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The week in nuclear news

Christina Macpherson's websites & blogs

Christina Macpherson’s websites & blogs

Japan disrupted by a large earthquake.with shocks near Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear plant, with its 7 reactors, now still offline. TEPCO gives up on freezing radioactive water –   fails to halt toxic water inflow at Fukushima No. 1 trenches. Japan passes legislation to remove nuclear waste from Fukushima – but implementation will be very problematic.  Japan’s Nuclear Regulator says earthquake fault under Tsuruga nuclear reactor is active.

UK.  Top atomic energy proponent, Sir David King, calls for  renewable energy and energy storage as priority,suggests these as a better future energy source.  Shareholder crisis brings more doubts about UK’s Hinkley Point C nuclear plant’s future. UK government secretly questioning whether Hinkley Point C nuclear power project will even go ahead at all.  Delay after delay , and soaring coasts, for Britain’s new nuclear build plans. Demonstrations against transport of nuclear fuel   The nuclear weapons establishment buys academia

Iran. The tortuous, but very urgent diplomacy of reaching  a nuclear deal with Iran. 

USA. Legal action by Washington State over Hanford nuclear site vapors.  Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s chief warns that Commission is not geared for needs of decommissioning.  Nuclear power promoter Dept of Energy (DOE)  to run research into health effects of radiation?

France. Drone flights near France’s nuclear reactors raise security problems . In gloomy economic situation nuclear giant AREVA “suspends” its financial outlook for 2015 and 2016.     2015 the deadline  for EDF to start closing nuclear reactors in France. EDF’s nuclear power plants Flamanville and Olkiluoto delayed yet again.

Canada. Northern Quebec Cree Nation run  a determined campaign against uranium exploration and mining.

Cyber security. Pro nuclear trolls are targeting anti-nuclear activists 

November 24, 2014 Posted by | Christina's notes | Leave a comment

The Dynamics of  Possible Nuclear Extinction.

Caldicott-2013Dr Helen Caldicott, 25 Nov 14, As a physician I am trained to assess a patient, taking a detailed medical history then conducting a careful physical examination. This is followed by a series of laboratory tests which guide me to a diagnosis. Appropriate treatment follows after the illness is diagnosed and the cause is defined. It is imperative that the main disease is attended to and the assessor not be distracted by peripheral issues or unrelated complaints.

I look at the world and its ongoing pathology from a similar perspective.  There are many serious issues facing the world at the moment but it is necessary to triage the most serious threats, those to our very survival. It is easy to be diverted or distracted by lesser threats. This must be avoided. As a physician, I see the ever-present threat of nuclear war as an ongoing existential risk that threatens almost all planetary life with extinction. The situation is even more acute because most people and politicians have become inured to, or are unaware of, the existential nature of this threat. This is a dangerous form of psychic numbing.

The truth is that Russia and the U.S. possess 94% of the 16,400 nuclear weapons in the global nuclear arsenal. The U.S. maintains its first strike winnable nuclear war policy, and both countries have raised their nuclear arsenals to a higher state of alert because of the trouble in the Ukraine.

Furthermore it has just been announced that the administration has plans to replace every nuclear warhead and their delivery systems via ship, submarine, missile and plane, at a cost of one trillion dollars over the next thirty years. And recently Stephen Hawking and his collaegues have been postulating that there is a real possibility that computers could launch a nuclear war with no human input

This symposium to be held by The Helen Caldicott Foundation – a 501C3 charitable organization – at the NY Academy of Medicine on February 28th-March 1st, 2015 will be structured to address the following issues:

  1. What are the human and technological factors that could precipitate a nuclear war between Russia and the U.S., how many times have we come close to nuclear war and how long will our luck hold?
  2. What are the ongoing technological and financial developments relevant to the nuclear weapons arsenals of the US and Russia?
  3. What problems are associated with lateral proliferation of nuclear weapons via strenuous corporate marketing of nuclear technology?
  4. What are the medical and environmental consequences of either a small or large nuclear war?
  5. What are the underlying philosophical, political, and ideological dynamics that have brought life on earth to the brink of extinction?
  6. How can we assess this situation from an anthropological perspective?
  7. What is the pathology within the present political situation that could lead us to extinction?
  8. How can this nuclear pathology be cured?

 

Speakers for each issue Continue reading →

November 24, 2014 Posted by | ACTION | Leave a comment