Meet the scientists quitting academia for climate activism

Meet the scientists quitting academia for climate activism, https://www.dw.com/en/meet-the-scientists-quitting-academia-for-climate-activism/a-51452337–12 Dec 2019, Emotional stress, burnout, and a sense of frustration at policy makers are driving some academics to take a different path in tackling climate change. DW spoke to three people to find out why they became activists.

Most people have the option to switch off from the terrifying media stories of how climate change is affecting the planet. This isn’t so easy for environmental scientists and academics who spend their days researching the consequences of climate change.

In a letter published in Science magazine in October this year, biologists Andy Radford, Stephen Simpson and Tim Gordon, said the loss of nature for people with a strong emotional attachment to it “triggered strong grief responses.”

They argued institutes needed to adapt strategies from “healthcare, disaster relief, law enforcement and military” for environmental scientists so they can manage their “emotional stress.”

After the letter a number of colleagues reached out to Radford, a professor at the University of Bristol, to express their comfort at the views being made public.

Caught between frustration at the disconnect between climate science and policy, and a hope inspired by burgeoning global climate protests in the last year, DW spoke to three people shunning academia in favor of activism.

Dr Wolfgang Knorr: ‘We know a lot less than we pretend to’

Dr Wolfgang Knorr, 53, researcher, physical geography and ecosystem science, and principal investigator (BECC), Lund University, Sweden

Knorr handed in his resignation in September 2019 after 27 years in environmental science. He believes his skills could be better applied as an activist, though he’s not yet sure what form this will take.

“My attraction to science has always been emotional. But in science, it’s all about keeping the emotions down, because they’re not wanted, basically. On the emotional level, I have this strong sense that there is a tremendous risk out there and we know a lot less than we pretend to.

In 2005, I joined the UK’s Natural Environment Research Council. On a daily basis, I would sit in meetings, debating new renewable energy schemes or whatever. On the train back, you read newspaper stories about climate change, but the next page will be economic news about expansion and GDP growth. At that time it became clear to me that there’s a dichotomy between the work and what’s going on in the rest of the world.

That gut feeling at that time continued until very recently — until the youth protests. There was a real step-change in public perception due to these protests. I would say, as a climate scientist, we’re following the lead of these protesters in a way, because it made me realize that I had a potential for being an advocate. I got a new perspective about what I could do with these skills.

I am hoping to find new uses for the skills that I used as a scientist, and make better use of them.”

Jess Spear: ‘I was really demoralized’

Jess Spear, 38, scientist, educator and socialist activist, RISE, Dublin

Spear left climate science in 2013 to work on a campaign in the US city of Seattle that elected its first socialist city councillor in a century. She moved to Dublin, Ireland, in 2017 and works for a new Irish left-wing group called Radical Internationalist Socialist Environmentalist (RISE).

“I worked at the US Geological Survey. It is much easier to be a scientist working as a civil servant than it is in academia. It wasn’t that stressful and was rewarding, but it wasn’t actually producing what I wanted in the world.

At the beginning of 2011 I was really demoralized about the state of the movement for climate action. There didn’t appear to be very many people concerned about it.

To see constant emission rises and failure of governments was like watching a train about to go off a cliff in slow motion. You know what’s going to happen. You feel powerless to do anything about it when you’re just one person.

In 2013 when I started to work in activism, I can remember standing in my kitchen, watching videos of Occupy Wall Street. It was like a light turning on. That was a life-changing moment for me because it opened up the possibilities for shifting away from finding solutions, to focusing on community activism.”

Mathieu Munsch: ‘What I’m doing now is much more meaningful’

Mathieu Munsch, 30, builder, educator and community activist, France

Munsch quit his PhD in climate change at Strathclyde University in Scotland after two and a half years in September 2018. He’s now constructing an eco-friendly house in rural France and has become involved in local politics.

One major impetus was what he saw as a conflict with his values as an academic concerned about the environment if he continued on a certain career path.

“Strathclyde has a big engineering department that does research on fracking. It receives funding from the oil industry. Professors within my departments, theirpension funds were invested in fossil fuels.

In the first year, I still had some faith that I was doing the right thing. But it became more and more obvious to me that I was never going to be able to have a successful career, access to a pension and all of that if for me to benefit from that, the current economic system would need to continue functioning, and therefore we would go into catastrophic climate change. It became a wake-up call that I needed to get out of that system.

I experienced some burnout, specifically when I was spending eight hours of my day on the computer reading documents about climate change. It was pretty emotionally heavy, even though I don’t think I was in the deep despair that I know some people experience.

Something that helped me cope was giving time to activist groups. But it’s only leaving and finding a completely different way to do things that helped me overcome the stress and burnout.

Since I left, I’ve had people contacting me over Twitter as well, specifically for the decision, and one of them said, ‘Oh, yeah, I did exactly the same thing two years ago. I feel like what I’m doing now is much more meaningful.”

These interviews have been edited and condensed for clarity and length

February 1, 2020 Posted by Christina MacPherson | climate change, PERSONAL STORIES | Leave a comment

Could geoengineering strategies help tackle climate change?

Could geoengineering strategies help tackle climate change? DW, 31 Jan 2020, A range of technologies — loosely defined as ‘geoengineering’ — are being explored as responses to climate change. Yet their effectiveness, and whether they should be implemented at all, is debated among scientists.Australia’s bushfires have brought the devastating consequences of a warming world into sharp relief. And with modelling pointing to temperature increases of between three and four degrees Celcius by 2100 in a business-as-usual scenario, predictions suggest such extreme events are set to become more frequentV.

What if we could reverse the warming that is fueling drought and causing flooding around the world?

That is exactly what organizations like the US-based non-profit Foundation for Climate Restoration (F4CR), are proposing. The group wants to restore carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere to under 300 parts per million, as was the case in the pre-fossil fuel age. Today, the global average measures more than 400 parts per million.

“I’m very interested in leaving [behind] a world where our children can survive,” Pieter Fiekowsky, an MIT-trained physicist who founded F4CR in 2015, told DW. To him, “that clearly requires getting CO2 back to safe levels.”

According to the foundation, achieving that involves “climate restoration,” that is, making sure we’re collectively removing more greenhouse gases from the atmosphere than we produce. The foundation believes around a trillion tons of carbon dioxide needs to be extracted.

That would require large-scale implementation of nature-based or artificial technologies to suck vast quantities of greenhouse gases out of the atmosphere to cool the planet — strategies that fall under the loose definition of “geoengineering.” However, which technologies are best suited, and whether to implement them at all, is hotly debated among scientists.

Climate benefits

Rob Jackson, an earth systems scientist at Stanford University,believes that restoring the climate to what it once was is a better goal than merely stabilizing Earth’s temperatures.

“We need a new story, a new narrative around climate change,” says Jackson, who argues this should involve ambitions that go beyond merely limiting the damage of climate change. “[Climate restoration] will bring climate benefits. It will save lives by reducing air pollution. It will provide a host of other benefits.”

One solution proposed by F4CR in awhite paper last year entails restoring marine habitats that store carbon, such as underwater kelp forests. Another is a form of concrete that binds carbon as it’s made, which was used recently to build a new terminal at San Francisco airport……….

“I think these long-term goals [of climate restoration] take away focus from the really important challenge that we have today of bending the emissions curve downward,” says Joeri Rogelj, a climate scientist at Imperial College London.

There is also concern that geoengineering technologies could create a false sense of security that increased emissions could be removed. Rogelj says ecosystems unable to adapt to current warming are not likely to return even if temperatures decrease……..

A middle ground?

Bhowmik believes it should be possible to achieve a net decline in greenhouse gases without resorting to the most radical geoengineering approaches. The Exponential Roadmap report published in 2019, in which Bhowmik led the modelling work, lays out a strategy focused heavily on nature-based solutions.

To follow that roadmap, the world would need to halve global greenhouse gas emissions every decade from 2020 onwards, improve agricultural practices so farmland absorbs rather than emits carbon, restore large areas of forest and protect carbon-storing ecosystems like peatlands.

“If you follow that route, it would actually be possible by the end of this century to have a substantial reduction in the atmosphere greenhouse gas concentrations. And soon thereafter we will reach the level that was in the preindustrial period,” Bhowmik believes.

Climate restoration got a boost in September 2019 when F4CR joined scientists, venture capitalists and youth activists at a UN Forum aiming to spur investment for a range of nascent technologies to reverse global warming.

Even though there’s disagreement on what — if any — form climate restoration should take, most scientists do agree that it shouldn’t be a replacement for mitigating climate change or helping communities around the world cope with the impacts of rising temperatures.

That includes F4CR. “Climate restoration is a critical third pillar,” says Rick Parnell, CEO of the organization. “[It’s] a third leg of the stool, along with mitigation and adaptation.” https://www.dw.com/en/geoengineering-projects-climate-change/a-52117714

February 1, 2020 Posted by Christina MacPherson | 2 WORLD, climate change | Leave a comment

Indigenous tribe, Saugeen Ojibway Nation, has voted down plans for nuclear waste dump near Lake Huron

Hervé Courtois‎ to C.A.N. Coalition Against Nukes, 1 Feb 2020, Members of the Saugeen Ojibway Nation (SON) have voted down plans to bury Ontario’s low- and intermediate-level nuclear waste within 1.2 kilometres of Lake Huron….On Friday, 1,232 members of the First Nation band voted. The vote results saw 1,058 ‘no’ votes, with 170 ‘yes’ and 4 spoiled ballots…It means Canada’s first permanent nuclear waste facility will need to be built somewhere else in Ontario…OPG will now have to start searching for a new host community to house over 200,000 cubic metres of low- and intermediate- level nuclear waste…OPG says finding a new site may set the project back 20 to 30 years….https://www.facebook.com/groups/C.A.N.CoalitionAgainstNukes

February 1, 2020 Posted by Christina MacPherson | Canada, indigenous issues, wastes | Leave a comment

Japan’s METI recommends releasing Fukushima Daiichi radioactive water into sea

That substance is not ‘water’. It is liquid radioactive waste. It is radioactive water with tritium, radioactive Cesium and Strontium, and other nasty toxic stuff. So better call it ‘waste’ not ‘water’…

Some neighboring countries have also voiced their opposition to the idea of discharging the water into the ocean or atmosphere, citing environmental concerns

A subcommittee under the industry ministry holds a meeting Friday in Tokyo. It recommends releasing treated radioactive water from the crippled Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant into the ocean.

Japan’s METI recommends releasing Fukushima radioactive water into sea

Jan 31, 2020

The industry ministry Friday recommended releasing treated radioactive water from the crippled Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant into the ocean, saying it would be preferable to releasing it into the atmosphere by boiling it.

The government has been exploring ways to dispose of more than 1 million tons of water used to cool the melted-down cores at the Fukushima No. 1 power plant, including groundwater near the site, as the complex is running out of storage space.

The water is being treated using an advanced liquid processing system, or ALPS, before being stored in tanks at the plant. But this does not remove tritium and has been found to leave small amounts of other radioactive materials.

Local fishermen have voiced strong opposition to releasing the water into the ocean, saying consumers will be afraid to buy seafood caught in the area.

Both methods of releasing the water are “realistic options,” the Economy, Trade and Industry Ministry told a government subcommittee Friday, but noted that dumping the water into the ocean would make it easier to monitor radiation levels.

This method could be carried out “with more certainty,” it said, because the plant’s operator, Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings Inc., already carried out the process, albeit on a much smaller scale, prior to the powerful earthquake and tsunami that triggered the triple meltdown at the Fukushima plant in March 2011.

The ministry has said the health effects of either approach would be minimal, estimating it would result in between 0.052 and 0.62 microsievert annually for a discharge into the ocean, and 1.3 microsieverts if released into the atmosphere. That compares with the 2,100 microsieverts people are exposed to daily in a normal living environment, according to the ministry.

Other methods the subcommittee has considered include injecting the water deep into the ground, solidifying and burying it, and extracting only the hydrogen and releasing it into the atmosphere.

Meanwhile, the ministry stressed the importance of gaining the understanding of the local community before making a decision, and of preventing the spread of misinformation that would raise undue fears.

The amount of the water is increasing by about 150 tons per day and Tepco is fast running out of tanks to store it in. The utility is looking to expand capacity to 1.37 million tons by the end of 2020, but has no plans beyond then.

https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2020/01/31/national/japan-meti-fukushima-radioactive-water-sea/?fbclid=IwAR0bpt7Pbs11Z29u7hRTksdH1R2G1Rj5OnQ-G8iBpdy9qZivSIUHVH8x9G8#.XjRmsiNCeUl

An employee of Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) holds a geiger counter to measure radiation on the top floor of the company’s reactor Number 3 at Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant in Okuma, Fukushima prefecture.

Japan panel finds Fukushima nuclear plant water release to sea is best option

Jan 31, 2020

A Japanese government panel on Friday roughly accepted a draft proposal for releasing into the sea massive amounts of radioactive water now being stored at the tsunami-wrecked Fukushima nuclear plant.

The economy and industry ministry’s draft proposal said releasing the water gradually into the sea was the safer, more feasible method, though evaporation was also a proven method. The proposal in coming weeks will be submitted to the government for further discussion to decide when and how the water should be released.

Nearly nine years after the 2011 meltdowns of three reactor cores at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Plant, it was a small step toward deciding what to do with the water and follows expert recommendations.

It is meant to solve a growing problem for the plant’s operator stuck between limited storage space for the water and an imminent backlash from the public and possibly neighbouring countries.

A Japanese government panel on Friday said releasing into the sea massive amounts of radioactive water now being stored at the tsunami-wrecked the nuclear plant was the safer, more feasible method.

Fishermen and residents fear possible health effects from releasing the radioactive water as well as harm to the region’s image and fishing and farm industry.

The water has been treated, and the plant operator, Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO), says all 62 radioactive elements it contains can be removed to levels not harmful to humans, except for tritium. Experts say there is no established method to fully separate tritium from water, but it is not a problem in small amounts. Government officials also say tritium is routinely released from existing nuclear power plants around the world.

In Friday’s proposal, the ministry said the controlled release to the sea is superior because its travelling route is predictable and easier to sample and monitor. The method, however, could immensely impact Fukushima’s still-struggling fishing industry.

The report acknowledges the water releases would harm industries that still face reluctant consumers despite diligent safety checks. It promised to reinforce monitoring of tritium levels and food safety checks in order to address safety concerns.

In 2011, three of Fukushima Dai-ichi’s reactor cores melted down following a tsunami.

TEPCO currently stores about 1.08 million tonnes of radioactive water and only has space to hold up to 1.24 million tonnes, or until the summer of 2022. The water — leakage of cooling water from damaged reactors mixed with contaminated groundwater — has accumulated since the accident.

The report ruled out long-term storage outside the plant — a method favoured by many Fukushima residents. It cited difficulties obtaining permission from landowners and transportation challenges, as well as the risk of leakage from corrosion, a tsunami or other disasters and accidents.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/fukushima-nuclear-plant-water-release-1.5447167?fbclid=IwAR3UR45hcH1T65vzWSsc3c6fcjNwElVzx85Q9ZilqXtHOXRZjd3bQyAvOoo

February 1, 2020 Posted by dunrenard | Fukushima 2020 | Fukushima Daiichi, Radioactive Water, Sea release | Leave a comment

Tokyo 2020 at real risk as China coronavirus truths come to light

People worry about the possible coronavirus and completely forget the Fukushima radiation present in Tokyo, especially the radioactive contamination of the food, which risk to affect in various mannersTokyo 2020 Olympics’ visitors and athletes health.

The 2020 Olympics would have never been attributed to Tokyo if not some paid bribery to the Olympics committee high ranking officials and the lies that Tokyo was safe by PM Abe who needed the Olympics coming so as to whitewash the ongoing Fukushima nuclear disaster to the face of the whole world.

A man stands in front of a Tokyo 2020 poster created by artist Tomoko Konoike, one of 20 officially selected for the Olympics and Paralympics.

January 31, 2020

War has been the only reason to prevent previous modern Olympics but revelations over Wuhan outbreak pose problem

Qualifiers have already been moved outside of China but scale of movement around region and visitor numbers add layers

Human to human contact at the Games is unavoidable. The fans are packed in tight at stadiums, athletes come into contact in the sports and, as we know from the rise in condoms given out at the athletes village at every Olympics, often outside of sporting events. No wonder that the president of the German Olympic Sports Confederation, Alfons Hormann, has called the virus “the biggest risk” ahead of the Tokyo 2020 Summer Games. “This is a serious problem because no other part of life is so dependent on international exchange than sport,” he said in Frankfurt at a meeting. Hormann also called on “affected countries and international sport to do everything possible” to find a solution. He pointed to Zika, a mosquito-borne virus, that overshadowed the run-up to the 2016 Rio Olympics. In the end, Zika was of limited concern when Brazil hosted the Games but the potential for the Wuhan coronavirus is much worse. … Olympic boxing qualifiers have been moved from Wuhan to Amman, while the women’s AFC football event was first moved to Nanjing and then to Sydney. Meanwhile, the women’s basketball has been taken from Foshan to Belgrade. The move to Sydney for the women’s football had a deeper effect on the China team. They headed to Australia without star player Wang Shuang and starting midfielder Yao Wei. The pair are both from Wuhan and spent the Lunar New Year in the city visiting their families.

In the long history of the Olympics the Summer Games has been cancelled three times.

On each occasion since the Modern Olympics returned in 1896, it was because of war. The first world war accounted for 1916 and the second world war took out both the 1940 and 1944 Games and their sister Winter Games.

Now, as we near six months out from the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, which run from July 24 to August 9 in the Japanese capital, it might be time to think that another one of the four horseman of the apocalypse – pestilence – could claim the next Games.

This is fuelled by revelations around the ongoing global spread of the deadly Wuhan coronavirus, fuelling fears of a global pandemic.

The first of those is a report published in the medical journal, The Lancet, on January 24. This study, written by researchers and doctors on the ground in Wuhan, suggests that what we all thought we knew might not be the case at all.

They are still understanding the virus and its origins. An article on Vox citing the findings reported in The Lancet suggests that the first patient was not only ill much earlier than previously published but that they had no contact with the Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market that had been assumed to be the epicentre.

Who knows how many people have been carrying the virus and to where since its inception?

Add to that, the number of people from Wuhan who spent their Lunar New Year in Japan, a country whose largest visitor numbers come from Chinese tourists. That’s not to mention that Wuhan mayor Zhou Xianwang said some five million of the 11 million populace left the city during the festive period.

Zhou has also admitted that mistakes were made at the outset when it came to this virus, while Pulitzer winning journalist and virus expert Laurie Garrett pointed out that the virus “could have been controlled fairly easily” but “now it’s too late”.

We are yet to see the aftermath of the world’s largest annual human migration that is China’s Lunar New Year celebrations but it is sure to be a factor in the spread of the disease.

No wonder that the president of the German Olympic Sports Confederation, Alfons Hormann, has called the virus “the biggest risk” ahead of the Tokyo 2020 Summer Games.

“This is a serious problem because no other part of life is so dependent on international exchange than sport,” he said in Frankfurt at a meeting.

Hormann also called on “affected countries and international sport to do everything possible” to find a solution.

He pointed to Zika, a mosquito-borne virus, that overshadowed the run-up to the 2016 Rio Olympics. In the end, Zika was of limited concern when Brazil hosted the Games but the potential for the Wuhan coronavirus is much worse.

Zhong Nanshan, the Chinese scientist who revealed the scale and severity of the Sars epidemic in 2002-03, believes the Wuhan coronavirus epidemic is likely to reach its peak in “a week or 10 days”. Hong Kong University’s predictions put the potential peak at either late April or early May.

It seems the one thing we do know is that no one yet trulyknows the scale and severity of this outbreak.

That and it is already having an effect.

Olympic boxing qualifiers have been moved from Wuhan to Amman, while the women’s AFC football event was first moved to Nanjing and then to Sydney. Meanwhile, the women’s basketball has been taken from Foshan to Belgrade.

The move to Sydney for the women’s football had a deeper effect on the China team. They

headed to Australia without star player Wang Shuang and starting midfielder Yao Wei. The pair are both from Wuhan and spent the Lunar New Year in the city visiting their families.

China need to finish in the top two of their group to advance to the final play-off and the silver medallists of 1996 would be better served with two of their best with them in Australia.

Other Chinese athletes might also miss out on qualifying.

The Asia wrestling qualifiers, which are scheduled for Xi’an from March 27-29, could yet be moved to “Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan and South Korea,” according to International Wrestling Federation President Nenad Lalovic.

He also told AFP in the same interview that should the qualifying event move then Chinese wrestlers would need to be “in quarantine” in order for them to compete.

There are many more sporting events around the region to come before the Summer Games in Tokyo but as they drop the fear is that the biggest of them all is at real risk.

https://www.scmp.com/sport/china/article/3047962/tokyo-2020-real-risk-china-coronavirus-truths-come-light?fbclid=IwAR3y0GyK61r-S9CummU2_IvzoV7a17ake4Slry5ZN2MMU4yWI42LldGMMw0

February 1, 2020 Posted by dunrenard | Fukushima 2020 | 2020 Olympics, Coronavirus, Fukushima Radiation | Leave a comment

Coronavirus poses a risk to 2020 Olympics, Tokyo City Governor says

January 30, 2020

With the Olympics approaching in less than six months, Tokyo officials are calling for action to contain the virus

With the 2020 Olympics less than six months away, there is some speculation about the possible risk from the rapidly-spreading coronavirus that has already resulted in the postponement or cancellation of at least four major international competitions. Though the possibility of the Olympics being cancelled seems unthinkable, Tokyo City Governor Yuriko Koike was quoted yesterday by an Associated Press reporter as commenting: “With only 177 days to go and our preparations accelerating, we must firmly tackle the new coronavirus to contain it, or we are going to regret it.”

The Olympics are scheduled to take place in Tokyo and Sapporo from July 24 to August 9. The Asian Indoor Championships (previously scheduled for February 12 and 13 in Hangzhou, China), Hong Kong Marathon (February 8) and the Gaoligong UTMB ultra (March 21 to 23 in Yunnan, China) have all been cancelled, and the World Indoor Athletics Championships, previously scheduled for March 13 to 15 in Nanjing, China, have been postponed for one year to March, 2021.

According to the World Health Organization, as of yesterday there were 6,065 confirmed cases of coronavirus in 16 countries, almost 6,000 of them in China. Some sources claim there have been 170 deaths, and there have been no deaths outside of China. There are currently three confirmed cases in Canada. Each person infected with the virus could potentially transmit the infection to two or three other people.

Many international public health authorities are downplaying the risk of transmission so as not to induce panic, while discouraging non-essential travel to Wuhan. Meanwhile, sales of surgical masks to reduce the risk of transmission have skyrocketed in many countries.

The postponement of the World Indoor Championships has interesting implications for the Olympics. With the new World Rankings system, championship meets give athletes the chance to accrue points towards Olympic team qualification, giving those who compete at World Indoor Championships a leg up on their compatriots who do not. The one-year postponement means that opportunity is no longer available before the Olympics, so the effect of the postponement is to level the playing field somewhat (assuming the Olympics go ahead as planned).

https://runningmagazine.ca/sections/runs-races/coronavirus-poses-a-risk-to-2020-olympics-tokyo-city-governor-says/

February 1, 2020 Posted by dunrenard | Japan | 2020 Olympics, Coronavirus | Leave a comment

Japan’s effort to downplay any #radioactive problems to health and safety and forge ahead with the Olympics

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By Laura Lynch

January 30, 2020

Tokyo 2020 #OlympicGames In Japan’s effort to downplay any #radioactive problems to health and safety and forge ahead with the Olympics one must think they have proposed a new Olympic competition: 100 yard hurdles race over 1Ton bags of #NukeWaste

In Japanese they’re called フレコンバッグ, furecon bags, the first word being a contraction of flexible container stacked three/four levels high in hundreds of site in what locals apparently call “black pyramids”

(https://greg.org/archive/2015/09/20/on-fukushima-and-furecon-bags.html).

The furecon bags are a defining feature of the #Fukushima landscape. They’re primarily used by the construction and demolition industry, though sadly they have become a symbol of the massive, ongoing intractable decontamination effort of the landscape around the #FukushimaDaiichi NPP

February 1, 2020 Posted by dunrenard | Fukushima 2020 | 2020 Olympics, Fukushima Radiation | Leave a comment

Kepco to halt two nuclear reactors after missing counterterrorism deadline

At Kansai Electric’s Takahama plant in Fukui Prefecture, its No. 3 reactor at the plant will be shut down from August 2 to Dec. 22, and No. 4 will be offline from Oct. 7 to Feb. 10, 2021, unless the facilities — required to be at least 100 meters away from the reactors and constructed within a five-year period — were not ready around a week before the deadlines of August 3 and October 8 for the two units, respectively.

The No. 3 and No. 4 reactor buildings at Kansai Electric Power Co.’s Takahama nuclear power station in Takahama, Fukui Prefecture

Jan 29, 2020

OSAKA – Kansai Electric Power Co. said Wednesday it would suspend operations at two nuclear reactors after missing a deadline set by the industry regulator to build counterterrorism facilities.

Under stricter rules implemented after the 2011 Fukushima disaster, utilities are now required to build emergency off-site control rooms to serve as backup bases that can keep nuclear reactors cooled and prevent meltdowns in the event of a terrorist attack.

The suspension of reactors Nos. 3 and 4 at Kansai Electric’s Takahama plant in Fukui Prefecture — for about five months from August and four months from October, respectively — will be the second time for reactors to be shut down in Japan because such off-site facilities were not ready. The No. 3 reactor at the plant will be shut down from August 2 to Dec. 22, and No. 4 will be offline from Oct. 7 to Feb. 10, 2021.

The Nuclear Regulation Authority had told Kansai Electric it would have to suspend operations if the facilities — required to be at least 100 meters away from the reactors and constructed within a five-year period — were not ready around a week before the deadlines of August 3 and October 8 for the two units, respectively.

Utilities are expected to face hundreds of millions of dollars in extra fuel costs in 2020 for purchases of additional liquefied natural gas and coal. Nearly half of the country’s working nuclear reactors are expected to go offline for required security upgrades.

Osaka-based Kansai Electric declined to comment on what alternative power sources it plans to use to replace output from the two nuclear reactors. The company, which has said construction will now be completed by November, added that the move will result in its monthly fuel cost increasing by some ¥9 billion ($82.5 million).

The company will provide the required levels of power supply through procurement from other utilities, said Yoshinori Kondo, deputy head of nuclear business operations, at a news conference.

The company also said it plans to restart unit No. 4 at the plant on Thursday. The unit has been shut since Sept. 18, 2019, for scheduled maintenance.

Last April, the NRA said it would not allow power companies to operate reactors if they failed to put in place sufficient anti-terrorism measures by its deadlines.

Its requirements include an emergency control room, standby power supplies and reactor coolant pumps, to maintain cooling procedures via remote control and prevent the release of radioactive materials.

Kyushu Electric Power Co. said in October it would halt reactors Nos. 1 and 2 at its Sendai nuclear power station in Kagoshima Prefecture for over eight months from March and May, respectively. The shutdown is set to be the first under the stricter rules that were laid down in 2013 after the 2011 Fukushima nuclear crisis.

https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2020/01/29/national/kepco-halt-reactors-counterterrorism-facility-construction-deadline/?fbclid=IwAR0wwLILB6FJG1Eh0ucirjC5Vc01m-BD9WFCKfFfLUMayCAfLfuPYxll9LY#.XjG4-SNCeUk

February 1, 2020 Posted by dunrenard | Japan | Counterterrorism measures, Takahama NPP | Leave a comment

Could the Coronavirus Mean that the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games are Cancelled?

24 January, 2020

Occasionally, a huge worldwide virus comes along that changes how we well go about our business.

So far, there hasn’t been a major outbreak of the so-called coronavirus on a global scale, however it is being reported that there are now two cases that have been discovered in Japan, including one in Tokyo where thousands of Chinese tourists will arrive to celebrate the Lunar New Year.

And that adds to the devastation witnessed in China, and particularly the city of Wuhan, where more than 20 people are dead and hundreds more infected, according to reports in the country.

Sporting events in the country, including Olympic qualifiers in football, boxing and athletics, have either been relocated or cancelled, while Great Britain’s basketball team – due to fly out to China for their own qualifying – are likely to be advised not to travel.

Anybody that can remember as far back as 2002/03 may well remember the SARS outbreak, which killed nearly 800 people during a pandemic that spread worldwide from its Chinese origin.

The nature of the disease, and just how quickly it spreads, will have major implications in the weeks and months to come.

We are still months shy of the Olympic Games in Japan, but with the number of coronavirus cases found there likely to increase significantly, there are concerns that the Olympic Committee may have to consider alternate plans for arguably the biggest sporting occasion in the calendar.

The hope is that the outbreak can be nullified as quickly as possible with effective treatment and periods of quarantine for the infected, however the concern is that the virus is killing healthy young people as well as the old and infirm.

Anyone who can remember SARS will know how quickly it can spread, and as such the eyes of the world are on Japan as they look to minimise the spread there.

Concern for the safety of the Olympic Games is growing, and especially so if the virus remains active in the weeks prior to the event, with millions travelling into the country from around the globe.

For now, Olympic organisers are sensibly remaining calm. “Countermeasures against infectious diseases constitute an important part of our plans to host a safe and secure games,” the Tokyo 2020 committee have said in a statement.

However, the president of the Japanese Association for Infectious diseases, Kazuhiro Tateda, warned:

“We have to be very careful about what kind of infectious diseases will appear at the Tokyo Olympics.

“At these kinds of mass gatherings, the risks increase that infectious diseases and resistant bacteria can be carried in.”

The major concern – alongside the threat to life – is that the integrity of the Olympic Games will be affected if major athletes withdraw with safety concerns, as they did at Rio 2016 in the wake of the Zika virus, or that the Olympics will have to be moved from Tokyo to somewhere in the Western world, as was the case with the Women’s World Cup football back in 2003.

https://www.betting-offers.com/2020/01/could-the-coronavirus-mean-that-the-2020-olympic-games-are-cancelled/?fbclid=IwAR1mdlXNtRIwPPj2PTJ98AOC3kiEUSqVR1tDt7a8u98fTJkCUtUGcd8H7Mw

February 1, 2020 Posted by dunrenard | Japan | 2020 Olympics, Coronavirus | Leave a comment

Japan could decide on fate of radioactive waste water before the Olympics in July

In this Oct. 12, 2017, photo, ever-growing amount of contaminated, treated but still slightly radioactive, water at the wrecked Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant is stored in about 900 huge tanks, including those seen in this photo taken during a plant tour at Fukushima Daiichi

January 25, 2020

Japanese officials say a decision on how to deal with radioactive water from the Fukushima nuclear plant could come before the Tokyo Olympics begin in July.

The Tokyo Electric Company, or TEPCO, operates Japan’s Fukushima nuclear plant. Three reactors there suffered meltdowns after a 2011 earthquake and tsunami shut the plant’s cooling systems. The accident forced 160,000 people to flee contaminated areas around the plant.

TEPCO officials recently guided a Reuters reporter around the plant, which covers about 3.5 million square meters in northeast Japan. The reporter described large cranes being used to break up major parts of the plant’s structure. The reporter also described operations aimed at removing spent fuel from a reactor.

Overall, about 4,000 people are taking part in the cleanup effort, Reuters reported. Some Olympic events are set to take place within 60 kilometers of the destroyed plant, Reuters said.

One major part of the cleanup has involved treating and storing contaminated water from the area. TEPCO has predicted that Fukushima will run out of all its storage space for water by 2022.

Workers are seen near storage tanks for radioactive water at Tokyo Electric Power Co’s (TEPCO) tsunami-crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant in Okuma town, Fukushima prefecture, Japan January 15, 2020. Picture taken January 15, 2020.

A government group studying future storage solutions said last month that it had decided on two main possible solutions. One solution is to treat the water and then control its release into the Pacific Ocean. The other would be to let the water evaporate.

Japanese experts say the government may decide on a solution within the next few months. Either process is expected to take years to complete.

Joji Hara is a Tokyo-based spokesman for the power company. He told Reuters that TEPCO has already been making preparations to inform the public about any developments related to Fukushima.

“The Olympics are coming, so we have to prepare for that, and TEPCO has to disclose all the information – not only to local communities but also to foreign countries and especially to those people coming from abroad,” Hara said.

A Tokyo 2020 banner stands in front of the Azuma Baseball Stadium, a venue for baseball and softball at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, Saturday, Nov. 30, 2019, in Fukushima, Fukushima prefecture, Japan. The torch relay for the Tokyo Olympics will kick off…

He added that TEPCO had already opened English-language Twitter and Facebook accounts for that purpose. TEPCO is also preparing to put out emergency information in Korean and Chinese, Hara said.

Reuters reported that athletes from at least one country — South Korea — have said they plan to bring their own radiation detectors and food during the Olympics.

Olympic baseball and softball games will be played in Fukushima City, about 60 kilometers from the nuclear plant.

Storage tanks for radioactive water are seen at Tokyo Electric Power Co’s (TEPCO) tsunami-crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant in Okuma town, Fukushima prefecture, Japan, Feb. 18, 2019.

The Olympic torch will be carried through a sports center called J-Village. The center served as an operations base for the Fukushima nuclear plant during the first years after the disaster. The torch will then pass through areas near the destroyed power station on its way to Tokyo.

Last month, the environmental group Greenpeace said it found radiation “hotspots” at J-Village, about 18 kilometers south of the plant.

When Tokyo was chosen for the 2020 Summer Olympics, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe declared that Fukushima was “under control” and would not affect activities related to the Games.

https://learningenglish.voanews.com/a/fukushima-water-waste-decision-could-come-before-tokyo-olympics/5254594.html

February 1, 2020 Posted by dunrenard | Fukushima 2020 | 2020 Olympics, Fukushima Daiichi, Radioactive Water, Sea release | Leave a comment

Shikoku Electric not to appeal injunction over Ikata nuclear plant

A banner reading “victory” is shown in front of the Hiroshima High Court on Jan. 17, 2020.

January 27, 2020

Matsuyama – Japan Shikoku Electric Power Co. said Monday it will not appeal a high court injunction banning the operation of the trouble-hit No.3 reactor of the Ikata nuclear power plant in western Japan for the time being.

“It is not the right time to appeal the injunction,” Shikoku Electric President Keisuke Nagai told Ehime Gov. Tokihiro Nakamura, head of the local government hosting the plant, as he apologized for a series of problems including temporary loss of power at the plant on Saturday.

However, in a meeting with Nakamura in Matsuyama, Nagai said the company still sees some problems in the decision handed down by the Hiroshima High Court on Jan. 17.

The court ordered the utility to suspend operation of the reactor in the town of Ikata, Ehime Prefecture, determining the operator’s and the Nuclear Regulation Authority’s rules and risk assessment for a possible disastrous eruption of Mt. Aso, about 130 kilometers away, are inadequate.

The No. 3 unit, currently not in operation due to a regular checkup, restarted operations in 2018 under stricter safety regulations introduced after the 2011 Fukushima nuclear crisis led to a nationwide halt of nuclear power plants.

The injunction dealt a blow to the Japanese government’s bid to bring more reactors back online.

On Saturday afternoon, the nuclear plant was hit by a blackout while a periodic inspection of the No.3 unit was under way.

Power was restored in about 10 seconds as an emergency diesel generator and others were activated, but Shikoku Electric revealed “almost all power sources were temporarily lost.”

That was not the only recent problem at the nuclear power station.

On Jan. 12, a control rod was mistakenly removed from the reactor and remained outside for about seven hours during maintenance work including the country’s first removal of spent mixed-oxide fuel.

The rod, which controls the fission rate of the nuclear fuel, was accidentally lifted out of the containment vessel when the upper part of the apparatus that holds fuel assemblies in place was lifted by crane.

On Jan. 20, a signal indicating a fall in nuclear fuel in a spent fuel pool was emitted.

Shikoku Electric said Saturday it has suspended regular checkups of the reactor, under way since Dec. 26, in the wake of the series of the problems.

https://english.kyodonews.net/news/2020/01/81a6d2056fee-shikoku-electric-not-to-appeal-injunction-over-ikata-nuclear-plant.html?fbclid=IwAR13ZRiIxZFDorHcxKN8zXvNOv5s3UiDwX5zKFrnAK7_KySZkIQzsCl6VDc

February 1, 2020 Posted by dunrenard | Japan | Court Decision, Halted, Ikata NPP | Leave a comment

Mayor in Kyushu admits to ‘bribe’ from company in nuclear business

Shintaro Wakiyama, mayor of Genkai, Saga Prefecture, speaks at a news conference on Jan. 23.

January 24, 2020

GENKAI, Saga Prefecture–The mayor here said Jan. 23 that he received–but returned–what he suspected was a bribe from a contractor tied to an individual known to have lavished gifts on nuclear power company executives.

Shintaro Wakiyama, 63, said at a news conference at the Genkai town office that he received “about 1 million yen ($9,140)” from Shiohama Industry Corp. in July 2018, immediately after he was elected mayor for the first time.

He said he returned the money to the company, which is based in Tsuruga, Fukui Prefecture, through an acquaintance in December 2019.

Wakiyama also said he recently learned that the acquaintance had died soon after the money was returned, but he did not provide any details about the intermediary.

A Shiohama Industry official said in an interview with The Asahi Shimbun that the company has received 1 million yen, apparently from Wakiyama.

“No employee can recount how our company handed cash (to the mayor),” the official said.

But the official explained that Shiohama Industry was seeking to expand its nuclear plant-related business.

“Heads of municipalities with nuclear power plants have influence over electric power companies,” the official said.

Genkai hosts a nuclear power plant, and Wakiyama has expressed his support for nuclear power generation.

Under the Political Fund Control Law, companies and organizations are prohibited from giving donations to politicians or their support groups.

Donations from individuals are permitted, but if the sum from one person exceeds 50,000 yen a year, the recipients must describe the donation in their income and expenditure reports on political funds.

The 1 million yen from Shiohama Industry was not listed in any of Wakiyama’s reports.

“I thought it was a temporary deposit,” the mayor said. “I cannot offer any rebuttal if the legality (of the money) is called into question. I was too naive.”

He said he will consult his supporters about his next course of action.

Wakiyama said he was suspicious of the money from the start.

He explained that several days after the mayoral election was held on July 29, 2018, two men connected to Shiohama Industry visited his home.

The men tried to hand Wakiyama something wrapped in small silk cloth, saying, “This is a congratulatory present,” according to the mayor.

Wakiyama said he caught sight of an envelope for gift money, so he told the men, “I don’t want it.”

But the men insisted, saying they would be “scolded” if they failed to deliver the present.

They put the envelope, along with a business card of the company’s president, at the doorway of Wakiyama’s home and left.

“I felt like I received a bribe,” Wakiyama recalled.

He said he felt a sense of shame but kept the money in a safe.

“I was too busy after becoming mayor and didn’t have time to go to faraway Fukui Prefecture to return the money,” he said.

Also located in Fukui Prefecture is the town of Takahama, where Eiji Moriyama had served as deputy mayor.

Moriyama, who died in March last year at the age of 90, had helped to bring nuclear power plants to the prefecture.

He also had close ties with Shiohama Industry, according to an industry source.

Several executives related to nuclear power operations at Kansai Electric Power Co. have resigned for receiving cash and other presents from Moriyama. They said he had demanded contracts from the utility for his company.

News of that scandal, which surfaced in September, “made me feel more and more that I needed to return (the money),” Wakiyama said.

After learning that his acquaintance had a connection with Shiohama Industry, the mayor gave the company’s money to the acquaintance in Genkai in mid-December, according to Wakiyama.

He said that after a few days, he received a phone call from the acquaintance: “The money has been returned to the manager of the company’s Tokyo branch.”

Wakiyama, who was elected as a town assembly member for the first time in 2001, declined to reveal the name and occupation of the acquaintance, citing privacy, but said that person died soon after the phone call.

An employee at Shiohama Industry’s headquarters in Tsuruga told The Asahi Shimbun, “It is highly likely that the head of the company’s Osaka branch, who died in December 2018, visited the mayor with a corporate adviser and handed (the money) directly to the mayor.”

Shiohama Industry has done civil engineering and construction work in the Wakasa region of Fukui Prefecture, home to 15 nuclear reactors, the most in the nation.

These reactors include ones operated by Kansai Electric Power at its Takahama nuclear power plant, as well as decommissioned units.

According to company documents, Shiohama Industry has received contracts for projects at the crippled Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant operated by Tokyo Electric Power Co., the Shimane nuclear power plant operated by Chugoku Electric Power Co. and the Sendai nuclear power plant in Kagoshima Prefecture operated by Kyushu Electric Power Co.

A former senior official of Kansai Electric Power said that Moriyama and Shiohama Industry “had known each other since at least 20 years ago.”

(This article was written by Matsuo Watanabe, Manabu Hiratsuka and Shingo Fukushima.)

http://www.asahi.com/ajw/articles/AJ202001240040.html

February 1, 2020 Posted by dunrenard | Japan | Corruption, nuclear | Leave a comment

Japan to release over a million tonnes of radioactive water into sea from Fukushima power plant

Japan planning to release over a million tonnes of radioactive water into sea from Fukushima power plant https://www.independent.co.uk/environment/japan-nuclear-waste-fukushima-power-station-tsunami-water-sea-olympics-a9312246.htmlCoolant contains toxic element which cannot be removed, Harry Cockburn 31 Jan 2020, Massive amounts of radioactive water being stored at Japan’s Fukushima power plant could be released into the sea under plans provisionally accepted by the country’s government.

Tokyo Electric has collected nearly 1.2 million tonnes of contaminated water from cooling pipes used to keep fuel cores from melting since the plant was devastated by the earthquake and tsunami which hit eastern Japan in 2011.

The water, containing 62 radioactive elements, is stored in huge tanks on the site of the now disabled power plant, but Tokyo Electric has said it will run out of room to store the water by 2022.

The water has been treated and Tokyo Electric said it is able to remove all radioactive particles from the water to levels not harmful to humans, except tritium, an isotope of hydrogen which is more difficult to separate from water.

A panel of experts working for Japan’s economy and industry ministry concluded that letting the water run into the sea was the best option after looking at other proposals. The only other viable option considered was to let the water evaporate.

In Friday’s proposal, the ministry said the controlled release to the sea is superior because its route is predictable and easier to sample and monitor.

“Compared to evaporation, ocean release can be done more securely,” the committee said, pointing to common practice around the world where nuclear power stations operating under normal conditions routinely release water containing tritium into the sea.

But the decision will alarm neighbouring countries and comes ahead of Japan’s hosting of the 2020 Olympic Games, with some events due to be held less than 60km away from the Fukushima site.

Fishermen and residents also fear health effects from releasing the radioactive water as well as harm to the region’s image and farm industries.

Neighbouring South Korea has retained a ban on imports of seafood from Japan’s Fukushima region imposed after the nuclear disaster and summoned a senior Japanese embassy official last year to explain how the Fukushima water would be dealt with, Reuters reported.

South Korean athletes are planning to bring their own radiation detectors and food to the Games.

Experts say there is no established method to fully separate tritium from water, but it is not a problem in small amounts. Government officials also say tritium is routinely released from existing nuclear power plants around the world.

The report acknowledges the water releases would harm industries that still face reluctant consumers despite safety checks. It promised to reinforce monitoring of tritium levels and food safety checks to address safety concerns.

February 1, 2020 Posted by Christina MacPherson | Fukushima continuing | Leave a comment

UK government could save money, promote health, by energy efficiency programmess

Edie 30th Jan 2020, By implementing stronger policies around walking, cycling, electric vehicles and energy efficiency in homes, the Government could save the NHS at least £3.7bn per year. That is according to a new report from think-tank Green Alliance. Drawing on research by CREDS, a body convening research from academics at 15 UK universities.

The report concludes that improved policies on active travel and electric mobility could save the NHS £2.5bn in costs annually, mainly through reduced rates of cardiovascular and lung problems, as well as diabetes. This saving could be realised if just 1.7% of car journeys made annually in England are replaced by walking or cycling.

Green Alliance claims this shift could also improve air
quality, quality of life and public satisfaction with local authorities and
Government.

https://www.edie.net/news/11/Report–Stronger-green-policies-for-transport-and-homes-would-save-NHS–3-7bn-each-year/

February 1, 2020 Posted by Christina MacPherson | climate change, UK | Leave a comment

Dangers of Artificial Intelligence with Nuclear Weapons

AI, CYBERSPACE, AND NUCLEAR WEAPONS. WSJ, JAMES JOHNSON AND ELEANOR KRABILL, JANUARY 31, 2020
COMMENTARY “……… A new generation of AI-augmented offensive cyber capabilities will likely exacerbate the military escalation risks associated with emerging technology, especially inadvertent and accidental escalation. Examples include the increasing vulnerability of nuclear command, control, and communication (NC3) systems to cyber attacks. Further, the challenges posed by remote sensing technology, autonomous vehicles, conventional precision munitions, and hypersonic weapons to hitherto concealed and hardened nuclear assets. Taken together, this trend might further erode the survivability of states’ nuclear forces.

AI, and the state-of-the-art capabilities it empowers, is a natural manifestation — not the cause or origin — of an established trend in emerging technology. the increasing speed of war, the shortening of the decision-making timeframe, and the co-mingling of nuclear and conventional capabilities are leading states to adopt destabilizing launch postures.

The AI-Cyber Security Intersection

AI will make existing cyber warfare capabilities more powerful. Rapid advances in AI and increasing degrees of military autonomy could amplify the speed, power, and scale of future attacks in cyberspace. Specifically, there are three ways in which AI and cyber security converge in a military context.

First, advances in autonomy and machine learning mean that a much broader range of physical systems are now vulnerable to cyber attacks, including, hacking, spoofing, and data poisoning. ………

Second, cyber attacks that target AI systems can offer attackers access to machine learning algorithms, and potentially vast amounts of data from facial recognition and intelligence collection and analysis systems. These things could be used, for example, to cue precision munitions strikes and support intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance missions.

Third, AI systems used in conjunction with existing cyber offense tools might become powerful force multipliers, thus enabling sophisticated cyber attacks to be executed on a larger scale (both geographically and across networks), at faster speeds, simultaneously across multiple military domains, and with greater anonymity than before.

………. the speed and scope of the next generation of AI cyber tools will likely have destabilizing effects……..

A significant risk in the operation of autonomous systems is the time that passes between a system failure (i.e., performing in a manner other than how the human operator intended), and the time it takes for a human operator to take corrective action. ……..

New Risks to the Security of Nuclear Systems

During the early stages of a cyber operation, it is generally unclear whether an adversary intends to collect intelligence or prepare for an offensive attack. The blurring of cyber offense-defense will likely compound an adversary’s fear of a preemptive strike and increase first-mover incentives. In extremis, strategic ambiguity caused by this issue may trigger use-them-or-lose-them situations………..

It is now thought possible that a cyber attack (i.e., spoofing, hacking, manipulation, and digital jamming) could infiltrate a nuclear weapons system, threaten the integrity of its communications, and ultimately (and possibly unbeknown to its target) gain control of both its nuclear and non-nuclear command and control systems………..

Pathways to Escalation

AI-enhanced cyber attacks against nuclear systems would be almost impossible to detect and authenticate, let alone attribute, within the short timeframe for initiating a nuclear strike. According to open sources, operators at the North American Aerospace Defense Command have less than three minutes to assess and confirm initial indications from early-warning systems of an incoming attack. This compressed decision-making timeframe could put political leaders under intense pressure to make a decision to escalate during a crisis, with incomplete (and possibly false) information about a situation……..

Ironically, new technologies designed to enhance information, such as 5G networks, machine learning, big-data analytics, and quantum computing, can also undermine its clear and reliable flow and communication, which is critical for effective deterrence.

Advances in AI could also exacerbate this cyber security challenge by enabling improvements to cyber offense. Machine learning and AI, by automating advanced persistent threat (or “hunting for weaknesses”) operations, might dramatically reduce the extensive manpower resources and high levels of technical skill required to execute advanced persistent threat operations, especially against hardened nuclear targets.

Information Warfare Could Lead to Escalation……….

Conclusion

Rapid advances in military-use AI and autonomy could amplify the speed, power, and scale of future attacks in cyberspace via several interconnected mechanisms — the ubiquitous connectivity between physical and digital information ecosystems; the creation of vast treasure troves of data and intelligence harvested via machine learning; the formation of powerful force multipliers for increasingly sophisticated, anonymous, and possibly multi-domain cyber attacks.

AI systems could have both positive and negative implications for cyber and nuclear security. On balance, however, several factors make this development particularly troublesome. These include the increasing attacks vectors which threaten states’ NC3 systems, a new generation of destabilizing, AI-empowered cyber offensive capabilities (deepfakes, spoofing, and automated advanced persistent threat tools), the blurring of AI-cyber offense-defense, uncertainties and strategic ambiguity about AI-augmented cyber capabilities, and not least, a competitive and contested geo-strategic environment.

At the moment, AI’s impact on nuclear security remains largely theoretical. Now is the time, therefore, for positive intervention to mitigate (or at least manage) the potential destabilizing and escalatory risks posed by AI and help steer it toward bolstering strategic stability as the technology matures.

The interaction between AI and cyber technology and nuclear command and control raises more questions than answers. What can we learn from the cyber community to help us use AI to preempt the risks posed by AI-enabled cyber attacks? And how might governments, defense communities, academia, and the private sector work together toward this end?

James Johnson is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies (MIIS), Monterey. His latest book project is entitled, Artificial Intelligence & the Future of Warfare: USA, China, and Strategic Stability. Twitter:@James_SJohnson

Eleanor Krabill is a Master of Arts in Nonproliferation and Terrorism candidate at Middlebury Institute of International Studies (MIIS), Monterey. Twitter: @EleanorKrabill https://warontherocks.com/2020/01/ai-cyberspace-and-nuclear-weapons/

February 1, 2020 Posted by Christina MacPherson | 2 WORLD, weapons and war | Leave a comment

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