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Nawaz returns, vows to contest elections
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-Obits-
Leader of KGB Coup Dead at 83
Vladimir Kryuchkov, the former KGB chief who spearheaded a failed coup against Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev, has died, officials said Sunday. He was 83. Kryuchkov died Friday in Moscow of an unspecified illness, a spokesman for the Federal Security Service said.

Kryuchkov worked with future Soviet leader Yury Andropov in the Hungarian Embassy in the 1950s. When Andropov became head of the KGB in 1967, he helped Kryuchkov rise through the ranks. Kryuchkov in 1974 was appointed chief of the KGB's First Main Directorate in charge of spying abroad. In 1988, Gorbachev appointed Kryuchkov as KGB chief. In August 1991, Kryuchkov joined other hard-line Communists who ousted Gorbachev and declared a state of emergency. The coup collapsed after three days, and Kryuchkov and other coup plotters were jailed but freed on an amnesty in early 1994.

Last month, Kryuchkov warned of "big trouble" if a turf battle between security agencies continues to fester. He and other KGB veterans called on the feuding forces to unite behind President Vladimir Putin. Kryuchkov's funeral is planned for Tuesday.
Posted by: Fred || 11/26/2007 00:00 || Comments || Link || [3 views] Top|| File under:

#1  I wonder what interesting nuclear drug the autopsy will show?
Posted by: Jack is Back! || 11/26/2007 13:06 Comments || Top||


Caribbean-Latin America
Hugo's hissy fit with Spain 'downplayed'
Hugo's coming unglued.
MADRID, Spain: Venezuela and Spain have a common future, the Venezuelan ambassador in Madrid said Monday, downplaying an announcement by President Hugo Chavez that he was "freezing" bilateral relations until King Juan Carlos apologizes for telling him to shut up.

"The two countries have a common future beyond ups and downs," Ambassador to Spain Alfredo Toro said after holding a half-hour meeting with the top Foreign Ministry official for Latin America, Trinidad Jimenez.

Jimenez said that, "after hearing what President Chavez had said," she contacted the ambassador to "ask him if this would affect our bilateral relations." She said Toro assured there was no change in the countries' bilateral relations.
Pity. Jimenez should have made clear that Spain would 'review its relations' with Venezuela until Hugo agreed to show good manners and ensure free elections.
On Nov. 10, Juan Carlos told Chavez to "shut up" during an Ibero-American summit in Chile after the Venezuelan leader called Spain's former premier, Jose Maria Aznar, a fascist.

Chavez on Sunday said: "Until the king of Spain apologizes, I'm freezing relations with Spain."
Good. Now we need to get other European officials to tell Hugo to stuff it.
Chavez has said he will review Spanish business operations in Venezuela. But Leon said his latest remarks "are not very far removed from what he has been saying these days."
He's doing that with all the foreign-owned businesses anyway, so you might as well tell Hugo what you think.
In an interview with Antena 3 television, Leon avoided comment on whether the king or the Spanish government was considering an apology.
Zappie wouldn't dare, he'd face a vote of no-confidence in the Spanish parliament if he uncut the King.
Posted by: Steve White || 11/26/2007 15:16 || Comments || Link || [4 views] Top|| File under:

#1  I'd bet Mr. Venezuelan Ambassador is one of those 'pure' blood Spanish Hispanics. Where are they going to send the kids to get educated if they piss off Spain. It's not like University of Miami is going to be a great option at the current pace of relations with El Norte. So, Mr. Ambassador got a call from mom or granma tell'm that he needs to smooth things out or else everyone back home is going to be stuck with sending junior to Patrice Lumumba Peoples' Friendship University satellite campus in Havana. You might as well get a degree in Medieval English Lit from Columbia for all that is going to get you other than a dead end apparatchik job.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 11/26/2007 17:49 Comments || Top||

#2  Uribe did hammered him worse.
Posted by: Thomas Woof || 11/26/2007 18:38 Comments || Top||

#3  Give him a 'click-freeze'.
Posted by: Skidmark || 11/26/2007 22:56 Comments || Top||


Caucasus/Russia/Central Asia
Putin blames U.S. for vote monitor pullout
ST PETERSBURG, Russia (Rooters) - President Vladimir Putin said on Monday Russia had information suggesting the United States influenced a decision by OSCE international observers not to monitor the December 2 parliamentary election.

The main election monitoring unit of the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) pulled out of Russia's parliamentary vote earlier this month, accusing Russian authorities of obstruction. A spokeswoman for the OSCE's Office for Democratic Institutes and Human Rights (ODIHR), which was running the aborted election observation mission, said Putin's remarks were "simply not true".

"According to some information it (the pullout of observers) was done on the recommendation of the U.S. State Department," Putin said. "We will certainly take this into account with our bilateral ties with this state." Putin said the United States wanted to present the Russian parliamentary election as illegal, citing the fact that it was not properly monitored.

ODIHR spokeswoman Urdur Gunnarsdottir said by telephone: "This (decision) was not made at the recommendation of any state but was simply made, and only made, on the basis of our inability to do a long-term observation.

"It did not have an aim to influence the Russian election in any way."
Posted by: anonymous5089 || 11/26/2007 07:50 || Comments || Link || [3 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Nice try, no cookie. Bad Vlad.
Posted by: mojo || 11/26/2007 13:57 Comments || Top||


Kasparov arrested in Moscow
MOSCOW -- Former chess champion and opposition figurehead Gary Kasparov and dozens of other anti-Kremlin demonstrators were arrested Saturday as they marched along a slushy downtown street hollering, "Russia without Putin!" Riot police pounced on the activists and stuffed them into police vans after they pushed ahead with a banned preelection march through the bustling streets of the capital.

Also detained was Eduard Limonov, another prominent dissident and head of the group formerly known as the National Bolshevik Party, which itself is banned by the Kremlin.

Kasparov was charged with resisting police and violating the law regulating mass rallies and quickly sentenced to five days in jail. "If the regime is preserved, the country will die," Kasparov told at least 1,000 cheering protesters shortly before his arrest. "That's why we're here. We'll protect the country."

The so-called March of Dissent was organized as a crowning show of defiance to Russian President Vladimir V. Putin as the country prepares for parliamentary elections next weekend. Putin is heading the United Russia party ticket, and his supporters have instructed Russians to treat the election as a referendum on his popular rule. Despite polls that show higher than 80% approval for Putin, the president and his allies portray their opponents -- a ragtag assortment of relatively unpopular, perpetually infighting parties -- as a political threat to be squashed at all costs.

"Putin's plan is only this: to stay in power forever," said Yelena Vasilyeva, a 48-year-old ecologist who traveled to Moscow from Murmansk to participate in Saturday's protest. "If your opinion differs from the opinion of Vladimir Putin, then they send the riot police to crack down on you."

"Either they [Putin and his allies] go to the Kremlin or they will go to prison," Maria Gaidar of the Union of Right Forces told the crowd. "Don't be afraid. Let them be afraid."

As the voices of opposition leaders boomed over the crowd, loud wails of heavy metal music blasted from beyond a nearby construction site. Putin's followers apparently were determined to disrupt the rally. "Those are the cries of devils," Limonov told the crowd. "Do you hear their voices?"

After rallying in the afternoon chill to hear their leaders speak, the marchers set off to deliver a formal complaint to the Central Elections Committee. They strode quickly along the street, lighting small flares as they marched. After a few blocks, riot police closed in from both sides. For more than an hour, protesters played cat and mouse with police officers in the throngs of reporters and passersby. One by one, they were hauled away to the vans. Some tried to run from the police van, only to be prodded back up the stairs with hard shoves from police.

"If they arrest me, that will be good," said Yevegeny Buyakin, an 18-year-old Moscow State University student who stood smoking a cigarette and watching the tumult. The towering flag in his hand identified him as a demonstrator. "I'll show people by example what kind of authority we have."
Posted by: Steve White || 11/26/2007 00:00 || Comments || Link || [3 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Checkmate.

Putin has now consolidated his hold on power in Russia, openly employing authoritarian means with nary a peep from the outside world.
Posted by: Spuque B. Hayes8037 || 11/26/2007 1:54 Comments || Top||

#2  Kasparov has little support in Russia. There is an effective opposition, but they recognize Putin' populism and direct their energy toward selling economic reforms. Populist authoritarianism is repugnant, but Russians will prefer it to the social chaos of the post Soviet Union period.
Posted by: McZoid || 11/26/2007 5:07 Comments || Top||

#3  There are now over 100,000 people in Russia (that's the Soviet's disguise) who are worth more a $1 million. And it is growing. How will Putin be able to put the full-Genie back in the bottle with that kind of neuveau riche slurping up all the beluga while he keeps the dungeons occupied?
Posted by: Jack is Back! || 11/26/2007 13:09 Comments || Top||

#4  The old Russian aristocrats had the money. The new Russian aristocrats have the money.

"The creatures outside looked from pig to man, and from man to pig, and from pig to man again; but already it was impossible to say which was which."
"Somehow it seemed as though the farm had grown richer without making the animals themselves any richer— except, of course, for the pigs and the dogs." - Animal Farm, George Orwell.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 11/26/2007 15:05 Comments || Top||


Europe
Croatia's ruling conservative HDZ on course to win national poll
Posted by: anonymous5089 || 11/26/2007 11:04 || Comments || Link || [3 views] Top|| File under:


EU commissioner urges China to stop producing 'tidal wave' of fakes
Posted by: anonymous5089 || 11/26/2007 07:55 || Comments || Link || [4 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Ah-ah. Yeah, right, that'll happen.
Posted by: gromky || 11/26/2007 9:02 Comments || Top||

#2  Mandelson told a forum on food safety in Beijing that eight out of 10 fake goods seized at Europe's borders last year were made in China and some were potentially dangerous, such as counterfeit medicines and fake aircraft and car parts.

How do you guys like that strong Euro now? Guess you didn't realize that it wouldn't just be fake Louis Vuitton and Chanel handbags. Just one more problem for Airbus.
Posted by: RWV || 11/26/2007 9:11 Comments || Top||

#3  "Strongly worded memo to follow..."
Posted by: Mullah Richard || 11/26/2007 9:29 Comments || Top||

#4  Soon, they'll be making real A320's. Thanks to Airbus's relentlessly short-sighted management.
Posted by: Zhang Fei || 11/26/2007 11:09 Comments || Top||

#5  China will do it. Right after Arabs recognize Israel's right to exist and renounce all violence.
Posted by: DarthVader || 11/26/2007 13:09 Comments || Top||

#6  Yeah, a strongly worded message from the EU Commissioner will sure get the Chicom's attention. Another Paper Tiger, just like the US Administration.

It would be relatively easy to get the Chicom's attention by banning their products until they set up a system and demonstrate that they have the quality control and health standards which are required of domestic companies in the EU and US.

The Chicoms have no respect for patents, copyrights, health standards, etc. They have demonstrated that they will flaunt these responsibilities because we in the US and the EU do not enforce our standards. We are the real problem, therefore, in this area.
Posted by: Alaska Paul || 11/26/2007 14:12 Comments || Top||

#7  We are the real problem, therefore, in this area.

I don't want to seem "philophical" or pretentious, but aren't we the real problem in ALL areas, from immigration to iran to china???
Posted by: anonymous5089 || 11/26/2007 14:22 Comments || Top||

#8  The EU are now crying because until recently they had a trade surplus with China (US buys Chinese manufactures and the Chinese buy Euro machinery to make it). The US market got saturated and Chinese exporters have been concentrating on Europe. Now the EU has a US level trade deficit ($200 billion) with China, even with higher tariffs. IMO, the EU, adhering to it's original intent as a Fortress Europa, will impose trade quotas and further raise tariffs. They can't afford to have 2M direct manufacturing jobs (+6-10M indirect) leaving the already high unemployment rate EU.
Posted by: ed || 11/26/2007 15:05 Comments || Top||

#9  Le bingo, ed. As ever, Europe only cries foul once its own tit's in the Bendix.
Posted by: Zenster || 11/26/2007 23:25 Comments || Top||


Clashes, buildings torched in Paris suburb
PARIS - Dozens of youths clashed with police and set fire to buildings in a Paris suburb on Sunday after two teenagers were killed in a crash with a police car. The pair were riding on a stolen motorcycle when the accident happened on Sunday in the town of Villiers-le-Bel, north of Paris, a police union source said.

France's worst urban unrest in 40 years broke out in the northeastern Paris suburb of Clichy-Sous-Bois in November 2005, after two teenagers died electrocuted in an electricity sub-station after apparently fleeing police.

The circumstances in this case, however, were different. "It was not a chase but apparently a traffic accident," a police source said.
Involving a couple of thieves. Youts on a stolen cycle. Youts most likely not named Jaques and Pierre. It's all society's fault, of course.
The town's police station caught fire and that of the neighbouring town, Arnouville-les-Gonesse, was ransacked, the local authority said. A Villiers garage was set ablaze and fires were put out before they could spread in a neighbouring garage and a petrol station in the same town. "The situation is tense tonight. We do not know how it will evolve during the night," the mayor's chief of staff, Nicolas Carrier, told Reuters.

Large numbers of police were sent to the town from neighbouring departments and Paris. "We made immediately available for a dramatic situation in which two young people died and there has been damage and thefts," a local authority official said. "There are small groups of vandals who have started to loot shops," the official said, adding that a young person had been arrested.

The local authority said seven policemen and a fireman were injured. A police officer who went to the scene was attacked by youths who had gathered there. Several rubbish bins were torched and the burned out wreckage of a car was visible on French television footage.
Posted by: Steve White || 11/26/2007 00:00 || Comments || Link || [3 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Is it that time of the year, again? Boy, how time flies. I am still convinced this all a conspiracy inspired and paid for by this guy in order to prop up end-of-year sales.
Posted by: Jack is Back! || 11/26/2007 13:14 Comments || Top||


Car-b-que time in Paris
Two people of unidentified faith or national origin died Sunday after their motorcycle collided with a police vehicle in the Paris suburbs, triggering attacks on police stations in which eight officers and a firefighter were wounded, police said. A police station in the town of Villiers-le-Bel was set on fire and another one in neighbouring Arnouville was wrecked.

Police said there were reports of "small groups attacking shops, passers-by and car drivers" to rob them. One suspect carrying jewelry from a looted store at Villiers-le-Bel was detained. The Arnouville-Villiers-le-Bel train station was damaged.

Four riot police officers and three other police officers were wounded in clashes which erupted after 6:00 pm (1700 GMT) after the 15- and 16-year-old youths died. Police earlier said that another officer who tried to calm the situation suffered injuries to his face.
otherwise known as a fractured skull as a result of being beaten with steel rods.
Several cars and a firefighting vehicle were also set on fire in the area. Witnesses reported seeing Molotov cocktails being prepared.
It is going to be interesting to see how Sarko handles this. Apparently not enough force has been used yet.
Posted by: Nimble Spemble || 11/26/2007 00:00 || Comments || Link || [3 views] Top|| File under:

#1  great graphic, sad to say.
Posted by: Jan from work || 11/26/2007 0:41 Comments || Top||

#2  I think Sarko's limit is 48 hours or 50 cars whichever comes first. After that, he will be surgically ruthless.
Posted by: Jack is Back! || 11/26/2007 13:15 Comments || Top||


Sarkozy was ex-Mossad secret agent. Really.
From the Teheran Times.
A report reveals that French President Nicolas Sarkozy worked for Israeli intelligence for a long time before he was elected president. French daily Le Figaro has revealed the French leader once worked for the Zionist regime as a sayan, Hebrew for 'collaborator'.

Ex-Mossad agent Victor Ostrovsky says sayans, who perform many roles, are Jewish citizens of other nationalities assisting Mossad.

Le Figaro claimed that French police officials managed to keep secret a letter, which exposed Sarkozy's past participation in espionage activities for Mossad. The letter fixed Sarkozy's alleged spying activities as far back as 1983.

In the immediate aftermath of Le Figaro's exposé, the Zionist regime's Prime Minister Ehud Olmert was on a state visit to France to discuss Iran's nuclear program, which raised more questions about the report.

Analysts believe since Sarkozy took office in May, he has taken every opportunity to pledge his allegiance to the United States and the Zionist regime. ""Sarko the Sayan"" has also followed in the footsteps of the White House by choosing a hostile approach toward Iran and its peaceful nuclear activities
Posted by: Steve White || 11/26/2007 00:00 || Comments || Link || [3 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Iran's smear machine is nearly as well-oiled as Hillary's.

This is a clever use of a conspiracy theory to inflame the ever-potent fringe elements in French society - shades of the Dreyfus Affair.
Posted by: Spuque B. Hayes8037 || 11/26/2007 2:03 Comments || Top||

#2  They left out the picture of "Sarko the Sayan":

Posted by: DMFD || 11/26/2007 9:13 Comments || Top||

#3  Count on our traitor elites to reproduce this sick garbage. I expect to see this claim on protest signs.
Posted by: Excalibur || 11/26/2007 9:17 Comments || Top||

#4  They're reading to many Daniel Silva books. Actually, the better books for Sarko are by Alan Furst. He is more like Nicholas Morath than Gabriel Alon.
Posted by: Jack is Back! || 11/26/2007 13:19 Comments || Top||

#5  This is from the Tehran Times, Excalibur .
Posted by: Thomas Woof || 11/26/2007 18:40 Comments || Top||


Science & Technology
Neutron Scatter Camera Detects Shielded Radiation To Find Smuggled Nuclear Material
In an effort to find an answer to the problem of identifying smuggled special nuclear material (SNM), researchers at Sandia National Laboratories in California say a neutron scatter camera they are developing may be able to detect radiation from much greater distances and through more shielding than current detection instruments.

The neutron scatter camera, says Sandia physicist Nick Mascarenhas, has the capability to count neutrons from a source of SNM and localize it — meaning it doesn’t only indicate there is radiation present, but also where it is emanating from and, under some circumstances, how much.

“This instrument can pinpoint a hot spot in another room through walls, something not typically possible with gamma-ray detectors,” says Mascarenhas.

“Performance-wise, it’s beating the older technologies, but we want to continue to push the limits of sensitivity and detection distance.”

Distance, says Mascarenhas, is a significant benchmark because it means the neutron scatter camera has the potential to detect through various types of shielding, a concern at any border crossing or point of entry.

Results of neutron scatter camera testing have been encouraging. “It’s more penetrating and can detect unambiguously at a greater distance and through more shielding,” says Jim Lund, who manages the Rad/Nuc Detection Systems group at Sandia/California.

[..]

The neutron scatter camera consists of elements containing proton-rich liquid scintillators in two planes. As neutrons travel through the scintillator, they bounce off protons like billiard balls. This is where “scatter” comes into play — with interactions in each plane of detector elements, the instrument can determine the direction of the radioactive source from which the neutron came.

The neutron eventually flies off, but not before energizing the protons with which it has interacted. The proton will lose its energy in the scintillator. As that energy is lost, it is converted into light. Photomultiplier tubes coupled to the scintillator detect the light.

Computers record data from the neutron scatter camera, and using kinematics, determine the energy of the incoming neutron and its direction. Pulse shape discrimination is employed to distinguish between neutrons and gamma rays.

The biggest obstacle to the camera becoming widely adopted is the liquid scintillator, which is flammable, hazardous, and requires special handling. According to Mascarenhas, materials exist that could be used as a solid scintillator, but they need to be mass produced and made readily available in the U.S. for this purpose. Solid scintillator material, he says, is not in the scope of the current project but is a logical next step.

Posted by: 3dc || 11/26/2007 18:28 || Comments || Link || [4 views] Top|| File under:

#1  I'll see your unbathed, illiterate 14th century worshipping peasant and raise you the guys in the lunch room at Sandia Labs...
Posted by: M. Murcek || 11/26/2007 18:54 Comments || Top||

#2  "liquid scintillator, which is flammable, hazardous, and requires special handling"

The info is scant but I suspect that when the device is passed on to the engineers to build that they will find a way to address the "special handling" needs of the device if it is indeed useful.
Posted by: Throger Thains8048 || 11/26/2007 18:59 Comments || Top||


We can save the planet, if we all pea together in the ocean
Posted by: anonymous5089 || 11/26/2007 14:31 || Comments || Link || [5 views] Top|| File under:

#1  This strikes me as very dumb. Triggering blooms is not a good idea. Nor is dumping nitrogen into the oceans.

Sure you'll have blooms for a while, but the mass die off after could easily trigger some really nasty 'unintended consequences'. The impact to the oxygen cycle during and after the bloom is not good.
Posted by: bombay || 11/26/2007 16:47 Comments || Top||

#2  Mmmmm....peas.
Posted by: Hupolet Bluetooth || 11/26/2007 16:48 Comments || Top||

#3  I could be wrong but it almost sounds as if they are saying our increased sanitation of human waste is a factor in global warming. That would mean humanity is part of gaia, part of the circle of life, and not some abstract plague. How could that be? Where is the Goracle, I need guidance.
Posted by: rjschwarz || 11/26/2007 16:49 Comments || Top||

#4  This makes no sense. People are already complaining about increased nutrient loads in US rivers from agricultural runoff and its possibly causing oxygen depleted "dead zones" in the ocean. Now they want to INCREASE that phenomenon?
Posted by: crosspatch || 11/26/2007 17:01 Comments || Top||

#5  Since when have the Neo-Luddites been afflicted with logic and reason? Thinking is VERBOTEN! You must FEEL and act without thought. Only then will paradise be possible....after we wipe out everyone but the Elite so we can not have so many flyover peoples mucking things up.

/Enviro Wackjob rant off.
Posted by: Silentbrick || 11/26/2007 22:48 Comments || Top||

#6  The oceans are already being warmed...idiots
"http://earthquake.usgs.gov/eqcenter/recenteqsww/"
Posted by: Skidmark || 11/26/2007 22:58 Comments || Top||


Coming soon: local nuclear power
This is just one of several alternative sources of energy that US funding is quietly trying to mature and commercialize.
The portable nuclear reactor is the size of a hot tub. It’s shaped like a sake cup, filled with a uranium hydride core and surrounded by a hydrogen

Encase it in concrete, truck it to a site, bury it underground, hook it up to a steam turbine and, voila, one would generate enough electricity to power a 25,000-home community for at least five years.

The company Hyperion Power Generation was formed last month to develop the nuclear fission reactor at Los Alamos National Laboratory and take it into the private sector. If all goes according to plan, Hyperion could have a factory in New Mexico by late 2012, and begin producing 4,000 of these
reactors.

Though it would produce 27 megawatts worth of thermal energy, Hyperion doesn’t like to think of its product as a “reactor.” It’s self-contained, involves no moving parts and, therefore, doesn’t require a human operator.

“In fact, we prefer to call it a ‘drive’ or a ‘battery’ or a ‘module’ in that it’s so safe,” Hyperion spokeswoman Deborah Blackwell says. “Like you don’t open a double-A battery, you just plug [the reactor] in and it does its chemical thing inside of it. You don’t ever open it or mess with it.”

LANL scientist Otis Peterson filed the patent for the nuclear fission reactor in 2003. In theory, the reactor uses uranium crystals and hydrogen isotopes to create an internal, self-regulating balance. Because it’s so new, anti-nuclear power activists aren’t quite sure what to make of it yet. But ‘skeptical’ is perhaps too gentle a word for their initial reactions to Hyperion’s claims of a “clean” energy source.

“This whole idea is loony and not worthy of too much attention,” Los Alamos Study Group Executive Director Greg Mello says. “Of course, factoring in enough cronyism, corruption and official ignorance and boosterism, it’s possible the principals could make some money during the initial stages, before the crows come home to roost.”
The anti-nuclear idiotarians are loony but unfortunately they garner attention. Factoring stupidity, short attention span and politicized science, it's possible these idiots might kill a valuable technology.
The Federal Laboratory Consortium for Technology Transfer would beg to differ. The group of 700 labs, set up by Congress to promote “technology transfer” activities between the public and private sectors, honored Peterson’s invention as an “Outstanding Technology Development” in October 2003 at its conference in Hawaii. Now retired from LANL, Peterson has become the chief scientist for Hyperion, Blackwell says.

Blackwell is a director of Purple Mountain Ventures, a self-described “adventure capital” firm specializing in commercial development of LANL technology. Purple Mountain also is the financial backer behind The Company for Information Visualization and Analysis (CIVA), a local company developing LANL pandemic modeling software. Hyperion’s reactor, though, has the potential to solve the energy crisis, according to Blackwell.

“The lab is doing a lot of work on oil shales and oil sands, but there’s no way to get power to those facilities,” Blackwell says. “So, this nuclear battery would be brought in and that would provide the power to run a small city of industrial use.”

Blackwell also envisions that the battery could be used at military bases, as well as in the developing world, where poverty is a product of a lack of electricity and clean drinking water. This week, Hyperion meets with its first potential clients, but Blackwell hopes to approach the United Nations and international humanitarian groups.

So far, though, anti-nuclear advocates don’t buy the claims advertised on Hyperion’s Web site (www.hyperionpowergeneration.com).

“The nuclear industry has never given the complete picture.” Nuclear Watch New Mexico Executive Director Jay Coghlan says. “Taxpayer subsidies and the environmental and financial costs of mining and enriching uranium and waste disposal are never completely factored in.”
Posted by: lotp || 11/26/2007 07:16 || Comments || Link || [3 views] Top|| File under:

#1  it's possible these idiots might kill a valuable technology

Sorry, lotp. They've been killing this technology for years. Similar nuclear 'micro' technology isn't new, we were doing the 'hypothetical implementation layout' for one of my engineering classes in the mid-70s using (at that time) existing technology (which would have allowed a similar size & output powerplant package). We did a combined paper, published it, and were promptly savaged by local and national media/eco/peacenik/loon groups. We were surprised by the rapidity of the response, but one of the professors figured that some environmentalist from the ag-engineering department (unfortunately same building) blew the whistle.

As you can guess, the project never received any further funding.
Posted by: Mullah Richard || 11/26/2007 9:46 Comments || Top||

#2  I know there have been a variety of approaches proposed for small nuclear power plants, Richard. Sorry to hear your hypothetical design got spiked in the 70s.

This is being spun out of LANL, tho, as an implemented system under an approved program for commercialization of proven prototypes. It's quite likely the patent will be awarded and if so, I would not be surprised to see these being used in some military and similar applications before being taken to the commercial market.

BTW, the leaders at Purple Mountain have a pretty good track record. And their investors include some heavy money from the west coast. But we'll see ....
Posted by: lotp || 11/26/2007 10:58 Comments || Top||

#3  Thanks for the optimism lotp. I've been a strong proponent of the 'blue glow' for years (well, since college anyway). We can only hope that the cachet of being from Los Alamos and PMV would give this micro-reactor the strong defense/offense against the 'screamers' who would rather live in the dark.
Posted by: Mullah Richard || 11/26/2007 11:26 Comments || Top||

#4  the enviros might be wondering about the reprocessing that would be needed after the working period was over

personnally I wish we did have more reprocessing capacity in the US - it could substantially reduce the volume of high level waste
Posted by: mhw || 11/26/2007 11:50 Comments || Top||

#5  You can gauge how good it is by the enviro response. The more likely it is to work, the harder they'll try to kill it.

The point being that the enviro lobby doesn't want "clean" energy, it wants "no" energy. No cars, no toilet paper, no air conditioning, no air travel. Nada. Except for their own use of course.
Posted by: Iblis || 11/26/2007 12:22 Comments || Top||

#6  If it has no knobs, then how do they turn it on and off? You can't just have this thing sitting there producing 25MW of heat at all times without consequences! You'd need a guaranteed source of water. Which makes me wonder how you ship it and decommission it? I'm sure in the developing world there would be all kinds of problems with this if this is truly the case. They must have something in mind to take care of this.
Posted by: gorb || 11/26/2007 14:45 Comments || Top||

#7  This sounds like a similar idea to a pebble bed reactor. That is, the radioactive material is spaced so that it produces a given amount of heat over a given time. Even if the water runs out and it gets hot, it *cannot* get hotter than well below the temperature to either damage its container or any internal parts like pipes.

Other than that, you need some mechanism to safely start water flowing through such a hot reactor without causing a steam explosion. You want it to generate steam, not explosive steam, which can be destructive. This is not particularly difficult, and has to be part of any steam turbine system.

The water system of the turbine is in no danger of getting contaminated, as it is physically separate from the radioactive material.
Posted by: Anonymoose || 11/26/2007 15:01 Comments || Top||

#8  they turn it on and off? ... You'd need a guaranteed source of water.

Sounds like hydrogen gas is the coolant as well as the neutron moderator. No H2, no fission (or a whole lot less). The small size implies the use of highly enriched uranium. That seems like a no-no except in highly controlled military vessels. I would think it not a good idea even on military bases, lest it get overrun and the reactor carted off and the HEU extracted.
Posted by: ed || 11/26/2007 16:24 Comments || Top||

#9  Just think a Nuke powered Abrams that if you blew it up in your town... you would pollute your own country....

Shoot me and the land gets it!
Posted by: 3dc || 11/26/2007 17:49 Comments || Top||



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