To 22 January – Nuclear and Climate News
I promised to find good news. It’s not that easy. But – Sir David Attenborough says ’Human activity has created a new era, yet climate change can be stopped. And, again, I am struggling with the reality that it is nearly, perhaps already is, too late, to stop the progress of global warming. Which makes climate change a more urgent problem than the nuclear threat.
Even if climate change is now irreversible, it’s no time to give up: the effort now must be to slow its progress, and to plan and adapt to its impacts.
Latest nuclear news indicates that Britain’s nuclear dream is collapsing. Japan’s plans for selling nuclear reactors overseas are collapsing. USA is embroiled in nuclear waste problems. Not so in totalitarian Russia and China, where the State runs the nuclear industry, education, and the media, and maintains secrecy about nuclear costs, unsafety, and waste problems.
GREENLAND. Greenland ice melt is happening at an unexpectedly fast rate.
ASIA. The threat to millions of people, as glaciers in Central Asia melt.
AUSTRALIA. Australia leads the world in global warming – with the 15 hottest sites. Australia bakes as record temperatures nudge 50C. Australia faces ‘new normal’ of year-round bushfires . Heat in New South Wales – bushfires, health impact, and roads melting.
USA.
- Increasing rate of melting in North American glaciers.
- USA to begin pullout from Intermediate-range Nuclear Forces (INF) treaty, rejecting Russian offer.
- How US and China’s African nuclear mission could provide model for disarming North KoreaSC. Trump plans North Korea nuclear summit with Kim Jong Un for February . The Trump administration’s dangerous strategy of provocation – led by John Bolton.
- The nuclear lobby has “zero chance” of nuclear getting into a Green New Deal in USA.
- The ‘fatally flawed’ nuclear waste storage facilities at the decomposing San Onofre nuclear site. Federal Plan Could Reclassify Hanford Nuclear Waste — And Leave it in the Ground.
- Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board says that Los Alamos National Laboratory still has long-standing safety problems. T
- rump signs new bill to weaken nuclear energy regulation. USA’s Nuclear Regulatory Commission extending license for Seabrook nuclear power BEFORE THE HEARING ON ITS SAFETY PROBLEMS.
NORTH KOREA. Kim Jong Un continuing to play to the vanity of Donald Trump?
UK.
- Britain’s severe nuclear financial headache. UK government’s proposed ‘Regulated Asset Base’ (RAB) financing – a cover-up for a nuclear bailout. Costly saga of Hitachi nuclear power project in North Wales comes to an end. UK Secretary for Energy reveals the staggering amounts of tax-payer money offered to Hitachi to build nuclear reactors in Wales. Why the UK government is losing its enthusiasm for nuclear power.
- Dungeness B nuclear station – safety problems, reactors still shut down.
- Wind energy ready to supply UK electricity: time to remove the ban on onshore subsidies. Renewable energy can replace UK’s Moorside, Wylfa and Sizewell C nuclear power at a much cheaper cost. Offshore wind leads, as UK’s renewable energy is on course to overtake fossil fuels. UK govt’s plan to let down solar householders has not gone down well.
- UK government waits for nuclear test veterans to die, prevents research on genetic effects.
TAIWAN. The pitfalls of Direct Democracy- Taiwan’s referendum and the vote on nuclear power.
ISRAEL. Super Weapon: Israel Could Arm Stealth F-35s with Nuclear Weapons. Secret Handwritten Memos Reveal How Israel’s Nuclear Program Came to Be.
JAPAN. High radiation levels in Fukushima area, but the Japanese government is pushing people back there. Time to retire Japan’s aging nuclear reactor at Genkai. Nagasaki: Life after Nuclear War – the past and the future.
RUSSIA. Russia’s plans for nuclear-powered unmanned underwater weapons.
CHINA. Pentagon report on China’s nuclear weapons program, still “significantly below” the U.S. Concerns about safety of China’s planned 46 nuclear reactors within a radius of about 100 km from Hong Kong and Macau. Chinese residents concerned over imports of rice produced near Fukushima disaster area.
GERMANY. Germany urges Russia to destroy missile to save nuclear treaty.
FINLAND. Wild mushrooms in Finland still containing high radioactive cesium from Chernobyl nuclear accident in 1986.
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1.This Month
Ethics, Nuclear Power, and Global Heating – theme for December 2019
Ethics of Nuclear Energy Abu-Dayyeh (P.hD) Amman – H.K. of Jordan Ayoub101@hotmail.com E_case Society (President) www.energyjo.com [Extract]
Abstract:
This paper attempts to refute the myth of “clean nuclear energy”, and discusses the unethical impact on the environment of the overall process of the nuclear energy electricity production industry, from mining to decommissioning, through the problematic framework of “health risk analysis”, “economical feasibility” and “sustainability”. It also focuses on the economic and safety fragility of developing countries in the South to deal with big loans or a possible catastrophe, not to mention managing nuclear waste for a very long period of time.
Finally, the paper diverges all the inductions of the different criteria discussed towards inferring a global categorically imperative ethical perception based on a biocentric stance that takes United Nations recommendations into consideration, such as the “Precautionary Principle”, the declarations on Human Rights and the rights of future generations to a healthy and sustainable environment, in order to settle down to an “ecosophical” conclusion.
1- Introduction: The “clean nuclear energy” myth!
Nuclear energy is still one of the options used today across the world, thought to be a clean source of energy that produces neither CO2 nor other Ozone related pollutants into the atmosphere. However, it is now been verified that the complete fuel cycle of nuclear energy production is generous in producing GHG as well as CFCs; from mining and milling to fuel enrichment, constructing and operating the nuclear facility, transportation of nuclear fuel, safety and security measures, reprocessing and recycling the depleted nuclear fuel, manufacturing by-products, encasing and burying the nuclear waste and eventually decommissioning the nuclear facility and its surrounding environment, including the contaminated soil(1).
Concerned communities in Japan who are removing contaminated soil and conducting clean up operations are using independent researchers because they have lost faith in their government: “The roots of mistrust came out after authorities issued radiation readings that often turned out to be incorrect”(2). This comes as a proof that governments don’t consider life cycle assessment mechanisms in calculating accurate GHG emissions, insurance, cost of KWh of electricity produced or genome radioactive infuriation. Most of the research is government sponsored or controlled by nuclear commissions, thus falling in “conflict of interest” controversy.
The nuclear fuel cycle is a generous CO2 emitter that can exceed 288 grams of CO2 e/KWh, or (66)g as a mean value, even when existing studies fail to consider emissions of co-products (3) which cause global warming too. Research on light water nuclear reactors showed CO2 emission up to 220 g/KWh (4), yet this value is expected to rise as uranium ore grade worldwide is deteriorating by time. The USA ore grade average, for example, dropped from 0.28% U3O8 to 0.07 – 0.11% (1100 ppm) in 40 years (5). The complete life cycle assessment mechanism considered to calculate CO2 equivalent (CO2 e/KWh) in the previous analysis can raise this value significantly!
A comparative study on GHG emissions of thin-film photovoltaic electricity generation yielded a range of carbon foot print of 14-26 g/KWh under 2400 KWh per square meter per year, through a performance of 80%, for a life time of 30 years(6). A median value of carbon foot print for wind power was calculated to be 11 g/KWh(7), compared to the 66 g for nuclear without considering co-products emissions, uranium ore grade deterioration …etc.
The nuclear fuel cycle also produces chemical compounds that can harm the Ozone layer due to the generous emissions of CFCs during uranium enrichment. CFC 114 produced is an Ozone layer depletory, where as 93% of the CFC 114 released in the USA is from uranium enrichment (8).
Further more, the enrichment of uranium is a highly polluting industry during which U238 (Depleted Uranium) is produced; a heavy metal, 1.7 times heavier than lead, used in encasing ammunition among other things. It burns upon impact and 80% of its weight disintegrates into aerosol powder (half – radioactive life 4.5 billion years, the same as the Earth’s age) (9).
Regardless of these justified arguments, some might still argue that nuclear energy emits far less CO2 than some fossil fuels, particularly coal. However, we would like to counter-argue that claim on the basis that nuclear energy production is unethical on the bases of a set of criteria:
Health risk analysis, economic feasibility, sustainability, security and liability, which will be discussed in this paper. Additional arguments would be based on the “Precautionary Principle”, United Nations Declaration on Human Rights and the right of future generations in a healthy, safe and sustainable environment.
For those who might still believe that moral responsibility and ethical stances don’t change the world just have to wait and see how an ethics committee decision shaped the future of nuclear Germany!…………”
Ohioans Against Nuke Bailout https://www.facebook.com/OhioansAgainstNukeBailout/
PETITION https://www.ohioansagainstnukebailouts.com/petition
Free Julian Assange, before it’s too late. Sign to STOP the USA Extradition PETITION
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They maybe able to do something about climate change but, there have been a hundred thousand or more tons of manmade and man mined RADIONUCLIDE waste dumped into the arctic ocean.
There are the manmade radionuclides that can kill millions with a few ounces. The ones released by Fukushima and Nuclear reactors every day that includes tritium, 90Sr, 137Cs, 99Tc and 129I plutonium, enriched uranium, cobalt 60. The most dangerous destructive poisons, mutagenes, carcinogens, teratogens to life in the universe.
There are the uranium conjugated radionuclides, that are released from the earth by human greed and stupidity. They create genome instability. They cause cancer.
The nasty ones like radium, polonium, thorium, uranium that are being fracked, and mined and dumped into the biosphere and the ocean to poison life on earth.
There are the nuclear reactor accidents.
There are the nuclear weapons and submarines.
There are the millions of tons of uranium and high level nuclear waste. The unleashing of an irreversible flood of radionuclides on the earth. That is the up most of human concern yet it is somehow kept in the shadows.
All that you say about the nuclear threat is true. However, I do query about “they may be able to do something about climate change”. I mean , I do hope so, but I fear that climate change may already be irreversible. That’s why I see climate change as the more urgent problem. If it’s still able to be stopped – let’s stop it.
As to the nuclear threat – or threats, I should say – as there are so many, it is possible to stop this monster in its tracks. An observer from another planet might well wonder why this weird species keeps risking its extermination, when it could get rid of nuclear weapons, and shut down all nuclear reactors.
One of the few decent nuclear information sources. Lady works so hard to do this and keep It going. No renumeration
Thank you!!!
I hope that you are keeping cool enough! The melting of the Arctic is releasing nuclear materials that had been frozen, too, and mercury. After I read the old documents about climate change, I started to wonder if the above ground weapons testing wasn’t an attempt to cause global dimming and cool the climate. The 1970s were an abnormally cool decade, though the weapons testing was stopped by then. I think I had read that it takes only 2 years for the fallout to come down? Do you know?
I think that with solar panels and air conditioning and planning that we could survive climate change, whereas such is not the case for nuclear. Plus, nuclear poisons the water, which we need desperately. But, with such dysfunctional government and corruption, it’s difficult to be optimistic.
I can’t even get people in my immediate environment to do any sort of planning. It seems things have gone to anarchy. When I was a child if you were 3 minutes or 5 minutes late you were in trouble!
Upon further thought, for Australia you are correct – climate change matters the most. And, Australia is all that should really matter to you since it’s where you and your grandkids live. Australia’s been mostly spared nuclear if you compare to other places and the overall rad level is low. People have invented things which would held contain nuclear waste better for cheap – not a solution but an improvement, but they are locked out of the system. Some believe that Fukushima is adding to climate change, though.
Well, yes – Australia is ‘the canary in the cage’ for wealthy nations and climate change. The dryness of this continent also makes it a sitting duck for global warming – droughts, bushfires…
However, the nuclear industry has a very nasty history in Australia – with the never properly acknowledged injustices to the Aboriginal people, and to Australian and British soldiers, in atomic bomb testing.
There is also the nasty prospect of Australia taking in the world’s nuclear trash. This is the goal of the global nuclear lobby, and of a small but influential group of greedy Australians, who seek personal profit, and international fame in trying to bring this about. They did have a resounding defeat in their most recent push, in 2016, but are continuing this campaign.
Also, Australia hosts U.S. military bases, and the secret Pine Gap centre, which co-ordinates USA’s nuclear weapons network – all very good targets in the case of nuclear war.
I believe that climate change and the nuclear industry are closely involved – especially in the way that nuclear takes energy and money away from the genuine efforts in energy efficiency and zero carbon technologies that Australia and the world desperately need. The coal and nuclear industries are in lockstep in Australia – with theur plan to transition from coal to nuclear- in a later period, when the coal eventually runs out.