nuclear-news

To October 25 – Nuclear and Climate News

International nuclear politics came to the fore this week. Trump says US will withdraw from nuclear arms treaty with Russia.  Trump threatens to build up U.S. nuclear arsenal against China, Russia.    Russia threatens to develop intermediate-range nuclear weapons in response to USA’s nuclear move.

Climate events are getting ever more complicated.  Polar jet circulation changes bring Sahara dust to Arctic, increasing temperatures, melting ice.   Arctic blast is set to sweep across Britain this week bringing sub-freezing temperatures of just 26F and wintery showers after an unseasonably warm autumn.

PEACE BOAT AND GREENPEACE STILL CAMPAIGNING FOR FUKUSHIMA.

Gender and radiation impact project.  A false reference: “acceptable” radiation risks set as they affect adult men, not women, not children.

Nuclear weapons join the other cruel killing methods now pitched as games – entertainment.

AUSTRALIA. One commercial TV channel now sold its soul to the nuclear lobby? (Channel 9 used to be a fine reporter about Fukushima nuclear disaster.) 

USA 

•  Trump threatens to build up U.S. nuclear arsenal against China, Russia.  Gorbachev, experts baffled by U.S. withdrawal from nuclear weapons deal.   New “low yield” nuclear weapon increases the likelihood of war.
• Why radiation experts are concerned over EPA proposal. Trump’s financial benefit from Saudi Arabia – shaping USA’s foreign policy.
• U.S. EPA removes a uranium safety regulation, in interests of mining profits.
•  USA ditches the plan to prop up the coal and nuclear industries.
• Concerns about aging nuclear plants in USA Democratic areas.
• USA’s failed Mixed Oxide (MOX) Fuel Fabrication Plant costs taxpayers over $1 million daily.  Court rules that U.S. Dept of Energy can stop construction of the $17 billion plutonium and uranium fuel factory.
•  Dominion company wants license to run Virginia nuclear reactors for 80 years!
• Hanford given more time to empty leak-prone radioactive waste tank.  U.S. govt wants more information on Holtec’s proposed nuclear waste storage project.
• Public-private partnerships for new nukes – USA’s Nuclear Energy Innovation Capabilities Act (NEICA).

RUSSIA.  Russia threatens to develop intermediate-range nuclear weapons in response to USA’s nuclear move.

SAUDI ARABIA. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to reveal evidence of Khashoggi murder “in all its nakedness.”

FRANCE   France’s nuclear regulator fears that the Flamanville nuclear reactor has other problems as well as defective welds.   A nifty way to transition from gas-powered vehicles to solar-powered.

JAPAN. Four Japan firms used foreign trainees to clean up at Fukushima plant after nuclear meltdowns: final report.  Japan will flush unsafe water from Fukushima nuclear plant into sea.   Local Fury and Health Concerns as Japan Plans to Dump a Million Tons of Radioactive Fukushima Water Into Ocean.  Added ‘development’ in the Medical Data Obtained from Minami-soma Municipal General Hospital in Fukushima.

UK. Nuclear Security UK – bolstering defences against a terror attack. Auditors question government handling of H Hinkley Point C nuclear power station from its Major Projects Portfolio.

CANADA. The dangerous radioactive trash – 60,000 tons on the shores of the Great Lakes. Majority of Ottawa candidates oppose Chalk River nuclear dump.  SNC-Lavalin shares fall to lowest since 2016 on news foreign bribery case will go to court.

October 24, 2018 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | Christina's notes