VIENNA - The United States and Russia have helped ship out nearly 35 pounds of highly enriched uranium from Vietnam as part of a global campaign to reduce the use of nuclear fuel that could also provide material for bombs.
The move - making Vietnam the 11th country from which all highly enriched uranium has been removed in the last four years - was announced during a meeting in Vienna on how to prevent potential bomb ingredients from falling into the wrong hands.
There are about 1,440 tonnes of highly enriched uranium (HEU) and 500 tonnes of plutonium stockpiled and in nuclear arms globally, says the Nuclear Security Governance Experts Group (NSGEG) lobby group. Most of it is under military guard but some for civilian uses is less stringently secured.
Analysts say that radical groups could theoretically build a crude but deadly nuclear weapon if they had the money, technical knowledge and materials needed.
"With this accomplishment (in Vietnam), we will have removed nearly all highly enriched uranium from Southeast Asia," U.S. Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz said. The material, he said, will be downblended into low-enriched uranium to fuel power reactors.
But, "highly enriched uranium still exists in too many places where there are viable alternatives," said Moniz.
Refined uranium fuels nuclear energy reactors but, if processed further, can also form the fissile core of nuclear bombs. Highly-enriched uranium has traditionally been used for research reactors, making such plants especially sensitive.
The first uranium shipment from Vietnam's Dalat Nuclear Research Institute to Russia, where it originally came from, took place six years ago and there was a second delivery this month, Russian envoy Grigory Berdennikov said.
The U.N. nuclear agency and Canada also provided assistance.
In the previous such case, the White House said in April that the United States and its allies secured 150 pounds of highly enriched uranium from the Czech Republic.
Obtaining weapons-grade fissile material poses the biggest challenge for militant groups, so it must be kept secure both at civilian and military facilities, experts say.
A fairly simple-to-design bomb would require about 50-60 kg of highly enriched uranium, the NSGEG said. More sophisticated devices would need less material, experts say.
The United States is working with other countries to "implement technologies to minimize and eventually eliminate the civilian use" of HEU, Moniz said.
He also said he had asked Japanese officials during the week-long nuclear security conference in Vienna "of how the planning is going to manage plutonium stocks" in the country.
But Japan's plans for a major nuclear fuel reprocessing facility - which would yield plutonium for the recycling of spent reactor fuel - is "clearly a sovereign choice in terms of how Japan operates its fuel cycle", he said.
In May, the Wall Street Journal said Japan was preparing to start up the Rokkasho facility over the objections of the U.S. administration, which it said fears the move may stoke a broader race for nuclear technologies and even weapons in North Asia and the Middle East. Japanese officials have said the plutonium would strictly be used for power generation, the WSJ added.
Related:?Vietnam-era P.O.W.s reunite at Nixon Library
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CAIRO (AP) ? Security officials say suspected Islamists have killed three protesters in the southern city of Assiut, taking to four the number of people killed on a day of massive protests demanding the ouster of Egypt's president.
The officials said Islamists on a motorbike opened fire on protesters outside the local government building in Assiut, killing one and wounding seven. Enraged by the killing, protesters marched to the office of the Freedom and Justice party, political arm of President Mohammed Morsi's Muslim Brotherhood.
Gunmen inside the building opened fire, killing at least two, according to the officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media.
A protester in Beni Suef was killed earlier outside the local headquarters of the Freedom and Justice party.
DUBAI (Reuters) - HSBC Holdings said on Tuesday it is considering selling its majority stake in Dar Es Salaam Investment Bank, which has made it the main international lender in Iraq.
There has been speculation in the Iraqi banking market about the 70.1 percent holding for some time and Simon Cooper, HSBC's chief executive for the Middle East and North Africa, told reporters in April its presence in Iraq was under review.
"Following a strategic review, it was decided to explore options for the disposal of HSBC's shareholding in DES (Dar Es Salaam)" the lender said in a regulatory filing in London, adding it would not participate in a proposed capital increase for DES.
As part of a three-year global restructuring, HSBC has cut retail banking business in some Middle Eastern nations and merged its operations in Oman with a local bank. It has also scaled back its Islamic banking operations.
Selling its DES stake could be complicated by the domination of Iraq's banking sector by two state-owned lenders - Rafidain and Rashid - with the rest divided among a large number of small players.
Iraq's security and political problems have put many global lenders off operating in the country, despite the agreed potential of its emerging banking system.
However, Standard Chartered has said it hopes to open branches in the country this year and Citigroup Inc said on Monday it would open a representative office in Baghdad.
Some Middle Eastern lenders have operations in Iraq, including Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank and Qatar National Bank . Lebanon's Bank Audi said it would launch in Iraq in 2013.
DES, which focuses on corporate and consumer banking and has 14 branches in Iraq, has had a partnership with HSBC since October 2005.
Speculation that HSBC might pull out of Iraq had been fed by the absence of its name on a $1.35 billion initial share sale of telecom firm Asiacell in January, a deal in which it had been due to be a bookrunner.
(Reporting by Brenton Cordeiro in Bangalore; Writing by David French in Dubai; Editing by Ruth Pitchford)
CINCINNATI (AP) ? An aerobatic pilot and a wing walker killed in a fiery crash at an air show over the weekend had clean safety records, according to Federal Aviation Administration records released Monday, when new details emerged about the lives and love stories of the fallen performers.
Neither wing walker Jane Wicker, who had a pilot's license, nor pilot Charlie Schwenker had accidents in the past or was disciplined for any reason, FAA spokesman Roland Herwig said the agency records show. The information was released as the result of a public records request by The Associated Press.
Wicker and Schwenker, both of Virginia, were killed Saturday in a crash captured on video and witnessed by thousands of horrified spectators at the Vectren Air Show near Dayton. Wicker was performing a stunt on the wing of the plane when it suddenly went down, exploding on impact. Federal aviation officials are investigating the crash.
Wicker, a 44-year-old divorced mother of two teenage boys, was engaged to be married next year on top of an airplane. Her fiance, a pilot and airplane mechanic she met three years ago, was learning how to wing walk himself for what the pair called "the world's most unusual wedding," according to a website on which they talk of how they met, how he proposed in Las Vegas and their plans.
"Their story has just begun and a lifetime of adventure is in store for this couple," according to the site wingwalkwedding.com. "Their future looks loftier every day."
Schwenker, 64, would have celebrated his nine-year wedding anniversary on Tuesday. His wife, Susan Gantz, said it was love at first sight when they went on a blind date 20 years ago. She said her husband was "the most amazing human being."
"From the day we met, we knew," Gantz said through tears. "We knew that it was something way, way special. He knew it, and I knew it. I felt like I'd known him my whole entire life."
Gantz, a nurse who loves gardening, said she and her husband loved going on long walks with their dog, Tucker. Schwenker would stare up at birds and planes in the sky, Gantz at all the flora and fauna along the way.
"I'm the earth person; he was the sky person," Gantz said.
She said Schwenker, a longtime ski patrolman and a civil engineer passionate about conserving and providing safe water, was no daredevil but an exacting pilot who took no unmeasured risks.
"When you see these guys it seems really risky, but they are the most careful, cautious, safety-conscious people you'll ever meet," Gantz said. "If the plane didn't sound right, if something was off, he wouldn't fly.
"I absolutely know something went wrong with the plane," she said.
Friends and family were working on planning funerals. Also planned for Schwenker was a celebration of his life that will include a flyover, his wife said.
Wicker is the third wing walker to die in two years.
From 1975 to 2010, just two wing walkers were killed in the United States, one in 1975 and another in 1993, said John Cudahy, president of the Leesburg, Va.-based International Council of Air Shows.
In 2011, Todd Green fell 200 feet to his death at an air show in Michigan while performing a stunt in which he grabbed the landing gear of a helicopter. That year, Amanda Franklin died two months after being badly burned in a plane crash during a performance in South Texas when the engine lost power. The pilot, her husband, Kyle Franklin, survived.
Cudahy said the recent spike in deaths appears to be a coincidence.
"It's not entirely an anomaly but not quite as dangerous as it would appear to be," Cudahy said.
It's too early to say whether Saturday's crash will lead to any changes in already high safety standards among wing walkers and their pilots, he said.
___
Associated Press writer Verena Dobnik in New York contributed to this report.
___
Follow Amanda Lee Myers on Twitter at https://twitter.com/AmandaLeeAP
Edward Snowden may now be far from Hong Kong, but the South China Morning Post has just revealed more details from an interview he granted on June 12th while he was still there. According to the paper, Snowden reportedly said that he took a job with NSA-contractor Booz Allen Hamilton in order to gather additional evidence about the spy agency's activities. "My position with Booz Allen Hamilton granted me access to lists of machines all over the world the NSA hacked," he said. "That is why I accepted that position about three months ago." He reportedly further said "correct on Booz," when asked if he specifically went to Booz Allen to gather evidence of surveillance. As the paper notes, Snowden also said that he took pay cuts "in the course of pursuing specific work" in an online Q&A with The Guardian last week, and he's also indicated that he has more information he intends to leak, saying that he'd like to "make it available to journalists in each country to make their own assessment."
Computer models shed new light on sickle cell crisisPublic release date: 24-Jun-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Kevin Stacey kevin_stacey@brown.edu 401-863-3766 Brown University
PROVIDENCE, R.I. [Brown University] Using powerful computer models, researchers from Brown University have shown for the first time how different types of red blood cells interact to cause sickle cell crisis, a dangerous blockage of blood flow in capillaries that causes searing pain and tissue damage in people with sickle cell disease.
The models showed that the rigid, crescent-shaped red blood cells that are the hallmark of sickle cell disease don't cause these blockages on their own. Instead, softer, deformable red blood cells known as SS2 cells start the process by sticking to capillary walls. The rigid sickle-shaped cells then stack up behind the SS2s, like traffic behind a car wreck.
The findings, published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, could provide a way to evaluate drug treatments aimed at easing or preventing sickle cell crisis, also known as vaso-occlusion.
"This is the first study to identify a specific biophysical mechanism through which vaso-occlusion takes place," said George Karniadakis, professor of applied mathematics at Brown and the study's senior author. "It was a surprising result because the common wisdom was that it was just the sickle cells that block the capillary."
Sickle cell disease is a genetic condition that affects an estimated 75,000 to 100,000 people in the United States, mostly of African or Hispanic descent. Abnormal hemoglobin, the protein that enables red blood cells to carry oxygen, causes sickle cells to acquire their crescent shape and rigidity. That elongated shape and inability to bend were thought to be the reason sickle cells caused blockages in capillaries.
But while sickle-shaped cells are the hallmark of the disease, they're not the only type of red blood cell present in people with the condition. Research from the 1980s found that there are actually four types of sickle red blood cells, and not all of them are rigid and sickle-shaped. One cell type, the SS2 cell, retains the round shape and the soft malleability of normal red blood cells.
"They look like healthy cells," Karniadakis said, "except they're sticky."
The SS2 cells have receptors on their membranes that cause them to adhere to the walls of blood vessels. Sickle-shaped cells have those same sticky proteins, but Karniadakis's model showed that the SS2 cells are much more likely to get stuck. "Because [SS2 cells] are deformable, they have a larger contact area with the vessel wall, and so they stick better," Karniadakis said.
Once those cells become stuck, they effectively make the vessel diameter smaller, causing the rigid sickle-shaped cells to get stuck behind them.
The models, based on experimentally derived data on real cells, allow the researchers to manipulate the cells' characteristics to see which ones cause blood blockages. For example, if the researchers reduced the stickiness or softness of the SS2 cells, blockages failed to form. Likewise, if they reduced the rigidity of the sickle-shaped cells, blood kept flowing. It's the two conditions working in tandem that causes the blockages, but the SS2 cells are the ones that start the cascade.
"In the end the rigid sickle cells are really playing a secondary role because the causality starts with the deformable cells that stick to the wall," Karniadakis said.
The researchers hope that the models could be used to evaluate drugs aimed at treating sickle cell crisis.
"If a drug is trying to target the cells' adhesive properties, or if it's trying to make cells more flexible, we can test them and see if they prevent occlusion in the model," Karniadakis said.
###
The first author on the paper is Huan Lei, a postdoctoral researcher in applied mathematics at Brown. The work was funded by the National Institutes of Health (R01HL094270) and the new Collaboratory on Mathematics for Mesocopic Modeling of Materials (CM4), supported by the Department of Energy. Computations were made possible by a DOE/Innovative and Novel Computational Impact on Theory and Experiment Award.
Editors: Brown University has a fiber link television studio available for domestic and international live and taped interviews, and maintains an ISDN line for radio interviews. For more information, call (401) 863-2476.
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AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
Computer models shed new light on sickle cell crisisPublic release date: 24-Jun-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Kevin Stacey kevin_stacey@brown.edu 401-863-3766 Brown University
PROVIDENCE, R.I. [Brown University] Using powerful computer models, researchers from Brown University have shown for the first time how different types of red blood cells interact to cause sickle cell crisis, a dangerous blockage of blood flow in capillaries that causes searing pain and tissue damage in people with sickle cell disease.
The models showed that the rigid, crescent-shaped red blood cells that are the hallmark of sickle cell disease don't cause these blockages on their own. Instead, softer, deformable red blood cells known as SS2 cells start the process by sticking to capillary walls. The rigid sickle-shaped cells then stack up behind the SS2s, like traffic behind a car wreck.
The findings, published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, could provide a way to evaluate drug treatments aimed at easing or preventing sickle cell crisis, also known as vaso-occlusion.
"This is the first study to identify a specific biophysical mechanism through which vaso-occlusion takes place," said George Karniadakis, professor of applied mathematics at Brown and the study's senior author. "It was a surprising result because the common wisdom was that it was just the sickle cells that block the capillary."
Sickle cell disease is a genetic condition that affects an estimated 75,000 to 100,000 people in the United States, mostly of African or Hispanic descent. Abnormal hemoglobin, the protein that enables red blood cells to carry oxygen, causes sickle cells to acquire their crescent shape and rigidity. That elongated shape and inability to bend were thought to be the reason sickle cells caused blockages in capillaries.
But while sickle-shaped cells are the hallmark of the disease, they're not the only type of red blood cell present in people with the condition. Research from the 1980s found that there are actually four types of sickle red blood cells, and not all of them are rigid and sickle-shaped. One cell type, the SS2 cell, retains the round shape and the soft malleability of normal red blood cells.
"They look like healthy cells," Karniadakis said, "except they're sticky."
The SS2 cells have receptors on their membranes that cause them to adhere to the walls of blood vessels. Sickle-shaped cells have those same sticky proteins, but Karniadakis's model showed that the SS2 cells are much more likely to get stuck. "Because [SS2 cells] are deformable, they have a larger contact area with the vessel wall, and so they stick better," Karniadakis said.
Once those cells become stuck, they effectively make the vessel diameter smaller, causing the rigid sickle-shaped cells to get stuck behind them.
The models, based on experimentally derived data on real cells, allow the researchers to manipulate the cells' characteristics to see which ones cause blood blockages. For example, if the researchers reduced the stickiness or softness of the SS2 cells, blockages failed to form. Likewise, if they reduced the rigidity of the sickle-shaped cells, blood kept flowing. It's the two conditions working in tandem that causes the blockages, but the SS2 cells are the ones that start the cascade.
"In the end the rigid sickle cells are really playing a secondary role because the causality starts with the deformable cells that stick to the wall," Karniadakis said.
The researchers hope that the models could be used to evaluate drugs aimed at treating sickle cell crisis.
"If a drug is trying to target the cells' adhesive properties, or if it's trying to make cells more flexible, we can test them and see if they prevent occlusion in the model," Karniadakis said.
###
The first author on the paper is Huan Lei, a postdoctoral researcher in applied mathematics at Brown. The work was funded by the National Institutes of Health (R01HL094270) and the new Collaboratory on Mathematics for Mesocopic Modeling of Materials (CM4), supported by the Department of Energy. Computations were made possible by a DOE/Innovative and Novel Computational Impact on Theory and Experiment Award.
Editors: Brown University has a fiber link television studio available for domestic and international live and taped interviews, and maintains an ISDN line for radio interviews. For more information, call (401) 863-2476.
[ | E-mail | Share ]
?
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
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Public release date: 24-Jun-2013
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