Nuclear – Page 143 – Infinite Unknown

Mini nuclear plants to power 20,000 homes

November 9, 2008 by Infinite

£13m shed-size reactors will be delivered by lorry

Nuclear power plants smaller than a garden shed and able to power 20,000 homes will be on sale within five years, say scientists at Los Alamos, the US government laboratory which developed the first atomic bomb.

The miniature reactors will be factory-sealed, contain no weapons-grade material, have no moving parts and will be nearly impossible to steal because they will be encased in concrete and buried underground.

The US government has licensed the technology to Hyperion, a New Mexico-based company which said last week that it has taken its first firm orders and plans to start mass production within five years. ‘Our goal is to generate electricity for 10 cents a watt anywhere in the world,’ said John Deal, chief executive of Hyperion. ‘They will cost approximately $25m [£13m] each. For a community with 10,000 households, that is a very affordable $250 per home.’

U.S. Is Funding Iranian Nuclear Program

November 9, 2008 by Infinite

The U.S. is literally funding Iranian nuclear capabilities.

As CNN reports, the U.S. state department has given millions of dollars to two Russian institutes which, in turn, are directly helping to ramp up Iran’s nuke capacity at Bushehr and other facilities.

This is especially ironic given that the U.S. has accused Iran of producing fuel for nuclear weapons at Bushehr.

Here’s the CNN report:

Sunday, November 2, 2008

Source: George Washington’s Blog

FM: Iran will never halt uranium enrichment

October 5, 2008 by Infinite

TEHRAN, Oct. 5 (Xinhua) — Iran’s Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki said on Sunday that Iran will never halt uranium enrichment even if the West guarantees its need for nuclear fuel, the official IRNA news agency reported.

Mottaki made the remarks at a joint press conference with his visiting Venezuelan counterpart Nicolas Maduro.

“They (the western countries) are not trustworthy and we have experienced this,” Mottaki said.

“The peaceful nuclear activities of Iran, especially the enrichment and generating of fuel for the nuclear power stations, will never be stopped until we gain independence,” he added.

‘U.S. may use Georgian air bases to strike at Iran’

September 18, 2008 by Infinite

AFP Photo/US Navy/ Peter Scheu

The U.S. military could have plans to use Georgian air bases to launch air strikes against Iran, according to Russia’s envoy to NATO Dmitry Rogozin. He pointed out that Georgia would be the perfect base for a potential U.S. operation in Iran.

Speaking in Brussels, Dmitry Rogozin said:

“What NATO is doing now in Georgia is restoring its ability to monitor its airspace, in other words restoring the whole locator system and an anti-missile defence system which were destroyed by Russian artillery. Now these systems are being restored as soon as possible. We have unconfirmed information that American ships under cover of himanitarian aid have delivered all the equipment necessary for the restoration of these systems.”

He noted that there it is impossible that these preparations are designed for Georgia’s protection against Russia, since the war in the Caucasus is over and all the security measures in South Ossetia and Abkhazia are being pursued.

“It’s done for logistical support of some air operations either of the alliance as a whole or of the United States in particular in this region. The swift reconstruction of the airfields and all the systems proves that some air operation is being planned against another country which is located not far from Georgia. What country could it be? Which country is in the spotlight now? Of course it’s Iran, there are no other countries,” the envoy said.

IAEA: Iran blocks probe into alleged atom bomb work

September 15, 2008 by Infinite

VIENNA (Reuters) – Iran has blocked a U.N. inquiry into whether it researched ways to make a nuclear bomb, the U.N. nuclear watchdog said on Monday, as Britain said it would push hard for tougher sanctions against Tehran.

A confidential IAEA report said Iran had raised the number of centrifuges enriching uranium by 500 to 3,820 since May and was stepping up development of an advanced model able to refine nuclear fuel 2-3 times faster, in defiance of U.N. resolutions.

But a senior U.N. official familiar with the International Atomic Energy Agency findings said Iran seemed a good two years away from enriching enough uranium for an atomic weapon, if it eventually chose to do so.

Iran denies its nuclear work is aimed at developing a bomb.

Vladimir Putin set to bait US with nuclear aid for Tehran

September 7, 2008 by Infinite

Russia is considering increasing its assistance to Iran’s nuclear programme in response to America’s calls for Nato expansion eastwards and the presence of US Navy vessels in the Black Sea delivering aid to Georgia.

The Kremlin is discussing sending teams of Russian nuclear experts to Tehran and inviting Iranian nuclear scientists to Moscow for training, according to sources close to the Russian military.

Moscow has been angered by Washington’s promise to give Georgia £564m in aid following the Russian invasion of parts of the country last month after Tbilisi’s military offensive. Kremlin officials suspect the US is planning to rearm the former Soviet republic and is furious at renewed support for attempts by Georgia and Ukraine to join Nato.

Qatar warns against attacking Iran

September 7, 2008September 7, 2008 by Infinite

Qatari emir, Sheik Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani

The emir of Qatar, Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani, has warned that Doha will not allow any country to turn the Persian Gulf into a war zone.

His remarks on the subject come in an environment of long-standing US and Israel threats to launch an attack against Iranian nuclear installations under the pretext that Tehran, a signatory to the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), is planning to secretly weaponize its civilian use nuclear program.

The international nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), has strongly denied the charge with. IAEA chief Mohammad elBaradei stating he would resign if Iran is attacked on this pretext.

Tehran insists that its program is purely for electricity generation.

Who is Wrecking America?

September 5, 2008 by Infinite

By PAUL CRAIG ROBERTS

Paul Craig Roberts was Assistant Secretary of the Treasury in the Reagan administration. He was Associate Editor of the Wall Street Journal editorial page and Contributing Editor of National Review.

Does the liberal-left have a clue? I sometimes think not.

In his book, “What’s the Matter With Kansas?,” Thomas Frank made the excellent point that the Karl Rove Republicans take advantage of ordinary’s people’s frustrations and resentments to lead them into voting against their best interest.

Frank’s new book, “The Wrecking Crew: How Conservatives Rule,” lacks the insight that distinguished his previous book. Why does Frank think that conservatives or liberals rule?

Neither rule. America is ruled by organized interest groups with money to elect candidates who serve their interests. Frank’s book does not even mention the Israel Lobby, which bleeds Americans for the sake of Israeli territorial expansion. Check the index. Israel is not there.

Congress is about to pour lighter fluid on Iran

September 4, 2008 by Infinite

There’s a great deal of support for two resolutions that, if approved, would all but strike the match on war.

The U.S. Congress may inadvertently lay the foundations for war against Iran when it reconvenes in Washington this month.

Two essentially identical nonbinding resolutions call upon President Bush to “immediately and dramatically increase the economic, political and diplomatic pressure on Iran to verifiably suspend its nuclear enrichment activities.”

The House resolution has more than 200 cosponsors, including Minnesota Reps. Michele Bachmann, John Kline and Jim Ramstad. The Senate resolution has more than 30 cosponsors, including both Minnesota senators, Norm Coleman and Amy Klobuchar.

The methods for increased pressure differ slightly in the two resolutions. The House resolution calls for “stringent inspection requirements” of all goods entering or leaving Iran. The Senate resolution does not call for the inspection of all goods but joins the House resolution in calling for an embargo of refined petroleum products to Iran, which lacks the refining capacity to meet its need for gasoline.

Achieving either goal would require a naval blockade — a de facto act of war on the part of the United States, though paradoxically both resolutions explicitly exclude authorization for military action.

Who Wants To Be CEO of a Red, White and Blue Kakistocracy*?

January 2, 2009September 4, 2008 by Infinite

*Kakistocracy is government by the very worst, least principled, and most incompetent people. You will be forgiven for thinking that the word, kakistocracy, perhaps derives from the word, “caca”, itself derived from the Latin, “cacare”. In fact, kakistocracy derives from the Greek, kakos, meaning “bad”.)

Russia may push forward with S-300 sales to Iran

September 3, 2008September 2, 2008 by Infinite

MOSCOW, September 1 (RIA Novosti) – Russia may proceed with plans to sell advanced S-300 air defense systems to Iran under a secret contract believed to have been signed in 2005, a Russian analyst said on Monday. (Russian mobile surface-to-air missile systems – Image gallery)

Commenting on an article in the Sunday Telegraph newspaper saying Russia is using the plans as a bargaining chip in its standoff with America, Ruslan Pukhov, director of Moscow-based Center for Analysis of Strategies and Technologies, said: “In the current situation, when the U.S. and the West in general are stubbornly gearing toward a confrontation with Russia after the events in South Ossetia, the implementation of a lucrative contract on the deliveries of S-300 [air defense systems] to Iran looks like a logical step.”

Joe Biden: Israel should accept ‘nuclear’ Iran

September 1, 2008 by Infinite

Senator Joe Biden

The US Democratic vice-presidential candidate Joe Biden has advised senior Israeli officials to come to terms with a ‘nuclear’ Iran.

In a clandestine meeting with unnamed Israeli officials, which was partially covered by the US Jewish Army Radio, Barack Obama’s vice-presidential nominee said, “Israel will have to reconcile itself with the nuclearization of Iran.”

According to the Israeli newspaper Haaretz, Biden, a six-time Delaware Senator and chairperson of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, told the “amazed” officials, “It’s doubtful if the economic sanctions will be effective, and I am against opening an additional military and diplomatic front.”

Report: Israel won’t allow a nuclear Iran

September 1, 2008 by Infinite

Israel will not allow Iran to attain nuclear capability and if time begins to run out, Jerusalem will not hesitate to take whatever means necessary to prevent Iran from achieving its nuclear goals, the government has recently decided in a special discussion.

According to the Israeli daily Ma’ariv, whether the United States and Western countries succeed in thwarting the Islamic Republic’s nuclear ambitions diplomatically, through sanctions, or whether a US strike on Iran is eventually decided upon, Jerusalem has begun preparing for a separate, independent military strike.

So far, Israel has not received American authorization to use US-controlled Iraqi airspace, nor has the defense establishment been successful in securing the purchase of advanced US-made warplanes which could facilitate an Israeli strike.

False Flags, Lies & Nuclear Weapons

August 31, 2008 by Infinite

Source: YouTube

Are You Ready For Nuclear War?

August 19, 2008 by Infinite

By Paul Craig Roberts

Pervez Musharraf, the puppet installed by the US to rule Pakistan in the interest of US hegemony, resigned August 18 to avoid impeachment. Karl Rove and the Diebold electronic voting machines were unable to control the result of the last election in Pakistan, the result of which gave Pakistanis a bigger voice in their government than America’s.

It was obvious to anyone with any sense–which excludes the entire Bush Regime and almost all of the “foreign policy community”–that the illegal and gratuitous US invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq, and Israel’s 2006 bombing of Lebanon civilians with US blessing, would result in the overthrow of America’s Pakistani puppet.

SAN FRANCISCO: Weapons of mass destruction multi-agency exercise

August 18, 2008 by Infinite

Preparing for an urban WMD attack

On Saturday, the San Francisco Fire Department, along with a group of other public and private agencies, ran a large-scale training exercise revolving around an urban weapons of mass destruction terrorist attack. Here, an emergency worker in a full hazmat suit examines the faux chemical that was supposedly found in the attack, which was said to be sodium cyanide, a poison that quickly affects peoples respiratory systems. On the ground behind, volunteers playing the role of dead victims lay prone. (Credit: Daniel Terdiman/CNET News)

SAN FRANCISCO – “Weapons of mass destruction multi-agency exercise.”

If I’ve ever covered an event with a more stark title, I can’t think of it.

But there I was Saturday morning, along with several hundred firefighters, police officers, Army National Guard personnel, and members of other local, state, and federal agencies for a large-scale exercise designed to help train all these emergency responders how to deal with a major terrorist attack involving suspected chemical weapons or other bio-hazards.

Iran warns against ‘surprise attack

August 12, 2008 by Infinite

Iran’s Defense Minister Mostafa Mohammad-Najjar

Iran’s Defense Minister Mohammad-Najjar has warned that its response to a surprise enemy attack would be a greater surprise for the aggressor.

He said Iran has developed an extensive defense force to repel any possible attack, adding the Islamic Republic is currently a major defensive power.

Israel Considers Military Option for Iran Nukes

August 7, 2008August 7, 2008 by Infinite

What Iran does is “perfectly legal”:
– Ron Paul on Iran and Energy June 26, 2008 (A MUST SEE)
(More important information at the end of this article.)
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Israel beefs up strike capability, confident it could deal setback to Iran nuclear program

(ABC/AP) Israel is building up its strike capabilities amid growing anxiety over Iran’s nuclear ambitions and appears confident that a military attack would cripple Tehran’s atomic program, even if it can’t destroy it.

Such talk could be more threat than reality. However, Iran’s refusal to accept Western conditions is worrying Israel as is the perception that Washington now prefers diplomacy over confrontation with Tehran.

The Jewish state has purchased 90 F-16I fighter planes that can carry enough fuel to reach Iran, and will receive 11 more by the end of next year. It has bought two new Dolphin submarines from Germany reportedly capable of firing nuclear-armed warheads – in addition to the three it already has.

Defence chiefs admit to nuclear deaths

August 3, 2008 by Infinite

BRITISH Defence chiefs have admitted servicemen were exposed to dangerous radiation levels during nuclear tests in Australia and the South Pacific in the 1950s.

The dramatic admission, made after years of denials, features in papers filed with the High Court in London by Ministry of Defence lawyers.

The Sunday Mirror newspaper said the court papers reveal that the Ministry of Defence now believes that nuclear tests were responsible for the deaths of some British servicemen.

However, the MoD insists that only 159 men were affected out of the 20,000 who were present.

Nuclear-Powered Amphibious Assault Ships?

July 30, 2008 by Infinite

Most new large U.S. Navy amphibious assault ships would be required to be nuclear powered under the National Defense Authorization Act for 2009 which the House of Representatives has passed by a vote of 384 to 23. It now goes to the Senate where many senators are uneasy about the scheme as is the Navy and the shipbuilding industry in the U.S.

As to safe-energy and environmental advocates, “This reckless plan gives ‘we’ll fight them on the beaches’ a whole new sinister meaning,” says Linda Gunter of Beyond Nuclear of the Nuclear Policy Research Institute. “If one of these amphibious ships is hit, or has an accident, we would be fighting a tide of radioactivity on beaches that could leave them contaminated indefinitely.”

US to Iran: You have two weeks

July 20, 2008 by Infinite

US State Department spokesman Sean McCormack

Washington says Tehran has two weeks to decide between suspending its uranium enrichment program and facing ‘further isolation’.

In a Saturday statement, State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said time has come for Tehran to choose between confrontation and meeting Western demands over its enrichment program.

“We hope the Iranian people understand that their leaders need to make a choice between cooperation, which would bring benefits to all, and confrontation, which can only lead to further isolation,” said McCormack.

Contaminated US site faces ‘catastrophic’ nuclear leak

July 16, 2008 by Infinite

ONE of “the most contaminated places on Earth” will only get dirtier if the US government doesn’t get its act together – clean-up plans are already 19 years behind schedule and not due for completion until 2050.

More than 210 million litres of radioactive and chemical waste are stored in 177 underground tanks at Hanford in Washington State. Most are over 50 years old. Already 67 of the tanks have failed, leaking almost 4 million litres of waste into the ground.

Warning over French uranium leak

July 9, 2008 by Infinite

Waste containing unenriched uranium has leaked into two rivers from a nuclear plant in southern France.

Officials banned people in three nearby towns from fishing, using water from wells, swimming in the rivers or using river water on their crops.

The accident happened at the Tricastin nuclear site at Bollene, some 40km (25 miles) from the city of Avignon.

The French nuclear safety agency said the substance was toxic but the risk to human health was slight.

Uranium concentrations in the Gaffiere river were initially about 1,000 times higher than normal levels but were falling rapidly, spokeswoman Evangelia Petit said.

Some 30,000l (7,925 gallons) of solution containing 12g of uranium per litre spilled from an overflowing reservoir at the facility – which handles liquids contaminated by uranium – into the ground and into the Gaffiere and Lauzon rivers.

Anti-nuclear campaign group Abandon Nuclear Power said it thought the authorities were underplaying the danger posed by the nuclear waste leak.

“It is impossible that such a spill, containing uranium, does not have important consequences for the environment and for health,” it said.

France is one of the world’s most nuclear-dependent countries, with 80% of its electricity coming from nuclear power.Wednesday, 9 July 2008

Source: BBC News

How Israel Is creating the war on Iran

July 8, 2008 by Infinite

Jews in Palestine stirring up War

Shaul Mofaz, Israeli Minister of Defense:

“On the same US trip, Mr. Mofaz told a pro-Israeli lobby group that a nuclear Iran was “intolerable.” “The implicit message of his statements was that if the Iranian nuclear program is not stopped in the next number of months, Israel will have to take action of its own – perhaps even to attack – to prevent nuclear weapons from falling into Iranian hands,” analyst Amir Rappaport wrote in the Ma’ariv newspaper.” (Nicole Gaouette ‘Israel: Iran is now danger No. 1′); “In November, Israeli media reported that Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz, on a trip to Washington, told US officials that “under no circumstances would Israel be able to abide by nuclear weapons in Iranian possession.”

” Israeli Minister of Defense, Shaul Mofaz, affirmed that in view of Teheran’s nuclear plans, Tel Aviv should “not count on diplomatic negotiations but prepare other solutions”.” (James Petras ‘Israel’s War Deadline: Iran in the Crosshairs’). A month later, “Israel’s defense minister hinted Saturday that the Jewish state is preparing for military action to stop Iran’s nuclear program, but said international diplomacy must be the first course of action. “Israel will not be able to accept an Iranian nuclear capability and it must have the capability to defend itself, with all that that implies, and this we are preparing,” Shaul Mofaz said.” (Talk of military action in Iran standoff’); “And Israeli Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz went further, speaking directly to Iran’s president: “I address you as someone who leads his country with an ideology of hate, terror, and anti-Semitism. I suggest you look at history and see what happened to others who tried to wipe out the Jewish people. … Israel is not prepared to accept the nuclear arming of Iran, and it must prepare to defend itself, with all that implies.” ” (Quoted in Patrick J Buchanan ‘Bush’s Dilemma: Iran vs. Israel’); “Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz was asked whether Israel was ready to use military action if the Security Council proved unable to act against what Israel and the West believe is a covert Iranian nuclear weapons program. “My answer to this question is that the state of Israel has the right give all the security that is needed to the people in Israel. We have to defend ourselves,” Mofaz told Reuters after a meeting with his German counterpart Franz Josef Jung.” (Louis Charbonneau ‘Israel will have to Act on Iran if UN Can’t’).

Uzi Arad, director of the Institute of Policy and Strategy:

“Iran has a clandestine nuclear program that is very ambitious,” says Uzi Arad, director of the Institute of Policy and Strategy in Herzilya. “That country thinks big and fast and … poses a threat that is very real. Should it acquire nuclear weapons or even come close, it would completely alter the Middle East. It’s a very ominous threat.” (Nicole Gaouette ‘Israel: Iran is now danger No. 1′)

Meir Dagan, director of Mossad:

“Meir Dagan, director of Israel’s external intelligence agency, the Mossad, told a parliamentary committee this month that Iran posed an “existential threat” to Israel, according to the Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper. He reportedly assured committee members that Israel could deal with this threat.” (Nicole Gaouette ‘Israel: Iran is now danger No. 1′)

U.S. escalating covert operations against Iran: report

June 29, 2008 by Infinite

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. congressional leaders agreed late last year to President George W. Bush’s funding request for a major escalation of covert operations against Iran aimed at destabilizing its leadership, according to a report in The New Yorker magazine published online on Sunday.

The article by reporter Seymour Hersh, from the magazine’s July 7 and 14 issue, centers on a highly classified Presidential Finding signed by Bush which by U.S. law must be made known to Democratic and Republican House and Senate leaders and ranking members of the intelligence committees.

“The Finding was focused on undermining Iran’s nuclear ambitions and trying to undermine the government through regime change,” the article cited a person familiar with its contents as saying, and involved “working with opposition groups and passing money.”

Hersh has written previously about possible administration plans to go to war to stop Tehran from obtaining nuclear weapons, including an April 2006 article in the New Yorker that suggested regime change in Iran, whether by diplomatic or military means, was Bush’s ultimate goal.

Funding for the covert escalation, for which Bush requested up to $400 million, was approved by congressional leaders, according to the article, citing current and former military, intelligence and congressional sources.

Clandestine operations against Iran are not new. U.S. Special Operations Forces have been conducting crossborder operations from southern Iraq since last year, the article said.

These have included seizing members of Al Quds, the commando arm of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard, and taking them to Iraq for interrogation, and the pursuit of “high-value targets” in Bush’s war on terrorism, who may be captured or killed, according to the article.