UK’s offshore wind farms set to be much cheaper than nuclear power projects
UK offshore wind power subsidy set to undercut nuclear, Ft.com , Campaigners for renewable energy say this is a key moment for the industry by: Nathalie Thomas and Andrew Ward , Sept 8 17 The results of an energy subsidy auction held by the government will prove offshore wind farms are a much cheaper way to meet the UK’s future electricity needs than contentious nuclear projects such as Hinkley Point, supporters of renewable technology have claimed.
The latest auction results, to be published on Monday, are expected to show a dramatic fall of as much as nearly 50 per cent in the minimum electricity price that is guaranteed by the government to offshore wind farm developers compared with the last similar subsidy round in 2015. They are also expected to show a substantial discount on the £92.50 per megawatt hour “strike price” guaranteed by the government to the French and Chinese companies behind the Hinkley Point nuclear plant in Somerset during its first 35 years of operation. The Hinkley price, which was set in 2012, rises with inflation and is now worth closer to £100/MWh. The latest subsidy auction was aimed by the government at “less established technologies” including offshore wind and energy derived from tidal currents.
Militant groups can use drones as weapons
Militant groups have drones. Now what?, Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, Perry World House, 8 Sept 17, Militant groups have a new way to wage war: drone attacks from above. As recent news reports and online videos suggest, organizations like the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) have used commercially-available uninhabited aerial vehicles—better known as UAVs or drones—to drop explosives onto their adversaries in the battle for territory.
That ISIS would weaponize drones shouldn’t be surprising. Militant groups often use the latest consumer technology to make up for capability gaps and level the fight against regular military forces. ISIS broadcasts propaganda through social media platforms like Twitter and Facebook, and plans attacks using encrypted communication platforms like Telegram. This embrace of innovation extends to the way militant groups use military force. Over the last year or so, they have begun to use modified commercial drones for offensive strikes in Iraq, Syria, and Ukraine. These new tools of war provide a way to conduct terror attacks against civilians, and can also pose a threat to ground forces. Stopping drone proliferation is not an option because of the ubiquity of the technology. That means government forces will have to learn to counter drones operated by militant groups, just as they are now training to counter drones used by national militaries.
Already a “daunting” threat. The threat posed by militant groups flying drones is as much about where the threat is coming from—the sky—as it is about the munitions being launched. Militaries fighting militant groups have enjoyed air superiority for decades. US soldiers in Afghanistan and Iraq, for example, have rarely, if ever, feared attacks from the air. Civilians and humanitarian groups in Syria worry about air strikes from Assad’s regime, but not from militant groups like ISIS. The adoption of drones by militant groups is therefore generating a novel challenge. Speaking at a conference in May, Gen. Raymond Thomas, head of the US Special Operations Command, called commercial drones the “most daunting problem” his troops had faced over the previous year. At one point, he said, the anti-ISIS campaign “nearly came to a screeching halt, where literally over 24 hours there were 70 drones in the air.”
Militant groups using modified commercial drones can threaten militaries in more ways than one. In addition to dropping munitions on unsuspecting soldiers, they can strap explosives to drones to generate devastating effects. For example, militants can crash an explosive-laden drone into a target, creating a sort of MacGyvered cruise missile. Alternatively, militants can booby-trap drones. In one case, Kurdish fighterstrying to examine a grounded drone died when it exploded. In Ukraine, Russian-backed separatists use drones to target military infrastructure and cause immense damage. For instance, they used a commercial drone to drop a Russian-made thermite hand grenade on an ammunition depot in Eastern Ukraine, causing an inferno and close to $1 billion in damage. Put simply, commercial drones are enabling militant groups to engage in a more diverse array of missions to advance their goals against militarily superior forces…….
Drone wars of the near future. One worrisome potential source of growing drone capacity might seem benevolent at first: the commercial sector itself. As commercially available technology develops at a rapid pace, the variety of military applications is increasing as well. Goldman Sachs recently estimated that between 2016 and 2020, buyers will spend about $100 billion on drones. Defense spending by militaries will account for about $70 billion of that total, but the remaining $30 billion will be made up by consumers, businesses, and civilian government bodies buying commercially-available products.
Within the drone market, the sensor component segment is forecasted to grow the fastest. Sensors can perform a variety of functions, such as transmitting images or detecting heat signatures. Sensors are built for commercial purposes like search-and-rescue operations and crop analysis, but can also be adapted for military purposes. ……
Currently, countries and businesses around the world are grappling with how to best address the challenge in a variety of ways. In Japan, the Tokyo police are using drones equipped with nets to stop potentially hostile drones. The French military and Dutch police are breeding golden eagles to destroy small drones. For its part, the US military tested a “drone-killing laser” and solicited proposals for other solutions to counter unmanned aerial systems…….
Commercial drones are here to stay—in backyards and battlefields, in the hands of militants and militaries, conducting both surveillance and air strikes. While the advantage belongs to the aggressor in this domain, militaries have good options for addressing the threat.
This column is by Itai Barsade (@ItaiBarsade) and Michael C. Horowitz (@mchorowitz). Barsade is a research fellow at the University of Pennsylvania’s Perry World House, where Horowitz is a professor of political science and associate director. http://thebulletin.org/militant-groups-have-drones-now-what11089
Fighting climate change: chocolate company Mars to spend $1 billion on this cause
Chocolate company Mars to spend $1 billion on fighting climate change, Techly, By Stefan Kostarelis, 7 Sept 17, Mars, one of the largest chocolate companies in the world, has pledged $1 billion ($AUD 1.25 billion) to fight climate change.
The money will be spent on renewable energy initiatives, sourcing sustainable ingredients, and supporting farmers that use more environmentally sound methods of production. As a result, the company is hoping to reduce its greenhouse emissions by over 60% by 2050…….
Mars was among the 28 major companies that signed a letter asking U.S. President Donald Trump not to pull out of the Paris Agreement. Trump of course did, but that hasn’t stopped companies and U.S. states from continuing to fight climate change.
“We’re not interested in the politics here — this is about policy. We believe in the scientific view of climate science and the need for collective action,” Parkin added. “We’re clearly disappointed that the US administration has chosen to withdraw from the Paris Agreement.”
Mars’ bold plan comes ahead of the United Nations General Assembly and Climate Week NYC, which will both take place later this month. According to Climate Week NYC, the summit “will bring together international leaders from business, government and civil society to showcase the unstoppable momentum of global climate action.”
The overwhelming scientific consensus is that the world is getting warmer and we have to do something about it.
In other news, Trump has nominated Oklahoma politician Jim Bridenstine to run NASA.
In 2013, Bridenstine sponsored a bill to cut finding of climate change studies and in an interview last year he saidthe climate “has always changed.” Oh boy, Another top pick from Trump. https://www.techly.com.au/2017/09/07/chocolate-company-mars-to-spend-1-billion-on-fighting-climate-change/#comment-1503973
Sweden’s Environmental Court hearing proposal for a final repository for spent nuclear fuel in Forsmark
Christina Macpherson’s websites & blogs
This is of particular interest to Australia. The Australian government touts Finland as the great model for acceptance of nuclear waste dump. But in fact, the model adopted by Finland, (by a poorly informed public) was taken from the one refused by Sweden – where a much more informed community used a much more democratic process to study the waste dump issue. See “When haste makes risky waste: Public involvement in radioactive and nuclear waste management in Sweden and Finland” http://bellona.org/…/radioactive-waste…/2016-08-21710
The Environmental Court’s main licensing hearing about a final repository for spent nuclear fuel in Forsmark – September 5 to October 27 http://www.mkg.se/en/the-
environmental-court-s-main-licensing-hearing-about-a-final-repository-for-spent-nuclear-fuel-in#.WbJtaWAl7II.facebook The Environmental Court’s main hearing concerning the Swedish Nuclear Fuel and Waste Management Company SKB’s license application for a final repository for spent nuclear fuel in Forsmark, Sweden, began September 5, at Quality Hotel Nacka in Stockholm. The Swedish Society for Nature Conservation, SSNC, and the Swedish NGO Office for Nuclear Waste Review, MKG, are working together during the main hearing. Follow and get updates during and after the main hearing from the Twitter account of the director of MKG, Johan Swahn, and MKG’s Facebook.
On September 5, the Environmental Court’s main hearing concerning the Swedish Nuclear Fuel and Waste Management Company SKB’s license application for a final repository for spent nuclear fuel in Forsmark, Sweden, began at Quality Hotel Nacka in Stockholm. The main hearing will be in progress for five weeks, between September 5 and October 27. The first two weeks take place in Stockholm. Then, there will be a break for two weeks. The third week will take place in Oskarhamn (were the interim storage Clab is located and were the Waste Company wants to build an encapsulation facility, Clink) and the fourth week will take place in Östhammar (nearby the selected site for the final repository). After another break for one week, the main hearing will be concluded in Stockholm.
The Swedish Society for Nature Conservation, SSNC, and the Swedish NGO Office for Nuclear Waste Review, MKG, are working together during the main hearing. The organisations will bring their statements, which fundamentally are:
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- The chosen solution for a final repository will not be safe since there is a large risk of the malfunction of the barrier system of copper and clay – the licence application should be denied or rejected!
- There is a large risk that the copper canisters will break down within 1 000 years – a possible scenario is that it might be a contaminated, uninhabitable, forbidden zone in Forsmark!
- The Swedish Radiation Safety Authority, SSM, is aware of the large problems with the license application, but still wants to give an OK to continue towards a Government decision and afterwards ensure that the copper canister will function as intended – this is unaccepted and legal questionable!
- There is an alternative method, the use of very deep boreholes – that might be environmentally safer, entails less risks for human intrusion, and is most likely a less expensive solution for final disposal!
- The nature existing on the suggested site in Forsmark is of high value (there is a number of red-listed species and species protected by the Habitats Directive’s appendix 4) – this, in itself, constitutes a reason to reject the license application!
Follow and get updates during and after the main hearing at the director of MKG’s Twitter (@jswahn) and at MKG:s Facebook (mostly written in Swedish but can be translated directly on the website).
Links:
The negotiation procedure of the main hearing, 170704 >>
The director of MKG’s Twitter >>
Previous news on MKG’s website:
Regulator recommends approval of final repository plan — despite unresolved safety issues, 160629 >>
USA’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant cannot fit in excess plutonium radioactive trash
Plutonium waste too much for WIPP, Albuquerque Journal, By Maddy Hayden / Journal Staff Writer,, September 8th, 2017 This story has been updated to reflect that a change in the amount of waste stored at WIPP would need a congressional amendment.
Secret troubles at Summer nuclear plant for months, now revealed in emails
New emails reveal behind-the-scenes battle over Summer nuke, http://www.utilitydive.com/news/new-emails-reveal-behind-the-scenes-battle-over-summer-nuke/504529/ Robert Walton
Dive Brief:
- New emails obtained by the Charleston Post & Courier show a deteriorating relationship between the owners of the V.C. Summer nuclear plant in South Carolina and lead contractor Westinghouse Electric in the months leading up to the abandonment of an expansion plan for the facility.
- The emails build on past messages that indicate officials at Santee Cooper and South Carolina Electric & Gas Co. were aware of financial and construction difficulties at the plant as early as last summer, but kept the knowledge out of the public eye and continued to push for its completion.
- The new emails demonstrate that plant owners communicated directly with Toshiba, parent company of Westinghouse, about problems at the plant. In one, the CEO of SCANA wrote to Toshiba’s chief executive, saying “we have no doubt that we have been the victim of financial malfeasance by [Westinghouse] and Toshiba.”
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Dive Insight:
The Post & Courier’s diligent coverage of the V.C. Summer fallout continues to raise questions about what the plant owners knew of project problems and when they knew it.
As early as last summer, both SCANA CEO Kevin Marsh and Santee Cooper CEO Lonnie Carter made it clear they suspected Westinghouse and Toshiba were unable to pull off the project — and told the companies that in no uncertain terms.
“Deceit and non-transparency” — words not often tossed around by electric utilities — was how Carter put it in one email. In an October 2016 note to Marsh, he said Santee Cooper had hired bankruptcy lawyers in June to “help us think through Toshiba/Westinghouse insolvency scenarios.”
The upshot is that the South Carolina utilities appear to have suspected to project was in trouble, but didn’t inform regulators or other officials. The utilities abandoned the project in July after spending more than $14 billion to construct two new reactors.
The new emails come in the wake of an audit of the project recently released at the demand of South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster (R). Prepared by contractor Bechtel in February 2016, the report outlines numerous problems at the plant, including flawed engineering documents, low morale at the work site, frequent construction changes, high turnover and generally slow progress.
- The report was completed in early 2016 — months before SCE&G informed regulators that its share of the development costs had risen more than $800 million, and about a year and a half before the utilities agreed to scrap the project.
The emails also show SCE&G and Santee Cooper were already considering in June of last year that Westinghouse might fall into bankruptcy. The company went bankrupt in March of this year.
Originally proposed in 2007, the two-reactor expansion of the Summer plant was supposed to be completed by 2017 and 2018, respectively. Issues with Westinghouse’s reactor design led to delays, cost overruns and ultimately the company’s failure.
When the project was scrapped, officials said costs to complete could reach over $25 billion.
Prime Minister of Antigua and Barbuda says mighty hurricanes are ‘living consequences of climate change’
Hurricane-hit Antigua and Barbuda ‘living consequences of climate change’ https://au.news.yahoo.com/world/a/37002341/hurricane-hit-islands-are-living-consequences-of-climate-change/ 8 Sept 17 Washington (AFP) – Island nations devastated by Hurricane Irma are “living the consequences of climate change,” said the prime minister of the twin-island nation of Antigua and Barbuda on Thursday.
Both islands were blasted by Hurricane Irma, one of the strongest ever to charge across the Atlantic Ocean, packing winds of 180 miles per hour (290 kilometers per hour).
Irma damaged 95 percent of Barbuda’s properties and left the island covered in rubble and “barely habitable,” said Prime Minister Gaston Browne.
“These storms are more ferocious, they are coming in greater frequency — evidence that climate change is real,” Browne said in an interview with CNN.
“We’re living the consequences of climate change.”
Irma has packed sustained winds of over 180 mph (295 kph) for more than 33 hours, making it the longest-lasting top-intensity cyclone ever recorded, France’s national weather service said.
It comes on the heels of Hurricane Harvey, which drenched Texas with deadly floods.
The next big storm, Hurricane Jose, is already churning in the Atlantic behind Irma.
“Those who do not believe in climate change, we’re hoping that when they would have looked at these natural disasters that they’ll change (their) position,” Browne said.
“All of us need to believe in it and take collective action.”
Earthquake risk to Japan’s Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear power plant
Japanese nuclear plant may be on quake fault line https://www.theguardian.com/world/2007/jul/19/nuclear.japan
· Leak during tremor worse than originally admitted
· IAEA calls for openness in investigation of errors Justin McCurry in Tokyo , July 2007 The world’s biggest nuclear power station faces an uncertain future after it emerged yesterday that it may lie directly above the fault line that triggered Monday’s earthquake in which nine people died and more than 1,000 were injured.
The Kashiwazaki-Kariwa plant – the biggest in the world in terms of output capacity – shook violently when a magnitude 6.8 earthquake struck Niigata prefecture in northern Japan on Monday morning. The plant was not designed to resist shaking caused by earthquakes of greater than magnitude 6.5.
On another day of embarrassment for Japan’s nuclear power industry, the Tokyo Electric Power Company (Tepco), which operates the plant, said the amount of radioactivity in water that leaked into the sea during the earthquake was 50% higher than it had originally said. The firm blamed a calculation error and said the levels were still well within safety standards.
Late yesterday it also said that 400 drums – not 100 as first reported – of low-level radioactive waste had toppled over during the quake. About 40 lost their lids, spilling their contents on to the ground as they fell. The spillage was one of more than 50 malfunctions the plant experienced in the immediate aftermath of the quake.
International nuclear inspectors said they were concerned by Tepco’s apparent lack of preparedness for such a powerful quake.
“It is clear that this earthquake … was stronger than what the reactor was designed for,” Mohamed ElBaradei, head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, told reporters in Kuala Lumpur. “I would hope and I trust that Japan would be fully transparent in its investigation.”
The mayor of Kashiwazaki, Hiroshi Aida, ordered Tepco to close the plant indefinitely. “The safety of the plant must be assured before it is reopened,” he said. The closure has forced the firm to ask six other power utilities to supply it with additional electricity through to the end of September to avoid power cuts when demand peaks later this summer.
Tepco is under pressure to explain why it took so long to inform the authorities of radioactive leaks and why just four employees were on hand to tackle a fire inside an electrical transformer that was extinguished only after firefighters arrived almost 90 minutes later.
The mishaps have raised questions about the wisdom of building nuclear power stations in a country where earth tremors are recorded, on average, every few minutes. New safety regulations were brought in last year, but upgrading ageing reactors to withstand larger tremors will require huge investment.
Akira Fukushima, of Japan’s Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency, said no irregularities had been found in critical areas of the plant, but added: “It is possible that the epicentre fault line does run beneath the power plant.”
Inspectors reportedly identified four fault lines in the area while conducting a geological survey before work began on the Kashiwazaki plant in 1980, but concluded that they were inactive.
The Citizen’s Nuclear Information Centre said that the fault believed to have triggered the earthquake was not discovered during pre-construction surveys. “Clearly Japan’s earthquake safety standards are inadequate,” it said in a statement.
Tepco’s president, Tsunehisa Katsumata, defended the firm. “It is hard to make everything go perfectly … I think fundamentally we have confirmed that our safety measures work,” he said.
Japan, which has very few indigenous energy sources, depends on 55 nuclear plants for 30% of its electricity. Despite mounting public opposition, it plans to increase capacity to 40% by the end of the decade.
Despite earthquake risks, Japan’s Kashiwasaki-Kariwa nuclear power plant might be restarted
World’s Largest Nuclear Power Plant One Step Closer To Operation http://oilprice.com/Latest-Energy-News/World-News/Worlds-Largest-Nuclear-Power-Plant-One-Step-Closer-To-Operation.html
While the watchdog could issue a formal approval for Kashiwasaki-Kariwa’s restart later this fall, according to the Nikkei Asian Review, the actual resumption of the reactors is questionable: there is strong local community opposition to nuclear power as fears of another meltdown still linger.
Regulators have conducted technical safety evaluations of the plant, whose reactors are of the same kind as those that melted down in Fukushima, but there are still some reservations regarding Tepco’s safety efforts. The NRA has requested that Tepco’s proposed safety measures for Kashiwasaki-Kariwa be made more legally binding, and has set up a panel to devise ways to guarantee the utility keeps its word.
Tepco first applied for approval to restart two of Kashiwasaki-Kariwa’s seven reactors back in 2013, and has since worked to fulfill all safety requirements that regulators imposed. The company’s shares, however, jumped 3 percent on the news of NRA’s approval despite the slim chance of Kashiwasaki-Kariwa actually returning to operation.
The Fukushima disaster, caused by a tsunami in 2011, displaced 160,000 people, many of them permanently, and led to the shut down of all 50 nuclear reactors in the country. The cost of the disaster is estimated at US$197 billion.
Scotland tackles greenhouse gas emissions, with new Programme for Government
Edinburgh Reporter 6th Sept 2017, Environmental groups applauded the new Programme for Government announced in Holyrood yesterday, which contains a host of ‘green’ measures.
Friends of the Earth believe such steps will improve the lives of people in
Scotland through cleaner air, reduced waste, investment in green energy and
ensuring the transition to a low carbon economy is fair.
Key measures announced in the PFG: phasing out diesel and petrol vehicles from 2032;
tackling air pollution with 4 Low Emission Zones across Scotland by 2020;
new Just Transition Commission to help Scotland move to a low-carbon
economy fairly; new National Investment Bank to fund long term, patient
projects; deposit return scheme for bottles and cans; decision on fracking
in the coming weeks http://www.theedinburghreporter.co.uk/2017/09/scottish-governments-programme-hailed-as-greenest-ever/
Dismantling of Sellafield’s Pile Fuel Cladding Silo (PFCS) locked vault
Energy Live News 5th Sept 2017, The world’s oldest nuclear waste store has been cut open for the first
time. Experts at the Sellafield site in Cumbria have cut the first hole in
the Pile Fuel Cladding Silo (PFCS), a locked vault which was never designed
to be opened – which holds radioactive material dating from the 1950s. It
is the first of six holes that will allow radioactive waste to be removed
from one of the site’s most hazardous buildings.
Giant steel doors will cover the holes and seal the radioactive waste inside for safer storage.
Preparations have been underway for a number of years, which involved
practicing the cutting operation at a full-scale replica test rig in
Rosyth, Scotland. The waste retrieval process is expected to start in 2019.
http://www.energylivenews.com/2017/09/05/worlds-oldest-nuclear-waste-store-cut-open/
Confusion and anxiety over UK’s withdrawal from Euratom as part of Brexit
Bridgwater Mercury 6th Sept 2017, BRITAIN’S electricity supply could be hit if the Government leaves Euratom
without new measures being put in place, a leading industry body has
warned. There could also be a “significant potential impact” on the new
£18 billion Hinkley Point nuclear power plant, according to the Nuclear
Industry Association (NIA). Chief executive Tom Greatrex said the “clock is
ticking” for ministers to determine the UK’s future relationship with
Euratom, which oversees nuclear safety in Europe.
The Government has faced cross-party criticism over its decision to withdraw from Euratom as part of
Brexit. This week a Lords committee will grill industry experts on how
Brexit will affect the UK energy supply, with questions over continued
access to the EU’s internal energy market and Britain’s ability to
influence future policy.
Much of the maintenance work on Britain’s existing
fleet of nuclear reactors takes place when parts are shipped to Europe. Mr
Greatrex also said the NIA had made specific representations to ministers
about the potential impact on Hinkley Point, which is now being built by
state-controlled French energy firm EDF. “I think the first nuclear
concrete is due to be late 2019, so you can see that the timings could make
this potentially difficult,” he said. “So EDF have to be able to plan
around the implications of leaving Euratom, if that’s what they’re going to
be doing, and that’s why having clarity about what those arrangements are
and what transition period there might be and what succession arrangements
they are intending to put in place becomes quite important in their
planning processes pretty soon.
“You can’t have a situation where they don’t know until January 2019, without there being a quite significant
potential impact on that project and on other new build projects as well.”
Ministers have previously said they could pay EDF billions of pounds in
compensation over Hinkley Point, including over a so-called “political shut
down”.
Nuclear power is on the nose, so the industry is launching an advertising campaign
In advertising blitz, nuclear industry seeks reset, AXIOS.com ,Amy Harder, Sep 5 17
The beleaguered nuclear industry is launching an advertising campaign Tuesday that casts the decades-old electricity resource in a new light…. The campaign, by the Nuclear Energy Institute, will try to reset nuclear’s appeal in Washington as an electricity source but also more broadly, such as its role in space exploration and medical care.
Kim Jong Un’s nuclear aim is to save his regime, not to attack Los Angeles
Kim’s Nukes Aren’t a Bargaining Chip. They’re an Insurance Policy Climb into the North Korean dictator’s mind, and you can see that his aim isn’t to destroy Los Angeles but to save his regime. Bloomberg Michael Schuman, 7 Sept 17,
North Korea looks pretty scary at the moment, firing off missile after missile, threatening to target Guam, and, on Sept. 3, testing what the regime claims was its first hydrogen bomb. And the country’s dictator, Kim Jong Un—so ruthless he may have had members of his own family murdered—might be just crazy enough to push the button to initiate a catastrophic war.
Or maybe not. Look deeper, and you’ll find a North Korea that isn’t as much of an immediate danger to the U.S. as the headlines and rhetoric suggest. That’s because Pyongyang isn’t very likely to use its nukes and missiles against the U.S.—or anyone else.
But climb into the mind of Kim—as terrifying as that may sound—and we can conclude that his aim isn’t to destroy Los Angeles but to save his own skin. This is a regime that was never expected to still be around in 2017. When the Berlin Wall came down and the Soviet Union unraveled more than a quarter century ago, North Korea was supposed to vanish with them. The regime has since outlasted economic and political isolation, stiff international sanctions, and famines so severe that they may have claimed hundreds of thousands of lives. But through it all, the Pyongyang government has persisted. That speaks to the cunning of the Kim family, which has lorded over the country since its founding by the current Kim’s granddaddy in 1948. They’re survivors.
Here’s where the nukes come into play. Pyongyang believes they’re the best, and possibly only, deterrent against evaporation, absorption, or annihilation. That’s why the regime has never been truly willing to trade its nuclear program for other benefits—something Washington has tried to do since the 1990s. The nukes aren’t a bargaining chip. They’re an insurance policy.
Yet the very same weakness that drives Kim’s mania for nuclear weapons is why he can never use them, at least not as an aggressor. As President Trump has already warned, any such attack would be met by “fire and fury.” That comment was irresponsible, but the point is true nevertheless. Kim likely isn’t delusional enough to think his country could survive an all-out war with the U.S. and its allies. Proactively launching a nuclear-topped ballistic missile against the U.S. would mean his own destruction. That’s why it won’t happen. The U.S. Defense Department in its 2015 report said that even though the country remains a continuing threat, “North Korea is unlikely to attack on a scale that would risk regime survival.”
If we see Pyongyang’s motivations in this light, the policy course the Trump administration is taking is all wrong. Threats of fire and fury will only make Kim more paranoid and more certain that he needs nukes to defend himself or deter an aggressive Washington—……
At this stage, with Kim already in possession of nukes and maybe the ability to deliver them, the only viable option for Washington is to accept this reality and deal with Pyongyang as it does with any of the world’s other nuclear powers. This may sound terribly distasteful, and the course presents its own risks—mainly, that North Korea’s neighbors, especially Japan and South Korea, will feel the need for nuclear weapons of their own, leading to a regionwide, potentially destabilizing arms race. Washington would also have to work hard to ensure Pyongyang doesn’t spread its know-how to other rogue states or terrorist organizations that might be less wary of using it—such as Islamic State.
But the U.S. has successfully dealt with the appearance of other nuclear powers, whether China, India, or Pakistan, and it may have to do so again, this time by containing the North Korean threat instead of attempting to eliminate it. ……https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-09-07/kim-s-nukes-aren-t-a-bargaining-chip-they-re-an-insurance-policy
More money in nuclear decommissioning than in running nuclear power?
Swiss utility BKW jumps into nuclear plant dismantling business, Reuters, 7 Sept 17 Reuters Staff
- DfN already works with BKW at Muehleberg station
- GE, Hitachi and Veolia also looking at decommissioning business
By John Miller ZURICH, Sept 7 (Reuters) – Swiss utility BKW AG bought a small German nuclear services company on Thursday, joining firms including GE that are banking on rising revenue from the decommissioning of European nuclear plants.
BKW, which plans to dismantle its own Muehleberg nuclear station after shuttering it in 2019, bought Dienstleistungen fuer Nukleartechnik GmbH (DfN). Its services include verifying that components removed from nuclear facilities are no longer radioactive.
Other companies, including Finland’s Fortum, privately held U.S.-based Bechtel and the GE Hitachi Nuclear Energy alliance, are also seeking to benefit from plant decommissioning in Sweden as well as Germany.
Germany decided to exit nuclear power by 2022 following the Fukushima disaster in Japan in 2011.
Similarly, energy groups E.ON and EnBW, which are now tearing down their German nuclear plants, are seeking to parlay newfound dismantling expertise by offering similar services elsewhere in the world…….https://www.reuters.com/article/bkw-nuclearpower-dismantling/swiss-utility-bkw-jumps-into-nuclear-plant-dismantling-business-idUSL8N1LO4R1
1 This Month
Chernobyl: The Lost Tapes – A good documentary on Chernobyl on SBS available On Demand for the next 3 weeks– https://www.sbs.com.au/ondemand/tv-program/chernobyl-the-lost-tapes/2352741955560
of the week–London Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament
Tell the Ukrainian Government to Drop Prosecution of Peace Activist Yurii Sheliazhenko
To see nuclear-related stories in greater depth and intensity – go to https://nuclearinformation.wordpress.com
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