International Nuclear Watch & Discussion

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Sid
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Re: International Nuclear Watch & Discussion

Post by Sid »

^^ now NoKo is untouchable, it's too late for any action. Seoul/Tokyo will be water vapor if any action against NoKo is initiated. But if no action is initiated then Iran will race against time to get their own. What is stalemate.

All in all a sad situation as we know how humiliation by nuke-blackmail is a painful living condition. This will only escalate situation in region as NoKo, with this extra muscle, will demand equal status and what not. While others will try to balance this equation by producing nuclear weapons.
ramana
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Re: International Nuclear Watch & Discussion

Post by ramana »

Please use the Korea thread.
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Re: International Nuclear Watch & Discussion

Post by arun »

X Posted from the Pakistan Nuclear Proliferation thread.

As one ponders the North Korean announcement of having a thermonuclear warhesd an article titled “Pakistan’s nuclear black market and North Korea” In Balochwarna News datelined 01 Sept 2017 reminds one of the malign role the Mohammadden Terrorism FomentingIslamic Republic of Pakistan had in enabling North Korea to get nuclear weapons:
Pakistan’s nuclear black market and North Korea

2 days ago

By Waris Baloch

Lately, the United States of America and North Korea have been exchanging harsh language on top administration level, it seems the diplomatic temperature is increasing by the passage of time. North Korean’s President Mr. Kim Jong-un’s regime is facing tough sanctions supported by its ally China in the UN Security Council. The US President Donald Trump issued an extraordinary ultimatum to North Korea on Tuesday warning Pyongyang not to make any more threats against the United States or they will “face fire and fury like the world has never seen.”

North Korea is a possibility if not a certain threat to the world in future given Kim’s unpredicted personality, it may detonate the nukes or may not but did the world knew from where North Korea got its nukes program? Why the world is not taking any action against Pakistan which has more than 200 nuclear unsafe weapons and most of them are easily reachable to religious extremist groups supported by Pakistan army and the ISI.

North Korea is only threatening to bomb the US airbase of Guam but did not do that yet. Pakistan has been attacking US Air bases in Afghanistan cities since 2002. North Korea did not kill any US combating soldier but Pakistan killed thousands of US and NATO soldiers in Afghanistan using its proxy religious groups such as the Taliban, Al Qaida and the Haqqani network.

In my opinion, the direct confrontation between the US and North Korea is deliberately being fueled by China and Pakistan because the enemies of the US know the nerves of the Donald Trump that he will take action against Kim. If the US starts a war with North Korea, Pakistan and China will easily pursue their evil expansionist designs in the region especially in the subcontinent and central Asia by accomplishing the so-called China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC). If the US indulges in a war with North Korea, Pakistan and China will have time to conduct economic and military fencing by the physical presence of China’s People Liberation Army where they already have started building a naval base in Gwadar (Baloch Sea) port.

The increasing number of suicide attacks followed by road side IED blasts and overrunning the army bases of Afghan forces indicates Pakistan is massively investing to put pressure on Trump’s administration to think about the withdrawal from Afghanistan. A few Days back US top officials were heard saying that NATO is losing the war in Afghanistan.

President Donald Trump’s government should not let Pakistan go unpunished for its war crimes in Afghanistan against the Afghan civilians for last 15 years because its rogue army is still coordinating, training, funding and exporting terrorists into Afghanistan. Top leadership and foot soldiers of Taliban and ISIS have safe havens and military sanctuaries inside Pakistan which are a far beyond major threat than North Korea’s verbal threats of a nuclear attack.

The Nukes program of North Korea, Libya and Iran were smuggled and sold by Pakistan’s Dr. AQ Khan (Abdul Qadeer Khan) also known as “Nuclear Spy” by the west, Pakistan will continue its terror trading if not stopped right now.

Mr.AQ Khan succeeded to penetrate nuclear research center in Europe’s Netherland in 1972, for three years he had stolen enough information to make a nuclear bomb. In 1975 he flew back to Pakistan with nuclear designs. Knowing everything about Pakistan’s nuclear and terror intentions the US gave no priority to stop Pakistan from making the nuclear weapons.

It was equally unfortunate that Russians also fell into the trap of Pakistan and fought their war within in Afghanistan whereas the enemy was Pakistan. Pakistan played the same game with Russian then, what it is doing to US and rest of the world today. Pakistan armed and facilitated the Mujahideen and Islamist Jihadists against Russia and Russian kept on killing innocent Afghans. If Russia had taken action against Pakistan, the shape of sub-continent would have been totally different today. Today there would have been no Pakistan or at least not one raving with hate against the West and her neighbors. Letting Pakistan to possesses the nuclear bombs was a catastrophic mistake by Russia, US and rest of the international community.

any further delay in taking immediate action against Pakistan will only allow Pakistan to create more havoc in the region. The US must find new allies in the region. Afghanistan, Balochistan, India, Bangladesh can be the best options for the USA. An independent Balochistan can become a permanent and long-term ally of USA because the Baloch will strive to keep their country safe from radical jihadist for their own national interest and will not allow any religious extremist groups to use their soil against Afghanistan.
From here:

Clicky
Gerard
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Re: International Nuclear Watch & Discussion

Post by Gerard »

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Austin
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Re: International Nuclear Watch & Discussion

Post by Austin »

Jeffrey Lewis‏Verified account @ArmsControlWonk https://twitter.com/ArmsControlWonk/sta ... 7847931904

How big was the DPRK nuclear test? Depends on the measurement of Mb and the equation you use. Here is a comparison.


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Gerard
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Re: International Nuclear Watch & Discussion

Post by Gerard »

The empirical constants used in the equations above are exactly that. Empirical. You get them from exploding a bomb of known yield (previous atmospheric or underground cavity drilling/isotope analysis) and measuring the seismic magnitude. US did a test in Alaska to get constants to estimate USSR yields at their Novo Zemlya site. The values Ayatollah Lewis is using are from Kazakhstan IIRC. NoKo didn't explode a bomb in Kazakhstan. So why use Kazakh constants? Because they give lower yield values. The Ayatollahs pick the Mb and constants they use to provide the yield they wish to claim. These NPAs are up to their usual tricks.
Gerard
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Re: International Nuclear Watch & Discussion

Post by Gerard »

They used Kazakh values for Indian Pokran range as well. And lowest Mb. All so they can say Indian bums fizzle. They now have a problem with NoKo because their fizzle claims (when NoKo was testing primaries etc) are being discredited. Ayatollah Lewis in particular seems quite worried that NoKo will do atmospheric test via missile and let the world measure fireball size and cloud sample at their leisure. That would expose NPA dishonesty.
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Re: International Nuclear Watch & Discussion

Post by Austin »

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Gerard
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Re: International Nuclear Watch & Discussion

Post by Gerard »

You can get a yield of 890kT for the latest NoKo test if you use 6.3 Mb and constants from Nevada test range. All BS and posturing.
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Re: International Nuclear Watch & Discussion

Post by Amber G. »

Meanwhile a really interesting and important news -
(Related to increasing nuclear cooperation between India and Japan)
Japan commission supports nuclear power despite Fukushima
Japan's nuclear policy-setting Atomic Energy Commission called Thursday for nuclear power to remain a key component of the country's energy supply despite broad public support for a less nuclear-reliant society.

The commission recommended in a report that nuclear power account for at least 20 percent of Japan's energy supply in 2030, citing a previous government energy plan. It said rising utility costs caused by expensive fossil fuel imports and slow reactor restarts have affected Japan's economy.
The 322-page "nuclear white paper" is the commission's first since a serious accident at a nuclear plant in Fukushima in 2011. Much of it explains government efforts to clean up the damaged plant and tighten safety standards.
The resumption of the nuclear policy report is a sign of Japan's accelerating efforts to restart more reactors.

<snip>


Read more at: https://phys.org/news/2017-09-japan-com ... a.html#jCp
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Re: International Nuclear Watch & Discussion

Post by Singha »

http://www.news18.com/news/world/missil ... 18555.html

trains were halted in japan when the alert call came , good disruptive tool they have developed. ppl asked to shelter underground in hokkaido flight path
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Re: International Nuclear Watch & Discussion

Post by Singha »

Gerard
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Re: International Nuclear Watch & Discussion

Post by Gerard »

Japan braces as North Korea threatens hydrogen bomb test in Pacific

Non Proliferation Ayatollahs have named this potential test "Juche Bird"
The threat of an atmospheric nuclear test, the first since 1980, sent arms control experts buzzing, CNN reported. The dreaded Juche Bird, even if all goes well for the test, would cause untold levels of environmental devastation wherever it hits. The term is a play off of “Juche,” the nationalist rallying cry of self-reliance that accompanies Pyongyang’s nuclear threats, and “Frigate Bird,” a 1962 missile test in which the ballistic-missile submarine USS Ethan Allen fired a live Polaris A-2 nuclear missile that detonated over the Pacific.
North Korea's H-bomb threat: The dreaded 'Juche Bird'
ramana
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Re: International Nuclear Watch & Discussion

Post by ramana »

After Frigate Bird the usual practice is to test all up missile to fuze function.
That's what will happen
Gerard
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Re: International Nuclear Watch & Discussion

Post by Gerard »

I will surely and definitely tame the mentally deranged U.S. dotard with fire.
just might mean that even a non fissile core won't suffice

Statement of Chairman of State Affairs Commission of DPRK
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Re: International Nuclear Watch & Discussion

Post by Gerard »

As long as nuclear-armed states exist, NATO must also have nukes – Norway FM
Norway does not support the UN Nuclear Weapon Ban Treaty, Foreign Minister Børge Brende said Saturday as he spoke on the 2017 Nobel Peace Prize awarded to the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN) in Oslo earlier.

“Prime Minister [Erna Solberg] and I have congratulated ICAN, but we cannot support a UN ban on nuclear weapons when none of the nuclear weapons countries are involved,” Brende told local TV 2 channel, as cited by Norwegian media.
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Re: International Nuclear Watch & Discussion

Post by pankajs »

The W80 is physically quite small: the "physics package" itself is about the size of a conventional Mk.81 250-pound (110 kg) bomb, 11.8 inches (30 cm) in diameter and 31.4 inches (80 cm) long, and only slightly heavier at about 290 pounds (130 kg).
source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/W80_(nuclear_warhead)

Weapon designers at Sandia National Laboratory hold a W80-4 warhead 3D mockup. The warheads in the background are W84 (left) and W80-1.
Image

The W80-1 is not big, seen here with the author at the nuclear museum in Albuquerque, but it packs explosive yields of 5-150 kilotons.
Image

Source: https://fas.org/blogs/security/2014/10/w80-1_lrso/
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Re: International Nuclear Watch & Discussion

Post by Austin »

https://twitter.com/Russian_Defence/sta ... 2984340480

Interview w/ retired RVSN Major-Gen Vladimir Dvorkin,Russian expert on nuclear forces,missile defence & space issues https://iz.ru/658069/nedopus

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Re: International Nuclear Watch & Discussion

Post by Vips »

World's most complex fusion power plant 50 pc built.

The world's most complex machine, the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) -- a project in which India is a scientific partner to prove that fusion power can be produced on a commercial scale -- is now 50 per cent built, it was announced on Wednesday.

Carbon-free and environmentally sustainable fusion is the same energy source from the sun that gives the earth its light and warmth.

ITER, the most complex science project in human history, will use hydrogen fusion, controlled by superconducting magnets, to produce massive heat energy. In the commercial machines that will follow, this heat will drive turbines to produce electricity.

Scientists say a pineapple-sized amount of hydrogen offers as much fusion energy as 10,000 tonnes of fossil fuel coal.

The ITER facility is being built in southern France by a scientific partnership of 35 countries.

ITER's specialised components, roughly 10 million parts in total, are being manufactured in industrial facilities all over the world.

They are subsequently shipped to the ITER worksite, where they must be assembled, piece-by-piece, into the final machine.

Each of the seven ITER members -- the European Union, China, India, Japan, Korea, Russia and the US -- is fabricating a significant portion of the machine. This adds to ITER's complexity.

In a message on December 1 to top-level officials in ITER member-governments, the project reported it had completed 50 per cent of the "total construction work scope through First Plasma". First Plasma, scheduled for December 2025, will be the first stage of operation for ITER as a functional machine. "The stakes are very high for ITER," writes ITER Director-General Bernard Bigot.

"When we prove that fusion is a viable energy source, it will eventually replace burning fossil fuels, which are non-renewable and non-sustainable. Fusion will be complementary with wind, solar, and other renewable energies."

"Our design has taken advantage of the best expertise of every member's scientific and industrial base. No country could do this alone. We are all learning from each other, for the world's mutual benefit."

The ITER 50 per cent milestone is getting significant attention.

The concept of the project was conceived at the 1985 Geneva Summit between Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev. When the ITER Agreement was signed in 2006, it was supported by leaders like French President Jacques Chirac, US President George W. Bush and Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

More than 80 per cent of the cost of the ITER, about $22 billion, is contributed in the form of components manufactured by the partners.

Many of these massive components of the ITER machine must be precisely fitted, for example, 17-meter-high magnets with less than a millimetre of tolerance.Each component must be ready on time to fit into the master schedule for machine assembly.

The European Union is paying 45 per cent of the cost; China, India, Japan, Korea, Russia and the US each contribute 9 per cent equally. All members share in ITER's technology; they receive equal access to the intellectual property and innovation that comes from building the ITER.

When will commercial fusion plants be ready? ITER scientists predict that fusion plants will start to come on line as soon as 2040. The exact timing, according to fusion experts, will depend on the level of public urgency and political will that translates to financial investment.

The ITER will produce 500 megawatts of thermal power.

This size of the plant is suitable for studying "burning" or largely self-heating plasma, a state of matter that has never been produced in a controlled environment on earth.

In "burning" plasma, most of the plasma heating comes from the fusion reaction itself. Studying the fusion science and technology at ITER's scale will enable optimization of the plants that follow. A commercial fusion plant will be designed with a slightly larger plasma chamber, for 10-15 times more electrical power. A 2,000-megawatt fusion electricity plant, for example, would supply two million homes.
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Re: International Nuclear Watch & Discussion

Post by Austin »

Soviet/Russian centrifuges from 1st generation to 9+. Orange circles show energy efficiency.

Source - Novouralsk annual report https://twitter.com/russianforces/statu ... 2996972544

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Karan M
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Re: International Nuclear Watch & Discussion

Post by Karan M »

Gerard wrote:They used Kazakh values for Indian Pokran range as well. And lowest Mb. All so they can say Indian bums fizzle. They now have a problem with NoKo because their fizzle claims (when NoKo was testing primaries etc) are being discredited. Ayatollah Lewis in particular seems quite worried that NoKo will do atmospheric test via missile and let the world measure fireball size and cloud sample at their leisure. That would expose NPA dishonesty.
Ayatollah Lewis even made a sojourn to India for some discussions. Wonder what chai-biscoot did it produce. Ayatollah Krepon is now the de facto leader of the majlis at the old ACW blog/group, and is as always doing an equivalence between Indo Pak most of the time.
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Re: International Nuclear Watch & Discussion

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DOE Awards $111 Million to U.S. Vendors to Develop Accident Tolerant Nuclear Fuels
January 31, 2019
WASHINGTON, D.C. – The U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Office of Nuclear Energy (NE) has awarded $111.2 million to three industry partners to develop Accident Tolerant Fuels (ATF). General Electric (GE), Westinghouse (WEC), and Framatome received the financial assistance awards in late 2018 with FY18 and FY19 funding. The period of performance for these awards goes through January 31, 2021 with DOE and NE planning additional funding of $55.6 million in FY20 and $30 million in FY21, contingent upon Congressional approval.

Accident Tolerant Fuels are intended to directly and substantially further enhance nuclear fuel reliability and safety, as well as the economics of nuclear reactor operations. The improved heat tolerance of ATF contributes to significantly improved reactor safety and security. ATF also improve economics due to improved heat tolerances and increased agility to power reactors up and down while staying within safety margins.

“Nuclear energy remains a critical component of our ‘all-of-the-above’ energy strategy and is imperative to our country’s energy and national security,” said U.S. Secretary of Energy Rick Perry. “The successful development of Accident Tolerant Fuels will enhance the safety and efficiency of our nuclear fleet, which will, in turn, enhance the overall reliability of our energy system.”

“We are very pleased with the success of the accident tolerant fuel program to date and its contribution to nuclear reactor safety and economics,” said Under Secretary of Energy Mark W. Menezes. “We have made these awards to three leading U.S. nuclear commercial fuel provider teams in order to further innovate fuel concepts to meet the needs of the U.S nuclear power industry.”

The primary objectives for the new awards are as follows:
  • GE will continue the development of Iron Chromium Aluminum (FeCrAl) alloys Cladding trademarked IronClad. GE will also continue to develop its coating program for zirconium alloys trademarked ARMOR and the study of uranium dioxide-based ceramic metal fuels.
  • Framatome will continue the development and deployment of chromium-coated zirconium alloy cladding with chromia-doped uranium oxide (UO2) pellets (Cr-Cr2O3). Additionally, Framatome will continue and expand development efforts on its silicon carbide cladding concepts.
  • Westinghouse will continue the development of Uranium Silicide (U3Si2) and Doped UO2 trademarked ADOPT in chromium-coated zirconium alloy cladding. Westinghouse will also continue its silicon carbide cladding concepts development.
For the first 14-month budget period, all three fuel vendors are required to:
  • Ensure an initial Lead Test Assembly has been installed in a U.S. commercial power plant;
  • Ensure prototypic pin segments have been installed in the Idaho National Laboratory (INL) Advanced Test Reactor’s water loop;
  • Continue development of licensing approaches for the ATF concept that include the involvement of at least one nuclear power plant owner / operator per ATF concept, and;
  • Ensure continued interaction with the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) for licensing purposes for each concept.
Should Congress authorize additional funding for the ATF program, the vendors will expand operation of ATF-related concepts in DOE facilities – INL ATR, INL Transient Reactor Test (TREAT) facility, and out-of-pile tests – and commercial reactors with prototypic segments and rods. The companies would be expected to have agreed-upon licensing plans developed for future NRC approval for initial partial core loadings into commercial nuclear power plants during the mid-2020s.
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Re: International Nuclear Watch & Discussion

Post by Ravi Karumanchiri »

Grand Canyon tourists exposed for years to radiation in museum building, safety manager says

Dennis Wagner, Arizona Republic Published 8:56 a.m. MT Feb. 18, 2019 | Updated 9:23 a.m. MT Feb. 19, 2019

For nearly two decades at the Grand Canyon, tourists, employees, and children on tours passed by three paint buckets stored in the National Park's museum collection building, unaware that they were being exposed to radiation.

<snip>

"Respectfully, it was not only immoral not to let Our People know," he added, "but I could not longer risk my (health and safety) certification by letting this go any longer."

According to Stephenson, the uranium specimens had been in a basement at park headquarters for decades and were moved to the museum building when it opened, around 2000.

<snip>

One of the buckets was so full that its lid would not close.

Stephenson said the containers were stored next to a taxidermy exhibit, where children on tours sometimes stopped for presentations, sitting next to uranium for 30 minutes or more. By his calculation, those children could have received radiation dosages in excess of federal safety standards within three seconds, and adults could have suffered dangerous exposure in less than a half-minute.

<snip>

Stephenson said the uranium threat was discovered in March 2018 by the teenage son of a park employee who happened to be a Geiger counter enthusiast, and brought a device to the museum collection room.

<snip>

Stephenson said he drove to Phoenix in November and filed a report with OSHA, which sent inspectors to the museum building in yellow protective suits.

Stephenson said they detected a low-level site within the building and traced it to the three buckets, which Park Service technicians had inexplicably returned to the building after dumping their contents.

"You could hear their meters going off," Stephenson said.

Davis, the Park Service spokeswoman, declined comment on those details.

A spokesman for OSHA confirmed an investigation is underway, but declined to provide any other information.

Stephenson said the uranium exposure saga developed while he was pursuing a racial-discrimination complaint with the Equal Employment Opportunity office. Stephenson is African-American.
"You could hear their meters going off," Stephenson said about the three buckets in the museum building.

He said high-level officials in the Park Service developed a "secrecy pact" to conceal radiation exposure data despite his insistence that a "Right to Know" law mandates public disclosure.

"My first interest is the safety of the workers and the people," he added.

<snip>

Stephenson calculated potential exposures over 1,400 times the NRC's safe level for children, and over 140 times the safe level for adults.

He said he pressed park superintendents to take action, submitted an Inspector General complaint, contacted the FBI, and wrote to every member of Congress.

In his letter to colleagues, Stephenson apologized for the untimely notice. He stressed that exposure may not be severe depending on how close individuals got to the source, how long they were exposed, what they were wearing, and other factors. He also emphasized that employees will not necessarily suffer health consequences, but should consider receiving a medical screening.

"Of particular concern are 1000s of children attending 'shows' in very close proximity to the uranium," he wrote. Those presentations lasted a half hour or more, he said, yet radiation dosages could have exceeded federal safety standards within seconds.

Stephenson said he's heard nothing from superiors at the Park Service since he sent the warning letter.

"They're in cover-up mode," he said. "I've been cut off from any kind of information."

Read it here.... https://www.azcentral.com/story/news/lo ... 876435002/
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Re: International Nuclear Watch & Discussion

Post by Austin »

https://edition.cnn.com/2019/04/06/midd ... index.html
Asked whether it was acceptable for Saudi Arabia to become a nuclear power, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo was unequivocal in a TV interview on Friday.

"We will not permit that to happen. We will not permit that to happen anywhere in the world," Pompeo told CBS. "The President understands the threat of proliferation. We will never write a $150 million check to the Saudis and hand them over the capacity to threaten Israel and the United States with nuclear weapons, never."


A bipartisan resolution introduced in the Senate in February demanded that the use of any US nuclear power technology in Saudi Arabia must be accompanied by safeguards to ensure Saudi Arabia cannot enrich uranium or reprocess spent fuel.


"The last thing America should do is inadvertently help develop nuclear weapons for a bad actor on the world stage," said Democratic Senator Jeff Merkley, one of the resolution's sponsors.
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Russia develops a fission-fusion hybrid reactor

https://www.neimagazine.com/news/newsru ... or-6168535
A new fission-fusion hybrid reactor will be assembled at Russia’s Kurchatov Institute by the end of 2018, Peter Khvostenko, scientific adviser of the Kurchatov complex on thermonuclear energy and plasma technologies, announced on 14 May. The physical start-up of the facility is scheduled for 2020.

The hybrid reactor combines the principles of thermonuclear and nuclear power – essentially a tokamak fusion reactor and a molten salt fission reactor. Neutrons produced in a small tokamak will be used be captured in a molten salt blanket located around tokamak. The facility will use thorium as a fuel, which is cheaper and more abundant than uranium. Moreover, unlike a fusion reactor, a hybrid will not require super high temperatures to generate energy.

Hybrid reactors reduce the impact of the nuclear fuel cycle on the environment. The concept combines conventional fission processes and fusion reactor principles, comprising a fusion reactor core in combination with a subcritical fission reactor. The results of the fusion reaction, which would normally be absorbed by the cooling system of the reactor, would feed into the fission section, and sustain the fission process. Thorium in a molten salt blanket will enable breeding or uranium-233.

Some of the expected advantages include:

Utilisation of actinides and transmutation from long-lived radioactive waste;
An increase in energy recovered from uranium by a large factor;
The inherent safety of the system, which can be shut down rapidly; and
High burnup of fissile materials leaving few by-products.
The hybrid fission-fusion reactor is seen as a near-term commercial application of fusion pending further research on pure fusion power systems.


The first Russian design of a hybrid reactor was developed in 1977 by Yevgeny Velikhov and Igor Golovin. The past few years have seen the design and upgrade of the original T-15 tokamak and other test beds and facilities at the Kurchatov Institute as physical prototypes for the Fusion Neutron Source (FNS) as well as development of the DEMO-FNS and design of a Pilot Hybrid Plant (PHP) for transmutation, tritium and fissile isotope breeding.

The institute began working on the DEMO-FNS in 2013. It will comprise a reactor in which neutrons produced during a thermonuclear reaction will be used to generate fissile materials from uranium-238, which can be used as fuel in a nuclear reactor. Demonstration of the DEMO-FNS project is planned for 2023, and the PHP will be built by 2050.

"The hybrid tokamak is now called the T-15MD, which is a large installation,” said Khvostenko. “At the end of the year we have to assemble it on the site of the old T-15 which we dismantled in order to build a new one on its foundation.” He added that in 2020 there would be a physical launch of a new facility, and scientists will work on the technologies that "are necessary for a thermonuclear neutron source precisely for a hybrid reactor”.


The experience gained should also feed into the International Experimental Thermonuclear Reactor (Iter) under construction in France. Russian scientific organisations are responsible for the manufacture of 25 systems for Iter. The Institute of Nuclear Physics (INP) of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences will become the centre for integration of foreign participants in Iter. Components made in different countries will be assembled and tested at the INP site. The first plasma of Iter is planned for 2025.
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Re: International Nuclear Watch & Discussion

Post by Sanatanan »

Hiroshima and Nagasaki slam U.S. subcritical nuclear test
http://www.asahi.com/ajw/articles/AJ201905270043.html
The United States conducted a subcritical nuclear test in Nevada on Feb. 13, according to a May 24 announcement by the U.S. Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory.
Subcritical proliferation by US. I haven't seen wonks objecting yet.
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Re: International Nuclear Watch & Discussion

Post by Gerard »

Rapidly expanding nuclear arsenals in Pakistan and India portend regional and global catastrophe
Owen B. Toon,*, Charles G. Bardeen, Alan Robock, Lili Xia, Hans Kristensen et al
Science Advances 02 Oct 2019:
Vol. 5, no. 10,
sanjaykumar
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Re: International Nuclear Watch & Discussion

Post by sanjaykumar »

Yes that is why the world expects India to launch a decapitating nuclear strike, as the more responsible of the belligerents.
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Re: International Nuclear Watch & Discussion

Post by Amber G. »

After years of backing away from nuclear power, France suddenly wants to build six huge reactors.

Link/Details: https://www.technologyreview.com/s/6145 ... wer-again/
Gerard
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Re: International Nuclear Watch & Discussion

Post by Gerard »

‘Sharp increase’ in Pakistan’s efforts to illegally get N-tech: Berlin
The government’s reply dovetails with concerns expressed by Bundesamt für Verfassungsschutz (BfV), the German domestic intelligence service, which said in a 2018 report on proliferation-related matters that there had been a “massive increase” in Pakistan’s attempts to clandestinely procure nuclear goods in Germany and other Western countries.
Gerard
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Re: International Nuclear Watch & Discussion

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New Russian weapon can travel 27 times the speed of sound
Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu informed Putin that the first missile unit equipped with the Avangard hypersonic glide vehicle entered combat duty.
Russian media reports indicated that the Avangard will first be mounted on Soviet-built RS-18B intercontinental ballistic missiles, code-named SS-19 by NATO. It is expected to be fitted to the prospective Sarmat heavy intercontinental ballistic missile after it becomes operational.
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Re: International Nuclear Watch & Discussion

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US adds ‘low yield’ nuclear weapon to its submarine arsenal
The yield, or destructive power, of the W76-2 is classified. Experts say it may be about 5 kilotons, or roughly one-third the destructive power of the “Little Boy” nuclear bomb the United States dropped on Hiroshima, Japan, in the final days of World War II, killing tens of thousands of people. By comparison, the missile that has been deploying aboard strategic submarines for decades has carried the 90-kiloton W76 warhead and the 475-kiloton W88 warhead. ... The W76-2 has been fitted atop an undisclosed number of Trident ballistic missiles carried aboard the Navy’s Ohio-class submarines.
https://fas.org/sgp/crs/nuke/IF11143.pdf
The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) has said the low-yield version, the W76-2, would be configured “for primary-only detonation.”
Image
Workers at the Pantex Plant in Texas handle a W76 nuclear warhead as part of a program to extend its life
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Re: International Nuclear Watch & Discussion

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Uproar as Britain’s secret deal to buy nuclear warheads from US without Parliament’s consent is revealed
The Pentagon recently disclosed that Britain has agreed to purchase new US nuclear warheads to replace Trident, its own homegrown nuclear program. However, the deal came as a surprise to British lawmakers, who were reportedly kept in the dark about the nuclear weapons. The agreement, which involves the US sharing the technology used in its W93 sea-launched warhead, is expected to cost billions of pounds.
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Will the United States Develop a New Type of Nuclear Warhead?
The U.S. Department of Energy’s fiscal year 2021 budget request, revealed on Monday, outlines, among other things, a new warhead program known as the W93.
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