North Korea readying rockets to aim at U.S. targets, state media says

[Jiro]

West Coast people become zombies due to nuclear disaster. Zombie army will raid your East Coast. pssh

in that case - having a bunker would be a great idea but when it comes to CBRN, forget about it.

 

[Reba]

...flat land =
mountainous land = better survival chance

We don't even have hills here--that's all Midlands and Upstate, Piedmont area of SC.

I live in the Lowcountry, home of rice plantations--what's that tell you? We are barely above sea level, and we have a water table that prohibits having basements, much less bunkers.

 

[Reba]

in that case - having a bunker would be a great idea but when it comes to CBRN, forget about it.

CBRN--in the Navy we called it NBC warfare--Nuclear, Biological and Chemical warfare.

 

[Jiro]

CBRN--in the Navy we called it NBC warfare--Nuclear, Biological and Chemical warfare.

yea I had a feeling it was 3 letters instead of 4 - CBN but did a quick google search before I showered.

 

[Jiro]

We don't even have hills here--that's all Midlands and Upstate, Piedmont area of SC.

I live in the Lowcountry, home of rice plantations--what's that tell you? We are barely above sea level, and we have a water table that prohibits having basements, much less bunkers.

right but for those who lives in mountainous area like diehardbiker and me... we may have a better survival chance because mountains can give us more time to flee.

maybe. maybe not. but I'm hardly concerned and so should you because you and I are on East side... we ain't got any enemy with nuclear capability on this side. we've got allies between us and the enemies.

 

[CrazyPaul]

right but for those who lives in mountainous area like diehardbiker and me... we may have a better survival chance because mountains can give us more time to flee.

maybe. maybe not. but I'm hardly concerned and so should you because you and I are on East side... we ain't got any enemy with nuclear capability on this side. we've got allies between us and the enemies.

Yes, there is. IRAN! Who knows?

 

[Jiro]

Yes, there is. IRAN! Who knows?

um.... I think you should check a map... Iran is not next to us... I said - we've got allies between us and the enemies.

so why would Iran bomb us? it would be better for them to bomb our allies than us.

 

[Grummer]

um.... I think you should check a map... Iran is not next to us... I said - we've got allies between us and the enemies.

so why would Iran bomb us? it would be better for them to bomb our allies than us.

Iran WOULD bomb you at no doubt they have no reason except hate...clearly they are THAT stupid.

 

[Jiro]

Iran WOULD bomb you at no doubt they have no reason except hate...clearly they are THAT stupid.

*shrug*

yea they would be that stupid to send a missile to America, knowing full well that their missile would either miss or get destroyed... and that missiles would be better used on Israel instead

so yea *shrug*

 

[CrazyPaul]

*shrug*

yea they would be that stupid to send a missile to America, knowing full well that their missile would either miss or get destroyed... and that missiles would be better used on Israel instead

so yea *shrug*

How are your shoulders? You shrugged alot.

Don't forget that Iran is one of the Axis of evil. However I know they would not dare to do it like NK would not dare to do it, too. Know why? We have so many nukes ready to make them disappear into the air.

 

[Jiro]

How are your shoulders? You shrugged alot.

oh no no I didn't shrug. I have an intern to do that for me. You are too insignificant for me to shrug myself.

Don't forget that Iran is one of the Axis of evil.

so are we. We are on Iran's "Axis of Evil" list too.

However I know they would not dare to do it like NK would not dare to do it, too. Know why? We have so many nukes ready to make them disappear into the air.

so? 5 nukes.... 10 nukes.... 100 nukes.... who cares?

it only takes 1 nuke to start a nuclear holocaust anyway. still don't understand? for example - NK starts it first with a nuke. then USA retaliated with a nuke. then Iran cheapshot'ed with a nuke to Israel. then everybody starts nuking each other.

but you know what's the best thing about having a nuke? nobody's gonna use it.

 

[CrazyPaul]

oh no no I didn't shrug. I have an intern to do that for me. You are too insignificant for me to shrug myself.


so are we. We are on Iran's "Axis of Evil" list too.


so? 5 nukes.... 10 nukes.... 100 nukes.... who cares?

it only takes 1 nuke to start a nuclear holocaust anyway. still don't understand? for example - NK starts it first with a nuke. then USA retaliated with a nuke. then Iran cheapshot'ed with a nuke to Israel. then everybody starts nuking each other.

but you know what's the best thing about having a nuke? nobody's gonna use it.

I hope so but would it be a waste of the taxpayers' money if we never use at least 2,600 nukes that we currently have? That's why I was surprised that we have that many we may never use. What I am saying is that we shouldn't waste money on them.

 

[Jiro]

I hope so but would it be a waste of the taxpayers' money if we never use at least 2,600 nukes that we currently have?

sounds like you prefer that we use it....

That's why I was surprised that we have that many we may never use. What I am saying is that we shouldn't waste money on them.

the reason we had 2,600+ was because of Cold War. now that all superpowers are friend with each other... we're trying to figure out how to dispose majority of nukes in a safe way but we currently do not have a capability to do so. for now - we can convert it for anything else. however - the issue is... what can we do with spent fuel? that's why we're storing it at Yucca Mountain which is in your backyard (just east of you). feels bad, man

our nukes can be converted for our nuclear power plants. and we can buy nukes from other countries too.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/10/business/energy-environment/10nukes.html?_r=0

MOSCOW — What’s powering your home appliances?

For about 10 percent of electricity in the United States, it’s fuel from dismantled nuclear bombs, including Russian ones.

“It’s a great, easy source” of fuel, said Marina V. Alekseyenkova, an analyst at Renaissance Capital and an expert in the Russian nuclear industry that has profited from the arrangement since the end of the cold war.

But if more diluted weapons-grade uranium isn’t secured soon, the pipeline could run dry, with ramifications for consumers, as well as some American utilities and their Russian suppliers.

Already nervous about a supply gap, utilities operating America’s 104 nuclear reactors are paying as much attention to President Obama’s efforts to conclude a new arms treaty as the Nobel Peace Prize committee did.

In the last two decades, nuclear disarmament has become an integral part of the electricity industry, little known to most Americans.

Salvaged bomb material now generates about 10 percent of electricity in the United States — by comparison, hydropower generates about 6 percent and solar, biomass, wind and geothermal together account for 3 percent.

Utilities have been loath to publicize the Russian bomb supply line for fear of spooking consumers: the fuel from missiles that may have once been aimed at your home may now be lighting it.

But at times, recycled Soviet bomb cores have made up the majority of the American market for low-enriched uranium fuel. Today, former bomb material from Russia accounts for 45 percent of the fuel in American nuclear reactors, while another 5 percent comes from American bombs, according to the Nuclear Energy Institute, an industry trade association in Washington.

Treaties at the end of the cold war led to the decommissioning of thousands of warheads. Their energy-rich cores are converted into civilian reactor fuel.

In the United States, the agreements are portrayed as nonproliferation treaties — intended to prevent loose nukes in Russia.

In Russia, where the government argues that fissile materials are impenetrably secure already, the arms agreements are portrayed as a way to make it harder for the United States to reverse disarmament.

The program for dismantling and diluting the fuel cores of decommissioned Russian warheads — known informally as Megatons to Megawatts — is set to expire in 2013, just as the industry is trying to sell it forcefully as an alternative to coal-powered energy plants, which emit greenhouse gases.

Finding a substitute is a concern for utilities today because nuclear plants buy fuel three to five years in advance.

One potential new source is warheads that would become superfluous if the United States and Russia agree to new cuts under negotiations to renew the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty, which expires on Dec. 5.

Such negotiations revolve around the number of deployed weapons and delivery vehicles. There is no requirement in the treaty that bomb cores be destroyed. That is negotiated separately.

For the industry, that means that now, as in the past, there will be no direct correlation between the number of warheads decommissioned and the quantity of highly enriched uranium or plutonium, also used in weapons, that the two countries declare surplus.

(This summer, Mr. Obama and President Dmitri A. Medvedev of Russia agreed to a new limit on delivery vehicles of 500 to 1,100 and a limit on deployed warheads as low as 1,500. The United States now has about 2,200 nuclear warheads and the Russians 2,800.)

Mr. Medvedev has reaffirmed Russia’s commitment to a 2000 agreement to dispose of plutonium, and both countries plan to convert that into reactor fuel as well.

An American diplomat and an official with a federal nuclear agency in Washington have confirmed, separately, that the two countries are quietly negotiating another agreement to continue diluting Russia’s highly enriched uranium after the expiration of Megatons to Megawatts, using some or all of the material from warheads likely to be taken out of the arsenals.

The government officials were not authorized to publicly discuss these efforts.

This possible successor deal to Megatons to Megawatts is known in the industry as HEU-2, for a High Enriched Uranium-2, and companies are rooting for it, according to Jeff Combs, president and owner of Ux Consulting, a company tracking uranium fuel pricing.

“You can look at it like a couple of very large uranium mines,” he said of the fissile material that would result from the program.

American reactors would not shut down without a deal; utilities could turn to commercial imports, which would most likely be much more expensive.

Enriching raw uranium is more expensive than converting highly enriched uranium to fuel grade.

To make fuel for electricity-generating reactors, uranium is enriched to less than 5 percent of the isotope U-235. To make weapons, it is enriched to about 90 percent U-235.

The United States Enrichment Corporation, a private company spun off from the Department of Energy in the 1990s, is the treaty-designated agent on the Russian imports. It, in turn, sells the fuel to utilities at prevailing market prices, an arrangement that at times has angered the Russians.

Since Megatons to Megawatts has existed, American utilities operating nuclear power plants, like Pacific Gas & Electric or Constellation Energy, have benefited as the abundance of fuel that came onto the market drastically reduced overall prices and created savings that were ultimately passed along to consumers and shareholders.

Nuclear industry giants like Areva, the French company; the United States Enrichment Corporation and Nuclear Fuel Services, another American company; and Rosatom, the Russian state nuclear corporation, are deeply involved in recycling weapons material and will need new supplies to continue that side of their businesses.

In the United States, domestic weapons recycling programs are smaller in scale and would be no replacement for Megatons for Megawatts. The Nuclear Fuel Services, in Erwin, Tenn., in 2005 began diluting uranium from the 217 tons the government declared surplus; so far 125 tons have been processed. It is used at the Tennessee Valley Authority plant.

The American plutonium recycling program is also well under way at a factory being built at the Energy Department’s Savannah River site in South Carolina to dismantle warheads from the American arsenal; a type of plutonium fuel, called mixed-oxide fuel, will come on the market in 2017.

In total, the 34 tons to be recycled there are expected to generate enough electricity for a million American homes for 50 years.

This article has been revised to reflect the following correction:

Correction: November 11, 2009
A subheading on Tuesday with an article about the use of old nuclear bomb cores to produce electricity misstated the source of the bomb material used to generate power in the United States. It comes from bombs dismantled by both the United States and Russia — not from Russian bombs alone.

 

[Jiro]

I emailed my dad today about recent NK's aggressive provocation and this is what he said -

Yo, don't worry. It is calm and normal here in Korea. The North Korea always generates a tension when they try to gain a political advantage. This time they try to justify their possession of nuclear weapon that is a worldwide sanction. They try to justify their self-defense by the nuclear weapon against potential US threats. They are devil. They just do threat. But we are okay and well protected.

Dad

 

[Frisky Feline]

I emailed my dad today about recent NK's aggressive provocation and this is what he said -

do your dad usually say YO? because I always say YO too.

 

[CrazyPaul]

sounds like you prefer that we use it....

No, what I was saying is that we shouldn't make too many nukes to save taxpayers' money. Like you said, they will not be used.

but you know what's the best thing about having a nuke? nobody's gonna use it.

What a waste of money!

2,150 operational
<LI class=description>Of those, it is estimated that about 500 warheads are assigned to land-based missiles, 1,150 are assigned to nuclear submarines and 300 are ready to be deployed on aircraft. Also, as part of NATO's nuclear sharing program, an additional 200 B61 gravity bombs are deployed in five NATO countries: Belgium, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands and Turkey.
2,500 in storage (reserve)
3,000 retired, awaiting dismantlement

 

[Reba]

...the reason we had 2,600+ was because of Cold War. now that all superpowers are friend with each other....

Friends?

 

[JMH]

Friends?

Actually, we're just dating. :P

 

[diehardbiker]

This is what scares me, and that is exact what I am saying. If NK is idiot enough to press that red button, it is pretty much over less than 24 hours.

it only takes 1 nuke to start a nuclear holocaust anyway. still don't understand? for example - NK starts it first with a nuke. then USA retaliated with a nuke. then Iran cheapshot'ed with a nuke to Israel. then everybody starts nuking each other.

 

[diehardbiker]

You missed logic behind this, that is why you are so keen over gun control.

If you have nothing on you, and everyone else has guns. You got no defense on your own and if you decided to start doing something stupid, your gonna be dead less than a second for sure.

That applies if US don't have any, and USSR have plenty, then we will be wiped out pretty much less than 12 hours. So wasted taxpayers money? Well not really because millions of lives have been saved because of this.

No, what I was saying is that we shouldn't make too many nukes to save taxpayers' money. Like you said, they will not be used.



What a waste of money!