US wary of nuclear blast to stop Gulf oil leak

June 3 (Reuters) – The official in charge of managing the U.S. response to the oil leak disaster in the Gulf of Mexico on Thursday downplayed the possibility of using a nuclear or other explosive device to try to seal off the well.

“I think that’s really on the peripheral of things we ought to be talking about right now,” Coast Guard Admiral Thad Allen said when asked about suggestions that a nuclear explosion be used to seal off the leak.

“It hasn’t been seriously briefed to me,” Allen told ABC’s “Good Morning America” program. “I think you’d have to run out of a lot of things before you’d consider something like that.”

Asked about the possibility of using other explosive devices to try to seal the well, Allen said a blast could make things even worse by exposing oil-bearing rock formations directly to the sea bed.

“We don’t know the condition of the well bore, what happened before and after the explosion,” he said.

He told ABC the failure of the top kill procedure to seal the well by pumping mud into the well bore indicated “there actually could be something wrong with the well casing and there could be open communication in the strata or the rock formations below the sea floor.”

“I don’t think we want to take a chance of somehow disturbing that where the oil would have direct access to the sea floor. To my mind that would be a pretty serious risk,” Allen said.

His comments came after The New York Times reported on Thursday that the U.S. government was not considering using a nuclear device despite reports that some experts and armchair engineers were suggesting it.

The Soviet Union reportedly used nuclear devices several decades ago to successfully seal off runaway gas wells, the Times said.

But it quoted a U.S. Energy Department spokeswoman as saying neither Energy Secretary Steven Chu nor anyone else was contemplating a nuclear blast to try to halt the leak spewing hundreds of thousands of barrels of oil into the gulf.

“It’s crazy,” the Times quoted one senior official as saying of the nuclear idea. (Writing by David Alexander; Editing by Doina Chiacu)

Despite IAEA findings, Iran sings its old nuke-for-peaceful-purposes tune

Tehran, Sep. 18 (ANI): Even as a secret IAEA report revealed that Iran is capable of making a nuclear bomb and is developing a missile system to carry an atomic warhead, Iranian officials have reiterated claims that the Islamic nation’s nuclear program is intended for peaceful purposes.

Fox News quoted Iran’s ambassador to the International Atomic Energy Agency, Ali Asghar Soltanieh, as saying that Iran is sincere in wanting to negotiate with the West.

He added that Western countries should “read between the lines” about Iran’s intentions.

Although the prospects of finding anything between the lines were almost nil after the surfacing of the IAEA report, but Soltanieh insisted that discussions with the West would be a “real, new window of opportunity.”

The secret U.N. watchdog report, titled “Possible Military Dimension of Iran’s Nuclear Program,” concludes:

*Iran worked on developing a chamber inside a ballistic missile capable of housing a warhead payload “that is quite likely to be nuclear.”

*Iran engaged in “probable testing” of explosives commonly used to detonate a nuclear warhead – a method known as a “full-scale hemispherical explosively driven shock system.”

*Iran worked on developing a system “for initiating a hemispherical high explosive charge” of the kind used to help spark a nuclear blast.

“Iran has sufficient information to be able to design and produce a workable implosion nuclear device (an atomic bomb) based on HEU (highly enriched uranium) as the fission fuel,” The agency assessed.

On October 1, Iran is scheduled to meet with the U.S. and five other world powers seeking curbs on its atomic activities for the first time in more than a year.

However, Tehran says it is not prepared to discuss its nuclear activities. (ANI)

Chinese schools were evacuated after North Korea nuclear test

Chinese schools were evacuated after North Korea nuclear test Beijing – Authorities evacuated schools in eight border districts of north-eastern China after Monday’s declared nuclear test by North Korea, according to reports seen on Wednesday.

The Chinese authorities also moved to reassure local residents that no earthquake had taken place, after the tremor of the nuclear blast was felt.

Dozens of schools were evacuated following the shockwaves from the blast in eight districts of Yanbian, which lies about 180 kilometres from the site of the nuclear test.

The schools’ pupils returned to classrooms once an all-clear was sounded, local state media reported.

The seismological bureau in the prefecture of Yanbian, which has a long border with North Korea in China’s Jilin province, had initially said it recorded an “earthquake of
4.5 magnitude” – at the time the nuclear test took place on Monday morning.

“There was no earthquake in Yanbian prefecture and no earthquake in Yanji city,” the city government of Yanji clarified later in a statement. “Please citizens, don’t panic,” it added.

China on Tuesday said it had informed North Korea of its “firm opposition” to its neighbour’s nuclear test, again urging Pyongyang to resume negotiations on ending its nuclear weapons programme.

North Korea on Wednesday fired a short-range missile across the Sea of Japan, its fifth such launch since Monday’s nuclear test, which was unanimously condemned by the UN Security Council in New York. (dpa)

Obama arriving in the UK with ‘The Beast’

London, Mar.31 (ANI): When US President Barack Obama touches down in London tonight, he will be cruising the British capital’s streets in the limo dubbed “The Beast”.
According to Sky News, “The Beast”, a 250,000 pound vehicle, is equipped with rocket-propelled grenades, a night-vision camera and pump-action shotguns to destroy would-be attackers.

“The Beast’s” titanium superstructure is capable of shielding the president from a chemical weapons attack. Its sealed interior forms an impregnable “panic room” if the vehicle is attacked.

The car contains a tear-gas cannon, oxygen tanks and bottles of the president’s AB blood. It can drive at speeds of more than 60 mph with punctured tyres.

The five-inch rocket proof glass is so thick that Obama needs flourescent light to read in the darkness

He will land in London with an entourage of 500 – including 200 secret service staff and a medical team carrying pints of his own blood type.

Obama will use a plane, a helicopter and the limousine and be followed by a fleet of ambulances and decoy vehicles.

Manholes in city roads have been bolted down, bins removed and British security snipers placed in tall buildings across the city.
Obama is due to touch down at Stansted Airport at 8 p.m. local time aboard the presidential aircraft Air Force One.

The Boeing 747-200B has its own gym and a presidential suite, complete with a small dining room.

Among officials on the flight will be a military officer carrying America’s nuclear missile launch codes. Should he need to, Obama can launch a nuclear strike from the craft.

The plane – which can travel at speeds of 630 mph – is fitted with armour-plated wings able to withstand a nuclear blast from the ground and flares to confuse enemy missiles. It has 85 telephones and 19 televisions.

From Stansted the president will be flown to the US ambassador’s residence in Regent’s Park, London.

He arrives there in a VH-3D helicopter known as Marine One that will fly across London alongside a group of identical decoy aircraft.

While in London the president’s 200 secret servicemen will watch over him – conspicuous with their shirt-cuff radios, dark suits and Ray-Ban sunglasses.
Also among the 500-strong entourage will be his 6ft 5in personal aide Reggie Love. Love works out with the president and watches sport with him back at his hotel suite.

He will be trusted to keep the president supplied with chewing gum – which he chews to beat his old cigarette habit.

A selection of iced teas will keep the president refreshed in his various modes of transport.

His wife Michelle will have eight of her own staff, including a secretary, a press officer and bodyguards.

Obama will meet with British Prime Minister Gordon Brown one-to-one on Wednesday as well as holding meetings with Russian president Dmitry Medvedev and Chinese president Hu Jintao.

He will also meet the Queen at Buckingham Palace on Wednesday afternoon in what is seen as the formal showpiece of the packed working schedule.

Security teams have swept venues the Obamas will visit for electronic bugs, food has been tested for poison and even the air quality has been measured for bacteria.

Security experts say the threat of an attack against Obama is high. (ANI)

How to save Earth from an asteroid impact

London, March 27 (ANI): Scientists have used a virtual model to investigate options to save the Earth from an asteroid impact.

According to a report in New Scientist, the model was developed by a team led by David Dearborn of the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California, which modelled the impact of a nuclear explosion on an asteroid’s trajectory.

It is based on the option of gently nudging the asteroid away from Earth without breaking it apart, either by exploding a nuclear device at a distance or zapping it with high-powered lasers.

The team’s virtual asteroid was 1 kilometer in diameter and made of rocky rubble loosely bound together by gravity, which is considered by many planetary scientists to be the most likely composition for small asteroids.

Thirty years before the asteroid was set to collide with Earth, a nuclear blast, equivalent to 100 kilotonnes of TNT, was set off 250 meters behind it.

The nudge from the explosion increased its velocity by 6.5 millimeters per second, a slight change but enough for it to miss us.

The technique also reduced the risk of a break-up.

Just 1 per cent of the asteroid’s material was dislodged by the blast, and of that only about 1 part in a million remained on a collision course with Earth.

Dearborn adds that the technology for this method is already established, unlike for the use of a heavy object to shove the asteroid onto a different path – the “kinetic impactor” strategy.

“Should an emergency arise, we should know that the technology is available, and we should have some idea of how to properly use it,” he said.

He has now begun simulating the effect of nudging an asteroid with a smaller nuclear explosion – less than 1 kilotonne – 1 meter below its surface.

This would reduce the device’s weight, making it easier and quicker to launch. (ANI)