nuclear-news

The week that was, in climate and nuclear news

It must be harder for residents of the Northern hemisphere to get their heads around the idea of global warming causing extreme cold weather, but – climate scientists tell us that this is the case. Easier for residents of the Southern Hemisphere , especially Australia and New Zealand to accept the idea of global warming.

A great pity that government secrecy and the language barrier combine to prevent us learning anything about nuclear matters in China and Russia. Are they finding nuclear power cheap?  Do they have no problems with nuclear waste?  I doubt that.

Meanwhile the British government flounders about, pretending that its nuclear industry has a future, when informed opinion, and the stopping of new programmes indicate that it does not. In the USA, there’s a concerted push by nuclear companies, and some politicians, for “new nukes”, specifically for tax-payer funded Small Modular Nuclear Reactors – the push is led by Bill Gates.

A bit of good news – Radioactive Cesium-137 diminishing in 2 Fukushima rivers, after close to 8 years.

Rapid Arctic Warming Linked To Mid-Latitude Weather Extremes. How global warming can lead to extreme cold weather, too.

Climate change reshaping how heat moves around globe. Our global home”is on fire” – Greta Thunberg at the World Economic Forum 2019. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M7dVF9xylaw

Doomsday Clock at 2 minutes to midnight – “The New Abnormal”       Nuclear disarmament, non proliferation, “peaceful use” on the agenda as France, Russia, Britain and the United States meet in China. Storage of nuclear waste a ‘global crisis’: report

USA.

• Extreme cold to hit 55 million people in the US as polar vortex brings life-threatening temperatures. This Is Why Global Warming Is Responsible For Freezing Temperatures Across The U.S.
• A rosy time coming for investors, (such as Donald Trump) in nuclear weapons!  USA’s nuclear weapons modernisation plan to cost $494 billion over the next decade. America may be overspending on unnecessary nuclear weapons – the nuclear triad now obsolete?
• USA hoping to profit from nuclear power, by exporting waste clean-up technology.  Activists vow to stop Holtec’s nuclear waste plan for New Mexico.  Holtec defends plans for nuclear waste storage facility in New Mexico.
• Nuclear Regulatory Commission votes 3-2 to weaken nuclear power safety rules.  US Senator Markey Blasts Dangerous New Trump NRC Post-Fukushima Nuclear Safety Rule . Scrutiny on Energy Secretary Rick Perry’s decision to award funding to an advanced nuclear enrichment facility.   It makes sense to exclude Nuclear, Fossils With Carbon Capture,and Biofuels from the Green New Deal.
•  Bill Gates urging U.S. Congress to spend $billions of tax-payer money for developing new nuclear reactors.
• Tiny mobile nuclear reactors for U.S. military – a plan fraught with dangers.
•  Nuclear Regulatory Commission agrees to delay relicensing New Hampshire’s Seabrook nuclear power plant.

JAPAN. Greenpeace slams Japan’s plan to dump radioactive Fukushima water into the ocean.  TEPCO failed to spot leak of contaminated water.  Japan’s plans to sell nuclear plants overseas derailed.

EUROPE. NATO chief says ‘no real progress’ on nuclear treaty.

FRANCE.  France’s government snidely changes law to avoid paying compensation to Polynesian victims of atomic bomb testing. French nuclear company EDF considering retreating from operations in UK.

UK.

• Genetic effects of radiation, and other pollutants, in children of Gulf War veterans.
• Aldermaston – Britain’s bomb factory – it’s a slow motion train crash.
• UK’s new nuclear projects are a financial dead end.  A financial necessity – UK’s nuclear industry to fall into China’s hands. Nationalise the UK nuclear industry– the only way to save it – says Hitachi chairman.
• Tax-payer funding for yet another nuclear folly? Rolls Royce’s Small Modular Reactors.
•  In Britain’s new energy era of wind and solar, nuclear power just does not add up. As a nuclear power project collapses, leading utility chief calls on UK government to increase targets for offshore wind energy.

NORTH KOREA. North Korea’s Nukes and the ‘Forgotten War’.

SOUTH KOREA. South Korea looks for nuclear dismantling pledge by Kim at second summit with Trump.

GERMANY. Germany phasing out coal, but will not import nuclear power as replacement.

SAUDI ARABIA. Saudi Arabia could be planning for nuclear weapons. 5 countries scramble to sell nuclear reactors to Saudi Arabia.

CZECH REPUBLIC. Shares slump for Europe’s biggest publicly traded power company, due to Czech Republic’s PM’s nuclear power dream.

HUNGARY. Hungary’s problems in financing new nuclear power plant.

January 31, 2019 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | Christina's notes