Russia's Fast Breeder Reactor BN-800 at Beloyarsk Nuclear Power Station Reaches Criticality, "Closed Nuclear Fuel Cycle"

If that's the case, Japan's Monju should be learning from Russians, not from French.

What reads like an official PR piece, from RT (6/27/2014):

Fast reactor starts clean nuclear energy era in Russia

Controlled nuclear fission has been started in Russia’s newest fast breeder reactor in the Urals, heralding a closed nuclear fuel cycle and a future without nuclear waste. Russia is the only country that operates fast neutron reactors industrially.

The next generation BN-800 breeder reactor (880 megawatts) assembled at Russia’s Beloyarskaya nuclear power plant has been put in the so-called critical state on Friday, a week after all necessary nuclear fuel was loaded into the active zone.

The press service of Rosenergoatom, the electric energy generation branch of Russia’s nuclear monopoly, Rosatom, has confirmed to the RIA news agency that nuclear reaction in the BN-800 reactor has been initiated.

“Starting from that moment the reactor started to ‘live’,” RIA said, quoting the source in Rosenergoatom.

This means that controlled nuclear fission in the reactor is self-sustaining and ongoing at a constant speed. Once this most important stage of the start-up work is done, the reactor will be gradually prepared to achieve the desired 880 megawatts output expected to be reached in October, when the reactor will be commissioned for industrial use.

The BN-800 uses liquid metal sodium (Na) as a coolant heat transfer agent. The start of commercial operation of the new reactor is planned for early 2015.

Service life of the BN-800 breeder reactor is expected to be 45 years. Every month it will produce 475 million kilowatt hours of electricity, enough to ensure constant supply to 3.15 million families (considering that the average monthly consumption of a family of three is 150 kilowatt hours).

Beloyarskaya nuclear power plant is situated in Zarechny, some 45 kilometers from the regional center of Yekaterinburg, in the Urals region.

The fast-neutron nuclear reactors use so-called breeder reactor technology that enables the use of a wider range of radioactive elements as fuel, thus considerably enlarging the potential stock of nuclear fuel for electricity generation.

Fast fission reactors close the question of potentially ending uranium nuclear fuel as they could ‘burn’ even nuclear waste.

Besides producing electric energy, it generates more fissile material that can be used as nuclear fuel. This brings us to the closed nuclear fuel cycle, a long-lasting dream of the nuclear energy industry that appears to have come true.

Unlike ‘traditional’ nuclear reactors that use assemblies of uranium-235 as the principal fuel, breeder reactors use specially designed MOX (Mixed Oxide) fuel based on plutonium-239.

Russia’s nuclear monopoly, Rosatom, is finishing a plant in Krasnoyarsk region that will produce MOX fuel for the BN-800 reactor. The production line is assembled in a mine 200 meters underground. This will be operable by the end of 2014, and, starting from 2016, it will be running at full capacity.

Russia has unique experience of operating fast reactors, although the first one, CLEMENTINE, was constructed in the US in 1946 at Los Alamos National Laboratory.

Over the decades, the USSR, then Russia, introduced a number of industrial and research fast neutron reactors. One of them, the BN-600 (600 megawatt), since 1980 running at the same Beloyarskaya nuclear power plant, is the only fast neutron reactor in the world that generates electricity on industrial scales. The BN-600 is also the most powerful operable fast neutron reactor in the world.

After decades of research, practically all breeder reactor projects around the world, including in the US, France, Japan and several other countries possessing nuclear energy technologies are now closed down. The only country that currently possesses operating breeder reactor power generation is Russia.

Russian physicists have already elaborated the next step for the revolutionary technology: a BN-1200 breeder reactor that is set to be assembled at the same Beloyarskaya nuclear power plant by 2020.

Overall, eight BN-1200 breeder reactors are expected to be constructed by 2030, which means that Russia is the only nation that is entering a new era of nuclear energy power generation – a truly clean and ecologically secure closed nuclear fuel cycle.

BN-800 on wiki:

The BN-800 reactor will be a sodium-cooled fast breeder reactor, under construction now at the Beloyarsk Nuclear Power Station, in Zarechny, Sverdlovsk Oblast, Russia. Designed to generate electrical power of 880 MW in total, the plant will be the final step to the commercial plutonium cycle breeder. It is assumed to start by the end of 2014. By now (2014 June) reactor start-up is in progress.

The plant will be a pool-type reactor, where the reactor, coolant pumps, intermediate heat exchangers and associated piping are all located in a common liquid sodium pool. The design of this plant was started in 1983 and was totally revised after the Chernobyl Disaster in 1987 and for somewhat lower degree in 1993 according to the new safety guidelines. After the second revision the electric output power was increased by 10% to 880 MW.

The reactor core is very much like in size and mechanical properties to the BN-600 reactor core, but differs very much in the fuel composition. While BN-600 uses medium-enriched uranium dioxide, the new plant will burn mixed uranium-plutonium fuel, helping to reduce the weapon-grade plutonium stockpile and provide information about the functioning of the closed uranium-plutonium fuel cycle. It was specially mentioned that the closed cycle will not require plutonium separation and other chemical processing.

The unit employs a three-circuit coolant arrangement; sodium coolant circulates in both the primary and secondary circuits. Water and steam flow in the third circuit. This heat is transferred from the reactor core via several independent circulation loops. Each comprises a primary sodium pump, two intermediate heat exchangers, a secondary sodium pump with an expansion tank located upstream, and an emergency pressure discharge tank. These feed a steam generator, which in turn supplies a condensing turbine that turns the generator.[1]

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(OT) New "Cold War" Between the US and Russia: US Will "Calibrate", Russia Will "Incinerate"

Too funny to pass these up...

President Obama says this, after slapping "sanctions" on Russia (and Ukraine's government officials, 11 of them in total) over what seems like a very democratic vote in Crimea to leave Ukraine and re-join Russia, according to Bloomberg News (3/17/2014):

Obama said at the White House. The U.S. can “calibrate our response” based on whether Russia chooses “to escalate or to de-escalate the situation.”

While President Obama, who didn't attend the National Security Council meeting at the White House over the weekend (again), "calibrates", Mr. Dmitry Kiselyov, a presenter of the Russian state-owned TV, says, according to The Independent (3/17/2014):

"Russia is the only country in the world realistically capable of turning the United States into radioactive ash," Kiselyov said standing in front of a large screen depicting a mushroom cloud produced by a nuclear explosion.

"Americans themselves consider Putin to be a stronger leader than Obama," he said. "Why is Obama phoning Putin all the time and talking to him for hours on end?"

Kiselyov suggested President Obama's hair is turning grey because he is fretting about Russia's nuclear capacity, which could turn the US into dust.

The Independent has a screen shot of Mr. Kiselyov with the image of a huge mushroom cloud in the back:

A less-colorful and plainer word is from Crimea's Prime Minister Sergey Aksyonov, according to CNN:

"We are going home. Crimea is in Russia"

Soviet Russia did have one awe-inspiring atomic bomb (Tsar Bomba):

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Russia Offers Help to TEPCO to Clean Up #Fukushima I Nuke Plant

I remember Russia invited fishermen in Fukushima to relocate to Russian Siberia right after the start of the nuclear accident in March 2011 and to fish there, instead of trying (in vain) to make a living off the water being contaminated with radioactive materials from the plant. I don't think anyone took up the offer.

According to Bloomberg News article, Russia reiterated the offer to help, just as they had been ready in 2011 if asked by the Japanese government. The request for help never went to Russia under the DPJ administrations under Naoto Kan and Yoshihiko Noda.

For that matter, they never requested any help from any country, and they (practically) declined help when offered. TEPCO privately asked the US military for help in the first weeks of the accident, and was reportedly severely scolded by the Kan administration. The only incident I know of in which a foreign help (the US military) was accepted was to extinguish fire that broke out in Reactor 4 in March 2011.

(I said "practically" above, as what they did was to do the Sir Humphrey - "Thank you, we will be planning to form a committee to study whether it is feasible to consider accepting your offer, and we will get back to you as soon as reasonably possible, under the circumstance, if you know what we mean.".)

Russian officials say things have started to change under the new LDP administration.

From Bloomberg News (8/25/2013; emphasis is mine):

Russia Offers to Help Clean Up Fukushima as Tepco Calls for Help
By Yuriy Humber & Jacob Adelman - Aug 25, 2013 3:33 PM PT

Russia repeated an offer first made two years ago to help Japan clean-up its accident-ravaged Fukushima nuclear station, welcoming Tokyo Electric Power Co. (9501)’s decision to seek outside help.

As Tokyo Electric pumps thousands of metric tons of water through the wrecked Fukushima station to cool its melted cores, the tainted run-off was found to be leaking into groundwater and the ocean. The approach to cooling and decommissioning the station will need to change and include technologies developed outside of Japan if the clean-up is to succeed, said Vladimir Asmolov, first deputy director general of Rosenergoatom, the state-owned Russian nuclear utility.

“In our globalized nuclear industry we don’t have national accidents, they are all international,” Asmolov said. Since Japan’s new government took over in December, talks on cooperating between the two countries on the Fukushima clean-up have turned “positive” and Russia is ready to offer its assistance, he said by phone from Moscow last week.

After 29 months of trying to contain radiation from Fukushima’s molten atomic cores, Tokyo Electric said last week it will reach out for international expertise in handling the crisis. The water leaks alone have so far sent more than 100 times the annual norms of radioactive elements into the ocean, raising concern it will enter the food chain through fish.

‘Last to Realize’

The latest leak of 300 metric tons of irradiated water prompted Japan’s nuclear regulator to label the incident “serious” and question Tokyo Electric’s ability to deal with the crisis, echoing comments made by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe earlier this month. Zengo Aizawa, a vice president at Tepco, as the Tokyo-based utility is known, made the call for help at a press briefing in Japan’s capital on Aug. 21.

“It was clear for a long time that Tepco was not adequately coping with the situation,” Asmolov said. “It looks like Tepco management were the last to realize this,” he said. “Japan has the technologies to do this, but they lacked a system to deal with this kind of situation.”

The Fukushima accident of March 2011 is the world’s biggest nuclear disaster since the Soviet Union faced the explosion at Chernobyl in 1986.

So far, Tokyo’s solution to cooling melted nuclear rods at Fukushima that otherwise could overheat into criticality, or a self-sustained nuclear chain reaction, has been to pour water over them. That’s left more than 330,000 tons of irradiated water in storage tanks at the site so far. The water is treated to remove some of the cesium particles in it, which in turn leaves behind contaminated filters.

...The idea of pumping water for cooling was never going to be anything but a “machine for generating radioactive water,” Asmolov said. Other more complex methods such as the use of special absorbents like thermoxide to clean contaminated water and the introduction of air cooling should be used, he said.

Russia’s nuclear company, Rosatom, of which Rosenergoatom is a unit, sent Japan a 5 kilogram (11 pound) sample of an absorbent that could be used at Fukushima almost three years ago, Asmolov said. It also formed working groups ready to help Japan on health effect assessment, decontamination, and fuel management, among others, Asmolov said. The assistance was never used, he said.

“Since the arrival of the new Japanese government, the attitude’s changed,” he said. “So far the talks have been on a diplomatic level, but they are much more positive. And we remain open to working together on this issue. To follow developments I monitor Fukushima news every morning.”

Tap Experts

Japan can tap experts in France and the U.S. as well as Russia to help it tackle the situation at Fukushima, he said.

The U.S.’s long history with atomic research, including the nuclear weapons site at the Hanford Engineer Works in Washington state, has provided expertise in cleaning up contaminated sites, said Kathryn Higley, who heads the nuclear engineering and radiation health physics department at Oregon State University in Corvallis.

“We have individuals that are working on groundwater contamination and using technology and developing new technologies to clean up strontium in groundwater, for example, at the Hanford site,” she said. “So there are individuals around the world that have been doing this and certainly they would be more than willing to help in this process.”

France’s Areva SA (AREVA) had designed a radiation filtration system that was used for several months at the Fukushima site as temporary cover before Tepco installed its own facilities. Japanese delegations have also visited U.S. nuclear waste sites together with CH2M Hill Cos., an engineering company based in Englewood, Colorado.

This month a group of 17 Japanese companies including Toshiba Corp. (6502) and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd. (7011) formed an association, called International Research Institute for Nuclear Decommissioning, to support Tepco’s clean-up efforts.

(Full article at the link)

I don't think much at all about the industry association mentioned in the last paragraph above. It has been set up by the administrative guidance from Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry and Agency of Natural Resources and Energy (the one who "assumed" 300-tonne groundwater "leak"), with nuclear and radiation scientists and experts on the panel, which includes scientists like Professor Sekimoto of Tokyo University.

I remember Professor Sekimoto very well, who appeared on NHK non-stop right after it was apparent that there was something wrong at Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant after the earthquake and tsunami on March 11, 2011. To the jittery nation, he spoke calmly and nonchalantly that the whole thing was no big deal, even after the explosion that blew off the top floor of Reactor 1.

The METI consortium looks like an effort to defend the turf, so to speak, and probably to prevent, in an unofficial way, TEPCO from directly seeking help.

Big money at stake in decommissioning the plant, although I doubt that the motive is all about money. It may be a smart move for Prime Minister Abe if he accepts the offer.

Rosatom by the way is the one who's building a floating nuclear power plant.

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Russia's Floating Nuclear Power Plant to Be Operational in 2016, First in NE Arctic Russia and Far East

Ocean, the final frontier... for a nuclear power plant.

According to Oilprice.com article quoting from an RT article in Russian, the floating nuclear plants are based on the Soviet-era nuclear-powered icebreakers:

Each 21,000 ton vessel will have two “modified KLT-40 naval propulsion reactors” that will provide up to 70 megawatts of electricity or 300 megawatts of heat, sufficient for a city with a population of 200,000 people. Additionally, the floating NPPs can provide water desalination services capable of supplying up to 240,000 cubic meters of fresh water per day.

According to the article below, 15 countries including China, Indonesia, and Malaysia are already interested in buying the floating nuke plants from Russians.

I have a feeling that Russians may not like the title of the article, but here it is, as I do not understand the Russian language.

From Oilprice.com's John Daley (7/10/2013; emphasis is mine):

Chernobyl at Sea? Russia Building Floating Nuclear Power Plants

So much for the lessons of Fukushima. Never mind oil spills, the Russian Federation is preparing an energy initiative that, if it has problems, will inject nuclear material into the maritime environment.

Speaking to reporters at the 6th International Naval Show in St. Petersburg, Baltiskii Zavod shipyard general director Aleksandr Voznesenskii said that the Russian Federation’s first floating nuclear power plant “should be operational by 2016.”

Baltiysky Zavod is Russia’s biggest shipbuilding complex. According to Voznesenskii, the "Academician Lomonosov" FNPP will be the first vessel belonging to the new line of floating nuclear power plants that can provide energy, heat and water to remote and arid areas of the country, with mass production scheduled for the near future.

The "Academician Lomonosov’s" technology is based on the USSR’s construction of nuclear-powered icebreakers. The Russian media is speculating that the FNPPS will first be used in remote areas of the northeastern Arctic Russia and the Far East, as these regions currently suffer from a lack of energy, slowing their development.  Each 21,000 ton vessel will have two “modified KLT-40 naval propulsion reactors” that will provide up to 70 megawatts of electricity or 300 megawatts of heat, sufficient for a city with a population of 200,000 people. Additionally, the floating NPPs can provide water desalination services capable of supplying up to 240,000 cubic meters of fresh water per day.

Perhaps referring to Soviet-era nuclear icebreakers is not such a hot idea, at least for those with historical memories.

Launched in 1957, the Lenin, the USSR’s first nuclear powered icebreaker, was powered by three OK-150 reactors. In February 1965, there was a loss of coolant incident, and some of the fuel elements melted or deformed inside reactor number two. The debris was removed and stored for two years, and subsequently dumped in Tsivolki Bay near Novaia Zemlia two years later. The second accident was a cooling system leak, which occurred in 1967, shortly after refueling. Not a reassuring developing for the Soviet Arctic environment.

"Academician Lomonosov’s" keel was laid in April 2007 at the Sevmash shipyard in Severodvinsk on the White Sea, but the project was subsequently transferred to the Baltiskii Zavod. The "Academician Lomonosov’s" 21,500 ton hull was subsequently launched in 2010, although construction work was frozen in mid-2011 because of bankruptcy proceedings against the shipyard. The company was subsequently acquired by state-owned United Shipbuilding Corporation and Rosenergoatom signed a new contract with the Baltiskii Zavod for the "Academician Lomonosov’s" completion. The "Academician Lomonosov" has 69 crew and specialists. Ominously, the "Academician Lomonosov" has no engines, so it needs to be towed.  The vessel is equipped with two modified KLT-40 reactors.

But, not to worry.

The Baltiskii Zavod shipyard stressed that The "Academician Lomonosov" and its successors are all designed with a safety margin exceeding all possible threats which makes its nuclear reactors invulnerable to tsunamis and other natural disasters and the ships meet all the requirements of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and do not pose a threat to the environment. The factory further states that 15 nations, including China, Indonesia, Malaysia, Algeria, Namibia and Argentina have already expressed interest in buying floating nuclear power plant.

The "Academician Lomonosov"will be sent to Vilyuchinsk, Kamchatka for operational testing. Rosatom then aims to construct seven more FNPPs by 2015, with four of them likely to be located on the northern coast of Siberia’s Yakutia. Other Arctic areas provisionally scheduled to receive FNPPs include port cities along the Russian Federation’s arctic coastal Northern Sea Route and Pevek in Chukotka. An added benefit of the FNPP as envisaged in Moscow is that the provision of nuclear power to the Arctic and Far East will free up more oil and natural gas for foreign export, allowing the Russian federation to generate additional hard currency.

Tow cables snap, Arctic conditions can be unpredictable, ships sink. As the ocean is the common heritage of humanity, perhaps the international community might evince a tad more interest in this project.

Russian Siberia will have 4 floating nuclear power plants. Well, what's the point of not starting Japanese nuke plants? What difference will that make?

(Photo from RT)

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Statement from Edward Snowden in Moscow, July 1, 2013

From Wikileaks (emphasis is mine, but emphasis should actually be on every single sentence):

One week ago I left Hong Kong after it became clear that my freedom and safety were under threat for revealing the truth. My continued liberty has been owed to the efforts of friends new and old, family, and others who I have never met and probably never will. I trusted them with my life and they returned that trust with a faith in me for which I will always be thankful.

On Thursday, President Obama declared before the world that he would not permit any diplomatic "wheeling and dealing" over my case. Yet now it is being reported that after promising not to do so, the President ordered his Vice President to pressure the leaders of nations from which I have requested protection to deny my asylum petitions.

This kind of deception from a world leader is not justice, and neither is the extralegal penalty of exile. These are the old, bad tools of political aggression. Their purpose is to frighten, not me, but those who would come after me.

For decades the United States of America has been one of the strongest defenders of the human right to seek asylum. Sadly, this right, laid out and voted for by the U.S. in Article 14 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, is now being rejected by the current government of my country. The Obama administration has now adopted the strategy of using citizenship as a weapon. Although I am convicted of nothing, it has unilaterally revoked my passport, leaving me a stateless person. Without any judicial order, the administration now seeks to stop me exercising a basic right. A right that belongs to everybody. The right to seek asylum.

In the end the Obama administration is not afraid of whistleblowers like me, Bradley Manning or Thomas Drake. We are stateless, imprisoned, or powerless. No, the Obama administration is afraid of you. It is afraid of an informed, angry public demanding the constitutional government it was promised — and it should be.

I am unbowed in my convictions and impressed at the efforts taken by so many.

Edward Joseph Snowden

Monday 1st July 2013

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Meteor Shower Hits Chelyabinsk Region of Russia, with a Bang

From Sydney Morning Herald (2/15/2013), raw footage:

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Russian Bombers Were Not Alone Over Japan on Feb 8

More on the 2 Russian bombers over Japan from The Voice of Russia (2/9/2012):

Russian "bears" fly over Pacific

Two Russian long-distance aircraft of the TU-95MS class have carried out a routine patrol mission over a neutral area of the Pacific Ocean, a Defense Ministry spokesman has told reporters.

At various stages, the “bear” bombers were accompanied by Su-27 jet fighters and A-50 reconnaissance planes. All the flights were in strict compliance with international regulations on the use of airspace over neutral waters, the spokesman said. Earlier, the Japanese media rang the bell over 5 Russian warplanes spotted near Japan’s border.

(IF)

There was absolutely no mention of jet fighters and reconnaissance planes in Japanese news. I wonder how many Japanese jet fighters they "escorted" this time. (In December 2010, the Russian long-range bombers "escorted" 10 Japanese jet fighters.)

(H/T anon reader)

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Two Russian Bombers Surveying Japan

I don't have any other information on this yet, but this is what appeared in Japan's TBS News (10:38PM 2/8/2012):

防衛省はロシアの爆撃機２機が日本の領空周辺を飛行したと発表しました。

The Ministry of Defense announced that two Russian bombers flew the perimeter of Japan's airspace.

　爆撃機はＴＵ－９５型２機で、８日午前９時ごろから午後９時ごろまで島根県沖の日本海側から北上した後、北方領土の上空を通過し、太平洋の房総半島沖まで繰り返し飛行しました。

The two bombers were TU-95. From 9AM to 9PM on February 8, they flew north from off the coast of Shimane Prefecture on the Japan Sea side, past the Northern Territories (the Kurile Islands) and down to Boso Peninsula on the Pacific Ocean; they repeated the pattern a number of times.

　航空自衛隊では西部、中部、北部の航空方面隊で戦闘機を緊急発進させて対応したとしています。

The Air Self Defense Force responded by scrambling its fighter aircrafts in the western, central, and northern air defense forces.

That covers about 70% of Japan. It looks as if they were testing the response. Is the Cold War back on again?

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The Japanese Government's Handling of Dumping Contaminated Water: "Ugly, Ugly Japanese"

I am really ashamed to be Japanese.

South Koreans are upset, so are the Russians, over TEPCO dumping contaminated water, no matter they say it's safe.

They are upset, partly because Japan didn't bother to notify them.

Did Japan notify them, or didn't? Chief Cabinet Secretary Edano said his government most assuredly did, but qualified it by saying since it involved multiple countries his government had notified the IAEA [so that the IAEA would in turn notified the countries involved].

Huh?

That Edano's bureaucratic position was confirmed by Minister of Foreign Affairs Takeaki Matsumoto in the press conference on April 5.

According to Yomiuri (in Japanese, link added on the UN Convention of the Law of the Sea; 1:09AM JST 4/6/2011):

　東京電力福島第一原子力発電所の事故を巡り、低濃度の放射性物質を含む汚染水を海に放出したことに韓国やロシアが懸念を表明している問題で、松本外相は５日の記者会見で「健康に有意な影響はない。国際法上の義務との関係で直ちに問題とならない」と述べた。

Asked about South Korea and Russia's concern over the release of low radioactive water in to the ocean during the press conference on April 5, Foreign Minister Matsumoto said that there was "no significant effect on health, and not a problem with Japan's obligation under the international treaty".

　「国際原子力機関（ＩＡＥＡ）に通報し、外交団向けに説明し、ファクスでも連絡している」とも強調、対応に問題はなかったとの立場を示した。

Matsumoto clarified the government position that there was nothing wrong or amiss in the Japanese government's handling, emphasizing that "the Japanese government notified the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), explained to the diplomatic corps, and sent [them] faxes [to notify and explain?]"

　外務省によると、４日午後４時から同省内で外交団向けの説明を行った。

According to Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the explanation to the diplomatic corps was done at the Ministry from 4:00PM on April 4. held an [That's exactly when the TEPCO held an un-televised press conference and told the journalists in the room that it was dumping contaminated water into the sea.]

　国連海洋法条約では、海洋環境の保護や汚染防止のほか、汚染による損害で危険が及ぶ国への通報を求めている。枝野官房長官は５日の記者会見で 「（同条約で）海洋汚染防止の一般的義務を日本も負うが、直ちに差し迫った汚染の影響を周辺各国に及ぼすものではない。近隣国をはじめ関心が高いので、外 交ルートを通じて適切な説明を徹底したい」と語った。

The United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea requires [the signatories] protect the marine environment from pollution, and notify the countries who would be affected by the pollution. Chief Cabinet Secretary Edano said in the press conference on April 5 that "Japan has a general obligation (under the treaty), but [dumping the contaminated water in the ocean] does not immediately pose a threat of pollution to the neighboring countries. But since the countries, including the neighboring countries, have a lot of interest [in the dumping of contaminated water], we will make sure the appropriate explanation is conveyed through the diplomatic channel."

What arrogance from a group of elementary school boys with wrinkles and gray hairs (or black hairs that are dyed).

Both South Korea and Russia have sent (or tried to send) material and monetary assistance to the relief effort in Japan after the earthquake and tsunami. South Koreans raised a huge amount of money, sent foods and blankets to Tohoku (I'm afraid they are still sitting at the official depots undelivered to people who needed them). Russia has offered help from experts with detailed knowledge of Chernobyl reactor accident (the Japanese government delayed issuing visas for fear that the presence of Chernobyl experts might signal to the world that the Fukushima situation was dire).

They are the closest neighbors of Japan. And what did the Japanese government do? It told the IAEA to notify them. Oh but we sent the fax to their embassies in Tokyo, wasn't that good enough? And we called their diplomats to the Ministry and told them about it at the same time we instructed TEPCO to tell the journalists so that they could write about it for the Japanese people later.

Well, wrinkled elementary school boys of Japan who inhabit the government, let me tell you what you should have done:

1. It was apparent that TEPCO would run out of space to store contaminated water at the plant for quite some time. Instead of telling the foreign diplomats 3 hours before you would start dumping the contaminated water, you would contact them several days before April 4. Maybe a week before. You would send high level Foreign Ministry officials, yes bureaucrats but they know more about proper international protocols than you politicians, to the embassies of the countries that could possibly be affected - Russia, South Korea, China, Taiwan, for a start.

2. These high level officials would meet the ambassadors, and explain the situation. Ask the ambassadors to immediately convey the message to their respective head of state back home.

3. Prime Minister Kan would personally place a call to the ambassadors and then the heads of the states in these countries, asking for their understanding of the dire situation.

4. The government would contact the IAEA at the same time, and solicit their help in convincing and placating the affected countries by making them understand the situation better.

5. At the same time, you would tell the municipalities along the coast, up and down from the plant, that you were planning to release the contaminated water. They would naturally object, but you could have at least explained the situation to them beforehand, instead of what you did, which was to take them by total surprise after the fact.
   

6. After the countries were fully notified and informed of the situation and gave their reluctant consent, Prime Minister Kan would appear on TV, and announce that he instructed TEPCO to release the contaminated water into the ocean, and HE apologize to everyone - fishermen, Japanese, Russians, Koreans, the world, instead of a poor TEPCO manager having to announce, who was choking with tears. (h/t threeggg for vid)
   

Instead, you hid behind a middle manager at TEPCO, hid behind a fax machine.

And TEPCO management hid behind their middle manager, whose looks tell me (I could be wrong) he is actually an engineer in a position that requires hands-on work. If TEPCO had to announce, it should have been announced by the chairman of the company who is responsible for the company. Instead, the top management made this middle manager do it.

I guess it is too late for you to grow up, so why don't you all move out and let adults handle the problems?

If there is any adult left in Japan, it is assuredly not in the government at any level.

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Stuxnet Followup: Stick It to Russians

It has wrecked havoc in Iran, it has moved to China and is doing the same, as I posted a few days ago.

No one supposedly know where Stuxnet, a virus that targets industrial control systems built by Siemens, originated, though there are not many nations in the world that are capable of programming something like this.

DEBKAfile, a website in one of such nations, insinuates that it was Russians who planted the virus:

"debkafile's intelligence sources report from Iran that dozens of Russian nuclear engineers, technicians and contractors are hurriedly departing Iran for home since local intelligence authorities began rounding up their compatriots as suspects of planting the Stuxnet malworm into their nuclear program.

"Among them are the Russian personnel who built Iran's first nuclear reactor at Bushehr which Tehran admits has been damaged by the virus.

"One of the Russian nuclear staffers, questioned in Moscow Sunday, Oct. 3 by Western sources, confirmed that many of his Russian colleagues had decided to leave with their families after team members were detained for questioning at the beginning of last week. He refused to give his name because he and his colleagues intend to return to Iran if the trouble blows over and the detainees are quickly released after questioning.

"According to our sources, these detentions were the source of the announcement Saturday, Oct. 2, by Iranian Intelligence Minister Heidar Moslehi that several "nuclear spies" had been captured. "The enemy had sent electronic worms through the internet to undermine Iran's nuclear activities," he said. This was the first high-level Iranian admission that the Stuxnet virus had been planted by foreign elements to sabotage their entire nuclear program - and not just the Bushehr reactor. The comprehensive scale of the damage is attested to by the detention of Russian nuclear experts also at Natanz, Isfahan and Tehran.

"...The prime aim of their interrogation is to find out if Russian intelligence knowingly planted the destructive worm in Iran's nuclear facilities, possibly for under-the-counter pay, or were the unwitting carriers of equipment on order by Iran that had been previously infected.

"debkafile's Western sources report that the hundreds of Russian scientists, engineers and technicians employed in Iran were responsible for installing the Siemens control systems in Iran's nuclear complex and other facilities which proved most vulnerable to the cyber attack.

"They were the only foreigners with access to these heavily guarded plants. At Bushehr, for instance, the Russian personnel enjoyed full access to all its systems."

Uh huh. Sure. It may be easy to bribe Russians to do things like plant the virus. The obvious question is, WHO BRIBED Russians?

And of course, the usual question: Cui bono?

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Geopolitical Zigsaw Puzzle You May Not Want to Solve

The U.S. was bombing Yemen at the express order from the U.S. president prior to the failed Christmas Day bomb attack.

The so-called Christmas Day panty bomber says there are more like him in Yemen. The Yemeni government says 300.

That bomber may have been aided by an Indian to board the plane in Amsterdam without a passport.

Another Indian was detained after the plane landed in Detroit.

A U.S. analyst contends that the American who aided the Mumbay bombing terrorists in November last year was a double agent of CIA.

Pakistan has arrested 5 Americans who allegedly tried to blow up a nuke plant in Pakistan.

The U.S. is probably fighting in the Central Asia "-stans" - Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan as Afghan refugees flee to these countries.

On the Caspian Sea, Azerbaijan is threatening Armenia with war. To the north of these countries sits a U.S. ally, Georgia. To the south, Iran. North of Georgia is Russia.

Information that Iran was developing "neutron initiater" was determined by the U.S. intelligence to be a forgery concocted probably by the Israeli intelligence agency.

Israel is having the first-ever meeting of all Israeli envoys to discuss the country's options.

By the way, Yemen has been in a civil war between northern Shi'ites and southern Sunnis. In other words, it's a proxy war. (Iran is Shia. Saudi Arabia is Sunni. Mostly, that is.)

Iran is said to be getting (or trying to get) uranium from Kazakhstan.

Russia says it will develop a new set of nuclear weapons, in response to the sea-based missle shield by the U.S.. It also says it needs more weapons to deter the U.S. from doing whatever it wants in the world.

All these commotions - where are they being directed? I don't think the president of the U.S. has a clue. Vladimir Putin and Hu Jintao may.

Only 29% of Americans think the country is going in the right direction, and this newsletter writer says that's a real good sign of a prolonged bull market in the stocks.

I can't shake off the unsettling feeling that something bad and wicked is coming our way. Maybe it's just Mercury Retrograde.

There were two events which I thought would never happen in my lifetime. One was a severe stock market crash that would trigger a severe recession. The other was a world war. The first one happened.

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Something Brewing Again in Caucasus

Remember the tie-eating president of Georgia? In August last year, right on the day that Beijing Olympics started, Georgia began military maneuver in the autonomous region of south Ossetia, only to be swiftly and badly beaten back by Russia who was in the region as a peace-keeping force (thus the Georgian president's unusual diet).

Something is brewing there again right now, this time over another breakaway region of Georgia, Abkhazia. But whatever it is involves even wider region from Moldova to Azerbaijan that is neighboring Georgia and bordering Iran. The primary target, again, seems to be Iran.

Black Sea Crisis Deepens As US-NATO Threat To Iran Grows
(Rick Rozoff, 9/16/09 Centre for Research on Globalization)

"Tensions are mounting in the Black Sea with the threat of another conflict between U.S. and NATO client state Georgia and Russia as Washington is manifesting plans for possible military strikes against Iran in both word and deed.

"Referring to Georgia having recently impounded several vessels off the Black Sea coast of Abkhazia, reportedly 23 in total this year, the New York Times wrote on September 9 that "Rising tensions between Russia and Georgia over shipping rights to a breakaway Georgian region have opened a potential new theater for conflict between the countries, a little more than a year after they went to war." [1]

"Abkhazian President Sergei Bagapsh ordered his nation's navy to respond to Georgia's forceful seizure of civilian ships in neutral waters, calling such actions what they are - piracy - by confronting and if need be sinking Georgian navy and coast guard vessels. The Georgian and navy and coast guard are trained by the United States and NATO.

"The spokesman of the Russian Foreign Ministry addressed the dangers inherent in Georgia's latest provocations by warning “They risk aggravating the military and political situation in the region and could result in serious armed incidents.” [2]"

"In attempting to enforce a naval blockade - the International Criminal Court plans to include blockades against coasts and ports in its list of acts of war this year [5] - against Abkhazia, the current Georgian regime of Mikheil Saakashvili is fully aware that Russia is compelled by treaty and national interests alike to respond. Having been roundly defeated in its last skirmish with Russia, the five-day war in August of last year, Tbilisi would never risk actions like its current ones without a guarantee of backing from the U.S. and NATO." [emphasis is mine]

Remember the stock market crashed two months later last year. I'm not saying they were connected (although there are people who say they were). At least last year the Georgian conflict didn't blow up into a wider regional war involving Iran and Israel. This time, I'm not very sure.

Part of my uneasiness is the current U.S. administration under President Obama. Modus operandi of the administration seems to be to do everything all at once - blitzkrieg, or shock and awe - from economic "stimulus" (so far all it's stimulating is government spending) and cap and trade, health care "reform" to immigration reform to financial overhaul to global this and and that. Staying in Iraq and significantly increasing presence in Afghanistan and Pakistan. I wouldn't be surprised if they decide to open yet another front in Iran, because they think "they can".

The big arc connecting Romania/Bulgaria- Moldova - Ukraine - Abkhazia - Georgia - Azerbaijan - Armenia - Usbekistan - Khazakistan - Afghanistan - Pakistan, as described in the article, would seem like an effort to contain Russia as much as setting the stage for confrontation with Iran. Are we back in the days of Cold War? Then, I read this article today.

Zbig Brzezinski: Obama Administration Should Tell Israel U.S. Will Attack Israeli Jets if They Try to Attack Iran (9/21/09 Political Punch, ABC News)

Brzezinski even invokes USS Liberty.

In the update section of the article, there is a curious piece of information: "Russian President Dmitriy Medvedev told CNN that Israeli President Shimon Peres assured him that Israel would not attack Iran."

(More on Medvedev's interview in Reuter's article here.)

Just recently, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu made a secret trip to Moscow to meet with Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin.

And Mr. Putin met with the U.S. business leaders after Obama Administration ditched the missile shield in Eastern Europe.

Looks like "the Great Game" is still on, after all these years.

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Missile Shield Call-Off in Exchange for Biz Deals?

President Obama "dismayed America's allies in Europe and angered his political opponents at home today when he formally ditched plans to set up a missile defence shield in Poland and the Czech Republic." (Dismay in Europe as Obama ditches missile defence, 9/17/09 Times Online UK)

The administration's move is clearly designed to placate Russia, whose cooperation is sought by the administration "on everything from nuclear weapons cuts to efforts to curb Iranian and North Korean weapons programmes" (9/17/09 Reuters).

What did Messrs Putin and Medvedev give to President Obama in exchange? Agreed to further sanctions on Iran and North Korea? Agreed to stay out of any potential armed conflict? I have a feeling Russia could care less on those.

Whatever the real "quid pro quo" was, what appeared in the news was that Putin will meet U.S. businessmen on Friday (9/17/09 Reuters).

"MOSCOW, Sept 17 (Reuters) - Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin will meet several top U.S. executives on Friday, including General Electric Co and Morgan Stanley, the Russian government said on Thursday.

"Putin's meetings with top Western executives are usually a precursor of major business deals."

Halting the missile shield to give U.S. businesses good deals in Russia? Reuter's article hints as much:

"Talks with the U.S. firms follow a U.S. government decision to halt the deployment of a missile shield defence system in Europe, a move received positively by the Russian government."

Mr. Putin will meet:

• David Bonderman, founding partner of one of the world's largest private equity firms, TPG
• Jeff Immelt, CEO of General Electric
• John Mack, CEO of Morgan Stanley who is stepping down in 2010

Washington Examiner is more sarcastic than Reuters:

"General Electric may be the company with the closest ties to the Obama administration (if not, GE is second only to Goldman Sachs), and here we see the company benefiting from an abrupt foreign policy change made by President Obama."

As Examiner's article points out, Immelt is President Obama's economic advisor. GE owns CNBC (the stock market cheerleader/greenshooter) and MSNBC, which Washington Examiner says is "the network famously friendly to Obama".

A free-market version of capitalism is just about dead, but another version of capitalism seems alive and well, as it always has been: crony capitalism.

(Has the House banned the word yet?)

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Russia Set to Reduce US Treasury Exposure

Today is the much dreaded day of 10-year Treasury note auction. In anticipation of not so steller result (particularly after Chinese students laughed at the US Treasury Secretary), the yield on 10-year note has popped above 3.9%, and the 30-year bond yield is 4.71%.

The stock market is also under pressure, probably from this impending auction. Dow Jones Industrial Average is down about 30 points to 8,732, S&P 500 down 4 to 937. Nasdaq is the worst performer, down 22 points (-1.21%) to 1,837.

The bond market doesn't need any more negative news right now, but it got one this morning. It came from Russia, the 5th largest foreign holder of US Treasury securities. (If you exclude Carribean Banking Centers and Oil Exporters, Russia is the third largest holder. Here's the link to the lateset TIC from the Treasury Department.

Russia to Sell US Treasurys, Buy IMF Bonds (6/10/09, CNBC):

"Russia will reduce the share of U.S. Treasurys in its foreign exchnage reserves, the world's third-largest, a senior central bank official said on Wednesday, driving the dollar broadly lower."

"Russia holds about 30 percent of the reserves, worth $404.2 billion, in Treasurys. Central bank First Deputy Chairman Alexei Ulyukayev said it would buy bonds issued by the International Monetary Fund and also up the share of reserves held in bank deposits."

"Ulyukayev said Russia had increased its investment in liquid treasuries during the peak months of the crisis and was now ready to cut it...."

Ouch.

The Russian holdings of US-dollar denominated assets including Treasuries and agency bonds fell to 41.5% as of Jan 1, 2009, from 47% a year earlier. Their Euro holdings increased from 42.4% to 47.5% during the same period, but as the net position, US dollar was still 47%, Euro 41%. (See this article for more detail.)

Russia also holds 523.7 tonnes of gold reserve, 4% of the total reserve. Russia and China already expressed interest (see my post) in yet-to-be-issued IMF bond/note.

One more hour to go before Treasury announces the auction result...

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China Wants To Buy IMF Bonds If Issued

First it was Japan, then Russia, and now China. They all want to loan money to IMF, International Monetary Fund. Japan already did back in February.

China explores buying $50bn in IMF bonds (6/5/09 Financial Times):

"China is “actively considering” buying up to $50bn of International Monetary Fund bonds, the country’s State Administration of Foreign Exchange has said."

"Friday’s statement by China said any investment would be made according to its usual criteria of “safety and reasonable returns”, but made no mention of Beijing’s wish for more power in IMF decision-making, in return for financial support.

"Safe, which controls almost $2,000bn of China’s foreign exchange reserves, added it was ready to help the IMF explore more ways to raise finance."

Russia ready to invest $10 bln in IMF bonds-Kudrin (5/27/09 Reuters, via Guardian UK):

"Russia is ready to invest up to $10 billion in bonds which may be issued by the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin said on Wednesday.

"The IMF has said it is considering issuing bonds on top of the funds it is receiving from some members, as well as through a Special Drawing Rights issue. The bond issue would be a first for the Washington-based global institution."

IMF Signs $100 Billion Borrowing Agreement With Japan (2/13/09 IMF announcement):

"Japan has provided the IMF with an additional $100 billion to bolster the Fund's lendable resources during the current global economic and financial crisis.

"Managing Director Dominique Strauss-Kahn and Shoichi Nakagawa, Minister of Finance of Japan, signed the terms of Japan's $100 billion commitment on February 13 under a borrowing agreement designed to temporarily supplement the Fund's financial resources.

"The initial period of the commitment by Japan is for one year, and may be extended by the IMF for up to a total of five years if warranted by the Fund's liquidity situation and its actual and prospective borrowing needs. Each drawing will carry interest at the interest rate on the IMF's Special Drawing Rights, which is currently 0.62 percent."

Japan's loan is almost as large as one-third of total IMF quotas, which stood at US$325 billion as of March 31, 2009. (Data: IMF)

All these three countries are said to want to have more say in IMF, as well as more influence in international economic and financial matters which have been dominated by the US.

The following is the quotas of China, Russia, and select countries measured in IMF's SDR. The country's quota roughly translates to voting power (influence). For China and Russia to exert more power at IMF, they indeed need something extra. As of June 5, 2009, US$1 is SDR 0.645799. (Data: IMF)

• China: 8,090 million SDR (3.72% of total quotas)
• Russia: 5,945 million SDR (2.74%)
• Japan: 13,312 million SDR (6.13%)
• Saudi Arabia: 6,985 million SDR (3.21%)
• France: 10738 millin SDR (4.94%)
• UK: 10,738 million SDR (4.94%)
• Germany: 13,008 million SDR (5.99%)
• US: 37,149 million SDR (17.09%)

I personally think the move by China and Russia, even of Japan, is their effort to ditch at least some of the US dollar denominated foreign reserves they are stuck with: US Treasuries and agency bonds. All three countries have LOW gold reserves (see this wiki page on official gold reserve), their currencies just as "fiat" as the US dollar. Euro has some gold backings, toward which Russia seems to be shifting more. On the other hand, IMF HAS GOLD. 3,217 metric tons of it.

When IMF actually issue its notes or bonds, what will be the collateral? Its gold (if it is indeed IMF who owns it, not the members)? US Treasury Department issues Treasury securities with the government's words that they will be repaid; in other words, they are mortgaging the future tax revenues from the productive citizens and businesses of the US. IMF does not have such productive citizens. So..?

I suppose IMF can issue debt based on the potential future cash flow from the countries who will borrow from IMF. (Wait, isn't that concept what got us into trouble - Mortgage-Backed Securities?? Hmmm.. I don't see this ending well.)

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Russian Perspective on American Capitalism

The Russian president Dmitriy Medvedev called the current US president his "new comrade" during the April summit in London. I found that curious at that time.

And here's more Russian perspective. "American Capitalism Gone With a Whimper" by Stanislav Mishin, as appeared in Lewrockwell.com. The original article appeared in Pravda, the official organ of the Communist Party during the Soviet era.

Mr. Mishin writes,

"It must be said, that like the breaking of a great dam, the American descent into Marxism is happening with breathtaking speed, against the backdrop of a passive, hapless sheeple, excuse me dear reader, I meant people....

"True, the situation has been well prepared on and off for the past century, especially the past twenty years..."

But

"The final collapse has come with the election of Barack Obama. His speed in the past three months has been truly impressive. His spending and money printing has been record setting, not just in America's short history but in the world. If this keeps up for more then another year, and there is no sign that it will not, America at best will resemble the Weimar Republic and at worst Zimbabwe."

He then mentions the administration's "restructuring" of the auto industry:

"Then came Barack Obama's command that GM's (General Motors) president step down from leadership of his company. That is correct, dear reader, in the land of "pure" free markets, the American president now has the power, the self-given power, to fire CEOs and we can assume other employees of private companies, at will."

And

"...Prime Minister Putin, less then two months ago, warned Obama and UK's Blair [I think he meant Brown], not to follow the path to Marxism, it only leads to disaster. Apparently, even though we suffered 70 years of this Western-sponsored horror show, we know nothing, as foolish, drunken Russians, so let our "wise" Anglo-Saxon fools find out the folly of their own pride.

"Again, the American public has taken this with barely a whimper...but a "freeman" whimper."

As you can see, Mr. Mishin is understandably bitter. But he is also appalled at ease with which Americans seem to have accepted the new (for him it's old and tired and failed) way of their political, financial, and economic life.

He then suggests Russian companies to flee the land of the Red (USA):

"The Russian owners of American companies and industries should look thoughtfully at this and the option of closing their facilities down and fleeing the land of the Red as fast as possible. In other words, divest while there is still value left.

"The proud American will go down into his slavery with out a fight, beating his chest and proclaiming to the world, how free he really is. The world will only snicker."

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