Coronavirus, Climate and Nuclear news this week

I had vowed to leave the pandemic for everyone else to cover.  But, it’s too much. It’s too big.  I think that we are all dimly aware, now, that we’re not getting back to normal any time soon.  Today’s news – Coronavirus deaths top 600,000 worldwide as pandemic infections surge.  Amid the global pandemic, humanity still faces simultaneous existential dangers – nuclear war and climate change.

The pandemic is certainly a global crisis. Scientists call for climate change to be treated as a crisis, too. Climate change will make much of the planet too hot for humans to function.

July 16 was the 75th anniversary of the first nuclear explosion, “Trinity” in New Mexico. This anniversary was a timely reminder of the harm done to workers, and soldiers, by the nuclear weapons industry. The “Trinity” explosion was the beginning of America’s nuclear oppression of its own people.

  Some bits of good news –  Oxford coronavirus vaccine triggers strong immune response, trial shows .    The Search Engine That Plants Trees With Every Search Has Just Planted its 100-Millionth Tree. (picture above)

Greta Thunberg calls for immediate action on ‘existential crisis‘ of climate emergency.   The ever-increasing threat of coronavirus, but the global heating threat is even worse.

More pandemics to come – bat research is critical for prevention.

Thanks to Botswana, the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons has now reached 40 states ratifying it.

Nuclear bomb testing – the cruellest legacy of environmental injustice and racism. July 16 1945 – the first nuclear bomb test – the start of many more.

Because of the pandemic, nuclear power plants have to have safety checks done by remote means.

Investigative journalism – mapping uranium.

ARCTIC.  Climate change may kill off nearly all polar bears by 2100

ANTARCTICA. Antarctic glacier melting at an alarming rate.

AFRICA.  HEAT – Climate science must stop ignoring Southern Africa.

JAPAN.   Remembering the victims of the atomic bombings 75 years ago.   Particulate plutonium released from the Fukushima Daiichi meltdowns.  Video Testimonies from Fukushima in 7 Languages: “We want to protect the ocean of Fukushima, for the future of the fishing industry”.   Fukushima localities speak out against dumping radioactive water in sea.    Regulator demands TEPCO clarify responsibilities.    J-pop group TOKIO to promote Fukushima goods in new TV commercials.

Investigative journalism    Being Clear-Eyed About Citizen Science in the Age of COVID-19.

8 cases of inappropriately stored nuclear waste found at northern Japan reprocessing plant.  Japanese bishops’ anti-nuclear power book available in English.

USA.

• Global heating is turning cities into death traps.  Massive wildfire in rural central California.
• USA National coalition against nuclear weapons.  Peace cranes flyimg in Vermont , in support of U.N. Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons.  Reflecting on Cape Cod’s Cold War nuclear history.  A USA resumption of nuclear testing? -a green light for all other nations to start their own testing.
•     The effects of radiation on the “downwinders” – guinea pigs for nuclear bomb research.      Western Shoshone land stolen for nuclear weapons tests and waste dump. Church Rock Uranium Tailings Pond Breach Disaster in Navajo Nation – 40th Year Anniversary.
•  Purpose of US International Development Finance Corporation perverted in the interests of the nuclear industry.
• Alarm at USA plan to exempt NuScam etc new nuclear reactors from emergency planning.
•   Slow progress of Michigan bill opposing high-level nuclear waste dump.   Nuclear waste is piling up in California: leadership is needed.  Debate over San Onofre’s “nuclear waste dump by the sea,”   California Coastal Commission unanimously approves storage plan at San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station .  State of Texas allows reduction in price of importing nuclear waste.  New Mexico nuclear facility is bad news.  Los Alamos Study Group press Santa Fe Council – to stop Santa Fe becoming a nuclear sacrifice zone.
• SCANA’s ex-top executive to plead guilty in a $9 billion nuclear fraud.   Kentucky man indicted after illegally dumping nuclear waste at landfill.
•   New fast test to detect ionising radiation.

BRAZIL.  Forest fires raging over wide areas of the Brazilian Amazon,

FRANCE.  Electricite de France (EDF) ‘s new nuclear reactors not financially viable.

CANADA.  The next threat: A high-level nuclear waste dump near Lake Huron.

KAZAKHSTAN. The nuclear test health toll – cancer and birth deformities in Kazakhstan.

GREECE.  Wildfire out of control in Greece?

RUSSIA. Siberia’s heat-wave – global heating is what made this possible.   Additional resources requested for Siberian forest fire; state of emergency.  Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov warns about the risk of a nuclear war .

EUROPE.  Radioactive Contamination of Europe.  Nuclear power is excluded from European Commission’s strategies for a Green Deal.

INDIA.  India has not committed to the great transition to nuclear power it once envisioned.

UK.

• EDF’s UK nuclear projects in doubt after Court of Audit report.   Veteran  MP is calling for safeguards against a Chinese-built nuclear power station.  Maldon District Council Planning Committee does an about turn, now rejects Bradwell nuclear power project.    Suffolk coast – time to choose whether it is to be a nuclear or a renewable coast.
• Campaign group Geiger Bay press for full testing of Hinkley nuclear plant sediment–  How to deal with the thousands of fish threatened by Hinkley Point C nuclear plants cooling turbines.
• Too many near misses – get UK’s nuclear submarines out of Scotland.  British nuclear sub narrowly missed passenger ferry near Belfast.
• Rolls Royce Small Modular Nuclear Reactors: not small, not modular, not cheap, and not going to happen.

AZERBAIJAN.  Azerbaijani Defense Ministry spokesman suggests bombing Armenian nuclear power station.

CHINA.  Why did over 90 nuclear safety scientists resign en masse from an institute under the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS)?

AUSTRALIA.      In federal environmental law review:  no change to nuclear power prohibition 

July 20, 2020 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | Christina's notes