Police at India’s radiation leak area might be affected
Cops at radiation leak site may be ‘mildly’ affected, to be monitored , Indian Express 15 April 2010, A Day after one more source of radiation was detected at Mayapuri and the seventh affected person was hospitalised, it emerges that some police officials deployed at the site of radiation leakage last week could also be affected. The National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) is now forming a team to conduct a ‘chromosomal study’ on all police personnel deployed at Mayapuri since April 8, when six pieces of radioactive material were found in a scrap shop there. Cops at radiation leak site may be ‘mildly’ affected, to be monitored
Nuclear Security Summit, a start, but limited
What the summit did not address in any detail was the likelier and more easily achievable possibility that a terrorist organisation might obtain highly radioactive material and attach it to a conventional, crudely made dirty bomb that could still spread lethal material over a wide area.
World takes aim at nukes , THE AUSTRALIAN, Brad Norington, April 16, 2010 Obama’s plan, endorsed at the summit by all attending countries including Australia, is to conduct an enormous accounting exercise with the objective of securing all nuclear materials across the world during the next four years.A 12-point communique not only affirmed the responsibility of countries to maintain security of nuclear materials under their control. It also agreed to the goal of stopping “non-state actors” from obtaining the information or technology required to use nuclear materials for malicious purposes……
A further nuclear security summit has been scheduled for Seoul in 2012 to check progress.
If Obama succeeds in prompting a large-scale lockdown of nuclear materials, this week’s summit could turn out to be significant moment in redefining the global order and combating the scourge of terrorism in the modern age……
There are weaknesses, however, in the commitments given by nations this week.
Chief among them, apart from the ambitious four-year timeframe, is the lack of anything legally binding or a regime of enforcement.
Obama acknowledged at a media conference at the summit’s end that the agreement was voluntary and its success would depend on goodwill…..
As evidence of likely success, he singled out Ukraine, Chile and Mexico for their willingness to give up their entire stockpiles of highly enriched uranium, and Canada for giving up a significant portion.
Other nations, such as Pakistan and Argentina, agreed to measures to prevent nuclear smuggling and strengthen port security.
Russia used the occasion to announce it would close its last weapons-grade plutonium production reactor.
The US and Russia signed an agreement for each to eliminate about 70 tonnes of plutonium or enough for 17,000 nuclear weapons…..
Obama focused the attention of countries on securing materials that could be used by al-Qa’ida to construct a nuclear weapon.
What the summit did not address in any detail was the likelier and more easily achievable possibility that a terrorist organisation might obtain highly radioactive material and attach it to a conventional, crudely made dirty bomb that could still spread lethal material over a wide area.
In hindsight, events manipulated by the Obama White House in the lead-up to the summit look very much timed to encourage other nations to think seriously about their contributions to making the world a safer place. That was as far as it went. World takes aim at nukes | The Australian
Nuclear Summit kept quiet about dangers of recycling nuclear fuel
Recycling fuel should end: Evans, Sydney Morning Herald, April 15, 2010, WASHINGTON: A former Australian foreign minister, Gareth Evans, was at the centre of a dispute over reactor suppliers recycling nuclear fuel even as US officials sought to skirt the issue during a summit in Washington organised by the President, Barack Obama.
Mr Evans is co-chairman of the Australian government’s international non-proliferation and disarmament commission. On Monday, at a conference of experts which is being held in parallel with Mr Obama’s nuclear security summit, he called for an end to fuel recycling.Mr Evans and a former US ambassador-at-large, Robert Gallucci, said recycling created stockpiles of dangerous materials ripe for theft………
The issue was not among those central to the Obama summit. Administration officials said last week they had deliberately avoided some of the more contentious issues that would not have won support from all participants. Gareth Evans
Russia doesn’t count depleted uranium as ‘nuclear wastes’
The Russian state-media report adds the uranium isn’t considered waste material because it can be reprocessed. Depleted uranium, however, has severe health consequences from long-term exposure.
Greenpeace irked by Russia’s uranium, ST. PETERSBURG, Russia, April 14 (UPI) –– A ship from the environmental group Greenpeace arrived Wednesday in St. Petersburg, Russia, to protest nuclear fuel waste shipments from France. Continue reading
Nuclear Security Summit failed to tackle nuclear disarmament
Obama’s Nuclear Summit: The Big Truth That’s Missing | Mother Jones, David Corn, 13 April 2010, “………there is an important connection the president neglected to mention. Nuclear security is not the path to nuclear disarmament. Nuclear disarmament is the path to nuclear security. The nuclear weapons complex depends on highly-enriched uranium. As long as there are nuclear weapons, there will be HEU. As long as there is HEU, there will be the possibility of HEU theft and smuggling. Continue reading
Nuclear Security Summit lifts commercial prospects for ‘Megatons to Megawatts’
USEC Inc., a global energy company, is a leading supplier of enriched uranium fuel for commercial nuclear power plants.
USEC CEO: Nuclear Security Supported by Innovative Industry Program – MarketWatch 13 April 2010, ProgramMegatons to Megawatts on Schedule to Eliminate Equivalent of 20,000 Nuclear Warheads USEC Inc. President and CEO John Welch issued the following statement today in support of President Barack Obama’s Nuclear Security Summit:
“This week’s historic summit in Washington is a timely reminder of the threat facing our world from potential nuclear action by terrorists. USEC and others in the commercial nuclear industry have worked for many years in close coordination with our governments to support the security and elimination of nuclear weapons material around the world in order to reduce this threat….. Continue reading
Weapons plutonium for USA and Russia’s fast neutron reactors
US, Russia, Sign Protocol to Dispose of 17 Thousand Weapons’ Worth of Plutonium, Political Punch April 13, 2010 As the first Nuclear Security Summit began coming to a close, Secretary o f State Hillary Clinton and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov agreed that their countries would each dispose up at least 34 metric tons of excess weapon-grade plutonium – 68 metric tons total — enough material for approximately 17,000 nuclear weapons. Continue reading
Old Russian nuclear warheads to become fuel for U.S. commercial nuclear reactors
Nuclear twist sees Russian warheads warming US homes Herald Sun AFP , April 13, 2010, IN A strange twist of Cold War enmity on the melt, uranium from what once were Russian nuclear warheads is used to heat and light American homes, thanks to the Megatons to Megawatts Program – a successful example of nuclear non-proliferation. Continue reading
Nuclear near misses
Nuclear near misses,The Age, by Daniel Flitton, April 13, 2010. Nuclear near misses- THE most infamous accident involved a US Air Force B-52 bomber colliding with a refuelling aircraft at high-altitude above Palomares, Spain, in 1966. The bomber dropped two nuclear weapons – one fell to the ground, another into the Mediterranean, setting off what was described as ”the most expensive, intensive, harrowing and feverish underwater search for a man-made object in world history”. The other bomb exploded on impact. No nuclear detonation occurred, but radioactive plutonium was scattered across a wide area. Continue reading
Kazakhstan has paid a high price for hosting nuclear weapons
Why Kazakhstan Is Front and Center at the Global Nuclear Security Summit THE HUFFINGTON POST, Al Eisele, 11 April 2010, “………..The radioactive fallout from all the above ground and atmospheric tests left Mrs. Koloskova with health problems and occasional nightmares. “I don’t know what happened with me, but from that moment, I felt headaches and nervous disorders, and I imagined it many times,” she said.
But she was one of the lucky ones. Still vigorous and able to walk with aid of a cane, she was not afflicted with any of the horrific tumors or the radiation-caused genetic mutilations and birth defects that affected many residents of Semey and other settlements near the 7,000-square-mile test site known as the Polygon, Russian for “firing range.”
Her story, and those of thousands of others like her, is the reason why Kazakhstan, a Central Asia country unknown to most Americans, is standing front and center among the 47 nations represented at the two-day Global Nuclear Security Summit beginning Monday in Washington…….
[Kazakhstan President Nursultan Nazarbayev] was the first foreign leader to renounce the possession and use of nuclear weapons. Al Eisele: Why Kazakhstan Is Front and Center at the Global Nuclear Security Summit
International “nuclear fuel bank” a part of nuclear security strategy?
President Obama intends for American to bankroll an international nuclear fuel bank to dissuade countries from building their own uranium enrichment facilities.
President Obama’s Next Nuclear Disarmament Move? Enriched Uranium Handouts – Big Government, by Marinka Peschmann 13 April 2010, President Obama is convening a Global Nuclear Security Summit in Washington beginning on Monday. “The purpose… would be to achieve the highest levels of nuclear security, which the president believes is essential for enhanced international security and for the peaceful development and the global expansion of nuclear energy…” (italics mine) Continue reading
Damage to bone marrow through ionising radiation
Radiation victims continue to be critical, The Hindu :, Staff Reporter , NEW DELHI, April 11, 2010 Doctors suspect extensive damage to bone marrow. The condition of all six persons exposed to radioactive material at a scrap market in the Capital’s Mayapuri area continued to be highly critical on Saturday with doctors suspecting extensive damage to their bone marrow, making them severely susceptible to infections.Deepak Jain, who is admitted to Indraprashtha Apollo Hospital, is reported to be “very critical” and his treatment is being managed in consultation with senior Bhabha Atomic Research Centre officials.
The Hindu : News / National : Radiation victims continue to be critical
First shipment to USA of highly dangerous Highly Enriched Uranium
A team of Americans finally shipped it out last month just after the country’s massive earthquake, weaving a convoy of trucks around shattered highways in the middle of the night to reach a functioning port.
Chile gives its last weapons-grade uranium to US By MICHAEL WARREN and MEG KINNARD (AP) – Google News Hostimg 12 April”.…..”It” is highly enriched uranium 235, HEU for short. It’s the material that most worries anti-terrorism experts. Just 25 kilograms (55 pounds) of it in a nuclear bomb could devastate an entire city, in the same way the United States destroyed Hiroshima and Nagasaki during World War II. Continue reading
To be banned – whole body CT scans for healthy people
Government to ban whole-body CT scans for ‘health MOTs’ |Guardian UK 7 April 2010 BMJ Group The Department of Health is introducing new rules limiting the use of CT scans – detailed 3D X-rays – in private health checks offered to healthy people. Continue reading
Exelon nuclear power plant’s radiation monitor not working
Radiation monitor at Oyster Creek nuclear plant is inoperable, officials say NJ.com, By The Associated Press, April 10, 2010, A monitor that measures radiation emissions at the nation’s oldest operating nuclear plant has been found to be inoperable…….Exelon Corp., which owns the plant, recently notified the state Department of Environmental Protection about the problem. But it’s not clear how long the equipment — known as a stack monitor — has been out of service. Radiation monitor at Oyster Creek nuclear plant is inoperable, officials say | – NJ.com
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