SA Opposition seeks probe into Maralinga clean-up

["Sandy Perle" <sandyfl@EARTHLINK.NET>]

Index:



SA Opposition seeks probe into Maralinga clean-up

Kursk had atomic weapons aboard-report

Explosion in the nursery gamma rays and baby stars

Swiss Scientists Find No Danger From Depleted Uranium in Kosovo

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SA Opposition seeks probe into Maralinga clean-up



5 April - Australian Broadcasting Corporation - The South 

Australian Opposition is asking state Parliament to demand the  

Federal Government hold an independent inquiry into the clean-up 

of the  Maralinga lands in the state's far north-west. 



Environment spokesman John Hill told Parliament the clean-up of 

the  former nuclear test site, completed in 1999, was characterised 

by "poor  planning", "lack of transparency" and "detectable 

ineptitude". 



He also says contradictory statements were made about what 

codes of  practice applied to the clean-up, and dust-suppression 

measures were  inadequate. 



Outside Parliament, Mr Hill said the method of burying plutonium at 

the  clean-up site needs thorough investigation.

--------------



Kursk had atomic weapons aboard-report

  

OSLO, April 4 (Reuters) - The Russian submarine Kursk had 

nuclear missiles aboard when it sank in Arctic waters last year, 

despite Moscow's assurances it was only carrying conventional 

arms, the Norwegian independent station TV2 said on Wednesday. 



Grigorij Tjomtsjin, a member of a Russian commission investigating 

the accident aboard the atomic-powered Kursk, told the station 

"yes, there were" when asked if it had nuclear weapons on board. 



"They are no danger," he added, according to a translation of his 

remarks from Russian. The Kursk sank after an unexplained 

accident during a military exercise in the Barents Sea last August 

with the loss of all 118 crew. 



Twelve of the dead have since been recovered from the wreck. 

Tests in the water around the Kursk have shown no unusual traces 

of radioactivity, but the presence of nuclear arms aboard could 

complicate a plan to lift the wreck. 



Harald Ramfjord of Global Tool Management, a company working 

on plans to raise the Kursk, also said he had seen Russian 

evidence of atomic missiles aboard. 



"One of the documents I had access to indicated that there were 

two atomic missiles aboard the vessel," he told TV2, adding that 

the Russian documents were stamped "secret." 



Norwegian Foreign Ministry spokesman Karsten Klepsvik said the 

Russians had repeatedly denied there were nuclear weapons 

aboard the Kursk. He said the ministry had asked its embassy in 

Moscow to investigate the TV2 report. 



Einar Skorgen, a now-retired Norwegian rear admiral who led efforts 

by Norwegian divers to find survivors in the Kursk after it sank, said 

Moscow had given a string of misleading information about the 

Kursk. 



"It's clear that it could increase the difficulties of raising the Kursk," 

if there were missiles aboard, he said. 



TV2 said the missiles aboard the Kursk were apparently cruise 

missiles designated SSN19 Shipwreck by NATO. Such missiles 

could rust and start leaking far more quickly than a reactor, it said. 

--------------



Explosion in the nursery gamma rays and baby stars



BALTIMORE April 4 (Reuters) - A blast of gamma rays more 

powerful than a quadrillion suns may help lead scientists to the 

dust-shrouded places where stars are born, researchers said on 

Wednesday. 



In fact, astronomers at a conference on these mysterious, high-

energy cosmic blasts known as gamma ray bursts said one 

particularly intense explosion this year may have actually occurred 

in a stellar nursery, and others may too. 



Astronomers do not know what causes gamma ray bursts, or even 

exactly what they are, but an Italian and Dutch satellite called 

BeppoSAX managed to observe the flash of one on Feb. 22, and it 

turned out to be the second-brightest burst ever observed, among 

those where the distance from Earth is known. 



Luigi Piro, a scientist for BeppoSAX based at Italy's Consiglio 

Nazionale delle Ricerche in Rome, found that this burst and others 

produced a pair of shock waves that almost instantly expanded, 

like a rapidly inflating space bubble. 



But the bubble came up against a dense wall of gas that totally 

enclosed it, Piro said at an international meeting on gamma ray 

bursts in Baltimore. 



"This level of density can only be found in very crowded regions 

where stars are formed," Piro said. 



If this is true, that would make gamma ray bursts cosmic road 

signs pointing the way to stellar nurseries, said Fiona Harrison, an 

astronomer at the California Institute of Technology. 



"It's a signpost for where stars are being formed and it's a signpost 

that shines through any material surrounding it," Harrison said in 

an interview, referring to gamma ray bursts. Unlike optical light 

waves, gamma rays are not stymied by dust and gas -- they go 

right through. 



WHERE STARS ARE HATCHED 



"Stars are hatched in these beautiful ... nebulae (dust and gas 

clouds) ... with lots of stuff around them, and that stuff is what 

stops you from seeing the stars themselves," she said. "If one in 

every 100 of those (infant stars) explodes in a gamma ray burst, 

then that will shine through and you can say, aha, that's where 

stars are made." 



The biggest babies in the nursery are the most likely to become 

gamma ray bursts, Harrison and Piro indicated, stressing that the 

origin of these bursts remains unknown. 



These may be so-called hypernovae -- exploding stars with perhaps 

50 times the mass of our Sun. These monster stars blow up 

almost as soon as they are born, so they are difficult to spot. But if 

they turn out to become gamma ray bursts, the gamma rays they 

emit can be detected by earthly observers at great distances. 



The Feb. 22 blast occurred some 10 billion light-years from Earth, 

Piro said. A light-year is about 6 trillion miles (10 trillion km), the 

distance light travels in a year. 



Gamma ray bursts were first detected in the 1970s by satellites 

monitoring the Nuclear Test Ban Treaty, and only 3,000 have been 

found so far. Of those, scientists only know the locations of about 

40. They are believed to occur at the rate of about one a day, 

somewhere in the universe. 



These bursts are thought to be the most highly energetic events in 

the universe after the theoretical Big Bang. 



Such energy is hard to quantify but scientists estimate that if as 

little as 1 percent of the energy emitted during a typical gamma ray 

burst could be harnessed, it would cover all of Earth's energy 

needs for a quadrillion years -- a 1 with 15 zeroes behind it. 



Unfortunately, if a gamma ray burst occurred at the center of our 

Milky Way galaxy and was aimed at Earth, the planet would be 

bombarded with 100,000 times as much energy as we normally get 

from the Sun, with fatal consequences for everything on the planet. 



Scientists do not know how often such an explosion might occur in 

our galaxy. 

--------------



Swiss Scientists Find No Danger From Depleted Uranium in Kosovo

  

Bern, April 3 (Bloomberg) -- Swiss scientists examining NATO's 

use of depleted-uranium weapons in Kosovo found the risk to 

people or animals in the province is ``extremely minimal,'' 

Switzerland's defense ministry said. 



Research done for the United Nations Environment Program found 

only slightly higher levels of surface radiation in areas where the 

weapons were used, the ministry said in a statement. 



Several European countries have called on NATO to suspend the 

use of such weapons, after they were linked with the deaths of at 

least 15 soldiers who had served in Kosovo and Bosnia-

Herzegovina. More than a dozen nations, including Switzerland, 

tested their soldiers after the concerns were raised. 



The two Swiss scientists, part of a 14-member team sent to the 

province of Yugoslavia by the UN, found that the share of plutonium 

discovered in the ammunition is ``so minimal, it has no significant 

influence'' on its radioactivity, the statement said. 



About 31,000 shells tipped with depleted uranium were dropped 

during a 1999 NATO bombing campaign to end Serbian repression 

of the ethnic Albanian community in Kosovo. Another 9,000 were 

fired in Bosnia between 1994 and 1995. 



While dismissing the risks, the Swiss scientists said it might be 

wise to monitor the quality of ground water to ensure there is no 

contamination. 



**************************************************************************

Sandy Perle					Tel:(714) 545-0100 / (800) 548-5100   				    	

Director, Technical				Extension 2306 				     	

ICN Worldwide Dosimetry Service		Fax:(714) 668-3149 	                   		    

ICN Pharmaceuticals, Inc.			E-Mail: sandyfl@earthlink.net 				                           

ICN Plaza, 3300 Hyland Avenue  		E-Mail: sperle@icnpharm.com          	          

Costa Mesa, CA 92626



Personal Website: http://sandyfl.nukeworker.net

ICN Worldwide Dosimetry Website: http://www.dosimetry.com

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