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DoE Seeks Star Trek Phasers For A-Plants

US scientists have unveiled details of a project that aims to develop Star Trek-style ray guns that could keep "security adversaries" out of DoE nuclear sites.
by Martin Sieff
Washington (UPI) Jul 08, 2005
The Department of Energy is turning to old Star Trek phasers to protect its 103 civilian nuclear plants.

Energy weapons capable of harmlessly stunning intruders are being developed and should be in general use by 2008. But many experts warn they will be inadequate and unnecessary for the real security dangers nuclear plant guards would face.

U. S scientists have unveiled details of a project that aims to develop Star Trek-style ray guns that could keep "security adversaries" out of DoE nuclear sites, the vnu.com web-site in the Netherlands reported this week.

The DoE's Office of Security and Safety Performance Assurance together with the Department of Defense, is "exploring the potential" of directed-energy weapons based on millimeter-wave rays, vnu.com said.

The report comes amid increasing fears that the 103 civilian nuclear power stations in the United States and the Department of Energy's other nuclear facilities are insufficiently guarded.

A recent in-depth investigation by Time magazine found that there are only 8,000 full-time guards employed to cover all the nuclear power plants in America, giving an average of only 80 per power plant, of whom not more than 60 and probably even less would be on duty on any given shift.

The magazine also reported that the guard towers around the plants are called "iron coffins" by the guards who man them and that they could not repel even a .50-caliber rifle bullet.

The appeal of the weapon is that it would permit security guards in nuclear power stations and other facilities to fire more freely against assailants who had penetrated into the plant without having to worry that stray bullets would smash crucial pieces of machinery.

Terrorists who had penetrated into such installations would not be worried about inflicting such damage and would therefore have the potential advantage in any shoot-out.

The proposed new weapons being developed have been designated Active Denial Technology (ADT). And they are an emerging class of non-lethal weaponry using 95GHz millimeter-wave directed energy, vnu.com said.

According to the DoE, the technology is capable of rapidly heating human skin to a pain level that has been demonstrated as "very effective at repelling people" without apparently burning the skin or causing other secondary effects.

ADT emits a 95GHz non-ionizing electromagnetic beam of energy that penetrates approximately 1/64 of an inch into human skin tissue, where nerve receptors are concentrated.

Within seconds, the beam will heat the exposed skin tissue to a level where intolerable pain is experienced and natural defense mechanisms take over. This intense heating sensation stops only if the individual moves out of the beam's path or the beam is turned of, vnu.com said.

The sensation caused by the system has been described by test subjects as feeling like touching a hot frying pan or the intense radiant heat from a fire. Burn injury is prevented by limiting the beam's intensity and duration, the web-site said.

Sandia National Laboratories, a Nuclear Security Administration lab, will investigate how the technology could be used on adversaries by developing a small ADT system to protect U.S. nuclear sites.

However, the project still faces many technical challenges, so Sandia has launched partnerships with the Raytheon Corporation and the Air Force Research Laboratory as both organizations have significant experience with earlier ADT developments, vnu.com said.

The idea of developing energy-directed hand-weapons to be able to inflict non-lethal and non-destructive damage in guarding technologically complex installations is not a new one.

In the mid 1990s the US Air Force funded development of an ADT prototype which resulted in several ongoing projects, such as the Joint Non-Lethal Weapons Directorate's Vehicle Mounted Active Denial System Force Transformation's project Sheriff program, vnu.com said.

In 2004, Sandia conducted simulations of how the smaller ADT system might be used and how it would perform against "adversary attack scenarios" within a nuclear facility using the Joint Conflict and Tactical Simulation software modeling tool.

"Recently there has been significant progress with this project," said Willy Morse, Sandia's principal investigator told vnu.com.

"On 5 May we took acceptance of a prototype system built by Raytheon's Advanced Electromagnetic Technologies center in partnership with CPI and Malibu Research. Initial characterization and performance tests were completed at the end of May."

The web-site said that a second-generation small-size ADT system is expected to be fielded at several DoE nuclear facilities as early as 2008.

The Department of Defense has stated that it has successfully experimented with millimeter wave "human effectiveness testing" since 2001, and that it has demonstrated ADT is both effective and safe without any long-term effects.

The effects of the new technology promise to be far-reaching. It could offer reliable non-lethal force weapons that would prove invaluable in prison security, riot control and even to beat cops.

But although the weapons could prove a valuable adjunct to guards in nuclear and other power-generating installations, they would solve only a fraction of the challenges that federal agencies charged with protecting such institutions face.

Time magazine reported that many security experts believe U.S. nuclear power stations currently lack the number of guards, fire-power and defensive systems to repel determined attempts to storm them and wreck their operating systems in order to provoke catastrophic core meltdowns by as few as 19 or 20 terrorists.

Such attempts are certainly conceptually feasible: That was the size of the group that al-Qaida's Mohammed Atta led when they highjacked the airliners that crashed into the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center and into the Pentagon killing 2,800 people on Sept. 11, 2001.

Interesting enough, but I was just listening to Art Bell and he was discussing sex on long space flights. What kind of Star Trek equipment is that going to require?

Astro-glide, I presume.

Nuclear powered "personal massagers" for the ladies.

I'm guessing the same old ordinary equipment that's worked quite nicely for 100,000 years. Insert Tab A in Slot B.

blower fan motor goes out in a 30 yo refrigerator
jumped in old beeter ford
head out to the local dump
grab 2 blower elect fan motors from throw aways
works well
set for at least 40 to 60 more years with this refrigerator

Smart move. A man after my own heart.

Although today is a solemn day, and is being remembered for the terrorist attack on the twin towers, there are other milestones to be remembered on this day in American history.

To borrow a quote from a fellow poster in, and a member of, the much appreciated Arturo Zone;

"Lest we forget":

On this day in the year 2002, actor Nick Nolte was pulled over for speeding and reckless driving on the Pacific Coast Highway. The arresting officer, noting Mr. Noltes disheveled appearence, performed a sobriety test on the esteemed Hollywood actor. After failing the breathalyzer, Mr. Nolte was taken into custody and charged with driving under the influence.(The charges of looking really, really bad and wearing an absolutely hideous shirt were later dropped)

His Hollywood makeup artist must have been 'stoned' on that day!

But the dead deer with an IV made it weird


At first, it was just a guy, dressed like a doctor, driving an ambulance reported stolen

By DANA TREEN , The Times-Union

Cops in North Carolina thought it was odd enough a Jacksonville man was driving an ambulance reported stolen hours earlier.

Odder still was that he was wearing a makeshift doctor's uniform consisting of a stethoscope, a pager-like gadget and latex gloves stuffed in his back pocket.

But then things started getting really strange when they saw a dead deer, fully stretched out and wedged in the back. Some said there was an intravenous line attached to the animal and there was evidence a defibrillator had been used.

Others were just stunned.

"I don't know how the man got it up in there," said Sgt. Robert Pearson of the North Carolina State Highway Patrol. "It was a six point buck."

Leon Hollimon Jr., 37, last seen in August at a River Region Human Services facility in Jacksonville, was sporting a Mohawk haircut and wearing a red shirt when he was chased down in the stolen ambulance Sunday in Rockingham County, N.C.

"He basically said he was told to leave the state," said Rockingham County Sheriff's Office spokesman Dean Venable. "And so he found a way to accomplish that."

Hollimon was admitted to the John Umstead Hospital, a North Carolina hospital that treats psychiatric disorders, for an evaluation, authorities said. Police will decide after that if Hollimon will be charged with any crimes.

The ambulance was stolen before 7 a.m. Sunday from a Davidson County emergency medical service south of Rockingham County. It was sporadically chased as it traveled through three rural North Carolina counties and one in southern Virginia. Eventually, its tires were punctured and it wound up in a ditch late in the morning.

At one point authorities chased it through a field.

"It was a little like the Duke boys out there, I understand," said Pearson.

Hollimon was reported missing from River Region in the 900 block of Bridier Street on Aug. 16, a day after he was seen going out a back door, according to a missing persons report filed with Jacksonville police.


This EMS-chase photo shows the deer that was found inside a Lexington, N.C., ambulance that had been stolen after it was stopped by police Sunday.
Image courtesy of Rockingham County Sheriff's Office Sgt. J. Fowler


Authorities in North Carolina said they did not know where the deer found in the ambulance had been collected but said it had been dead for a time.

"I smelled that deer until 10 o'clock that night," Pearson said.


[center][/center]

http://www.jacksonville.com/tu-online/stor..._19889050.shtml

OH DEER!!!

Sports
Bullfighting Comes to Mississippi
by Scott Simon

Weekend Edition - Saturday, October 15, 2005 · A talk with Mario Loera, who is setting up Mississippi's first bullfighting ring. It is being shipped from Mexico, and the town hopes to hold bullfights by the end of this month.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.p...960337&ft=1&f=7

[center]bad idea*****very bad idea*****[/center]


>>>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>>>>
(peta tracks)

QUOTE

A Spiny Invader Proliferates in L.I. Waters, and Scientists Wonder About Its Impact

Gordon M. Grant for The New York Times


Todd R. Gardner, a biologist, with lionfish at the Atlantis Marine World aquarium in Riverhead, N.Y.

By BRUCE LAMBERT
Published: September 8, 2006

GARDEN CITY, N.Y., Sept. 7 — Long Island’s waters are being invaded by the exotic lionfish, an alien tropical species native to the Pacific Ocean that has vividly colored stripes and a freakish array of venomous spines.

Divers report capturing hundreds of lionfish this summer, compared with a total of about 30 over the last three years.

“For us to be finding that many, there must be thousands and thousands more out there,” said Todd R. Gardner, a biologist at Atlantis Marine World aquarium in Riverhead. “It’s a population explosion.”

Apart from the novelty of lionfish and the mystery of how they wound up so far from home, the sudden proliferation also raises questions about effects on the ecosystem, including potential threats to indigenous fish and hazards to swimmers.

“That’s really the $2 million question: What are they eating and what are they competing with for habitat?” said Paula E. Whitfield, a biologist at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which is studying the phenomenon with Mr. Gardner and the University of North Carolina.

For now, the strange species is a draw at the aquarium. “It’s a flamboyant fish,” Mr. Gardner said. “People walk into the room and run right to that.”

For the worried, the good news so far is that all the odd-looking visitors are pale babies and are expected to die off when the cooling sea drops below 50 degrees in the fall. But the fish are voracious eaters, feasting on Long Island’s already diminished shellfish and fin fish as they grow to five inches long during their detour here.

“All you have to do is look at their full bellies,” Mr. Gardner said. “They look like they’re going to explode.”

And even in the juvenile stage, the fishes’ hollow hypodermic-like spines and venom sacs inflict nasty — but not deadly — stings. “It’s very painful, a burning pain,” said Mr. Gardner, who has impaled a finger.

One pet-store worker required surgery to save a badly swollen arm after four punctures from an adult lionfish, Mr. Gardner said.

Experts advise prompt medical attention and immersion of the wound in hot water to weaken the venom.
Every year, the Gulf Stream sweeps tropical fish north, and some of them inevitably veer off to the New York region, delighting researchers, divers and fishers.

But lionfish are not native to this hemisphere, at least not until recently. A few appeared in Florida in the mid-1990’s, followed by occasional sightings along the Carolinas and Georgia.

Those few fish were adults, prompting speculation that they had been released by pet shops, suppliers or hobbyists, or that they had escaped somehow. Inadvertent transport in ship ballast is another possibility, but experts discount it.

Scientists were stunned in 2001 with the discovery of evidence that the lionfish, whatever their origin, were spawning in the Atlantic. That discovery came when Mr. Gardner, then a graduate student on a field trip, found a tiny lionfish clinging to a dock piling in the Great South Bay by Fire Island.

“I was absolutely shocked,” he recalled. Coming up for air, he wondered: “How could there be a lionfish here in New York? It was just not registering, not making sense.” He dipped back underwater. “Sure enough, he was still there, and I caught it.”

His perplexed professor accused Mr. Gardner of using a pet fish as a prank, but it was so tiny that it could not have come from a store. Others suggested mistaken identity, but the lionfish is unique with its vertical stripes of white alternating with a deep maroon or rusty color.

Skepticism melted a week later when Mr. Gardner captured another baby at the same site.

Other divers and researchers were finding adult lionfish established on reefs and shipwrecks off Southern states. Reports trickled in of hatchlings carried on currents as far north as New Jersey and Rhode Island.

Still, Mr. Gardner’s many dives off Long Island never found more than a dozen or so lionfish in any season — until this year. “They’re very easy to catch,” he said. “I don’t even use a net, because they don’t scare very easy, because they have such an effective defense system. I just carry a Ziploc bag and scoop them up.”

Some recreational divers have started collecting lionfish for home aquariums, Mr. Gardner said, and one diver offered to sell 39 to a pet shop in Patchogue.

The local lionfish were found in the bays along Suffolk’s South Shore, but not in the open ocean, so bathers at the major beaches were not at risk. And even in the bays, the fish congregate at underwater rocks or pilings, so waders are unlikely to bump into them or step on them, said Stephan B. Munch, who teaches at the marine sciences center at the State University at Stony Brook.

With a long history of tropical fish like grouper, snapper and jacks straying to Long Island, “it’s really unlikely that lionfish are having any more impact than the others,” he said.

Lionfish grow to 18 inches and, while they have no known predators in the wild, Mr. Munch said he had lost one specimen to its hungry tankmate, a grouper. Ms. Whitfield, the biologist with the oceanic administration, said they are eaten by people in the Philippines, and are starting to be eaten in the Carolinas.

One crew collecting lionfish for the federal study tried grilling some of its catch of the day. “They said it was good, a mild white flesh,” Ms. Whitfield said, though she did not sample it herself. “I’m allergic to fish.”

NY-Times

Just wait until they overrun the coast.

Sure are pretty though.