Pacific Pintail "Nuclear Waste"

An anti-nuclear group has urged the South African government to make sure that two vessels carrying what is reportedly the biggest ever shipment of plutonium stay out of its waters.
"What we don't want is an accident at sea where we as a country have to carry the consequences," said Mike Kantey, chairman of the Coalition Against Nuclear Energy, on Tuesday. The heavily armed Pacific Pintail and the Pacific Heron left Barrow-in-Furness in the north-west of England last week. They will collect their freight - a load of MOX nuclear fuel containing what environmentalists say are 1800kg of plutonium - at Cherbourg in France, then head for Japan. The route around the Cape is one of a number of possible routes the ships -which have been barred from the Suez Canal - may use.
In previous years the Pintail has used the Cape route when carrying nuclear materials. Kantey said Cane called on the government to ensure that the vessels stayed outside South Africa's 200 nautical mile economic exclusion zone.

Chain of events, the high level nuclear waste was transported by road haulage truck via the public highway system from the reprocessing facility at Cap La Hague to Cherbourg, France. After weeks of campaigning to stop highly radioactive waste from being shipped from France to Japan, Greenpeace launched an all out effort to prevent the transport vessel Pacific Pintail from being loaded for departure.

Greenpeace activists joined dozens of local French citizens in protesting the import, reprocessing, storage and disposal of nuclear waste in their community. Together they built a monument representing the nuclear waste left behind in France as part of this deadly plutonium trade

Greenpeace vessel, MV Moby Dick arrived in Cherbourg to provide a public platform for protest against reprocessing at La Hague. On the 23rd February, activists on board the Moby Dick, and four inflatable boats, moved to the docking area of the port of Cherbourg and placed themselves between it and the "Pacific Pintail" moving in to recieve its dangerous cargo. For 30 minutes the Moby Dick and its crewed inflatables delayed the docking of the freighter and prevented the plutonium waste from being placed on board.

The protest ended when a French military tug boat rammed the "Moby" and French naval commandos boarded the vessel, cut its anchor line and towed the ship out of the Cherbourg harbour. The inflatable boats were seized and removed from the area by commandos. Ten protestors were arrested, one injured and four left on the Moby Dick which was tethered to a buoy outside the harbour.

The Pacific Pintail, operated by Pacific Nuclear Transport Ltd. (PNTL) of the UK, arrived in Cherbourg under cover of darkness to load its cargo of some 14 tonnes of plutonium waste. The first shipment contains 28 glassified blocks of highly radioactive nuclear waste in one large packing container. The material is so intensely radioactive that a person standing near a single unshielded glass block would recieve a lethal dose of radiation in less than 60 seconds.

Greenpeace crew were waiting on board a second vessel, the "Solo" and met the "Pintail" when it departed the harbour. They continue to track the shipment to alert countries along the route of the potential danger. Despite legal efforts to stop Greenpeace from tracking this shipment of nuclear waste, they will continue to shadow the vessel for as long as is possible en route to Japan.

TheTamshee says: Governments need to act responsibly, the first shipment to Japan in 1999 ended in fiasco after the producer, UK state company British Nuclear Fuels, admitted it had deliberately falsified vital quality control safety data. After an 18,000-mile voyage, the rejected fuel was shipped back to the UK. Two more cargoes, one delivered in 1999, the other in 2001, were opposed by local citizens and regional governments. Both shipments remain in storage with no prospect that they will ever be used. Enough already, stop the Nuclear madness!

Gold Bars or Coins

Buying gold bars – in small quantities at least – is no different from buying a packet of sweets, anyone can walk into Baird's shop in the City, hand over some cash and take away their gold.
"The most popular small bar is probably the 1 ounce," This currently costs £718.25. But if you don't want to spend that much, smaller bars are available: the company's smallest, the 2.5 gram, costs £64.25. Gold is heavy, so the bars are small for their weight; a 1kg bar worth £22,182 measures 5 inches by 3.5 and is about a quarter of an inch thick. "They are not big but they are heavy," The biggest, meanwhile, weighs in at 12.5kg and costs £222,000. "
People do occasionally buy five of them in one go," said the spokeswoman, although customers buying such large amounts would have phoned first. That 50kg in gold would be worth £1.1m.
There are formalities to go through if you are placing a large order. "We need a passport and two utility bills if you are buying more than £5,000 worth of gold," said Baird.
Ninety per cent of its small retail business is done by post or internet, with gold being shipped by courier after funds have cleared. Alternatively, the company can store your gold, for a fee, for holdings worth £5,000 or more. TheTamshee says: get yourself into some of these gold coins

@ Chards it's addictive - but not always profitable, think of it as a expensive hobby and something to pass onto your kids.

Glass-Glue and Dr Who

The new Doctor Who's girlfriend, with her elfin crop swept in a side-parting and long, graceful nose, the beautiful singer from Ipanema - Mayana Moura, a 26-year-old Brazilian, commutes between homes in Rio de Janeiro and New York, and performs with a punk rock band on the US club circuit.

Friends revealed that she met Smith, the unknown actor recently cast to play the 903-year-old Time Lord, when he was holidaying in Rio. Matt and Mayana say the attraction was instant – despite the 877-year age gap. They were introduced to each other last January at the fashionable Rio nightspot Club 00,’ said Brazilian society columnist Bruno Astuto, an acquaintance of Mayana’s.
‘Matt went back to England and they kept in touch. He was so in love that he came to Brazil a second time and they started to seriously date. Then Mayana went to England to see him. She has been over three times in all.
‘He was introduced to her family and last month, during his latest visit to Rio, they began talking about marriage. It would be a great match.’ Astuto added: ‘They have been together for one year. They celebrated on New Year’s Eve when they joined a group of friends for a party in a penthouse overlooking the beach in Copacabana.’
Smith has said he ‘fell in love’ during a Brazilian holiday, adding: ‘It’s a nightmare because she’s 6,000 miles away.’ With gentlemanly tact, he has refused to identify the object of his affection.
But shortly after he was hired by the BBC, a reporter encountered the young actor strolling on a beach with Mayana in the legendary Rio neighbourhood of Ipanema.
Smith politely said he was not ‘authorised’ to give interviews.
Asked about her relationship with Smith, Mayana also declined to comment. ‘This is a private matter,’ she said. ‘Matt doesn’t want to talk. I don’t want to talk.’
Smith has admitted he was surprised when, just as their romance was developing, he was picked to replace David Tennant. He said: ‘Doctor Who has the iconic status of Robin Hood or Sherlock Holmes, and I’m taking that on. That’s my responsibility and it’s exciting. Nerve-racking, but exciting.’

Matt Smith out and about in Central London as wackily dressed as his new character
Born and brought up in Northampton, he played football at the Nottingham Forest and Leicester City youth academies until a back injury at 16 forced him to quit. His drama teacher at Northampton School for Boys, Jerry Hardingham, landed him one of his first stage roles. The shy youth was ‘so self-effacing he wasn’t sure if he would be good enough’, said Hardingham.
But he went on to appear in the BBC2 political drama Party Animals and the 2006 TV adaptation of The Ruby In The Smoke–however, he has yet to win over some Doctor Who fans.
Mayana is equally ‘shy’, the green-eyed Brazilian began her career as a model after she was spotted in Rio by fashion photographer Mario Testino, he shot Mayana for a magazine layout which described her as ‘the new girl from Ipanema’. She appeared in Paris for designers including Karl Lagerfeld of Chanel, then moved to America, cutting a CD and performing at Johnny Depp’s LA nightclub The Viper Room. She acquired the same manager as Eminem and has also acted in TV and feature films. Mayana has started a punk band called Glass And Glue with Brazilian stylist Marina Franco. Bruno Astuto said: ‘Matt wants Mayana to move to England but she is really involved in this band project and she does not want to disappoint her band mate Marina. ‘She and Matt are both very young, they are both at the start of brilliant careers and they are in love. I just don’t know how it will end. It is a real dilemma.’ TheTamshee approves but I'am still hopeful that Agyness Deyn gets the job as the Doctor's side kick in the new series