Still runing on WordPress

I am still keeping my blog on WordPress, after we solved our differences, PLEASE come see it at
http://gregornot.wordpress.com/
gregor,
Blog editor

Am running both my blogs

Hi consistent readers,

So that Wordpress readers do not get shut out of any news due to my unknowing mistakes of their Terms of Agreement. I am am posting on both this blog and the Wordpress blog at:
http://gregornot.wordpress.com/

Kind, Regards,
gregor

Am returning to this blog system again

Apparently there is a misunderstanding on my Wordpress Blog so I am reactivating this Blog.

You can catch up on the articles you missed, once my other blog is reactaved,

Sorry for the problems, with switching back and forth.

I failed to follow the rule if it's not BROKEN don't try to fix it

Kind, Regards,
gregor

Be sure to go to new site UPDATED DAILY

http://gregornot.wordpress.com/

FOR LATEST INFORMATION

PLEASE VISIT MY BLOG AT
http://gregornot.wordpress.com/

IT COVERS THE SAME MATERIAL. THERE IS NOT SENSE TRYING TO DECIDE WHAT TO PUT ON WHAT BLOG, SO I AM PUTTING EVERYTHING ON THE ABOVE BLOG.

THANKS FOR READ MY BLOG, HOPE TO SEE YOU ON MY WORDPRESS BLOG, GREGOR

But please read the past articles and video's especially on Corbin Harney and Shundahai Network that are located in this blog,
Kind, Regards, gregor

Reactors shut after checks reveal 'minor issues'

Reactors shut after checks reveal 'minor issues'

Dungeness B power station

Electricty generation at Dungeness B nuclear power station is at a standstill after routine work revealed repairs were needed to steel reactor supports.

Three-yearly maintenance checks resulted in the first reactor station being out of action for several weeks.

Problems with the steel supports were noticed and when the second reactor was checked, similar safety concerns were raised and that had to be shut down as well.

Work has also been carried out on one reactor to strengthen fuel plugs.

A spokeswoman for British Energy, which runs the power station, said “There are no safety implications – it is a question of dealing with minor issues before they become serious.

“One of the reactors was shut down as standard procedure, but repairs to the plugs took longer than originally thought.

“The other was then shut down to enable work to be carried out on the supports.

“It is unusual for both reactors to be shut down at the same time and no electricity to be generated at all.”

The company admitted it had taken a “commercial hit” because of the works.

“We have no electricity being produced and we also have to pay for the repair work,” said the spokeswoman.

“Also we have contracts with customers to supply power and so we have to buy supplies in – and we are charged a premium rate.

“We cannot say when the reactors will be back online, but it’s fair to say shortly. I think we are on the home strait.”

New round of IAEA-Iran nuclear talks kicks off

New round of IAEA-Iran nuclear talks kicks off
Tehran, Aug 18, IRNA

Iran-IAEA-Heinonen
The United Nations nuclear watchdog's deputy director general, Olli Heinonen, held talks with senior Iranian nuclear officials on Monday.

Deputy Head of Iran's Atomic Energy Organization (IAEO) Mohammad Saeedi and Iran's Permanent Ambassador to IAEA Ali Asghar Soltaniyeh were also present in the meeting.

Heinonen, arrived in Tehran early Monday upon an invitation of the IAEO.

Heinonen's previous talks with Iranian officials were held during his two-day visit to from August 7-8.

He had described his talks with senior Iranian officials as "constructive".

IAEA Director General Mohamed ElBaradei is due to present a report on Iran's nuclear program and the country's cooperation with the agency to the IAEA's Board of Governors in early September.

Russia considers nuclear missiles for Syria, Mediterranean, Baltic

DEBKAfile Special Report

August 17, 2008, 9:25 AM (GMT+02:00)

Russia’s nuclear-capable Iskandar missile

DEBKAfile’s military sources report Moscow’s planned retaliation for America’s missile interceptors in Poland and US-Israeli military aid to Georgia may come in the form of installing Iskandar surface missiles in Syria and its Baltic enclave of Kaliningrad.

Russian Baltic and Middle East warships, submarines and long-range bombers may be armed with nuclear warheads, according to Sunday newspapers in Europe.

In Georgia, Russian troops and tanks advanced to within 30 km of Tbilisi Saturday, Aug. 15. A Russian general said Sunday they had started pulling out after president Dimitry Medvedev signed the ceasefire agreement with Georgia and president George W. Bush called again for an immediate withdrawal.

After routing Georgia over the breakaway enclaves of South Ossetia and Abkhazia, Moscow appears to be eying Poland, the Middle East, and possibly Ukraine, as the main arenas for its reprisals.

One plan on the table in Moscow, DEBKAfile’s sources report, is the establishment of big Russian military, naval and air bases in Syria and the release of advanced weapons systems withheld until now to Iran (the S-300 air-missile defense system) and Syria (the nuclear-capable 200 km-range Iskandar surface missile).

Shortly before the Georgian conflict flared, Moscow promised Washington not to let Iran and Syria have these sophisticated pieces of hardware.

The Iskander’s cruise attributes make its launch and trajectory extremely hard to detect and intercept. If this missile reaches Syria, Israel will have to revamp its anti-missile defense array and Air Force assault plans for the third time in two years, as it constitutes a threat which transcends all its defensive red lines.

Moscow’s war planners know this and are therefore considering new sea and air bases in Syria as sites for the Iskander missiles. Russia would thus keep the missiles under its hand and make sure they were not transferred to Iran. At the same time, Syrian crews would be trained in their operation.

DEBKAfile’s military sources report Syrian president Bashar Assad will be invited to Moscow soon to finalize these plans in detail.

Military spokesmen in Moscow said Saturday and Sunday that Russian military planners to started redesigning the nation’s strategic plans for a fitting response to America’s decision to install 10 missile interceptors in Poland and the war developments in Georgia.

The chairman of the Israeli Knesset foreign affairs and defense committee, Tzahi Hanegbi, spoke out strongly Sunday, Aug. 17, against treasury plans to slash the defense budget. He warned that the military faced grave confrontations in the coming year - possibly on several fronts.

Gas Drilling Raises Water Well Concerns

Gas Drilling Raises Water Well Concerns John Vogel jvogel@farmprogress.com August 14, 2008

Landowners from New York to West Virginia are rubbing their hands in anticipation of potential windfalls from leasing land for natural gas drilling. And a number have already pocketed deals. But protecting stream and groundwater quality is of equal or greater value, cautions Bryan Swistock, Penn State Extension water resources specialist. "Decades ago, we weren't careful with coal mining. And, we're still paying huge sums to clean up acid mine drainage. We need to be careful and vigilant, or we could see lasting damage to our water resources from so many deep gas wells being drilled." Drilleers are trying to tap the Marcellus shale formation, a mile or more down. Relatively new drilling technology employs horizontal drilling and hydraulic pressure to "frack" or fracture the shale layer so trapped gas can escape. The real risks are… "Fracking" requires several million gallons of water for each gas well. Some wells may be fracked more than once during their active life, which might span more than a decade, says Swistock. "Where that water comes from, and what the drillers do with it when it's recovered, is a big issue. Fracking water will also have chemical additives - formaldehyde, benzene and chromates - along with natural contaminants from deep underground when it comes back to the surface. So it needs to be collected and treated or recycled properly. Only about 70% of what's injected is recovered for recycling. Most municipal sewage-treatment plants can't or won't accept gas-well waste fluids. Another potential hazard from gas-well wastewater is the release of radon and other naturally occurring radioactive materials, notes Swistock. "Radioactive substances are not uncommon in Pennsylvania groundwater to begin with," he says. And, waste fluids that come with gas production also may contain high levels of salt, metals such as iron and manganese, and traces of barium, lead and arsenic. "Although highly diluted with water, the proper treatment of all gas-well waste fluids is a big issue that needs to be addressed." Sample well water beforehand People who live close to gas-drilling operations should have their water tested by a third-party, state-approved lab, advises Swistock. "Homeowners who have their own well or spring and are within 1,000 feet of a gas-well site are very likely to be visited by water-lab employees hired by the gas company," he says. He advises taking advantage of this free testing. Make sure to get copies of the results, which are entitled to by law. Want to do your own testing? Swistock advises against it. "It's important to have an unbiased expert from a state-certified lab collect the samples in case the sample results are needed for legal action," he explains. Timing of sampling is also important. Have well water tested within a few months before drilling starts. Once a company has started drilling, it's too late. If a resident decides to test for any impacts after the drilling has occurred, that needs to be done within six months. Drillers are presumed responsible for any damage to water supplies within six months after drilling has begun. "The regulation written into Pennsylvania's gas and oil act states that any water supply within 1,000 feet of a gas well is the driller's responsibility for six months after drilling," he says. "If there's any complaint, the driller is guilty until proven innocent. Outside the 1,000-feet distance and six-month time frame, the burden of proof shifts to the homeowner." Note: Visitors to Ag Progress Days, Aug. 19-21 at Rock Springs, Pa., can learn more about the impacts of the deep-well natural-gas boom in Pennsylvania and have questions answered about the legal, social, economic and environmental issues associated with gas exploration and production. A special program on it will be offered daily in the Ag College theme building A related Natural Gas Impact Area exhibit in the nearby Ag Renewable Energy Tent -- at West 10th and Main streets – features Penn State's College of Agricultural Sciences experts, who will offer advice on natural gas issues.

Raleigh County Mountain at Center of Coal vs. Wind Debate

Raleigh County Mountain at Center of Coal vs. Wind Debate

by Pam Kasey

Coal River Mountain in Raleigh County may soon become the center of an energy battle that pits fossil fuels against non-fossil renewable sources. At issue is this: Should we develop coal resources now if that will destroy wind resources that can be harnessed forever?

North Carolina-based community organizers Appalachian Voices decided to raise this question.

The group contracted national wind development consultants WindLogics to analyze some likely wind resources in southern West Virginia.

They learned that Coal River Mountain northwest of Beckley offers a high-quality wind resource: Class 4, the lowest class considered by utility-scale developers, up through the very high quality Class 7.

Computer modeling also showed that previous surface mining on adjacent Cherry Pond Mountain had reduced its wind potential.

“The wind rushes out of the valleys and as it hits the ridge, the higher the ridge, the more speed it gains as it goes up,” explained Rory McIlmoil, who was hired from Appalachian Voices by Coal River Mountain Watch earlier this year to coordinate a wind energy campaign. “By reducing the ridge altitude by hundreds of feet you change the wind patterns and therefore impact the wind speed.”

To get a measure of Coal River Mountain’s wind energy potential, McIlmoil counted the number of 2-megawatt turbines that could be placed on the mountain’s windiest ridges.

“Taking the wind map in GIS software I placed the turbines along every part of the ridge at Class 4 or higher wind speeds,” McIlmoil explained. “Using a spacing of three rotor diameters between turbines, I found that 220 turbines could fit along the ridges.”

Maximized in that way, such a Coal River Mountain wind project would be the biggest in the east as far as McIlmoil knows. The Backbone Mountain Wind Farm in Tucker County, the first one operating in the state, has 44 1.5 MW turbines; Invenergy plans to install 124 1.5 MW turbines at its Beech Ridge development in Greenbrier County.

With the standard assumption that the wind would blow about a third of the time, a Coal River Mountain project could generate 1.16 million megawatt-hours per year: more than several of the state’s operating coal-fired plants.

But Not So Fast

Massey Energy leases mineral rights from land holding companies on the mountain.

It has obtained permits for two coal mines and has applications for two others in the works, for what McIlmoil said totals more than 6,000 acres of mountaintop removal operations — also on the highest ridges.

The permitted mines are held up by U.S. District Judge Robert C. Chambers’ 2007 decision that halted four U.S. Army Corps of Engineers valley fill permits granted to Massey. Chambers halted the permits because the Corps did not sufficiently consider the environmental impacts of the valley fill process. Those Corps permits are necessary for companies to engage in mountaintop removal mining.

Massey’s appeal will be heard Sept. 23 in the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond, Va.

The Case for Wind

Recognizing that a Massey victory would lead to the mining of Coal River Mountain and destruction of its wind resource, CRMW is making its case publicly for wind over coal.

A wind farm would create 200 jobs during construction and 40 to 50 permanent jobs indefinitely, the group argues, while Massey’s mines would last only 14 years. Wind’s total job-years would exceed the mines’ in 27 years and would continue to sustain the community after that.

For Raleigh County, McIlmoil estimates that the current high coal prices would bring on average $1 million in severance taxes from Coal River Mountain for each of the 14 years. The wind farm, he said, could bring $750,000 each year indefinitely.

A wind energy project would allow for concurrent uses of the mountain, the group notes, including harvesting of ginseng and other wild plants, sustainable forestry, and even deep mining of coal.

And it would preserve local heritage, wildlife habitat and streams.

CRMW presented its idea at the Raleigh County Commission’s June 3 meeting.

And it has spoken with wind developers that recognize the appeal of a community that actually wants a wind project.

“A lot of developers are wary of West Virginia because most of the places where they propose wind aren’t in the coal fields — they’re in the non-coal-producing counties where there’s a lot of people with summer or winter homes or ski resorts and there’s a lot of opposition,” McIlmoil said.

“They know what the alternative is here, and they know the community members would prefer a wind farm,” he continued, “and at the same time they know that they have a lot of support on the ground if challenges do come about.”

As this article went to print, CRMW learned that its Coal River Wind campaign has been chosen for Co-op America’s Building Economic Alternatives award.

Can compromise save the whale? - Indigenous Natural Resourse

Can compromise save the whale?

By Richard Black Environment correspondent, BBC News website, Santiago

So it's official - both sides want peace. Or do they? As the International Whaling Commission (IWC) meeting came to a close, not everyone was convinced by the rhetoric of reason and good faith.

Heard in the corridor: "We've been down this road before", "They're not serious", "It's just a ploy to eat up time".

IWC history is bloody with betrayal. It will take more than an agreement to link arms and waltz off into the sunset to convince seasoned observers on both sides that anything more than a crock of frustration and heartache lies at the end of the path.

Also heard in the corridor: "We have to try", "It's the last chance", "Anything would be better than this mess".

Difficult deal

The EU has a very clear mandate - we want to have the moratorium, or any better alternative that would stop whaling in due course, except for aboriginal whaling Giuseppe Raaphorst, Netherlands' whaling commissioner

Even the keenest of those involved with the plan for pro- and anti-whaling countries to spend a year working out their differences and trying to agree some kind of compromise package acknowledge there is a great deal of ground to be covered.

"There's no doubt there are big gaps here between those who want to kill whales and those who want to conserve them," says New Zealand's whaling commissioner Sir Geoffrey Palmer, whose background in international law and diplomacy is one of the reasons why the peace deal is even on the agenda.

"What we've done is to start a process. It may lead to a position that is better than the one we're in, and that would be a wonderful thing."

Coming from a country where 92% of the population opposes whaling - according to the environment ministry - Sir Geoffrey's priority is to secure a deal that is in some definable way better for whales.

His government would be able to sell nothing less to its public, and the same goes for Australia, the UK, the US and most of the European and Latin American countries involved in the IWC

Thoughts and views on the IWC, whales and whaling In pictures

The biggest prize for these governments would be to secure an end to scientific whaling - not only to close Japan's current operations in the Antarctic, but also to prevent the provision ever being used again for large scale hunting.

Japan insists for now that it will not agree to give it up, although some observers believe this is a negotiating tactic.

From some standpoints, Japan would have little to lose and much to gain by ceding ground. The scientific whaling programme costs government money, and earns little but international opprobrium.

Anti-whaling countries would also be likely to insist on a ban in international trade in whale meat. This would go down badly with Norway and Iceland, where some in the industry see Japanese stomachs, rather than those of their compatriots, as the logical and profitable destination for their catch.

Circular argument

For all the talk of respect and a different way of approaching things - they're not going to compromise in any way Laila Jusnes, High North Alliance

What about what the whalers would want? Almost certainly, a lifting - however partial and nuanced - of the commercial whaling moratorium, which was agreed back in 1982 in language that suggests a temporary measure.

Can the anti-whalers go that far?

"I'm afraid that for at least half if not a majority of the countries here present, that would be unacceptable out of principle, even if you would help the whales," says Giuseppe Raaphorst, the Netherlands' whaling commissioner, who has been one of the voices in the EU seeking an accommodation.

It may be an accurate summary of the situation.

If it is, that is not going to impress leaders of the pro-hunting bloc, already dismayed at this meeting by the decision not to allow Greenland's Inuit hunters to add humpback whales to their annual catch.

"I'm afraid that we're just walking around in circles," says Laila Jusnes of the High North Alliance, which represents whalers, sealers and fishermen in the Arctic.

Guide to the Great Whales

"When it came down to anything of substance, like with the Greenland request, we saw that for all the talk of respect and a different way of approaching things, they didn't mean it - the EU blocked it with help from the Latin American countries and Australia and New Zealand - and that just showed us that they're not going to compromise in any way."

This version of the reasoning behind the refusal of Greenland's extra quota is, of course, starkly at odds with that given by countries voting against it.

And Giuseppe Raaphorst believes the EU is not duty bound to block any move that entails lifting the moratorium.

"The EU has a very clear mandate - we want to have the moratorium, or any better alternative that would stop whaling in due course, except for aboriginal whaling."

Seeking clarity

Where this will end up in a year's time, after all the various formal and informal meetings and dialogues and workshops and email exchanges have taken place, is anyone's guess.

Even IWC chairman William Hogarth, who has been driving the peace initiative, acknowledges that a year is a very short time in which to turn a snarling bear pit of suspicion into a modern, relevant environmental treaty organisation.

At times your head aches with the complexity.

So it was refreshing to see, in the lobby of the Santiago hotel which has hosted this year's meeting, an exhibition of startlingly huge photographs of whales - a humpback turning upside down, apparently frolicking; a mother and calf; a close-up view of a giant cetacean eye.

And then you remember - so that's why it matters.

Listen to Interview with IWC CHAIRMAN William Hogarth

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/7478850.stm

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7478847.stm

Russians in control of nuclear supply firm

Russians in control of nuclear supply firm

Sunday, 10 August 2008

Russian nuclear energy company OAO Atomenergoprom has acquired a controlling interest in Hungarian nuclear fuel-loading apparatus and cooling pumps maker Ganz Energetika. Atomenergoprom will gain a 51% stake in Ganz, which will retain 49%. The value of the deal was not disclosed. Atomenergoprom – an arm of Russian state-held nuclear energy holding Rosatom Corp – expects to double Ganz’s sales to Russia to nearly EUR 20 million within a year. The Russian firm, which constructs and operates nuclear power plants and extracts uranium, had reportedly earmarked EUR 30 million to purchase nuclear plant parts suppliers in Europe and Russia in 2008.

Mushrooms still exhibit elevated levels of caesium from Chernobyl

Finnish wild mushrooms still exhibit elevated levels of caesium from Chernobyl nuclear accident

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The wild mushrooms tested in various parts of Finland still exhibit elevated levels of the radioactive caesium-137 that originates from the Chernobyl accident in 1986, while the caesium content of berries and animals has already become almost zero.
In addition to mushrooms, some hares and the predatory fish in small lakes still contain radioactive caesium.

”In the areas with the largest fallout, the level of radioactive caesium can be considerable. However, mushrooms can be eaten in moderation, even when the contents are high, exceeding the hightest permissible level recommended for commercial mushrooms”, says researcher Eila Kostiainen from the Nuclear Safety Authority (STUK).
The easiest way to reduce the caesium content is to pre-process the mushrooms with water.
”Caesium is water-soluble and can be disposed of with water. The most important thing is to soak or boil the fresh, dried or salted mushrooms in abundant water and to throw away the water after the process.”
The drying of mushrooms alone does not reduce the level of radioactive caesium.

After the Chernobyl accident, the rain and airborne discharge swept over Southeastern and Central Finland, the districts of Häme and Pirkanmaa, as well as Ostrobothnia.
Based on the severity of the caesium fallout from Chernobyl, STUK has divided the Finnish territory into five categories.
The fifth category with the maximum level of radioactive contamination includes the localities of Artjärvi, Asikkala, Elimäki, Juupajoki, Jäppilä, Kuhmoinen, Kuorevesi, Lempäälä, Längelmäki, Mänttä, Nastola, Orivesi, Padasjoki, Pieksämäki, Pirkkala, Ruotsinpyhtää, Sahalahti, Sysmä, Tampere, Viiala, Vilppula, and Ylöjärvi.
The studies showed considerable variation in the levels of caesium in wild mushrooms, even within the same region. Moreover, the caesium amount is still 60 % of the content from the Chernobyl fallout.
However, the radiation amount from food is less than 1% of all radiation an average Finn is exposed to annually.
A considerably higher amount of radiation comes from radon gas exposure in dwellings. Radon affects indoor air quality, the source of the contamination being the the ground under buildings.

Why Wait? Build your Own- Step-by-step guide to applying or a nuclear site license

In a separate matter, the UK Health and Safety Executive has published a new step-by-step guide to applying or a nuclear site license for a nuclear power station (in the UK). Aimed at organizations aiming to build new nuclear power stations, the guide sets out what they must do to prepare for a site license.

Follow this link to get the information to submit an application to apply fora nuclear site license for a nuclear power station. Surley you can do it a well as the next person.

Be your own Nuclear Power or learn the steps on how to apply for one. Nuclear Fuel and the appropriate

Lean how to apply to build your own

India nuclear energy market attracts Japan

India nuclear energy market attracts Japan


NEW DELHI, Aug. 11 (UPI) -- India's nuclear energy market has drawn Japan's attention, even as it firms up its stand on the Indo-U.S. civilian nuclear deal.

As the nuclear deal goes before the Nuclear Suppliers Group this month for securing a waiver, Japan, an NSG member, is keen to ensure getting a share of India's nuclear energy market.

"The Japanese industries do have cutting-edge advanced nuclear power generation technology. Certainly we think our companies are as competitive as any other companies abroad to do business in India," Kazuo Kodama, Japanese Foreign Ministry press secretary, told the Press Trust of India in New Delhi during a visit.

The Indo-U.S. nuclear deal has been cleared by the International Atomic Energy Agency, and now goes before the 45-member NSG. Later it will be sent to U.S. Congress for ratification.

The PTI report said Japan's expression of interest in the Indian market is significant even though it hasn't officially announced what position it will take at the NSG.

McCain’s Michigan Melt-Down Madness

I know that I published this article a couple of days ago. I very STRONGLY feel that this article and what it implies! It Is critical (no pun intended) to the upcoming ELECTION and the future of the seventh generation. So I am publishing it again, for those that may have missed it in the Beijing Olympic madness! Please pass this article to friends, co-workers and your children (as the are the real recipients of this proposed action) by a Presidential candidate, no less. gregor, editor of this blog and this is my personal feelings.

McCain’s Michigan Melt-Down Madness

by Harvey Wasserman

Leave it to John McCain to pick the site of a horrific atomic meltdown to symbolize his push for nuke power.

McCain says he wants at least 45 more US reactors as part of his “do everything” campaign for American energy independence. Apparently that strategy does not include inflating car tires, long known as one of the easiest, cheapest and most reliable ways to significantly improve auto gas mileage. McCain had only ridicule for Barack Obama’s ideas to fight waste in our energy economy.

Indeed, the term “efficiency” has no apparent place in the McBush lexicon. The “drill drill drill” mantra speaks only of production, a “supply side” Reaganomic approach to a problem whose fastest solution is to cut back on demand. As if turning off lights in empty rooms or making cars run cleaner is somehow an affront to American manhood, more production is the one and only idea in McCain’s energy plan.

Thus it was fitting he chose Monroe, Michigan for a nuke-powered energy push. The town’s central square hosts a statue honoring General George Armstrong Custer, wiped out by Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse at the Little Big Horn in the summer of 1876.

More important was the melt-down at Monroe’s Fermi Unit I on October 5, ninety years later.

Fermi I was a sodium-cooled fast-breeder. Its promise was not only electricity “too cheap to meter,” but a fuel system that would magically generate more than it used. This astonishing fantasy was part of a government sponsored “Peaceful Atom” push to paste a happy face on the nuclear weapons industry.

Fermi I was key in a number of ways. Detroit Edison’s legendary boss, Walker Sisler, told the feds he would be a prime nuke booster. But like the rest of the nation’s utility execs, he demanded protection against the monstrous liability that could come with a major melt-down.

So in 1957, before the “inherently safe” Fermi I was built, Congress passed the Price-Anderson Act, shielding reactor owners from the billions in lawsuits that would follow a catastrophe. Since they believed it would be a short time before private insurers stepped in, the bill was only good for 15 years. Since then, it has been constantly renewed. Today the prospective builders of new reactors demand this same federal insurance protection. So the “temporary” acknowledgement that private insurers won’t touch atomic reactors is now a permanent shield for this “safe” technology.

Fermi I was subjected to the first major legal challenge to reactor construction by the United Auto Workers legendary lawyer Leo Goodman. The UAW took Edison all the way to the Supreme Court, where it lost 7-2. In a benchmark minority decision, Justices William O. Douglas and Hugo Black warned that nuclear power involved “a lighthearted approach to the most awesome, the most deadly, the most dangerous process that man has ever conceived.”

In 1966 a blockage occurred in the $100 million plant’s cooling system. Because it carried highly volatile liquid sodium, which can explode when exposed to air, all of southeastern Michigan stood at the brink of an unthinkable catastrophe. Police officials seriously debated evacuating Detroit, just forty miles north.

But an explosion at Fermi would have permanently irradiated the Great Lakes and a gigantic area of land stretching hundreds of miles in all directions. Countless thousands of people would have died from both short-term and long-term radiation sickness. One actual victim from the releases that did occur may have been then-Vice President Hubert Humphrey, who spoke in Monroe the day after the accident, and later died of cancer.

The public was kept totally in the dark. That day I served as Editorial Director of the University of Michigan Daily, where we were tapped in to the core of the nation’s major news sources. Though I was the Time Magazine and United Press International correspondent for Ann Arbor, just forty miles west, I never heard a word about this accident until I stumbled upon John G. Fuller’s legendary WE ALMOST LOST DETROIT in 1974. Writing for the Readers Digest Press, Fuller’s astonishing tale still sends chills down the spines of a whole generation that lived in the neighborhood and never suspected the danger we were in.

So Monroe is indeed a fitting global symbol for nuclear power. In mere moments, a $100 million asset became a multi-billion-dollar liability, and millions of people and square miles were put at unconscionable — and uninsured — risk.

But for John McCain, none of this seems to matter. His fellow nuke backers argue that the Fermi-style fast breeder is no longer on the table.

In response, we suggest that the next time he’s overseas pumping his global creds, he can lead a “more nukes” rally at Chernobyl. And when he comes home, MCain can complete the trifecta at Three Mile Island.

Harvey Wasserman’s SOLARTOPIA! Our Green-Powered Earth is at www.harveywasserman.com, along with his HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. In 1989 he was given the Leo Goodman Award for safe energy activism by the Citizens Energy Council’s Larry Bogart. This article was originally published by http://freepress.org.

Nuclear Study Bill Before Governor, Four More Waiting To Be Transmitted

Nuclear Study Bill Before Governor, Four More Waiting To Be Transmitted

Monday, August 11, 2008 02:58 PM

Guam
Guam - Only one bill passed by the Legislature early Saturday morning has made its way to Acting Governor Mike Cruz’s desk and the officials in the Legislature say they don’t expect the four other measures to be transmitted until just before the end of the workday.

Currently, Adelup’s legal team is reviewing Bill 349, which appropriates $250,000 to the Guam Environmental Protection Agency for an independent study of the water and sediment in Apra Harbor. Lawmakers and the Executive Branch called for another look at the Harbor after the Navy admitted the nuclear submarine the USS Houston leaked radioactive water over the span of two years. The measure also gives money to the rhinoceros beetle eradication efforts.

But the lawmaking body passed other bills at a late-night session last week. An omnibus education bill would order textbooks for the Guam Public School System, pay outstanding obligations for the school lunch program, and gives the Superintendent and the Guam Education Policy Board the authority to lift schools’ population caps. Adelup is also waiting on the final versions of a measure from Senator Frank Ishizaki implements a graduated pay raise for law enforcement officials, legislation from Senator Frank Blas tightens arrivals from countries under an advisory from the Centers for Disease Control or the World Health Organization, and a bill from Senator B.J. Cruz that limits the term someone can serve as the Acting head of an agency or a board or commission member.

Written by Phillip Leon Guerrero, Pacific News Center - Guam, Saipan, CNMI, Asia-Pacific

‘Nuclear Weapons: For Bragging Rights or M.A.D. Rites?’

‘Nuclear Weapons: For Bragging Rights or M.A.D. Rites?’
Jack L. Key

Will Nuclear Proliferation Become Armageddon? Iran and that country’s headlong attempts at uranium enrichment for nuclear weapons manufacture has again focused world attention to use of these terrible weapons of mass destruction. Now we read that Syria and N. Korea are also involved in nuclear proliferation in a Middle East regional boiling pot of hatred and religious conflict. Is this the true Biblical philosophy of a world-ending bloody battle in modern times?

American military nuclear strategies must be upgraded and improved from those of Cold War times in order to deal with a volatile and a nuclear-armed Middle East. Comments of world leaders during the last few weeks and ultimatums by Israel have heightened these anxieties and brought more focus to the American presidential elections later this year. Is a quick-strike nuclear war the only viable option?

Must America just sit and wait for some religious lunatic or puffed-up evil country such as Iran to attack us with nuclear weapons and kill hundreds of thousands—perhaps millions—of us? September 11, 2001 showed us it could happen—and probably will. Our nuclear policies must be dramatically overhauled now!

An American nuclear strategist at The Oak Ridge Center for Advanced Studies in Oak Ridge, Tennessee wrote a newspaper article last September that held special interest for me. His article dealt with theories and policy statements by Thomas Schelling, a Nobel Economics laureate most social democrats think shaped the nuclear deterrence policies that contribute to the so-called “international security environment” and lack of nuclear war we have experienced since 1946.

Briefly, Schelling’s theory states the “nuclear deterrence” over the past 6 decades was that no state that had developed nuclear weapons has ever attacked another state armed similarly with nuclear weapons, and this alone has deterred nuclear war. Schelling also advocates nuclear weapons are for “having and not using”. Due to the equalizing threat of mutually assured destruction (MAD), these weapons cannot win wars but only prevent them.

In my opinion, the article misjudges this fact and Schelling’s theory, as well as the behavior of developed nuclear states over the past decades since America used the first atomic bomb to end the war with Japan and WWII in 1945.

The article went so far as to assume that the horizontal proliferation—the spread of nuclear weapons to other states—can maintain the same theoretical logic while referring to N. Korea, Iran, Pakistan, India, Israel and China as those of the U.S., Russia, Great Britain and France over the past 60 years.

It is not only false logic to assume these states will behave as the original four nuclear states, but that Schelling’s basic point in his theory, “get a nuke and permanently rule out invasion from other powers”, is fatally flawed.

That assumes that the vertical proliferation—the building of more and better nuclear weapons and delivery systems by nuclear nations—is controlled, and that political and military aggressiveness no longer exists in any nation simply because they possess a nuclear weapon.

That certainly is NOT the case, as evidenced by the new warheads and missile delivery systems recently announced by Iran and N. Korea and several of the major powers in defiance of existing treaties. The current aggressive leadership and unsettled political situation in Iran, and possibly Syria, N. Korea and others, blatantly exposes Schelling’s theoretical flaws, and is a perfect example of both the horizontal and vertical proliferation problems.

India and Pakistan, the Central Asian region’s two most warring nations, succeeded in the late 1990’s in obtaining nuclear weapons without a whimper from the Western Allies or United Nations, and surprised us all.

Did the two countries buy them or make them? Who provided the technology to manufacture, or who sold them the weapons and why? You may have two guesses, and both may be correct. All the evidence points to China and Russia, through their intermediary, N. Korea.

Unfortunately, the high academic standings of both Schelling and the Oak Ridge nuclear strategist alone is not nearly enough to make life and death judgments regarding world nuclear armament and use strategies.

THE COLD WAR STANDOFF

Only the American nuclear arsenal and the fact the U.S. had used the weapon in WW II combat was the security blanket for the free world during the Cold War, and certainly not an academics’ unproven theory.

If the U.S. had not kept pace with the Soviet Union on nuclear weaponry and delivery systems during all those years, does anyone doubt this country would not have been overcome politically or by war and become a Soviet satellite in the volatile Cold War years of the 1950’s?

During my own military service in the U.S. Navy I hunted Soviet Navy nuclear submarines in the Atlantic and North Atlantic. Both navies were armed with nuclear weapons and easily could have used them if the occasion ever arose. They were aboard my ASW aircraft many times, although never fused. In my personal military confrontations with Soviet naval units in those Cold War years, on every occasion they seemed to find ways to avoid direct intimidation or confrontation with our U.S. naval units—as we did with them.

Perhaps unknown to the Soviets at the time however, was that an American response to any overt naval action by them would have been almost impossible, due to the heavy restraints placed on U.S. Naval Commanders by the U.S. political leadership. Once the lengthy process of obtaining final permission to fire a weapon, either nuclear or conventional, was received from Washington, we would have already been defeated by faster Soviet approval action, which had only one on-board restrictive process, and did not require direct permission to fire from Moscow.

American policy in this regard, while upgraded since those years must be further upgraded to meet the current world conditions, especially in the Middle East and Persian Gulf. The Soviet naval mission, whatever it may have been at the time, would have been completed and well on their way to the next victory before we could have cleared permission to fire and set codes.

We all should remember that after the fiasco in Vietnam, when know-all Democrat politicians and strategists opted to fight an armed conflict from their desks in Washington that killed over 58,000 young Americans, it is the trained experts in the military who are best suited to plan and fight America’s battles, not civilian overseers. While oversight is needed, it is not needed on the battle line.

Americans should also be aware that even today, 18 years since the close of the Cold War, Chinese and Russian submarines armed with some one hundred or more nuclear missiles with multiple warheads lie off both coasts of the United States at all times. Because the political rhetoric has been turned down does not mean that the military readiness of either Russia or China has been lessened.

Nor has our own defenses and potential nuclear offensive weapons systems been completely shut down. President Bush has kept his promises to America and upgraded some of our outdated systems and has kept us free of further terrorist attacks and military provocations, with some exceptions such as the USS Cole.

But our country does not have the air defense or missile protection to stop over 80% of those enemy submarine missiles, plus other hidden hostile land-based missiles, from hitting their pre-set targets of American cities, military installations, missile sites and nuclear naval units.

While it is true the U.S. has both nuclear missile submarines and land-based missiles operating as a nuclear deterrent, some near both Russia and China and also armed with multiple nuclear warheads, it would not be possible to stop or overcome a sneak nuclear and biological attack from either country on the U.S. and Canada even with effective early-warning systems and devices.

If severely damaged from U.S. retaliatory strikes after a sneak attack, both aggressor countries would still be capable of immediately invading the destroyed U.S. and Canadian lands and cities and killing the remaining populations with biological weapons. This may be accomplished in weeks, not months or years. Under the current known political and congressional restraints and our military capability, our combined American-Canadian military could be defeated in approximately one hour in this type scenario. Both American and Canadian populations could be eliminated in less than a week.

The world was simply lucky during the Cold War era that the U.S. had used nuclear weapons once before in combat in ending World War Two and the Soviets knew it and feared it. That is what kept Soviet fingers off the nuclear trigger, not academic theories or paper strategies.

China did not enjoy a nuclear parity with the U.S. until the last decade. They were dependent early on with nuclear weapons and delivery systems purchased from the Soviets and were not then a large threat—not so now. China is engaged in the largest military upgrades in history and has the world’s largest military machine, and Russia has upgraded its nuclear forces while the U.S. has been busy elsewhere.

These facts alone have been the real nuclear deterrence up until now—a Mexican standoff between the three major nuclear powers.

If anyone doubts that honest opinion, then read the speech of the (then) Chinese Defense Minister Gen. Chi Hoatian in 2005 to the Chinese Communist Central Committee. He advocates not only nuclear war with the U.S. and that it is inevitable, but also how to “depopulate” America before the Chinese invade the country.

The speech was published on the Internet by several watchdog websites, as well as in the conservative press, and is still available by searching the web (at this writing).

A NUCLEAR TERRORIST WAR?

We should be deeply concerned that the world is approaching the casual use of these terrible weapons. If some Islamic jihadist murderer, other middle east zealot, a left-over communist ideologue such as rules in Venezuela or Cuba, or the paranoid Chinese with their itchy trigger fingers fire just one weapon at either Taiwan, the Navy’s Pacific or Atlantic Fleets, American Middle East forces or the U.S. mainland, then the end begins.

World War Two history tells us Hitler would have used WMD’s in his last days, and so would Tojo’s fanatic Japanese warlords if they’d had them. Castro said he would have used them in the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962 if the Soviets had given him the fusing codes to fire their first missiles placed on Cuban soil.

Thank God Soviet Premier Krushshev retained missile control until the warheads were removed from Cuba. Maybe even Nikita Krushshev would have fired earlier in a weak moment, no one knows for sure. And for the record, neither President John F. Kennedy nor Bobby Kennedy had not one thing to do with preventing a nuclear holocaust from Cuba. It was totally Krushshev’s call from the get-go. He probably saved the world in spite of the Kennedys’ stubborness.

Now the Chinese communists tell us they will use nuclear weapons against us if America interferes in their solving of the “Taiwan Question”. Russia recently reverted to a hard line stance over U.S. defense missile plans in Europe, and has threatened to re-target their missiles at us. Iran and North Korea are both posturing with their missiles and possible nuclear weapons capability, and daring the world to stop them. Terrorist cells are always a threat

The loony tunes leaders of Iran and N. Korea may not yet have a weapon, but are almost certainly making them. So what makes the great liberal thinkers and writers of today so sure we can trust other opponents such as these now?

Are they so naïve as to think N. Korea and China are being forthright and truthful? That Russia has disarmed? That the Middle East is a peaceful brotherhood of countries? That the current religious idiot and loose cannon heading up Iran wouldn’t use any weapon or kill any person to achieve his goals? That Osama Bin Laden wouldn’t use a nuclear device on America if he could find one? Or even buy one? And who is to say terrorist plans are not already underway and that nuclear strikes could occur now?

If Democrat President Bill Clinton had shown some guts in the 1990’s after the initial Islamic terrorist attacks on America we might have prevented 9/11 and the Iraq and Afghanistan conflicts altogether and saved over 7,000 American civilian and military lives.

Millions of innocents died before and during the two world wars, and before the world and their own state-supported falsehoods and failures finally stopped the Sino-Soviet march of communism. Do we want millions more to die before we as a country rise up and stop the nuclear weapons progression and world terrorism dead in it’s tracks? Attacking and destroying Iran now could quite possibly save the rest of the world from destruction at a later time.

We can no longer wait to be attacked and killed first, as in 1941 and 2001, and then retaliate automatically as we have in the past. With nuclear weapons we would lose millions dead in a single attack—and possibly the ability to retaliate successfully—and we could lose a nuclear war, our country and many more millions of our citizens.

America must have a first-strike strategy, just as it’s enemies do—and the world should know it and be forewarned.

TERRORISM AND AMERICAN POLITICS

President Bush has been hampered and obstructed from quickly handling the Iraq and Afghanistan conflicts by American liberal politicians, biased media, leftist academics, anti-war fanatics, uninformed no-win policy makers and lack of solid intelligence.

We should remember the American military defeated Iraq in two weeks, and only after the U.S. mainstream media empires embraced the Iraqi insurgency did it flourish. America’s runaway socialist media has used the terrorist war crisis and the horror of 9/11 for their own selfish purposes, just as Osama Bin-laden and his deputies predicted almost 7 years ago—when they said publicly American TV and newspapers would make them a winner.

The great American media empires of newspapers, the New York Times, Washington Post and others, press agencies such as the Associated Press and major TV networks like ABC, CNN, CBS and NBC have been re-formed since 9/11 and the election of President Bush.

Their mission now is to harass the government, provide anti-war propaganda, progressively change national policy, politics, education, and religion and obliterate cultural origins. Reporting the news truthfully and without bias is no longer a multi-media function.

Now mass media is full of glee as Congress mulls passing a “Shield Law” that would ban U.S. judges from using their power to extract news sources—true or untrue- -from reporters and editors and TV news producers. For the first time in our history, the public will be censored from ever knowing the truth. The so-called “Fairness Doctrine” will further empower the socialist press and shut down free and open radio reporting.

These media-programmed changes in our democratic life principles are taking place from small cities and towns to large metropolitan areas. Are you aware your city or town newspaper is no longer owned locally? Did you know your local TV station and newspaper are probably owned by the same media giant? That you see, read and hear only what they prepare for you—along with their views, biases and political leanings, day after day, week after week, year after year, generation after generation and so on?

Movie and TV moguls and liberal magazines such as TIME, NEWSWEEK and the NEW YORKER spew out hatred of our governmental institutions, our armed forces and prey on the minds of young adults on a daily basis. Our schools and colleges are organized with rewritten history that portrays America as a failing, racist and war-mongering country while preaching a “social-progressive” curriculum and poisoning our children’s minds.

Our great universities turn out teachers, journalists, doctors and lawyers that have been taught by academics and professors who openly teach socialism and communism as their ideal societies. Our Christian religion and its teachings are ridiculed and our cultural values belittled by leftist politicians sitting in the power chairs of America.

Just this weekend of August 1, 2008 a parade and mass demonstration was held in New York City that called the USA the “world’s aggressor” and aligned President Bush with Napoleon and Hitler as the world’s “most hated dictators.” This happened in our own country by foreigners and Islamists who entered freely! And they were protected by our own police forces! Where else but in America?

President Bush’s War on Terror’s military policies do have flaws—all combat policies do—but thank God we have a man such as George W. Bush who took it personally when we were viciously attacked that fateful day in September 2001 when 3,000 defenseless American men, women and children were murdered at their jobs by cowardly Muslim fanatics.

The President has kept the Islamic killers at bay, and enemy leaders confused and in disarray by showing them everyday we DO indeed carry a big stick, and will walk softly only until being tread upon—and will still fight the good fight—for the time being, at least.

Even with many hardened enemies in the media and in Congress, the President has presided over 7 years of the greatest American prosperity the world has ever seen. And all that while fighting a 6-year War on Terror in two foreign countries and keeping America free from further terrorist attacks—and it seems the country hates him for it.

History will record Mr. Bush as one of our greatest presidents, but his approval rating on leaving office next January is one of the lowest in history. The Democrat Congress record is even worse.

Bush has defeated an evil dictator in Iraq and the Taliban in Afghanistan and faced down N. Korea and Iran. He is building new American missile defenses in Europe and the Pacific Rim. President George Bush has given “Homeland Security” a new meaning and globalized the fight against international terrorism. He alone held the country together after 9/11, and single handedly kept us from engaging in a nuclear catastrophe in the Middle East after the killings in New York and Washington.

Could we trust socialist democrats Hillary Clinton or B. Hussein Obama to do the same? Trust liberal quitters and “progressives”such as Harry Reid, Ted Kennedy, John Kerry or Nancy Pelosi to determine national policy? I don’t think so.

Defeatist policies, socialist principles and weak government will get many more American innocents killed in this mean and dangerous world we live in. We must have a sound, but formidable military strategy and effective nuclear policies, not a quick-draw, shoot from the hip fragmented design implemented by showy politicians with no military experience such as was employed by two Democrat presidents during the Vietnam conflict.

Misjudging the use of weapons of mass destruction by evil and power-mad countries and Islamic terrorist organizations will destroy the world as we know it—and all in the blink of an eye.

Jack L. Key, Ph.D

Jack L. Key, Ph.D. is a retired healthcare professional and a veteran of U.S. Navy aviation. He is the author of “Gideon’s Trumpet” a parallel of peace and war in the 21st century, and also writes political commentary for both print and electronic media. http://www.authorsden.com/jackkey

Physicist who helped develop A-bomb reflects on experiences in first visit to Hiroshima

Physicist who helped develop A-bomb reflects on experiences in first visit to Hiroshima


Hinton sits in front of the Atomic Bomb Dome at the Peace Memorial Park in Hiroshima's Naka-ku during her first visit to Hiroshima on Aug. 5.
Hinton sits in front of the Atomic Bomb Dome at the Peace Memorial Park in Hiroshima's Naka-ku during her first visit to Hiroshima on Aug. 5.

Joan Hinton, a physicist who participated in the Manhattan Project -- the U.S. drive to develop a nuclear weapon during World War II -- spoke about her experiences during a recent visit to Hiroshima, where tens of thousands of people perished in the Aug. 6, 1945 atomic bomb attack on the city.

Left with a feeling of despair after the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki that claimed so many lives, Hinton, now 86, moved to China, where she has lived for the past six decades as a dairy farmer.

On Aug. 5, a day before the 63rd anniversary of the Hiroshima attack, Hinton made a visit to the Atomic Bomb Dome, a building in Hiroshima that was left in rubble to serve as a reminder of the atomic bomb's destructive power.

"Awful," she said, looking up at the steel frame of the dome, before carefully reading through the English explanation placed near the structure.

During an interview at a hotel in Hiroshima, Hinton spoke of her experience as a physicist who had thought pure science was supreme, not knowing the atomic bomb would be dropped on Japan.

During the world's first atomic bomb experiment in the outskirts of Los Alamos, New Mexico, on July 16, 1945, Hinton watched with excitement as the mushroom cloud rose into the air. The explosion marked a moment of fruition for the Manhattan Project, which began in 1942 and employed as many as 129,000 people at one stage in a race against Germany and the Soviet Union to develop a nuclear weapon.

"I thought pure science was above everything," Hinton said.

Hinton, a talented young physicist who had already built a device to measure radiation, joined the project in 1944 at the age of 21. She took on the task of purifying plutonium, and was given a "white badge" that gave her access to all data and research facilities in the project -- one of only around 100.

At the time, Hinton says, people didn't think that the bomb would be used to kill many people in the war -- Germany had surrendered unconditionally two months before the nuclear experiment took place.

But on Aug. 6, the atomic bomb exploded over Hiroshima. Hinton, who learned about the bombing in the newspaper, was lost for words.

"We didn't know," she said.

After the war, Hinton took part in a movement against the use of nuclear weapons. She traveled to Shanghai, China, in 1948, amid a civil war and later moved to Inner Mongolia.

Questioning her disappearance from the United States, an American magazine labeled her an atom bomb "spy." Her whereabouts became known in 1951, when an English-language paper in China published a letter she addressed to the Federation of American Scientists. Part of the letter read as follows:

"The memory of Hiroshima -- 150 thousand lives. One, two, three, four, five, six ... 150 thousand -- each a living, thinking, human being with hopes and desires, failures and successes, a life of his or her own -- all gone. And I had held that bomb in my hand."

Sixty-three years have passed since that morning when the bomb exploded over Hiroshima. Even now hibakusha, or atomic bomb survivors, suffer from aftereffects of the bombing, and there are still people who hate the United States.

It's not easy for Hinton to find words to say to the survivors: "What should I say?"

Full text of 2008 Hiroshima Peace Declaration

Full text of 2008 Hiroshima Peace Declaration

The following is the full text of the Peace Declaration issued by Hiroshima Mayor Tadatoshi Akiba at a memorial ceremony on Wednesday, the 63rd anniversary of the atomic bombing of the city.

-----

Another August 6, and the horrors of 63 years ago arise undiminished in the minds of our hibakusha, whose average age now exceeds 75. "Water, please!" "Help me!" "Mommy!" -- On this day, we, too, etch in our hearts the voices, faces and forms that vanished in the hell no hibakusha can ever forget, renewing our determination that "No one else should ever suffer as we did."

Because the effects of that atomic bomb, still eating away at the minds and bodies of the hibakusha, have for decades been so underestimated, a complete picture of the damage has yet to emerge. Most severely neglected have been the emotional injuries. Therefore, the city of Hiroshima is initiating a two-year scientific exploration of the psychological impact of the A-bomb experience.

This study should teach us the grave importance of the truth, born of tragedy and suffering, that "the only role for nuclear weapons is to be abolished."

This truth received strong support from a report compiled last November by the city of Hiroshima. Scientists and other nuclear-related experts exploring the damage from a postulated nuclear attack found once again that the only way to protect citizens from such an attack is the total abolition of nuclear weapons. This is precisely why the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and the International Court of Justice advisory opinion state clearly that all nations are obligated to engage in good-faith negotiations leading to complete nuclear disarmament. Furthermore, even leaders previously central to creating and implementing US nuclear policy are now repeatedly demanding a world without nuclear weapons.

We who seek the abolition of nuclear weapons are the majority. United Cities and Local Governments, which represents the majority of the Earth's population, have endorsed the Mayors for Peace campaign. One hundred and ninety states have ratified the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. One hundred thirteen countries and regions have signed nuclear-weapon-free zone treaties. Last year, 170 countries voted in favor of Japan's UN resolution calling for the abolition of nuclear weapons. Only three countries, the US among them, opposed this resolution. We can only hope that the president of the United States elected this November will listen conscientiously to the majority, for whom the top priority is human survival.

To achieve the will of the majority by 2020, Mayors for Peace, now with 2,368 city members worldwide, proposed in April of this year a Hiroshima-Nagasaki Protocol to supplement the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. This Protocol calls for an immediate halt to all efforts, including by nuclear-weapon states, to obtain or deploy nuclear weapons, with a legal ban on all acquisition or use to follow by 2015. Thus, it draws a concrete road map to a nuclear-weapon-free world. Now, with our destination and the map to that destination clear, all we need is the strong will and capacity to act to guard the future for our children.

World citizens and like-minded nations have achieved treaties banning anti-personnel landmines and cluster munitions. Meanwhile, the most effective measures against global warming are coming from cities. Citizens cooperating at city level can solve the problems of the human family because cities are home to the majority of the world's population, cities do not have militaries, and cities have built genuine partnerships around the world based on mutual understanding and trust.

The Japanese Constitution is an appropriate point of departure for a "paradigm shift" toward modeling the world on intercity relationships. I hereby call on the Japanese government to fiercely defend our Constitution, press all governments to adopt the Hiroshima-Nagasaki Protocol, and play a leading role in the effort to abolish nuclear weapons. I further request greater generosity in designating A-bomb illnesses and in relief measures appropriate to the current situations of our aging hibakusha, including those exposed in "black rain areas" and those living overseas.

Next month the G8 Speakers' Meeting will, for the first time, take place in Japan. I fervently hope that Hiroshima's hosting of this meeting will help our "hibakusha philosophy" spread throughout the world.

Now, on the occasion of this 63rd anniversary Peace Memorial Ceremony, we offer our heartfelt lamentations for the souls of the atomic bomb victims and, in concert with the city of Nagasaki and with citizens around the world, pledge to do everything in our power to accomplish the total eradication of nuclear weapons.

(Tadatoshi Akiba, Mayor, The City of Hiroshima)

(Mainichi Japan) August 6, 2008

Thousands gather to mark the anniversary of the atomic bombing of the Japanese city

Nagasaki remembers
(01:32) Report

Aug. 09 - Thousands gather to mark the anniversary of the atomic bombing of the Japanese city

About 27,000 of the city's estimated 200,000 population died instantly, and about 70,000 had died by the end of 1945.

The toll is updated every year as more victims die of radiation sickness and 3,069 names were added to the list of the dead this year, bringing the official death toll to 145,984.

Benet Allen reports.

Soundbites:
# Shigeko Mori, Nagasaki atomic bomb survivor
# Yasuo Fukuda, prime minister

Thousands remember atomic bombing of Nagasaki on 63rd anniversary

Thousands remember atomic bombing of Nagasaki on 63rd anniversary

People gather during a memorial ceremony at Nagasaki Peace Park on Saturday morning.

NAGASAKI -- Thousands of people including atomic bomb survivors gathered in Nagasaki on Saturday in a ceremony to mark the 63rd anniversary of the Aug. 9, 1945 atomic bomb attack on the city.

This year marks the 100th anniversary of the birth of Takashi Nagai (1908-1951), a physician who cared for wounded survivors, or hibakusha, in spite of his own injures. In a Peace Declaration during the ceremony at Nagasaki Peace Park, near ground zero, Nagasaki Mayor Tomihisa Taue quoted Nagai, saying, "There is no winning or losing in war; there is only ruin."

"There is no future for humans without the elimination of nuclear weapons," Taue said. He requested that Japan continue to take a leading role in working toward the elimination of nuclear weapons and turning into law Japan's three non-nuclear principles of neither possessing nor manufacturing nuclear weapons, nor permitting their introduction into Japan.

The ceremony began at 10:40 a.m., with about 5,650 people, including hibakusha, in attendance. Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda attended the ceremony, along with House of Representatives Speaker Yohei Kono, Health, Labor and Welfare Minister Yoichi Masuzoe, and representatives of eight countries.

Last year, representatives of 15 countries attended the ceremony, but the number dropped this year as a result of the Beijing Olympic Games that began on Friday.

Russia was the only country possessing nuclear weapons to be represented at the ceremony. The United States, which recently acknowledged that a small amount of radioactive cooling water leaked from the nuclear powered submarine USS Houston when it called at ports in Japan, did not make an appearance again this year.

At the beginning of the ceremony, three books containing the names of 3,058 hibakusha whose deaths were confirmed over the past year were enshrined in front of a peace memorial statue. With the addition, there are now 147 books containing the names of 145,984 people who have died.

At 11:02 a.m., the minute the bomb exploded over the city, ceremony participants held a moment of silence.

In a Peace Declaration read out at the ceremony Taue mentioned that people including former U.S. secretaries of state Henry Kissinger and George Schulz had submitted an article on steps toward a nuclear free world, adding that the authors were promoting the United States ratification of the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty, calling for the elimination of nuclear weapons.

The declaration pointed out that Russia and the United States are said to together possess 95 percent of the world's nuclear warheads and said these two countries "should begin implementing broad reductions of nuclear weapons."

Speaking on hibakusha, whose average age passed 75 for the first time this year, the declaration urged the Japanese government to quickly provide atomic bomb survivors with "support that corresponds with their reality."

In an address at the ceremony, Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda, who flew in directly from Beijing after attending the Olympic Games opening ceremony, said Japan would hold fast to the three non-nuclear principles and take the forefront on the international stage to eliminate nuclear weapons and achieve lasting peace. He added that Japan would abide by recently introduced guidelines for recognizing hibakusha and provide recognition to as many people as possible.

A representative of atomic bomb survivors also called for the elimination of nuclear weapons, describing them as weapons that in an instant burn everything, claim hundreds of thousands of lives, and leave people suffering all their lives even if they manage to survive.

Bombing of Nagasaki remembered today

EVENTS: Bombing of Nagasaki remembered today

The 27th annual Atomic Cities Peace Memorial ceremony will be held at 8:30 p.m. today in the John Dam Plaza across from the Federal Building in Richland.

The ceremony, planned by World Citizens for Peace, marks the anniversary of the atomic bombing of Nagasaki, Japan, using plutonium produced at the Hanford nuclear reservation during World War II.

It will include the ringing of a model of the Bell of Peace, a gift sent by the mayor of Nagasaki to the people of Richland in 1985. The Bell of Peace is a church bell recovered from ruins near ground zero in Nagasaki and rung to console survivors.

The model of the bell in Richland will be rung in memory of the Americans who died at Pearl Harbor and the Japanese who died at Nagasaki.

World Citizens for Peace also plan a silent peace vigil from noon to 1 p.m. today in John Dam Plaza.

Iran nuclear plant to begin work soon

Iran nuclear plant to begin work soon
Fri, 08 Aug 2008 06:25:34 GMT

Bushehr nuclear plant

Iran expects to witness its first Russian-built nuclear power plant come on stream in early 2009 in its southern port city of Bushehr.

Head of Iran's Atomic Energy Organization Gholam-Reza Aqazadeh said the initial launch of the power plant should take place in the current Iranian calendar year, which ends on March 20, 2009.

"We expect that Russia will fulfill its commitment and launch the power plant," Aqazadeh told ISNA in an exclusive interview on Friday.

In January 1995, Iran and Russia signed an $800 million contract that committed Moscow to completing one of the two nuclear reactors in Bushehr within four years.

Atomstroiexport, the Russian subcontractor helping to build the plant, has delayed the construction by more than a decade.

Iranian Energy Minister Parviz Fattah said late last month that the 1000-megawat power plant would be operational 'within a year'.

"Had the nuclear plant been launched, we could have reduced the level of the electricity shortage we faced in Iran this year by nearly 50 percent," Fattah added.

The news comes as the Islamic Republic suffers from daily power outages because of a dramatic drop in rainfall in the current Iranian calendar year.

The shortage in electricity has forced Iran's Energy Ministry to adopt a rationing program by scheduling power outages across both urban and rural areas in the country. Each area sees electricity cut for up to four hours a day.
Fri, 08 Aug 2008 06:25:34 GMT

Bushehr nuclear plant

Iran expects to witness its first Russian-built nuclear power plant come on stream in early 2009 in its southern port city of Bushehr.

Head of Iran's Atomic Energy Organization Gholam-Reza Aqazadeh said the initial launch of the power plant should take place in the current Iranian calendar year, which ends on March 20, 2009.

"We expect that Russia will fulfill its commitment and launch the power plant," Aqazadeh told ISNA in an exclusive interview on Friday.

In January 1995, Iran and Russia signed an $800 million contract that committed Moscow to completing one of the two nuclear reactors in Bushehr within four years.

Atomstroiexport, the Russian subcontractor helping to build the plant, has delayed the construction by more than a decade.

Iranian Energy Minister Parviz Fattah said late last month that the 1000-megawat power plant would be operational 'within a year'.

"Had the nuclear plant been launched, we could have reduced the level of the electricity shortage we faced in Iran this year by nearly 50 percent," Fattah added.

The news comes as the Islamic Republic suffers from daily power outages because of a dramatic drop in rainfall in the current Iranian calendar year.

The shortage in electricity has forced Iran's Energy Ministry to adopt a rationing program by scheduling power outages across both urban and rural areas in the country. Each area sees electricity cut for up to four hours a day.

Government officials seek response plan to radioactive leak

Despite this government officials like acting Governor Mike Cruz, Speaker Judi Won Pat, and Senator Frank Blas Junior met today as they believe the leakage stresses the need for an independent process and protocol to monitor the leakage of waste in Apra Harbor and future leaks.

As we reported Senator B.J. Cruz recently introduced Bill 349 that seeks to appropriate $100,000 to Public Health's Environmental Health Division to conduct an independent investigation and study of the leakage of radioactive material into Apra Harbor by the U.S. Navy. The legislation would also require a permanent monitoring device be installed at the entrance of the harbor to detect and provide early warning signs of any radioactive contaminants that may be discharged into Guam's waters.

The acting Governor and Speaker Won Pat requested Bill 349 be placed on emergency status without a public hearing as lawmakers have already agreed to act expeditiously on the legislation. Public Health and Guam EPA are currently working with their federal counterparts to address the issue.
The acting governor adds that U.S. EPA has agreed that the amount of leakage was minimal however they are questioning how the data was presented and are recommending that Guam pursue independent testing.

In light of the leak and the Navy handled the release of information, Senator Ben Pangelinan sent a letter calling for major changes at Big Navy. "I believe that the actions of the local Naval command to withhold information of the leakage of the nuclear elements into Guam waters over a two year period is inexcusable and unacceptable and as such today I am sending off a letter to the Commander of the Naval Forces in the Pacific Admiral Keating in Hawaii for the removal of the local Naval command," the Democrat lawmaker stated.

Meanwhile Congresswoman Madeleine Bordallo issued the following statement: “I have been updated on the status of the U.S.S. Houston incident. I was told that the valve leakage has occurred since 2006, which extended the number of locations which were potentially impacted. The Governments of Malaysia and Republic of Singapore were also informed that the U.S.S. Houston made port calls in those countries during this period. In addition, it is believed that this small amount of weepage from the valve and the subsequent tests of Apra Harbor by the U.S. Navy indicate that the leakage of water from the submarine did not harm the environment or place the residents of Guam or crew in danger. I will continue to work to ensure the safety of the residents of Guam as well as the sailors on-board our nuclear submarine force. I have requested and will receive a more comprehensive briefing from the U.S. Department of Energy, which has shared oversight on the safe operation of the U.S. Navy’s nuclear propulsion program. I also want to further explore how this defective valve went unnoticed during previous maintenance or while the ship was in service.”

Six nuclear protesters arrested at North Anna plant visitors area

By CARLOS SANTOS

TIMES-DISPATCH STAFF WRITER

Six anti-nuclear power protesters were arrested at the North Anna power plant's visitor center yesterday after refusing to leave at its closing time.

Richard Zuercher, a spokesman for Dominion Virginia Power, said about 25 protesters showed up at the visitor's center near Mineral in Louisa County at about 2:30 p.m.

The protesters at one point sat down in the center's exhibition hall and began chanting anti-nuclear sentiments, he said.

Zuercher said Virginia Power officials spoke to the protesters and asked them to leave by 4 p.m., when the visitor center normally closes. Some refused to leave and authorities were called.

By the time State Police and Louisa County Sheriff's Department deputies arrived, only six protestors remained in the building and were arrested for trespassing. They were cheered by the crowd as they were led away, said Zuercher. No one was injured.

"Dominion recognizes the people's right to speak their mind but we don't endorse illegal activity,'' said Zuercher.

The center is about 1 mile from the company's two nuclear reactors.

The protesters align themselves with such environmental advocacy groups as Blue Ridge Earth First!, Rising Tide North America, and Nuclear Watch South, said Mary Olson, a spokeswoman for Nuclear Watch South.

Olson said the protest was held because "we're trying to show visible opposition to the revival of nuclear power. Virginia Power appears poised to build another reactor at its North Anna plant.

"Part of what we're doing is sending up flares that this is happening,'' said Olson.

"Nuclear reactors are cost prohibitive, slow to build, and have an ecological footprint that is several times larger than that of wind, solar and other efficiency technologies," she also said in a statement.

"Every dollar spent on nuclear proliferation is money lost on safer, sustainable methods of generation," she added.

Contact Carlos Santos at (434) 295-9542 or csantos@timesdispatch.com.

No easy answers on nuclear waste

Thursday, August 07, 2008

The facts and figures surrounding Yucca Mountain, the proposed Arizona site that would hold the nation's nuclear waste, never fail to astonish. The cost, which continues to climb with each passing year, now stands at an estimated $96 billion. And the amount of waste, which by some calculations could come in at 122,000 tons, is not easily brushed aside.

But there is one number that stands out among all the others, that forces one to take a serious step back to consider the implications of Yucca Mountain specifically and the nation's nuclear waste more generally: Some of the spent nuclear fuel will remain highly radioactive for a million years.

What we've got on our hands here is a very real - and very long-lasting - problem.

We have argued previously in this space that a rush toward Yucca Mountain may not be the wisest of choices. Imagine tons and tons of dangerous spent nuclear fuel hurtling across the nation on interstate highways and on rail lines and aboard barges, zipping through urban and suburban areas, beside rivers and lakes and municipal water supplies, through rural farmland and across bridges great and small. Then, imagine this happening year after year - without a single accident.

It's almost enough to make you think that doing nothing at all is the best choice. Until you consider what doing nothing at all actually means.

There is no easy solution to this problem. And it is not going to just go away.

Yucca Mountain is in the news again following the newest cost estimate from the Energy Department. It should remain a real part of the debate as calls for the construction of new nuclear power plants continue to mount. We are not suggesting that the reality of nuclear waste should rule out new nuke plants. But it has got to be a part of the discussion.

The nation doesn't need to come up with definitive plans tomorrow, but we shouldn't wait forever. We don't, after all, have a million years to decide on the next - and wisest - nuclear move.

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Mahmoud Ahmadinejad

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UN nuclear watchdog in Tehran talks amid sanctions calls

20 hours ago

TEHRAN (AFP) — The UN atomic watchdog's number two was in Tehran on Thursday for a new round of talks on Iran's nuclear drive as Western governments said the time had come for the Security Council to impose fresh sanctions.

The two-day visit comes a day after six world powers discussed Iran's response to their latest offer to resolve the nuclear standoff, which has helped push world oil prices to record levels.

It was not clear if Heinonen's visit was directly related to the incentives being offered to Iran to freeze uranium enrichment activities, a process that Western nations fear could be diverted to build an atomic weapon.

A diplomat close to the International Atomic Energy Agency said Heinonen's visit was likely to concentrate on clarifying outstanding questions the watchdog has about Iran's nuclear programme rather than the incentives offer.

Heinonen has made a series of visits to Iran as part of the agency's longstanding efforts to make sure there is no military dimension to the programme, the last on April 28.

That visit focused on studies that the IAEA suspects Iran carried out in the past into the engineering involved in making a nuclear warhead.

But a source at the Iranian atomic energy organisation insisted that these "alleged studies" would not be on the agenda of the new talks.

In his last report on Iran in May, IAEA chief Mohamed ElBaradei accused Tehran of withholding key information on the so-called weaponisation studies.

Iran dismissed the allegations as "baseless", insisting it had provided a comprehensive response.

It has since gone further, with Vice President Gholam Reza Aghazadeh, who heads Iran's atomic energy organisation, insisting that the alleged weaponisation studies were not a matter for the UN watchdog.

"We are dealing with it through other channels. Measures have already been taken and we will follow them up if necessary and if appropriate," Aghazadeh said last month.

On Wednesday, Britain and the United States said the six powers now had "no choice" but to seek new UN sanctions after Iran failed to give a "clear positive response" to their latest offer of trade and technology incentives in return for an enrichment freeze.

The two governments said there was now agreement among the six powers, which also include China, France, Germany and Russia, that a new sanctions resolution should be discussed at the Security Council.

The powers "have agreed that, while informal contacts between (EU foreign policy chief Javier) Solana and (Iranian negotiator Saeed) Jalili will continue, we now have no choice but to pursue further sanctions against Iran, as part of our dual-track strategy," British junior foreign minister Kim Howells said.

But Russia's UN ambassador Vitaly Churkin said he was unaware of any such consensus on sanctions.

"It may well be that in the course of those discussions some members of the six raised the issue of the sanctions," Churkin said. "But to the best of my knowledge there has been no firm agreement or understanding or concerted work in this regard."

Churkin said that the Group of Eight wealthy industrialised countries would discuss the issue of whether to seek further sanctions at a ministerial meeting next month.

He added that ministerial talks by six major powers on a new round of sanctions were likely to continue during the UN General Assembly session scheduled from September 23 to October 1.

"The main thing to remember is the negotiating track is open... There are contacts between the parties... We need to focus very much on the negotiating opportunities which this may produce," Churkin said.

The Security Council has already ordered three rounds of sanctions against Iran over its defiance.

The United States and its allies say Iran's nuclear programme could be a cover to develop atomic weapons and Washington has never ruled out military action over the standoff.

But Iran insists that as a signatory to the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, it has the right to develop nuclear technology which it says is aimed at generating electricity for its growing population.