South Africa's 'dirty bomb' mystery
‘If dirty bombs are such an overblown threat, and radioactive material so easily available, why are people still trying to steal it? South African police are investigating what the five mokes busted with a Cesium-137 device at a Pretoria gas station last week were up to. All of them are South African citizens, but not much else is known about them, police said. Indeed, much about the July 9 incident is a mystery. Authorities said the "industrial nuclear device" found with the men contained a small amount of radioactive material. The men intended to sell the device to parties unknown for 45 million Rand, the equivalent of $6 million to $7 million. Police said the men were also planning to sell a larger nuclear device, which police are searching for, according to South African reports. “We don’t know what these suspects’ intentions were, and we need to find the device quickly,” police said, according to Canada's online Digital Journal. Likewise, South African authorities told SpyTalk over the weekend that “the origin of the device is still not known.”’
'Fog grenades to protect nuclear plants'
‘Regional German authorities said Monday that they have given the green light to a novel scheme to protect a nuclear power station from attack: fog grenades. Under plans approved by the environment ministry in the southwestern state of Baden-Wuerttemberg, the Philippsburg power station could be shrouded in thick mist in 40 seconds if an aircraft was hijacked in the area. A spokeswoman for the ministry said that a pilot scheme, which sees the fog grenades fired from special launchers set up around the reactor, was running "decently" at another nuclear power station. A recent ruling by Germany's top court that hijacked aircraft could not be shot down also gave some impetus to the scheme, the spokeswoman added. The plans have been criticised, however, as being insufficient since a plane's navigation system could easily direct a pilot to the power station without the need to see it with the naked eye.’
India - 4 proposed nuke plants hit green hurdle
‘NEW DELHI: Four new nuclear power plants proposed by the Nuclear Power Corporation of India Ltd have hit a green roadblock with the environment and forests ministry rejecting their intial applications for statutory environmental clearances. The NPCIL has proposed four power plants, one each at Fatehabad in Haryana (2,800mw), Mandla in Madhya Pradesh (1,400mw), Srikakulam in Andhra Pradesh (6,000mw) and Bhavnagar in Gujarat (6,000mw). NPCIL intends to build these plants in three years once construction gets underway. The statutory expert appraisal committee of the ministry has sent back the applications for all four projects pointing out that they lacked documentation on several counts. The applications were filed to secure what is referred to as "terms of reference" for conducting an environmental impact assessment study. The committee noted that in each of the four cases even simple statutory forms had not been completed properly and information on land-use was missing.’
Iran, Japan to Jointly Build Quake-resistant Nuclear Power Plants
‘Japanese Ambassador to Iran Akio Shirota proposed Monday that Iran and Japan jointly build quake- resistant nuclear power plants in Iran, the official IRNA news agency reported. The Japanese ambassador made the remarks when meeting with Head of Iran's Majlis (Parliament) National Security and Foreign Policy Commission Alaeddin Boroujerdi on Monday. Shirota said he hoped the two countries to cooperate on the construction of quake-resistant nuclear power plants in Iran, according to IRNA. Boroujerdi, for his part, welcomed the idea, saying the Islamic Republic of Iran, under the supervision of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), is ready to cooperate with Japan on such projects. Boroujerdi said the expansion of cooperation in economy and industry, and the implementation of joint projects in the field of energy will serve the interests of both nations, and will help restore sustainable peace and tranquillity in the region.’
Amiri Told CIA Iran Has No Nuclear Bomb Programme
‘WASHINGTON, Jul 19, 2010 (IPS) - Contrary to a news media narrative that Iranian scientist Shahram Amiri has provided intelligence on covert Iranian nuclear weapons work, CIA sources familiar with the Amiri case say he told his CIA handlers that there is no such Iranian nuclear weapons programme, according to a former CIA officer. Philip Giraldi, a former CIA counterterrorism official, told IPS that his sources are CIA officials with direct knowledge of the entire Amiri operation. The CIA contacts say that Amiri had been reporting to the CIA for some time before being brought to the U.S. during Hajj last year, Giraldi told IPS, initially using satellite-based communication. But the contacts also say Amiri was a radiation safety specialist who was "absolutely peripheral" to Iran’s nuclear programme, according to Giraldi. Amiri provided "almost no information" about Iran’s nuclear programme, said Giraldi, but had picked up "scuttlebutt" from other nuclear scientists with whom he was acquainted that the Iranians have no active nuclear weapon programme.’