Call for Belgium’s unsafe Tihange nuclear reactor to be shut down
The Parliament Magazine 11th Dec 2018 , Leading Greens MEP Rebecca Harms has called for the decommissioning of a Belgian nuclear reactor as it no longer meets international safetystandards. Harms said that Belgian authorities should shut down the
country’s oldest nuclear reactor, Tihange 1, 43 years after it began
operations, given that almost no Belgian reactors are connected to the
grid.
today’s international safety requirements. It seems impossible to retrofit
the old reactor to bring it up to the state of the art in science and
technology.”
new study on the risks of the continued operation of Tihange 1. The author
of the study, reactor safety expert Prof Manfred Mertins, presented the
findings at a news briefing in the European Parliament. He told reporters
he has raised “serious doubts” concerning the plant’s accident
safety. The academic came to the conclusion that the continued operation of
Tihange 1 due to “outdated reactor design, inadequate safety management
and the accumulation of frequent unplanned events represents a potential
danger for the site and its surroundings.” It was particularly critical
“that the results of international tests and current safety standards are
not adequately taken into account.”
https://www.theparliamentmagazine.eu/articles/news/rebecca-harms-decommission-hopelessly-outdated-belgian-nuclear-reactor
UK’s Office for Nuclear Regulation (ONR) to prosecute Sellafield over worker’s exposure to radiation
BBC 11th Dec 2018 , Representatives from the Sellafield nuclear reprocessing plant have
appeared in court after a worker was allegedly exposed to plutonium.
Sellafield Ltd was charged with a health and safety offence after an
incident at the West Cumbria site in February last year. The company
entered no plea at Carlisle Crown Court.
The prosecution relates to “risks arising from hand working within glove boxes”. The glove boxes are sealed
containers, with integral gloves, which allow someone to work on objects or
materials that need to be kept in a separate atmosphere. The company faces
one charge brought by the Office for Nuclear Regulation (ONR) under the
Health and Safety at Work Act. A trial has been provisionally earmarked for
April next year with another hearing listed for February.
This is the first
prosecution brought by the ONR since it was established in 2014.
https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-cumbria-46528539
Washingtonhelping nuclear workers to get compensation State will defend its law
State will fight feds over Hanford worker compensation, Q13 FOX, , DECEMBER 11, 2018, BY ASSOCIATED PRESS SPOKANE, Wash. (AP) — Officials for the state of Washington said Tuesday they will defend a new law that helps employees of a former nuclear weapons production site win worker compensation claims, after the federal government filed a lawsuit seeking to overturn the law.
Democratic Gov. Jay Inslee criticized the lawsuit as outrageous and “depraved.”
“The people who fought communism shouldn’t have to fight their federal government to get the health care they deserve,” said Inslee, who is weighing a run for the White House in 2020.
The U.S. Department of Justice filed the lawsuit on Monday in federal court for the Eastern District of Washington.
The Washington Legislature last spring passed a law that says some cancers and other illnesses among Hanford Nuclear Reservation workers are assumed to have been caused by chemical or radiological exposures at work, unless that presumption can be rebutted by clear and convincing evidence.
…….The legislation signed into law in March by Inslee was propelled through the Legislature by the concerns of sick Hanford workers frustrated by state denials of their compensation claims…..
Ferguson said he presumed the federal government was worried the new Washington law might spread to other states where federal employees were involved in dangerous work. He predicted the issue would likely be resolved at trial.
“Before this, workers had to prove that whatever illness they had was not caused by something else in their lives,” Ferguson said.
Inslee called it another attempt by the Trump administration to take health care away from people in the state.
“They want to tell workers at Hanford to go hang,” said Inslee, who used to represent the Hanford site in Congress.
Lynne Dodson of the Washington State Labor Council said the federal government should be working to improve worker safety, rather than pursuing this lawsuit.
“Donald Trump and (Energy Secretary) Rick Perry would kick these workers while they are down,” Dodson said. https://q13fox.com/2018/12/11/state-will-fight-feds-over-hanford-worker-compensation/
Russia marketing nuclear technology to Saudi Arabia
Riyadh hosts workshop on Russian nuclear technology RIYADH — ROSATOM State Atomic Energy Corporation organized a workshop on Russian nuclear technologies in Riyadh on Dec. 5 for representatives of Saudi companies. The event was held at the Council of Saudi Chambers of Commerce………
Chinese military is building a test facility to simulate thermonuclear explosions
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Operation Z machine: China’s next big weapon in the nuclear ‘arms race’ could create clean fuel – or deadly bombs
The Chinese military is building a test facility to simulate thermonuclear explosions on a much greater scale than comparable US centres It’s been described as a Chinese version of America’s “Z machine” – formally known as the Z Pulsed Power Facility – a giant wheel-like device developed by the United States to see how particles react under extreme radiation and magnetic pressure. Z machines have been used in the development of nuclear weapons, from conventional warheads to the pure fusion bomb – a hydrogen bomb that can in theory be made in any size, cost a fraction of today’s nuclear stockpile and burn “cleanly” without producing radioactive fallout. And for decades, the Z machine at Sandia National Laboratories in Albuquerque, New Mexico, has led the way in the field. But now Chinese researchers are trying to build a machine that will produce much more electricity to create much more extreme environments for testing weapons, allowing scientists to delve deeper into the nuclear unknown……….. Lei Yuan, a nuclear physicist at Peking University’s school of physics, said the project team should prepare for massive challenges. Lei said there had been costly failures in developing the technology in the US and Chinese scientists faced equal if not greater uncertainties because of their much more ambitious goals. For instance, fusion could produce a large number of fast flying neutrons that will weaken or damage critical components. While the equipment was durable, researchers had not yet been able to solve the neutron problem, Lei said. He warned the development of a pure fusion bomb would meant international nuclear weapons treaties would have to be rewritten. “But I don’t think we need to worry about this, not until we see a real new bomb. The technology is so difficult, it remains more fantasy than real threat.” https://www.scmp.com/news/china/science/article/2177652/operation-z-machine-chinas-next-big-weapon-nuclear-arms-race |
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No restraints on nuclear weapons use, if USA abandons Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty
As Others See It: Without a nuclear treaty, then what?https://www.post-gazette.com/opinion/Op-Ed/2018/12/11/As-Others-See-It-Without-nuclear-treaty-Intermediate-Range-Nuclear-Forces-INF-leaves-no-restraints/stories/201812110023
The plan to abandon the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty leaves no restraints
AN EDITORIAL FROM THE WASHINGTON POST
The Trump administration has now served notice that, as Secretary of State Mike Pompeo put it, the United States will no longer “bury our head in the sand”about Russia’s violation of the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty, a 1987 pact that eliminated an entire class of nuclear-armed missiles. Mr. Pompeo said the United States won’t adhere to the treaty unless Russia comes into compliance within 60 days. Russia’s violation is real, but walking away from the treaty will only make matters worse. Who is burying their heads in the sand?
The treaty, signed by President Ronald Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev, bans ground-based missiles, both ballistic and cruise, both nuclear and nonnuclear, with ranges between 500 and 5,500 kilometers. It marked a turning point in the Cold War, the reversal of a deadly competition that began in the 1970s with the Soviet deployment of SS-20 missiles aimed at Western Europe and followed by the deployment of U.S. Pershing II and ground-launched cruise missiles in 1983. Negotiations eventually led to a treaty with unprecedented, on-site verification measures, perhaps the most important ever negotiated in nuclear arms control.
In the 2000s, Russian President Vladimir Putin began to slice up the treaty instead. Russia covertly began developing a cruise missile, known as the 9M729, that was outlawed by the agreement. The U.S. director of national intelligence, Daniel Coats, deserves credit for revealing key details late last month about how the violation happened and how it was discovered during rhe Obama administration. He said Russia’s Novator developed the missile and by 2015 had finished comprehensive flight tests from both fixed and mobile launchers. The tests were cleverly designed, he reported, to disguise their true nature and the missile’s capability.
The treaty permits certain tests of a legal missile from a fixed launcher as long as the weapon would then be deployed on ships or planes, not on the ground. So Russia initially tested the 9M729 from such a fixed launcher but at prohibited ranges greater than 500 kilometers, then from a mobile launcher at a lesser distance. Russia tried to cover its tracks and eventually deployed “multiple battalions” of a weapon banned under the treaty, Mr. Coats said. The missile poses “a direct conventional and nuclear threat against most of Europe and parts of Asia,” he declared. When confronted, Russia steadfastly denied it had violated the treaty and rebuffed attempts to resolve the issue.
The administration is right to confront the issue, not to just walk away. President Donald Trump has not exhausted all the options with Mr. Putin, and U.S. allies in Europe are not sanguine about facing Russian missiles again. Mr. Trump recently tweeted that he would like to do something about “a major and uncontrollable Arms Race.” Abandoning the INF treaty would mean restarting an arms race.
France, Hungary Conclude Military, Nuclear Energy Agreements
Hungarian Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó announced the deals on Tuesday after meeting his French counterpart Jean-Yves Le Drian.
Hungary’s armed forces have ordered twenty Airbus helicopters from France.
Meanwhile, two French companies, including a state-owned company, will have a major role in operating the current Paks nuclear power plant and in manufacturing turbines for the expanded Paks plant.
“We will continue to strengthen the French-Hungarian alliance that has emerged in the peaceful use of nuclear energy,” Szijjártó said, adding that France and Hungary both adhere to the principle that the national energy mix must remain a national competence…….https://hungarytoday.hu/france-hungary-conclude-military-nuclear-energy-agreements/
Swiss Government under pressure to sign nuclear ban treaty
Supporters said failure to sign the accord sent a negative message to the international community and undermined Switzerland’s credibility as a champion of humanitarian law………
The TPNW will enter into force when at least 50 countries ratify it. Signatories have obligations not to develop, test, produce, acquire, possess, stockpile, use or threaten to use nuclear weapons. The agreement also prohibits the deployment of nuclear weapons on national territory and assistance to any country involved in prohibited activities.
So far, 67 countries have approved the treaty and another 19 have ratified it. https://www.swissinfo.ch/eng/parliament_government-under-pressure-to-sign-nuclear-ban-treaty/44613098
White House fury as Russian nuclear planes visit Venezuela
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White House fury as Russian nuclear planes visit Venezuela Irish Independent, Harriet Alexander,December 12 2018
Two Russian bombers capable of carrying nuclear weapons have landed in Venezuela in a show of support which has infuriated Washington. General Vladimir Padrino, the Venezuelan defence minister, welcomed about 100 Russian pilots and other personnel after the two TU-160s and two other aircraft landed at the international airport that serves Caracas on Monday. He said the deployment showed “we also are preparing to defend Venezuela to the last inch when necessary”. Nicolas Maduro, the president of Venezuela, has frequently alleged that the US is planning an invasion. Mr Padrino noted that Russian aircraft had visited before in 2013, but said their current deployment was part of a “new experience,” and was designed to “raise the level of interoperability of the aerospace defence systems” of both countries. Mr Maduro has found himself increasingly isolated as Donald Trump takes an increasingly aggressive stance against his regime. With many of his allies under sanctions and financial transactions blocked, Mr Maduro has cultivated friendships with America’s adversaries. He said talks with President Putin in Moscow this month yielded Russian investment in his country’s oil and gold sectors. It was not clear how long the Russian planes would stay in Venezuela, nor what their mission would be. “Russia’s government has sent bombers halfway around the world to Venezuela,” US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo tweeted. “The Russian and Venezuelan people should see this for what it is: two corrupt governments squandering public funds, and squelching liberty and freedom while their people suffer.” The Kremlin rejected Mr Pompeo’s criticism. “As for the idea that we are squandering money, we do not agree. It’s not really appropriate for a country half of whose defence budget could feed the whole of Africa to be making such statements,” said Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov. The developments come as Mr Trump escalated his threat to shut down the US government over his demand for funding of his Mexican border wall……..https://www.independent.ie/world-news/latin-america/white-house-fury-as-russian-nuclear-planes-visit-venezuela-37618272.html |
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South Africa. Fallout over nuclear meds sale rumours
Fallout over nuclear meds sale rumours
The Energy Department yesterday declined to comment on the allegations and referred Business Report to a press statement it released on Friday…….https://www.iol.co.za/business-report/companies/fallout-over-nuclear-meds-sale-rumours-18469380
December 12 Energy News — geoharvey
Opinion: ¶ “Trump’s Losing, Lonely Fight to Save Coal” • President Trump has stood by coal whenever he could. He appointed a former coal lobbyist to the Federal Energy Management Commission. His administration promoted coal at COP 24. And yet the industry has not yet benefited from having an energetic booster in the Oval Office. […]
1 This Month.
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Now until to February 10, 2026 Radioactive waste storage in France: the debate is finally open! How to participate?
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