Nuclear Emergency Sirens Conk Out in Storm
April 30th, 2011Via: Times Free Press:
TVA safely shut down its Browns Ferry Nuclear Plant in Alabama with emergency backup power this week, but power outages across the Tennessee Valley still left the utility without enough emergency sirens to warn nearby residents of potential safety problems at both Browns Ferry in Alabama and the Sequoyah Nuclear Plant near Soddy-Daisy.
In a notice to the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission released Friday, TVA said more than 60 percent of its sirens around Browns Ferry and about a third of its warning sirens around Sequoyah were inoperable this week when electricity service was lost to the sirens following Wednesday’s tornadoes and wind storms.
With so many sirens not working, TVA has had to be prepare plans to use police vehicles with loud- speakers to notify residents living within 10 miles of the plant should a nuclear accident occur.
The Plan to Contain the Chernobyl Disaster for the Next One Hundred Years
April 29th, 2011Via: Scientific American:
French construction company Novarka is working on a replacement, the New Safe Confinement (NSC), which Schmieman helped to design. Because the reactor is still radioactive, architects designed the NSC with worker safety in mind. The arch will not be built over the sarcophagus but will be assembled nearby from prefabricated segments. Workers will use hydraulic jacks to slide the arch about 300 meters along Teflon bearings until it covers the sarcophagus. Once engineers seal the reactor, they will remotely maneuver three robotic cranes inside the NSC to dismantle the sarcophagus and reactor and to clean up any leftover radioactive dust.
Novarka aims to finish fabricating the NSC by the summer of 2014, at a cost of $2.1 billion from 29 countries. It is expected to last at least 100 years.
Trading Position Disclosure
April 29th, 2011WARNING: This is not a recommendation to buy, sell or hold any financial instrument.
I bought a couple of May puts on SLV.
Oil Near 31-Month High on Weak Dollar, Unrest
April 29th, 2011Via: Reuters:
Oil prices hovered near 31-month highs as a weak dollar and violence in North Africa and the Middle East outweighed concerns about slowing growth in top consumer the United States.
On its last trading day of April, U.S. crude was heading for an eighth consecutive month of gains, the longest run of monthly increases since 1983, Reuters data showed.
U.S. crude was up 41 cents at 1217 GMT at $113.27 a barrel, the highest since the close on September 22, 2008. Brent futures were also rose 44 cents to $125.46, less than $2 short of its 2011 high of $127.02, reached on April 11.
75,000 Applied for 2,000 McDonald’s Jobs
April 29th, 2011Via: NBC Chicago:
A McJob looked mighty appealing to tens of thousands of people in the Chicago area.
More than 75,000 job-seekers applied for 2,000 area positions with McDonald’s during the fast food king’s first-ever “National Hiring Day” on April 19.
Applicants packed franchises in Illinois, Southern Wisconsin and Northwest Indiana. McDonald’s filled all 2,000 jobs, including more than 1,000 posts in the Chicago area alone, a McDonald’s spokesperson said.
U.S. Dollar Selling Off Again
April 29th, 2011WARNING: This is not a recommendation to buy, sell or hold any financial instrument.
Update: 72.882
Trying for next leg down.
—End Update—
Local support is 72.904; USDX currently at 72.937.
Monitoring…
Cryptogon Reader Signs Up for Hosting with BlueHost
April 29th, 2011Thanks to the owner of oohsilver.com for signing up for hosting with BlueHost. Cryptogon received $90.
Cryptogon Readers Send Contributions
April 29th, 2011Thank you.
GB $20
CS £10.00
Growing Up In Arcades: 1979-1989
April 29th, 2011I don’t know how old you were in 1981, but I was ten when I was spending my allowance getting high score on Defender.
—The Future Where Soda Cans Have Screens
If you want to know if this is me, no, but the hair is about right.
Flickr: Growing Up In Arcades: 1979-1989
Superman Renounces U.S. Citizenship at United Nations
April 29th, 2011Via: Comics Alliance:
The key scene takes place in “The Incident,” a short story in Action Comics #900 written by David S. Goyer with art by Miguel Sepulveda. In it, Superman consults with the President’s national security advisor, who is incensed that Superman appeared in Tehran to non-violently support the protesters demonstrating against the Iranian regime, no doubt an analogue for the recent real-life protests in the Middle East. However, since Superman is viewed as an American icon in the DC Universe as well as our own, the Iranian government has construed his actions as the will of the American President, and indeed, an act of war.
Superman replies that it was foolish to think that his actions would not reflect politically on the American government, and that he therefore plans to renounce his American citizenship at the United Nations the next day — and to continue working as a superhero from a more global than national perspective. From a “realistic” standpoint it makes sense; it would indeed be impossible for a nigh-omnipotent being ideologically aligned with America to intercede against injustice beyond American borders without creating enormous political fallout for the U.S. government.
