I have blogged about Pakistan and India before in the context of their hostilities and the danger that they might engage in an exchange of nuclear warheads. They have around a hundred warheads each. It has been estimated that the detonation of only one hundred warheads might be sufficient to trigger a nuclear winter that would end human civilization. They have gone to war three times since India and Pakistan were created in 1949.
My Geiger counter is in the shop for maintenance.
Time for another update on the evolving situation at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant near Carlsbad, New Mexico. Back in February, something happened in this transuranic geological repository in a salt deposit. Plutonium and americium were detected outside of the plant. When it became possible to examine the big underground room where drums of waste from U.S. nuclear weapons production, it was found that a drum had ruptured and allowed its contents to escape.
My Geiger counter is in the shop for maintenance.
The security of the U.S. nuclear stockpile and classified nuclear research sites in the United States is overseen by the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA). Now a new report by the General Accounting Office accuses the NNSA of increasing risks and reducing security in the past few years to reduce overhead costs.
My Geiger counter is in the shop for maintenance.
Nuclear waste produced by nuclear power plants is a global problem. The United States tried to create a permanent geological repository at Yucca Mountain in Nevada but that project was cancelled in 2009. The best current estimate is that there will not be a permanent repository in the U.S. until 2050 at the earliest. There have been reports of nuclear waste being illegally transported from European countries to places like Russia and Somalia for disposal.
