Nuclear news – week to 12 October

Keeping up with the pandemic – it’s all still happening.

The nuclear submarines and AUKUS have continued in the news, and re likely to keep going – problems about who’ll supply them, about their HEU fuel, about obsolescence, about anxieties in South East Asia, about revving up tensions between USA and China.

However, as this week develops, the news focus is shifting to the coming Cop26 climate conference. The nuclear lobby is now salivating about the possibility of it having a role in this international.summit

Pandora Papers reveal world’s Tax Avoidance B-Team. Where’s the A-Team? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W4kN2MeJg6c

The CIA Plot to Kidnap or Kill Julian Assange in London is a Story that is Being Mistakenly Ignored. Deathly Silence: Journalists Who Mocked Assange Have Nothing to Say About CIA Plans to Kill Him.
Chris Busby on the truth about black rain, radiation and cancer. Nuclear Radiation – Incompatible with Life. Low dose radiation and cancer – the Linear No Threshold model holds good.

Saving Us: A Climate Scientist’s Case for Hope and Healing in a Divided World. Developing countries demand action on climate from the polluting rich countries

The stagnating landscape of the nuclear industry -no chance of competing with renewables.

Why Greta Thunberg’s speech was the best – blah none

What is Cop26 and why does it matter? The complete guide

Who’s who at Cop26: the leaders who hold the world’s future in their hands

Will all submarines, even nuclear ones, be obsolete and ‘visible’ by 2040? Nuclear submarine deal needlessly raises tensions.

Organised crime highly active in the nuclear industry.

UKRAINE. Birth defects in the Chernobyl region (from the archives).

GERMANY. Mushrooms in Germany are still contaminated by Chernobyl radiation.

FINLAND. Finland lobbied EU to declare nuclear power sustainable after unpublished cabinet decision. Finland’s Greens turn a lovely shade of nuclear yellow, as they back nuclear power as ”sustainable”.

JAPAN. Security lapses at Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear power plant in Niigata . A-bomb survivor Setsuko Thurlow hopes Japan’s new PM can lead nuclear disarmament debate. Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida praises Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons. Nuke disaster radiation continues to threaten traditional ways of life in northeast Japan. Industry minister vows to promote scrapping of Fukushima plant as top priority.

CHINA. Why China sent a record number of fighter jets and nuclear-capable bombers into Taiwan’s defence zone. China demands answers on US nuclear submarine accident in South China Sea.

INDIA. Tamil Nadu Assembly Speaker, activists oppose spent nuclear fuel storage facility in Kudankulam.

UK.

October 27 – Julian Assange’s extradition appeal hearing.
Boris Johnson promoting nuclear power as clean, green, renewable.
Extinction Rebellion climate activists vow to cause disruption at Glasgow COP26.
First George Monbiot Award for Nukiller Greenwash to Springfields Nuclear Fuel Manufacturing Plant in Cumbria – On Anniversary of the Windscale Fire.
Allerdale GDF Working Group’s map of area considered for UK’s nuclear waste dump includes areas already declared unsuitable.
UK government to generate a colossal public sector loss in building more nuclear power station at Sizewell C. Questions over water supply for the new £20billion nuclear plant for Sizewell.
Rolls Royce wants to supply data centres with their massive energy needs, by small nuclear reactors.
Legal challenge launched to stop waste from nuclear plant construction being dumped in the Bristol Channel. A particular threat to health: Why it is vital to stop the dumping of mud from Hinkley Point C in the Severn Estuary.
Delay and huge cost in refuelling UK nuclear submarine.
Scottish police alerted to ‘suspicious activity’ of Taliban ally near nuclear weapons base, .

USA.

Nuclear Regulatory Commission backs Linear No-Threshold model for radiation safety.
Call the U.S. Defense Budget what it is – the War Budget. Despite pre-election promises, Biden administration is continuing Trump’s costly nuclear weapons modernisation. The “No Militarization of Space Act” has been introduced in the U.S. Congress. Advocate for a safer world challenges Midland to not give up and to act now. US Reveals Nuclear Bomb Numbers After Trump Blackout.
Michael Flynn, Trump’s first National Security Advisor hid $200k in payments for Middle East nuclear power plan before joining White House .
Rep. Burgess Owens and Rep. Chris Stewart sponsor a Bill to ensure compensation for health effects of nuclear bomb testing.
Nuclear executive to go to prison for fraud.
Nuclear security helicopter scours Boston Marathon route for radiation.
Nuclear power is not a good option for Kentucky. Radioactive waste is still a problem .
US nuclear attack submarine hits object in South China Sea, injuring crew.
US navy engineer charged with trying so sell nuclear submarine secrets.

SOUTH AFRICA. We must question why small modular reactors and the rebirth of nuclear energy are all the rage.

FRANCE. 2022 French Presidential candidates divided over nuclear energy. The French are mainly for nuclear power, but not so keen on new nuclear stations.

NORWAY. Norway led the way in 25 years of clean-up of Russia’s dead nuclear submarine radioactive trash.

NORTH KOREA. Time to find more realistic options than complete, verifiable, and irreversible dismantling of the North Korean nuclear program .

RUSSIA. Russia aims to lift old dead nuclear submarines from the bottom of the Barents and Kara Seas by 2030. Russia’s perilous job in raising sunken nuclear submarines. Russia withdraws offer to freeze nuclear warhead production. Terrorists trying to get secrets on production of nuclear weapons

MIDDLE EAST. The risks of a catastrophic spent nuclear fuel fire near the Persian Gulf..

PACIFIC ISLANDS. CNMI House slams Japan’s plan to dump nuclear waste into Pacific.

SWEDEN. Swedish insurance group Länsförsäkringar cuts off investment to nuclear weapons.

CHILE. Chile ratifies UN Nuclear weapons ban treaty .

IRAN. US calls for ‘imminent’ return to nuclear talks with Iran. Preventing an accidental nuclear crisis in Iran and beyond.

ISRAEL. Israel May Accept Iran As Nuclear Power According To Secret Talks.

PAKISTAN. Pakistani nuclear weapons scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan dies aged 85. How A.Q. Khan brought the atomic bomb to Pakistan and beyond.

NEW ZEALAND. Jacinda Ardern warned twice Rocket Lab’s launches could break Nuclear Free Law.

AUSTRALIA. Australians for Assange call for help – save our failing democracy, as USA continues, by despicable means, their case against him. Can the Australian government ignore this powerful letter exposing the foolish decision to ”go nuclear” with submarines and AUKUS?