The World’s Most Dangerous Nuclear Weapon Just Rolled Off the Assembly Line

 

With the creation of a new “mini-nuke” warhead, the US is making nuclear war all the more probable…

Last month, the National Nuclear Security Administration (formerly the Atomic Energy Commission) announced that the first of a new generation of strategic nuclear weapons had rolled off the assembly line at its Pantex nuclear weapons plant in the panhandle of Texas. That warhead, the W76-2, is designed to be fitted to a submarine-launched Trident missile, a weapon with a range of more than 7,500 miles. By September, an undisclosed number of warheads will be delivered to the Navy for deployment.

What A U.S. Electric Grid Attack Looks Like

 

If the nation lost electricity, it would cause an instant and lethal paralysis that would go beyond inconvenience of the kind parts of New England have just experienced—and which left me charging my cell phone in my car.

Nonetheless, limited and scattered blackouts of the kind I have been caught in are a reminder of what alarmists (though unsettling, they’re not always wrong) have been warning. If there is no electricity, there is no light, no water, no sewage, no gas and diesel, no heating and cooling—even gas and oil systems rely on electric pumps and fans. If such a blackout were sustained, slow death through starvation, or fast death through disease and armed gangs ravaging the cities and towns for food, would be the result.

China speeds ahead of U.S. as quantum race escalates, worrying scientists

In this photo released by China’s Xinhua News Agency, a rocket carrying the world’s first quantum satellite lifts off from northwestern China’s Gansu Province, on Aug. 16, 2016. China’s creation of a quantum satellite system pushes forward its ability to send communications that are impenetrable by hackers. Jin Liwang AP

 

WASHINGTON U.S. and other Western scientists voice awe, and even alarm, at China’s quickening advances and spending on quantum communications and computing, revolutionary technologies that could give a huge military and commercial advantage to the nation that conquers them.

The concerns echo — although to a lesser degree — the shock in the West six decades ago when the Soviets launched the Sputnik satellite, sparking a space race.

In quick succession, China in recent months has utilized a quantum satellite to transmit ultra-secure data, inaugurated a 1,243-mile quantum link between Shanghai and Beijing, and announced a $10 billion quantum computing center.

Is the end of the world nigh? Atomic scientists set to make ‘major announcement’ about Doomsday Clock

• Symbolic clock was established by Manhattan Project scientists in 1947
• It’s designed to show how close civilisation is to facing global catastrophe
• Scientists track threats by monitoring nuclear weapons and climate change
• The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists (BAS) will host a live international news conference to make a ‘major announcement’ on Thursday
• Expected to reveal the board’s decision regarding the clock’s minute hand
• Last time, Doomsday Clock minute hand moved was in January 2012, when it was pushed ahead one minute from six to five minutes before midnight
• Nuclear modernisation, climate change reports and terrorism could feature

…

The conference will begin at 4pm GMT (11am EST) on 22 January 2015.

Britain’s struggles in nuclear race

The Trident report that is about to be unveiled is just the latest twist in what has been a long saga of Britain’s efforts to become and remain a member of the exclusive nuclear weapons club.

For much of the Cold War, the aim of successive British governments was to have a capability that mirrored in quality, if not in size, the arsenals of the superpowers.

The first stumbling block was the shock US decision to halt nuclear co-operation with Britain at the end of World War II. From being partners in the fabled Manhattan Project, Britain was left initially largely to its own (nuclear) devices.

Is India About to Alter the World’s Energy Future?

Should India successfully pull this off, more power to them.

Since 1951, the Indian government has somehow managed to fail in every single attempt to reach its annual target of increasing the nation’s electricity production capacity. But while the nation continues to struggle with crippling blackouts and power shortages till today, an energy plan, conceived during the 1950s, may fundamentally alter the nation’s, and quite possibly the world’s, energy future.

Thorium, like its Norse god and Marvel superhero namesake, is expected to change the world.

…

Thorium-Fuelled Dreams

Thorium is a naturally occurring radioactive chemical element that is named after the Norse god of thunder, Thor. Discovered in 1828 by Swedish chemist Jons Jakob Berzelius, the 90th element on the periodic table has been described by Forbes as possibly “the biggest energy breakthrough since fire.”

According to Greentech Media, Thorium the potential to replace uranium as a ultra-cheap and ultra-safe nuclear energy source. Not only is the metal approximately three times as abundant as uranium in the earth’s crust, but it also contains up to 200 times the energy density.

“So why on earth are we using uranium?” asked Marin Katusa of Forbes. “As you may recall, research into the mechanization of nuclear reactions was initially driven not by the desire to make energy, but by the desire to make bombs.”

“The $2 billion Manhattan Project that produced the atomic bomb sparked a worldwide surge in nuclear research, most of it funded by governments embroiled in the Cold War. And here we come to it: Thorium reactors do not produce plutonium, which is what you need to make a nuke.”

After decades of relative obscurity however, Thorium is finally attracting increasing interest as an energy source from around the world. Apart from India, China has also announced its intentions to develop a thorium nuclear reactor, while Canada, Germany, Netherlands, the United Kingdom and the United States have all experimented with using thorium as a substitute nuclear fuel in existing nuclear reactors.

India’s thorium plans though are possibly the most well known and most promising of them all.

Full article: Is India About to Alter the World’s Energy Future? (Oil Price)