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The War in Ukraine Was Provoked—and Why That Matters to Achieve Peace

By recognizing that the question of NATO enlargement is at the center of this war, we understand why U.S. weaponry will not end this war. Only diplomatic efforts can do that.

Common Dreams, JEFFREY D. SACHS, May 23, 2023

George Orwell wrote in 1984 that “Who controls the past controls the future: who controls the present controls the past.” Governments work relentlessly to distort public perceptions of the past. Regarding the Ukraine War, the Biden administration has repeatedly and falsely claimed that the Ukraine War started with an unprovoked attack by Russia on Ukraine on February 24, 2022. In fact, the war was provoked by the U.S. in ways that leading U.S. diplomats anticipated for decades in the lead-up to the war, meaning that the war could have been avoided and should now be stopped through negotiations.

Recognizing that the war was provoked helps us to understand how to stop it. It doesn’t justify Russia’s invasion. A far better approach for Russia might have been to step up diplomacy with Europe and with the non-Western world to explain and oppose U.S. militarism and unilateralism. In fact, the relentless U.S. push to expand NATO is widely opposed throughout the world, so Russian diplomacy rather than war would likely have been effective.

The Biden team uses the word “unprovoked” incessantly, most recently in Biden’s major speech on the first-year anniversary of the war, in a recent NATO statement, and in the most recent G7 statement. Mainstream media friendly to Biden simply parrot the White House. The New York Times is the lead culprit, describing the invasion as “unprovoked” no fewer than 26 times, in five editorials, 14 opinion columns by NYT writers, and seven guest op-eds!

There were in fact two main U.S. provocations. The first was the U.S. intention to expand NATO to Ukraine and Georgia in order to surround Russia in the Black Sea region by NATO countries (Ukraine, Romania, Bulgaria, Turkey, and Georgia, in counterclockwise order). The second was the U.S. role in installing a Russophobic regime in Ukraine by the violent overthrow of Ukraine’s pro-Russian President, Viktor Yanukovych, in February 2014. The shooting war in Ukraine began with Yanukovych’s overthrow nine years ago, not in February 2022 as the U.S. government, NATO, and the G7 leaders would have us believe.

Biden and his foreign policy team refuse to discuss these roots of the war. To recognize them would undermine the administration in three ways. First, it would expose the fact that the war could have been avoided, or stopped early, sparing Ukraine its current devastation and the U.S. more than $100 billion in outlays to date. Second, it would expose President Biden’s personal role in the war as a participant in the overthrow of Yanukovych, and before that as a staunch backer of the military-industrial complex and very early advocate of NATO enlargement. Third, it would push Biden to the negotiating table, undermining the administration’s continued push for NATO expansion.

The archives show irrefutably that the U.S. and German governments repeatedly promised to Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev that NATO would not move “one inch eastward” when the Soviet Union disbanded the Warsaw Pact military alliance. Nonetheless, U.S. planning for NATO expansion began early in the 1990s, well before Vladimir Putin was Russia’s president. In 1997, national security expert Zbigniew Brzezinski spelled out the NATO expansion timeline with remarkable precision.

U.S. diplomats and Ukraine’s own leaders knew well that NATO enlargement could lead to war…………………………………………………………………..

Ukraine’s leaders knew clearly that pressing for NATO enlargement to Ukraine would mean war. Former Zelensky advisor Oleksiy Arestovych declared in a 2019 interview “that our price for joining NATO is a big war with Russia.”

During 2010-2013, Yanukovych pushed neutrality, in line with Ukrainian public opinion. The U.S. worked covertly to overthrow Yanukovych, as captured vividly in the tape of then U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Victoria Nuland and U.S. Ambassador Geoffrey Pyatt planning the post-Yanukovych government weeks before the violent overthrow of Yanukovych. Nuland makes clear on the call that she was coordinating closely with then Vice President Biden and his national security advisor Jake Sullivan, the same Biden-Nuland-Sullivan team now at the center of U.S. policy vis-à-vis Ukraine.

…………………………………. Historian Geoffrey Roberts recently wrote: “Could war have been prevented by a Russian-Western deal that halted NATO expansion and neutralised Ukraine in return for solid guarantees of Ukrainian independence and sovereignty? Quite possibly.” In March 2022, Russia and Ukraine reported progress towards a quick negotiated end to the war based on Ukraine’s neutrality. According to Naftali Bennett, former Prime Minister of Israel, who was a mediator, an agreement was close to being reached before the U.S., U.K., and France blocked it.

While the Biden administration declares Russia’s invasion to be unprovoked, Russia pursued diplomatic options in 2021 to avoid war, while Biden rejected diplomacy, insisting that Russia had no say whatsoever on the question of NATO enlargement. And Russia pushed diplomacy in March 2022, while the Biden team again blocked a diplomatic end to the war.

By recognizing that the question of NATO enlargement is at the center of this war, we understand why U.S. weaponry will not end this war. Russia will escalate as necessary to prevent NATO enlargement to Ukraine. The key to peace in Ukraine is through negotiations based on Ukraine’s neutrality and NATO non-enlargement. The Biden administration’s insistence on NATO enlargement to Ukraine has made Ukraine a victim of misconceived and unachievable U.S. military aspirations. It’s time for the provocations to stop, and for negotiations to restore peace to Ukraine.  https://www.commondreams.org/opinion/the-war-in-ukraine-was-provoked-and-why-that-matters-if-we-want-peace—

June 13, 2023 Posted by | history, Reference, weapons and war | 1 Comment

My nuclear family

“The locals know their local land and water supplies are contaminated from the nuclear material that was either buried in nearby canyons or on riverbanks,” Gómez writes in her book. “They know their presence on the Pajarito Plateau is being erased from national memory. They know they were placed in dangerous jobs because of their identities. They know the plutonium exploded into the atmosphere during the Trinity Test is making them sick. They know nuclear waste, if buried in their backyard, poses severe threats.”

Alicia Inez Guzmán, Searchlight New Mexico, 14 June 23,  https://www.lcsun-news.com/story/news/2023/06/11/my-nuclear-family/70306994007/

My parents’ house sits at the foot of the Sangre de Cristos facing west toward the setting sun and the Jemez Mountains. I still remember nights looking out across the vast darkness at the twinkling lights of Los Alamos, the secret city, “a place,” as the late anti-nuclear activist and Ohkay Owingeh elder Herman Agoyo put it, “with no public memory.” 

As the crow flies, Truchas is 30 miles from Los Alamos, separated by the great Tewa Basin and arid badlands checkerboarded by Hispano settlements and Indigenous Pueblos. For most of my young life, I took the Lab for granted. It was there in the background, omnipresent like a low-frequency hum. 

But it didn’t always just exist. It was forced onto our homeland and into our consciousness, even if most origin stories about the Manhattan Project and the Lab’s continued presence in the region treat local people like extras in a movie. 

“For the several hundred workers required to man these plants, there must also be several thousand service and supporting personnel,” a 1950 internal report read. Its writer was debating whether Los Alamos was the best place for the weapons Lab moving forward. 

Scientists performed clandestine work here, yes, but that work required and continues to require the effort of so many others — “supporting personnel” — who can also be on the frontlines of exposure. 

I am reminded, for instance, of an experiment that went horribly wrong just nine months after American forces decimated Hiroshima and Nagasaki with nuclear bombs. A Canadian physicist, Louis Slotin, was trying to gather data on nuclear chain reactions when the screwdriver he was holding as a wedge between a beryllium tamper and a plutonium core accidentally slipped. For a brief second, the beryllium and plutonium reached fission, sending out a blast of blue light and radioactivity. 

Slotin’s death in 1946 has been famously recorded in histories of the Lab. But there were several other people in the room that day, including several colleagues and a security guard whose fate has largely been eclipsed. All that was noted in records of the event was his fear. Apparently, it was said, the security guard ran out of the room and up a hill. And that’s where his part in the story ends. 

But he was there, a witness — and one, I imagine, who was exposed to the same plutonium that within a matter of nine days killed Slotin. I’ve long wondered: Who was he? What was his story?

When I think of that man, I think of my Grandpa Gilbert. Many auxiliary staff were local people who got their start on “the hill” as security guards for the Atomic Energy Commission. That was his story — a career begun as a security guard in 1946 and ended some three decades later as a staff member of the Lab and the University of California, which managed it. The position was a distinction that not many Hispanos held at the time. My mom says he felt dignified by his work there — the only means he had to raise five kids after World War II. But there was a trade-off, including discreet trips to the doctor where he was screened for cancer on a more-than-routine basis. 

Many family members would follow in his footsteps — my Uncle Jerry among them. Los Alamos was a place abounding in conspiracy theories and Uncle Jerry found himself at the center of one of them. He believed that racism had created a culture of retaliation, so toxic that it led to his being framed for intentionally dosing his supervisor with plutonium-239. After my uncle’s death two years ago, the Santa Fe New Mexican published a column narrating the sordid events — his boss ultimately recanted the allegations and my uncle and others won a settlement — but he was haunted by a lasting specter. The multiple cancers that consumed his body decades later were products of the Lab, in his opinion, like sleeper fires set within him. 

I only recently came to know the fragments of my Uncle Pat’s story. During his three years at the Lab in the late 1970s, he was flown on two occasions to California with a locked box chained to his wrist. His destination was TRW, the predecessor of Northrop Grumman Space Technology, and his cargo, he told me, was top-secret technology that could detect nuclear weapons testing from outer space. 

There’s a kind of mental acrobatics required to compartmentalize these different realities — the opportunity and the harm, the secrets and the consent. I know this compartmentalization well, this desire to draw a line in the sand between the good and the bad. When I was 19, I spent a summer working as an undergraduate intern in the Lab’s explosives division, a building perched behind a maze of fences and guards. I didn’t have a security clearance at the time, nor could I foresee getting one, so I spent most days marooned at my desk in the front office, filing papers and sending emails. I couldn’t even take a bathroom break without a chaperone accompanying me. 

Nothing of that work rings more clearly than a memory of two scientists stumbling out into the hallway, covered in blood. An experiment had gone awry — nothing radiation related — but it was so shrouded in mystery that parsing what actually happened is like trying to put a puzzle together that’s missing half the pieces. I watched in horror from the doorframe.

After that, I transferred to the Bradbury Science Museum, also in Los Alamos, where I walked by replicas of Little Boy and Fat Man daily to get to my desk. I spent that summer, among other things, writing exhibition text about the Manhattan Project’s early architects — J. Robert Oppenheimer, Enrico Fermi, Richard Feynman. I wrote not the history of mi gente, but of those agents of immense creation and destruction, those who’d exacted what Myrriah Gómez in her book, “Nuclear Nuevo México,” calls nuclear colonization. The irony. 

It was only when I left the state that I had the distance to understand the debt our communities pay for the good jobs. I began to unpack what it means for New Mexico to be what the writer D.H. Lawrence once called the moon of America. This place was distant enough in America’s consciousness to be foreign, exotic even. But as that “tierra incognita,” the unknown and unknowable blankness stretched across mental maps of the Southwest, our world became America’s wasteland. We continue to sit at the periphery of centers of power, yet we have been forced into the epicenter of this nation’s nuclear weapons complex. 

Now, as I write about the role of nuclear weapons across New Mexico, the nation and the globe, Toni Morrison’s words come to mind: “The subject of the dream is the dreamer.” Her ideas about literature were deeply influenced by psychoanalysis. Indeed, to her mind, the act of dreaming was not unlike the act of writing. Or, to put it another way, the subject of the writing is the writer. Here, that is me. 

My family and community’s own tangled history with the Lab sits in my subconscious like an inchoate thought. Only when I hold it up to scrutiny does that thought form into the imperative, allowing me to fully fathom what the Manhattan Project birthed in our backyard. Perhaps this is what Gómez refers to as an “innate knowing,” our local “sixth sense.” 

“The locals know their local land and water supplies are contaminated from the nuclear material that was either buried in nearby canyons or on riverbanks,” Gómez writes in her book. “They know their presence on the Pajarito Plateau is being erased from national memory. They know they were placed in dangerous jobs because of their identities. They know the plutonium exploded into the atmosphere during the Trinity Test is making them sick. They know nuclear waste, if buried in their backyard, poses severe threats.”

I know all of this when I drive along Highway 84/285, an artery that connects Pojoaque Pueblo to Española and the Pueblos of Santa Clara and Ohkay Owingeh, below a billboard sprawled against sienna-hued bluffs. A woman with a complexion like my own holds radiation detection equipment and smiles down at me. 

“Radiation Control Technicians are vital to operations at LANL,” the billboard proclaims. “Start your career as an RCT at Northern NM College now.”

My worldview will always shape my writing on a topic that hits so close to home, but the focus of this series — The Atomic Hereafter — is to highlight all the communities most impacted by 80 years of nuclear presence, from the most recent attempts to modernize the nation’s nuclear arsenal to the long, drawn-out ways radiation can transmit from mother to child. Nuclear issues in this state are generational. I will take them one story at a time.

June 13, 2023 Posted by | PERSONAL STORIES, USA | Leave a comment

Fukushima waste-water plan a nuclear threat to Asia-Pacific

FILE PHOTO: Storage tanks for radioactive water are seen at Tokyo Electric Power Co’s (TEPCO) tsunami-crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant in Okuma town, Fukushima prefecture, Japan February 18, 2019. REUTERS/Issei Kato/File Photo

By Shaun Burnie | chinadaily.com.cn 2023-06-13  https://www.chinadaily.com.cn/a/202306/13/WS6487d3e0a31033ad3f7bbf92.html

Japan has decided to start discharging radioactive wastewater from the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant into the Pacific Ocean very soon. The operator of the wrecked plant began tests on Monday of newly constructed facilities for discharging treated radioactive wastewater into the sea. Many myths and untruths have been spread about the nuclear-contaminated water. For example, the Japanese government has said, that according to the International Atomic Energy Agency, the global nuclear industry and some scientists, there is nothing to worry about the effects of the radioactive wastewater.

The Japanese government also claims that nearly all the radioactive materials will be removed from the wastewater using the Advanced Liquid Processing System (ALPS) with only tritium remaining before it is released into the Pacific. It is constantly stated that tritium cannot be removed from the wastewater, but would emit very weak radiation and therefore it will have no impact on either the marine environment or human health in the Asia-Pacific region and beyond.

False claims to mislead the Japanese public

As for Tokyo Electric Power Company, the owner of the Fukushima nuclear plant, it claims discharging the wastewater is necessary due to insufficient space for more storage tanks and for it to be able to fully decommissioning the Fukushima plant between 2041 and 2051. TEPCO also says the discharges will meet regulatory standards and will be lawful.

In the real world, it is a lot worse and a lot more complicated than what TEPCO, the Japanese government and the IAEA claims. The ALPS has been a spectacular failure, with major doubts about its effectiveness. In addition to tritium, all the radioactive carbon (C-14) in the wastewater will be released into the ocean along with many other radionuclides (plutonium isotopes, iodine-129, strontium-90). But despite the Japanese government and TEPCO “planning” to keep them below the regulatory limit, they will still be significant.

There is no safety threshold for artificial radioactivity in the environment, and technology does exist to process tritium from the tanks’ water. However, TEPCO and the Japanese government do not want to spend huge amounts of money needed to do so. Tritium is indeed a low energy radioactive material but that does not mean its effect is weak; if ingested, it has the potential to damage plants, animals and humans.

Recent research published by a leading radiation biologist shows scientific literature of the past 60-plus years is clear — tritium, in particular organically bound tritium (OBT), is biologically harmful to all forms of life. The persistence, bioaccumulation and potential biomagnification and increased toxicity of OBT increases the potential impact on the environment if tritiated water is discharged on land or in the sea.

Tritium more dangerous than previously believed

None of the current regulations in Japan (or worldwide) takes into full account the nature of organic forms of tritium. That organic forms of tritium have been found to bioaccumulate in phytoplankton, the base of the marine food chain, is deeply worrying. The fact that there has been no comprehensive environmental impact assessment of these and many other issues is outrageous, and suggests there is a deliberate underestimation of the accumulation and potential toxic effect of tritium on the environment.

Equally important, the many other radioactive materials in the Fukushima wastewater have the potential to cause damage to the environment and human health. In fact, Japan has sufficient storage capacity, including in the areas around the Fukushima plant. And storing the toxic wastewater, TEPCO cannot fully decommission the reactors at Fukushima in the next 20-30 years — probably not in this century. Rather than being lawful, the release of the wastewater into the sea will violate international law, specifically the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea.


One reason why the untruths and myths continue to be spread is that there is a lot at stake for the Japanese government and the nuclear industry. Japan’s energy policy is dependent on restarting many nuclear reactors shut down after the 2011 Fukushima disaster. So far, nine have resumed operations — but according to government policy, Japan needs 30-plus reactors by 2030.

Public opinion in Japan has been influenced by the government’s claim that it is safe to operate these nuclear reactors and that it is possible to recover from a three-reactor meltdown without consequences for human health and the environment. Of course, it’s not.

Sweeping real issue under the carpet

TEPCO, the Japanese government or the IAEA refuses to accept that the wastewater crisis points to a deeper nuclear crisis at the Fukushima plant. And it is getting worse, because groundwater entering the plant continues to become highly contaminated, while the water in the tanks requiring ALPS processing increases.

In November 2021, based on TEPCO data, there were 1,284,284 cubic meters of contaminated ALPS water in the storage tanks, of which 832,900 cu m needed further ALPS processing. As of April 20, 2023, the total volume of radioactive wastewater stored in the tanks was 1,330,944 cu m — a 3.6 percent increase in less than 2 years.

Worse, about 70 percent or 931,600 cu m of the wastewater needs to be processed again (and probably many times again) by the ALPS to bring the radioactive concentration levels below the regulatory limit for discharge. This is an increase of nearly 12 percent in less than 2 years.

TEPCO has succeeded in reducing the concentration levels of strontium, iodine and plutonium in only 0.2 percent of the total volume of the wastewater, and it still requires further processing. But no secondary processing has taken place in the past nearly three years. Neither TEPCO nor the Japanese government nor the IAEA wants to talk about this. They have not said how many times the wastewater needs to be processed, how long it will take to do so or whether the efforts will ever be successful.

Problems not new but none solved in 5 years

Greenpeace wrote about these problems and why the ALPS failed nearly five years ago; none of those issues has been resolved. Also, there is a high possibility of the ALPS failing in the future.

To proceed with their discharge plan, the Japanese government and TEPCO have been creating a false impression on the public that significant progress has been made in decommissioning the Fukushima plant. But fact is, the source of the problem — the highly radioactive fuel debris in reactor pressure vessels 1, 2 and 3 — continues to contaminate groundwater. Nearly 1000 cu m of water becomes highly contaminated every 10 days. So until the nuclear fuel is isolated from the environment, contaminated groundwater, potentially hundreds of thousands of cubic meters, will continue to accumulate.

While the Fukushima plant, after being destroyed by the earthquake-triggered tsunami in March 2011, released large amounts of radioactive particles into the environment, most of the radioactive inventory remains inside the melted fuel. As such, the damaged Fukushima plant on the edge of ocean is a long-term radioactive threat to the environment, including the marine environment. And this threat will be aggravated once Japan begins dumping the toxic water into the ocean.

TEPCO, the Japanese government and the IAEA refuse to acknowledge the fact that the decommissioning plan for the Fukushima plant is not attainable, and that they must embark on a comprehensive reassessment of the plan.

Crisis compounded by damage to reactor

The nuclear crisis in Fukushima is compounded by the damage to the reactors, in particular unit 1. The rapid meltdown of the nuclear fuel in March 2011 severely damaged the large concrete block the 440-ton reactor pressure vessel sits on. One of the agencies responsible for its decommissioning has recently demanded that TEPCO work out immediate countermeasures to prevent the possible collapse of the reactor. But with very high radiation levels inside the plant, it’s not clear whether any countermeasures are possible.

Building a very large containment structure covering the reactor buildings, like it was done at the Chernobyl plant in Ukraine after the nuclear disaster in 1986, is probably the only way to prevent highly radioactive dust entering the lower atmosphere in the event of a future collapse. But such a “solution” is not a currently an option for the Japanese government or the nuclear industry, as it would send the wrong message that the decommissioning process is not going according to plan.

There is no scientific, legal or moral justification for Japan to deliberately contaminate our shared and common marine environment. And concerned citizens, scientists, maritime lawyers, the fishing communities across the Asia-Pacific and the world’s leading oceanography universities and institutes have spread public awareness about the nuclear dangers, something that has rarely been done before.

There is a very strong legal case for challenging Japan’s decision to dump the wastewater into the sea but doing so is a major undertaking. For many reasons, no state or group of states may take up the challenge through UNCLOS this year. But since the environmental threat from the Fukushima plant will only intensify, future legal action should not be ruled out.

At a time when our oceans are under so many multiple threats, including from melting glaciers and related climate emergencies, overfishing and biodiversity loss and plastic pollution — there is no reason why Japan should be allowed to dump the radioactive water into the sea.

Greenpeace has been campaigning for protection for our oceans from radioactive contamination since the 1970s. And the most important thing I have learned in my 30 years with Greenpeace is that positive change is possible even if it does not often happen as early as it should but it can happen and people must never give up their efforts or hope.

The author is a senior nuclear specialist with Greenpeace East Asia and has worked in Japan and wider Asia for over 30 years.

June 13, 2023 Posted by | Fukushima continuing, oceans, Reference, wastes | Leave a comment

USA Majority say taking nuclear, military secrets a national security threat

Former President Trump taking nuclear, military documents would be a national security risk, say 80 percent of respondents in a new CBS News/YouGov poll.

June 13, 2023 Posted by | politics | Leave a comment

Number of nuclear weapons held by major powers rising, says thinktank

Daniel Boffey,Guardian, 12 June 23

The number of operational nuclear weapons in the arsenals of the major military powers is on the rise again according to a leading thinktank, whose analysts warn the world is “drifting into one of the most dangerous periods in human history”

There are now an estimated 12,512 warheads across the globe, with most of the new ones in military stockpiles said to be China’s

The other new weapons are attributed to Russia (12), Pakistan (five), North Korea (five) and India (four).

The increase in battle-fit warheads comes despite a statement in 2021 from the UN’s five permanent security council members – the US, Russia, China, the UK and France – that “nuclear war cannot be won and must never be fought”.

Russia and the US together possess almost 90% of all the nuclear weapons globally. In addition to their usable nuclear weapons, the two powers each hold more than 1,000 warheads previously retired from military service, which they are gradually dismantling.

Of the total of 12,512 warheads in the world, which includes those that are retired and awaiting dismantlement, Sipri estimates that 3,844 are deployed with missiles and aircraft.

At a time of both deteriorating international relations and the escalation of nuclear sabre-rattling, there are now said to be an estimated 12,512 warheads globally, of which 9,576 are in military stockpiles ready for potential use, up 86 on a year ago.

Around 2,000 of those – nearly all of which belong to Russia or the US – are kept in a state of high operational alert, meaning that they are fitted to missiles or held at airbases hosting nuclear bombers.

Sipri notes, however, that the full picture is difficult to judge as a number of countries, including Russia, the US and the UK, have reduced their level of transparency since Vladimir Putin launched his full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

China, the world’s third biggest nuclear power, is believed to have increased its number of warheads from 350 in January 2022 to 410 in January 2023. That arsenal is expected to keep growing but Sipri predicts it they will not surpass the arsenals of the US and Russia.

The rise brings to an end the period of gradual decline that followed the end of the cold war. The Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (Sipri) suggested 60 of the new warheads were held by China………………………………………………………………………………. more https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/jun/12/number-of-nuclear-weapons-held-by-major-powers-rising-says-thinktank

June 13, 2023 Posted by | 2 WORLD, weapons and war | Leave a comment

Oman facilitating Iran-US talks to replace 2015 nuclear accord

MUSCAT DAILY, 12 JUN 2023

Tehran, Iran – Iran on Monday said it has continued indirect negotiations with the Unites States through the Sultanate of Oman over its nuclear deal and a possible prisoner swap.

Iran’s nuclear programme has long been the subject of scrutiny from Western powers, resulting in sanctions that have crippled the country’s economy.

A 2015 deal granted Tehran much-needed relief from sanctions in exchange for curbs on its nuclear programme before it was torpedoed by the United States’ unilateral pullout in 2018.

In recent days, the two capitals have denied media reports that they were close to reaching an interim deal to replace the 2015 accord.

“We welcome the efforts of Omani officials and we exchanged messages with the other party through this mediator” over the lifting of US sanctions, Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Nasser Kanaani said on Monday.

“We have never stopped the diplomatic processes,” he added during his weekly press conference, emphasising that the talks “were not secret”.

Diplomatic ties between Tehran and Washington soured following the 1979 revolution led by Iran’s first supreme leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.

Efforts to revive the 2015 nuclear deal have so far failed to yield results.

Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Sunday reiterated the denial of moves towards acquiring a nuclear weapon. He also said deals could be reached, provided they do not change “the existing infrastructure of the nuclear industry”……………………………………………..more https://www.muscatdaily.com/2023/06/12/oman-facilitating-iran-us-talks-to-replace-2015-nuclear-accord/

June 13, 2023 Posted by | Iran, politics international | Leave a comment

Fukushima nuclear plant begins tests of wastewater release plan; fishing officials remain opposed

The operator of the wrecked Fukushima nuclear plant has begun tests of newly constructed facilities for discharging treated radioactive wastewater into sea, a plan strongly opposed by local fishing communities and neighboring countries

By MARI YAMAGUCHI Associated Press. abc news, June 12, 2023,

TOKYO — The operator of the wrecked Fukushima nuclear plant began tests on Monday of newly constructed facilities for discharging treated radioactive wastewater into the sea, a plan strongly opposed by local fishing communities and neighboring countries.

The tests at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant use fresh water instead of the treated water, operator Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings said……………………………….

The plan has faced fierce protests from local fishing communities concerned about safety and reputational damage. Nearby countries, including South Korea, China and Pacific Island nations, have also raised safety concerns. Japan’s government has set up a fund to promote Fukushima seafood and provide compensation in case sales fall due to safety concerns.

Fishing officials said they remain opposed to the plan when they met Industry Minister Yasutoshi Nishimura on Saturday when he visited Fukushima and the neighboring prefectures of Ibaraki and Miyagi.

“We stand by our opposition,” Tetsu Nozaki, head of the Fukushima prefectural fisheries association, told Nishimura. Nozaki, however, said the association supports progress in the plant’s decommissioning and hopes to continue the dialogue. “At the moment, our positions remain wide apart.”

………….. In South Korea, fishermen staged a rally in front of the National Assembly in Seoul on Monday against the plan to release treated radioactive water.  https://abcnews.go.com/Technology/wireStory/fukushima-nuclear-plant-begins-tests-wastewater-release-plan-100006333

June 13, 2023 Posted by | Japan, wastes | Leave a comment

Ontario Government Response on Nuclear Proximity Principle Expected by Mid-October.

 www.nuclearwastewatch.ca 12 June 23

Toronto – Groups that travelled to Queen’s Park last week for the reading of their petition asking the Provincial government to adopt a Proximity Principle requiring that high-level radioactive waste be managed close to where it is generated may wait until mid-October to hear to back from the Provincial government. The government has 24 sitting days to respond to petitions presented in the Provincial legislature. The groups say they won’t be idle during that waiting period.

Members of We the Nuclear Free North, in Northern Ontario, and Protect Our Waterways – No Nuclear Waste, in Southwestern Ontario, attended the May 30 session of Ontario’s Legislative Assembly to witness their petition being presented by Lise Vaugeois (NDP – Thunder Bay-Superior North), Sol Mamakwa (NDP – Kiiwetinoong) and Mike Schreiner (GPO Leader – Guelph). The petition calls for the adoption of the proximity principle with respect to the management of (nuclear waste) and for the government to direct Ontario Power Generation (OPG) to further their development of robust extended storage systems at the reactor locations.

In conjunction with attending the Legislature to witness the reading of the Petition, the dozen representatives of the two groups were present at Queen’s Park for a related media conference and for meetings with members of the Provincial parliament.

“We had an excellent day at Queen’s Park, and are ready for more,” commented Anja van der Vlies, President of Protect Our Waterways – No Nuclear Waste, which is based in South Bruce, one of the areas under investigation by the Nuclear Waste Management Organization (NWMO) for a deep geological repository for nuclear fuel waste.

The groups plan to continue meeting with MPPs as well as with municipal and First Nation leaders, seeking their support and learning what additional concerns or questions they have, either about the Proximity Principle or about the NWMO’s nuclear waste burial plan which would include 2-3 transport trucks of nuclear waste per day for 50 years, travelling an average of 1,600 kilometres one-way.

The petitions bearing 1,141 signatures were presented in the Legislature. An additional 977 signatures had been collected but were not included in the packages presented at Queen’s Park due to a formatting issue.

“Each of those 2,200 signatures represents a conversation,” explained Dodie LeGassick, member of We the Nuclear Free North and Nuclear Lead for Environment North.

Toronto – Groups that travelled to Queen’s Park last week for the reading of their petition asking the Provincial government to adopt a Proximity Principle requiring that high-level radioactive waste be managed close to where it is generated may wait until mid-October to hear to back from the Provincial government. The government has 24 sitting days to respond to petitions presented in the Provincial legislature. The groups say they won’t be idle during that waiting period.Members of We the Nuclear Free North, in Northern Ontario, and Protect Our Waterways – No Nuclear Waste, in Southwestern Ontario, attended the May 30 session of Ontario’s Legislative Assembly to witness their petition being presented by Lise Vaugeois (NDP – Thunder Bay-Superior North), Sol Mamakwa (NDP – Kiiwetinoong) and Mike Schreiner (GPO Leader – Guelph). The petition calls for the adoption of the proximity principle with respect to the management of (nuclear waste) and for the government to direct Ontario Power Generation (OPG) to further their development of robust extended storage systems at the reactor locations.In conjunction with attending the Legislature to witness the reading of the Petition, the dozen representatives of the two groups were present at Queen’s Park for a related media conference and for meetings with members of the Provincial parliament.“We had an excellent day at Queen’s Park, and are ready for more,” commented Anja van der Vlies, President of Protect Our Waterways – No Nuclear Waste, which is based in South Bruce, one of the areas under investigation by the Nuclear Waste Management Organization (NWMO) for a deep geological repository for nuclear fuel waste.The groups plan to continue meeting with MPPs as well as with municipal and First Nation leaders, seeking their support and learning what additional concerns or questions they have, either about the Proximity Principle or about the NWMO’s nuclear waste burial plan which would include 2-3 transport trucks of nuclear waste per day for 50 years, travelling an average of 1,600 kilometres one-way.The petitions bearing 1,141 signatures were presented in the Legislature. An additional 977 signatures had been collected but were not included in the packages presented at Queen’s Park due to a formatting issue.“Each of those 2,200 signatures represents a conversation,” explained Dodie LeGassick, member of We the Nuclear Free North and Nuclear Lead for Environment North.“We are hearing it repeatedly from public – the nuclear industry has to do better than their 1970s plan to ship and bury all of Canada’s high-level waste in a single location and then abandon it. When people learn about the Proximity Principle they say, ‘What can I sign to support that?’”

Additional petitions are active among groups opposing the NWMO’s proposed deep geological repository. Environment North has collected over 12,000 signatures on an online petition that opposes NWMO’s nine-step siting plan, and Protect Our Waterways – No Nuclear Waste is circulating a petition informing the Ontario government that Ontario is not a willing host for a deep geological repository, and demanding programs that prioritize the investigation of technology alternatives.

Ontario Power Generation (OPG) owns over 90% of the nuclear fuel waste in Canada, and is a major shareholder in the NWMO, which is seeking a site for a deep geological repository for all of Canada’s nuclear fuel waste. Two sites are now short-listed: the Revell Site between Ignace and Dryden, and the South Bruce-Teeswater Site near Teeswater. The Provincial government can issue directives to OPG, which is a Provincial crown corporation.

A Backgrounder on the Proximity Principle and High Level Nuclear Waste is HERE. 

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June 13, 2023 Posted by | Canada | Leave a comment

Japanese government making “all-out” efforts to convince fishermen that Fukushima waste-water release is OK

 Government seeks fishing industry’s understanding over nuclear plant water
release. Industry minister Yasutoshi Nishimura met with local fisheries
industry representatives Saturday to seek their understanding for the
planned release into the sea of treated water from the Fukushima No. 1
nuclear power plant. The government will “make all-out efforts to prevent
reputational damage” to the fisheries industry from the water release,
Nishimura told representatives of a federation of fisheries cooperatives in
a meeting in Mito, Ibaraki Prefecture.

 Japan Times 11th June 2023

https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2023/06/11/national/fukushima-contaminated-water/

June 13, 2023 Posted by | politics | Leave a comment

Consent-based or bribery?

June 11, 2023 https://beyondnuclear.org/consent-based-or-bribery/

The US Department of Energy on June 9 announced it will direct $26 million to “groups of university, nonprofit, and private-sector partners” who will help communities decide that they want to be the recipients of the country’s irradiated reactor fuel.

Having abjectly failed to find any safe, long-term radioactive waste management “solution” — possibly because there is none — while also failing to halt the production of nuclear waste, the DOE has now moved to what it calls “consent-based siting”.

The DOE’s interpretation of this term is that the recipients of the $26 million will “work with communities interested in DOE’s community-centered approach to storing and disposing of spent nuclear fuel.” In addition they would “ensure transparency and local support.”

But if past examples are any indicator, the “consenting” communities are likely to be those most deprived of resources, especially Indigenous communities and communities of color, who may feel pressured to accept the DOE largesse along with the fatal outcomes of living alongside high-level radioactive waste.

While U.S. Secretary of Energy Jennifer M. Granholm, insists that “it is vital” that “DOE works to be good stewards of the nation’s spent nuclear fuel,” the end result is more likely to be dumping radioactive waste on communities whose “consent” and willingness is driven by economic hardship.

Read the DOE announcement

June 13, 2023 Posted by | Uncategorized | Leave a comment

UN concerned by ‘discrepancy’ in Ukraine nuclear plant water levels after dam collapse

. IAEA head Rafael Grossi, who will visit Zaporizhzhia
nuclear plant, says there is a difference of about 2 metres from the
reservoir that cools the plant.

 Guardian 12th June 2023

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/jun/12/un-concerned-by-discrepancy-in-ukraine-nuclear-plant-water-levels-after-dam-collapse

June 13, 2023 Posted by | safety | Leave a comment

Zelensky Confirms Ukrainian Counteroffensive Has Started

by EDITORJune 12, 2023,  https://scheerpost.com/2023/06/12/zelensky-confirms-ukrainian-counteroffensive-has-started/

Russia said Sunday that it had destroyed German-made Leopard tanks and US-made Bradley fighting Vehicles.

By Dave DeCamp / Antiwar.com

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has confirmed that Ukrainian forces have started their long-awaited counteroffensive.

Throughout last week, Russia reported large Ukrainian attacks in the eastern Donbas region and in the southern Zaporizhzhia Oblast, but Ukrainian officials stayed quiet about the assaults. On Saturday, Zelensky said that “relevant counteroffensive defensive actions are taking place in Ukraine.”

Zelensky didn’t offer any details about the operations, which are being carried out with NATO equipment by NATO-trained troops. On Sunday, Russia said that it destroyed several German-made Leopard tanks and US-made Bradley Fighting Vehicles over the past 48 hours.

The Russian Defense Ministry claimed it has continued to repel Ukrainian attacks. “During the past day, the armed forces of Ukraine continued unsuccessful attempts of offensive actions in the Donetsk, southern Donetsk, and Zaporizhzhia directions,” the ministry said.

Ukrainian officials on Sunday claimed that their forces made gains in Donetsk. Neither the Russian or Ukrainian claims have been confirmed, but it’s clear there has been steady fighting both in the Donbas and in Zaporizhzhia, and US officials have acknowledged to CNN that Ukraine is taking heavy casualties.

The US has been pushing for a counteroffensive instead of peace talks as the Biden administration is against the idea of a ceasefire in Ukraine. US officials told POLITICO that they believe President Biden’s reputation and continued US support for Ukraine hinges on the success of the counteroffensive.

June 13, 2023 Posted by | Uncategorized | Leave a comment

As Japan prepares to release Fukushima nuclear waste water – a reminder that countries can ban goods with radiation contamination risks

Banning goods with radiation contamination risks can pressure Tokyo, say analysts, as Japan prepares to start nuclear-contaminated wastewater dumping trials

By Wan HengyiPublished: Jun 11, 2023 

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Japan’s unilateral decision to discharge nuclear-contaminated wastewater into the sea disregards international law and public opinion, said analysts on Sunday, one day before Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO), the operator of the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, starts trial operations of equipment for dumping nuclear-contaminated wastewater into the Pacific Ocean.

Some analysts believe that resisting goods with potential nuclear radiation contamination risks can be extended to other regions apart from Fukushima in Japan and products beyond seafood in accordance with the relevant import regulations, which would exert greater pressure on the Japanese government by consumers.

Fukushima media reported that the trial operation will be carried out on Monday by mixing fresh water and seawater, and will take 10 days to two weeks to check whether the specified amount of water can flow to the sea and whether the shutoff device can shut off water in the event of an emergency.

Japan’s unilateral discharge of nuclear nuclear-contaminated wastewater is not in line with the spirit of the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, said Tse Chin-wan, secretary for the Environment and Ecology of China’s Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, on Thursday, adding that imports of seafood from Fukushima and nearby high-risk areas will be banned in Hong Kong at once if Japan starts to dump nuclear-contaminated water into the Pacific Ocean.

Seafood from outside high-risk areas in Japan would also need to provide radiation test reports before it can be sold in local markets in Hong Kong, he added.

According to a report issued by the plant’s operator Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) on June 5, the radioactive elements in marine fish caught in the harbor of the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant far exceeded safety levels for human consumption, with the content of Cs-137 reaching 180 times that of the standard maximum stipulated in Japan’s food safety law.

South Korea also announced it would maintain a ban on imports of seafood from Japan’s Fukushima Prefecture, according to reports from Nikkei Asia on April 30. The country has for the past decade banned imports of food from the area due to concerns over food safety and fears of radiation contamination following the 2011 nuclear disaster.

In 2019, South Korea won the bulk of its appeal in a dispute at the World Trade Organization over import bans and testing requirements it had imposed on Japanese seafood in the wake of the Fukushima nuclear disaster.

The case of South Korea serves as a valuable reference for China and other countries, as it demonstrates that a resistance against potentially radiation-contaminated products is not limited to seafood from Fukushima alone, Chang Yen-chiang, director of the Yellow Sea and Bohai Sea Research Institute of Dalian Maritime University, told the Global Times on Sunday………………………………………… more  https://www.globaltimes.cn/page/202306/1292369.shtml

June 13, 2023 Posted by | radiation | Leave a comment

Trudeau visits Kiev to bolster US-NATO war on Russia

Roger Jordan. WSWS, 12June 23

In a surprise visit to Kiev on Saturday, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau committed another C$500 million in military assistance to the far-right Ukrainian regime, and pledged Ottawa would continue supplying weapons and funds to Kiev to wage war on Russia for “as long as it takes.” Coming as the major imperialist powers are carrying out a dramatic escalation of the US-NATO war with Russia, Trudeau’s visit also saw Ottawa advocate for Ukraine’s membership in NATO, which would result in a direct military clash between nuclear-armed powers.

Trudeau was accompanied on his trip by Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland, a bellicose Ukrainian nationalist whose grandfather served as the editor of the only Ukrainian-language newspaper permitted in Nazi-occupied Europe. The pair held private talks with the Ukrainian President, Volodymyr Zelensky, before Trudeau unveiled the new military support package at a joint press conference with Zelensky. Although the Prime Minister refused to specify how the funds would be spent, his remarks made clear that the military aid will contribute to the major escalation of NATO’s participation in the conflict that is already under way.

Canada committed to extending Operation Unifier, the training program for the Ukrainian army launched in 2015, until 2026. Canada will now train Ukrainian pilots to fly F-16 fighter jets, which are one of the main types of combat aircraft that NATO members are planning to provide Kiev. According to a press release by the far-right Ukrainian Canadian Congress, the aid package also includes additional supplies of 105mm ammunition, air-to-surface missiles, and a tank maintenance centre in Poland.

Trudeau used his press conference with Zelensky to make provocative denunciations of Russia. This included accusing Moscow, without providing a shred of evidence, of being responsible for the destruction of the Nova Kakhovka dam, and vowing it “will be held accountable.” The implications of Trudeau’s statement are that Russia, by deliberately destroying civilian infrastructure, is guilty of war crimes—the very type of claim that the NATO powers, Canada included, have used to justify directly intervening in conflicts (as in the 1999 NATO war against Yugoslavia)……………………………………

Zelensky’s declaration at his joint press conference with Trudeau that Ukraine’s long-promised counter-offensive has begun underscores that the war in Ukraine is entering a new, even more explosive stage. Leading officials from the United States and other imperialist powers have repeatedly declared their commitment to the military defeat of Russia, while their governments significantly expand military activity throughout Europe.

…………………………………………………….. Canada’s latest round of military assistance was announced less than two weeks after Ukraine’s Defence Minister, Oleksii Reznikov, delivered a long list of requests for weapons in a video statement to the Canadian Association of Defence and Security Industries, Canada’s top arms manufacturers’ body. Noting the unusual character of the address, the CBC reported that Reznikov had “bypassed the [Canadian] government” to speak directly to the assembled executives. In reality, he was given the opportunity to do so by the Trudeau government, whose Defence Minister Anita Anand delivered the opening address but was conveniently absent when Reznikov spoke. ………………………………………………………………………… https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2023/06/12/scev-j12.html

June 13, 2023 Posted by | Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Lawmakers seek clearer picture of nuclear command and control costs

By Colin Demarest C4ISR Net 12 June 23

WASHINGTON — U.S. lawmakers are pushing for a clearer catalog of spending on nuclear command, control and communications, the means through which the devastating arsenal is readied, coordinated and potentially used.

Members of the House strategic forces panel included in a draft of fiscal 2024 defense legislation a provision to establish a major force program for NC3, a highly guarded topic. The proposal was shared June 12, alongside additional National Defense Authorization Act input from other subcommittees.

……………………………… The Biden administration’s Nuclear Posture Review, published last year, pledged to strengthen nuclear command and control, including further insulation from cyber, space-based and electromagnetic attack. Different nuclear weapon types face different risks, as well, in part because of their age and lack of ingrained information technologies. Newer nuclear weaponry is expected to enter the stockpile after 2030 — and with it, the potential for more-modern systems. https://www.c4isrnet.com/battlefield-tech/c2-comms/2023/06/12/lawmakers-seek-clearer-picture-of-nuclear-command-and-control-costs/

June 13, 2023 Posted by | politics, USA | Leave a comment

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