Mob Sank Ship In Med With 120 Bl Of Radioactive Waste On Board - 1 of 32 Scuttled Toxic Ships

[hatrack]

Italian authorities have discovered a ship that was sunk by the mafia off the coast of southern Italy with 120 barrels of radioactive waste on board, a local prosecutor said Monday.

The 110-metre (360-feet) long ship was found on Saturday 500 metres (1,640 feet) under water and around 28 kilometres (17 miles) from the coast of Calabria, Paola city prosecutor Bruno Giordano told AFP. "For the moment, we do not know the origin of the waste, but it is probably from abroad. It is a first lead," he said.

The Cunsky is one of 32 vessels carrying toxic material that has been sunk by the mafia in the Mediterranean, according to the prosecutor's office in Reggio Calabria.

The location of the Cunsky was revealed by a Calabrese mafia turncoat, Francesco Fonti, who confessed to being behind the explosion that brought the ship down, officials said.

EDIT

http://www.nuclearpowerdaily.com/reports/Mafia_sank_boat_with_radioactive_waste_official_999.html

[madokie]

1. And so it goes

where it ends no one knows. Sure wish we had overs on using nuclear materials for anything, power or bombs.

[tk2kewl]

2. another quote from the article:

"the crime syndicate was paid to sink ships with radioactive material for the last 20 years" :wow:

[truedelphi]

3. IS this an isolated incident? My very 1st week in Calif, May 1984, and

At this restaurant "Good Earth" in Palo Alto, two men at a nearby table were talking about all the radioactive barrels that had been tossed overboard near the California coast.

And how that had been fifteen years earlier, and the barrels were probably now thoroughly rotted through.

This is not an isolated incident at all.

[bananas]

5. It's not an isolated incident - they've been doing this for decades

From cocaine to plutonium: mafia clan accused of trafficking nuclear waste
* The Guardian, Tuesday 9 October 2007

Authorities in Italy are investigating a mafia clan accused of trafficking nuclear waste and trying to make plutonium.

The 'Ndrangheta mafia, which gained notoriety in August for its blood feud killings of six men in Germany, is alleged to have made illegal shipments of radioactive waste to Somalia, as well as seeking the "clandestine production" of other nuclear material.

<snip>

Two of the Calabrian clan's members are being investigated, along with eight former employees of the state energy research agency Enea.

The eight are suspected of paying the mobsters to take waste off their hands in the 1980s and 1990s. At the time they were based at the agency's centre at Rotondella, a town in Basilicata province in the toe of Italy, which today treats "special" and "hazardous" waste. At other centres, Enea studies nuclear fusion and fission technologies.

<snip>

Shipments to Somalia, where the waste was buried after buying off local politicians, continued into the 1990s, while the mob also became adept at blowing up shiploads of waste, including radioactive hospital waste, and sending them to the sea bed off the Calabrian coast, the turncoat told investigators. Although he made no mention of attempted plutonium production, Il Giornale newspaper wrote that the mobsters may have planned to sell it to foreign governments.

<snip>

[NNadir]

9. Maybe they sankl a boatload of bananas. Bananas are radioactive.

As usual, our anti-science squad doesn't recognize that radioactivity is detectable on an atom by atom basis, and that it involves the use of scientific units.

These units include the bequerel and the curie.

The number of dumb fundie anti-nukes who can cite nuclear units is essentially zero.

Of course the number of dumb fundie anti-nukes - in their drive to ban nuclear science - who know shit from shinola about nuclear science, is predictably, zero.

I note that when the mafia sinks ships containing dangerous fossil fuel waste, the number of dumb fundie anti-nukes who give a rat's ass is same as it ever was, zero.

[bananas]

6. July 1981 Mother Jones magazine

Google books scanned images, can't cut & paste any excerpts, hope this link works:
http://books.google.com/books?id=qOYDAAAAMBAJ&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_navlinks_s#v=onepage&q=&f=false

edit to add: in case that link doesn't work:

http://books.google.com/books?id=qOYDAAAAMBAJ&lpg=PA1&pg=PA1#v=onepage&q=&f=false

[truedelphi]

8. Thank you bananas. WIll check out the links. n/t

[Control-Z]

4. Why, though?

"the crime syndicate was paid to sink ships with radioactive material for the last 20 years"

To wreck havoc on mother earth and her inhabitants? As a threat, or leverage? To prevent the materials from reaching their final destination...?

Why?

[ArbustoBuster]

7. My bet is, it's pure greed.

The Mafia will happily do "real" work as long as it pays. Disposing of nuclear waste is real work - I suspect the Mafia just does it in the way that nets them the most cash, and that's to sink it in the ocean where they figure no one will ever find it, and pocket the money they were paid to dispose of it.

[Nihil]

10. Strange ...

... you'd have thought that the Mafia would have made far more profit
from turning all that nuclear waste into "teh nuke bombz" that people
sheep have been bleating about for years ...

:shrug:

Maybe they just "misspoke" about "teh proliferashun DANGREs!!!!"?
Or maybe they were just ... nah, not in DU ...

[kristopher]

11. That's beyond silly...

Risk/reward: Scuttling a ship vs selling materials for nuclear weapons on black market represent two radically different endeavors. It is also worth asking how you know that materials suitable for use in either a dirty bomb or for enrichment haven't been sold by these same people. They scuttled an unknown portion of the unknown total amount of waste someone gave them; so how do you know whether or not this particular criminal group has aided terrorists?

You don't.

Your remarks are also a complete red herring since the issue of nuclear proliferation related to nuclear power is tied to state actors obtaining one arm of the technology that enables them to expand into weapons production. This is what Robert Oppenheimer had to say on the topic of controlling the spread of nuclear weapons while encouraging the spread of nuclear energy technology. It is as good a summary as any of the way rational state actors will behave:
"We know very well what we would do if we signed such a convention: we would not make atomic weapons, at least not to start with, but we would build enormous plants, and we would call them power plants – maybe they would produce power: we would design these plants in such a way that they could be converted with the maximum ease and the minimum time delay to the production of atomic weapons, saying, this is just in case somebody two-times us; we would stockpile uranium; we would keep as many of our developments secret as possible; we would locate our plants, not where they would do the most good for the production of power, but where they would do the most good for protection against enemy attack."

[Nihil]

12. I didn't expect anyone to take that post seriously ...

... but that's par for the course on DU I suppose ...

:hi:

[kristopher]

13. You were attempting a serious point

Own it.

[Nihil]

14. I've given up trying to get people to understand scale (*) so the only thing I was "attempting" ...

... was humour (and today it appears that I failed at that too).

( (*) i.e., scale of risks, differences in the range of "radioactivity"
and the irrationality that exaggerates any discussion once the n-word
has been mentioned. )

Have a nice day! :hi:

[kristopher]

15. Humor is a tool...

And you were clearly using it as a means of criticizing those on DU who link nuclear proliferation with nuclear power. What else is the allusion to illiterates at DU about?

Since you reject my interpretation, let's clear it up: Do you agree that over the long term the spread of nuclear fission power is inextricably intertwined with the spread of nuclear weapons? If you agree with that statement then obviously I have misunderstood your remarks and owe you an apology.

You have a great day yourself, friend.
:toast:

[Nihil]

16. Two things to say on this:

> you were clearly using it as a means of criticizing those on DU who link
> nuclear proliferation with nuclear power. What else is the allusion to
> illiterates at DU about?

Not so much at the intelligent anti-nuclear regulars as to the pile-on
types who knee-jerk as soon as the words "nuclear" or "radioactive" occur.

I'll admit that I like poking a stick at the first group too from time to time
but they are not the target of any deliberate misspellings.

> Since you reject my interpretation, let's clear it up: Do you agree that over
> the long term the spread of nuclear fission power is inextricably intertwined
> with the spread of nuclear weapons?

I agree that over the long term, the spread of nuclear fission power has
*frequently* been inextricably intertwined with the spread of nuclear weapons
but do not agree that it has *always* been so or that it will *always* be so.

I would agree that your statement is correct with regards to the US but not
necessarily for the rest of the world as there are several countries with
nuclear power that do not have nuclear weapons.

> If you agree with that statement then obviously I have misunderstood your
> remarks and owe you an apology.

Even if it had been an unqualified agreement, there would have been no need
for any apology but thank you for thinking of it.

:toast: