nuclear-news

“Made in Cumbria”

Today at Faslane in Scotland there is a blockade of the Trident base.

“On Monday, 13th April the Scrap Trident Bairns Not Bombs Blockade will stop work at Faslane where Trident nuclear weapons are based just 30 miles from Glasgow. We want to send a strong reminder that the people of Scotland fundamentally oppose the UK’s possession of nuclear weapons. Please consider either taking part directly or in a support role. For more details check out the Blockade Briefing at http://scraptrident.org/”

Meanwhile here in Barrow where Trident is built all the parties with the honourable Exception of the Greens are ……

Cheerleaders for Nuclear Armageddon.

Trident is a multi faceted weapon that poisons us even without a single diabolic missile being launched. Most Barrovians are blissfully unaware that the towns shipyard routinely releases radiation to sea and air.  It is far from reassuring that nuclear sub building emissions…

Installation of the reactor dome at Areva’s EPR reactor at Flamanville, France. Now, indications of a serious problem with the reactor pressure vessel could scuttle the already delayed and over-budget project.

 In early April, the troubled French nuclear reactor manufacturer Areva announced that there is an “anamoly” in the reactor pressure vessel installed at Electricite de France’s (EdF) Flamanville reactor currently under construction.

While the U.S. thankfully appears to have avoided any construction of the Areva EPR reactors–the U.S. EPR flagship reactor at Calvert Cliffs-3 was defeated in NRC licensing hearings and EdF has announced it is giving up on the U.S. market–EPRs remain under construction elsewhere, most notably in France, Finland and China.  Areva–the world’s largest reactor manufacturer–is already near bankruptcy; if this “anamoly” is endemic to Areva EPRs it could put the final nail in Areva’s coffin.

We appreciate the work of Yves Marignac of WISE-Paris, who prepared…

Permafrost. Ground frozen for millennia. An enormous deposit of organic carbon forming a thick, peat-like under-layer.

Forced to warm at an unprecedented rate through the massive burning of heat-trapping gasses by human beings, this layer is now rapidly thawing, providing an amazing source of heat and fuel for wildfire ignition.

Joe Romm over at Climate Progress has long called this region ‘Permamelt.’ But, with a doubling of the number of wildfires for the high Arctic and an extension of the permafrost fire season into early April this year, we may well consider this to be a zone of now, near permanent, burning — Permaburn.

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(Massive outbreak of permafrost wildfires in Russia this week have left up to 34 villages in smoldering ruins. Image from Khakassia, Russia via The Siberian Times.)

For Khakassia, Russia the story this week has been one of unprecedented fire disaster.

Not only the Japanese, but Americans and other members of the nuclear suicide pact called “Convention on Supplementary Compensation for Nuclear Damage” or CSC, should be grateful for this injunction, especially since they will have to pay for future Japanese Nuclear disasters, as taxpayers and/or ratepayers. The CSC by making a corporate liability pool, paid only after an accident, encourages the selling of defective nuclear equipment, by its design. It apparently allows the selling of defective components by non-member countries, such as France and Russia, with no liability at all. Since it is based on installed nuclear capacity, the US and Japan will pay most of the CSC cost, including for any French and Russian defects leading to disaster in member countries. France and Russia’s State owned companies (Areva, EDF, Rosatom) will gleefully count their money, all while their State owned media blame the woes of the world upon US…