Tag Archives: obama

Business/Economics

Destroy U.S. Dollar: Iran getting rich off Gold

“Iran’s gold reserves have hit unprecedented levels and the country has supplied its domestic gold market for the next ten years.”-Mahmoud Bahmani, Governor of the Central Bank of Iran

Iran announced that their gold reserves now stand at 4 million tons, and that’s from just one mine.

The Zarshouran mine is located in the West Azarbaijan province. But don’t let the 4 million figure fool you. For every ton of gold ore, they get only 5.81 grams of gold.  I should say ‘only’, hah, when you think about how much gold is selling for it’s still worth the effort.

The mining and extraction systems are being upgraded at the Zarshouran mine, and they hope to get 3,600kg of gold bullion and more than 1200kg of silver bullion.

 

Technology

Iran diversifying elecrical power generation

Iran isn’t relying on their nuclear plant for providing lots of power. They’ve been developing other forms of power generation.

It includes hydroelectric, steam power and natural gas fired plants. At the end of 2009 they finished a solar powered plant. Now they are going to build more steam powered plants and even wind farms.

The goal is to add another 5,000 mega watts to their system. Officials claim that all the non-nuclear energy programs use 100% domestically produced materials. Gee, isn’t that kinda what President Obama talked about for the United States?

 

Technology

Iran will export nuclear technology

“We should not only be able to use all our capacities and potentials in the (civilian) nuclear technology, but also export nuclear know-how.”-Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad

During a speech for ‘National Day of Nuclear Technology’, President Ahmadinejad stated that Iran should master all nuclear technologies. He also said Iran should join other countries, like the U.S., in exporting its nuclear know how.

Fukushima, U.S.

Don’t trust EPA RadNet radiation monitoring, No set standard in Radiation Exposure Limits

“The monitoring system isn’t functioning fully.”-Daniel Hirsch, University of California Santa Cruz

Hirsch said that EPA is too slow in releasing data about the radiation from the nuclear accident in Japan.  Some RadNet monitoring systems have been offline for months.

The Associated Press, quoting the Environmental Protection Agency’s own website, said as many as 20 of the RadNet sites were down. Also, 38% were under “review”.  When a RadNet site is under review, it means that the officials are doubting the readings.

Daniel Hirsch pointed out that radiation exposure standards from one government agency to another are different, which adds to the problem of letting people know if they are at risk or not. It also explains why some “experts” disagree with other “experts” about the dangers from Japan. There is no set standard for radiation exposure!

This explains a lot of the confusion in Japan during the first two weeks of the nuclear disaster. I remember watching press conferences where it seemed  officials from one agency contradicted officials from another agency. You’d think when it comes to nuclear power there would be a set universal standard regarding radiation exposure!


Fukushima, Idaho

Idaho Rain Water over safe limits for Iodine-131

On 22 March 2011, the Federal Environmental Protection Agency reported rain water contamination numbers for Idaho. Do you understand them?

The EPA reported 242 pCi/L of I-131. Understand?  pCi means Picocuries.  I-131 means iodine-131. L means liters. 242 Picocuries per liter of iodine-131. Should you be worried? Yes!

The Federal government set safe levels of iodine-131, in drinking water, at 0.111 Becquerels per liter.  Using a Picocurie to Becquerel conversion program I discovered that the March 22 readings worked out to 8.954 Becquerels per liter, more than the government’s safe limits.

The EPA levels were in rain water, but rain water is used for livestock, and ends up in many municipality’s water systems.

Fukushima, U.S.

U.S. Military begins draw down from Operation Tomodachi

The U.S. Navy has withdrawn 10 ships from Japan. They say it’s because they are no longer needed for supply efforts, now that more roads have been cleared.

Most roads and rail systems in the north east of Honshu were destroyed in the 11 March disasters.

The U.S. still has plenty of troops in the area, including a special nuke team sent to the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant.

 

Fukushima, Idaho

EPA says Iodine-131 in Idaho Drinking water

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency says they have found trace amounts of iodine-131 in drinking water in the states of Washington and Idaho.

The samples were taken last week, at Boise, Idaho and Richland, Washington. The results were just released.

The EPA also says they picked up trace amounts of radiation in rain water.

I checked the Idaho RadNet site and, so far, there is no mention of the water tests by the EPA.  The information is in the most recent EPA press release.

Business/Economics

Remember the Mexican Gulf Oil disaster? Company officials get bonus for beating “safety” standards!

“Notwithstanding the tragic loss of life in the Gulf of Mexico, we achieved an exemplary statistical safety record as measured by our total recordable incident rate and total potential severity rate.”-Transocean, LTD

Transocean, one of the companies involved with the BP (British Petroleum) oil rig disaster in the Gulf of Mexico, gave it’s executives pay raises and bonuses, for having their “best year” ever for safety!

Can you say “What the F**k!”  Let me remind you that 11 people were killed on 20 April 2010, after an explosion on the BP-leased Deepwater Horizon platform. Nine of those killed were Transocean employees. And they say they had their best year ever?  If that was their best year ever then they need to be investigated big time.  How many other people have died while working for Transocean?

Also, the disaster isn’t over with. There are still plumes of stuff coming up from the bottom of the Gulf. The well that the Deepwater Horizon was drilling at the time of the explosion may have been capped, but there are reports that plumes are coming up from other areas, that might have been caused by previous drilling by the Deepwater Horizon platform.

More proof that corporations don’t give a crap about you.

Fukushima, U.S.

GE getting involved in Fukushima

Jeffrey Immelt, CEO of General Electric, met with Tokyo Electric chairman Katsumata Tsunehisa on Sunday.

TEPCo officials said GE’s Immelt offered ‘maximum’ support for dealing with the damaged Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant, which GE designed.

According to the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, there are 23 nuclear plants in the United States that are similar in design as Fukushima Daiichi.

Immelt will meet with the Japanese Economy Minister on Monday.  Under Japanese regulations, if the design of the plant is proven faulty then GE can be sued.

Immelt has also been pushing for taxpayer supported nuclear plant development in the U.S.  The Guardian newspaper recently reminded people that Immelt once said that investors are not willing to take on the risks of nuclear power, and that those risks should be handled by the government (taxpayers).  In other words, capitalist investors know nuclear power is a bad bet.

According to former Wisconsin Senator Russ Feingold, General Electric paid no U.S. taxes in 2010. He also wants Jeffery Immelt to resign from President Barack Obama’s Council on Jobs and Competitiveness.