Italian-Canadians to get formal apology for treatment during Second World War


OTTAWA — Prime Minister Justin Trudeau will issue a formal apology next month for the treatment of Italian-Canadians during the Second World War.

© Provided by The Canadian Press

The government said in a news release that 600 Italian-Canadian men were interned in camps in Canada after Italy allied with Germany and joined the war in 1940.

Some 31,000 other Italian-Canadians were declared enemy aliens.

Trudeau told the House of Commons Wednesday that his government "will right these wrongs" by issuing a formal apology in May.

In 1988, Canada formally apologized and offered $300 million in compensation to Japanese-Canadians, 22,000 of whom were interned in camps during the Second World War.

Trudeau did not say whether there will be compensation for Italian-Canadians.

He announced plans for the apology in response to a question Wednesday from Liberal MP Angelo Iacono.

"During the Second World War, hundreds of Italian-Canadians were interned for the simple reason that they were of Italian heritage," Iacono told the Commons.

"Parents were taken away from their homes, leaving children without their fathers in many cases and families without a paycheque to put food on their tables. Lives and careers, businesses and reputations were interrupted and ruined, and yet no one was held responsible.

"Italian Canadians have lived with these memories for many years and they deserve closure."

Trudeau replied that Canadians of Italian heritage "deal with ongoing discrimination related to mistakes made by our governments of the past that continue to affect them to this day."

"I'm proud to stand up and say that our government will right these wrongs with a formal apology in the month of May."

The government's news release said that in 1939, the Defence of Canada Regulations gave the justice minister the right to intern, seize property and limit activities of Canadian residents born in countries that were at war with Canada.

The regulations clearly targeted Canadians' fear of "the foreign element," and not a single person was ever charged with any crime, the release said.

In 2018, the RCMP issued a statement of regret for their involvement in the internment.

The government's formal apology will pay tribute to and honour the families of each of the 600 interned as an act of respect and an acknowledgment that an injustice happened, the release said.

Canada is home to over 1.6 million Canadians of Italian origin, one of the largest Italian diasporas in the world, and they have made immeasurable contributions to the social, cultural and economic fabric of the country, the release added.

A joint statement from 10 Italian-Canadian members of Parliament, including Justice Minister David Lametti and Immigration Minister Marco Mendicino, said many residents suffered irrevocable harm.

"They may have been Italian by heritage, but they were Canadians first. We as Italian Members of Parliament thank those members before us who brought attention to this injustice and helped bring this apology to fruition for these families in our Italian-Canadian communities."

This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 14, 2021.

SEE LA REVUE GAUCHE - Left Comment: Search results for INTERNMENT 

Canada's migrant farmworkers remain at risk a year into pandemic

By Anna Mehler Paperny

4/14/2021

© Reuters/SHANNON VANRAES FILE PHOTO: Man checks grain bin on a farm in Manitoba, Canada NOTE WELL HE IS NOT WEARING FALL PROTECTION

TORONTO (Reuters) - Pedro, a Mexican migrant worker, knew he had to leave the Ontario cannabis operation where he worked when so many of his coworkers caught COVID-19 that his employer began to house them in a 16-person bunk house alongside the uninfected.

Pedro moved in with friends in the nearby farming town of Leamington, Ontario, at the end of October. He asked to be identified under a pseudonym because he fears that speaking out will affect his chances of employment.

"I didn't know where to go, where to get help. So I was left behind, hopeless," he said, speaking through a translator. About a week later, Pedro landed another job, working with peppers in a greenhouse. Conditions are better, he said.

But he added: "To be honest, I don't think all employers are taking precautions."

Pedro is one of about 60,000 migrant farmworkers - many from Central America and the Caribbean - who come to Canada as part of an annual migration of people that ramps up in spring. They grow and harvest the country's food supply and have continued to work in the midst of a pandemic.

They feed the country and are a crucial part of a C$68.8 billion ($54.8 billion) sector, making up about one-fifth of the country's agricultural workforce, according to the Canadian Federation of Agriculture.

As the pandemic crippled travel last year, agricultural employers were unable to fill one-fifth of the temporary foreign worker positions they needed, costing Canadian farmers C$2.9 billion due to labour shortages, according to research commissioned by the Canadian Agricultural Human Resource Council.

These workers are also uniquely at risk. They live and work in crowded settings, and language barriers coupled with precarious immigration status tied to their employment prevent them from speaking out about unsafe conditions.

Last year they were hit hard by COVID-19, with 8.7% of migrants in Ontario testing positive. This year they are returning as Canada is in the grip of a third wave. While governments and employers say they are taking steps to keep these workers safe, advocates and workers contacted by Reuters say the dangers remain - except that now, those dangers are known.

Graphic on COVID-19 global tracker: https://graphics.reuters.com/world-coronavirus-tracker-and-maps/

SAME CRISIS

Syed Hussan, executive director of the Migrant Workers Alliance for Change, argues the same factors that made workers more vulnerable to COVID-19 last year - crowded workplaces, congregate living, visas that tie them to an employer and make them fearful of speaking out - still exist.

"We are walking into the same crisis yet again, the only difference being that we already know how bad it is."

Keith Currie, vice-president of the Canadian Federation of Agriculture, said employers are doing their best, but some transmission of the virus will occur.

"Because they're living on the farm, they're in contact with each other when they're working ... despite all our efforts, it spreads. Just like it does elsewhere in society."

Some 760 farmworkers have been infected so far this year in Ontario, Canada's most populous province, according to provincial data. Ontario put agriculture workers in Phase 2 of its COVID-19 vaccinations, which begins this month, and has set up a clinic at Toronto’s airport offering vaccines to migrants on arrival.

But advocates worry migrant workers might lack requisite identification, especially if they are undocumented.

Advocates argue not enough is being done to keep these workers safe from the pandemic. They say rules such as the requirement to get - and pay for - a COVID-19 test within 72 hours of coming to Canada place an undue logistical and financial burden on migrants.

Last month the federal government announced new measures meant to protect migrant agricultural workers, including beefed-up inspections.

But the migrants interviewed by Reuters argued what will protect them is more stable status that does not tie them to an employer.

"Hopefully this year, the government of Canada gives us status," said Teresa, a migrant worker from Baja California.

($1 = 1.2559 Canadian dollars)

(Reporting by Anna Mehler Paperny in Toronto; Editing by Denny Thomas and Matthew Lewis)

WITHOUT BLOWING UP!

Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin launches and lands rocket New Shepard, as it prepares to launch people

Michael Sheetz 

4/14/2021

Jeff Bezos' private space company Blue Origin launched and landed the fifteenth test flight of its New Shepard rocket booster and capsule on Wednesday.
Known as NS-15, the mission launched from Blue Origin's private facility in West Texas and marks a "verification step" for the rocket and capsule before flying people, the company said.
The mission reached 348,753 feet altitude, Blue Origin said – or about 106 kilometers, above the internationally recognized boundary of space.

© Provided by CNBC A New Shepard rocket launches on a test flight.

Jeff Bezos' private space company Blue Origin launched and landed the fifteenth test flight of its New Shepard rocket booster and capsule on Wednesday.

The mission did not have passengers on board, although the capsule on top of the rocket is designed to carry as many as six people for future flights. Known as NS-15, the mission launched from Blue Origin's private facility in West Texas and marks a "verification step" for the rocket and capsule before flying people, the company said.

New Shepard is designed to carrying people on a ride past the edge of space, with the capsules on previous test flights reaching an altitude of more than 340,000 feet (or more than 100 kilometers). The capsule spends as much as 10 minutes in zero gravity before returning to Earth, with massive windows to give passengers a view.

The mission on Wednesday reached 348,753 feet altitude, Blue Origin said – or about 106 kilometers, above the internationally recognized boundary of space.

NS-15 is expected to represent the second of two "stable configuration" test flights, CNBC reported in January, after the NS-14 mission featured the debut of a new rocket booster and upgraded capsule. While Blue Origin has only said that the first crewed flights will be "soon," sources told CNBC in January that the company's leadership hopes to launch its first crew on the NS-16 mission.

The company confirmed CNBC's reporting that NS-15 would feature a test of loading and unloading the crew. Blue Origin called this an "astronaut operational exercise," a key step in preparing for launching passengers.

"The primary operations will entail Blue Origin personnel standing in as astronauts entering into the capsule prior to launch. These astronauts will climb the launch tower, get into their seats, buckle their harnesses, and conduct a communications check from their seat with CAPCOM, the Capsule Communicator. The tower operations team will prepare the capsule cabin for launch and then briefly close the capsule hatch. The astronauts will then exit the capsule prior to launch," the company said in a blog post.

© Provided by CNBC Blue Origin founder Jeff Bezos opens the capsule of the new Shepard Rocket after a launch.

After the capsule lands, Blue Origin said its personnel will re-enter the capsule to rehearse opening the hatch and exiting the spacecraft.

Blue Origin rocket passes latest test, sets path for crewed space launches
Eric Mack 

CNET

4/14/2021

© Blue Origin

Blue Origin's crew capsule after a safe landing with Mannequin Skywalker inside.

Blue Origin, the private spaceflight company started by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, performed another test flight of its New Shepard rocket Wednesday, bringing it closer to flying humans to space in a very tangible way.

The 15th launch of New Shepard, dubbed NS-15, started with humans inside the crew capsule, although none of them actually flew on the mission.

On Wednesday morning, Blue Origin went through the motions of driving astronaut stand-ins for the day from its training facility down to the launch pad. There they paused for a photo in front of New Shepard and then climbed the tower and loaded into the capsule.

Audrey Powers, Blue Origin vice president for legal, and engineer Gary Lai, who is responsible for helping lead the design of New Shepard, climbed into the capsule, buckled in and performed a communications check with mission control. The hatch was closed but not latched, as after a few minutes everyone but a dummy named Mannequin Skywalker exited the capsule and departed the landing pad.

Then a long wait ensued. A series of holds that appeared to be related to winds and other weather conditions delayed liftoff of NS-15 until flames finally emerged from the bottom end of the booster at 9:50 a.m. PT (11:50 a.m. PT).

New Shepard then blasted off to the edge of space as the company has successfully done 14 times already. The capsule separated from the rocket booster and continued to climb to a height of 66 miles (106 kilometers) while the booster came in for a successful vertical landing. A few minutes later, the capsule made a soft landing in the west Texas desert with the aid of parachutes. The whole process took just over 10 minutes.

Later, the designated astronauts for the day were set to again get inside the capsule and rehearse opening the hatch and exiting.

Wednesday's mission follows a successful launch and landing in January that included the latest version of the crew capsule, which is identical or at least very close to the one the company's first paying customers will use.

During the pre-launch livestream, Blue Origin's Ariane Cornell provided a little more insight into what the New Shepard flight experience will be like for the company's future paying customers. Those civilian astronauts will arrive at the company's facility in west Texas three days before their flight. They will go through flight training and a dress rehearsal of the launch process before finally climbing into the capsule for the real thing.

The highlight comes a few minutes after launch when the New Shepard capsule separates from the booster and continues to climb. At maximum altitude, passengers will experience three minutes of weightlessness before buckling back in and descending for a soft landing about two miles from the launch pad.

Five years into its testing program, it's not clear when those first commercial flights will happen. The company is calling NS-15 a critical "verification step" prior to flying astronauts.

  

Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin moves closer to passenger launches

William Harwood 

CBS NEWS

4/14/2021


Taking another step toward sending passengers into space, Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin launched an unpiloted New Shepard capsule on a suborbital test flight Wednesday, using astronaut stand-ins before takeoff and after landing to rehearse boarding and egress procedures.

© Blue Origin 041421-launch2.jpg

The company has not yet announced when it plans its first launch with passengers on board or how much tickets might cost. But after 15 unpiloted test flights, the system appears to be on the verge of commercial operations, giving six passengers at a time a few minutes of weightlessness and an out-of-this-world view.

"We're getting very close to sending people up to space and back," said launch commentator Ariane Cornell

.

© Provided by CBS News Blue Origin's New Shepard rocket blasts off from the company's West Texas launch site, kicking off an unpiloted suborbital test flight. / Credit: Blue Origin webcast

To help pave the way, company personnel walked up the launch gantry before liftoff and strapped in aboard the New Shepard capsule just as paying customers will do for an actual flight. The stand-ins tested their communications gear and reviewed launch procedures before exiting to clear the pad for flight.

Wednesday's flight began at 12:51 p.m. ET when the New Shepard rocket's hydrogen-fueled BE-3 engine ignited with a rush of flaming exhaust at Blue Origin's remote Van Horn, Texas, flight test facility.

The stubby rocket quickly climbed away from Launch Site One, steadily accelerating as it consumed propellants and lost weight, reaching a maximum velocity of 2,247 mph before releasing the crew capsule about two minutes and 40 seconds after liftoff.

The capsule then soared to an altitude of 66 miles (348,753 feet), well above the 50-mile-high lower "boundary" of space, before beginning the long plunge back to Earth. Inside, an instrumented test dummy — Mannequin Skywalker — experienced three to five minutes of microgravity before atmospheric deceleration forces set in.

PICTURE PERFECT NO GO BOOM

© Provided by CBS News The New Shepard booster executes a picture-perfect landing after propelling an unpiloted crew capsule to an altitude of 66 miles. / Credit: Blue Origin webcast

The New Shepard booster, meanwhile, homed in on its landing pad, restarting its engine and deploying four short landing legs before settling to an on-target touchdown. The capsule floated to a relatively gentle landing a short distance away, slowed as usual by three large parachutes.

After touchdown, the astronaut stand-ins were expected to re-enter the capsule and rehearse the same post-landing procedures commercial crews will use after their flights.

The New Shepard system is designed to carry space tourists, government and civilian researchers and a variety of payloads to altitudes just above the discernible atmosphere, providing a few minutes of microgravity, along with panoramic views through six large windows.

© Provided by CBS News The Blue Origin crew capsule, carrying an instrumented test dummy, settles toward touchdown to wrap up a sucessful test flight. / Credit: Blue Origin webcast

NASA, the Air Force and the Federal Aviation Administration consider 50 miles to be the dividing line between space and the discernible atmosphere while the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale, an international governing body for aviation-related sports and records, puts the threshold at 100 kilometers, or 62 miles.

The New Shepard capsule routinely exceeds both of those standards.

The launching marked the 15th flight of a New Shepard rocket and capsule since the program's maiden flight six years ago and the second flight of the first Blue Origin booster and capsule dedicated to upcoming commercial astronaut missions.

New Shepard is a strictly suborbital rocket and spacecraft that is not capable of achieving the velocities required to reach orbit. It will compete with Richard Branson's Virgin Galactic suborbital spaceplane for commercial passengers and payloads.

But Blue Origin is developing orbit-class New Glenn rockets that will use a powerful new company-designed engine, the BE-4, to help boost large satellites into orbit. The company has built a huge rocket factory just outside the Kennedy Space Center in Florida to manufacture the rockets and is developing a launch complex at the nearby Cape Canaveral Space Force Station.

The company also is leading a team, one of three, designing a moon lander to carry astronauts to and from the lunar surface in NASA's Artemis program. NASA is expected to award contracts to one and possibly two teams over the next few weeks.

Leaked footage of ‘pyramid-shaped’ UFOs is real, Pentagon says
Josh K. Elliott 11 hrs ago

© Jeremy Corbell/Instagram A flashing, triangular-shaped object is shown through a nightvision camera over the USS Russell, in footage leaked to filmmaker Jeremy Corbell.

Newly leaked video of flashing, triangle-shaped objects that flew over a U.S. warship is real, the Pentagon said, after UFO investigators released the clip and several other puzzling photos online.

The photos and videos were distributed by documentary filmmaker Jeremy Corbell and George Knapp, a Las Vegas-based reporter who has covered UFO-related stories for decades. The leaks include a night-vision video at sea, a series of grainy infrared images and smartphone photos captured from the cockpit of an FA-18 fighter, which had previously been posted online.

Read more: The CIA released thousands of UFO documents online. Here’s how to read them

The Pentagon confirmed in a statement this week that the leaked photos and videos were captured by U.S. navy personnel, though it declined to label them Unidentified Aerial Phenomena (UAPs) — the government's official term for a UFO.

"I can confirm that the referenced photos and videos were taken by Navy personnel," Pentagon spokesperson Susan Gough said in a statement to the Black Vault, a site with a long history of obtaining UFO-related documents through freedom of information laws.

"They confirmed they are all genuine, but won't give their designation," site operator John Greenewald said.

"The UAP (Task Force) has included these incidents in their ongoing examinations," Gough said.

“As we have said before, to maintain operations security and to avoid disclosing information that may be useful to potential adversaries, DOD does not discuss publicly the details of either the observations or the examinations of reported incursions into our training ranges or designated airspace, including those incursions initially designated as UAP.”

Corbell says the video and photos were originally shared at an Office of Naval Intelligence (ONI) briefing on May 1, 2020, and later leaked to him. He says he worked with Knapp to verify the authenticity and context of the footage before releasing it online.

Read more: Pentagon officially releases three leaked ‘UFO’ videos

“These are authentic photos and video from actual military encounters with UFOs — generated to educate high-level intelligence officers within our military on the nature and presentation of the UAP/UFO phenomenon,“ he wrote on his website.

Perhaps the most startling video is the one recorded from the deck of the USS Russell, which appears to show several unidentified flying triangles "flashing" in the clouds off the coast of San Diego. The brief video was shot through a night-vision camera in July of 2019, Corbell says.

"The USS Russell observed and recorded multiple 'pyramid' shaped craft," he wrote.

The video shows a distinctly triangle-shaped object moving through the clouds above the warship. The object joins two other, fainter triangles in the sky before the video ends.

Photos from the second event show a “spherical shaped craft” near the USS Omaha, according to Corbell. The black-and-white, grainy sequence of infrared photos depicts a black circle seemingly descending into the ocean.

Corbell says the object seemed to slip effortlessly into the water instead of making a splash and taking damage upon impact. He adds that the navy sent a submarine to search for wreckage, but they found nothing.

The third event described in the briefings involves a series of photos captured by a weapons systems officer from an FA-18 jet in Virginia on March 4, 2019, Corbell says.

The weapons systems officer snapped photos of three objects that afternoon within a matter of about 20 minutes, according to Knapp, Corbell's collaborator. The objects were described as a "sphere," an "acorn" and a "metallic blimp" in the intelligence briefing, they say.

The nature of all the objects involved remains unknown to the public, despite speculation that they might be of alien origin.

Corbell says the combined trove of footage is evidence that the U.S. Department of Defence is taking UFOs seriously — and that these phenomena are worth exploring in a "rational and transparent" way.

UFOs have long been a taboo subject in the scientific community, and a tongue-in-cheek topic for mainstream news.

Several leaks and Pentagon statements in recent years have added credibility to the discussion, particularly after the U.S. government confirmed that there are some flying objects that it simply cannot identify.

Video: Pilot claims UFO spotted while flying over Arizona

Pentagon officials have taken a more open attitude toward UFOs over the last two years, after studying them in secret for several years. They've confirmed several mysterious videos, and have started encouraging military members to document and report their UAP encounters for safety reasons.

“This is all about frequent incursions into our training ranges by UAPs,” Joe Gradisher, spokesperson for the deputy chief of naval operations for information warfare, told CNN in 2019. “Those incursions present a safety hazard to the safe flight of our aviators and security of our operations.”

The Pentagon announced its official UAP Task Force on Aug. 4 of last year. Its mission is to "detect, analyze and catalogue UAPs that could potentially pose a threat to U.S. national security."

In other words, their job is to identify the strange visitors that keep popping up during military training missions — be they visitors from Russia, China or another world altogether.

Bright fireball meteor explodes over Florida Monday night

Scott Sutherland 

THE WEATHER NETWORK

4/14/2021

Embedded content: https://players.brightcove.net/1942203455001/B1CSR9sVf_default/index.html?videoId=6248903533001

Floridians were treated to a fantastic sight on Monday night, as a bright fireball blazed across the sky and then exploded with a brilliant flash of light.

At around 10:20 p.m. ET on April 12, 2021, our planet had an extremely close encounter with a small space rock on its journey around the Sun. Swept up by Earth's atmosphere, this meteoroid plunged towards the surface, lighting up the sky as it did.

© Provided by The Weather NetworkThis image combines 30 frames from a video shot on the night of April 12, 2021, from Lakeland, FL, just to the southwest of Orlando. It captures the entire path of the fireball that flashed over the area, from beginning to just before it filled the horizon with light as it exploded. Video credit: Joseph Gresham

As of Tuesday afternoon, the American Meteor Society had collected 230 witness reports from the event, from people across the entire Florida peninsula, the Bahamas and even as far away as central Georgia. The exceptionally clear skies over the U.S. Southeast on Monday night would have guaranteed a perfect view for anyone who happened to be looking in the right direction at the time.

By compiling all of these reports and comparing each witness's account of the fireball location and direction of travel, AMS scientists can estimate where it happened. With these fireballs typically occurring very high up in the atmosphere — 30 to 50 kilometres above the surface — it's tough for individual witnesses to accurately judge the meteor's trajectory. The more reports they get, however, the more accurate the AMS estimate will be.

© Provided by The Weather Network

The event map from the American Meteor Society shows the likely trajectory of this fireball. Credit: AMS

This meteor's estimated trajectory puts it travelling from south to north, out over the Atlantic Ocean, about 60-70 kilometres northeast of West Palm Beach.

According to the International Meteor Organization, no major annual meteor showers are happening right now. The next meteor shower this year is the Lyrids, which begins on April 14 and peaks on the night of April 21-22. While this fireball occurred only two days before the shower begins, it's unlikely to be an early Lyrid. At the time of the fireball, the 'radiant' for the Lyrids — the point in the sky where the shower's meteors appear to originate from — was in the northeastern part of the sky.

Thus, this particular fireball was likely a sporadic meteor — one not associated with a known meteor shower.

A LARGE BOULDER THE SIZE OF A SMALL BOULDER

Update: In a post to their Facebook page, NASA Meteor Watch identified the likely cause of this fireball.

They said is was an asteroid fragment over 60 cm wide — about the size of an exercise ball — with a mass estimated at around 400 kg, which hit the atmosphere at a speed of over 60,000 kilometres per hour.

© Provided by The Weather NetworkThis artist's rendition shows a small Earth-impacting asteroid hitting the top of the planet's atmosphere. Credit: Kevin M. Gill, CC BY 2.0

"This translates to a kinetic energy of about 14 tons of TNT," they wrote, "explaining the flashes of light that lit up the sky as the fragment broke apart."

WILL THERE BE METEORITES?

Based on past conversations with meteor scientist Denis Vida at Western University, it's the slower meteoroids — those travelling at less than 30 kilometres per second — that are most likely to result in meteorites hitting the ground. Based on NASA Meteor Watch's calculations, this particular meteoroid was travelling at around 17 km/s. So, some fragments of it probably did reach the surface intact.

However, given that this meteor flashed over water, any meteorites from it are on the bottom of the ocean now.

SEEN FROM SPACE

This fireball was not only bright enough to be seen by witnesses from hundreds of kilometres around, but its explosive flash was also seen from space.

The Geostationary Lightning Mapper (GLM) instrument, on board the GOES-16 geosynchronous weather satellite, routinely monitors cloud-tops for lightning strikes. This sensor will also pick up any other flash of light in its view if that flash is bright enough.

© Provided by The Weather NetworkThe continental view of GOES-16's Geostationary Lightning Mapper picked up the fireball flash at 10:20 p.m. ET on April 12 (02:20 UTC, April 13). The inset image shows a close-up view of the area. Credit: CIRA/NOAA

In this case, the GLM picked up the fireball explosion in almost the exact spot that the AMS estimated.

Read more: Got your hands on a space rock? Here's how to know for sure!
WHAT'S GOING ON HERE?

Out in space, there are likely millions of tiny bits of rock and ice and dust floating around the Sun. These are all leftover pieces from the formation of the solar system over 4.5 billion years ago. As they orbit the Sun, these meteoroids travel at speeds of tens to hundreds of thousands of kilometres per hour. So, if their path happens to intercept Earth, they plunge into the atmosphere at high speed.

© Provided by The Weather Network

As the meteoroid encounters air molecules in its path, it compresses those molecules together. This slows the meteoroid down, and if it compresses the air hard enough, that air will glow. This is the 'meteor' flash that we see.

If these meteoroids are tiny, such as microscopic dust grains, we may not notice them at all. If something more significant — the size of a grain of sand up to a pebble or even larger — passes over places we inhabit, though, they are much more noticeable. The larger and faster-moving the meteoroid is, the brighter the resulting meteor will be. Brighter ones are referred to as fireballs, while the brightest (which usually involve the meteoroid exploding during flight) are often called bolides.

The meteors' colour depends on a few different factors, such as the concentration of gases compressed by the meteoroid and the minerals and metals found in the meteoroid itself.

If a meteoroid is large enough and moving slowly enough as it makes its plunge through the atmosphere, pieces of it can reach the ground intact. If we find these, we call them meteorites.

UN warns that impact of Caribbean volcano could affect other islands

BEEN ACTIVE FOR A WEEK NOW

AFP 

The humanitarian and economic crisis unleashed by the eruption of the La Soufriere volcano on the Caribbean island of Saint Vincent will last months and could extend to nearby islands, a UN official warned Wednesday.

© Handout A NASA Earth Observatory satellite image of the volcano eruption of the La Soufriere Volcano on the Caribbean island of St. Vincent

"It is a crisis that will require a humanitarian response but also a response in terms of rehabilitation" which could last for several months, said Didier Trebucq, the United Nations coordinator for Barbados and the Eastern Caribbean.

© Sofiane OUANES Map locating Saint Vincent's La Soufriere volcano

Trebucq, speaking to reporters in New York via videoconference from Barbados, said that the volcano -- which had not erupted since 1979 -- remains active and every day belches up clouds of ash and smoke after erupting on April 9.

The islands of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines have around 110,000 inhabitants, 20,000 of whom had to be evacuated from their homes.

About 4,000 people have been moved to shelters but "this number is growing," Trebucq said.

On Wednesday a French navy ship, Le Ventose, reached Saint Vincent with water and 75 tonnes of humanitarian aid.

Trebucq said that it was hard to know how long the crisis will last. "Everything will depend on the duration of the volcanic eruptions," he said. "It is possible that it will last a few weeks, it is also possible that it lasts several months."

The eruption will have a medium and long term impact on Saint Vincent as well as nearby islands including Barbados, Antigua and Barbuda, and others.

The French islands of Martinique and Guadeloupe may also be impacted "depending on the direction of the winds and where the volcanic ash is deposited," he said.

In calling for more robust international aid Trebucq noted that hurricane season in the Caribbean is set to begin in two months, and that tourism, the main source of income for the islands, has been severely curtailed by the Covid-19 pandemic.

Saint Vincent and the Grenadines is currently a non-permanent member of the UN Security Council.

prh/ch/dw

South Korea aims to fight Japan's Fukushima decision in world tribunal

By Hyonhee Shin 

© Reuters/POOL FILE PHOTO: South Korean President Moon Jae-in speaks at the National Assembly in Seoul

SEOUL (Reuters) - South Korean President Moon Jae-in ordered officials on Wednesday to explore petitioning an international court over Japan's decision to release water from its Fukushima nuclear plant, his spokesman said, amid protests by fisheries and environmental groups.

Japan unveiled plans on Tuesday to release more than 1 million tonnes of contaminated water into the sea from the plant crippled by a 2011 earthquake and tsunami, starting in about two years after filtering it to remove harmful isotopes.

South Korea strongly protested against the decision, summoning Koichi Aiboshi, Tokyo's ambassador in Seoul, and convening an intra-agency emergency meeting to craft its response.

Moon, at a separate meeting on Wednesday, called for looking into ways to refer Japan's move to the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea, including filing for an injunction, his spokesman Kang Min-seok told a briefing.

Moon also expressed concerns about the decision as Aiboshi presented his credentials, having arrived in South Korea in February for the ambassador's post.

"I cannot but say that there are much concerns here about the decision as a country that is geologically closest and shares the sea with Japan," Moon said, asking Aiboshi to convey such worries to Tokyo, according to Kang.

A series of protests against the move by politicians, local officials, fishermen and environmental activists took place in South Korea on Wednesday, including in front of the Japanese embassy in Seoul and consulates in the port city of Busan and on Jeju island.

A coalition of 25 fisheries organisations staged a rally and delivered a written protest to the embassy, urging Tokyo to revoke the decision and Seoul to ban imports of Japanese fisheries.

"Our industry is on course to suffer annihilating damage, just with people's concerns about a possible radioactive contamination of marine products," it said in a statement.

The progressive minor opposition Justice Party and some 30 anti-nuclear and environmental groups called Japan's move "nuclear terrorism," and said they sent the Japanese embassy a list of signatures of more than 64,000 people opposed to the move collected from 86 countries since February.

(Reporting by Hyonhee Shin; Editing by Christopher Cushing and Raju Gopalakrishnan)

Japanese regulator bans restart at nuclear plant over safety breaches

Justin McCurry in Tokyo 

THE GUARDIAN 4/14/2021

The operator of the wrecked Fukushima nuclear plant has been prevented from restarting its only operable atomic facility after a series of safety breaches, dealing a significant blow to Japanese attempts to resume nuclear power generation.© Provided by The Guardian Photograph: AP

Japan’s nuclear regulator is to issue a “corrective action order” on Wednesday that would ban Tokyo Electric Power (Tepco) from transporting new uranium fuel to its Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear plant in Niigata prefecture or loading fuel rods into its reactors

.

© Photograph: AP The Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear power plant in Niigata prefecture.

The move in effect prevents Tepco from restarting the facility’s seven reactors, which it hopes would turn around its finances a decade after one of its two plants in Fukushima suffered a triple meltdown.


Tepco had hoped to bring two of seven reactors at Kashiwazaki-Kariwa – the world’s biggest nuclear power plant with a capacity of 8,212 megawatts – back online to cut its operating costs by more than $800m (£580m) a year.

In March, however, it was heavily criticised after a series of safety and security breaches came to light, including an unauthorised employee accessing sensitive areas of the facility and a failure to protect nuclear materials.

Media reports said Wednesday’s decision was the first time the nuclear regulation authority – which was formed after the March 2011 disaster – had in effect banned a utility from operating a nuclear power plant.

Tepco has not commented on the move, but its shares fell by almost 4% in afternoon trading in Tokyo. The company has until late September to submit a report to regulators outlining improvements in the way it handles nuclear materials.

The agency will assess the changes before possibly removing the corrective order, a process that could take at least a year.

Tepco has said it can save $827m in fuel costs annually by restarting Kashiwazaki-Kariwa’s No 6 and 7 reactors, which have been offline since at least 2012.

When all seven of its reactors are in operation, the plant can generate enough power for 16m households.

Tepco is facing an enormous bill for decommissioning costs and compensation claims by residents living near the wrecked Fukushima Daiichi plant.

The regulator’s decision came a day after the government announced that Tepco would release more than 1m tonnes of contaminated water from Fukushima Daiichi into the Pacific Ocean, prompting an angry response from local fishers and neighbouring countries.

Reuters contributed to this article

Disaster-ready Swiss rethink iodine handouts as nuclear plant offline

© Reuters/ARND WIEGMANN FILE PHOTO: Swiss energy company BKW's Muehleberg nuclear power plant and the Aare river are seen in Muehleberg

ZURICH (Reuters) - The closure of a nuclear power plant near Bern in Switzerland is disrupting more than energy supplies: it has also led to a rethink of how the nation doles out iodine tablets for people to swallow in the event of an atomic catastrophe.

For years, the country at 10-year intervals has handed out potassium iodide tablets to residents within 50 kilometres (31.07 miles) of the nuclear stations that historically have accounted for a quarter of Swiss energy production.

Businesses also get a separate supply.

Now the country has shuttered its 355-megawatt Muehleberg power station near Bern and is dismantling the reactor that operated from 1972 to 2019, the next round of tablets due to be handed out come 2024 - the old ones are due to expire then - must be reconfigured.

In 2014, the last time Switzerland handed out iodine, it gave tablets to nearly 5 million people in 1.9 million households, in 1,350 communities.

The government did not immediately say if fewer tablets would be going out the next time, as Muehleberg will be offline. The Swiss population has grown, from about 8.1 million in 2014, to 8.6 million, so that could make up the difference.

The government said on Wednesday the upcoming distribution will cost 15 million Swiss francs ($16.31 million), with operators of Switzerland's remaining three nuclear power stations - Beznau, Goesgen and Leibstadt, all located not far from the German and French borders - paying 11 million francs of the total cost.

Switzerland also swaps out iodine pills it separately gives to cantons outside the 50 km radius every decade for emergency distribution, with that last exchange in 2020.

Potassium iodide helps protect the thyroid gland from radioactive iodine that might be released in a radiation emergency.

Such deliveries are normal, with U.S. states, including Delaware, also distributing tablets to residents within 10 miles of plants. France handed out free tablets to 2.2 million people two years ago.

($1 = 0.9196 Swiss francs)

(Reporting by John Miller; editing by Barbara Lewis)

Saskatchewan eyes small nuclear reactor advancements with 3 other provinces

By Anna McMillan Global News
Posted April 14, 2021 


Premiers Doug Ford, Blaine Higgs, Scott Moe and Jason Kenney held a virtual press conference on Wednesday regarding Alberta joining Ontario, New Brunswick and Saskatchewan in exploring the feasibility of small modular nuclear reactors as a clean energy option.

Alberta has joined Saskatchewan, Ontario and New Brunswick in their effort to advance small-scale nuclear technology in Canada.

On Wednesday, Alberta Premier Jason Kenney signed on to a memorandum of understanding for advancing small modular nuclear reactor (SMR) technology. The agreement was previously signed by New Brunswick, Ontario and Saskatchewan in 2019.

READ MORE: Four provinces to sign memorandum of understanding to explore small nuclear reactors

Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe said SMRs are a clean energy option that can help address climate change.

“There’s no reason at all that we couldn’t be participating in the… production and some of the early investments in this technology for the benefit of people across this nation,” Moe said at a news conference on Wednesday


READ MORE: Experts weigh in on possibility of nuclear energy in Saskatchewan

SMRs are smaller than nuclear plants and produce less energy. Advancing the technology could create jobs and attract investment, Moe said.

Former Saskatchewan environment minister Dustin Duncan previously projected SMRs won’t be established in the province for many years.
Feasibility study

The four provinces also released an SMR feasibility study, which says the technology could support domestic energy needs while curbing greenhouse gas emissions.

The study highlighted three SMR project proposals, with completion timelines as early as 2026 and as late as the 2030s.

The MOU calls for the provinces to create a joint strategic plan, expected to be complete this spring.

Video: 4 provinces join forces to explore possibility of small nuclear reactors as clean energy source (Global NewsDuration: 02:04

Five things about Canada's proposed small modular nuclear reactors

OTTAWA — Alberta's Jason Kenney became the fourth Canadian premier to sign an agreement supporting the development of small modular nuclear reactors (SMRs) in Canada on Wednesday. Kenney signed a memorandum of understanding with the premiers of Ontario, New Brunswick and Saskatchewan.

© Provided by The Canadian Press

The provinces also released a feasibility report prepared by Ontario Power Generation, Bruce Power, NB Power and SaskPower which gives a potential timeline for development and deployment of SMRs and assesses their competitiveness with other non-emitting energy sources.

Here's five things you should know about SMRs:

What are SMRs?

SMRs are nuclear reactors that produce less than 300 megawatts of electricity. Because they are smaller than traditional nuclear power plants, which generally produce 800 MW and up, they are expected to be cheaper to build, scalable to meet specific industrial and remote community needs and, according to the report, will have the "potential" to be competitive with other low-carbon forms of energy.

When are they expected to be in use and where?

According to the feasibility study, Canada's first grid-scale SMR project of about 300 MW is expected to be in place at the Darlington nuclear site in Ontario by 2028, followed by up to four similar units in Saskatchewan with the first in service in 2032. The technology and developer are to be selected by the end of this year.

An advanced SMR design is also to be developed in New Brunswick resulting in demonstration units at the Point Lepreau, N.B., nuclear site by 2030. Meanwhile, a new class of "micro SMR" is being designed to replace diesel use in remote communities and mines — a 5-MW gas-cooled reactor project is proposed at the Chalk River nuclear site in Ontario and is expected to be in service by 2026.

What is the federal role in developing SMRs?

The feasibility study says that "cost and risk-sharing with the federal government" is an important part of developing SMRs, noting they support Canada’s goals of phasing out coal by 2030 and becoming a net-zero carbon emitter by 2050. Federal Natural Resources Minister Seamus O'Regan has said nuclear power is essential to meeting Canada's climate-change goals.

Are SMRs considered to be safe?

Proponents argue that new applications, simplified designs and advanced technology give SMRs an enhanced level of safety, building on Canada's reputation as a safe and well-regulated leader in nuclear energy.

What do opponents of SMRs say?

More than 100 environmental, anti-nuclear, community and other Canadian groups signed a statement in November declaring SMRs a “dirty, dangerous distraction” from tackling climate change. They argue the fight against global warming can't wait for the technology to be proven and deployed and warn SMRs will cost more than other low-carbon energy alternatives, won't create as many jobs and will result in new streams of dangerous nuclear waste.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 14, 2021.