Source: Space.com

A new American satellite soared into Earth orbit today (March 1), kicking off a reconnaissance mission that's shrouded in secrecy.

The NROL-79 satellite launched into space atop a two-stage United Launch Alliance (ULA) Atlas V rocket at 12:49 p.m. EST (1749 GMT) today, rising off a pad at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California.

NROL-79 will be operated by the U.S. National Reconnaissance Office (NRO), which oversees the United States' fleet of spy satellites. It's unclear what NROL-79 will be doing, or where it will be orbiting; details about the spacecraft and its mission are classified. [Launch Photos: NROL-79 Spy Satellite Soars to Orbit]

After lifting off, the Atlas V headed south, hugging the coasts of California and the Mexican state of Baja California as it rose into the sky. If everything went according to plan, the rocket reached Mach 1 the speed of sound, about 767 mph (1,234 km/h) 81 seconds into flight, according to a ULA mission-description video. The booster's main engine cut off 4 minutes and 3 seconds after liftoff, and the rocket's two stages separated 6 seconds later. The payload fairing protecting NROL-79 was jettisoned 4 minutes and 27 seconds after launch.

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Read more: http://www.space.com/35874-american-spy-satellite-nrol-79-launch-success.html

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Mission patch: http://www.americaspace.com/2017/02/28/atlas-v-nro-79-intruder-mission-readied-for-wednesday-launch-to-track-ships/

Source: Washington Post

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On Dec. 5, the NNSA completed a scathing evaluation that branded several of the company’s claims about the state of the project “misleading” and “inaccurate.” The agency said CB&I Areva’s claims that the project is 70 percent complete “are patently false.” A separate September 2016 Energy Department report said construction was only 28 percent complete.

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President Obama tried to kill the Savannah River plant. In the president’s proposed 2017 budget, the administration said it would “pursue a dilute and dispose approach as a faster, less-expensive path to meeting the U.S. commitment to dispose of excess weapons grade plutonium.” It proposed cutting spending to from $345 million to $275 million to begin winding it down.

One of the project’s sharpest critics Tom Clements, director of the public interest group Savannah River Site Watch, obtained the December NNSA assessment through a Freedom of Information Act request. He called the evaluation “devastating.”

“I have never seen an asessment like that. It all but calls them liars,” he said.

The Savannah River project, however, has an important ally in Congress: Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), who has defended this method of converting nuclear weapons fuel. In addition, hundreds of jobs in his state depend on the project moving forward. For a time, Graham held up the confirmation vote on Ernest Moniz as energy secretary over the Obama administratin’s intentions for the Savannah River MOX project.

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But the Obama administration continued to say the MOX plant at Savannah River wasn’t practical. What started as a $620 million project in 1999 with a 2006 starting date has become a $17 billion project still decades away from a start state. By some estimates, it would require a $1 billion a year appropriation, which the Obama administration said was unlikely at best.

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Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/energy-department-issues-scathing-evaluation-of-nuclear-project/2017/02/28/8af4d11a-fd2c-11e6-99b4-9e613afeb09f_story.html

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Obama and Tom Clements have it right - this is a boondoggle that should be canceled.
Naturally, anti-science Republicans want to keep it alive, because nuclear is magic.
You just can't trust the nuclear industry - or Republicans.

Source: Independent

Police may be given power to arrest anyone involved in a peaceful demonstration that is merely suspected of turning violent.

Republican senators in Arizona voted for SB1142 this week, which proposes expanding the state’s racketeering laws to also include rioting.

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Republicans voted by 17 to the Democrats' 13 in favour of the bill on Wednesday.

It will now go to the House of Representatives for approval.

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Read more: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/arizona-republicans-police-arrest-peaceful-protest-powers-vote-violent-state-senate-a7595361.html

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It also allows asset seizure.

Source: Crain's Cleveland Business

FirstEnergy Corp. executives used two words a lot when discussing the company's financial position and its plans to exit the nuclear power business when they spoke with analysts Wednesday, Feb. 22: "bankruptcy" and "billions."

The Akron-based company might be working to position itself for better treatment from state legislators — from which FirstEnergy hopes to secure ratepayer-funded relief for its nuclear plants near Dayton and Toledo — but it made clear that the stakes are high and even bigger than FirstEnergy itself. None of the analysts questioned the company's sincerity or used the other "b" word: bluffing.

First, came the billions. FirstEnergy reported it lost $6.2 billion, or $14.49 per share, in 2016. That's down from positive earnings of $578 million, or $1.37 per share, in 2015.

Yet, FirstEnergy CEO Chuck Jones began the call with analysts by saying, "2016 was a successful and transformative year for FirstEnergy."

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Read more: http://www.crainscleveland.com/article/20170222/NEWS/170229921/firstenergy-talks-bankruptcy-and-need-for-bailout-of-its-nuclear

Source: Time

High-achieving teenagers are more likely to drink alcohol and use cannabis than their less school-smart peers, a new study of British adolescents suggests.

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"Our finding that adolescents with high academic ability are less likely to smoke (cigarettes) but more likely to drink alcohol regularly and use cannabis is broadly consistent with the evidence base on adults," the study's authors said in a statement. They added that the fact that alcohol and cannabis use among high-achieving pupils persisted into early adulthood is evidence against the hypothesis that high academic ability is associated with temporary experimentation with substance use.

The study was published in the BMJ.

Read more: http://time.com/4678433/brainy-teens-smoke-tobacco-pot-study/

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BMJ study at http://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/7/2/e012989
(The article had a bad link)

Source: Australian Broadcasting Corporation

Key points:
- Boars are eating mushrooms containing Caesium 137
- Boar meat is a delicacy in the Czech Republic
- 47 per cent of boars tested from 2014 to 2016 exceeded radioactivity limits

The Czech Republic has an unusual problem this winter with its wild boar meat — the boars are radioactive.

A cold and snowy winter is forcing them to feed on false truffles, an underground mushroom common in the Sumava mountain region shared by Czechs, Austrians, Germans — and wild boars.

The mushrooms can absorb high levels of the radioactive isotope Caesium 137. And three decades ago the nuclear catastrophe at Chernobyl released Caesium 137 that eventually drifted down on the Sumava mountains.

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The half life of Caesium 137 is 30 years — that is, it takes 30 years for the radioactivity of the isotope to fall to half its original value.

Then another 30 to fall to half again, and so on. The boars could be radioactive for quite a while.

And that could cause some problems with the supply of boar meat, which is a delicacy in the Czech Republic.

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Read more: http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-02-23/many-wild-boars-roaming-czech-forests-are-radioactive/8295400

Source: The Hill

Billionaire Peter Thiel’s company Palantir helped support the National Security Agency’s controversial spy program XKeyscore, according to a report in The Intercept citing previously undisclosed documents from NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden.

Palantir helped build software to accelerate and increase the NSA’s use of XKeyscore, according to the documents.

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Thiel is an adviser to President Trump who has reportedly spearheaded the search for chair of the Federal Trade Commission and the antitrust head at the Justice Department.

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According to the new disclosures, Palantir has also been employed by at least three members of the intelligence alliance called “Five Eyes” that connects the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand and Canada with the United States.

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Read more: http://thehill.com/policy/cybersecurity/320592-palantir-helped-support-nsa-spy-program-xkeyscore-report

Source: Associated Press

Robot probes sent to one of Japan’s wrecked Fukushima nuclear reactors have suggested worse-than-anticipated challenges for the plant’s ongoing cleanup.

The plant’s operator Tokyo Electric Power Co. said the remote-controlled “scorpion” robot was sent into the Unit 2 reactor’s containment vessel Thursday to investigate the area around the core that had melted six years ago, but its crawling function failed while climbing over highly radioactive debris.

The robot, carrying a dosimeter, thermometer and two small cameras, transmitted some data and visuals but could not locate melted fuel - key information to determine how to remove debris out of the reactor. The robot was abandoned inside the vessel at a location where it won’t block a future probe.

Preliminary examinations over the past few weeks have detected structural damage to planned robot routes and higher-than-expected radiation inside the Unit 2 containment chamber, suggesting the need to revise robot designs and probes.

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Read more: http://www.cbsnews.com/news/bad-news-from-japans-wrecked-fukushima-nuclear-reactor/