Boris Johnson’s enthusiasm for UK nuclear power should raise huge red flags for Scotland
Boris Johnson’s enthusiasm for UK nuclear power should raise huge red flags for Scotland, BY DOUGLAS CHAPMAN, 27th March ONLY last week we had the UK Government Energy Minister Greg Hands use the suffering of the Ukrainian people to encourage the Scottish Government to reconsider their opposition to nuclear power as a way of bolstering our UK energy security.
Hands must have missed the memo entitled “Scotland Has Options” detailing the far safer and cheaper alternatives than nuclear power that we have. We are not dependent on Russian gas because we are already self-sufficient in domestic gas. In fact, we supply the rest of the UK with gas from the North Sea. Then there’s the not so small matter of the pillaging of oil and the vast profits that we have lost as Scots thanks to Tory policy. And now, as we accelerate the transition away from fossil fuels, we also produce almost 100% of our own electricity from renewables…. (subscribers only) https://www.thenational.scot/politics/20023807.boris-johnsons-enthusiasm-uk-nuclear-power-raise-huge-red-flags-scotland/
Dalai Lama, Other Nobel Winners Demand Explicit Vow Not to Use Nuclear Weapons in Ukraine
“It is either the end of nuclear weapons, or the end of us,” the peace prize winners say in an open letter.
JON QUEALLY, March 26, 2022 The Dalai Lama is
among 16 Nobel Peace Prize laureates who jointly issued an open letter Saturday calling for the immediate end of the attack on Ukraine and an explicit vow from both Russia and NATO forces that nuclear weapons of any kind will not be used as part of this conflict or any other.
“We reject war and nuclear weapons,” the letter declares. “We call on all our fellow citizens of the world to join us in protecting our planet, home for all of us, from those who threaten to destroy it.”
Backed by the International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War (IPPNW), which won the Nobel in 1985, and the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN), awarded the prize for similar advocacy in 2017, the letter was also signed by ten other individual winners—including Jody Williams, Kailash Satyarthi, and Óscar Arias Sánchez—as well as the International Peace Bureau, which won the award in 1910, the American Friends Service Committee (1947), and the Pugwash Conference on Science and World Affairs (1995)…………………………………… The full text of the letter and the list of lead signatories— can be endorsed by anyone on the Avaaz page – follows more https://secure.avaaz.org/campaign/en/no_nuclear_war_2022_55/?wcpXZsb
Australian Radioactive Waste Agency – a couple of English nuclear waste officials conning the Australian public?
This should send shivers up any Australian’s spine! Nuclear Fuel Cycle Watch Australia, https://www.facebook.com/groups/1021186047913052 Kazzi Jai 28 Mar 22
This has scary echoes of Maralinga…..
We have the newly appointed CEO of Australian Radioactive Waste Agency – Sam Usher – who comes from the UK after working at Dounreay and Sellafield, and is now appointed to the newly created role of the CEO of ARWA in Australia, but has returned back to the UK to come back mid year…..doing a Memorandum of Understanding….. with the CEO David Peattie of Nuclear Decommissioning Authority Cumbria!
Sellafield is in Cumbria UK by the way…..
Despite the Memorandum of Understanding NOT being released to the Australian Public….we have an English man from Cumbria, doing a deal with an English man from Cumbria regarding AUSTRALIA’S INTERESTS!
And it will ALL LAND IN THE TINY COUNTRY TOWN OF KIMBA – in a TOTALLY ALL ABOVE GROUND NUCLEAR DUMP!
NO, NO, NO! ….They say – The nuclear dump won’t take nuclear waste generated from overseas!
Really? Then what is the SUBSTITUTED NUCLEAR WASTE or what they now call RADIOACTIVELY EQUIVALENT NUCLEAR WASTE called which landed in Port Kembla a couple of weekends ago in a second TN-81 CASK!
Whatever name you want to call it – it IS Nuclear Waste generated from overseas – from nuclear power and nuclear weapons generation from overseas! It is not our nuclear waste – it is overseas generated waste!
As much as ARWA wants to appear “established” it isn’t. It still remains bluff and bravado – acting as if everything is going as it should…..but it isn’t, and may never get there.
Warning on effect of Russian force’s attack on nuclear research facility
| Russian forces have been firing at a nuclear research facility in Kharkiv, the Ukrainian parliament has said. The nation’s parliament said it is currently not possible to determine the scale of the damage of the attack. “It is currently impossible to estimate the extent of damage due to hostilities that do not stop in the area of the nuclear installation,” quoted the State Nuclear Regulatory Inspectorate as saying. Russian forces last fired on a nuclear reactor facility in the city over two weeks ago, hitting a building where there is equipment that officials warned could release radiation if damaged. The research facility is a part of the Kharkiv Institute of Physics and Technology, which reportedly produces radioactive materials for medical and industrial usage. The Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) previously warned that potential destruction of the facility would lead to a large-scale environmental disaster. Independent 27th March 2022https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/ukraine-russia-bomb-nuclear-reactor-kharkiv-b2044788.html |
Over 1000 tonnes of steel drums full of nuclear waste dumped at Drigg, Cumbria
The Nuclear Decommissioning Authority trumpet their latest “success”
– the dumping of more than 1000 tonnes of steel drums filled with nuclear
wastes at the “Low Level Waste Repository in Drigg, Cumbria – from the
redundant Magnox site at Winfrith, Dorset. This is their triumphant
announcement…..“A major project to dispose of more than 1,000 stainless
steel drums of waste has successfully completed its initial rail transfer.
From: Nuclear Waste Services, Magnox Ltd, and Nuclear Decommissioning
Authority Published 25 March 2022.
Radiation Free Lakeland 26th March 2022
Campaigners lose legal challenge to stop Hinkley Point C mud being dumped in the Bristol Channel
Campaigners have lost a legal challenge to stop mud from alongside Hinkley
Point C being dumped in the Severn Estuary. The nuclear plant’s
developers, EDF, were using a licensed disposal site near Cardiff but this
led to extensive protests. The campaigners argued a marine licence for the
work was unlawfully amended, without proper scrutiny. But a High Court
judge has this week dismissed their case on all grounds.
EDF dubbed the decision “good news” for thousands of workers at the site. It was
granted permission for the latest mud dumping by England’s Marine
Management Organisation (MMO) in August. The switch from Cardiff to
Portishead, on the English side of the estuary, was challenged by activists
who argued the company should not have been able to vary an existing
licence it had for work at sea.
At a two-day hearing this month, judge Mr
Justice Holgate said he considered the claimant’s approach “to involve
an impermissible gloss” on the relevant legislation and that “there was
nothing unlawful in the MMO’s decision”. An EDF spokesman told
Burnham-On-Sea.com: “The decision is good news for people who care about
the environment and climate change.” “It will enable thousands of
workers to get ahead building a project that will protect the environment
from climate change and provide Britain with reliable low carbon
electricity for decades to come.”
The previous dumping proved
controversial because of fears the mud could be contaminated with nuclear
waste from the Hinkley A and B reactors, which used to be on the site. But
those claims were dismissed by the company, Welsh and English environmental
authorities and the Welsh government as tests showed the sediment was
similar to that found elsewhere in the Bristol Channel.
Burnham-on-sea.com 26th March 2022
Chinese analysts: U.S. hopes to bleed Russia, collapse it like USSR — Anti-bellum
Global TimesMarch 27, 2022 Biden makes US tensions with Russia ‘personal’; calling for ‘regime change’ in a nuclear power dangerous: expertBy Yang Sheng and Wan Hengyi Edited The Biden administration’s real and desperate intention in the Ukraine crisis has been exposed – to turn Ukraine into a mire so that Russia keeps bleeding, and to […]
Chinese analysts: U.S. hopes to bleed Russia, collapse it like USSR — Anti-bellum
Brutal, horrible, criminal, inhuman attack on a small country: Serbs commemorate victims of NATO’s war — Anti-bellum
Feature: Serbia marks anniversary of NATO aggression Xinhua News AgencyMarch 26, 2022 People attend the ceremony of the Remembrance Day for the Victims of the NATO Aggression, in Kraljevo, Serbia, March 24, 2022. Thousands of Serbian people with lit candles and tear-stained eyes marked the 23rd anniversary of the NATO bombing of Yugoslavia at a […]
Brutal, horrible, criminal, inhuman attack on a small country: Serbs commemorate victims of NATO’s war — Anti-bellum
NATO grooming yet another new member: Ireland — Anti-bellum
PoliticoMarch 27, 2022 Poll: More Irish want to join NATO in wake of Ukraine invasion ==== Also see: Europe without neutrals: NATO lures Ireland into global military network Europe under the NATO aegis: Alliance official visits Irish partners Interoperability in the cyber domain: NATO completes exercise with “defenders from all NATO Allies, as well as […]
NATO grooming yet another new member: Ireland — Anti-bellum
Ukraine war shows nuclear deterrence doesn’t work; we need disarmament — IPPNW peace and health blog
By Rebecca Johnson In late February, as his invasion of Ukraine became bogged down, Vladimir Putin announced that Russia’s nuclear forces had been put on ‘special alert’. This posturing is familiar in wargame scenarios. It frequently ends with nuclear weapons being launched. So, how did we get back to believing that nuclear war is possible? Why didn’t […]
Ukraine war shows nuclear deterrence doesn’t work; we need disarmament — IPPNW peace and health blog
Thought for the day – branding nuclear ”GOOD” for a gullible world.
In science fiction, it’d be hard to believe! But in the real world today – in the midst of a war crists, with nuclear sites threatened, they are rebranding nuclear power as a good idea!!! Come in – suckers !!!
More Evidence That The US Is Trying To Prolong This War- Caitlin Johnstone lays it bare
Tucked all the way down in the eighteenth paragraph of the article, we find a much more interesting revelation: that Washington’s top diplomat has made no attempt to contact his counterpart in Moscow since the war began on the 24th of February.
Caitlin Johnstone, https://caitlinjohnstone.substack.com/p/more-evidence-that-the-us-is-trying?s=r—
26 Mar 22, The Washington Post has a new article out bemoaning the fact that Russian military commanders are declining calls from the Pentagon to discuss their operations in Ukraine (I dunno guys, might have something to do with the fact that the US is sharing extensive military intelligence on exactly those operations directly with the Ukrainian government). Tucked all the way down in the eighteenth paragraph of the article, we find a much more interesting revelation: that Washington’s top diplomat has made no attempt to contact his counterpart in Moscow since the war began on the 24th of February.
“Secretary of State Antony Blinken has not attempted any conversations with his counterpart, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, since the start of the conflict, according to U.S. officials,” The Washington Post reports.
So the US government is continuing its policy of refusing to attempt any high-level diplomatic resolutions to this war despite its public hand-wringing about the horrific violence that’s being inflicted upon the people of Ukraine. This revelation fits nicely with a recent report by Bloomberg’s Niall Ferguson that sources in the US and UK governments have told him the real goal of western powers in this conflict is not to negotiate peace or end the war quickly, but to prolong it in order “bleed Putin” and achieve regime change in Moscow.
Building on an earlier report from The New York Times that the Biden administration “seeks to help Ukraine lock Russia in a quagmire,” Ferguson writes that he has reached the conclusion that “the U.S. intends to keep this war going,” and says he has other sources to corroborate this:
“The only end game now,” a senior administration official was heard to say at a private event earlier this month, “is the end of Putin regime. Until then, all the time Putin stays, [Russia] will be a pariah state that will never be welcomed back into the community of nations. China has made a huge error in thinking Putin will get away with it. Seeing Russia get cut off will not look like a good vector and they’ll have to re-evaluate the Sino-Russia axis. All this is to say that democracy and the West may well look back on this as a pivotal strengthening moment.”
I gather that senior British figures are talking in similar terms. There is a belief that “the U.K.’s No. 1 option is for the conflict to be extended and thereby bleed Putin.” Again and again, I hear such language. It helps explain, among other things, the lack of any diplomatic effort by the U.S. to secure a cease-fire. It also explains the readiness of President Joe Biden to call Putin a war criminal.
Earlier this month when The Intercept’s Ryan Grim was able to get a word in edgewise at a White House press briefing amid the throngs of mass media reporters demanding to know why Biden still hasn’t started World War 3, Press Secretary Jen Psaki gave a very revealing answer.
“So, aside from the request for weapons, President Zelensky has also requested that the US be more involved in negotiations toward a peaceful resolution to the war. What is the U.S. doing to push those negotiations forward?” asked Grim.
“Well, one of the steps we’ve taken — a significant one — is to be the largest provider of military and humanitarian and economic assistance in the world, to put them in a greater position of strength as they go into these negotiations,” Psaki answered, completely dodging the question of whether the US was actually doing anything to help negotiate peace.
As we’ve discussed previously, the US government has a well-documented history of working to draw Moscow into costly military quagmires with the goal of preoccupying its military forces and draining its coffers. Former US officials are on record publicly boasting about having done so in both Afghanistan and Syria. This is an agenda geared toward sapping the Russian government, manufacturing international consent for unprecedented acts of economic warfare designed (though perhaps ineptly) to crush the Russian economy, to foment discord and rebellion, and ultimately to effect regime change in Moscow.
The US empire doesn’t care about Ukrainian lives, and it’s insulting that its operatives continually pretend to. The empire will happily feed every man, woman and child in the entire nation into the mouth of this war if it means unseating a disobedient leader from a nuclear-armed seat of power which has become unacceptably cozy with Beijing and intolerably comfortable with intervening against US imperial agendas. And all the Ukrainian-flag-waving propagandized westerners with their #StandWithUkraine Instagram activism and blue and yellow profile pics will cheer for it every step of the way.
I hope this brutal proxy war ends and peace comes to Ukraine very quickly. But from what we’re seeing today there appears to be an immense globe-spanning power structure holding its foot against the door of the only exit from this horror.
Dozens Of Men Got Sick During A Secret Training Exercise At A Nuclear Site In 1991. They’re Still Fighting For Answers.
Was the soil or water contaminated with any radiation or toxic pollutants? The government’s own documents give conflicting answers.
the captain on duty at the guard post told him that “the water and streams at [the Savannah River Site] were ‘hot,’ which I interpreted to mean contaminated or radioactive
Perhaps more important than detailing what TSD had done so far, Anglen’s evaluation showed what officials had not done before and after the exercise: They had not checked the water or soil for radiation, heavy metals, or other pollutants.
No blood or urine samples were taken, nor were tests for radiation or chemical exposure ordered for the people who reported symptoms in the hours, days, or weeks after the incident.
“I had mucus running from my nose to the ground and was coughing uncontrollably to the point that I nearly threw up.” https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/zahrahirji/dozens-of-men-got-sick-during-a-secret-training-exercise-at
Zahra Hirji, BuzzFeed News Reporter March 25, 2022 The secret government training exercise started off as planned: Dozens of special agents transporting dangerous nuclear cargo by truck responded to a simulated attack.
Then the coughing began.
After wading neck-deep through a creek in pursuit of the mock attackers, Tim Lamey suddenly got dizzy and started coughing so hard he could barely breathe.
Another agent, Farmer Roberts, ran through the creek in a different location. “I had to stop. I started coughing, really I mean uncontrollably. You know, it was very obvious to me that something wasn’t right,” he told BuzzFeed News.
Nearby, Anthony Gunter crossed a dried-up creek bed and fell into the dust. “It took my breath,” he said. “My lungs got full. My eyes were full.”
The Southern Cross Exercise, held at a South Carolina nuclear facility owned by the Department of Energy, would see at least 28 people report symptoms that included coughing, difficulty breathing, dizziness, headaches, sneezing, nosebleeds, rashes, and vomiting. They fell ill in April 1991, mostly along the Meyers Branch creek stretch of the heavily polluted Savannah River Site. Larger than the five boroughs of New York City, this vast federal facility contains production and processing plants for tritium and plutonium 239, highly radioactive components for nuclear weapons. It was then, and still is, a Superfund site.
The sudden and mysterious illnesses that arose during those fateful training exercises have never before been reported. Neither has the decadeslong search for the truth of what caused the wave of sickness, led by the individuals who fell ill, not the government that was supposed to protect them. As the US launches into a new Cold War complete with Russia brandishing nuclear weapons, this case is a stark reminder of the risks faced by the multitudes of people needed to maintain such a dangerous arsenal.
Continue readingBig ‘doomsday plane’ for the Big Nobs, in the event of nuclear war, arrives in Britain
US ‘Doomsday Plane’ capable of surviving nuclear war arrives in Britain
Boeing aircraft can fly non-stop for six days with equipment designed to withstand electromagnetic blast https://www.thenationalnews.com/world/uk-news/2022/03/25/us-doomsday-plane-capable-of-surviving-nuclear-war-arrives-in-britain/ Thomas Harding. Mar 25, 2022
An aircraft known as the “Doomsday Plane” that is capable of enduring the aftermath of a nuclear detonation has landed in Britain.
The arrival of the US Nightwatch plane from Andrews Air Force Base, Washington, comes amid fears of a nuclear strike by Russia, with its invasion of Ukraine stalled.
The aircraft, call sign GRIM99, is described as the Flying Pentagon and could be used as a centre of operations during a nuclear war.
Capable of flying 150 hours non-stop with the aid of airborne refuelling, the Boeing 747 is officially known as the National Emergency Airborne Operations Centre and is one of four such planes on constant standby.
Much of the aircraft’s equipment is secret, but it is known to carry nuclear and thermal shielding and enough communications for a US defence chief to direct a war.
It is used to transport the US defence secretary during a conflict, providing a back-up to the Pentagon. Its livery paintwork is similar to the US president’s Air Force One.
The four aircraft are based in Nebraska and have been operational since 1980. Each stands six storeys high and has four powerful General Electric engines equipped with huge fuel tanks to avoid the need to land and refuel during a nuclear exchange.
The plane’s flight deck equipment is analogue, so it can withstand jamming or the electromagnetic pulse that follows a nuclear detonation.
The “radome” hump on its back contains 67 different satellite dishes and antennae, giving the defence secretary and his commanders the ability to contact warships, submarines, aircraft and landlines around the world.
A crew of 112 people has the use of three decks, with 18 bunks beds, six bathrooms, a kitchen, conference room, briefing room and an operations centre.
The interior design is basic, with few modern-day comforts and no touch screens, as digital technology would be almost completely disabled during a nuclear exchange. However, the conference centre does have two 80-inch flat screen televisions.
It has a maximum speed of 969kph, can fly at 14,000 metres and has a take-off load of 377,000kg. The aircraft will remain in service until 2039.
Chernobyl nuclear worker gives the inside story on the dire situation for the staff as Russians took over.
Chernobyl nuclear power plant: Worker reveals risk of accident as Russians force staff to do 24-hour shifts i News, By Isabella Bengoechea, March 25, 2022 A Chernobyl worker has given the first inside account after the power plant was seized by Russian forces i News
A Chernobyl worker has given the first inside account of life at the nuclear plant since the Russian invasion and warned that exhausted staff are being forced to work 24-hour shifts, increasing the risk of an accident.
Mykola Pobiedin, foreman of the radioactive waste processing workshop at Chernobyl, who worked as a liquidator there after the 1986 disaster, described a dire safety situation where the plant was encircled by military trucks and tanks and troops patrolled with machine guns.
He compared allowing Chernobyl to be operated by exhausted staff to a bus driver who “has not slept for days” transporting passengers.
Chernobyl, the site of the worst nuclear disaster in history, was captured by Russia on the first day of invasion on 24 February.
More than 200 workers were forced to stay on site. On 20 March, about 100 were allowed to return to their homes, after nearly four weeks working under armed guard.
Personnel at Chernobyl usually work in 12-hour shifts before being replaced by the next shift.
However, because no rotation was permitted, they were forced to work for 24 hours straight with one half hour break.
Mr Pobiedin, who gave permission to be identified, spoke to i by phone from the city of Slavutych, which was built in 1986 to house workers evacuated from the plant after the disaster.
In a separate debrief, he spoke to Valeriy Korshunov, founder of the European Institute of Chernobyl, a Ukraine-based NGO which works to educate the public about the Chernobyl disaster through scientific and cultural projects, in order to prevent new nuclear disasters in future.
Mr Korshunov and his organisation hope to publicise the plight of the Chernobyl workers to draw attention to the dangerous situation Russia has inflicted on Ukraine’s nuclear sites.
He passed on his comments to i, with the permission of Mr Pobiedin and his family.
Mr Pobiedin suggested there was an increased risk of accidents as a result of the extreme fatigue of staff working at such a sensitive site.
“There may be some errors, some actions are not undertaken,” he said. “A tired person would do a mistake and it will cause issues.”
Though reluctant to cause alarm about a possible nuclear accident at Chernobyl, he added: “If you are riding a bus in which the driver has not slept for days. What could it lead to? If Europe agrees to drive with such a bus driver, then let it be…”
“There is a break for half an hour, for example to eat or for private needs, and the rest of the time people are concentrated on watching monitors. This is intellectual work; you cannot be distracted.”
Despite having managed to leave the power plant, his memories of Russia’s attack on the first day of the invasion are still stark.
“Everything started with the ‘Everyone to the bomb shelter’ alarm, which we followed,” he said.
“Then this whole situation got clear – it was a seizure.
“Then came the command ‘Everyone to the workplace!’ Well, then we started organising our life there somehow, adapting to the situation.
“The Russian military did not enter the territory of the power unit. They drove around the industrial site in their armored personnel carriers. In this way they controlled the whole situation.
“In other words, everything around us was encircled…………………………
the staff managed to keep up their spirits by attempting to carry on as normal and listening to the Ukrainian national anthem on the radio…………………………….
Since the release of the staff, only about 50 have opted to replace them – a perhaps understandable reluctance considering they would be going as hostages with no idea of when they could leave.
“I saw they arrived with backpacks,” said Mr Pobiedin. “They probably took something, but how long will it last?”
He called for the regular rotation of sufficient personnel to ensure the safety of the nuclear facilities: “The rotation is very important. We can’t let people just be there indefinitely.
“Some personnel change should be done. The Russians are not opposing to such shift changes. It should be scheduled: once a week, once every 10 days … So that people know and get prepared.
“And not so that people come and do not know how long they must stay. One does not know if it is one day, 20 days or for ever.”
While the freed workers may have breathed a sigh of relief at finally leaving, they may not have escaped the worst of their ordeals.
Many live in Slavuytsch, about 40km from Chernobyl. However the city is under intense shelling by the Russians.
Others who live in other nearby settlements are currently trapped in the city and cannot return home. When i was speaking to Mr Pobiedin, our interview was cut off halfway through after sirens went off and he had to go down into a bomb shelter. https://inews.co.uk/news/inside-chernobyl-nuclear-power-plant-accident-risk-1540986
1 This Month
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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