Workers at Connecticut’s nuclear power plant worried about coronavirus precautions
Nuclear plant workers cite lack of precautions around virus, myrecordjournal. 4 May 20, HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) — Workers at Connecticut’s only nuclear power plant worry that managers are not taking enough precautions against the coronavirus after 750 temporary employees were brought in to help refuel one of the two active reactors.
Ten employees at the Millstone Power Station in Waterford have tested positive for the virus, and the arrival of the temporary workers alarms some of the permanent employees, The Day newspaper reported Sunday.
“Speaking specifically for the guard force, there’s a lot of frustration, there’s a lot of concern, and I would say there’s anger,” said Millstone security officer Jim Foley.
Foley, vice president of the local chapter of the United Government Security Officers of America, said security personnel have had to fight for personal protective equipment and for partitions at access points to separate staff from security.
Foley also has filed a complaint with the Occupational Safety and Health Administration saying Millstone staff are using ineffective cleaning materials and citing a lack of cleaning and sanitizing. Cleaning activity was not scheduled during three weekends in April, he said.
Officials at Millstone, owned by Dominion Energy, have not heard internal criticism about the plant’s virus precautions, Millstone spokesman Kenneth Holt said……..
Millstone recently increased cleaning staff on the weekends, Holt said, and there is regular disinfecting at the plant. …….
The deaths of nearly 2,500 Connecticut residents have been linked to COVID-19, the disease caused by the virus. More than 29,000 state residents have tested positive. As of Sunday, hospitalizations had declined for 11 consecutive days, to over 1,480……. https://www.myrecordjournal.com/News/State/Nuclear-plant-workers-cite-lack-of-precautions-around-virus.html
RUSI Joins Gender Champions in Nuclear Policy
RUSI Joins Gender Champions in Nuclear Policy https://rusi.org/rusi-news/rusi-joins-gender-champions-nuclear-policy News, 4 May 2020 RUSI to become fifty-first member of the Gender Champions in Nuclear Policy Initiative.
Gender Champions in Nuclear Policy is a leadership network that brings together heads of organisations working in nuclear policy who are committed to break down gender barriers and make gender equality a working reality in their spheres of influence. RUSI Director General Dr Karin von Hippel will become the initiative’s latest Gender Champion.
RUSI’s commitment to the initiative involves taking substantive action to address some of the specific issues around gender equality in the nuclear policy field.
Staff across the Institute have worked to develop pledges for actions over the next year that will solidify this commitment. The hope is that these undertakings will have positive effects well beyond our Proliferation and Nuclear Policy programme. RUSI aims to:
- Look at recruitment policy and practices, to make sure we are being as inclusive as we can be at every stage from role definition to hiring.
- Look at our approach to research, to make sure that we track and implement best practice in ensuring diversity of sources, voices, partnerships, authorship and peer review, with particular emphasis on the work of our Proliferation and Nuclear Policy programme.
- Launch Rebalancing Expertise in Defence and Security, an initiative that will showcase the work of communities underrepresented in defence and security, starting with those who identify as women.
RUSI’s Director General, Dr Karin von Hippel, said, “We at RUSI are determined to make progress in all dimensions of diversity, so I am proud for the Institute to be joining this initiative. We will become part of a strong cohort of organisations taking action around gender equality in the nuclear policy field and defence and security.”
RUSI’s Director of Proliferation and Nuclear Policy, Tom Plant, said, “I’m delighted that RUSI has signed up to this important initiative, and enjoyed working with my team and others around the Institute to develop what I think are some very substantive pledges for positive action. We’re looking forward to implementing them and working with the rest of the Gender Champions network to improve diversity and inclusion in our field.”
More information about Gender Champions in Nuclear Policy can be found here.
RUSI’s Proliferation and Nuclear Policy programme conducts a wide range of research and implementation activities on WMD issues, such as UK nuclear deterrence, arms control and disarmament policy; countering North Korean nuclear proliferation; assessing and verifying North Korean WMD capabilities; Track II dialogues; advanced technologies and strategic stability; and the UK Project On Nuclear Issues, our free-to-join initiative for emerging nuclear scholars and professionals.
UK’s Ministry of Defence (MoD) gags staff on subject of Trident nuclear weapons in Scotland.
Ferret 3rd May 2020, The Ministry of Defence (MoD) has banned its military and civilian staff
from speaking publicly about Trident nuclear weapons in Scotland. All
members of the armed forces and MoD civil servants have been instructed not
make any public comment, or have any contact with the media, on
“contentious topics” such as “Trident/Successor” and “Scotland
and Defence”. The instructions have been condemned as a “gagging order
worthy of a dictatorship” by campaigners. They have also been criticised
by the Scottish National Party as “an infringement too far”.
https://theferret.scot/ministry-of-defence-trident-scotland-gag/
Raytheon selected to Build New Nuclear Cruise Missile [ Trump has shares]
Raytheon to Build New Nuclear Cruise Missile , Arms Control Association, May 2020, By Kingston Reif
The U.S. Air Force announced last month that it plans to continue development of a new fleet of nuclear air-launched cruise missiles (ALCMs) with Raytheon Co. as the sole contractor.
“After an extensive evaluation of contractor programmatic and technical approach during…preliminary design reviews, the Air Force decided to focus on Raytheon’s design,” according to an April 17 service press release.
In August 2017, the Air Force awarded a $900 million contract to Raytheon and a $900 million contract to Lockheed Martin Corp. to proceed with development of the ALCM replacement, known as the long-range standoff (LRSO) weapon. (See ACT, October 2017.) The contracts were intended to cover a 54-month period of development after which the Air Force would choose one of the contractors to complete development and begin production.
The service’s rationale for focusing on one contractor roughly two years earlier than planned is unclear………The Trump administration is requesting $1.5 billio
n for the missile and warhead in fiscal year 2021.https://www.armscontrol.org/act/2020-05/news/raytheon-build-new-nuclear-cruise-missile
This week’s nuclear and climate news
Well, ya can’t get away from it. It’s always the pandemic! This week, the news moves on to considering the future. Biodiversity scientists warn that future pandemics are on the horizon, if we don’t stop our rapid destruction of nature. With increasing human population, encroaching on wild habitats, there’s increased risk of pathogens transferring between animals and humans.
But also, the pandemic is showing us how our trashed world can heal.
Amidst the continuing propaganda for the (still non existent) new “cheap ” small nuclear reactors, comes the sobering fact that the nuclear industry is in trouble, in this time of pandemic. It’s not just nuclear’s unique safety problem, but now the business problem. As wind and solar power thrive , nuclear power is going down the drain, with low prices and slumping demand.
A bit of good news – Hole in the ozone layer is now closed.
The nuclear pandemic. Nuclear Issues and Epidemiology. Low Oil Prices May Kill Off The Next Nuclear Boom Before It Begins.
New START is the only U.S.-Russian nuclear treaty still in effect. Time to renew it.
Petersberg Climate Dialogue to be held virtually this year. Climate change: lakes and rivers will become drier, increasingly infectious and toxic.
Solar and Wind Cheapest Sources of Power in Most of the World Solar heating.
ARCTIC. An Arctic island is warming SIX times faster than the global average.
JAPAN. 16 Japanese Financial institutions won’t invest in companies involved in nuclear weapons. Half of highly radioactive exhaust stack dismantled at Fukushima Nuclear Reactor 1,
RUSSIA. Coronavirus a big threat to Russia’s secret nuclear cities, as virus incidence rises. Russia warns US against using low-yield nuclear weapons, threatening all-out retaliation. With international finance help, Russia is dismantling its most radioactive ship.
USA.
- USA’s complicated and contradictory plan to punish Iran. Could President Trump launch a nuclear attack via Twitter? “Mrs America”- Phyllis Schlafly determined fan of nuclear weapons, like today’s pro nuclear women in public life.
- Federal appeals court dismisses case against GE over Fukushima nuclear disaster.
- To store surplus plutonium, USA’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant will have to be enlarged. Beyond Nuclear and other groups challenge Holtec’s nuclear waste plan for New Mexico. Beyond Nuclear opposes Holtec nuclear waste plan: the Nuclear Regulatory Commission is not above the law. The Southwest Research and Information Center says that rules are ignored in nuclear waste construction in New Mexico. Comment Period For Proposed Nuclear Waste Dump In New Mexico extended by 60 days.
- Nuclear reactor pressure vessel to be shipped by rail to Utah, from Sanonofre. Indian Point nuclear power station‘s first step to closure, as one reactor shuts down.
- Do-it-yourself radiation monitoring.
- Offshore wind is General Electric’s great opportunity, not dodgy Small Nuclear Reactors. Michael Moore’s sham attack on renewable energy has had rigorous debunking
UK. UK ignored warnings about pandemic danger, cut health funding, spent up big on nuclear weapons. Report warns on the threat of sea level rise to Sizewell nuclear plan. Everyone is needed in bid for a future free of nuclear .
NORTH KOREA. Time to support humanitarian initiatives for North Korea.
ISRAEL. Netanyahu’s deceitful push to try to get USA to attack Iran.
INDIA. Hundreds of foreign companies procuring nuclear materials for India and Pakistan.
FRANCE. France’s unfairly heavy monitoring of anti-nuclear activists, treating them as violent criminals.
AUSTRALIA. Flinders Local Action Group want a new process for disposal of Australia’s nuclear waste. South Australian group calls – ” No to radioactive waste on agricultural land in Kimba or South Australia.” Dr Helen Caldicott explains the (virtually eternal) problem of toxic nuclear waste.
Wind and solar power thriving in pandemic, but nuclear power going down the drain
Nuclear is Getting Hammered by Green Power and the Pandemic, Plant operators are forced to switch uneconomic units off because of low prices and slumping demand. Bloomberg Green, May 4, 2020, “………Nations around the world have set tough targets to reduce greenhouse gases with the help of clean energy to meet commitments set out in the 2015 Paris Agreement.
In China, the coronavirus caused reduced output at CGN Power Co.’s atomic plants after the Lunar New Year holiday. Without taking into account the two reactors that came into operation in 2019, output at the remaining 22 units fell 4.7% in the first quarter from a year earlier, the company said.
After correcting for weather effects, full lockdowns reduced daily electricity demand by at least 15% in France, India, Italy, Spain, the U.K. and northwest U.S., the International Energy Agency said in a report on April 30. Global power consumption will decline as much as 5% this year, or the most since the Great Depression, according to the group advising the richest nations.
That will hurt all power sources, although use of renewables will still post a 1% gain this year, IEA said. Nuclear could drop by 3% from 2019 due to lower demand and delays to planned maintenance and construction of several projects, IEA said.
For example, EDF’s U.K. unit is undertaking more work than usual at its reactors, with five out of 15 units halted for long-term repairs. Output is below normal for the time of year. The company declined to comment on whether it was altering production due to rising renewables.
……. At Vattenfall, workers will permanently shut another old reactor at Ringhals by the end of the year, just after one unit was closed down in December. It would have been too costly to make the investments needed to keep them running any longer, the company has said.
And Hall, the boss, has a clear vision. While 5 billion kronor ($510 million) will be invested to secure safe operations at its nuclear and hydro plants this year and next, as much as 25 billion kronor will go to wind.
“We want to build more fossil-free generation and that is predominantly wind.” https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-05-04/nuclear-is-getting-hammered-by-green-power-and-the-pandemic
Scientists Warn Worse Pandemics Are on the Way if We Don’t Protect Nature
Scientists Warn Worse Pandemics Are on the Way if We Don’t Protect Nature https://www.ecowatch.com/pandemics-environmental-destruction-2645854694.html?rebelltitem=4#rebelltitem4 Jordan DavidsonApr. 27, 2020 A group of biodiversity experts warned that future pandemics are on the horizon if mankind does not stop its rapid destruction of nature.
Writing an article published Monday by The Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES), the authors put the responsibility for COVID-19 squarely on our shoulders.
“There is a single species that is responsible for the COVID-19 pandemic – us. As with the climate and biodiversity crises, recent pandemics are a direct consequence of human activity – particularly our global financial and economic systems, based on a limited paradigm that prizes economic growth at any cost. We have a small window of opportunity, in overcoming the challenges of the current crisis, to avoid sowing the seeds of future ones,” the authors wrote on IPBES.
The authors of the report include the three co-chairs of the comprehensive 2019 IPBES Global Assessment Report on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services, which found that one million species of plants and animals are at risk of extinction within decades. The fourth author, Peter Daszak, is the president of EcoHealth Alliance and is tasked with spearheading the IPBES’ next global assessment, as The Guardian reported.
The authors argue that government stimulus plans need to include sustainable and nature-positive initiatives. “It may be politically expedient at this time to relax environmental standards and to prop up industries such as intensive agriculture, long-distance transportation such as the airlines, and fossil-fuel-dependent energy sectors, but doing so without requiring urgent and fundamental change, essentially subsidizes the emergence of future pandemics,” the authors wrote.
They also fault wanton greed for allowing microbes that lead to novel diseases to jump from animals to humans.
“Rampant deforestation, uncontrolled expansion of agriculture, intensive farming, mining and infrastructure development, as well as the exploitation of wild species have created a ‘perfect storm’ for the spillover of diseases from wildlife to people,” they wrote in their article.
They warn that 1.7 million unidentified viruses known to infect people are estimated to exist in mammals and water birds. Any one of these may be more disruptive and lethal than COVID-19.
With that in mind, the authors suggest three facets that should be considered for COVID-19-related stimulus plans. Countries should strengthen environmental regulations; adopt a ‘One Health’ approach to decision-making that recognizes complex interconnections among the health of people, animals, plants, and our shared environment; and prop up healthcare systems in the most vulnerable countries where resources are strained and underfunded. “This is not simple altruism – it is vital investment in the interests of all to prevent future global outbreaks,” the scientists argue in their IPBES article.
“The programs we’re talking about will cost tens of billions of dollars a year,” Daszak told The Guardian. “But if you get one pandemic, even just one a century, that costs trillions, so you still come out with an incredibly good return on investment.
“Business as usual will not work. Business as usual right now for pandemics is waiting for them to emerge and hoping for a vaccine. That’s not a good strategy. We need to deal with the underlying drivers.”
Their assessment has been supported recently by others in the scientific community. A study published earlier this month blamed human impact on wildlife for the current outbreak, as The Guardian reported.
The authors of the new article end their piece on an optimistic note about nature’s resiliency. “We can build back better and emerge from the current crisis stronger and more resilient than ever – but to do so means choosing policies and actions that protect nature – so that nature can help to protect us,” they wrote.
New START is the only U.S.-Russian nuclear treaty still in effect. Time to renew it
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Minister Lavrov was specific that Washington must agree to extend New START before Russia would agree to include new Russian systems in future negotiations. Secretary Pompeo reiterated the U.S. position that future arms control talks must embrace the White House desire to include China in a trilateral arms control agreement. Frankly, holding New START hostage to Chinese agreement to join a trilateral negotiation makes no sense. Under New START, Russia and the U.S. are permitted to deploy up to 1,550 nuclear warheads. China maintains a minimum deterrence force that the director of the Defense Intelligence Agency recently stated to be a couple of hundred nuclear warheads. Given this large disparity, China has little to gain from negotiating and has shown little interest in doing so. If Russia and the U.S. can bring their numbers down significantly through a new round of negotiations, there could be a basis then to persuade China to join a trilateral negotiation. The Trump administration should immediately accept the Russian offer to extend the New START Treaty and to engage in a new round of strategic arms negotiations. New START is the only U.S.-Russian nuclear treaty still in effect. If the pact is permitted to expire in February 2021, there will be no limits on Russian strategic systems and no inspection regime to verify what types and numbers of systems the Russians are deploying. The Joint Chiefs of Staff and the Intelligence Community are solidly in favor of extending New START because they know what the adverse impact will be on our ability to assess the threat to U.S. interests and our planning to address that threat. A bold approach the U.S. should consider is to enter into a negotiation now with Russia to extend New START at a lower level of 1,000 deployed warheads from the currently authorized 1,550. During the 2010 negotiations on New START, the Joint Chiefs certified that 1,000 would be adequate to support our deterrence strategy. …….. https://thehill.com/opinion/international/494960-time-to-restart-nuclear-arms-negotiations-with-russia |
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16 Japanese Financial institutions won’t invest in companies involved in nuclear weapons
Many Japanese lenders refuse to invest in companies linked to nuclear arms https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2020/05/03/business/corporate-business/many-japanese-lenders-refuse-invest-companies-linked-nuclear-arms/#.Xq8zaqgzbIU
KYODO Sixteen Japanese financial institutions say they refrain from investing in and extending loans to companies involved in the manufacturing of nuclear weapons and delivery systems, according to a Kyodo News survey released Sunday.
The survey found the lenders set guidelines for such issues in an effort to avert international criticism against conducting business with nuclear-related companies amid growing public perceptions about the inhumane nature of nuclear weapons and other weapons of mass destruction.
The 16 lenders include three megabanks — MUFG Bank under Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group Inc., Mizuho Bank under Mizuho Financial Group Inc., and Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corp. under Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group Inc. — as well as Japan Post Bank Co. and Resona Bank under Resona Holdings Inc.
Kyodo sent a written questionnaire to a total of 119 city banks, regional banks and online banks from late February to early March. Of those, 35 responded.
About 70 percent of the total did not answer because they said they have never discussed the issue.
A Resona Bank official said the Osaka-based lender drew up written rules in March 2018 that it will not invest in nuclear, anti-personnel mines and other such fields due to rising international criticism against conducting businesses with companies involved in the manufacturing and development of weapons of mass destruction.
Eleven other lenders possessing such guidelines are Saitama Resona Bank in Saitama Prefecture, Aozora Bank in Tokyo, SBI Sumishin Net Bank, Hokkaido Bank and North Pacific Bank in Hokkaido, Tohoku Bank in Iwate Prefecture, Ogaki Kyoritsu Bank in Gifu Prefecture, Kansai Mirai Bank in Osaka Prefecture, Minato Bank in Hyogo Prefecture, Higo Bank in Kumamoto Prefecture and Kagoshima Bank in Kagoshima Prefecture.
According to the survey, nine respondents including Hokkaido Bank, the Bank of Kochi in Kochi Prefecture and Oita Bank in Oita Prefecture said they backed the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons.
Of 20 lenders expressing reservation about the 2017 U.N. nuclear ban treaty, five questioned the Japanese government’s reluctance to sign it.
Japan does not possess nuclear weapons but remains under the nuclear umbrella of the United States.
Twelve respondents including Tohoku Bank, Higo Bank and the Bank of Toyama in Toyama Prefecture said they think the adoption of the U.N. pact would generate risks in the future to investment in nuclear-related companies.
None of the 35 respondents said they have provided funds to companies developing intercontinental ballistic missiles, bombers capable of loading nuclear weapons and other nuclear weapons-linked infrastructure.
However, the three megabanks declined to disclose their investments in nuclear-related companies.
While welcoming the 16 lenders for supporting such guidelines, the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons, or ICAN, a nongovernmental organization and the 2017 Nobel Peace Prize laureate, said it suspects some still continue to invest in nuclear-related businesses.
“Companies that manufacture nuclear weapons conduct businesses in other areas,” said Akira Kawasaki, a member of the International Steering Group of ICAN. “We see it as a perception gap between us and some banks that claim they abstain from investing in nuclear weapons manufacturing businesses.”
ICAN wants those banks to disclose details about their guidelines, Kawasaki said.
Beyond Nuclear and other groups challenge Holtec’s nuclear waste plan for New Mexico
Carlsbad Current Argus 2nd May 2020, A proposed nuclear waste repository near Carlsbad and Hobbs proceeded through the federal licensing process despite protests from environmental
groups who questioned the legality of the project. Holtec International applied to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) for a license to build and operate a facility that would temporarily store spent nuclear fuel rods in a remote location of southeast New Mexico while a permanent repository is developed.
The consolidated interim storage facility was challenged by Beyond Nuclear and other organizations who questioned Holtec’s application for suggesting the U.S. Department of Energy could take ownership of the waste.
The Southwest Research and Information Center says that rules are ignored in nuclear waste construction in New Mexico
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Appeal: New Mexico ignored rules in OK of nuke site work, https://www.myhighplains.com/news/new-mexico/appeal-new-mexico-ignored-rules-in-ok-of-nuke-site-work/ by: SUSAN MONTOYA BRYAN, Apr 28, 2020, ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) — A watchdog group wants the New Mexico Court of Appeals to put the brakes on a key construction project at the nation’s only underground nuclear waste repository.The Southwest Research and Information Center alleges state environmental officials ignored regulations and past practices in giving temporary approval for contractors to begin building a new ventilation shaft at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant. The state stands by its decision. A radiation release in 2014 forced the repository’s temporary closure. Resulting contamination limited the air flow underground, prompting the need for a new system so full-scale operations can resume. |
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Comment Period For Proposed Nuclear Waste Dump In New Mexico extended by 60 days
60-Day Extension Of Public Comment Period For Proposed Nuclear Waste Dump In New Mexico, KRWG, By NEWS EDITOR AND PARTNERS • MAY 2, 2020 U.S. Senators Tom Udall and Martin Heinrich, and U.S. Representatives Xochitl Torres Small, Ben Ray Luján, and Deb Haaland are welcoming an announcement from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) that their March 20 request has been met and a 60-day extension on the public comment period will be implemented for the Draft Environmental Impact Statement for Holtec’s proposed spent nuclear fuel storage facility in Southeast New Mexico. Here is statement from the office of Senator Martin Heinrich:
“Allowing for full public participation, as NEPA requires, is particularly important for projects involving nuclear waste,” the delegation said. “Any proposal to store commercial spent nuclear fuel raises a number of health, safety and environmental issues, including potential impacts on local agriculture and industry, issues related to the transportation of nuclear waste, and disproportionate impacts on Native American communities.”…….https://www.krwg.org/post/60-day-extension-public-comment-period-proposed-nuclear-waste-dump-new-mexico
The COVID-19 crisis is a warning for the future
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As Tasmania prepares to enter the recovery phase of the COVID-19 pandemic, calls are growing for the crisis to be seen as a warning for the future. The pandemic has had widespread health and economic ramifications across Tasmania. Thirteen people have died, thousands have been quarantined and more than 20,000 people have lost their jobs. While we don’t know exactly what animal species the virus originated from, scientists widely consider bats the likely source. Dr Scott Carver is a senior lecturer at the University of Tasmania who specialises in the ecology and epidemiology of infectious diseases. He said human impacts on the environment can create new contacts with animals and increase risk of pathogens transferring between animals and humans.
“Pathogen spillover between species … happens quite often,” Mr Carver said. “It is just that most pathogens don’t cause really significant health outcomes. Some of them, however, do. “The chance of any one spillover event resulting in an epidemic is low, but if you increase the opportunity for that to happen, through increasing new contacts, then the probability increases.” He said implementing policies to limit the risk of potential future pandemics would benefit both public health and biodiversity. “With a growing human population size and growing human impacts on the environment it is not surprising that you get more of these events happening,” Dr Carver said. “It is incumbent upon us to really take a serious look at the way we treat the environment and think about policies that can limit these sorts of things.” UTAS’s Dr Olivia Hasler believes legislating a law of ecocide could be one way to approach establishing these policies. “Ecocide is an attempt to criminalise human activities that destroy and diminish the well-being and health of ecosystems and species within an ecosystem,” she said. She said the COVID-19 pandemic had highlighted how connected we were as a society, and she hoped that would not be forgotten in the recovery effort. “A law against ecocide would provide accountability to those that are in positions of power to make decisions about the use of our resources and shared land,” Dr Hasler said…… https://www.examiner.com.au/story/6743091/human-impacts-on-the-environment-could-be-increasing-the-risk-of-pandemics/?cs=95 |
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Michael Moore’s sham attack on renewable energy has had rigorous debunking
Rolling Stone 1st May 2020, Bill McKibben: ‘A Bomb in the Center of the Climate Movement’: Michael Moore Damages Our Most Important Goal. Basically, Moore and his colleagues
have made a film attacking renewable energy as a sham and arguing that the environmental movement is just a tool of corporations trying to make money off green energy.
“One of the most dangerous things right now is the illusion that alternative technologies, like wind and solar, are somehow different from fossil fuels,” Ozzie Zehner, one of the film’s producers, tells the camera. When visiting a solar facility, he insists: “You use more fossil fuels to do this than you’re getting benefit from it. You would have been better off just burning the fossil fuels.”
That’s not true, not in the least — the time it takes for a solar panel to pay back the energy used to build it is well under four years. Since it lasts three decades, it means 90 percent of the power it produces is pollution-free, compared with zero percent of the power from burning fossil fuels.
It turns out that pretty much everything else about the movie was wrong — there have been at least 24 debunkings, many of them painfully rigorous; as one scientist wrote in a particularly scathing takedown, “Planet of the Humans is deeply useless. Watch anything else.”
Moore’s fellow filmmaker Josh Fox, in an epic unraveling of the film’s endless lies, got in one of the best shots: “Releasing this on the eve of Earth Day’s 50th anniversary is like Bernie Sanders endorsing Donald Trump while chugging hydroxychloroquine.”
Here’s long-time solar activist (and, oh yeah, the guy who wrote “Heart of Gold“) Neil Young:
“The amount of damage this film tries to create (succeeding in the VERY short term) will ultimately bring light to the real facts, which are turning up everywhere in response to Michael Moore’s new erroneous and headline grabbing TV publicity tour of misinformation. A very damaging film to the human struggle for a better way of living, Moore’s film completely destroys whatever reputation he has earned so far.”
Inside Climate News 30th April 2020, 6 Things Michael Moore’s ‘Planet of the Humans’ Gets Wrong. The documentary’s “facts” are deceptive and misleading, not to mention way out
of date. Filmmaker Michael Moore’s new documentary purports to expose hypocrisy at the heart of the renewable energy movement. But the video, released on YouTube last week, is a mess of deceptive and outdated anecdotes, and a succession of ridiculous arguments. It will almost
certainly do far more harm than good in the struggle to reduce carbon emissions.
Observer 3rd May 2020, Planet of the Humans is an environmental documentary that has enraged
renewable energy experts and environmentalists, with some calling for its high-profile executive producer, Michael Moore, to apologise. It was released for free less than two weeks ago, and at the time of writing had had close to 5m views on YouTube. Across its 102 minutes, the film’s
producer and narrator, Jeff Gibbs, weaves a disjointed narrative that renewable energy is just as bad 
as fossil fuels, high-profile environmentalists are corrupted by capitalism and population growth is the great unspoken enemy. “It is truly demoralising how much damage this film has done at a moment when many are ready for deep change,” said the Canadian activist and journalist Naomi Klein.
Half of highly radioactive exhaust stack dismantled at Fukushima Nuclear Reactor 1
Asahi Shimbun 30th April 2020, Work to dismantle the upper half of an exhaust stack at the crippled Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant finished on April 29, the first time a
structure highly contaminated by radiation was dismantled at the plant. The
chimney, which is 120 meters tall and about 3 meters in diameter, was used
for the No. 1 and No. 2 reactors of the plant, operated by Tokyo Electric
Power Co. On the morning of April 29, workers spent an hour to lower sliced
parts of the stack to the ground from a height of about 60 meters. With its
upper half removed, the chimney now stands 59 meters high.
1 This Month
23 April – WEBINAR – Why new nuclear reactors are the wrong tools for decarbonization Thursday, April 23 • 1 AM – 2 AM AEST
Pine Ridge Uranium is the real threat, not Tehran- Tell Burgum: Stop the Extraction.
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
To see nuclear-related stories in greater depth and intensity – go to https://nuclearinformation.wordpress.com
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