nuclear-news

The week in nuclear, climate, and yes, coronavirus news

There’s  no avoiding coronavirus news, and it changes all the time.  The focus has shifted to”post – virus”, though it is not clear that it is “post” now, or even within 2020.  At present, New Zealand and Vietnam are looking like shining success stories.  The secret of their success? –  strategic testing, aggressive contact tracing and effective public communications campaigns. That last point -all important -that everyone, down to small kids, understands the basic story, the national plan and what they need to do.  Planning needs to be national, and then, international.

Who knows whether the post-Covid-19 period will move towards a cleaner and more humane world, or back to “business as usual” or worse?     Meanwhile the non-stop news cycle takes its toll, and of course, being news, it’s all bad.   It’s probably good to (a) take lots of breaks from the news, and (b) follow good news.  Some examples:

• The IEA says greenhouse gas emissions will fall by more than 8% this year, the largest annual decrease ever recorded. NPR
• A decade ago over 40% of the UK’s electricity came from coal. This week, it clocked up its first full coal free month since the advent of the power grid in 1882. Gizmodo
• Sweden has closed its last coal-fired power station two years ahead of schedule, becoming the third European country to exit coal. Independent .
• Freshwater insect species have risen by 11%, possibly due to efforts to clean up rivers and lakes. Science

You can find good news at FUTURE CRUNCH, and at GOOD NEWS NETWORK.

The torture that awaits Julian Assange in the US.

Latest climate models suggest global heating could be worse than we thought. Killer heat and humidity already with us.   Covid-19 highlights risks of doing nothing on global heating.    Water loss in northern peatlands threatens to intensify fires, global warming.

How much radioactive waste is stored on our planet?

The race to nuclear suicide continues despite Covid-19 crisis.  $73 billion world spent in 2019 on nuclear weapons, half of it by USA.  The Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty– its promise and its failure.

THE ATOM: A LOVE AFFAIR – nuclear dream to global nightmare.

USA.

• Profiteering from the pandemic, the Pentagon and nuclear industry exploit the situation.  USA’s record $3.7 trillion budget gap threatens Pentagon’s costly nuclear plans.  If You Like Covid-19, You’ll Love Nuclear War.
• Dirty tricks department – FirstEnergy Nuclear in Ohio as a prime example.
• The leaning tower of Vogtle nuclear reactor: yes it’s literally sinking,-and also further into debt.  South Carolina nuclear fuel plant treatment pool leaking, polluting groundwater?
• Corona and nuclear power.  Fermi 2 nuclear station struggles with large COVID-19 outbreak among workers.
• NuScam’s “small nuclear reactor” project runs into yet more trouble.
• Controlled Nuclear Fusion Not Reached .
• General Electric Avoids Japanese Plaintiffs’ Suit Over Fukushima Damages.
• Diablo Canyon nuclear plant to be shut down, power replaced by renewables, efficiency, storage .
• $41 billion for Hanford high level nuclear waste clean-up: Fiasco of Pretreatment Facility.
• Judge Puts Hold on Move to Drop Flynn Case .

JAPAN.  3600 working in Nuclear power plants in Japan – concerns raised over coronavirus. Worker infection halts anti-terror project at Genkai nuclear plant.  Rokkasho nuclear reprocessing, a pointless effort , to postpone coping with plutonium trash.  Korean navy to study impact of Fukushima Daiichi’s radioactive water leak.  Onagawa 2 upgrade faces further delay.  Fukushima Daiichi buildings pose safety risks.  The Fukushima Nuclear Disaster and Civil Actions as a Social Movement.

UK.

• Sizewell and Bradwell nuclear projects unnecessary, but also security danger if Chinese company in control.
• Britain’s Ministry of Defence continues its costly mistakes in nuclear weapons and submarines. UK’s nuclear weapons programmes $1.67 billion over budget .
• University experts urge that UK promote renewable energy, drop expensive plans for small nuclear reactors.
• Pacific nuclear bomb tests interfered with rain patterns in UK.
• Preventing a climate catastrophe in the middle of a coronavirus catastrophe.

CANADA. ‘Small Modular Nuclear Reactor’ entrepreneurs trying to revive dangerous ‘plutonium economy’ dream. Investigative journalism –Nuclear waste plan divides South Bruce community.

RUSSIA.  Russia proposes 3 year extension of Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (Start-3): USA silent.    Raising dangerously radioactive Russian submarines from the bottom of Arctic oceans.

NORWAY. Nuclear fraud in Norway could affect nuclear safety in other countries.

FRANCE. Coronavirus affecting France’s nuclear reactors’ safety and output. French government tries to downgrade radiation risk, avoid compensating Polynesian victims of nuclear testing.

SOUTH KOREA. South Korea, Germany to bolster ties in transition towards renewable energy.

IRAN.  Iran’s Nuclear and Military Efforts in the Shadow of Coronavirus and Economic Collapse.

UKRAINE. How an innovative  community overcame Ukraine’s nuclear trauma.

SOUTH AFRICA. South Africa’s nuclear waste problem– why plan to increase it?

GERMANY. Radiation leak at nuclear research reactor.  As Germany transitions to renewables, massive nuclear cooling towers are demolished.

PAKISTAN. Nuclear war between India and Pakistan very unlikely.

AUSTRALIA.  Catholic Religious Australia (CRA) question government’s plan for nuclear waste dump near Kimba, South Australia.  13 top Australian non government organisations say that the Kimba nuclear waste dump plan is illogical.

May 18, 2020 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | Christina's notes