nuclear-news

To 21st January – climate/nuclear news

With apologies to Samuel Johnson and “MadMen” – “Nothing concentrates the mind like the prospect of the economy going bust ”  Now, at the 50th anniversary meeting of  the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, climate change is the top subject. While poorer countries for a decade or more have suffered extreme droughts, floods -the impacts of global heating, it has taken the extreme wildfires of a rich country, Australia, to make the world’s big business people now sit up and take notice.

The case of Australia is remarkable also, in that the wildfires’ consequences have affected an entire continent.

While the news media is now more awake up to the global heating crisis, thing are pretty quiet on the nuclear scene.  The world continues to teeter on the nuclear war brink, and the millennials are apprehensive about this. On January 23rd, the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists will announce the 2020 time of the Doomsday Clock.

A bit of good news – Dutch Guy Famous for Cleaning Up Pacific Garbage Patch is Now Clearing the World’s Rivers Too

Climate change afflicting the health of the world’s children. New review confirms that global heating  increases the risk of wildfires. The oceans are getting hot.

Debunking James Hansen’s claims in favour of nuclear power.

Low dose radiation causes cell mutations – new research.

Nuclear industry in terminal decline – over to solar and wind. Nuclear’s swansong?

AUSTRALIA.  Much of Australia might simply become too hot and dry for human habitation. Australia led the world in climate action, in 2012 with the Gillard Labor government.

JAPAN. Japan’s Olympics – recovery for Fukushima? rescue for the nuclear industry? Japanese High Court rules against nuclear reactor restart.  No chance of re-using spent mixed-oxide (MOX) fuel, its storage highly dangerous.

IRAN. Tehran warns it may cease cooperation with IAEA.

KENYA. Vast swarm of locusts ruining the livelihood of 1000s in East Africa.

CHINA. China’s nuclear ghost city 404 – a personal story. New report: China soon to join countries with renewables cheaper than coal.

TURKEY. In Turkey, renewable energy rising, as nuclear partnership with Japan is scrapped.

USA.

• The “Power of the Purse” Belongs to the US Congress According to the Constitution – Not with the President.  Trump’s Unprecedented Attack on Iran and the Rule of Law. The B-52 Stratofortress will no longer carry the B61-7 and B83-1 nuclear gravity bombs.   U.S. cities near nuclear weapons stations realise they are targets.
• Need to improve Hanford radiation exposure records.
• California fights NASA over toxic Santa Susana nuclear site.
• A new law in USA pushes regulators to approve new nuclear reactor plans.

UK.  UK’s nuclear region, Cumbria, has unusually high rates of certain cancers. Bottled Water Use – Many West Cumbrians frightened to drink the tap water.

In UK, energy bosses bullying locals into submission over Sizewell nuclear build?  The highly controversial question of how to fund UK’s nuclear build. Britain’s Sizewell nuclear project in jeopardy, as EDF struggles to get funding. As building large nuclear stations stall in UK, sites are picked for ‘small’ nuclear reactors.

Britons want real action on climate change, but Boris Johnson’s govt missing in action on this.

EUROPE. European Parliament endorses $1.6 trillion investment plan for Green New Deal.  Europe’s Just Transition Mechanism excludes nuclear from the European Green Deal.  V4 group and Austria disagree on nuclear power.

BELGIUM. Belgium lawmakers narrowly agree to keep U.S. nuclear weapons, Belgian public overwhelmingly opposes this.

BELARUS. Anxiety in Belarus and Lithuania, over new Chernobyl-style nuclear power station.

TAHITI. Australian bushfire smoke across the Pacific shows how French nuclear tests spread radiation.

MIDDLE EAST.  Nuclear reactors for the gulf region could be an even worse threat than global heating.

FRANCE. Significant drop in France’s nuclear energy production.

CANADA. The fallout from a false nuclear alarm .

January 21, 2020 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | Christina's notes