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The News That Matters about the Nuclear Industry Fukushima Chernobyl Mayak Three Mile Island Atomic Testing Radiation Isotope

TODAY. Nuclear wastes 30 years away. So -no problem for present decision-makers – happily superannuated when the shit hits the fan.

The lovely thing about being a Minister in the Parliament, indeed being an MP , especially in the Labor Party, is that you don’t have to take responsibility for the consequences of any decision that you, and the Party have made.

In 2021, the Australian Labor Party – Anthony Albanese, Penny Wong, Richard Marles etc , had the opportunity to oppose the Morrison government’s crackpot plan for buying nuclear submarines (which will be obsolete before they ever come into operation). But no – the Labor opposition had to show themselves to be just as tough against China as the corrupt and crackpot Liberal government.

Good little Party loyalists, – Labor has to stick to a decision, however silly.

So now in government, they complacently plunge Australia into a super-expensive, super-dangerous, nuclear submarine provocation against China. Australia is now locked into joining USA whenever it decides to goad China into action to fully incorporate Taiwan. (Both USA and Australia recognise Taiwan as politically part of China, but that apparently doesn’t matter.)

The nuclear industry is now gloating – having long held the aim of turning Australia into the world’s nuclear waste dump, At least there will now be this foot in the door for them.

Who’s going to oppose a nuclear waste dump in Australia? The media will welcome it, and scream “Jobs Jobs Jobs”. ( If it were a napalm factory for burning Vietnamese children, they’d still rejoice – “Jobs Jobs Jobs“)

The big opposition to nuclear waste dumping in Australia has always come from the Aborigines.

If the nuclear lobby can’t buy the indigenous people, then they just ignore them, as second rate citizens. Hell they weren’t even citizens at all, when their homes were bombed by the UK nuclear tests.

But any way that you look at it, the great comfort for the government decision-makers, is that they can comfortably retire, without any worries about things like a toxic waste dump, that they could have prevented,- NOT THEIR PROBLEM !

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March 19, 2023 Posted by | Christina's notes | Leave a comment

Despite UK government’s enthusiasm, nuclear power is just not a good investment

 Investment industry lukewarm on confirmation of nuclear in UK taxonomy.
One London-based funding manager warned that the industry’s problems were
economic not environmental. A sustainability figure at one large UK fund
manager said the nuclear industry’s ability to attract capital has not
primarily been about having to manage an unattractive ESG profile. “It is
incredibly expensive and un-cost competitive when compared to the
alternatives”.

 Responsible Investor 14th March 2023
 https://www.responsible-investor.com/investment-industry-lukewarm-on-confirmation-of-nuclear-in-uk-taxonomy/

https://www.responsible-investor.com/investment-industry-lukewarm-on-confirmation-of-nuclear-in-uk-taxonomy/

March 19, 2023 Posted by | business and costs, UK | Leave a comment

Seymour Hersh warns of potential US plan B in Ukraine

Washington could clash with Moscow’s forces if Kiev starts to lose, the veteran journalist argues

 https://www.rt.com/russia/572993-seymour-hersh-ukraine-conflict-future/ 17 Mar 23

The US could get directly involved in the Ukraine conflict if it sees that Kiev’s forces are on the back foot, Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter Seymour Hersh suggested on Tuesday.

Speaking at an event in Washington, DC hosted by the Committee for the Republic, a non-profit organization, Hersh noted that the US “did stupid things” during the Vietnam War, and suggested that Washington could “start doing something else” in the Ukraine conflict.

I don’t know what happens if it goes bad for Ukraine, you have all this manpower,” he said, pointing out that the US has dispatched units of its 82nd and 101st elite airborne divisions close to the Ukrainian border, while “a lot of weapons and arms are coming” to Europe.

“I’m told the game is going to be: this is NATO, we are supporting NATO in offensive operations against the Russians, which is not going to fool the world… It’s us fighting Russia,” Hersh stressed, without disclosing his sources.

According to Hersh, “the big deal” is that Russian President Vladimir Putin is ready to come to an agreement with the Ukrainian government. “The deal is demilitarize, and it’s going to be a no-go for us,” the journalist said, adding that the Russian leader “has not put in his main force yet” in the conflict.

Summing up the Ukraine conflict, Hersh argued that “we just may be kidding ourselves what’s going on there and what the results are going to be”.

He recalled the battle of Stalingrad during WWII, when Soviet troops suffered heavy losses but still emerged victorious. “Come on. Do we really want to mix up with those guys? I don’t think so,” the journalist added.

In February, Hersh released a bombshell report on last September’s Nord Stream 1 and 2 gas pipeline blasts, accusing Washington of orchestrating the attack. The White House denied responsibility. Last week, several Western media outlets claimed the culprits may have been linked to Ukraine. Moscow dismissed the reports as “a coordinated media hoax campaign.”

Russia has repeatedly voiced concerns about the eastward expansion of NATO and its involvement in the Ukraine conflict. Last month, Kremlin Press Secretary Dmitry Peskov stated that NATO “is no longer acting as our conditional opponent, but as our enemy” as it conducts round-the-clock intelligence operations against Moscow and continues to supply Kiev with arms.

March 19, 2023 Posted by | Ukraine, weapons and war | Leave a comment

UK Chancellor blocks cheap renewable energy , while promoting expensive nuclear power

The Chancellor has been accused of keeping his head “buried in the
sand” and committing public money to expensive solutions to the climate
and energy crisis. Jeremy Hunt reiterated in the Spring Budget the
Government’s desire to invest £700 million in a new nuclear plant in
Suffolk, £20 billion in carbon capture and storage (CCS) and he suggested
that small modular reactors – a technology yet to be proved viable –
could receive funding.

He also said nuclear power will be reclassified as
“environmentally sustainable” while the Government’s
soon-to-be-launched Great British Nuclear scheme will boost investment in
the industry. Backing expensive technologies like CCS and a new nuclear
programme, while still blocking cheap onshore wind in England and failing
to properly insulate the UK’s energy-leaking homes, will leave the UK
hooked on high energy costs.

Bronwen Smith-Thomas, co-director at the
Climate Coalition said: “The Chancellor has delivered a budget in the
midst of an energy crisis while keeping his head buried in the sand.
“This government has the chance to kickstart a British golden era for
people and planet. This means supporting homegrown renewable energy and
buildings upgrades to bring down bills, protecting and restoring our
natural world, and providing support to the most vulnerable to insulate
them from the damaging impacts of climate change and the energy crisis.”
The Chancellor was criticised for his focus on nuclear and CCS instead of
insulation and renewables and MPs have questioned what has changed to make
nuclear power environmentally sustainable.

 Independent 15th March 2023

https://www.independent.co.uk/business/chancellor-s-budget-shows-his-head-is-buried-in-the-sand-say-green-groups-b2301590.html

March 19, 2023 Posted by | politics | Leave a comment

EDF confirms nuclear power target for 2023, despite corrosion problems, and plummeting output in 2022.

EDF confirms 300-330 TWh nuclear power target for 2023 despite the recent
discovery of new corrosion issues which may be present at all France’s 56
reactors. France’s nuclear output plummeted by 22.6% year-on-year in 2022,
down 81.7 TWh to 279 TW.

 Montel 17th March 2023

https://www.montelnews.com/news/1462200/edf-confirms-300-330-twh-nuclear-power-target-for-2023

March 19, 2023 Posted by | business and costs, France | Leave a comment

Scotland’s not-so-Green Freeports: Minister’s equivocal response leaves way open to nuclear manufacturing facility

Scottish anti-nuclear campaigners were disappointed to learn that the
Scottish Net Zero Minister will not be opposed to a nuclear manufacturing
facility in a supposed Green Freeport. The Scottish Nuclear Free Local
Authorities and Highlands Against Nuclear Power wrote to Michael Matheson
MSP in the hope that he could provide reassurance that the two new Green
Freeports planned for Scotland in Forth and Cromarty & Inverness Firth
would not include a manufacturing plant to produce prefabricated parts for
supposedly Small Modular Reactors, such as the 470 MW design championed by
Rolls-Royce, but the Minister was unable to do so.

The Minister’s
assertion that the new Green Freeports could include businesses undertaking
work for the nuclear sector appears to both the NFLA and HANP a
contradiction of their stated aim to ‘contribute towards a just
transition to net-zero emissions by 2045’ and in so doing create
thousands of new green technology jobs.

Councillor Paul Leinster, Convenor
of NFLA Scottish, said: “We are glad that the Minister has once more
stated that there will be no new nuclear power generation on site, but
bemused that it would be acceptable for a manufacturing facility to be
located there that would make parts that would be shipped elsewhere to
enable nuclear power generation to take place outside Scotland. Nuclear is
not ‘green’; although the industry makes much of its claim that
electricity generation is carbon free this fails to take account of the
huge carbon footprint that any nuclear plant creates throughout its
lifecycle and once it is decommissioned.

 NFLA 16th March 2023

Scotland’s not-so-Green Freeports: Minister’s equivocal response leaves way open to nuclear manufacturing facility

March 19, 2023 Posted by | politics, UK | Leave a comment