London-based oil executive linked to 9/11 hijackers

Anthony Summers, Neil Tweedie and Dan Christensen 
The Telegraph
February 20, 2012

Abdulaziz al-Hijji and his wife Anoud left three cars at their luxurious home in a gated community in Sarasota, Florida — one of them new — and flew to Saudi Arabia in August 2001. The refrigerator was full of food; furniture and clothing were left behind; and the swimming pool water was still circulating.

Security records of cars passing through a checkpoint [...]

Ohio woman loses appeal on ‘White Only’ pool sign

From Reuters:

A Cincinnati landlord found to have violated state anti-discrimination laws after she hung a “white only” sign outside her swimming pool lost an appeal with the Ohio Civil Rights Commission on Thursday.

The ruling clears the way for the case to be referred to the state attorney general’s office for possible state civil charges and the possibility of being forced to pay compensatory and punitive damages.

The commission ruled the sign, [...]

CONFIRMED: No. 4 rector’s spent nuke fuel rods damaged

TOKYO, April 14, Kyodo

Some of the spent nuclear fuel rods stored in the No. 4 reactor building of the crisis-hit Fukushima Daiichi power plant were confirmed to be damaged, but most of them are believed to be in sound condition, plant operator Tokyo Electric Power Co. said Wednesday.

The firm known as TEPCO said its analysis of a 400-milliliter water sample taken Tuesday from the No. [...]

Estimated consequences of spent fuel pool release

by Plato

 

http://www.theoildrum.com/node/7751#comment-787554

Two extracts from the pdf at http://www.osti.gov/bridge/purl.cover.jsp?purl=/510336-qmwPBP/webviewable/

section 3.1:  Configuration 1 – Hot Fuel in the Spent Fuel Pool

“The end of Configuration 1 has been defined as the decay time that is necessary to ensure that the fuel rod cladding remains intact given a loss of all spent fuel pool water.  The previous study7  defined 650°C as a maximum temperature for cladding integrity.  The Workshop on [...]

My order of magnitude calcs were about right:

by Plato

http://resources.nei.org/documents/japan/Used_Fuel_Pools_Key_Facts.pdf

 

* The systems that cool and maintain water levels in the pools are designed to withstand severe events. If these systems are unable to function, the heat generated by the used fuel would result in a slow increase in the temperature of the spent fuel pool water. The operating temperature of the pools is typically around 40 degrees C or 100 [...]

Joke of the day: Obama’s Future?

by Howard

One day in the future, Barack Obama has a heart-attack and dies.

He immediately goes to H-LL, where the devil is waiting for him.

“I don’t know what to do here,” says the devil. “You are on my list, but I

have no room for you. You definitely have to stay here, so I’ll tell you

what I’m going to do. I’ve got a couple of folks here who weren’t quite as

bad as [...]