Nuclear news – week to 22 April
Some bits of good news – ‘The Largest Environmental Restoration in History’ Continues to Restart the Heart of the Everglades
Adopting the Aquaculture of the Future in Thailand A sustainable, integrated approach to fish farming has caught on in China and elsewhere. Thailand could be next.
TOP STORIES.
Iran Israel: An audible sigh of relief in the Middle East. The ‘Accepted Insanity’ of World War III
From the archives. How long can Israel defy the world?
Climate. Coral bleaching: Fourth global mass stress episode underway – US scientists. Swiss ruling could pave way for more climate activist cases. Pakistan issues flood alert and warns of heavy loss of life due to glacial melting.
Noel’s notes. Israel v Iran – religious fanaticism or common sense in the atomic age. Ukraine’s going the full Ukraine – no more bilingual nonsense, thank you very much.
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NUCLEAR ISSUES
| ARTS and CUTURE. No more Russian language on air in three months – Kiev | ECONOMICS. Abrdn and two more City giants shun Sizewell C nuclear project. Small reactors don’t add up as a viable energy source. Sizewell C signs multi-billion euro deal with nuclear reactor business Framatome. |
| EMPLOYMENT, Two days of strikes planned at Dounreay nuclear power complex. The size of the workforce at Hunterston B Nuclear is to be cut by nearly a third. | ENERGY. Should we use nuclear energy? | ENVIRONMENT. New Hinkley nuclear power plant expected to kill 46 tonnes of fish a year. – ALSO AT https://nuclear-news.net/2024/04/18/1-b1-new-hinkley-nuclear-power-plant-expected-to-kill-46-tonnes-of-fish-a-year/ Japan starts 5th ocean discharge of Fukushima nuclear-tainted wastewater despite opposition. |
EDUCATION. Universities for AUKUS: The Social License Confidence Trick.
| ETHICS and RELIGION. The climate crisis and nuclear weapons. Is the possibility of a World War real? | HISTORY. Labour and nuclear weapons: a turbulent ideological history. |
| OPPOSITION to NUCLEAR . Survey by East Lindsay District Councillor and Guardians of the East Coast (GOTEC) say ‘85% don’t want nuclear dump’.Seasoned Clams back – anti-nuclear alliance of the 1970’s revived . | POLITICS 5 Reasons Why What U.S. Congress Just Did Does Not Help UkraineYou will not BELIEVE what the Tories just gave Fujitsu ANOTHER government contract for. Keir Starmer doesn’t speak for Labour members on nuclear weapons.Analysis of Canada’s Budget 2024 provisions related to nuclear. |
| POLITICS INTERNATIONAL and DIPLOMACY. “Rules-Based Order” Means Rules For Thee But Not For We. Washington Syndrome: Australia’s sovereignty sell-out hidden in plain sight. Biden Administration Defies Australia’s Call To End Assange Case, Submits ‘Assurances’ To UK Court. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0zwfQX5evbA Iran warns Israel it knows where its nukes are hidden. Iranian commander says Tehran could review ‘nuclear doctrine’ amid Israeli threats. Biden considering a new Iranian nuclear deal. I’ve seen Iran’s nuclear HQ – these are the risks if Israel tries to destroy it,. Kiev demands Israel-style security guarantees. | SAFETY. Attacks on Ukraine’s nuclear plant put world at risk, IAEA warns. An additional eight days for the annual outage of Olkiluoto 3 nuclear reactor due to new faults. Corrosion found in treated radioactive water tanks at Fukushima plant. Theberton faces nightmare Sizewell C roadworks disruption. Safety probe at Cheshire-based nuclear cargo firm. Continuing safety problems with New Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) Shaft. More deficiencies in the @NuScale_Power standard design approval application. |
| ECRETS and LIES.Fujitsu ‘managing top-secret military system’ two years after contract expired. Bombs and viruses: The shadowy history of Israel’s attacks on Iranian soil. Wyden Says Spying Bill Would Force Americans to Become an ‘Agent for Big Brother‘. Facebook designates Grayzone journalist Kit Klarenberg a ‘dangerous individual’ | SPINBUSTER. The fantasy of reviving nuclear energy – ALSO AT …… | TECHNOLOGY.New Fujitsu security research center in Israel to further develop digital identity tools. MPs flag UK’s HM Revenue & Custom’s £1.4bn active contracts with Fujitsu. Nuke authorities approve loading fuel at Niigata’s long-idled Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear power plant. Stuxnet – how a simple USB stick sabotaged Iran’s nuclear plan in a ‘world-first’ showdown. Potential for small and micro modular reactors to electrify developing regions. |
WASTES. Decommissioning. EDF wants public views on plans for Hinkley Point B decommissioning.
| WAR and CONFLICT.Under UN Charter, Iran’s Attack Was a Legal Response to Israel’s Illegal Attack. The West now wants ‘restraint’– after months of fuelling a genocide in Gaza. Iran Closes Nuclear Sites Fearing Israeli Attack: IAEA Chief. Eve of destruction.Can war in the Middle East be avoided? Iran President Warns of ‘Massive’ Response if Israel Launches ‘Tiniest Invasion’ . Israel attacking Iran ‘could prompt it to develop nuclear bomb in months’ Israel: the road to Masada. AI-assisted genocide’: Israel reportedly used database for Gaza kill lists. We are closer to nuclear disaster today than at any point in the Cold War. | WEAPONS and WEAPONS SALES.U.S. House Passes $95 Billion Foreign War Bills. Missile Defenseless. Israel has nuclear weapons. Iran does not. Frequently Asked Questions about nuclear weapons in the Middle East. US reportedly built missiles that can ruin Iran’s nuclear facilities. The Iron Dome and US-Israel Relations https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2TBiTNVV4Og The short march to China’s hydrogen bomb.‘ Pakistan advanced nuclear weapons programme despite economic challenges’ No Russian heavy weapons at Zaporozhye plant – IAEA boss. U.S. is building first new nuclear warhead in decades. |
Stuxnet – how a simple USB stick sabotaged Iran’s nuclear plan in a ‘world-first’ showdown
‘There is an acceptance you cannot guarantee your cyber security – someone motivated enough can probably get into your system.
Tensions between Iran and Israel are near a boiling point after the firing of hundreds of rockets into Israel and its latest military response.
But the conflict has brewed for years, including sabotage of Iran’s nuclear programme with the help of one spy and a single USB stick.
That same device contained the infamous Stuxnet worm.
It infiltrated the Iranian nuclear programme in 2010, marking the first time a country attacked the critical infrastructure of another state.
A cyber expert has shared how Stuxnet damaged an Iranian nuclear plant and if the UK is safe from similar malicious attacks.
Dr Gareth Mott, research fellow at the RUSI Royal United Services Institute think-tank in London, said that before 2010 similar attacks might have happened, but in the shadows.
However, with Stuxnet, researchers found ‘the code of the malware was way more advanced.’
He told Metro.co.uk: ‘They had years to develop it. It was no small-scale criminal developing it.’
Who was behind Stuxnet?
Signs point to Israel and the US to be responsible for the sophisticated worm.
He said: ‘Israel views Iran as a nemesis. In their view, Iran was developing uranium for nuclear weapons. Iran said it was for civilian systems.’
What Iran was doing was ‘not clandestine’.
The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) monitors its programme and it is alerted ‘when the pod is opened.’
However, it is ‘hypothetically possible to abuse it,’ he said.
As an ally of Israel, the US got involved in the plan to target Iran’s nuclear facilities.
The development of Stuxnet began in 2005 years before it was smuggled into Natanz nuclear plant by a spy.
How Stuxnext caused a shutdown
Iranian nuclear sites, just like facilities in the UK, are carefully protected against attacks.
It means they are not connected to the Internet to avoid intrusions.
In the uranium enrichment facility, the radioactive chemical element spins around quickly in centrifuges to enrich it.
Dr Mott said: ‘The system is not connected to the Internet, it is air gapped. It is disconnected from the Internet. It is one of the best systems.’
But it has one weakness – USB ports.
He explains: ‘But you can put a USB drive in. You have to have a port to do any updates. That means an attack, if you can get malware on a USB drive and into the critical system, maybe you can disrupt it.’
When the top-secret tool was ready in 2009, Israelis and Americans wanted to use it.
But it did not work as intended so experts designing the worm went back to base and ‘worked what was wrong, in laboratory conditions.’
The US was hesitant and told their partners to wait, but the ‘Israelis went ahead and used it anyways,’ the expert said.
Uranium has to be spun around in a ‘very controlled manner,’ but the malware made the system ‘too quickly and slow down and too quickly again,’ he explained.
‘The system started to wobble and began to collapse.’
It also ‘tricked’ the control panel which would normally spot if the centrifuges were spinning at a risky speed and fix it, making it look like ‘things were fine, but it wasn’t’, Dr Mott said.
As a result of the worm, the Iranian uranium enrichment programme was ‘broken,’ he said.
It is thought to have been set back by several years, tech publication Dark Reading estimated.
Stuxnet highlights how something as innocent as a USB port compromise national security.
In the UK, a senior IT worker at the Sellafield nuclear plant was fired after she had downloaded sensitive data onto a USB stick and dropped it in a car park.
Stuxnet’s existence was revealed after it was found on thousands of infected computers across the world despite, on paper, the Iranian system had no internet connection.
‘Somehow it got released. Maybe one of the scientists took it home to research it.’
Cyber researchers saw it was ‘very advanced’ after ‘years in the making and a lot of money.’
Stuxnet was significant because at the time no country in the world had declared it had a cyber weapon.
‘In 2013 UK did it, and we now have an offensive [cyber] arsenal,’ the expert said.
‘We have always conducted espionage, but we are now doing it with cyber tools.’
Following Stuxnet, Iran grew its cyber offensive capabilities, making it a ‘regionally significant power but internationally it is not,’ he said.
However, in the cyber and Internet space ‘they punch above their weight,’ with hackers and researchers embedded in the cyber command of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards.
Israel has its own cyber force, Unit 8200, which is the country’s version of UK’s GCHQ and the American NSA.
Cyber attacks from Iran to Israel have ‘stepped up since October 7’ when Hamas launched its deadly attack in Israel, followed by destruction of Gaza in Palestine by the Israeli army, with more than 30,000 people killed and 70,000 injured in the unlawfully blockaded strip of land, according to the UN.
Last weekend, Israeli authorities said they have seen ‘no rise in cyber incidents, but researchers have observed cyber attacks have doubled or tripled,’ Dr Mott said.
He suspects they are ‘low-level attacks which Israel will respond to to ‘disrupt Iran.’
Continue readingWashington Syndrome: Australia’s sovereignty sell-out hidden in plain sight
“The process is almost complete. The Australian Defence Force’s integration into the US military to serve the needs of Washington has been announced, albeit without announcement, this week.”
Arguably the only thing left to do is to adopt American spelling and replace the letter ‘c’ with the letter ‘s’ in ‘Department of Defence’.
by Rex Patrick | Apr 21, 2024 https://michaelwest.com.au/washington-syndrome-marles-defence-plan-sovereignty-sell-out/
Defence Minister Richard Marles rolled out some glossy new brochures this week spelling out the composition of the Australian Defence Force in the decades ahead. As media quibbled about this equipment purchase or that one, former Senator and submariner Rex Patrick explains the sovereignty sell-out hidden in plain sight.
Washington Syndrome
It’s confirmed. All the evidence points to the Defence Minister suffering from Stockholm Syndrome (or more accurately Washington Syndrome), except that he hasn’t just formed a bond with his Defence Department, where he won’t challenge them. He’s swallowed the whole kit and caboodle; adopting Defence lingo and lines as his own.
Marles has expressed Defence’s wishes beautifully, without revealing explicitly what that wish is. But it’s sitting there in plain sight.
National Defence Strategy
The use of smokescreens is a longstanding battlefield tactic, and it’s often employed by bureaucrats too. To get a clear and truthful picture from the National Defence Strategy released this week, you have to peer through a dense cloud of verbiage to get a clear sense of what’s really going on.
Early in the document the strategic framework is laid out.
Our Alliance with the US remains fundamental to Australia’s national security. We will continue to deepen and expand our defence engagement with the US, including by pursuing greater scientific, technological and industrial cooperation, as well as enhancing our own cooperation under force posture initiatives.
So, we’re joined at the hip to the United States, and we intend to stay that way.
The document spells out why Defence thinks we need to do that. The optimism at the end of the Cold War has been replaced by uncertainty and tension of entrenched and strategic competition between the US and China.
It is accompanied by an unprecedented conventional and non-conventional build-up in our region, taking place without strategic reassurance or transparency.
…
This build up is also increasing the risk of military escalation or miscalculation that could lead to a major conflict in the region.
Indeed, it zooms in with on the specifics. The risk of a crisis in the Taiwan Strait is increasing, as well as other flashpoints, including disputes in the South and East China Seas and on the border with India.
The Government will continue to strengthen its defence engagement with the US to:
- ensure joint exercises and capability rotations with the US are focused on enhancing collective deterrence and force posture cooperation.
- Acquire the technology and capability required to enhance deterrence, including through increasing collaboration on defence innovation, science and technology.
- Leverage Australia’s strong partnership with Japan in its trilateral context, including opportunities for Japan to participate in Australia-US force posture cooperation activities, to enable interoperability and contribute to deterrence; and
- Progress enabling reforms to export controls, procurement policy and information sharing to deliver a more integrated industrial base.
- Meanwhile, the US is increasing its military footprint in Australia in terms of facilities in the north (mission briefing/intelligence centre and aircraft parking aprons) at RAAF Darwin, fuel storage at Darwin Port, infrastructure at RAAF Tindal near Katherine and logistics storage in both Victoria and Queensland).
- This is on top of the long established top secret signals intelligence base, the Joint Defence Facility Pine Gap, and Australian support for US naval communications through the very low-frequency receiving and transmission facility at North West Cap. As far as American strategists are concerned, Australia has long been “a suitable piece of real estate”.
But now there’s a new dimension to the alliance with Australian taxpayers are sharing the alliance love by pouring billions into the US submarine industrial base.
US Seventh and a Half Fleet
Of course, it’s hard to fight a conflict in Taiwan Straights with an army. That’s reflected in the distribution of future expenditure outline in the Integrated Investment Program, released alongside the National Defence Strategy.
The Navy will receive almost 40% of all Defence expenditure. The Royal Australian Navy will become the seventh and a half fleet of the US Navy, supported by what are being referred to as the expeditionary air operations by the Royal Australian Air Force.
Again, hidden in plain sight.
Taiwan
Taiwan is a democracy of 22 million people. I might like to think we would come to their aid in the event their democracy was threatened.
But sending our sons and daughters to engage in a northern hemisphere conflict is a matter which should be decided upon by our Parliament at some future time.
We should seek to have a balanced and flexible Defence Force optimised first for Defence of Australia and second for near regional security (a deployment to Taiwan, if approved by our elected members, should draw from an order-of-battle optimised for Defence of Australia).
Sovereignty Stolen
But that’s not what’s happening.
It’s all too tempting to suggest that the sovereignty sell-out started at with AUKUS, announced by Scott Morrison on 16 September 2021 and adopted by Anthony Albanese at the Kabuki show in San Diego on 15 March 2023. But it didn’t.For those astute enough to have picked up and read a copy of Professor Clinton Fernandes’ book “Sub-Imperial Power: Australia in the International Arena”, they’ll know AUKUS is just natural and obvious. So too is the even greater embedding of the ADF into the US military to serve the needs of Washington that has been announced this week, albeit without announcement.
“The process is almost complete. The Australian Defence Force’s integration into the US military to serve the needs of Washington has been announced, albeit without announcement, this week.”
Arguably the only thing left to do is to adopt American spelling and replace the letter ‘c’ with the letter ‘s’ in ‘Department of Defence’.
History repeats
We have been down this road before.
n the 1920s and 1930s conservative Australian Governments saw Australian security as part of that of the British Empire as a whole. As a consequence, they implemented defence programs that were designed to produce forces, especially the Royal Australian Navy, that were hopelessly unbalanced and only made sense as a subset of British forces. Imperial Defence was prioritised ahead of national defence in a ‘strategy’, if you can call it that, that compromised Australia’s then very new national sovereignty and almost came to disaster in 1942.
Bureaucratic and political self-interest
Australia’s new “National Defence Strategy” really is nothing of the sort. It’s a sub-set of strategic planning made in Washington, not an Australian national perspective.
AUKUS has devoured whatever vestiges of independent strategic thought that might have been lingering in our Defence Department.
But don’t imagine that there’s any dissent about this in Defence Headquarters.
Those in Defence bureaucracy guiding our politicians are be happy, uproariously happy, because they’ll personally benefit from the arrangement.
AUKUS and this latest steerage will serve as a tremendous career and institutional opportunity for them. They’ve cemented their position in an alliance arrangement that involves important meetings and conferences, important decisions, trips overseas, and, for some, exchange postings. For them, they’ve got ringside seats and the opportunity to be occasional players in the big league.
Which brings me back to Defence Minister Marles, who can’t really be blamed for the sell-out.
Marles isn’t, and never was, the sort of political figure that could develop much of an understanding of what is going on around him, let alone be the one to lead with strategic vision and agenda forward. He’s too busy learning the lingo, enjoying the photo opportunities, and impressing upon his ‘sub-ordinates’ in Defence Headquarters that he’s not to be referred to as the Defence Minister, but rather as the Deputy Prime Minister. Surely he deserves that courtesy!
Corrosion found in treated radioactive water tanks at Fukushima plant
Apr. 21 , https://japantoday.com/category/national/corrosion-found-in-treated-radioactive-water-tanks-at-fukushima-plantTOKYO
Corrosion has been found on the inside of tanks used to store treated radioactive water at the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, its operator has revealed.
Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings Inc said there are no problems with the strength of the tanks, but added that some of the more than 1,000 containers at the plant were installed over 10 years ago and have aged over time.
A TEPCO official said the operator will continue to inspect the tanks.
The firm began releasing the treated water containing tritium from the plant into the Pacific Ocean in August 2023 despite backlash from local fisheries and China.
In March, corrosion and peeling paint were spotted in three empty tanks that have been in use since 2016 at the plant, which suffered meltdowns following the devastating earthquake and ensuing tsunami in March 2011.
As it is impossible to check the inside of tanks currently containing treated water, other than with the use of underwater robots, TEPCO conducts annual exterior inspections to detect any abnormalities.
Tanks that have been used for more than 10 years also have the thickness of their steel plates measured using ultrasonic waves to assess their strength, TEPCO said.
The Japanese government and TEPCO have said that the treated water released from the Fukushima plant is diluted to reduce the levels of tritium to less than one-40th of the country’s national safety standards.
Israel: the road to Masada
historical Masada is a rationalization for a future Masada —another crazy sect – of Jewish true believers self-destructing—Zionists.
In 73 A.D., legend has it, 960 Jewish rebels under siege in the ancient desert fortress of Masada committed suicide rather than surrender to a Roman legion.
News Forensics JULIAN MACFARLANE, APR 16, 2024
The Iran attack story continues to unfold. Everybody has an opinion – but we still don’t actually know what really happened. As a result, some think the attack was a victory for Iran. Others, even those on the Left, think not. Finian Cunningham calls it “lame retaliation”.
The Iranians say they gave the American 72 hours’ notice.
Pepe Escobar says that the Iranians and Americans met in Oman and the Iranians told the Americans their attack would be on military bases only. And…
THE SHADOWPLAY So this is how it happened. Burns met an Iranian delegation in Oman. He was told the Israeli punishment was inevitable – and if the US got involved then all US bases will be attacked, and the Strait of Hormuz would be blocked. Burns said we do nothing if no civilians are harmed. The Iranians said it will be a military base or an embassy. The CIA said go ahead and do it.
The Americans of course deny this.
So, somebody’s lying.
Over the years the Iranians have shown a tendency to exaggerate – usually about military capability—but they do not usually lie directly.
The US however doesn’t just fib a bit – it likes really really big lies. For America, the truth is whatever is most convenient for its policies, knowing that the media will always propagate Official Doctrine, just as in the Middle Ages the Vatican could be sure it’s pronouncements would be heard in sermons all over Europe, and believers would take them to heart. Those who dissented could be burned at the stake. We don’t do that — we have Belmarsh prison.
As Putin says, the US is the Empire of Lies.
In this case, the Americans keep on changing their story.
At first, the American said there were 170 drones and 30 cruise missiles. They did not mention ballistic missiles.
Now, the number is 170 drones, 30 cruise missiles, and 100 ballistic missiles. T The media are talking up MIRVs and hypersonic weapons.
The US number now is the same as the IDF was claiming in the beginning. but it seems the number is going up.
The IDF insists that its ”David Sling” system intercepted 99% of 120 missiles breaching its airspace.
The Americans and Brits intercepted only drones apparently—47% of the drones— which means that about 80 entered Israeli airspace to add to the other hardware hurtling through Israeli skies.
Israelis say — or at least said — there were only two hits – with an unrealistically high percentage of interception. According to some Western analysts, however, the Iranians achieved a 6% success rate and 9 hits on Israeli targets— with both drones and missiles.
Israeli missile interceptors are impressive in the sky…………………………………………………………………………….
Given 72 hours advance warning, Western media speculate the Israelis should have been able to do a lot better, especially with US support.
Now we hear talk of MIRV missiles (multiple warheads) or hypersonic missiles which neither the Americans nor the Israelis would be able to intercept at all, much less 99%.
The Iranians may have, in fact, experimented with both kinds of sophisticated weaponry – but not in any quantity.
The fact that the Israelis were able to down so many “projectiles” – albeit at a cost of $3 billion suggests that the Iranians were, as I posited before, mostly using old stuff, demonstrating that even with that they could get through.
That said, while American sources are admitting nine hits, there may have been more as Andrei Martynov suggests.
So what happens if shit hits the fan? What if Finian Cunningham is right? What if the Israelis mistake the message and escalate?
The Iranians have promised a gloves off response of a magnitude perhaps 100 times greater.
The Russian Playbook
Netanyahu is Israel’s Zelensky. Israel is America’s Ukraine.
By contrast, Iran seems to be following the Russian playbook.
Their attack was classic Russian tactics. Drones, decoys air defense systems, followed by missiles of different types. Precision targeting. Avoidance of civilian casualties. Restraint
IF Israel mounts a major attack against Iran, it is likely to be vicious – just like Ukrainian attacks in Ukraine. Therefore, you can expect Iranians to apply other successful Russian strategies.
John Helmer has suggested Iran might adopt Russia’s current strategy of attacking critical infrastructure. That means Israel’s offshore oilfields and especially power stations – the electrical grid—which are highly vulnerable— and unlike in the Ukraine, localized……………………………….
Masada
Does history repeat itself? Of course it does.
Everyone thinks it doesn’t.
That’s because no one really knows – or wants to know – what happened in the first place—we mythologize and fictionalize events in the past to correspond to present day realities and needs.
Masada never happened as Israelis think it did – so they have learnt nothing. That thing about history —we don’t want to learn and when it repeats we don’t know what’s happening..
Masada? It wasn’t the Romans that “done it”.
It was a crazy sect of Jewish true believers who self-destructed.
That historical Masada is a rationalization for a future Masada —another crazy sect – of Jewish true believers self-destructing—Zionists.
Ralph Nader – on Palestinians as “The Others”
By Ralph Nader, April 20, 2024
Throughout history, military empires have reduced their victims, their subjugated, and their abducted to a state of “The Others.” The political and mass media institutions usually follow suit by supporting their empire’s predatory policies with slanted coverage.
Such is the case with the U.S. global and the Israeli regional empires. The U.S. federal government and the mainstream media often move in lockstep.
For example, take the word “terrorism.” The New York Times regularly refers the Hamas regime as “terrorists,” while describing the far more extensive Israeli acts of state terrorism as “military operations.” Since October 7th, the Israeli military superpower has killed over 500 times more children than Hamas killed in their raid through a still uninvestigated collapse of Israel’s vaunted multi-tiered border security.
Apart from a massively greater overall civilian toll inflicted on Palestinians in Gaza – the vast undercount stands at 34,000 Palestinian deaths compared to the deaths of 1,139 Israeli civilians, soldiers, and foreign workers. This staggering ratio – over 14,000 Palestinian children (with many thousands under the rubble) compared to 30 Israeli children – escapes proper reporting. “The Others” don’t get accurate coverage as was also the case with huge Iraqi losses during the Bush/Cheney criminal war. (See, the March 5, 2024, column: Stop the Worsening UNDERCOUNT of Palestinian Casualties in Gaza).
Take the use of the term “hostage.” Hamas seized over 240 Israelis hostages on October 7th. Since then, the Israeli army has seized about 9000 Palestinians, including women and children, and taken them without charges, along with many more thousands languishing in these prison camps also without charges for years (it’s called Israel’s “administrative detention”). Many of the imprisoned Palestinians are being tortured. Who has gotten the far greater attention? Aren’t these Palestinian hostages also? Again “The Others.”
How about the application of the right to self-defense? Every state has the right to self-defense. Count the many times you have heard, “Israel has a right to defend itself” compared to “Palestine has a right to defend itself.” Members of Congress who bellow the former declaration daily can not get themselves to say the latter. It is a forbidden phrase. Yet, who is the violently occupying, colonizing, land, and water-stealing party? Israel. For over fifty years, more than 400 times more innocent Palestinians have been killed and injured compared to innocent Israeli civilians. Where is the detailed coverage of the loss of life from enforced destitution and denial of life-saving medicines, equipment, and emergency transport to health facilities? Again, it is “The Others.”
“The Others” are always described with less charitable words. In a meticulous content analysis by The Intercept of the Los Angeles Times, the New York Times, and the Washington Post between October 7 and November 24, the use of the words “slaughtered,” “horrific” and “massacre” in relation to Israeli and Palestinians killed was 218 to 9!
The Intercept said Israel’s war on Gaza is “perhaps the deadliest war for children – almost entirely Palestinian – in modern history.” There is scant mention of the word “children” and related terms in the headlines of articles in that span of time.
(Note, reporters from these papers are like the rest of the mainstream Western media reports, including Israeli journalists, who have been long banned by the Israeli government from freely reporting from inside Gaza, but have managed to write some exceptionally graphic stories from a distance.)
Palestinian Arabs are denied the description of armed-force anti-semitism by the Israeli war machine. Arabs are Semites and have long been the victims of violent racist, hate-filled anti-semitism by brutal Israeli leaders. (See the “Anti-Semitism Against Arab and Jewish Americans” speech by Jim Zogby and DebatingTaboos.org)………………………………………………………………………. more https://nader.org/2024/04/20/palestinians-as-the-others/
Seasoned Clams back – anti-nuclear alliance of the 1970’s revived
Not-so-happy Clams open to new anti-nuclear challenge
Beyond Nuclear, By Arnie Alpert 21 Apr 24
When a nuclear reactor at Three Mile Island in Pennsylvania went from a technological miracle to a pile of radioactive rubble in a matter of moments in 1979, the Portsmouth, New Hampshire office of the Clamshell Alliance became a hive of activity. I was working there at the time, fielding calls from activists and journalists from around the world. Everyone wanted our opinion since — over the previous few years — our nonviolent demonstrations to prevent the construction of the Seabrook nuclear power plant put us at the forefront of a growing social movement.
From the arrests of 18 New Hampshire residents in our first act of civil disobedience in 1976 to more than 1,400 arrests the following spring to a permitted rally that drew some 18,000 protesters in 1978, the Clamshell Alliance touched off a grassroots anti-nuclear rebellion that brought the “No Nukes” message to communities across the country and into the popular culture.
With that groundwork in place, Three Mile Island took our message to the next level. The idea that “nuclear power is a bad way to generate electricity” soon became accepted knowledge across the United States. Everyone from Wall Street tycoons to congressional staffers to ordinary voters now understood that the nuclear industry’s promise of safe, clean and affordable power was a fraud.
Unfortunately, in recent years this understanding has slowly eroded, as the industry has worked to tout its product as the answer to climate catastrophe. With the Biden administration now sinking billions into nuclear energy — and Congress on the verge of passing legislation to ease regulatory precautions on new reactors — the nuclear fraudsters are aiming for a comeback.
……………………………………………………….“seasoned Clams,” as we jokingly call ourselves, have been holding regular meetings over Zoom — and occasionally in person — to strategize on how to bring our anti-nuclear message to younger generations, as well as fellow boomers, for whom Three Mile Island has become a faded memory. We ultimately want to refute the nuclear industry’s claims that it has solved the problems posed by the old reactors.
In a statement on our new website, we assert: “A tsunami of nuclear power propaganda is sweeping the globe.” According to Gunter, this propaganda is backed by a multi-billion-dollar nuclear promotion campaign funded by taxpayers via the Biden administration’s Department of Energy. “They even have a plan to convert coal-fired power plants to nuclear generation,” he said.
Billions of dollars in nuclear subsidies were loaded into Biden’s infrastructure bill, with billions more in the Inflation Reduction Act. Meanwhile, the Atomic Energy Advancement Act — which sailed through the U.S. House 365-36 last month — extends nuclear subsidies further by continuing the $16.6 billion cap on liability from nuclear accidents for the next 40 years.
……………………………… As the new Clamshell website maintains, new nukes are not needed to avert a climate crisis. “Far better options are being built much faster than nuclear power plants, at a fraction of the cost and without the grave hazards. They include solar, wind, geothermal, hydro, efficiency and conservation.”……………………………………………………………………………..more https://beyondnuclearinternational.org/2024/04/21/seasoned-clams-back-on-the-menu/
The size of the workforce at Hunterston B Nuclear is to be cut by nearly a third
The size of the workforce at Hunterston B is to be cut by nearly a third
as the site enters the next stage of its decommissioning, it’s been
confirmed. But the station director says it’s hoped that compulsory
redundancies can be avoided. The workforce will be reduced to one of 244 by
2026 as a result of the latest “restructuring”, compared to a strength of
500 in 2020.
Station director Joe Struthers, confirming the plans, said
that once defuelling at Hunterston B was complete, the station and its
staff would transfer from EDF to Nuclear Restoration Services (NRS) for
decommissioning. NRS already manages the Hunterston A site. Mr Struthers
said it was hoped the reduction in job numbers could be achieved through
voluntary redundancy and retirement. “The new station organisational
structure, which we expect to implement sometime in 2026, shows 244 staff
roles,” he said.
“Defueling activities continue to progress well and, once
complete, the station and its staff will transfer from EDF to Nuclear
Restoration Services (NRS) who will be responsible for decommissioning the
site. NRS already manages the Hunterston A site. “The structure and
staffing levels will change again for the next stage of decommissioning as
the requirements are different.
Irvine Times 19th April 2024
https://www.irvinetimes.com/news/24265969.hunterston-workforce-set-cut-nearly-third
Sizewell C signs multi-billion euro deal with nuclear reactor business Framatome
COMMENT. Apart from the fact that there seems to be negligible support for investment in this nuclear project , the UK government is here dealing with Framatome, which is not only the renamed failed company Areva, but has iself a worrying history of corrosion and sub-standard fuels – https://nuclear-news.net/?s=Framatome
By Shannon Eustace, BBC News, Suffolk, 19 Apr 24
A company that specialises in nuclear plant equipment has signed a multi-billion Euro deal with Sizewell C.
The nuclear power plant, partly funded by the French energy company EDF, is earmarked for land between Aldeburgh and Southwold in Suffolk.
Framatome has been awarded several contracts which will see them deliver two nuclear heat production systems……………………
The planned plant will be a near-replica of Hinkley Point C in Somerset, which Framatome has also worked on, and is expected to cost about £20bn, and take nine years to build.
Mr Fontana continued: “This project will benefit from the valuable experience garnered from Hinkley Point C and our teams are determined to make it a success.”
However, Alison Downes, from the Stop Sizewell C campaign group, wanted to know how the newly-signed contract would be funded.
“How can Sizewell C sign contracts for multi-billions of Euros when there is no evidence it has that kind of money, and a Final Investment Decision has not been made?” she said.
“The capital raise is ongoing and may still fail, and by its own account, EDF reached its financing cap for Sizewell C at the end of 2023, so the only money going in to the project at this point is from taxpayers.
“What secret promises has our government made? Have Ministers guaranteed that taxpayers will foot the bill for Sizewell C regardless of the cost, value for money, or any third party investment?” https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-suffolk-68849170
TECHNOCAPITALISM: OUR DYSTOPIAN PRESENT—AND FUTURE?
RealNews Network.
Blockchain, AI, and other technological innovations could be used to improve human flourishing. Instead they’re making the oligarchy richer and more powerful at all of our expense.
e are living through an incipient technological revolution. AI, blockchain, cryptocurrencies, commercial space travel, and other innovations are rapidly transforming everything from the workplace to the financial architecture of the global economy. While many of these technologies hold vast potential to benefit the social good, the multinational corporations and financial oligarchy that drive innovation and own its products are solely motivated by private profit. The consequences are unfolding all around us. As technology and the power of the oligarchy advances, the misery and disenfranchisement of the majority grows. We are now in an age of “Space Barons and Techtitans,” and the future they are leading us to is one of even greater exploitation, inequality, and ecological crisis. Loretta Napoleoni, author of Technocapitalism: The Rise of the New Robber Barrons and the Fight for the Common Good, joins The Chris Hedges Report to discuss the technocapitalist present and future described in her book.
Transcript
Chris Hedges:
A small group of high-tech savvy entrepreneurs who understand the velocity of technological innovation have harnessed this new power to establish predatory high-tech monopolies, such as Uber or Amazon. They subvert labor laws, strip the state of its power, gut regulation, ignore legal norms and amass personal fortunes in the hundreds of billions of dollars. Their apps, services, and private equity firms dominate our lives. They are technological predators seen in every aspect of social existence commodification. The living wages of working people decline. The gig economy abolishes job protections, sustainable incomes and benefits. AI replaces human beings. The most vulnerable are pillaged for profit. The sick feed the profits for big pharma. The bodies of poor men and women on the streets of our bleak.
…………………………….. Joining me to discuss our dystopian present and most probably our dystopian future is Loretta Napoleoni, author of Technocapitalism: The Rise of the New Robber Barons and the Fight for the Common Good
……………………………………….. Loretta Napoleoni:
…………………………….What is really Bitcoin? Bitcoin is a currency which is produced by software, and this software performs all the task that a true currency should perform…………………………….
So Bitcoin is produced by software. So it’s not controlled by any central bank, it’s not controlled by any governments. The software has been programmed in a way in which these Bitcoin are released in blocks by an activity, which is called mining, and this activity is solution of mathematical formulas. The solution of mathematical formulas becomes increasingly more and more difficult. ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………
What is the serial entrepreneur? Well, this is robber baron basically because they spotted an opportunity. They learned from that opportunity. They made a lot of money from that opportunity, and then they decided to reproduce that model in another sector at the higher and higher and higher scale. Now, all of this was motivated by profit.
So there’s absolutely no desire to produce anything that can enrich society. This is why I’m talking about the common good. Possibly, this is due to the fact that these people grew up with video games, so for them it’s all a game. See what I mean? That there is this filter of the internet, which doesn’t really make them understand exactly what does it mean to be exploited, or exploited, I would say by the system, but possibly also because of their ego, because all of a sudden being a serial entrepreneur, being Jeff Bezos for example, or being Elon Musk or Peter Thiel was of the maximum that you could achieve, so everything was allowed to you because you were… Except those original members of the cyberpunk because you are smarter than the others…………………………………………………………………………………………………………..
he idea of colonized Mars is part of the narrative, because the truth is that if you tell people, “Well, don’t worry too much about climate change. Don’t worry too much about overpopulation.” Shall we discuss overpopulation also? Because we’re going to go and colonize Mars, and then Mars is going to be as beautiful as Earth, or Jeff Bezos comes with these weird ideas to create artificial planets inside, which of course, people could live. There’s a film, I think it’s called Elysium. It’s a film where there is one of those artificial where the poor people are on the Earth, they’re left behind, blah, blah, and all the rich people live in these artificial planets which are absolutely beautiful, and they all look like California, of course, where the weather is always nice. It’s not cold, blah, blah. Clearly, if you fall into that trap, you don’t worry so much about the planet because you think, “Well, there is a solution.” Well, no, there is no solution. This is the only planet we have. If we do not save this planet, our grandchildren will not be able to survive.
…………..
Chris Hedges:
It serves whoever controls it. Unfortunately, we live in an age where the technocapitalists and the corporations have us in a death grip. https://therealnews.com/technocapitalism-our-dystopian-present-and-future
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