Russian missiles in Syria, suddenly war seems like a bad idea, Barack calls Tel Aviv, angry at scientist offing;
Source: Bild.de
Translation by: Google
Date: Nov. 5, 2011
Headline: German radiation expert warns: “Fukushima nuclear bomb in the mini-scale”
Caption: Radiation expert: Fukushima is like mini atomic bomb — The German radiation expert Professor Edmund Lengfelder warns against further nuclear explosion in the nuclear horror. Fukushima was a “kind of atomic bomb in the mini-scale”
How dangerous are the horrors of Fukushima, really?
Edmund Lengfelder
Tokyo – The German radiation expert Professor Edmund Lengfelder warned of the possibility of further nuclear explosions at Fukushima, after an uncontrolled nuclear fission was detected in November, .
“There is a spontaneous fission – because anything can happen, even if, as one says, it is not likely. But what is to be believed of statements about probabilities, as we have Seen on 11 March, “said the founder of the Society for Radiological Protection. [...]
In plain language: [xenon] can not originate from the meltdown of the March. In Fukushima, it comes back to uncontrolled meltdowns.
Therefore Lengfelder compares the horror with a nuclear bomb in the mini-scale attacks and the operator: “Tepco is even further than previously claimed, away to get things under control.”
*UPDATE* translated DPA article via BreadAndButter:
In view of reports of an uncontrolled nuclear fission reactor accident in Japan’s Fukushima Munich Radiation expert warns of Prof. Edmund Lengfelder of the possibility of a nuclear explosion.
It would be “a kind of mini-nuclear bomb in the scale,” said Lengfelder the dpa news agency. “The probability, however I can not estimate at all,” said radiation expert. Because nobody knows how much enriched uranium as coalesced into how the derelict nuclear power plant units. It had been found, the radioisotopes 133 and 135 of the xenon gas.
Because these are products of nuclear fission, which have only a half-life of about five days and nine hours, they could not come from the time of the accident in March , “There is there a spontaneous fission – can happen because everything, even if they say, it is not likely. But what is to be believed of statements about probabilities, since we have seen the improbable on 11 March , Lengfelder said.
At that time had seriously damaged a strength in this unexpected earthquake and a tsunami and the nuclear power plant caused the meltdown. In a functioning reactor is maintained in the words of experts, the chain reaction by control rods under control. “But it is this control in a meltdown so no longer.”
Lengfelder had after the meltdown at Chernobyl 25 years ago the Society for Radiological Protection and the Munich-based Otto Hug Radiation Institute. He cared for people with thyroid cancer today in the former Soviet disaster area. The radiation expert also criticized the crisis management in Japan. “For me, it is also inhumane, that in such a wealthy country like Japan, people still live in the gyms. That there was not even on the Soviets “The evacuation after Chernobyl worked much better.”
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Title: Hanford nuclear weapons site faces radiation cleanup challenges, delay
Source: USA TODAY
Author: Peter Eisler
Date: Jan 18, 2012
Emphasis Added
A USA TODAY investigation has found that the troubled, 10-year effort to build the [Hanford, WA] treatment plant faces enormous problems just as it reaches what was supposed to be its final stage.
In exclusive interviews, several senior engineers cited design problems that could bring the plant’s operations to a halt before much of the waste is treated. Their reports have spurred new technical reviews and raised official concerns about the risk of a hydrogen explosion or uncontrolled nuclear reaction inside the plant. Either could damage critical equipment, shut the facility down or, worst case, allow radiation to escape. [...]
“We’re continuing with a failed design,” said Donald Alexander, a senior U.S. government scientist on the project.
The Old Problems More than 60 of the tanks are thought to have leaked, losing a million gallons of waste into soil and groundwater. So far, the contamination remains within the boundaries of the barren, 586-square-mile site, but it poses an ongoing threat to the nearby Columbia River, a water source for communities stretching southwest to Portland, Ore. And, while the liquid most likely to escape from the older tanks has been moved to newer, double-walled tanks, the risk of more leaks compounds that threat.
The New Problems
- The thicker, high-level waste doesn’t flow according to usual laws of physics; it glugs like ketchup spurting from a bottle. The challenge is to keep it moving: If particles in the material accumulate, they can cause clogs, trapping potentially explosive hydrogen gas or, if too much plutonium masses together, triggering an uncontrolled nuclear reaction that generates extreme heat and radioactivity, threatening workers and the plant’s operation.
- Some of the high-level waste has turned out to be more complex than anticipated, with plutonium particles up to 10 times larger than expected. That has heightened concerns among several scientists, including Tamosaitis and the staff of the nuclear facilities safety board, that the systems designed to churn that waste need further testing to address the threat of hydrogen buildup or a nuclear reaction.
- Alexander, the Energy Department scientist, also worries about the pre-treatment mixing system. Because the mixing jets and vessels were not designed to handle the larger
- plutonium particles and other abrasives in the high-level waste, he said, the material is likely to erode the vessels’ lining. [...] “If they don’t make any changes and just move ahead, it lasts maybe 10 years.”
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(USA) 1/12 - GLOBAL INTERNET VOTING FIRM BUYS U.S. ELECTION RESULTS REPORTING FIRM - By Bev Harris
Permission to reprint granted, with link to http://www.blackboxvoting.org
In a major step towards global centralization of election processes, the world's dominant Internet voting company has purchased the USA's dominant election results reporting company.
When you view your local or state election results on the Internet, on portals which often appear to be owned by the county elections division, in over 525 US jurisdictions you are actually redirected to a private corporate site controlled by SOE software, which operates under the name ClarityElections.com.
The good news is that this firm promptly reports precinct-level detail in downloadable spreadsheet format. As reported by BlackBoxVoting.org in 2008, the bad news is that this centralizes one middleman access point for over 525 jurisdictions in AL, AZ, CA, CO, DC, FL, KY, MI, KS, IL, IN, NC, NM, MN, NY, SC, TX, UT, WA. And growing.
As local election results funnel through SOE's servers (typically before they reach the public elsewhere), those who run the computer servers for SOE essentially get "first look" at results and the ability to immediately and privately examine vote details throughout the USA.
In 2004, many Americans were justifiably concerned when, days before the presidential election, Ohio Secretary of State Ken Blackwell redirected Ohio election night results through the Tennessee-based server for several national Republican Party operations.
This is worse: This redirects results reporting to a centralized privately held server which is not just for Ohio, but national; not just USA-based, but global.
A mitigation against fraud by SOE insiders has been the separation of voting machine systems from the SOE results reports. Because most US jurisdictions require posting evidence of results from each voting machine at the precinct, public citizens can organize to examine these results to compare with SOE results. Black Box Voting spearheaded a national citizen action to videotape / photograph these poll tapes in 2008.
With the merger of SOE and SCYTL, that won't work (if SCYTL's voting system is used). When there are two truly independent sources of information, the public can perform its own "audit" by matching one number against the other.
These two independent sources, however, will now be merged into one single source: an Internet voting system controlled by SCYTL, with a results reporting system also controlled by SCYTL.
With SCYTL internet voting, there will be no ballots. No physical evidence. No chain of custody. No way for the public to authenticate who actually cast the votes, chain of custody, or the count.
SCYTL is moving into or already running elections in: the United Kingdom, France, Canada, Norway, Switzerland, United Arab Emirates, South Africa, India and Australia.
SCYTL is based in Barcelona; its funding comes from international venture capital funds including Nauta Capital, Balderton Capital and Spinnaker.
Here is the link to the press release regarding SYCTL's acquisition of SOE:
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/scytl-acquires-soe- g-election-software-provider-software-becoming-the-leadin 2012-01-11
quote:"In 2007...the top 250 companies in the world had sales in excess of $14.7 trillion...an amount exceeding the GDP [Gross Domestic Product] of the United States or the European Union, $13.2 trillion and $13.7 trillion, respectively...combined sales of the top five (Wal-Mart, Exxon-Mobil, Royal Dutch Shell, BP and General Motors) was nearly $1.5 trillion -- larger than the GDP of all but seven countries." -- Superclass: The Global Power Elite and the World They Are Making, by David Rothkopf
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Israeli defense minister rules out attack on Iran
By Juan Leandro |
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Jerusalem, Jan 18, (RHC), -- Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak ruled out the possibility of a military strike on Iran in the near future, saying that kind of decision remained "very far away."
"We don't have a decision or a date for taking such a decision. This whole thing is very far away," AFP quoted Barak as telling Israel's army radio on Wednesday.
Barak also said Israel did not believe that Iran had yet made a decision to move to actual production of a nuclear warhead.
Barak´s remarks come as tensions between the US and Iran have escalated, over the Islamic Republic’s controversial nuclear program.The US and its allies say that Iran is trying to build a nuclear bomb, while Iran insists its program has only peaceful purposes, stressing its right to develop and acquire nuclear technology.
The IAEA has conducted numerous inspections of Iran's nuclear facilities but has never found any evidence indicating a diversion in Tehran's civilian nuclear program. /PRESSTV
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http://english.chosun.com/
site/data/html_dir/2012/01/19/ 2012011900562.html
Occupy Protesters Swarm U.S. Capitol in Washington
A minor scuffle broke out between police and protesters in Washington Tuesday as hundreds of people from around the country gathered at the Capitol to draw attention to what they say is a broken political system.
As the protesters held what they call a general assembly on the Capitol grounds, police responded to a suspicious man wearing a Philadelphia police uniform.
"Why is he being searched," asked one protester. "Because he is wearing a police uniform," responded the policeman. "Thus, somebody wearing a police uniform would be carrying a gun. Thus we search."
The man wearing the police uniform is retired Philadelphia Police Captain Ray Lewis.
Lewis is well known in Occupy circles for his support of the movement. He was arrested along with others at a New York Protest late last year. "Thank you for being here. You guys all started this. I just jumped on your coattails," said Lewis.
When police try to move protesters from an area where they don't have a permit, tempers flair. Then, police tackle two protesters who jump a wall and try to run past a police line.
"You are free to be here but you are required to file a permit," said a police officer. "If you filed a permit for here, then you would have the permit for here. But you filed a permit for over there."
Finally the police give in and let the protesters stay. A small victory for the Occupy movement during what has been a difficult winter.VOA News / Jan. 19, 2012 08:22 KST............................................................ .............................. .............................. ......... What really happened when the San Diego Occupiers got kicked off the Greyhound bus in Amarillo, Texas.
by SOURCE on JANUARY 15, 2012 · 88 COMMENTS
Occupy San Diego Road to Congress – Update Day 2
From Las Crusas to the Amarillo 13
By Eugene Davidovich/Special to the OB Rag / January 15, 2011
With no breaks from the road all night, and after traveling hundreds of miles through California and Arizona, the group of activists from Occupy San Diego finally got a chance to stretch their legs in Las Cruces, New Mexico in the early hours of Saturday, January 14th.
When the bus pulled into the Las Cruses station at 7:30am, everyone’s hopes for a working restroom were shattered as the sign on the door read, “Restroom Not Operational.”
To add to the difficulties, weather outdoors was a crisp 30 degrees Fahrenheit, a sharp change form the relatively blazing 70 degrees most protesters are used to in San Diego.
At the Las Cruses Greyhound station the group was met by Jeff and Stella Miller from Occupy Las Cruces who brought loafs of freshly baked hot bread and coffee for the travelers. After everyone got their fill and had an opportunity to stretch, the group quickly organized a small rally with protest signs and chants outside the bus station.
That morning the protesters were able to bring the Occupy San Diego message all the way to New Mexico, make new friends, and stand in strong solidarity with Occupy Las Cruces all in less then one hour during a bus layover.
8:10am came around quickly and the group was rushed on to the next bus. While boarding, J. Garcia the new bus driver asked the group, “Are you all with those Occupy people? How did you pay for your trip?” One of the protesters explained that the group raised money from the community to pay for the trip. The bus driver responded sarcastically, “Did Obama pay for it?, Get on the bus!”
The trip was rather uneventful for the rest of the day, until the group arrived in Amarillo, Texas at 5:45pm. At first, the Amarillo layover was uneventful and relaxing, until everyone got in line to board the bus. In line, the protesters were greeted by the ever so ‘friendly’ Don Ainsworth, a taller grumpy man in his late seventies that introduced himself by shouting “Everyone get in a single file line, right now, or we are not boarding”.
After boarding the bus, and while all the passengers were still standing in the aisle loading luggage into the overhead bins, Don walked onto the bus and shouted at everyone, “Shut up, and sit down!”
In shock and disbelief everyone scrambled to take their seats. At the same time, one of the protesters noticed several bags belonging to the group being loaded off the bus. The protester asked the driver why the bags were being removed.
The driver snapped at the protester, “I said, sit down and shut up”.
After the second “sit down and shut up”, several passengers began to voice their concern about the hostility and disrespect coming from the driver. One of those voicing a concern about the luggage was Michael Ponsler. He asked the driver why he was being so rude and disrespectful.
The driver spun around, and shouted, “Who said that?!”
It was me, Michael calmly responded.
“You, off my bus!”, the driver shouted.
Michael explained to the driver that he was part of a group traveling together, that he had done nothing wrong, and was simply inquiring about the bags and customer service. This seemed to outrage the driver even more and he began to shout, “all of you Occupy people, off my bus!”
Several folks from the group tried to explain to the driver again that they were all traveling together, did not want to be split up, and did not want to be prevented from getting to Washington D.C. The driver did not respond, simply walked off the bus and locked the door leaving all the passengers trapped inside for over an hour.
From the windows of the bus everyone could see the driver walk up to the Greyhound ticket counter pick up the phone and have a thirty minute conversation. After the phone call and another thirty minutes or so of standing around and watching the football game on television, two police cars pulled up to the station, and three uniformed officers walked inside to speak with the driver.
After a brief conversation with the driver the officers walked onto the bus and asked him to point out who he wanted removed. The driver began to walk around and ask different passengers whether they were with Occupy. The police stopped the driver and told him that instead of asking people if they are with Occupy, he should instead point out who specifically he wanted off the bus. The driver replied, “all fourteen of them, I want them all off the bus.”
The driver failed to realize that there were only thirteen people with the Occupy group on the bus and that he was mixing in to the group another passenger that voiced her concerns about the unfair treatment she witnessed.
No one was kicked off just yet, and two of the officers left the bus to speak with the driver once again, while one remained on board to speak with the protesters. The officer who remained inside, told everyone that they would be able to stay on the bus as long as they don’t communicate with the driver at all. Everyone agreed and were looking forward to getting back on the road. The officer even explained to the protesters that they have to deal with this driver, his disrespectful attitude, and attempts to get people arrested without cause all the time.
While one of the officers was talking with the passengers on the bus, the driver was seen waving his hands in disgust and his head in disapproval at the two officers speaking with him outside. A few minutes later, the driver and both officers returned and explained to everyone that anyone with Occupy would have to leave the bus.
Without argument and still in shock, all thirteen protesters even those not pointed out by the driver, quietly stood up and walked off the bus together. By the time the group was booted from the bus, it was already after 8pm and over an hour since the bus was originally supposed to depart Amarillo.
Still in disbelief about the events of the evening, several members of the group began to quickly put the word out on Facebook, Twitter, and every other social network that could be accessed about what was happening. Ustream was activated on Michael Basillas’ phone and the group was broadcasting live from the station to hundreds watching live at home and at other Occupations around the country.
Members from Occupy Wall Street, Chicago, Los Angeles, Austin, San Diego, Washington D.C. and many other cities sprung into action, re-tweeted what was happening on the ground, and helped wake up the nation to Greyhound’s apparent disdain for the Occupy movement. The group of protesters stranded at the bus station quickly became known online as the Amarillo13.
Hundreds of calls began to come into the Greyhound station in Amarillo as well as the company’s corporate line demanding fair treatment of protesters, a refund, and transportation to Washington D.C.
Even David Lynch, the CEO of Greyhound was contacted on his cell phone and office line to be advised of what happened to the peaceful protesters.
Around 9pm two local Amarillo news crews arrived at the bus station to talk to the stranded protesters just in time for the local 10 o’clock news.
For several hours the group was had no idea what would happen, whether the tickets would be reissued, whether they would be stuck in Amarillo, or whether they would make to Washington D.C. at all for the rally on January 17th.
Finally around 3am, the supervisor of the ticket counter came in to work and began to reissue tickets for the next available bus, which was departing at 6:50 in the morning.
While waiting for their fate to be determined, much love and support was coming in both online and in person. Occupiers watching the Amarillo13 live on the internet, ordered pizza for the group which was delivered directly to the bus station, and several occupiers from the Amarillo Occupation came to the bus station to stand in solidarity with the stranded protesters. Crystal, Ricker, Sam, and Rusty from Occupy Amarillo all came out to the bus station and brought the group hot coffee, lots of love, support, and encouragement.
The bus finally departed Amarillo at 5:45am on January 15th and reached Oklahoma City, Oklahoma at 10:45am where we were also met by a several occupiers from the local occupation in Oklahoma who brought the protesters food, coffee and more supplies for the road.
After leaving the station at Oklahoma, the protesters learned that Greyhound issued an official statement on twitter regarding the protesters stating, “Hi All, we are aware of the Occupy Congress situation. We have notified executive management. We appreciate your patience.” @GreyhoundBus
The group is now headed for Tennessee and in the process of negotiating a fair resolution to the disruption of the trip over the phone with Greyhound.
Tagged as: occupy
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