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COMMENT: An important article appeared in Foreign Policy, highlighting Department of Energy rulings which will make access to radiological materials easier. Now headed by Rick Perry–who advocated abolishing the Department he now leads–the agency has facilitated the potential use of radiological material by terrorists, Nazi/White Supremacists, in particular.
” . . . . In June, the department decided to reclassify high-level nuclear weapons waste to a lower category. . . . According to the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), the reclassification would allow the Energy Department to abandon storage tanks of more than 100 million gallons of some of the ‘most toxic and radioactive waste in the world’ across three states at low ground levels. The byproduct of the production of nuclear weapons is a dangerous cocktail of IAEA Category 1 radiological materials, including strontium-90, americium-241, and plutonium-238. ‘The Trump administration is attempting to alter five decades of national consensus on handling the most toxic waste in the world,’ said Geoffrey Fettus, a senior attorney for the NRDC. . . .”
Important in that context, is the presence of White Supremacist Matthew Gebert in the State Department’s Bureau of Energy Resources, charged with promoting energy security:
” . . . . Meanwhile, on Aug. 9, the U.S. State Department confirmed that Matthew Gebert, a foreign affairs officer assigned to the Bureau of Energy Resources, was linked to a white nationalist organization. One of the main goals of the Bureau of Energy Resources is promoting energy security. In 2018, Gebert allegedly told a podcast, ‘[Whites] need a country of our own with nukes, and we will retake this thing lickety split.’ . . . .”
We also note that the Steam online gaming site–home to Nazi/White Supremacist messaging and 173 sites promoting school shootings–has gaming material involving “Dirty Bombs.” Perhaps we will hear more from that direction.
. . . . An RDD [radiological dispersal device] does not have to be a bomb; it could be a radiological material in a crop duster or any other tool that can disperse the material. Positioned correctly, even wind itself could disperse a radiological material like cesium-137, which is a powder in its most common form. . . .
. . . . The country’s nuclear and radiological security falls under the auspices of the Energy Department, which is currently run by former Texas Gov. Rick Perry. The appointment of Perry as energy secretary has caused concern among experts as Perry previously called for the dissolution of the IAEA, which monitors nuclear stockpiles.
Perry also said he would get rid of the department during his 2012 presidential campaign and was unaware that one of the Energy Department’s main responsibilities was nuclear and radiological security, which comprises nearly two-thirds of its annual $30 billion budget.
In July, the secretary found himself in hot water after it was discovered that for six years radioactive shipments from Tennessee to Nevada were mislabeled and shipped not in compliance with safety regulations. This prompted Nevada Rep. Steven Horsford to call for Perry’s resignation. This came six months after the Energy Department disclosed that it secretly shipped weapons-grade plutonium from South Carolina to Nevada. The governor of Nevada took the department to court on the grounds that it disregarded the dangers of moving the plutonium to an area that is subject to flash floods and earthquakes. In the words of Rep. Dina Titus of Nevada, “The level of incompetence at the Department of Energy is only matched by its dishonesty.”
This is the third time this year that the Energy Department has drawn outrage for mishandling nuclear waste. In June, the department decided to reclassify high-level nuclear weapons waste to a lower category. Paul Dabbar, the undersecretary for science, said the decision was made to allow for faster cleanup of contaminated areas and to cut back costs.
According to the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), the reclassification would allow the Energy Department to abandon storage tanks of more than 100 million gallons of some of the “most toxic and radioactive waste in the world” across three states at low ground levels. The byproduct of the production of nuclear weapons is a dangerous cocktail of IAEA Category 1 radiological materials, including strontium-90, americium-241, and plutonium-238. “The Trump administration is attempting to alter five decades of national consensus on handling the most toxic waste in the world,” said Geoffrey Fettus, a senior attorney for the NRDC.
“This change by the DOE is very concerning to me,” said Ferenc Dalnoki-Veress, a scientist-in-residence and adjunct professor at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies. “It misses the point about how dangerous these materials are. It is not just because of radioactivity that these materials are dangerous but also because they are chemically toxic themselves. … There has been a strong interest in watering down some of the regulations [at the department], which is a serious concern.” . . . .
. . . . Meanwhile, on Aug. 9, the U.S. State Department confirmed that Matthew Gebert, a foreign affairs officer assigned to the Bureau of Energy Resources, was linked to a white nationalist organization. One of the main goals of the Bureau of Energy Resources is promoting energy security. In 2018, Gebert allegedly told a podcast, “[Whites] need a country of our own with nukes, and we will retake this thing lickety split.” . . . .
. . . . “It is very difficult for any security system to protect against knowledgeable insiders,” said Miles Pomper, a senior fellow at the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies and co-author of the paper “Promoting Alternatives to High-Risk Radiological Sources.” “Think about the pilots who intentionally choose to crash their planes with passengers aboard. Given that radiological sources are employed in places such as universities and hospitals, whose top priorities aren’t security but accessibility, this is a particular risk for these materials.”
Washington, D.C., is centralized within 68 square miles. The financial district of lower Manhattan is within half a mile. A small vial of a radiological material like cesium-137 could take out the New York Stock Exchange. . . .
This is the horrendous level of low intelligence, self-awareness of leaders this nation has allowed to govern for many years. In a democracy you do get the government you deserved and with the wolves as well.
Rick Perry, The Man In Charge Of American Nuclear Weapons, Fell For An Instagram Hoax
“I’d like to introduce you to a Nigerian prince,” read one comment from an Instagram user mocking the energy secretary for being gullible.
David Mack
BuzzFeed News Reporter
Updated on August 21, 2019, at 11:32 a.m. ET
Posted on August 21, 2019, at 8:09 a.m. ET
https://www.buzzfeednews.com/amphtml/davidmack/rick-perry-instagram-hoax-meme
This article reveals that Nuclear Regulatory Commission, the federal agency responsible for ensuring the safety and security of the nation’s fleet of commercial nuclear reactors, has responded to financial interests from the corporations it is supposed to regulate and after October 2018, cut in half the number of force-on-force exercises conducted at each plant to prepare for a terrorist assault style attack and in early 2019 it announced it would overhaul how the exercises are evaluated to ensure that no plant would ever receive more than the mildest rebuke from regulators – even when the simulated commando raid produced results that would make a large portion of the U.S. uninhabitable.
http://www.homelandsecuritynewswire.com/dr20190930-a-meltdown-in-nuclear-security
A Meltdown in Nuclear Security
Published 30 September 2019
A commando raid on a nuclear power plant seems the stuff of Hollywood. So why are nuclear security experts so worried? It ranks among the worst-case scenarios for a nuclear power plant: an all-out assault or stealth infiltration by well-trained, heavily armed attackers bent on triggering a nuclear blast, sparking a nuclear meltdown or stealing radioactive material. Under pressure from a cash-strapped nuclear energy industry increasingly eager to slash costs, the commission in a little-noticed vote in October 2018 halved the number of force-on-force exercises conducted at each plant every cycle. Four months later, it announced it would overhaul how the exercises are evaluated to ensure that no plant would ever receive more than the mildest rebuke from regulators – even when the commandos set off a simulated nuclear disaster that, if real, would render vast swaths of the U.S. uninhabitable. Nuclear security experts, consultants, law enforcement veterans and former NRCcommissioners are nothing short of alarmed. “You can’t afford to be wrong once,” says one expert.’
It ranks among the worst-case scenarios for a nuclear power plant: an all-out assault or stealth infiltration by well-trained, heavily armed attackers bent on triggering a nuclear blast, sparking a nuclear meltdown or stealing radioactive material.
Alan Neuhauser writes in U.S. News that for nearly two decades, the nation’s nuclear power plants have been required by federal law to prepare for such a nightmare: At every commercial nuclear plant, every three years, security guards take on a simulated attack by hired commandos in so-called “force-on-force” drills. And every year, at least one U.S. nuclear plant flunks the simulation, the “attackers” damaging a reactor core and potentially triggering a fake Chernobyl – a failure rate of 5 percent.
“In spite of that track record, public documents and testimony show that the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, the federal agency responsible for ensuring the safety and security of the nation’s fleet of commercial nuclear reactors, is now steadily rolling back the standards meant to prevent the doomsday scenario the drills are designed to simulate,” Neuhauser writes, adding:
Under pressure from a cash-strapped nuclear energy industry increasingly eager to slash costs, the commission in a little-noticed vote in October 2018 halved the number of force-on-force exercises conducted at each plant every cycle. Four months later, it announced it would overhaul how the exercises are evaluated to ensure that no plant would ever receive more than the mildest rebuke from regulators – even when the commandos set off a simulated nuclear disaster that, if real, would render vast swaths of the U.S. uninhabitable.
Later this year, the NRC is expected to greenlight a proposal that will allow nuclear plants – which currently must be able to fend off an attack alone – to instead begin depending on local and state law enforcement, whose training, equipment and response times may leave them ill-prepared to respond to a military-grade assault.
Neuhauser writes:
The moves have inflamed open dissent within the commission, which has been riven in recent years by internecine conflict between Republican and Democratic commissioners.
Nuclear security experts, consultants, law enforcement veterans and former NRC commissioners – several of whom spoke with U.S. News on condition of anonymity in order to address the issue candidly – are nothing short of alarmed. They openly question whether top regulators at the NRC, ceaselessly lobbied by an industry strapped for cash, have fallen prey to valuing quarterly earnings, lucrative contracts and potential plum job opportunities over day-to-day security.
A longtime nuclear security expert minced no words about the potential consequences:
“I know how easy it is to cause a Fukushima-scale meltdown, radiation release or worse. And the timelines are very short. You don’t have much room to maneuver if you misjudge what the threat is,” says Ed Lyman, senior scientist in the global security program and acting director of the nuclear safety project at the Union of Concerned Scientists. “You can’t afford to be wrong once.”