Has the North Korean regime detonated its third nuclear blast since 2006?!

The Australian has reported an "artificial earthquake" epicentered near the North Korean regime's nuclear weapons test site of 2006 and 2009 which may signify the regime's third nuclear weapons test blast.

A decade ago, after George W. Bush lumped North Korea into the "Axis of Evil" alongside Iraq and Iran, Kim Jong Il withdrew from the Nuclear Weapons Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) and accelerated North Korea's nuclear weapons development program. It was based on plutonium extracted from a so-called, Soviet-supplied civilian research reactor's irradiated nuclear fuel.

In a C-SPAN radio interview, a George W. Bush speech writer admitted that North Korea was added to the "Axis of Evil" as a last minute afterthought, to avoid accusations of merely singling out Muslim countries.

"The Axis of Evil" phrase was unveiled in a George W. Bush State of the Union speech, during the ill-fated build up to the 2003 Iraq invasion. President Barack Obama is poised to deliver the State of the Union tomorrow night.

House Republican leaders demand Yucca dump be included in irradiated nuclear fuel centralized interim storage bill

Yucca Mountain, as framed by a Western Shoshone Indian ceremonial sweat lodge. Photo by Gabriela Bulisova.As reported by Nuclear Power International/Power Engineering, as well as the Wall Street Journal, U.S. Rep. John Shimkus (R-IL), Chairman of the Environment and the Economy Subcommittee of the U.S. House Energy and Commerce Committee, holds that the formerly proposed dumpsite targeted at Yucca Mountain, Nevada must be included in any irradiated nuclear fuel centralized interim storage legislation.

Shimkus, as well as U.S. Rep. Fred Upton (R-MI), have long been outspoken champions pushing for the Yucca dump, as well as many other nuclear power industry "wish list" lobbying priorities. Upton, for example, sponsored "Mobile Chernobyl" bills each and every session from 1995 to 2000, which would have established centralized interim storage at Yucca, long before countless scientific studies were completed, or permanent disposal authorized at the site. Yucca is located on Western Shoshone Indian land (see photo, left), as acknowledged by the U.S. federal government when it signed the "peace and friendship" Treaty of Ruby Valley in 1863.

On Jan. 11th, in response to U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Secretary Steven Chu's "Strategy for the Management and Disposal of Used Nuclear Fuel and High-Level Radioactive Waste," Reps. Upton and Shimkus issued a joint statement calling for the resumption of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission's (NRC) Yucca dump licensing proceeding.

However, U.S. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV), as the senior member of the united, bipartisan Nevada congressional delegation, has devoted his political career to successfully stopping the Yucca dump. President Barack Obama agrees, and DOE Secretary Chu has zeroed out the funding for the Yucca Mountain Project for several years running now. Secretary Chu has also moved to withdraw DOE's application from NRC's moribund licensing proceeding.

Any away-from-reactor scheme -- whether the Yucca dump or so-called centralized interim storage parking lot dumps targeted at such locations as the nuclear weapons complex Savannah River Site, SC, the nuclear weapons plutonium-contaminated Waste Isolation Pilot Plant, NM, or Dresden nuclear power plant, IL -- would launch unprecedented numbers of risky irradiated nuclear fuel and high-level radioactive waste trucks, trains, and barges onto the roads, rails, and waterways. 

7,000 metric tons, or 10%, of the Yucca dump's "disposal" capacity, as regulated by DOE, had been reserved for DOE-jurisdiction irradiated nuclear fuel and high-level radioactive waste, most of it coming from the nuclear weapons complex.

U.S. Rep. Markey actively exercises oversight on nuclear power and nuclear weapons

U.S. Rep. Ed Markey (D-MA)U.S. Representative Ed Markey (D-MA, pictured left), a 37-year nuclear watchdog in Congress, has been busy this year. Rep. Markey serves as Ranking Member of the U.S. House Natural Resources Committee, and as a senior member of the House Energy and Commerce Committee.

On Jan. 11th, Markey wrote to U.S. Energy Secretary Steven Chu -- and his office issued a press release -- expressing deep concerns and asking pointed questions about the U.S. Department of Energy's proposals to "recycle" large quantities of radioactive scrap metal into consumer products.

On Jan. 14th, Rep. Markey again wrote Secretary Chu, questioning the wisdom of DOE's dirty, dangerous, and expensive proposal to "recycle" surplus weapons plutonium into MOX (Mixed-Oxide, uranium-plutonium) reactor fuel.

And on Jan. 18th, Rep. Markey urged Secretary Chu to maintain the construction ban at the Hanford nuclear weapons complex in Washington State, in order to avoid hydrogen explosions and dangerous nuclear accidents.

Rep. Markey has announced his campaign for U.S. Senate, to fill the seat vacated by U.S. Sen. John Kerry (D-MA), who has been nominated by President Obama for Secretary of State.

NRC pleads insufficient funds to resume Yucca dump licensing proceeding

Yucca Mountain, as framed by a Western Shoshone Indian sweat lodge. Photo by Gabriela Bulisova.As reported by the Las Vegas Review Journal, despite a ruling by a three-judge panel from the DC Circuit Court of Appeals that the Yucca Mountain dump licensing proceeding should be resumed, a lawyer for the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission has admitted that there are not enough funds in the coffers to do so, with no relief in sight. The Obama administration, along with Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV), have zeroed out funding for the Yucca Mountain Project for several years.

According to U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) plans, the Yucca dump was to have taken 90% commercial irradiated nuclear fuel (63,000 metric tons), and 10% (7,000 metric tons) DOE jurisdiction wastes (mostly nuclear weapons reprocessing high-level radioactive waste). Under the Nuclear Waste Policy Act, as Amended, only after a second dumpsite would be opened in the eastern U.S., could more waste than that first 70,000 metric tons then have been dumped at Yucca.

Yucca is located next door to the Nevada Test Site (NTS), where around over 100 full-scale atmospheric nuclear bomb blasts, and many hundreds more full-scale underground nuclear bomb blasts, took place from 1951 to 1992. Even since 1992, right up to the present day, "sub-critical" nuclear weapons test explosions (employing conventional explosives and plutonium) are still conducted at the NTS.

The Review Journal reported that the State of Nevada has vowed to fight on if the licensing proceeding is resumed:

"...Halstead [Director of the State of Nevada Agency for Nuclear Projects] offered assurance that Nevada's legal team is prepared for a fight if the appeals panel signals resumption of the hearings. 'If they restart the licensing proceedings, we're ready to bloody them up on 200-plus contentions, and 100 of those are really, really strong,' he said. 'This is not going to be a cakewalk through the license application.'"

As reported by the Aiken Standard, however, Aiken County, South Carolina -- home to large amounts of high-level radioactive waste at the Savannah River Site nuclear weapons complex -- is arguing the licensing proceeding should resume post haste, with whatever funding is available. Aiken County, the State of South Carolina, and the State of Washington sued the federal government, to force the resumption of the Yucca licensing proceeding.

Ironically enough, while Aiken County and the State of South Carolina seek to export their high-level radioactive wastes to Yucca Mountain, Nevada, pro-nuclear boosters are simultaneously volunteering -- and lobbying the federal government -- to import large quantitites of commercial irradiated nuclear fuel for "centralized interim storage," and even reprocessing, at the Savannah River Site.

North Korea may be poised to conduct its third nuclear weapons test since 2006

As reported by the Associated Press, satellite photos (left) have confirmed that the North Korean military regime may be on the brink of exploding its third atomic weapon test. Its first was conducted in 2006, and its second in 2009. North Korea has utilized plutonium, extracted from irradiated nuclear fuel generated by a "civilian" research reactor provided by the Soviet Union many decades ago, as the fissile material for its weapons tests. However, two years ago, North Korea announced it also has a uranium enrichment program -- another pathway to weapons-usable fissile material, highly enriched uranium (HEU). 

The article quoted Daryl Kimball, executive director of the Arms Control Association, as saying: "With an additional nuclear test, North Korea could advance their ability to eventually deploy a nuclear weapon on a long-range missile."