistakes made in the early days of the uranium mines,” Sen. Pete Domenici (R-N.M.) said during a public hearing in March 1990. More than 500 members of the Navajo Nation who either themselves worked in or had loved ones who worked in uranium mines attended, according to an account in the Arizona Daily Sun. “We could never replace the ones that died or those who are ill,” he continued. “But this is a giant step.”

In the three and a half decades since, 41,977 Americans have received about $2.7 billion—roughly $62,000 per—for health impacts caused prior to 1971 when the US government stopped being the sole domestic purchaser of uranium.

Advocates across the country have long argued that such benefits are available to far too few people given that the US continued to operate uranium mines and employ miners for years after 1971 and that medical advances have provided new insight into the adverse health effects for many others—such as those who lived downwind of test sites or in homes constructed near or on top of nuclear waste.

“That was a problem—this person got compensated, this one didn’t,” said Doug Brugge, an expert in health epidemiology related to uranium mining. “For people who are not government bureaucrats or academic intellectuals and parsing numbers, it just felt really unfair.”

Arlene Juanico and her husband Lawrence both worked as post-71 uranium miners, making them among those ineligible for RECA benefits under the original legislation. She remembers being hired within a week of having applied, given a hard hat, leather gloves, and ear plugs but never warned about the danger of radiation. Today their home in Paguate, New Mexico, sits in the shadow of Jackpile uranium mine, an EPA Superfund site. The Juanicos say that they wake each morning to a strong, rotting scent wafting off of the vacated mine. “Lawrence and I never considered being exposed until 2019,” she said. “We breathed that air 24 hours a day.”

Within the last year, Lawrence has been diagnosed with pulmonary fibrosis, the same disease his father and uncle—who worked the same mines—died from. Arlene fears she’ll be next.

With RECA benefits scheduled to expire earlier this year, a bipartisan set of lawmakers proposed a significant expansion of the program which, among other things, would have extended the program until 2030 and increased the compensation amount and eligible circumstances to now include people in about a dozen states, including people like Evers and the Juanicos………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..

It’s a similar story in Idaho, New Mexico, Arizona, Nevada, and Utah, where communities that sit downwind of former nuclear testing sites have been ravaged by cancers and other diseases yet excluded from RECA benefits for decades.

Tina Cordova has lost count of all the relatives who have died from various cancers and chronic illnesses in the past several decades. She herself has been in remission from thyroid cancer for 26 years and is the fourth generation of five in her family to have had cancer over the past century. At least a seventh-generation New Mexican, Cordova’s hometown of Tularosa sits about 45 miles downwind from where the Trinity atomic bomb was detonated in 1945.

“It’s affected everybody in my family one way or the other,” said Cordova, 64, who has spent years collecting roughly 1,200 testimonials and health surveys from New Mexico families who believe they have suffered radiation exposure. “We just trudge through this and we wonder who’s going to be next.”

In her years traveling around the state to advocate for those suffering from radiation exposure, Cordova has heard the same story on repeat. First, people get sick from radiation exposure and have to quit their jobs. When they lose their health insurance, they have trouble keeping up with their medical bills and the travel required for treatment. At some point, they face a choice: either leave their families with hundreds of thousands of dollars in medical debt, or go home to die.

Under the proposed RECA expansion, residents downwind of the Trinity test site would be able to receive up to $100,000 for medical bills or to travel for treatments, as well as access to additional medical benefits. In the meantime, they aren’t eligible.

“We’ve been irreparably harmed and they recklessly did it. And now when we’re trying to have them atone for this, for them to say it’s going to cost too much is absolutely unacceptable,” Cordova said. “It speaks to how much they had to dehumanize us to do this. They didn’t treat us like human beings, they treated us like collateral damage.” https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2024/08/people-harmed-by-radiation-exposure-can-forget-about-any-federal-compensation/

August 30, 2024 Posted by | PERSONAL STORIES, USA | Leave a comment

Extreme’ levels of plutonium contamination found in Los Alamos

  • Levels are comparable to Chernobyl nuclear disaster in Ukraine: Researcher
  • Government says area remains safe
  • Researchers say area visitors must be warned

Safia Samee Ali,  Aug 28, 2024,  https://www.newsnationnow.com/science/extreme-levels-plutonium-contamination-los-alamos/

NewsNation) — High levels of plutonium have been found around Los Alamos, the birthplace of the atomic bomb, raising alarms ahead of plans by the federal government to restart nuclear weapons manufacturing in the same area. 

Michael Ketterer, a Northern Arizona University professor emeritus who analyzed soil, water and vegetation samples taken along a popular hiking and biking trail in Acid Canyon, said that there were more extreme concentrations of plutonium found there than at other publicly accessible sites he has ever researched.

Ketterer has compared the levels to those found at the site of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster in Ukraine. 

“This is one of the most shocking things I’ve ever stumbled across in my life,” he said. 

“It’s just an extreme example of very high concentrations of plutonium in soils and sediments. Really, you know, it’s hiding in plain sight.”

The Department of Energy’s Environmental Management Los Alamos Field Office said that the findings are consistent with department data that has been publicly available for years and that the canyon remains safe for unrestricted use.

But Nuclear Watch, a group Ketterer worked with, said officials need to warn people against coming in contact with water in Acid Canyon.

From 1943 until 1963, liquid and often radioactive waste was dumped down a canyon near Los Alamos National Laboratory, which gave it the name Acid Canyon. 

Jay Coghlan, director of Nuclear Watch, said plutonium contamination in the heart of Los Alamos is a concern, particularly as the Energy Department and the National Nuclear Security Administration are slated to begin producing plutonium pits once again in an effort to build up nuclear weaponry. 

The federal government began cleaning up Acid Canyon in the late 1960s and eventually transferred the land to Los Alamos County. 

Officials determined in the 1980s that conditions within the canyon met DOE standards and were protective of human health and the environment.

The Associated Press contributed to this story.

August 29, 2024 Posted by | - plutonium, USA | Leave a comment