Depleted Uranium in the USA

The Pentagon's Dirty Bombers: Depleted Uranium in the USA

This Can't Be Happening!, 10/26/2009 - 15:13 — dlindorff

The Nuclear Regulator Commission is considering an application by the US Army for a permit to have depleted uranium at its Pohakuloa Training Area, a vast stretch of flat land in what’s called the “saddle” between the sacred mountains of Mauna Loa and Mauna Kea on Hawaii’s Big Island, and at the Schofield Barracks on the island of Oahu. In fact, what the Army is asking for is a permit to leave in place the DU left over from years of test firing of M101 mortar “spotting rounds,” that each contained close to half a pound of depleted uranium (DU). The Army, which originally denied that any DU weapons had been used at either location, now says that as many as 2000 rounds of M101 DU mortars might have been fired at Pohakuloa alone.

But that’s only a small part of the story.

The Army is actually seeking a master permit from the NRC to cover all the sites where it has fired DU weapons, including penetrator shells that, unlike the M101, are designed to hit targets and burn on impact, turning the DU in the warhead into a fine dust of uranium oxide. Hearings on this proposal were held in Hawaii on Aug. 26 and 27.

Depleted uranium M101 "spotter round" for Davy Crockett Mortar

Uranium particles, whether pure uranium or in an oxidized form, are alpha emitters, and can be highly carcinogenic and mutagenic if ingested or inhaled, since they can lodge in one part of the body—the kidney or lung or gonad, for example—and then irradiate surrounding cells with large, destructive alpha particles (actually helium atoms), until some gene is compromised and a cell become malignant.

Among the sites identified by the NRC as being contaminated with DU are:

Ft. Hood, TX
Ft. Benning, GA
Ft. Campbell, KY
Ft. Knox, KY
Ft. Lewis, WA
Ft. Riley, KS
Aberdeen Proving Grounds, MD
Ft. Dix, NJ
Makua Military Reservation, HI

Other locations identified as having DU weapons contamination are:

China Lake Air Warfare Center, CA
Eglin AFB, Florida,
Nellis AFB, NV
Davis-Monthan AFB
Kirtland AFB, NM
White Sands Missile Range, NM
Ethan Allen Firing Range, VT
New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology

An application for a 99-year permit to test DU weapons at the NM Inst. Of Mining and Technology claimed that that site’s test area was “so contaminated with DU…as to preclude any other use”!

DU weapons have also been used by the Navy at Vieques Island off Puerto Rico (the Navy claimed it was a “mistake.”

The Pentagon continues a long history of claiming that DU--which is the uranium that is left after the fissionable isotope U-235 is removed to make nuclear fuel and bombs--is not dangerous, although this official stance is belied by the warnings it has given to its troops (though not to civilians in battle zones), to stay well clear of tanks and other equipment destroyed by US tanks, which used DU weapons as the ordnance of choice in both the Gulf War and the current Iraq War. During both wars, DU ammunition was used by Army and Marine tanks, by the Bradley Fighting Vehicle, the A-10 ground support jet, the Marine Harrier jet, and specially equipped F16 fighter jets. The Navy also switched from DU ammunition to tungsten ammunition in its Phalanx anti-missile ship defense system because of health and environmental concerns with the DU ammo.

In both wars, a high percentage of troops have returned with many physical ailments--auto-immune problems, cancers, and later, birth defects in offspring--which have been referred to as Gulf War and now Iraq War Syndrome. As many as a quarter of returning vets from the Gulf War have reported strange illnesses and cancers and the numbers are rising for Iraq War vets. As well, statistics from the National Institutes of Health show that counties hosting bases and test facilities where DU has been uses also show high cancer rates. This is certainly true for Hawaii's Big Island, which has the highest cancer rates for the Hawaiian archepelago. Meanwhile, the lung cancer rate for the Ft. Knox area is 105-127 per 100,000 for the 2001-2005 period, high by state and national standards. The rate is among the highest in the state of Washington for Pierce County, where Ft. Lewis is located.

The Pentagon denies that it uses depleted uranium in bombs, missiles and cruise missile warheads, but military personnel have reported their use in all three delivery systems, and reports exist of DU bunker-buster bombs, DU-tipped penetrator warheads on Tomahawk cruise missiles and on some air-to-ground missiles.

It’s a good bet that all US munitions containing DU have been widely tested at various US military bases and testing grounds.

The bottom line is that at the same time that US government is continuing to warn about the danger of terrorists acquiring the materials to make a “dirty” bomb that could spread radioactive material in the US, the US military has for years been doing exactly that, and continues to do so, with no intention to clean up its messes, many of which are allowing depleted uranium to percolate into ground water or flow down streams to more populated areas.

Of course, it could have been worse. The M101 mortar that litters Pohakuloa was actually designed as a range-finder for the Davy Crocket mortar, which back in the late 1950s and the 1960s, and up until 1971 was designed to allow infantry troops to fire a small “tactical” nuclear mortar shell at targets just one to two miles distant. Some 700 of these “little nukes”, that had a power of “just” several kilotons or less, were made and actually made their way into the arsenals of troops in Europe and elsewhere during the Cold War. Fortunately there are no reports of any of them having been fired off at any of the military’s firing ranges--especially given that their radiation effect radius was larger than their firing range, meaning that launching one was an automatic suicide mission.

Davy Crockett mini nuke, in test-firing at Aberdeen Proving Ground, MD (Actually firing it would have been suicide.)

Then again, the Pentagon doesn’t exactly have a sterling record about telling the truth where nuclear weapons and DU weapons are concerned. (You start to notice as you look into this stuff that with uranium weapons, the military's attitude towards troop safety is not a whole lot better than its attitude towards the people at the downrange end of the line.)

Nor is the NRC to be relied on to protect the American public. As an administrative judge wrote in a ruling on a case involving DU contamination at Jefferson Proving Ground in Indiana, the NRC exhibited a “more than casual attitude with regard to decommissioning of sites on which radioactive materials remain as a potential threat to public health and safety and to the environment.”

In another case, involving cleanup of the ShieldAlloy Metallurgical Corp.’s site in Newfield, NJ, where DU weapons were made, a judge said, “at the very least, the (NRC) staff has countenanced…a situation that will leave the citizens in the area surrounding the activity site in doubt for close to two decades regarding what measures will ultimately be taken for their protection.”

Empress of Japan speaks against nuclear weapons

Empress Michiko of Japan has called for “a world free of nuclear weapons” and praised President Obama’s moves towards nuclear disarmament.

By Jonathan Liew
Telegraph, 26 Oct 2009

Empress Michiko, pictured here during her visit to Britain in 2007, was 10 years old at the time of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki Photo: Getty

In a written statement to mark her 75th birthday, she said that Obama’s speech in Prague in April had shown a “strong determination to eliminate nuclear weapons”, and had contributed to his winning the Nobel peace prize earlier this month.

“The horror of nuclear weapons lies, in addition to the magnitude of the destruction, in the enormity and misery of the effects of radiation which continue to afflict the victims long afterwards,” she said.

Japan is the only country that has ever suffered a nuclear attack, when the United States dropped atomic bombs on the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 1945.

Empress Michiko was 10 years old at the time. She was at primary school in Tokyo during World War Two, but was forced to leave due to US bombing raids, and resumed her studies after the war.

“As a country which has suffered atomic bombings, I believe that Japan should make efforts to seek further and deeper understanding of this from the international community,” she said.

The nuclear attacks on Japan during World War Two precipitated a period of almost half a century during which the world lived under the spectre of nuclear warfare.

The Soviet Union developed a nuclear bomb in 1949, followed by Britain in 1952, France in 1960 and China in 1964.

By the late 1960s both the US and the USSR had each stockpiled enough nuclear weapons to destroy the other completely. This bilateral balance of power, known as “mutually assured destruction”, acted as a deterrent to full-scale atomic war.

Since the end of the Cold War, however, the threat of nuclear warfare has taken on a multilateral dimension.

In addition to the original five nuclear powers, South Africa, India, Pakistan and North Korea have all developed nuclear weapons. However, South Africa destroyed its nuclear arsenal after the end of apartheid in the early 1990s.

Israel is widely believed to possess a nuclear capability, while Belgium, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands and Turkey have been given nuclear weapons by the US for storage.

These developments have complicated the strategy of mutually assured destruction.

A 1995 document published by the US department of defence explained that while the concept of mutually assured destruction still applied to Russia, pre-emptive action should be an option for dealing with smaller nuclear states, or for preventing states from acquiring nuclear capabilities.

The US administration’s current tensions with Iran over the latter’s alleged nuclear weapons programme reflect this line of thinking.

The central objective of Russia’s policy on nuclear engagement has remained “essentially unchanged from that of the Cold War”, according to Ifri, a French think tank.

It has adopted a more defensive concept of mutually assured destruction, replacing its notion of “unacceptable damage”, or the cost of waging a successful nuclear war, with one of “required damage” – the amount of damage that would be necessary to make an attack on Russia unacceptable to an enemy.

However, Russia also stated in 2003 a willingness to use nuclear weapons to “prevent political pressure against Russia and her allies”, meaning that for the first time since the fall of Communism, it was contemplating small-scale nuclear war.

Malcolm Grimston, an expert on nuclear policy at Chatham House, said that the role of nuclear weapons in today’s world requires wholesale reassessment.

“The threats now don’t come from big armies and big weapons, they come from small groups aiming for relatively soft targets,” he said. “It’s difficult to see what a nuclear deterrent is deterring.”

As well as her pronouncements on nuclear weapons, Empress Michiko also addressed the financial crisis, which she said had severely affected many Japanese people, and the swine flu pandemic.

Michiko, the daughter of a flour magnate, was the first commoner to marry into the Chrysanthemum Throne when she married then-Crown Prince Akihito in 1959.

It is unusual for her to express her thoughts in this manner. Previously she has answered written questions from journalists on her birthday, but the royal family decided this year only to issue a written statement.

This was an effort, it claimed, “to reduce the burden on Her Majesty”.

De Magistris: Le navi dei veleni

23 Ottobre 2009

Le navi dei veleni

Autore Luigi de Magistris

Sabato 24 c’è, a Amantea, una manifestazione importantissima, alla quale ho già aderito, per chiedere la verità sulle navi che portano rifiuti tossici, rifiuti nocivi, addirittura rifiuti radioattivi per il Mare Mediterraneo. E’ una manifestazione importantissima, che deve essere una manifestazione di popolo.

L’altro giorno sono stato a Crotone, dove c’è un altro scandalo immenso: l’ennesimo scandalo dei rifiuti della Pertusola Sud, smaltiti illecitamente addirittura nelle scuole, con un aumento, nell’analisi del sangue, di nichel, cadmio, uranio e arsenico nei bambini. Così come sono stato a Castrovillari dove, all’interno del Parco Nazionale del Pollino, si vuole realizzare niente di meno che una centrale elettrica di dimensioni stratosferiche.

I genitori hanno diritto di sapere se i loro figli fanno il bagno nel mare e nelle coste dove probabilmente nel passato il business dei rifiuti della criminalità organizzata ha sversato scorie radioattive.

Detto questo, sono convinto che queste manifestazioni debbano appartenere al popolo calabrese e debbano appartenere a quella parte della politica che veramente non ha nulla a che fare con il crimine organizzato e con il crimine dei colletti bianchi. Vedere in questi giorni personaggi politici profondamente collusi nel loro agire politico, con un sistema castale, alcuni di loro anche sospettati gravemente di essere contigui alla criminalità organizzata e vederli discettare di questi temi, sedersi insieme al popolo e, addirittura, voler partecipare a questa manifestazione mi fa lanciare un appello affinché il popolo calabrese si riappropri veramente del proprio territorio, della propria natura, della propria libertà e diventi protagonista e rompa, aiuti a rompere quell’intreccio perverso tra politica e criminalità organizzata.

I calabresi sanno dove dover guardare, devono stare attenti perché c’è chi, negli anni scorsi, ha realizzato proprio linfa vitale e linfa politica della criminalità organizzata e oggi vuole partecipare insieme a loro, solamente per ripulirsi un po’ la faccia. Accanto al riciclaggio del denaro sporco c’è il riciclaggio della loro faccia.

Iran Nuclear Monitor Dies Mysteriously

Newsweek, October 22, 2009 10:42 AM

Iran Nuclear Monitor Dies Mysteriously

Mark Hosenball

Police in Austria are investigating the mysterious death of a British nuclear monitoring expert. Early news reports said that Timothy Hampton, who worked for an international monitoring unit called the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization (CTBTO), died after falling 12 stories in a building in the Vienna International Center, one of the United Nations' main office complexes in Europe.

Reports said Austrian authorities would order an autopsy. "Everything points towards a suicide, and there are no signs of any third party being involved," a police spokesman, Alexander Haslinger, told the French news agency AFP. Authorities in Vienna have privately indicated to other governments that while suicide is the principal cause of death under investigation, they haven't ruled out the possibility that it could have been an accident or even murder, according to an official source in Washington. Official reports and a former U.N. official indicate that Hampton fell 12 stories down an internal emergency stairwell—from the 17th to the fifth floor—in the high-rise Vienna building.

Some news reports said that Hampton had been involved in the current round of negotiations between Iran, the U.S., and several other Western countries regarding Tehran's controversial nuclear program. However, his participation in the Iran talks could not be immediately confirmed, and a former U.N. official who worked at the Vienna complex said that officials who worked for the CTBTO were normally not supposed to have any involvement with the work of the IAEA, which is based in the same complex and is at the center of diplomatic discussions between the West and Iran.

CTBTO literature says that Hampton, who was to turn 48 on Wednesday, had worked for CTBTO for more than 10 years and had previously worked in Britain on "test-ban monitoring issues." Hampton was one of four coauthors of a paper published by CTBTO last month regarding seismic readings taken during the course of a North Korean nuclear test last May. There is some apparent historical resonance between this case and the death of Dr. David Kelly, a British government scientist who killed himself in July 2003 after he fell under suspicion for potentially leaking information that raised questions about the intelligence used by the British government to justify its support for the invasion of Iraq. Kelly's death ultimately was the focus of a full-scale investigation by a senior British judge, which found that the BBC misreported allegations that Tony Blair's government had "sexed up" an anti-Saddam Hussein dossier, but also revealed evidence of political pressure on British intelligence officials to come up with alarming information about Saddam's alleged weapons of mass destruction program.

Covert intel ops against anti-nuclear protesters

Secret files reveal covert network run by nuclear police

• Industry-funded force uses moles and surveillance
• Strategic aims include tackling 'public disquiet'

• Rob Evans
• guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 20 October 2009

The nuclear industry pays £57m a year to the force to control site security. Photograph: Christopher Thomond

The nuclear industry funds the special armed police force which guards its installations across the UK, and secret documents, seen by the Guardian, show the 750-strong force is authorised to carry out covert intelligence operations against anti-nuclear protesters, one of its main targets.

The nuclear industry will pay £57m this year to finance the Civil Nuclear Constabulary (CNC). The funding comes from the companies which run 17 nuclear plants, including Dounreay in Caithness, Sellafield in Cumbria and Dungeness in Kent.

Around a third is paid by the private consortium managing Sellafield, which is largely owned by American and French firms. Nearly a fifth of the funding is provided by British Energy, the privatised company owned by French firm EDF.

Private correspondence shows that in June, the EDF's head of security complained that the force had overspent its budget "without timely and satisfactory explanations to us". The industry acknowledges it is in regular contact with the CNC and the security services.

Most of the nuclear force's officers are armed with high-powered guns and Tasers. The CNC has spent £1.4m on weapons and ammunition in the past three years.

They patrol outside nuclear plants, with their jurisdiction stretching to three miles beyond the perimeter of the installations. They have the same powers as any other British police officer and can, for instance, arrest and stop and search people.

The body that regulates the CNC is also funded by the nuclear industry. Four of the eight members of the Civil Nuclear Police Authority are nominated by the nuclear industry as its representatives. Those four are employed in the industry. The others – mainly former police officers – are deemed to be independent.

The force is expected to expand as the government presses ahead with plans for a new generation of nuclear plants, which are likely to attract protests.

Ben Ayliffe, head of Greenpeace's anti-nuclear campaign, said: "There are very obvious worries about an armed police force that is accountable to an industry desperate to build nuclear reactors in the UK. This industry will probably be very keen for their police force to use all the powers available to them to prevent peaceful protests against nuclear power."

John Sampson, the CNC's deputy chief constable, said the force was by law operationally independent from the industry and safeguarded by its regulatory police authority. Its surveillance operations were only conducted if they had legal approval and were proportionate to the crime under investigation, he added.

Sampson said it would be "ill-advised" of any nuclear company to put pressure on the force and surveillance was not conducted at the instigation of the companies. The government has provided a small amount of capital funding but does not pay any of the running costs.

The job of the force is to protect civil nuclear plants and guard radioactive nuclear material when it is being transported by land, rail or sea to ensure it is not stolen or sabotaged. The industry also receives advice from the security services on how to protect itself from attack.

The force is authorised to send informers to infiltrate organisations and to conduct undercover surveillance under the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000 (RIPA). It is also permitted to obtain communications data such as phone numbers and email addresses.

Reports by Sir Christopher Rose, the watchdog responsible for inspecting the use of these surveillance powers, have been obtained by the Guardian under freedom of information legislation.

Rose, the chief surveillance commissioner, noted last year: "The strategic aims of the constabulary remain on the threat from terrorism and public disquiet over nuclear matters, including demonstrations/protests and criminal offences towards nuclear movements/installations."

The force keeps secret the extent of its clandestine surveillance operations on protesters and others. It has been collecting more intelligence in recent years.

Sampson said its surveillance was "relatively modest" and mainly concerned with stopping terrorism.

In July, Rose said the CNC's "approach to covert activity is conspicuously professional". He found that the system for storing the intelligence gained from informers was "working well".

He says he has been told during inspections that "senior officers regard covert surveillance as a long-term requirement".

Since 2007, the CNC has also been headed by an ex-intelligence official, rather than a police officer. Richard Thompson is reported to have been a senior officer in MI6. Rose noted Thompson "has extensive experience in the intelligence world, but has no previous police background".

British nuclear expert falls 120ft to his death

British nuclear expert falls 120ft to his death in Vienna

A British nuclear expert has fallen to his death from the 17th floor of the United Nations offices in Vienna.

Telegraph, 21 Oct 2009

The 47-year-old man, who has not been named, died after falling more than 120ft to the bottom of a stairwell.

He worked for the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization, an international agency charged with uncovering illicit nuclear tests.

A UN spokesman in the Austrian capital said there were no "suspicious circumstances" surrounding the man's death, while a police spokesman said that no other person was believed to have been involved.

No suicide note has been found.

The incident happened on Tuesday as the United States, France, Russia and Iran held talks close by aimed at cooling tensions over Tehran's nuclear programme.

Investigators refused to reveal any further background information on the official but confirmed an autopsy will be held.

Four months ago another UN worker also believed to be British fell a similar distance at the same building, according to other staff working there.

Blog NBCR interessante....

N.B.C.R. - Nucleare, Batteriologico, Chimico e Radiogeno

La Guerra Chimica - il Bio-Terrorismo - la Guerra Nucleare - l'Uranio Depleto (Impoverito) e le sue Vittime, Eroi di Guerra, in un tempo di Pace.

END the FED S. 604 (The Audit the FED Bill)

END the FED

S. 604 (The Audit the FED Bill) Now has the support of 31 Senators! Victory is within reach. Lets target 1 Democrat and 1 Republican today and bombard them with calls to get their support. Democrat: Ted Kaufman (DE) (202) 224-5042. Republican: Jeff S...essions (AL) (202) 224-4124. It literally takes less than 2 minutes to call! PLEASE REPOST!!!

Dead Babies in Iraq and Afghanistan Are No Joke

Depleted Uranium Weapons: Dead Babies in Iraq and Afghanistan Are No Joke

by Dave Lindorff

Global Research, October 20, 2009

Counterpunch - 2009-10-19

The horrors of the US Agent Orange defoliation campaign in Vietnam, about which I wrote on Oct. 15, could ultimately be dwarfed by the horrors caused by the depleted uranium weapons which the US began using in the 1991 Gulf War (300 tons), and which it has used much more extensively--and in more urban, populated areas--in the Iraq War and the now intensifying Afghanistan War.

Depleted uranium, despite its rather benign-sounding name, is not depleted of radioactivity or toxicity. The term “depleted” refers only to its being depleted of the U-235 isotope needed for fission reactions in nuclear reactors. The nuclear waste material from nuclear power plants, DU as it is known, is what is removed from the power plants’ spent fuel rods and is essentially composed of the uranium isotope U-238 as well as U-236 (a product of nuclear reactor fission, not found in nature), as well as other trace radioactive elements. Once simply a nuisance for the industry, that still has no permanent way to dispose of the dangerous stuff, it turns out to be an ideal metal for a number of weapons uses, and has been capitalized on by the Pentagon. 1.7 times heavier than lead, and much harder than steel, and with the added property of burning at a super-hot temperature, DU has proven to be an ideal penetrator for warheads that need to pierce thick armor or dense concrete bunkers made of reinforced concrete and steel. Once through the defenses, it burns at a temperature that incinerates anyone inside (which is why we see the carbonized bodies of bodies in the wreckage of Iraqi tanks hit by US fire). Accordingly it has found its way into 30 mm machine gun ammunition, especially that used by the A-10 Warthog ground-attack fighter planes used extensively in Iraq and Afghanistan (as well as Kosovo). It is also the warhead of choice for Abrams tanks and is also reportedly used in GBU-28 and the later GBU-37 bunker buster bombs, each of which can have 1-2 tons of the stuff in its warhead. DU is also used as ballast in cruise missiles, and this burns up when a missile detonates its conventional explosive. Some cruise missiles are also designed to hit hardened targets and reportedly feature DU warheads, as does the AGM-130 air-to-ground missile, which carries a one-ton penetrating warhead. In addition, depleted uranium is used in large quantities in the armor of tanks and other equipment. This material becomes a toxic source of CU pollution when these vehicles are attacked and burned.

While the Pentagon has continued to claim, against all scientific evidence, that there is no hazard posed by depleted uranium, US troops in Iraq have reportedly been instructed to avoid any sites where these weapons have been used—destroyed Iraqi tanks, exploded bunkers, etc.—and to wear masks if they do have to approach. Many torched vehicles have been brought back to the US, where they have been buried in special sites reserved for dangerously contaminated nuclear materials. (Thousands of tons of DU-contaminated sand from Kuwait, polluted with DU during the US destruction of Iraq’s tank forces in the 1991 war, were removed and shipped to a waste site in Idaho last year with little fanfare.) Suspiciously, international health officials have been prevented or obstructed from doing medical studies of DU sites in Iraq and Afghanistan. But an excellent series of articles several years ago by the Christian Science Monitor described how reporters from that newspaper had visited such sites in Iraq with Geiger-counters and had found them to be extremely “hot” with radioactivity.

The big danger with DU is not as a pure metal, but after it has exploded and burned, when the particles of uranium oxide, which are just as radioactive as the pure isotopes, can be inhaled or ingested. Even the smallest particle of uranium in the body is both deadly poisonous as a chemical, and over time can cause cancer—particularly in the lungs, but also the kidneys, testes and ovaries.

There are reports of a dramatic increase in the incidence of deformed babies being born in the city of Fallujah, where DU weapons were in wide use during the November 2004 assault on that city by US Marines. The British TV station SKY UK, in a report last month that has received no mention in any mainstream American news organization, found a marked increase in birth defects at local hospitals. Birth defects have also been high for years in the Basra area in the south of Iraq, where DU was used not just during America’s 2003 “shock and awe” attack on Iraq, but also in the 1991 Gulf War.

Deformed baby born in post-US Invasion Iraq: DU's legacy?

Further, a report sent to the UN General Assembly by Dr Nawal Majeed Al-Sammarai, Iraq’s Minister of Women’s Affairs since 2006, stated that in September 2009, Fallujah General Hospital had 170 babies born, 24% of which died within their first week of life. Worse yet, fully 75% of the babies born that month were deformed. This compares to August 2002, six months before the US invasion, when 530 live births were reported with only six dying in the first week, and only one deformity. Clearly something terrible is happening in Fallujah, and many doctors suspect it’s the depleted uranium dust that is permeating the city.

But the real impact of the first heavy use of depleted uranium weaponry in populous urban environments (DU was used widely especially in 2003 in Baghdad, Samara, Mosul and other big Iraqi cities), will come over the years, as the toxic legacy of this latest American war crime begins to show up in rising numbers of cancers, birth defects and other genetic disorders in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Of course, as in the case of Agent Orange in Vietnam, the toxic effects of this latest battlefield use of toxic materials by the US military will also be felt for years to come by the men and women who were sent over to fight America’s latest wars. As with Agent Orange, the Pentagon and the Veterans Affairs Department have been assiduously denying the problem, and have been just as assiduously denying claims by veterans of the Gulf War and the two current wars in Iraq and Afghanistan who claim their cancers and other diseases have anything to do with their exposure to DU.

The record on Agent Orange should lead us to be suspicious of the government’s claims.

The deformed and dead babies in Iraq should make us demand a cleanup of Iraq and Afghanistan, medical aid for the victims, and a ban on all depleted uranium weapons.

A New Book on Depleted Uranium

Dear all,

Just for your reference, though some of you may already know about
this book. Kazashi

---------- Forwarded message ----------

I am sending this e-mail to notify you of the publication of my book
A Primer in the Art of Deception: The Cult of Nuclearists, Uranium
Weapons and Fraudulent Science. It was written to demonstrate the
falsehood in the prevailing arguments that depleted uranium weapons
pose no medical consequences to exposed populations because (1) the
"dose" of radioactivity is too small, and (2), unless kidney damage
is induced, other chemical effects are of no consequence.

This line of investigation has yielded some remarkable discoveries,
three of which are monumental. First, the current science of
radiation effects, as it pertains to environmental releases of
radioactive material and the biological consequences that ensue, is
antiquated and fraudulent. Although in urgent need of revision in
light of recent discoveries in radiation biology, it has remained
unchanged because it so successfully covers up the extent of illness
produced by nuclear pollution.

Second, a number of humanity's guardian institutions have authored
fraudulent scientific documents to obstruct understanding of the
toxicology of inhaled uranium. This campaign has successfully
prevented depleted uranium from seriously being considered as a
possible factor in the etiology of Gulf War Syndrome. Further, it
has prevented liability from being assigned to those nations which
have contaminated the homeland of their adversaries.

Third, the argument that DU weapons are benign can only be sustained
by completely ignoring the current knowledge base. A review of
recent research provides abundant evidence that uranium is genotoxic
(capable of damaging DNA), cytotoxic (poisonous to cells), mutagenic
(capable of inducing mutations), teratogenic (capable of interfering
with normal embryonic development) and neurotoxic (capable of harming
nerve tissue).

If you are interested in learning more about A Primer in the Art of
Deception, you are invited to visit http://www.du-deceptions.com

In All Sincerity,
Paul Zimmerman

Iraqi cancer figures soar

Video: Iraqi cancer figures soar

Doctors in Iraq are recording a sharp rise in the number of cancer victims south of Baghdad. Sufferers in the province of Babil have risen almost tenfold in just three years. Locals blame depleted uranium from US military equipment used in the 2003 invasion. Some 500 cases of cancer were diagnosed in 2004 alone. That figure rose to almost 1,000 two years later. In video Interview: Abdulhaq Al-Ani, author of Uranium in Iraq. In 2008, the number of cases increased sevenfold to 7,000 diagnoses. This year, there have so far been more than 9,000 new cases, and the number is rising. Mosab Jasim reports that Iraqi researchers believe radiation is responsible for the increase in cancer and birth defects in the country, but he says the US and British militaries have sent mixed signals about the effects of depleted uranium. However, Christopher Busby, a British scientist and activist who has carried out research into the risks of radioactive pollution, said there is proof of a definitive link between cancer and depleted uranium. "I made this link to a coroner's inquest in the West Midlands into the death of a Gulf War One veteran ... and a coroner's jury accepted my evidence," he told Al Jazeera. "It's been found by a coroner's court that cancer was caused by an exposure to depleted uranium. "In the last ten years, research has emerged that has made it quite clear that uranium is one of the most dangerous substances known to man, certainly in the form that it takes when used in these wars."

Aljazeera interview with author of Uranium in Iraq

Dear all,

Here is a follow-up DU-related video news by Aljazeera-English.
It is an interview with Dr. Abdul-Hag Al-Ani, author of the recent
book, Uranium in Iraq: The Poisonous Legacy of the Iraq Wars. For
your reference. Kazashi

http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2009/10/2009101213552137511.html

***
[From the information available on the internet]

URANIUM IN IRAQ: THE POISONOUS LEGACY OF THE IRAQ WARS
By Abdul-Haq Al-Ani & Joanne Baker

Environmental Law Series 2
June 2009, Paperback
Vandeplas Publishing :: Environmental Law ::

This book has been written out of concerns surrounding the
changing health patterns in Iraq since 1991 and, in particular, the
increase in cancers and genetic birth defects amongst children. The
subject is fraught with difficulty because of the uncertain nature of
both cause and effect. The combination of war and sanctions in Iraq
over several decades, has created a highly toxic environment, and
resistance to disease has become severely compromised by
malnutrition, polluted water systems, psychological distress, and a
failing health system. This book however, works on the supposition
that the military use of uranium has the potential to be a serious
contributing factor to the illnesses besetting the Iraqi population.
The book outlines environmental problems and legal implications
of the contamination of Iraq due to the use of depleted uranium in
military weapons used during the Gulf Wars.

About the authors:
Joanne Baker B.Ed, MSc Human Ecology; Joanne has been actively
engaged with the humanitarian situation in Iraq since 1997. She is a
teacher, human ecologist and human rights campaigner.
Abdul-Haq Al-Ani BSc, MSc, PhD Ceng, MIEE, MBCS, Member of the
Inner Temple; Abdul-Haq was born in Baghdad and studied electrical
engineering at Baghdad University and University College, London.
After the Gulf War (1991), he retrained as a barrister and was called
to the English Bar in 1996. He has been particularly active in the
field of human rights. He also authored the book: The Trial of Saddam Hussein (Clarity Press, 2008).

Francia: sbucano 39 chili di plutonio

Francia, a Cadarache sbucano 39 chili di plutonio. Sospesa la dismissione per pericolo reazioni nucleari a catena

Eco-Blog, 16 ottobre 2009 da Marina in: Energia Informazione Europa Nucleare

L’incidente nucleare, avvenuto nella centrale in dismissione di Cadarache vicino Marsiglia, che produceva fino al 2003 carburante MOX, è stato valutato di livello 2 dal CEA, Commissario per l’energia atomica e in pratica nei depositi 450 contenitori, è stato rinvenuto molto più plutonio di quanto ne fosse stato dichiarato: 39 chili al posto di 8 chili. Com’è possibile che ci sia stato un errore così marchiano nella valutazione di un materiale così prezioso e pericoloso? La dismissione è stata sospesa perché, come spiega Jérôme Rieu direttore delle ricerche dell’ASN (Autorité de sûreté nucléaire):

Quando vi è una massa critica di materiale nucleare e vi sono determinate condizioni ambientali, si può innescare una reazione nucleare a catena. Di certo vi è che i margini di sicurezza a questo punto si sono abbassati.

Cosa è accaduto all’ Atelier de Technologie du Plutonium (ATPu) di Cadarache perché tanto materiale nucleare venisse così superficialmente stivato e dimenticato? Il plutonio è stato accumulato durante 40 anni di attività della centrale nei depositi contenitori che somigliano a dei grossi acquari e dove gli operatori possono manipolarlo in condizioni di sicurezza.

Scandalo Edf

Scandalo Edf (quella che dovrebbe gestire il nucleare in Italia) - rifiuti radioattivi abbandonati a cielo aperto

Today at 7:15pm

In questi giorni in Francia è scoppiato uno scandalo su Edf che è la compagnia francese di energia elettrica a cui spetterebbe l'onere della costruzione in Italia delle centrali nucleari grazie all'accordo con il Governo di qualche mese fa. Le scorie francesi dovrebbero essere stoccati in un apposito sito di nome "Le Hague" che comporta probabilmente un certo livello di costi. Per qualche motivo (non troppo oscuro per la verità) la Edf ha esportato i suoi rifiuti in Siberia, nel sito di Tomsk-7 stoccandoli a cielo aperto come se fossero dei comuni copertoni. Un enorme scandalo (taciuto anche dalle nostre TV) sta travolgendo quindi Electricité de France che pare utilizzi le stesse metodologie per stoccare rifiuti radioattivi in Niger. Chiaramente abbiamo le prove di quello che scriviamo visto che queste notizie vengono da una inchiesta giornalistica... di Arté Tv e di Liberation, noto giornale francese. Potrete vedere qui sotto il trailer dell'inchiesta. Cosa poi possa succedere in Italia con la Edf non ci è dato sapere visto che, come riportava un blog, i francesi preferiscono spedire i loro rifiuti radioattivi altrove ma si sa che in Italia non siamo così intelligenti e per questo o li interriamo nei nostri territori o meglio grazie alle varie mafie li affondiamo con tutte le navi nel Mediterraneo.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=boTSyq_Xrzo&feature=player_embedded#at=58

Così continua il blog, "Il nucleare è poco economico, non conveniente, pericoloso. Ma più di tutto, in Italia non ce lo possiamo permettere: occorre un livello minimo di onestà e correttezza che qui da noi ha passato il picco da un pezzo"

FONTE:http://www.avetrana.org/index.php/news/1004

STELLAR EVOLUTION AND NUCLEOGENESIS

STELLAR EVOLUTION AND NUCLEOGENESIS (1957)

by Steven Aftergood, FAS.org

A 1957 scientific paper on astrophysics by the late Alistair G.W. Cameron has the unusual quality of being both historically significant and very hard to obtain. A scanned copy of the paper has recently been posted online. Known to specialists as CRL-41 (for Chalk River Laboratory paper number 41), the proper title is "Stellar Evolution, Nuclear Astrophysics and Nucleogenesis" (large pdf).

The paper is a milestone in the field of nuclear astrophysics, explained Daid Kahl, a Ph.D. student at the University of Tokyo. "This work independently arrived at the theory of stellar nucleosynthesis in the same year as a much more widely cited paper by Burbidge, Burbidge, Fowler, and Hoyle."

While it is still cited with some frequency (including a 2007 reference in Science magazine), hardly anybody seems to have a copy. Only around 30 libraries around the world are known to possess the document, Mr. Kahl said, based on a WorldCat search.

"Many people know about the publication, but people also cite it without ever having seen or read it," he said. "There was a large conference two years ago at CalTech commemorating 50 years since these works were published. Even at this conference, older professors were asking if anyone had a copy of CRL-41."

Now, with the expiration of the copyright on the document 50 years after publication, it has become possible to scan and post the document for anyone who may be interested. Thanks to Mr. Kahl for sharing his copy.

DOCUMENTAIRE

Nucléaire: des déchets mal maîtrisés

NOUVELOBS.COM | 13.10.2009 | 16:28

L’enquête diffusée ce mardi soir sur Arte, Déchets: le cauchemar du nucléaire, s’attaque au discours officiel de l’industrie nucléaire sur le recyclage de ses déchets. Certaines révélations du film ont déjà conduit la secrétaire d'Etat à l'Ecologie Chantal Jouanno à souhaiter une enquête au sein d'EDF.

Voici un film qui devrait être diffusé à tous nos politiques et serviteurs de l’Etat, qui ne maîtrisent guère apparemment la question de l’énergie nucléaire -chasse gardée des ingénieurs du corps des Mines- et encore moins ses chiffres ! Depuis que la crise climatique se précise, le nucléaire est volontiers présenté comme la solution propre, sûre et inépuisable, notamment par Anne Lauvergeon, patronne d’Areva. Il serait même recyclable à 96%, selon le site internet du consortium.

L’enquête menée par Laure Noualhat, journaliste à Libération, et le réalisateur Eric Guéret avec le concours de la Criirad, Commission de Recherche et d'Information Indépendantes sur la Radioactivité, déconstruit cette arithmétique du nucléaire.


Elle montre que le retraitement des combustibles nucléaires opéré à l’usine de la Hague est relativement peu efficace, produit son lot de substances radioactives qui sont ensuite acheminées, par voie de chemin de fer, en Russie. Jusqu’en Sibérie, à Tomsk-7, plus précisément où une toute petite partie d’entre elles seront enrichies, tandis que le reste sera stocké à ciel ouvert dans des piscines. Sur place, les élus de la Douma pestent d’ailleurs devant le manque de transparence de cette industrie. Et au final, si les matières du nucléaire français sont recyclables à 96%... seules 2,5% d’entre elles seraient effectivement recyclées!

«Du coup, cela pose une question stratégique, indique laure Noualhat: si ces matières sont valorisables, alors pourquoi les abandonner aux Russes? A quoi sert le retraitement (abandonné par de nombreux autres pays) au final? Quel est son véritable bilan?». A la suite de ces révélations, publiées en avant-première lundi dans Libération, la secrétaire d'Etat à l'Ecologie Chantal Jouanno s’est dite «favorable» à une enquête au sein d'EDF.

«Que Mme Jouanno réclame une enquête est édifiant à plus d'un titre, poursuit Laure Noualhat. Elle expliquait mardi matin qu'elle attendait toujours des explications et des confirmations sur le sujet. Elle n'est donc pas au courant comme l’avouait sa prédécesseure Corinne Lepage? Les ministres de l'environnement n'ont pas la main sur le dossier nucléaire. Ce qui pose question!» Vous avez dit «transparence»? Une enquête -publique et parlementaire, pas seulement interne à EDF- semble pertinente et urgente.

La question du retraitement n’est que l’un des aspects de ce film éclairant qui nous entraîne aux Etats-Unis, à Hanford, berceau du nucléaire militaire où naquit la bombe, toujours fortement pollué. Mais aussi à Muslimovo en Russie, où depuis un gigantesque accident moins connu que Tchernobyl survenu il y a 50 ans, des populations vivent toujours dans une poubelle radioactive à ciel ouvert. Devant la caméra, des officiels russes finissent par avouer qu’ils ont, sous la main, une cohorte de cobayes sur laquelle ils mesurent à long terme les effets de la radioactivité.

Dernière question: la France a choisi d’enfouir ses déchets ultimes, à très très longue vie, solution qu’elle teste dans le laboratoire souterrain de Bure, dans la Meuse. Comment signalera-t-elle de tels dépôts de déchets aux générations futures? Notre legs radioactif les concerne pour plusieurs dizaines de millénaires.

Rachel Mulot
Sciences-et-Avenir.com
13/10/09

Déchets, le cauchemar du nucléaire, le 13 octobre 2009 à 20h45 sur ARTE. Projeté dans le cadre du festival Pariscience. Egalement disponible en DVD.

Obama e la colomba della pace radioattiva

Obama e la colomba della pace radioattiva

di Giordano Alimonti - 11/10/2009

Fonte: katechon.it

Il presidente degli Stati Uniti d’America il 24 settembre, ha presieduto eccezionalmente il Consiglio di Sicurezza dell’ONU. Cosa mai accaduta dalla costituzione stessa del Consiglio stesso. Nulla di allarmante, tuttavia, e dunque non c’è da preoccuparsi, perché non stiamo parlando di Bush J. ma del nuovo guru della pace mondiale, cioè del suo successore Barack Obama. Infatti il presidente americano, dopo il suo intervento ha intascato una vittoria storica, come la definita Ban Ki-moon sudcoreano presidente generale delle nazioni unite. E’ stata sottoscritta la risoluzione USA che impegna alla non proliferazione nucleare (Tnp); una cosa indubbiamente onorevole e bella, ma vediamo un po’ più da vicino di cosa si tratta e dove il Mahatma Obama va a parare.

Il Tnp, ha come obiettivo un mondo senza armi atomiche, chiedendo ai paesi firmatari di non sviluppare armi nucleari ed accenna ad un disarmo generalizzato. Ma se quest’ultimo è bello sognarlo ed è utile politicamente sbandierarlo, non è però realistico crederlo. Infatti, la nuova risoluzione ha in realtà lo scopo di aumentare la pressione sui paesi che ad oggi sono sprovvisti di armi nucleari, attraverso minacce di sanzioni, embarghi ed altre azioni punitive da parte del Consiglio di Sicurezza. Guarda caso gli Stati presi di mira sono Iran, Giappone e Corea del Nord, oltre che India e Pakistan, definiti potenze non legali visto che sono in possesso di armi nucleari ma non fanno parte del “club atomico”.

Eh sì, cari lettori: perché chi ha la bomba atomica, non è disposto a rinunciarci così facilmente ed è ben lieto e sollecito ad impedire l’accesso all’atomicfest a qualsivoglia altro paese. Certo verrebbe da dire che stiamo esagerando perché in fondo le buone intenzioni di Obama sulla questione della pace mondiale si sono viste quando ha liberamente rinunciato al progetto di realizzazione dello scudo missilistico in Europa orientale. Ma, guarda un po’, il presidente russo Dimitry Medvedev, durante i lavori in Commissione ONU, cambia improvvisamente la linea di politica estera nei confronti dell’Iran e dichiara che “le sanzioni portano raramente risultati positivi, ma in alcuni casi sono inevitabili”, dimostrando che i contatti con Israele oltre che con gli Stati Uniti servono a qualcosa. Infatti il ministro israeliano per le questioni di intelligence e nucleari, Dan Meridor, che ha recentemente dichiarato che “non c'è più tempo da perdere” per fermare la corsa iraniana alla bomba nucleare, ha ammesso che Netanyahu, nonostante le smentite israeliane e russe, si sia recato in visita segreta in Russia. Non è difficile ipotizzare di cosa il premier israeliano abbia parlato. Se le pressioni diplomatiche su Teheran - potrebbe aver detto - non porteranno ad un cambiamento nella politica nucleare iraniana, il governo russo non potrà sottrarsi alla responsabilità di eventuali danni causati da una azione israeliana ai tecnici russi che lavorano alle centrali atomiche iraniane. Per cui non è difficile escludere connessioni fra questo "misterioso" viaggio e la pioggia di dichiarazioni che lo hanno seguito anche in sede ONU.

Ed a guardar meglio la cosa non ci stupisce più di tanto perché, a parte il do ut des tra i vecchi nemici-amici, la Russia, Stati Uniti, Gran Bretagna, Francia e Cina, secondo il nuovo assetto dettato dal Tnp, sono gli unici paesi legittimati al possesso di testate nucleari. Ora, anche se di fatto e senza sanzioni ed intimidazioni, ne controlli subiti da parte della Commissione di Sicurezza ONU, nel club c’è anche Israele che, pur non avendolo mai ammesso, si stima abbia tra 200 e 400 testate montate su 150 missili balistici basati a terra, missili Harpoon americani, cacciabombardieri e missili da crociera lanciabili da sottomarini. Da indiscrezioni della marina israeliana sappiamo che il Centro di studi strategici di Tel Aviv (Inss), dispone nello specifico di tre sottomarini di produzione tedesca: 'Dolphin' (delfino), 'Leviathan' (balena) e 'Tkuma' (risurrezione) e ad essi se ne aggiungeranno in un prossimo futuro altri due, pure di produzione tedesca. Ma quanto detto fin qui è facilmente intuibile da qualsiasi occhio attento.

Quello che invece sfugge ai più è la premeditazione di un piano occulto per la realizzazione di un nuovo assetto mondiale che muove le fila anche dei governi nazionali e tutto ciò con l’avallo dell’estrema destra ebraica, il Likud. Purtroppo a rendere questa lettura più ardua è la scarsa memoria dei più. Allora cerchiamo di ricordare alcuni avvenimenti che hanno preparato a questo grande successo ottenuto dal paladino dell’umanità pacifica Barack Obama. Nel novembre del 2005 Michael Ledeen e Richard Perle, neoconservatori americani, dietro input di Cheney e Rumsfeld, tentarono, attraverso una serie di pressioni verbali, di mettere a tacere le resistenze delle Nazioni Unite al fine di ottenere un avallo di largo consenso teso a lanciare un attacco atomico contro l’Iràn. Esaminiamo bene chi sono i due personaggi suddetti. Richard Perle è un ebreo legato al Likud, partito di estrema destra israeliana e specialmente a Benjamin Netanyahu, che ha scavalcato anche Ariel Sharon, troppo moderato verso i palestinesi. Perle assieme a Michael Ledeen dirige l’American Enterprise Institute, un think tank noto anche in Italia per i contatti con la P2.

Già dal 1993 lo staff della Casa Bianca si avvaleva di consiglieri preziosi, come Karl Rove, legato al Likud, e come Dick Cheney, che ha al suo fianco Lewis Libby, anche lui vicino a Bibi Netanyahu, capo del Likud. Cheney è stato uno dei più ferventi fautori della politica estera di Bush tesa a controllare il mondo con la forza, a mezzo di guerre preventive. Una politica che ha tentato di coinvolgere anche l’Europa e che, dopo Afghanistan ed Iraq, ha preso di mira l’Iran”. In fondo, Barack Obama cerca di fare la stessa cosa, ossia controllare zone strategiche per gli Stati Uniti e per l’egemonia americana sul mondo, nel nome, però, della pace e della concordia mondiale. In realtà basta guardare una qualsiasi cartina geografica, verificare la posizione dell’Iran (paesi confinanti, sbocchi sul mare etc. etc.), fare uno più uno con quanto detto e potrete capire benissimo che la conquista delle risorse petrolifere del Medio Oriente, l’allargamento del controllo geografico degli Usa, assicurare l’egemonia atomica regionale del solo Israele contro le vere o presunte minacce del presidente iraniano Mahmud Ahmadinejad, sono i veri motivi di fondo che si muovono tra le pieghe di quello che sta avvenendo. Per la stessa ragione non è difficile capire come, dopo l’Iran, la Siria sarà il prossimo obiettivo dell’America.

Tuttavia, questa volta, l’Iran non è l’Iraq, e la sua forza militare e nucleare è reale e non può essere sottovalutata. Infatti il potenziale militare dell’Iran è notevole. Teheran è in possesso di più di 500 missili balistici Sheab-1e Sheab-2 con una gittata da 300 a 500 km; e di un numero indeterminato di Shehab-3 che hanno una portata di 3000 km ed una carica esplosiva di 700 kg e sono in grado di raggiungere le città e le basi israeliane. Nel frattempo Teheran fa sapere tramite Mohammad Mohammadi-Golpayegani, capo dell’ufficio della Guida suprema che il nuovo sito per l’arricchimento dell’uranio diventerà presto operativo mentre l’ayatollah Ali Khamenei, ha fatto sapere che l'Iran è "al culmine della nostra potenza, e questo nuovo impianto ne è una dimostrazione" e "A Dio piacendo - ha affermato- il sito accecherà gli occhi dei nemici".Comunque Ali Akbar Salehi, capo dell’Organizzazione iraniana per l’energia atomica, ha garantito che Teheran non impedirà l’accesso degli ispettori internazionali al nuovo sito per l’arricchimento dell’uranio, concordando con l’AIEA (agenzia internazionale per l’energia atomica) le date per le ispezioni, dal momento che, nessuno lo ha rilevato tra i media occidentali, le autorità iraniane, tenendo fede agli impegni sottoscritti in ambito internazionale, hanno comunicato l'esistenza di questo sito nei tempi previsti dalla stessa agenzia internazionale.

It's not just about Iran

A WMD-free zone in the Middle East could be the answer to rising nuclear tensions in the region

• 
• • Hans Blix
  • guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 7 October 2009 22.00 BST

The possibility that Iran is seeking to develop a nuclear weapon and the reality that it is building a capability for enriching uranium continue to raise tensions in the Middle East and could push other countries in the region to move in the same direction. In my view the issue of nuclear weapons is not really of great importance for today's negotiations. After all, even if there were no such ambition now, Iran could change its mind next year and would then have come closer to a weapon by the progress made in the enrichment programme.

The conclusion is that it remains desirable to persuade Iran to abandon enrichment. But we do not know if this would be possible under any circumstances. Only direct talks will show this, and it is sad that such talks did not begin much earlier. Several years were wasted by making suspension of enrichment a precondition for talks. We should give President Obama the credit for the start of talks – without any guarantee, of course, that a deal will be reached.

In order to justify harsh punitive measures some may wish to show that Iran is lying and actually trying to develop a weapon. However, efforts to shame Iran will not improve the chances of persuading it to abandon its advanced enrichment programme – the most important objective.

What can be done? To persuade Iran to abandon enrichment, both incentives and disincentives have been offered. Economic sanctions and military measures could have dire consequences. They might also rally a majority of Iranians to support a government they otherwise oppose. Earlier European messages to Iran have pointed to possible rewards if the country were to abandon its enrichment programme. But the quid pro quo has evidently not been enough. This does not mean that "diplomacy is exhausted". Further incentives could be tried in the direct talks that are now on the agenda. Looking at the negotiations on a nuclear-free North Korea we find two interesting offers that appear not to have had parallels in the contacts with Iran. One is an assurance against attack and subversion; the other is US and Japanese readiness for diplomatic relations. After 30 years of no diplomatic relations with the US and more recent recurrent reminders by the US government that all military options are open to it to stop Iranian enrichment, perhaps offers of this kind could carry some weight in the negotiations with Iran.

A broadening of the agenda for discussions with Iran has sometimes been suggested as offering greater possibilities of balancing interests. It is interesting to note that while Iran said it was unwilling to discuss its enrichment programme in the recent direct Geneva talks, it was ready to take up the broader subjects of non-proliferation and disarmament. Discussions of these items could be used for delay, but they might also offer new openings. It could perhaps be of interest even to broach the deep-frozen subject of a Middle East zone free of weapons of mass destruction, and add to it the idea of making the area free of enrichment of uranium and production of plutonium.

Iran and Egypt were the first, many years ago, to take the initiative of a nuclear weapon free zone in the Middle East. All countries in the region – including Israel – have supported the concept, but for Israel, as the only nuclear-weapon country in the region, it has always been a remote scheme. Today, with Iran and perhaps other states in the Middle East moving into more advanced nuclear activities, the idea might appear in a new light to all concerned. For Iran, abandoning its enrichment programme within the framework of a zone could be a contribution to a broader global and regional disarmament and non-proliferation.

Israel may look at its nuclear weapons capability as a kind of life insurance against a possible future existential threat. However, this perception would change drastically if one or more states in the region were to develop nuclear weapons or move close to weapons capability by programmes for the production of enriched uranium or plutonium. To avoid having to face such a situation perhaps Israel would contemplate a zonal agreement under which all countries in the region – including Israel itself – renounced and eliminated nuclear weapons as well as nuclear fuel cycle installations.

This Israeli government may be far from this wavelength, but would it foresee continuing the line of action that began with the bombing of Iraq's Osirak reactor in 1981, and continued with the 2007 attack on Syrian installations claimed to be a North Korean designed research reactor, and the threatened bombing of Iranian nuclear installations?

I do not underestimate the problems of a zonal agreement – for instance those of verification, or outside assurances about security and the supply of uranium fuel. Yet the Obama administration, with the support of many governments, is seeking nuclear disarmament for all – including the original sinners – and both non-proliferation and disarmament are now on the agenda of the UN security council. The Middle East looks like a region in need of a bold broad approach.

The medical and economic costs of nuclear power

The medical and economic costs of nuclear power

By Helen Caldicott - posted Monday, 14 September 2009

Jennifer Nordstrom, co-ordinator of the Carbon-Free Nuclear-Free project has noted “Telling states to build new nuclear plants to combat global warming is like telling a patient to smoke to lose weight.”

A recent study sponsored by the German government (the KiKK study - Kaatsch P, Spix C, Schultze-Rath R, et al. Leukemia in young children living in the vicinity of German nuclear power plants. Int J Cancer. 2008; 1220:721-726,) examined children who lived near 16 of the country’s commercial nuclear power plants. The results revealed a strongly increased risk of all childhood cancers, particularly leukaemia, the closer the proximity of the children’s residence to the reactor. In particular, the study found that children less than the age five years, living within a 5km radius of the power plant exhaust stacks were more than twice as likely to develop leukaemia compared with those children residing more that 5km away. The KiKK team studied other carcinogenic factors which may be responsible for the cancer clusters but none were found.

Another large study (Baker PJ, Hoel DG. Meta-analysis of standardized incidence and mortality rates of childhood leukemia in proximity to nuclear facilities. Eur J Cancer Care. 2007:16:355-363) - a meta-analysis of the incidence and mortality rates of childhood leukaemia in children living near 138 nuclear facilities in Britain, Canada, Spain, Germany, the US and Japan also demonstrated a statistically significant rate of leukaemia in children less than nine years of age.

A further large review (Laurier D, Jacob S, Bernier MO, et al. Epidemiological studies of leukemia in children and young adults around nuclear facilities: A critical review. Rad Prot Dosim. 2008; 132:182- 190) of children and young adults living near 198 nuclear sites in 10 countries was found to be compatible with the study described above.

It is important to note that the sensitivity to the damaging effects of radiation in early embryonic and fetal life is much higher than in adults, and young children are also particularly vulnerable.

The radioactive elements “routinely” emitted from nuclear power plant stacks into the air can be inhaled, or ingested when they concentrate in the food chain - in vegetables and fruit, -and then further concentrated in various internal organs in humans. Similarly, the millions of gallons of cooling water flushed daily from a nuclear reactor into the always adjoining water source (lake, river or sea) contaminate it with radioactive materials which bio-concentrate hundreds of times in the aquatic food chain. The fish of course, who may ingest these materials in the surrounding water, routinely travel for tens and even hundreds of miles before they are caught by commercial or recreational purposes. And when caught their physical appearance does not provide any clues about such ingestion.

Unfortunately, radioactive elements are invisible to the human senses - taste, smell, and sight. Also unfortunately, the incubation time for radiation-induced cancer is five to 60 years, a long, silent latent period. No cancer ever denotes its specific cause.

Among these biologically active elements that are routinely released from nuclear power plants are tritium which lasts for more than 100 years (there is no limit to the amount of tritium that escapes); xenon, krypton. and argon which decay to cesium and strontium; carbon 14 which remains radioactive for thousands of years; cesium 137 - radioactive for hundreds of years; and iodine 129, which has a half life of 15.7 million years.

Tritium combines directly in the DNA molecule of the gene and can induce fetal deformities and various cancers in both animals and humans; cesium causes muscle sarcomas and brain cancers; and strontium - a calcium analogue - migrates to bone where it can induce bone cancer or leukaemia. Finally radioactive iodine causes thyroid cancer.

This situation is made worse by the fact that we are all - including populations living within the vicinity of nuclear reactors - routinely exposed to carcinogenic chemicals in our daily lives, many of which enhance the carcinogenic effects of radioactivity. There are now 80,000 chemicals in common use.

Turning from the human health costs to the monetary, another relevant study related to the nuclear power debate examined the economic feasibility of a “nuclear renaissance” at this time. The World Nuclear Industry Status Report published in August 2009 states that the nuclear industry continues to face steadily increasing construction costs and future cost estimates. The AREVA French-designed reactor project in Olkiluoto Finland is three years behind schedule and 55 per cent over budget (US$7 billion). There are now 435 commercial reactors operating globally, nine fewer than 2002. In 2008, nuclear electricity provided only 5.5 per cent of the international commercial primary energy production.

The average age of operating reactors globally is 25 years, while the average age of 123 reactors already closed is 22 years only. In addition to the 52 reactors currently under construction, another 43 reactors would have to be planned, built and started by 2015 - one every six weeks, and another 192 units over the following 10 years - one every 19 days - in order to maintain the same number that are operating today. With extremely long lead times of 10 to 15 years, this will be an impossible task, let alone actually increasing the number of reactors.

None of the new countries wanting nuclear power have the appropriate nuclear regulations, independent regulators, the domestic maintenance capacity and the skilled workforce to run a nuclear reactor. Nor do they have an adequate grid system to absorb the output of a nuclear power plant.

Furthermore some of these countries either have a government hostile to the concept of nuclear power (Norway, Malaysia, Thailand), hostile public opinion (Italy and Turkey), major economic problems (Poland), earthquake or volcanic risks (Indonesia) or some have an absolute lack of all necessary infrastructure (Venezuela).

France with its large nuclear infrastructure is currently threatened with a severe shortage of skilled workers. The Word Nuclear Industry Status Report reveals that currently only 300 nuclear science graduates are available in France for 1,200 to 1,500 open positions, and in the US only one quarter of such graduates plan to work in the nuclear industry. Most of the current operators, baby boomers, are close to retirement.

And there is one other major bottleneck for new reactors - only one corporation in the world, Japan Steel Works, can manufacture large steel forgings for many reactor pressure vessels.

These problems, together with the global financial crisis mean that the prospects of funding for the nuclear industry - most of which is government sourced - looks grim. New reactors are too risky and expensive to attract private investor funding, and the nuclear industry will not proceed with its “new build” unless they can transfer the risk to the tax payers or ratepayers.

In the US, efforts to forge the nuclear industry renaissance has been thwarted in eight states from Kentucky to Minnesota to Hawaii, Illinois, West Virginia, California, Missouri and Wisconsin. When the Yucca Mountain repository for high level waste was vetoed by President Obama, Dave Kraft, Director of the Nuclear Energy Information Service in Chicago said “Authorising construction of nuclear reactors without first constructing a radioactive waste disposal is like authorising the construction of a new Sears tower without the bathrooms. Neither makes sense; both threaten public health and safety.”

How does this state of affairs relate to Australia? Well, as we know Australia sits on 40 per cent of the world’s high grade uranium; the ALP, in its wisdom, has determined that there should be no restrictions on uranium mining proceeding throughout the country. There are more than 60 potential uranium mines in Western Australia alone. In South Australia, the Olympic Dam mine owned by BHP Billiton is to triple in size to become the largest uranium mine in the world. Honeymoon, Beverley and the Four Mile deposit are all located in South Australia, the latter two are owned by an American company General Atomics, a weapons corporation which also manufactures the pilotless drones that are currently used by the military in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

In the light of these two studies it is difficult to understand how Kevin Rudd and the Labor Government can have no moral scruples about our uranium exports.

A new look at Y-12's 'dry room'

The so-called dry room is a high-security facility inside the Y-12 National Security Complex where nuclear warhead parts are assembled, and the area is sometimes known as the place where workers wear moon suits.

According to information provided by B&W, the government's managing contractor at Y-12, "The 'dry room' is an assembly area used to assemble secondaries and canned subassemblies. Atmospheric moisture is maintained at just a few parts per million. Workers in this area wear special suits to maintain this very low level of atmospheric moisture. These rooms are also known as 'environmental rooms.' "

The photograph, at right, was taken earlier this year. You can compare that with what the suited workers looked like in the 1997 photo (inset left).

So-called secondaries are the second stage of thermonuclear weapons, and that is Y-12's key role in the nuclear weapons production complex. The inside joke at the Oak Ridge plant is that Y-12 puts the "boom" in "ka-boom."

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