Israel ranked as world’s eighth largest nuclear power
20 Apr, 2022 Idan Eretzm
According to a report published by the American Federation of Scientists, Israel has 90 nuclear warheads.
According to a report published by the American Federation of Scientists entitled “Status of World Nuclear Forces,” Israel is the world’s eighth largest nuclear power.
The estimated global nuclear warhead inventories in 2022 are dominated by the US and Russia, which have 5,428 and 5,977 nuclear warheads respectively, out of 13,000 nuclear warheads worldwide. China has 350 nuclear warheads, France 290, the UK 225, Pakistan 165, India 160, Israel 90, and North Korea 20……………………………. https://en.globes.co.il/en/article-israel-ranked-as-worlds-eighth-largest-nuclear-power-1001409769
Orano, Holtec squabble over Diablo Canyon nuclear spent fuel contract
April 20, 2022Orano, Holtec trade barbs over Diablo Canyon spent fuel contract https://www.exchangemonitor.com/orano-holtec-trade-barbs-over-diablo-canyon-spent-fuel-contract/
The company selected to manage Diablo Canyon Power Station’s spent fuel inventory fired back Wednesday at claims from a competitor that its cask system was unsafe and untested. Orano USA, whose subsidiary TN Americas on April 6 locked down the spent fuel contract…
Kenya. Treasury allocates Sh2bn for nuclear and coal units, but nuclear is unlikely to happen for decades.
By LYNET IGADWAH, WEDNESDAY APRIL 20 2022,
SUMMARY
- A task force appointed by President Uhuru Kenyatta to look into the country’s power purchase agreement (PPAs) recommended the dropping of the Nuclear Power and Energy Agency (Nupea).
- The John Ngumi-led team argued that it was unlikely that Kenya would go into nuclear power production soon……………………………………… https://www.businessdailyafrica.com/bd/economy/treasury-allocates-sh2bn-for-nuclear-and-coal-units-3787880
South Africa. Fired National Nuclear Regulator board member takes Minister Gwede Mantashe to court
Daily Maverick By Sasha Planting 20 Apr 22,
Peter Becker is seeking declaratory relief that the minister’s decision to discharge him as a board member was unlawful and unconstitutional, and wants an order reviewing and setting aside this decision.
Peter Becker, formerly a member of the board of the National Nuclear Regulator, has served papers on the minister of mineral resources and energy, the National Nuclear Regulator and the chairman of that body to challenge his dismissal in February this year.
Becker is seeking declaratory relief that the minister’s decision to discharge him was unlawful and unconstitutional, and wants an order reviewing and setting aside this decision.
Becker’s initial suspension came in January, just days before the regulator approved the extension of life project for the Koeberg nuclear power station, a decision that should be reviewed, given the delays and safety concerns that have arisen since.
The role of the regulator is not to protect the interests of Koeberg or nuclear power, but to ensure that nuclear activities are conducted safely in South Africa, ultimately in the interests of the public.
Becker was appointed to the board in June 2021 by Minister of Mineral Resources and Energy Gwede Mantashe. He was nominated by civil society organisations, including the Koeberg Alert Alliance, the Southern African Faith Communities’ Environment Institute and the Pelindaba Working Group, to represent communities that may be affected by nuclear activities.
However, on 25 February Mantashe fired Becker, arguing that he was guilty of misconduct and was conflicted. This was because Becker had, in his personal capacity, and before his appointment, expressed critical and challenging views on the use of nuclear energy.
“The minister has fundamentally misunderstood those duties. His decision is vitiated by substantive and procedural irrationality, errors of law and fact and unreasonableness,” Becker responds in the affidavit.
His removal has not come at a good time. Maintenance and replacement work are being carried out at Koeberg, under authorisations granted by the regulator. However, this work is already behind schedule and several safety concerns have been raised.
Moreover, Mantashe has signalled his intention to tender for new nuclear power proposals as soon as possible, possibly before the year is out.
The alleged conflict of interest arose because Becker is concerned about the use of nuclear power in South Africa, is opposed to the building of more reactors at Koeberg and is worried about its lifespan being extended. He has been publicly vocal in this regard. However, as Becker has deposed, these views were well known and were included in his CV before he was appointed to the job. ………………………..
At least one member of the board is actively and vocally pro-nuclear. This is Katse Maphoto, the chief director of nuclear safety and technology in the minister’s department. On several occasions he has indicated his support for nuclear power, saying it should form part of SA’s energy mix.
Thus Becker says, it is inconsistent and irrational to take the position that people who are generally critical of nuclear activity should be disqualified from exercising proper judgment concerning safety issues, while those who are supportive, are not.
The minister has 15 days in which to submit a “record of proceedings” — the documents, evidence, arguments and other information relating to the dismissal — failing which, a court date will be set. https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2022-04-19-fired-national-nuclear-regulator-board-member-takes-minister-gwede-mantashe-to-court/
Iran nuclear negotiations at stalemate over IRGC terror listing
Iran and the United States seemingly do not want to budge over the designation of the IRGC in reviving the nuclear deal. April 20, 2022
The talks in Vienna to revive the Iran nuclear deal have reached a stalemate, with neither side appearing to want to budge from the final sticking point regarding the designation of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) as a Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO) by the United States.
In his latest comments Monday on the state of the negotiations, Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson Saeed Khatibzadeh said, “Until all issues are agreed upon, nothing is agreed upon.” He said that “the remaining issues in Vienna are clear to everyone.” Meanwhile, US State Department spokesperson Ned Price, responding to a reporter’s question, said, “If Iran wants sanctions lifting that goes beyond the JCPOA, they’ll need to address concerns of ours that go beyond the JCPOA,” using the acronym for the deal’s official name, the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action.
Price’s comments about addressing other concerns were not welcomed by Iranian media. Javan, a newspaper linked to the IRGC, headlined their article on Price’s comments “Washington’s request again to negotiate beyond the JCPOA.” The story read, “Once again another recommendation to negotiate beyond the JCPOA was put on the table.” The article added that these negotiations would include not just the nuclear program but also Iran’s missile capabilities and regional role. Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who has the final say on all state matters, has repeatedly said that Iran would not negotiate on other issues within the context of the nuclear deal. Previously, long before the US exit of the 2015 deal, Khamenei had once said that if the JCPOA deal comes to fruition and all sides meet their obligations, then Iran would be open to discussing other matters — though the time for that has passed now apparently.
The Trump administration’s poison pill of designating the IRGC as an FTO has brought the talks to a standstill. Iran wants all Trump-era sanctions removed before it returns its nuclear program to levels written out in the JCPOA, especially concerning the level of enrichment and advanced centrifuges in use. The United States is insisting that the designation of the IRGC is not nuclear-related. Since the US exit in 2018 under former President Donald Trump, Iran and the United States have not negotiated face to face and instead communicate via European intermediaries. …………………………………………. The best both sides can hope for now is at least an interim agreement of some sort.
https://www.al-monitor.com/originals/2022/04/iran-nuclear-negotiations-stalemate-over-irgc-terror-listing
Energy Department’s own survey shows 8 in 10 Britons support onshore wind – and the Nuclear Free Local Authorities says the Government should back it
Whilst government ministers continue to deride onshore wind as
‘unpopular’, the energy department’s recent public survey shows
otherwise – with 8 in 10 Britons surveyed expressing their support for
the technology, over twice the number endorsing new nuclear – leading the
Nuclear Free Local Authorities (NFLA) to urge the UK government to back it.
The Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy (BEIS) has
collected data every quarter since 2012, recording responses from the
public to a range of energy related questions. The latest public attitude
survey was carried out over the Winter of 2021/22 and published at the end
of last month.
The results reveal continued strong support for renewables,
with onshore wind receiving a favourable response. Contrary to the myth
that onshore wind is unpopular, only 4% of those surveyed registered their
opposition, with 8 in 10 saying they supported it. By way of contrast only
37% of participants supported the development of nuclear energy and only
17% supported the resumption of fracking for shale gas. The government’s
own UK Energy Security Strategy concedes that ‘Onshore wind is one of the
cheapest forms of renewable power’, yet there has been no public funding
made available, nor any target for new generation set, with only a vague
promise to ‘consult this year on developing local partnerships for a
limited number of supportive communities who wish to host new onshore wind
infrastructure in return for benefits, including lower energy bills’.
NFLA 20th April 2022
France’s nuclear energy output falling, as signs of corrosion halt several nuclear reactors
Electricite de France SA has found corrosion on key piping on four nuclear
reactors during recent checks, taking the number of affected units at its
French fleet of atomic generators to nine.
Corrosion issues have forced the French energy giant to halt some of its 56 reactors for lengthy checks and repairs, just as Europe faces its worst energy crisis in half a century.
The state-controlled utility previously said its nuclear output will fall
to the lowest in more than three decades this year and hardly rebound next
year due to the reactor works.
Signs of corrosion were found in pipings of
the Chinon-3, Cattenom-3 and Flamanville-2 reactors, three of the six units
that EDF had decided to check in February, EDF said in a statement posted
on its website last week. Indications of corrosion have also been found at
the Golfech-1 unit during a planned maintenance halt, and deeper checks
will be carried out, the utility said.
Bloomberg 19th April 2022
Constant cheap renewable power to Britain – the Sahara wind and solar cables
Within five years, the world’s longest undersea cable will link Devon to
a vast territory of solar panels in the Sahara Desert, supplying
electricity directly into Britain’s grid at a fraction of today’s power
prices. A second cable will land two years later in 2029.
Together they will provide 3.6 gigawatts (GW) of constant baseload power, equivalent to
two Hinkley-sized nuclear reactors. The difference is that we will be able
to afford it.
That, at least, is the plan. The £16bn Xlinks Morocco-UK
Power Project – chaired by former Tesco chief Sir Dave Lewis – has an
elegant feature. It combines wind and solar in perfect geographic
circumstances to make near-constant power for 20 hours a day.
Trade winds on the coast of North Africa raise the average “capacity factor” of
onshore wind turbines to 54pc. A desert convection effect creates a regular
wind current in the early evenings and smooths the handover from solar to
wind. “It picks up every afternoon just as the sun is setting,” said
Simon Morrish, the project’s chief executive.
This overcomes the curse of intermittency, with lithium batteries in the desert to cover the remaining
gaps. Xlinks will be a park of 580 square miles at Guelmim Oued Noun on the
28th parallel south of Agadir, picked because it is at the top of the
global horizontal irradiance index. The yield is three times higher than in
the UK. The sun shines for 10 hours a day in winter. “The space is
unlimited. We could in theory put up 500 of these projects in Morocco,”
he said. The consortium is already planning a second hub to power Benelux.
It could multiply the scale several times over for the UK, constrained only
by the safe limits of energy security.
Telegraph 20th April 2022
Future of Antarctica’s Larsen C ice-shelf will have consequences for sea level rise world-wide
| Scientists know the surface of the Larsen C ice shelf in Antarctica is melting, making it vulnerable to collapse. For the first time, we can rank the most important causes of melting over the recent past. In a new two-part paper in Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres, we show how the amount of energy reaching the ice from the sun is the dominant factor, followed by warm winds, clouds and weather patterns. These drivers of melting can interact and overlap to reinforce or counteract each other, so it is a complex picture. Understanding what is causing melting over Larsen C is vital as it will help predict the future of the ice shelf, which will have knock-on consequences for sea levels worldwide. In 2002, Larsen C’s neighbouring ice shelf, Larsen B, experienced melting so severe that it eventually caused the shelf to collapse completely. Larsen C restrains glaciers that contain enough ice to raise global sea levels by around 22mm. Carbon Brief 14th April 2022 https://www.carbonbrief.org/guest-post-ranking-the-reasons-why-the-larsen-c-ice-shelf-is-melting |
An increased 2 degree Celsius world will not be liveable for vast swathes of humanity – but that’s the latest semi-optimistic research result
| Christiana Figueres: Should we feel joy or despair that we’re on track to keep global heating to 2C? The atmosphere does not react to pledges for the future or reports about past achievements. It only reacts to real emission reductions. The research published in Nature last week showing that the pledges by countries to reduce emissions made since the Paris agreement could keep warming within 2C, if met on time, has therefore understandably sparked a series of conflicting reactions. Outrage that even if the promises are met, they don’t come close to 1.5C; and optimism that 2C is such a huge improvement on where we’d be headed without the Paris agreement. On the one hand, we have to acknowledge this looks very much like failure. A 2C world will not be liveable for vast swathes of humanity, and half of the world’s children are already at extremely high risk from the impacts now, including hunger-inducing floods and droughts. Guardian 19th April 2022 https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/apr/19/global-heating-2c-climate-paris-agreement |
April 20 Energy News — geoharvey
Opinion: ¶ “How Cars Can Help Us Undermine Putin’s Power” • But there is something that we can all do to weaken Putin’s very ability to wage war: Cut the quarter of a billion dollars that we send him daily for oil (at least twice the amount we send for gas even at current prices). […]
April 20 Energy News — geoharvey
Why are nature-based solutions on climate being overlooked?
Why are nature-based solutions on climate being overlooked?
Nature-based initiatives have proven effective in making communities more resilient to climate change. But international funding has shortchanged such solutions in favor of more costly and less efficient engineering projects.
Grannies For The Future glue themselves to table in protest during nuclear power debate
Grannies glue themselves to table in protest during nuclear power debate.
The pair, ‘Grannies for the future’, took action as a speech was given in
praise of nuclear energy. Campaigning grandmothers glued themselves to a
table in a protest over climate change. The two women carried out the
demonstration during a Dorset Council meeting.
Councillors booed and
heckled the pair as they read out a statement criticising the authority for
its lack of action over the environmental issue. One later claimed she had
her statement ripped from her hand and the other alleged she had been
“rough handled”. Filming of the the meeting was stopped as the two, who
call themselves “Grannies for the Future”, entered the council chamber.
It meant the protest was not broadcast with the public not told what was
happening during the meeting on Thursday. The two, who had the word glue
written on their hands, acted as Weymouth councillor Louie O’Leary was
speaking in praise of nuclear power. It came as a motion by Conservative
leader Cllr Spencer Flower was about to be debated – a move which
protestors feared could have led to a more lenient approach to fossil fuel
and nuclear planning applications in the county.
Stoke on Trent Live 19th April 2022
https://www.stokesentinel.co.uk/news/uk-world-news/grannies-glue-themselves-table-protest-6970737
Bechtel and Westinghouse will be big on talk but short on delivery for UK’s nuclear projects – Nuclear Free Local Authorities
The Conservative Welsh Secretary Simon Hart MP has recently visited the
Vogtle nuclear project in Georgia, USA, but the Nuclear Free Local
Authorities believe that Bechtel and Westinghouse will be big on talk but
short on delivery if they are selected as Britain’s commercial partners
to build a new power plant at Wylfa.
If there are two certainties with anynuclear power project, they are that it will be delivered way beyond budgetand that it will be delivered very late. At present, the sole new nuclear
project under construction at Hinkley Point C in Somerset is costing £23
billion and is ten years behind schedule; and operator, French-state owned
EDF Energy, has announced that it will again be revising the final budget
upwards and the end-date backwards, over the summer.
The Vogtle project,
being built by engineering firm Bechtel with two AP-1000 Westinghouse
light-water reactors, has so far cost US $30 billion, ironically around the
same price tag as Hinkley Point C, with this monstrous boondoggle being
bankrolled from the deep pockets of its eventual operator Georgia Power and
backed by US $12 billion in loans from the US Department of Energy. The
other AP-1000 project at VC Summer in South Carolina was abruptly
terminated in July 2017 after limping along for nine years and at a cost of
US $9 billion. This decision contributed to Westinghouse declaring Chapter
11 bankruptcy and subsequently several former Westinghouse officials,
including a Senior Vice-President, have been charged with a range of
serious offences relating to the company’s fraudulent actions.
NFLA 19th April 2022
U.S., allies pour arms into Ukraine for war of prolonged attrition — Anti-bellum
Global TimesApril 20, 2022 US vows more weapons supply to Ukraine, aimed at ‘prolonged attrition’ to RussiaBy Chen Qingqing and Wan Hengyi While the Russia-Ukraine crisis enters a new phase as fighting in the Donbas region intensifies, the US and its Western allies pledged more military assistance to Kiev, ramping up efforts to pressure and […]
U.S., allies pour arms into Ukraine for war of prolonged attrition — Anti-bellum
-
Archives
- February 2026 (228)
- January 2026 (308)
- December 2025 (358)
- November 2025 (359)
- October 2025 (376)
- September 2025 (258)
- August 2025 (319)
- July 2025 (230)
- June 2025 (348)
- May 2025 (261)
- April 2025 (305)
- March 2025 (319)
-
Categories
- 1
- 1 NUCLEAR ISSUES
- business and costs
- climate change
- culture and arts
- ENERGY
- environment
- health
- history
- indigenous issues
- Legal
- marketing of nuclear
- media
- opposition to nuclear
- PERSONAL STORIES
- politics
- politics international
- Religion and ethics
- safety
- secrets,lies and civil liberties
- spinbuster
- technology
- Uranium
- wastes
- weapons and war
- Women
- 2 WORLD
- ACTION
- AFRICA
- Atrocities
- AUSTRALIA
- Christina's notes
- Christina's themes
- culture and arts
- Events
- Fuk 2022
- Fuk 2023
- Fukushima 2017
- Fukushima 2018
- fukushima 2019
- Fukushima 2020
- Fukushima 2021
- general
- global warming
- Humour (God we need it)
- Nuclear
- RARE EARTHS
- Reference
- resources – print
- Resources -audiovicual
- Weekly Newsletter
- World
- World Nuclear
- YouTube
-
RSS
Entries RSS
Comments RSS
nuclear-news 