Thursday, April 7, 2011
Monday, April 4, 2011
Former truck driver deciphers top secrets of first atomic bombS
Former trucker reconstructs atomic bomb
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
- Truck driver John Coster-Mullen deciphers exact specifications of the first atomic bombs
- Technology behind the bombs that fell on Nagasaki and Hiroshima are a state secret
- Coster-Mullen spent years researching and reconstructing bombs, wrote book on findings
RELATED TOPICS
Editor's note: The staff at CNN.com has recently been intrigued by the journalism of Vice, an independent media company and Web site based in Brooklyn, New York. VBS.TV is Vice's broadband television network. The reports, which are produced solely by Vice, reflect a very transparent approach to journalism, where viewers are taken along on every step of the reporting process. We believe this unique reporting approach is worthy of sharing with our CNN.com readers.
Brooklyn, New York (VBS.TV) -- Two decades after helping to design the first atomic bomb, Robert Oppenheimer, director of the Manhattan Project, was asked to describe how he felt after the bomb's first test. "If the radiance of a thousand suns were to burst at once into the sky," he quoted from the Hindu scripture, Bhagavad Gita, "that would be like the splendor of the mighty one. Now I am become Death, destroyer of worlds."
When bombs that he helped design were unleashed over two cities in Japan in August 1945, they detonated at temperatures 10,000 times hotter than the surface of the sun. So began the Atomic Age, a period that would blow apart our ideas about warfare and technology, send the Americans and Russians into a perpetual state of fear, and set the world on a course of nuclear power, the unintended effects of which are being felt once again in Japan.
While the Fukushima disaster reawakens global concerns over nuclear power, the separate but related threat of nuclear weapons has been mostly lost in the shuffle. Political treaties and protected weapons caches aside, there is no telling what North Korea and Iran might do with their atomic caches -- or what a terrorist could do with the right ingredients and know-how.
A lot, says John Coster-Mullen. A former truck driver with no college education, Coster-Mullen taught himself how to build an A-bomb. "The secret of the atomic bomb," he says, "is how easy they are to make."
Last year, Motherboard visited Coster-Mullen to talk with him about his life project: reverse engineering the atomic bombs America dropped on Japan. His findings are available in a book he continuously updates and publishes himself called "Atom Bombs: The Top Secret Inside Story of Little Boy and Fat Man," which has received rave reviews from the National Resource Defense Council: "Nothing else in the Manhattan Project literature comes close to his exacting breakdown of the bomb's parts."
After years of research into the bomb's classified plans, Coster-Mullen has been able to create an intensely technical history of the atomic bomb, centered around a detailed explanation of how the bombs were built, including exact dimensions and configurations, inside and out. For almost 10 years, Coster-Mullen painstakingly analyzed photographs and interviewed more than 150 scientists, engineers and others involved in their development. The result is an unprecedented and highly accurate recreation of the bomb on paper, both in its mechanics and history.
Certainly Coster-Mullen's ambitious project is a neat example of the ingenuity that led America to be the first to develop the atomic bomb. But it's also a stark reminder that our most powerful technologies can end up being reworked and used in other ways, by people much less friendly than truck drivers with lots of time on their hands.
Google making app that would identify people's faceS
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Google's Hartmut Neven, pictured here, says the company is working on a facial-recognition app.
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
- Google is working on a smartphone app that would identify faces in photos
- Due to privacy concerns, people will have to opt in to Google's database to be identified
- Identifying faces using pages publicly available on the internet is technically feasible
RELATED TOPICS
Santa Monica, California (CNN) -- Google is working on a mobile application that would allow users to snap pictures of people's faces in order to access their personal information, a director for the project said this week.
In order to be identified by the software, people would have to check a box agreeing to give Google permission to access their pictures and profile information, said Hartmut Neven, the Google engineering director for image-recognition development.
Google's Profiles product includes a user's name, phone number and e-mail address. Google has not said what personal data might be displayed once a person is identified by its facial-recognition system.
"We recognize that Google has to be extra careful when it comes to these [privacy] issues," Neven told CNN in an exclusive interview. "Face recognition we will bring out once we have acceptable privacy models in place."
While Google has begun to establish how the privacy features would work, Neven did not say when the company intends to release the product, and a Google spokesman said there is not a release timeline.
The technology wouldn't necessarily be rolled out in a separate app, a Google spokesman said. Instead, facial recognition could be issued as an update to an existing Google tool, such as its image search engine.
Google has had the technical capabilities to implement this type of search engine for years.
Just as Google has crawled trillions of Web pages to deliver results for traditional search queries, the system could be programmed to associate pictures publicly available on Facebook, Flickr and other photo-sharing sites with a person's name, Neven said. "That we could do today," he said.
But those efforts had frequently stalled internally because of concerns within Google about how privacy advocates might receive the product, he said.
"People are asking for it all the time, but as an established company like Google, you have to be way more conservative than a little startup that has nothing to lose," said Neven, whose company Neven Vision was acquired by Google in 2006. "Technically, we can pretty much do all of these things."
Neven Vision specialized in object and facial recognition development. The object-related programs are reflected in an image search engine, called Goggles. The face-recognition technology was incorporated into Picasa, Google's photo-sharing service, helping the software recognize friends and family members in your computer's photo library.
In 2009, Google acquired a company called Like.com, which specialized in searching product images but also did work in interpreting pictures of people. Google has also filed for patents in the area of facial recognition.
Privacy concerns
As Google's size and clout grow, so does the chorus of critics who say the company frequently encroaches on people's privacy. Over the years, Google has made various missteps.
The company agreed to pay $8.5 million last year in a legal settlement over grievances that its Buzz social-networking service published the names of people with whom Gmail users regularly communicated. Google quickly fixed the problem, but its repercussions are still being felt: On Wednesday, Google announced it had reached an agreement with the U.S. Federal Trade Commission to receive an independent review of privacy procedures once every two years.
Google also faces numerous inquiries from governments regarding information collected by its Street View vans. Developers who report to Neven work on aspects of that street-level photography initiative -- mainly privacy-minded features such as the automatic blurring of faces and license plates, he said.
Google also is concerned about the legal implications of facial recognition. Even during trials among its own employees, Google has taken steps to ensure testers have explicitly agreed on record to try out the service.
The novelty of this sort of product may help attract early adopters. But policies would need to be uncomplicated and straightforward to keep users from abandoning it over privacy concerns, experts said.
"Online, people don't think about the privacy concerns; they think about the fun activities they're doing," said Karen North, director of a University of Southern California program that studies online privacy. "They're going to have to figure out a way where people who like the ease and fun of some of these technologies ... online don't feel burned at any given point. Because once they feel burned, they'll opt out."
North said she believes Google has a tendency to push boundaries in order to outdo competitors. The service could push too far by, say, aggregating every photo of a user it finds on the internet without giving that user an easy way to erase certain images, she said.
"Google, in all the best ways, has put itself in a very difficult position -- that no matter what they do, they have to do it biggest and best," North said. "They have trouble starting small and building up because they're Google."
A 'cautious route'
Google acknowledges the nefarious ways someone could leverage facial-recognition technology.
Many people "are rightfully scared of it," Neven said. "In particular, women say, 'Oh my God. Imagine this guy takes a picture of me in a bar, and then he knows my address just because somewhere on the Web there is an association of my address with my photo.' That's a scary thought. So I think there is merit in finding a good route that makes the power of this technology available in a good way."
Neven and a Google spokesman described the facial-recognition app concept as "conservative" in relation to privacy.
"I think we are taking a sort of cautious route with this," the spokesman said. "It's a sensitive area, and it's kind of a subjective call on how you would do it."
While the opt-in requirement limits the app's utility, Neven foresees many circumstances where people would agree to be found.
"If you're an actor in L.A., you want to have everyone recognizing you," he said, sitting outside in the sun at Google's beachside office some 12 miles from Hollywood.
A facial-recognition app could tie in to social-networking initiatives Google is said to be working on. For example, people looking to connect online could use their phones to snap each other's pictures and instantly navigate to that person's profile, rather than having to exchange business cards or remember a user name.
This month, Google redesigned its Profiles pages in a change that more closely resembles Facebook's site. On Wednesday the company announced a new social-search tool, called +1, that allows people to share helpful search links with their friends.
Why people still use blackberryS
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STORY HIGHLIGHTS
- The BlackBerry is the most popular smartphone brand in the U.S.
- But the phone is falling behind, technically
- The tactile keyboard, e-mail functionality keep users with the phone
- Many business owners also give it to their employees, who get hooked
(CNN) -- It's the smartphone everyone owns -- and no one seems to like.
Peek into any executive conference room in America, and you're bound to see one -- or a dozen -- of these anachronistic smartphones: BlackBerrys, their keys clicking like rain on a tin roof. Those red lights flashing, training their owners to pick them up on a second's notice: An e-mail! A BBM! Answer me!
To owners of Android-based phones and the iPhone, particularly in the U.S., the BlackBerry is starting to look more than a little too old-school. These phones don't really ru
n apps. They don't store much music. Their screens, in general, are much smaller than those of smartphone competitors, meaning it's difficult or impossible to browse the Web comfortably or watch online video.
A new BlackBerry phone -- the Torch -- was unveiled on Tuesday by maker Research In Motion. Even hard-core BlackBerry users don't seem that enthralled by it. Meanwhile, a survey released by the Nielsen Co. on Monday found the majority of U.S. BlackBerry owners -- 58 percent -- want to buy another kind of phone, usually an Android or iPhone, when they upgrade.
But here's the kicker: Despite the fact that the BlackBerry isn't hip, high-tech or cheaper than its main competitors, the phones are still the most popular (or at least the most common) in the U.S. market, and they're growing internationally.
So why do so many people still tolerate these phones?
It turns out, according to a handful of interviews with BlackBerry users, there are three basic reasons: People are addicted to the click-clacking keyboard; they love the blinking red light on the top, which alerts users to new messages; and many just happen to have the phone because it's required for work.
The click-clacking keyboard
Ask a BlackBerry user what they like about their phone, and they're bound to mention the keyboard. Ask them why that keyboard is so great, and they'll go into sensual detail about the click of the keys, how the buttons are raised just so and how the "shift" key -- oh, the shift key! -- is just as easy to use as those on a full-size computer keyboard.
Smartphone market share 
Video: UAE may ban BlackBerry "The keyboard is definitely a hook for RIM, and it's interesting to see that the marketplace, in general, has conceded it to RIM," said Kevin Michaluk, founder of the BlackBerry fan website Crackberry.com. "Everyone sees the iPhone, and they think apps. And I think everyone sees a phone with a keyboard, and they think BlackBerry, whether it is or isn't."
This comes at a time when most smartphones -- including the iPhone -- are moving toward touch-screen-only interfaces, where users tap on glass to type instead of pecking away at tactile keys.
The details of how the BlackBerry keyboard feels are what make it addictive, said Nan Palmero, a writer for another fan site, BlackBerryCool.com.
"They really go to great lengths to raise plastic in certain ways on the keys," he said of the tactile keyboard's design. "They kind of describe it as guitar frets: Your hand naturally knows where to go and where to be."
Palmero said he can type up to 40 words per minute on his phone. Michaluk said he can hit 65. Neither has to look at the keyboard.
Kevin Kovanich, a 23-year-old BlackBerry user in Chicago, Illinois, who responded to a CNN Tech question about the phones on Twitter, said he loves that he can still "rock the keyboard" even though his thumbs are "larger than average."
"It is really nice how far the buttons stick up -- and you can really feel that click," he said. "It doesn't feel like you're making any mistakes ... no matter how big your fingers are."
That red light
On top of every BlackBerry, there's a little sliver of a red light, and it blinks at you when a new message or call comes in.
People get seriously addicted to that light, Michaluk said.
"You put a blinking red light on a device, and when that light blinks, you jump," he said. "It's Pavlovian training, right? For me, really, it's my connection to my people. And second, it's my connection to the world in terms of news and everything."
He added: "It's one of those things that always calls you back to your BlackBerry."
Of course, other phones have ways of alerting people to new messages, too, but none has the same feel as that BlackBerry light, users said.
Because it's businessy
The BlackBerry is the get-things-done phone.
It's not designed to run flashy applications, for playing games or for uploading pictures to Facebook and Twitter. It started out a business-minded device, and RIM has continued to market it as a business-friendly device, although recent ads have pitched it as a leisure phone for young multitaskers as well.
Part of the allure is that the BlackBerry is known for being secure. It encrypts messages, which makes business owners more comfortable giving the phones to their employees, who may share sensitive documents and e-mails over the phones.
This issue came into focus this week as the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia threatened to stop BlackBerry service for this very reason: because they wanted to get inside private messages on the phones and couldn't.
Other smartphone operating systems,including iOS 4 from Apple, are trying to cater more to privacy-minded business clients, but overall they've been more focused on the consumer experience.
That image can work in BlackBerry's favor, writes Callie Schweitzer on a blog called Neon Tommy. She says the phone has a "mullet effect" in that it's "business in the front, party in the back."
"See someone typing away furiously on a Blackberry? They're probably sending a top-secret e-mail," she writes. "See someone intently focused on an iPhone? They're probably playing with the Bubblewrap or Lightsaber Unleashed apps. Regardless of what a Blackberry user is really doing, the phone itself just seems so much more straight-laced and serious than the iPhone."
Businesspeople also say BlackBerrys are just good for productivity.
Partly it's the keyboard. Partly is a range of shortcuts. But this no-frills phone has hooked many people in the bushiness world.
That includes Michaluk, who said he was given his first BlackBerry phone -- he called it "old blue" -- from an employer several years ago.
He's been hooked since.
"That thing was just a tank; it was ugly; it had that low-res, almost monochrome display. And that thing -- I just loved [it]," he said.
Sunday, April 3, 2011
British Muslim receives death threaT
Shanna Bukhari was subjected to a tide of online hate after entering the British heats of the beauty contest. Now she fears her life could be in danger
Shanna Bukhari, a Muslim who received threats for entering the Miss Universe contest, has contacted a private security firm to protect her. Photograph: Howard Barlow For the Observer When Shanna Bukhari decided she wanted to be the first Muslim to represent Britain in a global beauty pageant, she suspected the road ahead might not be smooth, but nothing could have prepared her for the abuse she received.
"I have felt in fear for my life," said the 24-year-old Miss Universe contestant. The attacks escalated last week when Bukhari received her first death threat.
The censure has come from various quarters, ranging from Muslims who claim that she is denigrating the name of Islam, to white supremacists who say that an Asian cannot represent the UK, and to women who condemn beauty pageants as an affront to feminism.
Bukhari, born in Blackburn, grew up in Lancashire and is no stranger to intolerance. When she was nine, she ended up in hospital after a man screaming racist abuse had thrown a brick at her, causing so much damage to her stomach that she suffered a blood clot and had to undergo surgery.
But even she has been surprised by the furore that her participation in the British heats of Miss Universe has prompted. Rather than confirming her hopes that society had progressed since her childhood, the controversy has made her question the state of multiculturalism in modern Britain. "It has highlighted the divisions that exist, a lack of social integration, a lack of adhesion between white and coloured people, and this needs to be addressed," she said. "I thought my participation might be something that people did not agree with, but I never thought I'd get abused."
The attacks on the Manchester-based English literature graduate began after a local newspaper ran an article 10 days ago revealing her ambition to become the first Muslim to represent Great Britain at the beauty contest. Since then, she has received around 300 messages a day on her Facebook page, a handful of which are abusive. Most of the negative comments have come from a minority of Muslim men. "I get people saying, 'you're not a Muslim' and 'you're using religion to get attention'. I said they were the ones bringing religion into it. I'm not representing Islam; I just want to represent my country, and of that I am very proud. They are trying to control me, using religion as a tool to attack."
Bukhari accuses her abusers of having the same sort of mindset as those who support "honour" killings and beat women. Many of the comments are, she says, from individuals who want sharia law instead of a liberal democracy. "We simply live in a multicultural society where there are significant numbers of Muslims. Islam is about peace; abusing me is itself wrong in Islam."
Away from the religious-themed criticism, Bukhari detects a broader anti-female resentment from men who combine sleaze with slurs. "Maybe it's because I'm a woman saying to other women 'stand up for yourself, don't let anyone dictate what you can do or can't'. Some men don't like that," she said.
But not all the abuse is from men: Bukhari has also attracted opprobium from feminists. "I've had a few girls saying 'shame on you' or 'rot in hell'. But I'd like to know what their real issues are, so we could have a constructive debate."
The abuse that truly shocked Bukhari arrived last Tuesday in the form of an online racist rant. Within hours she had shut down her Facebook fan page, but a friend was then sent a number of internet links to images of people murdered for standing up for their principles. "She rang up and said, 'Shanna, you need to be very careful because he's trying to make me aware that things will happen'. Not a direct death threat perhaps, but he was trying to say that something is going to happen to me."
Bukhari takes the threat of physical violence seriously. She makes sure she is never alone, both in her Manchester flat and on the city streets, and has contacted a private security firm for protection when attending charity events to raise money for the Joshua Foundation, a charity for terminally ill children. She fears that Britain's Miss Universe finals in Birmingham in May will also be a target: "It worries me that haters will turn up. I know what they are capable of."
One Facebook message calls her a "dirty Muslim" and asks why she is representing Britain "when you don't even fucking belong here". Bukhari said: "I actually replied to him in a very calm manner because I'm not one to retaliate, my family taught me to rationalise rather than react. Then I thought 'why can't I represent Britain?' I was born here and am proud to be British. My parents are from Pakistan but I am not going to represent Pakistan as this is my country."
Bukhari says the abuse has been disillusioning partly because she enjoyed a liberal upbringing; her parents sent her to a Catholic school in Blackburn where she was the only Muslim but was "completely accepted". It was only when she moved to Manchester in 2001, she said, that she became aware of segregation as an issue. She does not agree with David Cameron's speech last month in which he asserted that state multiculturalism in Britain had failed. She believes that more must be done to break down mistrust.
Bukhari cites the thousands who have offered their backing. Support has come from Spain, the Middle East, Pakistan, India and China. Most women supporters say she represents not just a role model for Muslim women, but all those who refuse to be cowed by bullies.
During last month's semi-final for Britain's Miss Universe candidate Bukhari received the most public votes. Britain has never won the title. It is increasingly possible that its first victor might also be its first Muslim representative.
"I have felt in fear for my life," said the 24-year-old Miss Universe contestant. The attacks escalated last week when Bukhari received her first death threat.
The censure has come from various quarters, ranging from Muslims who claim that she is denigrating the name of Islam, to white supremacists who say that an Asian cannot represent the UK, and to women who condemn beauty pageants as an affront to feminism.
Bukhari, born in Blackburn, grew up in Lancashire and is no stranger to intolerance. When she was nine, she ended up in hospital after a man screaming racist abuse had thrown a brick at her, causing so much damage to her stomach that she suffered a blood clot and had to undergo surgery.
But even she has been surprised by the furore that her participation in the British heats of Miss Universe has prompted. Rather than confirming her hopes that society had progressed since her childhood, the controversy has made her question the state of multiculturalism in modern Britain. "It has highlighted the divisions that exist, a lack of social integration, a lack of adhesion between white and coloured people, and this needs to be addressed," she said. "I thought my participation might be something that people did not agree with, but I never thought I'd get abused."
The attacks on the Manchester-based English literature graduate began after a local newspaper ran an article 10 days ago revealing her ambition to become the first Muslim to represent Great Britain at the beauty contest. Since then, she has received around 300 messages a day on her Facebook page, a handful of which are abusive. Most of the negative comments have come from a minority of Muslim men. "I get people saying, 'you're not a Muslim' and 'you're using religion to get attention'. I said they were the ones bringing religion into it. I'm not representing Islam; I just want to represent my country, and of that I am very proud. They are trying to control me, using religion as a tool to attack."
Bukhari accuses her abusers of having the same sort of mindset as those who support "honour" killings and beat women. Many of the comments are, she says, from individuals who want sharia law instead of a liberal democracy. "We simply live in a multicultural society where there are significant numbers of Muslims. Islam is about peace; abusing me is itself wrong in Islam."
Away from the religious-themed criticism, Bukhari detects a broader anti-female resentment from men who combine sleaze with slurs. "Maybe it's because I'm a woman saying to other women 'stand up for yourself, don't let anyone dictate what you can do or can't'. Some men don't like that," she said.
But not all the abuse is from men: Bukhari has also attracted opprobium from feminists. "I've had a few girls saying 'shame on you' or 'rot in hell'. But I'd like to know what their real issues are, so we could have a constructive debate."
The abuse that truly shocked Bukhari arrived last Tuesday in the form of an online racist rant. Within hours she had shut down her Facebook fan page, but a friend was then sent a number of internet links to images of people murdered for standing up for their principles. "She rang up and said, 'Shanna, you need to be very careful because he's trying to make me aware that things will happen'. Not a direct death threat perhaps, but he was trying to say that something is going to happen to me."
Bukhari takes the threat of physical violence seriously. She makes sure she is never alone, both in her Manchester flat and on the city streets, and has contacted a private security firm for protection when attending charity events to raise money for the Joshua Foundation, a charity for terminally ill children. She fears that Britain's Miss Universe finals in Birmingham in May will also be a target: "It worries me that haters will turn up. I know what they are capable of."
One Facebook message calls her a "dirty Muslim" and asks why she is representing Britain "when you don't even fucking belong here". Bukhari said: "I actually replied to him in a very calm manner because I'm not one to retaliate, my family taught me to rationalise rather than react. Then I thought 'why can't I represent Britain?' I was born here and am proud to be British. My parents are from Pakistan but I am not going to represent Pakistan as this is my country."
Bukhari says the abuse has been disillusioning partly because she enjoyed a liberal upbringing; her parents sent her to a Catholic school in Blackburn where she was the only Muslim but was "completely accepted". It was only when she moved to Manchester in 2001, she said, that she became aware of segregation as an issue. She does not agree with David Cameron's speech last month in which he asserted that state multiculturalism in Britain had failed. She believes that more must be done to break down mistrust.
Bukhari cites the thousands who have offered their backing. Support has come from Spain, the Middle East, Pakistan, India and China. Most women supporters say she represents not just a role model for Muslim women, but all those who refuse to be cowed by bullies.
During last month's semi-final for Britain's Miss Universe candidate Bukhari received the most public votes. Britain has never won the title. It is increasingly possible that its first victor might also be its first Muslim representative.
Nuclear waste: America's 'biggest security threat'
Spent fuel is currently sitting in pools around the country, like at this plant in southeast Texas. Many are close to major population centers, and a fire could be catastrophic. NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- In the United States, 63,000 tons of nuclear waste, the sum total of all the waste generated by decades of nuclear power, sits right where it was created -- at the power plants themselves.
Often, these power plants are very close to major population centers -- Washington, Boston, New York City, Philadelphia and Chicago have reactors within the 50-mile fallout zone.
If the waste catches fire, a situation Japanese officials are racing to prevent at Japan's Fukushima Daiichi plant, critics say it could effectively render an area the size of half of New Jersey permanently uninhabitable.
"It's probably the single greatest security vulnerability in the United States," said Kevin Kamps, radioactive waste specialist at Beyond Nuclear, a watchdog group.
Kamps and many other industry critics want lawmakers to mandate that most of the waste, known as spent fuel, be stored away from the main reactors in certified steel and concrete casks, then have those casks placed in fortified buildings or earthen bunkers.
"But it's fallen on deaf ears in Congress," Kamps said.
Currently most of the waste sits close to the reactors in large pools that resemble swimming pools. A smaller amount is kept outside in casks that critics say are poorly guarded.
The reason so much waste is being stored at the nuclear power plants themselves is that the government hasn't figured out what to do with it permanently.
Storing the waste in this manner was supposed to be a temporary measure until it was permanently buried deep inside Nevada's Yucca mountain. But thanks to a mix of geology and politics, that site was recently deemed unsuitable.
The hunt is on for a new long term repository, but finding and building one will likely take decades.
The industry and the government say storing the waste at the power plants for decades isn't a problem.
"The fuel is safe, in a cask or in a pool," said David McIntyre, a spokesman for the government's Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
McIntyre said the government will take a look at waste storage as part of its comprehensive review following the events in Japan, but added that, at this time, "there's no safety reason to move it."
Industry critics couldn't disagree more.
They say the radioactive spent fuel rods, which rely on circulating water to remain cool, are vulnerable to both natural disaster or terrorist attack.
In a natural disaster, a power outage from an earthquake, hurricane, tornado or other event would cause the water pumps to fail. Yes, there are back up generators, but sometimes those fail too, as is the case in Japan. If that happens, it's only a mater of days until the fuel heats up to the point where it boils off the water and then catches fire.
They note that the pools themselves are located outside the reactor's main containment dome. An explosion, like what occurred in Japan, would expose the pools to the open air.
It's also possible for terrorists to specifically target the pools. Reactors like the ones in Japan, of which there are 23 in the United States, are particularly vulnerable. The pools in that design are located several stories above ground, making them easy targets for shoulder-fired missiles or airplane attacks.
Critics say the concrete and steel around the pools are designed to prevent radiation leaks, not to stop a missile.
"It's hard to understand why the Nuclear Regulatory Commission has not mandated a more rapid transfer of spent fuel to dry casks," California's Democrat senator, Dianne Feinstein, said at an appropriations subcommittee hearing Wednesday.
Kamps said the reason is cost -- that it would cost up to $100 million per reactor to move the fuel from the pools to reinforced dry cask storage, a cost the companies that run the plants do not want to bear.
The industry said cost has nothing to do with it.
"We're ready to cooperate with the NRC and others on all aspects of our operations," said Bryant Kinney, a spokesman for the Nuclear Energy Institute, an industry association.
Despite their willingness to cooperate on any additional safety measures the government may require, the industry feels the fuel is safe right were it is.
Kinney pointed to a 2002 study from the Electric Power Research Institute, an independent research organization, saying that the plants would withstand an impact from a commercial airliner. He said that includes the spent fuel pools.
Plus, moving the fuel from the pool to a cask is a dangerous operation in and of itself. There's no need to take that risk if, eventually, it will all be moved to permanent storage anyway.
The NRC said that since Sept 11, 2001, the industry has become much more prepared to deal with unexpected losses of power or attacks on its facilities. Preparations include pre-positioning generators, water and other equipment near a plant, but not close enough that they would be damaged in an attack or natural disaster.
As for the risks of a worst-case scenario, the NRC wouldn't speculate on just how large the contamination area might be, only to say that a fire in a spent fuel pool is "extremely unlikely."
Some experts have said the fallout zone would be smaller than a 50-mile radius. Others have said three times the size of New Jersey.
Everyone does agree on one thing: It would be a terrible situation.
Mobile health alerts
Source: CNN Filed under: Mobile
French take control of key Ivory coast airport from cnN
French military mission troops in Ivory Coast soldiers patrol a street in Abidjan on April 1, 2011.
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
- NEW: People in Abidjan are forced to go out for water despite the danger, a journalist says
- 300 additional French troops arrive to bolster the 7,500-strong U.N. force
- Hillary Clinton demands that Laurent Gbagbo step down immediately
- Gbagbo and Alassane Ouattara are fighting for control of the cocoa-producing country
(CNN) -- French peacekeepers in war-torn Ivory Coast took control of the airport in the main city late Saturday night, the French Ministry of Defense said Sunday, as a battle for Abijdan seemed to be looming.
An additional 300 French troops joined the United Nations peacekeeping mission overnight, the ministry added. There were about 7,500 troops already in the country under the U.N. mandate.
United Nations helicopters patrolled the skies over the city as a tense calm reigned Sunday morning, a local resident told CNN.
The uneasy peace came in the wake of claims of a massacre as fighters backing internationally recognized President Alassane Ouattara battle forces loyal to Laurent Gbagbo, who refuses to leave office.
Ivory Coast's humanitarian crisis 
Reported massacre in Ivory Coast 
Map: Ivory Coast The resident, whom CNN is not naming to protect his safety, said he had been to church as usual, where another parishioner said he had seen dead bodies by the road on his way to the congregation.
A journalist in the city said many people were afraid to leave their homes, but were being forced to venture out to get water.
Seyi Rhodes, who is staying at a hotel in Abidjan, said people were risking being shot in order to get to a water pump near the hotel.
He saw French journalists come under fire as they drove through the city, he said.
Much of the city has no electricity, he added, calling it "a really crude tactic to get people out on the streets."
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton demanded Sunday that Gbagbo step aside immediately.
"Gbagbo is pushing Cote d'Ivoire into lawlessness," she said, using the French name for the country. "He must leave now so the conflict may end."
She also called "on the forces of President Ouattara to respect the rules of war and stop attacks on civilians."
British Foreign Secretary William Hague Sunday said Britain "renew(ed) our call for Gbagbo to get out, which would stop this violence," and raised the possibility of International Criminal Court prosecutions stemming from the conflict.
The International Crisis Group called for an immediate cease-fire on both sides and more international intervention, calling the situation in Ivory Coast as "urgent as any facing the international community right now. The unthinkable is unfolding before our eyes."
The International Committee of the Red Cross said 800 people were shot to death in the western cocoa-producing town of Duekoue. A United Nations official put the death toll so far at 330.
The massacre occurred between Monday and Wednesday as Ouattara's Republican Forces led an offensive through the country to Abidjan, said Guillaume Ngefa, the deputy human rights director at the U.N. mission in Ivory Coast.
He blamed 220 deaths on forces loyal to Ouattara. Ngefa said pro-Gbagbo forces killed 100 people.
"We have evidence, we have pictures. This was retaliation," he said, referring to Ouattara's forces.
The Ouattara camp said it "firmly rejects such accusations and denies any involvement by the Republican Forces of Cote d'Ivoire in possible abuses."
"The government wishes to establish that the situation is quite the opposite," it said. "Forces loyal to former President Laurent Gbagbo, and its affiliated mercenaries and militias that have engaged in countless atrocities in western Cote d'Ivoire, during their flight before the advance of Republican Forces of Cote d'Ivoire."
Ouattara denied to U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon that his forces were responsible, but said he had launched an investigation and said he would welcome an international inquiry, according to the world body.
Ngefa said so far, 320 bodies have been identified and the actual number could be much higher. He said the dead included civilians as well as mercenaries.
Before the Duekoue killings, human right monitors documented 462 deaths in the Ivory Coast conflict, which would make the Duekoue massacre the single bloodiest incident yet.
The International Committee of the Red Cross sent a team to Duekoue on Thursday and said most of the victims were civilians, said spokesman Kelnor Panglungtshang in Abidjan.
"They saw the bodies on the streets," he told CNN. "There were so many."
Ngefa said a contingent of U.N. peacekeepers is stationed in Duekoue and is patrolling the town.
The massacre illustrated the bloody nature of Ivory Coast's conflict, now in its fifth month. The violence erupted after a disputed November election led Gbagbo and Ouattara to both claim the presidency.
The international community recognized Ouattara as the legitimate winner but Gbagbo refused to cede power and violence engulfed the nation, escalating this week with a major offensive launched by Ouattara's Republican Forces.
A spokesman for Ouattara said Saturday the other side has committed atrocities, is losing its top generals to defections and is looking for "cannon fodder" for its last stand.
The claims by Ouattara spokesman Patrick Achi could not be independently verified by CNN.
Fierce fighting has erupted for control of Abidjan, Ivory Coast's largest city. Gbagbo's forces were thought to be on the brink of defeat but regained key areas Saturday.
They said they retook control of Ivory Coast's all-powerful state-run television network that has been the embattled president's voice in his standoff with Ouattara.
Outtara's side denied Gbagbo was in control of state television, claiming he was actually broadcasting from a satellite truck.
Ouattara forces control the "entire national territory" and Abidjan, Achi said. Gbagbo's generals have abandoned "this crazy undertaking" and joined Ouattara's army or are refugees, the spokesman added.
An American teacher, holed up in her Abidjan apartment, told CNN she was frightened and was trying desperately to get help from U.S. or French officials to help evacuate her.
She said she last went to school Thursday and by that afternoon, she could hear the rattle of gunfire and the boom of explosions everywhere. She, too, was not identified for security reasons.
"I am very scared," she said, "because the shelling is intense."
A U.N. peacekeeping patrol came under attack from Gbagbo's forces Saturday in an Abidjan suburb, a U.N. statement said. In the exchange of fire, five members of Gbagbo's forces were shot, the statement said.
Gbagbo adviser Abdon Bayeto blamed the United Nations and global leaders -- including France and the United States -- for Ivory Coast's bloodshed by recognizing Ouattara as the legitimate president.
Ouattara knows he lost the election, Bayeto told CNN, adding that Gbagbo is a true democrat.
"For 30 years there was no trouble in the country," he said. "We are going to be victorious."
Gbagbo's whereabouts were unknown. He has not recently appeared in public and the French ambassador said his residence was empty.
Some 1,400 foreigners, including 500 French citizens, have sought refuge at a French military camp, an unnamed spokeswoman for the French Defense Ministry said Saturday.
The violence has also displaced one million of Abidjan's four million people.
CNN's David Wilkinson, Claudia Dominguez, Carey Bodenheimer, Elise Labott, Karen Smith and Moni Basu contributed to this report.
(CNN) -- French peacekeepers in war-torn Ivory Coast took control of the airport in the main city late Saturday night, the French Ministry of Defense said Sunday, as a battle for Abijdan seemed to be looming.
An additional 300 French troops joined the United Nations peacekeeping mission overnight, the ministry added. There were about 7,500 troops already in the country under the U.N. mandate.
United Nations helicopters patrolled the skies over the city as a tense calm reigned Sunday morning, a local resident told CNN.
The uneasy peace came in the wake of claims of a massacre as fighters backing internationally recognized President Alassane Ouattara battle forces loyal to Laurent Gbagbo, who refuses to leave office.
Ivory Coast's humanitarian crisis Reported massacre in Ivory Coast Map: Ivory Coast RELATED TOPICS
The resident, whom CNN is not naming to protect his safety, said he had been to church as usual, where another parishioner said he had seen dead bodies by the road on his way to the congregation.
A journalist in the city said many people were afraid to leave their homes, but were being forced to venture out to get water.
Seyi Rhodes, who is staying at a hotel in Abidjan, said people were risking being shot in order to get to a water pump near the hotel.
He saw French journalists come under fire as they drove through the city, he said.
Much of the city has no electricity, he added, calling it "a really crude tactic to get people out on the streets."
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton demanded Sunday that Gbagbo step aside immediately.
"Gbagbo is pushing Cote d'Ivoire into lawlessness," she said, using the French name for the country. "He must leave now so the conflict may end."
She also called "on the forces of President Ouattara to respect the rules of war and stop attacks on civilians."
British Foreign Secretary William Hague Sunday said Britain "renew(ed) our call for Gbagbo to get out, which would stop this violence," and raised the possibility of International Criminal Court prosecutions stemming from the conflict.
The International Crisis Group called for an immediate cease-fire on both sides and more international intervention, calling the situation in Ivory Coast as "urgent as any facing the international community right now. The unthinkable is unfolding before our eyes."
The International Committee of the Red Cross said 800 people were shot to death in the western cocoa-producing town of Duekoue. A United Nations official put the death toll so far at 330.
The massacre occurred between Monday and Wednesday as Ouattara's Republican Forces led an offensive through the country to Abidjan, said Guillaume Ngefa, the deputy human rights director at the U.N. mission in Ivory Coast.
He blamed 220 deaths on forces loyal to Ouattara. Ngefa said pro-Gbagbo forces killed 100 people.
"We have evidence, we have pictures. This was retaliation," he said, referring to Ouattara's forces.
The Ouattara camp said it "firmly rejects such accusations and denies any involvement by the Republican Forces of Cote d'Ivoire in possible abuses."
"The government wishes to establish that the situation is quite the opposite," it said. "Forces loyal to former President Laurent Gbagbo, and its affiliated mercenaries and militias that have engaged in countless atrocities in western Cote d'Ivoire, during their flight before the advance of Republican Forces of Cote d'Ivoire."
Ouattara denied to U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon that his forces were responsible, but said he had launched an investigation and said he would welcome an international inquiry, according to the world body.
Ngefa said so far, 320 bodies have been identified and the actual number could be much higher. He said the dead included civilians as well as mercenaries.
Before the Duekoue killings, human right monitors documented 462 deaths in the Ivory Coast conflict, which would make the Duekoue massacre the single bloodiest incident yet.
The International Committee of the Red Cross sent a team to Duekoue on Thursday and said most of the victims were civilians, said spokesman Kelnor Panglungtshang in Abidjan.
"They saw the bodies on the streets," he told CNN. "There were so many."
Ngefa said a contingent of U.N. peacekeepers is stationed in Duekoue and is patrolling the town.
The massacre illustrated the bloody nature of Ivory Coast's conflict, now in its fifth month. The violence erupted after a disputed November election led Gbagbo and Ouattara to both claim the presidency.
The international community recognized Ouattara as the legitimate winner but Gbagbo refused to cede power and violence engulfed the nation, escalating this week with a major offensive launched by Ouattara's Republican Forces.
A spokesman for Ouattara said Saturday the other side has committed atrocities, is losing its top generals to defections and is looking for "cannon fodder" for its last stand.
The claims by Ouattara spokesman Patrick Achi could not be independently verified by CNN.
Fierce fighting has erupted for control of Abidjan, Ivory Coast's largest city. Gbagbo's forces were thought to be on the brink of defeat but regained key areas Saturday.
They said they retook control of Ivory Coast's all-powerful state-run television network that has been the embattled president's voice in his standoff with Ouattara.
Outtara's side denied Gbagbo was in control of state television, claiming he was actually broadcasting from a satellite truck.
Ouattara forces control the "entire national territory" and Abidjan, Achi said. Gbagbo's generals have abandoned "this crazy undertaking" and joined Ouattara's army or are refugees, the spokesman added.
An American teacher, holed up in her Abidjan apartment, told CNN she was frightened and was trying desperately to get help from U.S. or French officials to help evacuate her.
She said she last went to school Thursday and by that afternoon, she could hear the rattle of gunfire and the boom of explosions everywhere. She, too, was not identified for security reasons.
"I am very scared," she said, "because the shelling is intense."
A U.N. peacekeeping patrol came under attack from Gbagbo's forces Saturday in an Abidjan suburb, a U.N. statement said. In the exchange of fire, five members of Gbagbo's forces were shot, the statement said.
Gbagbo adviser Abdon Bayeto blamed the United Nations and global leaders -- including France and the United States -- for Ivory Coast's bloodshed by recognizing Ouattara as the legitimate president.
Ouattara knows he lost the election, Bayeto told CNN, adding that Gbagbo is a true democrat.
"For 30 years there was no trouble in the country," he said. "We are going to be victorious."
Gbagbo's whereabouts were unknown. He has not recently appeared in public and the French ambassador said his residence was empty.
Some 1,400 foreigners, including 500 French citizens, have sought refuge at a French military camp, an unnamed spokeswoman for the French Defense Ministry said Saturday.
The violence has also displaced one million of Abidjan's four million people.
CNN's David Wilkinson, Claudia Dominguez, Carey Bodenheimer, Elise Labott, Karen Smith and Moni Basu contributed to this report.
Saturday, April 2, 2011
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