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The News That Matters about the Nuclear Industry Fukushima Chernobyl Mayak Three Mile Island Atomic Testing Radiation Isotope

Toxic masculinity, the nuclear lobby and its climate change confidence trick – theme for April 2021

In 2021, not only viruses, but also ideas, are sweeping around the world. There is a renewed global push for equality for women. A newly revitalised movement to end racism. The pandemic means that the health of each nation now depends on the health of all nations. The climate crisis is headed to affect the whole world.

Curiously absent from these global anxieties is the nuclear threat. Nuclear war could annihilate not only millions of people, but also our chances of a liveable climate. Nuclear pollution affects mainly indigenous peoples , just as nuclear weapons testing was cheerfully imposed by the rich nations on distant indigenous lands.

Nuclear wastes keep accumulating, with no solution as to where to put them. Governments are conned by gee-whiz nuclear salesmen into pouring our tax-payers’ money into dead end Small Nuclear Reactor shemes, and propping up old decrepit Big Nuclear Reactors.

If we’re really getting serious about world health, about equality for women, and indigenous rights – then why on Earth are we tolerating the continuation of the Toxic Masculine Nuclear Culture?

They’ll tell us that we can’t understand nuclear issues – only the toxic masculine nuclear experts can. So leave nuclear decision making to them?

They’ll bend over backwards to entice and promote women into the industry (preferably bimbos if at all possible). They’ll decry women’s ignorance, and some men’s too – people with strong knowledge of environment, history – all those soft humanities issues.

But they know, as we all do, that women overwhelmingly distrust nuclear power and nuclear weapons, and so do indigenous peoples.

As world leaders prepare for the COP Climate Conference in Glascow in November, the unscrupulous nuclear lobbyists are trying every bribe, every trick in the book, to get nuclear accepted as ‘clean’. They’re desperate, as nuclear power is a financial disaster – and they want the tax benefits and subsidies that go with being accepted as ”clean” ”sustainable”

April 11, 2021 Posted by | Christina's themes | 1 Comment

This week in nuclear news

Forgive me for being so remiss – I’ve neglected to cover Prince Philip’s funeral. He deserves remembering for some good work that he did for the environment.

NUCLEAR.  Heightened anxiety about keeping, repairing the Iran nuclear agreement, and a suspicious accident at Iran’s nuclear enrichment site.   Continued pressure from the nuclear lobby to get Europe to decide that nuclear power is “clean and green”.

CORONAVIRUS .  The news is not good. A”shocking imbalance” in the distribution of coronavirus vaccines between rich and poor countries. Covid cases, deaths surging around the world as variants spread, vaccination lags.

CLIMATE. Radio Ecoshock covers the issue of Future Cities: Hot and Flooded.

A bit of good news – COVID-19 success story for Rwanda is a wake-up call for wealthy West.

Investigative journalism – “Fair” exposes in detail how corporate media uses “Tropes” to win intelligent people over to USA militarism. 

Two years since Julian Assange was seized from the Ecuadorian Embassy.

Let’s get rid of nuclear weapons before they ruin us.   Artificial Intelligence and the risk of catalytic nuclear war.

U.S. – China co-operation on cyber security.

Nuclear power – a way to stop other, faster, and cheaper, climate solutions. Despite the influence of Bill Gates, experts find that nuclear power is the wrong climate solution.

Japanese engineering firm EPC joins with NuScale in small modular reactor investment.

Racism, inequities move to the center of the climate debate.

Rapid global increase in energy consumption.

IRAN. Accident at Iran’s Natanz nuclear station. Iran calls Natanz nuclear enrichment site blackout ‘nuclear terrorism’. Iran nuclear talks to continue next week after breakthrough. It’s getting too late for an effective missile deal with Iran. Iran frees South Korean ship as more nuclear talks planned in Vienna.

GREENLAND. Opposition to uranium and rare earths mining – party wins Greenland election

EUROPE. Greenpeace warns European Commission on nuclear energy classification. Dodgy European Taxonomy report was favourable to nuclear power – but it’s far from a done deal. Nuclear nation France exerted pressure on European Commission. Climate taxonomy deal threatened by possible inclusion of nuclear as ”virtuous”.

FRANCE. France fully nationalises debt-laden EDF nuclear company, – EDF can now focus on renewable energy. New defects found in France’s Flamanville nuclear project. Doubts that it will start-up on time, – or indeed ever!.

CANADA. Canada’s tax-payer funded small nuclear reactors unlikely to succeed. Pickering Nuclear plant at risk of ‘Fukushima-type accident.

NORTH KOREA. North Korea’s new tactical nuclear weapons means new dangers, new U.S. strategy needed.

SOUTH KOREA. Climate change probably increasing this problem – nuclear reactors halted because of jellyfish-like sea salps.

JAPAN. Crookedness, fraud, in 10 years of Fukushima nuclear clean-up. Japanese government and Tepco must pay monthly compensation to 3550 Fukushima residents displaced due to continued radioactivity. Japan’s Prime Minister getting ready to release Fukushima waste water into the Pacific ocean? Japan poised to release Fukushima nuclear cooling water into the sea. 4,000 Fukushima waste bags contain unidentified radioactive materials.

Japanese government continues Japan’s ”Nuclear Village” generous grants to keep ageing nuclear reactors going. Niigata governor wants Japan’s Nuclear Regulator to reassess Tepco, following security lapses. Japan halts restart of nuclear plant over poor anti-terror measures. Japan has the ability to become both coal-free and nuclear-free.

USA.

UK. UK losing credibility with its new, ambiguous, nuclear weapons policy. Sleekit’ increase in Trident nuclear warheads on the Clyde.

Britain needs to rethink – whether it really needs new nuclear power, in view of tensions with the supplier, China. Chinese-French nuclear power station planned for Bradwell UK – issues raised that might prevent its construction. Uncertain future for EDF’s Dungeness nuclear power station. It may have to shut down early.

POLAND. In a positive move, Polish utilities remove their investment from nuclear power development.

RUSSIA. Russia planning to test a ‘doomsday’ nuclear-powered torpedo in the Arctic. Putin amassing, testing, huge military arsenal in the Arctic.

CHINA. Bitcoin mining to consume more electricity than whole of Australia by 2024. Like the other nuclear powers, China wants to put a dirty great radioactive waste dump on indigenous land.

ALGERIA. French Prime Minister visiting Algeria. The question of radioactive dust from nuclear tests will be on the agenda.

SOUTHEAST ASIA. Southeast Asia can leapfrog uncompetitive nuclear energy, and go straight to renewables.

AUSTRALIA. There’s a long and devastating history behind the proposal for a nuclear waste dump in South Australia. Who Says There Is No Kimba Dump Opposition? Australia’s part in continuing nuclear havoc in Pacific islands – legacy of atomic bomb tests.

April 12, 2021 Posted by | Christina's notes | 2 Comments

Two years since Julian Assange was seized from the Ecuadorian Embassy

the Biden administration has continued Trump’s pursuit of the WikiLeaks founder—in 2010, Biden had labelled him a “high-tech terrorist”. 

Two years since Assange was seized from the Ecuadorian Embassy, World Socialist Website, Thomas Scripps, 9 April 2021   Two years ago on Sunday, WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange was seized from the Ecuadorian embassy in London. He has been incarcerated ever since, fighting extradition to the United States where he faces life imprisonment in barbaric conditions for exposing war crimes, coup plots, mass state surveillance, torture and corruption.

On April 11, 2019, Assange’s political asylum status was revoked by the Ecuadorian government and British police entered the embassy building, dragging him away. The recently published diaries of former Foreign Office minister Sir Alan Duncan confirm the involvement of the highest levels of the state in this lawless operation.

Duncan explains how he watched the police raid on a live feed from the “Operations Room at the top of the Foreign Office.” Codenamed “Pelican”, Duncan recalled how one of its officials looked on, “wearing a pelican-motif tie.” Duncan’s diary entry concludes, “So, job done at last—and we take a commemorative photo of Team Pelican. It had taken many months of patient diplomatic negotiation, and in the end it went off without a hitch. I do millions of interviews, trying to keep the smirk off my face.”

The sadism of the British state’s snatch-and-grab operation was matched only by the degraded efforts of the pseudo-left to vilify Assange and blacken his reputation in support of a manufactured sexual assault investigation launched by Sweden in 2010. Rightly fearing that his extradition to Sweden would be a stepping-stone to US extradition, Assange sought asylum in the Ecuadorian embassy. While he was there, his former “media partners”, most prominently the Guardian, and an international roll call of pseudo-left groups, launched a despicable years’ long slander campaign to smear him as a sexual predator………………

The Trump administration, it was later revealed, was working with the CIA to spy on Assange, including his privileged communications with lawyers and doctors, and to steal his personal documents. CIA operatives discussed plans for Assange’s kidnap or assassination, until Ecuadorian President Lenin Moreno agreed to turn him over to the UK police.

Once in the hands of the British state, Assange was subjected to two years of pseudo-legal persecution, culminating in a degrading show trial. Hauled in front of Westminster Magistrates Court just hours after he was seized from the embassy, Assange was found guilty of violating bail. District judge Michael Snow declared, “His assertion that he has not had a fair hearing is laughable. And his behaviour is that of a narcissist who cannot get beyond his own selfish interests.”………..

Assange’s time in Belmarsh was characterised by the repeated and flagrant denial of his legal rights, aimed at crushing him and which left him suicidal. He was repeatedly denied proper access to his lawyers and to materials necessary to prepare his defence. When Assange reached the end of his sentence, District Judge Vanessa Baraitser ordered that he continue to be held in Belmarsh on remand. During the initial week of Assange’s extradition hearing, held in February 2020 at Woolwich Crown Court, he was held in a glass box, with Baraitser preventing him from speaking or communicating effectively with his lawyers. He was stripped twice and handcuffed 11 times on the first day.

In the run-up to the main hearing at Westminster Magistrates Court in September 2020, Assange was repeatedly denied bail, even as COVID-19, to which he is especially vulnerable on account of a respiratory condition, ripped through Belmarsh prison.

The US government used this time to develop its monstrous assault on democratic rights. The initial indictment of the WikiLeaks founder, unsealed on the day of his seizure from the embassy, charged him with conspiracy to commit computer intrusion, with a maximum sentence of five years. On May 23, 2019, the US unveiled 17 new charges under the 1918 Espionage Act with a combined potential sentence of 170 years. These charges have chilling implications for freedom of the press, criminalising basic journalistic practices and holding them tantamount to treason or espionage.

Another superseding indictment was issued on June 24, 2020, after one phase of Assange’s hearing had been completed and a matter of weeks before the defence was due to submit its skeleton argument for the second. Besides being a gross abuse of due process, the new indictment, based largely on testimony from FBI informants with histories of fraud and entrapment, expanded the framework of the charges to an even wider range of journalistic activity.

The immense significance of WikiLeaks’ and Assange’s journalism, and the criminality of their persecution, was underscored at his hearing in September. Dozens of witnesses spoke to WikiLeaks’ pioneering source protection and the global impact of releases like the Collateral Murder video, revealing the massacre of Iraqi civilians, journalists and first responders by a US Apache helicopter gunship. The US case was exposed as a groundless, vindictive witch-hunt designed to destroy Assange and set a dictatorial precedent for what will happen to any journalists who dare expose imperialist crimes.

With a ruling in favour of extradition considered all but assured, Baraitser delivered a surprise decision against on January 4 of this year. But her politically calculated ruling blocked the extradition request solely on the grounds that it would be oppressive by reason of Assange’s compromised mental health and his risk of suicide if he were imprisoned in the US. She accepted every other element of the prosecution’s case, including its denial of free speech and freedom of the press, and its justification of the abuse of Assange’s democratic rights.

This left the gate wide open to a US appeal. The US Department of Justice quickly responded, “While we are extremely disappointed in the court’s ultimate decision, we are gratified that the United States prevailed on every point of law raised. In particular, the court rejected all of Mr. Assange’s arguments regarding political motivation, political offense, fair trial, and freedom of speech. We will continue to seek Mr. Assange’s extradition to the United States.”………

the Biden administration has continued Trump’s pursuit of the WikiLeaks founder—in 2010, Biden had labelled him a “high-tech terrorist”. As the World Socialist Web Site and the International Committee of the Fourth International (ICFI) have warned, Assange’s persecution is integral to the war drive of US imperialism, escalated by Trump and now intensified by his successor.

Biden has engaged in an aggressive anti-China campaign and is whipping up anti-Chinese xenophobia at home, promoting conspiracy theories on the origin of COVID-19. The US and its allies stand on a cliff edge with Russia over Crimea and eastern Ukraine, with NATO’s endless anti-Russia provocations and proxy incursions threatening to spill into war.

Military conflicts of such catastrophic scope can only be pursued abroad by destroying democratic rights at home. WikiLeaks’ releases of the Afghanistan and Iraq war logs were a spark to mass anti-war sentiment all over the world. The ruling class in the imperialist countries around the world are determined to prevent their war plans and crimes being reported and have sought to crack down on left-wing, socialist and anti-war opposition. The Assange case is emblematic of this turn to dictatorship.

In the two years since Assange’s arrest, two sharply opposed political perspectives have defined themselves in the fight for his freedom. The official campaign, run by Don’t Extradite Assange (DEA), has based itself on rotten appeals to the state and its representatives. The DEA’s first champion was former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn. Throughout the 2019 general election, as leader of the Labour Party, Corbyn maintained a politically criminal silence on Assange, blocking the development of a mass movement against British and US imperialism to secure his freedom. When Corbyn did finally speak, it was to appeal to Boris Johnson and the British justice system that had trampled Assange’s democratic rights………..

The pandemic has proved beyond all doubt that there is no constituency in the ruling class for even the most basic democratic rights, including the right to protest and assembly and the right to life. It has responded to the virus with a policy of social murder and by advancing its preparations for state repression and war on a vast scale……….

On the second anniversary of the WikiLeaks founder’s seizure, we reaffirm our demand for Assange’s immediate, unconditional freedom and our commitment to a programme of class struggle to achieve it. https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2021/04/10/assa-j01.html?pk_campaign=assange-newsletter&pk_kwd=wsws

April 12, 2021 Posted by | civil liberties, media, UK, USA | Leave a comment

Iran calls Natanz nuclear enrichment site blackout ‘nuclear terrorism’

Iran calls Natanz nuclear enrichment site blackout ‘nuclear terrorism’,  ABC, 12 Apr 21,  A blackout at Iran’s Natanz nuclear facility on Sunday was an act of “nuclear terrorism”, according to the country’s nuclear chief, Ali Akbar Salehi.

Key points:

  • Multiple Israeli media outlets reported a cyberattack caused the blackout
  • The incident took place a day after Tehran launched advanced uranium enrichment centrifuges
  • Israel has not claimed responsibility for the attack

While there was no immediate claim of responsibility, suspicion fell immediately on Israel, where its media nearly uniformly reported a devastating cyberattack orchestrated by the country caused the blackout. 

Earlier on Sunday, a spokesman for the country’s Atomic Energy Organisation (AEOI) said that a problem with the electrical distribution grid of the Natanz site had caused an incident, Iranian media reported.

The spokesman said that “the incident caused no casualties or contamination”.

The incident took place a day after Tehran launched new advanced uranium enrichment centrifuges at the site……… https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-04-12/iran-calls-natanz-atomic-site-blackout-nuclear-terrorism/100062156

April 12, 2021 Posted by | Iran, secrets,lies and civil liberties | Leave a comment

Britain needs to rethink – whether it really needs new nuclear power, in view of tensions with the supplier, China.

For the UK government, the question is whether a new generation of nuclear power is as necessary as it seemed a decade ago. Financing challenges, rising costs and endless delays have all made nuclear less attractive, while the costs of alternative sources of supply such as offshore wind have fallen sharply.

How growing conflict with China could impact UK nuclear power, Given the tension between the two countries, the UK is unlikely to give China access to its nuclear energy. But a trade dispute would affect us more than them, Prospect 10th April 2021, By Nick Butler 

”………. The deterioration of relations between London and Beijing, for instance, now threatens to derail the development of nuclear power in the UK and force a rethink of Britain’s energy policy.

A decade ago, China was the new strategic ally of the British government under David Cameron and George Osborne, a potential counterweight to dependence on either the European Union or the United States. Chinese investors were invited in—not least the fledgling Chinese nuclear industry, which sought to use Britain as a stepping stone to penetrate world markets. The stepping stone took the form first of an investment in the new nuclear plants being developed by the French state company EDF, including the Hinkley Point C project in Somerset, and then a Chinese-led project to build, own and operate a further nuclear reactor at Bradwell in Essex.

The intervening period has seen state-to-state relations sour. ……………………..

Given the divisions which have emerged, it is impossible to envisage the UK government now giving approval to the development of the Bradwell power station. The reason, of course, has nothing to do with the technology or the competence of China General Nuclear Power Group (the Chinese company involved).  China has become a leading player in the global nuclear power business. The problem is that nuclear power stations are part of the UK’s strategic national infrastructure, and China is no longer a friend to be trusted with such levers of power. China’s recent behaviour has compounded the doubts which already existed around the wisdom of giving it control of nuclear capacity and open access to the UK’s national grid.

China, however, would with some justification regard the postponement or cancellation of the Bradwell project as a breach of contract. If China decides that the link with EDF to finance a third of the costs of Hinkley and contribute to other French-led projects was conditional on Bradwell, CGNP could end its involvement and demand its money back. 

For the UK government, the question is whether a new generation of nuclear power is as necessary as it seemed a decade ago. Financing challenges, rising costs and endless delays have all made nuclear less attractive, while the costs of alternative sources of supply such as offshore wind have fallen sharply. With the exception of the hope that the smaller scale modular reactors being developed by Rolls-Royce can provide some additional capacity in the 2030s and beyond, nuclear power is barely mentioned in the government’s recent statements on its plans for reducing the use of hydrocarbons and cutting emissions. For the immediate future, given that Hinkley is still the only new reactor under construction in the UK, everything depends on the reliability of the existing nuclear plants—most of which have been in operation since the 1980s……. https://www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/world/nuclear-investment-power-uk-china-government-energy

How growing conflict with China could impact UK nuclear power

April 12, 2021 Posted by | Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Pentagon and Tax Cheats Already Cost Taxpayers Far More Than Biden’s Job Plan

Pentagon and Tax Cheats Already Cost Taxpayers Far More Than Biden’s Job Plan,   BY Lindsay Koshgarian, Truthout, April 11, 2021  

As President Biden’s $2.3 trillion jobs plan too big? Conservatives are arguing that the package is too expensive and its broad reach is unnecessary.

In order to assess the size and necessity of the bill, it’s important to situate Biden’s jobs plan within a larger federal budget context. Looking at the spending patterns going back decades, the upshot is that the Biden plan is really not all that big, especially given how overdue it is. In fact, progressives have argued that the package, while ambitious in its aims, doesn’t provide enough resources. The plan as proposed is less ambitious than Biden’s campaign proposals, and it already enjoys widespread popularity. There’s plenty of room to make this bill larger, and to make that easier by cutting some of the most egregious uses of federal dollars.

$2.3 trillion sounds like a lot, and it is. But trillions have been spent and are still spent every year in the course of normal government business, on everything from wars and weapons to much-needed but exclusionary social programs like the GI Bill, to tax cuts for corporations and the wealthy. To reach the level of spending that is really needed to solve problems like climate change and inequality, it will be necessary to be as bold with this jobs package as the country has been with so many other costly endeavors………

War Spending: $6.4 Trillion

Over the past 20 years, the U.S. has spent $6.4 trillion on wars that have served only to further destabilize the Middle East, cause hundreds of thousands of deaths and enrich military contractors. If that money had been spent on infrastructure and clean energy instead of destructive and deadly wars, the U.S. could have had a fully renewable energy grid by now. The Pentagon is one of the most egregious uses of trillions of dollars.

That $6.4 trillion doesn’t even include the regular, non-war Pentagon budget. President Biden’s $2.3 trillion jobs package works out to about $280 billion a year. The last time the military budget was less than that amount was 1951.

Just a week after announcing his jobs plan, President Biden released a budget proposal that pegged Pentagon spending at $753 billion. That’s more than the $740 billion the Pentagon got this year under President Trump, and it’s more than two and a half times the annual value of the jobs proposal. Every year in recent memory, the Pentagon has accounted for more than half of the discretionary federal budget that Congress allocates each year………..https://truthout.org/articles/pentagon-and-tax-cheats-already-cost-taxpayers-far-more-than-bidens-job-plan/?eType=EmailBlastContent&eId=bc86a7bb-082f-4047-add9-9379daa553e8

April 12, 2021 Posted by | Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Rapid global increase in energy consumption

Reuters 9th April 2021, The global energy system has become greener over the last decade, but most countries are nowhere near on track to achieve net zero emissions by the middle of this century. Net zero has become symbolically and diplomatically important for policymakers, but the goal will remain far out of reach without much faster change.

In recent years, energy consumption has becomeless carbon-intensive, but not fast enough to offset the rapid increase in energy use as a result of rising populations, incomes, and demand for energy services in developing countries.

Worldwide energy consumption rose at a compound annual rate of 1.9% in the ten years before the coronavirus epidemic while energy-related carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions increased at an average rate of 1.4%.

https://www.reuters.com/article/idUSL8N2M2443

April 12, 2021 Posted by | 2 WORLD, ENERGY | Leave a comment

Chinese-French nuclear power station planned for Bradwell UK – issues raised that might prevent its construction


Maldon Nub News 10th April 2021, Bradwell B: The public consultation on the reactor design is over – but
there is still a chance to find out more and make comments. Both the company behind the proposals for Bradwell B new nuclear power station and a campaign group against the development have given their response to the end of the Environment Agency’s (EA) public consultation on the design of the nuclear reactor.

The public consultation on the Generic Design Assessment (GDA) of the ‘UK HPR1000’ reactor, which is planned for use at Bradwell B, closed on Sunday, 4 April. The EA’s 12-week consultation asked the public’s views on its preliminary conclusions and assessment reports for the reactor design.

The design has been put forward by General Nuclear System Limited, a joint venture between CGN (China General Nuclear Power Group) and the French power company EDF.

“The EA raised a total of six “issues” which if not resolved would prevent the reactor design from being constructed here in the UK. It’s interesting to note that the HPR1000 design is not yet operational anywhere in the world, with four units currently under construction in China including the reference design unit for the Bradwell B reactors.”

https://maldon.nub.news/n/bradwell-b-the-public-consultation-on-the-reactor-design-is-over—but-there-is-still-a-chance-to-find-out-more-and-make-comments

April 12, 2021 Posted by | politics, UK | Leave a comment

Southeast Asia can leapfrog uncompetitive nuclear energy, and go straight to renewables

World Nuclear Industry Status Report 6th April 2021, Other than to have mercy on soon-to-be-unemployed nuclear engineers, there is not a single reason why Southeast Asia shouldn’t leapfrog nuclear energy.

Dangerous and expensive, the technology simply isn’t worth the hassle. Desperate to save itself from decline, the nuclear sector has peddled the myth that nuclear energy—clean, reliable and cost-effective as it allegedly is—is key to decarbonising the global economy.

Except it isn’t. Economics have long conspired against the industry as it built ever larger and more complex reactors. From China to the United States, projects have run years behind schedule, leading to budget overruns, and rendering the technology uncompetitive.

https://www.worldnuclearreport.org/A-decade-on-from-Fukushima-it-s-time-for-Southeast-Asia-to-bury-its-nuclear.html

April 12, 2021 Posted by | Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Sleekit’ increase in Trident nuclear warheads on the Clyde

Sleekit’ increase in Trident nuclear warheads on the Clyde, The Ferret Rob Edwards, April 11, 2021   The UK Government has secretly boosted the number of Trident nuclear warheads stored on the Clyde over the last five years, according to an analysis of bomb convoys.

Nukewatch, which monitors the transport of nuclear weapons, estimated that 37 new warheads were delivered from England to Scotland between 2015 and 2020. Nine were added in 2019 and 13 in 2020, it said.

In March the Ministry of Defence (MoD) reversed a ten-year-old disarmament plan by announcing the “ceiling” on the UK’s nuclear weapons stockpile would increase from 225 to 260 because of “technological and doctrinal threats”.

But Nukewatch argued this increase has already happened without the public being told. It accused Westminster of failing to provide a “fully accurate picture” and of risking “catastrophic consequences”. 

The Scottish National Party (SNP) warned of a “moral and democratic outrage”. Campaigners lambasted UK ministers for being “sleekit” and treating parliaments and public with “utter contempt”.

The MoD did not deny that more warheads had been sent to Scotland. It declined to comment on nuclear transports, and stressed that warhead numbers were “kept under review”.

The MoD’s “integrated review” of nuclear weapons policy on 17 March 2021 abandoned a pledge made in 2010 “to reduce our overall nuclear warhead stockpile ceiling from not more than 225 to not more than 180 by the mid-2020s.”It said: “In recognition of the evolving security environment, including the developing range of technological and doctrinal threats, this is no longer possible, and the UK will move to an overall nuclear weapon stockpile of no more than 260 warheads.”.. https://theferret.scot/sleekit-increase-trident-nuclear-warheads/

This prompted Nukewatch to examine its recorded sightings of 78 nuclear bomb convoys between 2010 and 2020. There were 43 trips from the nuclear weapons factory at Burghfield, Berkshire, to the Royal Naval Armaments Depot at Coulport on Loch Loch, and 35 in the other direction……………….

The Scottish Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament blamed a series of “sleekit” prime ministers for misrepresenting nuclear realities. “It is now clear that a succession of UK governments have treated parliaments and the public with utter contempt,” said campaign chair, Lynn Jamieson.“They have deceived their own people by this covert escalation and they have attempted to hoodwink the world at large with a show of compliance with the requirements of the Non-Proliferation Treaty.”The suggestion that nuclear weapons brought security was an “arrogant delusional absurdity”, Jamieson argued. Instead they meant “more capacity for mass extinction, life-extinguishing climate change, genocide and risk of irrecoverable accidental https://theferret.scot/sleekit-increase-trident-nuclear-warheads/

April 12, 2021 Posted by | UK, weapons and war | Leave a comment

Accident at Iran’s Natanz nuclear station

Guardian 11th April 2021, A spokesman for Iran’s civilian nuclear programme said an “accident”
struck the electrical distribution grid of the Natanz nuclear facility, a
day after the government announced it was starting up new uranium
enrichment centrifuges.

Behrouz Kamalvandi announced the accident on
Sunday, saying there were no injuries and no pollution. A mysterious
explosion in July 2020 damaged Natanz’s advanced centrifuge facility,
with Iran later calling the incident sabotage. Iran had announced on
Saturday that it had started up advanced uranium enrichment centrifuges at
Natanz, in a breach of its undertakings under the 2015 nuclear deal, days
after the start of talks on rescuing the accord.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/apr/11/accident-at-irans-natanz-nuclear-plant-as-new-uranium-enrichment-starts

France24 11th April 2021

https://www.france24.com/fr/moyen-orient/20210411-en-iran-un-accident-survient-dans-l-installation-nucl%C3%A9aire-de-natanz

Iran says it has begun mechanical tests on its newest advanced nuclear
centrifuges, even as the five world powers that remain in a foundering 2015
nuclear deal with Iran attempt to bring the U.S. back into the agreement.

Independent 10th April 2021

https://www.independent.co.uk/travel/middle-east/iran-nuclear-centrifuge-us-talks-b1829564.html

April 12, 2021 Posted by | incidents, Iran | Leave a comment

Racism, inequities move to the center of the climate debate

COVID-19 and Black Lives Matter protests threw underlying systemic inequity magnifying climate change impacts into sharp relief.


Douglas Fischer  11 Apr 21, Systemic racism and inequity has always run as a powerful undercurrent through environmental and climate change impacts.

But it’s taken a global pandemic and shifting political winds in the U.S. to connect environmental impacts with environmental justice in such a mainstream, widespread way.

That’s according to three journalists at the frontlines of climate and environmental issues….. https://www.ehn.org/climate-change-and-racism-2651950416/photo-credit

April 12, 2021 Posted by | general | Leave a comment

Records falsified at Turkey Point nuclear power station

Feds say Turkey Point staff falsified records. FPL says it will pay proposed $150,000 fine

BY DAVID GOODHUE, APRIL 09, 2021 Federal investigators say employees at Turkey Point nuclear power plant in Homestead falsified records and deliberately recorded inaccurate information on maintenance reports in 2019.

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission recommended Thursday that Florida Power & Light, which operates the power plant on south Biscayne Bay, be fined $150,000 for the violations.

The utility said Friday that it will pay the civil fine, and that it had also conducted its own

 investigation, which resulted in the firing of the employees involved in the inquiry……

The NRC said in a press release that two of its investigations in 2020 “determined FPL employees engaged in deliberate misconduct” the year before………. https://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/community/miami-dade/homestead/article250551789.html

April 11, 2021 Posted by | secrets,lies and civil liberties, USA | Leave a comment

Keeping it short…and right — Beyond Nuclear International

New Beyond Nuclear series boils down key anti-nuclear messages

Keeping it short…and right — Beyond Nuclear International

April 11, 2021 Posted by | Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Nuclear nation France exerted pressure on European Commission. Climate taxonomy deal threatened by possible inclusion of nuclear as ”virtuous”

The future of the European nuclear industry is playing out in Brussels. https://reporterre.net/Le-nucleaire-tente-de-forcer-la-porte-europeenne-de-la-taxonomie-verte 9 Apr 21, The Commission is due to unveil this month the list of energies that will be considered “green” for investors. But an entry of nuclear and gas into this “taxonomy” risks weakening the ambitions of the EU and its Green Deal.

Brussels (Belgium), correspondence

This is a decision that will weigh on the future. For several months, the European Commission has been working on an important tool, supposed to support the energy sector and the Member States in reducing the continent’s CO2 emissions. This involves establishing a classification (called “taxonomy”) of energy sources that will be considered “virtuous” for the environment and the fight against global warming. While gas and nuclear power were initially ruled out, these two sectors are making an unexpected comeback in the discussions, on the eve of the publication by the Commission of its position, scheduled for April 21.

Initially, what is called “green taxonomy” was established on “scientifically defined” sustainability criteria, explained to Reporterre Neil Makaroff, Europe manager for the Climate Action Network. This is how the nuclear sector was sidelined mainly due to the impact of radioactive waste on the environment. But over the months, and following the adoption this summer of the European recovery plan (of which 30% of expenditure will have to be directed towards actions for the climate), taxonomy has become the object of political and economic interests. States. “It is a tool that should be neutral, but by introducing political issues into it, we are trampling on what scientific experts have established,” said Neil Makaroff.

The financial stakes are indeed very important for the sectors since, even if the classification will not prevent investors from supporting the sectors of their choice, the “green taxonomy” should be widely used as a reading grid by public investors, to start with the European Investment Bank (EIB) and the Member States subject to their climate targets. For private investors, the criteria of the taxonomy will also be benchmarks for obtaining labels on sustainability and highlighting their environmental commitments. In fact, proposing such a list amounts to directing a windfall of several billion towards the infrastructures officially dubbed for their contribution to the energy transition.

France wants to save its nuclear power hero.

In this context, the nuclear industry would like not to be forgotten by this great banquet. It initially had little hope of being invited, as several European states are hostile to her – Austria in the lead, but also Germany. Since the issue has been politically very sensitive within the Union for a long time, it was expected that nuclear power would be treated separately, later than taxonomy, with another text. Nuclear power was therefore not included in the first version of the green taxonomy project, revealed in November 2020.

However, France, a European country which has by far the largest nuclear fleet, expects that expenditure to support an industry with aging infrastructure will only increase, while private financing is increasingly difficult. to find. There is therefore a general French mobilization to try to influence the Commission. The French President, Emmanuel Macron, thus took the head of a group of seven European leaders to write, in mid-March, a letter to the European executive asking him to carefully consider the low carbon content of the production of atomic energy. “We call on the European Commission to ensure that the EU’s climate and energy policy takes into account all avenues towards carbon neutrality in accordance with the principle of technological neutrality,” wrote the seven authors.

What has given nuclear supporters hope, observers say, is the fact that the Commission seems to be backing down on the gas issue, under political pressure from ten Member States unhappy that it had not been retained as “transitional energy”. As the timetable has thus been delayed, France would like nuclear power to no longer be treated separately – which would risk excluding it from the central tool of green finance – but that it already appears in the second version of the delegated act to be published shortly. She thus found an alliance of interests with gas advocates to serve the nuclear cause. “It is very rare for heads of state to write a joint letter on this kind of subject to the Commission,” said Neil Makaroff. But that France, which shows so much its ambitions in terms of green finance, joins forces with States which want to include fossil energy in the taxonomy, it shows that it is the political game which is weighing on the Commission. “

“A last minute, opaque and politicized process”

Another recent event has also come to show how much the turn of the debate has changed. Wishing to spare the pronuclear a little and save time, the European Commission had ordered a report several months ago from its scientific committee, the Joint Research Center (JRC or JRC in English), on radioactive waste. At the end of March, rumors reported that the JRC had favorably concluded a “green” labeling for nuclear power, which should be recognized as a “transitional fuel”.

In this context, in early April, nine members of the technical expert platform (five NGOs and four experts) who had helped establish the original criteria for the taxonomy threatened to slam the door of the working group with the Commission. Faced with pressure to reintroduce fossil gas and nuclear power, they denounced a “last minute, opaque and politicized process”. “On the concept of what can be considered scientifically sustainable is not for politicians to decide,” said one of the scientists who signed the warning letter.

Originally conceived with the objective of giving clear guidelines, and presented as a world first in the field, taxonomy is therefore now in danger of being blurred by the political and strategic considerations of the Member States. For the defenders of an ambitious climate policy in Europe, if the European executive fails to keep this promise, it could ultimately affect the credibility of its “green deal” and, by extension, the Union itself in the world leadership it intended to take in the fight against global warming. 

April 10, 2021 Posted by | climate change, EUROPE, politics international | Leave a comment

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