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Tragic Nuclear Submarine Accident in China Sparks Global Concern

The incident raises serious concerns about the safety of submarine missions and the readiness of governments to seek international assistance in times of such crises. It also raises questions about the effectiveness of defense systems and their potential to backfire

By Ravichandran Devendran, 5 Oct 23,  https://bnn.network/breaking-news/accidents/tragic-submarine-accident-in-china-sparks-global-concern/ #nuclear #anti-nuclear #nuclear-free #NoNukes

Details of the Submarine Disaster

55 Chinese sailors are feared dead in a tragic incident involving a nuclear submarine in the Yellow Sea. According to a confidential UK report, the submarine became entangled in a trap set up for Western sub-surface vessels, leading to a catastrophic system failure and the poisoning of the crew. Despite the severity of the situation, the Chinese government has officially denied the incident’s occurrence, and it appears that international assistance for the stranded submarine was declined.

The fatal accident occurred on August 21st, during a mission in the Yellow Sea. The submarine collided with a chain and anchor obstacle, resulting in system failures that took six hours to repair and bring the vessel to the surface. As a result of these system failures, the onboard oxygen system malfunctioned catastrophically, leading to the poisoning of the crew and the subsequent loss of life.

The Echoes of Past Submarine Catastrophes

This incident brings to mind the Kursk catastrophe, where over 100 Russian sailors died in an explosion aboard their nuclear submarine in August 2000. Initially, the Kremlin denied reports of the incident and declined assistance from Britain and Norway until it was too late to save those trapped inside the vessel. The Kursk disaster remains the biggest in submarine history with 118 lives lost.

Similarly, the Chinese government has refuted speculations about the incident as completely false, and Taiwan has also denied internet reports. The UK report on the incident is highly classified and based on defense intelligence. Despite official denials, it is believed that the incident did occur and that China declined international support.

Implications of the Submarine Disaster

The incident raises serious concerns about the safety of submarine missions and the readiness of governments to seek international assistance in times of such crises. It also raises questions about the effectiveness of defense systems and their potential to backfire, as in this case where the Chinese submarine was ensnared by its own trap intended for foreign vessels. The incident also highlights the importance of transparency in reporting such catastrophic events, as the refusal to acknowledge the incident only fuels speculation and mistrust.

The Human Cost of the Tragedy

Among the deceased are the captain of the Chinese PLA Navy Submarine 093-417 and 21 other officers. The loss of such a large number of naval personnel in a single incident is a devastating blow to the Chinese Navy and a stark reminder of the dangers that submarine crews face. As investigations continue, the world waits for definitive confirmation of the incident and its implications for international submarine operations.

October 6, 2023 Posted by | safety, weapons and war, World | 1 Comment

As Japan releases more Fukushima water, what about the rest of the plant?

A second batch of treated water is being released into the Pacific, but the entire decommissioning process will be far more complex.

all that will need to take place in an environment where the level of radiation is so high, it is nearly impossible for workers to get inside.

Japan has not yet worked out where all the waste will go

Aljazeera, By Hanako Montgomery, 5 Oct 2023 #nuclear #anti-nuclear #nuclear-free #NoNukes

“…………………………………………………………………………………………Japan has promised to decommission the power station as part of its recovery plan for Namie town and the rest of Fukushima prefecture. The plant’s six reactors suffered catastrophic damage, after the tsunami smashed into the complex, crippling the plant’s cooling systems. As radioactive material leaked from the site, 470,000 people were forced to evacuate.

But while the plant had been rendered useless, progress towards its decommissioning has been slow.

Complex challenge

According to Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO), the plant operator, that is partly because of the accumulation of 1.3 billion tonnes of treated radioactive wastewater that was used to cool the three reactors that were in operation at the time of the disaster.

The 1,000 or so blue and white tanks to store the water have taken up space needed for decommissioning, according to TEPCO, which has had to contend with strong criticism from local fishing communities and neighbouring countries like China, which have continued to protest against Japan’s plan to discharge the water into the ocean.

………………………………………………………………… According to TEPCO, the entire decommissioning process will take between 30 and 40 years. That is at least six times longer than it typically takes to decommission a plant under normal circumstances, Brent Heuser, a nuclear engineering professor from the University of Illinois in the United States, told Al Jazeera.

“Decommissioning involves removing fuel stored in structured arrangements. Japan, however, is facing unique challenges such as widely dispersed fuel, requiring both human and robotic efforts for detection,” he told Al Jazeera.

Japan has not yet worked out where all the waste will go.

TEPCO is planning to reduce some of it through incineration or recycling onsite, but that does not include the waste that will be produced from the dismantling of reactor buildings, and there is no estimate for how much radioactive waste there will be as the process moves forward.

To decommission the Daiichi plant, TEPCO must first remove the spent fuel and the fuel debris that is stuck inside the damaged units. Experts will then place the collected debris in storage containers before they can transport it to a new facility that will be built onsite.

The reactor buildings must also be dismantled.

Later this year, TEPCO will carry out a trial removal of melted debris from Unit 2. The retrieval will be expanded in stages if successful.

By 2027, plant operators hope to be able to turn their attention to Unit 1, the most seriously damaged of the reactors, which they plan to enclose with a large cover.

By 2031, they will focus on removing the melted debris.

But all that will need to take place in an environment where the level of radiation is so high, it is nearly impossible for workers to get inside.

“The doses they would receive would go way beyond any allowable limit, so that certainly is playing a role in the extended timeline for the decommission process,” Heuser said, suggesting more staff may be needed given the short period of time they will be able to remain on site.

“They’re spreading the worker dose exposure over a much larger body of people.”

Help from robots

The level of radiation means Japan is also yet to understand the full extent of the damage inside the corroded reactors.

TEPCO has used robotic probes to try and get a sense of the destruction. Equipped with 3D scanners, sensors, and cameras, robots have mapped the terrain, measured radiation levels, and searched for the elusive missing fuel.

Although some headway has been made in assessing the condition of the reactors, the data is far from reassuring.

Since 2022, TEPCO has dispatched a robotic probe into Unit 1.

The probe’s findings revealed the core had largely melted and settled at the bottom of the containment chamber – which serves as a vital safeguard against the release of radioactive material – and possibly Unit 1’s concrete basement. Furthermore, it suggested significant damage to the pedestal, the primary support structure directly beneath Unit 1’s core.

Financial considerations also loom large in Japan’s struggle with decommissioning

Ordinarily, the decommissioning of a standard nuclear plant would cost between $300m to $400m, according to the US nuclear regulator.

But given the extensive damage, compensation paid to local residents and the specialised equipment required for managing one of the world’s worst nuclear disasters, the Japanese government predicts the final bill could come to about 21.5 trillion yen ($141bn).

Akira Ono, who leads TEPCO’s decommissioning unit, has admitted the work is “challenging”. Earlier this year, a remotely-operated vehicle managed to collect only a tiny sample from Unit 1’s reactor, which is thought to contain some 880 tonnes of melted fuel debris -10 times the amount removed during the cleanup of Three Mile Island in the northeastern United States in 1979………………………………………………………………………….. https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/10/5/as-japan-releases-fukushima-water-into-the-sea-what-about-everything-else

October 6, 2023 Posted by | Fukushima continuing, wastes | Leave a comment

AI Goes to War

But you can count on one thing: the new approach is likely to be a gold mine for weapons contractors, even if the resulting weaponry doesn’t faintly perform as advertised.

When such advanced weapons systems can be made to work, at enormous cost in time and money, they almost invariably prove of limited value, even against relatively poorly armed adversaries 

Will the Pentagon’s Techno-Fantasies Pave the Way for War with China?

By William D. Hartung / TomDispatch, 4 Oct 23 #ArtificialIntelligence

On August 28th, Deputy Secretary of Defense Kathleen Hicks chose the occasion of a three-day conference organized by the National Defense Industrial Association (NDIA), the arms industry’s biggest trade group, to announce the “Replicator Initiative.” Among other things, it would involve producing “swarms of drones” that could hit thousands of targets in China on short notice. Call it the full-scale launching of techno-war.

Her speech to the assembled arms makers was yet another sign that the military-industrial complex (MIC) President Dwight D. Eisenhower warned us about more than 60 years ago is still alive, all too well, and taking a new turn. Call it the MIC for the digital age.

Hicks described the goal of the Replicator Initiative this way:

“To stay ahead [of China], we’re going to create a new state of the art… leveraging attritable, autonomous systems in all domains which are less expensive, put fewer people at risk, and can be changed, upgraded, or improved with substantially shorter lead times… We’ll counter the PLA’s [People’s Liberation Army’s] with mass of our own, but ours will be harder to plan for, harder to hit, and harder to beat.”

Think of it as artificial intelligence (AI) goes to war — and oh, that word “attritable,” a term that doesn’t exactly roll off the tongue or mean much of anything to the average taxpayer, is pure Pentagonese for the ready and rapid replaceability of systems lost in combat. Let’s explore later whether the Pentagon and the arms industry are even capable of producing the kinds of cheap, effective, easily replicable techno-war systems Hicks touted in her speech. First, though, let me focus on the goal of such an effort: confronting China.

Target: China

However one gauges China’s appetite for military conflict — as opposed to relying more heavily on its increasingly powerful political and economic tools of influence — the Pentagon is clearly proposing a military-industrial fix for the challenge posed by Beijing. As Hicks’s speech to those arms makers suggests, that new strategy is going to be grounded in a crucial premise: that any future technological arms race will rely heavily on the dream of building ever cheaper, ever more capable weapons systems based on the rapid development of near-instant communications, artificial intelligence, and the ability to deploy such systems on short notice.

The vision Hicks put forward to the NDIA is, you might already have noticed, untethered from the slightest urge to respond diplomatically or politically to the challenge of Beijing as a rising great power. It matters little that those would undoubtedly be the most effective ways to head off a future conflict with China.

Such a non-military approach would be grounded in a clearly articulated return to this country’s longstanding “One China” policy. Under it, the U.S. would forgo any hint of the formal political recognition of the island of Taiwan as a separate state, while Beijing would commit itself to limiting to peaceful means its efforts to absorb that island.

There are numerous other issues where collaboration between the two nations could move the U.S. and China from a policy of confrontation to one of cooperation, as noted in a new paper by my colleague Jake Werner of the Quincy Institute: “1) development in the Global South; 2) addressing climate change; 3) renegotiating global trade and economic rules; and 4) reforming international institutions to create a more open and inclusive world order.” Achieving such goals on this planet now might seem like a tall order, but the alternative — bellicose rhetoric and aggressive forms of competition that increase the risk of war — should be considered both dangerous and unacceptable.

On the other side of the equation, proponents of increasing Pentagon spending to address the purported dangers of the rise of China are masters of threat inflation. They find it easy and satisfying to exaggerate both Beijing’s military capabilities and its global intentions in order to justify keeping the military-industrial complex amply funded into the distant future……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

The notion that advanced military technology could be the magic solution to complex security challenges runs directly against the actual record of the Pentagon and the arms industry over the past five decades. In those years, supposedly “revolutionary” new systems like the F-35 combat aircraft, the Army’s Future Combat System (FCS), and the Navy’s Littoral Combat Ship have been notoriously plagued by cost overruns, schedule delays, performance problems, and maintenance challenges that have, at best, severely limited their combat capabilities. In fact, the Navy is already planning to retire a number of those Littoral Combat Ships early, while the whole FCS program was canceled outright.

In short, the Pentagon is now betting on a complete transformation of how it and the industry do business in the age of AI — a long shot, to put it mildly.

But you can count on one thing: the new approach is likely to be a gold mine for weapons contractors, even if the resulting weaponry doesn’t faintly perform as advertised. This quest will not be without political challenges, most notably finding the many billions of dollars needed to pursue the goals of the Replicator Initiative, while staving off lobbying by producers of existing big-ticket items like aircraft carriers, bombers, and fighter jets…………………………………………………………………….

The Pentagon has long built its strategy around supposed technological marvels like the “electronic battlefield” in the Vietnam era; the “revolution in military affairs,” first touted in the early 1990s; and the precision-guided munitions praised since at least the 1991 Persian Gulf war. It matters little that such wonder weapons have never performed as advertised. For example, a detailed Government Accountability Office report on the bombing campaign in the Gulf War found that “the claim by DOD [Department of Defense] and contractors of a one-target, one-bomb capability for laser-guided munitions was not demonstrated in the air campaign where, on average, 11 tons of guided and 44 tons of unguided munitions were delivered on each successfully destroyed target.”

When such advanced weapons systems can be made to work, at enormous cost in time and money, they almost invariably prove of limited value, even against relatively poorly armed adversaries .  (as in Iraq and Afghanistan in this century). China, a great power rival with a modern industrial base and a growing arsenal of sophisticated weaponry, is another matter. The quest for decisive military superiority over Beijing and the ability to win a war against a nuclear-armed power should be (but isn’t) considered a fool’s errand, more likely to spur a war than deter it, with potentially disastrous consequences for all concerned.

Perhaps most dangerous of all, a drive for the full-scale production of AI-based weaponry will only increase the likelihood that future wars could be fought all too disastrously without human intervention. As Michael Klare pointed out in a report for the Arms Control Association, relying on such systems will also magnify the chances of technical failures, as well as misguided AI-driven targeting decisions that could spur unintended slaughter and decision-making without human intervention. The potentially disastrous malfunctioning of such autonomous systems might, in turn, only increase the possibility of nuclear conflict.

It would still be possible to rein in the Pentagon’s techno-enthusiasm by slowing the development of the kinds of systems highlighted in Hicks’s speech, while creating international rules of the road regarding their future development and deployment. But the time to start pushing back against yet another misguided “techno-revolution” is now, before automated warfare increases the risk of a global catastrophe. Emphasizing new weaponry over creative diplomacy and smart political decisions is a recipe for disaster in the decades to come. There has to be a better way.  https://scheerpost.com/2023/10/04/ai-goes-to-war/

October 6, 2023 Posted by | technology, USA | Leave a comment

More Los Alamos National Laboratory Workers Test Positive for Radiation Exposure

October 4th, 2023  http://nuclearactive.org/

Increasing numbers of workers at Los Alamos National Laboratory have tested positive for radiation exposure both at LANL and on foreign soil.   

Six employees and the equipment they used tested positive for exposures to radioactive Iodine-125 following official foreign travel to an unknown location in March.  They traveled on commercial airlines and in personal vehicles.

Iodine-125 is a gamma ray emitter.  The workers did not detect Iodine-125 before returning home because they used a detector for alpha and beta radiation.  One gamma detection was 5,600,000 disintegrations per minute (dpm), which is 11,000 times the Department of Energy’s total reportable limit of 500 dpm.

The six workers all tested positive for Iodine-125 uptake to their thyroids.  A DOE spokesperson said, “As a prudent step to manage risks, experts from the National Nuclear Security Administration’s Radiological Assistance Program visited the residences of some of the impacted team members to conduct testing on their belongings and made recommendations to the involved individuals, laboratory management, and the Department.”  She emphasized that DOE is committed to the health and safety of its employees as well as the general public.  https://losalamosreporter.com/2023/09/25/six-lanl-employees-tested-positive-for-iodine-125-in-march-following-foreign-travel-as-part-of-multi-laboratory-team/

Escalation in the number of reports of exposures to different radionuclides at various LANL facilities continues. Most recently eight electrical workers were exposed to beryllium dust at Technical Area.

https://www.santafenewmexican.com/news/local_news/eight-workers-exposed-to-toxic-dust-at-lanl-a-recurring-problem/article_03440f98-5c9c-11ee-b28f-13dfb02871c7.html ; a worker was exposed to heat source plutonium at the Plutonium Facility at Technical Area 55 https://www.dnfsb.gov/sites/default/files/document/29026/Los%20Alamos%20Week%20Ending%20September%208%202023.pdf ; and four Triad employees working in a Technical Area 53 linear accelerator area that was not posted as a High Radiation Area were exposed and ordered to evacuate the area immediately.  https://www.energy.gov/ea/articles/enforcement-letter-triad-national-security-llc-1 [“Issuance of this Enforcement Letter reflects DOE’s decision not to pursue further enforcement activity against Triad at this time.”]

Joni Arends, of CCNS, said, “In its effort to meet the ‘mission’ to fabricate plutonium triggers for nuclear weapons, over 2,000 people have been hired.  Have they been properly trained to work in radiation environments?  The number of exposures indicates that they have not.  As a result, the health and safety of the workers is being sacrificed.  The number of incidents require the shutdown of these operations until safety is Mission Number One.”

n support of her statement, Arends referenced the unprecedented 2005 emergency shutdown of operations by LANL Director Vice Admiral Peter Nanos when a student suffered an eye injury from a laser beam the same week classified computer disks were reported missing.

Nanos wrote in an internal e-mail,  “In no case will I authorize a restart until I’m absolutely convinced that each organization will not risk further compromise of safety, security and environment.”  He continued in an email to LANL employees, ‘”This willful flouting of the rules must stop, and I don’t care how many people I have to fire to make it stop. If you think the rules are silly, if you think compliance is a joke, please resign now and save me the trouble.”  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pete_Nanos  

October 6, 2023 Posted by | Uncategorized | 1 Comment

Jeffrey Sachs: Beyond the Neocon Debacle in #Ukraine

October 4, 2023  https://consortiumnews.com/2023/10/04/jeffrey-sachs-beyond-the-neocon-debacle-in-ukraine/

Four events have shattered NATO’s drive for enlargement eastward. Now, decisions by the U.S. and Russia will matter enormously for the entire world’s peace, security and wellbeing.

By Jeffrey D. Sachs, Common Dreams

We are entering the end stage of the 30-year U.S. neoconservative debacle in Ukraine. The neocon plan to surround Russia in the Black Sea region by NATO has failed. Decisions now by the U.S. and Russia will matter enormously for peace, security, and wellbeing for the entire world.

Four events have shattered the neocon hopes for NATO enlargement eastward, to Ukraine, Georgia, and onward. 

The first is straightforward. Ukraine has been devastated on the battlefield, with tragic and appalling losses. Russia is winning the war of attrition, an outcome that was predictable from the start but which the neocons and mainstream media continue to deny. 

The second is the collapsing support in Europe for the U.S. neocon strategy. Poland no longer speaks with Ukraine. Hungary has long opposed the neocons. Slovakia has elected an anti-neocon government. E.U. leaders — including French President Emmanuel Macron, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, Spain’s Acting Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, U.K. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, and others — have disapproval ratings far higher than approvals. 

The third is the cut in U.S. financial support for Ukraine. The grassroots of the Republican Party, several GOP presidential candidates and a growing number of Republican members of Congress oppose more spending on Ukraine. In the stop-gap bill to keep the government running, Republicans stripped away new financial support for Ukraine. The White House has called for new aid legislation, but this will be an uphill fight. 

The fourth, and most urgent from Ukraine’s point of view, is the likelihood of a Russian offensive. Ukraine’s casualties are in the hundreds of thousands, and Ukraine has burned through its artillery, air defenses, tanks and other heavy weapons. Russia is likely to follow with a massive offensive.

The neocons have created utter disasters in Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, Libya and now Ukraine. The U.S. political system has not yet held the neocons to account, since foreign policy is carried out with little public or congressional scrutiny to date. Mainstream media have sided with the slogans of the neocons. 

Ukraine is at risk of economic, demographic and military collapse. What should the U.S. government do to face this potential disaster? 

Urgently, it should change course. Britain advises the U.S. to escalate, as Britain is stuck with 19th-century imperial reveries. U.S. neocons are stuck with imperial bravado. Cooler heads urgently need to prevail. 

President Joe Biden should immediately inform President Vladimir Putin that the U.S. will end NATO enlargement eastward if the U.S. and Russia reach a new agreement on security arrangements. By ending NATO expansion, the U.S. can still save Ukraine from the policy debacles of the past 30 years. 

Biden should agree to negotiate a security arrangement of the kind, though not precise details, of Putin’s proposals of Dec. 17, 2021. Biden foolishly refused to negotiate with Putin in December 2021. It’s time to negotiate now. 

There are four keys to an agreement. First, as part of an overall deal, Biden should agree that NATO will not enlarge eastward, but not reverse the past NATO enlargement. NATO would of course not tolerate Russian encroachments in existing NATO states. Both Russia and the U.S. would pledge to avoid provocations near Russia’s borders, including provocative missile placement, military exercises and the like. 

Second, the new U.S.-Russia security agreement should cover nuclear weapons. The U.S. unilateral withdrawal from the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty in 2002, followed by the placement of Aegis missiles in Poland and Romania, gravely inflamed tensions, which were further exacerbated by the U.S. withdrawal from the Intermediate Nuclear Force Agreement in 2019 and Russia’s suspension of the New Start Treaty in 2023.

Russian leaders have repeatedly pointed to U.S. missiles near Russia, unconstrained by the abandoned ABM Treaty, as a dire threat to Russia’s national security. 

Third, Russia and Ukraine would agree on new borders, in which the overwhelmingly ethnic Russian Crimea and heavily ethnic Russian districts of eastern Ukraine would remain part of Russia. The border changes would be accompanied by security guarantees for Ukraine backed unanimously by the U.N. Security Council and other states such as Germany, Turkey and India. 

Fourth, as part of a settlement, the U.S., Russia, and the E.U. would re-establish trade, finance, cultural exchange and tourist relations. It’s certainly time once again to hear Rachmaninoff and Tchaikovsky in U.S. and European concert halls. 

Border changes are a last resort and should be made under the auspices of the U.N. Security Council. They must never be an invitation to further territorial demands, such as by Russia regarding ethnic Russians in other countries. Yet borders change, and the U.S. has recently backed two border changes.

NATO bombed Serbia for 47 days until it relinquished the Albanian-majority region of Kosovo. In 2008, the U.S. recognized Kosovo as a sovereign nation. The U.S. government similarly backed South Sudan’s insurgency to break away from Sudan. 


If Russia, Ukraine, or the U.S. subsequently violated the new agreement, they would be challenging the rest of the world. As President John F. Kennedy once observed, “even the most hostile nations can be relied upon to accept and keep those treaty obligations, and only those treaty obligations, which are in their own interest.” 

The U.S. neocons carry much blame for undermining Ukraine’s 1991 borders. Russia did not claim Crimea until after the U.S.-backed overthrow of Ukraine’s President Viktor Yanukovych in 2014. Nor did Russia annex the Donbass after 2014, instead calling on Ukraine to honor the U.N.-backed Minsk II agreement, based on autonomy for the Donbass. The neocons preferred to arm Ukraine to retake the Donbass by force rather than grant the Donbass autonomy. 


The long-term key to peace in Europe is collective security as called for by the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE). 

According to OSCE agreements, OSCE member states “will not strengthen their security at the expense of the security of other States.” 

Neocon unilateralism undermined Europe’s collective security by pushing NATO enlargement without regard to third parties, notably Russia. Europe — including the E.U., Russia and Ukraine — needs more OSCE and less neocon unilateralism as key to lasting peace in Europe.


Jeffrey D. Sachs is a university professor and director of the Center for Sustainable Development at Columbia University, where he directed The Earth Institute from 2002 until 2016. He is also president of the U.N. Sustainable Development Solutions Network and a commissioner of the U.N. Broadband Commission for Development. He has been adviser to three United Nations secretaries-general, and currently serves as an SDG Advocate under Secretary-General Antonio Guterres. Sachs is the author, most recently, of A New Foreign Policy: Beyond American Exceptionalism (2020). Other books include: Building the New American Economy: Smart, Fair, and Sustainable (2017) and The Age of Sustainable Development, (2015) with Ban Ki-moon.

October 6, 2023 Posted by | politics international, Ukraine | Leave a comment

Britain Has Run Out of Military Equipment to Give #Ukraine

A British military source told The Telegraph: ‘We’ve given away just about as much as we can afford.’

By Dave DeCamp / Antiwar.com https://scheerpost.com/2023/10/04/britain-has-run-out-of-military-equipment-to-give-ukraine/

The UK has run out of military equipment that it can give to Ukraine, according to a senior British military source speaking to The Telegraph.

“We’ve given away just about as much as we can afford,” the unnamed source told the paper, adding that the UK had a role to play in encouraging other nations to continue arming Ukraine.

“We will continue to source equipment to provide for Ukraine, but what they need now is things like air defense assets and artillery ammunition, and we’ve run dry on all that,” the source said.

The UK has been a staunch supporter of the proxy war in Ukraine and has led many escalations in NATO support, including the provision of Storm Shadow cruise missiles, which have a range of 155 miles, and toxic depleted uranium ammunition for use with British-made Challenger 2 tanks.

The Telegraph report came after Ben Wallace, who resigned as defense secretary last month, said he urged Prime Minister Rishi Sunak to spend billions more so Britain could overtake Germany as Ukraine’s top supporter in Europe. The source speaking to The Telegraph said the onus should not be on London to provide the “billions” Wallace has called for. “Giving billions more doesn’t mean giving billions of British kit,” the source said.

The UK’s lack of arms for Ukraine is the latest sign that NATO support for the proxy war is fracturing. Poland recently declared it would no longer provide Ukraine with weapons over a grain spat, Slovakia elected a candidate who campaigned on ending military support for Ukraine, and Congress still has yet to authorize the additional $24 billion in spending on the war that President Biden is seeking.

October 6, 2023 Posted by | UK, weapons and war | Leave a comment

Senators Express Concerns Over Reports That Saudis Want US Support for Nuclear Program

“We should seriously consider whether it is in U.S. interests to help Saudi Arabia develop a domestic nuclear program,” 19 Democratic senators and independent Bernie Sanders wrote.

Common Dreams, BRETT WILKINS, Oct 04, 2023 #nuclear #anti-nuclear #nuclear-free #NoNukes

Amid reports that Saudi Arabia is seeking United States support for its nuclear energy program—whose capacities critics fear could be utilized to develop nuclear weapons—a group of 20 U.S. senators on Wednesday urged President Joe Biden to “seriously consider” whether such a move is in the national interest as the administration brokers a possible normalization deal between the kingdom and Israel.

In addition to concerns over the fundamentalist monarchy’s desire for a U.S. security guarantee as a condition for normalizing relations with apartheid Israel, as well as the future of a two-state solution in illegally occupied Palestine, the senators note in a letter to Biden that “the Saudi government is also reportedly seeking U.S. support to develop a civilian nuclear program, and to purchase more advanced U.S. weaponry.”

“While we should seriously consider whether it is in U.S. interests to help Saudi Arabia develop a domestic nuclear program, we should always maintain the high bar of the ‘gold standard’ 123 Agreement and insist on adherence to the Additional Protocol,” the senators wrote, referring to a provision of the Atomic Energy Act of 1954 requiring a country seeking a nuclear cooperation deal with the United States to commit to a set of nine nonproliferation criteria and expanded International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) inspections. The U.S. has entered into such agreements with more than two dozen countries, Taiwan, and the IAEA…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………more https://www.commondreams.org/news/saudi-arabia-nuclear

October 6, 2023 Posted by | politics, USA | Leave a comment

Chinese sailors feared dead after nuclear submarine gets stuck underwater: reports

Western intelligence reports say 55 Chinese sailors are dead after a nuclear submarine became trapped underwater — but China denies it.

Harry Goodwin – The Sun 3 Oct 23 https://www.news.com.au/technology/innovation/military/chinese-sailors-feared-dead-after-nuclear-submarine-gets-stuck-underwater-reports/news-story/f6ea0d7644e43915a4d176e5651f98cb

There are 55 Chinese sailors feared dead after their nuclear submarine reportedly got stuck underwater.

A report by UK intelligence experts said the sub hit a “chain and anchor” trap intended to snare Western vessels lurking off China’s Shandong province.

The crew reportedly suffocated after a “catastrophic failure” of the 107m sub’s oxygen system, The Sun reports.

It is not clear whether the trap mangled the oxygen system, or if the crew had already suffocated before the sub sank and became stuck.

The vessel is believed to be a cutting-edge Type 093 equipped with torpedoes and silent “ghost” engines.

A classified briefing obtained by the Mail reads: “Intelligence reports that on 21st of August there was an on-board accident while carrying out a mission in the Yellow Sea.

“Incident happened at 08.12 local resulting in the death of 55 crew members: 22 officers, 7 officer cadets, 9 petty officers, 17 sailors.

“Dead include the captain Colonel Xue Yong-Peng.

“Our understanding is death caused by hypoxia due to a system fault on the submarine.

“The submarine hit a chain and anchor obstacle used by the Chinese navy to trap US and allied submarines.

“This resulted in systems failures that took six hours to repair and surface the vessel.

“The on-board oxygen system poisoned the crew after a catastrophic failure.”

The British Royal navy declined to comment.

Beijing claimed the news of the sub’s destruction is “completely false”, further deepening the mystery.

October 6, 2023 Posted by | Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Hardening Ourselves into Weapons

By Robert C. Koehler Wednesday, October 4th, 2023 #Ukraine #nuclear #nuclear-free #anti-nuclear #NoNukes

“………………………………What would shut down if Congress choked off funding? The Department of Defense informed the nation: “During a government shutdown, DOD still must continue to defend and protect the United States and conduct on-going military operations.”

The superficial certainty of these words jolted me. This was cliché writ large: “continue to defend and protect the United States.” The words took American vulnerability for granted, summoning a basic national lie. Nations are always in conflict. The need for armed defense — “ongoing military operations” — is a basic truth and must not be questioned.

A Pentagon spokesman assured us that “the U.S. military is going to continue to do its job and protect our national security interests.”

What “interests” are being referenced? The untouched cliché is the fact of an ever-hostile world. National interests are things like, you know: life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. The larger world hates this! The Defense Department’s assurances have the depth of a third-grade coloring book.

And an NPR story noted that a shutdown would strategically “play into the hands of U.S. competitors” — China, Russia, etc. — and, uh oh, we can’t let that happen, right?

In my unprotected emotional state, the shallowness of such “warnings” was almost too much to bear. Global warming, the threat of nuclear war — that’s stuff for another story. This story is about national defense, which requires a seriously limited understanding of our enemies and competitors. This is about winning and losing — abstractly, of course. Don’t think about the corpses that are piling up.

Why, oh why, I found myself quietly screaming, does militarism and national “defense” always get a free pass or a quick shrug? Why is killing for peace so easily taken for granted? As we approach the sixtieth anniversary of the JFK assassination, I found myself reaching out to the words he spoke in his inaugural address: “So let us begin anew — remembering on both sides that civility is not a sign of weakness, and sincerity is always subject to proof. Let us never negotiate out of fear. But let us never fear to negotiate.”

Kennedy, in the wake of the Cuban Missile Crisis, also said, in defiance of the defense establishment: “So, let us not be blind to our differences — but let us also direct attention to our common interests and to the means by which those differences can be resolved. And if we cannot end now our differences, at least we can help make the world safe for diversity. For, in the final analysis, our most basic common link is that we all inhabit this small planet. We all breathe the same air. We all cherish our children’s future. And we are all mortal.”

I quoted these words recently in a column but they are too valuable to let go, especially in this criminally simplified world of “global competition.” We know the world is far more complex than that — unless we’re talking about U.S. militarism. Then our awareness returns to the third grade, or earlier. ………………………..

October 6, 2023 Posted by | USA, weapons and war | Leave a comment

Environmentalists suffer another setback in fight to shutter California’s last nuclear power plant

MICHAEL R. BLOOD, Thu, October 5, 2023 https://news.yahoo.com/environmentalists-suffer-another-setback-fight-215942686.html
#nuclear #anti-nuclear #nuclear-free #NoNukes

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Federal regulators Wednesday rejected a request from two environmental groups to immediately shut down one of two reactors at California’s last nuclear power plant.

Friends of the Earth and Mothers for Peace said in a petition filed last month with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission that long-postponed tests needed to be conducted on critical machinery at the Diablo Canyon Nuclear Power Plant, located midway between Los Angeles and San Francisco. They argued the equipment could fail and cause a catastrophe.

In an order dated Tuesday, the NRC took no action on the request to immediately shut down the Unit 1 reactor and instead asked agency staff to review it.

The NRC also rejected a request to convene a hearing to reconsider a 2003 decision by staff to extend the testing schedule for the Unit 1 pressure vessel until 2025. The vessels are thick steel containers that hold nuclear fuel and cooling water in the reactors.

According to the groups, the last inspections on the vessel took place between 2003 and 2005. The utility postponed further testing in favor of using results from similar reactors to justify continued operations, they said.

The commission found there was no justification for a hearing.

The groups said in a statement that the decision showed “a complete lack of concern for the safety and security of the people living near” the plant, which started operating in the mid-1980s.

Operator Pacific Gas & Electric had said the plant was in “full compliance” with industry guidance and regulatory standards for monitoring and evaluating the safety of the reactor vessels.

The petition marked the latest development in a long fight over the operation and safety of the seaside plant, which sits on a bluff above the Pacific Ocean. In August, a state judge rejected a lawsuit filed by Friends of the Earth that sought to block PG&E from seeking to extend the operating life of the plant.

PG&E agreed in 2016 to shutter the plant by 2025, but at the direction of the state changed course and now intends to seek a longer operating run for the twin reactors. Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom, who once was a leading voice to close the plant, said last year that Diablo Canyon’s power is needed beyond 2025 to ward off possible blackouts as California transitions to solar and other renewable energy sources.

October 6, 2023 Posted by | opposition to nuclear, USA | Leave a comment

NATO member calls for ‘security umbrella’ to cover #Ukraine

RT Wed, 04 Oct 2023  https://www.rt.com/russia/583994-lithuania-ukraine-nato-umbrella/

Lithuania’s foreign minister has said that Kiev must not fall into “the gray zone” of world politics

Ukraine must be covered by NATO’s security guarantees, Lithuanian Foreign Minister Gabrielius Landsbergis insisted on Tuesday. He further urged the West, which has ploughed hundreds of billions of dollars into Ukraine, to take a firmer stance on helping Kiev achieve victory over Russia.

“Ukraine must become a NATO member. NATO’s transatlantic security umbrella must also protect those countries that were left in the gray zone of geopolitics,” Landsbergis said at a security conference in Warsaw, according to the Lithuanian Foreign Ministry.

Kiev’s backers in its conflict with Russia “must do everything to keep Ukraine within its 1991 borders on this side,” He demanded, while lauding Germany for agreeing to permanently station 4,000 troops in Lithuania. “Efforts to strengthen the eastern flank depend on our will to defend ourselves,” he said.

“When we are saying that we will help Ukraine for as long as necessary, why can’t we clearly state that we are seeking the victory of Ukraine? The victory of Ukraine must be a strategic goal for us all,” Landsbergis argued.

According to Article 5 of the NATO Charter, an armed attack on one member is automatically considered an attack against all other members.

Although NATO countries repeatedly pledged to continue providing heavy weapons and other military aid to Kiev, they fell short of granting Ukraine a clear roadmap to full membership in the US-led bloc. Ukraine formally applied to join NATO more than a year ago, but still has not received a concrete timetable for accession.

In July, President Vladimir Zelensky slammed the decision not to provide a path to membership as “unprecedented and absurd.” US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, however, said at the time that Kiev cannot join the alliance “in the midst of a war” with Moscow.

Russia has insisted that NATO’s continuing expansion eastward and the bloc’s military cooperation with Kiev were among the root causes of the conflict. Moscow also warned that military aid to Ukraine makes NATO members de facto participants in the conflict.

October 6, 2023 Posted by | EUROPE, politics | Leave a comment

US Speaker McCarthy’s was ousted, partly due to the #Ukraine issue. The next showdown is due on 17 November.


Walt Zlotow, West Suburban Peace Coalition, Glen Ellyn IL 4 Oct 23

Though little noted on mainstream news, America’s disastrous proxy war against Russia was a factor in the MAGA Republicans mutiny against House Speaker Kevin McCarthy.

Their only good spending cut, which fueled their removal bid, was ending all military aid to Ukraine. All their Republican colleagues and the entire Democratic House support endless war in Ukraine killing hundreds of thousands to protect US hegemony in Europe.

To placate the MAGA’s, McCarthy inserted an end to Ukraine aid that would be sure to doom Democratic support, forcing a shutdown. Yet all but one of 210 Democrats voted for the Ukraine weaponless bill. The MAGA’s, led by Rep. Matt Gaetz, cried ‘FOUL’, claiming McCarthy made a secret deal with the Democrats to support more Ukraine aid once the shutdown crisis cooled. When called out on his likely subterfuge, McCarthy dared Gaetz to ‘Bring it on.’ Gaetz replied “I just did”, and quickly sent McCarthy packing with 100% Democratic support.

Mike Quigley of Illinois, sole Democrat voting against the bill, apparently didn’t get the leadership memo to support the bill without Ukraine aid. In a scurrilous insult to peace loving folks, Quigley blasted the bill as is a “Victory for Putin and Putin-sympathizers everywhere. We now have 45 days to correct this grave mistake before Russia friendly Republicans dig in their heels or claim victory in the next funding agreement.”

Whatever their motives, at least those ‘Russia friendly Republicans’ aren’t virulent war  supporters like Quigley, cheering on America’s newest forever war, causing massive Ukraine death and destruction to maintain US dominance abroad.

The next shutdown fight looms November 17. Time for both parties to fully embrace negotiations over weapons in Ukraine to simplify the spending impasse. No more weapons may help keep the government afloat into next year while saving hundreds of billions in wasteful spending. More importantly, it may save the senseless loss of life and country in Ukraine.   

October 6, 2023 Posted by | politics, USA | Leave a comment

Australian towns battle fire and flood back-to-back

Hours after they were threatened by fire, several Australian towns are
preparing for floods. Bushfires have been burning in Victoria’s Gippsland
region and New South Wales’ South Coast this week – both areas were hit
hard by Australia’s Black Summer bushfires four years ago. Rain is now
offering some reprieve, but it has also triggered flood warnings. The
country has reeled from disaster to disaster in recent years, as it feels
the effects of climate change.

BBC 4th Oct 2023

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-australia-66946013

October 6, 2023 Posted by | AUSTRALIA | Leave a comment

 Minnesota  State records highlight lack of coordination in nuclear leak response

Ben Henry KSTP, October 4, 2023 #nuclear #anti-nuclear #nuclear-free #NoNukes

Internal communication within state agencies highlights what appears to be a lack of coordination in responding to a radioactive leak at a nuclear power plant.

5 EYEWITNESS NEWS obtained hundreds of records in a public data request surrounding communication about Xcel Energy’s Monticello nuclear power plant leak from late last year.

According to Xcel, it detected the leak on Nov. 22, 2022. The 400,000-gallon spill was contaminated with tritium, which, according to the power company, is a compound that emits low levels of radiation.

From the start, Xcel says the leak posed no health or safety risk.

While the leak was detected in November, it wasn’t until mid-March this year that the public was informed. Now, after analyzing state data, we’re getting a better idea of how the months of communication, before informing the public, within state agencies went.

In an email between two Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA) officials on Feb. 22 — three months after the leak was detected — one official wrote in part, “there’s a lot to say about this situation. It’s not helped by the fact that no state or federal agency has really stepped up to the plate and taken complete charge of the situation.”

That email goes on to say that in a meeting with Xcel, the MPCA official “told them we were concerned about Tritium getting into the Miss. River and that everything should be done to prevent that from happening,” eventually adding, “Xcel has not informed local Emergency Response authorities or legislators (something I told them to do).”

Then on March 2 — two weeks before Xcel publicly announced the leak — the same MPCA official informed colleagues that they would be the lead agency but that they’re still working out how other state agencies will respond – writing, “A “kickoff” meeting for involved staff is being scheduled. To be clear, there’s no new information prompting this action but rather a growing need for better coordination.”……………………  https://kstp.com/kstp-news/top-news/state-records-highlight-lack-of-coordination-in-nuclear-leak-response/

October 6, 2023 Posted by | safety, USA | Leave a comment