Let's get beyond this nuclear power plant mess. Okay? Use the advantage given you !

There is no more funding for Yucca Mountain. Now, there is this 'mysterious' mistake. Give me a break !

Obama Formalizes Push to Cancel Yucca Mountain Nuclear Waste DumpFriday, May 8, 2009 (click here)
U.S. President Barack Obama formally asked Congress yesterday to halt decades-old plans to build a long-term nuclear waste repository at Yucca Mountain in Nevada, Reuters reported (see GSN, April 30).
"All funding for development of the (Yucca Mountain) facility would be eliminated, such as further land acquisition, transportation access and additional engineering," the administration's fiscal 2010 energy budget request states.
The Obama administration requested $197 million to shutter the project and "explore alternatives" for handling the nation's nuclear waste. Energy Secretary Steven Chu is expected to establish a blue-ribbon panel that would assess various waste storage proposals and counsel the administration on which to pursue, according to the White House.
The Yucca Mountain site was intended to hold millions of pounds of hazardous waste from U.S. nuclear weapons work and atomic energy production. There are now 121 sites in 39 U.S. states that hold high-level radioactive waste and spent nuclear fuel on an interim basis, according to Reuters.
The budget proposal states "that nuclear power is -- and likely will remain -- an important source of electricity for many years to come and that how the nation deals with the dangerous byproduct of nuclear reactors is a critical question that has yet to be resolved" (Tom Doggett, Reuters, May 7).

This to raise public awareness and expose any recklessness of the nuclear energy industry. The public now has more clout in the nuclear enegy debate than they ever did before. If Americans scream it is to expensive and too dangerous they will get their way. All those Anti-Nuclear Reactor movements now have their chance to squelch the industry. They have lots of friends in the Executive Branch that would love to stop the spending on these dangerous forms of energy. We have alternatives and there is no reason to continue with technology that is over five decades OLD.

Dig the language of the Neocons. "Yucca is two FULL hours from Las Vegas." It should be more like "ONLY two full hours from Las Vegas."

Whom in the national media was actually born yesterday?

At any rate, Anti-Nuclear movements across the country can now add to their position the fact 'highly classified information' is leaked and endangers their National Security. Go, get 'em !!!

Is Yucca Dead? Just Look on Page 68 (click title to entry - thank you)

"Just outside of Las Vegas"? Reid makes it sound like the repository is going to be built in downtown Henderson. In fact, Yucca is a full two-hour drive from Las Vegas. That's about half-way to Disneyland in the middle of nowhere. "Just outside of Las Vegas." What a crock.
And "a piece of the magnificent Nevada desert"?
First of all, it's a desert, which, by definition, means it's ... a desert. Not exactly Iowa corn fields or the rainforest.
Secondly, the underground project is so far off the Highway 93/95 beatin' path that no one will ever see it unless they're taking a tour of the place.
And lastly, this "dumping ground for dangerous nuclear waste" is located right next to the Nuclear Test Site, the place where the United States government blows up nuclear weapons underground to make sure they work. So in reality, "storing dangerous nuclear waste" is pretty much the ONLY thing Yucca Mountain can be used for -- other than building a nuclear waste recycling facility and an international energy research center....

This was no leak. This was to inform the public of all the mess Bush left behind.

I am not saying President Obama even gave a nod to this, but, someone pulled the plug for a reason. Nuclear power plants are expensive. Not only that, but, how does a President that wants to disarm North Korea and Iran even justify his stand if the USA is going to continue to expand its nuclear reactor numbers.


Basically, the information is what is reported to the IAEA. Why not just keep the reporting completely transparent and all the world can know where the USA stands on nuclear power and otherwise. It is not a military document. This is to allow the people of the USA to know exactly what is happening in their neighborhoods and the world to know the USA's capacity. It serves many, many purposes, EXCEPT, the purpose of making a mistake. This was no mistake.

Anybody for peace talks?

...The 266-page document was published on May 6 as a transmission from President Barack Obama to Congress. According to the document, the list was required by law and will be provided to the International Atomic Energy Agency.
Some of the pages are marked "highly confidential safeguards sensitive."
Damien LaVera, a spokesman for the National Nuclear Security Administration, said the document had been reviewed by a number of U.S. agencies and that disclosure of the information did not jeopardize national security. He said the document is part of an agreement on nuclear material inspection under the IAEA's nuclear nonproliferation effort.
"While we would have preferred it not be released, the Departments of Energy, Defense, and Commerce and the NRC all thoroughly reviewed it to ensure that no information of direct national security significance would be compromised," LaVera said in a statement.Read more: "Government mistakenly publishes list of nuclear materials, sites; sensitive data was not classified....

Osama bin Laden is powerless. He is awaiting his fate.

In his latest audio message, bin Laden warns Americans to prepare for war as the policies of Obama are no different from those of former President George W. Bush in the eyes of al Qaeda. Bin Laden makes reference to this spring's violence in the Swat Valley of Pakistan, indicating that he recorded his message relatively recently. (/ABC News)

..."Obama and his administration have planted seeds for hatred and revenge against America," the Saudi-born bin Laden declared, saying Obama was treading in the footsteps of his predecessor.
"Let the American people prepare to continue to reap what has been planted by the heads of the White House in the coming years and decades," bin Laden said....

In the coming years and decades? Huh? Bin Laden has no way of carrying out attacks on the USA anymore. The intelligence in Europe has become too good. The USA now abides by the warnings issued by Great Britain, Germany and Interpol, rather than ignoring them as under Bush/Cheney when the tragedy of September 11th happened.

There have been attempts by al Qaeda since 911 to assault The West in spectacular muscle flexing by that terrorist network and have failed on some occassions. There are terrorists currently in prison in the USA that have been successfully prosecuted.

It is all rhetoric. If Bin Laden had anyway of predicting the acts of his network during the President's visit to the Middle East he would do so. But, to simply try to 'up stage' President Obama is a sign of sincere loss of power and influence in a way that matters.

The Pakistani assault on the militants within their country has profoundly turned whatever sympathy is left for him against any possibility of having influence.

The Taliban hold marginal control over the people of Swat Valley. They rely on an extremist radio Mullah in order to continue to instill fear in people seeking to outwit the Pakistan government and military. I find it odd the Pakistani government hasn't stopped these transmissions. They are akin to the radio transmissions used in the massacres in Rwanda.

Radicalizing the Pashtun Maulana Shah Dauran (click here) is another FM Mullah in Swat who is famous for his harsh and derogatory denunciations of Pakistani politicians, the United States and the coalition of nations involved in the war on terrorism. He typically parodies the Pakistani leadership and specializes in character assassination.

A Taliban leader in Darra Adam Khel, commander Tariq Afridi, has recently launched a pirate FM station which is also considered to be one of the most influential in the area. It is a short-range broadcast that can be heard only within a two-kilometer radius, but its words are taken very seriously. Tariq Afrida has been threatening tribesmen with dire consequences if they dare to raise a lashkar (tribal militia) against the Taliban or help the government against the Taliban in any way....

This is the kind of genocidal leadership The Taliban offered to the people of Swat Valley. Realizing there are millions in refugee camps at this moment is to realize they rather be there than under the control of madmen like the Taliban and al Qaeda. Then to realize the millions displaced to refugee camps are outside that influence is to realize the shrinking populous available to The Taliban and al Qaeda to influence into attacks.

The chaos of war in Pakistan has served the government and not al Qaeda. The radios necessary to have influence to people are no longer turned on or in the listening distance of those that have fled. The Pakistan government should interrupt those transmissions and replace them with instructions to leave Swat and abandon any ideation of violence.

Al Qaeda has lost its footing in Pakistan. They don't have the populous to control, murder and intimidate. The people of Pakistan are freer today. They won't return to the hatred of their government and its ally the USA to return to the fear of living within their own homes.