nuclear-news

To 5 June – Nuclear and some Climate News

Christina Macpherson’s websites & blogs

It is clear that the climate crisis is the greatest threat to humans and other species. This week, Dahr Jamail and others have spelled out the intensity of the effects of ever accelerating global warming. One report gives a harrowing scenario analysis of how human civilization might collapse due to climate change.

Nevertheless, at this stage, I’ve decided to focus on the original purpose of this weekly summary – nuclear news.

Why?  Two reasons:

1, I can’t keep up with the variety of climate change impacts happening, and with the overall understanding of communicators such as Dahr Jamail,   climate researcher Paul Beckwith , https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y9NvCwVDmFI and Radio Ecoshock.

2. The global nuclear lobby is peddling the untruth that nuclear power is essential to save the climate.  And – journalists, politicians, and other influential people are buying into this fiction, without troubling to look into the full picture. The information on the climate chaos is out there, and its effects are visible (e.g. the melting ice).   The lies about “new nuclear”, about “harmless , even benign” ionising radiation are being allowed to prevail in the media.

Nuclear industry and governments colluded to obscure the health effects of the Chernobyl nuclear accident.  “Energy for Humanity”, “Nuclear Pride” – the greenwashing of Fukushima, Chernobyl, and the global nuclear industry.  Nuclear Pride Coalition and Michael Shellenberger: Greenwash and Propaganda 2019.  Panicky nuclear lobby produces a propaganda book, desperate to win public support

Nuclear power, useless against climate change, is itself threatened by climate change‘s weather extremes.

Nuclear weapons even more risky in this age of Artificial Intelligence, Cyberattacks.

Ionising radiation in space will kill astronauts headed for Mars.

Record viewing of HBO miniseries “Chernobyl”.  Breathtaking series on Chernobyl nuclear catastrophe.   Accuracy of HBO’s “Chernobyl” mini series. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Wk9JRbTTqc

Problems in nuclear fusion, radiation risks – some active wastes, intermittency.

Continuing glum lookout for the uranium market.

Edward Snowden warns of greatest social control scheme in history .

Volcanoes not the major cause of global warming.  A new way to remove CO2 from the air – (perhaps – or too good to be true?)

JAPAN.    Hiroshima and Nagasaki protest U.S. subcritical nuclear test.   The Olympics, Fukushima and Chernobyl and The Art of the Cover-up.  Japan’s Olympic torch relay to start in Fukushima – even children are invited to carry it. Tokyo 2020 Olympic Torch Relay set to visit Fukushima nuclear complex.

USA.

• NUCLEAR. Espionage charges will not now be laid against Julian Assange.  Ron Paul asks: are the US and UK trying to kill jailed Julian Assange?
• Where 2020 Democrats stand on  Climate change and on Nuclear Power” interactive page, Washington Post.   Donald Trump, guided by John Bolton, could wreck the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT).  Nuclear Experts Beg Congress to Push Back on Trump Administration’s ‘Dangerous Impulses’. USA National Security Adviser John Bolton Accuses Iran of Seeking Nuclear Weapons.  USA’s “Doomsday plane” – the pilots might survive, anyway.
• Defying all laws of competitive economics, climate change, and technological progress, Ohio House votes in nuclear and coal subsidy. Ohio’s subsidy Bill unnecessarily bails out nuclear, coal owner FirstEnergy Solutions.  Michael Cohen and an Alabama Nuclear Plant Show Everything About This Administration* Is for Sale.  USA Dept of Energy funding bankrupted French company AREVA – now resuscitated as Framatome.
• Duke plans to decommission nuclear plant ahead of schedule .  San Onofre Task Force Questions Edison About Nuclear Waste Canisters. New Map Shows Expanse Of U.S. Nuclear Waste Sites .  Church opposes nuclear waste in Utah .  Doubts on Holtec’s clean-up of Pilgrim nuclear power station.  New Hampshire citizens’ group to monitor radiation emanating from the Seabrook Power plant.
• $125 million to NASA to develop nuclear rockets.

CLIMATE. Study in National Academy of Sciences proceedings shows that seas are rising faster than expected.   Trump administration to create a “climate review panel” led by climate denialist William Happer. To the Trump administration, fossil fuels are “Molecules Of U.S. Freedom“.   As USA lawsuit approaches, young climate activists ready for a day of action.

UK.  3 Royal Navy sailors serving on nuclear missile ship were caught taking cocaine.      West Dunbartonshire Council supports the Treaty for the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons.  Proposals to transport nuclear waste through Bridgwater, Somerset.  The long-lasting impact on North Wales agriculture, from Chernobyl nuclear disaster.

UK Labour’s plan for a ‘”Green Jobs” tour.Scotland the first country to set legally binding annual emission reduction targets.

EUROPE. Young voters supported Europe’s Greens – big winners in European elections.

NORTH KOREA.  North Korea’s nuclear envoys apparently not executed or sent to labour re-education camp, as previously reported.  South Korean Report Says That North Korea Executed and Purged Top Nuclear Negotiators. Nuclear envoys from Japan, U.S., South Korea discuss North Korea during trilateral meeting in Singapore.

FRANCE. France’s many nuclear waste locations revealed in an interactive map.

CHINA. World’s second EPR nuclear reactor starts work in China.

IRAN. IAEA Nuclear inspectors reported Iran continued adhering to its 2015 accord with world powers.

GERMANY. Merkel urges world to do all ‘humanly possible’ on climate change.

CANADA. Canada’s plans for nuclear waste disposal.

SWEDEN. Sweden’s Uppsala District Court rules against extraditing Assange to Sweden.

RUSSIA.  Investigation by IAEA finds no evidence that Russia is violating nuclear test ban.   Reading between World Nuclear News lines, did Russia’s Leningrad nuclear power plant have some safety issues?

MARSHALL ISLANDS. Radioactive shellfish – giant clams in Marshall Islands near USA nuclear dump.

UKRAINE. Chernobyl’s “liquidators” suffered acute, and long-term health effects.

June 5, 2019 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | Christina's notes