undt!!!! April 3, 2012 - Newsroom America - Dartmouth Scientists Track Radioactive Material From Japan - Radioactive iodine found by Dartmouth researchers in the local New Hampshire environment is a direct consequence of a nuclear reactor's explosion and meltdown half a world away, says Joshua Landis, a research associate in the Department of Earth Science. The failure of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power facility, following the March 11, 2011, earthquake and tsunami, was the largest nuclear disaster since 1986 at Chernobyl. "We live on a really small planet and this demonstrates that what happens in Japan has the potential to affect us," said Mr Landis. Landis and a team drawn from Dartmouth's Department of Earth Science and Department of Geography recently published a paper in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences addressing such concerns. "Though regrettable, the Japanese catastrophe did provide a unique opportunity to examine the transport and accumulation of radioactive iodine in the environment," Landis says. "We took up this study mostly as concerned scientists in our own right, wondering how much of this contaminant is really coming down, and where the iodine is moving in the landscape."
April 3, 2012 - StrategyPage - The War On Radioactive Material - The world has to guard against theft or poor security for 1,475 tons of weapons grade uranium and 485 tons of plutonium that still exists. Less than 500 gm (a pound) of radioactive material is adequate for a terrorists for a “dirty bomb” (that just spreads radioactive material around), while 2-3 kg (4.4-6.6 pounds) is enough for a nuclear bomb. Terrorists’ going nuclear remains a nightmarish scenario, especially with experts warning that the global stock of fissile (useable for a nuclear bomb) material is enough to make over 126,000 nuclear weapons. This issue was at the core of discussions at the second Nuclear Security Summit (March 26-27, 2012) in Seoul. Leaders of 49 countries, who participated in the event, decided to adopt measures to enhance the management of highly enriched uranium, radiological security and transport security. They also agreed to combat illicit trafficking and ensure security of sensitive information by increasing international cooperation. There were also efforts to increase cooperation between nuclear safety and nuclear security operations. The Seoul Summit gives greater oversight role and responsibility for the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) which has long been restricted by political problems. The leaders urged all States to observe special precautions storing and tracking bomb grade material. Incidentally, Pakistan, which needs to implement all these decisions in letter and spirit, also attended the Seoul summit.