nuclear-news

This week in nuclear news

Some bits of good news: What went right this week: ‘a surge in benevolence’, plus more
Coronavirus. A hidden pandemic: the orphans Covid has left behind.

Climate.  Climate change: 5 charts from the IPCC report that show why every increment of warming matters.  Why Normal Is Never Coming Back.

Nuclear.  Apologies – this newsletter is getting out of hand.  It’s good if people can just read the stories in large bold type – usually selected because of their particular importance. 

Worldwide – economics matter – the rampaging costs of weapons, the ever-more apparent unaffordability of small nuclear reactors.

Christina notes. Two ways of looking at the world.   Here we go again. Depleted uranium weapons for Ukraine to use against Russia.      Everything’s OK – depleted uranium is just a pretty harmless “common type of munition”.    NuScam – the sad little canary that’s scared of a tweet . Australia’s Defence Minister Richard Marles is a master of “weasel words”

CLIMATE. World on ‘thin ice’ as UN climate report gives stark warning. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9gKGcWqzH1Y Samoa’s desperate plea for world climate action. What is the IPCC AR6 synthesis report and why does it matter? Burning down the house — Climate options are available now- Nuclear power isn’t one of them. Lethal underwater nuclear submarines –their power to devastate the climate.         Nuclear energy will not halt the climate crisis. Climate change may pose key risk to French reactors – said the country’s Court of Auditors.

Briefing Paper on Nuclear Weapons, the Environment, and the Climate Crisis.

CIVIL LIBERTIES. UN Rights Official Concerned Over Summary Executions Of POWs By Both Russia, Ukraine.

CULTURE. Rebooting memories of life before the nuclear devastation of Hiroshima. France in national denial– rejecting renewable energy, clinging to out-dated nuclear.

ECONOMICS. Bad news for NuScale. Author of controversial memo puts the final nail in the coffin: Nuclear power in Denmark is not cost-effective. Tiny Modular Reactor Deal Starts With Absurdly Expensive Electricity.

Marketing. U.S. government marketing nuclear power to Indonesia. Thorium fake charity group cons El Salvador into joining the “Nuclear Power Club”. South Korea coming for a slice of Africa’s emerging nuclear power market. Mini nuclear reactors all the rage, but are they the answer? Rolls Royce marketing its mini nuclear reactors to Sweden, Finland, Czech Republic, but deals could collapse.

MEDIA. Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI) flexes its muscles – forces the ABC to back down on a Media Watch show that dared to criticise ASPI. 

EMPLOYMENT Strikes hit French nuclear output, disrupt EDF maintenance plans.

ENVIRONMENT. Campaigners claim permit change at Hinkley Point would kill billions of fish.

HEALTH. Radiation Low-dose Radiation Linked to Heart Disease

LEGAL. Second U.S. Citizen Headed to German Prison for Anti-Nuclear Weapons Actions. Legal case begins against Sizewell C nuclear project.  “Together Against Sizewell” argue in UK’s High Court against this nuclear development’s impact on environment . Lawsuit over internal records of 2018 ‘near miss’ at San Onofre nuclear plant moves forward.

NUCLEAR TECHNOLOGY. NuScale Power the canary in the small modular nuclear reactor market. European 

OPPOSITION TO NUCLEAR. Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament condemns UK decision to send depleted uranium shells to Ukraine. Restarting Michigan Nuclear Power Plant Risks ‘Chernobyl-Scale Catastrophe,’ Coalition Warns. Bi -Partisan measure opposes Canadian plan to store nuclear waste long term near Lake Huron.

POLITICS. Mixed messages to the nuclear industry as Biden’s budget cuts funding for nuclear energy . The UK Budget pushes nuclear and CCS, and the military link with small nuclear reactors is now overt.

POLITICS INTERNATIONAL and DIPLOMACY. 

• Macron’s nuclear power plan hits trouble. Seven countries reject nuclear-derived hydrogen from EU renewables law. EU leaders remain deadlocked on classification of nuclear energy.  France trying to “sell off its old nukes” to the Netherlands? 
• Imperial Visits: US Emissaries in the Pacific. 
• US won’t let Ukraine even consider peace talks – Moscow. Xi Jinping’s Russia trip reduced chance of nuclear war, says EU foreign policy chief.

SAFETY. 12 years later, evacuation orders lifted in parts of two towns near the crippled Fukushima nuclear power station . Fears that France’s nuclear safety system may now fail – from Nuclear Transparency Watch, 11 French and European NGOs and 23 members of European Parliament. Minnesota nuclear plant shuts down for leak; residents worry.      Incidents. Russian Factory That Makes Nuclear Missile Engines Catches Fire.

SECRETS and LIES. UK says no nuclear escalation in Ukraine after row over depleted uranium munitions. US and UK deny harmful effects of depleted uranium. Australian Greens attack Albanese government’s ‘deeply unsettling’ secrecy on submarine nuclear waste plans.

WASTES. US regulators delay decision on nuclear fuel storage license. Will Scotland’s next Chief Minister heed the warnings of Dounreay?

WAR and CONFLICT. 

• Sung-HeeChoi reports on U.S.-NATO military expansion in South Korea. 
• UK’s depleted uranium plan threatens all of Europe – Moscow. The West has ‘brought humankind to the brink of nuclear Armageddon’ with its decision to use depleted uranium ammo in Ukraine, says Russia’s US envoy.
• Stolen Valor: The U.S. Volunteers in Ukraine Who Lie, Waste and Bicker. 
• NATO pushes European Socialists for thirty more years, eternity of new wars. 
• Strengthening the international maritime force: NATO gathers global fleet commanders to study Ukraine war. 
• Declassified Video Shows How B-52 Crews Would Conduct Nuclear Strikes During Cold War.

WEAPONS and WEAPONS SALES. 

• A $1 trillion defense budget would be madness. Where the $1.3 Trillion Per Year U.S. Military Budget Goes. 
• EU to ship $2 billion more in shells, other ammunition to Ukraine . Poland’s prime minister boasted of “very good compensation” from the European Union for Polish weapons sent to Ukraine.  Baltic to Black Sea: NATO deploys Portuguese, Romanian F-16s to Russian border .
• Britain supplying depleted uranium rounds to Ukraine.  UK could fuel radioactive disaster in Ukraine – Russia. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i6FjWEPAGWw 
• The world needs Japan to rally the G-7 against nuclear weapons. 
• North Korea tests new nuclear-capable underwater drone. 
• The cost and unnecessary suffering of military spending.

March 27, 2023 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | Christina's notes