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The Vow from Hiroshima film is coming on PBS, this month

Gender and Radiation Impact Project 1 May 24, The Vow from Hiroshima film is coming on PBS, this month—You can use this tool, to network, teach and lobby about the nuclear ban treaty (TPNW) that brings HOPE when hope is so needed…

Following the introduction on this video, you will hear Setsuko telling her own story

Setsuko Thurlow survived the atomic bomb attack on her city of Hiroshima, August 6, 1945 and on that day vowed to rid the world of nuclear weapons that killed her friends and family. The Vow from Hiroshima is her story.

Thurlow gave her adult life, to this day, campaigning for the end of nuclear weapons. This film is a biography of a great woman, a civil rights leader, and also the story of the Treaty she helped imagine and bring into the world, the UN Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons. You are invited to join Thurlow in this quest by letting others know they can see this film on PBS, starting this month. The biggest reason anyone should watch this film is if they need to have hope renewed.

They can check their local listings here.

In 2017 Thurlow received the Nobel Peace Prize with ICAN for work to create the new Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW). The Treaty continues to garner participation from nations of the world with 93 signatories, and of these, 70 have ratified (as of today May 1, 2024).

The VOW FROM HIROSHIMA tells these intertwined stories of the woman and the world in beautiful detail. It was made by two women who have had significant personal connections with Thurlow. Producer, Mitchie Takeuchi and Director, Susan Strickler did a masterful job creating a 55 minute version of their original feature film for the PBS audience.

This film is an amazing tool to educate yourself, and then share that with others—we all need hope—and Setsuko’s story and the story of the Treaty are brimming with it.

MORE INFO IS HERE: https://www.thevowfromhiroshima.com/

May 3, 2024 Posted by | media, PERSONAL STORIES | Leave a comment

Barrels Of Radioactive Waste Turn Up Off The Coast Of California

by Trisha Leigh, 27 Apr 24,  https://twistedsifter.com/2024/04/barrels-of-radioactive-waste-turn-up-off-the-coast-of-california/

Mysterious radioactive waste showing up anywhere would be cause for concern, but today it’s barrels full of it off the coast of Los Angeles.

There is a notorious “graveyard” of discarded barrels off the coast of Los Angeles. They’re half-sucked into the seafloor and now scientists believe they contain not only toxic chemicals, but low-level radioactive waste as well.

For a long time, people assumed the barrels contained a dangerous pesticide called DDT, but this new study, published in Environmental Science & Technology, suggests they contain radioactive isotopes tritium and carbon-14.

These chemicals were once used in hospitals, labs, and industrial operations in the area.

David Valentine, lead researcher at UC Santa Barbara, says this might not be the worst thing they could have learned.

“This is a classic situation of bad versus worse. It’s bad we have potential low-level radioactive waste just sitting there on the seafloor. It’s worse that we have DDT compounds spread across a wide area of the seafloor at concerning concentrations.”

To be clear, they’re both bad, even if one compound might be a little bit worse.

The barrels were first discovered in 2020, and scientists have been working since to analyze the surrounding sediment and water to understand what could be inside of them.

They also went through hundreds of pages of old records to find evidence for who might have been dumping waste in the area.

One of them, California Salvage, could have been dumping radioactive waste.

They had received a permit for disposing of the stuff, but the US Atomic Energy Commission claims this permit was never activated.

There’s pretty much no accountability and no way to retroactively apply any now, either. Researchers say it’s more than possible that the radioactive material was dumped within 150 miles of shore.

The Atomic Energy Commission has a map that shows that, between 1946 and 1970, more than 56,000 barrels of radioactive waste was dumped on the US end of the Pacific Ocean.

Marine radiochemist Ken Buesseler, who was not involved in the study, says these are grim findings.

“The problem with the oceans as a dumping solution is once it’s there, you can’t go back and get it. These 56,000 barrels, for example, we’re never going to get them back.”

As always, it seems today’s scientists are hamstrung by the actions of the past.

And all of the ways we have to correct them aren’t working fast enough to keep up

May 3, 2024 Posted by | oceans, USA, wastes | 1 Comment

New Book – The Scientists Who Alerted Us to the Dangers of Radiation.

Jim Green, 2 May 24, A new book on radiation risks recently published by The Ethics Press International “The Scientists Who Alerted us to Radiation’s Dangers”. The book was written by myself and a US campaigner Cindy Folkers.

Recent epidemiology evidence clearly shows that radiation risks have increased and that previous denials on radiation risks by successive governments and their nuclear establishment on both sides of the Atlantic were and are wrong.   Radiation is considerably more dangerous than official reports indicate, both in terms of the numerical magnitudes of cancer risks, and also in terms of new diseases, apart from cancer,  ow shown to be radiogenic.

This is an up-to-date reference book for academics on the dangers and risks of radiation and radioactivity. The book also serves to help journalists and students counter the misrepresentations, incorrect assertions, wrong assumptions, and untruths about radiation risks often disseminated by the nuclear (power and weapons) establishments on both sides of the Atlantic. All scientific statements are backed by evidence via hundreds of references, 14 Appendices, 6 Annexes, a glossary and an extensive bibliography. 

At present the book is only available in hardback from the Ethics Press.  This is expensive but a 33% discount is available at 

The Scientists Who Alerted Us to the Dangers of Radiation

In addition, a paperback (~£30) version will be available in November 2024.https://www.amazon.co.uk/Scientists-Who-Alerted-Dangers-Radiation/dp/1804414468

In the meantime, the book’s first three chapters may be sampled at 

The Scientists Who Alerted Us to the Dangers of Radiation

May 3, 2024 Posted by | media, radiation, resources - print | Leave a comment

INTERNATIONAL DARK SKY ASSOCIATION vs. FCC AND SPACEX

 https://cellphonetaskforce.org/astronomers-in-court-against-fcc-and-spacex/ Arthur Firstenberg, 1 May 24

On December 29, 2022, the International Dark-Sky Association (IDA) sued the U.S. Federal Communications Commission over its decision to approve SpaceX’s application for up to 30,000 more low-orbit satellites, in addition to the 12,000 already approved and in process of filling our skies. This is Case No. 22-1337 before the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, and has not yet been decided by the court.

American plasma physicist Sierra Solter implored the FCC to “please save our night sky… Please, please, don’t take away my stars. To feel that my place of comfort and calm — a starry sky — is being taken away and given to billionaires is suffocating.”

On December 18, 2023, Ms. Solter published a scientific article detailing her fear for our planet. Each of the 42,000 planned Starlink satellites, she wrote, has a design lifespan of only 5 years, after which it will be de-orbited, burned up in the atmosphere, and replaced.  She calculated that this will require 23 satellites per day — each the size of an SUV or truck — to be burned up in the atmosphere forever into the future, leaving an enormous amount of toxic chemicals and metallic dust to accumulate in the air we breathe and in the ionosphere

This is already happening, she wrote, and should be stopped if we value our lives. “Since the beginning of the space industry, approximately 20,000 tons of material have been demolished during reentry… This is over 100 billion times greater than [the mass of] the Van Allen Belts.” She estimated that if 42,000 Starlink satellites are deployed and regularly demolished — let alone the 1,000,000 satellites planned by other companies and governments — “every second the space industry is adding approximately 2,000 times more conductive material than mass of the Van Allen Belts into the ionosphere.”

“Unlike meteorites, which are small and only contain trace amounts of aluminum, these wrecked spacecraft are huge and consist entirely of aluminum and other exotic, highly conductive materials,” she explained in an April 16, 2024 article in The Guardian.

Much of the metallic dust will settle into the ionosphere where, she says, it could act as a magnetic shield, reducing the magnitude of the Earth’s magnetic field in space. If that happens, the atmosphere itself could eventually be destroyed, because the Earth’s magnetic field — the magnetosphere — is what deflects the solar wind and prevents it from stripping away Earth’s atmosphere, as she told Teresa Pulterova in an interview on Space.com.

Other astronomers involved in the litigation before the FCC and now the Court of Appeals include Meredith Rawls with the Vera C. Rubin Observatory in Chile; Gary Hunt with Action Against Satellite Light Pollution in the UK; Samantha Lawler at the University of Regina in Canada; Graeme Cuffy of Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago; Mark Phillips, President of the Astronomical Society of Edinburgh; Roberto Trotta of the Imperial Centre for Inference and Cosmology in London; Carrie Nugent, Associate Professor of Computational Physics and Planetary Science at the Olin College of Engineering in Massachusetts; and Cameron Nelson of Tenzing Startup Consultants in Virginia.

Other issues are also mentioned in the appeal. For example, the burned up aluminum produces aluminum oxide, which destroys ozone and contributes to climate change. So does the water vapor, soot, and nitrogen oxides in rocket exhaust.

Cameron Nelson told the FCC that “Humans, not to mention all other animal and plant life, have not given our consent for SpaceX to send the signals it is proposing into our bodies and irrevocably alter us.”

The BroadBand International Legal Action Network (BBILAN) mentioned “RF/EMF radiation from linked base and earth stations” in comments sent to the FCC. Starlink earth stations, also called Gateways, are far more powerful than the Starlink dishes that people are putting on their homes. The (as of March 2024) 2.6 million Starlink dishes each send one signal up to the moving network of satellites above them. All of this traffic is coordinated in space by thousands of lasers linking the satellites to one another, and on the ground by Gateways, which relay the thousands of signals in a large geographic area to and from the satellites. This is what a Gateway with 5 antennas (“radomes”) looks like:

Some Gateways have up to 40 radomes. Each of those domes weighs 1750 kilograms. Each aims a narrow beam at moving satellites. According to FCC filings by SpaceX, each beam can have an effective radiated power of more than 1,000,000 watts, which it can aim as low as 25 degrees above the horizon. If you are a bird you do not want to fly anywhere near a Starlink Gateway. And if you are a human you do not want to live near one either. When a satellite aims its beam containing thousands of signals at a Gateway, that beam is about 10 miles in diameter by the time it reaches the Earth.

Robin is a subscriber who lives in a remote area of Idaho less than 3 miles from the Starlink Gateway in Colburn.  She writes about effects on her family and her animals…………………………….Robin knows many people in her area who are similarly affected. She adds that “when we first moved here in 2019 we had A LOT of birds. We now have a silent spring, it’s like a dead zone. 

At last count there were 277 Starlink Gateways in operation or under construction in the world: 181 in North America and the Caribbean, 26 in South America, 2 in Africa, 26 in Europe, and 42 in Asia and the Pacific.

The FCC maintains a webpage listing thousands of licenses that it has handed out to hundreds of companies to operate both fixed and mobile satellite earth stations in the United States. Some of these stations are far more powerful than the Starlink Gateways. SES’s earth station at Bristol, Virginia emits up to 1,900,000,000 watts of effective radiated power, and it is allowed to aim it as low as 5 degrees above the horizon. SES’s earth station at Brewster, Washington is allowed to emit almost 1,000,000 watts in the actual direction of the horizon! SES owns O3b mPOWER, which is the satellite system that had its first radomes on board the Diamond Princess cruise ship, the ship that had the famous outbreak of disease blamed on COVID-19 at the beginning of the pandemic

May 3, 2024 Posted by | Legal, space travel | Leave a comment

Fears raised over Wales accident risk involving aircraft carrying nuclear materials

 https://www.nuclearpolicy.info/news/fears-raised-over-wales-accident-risk-involving-aircraft-carrying-nuclear-materials/ 30 Apr 24,

An air crash involving an RAF aircraft carrying US nuclear materials over South Wales may be the stuff of nightmares, but the Chair of the Welsh Nuclear Free Local Authorities has just written to the First Minister of Wales asking him to contemplate just that possibility.

The Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament and Nukewatch have just published a disturbing briefing titled ‘Special nuclear flights between the UK and US: the dangers involved’. The briefing references the transport of nuclear materials made by RAF C-17 Globemaster flying between RAF Brize Norton in Oxfordshire and airbases in the United States. Around ten such round-trips are made every year to transport nuclear materials utilised for the maintenance of Britain’s nuclear arsenal.

The report says of the route taken by these flights: ‘Aircraft fly from Brize Norton out into the Atlantic, overflying the Cotswolds and then the northern edges of Bristol and Cardiff to reach the Bristol Channel, flying south of Ireland to cross the Atlantic. A variation of this route takes the plane further to the north where it overflies Gloucestershire and the South Wales valleys, heading out to sea over Swansea and the Gower, and, again, South of Ireland.’

Although the C-17 Globemasters involved in these flights are four-engine aircraft, and are subject to an enhanced maintenance regime, so catastrophic mechanical failure is less likely, Welsh Forum Chair Councillor Sue Lent wants Welsh emergency planning authorities to properly consider the likely impact of any accident involving nuclear materials. Cllr Lent serves on Cardiff City Council, one of the municipalities flown over, and one of several South Wales local authorities who are members of the NFLAs.

The First Minister acts as Chair of the Wales Resilience Forum. The Forum ‘supports good communication and improves emergency planning across agencies and services’ acting as a coordinating body for local resilience forums across Wales. These ‘bring together all responder organisations that have a duty to co-operate under the Civil Contingencies Act. The groups also include other organisations who would respond to an emergency. Together, they ensure they prepare for emergencies by working in a coordinated and effective way.’[i]

The Minister of Defence hosts annual Astral Bend exercises ‘to practice and test the emergency response to an accident involving an RAF aircraft transporting special nuclear materials’, but investigative reporter Rob Edwards uncovered evidence that such an exercise held in February 2011 at the Caerwent military base in South Wales identified several failures in the actions of first responders which would have led to ‘“avoidable deaths” in a real-life situation’. The MoD has refused to release details of recent exercises held after 2012 in response to Freedom of Information requests; nonetheless the NFLA Secretary has just submitted one.

Councillor Lent asks First Minister Gething to ‘seek a reassurance from the MoD / RAF that such flights will be diverted out to sea, well away from our South Wales municipalities, and revisit emergency planning arrangements should an accident involving these special nuclear materials occur’ and suggests that as the last exercise conducted at Caerwent appears to be that held in 2011 a follow-up exercise to test the preparedness of Welsh emergency service agencies is ‘long overdue.’

May 3, 2024 Posted by | safety, UK | Leave a comment

UK government pushing institutional investors to support Sizewell C nuclear project

The UK is seeking institutional investment for its major nuclear project. Lauren Mills speaks to Julia Pyke about the efforts to make it investable

 Julia Pyke: Sizewell C has been ‘heavily de-risked’ for pension funds.
Newspaper reports claiming that various UK pension funds will not be
investing in Sizewell C barely ruffle the feathers of Julia Pyke.

She is joint managing director of the £20bn (€23.3bn) nuclear power project on
the Suffolk coast of England. She is responsible for financing and oversees
wider development functions including legal and external affairs. Pyke’s
confidence that Sizewell C will receive both the public and private funding
it needs is based on facts.

The UK government and EDF have picked six
investors to progress to the second round of bidding for the £6bn equity
stake in the project. “UK institutional investors are already interested
and are part of the bidding process,” she says, although she stops short
of naming any names due to non-disclosure agreements.

Earlier this month, IPE Real assets revealed that the UK’s Universities Superannuation
Scheme, fund managers Schroders Greencoat, Equitix and Amber Infrastructure
were all weighing up final bids. All four declined to comment.

 Real Assets 29th April 2024

https://realassets.ipe.com/analysis/julia-pyke-sizewell-c-has-been-heavily-de-risked-for-pension-funds/10072923.article

May 3, 2024 Posted by | Uncategorized | Leave a comment

G7 Countries Task IRENA to Monitor Group’s Renewable Energy Progress

IRENA, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, 30 April 2024 – Today, G7 leaders tasked the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) to track and monitor the group’s collective contribution toward the global renewable tripling target by 2030. The target was established by the UAE Consensus last November at COP28, aligning global climate ambitions with IRENA’s 1.5°C pathway, mapped out by the Agency’s World Energy Transitions Outlook.

“Trust and transparency go hand in hand,” said IRENA Director-General Francesco La Camera, who is attending the G7 Ministers’ Meeting on Climate, Energy and Environment. “IRENA will respond swiftly to the request by G7 members to track the group’s progress toward the global target to triple renewable power capacity by 2030.”

Citing an IRENA brief for the G7, the communiqué indicates that the group’s solar PV expansion target by 2030 is on track if some enhancements to existing policies are made in a timely manner. It notes the need for further acceleration in offshore wind deployment through enhanced and flexible policy efforts, faster permitting, and offshore grid extension.

“The G7 is making notable strides in accelerating solar PV deployment, and there is commitment to the development of offshore wind. Advancing all forms of renewables, along with infrastructure modernisation, will be essential for G7 nations to realise their energy transition aspirations,” Mr. La Camera added.

The G7 communiqué commits the group to increase system flexibility through grid reinforcement, in line with IRENA analysis of key metrics that suggests efforts need to be accelerated. The group also called for the significant expansion of energy storage capacity, by more than six-fold by 2030, from 230 GW in 2022. This falls within the range of IRENA’s recommendations for energy storage capacity by 2030.

I

It also calls on international organisations, including IRENA, to continue their work on industrial decarbonisation particularly standards and technology development for hard-to-abate sectors as outlined in a second brief published as a contribution to the G7 discussions.

G7 countries also recognised the urgent need to increase the group’s efforts in developing countries, committing to supporting the Accelerated Partnership for Renewable Energy in Africa (APRA). Under the auspices of APRA, Kenya and IRENA will convene the first APRA Investment Forum in September 2024 to accelerate the deployment of renewables-based energy systems and green industrialisation in APRA Member countries…………………………. more https://www.irena.org/News/pressreleases/2024/Apr/G7-Countries-Task-IRENA-to-Monitor-Groups-Renewable-Energy-Progress

May 3, 2024 Posted by | renewable | Leave a comment

IAEA’s top nuclear salesman-cum-watchdog to visit Iran

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has confirmed that its Director-General, Rafael Grossi, will travel to Iran on May 6 to engage with high-ranking officials.

He will attend the International Conference on Nuclear Science and Technology during the visit, taking place in Isfahan, just months after officials in Iran claimed to be within reach of nuclear weapons. Grossi just days ago also claimed Iran was “weeks not months” from a nuclear weapon.

Im February Grossi admitted a “drifting apart” in relations between the agency and an increasingly defiant Iran.

Grossi noted in the same month that although the rate of uranium enrichment in Iran had decreased slightly since the previous year’s end, Iran continued to enrich uranium at a significant rate of approximately 7 kg per month to 60 percent purity, near weapons grade.

Under the terms of a 2015 agreement with world powers, Iran was only permitted to enrich uranium up to 3.67 percent.

However, after former President Donald Trump withdrew the United States from the agreement in 2018 and reinstated sanctions, Iran exceeded the limits. As a result, the IAEA has stated that the 2015 nuclear deal has “all but disintegrated”.

May 3, 2024 Posted by | Iran, safety | Leave a comment

Industrial action by nuclear submarine workforce hits Rolls Royce

GMB members working on the company’s nuclear submarine programme have
begun industrial action. The action comes after 90 per cent of GMB members
at the company supported action if company bosses failed to present a pay
rise acceptable to union members. Known as ‘work to rule’, the
industrial action will see GMB members applying strict limits to working
outside of pre-agreed processes. Rolls-Royce is a world leader in the field
of submarine technology, as well as being the supplier to Britain’s
domestic nuclear submarine fleet.

 UK Defence Journal 30th April 2024

https://ukdefencejournal.org.uk/industrial-action-by-nuclear-sub-workforce-hits-rolls-royce

May 3, 2024 Posted by | employment, UK | Leave a comment

UK/Ireland Nuclear Free Local Authorities to join new “Rock Solid2” art exhibition 

The UK/Ireland Nuclear Free Local Authorities Secretary will be joining Cumbrian artists and activists at the launch of a new art exhibition at Kendal Museum next month.

Rock Solid 2 has been organised by co-ordinator and artist Marianne Birkby. Marianne supports local campaign groups Radiation Free Lakeland / Lakes against the Nuclear Dump in opposing plans to impose a Geological Disposal Facility upon Cumbria. This could be located by the coast in Mid- or South-Copeland to receive Britain’s legacy and future most toxic radioactive waste, which would be transferred from the Sellafield nuclear complex and buried in tunnels beneath the Irish Sea.

Marianne described the exhibition as “a must see for all those who love Cumbria.” She explained that it was “a unique celebration of Lakeland’s jewel-like geology, landscape, flora, and fauna seen through the lens of a ‘quixotic’ plan to bury atomic wastes deep under the Cumbrian coast and the sea. Altogether 20 artists have produced artworks including comic books, installations, sculpture, and multi-media in a vibrant and thought-provoking exhibition.”.

Winner of the John Moore’s Painting Prize, guest artist Martin Greenland will be joined by internationally renowned mountain painter Julian Cooper, record producer Russell Mills, Lake Artist Society award winners Kate Bentley and Andrea Pentecost, Steve Wallis, and Irene Rogan amongst others. Artists have spent time looking at the Museum’s natural history collection for inspiration.

The exhibition will open in the People’s Gallery on 9th May, but a special official launch will be held on Friday 10th May from 6pm to 8pm.

A follow-up talk, titled ‘Atomic Wastes Under Cumbria’, will be held on the following day on Saturday 11th May in The Venue, which is accessed through the Museum.

Kendal Museum can be found on Station Road, Kendal, LA9 6BT. It is a short distance from the railway station.

Everyone is welcome to both events, which are FREE, but attendees are asked to contact the Museum to book a place at the official launch and/or the meeting by email to info@kendalmuseum.org.uk or by telephone on 01539 815597.

NFLA Secretary Richard Outram has been asked to join radiation expert Dr Ian Fairlie in speaking at the official launch and at the meeting.

Following the events, the exhibition will be open to the public on Thursdays, Fridays, or Saturdays from 9.30am to 4.30pm until 29 June. There is also a related art trail to explore around the galleries and shops of Kendal.

Ends//… For more information please contact the NFLA Secretary Richard Outram by email at richard.outram@manchester.gov.uk

May 3, 2024 Posted by | culture and arts, UK | Leave a comment