Free Republic

Will Ohio lose both its nuclear power plants? If gauging the response of legislators is any indication, Ohio’s nuclear plants seem to be doomed. Clearly, grassroots organizers such as Generation Atomic, the American Nuclear Society, and North America Young Generation in Nuclear have failed to convince legislators to act to save Ohio’s only nuclear generation assets. These organizers have been working for months under the ultimatum from FirstEnergy Corp, the plant’s owners: convince Ohio lawmakers to pass ZEN (Zero Emission Nuclear) legislation by June 30th or else the plants will close and decommissioning will begin. That threat carries with it...

Power-short Indonesia has been mulling building a nuclear power plant for nearly 15 years, and it is exploring a number of novel options, including high-temperature gas-cooled reactors (HTGRs) and a thorium molten salt reactor.The 1958-established National Atomic Energy Agency (Badan Tenaga Nuklir Nasional, BATAN) wants to build an experimental nuclear power reactor at Serpong, the site of its largest multipurpose research reactor, and it continues to assess its options. In early 2015, BATAN signed a contract to build and test a pebble-bed HTGR at Serpong with a consortium of Russian and Indonesian companies led by NUKEM Technologies. And, in August...

On the eve of the Arab-Israeli war, 50 years ago this week, Israeli officials raced to assemble an atomic device and developed a plan to detonate it atop a mountain in the Sinai Peninsula as a warning to Egyptian and other Arab forces, according to an interview with a key organizer of the effort that will be published Monday. The secret contingency plan, called a “doomsday operation” by Itzhak Yaakov, the retired brigadier general who described it in the interview, would have been invoked if Israel feared it was going to lose the 1967 conflict. The demonstration blast, Israeli officials...

The sky over the turbulent Pacific was pitch-black earlier this month when a Minuteman III missile blasted off from Vandenberg Air Force Base on a column of fire that illuminated the California coastline for miles. The unarmed missile thundered past the outer reaches of the atmosphere, tracing a fiery arc around the globe before plunging into a lagoon at Kwajalein Atoll in the South Pacific, 4,200 miles away.

“The most important thing is to build underground,” says Cédric Vuilleumier, an engineer for the Federal Office for Civil Protection in Switzerland, where all citizens are legally guaranteed a spot in a bomb shelter. Packed earth insulates against radiation and blast waves, but don’t go deeper than 10 feet; if your exits (make two) become blocked in the blast, you may need to dig yourself out. Start with what Vuilleumier calls a “protective envelope” of concrete and reinforced steel rebar with walls between one foot and 2-feet-7-inches thick. Don’t build near anything flammable. Your budget may allow for more spaciousness,...

Unable to post article content as it is Bloomberg sourced. Re-cap: It was a medium long-range missile, test confirms engine reliability, guidance and detonation systems.. Hwasong-12 missile could carry a “large-size heavy nuclear warhead,” per state news agency report.

BREAKING NEWS WASHINGTON STATE TUNNEL COLLAPSE TRIGGERS ALERT AT PLUTONIUM PLANT Hundreds of workers took cover after a tunnel in a Washington plutonium finishing plant collapsed Tuesday morning. The tunnel at the Hanford plant near Richland was full of contaminated particles, including radioactive trains that transport fuel rods, KING5 reported.

<p>So I’ve been reading Garrett Graff’s Raven Rock, which is a fairly gripping history of the Cold War effort to ensure “continuity of government” in the event of a nuclear apocalypse. As the Cold War progressed, defense experts went from “duck and cover” type initiatives, to plans for massive evacuations from major cities, to fallout shelters within those cities, to an abandonment of efforts to protect the civilian populations in favor of trying to save a decision-making core of government and industry.</p>

The New Yalu River Bridge was supposed to be a key link for trade between China and North Korea, replacing the Sino-Korean Friendship Bridge built in 1943. (snip)Click on the site to see the video

LOWER ALLOWAYS CREEK TWP. -- A worker "deliberately" attempted to fix an error he had made while conducting tests at a New Jersey nuclear reactor causing the plant to shut down 2 years ago, federal officials say.

North Korea's state media published a rare criticism of China on Wednesday, saying Chinese state media commentaries calling for tougher sanctions over Pyongyang's nuclear program were undermining relations with Beijing and worsening tensions. A commentary carried by the official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) referred to recent commentaries in China's People's Daily and Global Times newspapers, which it said were "widely known as media speaking for the official stand of the Chinese party and government." "A string of absurd and reckless remarks are now heard from China every day only to render the present bad situation tenser," it said.

SEOUL (Reuters) - North Korea suggested on Monday it will continue its nuclear weapons tests, saying it will bolster its nuclear force "to the maximum" in a "consecutive and successive way at any moment" in the face of what it calls U.S. aggression and hysteria. U.S. President Donald Trump has said a "major, major conflict" with North Korea is possible over its nuclear and ballistic missile programs, while China said last week the situation on the Korean peninsula could escalate or slip out of control. In a show of force, the United States has sent the nuclear-powered USS Carl Vinson...

As tensions heat up with North Korea and the potential for a nuclear exchange becomes all the more real, residents of Japan are panic buying everything from nuclear shelters to air purifiers in preparation: Sales of nuclear shelters and radiation-blocking air purifiers have surged in Japan in recent weeks as North Korea has pressed ahead with missile tests in defiance of U.N. sanctions. A small company that specializes in building nuclear shelters, generally under people’s houses, has received eight orders in April alone compared with six orders during a typical year. The company, Oribe Seiki Seisakusho, based in Kobe, western...

In just a few days, during April 24-26th, Operation Gotham Shield will commence.( NY / NJ) It is a tabletop, joint agency exercise involving FEMA, Homeland Security and a myriad of law enforcement and military agencies. WMD, chemical and biological units will all be on hand as a response is tested for a “simulated” nuclear detonation over the United States’ foremost urban center, in the iconic and densely populated island of Manhattan and nearby shores of New Jersey. The potential for a more explosive false flag to spin out of control, by hijacking and ‘converting’ the simulated actions, is all...

SEOUL, April 20 (Yonhap) -- The U.S. Air Force dispatched a nuclear sniffer aircraft Thursday to the east of the Korean Peninsula amid the possibility of North Korea's imminent nuclear test, a government source said. "The WC-135 Constant Phoenix, a special-purpose U.S. plane, made an emergency sortie today over the East Sea," the source said, requesting anonymity. Its mission is to collect samples from the atmosphere in order to detect and identity a nuclear explosion... There was an unconfirmed rumor that North Korea has notified China of its nuclear experiment plan. South Korea's military said earlier the North seems all...

This is the moment Kim Jong-un smiled and waved as cheering crowds watched a simulation of a US city being wiped out by a nuclear attack. North Korea put on a musical show to mark the birthday of founding father Kim Il Sung which ended with a mock-up of rockets engulfing America in flames. The choral performance was attended by dictator Kim Jong-un, the elder of Kim's grandson, on Sunday, after a massive military parade in the capital.

Pentagon chief spokesperson Dana W. White said in a statement that Defense Secretary Jim Mattis will ensure the U.S. military’s nuclear force is “safe, secure, effective, reliable and appropriately tailored to deter 21st-century threats and reassure our allies.” The U.S. military has roughly 450 long-range nuclear missiles in underground silos at various bases in the Midwest. It also maintains a fleet of ballistic missile submarines as well as long range B-2 and B-52 bombers also capable of launching nuclear weapons. Smaller nuclear weapons can be carried by U.S. Air Force fighter jets.

In a striking development involving the rapidly changing North Korean geopolitical situation, moments ago Voice of America reporter Steve Herman stated that according to US government and other sources, North Korea has "apparently placed a nuclear device in a tunnel and it could be detonated Saturday AM Korea time." Steve Herman ✔ ‎@W7VOA US gov’t and other sources say #DPRK has apparently placed a nuclear device in a tunnel and it could be detonated Saturday AM #Korea time. 4:11 PM - 12 Apr 2017 He then quotes an NSA official who had no comment at this time, but said "we...

After warnings yesterday, and on the heels of a "very good call" with President Trump, China has escalated its threats to North Korea over its nuclear tests. In another Global Times op-ed, China warns "if the North makes another provocative move this month, the Chinese society will be willing to adopt severe restrictive measures that have never been seen before..." Yesterday's editorial in the military-focused Global Times tabloid, owned and operated by the Communist Party's People's Daily newspaper, said that North Korea’s nuclear activities must not jeopardize northeastern China, and that if the North impacts China with its illicit nuclear...

Japan-based Sakae Casting opened first U.S. location in the eastern region of The Gem State in Idaho Falls, Idaho. Sakae Casting specializes in castings for inserting stainless steel pipes into an aluminum casting product with minimized clearance, necessary for optimal performance of semi-conductors and super computers. The Idaho Falls location will give Sakae the best U.S. location to work directly with the University of Idaho, Idaho National Laboratory (INL) and the region’s extensive nuclear and advanced manufacturing sectors to further their research capabilities and U.S. product sales. "It is my mission to create job opportunities in Eastern Idaho to support...