COP25: UN climate conference to tackle global challenges
The insanity of punishing the good — Beyond Nuclear International
Our focus should be the climate crisis and banning the bomb
via The insanity of punishing the good — Beyond Nuclear International
The judge who assailed “worship of the Bomb” — Beyond Nuclear International
He supported desperate plea to stop military madness
via The judge who assailed “worship of the Bomb” — Beyond Nuclear International
Germany must now face up to its nuclear waste problem
Germany is closing all its nuclear power plants. Now it must find a place 
to bury the deadly waste for 1 million years
By Sheena McKenzie, [excellent diagrams]. CNN https://edition.cnn.com/2019/11/30/europe/germany-nuclear-waste-grm-intl/index.html When it comes to the big questions plaguing the world’s scientists, they don’t get much larger than this.
Ben clock towers — of deadly radioactive waste for the next million years?Searching for a nuclear graveyard
Between a rock and a hard place
People power
Former salt mines at Asse and Morsleben, eastern Germany, that were used for low- and medium-level nuclear waste in the 1960s and 1970s, must now be closed in multibillion-dollar operations after failing to meet today’s safety standards.Global climate tipping point is getting near – researchers say
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By Helen Regan, CNN, November 28, 2019 , The Earth is heading toward a “global tipping point” if the climate crisis continues on its current path, scientists have warned, as they called for urgent action to avoid “an existential threat to civilization.”
The group of researchers, who published a commentary in the journal Nature, say there is growing evidence to suggest that irreversible changes to the Earth’s environmental systems are already taking place, and that we are now in a “state of planetary emergency.”
A global tipping point is a threshold when the planet’s systems go beyond the point of no return — such as the loss of the Amazon rainforest, accelerated melting of ice sheets, and thawing of permafrost — the authors of the commentary say.
Such a collapse could lead to “hothouse” conditions that would make some areas on Earth uninhabitable.
“We argue that the intervention time left to prevent tipping could already have shrunk towards zero, whereas the reaction time to achieve net zero emissions is 30 years at best,” the authors said.
Active problem areasLed by Timothy Lenton, professor of climate change and Earth system science at the University of Exeter, in southwest England, the team identified nine areas where they say tipping points are already underway.
Those include widespread destruction of the Amazon, reduction of Arctic sea ice, large-scale coral reef die-offs, melting of the Greenland and West Antarctic ice sheets, thawing of permafrost, destabilizing of boreal forests — which contain vast numbers of trees that grow in freezing northern climes — and a slowdown of ocean circulation.
The team claims that these events are interconnected and change in one will impact another, causing a worsening “cascade” of crises………
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The UN Environment Program (UNEP) 2019 Emissions Gap report said at the current rate, temperatures are expected to rise 3.2 C by 2100.
Greenhouse gases reached a record high in 2018 with no sign of peaking, according to a recent World Meteorological Organization report. Carbon dioxide levels reached 407.8 parts per million, a unit used to measure the level of a contaminant in the air.
Hope is not lost, however. Researchers say that mitigating greenhouse gas emissions could still slow down the accumulation of these climate impacts.
What is needed, they say, is urgent international action to cut emissions, slow sea level rise, and to keep warming to 1.5 C.
“A saving grace is that the rate at which damage accumulates from tipping — and hence the risk posed — could still be under our control to some extent,” they said.
“The stability and resilience of our planet is in peril. International action — not just words — must reflect this.” https://edition.cnn.com/2019/11/28/health/climate-crisis-global-tipping-point-intl-hnk/index.html?utm_source=twCNN&utm_content=2019-11-30T05%3A01%3A06&utm_term=link&utm_medium=social
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Big risk factors for Middle East countries in adopting nuclear power
  Facing the Nuclear StormCountries across the Middle East are building or have already started operating their nuclear power plants. To assess how “resilient” their nuclear energy systems are, one must look at a number of important risks and factors The Cairo Review By Ali Ahmad, and Benedetta Bonometti 1 Dec 19, Soon enough, countries with nuclear power in the Middle East will have to face a storm when it comes to operating their power plants safely. That is why the focus on introducing resilient energy systems is receiving much attention in developed and developing countries alike.
Across the globe, a variety of natural and human-induced risks and threats have caused substantial disruptions to the delivery of energy services and affected millions of people. From the massive July blackout in New York City that was linked to a sweltering heat wave to the conflicts in Yemen, Libya, and Syria that have caused power outages and severe damage to power generation and transmission, the need for resilient energy infrastructure is becoming more relevant than ever.
Energy resilience remains an evolving concept, but for now, it can be understood as the ability of an energy system to adapt to possible disruptive and challenging environments such as a tsunami or a heat wave, and to resume service provision swiftly. However, studies and experience have demonstrated the pivotal role that preemptive measures play when envisaging a resilient energy system. The link between energy resilience and the proposals to build nuclear energy power plants across the region lies in the scale of the region’s nuclear ambitions. Currently, there are six regional countries, including Iran, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Egypt, Turkey, Jordan, and Saudi Arabia, which are developing nuclear power programs, with varied degrees of commitment. In a global energy landscape that is tilting toward renewable energy and an increased interest in decentralized systems, which combined together make for strong or resilient structures, one important question to ask is how the introduction of nuclear power will affect the resilience of national energy systems in these countries. This is especially important considering the exclusive set of risks associated with having a nuclear power program. Nuclear Vulnerabilities and Disruptions Pre-operation risks Nuclear power plant projects are exposed to numerous threats before they start operating. In fact, lengthy construction times, which are common in such projects, increase the probability of project cancellation before the plants start generating electricity. The years-long lead times, or in other words the time it takes to carry out financial and licensing procedures as well as construction, make nuclear projects vulnerable to financial and political risks and could lead to plant closure. The most common financial problems which arise from escalating costs and construction delays are due to either stringent licensing processes and/or project mismanagement. Moreover, other sources of energy could become cheaper and more competitive, especially as gas or oil discoveries are made more often (such as the discovery of offshore gas fields like Egypt’s Zohr). Nuclear energy programs in turn become highly sensitive political issues to the extent that a change of governments, as in the case of the so-called Arab Spring, might halt the construction of planned nuclear power plants. Fuel supply The main threat to front-end activities regarding fuel supply is the disruption of enriched uranium supply. Uranium fuel disruptions would more likely be linked to the regional political climate given that the global supply chains of uranium fuel face no major impediments. …….. Attacks against critical nuclear facilities The recent drone and missile attacks on Saudi Arabia’s ARAMCO facilities temporarily crippled its oil production, inflamed regional tensions, and sent shockwaves around the globe. Had the attack been on a nuclear power facility, the consequences could have been much more grave………. Foreign workforce …….. The involvement of foreign workers, which may be necessary when the host country lacks the required human capital to run its own nuclear power program, may raise several issues. …….. Climatic effects When thinking of possible climatic effects on the resilience of the nuclear power plants in the region, heat waves are particularly concerning due to their impact on the temperature of the reactor’s cooling water. …. Spent nuclear fuel considerations Spent nuclear fuel, in other words the irradiated (and radioactive) fuel waste generated by nuclear fission, must first cool down for a number of years in water-filled storage pools before it is ready to be handled and transported. Spent fuel pools will always be full as new spent fuel will continuously replace fuel that is removed. Consequently, various threats to the storage pools are possible. Firstly, like the case with nuclear reactors, natural disasters and extreme weather conditions could threaten the functionality of the storage pools. Secondly, spent fuel pools may also be identified as targets during armed conflicts. …… Major risks exist that show the contradiction between the development of nuclear energy in the Middle East and the emerging narrative of energy resilience. Nuclear power is not only vulnerable to climatic and nature-induced extreme events but also to attacks by state and non-state actors. The recent attacks on Saudi Arabia’s oil infrastructure are reminders that the higher the value of the target, the more critical it becomes. With nuclear power becoming a reality in the region, efforts by governments, academia, and civil society need to focus on promoting its resilient, safe, and secure operation. As a start, we need to invest in risk mitigation strategies and mechanisms as well as better emergency response and preparedness that utilize unhindered and depoliticized technical cooperation between all states in the region. Since the effects of nuclear accidents are often cross-border, even countries that do not have nuclear power programs must be part of these efforts. Ali Ahmad is the director of the Energy Policy and Security Program in the Issam Fares Institute for Public Policy and International Affairs at the American University of Beirut. Ahmad is the author of numerous journal articles on nuclear energy and security with a focus on the Middle East region. Read More
Benedetta Bonometti is a graduate student in public policy with a specialization in energy, resources, and development at Sciences Po Paris. Her research interests focus on fossil fuel and nuclear energy policies in the Middle East. Read More https://www.thecairoreview.com/essays/facing-the-nuclear-storm/
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Iran warns EU that it may step back from UN nuclear watchdog
Iran threatens to step back from UN nuclear watchdog
Tehran warns it will reconsider IAEA commitments if EU states trigger possible sanctions, Guardian, Patrick Wintour Diplomatic editor, Mon 2 Dec 2019
Iran has warned it may “seriously reconsider” its commitments to the UN atomic watchdog if European parties to a nuclear deal trigger a dispute mechanism that could lead to fresh sanctions.
The speaker for the Iranian parliament, Ali Larijani, told a press conference in Tehran on Sunday: “If they use the trigger [mechanism], Iran would be forced to seriously reconsider some of its commitments to the International Atomic Energy Agency. If they think doing so is more beneficial to them, they can go ahead.”
The threat to trigger sanctions has come after the Iranian government has taken a series of deliberate steps away from the 2015 nuclear deal, which it says are intended as a reprisal for Europe’s failure to deliver on commitments to boost trade.
Iran has also been frustrated by Europe’s refusal to defy the threat of US sanctions against any European company that trades with Iran.
A mechanism known as Instex developed by Europe to sidestep sanctions received a boost at the weekend when six more EU countries said they would join. Instex is a bartering system devised to avoid the reach of the US, but Iran is less interested in the number of EU countries signed up than the fact that no deals are being made under the mechanism. A mechanism known as Instex developed by Europe to sidestep sanctions received a boost at the weekend when six more EU countries said they would join. Instex is a bartering system devised to avoid the reach of the US, but Iran is less interested in the number of EU countries signed up than the fact that no deals are being made under the mechanism……. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/dec/01/iran-threatens-to-step-back-from-un-nuclear-watchdog
Prominent Americans to wage ‘World War Zero’ against climate change
John Kerry Launches Star-Studded Climate Coalition, NYT, By Lisa Friedman, Nov. 30, 2019 WASHINGTON — John Kerry, the former senator and secretary of state, has formed a new bipartisan coalition of world leaders, military brass and Hollywood celebrities to push for public action to combat climate change.
The name, World War Zero, is supposed to evoke both the national security threat posed by the earth’s warming and the type of wartime mobilization that Mr. Kerry argued would be needed to stop the rise in carbon emissions before 2050.
The star-studded group is supposed to win over those skeptical of the policies that would be needed to accomplish that.
Former presidents Bill Clinton and Jimmy Carter are part of the effort. Moderate Republican lawmakers like Arnold Schwarzenegger, the former governor of California, and John Kasich, the former governor of Ohio, are on the list. Stars like Leonardo DiCaprio, Sting and Ashton Kutcher round out the roster of more than 60 founding members.
The star-studded group is supposed to win over those skeptical of the policies that would be needed to accomplish that.
Former presidents Bill Clinton and Jimmy Carter are part of the effort. Moderate Republican lawmakers like Arnold Schwarzenegger, the former governor of California, and John Kasich, the former governor of Ohio, are on the list. Stars like Leonardo DiCaprio, Sting and Ashton Kutcher round out the roster of more than 60 founding members.
“We’re going to try to reach millions of people, Americans and people in other parts of the world, in order to mobilize an army of people who are going to demand action now on climate change sufficient to meet the challenge,” Mr. Kerry said in an interview.
The launch of the new group on Sunday comes as diplomats gather in Madrid on Monday for global climate negotiations aimed at strengthening the 2015 Paris Agreement, from which President Trump has vowed to withdraw next year. Earlier this week the United Nations found that the world’s richest countries, responsible for emitting more than three-fourths of planet-warming pollution, are not doing enough to keep Earth’s temperature from rising to dangerously high levels. Net carbon emissions from the two largest polluters, the United States and China, are expanding……….. https://www.nytimes.com/2019/11/30/climate/john-kerry-climate-change.html?smid=tw-nytclimate&smtyp=cur
USA will send no senior government official to COP25 climate conference
US will ‘protect its interests’ at COP25 climate conference, No senior members of Donald Trump’s administration will attend COP25. https://www.sbs.com.au/news/us-will-protect-its-interests-at-cop25-climate-conference 2 Dec 19, The US will send a diplomatic team but no senior members of Donald Trump’s administration to a global climate change conference starting in Spain on Monday, according to a statement.However, in an effort to raise the US profile in Madrid, House speaker Nancy Pelosi will led a 15-member congressional delegation to “reaffirm the commitment of the American people to combating the climate crisis”.
The US, at Mr Trump’s direction, is withdrawing from the Paris climate accord, which set a goal of limiting global temperature rises to well within two degrees Celsius from pre-industrial levels.
Spain stepped in to host the COP25 meeting, which seeks to boost commitments to fight climate change, after Chile pulled out due to civil unrest.
“The United States will continue to participate in ongoing climate change negotiations and meetings – such as COP25 – to ensure a level playing field that protects US interests,” the US State Department said Saturday.
The US team will be headed by ambassador Marcia Bernicat, principal deputy assistant secretary of state for oceans and international environmental and scientific affairs.
Ms Pelosi, calling climate change “the existential threat of our time,” announced a delegation of Democrats drawn from both the House and the Senate, with no members of Mr Trump’s Republican party.
The president has cast the Paris climate accord as elitist and unfair to the US, saying when announcing his decision to withdraw that he was “elected to represent the citizens of Pittsburgh, not Paris”.
But scientists say the accord is vital to check the worst damage from global warming, such as increasing droughts, rising floods and intensifying storms.
The US is the world’s second biggest emitter of greenhouse gases after China, and is the only country to pull out of the Paris agreement.
The final US withdrawal from the landmark accord is scheduled for 4 November, 2020, a day after the next presidential election.
Several Democratic presidential aspirants have said that, if elected, they would immediately return to the agreement.
Catastrophic weather in Australia does not influence its climate denialist government
Time is running out for a climate adaptation plan, Independent Australia
THE POSSIBILITY that the effects of climate change could be more extreme and materialise much sooner than expected was never hypothetical. At the end of the last ice age, it is estimated that temperatures in some regions of the world spiked between five and 15 degrees celsius in just a few decades.
Catastrophic climate conditions have already arrived in Australia. With a growing sense that the events of the last few weeks could be the new normal, dealing with the immediate effects of climate change may take increasing priority over historically unsuccessful emissions reduction efforts.
It is striking that Australia has no unified climate adaptation plan.
Our bushfires are escalating in number and intensity. Given this reality, leaving individuals to enact their own bushfire survival plans again and again seems inadequate. In light of successive governments upholding policies designed to discourage asylum seekers from risking their lives at sea, where is the plan to permanently move residents out of areas surrounded by highly flammable material? …..
These are just a few matters of relevance, before we even get to responses to heat stress (cooler living spaces), or the erratic intensity of droughts (innovative measures to ensure food and water security), storms (systematic storm-proofing of property) and floods (moving communities to higher ground where necessary).
All of this will require a great deal of resources and coordination. While governments, both State and Federal, have been much too slow to act, politicians interested in keeping their jobs could conceivably be motivated to do so by increasingly engaged voters.
At the same time, the market has failed to respond anywhere near adequately and it is hard to see it doing so. The private sector-led installation of the flood-proofing infrastructure Brisbane needs is nowhere to be seen.
When warmer temperatures melt arctic ice, sun-reflecting white layers on that ice disappear, causing more heat to be absorbed by darker surfaces, a further rise in temperature and a further melting of ice. A number of chain reactions operate like this in the climate system. There could be many more that have not yet been discovered and that could behave in unanticipated ways.
Under some scenarios, changes could be so rapid that even attempts to adapt could become impractical. We haven’t a moment to lose. https://independentaustralia.net/politics/politics-display/time-is-running-out-for-a-climate-adaptation-plan,13365
Sir David Attenborough shocked at Australian government’s disdain for climate action
Sir David Attenborough hits out at the federal government over climate position,
https://www.sbs.com.au/news/sir-david-attenborough-hits-out-at-the-federal-government-over-climate-position Sir David Attenborough has taken another swipe at the Australian government’s climate policies, expressing his shock at the government’s hesitation to link recent extreme weather with global warming.
No president should have the absolute authority to launch nuclear weapons
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Joseph Cirincione is a nuclear weapons policy expert and president of the Ploughshares Fund, a global security foundation. Impeachment has a way of bringing out a president’s worst instincts — and the world could end up paying the price. As impeachment hearings intensified, an increasingly erratic president appeared to finally snap. “I can go into my office and pick up the telephone,” he told visiting lawmakers, “and in 25 minutes, 70 million people will be dead.” It was 1974, and the president was Richard Nixon. He was right. U.S. policy, then and now, gives the president absolute authority to launch nuclear weapons whenever they want, for whatever reason. No consensus is required. No one else need approve. Indeed, no other official even need know. The president, on their own, can simply summon the “nuclear football,” open binders of attack options and relay orders to the National Military Command Center. The orders would be sent down to missile control officers — where intercontinental ballistic missiles are primed on “hair-trigger” alert — and 30 minutes later you’d have nuclear explosions over the targets, just as Nixon claimed.
It was 1974, and the president was Richard Nixon. He was right. U.S. policy, then and now, gives the president absolute authority to launch nuclear weapons whenever they want, for whatever reason. No consensus is required. No one else need approve. Indeed, no other official even need know. The president, on their own, can simply summon the “nuclear football,” open binders of attack options and relay orders to the National Military Command Center. The orders would be sent down to missile control officers — where intercontinental ballistic missiles are primed on “hair-trigger” alert — and 30 minutes later you’d have nuclear explosions over the targets, just as Nixon claimed……
Procedures adopted in the fearful days of the Cold War — including the first use of nuclear weapons in a conventional conflict, the sole authority of the president to fire these weapons and keeping our missiles ready to launch in minutes — combine now to present an unacceptable risk of nuclear disaster. Little can be done now to reduce these risks. If we do escape catastrophe, it should be the first order of business in a new administration to declare new nuclear guidance and adjust nuclear alert postures accordingly. Legislators, including House Armed Services Committee Chairman Adam Smith (D-Wash.), have already introduced bills to prevent presidents from acting solely on their own to launch nuclear weapons and to make it official policy that America will never initiate a nuclear war. These provide a sound basis for a new president to revamp nuclear doctrine and to prevent, as President John F. Kennedy said, that slender thread holding the nuclear sword of Damocles from being cut by “accident or miscalculation or madness.” We must prepare to do all we can to ensure that no one individual — sane or insane — can ever start a nuclear war on their own. This column was produced in collaboration with The WorldPost, a publication of the Berggruen Institute. https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2019/12/01/no-president-should-have-absolute-authority-launch-nuclear-weapons/ |
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Cyber attack targets UK’s nuclear industry
Telegraph UK, Wil Crisp, 30 NOVEMBER 2019 GCHQ cyber experts have been called in after a digital attack on a major player in Britain’s nuclear power industry triggered a security crisis.
The National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC), an arm of GCHQ, has been secretly providing assistance to a nuclear power company in the UK that has struggled to recover after being hit by a cyber attack, The Telegraph can reveal.
A Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA) report, obtained using freedom of information legislation, said officials are “aware that an important business in the Nuclear Power Generating Sector has been negatively impacted by a cyber attack and has had to rely on expertise from the NCSC to help them with recovery”.
The document,... (subscribers only) https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2019/11/30/cyber-attack-targets-uks-nuclear-industry/
Russia’s nuclear company Rosatom in financial trouble trying to fund nuclear project in Turkey
 Turkey’s first nuclear plant delayed by funding problems – energy expert https://ahvalnews.com/turkey-energy/turkeys-first-nuclear-plant-delayed-funding-problems-energy-expert, Nov 30 2019
Completion of Turkey’s first nuclear power station is likely to be delayed as the Russian company building it is struggling to secure funding, former diplomat and Bosphorus Energy Club head Mehmet Öğütçü told Turkish daily Sözcü. A small part of the plant in Akkuyu, southern Turkey, may be opened for political reasons in 2023, the centenary of the founding of the Turkish Republic, Öğütçü said. But Russian state-owned Rosatom is having difficulties financing the project, which is expected to cost between $20 billion and $25 billion, he said, adding that Western companies were avoiding Akkuyu over concerns about nuclear armament. A Turkish consortium pulled out of the project last year, citing a failure to reach commercial terms with Rosatom, which owns a 51 percent stake in the project. A report by the main opposition Republican People’s Party this month criticised the terms of the government’s deal with Rosatom, which has been guaranteed a price of 12.35 U.S. cents per kilowatt hour in a 15-year power purchase agreement. |
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Russia’s Rosatom planning to market Small Modular Nuclear Reactors to Europe
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Russian company’s plan for nuclear power expansion revealedVLADIMIR PUTIN has made nuclear energy one of Russia’s key priorities, and now the Russian nuclear power company Rosatom has revealed to Express.co.uk their plans to ramp up expansion into Europe with small modular reactors. Express UK By CHARLIE BRADLEY, Fri, Nov 29, 2019
Rosatom is completely under state control, and while its emphasis with some projects has been geared towards powering hard to reach Russian territories, it has also undertaken numerous international projects. This includes the development of nuclear power plants in China, Turkey and Iran, highlighting the growing presence of Russian energy throughout the world. And now, with some projects already under way in countries like Hungary and Finland, its Vice President of Marketing and Business Development Overseas, Anton Moskvin, has told Express.co.uk that Europe is a future target for the company.He said: “I must say Europe is very interesting for us with prospective small modular reactors market development, we know that several countries are interested. The UK has great interest in the small modular reactors.” …… However, some in the EU have expressed concern over any plans for the Russian nuclear giant, fearing that the country could use its business to wield political influence.
In 2014, President Putin agreed a deal worth £8.5billion with Hungary President Viktor Orban, a deal which has seen the two leaders meet regularly since. Hungary is both a NATO and EU member, and the latter has sought legislation to ensure countries embarking on nuclear deals with Moscow do not become dependent on the Kremlin. RFI (Radio France International) reported last month that Jan Haverkamp, vice-chairman of Nuclear Transparency Watch, has serious reservations about the projects. He said: “Our assessment is that the Kremlin tries to use nuclear power now to regain some of that lost influence. “We see Rosatom being very eager to buy up nuclear companies in Europe, where they try to get a participation in order to get a solid nuclear foothold inside the EU.” Mr Moskvin said he could not comment on political issues……… https://www.express.co.uk/news/world/1211103/putin-news-russia-europe-nuclear-power-eu-rosatom-spt |
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