nuclear-news

The week in climate and nuclear news

A reflection on the media, especially “social media”: some news media covered the radioactive danger of wildfire at the closed Santa Susana nuclear site, and the need for that site to be properly cleaned up. I covered it, too, on my websites – might have reached one or two thousand people, on a good day.  BUT – celebrity Kim Kardashian’s call for the clean-up would have reached 58 million people!

Public awareness of climate change just might be growing, as its impacts multipy.  Habitable areas of our planet are shrinking – as climate change exacerbates extreme weather. “Predatory delay” – how the fossil fuel industries created and maintained climate change denialism.  Nuclear power is touted as the solution to climate change. But, as well as the many other drawbacks to this ‘solution’, is the fact that nuclear is not ‘low carbon’ as claimed.

Edward Snowden Condemns US Justice Department for Targeting Assange  (Why is Australian govt not helping Julian Assange?)

USA.

•  Independent testing of radiation levels in air- Woolsey Fire and Santa Susana Field Lab Site.   There were 3 radiation fallout releases at Santa Susana, not just one.
• The danger of San Onofre’s nuclear wastes – buried over a major fault line — and in a tsunami zone.
• USA’s next chairman of the House Armed Services Committee aims to scrap Trump’s nuclear weapons policy. Mike Pence: North Korea sanctions to remain until denuclearization.
• USA’s navy shipyards already threatened by climate change: storms, rising seas, and worse to come.
• USA. Watchdog and Advocacy Coalition Report Warns of Systemic Attacks on Science .
• “New Nuclear” lobbyists, Nuclear Alternative Project and USA’s CINTAC, target Puerto Rico.
•  Call to Texans to oppose nuclear waste transport and dumping.
•  Rocky Flats still radioactively polluted.
• Contrary to U.S. Energy Department’s report, there WAS nuclear waste near New Mexico nuclear site rockfall.
•  USA’s nuclear safety agreement with Ukraine is a nuclear marketing exercise.
• Two Hanford whistleblowers take legal action. Court order. USA Veterans Affairs must reveal numbers of troops exposed to radiation after 1966 Spanish nuclear disaster.  SCE and G electric utility aims to discredit the testimony of two former employees.
• Attorneys Implore Judge to Keep Sailors’ Fukushima Case in U.S.
• How the USA gave up on protecting its citizens against nuclear attack, and settled for just elite shelters.
• The Christian Vacation Camp Where Kids Are Taught by Notorious Climate Science Deniers.

UK.

• Moorside project collapses, but UK’s Conservative government is Socialist when it comes to nuclear power projects. UK’s Moorside nuclear project will not go ahead unless the taxpayer pays for it.
• UK’s nuclear industry will suffer, in withdrawing from the European Atomic Energy Community (Euratom).  Nuclear material stored in UK, but owned by EU – poses a Brexit problem,  Because of Brexit, the clean-up of UKs radioactive Dalgety Bay is stalled.
• UK’s THORP nuclear reprocessing plant at Sellafield was a dud – never met its operational targets.
• Reactor 3 at Hunterston B remains offline, due to cracks in the graphite core.
• The East Yorkshire village almost wiped out by a nuclear bomb.
• Britain’s nuclear bomb test legacy of early deaths and deformed children.

JAPAN. IAEA urges Japan to reach decision soon on handling of radioactive water at crippled Fukushima nuke plant.  Abe, IOC chief to visit Fukushima venue for 2020 Olympics. High court rejects bid to shut down Shikoku Electric reactor.

NORTH KOREA. North Korea tests new ‘ultramodern tactical weapon’ amid stalled nuclear diplomacy.

RUSSIA. Vladimir Putin considers his response to US exit from nuclear pact. Russia boasting of a spaceship to Mars ‘in very near future’.

TURKEY. Turkish environmentalists go to the Supreme Court to stop construction of nuclear power station.

SPAIN. Spain will close the last of its nuclear reactors and coal power plants before 2030.

IRAN. Iran hopeful that Europe can salvage nuclear deal – foreign ministry .

SOUTH AFRICA. South Africa’s Public Enterprises Minister Pravin Gordhan’s evidence at the State Capture Commission.

FRANCE. France’s Environment Minister questions viability of EPR nuclear. France to cut back on nuclear power.

POLYNESIA. President of French Polynesia admits that leaders lied, over 3 decades, about dangerous radioactivity from French nuclear tests.

November 20, 2018 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | Christina's notes