Nuclear news at the beginning of June

With the world still teetering about North Korea etc, and the famous Kim-Trump summit still supposed to be happening, the nuclear weapons industry continues to thrive.

The impacts of climate change will not affect all regions equally – they will be worse in places with already fragile social and ecological systems. The nuclear waste time bomb will keep ticking – America’s 60 years of radioactive trash. And, as if the facts were not enough to worry about, Margaret Attwood (of ‘The Handmaid’s Tale”), suggests a future dystopian world, as the result of climate change.

Nuclear power plant construction even more costly than we thought – new analysis shows.

Energy politics – why renewables are winning over nuclear power. International Renewable Energy Agency reports on companies across 75 nations sourcing renewable energy.

Further research on how ionising radiation causes cancer.

NORTH KOREA. North Korea likely to follow Pakistan’s nuclear path, not Libya’s. Kim Jong-un knows what he wants from the summit. Does President Trump? Yes, there are concerns, but North Korea’s dismantling of the nuclear weapons site is a positive step.

USA.

Donald Trump – the worst USA presidential negotiator in modern history? Donald Trump managing to isolate USA’s allies, by his failures in negotiation. Trump administration could so easily blow the chance of a diplomatic solution for the Korean Peninsula. U.S. Senator Ed Markey points out the absurdity of John Bolton’s suggesting the “Libya model” for negotiating with North Korea.
USA government to use Emergency Measures to prop up coal and nuclear industries.
President Trump’s Washington swamp – the nuclear lobby/politics revolving door.
“Nuclear is N.I.C.E” – the latest spin from the desperate nuclear industry.
Congress has the power to stop squandering the public purse on new nuclear weapons.
Toshiba walks away from involvement in USA nuclear energy project.
The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and Department of Justice support Illinois nuclear subsidies.
Tennessee Valley Authority was overcharged nearly $4.4 million by contractor at Watts Bar Nuclear Power Plant.
Logan city in Idaho ponders joining in costly and risky Small Modular Nuclear Reactor (SMR) development.
Measures to compensate Arizona “Downwinders” approved by USA Congress. Nevada fights back – resentment against becoming America’s nuclear waste dump. Don’t overturn the 1995 Batt agreement – stop toxic nuclear waste being imported into Idaho. Albuquerque city councilors oppose shipping radioactive waste through city. Rocky Flats Wildlife Refuge – the cover-up – the cleanup – but radioactive trash is still there.

INDIA. Nuclear politics between India and Pakistan need attention and understanding. India, a Key U.S. Ally, Plans to Ignore Trump’s Iran Sanctions .

FRANCE. Macron’s France signs up to join nuclear power partnership with Putin’s Russia. France scaling back nuclear reprocessing – fears of financial disaster as with Japan’s Monju project. Persisting with the European Pressurized Reactor (EPR) has brought France to a costly nuclear crisis. The trials and tribulations of France’s Flamanville EPR nuclear reactor.

UK.

British scientists distressed at loss of funding as Britain leaves the nuclear safety agency Euratom.
Hitachi ‘won’t pay’ for nuclear accidents at proposed Wylfa plant on Anglesey. As long as UK tax-payer coughs up, £20bn Hitachi nuclear plant looks set to be built in Wales. Britain’s “nuclear renaissance” in the balance as Hitachi ponders Wylfa nuclear project. Hitachi board of management wavers over costs of Wylfa nuclear power plan. Wylfa Newydd nuclear plant protesters go to Japan.
Licence exists for dumping mud at North Cardiff – but they don’t need Hinkley’s suspect “mud”. UK is not correctly testing Hinkley Point dumped mud for radioactivity.
British government used pilots like ‘GUINEA PIGS’ during Cold War nuclear experiments .

JAPAN. Fukushima mothers at UN tell their story. Japan is poised to FLOOD the Pacific with one million tons of radioactive water contaminated by the Fukushima nuclear plant Japanese Buddhist priest joins movement to divest from fossil fuels and nuclear power. Japan’s state-affiliated bank is reluctant to fund Hitachi’s Wylfa nuclear project in UK. Japanese atomic bomb survivor pays tribute to U.S. POWs killed in A-bombing.

CANADA. Tough times for uranium company Cameco – and no improvement in sight. Ontario could save $1.2B by closing Pickering plant, buying power from Quebec – Greens.

ISRAEL. Israel selling nuclear information and expertise to Saudi Arabia. Israel’s PM Netanyahu planned a military strike on Iran in 201l.

GERMANY. Germany is ready to support Iran in restoring its economy as long as Iran adheres to the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).

RUSSIA. In a drill, fake terrorists take over Russia’s Arctic radioactive waste storage site.

SAUDI ARABIA. Thousands Held Arbitrarily – increasing numbers in Detention Without Trial in Saudi Arabia.

AUSTRALIA. Federal Government National Nuclear Waste Dump Selection Process – a B-grade horror movie plot. Sydney’s Opal nuclear reactor’s High Level Wastes off to France, later to return to planned Federal Nuclear waste Dump

1.This Month

How the viewing public was ‘protected’ from seeing what the Hiroshima and Nagasaki nuclear bombing did to people

Hiroshima and Nagasaki on the cutting room floor https://thebulletin.org/2019/08/hiroshima-and-nagasaki-on-the-cutting-room-floor/ By Thomas Gaulkin, August 5, 2019 Seventy-four years after nuclear weapons were first and last used in war, it can be challenging to conceive of the devastation they cause. But even in the immediate months after the atomic bombs were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 1945, news accounts offered a view of ingenuity and destruction that often elided the human cost.

The newsreels below [on original] were mainly screened to audiences in 1946 and 1947 and detail the destructive force of the explosions almost entirely through excited accounts of the structural damage to the cities. There’s occasional mention of the lost city populations and the scientific knowledge to be gained from studying their casualties, but hardly any description of what people actually suffered, let alone personal accounts. It’s instructive to look at and listen to these reports today, and contemplate what is missing.

The 12-minute reel below was produced by the US War Department in 1946. “Tale of Two Cities” makes selective use of film that was confiscated from a Japanese filmmaker, Akira Iwasaki—though you wouldn’t know that from the narration, which boasts that “army cameramen have found and filmed pictorial evidence that tells in twisted steel and stone the effect of death-dealing atomic power.” (Some twenty years later, historian Eric Barnouw obtained more of Iwasaki’s footage and produced a remarkably different narrative that documented the horrible physical impact of the attacks on Hiroshima’s citizens.)

Contrasted with the triumphant tone of the news/propaganda made for 1940s audiences, silence changes everything. Made public only decades later, the two films below —one beginning with footage of wounded victims, the other, a full-color glimpse of survivors picking up the pieces of the ruined city—report what those above do not, without a single word.

Nagasaki And Hiroshima (1945)

Harrowing Accounts from Hiroshima Survivors

Hiroshima Bomb to Today | Tour around the Atomic Hypocenter

PETITION

Free Julian Assange, before it’s too late. Sign to STOP the USA Extradition

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