Ontario Power Generation pulls the plug on nuclear waste project
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OPG abandons nuclear waste burial project By Colin Perkel, T https://www.guelphmercury.com/news-story/10053446-opg-pulls-plug-on-nuclear-waste-project/
The Canadian Press, 26 June 20, TORONTO — A politically fraught plan to store hazardous nuclear waste deep underground near the Lake Huron shoreline has been formally put to rest more than 15 years after it was first proposed.In a recent letter to the federal environment minister, Ontario’s publicly owned power generator said it no longer wished to proceed with the multibillion-dollar project. “We do not intend to carry out the project and have asked that the application for a site preparation and construction licence be withdrawn,” the letter from Ontario Power Generation states. “Similarly, OPG requests the minister to cancel the environmental assessment for the project.” In response, federal Environment Minister Jonathan Wilkinson said he accepted the request, and had terminated the ongoing assessment. The project, estimated to cost more than $2.4 billion, had called for the storage of hundreds of thousands of cubic metres of low- and intermediate-level radioactive waste 680 metres underground about 1.2 kilometres from Lake Huron. TORONTO — A politically fraught plan to store hazardous nuclear waste deep underground near the Lake Huron shoreline has been formally put to rest more than 15 years after it was first proposed. The bunker was to have been built at the Bruce Nuclear Generating Station near Kincardine, Ont. While Kincardine had been a “willing host,” the proposal drew years of fierce opposition from environmentalists and hundreds of communities on both sides of the Canada-U.S. border. All argued that the threat to drinking water that serves millions of people was simply too great. OPG, for its part, steadfastly defended the planned repository as a completely safe option for storing waste that can remain hazardous for thousands of years. While a joint environmental panel gave its approval in May 2015, the project stalled. Successive environment ministers called for more information. The last request was for buy-in from the Saugeen Ojibway Nation or SON, which had complained for years about being shut out of decisions related to the Bruce power plant. The utility promised it would not proceed without that agreement. Since then, members of SON — comprising the Saugeen First Nation and Chippewas of Nawash Unceded First Nation — have debated the issue. In late January, the 4,500-member community overwhelmingly rejected the underground storage facility. “We worked for many years for our right to exercise jurisdiction in our territory and the free, prior and informed consent of our people to be recognized,” Chippewas of Saugeen Chief Lester Anoquot said at the time. “We didn’t ask for this waste to be created and stored in our territory.” OPG, which had previously said it would look for alternative storage solutions, said Friday it has spent about $200 million on the repository. The Saugeen Ojibway Nation responded immediately on Friday for a request to comment on the end of the project. n her letter, Lise Morton, vice president at OPG, said the utility remained committed to ongoing dialogue with the Saugeen Ojibway Nation about “future potential solutions” for the safe and long-term storage of nuclear waste. Separately, the federally-mandated Nuclear Waste Management Organization announced earlier this year it was proceeding with development plans for a nearby site at which to bury highly radioactive reactor waste. Landowners in South Bruce . about 30 minutes east of Kincardine, signed agreements allowing suitability testing on their properties. The only other site under consideration for high-level waste storage is in Ignace in northern Ontario. Indigenous groups have yet to indicate support for that project. About three-million highly radioactive used fuel bundles from reactors are currently stored at existing nuclear generating stations in Canada, including at the Bruce Nuclear Generating Station. Authorities have long contended the current storage system is not sustainable and have been searching for a permanent solution, with the aim of finding a site for storage by 2023. |
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Marketing man Trump trying to sell U.S. nuclear reactors to Poland
Duda, Trump announce nuclear energy deal, Presidents Andrzej Duda and Donald Trump announced on Wednesday the signing of a deal on development of nuclear energy in Poland, which Duda said would be signed as soon as possible.US President Donald Trump talked of the purchase of American technology.
At a press conference with Duda at the White House, Trump said they were working on a deal that would facilitate the development and building of a nuclear power plant in Poland, adding that it would work with the use of American technology bought from a large US company……… https://www.thefirstnews.com/article/duda-trump-announce-nuclear-energy-deal-13601
USA adds new indictment to charges against Julian Assange
WASHINGTON (AP) — WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange sought to recruit hackers at conferences in Europe and Asia who could provide his anti-secrecy website with classified information, and conspired with members of hacking organizations, according to a new Justice Department indictment announced Wednesday.
The superseding indictment does not contain additional charges beyond the 18 counts the Justice Department unsealed last year. But prosecutors say it underscores Assange’s efforts to procure and release classified information, allegations that form the basis of criminal charges he already faces.
Beyond recruiting hackers at conferences, the indictment accuses Assange of conspiring with members of hacking groups known as LulzSec and Anonymous. He also worked with a 17-year-old hacker who gave him information stolen from a bank and directed the teenager to steal additional material, including audio recordings of high-ranking government officials, prosecutors say.
Assange’s lawyer, Barry Pollack, said in a statement that “the government’s relentless pursuit of Julian Assange poses a grave threat to journalists everywhere and to the public’s right to know.”
“While today’s superseding indictment is yet another chapter in the U.S. Government’s effort to persuade the public that its pursuit of Julian Assange is based on something other than his publication of newsworthy truthful information,” he added, “the indictment continues to charge him with violating the Espionage Act based on WikiLeaks publications exposing war crimes committed by the U.S. Government.”
Assange was arrested last year after being evicted from the Ecuadorian Embassy in London, where he had sought refuge to avoid being sent to Sweden over allegations of rape and sexual assault, and is at the center of an extradition tussle over whether he should be sent to the United States.
The Justice Department has already charged him with conspiring with former U.S. Army intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning in one of the largest compromises of classified information in U.S. history by working together to crack a password to a government computer.
Prosecutors say the WikiLeaks founder damaged national security by publishing hundreds of thousands of classified documents, including diplomatic cables and military files on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, that harmed the U.S. and its allies and aided its adversaries.
Assange maintains he was acting as a journalist entitled to First Amendment protection. His lawyers have argued the U.S. charges of espionage and computer misuse were politically motivated and an abuse of power.
Assange generated substantial attention during the 2016 presidential election, and in investigations that followed, after WikiLeaks published stolen Democratic emails that U.S. authorities say were hacked by Russian military intelligence officials. An investigation by special counsel Robert Mueller revealed how Trump campaign associates eagerly anticipated the email disclosures. One Trump ally, Roger Stone, was found guilty last year of lying about his efforts to gain inside information about the emails. Assange, however, was never charged in Mueller’s Russia investigation.
The allegations in the new indictment center on conferences, in locations including the Netherlands and Malaysia in 2009, at which prosecutors say he and a WikiLeaks associate sought to recruit hackers who could locate classified information, including material on a “Most Wanted Leaks” list posted on WikiLeaks’ website.
According to the new indictment, he told would-be recruits that unless they were a member of the U.S. military, they faced no legal liability for stealing classified information and giving it to WikiLeaks “because ‘TOP SECRET’ meant nothing as a matter of law.”
At one conference in Malaysia, called the “Hack in the Box Security Conference,” Assange told the audience, “I was a famous teenage hacker in Australia, and I’ve been reading generals’ emails since I was 17.”
US, Russia nuclear arms talks end with plans for second round
US, Russia nuclear arms talks end with plans for second round, Aljazeera, 26 June 20,
US says any new agreement on curbing nuclear weapons should include China, a condition Russia calls ‘unrealistic’. US and Russian negotiators have concluded a round of nuclear arms control talks in Austria’s capital, Vienna, aimed at producing a new agreement to replace the New START treaty that expires next year.
US negotiator Marshall Billingslea told reporters on Tuesday that the day of high-level “marathon discussions” ended late on Monday.
Billingslea said the talks had been productive enough to establish several technical working groups to delve deeper into the issues in order to pave the way for a second round of talks by late July or early August…… https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2020/06/coronavirus-deaths-children-extremely-rare-live-updates-200626000914304.html
Russia’s priority is to involve UK, France in future nuclear arms control talks — diplomat
Russia’s priority is to involve UK, France in future nuclear arms control talks — diplomat
The two states are the US closest NATO allies that possess nuclear weapons, the senior diplomat explained, MOSCOW, June 26. /TASS/. Russia thinks it necessary that the United Kingdom and France join the strategic nuclear arms control process as the United States’ closest NATO allies, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said in an interview with TASS First Deputy Director General Mikhail Gusman on Friday……. https://tass.com/politics/1172109
Resequencing of Vogtle nuclear plant expansion activities is credit negative: Moody’s
Resequencing of Vogtle nuclear plant expansion activities is credit negative: Moody’s, Author, Joniel Cha , Editor, Richard Rubin , 26 June, Washington — Georgia Power’s resequencing of construction activities for the Vogtle nuclear plant expansion project is credit negative, Moody’s said June 24.
“The unexpected, late-stage changes to these planned activities is credit negative for Georgia Power because it signals that challenges with the project continue, increasing the likelihood of additional cost overruns and further schedule delays,” Moody’s said in a statement. ….. https://www.spglobal.com/platts/en/market-insights/latest-news/electric-power/062420-resequencing-of-vogtle-nuclear-plant-expansion-activities-is-credit-negative-moodys
Radioactive hotspots near Fukushima Olympic facilities: will Japan be ready for 2012 Games?
Fukushima’s Olympic makeover: Will the ‘cursed’ area be safe from radioactivity in time for Games? France 24, By: Constantin SIMON Aruna POPURI Ryusuke MURATA, 26 June, 20
In a year’s time, the Olympic Games, dubbed the “reconstruction Olympics”, should allow Japan to move on from the Fukushima tragedy. The region, a symbol of the 2011 disaster, has officially been cleaned up but many problems remain, such as radioactivity and “forbidden cities”. Over the course of several months, our reporters followed the daily lives of the inhabitants of this “cursed” region…….
Although the work undertaken over the past 10 years is colossal and the region is partly rebuilt, it’s still not free from radioactivity. The NGO Greenpeace has detected radioactive hotspots near the Olympic facilities. And at the Fukushima power plant, Tepco engineers continue to battle against radioactive leaks. They also face new issues such as contaminated water, which is accumulating at the site and poses a new-fangled problem for Japan. Our reporters were able to visit the notorious nuclear power plant. .. https://www.france24.com/en/asia-pacific/20200626-fukushima-s-olympic-makeover-will-the-cursed-area-be-safe-from-radioactivity-in-time
Outer space beginning to look like a new area of nuclear conflict, according to Pentagon
THE PENTAGON IS WORRIED A SPACE NUKE WILL FRY ITS SATELLITES, https://futurism.com/the-byte/pentagon-worried-space-nuke-fry-satellites JUNE 18TH 20__DAN ROBITZSKI__
Space Nukes
The U.S. Department of Defense released a new space strategy report on Wednesday. In it, the military revealed that it’s concerned that nukes detonated in space could wipe out its fleet of satellites.
It’s not a new concern, since space nukes were originally banned in the 1967 Outer Space Treaty. But all the same, Business Insider reports that the Pentagon is particularly concerned that China and Russia might strike — a dire warning for the future of combat.
The report specifically identified China and Russia as immediate threats. Such an attack could potentially devastate military communication networks as well as the myriad other systems that depend on satellites.
“The challenge of a nuclear detonation is that it creates an electromagnetic pulse and a signal that could then take out indiscriminately many satellites in space and essentially fry the electronics,” Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Space Policy Stephen Kitay said at a press conference on the report, according to BI.
“That is a threat that we have to potentially be prepared for — a nuclear detonation in space,” he added.
If nothing else, the report is yet another sign that the idea of space remaining peaceful seems to be slipping away.
“I wish I could say that space is a sea of tranquility, but the fact of the matter is that space is contested,” Kitay said. “Outer space has emerged as a key arena of potential conflict in an era of great power competition.”
Lithuania standing firm against sales of electricity from Belarus’ new nuclear power station
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Lithuania spurns Baltic presidents’ meeting amid nuclear power rift KURESSAARE, Saaremaa, Estonia (Reuters) 25 June 20, – Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauseda refused to attend a planned meeting with his Estonian and Latvian counterparts on Thursday, saying he did so after the countries failed to agree to ban electricity purchases from a new nuclear power plant in Belarus. Lithuania has a law banning all Belarusian power sales after the power plant gets operational. The Estonian president’s office, which hosted the meeting, said that Nauseda, who is dealing with a reshuffle of his team, “decided to stay home at the last minute due to internal affairs”. Lithuania wants all the three countries to sign up to banning sales of Belarusian electricity after the nuclear plant comes online, binning an earlier draft agreement that only pledged to help keep the energy from being sold in Lithuania……. Lithuania sees the nuclear power plant, built by Russia’s Atomstroyexport near its capital and financed by Moscow with a $10 billion loan, as threat to its safety and national security, something Belarus disagrees with. “The President’s opinion is that negotiations should be finished first,” Nauseda’s spokesman told Reuters in a statement.https://www.reuters.com/article/us-baltics-energy-belarus/lithuania-spurns-baltic-presidents-meeting-amid-nuclear-power-rift-idUSKBN23W27C |
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Renewable generation eclipses coal, nuclear for 2nd straight month in April
Renewable generation eclipses coal, nuclear for 2nd straight month in April, S and P Global Market Intelligence, Krizka Danielle Del Rosario, 26 June 20, Although U.S. net generation in April fell 6.6% below the same month in 2019, renewable generation has continued to grow as a source of the nation’s supply and surpassed nuclear and coal for the second month in a row.
Renewables accounted for 23.3% of the total, expanding its lead on nuclear generation as the second-largest source of power supply. Nuclear generation made up 21.5% of the nation’s electricity, while gas-fired generation remained the largest supplier of power with a 39.3% share……. https://www.spglobal.com/marketintelligence/en/news-insights/blog/essential-energy-insights-june-11-2020
U.S. Dept of Energy entrenching the nuclear industry into universities, (at tax-payers’ expense)
dangerous and absurdly uneconomic nuclear industry.’ The claim about combatting climate change is laughable. These “new generation” nuclear reactors would never be in operation in time to have any effect on climate change – even if they dis work against global heating (which they don’t, anyway)DAHO FALLS – During a visit to the Idaho National Laboratory last week, U.S. Secretary of Energy Dan Brouillette announced more than $65 million in nuclear energy research for projects across the country. ……. The funds are being awarded to 93 projects across 28 different states. More than $800,000 has been allocated for projects in eastern Idaho. …..An undetermined amount is being awarded to the INL for various research experiments.
Idaho State University in Pocatello will be awarded $59,262 to replace the control rod drive for its nuclear reactor. The project will focus on improving its design to make it more reliable and safe, as well as decrease its complexity.
Holtec International Under Criminal Investigation
Holtec International, a subsidiary of which owns and is decommissioning the inactive nuclear plant in Plymouth, is under criminal investigation, Politico New Jersey reported based on a legal brief filed by the New Jersey Economic Development Authority.
According to the report, New Jersey-based Holtec International sued the NJ EDA in March over the payment of $26 million of a $260 million New Jersey tax incentive, which the agency held up because Holtec allegedy gave a false answer on its 2014 tax credit application.
“Holtec’s misrepresentations — which include its failure to disclose a prior government debarment by the Tennessee Valley Authority (the ‘TVA’) for bribing an official of that agency — first came to light during an investigation conducted by the Governor’s Task Force on the Economic Development Authority’s Tax Incentive Program, and they are now the subject of an ongoing criminal investigation,” the brief read, according to Politico.
A spokesperson and a lawyer for Holtec did not respond to Politico New Jersey, and the company did not immediately return a News Service email seeking a response.
Last week, two Holtec subsidiaries — Holtec Decommissioning International and Holtec Pilgrim LLC — agreed to a settlement with Attorney General Maura Healey and the Baker administration that requires the company to maintain a decommissioning trust fund at a minimum balance and puts other guardrails on the decommissioning of Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station.
Last September, Healey and Baker’s Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs sued the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission over the agency’s decision to approve the transfer of Pilgrim’s license from Entergy to Holtec.
The attorney general, Baker’s administration and members of the state’s Congressional delegation mounted an effort to block the transfer unless the NRC held a full hearing on concerns over Holtec’s ability to safely decommission the nuclear plant, the company’s financial stability and its alleged involvement in a kickback scheme. No hearing was held before the NRC approved the transfer.
Holtec has said that it can complete decommissioning work in Plymouth by the end of 2027 and is in the process of removing all spent nuclear fuel from the plant’s spent fuel pool and placing it on a newly constructed Independent Spent Fuel Storage Installation by early 2022. AT TOP https://www.wbur.org/earthwhile/2020/06/25/plymouth-nuclear-plant-decommissioning-company-criminal-investigation
North Korea to ‘counter nuclear with nuclear’ against US
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North Korea to ‘counter nuclear with nuclear’ against US https://www.9news.com.au/world/north-korea-to-counter-nuclear-with-nuclear-against-us/f1da3676-8adb-4056-9245-363b039406e9
By Inga Neilsen, Jun 26, 2020 North Korea has claimed it is prepared to use nuclear weapons in response to “hostile policy” by the US, according to an official government report.
The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) issued a report by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Institute for Disarmament and Peace, which said the country had no choice but to counter “nuclear with nuclear.”
“In order to eliminate the nuclear threats from the US, the DPRK government made all possible efforts either through dialogue or in resort to the international law, but all ended in vain,” the report read.
“The option left was only one, and that was to counter nuclear with nuclear.”
The report, released on state run media on the 70th anniversary of the start of the Korean War, said the socialist state will continue to bolster its power to “to contain the persistent nuclear threats from the US.”
The Trump administration and Kim Jong Un’s regime embarked on a series of talks in an attempt to stop North Korea’s nuclear ambitions, but did not reach a binding agreement.
North Korea responses by firing short-range missile tests which blew up an inter-Korean liaison office, cutting communication lines with South Korea.
The option left was only one, and that was to counter nuclear with nuclear.”
South Korean President Moon Jae-in, speaking at a ceremony to honour veterans of the Korean War, urged North Korea to seek peace.
“We will continuously search for routes that are mutually beneficial for both Koreas through peace,” he said.
“Before speaking of unification, I hope that we can become friendly neighbours first.”
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LAWSUIT ALLEGES COVERUP AT US NUCLEAR WEAPON FACILITY
Nuclear Coverup
A physicist who was fired by the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory is suing over an alleged coverup that he claims could have compromised the U.S.’s ability to predict the behavior of nuclear weapons.
Peter Williams, the plaintiff, claims in the lawsuit that he was terminated in retaliation after complaining that his superiors tinkered with his models of nuclear weapon explosions, Science Magazine reports. In doing so, Williams alleges, his superiors were trying to make data align with the models rather than improving their accuracy — leaving the U.S. clueless as to how the weapons would actually behave when actually detonated.
Difficult Math
While he was at Livermore, Williams modeled the behavior of an explosive called a PBX 9502. When equipped to a nuclear warhead, the explosive first triggers a nuclear fission explosion that, in turn, sets off an even more powerful fusion blast, Science reports.
It’s a particularly-difficult dynamic to model, especially because the PBX 9502 is relatively slow-burning, and models also need to account for how the explosion travels through the sample of PBX.
Routine Maintenance
Williams’ central allegation, Science reports, is that supervisors would adjust the parameters of tests after the fact to make the models seem more accurate than they were — rendering them incapable of making meaningful predictions.
But astrophysicist Robert Rosner, a Livermore board member, told Science that modeling adjustments of that sort are commonplace and an expected part of improving them. Still, Williams sees his lawsuit as a matter of duty.
“I couldn’t look myself in the mirror if I didn’t do it,” he told Science.
Coronavirus is an SOS: Mend our broken relationship with nature, says UN and WHO — limitless life
By Damian Carrington, June 22, 2020 Category 5 Super Typhoon Trami, on its way to Japan and Taiwan in September, 2018. Image courtesy of European Space Agency/Alexander Gerst. Editor’s note: This story was originally published by the Guardian. It appears here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration. Pandemics such as coronavirus are the result of humanity’s destruction of […]
via Coronavirus is an SOS: Mend our broken relationship with nature, says UN and WHO — limitless life
1 This Month
petition to oppose the rapid increase of space-military industry threatening Jeju Island and the region.
[Petition by April 19th (KST)] Stop the joint military-Hanwha Systems-Jeju Provincial Government Sea Launch!
World Nuclear Power. Reactors 1951-2026, 75 Years of Nuclear Power.
Interactive Map– https://dv.worldnuclearreport.org/
Chernobyl: The Lost Tapes – A good documentary on Chernobyl on SBS available On Demand for the next 3 weeks– https://www.sbs.com.au/ondemand/tv-program/chernobyl-the-lost-tapes/2352741955560
of the week–London Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament
Tell the Ukrainian Government to Drop Prosecution of Peace Activist Yurii Sheliazhenko
To see nuclear-related stories in greater depth and intensity – go to https://nuclearinformation.wordpress.com
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