Financial problems at Toshiba and its nuclear subsidiary, Westinghouse continue to roil the nuclear industry. Westinghouse has just filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. Toshiba and Westinghouse say that only U.S. operations of Westinghouse will be affected by the bankruptcy filing.
Last year more than one hundred and thirteen members of the United Nations voted for a General Assembly resolution to begin talks in March of this year about a global ban on all nuclear weapons.
The U.S. Air Force Northrup B-2 Spirit or Stealth Bomber is a heavy penetration strategic bomber. It was introduced into service by the Air Force in 1997.
The MIT Nuclear Reactor Laboratory has an idea about how to jump-start the development of a new generation of nuclear reactors. They want to "piggyback" a new research reactor on their existing infrastructure. The normal process for the creation of a new reactor design requires that a license be obtained from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and that a standalone experimental prototype be built. This may require as much as a decade and costs hundreds of millions of dollars.
The Soviet Union had a terrible record for nuclear pollution and public transparency. The Kyshtym disaster at Mayak in the nuclear weapons facility in 1957 was hushed up for decades. The disaster at Chernobyl in Ukraine in 1986 was not publicly admitted until ten years after the accident.
Europe is worried about the threat of Russian aggression. The seizure of the Crimea a few years ago by Russia and the continued fomenting of rebellion in eastern Ukraine are making other countries that border Russia nervous. Russia has been holding major military exercises on its Western border and bragging about how quickly they could take the Baltic states if they wanted to.
