Australia’s Environment Ambassador, Patrick Suckling, promotes fossil fuels at UN Climate Summit
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One must ask was Ambassador Suckling’s presence sanctioned at Ministerial level? His attendance on the panel is hardly good diplomacy for Australia, even given the Liberal Government support for coal and weak climate targets and climate policy. After about 9 minutes the first speaker was disrupted and youth and civil society delegates unfurled a banner and made their own testimonies on the disruptive and dangerous nature of coal for health and climate. They chanted “Keep it in the ground” and “Shame on you”, before leaving the session. After they left, there were very few people to listen to the myths being spouted of clean coal. Watch the Facebook Livestream video of young delegates taking over the side event about 9 minutes in and making their own testimony on the fossil fuel industry. The Australia Institute Director of Climate & Energy Program Richie Merzian was there to document the session in the tweets below. “How could this be good for Australia? The Ambassador finding himself in the middle of the largest cultural battle at #COP24” remarks Richie Merzian…… https://www.facebook.com/groups/859848424161990/ Anger, protests as Australia supports US fossil fuels event at UN climate talkshttps://reneweconomy.com.au/anger-protests-as-australia-supports-us-fossil-fuels-event-at-un-climate-talks-17843/, 11 December 2018 , Think Progress |
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Russia may revive its Perimeter” or “Dead Hand” automatic nuclear missile system
This comes after the Trump administration announced that the United States is withdrawing from the 1987 Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty, which eliminated the once-massive American and Russian stockpiles of short- and medium-range missiles. Donald Trump alleges that Russia has violated the treaty by developing and deploying new, prohibited cruise missiles.
This has left Moscow furious and fearful that America will once again, as it did during the Cold War, deploy nuclear missiles in Europe. Because of geographic fate, Russia needs ICBMs launched from Russian soil, or launched from submarines, to strike the continental United States. But shorter-range U.S. missiles based in, say, Germany or Poland could reach the Russian heartland.
Viktor Yesin, who commanded Russia’s Strategic Rocket Forces in the 1990s, spoke of Perimeter/Dead Hand during an interview last month in the Russian newspaper Zvezda [Google English translation here]. Yesin said that if the United States starts deploying intermediate-range missiles in Europe, Russia will consider adopting a doctrine of a preemptive nuclear strike. ……..
What is unmistakable is that Perimeter is a fear-based solution. Fear of a U.S. first-strike that would decapitate the Russian leadership before it could give the order to retaliate. Fear that a Russian leader might lose his nerve and not give the order.
And if Russia is now discussing Perimeter publicly, that’s reason for the rest of us to worry.
Michael Peck is a contributing writer for the National Interest. He can be found on Twitter and Facebook. https://nationalinterest.org/blog/buzz/russias-dead-hand-nuclear-doomsday-weapon-back-38492
TRUMP WANTS TO RECLASSIFY RADIOACTIVE WASTE FROM NUCLEAR WEAPONS TO ‘LOW LEVEL’ SO DISPOSAL IS CHEAPER
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The Department of Energy intends to relabel high-level radioactive waste left over from the production of nuclear weapons as low-level, the Associated Press reported. Currently, high-level radioactive waste is defined as that which is a byproduct of fuel reprocessing (where leftover fissionable material is separated from the waste) or from nuclear reactors. Low-level waste, on the other hand, represents around 90 percent of all such waste, according to the American Nuclear Society, and generally comes from facilities where radioisotopes are used, such as nuclear power stations, and local hospitals. Items often include wipes, clothes and plastic. In the U.S., 90,000 metric tons of nuclear waste is being temporarily stored as successive administrations have grappled to find a long-term solution. Storing nuclear waste safely presents a number of challenges: it needs to be protected from natural disasters, and stopped from seeping into the surrounding water and soil, while its radiation blocked. Thieves must be kept from accessing it, and so too future generations who may not understand how toxic such materials are. The Associated Press reported the agency said the reclassification would shave $40 billion off the cost of cleaning up after the production of nuclear weapons. A Department of Energy official told Newsweek it is requesting public comment on its interpretation of the meaning of the statutory term of high-level radioactive waste through the federal register. …….. Facilities which would be affected include the country’s most highly contaminated: the Hanford Nuclear Reservation in Washington state, which takes up an area half the size of Rhode Island. Opened in 1943, the site produced the plutonium for the atomic bomb dropped on Nagasaki, Japan in 1945, according to its website. The production of nuclear materials carried on until 1987, leaving behind waste that threatened the local environment, prompting the state and federal authorities — including the Department of Energy, the Environmental Protection Agency — to pledge in 1987 to clean up the site, without success. Other facilities mentioned in the plans are the Savannah River Plant, South Carolina and the Idaho National Laboratory, according to the Associated Press……. Alex Smith, Program Manager of the State of Washngton Department of Ecology Nuclear Waste Program, which is involved in the Hanford project, told the Associated Press: “They see it as a way to get cleanup done faster and less expensively.” The consultation originally ran from October 10 until December 10. Democratic Senator Ron Wyden for Oregon requested a public consultation on the proposal be extended to January 9……..https://www.newsweek.com/trump-reclassify-radioactive-waste-nuclear-weapons-low-level-disposal-cheaper-1253063?fbclid=IwAR1H-mvAOsdN24NT1pKy3MGAuVDn_q_siZc67iXsl-eLkKNFNMeZ4F8xKgA |
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Pacific island countries accuse USA of obstructing talks at UN climate change summit
Vanuatu’s foreign minister says worst offenders on global warming are blocking progress, Guardian, Ben Doherty in Katowice@bendohertycorro, Wed 12 Dec 2018
The United States and other high carbon dioxide-emitting developed countries are deliberately frustrating the UN climate summit in Katowice, Poland, Vanuatu’s foreign minister has said. His warning came as Pacific and Indian ocean states warned they faced annihilation if a global climate “rule book” could not brokered.In a bruising speech before ministers and heads of state, Vanuatu’s foreign minister, Ralph Regenvanu, singled out the US as he excoriated major CO2-emitting developed countries for deliberately hindering negotiations.
“It pains me deeply to have watched the people of the United States and other developed countries across the globe suffering the devastating impacts of climate-induced tragedies, while their professional negotiators are here at COP24 putting red lines through any mention of loss and damage in the Paris guidelines and square brackets around any possibility for truthfully and accurately reporting progress against humanity’s most existential threat,” he said.
Regenvanu said the countries most responsible for climate change were now frustrating efforts to counter it.
The UN’s climate change talks in Poland have been distracted by a semantic debate over whether the conference should “welcome” or “note” the IPCC’s special report warning of dire consequences if global warming rises more than 1.5C above pre-industrial levels, with a bloc of four oil-producing countries – the US, Saudi Arabia, Russia, and Kuwait – insisting the report be only “noted”.
Documents from the conference presidency, seen by the Guardian, indicate the issue of how to acknowledge the report will be returned to later in the week and is likely to further slow progress on negotiating a final outcome. Negotiators said they are growing increasingly pessimistic that talks can be concluded by their deadline on Friday…….
As 193 countries at the climate talks seek to establish a “rule book” on how to implement the commitments made in the Paris agreement three years ago, Regenvanu condemned a two-tier system that exempted high-emissions countries from reductions obligations, saying the world needed “one common rule book, in which rules apply to all”.
The US state department declined to comment on his remarks……https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/dec/11/us-accused-of-obstructing-talks-at-un-climate-change-summit
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
of the week – Shut Down Drone Warfare!
Tell the Ukrainian Government to Drop Prosecution of Peace Activist Yurii Sheliazhenko
Petition to revoke the licensing of the Near Surface Nuclear Disposal Facility (NSDF) at Chalk River. https://www.ourcommons.ca/petitions/en/Petition/Details?Petition=e-7247
To see nuclear-related stories in greater depth and intensity – go to https://nuclearinformation.wordpress.com
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