USA’s Pentagon curse of costly nuclear weapons
The Midas Touch of Nuclear Weapons http://www.huffingtonpost.com/joe-cirincione/the-midas-touch-of-nuclea_b_1726028.html 07/31/2012 The United States is about to buy a nuclear bomb that costs 1.5 times its weight in solid gold. It would make even King Midas blush. Nuclear weapons programs now cost so much they are actually more expensive than if they were made of gold.
The defense budget is famous for waste . The Pentagon has bought a $640 toilet seat, a $7,600 coffee maker , and a $436 hammer.
Now, the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), the agency in charge of the United State’s nuclear warheads, wants to pay $10 billion to overhaul its B-61 nuclear bombs — at $28 million per bomb . This is a bomb designed to fight a nuclear war in Europe, and still kept in our inventory.
Today on the Ploughshares Fund blog, we’ve presented an infographic depicting the B-61 bomb’s current cost versus its cost in solid gold. Even with the record gold prices, the real bomb is more expensive than its hypothetical golden cousin by roughly $10 million per bomb.
The solid gold nuclear bomb is only one example, but the Midas touch does not stop there. Across the board, nuclear costs are exploding.
A few years ago, NNSA told Congress it wanted to build a new plutonium plant for its nuclear bombs (called the CMRR) for an estimated $660 million . The cost for the plant has now skyrocketed to over $6 billion .
The Navy wants to build 12 new nuclear-armed submarines for an estimated $350 billion over the life of the program. When these boats go into production, they will eat up to 25 percent of theNavy’s entire shipbuilding budget .
There’s a smarter approach. Former officials like Gen. James Cartwright and Amb. Thomas Pickering say the U.S. should get rid of its excess Cold War weapons, not waste money on them. With almost 5,000 nuclear bombs in our active stockpile, we have plenty of room to cut.
At the end of the myth, King Midas was starving and begging to be relieved of his terrible golden touch. Isn’t it time for the Pentagon to get rid of its own golden curse, before it starves our military of the resources they truly need?
That naughty 82 year old anti nuclear nun!
Aging protesters paint nuclear arsenal in Tenn. Knox News Associated Press July 31, 2012 OAK RIDGE, Tenn. (AP) — Emerging details about a security alert at the federal government’s Y-12 nuclear weapons plant in Oak Ridge reveal three aging activists staged the protest.uranium.
offered to share a Bible, candles and white roses with the guards.
Rice is from Nevada; Boertje-Obed is from Duluth, Minn.; and Walli is from Washington, D.C. They were arrested on federal trespassing charges.
The protesters called themselves “Transform Now Plowshares.” There is no known Plowshares national protest group, but there is a philosophical practice of using high-profile demonstrations to draw attention to nuclear disarmament and related causes.
Details about how they got into the high-security area aren’t known….. http://www.knoxnews.com/news/2012/jul/31/aging-protesters-paint-nuclear-arsenal-in-02/
Catholic nun and two workers breach top security nuclear weapons complex
Catholic activists breach Tennessee nuclear weapons plant in protest National Catholic Reporter, Jul. 31, 2012 By Joshua J. McElwee Michael Walli, Sr. Megan Rice and Greg Boertje-Obed. The three were arrested Saturday at the Y-12 National Security Complex in Oak Ridge, Tenn.
Three Catholics broke into a guarded nuclear weapons complex in Tennessee on Saturday in an act of civil disobedience and made their way into one of its most secure facilities before they were arrested.
The three, an 82-year-old religious sister and two middle-aged men connected with the Catholic Worker movement, were able to enter the Y-12 National Security Complex in Oak Ridge early Saturday before a guard found them inside the complex’s storage facility for bomb-grade uranium.
The three call themselves the Transform Now Plowshares and said they wished to “indict the U.S. government” for its nuclear weapons modernization program and for planning to build a new facility at the Y-12 site, according to friends of the activists….
The activists’ next hearing has been set for Thursday. They are currently being held
in the Blount County Detention Facility in Maryville, Tenn.
In the documents explaining their action, the activists said the continued use of the facility is an “ongoing criminal endeavor in violation of international treaty law.”
“The ongoing building and maintenance of Oak Ridge Y-12 constitute war crimes that can and should be investigated and prosecuted by judicial authorities at all levels,” the activists wrote. “We are required by International Law to denounce and resist known crimes.” …
http://ncronline.org/news/peace/catholic-activists-breachtennessee-nuclear-weapons-plant-protest
$73 billion for fixing and restarting San Onofre nuclear plant
Ailing California Nuclear Plant Has $48 Million Repair Bill
http://sacramento.cbslocal.com/2012/07/31/ailing-california-nuclear-plant-has-48-million-repair-bill/ July 31, 2012 LOS ANGELES (AP) — The operator of the ailing San Onofre nuclear power plant in California says the company has been saddled with $48 million in inspection and repair costs related to damage to tubes that carry radioactive water.
Financial records released Tuesday by Edison International — the parent company of Southern California Edison — also estimate that it will cost $25 million to begin to restart the Unit 2 reactor at reduced power.
The company has not submitted a request to federal regulators to restart either of the twin reactors that have been shut down since January. The figures were included in a report on Edison’s operations betweenApril and June.
The plant is located between Los Angeles and San Diego.
Navajo Nation determined to get uranium cleanup
The Navajo Nation Diné Natural Resources Protection Act of 2005 prohibits uranium mining within Navajo Indian Country.
Uranium Cleanup is Priority for Navajos NEW MINING IS SECONDARY OFFICIALS SIGN AGREEMENT , Cibola Beacon, July 31, 2012 By Donald Jaramillo Beacon Managing Editor CIBOLA COUNTY – The Navajo Nation and many of its members have stated it loud and clear, no new uranium mining until cleanup is complete on Navajo lands.
An agreement was signed on July 19 between the Navajo Nation and Hydro Resources, Inc. (HRI), a subsidiary of Uranium Resources, Inc. (URI). Continue reading
USA military top brass call for revising USA’s nuclear weapons – DOWN
There may not be agreement on the size or shape of the future force, but there is a growing consensus that revising the outdated nuclear posture will not only save billions of dollars,
but also make for a more effective national security strategy.
The call for a revised nuclear strategy THE HILL, By Mary Kaszynski, policy analyst, American Security Project – 07/30/12 There may not be agreement on the size and shape of the future force, but there is growing consensus among the nation’s leaders that it’s time to bring U.S. nuclear strategy into the 21st century. This consensus includes two former commanders of U.S. Strategic Command….
“The current U.S. nuclear force remains sized and organized operationally for fighting the “last war” – the Cold War – even though threats from that era posed by the Soviet Union and China have greatly diminished or disappeared,” reads Gen. Cartwright’s joint testimony with Ambassador Thomas Pickering before the Senate Appropriations Committeelast week.
“The U.S. (and Russian) arsenal is thus over-stocked. Ample latitude exists for further nuclear cuts,” the testimony concludes, reflecting the analysis of a panel Gen. Cartwright chaired, which included former Senator Chuck Hagel and General Jack Shaheen.
Gen. Cartwright is not the only STRATCOM commander to determine that the U.S. nuclear force, which numbers some 8,000 warheads, is unsuited to today’s strategic environment. Continue reading
Los Alamos National Laboratory – plutonium facility not safe
The plutonium facility was designed and built in the 1970s and lacks the earthquake resistance required by modern building codes
Safety Board Calls Nuclear Lab’s Earthquake Resistance Analysis ‘Technically Inadequate’ HUFFINGTON POST, Mia SteinleInvestigator, Project On Government Oversight, 30 july 12, An ongoing government analysis of an important nuclear weapons laboratory’s ability to withstand earthquakes may be flawed, according to a federal oversight panel. Continue reading
Leave the Multi-Billion-Dollar Nuclear Decisions to the Experts POGO, Project on Government Oversight, 30 July 12, Mia Steinle When the president released his Fiscal Year 2013 federal budget proposal earlier this year, opponents of government waste took heart: the budget zeroed out funding for a proposed nuclear weapons facility that had been plagued by massive cost overruns and schedule delays for about a decade. Now it seems that eight senators are trying to undermine the president’s proposal and put funding back into the New Mexico facility, even though the agency and congressional overseers who know the project best say it’s unnecessary. Continue reading
National Renewable Energy Laboratory: Solar Has The Most Potential Of Any Renewable Energy Source Think Progress, Jul 30, 2012 A recently released study by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, estimates that the technical potential of photovoltaic cells and concentrated solar power (CSP) in the United States is as much as 200,000 Gigawatts, enough to generate about400,000 TWh of energy annually.
The report dismisses economic and political impacts on the solar industry and focuses solely on the scientific and engineering limitations. The types of solar power studied in the report were Urban Utility-Scale Photovoltaics, Rural Utility-Scale Photovoltaics, Rooftop Photovoltaics, and Concentrated Solar Power, which is a utility-scale project “in which the solar heat energy is collected in a central location.”
The report broke down each type of solar array: Continue reading
Mission Impossible? Not for 82-year-old Anti-Nuclear Weapons Activist Mia Steinle Investigator, Project On Government Oversight 07/30/2012 When a nuclear weapons facility can’t stop infiltration by an octogenarian nun, it’s time to reassess its security standards.
The 82-year-old nun, accompanied by two other anti-nuclear activists, broke into Tennessee’s Y-12 National Security Complex early Saturday morning, the Knoxville News Sentinel first reported.
“The Department of Energy has repeatedly claimed that security at the site, which houses 300 to 400 metric tons of bomb-grade uranium, is robust enough to defend against more than a dozen heavily-armed terrorists with inside knowledge of security procedures,” Peter Stockton, a nuclear security expert at the Project On Government Oversight (POGO), ironically observed.
“It looks like the Boy Scouts could have done a better job” securing the site, he added.
After cutting through three fences surrounding the facility, the activists “posted a banner on one of the buildings and poured human blood on the premises,” the News Sentinel reported. The activists were arrested under federal trespassing charges and will remain in jail until a hearing this Thursday, according to the newspaper…… http://www.huffingtonpost.com/mia-steinle/nuclear-weapons-activist_b_1720691.html
Danger and expense in relicensing aging nuclear reactor
relicensing this aging nuclear plant simply makes no sense. If the true costs are included, the energy produced is extremely expensive, and the toxic wastes produced pose an unacceptable health risk.
Columbia Generating Station: Why relicense a nuclear power plant 10 years early? http://www.oregonlive.com/opinion/index.ssf/2012/07/columbia_generating_station_wh.html, July 30, 2012, By John Pearson In May, 10 years earlier than required, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission extended the license of the Columbia Generating Station, the Northwest’s only commercial nuclear power plant, to 2043.
Located along the Columbia River within Washington’s Hanford Nuclear Reservation, the Columbia Generating Station is now 30 years old. It was formerly known as Washington Public Power Supply System Nuclear Plant No. 2 — the only nuclear plant completed by Washington public power utilities out of five under construction, leading to what was at
the time the largest municipal bond default in U.S. history. Continue reading
a SILEX facility could make it much easier for a rogue state to clandestinely enrich weapons grade uranium to create nuclear bombs
SILEX could become America’s proliferation Fukushima,
Controversial nuclear technology alarms watchdogs http://www.smartplanet.com/blog/intelligent-energy/controversial-nuclear-technology-alarms-watchdogs/18138 By David Worthington | July 30, 2012 A controversial nuclear technology is raising alarms bells among critics who claim it may be better suited for making nuclear weapons than lowering the cost of nuclear power and could lead to a nonproliferation “Fukushima” for the United States. Continue reading
Arrests of Plowshare protestors at Oak Ridge nuclear weapons site
Protesters Arrested At Oak Ridge’s Y-12 Nuclear Site http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/07/29/protesters-arrested-oak-ridge-y-12_n_1715732.html OAK RIDGE, Tenn. — Officials say three protesters have been arrested for trespassing and defacing a building in a high-security area of a nuclear weapons site in Tennessee.
Steven Wyatt is a spokesman for the Y-12 National Security Complex in Oak Ridge. He says the activists spray painted the building and defaced it with a substance that looked like blood. The protesters were arrested early Saturday.
The group’s spokeswoman, Ellen Barfield, says the three protesters had to cut through fences to get to the building.
The Department of Energy is investigating the security breach.
Y-12 maintains the U.S. nuclear weapons stockpile and provides nuclear
fuel for the Navy and for research reactors worldwide.
Plowshares speak out against USA nuclear weapons facility
Transform Now Plowshares Continues a Long Tradition by Leonard Eiger for Salem-News.com 29 July 12Includes two statements from Transform Plowshares about Y-12 nuclear weapons facility, Courtesy: disarmnowplowshares.wordpress.com
(OAK RIDGE, TN) – Early this morning three plowshares activists performed a disarmament action in response to Government plans to invest $80 billion to sustain and modernize the nuclear weapons complex. Calling themselves Transform Now Plowshares, Michael R. Walli (63), Megan Rice (82), and Greg Boertje-Obed (57) entered the Y-12 nuclear
weapons facility before dawn.
They released a faith-based statement saying, “A loving and compassionate Creator invites us to take the urgent and decisive steps to transform the U.S. empire, and this facility, into life-giving alternatives which resolve real problems of poverty and environmental degradation for all.”
The actors also delivered an indictment citing U.S. Constitutional and Treaty Law as well as the Nuremberg Principles:
“The ongoing building and maintenance of Oak Ridge Y-12 constitute war crimes that can and should be investigated and prosecuted by judicial authorities at all levels. We are required by International Law to denounce and resist known crimes.”
This action is one of a long tradition of Plowshares disarmament actions in the US and around the world which challenge war-making and weapons of mass destruction.
At Y-12 NNSA plans to replace facilities for production and dismantlement of enriched uranium components with a new consolidated Uranium Processing Facility (UPF). It is budgeted to cost more than $6.5 billion……
http://www.salem-news.com/articles/july292012/transform-plowshares-le.php
Conservative USA think tank finds that human changed climate is real!
Climate results turn sceptic: ‘let the evidence change our minds’ The Age July 30, 2012, Leo Hickman THE Earth’s land has warmed by 1.5 degrees Celsius in the past 250 years and ”humans are almost entirely the cause”, according to a scientific study set up to address climate sceptic concerns about whether human-induced global warming is occurring. Richard Muller, a climate sceptic physicist who founded the Berkeley Earth Surface Temperature (BEST) project, said he was ”surprised” by the findings. ”We were not expecting this, but as scientists, it is our duty to let the evidence change our minds.”
He said he considered himself a ”converted sceptic” and his views had received a ”total turnaround” in a short space of time. ”Our results show that the average temperature of the Earth’s land has risen by 2½ degrees Fahrenheit over the past 250 years, including an increase of 1½ degrees over the most recent 50 years.
Moreover, it appears likely that essentially all of this increase results from the human emission of greenhouse gases,”Professor Muller wrote in an opinion piece for The New York Times.
The team of scientists based at the University of California, Berkeley, gathered and merged 14.4 million land temperature observations from 44,455 sites across the world dating back to 1753. Previous datasets created by NASA, the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Britain’s Meteorological Office and the University of East Anglia’s Climate Research Unit had gone back only to the mid-1800s and used five times fewer weather station records.
The funding for the project included $US150,000 from the Charles G. Koch Charitable Foundation, set up by the billionaire US coal magnate who is a key backer of the climate sceptic Heartland Institute think tank. http://www.theage.com.au/environment/climate-change/climate-results-turn-sceptic-let-the-evidence-change-our-minds-20120730-23769.html#ixzz229AhMmUv
1 This Month
Shut down the radiation-damaged Heysham nuclear reactors now
To see nuclear-related stories in greater depth and intensity – go to https://nuclearinformation.wordpress.com
Say No to NASA’s Reckless Nuclear Reactor on the Moon
Say No to NASA’s Reckless Nuclear Reactor on the Moon
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