The End of the Nuclear Era? Not So Fast …

Published on Thursday, August 25, 2011 by CommonDreams.org

by Sandy LeonVest

The August 23, 2011 (5.9 magnitude) earthquake on the east coast prompted no less than 10 nuclear plants in four states to declare “unusual events,” according to the NRC. (The NRC defines an “unusual event” as a term used to denote that “something out of the ordinary” has happened.) The NRC reported that after the quake, the North Anna and Surry plants in Virginia; the Hope Creek, Oyster Creek and Salem plants in New Jersey; the Susquehanna, Three Mile Island, Peach Bottom and Limerick plants in Pennsylvania; and the Calvert Cliffs nuclear plant in Maryland all declared such “unusual events.”

The east coast temblor and the nuclear “events” that followed should remind us that, despite hopes that Fukushima would spell the end of nuclear power, the so-called “nuclear renaissance” is alive and well.

In the aftermath of the March 11 triple-reactor meltdown at Japan’s Fukushima Daiichi nuclear facility, stories and opinion polls trumpeting Japan’s “growing anti-nuclear sentiment” flourished in both the corporate-owned and alternative media. When Germany’s Angela Merkel announced that her country would reject nuclear power and begin shuttering its old plants, the headline spanned newspapers across the globe.

Less widely reported is that, even as Germany, Japan and a handful of other countries -- among them, Italy, Switzerland and some ASEAN member states -- are rejecting or at least reconsidering their commitments to nuclear power, many more (including the US) are still on the nuclear fast track.

Russia, India, Brazil, some Middle Eastern oil economies and a host of developing countries number among those still hot to go nuclear. And the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) reported recently that more than 60 new countries have expressed “strong interest” in nuclear power -- among them, Iran, which is very close to commissioning its first reactor. The IAEA further promised that global use of nuclear energy will continue to increase for decades -- despite the ongoing crisis at Fukushima.

Only this summer, the UK-based Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU), a decades-old economic research group, predicted “a massive worldwide growth in nuclear energy production” over the next decade. In a new study, the EIU found that the impact of the Fukushima disaster, now widely considered the worst industrial accident in history, “is expected to be minimal.”

According to the EIU, Germany’s decision to scrap eight nuclear power plants and place its remaining nine under review will be more than made up for by an expansion of nuclear production in other countries. The report, titled “The Future of Nuclear Energy,” suggests a 27 percent growth in output by 2020. The EIU notes that reactors planned for China, India and Russia will add five times the nuclear capacity that the German decision will remove from world nuclear output. Sixteen new reactors began construction in 2010 -- ten in China, with others in Russia, India and Brazil. Even Japan, the EIU reminds us, has resumed construction work at a new nuclear plant, after putting additional anti-earthquake measures in place. Indeed, by 2015 one new nuclear reactor is expected to be coming online every month somewhere in the world.

The online publication, “Nuclear Engineering International,” while more reserved in its nuclear projections than the IAEA or the EIU, pointed out in August that, “Beyond Iran, the Gulf States are the most likely hosts of future reactors in the Middle East. The six member states of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) - Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Qatar and Oman – have been studying possible nuclear programs for about five years now. Together they have total installed capacity of about 80 GW with a common grid, all fossil fuel based.”

Here in the US, the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported that the Obama administration intends to resume talks on “nuclear cooperation” with Saudi Arabia. WSJ reported in July that the administration has promised to send a team of State Department and Department of Energy officials to Riyadh this summer to discuss “plans for pursuing nuclear power” with senior Saudi officials.

Massive expansion amid pockets of reason

All of this is not to say that there are no ‘pockets of reason’ amid what seems an increasingly unreasonable (if not pathological) pursuit, or that the nuclear power industry will not ultimately self destruct. There is plenty of reason to believe that nuclear power -- at least as a primary source of electricity -- is on its way out.

Today, largely thanks to dedicated activists like Michael Mariotte at the Nuclear Information and Resource Service (www.nirs.org) and Solartopia author Harvey Wasserman (www.nukefree.org), a growing number of people across the globe are beginning to understand that, safety issues aside, the economics of nuclear power simply don’t add up. In Japan, a July 24 poll by the Kyodo news agency found that more than two-thirds of Japanese now support Prime Minister Naoto Kan’s call to do away with nuclear power. And, in the Northeast region of the US, the Vermont Yankee plant in Vermont, New York’s Indian Point, and the Millstone Nuclear Power Plant in Connecticut are all on the chopping block. In New Jersey, Exelon Corporation’s Oyster Creek nuclear plant is scheduled for shut down in 2019, and the state has begun to plan for the development of much needed alternative energy sources.

There’s little doubt that Fukushima has been a global call to sanity -- and that the technology is, as so many polls suggest, “losing favor” with growing numbers both here in the US and abroad. We are likely to see a host of nuclear plant closures in coming years. Yet, such developments have done little to deter a nuclear industry that is hell bent on proliferating its toxic product.

These safety issues were made all the more prescient by the spate of “nuclear incidents” occurring this summer -- both in the US and abroad.

In the US, besides the 10 “unusual events” declared after the August 23 earthquake on the east coast, there remain unanswered questions regarding the criticality of a host of other nuclear mishaps occurring this summer. Among them, those reported during the June floods at two of Nebraska’s nuclear facilities. (See www.solartimes.org.) And abroad, a July 3 explosion at France’s (EDF-owned) Tricastin nuclear power facility sent a dense cloud of black smoke into the air and over a nearby motorway on one of the busiest travel days of the year. The explosion occurred only weeks after the plant had been harshly criticized by the French nuclear safety authority, which demanded 32 new safety measures be immediately implemented.

In an industry notorious for its secrecy and deceptive marketing practices, these constitute only a small fraction of (reported) problems occurring at nuclear power plants in recent months.

Damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead

A July 28 Reuters article is illustrative of current attitudes in the industry.

Cheerfully headlined, “Areva still upbeat on nuclear post-Fukushima,” an article by Reuters reporter Marie Maitre observes: “Areva’s new chief executive said the Fukushima disaster was creating new business opportunities for nuclear service providers as the industry’s focus moves to safety upgrades and sometimes plant dismantling.”

The executive told Maitre that although the impact of the Japanese catastrophe remained “difficult to assess in terms of lost business,” Areva (the world’s largest builder of nuclear reactors) was still convinced that “most countries would forge ahead with their atomic power plans.” He said that safety tests planned around the world “should delay the construction of reactors,” but that the tests would “also be sources of opportunities on the existing facilities.”

More concerning still, the expansion of nuclear power is an international phenomenon -- so the impact of any accident would be global. Yet there are still no internationally agreed and enforceable safety standards for the industry. Instead, as the Fukushima disaster has highlighted, national governments and the nuclear industry collaborate in a secretive manner and connive to cover up safety issues.

The UK Guardian recently released emails detailing the collusion between the UK government and the nuclear industry in the aftermath of the Fukushima disaster. Two days after the earthquake, British government officials emailed EDF, Areva, Westinghouse and the Nuclear Industry Association to warn that the “Fukushima situation” could damage public confidence in nuclear power. It was not as bad as the television pictures suggested, they said. And (apparently attempting to hedge their nuclear bets), the officials invited industry executives to “send their comments,” so they could be included in government statements: “We need to all be working from the same material to get the message through to the media and the public,” one email declared. Yet another neatly summed up the UK government’s nuclear attitude. The email stated: “Anti-nuclear people across Europe have wasted no time blurring this all into Chernobyl and the works. We need to quash any stories trying to compare this to Chernobyl.”

Sandy LeonVest is the editor and publisher of SolarTimes, an independent quarterly energy newspaper with a progressive slant. SolarTimes is available online at www.solartimes.org, and distributed in hardcopy throughout the Bay Area and beyond. Sandy LeonVest's work has been published locally, as well as internationally, and includes 15 years in the news department at KPFA Radio in Berkeley, CA.

Rhino Beetle Infestation Still Spreading on Guam

THURSDAY, 25 AUGUST 2011 02:36 BY ZITA Y. TAITANO | VARIETY NEWS STAFF

THE infamous Coconut Rhinoceros Beetle is spreading further and it’s not just from coconut tree to coconut tree.

Roland Quitugua, operations chief for the Guam Coconut Rhinoceros Beetle Eradication Program, recently informed village leaders that the species is now travelling via illegal green waste dumpsites. Zita Y. Taitano / Variety

During a recent special meeting with the Mayors’ Council, Roland Quitugua, operations chief for the Guam Coconut Rhinoceros Beetle Eradication Program, informed village leaders that the species is now travelling via illegal green waste dumpsites.

Green waste refers to plants, branches and leaves piled up and not properly disposed of.

“It is currently moving and how it’s moving is from green waste pile to pile,” he said.

Quitugua recently met with Dededo Mayor Melissa Savares about the problem, especially since Dededo is heavily infested with the beetle in areas like Swamp Road and the transfer station.

He also said that since people are being charged for the green waste because of the tipping fee, they are just dumping along the side of the road. Thus, the people who end up picking them up are the mayor’s road crews.

“As long as we have a green waste problem on this island, we have a losing battle,” he stressed.

The latest breeding site discovered was at Cross Island Road near Santa Rita on Bishop Apuron Loop.

“Asan, Piti, Nimitz Hill ... those areas are hot right now and the infestation is heading down towards Polaris Point where someone had a green waste site,” he said.

Quitugua pleaded with the mayors to inform their constituents about the worsening situation.

“As much as I hate to say it, burning is the option right now; and if you have compost piles, the beetles will breed in as shallow as 5 inches,” he said.

The beetles have reportedly started breeding in ornamental palm trees found on the island.

The eradication program has also obtained a permit to bring in a bio-controlled fungus to bring the infestation down.

Still, Quitugua said funding is an issue for the program. They are $200,000 short for current operations for the next fiscal year, but are actively seeking local and federal sources to augment costs.

The Pain in Spain

Published on Sunday, August 21, 2011 by Foreign Policy in Focus

By V. Noah Gimbel from Commondreams.org

As the sun rose on August 2, Spanish authorities destroyed the tent-village that had come to symbolize what some participants have called the Spanish Revolution. The ruling Socialist Party, via the Ministry of the Interior and in conjunction with the right-wing Popular Party that controls the local government, ordered Madrid's Puerta del Sol cleared of all remnants of the 15-M (May 15) movement as its participants, the indignados (the outraged) watched helplessly. Police boots, chainsaws, and fire hoses erased months of makeshift architecture, street art, and community – once inhabited by some 28,000 campers – from the Spanish capital’s central square.Protest in Spain; photo by Mandeep Flora via Flickr

The conglomeration of organizations that make up the 15-M movement vowed to march on the square at 7:30 that evening to protest what they called an illegal eviction. The government responded with nothing short of a call to arms, halting all metro and commuter rail access to the station at Puerta del Sol. Meanwhile, dozens of national police vans turned the square into a parking lot, and helmeted policemen set up barricades at every entrance to the square. Helicopters flew overhead as the combined forces of municipal police in riot gear and national police – hands on pistols – reinforced the barricades and patrolled the surrounding areas on foot.

Nevertheless, a fairly large showing gathered at the barricades that evening, gaining momentum as their non-violent outrage met with no response from the police. “We’ll stay until there are no more people from 15-M,” said one officer. That was around 8:30 when crowds were still rather light.

Around midnight, the much larger crowd decided to march around central Madrid to spread word of what had happened. When they returned to the barricades, their numbers had grown immensely, and they determined to hold an assembly in the nearby Plaza Mayor around 1 am. Three hours later, they had agreed to hold another assembly the next day in a square just off the Puerta del Sol to collectively determine the next move.

Why They Resist

The Spanish uprising was born largely online in the wake of the Arab Spring, when hundreds of small-scale grassroots groups joined together to form Democracia Real YA – Real Democracy Now – to unify their efforts in demanding social change. Taking their slogans from Stéphane Hessel’s internationally famous manifesto Indignez-Vous (translated Time for Outrage in English, Indignaos in Spanish), the group helped to move massive demonstrationson May 15 as public outrage against the Spanish government austerity measures and bank bailouts reached the boiling point.

Some participants, inspired by the images and stories emanating from Cairo’s Tahrir Square months before, set up tents in Madrid’s Puerta del Sol – home of the largest May 15 protest – and in other city squares around the country.

The simplest explanation for the surge of protests in Spain that followed is the economic crisis. At 21percent, the Spanish unemployment rate is the highest in Europe, and the highest in the country’s history. For people under 25 years old, the 46 percent rate is double the European average, as reported by Eurostat. Meanwhile, pensioners have seen their benefits cut, and the wages of even university-educated Spaniards are scarcely enough to make ends meet. The political system has progressively come to favor the two most powerful parties, who have in their turn come to favor the most powerful financial interests in the country.

The indignados have not simply been protesting. Through both physical and online organizing, the supporters of the 15-M movement have saved some 70 households from eviction and home repossession by blocking the entrance of bank agents. It is true that such blockages only delay the seizure of property for about a month without changing the structure that leaves victims of the housing crisis so vulnerable. Under Spain’s draconian repossession laws, banks are often only obliged to subtract 50 percent of the repossessed home’s market value from the total debt, and wage garnishing leaves those left homeless hungry as well – that is, if they have a job in the first place.

On July 5, a group of indignados in the working-class neighborhood of Lavapiés stopped the police from arresting an immigrant in a raid on the area of the city with the highest concentration of immigrants. Those who came to Spain from Africa, Asia, Latin America, and Eastern Europe during the boom years prior to the crisis have been hit the hardest by the country’s financial woes and, without citizenship, are largely devoid of political rights. Between Sol and Plaza Mayor, as demonstrations rage, many homeless immigrants sleep in the streets and alleys while others sell cold beers and sodas to the protestors.

Stopping one raid, like stopping one foreclosure, doesn’t' address the structural powerlessness of migrant laborers, the dangerously violent anti-immigrant sentiment used by populist right-wingers to rally poor Spaniards to their parties, or the police repressionunleashed by the nominally socialist government against immigrant communities. Nevertheless, the willingness to turn collective indignation into direct action is a very important starting point if this movement is to lead to any real change in the coming months.

The current government has embraced change, but not the kind its main constituencies had anticipated. The socialist government has privatized state industries – most famously theairport authority – and centralized them in the hands of a tiny ultra-powerful elite. The party that came to power on an anti-war platform has augmented its participation in Afghanistan and participated in the NATO bombing of Libya. And Wikileaks has revealed Spanish leaders as willing servants of the United States, hindering, at Washington’s command, investigations into the illegal rendition, torture, and even murder of Spanish citizens by the U.S. military-intelligence apparatus. Meanwhile, as the November 20 general elections loom ahead, the opposition simply promises only to ramp up the corporate agenda, and to do so in a more straightforward manner than the socialists.

Always the most vocal organization in the 15-M movement, Democracia Real Ya has issued a somewhat vague set of demands focused on rooting out political corruption and unemployment, fixing the housing crisis, curbing the excesses of financial institutions, restoring civil liberties against censorship, improving public services, and curbing military spending. But the chants and the signs of the crowds suggest that these demands, and their inherent reliance on the government for implementation, fall short of what people in the streets truly desire.

What is preventing the movement’s mouthpieces from voicing the people’s true grievances seems to be a reluctance to radicalize. Democracia Real Ya spokesman Carlos Paredes recently said on behalf of the group, “neither have we tried to establish a dialogue with the government, nor will we. They have our proposals. We are not a political party, nor do we have negotiating capacity.”

Eviction Before Benediction

The government’s sudden eviction notice on August 2 in part revealed the anxiety over the Pope’s visit to Madrid on August 16 for the Catholic World Youth Day, which brought over a million young people to the city. But most people with whom I’ve spoken think the government, rather than ridding the streets of popular resistance, is simply provoking more of it.

This dynamic was on display when thousands of protestors came to the still-erected barricades on August 3 and 4. On multiple occasions, seated assemblies have taken place in high-traffic circles in the center of the city, with particularly dramatic images emanating from the iconic Gran Via, where hundreds of protestors blocked traffic in the middle of Madrid’s Broadway.

Meanwhile, the tactics of the police have gotten increasingly aggressive since the square’s closure. Agents at the barricades have made lists of the names and ID numbers of those gathered in front, and patrolmen have even evacuated nearby establishments patronized by people appearing to belong to 15-M. Photographers have been forced to give press credentials and private cameras have been confiscated and cleared of photos. Police even closed other squares where meetings (and camping) have taken place.

A critical moment came on August 4, after access had scarcely opened to any parts of the Puerta del Sol. As night fell, all access to the square was closed and over 1,000 protestors were forced to move from one part of the city to another. Turned away from Sol, they filled the Plaza de Cibeles outside City Hall where the Pope’s massive stage loomed. After an assembly there – traffic stopped on all sides – several went to protest outside of the Ministry of Interior where the police aggressively dispersed the crowd. The authorities raised the stakes by flying four helicopters over the city. But the crowds showed no signs of fatigue.

And their resilience appears to have defeated the government’s scare tactics. On August 5, Puerta del Sol finally re-opened with a diminished police presence, making way for massive celebratory demonstrations that lasted well into the early-morning hours. Although police were ordered to halt any attempts to set up tents on the square, 15-20 members of 15-M decided to sleep there anyway and were left unmolested. Over the weekend, numerous assemblies were held to discuss various issues from the economy to feminism, culminating in a general assembly on Sunday.

After Three Months, What’s Next?

After the massive presence in Sol on August 5, the police and sanitation workers once again rid Sol of all signs of 15-M and have stifled efforts at re-establishing an information center in the square. For the foreseeable future, it appears this game of cat-and-mouse, with tension on the rise, will continue. The police arrested eight people and subsequently released them. The general assembly on Sunday was fairly well attended, but produced few conclusions. Indeed, the momentum gained by 15-M when it was made homeless seems in danger of fizzling out as those in power continue to ignore its core demands.

When the right and left – symbolized by the Popular Party and the Socialist Party – have proven utterly inept at popular representation, there is a rational tendency amongst the disaffected to disassociate entirely from politics.

According to one organizer with ties to the United Left coalition party, there are a number of talented young deputies working to tie the grievances of 15-M into the party’s agenda. Although this may not translate into electoral success in the upcoming elections on November 20, the movement may yet acquire a voice within the parliament in the near term.

But without an institutional voice, the backers of 15-M continue to project their voices in the streets. Steadfastly committed to nonviolence, their strikes have been tactical and symbolic. Shutting down high-traffic streets, continuing to challenge the police state and creating a visual presence for the global audience that will attend the papal visit will all likely remain part of the indignados’ arsenal.

Some critics of the movement see the demonstrators as shiftless, participating simply in the spirit of street celebration so well practiced in this country. Desperate times, more than anything, call for strategic thinking. And 15-M needs to keep moving forward to prove itself a real driver of social change.

Noah Gimbel is an intern with Foreign Policy In Focus. He is currently working on a book on universities and empire and can be reached at ngimbel@ips-dc.org

Marshal Islanders Worried About Hypersonic Jet Debris

August 16, 2011 by kyle from dmzhawaii.org

Last week, the U.S. military “lost” one of its Falcon Hypersonic Technology Vehicles over the Pacific Ocean. Radio Australia featured an interview with Giff Johnson, journalist in the Marshall Islands about the increased level of missile activity over the Pacific, the secrecy and threat of aborted launches to inhabited islands, and the contamination risk of depleted uranium and other toxins in the missiles. Here is a link to the audio file of the interview. Below is the transcript of the interview:

SOURCE: http://www.radioaustralia.net.au/pacbeat/stories/201108/s3295273.htm

Marshall Islanders worried about hypersonic jet debris

Updated August 17, 2011 09:17:31

We’ve all heard it – “faster than a speeding bullett” – well that concept has now gone beyond superman and comic book/tv fiction to reality.

The US has experimented with an aircraft – Falcon Hypersonic Technology Vehicle 2 – at its top speed it could travel the 17,000 kilometres between London and Sydney in about 49 minutes. Last week the glider went out of control and came down somewhere in the vicinity of Marshall Islands where a Minuteman missile warhead blew it up on re-entry over Marshall Islands. It raises many safety issues for Marshall Islands.

Presenter: Geraldine Coutts
Speaker: Giff Johnson, Marshall Islands correspondent

JOHNSON: People in the Marshall Islands know very little other than what is publicly released by the Defence Department on these aborted tests and interestingly on the Minuteman missile re-entry vehicle. It’s a dummy warhead that they target on Kwajalein Atoll on the Marshall Islands. It said that it was blown up northeast of Kwajalein Atoll. Well the interesting thing if you look at a map northeast of Kwajalein Atoll, there’s a bunch of inhabited islands, so we haven’t heard anything more the defence department, people are asking questions, but it’s a concern as people start to hear about more of these missions being aborted near the Marshall Islands.

COUTTS: Was it actually launched from Kwajalein or Johnson?

JOHNSON: No, these shots are launched from Vandenberg air force base, in California and they’re targeted on Kwajalein, in the Marshall Islands and Kwajalein is a major missile testing facility. These are not missile tests that involve intercepts. The Minuteman was just a test of the Minuteman re-entry vehicle to see if it was working and the glider, of course, is this hypersonic glider is a new weapon system that they’re developing. So they’re targeted out here and sometimes there are launches from Kwajalein trying to intercept incoming missiles.

COUTTS: Alright. Well the safety issues, there are a number of them. How do you see that?

JOHNSON: Well, we need to get more information from these US defence department agencies and if they’re acknowledging that re-entry vehicles are being destroyed within minutes of splashdown in the Marshall Islands and in the vicinity of inhabited islands. It doesn’t do much for peoples confidence to have no information about what’s going on and there’s very little released publicly by the air force or in this case, the Hypersonic glider from Darpa, the defence department research agency. So yeah, the Kwajalein elected senators in the parliament here are raising concern about what islands are in the hazard zone and obviously anything that’s targeted on Kwajalein is coming across inhabited islands and, of course, Kwajalein is inhabited too, not only by Marshall Islanders, but by Americans and so there’s just a lot of questions about where this debris is going. And then with the glider, it stopped communicating with home-base, so as far as we know, nobody knows where it went.

COUTTS: Now, someone, even though it’s moving so fast, you’re not likely to see it, but someone along the coastline is going to see something. So no one’s picked up a piece of debris from it?

JOHNSON: Not as far as I know, but there are people who live on very remote islands with very little technology for communicating and so it’s possible that people could see something and not even know that there was a test happening and we’ve got islands that don’t have telephones, don’t have internet, and don’t even have a radio communication. So people could see something and just not know what it is.

COUTTS: So the whole thing is treated by the military with utmost secrecy, so the civilian contingency get no information whatsoever?

JOHNSON: Well, the defence department releases a statement before and after each test and they acknowledge when it’s successful or when it’s been aborted and they give a few details. But the details in terms of the population in the Marshall Islands, where the whole point of why these missiles are targeted out here is two fold. One is it’s four thousand miles, so it gives them a good flight test from California for a long range missile re-entry vehicle, but also face it, there aren’t very many people out here and the Americans wouldn’t feel too happy if these missiles were targeted on California, so that’s part of the reason they’re doing it, just like the Bikini tests in the 40s and the 50s. There just weren’t very many people out here and the problem though the 60,000 or 50,000 people who are here would probably like to get a little more information about where these bits and pieces are being blown up.

COUTTS: How often would tests like this be conducted?

JOHNSON: There’s been quite a bit of activity at Kwajalein in the last few months. They’ve already had a couple of missile test missions and then this hypersonic glider and in a brief conversation I had with the missile range commander a couple of weeks ago. He said this upcoming year is going to be quite busy. So I think normally, maybe a test every quarter something like that, may be three or four a year. But it seems like they’ve been more this year and the pace has been stepped up at Kwajalein.

COUTTS: Did the commander actually explain to you why it will be busy next year?

JOHNSON: I don’t have details on that, but I do know that what’s been going on with the missile range is that after installation of an underwater fibre optic cable to Kwajalein, the army has been able to remote much of its command and control work on the missile testing to Huntsville, Alabama, and so it’s a lot less expensive for people to run tests missions, because they don’t have to send everybody out to Kwajalein now. They can just sit in the control room in the US and have real time data on all the missile tests and this is a big selling point for getting customers to use the ranges that the cost is reduced. So presumably that has something to do with it.

COUTTS: Well, with testing like the Falcon Hypersonic technology vehicle to the glider that’s capable of moving 17,000 kilometres in about 49 minutes and all the other tests that you’re talking about, presumably a lot of it are nuclear powered. Is there any sort of discussion about what’s happening with the environment, are you noticing the marine environment at all, having any impact on it?

JOHNSON: These are not nuclear powered, but the re-entry vehicles contain what’s known as depleted uranium in order to make them simulate a real nuclear warhead for the purpose of missile defence and radar telemetry discrimination, because the whole issue of missile defence is can they pick a real warhead out of all the junk that an enemy would presumably throw up to confuse the radar. So yes, depleted uranium is in the re-entry vehicles, they land, they hit, explode into the lagoon or into the ocean. I mean there must be some contamination, but there’s never that I’m aware of been any published studies about contamination, although I know that Kwajalein senators have raised the environmental issue from time to time about the depleted uranium and what hazard it causes, but as far as I know, the army has always maintained that there’s no threat from it.