Gingrich and the EMP

Well, this is weird.  Presidential hopeful Newt Gingrich has been talking a lot lately about how the U.S. needs to prepare for the risk of a nuclear EMP - "electromagnetic pulse" attack that could cripple the nation's technological infrastructure.  What is an EMP?  Basically a massive pulse of electric energy, which could be created by a nuclear weapon detonated in the atmosphere.  What could it do?  Shut down power grids, cripple communications, and cause machines to go haywire. 

Is this really one of the most pressing risks to consider for the U.S.?  Something to consider at least...

Read about it:
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/12/us/politics/gingrichs-electromagnetic-pulse-warning-has-skeptics.html

Anselm Kiefer Plans to Buy Nuclear Power Station

Artist Anselm Keifer mines forgotten histories within his work, the German artist plans to buy a nuclear power station








http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/0,1518,795001,00.html

-Patrick

Saudi Arabia May Seek Nuclear Weapons

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) -- A Saudi prince, in a remark designed to send chills through the Obama administration and its allies, suggested that the kingdom might consider producing nuclear weapons if it found itself between atomic arsenals in Iran and Israel.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/07/world/middleeast/saudi-arabia-may-seek-nuclear-weapons-prince-says.html?ref=atomicweapons

- Lara

Educating Japanese children about radiation

http://www.aljazeera.com/news/asia-pacific/2011/12/201112753841966219.html

-karin

Activists Enter French Nuclear Facilities

"French police on Monday arrested eleven activists with environmental group Greenpeace who broke into two French nuclear-power plants in an attempt to raise questions about reactor security."



http://au.news.yahoo.com/world/a/-/world/12247597/activists-enter-french-nuclear-plant/

-Patrick

Questions swirl around $6 billion nuclear lab

"At Los Alamos National Laboratory, scientists and engineers refer to their planned new $6 billion nuclear lab by its clunky acronym, CMRR, short for Chemistry Metallurgy Research Replacement Facility."
"Questions continue to swirl about exactly what kind of nuclear and plutonium research will be done there, whether the lab is really necessary, and — perhaps most important — will it be safe, or could it become New Mexico's equivalent of Japan's Fukushima?"



http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5jKZi6fhYnYX-iZCL51SrKrqZ-XdQ?docId=bee19ebe8ee3473fa3739fd2d20b2e26

-Patrick

New analysis of Fukushima meltdown: worse than we realized

The reactor cores involved in the Fukushima crisis are still too radioactive for anyone to directly determine what state they are in, but new computer models indicate that the fuel in Reactor 1 likely melted all the way through the reactor vessel and part of the primary containment.  Not good! 

The picture comes from this IEEE Spectrum blog posting.