US's most powerful nuclear bomb being dismantled

I thought this was an interesting article about how the largest nuclear bomb is set to be dismantled in Texas. Especially when I thought about how Obama wants to get down to zero nuclear weapons but at the same time increased nuclear weapons research. Also I just thought it was interesting when the article mentioned that the bomb is 600 times more powerful than the bomb dropped on Hiroshima and that it weighs 10,000 lbs.

-Alexis

http://my.news.yahoo.com/uss-most-powerful-nuclear-bomb-being-dismantled-071325260.html

India's Continuous Nuclear Conundrum

India's path for nuclear plans has been full of many complicated decisions and speed bumps.

In 2008, Bush signed a nuclear deal with India which allowed civilian nuclear trade with India, and

in 2010, France signed a nuclear deal with India to build two reactors in India at a cost of $9.3 billion.

This occurred a few months before India and Japan signed trade deals to boost trade and investment. (this playing a role to counter China's anti-Japanese movement) However, Japan wanted India to commit to ending nuclear tests and India refused to sign the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.

One month post-Fukushima, violent protests (one man killed, many injured) rose in areas of India where power plant proposals were being made. (Jaithapur, West India) Many farms and neighborhoods are being taken over and hurting the agricultural and farming economy.

Australia being India's main supplier of Uranium (as well as China), now sees its opportunity to refuse to sell it to them as a means of getting India to sign the NPT. Although India does not disagree with the treaty, they see that it would be unwise to do so because the other countries that haven't signed will have an upper hand. "The issue is, above all, one of strategic common sense: China, which went to war with India in 1962, has nuclear weapons pointed at it, making it irresponsible to sign a treaty that would disarm India unilaterally."


(All information taken from english.aljazeera.net)

http://english.aljazeera.net/indepth/opinion/2011/10/20111011113454624274.html


-karin..again.

Nuclear New York

http://www.npr.org/2011/10/19/141489883/fight-over-nuclear-plant-draws-n-y-political-heavies



Polls show that 40 percent of New Yorkers want the plant closed while 49 percent do not want the plant to close.

To close the plant or not to close the plant?

-karin

Chernobyl Film Premieres at Chicago Film Festival

Tomorrow is the last screening of the film "Innocent Saturday," (3:40 at AMC River East 21) a story which follows a man on the day of the disaster of Chernobyl, April 26, 1986. He is the only one who realizes the vast impact that the disaster will have but nobody in his town seems to believe him.

Here's the trailer: http://vimeo.com/29438487

Sorry for the late post, I just found out about it.

-Karin

Readings for October 21

Here we go - head first into the debate over nuclear energy!  The main reading for this week is an article from a few years ago that gives an overview of both sides of the debate.  This is a pre-Fukushima survey, but the core issues have not really changed:

1)  Pros and Cons of Nuclear Energy from a Wall Street Journal article by Michael Totty.  Notice as you are reading this that many of the "pro" arguments for nuclear energy are not actually phrased as inherent advantages of nuclear energy, but as answers to criticisms.  For the quiz this week, I will be asking you to write a few one-sentence summaries of arguments on each side of the issue, so be familiar with the range of points made in this article.

2) The other reading for this week is a recent New York Times article on the future of nuclear power around the world, after Fukushima.  Key (quiz-able) things to note:  how has Japan's plan for the future development of nuclear power changed?  Is the United States still planning to build new nuclear reactors?  Which country has the most nuclear reactors, and which country gets the largest fraction of their energy from nuclear power?

Global Zero Nuclear Summit Aims To Eliminate Nuclear Weapons Worldwide

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/10/11/global-zero-nuclear-power_n_1004801.html

A thought-provoking article discussing the possibility of eliminating nuclear weapons.

"Some 100 international leaders from across the globe and across the political spectrum -- including former top Reagan advisers -- will call on the heads of the eight nuclear powers (plus nearly-there North Korea) to initiate the first-ever multilateral negotiations for the elimination of nuclear weapons."

Posted by Jasmine Chong

Polonium-210, smoking, and spies

What do cigarettes and the strangest (publicly known) assassination in the recent history have to do with each other?  Polonium-210!  It's a radioactive isotope that is one of the many "daughters" of the decay of natural uranium.  It's present in small quantities in soil and rock around us.  Interestingly, tobacco plants take up Polonium from soil and fertilizer.  A significant contribution of the cancer-causing power of smoking comes from radiation from Polonium-210 alpha decays in the lungs.

I recently ran across an article that is an "expose" of the fact that tobacco companies have long known about the radioactive material in their cigarettes and kept it quiet.  Check it out: ABC News article on radiation in tobacco smoke.

A concentrated (but still invisibly small) dose of pure Polonium-210 was slipped into a cup of tea consumed by former KGB agent Alexander Litvinenko in 2006, and led to his rapid death from radiation poisoning.  This story of this assassination is fascinating and disturbing.  Read about it in this CBS News Article or by following the book review link below.


Image credit:  The Alexander Litvinenko Family, via Getty Images, taken from a New York Times book review on "The Terminal Spy," a book about Litvinenko's death.