For decades in the USA there exists a very healthy movement to stop the nuclear mess that has been conducted. 

Whistleblowers.

Contaminated environment.

Leaks.

Earthquakes.

Tsunamis.

Flooding.

And yet. There is no reasonable end in sight to a disaster chronically in the making.

The international proliferation of nuclear capacity since the Axis of Evil speech has escalated.

In the USA, the industry is obviously out of control. Ninty percent of the funding for the NRC comes from the facilities it is suppose to regulate. Is that sincerely a good idea? It seems to me to be as bad as the petroleum industry and the old Minerals and Mining bunch.

Is everyone too afraid to ask? To afraid to know the truth? Or is Eisenhower's propaganda still permeating the nuclear culture?

There is a lot wrong here. A lot. Not just a little bit, but, a lot. Even if it were only a little bit wrong, when it comes to nuclear material does it matter? Isn't a little bit wrong equivalent to a lot wrong anyway?

What is completely astounding to me as we are coming up to March 1, 2013 and all those debt cuts are suppose to start; is that no one planned for the impacts. When the Super-committee met there was little to know forethought about what actually is going to result in the USA. 

If we are going to reduce the national debt and it is going to impact sensitive programs regarding nuclear material, won't it be better to have the ability to SAFELY remove funding?

Anticipated.

Reductions already instituted before the funding cuts?

Is it too much to ask to have the Republicans GOVERN? Is it?

02/09/13 01:01 AM ET EST

PLYMOUTH, Mass. -- The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (click here) says a power plant in Massachusetts has lost power and shut down during a massive snowstorm.

The NRC says the Pilgrim Nuclear Power Plant in Plymouth experienced an automatic shutdown at around 9:15 p.m. Friday after losing off-site power. Spokesman Neil Sheehan says the plant has declared an unusual event, which is the lowest level of emergency classification.

Sheehan says that the reactor shut down without any problems and that backup generators are powering plant equipment.

The NRC says there's no threat to public safety.

The shutdown came as a major snowstorm began clobbering the New York-to-Boston corridor, knocking out power to more than 300,000 customers in Massachusetts....

India, Pakistan, Iran are all countries within reach of criminal extremists.

Yet, while these countries, along with North Korea state they are using nuclear fuel for electrical power, where are their repositories? The region these plants are in can't be more sensitive for global security, yet there is more fuss over the production of nuclear fuel than over the storage of the waste or the limiting of any transportation out of these countries. I mean they do export their waste to a permanent nuclear nation, right?

February 23, 2013

Iran says it has found major new uranium deposits and is planning to expand its nuclear power programme. (click here)

It said 16 sites had been identified as suitable for the construction of new power plants over the next 15 years.

Iran said the find - which has not been independently confirmed - would treble the size of known uranium deposits.

Under UN sanctions, Iran is banned from importing nuclear material. It is due to hold talks with Western powers on Tuesday about its nuclear programme.

The US and its allies are widely believed to be planning to offer Iran some relief from sanctions at the talks in Almaty, Kazakhstan.

France confirmed a "substantial" new offer would be made, French news agency AFP quoted the foreign ministry as saying.

Three rounds of meetings in Moscow ended last June in stalemate.

Iran denies charges that it is secretly developing atomic weapons and insists that as a signatory of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) it is entitled to develop a nuclear power programme....

India has no nuclear weapons. I don't know why it would be so difficult for Pakistan to get rid of it's nukes.

By: Dr Zafar Nawaz Jaspal | February 23, 2013

...Since the very beginning, (click here) Pakistan’s nuclear programme has been facing negligible internal and significant external opposition. In reality, the internal nuclear abolitionists have miserably failed to cultivate their viewpoint in the Pakistani society.

The people of Pakistan have simply rejected their judgment about the demerits or repercussions of nuclear weapons in the strategic environment of South Asia. They have vehemently supported the nuclear programme and defied the malicious propaganda unleashed to hinder Islamabad’s pursuit to acquire indigenous nuclear weapons capability.

Concurrently, the Government of Pakistan had constituted and implemented both short and long term policies to develop the country’s nuclear deterrence capability, particularly after India’s nuclear explosion in Rajasthan on May 18, 1974....

Moreover, it has been intelligently addressing the security challenges to its nuclear infrastructure. Therefore, there has been no recorded incident of sabotage or theft of the Pakistani nuclear material to date....

Idaho, Utah and Colorado have about 100 or less metric tons of nuclear waste in their repositories.

There may have been a reason why Former Governor Huntsman was not at the top of the favorite list during the Republican debates. Do inspections by the NRC actually take place on Native American lands? I am not really clear on that?

High-Level Atomic Waste Dump Targeted at Skull Valley Goshute Indian Reservation in Utah (click here)

Nevadans and Utahans living downwind and downstream from nuclear weapons testing, uranium mining, and radioactive waste dumping have suffered immensely during the Nuclear Age. But even in the "nuclear sacrifice zones" of the desert Southwest, it is Native Americans--from Navajo uranium miners to tribal communities targeted with atomic waste dumps-- who have borne the brunt of both the front and back ends of the nuclear fuel cycle.

The tiny Skull Valley Band of Goshute Indians Reservation in Utah is targeted for a very big nuclear waste dump. Private Fuel Storage (PFS), a limited liability corporation representing eight powerful nuclear utilities, wants to "temporarily" store 40,000 tons of commercial high-level radioactive waste (nearly the total amount that presently exists in the U.S.) next to the two-dozen tribal members who live on the small reservation....

This is very strange, because the information I was reading dated August 9, 2011 stated Utah had less than 1 metric ton of nuclear waste in it's repository. Odd, isn't it?

Utah to file appeal of nuclear repository ruling (click here)

Critics hail statement of opposition by LDS Church

By Joe Bauman, Deseret News

Published: Tuesday, Sept. 13 2005 12:00 a.m. MDT

...That was the word Monday from Mike Lee, general counsel to Gov. Jon M. Huntsman. Last week, the NRC granted a license allowing construction of the facility by Private Fuel Storage. PFS intends to build it on land owned by the Goshute Indians in Skull Valley and store casks of radioactive nuclear power plant fuel rods....

NIRS is overjoyed to announce (click here) that it has helped defeat the 

environmentally racist Private Fuel Storage (PFS) high-level radioactive waste 

dump targeted at the Skull Valley Goshute Indian Reservation in Utah.

On Sept. 7, 2006 the U.S. Bureau of Land Management rejected transportation 

plans for shipping 44,000 tons of highly radioactive waste from commercial 

nuclear reactors across the country to PFS. The U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs 

likewise rejected the lease agreement between the nuclear utility consortium 

comprising PFS and the pro-dump, disputed Skull Valley Goshute tribal 

chairman Leon Bear.

Although PFS may appeal these rulings, this dump has very likely been 

defeated, once and for all, after a bitter decade-long struggle....

The weapons plant was in Rocky Flats, Colorado. It is closed now, but, that 

hasn't ended the problems though.

By KEITH SCHNEIDER, Special to The New York Times
Published: September 01, 1989

Fulfilling a vow he made in February, Gov. Cecil D. Andrus (click here) has closed Idaho's borders to shipments of radioactive waste from the Government's only plutonium processing plant, a move that could force the plant to halt production early next year.

It is the second time in 10 months that Governor Andrus has banned disposal of radioactive waste produced by the Rocky Flats Plant, 18 miles northwest of Denver, at a temporary dump near Idaho Falls. When the Federal Government agreed in February to clean up the Idaho disposal site, Governor Andrus partially lifted his first ban, which applied to radioactive waste from all nuclear weapons plants, and said the state would accept a limited amount of waste from the Colorado plant until Sept. 1.

Secretary of Energy James D. Watkins has said he will not challenge Governor Andrus's authority to close the border....

This is the picture of Rocky Flats. All these sites have this barren appearance, don't they? Like nothing can live there. Indeed.

February 24, 2012

by Julie M. Rodriquez

16 miles northwest of Denver, CO sits the Rocky Flats site, (click here) formerly home to a plant that produced nuclear weapons from 1952-1989. These operations were shut down for repeated safety violations, which whistleblowers started bringing to the attention of the EPA and FBI in 1987. The extent of the contamination of the site was never revealed publically.

In 1992, Rocky Flats was closed for good following the fall of the Soviet Union. It was added to the EPA’s National Priorities List, and cleanup efforts began. In 2000, Congress proposed that the site be transformed into a wildlife refuge. The cleanup was declared complete in 2005, although the levels of present contamination were not shown to the public.

The site has come under scrutiny again, as efforts are being made to build a new highway along the eastern edge of the refuge. The EPA and Colorado Department of Public Health and the Environment insist that the site is safe, and that construction won’t pose a health risk to workers or surrounding communities. Those living in the area aren’t so sure, especially because no new testing was planned in advance of the construction....

Washington, Oregon, Nebraska, Kansas, Iowa, Missouri, Arkansas, Louisiana, Tennessee, Ohio, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Mississippi, Massachusetts, Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine each have about 1000 metric tons in their nuclear waste repositories.

Aug 30, 2007, 5:06pm EDT

Progress fined for nuke plant violation (click here)

Raleigh's Progress Energy is being fined $65,000 by federal regulators after an investigation turned up evidence that supervisors at Wake County's Shearon Harris nuclear power plant gave three contract security officers answers to a requalification test....

...Eight of the whistleblowers' 19 claims have been substantiated by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, though only one of those substantiations, the one dealing with the security officers, led to any regulatory action. The NRC declined to take action against Progress on the other claims after the company promised to clean up its act internally....

I'll be darn. It could be more than a 1000 metric tons. 

Surprise, surprise, surprise.

Isn't there any national registry of the nuclear fuel produced, when it is considered spent fuel, when it is off loaded from the reactor, what pool it is in  and when it leave the pool? 

No?

Really?

I think the Nuclear Regulatory Commission has too much interest in the facilities that provide 90% of their funding and not nearly enough about the people actually paying for their electricity. I seems that way to me.

N.C. brims with nuclear waste (click here)
Published: May 25, 2011
By JOHN MURAWSKI — Staff Writer

North Carolina, which relies on nuclear power for nearly half of its electricity, is home to some of the nation's highest concentrations of radioactive waste.

The state ranks fourth in the nation for accumulated nuclear waste, according to a report issued Tuesday by the Institute for Policy Studies, a left-leaning advocacy group in Washington....

Read more here: http://www.newsobserver.com/2011/05/25/1223108/nc-brims-with-nuclear-waste.html#storylink=cpy

California, Michigan, New York, Connecticut, New Jersey, Maryland, Virginia, North and South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Florida, Texas and Arizona all have approximately 5000 metric tons of nuclear waste in their repositories.

I can understand why California has only one remaining nuclear plant. Completely. But, it complicates the Climate Crisis issue and alternatives need far more investment than they are receiving.

As of mid-2012, (click here) California had one operating nuclear power plant: Diablo Canyon (2,160 megawatts), near San Luis Obispo [pictured in a PG&E photo to the right]. The San Onofre plant, about midway between Los Angeles and San Diego, went offline in January 2012 and was ordered by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to stay offline while tubing wear issues were investigated. Nuclear units at both plants use ocean water for cooling.

Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E) owns the Diablo Canyon Nuclear Power Plant, which consists of two units. Unit 1 is a 1,073 megawatt (MW) PWR which began commercial operation in May 1985, while Unit 2 is a 1,087 MW PWR which began commercial operation in March 1986. Diablo Canyon's operation license expires in 2024 and PG&E must apply to the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission for a 20 year license extension....

Renewable Energy Programs (click here)

California, with its abundant natural resources, has a long history of support for renewable energy.

In 2009, 11.6 percent of all electricity came from renewable resources such as wind, solar, geothermal, biomass and small hydroelectric facilities. Large hydro plants generated another 9.2 percent of our electricity.

On April 12, 2011, Gov. Jerry Brown signed legislation to require one-third of the state's electricity to come from renewable energy by December 31, 2020....

Pennsylvania also has over 10,000 metric tons of nuclear waste in their repositories.

A sign warns of radioactive material at the Parks Township Shallow Land Disposal Area where excavation of nuclear material was halted by the Corps of Engineers.

How many more surprises do the citizens of the USA have coming? Even the Army Corps didn't know about the dumping? And there is going to be cuts to whom's funding exactly? 

I thought the nuclear industry was one of the most regulated industries in the nation. It would appear not. It seems to me the military budget is the least thing the Speaker and his House Republicans need to worry about. But, we know how it is; they just aren't on the same page as the Executive Branch and the Senate these days.

Filibuster this, McConnell. Go ahead. Make this nation into a disaster of monumental proportions. The domestic economy and the safety of it's citizens has to come first. I really don't believe there is any room for debate.

August 13, 2012 11:48 am

By Erich Schwartzel / Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (click here) will remain in charge of cleaning up a radioactive nuclear waste site in Parks, Armstrong County, that is home to materials that forced the agency to halt operations and bring in Homeland Security guards earlier this summer.

The decision to keep the Pittsburgh district of the Corps in charge comes after federal officials stopped operations at the site, which spans 44 acres near Apollo and houses nuclear waste left behind from operations conducted by the Nuclear Materials and Equipment Corporation (NUMEC) and Atlantic Richfield Co.

The Babcock and Wilcox Co. most recently owned the land before closing the plant in 1983.

Officials stopped the clean-up project in May after crews discovered greater quantities of what they called "complex" materials like uranium and plutonium at the site.

Armed guards began patrolling the fenced-in land, and officials began reviewing whether the Army Corps was the best agency to continue the job....

PUBLISHED: JUNE 18, 2012 12:01 AM EST
UPDATED: JUNE 17, 2012 11:32 PM EST

Security upped at former Pa. nuclear waste dump (click here)

VANDERGRIFT -- Guards from the federal Department of Homeland Security are patrolling a former western Pennsylvania nuclear waste dump as officials rethink their cleanup plans after finding what they called more "complex" nuclear material than expected.

Neither the Army Corps of Engineers, which is managing the cleanup, nor the Nuclear Regulatory Commission would say exactly what material was found at the Armstrong County site, the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review reported.

Scott McConnell, spokesman for the National Protection and Programs Directorate, which is part of the Department of Homeland Security, said the elevated security measures were put in place at the Corps' request and were not related to any specific threat in the area. He said the measures result from "an abundance of caution."...

What was that about the worry over the military budget cuts? Really?

Performance Budget/Congressional Budget Justification (NUREG-1100)

Now, it seems to me that the Super-Committee should have been very serious about scrutinizing the cuts before them with what is now called the Sequester. But, hey, I could be wrong about that. For god sake, Boehner, can't you get anyone to do what they need to do in that Congress? Is this some of your politics or forgotten priorities. I know this is not political enough for you, but, I sure hope the domestic side of the budget is being adequately addressed. March 1st is really going to happen without restructuring an across the board 10% cut, huh? Wow.

Rod Adams · November 16, 2012

It is time to remind Congress (click here) and the President that the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s budget is, by law, almost 90% funded with fees assessed on licensees. The structure was put into place during the Reagan Administration at a time when David Stockman was selling the idea that the government could charge fees on users of its “services” instead of imposing taxes on people that might not use specific government services. For fiscal year 2013, the NRC fee total will be $924.8 million.

The other 10% or so of the NRC’s budget comes from appropriated money because the NRC does some things that cannot be counted as a service to its licensees. One example activity that would be instantly recognized as a special tax on nuclear operators if charged to licensees is the NRC’s support of international agencies. For FY 2013, the net appropriations number is $128.5 million, resulting in a total of $1,053 million....

A half of a decade later.

"Atoms for Peace" is a legitimate band. (click here)

The question is; "Is the only default setting we have for nuclear technology electricity generation?"

President Eisenhower's "Atoms for Peace" Speech (click here)

December 8, 1953

Before the General Assembly of the United Nations on Peaceful Uses of Atomic Energy

Madame President, Members of the General Assembly:

When Secretary General Hammarskjold's invitation to address this General Assembly reached me in Bermuda, I was just beginning a series of conferences with the Prime Ministers and Foreign Ministers of Great Britain and of France. Our subject was some of the problems that beset our world....

...But the great test and the great accomplishments still lie ahead. And in the confident expectation of those accomplishments, I would use the office which, for the time being, I hold, to assure you that the Government of the United States will remain steadfast in its support of this body. This we shall do in the conviction that you will provide a great share of the wisdom, the courage, and the faith which can bring to this world lasting peace for all nations, and happiness and well-being for all men....

It hasn't really worked out that way, has it? During the entire dialogue by the USA of it's weapon of mass destruction there is always laced a sense of higher purpose for the weapon. The Allied forces had ended the war in the east with it and allowed the struggle in Europe to continue. It was Russia that finally ended the war with Hitler though.

The world bought into this benevolence of power by the USA. The Columbia Physics Department would receive 28 Nobel Prizes for scientific discovery. So, every nation, every leader was well invested in the power of the USA and basically believed everything Eisenhower stated. It was an unspoken promise in his dialogue. Somehow, the USA would contain the power of nuclear potential.

Eisenhower effectively removed the heinousness of the deaths in Japan as a victory and promoted peaceful use of nuclear power. Very clever. Why the world didn't seek to end the insane idea when it was presented is something no one writes about. Who were those that looked into their crystal balls and saw what was to come? Evidently, no one. The genie was out of the bottle and there was no going back.

Russia, while using nuclear technology for electricity generation didn't wait to find their own nuclear military capacity. After all the ignitions in Japan were very near their borders. It was impossible to buy into the idea that the USA was never going to use the weapons again. It had just vanquished Hitler. The Soviet Union wasn't about to settle back in an easy chair without securing it's sovereignty away from a greater threat. 

We know today the path "Atoms for Peace" took. Five legitimate nuclear nations all with significant enough arsenals that could wipe out every human life on Earth. And the peaceful use of atomic energy has made it into the hands of nations too scared of The West to never develop it further than electricity generation.

Would the outcome today been so much different if Eisenhower didn't run his propaganda campaign. Would the world be rid of the nuclear weapons of mass destruction if only the concern for the technology were evident? 

President Obama didn't start the trend in Illinois. Promise.

1959 Morris, IL Commonwealth Edison Dresden Nuclear Power Plant Press Photo (picture for sale on E-Bay)

...Illinois (click here) was also home to the first commercial power reactor, (click here) Unit 1 at Commonwealth Edison's Dresden Power Station. Subsequent problems forced the permanent shutdown of this unit, thus also making it one of the first commercial power reactors to close prematurely....

I find it more than interesting that Illinois was the beginning of electrical generation by nuclear chain reaction and it has one of the largest deposits of spent nuclear fuel in the country. Over 10,000 metric tons.

If we accept the fact the USA had no alternative but to develop a doomsday weapon...

...then we have to accept the fact the potential was unleashed by a madman in Germany with no respect for life, except, his own Aryan Race. I sincerely believe Hitler meant it. He wanted a weapon to sterile the world and rebuild it after he was finished with is war to end all wars.

I believed he hated the world and every aspect of any nation that did not service is purpose. Why otherwise the weapon? Why the idea?

To ask that question is a bit dangerous, because, today we have all kinds of imaginations creating all these films that will be reviewed by peers at the awards tonight. But, to realize such a weapon was never conceived until it came as a priority to Hitler's new nation makes it all the more a reality.

Let's just say Japan and Hitler had succeeded in the war. The fact the scientists were in the USA was irrelevant. The Axis Powers would have owned the technology that was being developed with his scientists and being prepared to use as a weapon.

It is a lot to think about.

It is nearly understandable why Pearl Harbor happened in 1941. If Japan was to stop the insane weapon of mass destruction it was now or never; so the Kamikaze pilots were a given.

There isn't much written about the inner circles of the Axis Powers. It is more important to history to paint the victor in the struggle than the aggressor and the defeated.

The Japanese were at war with China. Supposedly the USA imposed an oil embargo on Japan. Either way, the attack on Pearl Harbor was a second front for Japan. It wasn't really a planned attack at the beginning of the Japanese - Chinese war. Japan would seek to disable the USA military fleet until it had a chance to take over the Dutch East Indies where there were oil fields.

I have to wonder if the freezing of Japanese assets and the oil embargo was due to the confidence Roosevelt began to realize with the first test completed on the doomsday weapon. Basically, no matter the chronology leading up the attack on Pearl Harbor, it was the USA that unleashed the wrath of Japan. That had to be a well contemplated change in status between the USA and Japan. The embargo, the bomb and the move by Japan toward the East Indies all resulted by a confidence that lay ahead.

The development of a nuclear military capacity was uncharted ground.

It was called The Manhattan Project. This video is an instructional record of the times they lived in and the degree the USA government committed resources to have it all happen.

One could say, it would be better to prevent the development of such technology, but, if it didn't happen in the USA it would have happened elsewhere and would the outcome today be so stark and aimed at non-proliferation.

At the first test occurred, the scientists backed away from using the technology as a weapon. They had an idea about the magnitude of the technology, but, it's final development was a surprise to even them. They told the USA military they did not want this unleashed in the world.

Their protestations were taken seriously and the President wanted to notify Japan of the weapon and the willingness of the USA to use it. The weapon itself and not the use of it in war was to be a deterrent. The rest is history.

Why the bomb?

The story is the Germans, Hilter, would have perfected the ultimate weapon if the USA hadn't taken ownership of it.

1939 were the time when the USA entered the war, but, it had begun long before.

* Japan invaded Manchuria in 1931

* Italy invaded Ethiopia beginning in 1935

* Nazi Germany signed a treaty with Fascist Italy in 1936 creating the Rome-Berlin Axis

*Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan sign a pact in 1936

*Eight months later Japan invades China. Then one wonders why Japan and China has tensions. But, China never entered WWII.

So, the story is plausible. It makes sense. The world was breaking out in war in ways that threatened populations. I am quite sure the scientists making it as far as Great Britain wanted to be removed from the potential of wiping out life. Physicists were running from the aggressors. They have had to had an indication of the use of their own genius.

American scientists, (click here and be sure watch the video of 2 minutes and 43 seconds) many of them refugees from fascist regimes in Europe, took steps in 1939 to organize a project to exploit the newly recognized fission process for military purposes. The first contact with the government was made by G.B. Pegram of Columbia University (click here), who arranged a conference between Enrico Fermi and the Navy Department in March 1939. In the summer of 1939, Albert Einstein was persuaded by his fellow scientists to use his influence and present the military potential of an uncontrolled fission chain reaction to President Franklin D. Roosevelt. In February 1940, $6,000 was made available to start research under the supervision of a committee headed by L.J. Briggs, director of the National Bureau of Standards....

saturday

It's Sunday Night

"Nuclear" by Destiny's Child

You had you dreams 
And I had mine 
Eyes wide open 
And we dreamed together 
I never know how we keep 
Our shit together 

Wondering 
Is this love or illusion 
We're just getting better 
When the two become one 
On a quantum level 

It's nuclear 
We're two here 
There's nowhere left to run 
Why run? Why would you run? 
It's nucler 
We're two here 
We both heat up 

Goin all the way (eh eh) 
Goin all the way (eh eh) 
Goin all the way (eh eh) 
Goin all the way (eh eh) 

You had your half 
And I had mine 
But now there's no such thing 
As you and me 
I was so used to feeling incomplete 

Wondering 
Is this Love or illusion 
We're just getting better 
When the two become one 
On a quantum level 

It's nuclear 
We're two here 
There's nowhere left to run 
Why run? Why would you run? 
It's nuclear 
We're two here 
We both heat up 

Goin all the way 

Anytime the climates change between us 
We share a bond they can't restrict 
That can't be touched 
So amazing super power 
Take over 
Never lose the energy 

It's nuclear 
We're two here 
There's nowhere left to run 
Why run? Why would you run? 
It's nuclear 
We're two here 
We both heat up 

Goin all the way (eh eh) 
Goin all the way (eh eh) 
Goin all the way (eh eh) 
Goin all the way (eh eh)

"The only thing that stops a bad guy with a gun, is a good guy with a gun." LePierre