The Prophets of Oak Ridge

Excellent article on Transform Now Plowshares.
The trial is scheduled to begin May 7 in Knoxville.

Robert Bigelow Plans a Real Estate Empire in Space

http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2013-05-02/robert-bigelow-plans-a-real-estate-empire-in-space

Robert Bigelow Plans a Real Estate Empire in Space
By Adam Higginbotham
May 02, 2013

Robert Bigelow was no more than 9 years old when he heard his first atom bomb explosion. He was upstairs in his bedroom, in a two-story brick house in Las Vegas. There was a low rumble in the early hours of the morning; a bright flash seared the horizon. “All of a sudden,” Bigelow remembers, “it lights up like daytime.”

<snip>

The atomic tests were Bigelow’s first encounter with the wonders of science. As he grew up in the Las Vegas of the early ’50s—then still a small town—foretastes of the Space Age transfixed him: exotic jet planes screaming overhead from Nellis Air Force Base and stories of UFO sightings recounted by friends and family. At 12, Bigelow decided that his future lay in space travel, despite his limitations. “I hated algebra,” he says. “I knew I was no good at it.” So he resolved to choose a career that would make him rich enough that, one day, he could hire the scientific expertise required to launch his own space program. Until then, he would tell no one—not even his wife—about his ultimate goal. It took more than 40 years.

<snip>

Although he’ll be quite happy to sell habitats outright to his customers, he points out that for NASA—or the agencies of any other newly budget-conscious nations with ambitions beyond earth’s atmosphere—leasing is by far the more affordable option. For only $51.25 million, Bigelow’s sales brochure suggests, a client can travel to the Alpha Station and enjoy dominion over 110 cubic meters for 60 days.

<snip>

Today, the FAA directs all new reports of UFO sightings to another Bigelow-funded organization, Bigelow Aerospace Advanced Space Studies, of which he is operating manager. Bigelow is unequivocal about the evidence he’s accumulated over the years: He’s convinced of the existence of extraterrestrial life. “I have no doubt,” he says. “Zero doubt.”

<snip>


A cutaway showing the interior of the Olympus habitat, which has a volume more than double that of the International Space Station

Japan's Nuclear Plan Unsettles U.S.

Source: Wall Street Journal

Japan is preparing to start up a massive nuclear-fuel reprocessing plant over the objections of the Obama administration, which fears the move may stoke a broader race for nuclear technologies and even weapons in North Asia and the Middle East.

The Rokkasho reprocessing facility, based in Japan's northern Aomori prefecture, is capable of producing nine tons of weapons-usable plutonium annually, said Japanese officials and nuclear-industry experts, enough to build as many as 2,000 bombs, although Japanese officials say their program is civilian.

<snip>

The Obama administration widely believes Rokkasho had been mothballed as a result of these delays, said U.S. officials who have worked on nuclear policy. This belief was further cemented by the Fukushima accident and Tokyo's subsequent announcement that it was drastically scaling back its nuclear-power program.

"For the Obama administration…there wasn't any real need to focus on (Rokkasho)," said Gary Samore, who oversaw nuclear-proliferation issues in the White House during President Barack Obama's first term.

<snip>

Read more: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887324582004578456943867189804.html

May 2: petitioners will give statements to NRC to close Mark 1 and 2 reactors

listen or watch online:

http://www.safeandgreencampaign.org/action/2013/05/freeze-our-fukushimas

Freeze Our Fukushimas
Posted on May 1, 2013


Beyond Nuclear’s “Freeze Our Fukushimas!” Campaign

Safe and Green Campaign and 22 other groups organizing in Mark 1 and Mark 2 reactor communities submitted a petition to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, demanding that they immediately close the reactors. The GE Mark 1 and Mark 2 reactors have significant flaws in the container design, which were confirmed by the on-going catastrophe in Fukushima, Japan.

On Thursday, May 2 from 1:00-3:00pm, Safe and Green Campaign and co-petitioners will give our statements to the NRC’s petition review board. Safe & Green will address past accidents and near-misses at Vermont Yankee’s Mark 1 reactor. You can listen in to the phone conference, or watch on-line. The NRC will provide 300 toll-free telephone lines through 1-888-603-9750 (Passcode 5506147) for the general public and interested media to listen to the groups’ arguments for enforcement action.

We are grateful to Beyond Nuclear for taking the lead on this issue. Check out their website for details on the petition and links to access to the phone call or webcast: Freeze Our Fukushimas.

Calif. Reactors Might Be Retired If Restart Nixed

Source: Associated Press

Costs tied to the long-running shutdown of California's San Onofre nuclear power plant have soared to $553 million, while the majority owner raised the possibility Tuesday of retiring the plant if it can't get one reactor running later this year.

<snip>

SCE has asked federal regulators for permission to restart the Unit 2 reactor and run it at reduced power for a five-month test period, in hopes of stopping vibration blamed for tube damage. Without that approval, Chairman Ted Craver told Wall Street analysts in a conference call that a decision on whether to retire one or both reactors might be made this year.

Carver's disclosure highlighted the growing pressure and uncertainty the company faces as one of California's most important sources of electricity sits idle. When running, the plant's twin reactors can power 1.4 million homes.

<snip>

With questions about whether the plant can restart, mounting costs and who picks up the tab, "there is a practical limit to how much we can absorb of that risk," Craver said.

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Read more: http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/costs-calif-nuke-shutdown-550-million-19078080

NRC hears concerns about Yankee

Source: Rutland Herald

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission was both praised and condemned Tuesday by local residents for its oversight of the Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant.

At the plant’s annual assessment meeting, Yankee was described as meeting all of the safety requirements established by the NRC, but with four minor problems in the past year.

The meeting almost didn’t happen when it was disrupted by anti-nuclear protesters, members of the Shut It Down Affinity Group.

The group of women, all wearing masks of former NRC Chairman Gregory Jaczko, stood in back of a table full of NRC officials and said they were “indicting” both the NRC and Entergy for failing to protect the health of people living near nuclear power plants.

<snip>

Read more: http://www.rutlandherald.com/article/20130501/NEWS02/705019893/1003

US asks India, Pakistan to restrain their nuclear, missile programmes

Source: Times of India

Expressing concern over the continuing buildup of nuclear weapons in South Asia, the US has asked India and Pakistan to restrain their atomic and missile programmes and play a positive role in the global non-proliferation community.

"The United States remains deeply concerned by the dangers posed by the continuing buildup of nuclear weapons and their delivery systems in South Asia," Assistant Secretary of State for International Security and Nonproliferation Thomas Countryman said in his address to the 2015 Review Conference of the States Parties to the Treaty on the Nonproliferation of Nuclear Weapons in Geneva on Monday.

"Consistent with our shared vision of a world without nuclear weapons, the United States has repeatedly called on India and Pakistan to restrain their nuclear and missile programmes; end the production of fissile material for use in nuclear weapons; and support the commencement of negotiations in the Conference on Disarmament of a Fissile Material Cutoff Treaty," he said.

"In that regard, it is with concern and deep disappointment that we note Pakistan's reluctance to support the start of such negotiations," the US official said.

<snip>

Read more: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/US-asks-India-Pakistan-to-restrain-their-nuclear-missile-programmes/articleshow/19816234.cms

Amgen Drugs May Boost Survival During a Nuclear Attack

Source: Bloomberg

Amgen Inc. (AMGN)’s Neulasta and Neupogen and a similar blood-boosting drug from Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. (TEVA) may help people survive after a nuclear attack, U.S. regulators said.

Medications known as leukocyte growth factors, which also include Sanofi (SAN)’s Leukine, may help decrease death rates from radiation exposure, Food and Drug Administration staff said today in a report. FDA staff reviewed a National Institutes of Health study on monkeys exposed to radiation that were given Neupogen. Agency advisers plan to meet May 3 to discuss whether the animal study is sufficient to approve the use for humans.

This is the first time an FDA advisory committee will consider a medical countermeasure for use in a radiological or nuclear incident, the staff said. Neulasta, Amgen’s second best- selling drug, and Neupogen together generated about $5.4 billion in sales last year for the Thousand Oaks, California-based company, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. The drugs are given by injections.

<snip>

Of the 24 monkeys that took Neupogen in the NIH study, 79 percent survived after 60 days, compared with 41 percent of the 22 monkeys who didn’t take the drug, FDA staff said. NIH stopped the trial after studying 46 animals because of the comparison.

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Read more: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-05-01/amgen-drugs-may-boost-survival-during-a-nuclear-attack.html

Regulators: Too much foreign ownership for nuclear expansion

Source: My San Antonio

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission found this week that a foreign company is too heavily involved in plans to build two nuclear reactors at the South Texas Project installation.

Under federal law, companies that are owned, controlled or “dominated” by a foreign individual, company or country are barred from holding licenses to operate nuclear reactors. The regulator notified the groups involved of its finding in a letter that it sent Monday afternoon.

“We think it's encouraging that the NRC is recognizing that this is the law and it needs to remain in effect,” said Karen Hadden, executive director of the SEED Coalition, which has opposed the STP expansion from the beginning.

The matter will now go to a panel of three administrative judges in Washington, D.C., which previously dismissed a series of environmental challenges to the project, said Scott Burnell, a spokesman for the NRC.

<snip>

Read more: http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/energy/article/Regulators-Too-much-foreign-ownership-for-4477314.php

Larry Flynt Endorses Mark Sanford, 'America's Great Sex Pioneer'

Source: Huffington Post

With one week to go before South Carolinians choose their pick for the 1st District seat in Congress, Hustler magazine publisher and founder Larry Flynt made his selection.

In a video posted on Hustler's official YouTube account Tuesday, Flynt endorsed former Gov. Mark Sanford (R), lauding his efforts to expose the U.S.' "sexual hypocrisy."

“Mark Sanford has demonstrated by his words and deeds that traditional values are shameful and that he will not live by such rules," Flynt said. "His open embrace of his mistress in the name of love, breaking his sacred marriage vows, was an act of bravery that has drawn my support.”

Flynt's words come hours after Sanford completed his debate against Democratic challenger Elizabeth Colbert Busch. The fireworks were centered on Sanford's affair, where Colbert Busch jabbed him for taking "money we saved" and leaving "the country for a personal purpose." Sanford claimed he "didn't hear" the comment.

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Read more: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/04/30/larry-flynt-mark-sanford_n_3189201.html?ref=topbar