UK Nuclear Test Veterans scrooged at Christmas by MOD and courts 2016
Well, the verdict is in on the British Nuclear Test Veterans case after some 6 months of waiting and the final judgement was released, without any fanfare publicly but quietly as a PDF linked to a closed [to the public] Judiciary server on the web on the 19th December 2016. So much for the Governments Transparency obligations to the UK public.
The court case has a long history of problems over the past 2 decades that has been well documented by Chris Busby and many other scientists, reporters and groups aligned to the test veterans themselves.
The final tactic on the behalf of the test veterans was to challenge the obvious health issues and the governmental experts claims that these health effects could not be because of radiation with the exception of 1 test veteran they accepted had a cataract that was caused by the radiation but no other health effects.
The cataract in question was originally denied but after a recent change in the “dose levels received” by this single test veteran (out of 20,000) meant that they had to accept causation due to radiation (some 20milisievert single dose at the time of the nuclear tests)
The rest of the report reads like something out of a black comedy.
The argument against the Ministry of Defenses (MOD) position was challenged by 4 radiation health specialists with years of work and peer reviewed articles under their belts. Whilst the 2 health experts from the MOD kept to the arguments set out many decades ago and which stem from the original Atoms for Peace Treaty (Euratom) signed in 1957 during the paranoid and now proven false Cold War with Russia.
Much of the veterans case against the MOD was based on various evidence from the peer reviewed literature that casts doubt to the ICRP dose model as interpreted by the MOD experts.
The evidence of just how bad and inaccurate this view on radiation health can be seen on the Fissionline (Edition 45 released early this summer before the conclusion of the court case) interviews and exchange between Prof Keith Baverstock (who discovered linkage between radiation and Thyroid Cancers after Chernobyl in the west) and Prof Geraldine Thomas (Who runs the Chernobyl Tissue Bank in the UK went to japan for funding from the Japanese after the Fukushima disaster in 2011 and every year since). It must be said that Prof Geraldine Thomas did not come off well in this exchange of expert advice for the victims of the Japanese nuclear tragedy and indeed the BBC had to quietly take down the video she had done claiming that there was no risk after many nuclear experts challenged her presumptions and expertise. Never the less, the case carried on and her advice was taken as the only “true” science acceptable to the court alongside her colleagues blinkered views, working for the MOD.
It seems that in the judgement that very little of the extensive peer reviewed and experienced experts input for the test veterans was accepted at all! In fact in the judgment it would seem that they were hardly in the court and that any cross examination had taken place. But I suspect a statement from Chris Busby and the team will clarify these points when they have assessed the judgement fully.
This being the case the 8 page judgment still took 6 months and was released nearly on Christmas day when people were distracted by the festive spirit. It seemed almost managed to a precision worthy of Goebbels. No main stream media have reported on it yet. And in the background to this is the new laws being sought to stem investigative journalism in the UK along side draconian laws recently being brought to bare against the public as a whole such as the Criminal Justice Bill etc. In fact the EU has condemned much of the security legislation past as breaking fundamental Human Rights Legislation in a recent report. And the National Union of Journalists UK are very unhappy with further restrictions on their rights of a free press as well as the unwarranted spying and harassment of UK based journalists, Politicians and activiists.
Maybe some of the above changes in UK law had stayed the Judges hand until the government pressures (Seen some years earlier when the then Editor of the Guardian was threatened with the infamous newspaper closure on reporting the Snowden affair) had been too great to make any other choice but to ignore the panel of international experts fighting on behalf on the British Nuclear Tests Veterans and only accept the governments and MODs position and pseudo science.
I have written extensively concerning the manipulation of science based facts in a recent article concerning the Japanese victims of the Fukushima nuclear disaster of 2011 and will link that article here for you to see the evidence and sources on how Geraldine Thomas has been the cover girl for the darker side of the nuclear industry.
Behind every good woman is bad man I could say in this case but in the convolute world of Geraldine Thomas there is a whole global military industrial complex supported by the largest PR companies on the planet to manage the perception of many citizens in many western countries.
These powerful corporations and governmental bodies target the so called “Post Truth” Independent Journalists and scientists who are underfunded and unprepared for such a huge onslaught of resources and pressures never seen before in human history. And now it seems that the Judiciary are being pressured as well. 2016 will go down as the saddest year for democracy, free speech and the death knell for a legal systems that has operated in a reasonably fair way for hundreds of years.
However, the fight still goes on and the BNTV victims and their families are not forgotten and I am sure as the judgement is analysed the people behind the challenge to the MOD case will move forward and I will be reporting on that, as will other fair minded and common sense approach journalists and bloggers forming the “Fifth Estate”
Link to an interesting petition to the Fukushima Mayor concerning obfuscation by Geraldine Thomas and colleagues concerning the Thyroid cancer cover up in Japan with many source links and evidence;
Article extract from 1999 by a journalist who did an in depth investigation into the nuclear test victims here;
“The background [radiation] dose received by civilians and members of HM Forces serving at or off Christmas Island in the years 1956 to 1964 was only about 35 per cent of that which they would have received on average had they remained, for that period of their lives, in the United Kingdom.”
I have studied and talked with 2,500 veterans of these tests. They don’t accept this patently ridiculous statement. About one in seven of the men in the sample of 1,014 who responded to a questionnaire I circulated in late 1997 did not father any children after they returned from the weapons tests. Those who did are convinced that the high incidence of birth defects that they have noticed, and I have documented, in their children – and their grandchildren – was caused by their exposure to radiation as young servicemen. Among the nearly 5,000 children and grandchildren on whom I have information from this group of veterans, there are 26 cases of spina bifida alone – more than five times the usual rate for the UK.
Radiation-induced infertility and impaired fertility have been identified for well over 50 years in animals. Following the Chernobyl disaster, a range of fertility and sexual function problems in 12 men with chronic radiation dermatitis was reported.
The usual suspects are trying to cover up the health effects in Fukushima aided by the Japanese Secrets Law of 2013 that makes it illegal to talk about health effects caused by the 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster under pain of imprisonment.
170 cancers found because of new “screening”techniques.. thats the excuse to reduce the testing in Fukushima for thyroid cancers. In spite of the data from Chernobyl (see below) and the ongoing thyroid cases and other health effects being reported by Chernobyl Children International concerning the 1986 Chernobyl disaster, their work is still ongoing.
I wait in anticipation of Prof Keith Baverstocks response to this outrage .. here is his previous rebuttal and condemnation of Geraldine Thomas`s “dangerous advice” and ergo her colleague Prof Yamashita who left the Fukushima Medical University because of his outrageous and narcissistic claims that were widely publicised and condemned …. .. Thomas versus Baverstock debate in summer of 2016 in full published here; https://issuu.com/fission/docs/fissionline_45
About the Campaign loosely translated from japan
Regarding the Thyroid inspection regime that currently is in place in Fukushima Prefecture, The Nippon Foundation (Chairman Yohei Sasagawa) held a meeting that was chaired by Niwa Tanuki of the Radiation Effects Institute on December 9th 2016. In attendance were Prof Shunichi Yamashita (who famously claimed that “radiation is good for you” and made many more unscientificly proven comments) who is currently the executive vice president of Nagasaki University, Jacques Lochard vice chairman International Radiation Protection committee (ICRP) and Prof Geraldine Anne Thomas from the Imperial College University department of the Chernobyl Thyroid Tissue bank. The name of the conference is the “Fifth Fukushima International Expert Council Organising Committee December 2016”. Also in attendance was the Fukushima Prefectures and with the main members of the conference asked that the Thyroid testing of children should be changed to a voluntary basis and that this would mean that the testing regime was being reduced in spite of the the increase found after Chernobyl after 5 years by Prof Keith Baverstock who was in charge of the World Health Organisations radiological department during this time (this department was closed down and the workload was amazingly deferred to the more pro nuclear biased IAEA some years later).
The thyroid examination in Fukushima Prefecture actually require further enhancement and expansion because of the increase in the number of “cancer patients or suspects” on each successive report thus far. The “Thyroid inspection” in neighboring polluted prefectures that that have not been included are also necessary and should be incorporated as well. If this proposal is executed, the victims in Fukushima, neighboring prefectures and indeed the whole country will be in “rejected” from the future statistics concerning health monitoring data.
“We call on scientists and citizens nationwide,
We decided to do a “proposal to the Fukushima prefectural governor” to oppose the contraction of the Fukushima prefecture thyroid examination and indeed seek further improvement such as seek its expansion into effected nearby prefectures. (Attached document).”
Contact point for academics and NGOs to join the campaign
Those who can approve please contact me to the following e-mail.
Masa 03to@gmail.com To Masato Tashiro
Copy of Letter
“….The thyroid screening should not be reduced by “voluntary participation” but should be expanded and enhanced
December 20, 2016
Toshihide Masukawa Nagoya University Institute for Elementary and Nuclear Sphere Origin Research Organization
Ikeuchi graduated Professor Emeritus, the Graduate University for Advanced Studies
Shoji Sawada Emeritus Professor, Nagoya University
Susumu Shimazono Professor, Sophia University
Katsuma Yagasaki Emeritus Professor, University of the Ryukyus
Michiaki Matsuzaki Dohoku Jobo Cooperative Director Asahikawa North Medical School
Masato Miyaji Emeritus Professor, University of Tokyo
Masato Tashiro Low dose exposure and health project representative (secretariat)
Yasuhiro Sasagawa Chairman of the Nippon Foundation (Chairperson), Etsuko Kita, Chairman of the Sasakawa Memorial Health Cooperation Foundation, Chairman of Niwa Takei Radiation Impact Research Institute, Shunichi Yamashita, Executive Vice President, Nagasaki University, Vice Chairman of the International Radiological Protection Committee, Geraldine Anne Thomas Professors Imperial College London etc are the name of the Fukushima International Expert Council on the 5th radiation and health on December 9, 2016,
To solve the thyroid problem in Fukushima ~ The lesson of Chernobyl 30th anniversary “Utilize the Fukushima nuclear power plant accident in 5 years ~” to the Governor of Fukushima Prefecture.
Over 170 thyroid cancer cases and suspected cases have been discovered in children at thyroid screening conducted to investigate the relationship between the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear accident due to the Great East Japan Earthquake and childhood thyroid cancer.
The point of the committees “Recommendation” is that “Thyroid inspection program should be voluntary participation” from the viewpoint of “risk and benefit about the screening program, and cost effectiveness”. “Recommendation” states that “The increase in thyroid abnormality is not the influence of radiation exposure due to nuclear accident, but due to the screening effect” this is the reason.
Based on the results of examination of the points shown below, we conclude that children’s thyroid cancer found in the Fukushima prefectural health-care survey, although there are various opinions among experts, denied the possibility of being caused by radiation exposure It is important to see what you can not and to watch for the future trends, and I think that it is necessary to continue thorough screening of thyroid cases more firmly than before.
The screening started from October 2011. A preliminary survey was started in advance to grasp the prevalence of naturally occurring thyroid cancer on the premise that it takes several years until carcinogenic symptoms make themselves known. As a result, thyroid cancer-affected people were discovered at a higher rate than expected, but in future the examination should be continued in order to investigate whether there will be an increase in thyroid cancer due to the effects of the accident which was its original purpose. There is no medical basis to reduce these inspections. One of the principles of screening is to target high risk groups. Exposure by radioactive iodine due to the Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant accident this time has produced children in the high-risk group to be examined, and the examination should be continued.
The occurrence of radiation-induced malignant neoplasms is considered medically long-lasting, and it is hoped that we will continue the long-term testing system in the future. Though 6 years have passed since the accident, those who are over the age of 18 who graduate from high school, get a job, go on to university and go out of the Fukushima prefecture should also be treated with thyroid examinations outside the prefecture, this practice is necessary. Including these problems, in order to promote health management by minimizing the health effects of radiation exposure from the nuclear accident which is the responsibility of the nuclear power plant owner, we should be offering the health administration notebook to the nation and to the residents of Fukushima with its surrounding prefectures. …..”
How bad is Prof. Geraldines advice anyway? And why do the BBC support her so much? See this link (And the other links below as source for this article and its claims) debunking her claims using the ICRP dose model 2016 (short video)
A link to a detailed report on the committees arguments are here and some overview from an health worker who has been studying this issues for some years can be found here;
ISIS and nuclear Armageddon? – Exclusive to nuclear-news.net
“…However we look at it, as we hear the PR call for more and/or better nuclear weapons, the issue of nuclear weapons grade materials escaping from countries like the Ukraine, Kazakhstan, Pakistan etc and also the possibility of theft from large nuclear reprocessing complexes in the west like Sellafield, La Hague, Hanford, Negev Nuclear Research Center etc means that huge resources will have to be spent defending these places that will not be accounted for in costing nuclear power and reprocessing to the tax payer with no guarantee that corrupt practices now or in the future will not circumvent them…..”
Following the article (Link ref 1 below) I picked up from India and posted to nuclear-news.net, I shared it to Fukushima 311 Watchdogs (F311W) . As an Admin on F311 W I later checked the statistics and found a small number of posts not getting any hits. Its as though they were being blocked. I had discovered in 2013 that this was possible and did a video (Link ref 2 below) showing that evidence.
I then did a video (Link ref 3 below) showing the issue of the blocked posts on the Uranium story and also showed that the Uranium story was being ignored by all the western Main Stream Media and that Google was blocking the nuclear-news.net story About 5 hours after posting the video the Google block to the nuclear-news.net story became unblocked.
I then checked out the stats on the video (Screenshot ref 4 below) and saw that some parties in the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and Pakistan were interested in that post. Also i noted that Pakistan came up on the stats earlier but with no observable clicks (maybe Pakistan Secret Service computer whizz kids were trying to cover their tracks?). It looks like ISIS are seeking and succeeding in their efforts to acquire nuclear materials
So, what did I conclude with on all this? Firstly a non story about Donald Trump was beginning to go “viral” and in this Post Truth world I wondered why? The USA and Russia had already said they would be renewing and expanding their nuclear weapons arsenal and also with “safer” mini nukes earlier on in the year.
The fact that many outlets in India were posting articles on the story led me to think that the western Trump Tweet story was being manufactured to hide the Indian story that was going viral there.
Also, Mordechai Vannunu was having his latest court case in Israel and the judgment is going to be made in the next few weeks. So, there are two good reasons for the swamping of the internet on “other” nuclear stories to hide these two important facts. In Fact i had just done an article that described how large PR companies managed to manufacture narrative in a Post Truth world.
So, what is so important on the Thane Uranium Black market story? Firstly, the details of the purity of the Uranium. The Indian Police had done some homework and had the purity and the cost of the Uranium and this was in the article i posted. But the costs was in RS Core and the conversion from that to US Dollars was not easy.
So I did the conversion and also checked the upper level of purity (which was “85 percent” pure) and compared that to the purity of US nuclear weapons grade Uranium 235 (which is 93 percent). Now it has to be said that the Indian article did not specify U235 or U238 but when judging purity of Uranium it is valued at the amount of U235 with the rest being the more common U238. So it was looking likely we were talking nuclear weapons grade uranium but with a slightly lower value than the US standard.
So was this rejected weapons grade uranium or was it a lower standard of uranium for nuclear weapons? I do not think we will see the actual tests to confirm the particular isotope of uranium but it does beg the question, How safe are all the hundreds of thousands of tons of high and intermediate level waste and the millions of tons on low level waste and how easy it is for terrorists to get hold of it? Why make more when we have such a problem already? We need to secure this material and shut down the sprawling sites that already exist! Someone please tell the IAEA to stop promoting nuclear as it is just too dangerous!
“…However we look at it, as we hear the PR call for more and/or better nuclear weapons, the issue of nuclear weapons grade materials escaping from countries like the Ukraine, Kazakhstan, Pakistan etc and also the possibility of theft from large nuclear reprocessing complexes in the west like Sellafield, La Hague, Hanford, Negev Nuclear Research Center etc means that huge resources will have to be spent defending these places that will not be accounted for in costing nuclear power and reprocessing to the tax payer with no guarantee that corrupt practices now or in the future will not circumvent them…..”
Wind, Solar, Hydro electricity are looking like much saner options with all the above in mind.
There is also the issue of transparency and Human Rights as we see countries with nuclear weapons currently criminalising activists (as we see in France) and energy developers and innovators (as we see in the UK).
In a recent Atlantic Alliance meeting (from March 2016), I heard them say that European left leaning peace and social justice citizens would need to be reigned in as they were “doing the work of Putin whether they knew it or not” We are living in dangerous times and the left and right peace activists need to come together to make a change. Some food for thought for the coming year perhaps?
Have a great Christmas and a good nuclear free New Year
Namaste
Shaun McGee
Sources for article
French Human Rights abuses regarding nuclear energy
the Prypiat River [Ukraine] flowing through the empty town and nuclear power plant was already a black, dead waterway. Not one bird flew or stray cat mewed….Reindeer [Norway] with ultra-high levels of radioactivity were killed that winter’s day. Many were calves.
Nuclear not for Tassie – The Mercury – The Voice of Tasmania, 26 March, 2011, Two of my own most memorable experiences as a journalist over the past three decades are linked to nuclear energy. The first was in late 1986 when, just a few months after the Chernobyl nuclear disaster in the Ukraine region of the then-Soviet Union, I visited the site as one of the first Australian journalists allowed into the area.The burnt and melted-down nuclear reactor had not then been encased in its final concrete sarcophagus; Geiger counters and special suits were mandatory, and the closest we could go was the nearby deserted town of Prypiat.
But it was Prypiat rather than glimpses of the Chernobyl power plant 4km away that left the most chilling impression.
A thriving town of 49,000 people think all of Hobart’s Eastern Shore suburbs combined prior to the April 25, 1986, nuclear catastrophe.
Its residents all had to abandon their homes the following day after radiation reached fatal levels.
Not that the Soviet authorities immediately told locals a disaster was unfolding on their doorsteps, despite the new “glasnost” era of openness and transparency just proclaimed by new-look president Mikhail Gorbachev.
It was only when elevated radiation levels were detected in clouds above Sweden that night that Soviet officials finally admitted an accident and a fire had occurred at Chernobyl’s number 4 nuclear reactor earlier in the afternoon.
Visiting Prypiat a few months later was a haunting experience. Mouldy lunches and mugs still sat on kitchen tables, dusty coats were thrown over armchairs and bedrooms with their crumpled blankets and family snaps looked as if their occupants might return at any moment.
Children’s toys and bikes were scattered around outside the concrete apartment blocks, as rampant weeds reclaimed the ghost town’s city square.
But the Prypiat River flowing through the empty town and nuclear power plant was already a black, dead waterway. Not one bird flew or stray cat mewed.
Just two months later, I was on assignment in the snowy wilds of northern Norway with a family of traditional reindeer herders, in the dark December days of early winter.
For these families, who have for generations grazed their herds up on the mountain tops and who eat reindeer meat for breakfast, lunch and dinner as part of their reindeer-centric tradition 1986 was a terrible watershed year.
Chernobyl’s radioactive cloud had drifted over Norway for several days in late April, dropping its deadly heavy caesium molecules in spring rain and mist.
The lichen that grow above the snowline absorbed the radioactive load; turning these hardy plants into deadly fodder for the deer, which rely on them as food.
For the first time, the semi-wild reindeer herds had to be removed from the mountains, possibly for decades, as the lichen would not be fit to eat for many years. Instead they were ordered into barns to be fed hay brought in from other areas of Norway.
Reindeer with ultra-high levels of radioactivity were killed that winter’s day. Many were calves.
And later that night Norwegian Government experts delivered another fatal blow. They told the same herders reindeer meat could not be safely eaten more than twice a week until years later, when their herds would be free of all radioactive contamination.
It has been impossible not to reflect on my own two sombre brushes with nuclear power gone wrong, as the world has held its breath over the past two weeks wondering how close Japan’s stricken Fukushima nuclear plant has been to the total core meltdown experienced at Chernobyl.
Already water and milk on parts of Japan has been declared unsafe for drinking, leafy vegetables and crops in surrounding farms banned from sale and seaweed from nearby waters found to be contaminated…….
A tense new battle over nuclear arms erupts between Donald Trump and his staff, WP By Philip BumpDecember 23It began, it seems, with a speech from Vladimir Putin on Thursday, during which the Russian president argued that his country’s nuclear arsenal needed to be upgraded. In short order a tense two-day stand-off began — between Donald Trump and the communications staffers on his transition team.
Trump weighs in.
Trump’s initial comment about nuclear proliferation was clear in its intent if vague in its boundaries.
“The United States must greatly strengthen and expand its nuclear capability” is not subtle, implying that as president Trump aims to match whatever it is that Russia does. That, as we pointed out on Thursday, means a new nuclear arms race, contravening decades of American foreign policy.
His team pushes back.
Not so fast, though. On Thursday afternoon, transition spokesman Jason Miller sent out a statement about Trump’s declaration.
“President-elect Trump was referring to the threat of nuclear proliferation and the critical need to prevent it—particularly to and among terrorist organizations and unstable and rogue regimes,” Miller wrote in an email to The Post. “He has also emphasized the need to improve and modernize our deterrent capability as a vital way to pursue peace through strength.”
“[T]he threat of nuclear proliferation and the critical need to prevent it” is language that comports with existing policy — but it does not comport with what Trump himself said. The word “expand” is hard to avoid, but in the spirit of generosity one might allow that the president-elect misspoke on Twitter.
Trump suggests he meant what he said.
On MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” on Friday, co-host Mika Brzezinski reported on a conversation she’d had directly with Trump.
CO-HOST JOE SCARBOROUGH: The president-elect told you what?
BRZEZINSKI: “Let it be an arms race. We will outmatch them at every pass.”
SCARBOROUGH: “And outlast them all.”
BRZEZINSKI: “And outlast them all.”
SCARBOROUGH: OK. You can put that down as breaking news.
The conversation continued with the question of whether Trump was simply posturing in order to seem unpredictable. The Post’s David Ignatius, who was part of that discussion, noted that it was more likely that Trump was reverting to his old pattern: Being criticized for something he’d said and then doubling down on it in response.
The transition team assures us he didn’t mean what he said.
The conversation moved to NBC proper, where “Today” show host Matt Lauer spoke with Sean Spicer, recently identified as the incoming White House press secretary………
Trump questionnaire recalls dark history of ideology-driven science, Skeptical Science 21 December 2016 by By Paul N. Edwards, Professor of Information and History, University of Michigan,
President-elect Trump has called global warming “bullshit” and a “Chinese hoax.” He has promised to withdraw from the 2015 Paris climate treaty and to “bring back coal,” the world’s dirtiest, most carbon-intensive fuel. The incoming administration has paraded a roster of climate change deniers for top jobs. On Dec. 13, Trump named former Texas Governor Rick Perry, another climate change denier, to lead the Department of Energy (DoE), an agency Perry said he would eliminate altogether during his 2011 presidential campaign.
Just days earlier, the Trump transition team presented the DoE with a 74-point questionnaire that has raised alarm among employees because the questions appear to target people whose work is related to climate change.
For me, as a historian of science and technology, the questionnaire – bluntly characterized by one DoE official as a “hit list” – is starkly reminiscent of the worst excesses of ideology-driven science, seen everywhere from the U.S. Red Scare of the 1950s to the Soviet and Nazi regimes of the 1930s.
The questionnaire asks for a list of “all DoE employees or contractors” who attended the annual Conferences of Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change – a binding treaty commitment of the U.S., signed by George H. W. Bush in 1992. Another question seeks the names of all employees involved in meetings of the Interagency Working Group on the Social Cost of Carbon, responsible for technical guidance quantifying the economic benefits of avoided climate change.
It also targets the scientific staff of DoE’s national laboratories. Continue reading →
Yes, the Arctic’s freakishly warm winter is due to humans’ climate influence, The Conversation, Andrew King, December 22, 2016 For the Arctic, like the globe as a whole, 2016 has been exceptionally warm. For much of the year, Arctic temperatures have been much higher than normal, and sea ice concentrations have been at record low levels.
The Arctic’s seasonal cycle means that the lowest sea ice concentrations occur in September each year. But while September 2012 had less ice than September 2016, this year the ice coverage has not increased as expected as we moved into the northern winter. As a result, since late October, Arctic sea ice extent has been at record low levels for the time of year.
These record low sea ice levels have been associated with exceptionally high temperatures for the Arctic region. November and December (so far) have seen record warm temperatures. At the same time Siberia, and very recently North America, have experienced conditions that are slightly cooler than normal………
We used forecast temperatures and heat persistence models to predict what will happen for the rest of December. But even with 10 days still to go, it is clear that November-December 2016 will certainly be record-breakingly warm for the Arctic.
Next, I investigated whether human-caused climate change has altered the likelihood of extremely warm Arctic temperatures, using state-of-the-art climate models. By comparing climate model simulations that include human influences, such as increased greenhouse gas concentrations, with ones without these human effects, we can estimate the role of climate change in this event.
To put it simply, the record November-December temperatures in the Arctic do not happen in the simulations that leave out human-driven climate factors. In fact, even with human effects included, the models suggest that this Arctic hot spell is a 1-in-200-year event. So this is a freak event even by the standards of today’s world, which humans have warmed by roughly 1℃ on average since pre-industrial times.
But in the future, as we continue to emit greenhouse gases and further warm the planet, events like this won’t be freaks any more. If we do not reduce our greenhouse gas emissions, we estimate that by the late 2040s this event will occur on average once every two years.
All of our analysis points the finger at human-induced climate change for this event. Without it, Arctic warmth like this is extremely unlikely to occur. And while it’s still an extreme event in today’s climate, in the future it won’t be that unusual, unless we drastically curtail our greenhouse gas emissions.
As we have already seen, the consequences of more frequent extreme warmth in the future could be devastating for the animals and other species that call the Arctic home.
Geert Jan van Oldenborgh, Marc Macias-Fauria, Peter Uhe, Sjoukje Philip, Sarah Kew, David Karoly, Friederike Otto, Myles Allen and Heidi Cullen all contributed to the research on which this article is based.
Trump Welcomes Nuclear Arms Race: “We Will Outmatch Them at Every Pass”, Slate 23 Dec 16 By Daniel Politi President-elect Donald Trump is doubling down on a statement that alarmed non-proliferation experts around the globe, essentially saying he’s cool with a nuclear arms race. “Let it be an arms race,” Trump told MSNBC’s Mika Brzezinski when she asked him to clarify comments about expanding the country’s nuclear weapons capabilities. In the off-air conversation with the co-host of Morning Joe, the president-elect expressed confidence that the United States would come out on top anyway so there’s nothing to fear. “We will outmatch them at every pass and outlast them all,” Trump reportedly said.
Trump’s statement came a day after the president-elect shocked the world by writing on Twitter that the United States “must greatly strengthen and expand its nuclear capability until such time as the world comes to its senses regarding nukes.”…….
Donald Trump Says U.S. Should ‘Greatly’ Expand Nuclear Arsenal
The New York Times agrees there seems to be little doubt that at least based off on Trump’s statements, the president-elect seems willing to “restart the costly and dangerous Cold War-era nuclear weapons competition between the United States and the old Soviet Union.”……
The Russian leader said that his country’s military is stronger than any potential aggressor, even if he recognized the United States has a larger military. “Of course the U.S. has more missiles, submarines and aircraft carriers, but what we say is that we are stronger than any aggressor, and this is the case,” he said, adding that Russia has weapons that can penetrate U.S. defense systems.http://www.slate.com/blogs/the_slatest/2016/12/23/trump_welcomes_nuclear_arms_race_confident_we_will_outmatch_them_at_every.html
#NuclearIsDirty Nuclear Information and Resource Service By all rights, nuclear power is on its way out. And that is thanks to the actions of thousands of activists all across the country. This year’s fifth anniversary of the ongoing Fukushima Dai-Ichi disaster was the warning — and the #NuclearIsDIrty! campaign is the answer!
The only way to guarantee another such disaster never happens again is simple: we need to get rid of nuclear power, and stop making radioactive waste.
But powerful nuclear corporations are not willing to accept that fate. They are waging a war against renewable energy, in a last-ditch effort to block solar and wind and steal every last penny that could be invested in a clean energy future.
We’ve won a lot of battles to stop them, but we’re in danger of losing the war. Nuclear corporations know a basic truth of public relations: repeat a lie often enough and long enough, and people will start to believe it. And the lie they are telling over and over and over again is … Nuclear Energy Is Clean.
That is why we launched this new campaign: #NuclearIsDirty.
We are going to expose the industry’s lies, arm people with the truth about nuclear power, and make sure when anyone hears the word “nuclear,” they know it is one of the most poisonous, dangerous, and polluting technologies on the planet. http://nuclearisdirty.nirs.org/
Women are breaking the climate taboo and questioning whether to have kids in such a world, Fusion, By Renee Lewis, 20 Dec 16, Climate change has caused a reproductive justice crisis, activists say, as its projected impacts lead some to question how they could have a baby with such an uncertain future.
Nearly 200 nations came together to sign a climate treaty in Paris last year, but even their collective efforts to reduce emissions will not be enough to keep the planet at a safe level of temperature rise.
All of these things point to a precarious future for our species—a business-as-usual scenario will mean some six feet of sea level rise and some regions of the world becoming uninhabitable or disappearing under rising seas by the end of the century.
With little time to spare, many are trying to take matters into their own hands and consider their options. A group of 21 youth recently sued the federal government for its role in creating the climate crisis and for leaving them to inherit a polluted planet—calling it generational injustice.
Others worry more about future generations.
“Decision makers have repeatedly put big business and fossil fuels over a future for our children,” said Meghan Kallman, co-founder of Conceivable Future. The women-led network hopes to bring awareness to the threat climate change poses to reproductive justice, and to end U.S. subsidies for the fossil fuel industry.
Kallman and co-founder Josephine Ferorelli brought up a taboo question—how this affects a person’s decision on whether or not to have kids.
“How does this affect people of childbearing age?” Kallman asked.
The response they’ve received has been overwhelming, with many people commenting on articles written about the group: ‘That’s my reason!’
Women as well as men are consciously deciding not to have children, knowing that their kids could inherit a future that is unlivable.
“People are still shocked when they ask why I don’t have children, and I tell them ‘for environmental reasons,’” Shannon O., 38 years old,said in a testimonial for Conceivable Future. Having a child, especially in America where consumption levels are so high, adds another carbon footprint. For example, an American woman who makes lifestyle changes such as recycling and driving a fuel-efficient car saves almost 500 tons of CO2 emissions in her lifetime. But choosing to not have a child would dwarf that, preventing almost 10,000 tons of CO2 from being emitted into the atmosphere………
The testimonies are part of Conceivable Future’s strategy to build a conversation—and a movement—around this question. Ferorelli said they hope the movement will become powerful enough to enact change at the local level—especially with Trump’s statements on expanding the fossil fuel industry.
“Now more than ever, we need to organize at the grassroots level, because the possibility of federal action is pretty severely limited,” Ferorelli said.
The group encourages anyone who’s interested in talking about these issues to host a house party. There, they can discuss these often taboo topics openly in a comfortable environment.
Trump’s Nuclear Weapons Tweet is Further Proof He Intends to Rule by Fear
With a single tweet, we can kiss goodbye to the diplomatic years of the Obama administration where consensus and collaboration ruled and America sought to engage peaceably with the international community. BEN COHEN THE DAILY BANTER, 22 DEC 16
Every dictator throughout history has ruled through the use of fear. The constant threat of violence is not always overt, and the best strongmen have used the prospect of physical force sparingly. But it is always present, and everyone around them understands that if they step too far out of line, they will be dealt with brutally. …….
With a single tweet, we can kiss goodbye to the diplomatic years of the Obama administration where consensus and collaboration ruled and America sought to engage peaceably with the international community. ……http://thedailybanter.com/2016/12/trumps-nuclear-weapons-tweet/
The statement was in sync with comments Trump made during the campaign. The president-elect previously suggested that if he won the presidency, he might allow Japan and South Korea to develop their own nuclear weapons arsenal in exchange for an ease in US defence commitments.
Experts from nonpartisan organisations opposed to the spread of nuclear weapons told Business Insider in March that Trump’s position on nukes would be dangerous.
Jeffrey Lewis, the director of the East Asia Nonproliferation Program at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies, explained why nuclear proliferation would be a “total catastrophe” for the US and its allies abroad.
“Early on we thought nuclear weapons are great when our allies have them and bad when our enemies have them,” Lewis said.
He went on to say how that thinking had evolved: Everybody has a friend. And so if you can give them the path of saying it’s good when our allies have them and bad when our enemies have them, you get to the point where everybody has them. It’s better to have a system … in which we say no more nuclear-weapons states and try to maintain that.
Increasing nuclear arsenals could have a domino effect as other countries, including some US allies in the Middle East, demand their own arsenal.
“A large number of our other allies would want the same treatment immediately,” Lewis said. “Probably lots of Middle Eastern states. I think you would get a lot of countries wanting nuclear weapons.” Continue reading →
Fuel removal at Fukushima reactor again faces delay http://www.asahi.com/ajw/articles/AJ201612230043.htmlTHE ASAHI SHIMBUN December 23, 2016 Work to retrieve spent nuclear fuel in the No. 3 reactor building storage pool of the crippled Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant will again be postponed due to a delay in clearing radioactive debris at the site.
TEPCO planned to begin removing 566 spent nuclear fuel assemblies in the storage pool in January 2018. However, the government and the plant operator, Tokyo Electric Power Co., decided on the postponement, sources said on Dec. 22. They will decide on a new timetable in a few weeks.
The work was initially scheduled for fiscal 2015, but had been pushed back because of high radiation readings in and around the No. 3 reactor building. The building was heavily damaged by a hydrogen explosion in the days following the disaster, triggered by the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake and tsunami.
TEPCO had attempted to lower radiation levels by clearing the radioactive debris remaining at the site.
But the clearing work took longer than expected due to contamination being more widespread than previously thought, forcing TEPCO and the government to again put off the retrieval.
Radiation levels have now dropped as almost all of wreckage at the site has been cleared, TEPCO said. The government and TEPCO have said fuel retrieval at the No. 1 and No. 2 reactor buildings will start in fiscal 2020 or later.
By Patrick M. Malone, Center for Public Integrity December 21, 2016
Altogether, the three companies making these settlement payments since 2013 are involved in the operation of six of the eight active sites in the Energy Department’s nuclear weapons program. Actions by the Energy Department’s contractors – including any misspending – have substantial impact there, since contract work consumes roughly 90 percent of its total spending.
Although work on energy generation and consumption garners more public attention and President-elect Donald Trump has nominated an oil-state politician – former Texas governor Rick Perry – to become the department’s new top manager, nuclear weapons-related work accounts for nearly two-thirds of all the Energy Department’s activities.
The latest case emerged from a civil lawsuit that accused two companies of both performing substandard work at a nuclear weapons-related waste site and said one of them had improperly spent government funds to lobby for more. The companies declared on Nov. 23 they would settle the allegations by making the payment, mostly to the federal government, for a total of $125 million, a massive amount for alleged Energy Department-related malfeasance.
The settlement involves work by Bechtel National Inc. and its parent Bechtel Corp., and URS Corp. and its subsidiary URS Energy and Construction Inc., which together have been trying to clean up the Hanford Nuclear Reservation near Richland, Washington. That’s where raw uranium was enriched into fuel for nuclear bombs during the Manhattan Project and the Cold War.
The firms have denied doing anything improper. But the settlement is part of an emerging pattern.
Lockheed Martin Corp., which operates one of three U.S. nuclear weapons laboratories – Sandia, agreed in August 2015 to pay $4.7 million to settle a complaint by the Justice Department that it used federal funds to lobby for a no-bid contract extension, while Fluor Corp. paid $1.1 million in April 2013 to settle accusations that it used federal funds to lobby government agencies for more business at its Hanford training facility.
Worries about the mission being underminedBesides overseeing the Hanford cleanup, Bechtel and URS (now owned by a company called AECOM) help operate the other two U.S. nuclear weapons labs — Los Alamos and Lawrence Livermore, which perform the bulk of U.S. nuclear weapons design work. Altogether, the firms that have reached the settlements since 2013 are involved with operations at Los Alamos and Sandia in New Mexico, Livermore in California, the Pantex Plant in Texas, the Savannah River Site in South Carolina, and the Y-12 National Security Complex in Tennessee.
The recent settlement “demonstrates that the Justice Department will work to ensure that public funds are used for the important purposes for which they are intended,” Benjamin C. Mizer, principal deputy assistant attorney general in charge of the Justice Department’s civil division, said in a written statement released on Nov. 23.
Money allocated by Congress for Hanford “is intended to fund the Department of Energy’s important mission to clean up the contaminated Hanford nuclear site, and this mission is undermined if funds are wasted on goods or services that are not nuclear compliant or to further lobbying activities,” Mizer said.
Both Bechtel and AECOM in written statements said the settlements were made to avoid messy litigation and keep the waste plant project moving. “We have performed our work…ethically and professionally,” Bechtel National Inc. spokesman Fred deSousa said in a written statement, without going into details.
In its own written statement, AECOM — which acquired URS in 2014 — complained that the Department of Justice joined the whistleblowers’ “unwarranted lawsuit against URS” based on events that preceded AECOM’s acquisition of the company. “We take our responsibilities as a government contractor very seriously and have a demonstrated track record of serving our customers with honesty and integrity,” the company’s statement said.
The Justice Department’s involvement in the case originated in civil allegations of mismanagement and wrongdoing in Hanford’s Waste Treatment and Isolation Plant project, commonly called “WTP.” Under its contract with the Energy Department, Bechtel designed and is constructing machinery to convert nuclear-tainted wastes there into a stable, glassy substance suitable for safe disposal.
Three whistleblowers — Walt Tamosaitis, Donna Busche and Gary Brunson — filed a lawsuit on Feb. 4, 2013, accusing Bechtel and URS bosses of mismanagement and misappropriation of funds over a dozen years that together cost the government more than $1 billion. They also said safety lapses at the site, motivated by a desire to meet Energy Department deadlines and collect financial bonuses, were serious enough to risk a nuclear accident.
The whistleblowers’ complaint triggered an investigation by the Energy Department’s Office of Inspector General, which collected emails sent between Bechtel’s project leaders, the company’s top congressional lobbyist for nuclear projects, and Energy Department employees. The whistleblowers’ attorneys subsequently obtained the emails through the civil discovery process and incorporated them into an amended complaint. The Justice Department, in turn, used the complaint as the basis for its own investigation of Bechtel and URS.
Getting $45 million in new work
In the complaint, the whistleblowers said that when they originally lodged accusations of mismanagement – several years earlier — Bechtel project leaders launched a coordinated lobbying campaign to defend itself and also to collect new revenues for additional work on the waste treatment plant project. It then billed the department for the costs of this lobbying, the complaint said.
In an email sent by one Bechtel manager to another — along with a chart detailing the work that the company could say the additional revenue would finance — the manager said “in reality if we did not receive the additional $50m … most of these activities would still likely happen,” according to the whistleblowers’ complaint. The company subsequently got $45 million added to its contract.
The full emails detailing these actions have not been publicly released, by either the government or the plaintiffs, because the messages are part of an investigation that remains “open and ongoing,” according to Felicia Jones, spokeswoman for the Energy Department Office of Inspector General. She declined to say whether her colleagues consider the whistleblowers’ description of the emails accurate.
The Justice Department’s statement affirmed that it had “alleged that Bechtel National Inc. and Bechtel Corp. improperly claimed and received government funding for lobbying activities.” But Justice Department spokeswoman Nicole Nava declined to comment about the whistleblower’s account of specific emails.
Lobbying Congress for new work isn’t against the law. But billing the government for lobbying is, according to the federal Byrd Amendment, approved by Congress in 1989. Court records state that Bechtel will pay $67.5 million of the settlement, and AECOM will pay $57.5 million; the amount of money that will go to the whistleblowers – who are entitled to a portion of any funds they help the government recover — has not been determined yet.
Charles Curtis, who oversaw the Energy Department’s nuclear weapons work from 1994 to 1997 while serving as undersecretary and then deputy secretary, said he was not aware of any improperly-funded lobbying during his tenure. But he expressed surprise that multiple contractors within the past three years have been caught doing it. “These are for-profit enterprises. They can use their shareholders’ money for lobbying, but to use congressionally appropriated money [is] a diversion of funds,” Curtis said. “It’s not only unethical … it’s illegal.”
Three years ago, it was the Fluor Corporation and its subsidiary Fluor Hanford Inc., which at the time held the contract to manage the Hanford site, that agreed to pay $1.1 million to settle a separate complaint that its officials lobbied with government money from 2005 to 2010 to drum up business for a federally funded training facility there. Loydene Rambo, a Fluor employee, triggered the settlement by filing her own whistleblower suit, based on what she described as records of the lobbyists being paid with federal funds. She received a $200,000 reward, and Fluor denied any wrongdoing.
The Justice Department’s August 2015 settlement with Lockheed Martin Corporation, which runs Sandia, similarly followed improper billing of the government for a more complex and elaborate lobbying effort to extend its management contract, according to a special investigation report released by the Energy Department Office of Inspector General. Lockheed agreed to pay $4.7 million in 2015 to settle the Justice Department’s complaint about the billing. Like Fluor before it and Bechtel and URS since, Lockheed Martin in a written statement denied it had done anything wrong.
Asked by the Center about how the lobbying settlements have affected the department’s relationship with its nuclear weapons contractors, Energy Department spokeswoman Bridget Bartol said in an email that “the Department has taken and will continue to take vigorous action against any contractor who spends federal funds on improper lobbying activities.”
Bechtel remains the primary contractor on the WTP project, and Lockheed Martin still holds the contract to operate Sandia National Laboratories.
Cleanup of the Hanford site was authorized 25 years ago, and as of 2000 it was expected to cost $4.3 billion and be completed in 2011. The Department now estimates it may not be fully operational until 2037, according to pleadings filed in federal court by government lawyers defending the Energy Department in a lawsuit brought by the state of Washington to force an acceleration of the cleanup. If the job is funded at its current level of about $690 million a year until 2037, the cost would exceed $15 billion.
President-elect Donald Trump’s transition team is mindful of the project’s problems and growing price tag. A recent memo to top Energy Department officials from the transition team he appointed asked them to describe “your alternatives to the ever increasing WTP cost and schedule, whether technical or programmatic.”
The Center for Public Integrity is a nonprofit, investigative newsroom in Washington, D.C. More of its national security reporting can be found here.
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