Confidential UN Report Exposes Lazarus Group’s $147.5M Stolen Crypto Transfer to North Korea

Author: Chayanika Deka 

Last Updated May 19, 2024


A UN report shows that North Korean hackers sent millions of stolen cryptocurrency through Tornado Cash last year.

A confidential United Nations report obtained by Reuters reveals that North Korea’s notorious cybercriminal group known as the Lazarus Group transferred millions of stash of stolen cryptocurrency back to the Asian country last year.

In March 2023, these North Korean hackers illicitly took $147.5 million worth of cryptocurrency from HTX, a crypto exchange owned by TRON founder Justin Sun. A year later, they funneled the funds into the isolated nation using the sanctioned crypto mixer Tornado Cash.

North Korea’s Cyber Warfare

According to a report submitted last week, the monitors told a United Nations Security Council (UNSC) sanctions committee that they had been probing 97 suspected North Korean cyberattacks on cryptocurrency firms between 2017 and 2024, valued at approximately $3.6 billion.

The monitors also reported that North Korean IT workers abroad earn significant income for their country based on information from U.N. member states and private companies. They were also looking into a New York Times report from February 6, which claimed that Russia had released $9 million out of $30 million in frozen North Korean assets and had permitted Pyongyang to open an account at a Russian bank in South Ossetia, facilitating better access to international banking networks.

The Lazarus Group and other North Korean hackers have executed some of the most lucrative hacks in the crypto and DeFi sectors, and Tornado Cash has been their go-to tumbler.

In 2022, the US sanctioned Tornado Cash, accusing it of aiding North Korea. In 2023, two of its co-founders were charged with facilitating over $1 billion in money laundering, including for a cybercrime group associated with North Korea.
North Korea’s Diverse Targets in $1B Crypto Theft

An earlier report released by the UNSC revealed that North Korea acquired 50% of its foreign exchange earnings from cyberattacks. The nation expanded its targeting of cryptocurrency platforms in 2023, hitting more than ever before.

However, the total amount stolen was lower compared to 2022, according to Chainalysis. Despite this decrease, the number of hacks reached a record high of 20, coinciding with a general downturn in the crypto market.

In 2023, the blockchain analysis firm estimated that the total stolen cryptocurrency amounted to just over $1 billion. Notably, North Korean hackers concentrated on DeFi, stealing approximately $429 million in the process. They also targeted centralized services, exchanges, and wallet providers, where they pilfered $150 million, $330.9 million, and $127 million, respectively.

DNA Reveals How German Cockroaches Came to Dominate the World

A new paper looks at the genes of the most common cockroach species, tracing its historical journey alongside humans, from Asia to the Middle East, Europe and beyond

Will Sullivan
Daily Correspondent

May 22, 2024 

German cockroaches took advantage of human globalization to spread all over the world. Schellhorn / ullstein bild via Getty Images


The German cockroach lives not in the wild, but in human buildings across the globe. The widespread species is the world’s most prevalent cockroach, but scientists have been unsure where it originally came from.

In a new study of German cockroach genetics published Monday in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, researchers map the spread of the pest over the last couple millennia. As humans increasingly traveled between continents, cockroaches tagged along.

“The German cockroach can’t even fly,” Qian Tang, lead author of the study and an evolutionary biologist at Harvard University, tells National Geographic’s Jason Bittel. “They hitchhike in human vessels around the world.”

As a result, tracing the history of the prolific pest is “not just an insect story,” as Stephen Richards, who studies insect genes at the Baylor College of Medicine and did not contribute to the findings, tells Adithi Ramakrishnan of the Associated Press (AP). “It’s an insect and humanity story.”

German cockroaches were first recorded in Europe around 250 years ago. Armies in eastern Europe discovered the bugs in their food stores during the Seven Years’ War between 1756 and 1763, the study authors write in the Conversation.

The armies each named the bug after their enemies—Russian soldiers on one side of the conflict called it the “Prussian cockroach,” while the British and Prussian forces dubbed it the “Russian cockroach.” Ultimately, the Swedish biologist Carl Linnaeus named the species Blattella germanica in 1767, after the specimens he happened to collect from Germany.

Historical records have indicated that German cockroaches spread from Europe between the late 19th and 20th centuries. But the species’ closest relatives are in Africa and Asia, not in Europe.

All this historical finger-pointing and conflicting information—along with the cockroach’s lack of natural habitat in the wild—has left scientists at a loss.

“Its origin has been a mystery,” Edward Vargo, a co-author of the study and urban entomologist at Texas A&M University, tells the Washington Post’s Dino Grandoni.

To solve this puzzle of the cockroach’s beginnings, the researchers studied the genes of 281 German cockroaches from 17 different countries. First, they confirmed that the German cockroach evolved from the Asian cockroach Blattella asahinai around 2,100 years ago. This species looks similar to the German cockroach, but it can fly—and it is attracted to light rather than scuttling away from it.

The team suggests that, when humans cleared their natural habitat in India or Myanmar, the cockroaches adapted to live in human settlements, then evolved into a new species.

“We have long suspected that the Asian cockroach is actually the ancestor for the German cockroach, but this paper pretty much nails it,” Chow-Yang Lee, an urban entomologist at the University of California, Riverside, who was not involved with the work, says to National Geographic. “It’s extremely exciting.”

The genomic analyses also indicated German cockroaches spread west to the Middle East around 1,200 years ago. They could travel in soldiers’ bread baskets, and the study authors suggest that commercial and military activities of the Islamic Umayyad or Abbasid Caliphates allowed the bugs to expand their territory. Later, around 390 years ago, the cockroaches spread east, likely due to European colonial commerce between South and Southeast Asia.

It wasn’t until just 270 years ago that the bugs entered Europe, according to the researchers’ estimates, and they spread to the rest of the world in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. This timeline is supported by historical records.

As technological advancements allowed for speedier travel, cockroaches could spread across greater distances with global trade. Then, indoor heating and plumbing enabled their survival in colder areas.

Lee tells the New York Times’ Sofia Quaglia that the work is a “landmark study.”

Further genomic research could help scientists to better understand the cockroaches’ spread and the evolution of their resistance to insecticides, which could, in turn, lead to better pest management.

Cockroach infestations are “a big public health concern, especially in low-income housing where the treatments for German cockroaches leave a lot to be desired,” Vargo tells the Washington Post.



Will Sullivan is a science writer based in Washington, D.C. His work has appeared in Inside Science and NOVA Next.

UK
North East NHS healthcare assistants begin five-day strike


By Michael Robinson

NHS workers launched their third round of strikes today (May 20) as they continue to protest against ‘unfair’ wages.

This is the latest action taken since their 24-hour strike in March and 72-hour stoppage in April.


The strike action will see staff continue to campaign to move to a wage band which “more accurately reflects” their work and secure a “fair” back pay settlement.

In an open letter, the union’s Northern regional secretary, Clare Williams, called on the trusts to negotiate with them.

She said: “UNISON is at a loss as to why the trust does not want to show it values staff by agreeing to meet UNISON to find a resolution to this dispute.

“UNISON members have shown they have been working above their grade for many years and quite reasonably are just asking to have this work recognised and for them to be treated with respect.“


A joint statement from the trusts on the latest strike action said: "The role healthcare assistants play on our wards and in the community is much valued by our colleagues and patients.

“We have worked closely with trade union colleagues to move our healthcare assistants to the higher grades where applicable in line with the national profile and have committed to back pay dating back tJuly 2021.


“Patients are asked to attend any appointments as usual, unless we contact them to reschedule.

“Urgent and emergency care will be prioritised to ensure those in life-threatening emergencies can receive the best possible care.

“People can help us to keep A&E free to treat the most serious conditions by accessing help from NHS 111 online for non-life-threatening medical issues.”

COLD WAR 2.0

Pentagon says Russia launched space weapon in path of US satellite


By AFP
May 22, 2024


Space has been a rare arena where Russia and the United States have maintained a degree of cooperation - Copyright ROSCOSMOS/AFP/File Handout

Russia has launched a likely space weapon and deployed it in the same orbit as a US government satellite, the Pentagon said.

“Russia launched a satellite into low Earth orbit that we assess is likely a counter-space weapon presumably capable of attacking other satellites in low Earth orbit,” Pentagon spokesman Air Force Major General Pat Ryder told a press briefing late Tuesday.

The Russian “counter-space weapon” launched on May 16 was deployed “into the same orbit as a US government satellite,” he said.

Ryder added that Washington would continue to monitor the situation and was ready to protect its interests.

“We have a responsibility to be ready to protect and defend the domain, the space domain, and ensure continuous and uninterrupted support to the Joint and Combined Force,” he said.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov declined to comment when asked about reports that Moscow had launched a space weapon.

“I can’t comment on this in any way. We act absolutely in accordance with international law, do not violate anything, and have repeatedly advocated banning any weapons in space,” he told a regular press briefing in Moscow.

“Unfortunately, these initiatives of ours were rejected, including by the USA.”

Earlier Tuesday, Moscow accused the United States of seeking to weaponize space after Washington vetoed a Russian non-proliferation motion at the United Nations.

“They have once again demonstrated that their true priorities in the area of outer space are aimed not at keeping space free from weapons of any kind, but at placing weapons in space and turning it into an arena for military confrontation,” Russian foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said in a statement.



– Rival UN motions –



The world powers have traded accusations over weaponizing space in recent months.

They have proposed rival non-proliferation motions at the UN as part of the spat.

Russia vetoed the US initiative last month, while Moscow’s proposal was blocked by the United States, Britain and France on Monday.

US envoy Robert Wood said Russia’s proposal, which called on all countries to “take urgent measures to prevent for all time the placement of weapons in outer space”, was a distraction and accused Moscow of “diplomatic gaslighting”.

He said that Russia’s “likely” counter-space weapon was “presumably capable of attacking other satellites in low Earth orbit”.

“Russia deployed this new counter-space weapon into the same orbit as a US government satellite,” he said in remarks ahead of Monday’s vote.

“Russia’s May 16 launch follows prior Russian satellite launches likely of counter-space systems to low Earth orbit in 2019 and 2022.”

In February, the White House said Russia was developing an anti-satellite weapon, the existence of which was confirmed after lawmakers warned of an unspecified but serious threat to national security.

Space has been a rare area where the two countries have maintained a degree of cooperation despite a swathe of Western sanctions and dire relations after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Both countries ferry each other’s crew members to and from the International Space Station (ISS), where their astronauts are jointly stationed.

The space weapon spat between Moscow and Washington resurrects the spectre of space being militarized despite the 1967 Outer Space Treaty which forbids countries from deploying “any objects carrying nuclear weapons or any other kinds of weapons of mass destruction” into orbit or outer space.

burs-mtp/lb

US Commerce Department wants a million women in construction industry


A construction site near Battery Park City in New York that overlooks the Statue of Liberty is an example of construction sites that have more women working in construction and skilled-trades jobs after the Commerce Department launched its Million Women in Construction Community Pledge Tuesday. 

File Photo by John Angelillo/UPI 

May 21 (UPI) -- The U.S. Department of Commerce launched its Million Women in Construction Community Pledge Tuesday to encourage more construction companies to hire more women.

Federal investment is creating a construction boom across the country that is increases job opportunities for construction and trade workers, Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo said in an online announcement.

"Women make up less than 11% of jobs in construction and only 4% in skilled trades," Raimondo said.

"Many of these are good-paying, quality jobs you can get without a college degree," Raimondo said. "Women deserve equal opportunity for these jobs."

She said an "industrywide commitment" is needed to achieve the goal of putting a million women to work in construction and skilled-trades positions on construction sites.

"I'm calling on everyone -- contractors, labor unions [and] trade organizations -- to join our community pledge to ... overcome barriers faced by women and underserved communities in construction and the trades," Raimondo said.

Representatives of seven of the nation's largest construction firms have signed on to the pledge.

Those entities are Baker Construction, Gilbane Building Co., McKissack & McKissack, Mortenson, Power Design, Suffolk and Shawmut Design and Construction.

The initiative comes as the number of women employed in the construction industry is among the highest with 1.3 million working in various positions.

About 40% of women employed in the construction industry work in management or office positions while 2% work in production, transportation or materials movement.

About half of female construction workers have children under age 18, including about 22% with children younger than age 6.

Stellantis CEO: electric vehicle tariffs are a trap

By Joseph White and Christoph Steitz

May 22, 2024

Stellantis CEO Carlos Tavares poses in front of the Ram 1500 Revolution electric concept pickup truck during a Stellantis keynote address at CES 2023, an annual consumer electronics trade show, in Las Vegas, Nevada, U.S. January 5, 2023. REUTERS/Steve Marcus Purchase Licensing Rights, opens new tab

Summary

Companies

Tavares: European auto sector is in Darwinian period

Tavares: Chinese OEMs have 30% cost edge

Chinese OEMs on track to take 10% market share in Europe

Brussels set to decide in June on provisional tariffs

MUNICH, May 22 (Reuters) - Stellantis (STLAM.MI), opens new tab expects a major battle with Chinese rivals in the European market for electric vehicles, warning of significant consequences for jobs and production as a result, the group's Chief Executive Carlos Tavares said on Wednesday.

The comments in an interview with Reuters are among the CEO's most strongly worded yet as tensions among Beijing, Brussels and Washington over EV trade grow. The EU is expected to decide next month on whether to follow the U.S. in imposing additional tariffs on Chinese carmakers.

U.S. officials said Wednesday they plan to hit Chinese made EVs and EV materials with duties up to 100% by Aug. 1.
Tavares said tariffs on Chinese vehicles imported to Europe and the United States are "a major trap for the countries that go on that path" and will not allow Western automakers to avoid restructuring to meet the challenge from lower cost Chinese manufacturers.
The European Commission will unveil an initial decision on potential tariffs on Chinese EV imports on June 5. China has been threatening counter tariffs.

"When you fight against the competition to absorb 30% of cost competitiveness edge in favour of the Chinese, there are social consequences. But the governments, the governments of Europe, they don't want to face that reality right now," Tavares said.
Tavares said that tariffs would only fuel inflation in the regions where they are imposed, potentially impacting sales and production.
"We are not talking about a Darwinian period, we are in it," Tavares said at a Reuters Events Automotive Europe conference in Munich, adding the price battle with Asian rivals would be "very tough". bout twice the size of the Netherlands, where I live.

"This is not going to be easy for the dealers. It's not going to be easy for the suppliers. It's not going to be easy for the OEMs. As we know in Europe, everybody is talking about change as long as change is for somebody else."
Italy's nationalist government has been pressing Stellantis to commit to building 1 million vehicles a year in the country, up from 750,000 last year. Tavares did not respond specifically to a question about Italy's demand, but outlined the overcapacity looming over the European auto sector.

Chinese automakers are already on track to sell 1.5 million vehicles in Europe, equivalent to a 10% market share and up to 10 assembly plants worth of production, Tavares said.
"If we let the share of the Chinese OEMs grow ... then it's obvious that you are going to create an overcapacity, unless you fight against that competition," Tavares said.
Tavares said Stellantis is in "very rewarding discussions" with labour unions at its European operations: "Most of the time they agree with us in terms of what is the risk that we are facing and how we should go through that period."

Stellantis last week announced it would start selling EVs of its Leapmotor (9863.HK), opens new tab Chinese partner outside China during this year, starting form Europe in September.

The Stellantis-Leapmotor joint venture, the first one between a Western and a Chinese carmaker designed to sell and produce EVs from a Chinese manufacturer outside China, will help the Franco-Italian group expand its global offerings of budget vehicles.
"We will try to be Chinese ourselves, which means instead of being purely defensive vis-à-vis the Chinese offensive, we want to be part of the Chinese offensive," Tavares said.

Actors union backs Scarlett Johansson after claim of voice misuse by Sam Altman’s OpenAI

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has since clarified that the voice belongs to a different professional actress and has removed it from the company's products.


Pranav Dixit

Updated May 22, 2024

Scarlett Johansson

The Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA) has voiced its support for actress Scarlett Johansson following her concerns over the use of a voice in OpenAI’s new GPT-4o system. Johansson claimed the voice, belonging to a persona named "Sky", bore a striking resemblance to her own, despite her previous refusal to participate in the project.

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'I was shocked, angered and in disbelief': Scarlett Johansson accuses OpenAI of using AI voice 'eerily similar to hers'

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has since clarified that the voice belongs to a different professional actress and has removed it from the company's products. However, the incident has ignited a larger conversation about the rights of actors in the age of increasingly sophisticated artificial intelligence.

"We thank Ms. Johansson for speaking out on this issue of crucial importance to all SAG-AFTRA members," a spokesperson for the union stated. "We share in her concerns and fully support her right to have clarity and transparency regarding the voice used.”

SAG-AFTRA, which represents approximately 160,000 entertainment and media professionals worldwide, played a pivotal role in recent negotiations with Hollywood studios, securing better pay and increased protections for actors against the unauthorised use of their likenesses through AI.

This recent dispute underscores the growing concerns surrounding the use of AI in entertainment. As technology advances and computer-generated images and sounds become increasingly realistic, the line between human performance and AI replication continues to blur. This raises critical questions about ownership, consent, and compensation for artists.

SAG-AFTRA has affirmed its commitment to protecting its members' rights, stating that it is "strongly championing federal legislation that would protect their voices and likenesses." The union plans to continue engaging with OpenAI and other industry stakeholders to establish clear guidelines and safeguards for performers.

A step too far right? France's RN splits with AfD over SS comments

Issued on: 21/05/2024 - 

04:28 Video by:  Mark OWEN

France's main far-right party said Tuesday it will no longer sit in the EU parliament with the Alternative for Germany (AfD) faction, indicating it had lost patience with the controversies surrounding its German allies. The head of the AfD's list in the polls, Maximilian Krah, had said in a weekend interview with Italian newspaper La Repubblica that someone who had been a member of the SS was "not automatically a criminal". 

Pierre Benazet reports from Brussels.

U.S. Sites with radioactive material more vulnerable as climate change increases wildfire, flood risks

Climate climate change increasingly threatens research laboratories, weapons sites and power plants across the nation that handle or are contaminated with radioactive material or perform critical energy and defense research. 

BY TAMMY WEBBER

AP
May 21, 2024

As Texas wildfires burned toward the nation’s primary nuclear weapons facility, workers hurried to ensure nothing flammable was around buildings and storage areas.

When the fires showed no sign of slowing, Pantex Plant officials urgently called on local contractors, who arrived within minutes with bulldozers to dig trenches and enlarge fire breaks for the sprawling complex where nuclear weapons are assembled and disassembled and dangerous plutonium pits — hollow spheres that trigger nuclear warheads and bombs — are stored.

“The winds can pick up really (quickly) here and can move really fast,” said Jason Armstrong, the federal field office manager at Pantex, outside Amarillo, who was awake 40 hours straight monitoring the risks. Workers were sent home and the plant shut down when smoke began blanketing the site.

Those fires in February — including the largest in Texas history — didn’t reach Pantex, though flames came within 3 miles (5 kilometers). And Armstrong says it’s highly unlikely that plutonium pits, stored in fire-resistant drums and shelters, would have been affected by wildfire.

But the size and speed of the grassland fires, and Pantex’s urgent response, underscore how much is at stake as climate change stokes extreme heat and drought, longer fire seasons with larger, more intense bl

Dozens of active and idle laboratories and manufacturing and military facilities across the nation that use, store or are contaminated with radioactive material are increasingly vulnerable to extreme weather. Many also perform critical energy and defense research and manufacturing that could be disrupted or crippled by fires, floods and other disasters.

There’s the 40-square-mile Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico, where a 2000 wildfire burned to within a half mile (0.8 kilometers) of a radioactive waste site. The heavily polluted Santa Susana Field Laboratory in Southern California, where a 2018 wildfire burned 80% of the site, narrowly missing an area contaminated by a 1959 partial nuclear meltdown. And the plutonium-contaminated Hanford nuclear site in Washington, where the U.S. manufactured atomic bombs.

“I think we’re still early in recognizing climate change and ... how to deal with these extreme weather events,” said Paul Walker, program director at the environmental organization Green Cross International and a former staff member of the House Armed Services Committee. “I think it’s too early to assume that we’ve got all the worst-case scenarios resolved ... (because) what might have been safe 25 years ago probably is no longer safe.”
___

That realization has begun to change how the government addresses threats at some of the nation’s most sensitive sites.

The Department of Energy in 2022 required its existing sites to assess climate change risks to “mission-critical functions and operations,” including waste storage, and to develop plans to address them. It cited wildfires at Los Alamos and Lawrence Livermore national laboratories and a 2021 deep freeze that damaged “critical facilities” at Pantex.

Yet the agency does not specifically consider future climate risks when issuing permits or licenses for new sites or projects, or in environmental assessments that are reviewed every five years though rarely updated. Instead, it only considers how sites themselves might affect climate change — a paradox critics call short-sighted and potentially dangerous.

Likewise, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission considers only historical climate data rather than future projections in licensing decisions and oversight of nuclear power plants, according to a General Accounting Office study in April that recommended the NRC “fully consider potential climate change effects.” The GAO found that 60 of 75 U.S. plants were in areas with high flood hazard and 16 were in areas with high wildfire potential.

“We’re acting like ... (what’s) happening now is what we can expect to happen in 50 years,” said Caroline Reiser, a climate and energy attorney at the Natural Resources Defense Council. “The reality of what our climate is doing has shifted dramatically, and we need to shift our planning ... before we experience more and more of the extreme weather events.”

The National Nuclear Security Administration’s environmental safety and health division, which oversees active DOE sites, will conduct an internal review and convene a work group to develop “crucial” methodologies to address climate risks in permitting, licensing and site-wide assessments, John Weckerle, the division’s director of environmental regulatory affairs, told The Associated Press.

The agency said last year that climate change could “jeopardize the NNSA mission and pose a threat to national security.”

“We all know the climate is changing. Everybody’s thinking about, what effect are we having on the climate?” Weckerle said. “Now we need to flip that on its head and say, ‘OK ... but what do we think is going to happen as a result of climate on a particular site?’”

Assessments before and after projects are built are critical to protecting infrastructure and waste materials, said Dylan Spaulding, a senior scientist at the Union of Concerned Scientists.

“We know that climate change makes it likely that these events will happen with increased frequency, and that brings the likelihood for unprecedented consequences,” Spaulding said. Sites “can be better protected if you are anticipating these problems ahead of time.”
___

One of the most dangerous radioactive materials is plutonium, said Edwin Lyman, director of nuclear power safety at the Union of Concerned Scientists. It can cause cancer, is most dangerous when inhaled, and just a few hundred grams dispersed widely could pose a significant hazard, he said.

Experts say risks vary by site. Most plutonium and other radioactive material is contained in concrete and steel structures or underground storage designed to withstand fire. And many sites are on large tracts in remote areas where risk to the public from a radiation release would be minimal.

Even so, potential threats have arisen.

In 2000, a wildfire burned one-third of the 580-square-mile (1,502-square-kilometer) Hanford site, which produced plutonium for the U.S. atomic weapons program and is considered the nation’s most radioactive place.

Air monitoring detected plutonium in nearby populated areas at levels higher than background, but only for one day and at levels not considered hazardous, according to a Washington State Department of Health report.

The agency said the plutonium likely was from surface soil blown by the wind during and after the fire, though site officials said radioactive waste is buried several feet deep or stored in concrete structures.

Because the Hanford site is fire-prone — with 130 wildfires between 2012 and 2023 — officials say they’re diligent about cutting fire breaks and removing flammable vegetation.

The 2018 Woolsey Fire in California was another wakeup call.

About 150,000 people live within 5 miles (8 kilometers) of the Santa Susana Field Laboratory, a former nuclear power research and rocket-engine testing site.

The fire burned within several hundred feet of contaminated buildings and soil, and about 600 feet (183 meters) from where a nuclear reactor core partially melted down 65 years ago.

The state’s Department of Toxic Substances Control said sampling by multiple agencies found no off-site radiation or other hazardous material attributable to the fire. But another study, using hundreds of samples collected by volunteers, found radioactive microparticles in ash just outside of the lab boundary and at three sites farther away that researchers say were from the fire.

The state ordered demolition of 18 buildings, citing “imminent and substantial endangerment to people and the environment because unanticipated and increasingly likely fires could result in the release of radioactive and hazardous substances.”

It also ordered cleanup of old burn pits contaminated with radioactive materials. Though the area was covered with permeable tarps and did not burn in 2018, the state feared it could be damaged by “far more severe” wildfire, high winds or flooding.

“It’s like these places we think, it’ll never happen,” said Melissa Bumstead, founder and co-director of Parents Against Santa Susana Field Laboratory. “But ... things are changing very quickly.”

Jay Coghlan, executive director of Nuclear Watch New Mexico, said he and others successfully urged federal nuclear security officials to include a wildfire plan in a 1999 final environmental impact statement for the Los Alamos National Laboratory.

The next year, the 48,000-acre (19,000-hectare) Cerro Grande Fire burned 7,500 acres (3,035 hectares) at the laboratory, including structures, and came within a half-mile (0.8 kilometers) of an area with more than 24,000 above-ground containers of mostly plutonium-contaminated waste.

The plan’s hypothetical fire “eerily matched the real fire,” Coghlan said, adding that it “could have been catastrophic,” if containers had been compromised and plutonium become airborne. But the lab had cut fire breaks around the area — and since then, most containers have been shipped to a permanent storage site in southern New Mexico.

Remaining radioactive material — including from the World War II Manhattan Project — now is underground with barriers to prevent leaching, or in containers stored under fire-retardant fabric-and-steel domes with paved floors until it can be processed for disposal.

The amount of radioactive material in each container is kept low to prevent a significant release if it were compromised, said Nichole Lundgard, engineering and nuclear safety program manager at DOE contractor N3B.

The lab also emphasizes fire preparedness, including thinning forests to reduce the intensity of future fires, said Rich Nieto, manager of the site’s wildland fire program.

“What used to be a three-month (fire) season, sometimes will be a six-month season,” he said.
___

Wildfires aren’t the only climate-related risk. Flooding from increasingly intense rainstorms can wash away sediment — especially in areas that have burned. Floods and extreme cold also can affect operations and have forced the shutdown of several DOE sites in recent years.

The Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in Northern California was evacuated during a 2020 wildfire, and last year the lab was forced to shut down for three weeks because of heavy flooding.

The 2000 fire at Los Alamos was followed by heavy rainstorms that washed away sediment with plutonium and other radioactive material.

In 2010, Pantex was inundated with 10 inches (25 centimeters) of rain that forced the plant to shut down, affecting operations for almost a month. The plutonium storage area flooded and corrosion later was found on some containers that’s since “been addressed,” said Armstrong, the field office manager.

In 2017, storms flooded facilities that processed nuclear material and led to power outages that affected a fire alarm control panel.

Then in 2021, Pantex was shut down for a week because of extreme cold that officials said led to “freeze-related failures” at 10 nuclear facilities and other plants. That included failure of a sprinkler head in a radiation safety storage area’s fire suppression system.

Pantex has since adopted freeze-protection measures and a cold weather response plan. And Armstrong says there have been upgrades, including to its fire protection and electrical systems and installation of backup generators.

Other DOE sites also are investing in infrastructure, the nuclear security agency’s Weckerle said, because what once was considered safe now may be vulnerable.

“We live in a time of increased risk,” he said. “That’s just the heart of it (and) ... a lot of that does have to do with climate change.”
___

The Associated Press receives support for nuclear security coverage from the Carnegie Corporation of New York and Outrider Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.


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University of Michigan clears 50 from pro-Palestinian encampment

Three known arrests, two students confirmed hospitalized.

By Chris Benson

May 21 (UPI) -- Campus authorities on Tuesday cleared about 50 protesters from a pro-Palestinian tent encampment at the University of Michigan early Tuesday morning.

The University of Michigan confirmed that just before 6 a.m. EDT, the school's law enforcement began clearing the encampment on the university's Central Campus Diag.

"The university can and must regulate the time, place, and manner of expression to ensure one group's right to protest does not infringe on the rights of others, endanger our community or disrupt the operations of the university," University of Michigan President Santa Ono said a statement Tuesday morning outlining the school's decision to clear and remove the encampment after nearly a month.

In addition to at least three known arrests, two students were confirmed to be hospitalized, according to the student-lead Tahrir Coalition, who said pepper spray was also involved.

Protestors were then seen on social media rallying at the Washtenaw County government building in Ann Arbor.

Up to 200 protesters reportedly inhabited the encampment in the days and hours before. It was first setup weeks ago on April 22 to demand that the university divest itself from Israeli-backed institutions amid the ongoing war in Gaza.

"Following a May 17 inspection by the university fire marshal, who determined that were a fire to occur, a catastrophic loss of life was likely, the fire marshal and Student Life leaders asked camp occupants to remove external camp barriers, refrain from overloading power sources, and stop using open flames," Ono wrote, saying protestors refused to comply, forcing the university to act.

Michigan state police were reportedly seen on campus around the encampment in recent weeks. But local police in Ann Arbor said they were "not involved with the clearing of protesters on the University of Michigan campus and made no arrests connected to the protest."

The university's public safety officials said their officers issued three verbal warnings over a 15-minute period, "asking the approximately 50 people who were in the encampment to leave voluntarily before being subject to arrest," the department said in a statement.

"In recent days, encampment participants have also received numerous outreach attempts from U-M administrators and DPSS leadership, asking them to leave," they said in a news release before 10 a.m.

"The encampment posed safety risks, both to participants and the community at large, and its presence was in violation of policies and regulations," they said, adding that its removal was important "to help maintain the safety and security of the U-M campus community."

In his letter, Ono noted "the disregard for safety directives was only the latest in a series of troubling events centered on an encampment that has always violated the rules that govern the Diag -- especially the rules that ensure the space is available to everyone."

This fresh encampment removal echoes a series of similar events recently at other American universities or college campuses, like New York's Columbia University, that have been calling for Israeli financial divestments in a pattern that extends back to South Africa's apartheid.

But divesting from Israel poses challenges in Michigan since the state has a law prohibiting state contracts with anyone who supports divesting from or boycotting Israel. In Michigan, a 1983 law did call for the state's higher learning institutions to divest from South African-based investments which got initial pushback from the University of Michigan

"Moving forward, individuals will be welcome to protest as they always have at the University of Michigan, so long as those protests don't violate the rights of others and are consistent with university policies meant to ensure the safety of our community," Ono's letter says.

"To be clear, there is no place for violence or intimidation at the University of Michigan. Such behavior will not be tolerated, and individuals will be held accountable."