Day: November 25, 2016

North Korea to Launch Nuke on Inauguration Day

Security experts have warned that North Korea could launch another devastating nuclear test on the same day Donald Trump is inaugurated into the White House in a chilling show of strength.
According to Daily Express UK, the secretive state has launched 20 missiles this year alone as it aims to develop a long-range weapon, capable of hitting the US mainland.
In a military forum held in Seoul on Wednesday, Lee Su-seok, director of the Center for Unification Strategy at the state-run Institute for National Security Strategy, said: “North Korea may seek negotiations with the U.S. when it completes nuclear tests and reaches the stage of deploying a long-range nuclear-tipped missile.
With President-elect Trump set to be inaugurated on January 20 next year, these latest claims have sparked fears the ceremony could become a target.
Trump is not believed to consider the communist state a high priority at the moment, but this recent speculation about the country’s nuclear capabilities could spark increased efforts for dialogue and negotiations between the two countries.
The hermit state’s leader Kim Jong-un is reportedly keen to speak to Trump, after years of declining relations with Barack Obama’s administration.
During the military forum, Lee Su-seok also expressed fears about the declining relations between North and South Korea.
He said: “Inter-Korean relations will remain frosty and strained until the first half of 2017 due to the North’s continued military provocations.
“Any dialogue with North Korea, if any, will be possible some time after Trump takes office in January.”
The director said: “The Kim Jong-un regime will continue its verbal and military threats in efforts to urge the nearly paralysed Seoul government to change the current strict policies toward Pyongyang”.
South Korea’s scandal-plagued president Park Geun-hye has recently been caught up in a corruption case involving her longtime confidant, Choi Soon-sill, who has been accused of using high-ranking connections to wield inappropriate influence inside the government.
As a result, Kim Jong-un’s loyal followers are expected to exploit the unrest in South Korea and create internal conflicts within the country.

The Sixth Seal Long Overdue (Revelation 6)

ON THE MAP; Exploring the Fault Where the Next Big One May Be Waiting

The Big One Awaits The Big One Awaits
By MARGO NASH
Published: March 25, 2001
Alexander Gates, a geology professor at Rutgers-Newark, is co-author of ”The Encyclopedia of Earthquakes and Volcanoes,” which will be published by Facts on File in July. He has been leading a four-year effort to remap an area known as the Sloatsburg Quadrangle, a 5-by-7-mile tract near Mahwah that crosses into New York State. The Ramapo Fault, which runs through it, was responsible for a big earthquake in 1884, and Dr. Gates warns that a recurrence is overdue. He recently talked about his findings.
Q. What have you found?
A. We’re basically looking at a lot more rock, and we’re looking at the fracturing and jointing in the bedrock and putting it on the maps. Any break in the rock is a fracture. If it has movement, then it’s a fault. There are a lot of faults that are offshoots of the Ramapo. Basically when there are faults, it means you had an earthquake that made it. So there was a lot of earthquake activity to produce these features. We are basically not in a period of earthquake activity along the Ramapo Fault now, but we can see that about six or seven times in history, about 250 million years ago, it had major earthquake activity. And because it’s such a fundamental zone of weakness, anytime anything happens, the Ramapo Fault goes.
Q. Where is the Ramapo Fault?
 A. The fault line is in western New Jersey and goes through a good chunk of the state, all the way down to Flemington. It goes right along where they put in the new 287. It continues northeast across the Hudson River right under the Indian Point power plant up into Westchester County. There are a lot of earthquakes rumbling around it every year, but not a big one for a while.
Q. Did you find anything that surprised you?
A. I found a lot of faults, splays that offshoot from the Ramapo that go 5 to 10 miles away from the fault. I have looked at the Ramapo Fault in other places too. I have seen splays 5 to 10 miles up into the Hudson Highlands. And you can see them right along the roadsides on 287. There’s been a lot of damage to those rocks, and obviously it was produced by fault activities. All of these faults have earthquake potential.
Q. Describe the 1884 earthquake.
A. It was in the northern part of the state near the Sloatsburg area. They didn’t have precise ways of describing the location then. There was lots of damage. Chimneys toppled over. But in 1884, it was a farming community, and there were not many people to be injured. Nobody appears to have written an account of the numbers who were injured.
Q. What lessons we can learn from previous earthquakes?
A. In 1960, the city of Agadir in Morocco had a 6.2 earthquake that killed 12,000 people, a third of the population, and injured a third more. I think it was because the city was unprepared.There had been an earthquake in the area 200 years before. But people discounted the possibility of a recurrence. Here in New Jersey, we should not make the same mistake. We should not forget that we had a 5.4 earthquake 117 years ago. The recurrence interval for an earthquake of that magnitude is every 50 years, and we are overdue. The Agadir was a 6.2, and a 5.4 to a 6.2 isn’t that big a jump.
Q. What are the dangers of a quake that size?
A. When you’re in a flat area in a wooden house it’s obviously not as dangerous, although it could cut off a gas line that could explode. There’s a real problem with infrastructure that is crumbling, like the bridges with crumbling cement. There’s a real danger we could wind up with our water supplies and electricity cut off if a sizable earthquake goes off. The best thing is to have regular upkeep and keep up new building codes. The new buildings will be O.K. But there is a sense of complacency.
MARGO NASH
Photo: Alexander Gates, a Rutgers geologist, is mapping a part of the Ramapo Fault, site of previous earthquakes. (John W. Wheeler for The New York Times)

Iran Could Lose Obama’s Nuclear Deal

London, 23 Nov – A human rights activist has written an op-ed for The Hill, in which he states that Donald Trump could correct the mistakes made by Presidents Obama and Bush.
Heshmat Alavi cites that Bush’s Iraq War shifted the attention from Tehran to Baghdad and that Obama’s nuclear deal allowed the Regime to persecute their own people without fear of international reprisals.
Alavi cites that if Obama has taken the side of the Resistance during the 2009 Iranian Uprising following the fraudulent re-election of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, or even questioned the legitimacy of the election, things might have been very different.
Alavi admits that Trump’s loyalty to his campaign promises is hotly contested; having already backed out of some, so it is up to up to hold Trump to his promise to rip up the nuclear deal or at the very least, enforce its penalties.
The Regime is so scared of losing the nuclear deal that Hossein Mousavian, a member of Iran’s nuclear negotiation team, warned senior regime officials against criticising Trump.
Alavi hopes that the likely officials in the Trump Administration, like former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani, former House speaker Newt Gingrich and Ambassador John Bolton, will continue to advise Trumps against the nuclear deal.
Even more, Alavi hopes that they will stand with the Iranian people, rather than just against the Iranian Regime.
He wrote: “A new American president with a firm stance will have a major impact on politics inside Iran. Does this mean the new American administration will completely put aside the entire appeasement policy and stand alongside the Iranian people? Only time will tell.”

Indian Point Remains Open For The Sixth Seal (Rev 6:12)

Reuters
Nov 23 – Entergy Corp said on Wednesday it will pursue various options to renew licenses to operate its Indian Point nuclear power plant for another two decades after New York’s highest court ruled against the company this week.
On Monday, the New York Court of Appeals ruled that the New York State Department of State (NYSDOS) has the right to review Indian Point’s Coastal Zone Management application.
The NYSDOS objected to Entergy’s coastal zone management certification in November 2015. Entergy needs the Coastal Zone Management certificate as part of its federal application to relicense the two Indian Point reactors.
Entergy, however, said it withdrew its coastal zone management certification from NYSDOS review in 2014 before the agency objected to its application, so the state’s ruling could not hold.
If that withdrawal was not valid, Entergy said the company has the right to appeal to the U.S. Secretary of Commerce. If that withdrawal was valid, the company said it can file a new application.
Separately, Entergy said its lawsuit filed in federal court in January 2016 related to the NYSDOS objection was still pending. Entergy argued that the NYSDOS objection was based on nuclear safety concerns, which are a federal and not a state issue.
Entergy is seeking a 20-year license renewal for Indian Point. The plant is located about 40 miles north of Manhattan in the town of Buchanan on the shores of the Hudson River.
To relicense the plant’s two reactors, Entergy is seeking three things.
1 – The federal operating license from the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC).
2 – A water permit from the New York Department of Environmental Conservation (NYDEC).
3 – A Coastal Zone Management certification from the New York State Department of State (NYSDOS).
The following is a timeline on Entergy’s efforts to relicense the two reactors at Indian Point for another 20 years:
November 2016 – The New York Court of Appeals, the highest court in the state, ruled on Monday that the NYSDOS has the right to review Indian Point’s Coastal Zone Management application.
July 2016 – NRC ASLB gives the parties opposed to the relicesing of Indian Point until March 2017 to respond to whatever Entergy finds in its analysis of problems with bolts in the reactor.
May 2016 – NRC commissioners told the NRC staff to re-evaluate aspects of a severe accident mitigation analysis as part of Entergy’s application to renew the licenses for Indian Point.
February 2016 – Entergy reports tritium leak at the plant.
January 2016 – Entergy asks U.S. federal district court to reject the NYSDOS’ objection to the plant’s Coastal Zone Management Act certification.
December 2015 – Indian Point 3 license expires. The plant can continue to run so long as the relicensing process is ongoing.
December 2015 – New York Governor Andrew Cuomo directed state energy regulators to develop a process to prevent the premature retirement of Upstate nuclear power plants. At the same time however, he opposed the continued operation of Indian Point because he does not believe the area around the plant, located about 40 miles north of New York City, can be safely evacuated if there is a problem.
November 2015 – NYSDOS objects to federal Coastal Zone Management Act certification for Indian Point. The objection, unless overturned by a court or the U.S. Secretary of Commerce, would prohibit the NRC from renewing the plant’s operating licenses. Entergy, however, said it withdrew its certification application in 2014 so the NYSDOS had nothing to object to.
November 2015 – New York State asks NRC to deny Entergy’s application to relicense the two reactors at Indian Point.
November 2015 – Entergy says it will shut the FitzPatrick reactor in Upstate New York by early 2017 due primarily to weak power market conditions brought about by low natural gas prices from shale formations. Unlike his opposition to the continued operation of Indian Point, Cuomo opposed the planned shutdown of FitzPatrick.
October 2015 – Entergy said it would shut the Pilgrim reactor in Massachusetts by June 2019 due primarily to similar weak market conditions harming FitzPatrick.
December 2014 – New York State appeals court finds Indian Point is exempt from review under the New York Coastal Zone Management Program under a grandfathering clause. The decision overturned previous decisions by the state’s Supreme Court, the trial court in New York, and a regulatory decision by the NYSDOS.
December 2014 – After winning a long relicensing battle with the state of Vermont, Entergy shuts the Vermont Yankee nuclear reactor due mostly to weak market conditions.
2014 – Entergy says it could take the NRC until 2017 or 2018 to complete the Indian Point relicensing process. Some analysts have suggested Entergy could strike a deal with New York that would allow the reactors to obtain the 20-year license renewal but shut sometime before the licenses expire to overcome NYDEC concerns about fish kills. That would be similar to Exelon Corp’s deal with New Jersey on the Oyster Creek nuclear reactor.
2013 – Entergy wins on eight of nine contentions against the relicensing before NRC’s Atomic Safety Licensing Board (ASLB). The losing contention concerns transformers, which Entergy said it would fix. The ASLB, which allowed other contentions since 2012, had at least six other contentions to hear before providing a recommendation on whether to approve Entergy’s relicensing application to the NRC commission.
September 2013 – Unit 2 license expired. The unit can continue operating so long as the relicensing process is ongoing.
2013-14 – NYDEC proposes Entergy shut Indian Point reactors for an average of 42 days during summer instead of installing cooling towers to protect fish to qualify for the State Pollutant Discharge Elimination System and Water Quality Certificate, which the plant needs to continue operating.
2012 – NRC ASLB holds hearings on 10 contentions from environmental groups and New York State opposed to the relicensing. With so many contentions, the NRC cannot say when the Commission will make a final decision on relicensing.
2011 – Andrew Cuomo becomes governor of New York. He opposes the continued operation of Indian Point.
2010 – NYDEC denies Indian Point Water Quality Certificate because it believes the plant violates the federal Clean Water Act and wants Entergy to install a closed loop cooling system like cooling towers. Entergy has argued before an administrative law judge and others at the NYDEC that cooling towers would cost up to $2 billion and could not be built before 2029. Instead, Entergy wants to install a $200 to $250 million Wedgewire screen system that would protect more fish because it could be installed in about three years.
2009 – Entergy files with NYDEC for a 20-year Water Quality Certificate that is required before the NRC can relicense the reactors.
2007 – Entergy files with NRC to renew both unit’s 40-year operating licenses for an additional 20 years.
2003 – NYDEC determined Indian Point will have to do more to reduce the impact of the plant’s cooling water intake system on aquatic organisms. Indian Point withdraws up to 2.5 billion gallons of water a day from the Hudson River. The state and environmental groups have said the cooling system kills over a billion fish, fish eggs and larvae each year. Entergy has been seeking the State Pollutant Discharge Elimination System from the NYDEC ever since.
2001 – Entergy buys Indian Point Unit 2 from Consolidated Edison Inc for $502 million plus about $100 million for the fuel.
2000 – Entergy buys Indian Point Unit 3 and the FitzPatrick reactors from New York Power Authority (NYPA) for $967 million.
1992 – Indian Point owners file with NYDEC to renew the plant’s State Pollutant Discharge Elimination System permit.
1976 – Unit 3 enters commercial service.
1974 – Unit 2 enters commercial service.
1974 – Con Edison shuts Unit 1.
1974 – To help Con Edison weather the financial crisis after the 1973 OPEC oil embargo, New York State ordered the state-owned NYPA to buy and complete a couple of power plants Con Edison was building at the time, including Unit 3 at Indian Point.
1962 – Con Edison gets operating license for the 275-MW Unit 1, a pressurized water reactor. (Reporting by Scott DiSavino)