Category Archives: Technology

Fukushima, Idaho, Technology

Radiation mystery at Idaho National Laboratory, Cesium & Cobalt

U.S. department of Energy reported on April 6, 2012, that radioactive particles of cesium and cobalt are being found on construction materials.

A contractor discovered the contamination.  Officials think it could be from the demolition of old buildings in that area of the INL site, which would imply that the buildings were contaminated before being torn down.

A local east Idaho DOE spokesman said there was no concern “…unless you get it onto your skin…” and you had “…prolonged exposure…”

Employees and vehicles are now being checked for contamination as they enter and leave the site.

Business/Economics, International, Technology, U.S.

Oil & Gas Prices: Egyptian pipeline blown up again, Natural Gas Glut results in 10 years low prices, U.S. investigates European oil companies in Libya, Iran reduces oil exports

According to Azerbaijani media, Iran’s Oil Ministry is confirming that their oil exports are dropping due to Western oil sanctions.

Iranian oil officials say Japan has made the biggest cut in oil purchases, despite recently getting an exemption from the United States.  Japan cut Iranian oil imports by 28% from January to April 2012.

However, Iran’s oil exports have also gone down due to their own oil embargo of the European Union.  The EU’s own oil sanctions go into effect on July 1.

Speaking of Japan, Tokyo Electric, the operator of the nuclear disaster reactors at Fukushima Daiichi, has been using oil to generate electricity, a lot more oil.

TEPCo reported that in March 2012 they used four times the amount of oil than in March 2011.  They also used the most natural gas since August 2011, and August was a record for gas use by TEPCo; 2.079 million tons.

Regarding natural gas, the United States is so full of it, that there is no where left to store the stuff.  Underground salt caverns, depleted oil fields and aquifers are being used but even they are rapidly filling.

The result is that drilling and pumping of the LNG will have to stop, natural gas prices are at ten year lows (we consumers like that).  Maybe this will mean an end to fracking and man made earthquakes?

But that might be bad news for places like Williamsport, Pennsylvania.  The town has seen an economic boom; their tax revenues have gone up more than 10% between 2006 and 2010, and 115 new business in and around Lycoming County have been created.

In Egypt, ever since the January 2011 Revolution their gas pipeline to Israel and Jordan keeps getting blown up.  April 9, 2012, it got blown up again, for the 14th time since the Revolution.

In Libya, U.S. officials are investigating oil deals made with Italy’s Eni, and France’s Total.  The companies are being investigated for their connections to Muammar Gaddafi.

Eni officials said certain payments made to Gaddafi might have violated the U.S. Foreign Corruption Practice Act.  The U.S. is helping the new Libyan government investigate many oil companies, and could result in huge fines being levied in favor of the new government.

 

 

 

 

 

 

International, Technology, U.S.

Terror Drones: April 2-8, U.S. to quadruple assassination drone attacks

The Washington Post reporting that the United States did indeed spy on Iran using UAVs (unmanned aerial vehicles, aka drones).

The report says the National Security Agency has at least three years worth of drone surveillance data on Iran. The program is being run by the Central Intelligence Agency’s Iran Operations Division (aka Persia House).

April 7, Yemen military officials say a U.S. drone strike killed 24 anti-government Mujahideen in two locations.  They say some of those killed were foreign Arabs.

There are several anti-government groups in Yemen, two are called Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, and Partisans of Sharia.

Reports this past week say that the continued use of drones in Yemen could draw the U.S. into a full blown civil war: ”The more the U.S. applies its current policy, the stronger Al Qaeda seems to get.”–Charles Schmitz, American Institute of Yemen Studies

“Drones are a weapon of terror in many ways, and the kind of hostility this is going to breed may not be worth the counter-terrorism gains.”-Barbara Bodine, former U.S. ambassador to Yemen

“Heavily armed American soldiers have begun appearing in large numbers at the Sheraton Hotel in the capital, Sana, a Yemeni official said.“-Los Angeles Times

Also on April 7, Israeli forces attacked Gaza Strip with drones. Israeli officials said they targeted two men on a motorcycle in the town of Rafah: “Aircraft thwarted a rocket launch in the southern Gaza Strip.”-IDF statement

Despite claiming to have “thwarted” a rocket launch by Palestinians, two rockets were launched at Israel the next morning, April 8.

April 6, “An International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) rotary-wing unmanned aerial vehicle crashed in northern Afghanistan…”-ISAF statement

No further details were presented.  Some reports also said a NATO helicopter crashed in the same area, but it might be witnesses confusing the rotary wing drone for a manned helicopter.

There are conflicting reports about drone operations ending in Pakistan and Afghanistan.  Most reports say drone operations will end after 2014, but there is a report that says assassination drones (aka MQ 9 Reapers) will actually quadruple their terror activity until 2016!

The report says the Reapers will operate from Australia’s Cocos Islands: “But don’t expect the worldwide drone war now being waged in Pakistan, Afghanistan, Somalia and Yemen to wind down. To the contrary, an Air Force announcement posted online this week indicates the Pentagon anticipates more than quadrupling the size of the global drone war over the next four years.”-Salon, Air Force ramps up drone war

April 5, the U.S. puppet government of Somalia stated to the United Nations that they have given the U.S. permission to use drones against their own people.

“I’m not going to get into matters that relate to intelligence. I will say that the United States has been and remains extremely focused-as do all members of the international community-on combating the terrorist threat that Al Shabaab poses, as an active threat not only to Somali but to the people of the region and beyond, in particular, given its active affiliation with Al Qaeda.“-Susan Rice, U.S. ambassador to the UN

April 3, a U.S. drone crashed and exploded in Somalia.  The drone went down near the town of El-Bur, which is considered a stronghold of the anti-Western government Mujahidden group called al-Shabaab.  However, the residents of the town say al-Shabaab fighters left the town on March 24.

 

Business/Economics, International, Technology, U.S.

One Year Later: More radioactive shrooms, shoots & beef

Not even a week after Japan set tougher limits on radioactive cesium in food, but more mushroom farms are found to be contaminated.

In a town 300 kilometers (186.4 miles) from Fukishima Daiichi, a farm in Kanagawa Prefecture discovered their mushrooms contain 141 becquerels of radioactive cesium per kilogram.

The new safe limits are 100 becquerels (prior to that the government was allowing food with 500 becquerels to be sold!).

Bamboo shoot farms in Chiba Prefecture have also turned up contaminated.

Ibaraki Prefecture also reporting that bamboo shoots and shiitake mushrooms are contaminated.

In Gunma Prefecture, beef is contaminated with 106 becquerels of radioactive cesium, although the new safe limits for beef don’t go into effect until October!  Gunma officials say they are still asking cattle ranchers not to ship the beef.

ONE YEAR LATER: SOME FUKUSHIMA FARM ANIMALS WILL BE ALLOWED TO LIVE

Business/Economics, Technology, U.S.

Government & Corporate Incompetence: USGS says 6 fold increase in U.S. earthquakes caused by Oil Industry! California watch out!

“A remarkable increase in the rate of M 3 and greater earthquakes is currently in progress in the U.S. midcontinent. The average number of M >= 3 earthquakes/year increased starting in 2001, culminating in a six-fold increase over 20th century levels in 2011.”-USGS study, Are Seismicity Rate Changes in the Midcontinent Natural or Manmade?

Around the beginning of January 2012, officials from the U.S. Geological Survey testified to Ohio state officials, that the fracking going on in their state was the cause of a sudden string of earthquakes.

In July 2011, the state of Arkansas banned fracking for the same reasons.

Now a new study by USGS geologists, published by Seismological Society of America (SSA), confirms that “…the seismicity rate changes described here are almost certainly manmade…”, due to “…oil and gas production.”

The study will be discussed in more detail at a meeting from April 17-19.

USGS scientists point out that the area of increased quake activity is not normal for that part of the United States: “A naturally-occurring rate change of this magnitude is unprecedented outside of volcanic settings or in the absence of a main shock, of which there were neither in this region.”

The abstract details of the study also say: “The modest increase that began in 2001 is due to increased seismicity in the coal bed methane field of the Raton Basin along the Colorado-New Mexico border west of Trinidad, CO. The acceleration in activity that began in 2009 appears to involve a combination of source regions of oil and gas production, including the Guy, Arkansas region, and in central and southern Oklahoma.”

But this is not the only recent study published by the SSA to link oil production with earthquakes. Another report linked the April 2010 Alice, Texas earthquake to oil production in the Stratton field: “We conclude it is plausible, although not proven definitively, that production in the Stratton field contributed to the occurrence of the 2010 Alice earthquake and an earlier similar earthquake that occurred on 24 March 1997.”

So far most of the quakes are taking place in areas that don’t normally have much seismic activity, but California has plenty of earthquakes, and there’s a lot of oil and gas drilling, including fracking, going on there!

“On the one hand, the Division [California agency regulating petroleum industry] remains in denial about fracking for oil. On the other hand, they ask for and receive funding to regulate it and then don’t do it, and have no plans to do it [‘it’ as in ‘regulate’].”-Bill Allayaud, Environmental Working Group

Business/Economics, Idaho, International, Technology, U.S.

What Economic Recovery? Good and Bad news for Idaho’s Hoku Materials

On March 22, 2012, Hoku Solar (a subsidiary of Hoku Corporation, in turn majority owned by China’s Tianwei New Energy) was selected to build a 7.2 megawatt solar farm in Kaua’i, Hawaii.

In December 2011, Hoku Solar actually delivered a 1.18 megawatt solar energy facility, the largest solar power plant in O’ahu, Hawaii.

After the announcement of the 7.2 megawatt solar farm contract, Hoku Corp stock went up 11%.

Now the bad news, another subsidiary of Hoku Corporation, Hoku Materials, is getting hit again by the construction contractor in charge of completing the southeastern Idaho polysilicon factory.

There are reports that once again Hoku has not fully paid its contractor JH Kelly.  This has happened before, and is part of the main cause for many construction delays in the past.  JH Kelly officials say they are taking “action” against Hoku.

Hoku Materials has also played the same game with electricity supplier Idaho Power.  Their latest battle was settled by an Idaho Public Utilities Commission (IPUC) decision.

According to an 15 March 2012 IPUC statement, Hoku got a new electricity contract which: “… reduces Hoku’s monthly minimum payment to about $800,000 for up to 18 months through June 2013.  To protect customers and the company from the lost revenue from the lower minimum payment, Hoku will reimburse the difference between the current and the revised minimum charge in payments spread through November 2014, plus 6 percent interest.  Hoku will also make an initial payment of $3.8 million, with $2 million of that coming from a $4 million deposit already provided by Hoku. The remaining $1.8 million will be paid over the next 18 months at $100,000 per month.  Hoku must give Idaho Power 30 days’ notice when it plans to exceed 10 MW and six-months’ notice when it plans to exceed 20 MW.”  

HOKU MATERIALS’ CUSTOMERS WHO ‘PREPAID’ ARE GETTING IMPATIENT!

Business/Economics, International, Technology, U.S.

World War 3: UANI goes after Korean car maker, UANI formed in 2008 specifically to go after companies doing business with Iran

“UANI’s unprecedented success in pressuring multinational corporations to cease business in Iran has alerted the business community of the serious financial and reputational risks of doing business with the Iranian regime.”-UANI statement

April 5, 2012, South Korean car maker, Hyundai, succumbed to the attacks from United Against Nuclear Iran (UANI).

Hyundai will stop exporting cars to Iran, however such a move will only hurt Hyundai, by reducing overall sales.  Iran has several car makers who will benefit by lack of foreign competition.

Hyundai is refusing to comment on the situation.

This is not about current U.S. sanctions against Iran.  I’ve already written how U.S. Congress, and George Bush Jr created a law in 2000 that exempted U.S. corporations from existing, and future sanctions against Iran, and North Korea.

UANI was created in 2008, for the express purpose of going after corporations that do business with Iran.

UANI also proudly admits they are the ones behind much of the anti-Iran legislation coming out of Washington DC.

UANI is also the main “official” source of anti-Iran info being used by the U.S. media.

UANI also proudly admits they are the ones behind the nuclear weapons scare mongering rhetoric concerning Iran.

Want proof, just go to their website.  You can find it yourself.

Want’s interesting is that UANI is claiming to be doing these things in the name of preventing Iran from getting nuclear weapons, yet they are actually shutting down Western (European, Asian) competitors to U.S. corporations.  How does that prevent another country from getting nuclear weapons?

 

Business/Economics, International, Technology, U.S.

World War 3: UANI goes after yet another French car maker, as well as a Japanese car maker

After shutting down a Peugeot Citroën factory, United Against Nuclear Iran (UANI) is now going after Renault and Nissan.

On April 6, 2012, UANI sent a letter to Renault’s president.  As in its threatening letter to General Motors it is full of unsubstantiated claims against Iran: “Renault’s business dealings in Iran directly support the Iranian regime’s ability to develop its illegal nuclear weapons program, support its terrorist proxies and pursue a brutal campaign of repression against the Iranian people.”-UANI statement

Show me the proof you UANI ass hole liars!

This comes after UANI successfully threatened General Motors into pressuring their French business partner Peugeot Citroën.

Renault has actually seen business go up in Iran, producing 93,578 vehicles in Iran in 2011.

UANI is also attacking Nissan, after the Japanese car maker got a $1 billion USD deal to make taxis for New York City: “New York taxpayer dollars should not benefit a corporation, like Nissan, that partners with a regime that is the world’s number one state sponsor of terror and has formed an alliance with al Qaeda.”-UANI statement

The biggest lie about that statement is the fact that Iran is not associated with al Qaeda!!!  The U.S. created al Qaeda is actually at war with Iran!!! Al Qaeda leaders have issued fatwas calling for the killing of Shi’a Muslims, who just happen to make up the majority of people living in Iran, why the hell would Iran support such an organization?!?

Oh, and I thought al Qaeda was the number one terrorist organization?

It really looks like the U.S. sanctions against Iran are actually meant to hurt Western (European/Japanese) competitors to U.S. corporations.

 

Business/Economics, International, Technology, U.S.

World War 3: U.S. sanctions against Iran shut down Peugeot. Pressure from General Motors. Who are the sanctions really meant to target?

French based car maker Peugeot Citroën, has shut down a factory after parts shipped from Iran were stopped.

Peugeot Citroën has manufacturing deals with Iran Khodro, a major car maker in Iran.

220 people were laid off at the Vesoul factory in northeastern France.  This comes after a U.S. lobbyist group called United Against Nuclear Iran (UANI), asked U.S. Congress to put pressure on the French car maker.

UANI also put pressure, should we say threatened, General Motors because GM holds 7% of Peugeot Citroën.  Officials from the French car maker said it was GM that pressured them to stop selling knock down kits to Iran.  A knock down kit is basically a unassembled car.

UANI has made completely unsubstantiated claims against Iran: “….it is unacceptable for GM to enter into a partnership with a company that so openly deals with a regime that is responsible for the deaths of U.S. and NATO servicemen and threatens U.S. and global security.”-Mark Wallace, UANI

How can Mark Wallace make such a claim?  Iran has never been connected to any terrorist actions against the United States. Where’s the undeniable proof?  What Mike Wallace is saying is the same old unproven ultra right wing neo conservative bull shit!

By the way, stopping Peugeot Citroën business with Iran will not hurt Iran’s economy.  Iran Khodro is doing extremely well with its own car designs, especially in the Central Asian market. So the real question is; who is really being targeted by the U.S. sanctions?

 

Business/Economics, International, Technology

Nuclear fire: France shuts down Nuclear power plant

Just after noon on April 5, 2012, two fires inside a nuclear power plant near the English Channel, resulted in a French nuke plant being shut down.

Firefighters say they found two pools of oil on fire inside the building. The oil came from pumps that were leaking (gee, that seems to be a common problem at these nuclear disaster reactors).

Smoke from the fire caused an automatic shut down of the reactors.

France supposedly has a good safety record with nuke reactors, and they also rely on a lot of them, 58 in total. Officials say they will now investigate.