TODAY. Nuclear safety no problem these days?
I can almost hear the joyful responses that are about to come from the world’s top nuclear industry publicist Rafael Grossi.
The murmurings of nuclear safety success are already out there in the media.
As a tsunami is predicted from a 7.6 magnitude earthquake:
“Japan’s Nuclear Regulation Authority said no irregularities have been confirmed at nuclear power plants along the Sea of Japan, including five active reactors at Kansai Electric Power’s Ohi and Takahama plants in Fukui prefecture.“
Yes, as Western Japan coastal towns evacuate in anticipation of a tsunami, it looks as though the nuclear lobby is gearing up for another joyful success, if there is no nuclear disaster this time.
Why on Earth would anyone plan for nuclear reactors along the coast of a highly earthquake-prone country?
Well, I think that it was one of those manipulative master-strokes of the USA nuclear-military-industrial complex – way back in the 1950s - helping Japan to get the “benefits” of the nuclear industry – to make up for the “drawbacks” of the nuclear industry – like the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
Grossi’s busy telling us that nuclear reactors are safe, not a terrorism or war danger.
And that it’s OK to pour liquid nuclear waste into the oceans,
And that, with a heating, sea-level rise world, look, reactors can cope with tsunamis?
Tsunami Waves Hit Japan After Massive Earthquake: Nuclear Power Plants On Alert; Evacuations Ordered
A massive, 7.6-magnitude earthquake hit Japan on January 1, leading to warnings of huge tsunami waves hitting the island nation. Wajima city in Ishikawa prefecture reported waves as high as 1 metre lashing the coast. Japanese media reports said the waves could go as high as 5 metres, or 16.5 feet. The developments brought back memories of the 2011 quake and tsunami which left 18,500 dead or missing in Japan. Watch the full video for more.
Kim Jong Un announces launch of new spy satellites, nuclear resolutions for 2024
The Hill, BY MIRANDA NAZZARO – 12/31/23
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un pledged to launch three new military spy satellites, build attack drones and expand the country’s nuclear materials in 2024, according to state media reports.
In remarks made at the end of the ruling Workers’ Party meeting over the weekend, Kim railed against the “vicious” moves of the U.S. and its followers for working against North Korea, claiming the U.S. has helped push the Korean Peninsula to the “brink of a nuclear war,” according to the official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA).
“Because of reckless moves by the enemies to invade us, it is a fait accompli that a war can break out at any time on the Korean Peninsula,” Kim said, per KCNA.
The North Korean leader pointed to the the increase in joint military exercises by the U.S., Japan and South Korea and the deployment of U.S. military assets including bombers over the past year, arguing they show the U.S. “aims at the military confrontation” with North Korea “at any cost.”
The U.S., alongside South Korea, has maintained that the countries will continue to wage a joint defense against North Korea’s threats.
Kim vowed to launch three reconnaissance satellites in 2024, a declaration that comes nearly a month after the country launched its first reconnaissance satellite in November, KCNA said. The U.S. said that launch was a violation of United Nations Security Council resolutions.
Kim later emphasized the need to create a “reliable foundation” to make more nuclear weapons and ordered officials to boost the North’s submarine capabilities and to develop unmanned combat equipment, The Associated Press (AP) reported.
Observers told the AP that Kim expressed the belief that boosted nuclear abilities could give him the opportunity for diplomacy with the U.S. and that his country could be given sanctions relief if former President Trump wins the presidency in 2024…………………………………………………………
Diplomacy talks between the U.S. and North Korea broke down in 2019 over the amount of sanctions relief the North could get for partly surrendering its nuclear program. Since then, Kim has aimed to modernize the North’s nuclear supply through efforts including an increased production of plutonium and uranium.
Experts said Kim likely believes Trump, if reelected to the White House, may make concessions over sanctions relief as the U.S. gears its focus on the Russia-Ukraine and Israel-Hamas wars, per the AP. https://thehill.com/policy/international/4383437-kim-jong-un-announces-launch-of-new-spy-satellites-nuclear-resolutions-for-2024/
Nuclear concerns as a magnitude-7.6 earthquake hits north central Japan, prompting tsunami warnings
ABC News 1 Dec 24
A powerful earthquake struck central Japan on Monday, killing at least one person, destroying buildings, knocking out power to tens of thousands of homes, and prompting residents in some coastal areas to flee to higher ground.
Key points:
- It was the strongest quake in the region in more than four decades, according to the US Geological Survey
- The quake with a preliminary magnitude of 7.6 triggered waves of about 1 metre along Japan’s west coast
- Russia and North Korea also issued tsunami warnings for some areas
The quake with a preliminary magnitude of 7.6 triggered waves of about 1 metre along Japan’s west coast and neighbouring South Korea, with authorities saying larger waves could follow……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………
Nuclear concerns
The quake comes at a sensitive time for Japan’s nuclear industry, which has faced fierce opposition from some locals since a 2011 earthquake and tsunami triggered nuclear meltdowns in Fukushima. Nearly 20,000 people were killed and whole towns devastated in the disaster.
Japan last week lifted an operational ban imposed on the world’s biggest nuclear plant, Kashiwazaki-Kariwa, which has been offline since the 2011 tsunami.
Japan’s Nuclear Regulation Authority said no irregularities have been confirmed at nuclear power plants along the Sea of Japan, including five active reactors at Kansai Electric Power’s Ohi and Takahama plants in Fukui Prefecture.
Hokuriku’s Shika plant in Ishikawa, the closest nuclear power station to the epicentre, had already halted its two reactors before the quake for regular inspections and saw no impact from the quake, the agency said……………………… more https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-01-01/tsunami-warnings-issued-in-japan-after-earthquake/103277706
India, Pakistan exchange list of nuclear installations under 1988 bilateral pact
LiveMint, 01 Jan 2024,
The pact signed by India and Pakistan in 1988 prohibits the two countries from attacking each other’s atomic facilities.
India and Pakistan on Monday exchanged a list of their nuclear installations under a bilateral pact signed in 1988 and came into force in 1991 that prohibits the two countries from attacking each other’s atomic facilities………………..
India and Pakistan on Monday exchanged a list of their nuclear installations under a bilateral pact signed in 1988 and came into force in 1991 that prohibits the two countries from attacking each other’s atomic facilities.
The exchange of the list came amid frosty ties between the two countries over the Kashmir issue as well as cross-border terrorism.
Both countries have not had any formal talks since they ended the composite dialogue in the aftermath of the 2008 Mumbai attacks carried out by Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), a Pakistan-based terror group, in which 166 people were killed and several injured.
The political leadership of both countries made several attempts to resume the contact. However, they were derailed by a string of terror attacks on Indian soil by Pakistan-based terror groups. https://www.livemint.com/news/india/india-pakistan-exchange-list-of-nuclear-installations-under-1988-bilateral-pact-11704107726908.html
Burial review – deep dive into underworld of nuclear power and its toxic legacy
Emilija Škarnulytė’s hypnotic documentary zooms into the science of uranium and radioactivity, as well as cold war politics.
Occupying the liminal space between a geological excavation and speculative realism, Emilija Škarnulytė’s hypnotic documentary effortlessly moves between the micro and the macro. Zooming into a 3D-configuration of uranium ore, the film’s opening cuts to X-ray-esque renderings of radioactive household objects, all cast in an eerie shade of sickly green. These abstractions soon give way to something seemingly concrete yet equally mysterious: the camera plunges underwater, bringing us face to face with the remains of a 1950s uranium mine in Poland, once dug out in secrecy under the Soviet Union. Slithering through the wreckage is a water python, whose glistening presence serves as a kind of cosmic counterpart to the exploitation of natural resources.
Such slipperiness, both in terms of the imagery and the camera’s point of view, recurs throughout Škarnulytė’s film. Cutting to the Ignalina nuclear power station in Lithuania, a sister plant of Chernobyl, the film uses on-screen text to describe its decommissioning process, which produced millions of cubic metres of reinforced concrete structures to be demolished. This colossal waste will, hopefully, be processed at a research facility at Meuse in France, which is situated about 500 metres below sea level.
Though moving through these highly technological spaces, Škarnulytė’s film also makes space for bursts of surrealism. The python reappears in the Ignalina plant, as its gleaming form coils around the station’s switchboards. Bringing together the lush forests, the mushroom clouds of nuclear tests, and closeups of a snake shedding its skin, Burial questions the very possibility of rebirth and transformation. Even as Ignalina is ground into dust and buried away from prying eyes, the political spectre of the Soviet Union control continues to lurk, as the film offers a final message of support for Ukraine.
Burial is available from 5 January on True Story.
Chris Hedges: Israel’s Genocide Betrays the Holocaust
By obscuring and falsifying the lessons of the Holocaust we perpetuate the evil that defined it.
By Chris Hedges ScheerPost, December 31, 2023
Israel’s lebensraum master plan for Gaza, borrowed from the Nazi’s depopulation of Jewish ghettos, is clear. Destroy infrastrutrue, medical facilities and sanitation, including access to clean water. Block shipments of food and fuel. Unleash indiscriminate industrial violence to kill and wound hundreds a day. Let starvation — the U.N. estimates that more than half a million people are already starving — and epidemics of infectious diseases, along with the daily massacres and the displacement of Palestinians from their homes, turn Gaza into a mortuary. The Palestinians are being forced to choose between death from bombs, disease, exposure or starvation or being driven from their homeland.
There will soon reach a point where death will be so ubiquitous that deportation – for those who want to live – will be the only option.
Danny Danon, Israel’s former Ambassador to the U.N. and a close ally of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, told Israel’s Kan Bet radio that he has been contacted by “countries in Latin America and Africa that are willing to absorb refugees from the Gaza Strip.” “We have to make it easier for Gazans to leave for other countries,” he said. “I’m talking about voluntary migration by Palestinians who want to leave.”
The problem for now “is countries that are willing to absorb them, and we’re working on this,” Netanyahu told Likud Knesset members.
In the Warsaw Ghetto, the Germans handed out three kilograms of bread and one kilogram of marmalade to anyone who “voluntarily” registered for deportation. “There were times when hundreds of people had to wait in line for several hours to be ‘deported,’” Marek Edelman, one of the commanders of the Warsaw Ghetto uprising, writes in “The Ghetto Fights.” “The number of people anxious to obtain three kilograms of bread was such that the transports, now leaving twice daily with 12,000 people, could not accommodate them all.”
The Nazis shipped their victims to death camps. The Israelis will ship their victims to squalid refugee camps in countries outside of Israel. Israeli leaders are also cynically advertising the proposed ethnic cleansing as voluntary and a humanitarian gesture to solve the catastrophe they created.
This is the plan. No one, especially the Biden administration, intends to stop it.
The most disturbing lesson I learned while covering armed conflicts for two decades is that we all have the capacity, with little prodding, to become willing executioners. The line between the victim and the victimizer is razor thin. The dark lusts of racial and ethnic supremacy, of vengeance and hate, of the eradication of those we condemn as embodying evil, are poisons that are not circumscribed by race, nationality, ethnicity or religion. We can all become Nazis. It takes very little. And if we do not stand in eternal vigilance over evil — our evil — we become, like those carrying out the mass killing in Gaza, monsters. …………………………………………………………………………………………………….
It is hard not to be cynical about the plethora of university courses about the Holocaust given the censorship and banning of groups such as Students for Justice in Palestine and Jewish Voices for Peace, imposed by university administrations. What is the point of studying the Holocaust if not to understand its fundamental lesson — when you have the capacity to stop genocide and you do not, you are culpable? ……………………………………………………….
The moral universe has been turned upside down. Those who oppose genocide are accused of advocating it. Those who carry out genocide are said to have the right to “defend” themselves……………………………………………………………………………..
The Holocaust was weaponized from almost the moment Israel was founded. It was bastardized to serve the apartheid state. If we forget the lessons of the Holocaust, we forget who we are and what we are capable of becoming. We seek our moral worth in the past, rather than the present. We condemn others, including the Palestinians, to an endless cycle of slaughter. We become the evil we abhor. We consecrate the horror. https://scheerpost.com/2023/12/31/israels-genocide-betrays-the-holocaust/
Nuclear News 1st January 2024
Good news? Yes, it’s hard to find. But it’s out there. So many millions of people working towards a clean and peaceful planet, working with compassion for the victims of war, of injustice, and of extreme weather. Impossible to name the many agencies – from the numerous United Nations ones, (UNICEF, UNHCR, UNESCO ……..), and ICAN, Red Cross , Red Crescent, MSF, Greenpeace, FOE …. … many more… Millions give their time voluntarily.
It’s a pity that the nature of news is to tell us the bad things, to glorify the global phalanx that promotes war and the nuclear industry, and to focus on the sociopaths who dominate politics and corporations. But the good movements and the good workers are there, carrying our hopes for 2024
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My resolution for 2024 – to make this newsletter shorter – (from next time), more to the point – and leave out Israel, Gaza, Ukraine as much as possible.
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TOP STORIES
Nuclear expert Mycle Schneider on the COP 28 pledge to triple nuclear energy production:‘Trumpism enters energy policy’.
Shuttering the Nuclear Weapons Sites: There’s Gold in Those Warheads but the Scrap Metal is Radioactive.
Why AI is a disaster for the climate.
The failed Nuscale project lets Utah down — again.
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From the archives. The spread of radiation- internal contamination through fresh produce in Japan
Climate. Amazon drought: ‘We’ve never seen anything like this’. The faith leaders fighting for the climate: ‘we have a moral obligation’. Sea level rise: ‘We can’t afford to wait’: a Cornish town faces climate threat head on.
Noel’s notes. The rise of the Übermensch – the tech gods. Are we ignoring GAZA – the new Auschwitz, as the world ignored Nazi camps from 1933-39? . Nuclear Industry’s New Year Resolution – “Let’s get sloppier about safety”.
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CIVIL LIBERTIES. With the Persecution of Julian Assange Biden Is Overseeing the Silent Death of the First Amendment
CLIMATE. COP28’s Unrealistic Tripling of Nuclear Power.
ECONOMICS.
- European nuclear Power Purchase Agreements (PPAs) may be unworkable – analysts.
- UK guarantees for minimum price for nuclear-produced electricity – an expensive disaster.
- CSIRO says wind and solar much cheaper than nuclear, even with added integration costs.
- Regulators approve deal for ratepayers to pay for Georgia Power’s new nuclear reactors.
- Meet the Companies Profiting From Israel’s War on Gaza.
- China’s Low-Cost Nuclear Offer Faces Scrutiny in Kazakhstan.
ENERGY. Talen Energy Is Building Data Centers That Run on Nuclear Power. Now, It Needs to Find Buyers.
ENVIRONMENT.
- Oceans. US Promotion of Banned Fukushima Seafood Contradicts Biden’s Cancer Initiatives.
- How green is the UK Government’s nuclear energy strategy?
- Inside the Pentagon’s Painfully Slow Effort to Clean Up Decades of PFAS Contamination.
- Effect of U.S. nuclear weapons tests on the otters of Alaska.
- Water: State papers: Plans for nuclear power plant on shores of Lough Neagh shelved over drinking water concerns.
ETHICS and RELIGION. Catholic activists arrested for anti-nuclear protest outside UN. ‘We will coup whoever we want!’: the unbearable hubris of Musk and the billionaire tech bros.
HEALTH. Buried secrets, plutonium poisoned bodies. Radiation heroes: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QP0NU65SKAo&t=1s Documents show toxins in Air Force nuclear missile capsules.
HISTORY. The Long History Of Zionist Proposals To Ethnically Cleanse The Gaza Strip.
LEGAL. Day X Marks the Calendar: Julian Assange’s ‘Final’ Appeal. Assange Appeal Hearing Set for February. Constitutional Violations: Julian Assange, Privacy and the CIA. Judge Rules Assange Visitors May Sue CIA For Allegedly Violating Privacy.
Former chair of Ohio utility regulator surrenders in $60 million bribery scheme linked to energy bill.
Tokyo High Court holds Japan government not liable for Fukushima nuclear disaster. Tokyo court holds only the utility responsible to compensate Fukushima evacuees, and reduces damages.
MEDIA. What? Ukraine Is Not Winning the War? The Narrative Turns. Now What? Meta’s Broken Promises -Systemic Censorship of Palestine Content on Instagram and Facebook. New Book: Energy Revolutions -Profiteering versus Democracy .
POLITICS. The Biden Administration Is Quietly Shifting Its Strategy in Ukraine. Biden has the power to rein in the nuclear presidency. He should use it. U.S. Nuclear Sector Set for Major Transformation.
Sunak to scale back nuclear target in latest UK net zero climbdown Time to shelve Hinkley Point C? UK’s Nuclear Minister has so far failed to meet East Suffolk communities who have concerns about Sizewell C nuclear project . NFLA Policy Briefing 283: Nuclear Free Local Authorities submission to the Parliamentary Environmental Audit Committee inquiry into the ‘The Potential Role of Proposed Small Modular Reactors’
France’s Council of State opinion on a Bill relating to governance of nuclear safety in relaunching the nuclear sector . Spain Confirms 2035 Nuclear Phase Out Deadline.
POLITICS INTERNATIONAL and DIPLOMACY. Geopolitics has already doomed the second nuclear renaissance. Sweden, France strengthen cooperation on nuclear. Why Egypt’s new nuclear plant is a long-term win for Russia. US eyes reports Iran has accelerated uranium enrichment.
SAFETY.
- DRUGS IN THE NUCLEAR SPHERE: UNVEILING A TROUBLING NEXUS.
- Documents Reveal Hidden Problems at Russia’s Nuclear Powerhouse.
- GMB union says urgent action needed to tackle safety concerns at Sellafield. EDF to extend nuclear outages in 2024, 2025 on corrosion issue.
- Incidents: A nuclear-powered ship in Murmansk started to burn: only few locals got to know about the serious incident. Mystery fire breaks out on Russia’s only nuclear-powered icebreaker vessel as it was docked at Arctic port.
- Japan allows world’s biggest nuclear plant to restart. Japan Lifts Operational Ban on Fukushima Nuclear Plant Owners.
- South Carolina nuclear plant’s cracked pipes get downgraded warning from officials. Low-Flying Helicopters Will Monitor Any Nuclear Threat In Las Vegas This Weekend.
- Cyber-hackers target UK nuclear waste company Radioactive Waste Management. Nuclear attack on Northern Ireland viewed as ‘possibility’ after 9/11.
SECRETS and LIES Atlas Network strategies: how fossil fuel is using “think” tanks to delay action. . ‘Cover-up’ hearing Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission for late January 2024. Price Waterhouse Cooper’s (PWC’s) $8m nuclear submarine payday revealed. More serious governance failures in Defence contracting.
TECHNOLOGY. SMR – Spending Money Recklessly – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AL7kwLMANK0 Microsoft is training an AI to help get nuclear reactors approved.
URANIUM. Iran undoes slowdown in enrichment of uranium to near weapons-grade -IAEA
WASTES. Cold War nuclear waste is prioritized at Carlsbad-area repository. How much is there? Site for Canada’s underground nuclear waste repository to be selected next year.
WAR and CONFLICT. US Trying to Water Down New Cease-Fire Resolution at UN Security Council. Surrender or die – Netanyahu.
WEAPONS and WEAPONS SALES.
- Israel receives 230 planes, 20 ships loaded with US arms amid Gaza war. US….Arsenal of Genocide in Gaza .
- Year of the drone — how the hi-tech weapon has transformed warfare.
- Spiralling nuclear costs make UK’s Ministry Of Defence’s equipment plan unsustainable.
- Russia has completed delivery of nuclear weapons to Belarus, Lukashenko says. Russia To Retire World’s Only Nuclear-Powered, Largest Battle-Cruiser Pyotr Veliky.
- Kim Jong Un announces his nuclear resolutions for 2024.
WIPP’s Legacy Transuranic Waste Disposal Plan Demonstrates DOE’s Broken Promises; Get Your Comments in by Friday, January 3rd, 2025
https://nuclearactive.org/ 30 Dec 24
The New Mexico Environment Department’s hazardous waste permit for the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) requires the Department of Energy (DOE) to submit a Legacy Transuranic, or TRU, Waste Disposal Plan to the Environment Department. DOE submitted its inadequate plan on November 4th for a 60-day public comment period, which ends on Friday, January 3rd, 2025. https://wipp.energy.gov/Library/documents/2024/24-0772-s.pdf
A sample public comment letter you can use to create your comments is available HERE.
The DOE plan ignores the promises DOE made to New Mexicans. WIPP was sold as a pilot project to clean up Cold War legacy radioactive and hazardous waste at DOE’s nuclear weapons sites located across the country. It was a test case for the deep geologic disposal of transuranic, or plutonium-contaminated, nuclear waste made during the Cold War. DOE promised it would cleanup all its transuranic waste, ship it to WIPP for disposal and close WIPP after 25 years of operations. WIPP opened in 1999 and was scheduled to close in 2024.
But DOE changed its mind. DOE now wants to keep WIPP open until at least 2083 for the transuranic waste created by fabricating new plutonium triggers, or pits, for nuclear weapons at Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) and the Savannah River Site in South Carolina.
DOE is ignoring its promises and the buried transuranic waste at LANL that needs to be packaged and shipped to WIPP. Further, there are 2,025 transuranic waste containers stored aboveground in the Area G fabric tents in a wildfire zone. https://n3b-la.com/area-g-tru/ New Mexicans can challenge DOE’s plan through the WIPP Hazardous Waste Permit and the three new permit conditions that address the need for another nuclear waste repository in a state other than New Mexico; the need to prioritize and reduce risk of transuranic waste stored in New Mexico; and the need for a Legacy TRU Waste Disposal Plan that prioritizes disposal of Cold War legacy waste over newly generated nuclear waste, including at LANL. https://www.env.nm.gov/hazardous-waste/wipp-permit-page/ , see permit conditions 2.14.3 Repository Siting Annual Report; 4.2.1.4 Prioritization and Risk Reduction of New Mexico Waste; and 4.2.1.5 Legacy TRU Waste Disposal Plan on the attached. 240924 NMED WIPP HazWaste Renewal Permit Conditions
DOE’s plan fails to define legacy waste. DOE’s definition is explicitly intended to include as legacy waste whatever any DOE site describes as legacy, including waste generated more than a decade after WIPP opened. The plan also includes as legacy waste “surplus” plutonium that DOE plans to ship and process at LANL and dispose of at WIPP.
DOE will submit the public comments to the Environment Department before the end of January. The Environment Department will determine whether DOE met the permit requirements for the plan.
The public comments that have been submitted so far are available on the WIPP homepage at the third blue box labeled “Legacy TRU Waste Disposal Plan” or at https://wipp.energy.gov/Legacy-TRU-Waste-Disposal-Plan.asp
DRUGS IN THE NUCLEAR SPHERE: UNVEILING A TROUBLING NEXUS
Alastair philip wiper captures the unexpected connection between nuclear missiles and drugs
DesignBoom 31 Dec 23
“…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………As Alastair Philip Wiper explains in Drugs and Missiles, there is a compelling argument for the main danger posed by nuclear weapons: the unintended risk of self-destruction. History is full of declassified cases, from planes accidentally crashing with nuclear payloads to governments mistaking computer simulations of war for actual events. The accidental release of weapons through human error, such as pulling the wrong handle, and the explosion of missile silos underscore this vulnerability. ‘Once, a bear climbing the fence of an Air Force base was mistaken for Russian special forces beginning an invasion,’ shares the photographer. ‘And then there are the drugs.’
In Eric Schlosser’s book Command and Control, it’s revealed that of the individuals authorized to handle nuclear weapons in 1980, 1.5% lost their clearance due to drug abuse, totaling at least 1,728 individuals who were caught using drugs in proximity to nuclear weapons. Fast forward to 2016, a disconcerting reality unfolded as over a dozen Air Force members responsible for safeguarding nuclear missiles were convicted of both using and distributing substances such as LSD, ecstasy, cocaine, and marijuana. This juxtaposition underscores the persistent and concerning intersection between drug use and the guardianship of powerful weaponry……………………………….. more https://www.designboom.com/art/alastair-philip-wiper-unexpected-connection-nuclear-missiles-drugs-12-25-2023/
Cyber-hackers target UK nuclear waste company RWM.
Radioactive Waste Management says attempt was made to breach the business using LinkedIn
Guardian, Alex Lawson and Anna Isaac, 1 Jan 2024
Cyber-hackers have targeted the company behind a £50bn project to build a vast underground nuclear waste store in Britain, its developer has said.
Radioactive Waste Management, the company behind the Geological Disposal Facility (GDF) project, has said that hackers unsuccessfully attempted to breach the business using LinkedIn.
RWM is the government-owned entity behind a trio of nuclear bodies that merged last year to create Nuclear Waste Services (NWS). The new body brought together the GDF project, the long-established Low Level Waste Repository in west Cumbria and another body responsible for managing waste to develop a store expected to last 175 years.
In accounts for RWM filed at Companies House, NWS’s chief executive, Corhyn Parr, said of the merger that “we have seen instances of potential exploitation of ownership change through specific attack vectors, predominantly LinkedIn targeting”………………………..
Experts have warned that social media sites are used by hackers to break through security mechanisms in a number of ways. These include creating fake business accounts, deceptive messages to gather information or cause recipients to click on malicious links, as well as directly trying to steal users credentials for other secure logins……………………..
The government is in the process of finding a site for the GDF project, a subterranean network tunnels and vaults designed to house Britain’s highly radioactive nuclear waste. The project is forecast to cost between £20bn and £53bn, and expected to receive its first waste in the 2050s. It echoes similar deep repository projects in Finland and France.
Earlier this year, Allerdale in Cumbria was deemed geologically unsuitable for the facility, leaving two other sites in Cumbria and one on the Lincolnshire coast remaining on the shortlist. NWS is in the process of surveying each site and convincing communities to approve of a development, in the face of local opposition…………………………….
Digital security in the nuclear industry has been in focus since the Guardian revealed a string of problems with cybersecurity at the Sellafield site in Cumbria………….. https://www.theguardian.com/business/2023/dec/31/cyber-hackers-target-uk-nuclear-waste-company-rwm
Effect of U.S. nuclear weapons tests on the otters of Alaska
How US nuclear tests in the ’70s led to today’s thriving otter population on the Pacific west coast
Jenny McGrath , Dec 28, 2023
- In 1971, the US set off its largest underground nuclear weapon test at a remote Alaskan island.
- Before, scientists managed to relocate hundreds of sea otters that may have died in the explosion.
- Their populations are thriving in Alaska, Canada, and Washington but causing some problems.
………………………………………………………………………………….. more https://www.businessinsider.com/amchitka-island-nuclear-test-otter-relocation-alaska-washington-oregon-cannikin-2023-12
Kim Jong Un announces his nuclear resolutions for 2024
Hannah Getahun and Associated Press , Dec 31, 2023,
- North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has plans to ramp up military actions in 2024.
- Kim said he would intensify weapons tests and build up the country’s nuclear stockpile.
- Experts say the moves are meant to help ease sanctions should Donald Trump return as president.
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un vowed to launch three additional military spy satellites, produce more nuclear materials, and introduce modern attack drones in 2024, as he called for “overwhelming” war readiness to cope with US-led confrontational moves, state media reported Sunday.
Kim’s comments, made during a key ruling Workers’ Party meeting to set state goals for next year, suggest he’ll intensify a run of weapons tests ahead of the US presidential elections in November……………………………………………………more https://www.businessinsider.com/kim-jong-un-spy-satellites-nuclear-weapons-2023-12
Over 1,000 Children in Gaza Have Had One or Both Legs Amputated Since Oct 7
it is “beyond belief that the world is allowing this to continue.”
| ScheerPost, By Kyle Anzalone / Antiwar.com, 31 Dec 23 |
1 International aid workers describe a growing humanitarian nightmare in the Strip.
International aid workers visiting the Gaza Strip are relaying the horrific situation Israel is inflicting on the Palestinians. UNICEF reports over 1,000 children have lost legs. Israel is forcing the 2.3 million residents of Gaza into increasingly small areas that lack the ability to accommodate basic needs for survival.
UNICEF spokesperson James Elder said, “Around 1,000 children in Gaza have lost one or both their legs.” He told journalists in Geneva that “every single child is enduring these ten weeks of hell and not one of them can escape.”
Due to the conditions in Gaza, as well as the lack of aid, doctors are often forced to conduct surgeries in unsanitary facilities and without painkillers. “Not only were they amputated without anesthesia, but many of them were amputated in a very quick fashion,” he said.
Dr. Ghassan Abu Sitta, a London-based surgeon who traveled to Gaza to treat patients, told Middle East Eye that having to perform these operations without anesthetic was “one of the most difficult things I’ve had to do in my career.” At a November press conference, he said, “One night, at Al-Ahli Hospital, I performed amputations on six children.”
The UNICEF official said that even if children recover from the amputation, they do not escape the hell of the threat of death. “As a parent of a critically sick child told me, ‘Our situation is pure misery…I don’t know if we will make it through this.’”
Spokesperson Dr. Margaret Harris added that WHO staff in Gaza spoke of not being able to walk in the emergency wards “for fear of stepping on people” lying on the floor “in severe pain” and asking for food and water. She called the situation “unconscionable” and said that it is “beyond belief that the world is allowing this to continue.”
The Israeli military has destroyed most hospitals in Gaza. The medical facilities continuing to operate face frequent attacks and a lack of supplies. A Washington Post investigation recently found that the Israeli Air Force is using 2,000-pound bombs near hospitals…………………………………. more https://scheerpost.com/2023/12/31/over-1000-children-in-gaza-have-had-one-or-both-legs-amputated-since-oct-7/
1 This Month
23 April – WEBINAR – Why new nuclear reactors are the wrong tools for decarbonization Thursday, April 23 • 1 AM – 2 AM AEST
Pine Ridge Uranium is the real threat, not Tehran- Tell Burgum: Stop the Extraction.
Chernobyl: The Lost Tapes – A good documentary on Chernobyl on SBS available On Demand for the next 3 weeks– https://www.sbs.com.au/ondemand/tv-program/chernobyl-the-lost-tapes/2352741955560
To see nuclear-related stories in greater depth and intensity – go to https://nuclearinformation.wordpress.com
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