Underground explosives tests help U.S. detection capabilities

Underground explosives tests help U.S. detection capabilities

Published 16 June 2015

 

Three weeks ago, a National Nuclear Security Administration’s (NNSA) led-team successfully conducted the fourth in a series of experiments designed to improve the U.S. ability to detect underground nuclear explosions. The Source Physics Experiment (SPE-4 Prime) is a fundamental step forward in the U.S. effort to improve arms control verification, and will eventually be used to assure compliance with the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty (CTBT).

A Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) team played a leading role in fielding the recent Source Physics Experiment (SPE-4 Prime) detonated at the Nevada National Security Site (NNSS). The SPE tests, including the most recent one on May 21, consist of a series of seven underground, high-explosive field tests in hard rock that are designed to improve the United States’ ability to detect and identify low-yield nuclear explosions amid the clutter of conventional explosions and small earthquakes.
“As nuclear monitoring scientists, we are very excited by the new data from SPE-4 Prime,” said Bill Walter, the SPE scientific leader for LLNL and the SPE-5 chief scientist. “It is the most over-buried field explosion in granite from which we have ever obtained data, and the data return and quality look excellent.
“We will be able to compare this new data with the prior SPE shots, which were shallower, allowing us to directly measure and understand the role that the interactions of the Earth’s surface play in generating the signals we observe.”
An LLNL release reports that the SPE-4 Prime experiment was detonated with a chemical explosive equivalent of 196 pounds of TNT in a contained environment 286 feet below ground.
A team of twenty-seven LLNL engineers and technicians, led by physicist and SPE Campaign Manager Leon Berzins, was responsible for the design of the canister that contained the explosive charge, along with emplacing the canister downhole. LLNL also was responsible for the timing and firing of the shot.
The chemical explosives for the experiment were placed downhole in a one-and-a-half-week process that included a dry run of emplacing a canister without high explosives, Berzins said.
“It had been close to two years since we had our last SPE chemical explosion, so it was great to have this test to produce scientific data for our simulation and modeling work,” said Berzins, who worked on nine of the Laboratory’s 13 subcritical tests between the late 1990s and 2003.
“Livermore took on this challenge and was able to draw upon a wide spectrum of talent to be successful,” he said, noting that a number of Lab employees worked nights and weekends at LLNL and NNSS.
When Livermore and Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) conducted nuclear tests from the 1950s through 1992, the tests were conducted in a narrow range of depths and sizes for safety and cost factors.
“We’re trying to expand that range, so we can understand any potential future nuclear tests that would be outside the historic range,” Walter said. “The SPE tests are designed to improve our numerical modeling codes for monitoring nuclear explosions overseas.”
Information gathered from the experiment includes high-resolution accelerometer, infrasound, seismic, explosive performance, ground-based light detection and ranging (LIDAR), ground-based hyperspectral imagery and satellite data.
The sensor networks reported a successful data return that will advance current, state-of-the-art ground motion and seismic wave propagation models and algorithms toward a predictive capability.
“The seismic Source Physics Experiments substantially advance the United States’ efforts to develop, validate and improve on emerging technology,” said National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) Deputy Administrator for Defense Nuclear Nonproliferation Anne Harrington.
The release notes that the SPE tests represent a U.S.-interagency-wide endeavor, with NNSA’s NNSS, LANL, LLNL, Sandia National Laboratories and the Department of Defense’s Defense Threat Reduction Agency all serving as partners in SPE-4 Prime, along with the University of Nevada-Reno.
NNSA’s three national laboratories have already used the data from the first three experiments in the series (SPE-1, executed in May 2011, SPE-2, executed in October 2011 and SPE-3 executed in July 2013).
NNSA has published a press release (link is external) on the event.
The next shot in the SPE series, SPE-5, is slated to be staged during the fall at NNSS.

Drone center provided drones to survey flood damage, assist search and rescue efforts

Drone center provided drones to survey flood damage, assist search and rescue efforts

Published 16 June 2015

 

The town of Wimberley, about thirty miles southwest of Austin, was struck on 25 May by heavy flooding along the Blanco River. More than 400 homes were destroyed. Four deaths were reported in Hays County and at least eight persons were reported missing. Nineteen storm-related deaths were reported in Texas and Oklahoma and fourteen in Mexico. A test-site research team from the Lone Star Unmanned Aircraft Systems Center of Excellence & Innovation (LSUASC) at Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi (TAMUCC) was dispatched to Wimberley, Texas, on 26 May to conduct low-altitude research flights in the wake of devastating flooding.

A test-site research team from the Lone Star Unmanned Aircraft Systems Center of Excellence & Innovation (LSUASC) at Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi (TAMUCC) was dispatched to Wimberley, Texas, on 26 May to conduct low-altitude research flights in the wake of devastating flooding.
The town of Wimberley, about thirty miles southwest of Austin, was struck on 25 May by heavy flooding along the Blanco River. More than 400 homes were destroyed. Four deaths were reported in Hays County and at least eight persons were reported missing. Nineteen storm-related deaths were reported in Texas and Oklahoma and fourteen in Mexico.
“Our hearts go out to those who have suffered great losses in Hays County,” said Dr. Flavius Killebrew, president and CEO of Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi. “We are making every effort to support recovery efforts there with tools we believe will be of value to state and local emergency-management personnel.”
The specific mission performed real-time aerial searches for missing persons, livestock, and vehicles, said Jerry Hendrix, chief engineer for the LSUASC test site and leader of the research team.
“We will survey land areas, including bridge and critical infrastructure and roadways,” he said before the survey mission begun. “It will be a general aerial assessment of damage due to storm and flooding.”
A TAMUCC release reports that the LSUASC test-site team of three people was based at a private ranch about five miles north of Wimberley to conduct low-altitude flights to assess damages related to the deadly storm that flooded the Blanco River. The team worked through Thursday, 28 May, and continued efforts Friday, 29 May.
Speaking before the UAS were launched, Hendrix said that the research “will assist in determining the process for use of UAS [unmanned aerial systems] as a rapid-response tool in natural emergencies and the value of operating at 200 feet or less for aerial surveillance under such conditions.” Hendrix said.
The research vehicles included: An AscTec Falcon 8 provided by HUVRData of Austin, Texas, equipped with high-definition video and thermal-imaging cameras and multispectral sensors; a senseFly eBee provided by Urban Engineering of Corpus Christi equipped with a 16-megapixel camera and a 12-megapixel near-infrared camera; and a DJI Phantom quad-copter provided by A&M-Corpus Christi’s iCORE Lab and the University’s College of Science and Engineering equipped with a 16-megapixel video camera and a forward-looking infrared camera.
The LSUASC team was supported by Dr. Robin Murphy, director of the Center for Robot-Assisted Search and Rescue at Texas A&M University in College Station. A team from Dr. John Valasek’s Center for Autonomous Vehicles and Sensor Systems at A&M was standing by to join the LSUASC effort.
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) recently authorized its six UAS test sites to conduct small UAS research operations anywhere in the United States at altitudes less than 200 feet using any remotely-piloted aircraft weighing less than fifty-five pounds. The test sites are located in Texas, Alaska, Nevada, North Dakota, Virginia, and New York. The Texas test site is operated by the LSUASC headquartered at A&M-Corpus Christi.
“This new authorization gives us a great deal of latitude in assisting state agencies as they test UAS capabilities in fulfilling their statutory missions,” said Dr. Luis Cifuentes, Vice President for Research, Commercialization and Outreach at A&M-Corpus Christi and Interim Executive Director of LSUASC. “Our test-site program has been designed by the FAA to support government agencies and private-sector companies as they safely integrate UAS into their operations.”

Chicago, center of fracking oil shipments, debates rail safety

Chicago, center of fracking oil shipments, debates rail safety

Published 16 June 2015

 

Chicago is home to the busiest crossroads of the nation’s rail network, and the country’s boom in oil fracking has led the city to see not only a massive increase in crude oil transferred by rail in the region, but also debates about the public safety of such an influx. The Windy City has experienced a 4,000 percent increase in oil train traffic since 2008, with many of the densely packed suburbs surrounding the city located very close to rail lines and switches.

Chicago is home to the busiest crossroads of the nation’s rail network, and the country’s boom in oil fracking has led the city to see not only a massive increase in crude oil transferred by rail in the region, but also debates about the public safety of such an influx.
As theToledo Bladereports, the Windy City has experienced a 4,000 percent increase in oil train traffic since 2008, with many of the densely packed suburbs surrounding the city located very close to rail lines and switches.
Many of the oil trains are 100 or more cars long, carrying volatile crude oil from the Bakken oil region, which includes parts of Montana, North Dakota, and southern Canada.
“For me to assure my community there’s no risk, I would be lying,” said Mayor Tom Weisner of the nearby town of Aurora. “A derailment in or around our downtown would be absolutely disastrous.”
Speaking in Chicago recently at a conference in Chicago organized by the environmental group Institutes for Journalism & Natural Resources (INJR), Weisner noted that the mayoral office sees little planning or preparation in terms of emergency planning for a derailment.
“That always helps, of course. But you could have a major catastrophe before they could arrive on the scene, and that’s the truth,” he said, referencing multiple times the deadly 2013 Lac-Megantic, Quebec explosionwhich killed forty-two people.
“We’re always going to be at one of the highest levels of exposure,” the Aurora mayor said. “There’s no doubt about it.”
But environmentalists such as the INJR and others are working to expand the dialogue about the increase in shipments with little safety regulation.
“Of all the suite of issues I work on for the NRDC, this is the scariest,” said Josh Mogerman, a spokesman for the Natural Resources Defense Council. “These are moving targets going through very, very densely populated areas.”
Many of these activists are arguing for reforms, tighter rules and strengthened train cars above all else. They also argue that the few reforms enacted in recent years are not enough.
A Government Accountability Office (GAO) reports also noted that “While pipelines transport the majority of oil and gas in the United States, recent development of crude oil in parts of the country under-served by pipeline has led shippers to use other modes, with rail seeing the largest percentage increase. Although pipeline operators and railroads have generally good safety records, the increased transportation of these flammable hazardous materials creates the potential for serious accidents.”
The agency urged that the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) create better rules for flammable products shipped by rail, with further emphasis on emergency preparedness.
The Association of American Railroads(AAR) responded to the growing criticism, saying that the industry “are making Herculean efforts to improve an already safe nationwide rail network now crisscrossing some 140,000 miles of the country.”

U.S. air strike kills Mokhtar Belmokhtar, jihadi leader in North and West Africa

U.S. air strike kills Mokhtar Belmokhtar, jihadi leader in North and West Africa

Published 16 June 2015

 

The United States has said that a weekend air strike in Libya killed jihadi leader Mokhtar Belmokhtar. The al-Qaeda-affiliated Belmokhtar was the mastermind behind the attack on a gas plant in Algeria in 2013 which killed forty hostages. His killing means that after a slow start, the United States has built up impressive intelligence-gathering capabilities in the vast, sparsely populated area which encompasses Libya, Algeria, and Morocco in the north, and the western part of the Sahel region to the south – including Chad, Mali, Niger, Mauritania, and Burkina Faso. Belmokhtar was loyal to al Qaeda, and in April he made headlines by publicly refusing to pledge allegiance to Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, leader of the Islamic State.

The United States has said that a weekend air strike in Libya killed jihadi leader Mokhtar Belmokhtar. The al-Qaeda-affiliated Belmokhtar was the mastermind behind the attack on a gas plant in Algeria in 2013 which killed forty hostages.
Saturday’s raid near the town of Adjabiya was carried out by F-15E aircraft using precision-guided munitions. U.S. air force secretary, Deborah Lee James, said that “enormous care” had been taken to avoid harming civilians. “The impact of the raid is still being assessed,” she told reporters at the Paris air show. “I have absolute confidence in our people and the intelligence, but this is not exact science.” She said Belmokhtar had “a long history of terror with al-Qaida affiliates.”
The Washington Post reports that Belmokhtar worked as a link between al-Qaeda “central” in Pakistan and local Islamist movements. Analysts say that his killing means that after a slow start, the United States has built up impressive intelligence-gathering capabilities in the vast, sparsely populated area which encompasses Libya, Algeria, and Morocco in the north, and the western part of the Sahel region to the south – including Chad, Mali, Niger, Mauritania, and Burkina Faso.
The killing is also an example of the Obama administration’s emphasis on counter-terrorism operations and air strikes rather than direct military involvement on the ground in the fight against terrorism.
Libyan media outlets reported that the U.S. air strike left thirty-three dead and many others wounded. These media reports said that the strike was aimed at a meeting of several high-level al-Qaeda leaders who had gathered for a meeting at a farm owned by a leader of the extremist group Ansar al-Sharia.
Military forces loyal to the internationally recognized Libya government on Sunday attacked a survivors of the U.S. strike when they tried to bring their wounded comrades to the central hospital in Ajdabiya.
The Guardian notes that the Libyan media reported that the United States carried additional air strikes on Monday near the town of Sebha, in the country’s south-west, near a transit route for al-Qaeda out through Niger and Algeria.
The U.S. air strikes were approved by the internationally recognized Libyan government, which sits in the eastern city of Bayda, near Tobruk. The internationally recognized government escaped to Tobruk last August, after the Islamist-dominated Libya Dawn coalition captured the capital Tripoli, where the Islamists have created their own government and parliament.
Only Turkey and Qatar recognize the Libya Dawn government in Tripoli.
Major Mohammed Hegazi, a military spokesman for the Bayda-based government, told the AP that two foreign leaders and a Tunisian fighter were killed in the strike.
Belmokhtar’s life offers a reflection of the violent history of Algeria and the Sahel in the last twenty-five years. An Algerian by birth, Belmokhtar gained recognition as one of the young – and more capable – leaders of the Algerian Armed Islamic Group, which launched a vicious war against the Algerian government in 1992, after the government cancelled the second round of the election after it appeared that the Islamists were going to win. The 10-year war cost the lives of between 200,000 and 250,000. He fought in Afghanistan, where he lost an eye, and returned to Algeria to continue the jihadi war. He later joined al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), an al Qaeda affiliate, but was kicked out of the group after a falling off with its leader, Abdelmalek Droukdel.
In late 2012 Belmokhtar formed his own jihadi group, al-Mulathamin (the Masked Ones), and insisted that his followers address him as “emir.” The group included many former criminals, which allowed Belmokhtar to launch a broad, and lucrative, campaign of diamond and cigarettes smuggling – earning him the nickname is “Mr Marlboro.” He also engaged in kidnapping for ransom, bringing millions to the group’s coffers.
In April Belmokhtar made headlines by publicly refusing to pledge allegiance to Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, leader of the Islamic State.
Saturday air strike was the first U.S. air strike on targets in Libya since 2011, but the United States has conducted several commando operations in the country. In 2013, Delta commandos captured Anas al-Libiin Triopli. He was blamed for the bombing of U.S. embassies in Africa. Last June another commando raid captured Ahmed al-Khattala, now on trial in the United States on charges of killing the U.S. ambassador Chris Stevens in Benghazi in 2012.

U.S. kills al-Qaeda’s second-in-command

U.S. kills al-Qaeda’s second-in-command

Published 16 June 2015

 

A U.S. drone strike in Yemen on 9 June killed Nasir al-Wuhayshi, al-Qaeda’s second-in-command and the leader of al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), al-Qaeda’s most powerful regional organization. Analysts say the killing of Wuhayshi, nicknamed Abu Basir, is a blow to the organization. He was a charismatic and capable organizer who was focused on continuing al-Qaeda’s tradition of hitting Western targets, preferably in a headline-grabbing spectacular fashion. Wuhayshi, who fought in Afghanistan, accompanied Osama bin Laden as they fled the 2001 U.S. invasion of Afghanistan to the caves of Tora Bora in Pakistan. He served as OBL’s secretary and close aide. He was imprisoned in Yemen for a couple of years but escaped and helped found AQAP in 2009, rising to the leadership of the group.

A U.S. drone strike in Yemen on 9 June killed Nasir al-Wuhayshi, al-Qaeda’s second-in-command and the leader of al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), al-Qaeda’s most powerful regional organization.
Analysts say the killing of Wuhayshi, nicknamed Abu Basir, is a blow to the organization. He was a charismatic and capable organizer who was focused on continuing al-Qaeda’s tradition of hitting Western targets, preferably in a headline-grabbing spectacular fashion.
AQAP has been under sustained attacks by U.S. drone strikes and Special Forces operations.
“Our Islamic nation, this was one of your champions and leaders,” said AQAP official Khaled Batarfi in a video statement, which said Wuhayshi was killed along with two other militants. “In our time … the leaders of jihad have been killed. But the blood of these leaders has only increased the insistence on jihad.”
Arab media reported earlier that three suspected al-Qaeda members were killed on 9 June in a U.S. drone strike in Mukalla, a south-eastern port city in Yemen.
Batarfi said in his statement that Qassim al-Raimi, nicknamed Abu Hurayra and a military commander in AQAP, was elected by the group’s leadership council to succeed Wuhayshi. He said many of the council members were able to meet and pledge loyalty to the new leader, despite security concerns and the fact the group was fighting on eleven different fronts with Iran-supported Shi’a Houthi rebels and their allies in Yemen.
The Guardian reports that Wuhayshi, who fought in Afghanistan, accompanied Osama bin Laden as they fled the 2001 U.S. invasion of Afghanistan to the caves of Tora Bora in Pakistan. He served as OBL’s secretary and close aide. He was imprisoned in Yemen for a couple of years but escaped and helped found AQAP in 2009, rising to the leadership of the group.
AQAP refused to pledge allegiance to the leader of ISIS, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, when he last year announced the establishment of a, Islamic caliphate.
The Washington Post notes that the United States considers AQAP a threat and has used drone strikes the group’s operatives. The campaign against AQAP has become more difficult since Houthi rebels seized large swaths of the country and chased the pro-Western government out of the capital, Sana’a. The violence has allowed the group to advance in Yemen’s eastern provinces. The Saudi air force has been actively bombing targets in Yemen, hitting Houthi fighters but also methodically destroying airfields, arms depots, and military equipment belonging to the Yemeni army for fear that these arms may fall into the hands of the Houthi.
Critics of the Saudi campaign note that the Saudis have avoided hitting AQAP targets.
The New York Times reports that AQAP has claimed responsibility for a number of terrorist attacks against Western targets, among them the attack on the French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo in January and the failed “underwear bomb” attempt on a transatlantic Delta flight in December 2009.
Wuhayshi, who was born in 1976, was named Zawahiri’s second-in-command in 2013. The United States had offered a reward of up to $10 million for information leading to his arrest, putting him on the same level as ISIS’s Baghdadi and Sirajuddin Haqqani, the leader of the Haqqani network.

Disaster relief robots compete at DARPA Robotics Challenge

Disaster relief robots compete at DARPA Robotics Challenge

Published 15 June 2015

 

Twenty four teams from around the world have just competed in Pomona, California for the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency’s (DARPA) Robotics Challenge, which runs various rescue robot platforms through a vigorous series of tests to learn and develop better systems. DARPA has made the competition even harder for competing teams. The robots could not operate with power chords, meaning that heavy batteries had to be on the board. Also, there could not be safety pumpers or tools for bipedal robots, which still struggled with balance issues. “In a real disaster, there are no ropes to hold you up. The robots have to drive a car to the door, but the hardest part of the ride is getting out of the vehicle without falling,” said Gill Pratt, program manager of the challenge.

Twenty four teams from around the world have just competed in Pomona, California for the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency’s (DARPA) Robotics Challenge, which runs various rescue robot platforms through a vigorous series of tests to learn and develop better systems.
As the Los Angeles Times reports, the challenge has been three years in the making and is expected to be seen as the “robot Olympics.”
“We’re trying to literally save the world and save humanity,” said Dennis Hong, a member of a team of engineers competing on the behalf of University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). “But, we want to have some fun.”
Like many of the contestants, Hong and his team submitted a humanoid-shaped robot, called THOR-RD, which also comically sports a pink wig.
“Animal-inspired robots can each do one thing well — climb poles or perhaps squeeze into hard-to-reach places,” he said. “That’s useful in specific circumstances during a disaster, but not all of them. Robots need to be humanoid for disaster relief, because robots need to drive a car, need to climb steps.”
He noted that a team from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s (NASA) Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) entered a drastically different, non-humanoid design.
“If they fail, it means, oh, what I said was right,” he said. “And if they indeed do well, it means they’ve proven me wrong.”
The spirit of development drives much of the challenge, and DARPA’s high-risk, high-reward approach to contracting as an arm of the Department of Defense (DOD) is meant to encourage developers to take risks.
Much of the long-term planning and ideas for the challenge grew out of the Fukushima-Daiichi nuclear power plant disaster in Japan, which resulted from an earthquake and tsunami in 2011. At one point during that tragedy, employees at the plant needed to open steam valves to avert an explosion, but could not get to the appropriate site fast enough due to extremely high rates of radiation. That legacy, and the realization that robots could have performed those tasks and saved lives, guide much of the research which went into the developments of the robots which participated in the Challenge.
Because of this, DARPA has made the competition even harder for competing teams. The robots could not operate with power chords, meaning that heavy batteries had to be on the board. Also, there could not be safety pumpers or tools for bipedal robots, which still struggled with balance issues.
“In a real disaster, there are no ropes to hold you up. The robots have to drive a car to the door, but the hardest part of the ride is getting out of the vehicle without falling,” said Gill Pratt, program manager of the challenge.
Additionally, DARPA shut down the wireless communications periodically during the events, so that the robots had to work in without instruction, reflecting the unpredictable pitfalls that could occur during a rescue mission.
Team KAIST from South Korea took home the $2 million prize after completing all eight tasks on the course ahead of the other teams.

Snowden fallout: Revelations forced U.K. to pull out agents from “hostile countries”

Snowden fallout: Revelations forced U.K. to pull out agents from “hostile countries”

Published 15 June 2015

 

The British security services had to pull out agents from “hostile countries” as a result of information the Chinese and Russian intelligence services obtained when they gained access to the millions of top-secret NSA files Edward Snowed was carrying with him when he fled to Honk Kong and then to Russia. Snowden assured journalists who interviewed him that the Chinese and Russian intelligence services would not be able to access these files because he encrypted them with the highest encryption methods available. Security experts commented that he was either naïve or disingenuous – because he must have known, or should have known, that the cyber capabilities these two countries would make it relatively easy for them to crack the encrypted files he was carrying with him. We now know that these security experts were right.

The British security services had to pull out agents from “hostile countries” as a result of information the Chinese and Russian intelligence services obtained when they gained access to the millions of top-secret NSA files Edward Snowden was carrying with him when he fled in 2013 to Honk Kong and then to Russia.
When Edward Sonwden decided to flee the United States and go to Honk Kong, he was carrying 1.7 million top-secret NSA files on the hard drive of his lap top and several USB drives. He assured journalists who interviewed him that the Chinese and Russian intelligence services would not be able to access these files because he encrypted them with the highest encryption methods available.
Security experts commented at the time that he was either naïve or disingenuous – because he must have known, or should have known, that the cyber capabilities these two countries would make it relatively easy for them to crack the encrypted files he was carrying with him.
We now know that these security experts were right. The Sunday Times quotes anonymous senior officials in No 10 Downing Street, the U.K. Home Office, and the British security services who said that British secret agents had to be moved out of several countries because Russia gained access to classified information contained in files Snowden was carrying with him, information which reveals how these agents operate.
Other high-level sources, talking with the BBC, confirmed the Sunday Times’s story.
The Sunday Times and BBC do not say where China or Russia gained access to the files.
The Guardian reports that the British government and intelligence agencies in the United Kingdom and the United States issued warnings as far back as eighteen months ago that the Snowden disclosures had helped terrorists, costing GCHQ, the U.K.’s main surveillance agency, up to 30 percent of its capabilities and that agents had had to be moved.
The New York Times notes that the assessments of the damage Snowden has done to the ability of the United States and the United Kingdom to gather information about terror groups, and about adversaries such as Russia and China, are echoed in the Sunday Times. The paper quoted a source saying: “Agents have had to be moved and that knowledge of how we operate has stopped us getting vital information.”