TODAY. The world’s ”democratic”pro nuclear leaders are a dodgy lot, and not to be trusted
Well – even Britain’s Tories have now had enough of Boris Johnson’s lies and blunders.
Johnson repeatedly promised building nuclear reactors “one a year for eight years”. Anyone who knew a little about nuclear reactors (current designs 10 years late and £10bn over budget) or about the prime minister’s other mega-projects – was confident that this could not happen.
France’s President Macron keeps on touting nuclear power – now he’s nationalising the nuclear industry, apparently oblivious of the fact that climate change is killing the industry in France – as nuclear reactors can’t cope with extreme summers and water shortages.
And Joe Biden? Well, it’s pretty clear that no President in the United States gets to be President without the support of the nuclear lobby, and the whole military-industrial-corporate -complex
Biden has made some nice motherhood statements about cutting nuclear weapons. They mean nothing, as he is under the control of the Pentagon hawks and their allied nuclear corporations
One is tempted to think that in the case of the UK, the voters just chose a blundering ignoramus in order to get some amusement. Macron got captured by the nuclear lobby. And in the sad case of supposed democracy America – well a nuclear-captured President is a foregone conclusion.
European parliamentarians vote nuclear and gas as ”green” – another step in the sinister lobbying process of the desperate nuclear industry.
Réseau sortir du nucléaire. 7 July 22, It is a dark day for the environment and the climate. Meeting in plenary in Strasbourg, European parliamentarians validated by 328 votes against 278 the European Commission's proposal to include nuclear and gas in the green taxonomy. We strongly denounce the maneuvering lobbies and the major deleterious role played by France. This vote marks the culmination of a sinister soap opera marked by unprecedented pressure from lobbies and pro-nuclear states. Bankrupt and ready for any maneuver to benefit from new money, the nuclear industry had laid siege to the European Commission and obtained the order of a report shamelessly minimizing the harmful effects caused by the atom. Emmanuel Macron himself was famous for his duplicity, posing as a climate champion while pleading for the inclusion of fossil gas and allying himself with leaders who care little for human rights, such as Viktor Orban, provided that they support the atom. A few days before the vote, the Minister for Energy Transition, Agnès Pannier-Runacher, had again signed a pro-nuclear platform with ministers from other Member States far removed from ecological issues. The European Parliament, which had initially come out against the inclusion of nuclear power and gas in this text, had the possibility of contesting the delegated act published at the beginning of 2022 by the European Commission, which classified these polluting energies among the technologies "of transition ". But while the "Environment" and "Economy and Finance" committees had refused this classification, the parliamentarians meeting in plenary seem to have finally yielded to the sirens of the lobbies. The elected French Macronists of “Renew” bear an overwhelming responsibility for this catastrophic decision. To qualify nuclear and fossil gas as “transitional” energies is to make words lose all meaning and totally empty of its meaning a tool initially intended to fight against greenwashing. How can gas, a greenhouse gas emitter, fit into this category? Not to mention nuclear, which is dangerous, polluting even in regular operation, producing unmanageable waste, and too slow and too expensive to be a relevant tool in the face of the climate emergency! Any euro spent on the pursuit of nuclear power will be a wasted resource at the expense of the real solutions to climate change: sobriety, efficiency and renewable energies.
France to Nationalize Debt-Laden EDF as Energy Crisis Mounts
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-07-06/french-premier-says-state-wants-to-own-100-of-edf By Francois De Beaupuy, Ania Nussbaum, and William Horobin July 7, 2022
- Premier says EDF full control needed for energy sovereignty
- France to invest in new nuclear plants to fight climate change
The French government will nationalize its financially struggling nuclear giant Electricite de France SA to help it ride out Europe’s worst energy crisis in a generation and invest in new atomic plants.
“The climate emergency requires strong, radical decisions,” Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne said during a policy speech in parliament in Paris on Wednesday. “We need to have full control of the production and our energy future. We must ensure our sovereignty faced with the consequences of the war and the colossal challenges ahead.”
Borne didn’t provide specific details of the government’s plans, beyond saying the state will raise its stake in EDF to 100% from 84% currently. No decision has been made at this stage on the modalities of the operation, a spokesman for the finance ministry said.
EDF shares jumped on Borne’s announcement and closed 15% higher in Paris after having been down sharply prior to her comments. The utility’s debt also gained
…………………………. EDF has been grappling in recent years with various issues at its aging fleet of reactors and cost overruns when building new ones. Its problems are being exacerbated by a government-imposed cap on electricity prices and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, which is making it more expensive for the company to cover its own electricity-output shortfall.
A positive exit catalyst for minority shareholders in EDF, Europe’s largest nuclear power producer, comes with confirmation that France will acquire the 16% stake not already owned and nationalize the company.
……………….. The CGT and FO labor unions welcomed the plan for nationalization, but also expressed concern that the government could subsequently revive a plan to “dismantle” the utility.
………………. A nationalization of EDF may reassure creditors that are concerned about the utility’s net financial debt, which stood at 43 billion euros at the end of last year and is set to climb even higher despite a 3.2-billion euro capital increase in April.
Credit-rating firms, which downgraded the utility in February, warned of further potential cuts as the company is grappling with repairs at some of its atomic power stations and cost overruns at nuclear plants under construction in France and the UK.
EU Votes to Label Gas and Nuclear Power Investments as ‘Green’
https://www.ecowatch.com/eu-gas-nuclear-investments-green.html— 6 July 22,
In a setback for the fight against climate change, 328 of 639 members of the European Parliament (MEPs) have voted in favor of plans to label investments in gas and nuclear power plants as “green,” reported Reuters. Unless 20 of the 27 European Union (EU) member states oppose the proposals adopted by the European Commission in the Complementary Delegated Act, they will pass it into law.
This means that some nuclear and gas projects would be added to the EU taxonomy of economic activities that are considered environmentally sustainable, with some conditions, The Guardian reported. Investors would then be able to label and market investments in the gas and nuclear projects as green, reported Reuters.
Experts said the vote sets a dangerous precedent for other countries, according to The Guardian. Ukraine, as well as climate activists, had appealed to parliament to reject the proposals, saying they would be beneficial to Russian president Vladimir Putin.
“This will delay a desperately needed real sustainable transition and deepen our dependency on Russian fuels,” said environmental and climate activist Greta Thunberg on Twitter.
The proposals allow investments in gas-powered projects to be designated as sustainable as long as “the same energy capacity cannot be generated with renewable sources” and there are plans to transition to renewable sources or gases that are considered “low-carbon,” The Guardian reported. Nuclear power can be classed as renewable if a project pledges to take care of its radioactive waste.
European Commissioner for Financial Stability, Financial Services and the Capital Markets Union Mairead McGuinness said the proposals adopted in the Complementary Delegated Act “ensure that private investments in gas and nuclear, needed for our energy transition, meet strict criteria,” as reported by The Guardian.
Some EU member states view gas — a fossil fuel that produces dangerous carbon dioxide emissions — as an interim substitute for coal during the transition to more sustainable power sources, Reuters reported. Nuclear power, while free of carbon dioxide emissions, results in hazardous radioactive waste.
“By clearing the way for this delegated act, the EU will have unreliable and greenwashed conditions for green investments in the energy sector,” said Dutch MEP Bas Eickhout, who is the vice-president of the European Parliament’s environment committee, as reported by The Guardian.
Austria and Luxembourg, which don’t support nuclear energy or putting a “green” label on gas, vowed to fight the law.
Greenpeace also said it would contest the law in court.
“I am in shock. Russia’s war against Ukraine is a war paid for by climate-heating fossil fuels and the European parliament just voted to boost billions of funding to fossil gas from Russia. How in the world is that in line with Europe’s stance to protect our planet and stand with Ukraine?” said Ukrainian climate scientist and member of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Svitlana Krakovska, as The Guardian reported.
National Endowment for Democracy (NED) – a CIA front group laid the foundations for the Ukraine war
HOW CIA FRONT LAID FOUNDATIONS FOR UKRAINE WAR By Kit Klarenberg, Substack., July 5, 2022
”…………………………………………. many of the CIA’s traditional responsibilities and activities being farmed out to “overt” organizations, most significantly the National Endowment for Democracy (NED). Founded in November 1983, then-CIA director William Casey was at the heart of NED’s creation.
………………… September 2013, and Carl Gershman, National Endowment for Democracy (NED) chief from its launch until summer 2021, authored an op-ed for The Washington Post, outlining how his organization was hard at work wresting countries in Russia’s near abroad – the constellation of former Soviet republics and Warsaw Pact states – away from Moscow’s orbit.
Along the way, he described Ukraine as “the biggest prize” in the region, suggesting Kiev joining Europe would “accelerate the demise” of Russian President Vladimir Putin. Six months later, Ukraine’s elected president Viktor Yanukovych was ousted in a violent coup.
Writing in Consortium News earlier that month, investigative legend Robert Parry recorded how, over the previous year, NED had funded 65 projects in Ukraine totaling over $20 million. This amounted to what the late journalist dubbed “a shadow political structure of media and activist groups that could be deployed to stir up unrest when the Ukrainian government didn’t act as desired.”
NED’s pivotal role in unseating Yanukovych can be considered beyond dispute,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, NED has removed many entries from its website in the years since the coup, which amply underline its role in Yanukovych’s overthrow.
………………………… the country remained captured by Western financial, political and ideological interests post-Maidan. It was a roadmap NED subsequently followed to the letter.
[Ed. This article gives the complex story of the role of NED and other U.S. and British agencies, in the overthrow of the popular leader Yanukovych and the rise of the corrupt Petro Poroshenko.]
……………………… Trump’s term in office was typified by ever-escalating hostility between Washington and Moscow, the Oval Office resident going to dangerous lengths his predecessor had consistently refrained from to arm and galvanize the most reactionary and violent elements of the Ukrainian armed forces, including the notorious Neo-Nazi Azov Battalion, and tear up Cold War arms control treaties, much to Moscow’s chagrin…………….
………..Leshchenko, [prominent corrupt politician in Kiev], was voted out of parliamentc, Zelensky’s Servant of the People party candidate taking his seat in a landslide……
Despite no longer being part of the legislature, Leshchenko has continued to wield significant sway over the Ukrainian government, directly advising Zelensky on “Russian disinformation” to this day.
What direct influence NED still exerts over him – and Ukraine’s President by extension – isn’t certain. Although, mere days before the Russian invasion began, in an interview with The Guardian, Leshchenko referred to the Minsk Accords – which Zelensky stood on a specific platform of implementing – as “toxic”, suggesting the leader would “betray” his country by adhering to their obligations, which included granting autonomy to Donetsk and Luhansk.
This reflects NED’s position – on February 14th this year, its Journal of Democracy published an article declaring the Accords to be “a bad idea for the West and a serious threat to Ukrainian democracy and stability,” ……….
….. an objective analysis of what actually happened and why, in which NED is completely central. Still, the organization didn’t need to rely purely on Leshchenko to keep the Minsk Accords moribund. Its extensive network of assets in the country, and Washington’s dark alliance with Ukraine’s far-right, was more than sufficient to ensure that Zelensky’s overwhelmingly popular mission of restoring relations with Russia would and could never be fulfilled.
An archive of NED funding in Ukraine over 2021 – which has now been replaced with a statement “in solidarity” with Kiev – offers extensive detail on the precise projects backed by the CIA front over that pivotal 12-month period.
It points to a preponderant focus on purported Russian misdeeds in eastern Ukraine. One grant, of $58,000, was provided to the NGO Truth Hounds to “monitor, document, and spotlight human rights violations” and “war crimes” in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions.
Another, of $48,000, was provided to Ukraine’s War Childhood Museum to “educate the Ukrainian public about the consequences of the war through a series of public events.” Yet another received by charity East-SOS aimed to “raise public awareness” of “Russia’s policies of persecution and colonization in the region, and document illustrative cases,” its findings circulated to the UN Human Rights Council, European Courts of Human Rights, and International Court of Justice.
There was no suggestion this wellspring would be used to document any abuses by Ukrainian government forces. UN research indicates 2018 – 2021, over 80 percent of civilian casualties were recorded on the Donbas side. Meanwhile, Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe reports show that shelling of civilian areas in the breakaway regions intensified dramatically in the weeks leading up to February 24th, potentially the precursor of a full-blown military offensive.
As such, NED’s expurgation of records exposing its role in fomenting and precipitating the horror now unfolding in southeast Ukraine not only protects de facto CIA agents on the ground. It also reinforces and legitimizes the Biden administration’s sprawling, fraudulent narrative, endlessly and uncritically reiterated in Western media, that Russia’s invasion was entirely unprovoked and groundless.
Ukrainians now live with the mephitic legacy of that reckless, unadmitted meddling in the most brutal manner imaginable. They may well do so for many years to come. Meanwhile, the men and women who orchestrated it rest comfortably in Washington DC, insulated from any scrutiny or consequence whatsoever, every day cooking up fresh schemes to undermine and topple troublesome foreign leaders, hailed as champions of liberty by the mainstream press every step of the way. https://popularresistance.org/how-cia-front-laid-foundations-for-ukraine-war/
USA causing tensions and uncertainty with its expanding militarism in the Pacific, targeting China
Wshington should stop playing dangerous games https://www.chinadaily.com.cn/a/202207/04/WS62c225a5a310fd2b29e6a123.html By Martin Sieff | CHINA DAILY , 6 Jul 22
US President Joe Biden has taken a vague approach on an understanding with Beijing over the Taiwan question negotiated in 1972 by then president Richard Nixon that has ensured peace and mutual prosperity in the Pacific for half a century.
The US-led West continues to push NATO’s eastward expansion and build NATO-like military alliances in the Asia-Pacific region such as AUKUS, the much-touted Australia-United Kingdom－United States strategic alliance. Now the Western powers with some other countries are holding RIMPAC 2022, or Rim of the Pacific, military exercises, the largest in the program’s history, which will further increase uncertainties in the Asia-Pacific.
The alleged reason the West cites for trying to brainwash the prosperous and, left to themselves, peaceful and well-meaning populations of those and other countries is that China, Russia and some other countries present some hideous threat to the rest of the world like Hitler’s Nazi Germany and therefore must be resisted.
Yet the Joe Biden administration, oblivious to the ageless teachings, remains consistent in holding on to the extraordinary irony and blasphemy that its own political values and ideology－which it so manifestly fails to live up to in its own domestic policies and society－must nevertheless be imposed as the inevitable and unavoidable destiny on the rest of the world. Such ridiculous hubris, or arrogance according to the classical Greek view of life, must inevitably generate an annihilating nemesis: total destruction.
How else can one explain the determination of the US administration, pulling its Pacific allies in tow, to provoke a full-scale confrontation, threatening no holds barred confrontation with China over the Taiwan question?
US President Joe Biden has taken a vague approach on an understanding with Beijing over the Taiwan question negotiated in 1972 by then president Richard Nixon that has ensured peace and mutual prosperity in the Pacific for half a century. Biden is also continuing to arm Ukraine to the teeth so Kyiv can keep fighting a bloody conflict it cannot possibly win against Moscow.
What possible sanity can lie behind provoking a war and openly threatening the world’s two other leading strategic and nuclear-armed powers with destabilization and destruction at the same time?
Now, the next step on this march of folly to an extended war has also been taken. Following the recently concluded G7 summit which was apparently targeted at both Russia and China, the Biden administration has dragooned its Pacific allies of New Zealand, Australia and (maybe a reluctant) Japan into the latest RIMPAC exercises specifically aimed at targeting Beijing and bullying it into accepting Washington’s diktat over Taiwan.
Neither Biden nor any of his national security team of Secretary of State Antony Blinken, National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan, Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin and Under Secretary of State for Policy Victoria Nuland shows the slightest realization that all their policies are certain to bring about the very Armageddon they claim to be determined to deter.
In fact, in his first face-to-face meeting with Austin on the sidelines of the Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore on June 10, Chinese State Councilor and Defense Minister Wei Fenghe made clear that any move, encouraged or manipulated by the US, to get Taiwan to declare independence would be immediately taken by Beijing as a casus belli.
This would be an insane risk for the US administration to take even if it was to secure peace with the rest of the world, and at no risk of a full-scale war with Russia, another catastrophe which Biden has been assiduously courting.
Far from deterring China, the announcement of the latest RIMPAC exercises, as well as the provocative, hostile and contemptuous language in which that statement was made, can only lock the US even further into its suicidal leap of the Gadarene swine off the edge of a gigantic cliff from which there can be no return or recovery.
Only about 25 people are reported to have survived trying to commit suicide by jumping off the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco since it was completed in 1937 out of the 1,700 who have tried. Every one of those survivors has testified that they realized they had made a terrible mistake as soon as they jumped the 67 meters into San Francisco Bay.
Will Biden, Blinken, Sullivan and Nuland experience a similar far-too-late moment of clarity when the catastrophe they have worked so ceaselessly to provoke finally explodes on their country and its allies? By that point, it will not matter: the damned cannot escape their inevitable destruction. One can only weep for the hundreds of millions they will take with them.
The author is a senior fellow at the American University in Moscow.
Drought and hot weather this summer are adding to France’s nuclear power generation problems at the worst possible moment.
Drought and hot weather this summer are adding to France’s nuclear power
generation problems at the worst possible moment. As Europe grapples with
low Russian gas supply and the threat of no Russian supply at all,
non-Russian energy sources are more important than ever.
French power giant
Electricite de France (EDF) warned on Tuesday that it may have to reduce
nuclear power generation as the water levels of rivers are low and water
temperatures high. France has been experiencing outages at its nuclear
reactors in recent months, slashing power generation from nuclear power
plants. France’s nuclear power generation accounts for around 70 percent
of its electricity mix and when its reactors are fully operational it is a
net exporter of electricity to other European countries.
Prolonged
maintenance at several nuclear reactors this year, however, means that
France—and the rest of Europe—have less nuclear-generated power supply
now.
Oil Price 5th July 2022
”Allerdale Community Partnership” now looking very much like a nuclear front group, – Nuclear Free Local Authorities reveal
| The Allerdale Community Partnership may boast that its latest appointees are ‘independent’, but, as the Nuclear Free Local Authorities have discovered, a little research reveals their business links to the nuclear industry. The Community Partnership is the lead local body working in partnership with Nuclear Waste Services, an arm of the Nuclear Decommissioning Agency, to determine if Allerdale could become the location for a Geological Disposal Facility, an underground or undersea dump for Britain’s toxic legacy of nuclear waste. Now the Community Partnership has announced the appointment of four new board members, three are individuals, Adrian Davis-Johnson, Phil Davies, and John Coughlan, whilst the fourth is an organisation, the Cumbria Youth Alliance. In its March recruitment drive, the Allerdale Community Partnership pledged to appoint new members that were ‘both representative (of the local community) and diverse’, but the three appointed individuals all have a long history of working for or providing services to the nuclear industry. NFLA 5th July 2022 https://www.nuclearpolicy.info/news/nuclear-free-local-authorities-question-independence-of-allerdale-appointees-linked-to-nuclear-industry/ |
Seventy years after first UK atom bomb, time to right this ‘criminal wrong’, says NFLA
As the international community and civil society marks the fifth
anniversary of the adoption of the UN Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear
Weapons tomorrow (7 July), the Nuclear Free Local Authorities have written
to the Prime Minister and Minister for Veterans Affairs calling for urgent
recognition and compensation for Britain’s atom and nuclear bomb test
veterans.
NFLA 6th July 2022
Nuclear power in Japan may be a mistake we are doomed to repeat
https://www.asahi.com/ajw/articles/14663000VOX POPULI: Nuclear power in Japan may be a mistake we are doomed to repeat. Vox Populi, Vox Dei is a daily column that runs on Page 1 of The Asahi Shimbun., July 7, 2022
The Supreme Court was extremely lenient with the government in its June 17 verdict concerning the Fukushima nuclear catastrophe of 2011.
Multiple high courts had already ruled that the government was liable for damages for failing to order Tokyo Electric Power Co. to take sufficient preventive measures against a potentially disastrous tsunami.
The top court, however, overturned all these rulings.
Explaining the reason, the presiding justice noted to the effect that the tsunami turned out to be “simply too massive.”
The gist of his argument was that since the accident would have occurred anyway even if the government had ordered TEPCO to install a seawall, his court could not hold the government responsible as a nuclear safety regulator.
What an utterly magnanimous ruling for a government that failed to do its part. This is akin to giving someone a pass because they are too inexperienced or immature to be treated seriously.
I could not possibly support this ruling. However, trying to go along with the court’s reasoning just for the sake of argument, the conclusion to be drawn is the government was never capable of regulating a nuclear power plant at all.
Ultimately, any discussion of nuclear power boils down to whether humans are ever capable of being a party to handling it.
Radioactive nuclear waste must be kept isolated for an utterly mind-boggling period of 100,000 years. We have also learned that once a nuclear accident occurs, we cannot even go near the accident site, let alone control it.
For some years after the Fukushima disaster, the idea of ending nuclear power generation was a major issue in national elections.
A decade has elapsed, however, and the issue is hardly “hot” in the July 10 Upper House election. In fact, the recent rise in energy prices has given a boost to advocates for a greater reliance on nuclear energy.
If radioactive nuclear waste could talk, it must be scoffing at our forgetfulness and taunting us: “You will never be able to measure us by your yardstick.”
Would you trust nuclear environmental research funded by the USA Department of Energy? (I wouldn’t)
UW researchers to study potential environmental injustices surrounding nuclear development at Kemmerer, Wyoming Public Radio | By Caitlin Tan, July 6, 2022
As Wyoming sets its sights on nuclear development, a team of University of Wyoming researchers will study how one project impacts environmental justice.
The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) awarded the team an $800,000 grant to span the course of three years. This is the first time the DOE is funding a study that looks at how nuclear energy affects environmental justice. The grant will focus on these effects on the TerraPower nuclear project in Kemmerer. The goal is to take a proactive approach and identify potential environmental injustices before they happen.
Lead researcher Rachael Budowle said environmental justice means that specific populations should not experience inequalities because of development – this can include things like, water and air quality, and even access to economic opportunities.
“So, nuclear energy in particular, has historically presented a range of social, environmental and ethical challenges that also warrant exploration, around public perception, safety, trust, and industry and government responsibility for waste and accidents,” Budowle said.
Lead researcher Rachael Budowle said environmental justice means that specific populations should not experience inequalities because of development – this can include things like, water and air quality, and even access to economic opportunities.
“So, nuclear energy in particular, has historically presented a range of social, environmental and ethical challenges that also warrant exploration, around public perception, safety, trust, and industry and government responsibility for waste and accidents,” Budowle said………..
In the second year, researchers will interview a wide range of stakeholders and then provide recommendations to the state and TerraPower. https://www.wyomingpublicmedia.org/natural-resources-energy/2022-07-06/uw-researchers-to-study-potential-environmental-injustices-surrounding-nuclear-development-at-kemmerer
Congress poised to shoot down Biden’s nuclear rollback
The White House wants to cancel a nuclear cruise missile, but Democrats have joined Republicans to try to save it.
Politico, By LAWRENCE UKENYE and CONNOR O’BRIEN, 07/06/2022 ,
Progressives were already disappointed with President Joe Biden’s plans for the nation’s nuclear arsenal. Now they’re poised to lose one of the few things about the White House’s blueprint that they liked.
In recent weeks, Democrats have joined Republicans in adding money back into the Pentagon budget to continue developing a sea-launched nuclear cruise missile that former President Donald Trump initiated in 2018. Biden proposed canceling the missile, which arms control advocates say is redundant, costly and potentially destabilizing……………………..
The Pentagon’s still-classified Nuclear Posture Review, which lays out a long-term roadmap for the nuclear arsenal, spurred the decision to zero out funding for the missile in Biden’s most recent budget. The public split between top civilians and military commanders amounted to a “green light” for Democrats to hedge on the program, according to Tom Collina, policy director at Ploughshares Fund.
…………………… The situation marks a retreat from the campaign pledges of then-candidate Biden, who long advocated for reducing reliance on nuclear weapons, only to turn around and dedicate tens of billions of dollars to the modernization of all three legs of the triad for two years in a row. Arms control advocates also called on him to establish a “no first use” policy and cancel two weapons added on by the Trump administration: the cruise missile and a low-yield submarine-launched missile, which has already entered the fleet.
Biden’s nuclear plans, outlined in a brief summary released in March, omit a “no first use” policy. The low-yield warhead introduced during the Trump years remains a part of the arsenal.
As for the cruise missile, now that both the House and Senate Armed Services committees have authorized funding, albeit with differing conditions, Congress will likely send Biden a compromise defense policy bill this year that foils his plan to cancel the program.
A spokesperson for the White House National Security Council said in a statement that the administration “stands by the President’s budget submission, which canceled the SLCM-N,” which refers to the sea-launched cruise missile-nuclear. The spokesperson noted the decision to kill the missile “was based on the findings and recommendations” of the Nuclear Posture Review.
Biden’s fiscal 2023 defense budget proposes spending $50.9 billion on nuclear weapons programs across the Defense and Energy Departments, while also attempting to cancel the SLCM and retire the aging inventory of B83 gravity bombs. The latter system is also in play in defense talks.
Senate Armed Services voted to place limits on the retirement of the B83 by requiring a study on striking hardened and deeply buried targets before any of the bombs could be scrapped.
Both versions of the National Defense Authorization Act greenlight $25 million for the Navy’s research and development efforts on the cruise missile and another $20 million for the National Nuclear Security Administration to continue research on the W80-4 warhead to be used on the missile. But the House version restricts a portion of the $45 million from being spent until the Navy and NNSA deliver several reports, including analyses outlining the cost of the warhead and delivery system as well as the possible limitations of the vessels that carry the missile………………………………….
The debate won’t end with the Armed Services Committees, as Congress must still appropriate money to continue the program.
Democrats on the House Appropriations Committee sided with Biden and allocated no money for the missile or its warhead in their versions of annual defense and energy spending bills. But Armed Services’ action is likely to put pressure on appropriators in their talks over a spending compromise…………………. https://www.politico.com/news/2022/07/06/congress-biden-nuclear-rollback-00044344
—
France’s EDF says hot summer could hit nuclear output, shares fall
PARIS, July 5 (Reuters) – France’s EDF (EDF.PA) might be forced to cut nuclear output further because of expected prolonged hot temperatures over the summer months, an executive told a briefing on Tuesday, prompting a sharp fall in the company’s shares.
EDF’s shares ended down 7.5% on the Paris stock market, underperforming the Stoxx Europe 600 Utilities (.SX6P) index, which lost 2.03%.
“We have a peculiar year due to the drought that has started early, especially in southeastern France. But there is generally a little bit less water available this year,” Catherine Laugier, Environment Director at EDF, told a news conference.
France is already grappling with reduced electricity generation because of unexpected maintenance at its aging nuclear reactors.
EDF faces the prospect of having to reduce output because of insufficient river water, which is often used for cooling nuclear reactors before being returned to the river at a higher temperature.
Regulations are in place to limit reactor production during times of exceptional heat and low water levels to prevent the process from damaging local wildlife.
“We’ve had some production cuts between end May and early June. That was indeed pretty early (…) And there are some global evaluations suggesting (…) this might be a very long summer and the levels could be impacted in September,” Laugier said.
Since the start of the year, EDF has lost 20.6% of its value, well below a 12.9% sector-wide decline……………. https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/frances-edf-says-hot-summer-could-hit-nuclear-output-shares-fall-2022-07-05/
Enthusiastic space travel publicity avoids mentioning radiation danger
We need to talk about radiation in space, Cosmos By Jamie Seidel/1 July 2022,
Escape from it all: go above and beyond in your quest for relaxation. Space hotels promise to capitalise on the ultimate dream. But there’s an elephant in orbit, and nobody’s talking about it.
“We’ve seen a lot of great concept designs for orbital hotels lately,” says Dr Iwan Cornelius. “But none of them seem worried about radiation.”
Cornelius is the managing director of Amentum Scientific, an Australian predictive scientific modelling company that quantifies the risks of radiation exposure for the aviation, transport, mining and space industries.
“I’m guessing being sick in space is not good,” the former radiation worker quips. “It’s a long way to your local GP – and the emergency department.”
Radiation exposure has bothered NASA since the earliest days of its space programs. It’s why the International Space Station (ISS) has a tiny bunker surrounded by water and equipment where astronauts can hunker down.
Space tourism is closer to reality than you think – but a few important things remain to be ironed out.
Escape from it all: go above and beyond in your quest for relaxation. Space hotels promise to capitalise on the ultimate dream. But there’s an elephant in orbit, and nobody’s talking about it.
“We’ve seen a lot of great concept designs for orbital hotels lately,” says Dr Iwan Cornelius. “But none of them seem worried about radiation.”
Cornelius is the managing director of Amentum Scientific, an Australian predictive scientific modelling company that quantifies the risks of radiation exposure for the aviation, transport, mining and space industries.
“I’m guessing being sick in space is not good,” the former radiation worker quips. “It’s a long way to your local GP – and the emergency department.”
Radiation exposure has bothered NASA since the earliest days of its space programs. It’s why the International Space Station (ISS) has a tiny bunker surrounded by water and equipment where astronauts can hunker down.
“One thing you’ll notice with all these concept diagrams for space hotels is there’s not a lot of information about a radiation refuge.”
…………… “If we’re talking about a packed hotel in space, where will they go?” Cornelius asks. “How long will it take to get there? Does everyone get access to a shelter – including staff? I don’t know if this is being thought through”.
And solar events aren’t the only space radiation source…………………………….
Italian Airport Workers Stop Arms Shipment to Ukraine Under Guise of “Humanitarian Aid”
In Italy, workers discovered that weapons were being shipped to Ukraine under the pretense of sending “humanitarian aid” and have refused to hand them over. Their example should serve as a model for all workers on how to take action against the war.
Defend Democracy Press By Simon Zinnstein, March 17, 2022 The war in Ukraine is causing more and more saber-rattling in the U.S. and Europe. As many countries massively ramp up their own military budgets, many more still are sending weapons to Ukraine. According to the Unione Sindacale di Base (USB), workers at Galileo Galilei Airport in Pisa, Italy discovered boxes full of “weapons of all kinds, ammunition and explosives.” They had previously been informed that the delivery contained humanitarian goods such as food and medicine. The airport workers then refused to send the weapons to Ukraine via Poland.
……………………………….. The incident is also an example of how “humanitarianism” can be abused. The USB statement says: “We strongly condemn this blatant deception, which cynically uses the guise of ‘humanitarian aid’ to further fuel the war in Ukraine.” Humanitarian measures, such as sending aid supplies and accepting refugees are not enough to end the war — and in this case they even served as a cover for militarism. http://www.defenddemocracy.press/italian-airport-workers-stop-arms-shipment-to-ukraine-under-guise-of-humanitarian-aid/
1 This Month
26 April – Chernobyl: Inside the Meltdown airs on National Geographic on Sunday 26th April from 4pm
29 April – Nuclear Expert Webinar #1 – Radiation Impacts on Families with Mary Olson and Cindy Folkers
- 12:15 PM MT – 1:45 PM MT
- Location: Virtual – REGISTER TODAY
4 May -West Suburban Peace Coalition to discuss Iran war at May Educational Forum
Monday, May 4, 7:00 – 8:00 PM Central Standard Time
Title: : How Trump’s Narrative Tries to Shape the Reality of the War on Iran.
Contact Walt Zlotow, zlotow@hotmail.com 630 442 3045 for further information
14 May – online event From Bombs to Data Centres: the Face of Nuclear Colonialism
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
-
Archives
- April 2026 (300)
- March 2026 (251)
- February 2026 (268)
- January 2026 (308)
- December 2025 (358)
- November 2025 (359)
- October 2025 (376)
- September 2025 (257)
- August 2025 (319)
- July 2025 (230)
- June 2025 (348)
- May 2025 (261)
-
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 