by CKR
Divine Strake Delayed
That big explosion at the Nevada Test Site scheduled for this week has been “postponed indefinitely.” The Winnemucca Indian Colony and others sued the Department of Defense to stop the test on the basis that it could send radioactive remnants of past nuclear tests into the air, to settle on nearby communities.
Petroleum Industry Opposes Clean Air Waivers
A spokesperson for the American Petroleum Institute told Chemical and Engineering News (1 May; subscription only) that President Bush’s directing EPA to waive emissions requirements won’t make any difference in gasoline prices because “oil companies have already invested in making summer fuels.”
I couldn’t find a news release to that effect on the API website.
House Cuts Funds for Reprocessing Research
Legislation passed by the House Appropriations Committee cuts funding for the Global Nuclear Energy Partnership from the President’s requested $250 million to $120 million. Pete Domenici of the Senate Appropriations Committee is urging an increase. (22 May Chemical and Engineering News)
Clinton for Secretary-General?
A year or so ago, I questioned Bill Clinton’s expressed desire to become United Nations Secretary-General. But now I think the LA Times has it right: we need Bill there.
10,000 Nuclear Warheads Eliminated
The inside back cover of a recent Foreign Affairs had an interesting ad from USEC and TENEX (NTI explanation of TENEX):
A U.S.-Russian MILESTONE
Megatons to Megawatts (M2M) is a 20-year U.S. and Russian government program to eliminate 500 metric tons of Russian nuclear warhead material by diluting it into nuclear fuel. In September 2005, we reached the halfway mark. American nuclear power plants use this fuel to generate 10 percent of the nation’s electricity. M2M is commercially operated by USEC Inc. and TENEX at no cost to taxpayers.
They’re assuming 25 kilograms of enriched uranium per warhead to come up with the 10,000 figure, if you back-calculate. That’s optimistic by most available numbers, but it’s good that this material is being blended down and taken out of potential warhead use.
No More SEAB
Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman has disbanded the Department’s Secretary of Energy Advisory Board. This was a group of distinguished scientists who advised the Department on directions in research and other issues. They served as a check on overenthusiastic researchers and the kinds of ingrowth that the national laboratories are prone to.
The reason given by Bodman was that presidential initiatives will guide the department through the next several years. (17 April Chemical and Engineering News)
A sentimental note: I helped to prepare reports and responses to SEAB and its predecessor, the Energy Research Advisory Board. It was hard work for a serious audience. They always gave us useful feedback; not always what we wanted to hear, but useful.
Hwang Indicted
Woo Suk Hwang, the South Korean stem-cell researcher whose work was found to be fradulent, has been indicted on charges of fraud, bioethics violations, and embezzling $3 million. This begins to answer my question of why he did it. Prosecutors claim that he was using his false research results to bring in $2 million in private donations and then embezzled some of that and state funds. (Chronicle of Higher Education, 26 May; subscription only)
Just for JLK
Here’s a great tit. I photographed it in Pärnu, Estonia.