Tag: Nuke Material

So Much For The Sanctions Idea

WE know that since last February the US and NATO has imposed heavy sanctions on Russia as a penalty for invading Ukraine.

These sanctions do not seem to find a way to stop the madness now exploding (no pun intended) in Ukraine.

Sanctions, at best, are a feel good action….seldom do anything to curb any bad activity by this country or that.

Let me go off track for a moment….

As a nuclear super power where does all the uranium come from that is needed to make those lovely bombs and stuff?

Here’s a hint for you….the nation is under extreme sanctions.

Roughly one third of the enriched uranium used in the United States is now imported from Russia, the world’s cheapest producer.  Most of the rest is imported from Europe. A final, smaller portion is produced by a British-Dutch-German consortium operating in the United States. Nearly a dozen countries around the world depend on Russia for more than half their enriched uranium.
 
The company that operates the Ohio plant says it could take more than a decade for it to produce quantities that rivaled Rosatom. The Russian nuclear agency, which produces both low-enriched and weapons-grade fuel for Russia’s civilian and military purposes, is also responsible in Ukraine for commandeering the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, Europe’s biggest, sparking fears that a battle over it could cause leaks of radioactive material or even a larger meltdown.
 
It is one of the most significant remaining flows of money from the United States to Russia, and it continues despite strenuous efforts among U.S. allies to sever economic ties with Moscow. The enriched uranium payments are made to subsidiaries of Rosatom, which in turn is closely intertwined with Russia’s military apparatus.
 
I have said and written many times that this sanction thing does nothing but help politicians feel good and something they can use to separate fools from their money.
 
Not something that is common knowledge by the people….but not to worry there is plenty more that we do not know.
 
At what point do we allow this BS to continue?  (that is a rhetorical question)
 
I Read, I Write, You Know
 
“lego ergo scribo”

“Yellow Cake” Is Missing

Remember prior to the US invasion of Iraq in 2003?

One of the justifications was the lie that Saddam was wanting some ‘yellow cake’ uranium….and after the invasion teams scoured Iraq looking for it…..it was not found….it was either not ever there or missing.

Has it been found?  (Not a real question just my attempt to be whimsical)

A recent report was that 2 and half tons of yellow cake uranium is missing in Libya….a disturbing story…..but not to worry it has been found….

A stash of missing uranium ore reportedly has been found in eastern Libya. Ten drums were located near the border with Chad, the media unit for the armed forces said, per the BBC. The International Atomic Energy Agency said it was trying to corroborate the Libyan National Army report, which said the drums were found several miles from where they’d been stored, per the Washington Post. The agency, which is the UN’s nuclear watchdog, had reported that the 2½ tons of ore had vanished from a site in Libya without specifying when. Inspectors said the 10 drums “were not present as previously declared at a location” outside of government-controlled territory during a visit on Tuesday, per CNN and the BBC.

The uranium represented about 10% of the material stored at the “very remote location” in southern Libya, says Scott Roecker of the Nuclear Threat Initiative. He tells the BBC that the uranium, referred to as yellow cake, “cannot be made into a nuclear weapon” in its current form. There are also “very little radiation concerns,” says Roecker. A site inspection scheduled for last year was postponed for security reasons as militias battled in the region, per the BBC and Reuters.

Two and half tons of yellow cake could have made  a massive dirty bomb or a bunch or minor dirty bombs.

I am beginning to think that there is terrible security around the world when it comes to  that comes to stored nuke material…..the most recent incident that comes to mind was the lost canister of lost nuke material that fell off a truck in transportation.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Iran And Enrichment

The media keeps the pressure up on Iran….it has jumped into the Neocon camp and dealing in false information……to illustrate their fanning the flames moment…..the headline was “Iran Thumbs It’s Nose At The Nuke Agreement”……

Iran is continuing to back away from its nuclear deal with world powers following US withdrawal over a year ago. On Tuesday, President Hassan Rouhani announced that uranium gas would be injected into centrifuges at the underground Fordo facility beginning Wednesday. A rep for the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran later said gas would be injected into 1,044 centrifuges with the goal to enrich uranium up to 4.5% concentration of U-235. The 2015 deal limits Iran to low-enriched uranium, with no more than 4% concentration. Iran actually agreed not to carry out enrichment at Fordo until 2031, per the BBC. “Trump’s complaint with the Iran accord was that key restrictions expired by 2030, but the net result of the recent announcements is that those restrictions are largely being thrown out now,” reports the New York Times.

Iran sees its move as a bargaining chip. It’s “reversible” if other signatories—the UK, France, Germany, China, and Russia—allow Iranian oil to be sold on foreign markets and relieve economic pressure from US sanctions imposed after Trump pulled out of the deal, Rouhani said. “Then we will stop feeding gas to the centrifuges.” He spoke a day after Iran announced it had doubled the number of advanced centrifuges at its larger Natanz facility, where enriched uranium is already being produced, per the Times. On Tuesday, the US State Department said Iran had “no credible reason to expand its uranium enrichment program, at the Fordo facility or elsewhere, other than a clear attempt at nuclear extortion.” Per the Times, “with the steps taken in recent weeks, Iran might be able to produce enough fuel for a single nuclear bomb in under a year.”

Please someone tell the world that none of thus would be news if Trump had not wanted to destroy a deal of the Obama administration……had nothing to do with the nuke thing but rather a popular Obama policy……it had to go.

Really?  No”credible reason”?  Maybe all the past war drum beating and threats from some slug in DC…..maybe they take threats seriously?

Iran is an oil exporting country…well it just got a shot to the arm…..

Iran has discovered a new oil field in the country’s south with over 50 billion barrels of crude, its president said Sunday, a find that could boost the country’s proven reserves by a third as it struggles to sell energy abroad over US sanctions. The announcement by Hassan Rouhani comes as Iran faces crushing American sanctions after the US pulled out of its nuclear deal last year. Rouhani said the field was located in Iran’s southern Khuzestan province, home to its crucial oil industry, reports the AP. Some 53 billion barrels would be added to Iran’s proven reserves of roughly 150 billion, he said. “I am telling the White House that in the days when you sanctioned the sale of Iranian oil and pressured our nation, the country’s dear workers and engineers were able to discover 53 billion barrels of oil in a big field,” Rouhani said.

Oil reserves refer to crude that’s economically feasible to extract. Figures can vary wildly by country due to differing standards, though it remains a yardstick of comparison among oil-producing nations. Iran currently has the world’s fourth-largest proven deposits of crude oil and the world’s second-largest deposits of natural gas. It shares a massive offshore field in the Persian Gulf with Qatar. The new oil field could become Iran’s second-largest field after one containing 65 billion barrels in Ahvaz. The field is 925 square miles, with the deposit some 260 feet deep, Rouhani said.

Just a thought

I Read, I Wrote, You Know

“Lego Ergo Scribo”

Enrichment

The Iran nuke deal is toast…..Pompeo and the hawks have been beating their anemic chests and sanctions have been installed and now the Iranians are starting to enrich again…..

Iran announced Sunday it will increase its uranium enrichment to an unspecified level beyond the terms of its 2015 nuclear deal with world powers, reports the AP, breaking another limit set under the accord and furthering heightening tensions between Tehran and the US. Setting another unspecified 60-day deadline for the deal, Iran took further steps toward pressuring Europe while urging further diplomacy to save an agreement that President Trump unilaterally pulled the US from a year ago. Hopes for saving the faltering deal appear increasingly dim, however, as the Europeans have been unable to offer Iran any effective way around US sanctions that block Tehran’s oil sales abroad and target its top officials. But Iran’s recent measures, while of concern to nuclear non-proliferation experts, could be easily reversible if Europeans offer Iran the sanctions relief it seeks.

Iranian officials said the new level of uranium enrichment would be reached later Sunday, but did not give a percentage. Under the nuclear deal, the cap for enrichment was set at 3.67%. “Within hours, the technical tasks will be done and enrichment above 3.67% will begin,” Iran nuclear agency rep Behrouz Kamalvandi said. The IAEA said “inspectors in Iran will report to our headquarters as soon as they verify the announced development.” Kamalvandi also stressed that Iran will continue to use only slower, first-generation IR-1 centrifuges to increase enrichment, as well as keep the number of centrifuges in use under the 5,060-limit set by the nuclear deal. But Kamalvandi stressed that Iran is able to continue enrichment “at any speed, any amount and any level.” “For the enrichment we are using the same machines with some more pressure and some special technical work,” he said. The decision to ramp up uranium enrichment came less than a week after Iran broke the deal’s 660-pound limit on uranium.

Now that Iran has decided to restart their enrichment program what does that mean?

Learn what it is and what it takes to make it a success.

Uranium is a silvery-grey metal, an element found in tiny amounts almost everywhere, but rarely in concentrated densities.

The World Nuclear Association says that uranium mines are operational in some 20 countries, though about half of global production comes from just 10 mines in six countries: Canada, Australia, Niger, Kazakhstan, Russia and Namibia.

Uranium is often mined though a form of “fracking”, or hydraulic fracturing, in which water injected with oxygen is forced at high pressure through rock containing uranium, extracting the element before pumping it to the surface.

The liquid is then filtered, and the dissolved uranium is removed from the water by a process known as ion exchange – a similar chemical process to that used in some household water filters to remove impurities.

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2019/07/beginner-guide-enriching-uranium-190707051824231.html

Learn Stuff!

“Lego Ergo Scribo”

Make Mine Dirty!

I wish I was talking about a martini….but something a bit more potentate……..

I am always looking at the news from around the world trying to see what could be the next ‘big’ attack from a group of deranged terrorists…..to me I believe it is going to be a dirty bomb of some fashion….

A few of my posts on the subject of a dirty bomb….

https://lobotero.com/2016/03/07/in-search-of-a-poor-mans-nuke/

https://lobotero.com/2016/02/22/nuke-material-update/

Over the weekend when I was reading my correspondence I found another piece about the subject of a dirty bomb this time in Southeast Asia….

In August 2018, Malaysian authorities reported the disappearance of an industrial device containing radioactive material. The device was lost while being transported from Negri Sembilan to Selangor by two technicians employed at a company that provides testing, calibration and inspection services to heavy industries. There are concerns that the unknown amount of radioactive iridium contained in the device could cause radiation exposure or be used as a weapon, otherwise known as a ‘dirty bomb’. The incident was a reminder that nuclear security demands attention in Southeast Asia.

While nuclear security is often understood to be about securing nuclear power plants and nuclear weapons, it is also very much about the security of radioactive materials that are under the state’s regulatory, export and licensing control. As defined by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), nuclear security is ‘the prevention and detection of, and response to, theft, sabotage, unauthorized access, illegal transfer or other malicious acts involving nuclear material, other radioactive substances or their associated facilities’. Although there are no nuclear power plants in Southeast Asia, radioactive sources are widely used for civilian application in medical, industrial, agricultural and scientific research fields. For instance, radioactive sources are present in 17 hospitals in Thailand and seven hospitals in the Philippines.

http://www.eastasiaforum.org/2018/12/04/stopping-dirty-bombs-in-southeast-asia/

These types of devices are a poor man’s nuke…..Hell one can make a dirty bomb out of smoke detectors…..we need to be ever vigil for it is only a matter of time before some knuckle-head gives this a try.

BiBi: Believe It Or Not

The Neocon world has awaited for the revelations that BiBi has promised about Iran and its nuke program…..and we finally have his assessment….and we foreign policy wonks were not disappointed….we got his time tried diatribe about Iran….

Benjamin Netanyahu went on Israeli TV Monday night and issued a blunt accusation against the nation he sees as an arch-nemesis: “Iran lied,” he declared. “Big time.” Netanyahu said Israel had obtained a “half ton” of documents proving that Iran had been trying to develop nuclear weapons, something it has long denied, reports the AP. Netanyahu further asserted that Iran sought to cover up the weapons program before signing a 2015 deal with the international community. “Iran is brazenly lying when it said it never had a nuclear weapons program,” said the Israeli prime minister. His office billed it as a bombshell development, though Tom DiChristopher of CNBC writes that Netanyahu’s presentation “largely rehashed what the world long ago accepted: That Iran sought to develop nuclear weapons.”

Still, the timing is significant, given that President Trump must decide by May 12 whether to continue to go along with the 2015 deal or reimpose sanctions, reports the Guardian. The newspaper notes that Netanyahu spoke to Trump by phone over the weekend and met in person with new Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Sunday. “We’ve shared this material with the United States and the United States can vouch for its authenticity,” Netanyahu said on Monday. Iran did not immediately respond to the claims, but its foreign minister tweeted before the presentation that Netanyahu is “the boy who can’t stop crying wolf” in regard to accusations about Iran. Netanyahu said Israel had obtained 55,000 documents and 183 CDs from the “nuclear archives” of Iran.

This should sit well with the likes of Trump, Bolton and Pompeo…..but is his accusations true?

The same re-packaged lies for the last 20 years.

Well let’s see what Mossad and the CIA have to say about it……

Israel’s intelligence services agree with American intelligence assessments that there is not enough proof to determine whether Iran is building a nuclear bomb, according to a report published Sunday in the New York Times.

The report further quoted one former senior American intelligence official who states that the Mossad “does not disagree with the U.S. on the weapons program,” adding that there is “not a lot of dispute between the U.S. and Israeli intelligence communities on the facts.”

According to the New York Times, the extent of the evidence the spy agencies have collected is unclear since most of their findings are classified. However, intelligence officials say they have been throwing everything they have at the Iranian program

(Haaretz)

Intel comes from two sources……Kurds in Iraq that go between the two countries and the M.E.K. a groupm of Iranian dissidents…..

Tired old pics as proof….like I said BiBi does not disappoint when Iran is involved.

That aside the question is….can Pres. Trump abandon this agreement?

To answer this I give you an article on this point…..

President Donald Trump has repeatedly voiced his belief that the Iran nuclear deal is flawed and if it is not amended to cure those flaws, the United States should abandon it. On January 12th of this year, he informed the American public that his administration is working with “key European allies” to reach a “new supplemental agreement that would impose new multilateral sanctions if Iran develops or tests long-range missiles, thwarts inspections, or makes progress toward a nuclear weapon.”

As a political document, there is no legal prohibition on the president from withdrawing from the plan of action. The president has given his negotiators until May 12th to reach that agreement; the date upon which he is next required under Section 1245(d) of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2012, codified at 22 U.S.C. § 8513a, to decide whether to renew the waiver of certain sanctions targeting the financial sector of Iran.

Can Trump Legally Withdraw from the Iran Deal?

I hope that helped in the understanding……

This is more about an accord signed by Obama than an actual threat…..if the same had occurred with North Korea then that situation would be on a different tact altogether.

Make It Dirty!

Geez!  The title could lead this post down some interesting and even disgusting paths…..but no this time……

But the big story was who won the British Open golf classic…..seriously?  That is the best the media can do?

For years I have writing about the different occasions where nuke material was found or missing from some inventory and I said that it would be only a matter of time before some nut job terrorist got their hands on the material and would make and use a dirty bomb.

A report has come out of Iraq……the battle for Mosul to be exact……

The Washington Post has a scoop on a terrifying near-miss in Mosul, Iraq. When the Islamic State seized Iraq’s second-largest city in June 2014 it came into possession of two caches of cobalt-60, one of the key ingredients for making “dirty bombs,” the paper reports. At the time, Western intelligence agencies were aware of the cobalt-60, a substance with deadly levels of radiation that, in peaceful hands, can be used to destroy cancer cells. What they weren’t sure of is whether ISIS knew about them. Those agencies, along with independent nuclear experts, appraised the potential damage the two caches could cause and reported to the US government and the Iraqi military about them, but otherwise kept their reports private in case ISIS didn’t know what they had in their possession.

Earlier this year, when Iraqi military soldiers entered the college campus storage room where the cobalt was last seen, they found it untouched. Experts says they don’t know why ISIS didn’t use the substance to make dirty bombs but speculate that they didn’t have the knowledge to dismantle the machines holding it without exposing themselves to radiation. And while the two caches are now safe in Iraqi government hands, officials warn that similar caches exist in hundreds of cities around the world, some of them in conflict areas. The Post reports that it learned of the cobalt-60 in Mosul last year but agreed to a US government request not to report on it until Mosul was retaken.

Any sane person this report would give you a shiver…..to think that ISIS was that close to a dirty bomb……

Now my question is….if they had the material for a dirty bomb why then did they not use it?

What gave them pause after all their barbarity knows no bounds….why the hesitation?

Oh By The Way——remember the deceased leader of ISIS, al-Baghdadi?

Well he may not be as dead as everyone thought……

Defense Secretary James Mattis today said he continues to believe that ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi is still alive, and that he will assume Baghdadi is alive until he sees confirmation that the US has killed him.

The US, of course, has claimed to have killed Baghdadi several times. His most recent death was at the hands of Russia, which had US officials particularly skeptical. There were multiple “confirmations” that he was likely dead again, though recently the indications have been that he is alive.

Gotta love the games these people play.

Closing Thought–23Feb17

There are news stories that are just not important enough to make the evening news….but yet some moronic celeb never has his jersey stolen and it is updated for days…..

In the past I have written about nuclear accidents and other stories that could be a problem for the world in the near future….we all know about Fukashima and that is bout it for nuke mistakes…..but there is nuclear material missing around the world that could make it into a dirty bomb or other weapon….

I try to help my readers stay attuned to these incidents with the hope they they will stay alert and safe…..

I read another report that did not make it into the news…….this time it is Northern Europe……

As mysterious radiation spread over the Arctic and south into Europe last month, conspiracy theorists quickly claimed Russia had restarted nuclear testing at Novaya Zemlya, the Drive reports. But the truth is—probably—a lot less menacing. According to the Independent Barents Observer, a spike in the radioactive isotope Iodine-131 was first measured on the Norway-Russia border in mid-January. But the spike wasn’t made public until later, when it reached France, Science Alert reports. The levels of Iodine-131 weren’t high enough to be a danger to the public, but the isotope is usually connected to nuclear fission, so concern abounded. That concern only deepened when the US, with no explanation, sent its nuclear “sniffing” aircraft to Europe.

Despite the alarm, the radiation bloom probably wasn’t caused by a nuclear explosion. First, there was no seismic activity to go along with the radiation spike. Second, no other radioactive isotopes spiked besides Iodine-131, Motherboard reports. And while a nuclear explosion—or accident—is still a possibility, Norway’s radiation protection agency believes the likely culprit is a pharmaceutical company working with Iodine-131, which is used to treat cancers. It’s still unclear where the radiation originated, with officials only narrowing it down as far as “Eastern Europe,” but medical companies that work with Iodine-131 all have detectors for a leak. So it seems someone out there knows what happened but isn’t talking.

They still no idea where it came from or why…..

In Search Of A Poor Man’s Nuke

Time for me to return to something interesting…..I have had enough of American reality TV that we called an election…..the world is awaiting so I will do what I do best….look for those events that could be life changing…..

I have written several articles about missing nuke material and their uses…..most of them are contained in a piece I wrote for Ace News Room recently……which I pressed here on IST….basically they are pieces on what to look for and what to do when a dirty bomb is detected……

Source: It’s A Dirty Business – In Saner Thought

I bring this up because I read a pretty good op-ed written for AJE on the possibility of a dirty bomb detonated by ISIS……if you would like to check it out……

It’s only a matter of time before ISIL employs a dirty bomb either on the streets of the West or in the towns of Syria.

A radiological dispersal device, commonly referred to as a dirty bomb, is often considered to be the poor man’s nuclear bomb – but this is not a very accurate description.

A dirty bomb is not a nuclear bomb because it does not rely on a nuclear reaction to trigger the explosion. Instead, a dirty bomb involves the dispersal of radioactive material by traditional explosives, such as dynamite.

A radiological dispersal device, commonly referred to as a dirty bomb, is often considered to be the poor man’s nuclear bomb – but this is not a very accurate description.

A dirty bomb is not a nuclear bomb because it does not rely on a nuclear reaction to trigger the explosion. Instead, a dirty bomb involves the dispersal of radioactive material by traditional explosives, such as dynamite.

The deadliness of a dirty bomb depends on a number of factors including the type of radioactive material used, the weather conditions, and where the bomb is detonated.

The deadliness of a dirty bomb depends on a number of factors including the type of radioactive material used, the weather conditions, and where the bomb is detonated.

Source: ISIL and the poor man’s nuke – Al Jazeera English

Some may think that this is just alarmist thinking…..but with the amount of nuke material floating around the world….it is only a matter of time before some nut-job decides to use one to make a point……

Nuke Material: Update

Several days ago I wrote about some nuke material that went missing in Iraq from some civilian contractor of oil field services……my concern was the possibility of the use of this material to make a dirty bomb……

Of course it did not get the coverage that it needed because we are in the middle of an election and whatever these toads have to rant about is far more important than some “silly” dirty bomb fear……

So let me once again write about something that has happened concerning this missing material……..Reported this weekend……..

In poor news for any would-be dirty-bombmakers in ISIS, Iraq says it has safely recovered the “highly dangerous” radioactive material that went missing days ago from the storage facility of a US oilfield services company, reports Reuters. The iridium-192, which was reportedly in a laptop-size case, was found dumped near a gas station about nine miles away from where it went missing in Basra. “A passer-by found the radioactive device dumped in Zubair and immediately informed security forces which went with a special prevention radiation team and retrieved the device,” a Basra security official says. “After initial checking I can confirm the device is intact 100% and there is absolutely no concern of radiation.”

So you can stop fretting this news and go back to listening to mental midgets tell you what you want……I have done my part…..