US orders news blackout over crippled Nebraska Nuclear Plant: report

http://nation.com.pk/pakistan-news-newspaper-daily-english-online/International/18-Jun-2011/US-orders-news-blackout-over-crippled-Nebraska-Nuclear-Plant-report

A shocking report prepared by Russia’s Federal Atomic Energy Agency (FAAE) on information provided to them by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) states that the Obama regime has ordered a “total and complete” news blackout relating to any information regarding the near catastrophic meltdown of the Fort Calhoun Nuclear Power Plant located in Nebraska.
According to this report, the Fort Calhoun Nuclear Plant suffered a “catastrophic loss of cooling” to one of its idle spent fuel rod pools on 7 June after this plant was deluged with water caused by the historic flooding of the Missouri River which resulted in a fire causing the Federal Aviation Agency (FAA) to issue a “no-fly ban” over the area.
Located about 20 minutes outside downtown Omaha, the largest city in Nebraska, the Fort Calhoun Nuclear Plant is owned by Omaha Public Power District (OPPD) who on their website denies their plant is at a “Level 4” emergency by stating: “This terminology is not accurate, and is not how emergencies at nuclear power plants are classified.”

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Japan races to contain nuclear threat after quake

 See the link for the full story.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/ap_on_bi_ge/as_japan_earthquake
SOMA, Japan – Dangerous levels of radiation leaking from a crippled nuclear plant forced Japan to order 140,000 people to seal themselves indoors Tuesday after an explosion and a fire dramatically escalated the crisis spawned by a deadly tsunami.
In a nationally televised statement, Prime Minister Naoto Kan said radiation had spread from the four stricken reactors of the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant along Japan's northeastern coast. The region was shattered by Friday's 9.0-magnitude earthquake and the ensuing tsunami that is believed to have killed more than 10,000 people, plunged millions into misery and pummeled the world's third-largest economy.
Japanese officials told the International Atomic Energy Agency that the reactor fire was in a fuel storage pond — an area where used nuclear fuel is kept cool — and that "radioactivity is being released directly into the atmosphere." Long after the fire was extinguished, a Japanese official said the pool might still be boiling, though the reported levels of radiation had dropped dramatically by the end of the day.
Late Tuesday, officials at the plant said they were considering asking for help from the U.S. and Japanese militaries to spray water from helicopters into the pool.
That reactor, Unit 4, had been shut down before the quake for maintenance.
If the water boils, it could evaporate, exposing the rods. The fuel rods are encased in safety containers meant to prevent them from resuming nuclear reactions, nuclear officials said. But they acknowledged that there could have been damage to the containers. They also confirmed that the walls of the storage pool building were damaged.

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U.S., allies denounce Iran's decision to make higher grade of enriched uranium

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clipped from www.washingtonpost.com Iran came under renewed attack Wednesday for its decision to make a higher grade of enriched uranium, a move that weapons experts say would dramatically shorten the country's path to nuclear weapons. The United States and several European allies took turns denouncing Iran's behavior at a board meeting of the International Atomic Energy Agency in Vienna, and a U.S. diplomat warned that new U.N. sanctions may be inevitable. "Iran seems determined to defy, obfuscate and stymie," said Ambassador Glyn Davies, head of the U.S. delegation to the U.N. nuclear watchdog. Davies was blunt about Iran's plans to increase the enrichment level for some of its uranium from less than 5 percent, suitable for nuclear power reactors, to nearly 20 percent, calling it an "an escalatory move, in blatant and direct violation" of U.N. resolutions. Iran denies seeking nuclear weapons, saying the higher-grade uranium would be used to fuel a reactor that makes medical isotopes.

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China faces balancing act in Iran nuclear issue

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clipped from news.yahoo.com BEIJING – Renewed calls for sanctions against Iran for its nuclear ambitions have forced China to engage in a tough balancing act between appeasing its close trading partner and supporting international efforts to isolate Tehran. The arrival of an Israeli government delegation in Beijing on Thursday underscored the important role China plays as one of the five U.N. Security Council members that could veto sanctions for Iran. An Israeli spokesman singled out Iran as a topic for discussion. The group, led by Moshe Yaalon, the Israeli minister in charge of strategic affairs, will meet with China's senior foreign policy adviser Dai Bingguo during the two-day visit. The U.S., Israel and others believe Iran is hiding nuclear weapons development under the guise of a civilian energy program. The International Atomic Energy Agency, the U.N. nuclear watchdog, also says it's worried Iran may be working on a nuclear warhead.

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Iran Willing to Swap Nuclear Fuel Inside Iran

clipped from www1.voanews.com Iran says it is willing to swap its low-enriched uranium for more highly processed nuclear fuel, but the exchange must happen on Iranian territory. The Iranian government made the offer in a document released Tuesday. It is the first formal response to a proposal by the International Atomic Energy Agency for Iran to ship its uranium abroad to be processed into fuel for an Iranian nuclear research reactor. Earlier this month, Iran said it has begun enriching uranium to a higher level, a process that world powers fear could give Iran the capability to build a nuclear weapon. The United States and other world powers have been calling for a fourth round of U.N. sanctions against Iran because of its uranium enrichment activity. Meanwhile, China on Tuesday repeated its call for a diplomatic solution to the dispute. Tehran's other traditional ally on the Security Council, Russia, has recently shown willingness to take a stronger stance against the Islamic Republic.

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Calls for Iran sanctions as Russia expresses nuclear missile fears

clipped from www.timesonline.co.uk Iran’s Supreme Leader took to the deck of a naval guided missile destroyer yesterday in defiance of the international storm sparked by the United Nations’ warning that Tehran may be building a nuclear bomb. There were renewed calls for sanctions from the United States, Britain, France and Germany. But some of the strongest reaction came from Russia, the country traditionally most reluctant to impose them, raising hopes of a consensus at the UN Security Council. We’ve said time and again that our religious principles and beliefs consider such weapons to be a symbol of destruction that is forbidden Mohamed ElBaradei, said the evidence that the agency had gathered “raises concerns about the possible existence in Iran of past or current undisclosed activities related to the development of a nuclear payload for a missile”, which Iran had repeatedly refused to address.

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Iranian President Orders Enrichment

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clipped from online.wsj.com Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad ordered his country's nuclear agency to begin enriching uranium for use in a medical-research reactor, ratcheting up Tehran's defiance over Western demands that it curb its nuclear ambitions. The statement was carried Sunday on state TV as the country celebrates the 31st anniversary of the Iranian revolution. It came amid a flurry of announcements in which Mr. Ahmadinejad has attempted to project an image of strength, even as the regime faces the threat of further domestic unrest later this week. It also seemed to contradict Mr. Ahmadinejad's statements last week that Iran was willing to embrace a deal brokered last year by the International Atomic Energy Agency for Iran to ship the bulk of its lower enriched uranium overseas to be further enriched to the 20% purity level needed for its medical reactor.

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Officials: Iran responds to fuel swap offer - Yahoo! News

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• Officials: Iran responds to fuel swap offer - Yahoo! News

  "VIENNA – Iran has formally responded to a nuclear fuel swap proposal backed by the world's major powers with a counteroffer effectively rejecting their demand that Tehran export most of the material it would need to make a warhead, diplomats said Tuesday. For months, Iranian officials have used the media to criticize the plan and offer alternatives to one of its main conditions — that the Islamic republic ship out most of its stock of enriched uranium and then wait for up to a year for its return in the form of fuel rods for its Tehran research reactor. While critical of such statements, the United States and its allies said they did not constitute a formal response to the plan, first drawn up in early October in a landmark meeting in Geneva between Iran and the six world powers, and then refined later that month in Vienna talks among Iran, the U.S., Russia and France. The diplomats told The Associated Press that Iran first submitted such a written formal response to the International Atomic Energy Agency earlier this month in a Jan. 6 meeting between Ali Asghar Soltanieh, Iran's chief representative to the IAEA, and agency chief Yukiya Amano. The IAEA-brokered talks in Vienna came up with a draft proposal that would take 70 percent of Iran's low-enriched uranium to reduce its stockpile of material that could be enriched to a higher level, and possibly be used to make nuclear weapons."

  tags: Muslim, Islam, Global, News, UN, Iran, Nuclear, Missle, officials, swap, Military

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