There have been waves of articles and commentary in today’s news since the announcement of North Korea’s test yesterday.
Welcome to the Nuclear Club
by Norman Solomon
Bush’s Nuclear Apocalypse by Chris Hedges
Analysis: North Korea Test a Sign of Weakness by Stephen Fidler
North Korea’s Nuclear Test and Bush’s FUBAR Foreign Policy by Heather Wokusch
Nuclear missile modified for conventional attack on Iran could set off alarm in Russia
A Pentagon project to modify its deadliest nuclear missile for use as a conventional weapon against targets such as North Korea and Iran could unwittingly spark an atomic war, two weapons experts warned Thursday.
Russian military officers might misconstrue a submarine-launched conventional D5 intercontinental ballistic missile and conclude that Russia is under nuclear attack, said Ted Postol, a physicist and professor of science, technology and national security policy at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and Pavel Podvig, a physicist and weapons specialist at Stanford.
“Any launch of a long-range nonnuclear armed sea or land ballistic missile will cause an automated alert of the Russian early warning system,” Postol told reporters.
While the U.S. is spending funds to restore symbols of death and destruction (see my post below), perhaps advocates of nuclear war should be proud. North Korea is using nuclear weaponry in its most recent test blast.
North Korea said today it had performed its first nuclear weapons test, an underground explosion that defied international warnings but was hailed by the communist nation as a “great leap forward” for its people.
The reported test drew harsh rebuke from North Korea’s neighbors. The U.N. Security Council is expected to discuss the North Korean issue today, and the United States and Japan are likely to press for a resolution imposing additional sanctions on Pyongyang.
Condemnation of North Korea came swiftly after the test was announced.
“A North Korean nuclear test would constitute a provocative act in defiance of the will of the international community and of our call to refrain from actions that would aggravate tensions in Northeast Asia,” White House spokesman Tony Snow said.
“We expect the U.N. Security Council to take immediate actions to respond to this unprovoked act,” Snow said. “The United States is closely monitoring the situation and reaffirms its commitment to protect and defend our allies in the region.”
Snow declined to speculate on a possible U.S. response to a North Korean nuclear test. “At this point we’re still assessing the data and trying to figure out what happened,” he said. “A lot of this hinges on what the data tells us.”
Private Fuel Storage Chairman John Parkyn is still holding out for an interim nuclear waste storage site in Utah, according to a Deseret News article this morning.
Parkyn will not release any details on his “plans”.
The article also mentions the proposal of the Nuclear Energy Institute, the nuclear industry’s lobbying organization, to offer tens of millions of dollars, increasing as time progresses, to state sthat is approved to host an interim storage site.
The waste needs to stay in the state in which it is generated. The problems inherent with sending nuclear waste to other states are monumental (e.g., accident/exposure risk), not to mention the fact that states such as Utah don’t want the waste.
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged environment, goshutes, nuclear issues, private fuel storage, Utah
Today’s News
Summary of the news [Salt Lake Tribune]
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged environment, goshutes, nuclear issues, private fuel storage, Utah
Green Commons has asked that this letter be circulated:
Please circulate widely!
Dear Friends,
Tom Clements parting gift to us … he has drafted a great letter for all of the groups to sign on thanking Hobson for KILLING MOX {a blend of uranium and plutonium from left-over nuclear bombs} (I know it’s a premature call, but he has called for cancellation of the program and return of the money, and also is giving money to immobilization which is GREAT).
We’re looking for U.S. and Russian group signatures only, please. We will field suggested changes from this list through end of tomorrow, Friday. We need to be sure of the subcommittee calendar for marking up the appropriations bill, but we are thinking to broadcast widely for signatures through next week and then shoot it to Hobson and Domenici with a media release.
Thanks and NIX MOX y’all!
Send your sign-on to me at atom.girl@mindspring.com
Please circulate widely!
———————–
September x, 2006
Dear Representative Hobson
Chairman, House Energy and Water Development Subcommittee
Room 2362-B Rayburn House Office Building
Washington, DC 20515-6020
fax 202-225-1984
Eliminate Funding for SRS MOX Plant, Support Plutonium Immobilization
Dear Representative Hobson:
We are writing to you to thank you for the decision by the Energy and Water Development Subcommittee which led the full House to eliminate funding for the plutonium fuel (mixed oxide fuel, MOX) plant at the Department of Energy¹s (DOE) Savannah River Site (SRS) in South Carolina. For a host of cost, non-proliferation, and environmental reasons we fully support the decision to terminate the MOX program as a method to deal with surplus weapons plutonium. We also enthusiastically applaud the House¹s recognition that immobilization of plutonium as waste is the preferred disposition path.
Continue reading
Dear Friends,
While the Divine Strake Test has been **postponed indefinitely,** it has not been canceled. There is now talk of moving the test to a privately owned limestone quarry in Southwestern Indiana, or to Los Alamos in New Mexico.
The only sure way to cancel this test is to cut off its funding. These funds currently paid out to profiteering companies such as Bechtel, would be much better spent cleaning up sites contaminated by nuclear and other weapons testing. We call upon peace and disarmament activists to pressure their congressional delegations to rescind the funding for Divine Strake, and allocate the funds for cleanup of weapons contamination.
On our Alert Page, http://www.shundahai.org/action_alerts.htm we have posted a pair of “Stop Payment” graphics for you to use in actions at congressional and war profiteer offices.
Print out these checks, and write your own messages to your congressional representatives and to local officials at companies such as Bechtel. For increased impact, assemble groups all bearing these checks, and visit your congressional representatives during the recess, which extends from August 7 to September 4. This is an election year, and an excellent time for constituents to use the power of the ballot.
Thanks for all you do,
Shundahai Network
http://www.shundahai.org
P.O. Box 1115
Salt Lake City, UT 84110
Phone- 801.533.0128
Fax- 801.533.0129
shundahai@shundahai.org
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Tagged divine strake, environment, indigenous issues, nuclear issues, Utah
It looks like the Divine Strake test is being diverted to Indiana:
Louisville Courier Journal
Quarry mentioned as blast test site
Environmentalists fear effects of 700-ton bomb
http://www.courier-journal.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060817/NEWS02/608170468
Indianapolis Star:
Military tested explosives at Ind quarry
http://www.indystar.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060816/LOCAL/60816030
Ft. Wayne News Sentinel:
Company: Military tested explosives at southern Indiana quarry
http://www.fortwayne.com/mld/newssentinel/news/local/15288924.htm
Counterpunch
Divine Strake in the Bible Belt
http://www.counterpunch.org/blair08182006.html
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Tagged divine strake, environment, indigenous issues, nuclear issues
Yesterday was the 61st anniversary of Nagasaki Atomic Bombing. A service was held at Nagasaki’s Peace Park yesterday where a moment of silence was held at 11:02 am, the moment the bomb was dropped. Over 200,000 people died in the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
In Cuba, to commemorate the anniversaries of the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki,members of the Cuban community project Callejon de la Paz issued a call on Tuesday in Havana for world peace.
Eight members of the Santa Cruz Weapons Inspection Team (SCWIT) ,performed a street theatre skit to commemorate the 61st anniversary of the nuclear bombing of Hiroshima. The group, all dressed in white clothes, assembled at noon on the corner of Pacific Ave and Cooper St. in downrtown Santa Cruz for a dramatized reenactment of the nuclear bombing interspersed with a mock inspection and symbolic dismantling of a Trident II D5 nuclear submarine missile.
Tonight in Salt Lake City, the Salt Lake City Film Center will show The Last Bomb at the Salt Lake City Library Auditorium – 210 East 400 South SLC (Free Admission). After the film there will be a performance of a Butoh dance (a post-modern Japanese dance) by the Red Junket Butoh Troup on the Library Plaza.
The World has not forgotten those terrible events of 61 years ago. Yet when it comes to nuclear proliferation, the U.S. and other dominating countries seem to forget.
Other links to information on the bombings:
(Warning, some articles may contain graphic photos)
Divine Strake weapons test postponed for further study
Nevada site may be out for the blast test–
Delayed again: Director of Pentagon agency to assess other locations
Divine Strake postponed until 2007
Divine Strake explosion delayed, possibly moved
….and from HEAL Utah:
The ditch has already been dug. The 700 tons of ammonium nitrate and fuel oil to fill it have already been purchased. But thankfully, the concerned voices of downwinders have delayed again the Pentagon’s intent to resurrect 10,000-foot mushroom clouds on our horizon.
The Department of Defense announced yesterday that the Divine Strake test would be delayed until at least “several months into 2007,” but that it would proceed at that point if it is determined that the blast can comply with the National Environmental Policy Act and there is a favorable ruling in the lawsuit brought by the Western Shoshone and Downwinders.
Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged divine strake, environment, indigenous issues, nuclear issues, Utah
Deanna Dee-Dee Taylor 