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More nuclear warheads operational, analyst says

By Melissa Erichsen, Dpa,  June 17 2024

 Nuclear weapons states are strengthening their arsenals in the face of numerous conflicts worldwide, according to a leading Swedish think tank on conflict and defence.

A new report by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), says the number of operational nuclear warheads is steadily rising.

“While the global total of nuclear warheads continues to fall as cold war-era weapons are gradually dismantled, regrettably we continue to see year-on-year increases in the number of operational nuclear warheads,” said SIPRI director Dan Smith.

“This trend seems likely to continue and probably accelerate in the coming years and is extremely concerning.”

The number of nuclear weapons in development is also on the rise, as states bank on nuclear deterrence, the report said.

Of the estimated total of 12,121 warheads recorded worldwide in January, around 9,585 were part of military stockpiles for potential use.

Around 3,904 of these warheads were mounted on missiles and aircraft – 60 more than in the same month a year earlier. According to the report, the rest were kept in centralised storage facilities.

For decades, the global number of nuclear weapons has been steadily declining. However, the decline is mainly due to the fact that discarded warheads are gradually being dismantled by Russia and the United States following the Cold War.

That means peace researchers look not only at the estimated total stockpiles, but also at the deployable arsenals. According to SIPRI, nine states have nuclear weapons: in addition to Russia and the US, these are China, France and Britain, as well as Pakistan, India, Israel and North Korea.

Combined, Washington and Moscow own some 90 per cent of nuclear warheads worldwide.

Around 2,100 of the operational warheads were kept on ballistic missiles on high alert, mainly by the US and Russia, according to the SIPRI report.

For the first time, however, China is also said to have some warheads on high alert.

Beijing’s nuclear arsenal rose from 410 warheads in January 2023 to 500 in January 2024.

Meanwhile, “China is expanding its nuclear arsenal faster than any other country,” said SIPRI expert Hans Kristensen.

However, Kristensen noted that “in nearly all of the nuclear-armed states there are either plans or a significant push to increase nuclear forces.”

The SIPRI experts said that both the US and Russia have become less transparent regarding their nuclear arsenals following Moscow’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, while transparency was also down in other nuclear weapons states.

June 18, 2024 Posted by | Uncategorized | Leave a comment

UN: Israel killed own citizens on October 7 under ‘Hannibal Directive’


SOTT, Nicola Smith, The Telegraph, Sat, 15 Jun 2024

The Israeli military likely killed more than a dozen of its own citizens during the October 7 attacks, a United Nations investigation has alleged.

Comment: Bearing in mind the UN is extremely conservative (and even biased in favor of Israel-the West) in its verdicts, this is rather damning; and one would expect that further, even more incriminating, revelations of Israel’s role in Oct 7, its incitement of the attack, and stand down order, are still to come.


The report by the UN commission investigating the attack on Israel and the subsequent war in Gaza documented “strong indications” that the “Hannibal Directive” was used in several instances that day, “harming Israelis at the same time as striking Palestinian militants.”

The directive – officially revoked in 2016 – was put in place to prevent the capture of Israeli soldiers by enemy forces who may use them as bargaining chips, allowing troops to open fire even if it caused the death of a comrade.

UN investigators, led by Navi Pillay, a former UN human rights chief, concluded that at least 14 Israeli civilians, including 12-year-old twins and a 68-year-old grandmother, “were likely killed as a result of Israeli security forces fire.”


These specific accusations have not yet been addressed by Israel, but the government angrily rejected the overall report, which accused both Palestinian groups and Israel of committing war crimes. The UN panel also claimed Israel’s conduct of the war included crimes against humanity.

The Israeli government said the report was “reflective of the systematic anti-Israel discrimination of this commission of inquiry“, noting that it had ignored Hamas’s use of civilians as “human shields”.

It has also criticised the commission for “outrageously and repugnantly” drawing a false equivalence between Hamas and the Israeli military in relation to sexual violence.


Comment: Thus far it seems Israel is guilty of using sexual violence as a weapon of war, not Hamas. Moreover, with Israel it’s institutional and systematic: ‘Extermination, torture, starvation, sexual violence’: UN finds Israel guilty of numerous crimes against humanity

The report examines both Hamas’s actions on October 7 and Israel’s military response in Gaza and provides legal analysis that could be used in future criminal proceedings.

The UN commission was denied access to Israel, Gaza and the West Bank and said Israel did not respond to six requests for information. It based its conclusions on remote interviews with survivors and witnesses, satellite imagery, forensic medical records, and open source data.

Buried in the detail are several examples when Israeli civilians may have been intentionally targeted by their own armed forces on the day thousands of armed Hamas terrorists violently attacked the Nova music festival and Kibbutz settlements near the Gaza border.

The investigation’s conclusions on this question, much of which is derived from local media, refer to a video statement by an IDF tank crew which “confirms that at least one individual tank team knowingly applied the ‘Hannibal Directive‘ that day.”

It adds: “In a statement given to an Israeli news channel, a tank driver and commander stated that they targeted two Toyota vehicles with militants and Israelis. This occurred at point 179, close to Kibbutz Nir Oz.”

The commander, who believed his troops could be on the vehicles, was quoted as saying: “I prefer stopping the abduction so they won’t be taken,” although he adds that, to his knowledge, he did not kill any soldiers.

Much of the information at the centre of the “Hannibal Directive” accusation stems from the death of Efrat Katz, 68, some 150m from the Gaza border, and another 13 Israelis who were “likely” killed either by tank shelling or caught in the crossfire after being trapped by terrorists in the house of Pessi Cohen in Kibbutz Be’eri.

In their account of the Be’eri incident, investigators say that about 40 terrorists brought 15 civilians, including twins Liel and Yannai Hetzroni, aged 12, into the house of local resident Pessi Cohen, leading to a standoff with the Yamam police counter-terrorism unit and the IDF.

At 3pm, Hasan Hamduna, the terrorists’ leader, called the Yamam through one of the female hostages, threatening to execute all the abductees unless they were given safe passage to Gaza.

At 4pm, the first large IDF contingency, led by Brig Gen Barak Hiram, arrived at the site.

According to the testimony of a surviving hostage, the Yamam commandos opened fire on the terrorists while seven hostages were in the yard, trapped between them, the report says………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..

the Israeli government has discussed far-reaching measures against UN agencies operating in Israel and the Palestinian territories, including the possible expulsion of staff, reported the Financial Times.

Bubbling tensions spiked last week after António Guterres, the UN secretary-general, added Israel’s military to a list of countries and organisations that fail to protect children in conflict – a move the Israeli ambassador to the UN described as “shameful.”  https://www.sott.net/article/492277-UN-Israel-killed-own-citizens-on-October-7-under-Hannibal-Directive

June 18, 2024 Posted by | Atrocities, Israel | Leave a comment

NATO chief says members considering deployment of more nuclear weapons, Kremlin warns it’s an ‘escalation of tension’

Reuters, Mon, 17 Jun 2024

The Kremlin said on Monday a remark by NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg that the military alliance was holding talks on deploying more nuclear weapons was an “escalation of tension”.

Stoltenberg told Britain’s Telegraph newspaper that NATO members were consulting about deploying more nuclear weapons, taking them out of storage and placing them on standby in the face of a growing threat from Russia and China.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Stoltenberg’s comments appeared to contradict a communique issued at a weekend conference in Switzerland that said any threat or use of nuclear weapons in the Ukraine context was inadmissible.

The talks, held at the behest of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, were billed as a “peace summit” although Moscow was not invited.

“This is nothing but another escalation of tension,” Peskov said of the NATO secretary general’s remarks…………………………………………………………  https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/kremlin-says-nato-chiefs-nuclear-weapons-remarks-are-an-escalation-2024-06-17

June 18, 2024 Posted by | EUROPE, weapons and war | Leave a comment

The United Nations Security Council takes up Space Security – it might have been best if it had not

As the international community’s dependence on space-enabled services grows exponentially, the disconnect between space powers on rules for responsible behaviour in outer space can only be a matter of great concern.

Open Canada, BY: PAUL MEYER , Adjunct Professor of International Studies and Fellow in International Security, Simon Fraser University, Senior Advisor, ICT4Peace, Director, Canadian Pugwash Group, Fellow, Outer Space Institute 17 JUNE, 2024

It may come as a surprise that until this April the United Nations (UN) Security Council had never taken up the issue of outer space security despite the Council’s primary responsibility for the maintenance of international peace and security. Outer space has become an increasingly important environment for global well-being with a wide array of space-based services underpinning many critical civilian activities from telecommunications to navigation to remote sensing of the Earth. The world is also experiencing an exponential growth in the numbers of satellites in orbit driven primarily by the private sector and the launch by companies such as “Starlink” and “One Web” of “mega-constellations” to ensure global Internet connectivity. Many stakeholders in the use of outer space also recognize that preserving this environment for peaceful purposes, in line with the 1967 Outer Space Treaty, means ensuring that it is kept free of man-made threats. 

Regrettably, just as global society is discovering ever more benefits from outer space activity, leading space powers are characterizing it as a “war-fighting domain” while accusing one another of having been the first to “weaponize” this vital if vulnerable environment. The ethos of cooperation imbued in the Outer Space Treaty with its stress on space activity being “in the interests and for the benefit of all countries”; its insistence on each party paying “due regard” to the rights of others and its prohibition on the stationing of nuclear weapons or other WMD in orbit, is currently under severe strain. Hostile rhetoric, accusations of nefarious intent, development of anti-satellite weapons and other so-called “counter-space capabilities” plus the abuse of consensus-based diplomatic processes have generated an atmosphere that is not conducive for states agreeing on cooperative security measures even when these are urgently needed. 

To the degree that space security has been addressed by the UN in the past it has been a preserve of the General Assembly and the 65-member Conference on Disarmament in Geneva, both of which have had the “Prevention of an Arms Race in Outer Space” (PAROS) item on their agenda since the early 1980s…………………………………………

Part of the problem has been that since it last negotiated an agreement in 1996 the Conference on Disarmament has been a largely moribund body, unable to agree and implement a basic programme of work let alone negotiate anything. This dysfunctionality is sustained by its consensus-based decision making that essentially gives each of its members a de facto veto over any decision. As security perspectives and threat perceptions differ amongst the member states no common ground has emerged for any new agreement. Specifically, on the PAROS item an East-West divide has existed for decades over how best to proceed. 

In 2008, Russia and China put forward a draft treaty on “The Prevention of Placement of Weapons in Outer Space and the Threat or use of Force against Space Objects” (better known by its acronym PPWT). In the view of its sponsors it is essential that a legally binding agreement is concluded that will ban all weapons in space. The United States (US) and its allies have raised objections to the Sino-Russian treaty ………………………………

This gap in positions could be bridged with a modicum of good will and a willingness to compromise on preferred positions, but neither quality is much in evidence these days. Instead, a decision was made to transfer the unresolved debate over PAROS to the Security Council which had never addressed the issue before……………………………………………….

The US and Japan, along with numerous co-sponsors, introduced this April a draft resolution on Outer Space and WMD with a principal call for all states to adhere to the ban on placing WMD into space. At the April 24 Security Council meeting slated to consider this issue, Russia offered up an amendment to the US/Japan resolution. The amendment stipulated that states “take urgent measures to prevent for all time the placement of weapons in outer space and the threat or use of force in outer space, from space against Earth and from Earth against objects in outer space”; and called for “the early elaboration of appropriate reliably verifiable legally binding multilateral agreements” (i.e. like the PPWT). The amendment failed having received only 7 positive votes whereas 9 are required in the Security Council. 

This set the stage for a vote on the US/Japan resolution which garnered 13 positive votes, one abstention (China) and fatally a veto from Russia. In an effort to turn the tables on the US, Russia introduced a new resolution of its own which incorporated much of the text from the US/Japan resolution, but reinserted the language of its amendment. When this resolution went to a vote at a May 20th Security Council session it failed (like the amendment) to garner sufficient support with a repetition of the earlier split 7-7 vote. …………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….

More promising than the combative machinations in the Security Council has been the creative approach shown in the recent UN Open Ended Working Group (OEWG) on “Reducing Space Threats through norms, rules and principles of responsible behaviours”. This group convened for a few weeks in 2022 and 2023 with a final session in the week of August 28 to September 1. Due to disruptive and frankly spiteful behaviour by the Russian delegation no concluding report could be achieved (the group operating by consensus) and even the usual anodyne procedural report was blocked by the Russian representative who openly delighted in the group’s failure. 

Despite this egregious conduct the OEWG benefited from the active participation of those present and the rich menu of proposals that were presented, any one of which, if adopted, would make a positive contribution to the security situation in outer space…………………………………….

Notable among these proposals were restraint measures on any destructive action against satellites and refraining from “any other non-consensual act that destroys or damages the space objects of other States”; refraining from “any deliberate act that interferes with the normal and safe operation of the space objects under the jurisdiction or control of other States”; refraining from “any acts that would impair the provision of critical space-based services to civilians” and ensuring “that satellites under their jurisdiction and control or operating on their behalf do not rendezvous, physically connect or physically damage with satellites under the jurisdiction and control of another State, or operate in proximity to, without prior consultations and consent”. Agreement on such conflict prevention measures is the type of action which would really benefit the international community.

In lieu of further polemics between Russia, China and the US it would be helpful if concerned middle powers, such as Canada, and non-governmental stakeholders spoke out on the need to take up some of these specific proposals and seek agreement on them. Let’s put aside the tired and sterile debates over the desired scope and status for space arms control and embark on a purposeful effort to develop cooperative security measures for outer space.  The international community deserves no less.   https://opencanada.org/the-united-nations-security-council-takes-up-space-security-it-might-have-been-best-if-it-had-not/—

June 18, 2024 Posted by | space travel | Leave a comment

This week: countering the nuclear spin, and more

Some bits of good news:  Humanity is making progress on reproductive rights.   Scotland’s rainforest revival got a boost.  Stork That Went Extinct in the UK 600 Years Ago is Spotted
 in the English Skies: ‘It was a great sign’.

TOP STORIES

From the archives. Nuclear power: molten salt reactors and sodium-cooled fast reactors make the radioactive waste problem WORSE

Climate. The ‘extraordinary’ record-breaking data that has climate experts baffled.

Noel’s notes. G7 – and the juggernaut to the destruction of Ukraine rolls on – to the delight of weapons companies. Atrocities upon atrocities – the Israelis have excelled themselves this time. UK and other mainstream media –oblivious of the suicidal danger of attacking Russia.

NUCLEAR ISSUES

ATROCITIES. Israel committed crime of ‘extermination’ in Gaza, says UN investigation.
GAZA HORROR: UN FINDS ISRAELI FORCES GUILTY OF SEXUAL ABUSE AND TORTURE.		ECONOMICS. Building Nuclear Power Is a Bridge Too Far for World’s Private Investors – ALSO AT https://nuclear-news.net/2024/06/06/1-b1-corporate-lobbying-heats-up-around-governments-nuclear-power-plans-despite-concerns-from-anti-nuclear-advocates/

EDUCATION. Nuclearisation of universities.
ENERGY. Nuclear power is ‘overblown’ as an energy source for data centers, power company CEO says.

Farmers who graze sheep under solar panels say it improves productivity. So why don’t we do it more? 		ENVIRONMENT. Radioactive Tritium from Monticello Reactor Leaked to the Mississippi River.
Oceans. French-Chinese power plant could put 200m UK fish at risk.
ETHICS and RELIGION. U.S. Jewish Army Intel Officer Quits over Gaza, Says “Impossible” Not to See Echoes of Holocaust.

Saving Gaza Is About More Than Saving Gaza. It’s Also About Saving Ourselves.		HEALTH. Radiation. LANL plans to release highly radioactive tritium to prevent explosions. Will it just release danger in the air?

Guam’s fight for radiation exposure compensation ‘far from over’.
HISTORY. USING UKRAINE SINCE 1948
INDIGENOUS. Chief Akagi requests public hearing to review any new governance arrangement for the Point Lepreau nuclear reactor on Peskotomuhkati homeland.

Tensions with First Nations threaten to delay nuclear waste facility– ALSO AT https://nuclear-news.net/2024/06/17/1-a-tensions-with-first-nations-threaten-to-delay-nuclear-waste-facility/
LEGAL. ‘Immense’ scale of Gaza killings amount to crime against humanity, UN inquiry says.

Judges Named for Assange Appeal.		MEDIA. The day the West defined ‘success’ as a massacre of 270 Palestinians.
OPPOSITION to NUCLEAR . MSP’s claim of support for nuclear power in Highlands challenged,
POLITICS.Thousands Protest Gaza Genocide in ‘Red Line’ White House Rally.

UK Labour and Conservatives commit to nuclear power in manifesto, Scottish Greens brand Labour’s commitment to nuclear weapons ‘obscene and immoral’. Keir Starmer’s policy on nuclear weapons. MP’s claim of support for nuclear power in Highlands challenged.

California legislators break with Gov. Newsom over loan to keep state’s last nuclear plant running.
Australia’s opposition leader Dutton’s nuclear plan wouldn’t even meet net zero by 2050 target, report finds.		POLITICS INTERNATIONAL and DIPLOMACY.Ukraine is a ‘gold mine’ – US senator. UN Security Council. Biden makes 10-year security pact with Zelensky that includes sending F-16s to Ukraine.

World leaders to gather in Swiss resort in attempt to forge Ukraine peace plan.

Adopts Gaza Ceasefire Resolution. Biden’s Saudi Arabia Deal.

The West has a 15-month opportunity for a new nuclear deal with Iran that precludes an Iranian Bomb.
Why bet on a loser? Australia’s dangerous gamble on the USA. 
PUBLIC OPINION. 94% of Americans want to end Ukraine war, but US rejects China peace deal, opposes talks with Russia.SAFETY. Alarm over 174 security breaches at Clyde nuclear bases.
SECRETS and LIES. Top civil servant joins EDF after running department that struck nuclear deal.

Ukrainian officials stole $490 million meant for military – MP.
Uncle Sam cool with arming, training Neo-Nazi Azov Brigade in Ukraine
SPACE. EXPLORATION, WEAPONS. Radiation could pose challenge to putting people on Mars.
SPACEX’S STARLINK MAY BE KEEPING THE OZONE FROM HEALING, RESEARCH FINDS.

Unveiling Cosmic Secrets: Black Budget Tech and UFOs with Aerospace Expert Michael Schratt – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bOT0tPeQwzI		TECHNOLOGY. Nuclear Power Is Hard. Billionaire Bill Gates Wants to Make It Easier.
Great British Nuclear Small Reactors competition timeline delayed for General Election, amid doubts on their viability- ALSO AT https://nuclear-news.net/2024/06/14/2-b1-great-british-nuclear-small-reactors-competition-timeline-delayed-for-general-election-amid-doubts-on-their-viability/
URANIUM.  Proliferation warnings over enriched nuclear fuel for advanced reactors. Gates-backed nuclear plant breaks ground without guarantee it’ll have fuel.
From the Hiroshima bomb to Israel’s nuclear weapons, the path leads back to Congo’s uranium.		WASTES. Two small communities are competing to receive Canada’s inventory of nuclear waste: they can’t be sure what they’ll get

WAR and CONFLICT.

WEAPONS and WEAPONS SALES.
 Global spending on nuclear weapons up 13% in record rise. G7 Leaders Agree To Provide Ukraine With $50 Billion Using Frozen Russian Assets.
 A majority of Iranians now favor possessing nuclear weapons. Their leaders take note.

June 17, 2024 Posted by | Christina's notes | Leave a comment

Judges Named for Assange Appeal

By Joe Lauria / Consortium News June 14, 2024,  https://consortiumnews.com/2024/06/14/judges-named-for-assange-appeal/

Consortium News will be back inside the courtroom in London July 9-10 to cover Julian Assange’s appeal against extradition

The judges in Julian Assange’s two-day appeal hearing on July 9-10 are the same who granted Assange a rare victory last month:  his right to appeal the Home Office’s extradition order to the United States. 

Justices Jeremy Johnson and Victoria Sharp granted Assange the right to appeal on only two of nine requested grounds, but they are significant:

1). his extradition was incompatible with his free speech rights enshrined in the European Convention on Human Rights; and 2.) that he might be prejudiced because of his nationality (not being given 1st Amendment protection as a non-American).

However the denial of his rights in an American courtroom would go beyond the First Amendment to all of his U.S. constitutional rights, according to the 2020 U.S. Supreme Court ruling in USAID v. Alliance for Open Society International Inc., which says that a non-U.S. citizen acting outside the U.S. has no constitutional protections at all. 

The United States was unable to provide assurances that the European equivalent of his constitutional rights would be protected, required under British extradition law. That raises hopes for Assange in his appeal. 

Assange has been imprisoned in London’s notorious Belmarsh Prison for more than five years on remand pending the outcome of his extradition.  He has been charged in the United States for publishing classified documents that revealed prima facie evidence of U.S. state crimes.

CN has received an award and many accolades for our coverage of the Julian Assange case. We will be inside the courtroom and outside the Royal Courts of Justice in London for both days of the hearing, bringing you the latest news, analysis and commentary. 

June 17, 2024 Posted by | Legal, UK | Leave a comment

Tensions with First Nations threaten to delay nuclear waste facility

MATTHEW MCCLEARN, 16 June 24  https://www.theglobeandmail.com/business/article-tensions-with-first-nations-threaten-to-delay-nuclear-waste-facility/#:~:text=Prof.%20Leiss%20said%20even%20if,this%20issue%2C%E2%80%9D%20he%20said.

The eight-reactor Bruce Nuclear Generating Station, on the eastern shore of Lake Huron, ranks among the world’s largest nuclear power plants. With four more in the early planning stages, it might become larger still. But for the Saugeen Ojibway Nation (SON), behind its engineering grandeur lies a painful history – which it has described as one “of exclusion.”

Its people were not consulted before the plant’s construction during the 1970s and 80s, which resulted in quantities of radioactive waste stored within what they regard as their traditional territory. Nor did they see many of the economic benefits that flowed to neighbours.

These unresolved tensions threaten to derail – or at least significantly delay – efforts to find a permanent solution for Canada’s nuclear waste, which dates back to the 1970s. As of June, 2023, Canada had accumulated approximately 3.3 million used fuel bundles that were stored temporarily at operating or retired nuclear power plants in Ontario, Quebec and New Brunswick. But there’s nowhere to send them for permanent disposal – a potential stumbling block as the nuclear industry seeks public acceptance for a proposed major expansion.

The Nuclear Waste Management Organization (NWMO), an industry-controlled organization to which the federal government delegated responsibility for nuclear waste management, wants to select a site this year for a proposed, $26-billion underground nuclear waste disposal facility, known as a deep geological repository. The two remaining candidates are the Municipality of South Bruce (about 45 kilometres southeast of Bruce station, and also within SON’s traditional territory) and a site more than 40 kilometres from Ignace, a town of 1,200 northwest of Thunder Bay.

One of the NWMO’s guiding principles is that the repository’s host “must be informed and willing to accept the project.” Ignace’s council will decide that through a resolution; it has agreed to notify the NWMO of its decision by July 30. (It hired a consultant, With Chela Inc., to engage with residents and maintains its decision will be based on public input.) In South Bruce, citizens will vote in a by-election in late October. Both signed hosting agreements with the NWMO this year, under which South Bruce would receive $418-million over nearly a century and a half; Ignace would get $170-million.

Yet all that might well prove a sideshow. The NWMO also seeks consent from Indigenous peoples: Wabigoon Lake Ojibway Nation, in the case of Ignace. SON, which is composed of the Chippewas of Nawash First Nation and Chippewas of Saugeen First Nation, will decide regarding the South Bruce site. NWMO spokesperson Fred Kuntz said the organization is negotiating hosting agreements with both First Nations.

Success is far from assured.

SON’s grievances with the nuclear industry date back to the 1960s, when Ontario Hydro (the predecessor of Ontario Power Generation) began constructing Canada’s first commercial nuclear power plant. For SON, the commissioning of the Douglas Point Nuclear Generating Station marked the beginning of “the nuclear industrialization” of its territory. Douglas Point was followed by the much-larger Bruce station, built immediately next door.

SON ruefully watched its neighbours benefit as tax revenues rolled into local municipalities, while its members were largely shut out. In 2013 SON secured an undertaking from Ontario Power Generation that the utility wouldn’t establish an intermediate-level waste repository (proposed for construction at Bruce station) on its territory without its consent.

That undertaking had far-reaching consequences. It led to a 2020 plebiscite in which SON’s membership overwhelmingly rejected that repository. And it set an important precedent: In 2016, the NWMO granted SON the same ability to veto the South Bruce repository. SON plans to hold a referendum of its members, once it has received all the information it seeks from the NWMO.

“I’d say we’re at least halfway halfway home to having our questions satisfied,” said Gregory Nadjiwon, chief of the Chippewas of Nawash Unceded First Nation, one of SON’s two member nations.

But reaching an agreement this year – or at all – could prove challenging. The NWMO has accepted responsibility for disposing of all Canadian spent fuel, whether from the Point Lepreau station in New Brunswick, or from long-defunct research reactors at Chalk River, or even wastes from reactors yet to be constructed. SON’s leadership, though, is focused on the wastes in its own territory.

“If the [repository] is going to be in the SON territory, why should we be accepting waste that comes from Pickering, Darlington, Chalk River or Point Lepreau?” Chief Nadjiwon said.

“I mean, that’s ludicrous.”

As part of any agreement with NWMO, SON’s leadership seeks resolution to its long-standing concerns, such as the fact that wastes have been stored in its territory for decades without compensation.

“When I go in my truck to a garage in Toronto, I’m charged a cost” to park it, he said. “It’s no different than when you park waste in an Indigenous territory or homeland. We expect an agreement for the cost of doing business.”

William Leiss, an emeritus professor at Queen’s University’s School of Policy Studies, worked as a paid consultant for the NWMO between 2002 and 2011. He wrote a book, Deep Disposal, about the site selection process; the book is scheduled for publication in September. Prof. Leiss said SON’s opposition is so firm that it’s hard to fathom why South Bruce is still in the running.

“Its negatives are so pronounced that one wonders if it is being kept alive solely as a negotiating card so that Ignace does not regard itself as the only viable option,” he wrote.

“It has all the markings of an elaborate charade.”

But Prof. Leiss said the Ignace site is a long shot, too.

The Wabigoon Lake Ojibway Nation has roughly 1,000 members, 200 of which live on a reserve 20 kilometres from the Ignace area site. Its chief, Clayton Wetelainen, said the community has been negotiating a hosting agreement with the NWMO for roughly eight months.

The community has had far less interaction with the nuclear industry than SON has, so its historical baggage is perhaps lighter. Whereas the Ignace and South Bruce agreements would prevent future councils from backing out of the project, Wabigoon Lake’s leadership does not regard the agreement it’s negotiating as irrevocable – in part because there’s insufficient information available on many aspects of the project.

“The current vote that we’re talking about is just to go down to one site,” Chief Wetelainen said.

“This has to go through regulatory approvals, and our own approval, when we get more information about the detailed site.”

Some, he added, have misconstrued the vote as final and binding, “but that’s not the case.”

Prof. Leiss said even if Wabigoon Lake voted in favour of the project, other First Nations throughout the region might launch lawsuits to block the project. “There’s intense fighting among the First Nations in the Treaty 3 area over this issue,” he said.

Chief Wetelainen said his goal is to set a date in the fall for his 1,000 members to vote. Some community members began informing themselves about the project a decade ago, but others are only now beginning to ask the same questions. Getting all members up to speed is proving a challenge, he said – and as with SON, his community does not regard itself as bound by the NWMO’s timetable.

This position is admired by some of the repository’s non-Indigenous opponents. Bill Noll is vice-president of Protect Our Waterways, an opposition group in South Bruce. He said municipal officials have followed the NWMO’s timeline “blindly,” whereas SON is on its own schedule.

“They have a veto capability for the project, which is really an important dimension,” Mr. Noll said.

Prof. Leiss said Ontario is the only logical province for the repository – that’s where the bulk of Canada’s nuclear waste is already stored temporarily. But it’s home to 133 First Nations, whose often-overlapping traditional territories span nearly the entire province. It’s “entirely possible” that no First Nation will agree to accept a repository, he said.

But there’s another wrinkle: The NWMO’s willingness principle is not a legal requirement. OPG’s earlier proposed repository received regulatory approval of its environmental assessment without one. The NWMO’s promise to First Nations, he said, is “not worth the paper it’s written on.”

Prof. Leiss said the NWMO from the outset should have focused on First Nations, which he regards as the repository’s true hosts.

He wrote: “A sardonic take on this siting strategy might go something like this: entice a municipality with a dream of economic riches beyond its wildest imaginings, give it a phone book and tell it to place some calls to the nearest Indigenous communities, and then hope for the best.”

June 17, 2024 Posted by | Canada, indigenous issues, wastes | Leave a comment

Surging Renewables Push French Energy Prices Negative, Shutting Down Nuclear Plants

by Rahul Kumar, June 15, 2024, in Business and Finance,  https://theubj.com/business/surging-renewables-push-french-energy-prices-negative-shutting-down-nuclear-plants/

French energy prices recently plunged into negative territory, reaching a four-year low of -€5.76 per megawatt-hour in an Epex Spot auction, Bloomberg reported. This unusual occurrence was driven by an excess of renewable energy production combined with reduced demand, particularly over the weekend. The surplus in renewable power led to some French nuclear plants going offline.

Renewable Energy Surge and Market Impact

The drop in day-ahead energy prices underscores the profound impact that renewable energy, particularly wind and solar power, is having on the European energy market. As renewable energy production surged, especially during periods of low demand, it created an oversupply that forced prices down. This imbalance pressured Electricité de France (EDF), the state-owned utility company, to temporarily shut down several nuclear reactors to avoid generating excess power that could not be sold profitably. Initially, three nuclear plants were halted, with plans to take three more offline.

A Pan-European Issue

This phenomenon is not isolated to France. Other European countries, including Spain and those in the Scandinavian region, also experience similar shutdowns of nuclear reactors due to excess renewable energy generation. The continent’s push to decarbonize energy grids has accelerated the deployment of renewable infrastructure. However, the lack of adequate battery technology and investment to store surplus energy has created pricing inefficiencies, leading to occurrences of negative prices.

Germany’s Experience

Germany, a leader in renewable energy adoption, has also faced negative energy prices. SEB Research reported in May that solar power generation in Germany had outpaced demand, leading to similar pricing challenges. Despite these issues, Germany has been more aggressive in its rollout of renewable energy compared to France. This aggressive approach has helped Germany mitigate some of the market inefficiencies seen in France.

France’s Renewable Energy Rollout

In contrast, France’s rollout of renewable energy has been slower. Paris has installed around 45 gigawatts of wind and solar capacity, which is behind the targets set by the European Commission. The slower adoption rate has contributed to the country’s struggle to balance its energy supply and demand efficiently.

Political and Economic Implications

The political landscape in France could further impact the renewable energy sector. The far-right National Rally party, which is poised to make significant gains in upcoming domestic elections, has pledged to slash renewable subsidies and halt the expansion of the wind power industry. Such political developments could slow down the already modest pace of France’s renewable energy rollout, potentially leading to more significant market inefficiencies and continued reliance on traditional energy sources.

Broader Challenges

The situation in France highlights the broader challenges associated with transitioning to renewable energy. While the shift towards cleaner energy is essential for reducing carbon emissions and combating climate change, it also necessitates advancements in energy storage solutions and a more balanced energy mix to ensure market stability and efficiency. Without these advancements, countries may continue to experience negative pricing and the associated operational challenges.

Conclusion

The recent plunge into negative energy prices in France due to an oversupply of renewable energy underscores the complex dynamics of the modern energy market. As Europe continues to push towards decarbonization, the need for robust energy storage solutions and strategic market management becomes increasingly critical. The experiences of France and other European countries serve as a reminder of the growing pains associated with the global shift towards sustainable energy.

June 17, 2024 Posted by | EUROPE, renewable | Leave a comment

French-Chinese nuclear power plant could put 200m UK fish at risk

By Freddie Sandford | 14 06 2024https://www.anglingtimes.co.uk/news/stories/french-chinese-power-plant-could-put-200m-uk-fish-at-risk/

Builders of a new nuclear power plant are applying to remove fish protection measures, putting the lives of nearly 200 million fish at risk.

Earlier this year, concerns grew around the new power plant at Hinkley Point, in Somerset, as it was revealed that an incredible 178 tonnes of fish would be sucked into its pipes every year.

Initially, an acoustic fish deterrent was to be added, but the plant’s builders, NNB Generation Company Limited, co-owned by French and Chinese energy giants EDF and CDN, are applying to remove this safeguarding measure.

Fish Legal questioned the company’s plans, but they were rejected, as NNB claimed it wasn’t subject to UK laws.

“It is extremely concerning that a French and Chinese-owned company believes itself to be above our laws,” says Fish Legal’s Penny Gane.

“The British public have a right to know the impact this nuclear power plant will have. This fight is not over yet.”

June 17, 2024 Posted by | oceans, UK | Leave a comment

U.S. Jewish Army Intel Officer Quits over Gaza, Says “Impossible” Not to See Echoes of Holocaust

By DemocracyNow!

We speak with U.S. Army Major Harrison Mann, the first military and intelligence officer to publicly resign over the Biden administration’s support for Israel’s war on Gaza. Mann left his role at the Defense Intelligence Agency after a 13-year career, saying in a public letter explaining his resignation that “nearly unqualified support for the government of Israel … has enabled and empowered the killing and starvation of tens of thousands of innocent Palestinians.”

Mann submitted his resignation on November 1, just over three weeks into Israel’s assault on Gaza, but his separation from the military became effective last week. “Even in the first weeks after October 7 … it was really clear that they were prepared to inflict huge numbers of civilian casualties,” Mann tells Democracy Now! “I understood that every day that I was going to go into the office, I was going to be contributing to the Israeli campaign.”

Mann also explains how his Jewish background impacted his decision to resign, saying that while he was proud to wear the same uniform of soldiers who liberated Nazi concentration camps during World War II, it was “impossible” not to see echoes of the Holocaust in the devastation of Gaza. “Seeing photos of charred bodies and burnt corpses and starved, emaciated children that are from 2023, 2024, not the ’40s, it’s impossible not to make that connection,” says Mann. “The situations are not perfectly analogous, but the moral similarities were very clear to me.”

Transcript…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………https://scheerpost.com/2024/06/15/u-s-jewish-army-intel-officer-quits-over-gaza-says-impossible-not-to-see-echoes-of-holocaust/

June 17, 2024 Posted by | Religion and ethics | Leave a comment

Australia’s Opposition leader Peter Dutton refuses to answer key questions about his nuclear power plan

Key question Peter Dutton refuses to answer about his nuclear power plan

  • Peter Dutton refused to answer question
  • He was probed about nuclear power policy

By NCA NEWSWIRE and ELEANOR CAMPBELL FOR NCA NEWSWIRE, 16 June 2024  https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-13534571/Key-question-Peter-Dutton-refuses-answer-nuclear-power-plan.html

Peter Dutton has again refused to reveal key details on the Coalition’s nuclear power policy, declaring he would consider announcing his alternative 2035 emissions reduction goal if the government released modelling on interim climate targets.

In a fiery interview on Sunday with Sky’s Sunday Agenda host Andrew Clennell, the federal Opposition Leader became defensive after being pressed to reveal the locations and costings of his six proposed nuclear power plants.

Mr Dutton said he would reveal the opposition’s energy plan within ‘weeks’ in March but again declined to spell out the full details of his vision for Australia’s energy transition.

‘What we’ve said, the sites that we’re looking at are only those sites where there’s an end-of-life coal-fired power stations,’ he told Sky on Sunday.

‘One of the main reasons is that people in those communities know that they’re going when coal goes and we have the ability to sustain heavy industry, we have the ability to keep the lights on.’

A recent report from peak scientific body CSIRO suggested that building a large-scale nuclear power plant in Australia would cost at least $8.5bn and take at least 15 years to deliver.

The Coalition has refused to confirm reports of the locations of up to seven proposed power sites, which according to speculation, include sites in two Liberal-held seats and four or five Nationals-held seats.

Potential sites include the Latrobe Valley and Anglesea in Victoria, the Hunter Valley in NSW, Collie in WA, Port Augusta in South Australia, and potentially a plant in the southwest Queensland electorate of Maranoa, held by Nationals leader David Littleproud.

When pressed on the locations of the sites, Mr Dutton responded: ‘We’ve said that we’re looking at between six and seven sites, and we’ll make an announcement at the time of our choosing, not of Labor’s choosing.’

When asked if a power plant would be placed on each of the unspecified sites, Mr Dutton did not answer directly, saying only that he would consider output and environmental impact.

The Opposition Leader was then asked if the plants would be government subsidised, and responded by saying all power sources, other than coal, receives funding.

‘We’ll make an announcement in due course, but I just make the point that wind and solar don’t work without government subsidy,’ he said.

Mr Dutton also came under scrutiny this week after revealing he would oppose a legislated 2030 carbon emissions target at the next election.

Asked directly if he would consider a 2035 interim reduction target, which would be legally required under the 2015 Paris agreement, the Liberal leader said he would ‘take advice’ from the treasury before changing climate legislation, citing concerns about the nation’s economic situation

‘I think we have a look at all of that information and if there were settings we need to change … it doesn’t mean exiting Paris or walking away from our clear commitment to be net zero by 2050,’ he said.

Mr Dutton was asked for a second time if he would set a 2035 target, but again spoke at length about cost of living pressures facing the country.

Trade Minister Don Farrell said Mr Dutton’s comments were ‘outrageous’ and argued watered down climate commitments would damage Australia’s standing with its international allies.

‘It’s beyond the pale to be perfectly honest,’ Mr Farrell said on Sunday.

‘We went to the last election committing to a 2030 target and despite what Mr Dutton might say, we’re on track to meet that target.’

June 17, 2024 Posted by | AUSTRALIA, politics | Leave a comment

SPACEX’S STARLINK MAY BE KEEPING THE OZONE FROM HEALING, RESEARCH FINDS

MEGACONSTELLATIONS COULD BE A DISASTER FOR THE ENVIRONMENT.

JUN 15, 24 by VICTOR TANGERMANN   https://futurism.com/the-byte/spacex-starlink-ozone-healing

Burning Up

In a new study, researchers from the University of Southern California estimated the harmful effects from satellites injecting harmful pollutants such as aluminum oxides into the upper atmosphere as they burn up during reentry.

These dying satellites may even be contributing to “significant ozone depletion,” according to the researchers. The ozone layer is the Earth’s “sunscreen” that shields us from too much UV radiation from the Sun

While researchers have largely focused on the pollutants being released by rockets as they launch, we’ve only begun to understand the implications of having thousands of retired and malfunctioning satellites burn up in the atmosphere.

And that’s only becoming more relevant, as SpaceX has already launched almost 6,000 Starlink satellites to date, and is planning to add tens of thousands more — orbital ambitions that are now inspiring competing satellite constellations.

“Only in recent years have people started to think this might become a problem,” said coauthor and University of Southern California astronautics researcher Joseph Wang in a statement. “We were one of the first teams to look at what the implication of these facts might be.”

Poking Holes

Since it’s practically impossible to get accurate readings from the kind of pollutants satellites release as they scream back through the atmosphere, scientists can only estimate their effects on the surrounding environment.

By studying how common metals used in the construction of satellites interact with each other, the team estimated that the presence of aluminum increased in the atmosphere by almost 30 percent in 2022 alone.

They found that a 550-pound satellite generates roughly 66 pounds of aluminum oxide nanoparticles during reentry, which would take up to 30 years to drift down into the stratosphere.

In total, if constellations from the likes of SpaceX continue to grow as planned, the levels of aluminum oxides in the atmosphere could increase by a staggering 646 percent over natural levels every year.

And that doesn’t bode well, considering we’ve only begun to study the phenomenon.

“The environmental impacts from the reentry of satellites are currently poorly understood,” the researchers note in their paper. “As reentry rates increase, it is crucial to further explore the concerns highlighted in this study.”

June 17, 2024 Posted by | space travel | Leave a comment

Unveiling Cosmic Secrets: Black Budget Tech and UFOs with Aerospace Expert Michael Schratt

The U.S. military and intelligence agencies have billions of dollars’ worth of secret projects they don’t want you to know about. These billions have funded a secret world of advanced science, technology, weapons, and various covert activities, which have always been shielded from congressional oversight and public scrutiny. Back in the 90s, Members of the House Armed Services Committee once said that 70 percent of the black budget could be declassified at no risk to national security. Our taxpayer dollars are funding these black budget programs, and we have a right to know what we’re paying for. So why the secrecy? What is being kept hidden from the public?

To investigate this further, we recently interviewed private pilot and military aerospace historian Michael Schratt, who’s studied top secret advanced technologies buried deep within the military-intelligence complex for over 25 years. He alleges to have first-hand experience with classified government black budget programs, with access to former US Air Force pilots, retired Naval personnel and former aerospace engineers with top-secret clearance. He’s one of the leading authority voices in investigating government programs involving the recovery and study of off-world technology, also known as UAP/UFO crash retrieval programs. He’s author of DARK FILES, which brings to life historically significant and credible UFO cases obtained from university archives, research centers, and private collections using carefully re-constructed illustrations of the events. Whether it’s advanced military aircraft or serious signs of extraterrestrial life, the implications are too profound to ignore. Michael is suggesting that publicly known technology and weapons programs might be fronts for black budget operations dealing with technologies way more advanced than the public is aware of.

Join us in this fascinating 38-min video interview, with many images and videos throughout to verify and illustrate the points being discussed.

  • 00:00:00 Introduction to the military-industrial complex and the black budget world 00:03:54 Interview begins 
  • 00:06:00 What drew Michael Schratt to studying advanced black budget technologies and UFO phenomena 
  • 00:07:22 If you could declassify one technology developed under a black budget program, what would it be and why? 
  • 00:10:20 Out of all the advanced technologies in use on Earth, how much has ET influence? 
  • 00:11:39 UFO/UAP crash retrieval programs 
  • 00:18:05 Top secret technologies 101 00:22:32 The infamous Tic Tac video: a UFO, reverse-engineered craft, experimental military tech, or all of the above
  • 00:26:32 The military bases that are purported to study ET tech and house advanced technologies 
  • 00:29:25 How can the most powerful technologies help humanity instead of harm? 
  • 00:30:37 How to balance disclosure with national security obligations 
  • 00:33:01 Michael’s thoughts on the UAP Disclosure Act 
  • 00:36:32 What keeps Michael inspired and hopeful  

June 17, 2024 Posted by | secrets,lies and civil liberties, space travel, USA | Leave a comment

Uncle Sam cool with arming, training Neo-Nazi Azov Brigade in Ukraine.

Walt Zlotow, West Suburban Peace Coalition, Glen Ellyn IL 16 June 24

Back in 2018, the US banned military assistance to the Azov Brigade due to its neonazi and white supremacist ideology.

Azov was founded by Andriy Biletsky in 2014 to assist Kyiv’s destruction of Ukraine’s breakaway Donbas region, Biletsky also led related group Social National Assembly whose goal was “to prepare Ukraine for further expansion and to struggle for the liberation of the entire White Race from the domination of the internationalist speculative capital…and to punish severely sexual perversions and any interracial contacts that lead to the extinction of the white man.” Ouch.

But with Ukraine near collapse from America’s proxy war against Russia, the Biden administration decided that Azov wasn’t that bad after all. Doesn’t matter that current head Denis Prokopenko has been associated with its neonazi idology since its founding, not that Azov still uses the Wolfsangel neonazi symbol

When the US initially banned Azov, Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA) praised the decision: “I am very pleased that the recently passed omnibus prevents the US from providing arms and training assistance to the neonazi Azov Battalion fighting in Ukraine.”

But that was before the US provoked an unnecessary war in Ukraine, spiraling it into a failed state. Desperate to achieve victory without shedding any US blood, the Biden administration, with not of peep of protest from Khanna, has suddenly turned neonazi Azov into the Sons of Liberty

June 17, 2024 Posted by | secrets,lies and civil liberties, Ukraine, USA | Leave a comment

From the Hiroshima bomb to Israel’s nuclear weapons, the path leads back to Congo’s uranium

Conspiracies in the Congo Linda Pentz Gunter 16 June 24  https://beyondnuclearinternational.org/2024/06/16/conspiracies-in-the-congo/
It involved the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC); a Belgian mining company; a fictitious Liberian trading company; a German-named ship — the Scheersberg A; a Spanish crew; a German petrochemical official; an Italian paint company; an Israeli freighter; the Greek island of Crete; a Turkish port; and a confession made in Norway.

If this sounds like the plot for an elaborate work of fiction, it was — it formed the basis of Ken Follett’s 1979 thriller, Triple. But it was also all true. The clandestine operation, which took place in November 1968, smuggled an estimated 200 tonnes of uranium yellowcake out of the DRC, transporting it to Israel. It was orchestrated by Mossad, the Israeli secret intelligence service and came to be known as Operation Plumbat, since the illicit cargo was marked as lead.

The scheme was set in motion when, after the 1967 Arab-Israeli War, France curtailed its weapons supplies to Israel and likely the uranium fuel as well needed for Israel’s Dimona reactor, believed then and still to be at the heart of the country’s nuclear weapons program. The operation concluded with an exchange of ships and cargos on the high seas, the Scheersberg A eventually docking empty in Turkey while the uranium, now aboard an Israeli freighter, made its way to Haifa and eventually to Dimona.

The Plumbat operation was first exposed in April 1977 at a non-proliferation conference in Salzburg, Austria by Paul Leventhal, who went on to found the Nuclear Control Institute in 1981.

Israel officially denies that any of this took place, despite ample documentation and the later confession of one of its Mossad officers after his arrest in Norway. This was yet another bizarre twist in the tale when a Mossad operation in Lillehammer to assassinate one of the 1973 Munich Olympic attackers instead mistakenly took out an innocent Moroccan waiter on his way home from work. One of the agents, in order to prove to Norwegian authorities that he was indeed with Mossad, related the story of Operation Plumbat.

Of course, Israel also officially denies the existence of its nuclear weapons arsenal.

The uranium bound for Israel came from the Shinkolobwe mine in DRC’s Katanga province. The veins of uranium that run through Shinkolobwe bleed everywhere. And so do its victims.  

The DRC is the site of the present day genocide that no one talks about. As many as six million people have now died in the ongoing fighting there, mostly over mineral rights. That long and bloody history began in the 1880s when the despotic Belgian king, Leopold II, enslaved and brutalized the country’s population, violence that continued under the subsequent Belgian government that took control in 1908.

The Belgians first began mining uranium at Shinkolobwe in 1921. In 1939, Albert Einstein, by then aware that a nuclear bomb could potentially be built and that Nazi Germany might be pursuing one, alerted President Roosevelt to the need for access to a rich uranium supply. The best such, Einstein said, could be found in what was then known as the Belgian Congo.

Once Nazi Germany had occupied Belgium in 1940, concerns grew that the uranium stockpiled at Shinkolobwe could fall into Hitler’s hands. A plan was quickly developed to ship 1,200 tons of uranium ore to the US where it was first stored on Staten Island and eventually transported to the Manhattan Project’s nuclear bomb factory at Los Alamos in New Mexico. 

As recounted in Susan Williams’s non-fiction book, Spies in the Congo, US agents in various guises slipped in and out of the Congo, secretly shepherding the uranium back to the Manhattan Project. A second shipment of 1,000 tons of stockpiled ore soon followed. Wrote Williams, citing Gabrielle Hecht’s book, Being Nuclear, Africans and the Global Uranium Trade: “The miners sorted and packed up the uranium ore by hand and, according to estimates, they could have been exposed to a year’s worth of radiation in about two weeks.”

Seventy percent of the uranium in the Hiroshima atomic bomb came from Shinkolobwe and another ten percent was used in the plutonium bomb dropped on Nagasaki.

However, the colonialist skulduggery didn’t end there. When the DRC gained its independence in June 1960 and Patrice Lumumba became the country’s first democratically elected prime minister, Katanga province abruptly seceded from the country. In an effort to quell the rebellion, Lumumba appealed to the United Nations but was rebuffed. He then turned to the Soviet Union for help, sealing his fate.

The assassination of Lumumba on January 17, 1961 after barely six months in office, appears to have come on direct orders from President Eisenhower, officially out of concerns that Lumumba’s association with the Soviets would create a communist stronghold in the region.

But uranium was also at the heart of the plot and the US may not have acted alone. UK Labour Party peer, David Lea, reported in 2013 that a former MI6 operative, Daphne Park, told him she and MI6 orchestrated the assassination to protect the uranium supply. “Lumumba would have handed over the whole lot to the Russians,” said Park according to Lea.

All of these schemes and intrigues have come about at the price of peace and stability for the Congolese people. Contamination from the radioactive and heavy metals left behind at the mine site continues to poison people and the environment. Other minerals, especially cobalt and copper, have invited further plunder and conflict.

And there could soon be renewed interest in Shinkolobwe’s uranium. “At a time when many nations are engaged in an arms race, stockpiling weapons of mass destruction to prove their ‘strength’, Shinkolobwe mine still risks being seen as an attractive prospect,” wrote young Congolese climate activist, Remy Zahiga in a paper for the Heinrich Böll Stiftung.

Renewed interest may be coming from countries such as France (which inked a deal, thus far unexploited, in 2008) and China, eager to continue and expand their nuclear power programs under the false premise of climate mitigation. China already owns other mines in the DRC. “The existence of hidden entrances and ownership of all surrounding infrastructure would make the Shinkolobwe mine an attractive location should China decide to supplement its current uranium imports,” writes Daniel Allen in his 2024 paper, Uranium Security in the DRC.

And yet, the world looks away.

During an online event hosted by the Peace & Justice Project, an initiative of former UK Labour Party leader, Jeremy Corbyn, and his wife Laura Alvarez, Congo-born London councillor, Michelline Safi-Ngongo, asked with rightful indignation and somewhat rhetorically why the media never talked about the on-going genocide in her country?

The answer was sadly all too obvious, including to her. Black faces. Far away places. Africa, where these things “happen all the time”. Worthy of a shrug, then forgotten. When the West needs uranium or cobalt or copper, workers in the Congo and their families become suddenly expendable.

Linda Pentz Gunter is the international specialist at Beyond Nuclear and writes for and edits Beyond Nuclear International. You can learn more about the Congo’s uranium history in her forthcoming book, Hot Stories. Reflections from a Radioactive World, will be published in autumn 2024.  https://beyondnuclearinternational.org/2024/06/16/conspiracies-in-the-congo/

June 17, 2024 Posted by | AFRICA, history, secrets,lies and civil liberties, Uranium | Leave a comment

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