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| Science & Technology |
| Multiple Chinese Broken Arrows |
| 2008-05-24 |
| Eleven days after the 7.9 magnitude earthquake struck western China, vice environment minister Wu Xiaoqing first revealed Friday, May 23, that 50 hazardous radioactive sources have been located – 35 recovered and controlled; “three more buried in rubble and 12 in dangerous buildings. At present, tests show no accidental release of radiation,” he reported as the death toll climbed past 55,000. Two of the most badly damaged cities housed China’s secret nuclear weapons design facility - at Mianyang - and a plutonium processing facility - in Guangyuan – both close to the quake’s epicenter. Soon after the quake struck, Chinese soldiers were sent to protect nuclear sites and preparations made for an environmental emergency. DEBKAfile’s military sources note that the Beijing announcement did not specify the nature of the hazardous sources or disclose how they - or the secret nuclear weapons and plutonium facilities were secured – whether sealed with cement and lead like the Chernobyl reactor in Ukraine in the 80s or their contents removed to safe places. According to the Beijing government’s official Web site, “nuclear facilities and “radioactive sources” included power plants, reactors, scientific research labs and medical treatment facilities, a big concentration of which are located in the worst hit areas. French sources disclosed that 489 hospitals with laboratories containing radioactive materials, as well as hundreds of high-risk industries, were leveled. Hans Kristensen, a nuclear arms expert at the Federation of American Scientists, said it was hard to believe that the military plants with nuclear materials had escaped the disaster. Other experts suspect that the damage to radioactive sites and radiation leaks may extend beyond the stricken Sichuan province. Vice minister Wu admitted “Environmental supervision capacity in the area is badly below what is needed.” The ministry's priorities are ensuring safe drinking water, the management of hazardous chemicals and preparing for adequate environmental supervision during reconstruction. Our sources add that the Chinese government has also deployed to the nuclear disaster areas the security teams trained by the International Atomic Agency in Vienna to respond to radiological attack, such as a dirty bomb, during the Olympic Games taking place in Beijing this coming August. |
| Posted by:Anonymoose |
| #4 Shoot that Broken Arrow through my heart... |
| Posted by: ABC 2008-05-24 14:22 |
| #3 Technically: "Pinnacle - Broken Arrow refers to an accidental event that involves nuclear weapons, warheads or components, but which does not create the risk of nuclear war. These include: * Accidental or unexplained nuclear detonation. * Non-nuclear detonation or burning of a nuclear weapon. * Radioactive contamination. * Loss in transit of nuclear asset with or without its carrying vehicle. * Jettisoning of a nuclear weapon or nuclear component. * Public hazard, actual or implied." It is a broad term, basically that military type nuclear materials have in some way been compromised. Pinnacle - Bent Spear is the lesser category, which means an administrative problem has occurred; whereas Pinnacle - Nucflash is the most severe, in that it involves the risk of a nuclear war. So the earthquake resulted in a lot of Broken Arrows. |
| Posted by: Anonymoose 2008-05-24 13:26 |
| #2 Okay... is debka using "broken arrows" differently than the term means or does China have some lost bombs and the article just doesn't get around to actually say so? |
| Posted by: 3dc 2008-05-24 11:58 |
| #1 I think I've seen this movie, stars steven segal on a train. Anyone seen the H.-E.D. recently? |
| Posted by: swksvolFF 2008-05-24 11:40 |