In June 2011, ATMEA had announced the review by ASN. The review conducted was concluded on Nov 2011 with the French institute for radiological protection and nuclear safety (IRSN). ASN confirmed that the reactor’s safety objectives and options are consistent with French regulations, as is the consideration given to internal and external hazards. In addition, ATMEA’s assessment of the Fukushima accident, demonstrating that the ATMEA1 reactor’s safety options are such that no design changes are needed at this time, was favorably received by ASN.

“The ATMEA1 reactor meets the international safety criteria for Generation III+ reactors. The ASN finding constitutes an important milestone for the construction of the ATMEA1 reactor in France and in other countries in the world” said Philippe Namy, President of ATMEA.

The French nuclear safety authority (ASN), an independent authority created by the law of June 2006 on transparency and safety in the nuclear field, provides regulatory oversight for all civilian nuclear activities in France.

Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission (CNSC) conducting a Pre-Project Design Review of ATMEA1 reactor technology in Canada.

The reactor conceptual design has been already successfully reviewed by IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency) against its safety standards.

The owners of the ships are primarily commercial shipping lines based in Germany, Greece and the USA, according to the report, which looks at all reported incidents involving larger ships during the past 20 years.

‘This doesn’t mean the ship owners, or even the captains, know what they are carrying. But it is relatively easy for traffickers to hide arms and drugs in among legitimate cargoes,’ says report co-author Hugh Griffiths. However, the report also shows that in the cases where the ship owners, operators and captains appear to have been directly involved in the trafficking attempt, the ships tend to be older and to be sailing under ‘flags of convenience’ whose ships regularly perform badly in safety and pollution inspections when they enter ports.

A ship is considered to be under a flag of convenience when it has the nationality of a state other than that where its real owner is based. ??

There are a variety of methods adopted by arms trafficking networks in response to the UN arms embargoes on Iran and North Korea, which were pioneered by drug traffickers in the past few decades to evade detection. It includes hiding the goods in sealed shipping containers that claim to carry legitimate items; sending the goods on foreign-owned ships engaged in legitimate trade; and using circuitous routes to make the shipments harder for surveillance operations to track.??

German ships topped the seizures with 19.5, followed by Greece (10.6%), USA (7.8%). Germany owns 7.1% of world merchant fleet. Surprisingly, there are high decibel seizures involving North Korea, Iran and and Panama. However, they constitute lower number with North Korea at 4.5%, Panama at 4.3% and Iran with just 3% of the seizures. The data includes only ships with over 100 gross tonnes.

An inspection at first light on 26th January morning revealed that the pilot whales refloated yesterday have restranded themselves on Farewell Spit. The Dept said that thhe pod has stranded even further to the east than yesterday, making the chances of a successful refloat even more unlikely.

The whales have been ashore for five high tides and have been twice refloated and were noticeably poor condition. There was a gale warning in force for this afternoon, which meant that an assisted refloat would not be possible. Finally, the Dept took the decision to euthanize the surviving whales.

36 Pilot whales had died naturally and 17 were successfully refloated. Thirteen remain unaccounted for.

Researched by Centre for Polar Observation and Modelling (CPOM) at University College London and the UK’s National Oceanography Centre, the results were published yesterday in the online version of the scientific journal, Nature Geoscience.

ERS-2 and Envisat satellite data was used to measure sea-surface height over the western Arctic from 1995 to 2010. Sea ice can be

Mosaic of Envisat radar images between 9 and 11 September 2011 over the Arctic Ocean. PIC/ESA

Researchers say that a change in wind direction could cause the water to spill into the north Atlantic, cooling Europe. A change in the direction of the wind would cause the fresh water to spill into the rest of the Arctic Ocean and even reach the north Atlantic. This could slow a key ocean current, stemming from the Gulf Stream, and subsequently cool Europe.

“When we looked at our data on a year-to-year basis, we noticed that the changes in the sea surface height did not always follow what the wind was doing, so we thought about reasons why this might happen,” said Katharine Giles, CPOM research fellow and lead author of the study.

However she added, “Our next step is to look into how changes in the sea ice cover might affect the coupling between the atmosphere and the ocean in more detail to see if we can confirm this idea.”

The storage facility is one among the measures for addressing the aftermath of the accident at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station. Processing of water containing radioactive substances accumulated within the station’s Unit 1 to 4 buildings is a critical issue and currently the reactors are being cooled by circulating water that is treated by radioactive substance removal and desalination processes. The storage facility to be constructed will stably store radioactive sludge, of slurry consistency, generated during coagulated settling within the decontamination apparatus in the radioactive substance removal process.

Image: MHI

The company has already delivered storage tanks for highly radiated waste liquid to the Tokai and Rokkasho reprocessing plants (respectively in Ibaraki and Aomori prefectures). For the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station, the company is involved in conversion of a “Mega-Float” for pooling of moderately radiated accumulated water and has provided forklift truck-based special vehicles equipped with a radiation-shielded cabin to handle rubble in the accident site.

The missile attacks appear to be part of a determined effort to stamp out the threat from the group, known as al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula, which US officials have said is the terror network’s most active and most dangerous branch.

Yemen’s al-Qaida branch has claimed responsibility for dispatching the would-be suicide bomber who failed to blow up a Detroit-bound flight in December 2009 with explosives sewn into his underwear.

Meanwhile in the Yemeni capital Sanna, the forces loyal to embattled President Ali Abdullah Saleh opened fire on protesters and killed least 12 and wounding nearly 300, as per medical officials and witnesses. In a northern district of Sanaa, fighting between Saleh’s forces and anti-regime tribesmen and renegade troops killed four supporters of a tribal leader and two civilians. At least 13 people also were wounded, including six civilians.

“America needs a new policy for dealing with Pakistan. First, we must recognize that the two countries’ strategic interests are in conflict, not harmony, and will remain that way as long as Pakistan’s army controls Pakistan’s strategic policies. We must contain the Pakistani Army’s ambitions until real civilian rule returns and Pakistanis set a new direction for their foreign policy, Riedel wrote in The New York Times.

The generals who run Pakistan have not abandoned their obsession with challenging India, Riedel said, adding that they tolerate terrorists at home, seek a Taliban victory in Afghanistan and are building the world’s fastest-growing nuclear arsenal.

Riedel said it is time to move to a policy of containment, which would mean a more hostile relationship, but stressed that it should be a focused hostility, aimed not at hurting Pakistan’s people but at holding its army and intelligence branches accountable.

“When we learn that an officer from Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence, or ISI, is aiding terrorism, whether in Afghanistan or India, we should put him on wanted lists, sanction him at the United Nations and, if he is dangerous enough, track him down,” he pointed.

“Putting sanctions on organizations in Pakistan has not worked in the past, but sanctioning individuals has — as the nuclear proliferator Abdul Qadeer Khan could attest,” he noted.

For far too long, the US has banked on the Pakistan Army to protect American interests, said the author of “Deadly Embrace: Pakistan, America and the Future of the Global Jihad.”

“Now we need to contain that army’s aggressive instincts, while helping those who want a progressive Pakistan and keeping up the fight against terrorism,” he

Mount Everest is 8,848 metre high.

The solar powered camera will withstand temperatures as low as minus 30 degree celsius and operates during the daytime. The image and the data from the peak can be accessed directly through Internet.

The image taken by the camera is updated every five minutes.

Police say that the injured were taken to the Bolan Medical Complex and those with critical wounds were shifted to Quettas military hospital. Condition of three of the injured is being described as serious.

A large number of Shia Hazaras reached the Bolan Medical Complex and staged a protest against the attack. The bus that was attacked was set on fire by angry protestors. Some protestors also shouted slogans against the police and the government for their failure to prevent attacks on Shias.

No group claimed responsibility for the attack. The outlawed Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, a notorious sectarian group, has claimed responsibility for several recent attacks on Shia Hazaras in Balochistan.

Hazaras stand out from the local population because of their distinct features, have been killed in attacks over the past few months. Almost 30 Hazaras were killed in attacks on a bus carrying Shia pilgrims and another vehicle near Quetta last month. Six more pilgrims were killed within Quetta city. The pilgrims were heading to neighbouring Iran to visit shrines and sacred places.

The Shia Ulema Council, Hazara Democratic Party, Tahaffuz-e-Azadari Council and the local chapter of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement condemned Tuesday’s attack and called for three days of mourning.

The strike had also killed U.S. citizen and al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) propagandist Samir Khan. Awlaki played a key role in advancing AQAP plots targeting the US.

his Travel Alert expires on November 30, 2011.