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JapanFocus: The Atomic Bombing, The Tokyo War Crimes Tribunal and the Shimoda Case: Lessons for Anti-Nuclear Legal Movements
Yuki Tanaka and Richard Falk
Yuki Tanaka’s article is followed by a companion article by Richard Falk
The War Crimes Trials and the Issue of Indiscriminate Bombing
On May 14, 1946, ten days after the opening of the International Military Tribunal for the Far East (popularly known as the Tokyo War Crimes Tribunal), Captain George Furness, a member of the defense counsel, cast serious doubt on the fairness of the Tribunal conducted by the victorious nations in World War II:
‘We say that regardless of the known integrity of the individual Members of this Tribunal they cannot, under the circumstances of their appointment, be impartial; that under such circumstances this trial, both in the present day and history, will never be free from substantial doubt as to its legality, fairness, and impartiality.’1
Daily Kos: State of the Nation
Way back when I was in college, someone gave me a book that they thought I should read. "You've been working with plutonium, and you have an interest in nuclear weapons. You really ought to read this book." The book was The Making of the Atomic Bomb, by Richard Rhodes. He was awarded the 1988 Pulitzer Prize in general nonfiction for that book, and it is well deserved. It's my belief that anyone who wants to truly understand the American legacy of the first two nuclear bombs, and the consequences of their use, should read that book, as well as Rhodes two subsequent books on nuclear weapons: Dark Sun: The Making of the Hydrogen Bomb, and Arsenals of Folly: The Making of the Nuclear Arms Race.
Since I've been writing quite a bit about current-day nuclear weapons issues, I thought it would be good to step back and take a look at the big picture again. What better way to do that than to talk to Richard Rhodes, nuclear weapons historian and journalist extraordinaire?
Funds dwindling to oversee Utah's hazardous waste - Salt Lake Tribune
Regulation » Inspections of businesses that handle disposal are becoming less frequent.
Salt Lake City » Businesses that handle some of Utah's most dangerous materials are being inspected less often because of dwindling funds to pay for the work.
State monitoring of hazardous and radioactive waste has for years been funded by fees collected from commercial waste companies. That fund -- which reached nearly $6 million in 2006 -- has fallen off with the down economy, dwindling to just $30,000 at the end of the last fiscal year.
Utah is still adequately regulating hazardous waste operations but is no longer able to inspect them as often as in the past, said Dennis Downs, director of the state's Division of Solid and Hazardous Waste. That includes not only monitoring of large hazardous-waste disposal sites in Utah but also regular checks on hundreds of smaller operations -- from auto body shops and dry cleaners to oil refineries -- that generate and store dangerous materials.
On the Eve of WWIII? by Gordon Prather -- Antiwar.com
Can you believe it? We may be on the eve of World War III because a research reactor near Tehran – that mostly produces radioactive isotopes for use in medicine, and is subject to a Safeguards Agreement with the International Atomic Energy Agency – will need refueling in a year or so.
How could that need result in WWIII?
Well, thereby hangs a tale.
300 at Plymouth anti-nuclear protest
CAMPAIGNERS protesting against possible plans to scrap nuclear submarines at Devonport Dockyard descended on the city for an organised protest at the weekend.
Around 300 people turned out in support of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament who believe that Plymouth will be turned into a dumping ground for nuclear submarines.
The rally began with a march through the city centre before speeches outside the Guildhall. The group then travelled to Devonport Park before a protest march along the dockyard wall, finishing at the site’s Camels Head entrance.
In rural India, resistance to proposed nuclear plants - washingtonpost.com
Standing precariously on the thin edge of a newly dug well, Ajitbhai Narela looked out proudly at his groundnut and mango saplings.
For decades, he said, his family has tilled the soil here, working the land and producing sweet-tasting fruit. But soon, he noted, the fields may disappear. If Indian officials have their way, land in this seaside village will be paved over for a nuclear power plant.
NRC- NRC Cites Wal-Mart for Violations in Handling Tritium Exit Signs
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has cited Wal-Mart Stores, Inc., with four violations concerning improper disposal and transfer of tritium exit signs at its stores throughout the United States and Puerto Rico.
The violations, issued Oct. 28, concerned the improper transfer or disposal of 2,462 signs from Wal-Mart stores in states under NRC jurisdiction between 2000 and 2008, and the improper transfer of an additional 517 signs between various Wal-Mart facilities. The company also failed to appoint an official responsible for complying with regulatory requirements and failed to report broken or damaged signs as required.
Exit signs containing tritium, a radioactive isotope of hydrogen, pose little threat to public health and safety and do not constitute a security risk. However, the NRC requires proper recordkeeping and disposal of the signs because a damaged or broken sign could cause minor radioactive contamination of the immediate vicinity, requiring environmental clean up.
The improper transfer or disposal of the 2,979 signs and failure to appoint a responsible official were determined to be a Severity Level III problem under NRC’s enforcement policy, and the failure to report damaged signs is a Severity Level IV violation, the lowest on the NRC’s enforcement scale.
Md. tentatively backs Constellation deal with French firm - washingtonpost.com
Nuclear sale contingent on energy firm, French giant offering rebate, aid
The move is designed to lead to a third reactor at Calvert Cliffs.
The move is designed to lead to a third reactor at Calvert Cliffs.
Regulators appointed by Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley announced Friday that they have offered conditional approval to let Constellation Energy Group sell nearly half its nuclear assets, including those in Calvert County, to French energy giant EDF in a move designed to lead to construction of the first new commercial nuclear reactor project in the United States in more than three decades.
NIOSH to reevaluate its work for EEOICPA; seeks new director for compensation office | Frank Munger's Atomic City Underground | knoxnews.com
The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health announced that it's going to begin a major re-evaluation of its responsibilities, including the scientific and techical support, for the Energy Employees Occupational Illness Compensation Program Act.
NIOSH also said it would conduct a national search for a new director of the Office of Compensation Analysis and Support as the successor to Larry Elliott, who will take a new role at NIOSH as an associate director in charge of "several high-priority projects" with institute-wide activities. Stuart Hinnefeld, technical program manager, will become interim OCAS director while that search is conducted, the institute said in the announcement.
Toxic waste trickles toward New Mexico's water sources -- latimes.com
More than 60 years after scientists assembled the nuclear bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, lethal waste is seeping from mountain burial sites and moving toward aquifers, springs and streams that provide water to 250,000 residents of northern New Mexico.
Isolated on a high plateau, the Los Alamos National Laboratory seemed an ideal place to store a bomb factory's deadly debris. But the heavily fractured mountains haven't contained the waste, some of which has trickled down hundreds of feet to the edge of the Rio Grande, one of the most important water sources in the Southwest.
So far, the level of contamination in the Rio Grande has not been high enough to raise health concerns. But the monitoring of runoff in canyons that drain into the river has found unsafe concentrations of organic compounds such as perchlorate, an ingredient in rocket propellent, and various radioactive byproducts of nuclear fission.
Day honors Cold War Hanford workers - Mid-Columbia News | Tri-City Herald : Mid-Columbia news
Harold Copeland took an engineering job at the Hanford nuclear reservation in 1947, swayed by a recruiter's pitch that he would be paid a good wage and could live in a house with his wife in the government-owned town of Richland.
He took the job and the house rented for $38 a month, which also included power, water, grass seed and handymen to change the light bulbs.
AFP: Russia to boost Obama with nuclear treaty: report
Moscow and Washington want to reach a deal on a key nuclear disarmament treaty before US President Barack Obama receives his Nobel Peace Prize on December 10, a Kremlin source was quoted as saying Friday.
The source, quoted in the Kommersant daily, said the Obama administration wanted to sign an agreement on replacing the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START) before the Nobel ceremony and that Moscow was willing to oblige.
"On December 10 the ceremony for awarding Nobel laureates will take place... Our partners want the document to be signed before the Nobel Peace Prize is given to Barack Obama," the Kremlin source was quoted as saying.
North West Evening Mail | Campaign against Sellafield
CAMPAIGNERS from Norway descended on Westminster to demand Sellafield be closed down amid fears an accident at the site would cause devastation across the globe.
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CAMPAIGN: Campaigners from Norway protest against Sellafield at Westminster
The group claimed the quality of the radioactive waste is poor and they fear there will be an accident at the site.
Frank Storelv, from Oslo, said 90 per cent of wind blows from the south west and if there was an explosion or accident at Sellafield, one or two days later the radioactive waste would be carried to the west coast of Norway.
HSE issues nuclear alert - Building
Watchdog warns £20bn programme faces delay unless reactor designers improve performance
The UK’s £20bn nuclear programme is facing delays because of a failure to tackle design problems with their reactors, the Health and Safety Executive has warned.
A report by the HSE, seen by Building, said the two firms in the running to build the reactors had to put more resources into dealing with the safety assessment process if it was to be completed on time.
One of them, Japanese-owned Westinghouse, came in for particular criticism for failing to provide a report on external hazards such as flooding.
CBC News - Ottawa - Nuclear group presses for AECL decision
Canada's minister of natural resources got an earful Friday from members of the country's nuclear industry who say they want the federal government to make a firm decision on the future of Atomic Energy of Canada Ltd.
While Natural Resources Minister Lisa Raitt received polite applause when she attended a panel discussion at the annual meeting of the Organization of Candu Industries in Oakville, Ont., those in the industry said indecision is hurting everyone in the sector.
Last spring, the government announced its plan to break up AECL and possibly sell parts of the Crown corporation, but thus far no details have been announced.
Cheney remarks in leak probe released - Washington Post Investigations
Former Vice President Dick Cheney told a special prosecutor in 2004 that he could not remember playing any role in leaking the identity of Valerie Plame as a clandestine CIA officer, according to FBI records released under court order (PDF) today.
After years of legal maneuvering to keep the documents secret, they were made public late today under a lawsuit brought by Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington. That organization provided the FBI notes to The Washington Post. Portions of the three documents, totaling 67 pages, were redacted on grounds of national security, privacy or privileged presidential communications.
Outline and Notes from the Cheney Interview (PDF)
Second document from Cheney interview (PDF)
Third document from Cheney interview (PDF)
Associated Press: Cheney told FBI he had no idea who leaked Plame ID
Vice President Dick Cheney told the FBI he had no idea who leaked to the news media that Valerie Plame, wife of a Bush administration critic, worked for the CIA.
An FBI summary of Cheney's interview from 2004 reflects that the vice president had deep concern about Plame's husband, Joseph Wilson, a former U.S. ambassador in Africa who said the administration had twisted prewar intelligence on Iraq.
Cheney's chief of staff, I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, was convicted of perjury, obstruction and lying to the FBI in the probe of who leaked Plame's identity to the news media. At the end of Libby's trial, prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald said that "there is a cloud over the vice president" in the leaking of Plame's identity.
NRC OKs Entergy spin-off: Rutland Herald Online
Federal regulators gave two green lights to Entergy Nuclear Thursday, saying recent changes Entergy made to the proposed spin-off of its five nuclear reactors, including Vermont Yankee, did not warrant additional review.
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission also gave Entergy Nuclear another month next year to complete an important test of its reactor containment system in spring, a test that has already been postponed for five years.
In the case of the spin-off, which would create a company called Enexus, changes Entergy made to the deal recently won the support of the Vermont Department of Public Service, which acts as the ratepayer advocate. However, the Vermont Public Service Board still hasn't approved the spin-off. Additionally, New York State regulators also have yet to sign off on the deal.
AFP: US state OKs tie-up of Constellation Energy, France's EDF
The US state of Maryland on Friday approved a plan for France' EDF Group to take a stake in Constellation Energy Group, clearing the final hurdle for a new nuclear power plant in the state.
US regulators earlier this month had green-lighted the joint venture plan for the French state-controlled company to acquire nearly half of Constellation's nuclear assets.
The companies say the nuclear joint venture is critical to the proposed construction of a new nuclear generation plant at Constellation's Calvert Cliffs Nuclear Power Plant, which they say would represent one of the largest industrial development projects in the East Coast state.
The Maryland government announced Friday conditional approval of the joint venture, depending on a one-time rate credit of 110.5 million dollars to residential ratepayers of Constellation's Baltimore Gas and Electric Company (BGE) subsidiary.
Associated Press: Green groups appeal Ga. nuclear plant expansion
Environmental groups are asking the federal courts to block to plans to build two nuclear reactors at an east Georgia power plant.
The Southern Alliance for Clean Energy said Thursday it is asking a federal judge to review an early-site permit granted by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to allow some construction at Georgia Power Co.'s Plant Vogtle facility.
The groups hinge a part of the appeal on contentious legislation that passed this year allowing the utility to charge ratepayers ahead of time for the costs of building the two new reactors.
The east Georgia project is scheduled to be completed in 2017. It could be the first new nuclear project to break ground in the country in three decades.
Georgia Power is a subsidiary of Southern Co.
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