nuclear-news

The week in nuclear news

Some bits of good news:     Giant Floating Solar Panel Flowers Replace Coal in Korea. 

Most significant environmental deal since Paris’: UN agrees on landmark plastic pollution treaty.        Solar Panels Built From Waste Crops Can Make Energy Without Direct Light. The ‘charismatic’ Mexican tequila  fish has been saved from extinction

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I know that it’s all about Ukraine.  BUT – is anybody noticing? – the global climate is weird-  it’s getting hot at the Poles. In the total scheme of things – that process is going to matter more to the world, even than the Ukraine horror.

Meanwhile, inexplicably, governments are pushing futuristic not-yet -existing gee-whiz nuclear reactors to solve this climate problem, which is already upon us!       A space alien, observing us, might have a laugh at that.   And also laugh that, just as the Ukraine war is demonstrating the awful danger to nuclear reactors there, politicians are touting nuclear as the safest energy source.!

Oh, and by the way, – the pandemic is still happening.

Extradition of Julian Assange. REMEMBER – he’s an Australian citizen, not an American! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jv5GDnApfqc

A “no-fly zone” does not becalm the skies. Veterans warn against no-fly zone in Ukraine: Examine Western propaganda critically.       Putin’s ‘Peaceful Atom’ Apocalypse Draws Closer by the Minute. How Much Less Newsworthy Are Civilians in Other Conflicts?

Chris Hedges: Waltzing to Armageddon .

HELEN CALDICOTT: Russia’s war could spell worldwide nuclear disaster. International Committee of the Red Cross calls for States to join UN Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons. The $multibillion question. Will UKraine have to pay for all those foreign weapons?

“Russian Invasion of Ukraine Spotlights the Dangers of Nuclear Reactors in War,”

Why New Technology Is Making Nuclear Arms Control Harder.

Fears of nuclear war in Europe stoke demand for fancy bunkers.

  What the nuclear industry and its supporters have to say about the economic viability of nuclear power.

ANTARCTICA. Record minimum amount of Antarctic sea ice. Temperatures in eastern Antarctica are 70 degrees warmer than usual.    

 ARCTIC. Exceptional warmth at North Pole    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5nJczShXwaU

  UKRAINE. Zelensky Says He’s ‘Cooled’ on Joining NATO, Ready for Talks With Russia on Crimea, Donbas. Shrouded in doubt: safety issues at Russian-occupied nuclear stations in Ukraine. Electric Power Restored to Ukraine’s Chernobyl Plant.   Safety fears, as Chernobyl nuclear staff tired and stressed.    Danger of radioactive disaster at Chernobyl and other nuclear sites, with exhausted staff, and risk of loss of remote control.       Understanding the war in Ukraine.    What next for Ukraine’s nuclear sites and Wylfa and Trawsfynydd?
Zelensky Announces Ban on 11 Political Parties-, although no evidence linking any to Russian government.

EUROPE. European countries make an exception for uranium from Russia – no sanctions on importing that! EU seeks to boost stockpile of iodine pills and nuclear protective gear.

JAPAN. Japan’s new awareness of nuclear dangers – nuclear reactors as targets in war-time.     11 years on, Fukushima morass still poses danger.    Ukraine war triggers debate on Japan’s nuclear option.  Radioactive iodine levels in primary cooling water at the Ikata Nuclear Power Plant Unit 3 increase threefold.      Massive 7.3 earthquake hits Japan near site of Fukushima nuclear disaster.   Renewed worries about restarting nuclear plants, after 7-3 earthquake near Fukushima. 

  Hope, hard reality mix in Fukushima town wrecked by nuclear disaster .  Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant, risk of earthquakes revealed... Failure of seismometers, building deterioration, tanks shifting….      Ruling pressures Japan to set proper damages for Fukushima nuclear disaster.     Contaminated soil piles up in vast Fukushima cleanup project.

USA

• Russia’s Ukraine invasion may have been preventable, The US made a huge mistake?  Peace Talks in Ukraine “Will Get Nowhere” If US Keeps Refusing to Join, Message to Biden: Help De-Escalation in Ukraine or Risk Nuclear War. ‘Let them kill as many as possible‘ The Roots of US Militarism in Russia and Around the World. 
• 5 USA States selected for target areas for the enemy, in a nuclear war.
•  Potassium iodide tablets SELL OUT in US .   
• US Republican senators say they will not back Iran nuclear deal.
• Another burst of tax-payer funding for Bill Gate’s gee-whiz Natrium reactor project. 
•  The Ukraine war is bad for USA’s nuclear industry– hard to get the Highly Enriched Uranium needed from Russia for Advanced Nuclear Reactors. 
•  Fate of Radioactive Waste at Plymouth Nuclear Site Continues to Raise Concerns. 
• U.S. loses plane, crew in NATO exercise in Arctic .
•  Dangerous wildfires in Texas.

CANADA. Canada’s green bond program specifically prohibits investments in nuclear energy . Indigenous, scientific, environmental and citizen groups strongly oppose Ottawa’s push for small nuclear reactors. . Fossil and nuclear energy regimes threaten global security, Small modular nuclear reactors – no good for Canada’s indigenous communities, no good for climate action.

UK. 

•   Silence in the media and Labour “left” on Assange’s extradition danger. 
• Push for UK govt to call nuclear power ”green”, so that nuclear industry can get money from the Green Financing Framework. UK’s Nuclear All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) condemned for calling on govt to reclassify nuclear energy as ‘green’. 
•   Rolls Royce wants to hurry up the introduction of small nuclear reactors, but UK govt is focussed on a big one for Wylfa. UK government now considering extending life of Sizewell nuclear power station by 20 years.
• Radiation Free Lakeland protests against plan for a Near Surface Nuclear Waste Dump.

GERMANY. The return of the nuclear threat

CHINA. China continues to resist U.S. demand to join “global web to strangle Russia” — Anti-bellum Global  

PHILIPPINES. US to help Philippines develop nuclear power program; groups push renewable energy instead

INDIA. India will not join any move by NATO against Russia.

RUSSIA. Putin set to hold nuclear evacuation drill; moved family to Siberia.

AUSTRALIA.  South Australian Unions stand with Traditional Owners in rejecting nuclear waste dump.

  Report to U.S. Congress on AUKUS agreement, allows Australia access to Highly Enriched Uranium and Plutonium.    Australia’s ‘Historic’ Submarine Pact Enters 1st Phase; Will Become Only The 2nd Country With US Nuclear Propulsion Tech. What does a ‘once-in-100-year’ weather event actually mean?

March 21, 2022 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | Christina's notes